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 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY Communion/** which was administered at four City churches in 1711,''* and at six London churches in 1714.'" A sermon was preached in the afternoon before the court every year/*^ and in 17 14 Lent was marked by special services and sermons in many London churches.'*' Holy days indeed were generally recognized and the Eucharist was celebrated, if at no other time, at the three great festivals of Christmas, Easter, and Whit Sunday, while Ascen- sion Day, Ash Wednesday, Candlemas, and the Feast of St. John the Baptist, were celebrated in the same way at various churches. Many lectures were founded on particular saints' days : at St. Andrew's Holborn there was a gift sermon on St. Alban's Day, ; the Feast of St. David was kept at St. Anne's Soho, and at St. Bride's ' a music sermon ' was given yearly on St. Cecilia's Day.*'' The weekly days of obligation were kept by most good churchmen in Queen Anne's reign,^^" and Lent was generally observed. Holy Week or Passion Week, as it was usually called, was spent with some degree of devo- tion, and the queen prohibited the performance of an opera during the period.'^^ She was also much concerned for the due observance of Good Friday, and in 1702 the Royal Exchange was ordered to be closed,''* and the aldermen were requested to see that shops were shut in their respective wards. The day was still respected in 1723,'^"^ though in 1777 it was again necessary to order the closing of the shops and Royal Exchange in response to the Bishop of London's appeal.'^* One of the most flagrant abuses of the time was the custom, universal in London in 17 11,' of baptizing infants by the public form in private houses. Derived partly from the need of secrecy under Puritan government, partly from Puritan prejudices, the custom was supported by the desire to make some difference ' betwixt people of fashion and the vulgar sort,' and by the presentation to the clergyman of gratuities which in the year bore a high proportion to his fixed income.* The practice lent itself to uncanonical baptisms ; in 1703—4 the Lower House of Convocation complained that the sign of the cross and the provision of sponsors were sometimes neglected.''^ Taking place in the parlour or bed-chamber, such baptisms were accompanied with much merriment and with customs which even Pepys regarded with some doubt ; ^'' they became more decorous in the course of the 1 8th cen- tury, but even in 1785 Wilberforce speaks of such a christening as 'very indecent, all laughing round.' '" From the point of view of the State the abuse was serious, as such baptisms were frequently omitted from the registers or left to be entered by the parish clerk.*"" In spite of Stillingfleet's arguments *" and constant visitation articles,*"* the custom was unchecked until the middle of the i8th century, when Bishop Atterbury,*"' '" Reresby, Mem. 29, Mar. 1689 ; Secretan, Life of 'Nehon, no. '" Archidiaconatus Lond. ^^ Paterson, op. cit. '" Evelyn, Diary, 6 Apr. 1683. '"' Paterson, op. cit. '*' Ibid. '™ Beveridge, Sermons on the Ministry and Ordinances of the Church (ed. 1837), 269. "' Luttrell, Brief Relation, vi, 29. "' Rec. Corp. Repert. cvii, fol. 248. '" John Johnson, C/ergymanU Vade Mecum, 195. "' Rec. Corp. loc. cit. '" Archidiaconatus Lond. "* Let. from a Clergyman giving his Reasons, 18, 45 ; Evelyn, Diary, 12 Apr. 1689. '" Calamy, Abridgement, Sec. i, 635. ^'° Pepys, Diary, 29 May 1661 ; 18 Oct. 1666. "' R. I. and S. Wilberforce, Life of William Wilberforce,, 80. "' Bodl. Lib. Tanner MS. 124, 125 ; Archidiaconatus Lond. &c.
 * "" Blomfield, Charge, 1830, p. 25. *"' Stillingfleet, Eccl. Cases, pt. i, 210.
 * "' Let. which passed between Bishop Atterbury and Dean Stanhope.