The behaviour of the people in the church, and in particular during Mass time, was a matter upon which in mediæval times all were carefully instructed. Myrc, in his Instructions for Parish Priests, bids the clergy tell their parishioners that on entering the house of God they should leave outside “many wordes” and “ydel speche,” that they should put away all vanity and “say their Pater noster and Ave.” They are to be warned not to stand about or loll against the pillars or the wall, but kneel on the floor—
“And pray to God wyth herte meke
To give them grace and mercy eke.”
When the Gospel is read they are to stand up and, blessing themselves at the Gloria tibi, Domine, they are to continue standing until the reading is finished, and then they are to kneel down again. When they hear the bell ring for the Consecration, all, “bothe young and olde,” are to fall on their knees, and, holding up both their hands, pray softly to themselves thus:—
“Jesu, Lord, welcome Thou be
In form of bread as I Thee see.
Jesu! for Thy holy name
Shield me to-day from sin and shame,” etc.,
or in some similar way. The most ordinary prayers to be used at this time, according to the books of religious instruction then in vogue, were the Salve lux mundi: “Hail, Light of the world, Word of the Father; Hail thou true Victim, the living and entire Flesh of God made true Man,” and the Anima Christi, sanctifica me, supposed by many people to be a devotional prayer of more modern origin.
Besides attendance at the morning Mass, there is little evidence of any other ordinary daily use of the church. It would be altogether wrong, however, to conclude that God’s house, standing open as it did all the day through, did not attract people to it for private and unrecorded devotion. One or two chance references in documents, such as “Proofs of age” and “Depositions,” seem to point to the fact that the churches were, in fact, used during the day by people seeking Almighty God’s guidance and help, by passing strangers, and by labourers returning from their daily toil. It has already been pointed out that in the case of a Chantry, the benefactor who founded it made it a condition that the priest should recite his Breviary in the church either by himself or with others. This practice was recommended to priests generally, and there is no reason to suppose that it was not carried out by them.