2»d s. N« 37., Sept. 13. '5C.1 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



205 



» Hustments — hostilem.eijts, or furniture, utensils, 

 household goods ; possibly fixtures and sundries not 

 enumerated are intended. 



' & " The difference of price of the met and bushel of 

 rye, 3s. for one and Hd. for the otlier, would alnjost lead 

 to the inference that the measures were not of the same 

 quantity. It is stated in Miller that, in 1556, before har- 

 vest, rye was sold for 2s. per quarter, and after harvest a 

 bushel of rye for a pound of candles, which was four 

 pence. 



BP. jebb's "practical theology:" suffrages 



AT END OF litany. 



This Note is intended to answer two Queries. 

 The first is in 'the 2"'' S. ii. 68. The passage in 

 Bishop Jebb's Practical Theology referred to as 

 stating the benefits arising from the presence of 

 non-communicants, is, I suppose, the following : 



" For my own part, if I wished to give an intelligent 

 stranger, of good taste and of religious temper, a favour- 

 able impression of our Irish Clerg}', I should be apt to 

 lead him unawares into one of our remote and unfre- 

 quented country churches, and there to let him hear an 

 unpretending pastor offer up his own prayers, and the 

 prayers of two or three villagers, gathered togetner in the 

 name, and for the worship of their common Master. It 

 was in a church of this description that an incident oc- 

 curred some years ago, which may not be unworthy of 

 A-our Lordships' notice. A French lady, of the poinaj) 

 Catholic religion, well educated, and of intellectual habits, 

 chanced, on a Sunday morning, to attend Divine Service 

 in this church. The Sacrament was to be administered ; 

 tlie ladj' asked permission to remain and witness its cele- 

 bration. A single clergyman officiated, and as the con- 

 gregation was small, the communicants were very few ; 

 but on returning with the friends whom she accompanied, 

 she declared that, though accustomed to the sjilendid 

 ritual of her own church, in all the pomp and circum- 

 stance of continental worship, so awful a service she had 

 never witnessed in her life." — " Speech in the House of 

 Lords on the Church in Ireland ; " Practical Theology, 

 vol. ii. p. 389. 



The same fact is related more briefly in his 

 Charge, Pract. Theol, vol. i. p. 376., where the 

 communicants are stated to have been about 

 twelve. It is clear that Bishop Jebb's remarks do 

 not sanction the habitual attendance of non-com- 

 municants. The above case was one of special 

 permission, accorded to satisfy a very laudable 

 curiosity, or rather interest. 



The second Query occurs in 2°'' S. ii. 171. In 

 my work on the Church Service I have endea- 

 voured to explain tte peculiarities alluded to, as 

 follows (p. 425.) :" ■' f —- ■- ■ - - 



" The second p;jrt of the Litijny begins with the Lord's 

 Prayer. This part again has four subdivisions, of a cha- 

 racter essentially different from any in the former. Each 

 of these subdivisions has a versicle interposed, nameh', 

 ' Lord, deal not with us after our sins,' with its re- 

 sponse ; the Gloria Patri ; and, ' O Lord, let thy mercy be 

 shewed upon us,' with its response. These versicles and 

 responses are distinguished from the other suffrages by 

 having the words 'Priest' and 'Answer' prefixed (ex- 

 cept in the Gloria Patri, which wants the word ' Priest,' 



but has * Answer') ; and by being each a verse from the 

 Psalms, or that hymn which always accompanies 

 psalmody, hemistichally recited. The 'first subdivision 

 consists of the J^ord's Prayer ; the second of two prayers 

 like collects (the latter being a verse from the 4tth 

 Psalm), each of which, instead of Amen, has a response, 

 a sort of antiphon, taken also from the 4ith Psalm. From 

 the occurrence of the Gloria Patri liere, I cannot but think 

 that these praj'ers and responsals, or antiphons, peculiar 

 in their structure to this part of the Litany, are vestiges 

 of the psalmody which anciently accompanied the Li- 

 tanies ; as in the Roman Greater Litany, where the G9th 

 Psalm is used. This is confirmed by the use of the earlier 

 Prayer Books, where the Gloria Patri was repeated as in 

 the Psalms ; not as now, by verse and response. . . . 

 The occurrence of the Gloria Patri in the Responsoria 

 Brevia of the Roman offices indicates a like vestige of 

 psalmody, which formerly was used in these places. The 

 third subdivision consists of suffrages and responses, 

 different from the versicles. They each form a complete 

 sentence ; the part of the priest and people not being ue - 

 cessarily continuous. They are not taken from the 

 Psalms, and are special addresses to our Saviour. They 

 are printed in a different manner from the versicles," 

 [which throughout the Prayer Book are generally taken 

 from the Psalms, and in which the verse and response are 

 continuous,] " the people's part being distinguished from 

 the priest's solely by a variety of type. . . . The last 

 subdivision comprehends the collects and praj'ers, analo- 

 gous to the conclusion of the larger Western Litanies. 

 The versicles of the Litany thus accurately discriminate 

 the several characteristic changes ; and their function in 

 this respect is analogous to their frequent use in the 

 Breviary, and to the Ecphonesis in the Oriental forms, 

 being generally an announcement of a change in the form 

 of prayer." 



Since the above work was written I have not 

 been aware of any other attempt at explanation. 

 Indeed, I greatly lament that so little critical at- 

 tention has been given to the construction of the 

 Prayer Book, so much more recondite and ex- 

 quisite than any of us now may imagine. It 

 would be well lor those who are so urgent for 

 pulling it to pieces and mutilating it first to 

 give a little more attention to this important view 

 of the subject. John Jebb. 



Dismissal of Non- Communicants. — The states 

 ment that Bishop Jebb, in his Practical I'heO' 

 logy, had noticed the benefits of the opposite 

 practice is, I think, a mistake. The fine sermons 

 on the Liturgy preached in Gashel Cathedral in 

 1807 are entirely laudatory, and suggest no im- 

 provement in matter or form. His object is to 

 show " that we have the best, the most rational, 

 the most pious form of prayer in the world." (i. 

 53.) 



The admissiqu of non-comipixnic^nts to the 

 Communion Service is opposed to ancient and 

 modern practice, and to the rationale of the in- 

 stitution. In the Liturgy of Chrysostom, prior to 

 the Siirsum corda, the deacon bids the communi- 

 cants to stand up ; and the Trisagion, or Ter- 

 sanctus, being a hynin of victory, is necessarily 

 sung in a standing postur,e. The English Liturgy 



