'The spirits of darkness may not come near to hurt me': Laudian prayers for the dark season

We are now in the dark time of the year. British Summer Time ended on Saturday past, the clock restored to its natural rhythms. Sunset today will be 4:55pm, with Hallowe'en pumpkins decorating most homes in anticipation of the beginning of Hallowtide.

It is a day to think of prayers for the dark season.

The Laudian mind will naturally turn to the manuals of private devotion compiled by Lancelot Andrewes, John Cosin, and Jeremy Taylor. In their prayers for evening, all three echo the office of Compline. Cosin explicitly entitles his prayers "The Compline, or Final Prayers to be said before Bed Time", providing a shortened version of the office. The three forms of evening prayer provided by Andrewes echo Compline in various ways, particularly in quoting from the office's psalms and versicles. In his "form of Evening Prayer, which may also be used at bed-time", Taylor clearly based one of his prayers around the traditional Compline collect in Breviarium Romanum.

The fact that Andrewes, Cosin, and Taylor evoked the office of Compline, despite it being integrated into Evensong in the Cranmerian office, does suggest that they discerned a continued need for prayer at day's end, prayer for the dark season. This, by the way, can be considered as pointing in the direction of the Prayer Book tradition later evolving to include Compline.

All three recognise the particular resonances of the darkness of day's end and the need for prayer which responds to this. Consider, for example, how the prayers provided by Andrewes address the fears which darkness can bring, fears deeper than the hours of night:

Deliver me from terror by night from the pestilence that walketh in darkness. Supply unto me wholesome sleep and to get me through this night without fear. O keeper of Israel, that didst neither slumber nor sleep ever yet, preserve me this night from all evil: yea, keep my soul, O Lord ...

Lighten our eyes, that we sleep not in death: deliver us from the terror by night, from the pestilence that walketh in darkness. Behold He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep: the Lord preserve us from all evil, yea the Lord keep our soul.

A similar recognition of fears brought by the dark season is found in words from Chrysostom with which Cosin prefaces his 'The Compline':

Tell me, with what confidence canst thou lie down to sleep, and pass away the black darkness of the night? With what fearful and ugly dreams shall thy soul (thinkest thou) be troubled, unless thou shalt first arm thyself against such delusions and fears by strong and devout prayers? Let the wicked spirits find thee without such a guard, and presently thou becomest a prey unto them: let them but spy thee at thy prayers, and presently like frighted thieves they run away.

This leads to Cosin's prayer echoing the petition in the Compline office hymn for petition for deliverance from "our ghostly enemy":

Let no vain or wandering fancy trouble us: let our ghostly enemies have no power over us, but let our minds be set wholly upon thy presence, to love, and fear, and rest in thee alone.

Against the "ghostly enemies", which the dark season can bring to particular remembrance, Taylor offers a version of the traditional Compline collect, beseeching God to grant the presence of the holy angels:

Visit I beseech thee, O Lord, this habitation with thy mercy, and me with thy grace and salvation. Let thy holy Angels pitch their tents round about and dwell here, that no illusion of the night may abuse me, the spirits of darknesse may not come neer to hurt me, no evil or sad accident oppresse me: and let the eternal spirit of the Father dwell in my soul and body, filling every corner of my heart with light and grace. Let no deed of darknesse overtake me; and thy blessing most blessed God be upon me for ever, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

We might regard these prayers, and their recognition of the evocative power of the dark season, as an extension of the Evensong collect 'Light our darkness', itself the Compline collect in the Sarum breviary. They provide a rich resource for the dark season, not least for the day before Hallowtide, when our thoughts turn to "the spirits of darknesse".

Darkness, terrors, fears, ghostly foes. In their echoes of the ancient prayers of Compline, Andrewes, Cosin, and Taylor remind us that such prayers for protection from these forces should be a regular part of the Christian life. Not least in the dark season.

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