4. The Ember Weeks. The Prayers to be said every day in the Ember Weeks, for those that are to be admitted into Holy Orders were added at the last revision and are peculiar to the English Ritual. In Medieval times four days were specially set apart to be observed with fasting and prayer as an act of consecration of the four seasons of the year. The Council of Placentia, A.D. 1095, fixed for their celebration the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after

(1) The first Sunday in Lent,

(2) Whitsunday,

(3) The 14th of September,

(4) The 13th of December.

These Days were called Jejunia quatuor temporum, the Fasts of the Four Seasons1. The Dutch called these seasons Quatertemper, the Germans Quatember, whence according to some is derived our term Ember2.

5. The Prayer that may be said after any of the former is as old as the Sacramentary of Gregory, and in an English form has had a place in the Prymer,

Dearth in 1551; also there was a general European war, besides the more pressing troubles in Ireland; Strype's Cranmer, sub ann. A.D. 1551. Compare also Strype, Mem. Eccl. Edw. VI. II. iv., "The Sweating sickness breaking out this year in great violence, whereby the two sons of the duke of Suffolk were taken off, letters from the Council, dated July 18, were sent to all the bishops, to persuade the people to prayer, and to see God better served;" also "The Sophy and the Turke, the Emperor and the French Kynge (not moch better in religion than they) rollynge the stone, or turnynge the whele of fortune up and downe, I pray God send us peace, and quyetnes with al realmes, as wel as among our selfes; and to preserve the kyngs majestie with al his councill. From my howse of Forde the xx day of November, anno 1552;" Cranmer to Cecil.

1 In our Calendar they are called The Ember-Days at the Four Seasons. See Notes and Queries, Vol. VI. 145, Second Series.

2 The rubric, however, directs one of the Prayers to be

as long as that Book can be traced. In its oldest English form it ran1:—

66

66

God, to whom it is propre2 to be mer"ciful and to spare evermore, undirfonge oure preieris: and the mercifulnesse of "thi pitie asoile hem, that the chain of "trespas bindith. Bi crist our lord. So "be it."

In the early Primers it stood with the Collects at the end of the Litany; it was omitted during the reign of Edward VI., but was restored in the Litanies of Elizabeth, A.D. 1558 and 1559.

ne

6. The Prayer for the High Court of Parliament was most probably composed by Archbishop Laud. It first appeared in an "Order of Fasting" in 1625, the year of King Charles' accession, and again in 1628, the famous year of "the Petition of Right" and "the Remonstrance," as a special form of Prayer cessary to be used in these dangerous times of war." In these early forms it agrees almost word for word with the present Prayer, but is somewhat longer. In 1661 it was ordered by Convocation to be placed in the Book of Common Prayer5, and on the first day of the year 1801 the word Dominions was substituted for Kingdoms.

7. The Prayer for all Conditions of Men has been ascribed to Sanderson, Bishop of Lincoln, 1660.

said not only on the Ember days, but upon every day of the Ember weeks.

1 See Maskell, Mon. Rit. II. 107.

2 "To whom it is appropried;" Hilsey's Primer, p. 386. 3 Undirfonge = receive, take, from A.-S. underfangan = to receive. "Take our prayer." Hilsey's Primer.

4 To asoil or assoyl; Fr. absouldre; Lat. absolvere = (1) to

free, clear of difficulty; (2) to pardon, forgive.

5 The early Forms contain the words "most religious and gracious king," which have generally been supposed to have been introduced as a compliment to Charles II.

It was, however, most probably composed by Gunning1, Master of St John's College, Cambridge, afterwards Bishop of Ely. In its original shape it is supposed to have been longer, and to have included in one Prayer the petitions for the Sovereign, the Royal Family, the Clergy, which are now scattered through several Collects. The Convocation of a.p. 1662, however, retained those Collects, and struck out the petitions in this Prayer already expressed in them, without altering the word Finally, which seems needlessly introduced in so short a Form. Besides this, no general3 intercessory prayer occurred in the Service, except on those mornings when the Litany was said.

8. Thanksgivings. Praise is an essential part of Divine worship. Hence throughout the Morning and Evening Service we retain Doxologies, Psalms, and Canticles. But these do not include that particular Thanksgiving for extraordinary deliverances, or indeed for daily mercies, which is due to the Author and Giver of all good things. Hence at the revision of the PrayerBook after the Hampton Court Conference, some par

1 He was one of the coadjutors to the Episcopal Divines at the Savoy Conference.

2 The Puritans, as we have seen above, p. 46, objected to short Collects at the Savoy Conference.

3 In this prayer occur the expressions, "the good estate of the Catholic Church," and "in mind, body, or estate." Estate in the Bible and Prayer-Book is not restricted to its present meaning only, but is equivalent to state or condition. Comp. (1) Ps. cxxxvi. 23, "Who remembered us in our low estate," Ezek. xxxvi. 11, "And I will settle you after your old estates." (2) "In the holy estate of matrimony," Marriage Service; (3) "to examine yourself and your estate," Visitation of the Sick. Latimer defines as part of the duty of a king, "To see to all estates; to provide for the poor; to see victuals good cheap," Sermons, p. 215; Hooker speaks of "being both now and also in regard of a future estate hereafter;" and, Serm. iii. 605, says, "As long as the manner of men retain the estate they are in."

ticular thanksgivings were annexed to the Litany by order of James I. under the title of An enlargement of thanksgiving for divers benefits by way of explanation. These were thanksgivings for Rain, for Fair Weather, for Plenty, for Peace and Deliverance from our enemies, and for Deliverance from the Plague or other common Sickness in two forms.

9. The General Thanksgiving. At the last revision after the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, another special form of thanksgiving was added for restoring Publick Peace at Home, and for blessing God's holy name for the appeasing of the late seditious tumults. At the same time the Convocation authorised the acceptance of A Form of General Thanksgiving which was prepared and presented by Reynolds', Bishop of Norwich, Dec. 14, 1661, which rendered the Book more perfect by making the Thanksgivings correspond with the Prayers.

1 He had been a Presbyterian, but afterwards conformed, and was advanced to the See of Norwich in 1661.

APPENDIX.

I.

TABLE OF DATES

OF EVENTS CONNECTED WITH THE HISTORY OF THE
BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER.

A. D.

398 Litanies at Constantinople.

451 LEO, Pope, arranged the Eucharistic Office of the Roman Church, called the Leonine Sacramentary.

460 MAMERTUs, Bishop of Vienne, appoints Litanies on the three Rogation-days.

492 GELASIUS, Pope: Gelasian Sacramentary.

590 GREGORY the Great, Pope, appoints the sevenfold Litany: Gregorian Sacramentary.

597 AUGUSTINE, the Missionary from Rome, arrives in England.

747 Council of Cloveshoo receives the Roman martyrology and Litany-days.

800 Invocation of Saints added to the Litany. 1080 Breviary first mentioned.

1085 OSMUND, Bishop of Sarum: his arrangement of the Offices received, and called the Use of Sarum.

1400 The Prymer in English.

1414 The Use of St Paul's discontinued.

1516 Amended edition of the Sarum Portifory.

1530 MARSHALL'S Primer in English.

The Augsburg Confession drawn up by MELANC

THON.