Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/406

 PRAYEE-BOOKS

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PRAYER-BOOKS

Dead and prayers for the djing. Both the " Horse " and the "Hortulus" appeared in innumerable edi- tions. Even as early as the period 1487 to 1498 more than sixty-five editions of the different "Horae" are knomi to have been printed in France alone. For the adornment of these volumes, which were often printed upon vellum, the best art of the wood en- graver was called into requisition. The editions of the "Horae" by Du Pre, Verard, Pigouchet, and Geoffroy Tor>', especially those produced between 1488 and 1502, may rank among the most beautiful specimens of the printing press in the first hundred years of its existence, while the German cuts of the engravers Schiiufelein and Springinklee have also a charm of their own. It was also a common prac- tice to employ hand illumination to add further lustre to many of the copies printed upon vellum. In regard to the contents, the devotional extrava- gance of the age and the competition between pub- lisher and publisher to push their wares and attract purchasers led to many regrettable abuses. Spuri- ous indulgences and fantastic promises of all kinds abound, and even prayers which in themselves are full of piety and absolutely unobjectionable — for example the prayers in honour of the Passion pre- viously referred to, which were attributed to St. Bridget and were known in England as the "Fifteen O's" — are not exempt from these disfigurements. A deplorable example of such extravagance is presented by a Sarum "Horae" of Thielman Kerver printed at Paris in 1510, in which we find such assertions as the following: "Alexander the VI pope of Rome hath granted to aU them that say this prayer devoutly in the worship of St. Anne and Our Lady and her Son Jesus V thousand years of pardon for deadly sins and XX years for venial sins totiens quotiens", or again, "This prayer our Lady showed to a devout person, sapng that this golden prayer is the most sweetest and acceptablest to me, and in her appear- ing she had this salutation and prayer written with letters of gold on her breast" (Hoskins, "Horae", 124-5). Again, for a certain prayer to be said before a picture of Christ crucified, Pope Gregory III (!) is declared to have granted an indulgence of so many days as there were wounds in our Saviour's sacred Body. In another supposed grant of Boniface VIII an indulgence of eighty thousand years is mentioned. In the case of other devotions again the pious reader is assured that if he practise them he shall not die without confession, that Oiu" Lady and her Divine Son will come to warn him before his death, etc. Of course it must be remembered that, practically speaking, no censorship existed in the early years of the sixteenth century. The Congregation of the Index did not come into existence until after the Council of Trent. Hence the booksellers in pre- Tridentine days were free to publish almost any ex- travagance which might help to sell their wares. After Trent tilings in this respect were very different. Besides the "Horae" and the "Hortuli" a few col- lections of private prayers, generally connected with some special subject, also saw the light before Refor- mation times. There were books on the art of how to die well, books on the Rosary copiously inter- spersed with meditations and prayers (of these the volumes of the Dominican Castillo, with a picture for each of the one hundred and fifty Hail iSIarys, is perhaps the best known), books on various forms of devotion to the Passion, for example, the seven Bloodsheddings and the seven Falls — -spiritual pil- grimages which eventually took a more permanent shape in the exercise of the Stations of the Cross. A more important work, issued about 1498, was the col- lection of prayers called "Paradisus Anims". In England there-is evidence that the devotion long dear to the English Catholics' forefathers in the days of per- secution under the name of "The Jesus Psalter" was

printed and sold separately as early as 1520, though no copy is now known to survive. The author of this most touching prayer is believed to have been Richard \Miitford, the Brigittine monk who loved to call himself "the Wretch of Sion". He has also left a spiritual little volume compiled for the use of communicants, and has been sometimes named as the true author of "The Fruyte of Redemcyon", a collection of praj'ers which professes to have been composed by "Simon the Anker [Anchoret] of Lon- don Wall". But this last work is a dull performance and quite unworthy of Whitford. In all probabihty there must have been many more of these devo- tional books than our libraries have preserved traces of, for such works when they are not protected by the abundance or beauty of their illustrations (as was the case with many of the "Horae") are apt to dis- appear completely without lea\'ing any trace. The preface of an early "Reforming" EngUsh prayer- book (Certeine Prayers and godly meditacyons, 1538), while speaking contemptuously of this devotional literature, implies that even in England it was large and varied. "These bokes, (though they abounded in every place with infinite errours and taught prayers made with wicked foh'sshenesse both to God and also to his sayntes) yet by cause they were garnyshed with glorious tj-tles and with redde letters, promis- inge moche grace and pardon (though it were but vanyte) have sore decej'^'ed the unlerned multitude. One is called the Garden of the Soule, another the Paradyse of the Soule, and by cause I will be short, loke thou thy sylfen whute dyvers and trj-feling names be gjTen vnto them."

We are not concerned here with the praj'er-books of the Reformers, but it may be worth while to notice that, just as in Germany the Lutherans produced a modified version of the "Hortulus Anims", so in England it was the first care of Henry VIII and his vicar-general, Thomas Cromwell, after the breach with Rome, to bring out a new set of primers adapted to the new condition of things. Indeed even in 1532 Sir Thomas More in his "Confutacion of Tj-n- dale's .-i^nswer" could write of the devotional works produced by heretics: "And lest we should lack prayers, we have the Primer and the Ploughman's Praj-er and a book of other small devotions and then the whole Psalter too". These, however, we can- not identify. Better known were the emended Primers of Marshall and Hilsey (1534 and 1538), followed in 1545 by "The King's Primer", which Henrj- VIII super\-ised himself. Of course the great bulk of this material was entirely Catholic and imi- tated in arrangement that of the "Horae". Other Primers appeared under Edward VI in 1551 (in this the Hail ^IarJ■ was for the first time omitted) and 1553 (which last, omitting all references to the Hours, is simply a book of private prayers for each day of the week beginning with Simday), but under Elizabeth in 1559 the arrangement of the Hours was restored and even the Office for the Dead or "Dirige" (see Clay, "Private Prayers", Parker Society). I5ut the transformations of these forms of private de- votional books are very intricate, and they were alternately adapted to suit Catholic and Protestant taste. For example, the book called the "Pomander of Prayer", which was printed towards the close of Henry VIII's reign, with a strong Protestant colouring, appeared again under iNIary in a form in which it could well be used by Catholics. One point may be noted as of some importance, and it is: that down to the breach with Rome Latin predominated, even in those books published for the use of the laity. The Pater, Ave, and Creed, and the Psalms were commonly said by the people in Latin and no printed edition of the Office of the Blessed yirgin, or in other words no entirely English Primer, is known to have been issued before 1534. But the books of the