GOD

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LORD, bowe thin eere.

L

cui

tions of the Horæ appoint the following: as the rubric of the first has it, In trigintalibus. "Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, nunquam sine spe misericordiæ supplicatur: propitiare animæ famuli tui, vel, famulæ tuæ. N. ut qui vel quæ de hac vita in tui nominis confessione decessit: sanctorum tuorum numero facias aggregari."

Thus rendered in the Prymer of 1538. &c.

"Almyghty eternall god, to whome there is neuer any prayoure made, without hope of forgyuenes, be mercyfull to the soule of thy seruaunt. N. that, seynge it departyd from this lyfe in the confessyon of thy name, thou wilt cause it to be associate to the company of thy sayntes."

Whiche lyuest and

The English is the same in the Prymer of 1545: but another Latin version: as also with the two other Collects not omitted.

65 Pro Episcopis defunctis. Rubr. Sar. Brev. Omitted in the King's Prymer: nor is it in the Cambridge MS.

66 Suscipe. " Admytte" in the later books.

67 Pro fratribus et sororibus ad laudes. Rubr. Brev. Sar. Vide this, p. 119.

68 Deinde dicatur oratio pro

familiaribus privatim ad placitum, quibus dictis sequatur oratio generalis in audientia. Rubr. Brev. Sar.

09 Tue redemptionis facias esse participes.

70 The editions do not always appoint this and instead of it, in the King's Prymer, is to be said: "God haue mercy on all christen solles."

At the end of this Office in many editions of the Horæ and Prymers, is this rubric:

"Thys Psalme folowinge is to be sayd bytwene alhalountyde and Easter." Or as it is in the Latin books: "In feriis inter festum animarum et pascha." Then follows the cxlj. Psalm, succeeded by this prayer and re

sponse:

"To the holy and indivisible Trynite, to the humanyte of Iesu Chryste crucyfied, glorye infynite be gyuen of euery creature worlde

without ende. So be it.

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Blessyd be the swete name of our lorde Jesu Christe, and of the gloryous virgyn Mary his mother, for euermore." Edit. 1528. 1543. &c. This is not in the Prymers set forth by Queen Mary.

It seems necessary to add that sometimes another prayer is inserted: which I shall transcribe.

Oratio. Domine Jesu Christe, salus et liberatio fidelium animarum, qui non venisti animas perdere sed salvare: et dare animam tuam in redemptionem pro multis:

immensam clementiam tuam ac ineffabilem misericordiam tuam humiliter imploramus: ut animas omnium fidelium defunctorum in pœnis purgatorii cruciatas misericorditer respicere digneris : et quæ juste pro peccatis affliguntur tua benignissima pietate liberentur, subveniatque illis tua misericordia quas pretioso sanguine tuo redemisti. Et per merita beatissimæ gloriosissimæque virginis Mariæ: et omnium sanctorum et sanctarum eas ab inferorum cruciatibus liberare, et inter animas sanctorum tuorum collocare digneris: veste quoque immortalitatis indui et paradisi amœnitate jubeas confoveri. Qui cum Patre et Spiritu Sancto vivis et regnas Deus. Hore ad vsum Sar. 1508. 1520. 1531. &c. I do not remember to have seen this, in English.

And, once more, the Enchiridions contain a special short Office, Pro muliere impregnata. This consists of the, "Ps. Beatus vir qui non abiit in consilio impiorum.― Gloria Patri. — Sicut erat.-Ant. Maria peperit Christum: Anna Mariam: Elizabeth Joannem: Cecilia Remigium: sic me feliciter parere concedat omnipotens Deus in perfecto maturitatis tempore." This Office in the same volumes is succeeded by

Ant. Euerlastynge reste.72

71

the Psalm, "Qui habitat in adjutorio altissimi :" to be said, Contra omnia adversa. These latter do not seem to be exactly connected with the Dirge or Commendations, between which they occur: but I mention them, on account of their intrinsic importance, especially the first: and also because it shews that the student must not expect in his examination of the ancient Service Books of the English Church, to find an invariable agreement even in their arrangement.

71 The Roman Breviary at present always contains at the end the "Ordo Commendationis Animæ," but this Office is altogether different from the one now before us: The Commendations or Psalms of Commendation or the Commendations of the Souls, by all which names it is called in the Antient English Prymers and Hora. In the Roman Breviary it is in fact the same office as that which is contained in the Ritual, and is added to the Breviary that

every Priest might always have it at hand, when called suddenly to the bed-side of a dying person. As Gavantus says: (tom. ij.273.) "Magni momenti, unde pendet æternitas, est exitus animarum de suis corporibus: et ideo cuicunque Sacerdoti, nedum Parocho, datur facultas commendandi animas Deo in hora mortis, et in transitu earumdem animarum." This then contains a Litany, and several prayers adapted especially to the condition of a departing soul: with this rubric towards the end: "Si anxiatur adhuc anima, dicuntur hi Psalmi, videlicet confitemini Domino. et totus Ps. Beati immaculati."

But the Office of the Text is rather an appendage to the Dirge: and was to be said, if in Choir, after Prime and the reading of the Martyrology. As it is appointed, for example, in the Statutes of the Hospital of S. Leonard, York. "Dicta Prima, ingrediantur capitulum--postmodum ingrediantur chorum, et dicant Commendatio

nem animarum." Dugdale. Monast. Anglic. vol. vj. 610. In private, it was of course to be recited as opportunity would serve and might be used by any one, whether clerical or lay.

The Commendations are omitted altogether in the unauthorized Prymer, before mentioned, compiled by Bishop Hilsey. The Prymer of 1545 has the Office, that is, the cxixth Psalm only, without any prayer at the end, or anthem at the beginning, with this rubric or preface before it. "This psalme is the A. B. C. of godly loue, the paradise of lernyng, the shop of the holy gost (officina spiritus sancti) the scole of trueth. In whiche appeareth howe the sainctes of God esteme his holy lawes, how feruently they be geuen vnto them, howe it greueth them that they shulde be despised, howe feruently they desyre to learne them, to walke in them, and to fulfyl them: fynally, how the trangressours and aduersaries of them shalbe punished and destroyed."

The divisions of this psalm are

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in the old books often called Octonaria. Octonariæ et spirituales meditationes ad recognoscendum quæ sunt studia pietatis et vitæ." Hora. 1531. Oragain, as explained in the short prologue before the Commendations, in the Prymer of 1538, Le Roux. "This Psalme folowynge, accordynge to the numbre of the Hebrewe letters is diuided in to xxij. partes, whiche are called Octonaries, bicause euerie of them conteyneth eyght verses." I must add, the author of the prologue, or "argument" goes on at some length to explain that this psalm can only be referred to the benefit of the living as a spiritual meditation, "or else to be the voyce of those blessed soules, whiche beinge rysen with Christ in a newnes of lyfe, do contynually crye and call vpon hym, to be instructed after his worde and commaundement."

72 This Anthem, already observed to be omitted in the King's Prymer, does not always occur in the earlier Horæ, &c.: nor is it in the Cambridge MS.

73 Ambulaverunt.