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 PRAYER-BOOKS

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PRAYER-BOOKS

last fifteen years of Henry's reign accustomed the people to pray in English, and under Mary we have printed Catholic Primers both in Latin and English, and in English alone. It may probably be said that from this time forth the uneducated laity, even though Catholics, prayed almost exclusively in English.

Although a similar change in the direction of the vernacular, due in large measure to the same cause, i. e. the influence of the Reformers, was taking place in Germany, France, and the Netherlands, still the most widely known and poinilar prayer-books in- troduced in the sixteenth century made their ap- pearance first in Latin. The reforms initiated by the Council of Trent took practical effect in the Bull of St. Pius V, 11 March, 1571, which enjoined a rigor- ous censorship of the "Hora;" and "Hortuli" con- taining the Office of the Blessed Virgin, forbade the extravagant accretions and spurious indulgences often found in these books, prescribed a uniform text for the Office itself and forbade it to be printed in the vernacular. We may suppose that this ac- tion, while occasioning the publication of revised and corrected editions (though these do not seem to have been numerous), also occasioned or at least marked a certain revulsion of feeling against the type of devotional manual thus condemned. In any case we note the appearance at this same period of a num- ber of new prayer-books, which seem in several cases to have been designed to serve as manuals for the sodalities of the Blessed Virgin which were now springing up in Germany and elsewhere as one of the first fruits of the Counter-Reformation and the educational activity of the Society of Jesus. \\'ith this new type of prayer-book must be connected in the first place the name of Blessed Peter Canisius. His activity in this matter cannot be discussed in detail (cf. "Zeitschrift f. kat. Theol.", 1890, XIV, pp. 727 sq.), but we may note that to his widely popular, short Catechism a collection of prayers was appended, that he produced in 1556 his "Lectiones et precationes ecclesiastica; " for the use of students, and in 1587 his "Manuale Catholicorum". Other books of prayers specially intended for the use of sodalists were published by Fathers Sailly and Veron, S.J., and they have since been often reprinted and imitated. A similar purpose seems to have been dominant in the mind of Simon Verepsus, a priest of Mechlin, who in 1565 brought out a little work en- titled "Precationum piarum Encliiridion " founded in part upon materials left by Cornelius Liadanus. Verepajus's "Enchiridion" was frequently reprinted and several editions appeared in German. Of other foreign works it will be sufficient to mention here two famous prayer-books of German origin both belong- ing to the seventeenth century and both appearing in the vernacular before they were published in Latin editions. The earlier of the.se was the "Paradisus Anim£e" compiled by Merlo Horstius, a parish priest of Cologne, the first (German) edition of which ap- peared in 1(544. The later was the still more famous collection of Father William Nakatenus, S.J., known as the "Cocleste Palmetum". In the case of both of these works their popularity seems to have been largely duo to the very wide range of devotions which they included, adapted to every occurrence of life and including many litanies, little offices, and pious instructions. In France during the seventeenth century we may note the introduction of the "Paroia- sien", a book which contained a large proportion of liturgical matter connected with Mass and Vespers for the Sundays and feasts, as also the Epistles and Gospels, and often a great deal of musical notation, but not excluding private devotions, methods of hearing Mass, preparation for Confession and Com- munion etc. The popularity of this work (though its contents have varied a good deal at different XII.— 23

periods and in different localities) has lasted on down to modern times.

For the use of English Catholics during the days of persecution two forms of prayer-book long held an unchallenged supremacy. The first of these was simply a revision of the old pre-Reformation Primer. An important edition of this, the first since Queen Mary's time, was issued by that energetic scholar Richard Verstegan at Antwerp in 1599 "for the more utility", as he said, "of such of the English nation and others using our language as understand not the Latin tongue". With tTiis object the Office of the Blessed Virgin was printed both in Latin and English and the book contained a selection of hymns rather rudely translated into English verse probably by Verstegan himself. In other respects the main fea- tures of the old Primer reappear. We have the Office for the Dead, Offices of the Holy Cross and of the Holy Ghost, the Litanies of the Saints, Seven Penitential Psalms etc., but the extravagant prayers of the early editions were eliminated and devotions of a more practical kind, e. g. for Confession and Communion etc., substituted in their place. A con- siderable number of editions appeared subsequently and the book was in favour down to the close of the eighteenth century. Another noteworthy revision of the Primer took place in King .James Il's reign and later in 1706 the rude renderings of the hynms were re- placed by a version perhaps executed by John Dryden. The other prayer-book was the "Manual of devout Prayers and Exercises, collected and translated out of divers authors", which seems to have been printed for the first time in 1583. If we may accept the con- clusions of Mr. Joseph Gillow (The Ushaw Maga- zine, 1910) this book also was translated by Verste- gan and then printed by Flinton at Father Persons' press at Rouen. The original work upon which it was based was, Mr. Gillow maintains, the prayer-book of Verep;cus, from which it borrowed its arrangement according to the seven days of the week. This compilation became very popular. Already in 1584 we find it mentioned among a list of Catholic books seized at Hoxtou, and it seems to have been reprinted with certain modifications in 1595, 1.596, 1599, and 1604. The history of the subsequent impressions has been ipinutely traced by Mr. Gillow, who claims to have identified seventy-two different editions, but whose list is nevertheless not entirely exhaustive. An important revision of the work appeared under Jesuit auspices in 1652 (St. Omer's) and another pub- lished by command of His Majesty, James II, in 1686. In 1729 it came out in London in two parts, and in 1744 an edition was printed which professed to have been corrected and enlarged by Bishop Challoner, but the changes made were relatively slight. It appeared also in 1811 and 1819 and for the last time in 1847. The attraction of the book ap ■ pears to have lain in the variety of its contents, and in the course of years it departed a good deal from the type of a collection of extracts from the Fathers and other devout writers, which was its leading characteristic in the sixteenth century.

Still more famous than the "Manual of Prayers" is the work compiled by Bishop Challoner in 1740 under the title of "The Garden of the Soul". The purpose aimed at in this new work is indicated in its subheading "a Manual of Spiritual Exercises and Instructions for Christians who, living in the World, aspire to devotion", and although, as Dr. Burton notices (Life of Challoner, I, 127), the book "after 170 years has been edited out of all recognition", its popularity was originally acquired while it still remained "a brief guide to the spiritual life, con- taining not prayers only, but information, instruc- tions, .and much practical advice". The seventh edition of "The Garden of the Soul", which appeared in 1757, was "corrected and enlarged by the Author"