BX5145.A65 K37 1876 Karslake, W. H. Litany of the English church : considered history, its olan. and ihe manner in which Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/litanyofenglishcOOkars THE LITANY OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH. THE LITANY OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH CONSIDERED IN Jfs fisturg, its Pan, anir ilje mmux in foprjr it is ixtt^uireb to ht uscir BY THE REV. W. H/KARSLAKE, M.A. Assistant Preacher at Lincoln's Inn; Vicar of Westcott, Dorking; Late Fefioto and Tutor of Merton College, Oxford. LONDON BASIL MONTAGU PICKERING 196 PICCADILLY 1876 ft tC. APR 1882 PREFACE. J N the following pages an attempt is made to give a contribution towards a history of the Litany in the Prayer Book of the English Church ; and at the same time to show the general plan according to which it is arranged, and the manner in which it is intended to be used. Such an attempt has not been made hitherto, so far as the Writer is aware ; though there are many valuable remarks on the Litany, among which those of Mr. Palmer in the Origines Liturgicai, and those of Canon Bright in his Introduction and Notes to the Litany in the Annotated Book of Common Prayer, hold the chief place. With the constant distractions, and the separation from such books as are needed for the purpose of liturgical study, which the care of a country parish necessarily entails, it has not been possible for the Writer to pursue original research as much as he would vi PREFACE. have wished. But, in availing himself of such scattered materials as he could collect from other writers, he has reproduced the statements of those only on whose accuracy he had reason to believe that reliance could be placed. If the account given in the second chapter of the origin of Litanies in the Christian Church seems fragmentary and incomplete, his apology must be that this could hardly be otherwise from the nature of the case. While it is easy to describe some ancient and distinguished tree of the forest, and to narrate so much as is known as to the mode in which it grew and gradually spread its branches abroad far and wide, it is hard to say how it first sprang up, and to trace its roots deep hidden beneath the soil. And, in a similar way, all seems plain if the popular conception is repeated, that " for four hundred years there were no prayers of this special kind in the Christian Church," and the Litany is represented as suddenly springing into exist- ence in the fifth century, as if the Bishop of Vienne had indeed been gifted, under the pressure of dire distress, to devise a wholly new form for drawing down, as he hoped, the mercy of God. But it is far harder to trace how from the first the needs of men gradually found ex- pression more and more in that mode of earnest PREFACE. vii supplication to God which the Litany represents ; and how the first germs burst forth, the first roots stretched out, of that form of petition which appeared in a more matured condition when it was called for by the necessities of Vienne ; and then " spread " (in the words of Dean Stanley) " among the vine-clad mountains, the extinct volcanoes, of Auvergne, where the practice was taken up with renewed fervour; and then passed on from town to town through France, as a new vent for pent-up devotion, a new spell for chasing away the evils of mankind ; " and then flowed on, like a river, gathering fresh and fresh volume from the wants and distresses and aspirations of men, till it issued in the fuller, deeper Litanies of the later centuries of the Christian Church. The Author has been led to make this attempt to give an account of the Litany from a growing con- viction that the history of our Offices is very little known, and their meaning very little understood, by a large body of the members of our Church. Accordingly, he has already endeavoured to give a slight account of the history of the Prayer Book generally, and an explanation of the Daily Service in it, in his " English Churchman's Companion to the House of Prayer." And now he puts forth this sketch of the history of the viii PREFACE. Litany, with the belief that many will enter into that Office more, and value it more deeply, when they mark the great antiquity of it in its essential idea and fundamental form, and trace the steps by which the Litany was gradually developed, and note the wisdom and care with which our own Litany has been framed by a revision and reconstruction of earlier forms. If, with all its imperfections — of which he is fully con- scious — the work should lead to this good result, and so to a more grateful and intelligent use of this beautiful and pathetic and comprehensive element in our Divine wor- ship, the labour spent upon it will not have been in vain. A more complete comparative view of the principal Litanies in use in various ages of the Church, and a Commentary on our English Litany in detail, are additions which he hopes to make in a separate form at a future time. To the Benchers of Lincoln's Inn he has again to return his thanks for their kindness in allowing him access to their library, which has been to him a great source of help. And his thanks are due also to Dr. Littledale, who has most kindly contributed two very ancient Ambro- sian Litanies, and also a later, but valuable, Litany of the Church of Liege. PREFACE. ix The chief books from which information has been derived are, the works of Bona, Martene, Mabillon, Muratori, and Renaudot ; the Interleaved Prayer Book, and the Annotated Book of Common Prayer ; the Origines Liturgicse of Palmer, and the Monumenta Ritualia of Maskell ; Dr. Neale's translation of Primi- tive Liturgies ; Bishop Cosin's works ; the Documentary Annals of Dr. Cardwell ; the works of Dr. Stephens and Mr. Procter on the Book of Common Prayer ; the ' Choral Service ' of the Rev. J. Jebb ; L'Estrange's 'Alliance;' and the Commentaries on the Litany of Dean Comber and Bishop Forbes. Some few specimens only of earlier Litanies and ancient similar forms are given here. But they will be enough to enable the reader to form an idea of the growth of the Litany, and of the manner in which it may have been brought into the admirable form in which we have it now. He will picture our Reformers — Cranmer especially — engaged in the work of revising the Litany of the English Church, as it existed more particularly in the ' uses ' of Sarum, Hereford, and York. They would have before them the reformed Litanies of Luther and Hermann, as models to guide them in the work of revision ; while the Early English Litanies (of which three specimens are given), would x PREFACE. supply them with a definite ground plan. And some of the Litanies in use at various periods and in various parts of the Church at large, as well as the old some- what similar Liturgical Forms, would assist them in carrying out their work of remoulding the clauses in detail. And in this way, under their hand, our Litany would assume its present shape. jipj?-^*"' M •<« , tin i : PRIXTCETQH ^thsologic;.: TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. THE MEANING OF THE NAME LITANY .... I CHAPTER II. THE HISTORY OF THE USE OF LITANIES . . 1 7 CHAPTER IH. THE MANNER IN WHICH THE LITANY IS APPOINTED TO BE USED . .28 CHAPTER IV. THE TIMES AT WHICH IT IS APPOINTED TO BE USED . 45 CHAPTER V. THE PLACE IN WHICH, AND THE MODE IN WHICH, THE LITANY IS TO BE OFFERED 60 CHAPTER VI. THE RELATION OF THE LITANY TO THE OTHER OFFICES 70 xii TABLE OF CONTENTS. Page. CHAPTER VII. THE PLAN OF THE LITANY, AND THE ELEMENTS OF WHICH IT IS COMPOSED ..... 83 CHAPTER VIII. THE SOURCES FROM WHICH THE LITANY GENERALLY IS DERIVED ........ 97 « CHAPTER IX. SOURCES FROM WHICH IT IS DERIVED CONSIDERED IN DETAIL ......... 106 CHAPTER X. OTHER LITANIES COMPARED WITH OUR OWN . . 1 19 CHAPTER XI. A TABLE OF LITANIES IN USE IN VARIOUS TIMES OF THE ENGLISH, OR IN THE FOREIGN REFORMED CHURCH 131 CHAPTER XII. SOME EARLY FORMS OF PRAYER RESEMBLING THE LITANY I48 CHAPTER XIII. SOME LITANIES OF THE EARLY CHURCH . . . 163 ►ip^ & PBXXTCETOH THEOLGGICi IN CETOIf ft £C. APR |882 olqgi.ca: THE LITANY of the ENGLISH CHURCH. CHAPTER I. ON THE MEANING OF THE WORD "LITANY." / JpHE word Litany in itself expresses simply a Service of earnest prayer or supplication, more especially employed in times of distress. It is formed from the Greek word " Litaneia." And " if we regard its genuine signification," writes Bona, " the word Litany implies all serious and earnest prayer, being derived from the Greek word which means such supplication. But technically it is used to express a certain species of prayer, whereby we beseech the Divine mercy." 1 The corresponding term in Latin was " Rogatio." 2 But though we still speak of the " Rogation days," yet the name Litany has now become the term commonly 1 Bona : Res. Liturg. xiv. 4, quoted by Bishop Forbes. 2 The word occurs in classical authors — e.g., " Cum amici ctijusdam injusta: rogationi resisteret." — Vol. Max, vi. 4. " Litania: Grxco nomine appellantur, qua: Latin! dicuntur Rogationes." — Raianm Maurtit, De Instil. Cler. , lib. ii., cap. xv. 2 THE LITANY OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH. employed alike in the Western and Eastern branches of the Church, the Latin expression " Rogation " being comparatively little used. 1 The exact form, " Litaneia," indeed, is met with only in later Greek. But other forms of the same root are found constantly in Greek writers, and even in Homer they frequently occur. 2 The word seems to be derived from " Li," as its fundamental element. And this has an intensive force — as is seen most clearly in the adverb " Lian," " very " —so that the earnestness of supplication expressed by the word may be traced up to the root. 3 And when the word was adopted by the Christian Church, under the form of " Lite," and still more specially of " Lita- neia," it did not alter its primitive signification, being still used for solemn supplication to be made in some exigence, with a view to entreating the favour and obtaining the mercies of God. 4 Simeon, Bishop of Thessalonica, as Dean Comber writes, describes a 1 These supplications were called Litanies in the Eastern Churches, from whence the name passed to the West. Here they were called Rogations or Supplications, until the name of Litany became more prevalent than any other. It is probable that the prevalence of the name of Litany in the West may have arisen from the derivation of processional supplications from the Eastern to the Western Churches." — Palmer, i. 269. 2 IloXXa 5e /cat oirtvUuv xpi/crt'y 5£wai Xirdvevev 'E\8efiev. — //. xxiii. 196 ; cf. xxii. 414 ; xxiv. 357. * A curious instance of the perversities of derivation, regardless of every- thing but similarity of sound, is that which explains Letania as formed from Lnetor, "quia lata voce dicebantur." — G/ossar. in Du Cange, by Hen- schel, s.7'. 4 So Comber, quoting the words of an old Council, Cone. Mogunt, arm. 813. THE MEANING OF THE WORD "LITANY:' 3 Litany as " a supplication and common intercession with God, when His wrath lieth upon us." 1 And a modern but judicious critic of our own, 2 he adds, saith that "it is a public kind of supplication, whereby the mercy of God is more ardently and solemnly implored." There is a short account of the meaning and history of Litanies prefixed to the Litany in two of the three Primers put forth in the reign of Henry VIII. And the same occurs also in the Sarum Primers ; although, according to Mr. Maskell, no such preface is found earlier than the year 1530A.D. 4 Of the two prefaces to the Litany given in the English Primers of Henry VHP's reign, the one given in Marshall's Primer (1535), refers mainly to the invocation of saints in the Litany, on account of which the Litany had been omitted in a former edition. The preface in Bishop Hilsey's Primer (1539) dwells on the significance of the word Litany, and the origin and history of the use of Litanies in the Christian Church. Referring to the conduct of Mamertus, which will be related further on, the preface adds : " Hereof it came that, when any griev- ous plague was either sent by God among the people, or any sudden chance of gladness chanced, procession hath 1 Airaveta 8e eon irapaKXricns vpbs rhv Qe6v, in iKea'iq. tcoivrj, 81 6pyr\v tirir)v. 2 Spelman, Glossar. Given in the " Three Primers " of Dr. Burton. Maskell, Mon. Rit. ii. 97. 4 THE LITANY OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH. always been used, sometimes to pacify God's wrath, and sometimes to thank Him for His benefits." 1 " These Rogations, or Litanies," Dr. Stephens writes, " were intended to implore God's mercy in the most humble manner ; and with the most ardent affection of soul, to beseech Him to avert all sicknesses and plagues and tribulations ; to repel the evils of plague, pestilence, war, hail, and drought ; to compose the temper of the air, so that it may be for the health of men's bodies and fertility of the earth ; that He would keep all the elements in order and harmony, and grant men peaceable times ; as Eucherius relates the chief heads of them." 2 And in a similar way the matters contained in the Litanies are described by Bishop Forbes. " Their subjects," he says, " were all the good things which human nature requireth, either heavenly or earthly, either public or private — what concerneth the body, or affecteth the soul. But the history of the Church records their special efficaciousness in times of public distress, drought, storms, pestilences, earthquakes, and wars, ' The judgments of the Lord which are out upon the earth.' " 3 1 The word " procession " here (as often elsewhere) is used for " Litany," owing to processions having become a usual accompaniment of the Lita- nies, as will be explained farther on. 3 Horn, de Litaniis. Stephens, i. 535. 3 Commentary on the Litany, p. 2. THE MEANING OF THE WORD "LITANY." But though, in strictness, ' Litania ad luctum perti- net,' ' a Litany has reference to affliction,' the Litany was by no means confined to occasions of distress or special humiliation. And it became natural to adopt a form of prayer which took so firm a hold of men's affections on various occasions when processions were used. At ordinations, or at consecrations, or at the conferring of monastic orders, at coronations of emperors, at dedications of churches, etc., it became common to use the Litany. 1 A Litany never came amiss. It was particularly welcome as an element of offices for the sick and dying. Its terse- ness, energy, and pathos, seemed to gather up all that was meant by being " instant in prayer." 2 It was the natural expression of deeper emotion, when the heart lifted itself up more fervently at solemn seasons in communion with God. It was the vehicle through which " deep called to deep," as man from the depths of his spirit strove to penetrate the depths of the unseen world, and reach the Presence-chamber of the Most High ; although it might be the most true 1 A Litany for use at Baptism will be found in Martene, i. 81, from the Ambros Ritual of the Church of Milan. One for use at the Visitation of the Sick, in i. 308. (This is a very remarkable Litany, to which he assigns 800 A.D. as the date.) One for use at a Coronation is given in ii. 210. (Another will be found in Muratori, Lit. Rom. ii. 463.) And one for use at the Dedication of a Church is in ii. 247. — Bassani, 1788. 2 From Canon Bright, (Introd. to Litany, in Annotated Book of Common Prayer,) who refers to the Sacramentary of Gelasius, about 600 A.D. 6 THE LITANY OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH. response to the invitation, " Call upon Me in the time of trouble ; so will I hear thee, and thou shalt praise Me," when man pours forth his prayer to God in time of trouble, fulfilling God's command, trusting to His promise, looking with entire assurance for His help. 1 Neither, so far as litanies do relate to God's aid in time of need, is the use of them to be confined to 1 The origin of the Litany, and the special revival of it at the Reforma- tion, accord with this use of it in time of distress. "It sprang," writes Dean Stanley, "from an age gloomy with disaster and superstition, when heathenism was still struggling with Christianity ; when Christianity was disfigured by fierce conflicts within the Church ; when the Roman Empire was tottering to its ruin. . . . " Further, it was under a like pressure of calamities that the Litany first became part of our services. It is the earliest portion of our Prayer Book that appeared in its present English form. It was translated into English either by Archbishop Cranmer or by King Henry VIII. himself. These are the words with which, on the eve of his expedition to France in 1544, he sent this first instalment of our Prayer Book to Cranmer: 1 Calling to our remembrance the miserable state of all Christendom, being at this present time plagued, besides all other troubles, with most cruel wars, hatreds, and disunions, .... being therefore resolved to have continually from henceforth general processions in all cities, towns, and churches or parishes of this our realm, .... we have set forth certain goodly prayers and suffrages in our native English tongue, which we send you herewith.' — Fronde, Hist. Eiigl. iv. 482. "Thus it is, that whilst the Litany at its first beginning expressed the distress of the first great convulsion of Europe in the fall of the Roman Empire, the Litany in its present form expressed the cry of distress in that second great convulsion which accompanied the Reformation. It is the first utterance of the English nation in its own native English tongue, calling for Divine help in that extremity of perplexity, when men's hearts were divided between hope and despair, for the fear of those things which were coming on the earth." — The Litany, in Good Words, July, 1868. THE MEANING OF THE WORD "LITANY." 7 seasons of actually prevailing especial distress. At all times, it is felt, we need God's help to enable us to meet those dangers, spiritual and temporal, by which we are beset. The words of Hooker on this subject have a value for all ages of the Church, though they were called forth, as many of his most weighty remarks were, by questions raised, and difficulties propounded, at the time in which he lived. The actual objections may no longer be raised ; but the spirit which prompted them may remain, or the difficulties may be honestly felt, and require to be met still. Thus it had been made an objection to our Book of Common Prayer, that the Litany was ordered to be used at ordinary times. " We pray," it was objected, " for the avoiding of those dangers which are nothing near us, as from lightning and thunder in the midst of winter, from storm and tempest when the weather is most fair and the seas most calm. It is true that upon some urgent calamity a prayer may and ought to be framed which may beg either the commodity for want whereof the Church is in distress, or the turning away of that mis- chief which either approacheth or is already upon it. But to make those prayers which are for the present time and danger ordinary and daily prayers, I cannot hitherto see any either Scripture or example of the primitive Church." 1 1 T. C. in Hooker, vol. ii., p. 171, note. (Keble's edition.) 8 THE LITANY OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH. It was in answer to this that Hooker wrote : " As Litanies have been of longer continuance than that we should make either Gregory or Mamertus the author of them, so they are of more permanent use than that now the Church should think it needeth them not. What dangers at any time are imminent, what evils hang over our heads, God doth know, and not we. We find by daily experience that those calamities may be nearest at hand, readiest to break in suddenly upon us, which we in regard of times or circumstances may imagine to be furthest off. Or if they do not indeed approach, yet such miseries as being present all men are apt to bewail with tears, the wise with their prayers should rather prevent. Finally, if we for ourselves had a privilege of immunity, doth not true Christian charity require that whatsoever any part of the world, yea, any one of our brethren elsewhere doth either suffer or fear, the same we account as our own burden ? What one petition is there found in the whole Litany, whereof we shall ever be able to say at any time that no man living needeth the grace or benefit therein craved at God's hands ? I am not able to express how much it doth grieve me, that things of principal excellency should be thus bitten at, by men whom God hath endued with graces both of wit and learning for better purposes." 1 Originally, however, it must be admitted, a Litany was 1 Eccl. Poli, Book v., ch. xli., sec. 4. THE MEANING OF THE WORD "LITANY." 9 intended to be used with reference to some more imme- diate and pressing need. 1 Such, then, in a general way, was the idea conveyed by the word Litany in the early centuries of the Church. It was a solemn service of supplication — especially (as will be seen farther on) of processionary supplication — with reference particularly, but not neces- sarily, to some existing or apprehended distress. At the present day, both the last two elements of the idea of a Litany — its being accompanied with processions, and its being used in times of special affliction or danger — are in great measure dropped. And we express by the word only a specially solemn and earnest form of supplication to God. We may regard a Litany, therefore, now as a form of full and earnest supplication to God, more especially with a view to those dangers, temporal and spiritual, to which individuals and families and nations alike are always in greater or less measure exposed. It corresponds more or less, as a Service, to the Prayer for all Conditions of Men in the Daily Service, and still more to the Prayer for the Church Militant in the Communion office ; and may be called the full responsive Service of Suppli- cation of the Church in her Militant State on Earth, 1 Indicebantur Litanire gravi quovis imminente discriminc ; puta famis, belli, pestis, etc. ; quandoque ad impetrandam camporum benedictionem, ne tractis frugibus sequeretur fames. — Spelman, Gloss, in voc. io THE LITANY OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH. for her various members, as beset by dangers from within and from without. The name " Litany," it must be remarked in passing, was the name given to the general act of supplication, and especially of public supplication, in time of trouble in ancient times ; whereas now we apply the name rather to a particular form of service suitable for such occasions. And, further, it must be noticed that the name has been limited frequently to some particular portion of the Litany, as some special feature in it came from time to time more prominently into view. For instance, the " Kyrie Eleison," " Lord have mercy upon us," is very commonly called the Litany in ecclesiastical writings. 1 Then, again, the Invocation of Saints assumed to itself the name of the Litany for a time. 2 But it is to the general service of special and public supplication that the name of Litany is now com- monly applied. And the distinguishing feature of a Litany as a form of prayer may be said to be that it is a full and complete service of supplication to God — especially of public or united supplication — in the spirit of earnest desire for His mercy and aid, with 1 See Martene : i. I, Art. xviii., p. 175. " In the Sacramentary of Gregory, the prayers which antiently followed the Kyrie Eleeson are spoken of as ' the Litany.' " — Palmer, i. 266. 2 So the name of Litany is often applied even now. E.g. , " Litanie ; Priere faite en l'honneur de Dieu, de la Vierge, . . . ou des Saints, en les invoquant les uns apres les autres." — Lillrt; Diet, de la Langue F)-aucaisr, sub voce. THE MEANING OF THE WORD "LITANY." n entire submission to His will, and a deep sense of dependence upon Him for help. 1 It is " the col- lective prayer of the whole Church, especially beseech- ing God to shower down on us His blessings," 2 and forgive us our transgressions, and remove evil from us, so far as He may see fit. And thus a Litany may be defined as a full, divided, and responsive form of service for that portion of the great domain of prayer which consists of petition to God for mercy and help. 3 It is a part of our idea of a Litany, too, I con- ceive, that it should be not only divided, (instead of continuous,) and responsive, Minister and people to- gether taking part in it, but also that the response on the part of the people should be, " Lord, have mercy upon us," or words to that effect ; the Minister de- claring the subjects of prayer, and making supplica- tion to God with reference to them, and the people uniting with him by this form of response, or, more strictly, of completion of the prayer. 4 1 " A Litany expresses the most earnest degree of supplication, and most absolute submission." — Stephens, i. 528. 2 Bishop Forbes : Comm. on the Litany, p. 3. 3 The best definition of a Litany which I have met with anywhere is the following : " On entend par ce mot une priere alternative dans laquelle celui qui prie nomme ceux qu'il invoque, declare l'objet de ses desirs et les motifs qu'il a d'esperer ; a chaque invocation la communaute icpond par une formule courte et significative." — From the Dictionnaire Encyclopidique of IVetzer and Welte, translated into French by Goschlcr. Paris, Gaume Freres, 1869. 4 " Whereas, in the versicles and responses, what is said by the ministei and answered by the eople is divided into two sentences, though perhaps 12 THE LITANY OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH. One other peculiar feature of the Litany must be noticed here, that it is almost entirely addressed to the Second Person in the Holy Trinity, Jesus Christ our Lord. In this respect it stands out in striking contrast with the main body of our prayers. These are, as a general rule, addressed to God the Father, through the Holy Spirit, in the Name, for the merits, and with the intercession of Jesus Christ. So S. Paul, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, says that " In Him we both (Jews and Gentiles alike) have access by one Spirit unto the Father" (ii. 18). So our Lord Himself, in the pattern prayer which He has given us, directs us to address God, and say, " Our Father which art in heaven." So it has been from the earliest ages of the Church that the great body of Christian prayer was breathed up to God the Father in heaven. So the chief part of the collects in our own Prayer Book first address God the Father with some attribute " congruous " to the petition about to be offered up in the second portion, and close, in the third part, with the mention of Christ Jesus, as offered with special trust to God's mercy in Him. And this method of prayer is most serviceable, as keeping before the mind the Unity of Almighty God, a point which the opening portion of the Litany also is both pressing the same petition, I observe that in these the whole is but one sentence. And therefore in these the people are not directed to ansiuer, which is in effect to reply to something that is said ; whereas nothing is said till the sentence is filled up — nothing is affirmed or desired." — Dr. Bisse, Beauty of Holiness, p. I io, note. THE MEANING OF THE WORD " LITANY." 13 careful to recall, the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity being invoked first separately, and then together in the Unity of the Godhead, as a preparation for the body of .supplication to be addressed immediately to Christ. But in the Litany generally it is otherwise. And the peculiarity of the procedure makes it more marked. There it is the Saviour who is mainly addressed throughout. And there seems good reason for this. When the whole body of the Christian Church is before the mental view, with all the various commu- nities, all the diverse conditions, comprised within its pale, it is natural for the mind to rise at once to the thought of Him who is specially, in His mediatorial Kingdom, the Head of the Church purchased by His blood ; who watches over all, as the Good Shepherd, with tenderest care ; who knows each individual and each section of His mighty flock ; and before whose eye all the separate interests, trials, difficulties, wants, of each portion stand disclosed. And closely connected with this is the thought that to Him specially we have recourse, by a Christian instinct, in time of trouble and need. When being overwhelmed by his relentless enemies, St. Stephen in spirit beheld the Saviour standing at the right hand of God, to support and cheer His faithful servant, and sustain him with the hope of a reward in store ; and, seeing Him thus, he addressed to Him his petition : 14 THE LITANY OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH. " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit ; Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." In the Book of the Revelation, in which the trials and judgments and conflicts of the Church in the world are pourtrayed, it is as " the Revelation of Jesus Christ," showing unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass, that all is foreshown. To St. Paul, troubled by the thorn in the flesh, the Lord appeared ; and to Him the Apostle addressed the threefold suppli- cation, " Let this depart from me." " So is it in the Litany. Those who wrote it, and we who use it, stand for the moment in the place of Stephen and Paul. We knock, as it were, more earnestly at the gates of heaven ; we ' thrice beseech the Lord,' and the veil is for a moment withdrawn, and the Son of Man is there standing to receive our prayer. . . . Christ and the saints at such times " of strong emotion and heavy calamity " seemed to come out like stars, which in the daylight cannot be seen, but in the darkness of the night were visible. . . . The saints, like falling stars or passing meteors, have again receded into the darkness. But Christ, the Lord and King of the saints, still remains, the bright and Morning Star, more visible than all the rest, more bright and more cheering as the darkness of the night becomes deeper, as the cold be- comes more and more chill. . . . And this one remarka- ble exception of our Litany in favour of addressing our THE MEANING OF THE WORD "LITANY." 15 prayers to the One great Divine Mediator may be surely allowed, if we remember that it is an exception, and understand the grounds on which it is made. In the rest of the Prayer Book we follow the ancient rule, and our Saviour's own express command, by address- ing our Father only. Here, in the Litany, when we express our most urgent needs, we may well deviate from that general rule, and invite the ever-present aid of Jesus Christ, at once the Son of Man and Son of God." 1 And nothing can be more simply solemn and impres- sive than the service of the Litany heartily performed. Then a united congregation kneels in special supplica- tion before the Saviour, as the Redeemer, the Guardian, the Head of His Church — one with the Father and the Holy Spirit, in the mystery of the Holy Trinity, which His Word has revealed. And all the needs and afflic- tions, all the trials and temptations, of the various orders of men in the Church are open before their view, and presented in humble intercession to the Lord. And as the Minister of God sets forth in solemn array the various dangers, spiritual and temporal, to which the Church is exposed, and mentions in due order the various ranks and conditions of men who, all in their several circumstances, need the Saviour's support and care, the people testify the sincerity of their devotion by pouring forth together, again and again, as the 1 Dean Stanley on the Litany. — Good Words, July, 1868. 16 THE LITANY OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH. service proceeds, with a lowly but earnest voice, the response, " Deliver us, good Lord;" "Good Lord, we beseech Thee to hear our prayer." How fully then do we realize our condition, as parts of a great united spiritual community, members of the Militant Church on earth! How heartily do we enter into the work of intercession ! How faithfully do we accept our great privileges, and avail ourselves of the Saviour's promise to be with His united people, to bless them, and to watch over them, and to mark their needs, and to accept and answer their earnest prayer ! How fully do we look for God's blessing at such times ! " If, where two or three are gathered together, Christ is in the midst of them, He will be specially so where the whole people, kneeling between the porch and the altar, sends up to heaven a cry of penitential supplication — confess- ing its overwhelming and aggregated sinfulness, plead- ing the meritorious actions of its Redeemer, and enumerating the wants which it desires to have supplied, and the persons for whom it beseeches deliverance." 1 ! Bisbop Forbes, p. 3. — "At all times let us desire to bring to the use of the Litany a heart prostrate before God with the deep sense of its own sin. Let us use it in the spirit of devout penitence in which the royal Psalmist penned the fifty-first Psalm ; and then we shall realize for ourselves, as we mark the power of the Church's availing supplication, the truth of the words, ' A broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise ' (Ps. li. 17)." " Many penitents have found the Litany a golden treasure-house of prayer. Its petitions seem so completely in union with the spirit of the publican, who smote upon his breast, saying, 'God be merciful to me a sinner.'" Bau d, Inheritance of our Fathers, p. 120. CHAPTER II. THE HISTORY OF THE USE OF LITANIES. TT was to be expected that Litanies, or forms of special supplication, should be framed from the earliest times for use in the Church, when they were called for by any more pressing emergency, while shorter and more simple prayers might be enough at ordinary times. And ample warrant is found in Holy Scripture for such special supplications. " When our Lord Jesus gave us a perfect pattern for all our prayers," writes Dean Comber, " He laid the founda- tion of Litanies among the Christians in those latter petitions, ' Forgive us our trespasses, And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil.' And that His own practice might confirm the sanction, His most earnest supplication in His agony (S. Luke xxiii. 44) had all the properties of a Litany which could agree to Him ; the posture, kneeling ; the com- panions, strong crying and tears (Heb. v. 7); the form, repeating the same words (S. Matt. xxvi. 44). . . . 2 1 8 THE LITANY OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH And although the name be not expressly found in Holy Scripture, yet if we consider the thing, we have many precedents of such kinds of earnest supplications there. The fifty-first Psalm was David's litany, begin- ning with the peculiar phrase of the office, 'Miserere,' And Daniel's supplication is set down in chap. ix. From both of which some passages are transcribed into ours. But if these be affirmed to have been used in private, there is an illustrious instance of a public and solemn Litany instituted and appointed by God Himself, in a time of general calamity, the sum where- of was, "Spare Thy people, O Lord" (Joel ii. 17). So that the Jewish Church had them by Divine insti- tution, and use them in their offices to this day. 1 The solemn service of the Ninevites, recorded in the book of Jonah (iii. 5 — 10), is another instance of what may be called the use of a Litany in ancient times. 2 " And as for the frequent repetitions of ' Lord, have mercy upon us,' " L'Estrange observes, " in all proba- bility Christianity did not devise it new, but imitated elder patterns; I mean, that mode of the 136th Psalm, where ' for His mercy endureth for ever ' is iterated no less than seven and twenty times, and which versicle was used litany-wise (i.e., returned by 1 On the Litany, p. 8. 2 Hooker (v. 41, 1) refers to Exod. xv. 20, 2 Sam. vi. 2, Wisd. x. 20, etc., as illustrating the processional element of the Litany service in Jewish times. THE HISTORY OF THE USE OF LITANIES. 19 the people) in the service of the Temple, as is evident, 1 Chron. xvi. 41, and 2 Chron. v. 13."! As a private form of devotion, the Litany appears to have been used in early times. For neither the name nor the form of the Litany was confined alto- gether to the public services of earnest supplication in ancient days. Then, as now, in the litanies which are sometimes framed for private use, the specially fervent prayers of individuals too assumed the name and form of litanies, when any more urgent emergency led to their beseeching God's aid in their personal or national needs. Thus Eusebius speaks of Constantine's custom of retiring to his tent before a battle, and there pro- pitiating God with supplications and litanies, that he might obtain in his enterprises His favour, direction, and aid. And he also relates that, shortly before his death, Constantine entered the Church of the Martyrs at Helenopolis, and there for a long time offered up supplicatory prayers and litanies to God. 2 With respect to the use of Litanies, or forms of supplication, "it is difficult," Mr. Palmer writes, "to determine the period at which the custom of public 1 The form of the Litany, it will be observed, seems in the early ages to have been equally simple. In the time of Theodosius the younger (400 — 450). the Bishop and people, it is said, were directed " to perform a Litany thus (\iTavtvuv ovtu), and say, ' O Holy God, O God Holy and Almighty, O God Holy and Eternal, have mercy upon us.' " — Hooker, v. 41, 2, p. 173. Keble's edition, note. ' Palmer, i. 264, from " Vit Constant," iv. 61. Ed. Valesii, p. 557. 2o THE LITANY OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH. supplication to God under circumstances of peculiar urgency and importance was introduced into the Chris- tian Church. We are, indeed, well aware that from the beginning it has not only been the habit, but the duty, of Christians to apply specially to the throne of grace when calamities are to be deprecated, or bene- fits implored, for themselves or for their neighbours. During the captivity of the holy Apostle Peter, prayer was made for him by the Church. And as he found them all assembled together and praying on his deli- very from prison, it is not improbable that they may at that very time have been met together to offer up prayers for him. Tertullian says that drought was removed by the prayers and fastings of the Christians. 1 Cyprian says that they continually made prayers and supplications for the repelling of enemies, for rain, for the removal or moderation of calamities. 2 We find by the testimony of Sidonius, that supplications for rain and fine weather were customary in Gaul before 1 And so. in speaking of Christian women matching themselves with infidels, he writes : " If there be cause for the Church to go forth in solemn procession," (' si procedendum erit'), "his whole family have such business come upon them, that no one can be spared." — Lib. ii., Ad Uxor., c. 4, quoted in Hooker, v., xli. 2. * Pro arcendis hostibus, et imbribus impetrandis, et vel auferendis vel temperandis adversis, rogamus semper et pieces fundimus. (Ad Dem., p. 445, ed. Par.) S. Chrysostom, in his xvth Homily, p. 191, says that the whole city met together, and with one common voice (ixiq. Koivrj