Agnusn.

a1400 (?c1300) Lay Folks Mass Bk. (Royal) (1879) l. 508 He [sc. the priest] saies agnus thryse or he cese, þo last worde he spekis of pese.

c1400 J. Wyclif Sel. Eng. Wks. (1871) III. 481 (MED) Wheþer þis chauntyng of Kyries, Sanctus, and Agnus..makus men to have savoure in þese dytees.

1455 in Trans. Bristol & Gloucs. Archaeol. Soc. 1890–1 (1891) 15 148 One Masse boke..endith with the sequence Sanctus and Agnus.

a1513 R. Fabyan New Cronycles Eng. & Fraunce (1516) II. f. cxiiii After the thirde Agnus was sayd.

a1555 J. Bradford Hurte of hering Masse (?1561) sig. B.i The Agnus..pope Sergius about the yere of our Lorde .700. brought in to the masse.

1604 R. Parsons 3rd Pt. Treat. Conuersions in Treat. Three Conuersions Eng. III. xi. 88 The Gloria in excelsis, the Creed, the Sanctis, the Agnus, and other parts of the masse be of themselves good and profitable.

1733 E. Sterne Def. Protestant Faith iv. 52 The Priest kneels down, and says the Agnus to the Bread.

1834 C. A. Goodrich et al. Relig. Ceremonies & Customs 286 The person who officiates does not smite his breast at the Agnus.

1888 in E. S. Roscoe Bishop of Lincoln's Case (1889) 48 The words or hymn or prayer commonly known as the Agnus that is to say Oh Lamb of God that takest away the Sins of the World—Have mercy upon us.

1936 E. Underhill Worship xiii. 285 The Agnus is now sung, and the Lord's Prayer is said.

1961 Proc. Royal Mus. Assoc. 87th Sess. 51 Another..composer..survives in only two works,..and of those two Masses one lacks the Agnus.

1999 BBC Music Mag. Apr. 79/3 By contrast, the cool unaccompanied clarity of the Oxford Camerata is magisterial (in the ‘Christ rising’ motet by Richarfort) and meditative (in the lovely Agnus of the Mass).

1612 S. Daniel First Pt. Hist. Eng. ii. 101 The Pope sent him a Banner of the Church, with an Agnus of gold, and one of the hayres of Saint Peter.

1674 D. Brevint Saul & Samuel 322 Scapularies, beads, ropes, agnusses.

1757 C. Lennox tr. L. A. de La Beaumelle Mem. for Hist. Madame Maintenon II. v. viii. 112 The Agnus's, crucifix's, chaplets, all these sacred trifles seemed polluted by the impure hand that offered them.

1822 W. H. Ireland tr. Voltaire Maid of Orleans I. iii. 78 The other's cramm'd with bulls and briefs enough, Fine chaplets, agnusses and blessed stuff.

1822 J. Galt Ann. Parish xlv. 170 Father O'Grady, not being able to make a living there, packed up his Virgin Marys, saints, and painted Agnuses in a portmanteau, and went off in the Ayr Fly one morning for Glasgow.

1855 W. K. Kelly tr. M. de Cervantes Exemplary Novels 36 Cornelia was awaiting him with her son, whom she had adorned as he had suggested, having placed on him the relics and agnus.

1921 Outward Bound Apr. 72/1 It was a little Agnus of gold and enamel.

2006 E. Malvido in D. P. Cahill & B. Tovías New World, First Nations i. iv. 107 Other commercial Church activities performed in the face of death, such as the sale of indulgences.., relics and agnus candles.

1566 in E. Peacock Eng. Church Furnit. (1866) 103 [Hemswell, Lincs.] One sanctus bell one agnus bell gone owtt of the fore sayd churche.

1871 F. G. Lee Dict. Ritual Terms 7 Agnus Bell, a sacrying bell; that is, a handbell anciently used in the Church of England to notify to the congregation the exact period when the priest was consecrating the Holy Sacrament.

1912 H. B. Walters Church Bells Eng. v. 123 At Hemswell in Lincolnshire it [sc. the 'Sacring' or 'Sackering' bell] was known as the 'Agnus Bell,' because at this part of the service the Agnus Dei was sung.