Chapter 20: of the hasty saying of these holy hours and of over-skipping.

It is such a great peril to omit anything from this holy service as I said before, therefore all who are bound to say them should not only accustom their heart to remember this, but also to use their time to say it appropriately and distinctly without failing or skipping over words or syllables. It is like a good harper who strikes all of the strings of his heart at the right time; if he were to strike only the first and the last or if he would strike them recklessly all at once, he would make no decent melody. Rightly God’s service is compared to the songs of a harp as the prophet says: Psallite domino in cithera. That is, sing to God on the harp. Therefore in this harp of our Lord’s service, you ought to strike all the strings – that is to say, all the words and syllables each in its kind and its proper place and not rattle them out together as if you would say them all at once. For the praise of God in his church ought to accord with his praise in heaven concerning which St. John in the Apocalypse after he had heard it said this: Et vocem quam audivi sicut citharedorum citharisancium in citharis suis. That is, the voice that I heard in heaven was the voice of harpers harping on their harps.

When Aaron—by our Lord’s command—offered a calf upon the altar, he cut it into pieces and then offered it up with the head and each of its members. By this calf is understood the service of our Lord’s praise which is much more acceptable to him than the offering of any calf as the prophet says: Laudabo nomen dei cum cantico et magnificabo eum in laude, Et placebit deo super vitulum novellum. That is, I shall praise the name of God with song and I shall make much of him in praise and it shall please God more than the offering of any young calf. But when this calf of our Lord’s praise is offered, it must be cut into pieces, for all the words and syllables ought to be said distinctly from the beginning to the end in each member and in each part of it.

Just as “clippers” or counterfeiters of the king’s money are punished by death, rightly so they who clip away from the money of God’s service any words or letters or syllables and counterfeit it from the true sentence or from the true manner of saying it deserve to be grievously punished by God.

Therefore the fiend readily sends his messengers to gather all such negligences together and to keep them to accuse the soul as we read from holy abbot of the order of Cistercians who, while he stood in the choir at matins, saw a devil that had a long and great bag hanging about his neck and went about the choir from one to another and waited attentively for all the letters and syllables and words and failings that any left. These he gathered diligently and put them in his back. When he came before the Abbot, waiting to see if anything had escaped him that he might have retrieved and put in his bag, the Abbot was astonished and afraid of the foulness and misshapenness of him and said to him, “what are you?” He answered and said, “I am a poor devil, and my name is Titivullus and I perform the office that is committed to me.” “And what is your office?” said the Abbot. He answered, “Every day I must bring my master 1000 bags full of failings and of negligences in syllables and words that occur within your order in reading and in singing or else I will be sorely beaten.” You may see, that though such failings are soon forgotten by those that make them, yet the fiend forgets them not but keeps them diligently in sure store to accuse the soul with them at our Lord’s judgment. Therefore it is good to know the causes of such haste and negligence and how to remedy it.

One cause may be the result of a bad habit; some have accustomed their tongue to rattle off their service in such haste that they cannot do otherwise. This habit needs to be unlearned that the worthiness of our Lord’s praise may bridle their tongue to say it more appropriately as our Lord says by his prophet: Laude mea infrenabo te. I shall bridle you with my praise.

Another cause is lack of devotion. Some have so little devotion to our Lord’s service that they consider it a pain to them as long as they are saying it. Therefore they hurry themselves as fast as they can until they are delivered from it. This lack of devotion comes either from great sloth, that they do not wish to work in this holy service to attain devotion, or else it comes from some sin that is hidden in their conscience that bears down the soul and makes it so heavy that they cannot it up and have spiritual desire in any prayer.

The remedy for this is to purge their conscience by contrition, by confession, and to stir up their dullness to work for devotion as much as they can or may and to focus upon the appropriate saying of their service—no matter how wearisome it may be—until they have broken the hardness and coldness of their own heart.

The third cause is worldly or outward occupation. For some have their hearts so focused on bodily works or upon other business that they must do that they rattle off their service as fast as they can in haste to be at their other work. Yet while they are praying, their mind is more upon their work then upon their service and therefore they feel no savor from it. St. Bernard says that the holy delight of devotion flies from the heart that is occupied with worldly business for truth may not be mixed with vanity, nor imperishable things with perishable things, nor spiritual things with fleshly things, nor high things with low things. You may not, he says, savor both at once the heavenly things that are above, and earthly things that are below. Therefore as Chrysostom says, he who wishes to keep the commandments of God needs to despise the wills of the world.

Chapter 21: what attention ought to be had concerning the song of these holy hours.

The fourth thing that belongs to the duty of this holy service is to take heed of the song which is the least of the things we have spoken of. For while there are three parts to God’s service—that is to say, the sense, the words, and the tune—the notes and tune serve the words and the words serve the inward sense. All three, this sense, the words, and the tune, serve to stir the soul to love, to worship, and to praise God and to have joy and devotion in him. Therefore all the attention that should be had regarding the tune ought to be for this and to be judged accordingly. For you should not in singing seek after loveliness of voice, nor delight yourself in the sweetness of the song itself, nor in the highest songs, nor in novel singing, nor in any manner of vanity, but only to see compunction for your sins and devotion to God and to his holy mother whose praise you sing.

Although, as St. Benedict says, such ought to read and to sing as will edify the hearers, yet it is not useful to have any regard in the heart toward the hearers. The song that is sung most devoutly towards God edifies  others most if you think nothing concerning them; the less you think on them (thus fleeing from vanity), the more you edify.

It is necessary to take heed in singing that all the notes be sung as they are in your books, each of them to their own tune, and that the rhythm of singing be evenly set and kept. But all this ought so to be ruled that the spirits of all be kept in rest and that devotion to God be furthered by it and not hindered. Therefore each one should have an ear to the others so that if any discord occurs, each one should be ready to give help to another. One should not hasten forward while another draws back, but all ought to sing together and in accord together that as you ought to be all of one heart, so you praise God, as it were, with one voice.

Chapter 22: how the song of the holy service ought to be humble and sad without any vanity or novelty.

There is no manner of singing or reading that pleases God in and of itself, but the disposition of the reader or singer is pleasing or unpleasing. Our Lord takes heed to the heart and the intent, and not to the outward voice. Therefore they who rejoice in themselves through vainglory or delight themselves in the sweetness and pleasantness of their own voice do not please God with their singing; rather they offend him and please the fiend. St. Gregory says that when pleasant voices are sought after, the sober life is forsaken.

The fiend has such a great entry through this vice that sometimes he uses it himself. We read that there was once a clerk who had so sweet and fair a voice that many delighted to hear him sing. But one day when a religious man heard him sing, he said it was no man’s voice but the fiend’s and amazed all the people. When the holy man exorcized him before them all, he immediately left the stinking body that he appeared in and went his way. Therefore the more pleasant and fair that anybody’s voice is, the more diligent they ought to be about the keeping of the heart in humility and in devotion that it may be pleasing in God’s sight. It is written of a monk who was in the same abbey where Benedict was Abbot that he had a voice most pleasant and sweet. This monk once hallowed the Paschal candle on the Easter Eve and sang so sweetly the hallowing song [the Exultet] that it sounded to the ears of all that heard him as if it had a melody most sweet and delicious. But he had such delight and vainglory in himself that as soon as he had finished, the fiends took him to themselves both soul and body in so sudden and marvelous a way that no man knew how nor where he had gone. Therefore you may see how perilous it is for anyone to delight himself either in his own voice or in the outward song. As St. Augustine says in his Confessions, as often as the song delighted him more than the inward meaning of the thing that was sung, so he acknowledged that he sinned grievously.

Our Lord Jesus Christ showed to St. Bridget how the spirit of vainglory accuses the soul of a religious man at our Lord’s judgment for his high and vain singing. The fiend said this to him: “He sang,” he said, ”For vainglory and for a vain name. And when his voice fell down in anything and became weary, then I lifted it up higher and gladly came running to help him.” So for this and for other sins, the wretched soul was damned.

Similarly, I read of a young Cistercian monk who from pride and self-will when the psalmody was begun in a low voice, he said it three notes higher even though some of the older monks would have sung it as it was begun. Yet with the help of others who favored him, he prevailed against them and held forth his own and they gave way. Then immediately it was seen openly how the fiend coming out of his mouth in the likeness of hot burning iron entered into all his helpers.

Just as a man who climbs high loses his footing and hold sometimes and so falls and breaks his neck, just so such high singers who lose the footing of humility and have no hold of devotion above fall down by pride and break their spiritual necks. Just as every note and devout song shall have a special reward from God, just so the fiends mark every note of such proud songs to have the singers punished for them.

For at one time when clerks sang in the choir with high and loud voices, a religious man saw how the fiend sat on high with a great sack in his left hand and with his right hand he put into it all their voices and songs. When the service was done they rejoiced greatly and gladly among themselves as if they had praised God properly with their songs. Then the holy man said to them, “You have sung fast” he said, “And have filled a great sack full.” They asked him what he meant, and he told them what he had seen. Then they were ashamed as much as they had rejoiced before.

Therefore our merciful Lord Jesus Christ wills that all such songs should be excluded from this order; he himself bids that your song should not be novel nor high nor vain but in all ways humble, sad, and sober saying thus to our holy mother St. Bridget: “Have you not read that the sister of Moses on account of the great miracle that was done in the Red Sea went out with virgins and women singing timpani and with cymbals a song of joy to God? So should my mother’s daughters go out of the Red Sea. That is to say, and pleasures of the world, having in the hands of their works timpani– that is to say, abstinence from fleshly lusts – and cymbals of clear praising whose song ought not to be slothful nor broken nor dissolute but honest and sad and in unison and in all ways humble. Following the song of those who are called Charterhouse whose psalmody savors more of the sweetness of the soul and humility and devotion than any vain outward showing. For the heart is not clean from sin when the song delights the singer more than the thing that is sung. It is in always abominable towards God when the lifting up of the voice is more for the hearers then for God.” These are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Chapter 18: of those who carelessly speak or sleep at the time of God’s service.

Among these other hinderers of our Lord’s holy hours are speakers and sleepers – those who speak carelessly for they prevent others as well as themselves and give occasions of evil. How perilous this vice is, you may see by these examples. There was a young religious virgin about 10 years of age in the order of the Cistercians whose name was Gertrude who, after her death, came again one day at the time of evensong when all the convent was in the choir and inclined low before the high altar and then came into the place where she used to stand in the choir. At the end of evensong of our lady she fell down prostrate till all was done and then she rose and went her way. None saw her but another maid of the same age who used to stand by her in the choir. She was frightened and told this to the abbess. The next day, at the bidding of the abbess, she asked the same virgin when she came again and said onto her, “Sister Gertrude, good sister Gertrude, from where do you come now, and what do you do amongst us after your death? ” Then she answered and said, “I come here to make amends for my trespass for I whispered to you half words in the choir and therefore I am bidden to make satisfaction in the same place. Unless you beware of the same vice you shall suffer the same pain after your death!” And after she had appeared in this way four times she said, “Sister, I hope I have fulfilled my penance. From henceforth you shall see me no more.” And thus she went to joy.

Take heed: if this young maid of 10 years of age was punished so for half words, what shall they suffer who are of greater age for whole words spoken in a time and place of silence? It is also read of St. Severin, Archbishop of Cologne, who was so holy a man that he heard angels sing when St. Martin died many hundred miles from him and on account of his prayer his archdeacon heard the same song. This same St. Severin appeared after his death to the same archdeacon arrayed in his bishop’s array and standing, as it were, in the area between heaven and Earth and above his head was something like a cloud of fire sparkling and dropping upon his head and upon all his body. Then the archdeacon said to him, “Are you not my Lord Severin?” He answered and said yes. Then the archdeacon asked, “What is this that I see, are you in fire?” He said, “Yes I am.” Then the archdeacon said, “We honor you, sir, as a saint and yet you suffer so great a torment!” St. Severin answered, “I suffer this for the singing of God’s service in the choir. I was more negligent than I should have been. For while my clerks sang the service of God, and I was present with them, sometimes both my servants and others came to tell me of various necessary things and I attended to them and gave them answers.” The archdeacon said, “Sir, I trust that it is no great torment that you suffer.” When he had said this, a drop of the fiery cloud fell upon his arm burning the flesh down to the bone and he cried, “My arm! My arm!” Then St. Severin said to him, “Fear not for now you shall see, notwithstanding my pains, how much I may do through God.” Then the holy Bishop lifted up his hand and blessed the archdeacon’s arm and it was made whole so that he felt no more pain after that.

Here you may see what pain they deserve who are bound to silence yet needlessly speak in the time of our Lord’s holy service. This holy bishop, who was not bound to silence by religion, was thus grievously tormented because he spoke even necessary things at the time of these holy hours.

Concerning those who are dull and sleepy in God’s service, we read that St. Bernard saw an angel with a censor go all about the choir and cense those who prayed and sang devoutly but passed by those who were sleepy and negligent. About another holy man we read that he was once oppressed with sleepiness during our Lord’s service. There came an angel in the likeness of a reverend person who took him by the breast and drew him out of the choir and while he was thus drawn he began to wake and opened his eyes and saw him and said, “What are you, sir, and why do you draw me thus?” He answered, “Why do you sleep thus? Do you come to church to be awake or asleep?” And suddenly he was gone and the good man drove sleep from him and was more wary to keep himself awake in God’s service always after that.

Chapter 19: that this holy service ought to be said or sung or heard with attention to it and what peril it is to leave any part of it unsaid

The third thing that belongs to the due manner of saying these holy hours this to say them with full attention. For God does not take heed to hear the prayers of him who does not hear himself nor who does not take heed to hear his own prayers. The one who does not hear himself, cannot pay attention to what he says. Therefore St. Augustine in his rule bids us and says, when you praise God or pray with Psalms or hymns, think in your heart on the same thing that you say with your mouth.

This thinking and attention in the heart occurs in four ways. The first is to keep the mind upon the words themselves without any understanding. In this way some simple souls ay employ a good intention and devotion even though they do not truly understand what they say [in Latin]. The second is to take heed to the letter only, after the literal understanding. This is sometimes savory, sometimes barren, according to the meaning of the letter itself. The third is to keep the mind and the attention to the inward spiritual meaning of the words that are said or sung. This is truly difficult to do continually, for heaviness of the frail body, that often bears down the fervor of the spirit but is truly comforting and it gives great spiritual food to the soul that works with discretion in a humble and clean conscience. (Now, these last two forms of attention belong to those who can understand what they read or saying [in Latin]. I undertook this work in order that you might have some way of understanding your service if you wish to work at it in this way.) For it comforts a creature much in anything that he does, when he knows what it means. However, he may become weary of his work the sooner.

But whatever attention he has, either to the words or to the understanding, it is always useful that at the beginning of this holy service, you make your heart as free as you can from all earthly things and set your desire as mightily as you may upon our Lord God, beholding him as if [visibly] present. This strong desire and inward beholding of him will aid in abiding and keeping you in him as much as possible. Thus you may sing or say your service in love and joy in reverence at his presence as if you speak to him himself (or to our blessed lady when the service belongs to her) or, at the least in her presence and hearing. This should delight you in them with all the might of your soul. If you do this, I hope you shall feel much comfort and grace of devotion.

You must be fully aware in the keeping of yourself afterwards, that you do not recklessly lose such grace and devotion that you have received at the time of your service lest it be withdrawn from you at another time for your own faults. Also, it is useful in order to obtain such devotion to take some brief leisure before the beginning of each hour in order to stir up the heart towards God. For as a holy father says, therefore we are so cold and dull in God’s service that we are neither quickened before devotion nor are we careful to cast from us vain thoughts in the beginning and to establish our mind in God and upon what we say. Therefore as we come to it, so we go, dissolute and undeveloped.

The fourth attention is to take heed that the whole service be said as it ought to be—psalms, responses, lessons, verses, and all other things that pertain to the service of that Matins or whichever hour you are saying—without error or omission or other fault. This is not as hard to keep as the other, and therefore you are more bound to it. It should be kept by all who wish to do their business well. Furthermore, they that sing or speak together in the choir are not only bound to take heed to that which they read or sing themselves, but also to hear with attention all that is read or sung there as I have said before.

He who knowingly omits anything from these holy hours unsaid or unheard without need or sickness and does not propose to make amends, he sins mortally. The more that he omits, the more grievously he sins. But he who omits anything by unintentional negligence or by forgetting, he does not sin mortally so that he may make amends when it comes to his mind.

Also if it occurs at the time of divine service that anyone through need or sudden negligence or by any observance or duty that he must do in the choir fail or stumble or be distracted from saying or hearing any words or verses or Psalms or anything else and cannot not say it but withdraws his voice from singing he should not first leave off singing but he ought to sing forth with the choir and do penance for his negligence—if negligence be the cause of omission. If he speaks [his hours] alone then he ought to say that which he has omitted if he may conveniently do so. In the same way, if anyone is prevented by obedience or by necessity so that they may not come to the beginning of any of these hours or remain fully to the end and do not know it by heart or have no book or no time to say it, then they are not bound to say it. Nevertheless if it be a great part of the hour or many Psalms or such other than it is well to say it.

However, if the late-coming be on account of sloth or of negligence or though it be a matter of obedience it might be done it at some other time, they ought to do penance. But they should not begin the hour or try to catch up to the point in the service where the rest of the choir is singing, but should sing forth with them at the point where he found them. They should not withdraw their voice from singing or from saying if they might be in occasion of distraction or a hindrance to others.

Now, do not think that I am making laws or ordinances for you by writing this for I do not do so. Rather, I write for your information what the laws of the holy church are according to the teaching of the doctors and what must be kept regarding the saying of your divine service and what you are bound to do.

Therefore, those who are so sick that they may not say their service or hear it are excused from it forever. They are not bound to say it after they have recovered, for there is no law set to bind those who are sick. Nevertheless, if they may and will say it afterword out of a sense of devotion, it is not wrong. But to say it out of a sense of obligation is neither praiseworthy nor useful. Those who are not sick but may say or hear their service without any hurt or peril and yet omit it from sloth or negligence, they are bound both to say it later and to do penance for the omission. If any be in doubt whether he should have said it or not, it is good in such case to be governed by the counsel of a discrete spiritual father lest the judgment of his own conscience be either too scrupulous or too reckless.

This section does not follow directly upon the last but, rather, begins the second part of the work…

Introduction to the Second Part

Here begins the second part of Our Lady’s Mirror that contains your seven offices and first how you shall be directed in reading this book and all other books.

Devout reading of holy books is called one of the parts of contemplation for it brings much grace and comfort to the soul if it is well and discreetly done. Much holy reading is often lost for lack of diligence when it is not given the attention that it deserves. Therefore if you wish to profit in reading you must obey these five things.

First, you must take heed of what you read, that it contains such things that are useful for you to read and appropriate to the degree in which you stand. For you ought not to read of worldly matters or worldly books, those which do not contain spiritual edification or do not pertain to the needs of the [monastic] house. You should also read no books that speak of vanities or trifles and much less books of evil or occasions of evil. For since your holy rule forbids you all vain and idle words at all times and places, it likewise forbids you to read of all vain and idle things for reading is a kind of speaking.

Second, when you begin to read or to hear such books of spiritual fruit as are proper for you to read or to hear, you must dispose yourself to them with humble reverence and devotion. For just as in prayer a man speaks to God, so in reading God speaks to man and therefore he ought reverently to be heard and humble reverence be given to the word. It causes grace and the light of understanding to enter into the soul so that the soul may see and feel more openly the truth of the word and have greater comfort and edification from it. Therefore the Scripture says: Esto mansuetus ad audiendum verbum dei ut intelligas. That is, be humble and mild to hear the word of God in order to understand it. (As if he had said it [to you directly].) But you must have humility in hearing and reading the word, for you may not be certain of its true understanding. For our Lord Jesus Christ says in his gospel that the Father of heaven has hidden the mysteries and truths of his Scripture from the proud who are wise in their own sight and he has shown them to the humble.

Third, you must work to understand the thing that you read. For Cato taught his son to read his precepts that he might understand them. As he says, it is a great negligence to read and not to understand. Therefore when you read by yourself alone, you should not be hasty to read much at once but you ought to dwell upon it and sometimes read a thing again two or three times or more until you understand it clearly. St. Augustine says that no man should believe that he understands a thing sufficiently and completely with only one reading. If you cannot understand what you read, ask another who can teach you. They who are able should not be loath to teach another. As a clerk writes, there are three things that make a disciple surpass his master: one is to ask questions frequently and learn what he does not know. Another is to continually keep in mind what he learns and hears. The third is readily and freely to teach to others the things that he has learned and knows.

They also who read aloud in the convent ought to diligently look over their reading before and understand it that they may point it as it ought to be pointed and read it clearly and openly for the understanding of the hearers. They cannot do that unless they understand it and savor it first themselves.

The fourth thing that should be kept in reading is that you must address your intent so that your reading and studying is not only for knowledge alone or for telling to others but principally to inform yourself and to put it to work in your own living. For St. Paul says: Regnum dei non est in sermone, sed in virtute. That is, the kingdom of God is not in words but in virtues. For he who seeks after knowledge to be considered wise or to speak well and does not study for his own personal application, he works against himself. For our Lord says in his gospel that the servant who knows his Lord’s will and does not do it shall be beaten with many wounds.

The fifth thing is discretion so that you may direct your reading according to your circumstance. You should understand that books speak in various ways. Some books are made to inform the understanding and to tell how spiritual persons ought to be governed in all their living that they may know what they should leave and what they should do, how they should labor and cleanse their consciences and, in the attainment of virtues, how they should withstand temptations and suffer tribulations, how they should pray, occupy themselves, and contain spiritual exercises and many other holy doctrines. When you read such books, you ought to consider yourself truthfully whether you live and do as you read or not, what will and desire you have to do so, and what attention and work you direct to these things. If you feel that your life is ruled in virtue according to what you read, then you should truly and humbly thank our Lord for it who is the giver of all goodness and pray to him with a fervent desire that you may continue and increase ever more and more in his grace. If you feel and see in yourself that you lack such virtuous governance of which you read, then you must be right careful that you do not pass it recklessly by as though you did not know it. Rather, you ought to dwell on it and inwardly sorrow for the failings and shortcomings that you see in yourself and earnestly keep in mind the lesson that shows you yourself and often read it again and consider it and with full purpose and will amend yourself and so direct your life thereafter. In this manner you ought to read the first part of this book which informs your understanding and directs how you should be governed in saying and singing and reading of your divine service.

Other books are made to quicken and to stir up the affections of the soul. Some tell of the sorrows and dreads of death and of judgment and of pains to stir up the affection of fear and sorrow for sin. Some tell of the great benefits of our Lord God, how he made us and bought us and what love and mercy he shows continually towards us to stir up our affections of love and of hope in him. Some tell of the joys of heaven to stir up the affection of joy to desire it afterward. Some tell of the foulness and wretchedness of sin to stir up the affections of hate and loathing against it.

When you read these books you ought to work in yourself inwardly to stir up your affections according to what you read. When you read matters of fear, you ought to work to conceive a fear in yourself. When you read matters of hope, you ought to stir up yourself to feel comfort of the same hope and so forth.

Never the less it is necessary that each person is to read and study these books and such matters as may be most pertinent to him at that time. For if any were drawn down in bitterness of temptation or tribulation it is not useful for him at that time to read in books of heaviness and of dread although he may wish to do so, but rather such books as might stir up his affections to comfort and hope. So it should be said variously after the diversity of dispositions with which persons are stirred at that time. It is written in the Vita Patrum that when devils had long tempted a holy man at last they cried and said to him, “You have overcome us! For when we would lift you up with great hope, you bore yourself down in fear and sorrow of your sins. When we wished to overcome you with much fear and heaviness, then you reared yourself up to hope and the comfort of mercy. We can get no hold on you!”

There are also some books that treat of matters that both inform the understanding and stir up the affections variously. In the reading of such books, you should dispose yourself to both as the matter requires as I have said before. In this way you ought to read the second part of this book because within it your understanding is informed concerning what your service means. In the same service, your affections ought to be stirred sometimes to love and joy in the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ and of his most holy mother, sometimes to fear, sometimes to hope, and sometimes to sorrow and fellow-suffering and that especially on Fridays when we remember our Lord’s holy passion and the fellow-suffering of his holy mother.

Also in the second part the first word of each antiphon and of each hymn and of each response and verse and so forth of all the others is written in Latin with Roman letters that you may know where each begins. The English of all the same Latin is written with a smaller letter and that is the exposition of the Latin text. By this difference you will know which is the translation of the Latin and which is set for your exposition. Therefore they who see this book and read it may better understand it than those who hear it and do not see it.

Also when the second part is read openly in the convent, it is not necessary always to read the Latin especially where the matter hangs together as it does in your legend and in some other places. For it would in this way prevent the hearers from understanding. Therefore it is enough to read only the Latin at the beginning of each lesson and not in the beginning of each clause of the last. In other places of your service where the sense is not clear but each thing is different in sentence from one another as it is in the antiphon and responses and other material, there it is proper to read the first word in Latin as it is written at the beginning of each clause so that you should readily know when you have the Latin before you what English belongs to each clause. Also when your legend is read at matins if any would, in the meantime, have the English before her and feed her mind with it, then the Latin that is written at the beginning of each clause of the English should help her much and direct her that she may follow along with the reader clause by clause. Else she would not know in the English alone where the reader of Latin might be. What I say about looking at the English while the Latin is read should be understood concerning those who have said their matins or read their legend [in Latin] beforehand. Else I would not counsel them to leave the hearing of the Latin for attention to the English.

As much as it is forbidden under pain of curse that no man should translate any text of holy Scripture into English without license from the diocesan Bishop and in many places of your service are such texts from holy Scripture, therefore I asked and have license of our Bishop to translate such things into English for your spiritual comfort and profit so that both our conscience in the translating and yours in having may be the more sure and clear to our Lord’s worship which keeps us in his grace and brings us to his joy. Amen.

The Myroure of Oure Layde is a fascinating text from our English heritage that opens a window into how liturgical piety was taught and fostered in late Sarum England. An anonymous work written in late Middle English some time in the middle of the 15th century, the Myroure was composed to teach the Brigittine Sisters of Syon the basics of praying their Offices and what the Latin texts of the Offices meant in English. This kind of instructional writing is perfect for cross-cultural work; because most of the women going into the convent did not read Latin and had no prior knowledge of the Latinate traditions, the author spells out things that are normally left assumed and unsaid. Thus we gain an even greater insight into the piety practiced by those who lived within the world of the Sarum liturgies.

Some of what we find is common-place; some is new and fascinating; some reveals notions we consider odd; others are directly contrary to our understandings of healthy spirituality. Nevertheless, I find this work a remarkable aid both as a manual of instruction and as a foil of our current assumptions, a work that spurs me to think more deeply about our current practice and application of liturgical spirituality.

The work falls into three major parts. This is how the author describes its structure:

First, I have compiled a little treatise of 24 chapters where I discuss the shape of the divine service, when and where and in what manner it ought to be said or sung and especially of your holy service [i.e., the Brigittine version]—how heavenly and graciously it was ordained and made. This treatise is the first part of the book. The second part is of your seven Offices according to the seven days of the week. The third part is your masses. (from the First Prologue)

The language of the Myroure isn’t terribly difficult for those who are used to late Middle English; I figure if you can handle Chaucer you shouldn’t have much problem here. The prepositions and some of the conjunctions have shifted meaning a bit and you have to watch for false friends in the nouns and verbs (e.g., “let” means “prevent” rather than “allow” and so on). In the interest of readability I’ve transcribed some chapters into Modern English which I’ll post here. Here’s an initial chunk—more to follow…

(NB: I read this into the computer with my voice recognition software; I think I’ve edited out the various oral/aural oddities such things create, but there may be a few strange constructs left which I’ll correct as you or I find them.)

Chapter 14: that the hours of this holy service ought to be sung and said in cleanness of conscience

Many things pertain to the manner of singing your hours. First, they should be said with a clean conscience. For if any earthly lord loves to have servants around him who are honest and clean in all their governance and array, how much more is it appropriate for the Lord of Lords to have his servants clean without the filth of sin, especially those called to be continually occupied in his holy praise? Therefore the prophet David says: Deo nostro sit iocunda decoraque laudacio. That is, to our God be given joyful and fair praising. Here “fair and joyful” are properly set together, for no soul may truly “joy” in the praise of God unless it be first made “fair” and cleansed from sin.

Therefore he who is remorseful in conscience over deadly sin and yet says or sings God’s service sins in the saying. However if he left it unsaid, he would sin yet more grievously – what should he then do since he sins both in the doing and in the leaving? This is what he should do. He ought to repent of his sin and fully intend to shrive himself and amend his life and then meekly humble himself before God, seeking his forgiveness. Then, trusting in our Lord’s mercy, he shall say his service with sorrow of heart, with meekness and fear. He should not think that he is in deadly sin when he is contrite and sorry for it.

Regarding this situation, you have a notable example in St. Maud’s revelations both for the divine service and for communing. Suppose a man sets to clean his house knowing that a lord is coming. If he cannot finish the job due to a lack of time and cannot cast all of the dirt out before the lord’s arrival, then he will sweep it all up together into a corner and cast it out afterwards. Just so, when a person goes to divine service or to communion and feels begrudging in his conscience, if he cannot get his spiritual father to shrive him, then he ought to sorrow his sins in his heart by contrition, and shrive himself to God and so sweep it into a corner of his mind until he may get his confessor and, trusting in our Lord’s mercy, go to his service or to his communion. This is to be done at all times and for all sins for the divine service. It is also to be kept in your communing for such daily defaults or negligences which you are not sure if they are deadly or not. But if anyone knows himself to be in mortal sin, he should not be communed until he is shriven. Also with divine service, if any feels the remorse of deadly sin, knowing well that it is deadly sin, if he may easily get to his confessor before he begins the service, you should be shriven before and take his penance for true shrift by mouth with absolution following greatly lightens the soul and gives comfort and hope of forgiveness whereby he may the more freely and devoutly praise God in his holy service when he feels himself clean and sure in conscience.

Chapter 15: that the heart ought to be kept at the time of these holy hours from distraction and thinking of other things

The second thing that belongs to the due manner of saying or singing this holy service is the stable keeping of the heart and the mind so that you may give all your attention to it and to nothing else in that time. For as St. Bernard says, we should not at the time of the Lord’s service occupy our minds with the holy Scriptures nor any other thing—no matter how good it might be. How much more, then, should we beware that we do not let our mind run upon idle and vain things during the time of this holy service. For just as bodily food is not profitable unless it is well chewed in the mouth and swallowed to the stomach, so this holy service, unless it is well chewed in the mind and sorely felt in the heart, does not feed the soul sufficiently. Therefore St. Bernard says that it profits little to sing only with the voice or to say only with the mouth without the attention of the heart. As Isidore says, prayer belongs to the heart not the lips, for God takes heed of the heart and not the words.

Therefore they who say their service yet occupy their mind with other things are like a man who pays his debt with false money that seems to be gold or silver on the outside yet is copper or brass within that does not satisfy his lord to whom he pays it but rather provokes him to displeasure. For he who willfully and intentionally occupies his mind at the time of these holy hours with other things and does not take heed of what he says or sings, or if he—willfully and without need—is distracted by hearing, seeing, or in any other way to anything that draws his mind and attention from the service that he says, although he may sing or say all the words, in this way he does not pay his debt truly and please God thereby, but offends him and sins grievously. Accordingly, he should do penance for it, then say the same service again with better attention. (Now the doing of penance mentioned here and in other places after, we should understand as the repentance of the heart and shrift as well as fulfilling such penance as his spiritual father enjoins upon him.) It remains in the confessor’s discretion to enjoin a penance for the man’s negligence and to enjoin him to say the same service again or another thing instead in this case and in the same fashion what follows after as seems most needful for his soul’s health. Nevertheless if he has said the same service again before he came to shrift, then he shall not be enjoined to say it again; rather he shall have penance only for his first mis-saying.

However, he who addresses his heart to God at the beginning of his service with the will and purpose to keep his mind stable even if it happens that after word by negligence or frailty he’s distracted in his thoughts from what he says apart from his first purpose if he does not abide willfully and such thoughts after he has perceive them but turns his mind again to his service and is sorry for it, then he is not bound to say that service again. But it is good that he should humble himself and acknowledge his negligence in shrift either generally or particularly as the matter arises.

Chapter 16: what causes distraction of the mind in time of God’s service and what remedies are to be used against it

Concerning these matters, you may see that it is important to work on the keeping of the mind in the time of these holy hours and to be fully aware of all occasions that might cause any scattering or distraction of your attention. Therefore you should understand that there are four things that cause much instability of heart in God’s service.

The first is busyness and occupation before the service about bodily or worldly or vain things. As Isidore says, when the mind has been applied to such worldly, idle, or unlawful thoughts by hearing or speaking or thinking or in any other way and then proceeds directly to prayer or to God’s service, thoughts and images of the same things will come to his mind and stop his entry into devout prayer that the heart may not freely dress up itself to heavenly desire nor abide within that which the tongue says or sings.

The remedy against this hindrance is that a man should work not only in service time but at all times to guard and to stabilize his mind in God and to keep himself from idleness and vanity in thought in word in hearing in saying and in other ways. If he is need fully occupied with any worldly or outward business from which he departs before the service begins he should labor by some devout exercise of prayer, meditation, or reading to gather and to stabilize his mind and so to make himself ready beforehand as the wise man bids and says: Ante orationem prepara animam tuam, that is, before prayer make ready your soul. If, for instance, someone would harp or make other minstrelsy before the King, he would be busy to make ready his instruments beforehand. How much more ought we to make ready the harp of our heart when we should sing or say the melody of our Lord’s praise?

The second thing that causes distraction of mind in God’s service is negligence of guarding the heart in the time of the same service which is rotted by long and evil habits and so the frail and wretched soul is bound and born down that it cannot stir up itself from wandering and vagrant thoughts that it is accustomed to just as a man who runs downward from a high hill cannot stop himself after he has started until he comes to the bottom. Similarly they who have used their heart to run downward where it will upon earthly or vain things, they cannot easily restrain it were stabilize it. For evil habits, as St. Augustine says, bind a man and as a burden bear him down.

This wandering of mind is caused by the dullness and heaviness of heart or else by sloth through which a dullard does not wish to work about the guarding of his own heart until he has fallen into such evil habits that he cannot lightly break away from them. Therefore the remedy against this must be a contrary sharpening of fear or quickness of hope until the soul is so disposed. For he who is lighthearted and vain of conditions needs in this case to use his mind profitably in thoughts of the fear of his death, of his doom, and of pains beholding thereby the peril in which he stands if he continues recklessly in such wanderings of mind unto his death which shall come, he knows not how soon. This fearful beholding often and deeply used and continued may, in a short time by grace, make him restrain and gather together his flowing thoughts from all vanities. But, they that are disposed to great heaviness and dullness need in this case not only to sharpen himself with dread but also to the hold the great goodness and charity of our merciful Lord and his presence and of his holy Angels in the time of the service and so to quicken up their heaviness and learn to delight themselves in our Lord and so to establish the mind in him as the prophet says: Delectare in domino, et dabit tibi petitiones cordis tui. That is, delight in our Lord and he shall give you all the your heart will ask or desire. For he who feels true delight in him, desires nothing but him in whom he may have all that he needs.

The third thing that causes distraction in prayer and God’s service is the malice of the fiend, who is most busy to prevent them who give themselves to develop prayer and to the praise of God. For it burns him and wounds him sore that though he allow us all to have some peace in other times, as soon as he sees it turned for prayer and go to God’s service, he runs and works with all his might to bring worldly or vain were evil thoughts or business to mind and so to scatter the heart from devotion and to make him lose the fruits of his prayer. For as St. Bernard says the more effectual and helpful that prayer is, if it be done as it off, the more evilly and busily the malicious enemy labors to prevent it.

The remedy against this is to make upon your breast secretly and continually in such times the token of the cross with strong and steadfast faith. Patiently and perserveringly work to guard and to hold your mind upon our Lord and upon that which you say or sing. You shall feel that the thief shall flee away as if he were smitten with the staff as St. James says: Resistite diabolo, et fugiet a vobis. That is, withstand the fiend and he shall flee away from you. That if any give heed to his stirrings at the beginning and play with such wandering thoughts as he works to put in his mind, then he will take hold of him and bridle him in his evil way and lead his heart to as much lewdness as he can. Therefore beware and inwardly guard and drive him away at all times.

Chapter 17: of them who are vain or troublesome in time of God’s service and hinder both themselves and others

But this malicious serpent when he sees that he is thus chased off from many and driven away seeks to enter again by another way. For then he attempts to get hold in someone whom he may stir to make some vain cheer or sign or token whereby one or another or sometimes many are moved to some manner of dissolution and so distracted from the sadness of inward devotion. Another he stirs to make some wayward token or to do something conversely whereby others are hindered in their minds and troubled and so their spirits are driven from quietness of devotion into anguish and painful grudges. Then unless they hasten themselves yet quicker to their armor and begin to give battle to such vain or troublesome stirrings and work to gather and hold their mind together as I said before else the subtle enemy will enter into them again. Therefore such vain or cumbersome people are the fourth cause that makes distraction in God’s service. They are the fiend’s children and fulfill his desires that he may not bring about by himself as our Lord says to them in his gospel: Vos ex patre diabolo estis, et desideria patris vestri vultis facere. That is, you are the children of your father the fiend and you will do the desires of your father.
If the king were at table with his servants around to serve him, or if he were in the field to fight and his knights were with him to war for him, or if he had laborers in his vineyard or in his garden, and there came one and made his servants and his knights and his laborers to be scattered and to fly from his service – should not such one be called a traitor to the King and be put to death? How much more perilously are they traitors to God who through vanity or trouble cause distraction to others in his holy service and make the minds of his true knights and laborers be scattered?

These are bad companions for they prevent the common profit of all their fellowship. Like thorns and briars that will not allow the wheat that grows among them to bring forth fruit but as soon as they grow up they oppress or strangle it and bear it down. So these folks when God’s servants attempt to grow up by holy desires and devotion in his service, they with their vanity and trouble pull down their minds and prevent them. Therefore it is good that such thorns beware of what our Lord says by the prophet: Spine congregate igne comburentur. That is, thorns gathered together shall be cast into the fire and burnt.

The remedy against this is that the givers of such occasion be sadly blamed with all diligence of charity until they amend for thus the prelates of the church are charged by the common law as I have written about.
Another remedy is that all who are occupied in our Lord service be fully wary and busy to keep their sight and all their outward wits from all occasions that they take no heed of anything but only of that holy service that they have in hand. They should take no occasion or bring in no tidings to the heart to occupy their mind at all except that in all their bearing they keep the sadness of religious discipline. Such somber and sad outward keeping, if it be done in truth and not feigned, helps much to that inward stability of the heart as the Scripture says: Religiositas custodiet et iustificabit cor. That is, religiousness shall guard the heart and make it righteous.