Page:The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, Volume 1, 1854.djvu/276

 266 Anecdota., A Litany used by members of the English Church in the tenth century. [This formulary was discovered in a MS. belonging to the University of Cambridge (Ff, I, 23, pp. 537 sq.). It is appended, in the same handwriting, to a fine and perfect copy of the Psalter in Latin and Anglo-Saxon. The MS. was executed by an English scribe not later than the opening of the eleventh century i ; and after falling into the hands of archbishop Parker, was by him bequeathed to Sir Nicholas Bacon, who deposited it in its present resting-place (1574). But I am persuaded that the Litany itself is considerably older than the MS. in which it is preserved : and as this point is one of great interest to all who are engaged in liturgical studies, I will add the reasons which constrain us to place it quite as high as the beginning of the tenth century, t. e. nearly two hun- dred years anterior to the compilation of the Sarum Breviary, in which (as we shall see) it ultimately reappears with sundry modifications. It is well known that where the handwriting continues uni- form we may approximate very nearly to the age of formularies like the present by observing the date of the most recent saints whom they commemorate. In this case out of 129 invocations none have reference to persons who died later than the year 900 (the great majority indeed are earlier by centuries) : while other saints, for instance Duns tan, George, Catharine and Margaret, all of whom occupy a prominent position in the later English Litanies and Calendars, are here wanting altogether. The most modern saint whose date we are enabled to fix pre- cisely is Eadmund, king of East Anglia, who was slain while fight- ing with the Northmen in 870 2 ; and a clause in the Litany beginning "A persecutione paganorum 3 " seems to connect the composition of it more distinctly with the sufferings of that stormy period. 1 Cf. Wanley, Libr. Vd. Scptentrion. 3 Pagani was the word generally Catalogus, p. 152. employed by the Anglo-Saxons to de- 8 Saxon Chronicle ad an. 870 : cf. scribe the Danish and Norwegian ma- Manument. Britan. p. 678, B. rauders.