Preface to the Second Edition.

HEN the first edition of Notes on Ceremonial was published those who used it were asked to be indulgent in their criticism, and fincere thanks are indeed due both to the many who fo fully refponded to that request, and to those who have offered kind and valuable suggestions for the improvement of the book.

Second

Edition

In this, the seventh year it has been on sale, the regular demand there ftill is for it must be taken to prove that there are fome who find it useful, and the editor trufts that the acknowledged difficulties required. connected with the ceremonial of the Church in this land. may cause the indulgent criticisms of the past to be extended to this enlarged edition.

Funerals.

In accordance with the wishes of various friends, known and unknown, a chapter has been added on Evenfong and another on Funerals and other Evensong and Offices for the departed, including the commemoration of All Souls on the morrow of the Festival of All Saints.

Altar.

The Communion Service with the priest's private prayers from the Sarum Miffal has been printed at the beginning instead of at the end of the book, For use at the for the convenience of those who may wish to bind it up with an ordinary altar-book without including the chapters containing ceremonial directions. These latter, being as they now are at the end, can be omitted without interrupting the numeration of the pages.

With reference to the 'private prayers' it is to be remembered that, while nothing can be more The priest's unfeemly than to hurry through or 'gabble' private the service, yet a priest who indulges in lengthy devotions. private devotions while celebrating the Holy Eucharift commits the grave error of causing many of his congre

Very fimple ritual.

gation to endure a fenfe of wearinefs which is irksome,
irritating, and unneceffary. The 'private prayers' given
in this book are fufficient for a priest to use when cele-
brating, and if all are said the time occupied by the whole
fervice ought to be about thirty-three minutes, allowing
for eight or ten communicants. The fpeech of fome men
is naturally quicker than that of others, and various de-
tails may cause flight differences with the fame celebrant
on different occafions, but the time named is given as
the average of a good many priests.
It is hoped that the arrangement of this second edition
is fuch that the book may be found useful in
many places in which nothing approaching to
elaborate ritual is ever known. The fimpleft
ritual may be correct as far as it goes, that is to say it
may follow a known rule, instead of being, as it too often
is, an odd mixture of the ceremonial of High and Low
Mass with the addition perhaps of local peculiarities, the
refult being a 'fancy ritual' in which no uninitiated
ftranger can take part with comfort or edification. The
plaineft choral Celebration without either vestments or
lights may be in accordance with the proper ceremonial
for a Miffa Cantata without incenfea, fimply paffing over
any directions (fuch as thofe relating to lights) which in
the particular cafe are not needed.

The editor cannot end this Preface without directing
Evil of
attention to the 'Reasons' given at p. xiii. for
un-English looking to English precedents and not to the
ceremonial. modern Roman church for guidance in ritual.
Those 'Reasons' were originally drawn up by a priest of
much and varied learning who had alfo a wide experience
in fuccessful parish work. Little can be faid to increase
the force of them, but perhaps it may be pointed out
that if the youths who help us in choir and in the facrifty
are taught Italian ceremonial and trained to refer to
Rome in all ritual difficulties, we can hardly be surprised
if in after days they refer to the fame authority for the
folution of other difficulties which are not unlikely to
present themselves, and which involve deeper and more
momentous issues than any ceremonial detail.

a The ritual of fimple choral Celebrations with directions and prayers for fervers is published separately in Ceremonial for Altar Servers, price 9d.

That this book may be fome small aid in foftering a loyal English love for the glorious traditions of the Church in this land is the humble and earnest hope of him who has written it.

AD DEI GLORIAM.

M

Preface.

UCH indulgence is craved for by the compilers of this book from those who may use it. It does not profess to be more than "notes," which may aid others in the ftudy of the ceremonial of the Church of our fathers. In fuch a work it is too much to hope that all errors and inaccuracies have been avoided; but, as far as the nature of the cafe renders it poffible, every effort has been made to avoid what has been termed "fancy ritual." The Book of Common Prayer has been taken as of course of paramount authority, but, to fupplement its fomewhat meagre directions, recourfe has been had in the first inftance to the Liturgy and Ritual of that truly "illuftrious Church of Sarum," a rite which is continually referred to by Le Brun in his great work on the Liturgies of Christendom; and by " De Moleon," in his book, theb Voyages Liturgiques; by Dom Claude de Vert and others; a rite which is fubftantially the same as that even yet preferved to a great extent in the arch-diocese of Lyons. In all cafes in which the Sarum rubrics were deficient or obfcure, other English rites have been firft confulted, and then diligent fearch made in Gallican authorities as the fource from which confeffedly the Anglican Liturgies were derived. Some of the minor details in the ceremonial have been fupplied from books written in illustration of the Italian ceremonies now fo widely prevalent in the Roman Communion, from a defire to follow known and recognized authority even in the most minute particulars, but in no cafe has an Anglican or Gallican direction been fet afide in favour of any other. It is

b Le fieur De Moleon's real name was Jean Baptiste le Brun Desmarettes.

believed that the refult is a ritual which, even with the altered ftructure of the reformed office, bears fo close a resemblance to the ritual of Rome as to proclaim its kinship with no uncertain voice, while the ancient English ceremonial as a precious jewel, inherited from our Anglo-Saxon forefathers, cut and polished by the "apostle of the English," fet in the circlet of Catholic rites by authority of S. Gregory the Great, polished afresh and reset by S. Ofmund, is ftill preserved to flash forth from the altar in its own special tint the rays of the One Everlasting Light of the world, that Light to which "the Gentiles fhall come," the "Lamb as it had been slain."

September, A.D. 1875.

"UPON THY RIGHT HAND DID STAND THE QUEEN IN A VESTURE OF GOLD,

COMPASSED ABOUT WITH VARIETY."

"ASTITIT REGINA A DEXTRIS TUIS IN VESTITU DEAURATO: CIRCUMDATA VARIETATE." Pfalm xlv. 10.

Some Reasons

FOR STRIVING TO PRESERVE THE ANCIENT ENGLISH RITUAL IN PREFERENCE TO ADOPTING THE MORE ACCESSIBLE AND UNDOUBTEDLY WELL-ORDERED RITUAL OF ROME.

B

REASON I.

ECAUSE the Apostles feem to have been guided by the
Holy Ghost to secure that there should be a diversity of rites

in the Church. They might have settled one uniform ritual before their dispersion; instead of which we find that the Liturgy of S. Mark was adopted in Egypt, the Liturgy of S. James in the Eaft, the Liturgy of S. Peter at Rome, and the Liturgy of S. John in the farther Weft. If there had been only one rite, each detail might have been fuppofed to be an effential of Christianity, whereas, by a diverfity of uses, this great danger is avoided.

REASON II.

Because S. Gregory the Great, at the very time of the foundation of the English Church, gave it as a rule to S. Augustine, our apostle, that he was to "choose out of every Church what is pious, religious, and right, and treasure up this compofition in the minds of the English as a customary use." This shows that, in the opinion of that most great and holy Pope, whatever patriarchal or primatial precedence Rome might claim over her English daughter, such primacy in no way involved uniformity of ritual.

REASON III.

Because, as Mabillon, Morinus, and other Catholic ritualists, following S. Auguftine, fay, the Church is adorned and beautified by varieties in ritual, e.g., "Morinus de Penitentiâ,” p. 381: "Ecclefia rituum varietatibus velut floribus ocellata, acrius multo et fplendidius micat et radiat." (Cf. Mabillon's "Museum Italicum," tom. ii. p. cxli; and S. Auguftine's Epiftle to Cafulanus," tom. ii. p. 122 in fine, Louvain Ed.)