Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

Note also, that the Collect, Epistle, and Gospel appointed for the Sunday shall serve all the week after, where it is not in this Book otherwise ordered.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[blocks in formation]

it would not produce the effect desired upon mixed congregations, and was better fitted for monastic than for popular use.

Some changes in the direction of our present Lectionary were made in the new and reformed editions of the Salisbury Portiforium, which were printed in 1516 and 1531: and more extensively by Cardinal Quignonez in his Reformed Roman Breviary of 1536. In this latter two lessons were appointed for ordinary days, one from the Old and another from the New Testament; and a third, generally from a Patristic Homily, for festivals. These were about the length of our Epistles and Gospels, or somewhat longer than most of them.

In the Prayer Book of 1549 our present system of daily and Proper Lessons was established, both being indicated in the Calendar, except in the case of the moveable festivals, when the chapter and verse for Mattins were referred to before the Introit (which preceded the Collect, Epistle, and Gospel of the day), and for Evensong after the Gospel. There were no Proper Lessons for ordinary Sundays, the books of Holy Scripture being read continuously on those as well as on week-days: nor were there so many proper lessons for festivals as there now are.

When Queen Elizabeth restored the use of the Prayer Book in

1 It is observable that the Sunday Proper Lessons again break up that orderly system of reading the books of Holy Scripture through which is spoken of in the Preface. More than a hundred chapters of the Old Testament are thus displaced and omitted every year.

[ocr errors]

Mattins.

Exod. xvi. Matt. xxviii.

Exod. xx.
Luke xxiv. to v.
Ecclus. iv. [13.

vii. John i. v. 43.

Deut. x. Lukexxiv.v.44.

Gen. xi. to v.10. 1 Cor. xii.

1 Sam. xix.v.18. 1 Thess. v. v.

[12 to v. 24. Ecclus. x. Acts xiv.

Malachi iii. Matt. iii.

Ecclus. xv. Acts iii. Ecclus. xxi.

xxiv. XXXV.

Gen. xxxii.

Acts xii. to v.20. Ecclus. li.

Job xxiv., XXV.

[blocks in formation]

Wisd.iii.tov.10. Wisd.v.tov.17. Heb. xi. v. 33, Apoc. xix. to r. & c. xii. to v. 7. [17.

| 1559, the Tables of Proper Lessons were introduced, which were nearly identical with those now in the Prayer Book; and they were settled in their present form in 1661, all the changes being written in the margin of Bishop Cosin's Durham Prayer Book. It is scarcely probable that any thing more was known of the primitive mode of reading Holy Scripture, by the Reformers of the sixteenth century, than is known by ourselves: yet in the Preface Archbishop Cranmer speaks of the manner in which the "ancient Fathers" ordered the whole Bible to be read over once every year. It has, however, been pointed out that there are some coincidences between our modern customs and those of primitive times, which seem as if they could hardly be accidental. Thus, during Advent, the lessons for Sundays are selected from the book of Isaiah, and the same book was prescribed to be read during Advent by the Ordo Romanus. From Septuagesima to the Fifth Sunday in Lent, we read the book of Genesis on Sundays. St. John Chrysostom preached his homilies on this book at Antioch during Lent, and he remarks in several places that Genesis was appointed to be read at that season. After Pentecost the books of Samuel and Kings are read; and still later the books of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, while Tobit and Judith are read nearer to Advent. The same order may be observed in the forms of the Church described by Rupertus Tuitensis (A.D. 1100), and in the Ordo Romanus. Coincidences may also be pointed out between the ancient lessons for parD

[ocr errors]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

RULES TO KNOW WHEN THE MOVEABLE FEASTS
AND HOLYDAYS BEGIN.

EASTER DAY, on which the rest depend, is always the First Sunday
after the Full Moon which happens upon, or next after the Twenty-first
Day of March; and if the Full Moon happens upon a Sunday, Easter Day
is the Sunday after.

Advent Sunday is always the nearest Sunday to the Feast of S. Andrew, whether before or after.

[blocks in formation]

ticular feasts mentioned in the latter formulary, and our own.
Thus at the Nativity, Isaiah, chap. ix., is appointed in both; on
the feast of St. Stephen, Acts, chap. vi.; on the feast of St. John,
Apocalypse, chap. i.; at the Epiphany, Isaiah, chap. ix. (which
was also the custom in the time of Maximus, Bishop of Turin,
A.D. 450); on the feast of St. Peter, Acts, chap. iii." [Palmer's
Origines Liturgicæ, i. 254.]

The cycle of the Sunday Proper Lessons appears to have been
formed in illustration of GOD's dealings with the Church of the
Old Testament, though this idea is sometimes subordinated to the
season, as in the Lessons for some of the Sundays in Lent. That
for the other Holydays (with a few exceptions) is made up out of
the didactic books of the Old Testament and the Apocrypha, and
is not connected in any way with the Sunday cycle. The acci-
dental combination of the fixed cycle of Proper Lessons with the
variable one of the Second Lessons sometimes throws a wonderful
flood of light upon both the Old and New Testament Scriptures:
and it may be doubted whether any equal advantage would be
gained by the substitution of Proper Lessons from the latter for
the present system of reading it in order.

TABLE OF PROPER PSALMS.

The only days for which Proper Psalms were appointed previously to 1661, were Christmas Day, Easter Day, Ascension

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

taken out of Bishop Cosin's Collection of Private Devotions. Previous editions of the Prayer Book contained "an Almanack for thirty-nine years," which was the same as our "Table of Moveable Feasts;" a "Table to find Easter for ever;" the list of days beginning "Septuagesima," but without Ascension Day, and without any prefix whatever; and a short list of Holydays. The general title, Tables and Rules, &c.," is in the Durham Book in Bishop Cosin's handwriting: and all the ecclesiastical alterations and insertions appear to have been made by him. The chronological apparatus of the Calendar was, however, revised by Dr. John Pell (a very learned man, and a friend of Vossius 1), in conjunction with Sancroft as secretary to the Committee of Revision. Of this chronological apparatus there is no trace whatever in Bishop Cosin's Prayer Book. In 1752 (24 Geo. II.) "an Act for regulating the commencement of the year, and for correcting the Calendar," was passed, and from this the present tables of the Prayer Book are printed, not from the Sealed Books.

§ Rules to know when the Moveable Feasts and Holydays begin.

These rules stand exactly as they do in Cosin's Devotions, as published in 1627: except that the day of the month is substituted for the words " Equinoctial of the Spring in March." The rule for finding Easter (founded on a decree of the Council of Nicæa) is not quite exactly stated. Instead of "Full Moon" it ought to say, "the 14th day of the Calendar Moon, whether that day be the actual Full Moon or not." In some years (as in 1818 and 1845) the Full Moon and Easter coincide, and this rule then contradicts the Tables.

It was the strange fate of this learned man to be so poor that he could not get even pens, ink, and paper, and the necessaries of life: and he was buried by the charity of Dr. Busby in the Rector's vault at St. Giles's in the Fields.

[blocks in formation]

This Table is not in Cosin's Devotions, though the days are all marked in the Calendar of the volume; but it is in MS. in the margin of his Durham Prayer Book. The remarks made by him in the Notes on the Prayer Book published in the fifth volume of his works show that he had long wished to see a more complete list of the Holydays of the Church printed in the Calendar; and that he thought the abbreviated list of former Prayer Books was the fault of the printer.

All the Feasts in this table have their own Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, and notices of the days will be found in the footnotes appended to these in their proper places.

[blocks in formation]

Note, that if any of these Feast Days fall upon a Monday, then the Vigil or Fast Day shall be kept upon the Saturday, and not upon the Sunday next before it.

[blocks in formation]

III. The Three Rogation Days, being the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before Holy Thursday, or the Ascension of our LORD.

IV. All the Fridays in the Year, except Christmas Day.

A SOLEMN DAY,

FOR WHICH A PARTICULAR SERVICE IS APPOINTED.

The Twentieth Day of June, being the Day on which her Majesty began her happy Reign.

§ The Table of Vigils, Fasts, and Days of Abstinence. This, together with the "certain Solemn Days" (now reduced to one), originally appeared in Cosin's Devotions, and is also written in the margin of the Durham Prayer Book. At the end of the MS. note is written an addition taken from the Devotions, but not eventually printed in the Prayer Book:

"By the ecclesiastical laws of this Realm, there be some times in the year wherein Marriages are not usually solemnized 1; viz. Advent

[blocks in formation]

Sunday until

Seight days after the Epiphany.

eight days after Easter.
Trinity Sunday.”

Cosin also wrote, "All the Fridays in the year except the twelve days of Christmas."

Some notes on the subject of Fasting will be found under the head of Lent [p. 90]; the Ember Days are noticed in connexion with Ordination Services, and the Rogation Days in the Notes to the Fifth Sunday after Easter [p. 110].

All Festivals have Evens, including Sundays, but only some 1 See notes on the Marriage Service.

have Vigils. The festivals that fall during the seasons of Christ. mas, Easter, and Whitsuntide have no vigils, Fridays being the only days of Abstinence in those joyous periods. St. Luke's day is without a Vigil, either because the Evangelist is thought to have died in peace without martyrdom, or because the minor festival of St. Etheldreda occupies the 17th of October. Michaelmas Day is without a Vigil, because the Holy Angels had no day of trial like the Saints before entering into Heaven: and of this the Vigil is a symbolical observance. The use of the words Vigil and Even at the time when the Prayer Book was first translated is illustrated by the following passage from Cranmer's answer to the Devonshire rebels:-"For as Vigils, otherwise called Watchings, remained in the calendars upon certain saints' evens because in old times the people watched all those nights. ... but now these many years those vigils remained in vain in the books, for no man did watch." [Strype's Cranmer, ii. 533.]

The Vigil was originally that which its name indicates, a night spent in watching and prayer. The scandals which arose out of these nocturnal Services, however, made it necessary to abolish them [Durand. vi. 7]; and a fast on the day before was sub

« ZurückWeiter »