A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

VERSICLES. Short or diminutive verses, said alternately by the minister and people; such, for example, as the following:—

Min. O Lord, show thy mercy upon us; Ans. And grant us thy salvation. Min. O God, make clean our hearts within us; Ans. And take not thy Holy Spirit from us.

The versicles, properly so called, (with their responses,) are in most instances passages from the Psalms, and are thus distinguished from other suffrages, which are neither verses from the Psalms, nor form in each petition and response a continuous sentence. In the Litany the two versicles with their responses, “O Lord, deal not with us after our sins,” and “O Lord, let thy mercy be showed upon us,” are distinguished from the other suffrages (in the Litany) by having the words Priest and Answer prefixed; and by being each a verse from the Psalms. To which may be added, that till the last Review, these had been always prefaced in the English Litany, since the Reformation, by the words “the versicles.”

VESICA PISCIS. (See Piscis.)

VESPERS, or EVEN-SONG, is mentioned by the most ancient Fathers, and it is probable that the custom of holding an assembly for public worship at this time is of the most primitive antiquity. Certainly in the fourth century, and perhaps in the third, there was public evening service in the Eastern Churches, as we learn from the Apostolical Constitutions; and Cassian, in the beginning of the fifth century, appears to refer the evening and nocturnal assemblies of the Egyptians to the time of St. Mark the Evangelist.

VESTMENTS. (See Ornaments.) The vestment mentioned in the rubric of King Edward VI.’s first Prayer Book, is the same as the Chasuble. (See Chasuble.)

VESTRY. (Anciently Revestry or Sacristy.) A room attached to a church for the keeping of the vestments and the sacred vessels. The most usual place for the vestry was at the north side of the chancel, at the east end. There was not infrequently an altar in the vestry; and sometimes it was arranged with an additional chamber, so as to form a domus inclusa for the residence of an officiating priest.

And from their meeting in this room, certain assemblies of the parishioners, for the despatch of the official business of the parish, are called vestries or vestry meetings. It is not, however, essential to the validity of the meeting, that it should be held in the vestry of the church. It may be convened in any place in the parish, provided the parishioners have free access to it, even though the place fixed on be private property. Notice of meeting must be given three days previously, by affixing on or near the doors of all churches or chapels within the parish, a printed or written notice. The incumbent is ex officio chairman of the meeting. All persons rated to the relief of the poor, whether inhabitants of the parish or not, are entitled to attend the vestry and vote thereat: and this right is also extended to all inhabitants coming into the parish since the last rate for the relief of the poor, if they consent to be rated. But no person is entitled to vote, who shall have neglected or refused to pay any rate which may be due, and shall have been demanded of him, nor is he entitled to be present at any vestry meeting. A motion to adjourn the vestry for six or twelve months, or for any time, with a view to defeat the object of the meeting, is illegal, and therefore no such motion should be received by the chairman.

The functions of vestries are, to take due care for the maintenance of the edifice of the church, and the due administration of Divine service; to elect churchwardens, to present for appointment fit persons as overseers of the poor, to administer the property of the parish, and (if so appointed under local acts) to superintend the paving and lighting of the parish, and to levy rates for those purposes.

The remedy for neglect of duty by a vestry is a mandamus from the court of Queen’s Bench, directed to the officer whose duty it would be to perform the particular act, or in some cases by an ordinary process against him, or by a process against the churchwardens out of the ecclesiastical courts.