Prime. The first hour or period of the day; follows after matins and
lauds; originally intended to be said at the first hour after sunrise.
Tierce, terce. The third hour; half-way between sunrise and noon.
Sext. The sixth hour, originally and properly said at midday.
None, noon. The ninth hour from sunrise, or the middle hour between
midday and sunset--that is, about 3 o'clock.
Vespers, the next to the last of the canonical hours--the even-song.
Compline. The last of the seven canonical hours, originally said after
the evening meal and before retiring to sleep, but in later medieval and
modern usage following immediately on vespers.
B.V.M.--Blessed Virgin Mary.
NOTE E
The literary and educational services of the monks are described in many
histories, but the reader will find the best treatment of this subject
in the scholarly yet popular work of George Haven Putnam, "Books and
Their Makers During the Middle Ages," to which we are largely indebted
for the facts given in this volume.
NOTE F
In many interesting particulars St. Francis may be compared with General
Booth of the Salvation Army. In their intense religious fervor, in their
insistence upon obedience, humility, and self-denial, in their services
for the welfare of the poor, in their love of the "submerged tenth,"
they are alike. True, there are no monkish vows in the Salvation Army
and its doctrines bear a general resemblance to those of other
Protestant communions, but like the old Franciscan order, it is
dominated by a powerful missionary spirit, and its members are actuated
by an unsurpassed devotion to the common people.
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