96. #acxen#: referring to the ceremony of giving the ashes to the
congregation on Ash Wednesday. #bilien#, pertain, are associated with:
comp. ‘þe six werkes of þesternesse · þe bilige to nihte,’ OEH ii. 15/3.
97. #saccum#, a penitential garment of sackcloth, worn over other
clothes, thus differing from cilicium, hair-shirt; S. Jerome, Ep. 44.
The writer has omitted after it, plagas, the ‘smerte dintes’ of the next
line, ‘disceplines,’ 62/35.
99. #siðes#: read siðe; the superfluous _s_ is due to the initial of the
next word: in #liðe#, 100, final _þ_ has been lost before initial _þ_:
#swiðere#, 119, owes its final _re_ to the beginning of the next word.
#shereðuresdaies#, of Maundy Thursday: corresponds to OWScand.
skíriþórsdagr, purification Thursday, but was wrongly connected with ME.
scheren, to shear. The form in _sh_ is native or naturalized; see
Björkman, 125, and comp. 99/73.
100. #sinne bendes#: see 81/67 note. #crepe to cruche#, creeping to the
cross; the adoration of the cross on Good Friday; Rock, Church of our
Fathers, iii^2. 88.
101. #lange fridai#: #langa frīgedæg#, an ancient name for Good Friday,
so called from its fast and observances. #gon--fantston#, appears to
refer to some procession of the laity at the blessing of the font on
Easter Eve, perhaps local, as it is not noticed in the service books.
Brand, Popular Antiquities (Bohn), i. 158, quotes from Googe’s
translation of the Regnum Papisticum of Kirchmayer, ‘Nine times about
the font they marche, and on the Saintes do call; | Then still at length
they stande, and straight the priest begins withall.’ Of course there
was a procession of the clergy to and from the font, Frere, Use of
Sarum, i. 149. In ‘ðor-of in esterne be we wunen | Seuene siðes to funt
cumen,’ GE 3289, the reference is to the procession made to the font
every afternoon in Easter week. The font is the symbol of the sepulchre
because, as Durandus, vi. De Sabbato sancto, says, ‘fit hac die
baptismus, quia in eo consepulti sumus christo.’ It is noteworthy that
nothing is said of the Easter Sepulchre, which was probably not
instituted before the fourteenth century.
103. #tweire kinne#, of two kinds; OE. #twēgra cynna#, but kinnes, 104,
105 is a _sing. gen._ in form, with plural meaning: see 81/80 note.