MAUNDY THURSDAY, the Thursday before Easter. Maundy Thursday is sometimes known as Sheer or Chore Thurs day, either in allusion, it is thought, to the "shearing" of heads and beards in preparation for Easter, or more probably in the word's Middle English sense of "pure," in allusion to the ablu tions of the day. The chief ceremony, as kept from the early middle ages onwards-the washing of the feet of twelve or more poor men or beggars-was in the early Church almost unknown. From the 4th century ceremonial foot-washing became yearly more common, till it was regarded as a necessary rite, to be per formed by the pope, all Catholic sovereigns, prelates, priests and nobles. In England the king washed the feet of as many poor men as he was years old, and then distributed to them meat, money and clothes. At Durham Cathedral, until the 16th century, every charity-boy had a monk to wash his feet. At Peterborough Abbey, in 1530, Wolsey made "his maund in Our Lady's Chapel, having fifty-nine poor men whose feet he washed and kissed; and after he had wiped them he gave every of the said poor men twelve pence in money, three ells of good canvas to make them shirts, a pair of new shoes, a cast of red herrings and three white herrings." Queen Elizabeth performed the cere
mony, the paupers' feet, however, being first washed by the yeo men of the laundry with warm water and sweet herbs. James II. was the last English monarch to perform the rite. William III. delegated the washing to his almoner, and this was usual until the middle of the r8th century. Since 1754 the f oot-washing has been abandoned, and the ceremony now consists of the presentation of Maundy money, officially called Maundy Pen nies. These were first coined in the reign of Charles II. The service which formerly took place in the Chapel Royal, White hall, is now held in Westminster Abbey. It is on Maundy Thurs day that in the Church of Rome the sacred oil is blessed, and the chrism prepared according to an elaborate ritual which is given in the Pontificale.