JOSEPH A.

JUNGMANN
 CHRISTIAN PRAYER
THROUGH THE CENTURIES
 Christian Prayer
Through the Centuries

by

JOSEPH A. JUNGMANN

Translated by
John Coyne, S.J.

PAULIST PRESS
New York/Ramsey/Toronto
A Deus Books Edition of Paulist Press, originally published under
the title Christliches Beten, copyright ® 1969 by Verlag Ars Sacra
Joseph Mueller, Munich, West Germany.

Copyright ® 1978 by
The Missionary Society
of St. Paul the Apostle
in the State of New York

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or

transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage
and retrieval system without permission in writing from the Pub-
lisher.

Library of Congress
Catalog Card Number: 78-61729

ISBN: 0-8091-2167-0

Published by Paulist Press

Editorial Office: 1865 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10023
Business Office: 545 Island Road, Ramsey, N.J. 07446

Printed and bound in the

United States of America
C ontents

Preface...................................................................... 1

1. Prayer in the Early Christian Epoch................ 7

2. At the Height of Christian Antiquity................ 25

3. In the Monasteries of the Middle Ages............ 38

4. Piety in the Carolingian A ge............................. 58

5. The World of Aniane and Cluny..................... 81

6. From the Eleventh Century Onward............... 96

7. The Gothic E ra ...................................................114

8. Passage to the Modern Age..............τ..............128

9. Religious Sentiment in the Baroque E ra..........140

10. Further Reflections............................................ 155

V
Preface

Foremost among man’s privileges is his ability to

pray. He can enter into contact with his maker, can
speak with him, give answer to him from whom he has
received all that he has. The Church of God is the
community of those whom he has called and who an-
swer him in the language of prayer. This answer takes
place chiefly at the church assembly where Christ him-
self is present in the midst of his members inviting
them to share in his own sacrifice and prayer. Outside
the assembly it occurs again and again when worship-
ers meet to pray together, or when a person retires to
his/her room and prays to the Father in secret or raises
his/her heart to God amidst life’s struggles. Prayer ac-
companies the Church on her pilgrimage through this
world and will not be silenced till the day of her final
consummation. Being part and parcel of her wander-
ing, prayer is also open to all the influences and vi-
cissitudes which mark her path through this world.. For
that reason it is possible to write a history of prayer.
Such an undertaking constitutes a risk as in the
last resort prayer remains a secret between humanity
and its God. But if the venture meets with some mea-
sure of success, it will reveal to us a central factor in
the Church’s total history. There is, of course, a differ-
ence between the history of public prayer, the liturgy
of the Church, and private, personal prayer. The
former is a task to which, for some centuries past,
1
2 Ch r is t ia n Pr a y e r Th r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

capable writers have devoted their energies. Their task

was made all the easier as they dealt with clearly de-
fined forms, forms in which the law of reverence for
tradition was specially operative. In the case of non-
liturgical prayer, with which we are primarily con-
cerned, the forms are much more varied and more dif-
ficult to assess, as the most authentic prayer takes
place outside all forms, in the secret encounter be-
tween God and man/woman.
Hence it is invariably the externals of prayer alone
that are accessible to us, the framework within which
genuine prayer is carried on; or when that prayer finds
its echo occasionally in other sources. In addition to
such sources, which are numerous and reach back to
fairly early times, we also have plenty of studies which
throw light on individual facets in this long and
chequered history of prayer. And though each source-
text and each study taken by itself are welcome acqui-
sitions, still it is only when they are arranged in a
larger context that their full significance appears.
Such is the purpose we have in mind in the follow-
ing inquiry, and yet there can be question here of a
mere outline in which plenty of gaps and inaccuracies
are bound to occur.

Questions To Be Asked

In tracing the course of Christian prayer through

the centuries many questions have to be posed. First
of all what was understood by prayer? Was it regarded
as a steep ascent to God? As repose in God? As an
anticipation of that possession of him to which we are
all invited? Was it perhaps the fulfillment of an obliga-
 Preface 3
don to pray? Or did it serve as a surety of salvation?
And if the latter, what role was assigned to the prayer
of petition, and what to a confession of one’s
weaknesses and sinfulness?
As Christian prayer is based on revelation and is
confined within the boundaries set by the Christian
order of salvation, we may ask to what extent were
such factors a reality in prayer at any given time? We
shall come across periods when a rounded picture of
the Christian world of faith was kept in view, other
periods when only partial aspects of it were clearly
prominent, when piety was nourished on meager
rivulets of Christian thought and which nevertheless
produced abundant fruits of sanctity.
On that question hinges another: How far and in
what manner was contact during prayer maintained
with the records of the faith, with the reading first and
foremost of Sacred Scripture and also with the litera-
ture of other witnesses of Christian doctrine and life?
What part did meditation on the mysteries contained in
them contribute to prayer? To what extent had private
prayer been formulated in word and gesture, a ques-
tion which affects the liturgy to a lesser degree? In
regard to vocal prayer, especially when conducted in
common, the question arises whether the words used
had to be composed for the occasion or whether and
how far ready-made texts from the Scriptures, espe-
cially from the Psalms, had to be employed? If the
latter were chosen, no little difficulty would have aris-
en. The text comes to us from times quite remote
from ours; even when its grammatical meaning is dis-
closed, we still have to face an alien cultural milieu
and, not the least, a pre-Christian situation. Hence
ways of approach have to be sought: What were these?
4 Ch r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

A fresh question arises immediately: Wherein consists

the value of prayer couched in unfamiliar if sacral
terms? Was their very utterance, that is the physical
effort necessary to pronounce them, regarded as an
asset? Was a quantitive increase of such prayers a goal
to be aimed at? Was their literally ceaseless repetition
a genuine ideal, or had a personal response in and
through the words to be stressed before all else, and an
effort thus made to facilitate the process? How in the
main was the relationship between vocal and mental
prayer to be gauged?

Prayer and Life

Further: How should prayer and life be mutually

related? Should prayer serve merely to find God and to
solicit his help in our aspirations and needs, or con-
versely should it serve as a pathway to discover God’s
will and what he expects of us and so help us to bring
our lives into harmony with it? Or should it serve at
the same time as nourishment for one’s spiritual life
and, if need be, for one’s apostolic endeavor?
Another point: What influence had all that mys-
tique of prayer, as cultivated by the monks and clerics,
on layfolk caught up in worldly affairs, on men and
women who had family and society to attend to, who
found it impossible to familiarize themselves with the
historical milieu, say, of the Psalms, for whom in ear-
lier days books were non-existent? What was the
prayer of the ordinary, simple, people?
And last of all, had prayer an innate force capable
of withstanding an enlightened age which witnessed
the break-up of an order of things where each event of
 Preface 5
one’s daily life seemed to be arranged and carried
through by God’s immediate action? Could it accom-
modate itself to a more sophisticated view of life in
which an all-encompassing law of nature set the course
of things?
All these are questions involving the history of
Christian prayer during the last two thousand years.
Answers to them must depend on the period with
which we are dealing. They cannot be final in every
case. But they do provide us with an instructive lesson
today when prayer is being so sorely threatened.
1
Prayer in the
Early Christian Epoch

The early Christians were conscious of the fact

that they were citizens of two worlds. On the one hand
they shared the civic life of their contemporaries, a
point strongly emphasized on occasion by apologetic
writers. Thus the author of the Letter to Diognetus
writes:

Christians do not form a separate group marked

off from other people by land, language or cus-
toms; they do not live in towns of their own nor
speak a foreign tongue nor follow a special way of
life. . . . In their dress and way of living and gen-
eral outward behavior they conform to native us-
age.

But he does not forget to add: “They take in good part

all that comes their way for they are pilgrims. . . .
They live on the earth but their city is in heaven.”
Clement of Alexandria (died before 216 A.D.) is
the writer of the early Christian epoch who is con-
sciously turned toward the world; he occupied himself
chiefly with the “question of living as a Christian in the
world, how the Christian is to overcome the world
while remaining in it.” And yet prayer was a matter of
7
8 Ch r is t ia n Pr a y e r Th r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

such importance for him, the practice of uninterrupted

prayer, that he devoted practically the whole of Book
VIII of his Stromata to that theme. The perfect Christ-
ian, the gnostic, makes his whole life a prayer. What
Clement primarily means is assuredly a life lived in
God’s presence. He is also the first writer to give us
more detailed information on the daily prayer of the
Christian. He mentions the custom observed by many
of “fixed hours to be assigned to prayer as for example
the third, the sixth and the ninth.” He speaks from time
to time of “canticles of praise and of Scripture
readings” before meals and before retiring to rest.
Prayer during the night is also mentioned and not only
interior prayer but prayer also with uplifted hands and
eyes directed heavenward. How highly the early Chris-
tians valued prayer is strikingly exemplified by Justin
Martyr when he speaks of the Church simply as “a
house of prayer and adoration as a result of Christ’s
cross and the water of purification.”

Didache

However, we are not left to a few generalities as

regards prayer in those early days. We can observe it
at close quarters and learn how Christ’s followers ar-
ranged their prayer-life. That they were supposed to
pray three times each day is known from the Di-
dache dating from the turn of the first century. And it
is the Lord’s Prayer that is prescribed, a ruling con-
firmed by Origen. Thus a fixed arrangement as regards
prayer must have been the early rule and it must have
been impressed on the minds of converts to Christian-
ity, not that such a program did not admit of changes
 Prayer in the Early Christian Epoch 9
locally, nor was it ever regarded as a formal Church
law. The convert naturally took it for granted that he
was to adopt the Christian life-style in this matter as
well as in others. From the third century onward we
meet with concrete settings for this in various local-
ities.

Tertullian

Tertullian (d. after 220) drawing obviously on his

catechetical experience composed a special work “On
Prayer.” He subjoins to an interpretation of the Our
Father an introduction to the spirit of Christian prayer ;
then follows with a number of practical hints like
these: One’s hands need not be washed every time one
prays, they are already clean as the result of Baptism
and so can be raised toward God, but moderately so
(the deeper meaning behind the gesture is to model
oneself on the crucified Lord). One need not lay aside
one’s mantle (paenula) while praying. It is inappropri-
ate to sit when conversing with God in prayer. Prayer
does not call for an expenditure of voice. Women and
virgins should wear the veil. At the start of morning
prayer at least, as well as on fast days, but not on
Sundays or during Easter, one should kneel in prayer
(c.23). Tertullian then offers definite suggestions as re-
gards the hours when we should pray: They are the
tertia, sexta, nona (the third, sixth and ninth hours).
This, though, is not to be taken as a command but
rather as a reminder to pray thrice daily, as is reported
of Daniel (Dan. 6:10). These do not of course include
the regular (legitimis) prayers to be said at the begin-
ning of the day and during the night.
10 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

It is also proper for a Christian to pray before

meals or before bathing: Heavenly nourishment should
precede that of earth (c.25). Finally, he stresses a
sense of faith and purity and the practice of good
works (pompa operum bonorum: the procession of
good works) which should accompany our prayer on
its path to God’s altar. This latter thought is a familiar
one in early Christian times. For the Pastor of Hernias
it goes without saying that prayer should be joined to
fasting and almsgiving. Cyprian calls it a barren prayer
(sterilis oratio) which does not go hand in hand with
alms.

Hippolytus

The times given above for prayer are given form

and color for the first time in the Apostolic Tradition of
Hippolytus of Rome (around 215). A definite program
for prayer is not offered, but the faithful are referred
rather to the mystery of Christ and encouraged to go
through the various stages in the work of the redemp-
tion each day: This can be in the form of vocal praise
“when you are at home” at the third hour whereas
when one is elsewhere and that time comes, one
should “pray in his heart.” At the third hour, also one
should recall how Christ was crucified; then at the
sixth hour how darkness supervened and Christ
prayed on the cross with a loud voice; so too at the
ninth hour it should be recalled how water and blood
issued from his side and how God sent his word to the
saints to enlighten them that Christ’s death heralded
the beginning of his resurrection.
The Christian should also pray at night before re-
 Prayer in the Early Christian Epoch 11
tiring and in the morning after rising, but for these
times no subject-matter is mentioned. Whereas for the
prayer to be said at midnight, in which his wife may
join, man is to share in the song of praise intoned by
creation, as at that hour the stars, the trees, the wa-
ters, angels in unison with the just, give praise to God.
Or again, it was midnight when the cry rang out an-
nouncing the bridegroom’s arrival. Finally, special
emphasis is given by Hippolytus to a further time for
prayer—before dawn “at cockcrow,” when the Chris-
tian is to look out for the dawning of that everlasting
light which will shine upon us with the resurrection of
the dead.
This arrangement was faithfully handed on to the
following centuries, as appears in a number of writ-
ings. Only Hippolytus’s Apostolic Tradition was
somewhat changed: prayer twice during the night was
found to be too much of a good thing. On the other
hand, one prayer-session at midnight was not consi-
dered an unreasonable demand. We must remember
the long nights in those times and the conditions of
lighting. The subject-matter remained substantially the
same: Christ’s Passion for the day prayers and for the
night ones generally the Parousia, his final coming.

Times of Prayer

In the fourth century and thereafter the obser-

vance of these hours of prayer must have been a cus-
tom known throughout the entire Church and widely
adhered to in practice, though chiefly as an individual
effort as heretofore. In the Eastern Church the prac-
tice was strongly recommended to virgins, as is appar-
12 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

ent from writings, among them that “On Virginity,” a

work long attributed to St. Athanasius. Jerome makes
the same recommendation for the West, not only in his
correspondence with young Roman women but also in
his educational hints for Laeta, the anxious mother,
whom he exhorts to accustom her little daughter Paula
from an early age to rise at midnight for prayer and
during the day to stay at her post at the third, sixth and
ninth hours. Chrysostom makes mention of the prac-
tice in one of his sermons: If King David found time to
praise God seven times a day (Ps. 118, 164), surely a
Christian must find time to say his prayers at least
thrice daily. Chrysostom takes it for granted that the
follower of Christ prays in the morning and at night,
but he demands also a session at midnight, to which
even the children should grow accustomed. The inten-
tions prayed for are the same as of old. They re-appear
almost unchanged in Pseudo-Athanasius, only the res-
urrection is recalled, at the morning prayer. In later
times, too, these themes are constantly reproduced,
only they are usually made to serve as motivations for
the hour in question rather than as subject-matter for
the prayer. Thus in the Bobbio Missal (7th-8th cen-
tury) they offer a basis for the individual canonical
Horae. A similar function is apparent in other biblical
themes which are introduced into different prayer
hours: The Descent of the Holy Spirit for the third
hour, Peter’s prayer at the sixth hour and his entry into
the Temple for the ninth, all this in accordance with an
earlier tradition. Cassian introduces into the ninth hour
Peter’s visit to Cornelius as well. So too the hour of the
Last Supper. Finally, motivs from the Old Testament
are the slaying of the first-born in Egypt and the pas-
sage through the Red Sea.
 Prayer in the Early Christian Epoch 13
Intentions for Prayer

Likely enough we can regard this daily pro-

gramme of conversing with God as the core and kernel
of Christian prayer. Not that it was confined to those
central themes even in the early days of the Church.
While the information we have cited stems from writ-
ings whose purpose was more or less to organize the
practical prayer life of the faithful, further witnesses
are available who allow us to glimpse from another
angle what the prayer of the early Christians was like.
In the Pastor of Hermas we find prayers related to the
author’s treatment of visions, mandates and parables,
prayers for forgiveness of sin, prayers especially in
which God is thanked for his benefits. “Prayer is the
poor man’s riches” (Sim. 2:5). The closing note in Pope
Clement’s letter to the church of Corinth (around the
year 96) is one of praise and thanksgiving. In a com-
prehensive prayer the inmost soul of the writer is re-
vealed; its range reaches to the Creator whose provi-
dence controls and orders all things and to Christ his
beloved son who has chosen and sanctified us. Then
follow prayers of intercession for all in distress, for the
poor and the sick, for the hungry and those astray.
Finally his horizon widens in a prayer that all peoples
may recognize “that you alone are God and that Jesus
Christ is your (divine) Son and we your people and the
sheep of your fold” (c.59,4). And a renewed interces-
sion for the leaders of the community ends in a note of
praise offered to God “through the high priest and
leader of our souls Jesus Christ through whom he is
glorified forever” (c.62,3). In this prayer is revealed
the theological structure of Christian prayer: God, the
Creator and Lord of the world is its object, throned in
14 Ch r i s t ia n Pr ay er Th r o u g h th e Ce n t u r i e s
unassailable majesty above, but he is a God too who
has stooped to us in Christ. In prayer the worshiper’s
world of faith is necessarily mirrored with more or less
clarity, but where the prayer is untrammeled and spon-
taneous it need not be so precise—a fully rounded,
developed prayer will be the liturgical prayer which is
recited by the assembled community.

Origen on Prayer

It is rather surprising that Origen in his Treatise

On Prayer (around 233/234) requires for every prayer a
rigorous systemization of this kind. He develops first
the general principles affecting Christian prayer: The
Holy Spirit must inspire the prayer we direct to the
Father in Christ Jesus. He eulogizes the liberating
power which prayer posesses, enabling us to lift our-
selves from the earth Godward (c.8f.). He refers us to
the Sermon on the Mount for the manner in which we
should pray. The Our Father, which he expounds in
detail, furnishes the intentions we are to lay before
God. While stressing by various turns of expression
the obligation to direct our prayer to God, to the
Father, Origen adds immediately: In doing this we
should not overlook the high priest whom the Father
has appointed and who is the mediator of Christian
prayer (c.15,4). He repeats with a certain urgency that
our prayers should begin and end “with the praise and
glorification of the Father through Jesus Christ in the
Holy Spirit” (c.33,1; cf. c.33,3). He goes so far as to
exclude prayer which is directed to Christ: “If one
wishes to pray aright one must not pray to him who is
 Prayer in the Early Christian Epoch 15
himself praying . . . Whom the Father has appointed
high priest and mediator” (c. 16).
Here Origen betrays a lack of accuracy in his
grasp of the mystery of the Trinity (he sees the
mediator in the Logos); apart from this the zealous-
ness of the great Alexandrine should be explained by
the fact that his treatise was meant for this friend Am-
brose, a former adherent of Gnosticism. This Christian
sect, as appears from the Apocryphal Acts of the
Apostles, had developed a method of prayer whereby
the invisible God is no longer contacted; prayer is
directed to the aeons, divine emanations, among
whom Christ occupies but a pre-eminent place. On
occasion Christ is even called Father; in association
with him, amid other vague figures, appears his Holy
Spirit, “the mother of all creation.” Origen’s intention
here was doubtless to cure his addressee from such
confusion in Christian notions. In alluding to the
theory, Origen had no wish to explain the nature of
Christian prayer. This is clear from the fact that he did
not believe in the theory: He cites the prayer which
Stephen in his death-throes addressed to Christ
(c.14,6) and introduces repeatedly into his homilies,
prayers similarly addressed; and in his work “Against
Celsus” he cites a remark of this heathen philosopher.
The latter did not take offense from the practice of the
Christians in worshiping one God, but he certainly did
from “the homage they pay also to this man whom
they regard as the founder of their rebellion.” Origen
defends their position by pointing to the unity of
Father and Son. Besides such behavior on the part of
his followers was an obvious way of raising their minds
and hearts to Christ, a spontaneous result of meditating
16 Ch r i s t ia n Pray er Th ro ug h th e Ce n t u r i e s
on his mystery. The same is true of the hymns sung
during religious services at all times. Of those of early
date few examples have been preserved; they include
the Gloria in Excelsis and the Te Deum; in the second
portion of both Christ is addressed.
Spontaneous too was the prayer to Christ which
fell from the lips of the Christian martyrs when they
had made their life and death decision. Their brief
words of prayer are reported by eye and ear witnesses,
words in answer to the death sentence or appeals for
courage in their agony were invariably directed to him
whom they were unwilling to disown. Thus the final
words of Carpus as he suffered in the flames: “Lord,
you know that it is for your name that we are enduring
this torment.” The Abitena martyrs prayed as follows:
“O Christ, the Lord, let us not be confounded. Son of
God, come to our aid; help O Christ, have pity Lord
Christ, give us courage to suffer.” But in daily life also
prayers addressed to Christ were quite a familiar oc-
currence as is shown in a special study of Jerome’s
writings (d.420). Reporting on the spiritual trials he
endured in his early life as a hermit, he tells how he
threw himself at the feet of Jesus bedewing them with
his tears. Success in his exegetical studies was ac-
quired only through Christ’s revelation and assistance
Christo revelante, Christo adjuvante. The verses from
the Psalms in which the Lord is invoked, Jerome un-
derstands without more ado of Christ, in accordance
with an interpretation already current. In early Chris-
tian times it was generally understood that the Psalms
bore a meaning and an application referring to Christ.
This would have arisen in two ways, either “from be-
low” through a typological exegesis, interpreting the
psalm as the voice of Christ invoking the Father in his
 Prayer in the Early Christian Epoch 17
distress, or as the voice of his Church by way of
glorifying the Father, and this was the prevailing at-
titude in the early days and was subsequently given
credence especially by St. Augustine. Or it could be
“from above” by seeing Christ in the Kyrios or Lord
to whom the psalmist appealed. This latter method of
interpretation gained the ascendancy later, chiefly in
the chanting of the liturgy.
As a last resort, a prayerful appeal to Christ is
only one of the ways in which the Christian element as
such is revealed in prayer. Tertullian can sum up the
martyrs’s prayer when he apostrophizes the heathen:
“Our cry even on the rack and as the blood flows is,
we honor God through Christ.”
No matter what form devotion to Christ may have
assumed in the early days of the faith it can be said in
general that reference to the economy of salvation was
kept steadily in mind. This holds not only for the clas-
sical “per Christum” which terminates the prayer; it
appears also in the meditations on Christ’s passion
which formed the day’s mental prayer. Here there was
question not so much of a compassionate sharing in his
physical sufferings as a contemplation of the stages in
the work of our redemption of which the resurrection
was a part. Thus prayer is that power which keeps
alive in the Christian a consciousness of his dignity and
the hope he cherishes thereby guaranteeing him moral
support besides. It carries the conviction with which
Hippolytus concludes his instructions on prayer: “If
you perform these things and remember them and in-
struct one another and encourage the catechumens to
do them, you will not be tempted or come to grief,
since in every event you keep Christ before your
eyes.”
18 Ch r is t ia n Pr ay er Th r o u g h th e Ce n t u r i e s
The Cross in Christian Antiquity

A confirmation of the foregoing is offered by the

place which the cross occupied in early Christian prac-
tice. It is known, the cross in those days was invariably
depicted without the figure of the crucified. The reason
that lay behind this was not so much an aversion to
showing him in his state of humilation as to bring out
the richer significance hidden away in that symbol:
The cross, the instrument of our redemption, had be-
come a sign of victory, a tropaion, (trophy). The hymn
of Venantius Fortunatus signs of the “crucis
trophaeum.”
The cross was closely associated with Christian
piety from an early age. This is shown from the various
occasions when its sign was traced on their persons by
Christians, and in the areas of Syrian Christianity es-
pecially the cross was either painted on the wall of a
Christian dwelling or fixed there in wood, facing East-
ward, the direction which the people faced when pray-
ing. The acts of the martyr Hipparchus relate that this
blood-witness of Christ paid homage to his Lord seven
times daily before a cross painted on the wall of his
dwelling. The custom of affixing the cross on the East-
ern wall of the house can apparently be traced back to
the second century. In any event it is clear that in
those days both in private and at liturgical meetings
worshipers faced the East when praying, the direction
of the rising sun in which they discerned a symbol of
the Risen Christ, the direction where they fancied lay
the abode of the Blessed and from where Christ would
come again and the “Sign of the Son of man in the
clouds of heaven” (Mt. 24:30) would be awaited. So it
can be said with truth that the cross which “lent an
 Prayer in the Early Christian Epoch 19
orientation to prayer was not merely a pointer but also
a symbol of eschatological thinking in early Christian-
ity.” Thus what was later adopted in the basilicas had
its origin in the homage paid to the cross in the home.
The cross in the apse, shaped now to a cross of glory,
gave direction also to community prayer and became
the expression of Christian hope which looked upward
to him who is in the glory of the Father and will one
day come again. So we can rightly speak of a stauro-
centred (cross-centered) piety of Christian antiquity.
Its effect can also be discerned in early monasticism.
Horsiesi, St. Pachomius’ second successor in the lead-
ership of Egyptian monasticism, describes as follows
the meaning of the monastic life: “We have renounced
the world and begun to follow the standard of the cross
(vexillum crucis); the task of superiors, according to
him is to await as leaders of their troop the arrival of
the Redeemer, and to conduct a well-equipped army to
him.” In Syrian monasticism the writing of an ascetic,
Dadisho by name, dating it is true to the seventh cen-
tury, has been preserved. In it he instructs the monk to
pay homage to the Holy Cross in his cell (evidently
each cell had one). We have an echo of this also in the
introduction to the Regula of St. Benedict: “Let us
patiently share in the sufferings of Christ so that we
may merit to share also in his Kingdom.”

Early Monasticism

If we dwell here on the religious way of life of the

oldest form of monasticism which in the fourth century
(and so in the period with which we are dealing here) is
mainly represented by the anchorites, a somewhat dif-
20 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r Th r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

ferent atmosphere prevails. These early monks dwell-

ing singly in their cells or caves far removed from
human settlements purposed to practice a new form of
Christian life only insofar as this was compatible with
their resolve to confine to the barest minimum their
relations with the world. They wished to live only for
God and to enjoy as near an approach to him as was
possible to mortal man here below. Consequently,
their life was a life of prayer—uninterrupted prayer.
This is disclosed in a special section of the
Apophthegmat (Collections of Sayings attributed to
Egyptian hermits). Epiphanius, later bishop of Salamis
in Cyrpus, is assured by the monks of the monasteries
he founded that they faithfully adhered to the instruc-
tions he gave, observing the third, sixth and ninth
hours of prayer as well as Vespers. “And what of the
other Hours,” he asked, “don’t you pray during them?
The genuine monk must pray without ceasing or at
least sing psalms in his heart.”
About the middle of the fourth century, members
of the Messalian sect from Syria made their appear-
ance. True to their Manichean-dualistic principle, they
wished to observe literally the rule of uninterrupted
prayer. Some of them visited Lucius’s hermitage and,
when questiòned by him about this unbroken converse
with God, they had to admit that they, too, made time
for meals and for sleep. They were a bit nonplussed by
the hermit’s further question: “And who in the mean-
time prays in your stead?” The hermit explained the
method he himself adopted: While he is plaiting his
mats he prays in his heart or in the words: “Have
mercy on me, O God, as you are ever rich in mercy ; in
the abundance of your compassion blot out the record
of my misdeeds” (Ps 50:1). From the earnings he
 Prayer in the Early Christian Epoch 21
makes from his work he deducts every day two denarii
and places them at the door of his cell; the person who
takes them prays for him while he eats and sleeps (n.9).
Other reports testify to the same practice of cease-
less prayer. Abba Macarius taught his disciples not to
use many words when they prayed; rather they should
frequently stretch out their arms saying: “Lord, as you
know best and in the manner you will, have pity on
me” ; or when in distress: “Help me” (n.10). We have
here that monologue form of prayer so highly valued in
the spiritual life of later times. The great teachers of
Eastern Christianity, Diadochus of Photike (5th cen-
tury) and John Climacus (7th century) constantly rec-
ommended the practice. In the form of a simple repeti-
tion of the name of Jesus as the “Jesus Prayer,” it has
outlived the centuries.
But the Apophthegmata are familiar also with
higher forms of prayer: They tell of abba Lot that when
a monk called on him, complaining of his failure in
prayer and meditation he stood up and raised his hands
heavenward; suddenly his ten fingers appeared as so
many flames of fire. “If you only will,” he said, “you
can become all afire” (n.8). It is told of abba Arsenius
that on Saturday evenings he turned away from the
setting sun and remained with hands raised to heaven
till the rising sun shone on his face on Sunday morning
(n.2). Among the Desert Fathers distinguished for their
gift of prayer the most distinguished was Anthony the
Hermit. The gift of mystical prayer, to which he was
raised and during which he was frequently wrapt out of
the senses, prepared him to become eventually the
founder of Eastern monasticism. Even the struggles
with the demons which Anthony had to endure (and
these recur in the lives of the Desert Fathers) failed to
22 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

quench his ardor for prayer. Incidentally, these her-

mits could offer good advice to those who pursued a
simple form of prayer. John Climacus, for example,
who spent many years in the desert, gave the following
counsel to one who approached him: “If you find con-
solation or a sense of contrition in a single word of
your prayer, dwell upon it, for your angel-guardian is
at your side and is praying with you.”

Desert Fathers

The method adopted by the Desert Fathers in re-

gard to the externals of prayer did not lack specific
forms. They prayed standing with uplifted hands facing
the East. Sacred Scripture, it appears, did not occupy
a prominent place in the anchorites’ devotions. Many
of the hermits did not have the requisite formation ; for
others the possession of a book seemed too expensive
a luxury. It was otherwise with the consecrated virgin
whom Ps-Athanasius counseled: “She should apply
herself to meditation on Holy Scripture, possess a
copy of the psalter and learn the psalms by heart. The
rising sun must glimpse the book in her hands.” These
latter words passed into a proverb and reappear in the
fourth century in Hippolytus’ Canons: “If there is no
morning meeting in the church you should take a book
and read a portion of it; every morning the rising sun
must find it reposing on your knees.”
In coenobitic (community) monasticism condi-
tions were different from the beginning. Scripture
reading here was done in common; a single codex suf-
ficed for all needs. In the message which Horsiesi ad-
dressed to his Pachomian community one is astonished
 Prayer in the Early Christian Epoch 23
at the wealth of biblical quotations cited. Not only that
but the abbot pleads expressly for a keen interest in the
Sacred Scripture on the part of the community to be
shown by reading it and making themselves familiar
with its contents. Athanasius testifies that Anthony the
Hermit knew the Scriptures almost by heart.
Only gradually did the Book of Psalms become the
Prayer and Hymn Book of the faithful and of the
Church at large. In the first two centuries it was the
Psalter, along with the prophetic books of Scripture,
which furnished the reading matter. During that period
too the Psalter gradually assumed importance in the
day-to-day life of prayer. An impelling factor in pro-
moting esteem for the Psalter was the experience
gained from the way the heretics went about their
work: It was by their hymns that the Manicheans had
such great success in attracting recruits to their ranks.
The result was a mistrust in orthodox circles for songs
composed for the occasion and a preference for bibli-
cal hymns.

Sunday Service

What relationship did the practice of prayer in

early Christian times as described so far, bear to the
Church’s public service? The personal prayers of the
individual, as is evident from the foregoing, held a
marked predominance at least in range. But equally
evident is the fact that all prayer merged finally in the
liturgy of the Church. On Sunday, the day of the week
set aside for the memorial of the redemption (climaxed
in the Lord’s resurrection) “all those living in town or
country meet in the place of assembly. In the great
24 Ch r i s t ia n Pr ay er Th r o u g h th e Ce n t u r i e s
prayer of thanksgiving, bread and wine become the
Sacrifice of Christ and of the community, as well as the
Bread of Immortality” (Ignatius of Antioch). The say-
ing attributed to the Abilena martyrs: “We cannot sur-
vive without the Dominicum” (the Lord’s Body) can
be verified in every other group of martyrs. The Mass,
however, was not restricted to the Sundays. In North
Africa within a small circle of worshipers it was also
celebrated on working days, as we learn from Cyprian.
It found its way even into the prisons where arrested
Christians were detained. But this was by way of ex-
ception. The faithful were allowed to take the Blessed
Sacrament home with them on Sundays, as appears
from the practice in vogue in various Christian lo-
calities, in order to partake of it daily “before every
other food.” This privilege was a fairly regular custom
of the Egyptian Fathers of the desert. The ancho-
rites also joined the community service on Sundays
(also on Saturdays as was generally customary in the
East); it seemed to have been a matter of course with
them, so much so that it is mentioned only incidentally
in a few of our sources. Cases are reported where a
priest used to come on Sundays to a recluse’s hermit-
age in order to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
When we hear that anchorites never left their cells,
this does not mean they failed to go to church on Sun-
day. However, there may have been at this period, as
in later days, hermits who preferred to keep their un-
disturbed solitude on Sunday rather than visit the
church as there was no formal commandment regard-
ing Sunday observance.
2
At the Height of
Christian Antiquity

After the Peace of Constantine a powerful impetus

was given the Church’s prayer, the Liturgy. This is
observable not only in the church buildings which
arose on every side but in the daily liturgical service
which was celebrated in many places in addition to the
Sunday eucharistie service. This was not a complete
novelty; on occasions at least, as The Apostolic Tradi-
tion of Hippolytus testifies, at the beginning of the
third century prayer meetings of the faithful were held
apart from the celebration of the Eucharist. Each
morning the deacons and presbyters were expected to
meet the bishop and give an instruction to the people;
this was in the form of a “catechesis” which closed
with prayer. From time to time also the agape was held
in the evenings when a well-to-do Christian invited
some poorer members of the community to his home.
One of the clerics had to preside at the function. The
meal was preceded by a Blessing of the Light and a
prayer-session at which psalms were recited and the
community answered with “Alleluia.”
We can recognize here without difficulty the first
beginnings of the two Horae which in the fourth cen-
tury took shape as a daily practice in the cathedral

25
26 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

churches, namely Matins and Vespers. They are the

Horae which from then on represent the cathedral Of-
fice as distinct from the later monastic Office and form
in both the basic, irreplaceable elements of the Horae
prayer. In the eighth book of the Apostolic Constitu-
tion (Antioch around 380) we meet with a definite rul-
ing for the first time: The bishop is to assemble the
community in the evening, the 140th Psalm (the raising
of the hands “as an evening sacrifice”) is recited; then
follows a series of petitions read out by the deacon for
individual states in life, which the bishop closes with
an Oratio and his blessing. The same arrangement was
observed in the morning when prayer was opened with
Psalm.62, (Ad te de luce vigilo). Eusebius of Caesarea
(d.339) vouches for the fact that it was a universal
practice to hold morning and evening services in the
churches, when hymns were sung and prayers recited.
We have the same testimony for the West from Hilary
of Poitiers (d.367). Somewhat later, as a matter of con-
science, the observance of these two Horae, the
matutina et vespertina officia, is the object of regula-
tions of several Synods in Gaul like those of Agde (506)
and Vaison (529); as also of the Synods of Braga (563)
and Toledo (633 and 675) in Spain. These two Horae
are mentioned with sufficient clarity in other places
too; so, for example, for Milan by Ambrose, for North
Africa by Augustine, by Paulinus for Noia. In Rome,
too, these two Horae must have been in vogue, as the
Sacramentaries make mention of special prayers to be
said at morning and evening hours of prayer.

Church Meetings

These prayer meetings in the church were at-

 At the Height o f Christian Antiquity 27
tended by the faithful, at least by those who lived in
the neighborhood. Ambrose invites his hearers to
come to church early in the morning when darkness
prevents them from engaging in business and to start
the day with hymns and songs and the “Beatitudes.”
The eight Beatitudes formed part, consequently, of the
programme of morning prayer in Milan. Augustine
tells of how his mother Monica used to come twice a
day to church “in order that she might hear you in your
words, and you her in her prayers.” It would appear
that it was preferably to Matins that the people came,
doubtless for the reason given by Ambrose: Owing to
lighting conditions in those days work could not begin
before daylight. Cassian in conversation with abba
Theonas reminds the monks of the example given by
many layfolk (saeculares) who hurry to church before
dawn {ante lucem vel diluculo). A similar reproach is
voiced by emperor Justinian in regard to clerics of his
empire: When the laity crowd the churches for the
Office and show great zeal in its recitation it is un-
seemly for clerics to neglect a task to which they are
obliged by their profession (attendance at the night
Office of Matins and Vespers). Bishop Caesarius of
Arles (d.540) who has the simple working people in
mind in his homilies encourages his hearer to come to
church before daybreak, especially during the period
of the long nights, and somewhat earlier during Lent;
they should take part in the Psalmody and in the
prayers and attend to the readings and the bishop’s
sermon which was often associated with the readings.
He promises to finish early “so that their time for work
will not be curtailed.” With equal insistence Nicetas
(d. after 414) of Remesiana (a locality near the lower
Danube) invites the faithful, the old and infirm ex-
cepted, to the vigils. They are asked to do this only
28 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

twice in the week, on Saturday and Sunday, thus de-

voting noctium portionem aliquam (some part of the
nights) to the divine service.
Elsewhere too, where we have evidence of Matins
and Vespers being held, it is likely that this did not
occur every day. On the other hand, the more or less
regular hours for prayer led here and there to a full vigil
for which the Easter Virgil served as model as early as
the second century. In Rome also, such comprehen-
sive vigils were held occasionally from Saturday to
Sunday in Ember weeks. Similar prayer meetings dur-
ing entire nights were not unusual especially at a mar-
tyr’s grave; they could be celebrated privately for
smaller groups. The Synod of Elvira (around 306) de-
creed that women should not take part in these as-
semblies (c.35); and Jerome instructed Laeta not to
allow her little daughter to leave her side in the event
of her attending such a vigil. That big crowds were
expected to attend these morning services is evi-
denced from the fact that in Tours at St. Martin’s grave
a bell was rung to summon the faithful to Matins. At
Merida in Spain too, as early as the seventh century a
bell was rung for the beginning of Matins.
In time these Horae came to be regarded not so
much as a choir prayer for clerics as a religious service
for the laity, so much so that an obligation to attend
had to be specially insisted upon with the former. In
the churches of Gaul clerics were often allocated for
service at the Horae according to a definite roster.
Indeed, it was not unheard of that Vespers might be
held without a single cleric being present.
It is clear that attendance at these daily morning
and evening services was voluntary even for those
who lived near the church. Though Ambrose issued
 At the Height o f Christian Antiquity 29
repeated invitations to attend them, still he allows for
prayers to be said at home instead of in the church. In
any event the degree of obligation here was very dif-
ferent from that affecting the Sunday Mass. Atten-
dance at the latter, following the Synod of Elvira, was
formulated more and more as a Church law binding on
all. Considerable allowance, however, had to be made
in this matter as one had to reckon with conditions in
country districts where people lived long distances
from the church.
In any event, attendance at these religious ser-
vices constituted an effective school of prayer for a
considerable portion, indeed the backbone, of the
community. They got to know the psalms well; in
community services, one of the psalms was chosen
which had a meaningful appeal; it was first recited by
the leader who took a verse specially adapted for the
purpose; this he sang once by himself to the people
who repeated it as a refrain after each verse or section
of the psalm. We have here the Responsorial Type of
singing which was also used for hymn singing, as St.
Ephraem’s hymns testify. Such refrains with which the
people became familiar were favorites with Augustine
who made them the subject of his preaching thus im-
pressing their contents the more deeply on their minds.
Ambrose too has often occasion to refer to them, and
Basil speaks likewise of this responsorial method of
chant.

Rendering of the Psalms

The faithful were not expected to learn the psalms

by heart or even a number of them. Still Chrysostom
30 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

takes it for granted that every Christian was well ac-

quainted with the morning psalm 62 and the evening
one psalm 140. According to Caesarius of Arles every-
body knew psalm 103 which was recited at Vespers in
churches and monasteries glorifying creation, (verse
19: “the sun knows well the hour of its setting”), as
well as psalm 50, the Miserere, and psalm 90 the eve-
ning prayer. In Naples, candidates for Baptism were
required to know the short psalm of praise, 116, as
well as learn by heart psalm 22: “The Lord is my
Shepherd . . .” as a song of thanksgiving, which as
newly-baptized Christians they would be singing. In
this way an extensive knowledge of the Psalter was
acquired, much as today the average churchgoer is
familiar with a number of stanzas in the church hymns;
anything beyond this can be had in printed texts. In
those days the responsorial singing method supplied
what was needed; the leader had the full text before
him, the faithful then took over from him.
At times, however the psalms must have been
sung right through {in directum) by the community.
Indeed in Nicetas’s community this seems to have
been the regular way of rendering the psalms. A cer-
tain musical elaboration was also allowed for, which
excluded any element of the theatrical. Nicetas is at
pains to stress the vocis consonantici, (harmonization
of voice), which must be observed when singing; there
must be no dragging of the voice, no singing too high or
too low on the part of an individual chorister; all
should take their cue from the three young men in the
fiery furnace who sang the praises of God “with one
mouth.” A similar method of singing was a regular fea-
ture in Basil’s community, at least as far as psalm 50
was concerned around the year 375.
 At the Height of Christian Antiquity 31
Just as responsorial singing familiarized the faith-
ful with a number of verses from the Psalter, so too
they learnt the various prayers from their cries of as-
sent during divine service. In the eucharistie liturgy
the ancient acclamations (to which the Sanctus was
now added) were long since familiar to the people.
Another addition were the answers which they gave to
the litanies that were recited by the deacon. Etheria
had listened with admiration to the almost endless rep-
etition of the Kyrie eleison rendered by a group of
children in Jerusalem. It was not long before the same
invocation appeared in the West also. The Synod of
Vaison (529) bears testimony to “the sweet and salu-
tary custom of pronouncing frequently and with devo-
tion the Kyrie eleison, a wide-spread practice which
should be introduced everywhere into Matins and
Vespers.”
In circles which could claim a certain religious
formation for their members it was understandable that
prayer would be given a correspondingly suitable form
borrowed evidently from the liturgy. This we observe
from certain sections of Etheria’s account of her pil-
grimage. The authoress, who was not a nun but a
directress of a loosely structured association of young
women, describes the devotional exercises which she
and her companions used to perform at the various
pilgrim resorts in the Sinai or in Palestine. These began
with a prayer which was followed by the reading of a
passage from Holy Scripture treating of the locality or
the event which was being commemorated. Then a
suitable psalm was recited, and a prayer concluded the
ceremony (c.4,3; c.10,7). Such too was the arrange-
ment which governed divine service at that period in
cathedral and community churches at Matins and Yes-
32 Ch r i s t ia n Pr ay er Th ro ug h th e Ce n t u r i e s
pers, at least during full vigils, and in the service of the
Word during Mass where God’s Word and the hymn
were followed by the prayer of the community and its
church leader.

Interpreting the Psalms

The psalms undoubtedly formed the chief element

in the Church’s prayer. In his work on the value of the
Psalmody, Nicetas of Remesiana never tires extolling
the rich contents of the psalms: People of every age
and class find in them food for their spiritual lives;
truth, loyalty, virtue are commended, while lying and
sinful conduct are stigmatized. The mystery of Christ
(<Christi sacramenta ) is there the subject of the com-
munity’s homage, his passion, resurrection, his place
at the right hand of the Father, the inheritance of the
gentiles and the outpouring of the Spirit.
As a fact, the Fathers in their exegesis of the
psalms showed a tendency to interpret them in a New
Testament sense. The most outstanding example of
this is offered by St. Augustine’s Enarrationes in
Psalmos, fruit of his homilies to the people, in which
the doctor of the Church expounds all one hundred and
fifty psalms in the light of the mystery of Christ. So,
too, with the headings often provided for the psalms in
manuscripts dating from the sixth century in the spirit
of an older tradition. In these the psalm is set in the
light of salvation history and preferably designated as
the vox Christi or vox ecclesiae. Similarly a large part
of the Psalter-collects (the orationes) which according
to custom followed on the individual psalms aimed at
gathering up the Christian element which the Old Tes-
 At the Height o f Christian Antiquity 33
tament singer could only vaguely hint at in obscure
images.
Readings also formed a certain part of the pro-
gramme for both Horae in the early Christian services.
We saw how St. Monica used to attend daily readings
in church. Caesarius of Arles too not only set great
store on the Matins reading in the church but also
encourages the faithful to adopt the lectio divina in
their homes. If a person enters the church while a read-
ing is in progress, writes Nicetas of Remesiana, he
should not start praying aloud himself but pay homage
to the Lord (probably by a low bow), trace the sign of
the cross on his forehead and attend to the reading.
What did the reading matter consist in? Sacred
Scripture, obviously, in the first place. In the Eastern
Church Scripture readings of normal length were cus-
tomary at Vespers and Matins on Sundays and Holy-
days since the early Middle Ages, a practice that still
obtains today. Rufinus (d. 410) speaks of “books”
which were read in church, including the Pastor Her-
mae, the Didache and the Judicium Petri. Writings
such as these were read at Matins but certainly not
during Mass. Gregory the Great thought it his duty to
object to his Moralia in Job being read at Matins (pub-
lice ad vigilias) in Ravenna as being quite unsuitable
for the purpose. A story true to the life, again from the
East, is recorded of Stephen the Younger (d.767), that
when a boy he was often present with his mother at the
vigils held at the martyrs’ shrines. When the readings
began he stood in front of the barrier, gazing fixedly at
the reader; from the mere recital he could reproduce
all that was said, whether it was an account of a mar-
tyrdom, a biography or a sermon from one of the
Fathers.
34 Ch r i s t ia n Pr ay er Th ro ug h the Ce n t u r i e s
We gather then that the faithful were in a position
to derive spiritual refreshment of various kinds from
the public services they attended. Yet subsequent to
the fifth century mention of Christ’s passion is strik-
ingly absent from daily prayer. Not that remembrance
of it was totally dropped, as will appear at a later
period. Even the observance of the daily Horae re-
mained an ideal; but its reality in terms of prayer
passed to the monasteries; only a few lay worshipers
would have joined in the monks’ devotions.

Daily Prayers

The daily prayers said by the faithful in their

homes were the morning and evening ones. That every
Christian was bound to say them in some form or an-
other we learn from certain reminders, chiefly con-
cerning the Pater Noster and the Creed. A fragment
from a writing of Nicetas of Remesiana is preserved in
which he mentions the catechesis for candidates for
Baptism: the catechumens are to be trained “to retain
in memory the Symbolum (Creed) and say it daily be-
fore going to sleep and on rising. So too with the
Lord’s Prayer and the sign of the Cross with which
each arms himself against the devil.” The same instruc-
tion recurs in St. Augustine’s catechesis in regard to
the Our Father and the Creed. He is chiefly concerned
that these formulae which had been given only orally
should be firmly fixed in memory, evidently for the
purpose of providing a strengthening food for the
mind. Ps-Ambrose advises virgins to go to sleep with
the Lord’s Prayer on their lips and say it again on rising
and to recite the Creed daily in the early morning
 At the Height o f Christian Antiquity 35
hours. That these two venerable formularies should be
reckoned as firm supports of the spiritual life of all
Christians is testified by Caesarius of Arles when he
advises his faithful: “Whenever you have to go any-
where, sign yourselves with the Name of Jesus Christ,
say the Symbolum (the Confession of Faith) or the
Lord’s Prayer and go your ways sure of the divine
protection.” This advice is repeated in the following
centuries under the definite prescription to recite both
sacred texts at least twice daily, morning and evening.
The instruction thus given the neophytes became a
rule of life; it was observed as a matter of course by
monks and clerics as appears from the canonical hours
in which the Our Father and the Symbolum spoken in a
subdued voice formed the beginning of prayer in the
morning and at the day’s close in the evening. It con-
tinued to be observed for over a thousand years until,
in the Reform of the Rubrics in 1955, it was omitted,
doubtless without reflecting on the origin and antece-
dents of the custom.

St. Augustine on Prayer

Though our information regarding prayer said pri-

vately in the home is scanty enough at this period,
there remains the fact that there was no lack of
encouragement for Christians to engage in fervent
prayer nor of instruction on how to pray properly. St.
Augustine has left us an important treatise on prayer
which he dedicated to Proba, a rich widow, in answer
to a request of hers; apparently it was meant for
domestic use by her and her lady friends (n.30). To
pray, he says, is to yearn for the vita beata (the blessed
36 Ch ri st ia n Pr ay er Th ro ug h t h e Ce n t u r i e s
life) in faith, hope and love and this is to be found only
in the vita aeterna (eternal life). And to that extent
prayer must be an abiding state of the Christian, as
appears from the commandment to pray always. But to
prevent this yearning from being extinguished, we
must also at certain times turn the mind to prayer and
with the words of the prayer remind ourselves of our
duty. In this way we remain receptive of what God
wills to grant us. Prayer that lasts for a long time is also
praiseworthy provided our duties allow us the time.
We do not, however, need to make many words of it.
Augustine is familiar with and approves of the practice
of the “Egyptians” and how they make use of “very
brief, quickly despatched prayers” (orationes brevis-
simas et raptim quodammodo jaculatas). In particular,
the Our Father contains all that we should pray for.
Besides, according to the words of the Apostle we are
ignorant of what we should ask (Rom. 8:25f.); in which
connection Augustine speaks of a docta ignorantia (a
learned ignorance), (n.28). On other occasions he
treats expressly of the prayer of petition; we should
not unconditionally ask for earthly favors; we can be
sure of being heard only if we pray “In the Name of
Jesus,” that is when we desire what serves our spiritual
welfare, and even then we can expect a favorable an-
swer only for ourselves. To conclude, Augustine
stands out himself as a man of intense prayer: His
Confessions constitute one unique prayer, as humble
as it is heartfelt. Caesarius of Arles, the popular
preacher, does not gainsay the great doctor of the
Church but he is more broadminded where temporal
favors form the subject of prayer: provided they are
not what is chiefly desired, we should desire before all
else the soul’s well-being and eternal life for ouselves
 At the Height o f Christian Antiquity 37
and all others. A pre-condition that God will hearken
to our prayer is that we have been hearkening to him
before we pray; also that all rancor must be banished
from the heart. Caesarius’s attention is focussed rather
on the external posture adopted at prayer. In the
church one should pray silently and not disturb one’s
neighbor. One should imitate the example of Anna in
the first Book of Kings who only moved her lips (1 Kg
1;10,13). During prayer the mind should not turn to
other things. He devotes a whole homily to explaining
to his hearers how they should behave when the dea-
con calls the Flectamus genua or when he invites them
to bend the knee before the bishop gives his blessing.
The publican, not the Pharisee, in the temple should be
their model; he who will drink from the spiritual well
which is Christ and from the torrent of the Holy Spirit
must do so in a bending posture.
3
In the Monasteries
of the Early Middle Ages

Thus far we have had the Christian people in mind

and their large-scale involvement in the two Horae,
Matins and Vespers. What of the remaining hours of
daily prayer? Here we encroach on the domain of ris-
ing monasticism; not that we are without trace of lay
participation in these extra prayer hours. In addition to
a private recitation of Terce, Sext and None, Chrysos-
tom is aware of a public celebration of them in church.
He makes a serious effort, attended with but moderate
success, to interest the faithful in coming to church for
night prayer as well as for morning devotions. In the
Testamentum Domini mention is made of a prayer of a
solemn character held at a very early hour in the
church for Terce and Sext. This was in addition to a
community prayer at midnight which the sacerdotes et
perfectiores (priests and more perfect souls) attended.
Caesarius of Arles encouraged his people to come to
church during Lent, not only for Matins but also for
Terce, Sext and None.
Something similar is contained in the report left to
us (c. 400) by the Western pilgrim Etheria with refer-
ence to the service celebrated daily in Jerusalem. Here
both Horae at morning and evening were well at-
38
 In the Monasteries o f the Middle Ages 39
tended. They were clearly distinct from a prayer meet-
ing at night, at cockcrow, which preceded the public
morning hour and from the prayer hours at Sext and
None (only in Lent was Terce usual). These meetings
were attended mostly by consecrated virgins and by
monks, the Monazontes (Solitaries) who had come to
this pilgrim center. We have to do here with groups of
ascetics in their transitional stage from anchorite to
monk. What the pilgrim reports on the psalmody of
these hours of prayer is significant enough. Prayer fol-
lowed on the various sections of the Psalter and for this
two or three priests or deacons stood ready as a rule to
lead the prayer (c.24,1). We have here an effort to get
the Church’s seal of approval for these semi-private
groups and lend them the dignity of a church liturgy. It
is abundantly clear that in these ascetical groups can
be recognized the first stages on the road leading to
genuine monasticism and in their prayer the first be-
ginnings of a fully monastic Office.

Basilica-Monasteries

Besides Jerusalem there were other sanctuaries

where zealous Christians assembled who wished to
lead a more intensive religious life, chiefly at martyrs’
graves, but also at cathedral and community churches.
They joined in the usual divine service, rounding it off
by further hours of prayer, in this falling in line more or
less with existing tradition. Bishops in various lo-
calities backed up the efforts of these devoti, since in
that way the praises of God in their basilicas went on
uninterruptedly day and night. A section of these de-
vout people would settle down in the neighborhood of
40 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

the sanctuary and finally adopt a common way of life.

In this manner arose what were called basilica-
monasteries. We can conclude to a foundation of the
sort from what Basil (d.379) reports of his church in
Caesarea. At Rome the first foundations of this kind
are attested to in the middle of the fifth century; they
grew rapidly in number and importance; in the eighth
century there were sixty of these basilica-monasteries
in the Eternal City. Clerics who may have taken part in
the services of these basilica-monasteries may be re-
garded as forerunners of the later canons of cathedral
and collegiate chapters, whose constitution set up after
the year 816 is clearly distinguished from that of the
monks. It is a known fact that they enjoyed high favor
in Rome with many popes: Gregory the Great handed
over to their charge the entire pastoral care of San
Pancrazio, replacing secular priests who had failed to
measure up to their task.
Here was developed what we know in the Roman
Liturgy as the officium divinum, the fully organized
cursus of the canonical hours, each made up of psalms,
and concluding with a church prayer. The three day-
hours and a night hour with a Nocturn or Nocturns are
added to the two hours of the cathedral arrangement
and further increased (first in the monasteries proper)
by Prime and Compline. The “seven times daily
praises” (ps. 118, 164) which since Clement of
Alexandria’s day were in their broader sense con-
stantly cited as an ideal for prayer were now literally
fulfilled in seven church hours of prayer. As the night
Horae could be regarded as forming a unit with Matins
(Lauds)—from the later Middle Ages onward it had
not only taken over from the latter the name
Matutinum but was generally regarded also as a mere
 In the Monasteries o f the Middle Ages 41
extension of Matins—the Office had now seven not
eight Horae.

Roman Office Readings

That it was the basilica-monasteries of the kind

mentioned which played a special part in initiating the
traditional Roman Office is confirmed by the structure
of the individual Horae. Apart from the Nocturns of
the night Horae they all display in the earliest sources,
including St. Benedict’s Regula, a characteristic fea-
ture. This is the peculiar division into two sections: We
have first a psalmody consisting of three or five psalms
and then a prayer arrangement like the one which
Etheria witnessed and which is in keeping with the
elements of a somewhat formal community service
made up respectively of readings, hymn and prayer (in
the language of today’s Breviary, Capitulum, Respon-
sorium and Oratio).
It is now certain that readings were, generally
speaking, foreign to the Office of earlier oriental
monasticism as well as to the people’s Day Hours in
the East. The Horae consisted in the main of psalmody
and the relevant Oratio. Only on Sundays and feast
days, on occasions namely when the entire community
was expected to be present was it early the custom, in
the Syrian rite, and later in the Byzantine rite, to insert
readings into the people’s Horae; these have been
maintained to the present, as we have already seen. It
was, however, the monks of the Pachomian
monasteries in Egypt who led the way as early as the
fourth century in appending readings to the long suc-
cession of psalms in the Office. These readings were
42 Ch r i s t ia n Pr ay er Th r o u g h th e Ce n t u r i e s
little more than loosely connected sequences, but they
served nevertheless in the West also as a stimulus to
add brief readings to the psalmody, including now all
the Horae. These readings, however, were of a semi-
private character. It is significant that they were not
retained when the Pachomian order of things was
adopted by the Syrian monasteries.
The Regula Benedicti had taken the same step as
regards the inclusion of Readings in its Divine Office.
But all points to the fact that it was not Benedict who
first introduced them; their origin lay in one of the
Roman city basilica-monasteries whose occupants
were wont to take part, along with the layfolk and the
clergy in the recitation of the old cathedral Horae, and
then out of personal devotion added the further Horae,
retaining the same structure for them.
We can affirm then with assurance that the asce-
tics of the basilica-monasteries remained not only spa-
tially in the neighborhood of the city and its churches ;
they represented also in their prayer-life an inter-
mediate and adjusting stage between the services of
the cathedral and parish churches and the prayer-
pattern of pure, primitive monasticism whose inheri-
tance they had taken over in other respects as well. In
their converse with God not only was room and scope
left for Eucharist and liturgy in the old sense, but
Eucharist and Liturgy were unequivocally the pivotal
points of their religious programme. It will be useful
then to examine more closely the inheritance they
brought with them to the sanctuary : the prayer cult of
a monasticism which had chosen as its basic principle
world-remoteness and desert, a way of life in which
Eucharist and Liturgy were present indeed but very
definitely relegated to the background.
 In the Monasteries o f the Middle Ages 43
Monasticism such as this was familiar with com-
munity prayer. The anchorites’ experience went to
show fairly soon that the life of a hermit, left to his own
devices, presupposed a spiritual maturity of a high
order and that living in common with others had defi-
nitely to be the usual approach even for Godseekers.
Basil the Great opted decisively for this view. The
future lay then with the monasteries that catered for
the coenobitic way of life in the East and with more
reason in the West. Community prayer had played an
important role from the beginning in monastic com-
munity living; community prayer is vocal prayer. Now
unbroken prayer, which could not be performed in a
few hours, was the precious tradition inherited from
the earliest days of monasticism. How could that in-
herited ideal be combined with the claims of a life lived
in community?

Cassian on Monastic Prayer

The monks’ attitude to prayer we can best learn

from John Cassian who around 420 in his Institutiones
treats exhaustively of the way prayer was organized in
the monasteries and equally in detail of continual
prayer and its conditions in his Collationes (Confer-
ences). Before founding the famous monastery of St.
Victor in Marseilles he had visited Egypt about the
year 385. There he spent over a decade with the
Fathers of the Nitria and Skete deserts, and in his
many conversations with them he acquired spiritual
experiences of various kinds. There too he had made
his own a theory of the spiritual life proposed by a
highly educated monk who had lived in the Nitria des-
44 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

ert and who was re-discovered only in our century,

Evagrius Pontikus (d.399). Hence Cassian’s doctrine
reproduces “the experience of anchorite monasticism
formulated within the framework of the theology of
Evagrius.” In his conversation with the monk Isaac,
Cassian develops his doctrine on prayer. Prayer is the
proper task of the monk; successful prayer pre-
supposes the sedation of all one’s passions, the re-
nouncing of all worldy interests. Basically there are as
many types of prayer as there are different persons
praying, nay as many as there are different states of
mind (Coll. IX,8). The kinds of prayer which St. Paul
mentions in passing (1 Tim. 2:1) Cassian tries to mar-
shal in ascending order: With Evagrius he starts the
ascent with the petitioning of God’s pardon (obsec-
ratio)] then follows a turning away from the world
(oratio), then prayer for the welfare of others (post-
ulatio), then the prayer of thanks (gratiarum actio),
which Cassian stresses as the noblest type of prayer.
He shows from an exposé of the Our Father (VIII,
18-24) that all the intentions for which we should pray
are contained in it. It marks the summit we should
reach in our ascent to God; it represents that stage in
the soul’s progress where contemplative prayer is
directed to God alone and the fire of love is enkindled
as we speak with God our Father (IX, 18-25). We must
bend all our efforts to achieve that jugis oratio, con-
tinuous prayer, which allows us to share in the blessed
life of the angels, the ideal vita angelica so frequently
extolled in later times. A help toward this goal (and
here abba Isaac is apparently betraying a closely
guarded secret of the anchorites) is the ceaseless repe-
tition of the single verse “Come to my aid, God; Lord,
make haste to help me.” These words are to be re-
 In the Monasteries o f the Middle Ages 45
peated on every occasion, day and night, as a defense
against the eight capital vices, as also in times of con-
solation and desolation (X,10). By constantly confess-
ing oneself to be God’s beggar one attains to the first of
the Beatitudes, poverty of spirit (X,11). The psalms
will then no longer be regarded as words of the prophe-
tic singer but be interpreted with deep emotion of heart
(compunctio) as the expression of one’s own
chequered life. Finally, prayer will reach that perfect
stage when it can dispense with words or images and
pour itself out before God in inexpressible sighs
(X,ll).
In another passage Cassian follows his master
Evagrius and the latter’s Alexandrian gnosis when he
distinguishes three stages in the ascent of prayer. The
first is the contemplation of God’s revelation in crea-
tures; then follows the mystery of the Incarnation
where the divine blends with the earthly and some-
thing of the ‘‘judaica infirmitas” (Jewish disability)
still obtrudes. The final state is reached in the contem-
plation even here below of the One and the Eternal.
Cassian, however, is at pains in insisting that the goal
to which all prayer must be directed is love.
No doubt such a concept of prayer represents a
lofty idealism, a soaring to heights which can only be
glimpsed with a sense of awe and wonderment. Still it
must be said of this doctrine on prayer what Olphe-
Gaillard has established with reference to Cassian’s
spiritual teaching as a whole: It is characterized by a
twofold element: an “intellectualist mysticism and an
essentially monastic doctrine of perfection.” Isolation
from the world is brought almost to the verge of a
negation of the world ; scarcely a glance is vouchsafed
even for Christ; Church and Sacrament are airily by-
46 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

passed; life hereafter is anticipated in a manner that

can be allowed only to the few who point beyond
things of earth as a sign for others. However, Cassian
exerted a powerful influence on later generations, not
so much through his theory of the spiritual life (if we
except some individual elements like his doctrine of
the capital sins) as from what he reports in his In-
stitutiones in praise of the coenobitical life as it was
lived in the monasteries of the East. This is particu-
larly true of the organization of their community
prayer.
In this connection, it was generally taken for
granted that prayer in common meant the rendering of
the Psalmody in common. Caesarius of Arles, also, for
example, when composing an Office arrangement for
his sister’s convent sums up his work as an Instruction
on “how you ought to recite the psalms” (quomodo
psallere debeatis). Cassian is acquainted with a more
ancient tradition of Egyptian monasticism in which
great latitude still prevailed and a choice was left the
monks in various monasteries to recite during the night
session twenty or thirty or more psalms. This was in
addition to those said at the three Day-Hours, each of
which consisted of six psalms. This is in line with the
rule laid down by Ps-Athanasius for the night office of
a virgin (and evidently for that of nuns’ convents as
well): “recite as many psalms as you can recite stand-
ing.” In Egypt, as Cassian reports, the council of the
elders prescribed the norm to be followed: twelve
psalms for an evening Office and the same number for
a night Office. The presumption was that during the
day each monk arranged in his own way for prayer and
words of Scripture to accompany his manual work
(Inst. Ill,2).
 In the Monasteries of the Middle Ages 47
In the Consultationes Zachaei et Apollonii dated
about 412 and roughly contemporaneous with Cassian,
we read of various degrees in monastic life differ-
entiated according to the fervor with which the monks
recited the Psalter. Lowerst in rank were those who
manifested no particular zest for their task (psallendi
vigore non fervent): next to them were monks who
were intent on variety in their recital (psallendi vero
intends crebra sunt studia). The most fervent were
those who, when on occasion they interrupted their
continual prayer, sang God’s praises in the psalms
(psallendi gratia). It thus appears that the rendering of
the psalms was an external activity that did not count
as one’s real prayer. This seems true enough, as in the
monastic arrangement for the Office it was a rule from
the beginning to take the psalms simply in the order of
the biblical Psalter, one after the other without regard
to theme or connection, merely as sacral words pro-
ceeding from the mouth of God and returning to God,
as though the sole purpose in view were the words
themselves and a desire to find one’s repose in them
and thus to draw near to God.
This explanation seems to be the correct one as
we come across arrangements of the Office which
aimed at the greatest possible quantitative measure in
reciting the psalms. A Coptic Rule of the Synaxis, in
connection with traditions traceable to Pachomius,
mentions an instruction whereby sixty psalms had to
be recited during the day and fifty during the night. St.
Benedict recalls that Fathers before his time had per-
formed the entire Psalter in a single day, a feat which
he would have distributed among the days of one
week. Somewhat later the Rule of St. Columbanus
demands along with the normal task of the day’s
48 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

psalms an amount of prayer for the night Office which,

depending on the length of the nights, numbered
thirty-six psalms and in the nights of Saturday and
Sunday could increase to seventy-five psalms. Several
rules for Irish monks prescribed without qualms the
daily performance of the “three fifties,” that is the
entire Psalter. Elsewhere on various occasions the
same was demanded at full vigils. On Good Friday in
many monasteries during the High Middle Ages it was
usual to go through the whole Psalter, not so much out
of a desire to reach an impressive total as to meet the
necessity of filling out a definite period of time in a
suitable manner.

Laus Perennis

Zeal in the recital of the Office led a step further in

many monasteries where the monks set themselves the
task of spending a day and a night in uninterrupted
praise of God. This was the case with those Greek
monks of the fifth century to whom the people soon
gave the name of the Non-Sleepers (Akiometes)
though the Psalter does not appear at least in the be-
ginning to have been the chief subject of their devo-
tions. After their founder’s death they carried on their
task, but in a more mitigated form: by dividing them-
selves into three groups (normae) each of which was
responsible for eight hours of service.
A little later the movement of the laus perennis
(the continuous praise of God) is found also in the
West. Its origin is traced to the Agaunum-St. Maurice
monastery founded in the year 515. The charter of its
foundation prescribed that the Psalter should be re-
 In the Monasteries o f the Middle Ages 49
cited day and night without interruption. This was se-
cured by a division of the monks into five normae,
each relieving the other in turn while retaining the
usual basic day and night Horae. To enable the monks
to carry on their task without material worries the
monastery was richly endowed by King Sigismund of
Burgundy, its founder, “for the salvation of my (pro
animae meae salute),” as it was worded in the charter
of foundation and “in the expectation that the monks
with all the greater devotion would petition God’s
mercy for us (pro nobis Dei misericordiam). The
movement was joined by a number of Gallican
monasteries like the Centula (St. Riquier) in the ninth
century. Given such an esteem for the Psalmody, it is
not surprising that stress was laid on knowing the
psalms by heart; in the Rule of Ferreolus (d.581) this is
expressly prescribed.

Psalm and Genuflection

We may ask how the psalmody was arranged be-

fore it took the shape in which we find it in the Rule of
St. Benedict and in the kindred system of the Roman
basilicas, a shape which has been retained down to our
day. Apart from the cathedral Horae and Compline it
simply followed the biblical psalter currente psalterio,
as was fundamental even in the Roman-Benedictine
arrangement. The desire was merely to enter God’s
presence in a prayerful mood and to linger there. But
this approach was taken quite seriously, as we gather
from Cassian in particular. In Egypt, of the twelve
psalms of the Horae, eleven were so arranged that one
of the monks sang a psalm while the others listened
50 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

sitting; at the conclusion of each psalm all rose and

prayed in silence with arms outstretched and then
knelt for a moment. The presiding monk then pro-
nounced the Oratio each time. The twelfth psalm was
an “Alleluia” one whose verses were answered with
“Alleluia,” in a responsorial manner, in that mode of
delivery which was to be more strongly emphasized in
the monastic rules of the West during the sixth cen-
tury. The silent standing for prayer most likely had the
purpose of allowing the psalm to linger in the mind;
being prayer and an encounter with God one had to
stand, as ancient custom prescribed. Then followed
the genuflection, an expression obviously of adoring
homage. It is significant that this bending of the knee
as an element of prayer is attested to in various lo-
calities even before Cassian’s day. As a prelude to the
Oratio and in answer to the Summons Flectamus
genua it constitutes one of the most ancient traditions
of the Roman liturgy. St. Basil speaks of psalmody and
genuflection in the same breath, regarding both as cor-
related requirements even for private prayer. The Ps-
Anthanasius demands a genuflection after each psalm.
The founder of the Akoimetes expects his monks to
accompany the Gloria call of the angels with a genu-
flection seven times seventy each day.
But it is in later days especially that psalm and
genuflection are combined. Isidore of Seville is aware
of the connection. St. Columbanus (d.615) in his Re-
gula Coenobialis prescribes that after each psalm all
are to put themselves on their knees and remain in that
posture while they recite three times the Deus in ad-
jutorium meum intende, Domine ad adjuvandum me
festina (Incline to my aid, God, Lord, make haste to
help me). The same rule recurs in the Constitutions for
 In the Monasteries o f the Middle Ages 51
Irish religious bodies. These frequent genuflections
were one of the peculiarities which struck people when
Irish missionaries appeared on the continent. A Life of
St. Patrick from the eighth century mentions his cus-
tom of rising each night to recite one hundred psalms
which were accompanied by two hundred genuflec-
tions. As a fact, not merely Irish legends but the Rules
for Irish religious associations also attest to a similar
ratio, two genuflections to one psalm. However, the
arrangement whereby each psalm was followed by a
single geunflection prevailed. This bending of the knee
was subsequently given a new significance when it be-
came an important element in Irish penitential prac-
tice: In certain cases the recitation of some thirty
psalms with as many genuflections was imposed as a
penance. Even obligations to fast could be fulfilled by
saying an appropriate number of psalms, each accom-
panied by a genuflection.

Psalter Collects

A feeling for hierarchical order is apparent from

the fact that the pause for silent prayer after each
psalm is terminated by the Oratio of the presiding
monk. He is said to gather up the prayer, precem col-
ligit, a fairly widespread regulation which was also ob-
served in organizing prayer in the monasteries. Toward
the end of Christian antiquity we also find formal com-
pilations of Psalter-Collects, closing prayers for each
individual psalm in which its leading thought, fre-
quently interpreted in a Christian sense, is taken up
and developed prayerfully. An effort is here discern-
ible to penetrate the content of the prayer-text and
52 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

lend it at the same time a Christian overtone. This

applied even when the Psalter was worked through in
sequence, one psalm following on another. A similar
effort is even more clearly apparent in the case of
Psalm-Headings of which six series for each of the one
hundred and fifty psalms are still extant. They were
drawn up between the sixth and eighth centuries and
further transmitted in special lists reaching to the High
Middle Ages. A Christian significance by way of
typological fulfillment was given each psalm: The
psalm is either the voice of Christ or the voice of the
Church praising God’s grandeur or invoking his help.
Another method of imparting a Christian character to
the psalms was the custom of adding a New Testament
doxology, the Gloria Patri, to each of them, in which
all present were supposed to join. Though practiced in
the West in Cassian’s time he found no trace of it in the
East (Inst. 11,8).
The Office arrangement, as reported by Cassian
for the East, in what regards the treatment of the indi-
vidual psalm surprisingly is found again in the much-
discussed Regula Magistri. Whatever verdict is
reached in the big controversy touching the relation of
dependence between it and the Benedictine Rule, the
Regula Magistri represents, in the matter under re-
view, an earlier tradition which was abandoned by
Benedict. Apart from some exceptions each psalm
ends with the Gloria Patri, but then there follows a
silent prayer with genuflection and the rogus Dei
(rogus, rogatio, oratio) by which was meant a litany-
patterned Oratio. Also in the prayer-arrangement with
which we are familiar in the Gallic centers of the early
sixth century the psalmody (whether the single psalm
is meant remains uncertain) is followed by silent
prayer with genuflection and then the Oratio.
 In the Monasteries of the Middle Ages 53
Benedict’s Office

Benedict’s arrangement, or rather that of a Roman

basilica-monastery which he follows, retains the
Gloria Patri for the individual psalms. These latter then
appear to follow one another without a closure; only at
the end of the Horae instead of the genuflection and
pause for prayer we have a short Kyrie-Litany and the
Oratio in which the Pater Noster usually figures. The
tension created between a working-through the Psalter
currente psalterio, dispensing with any selection of
psalms, and prayer of a genuine type must have been
felt by Benedict: At any rate he selects his psalms for
Matins and Compline. But the selection he adopts has
reference no longer to scenes from the passion. While
adhering in the morning Office to the usual psalms that
acted as its framework, account is taken of the dawn-
ing light and at evening of night repose which recurs
when darkness supervenes. In this he is evidently bor-
rowing from a tenet fundamental to the cathedral order
of prayer. For the rest he is content to reduce the
volume of prayer by distributing over a period of one
week the remaining “antiphonal” psalms of the Psalter
and by shortening the Responsorial Psalms (which in
the Magister represented full-length psalms) giving
them the Responsorium form which they have retained
to the present and arranging for their insertion into the
lessons. In both these measures Benedict may likewise
have had previous models before him. In allocating
prayers to the individual Horae regard had always to
be had to the day’s sacral character; this was now
brought into greater relief by a hymn adapted to the
Hora in question (c.17). In the nineteenth chapter of
his Rule entitled De Disciplina Psallendi Bernard re-
calls that it is in God’s presence and in conspectu
54 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

angelorum (in the angels’ sight) that a proper recital of

the Office takes place (Ps. 137,1); consequently in the
oft-quoted phrase it should be said in such a manner
that mens concordet voci (mind and word harmonize).
Finally, a decisive guarantee of success in praying the
psalms lies in what ancient Benedictine tradition pre-
scribes, and what Cassian had already stressed (Coll.
IX,26), namely in a clear and dignified recital which of
itself is calculated to enkindle the “fervor” of genuine
prayer.

Prayer and Work

However much the psalmody lent a distinctive

character to corporate worship in coenobitic
monasteries and indeed formed, it would appear, the
actual content of the monks’ converse with God, it
would be a mistake to regard them as identical. Bene-
dict made definite allowance for personal individual
prayer (c.20,52). The lofty ideal of ceaseless prayer
which the Desert Fathers realized after their own fash-
ion was also held in high esteem in the monasteries of
the West; only it assumes another form. The almost
impossible task, psychologically speaking, of combin-
ing with serious work an attitude of unbroken prayer,
or of accompanying it with prayerful words, was not
demanded. In the Benedictine ideal of Ora et Labora
(Pray and Work) work means a serious rationalized
achievement, capable of guaranteeing a good eco-
nomic status for a fairly large community. There is a
clear distinction between it and prayer. But the Ora
reaches far beyond the choir hours of prayer; it oc-
cupies all the time that is not claimed for work. This is
 In the Monasteries o f the Middle Ages 55
clearly indicated by Rule 48 : In order that idleness may
have no place in the house “the brothers should be
occupied at definite times with manual labor and at
definite times with meditated reading (lectio divina).”
In addition to the Office in choir the same emphasis is
laid on lectio divina as on work. In the Carta Caritatis,
a later version of the Benedictine rule drawn up by the
Cistercians, the Order’s programme is summarized in
three points: opus Dei (or Office), lectio divina, and
labor manuum. In addition to a general statement re-
garding this meditated form of reading the Benedictine
rule assigns a generous measure of time to it : In sum-
mer, following on three hours of manual work, two
hours of reading each morning before the midday
meal.

Jerome and the Lectio Divina

The great theoretician and champion at once of

the lectio divina was St. Jerome. His whole life’s work
was under its spell. Scripture reading meant for him
and for his pupils of both sexes a study of the Bible
beginning with the languages involved and an enquiry
into the literal meaning of the sacred word. It meant
also a prayerful penetration into its more profound al-
legorical content. This latter was the goal in view.
Jerome speaks enthusiastically of the heavenly
nourishment it offers. A favorite conception of his was
the Table of the Word standing side by side with the
Table of the Sacrament, a conception given currency
in the Second Vatican Council. Fully in keeping with
this view Scripture reading as another form of prayer is
mentioned in the same context as the latter. Actually
56 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

this was no novel idea. Cyprian shortly after his con-

version writes to his friend Donatus in these terms:
“Prayer or reading should be your constant concern;
you speak with God and God then speaks with you.”
Scripture reading in their cells was a well-known prac-
tice with the Desert Fathers. Significant was the re-
solve of that monk who, possessing no Holy Scripture
of his own, served for quite a time as farm-hand in
order to purchase a codex from his earnings. It seems
to have been a rule that each monk, should possess a
codex containing at least some portions of the Bible.
But this would have to be supplemented by other parts
which he would have to learn by heart. In St.
Pachomius’ monasteries, when an unlearned person
appeared at the gate and asked for admittance, one of
the first things to be demanded of him was that he learn
twenty psalms, two letters of the apostle or a similarly
equivalent part of the Scriptures. He had then to learn
how to read. In the Regula Magistri a suggestion is
frequently made to “meditate or impress on the mem-
ory” something from the Scriptures—this preferably
after the Nocturns, and in winter during the interval
between the day hours. For this purpose groups of ten
should sit together and listen to the reader. In summer
this should be done in the evenings after Vespers.
A scarcity of books as well as their cost was evi-
dently a compelling reason why considerable portions
of the readings were soon relegated to the Office pro-
gramme. Cassian, as we have seen, was aware of this.
In Egyptian monasteries the reading took place after
the evening and night Offices; elsewhere community
reading followed on Vespers. In the Benedictine rule,
as also in that of the Magister, it was prescribed that
lengthy readings should be allotted to the night Hours,
 In the Monasteries o f the Middle Ages 57
whereas each of the other Hours should also have its
own reading. This, however, should be gone through
ex corde (from the heart) drawing on the abundant
material which the monks had memorized and had
made their own—all this, however, without prejudice
to the time already mentioned for personal lectio di-
vina .
In view of these antecedents of the monastic Of-
fice readings it is understandable that when necessary
these could be curtailed at will. Regard for the hour of
the day demanded that Matins should begin as soon as
daybreak set in. At that moment the reading could be
interrupted once the singing of the prescribed psalms
was concluded. For a similar reason in monasteries of
the Middle Ages, in which long since an extensive pro-
gramme had been added to Scripture reading in the
shape of legends of the saints, martyrologies and col-
lections of homilies, a good portion of these readings
was as a rule transferred to the community refectory.
In general terms it must be stated that if for
learned circles, especially in later times, the lectio di-
vina meant chiefly a scientific preoccupation with
Scripture, its purpose for the average monastery
dweller and many far beyond its borders was to serve
simply as spiritual reading, that meditative sort which
reflected on and savored Scripture and which in later
times was called meditation and interior prayer. As
shown by St. Caesarius especially, this turning to ac-
count of God’s word for the benefit of the monks was
not confined to them alone: in his sermons to the
people he encourages them not only to listen to it in the
church but to read it themselves in their homes or get it
read, and when necessary, to pay someone to read it
for them.
4
Piety in the Carolingian Age

In tracing the period of transition to the Carolin-

gian epoch we are confronted first with the world of
Irish-Scottish Christianity. In the religious develop-
ment of the West in the early Middle Ages Ireland
played a decisive role. Here too it is with monastic
piety only that traditional sources make us acquainted.
But the representatives of this monasticism, unlike
those of oriental and much less continental
monasticism, far from living a life of isolation from the
people imprinted a stamp of their own on the spiritual
outlook of an entire nation. The career of Ireland’s
national apostle St. Patrick (d.461) may have been a
pointer to the origins of this special type of spirituality.
After spending part of his early life as a slave in a still
pagan Ireland he received his decisive formation on
the continent, where he also became acquainted with
the monastic life.
Considerable source-material is available in help-
ing us reach a closer knowledge of prayer as practiced
in the Island of Saints. In addition, a good deal of
research based on a mass of Irish sources has been
undertaken. From these we learn that in Irish monastic
life too the Office played a central part. St. Colum-
bans’ arrangement of it, as shown above, pointed defi-
nitely to an Egyptian tradition which would have come

58
 Piety in the Carolingian Age 59
to Ireland by way of Lerins and Arles. It had provided
for quite a considerable amount of prayer. But in Ire-
land we have the phenomenon of an extra burden in
the shape of private prayer to be undertaken by the
individual monk, a burden which far outweighed what
he was already expected to perform. Once more it is
the Psalter which is given pride of place. Lives of
saintly men tell of monks who in addition to the Office
recited the entire Psalter every day; and according to
certain texts this was actually a matter of rule in some
places. The Psalter was divided into three fifties. Each
of thes^, according to the Rule of Tallaght (9th cen-
tury) was subdivided into four sections; at the end of
each section a genuflection followed with a Deus in
adjutorium (To my aid, O God); on the conclusion of
the series of fifties three Cantica were added.

Lorica Prayer

In addition to the psalms an abundant supply of

hymns and of rhymed prayers in particular were avail-
able. These offered the advantage of expressing more
clearly the Christian content of the prayers. Metrical
structures and in later days the rhyme (both of which
were employed even for the closing Oratio) were evi-
dently meant as aids to memory. A favorite type of
prayer was the so called Borica or Breastplate, a for-
mulary in Latin or Celtic and arranged in a litany pat-
tern. A large number of Irish prayers were structured in
that manner. They invoked the protection of the heav-
enly powers, beginning with the three Divine Persons
and descending from the angels to the saints of one’s
own nation. Long lists of threatened points of attack
60 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

were drawn up, bodily organs chiefly, for which help

and protection against demonic powers were solicited.
Not infrequently the word Lorica was employed to
express this protection, for instance a prayer of this
type reads: “Gabriel, esto mihi lorica; Michael, esto
mihi balteus; Raphael, esto mihi scutum (Be my
breastplate ; be my belt; be my shield). Christ himself is
designated as Lorica. There is practically no Lorica
mentioned that does not include long series of saints’
names; occasionally a whole calendar of them is
mounted. Prayers to individual angels and saints oc-
cupy a large space in the Book of Cerne. Events in
salvation history are also invoked for protection : Thus
in the Celtic Breastplate of Patrick; “I bind to myself
today the power of Christ and his baptism, the power
of his cross and burial, the power of his resurrection
and ascension into heaven, the power of his coming on
judgment day.” A good deal of emphasis is laid on
bodily gestures in prayer. We have already mentioned
the genuflections of the Irish. The tracing of the sign of
the cross on the forehead was also constantly associ-
ated with prayer. A favorite practice of Irish peniten-
tial piety was the Crossfigell (crucis vigilia) namely
persevering in prayer with arms outstretched for as
long as possible. Psalm 118 could be recited with one
hundred accompanying genuflections or in crossfigell.

Irish Piety

These few indications give us an idea of the new

type of prayer that was emerging, a type not found
elsewhere (if at all) with such distinctness. Apart from
the Office, vocal prayer was also emphasized though
 Piety in the Carolingian Age 61
not to such a degree as to exclude the claims of devo-
tion. But this vocal prayer aimed not so much at de-
tachment from the world in order to seek repose in
God alone: It was viewed rather as an achievement,
the performance of a task to which one was obliged or
which one had undertaken voluntarily. And this task
could reach a scale in Irish monasteries which approx-
imated to a laus perennis, but a laus perennis under-
taken by the individual monk and not by the collective
community. When the mystery of redemption was
treated and a commanding role assigned to the cross,
redemption and cross were considered as protecting
powers rather than subjects for meditation. The gospel
message was announced but in a manner that did not
really satisfy the heart. Striking, too, is the shift of
emphasis to the Divinity in Christ and to the Blessed
Trinity, a resurgence of theological formularies dating
from the time of the christological struggles. Of spiri-
tual readings there is hardly a mention. One seeks pro-
tection from dangers threatening body and soul from
all sides. The Christian drive toward prayer is power-
fully stimulated by a fear of demons, an inheritance
probably from a paganism which was never fully over-
come. Added to this was a consciousness of sin which
was never completely aware of the victorious redemp-
tion achieved through Christ. This phenomenon runs
through practically all prayer and finds in the various
apologias (formulas of self-accusation) an almost un-
nerving expression.
Thus Irish spirituality appears as a blend of “an-
cient church tradition with Spanish-Gallic Anti-
Arianism and a Celtic religiosity which was still
strongly stamped by paganism,” (W. Godel) a deduc-
tion which merits further investigation. Nevertheless,
62 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

the spirit of Irish faith succeeded in the seventh and

eighth centuries in injecting fresh vigor into the lan-
guishing Christianity of the continent and carrying the
light of the gospel to new lands. This is in large mea-
sure attributable to the fact that the Christian sub-
stratum, no matter how much overlaid, was securely in
possession and continued to be an active force, though
this was rarely talked about. The Sunday Mass re-
mained the obvious keystone of the edifice of prayer
and penance; its proper performance was taken very
seriously. The presbyter who stumbled at the sacred
words had to perform a penance, even to accept physi-
cal punishment. That section of the Mass containing
the words of consecration was not without reason
called thepericulosa oratio (the dangerous prayer). On
the chief feasts at any rate all were present, monks and
clerics, including not a few priests, for the communal
celebration. Among the communicants the layfolk
would have been in a minority. The mystery of re-
demption was strongly affirmed and worthily treated, at
least as an objective fact. It was given eloquent ex-
pression in a number of prayers. In the Antiphony of
Banger indeed the Sunday still retained its Easter
character, and the Irish Highcross dating from the
eighth century with its arms entwined with the garland
of victory shows that the center of gravity of Christian
thought is as strongly affirmed as it was centuries pre-
viously when, as report goes, St. Patrick on his jour-
neys through the land used to dismount from his
chariot whenever he passed a cross.

Meeting of Two Traditions

With the eighth century the kingdom of the

 Piety in the Carolingian Age 63
Carolingians became the chief theatre of intellectual as
well as spiritual life. Here (and to an extent also among
their Anglosaxon precursors) two streams of tradition
meet and mingle to become the matrix of the civiliza-
tion of the Middle Ages. By the first of these was
transmitted the intellectual output from the age of the
great Church Fathers of the West as contained espe-
cially in the writings of Augustine and Jerome, but also
Caesarius and Gregory the Great. It had come partly
from the lands of the South by a direct route to Fran-
kish territory and under Charlemagne had been sub-
stantially reinforced by the Italian scholars whom he
had invited to his kingdom. The Lombardian Paul the
Deacon, who had been entrusted with the task of de-
termining the homilies of the Fathers which were to be
used in the Office from then on, may be cited as a
typical representative. The adoption of the Roman
liturgy, final and decisive all along the line, lent sup-
port to this trend. From another quarter by way of the
Anglosaxons came a similar influence. They had re-
ceived the faith from Rome and developed it mightily,
as seen in the career of Bede, doctor of the Church;
and in their missions on the continent had spread it and
given it new life.
The second stream, much less visible but all the
more significant, is traceable to the world of thought of
the Irish-Scottish monks and had already been ab-
sorbed by the Anglosaxon mission. Though fully con-
scious of his office as envoy of the Roman Church, and
though he highly prized the Roman connection in
which he had grown up, Winifrid (Boniface) in his in-
tellectual and religious attitudes bore the stamp of Irish
monastic thought rather than that of the Roman-
Patristic type. This is not surprising: He had spent his
life on the furthermost fringe of an Anglosaxon settle-
64 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

ment which could boast of a Celtic stock whose Chris-

tianity reaching further back and with a religious out-
look of its own was able to assert itself here precisely
and powerfully.
It was much the same with Alcuin. His
hometown, York, lay in that part of Northumbria
where Celtic missionaries (from Hy-Jona) had worked
successfully in the latter years of the seventh century
and had founded new Christian settlements. Essential
elements of the religious life were domiciled in this
Irish-Scottish world and from there found entry to the
mainland and to the general life of the Western Church.
This can be gathered inter alia from the history of the
inclusion of the Credo in the Mass. It turns up first in
the West as a conclusion to the service of the Word, in
the Irish Stowe Missal, in the version with which we
are familiar today. Then it is attested to in England by
Alcuin who speaks of it as already an obvious part of
the liturgy with which he was evidently familiar from
his early days. He succeeded in inducing Charlemagne
to adopt it in his imperial chapel at Aachen; from there
it found its way to Rome and to the world at large.
It is known that it was the Irish monks who first
broke through the ruling that the sacrament of penance
was to be received only once in life; a fact demonstra-
ble on the continent in the eighth century in the prac-
tice of going to confession once each year. In later
centuries this contributed to a changed attitude as re-
gards a sense of sin, one less fretful.

Religious Life of the Period

If we try to form a picture of religious practice in

this period we find that its outer contours as sketched
 Piety in the Carolingian Age 65
in church institutions represent simply a continuance
of what had gone on previously. On Sundays (to which
a growing number of holydays of obligation were
added) the faithful assembled in church. On solemn
feast days the lords of the manor were also in atten-
dance, though most of them had their own chaplain for
the Sundays’ Divine service was conducted in accor-
dance with the Roman liturgical books with few mostly
unconscious adaptations to local conditions. At epis-
copal sees and in other localities of some size there
were clerical groups whose “canons” observed a fixed
programme of life and of prayer in the traditional man-
ner. A chief feature of the time were the well-
organized monasteries which dotted the land. The
Benedictine Rule with its balanced arrangement of the
Opus Dei set the standard for them, first gradually and
after the Reform Council of Aachen of 817, defini-
tively.
Patterns of community service were thus
stabilized by a tradition which had stood the test over
the years. When, however, we investigate the prayer
life of this period where religious sentiment finds a new
expression of its own, another spirit is revealed. A
double approach is open to us if we wish to get ac-
quainted with the special religious features of the
epoch and the way it prayed; first through the self-
testimony of its leading personalities, as revealed in
their literary work, and second by taking note of the
surprising wealth of prayers that were committed to
writing.

St. Boniface

Boniface’s correspondence reveals a man for

66 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

whom the world is a valley of tears. He ill supports his

personal defects and those of his fellows. For all that,
however, his entire activity has prayer as its basis; a
request for prayer recurs in almost every letter he
writes: prayer for himself and for his work. He lays
great store on the Confraternities of Prayer recently
set in motion, through which help for the dead and
success for his own activities will be assured. In this
however, a consciousness of the fellowship of the
faithful in Christ and in his Church fails to emerge. In
general it can be said of Boniface that “his attitude is
not determined by a joyous consciousness of our di-
vine Sonship.” “Grace for him is rather God’s goodwill
and favor which must be prayed for.” Unlike St. Paul
who sets forth life in Christ in positive, indicative
terms, Boniface employs the moral imperative in his
enforcement of ethical behavior. With him ritual cere-
mony plays no part; he is only remotely interested in
theological considerations; “the stress falls on virtu-
ous and meritorious action.” And yet Boniface man-
aged to lay the groundwork of a mighty enterprise in
the service of the Church, one that was based on
Church tradition and opened the way to that develop-
ment which it was destined to attain in future years.
It is surprising how closely parallel is the picture
we have of the spiritual outlook of Alcuin (d.804) who
was fifty years Boniface’s junior. Though he is in-
terested in theological questions there is the same at-
titude to tradition which for him is “rather a faith ac-
quired by learning and handed on to him” than per-
sonal possession. In his summary of Christian doctrine
the emphasis lies less on salvation history than on the
teaching with regard to the Blessed Trinity which gives
the title to his work De Fide Sanctae et Individuae
 Piety in the Carolingian Age 67
Trinitatis. In his letters Christ is mentioned countless
times, but the regular formula employed is Christ Who
is our Lord and God ; His divine dignity and his office
as judge are placed in the foreground. The Pauline
term In Christ becomes the element that unites him to
mankind, but this is “no longer that human nature in
which he resembles us, as brother of ours, but that
divine clemency and gentleness which he turns toward
us, to be almost cancelled by his justice.” The predom-
inant element in Alcuin’s prayer life is the prayer of
petition, petition for forgiveness of sin. When his
friend Benedict of Aniane asked him one day what
intention he prayed for when praying for himself he
received the reply, “This is what I pray Christ for:
That I may recognize my sins and do adequate pen-
ance for them.”
In matters liturgical Alcuin was well versed. He
played a decisive part in finally introducing the Roman
Liturgy into France; and last but not least it is owing to
his influence that serious efforts were undertaken dur-
ing the Carolingian renaissance to get the people to
take an active part once more in the liturgy. But equal-
ly clear is Alcuin’s endeavor to introduce his own reli-
gious ideas into the supplementary additions he made
to the liturgy. This is shown particularly in the prayer
texts he composed for Votive Masses on weekdays.
The idea of a Votive Mass where the special intentions
(Vota) of the faithful were the occasion of the celebra-
tion was in principle quite justifiable; but its one-sided
practice was bound rather to distract the attention
from the essential meaning of the Eucharist. This ten-
dency is observable in the epoch with which we are
dealing; for example, when Isidore of Seville renders
eucharistia by bona gratia, or when (contemporary
68 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

with this) missa in the sense of blessing supplants the

more ancient names for the Mass. In Alcuin’s weekday
Masses Friday still remains the day dedicated to the
cross, but the theme for Sunday is no longer the resur-
rection but the Blessed Trinity. Saturday appears for
the first time as Mary’s day; the angels too have a
formulary dedicated to them. A second series of for-
mularies for each day of the week is completely at-
tuned to penance; the prayers in them are petitions for
divine aid in temptation and in the struggle with sin.
One is surprised at the sense of distinct remote-
ness from God, which permeates the thought and the
prayers of these great men who rendered God’s
Church such signal service in their lifetime and played
their part in the creation of a new epoch in its history.
All this is in distinct contrast to what we have learned
as the inheritance of previous epochs and was repro-
duced in the Roman Liturgy thanks to the conscien-
tious way in which it was cherished and safeguarded,
though evidently no longer put into practice. The lead-
ing feature of the liturgy is unequivocally that of Eas-
ter; its chief prayer is one of joyous gratitude for God’s
mercy and goodness. In every instance prayer is a con-
fident approach to the Almighty as we look upward to
Christ the mediator who lives and reigns in the glory of
the Father. But here, on the other hand, an attitude
prevails as though Christ, despite the number of times
his name is invoked, had not yet come among us!
But the very way Christ is named and addressed
betrays the point of rupture. St. Boniface’s correspon-
dence contains three prayers evidently meant to be
inserted into the Mass as apologias. The first begins
“Lord Jesus Christ, be propitious to me a sinner. For
you alone are immortal and sinless. Lord, our God,
 Piety in the Carolingian Age 69
you are blessed. . . . (Domine Jesu Christe, propitius
esto mihi peccatori, quia tu es immortalis et sine pec-
cato solus, Domine Deus noster, tu es benedictus. . .)” .
This closes mechanically with per Dominum. In the
third of these prayers the opening Domine is repeated in
the body of the prayer in the form: “Domine Jesu
Christe, Filius Dei vivi Qui me creasti . . . (Lord Jesus
Christ Son of the Living God who created me . . .)” . We
have here the same confusion between the predicates of
God and of the Godman which constantly recurs in Al-
cuin’s writings and goes to show that terms like Christus
Deus noster had become a permanent formula.

Reaction to Arianism:

We are here confronted with the consequences of

that over-emphasizing of the Godhead of Christ which
was evoked by the struggle against Arianism and had
begun to put its stamp upon the religious life of the
West in the fifth and sixth centuries, beginning with
Spain. The Arian Westgoths had set up as a formula of
belief the words Gloria Patri per Filium in Spiritu
Sancto (Glory to the Father through the Son in the
Holy Spirit) thereby confessing the subordination of
the Son to the Father and adhering to the tenets of
Arianism. To meet this challenge the Catholic Church
in Spain in its liturgical prayer was forced to stress in
every possible way the equality in essence of the Son
with the Father. Hence in the ancient Spanish liturgy,
which was being developed precisely at this period,
prayer was directed to the Son equally with the Father;
even in the same prayer the form of address changes.
The three Divine Persons are also addressed as such,
70 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

or simply as the Blessed Trinity. Where allusion is

made to the Godman who in the glory of the Father is
head of the Church and our mediator, the per Christum
remains, but it has become an empty formula, the
meaning of which is scarcely attended to any longer. It
is as though the distance between God and man had
become a sundering chasm which could no longer be
bridged by a mediator but only by reference to God’s
mercy (per ineffabilem bonitatem Tuam etc.). This is
the type of piety which emerged as a result of the
struggle with heresy in the Westgothic kindgom and
continued to be regarded as the Catholic position in the
flourishing church there even subsequent to the or-
thodox confession of the year 589.
A very brisk intercourse must have been main-
tained between Spain and Ireland to explain how these
religious ideas were transmitted to the latter country.
We have little evidence on the point but not a few
indications. It is precisely this theological trend which
confronts us there ; only thus can we explain the puzzle
that in Irish piety a pronounced Anti-arian christology
and Anti-arian doctrine of the Trinity are in evi-
dence, although Ireland had no truck at any time with
Arians. When faith was no longer actively conscious of
the redemption, and of the mediation effected by
Christ, when the vast distance separating man from
God oppressed his spirit with little now to mitigate the
burden, the consciousness of his misery and sinfulness
must have been overwhelming. It is no accident, ap-
parently, that at the Synod of Tours (813) a new bodily
posture at worship was expressly demanded for the
first time, that of kneeling, “so that in this way we may
crave God’s mercy and the forgiveness of sins.” A
further consequence of all this was that people looked
 Piety in the Carolingian Age 71
around for new sources of help, and that secondary
mediators were now brought to the fore more asser-
tively: Mary, the angels, the saints and relics.

Praying the Psalms

We observe this in the Carolingian prayer litera-

ture which had assumed surprising proportions. In Al-
cuin’s closing years and in the following centuries a
large number of Libelli precum, prayer books, had
seen the light. We note particularly two collections of
prayers and instructions on prayer which have come
down to us among Alcuin’s writings. One of these is
made up of the Officia per Ferias composed in France
in the first half of the ninth century; the other is
entitled De Psalmorum Usu put together about the
year 850 in Italy for monastic circles. Alcuin himself is
the author of a shorter instruction on Praying the
Psalms and of a writing addressed to Charlemagne,
agreeing to fulfill his request to show how a homo
laic us (a layman) living an active life should pray to the
Lord during the usual prayer hours. In addition he is
very probably responsible for a Confessio peccatorum
which had a wide circulation and had also been com-
posed for Charlemagne. It constitutes an almost fright-
ening expression of consciousness of sin. Unsparingly,
in the Irish mode, the user enumerates literally every
organ of the body, from head to foot, confessing his
guilt for all imaginable sins committed in thought,
word and deed through the five senses, or for offenses
against the eight deadly sins. It belongs to that literary
genre of the apologias we have met in Irish
monasticism and which in the meantime had become
72 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

the prevailing type of formalized prayer. Alcuin’s for-

mula recurs once again as confessio pura in various
localities; and not only that, but of new versions of it
there is no lack. It was evidently assumed that such
confessions of guilt, even for offenses that were never
committed, served as a means of blotting out sin!
As against this, Alcuin’s reply to Charlemagne’s
request brings us back to the world of attested tradi-
tion in the matter of prayer. Given that the demands he
makes extend over the entire day they are certainly not
modest; but usually there is question of brief prayer
only. Linking up with the “seven times daily” recom-
mendation, Alcuin demands such prayer at the first,
second, third, sixth and ninth hours, at Vespers and at
the twelfth hour; in addition a short prayer on rising
which reads: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, in your
name I raise up my hands.” Each time an Our Father
should be added. In the first two prayer times and in
the last two the content of the prayer is determined by
the beginning and the close of the day’s work. The
three intermediate hours, corresponding to Terce,
Sext and None are governed by early Christian tradi-
tion: They commemorate the three stages in the pas-
sion. At Terce the prayer runs: “Lord Jesus Christ,
you were led at the third hour to the torment of the
cross for the world’s salvation, we humbly beseech
you to grant us pardon for the evil we have committed
and that we be preserved ever more from future evil.”
Alcuin mentions three other times for night prayer, but
as he offers no texts for them, he apparently considers
that this latter demand should not be taken seriously.
The relation of these hours of prayer to Christ’s
passion was not overlooked in later times too. This has
long been attested to by the miniatures found in sub-
 Piety in the Carolingian Age 73
sequent Books of Hours. Isolated prayer books too
and instructions on prayer make mention of the con-
nection, even in less remote times. But apparently the
practice never attained genuine popularity despite the
fact that in the spiritual literature of the following cen-
turies all Horae are fairly often brought into relation
with the events of Christ’s life and passion. Important
evidence from the ninth century goes to show that the
layfolk also were not only expected to say their
prayers morning and night (these included the custom-
ary Our Father and the Creed) but in addition to pray
at the third, sixth and ninth hours. Bishop Jonas of
Orleans around the year 830 reminded his people of
this prescription and instructed King Pippin in the
same sense.

Prayer-Life of the Period

Surveying how things stood in the matter of

prayer during the Carolingian era, as far as we can
determine it from literary sources, we can certainly
say it included in general all the important components
of Christian prayer: adoration, thanksgiving, interces-
sion and petition for help in the struggle to observe the
moral code. But the predominant note sounded here in
heavy tones is almost invariably that of lament for sin
committed. Liturgical texts, too, based on Roman and
Gallican traditions are not wanting. Actually the per
Christum phrase turns up occasionally even in new
formulations. Two things strike us particularly, the
strong emergence of the Trinitarian mystery and the
predominant role assigned to the Psalter. Profession of
faith in the Blessed Trinity is given striking emphasis.
74 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

It is as though the world were still full of Arians, or at

least as if people were still living in the days of the
Toletan Synods. A significant phenomenon is prayer
addressed to the Trinity hitherto foreign to the Roman
liturgy. It suffices to draw attention to two prayers in
the liturgy of our Mass (as observed till recently), de-
rived from the Sacramentary of Amiens (ninth cen-
tury): Suscipe, sancta Trinitas; Placeat tibi, sancta
Trinitas (Receive, Holy Trinity; May it please you,
Holy Trinity). Often at the beginning of a fairly long
prayer we have a complicated, anxiously worded
Trinitarian confession. Evidently the fides Trinitatis
had to be expressed in accurate terms if the prayer
were to be acceptable. This anxiety is voiced in a for-
mula, otherwise christological in content, which is at-
tached to the confession of sin: Following on the cru-
cial sentences the following words occur: “This is the
faith by which I express my belief in you. If I am
believing properly, all is well; but in case something is
lacking I pray you not to regard the words I have spo-
ken but what I wished to say.” Such are the opening
words of a prayer for help in combatting temptation.
The prayer is underpinned by a sort of litany invoking
saints of the Old and New Testaments, followed by the
appeal: “Dominator, Domine Deus, qui es Trinitas,
unus Pater in Filio et Filius in Pater cum Spiritu
Sancto” (Sovereign, Lord God, you are three-in-one,
Father in the Son and Son in the Father along with the
Holy Spirit). In other cases the Divine Persons are
individually invoked: “Rogo te, Pater; deprecor te,
Fili; obsecro te, Spiritus Sancte” (I ask you, Father, I
beg you, Son; I implore you, Holy Spirit).
This could occur even in three successive prayers
that had no connection with each other and were ad-
 Piety in the Carolingian Age 75
dressed in turn: (Oratio) ad Patrem, ad Personam Filii,
ad Personam Spiritus Sancti. This might appear con-
sistent were it not followed by: “Oratio ad Sanctam
Trinitatem, Oratio ad Dominum Jesum Christum” and
then by “obsecratio ad sanctam Dei Genetricem, ad
sane to s apostolo s, ad venerabilem Benedictum, ad
plures confessores.” As a consequence it became usual
in this area after the opening address to Christ in the
ancient litany (as also in the later litanies derived from
it) to add the three Divine Persons. A further conse-
quence drawn in the tenth century affected church
Art; it no longer depicted Christ according to his
human nature under a human appearance exclusively,
but in association with the Father and finally with the
Holy Spirit also—a manner of représentât
on which was only partially superseded in the twelfth
century through the notion of the Throne of Mercy.
(Gnadenstuhl)

Trinitarian Current

If here the world of faith threatened to be broken

up into “Persons” who have each in turn to be wor-
shiped, the opposite trend, namely the homage to be
paid the unity of the Divine Persons (their unity of
essence or at least their equality of essence) was
stressed by changing the mode of address in the course
of the same prayer. This peculiarity we noted above
with reference to the Spanish liturgy. A prayer starts,
for example: “Sancte Pater” and then becomes “Cle-
mens Trinitas” (Merciful Trinity); or it begins address-
ing Christ and straightaway he is described as
“Creator,” Domine Jesu Christe, qui me dignatus fuisti
76 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

creare ad imaginem tuam” (Creator Lord Jesus Christ

who deigned to create me in your image). In this way
very questionable combinations arose like “Auxiliatrix
es tu mihi, sancta Trinitas; tu es sacerdos in aeter-
num.” “Holy Trinity, you are my helper, you are a
priest for ever.” How strong this Trinitarian current
became is seen in the fact that it succeeded in making
several changes in the Roman liturgy which had been
adopted in the land of the Franks. We have already
drawn attention to the two prayers to the Blessed Trin-
ity found in our daily Mass Ordo. At the turn of the
eighth century the symbol Quicumque, with its pro-
nounced probing into the mystery of the Trinity, be-
came an integral part of the Sunday Prime and then,
for a long period, of the daily Prime.
The preface of the Trinity appears for the first
time in the ninth century in the St. Gall manuscript of
the later Gelasianum. It gradually asserted itself as a
Sunday preface in Rome but only in 1759—a delayed
action! As is known, not only the feast of the Blessed
Trinity but its traditional Office was also composed in
the lands of the North. In keeping with the Gallico-
Spanish custom of providing liturgical Oratios even
where Christ is addressed, the per Dominum of the
closing formula is changed to Qui vivis et régnas cum
Deo Pat re in not a few Roman Oratios which offer an
opening for such (redemptio tua, adventus tuus, apos-
tolus tuus etc.). Thus the mediatorial office of the
glorified Godman meets with little comprehension.
As appears from the foregoing, a serious loss of
definite orientation touching a matter of importance
must be registered. Nevertheless, in the last resort
tradition remains the determining factor in Christian
prayer. Through the contours of the risen Christ living
 Piety in the Carolingian Age 77
on in his glorified state as Godman are almost ab-
sorbed and dissolved by the supreme majesty of his
Godhead; yet the cross shines out still in its old-world
splendor as it did in Alcuin’s world of piety. It remains
forever the sign of victory, the throne of the King, the
jewel of the world. This central place is claimed for it
not alone in Carolingian art; in the Celtic Highcross of
Ireland especially it retains a far wider validity; it is
vindicated too in many a grayer and greeting ad-
dressed to the holy cross, and not the least in the reli-
gious outlook associated with the Psalms in that
period, to which we must now turn our attention.

Division of the Psalms

In the older form of monasticism, particularly the

Irish, the Psalms were appraised chiefly from their
character as sacred word: They were prayed through
in their sequence currente psalterio and in as great a
number as possible without much attention being paid
to the content of the individual sacred song. However,
in the two sizeable Introductions to Praying the Psalms
in the Carolingian epoch an earnest effort is made to
bring their content to the fore, incidentally making a
meaningful selection of them possible (as far as free
choice allowed outside the prescribed Office). One of
these introductions De Psalmorum Usu begins with a
foreword for which Alcuin himself is responsible. With
evident enthusiasm he extols the virtue of the psalms
to which: “It is impossible to do justice provided they
are recited not with the lips only but with interior relish
to the praise of Almighty God.” Alcuin distinguishes
nine possible chief heads or themes into which they
78 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

can be divided: They open up a wide prospect of Chris-

tian piety to our gaze though a fairly somber note
peculiar to Alcuin’s mentality is not lacking. It will be
rewarding to indicate some essential features of his
choice.

1. Penance: this purpose is served by the Seven

Penitential Psalms, known as such from the
days of Cassiodorus.
2. Spiritual joy: Psalms 16,24,53,66,69,70,85.
3. Praise and thanksgiving for God’s benefits in
the Old and New Testament: either the Alleluia
Psalms or Psalms 71-73,109-119 etc.
4. In temptation and desolation: Psalms 21,63,67.
5. In times of boredom with life or of longing for
Heaven: Psalms 41,62,83.
6. In distress: Psalms 12,43,50,54,70.
7. In good days: Psalms 33,102,103,144, Can-
ticum Benedicite
8. On God’s law: Psalm 118.
9. On God’s working for our salvation, beginning
with the Prophets up to the Lord’s passion,
resurrection and ascension: with no reference,
meaning the entire Psalter.

The collection of the psalms at the head of

which Alcuin’s instructions are transmitted to us is
less in keeping with them than the somewhat older
collection of the Officia per ferias. The selected
psalms are here distributed among the days of the
week, beginning with Sunday. The number of
psalms apportioned to each day varies from three to
seventeen: the Penitential Psalms are allocated to
Mondays. Some further themes of Alcuin recur
 Piety in the Carolingian Age 79
with the like allocation: Praise and thanksgiving for
God’s benefits along with the Alleluia Psalms on
Sundays, those said in times of distress on Wednes-
days, on good days, on Thursdays, in times of bore-
dom with life and longing for heaven on Saturdays.
There is a second series of psalms for Saturday:
The choice here is evidently determined by the as-
sociation of that day with Mary, just as in Alcuin’s
weekday Masses psalm 44 is allotted to honoring
her, psalm 18 is assigned to the apostles, psalm 32
to the martyrs, psalm 123 to the confessors. For
Fridays an attempt is made to bring the psalms into
line with Alcuin’s final theme, namely salvation his-
tory. A psalm each is devoted to Christ’s passion
(ps 34), to his resurrection (ps 3) and his ascension
(ps 8). Then the entire Psalter is added in the shape
of Beda’s Collectio Psalterii.
In another respect also the Officia per Ferias
gives evidence of a developed form of psalmody.
Each psalm is followed by a few versicles and an
Oratio of Roman or Gallican character, in the con-
tent of which in most cases a Christian echo can be
detected. So there too in the first half of the ninth
century the ancient psalter collects survive.
The De Psalmorum Usu departs a little further
from Alcuin’s instructions: the themes offered in
sixteen sections cover his only in part. In addition
there are intercessions for the living and the dead.
In each section, after the designation of the psalm,
follow the Lord’s Prayer and a fairly long prayer or
several prayers of the type described above, for
which an island model also exists. The whole is fur-
nished with a prayer supplement.
The Carolingian zest for meaningful psalmody
80 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

is also given expression in two adaptations of the

psalms which Alcuin forwarded to his friend, Arch-
bishop Arno of Salzburg, in 802. In an accompany-
ing letter he mentions a Psalterium Parvum desig-
nated as Bede’s psaltery which “praises God in
sweet verses” ; also a Hymnus vêtus de quindecim
psalmis graduum. In the first of these works, for
which older models had already been in existence,
one or other significant verse is selected from each
of the one hundred and fifty psalms to make an
abridged psalter. The second work is also pre-
served; it consists of fifteen quatrains based on the
fifteen Gradual Psalms but of little artistic merit.
5
The World of
Amane and Cluny

The centuries following on the Carolingian epoch

were characterized by an effort to maintain the in-
tellectual gains already acquired and to develop and
extend them further. The undoubted leaders in this
movement were the monasteries. The constitution and
life style proper to them were adopted in many points by
the clergy, particularly after the Council of Reform of
the year 817. Where feasible, clerics were expected to
lead a life in community as canons. This meant a shared
prayer, consisting of the full seven Horae of the Office.
The pioneer in this development, Chorodegang of Metz
(d. 766), seems to have taken the Roman basilica-
monastery as his model.
The prime mover in the work of reorganizing
monastic life at the Council was Benedict of Aniane
(d.821)—in Lower Languedoc, France-the friend of
emperor Ludwig the Pious. At the latter’s instance the
Rule of St. Benedict became the sole monastic rule
throughout the Carolingian empire. However, it
seemed impractical to the reformer to limit the prayer
arrangement strictly to what the ancient Regula pre-
scribed, with the result that some additions were intro-
duced in the practice of prayer in his model monastery

81
82 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

of Karneli-minster near Aachen, to which other

monasteries had to conform.
Before Matins began, the monks of his monastery
came to the chapel and visited the several altars, fol-
lowing a custom of earlier times : at each altar a Pater
Noster and Creed (the morning prayer of baptized
Christians) were said; then they took their places in the
choir and recited in silence five psalms for the living,
with a closing Oratio, then five for the dead, and finally
five for the recently deceased. These were evidently
the fifteen Gradual Psalms. Visits to the altars were
repeated before Prime and after Compline. After
Compline each monk had to recite ten psalms in winter
and five in summer. The custom of making these visits
in the morning and before retiring at night which were
usually associated with a trina oratio, a triple prayer
varying in wording for the different intentions was
maintained in many cases as a voluntary practice in
the monasteries during the subsequent centuries; its
derivatives survive to the present. So do the thrice-five
Gradual Psalms, each with its closing prayer. They
form an addition to the Office and, as a rule are recited
in common. During Lent they are a matter of obliga-
tion for choir prayer even where the clergy are con-
cerned.

Additions to the Office

How did it come about that these not inconsidera-

ble additions were made to St. Benedict’s Office, addi-
tions which were to be further increased? Evidently a
new element had asserted itself, that of intercessory
prayer for the monastery’s benefactors living and
dead. Intercession had always been associated with
 The World o f Amane and Cluny 83
prayer, intercession for the multiple intentions of
Christendom and for its various groups and classes. In
the form of prayer dialogue within and without the
Mass intercessions preceded a concluding Oratio said
by the priest. A novelty was that the intercessory
prayers said here were meant for a definite circle of
people and that a special block of the psalms was as-
signed for the purpose. The explanation is to be found
in the history of most Merovingian and Carolingian
monasteries. As a rule they were no longer the result
of a community coming together to live as monks and
had erected the monastic buildings with their own
hands; they were rather the product of charitable
endowments of wealthy landowners, including even
kings like the Burgundian Sigismund whom we have
already met, founder of Agaunum-St. Morice (in Val-
ais, Switzerland). The return on the part of the
monastery took the form of a vastly augmented and
unbroken recitation of the psalms by groups of monks
who relieved each other in turn at a work redounding,
it is true, to God’s honor but at the same time having in
mind the spiritual welfare of founders and benefactors.
A problem arose when the ceaseless recitation of the
Psalter day and night (or day only, as at St. Riquier)
could so easily sink to the level of a purely external
performance. This was likely enough when the 150
psalms currente psalterio were repeated from begin-
ning to end, over and over again. Benedict of Aniane
saw the need of finding a solution in the additions re-
ferred to, additions which before long were further
enlarged. Psalmi spéciales (a flexible term) were
enjoined. A daily Office for the Dead, consisting of
Vespers, a Nocturn and Matins was introduced, possi-
bly by the reformer himself or at any rate not much
after his time. In the tenth century it was celebrated in
84 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

all monasteries. In addition Psalmi familiäres came

into being, each made up of one, two or more psalms
which were linked to the different Horae as inter-
cessory prayers for the friends of the monastery. Dur-
ing the long winter nights in many monasteries the
traditional fifteen morning Gradual Psalms were ex-
tended to twice their length by the addition of psalms
134-150. As a further addition in the morning or after
Prime the seven Penitential Psalms with litany were
recited. At Cluny during the Lenten season twoPsalmi
prostrati were added after each Hora, and all this in
addition to the lengthy series of versicles which were
linked up with the psalms. Finally, individual devo-
tional themes were selected and a special psalmody
was devoted to them. In the South-German monastery
to which we owe the Einsiedeln manuscript the Matins
of All Saints (Matutina de omnibus sanctis ) was added
to the Office for the Dead. And then in the mid-tenth
century a Hora in honor of the mother of God was
introduced which in the following century became the
Little Office de Beata Virgine.

Cluny, Center of Monastic Piety

In the eleventh century Cluny—in the Rhone

Valley—was a convergent center for all those forms of
devotion which, incidentally, filled out the monastic
order of time. The biographer of abbot Odo (d.942)
eulogizes the zeal for prayer which flourished in those
days when more than 138 psalms were recited daily.
Indeed, if all the statements on the point are to be
taken literally, each monk was obliged to get through
215 psalms daily (this figure is for a somewhat later
date). In any event this constituted a single day’s per-
 The World o f Aniane and Cluny 85
formance which Benedict would have scarcely as-
signed to his monks during an entire week. Thus the
laus perennis which Benedict of Aniane had intended
to repeal had returned under another form. The found-
er’s intention to have something of lasting value per-
formed for their souls’ welfare, and the agelong monas-
tic ideal of living completely for God, met once more in
a conception, it is true, of the efficacy of prayer, but
one which St. Augustine would not have counte-
nanced. And yet under the hard crust of such choir
routine, genuine prayer must have been carried on in
Cluny, and God must have been sought and found in
earnest, in a monastery too where not only corporal
work was eschewed but almost every other extra activ-
ity of a mental nature as well. Otherwise, it is impossi-
ble to account for the spiritual renewal which ema-
nated from that monastery, a renewal which
encompassed the Church at large and is part of her
history.
On the other hand, during the period we are con-
sidering, the feeling must have been reinforced that the
quantitive effort which the recital or the chanting of
the sacred words of the biblical Psalter entailed did not
yet represent the ideal of correct prayer. Hence mea-
sures of various kinds were taken to meet the diffi-
culty. The supplementary Offices, the product of a
selection of psalms which would be meaningful were
designed to override the mere working through long
series of psalms currente psalterio. The sequences of
versicles which in many cases had been introduced
into the Office and preceded an Oratio consisted of
specially chosen verses. Similarly a Little Psaltery
such as the Psalterium Bedae referred to above aimed
at selecting those verses which would appeal more to
the user. The headings made out for the psalms with a
86 Ch r i s t ia n Pr ay er Th ro ug h t h e Ce n t u r i e s
New Testament title, as well as the addition of a psalm
collect after each psalm or a series of psalms was, as
we have seen, a long-traditional practice. That the of-
ficia per ferias of the ninth century are not the final
attestation for this is shown by the Commentary on the
Psalms of bishop Bruno of Wurzburg (d.1045) who re-
produces in essentials Cassiodorus’ Commentary on
the Psalms. However, in doing so he shortens Cas-
siodorus’.somewhat and on occasion supplements it by
citing other Fathers and introducing a traditional New
Testament title for each psalm, with an Oratio added.

Hymnody

A new element, evidently meant to serve the same

purpose of making prayer more interior and more
compatible with Christian overtones, came increas-
ingly to the fore in the ninth century. This was a new
upsurge of hymnody and its utilization for the Office.
An early precedent for it had emerged in the East
where it was more widely diffused than in the West. In
the responsorial psalmody of the Syrians the refrain
verse was further developed to form a stanza, and the
repetition of the refrain was replaced by extra stanzas.
Thus arose the Syrian enjane. The same phenomenon
occurred in the Greek Church in the biblical Cantica
(Odes) which from early times formed part of
the concluding section of Matins. From them the
Greek Canones arose, compositions of a high poetic
and religious quality. Finally, this new element be-
came such a favorite with both Syrians and Greeks that
in the Office current in the Byzantine are only the first
verse of the original psalm or canticle was left, and
eventually even this was in many cases no longer sung.
 The World o f Aniane and Cluny 87
With the result that in the East the weight of the poetical
material actually stifled the psalmody in the day-hours
of the Office.
Developments in the West were not carried that
far, though the hymn found an early place in St. Bene-
dict’s Office. It appears now in the general Office
either at the head of the Horae or (in Matins and Ves-
pers) replaces a former responsory, in this approximat-
ing somewhat to the oriental trend. What significance
hymnody had atained in the following centuries of the
Middle Ages as enrichment and interpretation of feast
days in Office and Mass (Sequences) and in the mount-
ing cult of Mary can be gauged from the medieval col-
lection of Latin hymns which in a German repertory
runs into fifty-five volumes.

Lay Participation

To what extent was the general body of the faith-

ful affected by this intense prayer life in the
monasteries which, reaching beyond the collegiate
chapter, was largely shared by the secular clergy? The
language barrier from the very beginning constituted a
difficulty in the evangelization of the Germanic tribes.
It now began to affect the Romance domain as well. It
was bound, so one would have thought, to exclude the
people from a sharing in the ancient cathedral-Horae
especially in the elaborate, clericalized form they had
assumed. That is not absolutely the case. The faithful
came to church on Sundays and attended the Latin
Mass where the deeper import of the rite of which they
were conscious, the ceremonial full of animation and
the allegorical interpretation of the whole rite in the
light of Christ’s life and passion, compensated to a
88 Ch r i s t ia n Pray er Th r o u g h t he Ce n t u r i e s
certain extent for a faulty understanding of the words,
an understanding to which they scarcely aspired. But
they came also to Matins and Vespers. The change of
the word Matutinum to the German Mettine which is
traceable to the twelfth century is indicative of a
broader interest on the people’s part. As witness to a
custom still prevailing in that century we can cite a
passage in the Nibelungenlied where it is reported that
Kriemhilde, one morning in front of her door, found
Siegfried’s dead body as she was on her way to Met-
tine, a ceremony “which Lady Kriemhilt very seldom
missed” (der diu vrouwe Kriemhilt vii selten deheine
verlac)— 17 Aventiure, Strophe 1004.

Alcuin and Charles the Bald

The traditional ideal of prayer survived in theory,

if not always in practice, and here we must distinguish
between those who enjoyed a certain higher level of
Christian formation and the mass of the simple people.
In respect to the former we are fortunate in possessing
in the prayer book of Charles the Bald (d.877), two
generations precisely after Charlemagne, a new draft
of that prayer arrangement which Alcuin drew up for
his master. Beginning with an introduction, it contains
Alcuin’s full day’s programme for the seven Horae and
their accompanying prayer texts; only the Our Father
which is linked with each is not mentioned. On the
other hand, the author of the new work takes cogni-
zance also of the prayers to be said three times during
the night which are mentioned in the introduction. For
this purpose he assigns to Compline three psalms, an
Our Father and Creed and two additional short
 The World o f Aniane and Cluny 89
prayers. Included (definitely for voluntary use only) is
a complete plan for praying the psalms in which we
meet again Alcuin’s instruction on choosing those that
suit the soul’s varied conditions and moods of which
we have spoken. Then we have a comprehensive
Litany and a number of scattered prayers of the type
usual in those days including Alcuin’s more extended
Confiteor. Concern for the liturgy also is voiced in
quite a significant manner. The princely worshiper is
supplied with prayers quando offertis ad Missam
(when you offer the oblata at Mass), with the response
also to the Orate Fratres and a short Confìteor before
handing over the personal oblata and before receiving
Holy Communion, and in addition two Communion
prayers; all in all Alcuin’s school at its best, with a
stress laid on extended psalmodie elements. At this
period the Psalter was generally a stable component of
a fully-furnished Liber precum (prayer book) for the
educated layman.

Psalmody and Lay Piety

How far did the simple faithful share now in this

prayer cult? Were some individual psalms made avail-
able, perhaps to them, selections from the Psalter
which occupied such a prominent place in the prayer
life of monks and clerics? To judge from old German
translations of the psalms which have survived, the
answer must be in the negative. They bear no relation
as regards bulk to the Old High German Beichten (var-
iations of the Confiteor), and besides they do not con-
cern those psalms which, from our experience of ear-
lier centuries, might presumably have had a certain
90 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

popularity. Rather we are back once more to the do-

main of monastery-school and clerical training-
ground. At most we find in the old Alemann psalms,
dated 820, elements of a practice of prayer that is at
once most fully alive and most deeply rooted in an-
tiquity. They consist in the main of a selection from the
Gradual Psalms. Sections from psalms 107,108,113 and
114 are followed, after a lacuna in transmission, by
psalms 123,124,128,129 and 130. About the year 1000
Notker, the German made a complete translation, with
commentary, of the Psalter. We have in addition some
fairly short fragments dating not too far back. More
often early English fragments of the Psalter are to be
met with; but the full translation of the Psalter dates to
the ninth century. At most, verses from individual
psalms may have been in current use. In a list of Re-
demptions which appears as a supplement to the work
of Regino von Pruem (d.915) entitled De Synodalibus
Causis a number of psalms, genuflections and Our
Fathers is fixed as substitute for a fast day. If, how-
ever, the person does not know the psalms he pros-
trates himself one hundred times, saying in the mean-
time the Miserere mei Deus and Dimitte, Domine,
peccata mea (Have mercy on me, God; forgive me my
sins, Lord). But even this latter requirement is not
maintained: in the Penance Book of Burchard of
Worms (d. 1025) one hundred Our Fathers are substi-
tuted for those ejaculations. In much the same way the
Consuetudines of the Farfa abbey—25 miles north of
Rome — (eleventh century) prescribe the recital of fifty
psalms for a monk’s deceased relatives; but if he is not
familiar with the psalms he can substitute a Miserere
mei, Deus, and if that is beyond him, let him say Pater
Nosters.
 The World of Aniane and Cluny 91
Early German Texts

Nourishment for the people’s prayer life was

mainly supplied by the basic Christian formulae, the
Pater Noster and Creed, German versions of which are
among the most ancient documents of Old High Ger-
man. In many cases the confession of faith is, to a
surprising degree, closely associated with a confession
of sin (confiteor). The name given by German scholars
to these Old High German texts is Glaube und Beicht
(Faith and Confession). This is partly traceable to the
practice in vogue since the eighth century of going
once a year to confession; the priest let the penitent
say first the Our Father and the Confession of Faith;
then the usual formula for the confession of sin could
follow—a practice which was maintained in sub-
sequent centuries. We also have Carolingian prayer
texts in which a confession of faith precedes a confes-
sion of sin.
Further texts in Old High German, in the so-called
Weissenburger Katechismus contain the Athanasian
Creed (which in subsequent centuries recurs surpris-
ingly often) as well as the Gloria in excelsis. Apart
from the basic texts mentioned, the prayer life of the
people would have been confined to a more or less
reverential sharing in the divine service. An active
sharing which was the aim in the Carolingian renais-
sance cannot have been retained for long. Responses
even to the priest’s prayers, and the acclamations,
must soon have been silenced. Still the faithful were
accustomed to answer the Kyrie eleison in the litanies;
and this gave birth to the Leise and therewith the be-
ginnings of the German hymn; the earliest example
being the Petrus Hymn.
92 Ch r i s t ia n Prayer Th r o u g h t he Ce n t u r i e s
Libelli Precum

A feature of the religious thought of the ninth cen-

tury to the eleventh century were the Libelli Precum,
collections of prayers and instructions on the art of
prayer which we met when treating of the Carolingian
epoch. As evidence of their continued vogue it suffices
to point to the prayer book published as a Manual for
St. John Gualbert (d.1073), founder of Vallombrosa
Abbey (near Florence). André Wilmart made use of
this publication as starting point for a wide-ranging
research. He was able to show that the traditional at-
tribution of the book to the distinguished abbot could
well mean that he used and treasured it but that in the
layout of its contents and in several individual texts it
corresponded accurately with ninth-century condi-
tions: Numerous passages in it cover the same ground
as the collection De Psalmorum Usu which appeared
in upper Italy about the year 850 and it is even more
closely related to a similar collection of prayers written
between 860 and 880, which originated in Nonatola
near Modena.
Another offshoot from the same parent stock and
dating from the same time is the Libellus Precum from
the monastery of Fleury on the Loire. In the texts
which form a special feature in it we find the same
accusation of sin, the same meticulous confession of
the Blessed Trinity, the same predilection for specific
prayers addressed to the Divine Persons. These occa-
sionally assume the larger form of a litany (in the
Fleury Libellus more than two hundred saints are in-
voked) and are interspersed with prayers which also
find a place in the liturgy.
 The World of Aniane and Cluny 93
John of Fecamp

We have to mention here a name which represents

a certain final term in the literature of the Libelli Pre-
cum and which at the same time extends its influence
far beyond it: John of Fécamp, born about the year 990
who died in 1078 as abbot of Fécamp near Rouen. His
intellectual output, attributed to Augustine and Alcuin
among others, has been restored to him in our century.
His best-known production is the prayer Summe Sac-
erdos named until recently “Oratio S. Ambrosii,” divi-
ded among the seven days of the week and reproduced
at the beginning of the Missale Romanum; it forms part
of the Praeparatio ad Missam. It is still couched in the
language of the Apologias (formulas of self-accusation)
but the accusation which runs through it is mitigated
by a genuine Christian confidence. His other writings
in prayer form resemble so much the Carolingian type
of prayer that Wilmart wished at first to attribute to
him the authorship of De Psalmorum Usu.
But what is there expressed only in inchoate
terms regarding God’s infinite majesty and the adoring
wonderment which it evokes in the worshiper is in
John’s Confessio Fidei developed and amplified in re-
curring variants by a brilliant mind, by one too who
was a man of intense prayer. In amazing contrasts the
essential transcendence of God, the surpassing gran-
deur of the Divine Nature Three-in-One is glorified in a
language which unconsciously recalls to intervening
centuries the Confessions and Soliloquies of an Augus-
tine. A somewhat fretful anxiety in expressing prop-
erly the Trinitarian confession, and the repetitious ad-
dress to the Trinity in constantly evolving language,
94 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

run through these prayers too; but there is no trace of a

confounding of the notions of God and Christ, or any
vagueness in the invocations of the prayers. The Con-
fessio Fidei is a survey of the Christian world of faith
expressed in the language of prayer. In the first section
God One and Three is treated; in the second the mys-
teries of the Verbum Incarnatum; in the third the other
articles of the Creed. Finally a fourth has to do with
the mystery of the Blessed Eucharist which in 1044
was threatened by Berengar’s dissentient attitude. The
Meditationes reveal a similar pattern. A section is de-
voted to a dialogue with Christ; the saints too who
have attained the goal of their earthly pilgrimage are
invoked once. Then the prayer reverts to an admiring
contemplation of the Divine Majesty.
It is no matter for surprise that the prayers of the
abbot of Fécamp were assured of a popularity with
future generations. Not that the theological balance
and particularly the central position of the mystery of
Christ, as evidenced in the documents on prayer which
we have cited from this period, were not to be found
elsewhere. In circles where the New Testament was
read with a perceptive mind and the world of the
Fathers explored, a more lucid perspective was bound
to emerge. André Wilmart cites a Symbolum—prayer
composed by a monk from the monastery of Metz
about the year 1100 which combines religious warmth
with a clarity of expression which does full justice to
Christian thinking. Wilmart regards it as evidence of
Christian tradition at its best and extols its fine qual-
ities in enthusiastic terms. As a fact it is little more
than the felicitous development of a more ancient text.
For in the Collection De Psalmorum Usu, between the
texts of the confession of guilt and the accusation we
 The World o f Aniane and Cluny 95
come across a confessio which surprises the reader
straightaway by its theological and religious clarity. It
begins with the invocation Domine Deus and professes
belief in the Unity and Trinity of God and the sending
of the Son in the Person of Christ. It then turns to
Christ and confesses to the events of his childhood and
his passion which are briefly described up to his ascen-
sion and his coming again. It concludes with the fol-
lowing profession: “I believe you have said: I will not
the death of the sinner (Ez 33:11) and “In heaven there
will be more joy over one sinner . . .” (Lk 15:7). The
confessio is taken from the Commentary on the Bene-
dictine Rule by Paul the Deacon (d. 799) who was
rightly esteemed as an expert in the writings of the
Fathers. There may have been many men of prayer of
this type, since there were many who used the lectio
divina to steep themselves in the literature of the great
Church Fathers and from them drew nourishment and
enrichment for their spiritual lives. And yet they failed
to influence the religious atmosphere of the age.
6
From the Eleventh
Century Onward

It is a long established fact that in the cultural

history of the Middle Ages, around the turn of the
eleventh and twelfth centuries, something new
emerged, and this despite the permanence of external
conditions of living. The same is true in the realm of
the spiritual life as well. It is most marked where its
central theme, the mystery of Christ, is concerned.
Heretofore, the work of redemption was in the fore-
front, the cross as a victory over sin, the risen Lord
inaugurating a new creation. Now, however, a sense of
the concrete suddenly reveals itself; interest is focused
on the person of him who achieved the redemption, on
the external facts of his appearance in this world and
his career as reported in the gospels. The thoughts of
the worshiper still continue to revolve about the cen-
tral themes which are emphasized in the Apostles
Creed and are celebrated during the two chief feasts of
the year, Christmas and Easter, namely the entry of
God’s Son into the world, his passion and resurrection.
But now it is predominantly the empirical components
of the mystery which engage men’s loving contempla-
tion: The birth from Mary the virgin and the passion in
its several phases, which is no longer interpreted as the

96
 From the Eleventh Century Onward 97
beata passio (the blessed passion) but the bitter pas-
sion before all else; Christ is the Christus secundum
carnem; the spiritual perspective is no longer that of
Easter but is focused on Christmas and Good Friday.

Reaction to Arianism

This goes to show that it is a misleading simplifica-

tion on the part of French authors, beginning with Père
Rousselot (d. 1915) to insist on characterizing the pro-
cess somewhat as follows: At long last the humanity of
Christ had entered the purview of Christian piety,
whereas hitherto attention had been almost exclu-
sively centered on his divinity. The reverse is rather
the case. This alone is true, that the favorite theme for
contemplation was now the Lord’s human nature dur-
ing the period before his resurrection. His continued
life after Easter, his glorious transfigured life as man,
which was the object of the contemplation of the early
Christians, was indeed still conceptually known but it
was no longer a living factor in the consciousness of
the faithful. And yet it was that glorified life which was
to the fore with St. Paul and in all patristic thinking.
This change of perspective was already long at work;
in previous chapters we have seen its preliminary
stages. It began as a reaction to the Arian denial of
Christ’s true divinity; and in the contemplation of a
still-living Lord it led to the avoidance of any element
by which he could appear to be less than the Father,
namely his human nature and therewith his office as
mediator. It led also to a widespread elimination of the
per Christum on the one hand, and on the other to a
ceaseless stressing of the equality in essence and the
98 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

oneness in essence of the three Divine Persons. In this

shift of perspective we can detect the first phase of the
piety peculiar to the Middle Ages.
We enter on a second phase around the eleventh
century. Here, from the same basic assumptions, con-
clusions of a different kind were drawn. In the Chris-
tian world of faith the figure of the glorified Godman is
obscured and dimmed to a greater and greater degree.
A double effect followed on this: One was that all the
greater effort was made to look around for secondary
mediators, the other was a total concentration on what
indisputably remained of Christ’s human nature, the
earthly life which he had assumed. It cannot be denied
that a certain primitive instinct of the sense-bound,
medieval German mind, and especially its desire to
have a visual perception of holiness, favored such a
development. Yet in one point the mounting devotion
to the passion is proof of a definite permanence of
tradition, namely in the veneration of the Holy Cross
which, uniting in itself elements, old and new, reached
its climax in the eleventh century. In earlier times, as
we have seen, chants of praise and salutation to the
cross were not an occasional feature of Christian piety.
Now, however, a regular literature on the theme
comes into being. The adoratio crucis on Good Friday
had taken shape already in the Romano-Germanic
Pontificale of Mainz (950) to form an imposing rite
which survives today, but only in its outlines. From the
beginning it took for granted that the people had their
share in the ceremony. For each of the three genuflec-
tions by which the cross is approached on Good Fri-
day, a fairly long prayer was provided. In the eleventh
century, appended to the Farfa Psalter, the supply of
 From the Eleventh Century Onward 99
prayers for this and other occasions when adoring the
cross (orationes ad crucem salutandam in Parasceve
aliisque temporibus dicendae) go to make up an Office
of good measure. About the same period in the Nonan-
tula monastery the supply is further augmented and
interwoven with stanzas from psalm 118: These con-
sist in hymns of greeting to the vexillum sanctae
crucis, prayers of unequal length in which Christ is
addressed for the most part; also orationes and an-
tiphons from the liturgy some traditional, others re-
cently composed, treating in various tones the same
theme, thanksgiving for the redemption and humble
petition for pardon for sinful humanity. Despite the
warmth of feeling with which they are instinct we still
note a feature which also inspires the parallel Church
art of the Ottonian epoch: not the high cross with its
symbolism is portrayed but the Crucified One, the
Crucifixus in.regal attitude, the Sovereign who over-
throws sin and death, the Victor Rex, as he is named in
the Easter Sequence of Wipo (d. after 1048).
In the prayers of homage to the Holy Cross emo-
tional participation already plays quite a large part; but
a further step in the same direction is taken from the
tenth century onward, the dramatization of the key
moment in the story of the passion. In some localities,
as a conclusion to the exacting liturgy traditional to
Good Friday, a crucifix or even the sacramental Body
of the Lord is laid in the tomb to the accompaniment of
prayers and chants. A parallel custom is the dramatic
announcement on Easter morning that CHRIST IS
RISEN—a ceremony which marks the beginning of
the Easter plays.
100 Ch r i s t ia n Pr a y er Th ro ug h th e Ce n t u r i e s
Devotion to the Passion

This eagerness for a visual approach to the pas-

sion finds a fresh outlet for prayerful participation in
compassionate grief for the suffering redeemer. This
type of prayer and meditation is given early expression
in St. Anselm’s writings when he was abbot of Bee
(1063-1093). Anselm was not only an acute theologian
but definitely a man of prayer. His body of writing
includes a group of Orationes sive Meditationes —
comprehensive prayers meant to be read and reflected
upon, which pass over to meditation and from there
back to prayer. As a fact, it is in this stylized prayer
that the saint actually composed some of his theologi-
cal works. He was anxious that his prayers or medita-
tions, whose purpose was to foster a love and a fear of
God and incite to self-examination, should be read not
cursim et velociter (cursorily and hurriedly) but in a
collected mood and so far only as was calculated to
kindle in the reader an affectus orandi (a disposition
for prayer). This affectus or devout attitude is all that
he is interested in whether he is depicting the perils of
a sinful life or is expressing his amazement at the self-
immolation of the redeemer or extolling the dignity of
the Virgin-Mother or the moral grandeur of sainthood.
With particular fervor he treats of the sufferings of
Christ as he addresses his own soul in these terms:
“How is it possible that the sword of grief did not
pierce you also? Were you not present there (on Cal-
vary) too and suffered the lance to pierce the re-
deemer’s heart. . . . How came it that you were not
drunk with bitter tears as he drank the bitter gall?”
Anselm had set the tone for this kind of literature
on prayer, which probably explains why such a mass
 From the Eleventh Century Onward 101
of it was transmitted to subsequent centuries under his
name. Henceforward, the passion of Christ is the fa-
vorite theme of Christian piety: leading to the large-
scale pilgrimages to the Holy Sepulchre and eventually
to the Crusades. Special forms of devotion were
created to honor the sufferings of Christ; the most an-
cient of these was probably devotion to his five
wounds. Peter Damian (d. 1072) was one of the first
writers to make mention of it: “The Body of the Lord
is pierced five times over that we may be healed from
the sins which enter through our five senses.”

Devotion to Mary Theotokos

The tendency to dwell on the details of the earthly

life of Jesus becomes more and more perceptible in the
new predilection for the Christmas mystery and the
veneration of the Mother of God. Mary had always
been specially honored in the Catholic Church, but her
name and fame were definitely associated with the re-
demptive event: she was the Theotokos; her image
stood invariably for a certain hieratic dignity and aus-
terity. Now, however, she herself became more and
more an independent theme for veneration, and the
winning features of the Virgin Mother came to the fore.
Though in earlier days one was also familiar with indi-
vidual invocations to the Mother of God, it is only now
that The Little Office of Mary appears primarily as a
supplement to the choral Office proper. Bishop Ulric
of Augsburg (d.973) and Peter Damian (d.1072) both
attest to the fact. Of the former it is reported in his Life
(c.3) that in addition to the daily Office in choir he
recited each day, where possible, a series of prayers,
102 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

one in honor of Mary, the Mother of God, a second in

honor of the Holy Cross, and a third in honor of all the
saints. Peter Damian mentions with approval an Office
of Mary consisting of seven Horae. The members of
the Premonstratentian Order, lately founded, were ob-
liged to recite daily the new Office of Mary. Other
associations followed suit. Peter Damian is also the
first to testify that the Ave Maria (the angelical saluta-
tion to Mary, combined with that of her cousin
Elizabeth; Lk 1:28,42) had become a favorite prayer
with the people. From then on similar testimonies mul-
tiply and around 1210, beginning with the Statuta
Synodalia of Paris, episcopal ordinances express the
wish that the faithful, in addition to the reciting of the
Our Father and the Creed, should also learn the Ave
Maria.

The Akathist Hymn

The eleventh century marks the period when ven-

eration of the Mother of God, rather latent hitherto,
erupted in a multiplicity of forms. The fact has long
since been noted; it is seen with particular force in the
development of Marian devotion associated with the
Akathist Hymn when it was introduced into the West.
It is a known fact that, following on the Council of
Ephesus, a flood of Marian devotions arose in the
Eastern Church. One of these found expression in the
Akathist Hymn, the most highly prized Marian Office
in Greek Christian literature. Ritual prescribed that
participants sing it in a standing posture; hence the
name the “non-seated” hymn (a-kathistos). It contains
twenty-four stanzas, whose initial letters are the sue-
 From the Eleventh Century Onward 103
cessive letters of the Greek alphabet. The first twelve
stanzas are narrative in character and deal with events
from the childhood of Jesus; the second twelve, lyrical
in form, acclaim Mary in accents of wonderment at her
attributes. After each of two stanzas follow twelve
verses (that is twelve times twelve), in which Our Lady
is greeted, each preceded by the salutation HAIL
(Chaire!): the theme constantly varying in content.
The hymn found its way to Venice for the first time
about the year 800. But it was not till the middle of the
eleventh century, in keeping with the changed atmos-
phere prevailing, that hymns and chants of greeting to
Mary appear in the West in growing numbers,
modelled on the chaire verses of the Akathist, due
allowance made for differences in treatment and selec-
tion. The most famous of these hymns of greeting is
the Salve Regina which is traced back to bishop
Adhemar of Monteil (d.1098). They led later to new
forms of Marian piety and poetry. Whereas previous
to the eleventh century only occasional prayers ad-
dressed to Mary were committed to writing and circu-
lated, from now on prayers of the kind appear in great
numbers. The favorite type is the salutation to Mary
repeated in long sequences in praise or petition and
mostly accompanied by an Ave Maria.

Litanies of Mary

An important, though obvious matter of note is

the impetus which the Akathist lent to the develop-
ment of the litanies of Mary. Dating from the twelfth
century three drafts are extant which begin with Kyrie
eleison and then record, one after another, Mary’s ti-
104 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

ties of honor. They differ, however, from the verse

structure of the Akathist chiefly in this: Instead of the
Chaire which precedes each greeting of Mary we have
an Ora pro nobis placed after it.
The Litany of Loreto whose origin has been re-
cently traced to the sixteenth century is one of these.
In the Paris manuscript, discovered by Meersseman of
the 12th century, seventy-three eulogies of Mary are
contained mostly in a two-line metric pattern; they
were later shortened in various ways and again
lengthened, but in essentials they are identical with the
structure finalized in the Breviary of Pius V.

The Rosary

But the most precious and most enduring fruit

produced by the Marian movement of the eleventh and
twelfth centuries is the Rosary, which has remained to
this day firmly linked with the Litany of Loreto. Along
with the latter it derives its vitality from the angelical
salutation as found in the Bible; a vitality further
enhanced by roots likewise biblical in character; the
Rosary is the Marian form of the Psalter.

Psalter for Layfolk

In our progress through the centuries of the Early

Middle Ages we have recognized how stubbornly the
Psalter was retained as the prayer book for the faithful.
We have realized too that intermediary forms were
necessary in order, on the one hand, to bring it more
into line with Christian prayer, and on the other to
 From the Eleventh Century Onward 105
keep it within reach of even the most modest wor-
shiper. To this end it was given responsorial forms; it
was supplied with headings that had Christian over-
tones; psalter-collects were introduced as accompani-
ments; abbreviated psalters were drawn up for lay
people who were not qualified to tackle the complete
Book of Psalms and were yet unwilling to forego the
“Psalter.” Finally, as in many cases such people were
unable to read and could not be expected to use even
the abbreviated psalter, rules were drawn up in the
shape of the discipline of Penance which served as a
substitute for the psalms. Instead of fifty psalms, a
third of the three-fifties into which the Irish monks had
divided the Psalter, a division which still survived, it
sufficed to recite for the requisite number of psalms
any psalm which one had mastered, with the addition
or insertion of five Pater Nosters; and if that were not
feasible one Pater Noster for each psalm was enough.
The substitution of one Pater Noster for every psalm
was provided for in the Consuetudines Udalrici
(around 1080) for non-priests. The usual suffrage for the
dead, which in the monasteries entailed the recitation
of fifty or one hundred and fifty psalms, could, as at-
tested to by numerous authorities, be fulfilled by those
unable to read by the recital of as many Pater Nosters.
As indicated, the repetition of Pater Nosters con-
stituted the first type of a Psalter substitute. If accu-
racy were to be guaranteed in computing, say fifty
psalms, a counting device was needed. Around the
year 1140 mention is made for the first time in the West
of a string for counting prayers (such a device was
already in vogue in the East). This was in the posses-
sion of a certain countess in the form of a circulus
gemmarum, a string of pearls. A simpler type of string
106 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

for counting must have been known earlier than the

date mentioned. The most ancient representation we
have is in stone and is of a counter with a division into
decades of knots found on the grave of a certain
knights-templar. That there was question here of reck-
oning the number of Our Fathers appears from the
name given the string in various languages over the
years, the Pater Noster, a term which partially sur-
vives today. In Paris the guild of patenôtriers plied a
lucrative business, and in London one of its older
streets is still called Paternoster Row. Similarly the
technical term, the Pater Noster, meaning a rotating
plant, is still in use. The Pater Noster psalter made up
of one hundred and fifty or fifty Our Fathers must have
been a familiar term everywhere for centuries. How-
ever, in the mid-twelfth century it was gradually
supplanted by a Marian psalter which assumed various
forms.

Marian Psalter

In the liturgical Office the psalms had a

framework of antiphons which on feast days of Our
Lady were given a Marian character. But about the
year 1130 all psalms in the Psalter were furnished with
accompanying texts of the same type : Each psalm had
its choral stanza which started with a greeting to Mary
(Ave, Gaude) and linking up with a word or a phrase
from the psalm paid her a tribute of praise in ever-new
variations. Fourteen such Marian psalters are known,
dating from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, an
eloquent testimony to the dynamism of this movement
of piety, which combined fidelity to the psalms with an
 From the Eleventh Century Onward 107
enthusiastic devotion to Mary, while releasing an as-
tonishing output of lyrical expertise. A second step
was taken in the course of the thirteenth century when
the angelical salutation (and that of Elizabeth) often
took the place of the psalm, while retaining the divi-
sion of the Psalter into the three fifties. A further step
was the composition of psalters of one hundred and
fifty stanzas in praise of Mary which were no longer
related to the psalms but began in each case with an
Ave or Salve. This stanza-psalter which could be re-
cited only with the help of a book was also out of the
question for a large circle of worshipers, with the re-
sult that the stanzas also were dispensed with and the
thrice-fifty Aves made up the psalter. A Rule of the
Béguins published in Flemish in the year 1242 made
the daily recital of three fifties obligatory under the
name of the Psalter of Our Lady.
It was felt by this time that things had gone a bit
too far in the way of simplification and possibly too
that devotion to Mary, though it should be retained as
a sound element in Christian piety, should not remain
isolated. A report from the year 1243 informs us that
not a few people were helped by the addition of a
Gloria Patri to each Ave as was usual at the end of a
psalm. Then likely enough the Paternoster-Psalter
came to mind and a conjunction with it was sought.
That the Our Father and the Ave Maria could be
ranged side by side followed from the episcopal and
synodal ordinances mentioned above. In the year 1226
the General Chapter of the Dominican Order, meeting
in Trier, prescribed that the laybrother members,
whenever they recited the customary Our Father
should add to it the Hail Mary. The division into de-
cades was probably taken over from the Paternoster-
108 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

Psalter. Thus by degrees the insertion of a Pater Nos-

ter after each decade of Aves came about.

Mysteries of the Rosary

Another embellishment, though late in gaining

admittance, was the insertion of “Mysteries” from
New Testament salvation history; these were recalled
after each single Ave Maria and the holy name of Jesus
was added; in this way the Marian Psalter was given a
christological character. First attempts in this direct-
ion consisted in fixing for each Ave of a “fifty” a spe-
cial clause, in most cases a short rhymed strophe; then
the events of the childhood of Jesus, his life and pas-
sion were gone through. The pioneer in these efforts
was the Carthusian Dominick of Prussia (d. 1461 ) who
about the year 1429 introduced his fifty Ave-clauses.
The decisive step toward simplification, the retaining
of the same clause for each decade, was taken by the
Dominican Alan of Rupe (d.1475); he was also familiar
with the division into the Joyful, the Sorrowful and the
Glorious Mysteries. Only in regard to the naming of
the two last mysteries in particular a certain hesitation
was evident: it was only in the year 1500 or thereabout
that the assumption and crowning in heaven of Our
Lady were assigned to them, whereas up till then
the general wish was for judgment and heaven to be
stressed. This was in keeping with the wider horizon
that opened up to view in those days and is being
sought again today. Thus by the predominance of the
purely Marian element in the Glorious Mysteries of the
Rosary a time-determined factor was impressed on a
popular prayer of a significance ranging beyond time;
 From the Eleventh Century Onward 109
much the same as in the Sorrowful Mysteries the phys-
ical sufferings of Christ were exclusively chosen for
treatment.
The addition “Pray for us sinners” to the Hail
Mary was made by the Carthusians about the year
1350; it took a long time to assert itself, receiving its
definitive form along with the complete text of the Hail
Mary in 1568 in the Breviary of Pius V.

St. Anselm

Among the spiritual men who contributed to the

advancement of devotion to Mary in the eleventh cen-
tury St. Anselm is to be numbered; its further evolu-
tion in the homage paid to the saints is also attributable
to him. Among his works nineteen prayers have been
transmitted to us, three addressed to Mary, ten to dif-
ferent saints, namely John the Baptist, Peter, Paul,
John the Evangelist (twice), Stephen, Nicholas, Bene-
dict, Mary Magdalen and the church patron. This long
list should not tempt us to fear that Anselm, the
pioneering theologian, had lost sight of the basic ele-
ments of Christian prayer: These prayers to the saints
are of a special brand and do not differ essentially from
his Meditations. We have the same inner tension be-
tween Christian sanctity and loftiness of soul on the
one hand, and on the other man’s futility and tendency
to sin, a tension which is set forth with a verve proper
to Baroque in ever-new terms and with plenty of
hyperbole to spare. A saint is often given credit for
results that God alone can bring about, like power to
touch the heart or loosen the bonds of sin. The saint
appears to be put on a level with the Almighty, when
110 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

his mercy and that of an apostle are sought (misericor-

dia Dei et Petri); Jesus and the beloved disciple are
addressed together without more ado as Lord and lord
(domine et domine); but then the petition for help is
paraphrased unequivocally as intercession on the part
of the saint. The prayer often meanders freely back
and forth between the saint and God or Christ.
It is certain that Anselm encouraged devotion to
the saints by the prayers he composed. Not that devo-
tion of the kind was a novelty in the Church. The litur-
gical books abound in memorial days in honor of the
martyrs. The tombs of the apostles and other great
saints were the goal of many a pilgrim. Their relics
preserved in costly shrines were the jealously-guarded
treasure in many churches. Though such veneration
was primarily an expression of wonder and awe before
the fullness of Christian holiness, it must assuredly
also have included the hope for protection and bless-
ing. But formal prayers that went further in the direc-
tion of the request one might make to a fellow-
Christian to “pray for me” were, as we have seen, only
attempted with reserve. They may have become more
frequent in this period; they appear especially in the
form of hymns and songs. A monograph dealing with
hymns to St. Peter goes to show the steady increase in
the number of these hymns (Sequences, Tropes), one
hundred and fifty-two of which are identified between
the tenth and sixteenth centuries. The prevailing inten-
tions for which help and intercession are sought have
to do more with earthly and bodily needs. In this con-
nection we may cite the Fourteen Helpers-in-Need to
whom a brisk cult was paid in Germany since the four-
teenth century. Looking back on the new era which
began with the eleventh century and provided so many
 From the Eleventh Century Onward 111
new spiritual insights and forms of devotion, we must
first make a negative assertion—negative in as much
as a twofold shadow cast on the religious world of
those days now disappears. Two characteristic fea-
tures of Christian piety which have forced their atten-
tion on us so emphatically in dealing with the history
of the previous five centuries now gradually lose their
influence. We allude to the disproportionate stress laid
•on the mystery of the Trinity and the exaggerated
sense of sin which was then rife. In this connection the
new theological thought which set in with early
Scholasticism and especially with the Victorines may
have played its part; and as regards a sin-complex the
possibility of approaching the sacrament of Penance
more frequently since the turn of the millennium acted
as a liberating force.

Sts. Bernard and Francis of Assisi

These trends recede fully now and give place to

the emergence of an astonishing balance and harmony
personified in two figures in whom the aspirations and
yearnings of the age found their fullest expression,
personalities who cast their glow on the following cen-
turies as well: Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1253) and
Francis of Assisi (d. 1226). A brief word of appraisal of
each is called for. Common to both and the central
feature in their spiritual outlook was the worship of the
sacred humanity of Christ during his earthly life.
Common to both also was the clarity with which the
new spirit of piety could be seen to be rooted in
Church tradition. In the case of each their contempla-
tion of the human element in Christ circled continually
112 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

about the two focal points familiar of old: the mystery

of the incarnation and the mystery of the redemption,
in their language the crib and the cross. This double
theme also dominated the Church year with its calen-
dar of feast days and as a result determined Christian
thinking in general. The Christian of earlier centuries
was indeed aware that salvation came only through the
Godman who died for us and rose again, and that union
with him was achieved through Baptism which has to
be ratified and perfected only through a virtuous moral
life. Now, however, this union is to be understood as a
conscious imitation of Jesus, and our moral life as a
personal, sympathetic response in fellowship of suffer-
ing, following along the road which the Savior first
trod for us. Contemplation of the earthly life of the
Lord was at once a contemplation and a proclamation
of the ethical ideals of Christianity.
St. Bernard’s first love, the favorite subject of his
contemplation, was the childhood of Jesus and the
Virgin Mary. He devoted thirty-one sermons to them.
His admiring gaze is fixed on Mary’s humility, purity
and lofty dignity; the namq Domina nostra (Our Lady)
which soon became her most popular name was his
invention. Then too his entire thought and prayer turn
about the name of Jesus, apart from which all else
remains insipid and without relish. The crannies in the
rock mentioned in the Canticle of Canticles (2:14) he
finds in the wounds of his Lord in which alone he
hopes for safety and repose (Sermon 61); the sufferings
and painful treatment meted out to him are the sachet
of myrrh (Cant, of Cant. 2:14) which he will carry on
his breast forevermore (Sermon 63). It is not so much
Christ’s physical sufferings that claim Bernard’s atten-
tion but rather the condescension and self-effacement
 From the Eleventh Century Onward 113
of the Godman. These fire Bernard’s enthusiastic love,
a love which soars above all that is of earth to reach
the love of the Supreme Uncreated Good.
As for Francis of Assisi, it suffices to point to
Greccio and his celebration there of the crib during the
Christmas of 1223, and to the five wounds of the re-
deemer which he received on his body on that night of
ecstasy on Mount Alverno, to become henceforth
himself a living copy of the crucified. Among the
prayers and writings attributed to Francis is an Office
of the Passion after the model of the Little Offices. It
covers the seven Horae of the day, each consisting of a
“psalm” structured mainly on a free selection of
verses from different psalms, concluding with a Gloria
Patri and framed by a Marian “antiphon” which re-
mains always the same. The psalm itself is so con-
structed as to give expression to the voice of the suffer-
ing redeemer in the genuine spirit of the Church liturgy
of the passion. But as in the case of the seraphic saint it
is the events of Christ’s earthly life and their reproduc-
tion in his own life that serve as a first step to his soul’s
elevation, to that perfect type of adoration which has
found such glorious expression in his Song of the Sun.
7
The Gothic Era

The great achievement of the High Middle Ages

was the Theology of Scholasticism. It influenced in its
own way the prayer life of the period. As in other
fields, so too in the theology of prayer, Thomas
Aquinas holds a foremost place among its classical in-
terpreters. Less important for our purpose are his ef-
forts to reach a clear-cut definition of prayer. His pre-
decessors had defined prayer as an elevation of the
soul to God, a self-surrender to God, a movement of
the mind toward God; Thomas is at pains to safeguard
before all else the role of the intellect without, how-
ever, defining the notion in set terms. We are more
interested in the statement he makes in connection
with St. Paul’s remark in his letter to Timothy (1 Tim
2:1) that prayer in every case must include an ascent of
the mind to God (oratio), confidence in God’s mercy
(obsecratio) and gratitude for favors received
(gratiarum actio); then it can pass over to supplication
(petitio).

St. Bonaventure

With Bonaventure, the Franciscan theologian, we

114
 The Gothic Era 115
have a direct approach to the religious movement of
the period. St. Francis’s meditations on the passion he
carries forward in his writings which are interspersed
with prayer. In the Vitis Mystica (Mystical Vine)
Christ is shown as the true vine wounded sorely by the
dresser’s knife, bound fast to its supports, the vine
whose blossom sheds abroad a precious fragrance,
under whose foliage we can find shelter. In the Lignum
Vitae Christ is the tree of life growing apace, advanc-
ing in suffering, to be crowned eventually in glory.
A work often attributed to Bonaventure, though
its real author was another member of the Franciscan
Order, the Meditationes Vitae Christi develops the
same theme further, depicting with imaginative skill
individual scenes from the life and passion of Christ
and adapting them to the mentality of the people. He
then points to the place that these themes occupy in
the structure of the spiritual life. In theTte Triplici Via
(the Triple Way) he deals with the doctrine of the
Three Ways, the purgative, illuminative and unitive of
the pseudo-Denis and confirms that “The Way of Il-
lumination consists in following in Christ’s footsteps,”
a following which covers his earthly career and in-
cludes the veneration to be paid to his mother. Thus
the way lies open for the stage of perfection where love
for the uncreated, Supreme Good triumphs, and prayer
is pure adoration.
Though a clear distinction is made theoretically
between the Ways, the seraphic doctor is as fully
aware as the spiritual teachers of the following cen-
turies that in practice they must dovetail and interlock
one with the other. He stresses that the thought of
Christ’s passion is of the greatest significance in ad-
vancing along the Way of Purgation.
116 Ch r i s t ia n Pr a y er Th r o u g h t he Ce n t u r i e s
German Mysticism

Apart from the religious movement at work in the

newly-founded religious orders, the teaching and
example of the great masters and standard-bearers of
piety during the High Middle Ages were particularly
operative among the spiritually-advanced section of
the people of God, kindling a new fervor for prayer.
We refer to the movement toward mysticism during the
later Middle Ages and especially to its German variety.
It spread through the monasteries, finding its way also
to the layfolk chiefly through the mission sermons of
John Tauler (d. 1361 ). The chief features of German
mysticism, especially in its representatives from the
Dominican Order (men like Eckehart, Tauler and
Suso) consisted in a searching for God based on inte-
rior recollection, in an effort to break loose from all
that is bound up with the senses and the creaturely, in
order to find God within the soul, seeking closest
unification with Eternal Wisdom and Divine Love.
In clear contrast to this “speculative mysticism,”
the mystery of Christ and Christian revelation in its
totality are brought out in much bolder relief in the
mysticism of the Cistercian Nuns in Helfta. They
combined a solid theological training with an inner
warmth in the manner of St. Bernard. Their outstand-
ing representative is Gertrude the Great (d. 1302). With
an extraordinary fidelity to the ruling of the liturgy she
follows the course of the ecclesiastical year in her de-
votions. Absorbed in the mysteries of the Life and
passion of her Lord, she dwells with special love and
affection within his pierced heart, that heart which for
her is a tuneful lute, a censer from which unceasing
 The Gothic Era 117
adoration mounts to the Most Holy Trinity. We have
here the harbinger of devotion to the Sacred Heart of
Jesus, which even to our day manifests in model form
the entire order of salvation and gives it a coherent
unity. A similar sense for the whole is evidenced in her
“Exercitia” , Days of Recollection of a sort, which she
composed for her nuns. They consist of fervent
prayers based each time on a definite theme, starting
with the renewal of the grace of Baptism in terms of
the baptismal rite, and concluding with a preparation
for death. The prayers are addressed indiscriminately
to God or the Man-Christ or the Holy Spirit, to Mary
too, and yet never lost their orientation to the totality
of the Christian mystery.

New Religious Orders

In this period the refined standard of religious cul-

ture and the exalted life of prayer which prevailed in
the monasteries still kept them worlds apart from the
general mass of Christians. Nonetheless, the latter
were now beginning to be influenced to a greater de-
gree than in earlier times by monastic practice. This
influence was exerted mainly by the new Religious Or-
ders of St. Francis and St. Dominic whose chief activ-
ity lay in the popular missions they conducted. The
effect they produced can be seen in tangible form in
the tens of thousands who flocked to the Lenten ser-
mons of Berthold of Regensburg (d.1272), or when
Bernardine of Siena (d.1444) as herald of the holy
name traveled through Italy and made the symbol
I H S the common property of the faithful.
118 Ch r i s t ia n Pr a y er Th ro ug h th e Ce n t u r i e s
Third Orders

But the echo of this missionary activity found its

main expression in Third Orders, associations of
layfolk who, though remaining in the world, were anx-
ious to share in the life of religious. These associations
were able to link up with already existing groups of an
“Order of Penance.” Francis of Assisi himself joined
such a group when in 1207 he broke with his family.
Members of these groups led a life of comparative re-
tirement and under Church guidance observed certain
rules regarding fasts, mode of dress and practices of
prayer. Now, under the auspices of the two Religious
Orders mentioned, and with their active encourage-
ment, these groups began to flourish, and soon their
membership grew apace. In addition there existed con-
fraternities of various kinds but more loosely struc-
tured than these and unconnected with the Orders. On
a religious basis these bodies carried out different
tasks, mostly in favor of the neighbor, like nursing the
sick and caring for the poor. From the fourteenth cen-
tury they were closely affiliated with one or other of
the guilds, lending them a religious character and often
even merging with them. Further, it was precisely in
the domain of these confraternities that individual cen-
ters of devotion emerged, where such had not already
been the purpose of their foundation. In later centuries
in the closing period of the Middle Ages this religious
trend is characteristic of subsequent foundations. Thus
we have the Confraternities of the Passion, of the
Blessed Sacrament and especially those associated
with the Mother of God, including the Confraternity of
the Rosary founded around 1470 which was destined to
have a spectacular future. An impetus was also given
 The Gothic Era 119
to the veneration of the saints by the guilds, each of
which chose as patron a saint associated with some
symbol of its profession: For example, the guild of
tailors took St. Martin as patron, that of the cop-
persmiths took St. Vitus Martyr. Their memorial day
was marked at least by a Liturgy.

Their Prayer Life

Now, we may ask, what was the prayer of these

lay groups like? We have to distinguish various grada-
tions, differentiated not only by the degree of fervor
accompanying devotion but most of all by the level of
education to which their members had attained. Those
who could read and even understand some Latin were
in a position to nourish their piety from the psalms as
in earlier centuries. But now there was no longer ques-
tion of the entire Psalter nor of the Office recited in
church; there was question rather of that selection
from the psalms which had been added to the Office
since the ninth century, and which now appeared
chiefly in the shape of the Little Offices. In this way
there came into existence the Books of Hours, Livres
d’Heures, of the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries,
many hundreds of which are still preserved in our li-
braries. These were the prayer books of the later Mid-
dle Ages. They were usually embellished with minia-
tures and were often of such tiny format that they
could conveniently be carried in a pocket in one’s belt.
In addition to the Penitential Psalms, the litany and
selected prayers as well as excerpts from the gospel,
they usually contained the Little Office of Our Lady
and the Office for the Dead, both of ancient date and
120 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

both additions to the choral prayer of the monasteries

since the turn of the millennium. Further Offices now
emerged, drawn up in a similar pattern to the foregoing
and, like them, without reference to the ecclesiastical
year and often much abbreviated: Such were the Of-
fices of the Holy Cross, of Christ’s Passion, of the
Compassio of Mary, of the Blessed Sacrament, of the
Incarnation, of the Trinity, of the Holy Ghost, Offices
also in honor of all saints or of particular saints like
John the Baptist, Magdalene, Catherine or of a patron
saint. Indeed the more these special themes were
stressed the greater was the shift from the psalms to
the “trimmings” or accessories that framed them. This
was especially true of rhymed Offices that served the
purpose of private devotion to such a degree that the
psalms themselves threatened to disappear altogether.
The Office of the Passion of Christ was held in
especially high regard; it often served as a daily
prayer, a privilege otherwise reserved for the Office of
Our Lady. Though in some books of Hours it is mis-
sing, still the miniatures depicted in Our Lady’s Office,
true to venerable tradition continued to treat of the
stages of the passion up to the Vesper-Scene, an ex-
pression in vogue today for the taking down from the
cross and the Pietà when Christ’s Body is laid on his
mother’s lap, themes appropriate to the hour of Ves-
pers. On the other hand the Horae arrangement of the
Office of the Passion was so vividly recalled in later
times that in devotions to Christ’s sufferings and even
in the reading of the passion the division into seven
sections was maintained. A “Prayer of St. Gregory”
on the passion in seven parts, seven invocations each
followed by a Pater Noster and Ave, was widely dis-
seminated. Seven was seen as a symbolic number.
 The Gothic Era 121

Toward the end of the Middle Ages the Book of Hours

appeared also in the language of the people as was the
case in England around the year 1400 when the
Prymer, the Book of Hours in a typical format, consti-
tuted the layman’s prayer book. Later it appeared in
print also and ran into many editions.

Spiritual Reading

It must have been roughly the same circles whose

piety had been nourished by the Book of Hours who
were now in a better position to round off their reli-
gious development by the reading of spiritual books,
just as the psalmody of monks and clerics was supple-
mented by an extensive programme of reading. For
now there existed a devotional literature which ap-
pealed to the people, not wide in compass but for all
that well disseminated. We have mentioned already the
Meditations vitae Christi. Of a similar type but much
wider in range was the Life of Jesus Christ composed
by the Carthusian Ludolf of Saxony (d.1370) which
retained its popularity for two centuries. The growing
interest in lives of the saints was met by the Legenda
Aurea of Jacobus de Voragine (d.1298) which was
translated into all the languages of the West, and still
survives in countless printed editions. Preoccupation
with death, which was current in the closing Middle
Ages with their Dances of Death was met by booklets
which the Art of Dying (ars moriendi) was expounded.
That such literature stood in good stead those who
could not read is illustrated by one of the nine sayings
attributed to Albert the Great since the mid-fourteenth
century: “If you read aloud something worthwhile to a
122 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

person it is more agreeable to me than if you were to

eat and drink nothing but bread and water for seven
years.”
For some time, however, these book-aids did not
touch the great mass of the people. Even members of
Third Orders were in the main immune from their in-
fluence. This is clear from the prescriptions for prayer
drawn up for them. The Regula Tertianorum sive Frat-
rum de Poenitentia composed in Florence in 1284 dif-
fers in no respect from the Rule for the Poenitentes
issued in 1215. This prescribes that clerics, that is per-
sons who are conversant with the Psalter, are to recite
the canonical Horae; the illiterati say, in place of Ma-
tins, twelve Pater Nosters and Glorias, and for every
other Hora they say seven such. At Prime and Com-
pline those who “can do it” add the Confession of
Faith and the Miserere mei, Deus. Further, all should
attend Matins in their parish church during Lent, be-
fore Christmas and before Easter. In a rule of more
recent date daily attendance at Mass “if they can con-
veniently do so” is mentioned for the first time. The
extra prayers prescribed for the different associations
of Tertiaries and the Orders of Knights (which stood
on the same footing with them) varied in detail. But it
was always with the help of the Pater Noster, (to which
the Ave Maria was added with a certain hesitation)
that the substitution was made. Only the numbers
changed: By multiplying seven for the Little Hours
they jumped to fourteen for Vespers and to twenty-
eight for Matins. In the German Order of Knights, if
non-clerics happened to be present at the choral Of-
fice, they were expected to carry out these same
duties.
 The Gothic Era 123
Devotional Life

It appears that the prayer life of the simple folk

remained at the same level as heretofore, or it may
have been more modest still. Their most important
duty was attendance at Mass on Sundays and Holy-
days of obligation which were many (on an average
one a week) and if possible on working days too. This
consisted of reverent attention to the important parts
of the Holy Sacrifice; the Pater Noster and the Credo
were said at the consecration and—a point of special
importance—eyes were fixed in adoration on the Sa-
cred Host at the elevation. A sermon was heard; an
opportunity to do so became more frequent after the
Mendicant Friars were founded. The ecclesiastical
year was followed and duly observed. Honor was paid
to the saints who by their patronage helped the people
to shoulder the cares and worries of daily life. Their
relics were venerated, especially when they were ex-
posed to view on feast days in the hope, sometimes
superstitious, of obtaining blessing and protection.

Corpus Christi Processions

But it was the Blessed Sacrament exposed which

riveted in powerful fashion the eyes of the beholder in
a fresh excess of faith. The less often people ventured
to receive Holy Communion (even in the rules of the
Third Orders provision was made for its reception only
three times a year) the greater their desire to gaze upon
the Sacred Host, at least with the eyes of the body, and
in that way find a substitute for its sacramental recep-
124 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r Th r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

tion. Increased opportunities had to be found for this

both within and without the Mass. A special receptacle
for the Host, the monstrance or ostensorium, was in-
troduced. In 1246 the feast of Corpus Christi was inau-
gurated and propagated, and from the year 1277 on-
ward the Corpus Christi procession, which became an
object of popular devotion in a big way. It soon ab-
sorbed the whole apparatus of earlier processions and
finally the tradition associated with parades through
countryside and city street. In many places scenes
from the older passion-plays were enacted in which
live performers spoke their parts in the form of drama,
and thus came into being the Corpus Christi Play. In
the later Middle Ages these religious plays became an
important factor in the spiritual life of the people ; thus
the mystery play as Passion and Easter Play, the Ad-
vent and Christmas Play, the Epiphany Play, or even a
play glorifying a patron saint. For whole months long
the entire population of town or village was under its
spell. It is reported from Frankfurt on the Main that in
1498 a Passion Play lasted four days and that two
hundred and fifty persons performed in it.
This fervor in reconstructing the earthly life of
Christ was not, however, matched by a similar con-
sciousness of the Savior’s sacramental presence or his
indwelling in the soul of the Christian. Popular piety
lived more at a surface level than at the center of the
gospel message. It was threatened more than in former
times by superstitious practices shown particularly in
an excessive trust in relics, in the punctilious perform-
ing of a set number of devotional practices and in the
gaining of indulgences, bogus in some cases. Church
blessings too, which in the later Middle Ages were
pronounced on all and sundry and were meant to lend
 The Gothic Era 125
a religious consecration to life, were all too often the
object of exaggerated expectations, thus constituting a
peril to the faith.
The penchant for the numerical fixing of forms
and objects of devotion referred to was symptomatic
of the peripheral and of extreme elaboration which
traditional ways of piety had reached. The numbers
five and seven played a large part in this trend: the five
wounds, the five joys of Mary, the seven words spo-
ken on the cross, the seven falls, the seven (or five)
bloodlettings, the seven (or five or fifteen) sorrows of
Mary. Each of these objects of devotion had its special
prayer assigned to it. Added to these was the homage
paid to the individual members of Christ’s Body and to
his “Weapons” (the instruments of the passion). Fi-
nally, the later Middle Ages were familiar with a devo-
tion to the Seven Places of Refuge: the Blessed Trin-
ity, the sacrament of the altar, the cross, Mary, the
angels, the saints, the souls in purgatory—a devotion
which attempted to bring unity to the multiform.

Surface Piety

The tendency to dwell on the periphery and to

indulge in excessive elaboration, appears most of all in
devotion to the Mother of God; a devotion expressed
in terms of sympathy with her in her sorrows in Com-
passio, in a mourning with her which survives to this
day in the Stabat Mater. The Pietà depicting the virgin
holding the dead Christ on her lap was the most
cherished image of her in the epoch under review.
Veneration was extended to her mother, St. Anne,
whose cult became the prevailing “fashion” of the clos-
126 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

ing years of the Middle Ages. A favorite theme of late

Gothic art was the motherhood of Anne, depicting her
in company with Mary and the Child Jesus. Devotion
to Mary suffered an eclipse of a sort when in the fif-
teenth century the Te Deum was recast and figured, in
its opening line, Mary as Te matrem laudamus. More
than that: Attempts were made to give a theological
justification to the hightide of the Marian cult, as did
Richard of St. Lawrence (d.1260) when he suggests
that the Son of God had made over half of his kingdom
to his mother, namely the prerogative of mercy, re-
serving that of justice to himself.
We see from the above what little contact popular
piety in the late Middle Ages had with the central facts
of the Christian order of salvation. The only explana-
tion for this is that the official liturgy of the Church had
become an unknown quantity to the rank and file. In
the monastic churches and in the numerous collegiate
churches in which the clergy were obliged to divine
service only, a resplendent liturgy was conducted. Day
in, day out, echoed and re-echoed in the churches the
recitation of the Office (mostly sung,) culminating in
the conventual service. But the liturgy was a matter for
the clergy only; even on Sundays and Holydays of
obligation, as for the layfolk, only their presence was
possible. Not that they took umbrage at this. They
contributed in their own way to the liturgy by building
the churches. In the cities the burghers offered cathe-
dral and minster the money needed and the expertise
of their architects and artists. Rich endowments sup-
plemented continually donations already bequeathed.
New collegiate churches with their colleges of priests
were founded with the purpose of having divine ser-
vice celebrated in them. The underlying idea in all this,
 The Gothic Era 127
dating back to the period when the monasteries con-
ducted their laus pere nuis- service, was that com-
munities of priests and monks should represent the
faithful in glorifying God and thus drawing down his
blessing on town and country.
But at this period even clerical divine service itself
had in large part succumbed to inertia. We hear of
abbot Garcia Cisneros (d. 1510) of Montserrat instruct-
ing his monks to meditate on the successive events of
the life and passion of Christ while reciting the psalms
of the choral Office, which goes to show that little or
no spiritual nourishment was to be derived from the
psalms themselves. In 1534 Cardinal Quinonez issued
a new Breviary with a wealth of Scripture readings but
abridged as far as the psalms were concerned. It met
with wide acclaim. Despite this a Spanish conciliar
theologian before the Council of Trent condemned it
on the grounds that Scripture was an affair for theolo-
gians only; for the ordinary cleric, idiota clericus who
had not advanced beyond the Latin Grammar, for the
vulgus clericorum (the clerical crowd) an extensive
reading of the Pauline Letters was worthless; their job
was the rendering of the psalms and no more, which
goes to show that this type of service had become a
purely external affair. The psalmody in the form and
dimension then current no longer awakened in the soul
of the worshiper the echo it had formerly done. It was
natural then that the best spirits of the age looked to
new ways of approaching God.
8
Passage to the
Modern Age

The new movement which took its rise with

Gerhard Groote (d.1384) in the Low Countries was
called the Devotion Moderna. It was, as its name in-
dicates, eventually meant to mark the contrast in
which it stood to the ways of piety formerly practiced.
It purposed to point a way to God more adapted to the
contemporary age. The Church at the time was rent by
schism; the individual Christian was left to his own
devices; the liturgy pursuing its course from earlier
days and estranged from a changing world had lost its
buoyancy and had little to offer the searching soul.
Even the traditional discipline of monastic Rule, as
experience proved, was powerless to hold captive the
spirit of former days. The theological speculations
which in German mysticism had once more with
Ruysbroek attained to a high level were beyond the
reach of the simple Christian in his quest for God. In
such circumstances the Brothers of the Common Life
and the Canons of Windesheim associated with them,
while remaining faithful to Church tradition, sought a
straight-forward path to God unencumbered by super-
fluous accessories. They prayed the Office, yet
without special solemnity or additions like the Office
128
 Passage to the Modern Age 129
of Mary or the Office for the Dead. They met for daily
Mass, a low Mass devoid of show or display.

Devotio Moderna Piety

The prayer they adopted in order to renew and

sanctify their lives was interior prayer. This too they
took over from present tradition. It had been invari-
ably recommended as the pith and marrow of the lectio
divina. It had been the consistent aim of the monks in
their withdrawal from the distractions of the world in
order to find God and to rest in him. Had not St. Ber-
nard both by word and example worked to that end?
But for this interior prayer (and herein consisted
the new approach) a firm support was now sought and
a certain systematic order to ensure its stability and
cohesion. This seemed all the more necessary as the
contemporary world with its revolutionary ideas, its
message proclaiming a new order of things, and a lib-
erated humanity which looked to the ancient world for
its inspiration, called for a parallel support and an-
chorage.
This order of procedure was determined on the
one hand by fixing definite material for interior prayer,
and on the other hand by offering suggestions and
counsels regarding the manner in which it should be
conducted. Gerhard Groote had pointed to two themes
in particular with which prayer should deal: the Last
Things and the Life and Passion of Christ. His disci-
ples and those who came after him adhered to this
programme in their daily or twice-daily meditations
and developed it further in their own writings.
Sketches for meditation matter were drawn up and as-
130 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

signed for prayer throughout the week, following

roughly a liturgical arrangement: on Fridays and Sun-
days themes from the Lord’s passion and the joys of
heaven respectively were treated, and on the early
days of the week the childhood and the public life of
Christ or (as with abbot Garcia Cisneros) the Last
Things, death, hell, judgment. Soon the weekly
schedule was operated with greater latitude: sep-
tenaries (sets of seven points) were drawn up irrespec-
tive of the days of the week, as in the Formula Exer-
citiorum Spiritualium dating to the second half of the
fifteenth century which proposed as subjects for medi-
tations six sets of seven points, they treat successively
of God’s benefits, the seven joys and sorrows of Mary,
the sufferings of Jesus, the life of Jesus, the Last
Things, the angels and saints; but a warning is added
that on Church feast days the mystery of the day
should be observed.
Rules are also set forth for the method to be fol-
lowed in mental prayer rules meant as helps not re-
strictions. They touch the need for previous prepara-
tion of the matter and offer hints on how the medita-
tion should begin and how it should end, not omitting
prayerful colloquies. In the main all this is conforma-
ble with ancient tradition. In the Scale Meditatoria of
John Gansfort (d. 1489) with its many steps, regulations
had already reached the stage of over-elaboration.

Movement toward Reform

The best known exponent of Devotio Moderna

piety is the book Imitation of Christ. True, it treats
with winning simplicity of compunction of heart in face
of God’s supreme grandeur, as also of the Last Things,
 Passage to the Modern Age 131
term of human life. But apart from the opening chap-
ters there is little mention of the following of Christ
which has given its name to this famous book. We miss
most of all any emphasis on what was the essence of
the Devotio Moderna since the days of its founder,
namely the will to work for reform in the Church. As a
fact the representatives of the movement hoped, and
not in vain, that the persevering cult of interior, per-
sonal prayer in which the keypoints of the Christian
order of salvation were reviewed could not fail to have
its effect one way or another, for example, on a reli-
gious who was drifting along in a careless, thoughtless
way of life : he would come to his senses or else quit the
monastery; in either case a distinct advantage for the
monastery in question. Toward the end of the fifteenth
century a strong movement toward reform was felt
throughout the Church, a reform which affected the
religious Orders especially and sent its ripples as far as
Italy and Spain. This was due to the new insistence on
mental prayer. The Benedictine monastery of
Montserrat with its abbot Cisneros is only one exam-
ple of this, though the best known one.

Ignatius of Loyola

It was at Montserrat that Ignatius of Loyola too

received the first stirrings which were to have such a
decisive influence on his future. Subsequent to his stay
there and to the long months of prayer at Manresa, he
drew up the plan of the Exercises, committing them to
writing and later (up to 1535) giving them a final redac-
tion. These Exercises were only a logical, systematic
follow-up of what had long been practiced in Devotio
Moderna circles. The great themes to which in the
132 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

Ignatian Exercises the exercitant applies himself in

mental prayer are divided into four “Weeks.” A first
week is assigned to meditation on sin and the Last
Things; the following weeks to the life and passion of
Christ up to his glorification. These point the way
along which we are to follow the Master. What is new
in the Exercises is that Ignatius in his second series of
meditations proposes the call which Christ the King
continually issues to all men to follow him in the strug-
gle to spread his kingdom here below; and (in the
course of further exercises) an invitation is extended
by the Eternal King, to those so disposed, to embrace
poverty and perfect humility. The original purpose of
the Exercises was to serve as an introduction and a
help in choosing a state of life in accordance with the
divine Will, and in a given case to opt for a life of
selfless labor in promoting the kingdom of God. A
further extension of the Exercises, in favor of Christ-
ians living in the world, was the Retreat made in com-
mon and conducted by a priest who proposed the mat-
ter for prayer. But certain adaptations first had to be
made, and these were laid down in 1500 in a “Direc-
tory to the Exercises.”

“The Spiritual Exercises” as a School of Prayer

Among the methods of mental prayer given in the

Exercises, the Exercise of the Three Powers of the
soul, as the author terms it holds a conspicuous place.
An object, accessible to the senses, is chosen for con-
sideration and presented to the memory and reflected
upon by the intellect with a view to practical resolves.
Each exercise should begin by placing oneself in the
presence of God in a prayerful attitude and should
 Passage to the Modern Age 133
conclude by coming back again to him in a genuine
personal encounter. Ignatius is aware of and recog-
nizes other methods of mental prayer, for example
prayerful reflection on some definite theme, or on a
prayer text which one turns quietly over in one’s mind
in order to relish its savor. And to conclude the Exer-
cises, and as the obvious crown and culmination of all
that has gone before, he sets the “Contemplation for
Obtaining Divine Love” in which the soul is caught up
in a simple regard of all the benefits he showers on his
creatures.
What was experienced in concentrated form in the
Exercises was meant first and foremost to be operative
as a school of prayer in the Order which Ignatius
founded. Mental prayer was to be a first priority in the
prayer life of the Jesuit and the mainstay for his apos-
tolic activity. As we saw, meditation in one form or
another had always been part of the life programme of
a religious Institute but was regarded as subsidiary to
choir prayer which stood first in importance. The
monasteries and other religious associations influ-
enced by the Devotio Moderna had already provided a
definite framework for mental prayer, assigning it a
suitable place beside the choir prayer, as for instance
at Montserrat in conjunction with Lauds and Com-
pline. Similarly the Dominicans at the General Chapter
in 1505 made mental prayer part of their daily pro-
gramme as did the Franciscans.

Place of the Divine Office

In St. Ignatius’ Order mental prayer was placed

first, thus shifting the center of gravity of the spiritual
life. Not that the Office was dispensed with (though
134 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t h e Ce n t u r ie s

this would not have been altogether unthinkable in the

then prevailing legislation) but it was thought desir-
able, as in the case of other religious bodies of the
period, to confine the Office to private recitation, a
practice which in the meantime had become fairly
widespread. The purpose in view was to have more
freedom for apostolic work, and the “service of the
neighbor.”
As is known, the Society of Jesus met with great
opposition in pushing this point of its programme.
Owing to the attitude adopted by Paul IV and again by
Pius V the decision was seriously questioned. A matter
of principle was actually involved here; though it was
scarcely spoken of in such terms. Was the solemn
choral prayer to be maintained and cherished simply as
a service rendered to God, with no questions asked
about the greater or lesser spiritual benefit of him who
takes part in it or any edification and spiritual fruit
otherwise accruing? Must a special value be assigned
to it as if it were a sort of opus operatum independent
of the interior dispositions of the person engaged in it?
Or could a retrenchment be made in favor of an alter-
native manner of praying which specifically included
one’s inner involvement and so offered greater pros-
pects of personal enrichment and stability? At least
where any loss involved in such retrenchment could be
compensated for, and more than compensated for by
apostolic activity?
A decisive answer to this question was not forth-
coming owing to the more or less general view that the
Church in its totality had in the traditional formal Of-
ficium Divinum a prayer of its own and had commis-
sioned monks and clerics to perform it. Here too the
idea of substitution had won through and had linked up
 Passage to the Modern Age 135
with the definite notion that the Church was a quasi-
persona (a sort of person) and as such must have her
own form of prayer—a centrally controlled one—to
be differentiated from the prayer of the faithful and of
individual churches throughout Christendom. The idea
of prayer “in the name of the Church” which is implicit
in this was unknown to St. Thomas, though recognized
and appreciated by the Jesuit theologian Suarez. It
played a role in the Second Vatican Council and found
its echo in the Constitution on the Liturgy.
It was no wonder then that the withdrawal of a
religious Order from choir prayer in the sixteenth cen-
tury met with such an unfavorable response. It could
not be denied that the private recitations of a prayer
meant to be said at community level and in public
could only be a solution dictated by necessity. It
lacked that sense of completion which communitarian
recital could have lent it, as also that aura of reverence
and nearness *to God which choral chant guaranteed,
even when the mind failed to grasp the meaning of the
words uttered.

Apostolic Activity

A second question intervened on the first. The

New Order of the Society of Jesus was from its incep-
tion geared to work for souls. Must not this objective
give a special coloration, if not a stamp of its own, to
its prayer life also, and especially to its mental prayer?
The question became an actuality in Spain, the home
of a new and flourishing mysticism, in a century too
which gave the Church a Teresa of Avila and a John of
the Cross. Was it desirable that in the Jesuit Order a
136 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

method of prayer should be fostered in which man,

penetrated by a lively sense of his creaturehood,
should make it his sole aim to return to God, concen-
trating all his energies on attaining to union with, and
repose in him? Such was the aim of the anchorites and
the entire world of ancient monasticism, an aim which
must remain a lofty ideal in the Church in all ages, for
those at least who wish to abandon the world and find
God more surely. Fr. Mercurian, the third successor of
St. Ignatius as General of the Order gave an answer in
the negative sense by a practical measure he promul-
gated: Among a list of spiritual books meant for the
young Jesuits he excluded the writings of the modern
mystics, among others Tauler and Ruysbroek. Mercu-
rian’s successor, Fr. Aquaviva, in a communication
addressed to the members of the Society in 1590, was
more explicit: Contemplation too is a good thing, he
agreed, but the love of God enkindled in contemplative
prayer must remain oriented toward him. In the inter-
ests of such service a Jesuit must be ready at all times
to forego the delights of contemplation. True, in the
seventeenth century a formal school of prayer
emerged within the Order, inspired by Cardinal Bérul-
le’s movement, in which contemplative prayer had a
predominant place. Louis Lallemant (d. 1635) was its
best-known representative.
But there was to be no shift in the Society’s pur-
pose: Work for the kingdom of God in the world and
not a life of contemplation in the cloister. The prayer of
the Jesuit, if it was to be integrated with his life, must
keep in mind the ways and fates of the common man,
not soar in rapid flight above the paths of purgation
and enlightenment. It must above all seek to follow
Christ’s example during his life here below, using that
 Passage to the Modern Age 137
model as a yardstick of spiritual progress and zeal for
souls. Accordingly the manner of piety fostered in the
Society of Jesus from its beginnings had a practical
trend, as was clear from the very aim of the Spiritual
Exercises: “to put one’s life in order.” That did not
immediately mean asceticism and activism as two dis-
tinct functions; for this orienting of one’s entire life had
to proceed from within. In view of its essential
mobility the Order could not, to the same extent as
older religious bodies, build on the stability guaranteed
by well-organized community houses; rather its hope
for permanence must be grounded chiefly on a rule of
life as set forth in the earthly career of Christ. So too
with the Society’s activity in a world whose structures
were beginning to disintegrate, a new stabilizing factor
could only be hoped for from an appraisal of the facts
and laws of the Christian faith leading to a new order of
things and to a rejuvenation of life as the result of a
method of prayer which was close to life. With this
fresh orienting the Society of Jesus began its task, a
task destined soon to envelop wide circles of the con-
temporary world.

The Reformation

Other factors, too, influenced the religious out-

look of the nascent epoch. The storm of the Reforma-
tion and the pitiless criticism directed by its adherents
against traditional ways of piety were bound to have a
sobering effect on the Church, despite the exaggerated
forms in which those criticisms were framed. The
Council of Trent adopted measures to combat obvious
abuses, for example those connected with the granting
138 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

of indulgences and the cult of the saints. The heat with

which the struggle was carried on, the necessity to
repel unjust accusations and to safeguard spiritual val-
ues which brooked no surrender, led to an insufficient
appreciation of the positive good contained in the
movement, namely insistence on a simple essentially
biblical form of piety. At all events results were to be
discerned in many prayer books of the period which
tried to base their contents on texts of Scripture, the
writings of the Fathers and authors of repute and actu-
ally cited their sources on occasion.

Influence of Humanism

The Humanism too of the period exerted an influ-

ence on prayer and the literature connected with it. It
managed to stamp certain features of its spirit on the
Liturgy in the form of new hymns and the improve-
ment of older ones along classical lines. Thus the
prince of humanists, Erasmus of Rotterdam, not only
composed works of a religious nature, including the
Enchiridion Militis, but also prayers which attained to
a certain vogue. An important representative of the
Catholic reform, Georg Witzel (d. 1575), himself author
of a popular prayer book, regarded Erasmus’ Com-
mentary on the Pater Noster as the best of such pro-
ductions known to him. However, Erasmus’ bitter criti-
cisms of the externals of traditional piety, of certain
forms of life in the cloister, of contemporary theology
as well as his outlook on the world which was more
pagan than Christian, hindered the salutary effect
which his humanism was calculated to produce.
 Passage to the Modern Age 139
St. Francis de Sales

It was only later that the genuine ideals of

Humanism in the field of piety were realized in the
person of St. Francis de Sales (d.1622). He adopted a
positive attitude to the world, to its beauty and its
pleasures. Though conscious of man’s frailty, he sees
him renewed in Christ rather than in his fallen state;
Francis is the herald of Divine Love. He instructs his
Philothea how to remain united with God in the midst
of worldly affairs. Apart from morning and evening
prayers, there is little mention of vocal prayer in the
Introduction to the Devout Life dedicated to her but he
does insist on daily mental prayer according to a sim-
ple method and on the practice of interior recollection.
The impact made by Francis de Sales on his generation
endures to our day.
9
Religious Sentiment
in the Baroque Era

The Council of Trent had brought clarity to cer-

tain disputed questions in the area of dogmatic theol-
ogy and had worked toward the restoring of an ordered
system in the liturgy. As to the further domain of
Christian piety it had been content to remove any glar-
ing abuses that might have crept in. But to inaugurate a
new religious mentality and a return to fundamentals,
presuppositions were lacking at the time of the Coun-
cil, most of all a proper historical perspective. The
result was that the cleavage between liturgy and the
people remained as before. In the reform of 1568-1570,
it is true, the liturgy was freed of some of the accre-
tions of the Middle Ages, and the introduction of rub-
rics prevented it from growing unchecked again; but in
its central processes it remained obscure even for the
clergy. The faithful had made the best of it by their
reverent attitude at the divine service. We read of Ig-
natius of Loyola that he was daily present at Vespers
and Compline when at Manresa in 1522-1523, though
he knew no Latin, and that during High Mass celebra-
ted each day he usually read the story of the passion.
Nevertheless, following on a directive from the
Council, efforts were made to give the people some
instruction on the Mass. This was frequently done
140
 Religious Sentiment in the Baroque Era 141
through the medium of prayer books in Latin, some-
times indeed in very detailed fashion; the worshiper
was led step by step from the prayers at the foot of the
altar and the Introit to the concluding prayer and the
final blessing. For this suitable texts were available. In
other prayer books one was content with a general lead
and possibly some prayers to be said at the elevation of
the Host. The actual purpose of the prayer books of
the period was not to serve as an aid to the celebration
of the service, but rather as material for the extra-
liturgical prayers during it and as preparation for the
reception of the sacraments.

After Trent

In the epoch following on Trent Christian piety in

essentials simply continued the traditions inherited
from the Middle Ages. A significant feature here was
the multiplicity of its forms. All devotions which arose
in the past continued to flourish or were further devel-
oped. Devotions to the Blessed Trinity, to the Person
of the Father, to Eternal Wisdom, to the Holy Spirit,
to Christ’s agony in the garden, to his five wounds, to
the angels, to Mary and to her sorrows and joys, to the
Fourteen-Helpers-in-Need, to relics and to special
saints. These devotions were kept alive in the con-
fraternities and pilgrimages, in the old and new prayer
books. Naturally such a variety made the spiritual life
unduly complicated. This is apparent in certain texts
for morning prayer when the different heavenly pow-
ers are to be approached, one after another. Among
these devotions a preferential place was occupied by
the passion of Christ.
Despite this dispersal of spiritual energy however,
142 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

a pronounced effort at concentration is also evidenced.

In devotion to the saints, that paid to the Mother of
God, in whom the mystery of the Incarnation is so
vividly brought to our minds, comes more and more to
the fore. The tide of criticism unloosed by the Reform-
ers on the cult of the saints breaks in vain on devo-
tion to Our Lady which is strenuously defended not
alone by the apologists. A question put by visitators to
parish priests of doubtful orthodoxy, for example, ran :
“Do you regard the Ave Maria as a prayer?” (not only
as a greeting). While in earlier days, apart from the
Holy Land, pilgrimages were made chiefly to the
shrines of various saints, like Santiago de Compos-
tella, Martin of Tours, or to the graves of the apostles,
sanctuaries of Mary arose in the sixteenth century in
many places which then became pilgrim centers. The
Marian Rosary not only maintained its place as the
most favored form of prayer but assumed new vari-
ants. The so-called Salve Devotions too (an inheri-
tance of the Middle Ages), took on new embellish-
ments: In the different monasteries, first, and then
more generally, the Salve Regina was linked to one of
the canonical Horae, usually Compline. This occurred
on a definite day of the week, like Saturday or on one
of Our Lady’s feast days, and on every day, somewhat
later. The choir of the monks or of the clerics repaired
to the chapel of Our Lady and there on their knees
sang the ancient antiphon with Versicle and Oratio.
In the long run this ceremony came to be regarded
as a special devotion of its own, in which the layfolk
took part with growing interest. As early as the fif-
teenth century a number of charitable endowments
were founded in order to promote it; so that in parish
churches too the same devotion was maintained. The
local teacher with his pupils had a contract to ensure
 Religious Sentiment in the Baroque Era 143
that the Salve Regina was sung there regularly. The
“Salve” became the origin, even the nucleus of a popu-
lar evening devotion on Sundays and feast days as the
name Salve Devotion (salut in France) indicates; even
today in many dioceses it functions as an afternoon or
evening devotion.
Devotion to Mary was further reinforced by cer-
tain prayers which were recommended to the faithful
for daily recitation, to the extent of dislodging even
more important themes. One such recitation was the
Angelus. In the fourteenth century it was customary
on the ringing of a bell in the evening to recite the Ave
Maria three times, a practice recommended by various
synods. More, a signal was given frequently at morn-
ing, noon and evening to remind people to pray, so that
the early Christian tradition of dwelling on the Way of
the Cross at definite hours had not entirely died out.
Simon Verrepäus in his popular Enchiridion mentions
the ringing of a bell in the evening as a reminder to
recite the Angelical Salutation in memory of the Incar-
nation; with the midday signal however he associates
the death of the Lord and with that in the morning the
resurrection. An instruction issued by Bishop Echter
of Mespelbrunn in Wurzburg in 1584 insists that the
bell at midday should relate to the memory of Christ’s
passion, leaving the Ave to be said at the morning and
evening hours. As early as 1520, however, in other
localities the ringing of the bell three times daily was
brought into relation with the Mother of God.

Jesuit Sodalities

Sodalities for students founded and directed by

the Jesuits whose purpose like that of previous associ-
144 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

ations for example, the Confraternities of Divine

Love, was to foster a fervent spiritual life, chose, if not
at the beginning at least very soon, the Virgin Mary as
their patroness. Here there was an obvious stressing of
the Marian element though this was not the immediate
purpose of the sodality. Before admission into the so-
dality the candidate recited a prayer by which in the
traditional language of the oath of allegiance in feudal
times he promised loyal service to his high protectress
(domina, patrona et advocata). In the first draft of the
Rules in 1564 sodality members were obliged to recite
daily the Office of Our Lady or the Rosary. In some
cases a condition of admission was enrolment in the
Confraternity of the Rosary. In the seventeenth cen-
tury many sodalities of Our Lady, in order to promote
her honor, vowed under oath to work toward the defi-
nition of the doctrine of her Immaculate Conception.
Great care was taken, especially in the early days of
the sodality, to maintain a normal Christian balance
in religious practice.
The trend toward a middle course is still more
discernible in regard to the Sacrament of the Altar.
Despite the suggestion of the Council of Trent that
when the faithful attended Mass they should not con-
fine themselves to a “spiritual Communion” {spirituali
affectu: session 22, 6) the accent still remains on the
permanent Sacrament of the Altar, the honoring of
Christ really present in the tabernacle. Medieval tradi-
tion inculcated also a certain reserve. To receive sac-
ramentally was an action out of the ordinary and meant
Holy Communion outside the Mass, either before or
after it. However, during the later Middle Ages fre-
quency of reception was somewhat on the increase. In
a regulation promulgated in 1587 for the sodality, Holy
 Religious Sentiment in the Baroque Era 145
Communion could be received on the first Sunday of
each month and on the chief feasts of the Church Year.
Yet Fr. Coster in his Libellus Sodalitatis issued about
the same time already advocates the rule to communi-
cate spiritually each day during Mass and sacramen-
tally once a week. But for the general public, the aver-
age reception of Holy Communion was still confined to
a few of the greater feasts in the course of the year.

Worship of the Blessed Sacrament

Reserve in approaching the altar was, however,

more than compensated for by the zeal with which the
Blessed Sacrament was worshiped. The practice, in-
herited from previous centuries, of exposition, espe-
cially during Mass, was maintained chiefly in the
northern countries. Tabernacle and High Altar are
closely interrelated and become the center-piece of the
church fabric; not infrequently indeed a special throne
for exposition is erected above them. Blessing with the
Sacred Host terminates the Sunday afternoon devo-
tions and in many localities is given the name of Bene-
diction (Benedizione). A climax in the worship of the
Eucharist is the Forty Hours Devotion. Originally this
devotion was intended as a special way of honoring the
period during which Christ’s Body lay in the Holy
Sepulchre. (The Blessed Sacrament was often placed
in a tabernacle representing the sepulchre, the Altar of
Repose.) In 1527 the Forty Hours Devotion was more
and more divorced from its original setting and raised
to an independent rite, primarily as a propitiatory de-
votion in calamitous times. Then the Forty Hours took
on a definitely reparatory character as a protest
146 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

against the Reformers’ denial of the Real Presence. At

the same time, through the external pomp (rich scenic
effects and musical décor) associated with the devo-
tion, it mirrored popular thinking and that festive joy
characteristic of the Baroque Age. At first the devo-
tion was confined to Jesuit churches but it soon spread
to the parishes. From the seventeenth century onward
the “Great Prayer” or the “Perpetual Prayer” was
often conducted the whole year through, from parish
to parish in a diocese.
The emphasis laid on these two focal points of
religious life, namely devotion to Mary and the wor-
ship of the Eucharist, is significant for the period with
which we are dealing. Devotion to the Mother of God
in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament exposed
seemed a happy combination of both.

Sacred Heart

With devotion to the Heart of Jesus the mystery

of Christ found another mode of expression. The
Carthusian Joannes Landsberg published in 1536 the
Revelations of St. Gertrude of Helfta. But a wider pub-
licity was achieved through the movement inaugurated
by John Eudes (d. 1680) and Margaret Mary Alacoque
(d.1690). From the beginning the devotion met with
considerable opposition: The object of veneration al-
legedly was but a section of Christ’s humanity and an
arbitrary one at that. Even as late as the year 1729 the
Congregation of Rites refused to accord it canonical
sanction. In 1765 however the Polish hierarchy was
given permission for a feast of the Sacred Heart of
Jesus. To do justice to the devotion the religious situa-
 Religious Sentiment in the Baroque Era 147
tion prevailing then in regard to the worship of Christ
must be kept in mind. The veneration of the cross with
its full theological implications which flourished during
the first millennium of the Christian era had been re-
placed more and more by a sympathetic contemplation
of Christ’s physical sufferings and had been frag-
mented as well into particular devotions which, like
the popular Way of the Cross stopped short at the
sepulchre. An exact parallel to this we find in the
realistic representations of the crucified common to
Gothic and Baroque art which, otherwise than in Ro-
manesque art, in their portrayal of the suffering and
dying Christ scarce allowed the dawning glory of Eas-
ter to shine through. From this impoverishment
sprang, with a certain necessity, the desire to find a
formula, a symbol in which once more the totality of
the Mystery of Christ in its winning features, in a love
which only asked for a return of love, could be ex-
pressed. This symbol was the heart of the Savior, a
symbol more readily grasped in that epoch than in
ours.
It is no accident that following in the wake of the
new religious movement and linked with the Easter
cycle of the ecclesiastical year a new feast could arise
for each of the two christological central points, Cor-
pus Christi and the Heart of Jesus. The first of these
became in many countries the feast of the year (the
Fête-Dieu in France, the Herrgottstag in German-
speaking lands), while the latter did not continue to
meet with full public recognition.
In general the traditional forms of the liturgy were
observed with scrupulous fidelity for the Church
feasts, some of which were celebrated with a great
display of pomp, often in splendid new buildings and to
148 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

the accompaniment of an inspiring church music. But

popular piety, eager to share in the joyful fervor which
such displays offer, seeks and finds its nourishment
mainly in the new types of devotion which arise in
such varied profusion. Triduums or novenas are cele-
brated by way of introduction to favorite feasts or
serve as days of intercessory prayer for important in-
tentions. Community marches to gain some spiritual
favor, and solemn processions are so much in vogue
that the Baroque period has been called (by A.L.
Mayer) the Age of Processions. Religious plays at-
tained to a new flowering in more countries than in
Calderon’s Spain. Community prayer too, not catered
for by the liturgy, finds a new form of expression in the
Litanies, a novel type of the responsorial psalmody. In
the year 1600 a “Fasciculus Litaniarum” was issued in
Munich; it contained thirty-three litanies inclusive of
those of the Divine Persons, of various aspects of the
redemption, of the Blessed Virgin, of saints of differ-
ent categories. Some were expressive of praise, others
were petitions for various intentions. Though Rome
issued certain restrictions and prohibitions (during
public service only the Litany of all saints and the
Litany of Loreto were allowed) still the Litany re-
mained the favorite devotion of the period, with its
didactic and biblical background, with the possibility it
offered of heaping up metaphors which catered for
contemporary taste, and its potential also to create
fresh musical forms.

Prayer Books

In its layout the litany is a prayer for the commu-

nity but its literary location (so to speak) is the prayer
 Religious Sentiment in the Baroque Era 149
book which is chiefly meant to serve the needs of the
individual user. Since the invention of printing and the
days when reading became an almost universal ac-
complishment, the prayer book gained a massive im-
portance. In the early days of the printed prayer book
collections of prayers were not the only material pro-
vided, as for instance in the Hortulus animae, suc-
cessor and heir to the medieval Book of Hours. An
essential feature in the makeup of these printed prayer
books were the different day hours whose structure
betrays their origin in community choral prayer though
in general they dispense with psalms and retain only
their framework.
Both litanies and day hours are combined and
given a new lease of life in a prayer book the Coeleste
Palmetum of Fr. William Nacatenus, S.J., which
since the year 1660 has had a wide circulation and has
survived to the present. In addition to the Office of the
Blessed Virgin and the Office for the Dead (in the ver-
sions fixed by the Roman Breviary of 1568) it contains
for every day of the week “short day hours with their
accompanying litanies and prayers.” Each of the day
hours include the seven Horae, and each of the latter
consists of hymn, “antiphon” and oratio only.
Nicatenus’ Coeleste Palmetum can also be re-
garded as a typical example of post-Tridentine prayer
books: not only do they contain a varied assortment of
prayers, prayers for Mass, Confession and Holy
Communion: they offer also instructions on how to
hear Mass and receive these sacraments. Two
methods are proposed for attendance at Mass; the first
is to follow step by step its various stages by the recital
of special prayers; the second is based on meditation
on the passion. A novel feature in the prayer books
composed by Nicatenus and by many other Jesuits
150 C h r is t ia n Pr a y e r T h r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

was the detailed instruction given on the spiritual life

and most of all on methodical mental prayer. It may be
noted that when Louis of Granada, O.P. (d. 1588) like
Ignatius of Loyola started to introduce lay people to
the art of meditation he met with opposition. Since
those days, however, the value of such procedure had
been publicly accepted: meditation was zealously fos-
tered in the sodalities of Our Lady and elsewhere; Fr.
Francis Coster’s Libellus sodalitatis, which was issued
in many editions since 1586, contained seven draft
meditations on Christ as Model of the Virtues.
It goes without saying that not a few of the devo-
tions mentioned, as well as the day hours and litanies,
being readily available in the new prayer books were
utilized for community prayer during the regular meet-
ings of the Confraternities and Sodalities. This holds
also for the sections dealing with mental prayer. In due
course both types of religious practices found their
way from these smaller communities to the parish af-
ternoon services. Definite mention is made of mental
prayer being held at them in many diocesan parishes
like those of the Rheinland, a custom which prevails to
the present.

Meditation Manuals

For the purpose of mental prayer a special genre

of literature in the shape of meditation books was
created, mainly the work of the Jesuits. These manuals
carried on what the Devotio Moderna had initiated,
but on a larger scale. Not confined to septenaries of
meditation matter they followed the course of the
ecclesiastical year and the gospels read during it.
 Religious Sentiment in the Baroque Era 151
Francis Borgia (d.1572) was the pioneer in this type of
literature. Meditation books by Nicolaus Lancicius
(d. 1633), Nicolaus Avancini (d.1686) and especially
Louis de Ponte (d.1624) enjoyed a wide circulation.
Four hundred editions and more of the meditations of
the last mentioned were issued and are still in use to-
day.
Here we have an earnest effort to deepen the reli-
gious life of the period and within certain limits to link
up with the liturgy. Further steps were taken in pro-
moting liturgical practice and in advancing Christian
piety by a movement which concentrated on mental
prayer in a manner of its own. Pierre de Bérulle
(d. 1629), later Cardinal, was from his early days over-
mastered by the notion of man’s creaturehood and his
utter dependence on God. The extreme example of this
dependence he had glimpsed in the self-effacement of
the Word made flesh, whereby the Godman had be-
come the Perfect Adorer.

The Oratory

This inspired Bérulle to give his institute the name

of Oratory, the Oratorium of Jesus Christ, Highpriest.
It was not long before a sturdy religious movement
affecting a growing circle of the French clergy was
born of the Oratory. The Mysteries of Christ’s life
formed Bérulle’s favorite theme for contemplation in
which inner attitudes (états) were the chief concern. In
view of our union with Christ by grace our life must
grow more and more conformable with His image until
it becomes a single act of adoration of God. To achieve
this goal the path one must traverse is by way of a
152 C h r i s t ia n Pr a y e r Th r o ug h t he Ce n t u r ie s

ceaseless self-abnegation and a total offering of oneself

(adhérence) to Christ. Detailed prescriptions are of-
fered for the practice of mental prayer. Two things are
recommended: Acts of adoration at its beginning and a
sharing in the dispositions and the mind of the Incar-
nate Son during its progress. In this way one’s spiritual
life becomes fully integrated. It has been said that Bé-
rulle introduced a “theocentric revolution” in that he
brought to honor a type of prayer which does not oc-
cupy itself with individual acts of the intellect and reso-
lutions of the will but seeks simply to grasp God’s
reality in the hope that a renewal of one’s workaday
life will be the spontaneous fruit of the process. Bérul-
le’s successors in the Oratory, Charles Condren
(d. 1641 ) and Jean Jacques Olier (d.1657), the latter the
founder of the famous Seminary of St. Sulpice, con-
tinued to develop the master’s ideas; they originated
the “French School” of the spiritual life.
Olier shows how in the Blessed Eucharist we can
contemplate the self-effacement of Christ. There espe-
cially we have a model of how we should think, and
act. His favorite prayer, still in vogue today, runs as
follows: “Come Lord Jesus, live in your servant in the
fullness of your power. . . .” Olier was probably one of
the first to recommend visits to the Blessed Sacra-
ment. True, he exceeds due measure in extolling the
priest’s dignity, and he bears some responsibility for
fostering a too eschatological concept of him when he
asserts that, like Mary, he shares in the power of the
Eternal Father in begetting the Son. It is not surprising
that in circles where adoration was maintained as basic
to the spiritual life notable efforts were made to restore
contact with the liturgy. Pierre Lebrun, (d. 1729) author
of a Commentary of the Liturgy, in four volumes, was
 Religious Sentiment in the Baroque Era 153
an Oratorian. As is known, the New Gallican Liturgy
was the fruit of these efforts which, in the main, were
quite othodox.

Further Developments

On the other hand this movement of piety, so ex-

clusively oriented to the central mystery of Christian-
ity, gave birth to extensions of a peripheral character
which could hold their ground only with difficulty. Bé-
rulle had stressed the childhood of the Godman, his
helpless childhood, as the first stage in his career and
the prime example of his self-effacement. Thus a
peculiar emphasis was laid on Christmas, to such an
extent that his disciples started to develop special de-
votions on the twenty-fifth day of each month in honor
of the Divine childhood. Jean Eudes (d.1680) brought
the idea a step further: A favorite theme of Bérulle’s
contemplation had been the life of Jesus as lived in
Mary. From the moment of his incarnation he had
been dwelling within her, determining her entire think-
ing and willing. This was now the chief feature of
Eudes’ piety. On one occasion he designated Jesus
simply as “the Heart of Mary.” In 1643 he introduced
into the Oratory, with the approval of his bishop, a
feast of the Heart of Mary. Later on, in 1673 —again as
the first to do so—he planned to add a feast of the
Heart of Jesus. Eventually he combined both hearts,
invoking both in a common greeting: “Hail most loving
Heart of Jesus and Mary.” The fairly numerous reli-
gious societies which unite in their titles both Sacred
Hearts draw their inspiration from this school of
thought. In another direction Bérulle’s ideas found a
154 Ch r i s t ia n Pray er Th ro ug h th e Ce n t u r i e s
fresh development in the so-called relationship of slave
(esclavage) to Mary, a type of piety which was at first
rejected by Rome but on further clarification was ap-
proved. Grignon de Montfort (d. 1716 ) regarded it as
the foremost means of assimilation with Christ and
spread it as True Devotion to Mary. It consisted in
doing everything through Mary, with Mary, in Mary
and for Mary.
There have been saints who under forms and im-
ages such as these gave expression to the love of God
which fired their hearts. Of similar high purpose are
those religious institutes which recognize in those holy
men and women models for their own striving. But we
can well understand that in their regard the Church
adopted at first a policy of reserve, and that viewers
from without who had no appreciation of the flame that
burnt within, became their severe critics. Also, it is
not difficult to discover in the origins of Bérulle’s
Oratory reasons why the movement was not attended
with greater success, due allowance being made for the
opposition it had to contend with owing to contempo-
rary circumstances. It was a form of piety which had
been structured on the mystery of the Incarnation in
too one-sided a fashion: The Easter mystery, the risen
Christ and the Church which he gathered about himself
are left on the fringe of its horizon. That “Farewell to
the Middle Ages” which Bremond prized in the
movement was not achieved.
10
Further Reflections

The centripetal efforts in the life of religious belief

at the beginning of the modern age had safeguarded,
systematized and further developed the valuable gains
inherited from tradition. But they failed to affect what
was most central, the liturgy. This remained a world
apart, sacral but inaccessible. In contrast to the Middle
Ages the Baroque period was at a disadvantage inas-
much as the multiplicity of forms which previously
was allowed a measure of free play had now been
largely stablized and found itself on the defensive.

Jansenism

The result was that the critics had plenty of areas

for their attacks. Bérulle’s theocentric piety in one of
its side developments had become involved with pes-
simistic notions current in certain of Augustine’s writ-
ings and had since 1640 developed into the Jansenist
heresy. This doctrine taught that man is incapable of
good; only by the greatest effort could he, with God’s
grace, hope for salvation. Hence a rejection of all
newer forms of piety that catered to human weakness
especially devotion to Mary and to the Sacred Heart,
and a call to return to primitive Christianity, as these
155
156 Ch r i s t ia n Pray er Th r o u g h th e Ce n t u r i e s
innovators interpreted it. In another direction, but
with a like rejection of later forms of piety, the
theocentric tendencies were driven to extremes by the
representatives of Quietism and the “Pure Love”
movement.

Catholic Extremes

Since the year 1652, within the Church itself, a

discussion was being carried on with reference to Ma-
rian devotion: On the one hand in order to defend it
against Jansenist attacks, and on the other to warn
against any exaggerated forms of it. From the latter
point of view a well-meant caution contained in the
writing of an unnamed “German Catholic” (1674) met
with opposition. It was the same with a criticism by the
famous Ludwig Anton Muratori who published in 1747
his “Balanced Devotion of a Christian.” Muratori con-
demns the many novel devotions which were con-
stantly cropping up and inveighs against the hagiog-
raphers who ascribe bogus miracles to the saints. He
attacks, too, the externalizing of religion, superstitious
practices (for example the placing of an image of Chris-
topher on the church wall), exaggerations in the hom-
age paid to Mary, the notion that every grace pre-
supposes a special intervention on her part, as held by
the “Slaves of Mary.” He sketches a picture of divine
worship in keeping with the basic tenets of Christian-
ity, points to the one mediator between God and man,
and offers an introduction to the proper manner of
joining in the Mass. He combines with all this many
practical counsels, for example the Sundays should
not be overlaid by saints’ feasts and there was need of
 Further Reflections 157
a popular prayer addressed to Christ. Muratori was
vigorously attacked in counter publications, despite
which Benedict XIV took the author under his protec-
tion.

Alphonsus Liguori

At about the same time, without being too critical

of existing conditions, and desirous of countering the
harshness and rigor of Jansenism, Alphonsus Liguori
sought, in his prayers, sermons and widespread writ-
ings, to foster among the Christian people an esteem
for prayer and for its zealous practice. His foremost
endeavor was to introduce, as material for reflection,
traditional themes like the Blessed Sacrament and the
Virgin Mother, and use these as a lever to raise the
faithful to.a genuine love of God. Muratori was well
versed in the old Roman liturgy. In France the liturgi-
cal tradition had been highlighted by the labors of the
Benedictines of St. Maurus, particularly by Mabillon
(d.1707) and Marténe (d.1739). As a result the main
features of divine service and piety as practiced in
early Christian times were disclosed; but at the same
time fresh weapons were put in the hands of critics of
the established order. The Gallican bishops had felt
justified, accordingly, in making various improve-
ments of their own in the traditional Roman liturgy.
From 1680 onward books of this new Gallican liturgy
made their appearance and gave gradual currency to it
in France. Some pastors, too, without demur based
their divine service on the newly discovered models
and without asking questions restored to their people
their share in prayer and chant.
158 C h r i s t i a n P r a y e r T h r o u g h t h e Ce n t u r ie s

German Enlightenment

In Germany also after the mid-eighteenth century

a vigorous criticism was raised against traditional
forms of piety and church service. It was determined
less by considerations of history; its origins lay rather
in the Enlightenment which had dominated the thought
of the period, chiefly on the Protestant side. While
vindicating the claims of reason, the movement was
pushed too far and led to an excessive rationalism, so
that all that remained of religion was a frigid Deism, for
which Christianity served as a cloak in the circles
which adhered to it still. The outward show which was
maintained in this way, coupled with the justifiable
claims of reason, resulted in the movement making
definite headway among leading circles of the clergy
and finding sympathetic support there. Thus it was in
the Electorates of West Germany and at the Synod of
Pistoia. The secular power then took a hand with
Josephinism, which not only suppressed the contem-
plative Orders within its jurisdiction but forcibly
abolished such manifestations of traditional piety as
were incorporated in pilgrimages, tertiaries and con-
fraternities.
Not all the objections of critical reason, however,
should be faulted. The positive ideas of reform, for
example, developed by the Pistoia Synod regarding
divine service anticipated in a whole series of points
reforms which were carried into effect in the Catholic
Church before the Second Vatican Council. Faulty,
however, was the rationalist approach of the move-
ment and its arbitrary mode of procedure; faulty its
biased views on doctrine and life in the Christian con-
text; faulty too was its irreverent attitude to estab-
 Further Reflections 159
lished forms of piety, even though these might have
been inadequate in the circumstances. On the other
hand, it was opportune to take cognizance of the rights
and laws of nature which were coming into greater and
greater prominence through a fresh scientific approach
and to find a place for them in the religious field as
well, checking by them the norms and forms of Church
liturgy and Church pronouncements, thus restoring to
corporate worship the leading position it once had in
the life of piety. It was indisputable that there was
much in popular piety, especially in the matter of pil-
grimages and the cult of the saints that not only lay on
the very periphery of Christian reality but also harked
back to a world view that postulated a continual inter-
vention of God in the details of our earthly pilgrimage,
an intervention, moreover, that was all too directly
linked with specific saints and sanctuaries. Given the
growing knowledge of nature processes, such a view
could no longer be sustained, indeed it was already out
of date with a large section of the Christian people.
It was a difficult situation for those men who could
appreciate the current situation. On the one hand they
were anxious to rise to the demands of the times, and
on the other they had to counter the inroads of ra-
tionalism. Not all of them succeeded in reaching a
balanced solution. Wessenberg, Vicar-general of Con-
stance during the years 1802-1813 lacked the poise
characteristic of his Dillingen teacher Johann Michael
Sailer (d. 1832). Though Wessenberg’s undoubted
merits were fully recognized, a critic described his
ideal as “classicism in the religious field” reminding
him of a church decorator who, in an elegant attempt
to cater to all tastes covers its walls with a dreary
uniform whitewash unrelieved by color, with nothing
160 Ch r i s t ia n Pr ay er Th r o u g h t he Ce n t u r i e s
for ornamentation but straight lines (C. Groeber).
Sailer without indulging overmuch in polemics, indica-
tes in his Pastoral Theology a sure path for priests in
care of souls and the possibility “in present circum-
stances” of bringing the faithful to an intelligent shar-
ing in the Sunday service (with the help of printed
translations, prayers to be recited aloud and suitable
hymns). The prayer books he composed were also of
assistance to simple souls: Omitting much redundant
matter they concentrated on the larger issues of Christ-
ian thinking and praying.

The Reaction: Traditionalism

Apart from the effects of its negative criticism the

age of Rationalism left few enduring traces as regards
religious belief. The revolution to which it gave birth
was an interlude which was followed by a reaction in
the literal sense of the word. Traditionalism which in
matters of religion refused to acknowledge any compe-
tence to the intellect and regarded tradition alone to be
valid was the theological expression of this reaction,
just as in the realm of art the Neo-Gothic and the
Nazarene group of painters were symptomatic of the
period. In the field of piety, then, in the nineteenth
century and beyond it, the current traditional devo-
tions, among others the cult of Mary and the worship
of the Blessed Sacrament and the Sacred Heart pre-
dominated. They were zealously fostered, given a
sound theological basis and evaluated as far as feasi-
ble. Each had its own month assigned it, without much
attention being paid to the ecclesiastical year.
 Further Reflections 161
The Rosary

The most popular expression of piety at this

period was devotion to the Mother of God. Leo XIII in
sixteen encyclicals and apostolic letters on the Rosary
sought to enhance the fruits of a devotion which in its
developed form reaches far beyond the Marian ele-
ment.

The Real Presence

The most august object of worship in a Catholic

church was the Blessed Sacrament preserved in the
tabernacle, exposed for adoration on the high altar and
raised aloft in blessing. It can be said in effect that,
generally speaking and without making many distinc-
tions, God’s presence and “God’s House” became
terms identical and co-extensive with one another. In
the numberless religious associations of Perpetual Ad-
oration which arose chiefly in the nineteenth century a
new laus perennis was ushered in, this time muted but
all the more interior. In them all, as in so many focal
points, the flames of divine love were enkindled. And
since the year 1881 International Eucharistic Congres-
ses have highlighted the glorification of the Blessed
Sacrament in a new way. At the Munich Congress in
1960 a telecast version of the programme was issued
for the first time, lending a broader basis to such inter-
national gatherings.
Devotion to the Heart of Jesus attained to its full
significance in the nineteenth century, as is evidenced
by the large number of new religious foundations
162 Ch r i s t ia n Pr ay er Th r o u g h th e Ce n t u r i e s
which emerged under that title. The spiritual im-
portance attached to the devotion is emphasized by
the practice of Consecration to the Sacred Heart
which reached a widespread popularity. In some par-
ticular forms like that of the Enthronement of the
Heart of Jesus a tendency is clearly evident to lend the
symbol of the Divine Heart the importance which the
cross had during the first millennium of the Christian
era.
Though the liturgy was duly celebrated with
punctilious accuracy, an attitude of reverent aloofness
was maintained in its regard. Aids to its accessibility,
however, increased in number toward the end of the
nineteenth century. The Holy Church Missal by An-
selm Schott, O.S.B., which appeared for the first time
in 1884 is typical of its kind. An effort was also made to
justify the claims and significance of Divine Service in
a foreign tongue and therewith the Latin choral prayer,
for the benefit of men and women ignorant of that
language.

Attempts at Reform

Prerequisites for a renewal of the liturgy itself and

for ensuring its central position in Christian life had
first to be created in the nineteenth century. And they
were in fact. Due to a revival of theology, based on
orthodox thinking and a sense of history, a secure
foundation was once more guaranteed for the faith in
order to combat the inroads of rationalism. Historical
studies, Christian archaeology and a return to the
Fathers brought tangibly nearer the life and piety of
the ancient Church. To combat unbelief a more intense
 Further Reflections 163
study of the sources, especially Sacred Scripture, was
imperative. The apostasy of entire sections of the
Christian population, especially those affected by ris-
ing industrialism, showed finally the absolute need of
re-examining forms and methods obtaining in church
life. More, it became clearer every day that the ac-
cepted order of things in many points was just that of
the Middle Ages and not at all an essential expression
of Christian revelation. Fundamental truths of the
supernatural order, like the mediation of Christ, the
Church as the people of God, the Mystical Body, grace
as a new life—all these had but a shadowy existence in
the consciousness of the average Catholic.
It was due to external circumstances that the
breakthrough occurred in the domain of the liturgy. It
could just as well have happened in that of the gospel-
proclamation, for instance, in the matter of catecheti-
cal reform. The renewed impetus given the liturgical
movement is linked with the Belgian Benedictine
Lambert Beauduin, a former worker-priest and with
the year 1909. It had a long pre-history: It started with
the renewal of monasticism and its concern for the
Opus Dei (the Office) inaugurated by abbot Prosper
Guéranger (d. 1875). Other factors intervened, like the
interest of academic circles in the soul-stirring render-
ing of the Choral Office in the abbeys, and a fresh
interpretation of the nature of the Church which was
the chief merit of the Catholic Tubingen school. The
movement coincided with the Catholic Youth Move-
ment during the period between the two World Wars. It
spread rapidly to the parishes, first by way of interest
in the prayers said by the priest at the altar, then by
way of sharing in prayer and hymn in a more or less
organized way, or in the case of church buildings in the
164 Ch r i s t ia n Pray er Th ro ug h t h e Ce n t u r i e s
form of new designs for church interiors and liturgical
vestments. In the Mediator Dei of 1947 the movement
scored its first if limited success. Then since 1950 and
definitively with the Constitution on the Liturgy of the
Vatican Council in 1963, the entire liturgy was reorga-
nized on a planned, conscious basis.

Clerical Piety

It was perhaps far from clear in the beginning that

this breakthrough in the liturgical sphere was bound to
be operative in the whole range of the sacred ministry
and the spiritual life. This was immediately true only of
a part of the liturgy reform, namely that concerning
clerical piety. In the Code of Canon Law (c.125)
clerics were expected to spend some time daily in men-
tal prayer, to visit the Blessed Sacrament and to honor
Mary by the recital of the Rosary, and all this in addi-
tion to the full Office in the form of the Roman Bre-
viary. If the cultivation of mental prayer in some form
or other has to be regarded as a must for the spiritual
life, what of the obligation of the Breviary? History
has made it clear that this latter, especially in its tradi-
tional range and form, spelt a burden suited, indeed,
for the shoulders of contemplative monks but not for
those of priests engaged in apostolic work.
If the obligation were to stand, then this Office
must be brought into harmony with conditions obtain-
ing among the clergy, thus ensuring its proper func-
tioning. For that the dialogue forms of choral prayer
(greetings, petitions for blessing and the like), forms
too which had significance only in sung parts, would
have to be dispensed with. The Breviary must be re-
 Further Reflections 165
düced to relevant proportions, and an arrangement of
the Horae be recognized which was in keeping with the
day’s press of work. Before all else a type of Breviary
had to be found which would enable the user to fulfill
his duty of praising God and to cater for his spiritual
nourishment and edification as well.
The importance of the Breviary itself and of the
Psalter in particular could not be called in question.
Since the close of the millennium, it is true, we find a
growing withdrawal from the psalmody as accepted
from the fourth century onward. But, as in the words
of the apostle, “we do not know how to pray as we
ought” (Rom 8:26), and as our human weakness has to
be buttressed in some form or other by prayers pre-
pared in advance, there remains no other guide, at
least for the cleric who can read, comparable with the
words of Scripture, especially those of the Psalter.
While in vocal prayer we dutifully follow the way it
leads us, we have the best ground for hoping that by
the word of God, offered us in wise discretion by the
Church, heartfelt prayer will be continually enkindled.
Still the decisive field in which an innovation was
bound to be introduced had relation to the
Eucharist—decisive for clergy and layfolk alike. And
here there was question of a changed attitude to the
mystery. Pride of place was now given the celebration
of the Eucharist (no longer its mere cult). The course
was already set in 1905 when Pius X issued his Decree
on Frequent and Daily Communion and asserted its
obvious necessity for the Christian life. This was now
stressed by the incorporation of Holy Communion in
the Mass itself. The homily was also reintroduced and
the faithful were brought closer to the altar by com-
munal prayer and chant and thus drawn into relation
166 Ch r i s t ia n Praye r Th ro ug h t h e Ce n t u r i e s
with the sacred event. The stage was reached when it
became clear that the Rite itself, and finally the lan-
guage of the Mass, must be adapted to the people of
God. Here the Council took the decisive steps.

Life of Prayer in the Modern Age

In the first centuries of Christianity, as we have

seen, the faithful had, apart from the celebration of the
Eucharist, an organized life of prayer, sanctioned by
the Church. This comprised the prayers said in their
homes as well as those said at church meetings. Does
this not suggest a norm which is valid for all time? The
Second Vatican Council mentions celebrations of the
Word of God which should be held with the people, at
least on certain days, for example those preparatory to
a feast day or introductory to Advent and Lent or sup-
plementary to and, in given circumstances, substituted
for the Sunday Mass. All this is a pointer to the revival
of what the Horae of Matins and Vespers recited by
the people stood for in ancient times and acts as a spur
to restore Vespers at least to a more popular form.
During the last centuries a call to prayer in the
home, to “daily prayers,” to morning and evening
prayers and prayer at meals, has been repeatedly is-
sued by pastors of souls. Pace the moral theologians,
they have made a sort of precept of it, as may be seen
in the formula for examining one’s conscience prior to
going to Confession. But a fixed schedule has not been
drawn up for daily prayer: This would be an impossible
task, given all the circumstances that have to be taken
into consideration and the variety of material that can
be offered. When, moreover, in Catholic countries the
 Further Reflections 167
Angelus Bell still rings out, as it used to over village
and city, three times a day, its call is only seldom
understood and answered in the traditional way.

Prayer Books

In modern centuries a support for the personal

prayer of the faithful, private prayer as well as com-
munal said at church gatherings, has invariably been
the Prayer Book. The variety in which these books
were issued increased, if possible, in the nineteenth
century. Then an effort was made to link them more
closely with the liturgy. This is manifest in the special
editions of Missals and Vesper Books brought out in
France for parish use, and in Germany in the Laymis-
sals already mentioned, which soon swamped all other
prayer books after the breakthrough of the liturgical
movement.
One type of prayer book alone vies in circulation
with the Laymissal, if it has not already passed it: the
diocesan Prayer-and-Hymn-Book proper to German
territory. Its origins date back to the eighteenth cen-
tury. Efforts within the Catholic Enlightenment to
push the liturgical movement had led to an intensified
fostering of musical chant during divine service. Start-
ing with the “Catholic Hymn Book” of Speyer (1768)
hymnals soon appeared, mostly in the dioceses of the
Rhineland, with supplements containing prayers suit-
able for afternoon devotions. Thus in the course of the
nineteenth century a Song-And-Prayer Book, or a
Prayer-and-Song book was issued at the instance of the
bishops in most of the dioceses. These ran into hun-
dreds and thousands of copies. And so the multiplicity
168 Ch r i s t ia n Praye r Th r o u g h t h e Ce n t u r i e s
of private prayer books, not all of them dictated by an
enlightened piety, yielded place to a single volume des-
tined to become the liturgical book of the faithful, one
which incidentally guaranteed church approval for
their private prayers. When in the years subsequent to
1930 the Liturgical Movement began to assert itself in
the very structure of the Book even a clearer diocesan
character was given it. For all intents and purposes it
now contained within its two covers everything
needed for divine service, at least on Sundays and
Holydays. Efforts were now chiefly aimed at the cre-
ation of a national Standard Prayer Book by selecting
elements common to the various diocesan prayer
books, which in any case had been oriented in a similar
direction.

Conditions Today

Christian prayer has had to face difficult shocks in

our day. Many of the factors which impelled our for-
bears to pray have lost their relevance. The laws of
nature rule the world. And God Himself is pushed out
to the furthest edge of reality, so that many regard
prayer as outmoded and redundant. A skepticism
which spares nothing and erodes the foundations of the
faith undermines even the desire to pray. Others, in
their satisfaction with the new order of things, have
adopted an attitude of caprice and indiscipline which,
likewise, can only end in religious impoverishment.
On the other hand prayer has also gone through a
refining process. The incense of adoration and thanks-
giving rises today all the purer from hearts that have
remained steadfast. Worshipers all the world over for-
 Further Reflections 169
gather in Holy Church with souls uplifted in the love of
the Spirit, to him who has gone before us and is our
Highpriest, in praise of the Creator whom in fullest
confidence we call our Father.
 There is a basic sameness in the way that
Christians, over the last two thousand years,
have raised their hearts and minds to God.
And yet there are dissimilarities, too. The
manners and methods o f prayer have
changed in different eras because people
have changed, their attitudes and sensibili-
ties have changed, their language, social
fab ric, and self-u n d erstan d in g have
changed.
In this concise, fascinating book, Joseph
Jungm ann reviews the way that Christian
habits of prayer have evolved from apostolic
times to the post-Tridentine era. It is a nar-
rative that links Christian faith and Chris-
tian culture in a rich and meaningful way.
The late Joseph Jungm ann has been
recognized as one of the most influential
church historians of this century. He was
also acclaimed as a liturgist, especially for
his book The Mass o f the Roman Rite. His
many readers will welcome Chnstian Prayer
Through the Centurìes, now translated into
English for the first time.

A DEUS BOOK
From Paulist Press
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