extant, but said sometimes before and sometimes after the Offertory. It occurs after in the Mozarabic2 and old Gallican rites. In the Missa Latina published by Illyricus,* more than one form of Confession (Apologia Sacerdotis) is given to be used during the Offertory; but others are also inserted to be said while the Gradual is being sung. The same Ordo contains a long preparatory form (Apologetica) to be said before the Introit, containing four similar Confessions, the first of which is to be said in the Sacrarium after vesting, and one of the others at discretion before the Introit. This is an early indication of a custom which was afterwards prescribed by authority, and which when established would naturally lead to the disuse of the Apologia in the Liturgy itself. The Confession of the Priest now used in the Roman Liturgy is of late date, being first prescribed, so far as appears, by the Council of Ravenna in 1314. Till then the form was left to the choice of the Celebrant, and one object of the Council was to put an end to the diversity to which that liberty gave rise. There was probably, after the first ages, no Confession either before or in the Office of Milan; but the Roman Confiteor was adopted some time after the year 1499.9 It may appear singular that there was no Confession to be

in the Saltzburg Pontifical, p. 207. Both words occur in a Ms. of Tours of the tenth century, p. 193.

1 See fifteen of these forms in the copy of the Gregorian Sacramentary edited by Menard, p. 228. When we are told that they were said before the Mass, we must understand before the Offertory. See Menard's note n. 786, p. 526.

2 Leslie, tom. i. p. 224; Accedam ad, etc.

3 Missale Goth. Miss. xxxvii. Mabill. Liturg. Gall. p. 253.

4 Bona, pp. 383, 379; Martene, pp. 183, 180.

6 Bona, p. 375; Mart. p. 176.

6 Bona, p. 377; Mart. p. 178. Many other examples of this preliminary Confession may be seen in Martene. In one Ordo of the tenth century it is called Specialis Exomologica, sive Apologica Oratio, p. 197.

7 Muratori:- -"Grandem absque dubio antiquitatem sapit" (Lit. Rom. Vet. Diss. c. xx. tom. i. col. 238); but we must not carry it beyond the tenth century; Bona, Rer. Lit. L. i. c. xii. n. iv. Menard says of one (Si ante oculos), that it had lately been put forth by Urban VIII., but reduced to half its length. Note, 847, p. 530.

8 Rubrica xv. Labb. tom. xi. col. 1614. It differs from all the earlier Confessions in Martene, Menard, etc., in being addressed to saints as well as to God:-"I confess to God Almighty, to the blessed Mary, Ever Virgin, to the blessed Michael, Archangel," etc. The Confessions in our unreformed Liturgies are like it in substance, but only name "God, the blessed Mary, and all saints." They all add, "and to your brethren." A form in Micrologus, A.D. 1160, has "to SS. and to all saints," c. 23; Hitt. col. 744.

Le Brun, Diss. iii. Art. ii. tome 3, p. 200. The Milanese have introduced the words (retained by Borromeo), "the B. Ambrose, our Patron."

said by all the people in the medieval Liturgies; but, not to mention the obstacle arising from the use of the Latin language, we must remember that the laity communicated rarely; and that, when they did so, their Communion was generally preceded by an act of private Confession to the Priest.

During the withdrawal of the last order of non-communicants, the Celebrant and his assistants would naturally employ themselves in secret prayer, whence we may infer a very early use of the Apologia before1 the Offertory. When Catechumens ceased, and Penitents were few, this custom would as naturally come to an end, and the prayer be transferred to another part of the service. There is an apparent trace of it, however, still left in the Roman Liturgy, viz., in the Oremus immediately before the Offertory. No prayer nor any pause now follows it, and the peculiarity has existed from the eighth century at least. Some tradition of a Confession at this place seems however to have existed in the time of Amalarius,2 who wrote in 827; for he interprets the Oremus as a call upon every one of the offerers to enter into an examination of his own conscience. Towards the end of the same century, however, Remigius of Auxerre does not notice this explanation, but suggests another:-" It may be understood according to that which does take place among us, (viz.) that all the people are ordered to give attention to the Oblation, while those who mean to offer are offering their intention." Remigius nevertheless perhaps suspected that a prayer had once followed the Oremus; for he says that "although with us no Collect is then said, between the Gospel and the Offertory, one is nevertheless said there among the Greeks." Sicard,5 who became Bishop of Cremona in 1185, makes the same observation, but does not offer to explain, or to account for, the irregularity.

1 See instances of its occurrence there in Martene, L. i. c. iv. Act. xii. Ordd. vi. vii. xiii. xv. xvi. pp. 191, 3, 207, 212, 5. The Ordo of Illyricus is not singular in providing forms for use during the Gradual: see Ord. xii. p. 205. Others likewise give them between the Ordinary and the Canon, as later times express it, or during the Sanctus, with which the former is closed. See Ordd. vii. viii. ix. x. pp. 193, 4, 7, 8. But it is clear that they said them, whenever a pause occurred, or the singing of the Choir left them at liberty. Thus one Ordo has the following direction :-" He says these prayers [of which one is an Apologia] from the Collect until the Gospel, as he thinks good."-Ord. xiii. p. 207.

2 De Eccl. Off. L. iii. c. 19; Hitt. col. 415.

3 De Celebr. Miss. in pseudo-Alc. De Div. Off.; Hitt. col. 281. Tunc should probably be read nunc.

Mitrale, L. iii. c. iii. col. 114.

1

...

we may serve

d ALMIGHTY GOD, FATHER. J-The Confession in the Book of Hermann 1 begins with these words, " Almighty everlasting God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Maker of all things, the Judge of all men, we acknowledge and we lament:" but there the resemblance ceases. Towards the end we catch it again in the clause, "that and please Thee in a new life to the glory of Thy name." These are the only signs from which we could infer that the English Reformers had the Cologne book before them. It was "put into English and published here "2 in October 1547, about four months before our Confession first appeared in the Order of Communion. It had been published in German in 1543, and in Latin, at Bonn, in 1545.

• BY THOUGHT, WORD, AND DEED.]-The old Confiteor before the Introit in the Sarum and Hereford Missals contains this same expression, which is very common in the earlier Confessions or Apologia provided for the private use of the Priest in medieval collections like the Missa Illyrici.3 It is often paraphrased or expanded, as in the York Missal: -"By heart, mouth, deed, by omission through my fault." There was nothing to represent the last "through my fault," in the Sarum Missal; but in the Roman it is expanded thus:-"Through my fault, through my fault, through my very great fault." It is to be regretted that this touching acknowledgment was not adopted into our own Confession. I have not observed it, however, in other mediæval formulæ of the same character.

The clause "by thought, word, and deed " would occur so naturally to the writer of a Confession, that we cannot insist on a common origin, when we find it in Greek and Oriental Liturgies. It is at least interesting, however, to observe that it does occur in them, and that in forms of confession and deprecation by which the Priest or people are to prepare themselves for the more sacred parts of the office. In the Liturgy of S. James 5 is a prayer of this kind, to be said between the Consecration and the Lord's Prayer:Remit, forgive, pardon, O God, our transgressions, voluntary, involuntary, by deed and word," etc. The same prayer occurs in the Syro-Jacobite of S. James, with the addition of

1 Fol. cci. fa. 1, ed. 1548. In the Latin, fol. xci.; Bonnæ, 1545.

2 Strype's Cranmer, B. ii. ch. 81, vol. ii. p. 399, ed. 1848.

3 Missa Lat. Illyrici, Martene, L. i. c. iv. Art. xii. Ord. iv. pp. 178, 183 ;

see also Ordd. v. vi. vii. ix. etc. pp. 187, 191, 3, 6, etc.

etc.

4 Compare the forms in Martene, Ordd. iv. v. vi. etc. pp. 179, 187, 191, 5 Assem. tom. v. p. 47; Liturg. PP. p. 30.

the word "thought." So in the First Prayer of the Faithful in S. Mark :-"If we have sinned against Thee by word or deed, or in thought, do Thou, being good, and loving mankind, deign to overlook it."

f ARE.]-The Order of Communion has "be," but this was changed into "are" in the First Book of Edward. It is the only change that has been made in this Confession.

SECTION II.-The Absolution.

RUBRIC XIII.

a

Then shall the Priest (or the Bishop, being present) stand up, and turning himself to the people, pronounce this Absolution.

b

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who of His great mercy hath promised forgiveness of sins to all them that with hearty repentance and true faith turn unto Him; Have mercy upon you, pardon and deliver you from all your sins, confirm and strengthen you in all goodness, and bring you to everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

& THE BISHOP.]—That is, the Bishop of the Diocese. If another Bishop be present, he cannot claim to give the Absolution; but the Priest, having respect to his office, ought to request him to do so. O. C. and 1 B. E. do not mention the Bishop.

b PRONOUNCE.]-The Scotch has "pronounce the Absolution as followeth;" the earlier Books, including O. C., have instead the words "say thus."

• THIS ABSOLUTION.]-The Absolution that follows is to the letter the same as that of 1 B. E. and 2 B. E.; but a somewhat different form was given in O. C., viz. :—“ Our blessed Lord, who hath left power to His Church to absolve penitent sinners from their sins, and to restore to the grace of the heavenly Father such as truly believe in Christ; Have mercy 2 Ibid. tom. i. p. 132.

1 Renaud. tom. ii. p. 38.

upon you; pardon and deliver you from all sins; confirm and strengthen you in all goodness; and bring you to everlasting life." The introductory clause here, as Dr. Bulley2 remarks, appears to be derived from the Absolution in the Book of Hermann; but the very words of Absolution, which we still retain, are taken, with a slight change, from the prayer of the Ministers for the Absolution of the Celebrant after the Confiteor in our old Liturgies:-"The Almighty God have mercy on you, and forgive you all your sins, deliver you from all evil, keep and confirm you in good (every good work, York), and bring you to everlasting life." The Mozarabic Use, though it has a form of confession for the Priest, has no prayer for his Absolution. In the East, S. Marks and its derived forms have a "Prayer of Absolution;" but it is not preceded by a Confession, nor is it now held to be of Sacramental efficacy.5 In S. Mark such a formulary occurs only in the preparatory part of the Office; in the others both there and before the Communion. "The Egyptian Jacobites," observes Renaudot," "added this new Prayer of Absolution (i.e. the one before the Communion) at that time especially, when Christians ought to be pure from every, even venial, defilement, although a similar one had already been pronounced at the beginning of the Liturgy."

An Absolution of the people is very rare in the mediæval Missals of the West. But two examples appear to have been found. In a MS. Pontifical Mass for the use of the Abbot, some 500 years old, which belonged to the Monastery of S. Gregory, in the Diocese of Bâle, there is, according to Gerbert," an unique Absolution, after the Abbot, the Confession and other ceremonies being over, has mounted to the Altar: After this let the Abbot absolve the people, saying, By the authority of God, which I exercise, I absolve you from every bond of excommunication, and from your sins, in the Name, etc."" The other example, which is in the precatory form, bears in the Rubric the title of "A General Absolution." This is in a Missal printed at Constance in 1589. Once in the year, however, throughout France, viz. on Easter Day, a Confession and Absolution

1 Cardwell's Two Liturgies, App. p. 430.

3 Renaud. tom. i. p. 135. See his note, p. 355.

2 Variations, p. 175.

4 The Coptic Basil, Renaud. tom. i. p. 3, 22; S. Greg. p. 36; S. Bas. Alex. p. 80; S. Greg. Alex. p. 120; the Ethiopic, pp. 505, 519.

5 Renaud. tom. i. pp. 199, 262, 527.

6 Tom. i. p. 263.

7 Disq. iv. c. ii. § vii. P. i. p. 295. It is also given by Martene, De Ant. Eccl. Rit. L. i. c. iv. Art. xii. Ord. xxxii. tom. i. p. 236.

8 Missale Curiensis Diocesis. Ibid.