The Commi nation. SECT. VII.—A Commination, or Denouncing of Goa's anger and judgments against sinners, with certain Prayers to be used on the first day of Lent, and at other times, as the Ordinary shall appoint. 2 This addition to the ordinary Service on Ash Wednesday is a memorial of the solemn public penitence, which formed so distinct a feature in the discipline of the early Church. It is called a Commination, from the opening Address, or Exhortation to Repentance, in the course of which the curses of God against sin are recited.3 With the exception of this Address, which, like the similar forms in our other Services, is a composition of our Reformers, the special prayers are the same which were used on this occasion in the medieval Church, and per haps in very early times.1 Art. (1576) § 3; Cardwell, Doc. 2 Bingham, XVIII. ch. i., ii.; Guericke, § xix. pp. 93 sqq. On the penitential system of the Middle Ages, see Robertson, Church Hist. II. 237; Hardwick, Middle Age, p. 105: on the famous Anglo-Saxon Penitentials of Theodore, Bæda, and Egbert, see Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents relating to Great Britain and Ireland, ed. by Haddan and Stubbs (Oxford, 1869), Pref. pp. xiii. sqq. ; Johnson, English Canons, I. pp. 426 sqq. 1 This title was added in 1661. In the First Prayer Book it was simply, 'The first day of Lent, commonly called Ash Wednesday; and in 1552, 'A Commination against sinners, with certain prayers to be used divers times in the year;' the alteration being made in accordance with a suggestion of Bucer, who wished this Service to be used at least four times in a year (Censura, c. xxv. ; Script. Angl. p. 491). No special days, however, were appointed; but, in the reign of Elizabeth, Archbishop Grindal inquired whether it was used at divers times; and 'for order sake' Comp. the Form of the Greater -not regarding the perversion of Excommunication (Sarum Manual) the Sunday festival-named one of in Maskell, Mon. Rit. II. pp. 286— the three Sundays next before Easter, 305. This was a long declaration one of the two Sundays next before of general curses, ordered to be read the feast of Pentecost, and one of the four times a year; viz. the first Suntwo Sundays next before the feast of days in Advent and Lent, the Sunthe birth of our Lord, over and be- days after Whitsun Day, and the sides the accustomed reading thereof Assumption of our Lady. upon the first day of Lent." Visit. 4 Palmer, Orig. Lit. ch. xi. Feria iv. in capite jejunii.1 Post sextam in primis fiat sermo ad populum si placuerit: deinde prosternant se clerici in choro, et dicant septem Psalmos pœnitentiales cum Gloria Patri; et antiphona, Ne reminiscaris. Kyrie eleison. Christe eleison. Kyrie eleison. Pater noster. Et hæc omnia sine nota dicuntur tam a sacerdote quam a toto choro, puero interim tenente vexillum cilicinum prope sinistrum cornu altaris: deinde erigat se sacerdos cum diacono et subdiacono, et solus dicat super populum conversus ad orientem coram dextro cornu altaris hoc modo. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem. Chorus respondeat, Sed libera nos. Salvos fac servos tuos et ancillas tuas : Mitte eis Domine auxilium de sancto: Convertere Domine usque quo: Et deprecabilis esto super servos tuos. Adjuva nos Deus salutaris noster: Et propter gloriam nominis tui, Domine, libera nos, et propitius esto peccatis nostris propter nomen tuum. Domine exaudi orationem meam. Et clamor meus ad te veniat. Dominus vobiscum. Et cum spiritu tuo. The Commination. The Media val Service. Ps. li. The Lesser The Lord's Litany; Prayer: The Versicies. Oremus. Exaudi, Domine, preces nostras, et confitentium tibi The Prayer, parce peccatis: ut quos conscientiæ reatus accusat, indulgentia tuæ miserationis absolvat. Per Christum. Then several Collects were said: after which followed the ceremony of blessing and distributing ashes: the beginning of the Prayer, 'O most mighty God, &c.' is taken from the Benedictio Cinerum, and the remainder formed from one of the preceding Collects : Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui misereris omnium, et nihil odisti eorum quæ fecisti . . . . Domine Deus noster, qui offensione nostra non vinceris, sed satisfactione placaris: respice, quæsumus, super famulos tuos, qui 1 Miss. Sar. col. 123. 'O Lord, we beseech thee, &c.' 'o most mighty God, &c.' The Commination. The Suppli cations, se tibi graviter peccasse confitentur: tuum est enim absolutionem criminum dare, et veniam præstare peccantibus; qui dixisti pœnitentiam te malle peccatorum, quam mortem: concede ergo, Domine, his famulis tuis, ut tibi pœnitentiæ excubias celebrent, et correctis actibus suis conferri sibi a te sempiterna gaudia gratulentur. Per Christum. The general supplication, said by the people after the Turn thou Minister, occupies the place of the mediaval Procession: it is formed from portions of the ancient Service :— us, &c.' Review of the Service. Convertimini ad me in toto corde vestro: in jejunio et fletu et planctu et scindite corda vestra, et non vestimenta vestra: et convertimini ad Dominum Deum vestrum: quia benignus et misericors est; patiens et multum misericors; et præstabilis super malitia1.... Et interim cantentur sequentes antiphona. Exaudi nos, Domine, quoniam magna est misericordia tua: secundum multitudinem miserationum tuarum respice nos Domine.........Alia antiphona. Juxta vestibulum et altare plorabant sacerdotes et Levitæ ministri Domini, dicentes: Parce, Domine, parce populo tuo; et ne dissipes ora clamantium ad te, Domine.2 This Service differs from the other forms of Public Worship appointed in our Prayer Book, in being entirely supplicatory. Instead of singing the Psalms or reading them in a standing posture, the 51st Psalm, the Psalm of confession, is said by the Priest and people kneeling. Then, instead of pronouncing an absolution, the Minister says two prayers, which are petitions for absolution; upon which the people plead for their own pardon in a series of earnest supplications: and the Service concludes with the blessing of the Jewish Church turned into the form of a precatory benediction.3 1 A portion of Joel ii. was read for the Epistle in the Mass which followed the ejection of the penitents from the Church, col. 135. 2 These Anthems were sung during the distribution of the ashes: col. 134. 3 The American Prayer Book does not contain this Office: but at the end of the Litany, before the General Turn SECT. VIII. Forms of Prayer to be used at Sea. The first attempt at having Special Forms of Prayer for use at Sea was made by the Parliament, as a supplement to the Directory, when it was found that the proscribed Book of Common Prayer was used in all ships in which there was any observance of religion at all.1 At the Restoration, therefore, some proper forms were added to the revised Prayer Book. They are not a complete Office; nor are they arranged in any particular order: but as additions to the Common Prayer,2 or as particular supplications, or thanksgivings, for deliverance from the perils of the sea or from the enemy, they are well adapted to their several occasions.3 1 See above, p. 107; Lathbury, Hist. of Convoc. pp. 497 sq. 2 The following is the first of the ARTICLES OF WAR :- Officers are to cause Public Worship, according to the Liturgy of the Church of England, to be solemnly performed in their ships, and take care that prayers and preaching by the chaplains be performed diligently, and that the Lord's Day be observed.' 3 These forms are retained in the American Prayer Book, with the necessary changes of expression, such as ships of war for Her Majesty's Navy, &c. This Prayer Book also contains A Form of Prayer for the Visitation of Prisoners, which was 'treated upon by the Archbishops and Bishops, and the rest of the Clergy of Ireland, and agreed upon by Her Majesty's Licence in their Synod, holden at Dublin, in the year 1711' (Appendix to Bishop Mant's Book of Common Prayer, with notes), and A Form of Prayer and Besides these additional Forms of Prayers to be used at Sea. The Ordinal. SECT. IX.-The Form and Manner of making, ordaining, and consecrating of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, according to the order of the United Church of England and Ireland.1 From the earliest times of Christianity persons have been solemnly set apart for the ministry of the Church by imposition of hands and prayer.2 Presbyters and Bishops may have been appointed to their office by election, or by the nomination of a Christian emperor: but the fitness of the person was examined by ecclesiastical regulations; and it was the Bishop's office, or the Metropolitan, if the party elect were himself a Bishop, to ordain him according to certain rules and ceremonies.3 The only Orders retained in the Reformed Church of England are those which have claim to Apostolical antiquity. The reformed Ordinal was prepared as a companion to the first English Prayer Book in 1550,5 and with a few changes was added to the revised Prayer Book in 1552. The service was again revised by the Convocation in 1661.6 1 The American Prayer Book retains our Ordinal, with some changes of phrase, and the omission of the oaths: it has also a Form of Consecration of a Church or Chapel, and an Office of Institution of Ministers into Parishes or Churches. 2 Cf. Acts vi. 6, xiv. 23; 2 Tim. i. 6. 3 See Bingham, Antiq. IV. ch. ii. -vi. 4 These are the three Ordines ma jores. The Ordines minores were those who enjoyed the gift of the Spirit to pray over the evepyoúμevol or damovióμevoi, but at a later period an office extending to the care of the catechumens: door-keepers, ostiarii, janitores, Ovpwpoi, Tuλwpoí: readers, lectores, dvayvworal, mentioned in Tertullian (De Præscript. c. 41): and singers, cantores, yaλraí, to lead the ecclesiastical music, an office dating at latest from the middle of the fourth century. Guericke, § xiv. pp. 61 sqq. The seven orders of the Roman Church are the holy, or greater, viz. the priest, deacon, and sub-deacon, and the lesser, viz. acolyte, exorcist, reader, and porter. 5 Above, p. 31. 6 Lathbury, Hist. of Convoc. p. 288. |