book do not require more explanation than will readily fall into the compass of a note as we go along: but "the Hours" may more properly be spoken of here.

Not only did the Catholic Church accurately provide, as we have seen, the greater services of the canonical Hours, but smaller offices were drawn up and approved, to be used in addition at the same times by the more devout among her children. Such were the Hours of the Holy Spirit, of the Blessed Trinity, and of the Cross. But none were so complete in their arrangement as the Hours of the blessed Virgin."1

This office, commonly called also the officium parvum, was first drawn up, according to Baronius in his annals A. D. 1056, by Peter Damian, in that year: but there can be little doubt that it was in general use for some centuries before his time. Or rather had been so for Damian certainly restored it, the observance of it having fallen gradually away. It is probable also, that he revised and corrected the existing office. How ancient it really is, is proved from edicts of Popes Gregory the 3rd. and Zachary, who before the middle of the sixth century ordered it to be said by certain orders of monks, throughout the year, in addition to the canonical Hours. In the council of Claremont, A. D. 1096, the saying of the Hours of the

71 I know no modern volume which contains so many of these occasional offices as the "Parva Christianæ pietatis officia, Paris, e. typographia regia, 1643." 4to. In it, besides the Hours of the Virgin, are those of the Holy Spirit,

the Guardian Angel, The Name of Jesus, S. Louis, the Holy Sacrament, the Holy Cross, the Mysteries of our Blessed Lord, Penitence, and many others. It is moreover a very splendid specimen of typography.

B. Virgin was made obligatory also upon all clergy :" which obligation continued until removed by the Bull of Pope Pius the 5th. for the regulation of the breviary. This removal does not extend however to choirs, where the custom of saying the office was through a greater devotion continued.73

In saying the office, matins and vespers of the Virgin were said before, and the other Hours after the corresponding services of the day. This was the rule in choir those who recited in private, were allowed greater liberty. But such was not the custom in all churches; for some recited all the offices before those which corresponded of the day, except Compline."*

The office of the blessed Virgin was very much used also by the laity: although they were not obliged, except upon Saturdays, when it would seem that the decree of the council of Claremont was binding upon them. The same Pope just spoken of, Pius V. forbade the use of vernacular translations of this office.

I shall here give the reader the account which a very learned ritualist, the Rev. Dr. Rock, has favoured me with of this office of the Blessed Virgin. I have once

72 An early writer Radulph Tungrensis says: "De officio B. Virginis legitur in chronicis, quod Urbanus II, in Gallias veniens, concilium apud Claremontem urbem celebravit, anno Domini Mxcvi, in quo statutum est, quod horæ B. Mariæ virginis quotidie dicantur, officiumque ejus diebus sabbatorum solenniter fiat." De Canon. observ. Prop.

xx. Which is thus entitled. "Of ficia mortuorum et Virginis gloriosa, obligatoria sunt, et ab omnibus observanda."

73 Vide Gavantus. Thesaurus Sac. Rit. Tom. 2. 262. Labbe et Cossart. Concilia. Tom. x. 511. 517.

XX.

74 Radulph Tungrensis. Prop.

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 .iiij. saterdaye before clene lent) and Easter,