Page:Anglo-Saxon version of the Hexameron of St. Basil.djvu/15

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preface.

and ne forhealdan hit. ac halgian oðer edniwe to seocum mannum. forðam ðe ealswa halig bið ðæt husel. the nu todæg was gehalgod. swa ðæt on Easter-dæg was gehalgod. Ðæt husel is Christes lichama. na lichamlice ac gastlice. na se lichama ðe he on ðrowode. ac se lichama ðe he embe spræc. ða ða he bletsode hlaf and win to husle anre nihte ær his ðrowunge, and cwæð be ðam gebletsodan hlafe. 'Ðis is min lichama.' and eft ðam gehalgodan wine. 'Ðis is min blod ðe bið for manegum agoten on synna forgyfennysse.'" &c. "The holy housel should be kept with great care, and not be retained; but other new be hallowed for sick persons: because the housel that was hallowed to-day is just as holy as that which was hallowed on Easter day. The housel is Christ's body, not bodily, but spiritually; not the body in which He suffered, but the body about which He spake, when He blessed bread and wine for housel, one night before His passion, and said of the blessed bread, 'This is My body,' and afterwards, of the hallowed wine, 'This is My blood which is shed for many in forgiveness of sins,'" &c. (For these "Canons" see "Thorpe's Laws and Institutes," vol. ii. p. 342-362.)

Pitseus - or rather John Pits[1] - says that the canons of Ælfric are a translation of the canons of the Nicene Council.

At St. Alban's it is probable that Ælfric composed his Grammar, which was mostly taken from the Latin authors Donatus and Priscianus; (this was published by Somner in 1659;) a supplement to the Homilies - and a tract dedicated to Sigwerd at East Heolon, containing two epistles upon the Old and New Testament; which the learned E. Rowe Mores

  1. John Pits, the noted biographer, son of Henry Pits by Eliz. daughter of Dr. Nicholas Saunders, author of English Schism, was born 1560, and admitted a probationary fellow of New Coll., 1578. Before he was admitted an actual fellow, in 1580, he apostatized to the communion of Rome. He died at Liverdun, Oct. 17, 1616. The family of "Pits" are mentioned as lessees of the Manor of Iffley, during the reign of "Elizabeth," in "Ingram's Memorials of Oxford, vol. iii., article Iffley."