"
But this sounds like an _ex post facto_ reason for its appropriateness.
_Benedicite_ appears, at any rate sometimes, to have been said
subsequently to _Te Deum_ after the election of an Abbot (_see_ Jocelin
of Brakelond's _Chronicle_, Sir E. Clarke's ed., 1903, p. 38). It also
appears in the _Cantica_ after the Psalter, between _Te Deum_ and
_Benedictus_, in the Scottish _Breviarium Bothanum_, which is thought to
be of about 15th century (Lond. 1900).
Thus it is evident that the use of this hymn became general at an early
period, and so continued, having never receded in Christian esteem as a
valued factor in public worship.
Besides the use of the Song, or part of it, as a canticle, verses or
small portions often occur in liturgies; _e.g._, vv. 28--30 are borrowed
in an ??????†?????·?????‚ before the offertory prayers in the Liturgy of St.
James; at the censing of the Gospel in that of St. Mark; in a Byzantine
Liturgy of the ninth century in the second prayer of the faithful; in
that of St. Chrysostom immediately before the lections in the Mass of
the Catechumens; and v.
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