donment of ancient discipline, that the devotional assiduity of men in the churches in the middle ages, was not combined with spiritual piety, or the habit of mental prayer. On referring, however, to the books of that time, we find this opinion has no other foundation but the abuse to which the best institutions are always liable. Constant allusion is made to the maxim of St. Augustin, "Non clamans sed amans cantat in aure Dei." It was the edict of the blessed Benedict, "Sic stemus ad psallendum ut mens nostra concordet voci nostræ. Non in clamosa voce," saith he, "sed in puritate cordis et compunctione lacrymarum nos exaudiri sciamus. " *—"Prayer is of the heart, not of the lips," says Hugo of St. Victor; who, on the other hand, shows elsewhere that the psalmody and long offices of the choir are not on that account to be blamed, but to be animated with the fervor of internal love. The remembrance of having pronounced one verse without a firm attention during the office of matins, upon which he was then meditating in the church, according to his custom, after singing it with the clergy, was sufficient to induce Raynaldus, Archbishop of Ravenna, to recommence it from the beginning; which devout exercise detained him till the break of day. This was in the beginning of the fourteenth century.§ "In the ecclesiastical song, we do not regulate our judgment by the rules of the theatre," says Cardinal Bona, following St. Jerome; "so that if there be any child with an indifferent voice, yet if he has good works, he is a sweet singer before God." "Alas!" cries St. Augustin, "quam multi sonant voce, et corde muti sunt! Cantat Deo, qui vivit Deo." The celestial music consists in the contemplation of God, in exultation of mind, and in immortality of body. "Neither sweet music," says the wise Ascetic, "nor hymns, nor holy books, nor beautiful treatises, nor the presence of good men, nor of devout brethren, can profit much when we are deserted by graces, and left to our own poverty. "The prayer of the mouth," says Louis of Blois, "is like the straw; and that of the heart is the grain. These two joined together are favorably heard by God."|| Another spiritual writer, exhorting the novices, when assisting at the divine offices, to cherish the most fervent devotion, in imitation of the angelic hierarchy, adds, "For all acts, if viewed of themselves, separated from elevation of mind, are like dead bodies lying on the ground; but if that spirit of life, which the mind can receive from God, begins to blow, then instantly they rise, and declare the glory of God."¶ We read in the canons of Crodogang, that "the singers must be humble and devout men," "quorum melodia animos populi circumstantis ad memoriam amoremque coelestium non solum sublimitate verborum, sed etiam suavitate sonorum, quæ dicantur erigat.”** The most express and minute rules were given to regulate the external behav * In Regul. c. 20, 52. De Anima, Lib. III. cap. 29. Annot. Elucid. Allegor. in Matthæum, Lib. II. 2. Italia Sacra, I. 383. ior in the churches. The canons of the Synod of Risbach, in the diocese of Ratispon, held in the year 799, commence with these words, "In æde sacra ne strepunto; ne ambulanto; ante finem rei divinæ ne excedunto."* The decrees of Crodogang descend to such particular details as to direct their censure against those loathsome guttural feats which the Easterns hold in horror, though at present in the most civilized nations of the West they are practised every where with effrontery. In this prohibition one discovers the gentle courtesy of the middle ages, for the words of the canon are, "ut infirmis mentibus non vertatur in nauseam." Speaking unnecessarily in the Church subjected offenders to heavy ecclesiastical censures in the middle ages as well as in primitive times.‡ "To external reverence in the Church," says Cardinal Bona, "belong the keeping a watch upon the senses, the composition of the outward man, the tone of voice, gravity of manner, decency of habit, and the observance of all ceremony and prescribed rite; that the knees be bent, that we stand, sit, rise again, and incline as the occasion requires, that nothing may appear which can offend the beholders."§ Cassian,]] and St. Benedict¶ sanction the custom of sitting humbly and modestly in the church, when the occasion permits. In the decrees collected by Ivres de Chartres, we read that the clergy are to teach the people to kneel at mass during Lent; but that on Sundays and festivals no knee should be bent from eve to eve, but that all were to pray standing, according to ancient discipline attested by Tertullian,** and St. Irenæus,†† and enforced by the Council of Nice,‡‡ which had never been interrupted in monasteries; Paul, the deacon, speaking of the monks of Monte Cassino, expressly mentions that they never bent the knee at the public office on Sundays, nor on any day between Easter and Pentecost. §§ The custom of resting one knee only on the earth is denounced in this collection, as having an indecorous resemblance with the act of the Jews who mocked our Lord. In the tenth century, during the canon of the mass, man lay prostrate on the earth; but towards the period of the great outbreak of heresy in the fifteenth century, piety of men became so cold, that one bishop published ten days of indulgence to those who should remain at mass until the end, and his successor continued it to all truly penitent and confessed, provided they remained on their knees, from the elevation of the holy Eucharist to the elevation of the chalice: so languid was the piety of that time. No one instructed in the philosophy of the ages of faith, was disposed to consider such injunctions as frivolous. "Harmony in the body," says Plato, "appears always to be adjusted for the sake of sympathy in the soul." *** "They who pray," says St. Augustin, "fashion their limbs in accordance with the act of supplication when they bend their knees, or * Germania Sacra, Tom. II. 110. Reg. Can. cap. 15, apud Dacher Spicileg. Tom. I. Lib. II. c. 12. Cap. 9. ** De Orat. c. 23. SS Chronic. S. Monast. Casinens. Epist. ad Carolum Regem. TT Mabillon, Præfat, in. V. Sæcul. Bened. § 6. II Ivonis Carnot. Decret. Pars IV. c. 36. *** De Ronub. Lib. X. extend their hands, or prostrate themselves on the ground, although their invisible will and intention of heart be known to God, and he does not want these signs that the human mind may be revealed to him, yet by them, man excites himself more to pray and groan humbly and fervently, and I know not how, while these movements of the body must have been preceded by a movement of the mind, nevertheless by means of the external and visible act, the internal and invisible is increased, and thus what preceded, is augmented by what follows."* It was but natural that before the invention of printing, the use of books by the people in the churches should not have been general. In the fifteenth century, a prayerbook for the use of the people in England, entitled the Festival, resembling those at present in use, was printed by Wynkyn de Worde. The Psalter, the Gospels, the Acts, as also all the Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, for the whole year, were translated into English by Richard, a religious hermit in the reign of King Henry II. The archives of the churches of St. Severin, at Bordeaux, of Senlis, Laon, and Rheims, make mention of missals which were enclosed in an iron cage attached to a pillar in the nave, so that the hand could enter through the bars to turn over the pages. Many of the laity who repeated the office, knew most of it by heart; others had manuscript leaves to assist their memory. When the Emperor of Germany took leave of King Charles V. of France, at Paris, Christine de Pisan says, that he begged that he would give him one of his books of hours, saying, that he would pray to God for him. The king presented him with two, one little, the other great.† The prayer-book of Charles-le- Chauve, which with his Bible, is in the king's library, at Paris, is bound richly, covered with precious stones and with bas-reliefs in ivory of the most curious workmanship. In the chapel of the Castle of St. Ouen, belonging to the knights of the Order of the Star, founded by King John, there was a book for their use in French prose which is noticed in the catalogue of the library of Charles V. In the library of Plasantia, may be seen the Psalter of the Empress Engelberg, wife of Louis II., written with her own hand in the year 847. How early the use of devotional manuscripts prevailed in secular life may be found attested even on the ancient sepulchres, as on that affecting tomb which faces the monument of Dagobert, in the Abbey of St. Denis, where a young princess is represented in the attitude of death, with her poor little book of hours pressed against her bosom. The rosary, however, was the most ordinary devotion of the people in a devout and meditative age, when men had leisure for contemplation. This was not instituted by the Venerable Bede, as the English word beads has led some to suppose, for in the English councils the Latin word beltedus is used, which Ducange derives from the Saxon word, belt. There is something which remarkably evinces the spirit of the middle ages in the advice which we find given *De Cura pro Mortuis. Livre de Faiz, &c. Lib. III. c. 45. Lebeuf, Hist. du Diocese de Paris, Tom III. to assist men at their devotion and to nourish the fervor of their piety. The Church herself prays that what we cannot celebrate with worthy minds we may, at least, attend with humble service.* "When cold in prayer," says one writer, "consider how many servants of God are then at their prayers, shedding tears of devotion in forest cells and monasteries, and in the basilica of the martyrs, and do you now in spirit join yourself to them." To this refers also what St. Ignatius calls the prelude of composition of place, as when men were told to imagine themselves actually present at the different scenes recorded in the Gospel. In the history of Leopold, Archduke of Austria, son of the Emperor Ferdinand II. there is given an account of his private papers, in which he drew up certain rules for his devotions. In the manner of assisting at mass, he says, "At the Gospel, I will listen to the words as if they proceeded from the mouth of Jesus Christ and were addressed to me alone." Thee, too, Leopold, of Tuscany, among the worthies of antique days, let this humble page commemorate, whom in the church of the Annunciata, at Florence, I beheld on the festival of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin for when at solemn mass the book of the Gospels was brought to thee after the deacon had read therefrom, lowly sinking on thy bended knees thou didst kiss it devoutly, and then with palms inverted hide thy face, at which moment I remarked some cheeks down which stole a tear. That going up to the offering at mass, was a solemn and impressive thing which the people in many places have been unwilling to abandon. St. Emanuel, bishop of Cremona, in the year 1170, celebrating mass, and refusing to receive the oblations of those who came up to the offering wearing long hair like women, the men who were rejected, retired to the door, and cut off their hair with their knives or swords, rather than suffer such a privation for its sake. Similarly it was the basilica of St. Peter, at Spoleto, which was made to attest the solemn act of the citizens, who on giving themselves to the pontiff, cut off their hair and beards, being the first of the Longobards to renounce that ancient distinction of their race.§ : The distribution of blessed bread among all who assisted at high mass, which each house in the parish used to offer in turn, was another ancient rite, originating in the eulogia, which was the surplus of bread offered by the faithful for the altar, that was blessed by the priest, and distributed to all who did not communicate, and to children. The names of the offerers were inserted in dyptychs and recited from the altar. Thus Dagobert is related to have given many things to the churches in order that on Sundays and festivals his name might be inscribed in the book of life.** We find the names of Otho the Great, and of his wife Adelheid, of Bruno, Archbishop of Cologne, and of Otho's brother William, Archbishop of Mayence, of the sons of Otho, and of forty-four other persons, nobles and *Prayer of S. S. Perpetua and Felicitas. Italia Sacra, Tom. IV. 605. Thom. à Kemp. Epist. § Ib. I. | Thomassinus de Vet. et Nov. Ecclesiæ Disciplin. Pars III. Lib. I. 14. Saga de Diptychis Veterum, cap. 4. ** Duchesne, Tom. I. Scripta Franc. religious in the ancient diptych of the monastery of St. Maximin at Treves. In Italy where the young are so exquisitely formed and endowed with such a refined and spiritual look, having lines so beautifully penciled that their countenances resemble those of angels in the paintings of Guido the Bolognese, one must be often struck with the tender piety evinced by poor children in the churches: and methinks it explains somewhat of the middle ages to behold these innocents, with garments so rough, and figures so soft and delicate, praying by themselves with the utmost fervor and recollection. It appears that great care was employed in excluding from the churches whatever might distract the minds of the people; for purpose there was a multitude of minor clerks employed who had not strictly orders. In early days, the danger of interruption from the pagans, made the porters of great consequence. which purpose When Pope St. Cornelius was elected in 254, the Roman Church had forty-four priests and one hundred and eight ministers. The proportion of the latter increased since the time of Constantine, and for five hundred years the churches were magnificently served. By many decrees, as that of the Council of Salzburg, in the year 1386, the penalty of suspension was to be incurred by such of the clergy as failed in paying due attention to the condition of the vestments, ornaments, and sacred vessels of the altar.* To preserve the Cathedral of Pientina in its original beauty, Pius II. its founder published a decree in the year 1362, pronouncing the severest censures on any one who should violate the whiteness of the walls and columns. Fleury and Chardon remark that the saints of the early ages, in attending with such care to external things, were not occupied about trifles. They understood the importance of preserving the beauty of the place, the silence, decorum, order of the discipline, and the majesty of ceremonies. Services of this nature were not then delegated to vulgar hirelings of ferocious manners, but to spiritual persons in whom meekness sweetened duty. Women were never to approach the altar to discharge any ministry. By the Council of Châlons in 650, as by many others, no one wearing arms was to presume to enter the church. "We who are always surrounded with the arms of legitimate empire," says Theodosius the younger," and who should be constantly attended by an armed company, nevertheless when about to enter the temple of God, leave our weapons outside." The Council of Slengastad, however, admitted of one exception in favor of the king. At the time when the Normans were in military possession of the country, Count Rodulf, one of their chieftains, came to the Abbey of Monte Casino with the intention of taking the abbot prisoner, yet on entering the church he left his arms as usual, says the chronicle, outside, of which the servants of the abbey proceeded to take an advantage that could only be excused by the danger of their position.§ In like manner, when *German Sacra, Tom. II. 462. Ivonis Carnot. Decret. Pars 11. c. 135. Italia Sacra, I 1179. |