to draw up in English certain processions, to be used upon festival days: and in giving an account of his doings he adds, "if your grace command some devout and solemn note to be made thereunto, I trust it will much excitate and stir the minds of all men unto devotion and godliness: but in mine opinion, the song that shall be made thereunto would not be full of notes, but as near as may be, for every syllable a note: so that it may be sung distinctly and devoutly, as be in the Matins and Evensong, Venite, the Hymns, Te Deum, Benedictus, Magnificat, Nunc dimittis, and all the Psalms and Versicles; and in the Mass Gloria in Excelsis, Gloria Patri, the Creed, the Preface, the O Pater sancte mitis. O sator rerum reparator ævi. O Thoma Christi perlustrator. Splendor paternæ gloriæ. Te lucis ante terminum. Tu Christe nostrum gaudium. Vox clara ecce intonat. Verbum supernum prodiens; a Veni redemptor gentium. Veni Creator Spiritus mentes. Virginis proles opifex. Verbum supernum prodiens: nec Pater noster and some of the Sanctus and Agnus. As concerning the Salve festa dies, the Latin note as I think, is sober and distinct enough: wherefore I have travailed to make the verses in English, and have put the Latin note unto the same. Nevertheless they that be cunning in singing, can make a much more solemn note thereto. I made them only for a proof, to see how English would do in song.' "67 Three dates, adds the editor, are given to this letter, 1543, 1544, 1545. Of which the second is, in his opinion, the most probable. Barely five years after, Merbecke, under the Archbishop's patronage, published the Common Prayer Book noted. Yet must I say a few words upon a book of which more than one edition was printed: viz. the Expositio Hymnorum. I have a copy before me printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1517, 4to. of which the title is Expositio hymnorum totius anni secundum usum Sarum, diligentissime recognitorum, multis elucidationibus aucta." Gough classes this among the service books, which is one reason I should notice it, but he is wrong, for it is not so: and he manages to throw in an insinuation,68 as if the clergy of the day required such a book to comprehend the Latin which they sung, which is another and stronger reason why I cannot pass it by. it by. We must remember, by way of excuse for him, that Gough wrote when no opportunity was to be lost of sneering at and maligning the "dark ages," among which the xvth and part of the xvith centuries were not forgotten: indeed few authors would 67 Cranmer's Remains. Vol. 1. 315. Collier. Vol. 2. 206. 68 See above, p. xi. have been tolerated, who upon such a subject omitted this sort of spice to season their absurdities. The Expositio has no reference to the clergy, and is merely a school book written to supply a deficiency which was not much thought of in the schools of the enlightened eighteenth century, viz. religious ignorance.9 The following is a specimen of the contents. The first verse of a noble hymn which used to be sung at matins. "Ales diei nuntius; lucem propinquam præcipit: nos excitator mentium: jam Christus ad vitam vocat." 66 C Materia hujus hymni est exhortatio Christi ad nos, ut surgamus vitiis, et adhæreamus virtutibus: et præmittit exemplum de gallo. Sicut enim gallicantus nos excitat vel vocat lucente die, sic Christus excitat mentes nostras et vocat nos per scripturas sacras, prænuntians quod est venturus judicare super justos et injustos. Unde bene dicitur: surgite et vigilate, quia nescitis diem neque horam. &c. Construe. Ales. i. (id est) gallus nuntius diei. præcipit. i. prædicit lucem .i. diem. nobis propinquam Christus excitator mentium: scilicet nostrarum vocat jam nos ad vitam .i. nunc vocat nos ad se.' 9970 In the Peterborough catalogue are two entries of a book, of which it is not possible to say, whether it was an Expositio Hymnorum as just described, or a com 69 The book has a short pre- ut religionis obliviscamini.” face, in which the writer, after saying that boys should not know more about Æneas and Dido than of the sacred History, adds this commendation of the then masters of English schools. Anglicani præceptores in primis laudo qui non sic literas colitis " Vos 70 The Expositio of 1517, is certainly one of the most carelessly printed of Wynkyn de Worde's books. The types and appearance are as usual with that printer, excellent: but it is full of typographical errors. mentary upon them of a higher class, like the Elucidatorium of Clichtoveus; I should suppose the latter. This book is the "Hymnarius glosatus."" I am scarcely justified perhaps in alluding to it at all, as it was in no sense a service book or ritual; but in this, as in one or two other cases, I have been anxious to notice any thing which would seem to throw light upon the subject. The "Liber canticorum," ordered in the 21st of the canons of Ælfric cited above, p. xv. I have no doubt contained, besides the canticles, the hymns which were then used in the Anglo-Saxon churches. The more modern hymnals did not include the canticles, which were in such cases added to the Psalter: and alone would be quite sufficient in number, especially if noted, to form a volume. They may be seen in the collection by Thomasius, compiled from antient sources. In the same canon, are the "Liber epistolarum," and "Liber evangeliorum," which have already been spoken of, and will again come before us, under their more common titles of Epistolare, and Evangelistarium. In Elfric's time, the missal had not arrived at its complete state, and the separate volumes were necessary for all churches. The "Passionale" likewise ordered by Ælfric, contained the lections of the sufferings and acts of the saints and martyrs: 7 these were afterwards, as we have seen, included in their proper order in the Lectionary or Legenda of later ages, though in the time of 71 Gunton. Hist. Peterborough, p. 189. 205. 72 Durand. Rationale. Lib. vi. Cap. i. 29. "Passionarius est liber continens passiones sanctorum, et legitur in festis martyrum." Compare also Du Cange. Glossarium. which I am now speaking, this latter title seems to have been rather appropriated to the lections from the canonical books. Other names for the Passionale, were Passionalis, and Passionarium: and Zaccaria 73 mentions some copies still extant in libraries abroad. The same writer in another work, says that it was also called Sanctorale: but he gives no example: and I should rather conjecture this latter to have been a sort of "Golden Legend," or "Lives of the Saints." There were possibly Passionals of another kind in the Anglo-Saxon Church, as there certainly were in later times, which contained only the history of the Passion of our Blessed Lord from the four gospels: but I do not suppose this to have been meant in the Archbishop's canon. Such was that which is described in the supplement to Du Cange, "Passionaire appellatur, liber passionem Christi ex evangeliis complectens, in inventar. S. Capel. Paris." And again, there is such an one still preserved in the library of the University of Cambridge; (Hh. 1. 4.) containing the whole history of our B. Saviour's Passion divided into 65 parts or sections, with a short prayer between each, referring to and grounded upon the various details.75 So, once more, we have apparently both these Passionals included in a copy preserved at Messana, described by 73 Bibl. Ritualis. Tom. 1. p. 101. 74 Thesaurus Theologicus. Tom. 1. p. 434. A rare and very valuable work. 75 In the same Library, Ii. 3. 30, has much the character of a Passionale: it contains many lives and passions of the saints, divided into lections. In the 13th century, there were in the church at Glastonbury, seven volumes, called "Passionalia Mensalia ;" this was no doubt a complete series for the year. See John Glaston. Chron. Hearn, p. 436. |