Page:LittleBookOfPrayersFromOldEnglish.djvu/10



This little book contains some of the prayers used by our Catholic forefathers before the Norman Conquest. They are here translated from the Latin form in which we now find them, in such a way as to preserve, as far as possible the force and rhythm of the original language. Many of the prayers are taken from two small manuscript volumes of private devotions compiled by a monk of New Minister, or Hyde Abbey, Winchester, who became abbot of his monastery in 1035, and died in 1052. There is no reason, however, to suppose that they were composed by this Winchester Benedictine, or that he did more than collect the prayers in common use in the second half of the tenth century. Indeed, many of the devotions here printed can be traced back to much earlier times, and with some degree of certainty can be said to have formed the traditional private prayers of the people during the centuries of Saxon rule. It will be seen that they all manifest that spirit of simple and solid piety which evidently characterized the pre-Norman church in England.