Services in the Divine Office held at regular intervals during the day. Various early Christian writers advocated prayer or other devotions at the third, sixth and ninth hours of the day according to the Roman reckoning (i.e. at approximately 9 a.m., 12 noon and 3 p.m.). These same hours were important in the secular affairs of Ancient Roman cities and were often marked by the sounding of a bell; they also played a role in Jewish observances and quickly acquired religious significance (usually allegorical symbolism) in early Christian writings. The Spanish nun Egeria described services held in Jerusalem at the third, sixth and ninth hours. Later Western usage named these hours Terce, Sext and None. Prime, the fourth of the Little Hours in the Western tradition, is held at daybreak after Lauds; its origins are disputed but may be Eastern, if the service mentioned in a controversial passage in the Institutiones of John Cassian really is that of Prime. The earliest unambiguous allusions to Prime, and thus to the complete cycle of Little Hours, appear in Gallican monastic rules of the 6th century. With the detailed descriptions in the Rule of St Benedict (c530), the Little Hours may be said to have reached their final form, at least as regards Western monastic usage. Early sources for the Byzantine Office have not survived, but by the Middle Ages, if not before, the monastic tradition required celebration of the Little Hours eight times a day (12 times in Lent).
Each of the Little Hours in the Western tradition begins with the versicle and response Deus in adjutorium followed by a hymn. Hymns for the Little Hours are mentioned in the Rule of St Benedict, although the hymns most often sung in these Hours seem to have been composed somewhat later: for Prime, Jam lucis orto sidere, for Terce, Nunc Sancte nobis Spiritus, for Sext, Rector potens verax Deus, and for None, Rerum Deus tenax vigor. On some feasts these are replaced by Proper hymns. Despite their early use in the monastic cursus, hymns were not introduced into the Roman cursus until a rather late date: they are lacking from some manuscripts as late as the 12th century.
A single antiphon introduces the psalms of each of the Little Hours. Usually the four antiphons needed for this are borrowed in order from Lauds, with the fourth of the five Lauds antiphons (that for the Old Testament canticle) omitted. In their psalms, the monastic and Roman cursus are quite different. In the monastic cursus, Prime has four psalms on Sunday and three for each weekday; Terce, Sext and None always have three. Psalm cxviii (Vulgate numbering – Beati immaculati) is divided into 22 sections of eight verses each. The first four sections serve as the four psalms for Sunday Prime. The remaining sections are said in groups of three in Terce, Sext and None of Sunday and Monday; in these Hours on Tuesday Psalms cxix–cxxvii are said, and they are repeated during the rest of the week. Prime has different psalms on each weekday; they are Psalms i–xix, with some omissions for psalms with regular places in other Offices (iii–v), and some long psalms (ix and xvii) divided into two sections.
In the Roman cursus the same psalms are said every day, except at the beginning of Prime. Psalm cxviii is divided into 11 sections of 16 verses each; sections 1 and 2 count as the last two psalms of Prime, and the remaining nine sections are divided among the other Hours. The incipit of the first ‘psalm’ for Terce is thus Legem pone (Psalm cxviii.33), for Sext, Defecit in salutare (Psalm cxviii.81), and for None, Mirabilia testimonia (Psalm cxviii.129). The original scheme for Prime at Rome (at the end of the 5th century) had Psalm cxvii (Confitemini Domino) as the first psalm on Sundays, and Psalm liii (Deus in nomine) on weekdays. In the revision of the liturgy made under Pope Gregory I (d 604), however, five psalms (xxi–xxv) from Sunday Matins were placed at the beginning of Sunday Prime. The version of Prime that begins with Psalm xxi (Deus, Deus meus) is sometimes spoken of in medieval ordinals as ‘prima longa’; the expression has evident justification.
The psalms of Prime may be followed, in circumstances which vary according to time and place, by the Athanasian Creed Quicumque vult. This is often given the rubric ‘Ps.’ and directly follows the last psalm; it is also on occasion said separately, with its own antiphon. After the psalms in all the Little Hours there comes a chapter (mentioned in the Rule of St Benedict but perhaps not added to the Roman cursus until after the beginning of the 9th century), a short responsory (not in the monastic cursus), and a versicle with response. There follow Preces, including the Kyrie and Pater noster (followed in Prime by the Apostles' Creed and the general confession Confiteor), and then the versicles and responses that introduce the Collect. Benedicamus Domino – Deo gratias ends the service, which is followed by the monastic Officium capituli, or prayers for the blessing of God on the day's work, during which the martyrology is read.
In the 12th- and 13th-century manuscripts of Sens, Beauvais and Laon, which give special treatment to the Office of Compline, there are also some embellishments for the Little Hours. Generally, the most elaborate treatment is given to what might seem the least important element of the Office, the versicle with response that follows the short responsory. It is replaced by a paraphrase, sometimes in verse, which is set to music in the style either of a prosula (one note per syllable, as in Ad te de valle meroris, in None at Beauvais) or of a hymn (syllabic and neumatic styles mixed, as in Exsurge Domino nostra redemptio, for Prime at Sens). At Sens, verse paraphrases replace the Benedicamus Domino at the end of the Little Hours. The only change in the more important musical portions of these Offices (antiphons, short responsories and hymns) is the reworking at Sens of the hymn Jam lucis orto sidere into a strophic song with the refrain Fulget dies – Fulget dies ista.
See also Liturgy of the Hours.
For bibliography see Divine Office.
RUTH STEINER/KEITH FALCONER