(from Lat. completus: ‘completed’).
One of the services of the Divine Office. Traditionally performed at the end of the day, Compline seems to have originated as a form of prayer before going to bed; this was once the purpose of Vespers, with which it shares common theological themes, but Compline was never as variable or as imposing as its earlier counterpart. Basil the Great (d 379) mentioned a form of Compline, perhaps still very rudimentary, in his so-called Longer Rules. Both he and the monastic rule written for Arles by St Aurelian (bishop 546–51) referred to the singing of Psalm xc (Vulgate numbering) during the Office. Two very early Western sources, the Ordo monasterii attributed to Alypius of Thegaste and the Institutiones of John Cassian, imply the singing of fixed psalms. It is perhaps because of this long-established tradition that the Rule of St Benedict (c530) excludes the service from its regular course of psalms.
In some sources Compline is preceded by what may be termed a preface, consisting principally of a short lesson (1 Peter v: ‘Fratres sobrii estote’), a general confession (Confiteor Deo omnipotenti) that is said first by the priest and then by the congregation, and a sung versicle and response (Converte nos Deus). The general confession may be a later addition; not mentioned in the Rule of St Benedict, it nevertheless seems to be referred to in the Regula sancti Fructuosi (c670). Many breviaries of even the late Middle Ages do not contain either the lesson or the confession, but the versicle following the confession (and linking the preface to the Office itself) is found at the beginning of the unusual and very elaborate Epiphany Compline service of the 12th-century manuscript F-LA 263, ff.131–41.
The service itself begins with three psalms: iv (Cum invocarem), xc (Qui habitat) and cxxxiii (Ecce nunc benedicite). Other early services added, appropriately, Psalm xxx to the phrase ‘In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum’, but this was probably a later addition and is sometimes omitted. Commentators on the liturgy from Amalar of Metz (c830) have pointed out that each of these psalms has a special relevance to night, or to sleep as the image of death. In the monastic cursus these psalms are said very simply, and without an antiphon. In the Roman cursus there is only one antiphon for all the psalms, usually Miserere mei. Proper antiphons for Compline are rare. The Compline hymn, most often Te lucis ante terminum, is followed by a short lesson, the chapter, which begins Tu [autem] in nobis. Neither the hymn nor the chapter was mentioned by Amalar: these were apparently added after his time. (In some sources, for example the Exeter Ordinal of 1337, their order is reversed.) The short responsory In manus tuas is the most recent addition to Compline; it is absent from many manuscripts. Next come a versicle and response, Custodi nos domine; Nunc dimittis (the Canticle of Simeon, Luke ii. 29–32), with antiphon; a simple Kyrie, the Pater noster, Apostles’ Creed (Credo in Deum), and a series of versicles and responses leading to the final prayer Visita quaesumus (in some medieval sources, Illumina quaesumus); and Benedicamus Domino. This is the usual pattern.
Special embellishments are given to Compline in three medieval manuscripts: F-SEM 46 (early 13th century; ed. H. Villetard, L’office de Pierre de Corbeil, Paris, 1907); GB-Lbl Eg.2615 (Beauvais, 13th century; ed. W. Arlt, Ein Festoffizium des Mittelalters aus Beauvais, Cologne, 1970); and F-LA 263 (see Arlt, and D. Hughes: ‘Music for St. Stephen at Laon’, Words and Music: The Scholar’s View . . . in Honor of A. Tillman Merritt, ed. L. Berman, Cambridge, MA, 1972, p.137). At Sens and Beauvais the Compline service is for the feast of the Circumcision (1 January), at Laon for Epiphany (6 January); these are special days of festivity for sub-deacons. In these manuscripts the versicle Custodi nos domine is replaced by a rhymed paraphrase. The Nunc dimittis is followed by or sung in alternation with the chant Media vita in morte sumus, one of the most powerful of the texts dealing with death used in the Middle Ages. The Pater noster is troped, and followed by the response In pace in idipsum with its versicle Si dedero. (Concerning polyphonic settings of this responsory for use in Compline, see HarrisonMMB, pp.367, 371.) The Credo is troped, and the versicles and responses that follow are sung, in the Beauvais and Laon offices, to elaborate melodies (quite different from the simple formulae in the 15th-century Erlyngham Breviary shown in facsimile in AS, 7) that were originally composed for these texts in other liturgical roles: for example, the versicle and response Benedicamus patrem – Laudemus has the melody of the Trinity responsory and verse with this text; a versicle used at Laon, Benedictus es Domine, is sung to the melody of an alleluia verse. A song in accentual poetry, ‘Juste judex’, with the rubric ‘Confessio’ is interpolated into these at Laon. It appears that the confession identified at the beginning of this article as part of the preface to Compline had, at some times and places, its regular position here: it occurs thus in the liturgy of Exeter (ed. J.N. Dalton, Ordinale Exon., i, London, 1909, p.28), and Bayeux (the 13th-century breviary, F-Pa 279, ff.54v–55r), and in the Erlyngham Breviary. This poem is a paraphrase replacing the standard form of confession. The service continues with the final prayer and a verse paraphrase of the Benedicamus Domino; at Laon there is additional material, as there is throughout that office.
Of the rather numerous antiphons addressed to the Blessed Virgin Mary, some with regular places in the liturgy, others for processions and special observances in her honour, found for the most part in later medieval sources, four appear in modern liturgical books at the end of Compline, each for a definite season of the year: Alma Redemptoris mater, Ave regina caelorum, Regina caeli and Salve regina. The rich variety of liturgical contexts in which Marian antiphons were sung during the Middle Ages is suggested by Harrison (op cit, pp.81–8), who describes the customs of churches in the British Isles.
For bibliography see Divine office.
RUTH STEINER/KEITH FALCONER