Completorium, Completinum, or Compline

Completorium, Completinum, or Compline (from Lat. complere, to fill up), the last service in the evening; the bed-time service. According to the canonical hours, fixed hours for public prayer were introduced into the Church with the institutions of the monastic life. In the Western Church the practice of praying seven times a day was adopted in the 5th or 6th century, and the completorium was the last or finishing canonical hour. See Procter, Hist. of the Common Prayer, p. 11; Freeman, Principles of Divine Service, p. 83. SEE CANONICAL HOURS; SEE BREVIARY.