[SECTION II.]—SERVICE OF THOMAS BECKET, ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF HIS MARTYRDOM, DEC. 29.
The other instance by which I propose to illustrate the state of religion in England before the reformation, is the service of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, a canonized saint and martyr of the Church of Rome. The interest attaching to so remarkable a period in ecclesiastical history, and to an event so intimately interwoven with the former state of our native land, appears to justify the introduction of the entire service, rather than extracts from it, in this place. Whilst it bears throughout immediately on the subject of our present inquiry, it supplies us at the same time with the strong views entertained by the authors of the service, on points which gave rise to great and repeated discussion, not only in England, but in various parts also of continental Europe, with regard to the moral and spiritual merits or demerits of Becket, as a subject of the realm and a Christian minister. It is, moreover, only by becoming familiar in all their details with some such remains of past times, that we can form any adequate idea of the great and deplorable extent to which the legends had banished the reading and expounding of Holy Scriptures from our churches; and also how much the praises of mortal man had encroached upon those hours of public worship, which should be devoted to meditations on our Maker, Redeemer, and Sanctifier; to the exclusive praises of his holy name; and to supplications to Him alone for blessings at his hand, and for his mercy through Christ.
There is much obscurity in the few first paragraphs. The historical or biographical part begins at Lesson the First, and continues throughout, only interspersed with canticles in general referring to the incidents in the narrative preceding each.
THE SERVICE OF THOMAS BECKET[70].
Footnote 70:[(return)]
The copies which I have chiefly consulted for the purposes of the present inquiry, are two large folio manuscripts, in good preservation, No. 1512 and No. 2785 of the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum. The service commences about the 49th page, B. of No. 2785. This MS. is considered to be of a date somewhere about 1430. The first parts of the service are preserved also in a Breviary printed in Paris in 1556, with some variations and omissions. There are various other copies in the British Museum, as well printed as in manuscript.
Let them without change of vestments and without tapers in their hands, proceed to the altar of St. Thomas the Martyr, chanting the requiem, the chanter beginning,
Req. The grain lies buried beneath the straw;
The just man is slain by the spear of the wicked;
The guardian of the vine falls in the vineyard,