Maundy-Thursday

Maundy-Thursday, the Thursday of Holy Week (q.v.). The name Dies mandati is derived from the ancient custom of washing the feet of the poor on this day, and singing at the same time the anthem Mandatum novum, which is taken from John, xiii. 34. This rite, called mandatum or lavipedum, is of great antiquity, both in the Eastern and Western churches. In more modern times it came to be accompanied by a distribution of 'doles,' placed in small baskets, thence called 'maunds.' In the royal usage of the maund in England, the number of doles distributed is reckoned by the years of the monarch, and their value is 1d. for each year of the sovereign's life. James II. was the last English sovereign who performed this ceremony in person; but the Austrian emperor, Francis Joseph, continued the custom from 1849 till 1888, washing every year the feet of twelve old men. In Madrid the ceremony is retained, the feet of twelve old men and twelve old women being touched with a sponge and towel by the sovereign, who afterwards serves them at table; and in 1889 the feet of twelve boys were washed in the Roman Catholic pro-cathedral at Kensington by one of the bishops, each boy also receiving a piece of money. During the middle ages the maund was held in all monasteries and great houses; and in the Household Book of the Earl of Northumberland, which begins in 1512, there are entries of 'al maner of things yerly yevn by my lorde of his Maundy and my laidis and his lordshippis children.' See Skeat's edition of The Vision of Piers the Plowman (vol. i. p. 488, 1. 140, note).