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Humble Access, Prayer of

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An old English word for the Holy Eucharist. Thus an old English canon of A.D. 960 orders every Priest "to give housel (i.e. Holy Communion) to the sick when they need it." The word also appears in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, in Piers Plowman, Beaumont and Fletcher and also in Shakespeare. So, also, we find the term houselling cloth, meaning a large cloth spread before the people while receiving. The word evidently meant a Sacrifice.