calypse, out of which there are only | able, where there is a blank left in the
certain proper Lessons appointed upon Column of Lessons; the proper Lessons
divers Feasts.

for all which days are to be found in
And to know what Lessons shall be the Table of proper Lessons. .
read every day, look for the day of the And note, That whensoever proper
Month in the Kalendar following, and Psalms or Lessons are appointed; then
there ye shall find the Chapters that the Psalms and Lessons of ordinary
shall be read for the Lessons both at course appointed in the Psalter and
Morning and Evening Prayer ; Except Kalendar (if they be different) shall be
only the Moveable Feasts, which are omitted for that time.
not in the Kalendar, and the Immove-

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.

Prayer Book !. The system in use in the fifteenth century (and | we know scarcely any thing of what was in use before then)

appears to have been the result of attempts to refine the use of

Scripture in the Offices of the Church to a degree of pointedness 1 It would appear from an old rubric that some discretion was left to the

which it never really attained, and which, perhaps, it was almost officiating clergyman with reference to the length of the Lesson, "Then let the same clerk who pronounces the Benediction, when enough at his discre

beyond human skill to give to it. And although such a pointedlion has been read." Rc. Transl. of Sarum Psalter, p. 48.

ness is well adapted for educated and devotionally trained minds,

S. Andrew. Prov. XX. Prov. xxi. Monday in
S. Thomas the

Easter Week.
Apostle.

xxii.

xxiv. 1 Lesson. Exod. xvi. Exod. xvii. Nativity of

2 Lesson. Matt. xxviii. | Acts ïïi.
Christ.

sto v, 17. Tuesday in
1 Lesson. Isa. ix. to v. 8. Isa. vii. 0. 10 Easter Week.
2 Lesson.

Luke ii. to v.15. Tit. iii. v. 4 to 1 Lesson. Exod. xx. Exod. xxxii.
S. Stephen.

[v. 9. 2 Lesson. Luke xxiv.to o. 1 Cor. xv.
1 Lesson.
Prov. xxvii. Eccles. iv.

S. Mark. Ecclus. iv. (13. Ecclus. y.
2 Lesson. Acts vi. v. 8, Acts vii. v. 30 ||

and c. vii. to to v. 55. S. Jacob.
0. 30.

1 Lesson.

vii.

ix. S. John.

2 Lesson.

John i. v. 43. 1 Lesson. Eccles. V. Eccles. vi. Ascension Day.

2 Lesson. Apoc. i. [v.18. | Apoc. xxii. 1 Lesson. Deut. x. 2 Kings ii. Innocents' Day. Jer. xxxi. to Wisd. i.

2 Lesson. Lukcxxiv.0.44. Eph.iv.to v.17.
Circumcision.

Monday in
1 Lesson. Gen. xvii. Deut. X. v. 12. Whitsun Week.

[to v. 30.
2 Lesson. Rom. i. Colos. ii.

1 Lesson. Gen. xi. to v.10. Num. xi. v. 16 Epiphany.

2 Lesson. 1 Cor. xii. 1 Cor. xiv. to v.
1 Lesson. Isa. lx. Isa. xlix. Tuesday in

[26.
2 Lesson. Lukeiii.tov.23. John ii. to v.12. Whitsun Week
Conversion of

1 Lesson. 1 Sam. xix.v.18. Deut. XXX.
8. Paul.

2 Lesson. | 1 Thess. v. v. 1 John iv. tov. 1 Lesson. Wisd. v. 522. Wisd. vi. S. Barnabas. [12 to v. 24.

(14. 2 Lesson. 1 Acts xxii. to v. Acts xxvi. 1 Lesson. Ecclus. x. Ecclus. xii. Purification of

2 Lesson. | Acts xiv. Acts xv. tov.36.
the Virgin

S. John Baptist.
Mary.
Wisd. ix. Wisd. xii.

1 Lesson. Malachi iii. Malachi iv.
S. Matthias. xix. Ecclus. i.

2 Lesson.

Matt. iii. Matt. xiv. to v.
Innunciation of

S. Peter.
our Lady. Ecclus. ii.

1 Lesson. Ecclus. xv. Ecclus. xix. Wednesday be

2 Lesson.

Acts üi. Acts iv.
fore Easter.

S. James. Ecclus. xxi. Ecclus. xxii.
1 Lesson. Hosea xiii. Hosea xiv. S. Bartholo.
2 Lesson. John xi. v. 45.

mew.

xxiv.

xxix. Thursday before

S. Matthew.

XXXV.

Xxxviii
Easter.

8. Michael.
1 Lesson. Dan. ix. Jerem. xxxi. 1 Lesson. Gen. xxxü. | Dan. X. v. 5.
2 Lesson. 1 John xiii.

2 Lesson. | Acts xii. tov.20. Jude v.6 to v.16.
Good Friday. :

S. Luke. Ecclus. li. Job i. 1 Lesson. Gen. xxii. to o. Isa. liii.

S. Simon and
2 Losson. John xvij. [20. 1 Pet. ii.

S. Jude. Job xxiv., xxv. xlii.
Easter Even.

All Saints.
1 Lesson.
Zech. ix.
Exod. xiii. 1 Lesson.

Wisd.ij.tov.10. Wisd.y.tov. 17.
2 Lesson. Luke xxiii.v.50. Heb. iv.

2 Lesson. Heb. xi. v. 33, Apoc. xix. to v.

&c. xii. to v.7.

[13.

[17.

it would not produce the effect desired upon mixed congregations, | 1559, the Tables of Proper Lessons were introduced, which were and was better fitted for monastic than for popular use.

nearly identical with those now in the Prayer Book; and they Some changes in the direction of our present Lectionary were were settled in their present form in 1661, all the changes being made in the new and reformed editions of the Salisbury Porti. written in the margin of Bishop Cosin’s Durham Prayer Book. forium, which were printed in 1516 and 1531 : and more exten It is scarcely probable that any thing more was known of the sively by Cardinal Quignonez in his Reformed Roman Breviary | primitive mode of reading Holy Scripture, by the Reformers of of 1536. In this latter two lessons were appointed for ordinary the sixteenth century, than is known by ourselves : yet in the days, one from the Old and another from the New Testament; Preface Archbishop Cranmer speaks of the manner in which the and a third, generally from a Patristic Homily, for festivals. “ancient Fathers” ordered the whole Bible to be read over once These were about the length of our Epistles and Gospels, or every year. It has, however, been pointed out that there are somewhat longer than most of them.

some coincidences between our modern customs and those of In the Prayer Book of 1549 our present system of daily and primitive times, which seem as if they could hardly be accidental. Proper Lessons was established, both being indicated in the “ Thus, during Advent, the lessons for Sundays are selected from Calendar, except in the case of the moveable festivals, when the the book of Isaiah, and the same book was prescribed to be read chapter and verse for Mattins were referred to before the Introit during Advent by the Ordo Romanus. From Septuagesima to the (which preceded the Collect, Epistle, and Gospel of the day), and Fifth Sunday in Lent, we read the book of Genesis on Sundays. for Evensong after the Gospel. There were no Proper Lessons St. John Chrysostom preached his homilies on this book at for ordinary Sundays, the books of Holy Scripture being read Antioch during Lent, and he remarks in several places that continuously on those as well as on week-days!: por were there Genesis was appointed to be read at that season. After Pente. so many proper lessons for festivals as there now are.

cost the books of Samuel and Kings are read; and still later When Queen Elizabeth restored the use of the Prayer Book in the books of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, while Tobit and

Judith are read nearer to Advent. The same order may be 1 It is observable that the Sunday Proper Lessons again break up that

observed in the forms of the Church described by Rupertus orderly system of reading the books of Holy Scripture through which is

Tuitensis (A.D. 1100), and in the Ordo Romanus, Coincidences spoken of in the Preface. More than a hundred chapters of the Old Testament are thus displaced and omitted every year.

may also be pointed out between the ancient lessons for par.

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.
Septuagesima

Nine
Sexagesima

Eight
Quinquagesima 1

Weeks before Easter.
Sunday is {

Seven
Quadragesima l
Rogation Sunday

Five Weeks
Ascension Day

Forty Days
Whitsunday

Seven Weeks

} after Easter. Trinity Sunday

| Eight Weeks

is

ticular feasts mentioned in the latter formulary, and our own. | Day, and Whitsun Day. Those for Ash-Wednesday and Good Thus at the Nativity, Isaiah, chap. ix., is appointed in both; on Friday were then added; and they appear, with the following the feast of St. Stephen, Acts, chap. vi.; on the feast of St. John, other important additions to the Table, in the margin of the Apocalypse, chap. i.; at the Epiphany, Isaiah, chap. ix. (which Durham Prayer Book of Bishop Cosin. was also the custom in the time of Maximus, Bishop of Turin,

L & Additional Proper Psalms proposed by Bishop Cosin. A.D. 450); on the feast of St. Peter, Acts, chap. iü.” [Palmer's Origines Liturgicæ, i. 254.] The cycle of the Sunday Proper Lessons appears to have been

MATTINS.

EVENSONG formed in illustration of God's dealings with the Church of the Old Testament, though this idea is sometimes subordinated to the

Epiphany ....................... Psalm 2. 67.

Psalm 72. 97. season, as in the Lessons for some of the Sundays in Lent. That Rogation Monday! ....

— 12, 13. 107.

- 86. 90. Rogation Tuesday

28. 42.

46. 70. for the other Holydays (with a few exceptions) is made up out of

Rogation Wednesday ......

8. 19. 33.

103, 104. 144. the didactic books of the Old Testament and the Apocrypha, and

St. Michael and All Angels...

34. 80. 91.

103, 104. 148

All Saints' Day ...

1. 15. 84. 91.

112, 113, 119, is not connected in any way with the Sunday cycle. The acci

1st part, 145. 149. dental combination of the fixed cycle of Proper Lessons with the variable one of the Second Lessons sometimes throws a wonderful

THE TABLES AND RULES. flood of light upon both the Old and New Testament Scriptures : and it may be doubted whether any equal advantage would be

These were nearly all of them new insertions at the last revision gained by the substitution of Proper Lessons from the latter for

of the Prayer Book in 1661, and a large portion of them were the present system of reading it in order.

"In Bp. Cosin's MS. note the Rogation Psalms are all included under TABLE OF PROPER PSALMS.

Mattins. From a difference in the appearance of the figures which are here

placed under Evensong, it is evident they were written in afterwards, and The only days for which Proper Psalms were appointed pre

in the wrong column, by mistake. The others are all written as they viously to 1661, were Christmas Day, Easter Day, Ascension I are printed above.

The

A TABLE OF ALL THE FEASTS

THAT ARE TO BE OBSERVED IN THE .
CHURCH OF ENGLAND THROUGHOUT THE YEAR.
All Sundays in the Year.
(The Circumcision of our Lord || (S. Peter the Apostle.
JESUS CHRIST.

S. James the Apostle.
The Epiphany.

S. Bartholomew the Apostle.
The Conversion of S. Paul.

S. Matthew the Apostle.
The Purification of the Blessed S. Michael and all Angels.
Virgin.

S. Luke the Evangelist.
The S. Matthias the Apostle.

Days 1s. Simon and S. Jude, Apos-
Days The

The Annunciation of the
of the

Feasts
Feasts Blessed Virgin.

All Saints.

of
S. Mark the Evangelist.

S. Andrew the Apostle.
S. Philip and S. James the

S. Thomas the Apostle.
Apostles.

The Nativity of our Lord.
The Ascension of our Lord

S. Stephen the Martyr.
| JESUS CHRIST.

S. John the Evangelist.
S. Barnabas.

The Holy Innocents.
The Nativity of S.John Baptist. ||

Monday and Tuesday in Easter Week.
Monday and Tuesday in Whitsun Week.

of the

tles.

1862
1865

taken out of Bishop Cosin's Collection of Private Devotions. There is a curious old rough and ready rule for finding Easter Previous editions of the Prayer Book contained “an Almanack | contained in a rhyme found in some old Sarum Missals :for thirty-nine years,” which was the same as our “ Table of

“ In Marche after the first C[( or new moon] Moveable Feasts ;” a “Table to find Easter for ever;" the list of

The next prime tell to me. days beginning “Septuagesima," but without Ascension Day,

The thridde sunday ful I wis and without any prefix whatever; and a short list of Holydays.

Paske dai sikir (surely] hit is."
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.

This seems as correct as it is easy to use, e.g. :-
The chronological apparatus of the Calendar was, however, revised
by Dr. John Pell (a very learned man, and a friend of Vossius '),

New Moon in March. | 1st Sunday. 2nd Sunday. Easter Day. in conjunction with Sancroft as secretary to the Committee of Revision. Of this chronological apparatus there is no trace

1786 Monday, 27. April 2. April 9, April 16. whatever in Bishop Cosin's Prayer Book. In 1752 (24 Geo. II.) 1860

Thursday, 22. March 25. April 1. April 8.

1861 “an Act for regulating the commencement of the year, and for

Monday, 11. March 17. March 24. March 31,
Sunday, 30.

April 6. April 13. April 20. correcting the Calendar," was passed, and from this the present

Monday, 27.

April 2.

April 9. April 16. tables of the Prayer Book are printed, not from the Sealed Books.

Advent Sunday] To this rule should be added, “or on that $ Rules to know when the Moveable Feasts and Holydays

| feast itself,” as Advent Sunday occurs on November 30th about begin.

once in every seven years on the average. These rules stand exactly as they do in Cosin's Devotions, as published in 1627: except that the day of the month is substi

§ The Table of Feasts. tuted for the words “ Equinoctial of the Spring in March.” The rule for finding Easter (founded on a decree of the Council of This Table is not in Cosin's Devotions, though the days are all Nicæa) is not quite exactly stated. Instead of “Full Moon” it marked in the Calendar of the volume; but it is in MS. in the ought to say, “the 14th day of the Calendar Moon, whether | margin of his Durham Prayer Book. The remarks made by him that day be the actual Full Moon or not.” In some years (as in in the Notes on the Prayer Book published in the fifth volume of 1818 and 1845) the Full Moon and Easter coincide, and this rule his works show that he had long wished to see a more complete then contradicts the Tables.

A TABLE

OF THE

VIGILS, FASTS, AND DAYS OF ABSTINENCE,

TO BE OBSERVED IN THE YEAR.

The

S. James.

The Nativity of our Lord.

PS. John Baptist.
The Purification of the Blessed S. Peter.
The Virgin Mary.
Evens The Annunciation of the Blessed | Evens S. Bartholomew.
or { Virgin.

ors. Matthew.
Vigils

Vigils
Easter Day.

SS. Simon and S. Jude.
before

before
Ascension Day.

S. Andrew.
Pentecost.

S. Thomas.
8. Matthias.

All Saints.
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.

DAYS OF FASTING, OR ABSTINENCE.
I. The Forty Days of Lent. The First Sunday in Lent.
II. The Ember Days at the Four The Feast of Pentecost.

Seasons, being the Wednesday, September 14.

Friday, and Saturday after ... ) December 13.
III. The Three Rogation Days, being the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednes-

day 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. have Vigils. The festivals that fall during the seasons of Christ. This, together with the “certain Solemn Days” (now reduced mas, Easter, and Whitsuntide have no vigils, Fridays being the to one), originally appeared in Cosin's Devotions, and is also only days of Abstinence in those joyous periods. St. Luke's day written in the margin of the Durham Prayer Book. At the end | is without a Vigil, either because the Evangelist is thought to of the MS. note is written an addition taken from the Devotions,

have died in peace without martyrdom, or because the minor but not eventually printed in the Prayer Book :

festival of St. Etheldreda occupies the 17th of October. Michael“ By the ecclesiastical laws of this Realm, there be some times mas Day is without a Vigil, because the Holy Angels had no day in the year wherein Marriages are not usually solemnized 1; viz.

of trial like the Saints before entering into Heaven: and of this | Advent o r eight days after the Epiphany.

the Vigil is a symbolical observance. The use of the words Vigil from Septuagesima eight days after Easter.

and Even at the time when the Prayer Book was first transRogation J uma ( Trinity Sunday.”

lated is illustrated by the following passage from Cranmer's answer

to the Devonshire rebels :—“For as Vigils, otherwise called Cosin also wrote, “All the Fridays in the year except the | Watchings, remained in the calendars upon certain saints'evens twelve days of Christmas."

because in old times the people watched all those nights .... but Some notes on the subject of Fasting will be found under the

now these many years those vigils remained in vain in the books, head of Lent (p. 90]; the Ember Days are noticed in connexion

for no man did watch.” [Strype's Cranmer, ii. 533.] with Ordination Services, and the Rogation Days in the Notes

The Vigil was originally that which its name indicates, a night to the Fifth Sunday after Easter (p. 110].