Parish Priests and Their People in the Middle Ages in England

by Edward Lewes Cutts

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost,
One steadfast God of might most,
Be God’s word welcome to me,
Joy and love, Lord, be to Thee.

Again at the end of the Gospel make another cross and kiss it. While the Mass (Nicene) Creed is being said, say the Apostles’ Creed, as given in a rhymed version—

I trow[239] in God, father of might
That all has wrought,
Heaven and earth, day and night,
And all of nought, etc.

At the end is a very curious perversion of the clause of the Communion of Saints: Communio Sanctorum is translated as if it were Concomitantia Sanctorum—

And so I trow that housel is
Both flesh and blood.

After that comes the offertory; offer or not, as you please;[240] but in either case say the following prayer—

Jesu, that wast in Bethlem bore,
Three kings once kneeled Thee before,
And offered gold, myrrh, and incense;
Thou disdained not their presents,
But didst guide them all the three
Home again to their country.
So our offerings that we offer,
And our prayers that we proffer,
Take them, Lord, to Thy praise,
And be our help through all our days.

Then when the priest turns to the people and asks their prayers, kneel and pray for him. When the priest comes to the middle of the altar and says sursum corda, then lift up your heart and body, and praise God with the angels—

Sweet Jesu grant me now this
That I may come to Thy bliss,
There with angels for to sing,
The sweet song of Thy loving,
Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus,
God Grant that it be thus.

Kneel when the canon of the mass begins, and offer thanksgivings for talents of nature, right mind, grace in perils, etc.; pray for pardon, grace, strength for the future; make intercessions for church, king, nobility, kinsmen, friends, servants, for the afflicted, sick, captive, poor, banished, dispossessed; pray for God’s ordering of the world, for good weather, that He will