1549.

At the time of the distribution of the holy sacrament, the Priest shall first receive the communion himself, and after minister to them that be appointed to communicate with the sick, (if there be any,) and then to the sick person. And the sick per

son shall always desire some, either of his own house or else of his neighbours, to receive the holy communion with him, for that shall be to him a singular great comfort, and of their part a great token of charity.

And if there be more sick persons to be visited the same day that the Curate doth celebrate in any sick man's house, then shall the Curate (there) reserve so much of the sacrament of the body and blood as shall serve the other sick persons, and such as be appointed to communicate with them, (if there be any ;) and shall immediately carry it, and minister it unto them.

1552.

At the time of the distribution of the holy sacrament, the Priest shall first receive the communion himself, and after minister to them that be appointed to communicate with the sick.

¶ But if any man, either by reason of extremity of sickness, or for lack of (99) warning given in due time to the Curate, or by any other just impediment, do not receive the sacrament of Christ's body and blood; then the Curate shall instruct him, that if he do truly repent him of his sins, and steadfastly believe that Jesus Christ hath suffered death upon the cross for him, and shed his blood for his redemption, earnestly remembering the benefits he hath thereby, and giving him hearty thanks therefore, he (rr) doth eat and drink spiritually the body and blood of our Saviour Christ profitably to his soul's health, although he do not receive the sacrament with his mouth.

¶ When the sick person is visited, and receiveth the holy communion all at one time, then

When the sick person is visited, and receiveth the holy communion all at one time, then

(99) warning in due time to the Curate, or for lack of company to receive with him, or by any other 1552.

(rr) doth eat and drink the body and blood 1552.

The Sacrament not to be administered in private save in urgent cases,

the Priest, for more expedition, the Priest, for more expedition, shall use this order at the visi

Though ministers are bound to visit the sick, and to administer the Sacrament to them in cases of urgency, yet they must not do so unless the circumstances actually require

it. The 71st Canon enacts that :-"No Minister shall preach or administer the holy Communion in any private house, except it be in times of necessity, when any being so impotent as he cannot go to the church, or very dangerously sick, are desirous to be partakers of the holy Sacrament, upon pain of suspension for the first offence, and excommunication for the second. Provided, that houses are here reputed for private houses, wherein are no chapels dedicated and allowed by the Ecclesiastical Law of this realm. And provided also under the pains before expressed, that no Chaplains do preach or administer the Communion in any other places but in the chapels of the said houses, and that also they do the same very seldom upon Sundays and Holydays, so that both the lords and masters of the said houses and their families shall at other times resort to their own parish churches, and there receive the holy Communion at the least once every year.”

SIXTH.-BURIAL OF THe Dead.

The introductory rubric of the present Prayer Book, as to excommunicates and suicides, is not found in either the First or Second Book. The first rubric, and the three passages of Scripture following, are the same in all editions; bnt the two psalms and the lesson which succeed in the present Book, are absent from the two other editions. The next rubric, the extract from Job, and the Supplication are the same in all three editions. The next rubric in the First Book directs, "Then, the Priest casting earth upon the corpse, shall say:

"I commend thy soul to Almighty God and thy body to the ground; earth to earth," &c. The corresponding rubric and commendation by the Priest, are the same in the Second as in the present Book.

In all three there follows the same extract from the Apocalypse.

Prayers for the

dead.

Lesson.

Responses.

The Holy Communion.

Then the First Book contains successively two prayers for the deceased person, and Psalms cxvi. cxxxix. and cxvi. which are all wanting in the Second and in the present Book.

Next comes in the First and Second Books the lesson from I Cor. xv.

Then the three Responses, and the Lord's Prayer; and next in the First Book only, certain responses. A prayer succeeds, the language of which in the First Book differs considerably from the corresponding prayer in the Second and present Books.

The First Book then interpolates, "The Celebration of the Holy Communion when there is a Burial of the Dead," which contains the 43rd Psalm, the Collect as in the Second and present Books, the Epistle from I Thess. iv., and the Gospel from John vi.

Here the Service ends, the concluding Benediction being found in the present Book only.

Fees may be exacted from strangers;

LAW RELATING TO BURIAL.

The above being an account of the Service for Burial, it will be convenient to notice some of the chief legal points in connection therewith.

All parishioners have a right to be buried in the churchyard of their own parish without leave of the incumbent. (b)

It is the duty of the parish minister to bury all persons dying within his parish, who die Christians, and not excommunicates or suicides. (i) This applies as a moral duty to strangers, but these have no legal claim of the kind. (k)

In the case of strangers, fees for burial may be exacted.
Consequently, when the parish possessed a table of fees for the

(h) See Maidman v. Malpas, 1 Hagg. Cons. 205, 208; Gilbert v. Buzzard
Boyer, 2 Hagg. Cons. 333, 348.
(k) Ibid.

(i) Kemp v. Wickes, 3 Phil. 265, 274.

See ante, pp. 145-7.

burial of strangers, it was considered sufficient to prove that the churchwardens were authorized to permit the burial of strangers, and permission being asked for laying a stone, and the sum being named, and the fees paid, and the claim being proved by witnesses, and no evidence offered to disprove it, the custom was held to prevail. (7)

The courts are very unwilling to curtail or interfere with the right of parishioners to burial. Therefore, where a dispute arose as to the fees payable for the interment of a corpse in an iron coffin, the body having remained unburied pending the dispute, Lord Stowell recommended that the body, which, to use his own expression, "had remained so long unhonoured," should be buried without prejudice to the right of the parish as to the fees to be paid. (m)

but not from parishioners,

tom.

By custom, fees may be demandable from parishioners. The unless by cuschurchyard as well as the church are the freehold of the minister, subject to the right of the parishioners to interment. Ancient custom often annexes fees for erecting a stone, or anything else by which the grave may be protected and the memory of the person interred preserved. It is no general Common Law right, but custom will interpose, and where it is shown to be customary, such practice will be supported. (~)

And at Common Law, in an action by a rector for fees for Burial of burial of paupers, it was held that he was not entitled to paupers. recover them, since there was no custom nor a right by Common Law, and that the local acts of the parish did not support the

claim. (0)

chancel.

It is the same with regard to burial in the chancel: "No fee Burial in the can be exacted of common right; it can only be due by special custom, and the amount must be limited by the same custom.

(1) Bardin & Edwards v. Calcott, 1 Hagg. Cons. 14, 17.

(m) Gilbert v. Buzzard, 2 Hagg. Cons. 333.

(n) Bardin & Edwards v. Calcott, 1 Hagg. Cons. 14.
(0) Spry v. Gallop, 16 M. & W. 716.

M