ANCIENT LOCAL CUSTOMS REGARDING THE OFFERING OF GIFTS

As late as the sixteenth century a very singular custom prevailed in England—viz., that of presenting at the altar during a Mass of Requiem all the armor and military equipments of deceased knights and noblemen, as well as their chargers. Dr. Rock (Church of Our Fathers, ii. 507) tells us that as many as eight horses, fully caparisoned, used to be brought into the church for this purpose at the burial of some of the higher nobility. At the funeral of Henry VII., in Westminster Abbey, after the royal arms had first been presented at the foot of the altar, we are told that Sir Edward Howard rode into church upon “a goodlie courser,” with the arms of England embroidered upon his trappings, and delivered him to the abbots of the monastery (ibid.) Something similar happened at the Mass of Requiem for the repose of the soul of Lord Bray, in A.D. 1557, and at that celebrated for Prince Arthur, son of Henry VII. (ibid.)