stato tempore campana pulsetur, et sacerdos quilibet cantum suum horarium in ecclesia psallat, et ibi cum Dei timore sedulo oret, et pro omni populo intercedat." And once more, the 31st chapter of Ælfrie's pastoral epistle directs "the seven canonical hours to be sung with great attention, to the praise of the Lord." 33

Many such examples might be collected: the above will be sufficient to correct in some degree that overweening pride in the modern spiritual advantages which we possess, which has so much led men to suppose that there was for centuries in the Church of England, only the "form of godliness without the power;" only the appearance of religion even if there was that; only the shadow of prayer, and not the substance. It would be well if the priests of the English Church now, who are little less than their predecessors of old time bound to say their Daily Office, would imitate them somewhat more strictly in the observance of the obligation; and not that merely, but obey as, we may hope, they did, the laws aimed against carelessness and haste.

34

For the saying of the Divine Office anciently was obligatory upon all who were in Holy Orders; some include even the minor orders, others those only who

32 Wilkins. Concilia. Tom. 1. p. 228.

33 Thorpe. Ancient Laws and Institutes of England. Vol. 2. p. 377. See also p. 78.255.

34 Obligatory, not by the Divine, but by the ecclesiastical law, which only in a secondary view,

as a channel, claims to be Divine. I cannot resist adding here some observations of Mabillon: " Parum interest, quo jure primum inducta sit hæc Breviarii recitandi obligatio, lege an consuetudine: cum legitimo fundamento innitatur, scilicet præcepto generali, quo Christiani omnes ad jugem

had been ordained sub-deacons in monasteries all who were professed, whether men or women. Lyndwood has a gloss upon a constitution of Archbishop Stephen Langton, in which he inclines to the obligation including the minor orders: but with a difference. There can be no doubt (he says) about those "qui sunt constituti in sacris," although they are not beneficed; they are strictly bound to say the Canonical Hours but those who, although beneficed, are only " in minoribus," may be excused for some reasonable cause, say for study or if engaged in public affairs, from attendance in church; but in both these cases they were to provide for the public duty of their benefice, and in the latter, to say the Hours in private, or on their journeys.35.

2

The laity were strongly urged to be present: but as Gavantus complains (speaking on another subject 6) they flocked' more readily to the Holy Communion, than to the office of the Hours. (This, by the way, is the reverse of what we see now-a-days: if the laity

precationem tenentur: et speciali Dei ministrorum conditione, qui totos sese divino cultui manciparunt. Is enim divinum et apostolicum de indesinente oratione præceptum implere censetur, qui canonicis horis quotidie, juxta ritum ecclesiasticæ traditionis, psalmodiis precibusque consuetis Deum laudare et rogare non desistit,' ut ait Beda. Sunt quidem et alia non minoris momenti sacrorum ministrorum officia et onera: neque ad hoc unum eis assignati sunt tam copiosi Ecclesiæ pro

ventus, quasi recitato semel Breviario, muneris sui summam statim expleverint. Quædam quippe alia ab ecclesiasticis viris exiguntur, lectio et studium sanctarum Scripturarum et sacræ traditionis, divini verbi prædicatio, caritatis officia, aliaque id genus exercitia virtutis. Hæc oportet facere, sed pias etiam precationes non omittere."-De Lit. Gallicana. p. 437.

35 Lib. iij. Tit. 23. Ad excitandos.

36 Thesaurus. Tom. 1. Pars. 1. Tit. vi. p. 72.

38 39

37

40

can be said to flock to any portion of the daily service, it is to Matins only, or Evensong: and, as a body, may be charged with a very consistent contempt of the rest.) The earliest writers however, S. Basil, S. Chrysostom, S. Ambrose, and S. Augustine, all speak of this important duty, and press the fulfilling of it and in succeeding ages we find frequent exhortations to the same purpose. It is indeed a certain thing, that the Divine Office was not instituted solely for the clergy, but for all men who called themselves Christians. Hence were there so many canons of the western Church obliging all parishioners to attend upon it, some on every day, some on sundays, and others on the festivals." Lyndwood, for the English Church, speaks plainly upon the point. A constitution of Archbishop Winchelsey decrees "ut presbyteri infra nostram provinciam celebrantes intersint in cancello in Matutinis, vesperis, et aliis Divinis Officiis," debitis horis." &c. And the Gloss explains "hora competens" to be that, when the attendance of the people may be expected, though not always perhaps to be hoped for. This of course to be so arranged, that the hours of the Office might correspond to the hours of the day. A constitution of Otho "de Archidiaconis," imposes as a part of the enquiries in their visitations,

37 Ep. 207.

33 Hom. 30. in. 1. ad Corinth. 39 In psal. cxviii.

40 Lib. ix. Conf. cap. 7. 41 Compare Azevedo. De div. Off. Exercit. vij.

42 This does not include the "Missa de die." Had the words

been Canonicis Officiis, they would have done so. To say mass was of the Canonical Office, but not of the Canonical Hours. Cf. Gloss. Verb. Canon. Off. Lib. iij. Tit. 23. Sacerdotes caveant.

43 Lib. iij. Tit. 23. Presbyteri. Cf. also Angelo Rocca. De Cam

66

qualiter diurnis et nocturnis officiis Ecclesiæ serviatur."

Again, an incidental notice to the same effect is among the constitutions of Bishop Kirkham, of Durham, A. D. 1255. "Provideant rectores--ne passim laici sedeant et stent in cancello, dum divina officia celebrantur, nisi forsan patroni, aut alia venerabilis persona ad hoc ob reverentiam admittatur." In the same century a very important body of canons was agreed upon at a synod held under Bishop Quivil, at Exeter, in the 21st ch. of which occurs a passage so much to the point, that I shall quote it entire: "Præterea audivimus quandoque, quod presbyteri, quanquam fuerint absentes, tanquam præsentes essent, ad horas canonicas faciunt campanas pulsari: quarum sonitu populus excitatus, dum ad ecclesiam divinum officium audiendi et orandi causa accedit, presbyterum non inveniens, a clerico præsente ubi sit (inquirunt) et responsum accipiunt: Non est hic, jam recessit:' et sic parochiani illusi recedunt, et ecclesia debitis defraudatur obsequiis. Hanc fraudem evellere cupientes, statuimus, &c."45

panis. "Septem illæ horæ canonicæ, ad quas recitandas clerus convocatur et populus ad easdem, atque ad conciones audiendas per campanarum pulsum invitatur." Opera. Tom. 1. 177. The 36th Law of the Northumbrian priests imposes a penalty on every priest who neglects to ring the bell at the appointed times. Wilkins. Concilia. Tom. 1. 219. The student

who wishes to examine the subject of bells, their introduction and use, will find it fully discussed by Angelo Rocca, Opera. Tom. 1. and more briefly, by Azevedo, de div. Off. Exerc. iv.

44 Wilkins. Concilia. Tom. 1. 707.

p.

45 Wilkins. Concilia. Tom. 2. 144.

IF

CHAPTER III.

as I have before said, it had been intended to

supply any portion of the present volumes from the Breviary itself, I might have filled many pages with much interesting and important matter: but the full services of the breviary, or extracts from them, and its history, and the variations of the different Uses, open far too extensive a range of enquiry to be entered on, except as the subject of a separate work. The observations which have been made, bear not only upon the breviary, but upon the remarkable volume which I am about to submit to the reader: and I shall proceed now to an explanation and description of it.

I have called it "The Prymer in English:" there is no title to the original manuscript, as may readily be supposed. It is lettered on the binding, apparently of some sixty or eighty years ago," Hours of Virgin Mary." But this title neither expresses fully the contents, nor is agreeable to the custom of the sixteenth century, as regarded printed books of the same class. The Latin editions of the Hora do not use, in any

way, the term "Prymer." Their titles usually run, "Horæ beatæ Mariæ virginis ad usum ecclesiæ Sarum:" or "Horæ præsentes ad usum Sarum impressæ fuerunt, &c." 46 although they contain not only the Hours, but various other offices, the penitential

46 As in the editions, 1531, 4to. by Christoph. Ruremund: and 1507, 8vo. by Simon Vostre.