Latin term, the Greater Week, Hebdomada Major, does not seem to have come into vernacular use. In old French it was called, as it sometimes is still, La Semaine Peneuse. So Hildebert begins a sermon on the Passion: 'Septimana ista, fratres carissimi, ex re nomen habens, vocatur laboriosa, vel, ut vulgo loquuntur, a pœnâ, verbo rustico, pœnosa.' The most beautiful term, however, as setting forth its abstraction from worldly labours, and its holy quiet, is that by which it is known in Germany and Denmark, the Still Week. In Germany it is also the Marterwoche, and Car or Charwoche, Suffering Week. In the East it is the Great Week, and each day has the same epithet, Great Monday, Great Tuesday, &c. Finally in many medieval writers, it is the Authentic Week; in the sense, we suppose, of the week-the week that is a week indeed; and so we have found it named in a Mayence Missal of 1519. The Welsh call it Wythnos y Grog, the Week of the Cross. Tuesday was in Germany, for an unknown reason, called Blue Tuesday; Wednesday, Krumm Mittwoche, from the confusion (they say) of the Pharisees' Counsel. In Ireland, Spy Wednesday, with reference to Judas's mission." * A week so sacred and so momentous could not, of course, long be restricted to an aggregate commemoration; and the piety of the faithful was prompt to individualize its several days, and to associate with each its own special event. It is, however, from the Wednesday in Holy Week that the commencement of the Passion is dated, as it was on this Wednesday that the Jews in their great Council agreed on their design to take away the life of Christ, by impeaching Him before Pontius Pilate. And from that circumstance it arose that every Wednesday, as well as Friday, was formerly kept as a fast-day. We proceed to speak of the Thursday before Easter, or, as it is popularly called, *Dr. Neale's Church Festivals and their Household Words. 169 MAUNDY THURSDAY. Of this day, Dr. Neale, in his Essays on Liturgiology, remarks that, "it is rather singular that it should not have derived its vernacular name from its great institution, the Blessed Eucharist. It had, indeed, in mediæval Latin, the name, The Birthday of the Chalice. So Hildebert: Hoc in Natali Calicis non est celebratum, Quando Pascha novum vetus est post Pascha dicatum. "But in modern languages, this did not obtain. In Dansk we have the name of Skiertorsdag, as, in some parts of England, that of Sheer Thursday, from the old root Skier, signifying pain or affliction. In France it was simply Jeudi Saint, a term likely to be confounded with Ascension Day. In German it is Grüne Donnerstag, Green Thursday; the origin of the term is much disputed. It is probable, however, that the epithet is here to be taken in the sense of unripe, inasmuch as in Slavonia and Carinthia the day is called Raw Thursday, with what reference we are quite unable to explain. In Spain, as with us, it is Juéves del Mandato, from the performance of the mandatum, the washing of the feet. In Portugal, it is Quinta Feira de Endoenças, Sickness Thursday, on account of the consecration of the chrism for the unction of the sick. In Welsh, with reference to the mocking of our LORD, it is Iau y Cablyd, Thursday of Blasphemy. In Brunswick it was Good Thursday, and so Boniface IX. in a Bull, speaks of 'Bonam quintam feriam in Caná Domini.' The Swiss call it High Thursday. In some parts of Germany, and in France, White Thursday, from the white colour of that day only in Holy Week. In Austria, finally, it is Antlatz-tag, Remission Day, from the re-admission of penitents into the Church."* *Church Festivals and their Household Words. Although, as we have just said, by deputy of Dr. Neale, the modern vernacular names of Maundy Thursday are not derived from "its great institution, the Blessed Eucharist," it was far otherwise with the names by which it was anciently designated; for, as Mr. Riddle shows, "this day has been distinguished by several appellations alluding for the most part to the history or ceremonies attached to it. Such are (1) Dies Cœnæ Dominicæ; Feria quinta in Coena Dominica, or in Coena Domini. (2) Euchar istia, or Dies Natalis Eucharistia, with reference to Matt. xxvi., 26, 27; 1 Cor. xi., 24. (3) Natalis Calicis. (4) Dies Panis. (5) Dies Lucis-with allusion to the lights used at the institution of the Lord's Supper, or to the light of religious knowledge. (6) Dies Mandati-with reference to our Saviour's command to His disciples concerning the perpetual commemoration of His death, or to His 'new commandment,' to 'love one another.' (7) Dies Viridium. This title appears to have been adopted during the middle ages, but antiquarians have been much perplexed in their attempts to account for it. Perhaps it may have been given with reference to the appearance of Spring."† The Thursday before Easter was a day occupied and crowded with momentous events, in the front of which, it may be repeated, was the celebration of the Passover by our Saviour with His disciples, and his institution of the Holy Eucharist. After the supper followed the washing of the feet of the disciples by their divine Master, who prayed for them and for all succeeding generations of the faithful. Then He instructed and edified them, warning them of the things which should come to pass in their experience, and of the circumstances which should attend His own death and resurrection. Withal He vouchsafed the promise of the Comforter. Then retiring to the garden of Gethsemane, He poured out His soul in prayer to His Father, and while so doing, was overtaken by that stupendous agony in which + Manual of Christian Antiquities. "DE SUPERNA HIERARCHIA." 171 His sweat was, as it were, of blood. From this agony He recovered only to be betrayed by Judas, and forsaken in His extremity by all His disciples. Of these events we select three for poetical illustration -the institution of the Lord's Supper, the washing of the feet of the disciples, and the agony in the garden. The following verses had their first publication in the Rev. Orby Shipley's "Lyra Eucharistica," and are a translation, in paraphrase, of a Sequence of the Sixteenth Century, which commences in the Latin original with the words De Superna Hierarchia. Their author, the Rev. Arthur M. Morgan, has since reproduced them in a volume of original and translated poems, bearing the title of "Gifts and Light: Church Verses" (1867). From the most holy Place above, In the world's latter day, The Wisdom true of GOD came down To guide us on our way. Oh! we had ever longed for Him, Great was He ever; great the name The holy Virgin won, Mother to such a SON: He takes this lost world's sin away, And in the van of fainting men There was no sorrow in His home, He was the righteous Lawgiver, To the stern Law's most bitter scourge, Us from its curse to save. For, lo! the Lamb was lifted up And He for us was sacrificed, And thus our life was built again, Upon each infant brow The Sign of Him Who saves is set, It was the night He was betrayed, With His loved Twelve He sate at meat, Who doubt Him-" This My Body is ; He ceased. Anon, He spake again, Came in the Chalice too; It had made glad man's heavy heart, The drink of the New Paradise, This mystery is hid in GoD, This can none else explore; But be thou ware to eat and drink, Only the pure and guileless heart Say, canst thou love as Peter loved? |