In the Church in England — before it was the Church of England, and thus before The Book of Common Prayer as we know it — many English parishes followed the liturgical practices prescribed in the Sarum Use, developed in the see of Salisbury. These parishes included in the prayers at Compline (i.e., the evening prayers) the singing of the Nunc dimittis, as does our Evening Prayer service. Beginning sometime in the 14th century, from the third Sunday in Lent until Passion Sunday, Compline services prefaced the singing of the Nunc dimittis with an antiphon which began: Media vita in morte sumus. In the midst of life we are in…