Sect. L.

That the service

of the ancient

church usually be

gan with psalmody.

It has been observed before, that the ancients comprised their whole service under two general heads, to which they gave the distinguishing names of missa catechumenorum, and missa fidelium, the service of the catechumens, and the service of communicants or believers; that is, as we would now term them, the ante-communion service, and the communion service. The service of the catechumens was that part of Divine worship, at which the catechumens, and all others who were not perfect and full communicants, were allowed to be present; and it consisted of psalmody, reading the Scriptures, preaching, and prayers for such particular orders of men, as were not admitted to participate of the holy mysteries: and under these several heads we must now consider it.

The service usually began with reading or singing of psalms, as appears from that of St. Jerom,' describing the service of the Egyptian monks: They meet at nine o'clock, and then the psalms are sung, and the Scriptures are read, and after prayers they all sit down, and the father preaches a sermon to them. And so Cassian represents it, that first the psalms were sung, and then followed two lessons, one out of the Old Testament, and the other out of the New. Only on the Lord's day, and the fifty days of Pentecost, and the sabbath, or Saturday, they read one lesson out of the Acts of the Apostles, or the Epistles, and the other out of the Gospels. But, probably, there might be a difference in the

1 Hieron. Ep. 22. ad Eustoch. 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.

2 Cassian. Institut. lib. 2. cap. 6. Quibus (psalmis) lectiones geminas adjungentes, id est, unam Veteris et aliam Novi Testamenti, &c. In die vero sabbati vel Dominico utrasque de Novo recitant Testamento, id est, unam de

order of reading in different churches. And that may reconcile the different opinions of learned men concerning the order of their service. For some think they began with reading the Scriptures, and others, with a prayer of confession. The author of the Constitutions, it is certain, prescribes3 first the reading of the Old Testament, and then the psalms, and after that the Acts of the Apostles and Epistles, and last of all the Gospels. So that the psalms were intermingled with the lessons according to the rules and prescriptions which that author had observed in some churches. St. Basil' speaks of a confession made to God upon their knees, after which they rose up, and betook themselves to sing psalms to God. But that was in their vigils or morning prayers before day, and most probably only a private confession, which every man made silently by himself, before they began the public service. But if we take it for a public confession, as the learned Hamon L'Estrange does, then it will argue, that the Eastern churches began their morning antelucan service with a prayer of confession, and so went on to their psalmody, which was the great exercise and entertainment of their nocturnal vigils. And indeed it was their exercise at all times in the church, as St. Austin notes, to fill up all vacuities, when neither the reading of the Scriptures, nor preaching, nor prayers, interposed to hinder them from it. All other spaces were spent in singing of psalms, than which there could not be any exercise more useful and edifying, or more

Apostolo, vel Actibus Apostolorum, et aliam de Evangeliis.
Quod etiam totis quinquagesimæ diebus faciunt.
3 Constit. lib. 2. cap. 57. lib. 5. cap. 19.
Basil. Ep. 63. ad Neocæsar. t. 3. p. 96.

5 L'Estrange, Alliance of Div. Offic. cap. 3. p. 75. 6 Aug. Ep. 119. ad Januar. cap. 18. Quando non est tempus, cum in ecclesia fratres congregantur, sancta cantandi, nisi cum legitur, aut disputatur, aut antistites clara voce deprecantur, aut communis oratio voce diaconi indicitur ?

holy and pious, in his opinion. And upon this account, (if the observation of L'Estrange be rightly made out of Chrysostom,) the people were used to entertain the time with singing of psalms, before the congregation was complete and fully assembled. I take no notice here of their psalmody at other times, at their meals, at their labours, and in their private devotions: because, though this is frequently mentioned by the ancients with great and large encomiums, yet it differed in many respects from the common psalmody, and we can draw little light or argument from that to explain the public service.

Sect. 2.

The psalms inter

mixed with lessons

and prayers in some

churches.

As to the public psalmody of the church, though we take it for the first and leading part of the service, yet we are not so to understand it, as if it was all performed at once in one continued course of repeating many psalms together without intermission, but rather with some respite, and a mixture of other parts of Divine service, to make the whole more agreeable and delightful. At least, it was apparently so in the practice of some churches. For the council of Laodicea made a decree, That the psalms should not be sung one immediately after another, but that a lesson should come between every psalm. And St. Austin plainly intimates, that this was the practice of his own church. For in one of his homilies he takes notice first of the reading of the Epistle, then of singing the 95th Psalm, "O come, let us worship, and fall down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker," and after that of a lesson read out of the Gospel. And in another homily" he speaks of them in the same order. In the lesson out of the Epistle, says he, thanks are given to God for the faith of the Gentiles. In the psalm we said, "Turn us again, thou Lord God of hosts, show the light of thy countenance, and we shall be whole." In the Gospel we were called to the Lord's supper. By comparing these two places of St. Austin together, we may observe, that it was not any particular psalm that was appropriated to come between the Epistle and Gospel, but the psalm that was in the ordinary course of reading. For the 95th is mentioned in one place, and the 80th Psalm in the other.

'L'Estrange, Alliance of Div. Offic. cap. 3. p. 77. 8 Conc. Laodic, can. 17.

Aug. Serm. 10. de Verbis Apostoli, p. 112. Hoc de apostolica lectione percepimus. Deinde cantavimus psalmum, exhortantes nos invicem una voce, una corde dicentes, Venite adoremus, &c. Posthæc evangelica lectio decem leprosos mundatos nobis ostendit.

10 Aug. Hom. 33. de Verb. Domini, p. 49. In lectione apostolica gratiæ aguntur Deo de fide gentium. In psalmo diximus. Deus virtutum converte nos, &c. In evangelio ad cœnam vocati sumus, &c.

Collat. &c. ap. Mabillon, de Cursu Gallicano, p. 399. Evenit autem ut ea nocte, cum lector secundum morem inciperet lectionem a Moyse, incidit in ea verba Domini, Sed ego indurabo cor ejus, &c. Deinde cum post psalmos de

Mabillon has observed the same practice in the French churches, out of the collation between the catholics and Arians in the reign of Gundobadus, king of Burgundy, anno 499. For in the relation of that conference" it is said, That on the vigil before the day of disputation, in celebrating the Divine offices, it happened that the first lesson, that was out of the Pentateuch, had those words, "I will harden Pharaoh's heart," &c. After which the psalms were sung, and then another lesson was read out of Isaiah, in which were these words, "Go and tell this people, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand." After the psalms were sung again, another lesson was read out of the Gospel, wherein were those words of our Saviour upbraiding the Jews with their infidelity, "Woe unto thee, Chorazin," &c. And last of all the Epistle was read, containing those words, "Despisest thou the riches of his goodness," &c.: where it is easy to observe, that as there were four lessons read out of the Old and New Testament, so there were psalms sung between each lesson, except the last, which is not mentioned. These psalms were styled by a peculiar name, responsoria, and psalmi responsori, the responsories; which was not a name affixed to any particular psalms, but was given to all such as happened to fall in here, in the common course of reading. The fourth council of Toledo is to be understood of such psalms, when it speaks of responsories," blaming some for neglecting to use the Gloria Patri after them. And Gregory Turonensis "3 often mentions them more expressly under the name of psalmi responsori, making it a part of the deacon's office to repeat them. The ancient ritualists are not agreed about the reason of the name, why they were called responsoria; some saying " they were so called, because one singing, the whole quire did answer them; whilst others say, they had their name because they answered to the lessons, being sung immediately after them. Which seems to be the more likely reason.

15

But we are not to imagine, that these were the only psalms which the ancients used in their psalmody. For

Sect. 3.

Which psalms culiar name, psalmi

were called by a pe

responsorii.

Sect. 4. Some psalms appropriated to par ticular services.

cantatos recitaret ex prophetis, occurrerunt verba Domini ad Esaiam dicentis, Vade et dices populo huic, Audite audientes, &c. Cumque adhuc psalmi fuissent decantati, et legeret ex Evangelio; incidit in verba, quibus Salvator exprobrat Judæis incredulitatem, Væ tibi, Chorazin, &c. Denique cum lectio fieret ex Apostolo, &c.

12 Conc. Tolet. 4. can. 15. Sunt quidam qui in fine responsoriorum, Gloria non dicunt, &c.

13 Greg. Turon. de Vitis Patrum, cap. 8. Diaconus responsorium psalmum canere cœpit. It. Hist. Francor. lib. 8. cap. 3. Jubet rex ut diaconum nostrum, qui ante diem ad missas psalmum responsorium dixerat, canere ju

some psalms were of constant use in the church, as being appropriated to particular services. We have seen before, that the 63rd Psalm, "O God, my God, early will I seek thee," was peculiarly styled the morning psalm, because it was always sung at morning service, as the 95th Psalm is now in our liturgy. And the 141st Psalm, "Let my prayer be set forth in thy sight as the incense, and let the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice," was always sung" at evening service. They had also some proper psalms adapted to the nature of their communion service, and their funeral offices, as we shall see hereafter. And in the French church, from the time that Musæus, presbyter of Marseilles, composed his Lectionarium, or order of reading the psalms and lessons, at the instance of Venerius his bishop, the responsory psalms were all adapted to their proper times and lessons, as Gennadius" informs us. And this, some learned men 19 think, was at first peculiar to the Gallican office, and a singular usage of the French church. Which may be true as to the appropriating of several psalms to their proper lessons in the general course of the year; but it cannot be true, if it be meant only of particular and solemn occasions. For the church had not only proper lessons, but proper psalms read upon greater festivals, suitable to the occasion; and that long before the time of Musæus's composing his Calendar for the Gallican church. For St. Austin plainly informs us, that the 22nd Psalm, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me," &c., was always read upon the day of our Saviour's passion in the African church; and he seems to intimate that the Donatists did the same, though they were so stony-hearted as not to make a just application of it. And there is little question to be made, but that as they had proper psalms for this occasion, so they had for all the other solemn festivals.

Sect. 5.

The other psalms were sung in the Others sung in the ordinary course of reading from end

ordinary course as they lay, without be

ing appropriated to to end, in the same order as they lay Any time or day. in the book, without being appropriated to any times, or lessons, or days, except those particular psalms, which were appointed as proper for each canonical hour. Cassian observes,21 That

15 Book XIII. chap. 10. sect. 1.

17 See Book XIII. chap. 11. sect. 2.

Gennad. de Scriptor. cap. 79. Responsoria etiam psalmorum capitula tempori et lectionibus congruentia excerpsit.

19 Stillingfleet, Orig. Britan. chap. 4. p. 218.

Aug. in Psal. xxi. in Præf. Serm. 2. p. 43.
Cassian. Instit. lib. 2. cap. 2.

Cassian. ibid. cap. 4. Per universam Ægyptum et Thebaidem duodenarius psalmorum numerus tam vespertinis quam nocturnis solennitatibus custoditur, ita duntaxat ut post hunc numerum duæ lectiones, Veteris scilicet ac Novi Testamenti, singulæ subsequantur.

Ibid. cap. 2. Sunt quibus in ipsis quoque diurnis ora

in Egypt, at the first beginning of the monastic life, there were almost as many types, rules, or orders about this matter, as there were monasteries, some singing eighteen psalms immediately one after another, others twenty, and some more. But at last, by common consent, the number for morning and evening service was reduced to twelve, which were read in one continued course," without any lessons coming between them; for they had only two lessons, one out of the Old Testament, and the other out of the New, and those read only when all the psalms were ended. He tells us also, that in some places they sung six psalms 2 every canonical hour, and some proportioned the number of psalms to the number of the hour at which they met at their devotions: so that at the third hour they had only three psalms, but six at the sixth, and nine at the ninth hour; till upon more mature deliberation they came at last to this resolution, to have only three psalms at every diurnal hour of prayer," reserving the greater number of twelve for the more solemn assemblies at morning and evening prayer. Though the custom of conforming the number of psalms to the number of hours continued in use in some parts of France, or else was taken up in the time of the second council of Tours, anno 567, as appears from a singular canon of that council," which I have recited at large before in the last Book."

Sect. 6. And some appointed occasionally at bishop or precentor.

Besides these, it was usual for the bishop or precentor to appoint any psalm to be sung occasionally in any the discretion of the part of the service at discretion: as now our anthems in cathedrals are left to the choice of the precentor, and the psalms in metre to the discretion of the minister, to choose and appoint what psalms he pleases, and what times he thinks most proper in Divine service. Thus Athanasius tells us he appointed his deacon to sing an occasional psalm" when his church was beset with the Arian soldiers. And St. Austin" sometimes speaks of a particular psalm, which he ordered the reader to repeat, intending himself to preach upon it: and it once happened, that the reader, mistaking one of these psalms, read another in its stead; which put St. Austin upon an extempore discourse upon the