highest devotional tone. The principal poem is full of deep and true teaching, and is at the same time the conception of a pure and refined imagination, expressed with a quaint simplicity which adds not a little to the charm. Of the devotional pieces generally we cannot speak too highly; and we feel sure the book will be a Christmas treat to many of our readers. As a specimen of the style, we subjoin a stanza from the "Prince's Progress:"

"We never heard her speak in haste;
Her tones were sweet,

And modulated just as much

As it was meet:

Her heart sat silent through the noise
And concourse of the street.
There was no hurry in her hands,
No hurry in her feet;

There was no bliss drew nigh to her
That she might run to greet.

You should have wept her yesterday,
Wasting upon her bed;

But wherefore should you weep to-day
That she is dead?

Lo, we who love weep not to-day,
But crown her royal head;

Let be these poppies that we strew-
Your roses are too red;

Let be these poppies, not for you

Cut down and spread."-Pp. 29, 30.

A sermon entitled Christ our Ideal, (Rivingtons,) preached before the University of Oxford by the Rev. V. C. KNIGHT, divested of its metaphysical character, seems to us simply the Socinian view of looking to CHRIST only as an example, "to the satisfaction of the Reason."

We gladly welcome a tract by the Rev. LUKE RIVINGTON, entitled The Inward Part or Thing Signified in the Lord's Supper, (Oxford, Mowbray.) It is only in this way, we are persuaded, "here a little and there a little," that people can be made to understand what the Prayer Book really teaches.

Mr. BRETT has supplied another useful manual of devotions for the young under the inadequate title of The Office of the Most Holy Name, (Rivingtons.) In addition to the "Office" itself, which perhaps requires some training on the part of young persons to appreciate, there are Prayers for Morning and Evening, Holy Communion, and Special Seasons.

Those who are acquainted with the first part of Mrs. Alexander's popular Hymns for Little Children, set to music by E. C. A. CHEPMELL, will be glad to know that six more have been published. (Masters.)

As usual we recommend The Churchman's Diary (Masters) as being in a small compass the best Almanack and Directory.

49

THE ENGLISH CALENDAR.

PREFIXED to our Book of Common Prayer is the Calendar, a portion of the book which has attracted comparatively little attention, and as to the derivation and formation of which, but scanty information is to be found in ordinary books of reference. An examination of our Calendar is, however, fraught with interest; it adds another evidence to the countless ones to be met with in the Book of Common Prayer, that our Church is no creation of yesterday, dates not simply from the era of Henry VIII., but is a true branch of the Church Catholic, reformed, it is true, from many errors and abuses in modern days, but not therefore the less the old Church of England, which has stood from the days of S. Augustine, nay, rather from the days of the Apostles.

Before entering, however, on the examination of our own Calendar as it at present stands, it may be well to say a few words on the general history of the subject.

The Apostles, and those who followed in their steps, went forth to preach among heathen nations the religion of CHRIST; they met with opposition in their work, and many of these early labourers counted not their lives dear unto themselves, but willingly rendered them up when called upon to do so in the service of their LORD. Others there were who, whilst they did not seal their testimony with their blood, yet suffered cheerfully in their Master's cause, gave up for Him all they possessed in this world, were content to meet shame, loss, imprisonment, persecution, in witnessing for JESUS. Foremost in the noble band of martyrs and confessors were the Apostles themselves, followed by Apostolic men, such as Clement of Rome, Polycarp, Ignatius, and others.

It is but natural to suppose that the early Church was anxious to chronicle the names of these its earliest and noblest servants, natural that she should desire to point her children to the glorious witness of these men for the SAVIOUR, and to the example which their lives and deaths afforded. We find, as a matter of fact, from Eusebius (Eccl. Hist. iv. 15,) that the Church commemorated martyrs at any rate as early as the martyrdom of Polycarp A.D. 186. The fact of commemoration would necessarily require some record of the days on which the martyrs suffered. The earliest form in which these records were preserved was on a Diptych (dinTuxov) or double tablet of wood or ivory, bearing on the one leaf the names of the holy martyrs, confessors, and virgins; on the other, those of the blessed dead who had been in life members of the particular Church to which the Diptych belonged.1

Thus the Church was at a very early period in possession of 1 Beckius, Martyrol. Ecclesiæ Germanicæ, p. 3, 4to, 1687.

VOL. XXIX.-FEBRUARY, 1867.

H

Fasti of its own, in which were inscribed the names of those who, in their day and generation, had done the Church good service.

In the third century Tertullian, in his book de Corona Militis, makes mention of these records.1

"Coronatur," says he, "et vulgus nunc ex principalium proprietatum exultatione, nunc ex municipalium solennitatum proprietate; et est omnis publicæ lætitiæ Luxuria captatrix. Sed tu peregrinus es mundi hujus, civis supernæ Jerusalem. Noster inquit (Apostolus ad Phil. iii.) Municipatus in cœlis. Habes tuos Census, tuos Fastos."

The earliest document of the kind which has come down to our own days is a Calendar of the Church of Rome, composed probably towards the middle of the fourth century, under Pope Liberius, possibly as early as 336, under Julius. This contains Pagan as well as Christian festivals, which latter were then very few in number.2 It is printed by Bourchier or Bucherius in his Commentary on the Paschal Cycle (Antwerp, 1634.)

In the fifth century flourished S. Jerome, and to him a martyrology is ascribed. This is of interest, as it probably forms the foundation of the earliest Calendar in existence, in connection with our own Church, that of the Venerable Bede.3

Polemius Silvius, in 448, composed a Calendar at Rome, to which he gave the name of Laterculum; it was addressed to S. Eucherius, Bishop of Lyons, and like the Roman Calendar already referred to, contained both heathen and Christian festivals.4

The next Calendar in point of antiquity is one of the Church of Carthage, bearing date 483, and published by Mabillon in his Vet. Analect. p. 163. (Fol. Paris, 1723.) It commences "xiii. kal. Maias, martyris Mappalici," i.e., April 19, and ends “xiiii. kal. Mart." or Feb. 16. The MS. is preserved in the Abbey of S. Germain des Prés.5

Many other examples might be cited, and those who desire to study this portion of the subject more fully may find many such early documents in the sixth volume of Martene's Collection of ancient writers, and also much interesting information as to the authors of early martyrologies in Beckius, Martyr. Eccles. Germ. § 2, pp. 4-22.

Those already referred to above are, however, sufficient to show how careful was the early Church that some memorial should be preserved of her martyrs and confessors. In these Fasti the names of martyrs were placed against the day on which they suffered, which was known as their birth-day (dies natalis ;) the name of confessors against the day of their departure out of this world, known as Depositio, pausatio, dormitio, &c. As each Church, in

1 Beckius, p. 1.
3 Hampson, i. 390.
Hampson, i. 390.

2 Hampson, Medii Ævi Kalendarium, i. p. 389. 4 Hampson, i. 390. Beckius, p. 2. Annotated Book of Common Prayer, p. [36.

early days, had those amongst its own immediate members who had borne witness for CHRIST by their death or by their sufferings, so, from the earliest times, each Church has had its own Martyrology or Calendar. But still these documents, though possessing a peculiar character of their own, testify to the oneness of CHRIST'S Body, the Church, by celebrating with one consent Apostles, martyrs of apostolic times, and even those of later days, who had in an especial manner by holiness of life, untiring labour, or glorious death, earned the gratitude and love of the Church Universal.

That our own Church has been no exception to this rule subsequent remarks will show. The earliest national Calendar which remains to us is the one printed by Martene (Vet. Scrip. vi. 635,) under the title of Calendarium Floriacense, and attributed by him, and as it appears with good reason, to the Venerable Bede.1

This eminent saint died at Jarrow on the Eve of the Ascension,2 May 26, 735, so that this Calendar, if rightly attributed to him, must at any rate date from the earlier part of the eighth century. In it are one or two indications of Eastern influence which are interesting in connection with the Eastern origin of the early British Church. It is true these indications are but few and feeble, but they are as many as could well have been expected, especially when we remember that as to the days devoted to the Apostles and some of the more distinguished saints, the Eastern and Western branches of the Church were at one. This at once narrows the field of comparison materially, and in addition it must be remembered that the hundred years and more, which had elapsed since the coming of S. Augustine in 596, had given ample time for the introduction and wide adoption of Roman rites and formulæ, and had tended to obliterate in great measure the traces of the more ancient Church of our Island.

The special indications in Bede's Calendar to which reference is made are as follows:-The observation of the 9th of March, as the day devoted to the forty holy martyrs, agreeing in this with the Eastern Church, but differing from the Roman which commemorated them on the 10th of the same month. The commemoration of the Invention of the Cross, not on May 3 as in the Western Church, but on May 7 as in the Eastern. The dedication of August 25 to S. Bartholomew, the day of the Translation of that saint in the Eastern Church instead of August 24, the day given to him by the Western. The devoting September 24 to the Conception of S. John the Baptist, a festival not to be found in the Roman Calendar, but observed on this day in the Eastern Church. This festival is to be found in another early English Calendar of the eleventh

1 Ann. Book of Common Prayer, p. [36. See also the Calendar itself, as printed in the first column of the Comparative View, &c. Pp. 38]-60].

2 Or rather on Ascension Day itself, May 26, 735, being a Thursday. See N. and Q., 3rd series, x. 514.

century, (that afterwards cited as A,) and also in the very curious ancient German martyrology, edited by Beckius, and which agrees also with Bede in devoting March 9 to the commemoration of the forty martyrs, and December 17 to S. Ignatius. Again; in December, SS. Ignatius and Eugenia are celebrated by Bede, who, in this, corresponds with Eastern usage and differs from that of Rome, which ascribes February 1 to S. Ignatius, and does not, as far as the present writer has been able to discover, commemorate S. Eugenia in the Calendar.

But, besides this Calendar of Bede, there are many others of very early date preserved in England.

Of these we propose to refer to seven, which seem to be possessed of great interest, two of which, it will be seen, are of slightly earlier date than the production by S. Osmund in 1085 of the series of service-books known as the Salisbury Use, one is probably almost contemporaneous with that work; one belongs to the twelfth century; another to the early part of the fourteenth century; two, those given by Maskell, to the first half, at any rate, of the fifteenth century.

The particulars of these seven Calendars are as follows:-Letters have been prefixed to the description of each to facilitate future reference.

A. A Saxon Codex in the Cottonian Library. (Vitellius, E. xviii.) Dr. Hickes supposes this Calendar to date from the year 1031. B. Another Saxon Codex in the same collection, (Titus, D. xxvii.) of the same date as A, or probably rather earlier.

C. A Durham Calendar, probably written early in the twelfth century, and preserved in the Library of the Dean and Chapter of that Church.

D. A Calendar of the Church of Exeter of the age of Henry II. (1154-1189.) Harl. MSS. Cod. 863.

E. A Norman French Calendar of the fourteenth century, which seems to have belonged to the Church of Ludlow, in Shropshire. F. A Calendar of the fifteenth century, (Bodley MS. 85,) prefixed to an English Prymer.

G. A Calendar of a similar nature and of about the same date. (Douce MS. 275.)

Of these, A B D E have been printed by Hampson in his Medii Ævi Kalendarium, Vol. i. pp. 422-472; F G by Maskell, in his Monumenta Ritualia, Vol. ii. pp. 180-215.

It will be seen at a glance that chronologically these Calendars are of great interest as belonging to the eleventh, twelfth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, thus giving us a fair and gradual view of any changes that may have taken place in that time, and that again they belong to different Churches, namely, to Exeter, Durham, F and G to Salisbury, and E probably representing the Hereford Use. Our own Calendar is, as we shall show hereafter, derived from that of the Salisbury Missal of the sixteenth century,