The collects are placed in the same position relatively to the prayers as they have always occupied in the offices of the English churches. The collects of the day, for peace, and for aid against perils, are also in the same order, in relation to each other, as in the ancient English offices. Here the collect of the day followed Magnificat at vespers, the collect for peace was recited after vespers, and the collect for aid against perils succeeded the prayers at the end of compline. Collects were repeated at the end of evening prayer according to the AngloSaxon offices P; and Amalarius, A.D. 820, refers to the same custom".

We find in the sacramentaries of Gregory, A.D. 590, and Gelasius, A. D. 494, collects appointed peculiarly to be said at evening prayer'; and the

m Brev. Sar. fol. 22, ad Vesperas.

to Hickes's Letters.

9 Amalar. de Eccl. Officiis,

" Brev. Ebor. fol. 264, p. ii. lib. iv. c. 7. Suffragia ad Vesperas.

• Brev. Sar. fol. 13.

P Offic. Anglo-Sax. ad Vesperas et in nocte. Appendix

VOL. I.

г

a

Gregorii Sacramentar. Menard. p. 209, 210. Gelasii Sacr. Muratori, tom. i. p. 745.

U

council of Agde, A. D. 517, ordained that the people should be dismissed with a benediction in the evening, after the prayer had been collected; that is, after the collect had been said3. The office of vespers, according to the eastern church in the third or fourth century, also terminated with a collect, and a benediction by the bishop, as we may perceive in the Apostolical Constitutions'; and the same order is visible in the most ancient monuments of the office of vespers, according to the rites used in the patriarchate of Constantinople".

THE COLLECT FOR PEACE.

This collect is found in all the ancient monuments of the English church, where it has been used for above twelve hundred years. It is, without any reasonable doubt, as old as the fifth century, since it occurs in the sacramentary of Gelasius, A.D 494.

THE COLLECT FOR AID AGAINST PERILS.

This collect is also found in the most ancient monuments of the English church, and likewise occurs in the sacramentaries of Gregory the Great and Gelasius. In this last it is expressly appointed to be used at evening service; so that this collect has been appropriated to evening prayer for nearly fourteen hundred years.

Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord, and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of thy only Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Illumina, quæsumus Domine Deus, tenebras nostras; et totius hujus noctis insidias tu a nobis repelle propitius. Per Dominum &c. w

Amen.

CONCLUDING COLLECTS AND BENEDICTION.

With regard to the collects for the king, royal family, clergy and people, and the prayer of S. Chrysostom, I have nothing to say, which has not already been said at the end of the remarks on morning prayer. It may, however, be observed, that there is nothing whatsoever inconsistent with the ancient practice of the English churches in placing these collects in the place they occupy; since they are to be regarded in the light of memoriæ, or commemorations, which were very common after the collects of the canonical hours.

I have also spoken of the benediction at the close

Ebor. fol. 264, Miss. Sar. Commune, fol. 19, MS. Leofric. fol. 27. Gregorii Sacramentar. a Menard. p. 216. Gelasii Sacr. Muratori Lit. Rom. Vet. tom. i. p. 690.

w Breviar. Sarisb. fol. 57, Brev. Ebor. fol. 3. Gregorii Sacr. a Menard. p. 210, Gelasii Sacram. Muratori, tom. i. p. 745, MS. Leofric. fol. 329.

of morning prayer; and have now only to add, that the evening office terminated with a benediction in the eastern church, about the fourth century*; and also in the patriarchate of Constantinople, then, or not long after". The council of Agde, Benedict, and Amalarius speak of the same in the west; and it appears in the offices of the church of England during the period antecedent to the Norman Conquesta.

36.

X

Apost. Const. lib. viii. c.

y Goar, Rituale Græc. p. 46. 2 Concil. Agath. can. 30, ut supra. S. Benedict. Regula, c. 17, Amalarius de Eccl. Off.

lib. iv. c. 45. "Oratio et benedictio semper in fine fiunt."

a Officium Anglo-Sax. in nocte, ad finem completorii; see Appendix to Hickes's Letters, &c.

CHAPTER II.

THE LITANY.

SECTION I.

ANCIENT USE OF THE TERM.

THE word litany has been used in so many different senses by ancient writers, that persons who were not sufficiently aware of this variety of application, have fallen into great errors in attempting to trace the antiquity of various things which have all borne the same name. At first, this term was applied in general to all prayers and supplications, whether public or private. Thus Eusebius speaks of Constantine's custom of retiring to his tent before a battle, and there propitiating God with supplications and litanies; and he also says, that shortly before his death, Constantine entered the church of the martyrs at Helenopolis, and there, for a long time, offered supplicatory prayers and litanies to God. In the fourth century, the word litany became more especially applied to solemn offices which were performed with processions of the clergy and people.

Basil observes to the clergy of Neocæsarea, that

a

4 Τὸν Θεὸν ἱκετηρίαις καὶ λιταῖς ἱλεούμενος. Eusebii Vita Constantini, lib. ii. c. 14, p. 450, ed. Valesii.

» Κανταῦθα τῷ τῶν μαρτύ

ρων εὐκτηρίῳ ἐνδιατρίψας οἴκῳ, ἱκετηρίους εὐχάς τε καὶ λιτανείας ȧvéжеμTE TO Oε. Euseb. Vit. Const. lib. iv. c. 61, p. 557, ed. Valesii.