THE SOURCES AND RATIONALE OF THE OFFICES. CHAPTER II.-The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels; and Proper Lessons for Sundays and Holydays دو A HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. CHAPTER I. Service-Books of the English Church before the 'According to these various uses (various yet harmonious) the Holy THE Liturgies of the Western Church seem to be derived from two models, the Roman and the Gallican. The Gallican was of Oriental origin, and is said to have been followed by the churches of Spain and Britain1. But whatever may have been the earlier history of Christianity in this island, it is clear that at the close of the sixth century the portion afterwards called England' was occupied by tribes of heathen, and the British Church compelled to seek a shelter in the districts of Wales, Cumberland and Cornwall. 6 USES. Mission of Augustine, the missionary from Pope Gregory the Great, doubtless brought with him the Ritual which was at the Anglo 1 See Palmer, Antiquities of the English Ritual, Dissertation on Primitive Liturgies,' § VI. Lit. of Rome, § IX. Lit. of Gaul, § XI. ཀྭ ། Lit. of Britain and Ireland. Augustine to Saxons. USES. 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 Gregory1, there were the antient British churches in communion with their primate at Caerleon, and numerous Irish missionaries in the north of Scotland who had churches of their converts. What therefore was to be the English Use, since the Gallican customs of saying mass differed from the Roman? Upon this question he sought Gregory's decision, who allowed him to choose either the Roman or the Gallican form, or to select what he thought most suitable from the various forms used in the Catholic Church2. The natural result was that the influence of Augustine and his successors led to the general adoption, in its main features, of the Roman Ritual, as Christianity spread among the Anglo-Saxons. And the same influence was no doubt felt 1 Beda, Hist. Eccl. 1. 27: 'Brittaniarum omnes episcopos tuæ fraternitati committimus, ut indocti doceantur, infirmi persuasione roborentur, perversi auctoritate corrigantur.' 2 Beda, Hist. I. 27: 'II. Interrogatio Augustini. Cum una sit fides, cur sunt ecclesiarum diversæ consuetudines, et altera consuetudo missarum in sancta Romana ecclesia, atque altera in Galliarum tenetur? Respondet Gregorius papa. Novit fraternitas tua Romanæ ecclesiæ consuetudinem, in qua se meminit nutritam.. Sed mihi placet, sive in Romana, sive in Galliarum, seu in qualibet ecclesia aliquid invenisti quod plus omnipo tenti Deo possit placere, sollicite eligas, et in Anglorum ecclesia, quæ adhuc ad fidem nova est, institutione præcipua, quæ de multis ecclesiis colligere potuisti infundas. Non enim pro locis res, sed pro bonis rebus loca amanda sunt. Ex singulis ergo quibusque ecclesiis, quæ pia, quæ religiosa, quæ recta sunt elige, et hæc quasi in fasciculum collecta apud Anglorum mentes in consuetudinem depone.' 3 Concil. Cloveshovia II. (747) Mansi, XII. 399: Tertio decimo definitur decreto, ut uno eodemque modo dominicæ dispensationis in carne sacrosancto festivitates, in omnibus ad eas rite competentibus rebus, id est, in baptismi officio, in by the British churches, not indeed to make them discard their old Gallican order, but to guide those changes in rites, and ceremonies, and prayers, which every bishop was empowered to ordain within his own diocese. USES. Uses. The exercise of this power caused, in process of time, Origin of a considerable variety in the manner of performing divine service; and the custom of a diocese in its ceremonial, mode of chanting, arrangement of certain portions of its service, introduction or omission of collects, became a distinct Use, and was known by the name of that diocese. Thus gradually the Uses or customs of York, Sarum, Hereford, Exeter, Lincoln, Bangor, Aberdeen, and doubtless others of which the records have perished, were recognised as defined and established varieties of the Ritual of the English Church1. missarum celebratione, in cantilenæ modo, celebrentur juxta exemplar videlicet quod scriptum de Romana habemus ecclesia. Itemque ut per gyrum totius anni natalitia sanctorum uno eodemque die, juxta martyrologium ejusdem Romanæ ecclesiæ, cum sua sibi convenienti psalmodia seu cantilena venerentur.' 1 The use of a cathedral was not necessarily followed by all the churches and monasteries in the diocese. Grandisson, bishop of Exeter (1339), drew up a body of Statutes for his newly founded collegiate church of St Mary at Ottery in the 7th he orders the divine office on certain occasions to be performed 'secundum ordinale et consuetudinarium quæ eis fecimus et extraximus ex Exoniæ et Sarum usibus.' Oliver, Monast. Exon. p. 268. An order relating to Barking monastery in Essex about 1390 is preserved in Dugdale, Monast. Anglic. I. 437, note k: ...,quod conventus prædictus tres modos diversos habeat sui ser- It USES. Use of Irish Uses. The most remarkable of these was the Use of Sarum. It was drawn up about 1085 by Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury and Chancellor of England. He rebuilt his cathedral, collected together clergy distinguished for learning and skill in chanting, and took much pains to regulate the ecclesiastical offices; so that his church became a model for others, and his 'custom-book " was wholly or partially followed in various parts of the kingdom, more particularly in the South of England2. Upon this settlement of a model service-book for England, an attempt was made to attain ritual uniformity in Ireland. There the varieties of Use seem to have been greater than in this country. Gilbert, Bishop of Limerick (1090), speaks of some of them as schismatical delusions3. the first day of December follow- IV. 1 Brompton's Chron. (in Twysden's Scriptores x.) col. 977: 'Hic composuit librum ordinalem ecclesiastici officium quem Consuetudinarium vocant, quo fere tota nunc [circ. 1200] Anglia, Wallia et Hibernia utitur.' 2 Among the many foreigners who were appointed to bishoprics and abbacies was Thurstan abbot of Glastonbury (1083). Simeon of Durham (Scriptores x. col. 212) relates his attempt to compel his monks to use a style of chanting invented by William of Fescamp. And the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Stevenson's translation, in Church Historians of England, Vol. II. p. 130) gives a piteous description of the tumult and bloodshed that ensued; for armed soldiers drove the monks from the chapter, and slew many of them in the church. It is supposed that this outrage drew the attention of Osmund to the varieties of use, and led him to revise the ritual upon the occasion of opening his new cathedral. Palmer, Orig. Lit. pp. 186 sq. 3 Episcopis, presbyteris totius Hiberniæ, infimus præsulum Gillebertus Lunicensis in Christo salutem. Rogatu, necnon et præcepto multorum ex vobis, carissimi, canonicalem consuetudinem in dicendis horis et peragendo totius ecclesiastici ordinis officio scribere conatus sum, non præsumptivo, sed vestræ cupiens piissimæ servire jussioni; ut diversi et schismatici illi ordines, quibus Hibernia pene tota delusa est, uni Catholico et Romano cedant officio. Quid enim magis indecens aut schismaticum |