510-522. This passage is based on ‘Fideles modo quia mortuos suos fide
et virtutibus conditos aiunt .xxx. diebus eos plangunt .i. speciales
missas sub numero tot dierum pro ipsis celebrant. Quidam tertiam diem
maxime celebrant · pro spiritu anima et corpore. Alii septimam,’ C.
510-512. Christian folk have other customs. They are anointed during
their lifetime with chrism and oil; with chrism and the oleum
catechumenorum at baptism, with the oleum infirmorum in Extreme Unction.
#in trewðe geuen#: administered with faith in their efficacy: in Extreme
Unction, the ministrant said, ‘da fiduciam tui muneris exequendi.’
‘Oratio fidei salvabit infirmum,’ S. Jac. v. 15.
513, 514. For #ðon#, Morris read don, Mätzner, ðor. More probably it is
a mistake for ðo induced by the ending of the next word, #ðan# also has
been corrupted out of ðam. For acts of faith accompanied by charity,
those are for Christians in place of all that watching of the dead: an
idea repeated in ll. 519-521. Strunk, Mod. Lang. Notes, xxvi. 51,
proposes for #ðon ben#, don bet, with meaning, For truth and good deeds
therewith avail more than that vigil. For #mide#, see 177/57, 212/532.
515. #Sum# is subject of don, l. 519. #on#, the first day. The Officium
Mortuorum and masses of requiem (‘chirche gong,’ l. 519) were celebrated
for thirty days and with special solemnity on the day of the deposition,
the third, seventh, thirtieth (the month’s mind) and the anniversary;
these or some of them were accompanied by doles (‘elmesse gifte,’ l.
520). See Rock, Church of our Fathers, ii. 315, 516-519.
517. Mätzner explains #wurðen#, ‘accomplished,’ that is, completed:
which is the sense required, but such use of the participle is hard to
parallel, although ‘þenne weoren heore iwil[;] allunge iwurden,’ L
19656, comes near it. Awurden, ended, would present less difficulty, and
would improve the verse. A participial expression with the same meaning
is seen in ‘fowerti winter vten led,’ GE 3348.
526. #laiges# was corrected by Morris. See 211/493 and comp. ‘Clense ðis
folc wel ðis to daiges, | And bidde hem leden clene la[i]ges,’ GE 3453.
529. #bode#: ‘Significauit autem Joseph Pharaoni per intercessores quod
iurauerat patri de sepultura,’ C. #bōda#, messenger.