n. And,
after a certain number of psalms read, which are limited according to the
dates of the month, for morning and evening prayer we have two lessons,
whereof the first is taken out of the Old Testament, the second out of the
New; and of these latter, that in the morning is out of the Gospels, the
other in the afternoon out of some one of the Epistles. After morning
prayer also, we have the Litany and suffrages, an invocation in mine
opinion not devised without the great assistance of the Spirit of God,
although many curious mind-sick persons utterly condemn it as
superstitious, and savouring of conjuration and sorcery.
This being done, we proceed unto the communion, if any communicants be to
receive the Eucharist; if not, we read the Decalogue, Epistle, and Gospel,
with the Nicene Creed (of some in derision called the "dry communion"),
and then proceed unto an homily or sermon, which hath a psalm before and
after it, and finally unto the baptism of such infants as on every Sabbath
day (if occasion so require) are brought unto the churches; and thus is
the forenoon bestowed. In the afternoon likewise we meet again, and, after
the psalms and lessons ended, we have commonly a sermon, or at the
leastwise our youth catechised by the space of an hour. And thus do we
spend the Sabbath day in good and godly exercises, all done in our vulgar
tongue, that each one present may hear and understand the same, which also
in cathedral and collegiate churches is so ordered that the psalms only
are sung by note, the rest being read (as in common parish churches) by
the minister with a loud voice, saving that in the administration of the
communion the choir singeth the answers, the creed, and sundry other
things appointed, but in so plain, I say, and distinct manner that each
one present may understand what they sing, every word having but one note,
though the whole harmony consist of many parts, and those very cunningly
set by the skilful in that science.
Certes this translation of the service of the church into the vulgar
tongue hath not a little offended the pope almost in every age, as a thing
very often attempted by divers princes, but never generally obtained, for
fear lest the consenting thereunto might breed the overthrow (as it would
indeed) of all his religion and hierarchy; nevertheless, in some places
where the kings and princes dwelled not under his nose, it was performed
maugre his resistance. Wratislaus, Duke of Bohem
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