nity Sunday; the winter, the Saints' days." One would have supposed that with the books before him as Gough had, no writer could have made such a

statement.

"The Enchiridion, called also Orarium, is supposed to have been the same with the Directorium": from which it differed as much as any two books can, which have nothing in common.

"The Manuale seems to have been a collection of prayers, canons, (?) and other forms not ranged through the year as in the Missal, and of a more portable size.' Utterly wrong. "Lyndwood defines it the same as the Ritual, containing all things belonging to the sacraments, sacramentals and benedictions": why then did not our author content himself with this, instead of making guesses?

"The Horæ begin with some short prayers, or In principio erat verbum, and consist of prayers, sentences, suffrages, vigils, and psalms." The "In principio, &c." is a quaint way indeed of speaking of the 1st Ch. of the Gospel of S. John.

"The Processionale is a rubric of processions and chanting."

"The Graduale, derived from gradus or gradiri, was nearly the same with the Processional, a set of chants for processions," with which it had nothing to do, "though the words are not always the same. In this the epistles and gospels were set to music, with other choir music: and it contained all that was to be sung by the choir at high mass,—and the office for sprinkling holy water." Lyndwood is quoted for this last, and fortunately not amended.

"The Legend contained the lessons taken out of scripture and the fathers, and the lives of the saints, &c."

"The Liber Festivalis was a set of homilies either in Latin or English, for the several festivals and saints' days."

"The Psalter, besides David's psalms, contained the other scripture songs, and a set of hymns sung at vespers, matins, and other canonical hours throughout the year": this latter part confounds the Hymnal with the Psalter.

"The Hymni were confined to the hymns in honour of saints, the Te Deum, Magnificat, &c. The Expositio hymnorum is a gloss or parsing of the hymns; reducing them to the meanest capacities, 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."

I

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 authorized 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, to hope I say more than this, 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, 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." There is this difference however: that Gerbert is speaking of the Service Books of Churches which have not suffered almost total alterations; and of the archives of monasteries which have happily been preserved from the fury of fanatics, and the knavery of royal Commissioners.

8

Pope Gregory, whose Christian zeal had urged him to undertake the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons, did not leave his missionary, Saint Augustine, without the proper necessaries for the due performance of the Divine Service. Bede' tells us that when he sent the Archbishop his pall, he sent also sacred vessels and vestments for the altar, 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 S. Augustin'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 books: unquestionably for 1000 years, all the care which pious gratitude and reverence for S. Au

8 Gerbert. De cantu et musica 9 Historia Eccles: Lib. 1. sacra. Tom 1. 564.

Cap. xxix.

gustin and S. Gregory could suggest, would have been bestowed upon these volumes: and at last they probably perished only through the destruction which accompanied the Reformation.'

10

About fifty years afterwards we learn from the same author" 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."

Egbert, Archbishop of York, was a contemporary and friend of Venerable Bede: the 4th ch. of the 3rd 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 debeat."

12

In the year 960, the Canons of K. Edgar were published the 3rd of these orders that all ministers, "ad quamlibet synodum habeant quotannis libros et vestimenta ad servitium ecclesiasticum." The 34th respects the correctness of the Books used in the Divine worship for it would appear that faulty copies were

10 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.

11 Beda. Vita Beatorum Abbatum Benedicti &c. cap. 5.

12 Thorpe. Ancient Laws and Institutes of England. vol. 2. 197.

abroad, and negligently written.

"Docemus etiam,

ut quilibet sacerdos diligenter curet, ut bonum et saltem justum librum habeat."13

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 34th 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 32nd 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." preost.1

Here the original has

13 Compare the 3rd Canon of a Council of the Province of York, A. D. 1195,"Quia secretum missæ frequenter invenitur, aut scriptorum falsitate, aut librorum vetustate corruptum, ita ut legi distincte non possit, archidiaconorum solicitudo provideat, ut in singulis ecclesiis ad verum et probatum exemplar canon missæ cum omni diligentia corrigatur." &c. Wilkins. Concilia. Tom. 1. 501, And again, one of 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. 1.668.

Again, a remarkable chapter in the 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 quam in cantu, juxta aliquem librum qui veracior inter cæteros reputatur."

14 Wilkins. Concilia. Tom. 1. 227. Johnson draws a curious conclusion from this canon. He says, "It is fairly intimated here that the priests used to say this