Editorial note — APPENDIX H ON THE DEDICATION OF A CHURCH

[Footnote 691: In the treatise of the Mart. Remigius, De Dedicatione Ecciesiae, we have the following explanation of this singular custom: 'A thing which might appear puerile, unless it had been instituted by men, great in dignity, spiritual in life, apostolical in discipline. In all things of this kind, the Lord by His example hath gone before us: and what He hath done, remaineth unchangeable in his successors. What is understood by the alphabet save the beginnings and rudiments of sacred doctrine? Whence S. Paul, "Ye have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God." Therefore the bishop writeth the alphabet, to signify that he teacheth the pure doctrine of the gospel. He writeth the alphabet twice, and that in the figure of a cross, to signify that the Passion of Christ is set forth by the gospel in its purity. He writeth it in the angles of the church, because by them be set forth the four corners of the world. He beginneth from the east, because the gospel began from the Jews.' There is probably some reference to the Saviour's stooping down, and writing in the sand. We may also compare those singular and rare bells, in which the only inscription round the crown consists of the letters of the alphabet.]