Today is Maundy Thursday, so called not because it is the occasion of the annual distribution of the King's Maunds to a number of pour persons corresponding with the years of his own age, but because it was the day when. after Christ had washed His disciples' fect, He said, "A new commandment give I unto you that ye love one another." The day since has been called in Latin Dies Mandati the day of Christ's great mandate. In the monasteries it was the custom to wash the feet of as many poor people as there were monks in each institution, and for centuries in England the King, as a token of humility, performed the same function. Thus mention is made in the Wardrobe Book of Edward I of money being given on Easter Eve to 13 poor people whose feet the Queen had washed, and it is said that the custom was continued as late as the time of James LI, when it was discontinued, leaving only the distribution of Maundy Money as relic of the old custom. The term "maunds" as representing the Royal Alms in this instance. comes from the word "maund", "basket", dating back to the time when on the day before the Great Fast good Catholics brought out all their broken food in baskets to distribute to the poor. This afternoon, unless the war has interfered with an age-old ceremony, there should be a service in Westminster Abbey at which 44 poor people will receive gifts of the silver money specially coined, done up in small white purses and carried in a basket. These used to be distributed by the Lord High Almoner, but since 1883 the Clerk of the Almonry Office has been responsible, the last monarch to distribute the doles personally being James I.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.