xvith century printed books which bear the title of Prymer, contain more prayers and directions and short treatises in English than the Horæ. But in other respects they agree: having between them, and between themselves the same variations, and such additions or omissions as might suit the purpose of the editor or the printer. Still these were so unimportant, that they did not at all interfere with the character either of the one or of the other. Those which bore upon the title page "Prymer in English and Latin” or Prymer in English" explain themselves. The first would contain the offices and prayers in both languages, in parallel columns, the last in English only. There was no Prymer in English only, printed, “ of Salisbury Use." Those which were published in the reign of K. Henry the Eighth are stated to have been set forth by his authority and of the Clergy, for the use of and enjoined to be used by the whole realm.73 "This

Take, for example, an early Prymer.

prymer of Salysbury vse is set out a long wout ony serchyng, with many prayers, and goodly pyctures." Paris. 1532. Such is a portion of the title: but the whole book is in Latin, so far as the offices are concerned, and corresponds with the Horæ of the same date. The difference consists in more frequent translations of verses to the calendar; and some short tracts, &c. as if keeping up the ancient and proper character of the original Prymers.

Or again, a Prymer "in Englyshe and in Laten" of

73 The Prymer set forth, &c. and none other to be used

throughout his dominions." Edit. Whitchurch. 1545.

the date 1538.74 The following are " The contentes

of thys boke."

Fyrste an Almanacke for .xx. yeres.

A Calender.

A preface.75

A prayer of the vij. wordes that our lorde spake on

the crosse at his passyon.

The forre gospels of the foure euangelistes.

The passion of our Lorde. Egressus est Jesus.
The Pater noster. and the Aue maria.

The .xij. articles of the faythe.

The .x. comaundementes.

The duety of a christen man.

Auxiliatrix.

Matyns. Euynsonge. Coumplen. Salve regina. Gaude virgo. Gaude flore. Stella celi. Ave verum

corpus.

The .xv. Oos.

The .vij. Psalmes with the Lateny.

Dyryge with the commendacyons.
The psalmes of the passion.

Saint Hieroms psalter.

A prayer whan thou haste receyued it. O bone Jesu. Conditor celi et terre. Thre prayers of Salomon: two for to obtayne wysdome, and one for a competent lyuyng.”

The Prymers in English and Latin are thus seen not to be so full in their contents as those in Latin only or chiefly. The later Prymers "after the Use of Sarum" contain, some of them, a number of godly prayers in English, both at the beginning and at the end: as the edition, for example, in 4to. by Kyngston and Sutton, 1557. On the other hand, "The Prymer in English and Latine after Salisbury use" by John Wayland, 1558, except in the addition of the xv Oos, and the Passion from the four Gospels, is an exact counterpart, as to its contents, of the earliest Prymer known, viz. the manuscript edited in the present work.

The Prymers" set forth by ye kinges maieste and his clergie," in 1545, in English and in Latin, and in English only, contain those portions of the previous books of the same name which had been already translated. I am not speaking of the translation itself, or of the alterations and omissions which were made in the offices which they contained.

It has been generally supposed that the "Orarium' of 1546 was a book similar to the "Orarium" of 1560, of Queen Elizabeth, which is so well known through the reference made to it by Bishop Cosin in the titlepage of his private devotions, or "Hours of Prayer." Or again, that it was much the same as the "Preces Privatæ" published "regia authoritate" in 1564, and 1573. But this is a mistake: and I have no doubt has arisen from the extraordinary rarity of the original book: no copy of which is in the Museum, and but an

imperfect one in the Bodleian. The "Orarium" of 1546 is the Latin part of the Prymer set forth by K. Henry the Eighth. It is the volume which Archbishop Cranmer enquired about in the 68th of his Visitation Articles, 1548. "Whether they that understand Latin do use any other than the Latin Prymer, set forth by the King's Majesty's authority."

Thus we have the King's Prymer in three states; in Latin and English, in English, and in Latin: not knowing what Latin name to give it, and disliking "Hora," the editors called it "Orarium," not " Horarium." The full title is: "Orarium seu libellus precationum per Regiam maiestatem et clerum latine æditus. 1546." 12mo. At the beginning is the Latin preface, which Mr. Jenkyns, and after him Dr. Burton, could not find although they searched, that is, if they made a search.76

They who chose "Orarium" for the title of this volume, if they wished for a new word, which by the way it was not, probably did not remember that it had been no less than "Hora" applied to the corresponding book of the church of Salisbury. It is in the colophon to an Enchiridion, "Impressum est hoc orarium, &c." i. e. the Horæ, or “Enchiridion præclare ecclesie Sarum." 8vo. 1530. And in the breviary of the church of Spires the term had been already used. The edition of that book in 1507, 8vo. of which there is a copy in the library of the University of Cambridge, has the title, "Orarium Spireñ."

For the "Enchiridion" is nothing more than ano

See more upon this in the Dissertation on the Prymer in English.

ther title of the Hora. The contents and the arrangement are exactly similar. It may have been used in other churches to signify the Manual, which at first sight or hearing of the name one would be inclined to suppose: but whether this be so or not, there is no example of it in the English manuals. I know but two editions of the Horæ, entitled Enchiridion : of 1530, by Hardouyn; and by Kerver, 12mo. 1528."

I

CHAPTER X.

AM very far from asserting that the above list of

the old Service Books and Rituals of the Church of England is complete: but I trust that at least all those of usual occurrence have been noticed, and those only omitted whose titles and contents either cannot admit of doubt, or which there is no reason to believe were used by the English Church. It must moreover be remembered, that in the old times there were almost as many books as there were parts of the Offices and Service: and not only the collects and verses and graduals, &c. were divided and subdivided into separate volumes, but the Offices of great festivals and certain portions of the year were also arranged for the purposes of greater solemnity, or to be ready at hand, as I have before remarked, and the reader cannot but have observed.

Such then they were, and at least so many in num

77 Both these are in my possession.