Lat. breviarium), an abridgment, a compend, an epitome; the daily office or book of divine service in the Roman church. It is divided into seven parts or hours, on account of the saying in Psalm cixx. 164, "Seven times a day do I praise thee." These are matins, prime, third, sixth, and none lauds, vespers, and the compline or post communio.

The breviary of Rome is general, and may be used in all places; but various others, appropriated to each diocese and each order of religious persons, have been formed on the model of this.

The institution of the breviary is not very ancient; and there have been inserted in it the lives of the saints, full of stories more remarkable for their strangeness than their authenticity. This gave occasion to several reformations by different councils, especially those of Trent and Cologne; by several popes, particularly Pius V., Clement VIII., and Urban VIII.; and also by several cardinals and bishops, each lopping off some extravagance, and bringing it nearer to the simplicity of the primitive offices. Originally, all were obliged to recite the breviary every day; but by degrees the obligation was restricted to the clergy only, who are enjoined, under penalty of mortal sin and ecclesiastical censures, to recite it at home when they cannot attend in public. In the fourteenth century a particular reservation was granted in favour of bishops, who were allowed, on extraordinary occasions, to pass three days without rehearsing the breviary.

This office was originally called cursus, and afterwards breviarium, denoting that the old office was abridged, or rather, that this collection is a kind of abridgment of all the prayers. The breviaries now in use are innumerable; the difference between them consists principally in the number and order of the psalms, hymns, paternosters, ave-Marias, creeds, magnificats, misereres, hallelujahs, &c. &c.

The Greek breviary (taxis, euchologion), consists in general of two parts; the one containing the office for the evening; the other that of the morning, divided into seven hours. The psalter is divided into twenty parts. The Armenians, and other Eastern churches, have also their own breviaries.

Breviatory, an officer under the Eastern empire, whose business it was to write and translate briefs. Those also who dictate and draw up the pope's briefs are styled breviators, or abbreviators.

Breviarium Alaricianum, or Breviarium Anianii. See Civil Law.

Brewer, Anthony, a dramatic poet, in the reign of James I. He appears to have been in high estimation among the wits of that time, as may be gathered from a compliment paid to him in a poem called Steps to Parnassus, in which he is supposed to have a magic power of calling the muses to his assistance, and is even set on an equality with Shakespeare himself. He wrote six plays; in one of which, called Lingua, or the Five Senses, Oliver Cromwell (according to Winstanley) acted, when a youth at Cambridge, the part of Tactus or Touch. Brewing