174 Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries. dubitatione cum in ea fuerit missarum solennitas celebrata totius consecratio sanctificationis implevit. Si vero sanc- tuaria q habebat ablata sut : rurs' eoru deposicioe et missar' solenitate reverentia sanctificationis accipiet.* Which may be thus translated : — Case. As to the restoration of the fabric of any church, if it have been destroyed, and whether in that place in which there have been no relics the solemnity of consecra- tion ought to be repeated : — We adjudicate that there will be nothing amiss, if exor- cised water be not sprinkled about it at all ; [or — least of all if exorcised water be sprinkled about it] ; for we know that the [original] consecration of any church in which pledges of the Holy Ghost [i.e., relics] are not placed is effected solely by the celebration of masses. Therefore if a basilica of the saints be rebuilt from the foundations without disturbance of the altar, undoubtedly, when the solemnity of masses shall have been celebrated in it, the consecration of a complete sanctification will have been fulfilled. If, indeed, relics that it Jiad have been removed, the putting these back, and the solemnity of masses will effect the reverence of sanctification. The adverb viinime = z.t least, least of all, in no wise, not at all, etc., permits various constructions of the sentence in which it occurs. I have preferred that which seems the most logical, supposing holy water at this date to have taken the place of the holy oil or chrism that at a later period was applied to the walls as well as to the altar. The ceremony of dedication of churches is said to have been very simple in the beginning. The Gelesian Sacra- mentary shews it to have consisted, in the seventh century, of prayers, sprinkling with holy water, and blessings {Cath. Encycl.) Strabo, describing the " dedication of a temple" by Columbanus, states that he sprinkled it with blessed water, that " they went round singing," and that he "anointed the altar," placed in it relics of St.
- The correct reference in this edition, of which there is a copy in
the Cathedral Library, is Tercia Pars. Distinctio /., fol. ccccxxv., d. "Cap. 24" does not come in this "Part," nor treat of this subject, and there is no letter or decree treating of '• Consecration " so similar to the above as to be confounded with it.
