Royal Maundy pence to each of fifty poor men. It is not known, however, whether it was as yet the practice each year to have the number of pence and the number of recipients track the monarch's age: Henry IV was the first monarch to decree that the number of pence given be determined by the monarch's age. The ceremony was not always performed on Maundy Thursday; it could be postponed a day to Good Friday by royal command, as it was in 1510. Nobles could hold their own Maundy distributions, as did Henry Percy, 5th Earl of Northumberland in the early
The World's Ransoming Ransoming" was the first of three pieces comprising MacMillan's Easter triptych "Triduum", which would later include the composer's Cello Concerto and his Symphony: 'Vigil'. In the score program notes, MacMillan wrote, ""The World's Ransoming" focuses on Maundy Thursday and its musical material includes references to plainsongs for that day, "Pange lingua" and "Ubi caritas" as well as a Bach chorale ("Ach wie nichtig") which I have heard being sung in the eucharistic procession to the altar of repose." The title of the piece comes from the words of Thomas Aquinas's hymn "Pange Lingua". The work is scored for a solo