These chrisoms, which received their name from the chrism, or holy ointment antiently used in baptism, were solemnly deposited in the church, ready to be produced as evidences against such as might violate the faith professed at the baptismal font. The adults attended themselves with their vestments; but the chrisoms of infants were part of the offering of the mother at the time of her purification, or churching, as it is now denominated. (See page 194.) In case an infant died before the mother was able to attend to this important ceremony of churching, it was customary to cover the deceased child in the chrisom, and to commit it to the grave, wrapped in that "robe of grace," instead of a shroud. The word chrisom, from that now almost forgotten cause, is still used to denote a child that dies within the first month after birth: but the term, like many others of long standing, has totally changed its primitive signification, and is applied to those children who have not, instead of to those who have, by the sacrament of Baptism, been admitted into the bosom of the Christian Church.

Saint Alphege.

(19TH APRIL.)

ALPHEGE, ALPHAGE, or ELPHEGE, would appear to have been retained in the Reformed Calendar, more in order to preserve the "memory of an English Saint, than for any thing peculiar in his life," beyond what may be found in the general history of the tens of thousands of persons who were canonized by the see of

Rome.

The parents of ALPHEGE, who were of noble rank, gave him an education suitable to his birth; but he is stated to have abandoned, at an early period, all worldly pursuits, and to have dedicated himself to the service of the Church. He retired to a monastery at Derherste in Gloucestershire, where his ardour for the study of theology increased; though finding that he could not prosecute his studies, with the steady and unremitting attention he desired, he built a cell near the abbey of Bath, in which he lived in total seclusion. From this solitude he was withdrawn, by the earnest entreaties of several eminent persons who desired his instruction, and at length was induced to accept of the important trust of principal of that abbey. Upon the decease of ETHELWOLD, bishop of Winchester, in the year 984, our saint, then

In the thirtieth year only of his age, twelve of which he had been abbot, was promoted to that see, which he filled with extraordinary piety and ability, until the year 1006, when he was translated to the archbishopric of Canterbury. King ETHELRED, the weak, wicked, and tyrannical son of the base ELFRIDA, who had prompted the murder of his half brother EDWARD, surnamed the Martyr, had by a cowardly and horrid plan, caused all the Danes who had settled in England, to be massacred; and that barbarity was soon afterwards severely retorted upon his own subjects, by SWEYN the monarch of Denmark, who invaded this country, defeated ETHELRED, and spread carnage over the whole of the Western parts of the kingdom, until the pusillanimous ETHELRED purchased his mercy, and departure, by a tribute of the then enormous sum of £48,000. In a short time after, the Danes made another descent on this island, and having satiated themselves with the blood and treasure of the West, marched into Kent, and laid seige to Canterbury, whence no inducement could prompt the good archbishop to retire. Accordingly falling into their hands, on storming the city, he was cast into a filthy and unwholesome dungeon, and, after many months endurance, conveyed to Greenwich; where an offer was made to him of his liberty, upon the payment of a ransom of 3000 marks of gold. "The only riches I have to offer," replied the saint, "is that of wisdom, which consists in

the knowledge and worship of the true God." Incensed at this apparent contumely, they struck him with the backs of their battle-axes, and afterwards stoned him until nearly dead, when one of their number, from a feeling of mercy towards him, cleft his head in twain, and terminated his life and sufferings, on the 19th of April, 1012. On the spot where this murder was committed, now stands the Parish Church of Greenwich, on which is still an inscription, expressive, that it was " erected and dedicated to the glory of God, and the memory of ST. ALPHEGE, archbishop of Canterbury, there slain by the Danes."

Saint George.

(23RD APRIL.)

The accounts rendered by different authors of the history of ST. GEORGE, called by the Greeks the GREAT MARTYR, have been so various, and some of them blended with such gross absurdities, that the very existence of this great and popular saint has not only been doubted, but even wholly denied, by several modern writers; while others have so industriously mixed in one heterogeneous mass, the antient and well authenticated account of ST. GEORGE OF CAPPADOCIA, with

that of another GEORGE, an abominable and infamous character, who was an Arian bishop, that it has occupied much labour and ingenuity to separate the histories of the two ST. GEORGE'S, and to shew, divested of the fables too prevalent in former periods, the real and unsullied history of that ST. GEORGE, who is designed to be commemorated on this day. This Saint, it clearly appears, was born in Cappadocia, of Christian parents, of considerable respectability, though at the period of his birth possessing only a small patrimony. He was carefully educated in the belief of the Gospel, in the defence of which his father lost his life while the saint himself was yet of very tender years. Upon the decease of his father, ST. GEORGE accompanied his mother into Palestine, where they came into possession of a large estate. DIOCLESIAN the Tyrant, who knew not of his being a Christian, and admired his majestic and noble form, appointed him a commander in one of his legions, with the dignity of a seat in the council. In the twentieth year of his age he lost his maternal parent, and wholly dedicated himself to his military duties, in which he became eminently distinguished: but during the height of his reputation, the persecution of the Christians burst forth with increased violence and aggravated cruelty; upon which ST. GEORGE withdrew himself from the service of the Tyrant, whom he had the courage publicly to upbraid in the senate, with his barbarities and openly distributed his

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