Servicebooks in

the Reformation.

substance of this was probably incorporated into the missal and other ritual books of Sarum, and ere long almost the whole of England, Wales, and Ireland adopted it. It did not, however, altogether exclude the other uses of York, Bangor, Hereford, and Lincoln. These were still observed in their respective districts but their influence was small when compared with the wide reception of the use of Sarum; and neither their authors, nor the exact limits within which they prevailed, can now be ascertained.

It appears from what has been said, that use before at the time of the Reformation the Roman service-books, according to the use or custom of Sarum, were generally prevalent in England. It will be proper now to give an account of those books, and of some others, to which the reformers had recourse.

The Breviary.

I. The Breviary. This was originally drawn up by or under the direction of Pope Gregory VII. in the eleventh century; and was a digest or compendium of the devotional offices in use at that time, many of which had been handed down from remote antiquity. Especially it contained the seven hours, or services for the seven seasons of the day, viz. matins, soon after midnight, prime, tierce,

sext, nones, said respectively at the first, third, sixth, and ninth hours of the day, counting from six in the morning, vespers at the eleventh, and compline at the twelfth hour, or six p.m. The Anglo-saxon names of the hours were uhtsang (from uhte, morning), primesang, undersang, (undern, the third hour) middaysang, nonsang, evensang, and nightsang1. The service of matins, taking place in the night, was sometimes also called nocturns; it was divided into three parts, consisting of psalms and hymns, and it ended with a service called lauds.

Besides the hours for every day of the week, the Breviary also contained special services for Sundays and saints' days, the office of the blessed Virgin, &c.

It is worthy of remark, that invocations of the Virgin Mary, and of the saints, had no place in any Breviary prior to the edition published by bishop Haylmo in the year 1278; and a practice, which had crept in some time previously, was then established, of curtailing the passages of Scripture appointed to be read, and of introducing apocryphal legends of the saints. The custom of observing the seven hours of the day had become obsolete before the Reformation; and it was usual to join

1 Canons of Ælfrie XIX. ap. Wilkins' Concilia, 1. 252.

Breviary of Quignonius.

together the five morning offices, and likewise the two evening offices, so as to have only one morning and one evening service: a practice which still continues in the Roman catholic Church. The appointment, therefore, of only two daily services in our Prayer Book, though a departure from the written order of the Breviary, was no innovation in practice.

From the services of the hours in the Breviary, our reformers selected portions, which with some few alterations and additions, make up our daily morning and evening service.

In the year 1536 cardinal Quignonius', at the request of Pope Clement VII, published a new and revised edition of the Breviary. His professed object was to give longer space in the Church-services to the reading of holy Scripture, and to diminish the quantity of apocryphal and legendary matter. In accordance with this view, he omitted many legends of saints, as well as the responds, anthems, &c., by which the reading of Scripture was interrupted. The title-page bore the motto, rarely put forward in the Roman Church, Scrutamini Scripturas, quoniam illæ sunt quæ testimonium perhibent de me. 'Search the Zaccaria, Bibliotheca Ritualis, p. 112.

1

Scriptures,' &c. The preface, which is written in elegant latinity, severely censures the abuses which had crept into the celebration of divine service; and some of his observations on this head have been incorporated in the preface to the Book of Common Prayer, in the section Concerning the service of the Church.' Compare, for instance, with a sentence in that section the following passage, in which he is speaking of the old Breviary: Accedit tam perplexus ordo, tamque difficilis precandi ratio, ut interdum paulo minor opera in requirendo ponatur, quam inveneris in legendo.'

The Breviary of Quignonius was a step in the right direction; and though the innovations which it made incurred the wrath of the doctors of the Sorbonne, it was permitted by the pope, and generally received in France, Flanders, and Germany. In the edition published by himself at Venice in 1547 he speaks of the first publication of the work as a 'deliberatio, ut sic, proposita nostra sententia, judicia multorum exquireremus.'

Pius V.

In conformity with a decree of the Council Breviary of of Trent, the Breviary was revised afresh, and published by Pope Pius V. in 1568, together with a decree, abolishing all the existing breviaries, and especially prohibiting that of Quig

The Missal.

The Ritual or Manual.

nonius, which on account of its reforming spirit, and the respect paid in it to the Scriptures, was probably the most obnoxious of all.

The Breviary of Sarum was first printed in 1499, at Paris.

II. The Missal. The book containing the order of the holy Communion was anciently called Sacramentarium; but the name Missal in time became more usual1, on account of the most important part of it, the order or 'canon' of the mass. It contained also the collects, epistles and gospels, and the introits or anthems sung at the beginning of the Communion-service. But the epistles and gospels were sometimes contained in a separate book, called the Lectionarium; and the anthems in a book, which from their being sung on the steps of the ambon or pulpit, was called the Graduale. To the Missal of Sarum we owe the greater number of our collects, epistles and gospels. Our Communion-service is a compilation formed from various ancient liturgies with a small portion of original matter.

III. The book containing the occasional offices was formerly called the ritual, or manual. From the Sarum manual were taken,