In addition to the works of poetry and romance, which are now the best known among the productions of his press, William Caxton issued also many books of devotion. In the show-case devoted to his publications in the King's Library at the British Museum, among other unique books are shown the Latin Psalter, printed by him between 1480 and 1483, and a volume containing the 'Fifteen Oes,' and other prayers, 'emprented bi the commaundementes of the most hye and vertuous pryncesse our liege ladi Elizabeth by the grace of God Quene of Englonde,' and of Margaret Tudor, the king's mother.

THE TREE OF JESSE. FROM PIGOUCHET'S 'HORAE'

Caxton also printed at least four editions of the Horae, fragments of which survive at the Museum and at Oxford, though no copy even approaching completeness is now known to exist. As a rule, however, English liturgical works were printed abroad, for the most part in France (at Paris or Rouen), but also at Venice, at Antwerp, at Basel, and elsewhere. Thus of the Sarum Breviary there are at the Museum six early Paris editions, and one from Antwerp, but no London edition before 1541. The solitary editions of the Sarum Gradual and Antiphonal are both from Paris, while of the thirty editions of the Sarum Missal, five and twenty were printed abroad and only five at home. It need not, therefore, surprise us to find that of thirty-nine Sarum Horae in the Museum library, while two were printed at Antwerp, and two at Rouen, the Paris presses produced twenty-seven, those of London only eight, and these with some help from France.

It is time now to turn to the contents of our book. These are as follows:—

i.A Kalendar.
ii.Passages from the Gospels on the Birth, Ascension, and Death of Christ, viz., S. John i. 1-14; S. Luke i. 20-38; S. Matt. ii. 1-12; S. Mark xvi. 14-20; S. John xviii. 1-42.
iii.Prayers: On the Trinity: 'Whan thou goest first out of thy hous'; 'Whan thou entrest into the chirch'; 'Whan thou beginnest to praye.'
iv.The Hours of the Blessed Virgin—'Horae intemeratae beatae Mariae Virginis secundum usum Sarum.'
v.The Hours of the Compassion of the Blessed Virgin.
vi.The Seven Penitential Psalms.
vii.The Litany of the Saints.
viii.The Vigils of the Dead.
ix.Seven Psalms on the Lord's Passion.
x.Prayers: Before the Image of the Body of Christ; To the Blessed Mary and to S. John the Evangelist.

There is thus, as in all editions, a great deal in the volume besides the Horae, from which the book takes its name. But of the hundred and sixty pages to which (in addition to the twelve leaves of Kalendar) the volume extends, upwards of sixty are occupied by the Hours, which are thus much the most important item in the contents. The antiquity of these Hours was very great, for they are mentioned as an office as early as the sixth century. They fell, however, into disuse, but were revived, and probably rearranged, by Peter Damian just ten years before our battle of Hastings. Forty years later, in 1096, at the Council of Claremont, the saying of them, in addition to the canonical hours, was made compulsory upon all the clergy, and this compulsion continued until 1568, when Pope Pius V., in issuing his revision of the Breviary, released the clergy from the obligation to say this office, at the same time that he forbade the use of the vernacular translations of it, which for at least two centuries had been permitted to the laity. In England, as we all know, these vernacular versions were called Primers, and their rendering of the Psalms and Prayers of which the Hours were made up, and of the additional matter which was joined with them, has formed the basis of our present English Prayer Book.

Thee God we preise: Thee Lord we knowleche:

Thee endless Fader everi erthe worschipeth:

To Thee alle angels, to Thee hevenes and alle manere powers: