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This canonical Office was a marvellous rosary of psalms; every bead of each of these hours bore reference to the different phases of human existence, followed, little by little, the periods of the day, the decline of destiny, to end in the most perfect of offices, in Compline, that provisional absolution of a death, itself represented by sleep.
Call thou then on thy GOD and say Converte nos DEUS salutaris noster, as if he said, "Lord, I have been this day hindered by the world, that has greatly hindered me from serving Thee; through temptation of the fiend and of my flesh oft this day have I done amiss; therefore, my Lord, turn me now from the world, and from all that may hinder me from praising Thee with a pure heart and with all my wits, so that they be intent on Thee to work Thy will," And then, say forth thy Compline, and after, other prayers with the devotion that GOD sends thee.
It was only this morning that he left it, yet it seemed to be a hundred years ago. Last night the Brotherhood, the singing of Evensong, Compline, the pure air, silence, solitude, and the atmosphere of prayer; and to-night the crowds, the clouds of smoke, the odour of drink, the meaning laughter, and Glory as the centre of it all!
There is much bustle and preparation; the travellers are welcomed with monkish hospitality; Christopher, we may be sure, goes and hears the convent singing Compline, and offers up devout prayers for a quiet night and for safe conduct through this vale of tears; and goes thankfully to bed with the plainsong echoing in his ears, and some stoic sense that all days, however hard, have an evening, and all journeys an end.
It is not to be supposed that the laity either were expected to attend, or could attend, all these services, which were strictly kept in monastic bodies; but it would appear that mass, and sometimes matins and evensong, or else compline, were generally frequented. And these latter would be, as represented in the text, the ordinary services in private chapels. iv Battle of Brunanburgh.
And one Sir Edward Grim, that was his crossier, put forth his arm with the cross to bear off the stroke, and the stroke smote the cross asunder and his arm almost off, wherefore he fled for fear and so did all the monks that were that time at Compline. And then each smote at him, that they smote off a great piece of the skull of his head, that his brain fell on the pavement.
Rise at 3 o'clock, or rather at 3.30. Breakfast at 7 Sext at 11, dinner at 11.30 Nones at 1.30 Vespers at 5.15 Supper at 6, and Compline at 7.25." "There, at least that is clear and easy to remember If only Father Etienne have not noticed my absence from chapel!" He left his room. "Ah, here is the famous rule," he said to himself, on seeing a framed table hung on the landing.
In the year 1463, on the day before the Feast of Quirinus the Martyr, that is on March 29th, and at about the eighth hour when Compline was done, died John, son of James, a faithful Laic of our House and a good husbandman; he was an Oblate and Resignate, and was born in Dalssen; moreover, he proved himself to be useful and skilled in his work among our husbandmen.
When this disease first broke forth, our Brother Gerard ter Mollen, a Convert, fell sick and received the Unction after Compline on the day of the Translation of St. Martin the Bishop: in the night following, before the hour for Matins, his sickness grew heavy on him and he died.
If the office be the office of an excepted feast, the whole office is said from the feast as it is in the Proper or Common of saints; but the psalms of Lauds and the hours are taken from the Sunday psalms, as they stand in the new Psaltery, At Prime the psalm Deus in nomine is said in place of Confitemini. Compline is said from the Sunday psalms.
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