THE MONASTIC OBSERVANCE OF

THE REGULARIS CONCORDIA

By DOM THOMAS SYMONS

M U C H has been written in connection with the

tenth century monastic code known to us as
the Regularis Concordia Anglicae Nationis.1 So
far as I am aware, however, neither the actual observance
set out in the Concordia nor the relationship between
that code and the Rule upon which it was founded has
been dealt with in detail. It is proposed (a) to give
an account of the round of religious duties observed in
the monasteries of K. Edgar's reform, and (b) to show
how far this tenth century presentment of the monastic
life accorded with the manner of life instituted by St
Benedict. First of all, however, it may be well, even
at the risk of repeating much that has been said on the
matter, to recall a few of the main religious events of
the period and to set down some of the ideas of those
responsible for bringing about the reform.
It will be remembered that the beginnings of this
monastic revival were made by St Dunstan at Glaston-
bury in the last decade of the first half of the tenth
century. About the year 955 Abingdon was established
as a new reform centre by St Ethelwold, and some fifteen
years later, under K. Edgar, the monastic life had
taken firm hold in many parts of the country. Side by
side, however, with great external prosperity, it would
seem that a source of danger had been gradually creeping
in : things were going too fast, zeal was outweighing
1 See especially The Times of St Dunstan, by the Very Rev J. Armitage-
Robinson (Clarendon Press). Among smaller works dealing with the
English monastic movement of the tenth century may be mentioned
Rules for Monks and Canons by M. Bateson (Engl. Hist. Rev., Oct., 1894)
and two earlier articles of mine in the Downside Review, viz., Monastic
Reforms of K. Edgar (Jan. 1921, pp. 38ff,) and The Regularis Concordia
(Jan. 1922), pp. I5ff.)
! 8
5 The Downside Review
discretion and rivalry bid fair to end in discord. How-
far the state of things indicated in the Concordia 1
itself corresponds to fact it would be hard to say ; but
there can be no doubt that there was cause for alarm.
A remedy was needed, and thus it came about that at
a synodal council, held at Winchester about the year
970, it was decided to co-ordinate the practices of the
different monasteries and to draw up a code of regulations
—the Regularis Concordia—binding upon all.
Two things with regard to the actual monastic life
come out with special clearness in the Concordia : a
scrupulous adherence to the prescriptions of the Rule
of St Benedict on the one hand, and, on the other, the
addition to the Monastic Office of a mass of devotions
forming, it might almost be said, a second Office. A
return to the literal interpretation of the Rule, always
one of the aims of reform, has never been in the nature
of a practical possibility ; and our Saxon forbears, with
all their zeal for the Rule itself, saw clearly the need
of adapting their monastic ideals to the differences,
social, geographical, and national, of their time and
condition. Hence it was that they supplemented the
ordinances of the Rule both by retaining what seemed
to them best in the customs of their own land and by
introducing from abroad such practices as they thought
fit, thus shewing their reverence for the past and their
recognition of the necessity of keeping in touch with
the flow of living tradition. It was not the mere letter
of the Rule that Dunstan, Ethelwold and their helpers
wished to put before the English monks, but the best
way of carrying out that Rule. This involved their
acceptance of much that had happened in the four
centuries or so since the days of St Benedict as necessary
development. Take for example the great number of
1 See the first few paragraphs of the Proemium to the Regularis Con-
cordia : Migne P.L., cxxxvii, 475 f.
 The Regularis Concordia *59
devotional practices which formed part of the normal
Benedictine observance of the day and which had largely-
taken the place of the older manual labour. These are
all to be found in the Concordia, to a great extent,
indeed, adapted to the needs of the English character
and at times assuming a form unique in their day : the
special forms of the so-called Trina Oratio and the
prayers for the Royal House are excellent examples in
point. The tendency to add elaboration to elaboration 1
was, of course, recognised, and the Concordia forbids any
further addition to its prescriptions without synodal
sanction. The need for liberty, too, is emphasised in
this regard, many customs being put forward with such
guarded expressions as " si ita placuerit," " qui voluerit,"
thus providing a loophole of escape for those who might
regard them with disapproval. And there may have
been many such—men who looked back on the first
simple days of the reform with regret for subsequent
developments. Some such thoughts may have been
even in Dunstan's mind when, in exile at Ghent, then
in all the fervour of its recent reform, he recalled with
tears the simplicity and devotion of the life—celsitudo
religionis—he had left behind him at his beloved Glaston-
bury. And yet his was the master hand destined a few
years later to be ultimately responsible for the last, as
it was for the first, stages of the newly awakened monas-
ticism of his own land. It has been suggested that the
greatest Englishman of his day allowed himself to be
over-ruled in a matter that came closer perhaps than
any other to his heart. But we need not revive an old
controversy ; more than any other, Dunstan must have
known that his work could not remain in the condition
of its infancy, and it is in the Concordia, I think, that
we may see something of the stature to which he wished
the reform to grow. His policy, and that of his helpers,
1 See below p. 10, n. 8 for an example.
 The Downside Review
was justified by the immense popularity and far-reaching
influence of the movement. It had its day, of course,
and if it had also its period of decline, under the political
difficulties that came in ever increasing pressure from
the days of Ethelred onward, it had done a work which
not even the religious disturbances of later days could
wholly undo.

(a)—THE DAILY MONASTIC ROUTINE.

The Regularis Concordia is as explicit a document as

one could expect to find in its day ; indeed it is consider-
ably more detailed, especially on points connected with
monastic as distinct from liturgical observances, than
many consuetudinaries of a later date. But even the
Concordia is full of difficulties ; so much is taken for
granted with regard to what was then a living thing ;
there are so many apparent contradictions, so many
factors that we cannot control. No attempt, therefore,
will be made in this section to deal with anything
beyond the daily routine just as it is given in the Con-
cordia, excluding, that is to say, the special periods of
Advent, Christmas, Lent, Passiontide, Easter and Pen-
tecost. This is a somewhat difficult task; for we find
no clear account of the two timetables of the monastic
life, the one for summer, the other for winter. There
is, however, a very full description1 of the daily duties
as carried out from the Kalends of October to those of
November, an intermediate period, divided partly on
the summer, partly on the winter principle. This will
be followed here.
The Concordia begins the " Order to be observed
throughout the year " with the reminder that, on rising
for the night office (Nocturns, the modern Matins),
God's blessing is to be asked by making the sign of the
i Ch. i.
 l61
The Regularis Concordia
cross in honour of the holy Trinity. Sleeping as they
probably did in their habits—according to the Rule of
St Benedict—little time was spent by the monks in
getting up. As each did so he recited privately the
versicle Doming labia mea aperies and the short psalm,
Deus in adiutorium meum intende.1 Next, on his way
to the Opus Dei, he would say the psalm, Ad te, Domine,
levavi animam meant.2 Then, entering the church with
the greatest reverence so as to disturb no one else, he
would kneel down in his accustomed place and " with
heart rather than with lips pour forth prayer in God's
sight." U p to this point the Concordia has simply
quoted verbatim from an ancient writing called the
Ordo Qualiter3 ; here, however, the one simple collect
of the Ordo is worked into the special devotion which
went by the name of Trina Oratio*— a form of threefold
prayer in honour of the Trinity. This was a develop-
ment of one of the practices introduced at the beginning
of the ninth century, by Benedict of Aniane, and seems
to have formed a part of the general observance of
tenth century monasticism, though nothing quite like
the English custom appears anywhere else. The Trina
Oratio took place three times daily : before Nocturns,
before Terce (in winter) or after Matins (in summer),
and after Compline. Before Nocturns it consisted of
the seven penitential psalms,5 the first three being
followed by the above-mentioned collect of the Ordo
Qualiter, said for the monk himself, the next two by a

2
I Ps. lxix. Ps. xxiv.
3 For the text of the Ordo Qualiter see Albers Consuetudines Monasticae
i i i ; Hergott Vetus Disciplines Monastica, etc. This document dates
a t latest from the end of the eighth century ; unfortunately little is known
of it beyond the fact t h a t it was drawn up for the use of some Benedictine
monastery. It does not appear in either of the great collections of
Benedict of Aniane, the Concordia Regularum and the Codex Regularum.
* See my Note on Trina Oratio in the Downside Review, Jan. 1924,
p p . 67.
S Pss. vi, xxxi, xxxvii, 1, ci, exxix, cxlii.
 The Downside Review
collect for the King, Queen and Benefactors, the last
two by one for the faithful departed.
Meanwhile the " pueri," oblates, as we should call
them to-day, were entering the church with their
master. As soon as all were there, the first signal for
Nocturns, which had been ringing continuously, ceased.
The " pueri " then proceeded to carry out their Trino
Oratio together while the monks entered the stalls and,
at the second signal for Nocturns, began the recitation
of the fifteen Gradual psalms1 in three groups of five
psalms with a genuflection after each group. This is
another practice of common observance that can be
traced to the reform of Benedict of Aniane, though at
Aniane in the ninth century, and almost everywhere
in the tenth, an additional fifteen psalms2 were said in
winter. When all these preliminaries were over the
third signal, consisting of those bells which had not yet
been rung, was given and Nocturns were begun. This
Office being celebrated according to the Rule of St
Benedict is not described in detail; in connection with
it, however, we may notice a custom mentioned by
the Concordia when dealing with the office of the Circa,3
a monk whose duty it was to enforce the discipline of
the monastery. This official went about the choir with
a lantern during the third lesson on ferial days4, or the
last lesson of each Nocturn on feast days, to see if the
brethren were attentive. If he found a monk sleeping,
he placed the lantern before him and retired to his stall.
Awakened by the light, the sleeper had first to make
1 Pss. cxix, . . . cxxxiii.
2 i.e., to the end of the Psalter.
3 Chap, vii
4 In winter o n l y ; in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict there
were no lessons on summer ferias. Thirty years or so after the Concordia
was written we find Aelfricin his Letter to the monks of Eynsham expressing
his pleasure t h a t a t Eynsham three lessons were being read on week-days
in summer and winter alike (Hants Record Society, 1892, p. 196.) The
point had been disputed since the days of Warnfrid : see his letter to
Charlemagne (Albers Cons. Monast. iii, pp. 52 f.)
 l6
The Regularis Concordia 3
satisfaction on his knees and then to continue the round
of the choir, placing the lantern before any brother
found dozing, just as had been done to himself by the
Circa. And so, according to the length of the lesson,
the lantern was passed on from one inattentive brother
to another. Almost exactly the same custom is found
in the ancient fragment of monastic customs connected
with Verdun and in the Treves and Einsiedeln recensions
of the Consuetudines Germaniae, all of them representing
an observance more or less contemporary with that of
the Concordia.
Nocturns were followed by yet more devotions : the
psalms Domine ne in furore1 for the King and Exaudiat
te Deus* for the Queen and Benefactors, with a collect
for the King, one for the Queen and another for the
King, Queen and Benefactors. Next, after the short
interval till daybreak, prescribed by the Rule, came
Matins of the day (the modern Lauds), the psalms
Miserere, Beati quorum and Inclina Domine3 with collects
and versicles for the King, Queen and Benefactors,
anthems of Holy Cross, Our Lady, and of the Patron
Saint of the place. The brethren then went in pro-
cession to another chapel (porticus) singing on their
way an anthem in honour of the saint to whom it was
dedicated ; there they recited Matins of All Saints and
Matins of the Dead. If by that time the day had broken,
the office of Prime was said immediately, other-
wise there was an interval during which the monks
might exercise their private devotions until, at daybreak,
the signal was given and all assembled in choir for Prime.
This was followed by the psalms Domine ne in furore,
Miserere mei Deus* with versicles and collects against
fleshly temptation and for departed brethren, the psalm
Inclina Domine? the seven penitential psalms, a short
form of litany—said prostrate, the Lord's Prayer, the
psalm In te Domine speravi6, and, lastly, some unspecified
versicles and collects.
1 Ps. vi. 2 Ps. xix. 3 Pss. 1, xxxi, lxxxv.
* Pss. xxxvii, 1. 5 Ps, lxxxv. 6 Ps. lxx.
L
J
°4 The Downside Review
Here we may pause a moment to remark that the
extra offices and devotions of the Concordia were not
greater in amount than those found elsewhere at the
time, certain practices—that, for example, of adding to
the fifteen psalms said in summer immediately before
Nocturns another fifteen in winter—being discreetly
left alone by the English reformers. What is particu-
larly English is that so large a proportion of these
devotions was offered for the King—two psalms with
collects said after each portion of the Opus Dei, Prime
alone excepted, as well as after the conventual Mass—
sixteen psalms in all—not to mention the middle section
of the Trina Oratio before Nocturns as well as the
Matin Mass, when said for the King. The reference
earlier in the Concordia to " those prayers which, usu
patrum, we are accustomed to say for the King and
Benefactors " shows that the practice was no new one.
Their early morning devotions over, the brethren
occupied themselves " until the second hour "—roughly,
eight o'clock—in the reading prescribed by the Rule.
A bell was then rung and the monks went to the dor-
mitory to put on their day shoes, none but the
" ministers " of the Matin Mass being allowed to do
this before the signal was given—a curious piece of
discipline, found also in the earliest known Cluniac
Consuetudinaries. After this the boys with their masters
and the Abbot and, apart from them, the rest of the
brethren, washed their hands and faces, " sanctifying
their actions," says the Concordia in its usual elaborate
style, " with psalms and prayers." All being ready, the
monks went to the church for the second Trina Oratio
of the day.1 On the entry of the " pueri," the Aedituus,
or sacristan, gave the first signal for the office of Terce
upon which the boys too said the Trina Oratio. All
then went to their places in choir, the second bell was
l No details of this are given.
 l6
The Regularis Concordia 5
rung and Terce, the Psalms Usquequo Domine and
Miserere met Domine, miserere mei,1 and the usual collects
for the King, Queen and Benefactors were sung. At
the Matin Mass which followed, the monks of the right
hand of the choir " made the offering " on Mondays,
those of the left hand side " offering " at the principal
Mass ; on Tuesdays the reverse was done, and so forth
to the end of the week. It is interesting to find the
same custom in the Consuetudines Germaniae. Inci-
dentally, the Matin Mass was said either for the King,
as had been stated, or for any pressing need.
We now come to a very important item in the daily
life of the monks, the Chapter consisting of readings
and prayers2 followed by the public confession and
correction of offences against monastic discipline. The
section is based on the description of chapter given
in the Ordo Qualiter.3 On the signal being given,
the monks went in procession to the Chapter House
(Capitulum) where, turning to the east, they bowed
to the Cross and to one another. When all were seated,
the Martyrology was read ; then, standing, the brethren
recited the prayers referred to above from the Pretiosa in
conspectu Domini down to the end of the collect Dirigere
et sanctificare, adding to this the versicle Deus in adiu-
torium meum intende. They then sat down again for
the reading of the Rule of St Benedict on ordinary
days, or, on festivals, of the Gospel of the day, on which
the abbot gave a short homily. What is now called
" Chapter of Faults " followed immediately ; any monk
who was conscious of having committed a breach of
discipline or who was accused of some misdeameanour
1 Pss. xii, lvi.
2 Merged later in the Office of Prime (Monastic Breviary.)
3 This explains inter alia, why the Abbot is here called " p r i o r , " a
title that appears in the Rule but which was by the end of the t e n t h
century applied to the "senior d e c a n u s " or, as we should say to-day, t h e
Claustral Prior.
*66 The Downside Review
by one of the officials of the monastery, asking pardon
on his knees. Examples of the kind of accusation made
are given in the seventh chapter of the Concordia.
There the Circa is instructed to point out at chapter
any monk observed by him to have been " accidiosus
aut alicui vanitati deditus "—negligent at the prayers
and offices or wasteful of his time ; there also he is
ordered to bring to the chapter any clothes or books
that had been left about, so that the responsible parties
might claim them and make satisfaction for their careless-
ness. On the abbot asking a monk the cause for which
he was on his knees, he was to answer Mea culpa even
if unjustly accused—any attempt at self-defence being
regarded as an offence against humility and as an admission
of guilt ; he might then admit or deny the charge
brought against him. Nothing is said of the punish-
ments inflicted, the Concordia being content to quote
the words of the Ordo Qualiter to the effect that " the
more humbly a monk admits his fault, the more leniently
is he to be dealt with by the abbot."
The Chapter, as carried out in monasteries of the
tenth and later centuries was unknown in St Benedict's
day ; nevertheless it appears in Warnefrid's Commentary
on the Rule, of the last quarter of the eighth century.
Its origin is probably to be found in St Benedict's own
prescription that one or more of the senior monks should
be deputed to watch over the externals of discipline and
to secure the punishment of offenders against it. 1 We
may note that the Concordia practice is the primitive
religious exercise of Warnefrid and the Ordo Qualiter—
quite a different thing from the harsh discipline of the
Chapter that found favour in some monasteries of a
later age.

i Rule of St. Benedict xlviii, 39 (ed. Butler)).

 The Regularis Concordia 167
Here we may digress for a moment with the Concordia.
On Sundays the order of Terce, Matin Mass and Chapter
was reversed, " so as to allow time for the brethren to
go to confession." It is not easy to see how this extra
time could have been gained unless, perhaps, the principal
Mass (preceded immediately by the Matin Mass, Terce,
and the Asperges) was celebrated later than on weekdays.
As, however, in his abridgement of the Concordia,1
written about the year, iooo, Aelfric directs the abbot
to hear confessions after Prime, we may assume that
confessions took place during the time allotted to reading.
Even the " pueri," " untroubled though they be," says
the Concordia, " by temptations " were encouraged to
confess ; and if there were too many penitents for the time
available, those who had been unable to make their
confession on the Sunday were to do so on the following
day. Moreover any monk was to be given the oppor-
tunity of confessing as often as he should require.
The Sunday Matin Mass was followed by the Asperges,
a solemn processional blessing of the cloister (i.e. the
monastic buildings2—officina) with holy water. Then
came Terce, psalms and collects for King, Queen and
Benefactors, and the principal Mass—always of the
Trinity on Sundays—during which the monks went to
Communion, as indeed they were exhorted to do daily.
The paragraph on the subject of daily Communion is
of sufficient interest to be given in full : " Let the
brethren bear in mind the words of St Augustine, in his
book Of the Sayings of the Lord, that in the Lord's prayer
we ask not for yearly but for daily bread ; and that a
Christian is as likely never to receive the Bread of Life,
that is to say the Body and Blood of Christ, as to partake

1 Hants Rec. Soc, 1892, p. 176

2 Cp. the prayer said to-day a t the Asperges before Mass on Sundays :
" Exaudi nos Domine sancte . . . qui custodiat, foveat, protegat, visitet,
atque defendat omnes habitantes in hoc habitaculo. . . . "
 The Downside Review
of it but once in the year. ' So live,' he says, ' that
you may deserve to receive daily ; he who does not
deserve to receive daily, will never deserve to receive.'
Nevertheless, those who are invited to the Lord's Supper
must, if conscious of sin, beware of approaching the
Sacrament without confession and repentance, lest they
turn the Food of Life into damnation unto them,
according to the words of the Apostle, ' not discerning
the Body of the L o r d . ' "
The passages cited by the Concordia as being from
St Augustine are in reality partly a paraphrase, partly
a verbatim quotation from the De Sacramentis2 of
Pseudo Ambrose. Their use here is of interest as
witnessing to the importance attached by the monastic
leaders to the practice of daily Communion. In view
of this it is curious to find Aelfric quoting from this very
section and yet prescribing Communion for the monks
of Eynsham on Sundays and Feastdays only.3
Mass was followed by the psalms Exaudiat te Dominus
and Ad te levavi animam mean* for the King, Queen
and Benefactors. After these, all remained in choir
except the " Ministers," i.e. the weekly reader and
servers, who went to the refectory to take the " mixtum "
or light refreshment allowed by the Rule, since they
would have to wait for their meal until the brethren had
finished theirs. On their return to choir, Sext, with
the psalms Deus misereatur and Domine exaudi5 and the
usual collects for the King, Queen and Benefactors, was
sung and then the whole community went to the refectory
for the first, and the chief, meal of the day.
At this point the Concordia goes back to the weekday
arrangements, that is to say, to the five psalms Verba
mea, Domine ne in furore, Dilexi quoniam, Credidi, and

1 I Cor. xi, 29. 2 Lib. V cap. iv, 25.

3 Letter to the monks 0/ Eynsham (Hants Rec. Soc. 1892, p. 176.)
* Pss. xix, cxxii. 5 Pss. lxvi, ci.
 l6
The Regularis Concordia 9
De profundis1 said after the chapter for dead members
of the house. When these were finished, a signal was
given with the " tabula " for the daily manual labour.
On feasts of twelve lessons there was no manual labour;
at the sound of the tabula the abbot said Benedicite and
the monks answered Dominus, nothing being said as
to what was done in place of the work. Presumably the
day was given up to devotion and to spiritual reading,
for silence reigned throughout the monastery on feast
days (and probably on Sundays), while recreation, as
understood now-a-days, is not so much as mentioned
in the Concordia. On ordinary days, of course, the
manual labour prescribed by the Rule took place, or
rather as much of it as the celebration of the daily
Matin Mass, Chapter and the Principal Mass—all
unknown to the beginnings of Benedictinism—allowed.
The " r i t u a l " connected with the performance of
manual labour is based on that of the Ordo Qualiter.
The Deus in adiutorium meum intende was said three
times by the " prior," the monks repeating the same
words after him together with the Gloria Patri, Pater
Noster and Adiutorium nostrum in nomine Domini. Each
monk then worked at whatever he had been told to do,
accompanying his work with the recitation of the Roman
Office (canonici cursus) or the psalter. As soon as the
signal was given for the ministers of the principal Mass
to vest, all hastened to the church doors where they said
three times the Benedictus es Domine Deus, Gloria, Pater,
Adiutorium nostrum and Propitius sit nobis ; thereupon
the ministers went to vest while the remainder of the
community sang the office of Sext, the psalms and collects
for the Royal House and a litany, after which the Cantor
intoned the Introit of the Mass (officium missae). On
Fridays this Mass was always of Holy Cross and on
Saturdays of Our Lady, a custom derived, says Edmund
1 Pss. v, vi, cxiv, cxv, cxxix.
l
7° The Downside Review
Bishop, " doubtless from Alcuin, whose own prescription,
it can hardly be doubted, was based on the devotion of
the Anglo-Saxon Church before his days." 1
The chief meal was preceded by None with the psalms
Qui regis Israel and De profundis2 and the collects for
the King, Queen and Benefactors. The time from after
dinner until Evensong was spent in reading or in studying
the psalms, as ordered by the Rule, or, on occasions, in
manual labour, in which case the tabula was sounded
and the work carried out as already described.
Whilst the bell was ringing for Evensong, all sat in
their places in choir, the juniors occupied with spiritual
reading, the seniors with their private devotions. The
office was followed by the psalms, Miserere, Benedixisti
Domine and Domine exaudi,3 and the usual collects for
the King, Queen and Benefactors, the anthems of Holy
Cross, Our Lady and the Patron Saint of the place
(as after Matins), together with Evensong of All Saints
and Evensong and Vigils of the Dead. All then went
to the dormitory to put on their night shoes for the
special silence lasting until the end of the next day's
Chapter. From the dormitory they went to the re-
fectory for supper and thence to the " collatio," or
reading of some spiritual book, which, as in the Rule,
immediately preceded the office of Compline.
On Saturday the arrangements after Evensong with
its additional devotions were special. First came the
" munditiae " of the Rule, the brethren washing their
feet, shoes, stockings and clothes. Next, apparently,
the evening meal (pocula) was served. Then the
Adiutorium nostrum in nomine Domini was said by the
" prior," the brethren answering Qui fecit coelum et
terram, the tabula was sounded and the ceremony of
washing the feet of the incoming and outgoing ministers
1 Liturgica Historica, p. 226, n. 1. 2 Pss. lxxix, cxxix.
3 Pss. 1, lxxxiv, cxlii.
 l 1
The Regularis Concordia 7
carried out as ordered by the Rule ; last of all came
the " caritas " or light refreshment. Besides this weekly
" maundy " of the ministers there was a daily washing
of the feet of three poor men, chosen from among those
dependent on the monastery. On Saturday this was
performed by the boys of the left hand side of the choir
accompanied by one of the masters, and on Sunday by
those of the right hand side accompanied by the other ;
for the remainder of the week the work was divided
among the brethren. No one was excused from this
service, even the abbot being exhorted to assist at it as
often as he was able. We are not told when the daily
Maundy was carried out, but since the Treves recension
of the Consuetudines Germaniae, containing the same
custom of deputing the Maundy to the " pueri " on
Saturday and Sunday, adds that it should take place
after Vigils of the Dead, it may be safe to suggest that
in England the same time was observed.
To the office of Compline were added the psalms
Miserere, Deus in adiutorium and Levavi oculos meos*
with the collects for the King, Queen and Benefactors,
and the third Trina Oratio of the day, said first by the
" pueri " and then by the brethren. The first division
of this Trina Oratio consisted of the psalms Usquequo
Domine and Iudica me Deus2 ; the next, of the psalms
Deus misereatur nostri and Nisi Dominus3; the third, of
the psalm De pro/undis4 ; each division was followed by
the Kyrie, Pater, versicles and collect. This form of
the devotion, like that before Nocturns, is quite different
from any found elsewhere.
After being sprinkled with holy water by the " Heb-
domadarius," or weekly officiant, the monks were free
either to retire to rest or to remain at their private
prayers until the Aedituus gave the signal for closing
the church doors. Lastly, when all were in bed, the
dormitory itself was sprinkled with holy water " propter
illusiones diabolicas."
1 Pss. 1, lxix, cxx. 2 Pss. xii, xlii. 3 Pss. lxvi, cxxvi. 4 Ps. cxxix
(To be concluded).