york00orns

PRIMERS. BIDDING PRAYER. 287
the name of Primer, long before the Reformation
period. The word was in common use certainly
before the middle of the 14th century. It was
used by Piers Ploughman, and it occurs perpetually
in the bequests given in wills of the northern counties.
From the very earliest times there is indeed
abundant evidence that the Creed, the Lord's Prayer,
and the Ten Commandments were taught to the
people in their own tongue. And when they assembled
for worship in their churches on Sundays and
Holy days, they had instruction given them as to the
proper objects of prayer, in what was called the
Bidding of bedes, or Bidding-prayer, in which they
were taught to remember before God their spiritual
pastors, their fellow parishioners, their kinsfolk and
friends, to beg a blessing on the labours of the
husbandman, that God would send fair weather, and
avert the stormy wind and tempest ;
they were to
pray also for those in debt or deadly sin, that God
would turn their hearts, and for those who were
godly that he would " give them good perseverance
in their goodness," and that He would have mercy
upon all departed souls. ^
'
Cf. York Bidding-Prayers, given in " Lay-Folks' Mass-
Book," pp. 62 et seq. It is worthy of note that in the York
Bidding-Prayer, anterior to the Norman Conquest, the Lord's
Prayer alone is prescribed at its conclusion. In 1405 a Pateriioslcr
and an Ave are mentioned; whilst in 1445-50 five Aves,
in one instance, are directed to be said without the Lord's
Prayer.