side of the island, in Cornwall, Wales, and Cumberland. The new settlers brought with them their pagan deities, Woden, Thor, and Friga, and the rest. The ground which was thus lost to Christianity was subsequently regained by the mission despatched from Rome under the monk Augustin, in the year 596; and the Saxons meekly received at the hands of foreigners that faith which, as the religion of the conquered Britons, they had treated with scorn. It is probable that the ancient British Churches used the Gallican liturgy; but there can be no doubt that Augustin brought with him the Roman Service-books. These he appears to have modified, with the permission of Pope' Gregory, bringing them nearer to the Gallican use; and these, in their altered form, appear gradually to have prevailed, even in those corners of the land which were still inhabited by Celts, and in which the use of the Gallican ritual had been continued.

of the

As each Bishop had the power of making im- Meaning provements in the liturgy of his Church, in process word Use. of time different customs arose, several of which became so established as to receive the names of their respective churches. Thus by degrees the

1 Thus Bede, Hist. 1. 27: 'Interrogatio Augustini. Cum una sit fides, cur sunt ecclesiarum diversæ consuetudines, et altera consuetudo missarum in sancta Romana ecclesia, atque altera in Galliarum tenetur? Respondet Gregorius papa. Novit fraternitas tua Romanæ ecclesiæ consuetudinem, in qua se meminit nutritam. Sed mihi placet sive in Romana, sive in Galliarum, seu in qualibet ecclesia aliquid invenisti quod plus omnipotenti Deo possit placere, sollicite eligas, et in Anglorum ecclesia, quæ adhuc nova est, institutione præcipua, quæ de multis ecclesiis colligere potuisti infundas. Non enim pro locis res, sed pro bonis rebus loca amanda sunt.' As to the origin of the ancient English ritual, see an able discussion by the Rev. P. Freeman, in The Principles of Divine Service (Oxford and London, 1855), p. 245.

Use of
Sarum.

uses or customs of York, Sarum (Salisbury), Hereford, Bangor, Lincoln, Aberdeen, &c., came to be distinguished from each other.

The use or custom of Sarum derives its origin from Osmund, Bishop of that see in A.D. 1078, and Chancellor of England. It is related by Simeon of Durham, that about the year 1083, King William the Conqueror appointed Thurstan, a Norman, to be Abbot of Glastonbury. Thurstan, despising the ancient Gregorian chanting, which had been used in England ever since the sixth century, attempted to introduce in its place a modern style of chanting, invented by William of Fescamp, a Norman. The monks resisted the innovations of their abbot, and a scene of violence and bloodshed ensued, in consequence of which William sent back Thurstan to Normandy. This circumstance may very probably have turned the attention of Osmund to the regulation of the ritual in his diocese. We are informed that he built a new cathedral, collected clergy distinguished as well for learning as for a knowledge of chanting, and composed a book for the regulation of ecclesiastical offices, which was entitled the Custom book. The substance of this was probably incorporated into the missal and other ritual books of Sarum, which ere long were adopted by almost the whole of England, Wales, and Ireland, and which continued in use until the reign of Edward VI. The use of Sarum, however, did not altogether exclude those of York, Bangor, Hereford, and Lincoln. These were still observed in their respective districts: but their influence was small when compared with the wide reception of the use of Sarum; and neither their authors, nor the exact limits within which they prevailed, can now be ascertained.

books in

the Refor

It appears from what has been said, that at the Servicetime of the Reformation the Roman Service-books, use before according to the use or custom of Sarum, were mation. generally prevalent in England. It will be proper now to give an account of those books, and of some others, to which the Reformers had recourse.

viary.

I. The Breviary. This was originally drawn The Breup by or under the direction of Pope Gregory VII. in the eleventh century; and was a digest or compendium of the devotional offices in use at that time, many of which had been handed down from remote antiquity. Especially it contained the seven hours, or services for the seven seasons of the day— viz. matins, soon after midnight, prime, tierce, sext, nones, said respectively at the first, third, sixth, and ninth hours of the day, counting from six in the morning, vespers at the eleventh, and compline at the twelfth hour, or six P.M. The Anglo-Saxon names of the hours were uhtsang (from uhte, morning), primesang, undersang (undern, the third hour), middaysang, nonsang, evensang, and nightsang1. The service of matins, taking place in the night, was sometimes also called nocturns; it was divided into three parts, consisting of psalms and hymns, and it ended with a service called lauds.

Besides the hours for every day of the week, the Breviary also contained special services for Sundays and saints' days, the office of the Blessed Virgin, &c.

It is worthy of remark, that invocations of the Virgin Mary, and of the saints, had no place in any Breviary prior to the edition published by Bishop Haylmo in the year 1278; and a practice, which had crept in some time previously, was then established, of curtailing the passages of Scripture 1 Canons of Elfric XIX. ap. Wilkins' Concilia, I. 252.

Breviary of Quignonius.

appointed to be read, and of introducing apocryphal legends of the saints. The custom of observing the seven hours of the day had become obsolete before the Reformation; and it was usual to join together the five morning offices, and likewise the two evening offices, so as to have only one morning and one evening service: a practice which still continues in the Roman Catholic Church. The appointment, therefore, of only two daily services in our Prayer Book, though a departure from the written order of the Breviary, was no innovation in practice.

From the services of the hours in the Breviary, our Reformers selected portions, which, with some few alterations and additions, make up our daily morning and evening service.

In the year 1536 Cardinal Quignonius', at the request of Pope Clement VII., published a new and revised edition of the Breviary. His professed object was to give longer space in the Churchservices to the reading of holy Scripture, and to diminish the quantity of apocryphal and legendary matter. In accordance with this view, he omitted many legends of saints, as well as the responds, anthems, &c., by which the reading of Scripture was interrupted. The title-page bore the motto, rarely put forward in the Roman Church, Scrutamini Scripturas, quoniam illæ sunt quæ testimonium perhibent de me. Search the Scriptures,' &c. The preface, which is written in elegant latinity, severely censures the abuses which had crept into the celebration of divine service; and some of his observations on this head have been incorporated in the preface to the Book of Common Prayer, in the section Concerning the service of 1 Zaccaria, Bibliotheca Ritualis, p. 112.

the Church.' Compare, for instance, with a sentence in that section the following passage, in which he is speaking of the old Breviary: Accedit tam perplexus ordo, tamque difficilis precandi ratio, ut interdum paulo minor opera in requirendo ponatur, quam inveneris in legendo.'

The Breviary of Quignonius was a step in the right direction; and though the innovations which it made incurred the wrath of the doctors of the Sorbonne, it was permitted by the Pope, and generally received in France, Flanders, and Germany. In the edition published by himself at Venice in 1547 he speaks of the first publication of the work as a 'deliberatio, ut sic, proposita nostra sententia, judicia multorum exquireremus.'

of Pius V.

In conformity with a decree of the Council of Breviary Trent, the Breviary was revised afresh, and published by Pope Pius V. in 1568, together with a decree, abolishing all the existing breviaries, and especially prohibiting that of Quignonius, which on account of its reforming spirit, and the respect paid in it to the Scriptures, was probably the most obnoxious of all.

The Breviary of Sarum was first printed in 1499, at Paris.

sal.

II. The Missal. The book containing the order The Misof the holy Communion was anciently called Sacramentarium; but the name Missal in time became more usual', on account of the most important part of it, the order or 'canon' of the mass. It contained also the collects, epistles, and gospels, and the introits or anthems sung at the beginning of the Communion-service. But the epistles and gospels were sometimes contained in a separate book, called the Lectionarium; and the anthems in

1 Zaccaria, p. 40.