Benedicamus. Deo gratias. Benedicamus. Deo gratias.

CHAPTER VII

THE LITANY

By Thy birth, and by Thy Cross,
Rescue him from endless loss;
By Thy death and burial,
Save him from a final fall;
By Thy rising from the tomb,

By Thy mounting up above,
By the Spirit's gracious love,
Save him in the day of doom.

NEWMAN, Dream of Gerontius.

THE Litany is the most admirable part of the Prayer Book. It gathers together the finest utterances of mediæval devotion, and the English in which they are expressed lingers in the ear and heart. The use of litanies dates from the period when the Christian faith was winning its last victories over paganism in the countries of Latin speech, when the Church could openly offer to the people that satisfaction of their aspirations which they had vainly sought from pagan gods. Some historical facts of special interest show us how the Christians began the use of litanies. First, they endeavoured to supplant a pagan procession with a Christian procession. The heathen Romans had dedicated April 25th to the observance of the Robigalia, when the god Robigus was besought to preserve the young corn from blight. The poet Ovid describes the procession which took place upon that day. It

left the city by the Flaminian Gate, passed over the Milvian Bridge, and there worshipped at a sanctuary in the suburbs. The Christians in the time of S. Gregory and S. Augustine went in procession by a similar route to implore the blessing of God upon the fruits of the earth. They started from the Church of S. Laurence in Lucina, near the Flaminian Gate, went to the Church of S. Valentine, then to the Milvian Bridge, and finally turned towards the Vatican, and entered the basilica of S. Peter.

Secondly, there were other special litanies in addition to these annual litanies. At Auxerre a litany was recited every month. Extraordinary litanies were sung in times of great public distress and fear. Such a litany is described by S. Gregory of Tours as having been observed in A.D. 477, when Mamertus, Archbishop of Vienne in Gaul, ordered litanies for the three days before Ascension Day, in consequence of a destructive earthquake. These services spread through the whole of Frankish Gaul, and were known as the Rogations or 'supplications.' The Rogation Days were days of fasting as well as prayer. They were probably observed in England from the days of Augustine, as the Council of Clovesho in A.D. 747 enjoins them to be kept according to the custom of our ancestors.' They were introduced into Rome about A.D. 800. It is possible that the Christians of Gaul were influenced by the recollection of the pagan procession known as the lustratio agrorum, which took place at the Ambarvalia on May 29.

How these days were kept in the decadence of the Middle Ages we read in Strype's account of the year 1554: Rogation Week being come, May 3 being Holy Thursday, at the Court of St. James's, the Queen went in procession within St. James's, with heralds and sergeants of arms, and four bishops mitred. And Bishop Bowen, beside his mitre, wore a pair of slippers of silver and gilt, and a pair of rich gloves, with

ouches of silver upon them very rich. And all the three days there went her chapel about the fields. The first day to S. Giles', and there sung Mass. The next day, being Tuesday, to St. Martin's in the Fields: and there a sermon was preached and Mass sung. And the company drank there. The third day to Westminster, where a sermon was made, and then Mass and good cheer made. And after, about the Park, and so to St. James's Court. The same Rogation Week went out of the Tower, on procession, priests and clerks, and the Lieutenant with all his waiters; and the axe of the Tower borne in procession: the waits attended.'1

Also, in addition to the annual and extraordinary litanies, there was in England a choral procession every Sunday before High Mass. Our forefathers did not regard this procession as a cheerful method of entering or walking round the church, as seems to be the habit in some modern places of worship. It was a definite act of worship made while walking to a definite point. Before Mass it led to the high altar, at other times to the font, the rood, or some side altar. At Salisbury there were processions after Evensong on special days: (a) To the altars of S. Stephen, S. John, the Holy Innocents, and S. Thomas on Christmas Day and the three following days; and when there was an altar named after any saint, there was generally a procession thither after the first Evensong of the festival of that saint.

(b) To the font from Easter Day to Friday in Easter Week-this being from the earliest times the favourite season for Baptisms and the procession being of most ancient origin.

(c) To the rood on Low Sunday at first Evensong, and thenceforward till the Ascension on every Saturday and on Holy Cross Day, and every Saturday from the first Sunday after Trinity until Advent.

1 Strype, Historical Memorials, vol. iii. p. 120.

Now, it is remarkable that our English Litany recapitulates all the historical circumstances of the more important ancient litanies and processions. It was issued in a time of distress and fear, it was based upon the litany and procession of Rogation-tide, and it came to be employed every Sunday as well as annually and occasionally. In the year 1544 England was at war with both France and Scotland. King Henry VIII. wrote to Archbishop Cranmer to require the processions to be observed upon the accustomed days.' In these processions a litany was used, and the Mass followed. The accustomed days' are shown in the mandate issued by Cranmer to the bishops to be Wednesdays and Fridays. The Mass used would naturally be the Mass for time of war.' The same year, 1544, Cranmer issued a litany in English almost identical with our present litany. It was printed in Henry VIII.'s Primer of 1545 with the title The Litany and Suffrages, and it is also called 'this common prayer of procession. The idea of an English litany had long been familiar to the people, as such a litany had been contained in the Prymers used by the laity throughout the fifteenth century. It was therefore hoped by Henry VIII. that as the Litany would now be recited publicly in English, the processions would be better attended than they had been when Latin employed. The new Litany was first sung in S. Paul's Cathedral on S. Luke's day 1545, which day fell on a Sunday.

was

It is certain that Cranmer intended to provide other English processional hymns for festivals, for in October 1545 he wrote to Henry saying that he had 'translated into the English tongue certain processions' for this purpose. Among these processional hymns was the Salve Festa Dies, or Hail Festal Day,' sung at Easter and other high festivals. Cranmer was unable to write poetry with the facility that he displayed in writing

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