mody and lessons of Scripture, which were continued till the ninth hour, or three o'clock, at which time the sacrament was celebrated. Something of the same sort appears in the western supplications or rogations of later times, where the service began at the third hour, or nine o'clock in the morning, in order to allow time for the procession; and in the latter part of the day the sacrament was also administered ". Psalmody and lessons of scripture were the ordinary exercises of devotion in Christian assemblies, and therefore it is highly probable that they were used in the public offices of supplication for any especial occasion. To this, no doubt, we may add prayers made by the bishop or priest at a proper part of the service. In the fourth century, however, we have a distinct reference to the use of psalmody on such occasions. Basil, in a discourse delivered during a season of dry weather and famine, speaks of the public service of a litany as terminating with psalmody. He complains of the small number of persons who attended the office, and of their inattention; and observes, that they watched when the singer should conclude the verses of the psalms, that being delivered from the church, as if from a prison, they might be relieved from the necessity of praying. In the same place he speaks the ninth hour were sung, the liturgy was performed. "Hic

a

Bingham, Antiquities, b. xiii. c. 9, § 2. Book xxi. c. 3, $4.

This appears in the ancient MS. litany of the church of Lyons, published by Martene, p. 520-524. De Antiq. Eccl. Discipl. in Div. Offic. In the last station, which was held at the church of St. Justus, after the litany and the office for

nonam cantabis cum missa." We find the same custom in the church of Milan. The office for the ninth hour was sung in the seventh station, and the liturgy in the eighth. See Martene ut supra, p. 533.

° καὶ ἐπιτηροῦντες πότε τοὺς στίχους ὁ ψαλμῳδὸς συμπληρώ

of this service as a supplication and prayer, and he observes, that the infants who were sent instead of their parents, could not pray as was customary.

In the nocturnal and processional litanies of the Arians of Constantinople, in the time of Chrysostom, we find that they sung psalms, to which they added certain terminations, composed to suit their own heresy; and the catholics, by the direction of Chrysostom, adopted this custom of nocturnal and processional psalmody. And from that period to the present, these nocturnal psalms and processions have borne the name of litany in the patriarchate of Constantinople; for even now the litany of that church is chiefly, if not entirely, celebrated in the night, and consists principally of psalmody, as it did in the days of Chrysostom. The offices performed in the rogations instituted by Mamertus appear chiefly to have consisted of psalmody and prayers, as we learn from Sidonius and Avitus ; but besides this, we find that very long lessons of scripture were read,

σει, πότε ὡς δεσμωτηρίου, τῆς ἐκκλησίας, καὶ τῆς ἀνάγκης τῆς προσευχῆς ἀφαιρεθήσονται. Basil. Hom. in Famem et Siccitatem, tom. ii. p. 64, ed. Benedict,

· Οἵα δὲ ἡμῶν ἡ προσευχὴ καὶ ἡ δέησις ; ibid. ὀλίγοι λοιǹ πὸν μετ ̓ ἐμοῦ καὶ τῆς προσευχῆς. ibid. Βρέφη—οὔτε τοῦ συνήθως προσεύξασθαι γνῶσιν ἢ δύναμιν ἔχοντα. ibid.

e Sozomen. Hist. Eccl. lib. viii. c. 8, p. 767, 768, ed. Valesii.

f See Goar, Rituale Græ cum, p. 766, &c.

In his autem (rogationi

bus) quas suprafatus sacerdos et protulit pariter, et contulit, jejunatur, oratur, psallitur, fletur." Sidonius Epistola ad Aprum.

66 Sanctus Mamertus sacerdos-totas in ea quam supradiximus vigiliarum nocte, sancto pascha, concepit animo rogationes; atque ibi cum Deo tacitus definivit, quidquid hodie psalmis ac precibus mundus inclamat.' Avitus de rogationibus. "Nec porro magni intererat quod triduum eligeretur, dummodo psalmorum officia, lachrymarum functionibus cernuis persolverentur." Ibid.

as appears by the ancient Gallican lectionary". The service during the procession consisted of psalmody; for we read in the history of Gregory of Tours, that St. Gallus appointed the people to go in procession with psalmody from Clermont to the church of St. Julian'. We also find in the ancient Gallican liturgy, offices for the three rogation days, and collects to be said at different churches in the procession. It seems that the liturgy was celebrated early in the morning. It is said that a certain blind woman, in the time of Germanus, bishop of Paris, hearing the chorus of singers passing by in the time of the litanies, implored with tears the assistance of Germanus, and having recovered her sight on the third day, went early in the morning to the liturgy in procession with the people *. After the liturgy was over, they probably went in procession to different churches, singing psalms and anthems on the road; and in the churches they recited some prayers, and the collects and lessons, which we find in the Gallican missal and lectionary. Very nearly the

same custom prevails to the present time in the church of Milan. On the days of litanies or rogations, the clergy and people go in procession to several churches, at each of which they recite a litany like ours, a collect, and two lessons. Anthems or psalms are sung all the way from one church to another'. In the church of Rome the procession is celebrated in a different manner. There the invocation of saints, &c. and most of the prayers, are sung in procession, and at each of the churches which is visited only a collect is repeated. The remainder of the prayers and collects are recited in the principal church at the close of the rogation ". The office for the litany, according to the church of Constantinople, consists chiefly of psalmody and precatory anthems, which are either selected from the psalms, or composed in the same style. Besides these, there are prayers by the deacon and people, collects, and lessons. And there are various precatory anthems and lessons for the different occasions which call for the celebration of the litany".

Before I conclude this section, it may be considered proper for me to notice one peculiarity of the offices for litanies according to certain western churches. I allude to those long invocations of saints which occur at the beginning of the Roman litany. None of the eastern churches have ever used this sort of prayers in their litanies. On this subject let Renaudot, a most learned ritualist, be heard. Litanies, in our manner of speaking, there are

66

1 See Martene de Ant. Eccl. Discipl. in Div. Off. c. 27, p. 532, 533.

in Processione, &c. p. 325327, ed. Antwerp. 1652.

n Goar, Rituale Græc. p.

m Rituale Romanum. Ordo 766, &c. VOL. I.

X

none in the oriental churches, although Kyrie eleëson, with which our litanies begin and end, is frequently repeated. Neither do the Greeks know them "."

It is in fact certain, that none of the eastern churches use the invocations of saints which appear in the Roman litanies; and if so, the eastern litanies never could have contained such invocations; for no reason can be assigned why those churches should ever have omitted them, if they had been once introduced. Invocations of saints are then the peculiar characteristic of western litanies. Let me attempt to trace the antiquity of these invocations in the western churches, premising, however, that I make this inquiry solely with the object of ascertaining an historical fact; for there is no occasion whatsoever to prove that such invocations are not of the greatest antiquity in the western churches, in order to justify the church of England for removing them from her litany.

There can be no doubt that these invocations of

。 "Litaniæ nostro more loquendo, nullæ in ritu orientali sunt, etiamsi Kyrie eleison pluries repetatur, a qua formula litaniæ nostræ incipiunt, et eadem concluduntur. Sed neque Græci illas noverunt. Hanc opinionem habuit Josephus Scaliger, litanias esse illas orationes ubi Kyrie eleison sæpius repetitur, et existimavit a diptychis manasse: ingeniose, sed non vere. Diptycha adhuc conservantur in ritu Alexandrino, ut etiam ipsa vox: neque commune quidquam habent cum ista oratione, quam lita

niam vocavit hujus liturgiæ interpres. Sacerdos orat pro omnibus et de omnibus. Diaconus initio cujusque orationis, quarum aliquam et majorem partem sacerdos secreto dicit, alta voce monet circumstantes, ut orent secundum sacerdotis intentionem. Orate pro pace, pro papa, pro ecclesia, &c. Populus acclamat Kyrie eleison, ter ut plurimum, aliquando pluries. Nulla sanctorum, ut in litaniis nostris, commemoratio." Renaudot, Liturg. Oriental. tom. i. p. 356.