A HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. CHAPTER I. SERVICE-BOOKS OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH BEFORE THE Liturgies of the mediæval Western Church appear to be derived from two models, the Roman and the Ephesine. From the latter was derived the Spanish, or Mozarabic Liturgy,' and also the Gallican, which conveyed the Ephesine Use to the original British Church. Of the Daily Offices, in their earliest forms, the leading characteristics appear to have been the same in the East and in the West and hence, in the reconstruction of the Western Ritual, which is supposed to have taken place about the fifth century, Eastern improvements and details were received with great facility. The ordinary service of the British Church in this early period most probably 1 Neale, Essays on Liturgiology and Rome, § IX. Lit. of Gaul, § XI. Church History, pp. 125 sqq. Lit. of Britain and Ireland. See 2 See Palmer, Antiquities of the also the Preface, by Bishop Forbes, English Ritual, 'Dissertation on to the Arbuthnott Missal, BurntPrimitive Liturgies,' § vI. Lit. of island, 1864. Uses. B Uses. Mission of to the consisted of psalms, hymns, and canticles, sung partly at night, partly in the early morning, and again in the evening; and the change which was introduced in the seventh century was probably no greater than the other churches of the West had already experienced.1 At the close of the sixth century, however, the condition of the ancient Church of this country 2 was most deplorable: the larger portion of the island, afterwards called England, was occupied by tribes of heathen, and the Christians were seeking shelter for their lives and their worship in the wild districts of Wales, Cumberland, and Cornwall, while some had retired to the Scottish Hebrides, and to Ireland.3 At this time (597) Augustine, the missionary from Pope Gregory the Great, arrived, doubtless bringing with him the Ritual which was at that time used at Rome. But, in passing through Gaul, where indeed he stayed some months, he became acquainted with the 'Gallican Use.' Accordingly, when he was allowed to found a church in Kent, he hesitated as to the form of service he should appoint under the ecclesiastical circumstances of the country. His own converts might be willing to receive the Roman Use; but within the limits of his archbishopric, as granted by Gregory, there were, in the western parts of the island, the ancient British churches in communion with their primate at Caerleon, and, on the northern, numerous Irish missionaries had churches of their converts. What therefore was to be the English 1 See Freeman, Principles of Divine Service, I. pp. 234 sqq. 2 See Stillingfleet, Antiquities of the British Churches; Soames, Ang. Sax. Church, 'Introduction;' Carte, Hist. of England, 1. 183. 3 The great monastery of Bangor, a seaport in the County Down, had been founded by S. Comgall, circ. 550. 4 Beda, Hist. Eccl. 1. 27: 'Brittaniarum omnes episcopos tuæ fraternitati committimus, ut indocti doceantur, infirmi persuasione roborentur, perversi auctoritate corrigantur.' |