A Dissertation upon the Ancient Service Books of the Church CHAPTER I. HERE is no subject which earlier calls upon the attention of the inquirer into the history of the Liturgy, the Divine Offices, and Ritual of the Church of England, than this: viz. the number of, and distinctive differences between the books in which anciently that Ritual was contained. In modern days the limit is small indeed : one volume, and that not a large one, under the comprehensive title of the Book of Common Prayer, includes the daily worship of the people, the liturgy, the occasional offices, the ordinal, and the rubrics, which her ministers are to observe. But the student cannot make one step beyond the middle of the xvith century, before he meets with the names at least, of many Service Books: the titles, for example, of Missal, Breviary, Horæ, Manual, Pontifical, sometimes according to the Use of one Church, sometimes of another; now of York, and now of Sarum, and then of Hereford; tell him as plainly as words can speak, how different the case was in earlier years, up to the time when England became a Christian country. And as he will find this to be a most important point of inquiry, in fact, although hitherto neglected, yet indispensable; so also is it one of no little difficulty. The books whose titles I have just alluded to are amongst the rarest which still exist, and except in a few instances, are to be found (whether printed or manuscript) only in the great public libraries. These often will be beyond his reach and opportunity: and he will be driven to search in the commentators upon our present Book, for the knowledge which he wants. We shall presently see what this is, both in quality and extent. I shall therefore in the beginning of these volumes, address myself to this subject: and I enter upon it, trusting that I may make some addition to the amount of information which is already at hand. Premising only, which I am bound to do, that when I speak of Service-Books, as in the title to this Dissertation, and as the subject upon which we are about to enter, I do not use the term in its proper and strict sense, limited to the Service of the Holy Communion: but as applicable to all parts of the public worship, much in the same way as very learned writers, Azevedo for example, have not scrupled to call treatises upon the Daily Office, Liturgical. Let me then collect first what has been said by those to whom usually recourse is had in such inquiries. Bp. Sparrow in his Rationale, and Dean Comber in his Companion to the Temple, take no notice of the matter: nor indeed does it exactly enter into the object which they proposed. Hamon L'Estrange in his Alliance of Divine Offices, also passes it over without re mark, except that he ignorantly states the Prymer of 1545 to be the first translation in English of the daily Service and Litany, and that the Creed, Pater noster, and Decalogue were "to begin with, imparted, Anno 1536." I have not been able to find any explanation in Dr. Nicholls' Commentary, though it would seem that some attempt at least should be there, for the titlepage promises great things. Wheatley, to whose Illustration reference is generally made, and properly so, nevertheless does not bestow a line upon the matter, with one exception (p. 23.) where he tells us that the King's Prymer "came forth in 1545, wherein were contained, amongst other things, the Lord's prayer, Creed, Ten Commandments, Venite, Te Deum, and other hymns and collects in English, and several of them in the same version in which we now use them." Staveley in his History of Churches, has a short notice about the Service-Books, but it is a mere translation abridged, of Lyndwood's Gloss upon the famous constitution of Archbishop Winchelsey, which I shall speak of at some length presently. His account is: "Legenda. A book containing the Lessons to be read at the Morning Service. Antiphonarium. A book containing Invitatories, Hymns, Responsories, Verses, Collects, &c., to be said or sung by Priest and People, alternately. Gradale, or Graduale. A Book containing several offices, as that of the sprinkling of Holywater: the proceeds of the Mass: the Holy Offices, Kyrie, &c. Gloria in Excelsis, Gradalia, Hallelujah, the Symbols to be sung at the Offertory and the Mass. 1 Chap. 1. p. 26. Psalterium. The book of Psalms. Troperium, or Troparium, the service in which the people answer the Priest, called also sometimes, Liber Sequentiarum. Ordinale, a Book of rules and orders, to direct the right manner of saying, and performing Holy Service. Missale. A Book containing all things belonging to the service of the Mass. Manuale. A book always at hand, containing all things belonging to the Sacraments and Sacramentals, the Hallowing of Holy Water, and all other things to be Hallowed: and the ordering of Processions."2 Shepherd, a very inferior writer, (whose chief claim to the little consideration which he has met with, has probably rested on his venturing to depreciate his predecessor, Wheatley) says in the Introduction to his Elucidation, "The Commissioners of 1548 proceeded to examine the Breviaries, Missals, Rituals, and other books of offices at that time in use." A footnote adds, "a general account of the contents of these books, and of their difference from each other, is given in p. 262, of the Elucidation in the note." But there is no such note in that place, nor (that I can discover) in any other part of his work. A living writer, Mr. Palmer, in his Origines Liturgicæ, has again disappointed us. I can find no other account of the books used in the daily service than occurs in his 1st Vol. p. 207: and this being the most complete we have yet arrived at, yet not over-long, I shall also transcribe it. "The Psalter used in the celebration of divine service generally contained, at the end, several hymns taken from the Old and New Testament, such as |