[38] Editor’s Note.—It was the excommunication of Queen Elizabeth by the Pope that led to the transference of the Channel Islands from the Diocese of Coutances to that of Winchester. Canon MacColl in his “Reformation Settlement” notes as an extraordinary fact that the Bishop of Coutances so far disapproved of that excommunication as to have offered, on condition that his jurisdiction was allowed, to give institution to those clergy whom the Queen might nominate from the English Universities. In fact, up to the date of the bull of excommunication, the islands remained under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Coutances, who permitted the use of the reformed Prayer Book, and ruled, apparently without a protest, over a portion of his diocese, in which the claim to supremacy on the part of the Pope was denied.
[39] Editor’s Note.—Mr. Matthieu Le Lièvre gives a slightly different version. He says:—“Parmi ceux qui avaient quitté Guernesey pour échapper au coups de la réaction catholique, se trouvait Guillaume Beauvoir, membre de l’une des familles qui ont joué un grand rôle dans l’histoire de l’île, et qui occupa lui-même, pendant neuf ans (1572-1581), la dignité de bailli, la première magistrature du pays.… Il s’éloigna donc et se refugia avec sa femme à Genève, où il séjourna quelque temps et se fit avantageusement connaître de Calvin et de ses collègues. Rentré dans son île natale après la mort de la reine Marie, il fut frappé de la nécessité d’appeler au plus tôt un homme de tête et de piété pour relever les affaires de la Réforme à Guernesey. Il écrivit donc aux pasteurs de Genève, et à Calvin en particulier, pour leur demander un ministre. La Compagnie des Pasteurs s’en occupa et envoya à la jeune Eglise de Guernesey le ministre Nicolas Baudoin, porteur de deux lettres de recommandation addressées à Guillaume Beauvoir, et signées, l’une Charles Despeville (l’un des pseudonymes de Calvin) et l’autre Raymond Chauvet, l’un des Pasteurs de Genève.”—Histoire du Méthodisme dans les Iles de la Manche, par Matthieu Le Lièvre, D.D., pp. 38-39.
[40] Editor’s Note.—Pierre Le Roy’s Diary, 24th Sept., 1662. “Il est arrivé dans cette ile une compagnie de cent soldats avec un major, un capitaine, et des officiers, à cause de quelque opposition à l’Acte d’Uniformité. Les ministres n’ont pas voulu s’y soumettre et ont abandonné leurs cures, savoir M. Le Marchant, du Valle et de Saint-Samson; M. Perchard, de Saint Pierre-du-Bois; M. Morehead, de Saint-Sauveur; M. de la Marche, du Câtel, et M. Hérivel, de la Forêt et de Torteval.” John de Sausmarez, formerly Rector of St. Martin’s parish, was made Dean in 1662, and he and one of his colleagues, Pierre de Jersey, were the first to establish the new ritual. Thomas Le Marchant, who was virtually the head of the Presbyterian party, and as such was especially hated by Dean de Sausmarez, was shut up first in Castle Cornet in 1663, and in 1665 in the Tower of London, till September, 1667, when he was liberated, “ayant donné caution de mille livres sterling qu’il ne présumera pas en aucun temps d’aller dans l’île de Guernesey à moins qu’il n’ait pour le faire une license spéciale de Sa Majesté, et qu’il se comportera à l’avenir comme un respectueux et loyal sujet,” etc. He had married Olympe Roland, and his son Eléazar was later Lieutenant Bailiff of Guernsey.—See also Histoire du Methodisme dans les Isles de la Manche, par Matthieu Le Lièvre, 1885, p. 112.
Birth and Baptism.
On the birth of a child notice is usually sent to the nearest relations, and as soon as the mother is sufficiently recovered she receives the visits and congratulations of her friends. It is customary to offer cake and wine to the visitors on these occasions. The wine must on no account be refused, but the health of the child must be duly drunk, and the glass drained, for it is considered extremely unlucky to leave a drop behind. The christening feast still retains the ancient name of “Les Aubailles” from the white garment or alb—in French “aube”—with which, in the early church, the recipients of baptism were solemnly invested. It is customary for the sponsors to make a present to the child, which usually takes the form of silver spoons, or a drinking cup. Before the re-establishment of Episcopacy at the Restoration there appears to have been only one sponsor of each sex. Of course the rubric which orders that every boy shall have two godfathers, and every girl two godmothers, is now complied with, but the second is invariably styled by the people the “little” godfather or godmother, and is often a child or very young person evidently only put in to comply with the requirements of the church.
The excess of feasting at baptisms and churchings as well as at marriages and funerals seems to have reached to such an extent in the early part of the seventeenth century as to call for repressive measures on the part of the legislature, at that time deeply imbued with a puritanical spirit, and sumptuary laws of a very stringent nature were promulgated restricting the invitations on these occasions to the nearest relations, and prohibiting entirely all dancing, and even almsgiving.
After baptism the child is sent round to its nearest relatives, and the old women say that a present of some sort, preferably an egg, should be placed in the infant’s hands, while visitors to the child are always expected to put some money in the infant’s hand for luck, and as a token that it shall never want, the value of the gift being of little moment.
It is thought very unlucky to measure or weigh a child, such a proceeding being sure to stop its growth; and it is also supposed to be very unlucky to cover up a baby’s face when taking it to the church to be christened, until the ceremony is over.