Altar: by which new arrangement of course the old was entirely reversed. See on this subject especially, Sala's notes to Bona, tom. iii. p. 49, and Le Brun, tom. i. p. 77. Note. Thus, the general rubric of the present Roman Missal, makes an explanation, which since the adoption of the new rule has been indispensable. "Accedit ad cornu ejus sinistrum, id est, Epistolæ : ubi stans, incipit Introitum, &c." Ritus Celebr. Tit. iv. 2. 20 66 When thou thus has done, The prist begynnes office of messe : Or ellis he standes turnande his boke, At tho south auter noke." Museum MS. " (Officium. Ebor.) More commonly called in later years, the Introit, "Introitus:" as in the Roman Use. In the Milan or Ambrosian Missal, it is called Ingressa. For an account of its first Institution and other particulars, the student should consult Bona, tom. ii. p. 48, and Gerbert. de Musica, tom. i. p. 100. These Introits, as is well known, were retained in the first revised Liturgy of K. Edw. VI. They kept their old name of Introit, long after the real reason why they were so called, had ceased: viz. because they were sung at the entrance or approach of the Priest to the Altar. Upon which point all the old writers agree. See Micrologus cap.i. Rupert. de divinis Off. cap. 28, Raban. cap. 23. It was to the Introit that the Tropes were added, when they were introduced. "Tropus proprie est quidam versiculus, qui in præcipuis festivitatibus cantatur immediate ante introitum, quasi quoddam præambulum, et continuatio ipsius introitus." Durand. lib. iv. cap. 5. 22 (Sequatur Kyrie. Sar.) "Post repetitionem officii principalis rector chori officium missæ a cantore quærere debet: deinde illud socio suo intimare: et postea simul incipere, et similiter Kyrie: Sequentia: Offertorium: Sanctus: Agnus: et Communio quærantur, intimentur et incipiantur." Rubr. Miss. Sar. In this rubric we have two Officers of the Choir mentioned: the Cantor, and the Rector Chori. There seems to have been two of the last-named: 66 who probably answer to the precentor and succentor of S. Isidore: Cantor vocatur, quia vocem modulatur in cantu. Hujus duo genera dicuntur in arte musica; præcentor et succentor: præcentor scilicet, qui vocem præmittit in cantu, succentor autem qui subsequenter canendo respondet." Apud Gratian. Dist. xxi. c. 1. If there were then two of these, they probably stood each at the end of his own side of the choir, and having received the necessary information from the Cantor, who as we shall see, stood in the centre, passed it on to his companions. Amalarius speaks of one Præcentor as opposed to the Succentores. "Præcentor in primo ordine finit responsorium. Succentores vero eodem modo respondent. Dein præcentor canit versum, &c." De ord. Antiph. cap. 18. Bibl. Patrum Auct. tom. i, p. 527. The name "Rector Chori" appears to have been, if not peculiar to England, yet chiefly adopted in her Churches. Du Cange cites but one authority for it, from a Sarum Breviary: and explains it to be the same as "Cantor:" in which I cannot but believe him to be in error, though I speak with hesitation against so great a writer. But the Rubric at the head of this note, seems to put the matter beyond a doubt: and to it I shall add the following account of the duties of the Cantor. First, from the Statutes of Archbishop Lanfranc: cap. v. with which agrees almost in word a statute of Evesham Monastery: Dugdale. Monast. vol. ii. p. 39. "De Cantore. Quicunque lecturus aut cantaturus est aliquid, si necesse habet ab eo priusquam incipiat debet auscultare.-Si quis obliviosus non incœperit, cum incipere debet responsorium, aut antiphonam, aut aliud hujusmodi, ipse debet esse provisus, atque paratus, ut sine mora, quod incipiendum erat, incipiat, vel eum, qui fallendo deviaverat, in viam reducat: ad ipsius arbitrium cantus incipitur, elevatur, remittitur; nulli licet cantum levare, nisi ipse prius incipiat.-Cantor vero, in medio eorum debet esse in choro:-et in dextro choro semper sit." Lanfranci Opera, p. 279. Again, from the Consuetudinary of the Church of Lichfield, A. D. 1294. "Cantoris officium est chorum in cantuum elevatione et depressione regere, et in omni duplici festo lectionis legendas canonicis præsentibus injungere, chronica paschalia singulis annis mutare, cantores, lectores, et ministros altaris, in tabula or SARUM. BANGOR. EBOR. um: Kyrie eleyson iÿ.23 Christe eleyson . Kyrie eleyson iij. His finitis et officio missæ inchoato, cum post officium, Gloria Patri, incipitur: tunc acce dinare.-Præterea in majoribus duplicibus festis teneter interesse regimini chori ad missam cum cæteris rectoribus chori. Item in omnibus duplicibus festis rectores chori de cantibus injungendis et incipiendis tenetur instruere.” Wilkins. Concilia. tom. i. p. 498. The Cantor was in this sense the same as the Præcentor, properly so called; and not (as I have suggested above) as Isidore uses the word, for a Rector chori: in which sense there might be more than one Precentor, as we find in an Epistle of Hincmar, cited by Du Cange, verb. Præcentor. “Præcentores, qui chorum utrinque regunt, sunt duces, &c." But the Præcentor strictly was "Primus Cantorum in Ecclesia; qui Cantoribus præest." The Bishop of Salisbury is Precentor of the College of Bishops: according to Lyndwood. "Habet namque Archiepiscopus Cantuariensis in Collegio Episcoporum Episcopos, Londinensem Decanum- -Sarisburiensem Præcentorem." lib. v. tit. 15. Eterna. v. tanquam. Compare also, lib. ii. tit. 3. verb. usum Sarum. It has been supposed that this distinction arose from the fame of the Salisbury Use, and Bp. Osmund. Thomas Archbishop of York, A.D. 1100, is said to have first appointed a Præcentor in that Cathedral. Collier. Ecc. Hist. vol. i. p. 281. A curious collection of signals by which the Cantor made known his will to the Choir, are given by Gerbert, from some foreign Monastic Statutes. These are all to be made by various movements of the hand and fingers. De Musica sacra, tom. i. p. 310, note a. 23 (Kyrie eleison, iij. Ebor.) From the 6th ch. of the 8th book of the Apostolical Constitutions, (quoted by Le Brun, vol. i. p. 80) it appears that the prayer, "Kyrie eleison," was used by the faithful in behalf of the Catechumens, "that God would be pleased to illumine them with the light of His Gospel, and fill them with the grace of His Holy Spirit." This prayer of course occurred before the dismissal of the Catechumens, and the beginning of the solemn part, the Canon. In the Ritualists, (vide especially Durant) may be found many reasons, some sufficiently fanciful, why these Kyrie were retained in the Greek, and not translated into Latin. I shall give the observation of Cardinal Bona upon the point. “Dicunt Latini in Missa Kyrie eleison Græce, dicunt etiam Hebraice Amen, Allelujah, Sabaoth, et Osanna : quia fortassis sic ab initio Ecclesiasticarum precum Institutores voces istas usurparunt, ut ostenderent unam esse Ecclesiam, quæ ex Hebrais, et Græcis primum, deinde ex Latinis HERFORD. officio sequitur, Kyrie eleyson. Christe eleyson. Kyrie eleyson. iij. ROM. Christe eleison. Christe eleïson. Christe eleison. Kyrie eleïson. Kyrie eleïson. Kyrie eleïson. coadunata est: vel quia mysteria nostræ fidei tribus hisce linguis ab Apostolis et Evangelistis, eorumque immediatis successoribus conscripta fuerunt : quæ quidem linguæ in titulo crucis quodammodo consecratæ sunt. Sed quæcumque fuerit causa hujus institutionis, certissimum est eam antiquissimam esse. Tom. iii. p. 73. 66 Upon certain Festivals these Kyrie were appointed in the English Church to be sung with several verses added to the original words. As, for example, upon the double feasts were to be sung either "Kyrie rex genitor:" or," Kyrie fons bonitatis:" or, Kyrie omnipotens pater," with two or three others, at the choice of the Precentor. Upon the Feast of the Epiphany was appointed always, “Kyrie fons bonitatis." Upon S. Michael's day, "Kyrie rex splendens," which also was appointed for S. Dunstan's day, who is said to have heard it sung by Angels in a dream. Below are two of these Kyrie. Kyrie, rex genitor ingenite vera essentia, eleyson. Kyrie, spiritus vivifice, vitæ vis, eleyson. Kyrie, utriusque vapor, in quo cuncta, eleyson. Kyrie expurgator scelerum, et largitor gratiæ, quæsumus propter nostras offensas noli nos relinquere, O consolator dolentis animæ, eleyson. 2. Kyrie, omnipotens pater ingenite nobis miseris, eleyson. Kyrie, indultor piissime procedens ab utroque, charismatum dator largissime, doctor vivifice, clemens, eleyson. SARUM. dant ministri ad altare ordinatim: primo ceroferarii duo pariter incedentes; deinde thuribularii: post, subdiaconus: exinde diaconus, post eum sacerdos: diacono et subdiacono casulis indutis. Quo facto sacerdos et sui ministri in sedibus paratis se recipiant, et expectent usque ad Gloria in excelsis: quod incipiatur semper in medio altaris quandocunque di▾ citur. 24 The rubric goes on into the following particulars. "Scilicet quotidie per adventum: et a septuagesima usque ad cœnam Domini quando de temporali dicitur missa: nisi in vigiliis et quatuor temporibus: manus tamen ad modum sacerdotis non habentibus: cæteris vero ministris, scilicet ceroferariis, thuribulario et acolyto in albis cum amictibus existentibus. In aliis vero temporibus anni quando de temporali dicitur missa, et in festis sanctorum totius anni, utantur diaconus et subdiaconus dalmaticis et tunicis nisi in vigiliis et quatuor temporibus: et nisi in vigiliis paschæ et penthecostes et nativitatis Domini si in dominica contingerit, et excepto jejunio quatuor temporum quod celebratur in ebdomada penthecostes: tunc dalmaticis et tunicis indui debent. In die parasceves et in rogationibus ad missam jejunii et processionibus et in missis dominicalibus et sanctorum quæ in cappis dicuntur, tunc enim albis cum amictibus utantur, ita tamen quod in tempore pasch. de quocunque dicitur missa, nisi in inventione sanctæ crucis utantur ministri vestimentis albis ad missam. Similiter fiat in festo annuntiationis beatæ Mariæ: et in conceptione ejusdem: et in utroque festo sancti Michaelis: et in festo sancti Johannis Apostoli in ebdomada nativitatis Domini: et per oct. et in oct. assumptionis et nativitatis beatæ Mariæ et in commemorationibus ejusdem per totum annum : et per oct. et in oct. dedicationis ecclesiæ. Rubeis vero utantur vestimentis omnibus dominicis per annum extra tempus paschæ quando de dominica agitur: et in quarta feria in capite jejunii: et in cœna Domini, et in utroque festo sanctæ crucis, in quolibet festo martyrum, apostolorum, et evangelistarum |