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Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

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(darkness), an office for the Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of Holy Week, commemorating the sufferings and death of our Blessed Savior. The name of the office has been traced to the fact that it was formerly celebrated at midnight, as an allusion to Christ walking no more openly with the Jews, as Cranmer says. Others suggest that it is derived from the gradual extinction of lights, which originally were put out one by one as the morning began to grow clear; or in symbol of grief and mourning; or, as Beleth suggests, of the eclipse of three hours at the Passion. The number of lights varied. In some churches there was a candle corresponding to each psalm and lesson of the office. Thus we find seven, nine, twelve, fifteen, twenty-four, twenty-five at York, thirty, seventy-two, or even as many as each person thought fit to bring. These were extinguished sometimes at once, or at two or three intervals. In some places they were quenched with a moist sponge, and in others with a hand of wax to represent Judas. St. Gregory of Tours says that on the night of Good- Friday the watchings were kept in darkness until the third hour, when a small light appeared above the altar. Cranmer explains that the Lamentations of Jeremiah were read in memory of the Jews seeking our Lord's life at this time. The Reproaches and Trisagion were not sung until the 14th century on Good-Friday.