_The Maundy._--On this day in all cathedral churches, in the greater parish churches, and even in some of the smaller ones, the feet of thirteen poor people were washed with great solemnity, and they were fed and served at their meal by the dignitaries of the place, in memory of our Lord’s act of humility in washing the feet of His disciples. This “Maundy” was kept also in England by kings and nobles, and even by private individuals, who on this day entertained Christ’s poor in their houses. _The Absolution._--Thursday in Holy Week was also known to our forefathers as “absolution day,” because, after tenebræ, in the evening, in larger churches, the people knelt before the penitentiary in acknowledgment of their repentance of sin, and received from him a token of God’s acceptance by a rod being placed on their heads. Sometimes this voluntary humiliation and discipline was performed on Good Friday, and the rods touched the hands of the penitent. It was to this rite Sir Thomas More refers in his book against Tyndall, where he says-- “Tyndale is as lothe, good, tender pernell, to take a lyttle penaunce of the prieste, as the lady was to come any more to dyspelying that wept even for tender heart twoo dayes after when she talked of it, that the priest had on Good Friday with the dyspelyng rodde beaten her hard on her lylye white hands.” The church accounts sometimes refer to the purchase of rods for this purpose by the wardens. _The Sepulchre._--The service of Maundy Thursday morning included the consecration of two hosts, besides that which the celebrant received at the Communion of the Mass. At the conclusion of the service these two hosts were carried to some becoming place till the following day, when one was used in the Mass of the Presanctified, and the other was placed in a pyx and put along with the cross, which had just been kissed and venerated, into what was known as the “Easter Sepulchre.” On the afternoon of Good Friday it was customary for people in the towns to make visits to the various churches to pray at these sepulchres. There is no expense more constantly recorded in all the parochial accounts than that for the erection and taking down of the Easter Sepulchre. Generally, no doubt, it was a more or less elaborate, although temporary, erection of wood, hung over with the most precious curtains and hangings which the church possessed, some of which were even frequently left for this special purpose. Here in this “chapel of repose” the Blessed Sacrament was placed at the conclusion of the Mass of the Presanctified, and here the priest and people watched and prayed before it till early in the morning of Easter day. [Illustration: EASTER SEPULCHRE, ARNOLD, NOTTS]