the Chief of the Host of Heaven, as Lucifer is of the Infernal, and as he was supposed to be the Protector of the Jewish Church, so he is now esteemed the Guardian and Defender of the Christian Church. A red Velvet Buckler is said to be still reserved in a Castle of Normandy, which the Archangel Michael made use of when he combated the Dra gon! See Bishop Hall's Triumphs of Rome, p. 62. This Writer ridicules also the Superstition of Sailors among the Romanists, who in passing by St. Michael's Grecian Promontory Malea, used to ply him with their best Devotions, that he would hold still his Wings, from resting too hard upon their Sails. Triumph of Piety, p. 50. CHAP. CHAP. XXX. Of the Country Wake: How observed formerly: A Custom of the Heathens, and regulated by Gregory the Great. IN the Southern Parts of this Nation, the most of Country Villages are wont to observe some Sunday in a more particular Manner, than the other common Sundays of the Year, viz. the Sunday after the Day of Dedication, i. e. the Sunday after the Day of the Saint, to whom their Church was dedicated. Then the Inhabitants deck themselves in their gaudiest Clothes, and have open Doors and splendid Entertainments, for the Reception and Treating of their Relations and Friends, who visit them on that Occasion, from each neighbouring Town. The Morning is spent for the most Part at Church, tho' not as that Morning was wont to be spent, not with the Commemoration of the Saint or Martyr, nor the grateful Remembrance of the Builder and Endower. The remaining Part of the Day, is spent in Eating and Drinking; and so is also a Day or two afterwards, together with all 4 Sorts Sorts of Rural Pastimes and Exercises, such as Dancing on the Green, Wrestling, Cudgelling, &c. Agreeable to this we are told, that formerly on the Sunday after the Encania, or Feast of the Dedication of the Church, it was usual for a great Number of the Inhabitants of the Village, both Grown and Young, to meet together about break of Day, and cry, Holy-wakes, Holy-wakes, and after Mattens to go to Feasting and Sporting, which they continu'd for two or three Days. In the Northern Parts, the Sunday's Feasting is almost lost, and they observe only one other Day for the whole, which among them is called the Hopping; I suppose from the dancing and other Exercises then used. The ancient Name, and which is still common in the Southern Parts, is the Wake; which according to Sir H. Spelman, are + Bacchanal Feasts, observed about Fruit Time, and which were in Villages by Turns, among the North * Die Dominicâ post Encæniam seu Festum Dedicationis cnjusvis villæ convenire solet in Aurorâ magna hominum Iuvenumque multitudo, & canora voce Holy-Wakes, Holy-wakes. Exclamando Designare, &c. Spelm. Gloss. in Verb. Wak. + Sunt celebritates Bacchanales sub fructuum temporibus ab occiduiis & Borealibus Anglis pagatim habitæ. Bacchanales dixi ex nomine: Nam Wak. Sax. est temulentia. Spelm. ibid. ern ern and Western English. He calls them Bacchanals, because, as he observes, the Saxon Word Wak, signifies Drunkenness. This Custom our Fore-fathers did in all Probability borrow from their Fellow Heathens, * whose Paganalia or Country Feasts, were of the same Stamp, with this of the Wake. At the Conversion of the Saxons by Austin the Monk, it was continu'd among the Converts, with some Regulations, by an Order of Pope Gregory the Great, to Mellitus the Abbot, who accompany'd Austin in his Voyage. His Words are these, † On the Day of Dedication, or the Birth-Day of the Holy Martyrs, whose Relicks are there placed, let the People make to themselves Booths of the Boughs of Trees, round about those very Churches, which had been the Temples of Idols, and in a Religious Way to observe a Feast; that Beasts may no longer be slaughtered by way of Sacrifice to the Devil, but for their own Eating, and the Glory of GOD; and * Hæc eadem sunt quæ apud Ethnicos Paganalia dicebantur, &c. Spelm. ibid. † Ut Die Dedicationis, vel Natalitiis Sanctorum Martyrrum, quorum illic reliquiæ ponuntur, tabernacula sibi circa easdem Ecclesias, quæ ex Fanis commutatæ sunt, de ramis arborum faciant, &c. Bed. Lib. Cap. 30. when that when they are full and satisfied, they may return him Thanks, who is the Giver of all good Things. This then is the Beginning of our Country Wakes, but they continu'd not in their original Purity? For the Feasting and Sporting got the ascendant of Religion, and so this Feast of Dedication, degenerated into Drunkenness and Luxury. At present there is nothing left but the very Refuse and Dregs of it; Religion having not the least Share in it, which till these latter Ages always had some. Rioting and Feasting are now all that remain, a Scandal to the Feast in particular, and to Christianity in general. OBSERVATIONS ON CHAP. XXX. IN the Council held at Magfield in the Time of Edward the Third, in the List of the principal Holydays to be observed in England, are the Anniversaries of the Consecration of Churches and of the Saints to whose Memory they are dedicated*. The learned Mr. Borlase, in his Account of Cornwall, speaking on this Subject, tells us, The Parish Feasts instituted in Commemoration of the * Vide Collier's Ecclesiastical History, Vol. I. P. 531. Dedication |