editions of Erasmus, represented more truly than the Latin, the words of the Christmas hymn of the heavenly host (Luke ii. 14). But it is just possible that the Reformers had got sight of the hymn as it appeared in some of the Greek service-books; for in these the reading is, and, I believe, has been, all but invariably the nominative-evdokia.* Again, the English Bible then in current use gave the words, "Peace on the earth, and unto men a good will." +

Other changes are (1) the insertion of the word "God" before "the Father" in the clause "Thou that sittest at the right hand of God the Father"; and (2) the omission of the word "Jesu 'Jesu" before "Christ" in the clause now appearing as "Thou only, O Christ, with the Holy Ghost." I cannot offer any account of the origin of these two changes. They have not, so far as I know, any support from either printed or manuscript texts, which could have been known at the time. When opportunity offers it might be well to revert to the authentic Western

text.

It was not till the Second Prayer Book of Edward that we find the clause, "Thou that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us," which appears in our present Prayer Book. I am disposed to suspect that it originated in a clerical or printer's error, which, in this conjunction of clauses so much

* See GIBSON in Church Quarterly Review (October, 1885), p. 4. + Bible (Whitchurche, 1549).

‡ The text (marked by many peculiarities) in the Antiphonary of Bangor reads "ad dexteram Dei Patris."

alike, might very easily occur. But it is, perhaps, right to mention a conjecture of Mr. W. E. Scudamore, though I confess it appears to me rather far-fetched and fanciful. "Our priests," he writes, "had been accustomed to the trine repetition of the clause, qui tollis peccata, etc., that takest away the sins,' etc., in the Agnus Dei, which they said at their Communion; and they would certainly miss it. Through the introduction of this clause, as the petition is addressed to the 'Lamb of God,' we have the Agnus Dei, but little changed, embedded, so to speak, in the substance of the Angelic Hymn." It is not very easy to conceive that the temper of mind which carried through the revision of 1552 would be sensitive to the sentiments here. imagined. But, however this may be, we heartily concur with Mr. Scudamore in his observation that "all must acknowledge that it [the introduction of this clause] adds much to the solemn deprecatory character of that hymn, which is so suitable when we have dared to draw thus near to God, and to receive that of which none are or can be truly worthy." If this change originated in an error, it was a very happy error.‡

*

In conclusion, the text of the Authorised Version of the Bible (Luke ii. 14), "Glory to God in the highest," is closer both to the Greek and to the Latin

*Notitia Eucharistica (second edition), p. 795.

+ Ibid., p. 796.

‡ It is interesting to notice that the Codex Alexandrinus supports the form adopted by the revisers of 1552. Could it be possible that they had seen some Greek text in which the reading appeared?

G

than "Glory be to God on high," but the latter was the reading in the English Bible "appointed to be read in churches" in 1549; and one can understand how natural it would have been to adopt it. In the Scottish Communion Office the hymn opens with "Glory be to God in the highest"; and though, perhaps, the matter may be considered of small importance, I cannot but think that this reading, more true, as it is, to the sense of the original, deserves to be substituted for the Prayer Book form when an opportunity for revision offers itself. The worship of God is a thing too sacred to justify the perpetuation of even a little blemish, if it may be removed without scandal or offence.

I have only to add that a knowledge of the fact that the Gloria in excelsis was used in early times in the West, as well as the East, as a Hymn for the daily office, and not for the Eucharist, should lead English critics to moderate their language in condemning the American Church for permitting (not, be it observed, enjoining) this Hymn to be sung at Morning and Evening Prayer, at the end of the Psalms, instead of Gloria Patri. Yet, though defensible on antiquarian grounds, the usage (which, I believe, is highly exceptional in actual practice in American churches) may seem with reason to have less to commend it than our rule, which restrains its use to the occasion of the Church's great sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving in the Eucharist.

CHAPTER VII.

ELEMENTS OF EARLY DATE-THE TE DEUM."

THE

HE detached fragments of ancient services already noticed came to the Western Church from the East, and have been fitted into Western devotions. One may think of them as of those fragments of rock left by some ice-floe on a shore far from their place of origin, and afterwards inserted in the structure of a human dwelling. With the Te Deum it is different. Though resemblances, more or less close, to several of its phrases may be found in Greek services, we may say, with all but absolute certainty, that its original language was Latin, and, with a high degree of probability, that the place of its origin was Southern Gaul.*

I. In the present state of our knowledge speculation as to the authorship of the Te Deum can be little better, it seems to me, than a not very profitable guess-work.

As regards, however, the date of the Te Deum, we cannot be far wrong if we assign it to some time

* See the able articles on the Te Deum and Gloria in excelsis [by Rev. E. C. S. GIBSON] in the Church Quarterly Review for April, 1884, and October, 1885; and the BISHOP OF SALISBURY (JOHN WORDSWORTH) in Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology, s.v. Te Deum laudamus. To which may be added DOM G. MORIN in the Revue Benedictine (Février, 1894), who takes a different view.

between the closing years of the fourth century and the middle of the fifth. As we now possess it, or perhaps in a form with some curtailment of the concluding verses, it has been widely used in the Church for probably little short of fifteen hundred years. It seems, from its titles in some of the older MSS., to have been originally used as a morning hymn for Sundays. Rome, always conservative in matters liturgical, had not admitted it for ordinary Sunday use as late as the ninth century; but gradually it made its way till it became universal in the West. It would be foreign to our purpose to discuss at length the various occasions upon which it was employed in worship; it must suffice to say that in England before the Reformation the general rule was that it should be said on all Sundays and Festivals excepting those that fell in Advent and the period between Septuagesima and Easter.

When we come to consider closely the structure and contents of the Te Deum, the intention and design of the composition are far from obvious. An examination of the older MSS. helps us to a certain extent. It would, I think, strike any careful reader of the Te Deum, as it stands in the Prayer Book, that the last eight verses, which are all (with the exception of the verse, "Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin") quotations from Scripture, make an artificial cento lacking in unity of conception and simplicity of impulse. Now, the MSS. show in this part such variations, irregularities, and omissions, as suggest that it had not the same origin or authority as the earlier part. These con