The Three Additions to Daniel, a Study Part 6

The liturgical use however was generally confined to the Song proper, commencing with v. 29, and not always extending to the whole even of that. In the Greek Church it is divided into two odes, said at Lauds on two different days, vv. 3--34 (A.V. verses) forming one, and the remainder of the Song the other (art. _Canticle D.G.A._). In the Ambrosian rite the first part only of the Song is used as an invitatory before the Matin Psalms, under the t.i.tle, somewhat confusing to us, of "Benedictus" (_D.G.A._ art. _Benedictus_).[27]

For some reason not easy to a.s.sign, the Song, whether divided or entire, has always been treated as a morning canticle, although there is nothing in its words to suggest any time of day as specially appropriate.

Rufinus, according to Dr. Salmon (_Speaker's Comm._ Introduction to Apocr. XXVIIb), speaks of the Song as "sung on Festivals in the Church of G.o.d." No reference is given to the pa.s.sage quoted. But in Rufinus'

_Apol. in Hieron._ II. 35 we find the words, "Omnis Ecclesia per orbem terrarum... quicunque Hymnum trium puerorum in Ecclesia Domini cecinerunt," etc. Whether this be the pa.s.sage Dr. Salmon intends or not, it is at any rate sufficient to prove that the canticle was in use in and before Rufinus' time, who is believed to have died in the year 410.

Bishop Barry (_Teacher's P.B._) notes that it was used at Lauds (t?

??????) in the East as well as in the West: and so Mr. Hotham in his art. _Canticle_ in _D.C.A._ In his art. _Psalmody_, however, no mention is made of its Eastern use; but in the Western Church in the Gregorian and its derived rites, including the Roman and cognate Breviaries, he says, "Benedictiones sive cantic.u.m trium puerorum" comes in Sunday Lauds, and likewise in the Benedictine Psalter.

In the Ambrosian Psalter, while the first part "Benedictus es" is said daily at Matins as stated above, the usual _Benedicite_ is said at Lauds on Sundays. In the Mozarabic Psalter an abridgment of both parts is said at Lauds, but not "in feriis." "Benedictus es" also comes on weekdays at Prime. In the Mozarabic Missal _Benedicite_ occurs in the service for the first Sunday in Lent. In the use arranged by Caesarius of Aries (542) for the Gallican Church _Benedicite_ was sung at Sunday Lauds.

d.u.c.h.esne says (_Christian Worship_, Eng. tr. S.P.C.K. 1903, p. 195), "In the Gallican Ma.s.s between the Apostolic and the Evangelic lections the Hymn of the Three Children was sung. It was known also by the name of the Benediction (_Benedicite_) because in it the word 'Benedicite' is continually repeated." In a note he adds, "The Luxeuil Lectionary, however, prescribes for the Nativity, _Daniel c.u.m Benedictione, i.e._, the Hymn of the Three Children before the Apostolic Lection. It is true that in the Ma.s.s of _Clausum Paschale_ it places it after this lection."

The fourth council of Toledo in 633, condemns the omission of the Song at Ma.s.s, threatens with excommunication those who in Spain or Gaul (or Gallicia, margin) persist in leaving it out, and styles it "Hymnum quoque trium puerorum in quo universa coeli terraeque creatura dominum collaudat et quem ecclesia catholica per totum orbem diffusa celebrat"

(Mansi, _Concil._, Florence, 1764, X. 623).

In the Roman Missal at the end of the Canon, the last Rubric is "Discedens ab Altari, pro gratiarum actione dicit Antiphonam Trium Puerorum c.u.m reliquis, ut habetur in principio Missalis;" where is given as an antiphon before it these words, "Trium puerorum cantemus hymnum quem cantabant sancti in camino ignis, benedicentes Dominum."

Possibly there is a reference to this Eucharistic use in Bishop Wordsworth's Michaelmas Hymn, No. CII. in his _Holy Year_, 1864.

Angelic voices we shall hear Joined in our jubilee, In this thy Church and echoing Our Benedicite.

Angelic faces we shall see Angelic songs o'erspread Above thy holy Altar, Lord, And Thou, the Living Bread.

In the Saram Breviary (and in Cardinal Quignon's) _Benedicite_ is a canticle at Lauds on Sundays only. It is to be said without "Glory"; "dicatur sine Gloria Patri per totum annum quandocunque dicitur"

(Procter, p. 188); but a doxology is provided in the Roman Breviary, "Benedicamus Patrem et Filium c.u.m Sancto Spiritu," etc., and 'Amen' is directed not to be said at the end. This doxology is said to have been added by Pope Damasus I., who also transposed v. 56 to stand as the finale of the Song (_see_ James M'Swiney, _Psalms and Canticles_, Lond.

1901, p. 643). This R.C. writer calls the use of the canticle on Sundays "a thanksgiving for the resurrection of the Crucified, the earnest of the glories wherewith nature is to be invested at His second coming."

But this sounds like an _ex post facto_ reason for its appropriateness.

_Benedicite_ appears, at any rate sometimes, to have been said subsequently to _Te Deum_ after the election of an Abbot (_see_ Jocelin of Brakelond's _Chronicle_, Sir E. Clarke's ed., 1903, p. 38). It also appears in the _Cantica_ after the Psalter, between _Te Deum_ and _Benedictus_, in the Scottish _Breviarium Bothanum_, which is thought to be of about 15th century (Lond. 1900).

Thus it is evident that the use of this hymn became general at an early period, and so continued, having never receded in Christian esteem as a valued factor in public worship.

Besides the use of the Song, or part of it, as a canticle, verses or small portions often occur in liturgies; _e.g._, vv. 28--30 are borrowed in an ??f???s?? before the offertory prayers in the Liturgy of St.

James; at the censing of the Gospel in that of St. Mark; in a Byzantine Liturgy of the ninth century in the second prayer of the faithful; in that of St. Chrysostom immediately before the lections in the Ma.s.s of the Catechumens; and v. 19 in the ?p????s?? in that of the Coptic Jacobites (Brightman's _Liturgies_, I. Oxf. 1896). In the Leonine _Sacramentary_, in a Preface, Mense Junio, IIII. 1. 13, ad Fontem, the last words of the Song appear to be cited "plena sunt omnia saccula misericordia tua" (Dr. Feltoe's ed., Camb. 1896, p. 31). The verse "Benedicite omnes angeli" occurs in a "Communio" for Michaelmas in the Rosslyn Missal; "Benedictus es Domine patrum nostrorum" occurs in the Ma.s.s of the Holy Trinity in the Westminster Missal as a "gradale," also in a Ma.s.s "pro sponsis", and other places (Hen. Bradshaw Soc., Lond.

1899, p. 70, 1897, p. 1239). v. 34 (56) occurs in the Sarum Compline after the Creed, as also in the Roman.

In the Greek Euchologion a great part of the Song is embodied, with other Scripture odes, in what is styled "the Canon at Great Matins in the All Night Vigil" (_Euchology_, translated by G.V. Shann, Kidderminster, 1891, p. 34).

LATER ENGLISH USE.

Burbidge (_Liturgies and Offices of the Church_, 1885, p. 268), gives a number of instances of the use of _Benedicite_ in foreign service books, and says, "In other churches _Benedicite_ has been held in higher esteem than amongst ourselves." Esteem for it has never been entirely lacking, however, as its prominence in the P.B. shews.

In a Prymer of circ. 1400, as given by Maskell (_Mon. rit._ 1882, Vol.

III. p. 21), _Benedicite_ occurs in Matins, beginning "Alle werkis of the Lord, bless ye to the Lord: herie ye and overhize ye him in all time." On the same page, note 49, he gives a quotation from _Gemma animae_, II. 53, "cantic.u.m trium puerorum est festivius et ideo in omnibus festis dicitur." Also in his _Append, to Prymer_, p. 243, another version is given, from Bodl. Douce MS. 275, fol. 9b: "Alle werkes of the Lord, bless ye the Lord: praise and overheie ye him in to the worldes." There was an authorized translation into Welsh early in the 14th century, according to H. Zimmer (_Urtext und Uebersetz_, Leipzig, 1897, p. 172), together with _Magnificat, Benedictus_, and several Psalms, evidently for liturgical purposes.

In the P.B. of 1549 the use of the _Benedicite_ as a subst.i.tute for the _Te Deum_ was confined to Lent "all the which time" its recital was obligatory. It has been suggested by W.G. Wyon (_Letter to "Guardian,"_ May 14, 1902) that mediaeval devotion read into it an allegoric meaning of deliverance from temptations and dangers of this naughty world, and this made the Song suitable for Lent. He also suggests that the 'Oratio'

of the Roman Missal in the 'Gratiarum actio' after Ma.s.s, which contains it, shews us its suitability for penitential seasons indirectly, "Deus qui tribus," etc. No doubt hope of deliverance from fierce spiritual perils may be in Lent a proper frame of mind; but this attempt to prove the _Benedicites_ special appropriateness to that season is more ingenious than satisfying. It is strained and far-fetched. Compare what is said above (p. 88), where M'Swiney is cited as shewing in similar style its special appropriateness to Sunday. The tone of the canticle is unmistakeably joyful, and the 1549 rubric disappeared in 1552, leaving _Benedicite_ as a simple alternative to the _Te Deum_, at any time according to the taste of the officiant. And so it still remains, though often preferred to the _Te Dewm_ during Lent. Septuagesima and Trinity XXI. are, on account of their first lessons, fitting Sundays for its use; nor is it by any means unsuitable for a harvest festival. An entirely different kind of reason for its Lenten suitability is provided by H.P. Cornish (_Notes on P.B._, Evans, Redditch, n.d., p. 17). Lent, he says, is the time "when all nature begins to wake from its Lenten sleep": hence its appropriateness in spring. It is questionable, however, whether mediaeval liturgical authorities paid much attention to the natural seasons of the year; and the variety of 'reasons' proves the difficulty of discovering a really conclusive one. The idea that the _Benedicite_ is consonant with Lenten feelings is singularly out of accord with the opinion expressed as to its character as being 'festivius' in the _Gemma animae_, given above, p. 90. Indeed it can hardly be disputed that its tone is joyful. But though its special aptness for a fasting-time is not easy to make out clearly, few unprejudiced people will dissent from the opinion of Freeman as to its scope when he writes, that "though wanting in the grand structure of the _Te Deum_, in point of range it is in no way inferior" (_Divine Service_, Lond. 1855, I. 356).

In the scheme for the revision of the Prayer-Book in William III.'s reign it was actually arranged to expunge _Benedicite_, and to subst.i.tute Ps. cxlviii. It would have been extruded in good company however, as _Magnificat_ and _Nunc Dimittis_ were to be replaced by psalms in a similar way. Happily the deplorable proposals of 1689 came to nothing. But strange to say, previously to this, in the Laudian Scottish Prayer-Book, Psalm xxiii. had been subst.i.tuted for _Benedicite_. In England, however, in 1662, the Church, taught by the persecution of the Commonwealth, declined "to appoint some psalm or scripture hymn instead of the apocryphal _Benedicite"_, as demanded by the Puritans at the Savoy Conference (Procter, _P.B._, 1872, p. 119).

At a rather earlier period, Dean Boys of Canterbury, in his quaint _Prayer-Book Notes_ (1615?) says: "I finde this hymne less martyred than the rest, and therefore dismisse it, as Christ did the woman (John viii.), 'Where be thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? No more doe I; goe thy way.'"

At least three English metrical renderings of _Benedicite_ exist, one of the 18th and two of the 19th century, by J. Merrick, J.S. Blackie, and Richard Wilton respectively. The first of these writers, who expands freely, concludes with a stanza designed to put the Song unmistakeably into the mouths of the Three:

Let us, who now impa.s.sive stand, Plac'd by the Tyrant's stern Command Amid the fiery Blaze, (While thus we triumph in the Flame) Rise, and our Maker's Love proclaim In hymns of endless praise.

The objection that in using this hymn we pray to angels and heavens, to ice and snow, etc., shews how hard it is to find reasonable cause of complaint against its use. (_See_ p. 62).

The whole canticle was however actually omitted in the P.B. printed at Oxford in 1796, an edition notorious for the liberties taken with the book in many ways (A.J. Stephens' _P.B._, Lond. 1849).[28] The last verse, "O Ananias," etc., which was omitted in the United States' P.B.

is, as well as the above, dealt with under 'Theology,' p. 64.

In an _Altar Service Manual_, ed. 1837, which was very popular in the middle of the 19th century, by S. Isaacson, certain extracts from the _Benedicite_, with presumably original additions, are formed into what is called "the canticle" in an "Evening Liturgy for use after Holy Communion." The five added verses, in rather unrhythmical English, are modelled in imitation of the Song, _e.g._ "O ye who have partaken of the Holy Communion, bless ye the Lord: praise Him and magnify Him for ever."

The Song of the Three Children is, with other canticles, frequently found in appendices to both Greek and Latin Psalters. And on this account it is included sometimes in commentaries on the Psalter, as in that of de Muis (644), Louvain, 1770, beginning with v. 51, "tunc hi tres quasi ex uno ore laudabant," etc. It stands in this book between Hezekiah's and Jonah's prayers. In the mediaeval Psalters, _Benedicite_ may constantly be found, though its place in the series of canticles varies considerably.

Many of the LXX MSS. too contain these canticles, or some of them, repeated from their regular places in the text, such as Alexandrinus and the Veronese and Turin Psalters; of these the first has vv. 26 to 45 and 52 to 58, as two separate canticles between the Prayer of Mana.s.ses and Magnificat; the second, vv. 52 to 90 after Magnificat as its last canticle; and the third has vv. 26 to 45, 52 to 56, and 57 to 90 as three separate canticles between the P. of M. and Benedictus. In each case, it will be observed, the narrative portion is naturally excluded.

In the first and third of these MSS., A. and T., it may here be noted that there is a non-biblical Morning Hymn, ???? ???????, a kind of Eastern "Gloria in excelsis," which contains an apparent extract from vv. 29, 30 (52), or v. 3 (26) of our Apocryphon, in line 34 of the hymn.

Very nearly the same words occur in Tobias' song (Tob. viii. 5), which curiously enough (in common with the song of Deborah), is not included in these canticles. Doubtless it was not in ecclesiastical use; but the reason why the Christian Church abstained from availing herself of it for choral purposes is not evident; any more than why the Jewish Church abstained from the use of _Benedicite_.

Although the employment of _Benedicite_ in the services of the Church is interesting, as shewing the value set upon, and the use made of, this canticle, it reflects little or no light on its origin, or indeed on any of the heads under which it has been previously discussed.

"EXAMPLE OF LIFE AND INSTRUCTION OF MANNERS."

The conduct of Azarias and its results shew us the _value of Prayer_ made by those under persecution. He led the way, and his comrades joined him.

Azarias is not so taken up with the wrongs of himself and his fellows as to forget the wrongs which his own nation had done; therefore his prayer commences with a _humble Confession_. Then he relies on the great promises of the past (vv. 12, 13). It may be thought that _Humility_ is also shewn in the Song by the Three putting their own names in the last place of the series. But another cause may have contributed to the choice of this order; for, so far as animal life is concerned, the Song follows the order of Gen. i., bringing in human beings last, not as being least important, but as forming the crown of creation.

Although Nebuchadnezzar is severely spoken of in v. 9, A.V. (and in iv.

27 of the canonical book 'sins and iniquities' are attributed to Nebuchadnezzar), there is great _Self-restraint_ shewn in wishing for retribution (vv. 20, 21); and indeed it is asked that he and his servitors may be brought to the knowledge of G.o.d (v. 22).

The pleasure of _Thanksgiving and Praise_ on delivery are exemplified by the Three in the production of the Song itself. As soon as ever their prayer was answered, before they emerged from the furnace, they united their voices in thanking G.o.d with a glow of fervid faith, recognizing in Him the universal Lord and Benefactor.

They sang in harmonious accord their song of praise at once (v. 28).

Though staunchly refusing to worship in a wrong way, they were very ready to do so in a right, and lost no time in proving it, publicly and before all creation. As de Muis (1644) says in his _Comm. in Psalmos_ (Louvain, 1770, II. 705), "Ut calamitatibus tanquam igne probatur; fidelis animus non modo non deficiat sed etiam animata inanimaque omnia ad Dei laudes provocet." Eager to honour G.o.d, they join in unreserved devotion.

Their _Reliance upon G.o.d_ is obviously great. To Him they turn in their martyrdom with prayer and praise; to Him they address themselves with the heart and voice of sure conviction. He is their unfailing resource.

A _Love of Nature_, as created by the same hand as ourselves, is very apparent in this canticle; there is a thorough fellow-feeling with natural objects, as derived from, and responding to, the same Almighty source. This love of nature appears in Holy Scripture most strongly, as here, in the poetical books, and hardly anywhere does it take a deeper tone than in this canticle.

PART III