How no change was made by the Elders in the ancient system of Psalms when the Mattin office was instituted.

But this too we ought to know, viz., that no change was made in the ancient arrangement of Psalms by our Elders who decided that this Mattin service should be added;⁷⁴¹

741 I.e., Prime. Some confusion is likely to be caused by the fact that Cassian speaks of both “Lauds” and “Prime” by the same title of Mattins. Immediately below, where he speaks of the “Mattin service at the close of the nocturnal vigils” he is referring to Lauds, which always followed immediately (or after a very short interval) after Nocturns, or Mattins. At this service Pss. cxlviii.–cl. have always been sung, indeed, they form the characteristic feature which gives the service its name of “Lauds” (οἱ ἆινοι). Of the other three Psalms, l. (li.), lxii. (lxiii.), and lxxxix. (xc.), which Cassian says had been transferred from Lauds to the newly instituted service of Prime, lxii. has been already spoken of as a morning hymn of the early Church (see the notes on c. iii.), and we learn from S. Basil that in his day Ps. l. (ὁ τἠς ἐξομολογήσεως ψαλμός) was regularly sung after Mattins when the day began to break (Ep. ccvii. ad clericos Neo-Cæs.), and it is still a Lauds Psalm in both East and West. lxxxix. (xc.) is now one of the fixed Psalms at Prime in the East, but in the West it is, according to the Roman rule, sung at Lauds on Thursdays only. Thus it would appear that the transfer of these three Psalms from Lauds to Prime, of which Cassian speaks, never obtained widely, but that the older arrangement, whereby, at any rate, l. and lxii. were assigned to Lauds, has generally been adhered to both in the East and West. Cf. the Rule of S. Benedict, according to which Ps. l. is sung daily at Lauds, and lxii. as well on Sundays (c. xii., xiii.).

742 Missa.

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