Illuminated around 1500 by the artist Jean Poyer, The Hours of Henry VIII receives its name from the possible but unproven eighteenth-century tradition that holds King Henry of England once owned this splendid manuscript. By following the simple instructions, you can explore every painting of this Renaissance masterpiece and learn how Books of Hours helped their readers to pray.

Books of Hours contain more or less standard texts—Calendar, Gospel Lessons, Hours of the Virgin, Hours of the Cross, Hours of the Holy Spirit, Penitential Psalms with Litany, Office of the Dead, and Suffrages—as well as a number of common accessory prayers. Based on the frequency and variety of added devotions, it appears that scribes included these for owners who wished to personalize their prayer books.

Mass of St. Gregory (fol. 168)

The typical illustration for the Seven Prayers of St. Gregory is the so-called Mass of St. Gregory, an image that apparently was invented in the fifteenth century.

Against the blue background are the arma christi (arms of Christ), which were part of the Man of Sorrows iconography.

A pictographic summary of Christ's Passion makes it possible for the devout to contemplate the enormity of Christ's sufferings; the symbols include the purse (Judas's betrayal for thirty pieces of silver), lantern (Christ was taken at night), sword (with which Peter cut off Malchus's ear), ewer and dish (with which Pilate washed his hands of guilt), cock (crowed when Peter denied he was a disciple of Christ), column with rope and two kinds of scourges (Flagellation), purple garment and Crown of Thorns (Mocking of Christ), Cross (Carrying of Cross), hammer and three nails in Cross with titulus (Crucifixion), three dice (soldiers gambled for Christ's garments), spear with sponge (Christ took vinegar), spear (Christ's side opened, with outpouring of blood and water), and pincers and ladder (for the Deposition).

Gregory, holding the wafer (itself decorated with the Crucifixion) between the first finger and thumb of both hands, recites the words Hoc est enim corpus meum (For this is my Body).

St. Gregory, assisted by a deacon and subdeacon, elevates the consecrated Host during a High Mass. As is liturgically correct, the subdeacon holds a torch, while the deacon lifts the back of Gregory's chasuble, which, like the altar frontal, is embroidered with the monogram of Jesus (IHS).

The live and bleeding Christ miraculously appears on the altar, supported by two angels above his sarcophagus.

Seven Prayers of St. Gregory (fols. 168v–69v)
As discussed above in connection with the accessory Prayers to the Virgin, in addition to the main texts of Books of Hours, a fairly large number of optional texts and prayers could be included, depending on the piety and pocketbook of the patron. Aside from individual prayers, these could include various Hours (of St. Catherine, of St. John the Baptist, and of the days of the week), special Masses (for saints and the days of the week), and a group of devotions organized around the number seven (Seven Joys of the Virgin, Seven Requests to Our Lord, Seven Last Words of Our Lord, Seven Verses of St. Bernard, and the present Seven Prayers of St. Gregory).

According to tradition the Seven Prayers were written by St. Gregory the Great, the fourth Latin Doctor of the Church (as the rubric for the prayers states in a contemporaneous Rouen Horae also in the Morgan Library's Heineman Collection: MS H.1, fol. 114v). The prayers consist of seven short ejaculations addressed to Christ, each followed by an Our Father and Hail Mary. The first begins:

O Domine Ih[es]u Christi adoro te in cruce pendente[m] et coronam spineam
in capite portantem. Deprecor te ut crux tua liberet me ab angelo percutiente.

(O Lord Jesus Christ, I adore you, hanging on the Cross and wearing the Crown of
Thorns on your head. I beseech you so that your Cross might free me from the
persecuting angel.)