sons in the Breviary was partly occasioned by the alteration of the practice in regard to nocturnal Vigils. The nocturns and lauds, in which lessons of Holy Scripture and homilies of the Fathers were read at great length, together with a considerable number of psalms, were originally intended to have occupied a great part of the night; but in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the practice of nocturnal Vigils had been generally discontinued, and therefore the matin office was performed in the day-time, which so much lengthened its offices that it became necessary to abridge the lessons. However this may be, the Roman Breviary from that time was filled with apocryphal legends, and comprised various forms in honour of the Virgin and the Saints which were unknown to the primitive church. Amongst these may be mentioned the office of the Virgin, which dates from the eleventh century, and which was extensively used, though not enjoined on the clergy generally. The "officium mortuorum" also, which dates from the eighth century, was included in the Breviary, but its use was not prescribed in the thirteenth century, except in some particular churches. Invocations of Saints were introduced in different ways, especially in the Litanies.

P The Council of Lateran, A.D. 1215 (Can. 17), censured those clergy who neglected to celebrate the matins at night. Cardinal Jacobus à Vitriaco (Hist. Occident. c. 34) also condemns the practice of changing the nocturnal into a diurnal office. The Constitutiones Andegavenses, A.D. 1262, require the matins to be performed

The

early in the morning. midnight office ceased amongst the canons at Paris in 1358. See Thomassin. De Vet. et Nov. Ecclesiæ Discipl. pt. i. 1. ii. c. lxxxv. § 1, 2.

¶ Thomassinus, De Vet. et Nov. Ecclesiæ Disciplina, pt. i. 1. ii. c. lxxxvi. § 8, 9; Bona, Div. Psalmod. c. xviii. § 20.

r Ibid.

The other Breviaries of the western church had, in the course of ages, been gradually adopting alterations of the same nature, but without uniformity or judgment. So that at the period of the Refermation an infinite multitude of different offices, comprising more or less of objectionable matter, were in existence. The clergy were burdened with the repetition of offices, in which the Holy Scripture had been superseded by legends of saints, and services in their honour; and the practice of frequent prayer, which they had been designed to promote, had been lost sight of, while the whole service had become to the last degree cumbrous and intricate.

The evils of this system were so distinctly felt even in the Roman church, early in the sixteenth century, that Cardinal Quignon was encouraged by Pope Clement VII. to prepare a new edition of the Roman Breviary, in which lessons from Holy Scripture were introduced at such length, that the greater part of the Old, and the whole of the New Testament were read in the course of the year, while the offices of ordinary and of feast days were nearly equalized in length; the arrangement of the psalms in the different hours was altered; the capitula and responsories, or verses of Scripture, which had been introduced for the use of choral service, were omitted; and the office in honour of the Virgin was suppressed, together with many false legends of the saints. This Breviary was published in 1536 and 1537, with a dedication to Pope Paul III., whose Bull permitting its use in

V

stead of the Roman and other Breviaries, on condition of obtaining special faculties from the Papal see, is prefixed'. It went through many successive editions", and was extensively used in the western church till the publication of a new revision of the Roman Breviary under the auspices of Pope Pius V. in 1568, when it was abrogated by the Papal Bull prefixed to that Breviary, together with all other Breviaries which had been composed within the preceding two hundred years.

The reform of the English offices in 1549 was conducted to some extent on the same principles as that of Cardinal Quignon, but with the further improvements of substituting the vernacular language for the Latin, and of removing altogether the legendary fictions which had so long disfigured our formularies, together with all invocations and worship of creatures, which had their origin in a spirit far remote from the purity of Evangelical truth. In accordance with the ancient and most salutary

t Zaccaria, Bibl. Rit. t. i. p. 110-114.

" Claude Joly, De Verbis Usuardi Dissertatio, Senonis, 1669, p. 93-103, mentions editions, in 1536, 1543, 1556, 1566, printed at Paris, Lyons, Antwerp, and shows that it was approved by several successive popes, and never condemned. Zaccaria adds some other editions. Bibl. Rit. t. i. p. 113, 114. See also Gueranger, Institutions Liturgiques, t. i. p. 383.

▾ Gueranger, a recent writer, devoted to Ultramontane principles, remarks on the extent to which the Breviary of Quig

non was used in the Roman Catholic church. "Si le règne de cette étrange Liturgie eût été long, on l'eût vue remplacer en tous lieux l'ancienne forme des Offices Romains." Institutions Liturgiques, t. i. p. 383. If conformity with the practice of the Roman see in the celebration of Divine offices be, as this writer pretends, a great branch of Catholic unity, there is a great want of such unity in the Roman Catholic church at the present day; and the primitive church was wholly deficient in this respect.

principle of many churches, the Holy Scripture alone was appointed to be read in Divine service", and the homilies of the Fathers, the hymns and legends, gave place to the word of God.

The similarity of the reform effected by Cardinal Quignon, with that introduced by the reformers of our Ritual, will be more clearly seen by comparing the preface of his Breviary with that of the Book of Common Prayer, published in 1549, which is now placed immediately after the Preface of our Ritual, and is entitled "Concerning the Service of the Church."