It was an ancient custom for the Bishop, before he received the Eucharist in the sacrifice of the Mass, to bless the people in a form of prayer apporiate to the feast of the day. This solemn observation was made on the fraction of the host, and as that was the time at which a blessing was asked for the living, so also was it the special moment, when, according to the Anglo-Saxon Mass for the dead, on the day of the burial, the deceased was prayed for, by name.
I. A Dissertation on St. Æthelwold's Benedictional, an illuminated MS. of the 10th Century, in the Library of his Grace the Duke of Devonshire; communicated by John Gage, Esq. F.R.S., Director, in a Letter to the Right Honourable George Earl of Aberdeen, President, &c.