which was but too necessary. The Sequences or Prosa, whose exposition follows that of the hymns, were sentences or songs of praise sung at mass." "The Primer seems to have been peculiar to the English Church; a collection of prayers, psalms, hymns, suffrages, matins, &c. in Latin and English; retained with alteration after the reformation."11 CHAPTER II. SHALL first lay before the reader a series of notices collected from authentic documents of the English Church which have reference to the books used in her public worship or authorised by her. We shall thus arrive at least at the names of many of them. For to hope to do more than this and to explain them, in such cases as we are able, from copies which are still extant would be a sure prelude to disappointment. We may indeed venture to complain, adopting the words of a very learned writer whose object was limited to the choral books alone: "Hæc pauca, 11 Early in the last century, about the year 1710, some persons interested in antiquarian subjects were accustomed to meet in order to discuss and promote the knowledge of everything which was connected with the history and antiquities of Great Britain. In the British museum is a manuscript memorandum (Harleian, 7055) which contains a sketch of what they proposed to do " for the illustration of our national antiquities." Among the suggestions was this: "Accounts of the several books used in the Latin church, like Allatius's of the Greek ones." This small society increased and developed, some fifty years afterwards, into the Society of Antiquaries. : exempli causa, recensere libuit, catalogum enim. texere infinitum foret omnium ejusmodi librorum, qui passim adhuc in monasteriis inter cimelia asservantur, magno plerumque ornatu conscripti, in pergameno etiam purpura tincto, litteris aureis vel argenteis cujusmodi antiphonarii," &c.12 There is this difference however: that Gerbert was speaking of the service books of Churches which have not suffered almost total alterations; and of the archives of monasteries which up to his time had happily been preserved from the fury of fanatics and the knavery of royal commissioners. Pope Gregory, whose Christian zeal had urged him to undertake the conversion of the anglosaxons, did not leave his missionary, St. Augustine, without the proper necessaries for the due performance of the Divine Service. Bede 13 tells us that when he sent the archbishop his pall, he sent also sacred vessels and vestments for the altar and for the priests and clerks, relics and many books, "necnon et codices plurimos." Named as they are together with vestments and sacred vessels we must conclude that these books were also intended for the public worship, and not for Augustine's private use. I may mention here that there is preserved in the Bodleian library a noble MS. gospels, which tradition states to have been one of these famous 12 Gerbert, De cantu et musica sacra, tom. 1. 564. 18 Historia eccles. lib. 1. cap. xxix. So, again, Henry of Huntingdon: "Misit etiam papa Gregorius Augustino episcopo tunc temporis ab urbe Roma cooperatores ac verbi ministros plures, in quibus erant Mellitus, etc. misit et per eos vasa et indumenta, codices, et ornamenta ecclesiis necessaria." Hist. lib. iij. p. 184 b. books. Unquestionably for nearly a thousand years all the care which pious gratitude and reverence for St. Augustine and St. Gregory could suggest would have been bestowed upon these volumes; and at last they probably perished only through the destruction which accompanied the reformation.14 About fifty years afterwards we learn from the same author 15 that Benedict, the first abbot of Wearmouth, was equally careful to provide for the service of the altar; "cuncta quæ ad altaris et ecclesiæ ministerium competebant, quia domi invenire non potuit, de transmarinis regionibus advectare religiosus emptor curabat." Bede also in his work De remediis peccatorum says: "Nunc ergo, O fratres, qui voluerit sacerdotalem auctoritatem accipere, in primis cogitet propter Deum et præparet arma ejus, antequam manus episcopi tangat caput, id est, psalterium, lectionarium, antiphonarium, missale, baptisterium, martyrilogium, homilias in anni circulo ad prædicationem bonis operibus, et computum cum cyclo, hoc est jus sacerdotum. Postea autem suum pœnitentialem." 16 14 An account of these books is contained in the Canterbury MS. preserved at Trinity hall, Cambridge, and published by Wanley in his catalogue of Saxon MSS. See also Elstob's Saxon homily, p. 39. There is good reason to believe that the magnificent leaf of an ivory diptych in the British museum, with the standing figure of an archangel, formed the cover of one of the books brought to England by St. Augustine. 15 Beda, Vita beatorum abbatum Benedicti, &c. cap. 5. 16 Cap. 1. This work is printed at the end of Augustinus, Epitome juris pontif., whose notes Egbert, archbishop of York, was a contemporary and friend of venerable Bede: the fourth chapter of the third book of his Penitential teaches us the great reverence which he thought was due to the books which were employed in the service of God, and consecrated to Him: "sacerdotes Dei, et diaconi, et alii Dei ministri quos in Dei templo Deo servire oportet, et reliquias et sacros libros manu tractare, castitatem suam usque servare debent." 16 In the year 960 the canons of king Edgar were published: the third of these orders that all ministers "ad quamlibet synodum habeant quotannis libros et vestimenta ad servitium ecclesiasticum." The thirtyfourth respects the correctness of the books used in the divine worship: for it would appear that faulty copies were abroad, and negligently written: "Docemus etiam, ut quilibet sacerdos diligenter curet ut bonum et saltem justum librum habeat."17 the constitutions of Bishop Cantilupe of Worcester, A.D. 1240: "Omnes autem ecclesiæ libros habeant emendatos, quia per eorum falsitatem multa leguntur et canuntur a pluribus indecenter." Wilkins, tom. I. p. 668. Again, a remarkable chapter in MS. Exeter consuetudinary, of which I shall speak presently: "De custodia librorum. Inter cætera vero summe cavendum est, de librorum chori discordia: ... unde oportet necessario quod psalteria quoad textum et medias versuum pausas vel punctos, et antiphonaria, cum gradalibus, ad unguem corrigantur tam in litera This last injunction occurs amongst several which relate especially to the service of the holy eucharist; whence certainly the good and correct book must mean the missal. The word translated sacerdos in the thirty-fourth canon is preort (priest), in the succeeding it is mæssepreost (mass-priest), but this is an unimportant difference in the present case; as is clearly proved by the thirty-second canon, also bearing on our present point: "Docemus etiam, ut sacerdos nunquam missam celebret absque libro, et sit canon ei ante oculos positus, si velit, ne forte impingat." Here the original has preost. 18 We come now to a very important canon, the twenty-first of Ælfric's: "Habeant etiam arma ad spirituale opus, antequam sint ordinati: hæc sunt sancti illi libri, psalterium et liber epistolarum, liber evangeliorum, et missale, liber canticorum, et quam in cantu, juxta aliquem · librum qui veracior inter cæteros reputatur." Compare also Wilkins, tom. 1. p. 628; tom. 3. p. 61; Annal. Burton. apud script. Anglic. tom. 1. p. 318. As we have just seen, it was the duty of the archdeacon at his visitation to enquire into this matter: for example, again, in the 66 year 1291: Item statuimus quod archidiaconus, qui secundum apostolum non quæ sua sunt quærit sed quæ Jesu Christi, in sua visitatione provideat quod canon missæ emendetur." Concilia, tom. 2. p. 179. So, also, among the articles of an archdeacon's visitation a few years previous was this: "An C canon missæ sit rite correctus?" Ibid. tom. 1. p. 628. 18 Wilkins, Concilia, tom. 1. p. 227. Johnson draws a curious conclusion from this canon. He says, "It is fairly intimated here that the priests used to say this Canon without book, and even here the priest is only permitted, not enjoined to read it." Canons, vol. 1. 960. 32. Now whatever gif he pille" may mean, it cannot mean that; else the order itself would be of no effect. For more than five hundred years earlier than king Edgar's reign priests were neither required nor allowed to celebrate the divine mysteries from memory. |