By the Bev. H. T. Kingdon. 



63 



more to be discovered, and each man should place on record the 

 little he can discover in his own neijjhbourhood, leaving it for the 

 historian to work up the material into his more comprehensive 

 scheme. Warminster lies between the present resting-place of the 

 manuscript of which I am about to speak and its former abode ; 

 between the Church where it is at present in honourable retirement 

 and the Church where it was in daily use some four hundred years 

 ago, so that it may not be considered out of place to speak of the 

 service at this meeting of the Society. 



It is perfectly well-known that the amendment of the English 

 services was in progress at the commencement of the sixteenth 

 century,^ before that time we know but little on the subject ; but 

 it is worthy of note that a majority of the manuscript office books 

 of the English Church which have been preserved to our times date 

 from the middle of the first half of the fifteenth century, as if even 

 then there were a move in the direction of some alteration. 



The demand for a service in the vernacular was becoming more 

 and more heard : and this took its rise from those services said in 

 the nave amongst the people. It would be interesting to inquire 

 how far this arose from the people themselves, and how far from the 

 clergy desiring to promote the worship of the people in spirit and 

 in truth. But it would almost seem as if the cry came from the 

 people themselves. "Why do we have services among us in a 

 tongue we do not understand ? Whatever language you feel called 

 on to use in the chancel, let us at least have in the vulgar tongue 

 what you say in our very midst.-*' Some things there had been 

 periodically recited in the nave in the vulgar tongue. The creed, 

 the Lord's prayer, and the ten commandments were from time to 

 time read out from the pulpit. Then again there was the greater 

 excommunication read out four times a year, there was the bidding 

 the bedes, and so on ; besides an occasional sermon. These are all 

 represented in the Book of Common Prayer: but there was a tendency 



> " As early as the year 1516 we discern the first indication of a steady design 

 and endeavour, never aftei-wards abandoned, of amending the existing condition of 

 the ancient English service books." Freeman, Principles of Divine Service, 

 Introduction to part ii., section x., p. 102. 



