6] NICOLAS, BISHOP OF MYRA, IN LYCIA.-The great fame of St. Nicolas, like that of St. Catharine, is founded on a vast mass of picturesque legend rather than on anything we now really know about him. The earliest accounts of him which we have were written about five hundred years after his death, if, as is stated, it is to be placed A. D. 342. But the great veneration in which he was undoubtedly held in the Greek and Latin Churches in early times points to something extraordinary in his life and character. The Liturgy of St. Chrysostom contains a prayer in which his name is mentioned with that of other famous Eastern Saints, shewing in what honour he has long been held in the East, and he is still venerated in Russia next after the Holy Mother of God. Justinian built a church in his honour at Constantinople about A.D. 430, indeed he was titular saint of four churches there. The most remarkable legends concerning him are that when a new-born babe he stood up for two hours in an ecstasy, and on Wednesdays and Fridays refused to suck. Being left as a young man with a considerable fortune, he flung a bag of gold successively to each of three daughters, that they might marry honourably. When ordained priest he sailed for the Holy Land, and averted shipwreck by his prayers in a storm.

About A.D.

325 he was elected Bishop of Myra, and by the sign of the Cross restored to health a burned child. He is traditionally reported to have been present at the great Council of Nicæa, and is so represented in Eastern pictures of the Council. Here losing all patience with Arius, he dealt a violent blow at the jaw of that heretic, for which he had to undergo temporary deprivation and imprisonment. He is said to have obtained from the governor of Myra the release of three men imprisoned in a tower, the picture of which may have given rise to that of three children in a tub. The legend of his raising these children to life may be thus accounted for. He was much invoked by sailors, and accounted the patron of children. His tomb at Myra was much resorted to for a miraculous oil which flowed from it. In A. D. 1087 some merchants of Bari in southern Italy carried off the relics to their own city. The "Boy-bishop" pageants of the middle ages began on St. Nicolas' Day, and lasted till Childermas or Holy Innocents' Day. [Sar. Ep. and Gosp.: Ecclus. xliv. 17-23; xlv. 6, 7, 15, 16. St. Matt. xxv. 14-23.]

Calendars-All.

Dedications of Churches-Three hundred and seventy-two, and seven with St. Mary, one with St. Swithun.

Represented-With three children in a tub, or kneeling before him; with three golden balls in various ways, sometimes on a book with three loaves; with an anchor, or a ship in the background.

8] CONCEPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY.-The observation of this festival began in the East in early times, but did not become general in the West till the fifteenth century. As the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception became more developed in the Roman Communion, the festival was from time to time elevated in rank. The term "Immaculate," however, was not used in the Missal or Breviary till 1854, when Pius IX. made the doctrine of the "Immaculate Conception" an article of faith. [Sar. Ep. and Gosp.: Ecclus. xxiv. 17-22. St. Matt. i. 1-16.]

Calendars-All.

13] LUCY, VIRGIN AND MARTYR.-We know nothing of St. Lucy, as the sole authority for her story is her fabulous "Acts," a Christian romance similar to the "Acts" of some other virgin martyrs, though probably based on facts. She was highly honoured at Rome in the sixth century, as appears from the Sacramentary of St. Gregory, and her name occurs in the Nobis quoque of the Mass. St. Aldhelm wrote much about her, not only in prose, but in his poem De laude Virginitatis. The legendary account of her is that she was the daughter of a Christian lady in Syracuse, named Eutychia, and born in the latter part of the third century. Being asked in marriage by a young nobleman of Syracuse who was a Pagan, she declined his suit, having fully resolved to consecrate her virginity to God. Her mother was not aware of this, and wished her to marry the youth; but being restored from dangerous sickness after the prayers of her daughter at the tomb of St. Agatha at Catania [February 5th], she no longer advocated the marriage. Lucy then sold all her goods to feed the poor, and openly professed her dedication to Christ. Her former lover now hated her, and accused her

to the Governor Paschasius in the Diocletian persecution. Boldly confessing Christ, she was condemned to infamy worse than death, but was delivered miraculously. Then they tried to burn her with the aid of pitch, oil, and fagots, but this attempt also failed. At last her throat was cut with a sword, and she died A.D. 303, predicting the peace of the Church, and announcing that Syracuse as well as Catania should have a virgin martyr. St. Lucy's Day regulates the Ember Days in December. [Sar. Ep. and Gosp.: Ecclus. li. 912. St. Matt. xiii. 44-52.]

Calendars-All.

Dedications of Churches-Two.

Represented With eyes in a dish, or on a book; holding a dagger, pincers, or lamp; with a sword through her neck; in a caldron over a fire; oxen unable to drag her along; tormented by devils.

16] O SAPIENTIA.-The first of the seven antiphons of the Magnificat sung in preparation for Christmas. [See notes on Fourth Sunday in Advent.] The others were, on the 17th, O Adonai; 18th, O Radix Jesse; 19th, O Clavis David; 20th, O Oriens; 22nd, O Rex Gentium; 23rd, O Emmanuel (St. Thomas's Day having its own antiphon, O Thoma Didyme). These titles of Christ were sometimes called the "Seven Names." It has been maintained, with "much ingenuity,' and more ignorance, that "O Sapientia" was a saint, one of the eleven thousand virgins alleged to have suffered with St. Ursula. [BRADY's Clavis Calendaria, ii. 323.]

21] ST. THOMAS, APOSTLE AND MARTYR. [See notes on Gosp. Ep. and Coll.]

Dedications of Churches.-Forty-five.

Represented-With a carpenter's square; with a spear or arrow. The square is associated with a legend of St. Thomas building a palace for an Eastern king.

25] CHRISTMAS DAY.-[See notes on Gosp. Ep. and Coll.] Represented-The Nativity is pictured as having taken place in a stable; the ox and ass are invariably introduced [Isa. i. 3], also the "Star of Bethlehem" [St. Matt. ii. 9]. 26] ST. STEPHEN, THE FIRST MARTYR.-[See notes on Gosp. Ep. and Coll.]

Dedications of Churches-Forty, and one with St. Mary. Represented-As a deacon, holding one or more stones in various ways.

27] ST. JOHN, APOSTLE AND EVANGELIST.-[See notes on Gosp. Ep. and Coll.]

Dedications of Churches-About two hundred and forty. Represented-With a cup, out of which issue one or more serpents; with a palm branch; writing; as Evangelist, with an eagle; sometimes it holds his inkhorn in its beak as he writes.

28] INNOCENTS' DAY.-[See notes on Gosp. Ep. and Coll.] Dedications of Churches-Four.

Represented-Being slain by Herod's executioners with swords or daggers, Herod seated in a throne looking on.

31] SILVESTER, BISHOP OF ROME.-Silvester succeeded Melchiades as Bishop of Rome, January 31, A.D. 314. Constantine having defeated Maxentius two years before, and so gained political ascendancy for the Church. At his exhortation Constantine built many basilicas, and ornamented them in a splendid manner. The Roman Martyrology and Breviary say that Silvester baptized Constantine, which is an historical error not found in the Parisian or in the Sarum Breviary; the latter, however, docs contain a curious legend of the Pagans making Silvester descend into a dragon's den in the Tarpeian rock, where St. Peter and other saints appeared to him, and he delivered Rome from the malignity of the dragon. There is no doubt that Silvester issued several regulations with regard to ritual, etc., but the famous "Donation of Constantine," which pretended to give the temporal sovereignty to Silvester and his successors, is well known to be a gross forgery of the eighth century. Silvester died December 31, A.D. 335, and was buried in the cemetery of Priscilla on the Salarian Way, whence his body was removed to a church dedicated to him in the seventh century. [Sar. Ep. and Gosp.: Ecclus. l. 1, 4, 5-12, 15, 21-23. St. Matt. xxv. 14-23.]

Calendars- All

Dedications of Churches-One, that of Chevelstone, Devon. Represented-As a Pope, baptizing Constantine; an ox by his side, referring to a story of his bringing to life an ox that had been killed by magic.

THE ordinary daily Offices of the Christian Church were derived from the Jewish economy; the celebration of the Holy Eucharist being the distinctive devotional characteristic of Christianity. As David sang, "Seven times a day do I praise Thee" [Ps. cxix. 164]; and as Daniel "kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God" [Dan. vi. 10], so down to that period during which the old and the new economy overlapped each other. a constant habit of praise and prayer in connection with the morning and evening sacrifice, and at other hours of the day, was maintained in the Temple at Jerusalem, and in the Synagogues elsewhere. The Apostles continued the practice of devout Jews, and are spoken of in the book of their Acts as being in the Temple at the hour of prayer, or as offering their prayers elsewhere at the same hour. It was while they were all with one accord in one place" at "the third hour of the day "[Acts ii. 1, 15] that the Holy Ghost descended upon them: "Peter went up upon the house-top to pray about the sixth hour" [Ibid. x. 9]: Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour" [Ibid. iii. 1]: “at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God" [Ibid. xvi. 25] and in the early zeal of their first love all the believers "continued stedfastly. in the prayers" [raîs #poσevxais] "daily with one accord in the temple" [Ibid. ii. 42, 46], as a regular part of the system of that fellowship into which they had been baptized.

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When the habits of the Church began to be settled, it appears that the opening and the close of each day were appointed as the principal hours of prayer; and that the three intermediate times, the third, sixth, and ninth hours, were still recognized, and marked by public worship. Tertullian, after giving the Scriptural examples cited above, goes on to say that though these "stand simply without any precept for their observance, yet let it be thought good to establish any sort of presumption which may both render more strict the admonition to pray, and, as it were by a law, force us away sometimes from our business to this service, (even as was the custom of Daniel also, according no doubt to the rule of Israel,) that so we should pray at least not seldomer than three times a day, we who are debtors to the Three, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, exclusive, that is, of the regular prayers which are due, without any admonition, at the beginning of day and night.' [TERT. de Orat. ix. 26.] In his treatise on fasting he also calls the third, sixth, and ninth hours " Apostolic hours of prayer." St. Cyprian refers to the habits of Old Testament saints, and draws the rational conclusion that the events of the Gospel gave proof that there was a "sacrament," or mystery, in the ancient practice of righteous men offering prayers at these seasons, as if the spiritual instincts of good men were already moving in the light of the Cross. "But to us, dearest brethren," he says, "besides the hours of ancient time observed, both seasons and sacraments of prayer are increased in number. In the morning we must pray,' not waiting, that is, for the third hour, "that the Resurrection of the Lord may be commemorated with an early worship. This of old the Holy Spirit set forth in the Psalms, saying, My King and my God, unto Thee will I cry my voice shalt Thou hear in the morning; in the morning will I stand before Thee, and will look up.' [Ps. v. 2.] And again, by the prophet the Lord saith, Early in the morning shall they seek Me, saying, Come and let us return unto the Lord our God.' [Hosea vi. 1.] At sunsetting likewise, and the close of day, needful is it that we should again pray. Christ is the true Sun and the true Day, when at the going down of this world's sun and light we make prayer and peti

For as

tion that the day may again return unto us, we are petitioning for that coming of Christ, which will give to us the grace of the Light eternal." [CYPRIAN, de Orat. Dom. xxii.] In the Apostolical Constitutions the same habit of the Church is referred to in very distinct terms: "Ye shall make prayers. In the morning giving thanks, because the Lord hath enlightened you, removing the night, and bringing the day: at the third hour, because the Lord at that time received sentence from Pilate; at the sixth hour, because in it He was crucified; at the ninth hour, because all things were shaken when the Lord was crucified, trembling at the audacity of the impious Jews, not enduring that their Lord should be insulted; at evening giving thanks, because He hath given the night for rest from our daily labours; at cock-crowing, because that hour gives the glad tidings that the day is dawning in which to work the works of light." [Apostol. Constit. viii. 34.]

No account has come down to us which tells exactly of what these Primitive daily Offices consisted; but St. Basil in the fourth century speaks of them as being made up of psalmody mingled with prayers, and specifies the nineteenth Psalm as one which was invariably used at the sixth hour. The fifty-first Psalm is also shewn, from him and other writers, to have been constantly used in the night service; and the sixty-third was called the "Morning Psalm," being used at the beginning of the early service. The "Gloria in Excelsis" is also spoken of by St. Chrysostom as "the Morning Hymn" [see note in Communion Service], and the repetition of the Kyrie Eleison many times seems to have formed another part of these ancient services.

The daily Offices of the Eastern Church are of greater antiquity than those of the Western, and there is little doubt that they represent, substantially, the form into which the Primitive Offices for the hours of Prayer eventually settled down. Sufficient points of resemblance have been traced between these and the daily prayers used under the Jewish economy, to make it almost certain that the former were originally derived from the latter. But there are also many particulars in which the Western daily Offices, and especially those of the English Church,3 are analogous to those of the East; and although they cannot be traced higher, in their familiar form, than the rule of St. Benedict [A.D. 530], it can hardly be doubted that men like SS. Benedict and Gregory would build upon the old foundations of Primitive Services, such as those now represented by the hours of the Eastern Church. In the Ancient Sacramentaries there are several series of Collects for daily use: one set of twentythree in that of St. Gregory being entitled "Orationes de Adventu Domini quotidianis diebus:" another, of twenty, apparently for Lent, being headed "Orationes pro peccatis:' a third of many more in number being called "Orationes quotidiana.' There are also other sets in the same Sacramentary, "ad Matutinos lucescente die,' Orationes Matutinales," "Vespertinales," and "ad Completorium." What place such Collects occupied in the daily Offices is not quite clear, but they plainly shew that the Primitive habit of the Church was kept up, and that daily prayers were continually being offered in the Western as well as in the Eastern Church. Lessons from Holy Scripture were only read in the Synagogue on the Sabbath Day; in the Temple none at all (except the Decalogue) were ever read. This custom was continued throughout the Church even until the

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1 They are given at length in NEALE'S Introd. Hist. of Eastern Church, vol. ii. ch. iv. 2 FREEMAN'S I rine. Div. Serv. i, 65, 3 Vid. 106.

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time of St. Gregory: Epistles and Gospels being read at the Holy Communion, but no Lessons at the hours of Prayer. St. Gregory established a system which afterwards developed into that of the Breviary Lessons, but in the Eastern Church the Primitive practice of reading Holy Scripture at the celebration of the Eucharist, and on Sunday only at other offices, is still maintained.

In Mediæval times the daily Offices were developed into a very beautiful, but a very complex form; being moulded exclusively to the capacities of Clergy and Laity living in communities, separated from the world especially for a work of prayer and praise, which was seldom interrupted by the calls of other avocations. Those used in England differed in several important respects from the Roman Breviary, and are supposed to have had the same origin as the Communion Office, the lineage of which is traced in the Introduction to the Communion Service to the Church of Ephesus. Like those of the Eastern and Roman Churches, they consisted nominally of seven separate services or hours [see p. 17]; but as in those churches at the present day these seven hours are aggregated into three, or even two services, so it is probable was the case, to a great extent, in the Mediaval Church of England, and the whole seven were only kept by a small number of the most strict among the Clergy and religious. The Reformers condensed the seven hours instead of aggregating them, and thus gave us Mattins and Evensong, as in the manner shewn by the Table at p. 17. At the same time, the publication of Edward VI.'s and Queen Elizabeth's Primers shewed that they by no means intended to hinder, but rather to encourage those who still wished to observe the ancient hours of Prayer and the Devotions of Bishop Cosin, with other Manuals framed on the same model, have given many devout souls the opportunity of supplementing the public Mattins and Evensong with prayers at other hours that equally breathed the spirit of the ancient Church.

1 FREEMAN's Princ. Div. Serv. i. 246.

:

In making this change the Reformers were doubtless endeavouring to secure by a modification of the Services what the theory of the Church had always required, the attendance of the Laity as well as the Clergy at the Daily Offices of Praise and Prayer. From very early days the Church of England had enjoined the Laity to be present at them, as may be seen in the collection of Decrees and Canons on the subject printed by Maskell [Mon. Rit. Ang. III. xxv-xxxiv.]; but these injunctions appear to have been little obeyed, and their constant absence led the Clergy to deal with the Breviary as if it was intended for their own use alone, its structure becoming so complex that none but those who had been long used to handle it could possibly follow the course of the services day by day. In forming out of these complex services such simple and intelligible ones as our present Morning and Evening Prayer, a new opportunity was offered to the Laity of uniting their hearts and voices with those of the Clergy in a constant service of daily praise and

prayer.

Churches without such an offering of Morning and Evening Prayer are clearly alien to the system and principles of the Book of Common Prayer, if taken in their strict sense; and to make the offering in the total absence of worshippers seems scarcely less so. But as every Church receives blessing from God in proportion as it renders to Him the honour due unto His Name, so it is much to be wished that increased know. ledge of devotional principles may lead on to such increase of devotional practice as may make the omission of the daily Offices rare in the Churches of our land. Then indeed might the time come when the Church of England could say, “Thou, O God, sentest a gracious rain upon Thine inheritance; and refreshedst it when it was weary." It might look for the developement of a perennial vigour springing from that "third hour of the day" when the Apostles first went forth in the might of their supernatural endowments; and it might hope to meet with answers from on high, as sure as that which was given to Elijah "about the time of the Evening Sacrifice."

THE

the accustomed place of the Church, Chapel, or Chancel] The rubric determining the place in which Mattins and Evensong (as distinct from the Litany and the Holy Communion) are to be said or sung has remained unaltered since the revision of Queen Elizabeth's reign, A.D. 1559.

In the first English Prayer Book, that of 1549, the germ of this rubric stood at the head of Morning Prayer in the words, "The Priest being in the Quire, shall begin with a loud voice the Lord's Prayer, called the Pater noster;" the Quire being thus taken for granted as the place where Divine Service was to be said or sung.

In the second Prayer Book, that of 1552, the rubric was enlarged in this form: "The Morning and Evening Prayer shall be used in such place of the Church, Chapel, or Chancel, and the Minister shall so turn him, as the people may best hear. And if there be any controversy therein, the matter shall be referred to the Ordinary, and he or his deputy shall appoint the place, and the chancels shall remain as they have done in times past."

At this time many Puritans, such as Bishop Hooper, desired to have the ancient custom altered, and the service said in the nave of the Church. “I could wish," said Hooper, "that the magistrates should put both the preacher, minister, and the people into one place, and shut up the partition called the chancel which separates the congregation of Christ one from the other." [HOOPER'S Serm. iv. on Jonah.] The practice of saying the service in the chancel was also declared to be "Antichristian" by Martin Bucer: and on this plea it was forbidden in Queen Elizabeth's reign by a few lawless Bishops, such as Scambler of Peterborough.

in

And the Chancels shall remain as they have done in times past] This does not mean that the chancels are not to be destroyed, but that their interior arrangement shall continue as times past," that is, in times before 1552, when the words were introduced into the rubric. A century later Archbishop Juxon's Visitation Articles inquire, "Do the chancels remain as they have done in times past, that is to say, in the convenient situation of the seats, and in the ascent or steps appointed anciently for the standing of the Holy Table?"

To meet the growing disposition to disuse and dismantle the chancels, some special directions were given among "Orders" issued in the latter part of 1561. It was there ordered that Rood lofts which remained untransposed shall be so altered, that the upper part of the same, with the Soller, be quite taken down, unto the upper parts of the vaults and beam running in length over the said vaults, by putting some convenient crest upon the said beam towards the Church,

1 "Orders taken the x day of October, in the third year of the reign of our Sovereign Lady, Elizabeth, Queen of England, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, ete. By virtue of her Majesty's Letters addressed to her Highness' Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical as followeth." [Brit. Mus. 5155 ng. They are printed in HEVLIN'S Hist. Reform. Eccl. Hist. Soc. ed. 1849, ii. 360; and also in PERRY's Larful Church Ornaments, p. 276.]

with leaving the situation of the seats (as well in the Quire as in the Church) as heretofore hath been used. Provided yet that where any parish of their own costs and charges by common consent will pull down the whole frame, and re-edifying the same in joiners' work (as in divers churches within the city of London doth appear), that they may do as they think agreeable, so it be to the height of the upper beam aforesaid. Provided also that where in any parish church the said Rood loftes be already transposed, so that there remain a comely partition betwixt the Chancel and the Church that no alteration be otherwise attempted in them, but be suffered in quiet. And where no partition is standing, there to be one appointed."

Up to a still later date there was, in fact, no other place provided for the Clergy to say the service from than the ancient seats in the chancel, and the "accustomed place" was the "pue" (beginning then to be so called) in which the Clergy and singers sat, and of which one was ordinarily situated on each side of the chancel.

In the Advertisements of 1565, to which the authority of the Crown could not be obtained, and which were issued by Archbishop Parker on his own responsibility for the Province of Canterbury only, it was directed that the Common Prayer be said or sung decently and distinctly, in such place as the Ordinary shall think meet for the largeness and straitness of the church and choir, so that the people may be most. edified." [CARDW. Docum. Ann. i. 291.] This shews the origin of the "reading-desk" in the nave of the church, which eventually became so common. Such a disuse of the chancel led to an important change in the character of Divine Service by the abolition of choral service, the "clerks" who were accustomed to sit in the chancel seats and sing the responsive parts of the service being reduced to one "clerk," who sat in a seat in front of the "reading-desk," and said them in a manner that was seldom befitting the dignity of Divine Service. Instead, moreover, of the chancels remaining as they had done in times past, they were too often looked on either as a kind of lumber-room, to be cleared out once a quarter for the administration of the Holy Communion; or as a part of the church where the most comfortable and honourable seats were provided for the richer laity. Such customs have tended to obscure the sense of the rubric, and are recalled to memory only for the purpose of explaining how it came to be so disregarded in modern times.

In Griffin e. Dighton, Chief-Justice Erle decided (on appeal in 1864) that the chancel is, by the existing law, the place appointed for the Clergyman and for those who assist him in the performance of Divine Service; and that it is entirely under his control as to access and use, subject to the jurisdiction of the Ordinary.

And here is to be noted, That such Ornaments of the Church] This has been popularly called "The Ornaments Rubric," and may also be fittingly regarded as the Interpretation Clause to