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.-Others sung in the ordinary Course as they lay, without being appropriated to any Time or Day.

The other psalms were sung in the ordinary course of reading from end to end, in the same order as they lay 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,' that 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,3 that in some places they sung six psalms 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

Cassian. Ibid. cap. iv.

1 Cassian. Instit. lib. ii. cap. 2. 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. 8 Ibid. cap. ii. Sunt quibus in ipsis quo

que diurnis orationum officiis, id est, tertiâ, sextâ, nonâque id visum est, ut secundùm horarum modum, in quibus hæc Domino redduntur obsequia, psalmorum etiam et orationum putarent numerum coæquandum: nonnullis placuit senarium numerum singulis diei conventibus deputari.

Ibid. lib. iii. cap. 13.

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 the Discretion of the Bishop or Precentor.

Besides these, it was usual for the bishop or precentor to appoint any psalm to be sung occasionally in any 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 psalm that was read by mistake to the people. And when we consider that they sometimes spent whole days and nights almost in psalmody; as when St. Ambrose's Church was beset with the Arian soldiers, the people within continued the whole night and day in singing of psalms; it will easily be imagined, that at such times they did not sing appropriated psalms, but entertained themselves with such as the bishop then occasionally appointed, or left them at large to their own choice, to sing at liberty and discretion. Sometimes the reader himself pitched upon a psalm, as the necessity of affairs would allow him, or his

Con. Turon. ii. can. 19. Athan. Apol. ii. 717.

Book xiii. chap. ix. sect. 9.

* Aug. in Psal. 138. p. 650. Psalmum nobis brevem paraveramus, quem mandaveramus cantari à lectore: sed ad horam, quantum videtur, perturbatus, alterum pro altero legit. Malumus nos in errore lectoris sequi voluptatem Dei, quàm nostram in nostro proposito. Vid. Aug. Præfat. in Psal. xxxi. Ambros. Epist. 33.

ad Marcellinam Sororem.

own discretion direct him. of his Homilies,' that he had preached upon a psalm, not which he appointed the reader to sing, but what God put into his heart to read, which determined his sermon to the subject of repentance, being the fifty-first or Penitential Psalm, which the reader sung of his own accord, or rather as St. Austin words it, "by God's direction." Sulpicius Severus tells a remarkable story to the same purpose in the Life of St. Martin. He says, when St. Martin was to be elected bishop, one, whose name was Defensor, among the bishops, was a great stickler against him. Now it happened, that in the tumult the reader, whose course it was to sing the psalm that day, could not come at his place in due time, and therefore another read the first psalm, that he lighted upon when he opened the book, which happened to be the eighth psalm, wherein were those words, "Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise, because of thine enemies, that thou mightest destroy the "enemy and defensor," as the Gallican version then read it, "Ut destruas inimicum et defensorem." And this, though it seemingly were but a chance thing, was looked upon as providential by the people, to overthrow the machinations of Defensor.

Thus St. Austin tells us in one

SECT. 7.-Prayers in some Places between every Psalm, instead of a Lesson.

In some places, instead of lessons between every psalm, they allowed a short space for private prayer to be made in silence, and a short collect by the minister, which, Cassian says, was the ordinary custom of the Egyptian Fathers. For they reckoned, that frequent short prayers were more useful than long continued ones, both to solicit God more earnestly by frequent addresses, and to avoid the temp

1

Aug. Hom. xxvii. ex. 50. tom. x. p. 175. Proinde aliquid de Pœnitentiâ dicere divinitùs jubemur. Neque enim nos istum Psalmum cantandum lectori imperavimus: sed quod ille censuit vobis esse utile ad audiendum, hoc cordi etiam puerili imperavit. 2 Sulpit. Vit. Martin. cap. vii. p. 225. Cassian. Instit. lib. il. cap. 5. Undecim Psalmos orationum interjectione distinetos, &c Ibid. cap. X. Utilius censent breves quidem orationes, sed creberrimas fieri, &c.

tations of Satan, drawing them into lassitude and weariness which was prevented by their succinct brevity. And therefore they divided the longer psalms into two or three parts,' interposing prayers between every distinction.

SECT. 8.-The Gloria Patri added at the End of every Psalm in the Western, but not in the Eastern Churches.

In all the Western Churches, except the Roman, it was customary also at the end of every psalm for the congregation to stand, and say, " Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost:" but in the Eastern Churches it was otherwise: for as I have noted before, out of Cassian, in all the East they never used this glorification, but only at the end of the last psalm, which they called their Antiphona, or Allelujah, which was one of those psalms which had Allelujah `prefixed to it, and which they repeated by way of Antiphona, or Responsal, and then added, Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost.' But in the Western Churches, he says, it was used at the end of every psalm. And so we are to understand those canons of the Council of Toledo, which order, Glory and honour be to the Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost," to be said at the end of the psalms and responsories: but the Decretal of Vigilius, which orders the same at the end of the psalms, must be taken according to the custom of the Roman Church to be used only at the conclusion of all. Other differences relating to the use of this doxology and its original, shall be considered in the next chapter in their proper place.

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1 Cassian. Instit. lib. ii. cap. 11. Et idcircò ne Psalmos quidem ipsos, quos in congregatione decantant, continuatâ student pronunciatione concludere: sed eos pro numero versuum duabus vel tribus intercessionibus, cum orationum interjectione divisos, distinctim particulatimque consummant, &c. 2 Book xiii. chap. x. sect. 14. 3 Cassian. Instit. lib. ii. cap. 8. Con. Tolet. iv. cap. 14.

Strabo de Reb. Eccles. cap. xxv. et 15. 5 Vigil. Ep. i. ad Eutherum. cap. ii. In fine Psalmorum ab omnibus Catholicis ex more dicatur, Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto."

SECT. 9.-The Psalms sometimes sung by one Person only.

As to the persons concerned in this service of singing the psalms publicly in the Church, we may consider them in four different different respects, according to the different ways of psalmody. 1. Sometimes the psalms were sung by one person alone, the rest hearing only with attention. 2. Sometimes they were sung by the whole assembly joining all together. 3. Sometimes alternately by the congregation divided into distinct choirs, the one part repeating one verse, and the other another. 4. Sometimes one person repeated the first part of the verse, and the rest joined all together in the close of it. The first of these ways, Cassian notes as the common custom of the Egyptian monasteries. For he says,' except him, who rose up to sing, all the rest sat by on low seats in silence, giving attention to him that sang. And though sometimes four sang the twelve psalms in one assembly, yet they did it not all together, but in course one after another, each singing three psalms, and the rest keeping silence till the last psalm, which they all sang by way of Antiphona, or alternate song, adding the Gloria Patri in the close.

SECT. 10. Sometimes by the whole Assembly joining all together.

Sometimes again the whole assembly joined together; men, women, and children, united with one mouth and one mind in singing psalms and praises to God. This was the most ancient and general practice, till the way of alternate psalmody was brought into the Church. Thus Christ and his Apostles sung the hymn at the last supper, and thus Paul and Silas at midnight sung praises unto God. Bellarmin indeed, and some other writers of the Romish Church say, this custom was not in use till the time of St. Ambrose; but they plainly mistake the introduction of the alternate

Cassian. Instit. lib. ii. cap. 12. Absque eo, qui dicturus in medium Psalmos surrexerit, cuncti sedilibus humillimis insidentes, ad vocem psallentis omni cordis intentione dependent. 2 Ibid. cap. v. et viii. Bellarm. de Bonis Operibus. lib. i. cap. xvi. tom. iv. p. 1077.