Sect. 7. The Lord's prayer used in some churches as the conboth morning and clusion of the daily, ers also between the psalms; and sung the Gloria | morning. In the Gallican churches they had, bePatri at the end of the last psalm. St. Jerom con- sides their collects and prayers, both hymns and firms this account, and adds, that they had a ser- antiphonas, or chapters, as they called them, colmon made by the abbot (who was always a presby- lected out of the Psalms, to be said by way of ter) every day after evening prayer. For thus he responses, as appears from the council of Agde."9 describes their evening devotions: At nine o'clock And the second council of Tours orders, That at they meet together, then the psalms are sung, and evening prayer, which they call the twelfth hour of the Scriptures are read;" and prayers being ended, prayer, twelve psalms should be sung," answerable they all sit down, and one among them, whom they to the order of morning service, which had twelve call their father, begins to discourse to them, whom psalms, as the sixth hour of prayer had six psalms, they hear with the profoundest silence and venera- with the additional psalm called the Hallelujah. tion. But it may be said, this perhaps was only the From all which it is apparent, that a considerable custom of the monasteries, and not of the churches. number of psalms and hymns were used together In answer to which Epiphanius assures us," it was with the prayers, to make up the daily course the custom of the church to have psalms and of evening as well as morning service in many hymns continually both at morning and evening churches. prayer. St. Austin also mentions hymns 15 as well as prayers at evening service; which implies, that they had more psalms than one sung upon that occasion. St. Hilary, upon those words of the psalmist, "The outgoings of the morning and evening shall praise thee;" shows the same, when he says, The progression of the church to her morning and evening hymns with delight, is a great sign of God's mercy. The day 16 is begun with prayers, and the day is closed with hymns to God. St. Hilary himself is said to be the author of some of those hymns, and St. Ambrose of others, which were of public use in the church: and though some would have rejected them, because they were only of human composure, and not to be found in Scripture, yet the fourth council of Toledo" ordered them to be retained in the public service of the church, together with the hymns, "Glory be to the Father," and "Glory be to God on high," which were likewise of human composition. For the Eastern churches, the like is said by Chrysostom,' that they had hymns.at night in their evening prayer, as well as 13 Hieron. Ep. 22. ad Eustochium, cap. 15. Post horam nonam in commune concurritur, psalmi resonant, Scripturæ recitantur ex more. Et completis orationibus, cunctisque residentibus, medius quem patrem vocant, incipit disputare, &c. 14 Epiphan. Exposit. Fidei, n. 23. p. 1106. 'Ewoivoi te ὕμνοι ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ ἁγίᾳ ἐκκλησίᾳ διηνεκεῖς γίνονται, καὶ προσευχαὶ ἑωθιναί, λυχνικοί τε ἅμα ψαλμοὶ καὶ προσευχαὶ. 15 Aug. de Civ. Dei, lib. 22. cap. 8. p. 1485. Ad vespertinos illuc hymnos et orationes cum ancillis suis et quibusdam sanctimonialibus ex more Domina possessionis intravit, atque hymnos cantare cœperunt. 16 Hilar. in Psalm. Ixiv. p. 231. Progressus ecclesiæ in matutinum (leg. matutinorum) et vespertinorum hymnorum delectatione maximum misericordiæ Dei signum est. Dies in orationibus Dei inchoatur, dies hymnis Dei clauditur. 17 Conc. Tolet. 4. can. 12. 18 Chrys. Hom. 18. in Act. p. 174. 19 Conc. Agathen. can. 30. In conclusione matutinarum vel vespertinarum missarum, post hymnos, capitella de psalmis dici, et plebem, collecta oratione, ad vesperam ab 21 evening service. And in some churches the Lord's prayer was always made a part of the daily worship both morning and even ing. For the council of Girone made a general decree for the Spanish churches, that the Lord's prayer should constantly be used by every priest at the close of the matins and vespers in the daily service. It had always been used before on Sundays in the communion office; but it being, in the very title and tenor of it, quotidiana oratio, a quotidian or daily prayer, they thought it proper to make it a standing part of their daily offices. And when some priests neglected to obey this order, and still confined the use of it to the Lord's day, the fourth council of Toledo" made a decree, That all such of the clergy as contumaciously refused to use it daily both in their public and private offices, should be degraded. In the French churches the practice was the same. For by a canon of the third council of Orleans, the people are obliged to stay at Divine service till the Lord's prayer was said; and if the 23 episcopo cum benedictione dimitti. 20 Conc. Turon. 2. can. 18. Patrum statuta præceperunt, ut ad sextam sex psalmi dicantur cum alleluia; et ad duodecimam duodecim, itemque cum alleluia. It. can. 24. Et licet Ambrosianos habeamus hymnos in canone, &c. 21 Conc. Gerundense, can. 10. Item nobis semper placuit observari, ut omnibus diebus post matutinas et vesperas oratio Dominica a sacerdote proferatur. 22 Conc. Tolet. 4. can. 9. Nonnulli sacerdotum in Hispaniis reperiuntur, qui Dominicam orationem, quam Salvator noster docuit et præcepit, non quotidie, sed tantum die Dominica dicant.-Quisquis ergo sacerdotum, vel subjacentium clericorum, hanc orationem Dominicam quotidie aut in publico aut in privato officio præterierit, propter superbiam judicatus, ordinis sui honore privetur. 23 Conc. Aurel. 3. can. 28. De missis nullus laicorum ante discedat, quam Dominica dicatur oratio. Et si episcopus præsens fuerit, ejus benedictio expectetur. Sacrificia vero matutina (leg. matutinarum) missarum, vel vespertinarum, ne quis cum armis pertinentibus ad bellorum usum, expetat. bishop was present, to wait for him to pronounce the benediction, which shows that it was the conclusion of the prayers, since nothing came after but the benediction. It is true, the word used for Divine service in this canon, is missa; which might seem to mean the communion service, where the Lord's prayer was always used: but it has been showed before, in the first chapter of this Book, that missa is a general name for any part of Divine service; and in this canon is particularly taken for the morning and evening sacrifice of prayers. For it immediately follows, that no one should come to the sacrifice of morning or evening mass, that is, 'morning or evening prayers, with his arms or weapons, which only appertained to the use of war. Besides, that in the communion service, as we shal see hereafter, the Lord's prayer came always in the middle, and not, as here, in the conclusion of the service. This is the substance of what I have observed concerning the several parts and order of the daily morning and evening service in the writings of the fathers and the canons of the councils, which are at present the chief rituals of the ancient church: and I have been the more careful to separate these offices from the great service of the Lord's day, because they are too often confounded in the accounts of modern authors. I now proceed to the offices and service of the Lord's day, which must be the subject of the two following Books. 5199 008 |