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Alcuin Club Collections
XVII
Traditional Ceremonial and Customs
connected with the Scottish Liturgy.
by
F. C. Eeles, F.R.Hist.S, F.S.A. Scot.
Diocesan Librarian of Aberdeen
[pp vii-xi]
Preface.
In
1884 the late Bishop of Edinburgh, Dr. Dowden, published his well-known work,
the Annotated Scottish Communion Office. In it he dealt at full length
with the present Scottish Liturgy form the historical and textual standpoint.
The Scottish Liturgy in its present form was not the only product of the
learning of the Scottish clergy of the eighteenth century; other services were
drawn up about the same time for other purposes; these are still in
manuscript, and are practically unknown to liturgical students. But besides
the written and printed liturgical services there also grew up and were handed
down a number of traditional customs connected with the rendering of the
Scottish Liturgy and the other ordinary services of the Church. These customs
are strictly of the nature of ceremonial, although that word is one of the
last which would be popularly applied to the majority of them. They are of
great liturgical interest, and several of them are of some practical value.
With the kind assistance of many friends the writer has collected all that
seems to be known about them, and he ventures to exhibit the result of his
labours in the following pages. As far as possible he has tried to avoid
encroaching on the ground which Dr. Dowden covered in his careful and accurate
treatise on the text of the liturgy; and he has confined himself to customs
which have clustered round our present services, leaving for separate
treatment the beautiful and interesting but now obsolete rites of the
eighteenth century, whose use did not survive the generation which produced
them. It has also been thought advisable to leave for separate treatment all
questions relating to the ordination services and to matters of ecclesiastical
and especially penitential discipline.
Several
friends have pressed upon the writer the desirability of adding a short
appendix of instructions for the clergy who wish to observe the more desirable
of the old usages when celebrating the Holy Communion at the present day. But
for many reasons this has not been done. It has been the writer’s intention
to present an impartial account of what has come down to us, whether good or
bad, without selection; to produce a book for the liturgical student and not a
directory for use in church. Moreover, the surroundings of the Church’s
worship in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries obviously included
many things which ought rather to be avoided than imitated, and the writer did
not wish to incur the charge of attempting to revive the bad as well as the
good—a charge which experience has shown to be very readily levelled against
one who ventures to suggest that any ceremonial mistakes have been made by the
revivalists of the last half century. At the same time it is impossible to be
blind to the practical value of many of these half-forgotten traditions, and
the clergy to whom the principles professed by the compilers of our liturgy
appeal, will not find it difficult “to refuse the evil and choose the
good” among the practices handed down from the days in which those compilers
lived.
The writer must beg the indulgence of his readers. A collection largely
composed of unwritten traditions is always unsatisfactory, particularly in
liturgical matters, where students are accustomed to appeal to the litera
scripta of texts and rubrics. If it be difficult to weight the historical
evidence of written documents, it is infinitely harder to do so in the case of
oral tradition. The greatest possible care has, however, been taken not to
overstate the case for the prevalence of any particular practice. And it may
be necessary to caution the reader against assuming that, because a custom is
fond in one or two places, it was therefore general. On the other hand, it
must be remembered that certain usages, now exceptional, may well be survivals
of what at one time were common practices.
The
reader who is familiar with the north of Scotland will pardon the repetition
for the benefit of others of much that he already knows, and the liturgical
student will doubtless remember that a book of this kind has a local as well
as a more general interest, in consequence of which it has been thought well
to add numerous details and references for the guidance of any who may be
stimulated to further liturgical study.
At the time of going to press there are proposals for a careful revision of
the Scottish Liturgy with a view to the issue of a standard text, and also for
giving the canonical sanction for the Scottish Church to various additions to
and deviations from the services contained in the Book of Common Prayer. The
writer hoped that it might have been possible to include some account of these
alterations and to have given the revised text of the Liturgy in an Appendix.
But as the machinery of ecclesiastical legislation is slow, if sure, it will
be a considerable time before effect can be given to any of the new proposals,
and as this book is connected rather with the past than the present it has
been thought needless to delay publication.
It only remains for the writer to express his deep gratitude to all who have
helped him in making this compilation; indeed it is to them that the student
is indebted for any help he may derive from the following pages. It would be
difficult to say how much the writer owes to the never-failing kindness of the
Dean of Brechin, the Very Rev. William Hatt, whose keen interest and careful
observation have furnished him with information, which probably no one else
could have given, regarding the traditional customs of his native part of
Aberdeenshire and his present charge of Muchalls. Indeed it was what he said
in conversations several years ago that first suggested the making of this
collection. The Rev. George Sutherland, Aberdeen, formerly of Portsoy, has
also given a great deal of useful information. He has kindly contributed
several notes which are identified by his initials. The late Bishop of
Edinburgh, whose Annotated Scottish Communion Office has made the work
of the Scottish non-jurors well known to all students of liturgies, very
kindly read the proofs and made many valuable suggestions. The same has been
done by the Bishop of Moray, the Dean of Edinburgh, and Dr. J. Wickham Legg,
to whom the writer is particularly grateful for their ungrudging expenditure
of time and trouble. Thanks are also due to the Bishop of Moray, till recently
Principal of the Theological College of the Episcopal Church in Scotland, and
the Rev. E. Beresford-Cooke, formerly Diocesan Librarian of Brechin, for
access to the books and MSS. in their respective libraries. The Very Rev.
Vernon Staley, Provost of Inverness Cathedral, the Rev. C. B. Beard,
Helensburgh; J. W. Harper, Dunimarle; E. J. Petrie, Newlands, Glasgow; J. A.
Philip, Kirriemuir; W. Presslie, Lochlee; J. H. Shepherd, St. Mary
Magdalene’s, Dundee; G. Thompson, Arley, Cheshire; T. W. H. White, Perth;
have given much valuable help. Last, but not least, the writer must thank most
of the clergy and many of the laity of the diocese of Aberdeen, that old
stronghold of episcopacy and of the national liturgy, of whose ecclesiastical
record every Scottish churchman may well be proud. To mention all to whom he
is indebted would, it is to be feared, be impossible, but he cannot omit the
names of the Rev. R. Cruickshank, St. John the Evangelist, Aberdeen; G. L.
Duff, Turriff; W. Haslewood, Ellon; W. W. Hawdon, Banchory Ternan; the late
Rev. G. Low, Folla Rule; J. Strachan, Cruden; F. Turreff, Fyvie; and more
particularly the Rev. Robert Mackay, Longside, among others who ought to be
mentioned if space allowed. Everywhere has the writer met with the greatest
possible kindness, and his only regret is the weariness which he feels sure
his innumerable questions must so often have caused.
F.C.E.
Aberdeen,
3rd June, 1910.
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