Offeringdays

Offering-days namely, Christmas, Easter, Whitsuntide, and the feast for the dedication of the Church, or, as Beleth says, All-saints', when the alms were allotted for the priests' stipend and the purchase of the paschal. By Henry VIII.'s injunction, 1538, the four general offering-days were changed to Christmas, Easter, Nativity of John the Baptist, and Michaelmas, when money-offerings at the altar were given for the support of the clergy. In the last century, the king, attended by the Knights of the Garter and heralds in their tabards, offered, at Christmas, Easter, Whitsuntide, and All-Saints', a bezant in his private chapel; on six other days gold; and on Circumcision and Epiphany gold, frankincense, and myrrh, in three purses.