before expressed my obligations to him, for an account of the contents of an English antiphoner.75

He says, speaking of the present Roman Use: "There are three kinds of office used by the Church in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary: the office as said on her festivals, such as the purification, the annunciation, the assumption, &c.: the office of the B. V. Mary on Saturday: and the Little office.

"The first kind of office is arranged much like the office of other high festivals and saints'-days. It has the Invitatory (proper) and psalm Venite, (proper) and three nocturns in matins, each nocturn consisting of three psalms, the same for all her festivals, with three lessons, varying with the festival, each followed by its proper response and versicle: so that there are nine psalms and nine lessons with their proper anthems and responses in matins, which close with Te Deum. Lauds are constructed,-mutatis mutandis-just as the other Lauds. The other Hours are alike in form to the hours of the other festivals, having however their own anthems, (from Lauds) hymns, little chapters, responses, versicles and collect. Evensong is the same, in form, as on other festivals, but has its own psalms, &c. The office on the festivals of the B. V. Mary is called the Full office, as contrasted with the Little office.

"The office of the B. V. Mary on Saturday, is somewhat different: for it has but one nocturn at matins, but that nocturn consists of 12 psalms, (assigned in the distribution of the psalter for the ferial office on

75 Dissertation on Service Books. Vol. 1. p. xxix.

Saturday) and three lessons, but the third lesson is followed by Te Deum. The Lauds and other Hours have the psalms assigned to them in the psalter, and therefore instead of the psalms for evensong and compline which are said in the little office. The psalms for the evensong said on Friday evening are those marked for Friday in the psalter, and the psalms at compline are those said in the common compline. The rubric .viii. at the beginning of the winter part of the Roman breviary, will tell you on what days the Saturday office of our B. Lady can and cannot be said.

"The Little office of the B. V. Mary, has but one nocturn consisting of three psalms and three lessons with their anthems, responses, &c. The three psalms for this nocturn are taken from the nocturns of the office of the B. V. Mary said upon her great festivals : and are thus chosen. On Monday and Thursday, the three psalms of the first nocturn: on Tuesday and Friday, the psalms of the second nocturn: on Wednesday and Saturday, the psalms of the 3rd. nocturn. The absolution, blessings, lessons, &c. are almost always the same: and the only variation in them, and indeed in the versicles and other minor parts, occurs in Advent.

"With regard to the Little office of the B. V. Mary, there existed even as early as the seventh century the practice of saying it, besides the regular canonical office of the day in many monasteries of western Europe. Towards the closing of the 11th. century, it was decreed at the council of Clermont, that all the secular clergy should say the Little office as well as the usual canonical office, and this discipline was kept up until the revision of the Roman breviary, when Pope

Pius the 5th. dispensed with the Little office to the secular clergy out of choir.

"The clergy prevailed upon the people to adopt the custom of daily saying the office of the B. V. Mary. Hence the number of manuscript Hours of our Lady; and no doubt the origin of your invaluable English version, which must have been made for the laity."

The above excellent account seems to require but little either in addition or explanation. The reader will see that the Prymer which follows does not contain any office different upon one day of the week from that of another or any rubrics specifying variations to be observed in Advent. In these characteristics it is, that "the Hours of the Blessed Virgin" as they are commonly called, and of which in Latin, as Dr. Rock says, there are so many manuscripts, are to be distinguished both from the office of the Saturday, and the Little office, as these were in the Sarum breviaries. Being especially intended for the use of the laity, it appears that they were not called upon to search out even the few changes which strictly were appointed : but that (which I do not suppose would have been allowed in the case of clerks) it was held to be sufficient and praiseworthy if they recited the same office, unvaried, throughout the year. I do not mean to say, that these peoples' books, if I may so speak of them, never contained such rules and variations; but, that they commonly did not. And these rules for particular seasons, when so inserted, ranged in their number and fulness from the complete body which was in the breviary, down to simply one or two, affecting merely an alleluya, or response: such as that in the Prymer of 1543. "Betwene Septuagesima (whiche beginneth the .iij. saterdaye before clene lent) and Easter,

for Prayse ye the lord, ye must say Laude be to the kynge of eternall glorye."

I have now merely to add a remark upon the "Appendix to the Prymer." In this have been placed some other ancient versions of the Te Deum and other hymns of the Lord's Prayer, and the Creed: and two Litanies. I hope they will not be unacceptable to the reader. The English calendars I consider to be of importance and though neither of them, nor the Latin from the Enchiridion can lay claim to that very high antiquity which distinguishes many calendars which have been published by various writers, yet they have their own and especial interest. As regards the last of these, the Latin, its claim to usefulness arises from the very opposite qualities which give their value to, or stamp the age of the most venerable monuments of this kind extant; viz. in the collections of Bucherius, Pinius, and Mabillon. I shall extract from one of these authors the criteria of antiquity,76 offering a curious contrast to this very full and very late calendar of the Use of Sarum. "Jam vero assignari possunt varii characteres, e quibus major antiquitas kalendariorum dignoscatur: nimirum annuntiationum paucitas; simplicitas, nuda absque elogiis ac sola fere Martyrum nomina exprimens; nulla aut certe paucissima Deiparæ festa signata; quadragesima nominibus

76 Pinius. Tractatus de Lit. Antiq. Hisp. p. lxxix. Compare also Baronius, in Martyrol. cap. 8: and Beckius, Martyrol. Eccles. Germanicæ. p. 24. 4to. 1687. The fourth and fifth arguments by which this last author supports

the antiquity of the particular Martyrology which he has edited, are its simplicity, attaching the names only of the saints to their proper days; and the large number of vacant days in the calendar.

sanctorum vacua; non plurium coacervatio, sed unius tantum aut alterius sancti nomen, et prætermisso quidem titulo sancti aut beati; nullæ denique vel saltem paucissimæ per anni decursum vigiliæ in kalendariis notatæ ; omnia hæc et singula sacrorum fastorum antiquitatem commendant et confirmant."

And, but one word, as to the devotions themselves which, in the Prymer and in the other religious books of the same class used in England during the middle ages, were directed to be addressed to the blessed Virgin and to the saints.

I need scarcely say that nothing is further from my intention, than that the Prymer which I have edited, should be used in any way except as illustrating our present Book of Common Prayer, or be regarded as other than a most remarkable monument, which undoubtedly it is, of the earlier English Church. So looked upon, its value can scarcely be overrated. But as to the practice to which I have just alluded, I trust that upon my part any protest cannot be thought necessary. Upon the one hand it is not for me to speak hard words of men who in those days, with all simplicity and truth and in a full reliance upon the infinite goodness of the Almighty, believed that they might properly, upon good and scriptural grounds, offer up such petitions: it is not for me to exclaim against their superstition, their want of lively faith, their "voluntary humility, and worshipping of angels, and intruding into things which have not been seen," neither revealed to us, but left hidden in an utter obscurity of doubt. But upon the other, I must say, as I do with all thankfulness, that it was a most wise course to remove such prayers entirely from the public service and offices of the Church of England, and from