Mozarabic rite. Compline. Aurora has four varying Psalms. This Office in point of fact is only said in the Mozarabic chapel at Toledo on high Festivals. The four other Hours are as follows: Prime. Psalm 67, 145 (in two divisions,) 113, 119, ver. 25-48 (in three divisions.)1 Tierce. Psalm 95, 119, ver. 49–72 (in three divisions.) The excessive beauty of Compline demands a longer notice. After a part of the 4th and the 134th Psalms, there follows this short Canticle: Blessed art Thou, LORD GOD of our fathers: laudable and glorious for ever. Vouchsafe, O LORD, this night : to keep us without tribulation and sins. O LORD, have mercy upon us : have mercy upon us. Because Thou art my help : into Thy hands I commend my spirit. Thou hast redeemed me, O LORD: Thou GOD of truth. 91. Then the Hymn, Sol Angelorum respice, and Psalm After which follows this Canticle, which strikes me as singularly lovely: His truth shall be thy shield: thou shalt not be afraid of any terror by night. If I climb up into my bed: remember me, O LORD. If I give sleep to my eyes, or slumber to my eyelids, or suffer the temples of my head to take any rest: remember me, O LORD. Until I find out a place for the LORD, an habitation for the mighty GoD of Jacob: remember me, O LORD. Glory and honour to the FATHER, and to the Son, and to the HOLY GHOST, for ever and ever, Amen: remember me, O Lord. If I climb up into my bed: remember me, O LORD. I beseech Thee, O LORD, Source of Light, leave me not, but remember me, O LORD. Then follow the Hymn Cultor Dei memento and the usual Collects and prayers. 1 The Mozarabic ritual, like our own Prayer Book, divides the 119th Psalm into portions of eight verses: not, as does the Roman, into portions of sixteen. nopolitan 32. We now turn to the arrangement of the Psalter Constanti the Hours. Each of these cathismata is divided into three From nopolitan Constanti 133rd and 136th Psalms. Thence, to the Octave rite. of the Epiphany, two at Matins, one at Vespers. Thence, till the Saturday before the Apocreos, one at Matins, one at Lauds, and two at Vespers. General Antiphons. The arrangement, however, of the Hours is as follows: Matins. Psalm 51, 119 (this is said in a first "stasis" from verse 1 to 72; a second from 73 to 93; a middle stasis from 94 to 131; and a third stasis from 132 to the end :) Psalm 121, 134. Lauds, 3, 38, 63, 88, 103, 143. Prime. Psalm 5, 90, 101. Mesorion of the First Hour. Psalm 46, 92, 93. Tierce. Psalm 17, 25. Mesorion of the Third Hour. Psalm 30, 32, 61. Mesorion of the Sixth Hour. Psalm 56, 57, 70. Mesorion of the Ninth Hour. Psalm 113, 138, 140. Vespers. Psalm 104, 141, 142, 130, 117. Great Compline. Psalm 4, 6, 13, 25, 31, 91, 51, 102, 70, 143. Matins on Saturday. Psalm 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70. The above table will give the reader a general idea of the arrangement adopted by the Eastern Church. Just as the Magnificat is the Canticle round which Latin Vespers arrange themselves, so the 141st Psalm occupies the same place in the East: and the Stichoi, &c., ordered to be said sis Tò Kúgie ἐκέκραξα answer to the varying Antiphons to the Magnificat. 34. We now turn to an entirely different branch principle of of our subject. Hitherto I have spoken of the constant and frequent repetition of the Psalms in Ecclesiastical offices. The same Psalm was said at Christmas, said at Easter, said in Lent, said at Whitsuntide, said on the Festivals of Martyrs, said in the Office for the Dead: it could not, at all these seasons, be recited with the same feelings, in the same frame of mind. Its different emphases required to be brought out; the same sun-ray from the HOLY GHOST rested, indeed, at all times on the same words, but the prism of the Church separated that colourless light into its 1 component rays: into the violet of penitence, the crimson of martyrdom, the gold of the highest seasons of Christian gladness. Hence arose the wonderful system of Antiphons, which, out of twenty different significations, definitely for the time being. fixed one which struck the right key-note, and enabled the worshipper to sing with the spirit and to sing with the understanding also. Ancient as is the alternate chanting of Psalms in the Church, it may be doubted whether that of Antiphons is not of even more venerable antiquity; and the relation of Socrates about the vision of S. Ignatius, and his introduction into the service of the Church on earth, of that which he had heard in the Church in heaven, more probably refers to this system than to that of responsory chanting. An antiphon, then, in the ori- Original ginal sense of the word, was the intercalation of some antiphon infragment or verse between the verses of the Psalm after every which was then being sung: one choir taking the verse. Psalm, the other, the intercalated portion. Into this subject I propose to enter at some length, since it has not, to the best of my knowledge, as yet received any notice from English scholars. system: the tercalated from the 35. Take an example of the primitive Antiphon in Example its plainest and most unadulterated shape, from the Mozarabic Mozarabic Office at Prime. First Choir. The LORD said unto Me : Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee. Second Choir. The LORD said unto Me: Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee. First Choir. Why do the heathen so furiously rage together and why do the people imagine a vain thing? : Second Choir. The LORD said unto Me: Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee. First Choir. The kings of the earth stand up, and the rulers take counsel together: against the LORD, and against His Anointed. Second Choir. The LORD said unto Me: Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee. rite. 36. Or take another example, from the Lauds of From the Septuagesima Sunday, as said in the Ambrosian Ambrosian. Office : Early Antiphons. From the . In Thy hand, O LORD, lie all things, and there is none that can resist Thy will. For Thou hast made everything; heaven and earth, and that which is under the heaven: Thou art the LORD of all things. Antiphon. Kyr. Kyr. Kyr. y. In Thy hand, &c. . In Thy hand, &c. 37. We know that this intercalation was in use among the Arians, who inserted the clause, " And now, where are they that worship the Trinity in Unity?" between the verses of their Psalms. And nothing is commoner in the Greek ritual than to find the Antiphon thus said at the present day. For example, on Christmas Day we have the following: Antiphon. In secresy wast Thou brought forth in the earth; but the sky, O SAVIOUR, heralded Thee, as a mouth to all, employing the star. And the wise men, adoring Thee in faith, brought gifts to Thee: with whom have mercy upon us.1 Her foundations are upon the holy hills: the LORD loveth the gates of Sion better than all the dwellings of Jacob. Antiphon. In secresy wast Thou brought forth, &c. Very excellent things are spoken of thee: thou city of GOD. I will think upon Rahab and Babylon : with them that know me. Antiphon. In secresy wast Thou brought forth, &c. Behold ye the Philistines also: and they of Tyre, with the Morians; lo, there was he born. Antiphon. In secresy wast Thou brought forth, &c. And of Sion it shall be reported that He was born in her : and the most High shall stablish her. Antiphon. In secresy wast Thou brought forth, &c. The LORD shall rehearse it when He writeth up the people : that He was born there. The singers also and trumpeters shall He rehearse : All my fresh springs shall be in Thee. Antiphon. In secresy wast Thou brought forth, &c. The Greek is undoubtedly corrupted: I have given the sense. |