Excerpt from Monumenta Ritualia Ecclesiae Anglicanae, Vol. 3 of 3: The Occasional Offices of the Church of England According to the Old Use of Salisbury, the Prymer in English, and Other Prayers and Forms, With Dissertations and Notes

Not only was the day thus divided into seven parts but reasons were given for this arrangement. In seven days the creation was completed. Seven times a day says the psalmist do I praise thee, because of thy righteous judgments. Again, seven times a day (another Scripture tells us) the just man falls, there are seven graces of the Holy Spirit, seven divisions of the Lord's prayer, and seven ages of a man's life. The mystery of our redemption was begun and ended in the night: in the middle of the night our blessed Lord was born, and after midnight rose again from the dead. The hours also had each its mystical reference to certain sacred occurrences.15 I shall extract these from an edition of the Salisbury prymer as they are ex plained in verse.16 The verses are commonly to be found in the horae, prymers, and enchiridions of about the same date, placed under woodcuts of the subjects of each stanza.

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