(Lat. completorium). The last hour of prayer in the Daily Office. It was established in the West by Benedict in his monastic rule, providing a retiring office for religious communities later than Vespers (Evensong), the public evening service of the church. It included various psalms appropriate to the time of day, and a later addition outside the monasteries was the canticle Nunc dimittis, or Song of Simeon (Luke 2:29-32), which had been used at Vespers (Hesperinon) in the East since the fourth century. In compiling his evening office for the [[Book of Common Prayer]], Cranmer made use of this, and other parts of Compline from the Sarum breviary, including the collect, “Lighten our darkness.” The Eastern Compline is the Apodeipnon.