Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A fee for a mass.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Astolat; therefore unto all ladies I make my moan, yet pray for my soul and bury me at least, and offer ye my mass-penny: this is my last request.
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And so upon the morn she was interred richly, and Sir Launcelot offered her mass-penny; and all the knights of the Table Round that were there at that time offered with Sir Launcelot.
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How the corpse of the Maid of Astolat arrived tofore King Arthur, and of the burying, and how Sir Launcelot offered the mass-penny.
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The next stanza speaks of "Dye Apguylamys," who is told to prepare the obsequy for Love, and of "Lady Apylton," who had offered a "mass-penny," and the epitaph ends with these stanzas:
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So upon the morn she was interred richly, and Sir Launcelot offered her mass-penny, and all the knights of the Table Round that were there at that time offered with Sir Launcelot.
Stories of King Arthur and His Knights Retold from Malory's "Morte dArthur"
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I was your lover, that men called the Fair Maiden of Astolat; therefore unto all ladies I make my moan; yet pray for my soul, and bury me at the least, and offer my mass-penny.
Stories of King Arthur and His Knights Retold from Malory's "Morte dArthur"
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In any case it is certain that from the twelfth to the fifteenth century a money offering, known in England as the "mass-penny", was commonly made at the Offertory all over the Western Church.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 4: Clandestinity-Diocesan Chancery
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How the corpse of the Maid of Astolat arrived to-fore King Arthur, and of the burying, and how Sir Launcelot offered the mass-penny Chap. xx.
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I was your lover, that men called the Fair Maiden of Astolat; therefore unto all ladies I make my moan, yet pray for my soul and bury me at least, and offer ye my mass-penny: this is my last request.
-
And so upon the morn she was interred richly, and Sir Launcelot offered her mass-penny; and all the knights of the Table Round that were there at that time offered with Sir Launcelot.
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