Late Anglo-Saxon Prayer in Practice

Before the Books of Hours

Kate H. Thomas

• Publisher: Medieval Institute Publications
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9783110660494
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Social History
• Index: History

This monograph examines Anglo-Saxon prayer outside of the communal liturgy. With a particular emphasis on its practical aspects, it considers how small groups of prayers were elaborated into complex programs for personal devotion, resulting in the forerunners of the Special Offices.

With examples being taken chiefly from major eleventh-century collections of prayers, liturgy and medical remedies, the methodologies of Anglo-Saxon compilers are examined, followed by five chapters on specialist kinds of prayer: to the Trinity and saints, for liturgical feasts and the canonical hours, to the Holy Cross, for protection and healing, and confessions. Analyzing prayer in a wide range of different situations, this book argues that Anglo-Saxon manuscripts may have included far more private offices than have so far been recognized, if we see them for what they were.

1 Prayers to the Trinity and Saints

In the Introduction, I outlined the differences between the simple series of prayers and the thematic sequence, between the sequence and the more complex program, and between the program and the office. These different kinds of prayer organization will be explored in greater depth in this chapter and in those which follow. I will begin by examining a sequence of prayers to the Holy Trinity and saints, which originated in the Carolingian church and became popular with compilers of late Anglo-Saxon prayer collections. By comparing a number of different manuscript copies, I will show how these compilers revised and adapted the prayers which they had inherited in order to reflect their own concerns, without ever developing the collection into anything more complex than a prayer sequence. I will then compare this with a liturgically based prayer program for Trinity Sunday in the Galba Prayerbook, using other, similar programs in the same manuscript in order to reinforce my argument, demonstrating how the program differs from the simpler sequences that have already been discussed. Finally, I will discuss texts in the Crowland Psalter and Ælfwine’s Prayerbook which have already been identified as Special Offices by scholars of early medieval liturgy. More consciously modeled on the monastic offices, these are of a genre already recognized by scholars of early medieval prayer looking towards the high and late medieval Books of Hours, whose studies can only be enhanced by a look backwards, o8r sideways, to the other prayer collections of the time and before.

The Orationes ad personas Trinitatis: Six Prayers to the Persons of the Trinity and to the Virgin

The prayers to the Trinity and saints with which I will begin are generally prefaced with rubrics such as “Oratio ad personam Patris,” and so on; on this basis, I have titled them the Orationes ad personas Trinitatis, although this collective rubric is not itself used in any manuscript source. The prayers consist of a core collection of four which are believed to have been written together, one to each member of the Trinity, and one which is addressed to the Trinity as a whole; they are generally seen accompanied by a fifth, usually addressed to Christ, a sixth to the Virgin Mary, and a looser assortment of prayers to the saints, generally appearing together in the manuscript. As discussed in the Introduction, Waldhoff believes that the prayer collection which Alcuin compiled for Charlemagne survives, albeit in an altered form, in some extant manuscripts and is best attested in Paris 2731A and d’Orville 45;¹⁵² at least some of the Orationes ad personas Trinitatis appear in both manuscripts,¹⁵³ and Waldhoff believes that they formed part of Alcuin’s original collection.¹⁵⁴ Whether or not his theory is correct, it is certainly true that these prayers to the Trinity are extremely closely associated together in the manuscript record, both in the Carolingian church and in the Anglo-Saxon.

The following table briefly lists the main six prayers to the persons of the Trinity and to the Virgin. Intended purely for guidance, it is not a faithful reproduction of the text in any one manuscript, or a formal collated edition of several, but merely a rough indication of what a typical rubric and incipit for each prayer looks like. It also shows the editorial “title” which I have assigned to each, according to the practice which I apply throughout this book.

Table 1.1:Orationes ad personas Trinitatis: the basic six prayers to the Trinity and Virgin.

No. in sequence	Rubric	Editorial name	Opening lines
1	Oratio ad personam patris	“Qui consubstantialem et coaeternum”	Domine deus pater omnipotens qui consubstantialem et coaeternum tibi ante omnia ineffabiliter saecula filium genuisti
2	Oratio ad personam filii	“Qui es verus et omnipotens deus”	Domine Iesu Christe, filii Dei uiui, qui es verus et omnipotens deus
3	Oratio ad personam Spiritus Sancti	“Qui coaequalis, coaeternus, et consubstantialis”	Domine sanctus spiritus, Deus omnipotens, qui coaequalis, coaeternus, et consubstantialis patri filioque existens
4	Oratio ad sanctam et individuam Trinitatem	“Aeterne et ineffabilis”	Domine, deus omnipotens, aeterne et ineffabilis
5	Oratio ad Dominum Iesum Christum	“Rex virginum”	Domine Jesu Christe, rex virginum, integritatis amator
6	Oratio ad sanctam Dei genitricem	“Singularis meriti/gratiae”	Singularis meriti, sola sine exemplo, mater et uirgo Maria

An analysis of the Orationes ad personas Trinitatis

The six prayers together are too long to reproduce in full. However, I will give the example of the first prayer in the sequence, in the earliest manuscript known to me, the Libellus Trecensis:

Oratio eiusdem¹⁵⁵ ad Patrem. Domine deus pater omnipotens qui consubstantialem et coaeternum tibi ante omnia ineffabiliter saecula [filium genuisti],¹⁵⁶ cum quo atque cum sancto spiritu ex te eodemque filio procedente a te cuncta exsistunt, visibilia atque invisibilia creasti, te adoro, te laudo, te glorifico. Esto quaeso propitius mihi peccatori, et ne despicias me opus manuum tuarum, sed salva et adiuva me propter nomen sanctum tuum.¹⁵⁷

“Qui consubstantialem et coaeternum” was written according to a specific structure. The rubric identifies the addressee as God the Father specifically, and the opening words address him as “Lord God, Father almighty.” The “qui” clause (“qui…visibilia atque invisibilia creasti”) defines him as the Creator, but this is broken up quite substantially by a complex clause identifying the Father as coeternal with the Son, expressing the belief that all things came into being through all three members of the Trinity, and that the Spirit proceeds both from the Father and from the Son. An abstract tenet of Christian theology, and specifically Western theology, is introduced into a relatively short prayer.¹⁵⁸ Yet this complex sentence, which reads more like a credal statement than a prayer, is followed by utterly simple and direct praise of God: “te adoro, te laudo, te glorifico.”¹⁵⁹ “Qui consubstantialem et coaeternum” ends with the request for God’s mercy upon the speaker, a sinner, and for his aid and salvation. The speaker refers to himself as the very work of God’s hands: although he has already praised him for being the creator of all things, he makes his belief more personal by speaking about himself and by picturing God as having physical hands.

The prayers to the Son, to the Spirit, and to the Trinity as a whole, follow the same pattern, each using the words “te adoro, te laudo, te glorifico.”¹⁶⁰ The fifth prayer breaks this pattern. It begins by addressing Christ simply as “Domine Iesu Christe, rex virginum, integritatis amator”: with no praise formulas, this prayer simply asks for protection against the enemy’s arrows, and for humility and stillness of heart, and that he may please God every day of his life.¹⁶¹ The sixth praises Mary more fulsomely for being the one in whom Christ took on human form, and asks for her intercessions, so that the speaker might come to the eternal kingdom through her ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction and Methodology
• 1 Prayers to the Trinity and Saints
• 2 Praying with the Hours and Psalms
• 3 Prayers to the Holy Cross
• 4 Prayers of Protection and Healing
• 5 Prayers of Confession and Penitence
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index of Prayers
• General Index