To succour, help, and comfort] 1544. Primer of 1535 prays for "all extreme poverty," "Thy people in affliction or in peril, and danger by fire, water, or land." Hermann, "afflictos et periclitantes." Sarum and York have, “to look upon and relieve the miseries of the poor." So Dominican.

All that travel] 1544. Compare Hereford, "that Thou wouldest dispose the journey of Thy servants in salutis tuæ prosperitate" (as in the Collect, "Assist us mercifully," originally a prayer for one about to travel); and Dominican, "to bring to a harbour of safety all faithful persons, navigantes et itinerantes." York has, "to give to our brethren and all faithful people who are sick, health of mind and body;" and Sarum and York add " 'captives" to " 'the poor," in the suffrage above cited. Compare the entreaty in Primer of 1535, "that teeming women may have joyful speed in their labour,” and for "sick people." So Hermann, "for pregnant women, infants, and the sick, and captives." Compare also this and the preceding and following suffrages of our Litany, with intercessions in St. Chrysostom's Liturgy, "for the young, for those that travel by land or by water;" with St. Basil's," Sail Thou with the voyagers, travel with the travellers, stand forth for the widows, shield the orphans, deliver the captives, heal the sick, remember all who are in affliction or necessity be all things to all men;" with the Gelasian prayer on Good Friday, that God would "open prisons, loosen chains, grant a return to travellers, health to the sick, a safe harbour to those at sea ;" and with the Ambrosian Preces for first Sunday in Lent, "for orphans, captives, voyagers, travellers, those placed in prisons, in mines" (at forced labour there), "in exile." Probably, in these ancient intercessions, what was specially before the Church's mind was unjust and cruel imprisonment, so common in hard and lawless times, or under a Cæsarean despotism. To visit Christian prisoners was the delight of St. Leonard, the contemporary of Clovis I.; and St. Bathildis, Queen of Clovis II., "remembering her own bondage" (she had been a Saxon captive), "set apart vast sums for the redemption of captives." [Milman's Latin Christianity, ii. 221.] The fatherless children, and widows] One of the tenderest petitions in the Prayer Book, and full of touching significance, as

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offered to Him who entrusted His Mother to His Apostle. It was placed here in 1544 (the words being clearly suggested by such passages as Ps. cxlvi. 9; Jer. xlix. 11), but, like other passages of that date, is true to the old spirit of Church prayer. St. Mark's Liturgy prays for the widow and the orphan. Hermann, “ut pupillos et viduas protegere et providere digneris."

In "all that are desolate and oppressed," the Church seems to sweep the whole field of the sorrow which comes from "man's inhumanity to man," and which no civilization can abolish; and invokes for every such sufferer the help of Him whose sympathy is for all at once, and for each as if there were none beside. This indeed is one of the most stupendous results of the Incarnation, although perhaps but seldom faced in thought: that our Lord's sacred Heart is, so to speak, really accessible at once to all who need its inexhaustible compassion: He cares for each, not only as God, but as Man, with a special, personal, human tenderness, to which His Godhead gives a marvellous capacity of extension.

Mercy upon all men] This also is of 1544: the Primer of 1535 had expressed the same all-comprehending charity: "that unto all people Thou wilt show Thy inestimable mercy." The Church has ever prayed for all men. That her prayers do not avail for all, is not from any defect in her charity, or in the Divine benignity, but from the bar which a rebellious will can oppose to the powers of the kingdom of grace. Bp. Duppa's note is, "The objection against this is answered by what St. Paul saith, 1 Tim. ii. 4: the prayer being made in the same sense as God is said to will that all men should be saved."

Forgive our enemies] 1544: Primer of 1535, "forgive all warriors, persecutors, and oppressors of Thy people, and convert them to grace." Our present form (which is the same as Hermann's) is certainly preferable, and more like the Anglo-Saxon, "to bestow on our enemies peace and love." Compare St. Chrysostom's Liturgy: "for those who hate and persecute us for Thy Name's sake; for those who are without, and are wandering in error" (compare a previous suffrage), "that Thou wouldest convert them to what is good, and appease their wrath against us." to give and preserve to our use the kindly fruits] "Kindly" of course means natural, produced after their kind. See Abp.

Carthusian, Hermann. The Sarum Litany for the Dying had also, "Grant him peace:" the ordinary Sarum Litany had a special suffrage for peace, and "grant us peace" was familiar as the response to the third Agnus said at Mass, immediately after the breaking of the Blessed Sacrament: the Primer of 1535 has, "Have mercy, Have mercy, Give us peace and rest." The great value of this supplication consists in its recognition of our Blessed Lord as the Victim that was once indeed slain, but is of perpetual efficacy. He took away our sins, in one sense, by His atoning Passion and the Atonement can never be repeated. In another sense, He continually takes away our sins, by appearing for us as "the Lamb that was slain," presenting Himself as such to the Father, and pleading the virtue of His death. In this sense, as Bp. Phillpotts says [Pastoral of 1851, p. 54], "though once for all offered, that Sacrifice is ever living and continuous To Him His Church . . . continually cries, Lamb of God . . . not, that tookest away, but still takest." With regard to the petition to the Prince of peace, who "is our Peace," for peace, compare the second Collect at Evensong. It is Christ's peace, not the world's and this is brought out by the addition of "thy" in our form. Very touching are the entreaties in the Litany of the Abbey of St. Denis for St. Mark's day [Martene iv. 353], "O bestower of peace, vouchsafe us perpetual peace, Have mercy O benignant Jesus, receive our souls in peace," &c.

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O Christ, hear us] Hereford: so too in Sarum Primer, and Roman. The supplication also occurs in Mabillon's Caroline

ATER noster, qui es in cœlis; sanctificetur nomen tuum: adveniat regnum tuum: fiat voluntas tua, sicut in cœlo, et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie: et dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris : et ne nos inducas in tentationem: sed libera nos a malo. Amen.

Domine, non secundum peccata nostra facias nobis.

Neque secundum iniquitates nostras retribuas nobis.

DEUS, qui contritorum non despicis

gemitum, et mærentium non spernis affectum; adesto precibus nostris, quas pietati tuæ pro tribulatione nostra offerimus: implorantes ut nos clementer respicias, et solito pietatis tuæ intuitu tribuas, ut quicquid contra nos diabolicæ fraudes atque humanæ

Salisbury Use.

ordinary Ambrosian Litany has thrice, "O Christ, hear our voices:" then thrice, "Hear, O God, and have mercy upon us." Such "repetitions" are not "vain," unless those in Ps. cxxxvi. are so: and compare Matt. xxvi. 44.

Lord, have mercy] Sarum, York, &c. This is the only occasion on which, with us, the people repeat every one of the three sentences of the Kyrie after the Minister. Such was the old Sarum rule as to this Kyrie. [See also p. 22.]

Our Father] Here begins the Second Part of the Litany. O Lord, deal not with us] In Sarum this verse and response, adapted from Psalm ciii. 10, were separated from the Lord's Prayer by "O Lord, show Thy mercy-And grant-Let Thy mercy come also upon us, O Lord, Even Thy salvation, according to Thy word: We have sinned with our fathers, We have done amiss and dealt wickedly." In York only this last verse and response intervene. In Roman, "O Lord, deal not," comes later. In the ordinary Parisian, it comes, as with us, immediately after the Lord's Prayer.

O God, merciful Father] This is very slightly altered from the Collect in the Sarum Mass "pro tribulatione cordis :" the Epistle being 2 Cor. i. 3—5, the Gospel, John xvi. 20-22. There is something pathetically significant in this adoption (1544) into

the ordinary Litany of a prayer composed for "cloudy and dark days." It may remind us of the selection of part of this same passage from 2 Cor. i., as the capitulum of the ordinary Sunday Vespers in Roman, and Saturday Vespers in Sarum. The lesson is obvious-that God is always needed as a Comforter. It may be added, that a somewhat different version of this Sarum prayer occurs in the Missal published in 1552 by Flaccus Illyricus, and supposed to represent the use of Salzburg in the tenth or eleventh century. By comparing our English with the Sarum form, it will be seen that we have added "merciful Father," "Thy servants," "evermore," and made a general reference to "all" troubles, "whensoever they oppress us :" omitting a reference to God's "accustomed" loving-kindness,-the clause, “but delivered from all tribulation and distress," and "being comforted" in the final clause. Hermann's and Luther's form is very like ours, but somewhat stronger, "in the afflictions which continually oppress us."

:

O Lord, arise] This, the last verse of our Psalm xliv., slightly altered, occurs, after several Preces, in the York Litany. It also occurs in the Sarum and York rites for Rogation Monday. In Sarum, the whole choir in their stalls repeated this "O Lord, arise," with Alleluia. Then was said, "O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us," that being the whole of the first verse of the Psalm according to the Vulgate and then "immediately follows, Gloria." Then again, "O Lord, arise:" after which the procession set forth, the chanter commencing the Antiphon, "Arise, ye saints, from your abodes," &c. Another Antiphon began, "We and all the people will walk in the name of the Lord our God." In York the first "Exurge" was an anthem, "in cundo cantanda;" then came the first verse of the psalm, then a second "Exurge," after which the next words of the psalm were recited, "The work which Thou didst," &c., and so on through the whole psalm: "Exurge" being again said at the end. Among the processional Antiphons was, "Kyrie eleison, Thou who by Thy precious blood hast rescued the world from the jaws of the accursed serpent." It may be observed, that in

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Afflictionem nostram benignus vide.

Exurge" the "redime" of the Vulgate was altered into "libera:" and in the second repetition of "O Lord, arise," we have altered "name's sake" into "honour."

O God, we have heard] An appropriate representative of the Psalmody which followed the Litanies. [Jebb's Choral Service, p. 426.] In the ordinary Sarum Litany, as used out of Rogation-tide, there is no psalm: our Litany, as we have seen, here represents the old Rogation use. It also resembles the present Roman Litany, inasmuch as the latter has a psalm (our 70th) with a Gloria, after the Lord's Prayer: after the psalm come certain Preces, partly intercessory, then ten Collects, and a Conclusion. The ordinary Parisian has Preces before the psalm, and twelve collects after it. The order in Sarum, York, Hereford, is, Lord's Prayer, Preces, and Collects :-seven in Sarum, ten in York (the York Use has various minute resemblances to the Roman), and nine in Hereford. Among the York collects are ours for the first and fourth Sundays after Trinity, -the Collect for Clergy and People,-for Purity,-"O God, whose nature;" "Assist us;" "O God, from whom." With respect to the fortyfourth Psalm, this fragment of it is specially apposite, as suggest. ing the true comfort amid despondency: compare Ps. lxxvii. 10. Isa. li. 9, &c. The history of God's past mercies is a fountain of hope for those who own Him as the Rock of ages, the "I Am" to all ages of His Church.

O Lord, arise] In this repetition we have a relic of the old use of Antiphons, to intensify the leading idea of the psalm as used at the time. See Neale's Commentary on the Psalms, p. 46.

Glory] This Gloria is an appendage to "O God, we have heard." Coming as it does amid supplications for help, it witnesses to the duty and the happiness of glorifying God at all times and under all circumstances. Compare the end of Psalm lxxxix. "Deo gratias" was in the fourth century a perpetual watchword; and the "Vere dignum" testifies to the duty of "giving thanks always." Compare Acts xvi. 25.

From our enemies] These preces, to the end of " Graciously

hear us,” were sung in procession, according to the use of Sarum, on St. Mark's day, "if it was necessary, in time of war." The choir repeated every verse. They were also in a Litany for the Dedication of a church, in the pontifical of St. Dunstan. But when they were adopted into the Litany of 1544, "Son of David" was made to represent "Fili Dei vivi." It has been conjectured, that this was owing to some misunderstanding of "Dei vivi," when written in a contracted form. In the St. Denis Litany [Martene iv. 353] we have a touching series of entreaties to Christ, "O good Jesu, protect us every where and always. Have mercy O our Redeemer, let not Thy Redemption be lost in Have mercy... Lord God our King, pardon the guilt of us all. Have mercy," &c.

us.

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O Lord, let Thy mercy] This verse and response, Psalm xxxiii. 21, are part of the Sarum preces of Prime. In several editions of our Litany they were called the Versicle and the Answer.

We humbly beseech Thee] This is an enlarged and improved form of the Sarum Collect in the Memorial of All Saints (among the Memoriæ Communes at the end of Lauds, feria 2). In 1544 it ran simply, "We humbly. . . . . and for the glory of Thy name sake, turn from us all those evils that we most righteously have deserved. Grant this, O Lord God, for our Mediator and Advocate, Jesu Christ's sake;" and was followed by four other collects and the Prayer of St. Chrysostom. In 1549 it took its present form, save that "name sake" was still read, and that "holiness" was not prefixed to "pureness" until 1552.