CHAPTER X.

THE ORDER FOR DAILY MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER.

I. The Origin of Divine Service.
 

The consecration of such hours as these to prayer was at first a matter of private devotion; but before long the practice received public recognition, and public services began to be devised. It was probably the Vigil or midnight service which first acquired this recognition. The early Christians were deeply impressed with the expectation that our Lord’s Second Coming, which they deemed imminent, would be at midnight and at the Paschal solemnities. The night preceding Easter was therefore kept as a Vigil with continuous services preparatory to Easter Communion. By a natural process the Vigil was repeated before other Sundays, and in some cases before Saturdays, that is to say, in places where Saturday was observed as a day of special solemnity. And so it came to be considered a natural preparation for any great day, and was prefixed also to Saints’ days.

Later, when monastic influences began to act powerfully upon the services,⁴ the night service became a daily institution,⁵ but by the same process it was reduced in its proportions till it became the mediæval service of Nocturns, i.e., a midnight service of psalms and lessons of varying length according to circumstances.⁶
 

Growth of this habit.

The Vigil.

The little Hours of Terce, Sext and None did not become public services till the end of the fourth century, and then at first only in monastic communities; at a still later date two further offices were added, both of them under monastic influence, and probably in Italy, that of Compline, as a service at bedtime, and that of Prime as a similar service preceding the daily Chapter or business-meeting of the monks.⁷

This system of Hours of Prayer was already complete in the West, probably by the end of the fifth century, for the Roman cursus or ‘course’ of psalmody allotted the Psalms and Canticles to this system of services, and S. Benet’s ‘course’ (530), which seems to be a revision of the Roman ‘course,’ did the like, though with important modifications.

II. The Structure of the Hours of Prayer.

The structure of the Hours of Prayer bears out and confirms this sketch of their history. The midnight service of Nocturns stands alone; Lauds is like Vespers, the three Little Hours follow one uniform plan, while Compline and Prime are clearly formed on one model. Before describing in detail the normal⁸ structure of these services as they existed in mediaeval times according to the’ secular’ type⁹ it will be well to call attention to some general points, which (with some small exceptions) hold good throughout.¹⁰
 

The psalms in the secular services were all sung antiphonally: the responsorial method of singing was used in the responsoria or responds, which followed the lessons and the capitula or chapters.
 

The structure of Nocturns is as follows:—

 
LAUDS

1. Introduction.
2. Five Psalms or canticles, fixed (with slight variations), but with varying antiphons.
3. Capitulum or Chapter, varying, and R. Deo gratias.
4. Hymn, varying, and its Versicle.
5. Benedictus with varying antiphon.
6. Collect, varying, preceded on occasion by Suffrages.
7· Memorials, varying on occasion.

EVENSONG OR VESPERS.

1. Private prayers and Introduction.
2. Five Psalms, in course, with varying antiphons.
3. Chapter, varying.
4. Respond, varying, but used on great occasions only.
5. Hymn, varying, and its Versicle.
6. Magnificat with varying antiphon.
7· End as at Lauds, Nos. 6 and 7.

TERCE SEXT AND NONE

1. Private prayers and Introduction.
2. Hymn, fixed.
3. Six portions of Ps. cxix. in three divisions with varying antiphon.
4. Chapter, varying.
5. Respond, varying, and Versicle, varying.
6. Collect, varying, preceded on occasion by Suffrages, as at Lauds.

PRIME

1. Private prayers and Introduction.
2. Hymn, fixed.
3. Psalms, fixed, with varying antiphon.
4. Quicunque vult, with antiphon (five alternatives).
5. Chapter (three alternatives).
6. Respond, fixed, but subject to slight modifications.
7. Versicle, fixed.
8. Suffrages, and Collect (two alternatives).

COMPLINE OF THE SARUM USE

1. Private prayers and Introduction.
2. Four psalms, fixed, with varying antiphon.
3. Chapter, fixed.
4. Respond (two alternatives, and only in Lent).
5. Hymn, varying, and Versicle, fixed.
6. Nunc dimittis, with varying antiphon.
7. Suffrages and fixed Collect.

III. The Structural Modifications

This system of the Hours of Prayer was in possession everywhere in the XVIth century with a thousand years of authority at its back. It had no doubt been introduced into England by S. Augustine, though little evidence is forthcoming as to its history here before the XIIIth century.¹⁵ Alterations had been made, which while leaving the broad outline of the system intact, rendered it extremely complex. Two tendencies were at work, one of addition and the other of curtailment: in accordance with the former, various novel services, such as the secondary system of the Hours of the Blessed Virgin, or the office of the Dead, were added to the obligations of the clergy and to the pages of the Breviary; and also new portions were inserted in or appended to the canonical or primary Hours. On the other hand curtailment was taking place, the lessons and psalmody were considerably shortened to compensate for the fresh obligations, and the long ferial offices were to a considerable extent avoided and replaced by festival offices or commemoration offices. Other innovations simply added to the intricacy of the system: the growth of the Kalendar, already explained above, the keeping of octaves and the saying of memorials all-made fresh complications: and later still the system of ‘Commemorations’ was introduced, according to which the normal ferial office of the day was ousted on two or even three days in a week, and a special service commemorative of the Blessed Virgin, or the patron, or some other saint was substituted in its place.
 

Alterations in mediæval times.

Changes of structure

inaugurated by Cranmer.
 

His first Draft for Mattins.

The second Draft shews considerable advance: the Latin language was still to be retained except for the Lord’s Prayer and the Lessons: the Hours were to be compressed into two,¹⁸ of which Mattins represented the ancient Mattins, Lauds and Prime. The Little Hours and Compline were to be omitted; and even the latter half of the new Mattins, from Te Deum onwards, might be omitted to make room for preaching.

The following table will shew the structure of the projected service.

1. The Lord’s Prayer in English said aloud, with the rest of the Introduction.
2. Hymn.
3. Three psalms, each with Gloria, but no Venite.
4. The Lord’s Prayer aloud.
5· Three Lessons, with introductory blessing and final close.
6. Te Deum.
7. A fourth lesson, on occasions.
8. Benedictus.
9. Collect.
10. [Quicumque vult, with Suffrages on Sundays only.]

Evensong is to follow the same course, but to have two lessons instead of three, then Magnificat, then the Collect, and so come to an end.
 

A slight development in 1552 brought the main body of the service into its present form by the prefixing of the Sentences, Exhortation, Confession and Absolution, and the transposition of the Creed and the Salutation so as to follow the Benedictus. The rubrical direction for adding an anthem with the five prayers or Litany was made in 1661.¹⁹

The following comparative table exhibits the development so far as the general structure is concerned :—

MATTINS

By a similar process Evensong was formed of materials taken out of the old service of Evensong or Vespers, together with the Nunc Dimittis and the third Collect taken from Compline. It was made to follow the structure of the new Mattins, so that both the services should be of a uniform design.²⁰ It will be seen if the tables of Evensong and Compline given above are compared with the structure of the Evening Prayer of the Prayer Book that more omission and alteration was necessary here than at Morning Prayer.²¹

It is time now after these preliminaries to turn to the actual services themselves as they stand in the present Prayer Book and consider them point by point.
 

IV. Introductory Rubrics

These two rubrics were placed as general directions for the service in 1552. They give rise to many questions about which there has been much difference of opinion and practice.
 

Prayers to be said in the accustomed place of the Church, Chapel, or Chancel.

The accustomed place.

The chancels.

Reading pew.

Vestments.

 
The Directions of the First Book of Edward VI. for Ministers.

or Bishops,

for the Priest at Communion.

The Elizabethan Book.

The twenty-fifth clause in the Elizabethan Act provided for the retention of the ornaments ‘until other order shall be taken therein by the authority of the Queen’s majesty with the advice of’ the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, ‘or of the Metropolitan of this realm.’ The question arises whether further order was formally taken or no in this respect.

What is certain is that this clause and rubric were not fully enforced: the ornaments were retained, but a considerable number even of those specified expressly in the First Prayer Book were never put into use, and were ultimately defaced and made away with.³³ The well-known letter of Sandys³⁴ shows that in some influential quarters there was no intention that they should be used. The Bishops found that, in face of violent Puritan agitation, to exact the bare minimum of surplices with hoods in parish churches, and copes in cathedrals, was a task which would strain their power to the utmost: as early as 1560, by the time of the issue of the ‘Interpretations’³⁵ they had determined with regard to vestments not to demand in practice more than these; and this policy found a more authoritative expression in the Advertisements of 1566.³⁶
 

and legal problem.

The method of ‘taking further order.’

Elizabethan action.

3) What should be the ornaments of the church? The answer to this question depends partly upon the view which is taken on the first of the two difficult questions already discussed. If it is held that the rubric refers to the year preceding the Prayer Book of 1549, then a large number of ornaments are authorized, and these are to be ascertained by ecclesiological enquiry.⁴³

If, on the other hand, It be held that the rubric refers to the First Edwardine Book, the number of ornaments there ordered by name is exceedingly small and comprises only the following: Bible, Prayer-Book, Altar, Book of the Homilies, Poor Men’s Box, Corporas, Paten, Chalice, Font, Bell, Quire Door, Pulpit. Besides these ornaments the use of others is implied, such as cruets for wine and water, and also for oil in anointing, a pix to carry the Blessed Sacrament to the sick, a lectern, pews or seats of some kind, &c.: and some are expressed by name in the present Prayer Book and must be added to the minimum list of ornaments contemplated; such as Alms bason, Flagon, and two fair linen cloths, the one to cover the altar, and the other to be placed over the Sacrament after the Communion: others are mentioned in the Canons. But even after all such additions have been made (which in themselves sufficiently refute any strict or narrow interpretation of the rubric), this list is so manifestly incomplete that it is clear that, if the rubric is interpreted as referring to the ornaments of the Book of 1549, it cannot be strictly interpreted, but must be held to sanction other things besides those specified by name.
 

Ornaments of the church:

two views.

Even the most restrictive must be liberally interpreted.

The further question then remains as to how far other things are held to be covered by the rubric. It is all a question of degree and of expediency: for the last’ half century the tendency has been to make the rubric (so interpreted) increasingly elastic, and to extend it to cover an increasingly large number of ornaments.⁴⁴ Finality in such matters is probably not desirable, but whether that be so or not, it certainly has not been attained.⁴⁵

 
 V. Morning Prayer.

§ 1. The Sentences, Exhortation, Confession, and Absolution.
 

Opening of the present service.

Reason of this addition in 1552.

Rationale of the Sentences,

The form provided for this purpose is called a ‘General Confession.’ It is general, because it is expressed in general terms, referring to the failings of human life, which are common to all men, and which may and ought to be confessed by all, without descending to particular sins, of which perhaps some of the congregation may not be guilty. It consists of three parts, besides the introduction, or address to God: the first, a confession of our sins of omission and commission; the second, a supplication of pardon for the past, and the third, a prayer for grace for the future.

The manner in which the Confession should be said is distinctly marked, because it differs from the manner. customary in the older services of Prime and Compline: there the Confession was said by the principal person present, and the prayer of absolution following his confession was said by all present: then vice versa the congregation said the Confession and he the absolution, adding as well a further prayer of the same sort. By the rubric of the Prayer Book the Confession is to be said of the whole congregation after the minister; i.e. the minister is to say each clause, and then the people repeat that clause after him.⁵¹ The manner of saying the Lord’s Prayer is different; that is to be said ‘with him,’ the people repeating the clauses simultaneously with the minister.
 

The Absolution contains four particulars: (1) a general declaration of the mercy of God to returning sinners, and (2) of the authority committed to His ministers to pronounce pardon to the penitent; (3) the declaration of that pardon on condition of true faith and hearty repentance; and (4) an admonition to ask the help of His Holy Spirit to enable us to perform those conditions, that the pardon pronounced in His Church on earth may be effectual to our eternal salvation.
 

and the Absolution.

Not to be said by Deacons.

It will be observed that the word Amen is printed at the end of the Confession; but that the first rubric directing it to be said by the people at the end of all prayers occurs after the Absolution, According to a later custom, which has no authority in The Book Annexed, the Amen is printed in a different type at the end of the prayers. In these, the minister says the Prayer, or the Collect, and then stops, while the people answer their Amen. In other parts, as the Confession, Lord’s Prayer, Creeds, which are repeated by the minister and people, there is no such difference; and the minister goes on and says Amen himself, thus directing the people to do the same. In the alternating portions, as at the end of the Gloria Patri, the word is printed in the same character thus directing it to be said by the same persons who have said the ‘Answer’ of the Gloria, as being a part of that ‘Answer.’

§ 2. The Old Introduction.

We come now to the point at which the old Latin Service began. This is indicated in the original MS. of 1661 by two lines drawn across the page to make a clear division, but they are constantly omitted by modern printers.⁵⁵ In 1549, as little alteration was made in the form of the service as was consistent with reformation of doctrine. Hence the Mattins and Evensong continued to begin with the Lord’s Prayer: the Ave Maria, which had only been introduced into that position comparatively lately, was omitted, and the priest was directed to say the Lord’s Prayer with a loud voice, instead of, as before, repeating it inaudibly as part of the private preparation which each one said to himself before the service began. The first allusion to its use at the beginning of the Hours comes from S. Benedict of Aniane (810), who ordered his monks thrice a day to go round the altars and say at the first the Lord’s Prayer and Creed, i.e. before Mattins and Prime and after Compline.⁵⁶ In the Sarum Breviary it was preparatory to the service,⁵⁷ and after it the priest began the service with the versicles. The same method is now provided for by the rubric, which since 1661, has directed an ‘audible’ voice instead of a ‘loud’ voice; the intention clearly is that all the introductory part of the service up to the V. O Lord, open Thou our lips should be said audibly and congregationally, but quietly without monotone or singing.
 

The Lord’s Prayer.

The direction that the people should join in repeating the Lord’s Prayer in this place was added in 1661. Previously it had been said by the minister alone on its first occurrence in the Morning and Evening Prayer, and in the Communion Service; and (since 1552) by the minister, clerks, and people, when it occurred afterwards; unless indeed, as is very probable, the rubric of The Book of Common Praier Noted (1550) shews a contrary custom to have prevailed: it has here ‘The Quere wyth the Priest.’

In 1661 a further change was made, following the Eastern, in opposition to the Western use, by the addition of the Doxology⁵⁸ at the conclusion of the prayer in this and in some other parts of the services. This forms no true part of the text of the Gospels, but is found as early as the Didache. It has great liturgical value, and there is special reason for its insertion in this place, where the Lord’s Prayer immediately follows the Absolution, and the moment is one of praise.
 

The Versicles have certainly been used since the sixth century. The first is taken from Ps.li. 15, and under the old system was peculiar to Mattins, as being the first Hour of the series. It was not prefixed to Evensong till 1552, when both it and the following were put into the plural number, instead of the singular.⁵⁹ It was originally prescribed for use on first waking. Similarly, the second versicle with its response is drawn from the opening verse of the 70th Psalm, which was originally repeated entire on waking or on the way from the dormitory to the church, and then concluded with Gloria Patri.⁶⁰ Hence arose the use of the ‘opening versicles. In 1549 this section was taken from the Sarum Breviary,⁶¹ but with two changes: (i) the Gloria was assigned to the Priest alone in the ordinary books, though not in the’ Noted’ edition: in the Latin service it was sung by all together and it was not until 1661, when the traditional use was lost, that it became a V and R: (ii) instead of Alleluia, to be said throughout the year except from Septuagesima to Easter, the following was ordered: ‘Praise ye the Lord. And from Easter to Trinity Sunday, Alleluia.’⁶² The Answer, ‘The Lord’s name be praised,’ was first inserted in the Prayer Book for Scotland (1637), and was placed in the English Book at the last revision in 1661, when the words Praise ye the Lord, which before, in accordance with all precedent, were said by the people, were assigned to the Priest, through the same misunderstanding which altered the preceding Gloria.

§ 3. The Invitatory and Psalmody

The 95th Psalm has been sung in the Western Church from a very remote period, before the Psalms of the first nocturn.⁶³ It has been generally termed the Invitatory Psalm. It was very possibly a new introduction by S. Benet into the services of the West, and passed from thence to the Roman office, except for the last three days of Holy Week and one or two other occasions where it still is wanting. The Invitatory was a refrain sung before it, and repeated in part, or entirely, after each verse.⁶⁴ Therefore the rubric (1549) directed Venite to be ‘said or sung without any Invitatory,’⁶⁵ and the pointing of the psalm was assimilated to the rest of the Psalter, so that it could be sung to the ordinary Psalm tones instead of its own peculiar chants.⁶⁶
 

Venite exultemus.

The Psalms follow according to the ancient custom; the changes from the mediæval services have already been explained, the chief one being that the whole Psalter is sung through ‘in course’ every month, instead of there being fixed Psalms appointed for certain services, and the remainder sung ‘in course’ every week. The Psalter thus becomes more generally known to the ordinary Sunday churchgoer, by the whole of it being used in turn in the Sunday services.

Arrangement of the Psalter.

§ 4. The Lessons and Canticles

The position which the Church gives to the reading of Scripture in the daily service commends itself to our reason. After confession and absolution, which may be called the preparation for worship, and psalmody, we are in a fit disposition to hear what God shall speak to us by His word. Two Lessons are read, one from the Old, and one from the New Testament; showing the harmony between the Law and the Gospel, and the unity of the Church under its two dispensations; the comparative darkness of the older prophetical and typical revelation being made clear by the history of the life of Jesus Christ, and preaching of His Apostles.

The ancient method of reading the Lessons has been already dealt with above, and it has been shown that the recovery of continuous Bible reading, which had been lost in the course of time from the Breviary services, was one of the main objects of the revision of the Prayer Book: while the appointment of two chapters at Morning and Evening Prayer, one from the Old, and one from the New Testament, was itself a return to primitive custom.⁶⁷
 

The Lessons.

First Lessons for Sundays.

Te Deum laudamus.

Its Author.

The following is the Latin original, taken from the printed Sarum Breviary, which gives the text in a form which modern research seems to show to be very generally correct, except in the case of the one word numerari in V.21. This has no MS. authority at all, and only appeared by mistake for munerari for the first time in the Breviary of 1491; it was, however, unfortunately accepted by the Revisers of the Prayer Book, and has left its mark there.⁷³

1 Te Deum laudamus,
    te Dominum confitemur :
2 Te æternum Patrem
    omnis terra veneratur.
3 Tibi omnes Angeli,
    tibi cœli et universes potestates,
4 Tibi Cherubin et Seraphin
    incessabili voce proclamant :
5 Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus ; Dominus Deus Sabaoth :
6 Pleni sunt cœli et terra majestatis glorire tuæ.
7 Te gloriosus Apostolorum chorus,⁷⁴
8 Te Prophetarum laudabilis numerus,
9 Te Martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus.
10 Te per orbem terrarum sancta confitetur ecclesia ;
11 Patrem immensæ majestatis ;
12 Venerandum tuum verum et unicum Filium;
13 Sanctum quoque Paraclytum Spiritum.

14 Tu Rex gloriæ Christe,⁷⁵
15 Tu Patris sempiternus es Filius.
16 Tu ad liberandum suscepturus hominem,
    non horruisti virginis uterum.
17 Tu, devicto mortis aculeo,
    aperuisti credentibus regna cœlorum.
18 Tu ad dexteram Dei sedes in gloria Patris.
19 Judex crederis esse venturus,
20 Te ergo quresumus, famulis tuis subveni,
    quos pretioso sanguine redernisti,
21 Æterna fac cum sanctis tuis
    in gloria numerari.

22 Salvum fac populum tuum Domine: et benedic hæreditati tuæ.⁷⁶
23 Et rege eos : et extolle illos usque in æternum.
24 Per singulos dies benedicimus te :
25 Et laudamus nomen tuum in sæculum et in sæculu sæculi.⁷⁷
26 Dignare Domine die isto: sine peccato nos custodire. ⁷⁸
27 Miserere nostri Domine: miserere nostri.⁷⁹
28 Fiat misericordia tua Domine super nos: quemadmodum speravimus in te.⁸⁰
29 In te Domine speravi : non confundar in æternum.

The hymn contains many phrases which are familiar from their occurrence elsewhere: a specially large part of the language is akin to the contestationes, or prefaces in Gallican liturgies.⁸¹ The verses from 22 onward do not properly form part of the hymn,⁸² but were originally suffrages⁸³ in the form of versicle and response appended to it: many of these still appear in the like relation to the Gloria in exceisis in the Eastern office⁸⁴ in a position analogous to that now held by the Te Deum in the West.⁸⁵ This suggests the possibility that originally in the West the same was the case, but that when the Gloria in excelsis was transferred to the Mass, the Te Deum. was put in to fill the vacant place at Mattins.⁸⁶

The hymn thus falls into two parts with an appendix: the first part is twofold, comprising (a) a section, analogous to the Preface and Sanctus in the liturgy, setting forth the praise of God the Father, and (b) a section which expresses the Church’s chorus of homage to the blessed Trinity; the second part commemorates, like the liturgy, the work of redemption through Christ, and bases thereon a prayer to Him for help; while the appendix contains the versicles.⁸⁷
 

They are the only portions of the kind, appointed in the English Prayer Book, which are not taken out of canonical Scripture. Benedicite is especially suitable to the first Lessons of some particular days (e. g. Septuagesima Sunday and the twenty-first Sunday after Trinity), or as a substitute for Te Deum on Sundays during Lent; but its use on week-days in Lent is no longer required by the rubric, and it is not in itself as suitable for such a position as Te Deum, which contains humble prayer as well as joyful worship.

Benedictus.

however both from the history of its appointment, and the words of the rubric, that Benedictus should always be used, ‘except when that shall happen to be read in the Chapter for the day, or for the Gospel on S. John Baptist’s day.’
 

§ 5. The Suffrages and Collects.

In the early forms of the Hour Services appropriate Collects were said at the close of each Psalm or Canticle and the service ended when the Psalmody and Lessons ended. This custom however disappeared, and perhaps by way of compensation short prayers, called Capitella, were added at the end for various purposes in the form of versicle and response. Some such prayers have already come under notice in dealing with Te Deum. Those at the end of the Gallican services formed in their old shape a developed litany of intercession and prayer, and at a later date they were combined with the, Kyrie, Lord’s Prayer and Creed, and ultimately adopted by the Roman rite.

This scheme of ‘suffrages’ was taken over from the Sarum service into the First Prayer Book, but in 1552 the Creed was taken out of this place and prefixed to the suffrages to be said aloud by all. It will be best: therefore first to deal with the Creed and then to return to the question of the suffrages.
 

Apostles’ Creed.

Nicene Creed

Public Repetition of the Nicene Creed

began in the East,

and spread through the West.

In 1549 the Creed was retained in English¹⁰⁷ among the suffrages, the rubric ordered that the priest¹⁰⁸ should say it with a loud voice, but the old treatment of the last clauses was retained in the case of the Lord’s Prayer with the usual musical inflection. In 1552 this order and method was given up in favour of that now in use. The object clearly was to gain for the Hours a public recitation of the Creed by all, similar to that prevailing in the Liturgy.¹⁰⁹
 

Till then the only profession of faith that was sung publicly in the Hour Services was the Quicunque. In the Sarum Breviary it was appointed to be sung daily at Prime after the Psalms, and before the Prayers, and, as, has been stated already, this use goes back to the VIIIth century. The later tendency has been to restrict its use. Quignon, in his reformed Breviary, appointed the Athanasian Creed on Sundays, and the Apostles Creed on weekdays.¹¹⁰ In the Tridentine Breviary it is ordered to be used on Sundays only. In the American book it is omitted altogether.¹¹¹

In 1549 the Athanasian Creed was appointed to be sung or said after Benedictus upon the six festivals of Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, and Trinity. In 1552 seven Saints’ days were added to these six festivals; so that this Confession of our Christian faith¹¹² should be used at intervals of about a month throughout the year.
 

It has already been pointed out that the suffrages were in their origin a long and developed litany of intercession. The capitella were either triple, each consisting of a bidding, followed by a versicle and response, or else duple, each consisting of a bidding and a single response. In their fullest extant Western form they contain sixteen petitions of the first type. The first is

Let us pray for every condition in the Church.
Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness,
And thy saints sing with joyfulness.

Others follow in the same form ‘for our pastors, the King, his children, our Abbat, the whole Catholic people, our brothers and sisters, for peace, for travellers by land, by sea, persecutors and slanderers, quarrelsome, penitents, almsgivers, the sick, the faithful departed,’ (with a second versicle and response), followed by four clauses ‘for our sins and negligences,’ and three ‘for our absent brethren.’¹¹⁷ Shorter collections of the same sort existed side by side with this, besides those for Prime and Compline which contained also the Apostles’ Creed. The Roman service at this period ended as it seems with Kyrie¹¹⁸ and Lord’s Prayer,¹¹⁹ and when there were appended to it such Gallican collections of the two kinds of the capitella fused together, there developed a regular type of suffrages, consisting of (i) Kyrie eleison (ii) Pater noster, (iii) more or fewer versicles and responses (the biddings of the triple capitella for uniformity’s sake being usually dropped), and finally, as the climax, (iv) a collect. This scheme reappears constantly throughout the later mediaeval services. In the Sarum Breviary two such forms were in use: (i) the schemes at Prime, and Compline, which though differing in detail were alike in outline and use; (ii) the ferial suffrages used before the collect on ferias at all the other Day-Hours.¹²⁰
 

The Lesser Litany is the prelude to the Prayer, as the Doxology in its present connexion in our service may be said to be the prelude to the Praise of the service.¹²² Being addressed to each person of the Holy Trinity, by its three clauses, it fixes the object of Christian worship. In the old Latin Offices the Greek words Kyrie eleison were retained here, as at Mass, and each clause was usually thrice repeated. The direction that the priest shall stand to say the Versicles and Collect is continued from the mediaeval rubric.¹²³ The Versicles seem to have been taken not directly from the suffrages of the Breviary, either those said daily at Prime and Compline, or those said at Lauds, the Lesser Hours, and Evensong on ferias, but rather from the following similar selection which was used in the form of ‘Bidding the Bedes,’ and was probably better known to the people at large than either of the forms in the Breviary:¹²⁴—

Ostende nobis, Domine, misericordiam tuam :
    Et salutare tuum da nobis.
Sacerdotes tui induantur justitiam:
    Et sancti tui exultent.
Domine, salvum fac regem:
    Et exaudi nos in die qua invocaverimus te.
Salvos fac serves tuos et ancillas tuas :
    Domine, Deus meus, sperantes in te.
Salvum fac populum tuum, Domine.
    Et benedic hrereditati tuæ.
Domine, fiat pax in virtute tua:
    Et abundantia in turribus tuis.
Domine, exaudi orationem meam:
    Et clamor meus ad te veniat.
Dominus vobiscum
    Et cum spiritu tuo.
Oremus.

These Versicles except the fourth and the last of the series, form our present suffrages: some alterations have been introduced from the text of the Psalms, from which they were originally taken,¹²⁵ the second and third pair have been transposed, the fifth versicle is used in the shorter of the two forms in which it appears. The idea of the sixth is kept, but in view of the collect for peace which is to follow the old antiphon which was used with it in the ‘memorial for peace’ is substituted for the regular versicle.¹²⁶ Similarly, in view of the collect for grace which is to follow, a new versicle and response is made and put in place of the Domine exaudi which in the old series paved the way for the collect, and is still retained in that position in the suffrages of Confirmation, Marriage, the Visitation of the Sick, and the Churching of Women.

A further change has been made in the method of saying the Lord’s Prayer. In pre-Reformation times the Lesser Litany was said alternately by the choir, the Lord’s Prayer was said silently and the officiant only began at the penultimate clause, which he said as the first versicle, while the choir responded with the last clause. Some part of this method was retained in 1549: the recitation of the creed as well as the Lord’s Prayer was ordered, but in a loud voice: the repetition of the final clauses in the form of a versicle and response was prescribed in the case of the Lord’s Prayer though not (as formerly) in the case of the Creed as well. The whole plan was altered in 1552.
 

The Lesser Litany.

The Versicies.

The Collects are not an ancient feature of the Hour Services: in early days each psalm was followed by private prayer, prostration, and a Collect summing up the private petitions: at a later date these disappeared and the element of prayer was represented only by the suffrages appended to the services other, than Nocturns: then the Lord’s prayer was added to these and then the Collect was borrowed from the Mass to form their close.

The Collect for the day occupies in one sense the same position in which it occurred in the unreformed offices at the end of Lauds; but in another sense its position is different, for it there formed the close of the service proper, whether preceded or not by suffrages: the Salutation and another Versicle followed and so the service ended. But, as has been stated already, on many occasions’ memorials’ were added varying from time to time. In place of these, two fixed Collects were adopted in 1549. The Collect for peace comes from the old Memorial for peace, said at the Lauds of the Blessed Virgin.¹²⁷ The third Collect is the ancient ferial Collect for Prime.¹²⁸ The relation of these to the preceding Versicles has already been explained: both of them are drawn from old Roman sources.

Collect for Peace.

§ 6. The Closing Prayers

Here the Order of Morning Prayer ended until the last revision in 1661. All the ‘five prayers’ except the second had been since 1559 appended to the Litany, and in the Prayer Book for Scotland (1637) a rubric was added after the third Collect of Morning and Evening Prayer, directing what is almost identical with our present usage.¹²⁹ And in 1661 the present rubric and the five prayers were inserted.

The anthem though not mentioned before had long been customary: it was common to sing an anthem or Antiphon after some of the services in pre-Reformation times, especially to sing one of the anthems of the Blessed Virgin after the Prayer ‘Lighten our darkness,’ which ended Compline.¹³⁰ It was natural therefore to do the like in the corresponding positions in the Prayer Book Services, and it was specially authorised by the Elizabethan Injunctions.¹³¹
 

A prayer for the kinge.

O Lorde Jesu Christe, moste high, moste mightie, kyng of kynges, lorde of lordes, the onely rular of princis, the very sonne of god, on whose ryghte hande syttyng, doest from thy throne beholde all the dwellers upon earth: with mooste lowly hertes we beseche the, vouchesafe with fauourable regard to behold our most gracious soueraigne lorde kyng Henry the Eyght, and so replenysshe hym with the grace of thy holy spiritie, that he alway incline to thy wil, and walke in thy way. Kepe hym farre of frome ignoraunce, but through thy gifte, leat prudence and knowlage alwaie abound in his royall hert. So instructe hym, (O LORD IESV) reygnyng upon us in erth, that his humaine majestie alway obey thy divyne majestie in feare and drede. Indue him plentifully with heauenly giftes. Graunt him in health and welth long to liue. Heape glorie and honoure upon hym. Glad hym with the joye of thy countenance. So strengthe hym, that he maie vanquishe and ouercome all his and our foes, and be drede and feared of al the ennemies of his realme. AMEN.

In the Prayer Books of Edward VI. this prayer was not put into the Morning and Evening Service; it was, however, placed in his reformed Primer (1553),¹³³ as ‘the fourth Collect for the King’ at Morning Prayer; another and shorter ‘Prayer for the King’ being added to the Collects ‘for Peace,’ and ‘for Aid against all Perils,’ at Evening Prayer. At the revision of the Prayer Book in the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth (1559), this prayer was altered and shortened, and together with the Prayer for the Clergy and People was placed before the ‘Prayer of Chrysostom’ at the end of the Litany.
 

The Prayer for the Royal Family was added among the Collects at the end of the Litany, in 1604; approved, if not composed, by Archbishop Whitgift,¹³⁴ and placed in the Prayer Book among the changes made by way of explanation, after the Hampton Court Conference, on the authority of James I. It was then entitled, ‘A Prayer for the Queen and Prince, and other the King and Queen’s children,’ and began with the words,—

Almighty God, which hast promised to be a Father of thine elect and of their seed, We humbly beseech thee to bless our gracious Queen Anne, Prince Henry, and all the King and Queen’s royal progeny: endue them, &c.

In the first Form of Prayers published by authority in the reign of Charles I., being a service provided for a fast-day (1625), the words ‘the fountain of all goodness’ were introduced into this prayer, and were continued in the Prayer Book published in 1627; for the plain reason that the original clause was not thought appropriate in the case of a sovereign who was at that time without issue. Afterwards (1632) the clause was replaced, and Prince Charles and the Lady Mary were mentioned in the prayer. In the following year, however, — the first year of the primacy of Laud, — the clause was again and finally removed. The inconvenience was thus avoided of continually altering the language of the prayer.¹³⁵
 

The Prayer of St. Chrysostom is found in the Liturgies of S. Basil and S. Chrysostom; the composition of it cannot be ascribed to either of those fathers, but the prayer forms part of the Byzantine Liturgy from at least the ninth century onward, and Cranmer no doubt put the heading because he took it from the Liturgy of S. Chrysostom.¹³⁷

This prayer was placed at the end of the Litany, when that service was revised by Cranmer in 1544; it seems likely that he had recourse to S. Chrysostom’s Liturgy primarily for help in drawing up the Litany; and that, finding this prayer in close connexion with the Deacon’s Litany there, he translated it and used it as the closing prayer of the English Litany.¹³⁸
 

The Latin Hour-Services ended with the Salutation 2 and a versicle and response:—

’Benedicamus domino.’  ‘Let us bless the Lord.’
‘Deo gratias.’   ‘Thanks be to God.’

To which was added in some uses a prayer for the repose of the faithful departed. These were not taken over in 1549, and the services ended abruptly: the ‘Grace’ was first added as a conclusion to service in ‘The Litany used in the Queen’s chapel’ of 1559:¹³⁹ thence it found its way as the fifth of the five prayers into the Elizabethan Prayer Book. It is found in Greek Liturgies in a very different connexion, viz., before the Sursum Corda from the fourth century onwards,¹⁴⁰ but there seems no reason to suppose that this had any connexion with its introduction into the Prayer Book here.

VI. Evening Prayer.

The order for Evening Prayer or Evensong was formed, as we have seen, upon the ancient offices of Evensong (Vespers), and Compline, but assimilated to the scheme of the Morning Prayer of the Prayer Book. No invitatory was needed, but otherwise the structure has been identical in both cases since 1552, when the opening versicle, formerly peculiar to Mattins, was prescribed for Evensong also. The Sentences, Exhortation, Confession, and Absolution were appointed, as at Mattins, in 1 552 to be said before the commencement of the older service; but this part was not printed at the beginning of Evening Prayer until the revision of 1661. The first lesson occupies the place of the, Chapter at Vespers, followed by Magnificat, which has been sung at Vespers since the time of S. Benet, who probably gave it that position.¹⁴¹ Our second Lesson occupies the place of the Chapter at Compline, which, after a hymn that is omitted, was followed by ‘The Song of Simeon’ this has been treated as a canticle from very early times,¹⁴² it has never formed part of the Benedictine Compline, and therefore its position in the secular Compline is probably subsequent to the time of S. Benet, and the tradition which ascribes its insertion to S. Gregory may be a true one.¹⁴³ The Canticles thus inserted occupy a most significant place in our service. After reading the Old Testament, we have the Song of Mary, testifying to the fulfilment of God’s promises of mercy to the fathers; and after reading the chapter from the New Testament, and there beholding how the promises were fulfilled in the propagation of the Gospel among the Gentiles, we express our readiness to receive that Gospel for ourselves, in the Song of the aged Simeon, and our faith that by so doing we shall have peace in our death, of which every night brings a type in sleep. These two canticles only were appointed in 1549. In 1552, probably for uniformity with the corresponding part of the Morning Prayer, and still retaining the ancient rule that Psalms and reading of Scripture should be alternated, the 98th and the 67th psalms were appointed’ to follow the first and second Lessons, at the discretion of the Minister, unless either of them had been read in the ordinary course of the psalms. They had not been sung among the psalms of Vespers or Compline.¹⁴⁴

The rest of the service has the same history as Mattins, except the two fixed Collects. In the old system the services began with the Evensong on the preceding night. A survival of this is found in the rubric placed before ‘The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels,’ which orders that the Collect for the following day (according to our modern reckoning) is to be said on the evening before every Sunday and any Holy Day that has a Vigil or Eve.¹⁴⁵
 

Structure as at Mattins.

 The Canticles.

The Second Collect, for Peace, is from the old Roman storehouse, and occurs in the Gelasian Sacramentary. In the Sarum Breviary-it was the fourth Collect after the Litany, as well as the Evening Memorial for peace.¹⁴⁶

The Third Collect, for Aid against all Perils, which is also in the Gelasian Sacramentary, is the invariable Collect of Compline in the Sarum Breviary.¹⁴⁷
 

The direction for an anthem properly belongs more to Evensong than to Mattins.¹⁴⁸ In the latter part of the XVIIth Century and the beginning of the XVIIIth the custom was growing up of singing a metrical psalm or hymn in parish churches at this point: the earlier custom prescribed this immediately after the Second Lesson; and the like again at Morning Prayer between the ‘First’ and ‘Second Service,’ i.e. the equivalent of the anthem or Sanctus, which was sung there ‘in quires’ in place of the old Introit.¹⁴⁹ The modern hymn has followed these, precedents, adopting the later custom in Morning and Evening Prayer: to follow this analogy is natural enough. but on liturgical and practical grounds alike the hymn, would be more suitably placed at the end of the introductory part of the service.

1 Dan. vi. 10; Ps. cxix. 62, 148; 164.

2 Acts 11. 1, 15; iii. 1; x. 3, 9, 30.

3 See the collection of passages in Pleithner, Aelteste Geschichte des Breviergebetes, or in Baumer, pp. 41 and ff. Batiffol, History of the Roman Breviary, ch. 1.
 

4 The growth of monasticism exercised a very large influence on the development, as has been already mentioned. (Above, p. 313.) At first the, ‘religious’ of both sexes, other than hermits, lived at home and went to the churches for their devotions, and thus their private prayers became joint and public prayers. Then the clergy began to take an increasing part in the Hours. Meanwhile convent life was devised, and with it came a great enlargement of the system of Hour Services: this again further affected the clergy, who were not willing to be left behind in the course of progress, but were obliged to adopt the new ideas. Thus the system became obligatory upon clergy as well as characteristic of monasticism, and ‘secular’ schemes took their place side by side with monastic schemes of service, and derived from them, while the old rudimentary services of the clergy, such as are traceable, e.g, in the Hippolytean Canons, disappeared.

5 The exact line of connexion between the occasional vigil and the daily vigil cannot be very exactly traced, but it seems to have been due to these influences.

6 The whole of this history is very obscure, and most of these questions, such as the mutual relationship of secular and monastic services, as they in turn influenced one another, afford plenty of scope for conjectures, but very little for statements of established fact.

7 Cassian mentions the establishment at Bethlehem of a novelty in the shape of a service at the first hour (Instit. Canob. I. iv. Migne P. L. xlix. 126), but this does not seem to have really been the progenitor of the later service of Prime, though from the similarity of name and time it has often been so taken.
 

8 The structure is altered at special times by omission or addition: such alterations need not now be taken into account.

9 See above, p. 314.

10 See the specimen given above on pp. 257-268, containing the Hour Services for the first Sunday in Advent from the Sarum Breviary (ed. Seager, 1842).

11 Prime and Compline do not vary the Capitulum from time to time, but have a fixed Chapter and a fixed Collect.
 

12 But Mattins and Compline had an additional opening versicle,

13 This versicle was afterwards looked upon as introductory to Lauds, but this seems to have been I due to a misunderstanding.

14 See below, pp. 386, 392 and ff.
 

16 See above, Chapter II.

17 The Draft is printed in Gasquet and Bishop, Appendix II.

18 The seven services of the Latin Breviary were habitually, at this time, said in two groups, so that the custom of praying actually seven times a day no longer was in general use among the secular clergy. Hence this action of Cranmer was an innovation in appearance more than in reality. The Lutherans had experimented in the same way. and had already adopted schemes of daily service derived from the Latin by a similar plan to that which Cranmer adopted. Jacobs, p. 245, and Pullan, p. 160; and cp. above, p. 90.
 

20 The introductory versicle Domine labia which had been peculiar to Mattins was prefixed to Evensong in 1552, and so the uniformity was made complete.

21 It is important to observe that though, historically speaking, the structure of the Prayer Book Service is derived from the Breviary Service, yet for all practical purposes the structure of the derived English service, as it stands, is entirely different from that of the Latin services from which it was derived. A single example will make this clear: the Latin Vespers and Compline each of them work up to a Gospel canticle as the definite climax of the service, and this crescendo is the structural secret of each: but when these are combined in the English Evensong the climax is gone, the crescendo ceases, and the clue to the structure of the service must be sought elsewhere. It is, in fact, more analogous to the old Vigil service, with its alternating lessons and chants, or to the mediaeval Nocturns, than to its own immediate forbears.
 

22 Above, p. 73. Cp. Hooper’s sentiment expressed in his fourth sermon on Jonah in 1550. Early Writings, pp. 492, 493·

23 Some seem to have made alterations without waiting for the direction of the ordinary: in 1564 Cecil complained of these irregularities; that some said service in the chancel, others in the body of the church, some in a seat made in the church, some in the pulpit, with their faces to the people. Strype, Parker, p. 152.

24 Printed in Perry, Lawful Church Ornaments, p. 276.

25 Doc. Ann. LXV. p. 325.
 

26 Parkhurst’s Articles of Visitation for the Diocese of Norwich (1569). This is the first mention that we find made of a reading pew. Second Report of Ritual Commission, p. 404.

27 Canons (1603) 14 and 82.
 

28 Fourth rubric before the Communion Office (1549)·

29 Very few of these vestments except the alb and its girdle, the chasuble, stole and dalmatic go back to early times in the history of the Church. Surplices and hoods date only from the later middle ages: the rochet is a still later variant of the surplice. The chimere, which is now worn by Bishops with the rochet, was not worn in church till after the Reformation, but was the out-door walking dress of the bishop. The cope went through the same transformation at an earlier date and passed from being a protection against rain (pluviale) or cold to being an ecclesiastical vestment. The alb worn with a chasuble, a dalmatic or a tunicle comes direct from the ordinary dress of the Roman empire: the stole is a scarf of honour worn as an addition to it: the maniple represents an original handkerchief: the amice was probably introduced about the eighth century when vestments became much ornamented and a protection was needed round the neck; at a later period it was made also to serve as a head covering. The mitre began as a specially episcopal headdress in Rome in the Xth century. The black scarf or tippet was worn out of doors, by bishops with their rochet (and chimere), by priests with their gown and square cap. A false line of evolution has produced out of this a black or coloured ‘stole’ so-called, but worn not as a stole but as a scarf, with some spurious points of assimilation to the old use of the stole. If this garment is a stole, it is no more and no less legal than a chasuble, and it should not be worn at Mattins or Evensong. If it is a scarf, or tippet, it has a place of its own as the dress which is now prescribed for the minister by Canons 58 and 74, but it should not be worn deaconwise.
    See for the question of vestments generally Duchesne, Origines, ch. xi. ; Braun, Die priesterlichen Gewänder and Die pontificalen Gewänder; Macalister, Ecclesiastical Vestments; Dearmer, Parson’s Handbook, pp. 79 and ff.; St. Paul’s Eccles. Soc. Trans. IV. 181 and ff., for the chimere; cp. IV. 128 and iii. 41.

30 Second General Rubric before Morning Prayer (1552).
 

31 The traditional view refers the words to the First Prayer Book; but this was not in fact in use by authority of parliament till the third year of the reign. But the Uniformity Act of 1552 spoke of the Act of 1549 as ‘made in the second year,’ and other instances of a similar laxity of expression can be found in acts of parliament (Guardian for 1899, p. 695). On the other hand the clause on the face of it points to a certain year — the year before the introduction of the Prayer Book; it was so understood at the time by Sandys (Parker Corr. p. 65); and Queen Mary’s Act (I Mary, Sess. 2, c. 2) in the same way referred to a year and not to any book. The objection to this view is the difficulty which besets it of finding an adequate interpretation for the words by the authority of Parliament. The traditional view seems the more probable; the Act of 1559 merely copied the mistake of 1552 and so the error went on. But the rubric, even if it refers to the Book and not the year, covers more ornaments than the few expressly mentioned in the First Prayer Book. Such an admission must be made, unless it is contended that not only minor things such as cushions, hassocks, &c., but also greater things, such as organs or even the usual episcopal dress, are illegal. Which is absurd. See further on this subject below, p. 367.

32 Strype does not seem to have been justified in saying that Cranmer in 1550 wore his mitre at Ponet’s consecration (Cranmer, 253), but it is clear that other ornaments than those specified were used with the First Prayer Book. Thus the distinction is of little legal value, and in either case, ornaments other than those mentioned in the First Book must be recognized as legal.

33 Some were retained in use for a time, such as the grey almuces, which, though not mentioned in the First Prayer Book and actually given up in 1549, were retained for some time in Elizabeth’s reign in face of Puritan complaints, and were in use until prohibited by Canon 4 of 1571.

34 See above, p. 105.

35 Doc. Ann. i. p. 238.

36 Doc. Ann. LXV.

37 Canon XXIV. Previous Canons had also quoted them, but in those published with the authority of Queen Elizabeth (1575) the quotation was cut out before the publication was authorised. Cp. the case of the 4th Article of 1584. Selborne, Liturgy of the Church of England, p. 25.
 

38 See above, pp. 109, 141.

39 Nor was the practice of the Church altered: chasubles had not in fact been worn between 1560 and 1566, though prescribed. Only thenceforward the surplice and cope were more stringently enforced. But see Zurich Letters, II. ii. 77, where Beza in 1566 complains of chasubles.

40 It must be added, however, against this argument that Elizabeth herself bears witness to another and earlier formal use of this authority, viz. in the Orders appended to her Injunctions of 1559 on the questions of the position of the Holy Table and of the use of wafer-bread. See Parker’s Letter to Cecil, Jan.8, 1578, in Parker Corr., p. 375. This has an important bearing upon the case, and hitherto it does not seem to have been taken into account as it deserves to be from this point of view, though it is a familiar point in the arguments as to the legality of wafer-bread. See below, p. 500.
 

41 Hebbert v. Purchas, 1871, and Ridsdale v. Clifton, 1877.

42 See Lord Selborne’s Liturgy of the English Church, pp. 12-28, in defence of the Judgment, and Parker’s reply Did Q. Elizabeth take ‘other order’ in the Advertisements of 1566? And for a recent discussion of the whole question, Talbot, Ritual, ch. III. Valuable information is collected in Tomlinson, Prayer Book, Articles and Homilies, ch. IV.

43 This view is that supported in Alcuin Club Tract, No. I, Micklethwaite’s Ornaments of the Rubric; the enquiry is there made and a detailed list given of the Ornaments which from that point of view are covered by the rubric.
 

44 Episcopal sanction is now given to many things to which formerly it was refused, and even the Church Courts and the Privy Council have Come in time to declare legal some ornaments which previously they had declared illegal, such as a credence table. altar-cross, and coloured altar-cloths.

45 Some ornaments have been sanctioned which certainly are not covered by either view of the rubric, such as altar vases and hanging censers; and on the other hand chancel gates, which are expressly mentioned in the First Prayer Book, have been disallowed.

46 See above, pp. 86 and ff.

47 The followers of Calvin never lost an opportunity, especially in such a form as a confession, of tracing our actual sins to the original corruption of our nature; see the confession, above, p. 87, This notion is carefully avoided in our forms of prayer. Other expressions are introduced, which are contrary to the Calvinistic theory, such as the plea for mercy in our confession, by reason of the promises of God declared unto mankind by Jesus Christ; and the declaration of the Divine mercy in the Absolution, — who desireth not the death of a sinner. S Laurence, Bampt. Lect. Notes, pp. 268 and ff. and 374.
 

48 Cp. Hermann’s Consultation, fol. cc. ‘It is agreeable to religion that, as often as we appear before the Lord, before all things we should acknowledge and confess our sins, and pray for remission of the same.’

49 Comber, Companion to the Temple, I. 1.

50 In the American Prayer Book three additional Sentences (Hab. ii. 20; Mal. i. II.; Ps. xix. 14, 15) were appointed in 1792: and in 1889 others were added; differing for Morning and Evening Prayer, and most of them adapted to special seasons of the Christian year.
 

52 In some Prayer Books it is, The Declaration of Absolution, or — as to the Forgiveness of Sins.

53 But not the direction, also given there, that he should turn to the people.

54 The present practice arose in Elizabeth’s time (1559), from the necessity of supplying some service to churches which had no parish priest, when not only deacons but even some laymen were licensed by the bishops to read the service. See the Articles, or promises subscribed by Readers, Strype, Annals, I. 151; Cardwell, Doc. Ann. I. p. 302, note. Lay-readers were gradually discontinued; but the public ministration of deacons became a general custom, and was recognised by the Act of Uniformity of Charles II., which ordered (§ 22) that, when any Sermon or Lecture is to be preached, the Common Prayers and Service appointed for that time of day shall be openly read by some priest or deacon.
 

55 The division at this point is not the best structural division; the old service proper does not begin till the first versicle: there are now prefixed to it new English preparatory devotions as well as the older Latin private devotion of the Lord’s Prayer. The real line to be drawn is after the Lord’s Prayer, not before it, if it really is to help to define the structure. The Lord’s Prayer is not an integral part of the Office here; the Lord’s Prayer which really belongs to the service is the later one which follows the Lesser Litany. See below, p. 393. The old traditional musical use confirms this real structural division, but of late years a bad custom has arisen of beginning the singing and monotone before the versicle, ‘0 Lord, open Thou our lips’: this not only obscures the structural division but is in itself ridiculously out of harmony with the general meaning of the words.

56 Vita, cap. 8, in Acta SS. Feb. 12 (iv. 618).

57 This use was introduced into Quignon’s Breviary (1535), and into the Roman in 1568.
 

58 Some ancient English versions, from the thirteenth century to 1538, are printed in Maskell’s Appendix to the Prymer, Mon. Rit. II. 238 [III. 248]. All omit the Doxology, according to the constant use of the Latin Church. It was inserted in a quarto edition of the Prayer Book in 1630, and in the Prayer Book for Scotland (1637). The form used in the Greek Church is:— “Οτι σου εστιν ‘η βασιλεια, και ‘η δυναμις, και ‘η δοξα, του Πατρος, και του Υιου, και του Αγιου Πνευματος, νυν, και αει, και εις τους αιωνας των αιωνων. ‘Αμην. Horologion, p. 1.

59 It is used so in the Mozarabic rite.

60 Baumer, pp. 259, 260. Cp. the Regularis Concordia of S. Ethelwold, cap. i. in Migne P.L. CXXXVII. 479 (attributed to S. Dunstan), or better in Anglia, XIII. 378. ed. Logeman.

61 Ad Matutinas dicat sacerdos Pater noster, et Ave Maria.
    Postea sacerdos incipiat servitium hoc modo, Domine, labia mea aperies,
    Chorus respondeat, Et os meum annuntiabit laudem tuam.
    Sacerdos statim, Deus in adjutorium meum intende.
    Resp. Domine ad adjuvandum me festina.
    Gloria Patri. Sicut. Alleluia, But from Septuagesima to Easter, Laus tibi domine rex æternæ gloriæ.

62 In the Western Church Alleluia is laid aside in penitential seasons. The Greek Church uses it not only on days of gladness, but more constantly on occasions of mourning and fasting, and burials.
 

63 Strictly, perhaps, the portion to the end of the invitatories was regarded as introductory to the service. It is probable that the custom of prefixing one or two psalms to the Nocturnal Office was also connected with the desire to allow some little time for the clergy and people to collect, before the office began. S. Benedict (Regula, ix. xliii) appointed two psalms, the second being the Venite. Baumer 173. At Rome it was at first sung only on Sundays when the laity attended. Grancolas Comment. in Rom. Brev. I. 27.

64 The Venite represents the old responsorial method of psalmody: the psalm was sung by solo voices, the choir only sang the Invitatory, repeating it in full after the odd verses but only the second part of it after the even verses. See Sarum Brev. I. 18: and for a specimen printed out in full, Dowden Workmanship, p. 61. And compare additional note on p. 345.

65 In the rubric preceding Venite there is an instance of confusion between the ecclesiastical terms, reading, saying, and singing, which is found in other rubrics, which belong partly to the earlier Prayer Books, and partly to the last revision. At that time the phrase ‘to read prayers’ was coming into use — probably to distinguish the settled prayers of the Church from the extemporaneous effusions of Dissenters. See the rubric before the Prayer for the King’s Majesty (Morning Prayer), which belongs to this period; ‘Then these five Prayers following are to be read here, except when the Litany is read, &c.’ See also the rubric before the Apostles’ Creed; ‘Then shall be sung or said . . . except only such days as the Creed of S. Athanasius is appointed to be read:’ the latter part of this rubric was added in 1661. To say, however, does not necessarily mean to intone; a rubric of the Marriage Service, until the last revision, directed, ‘Then shall be said a sermon.’ The distinction intended by the rubrics is that which has been recognised since 1549, between ‘choirs and places where they sing,’ — churches where there are choral establishments, and where the service is chanted, — and ordinary churches, ‘where there be no clerks,’ and where the service is read. But in each case the XIVth Canon (1603) directs that the Common Prayer be ‘said or sung distinctly and reverently.’ See Robertson, How to Conform, pp. 139 and ff. ‘Cantare missam priscorum phrasi illi dicebantur, qui sine cantu et privatim celebrabant:’ Card. Bona, Rerum Liturgicarum, I. xiii. 5.

66 For these see the Tonal in Frere, Use of Sarum, vol. 11. Appendix. In the American Book the Venite consists of the first seven verses of Ps, xcv, with .Ps. xcvi, 9 and 13.
 

67 S. Justin Martyr shows that at the Eucharist in the second century ‘the writings of the Prophets and Apostles’ were read. Apol. § 67 ; see p. 507. And for the Early Hour Services cp. Cassian, Inst. Cœnob. II. 6: ‘quibus [psalmis] lectiones geminas adjungentes, id est unam veteris et aliam novi Testamenti. . . .’

68 Hieron. Prologus in Libros Salomonis, Opp, vol. I. p. 692, eel. Paris, 1624. See the Sixth Article, and Gibson’s commentary on it in The Thirty-nine Articles.

69 In all editions of the Prayer Book up to 1661, directions had been given as to the singing of the Lessons at the Morning and Evening Prayer and of the Epistle and Gospel at the Eucharist. These were then omitted partly perhaps because of Puritan objections (see p. 65) but more probably because the traditional method had been forgotten. No directions are given in either Clifford’s ‘Brief directions’, prefixed to his book The Divine Services, or in Edward Lowe’s Short Directions, which are the two books which carried over the Cathedral traditions to the Restoration period; and Bishop Wren records that the Lessons, Epistle and Gospel were in his day nowhere sung. Fragm. Illust. 58.
 

70 Chrysost. Hom. VII. ad Pop. Antioch. Opp, II. p. 100, ed. Par. 1838. Migne P. G. XLIX. 92. It is still so read in the Byzantine, Ambrosian, and Mozarabic rites.

71 There can be no difficulty in determining what should be read on Holy Days when they fall in the week. For the fixed festivals (e.g. Circumcision, Epiphany, &c.) no Lessons are appointed in the Kalendar; and therefore on those days, and likewise on the moveable festivals and fasts (such as Holy Week, Ascension Day, &c.), reference must be made to the Table of Lessons proper for Holy Days. But when a saint’s day falls on a Sunday, the case technically known as ‘occurrence,’ the precedence may be regulated by the table given above, p. 346.
 

72 The Benedictus es domine, the Mozarabic form of Benedicite, is sung daily in Lent according to that use.

73 There is also an important variation in verse 16, Tu ad liberandum mundum suscepisti hominem : but this is now recognised to be probably an Irish emendation.

74 Cp. S. Cyprian. De Mortalitate, c. 26 (ed. Hartel, I. 313): Illic apostolorum gloriosus chorus: illic prophetarum exultantium numerus: illic martyrum innumerabilis populus ... ‘
 

75 See Wordsworth, Te Deum (S.P.C.K.)

76 From Ps, xxvii. 9 (Vulgate).

77 (24, 25) Ps. cxliv. 2. The first of the versicles after the Δοξα εν υψιστοις — Καθ εκαστην ημεραν ευλογησω σε, και αινεσω το ονομα σου εις τον αιωνα και εις τον αιωνα του αιωνος. Horoiogion, p. 70.

78 (26) The second Greek versicle: — Καταξιωσον Κυριε, εν τη ημερα ταντη αναμαρτητους φυλαχθηνας ημας.

79 (27) Ps. cxxii. 3.

80 (28) Ps. xxxii. 22. The fourth Greek versicle : — Γενοιτο ,Κυριε το ελεος σου εφ’ ημας, καθαπερ ηλπισαμεν επι σε.
 

81 See Burn, Introduction to the Creeds, pp. 265-272.

82 Some MSS. indeed do not contain them, and the fact is confirmed by the evidence of literary style (see Burn, pp. 248 and ff.), and of the music, which ended at the same point. (See Dict. Hymn. 1131.)

83 For the history of suffrages, see below, pp. 386 and 392.

84 This has been a morning hymn since the fourth century. See Apost. Const, vii. 47, and Pseudo-Athanasius De virginitate, 20: Migne, P.G. XXXVIII. 275.

85 These verses from the Psalms are taken from S. Jerome’s revision, which came into use in Gaul about the end of the fourth century. This makes the beginning of the fifth century the earliest date for these additions. In the body of the hymn it is the pre-Hieronymian version which is quoted, e.g. verse 17 aculeo not stimulo in 1. Cor xv, 55·

86 Cesarius prescribes both Te Deum and Gloria in excelsis with its capitellum or versicle. Regula ad mono xxi. in Migne P. L. LXVII. 1162, and fuller provision in the Regula xi. printed in Acta SS. Jan. 12.

87 For the whole subject see Burn, l. c. chapter xi. Dowden, Workmanship, ch. vii.

88 Pseudo-Athanasius, De Virginitate, l.c, Ruffin. Adv. Hieron. Lib. II. inter Opp. Hieron. (IX. p. 155, B. ed. Paris, 1623) IV. 448, ed. Bened. Paris, 1706; Chrysost. Quod nemo læditur, xvi. Migne, P. G. LI. 477.

89 Cyprian. De Orat. Dam. § 34. (ed. Hartel, i. 292); Chrysost. Hom. IV. ad. Pop. Ant. § 3; τας ιερας εκεινας ανεπεμπον ευχας. Migne, P. G. XLIX. 63. Jerome and Theodoret expound it : Ruffinus (sup. l. c. is very severe upon Jerome for denying its canonicity.
 

92 Called from the first word, Credo, in the Latin Church, as the Lord’s Prayer was called Paternoster, and the Psalms were known by the opening words. The legend that the Apostles, before they separated from Jerusalem, compiled the Creed called by their name, each one contributing a clause, may be dismissed from serious history. It first appears in Pirminius, a Frankish Bishop of the middle of the eighth century: but the general statement, that the Creed is a body of doctrine collected by the Apostles, is as old as the fourth century. The Creed is also called συμβαλον, symbolum — a proof of authenticity, or mark of recognition, as a seal-ring, a, watchword — the proof of orthodoxy: — some have derived this name from the legend above-mentioned (quasi συμβαλη, collatio), as the joint contribution of the Apostles, or as the sum of the Scriptural narrative (Cassian, De Incarn. Lib. VI. c. 3). See for this and for the whole subject Burn’s Introduction to the Creeds, pp, 282 and ff. and passim, and Sanday in Journ. Theol. Stud. I. 3.

93 Acts viii. 37. The passage is an interpolation, but it shows that a baptismal confession of faith was the practice of the early Church. ‘

94 Apology (Camb. Texts and Studies), p. 25.

95 Iren. Adv. Hær. I. c. 10.

96 Tertull. De Præscript. adv. Hæreticos, 13. Burn, pp. 35 and ff.

97 This Commentary of Rufiinus is printed in Heurtley De Fide et Symbolo, pp, 121 and ff., with many others of the ancient forms of Creed.

98 See Gibson, Articles No. VIII. for a good account of the Creeds.
 

99 Baumer, 254.

100 Theodor. Lector. Hist. Lib. II. Πετρον φησι τον κναφεα . . . εν παση ουναξει το συμβαλον λεγεσθαι.

101 Ibid. p. 578: Τιμοθεος το των τριακοσιων δεκα και οκτω πατερων της πιστεως συμβαλον καθ’ εκαστην συναξιν λεγεσθαι παρεσκευασεν.

102 Concil. Tolet. III. cap. 2 (Mansi, IX. 993): ‘Constituit synodus, ut per omnes ecclesias Hispaniæ, vel Gallæciæ, secundum formam Orientalium Ecclesiarum, concilii Constantinopolitani, hoc est centum quinquaginta episcoporum symbolum fidei recitetur: ut priusquam dominica dicatur oratio, voce clara a populo decantetur; quo et fides vera manifestum testimonium habeat, et ad Christi corpus et sanguinem prælibandum pectora populorum fide purificata accedant.’ It will be noted that it is the Cyrillian formula, now called Nicene, but then called Constantinopolitan, which was adopted, not the Creed of the 318 Fathers of Nicæa, which seems never to have been used liturgically in the West, though well-known and actually recited as Nicene at Toledo. Gibson, Articles, I. 251. Cp. Bruns, i. 213.

103 This position was also ordered by the Emperor Justinian in 568, and is probably the original position in East as well as West. Burn, 114.

104 Walafrid Strabo, De Exordiis, xxiii. (ed. Knopfler, p. 62), but xxii. in Hittorp (Paris, 1624), col. 682.

105 Berno, De quibusdam rebus, II. in Hittorp, col. 701. Migne P. L. cxlii, 1060.
 

106 Thomson, Select Monuments, 142, 202; Durham Rituale (Surtees Soc.), 166, 181.

107 See English versions of the Creed, belonging to the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, in Maskell, Mon. Rit. II. pp. 240 and ff. [III. pp. 251 and ff.]. And Dowden, Workmanship, pp. 95 and ff.

108 The rubric in Merbecke is The quere with the priest, followed by the Creed in full: — Ι believe in God . . . everlasting. Then, Our Father . . . against us, Priest: And lead us not into temptation. Answer. But deliver us from evil. Amen.

109 In the American book permission is given, to use the words, ‘He went into the place of departed spirits,’ instead of ‘He descended into hell.’

110 Brev. Quignon., pp. 3, 24.

111 And the Nicene Creed may be said in place of the Apostles’ Creed at Morning or Evening Prayer.
 

112 The addition, commonly called the Creed of St. Athanasius, was made in 1661, and also the explicit directions that it was to be said instead of the Apostles’ Creed, and by the Minister and people standing.

113 For the Sarum rules for turning to the East, see Frere, Use of Sarum, I. xvii. (13). The true survivals of the old ways are the turning for the Gloria patri and the Gloria in excelsis. Hierurg. Angl. 59, 366. There is less reason for turning at the Nicene Creed than at the Apostles’ Creed, and none at all for turning at the Quicumque.

114 Cp. Bingham, Antiq. XIII. 8, § 15.
 

115 See Ellicott and Lightfoot’s notes on Phil. ii. 10.

116 ‘When in time of Divine Service the Lord Jesus shall be mentioned, due and lowly reverence shall be done by all persons present, as it hath been accustomed, testifying by these outward ceremonies and gestures their inward humility, .Christian resolution, and due acknowledgment that the Lord Jesus Christ, the true and eternal Son of God, is the only Saviour of the world, in whom alone all the mercies, graces, and promises of God to mankind, for this life and the life to come, are fully and wholly comprised.’ The same order was given in Queen Elizabeth’s Injunction LII. (1559): Cardwell, Doc. Ann. XLIII. § 52.

117 From a Rheims Psalter (882-885) at Corpus Christi Coil. Camb, MS. 272, printed with additions from other sources in Bäumer, p.611.

118 This expression was in its origin heathen. Arrian in the second century (Comment. Epicteti ii. 7) says, ‘τον θεον επικαλουμενοι δεομεθα αθτου, Κυριε ελεησον, επιστρεψον μοι εξελθιον.’ Evidence for its Christian use does not appear till the IVth century and then at the Liturgy and in the East: Apost. Const. VIII. 6, i.e. the Ektene (see below, p. 407) and Peregr. Silv. xxiv, 5. It was spreading from Rome through the West in connexion with the Hours also early in the VIth century. See Council of Vaison, Canon III. (529), Bruns, ii. 184. The Gallican Rule of Aurelian (c. 550) (Migne, P. L., LXVIII. 93) agreed with the Italian Rule of S. Benet in prescribing it, and made an advance upon previous regulations since it prescribed Kyrie, not only at Evensong, Mass, and Lauds, but at all the Hours. All this suggests that the Kyrie was somewhat of a novelty, and that its introduction to the West was probably not anterior to the middle of the Vth century. See Kyrie eleison, by Edm. Bishop (reprinted from the Downside Review, Dec. 1899, and March, 1900); also Baumer, 128, 154.

119 Joh. Diaconus, De Ecclesia Laterauensi, vii. Migne P. L. CXCIV. The addition of the collect from the Mass was of later date. See below, p. 396.
 

120 Bishop, l. c., p. 15.

121 Cp. Ruth, ii. 4; John, xx. 19, 26. The Greek form is, Ειρηνη πασι. Και μετα πνεςματος σου. See Chrysost. Hom. III. in Coloss. Migne, P. G. LXXII. 322.

122 Historically speaking, its rationale is something quite different. See above, p. 393.

123 The officiant stood up only for the latter part of the ferial suffrages and for the Collect: at other times, when the ferial suffrages were not used, everyone remained standing till the end of the service and there was no kneeling. The words introduced into the rubric of 1661, all kneeling, refer not to the officiant but to the people: they are not inserted in the similar position at Evening Prayer. Such directions for the people were necessitated by the breach of tradition caused through the Great Rebellion and the suppression of the Prayer Book. Cp. p. 583.

124 Sarum Processions (Ed, Wordsworth), p. 23. Maskell, Mon. Rit. III. 342 [402].
 

125 Ps. lxxxv. 7 , xx. 9; cxxxii. 9; xxviii. 9; li. 10, 11.

126 Maskell’s Prymer (circ. 1400), Mon. Rit. II. p. 35 [III. 38]. King’s Primer (1545), p. 469, ed. Burton. The connexion between this petition and its response is not very obvious at first sight: the former evidently supposes a state of war (and war seldom ceased in the rude times in which this antiphon was framed); while the latter implies that God alone can give the victory which will secure peace as its result. The American Prayer Book formerly omitted all but the first and the last pairs, but the recent revision has replaced all these Versicles in the Evening Prayer, giving a new response to the petition for peace,— ‘For it is Thou, Lord, only that makest us dwell in safety.’ The Commissioners of 1689 proposed to substitute for this response ‘an answer promissory of somewhat on the people’s part of keeping God’s laws or the like, the old response being grounded on the predestinating doctrine taken in too strict an acceptation.’ See above, p. 209, and Cardwell, Conferences, p. 431.
 

127 ‘Deus auctor pacis et amator, quem nosse vivere, cui servire regnare est: protege ab omnibus impugnationibus supplices tuos: ut qui in defensione tua confidimus, nullius hostilitatis arma timeamus, Per.’ Brev. Sar. i. II.

128 See the original of this, with the rest of the service above, p. 265.

129 ‘After this Collect ended, followeth the Litany: and if the Litany be not appointed to be said or sung that morning, then shall next be said the Prayer for the King’s Majesty, with the rest of the prayers following at the end of the Litany, and the Benediction.’

130 See Use of Sarum, ii. 234, 235.

131 Injunction XLIX. See above p. 106.

132 One of these books is entitled ‘Psalmes or Prayers taken out of holye Scripture:’ the date on the title-page being 1545 (though the border contains the date 1534), and that in the colophon being July 2, 1545· The book consists of xv. ‘psalms,’ made up of selected passages from the Psalms and other parts of Scripture; at the end these are called ‘Finis xv. Psalmorum,’ thus in appearance being intended as a devotional substitute for the ‘xv. Psalms’ of the Primer. After this come the xxiind and the cth Psalms; and then follow ‘A prayer for the kynge,’ and ‘A prayer for men to saie entryng into battaile.’
    The other book containing this prayer is entitled, Prayers or Medytacions, wherein the mynd is stirred paciently to suffre all afflictions here, to set at nought the vayne prosperitee of this worlde, and alwaie to longe for the everlastynge felicitee: Collected out of holy woorks by the most vertuous and graciouse Princesse Katherine, quene of Englande, Fraunce, and Irelande. Anno dni. 1545. The colophon states that this volume was printed by Berthelet, Nov. 6, 1545. The first portion, containing Queen Katherine’s prayers, is a series of devotional sentences: after which comes this prayer for the King: then the prayer for men to say entering into battle: then ‘A devoute praier to be daidy saied,’ ‘An other prayer,’ and ‘A devoute praier.’
    These two books are bound up together with the Henrician Litany of May 27, 1544 (above, p. 32), in Bodleian Libr. Douce B. 231. Later on the Edwardine editions kept the old title page but altered the colophon and its date.
 

133 At the end of the Primer (1553) were also placed ‘Sundry Godly Prayers for divers purposes; the first and second being the Collects for the King from the Communion Service, and the third being also a Prayer for the King, taken from Becon’s Flower of Godly Prayers, p. 19 (ed. Parker Soc.).

134 Cardwell, Conferences, p. 235.
 

135 Laud’s enemies tried to hatch up out of this a charge against him of meaning to strike a sly blow at Calvinism. It was also urged against the archbishop, that political motives had caused him to omit the names of the Prince Elector Palatine and the Lady Elizabeth his wife,’ after 1632, when in fact other names were introduced of princes more nearly connected with the throne, and the general expression, ‘The Royal Family,’ was added to include all the remoter branches. Cardwell, Conferences, p. 234.

136 ‘Omnipotens sempiterne deus, qui facis mirabilia magna solus, prætende superfamulos tuos pontifices et super cunctas congregationes illis commissas spiritum gratiæ salutaris, et ut in veritate tibi complaceant perpetuum eis rorem ture benediction is infunde. Per.’ There has thus been an English version of it in the Primer since the fourteenth century: Maskell, II. p. 107 [III. 111]. It was somewhat altered in the Prayer Book for Scotland (1637); being entitled, ‘A Prayer for the holy clergy,’ and commencing, ‘Almighty and everlasting God, who only workest great and marvellous things: Send down upon our Bishops, Presbyters and Curates, &c.’ In the American Prayer Book the language was again altered, ‘Almighty and everlasting God, from whom cometh every good and perfect gift; Send down upon our Bishops and other Clergy, and upon the Congregations, &c.’

137 It is the Prayer of the third Antiphon (Ευχη ‘Αντιφονου γ’), after the Deacon’s Litany in the Missa Catechumenorum, and before The Little Entrance: Euchologion, pp. 49, 77 (Venice, 1862); Neale’s Liturgies, p. 118. See Brightman, Liturgies Eastern and Western, I. 317, 367.

138 Dowden, Workmanship, pp. 147, 227-229.
 

139 Liturg. Services of Elizabeth, p. 17 (Parker Soc.). It is not printed in all the editions of the Prayer Book of that year. Ibid. pp. 75 and ff.

140 Liturgy of Apost. Const., Brightman, L. E. W., p. 14.
 

141 In the Eastern Church Magnificat is among the Morning Canticles; and one of the earliest traces we have of it in the West is in the Lauds Office of Aurelian (circa 540), Regula, Migne, P. L. lxviii. 393,

142 Const. Apost. vii. 49. See also the practice of Nilus as described in Pitra, Juris eccl. Græc. 1. 220, § 17.

143 The Regularis Concordia shows that the Winchester monks used it on the days in the year when they said the secular office, cap. v. (ed. Logeman, in Anglia, XIII. p. 430.)

144 In the American book another alternative is added, made up of Ps. CIII. 1-4. 20-22.
 

145 A Vigil is a fast-day preceding a feast: an Eve is not necessarily a fast.

146 ‘Deus a quo sancta desideria, recta consilia et justa sunt opera: da servis tuis illam quam mundus dare non potest pacem: ut et corda nostra mandaris tuis dedita, et, hostium sublata formidine, tempera sint tua protectione tranquilla: Per.’ Brev. Sar. i. II; ii.254.

147 See the original Latin, p. 268. In the American Prayer Book this Collect was altered thus: ‘O Lord, our heavenly Father, by whose Almighty power we have been preserved this day; By thy great mercy defend us from all perils, &c.’ The English form is restored in the late revision in 1886. A rubric follows: — The Minister may here end the Evening Prayer with such Prayer, or Prayers, taken out of this Book, as he shall think fit.
 

148 See above, p. 397.

149 Bisse, Beauty of Holiness, 95, 125.