1111 Hi mm \m wBBBEHBBBm 88«8S8n«8S8bSk! FROM THE LIBRARY OF REV. LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON, D. D. BEQUEATHED BY HIM TO THE LIBRARY OF PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY Section /S^fl^O! THE ROMAN BREVIARY ITS SOURCES AND HISTORY \ r THE ROMAN BREVlA* ITS SOURCES AND HISTORY by y/y DOM JULES BAUDOT BENEDICTINE OF FARNBOROUGH TRANSLATED, FROM THE FRENCH BY A PRIEST OF THE DIOCESE OF WESTMINSTER B. HERDER 17 SOUTH BROADWAY, ST LOUIS, MO. CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY 69 SOUTHWARK BRIDGE ROAD, LONDON, S.E. 1909 mm ©bstat Fr. fernand cabrol ABBt DE FARNBOROUGH imprimatur ►f. PETRUS Episcopus Southwarcen. Die 31 Mar. 1909 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE The little book now presented to English readers is one of an excellent series of pamphlets dealing with questions related to science and religion which has been appearing in France for several years past. 1 Owing to the large number of tracts and pamphlets which it contained, it was judged expedient to sub- divide the publications into series dealing with the Liturgy (under the direction of the Right Reverend Dom Cabrol, Abbot of Farnborough), historical and social questions, etc. It is a noteworthy proof of the vitality and resource of French Catholics under the trying circumstances of the times that the issue of so many books, all of high excellence, dealing with so varied a list of subjects, has been continued with unabated energy. It is a sign, too, that the French laity are eager to study questions of all sorts bearing upon religion, and to welcome publications dealing with these questions not merely popularly but solidly and scientifically. 1 Science et Religion : Etudes pour h temps present, Paris, Libra irie Bloud et Cie., rue Madame, 4. vi Preface This short work on the Breviary, although, as Dom Baudot says, chiefly intended for the clergy, may be read with profit by the laity. It is true the oppor- tunities afforded to the English Catholic of assisting at the performance of the Divine Office in its entirety are at present not numerous in England ; still, there are few large towns where Vespers and Compline are not sung on Sundays, and Tenebrae in Holy Week ; while those living within reach of Westminster Cathedral, or one of the abbeys or larger conventual houses scattered throughout the country, are able to join in the public liturgical prayers of the Church as fully as their forefathers before the devastation of the sixteenth century. It is with the hope that English lay folk will learn to value more highly, and understand more clearly, the beauty, dignity, and antiquity of the Church's public liturgical prayer that this little book has been translated into English. While there are so many books of private devotion — of various degrees of ex- cellence and authority — the one devotional book to be used above all others, which has grown with the Church's growth and nourished the devotion of her saints, which is intimately bound up with her history and full of her spirit, seems to be forgotten, to be set aside as dry and archaic, or to be regarded as the private property of clergy and religious. Yet there is no book richer in treasures of devotion, endowed with higher authority, or more capable of producing Preface vii in the souls of those who use it digne, attente, ac devote, a devotional temper at once hearty and strong and truly Catholic. As will easily be seen, this book closely follows the arrangement and conclusions of Dom Suitbert Baumer in his monumental work on the Roman Breviary. It also supplements and, where the author thinks necessary, corrects the brilliant and interesting work of Mgr. Batiffol on the same subject. After the translation was in type, Dom Baudot kindly supplied some additional matter which will be found at the end of the book under the heading of Addenda. THE TRANSLATOR. London, 2^th February 1909. CONTENTS PAGE TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE v INTRODUCTION i PART I.— THE PATRISTIC PERIOD CHAP. I. The Ante-Nicene Epoch .... 6 The Apostolic Church— The Second and Third Centuries — The Commencement of the Third Century — The Liturgical Year in this Period. II. The^Post-Nicene Epoch . . . .17 The Influence of the Monks upon the Development of the Divine Office — The Divine Office in the East and West — Outline of the Evidence furnished by the Patristic Period. PART II.— THE MIDDLE AGES I. The Formation of the Breviary in its Early Stages 49 From St. Gregory the Great to Charle??iagne. Section i. St. Gregory the Great— The Roman Office at St. Gregory's Accession — St. Gregory's labours in the Domain of Liturgy. x Contents CHAP. Section 2. Diffusion of the Roman Office after St. Gregory. Section 3. Development of the Office and Formation of the Roman Breviary — The Structure of the Office and the Distribution of the Psalms — The Lections from Holy Scripture and from other Sources — Festivals and the Liturgical Year. Section 4. Some Peculiarities in the Office. II. From Charlemagne to the End of the Fourteenth Century .... 86 Section i. Alterations in the Roman Breviary during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries — The Transformation of the Responsory — Modification of the System of Lections — Additional Liturgical Texts. Section 2. The Divine Office from St. Gregory VII. to Innocent III. — The Roman Office really has a History during this Period. Section 3. The Roman Breviary in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries— History of its Formation — The Breviary in the Thirteenth Century — The Roman Breviary from the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. III. The Roman Breviary from the End of the Fourteenth Century to the Middle of the Sixteenth 117 Section i. The Effects of the Great Schism. Section 2. Attempts at Reform before the Council of Trent — Efforts made by the Popes — Individual Efforts— Cardinal Quignonez and the Breviariwn Sanctce Cruets. Contents xi PART III.— THE MODERN PERIOD CHAP. PACE L The Council of Trent and the Breviary of St. Pius V 135 Section i. Preparation for the Reform of the Breviary — The Theatines and Caraffa — The Council of Trent. Section 2. The Reform of the Breviary carried out — The Roman Commission and its Labours — The Publica- tion of the New Breviary — The Reception accorded to the New Breviary. II. The Roman Breviary from St. Pius V. to the End of the Eighteenth Century . 173 Section i. Alterations effected by the Popes in the Roman Breviary at the End of the Sixteenth and during the Seventeenth Centuries — Changes in Matters of Detail immediately after St. Pius V. —Under Sixtus V. and Gregory XIV.— The Work of Clement VIII.— Changes made by Urban VIII. — The Successors of Urban VIII. to the End of the Seventeenth Century. Section 2. Liturgical Developments outside Rome, and especially in France. Section 3. Attempt at Reform of the Roman Breviary under Benedict XIV. III. The Roman Breviary in the Nineteenth Century 220 Section i. The Period after the Death of Benedict XIV. Section 2. Attempts at Reform in the Nineteenth Century, and especially at the Vatican Council. Section 3. Additions and Alterations under Pius IX. and Leo XIII, CONCLUSION 235 APPENDIX 239 ADDENDA 253 INDEX 256 THE ROMAN BREVIARY ITS SOURCES AND HISTORY INTRODUCTION I. It is much to be regretted that the history of the Roman Breviary is so little known, even to those upon whom the Church has laid the obligation of its daily recital throughout the year. Were priests and re- ligious better instructed in the origin, development, and purpose of the book with which in one sense they are so familiar, we are confident they would fulfil their obligation with greater fervour and respect, and by this means the reign of God would be more per- fectly realized both in the hearts of those who are priests and in the souls of the faithful entrusted to their care. It is for the benefit of priests occupied in the work of the ministry, who may have neither the time nor opportunity to consult the works recently published on the Breviary, that we have undertaken to give in the following pages an abstract of the 2 The Roman Breviary monumental work of Dom Baumer on the history of the Roman Breviary, while making use at the same time of the less voluminous work of Mgr. Batiffol. 1 II. To write the history of the Roman Breviary is, in other words, to describe its formation, the develop- ments through which it has gone, and the transfor- mation to which it has been successively subjected. The book of public prayer was not a work which could be perfected at once ; it was a work which slowly took shape under the united influence of people and clergy, each century contributing something to its construction. The divine authority of the Pontiffs intervened only at a later stage, and then rather to con- trol the process of development than arrest it. The institution of the Congregation of Rites by Sixtus V., the modifications introduced by Leo XIII. at the close of the nineteenth century, and the creation of a litur- gical commission by the same Pontiff, all show us that if the official prayer-book remains unchanged as a whole, it can yet in our own days be brought to a still higher degree of perfection in matters of detail. Three chief periods can be distinguished in the 1 Geschichte des Breviers, by Dom Suitbert Baumer, 1895, Freiburg, Herder. French translation by Dom Biron, 1905, Paris, Letouzey et Ane. Histoire du Breviaire romain, by Mgr. Batiffol, 1893, Paris. English translation by A. M. Y. Baylay, 1898, London, Longmans & Co. In the following pages references are given to the French translation of Dom Baumer and to the English translation of Mgr. Batiffol. Introduction 3 history of the Breviary : the Patristic Period, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. 1. The Pat- ristic Period may be called the period of formation, presenting as in germ the different canonical hours and their constituent elements ; it extends from the earliest years of the church's existence to the reign of St. Gregory the Great {i.e. from the end of the first century to the end of the sixth). 2. The Middle Ages open with St. Gregory the Great ; the Roman office has taken shape, but is subsequently modified under the influence of the Carolingians. St. Gregory VII. protected the divine office against the excesses of secular influences until the time when the office of the Roman curia, having spread throughout the whole Latin church, was the subject of attempts at reformation which remained without result until the Council of Trent (i.e. from the end of the sixth century to the middle of the sixteenth). 3. The Modern Period starts with the Council of Trent, and its chief feature is the Breviary of St. Pius V., Breviarium Pianum, imposed upon the whole church, corrected when necessary by Clement VIII. and Urban VIII., superseded for a time in France by breviaries drawn up under Gallican and Jansenist in- fluence, admitted to be defective in certain particulars by Benedict XIV. who had the intention of under- taking its correction, adopted by all the dioceses of France, and always open to improvements under the control of the sovereign pontiffs and the 4 The Roman Breviary congregations or commissions established for the unification of the book of liturgical prayer {i.e. from the end of the sixteenth century to our own time). These three periods will form the three parts of our brief history. Part I THE PATRISTIC PERIOD This, as we have said, is the period of formation, extending from the end of the first century to the end of the sixth. In it we find the first outline of the Breviary, in which can be distinguished little by little the distinction between the canonical hours, the elements of which they are composed, and also a first attempt at an ordo with liturgical week, office de tempore, and calendar of feasts. In tracing out the developments in the churches of the East and West, it is well to distinguish two epochs : I, the Ante-Nicene epoch, from the beginning of the second century to the Council of Nicaea in 325 ; 2, the Post-Nicene epoch, from the Council of Nicaea to the end of the sixth century (328-590). CHAPTER I THE ANTE-NICENE EPOCH I. We must not expect to find in the earliest years of the Christian religion a set form of prayer to be recited as of daily obligation by sacred ministers entrusted with the continuance of the apostles' labours. It is true that the apostles, at the very time when they ordained the seven deacons, declared that they intended to devote themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word (Acts vi. 4), and so traced out a programme for their successors in the apostolate. But to what extent, or in what form, prayer was to be part of their apostolic labours we are not told. The book of the Acts and the epistles of St Paul show us plainly 1 how the first Christians assembled together and gave themselves to the great duty of prayer, as it had been practised in the Jewish synagogues, but it is impossible to tell what were the days on which these assemblies took place, what formularies were recited, or what 1 Acts xx. 7 ; 1 Cor. xvi. 26, 28; 1 Tim. iv. 13 ; Ephes. v. 19 ; and Col. iii. 16. 6 The Ante-Nicene Epoch J was the general character of the supplications offered up. Dom Baumer gives us the result of his researches into the apostolic period in the following words : " At the date of the final separation between the Christians and the synagogue, about the year 65 (the date when the first epistle to Timothy was written), the Apostles had adopted, in addition to the liturgy and the Mass, at least one hour set apart for prayer, and probably even two; i.e. Lauds (originally called Matins, because celebrated in the morning at dawn) and Vespers. Certain psalms, the reading of the Sacred Books, along with certain chants and prayers, not yet reduced to a fixed form, but composed under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, formed, with the preaching of the word, the basis of these devotional practices." 1 2. The Second Century, (a) Outside Jerusalem, where the first Christians could from the beginning take part in the daily services of the Temple, it does not seem that assemblies for Christian worship were held oftener than once a week. After the prohibition of the Emperor Trajan especially, it was necessary to confine these assemblies to the reunions on Sunday, to which the younger Pliny refers in his letter : 11 Afifirmabant christiani quod essent soliti statuto die ante lucem convenire, carmenque Christo quasi Deo dicere, quibus peractis, morem sibi discedendi fuisse 1 Histoire du Breviaire, i. p. 58. 8 The Roman Breviary rursusque coeundi ad capiendum cibum." The vigil before Sunday was connected with the remembrance of our Lord's resurrection. St. Clement of Rome, the disciple of the Apostles, merely says that regulations have been made touching the time and manner of the celebration of worship, without giving further particulars. It is plain, how- ever, from the context, that he is referring to acts of worship other than the holy sacrifice of the Mass. A document dating from either the end of the first or beginning of the second century, the Doctrina Apostolorum y or AlSax^ says in chapter viii. that there is one prayer which ought to be recited thrice daily by all faithful, i.e. the Pater Noster. Doubtless this was intended to supply the want of the daily reunions in the morning and evening, which could not take place without great danger, {b) We have no authentic information concerning the official prayer of the church for the years which follow until we reach the beginning of the third century. St. Justin Martyr does not expressly refer to it ; Clement of Alexandria gives us to understand that in his day it was only private prayer which was in use, and regarded as of obligation. Tertullian's evidence is more important and distinct : he bears witness to the existence of forms of liturgical prayer for morning and evening (Laudes vel Matutinae et Vesperae). From the details which he gives, we can gather with sufficient certitude that in the third century, both in the Latin and The Ante-Nicene Epoch g Eastern churches, the only official liturgical hours were Lauds and Vespers, but it is impossible to decide in any precise manner what were the constituent parts of these hours, or whether they were regarded as of obligation for all. In addition to this, we gather from Tertullian's writings that divine service was held on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays (the two latter " stations " probably came into existence later than the first), and that there was a festal season from Easter to Pentecost, when fasting was forbidden. He says nothing whatever of other festivals of our Lord. " The organization is obviously very rudi- mentary : the Passion, the festival of Easter with its preparation, the sacred period of fifty days, the Sundays, the ' station ' days in the week, some anniversaries of martyrs and the departed, and nothing more." x We gather much the same scanty information from the writings of Origen (f 251). In his work against Celsus, he speaks of " prescribed prayers " offered up by the Christians day and night with zeal, perseverance, and reverence, but this may mean nothing more than the private prayer rendered obligatory three times a day according to the Didache. In his De Oratione (ch. 12) he repeats that prayer ought to be made during the night, in accordance with the teaching of psalms 118 and 62, and after the example of St. Paul 1 Dictionnaire d ) Archeologie chretienne et du Liturgie^ i. 299, art. Afrique. io The Ro7nan Breviary and Silas at Philippi (Acts xvi. 25). But this has reference to private devotion alone. 1 With regard to the canons of Hippolytus (of which the authenticity is much disputed at the present day), which represent, in their primitive form, the discipline of the Roman church, as well as that of the entire Western Latin church at the beginning of the third century, they reveal the existence of a practice in full agreement with what Tertullian shows us was in force in the Latin churches towards the year 200. Perhaps the sole point of difference is that in Tertullian the morning common prayer (the office ad Galli- ciniuni) was not prescribed for every day, while the canons of Hippolytus state the contrary. St. Cyprian of Carthage bears witness to the fact that in the middle of the third century five stated times for prayer were recognised during the day (Lauds, Terce, Sext, None, and Vespers) and one during the night. His words, however, do not make it clear whether or not he considered these five hours, singly or altogether, as a public office, celebrated by all in common. Finally, in the Acts of St. Saturninus of Toulouse (died about 250), we have authentic evidence to the fact that, apart from the feast of Easter, the anniversaries of certain martyrs were celebrated by the people with vigils, iravvvxia, in the third century. (c) As a result, we find that, during the years we 1 Migne, Pair. Gr., xi. 1359-1360 and 451. The Ante-Nicene Epoch 1 1 have just passed in review, the canonical hours of Lauds, Vespers, and the nocturnal Vigil were solemnly celebrated by all in common in the assemblies of the Christians: (a) first, during the night between Saturday and Sunday — the Vigilia Dominicalis\ (b) a little later, in the Wednesday and Friday in each week — the Vigilice Stationales (the name " station " is given for the first time in the Shepherd of Hernias to the fast observed on these days) ; (c) then, finally, on the anniversaries of martyrs. For this the faithful assembled in the cemetery where the martyr was buried, and hence the name Vigilice Cimiteriales. The other hours, Terce, Sext, and None, remained private forms of prayer, and were recited in common on the station days at most. Certain psalms, a lection from Holy Scripture, some prayers and ex- hortations, formed the ground-work of these hours. 1 3. At the commencement of the fourth century we can trace the beginning of an evolution with regard to the liturgical hours, which had its origin in the Thebaid, the deserts of Egypt, Palestine, and Syria at that period inhabited by hermits and monks. While the effects of this evolution were as yet unfelt, the Synod of Elvira in Spain, held about the year 300 and of great importance for the liturgical discipline of the West, passed no measure dealing with the 1 Dom Baumer, i. p. 78. Batiffol, Histoire du Breviaite romaiti, pp. 14-15 ; Eng. trans, pp. 13-14. 12 The Roman Breviary organisation of the divine office. The documentary evidence furnished by the Fathers is very scanty. (a) Eusebius of Caesarea, in various passages of his Commentary on the Psalms, written between 327 and 340, speaks of the public chanting of the psalms in the liturgical office. The desire of the prophet in the 65th psalm has been fulfilled, he says, by the celebration of Easter and by the chant everywhere employed in the churches. With regard to the 91st psalm, Eusebius distinguishes between the celebration of the Eucharist and another hour of prayer observed very early in the morning, composed for the most part of psalmody along with a certain number of other prayers. From his comments on the 142nd psalm, it appears that for Eusebius the Laudes Matutince or morning office was, along with the holy Mass, of the greatest importance. Finally, in his com- mentary on the 64th psalm, it is clear that in his days Lauds and Vespers were celebrated everywhere in the church as public offices and most probably daily. 1 In his Life of the Emperor Constantine, the same historian says that every day at fixed hours the emperor shut himself up in order to say his prayers ; that he prepared himself for the Easter solemnity by austerities and fervent prayer; that he issued a decree to heads of provinces {prcesides provinciariutn) directing them to keep a strict watch over the observance of Sunday ; and, finally, that he enjoined 1 Cf. Migne, Pair. Gr., xxiii. 647-648. The Ante-Nicene Epoch 13 the celebration of the martyrs' feasts and of the sacred seasons. These seasons, besides Epiphany, Ascension, and perhaps Pentecost, were the days of the Passion and Resurrection of our Lord — one week before and one week after Easter. (b) Thus we find at this date Lauds and Vespers celebrated daily in public. Easter was preceded by a nocturnal vigil, irawv\ia, and so, probably, were the feasts of the martyrs as well. The remaining hours were matters of private devotion. They were mainly composed of psalms, lections, hymns,and short prayers. (c) It is at this date, or perhaps a little earlier, that we must place the composition of prayers and hymns, partly in the form of antiphons, as part of the office. St Basil (f 379) quoted as a dogmatic proof of the divinity of the Holy Spirit one of these hymns, the Lumen hilare, still used in the office of the Greeks. He states that this hymn had been used at Vespers by his predecessors, and that for a long time it had been sung by the people without any one knowing by whom it had been composed. We find other quotations from hymns belonging to the first three centuries, but there is nothing to prove that they were used at the canonical hours. 4. As a conclusion to this first stage of our inquiry, a word must be said concerning the liturgical year and the cycle of Christian festivals which seems to have grown up in the first years of the fourth century. Easter was the Christian festival par excellence, 14 The Roman Breviary Sunday, or the Lord's Day, being nothing else than a weekly repetition of this solemnity. Wednesday and Friday were fast-days throughout the entire year, with the exception of the paschal season (which extended to Pentecost), and on these days, after prayer made in common in the church {statio militice Christi), Mass was celebrated at the hour of None. In certain places a fast was observed for one week after Pentecost. We have conflicting evidence concerning the forty days before Easter. It seems, nothing had been definitely established before the third or, perhaps, the fourth century. It belonged to each bishop to publish his own regulations for his diocesans. The fifth canon of the Nicene Council is the most ancient evidence extant for the observance of Lent as a time of preparation for the reception of baptism, or for penitence and spiritual recollection. The Embertides were at first a purely Roman institution of uncertain origin. Dom Morin in an article in the Revue Benedictine^ thinks Mgr. Duchesne's hypothesis (Origines du Culte chretien^ p. 223) cannot be adopted. This is to the effect that the Embertides are a survival of the ancient Roman liturgical week, a real fast being substituted for the half-fasts of the ordinary stations (Wednesday and Friday). But then, how could St. Augustine say in one of his letters that in his days, when the Embertides were in existence in Rome, the Christians of that city still retained the 1 1897, p. 337 et seqq. The Ante-Nicene Epoch 15 custom of fasting on the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of each week ? This gives grounds for believing, says Dom Morin, that the Embertides were in existence for some time before the ancient observ- ance of the liturgical week fell into disuse. They appear to have been instituted as an offset to some pagan religious usages observed in Rome during the first centuries of our era. The Liber Pontificalis, which attributes their institution to Callixtus I. about the middle of the third century, says they were observed " ter in anno." At first no trace of an Embertide is found in Lent. As a matter of fact, the pagan solemnities were held only thrice in the year, their date being left to the choice of the priests, and publicly announced beforehand. In the Christian liturgy, the services for all the Embertides contain gospel lections relating to the casting out of devils, with the exception of the Embertide in December, which is wholly occupied with the approaching advent of the Redeemer. The aim of the church was to contrast those passages of Scripture which show us the evil spirit compelled to depart from man, with the pagan worship, in which she saw a public homage rendered to the devil. Up to the middle of the sixth century, Rome was alone in her observance of Embertides. The Ascension and Pentecost were celebrated perhaps from before the end of the third century. It is not easy to decide whether Christmas was observed as a feast distinct from the Epiphany at the beginning, 1 6 The Roman Breviary or only after the middle, of the fourth century. 11 Towards the end of the third century," says Mgr. Duchesne, 1 u it became an established custom to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of Christ, but not everywhere on the same day. In the West the 25th December was chosen, in the East the 6th January. These two usages, at first distinct, became at last combined, so that both were celebrated throughout the world, or nearly so." Feasts of martyrs have been celebrated since the second century. Every church, no matter how un- important, had its diptychs, its calendar, or its fasti, as Tertullian calls them. The most ancient of these lists which has come down to us is a list of the anniversaries of the Roman bishops or popes, and of a considerable number of the martyrs, celebrated in Rome. It was composed by a certain Philocalus (hence it is called the Philocalian Calendar) before the middle of the fourth century (about 336), and represents the festivals of the Roman church at the restoration of public worship among the Christians after the Diocletian persecution. It comprises twenty-four feasts of martyrs (six of them being popes), and twelve memorials of popes as well. 1 Origines du Culte Chretien, p. 259. CHAPTER II THE POST-NICENE EPOCH THE epoch which we have just rapidly considered shows us the first beginnings of public prayer in the church. Mgr. Duchesne 1 refuses to regard these supplications, variously distributed throughout the day, as anything else than purely private forms of devotion. By whatever name one may call these reunions on fixed days in the week, or on the occasion of the anniversary of a martyr's feast, their existence is vouched for by the most authoritative witnesses of primitive Christian tradition. We have now to turn our attention to the elaboration of the divine office which was slowly effected little by little. This de- velopment is not without analogy to that by which the Apostles' Creed became elaborated into the creeds of Nicaea or Constantinople. It seems as if the lex orandi was appealed to from this time to determine the lex credendi. Both owed their progress in the first place to the influence of local churches, 1 Origines du Culte ckretien, p. 433. 17 2 1 8 The Roman Breviary and then, secondly, to the action of the Roman church and her pontiffs. We are still dealing with a period where entire liberty of action was allowed to local churches in the determination of their office and in the choice of formulae. It is necessary to take account of the points of difference between the Eastern and Western churches in the construction of the canonical hours, and one must also, at the same time, allow for the influence of one very powerful factor, i.e. the influence of monasticism, which became very widespread in the church during the period under consideration. I. How did the influence of the monks affect the development of the divine office? Mgr. Batiffol 1 answers the question in a few words: " The Christians, while they increased in numbers, did not increase in fervour ; they neglected even the Sunday reunion, to the great sorrow of St. Chrysostom. ,, The ascetics and virgins, who from the earliest days of Christianity had consecrated their life to the service of God, now began to be united in communities under St. Antony, the Father of the Cenobites (about 305). This fact pro- duced considerable effect, first in the East, and after- wards in the West. The monks did not create the divine office, Opus Dei, but, as they could give more time to it, " they organized it with zeal into a regulated and characteristic whole." Since, too, at this period, "the most eminent and influential bishops had either 1 Histoire du Brev. rom^ Eng. trans., p. 15. The Post-Nicene Epoch 19 been monks themselves or lived in intimate union with monks," we find an additional explanation of the influence of the latter in the formation of the office. The Peregrinatio S. Sylvicz 1 tells us that in Jerusalem the monks and pious lay folk celebrated the night office in the churches of the Holy Places. The rest of the people, as well as the priests and deacons, participated in this office only on certain days, although they assisted daily at the morning and evening prayers, Lauds and Vespers, which dated back to apostolic times. The same document mentions as canonical hours only Matins (or vigilice nocturncz), Laudes (hymni matutini cum luce), Terce, Sext, None, and Vespers {lucernare). Prime and Compline did not yet exist. The spread of the influence of monasticism in the West is due to St. Athanasius, who made a deep impression on the Romans by describing in detail the life of St. Antony, and the monasteries founded by St. Pacomius at Tabennae. It is also to be taken into consideration that, as parishes were not yet founded and bishops had to take with them their cathedral clergy on their visits, monks drawn from neighbouring monasteries replaced these clergy in reciting office in the cathedrals. These considerations explain the part played by the monks in the organization of the divine office. Numerous documents attest their influence. It is in 1 Peregrinatio S. Sylvicz, the diary of a lady [Etheria, from Spain], who visited the Holy Places about 385-388. 20 The Roman Breviary the East especially that they are to be met with in the fourth century, and it would be impossible to quote from them in a short work such as this. They will be found in full in Dom Baumer's first volume, pp. 109-169. II. The East. — In order to show the state to which the divine office had attained towards the end of the fourth century, we must give in brief the evidence contained in the Institutions of Cassian and the Peregrinatio S. Sylvia already quoted. 1 1. Cassian wrote two important books, the Insti- tutions and the Collations. In the first of these, he gives us detailed information concerning the divine office and liturgical prayers among the Easterns. As this work played an important part in the introduction into the West of the usages and liturgical arrange- ments of the East, it may be well to give a brief out- line of it in this place. According to Cassian : (A) Among the monks of Egypt, it was the custom to assemble twice a day for prayer in common — Vespers, and the nocturnal Vigils or Matins. At each of these services twelve psalms were chanted, and two 1 For Cassian, cf. D. Baumer, i. pp. 136-137 ; Diet. TheoL, edited by Vacant and Mangenot, ii. 1823. The locality of his birth, which took place about 360, is uncertain. He was carefully educated, entered at an early age a monastery at Bethlehem, visited the monasteries of Palestine and Egypt, travelled to Constantinople, Rome, and finally Marseilles, where he founded two monasteries, one for men and the other for women, and died about 435. He is thus a witness both for East and West. The Post-Nicene Epoch 21 lections, one from the Old and the other from the New Testament, were read. On Saturday and Sunday, as well as during the Easter season, the lections were taken from the New Testament, the first from the Acts or the Epistles and the second from the Gospels. A legend attributed the number of twelve psalms to the instruction of an angel. At the end of each psalm or section of a psalm, which was sung by one monk while the others remained silent, all stood up and spent some time in medi- tation. They then knelt down, and the priest who presided recited a prayer or collect in the name of all. The Gloria Patri was said not after the psalm but after the antiphon, and the twelfth psalm was was always one of the "Alleluia" psalms. The Egyptian monks recited privately in their cells an office corresponding to our Lauds, and this completed their stated devotions during the day, though they prayed constantly while occupied at their daily tasks. (B) The monks of the East (Palestine, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor) followed different customs, (a) It seems that the night office was longer, though Cassian does not express himself very clearly on this point. He merely speaks of Vigils on Friday in preparation for Saturday, and during the night of Saturday in pre- paration for Sunday, adding that as many as eighteen, twenty, thirty, and even more psalms were recited. We may at least suppose that the Matins or Vigils of Sunday were composed of eighteen psalms and 22 The Roman Breviary nine lections — three from the Old Testament, three from the Epistles, and three from the Gospels. There were also antiphons, responds, and short prayers, placed either between the psalms or at the end of the office. The office of Matins (or Lauds) was united to the Vigils, and contained psalms 50, 62, 89, 148-150. {b) During Cassian's life an alteration was made in the monastery of Bethlehem, which resulted in the creation of a new office corresponding to our Prime. At the conclusion of Nocturns, the religious retired to their cells to rest or meditate for a short time. The more slothful, however, abused this liberty to prolong their repose to the hour of Terce, and so an office was drawn up in order to keep them awake and mark the hour for them to start work. Three psalms and some prayers were recited, and thus arose the hour of Prime, distinct from Lauds or Matins. The date of this fact is 390, or even 382. " The phrase matutina solemnitas in Cassian means the hour of Prime, and not, as is often said, the office of Lauds." In addition to other proofs, it must be borne in mind that Cassian, in speaking of the hour of Prime, mentions it as peculiar to the convent at Bethlehem, while there is nothing to the same effect in regard to Lauds or the other hours, which were then common enough in other places. Two passages of Scripture which he says were chanted at this matutina solemnitas come from psalm 62, one of the three psalms especially belonging to Prime. The Post-Nicene Epoch 23 " Thus in the Institute (bk. Hi ch. 3) the day hours, apart from those of the night, amounted to five — Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers. When, in the fourth chapter of the same book of the Institutes, seven daily offices are enumerated, this is because Cassian is speaking of the twenty-four hours, and so includes the two night offices as well — Nocturns and Lauds. This enumeration not only dispenses with Compline, but even excludes all idea of it." x (c) In several places Cassian mentions Terce, Sext, and None, and shows that these hours were not all con- structed on the same lines, for in some monasteries there were three psalms at Terce, six at Sext, and nine at None. However, the general custom was to recite three psalms at each of these hours. The little hours were not recited on Sundays, the psalms chanted during Mass and Communion being regarded as suffi- ciently supplying their place. It does not appear that the versicle Deus in adjutorium meutn i?itende formed the opening sentence of the offices. Cassian alludes to it as merely a sort of ejaculatory prayer employed by zealous monks to stir up in themselves the spirit of prayer, and to strengthen them against temptations and lack of zeal, (d) With regard to the Lucernare or Vespers, Cassian refers us to the Mosaic ordinance for the evening sacrifice (Numb, xxviii., Ps. cxl. 2) so often spoken of in the Old and New Testaments. 1 Pargoire, Revue d Histoire et de Litterature religieuses for 1898, art. Prime et Complies, p. 462. 24 The Roman Breviary He remarks that this office must be regarded as inti- mately connected with the Last Supper and the death of Jesus on the cross. "It is," he says, "a thanks- giving for the institution of the most holy sacrifice of the Mass, and a memorial of our redemption." But he does not tell us how many and which psalms were recited at it. (e) Fr. Pargoire 1 is of opinion that we find no references to Compline in Cassian's Institutes (although Dom Plaine is of the contrary opinion), and that neither is Dom Baumer justified in ascribing to St. Benedict the introduction of Compline as one of the canonical hours. He maintains that Compline, as distinct from Vespers, was known and used in the East about 360, and in support of this he cites the 37th of St. Basil's rules. The great monastic lawgiver enumerates in this passage the fitting times for prayer, and, after having concluded what he has to say concerning Vespers, and before treating of Noctums, he speaks distinctly of an intermediate office. This office can scarcely be anything else than the airoSenrvov, a part of the Greek office recited immediately after the evening meal, and correspond- ing to the Compline of the Latins. St. Basil points out that the recitation of psalm 90 was obligatory at this office, and gives, as the chief purpose of this service, the need of obtaining quiet repose from God. 1 In the article already quoted, and under the word Apodeipnon in the Dictionnaire cFArcheologie chretienne et de Liturgie, i. 2579 et seq. The Post-Nicene Epoch 25 This also agrees well with what our hymn says : " Procul recedant somnia et noctium phantasmata." An additional proof that Compline was known before St. Benedict can be gathered from a passage in the Life of St. Hypatius, written by Callinicus between 447 and 450. The reference is to an inter- mediate canonical hour between the prayer " of the torches" and the prayer "of midnight," i.e. Vespers and Nocturns. Hypatius is much earlier than St. Benedict, since he died an octogenarian in 446, having embraced the religious life in 386. At the time of his death he was superior of a monastery in the neighbour- hood of Constantinople, and the probability is that Compline, having once been adopted by the monks of the capital, spread gradually throughout the entire East. " It seems," adds Fr. Pargoire, "that the great monastic rules present an innovation, for Eastern monasticism appears to have known nothing of Com- pline before St. Basil." But to return to Cassian : his description of the divine office is certainly incomplete. He does not tell us, for instance, what were the prayers recited between and at the end of the psalms, although the antiphons were well known at that date. 1 Still, one can make out from his work the plan of the different hours which, Compline excepted, were to compose the Roman Breviary. 2. Sylvia, or rather the Spanish virgin Etheria, 1 See below, page 32. 26 The Roman Breviary describes for us, in her Peregrinatio, the daily services celebrated in the principal church of Jerusalem in the fourth century. According to her : (A) On week days there were Vespers and Lauds. About 1.30 A.M. monks and virgins and lay-folk of both sexes as- sembled for a service consisting of psalms, antiphons, and responds, a prayer being said after each psalm. At daybreak followed the Matutini hymni, for which the bishop arrived with his clergy. Then there took place a prayer for all, a commemoration of the names of certain persons, a dismissal of the catechumens, then another prayer, and the benediction and dis- missal of the faithful. The assembly broke up when it was daylight. Terce was celebrated by the com- munity only during Lent in Jerusalem. At the sixth hour, i.e. about midday, the faithful assembled again ; psalms and antiphons were recited until the bishop's arrival was announced ; he recited a prayer, blessed the faithful, and as he retired the people kissed his hands, as they had done at the conclusion of the earlier service. None was celebrated exactly in the same way as Sext. At the tenth hour (4 P.M.), at the time called " Lucernare," the crowd returned to the Anastasis, and the lights were lit from the lamp which burns night and day in the grotto. The evening psalms (which are longer than those at Sext and None) are chanted with antiphons, the bishop appears, recites a prayer for all, blesses and dismisses the faithful, who once more kiss his hand. A The Post-Nicene Epoch 27 " station " with prayers is made at the chapel where the large portions of the Holy Cross are preserved. Night falls before the office has come to an end. (B) Sunday. — A crowd, as numerous as that which meets to celebrate Easter, assembles for the Vigils or Matins of Sunday, outside the church, at a spot illuminated by lamps. The psalms are chanted with antiphons, and after each psalm, or after each anti- phon and respond, a prayer is said. It is the custom to open the doors of the Holy Place only at cock- crow. Then the bishop arrives, the basilica is opened and illuminated by a thousand lights. The prayers which took place before this seem to have been intended merely to occupy the people until the beginning of the office. 1 Then a priest, a deacon, and a clerk in minor orders say, each in turn, a psalm and a prayer, incense is brought in, the bishop rises, takes the book of the gospels, descends into the grotto, and there reads the narrative of the resurrection. The crowd breaks out into lamentations at the thought of what the Saviour has suffered for us. At the con- clusion of the gospel, the bishop, accompanied by the people, goes to the chapel of the Holy Cross. There a psalm is chanted and a prayer, and the bishop blesses and dismisses the faithful. The monazontes and the more devout of the lay-folk return to the 1 Dom Cabrol, in his edition of the Peregrinatio S. Sylvia, 28 The Roman Breviary Anastasis for the celebration of Lauds, which is com- posed of psalms with antiphons, and lasts until daylight. From this it appears that there was no solemn celebration of Lauds on Sunday, such as took place during the week. A distinguishing feature of the Mass which followed was that those of the assistant priests who wished to do so addressed the congregation, the bishop speak- ing last of all. These sermons lasted to the fourth and even the fifth hour (10 or u A.M.), and not until then was the holy sacrifice celebrated. The Lucernare on Sundays was the same as on week days. (C) Etheria (or Sylvia) then goes on to speak of the festivals, but it would take too long to give an account here of all she describes. We give, however, the con- clusions drawn from this document by Dom Baumer (vol. i. pp. 168-169), on account of their bearing upon the beginnings of the Breviary. " 1. Towards the end of the fourth century, five canonical hours were recited in Jerusalem — Vigils, Lauds, Sext, None, and Vespers. Terce formed a sixth hour during Lent. " 2. The festivals celebrated during the year were Epiphany (commemorating the birth and manifesta- tion of our Lord) on the 6th January ; Easter, with the preceding ceremonies (which lasted for eight weeks) ; the Ascension and Pentecost ; lastly, the Dedication, and the festival of the Invention of the Holy Cross on the 14th September. The festivals of The Post-Nicene Epoch 29 the martyrs are also mentioned (in the description of Lent) but without any being named in particular. " 3. The chief festivals — Epiphany, Easter, the Dedication, the Invention of the Holy Cross — were celebrated with an octave. "4. The psalms were chanted with antiphons, prayers, responds, and hymns. The lections were taken from both the Old and New Testaments. At the conclusion of Matins on Sunday, the bishop sang the gospel of the Resurrection. 11 5. The people and clergy assisted at Matins on Sunday,, on Friday in preparation for Saturday, and on certain other occasions, but during the week the celebration of Matins was performed by the monks and more devout of the people, assisted by some priests or deacons, who recited the prayers or collects. "6. The antiphons,prayers,lections,psalms,responds, and hymns were chosen with special reference to the particular mystery commemorated. This struck the western pilgrim as so new and interesting that she is continually alluding to it. Here we have the first attempts at bringing the mysteries of the ecclesiastical year to bear upon the divine office and the liturgy of the Mass — both having been heretofore, as they still were in the West, composed of invariable prayers and chants." III. The West. — (1) Let us now turn to the state of liturgical devotions in the West at the beginning of the fifth century. Tertullian and St. Cyprian have 30 The Roman Breviary been our witnesses for Africa in the third century. After their date, various elements were imported into the formularies of prayer from the East, such as anti- phonal chanting and hymns. (A) St. Hilary of Poitiers writes that in his time (towards the middle of the fourth century) Lauds and Vespers were recited in Gaul. Vigils were probably recited also on certain days. 1 St. Jerome and St. Isidore say of St. Hilary that he composed hymns like those used in the Greek Syrian churches. (B) But it was chiefly due to St. Ambrose that antiphonal chanting and hymns were introduced in the West, and that greater care was bestowed upon the celebration of Vigils. Starting from Milan, the usage spread to other churches, and the city, already rendered illustrious by its great bishop, became a centre of liturgical enrichment and development. That a particular church should exert so widespread an in- fluence at this period is nothing remarkable, consider- ing that each church was then free to make what alterations and innovations it thought good in its formularies of prayer. It is interesting to recall what were the circumstances under which St. Ambrose was led to modify the contents and manner of performing the divine office. St. Augustine, an eye-witness, has told the story in his Confessions} It was in the Holy 1 Commentary on Psalms^ 64 and 118. Migne, Patr. Lat., ix. 420, 550. 2 Bk. ix. ch. 7. Migne, Patr, Lat^ xxxii. 770. The Post-Nicene Epoch 31 Week of 385. Milan was in an uproar in consequence of the claims made by the Arians. On Palm Sunday (6th April), St. Ambrose was concluding the sacred ceremonies in a magnificent church recently con- structed, called the Portian Basilica, when it and another church were claimed by the court for Arian worship. The bishop met the demands of the court by a direct refusal ; but, fearing lest his flock should vent their indignation against the Arians in an unjustifiable manner, he assembled them in the principal church of Milan, like a general refus- ing to be driven from his post. During Sunday and the three following days he remained with his people in the basilica claimed by the Arians, surrounded by the imperial troops. Then it was that, in order to occupy the long and anxious hours, St. Ambrose introduced into the office the antiphonal chanting of psalms by two choirs, with antiphons, versicles, and several hymns of his own composi- tion. He adopted this custom from the Eastern churches. The innovation quickly spread throughout all Italy, and was adopted even at Rome itself, as we learn from the Milanese priest Paulinus, St. Augustine, Pope Celestine I. in an address delivered before a council in Rome, and from a letter of Bishop Faustus of Riez. It became in time fully established ; and as it is perpetuated in the Roman Breviary, we must turn our attention to it for a few moments. 32 The Roman Breviary The antiphon l (that which echoes back the sound) is a chant performed alternately by two choirs, and was already used in the pagan drama. At what period exactly it came into use among the Christians, it seems hard to say. If we are to believe the historian Socrates, it was St. Ignatius, the second bishop of Antioch, who introduced this alternate manner of chanting into the church, but no traces of its existence appear before the fourth century. Between 348 and 358 two members of a band of ascetics at Antioch, Flavian and Diodore, conceived the idea of associat- ing the Christian laity with themselves in chanting the psalter during the night. This was intended to counterbalance the influence of the Arians and of the bishop, Leontius, who was secretly in sympathy with the heretics. Following the practice of the Syrian churches, these ascetics, instead of letting the lector recite the psalm, directed that it should be sung alternately by the faithful, divided into two choirs, both of which were to unite only in singing a refrain. The doxology Gloria Patri was certainly one of these refrains. St. Basil, in his treatise on the Holy Spirit, informs us that the formula was known in his time, although in slightly varying forms. 2 Arius attempted 1 For further details, see Diction. d'Archeol. chretie7ine et de Liturgie, by Dom Cabrol, i., 2282 et seq., 2428-2430, under the word Antienne (Liturgie) — Antioche (Liturg.). 2 Nuper precanti mihi cum populo et utroque modo glorificati- on em absolvendiDeoac Patri inter dum cum Filio una cum Sancto Spiritu, interdum per Filium in Sancto Spiritu. Pair. Gr.,xxx\\.j2. The Post-Niccne Epoch 33 to substitute another form — " Gloria Patri per Filium in Spiritu Sancto" — quite unobjectionable in itself, but rejected on account of the meaning given to it, and the intention of those who employed it. The ordinary form of the doxology — Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost — was adopted to repel Arianism, and attained to an im- portant position in the liturgy. It is found from this period onwards in the churches of Antioch, Jerusalem, and Constantinople. The faithful thus had a short theological formula wherewith to cut short every dispute. Theodoret {Hist. EccL, ii. 19) tells us how the vacillating bishop, Leontius, seeing his clergy and people divided between the two forms u Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto," and " Gloria Patri cum Filio in Spiritu Sancto," con- trived that the faithful could hear him sing only the conclusion — "in saecula sseculorum. Amen." May we regard St. Ephrem (f 363) or even Bardesanes of Edessa (154-222) as the originator of these doxologies? The attempt to do so has not yet resulted in more than an hypothesis. Dom Leclercq, under the word " Antienne (Litargie)" quotes a fragment of Theodore of Mopsuestia, according to which the formula would seem to be of Syrian origin, and thus all that Flavian and Diodore did was to translate it from Syriac into Greek. On the other hand, the Canons of Hippolytus enjoin " Gloria tibi Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto in 3 34 The Roman Breviary saecula saeculorum. Amen," as a doxology to the prayers. 1 It was with the same intention of counteracting the evil influence of the Arians, who energetically spread their errors by means of popular songs, that St. Ambrose trained the faithful to sing hymns which gave expression to orthodox tenets. He himself composed some of these hymns, though probably not so many as have been attributed to him. Writers of a later date, who followed his example, either were desirous of gaining acceptance for their compositions by using his name, or attempted to imitate the particular kind of composition which he had in- troduced. 2 (C) St. Ambrose, then, celebrated the office of Vigils in church along with his people, He also speaks of the Laudes Matutince and of the day hours. We know, moreover, that the hymns for Vespers, Terce, and None (probably also the hymn for Sext) are his. We have additional evidence, belonging to the West, relating to the celebration of the divine office at this date. Thus St. Jerome furnishes many details con- cerning the liturgical forms of his time, especially in his letters and tracts against the heretics. When 1 See Dictionnaire d? Archeologie chretienne et de Liturgie, under the words Arie7is, 2816 ; Antioche (Liturgie (?), 2430; A?itie?ine, Liturgie, 2284 ; Paleographie musicale, vol. vi., intro- duction, pp. 18-19. 2 Dictionnaire d'Archeologie chretienne et de Liturgie, art. Ambroise hynmographe, i. 1347. The Post-Nicene Epoch 35 writing against Vigilantius he had to take up the defence of Vigils. He expressly enjoins the noble and pious matron Laeta to take her daughter with her when she goes to church at night or in the evening, to assist at solemn Vigils. He mentions the morning prayer, and that of the third, sixth, and ninth hours, at which the young girl should assist like a soldier of Christ, and finally he speaks of the "sacrifice" of Vespers. His letters to Eustochium, Rusticus and Demetrius contain allusions to an Ordo Psalmorum et Orationum, and to the canonical hours known to all, at which Christians of both sexes do not fail to pray. There are the nocturnal prayer (Vigils), morning prayer (Lauds), Terce, Sext, None, and Vespers. 1 (D) St. Augustine is also an unexceptionable witness to the existence of the different hours of prayer in the West at the beginning of the fifth century. He shows, moreover, that as yet there was no one uniform regulation in the Latin church as to the rite to be followed, and that the bishop of each diocese, or the metropolitans in conjunction with their suffragans, were left very free to establish and regulate the divine office. Provided they observed certain points of apostolic tradition, they might conform to the requirements ot time, place, and persons. In his Confessions (bk. v. ch. 9), St. Augustine tells how his pious mother St. Monica went to church twice 1 St. Jerome, Pair. Lat.> xxii. 909, etc., xxiii. 347. 36 The Roman Breviary a day to hear the word of God and say her prayers. In his great work The City of God (bk. xxii. ch. 8), he speaks of Vespers as if it were a daily service, and gives us to understand that at it prayers were recited, and hymns and psalms sung. 1 (E) It is more difficult to say what was the practice followed at Rome with regard to the divine office. The traditional ascription of the distribution of the psalms, such as it is in the Roman Breviary, to Pope St. Damasus (366-384), has been called in question. Still there is a constant tradition that St. Damasus did promulgate liturgical regulations, which probably is to be taken as referring to the canonical hours as well as to other parts of the liturgy. St. Jerome shows that in 380 and 390 several canonical hours existed in Rome. As early as 383 St. Damasus had introduced a revised psalter for liturgical use in Rome, since known as the Psalterium Romanum. It was also during his pontificate that antiphonal chanting established itself in Rome. In fact, the united force of all these indications proves that, at any rate, it is not rash to conclude that St. Damasus regulated the Roman liturgy, as St. Ambrose had done for Milan. 2 Mgr. Duchesne 3 enables us to deduce a posteriori 1 Patr. Lat., xxxii. 714, xli. 765. 2 Dom Baumer, i. pp. 199-205. 3 Origines du Cutte Chretien, p. 83. The Post-Nicene Epoch 37 the existence of a Roman use, when he says that the Roman liturgy was employed in Africa. We shall soon be able to establish another indirect proof to the same effect from the rules of St. Benedict. (2) During the fifth and sixth centuries we do not find in the West any work dealing with the divine office as a whole. Such an undertaking would have been difficult owing to the lack of material, for the Apostolic See had not yet given, its imprimatur to an ordo which the bishops could modify, as we have said, according to the requirements of time, place, and people. There was no one codex then, such as there is now, containing the prayers and chants, to which recourse could be made. We must thus fall back upon the method we have heretofore followed, and seek out the scattered references in the Fathers and ecclesiastical writers of the time, in the decrees of councils or emperors, in the liturgical usages of Gaul and Italy given from time to time by Cassian, and in monastic statutes. (A) The Fathers and Ecclesiastical Writers: — According to the Life of St. Melania the Younger, there were only six canonical hours — Nocturns, Matins, Terce, Sext, None, and Lucernare (Vespers). Prime, introduced according to Cassian about 400, seems still confined to the monasteries. There is no mention of Compline. We learn nothing additional from the writings of Sidonius Apollinaris, Faustus of Riez, and Gennadius. 38 The Roman Breviary (B) Conciliar decrees of this period {i.e. Agde, 506 ; Tarragona, 516; Epaone, 517; Agaune, between 515 and 523; Orleans, 541; Tours, 567) show the attempts made to introduce unity into the liturgy by conforming it to the usages of both the East and Rome (there must then have been Roman usages in existence at that period). An important decree of the Emperor Justinian, of about 530, ordains that throughout East and West, in every church to which is attached a body of clergy, the nocturnal office — Lauds and Vespers — shall be solemnly recited day by day. On the other hand, Grancolas and Thomassin endeavour to prove that at this date priests and those in the lower ranks of the clergy were already bound to the private recitation of the office when prevented from assist- ing at the solemn celebration in the church. They were dispensed from the lections, as it was impossible to carry about the great MSS. of the Holy Scrip- tures or the homilies of the Fathers, while psalms, hymns, and the shorter prayers could be recited by heart. (C) Cassian, to whom we owe our information concerning the monastic office in the East, throw's light also on the development followed by the office in the West. The monks, following the Eastern usage, recited a prayer after each psalm. In Gaul this was accompanied by a prostration, and many more psalms were recited than in Egypt. The psalm The Post-Nicene Epoch 39 was sung as a solo, the assistants singing only the Gloria Patri at the end. The night office or Nocturns was recited daily. Matins did not follow immedi- ately. Cassian constantly affirms the existence in the West of Matins (meaning Nocturns), Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, and Vespers, at least in the monasteries. This was the general custom. In the prefaces affixed to his books De Insti- tutions Ccenobiorum and his Conferences, Cassian shows how Egyptian customs were making their way in Gaul, where they became popular, and soon spread. 1 (D) Monastic Statutes. — (a) St. Caesarius of Aries (f 542), who had been a monk at Lerins, is our in- formant concerning the development of the monastic office and that of the secular clergy in the fifth and sixth centuries. He shows that, as far as the monks were concerned, the burden of the divine office had become immensely increased by a quantity of psalms, lections, and prayers added to the different hours already mentioned. From the Life and Sermons of St. Caesarius, it appears also that the observance of the canonical hours had become common among the secular clergy, and was popular with the laity. He himself appointed that in the church of St. Stephen at Aries the offices of Terce, Sext, and None should be celebrated solemnly every day, so that the peni- tents and other lay-folk could assist at them, while 1 Cassian, De Instit. Ccenob. Pair. Lat., xlix. 132. 40 The Roman Breviary Prime was to be celebrated only on Sundays, festivals, and Saturdays. (b) We learn some further details from St. Gregory of Tours. His book De Cursu Stellarum, recently discovered, shows us that the hour for the com- mencement of the night office at the different seasons of the year and the number of psalms the office was to contain was calculated by certain stars and constellations. Thus great freedom was used in the celebration of Vigils, only the minimum number of psalms and lections being set down. This writer gives no further details concerning the composition of the night office and the manner in which it was celebrated. From his other writings it appears that during the fifth century, on days when there were no nocturnal Vigils, the people assembled in the morning for Lauds, the essential parts of which in Gaul, as in Italy during the time of Cassian, were the Miserere, Benedicite, and the three concluding psalms of the psalter. No mention is made of Prime or None, and the allusions to Vespers are rare. This latter is re- ferred to as a night office, because performed in the first watch. 1 (c) The Development of the Office by the Monks of the West: — In concluding this period of the history of the Breviary, we must draw attention to two dis- 1 For the fifth and sixth centuries, see more in detail Dom Baumer, i. pp. 206-233. The Post-Nicene Epoch 41 tinct tendencies equally plainly discernible among the monks of both the East {i.e. Egypt, Palestine, Mesopotamia, and Syria) and the West. These two tendencies find their expression both in the ritual usages and in the number of psalms, prayers, and lections recited in the office. Cassian recognized that the austerities of the Egyptians needed to be mitigated in order to suit the constitution of Westerns ; and while the Irish monks, through their asceticism and mysticism, approached more nearly to the austerity of the Egyptians, Italy and Rome were more inclined to draw their inspiration from Palestine. Thus a double stream of tendency became manifest in the West during the sixth century — the chief representatives of the two schools of monasticism being St. Columban and St. Benedict. The former enjoins that u for the nocturnal office twelve psalms are to be chanted during the short nights of summer, but more as the nights grow longer ; on Saturdays and Sundays eighteen psalms at least are to be sung, for the greater part of the time thirty-six. In winter, on week-days, thirty-six at Vigils, and sixty-five at the iravwxLa on Saturday and Sunday." 1 The arrangement of the office, or Psalterium per hebdo- madam y adopted by St. Benedict from the practices of the churches of Rome, Milan, and other parts of Italy, is inspired by five principles, which we give in brief from Dom Baumer {Hist, du Brev. rom., i. pp. 1 Regula S. Columbani, ch. vii., Pair. Lat., lxxx. 212. 42 The Roman Breviary 243-245) : (a) The entire psalter was to be recited at least once in the course of the week, i.e. a hundred and fifty psalms, with antiphons and prayers to correspond, and the scriptural canticles which were wont to form part of the office. (8) In the night office the sacred number of twelve psalms in a nocturn must be neither increased nor diminished (not count- ing the introductory and concluding prayers — i.e. psalms 3, 94, 50, and the canticles). In the same way, twelve psalms formed the day office, three in each of the hours, (y) In order to leave sufficient time for manual labour, short psalms or sections of psalms (such as the sections into which psalm 118 is divided) were to be chosen for the day office. In summer the long lections at Matins which came after midnight were suppressed " propter brevitatem noctium." On Sundays and festivals, when there was no manual labour, the whole office was recited with the long lessons. (8) A reasonable discretion was always to be observed. There was to be no long office in the evening, (e) Each hour was to be com- plete in itself, properly drawn up and uniform, and on this account long psalms are to be divided into two equal parts by a Gloria Patri\ the 11 8th psalm is to be divided into twenty-two sections, each containing eight verses, and the 116th, "quia parvus est," is to be united to the 115th under one Gloria Patri. For the rest, when the object and rules of his The Post-Nicene Epoch 43 order did not require the abandonment of existing usages, St. Benedict constantly kept the Roman office in view, and it is in this sense that we must understand not only the words Sicut psallit Ecclesia Romana in the 13th chapter of his rule, but many other directions which he has given for the office. In St. Benedict's rule we have the oldest and most complete scheme of the canonical hours to be found in the history of the church, and we may well think that, as he drew it up in Central Italy and not far from Rome, he followed, at least substantially, the already existing usage familiar to himself and to the people of the surrounding country. One thing is certain. At the beginning of the eighth century a contemporary witness, in a treatise on the different arrangements of the office at that date, states that the " cursus " of St. Benedict bore a very strong resemblance to the Roman "cursus." 1 The latter, then, was in existence, and so we have an additional though indirect proof in favour of the assertion made above. IV. Outline of the Evidence furnished by the First Period: — 1. The festivals of our Blessed Lord were Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, and Pentecost. The Ascension is not distinctly named by St. Paulinus in the fourth century. It is only somewhat later 1 Dom Baumer, i. pp. 261-262. 44 The Roman Breviary that the earliest evidence for the existence of an office for this festival is forthcoming. The Pere- grinatio Silvia speaks indeed of the fortieth day after Easter as having its Vigil on the Wednesday. But it is curious that, according to this document, these Vigils were celebrated in the church of the Nativity at Bethlehem, although there was a church erected on the very site of the Ascension, on the Mount of Olives quite close to Jerusalem. As a matter of fact, the Peregrinatio gives us to under- stand that the mystery of the Ascension was cele- brated in Jerusalem on the same day as Pentecost. The most suitable date to which we may assign this festival is probably the first quarter of the fourth century, for its celebration did not strike Sylvia {i.e. Etheria) as a novelty in 380, and it was just at the epoch we have mentioned that churches were built in Jerusalem, and that the pil- grimage to the Holy Places commenced. Indeed, according to one well-founded interpretation, the Council of Elvira in 300 affords evidence of the celebration of a festival on the fortieth day after Easter. At any rate, it is certain that in the fourth century the Ascension ranked as one of the great festivals of our Lord. 1 2. The ecclesiastical year comprised thirty-three 1 Dictionnaire d Archeologie chretienne et de Liturgie ; Ascension. Dom Cabrol, Etude sur la Peregrinatio S. Sylvia, pp. 122-123. The Post-Nicene Epoch 45 festivals, fairly generally observed (see the table in Dom Baumer, i. p. 272), and a certain number of local festivals as well. 3. The development of the canonical office was strongly influenced by the usages of the East. This influence is traceable to a double tradition coming from Egypt and Palestine. The night office ( Vigilice), at first an occasional office in the primitive church, and monastic in its character, obtained,, after the edict of Justinian, a place alongside the ancient and venerable offices of Matins (our Lauds) and Vespers — the morning and evening prayer. Not only was the night office adopted by all the clergy, and even by the Christian laity, but the day hours became to a great extent a recognized element in the public services. In cathedrals, where there were no canons and where the clergy were occupied with ministering to souls, monks and clerics from the different monasteries and churches of the diocese were pressed into the service, in order that the celebration of the divine office might not be interrupted. St. Benedict's rule brings before us a fresh change in the monastic office. The ancient office is cur- tailed, certain features are adapted from the exist- ing Roman use, and the whole is arranged with respect to the requirements of the cloister. In this way it rendered the canonical "pensum" a sweet yoke and light burden, and so commended it to 46 The Roman Breviary the adoption of all the secular clergy of the West. One may, in a certain sense, call St. Benedict the creator of the Breviary of the West, as he has been called the patriarch of the monks of the West. Part II THE MIDDLE AGES The Middle Ages, in the sense the term is employed here, include about ten centuries (590-1538), during which (1) the Roman office was first developed under the influence of St. Gregory the Great, whose name is inextricably bound up with the history of the liturgy. This office, in the centuries after Charle- magne, was spread throughout the different countries of the West by monastic missionaries, and at the same time gradually developed into the office such as we have it now. (2) In the interval between Charlemagne and the end of the fourteenth century certain alterations were made through Carolingian influence in the Responsory and in the arrangement of the lections, and new festivals were added to the calendar. St. Gregory VII. desired to guard the Roman rite against the excessive influence of the Germanic peoples, and did what in him lay to restore the ancient Roman office. A little later, the papal chapel or curia, which followed the pontiff when he was more or less forced to reside at a distance from 47 48 The Roman Breviary Rome, began to exert an influence which gradually became the chief factor in the modification of the canonical hours. In estimating this influence, it must be borne in mind that at this date the office was recited exclusively in choir within the walls of the churches. The Franciscans, however, on account of their many occupations, found themselves obliged to recite their office privately. This led them to adopt the abbreviations introduced by the Roman curia or papal chapel, and so the Breviary of the curia came much into evidence in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries ; the lections were curtailed, and the festivals were increased, to the detriment of the ferial office. (3) The great schism of the West put the finishing touches to this disorganization of the ancient office, which had reached such a pitch that no one really knew what was the true rule to follow in the recitation of the hours; the years preceding the Council of Trent were marked by attempts at reform of which the most remarkable and important was that of Cardinal Quignonez. The second stage of our history of the Breviary terminates with this period of confusion ; it is composed of three chapters. CHAPTER I THE FORMATION OF THE BREVIARY IN ITS EARLY STAGES From St. Gregory to Charlemagne, 591-814 Section i— St. Gregory the Great 1. The Roman Office at the Accession of St. Gregory the Great. — This office, as we have said, was already in existence, and our object in turning our atten- tion to it once more is that we may the better appreciate St. Gregory's influence on the liturgy, and on the arrangement of the canonical hours in particular. Several popes before him, especially St. Damasus, had expended some labour upon it, and so it is not without reason that St. Benedict, in his rule, speaks of the component parts of the office — the antiphons, responds, hymns — as well known at the time he wrote. At the beginning of the seventh century there existed in the neighbourhood of Rome all the elements of a Liber antiphonalis and a Liber responsoralis. We must not exaggerate. "St. Gregory did not create the Roman office. Many popes had 49 4 50 The Roman Breviary contributed towards its formation. In the seventh century it was possible to place its composition as a whole, as a divine office, at as early a date as one pleased." 1 As has been seen in the first part of this little book, it is difficult to determine with exactness the origin of those elements in the Roman church which St. Gregory arranged in better order. Speak- ing broadly, we can endorse what Dom Gueranger says of St. Gregory's Antiphonary : " The ecclesi- astical chant resembles all other great institutions inasmuch as the first time we come across them in the records of tradition they appear as already existing, and their origin as lost in an impenetrable antiquity." 2 2. What did St. Gregory achieve in regard to the Office? — In spite of the fact that we possess no MS. of the Gregorian Liturgy belonging to the period of St. Gregory, nor even to the following century, we have no hesitation in saying, with Dom Leveque, Dom G. Morin, and many others, that St. Gregory " collected, re-arranged in better order, completed more perfectly, and, above all, gave definite form to the chants, more or less ancient, of the Roman liturgy." 3 1 Dom Leveque in the Revue des questions historiques, vol. lvi. p. 235, 1894, in answer to M. Batiffol on the origin of the Liber responsoralis. 2 Institutions liturgiques, i. p. 163. Cf. what is said above (p. 32) of the Antiphon. 3 Dom Leveque, Revue des questions historiques^ toe. cit. Formation of Breviary in its Early Stages 51 This is specially true of the Gregorian Antiphonary. Dom Morin l thinks that the part taken by St. Gregory is strictly defined in the following words: " Ipse patrum monumenta sequens renovavit et auxit." He took as a basis of his work the compositions of his predecessors, re-arranged them, and completed them by new additions. In spite of what may be said to the contrary, there is no lack of texts in support of this statement. Dom Leclercq (art, Antiphonaire in the Dictionnaire cTArcheologie, vol. i, 2453 et sqq.) gives these texts after Dom Morin {Revue Benedictine for 1 890), and by them we mount up not only to the end of the eighth and beginning of the ninth centuries, from which dates an interesting treat- ise edited by Gerbert, but even to the first half of the eighth century, when we meet with a prologue in verse which Pope Adrian I. (772-795) placed at the begin- ning of the Antiphonary, and which is not applicable to any other pope of the name of Gregory. We have also the testimony of Egbert of York, who claimed to follow " the authority of our teacher St. Gregory, who has thus ordained in the copies of his Anti- phonary and Missal brought to us by our master the blessed Augustine." Finally, Dom Leclercq con- cludes {ib. 2461), there is one text hitherto ignored which must not be passed over in the controversy concerning the Gregorian Antiphonary. In 732, the 1 Quoted in the Dictionnaire d* Archeologie chretienne et de Liturgie, under the word A7itipho?iaire, vol. i. 2458. 52 The Roman Breviary date to which the evidence of Egbert of York extends, Acca, Bishop of Hexham, was forced to abandon his diocese, over which he had ruled since 709. The Venerable Bede, whose friendship with Acca dates apparently from this period, tells us that Acca had acquired his knowledge of the ecclesi- astical chant from a certain Maban, who had himself been taught by the successors of the disciples of the blessed Pope Gregory, at a time when Maban resided in Kent. According to Bede, these lessons began in 720, and the chant taught by Maban was merely a reform of that existing chant which had become corrupt through long usage. The same historian, speaking of Putta, Bishop of Rochester (669-676), declares : " Maxime autem modulandi in ecclesia more Romanorum, quern a discipulis beati papae Gregorii didicerat peritum." Bede can no longer be regarded as having passed over in silence the work of St. Gregory I., for he fully recognises its existence, and thus the interval between 604 and 732 is reduced by half. In considering the internal evidence, we must always remember that our oldest MSS. are two centuries later than St. Gregory's time. Still we may draw attention to the fact that the text of the chants in the Antiphonary is taken from the " Itala " version of the Scriptures. This translation was already losing ground in St. Gregory's time, and was almost entirely abandoned after his death. The Antiphonary, then, Formation of Breviary in its Early Stages 53 was not composed in the centuries following. 1 We repeat, with Dom Baumer (vol. i. pp. 299-300), that the fifth century, at Rome as elsewhere, was a period of great liturgical activity, while the seventh and eighth centuries were, viewed from this point of view, a period of decline. The prayers of our liturgy are for the most part very striking and fine compositions, and so it is more probable to ascribe their origin to the fifth century, and to grant that St. Gregory com- pleted and retouched them, and arranged them in better order. This would explain the existence of a Gregorian tradition which appears towards the end of the seventh century and in the subsequent period. " Everything," says Mgr. Duchesne, 2 " was modelled on the Gregorian tradition. This did not certainly pre- vent the introduction of necessary modifications, but, even when anything was altered, it was still the usage of St. Gregory which people thought they were following." Dom Baumer thus describes St. Gregory's labours in the domain of liturgy: 3 " It is he who collected together the prayers and liturgical usages of his pre- decessors, and assigned to each its proper place, and thus the liturgy owes its present form to him. The liturgical chant also bears his name, because it was 1 Dom Leclercq, Dictionnaire & Archeologie chretiewie et de Liturgie, art. A?itipho?iaii'e, i. 2458-2459. 2 Origines du Culte chretien, p. 122 (2nd ed.), a propos of the Gelasian Sacramentary. 3 Histoire du Breviaire ro?n., vol. i. pp. 289, 301-303. 54 The Roman Breviary through his means that it reached its highest state of development. The canonical hours and the formulary of the Mass now in use were also carefully arranged by him." Further on, Dom Baumer admits that there are difficulties in determining the extent of St Gregory's work, but maintains that the study of the sources of the Cantatorium, of the Antiphonary, and of the Responsory is closely connected with the study of the Sacramentary of the Antiphonary and Responsory, and that the following points can be proved : (i.) the probability of a codification of the Antiphonary and Responsory, as well as of the Sacra- mentary, previous to St. Gregory's time ; (ii.) the care taken by St. Gregory with regard to the books used in the schola which he founded ; (iii.) the impress of his own character which St. Gregory gave to these books by means of the revision and simplification to which he subjected them ; (iv.) the care taken by him to keep up the obligation of the daily Vigils, while at the same time he shortened the office in order to make it easier for the clergy ; (v.) the development of the Roman chant in the seventh century, which cannot be better explained than by the fact that St. Gregory founded a Schola Cantorum. There may be difficulties in establishing the precise part taken by St. Gregory in the modification and codifica- tion of the music books of the Roman office, " but the whole history of the Western liturgy supports us in maintaining that these books received from the Formation of Breviary in its Early Stages 55 great pope, or from one of his contemporaries, a form which never afterwards underwent any radical or essential alteration." Section 2. — Diffusion of the Roman Office after the time of st. gregory the great i. The development of the Roman liturgy seemed to come to an end, at least provisionally, with St. Gregory the Great, by the codification of the texts and the formation of a system of ecclesiastical chant for both the canonical hours and the Mass. The successors of St. Gregory encouraged the solemn celebration of divine service in Rome by the founda- tion of numerous monasteries attached to the chief basilicas, the monks of which were enjoined to celebrate the divine office in the basilica with which their monastery was connected (Duchesne, Origines du Culte, p. 437). The enthusiasm of the numerous pilgrims who visited Rome and witnessed the magnificence with which the office was celebrated led to the creation of similar means for edification among the newly converted peoples. Then again, the monasteries founded by missionaries in Germany, Flanders, and Great Britain were schools of the Romano-Gregorian liturgy. In Rome, the eccle- siastical authorities, and, within their own limits, the members of the Schola and of the monasteries, took pains to preserve St. Gregory's creations, and to maintain and still further develop all that he had 56 The Roman Breviary restored. The anonymous Frank who described the Ordo Romanus in the eighth century in codex 349 of the library of St. Gall, states that first of all Pope St. Damasus, with the assistance of St. Jerome, instituted and regulated the ecclesiastical ordo of Jerusalem. 1 2. The chant of the Roman Benedictines took root in England among the Anglo-Saxons through the zeal of St. Benedict Biscop and St. Wilfrid. In 668 St. Wilfrid, delighted with the fine chants used at Canterbury, obtained thence two chanters, Haedde and iEona, for his monastery at Ripon. These two chanters had been trained by the Roman disciples of St. Gregory in all branches of ecclesiastical knowledge and discipline. Ten years later, St. Benedict Biscop, on the occasion of his fourth voyage to Rome, obtained leave from Pope Agatho to take back with him John, arch-chanter of St. Peter's and abbot of St. Martin's, who was to instruct the monks of Wearmouth in ecclesiastical chant. This he did " according to the use of the Roman and Apostolic Church." Before returning to Rome, John left at Wearmouth an ordo written out for all the festivals of the entire ecclesiastical year. We learn these details from the Venerable Bede ("f" 735), in whose time this ordo was still in existence, preserved in the library of the monastery, and had often been 1 Batiffol, History of the Roman Breviary, gives some frag- ments from this document. See p. 375 (Eng. trans.) for the reference to St. Damasus. Formation of Breviary in its Early Stages 57 copied. It was doubtless the same chant and the same ordo which Canterbury had received about the same time from Theodore and Adrian, who had been sent from Rome. Seventy years later (747), the Council of Cloveshoe decreed that in the principal festivals of the year the chant should be executed in the Roman manner, "Juxta exemplar quod scriptum de Romana habemus Ecclesia." The Anglo-Saxon church, the favourite child of St. Gregory the Great and the faithful interpreter of his teaching, was soon to extend his spirit and influence to Germany and the Frankish empire. But as early as 716 St. Gregory II. instructed his legates in South Germany to see that every church had the necessary ministers for the celebration of the day and night offices. The text of this instruction shows that there existed in the Roman church an ancient ordinance respecting the Holy Mass, the day and night office, the lections, and even preaching. 1 3. The Frankish Empire : — The introduction of the Roman psalmody and the Roman arrangement of the office was apparently connected with the influence exerted over the Frankish court at the rise of the Carolingian dynasty by the English missionaries, St. Boniface, the apostle of Germany, in particular. The Frankish court soon entered into close relations with the Apostolic See, and the first decided step towards the introduction of the Roman chant within 1 See the text in Migne, Pair. Lat., lxxxix. 332. 58 The Roman Breviary the empire coincides with the embassy sent to Rome by King Pepin in October 753. Chrodegang, Bishop of Metz, the chief personage in this embassy, immediately on his return from Rome imposed on his clergy not only the Roman chant, but, to some extent, the Roman rite as well. The sojourn of Pope Stephen north of the Alps seems to have given a new impulse to the adoption of Roman customs, as is proved from the Caroline Books written shortly afterwards. St. Remedius of Rouen received a chanter called Simeon, between 758 and 768, who had been sent from Rome to instruct the monks in the Roman chant. Simeon having been recalled shortly afterwards, Bishop Remedius made choice of some monks, and asked Pepin to send them to Rome with an urgent recommendation. The pope received the king's petition, and placed the monks under Simeon's care until they were thoroughly grounded in the Roman chant and psalmody. There are also other traces of the intimate union between Rome and the regulation of the Frankish office. About 787 Charlemagne states that, owing to the care and zeal of his father, Pepin, the Roman chant had been established in all the churches of Gaul. A sweeping statement like this may require some qualifications; still it must be acknowledged Charlemagne was a man capable of carrying through an undertaking of this kind ; that he did so is stated in the Caroline Books written under his direction in 790. " We have Formation of Breviary in its Early Stages 59 ordered," he says, " that all the churches which have so far refused to follow the tradition of the Apostolic See in the matter of chanting, adopt the Roman usage with zeal." We find references to the same attempt in the Capitularies. Among the liturgical scholars of the time of Charlemagne, Alcuin must not be passed over. If, as everything seems to show, he was the author of the recension of the Gregorian books for use in Gaul, his influence must have been of great moment in all that concerns the history of the Roman liturgy and liturgical books. " It is affirmed," says the author of the Micrologus, " that Alcuin brought together in the Sacramentary the prayers of St. Gregory, to which he added a few new prayers, and that he was careful to mark these by an obolus\ and then he added to these other prayers, which, although they did not come from St. Gregory, were nevertheless necessary for the celebra- tion of the divine office." There are two other books of Alcuin which, although dealing with matters of private devotion, enlighten us upon the history of the liturgy in general — the De Psalmorum Usu and the Officia per Ferias. In the former, after pointing out the use we ought to make of the psalms, he gives seventeen prayers for special occasions, and in the second he sets down a certain number of psalms, prayers, versicles, litanies, and hymns for each day. Among 60 The Roman Breviary these appear numerous fragments of more ancient works. Thus, in the reduction of the liturgy to uniformity dreamed of by Charlemagne, Alcuin was the chief agent, and it was he who hit upon the principle through which unity was to be effected, a principle adopted by the Church of Rome herself. The Roman liturgy returned to Rome from Gaul arranged and co-ordinated. 1 4. Other Countries : — (A) A document, only recently come to light, gives us to understand that towards the middle of the ninth century the Gregorian liturgy was, with a few exceptions, generally followed by the Latins for the Mass and divine office. This is a letter of Pope Leo IV. (847-855) to an abbot Honoratus, probably of Farfa in the neighbourhood of Rome. The pontiff complains that the abbot showed his aversion to the Gregorian chant, and to the manner of singing and reading regulated and taught by Gregory, which are followed by the entire Western church. Then he orders the abbot to follow the ordo arranged by St. Gregory and not to depart therefrom again under pain of excom- munication. (B) The church of Milan claimed the right of maintaining her privileges. All the same, just as her rite was derived from the Roman use of the fourth and 1 Dictionnaire d ' Archeologie chretienne et de Liturgie, under the word Alcuin, especially the conclusion, vol. i. 1090. Formation of Breviary in its Early Stages 61 fifth centuries, so she borrowed largely from the latter during the Middle Ages. (C) The Mozarabic Rite: — The most difficult questions concerning the origin of the liturgy which enjoyed the most widespread acceptance throughout the Iberian peninsula in the seventh century are still far from being satisfactorily answered. It is evident from the fact that Pope Vigilius, in 538, sent a copy of the Ordinarium Missce to Bishop Profuturus of Braga and from the acceptance of the papal letter at the Council of Braga in 563, that the Roman liturgy was used in the catholic parts of Spain, and that the orthodox bishops, surrounded as they were on all sides by Arian intruders, turned to Rome as the source of orthodoxy. But St. Leander realized the necessity of organizing the celebration of the Holy Mysteries and Canonical Hours in a way which would not give offence to the Goths who had been recently converted from Arianism, and whose faith was still feeble. St. Isidore of Seville gave this liturgy its definite form. Afterwards, additions of a suspicious character were added, and that to such an extent that the Council of Frankfort in 791 appealed to the authority of the liturgical books of St. Gregory the Great against the Adoptionists, who sought to support their heresy by quoting the prayers of the Mozarabic missal. Thus, since the end of the ninth century, the Roman office has been used throughout the whole 62 The Roman Breviary Latin church, the exceptions of Milan and Toledo only proving the rule. Section 3. — Development of the Office and Formation of the Roman Breviary First-hand material for dealing with this question will apparently be wanting for some time to come. So long as MSS. of the seventh and eighth centuries are not forthcoming, we must rest content with the imperfect and often casual notices to be found in con- temporary writers, and with the state in which we find the liturgy at a later date. We have to pass in review — I., the structure of the office and the arrangement of the psalms ; II., the lections from Holy Scripture, and the selection and arrangement of the other lections in the office ; III., the arrangement of festivals and the liturgical year. I. The Structure of the Office and the Distribution of the Psalms. (A) The Text of the Psalter. — Walafrid Strabo l (j- 849) tells us that in his time there was no one text of the psalms uniformly adopted everywhere. In Rome and Italy the recension of the Roman psalter was used, of which we have a relic in the version of the Invitatory (psalm 94) still in use. This was the psalter belonging to the Itala version, revised for the first time by St. Jerome, and introduced into 1 Migne, Pair. Lat., cxiv. 952. Formation of Breviary in its Early Stages 63 liturgical use by St. Damasus towards the end of the fourth century (383). Its use spread quickly in Italy and Spain. In Gaul, owing to the influence of Gregory of Tours in the sixth century, St. Jerome's second revision of the psalter, which he made in Palestine in 392, was generally adopted. This version is more independent of the Itala than the former, and for it St. Jerome con- sulted the Hexapla of Origen preserved at Caesarea. This was the Gallican psalter adopted in Germany, England, and even, in the ninth century, in Italy itself, alongside the Roman psalter. This divergence of use continued until the Council of Trent, after which St. Pius V. established the universal use of the Gallican psalter. In St. Peter's alone the ancient psalter still remains in use. (B) The Canonical Hours : — From the seventh century onwards, ecclesiastical writers, papal decretals, and conciliar decrees recognize the eight parts of the office, which, as we have seen, took shape during the sixth century, and regard their recitation by priests and monks as enjoined by positive law. During this period, or at least at its commencement, Lauds and Vespers alone had a clearly defined structure and followed a definite arrangement. As far as we can see, St. Gregory arranged the little hours for Sunday alone, and their arrangement for week-days was left to the care of the bishops and metropolitans, or even to abbots. This was also the case in many instances 64 The Roman Breviary with regard to Matins, for the number of psalms to be recited thereat was not definitely fixed. Ama- larius x says that in the ninth century in Rome if it was observed during Matins that the sun was about to rise, Vigils or Matins were at once brought to an end, even although the lections and psalms had not all been recited. This was because Lauds, the canoni- cally established morning office, must begin at dawn. After the middle of the ninth century, we gather from contemporary documents that the office of Vigils was, as a whole, regularly constituted and well known. As regards the little hours — Prime, Terce, Sext, None, and Compline — the freedom of the competent ecclesiastical authorities was as yet unconfined by canonical restrictions. Chrodegang (1 766) was the first to follow the usages of the Benedictines of the Roman basilicas in prescribing for secular clergy the celebration at Prime of the Officium Capituli {i.e. the re- union in the chapter for reading the rule, or, on certain days, the writings and homilies of the Fathers). The rest of the chapter, i.e. all that follows the Confiteor in Prime as a preparation for the work of the day, seems to have been composed in the ninth century. A relic of the custom of reading a sermon, homily or section of the rule in the chapter, when the abbot or bishop was himself unable to address the assembly, exists in the short lection, which in its present form is usually 1 De Or dine Antiphonarii^ cap. iv. Migne, Patr. Lat., cv. 1252. Formation of Breviary in its Early Stages 65 the chapter from None. The short lection at the be- ginning of Compline is also a survival of the reading (collatio) prescribed by St. Benedict in his rule. Under Charlemagne and his successors, variations in the canonical hours completely disappeared. (C) The Distribution of the Psalms over the Days of the Week : — The following division of the Psalterium per hebdomadam was adopted by Charlemagne for his chapel royal at Aix-la-Chapelle, and consequently by all the churches of the Frankish empire, which, according to the capitulary of 802, were bound to follow the model given by the palace chapel. From the work of Amalarius, we learn that this division, except in a few points connected with Prime, was that of the existing Roman Breviary, in its Psalterium dispositum per hebdomadam. This was the division followed at Rome also. Later on, after the simplification of the office for use in the papal chapel, it was established in Paris, from whence it was adopted into the Breviaries of the Dominicans and Carmelites. In the documents referred to, the psalms and canticles for Matins, Lauds, Vespers, and Compline are the same as those at the present day for the Sundays and ferias throughout the year. The "preces feriales " joined to the psalms have also remained practically unaltered throughout the cen- turies. With regard to Compline, the existing Roman form of this office with the Nunc Dimittis dates from the eighth century, the period when Chrodegang drew 5 66 The Roman Breviary up his rules — unless one prefers to grant that St. Gregory the Great himself arranged it in its present form. 1 Terce, Sext, and None were the same as at present, but, as regards Prime the Sunday office differed entirely from that for week-days. For the latter, the ancient rules allotted only three psalms : psalm 53, Deus in nomine tuo, with the two sections of psalm 118, verses 1-16 and 17-32. On Sunday nine psalms were recited, ie. in addition to those recited at the present day, the five psalms which are said one on each day from Monday to Friday in place of the Confitemini — psalms 21-25. These psalms were perhaps said in St. Gregory's time at Matins on Sunday, which would then have had twenty-four psalms. From the beginning of the eighth century the Quicumque vult, commonly called the Creed of St. Athanasius, 2 seems to have been recited at Prime, for it appears in the Utrecht psalter as forming part of the canonical office. Towards the middle of the eighth century St. Boniface ordered it to be recited daily, or at least weekly, in Germany. On the other hand, many writers bear witness that it was recited at Prime on Sundays from the ninth century. It appears from this distribution of psalms that 1 Amalarius, De Or dine Antiphonarii, ch. 7. Migne, Patr. Lat., cv. 1259. 2 Dom Morin has shown in the Science Catholique (15th July 1 891) that this creed dates from the end of the fifth century. See also the Dictionnaire de Theologie catholique, Vacant- Mangenot, i. 2178. Formation of Breviary iii its Early Stages 67 provision was made for festivals, and that on the most of them there was a double office. On the whole, this distribution of psalms agrees with that of Mabillon's first Ordo Romanus, and with those published by Martene and Muratori. The preces feriales at Lauds and Vespers are re- garded as a continuation of the supplicationes and obsecrationes which St. Paul prescribed for the primi- tive church. They continued to be employed during the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries as a conclusion to the office, especially at Lauds and Vespers. They comprise prayers for peace, for all classes of the faithful, for the safety of those in authority both spiritual and temporal, for blessings on the fruits of the earth, for the conversion of sinners, and for the deliverance of the souls in purgatory. (D) Hymns: — We have seen already how St. Ambrose introduced the singing of hymns at Milan. St. Benedict has no other name for them in his rule than ambrosianum. His regulations show that they formed part of the monastic office. At what date did Rome admit hymns as an integral part of the office for the clergy? To judge from what Amalarius of Metz says, there was no sign of it at the beginning of the ninth century, but from the middle of the same century onwards hymns must have been introduced into the office used by the churches of the Frankish empire, and shortly after- wards in Rome. There is an interesting fact which 68 The Roman Breviary goes to prove the use of hymns in the Roman office from the first half of the ninth century. When the celebration of All Saints was extended to the Frankish empire in 825, after having been observed in Rome for two centuries, and its celebration fixed for the 1st of November, the verse "Gentem auferte perfidam Credentium de finibus " was added to the hymn with reference to the Normans and Saracens who were laying waste both the north-west of Gaul and the south of Italy. Walafrid Strabo agrees with Amalarius. Rabanus Maurus testifies that hymns were in general usage in the second part of the ninth century. 1 It is difficult to say for certain what these hymns were, for they were not included along with the other liturgical texts in the psalters, antiphonaries, or responsories, but were united in a volume by themselves. Still, it may be regarded as certain that (a) at Matins and Lauds on the Sundays in winter, Primo dierum omnium and Aiterne rerum conditor were sung as at the present day, and in summer, Node surgentes and Ecce jam noctis, both attributed to St. Gregory the Great ; {b) the hymns at Vespers and Compline varied with the season. In winter lux beata Trinitas, and in summer Deus creator omnium, were sung at Vespers, while at Compline the hymn in winter was Christe qui lux est et dies, and the hymn in summer and on festivals was Te lucis ante terminum ; (c) on Sundays 1 See Migne, Pair. Lat., clx. 159, cxiv. 956, cvii. 362. Formation of Breviary in its Early Stages 69 and during the week the hymns at Prime, Terce, Sext, and None were the same as at present, but a change was made during Lent ; id) during Lent, the hymn at Vespers was Audi benigne conditor, at Matins and Lauds on ferias the prescribed hymns bore upon fasting, Ex more docti mystico and Jam Christe, sol justitice. In Passiontide, the hymns on the Cross were the same as now ; so, too, were the hymns in Advent. A great number of special hymns existed for saints' days which are no longer in use, but the hymns for Eastertide and Pentecost, and those for Matins, Vespers, and Lauds of ferias throughout the year, were those which are still in use, save that they have been touched up in some points in the seventeenth century. It is impossible to be certain what were the chapters and short lections belonging to the little hours. To judge from St. Benedict's rule, they were taken from St. Paul's epistles and the prophets. The Apocalypse was employed for Lauds. The passages were recited from memory. 1 Nothing prevents us from supposing that on festi- vals of our Lord and the saints, and on privileged Sundays, the chapters at Lauds, Vespers, Terce, Sext, and None were taken from the epistle of the Mass. On ferias throughout the year and on certain Sundays the chapters were the same as at present. For the greater part of the year the Tu ant em in 1 Regida S. Benedicti, xii. and xiii. jo The Roman Breviary nobis es Domine was said at Compline, as it is at present. (E) Introductory and Final Prayers : — The office opened with the verse Deus in adjutorium and the Gloria Patri. According to Chrodegang or his commentators, the entire psalm 69, which begins with the words Deus in adjutoriiwi, was to be re- cited once at least at Matins, not in choir, but on the way to the church. On rising, the verse, Domine, labia mea aperies was to be said. At the other hours, the directions of St. Benedict and St. Gregory the Great were followed, according to which only the first verse of psalm 69 and the Gloria Patri were recited. All the hours concluded with the Kyrie eleison, the preces or capitella, Pater Noster, and a prayer; the suffrages followed and the Benedica7nus Domino. Often there was added the office of All Saints, the office for the dead, and even from the tenth and eleventh centuries, the little office of our Lady. Perhaps there were added as well the seven peni- tential psalms, the fifteen gradual psalms, or at least a series of psalms or prayers for special necessities. The text of the antiphons of our Lady was already in existence, at least in part, as for example the Ave Regina and the Regina Cceli. The Alma Redemptoris and the Salve Regina date from the eleventh century, and have been attributed to a monk of Reichenau, Herman Contractus (+ 1054). However, these anti- Formation of Breviary in its Early Stages 71 phons are not mentioned in the liturgical books belonging to the eighth and ninth centuries which have come down to us. The Regina Cceli alone was sung in Rome at Easter as an antiphon at Vespers, and not at the end of the office. The present custom seems to date only from the thirteenth century. At that period it was in use in the chapel of St. Louis, but only at Compline. In the sixteenth century the antiphons of our Lady were employed to replace the little office at all the hours. The direction to say the Pater and Credo before Matins and Prime, and after Compline, appears for the first time in St. Benedict of Aniane (f 821). Still there is ground for supposing that the Credo formed part of the Roman office from the eighth century onwards, either at Matins, Prime, or Compline, since it appears in all psalters of the eighth century or beginning of the ninth. II. The Lections from the Holy Scripture and from other Sources. 1. The First Four Centuries: — The reading of the Sacred Scriptures in conjunction with the psalmody in the divine office owes its origin to Jewish tradition. Our Lord consecrated this custom by taking part in it when present at the worship of the synagogue (St. Luke iv. 16-30). The apostles adopted the custom, and the epistles of St. Paul (especially Col. iv. 16 and 1 Thess. v. 27) show that the writings of the New 72 The Roman Breviary Testament were read in the church at an early date. During the first three centuries the rule was to begin with passages taken from the Pentateuch, to which were added passages from the prophets and from the gospels. The Pentateuch and the prophets were sometimes replaced by a passage from the apostolic epistles. A little later, the following order was adopted : a passage from the Old Testament, another from the Acts of the Apostles and the epistles of St. Paul, and a third from the gospels. The same arrangement held good for both the Mass and the canonical hours. In the fourth century this was the case especially at Matins on week-days : two lections were read at these hours, one from the Old and one from the New Testament ; on Saturdays and Sundays both lections were from the New Testament, from the epistles of St. Paul and the gospels respectively. 1 We have no clear evidence to show us what was the Roman practice before St. Gregory the Great as regards the lections from Scripture. St. Benedict's rule (f 543) is the earliest information of a certain and detailed nature we possess concerning the lections at the various canonical hours, at least in Italy. M Codices legantur in vigiliis tarn Veteris Testamenti quam Novi divinae auctoritatis ; sed et expositiones earum quae a nominatissimis et orthodoxis et catholicis Patribus factae sunt " (ch. ix.). We 1 See Cassian, Institut. Ccenob. Pair. Lat., xlix. 83 and 90. Formation of Breviary in its Early Stages 73 must not, then, conclude that there were no pre- scribed lections from Scripture before St. Gregory's time, especially in the Roman office. The Acts of the Martyrs were read on their festivals, but the celebration of these anniversaries remained restricted to the Locus depositionis or Locus tituli for the first eight centuries. 1 St. Gregory the Great {Epp.> xii. c. 24 ; Patr. Lat., lxxvii. 1234) testifies that in his day the works of the Fathers were read at Matins — homilice comment arii, sermones. An Ordo Romanus dating from his ponti- ficate or that of his predecessor shows that the lections from Holy Scripture formed an integral part of the daily pensum of prayer. 2. The custom of giving a blessing before the lections was already in existence in the fourth century. The ruler of the choir, who gave it at the beginning, gave also the signal for the termination of the lesson by the words Tu autem (sal. desine or cessa) y to which the reader responded Domine, miserere nobis, while the whole choir answered Deo gratias. In the palace at Aix-la-Chapelle it was by knocking, and not by the words Tu autem that the Emperor Charlemagne gave the signal for the conclusion of the lections, while the lector recited himself Tu autem, Domine, miserere nobis. The Rituale Ecclesice Dun- elmensis, containing fragments of the Roman liturgy 1 Batiffol, in his Histoire du Breviare romai7i ) mentions an Ordo Romanus published by Tommasi. 74 The Roman Breviary from the end of the seventh to the ninth and tenth centuries, includes forms of blessing for the different festivals, sometimes three, sometimes nine. In the latter case, each lesson was provided with its own form of blessing, which corresponded with the mystery commemorated by the festival. The absolutions, Exaudi Domine and A vinculis peccatorum^ did not appear until the succeeding period. 3. What was the subject-matter of the lections? As we have just said, the Holy Scriptures, the Acts of the Martyrs, and the writings of the Fathers were read at the choir office from the earliest times. According to Cassian, the monks of the fourth and fifth centuries read at Matins and Vespers on week-days two lections of greater length, one from the Old the other from the New Testament. On Saturdays, Sundays, and during the paschal season both were taken from the New Testament. Occasion- ally, and specially at the Sunday Vigils, there were three lections. Among the monks of the West, in the sixth and seventh centuries, chiefly in Gaul and at Lerins, there were frequently two lections at all the hours, one from the apostle and one from the gospel. It may be concluded that from the end of the fourth century the lections in the office followed the order of the lections in the Mass. Cassian's evidence agrees with what we find in St. John Chrysostom and St. Augustine touching the reason why the Acts of the Apostles Formation of Breviary in its Early Stages 75 and other New Testament books were chosen for the paschal season. 1 The information with regard to the practice of the Roman church during the fifth and sixth centuries, in what concerns the public reading in church of the Holy Scriptures, the Acts of the Martyrs, and the writings of the Fathers, is derived from the regulations attributed to Pope Gelasius. If a letter, often wrongly interpreted, of Paul the Deacon to Charlemagne, is to be believed, the order of lections followed in the eighth century, especially the choice of lections from Scripture in the canonical office, is the work of St. Gregory the Great or Honorius I. (-j-638). St. Gregory the Great based his reform upon St. Benedict's rule, of which he had a very high opinion, while St. Benedict, in his turn, seems to have followed the arrangement of the Scriptural lections in the Mass such as it existed in the fifth and sixth centuries. He ordered a short lection from Scripture should be repeated by heart at the Little Hours as well as at Lauds and Vespers. At Matins on ordinary days, except in summer, three lections were to be read from the Old Testament ; on Sundays and festivals the lections of the first nocturn were to be taken from the Old Testament, of the third from the New Testament (Acts, Epistles, or Apocalypse), and the gospels after the Te Deum. The lections for the second nocturn 1 St. John Chrysos., Patr. Gr., li. 105. St. Aug., Patr. Lat., xxxv. 3019. 76 The Roman Breviary were taken from commentaries on Holy Scripture by the chief orthodox Fathers. In the office of three lections in ordinary days in winter, the Old Testa- ment was read for the first lection, and a patristic commentary for the second and third. St. Gregory the Great, in his homilies, followed the order of the selections from the gospels already existing in his time, but for the divine office he took as his basis the system of lections drawn up by St. Benedict. This system remained intact until the Carolingian period, as we can see from many Ordines Romani belonging to the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries. One small deviation from St. Benedict's rule with regard to the third nocturn was made by St. Gregory or one of his successors. The influence of St. Benedict's rule in the Roman office is easily explained by the fact that from the seventh to the ninth century Benedictine monks celebrated the divine office in almost all the basilicas of Rome. From the comparison of the Ordines Romani and the existing distribution of the books of Holy Scripture, we obtain the following result : From Christmas to Septuagesima the lections were taken from the Old Testament, while the existing Roman Breviary appoints lections from St. Paul's epistles, which were formerly assigned to the third nocturn on Sundays ; from Easter to autumn, the order was the same as at present, except that the Acts of the Formation of Breviary in its Early Stages yj Apostles was begun on Easter day itself, while at present we begin the Acts only on Quasimodo Mon- day ; from the beginning of autumn (November), when we read the Prophet Ezechiel and the other Prophets in the order in which they are given in the Bible, the lections were taken from the historical books — Job, Tobias, Judith, Esther, and the Macha- bees — Isaias being read from the ist December to the Vigil of Christmas. The five books of Moses, along with Josue, Judges, and Ruth, were begun on the fifteenth or twelfth day before Quadragesima, i.e. on either Septuagesima or Sexagesima Sunday. In early times the new year commenced on the ist March, and thus the lections from the earlier books of the Bible coincided with the beginning of the year. The con- secutive reading of the Bible was broken in upon by Passiontide and Easter, when special lections were prescribed — the Prophets and Job for Passiontide, the New Testament (omnia nova) for Easter. The passage forming the gospel for the day was read entire at Matins in the Roman office, and not, as at the present day, merely the first few lines, with the formula " et reliqua" a custom which appears to have lasted up to the time of St. Gregory VII. On saints' days, such as could be celebrated on Sundays (i.e. festivals with nine lections, duplicia), or such as, falling in the week, were regarded as solemn days, all the lections were taken from the life or passion of the saint. The same was also frequently 78 The Roman Breviary done on days when there were only three lections {Festa simplicia). Should the gesta, vitce, or passiones not be sufficient to make nine lections, they were employed at the third nocturn only, lections from Scripture or the Fathers being read at first and second nocturns. Saints' days which were not solemnly celebrated could not, as a rule, entirely replace the Sunday office, three or six lections from the latter being in these cases retained. As regards the substance and length, such lections as were not drawn from the Scriptures then in course of reading were chosen by the abbot or bishop. Just as the psalter was to be gone through once a week, the Bible was to be read through in the course of a year, along with the commentaries of the principal Fathers. Such was the underlying principle, and its application was not difficult, taking the length of the lections into consideration — fifteen or twenty chapters being read during the winter nights. Thus, in the Ordo Cluniacensis of St. Ulrich, the whole of Isaias was read in ten nights, and the Epistle to the Romans in three Matins. 1 III. Festivals and the Liturgical Year. The distinction between the Proprium de Tempore and the Proprium Sanctorum does not appear before the twelfth or thirteenth centuries. During the period now under consideration the Proprium de Tempore 1 See Migne, Pair. Lat., cxlix. 644. Formation of Breviary in its Early Stages 79 included the whole liturgical year, even the fixed festivals (immobilia) of our Lady and the saints. These are to be found after the Sundays and principal feasts, according to needs and requirements. Roman service-books from the eighth to the tenth centuries begin, as a rule, with the Vigils of the Nativity (Nono kalendas januarii), and contain at the end of the liturgical year five or six Sundays ante Natale, the Ember days, and St. Andrew's day as the concluding festival of the year. Upon this follows the office for the consecration of a church, the commons of Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, Virgins (one or more). In the Antiphonary of St. Gregory (MS. of St. Gall, tenth century), the liturgical year begins with the Mass for the first Sunday in Advent. The Sundays were reckoned " after the Nativity," u after the Epiphany M ; perhaps also, but very rarely, "post Cathedram Petri" in February. Then came Septuagesima — the seventieth day before the Sunday in albis — and the Octave of Easter. Next followed the Sundays after Easter, the Ascension, Pentecost, after the feast of the Holy Apostles, after the feasts of St. Lawrence, St. Michael, SS. Cornelius and Cyprian. Palm Sunday was called Dominica Indidgentice. One small difference deserves notice. While St. Gregory, as is generally granted, gives four Sundays in Advent with proper Mass and office, the Gallican and Gallo-Roman books begin with four or five Sundays 80 The Roman Breviary in Advent. The explanation of this may be that in course of time supplemental pages were added to the volumes, upon which new additions were written with- out regard to the original order. There was no universal uniformity with regard to the celebration of the two first Embertides. St. Gregory VII. finally laid down the law on this point, but before his time the spring Ember days were cele- brated in some churches in March (Jejunium primi mensis), and those in summer after the middle of June (Jejunium mensis quartz). The year formerly began on the first of March, and February was accordingly the concluding month of the year. Thus each quarter was sanctified at its beginning by the Embertides of the first, fourth, seventh, and tenth months. Ember Saturdays were called " sabbatum duodechn lectioniint" because the Mass of the day was sung in the evening or at night after None. The mysteries of the Holy Trinity and of the Trans- figuration began during this period to be distinguished by special Masses and offices. With regard to the former there was a great disagreement, which lasted from the eighth to the fourteenth century, concerning the office for the Sunday after Pentecost : Was it to be kept as the Octave of Pentecost, or as the festival of the Holy Trinity, or as a simple Sunday? About 920, Stephen, Bishop of Liege, introduced a festival and office into his diocese which spread to Southern Germany, and was even adopted at Cluny, although Formation of Breviary in its Early Stages 81 Pope Alexander II. (f 1073) declared that Rome did not accept them. An office for the Transfiguration appears in the Mozarabic liturgy ; a codex in the National Library in Paris belonging to the twelfth century contains an office for this festival, probably composed by Peter the Venerable. The festival of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross dates from the fourth century, that of the In- vention on the 3rd May, from the eighth or ninth. It is impossible in a short work such as this to give details concerning the feasts of the martyrs and saints. We can only speak of the four chief festivals of our Lady which were established in the course of this period. (A) The Purification is mentioned for the first time in the diary of Etheria (Sylvia). 1 It was celebrated at Jerusalem by a special office, not on the 2nd but on the 15th February, forty days after Epiphany, the Christmas of the Easterns (6th January). It is usually thought that the feast was introduced into the West in the fifth century by Pope Gelasius, who coupled with it and distinguished it by a procession of lights, with the intention of supplanting the heathen festival of the Lupercalia. The antiphons at Vespers and Lauds point to the Greek origin of the feast, and to the period of the Council of Ephesus. The earliest indica- tion of its observance in Rome is given by the Liber Pontificalis in the Life of Pope Sergius I. (687-701). 1 Dom Cabrol, Etude sur la Peregrinatio S. Sy Ivicb \ pp. 77 , 78. 82 The Roman Breviary (B) The origin of the festival of the Annunciation is rather obscure. A Council of Toledo in 656 speaks of the difficulty of celebrating it on the 25th March on account of Lent, and so transfers it to the 18th December (Expectatio Partus). The festival is cer- tainly more ancient than this. We know that St. Helena (in the fourth century), having discovered at Nazareth the house wherein the mystery of the In- carnation was accomplished, erected a basilica on the site. This very probably give rise to a festival, which other churches subsequently adopted. There are traces in the liturgy which seem to point to a com- memoration at least of the Annunciation at a date not far removed from the fourth century. The Ravenna roll, belonging to the first half of the fifth century, contains ten prayers which plainly have to do with this mystery. With regard to the day on which the festival is kept, the opinion at present most widely held regards the 25th March as the anniversary of Christ's death and conception. A difficulty was caused by Lent, during which no festivals were cele- brated in primitive times ; but as the liturgical signifi- cance of Lent became overlaid, the Annunication came everywhere to be observed on the 25th March. The early Middle Ages, more strict as to these matters, transferred the festival to Advent. In fact, the Ex- pectation of our Lady on the 18th December presents in its office some resemblances to the mystery of the Annunciation. Formation of Breviary in its Early Stages 83 (C) The feast of the Assumption has been known by different names — Dormitio, Pausatio, Transitus B.AL That of the Assumption has prevailed over the others because it more exactly explains the object of the mystery, i.e. the death of our Lady, her resurrec- tion, and her triumphal entry into heaven in body and soul. The existence of the account of this fact does not directly prove the existence of the feast. It seems probable that the feast had its origin at the tomb of our Lady in Gethsemani, as a consequence of the pilgrimages made to this spot by the faithful. The fact that at the end of the sixth century the Assumption was solemnly celebrated in East and West warrants us in concluding that its institution dates back to the end of the fifth century. The earliest date seems to have been the 18th January, at least in the West. The Emperor Maurice (582-602) altered it to the 15th August, on which date it is still cele- brated. Some uncertainty was shown with regard to the feast, but about 847 Pope Leo IV. appointed an Octave, and probably also a Vigil, for it. 1 (D) The Nativity of our Lady. — M This feast/' says JVIgr. Duchesne {Origines du Culte chretie?i, p. 261), along with the three preceding, is marked in the Gelasian Sacramentary, which shows that from the seventh century it was also celebrated in Rome. A document contemporary with the Trullan Council 1 For the two last festivals, see the Diction?iaire cTArche'ologie chretien?ie et de Liturgie, under Annonciation and Asso??iption. 84 The Roman Breviary (692) mentions it on the 8th September. The feast seems to have been of Byzantine origin. As regards the festival of our Lady's Presentation in the Temple, it seems certain that it originated at Jerusalem at the close of the seventh century. This, at least, is the opinion of Fr. Vailhe in the Echos d* Orient, 1902. Section 4.— Some Peculiarities in the Office We have somewhat exceeded the limits of the period dealt with in this chapter, but before we leave the period (591-814) altogether, we must say a few words on the structure of the hours in the ninth century. The antiphons, psalms, and responds were almost the same as at the present day ; still, a few peculiarities may be noticed. At Matins in Easter week the same psalms were not then recited daily during the Octave, but three were said each day, beginning with the 1st psalm and ending with the 1 8th or 24th. At Vespers on great feasts, according to Amalarius and Mabillon, the ferial psalms for Saturday were often employed. On festivals which for the most part fell on week-days, such as Christmas, Epiphany, SS. Peter and Paul, St. Lawrence, the Assumption, two Matins were recited, those of the feria and those of the feast. The former was a kind of Vigil composed only of the psalms of the feria and three lections without invitatory. One of the two offices for Christmas was afterwards transferred in a Formation of Breviary in its Early Stages 85 somewhat modified form to the 1st January, as an "Officium de B. Maria Virgine" or "de Circumcisione vel Octava Domini" and one of the two Epiphany offices was transferred to the 13th January. This explains the absence of the invitatory in the office of this festival, the 94th psalm occurring in the nocturns. According to Amalarius, it was only in his own day, during the ninth century, that the second office began to be transferred to another day. At Rome, where the canons of St. Peter's had first to assist at their own night office and then in the morning went with the pope to celebrate the papal office in another basilica, the custom of double offices was observed for some time longer. The recitation of the hours in choir and in church took up much more time then than now, owing to the length of the lections and the singing of the antiphons. Even if the psalms were no longer recited by one person as at first, the antiphons and second half of the verse being repeated by all together after each verse, still the custom of inserting an antiphon either after each verse or after every two or three verses, was maintained. Other customs were also observed, such as frequent incensations, the insertion of tropes and sequences — methods adopted by the Church in order to appeal to the senses, to lift up the hearts of men towards heaven, and to give to the faithful in the house of God a foretaste of the joys and splendours of Paradise. CHAPTER II from charlemagne to the end of the fourteenth century (8 i4-i305) Section i. — Alterations in the Roman Breviary during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries ALTHOUGH the Franks adopted the Roman liturgy, it was not long before they introduced changes into it ; they transformed the Responsory, altered the system of lections, and increased the number of liturgical texts. 1. Transformation of the Responsory : — We have already spoken of Alcuin's work under Charlemagne ; he had many disciples and imitators in the domain of liturgy. Under Louis le Debonnaire, Amalarius of Metz went to Rome to study the divine office, and to learn the order and rules regulating its celebration ; he was informed that a copy of the Roman antiphonary had been taken to Corbie, and on his return to France never rested until he had studied its contents. He found it differed from the antiphonary brought from Rome to Metz under Chrodegang, and from a 86 Charlemagne to End of Foztrteenth Centttry 87 comparison of the two resulted a new text, to which Amalarius made some additions. Not satisfied with this first attempt, Amalarius soon published a book, De Ecclesiasiicis Officiis, in which he speaks of the different parts of the office. Another book, De Ordine Antiphonarii, followed, being the result of a fresh combination of the Roman antiphonary with the anti- phonary of Metz. He showed little scruple in making changes, but we find reliable information in the book concerning the origin of the responds and antiphons, and of the two Roman night offices for certain festivals (we mention only what concerns the Breviary). 1 A chancellor of Louis le Debonnaire, Helisachar, abbot first of St. Riquier and then of St. Maximin at Trier, also took great pains in correcting or replacing the responds of the antiphonary. He found himself arrested by the difficulty that in Gaul and in Rome the responds were not recited in the same way. In Rome the respond was repeated entire after the versicle, but in Gaul the repetition consists of only the first half of the respond, which in some cases led to strange results, as in the following example : — In Rome: ty. Tu es Petrus* ait Dominus ad Simonem. y. Ecce sacerdos magnus qui in diebus suis placuit Deo. (Repetition) Tu es Petrus .... 1 For further details see the Dictionnaire cFArche'ologie chretienne et de Liturgie, under Amalaire^ i. 1323. 88 The Roman Breviary In Gaul : ty. Tu es Petrus * ait Dominus ad Simonem. y. Ecce sacerdos magnus qui in diebus suis placuit Deo. (Repetition) ait Dominus ad Simonem. Helisachar, in his desire to get at the sense of what was sung, found such combinations quite in- tolerable, and sought to remedy them by corrections. Amalarius, while praising the work of Helisachar, is more conservative ; he retains what was traditional and ancient, introduces versicles and responds taken from ancient Roman books, and from books belong- ing to Metz, selects passages from the gospels which seem to fit in with the antiphons, and adds them to what he found in the Roman books, makes alterations in the order here and there, and gives completion to the whole by adding some offices for saints days proper to the church of Metz. The work of Amalarius gave rise to violent opposi- tion. Agobard, Archbishop of Lyons, has no mercy for him. Without actually naming Amalarius, it is sufficiently plain that he attacks him in his book De Divina Psalmodia. Still, on his own part, he con- sidered that he also could improve the divine office, as St. Gregory had done, while adapting it to the usages of his church. Accordingly, he rejected certain psalms, which he called "plebeian/' suppressed poetical compositions, excluded everything not taken from Charlemagne to End of Fourteenth Century 89 Holy Scripture — a principle strangely abused by Protestants and Jansenists. In his work De Correctione Antiphonarii, he assumes and develops his thesis con- cerning the exclusive employment of Holy Scripture, cuts down what he calls superfluities and frivolities, and also what he considers to savour of lying and blasphemy. He went to even greater lengths in attacking Amalarius, whose mystical interpretations he undertakes to censure in his Contra Libros iv. Amalarii} In spite of all, the reform of Amalarius held its ground, first in Metz, and then in the greater number of the churches north of the Alps. In the twelfth century Gallican usages made their way even into the Eternal City ; and so the introduction of the Roman chant into the Frankish empire resulted in the altera- tion of a considerable part of the text of the Roman responsory. 2. Modification of the system of Lections : — The great length of the lections led to the repetition of St. Paul's epistles several times in the course of the year. An attempt was made to so distribute the epistles throughout the course of the year that they would be read only once in the first nocturn. In the Carolingian period a desire was shown to conclude Matins with a homily on the Gospel, in the same way as the commentaries and the sermons of the 1 Dictionnaire d Archeologie chretienne et de Liturgie, Agobard, vol. i. 971. 90 The Roman Breviary Fathers on the Old Testament are introduced into the second nocturn. Among the works of revision and codification undertaken by Alcuin is generally numbered a Homilarium or selection of passages from the Fathers on the gospels occurring in the divine office. 1 The first Ordo Romanics implies the existence of this tendency in Rome, and the Ordo Romanus XL proves it explicitly. The canon, Benedict, to whom this latter ordo is ascribed, says : " At Rome, in St. Peter's and in the Papal chapel, we read on the Sundays of Advent and Lent at the third nocturn two lections de Epistola (S. Pauli), i.e. the seventh and eighth lections, and then, for the ninth lection, a homily on the gospel for the Sunday. But at Easter and on great feasts, with the exception of Pentecost, the whole gospel as well as a homily on it are read at the third nocturn" 2 Paul the Deacon, who was a monk at Monte Cassino and became the historian of the Lombards, was entrusted by Charlemagne with the compilation of a series of lections for the whole year and for each festival. He compiled two volumes containing not only sermones for the second nocturn and homilice in evangelium for the third nocturn, but also, among the latter, commentaries on St. Paul's epistles. From this work of Paul the Deacon, as well as from 1 Op. cit., Alcuin, vol. i. 1077. 2 Migne, Pair. Lat., lxxviii., ordo i. 958, ordo xi. 1027-1039. Charlemagne to End of Fourteenth Century 9 1 a passage in Hildemar, and from the Ordines Romani I. and XI. y it is evident that in the period between St. Gregory the Great and Innocent III. the gospel with a homily was read for the most part at the third nocturn on Sundays, and often either the epistle of the Sunday or a passage from the epistles of St. Paul with a commentary in addition. Since Charlemagne's time, both the homilies and the lections of the first nocturn have undergone a slight modification. St. Paul's epistles are no longer found as before in the third nocturn on Sundays and festivals throughout the year, but only in the period of the liturgical year actually assigned to them, i.e. from the Sunday in the octave of Christmas to Septuagesima Sunday. 1 The reading of the epistle at Matins along with the homily on the gospel was kept up during a long period — in Rome probably to the reign of Innocent III. It was omitted on great festivals from the seventh century onwards, and gradually on all Sundays and festivals as well. 3. Growth of new liturgical texts : — In consequence of the incursions of the Lombards, Saracens, and Normans, many churches and tombs of Saints in the neighbourhood of Rome were destroyed (seventh to ninth centuries), and others were either threatened with the same fate or severely damaged by floods, tempests, and earthquakes. The popes found them- 1 See Coutumes de Cluny ; Migne, Pair. Lat., cxlix. 613, and Jean d'Avranches ; Migne, Pair. Lat n cxlvii. 43. 92 The Roman Breviary selves compelled either to restore these sanctuaries or to translate the relics of the Saints to places of security without the walls of Rome. Numerous translations of relics took place in Germany and France also. This gave rise to the existence of a large number of festivals, at first only of local interest, but which, during the following period, were introduced into the calendar of the universal church. On the other hand, out of compliment to the Franks, some of their customs were adopted in Rome. The Liber Pontifi- calis gives us an illustration of this when it informs us that under Leo III. (j- 816) the Rogation days, which had long been observed in Gaul, were intro- duced in Rome. This tendency was even more marked under Louis le Debonnaire and Charles the Bald. It is interesting to witness the influence exercised over the popes of the eleventh century by two monarchs deeply attracted by all that belonged to the liturgy. One of these, Robert the Pious. King of France, gained the distinction of having a respond of his own composition sung at the divine office in St. Peter's, and in France it continued to be sung as late as the eighteenth century. The other, St. Henry, Emperor of Germany, when at Rome for his corona- tion, was astonished to find that the creed was not sung at the Mass (Sunday, 14th February 10 14), whilst everywhere else throughout the West it was sung on Sundays. He was able to bring it about that, for Charlemagne to End of Fourteenth Century 93 the edification of the pilgrims who came to the Eternal City, the creed was inserted into the formulary of the Mass. Section 2. — The Divine Office from St. Gregory VII. (1073) T0 Innocent III. (1198) Has the Roman office any history during this period, or even from the time of Charlemagne, i.e. during almost four centuries ? It would appear not, according to M. Batififol's History of the Roman Breviary. There one reads, p. 158 (Eng. ed.): "The Roman office, such as we have seen it to be in the time of Charlemagne, held its ground at Rome itself in the customs of the basilicas without any sensible modification throughout the tenth and eleventh centuries, and even down to the close of the twelfth : " and, a little earlier, p. 134, a propos of a decree of St. Gregory VII : " The Roman office of the eighth century remained intact at Rome in the eleventh, and .... those liturgists are mistaken who have looked upon this decree as a reform on the part of Gregory VII., making a fresh regulation as to the office, when in reality he was but confirming the custom of the eighth century." Who the liturgists mentioned in this passage are is told us by M. Batiffol in an article in the Bulletin critique (1st January 1892, p. 12): "Dom Gueranger croyait a cette pretendue reforme ; mais il n'en a pas donne une seule bonne preuve, et j'en ai cherche 94 The Roman Breviary vainement dans l'article de D. Baumer consacre k cette meme question." x These, then, are the two authors whom Mgr. Batiffol controverts, and from whom he frankly declares his disagreement. Dom Gueranger is not alive to under- take his own defence, and perhaps he might yield something to the opinion of his opponent. In his Institutions liturgiques (vol. i. p. 281, ed. Palme, 1880), he thus describes the work of St. Gregory VII. : M His labours had for their object the reduction of the divine office .... St. Gregory VII. abridged the order of the prayers and simplified the liturgy for the use of the Roman curia. It would be difficult at the present time to ascertain accurately the complete form of the office before this revision, but since then it has remained almost identical with what it was at the end of the eleventh century." Dom Baumer, after the sweeping statement just quoted, felt bound to study the question once more. The following is his answer to the criticism : 2 " If Dom Gueranger was mistaken in attributing to St Gregory VII. too great a share in giving to the Roman office its definite form, M. Batiffol is also mistaken in stating that the office remained stationary and underwent no modifications from the ninth to the twelth centuries." 1 " Dom Gueranger believed in this pretended reform ; but he does not produce one solid argument in support of it, and I have sought in vain for proofs in the article which Dom Baumer has devoted to the same question." 2 Histoire du Brdv. rom., ii. p. 5. Charlemagne to End of Fourteenth Century 95 The views of Dom Baumer on this particular point may thus be summarized : the Roman Breviary, during the period alluded to by M. Batiffol, underwent a development and received alterations in which St. Gregory VI 1. had a share. The proofs to the contrary alleged by his opponent seemed very weak to the learned Benedictine; those upon which he himself relies consist in a simple outline of the history of the office — this we summarize as follows: — First of all, M. Batiffol's opinion (p. 134) that the decree of Gregory VII. shows an arrangement of Matins identical with that described by Amalarius about 830 proves nothing. The truth is that the Matins described by Amalarius, the Matins pre- scribed by Gregory VII., and the Matins in the exist- ing Roman Breviary are one and the same, inasmuch as they have twelve psalms and three lections for ferias, nine psalms and nine lections for festivals, and for Sundays eighteen psalms and nine lections. What we have previously said is sufficient to show that there may be other elements contained in the Breviary. As a matter of fact, the references in the Antiphonary to the Responsory of St. Peter's of the twelfth century which have been appealed to rather go to prove that modifications similar to those made by Helisachar and Amalarius (see above, pp. 87, 88) were effected in St. Peter's. M. Batiffol himself describes the non- Roman custom presented by the Antiphonary of St. 96 The Roman Breviary Peter's of adding the suffrages to the offices of Lauds and Vespers as a novelty. The testimony of Abelard, which is next appealed to, does not favour the view of M. Batiffol, for Abelard is dealing with a problem which is always turning up in the history of liturgy — how to explain the ever renewed efforts after ritual uniformity and the ever recurring difficulty in its realisation. In speaking of the Ordines Romani of the twelfth century, M. Batiffol confuses the ceremonies with the office or text of the office itself. Although the office may have remained unchanged when the ceremonial was unaltered, we have no right to infer the identity of the office from the identity of the ceremonial, provided we have reasons for believing that certain modifications were made in the text. Indeed, the history of the changes in the Roman ceremonial depends upon causes very different from those which led to the transformation of the office, such as the frequent and prolonged absences of the pope and the curia from Rome. But this is a question which cannot be treated here in detail. We must then, says Dom Baumer, approach the history of the divine office during this period from another point of view. 1. Before St. Gregory VII., the political and religious changes immediately following upon the splendours of Charlemagne's reign throw light upon the contemporary history of the liturgy. It cannot be denied that the Carolingian sovereigns and those Charlemagne to End of Fourteenth Century 97 of the dynasty of Otho had much to do with the formation of certain rites. They owed this influence to their taste for grand liturgical functions, and to their appreciation of the civilizing power of the Catholic liturgy. A glance at the religious, political, and social events of which Rome was the scene shows that the Roman church during the tenth and eleventh centuries was in a sadly moribund condition, while Germany and Burgundy were full of intense intel- lectual activity and religious life. In Rome, during the opening years of the eleventh century, the chief basilicas were almost deserted even on festivals ; the offices of Good Friday, so full of symbolism and depth, were performed " in an irreverent manner, and replaced by a mutilated and disfigured office." It is Pope John XIX. himself who says so in 1026. A strong desire was then manifested to improve the celebration of divine service. This same year, 1026, the monk Guy of Arezzo was sent to Rome, and by a papal bull the wretched performance of the offices of Holy Week was replaced by a more worthy ceremonial. All this was doubtless in preparation for the emperor's coronation, and to spare him the surprise which his predecessor St. Henry had felt when assisting at the sacred rites. One thing, however, is certain — the text and arrangement of Guy of Arezzo's Antiphonary must have led to innovations in Rome rather than to the preservation of the traditional statu quo. That it was so appears from the fact that 7 98 The Roman Breviary Guy, in his restoration of the ancient authentic chant, permitted " enrichments " in the shape of sequences and tropes which were much thought of at that date. There was thus a restoration effected at Rome which must have attained its fullest dimensions and attracted the attention all during the pontificate of St. Gregory VII. 2. Indeed the monk Hildebrand, when he became pope (1073), bethought himself of the reform of 1026, of which he had doubtless been a witness. He felt convinced that, in order to purify the church from the Teutonic leaven and bring back her primitive magnificence, it was necessary to establish once more the ancient Roman rite, and to this object he devoted part of his energies. As in the time of St. Gregory the Great, the main difficulty consisted in the burden of the long Matins (Vigils). Attempts had been made to render this burden more tolerable. Thus a custom had been introduced into some Roman churches of reciting only three psalms and three lections. 1 Gregory VII. seized the opportunity of expressing his disapproval of this new practice at his first Lenten Synod which met in 1074. He commanded the resumption of the practice described in part by Amalarius, i.e., on ferias, twelve psalms and three lections ; on festivals, nine psalms and nine lections ; on Sundays throughout the year, eighteen 1 M. Batiffol, p. 172, note 2 (Eng. trans.), quotes a passage from St. Peter Damian referring to this practice. Charlemagne to End of Fourteenth Century 99 psalms and nine lections. During the octaves of Easter and Pentecost, when much time was occupied with the administration of baptism, three psalms and three lections only were recited. At the Lenten Synod of 1078, St. Gregory VII. put an end to another abuse opposed to the true tradition of the Roman church. This consisted in observing the Embertides in the first week of March, the second of June, the third of September, and the fourth of December. Gregory found fault with this custom, which was quite unauthorized, and ordained once for all that the Ember days were to be observed in the first week of Lent and in Whit week. His decision was founded upon the practice of the pontiffs his predecessors, as we find described in the Liber Pontificalis. Gregory VII. was animated by the same spirit when he suppressed the Mozarabic liturgy, and decided that the feasts of the popes who were martyrs should be celebrated as doubles throughout the church. Thus this pope, in the midst of the grave problems which then presented themselves, and while he was occupied with most important political trans- actions, found time and leisure to attend to liturgical details. The restoration of the Roman liturgy formed an element in his general policy. He laboured to revive Roman usages in opposition to the invasion of innovations from without. 3. The conflict with the secular power was con- tinued after Gregory's death, but his immediate ioo The Roman Breviary successors, Cluniacs or Burgundians rather than Romans, did not show an equal zeal in advancing the regeneration of Rome in matters affecting the liturgy and discipline. There is nothing, then, astonishing in the fact that some years later, about 1140, Abelard should say that the ancient Roman ordo of the divine office was followed in the Lateran basilica alone, while all the other churches had adopted a modernized office. This evidence is important, showing as it does that the office then performed in the papal chapel inside the Lateran palace differed from that performed in the great patriarchal basilica adjoining the palace. From a ceremonial drawn up by the canon, Benedict, before 1 143, it appears that great things were expected from the new state of things consequent upon the return to Rome of Innocent II. Indeed, from Urban II., the popes and their court were for the most part elsewhere than in the Eternal City, and thus the divergences between the Use of the papal chapel and the office of the Lateran basilica became more marked. The canon Benedict's ceremonial soon became im- practicable : it is doubtful if it was followed for more than a year by the curia in the performance of its office. When the papal court was in exile there were no longer fixed rules depending upon times, place, and tradition for the conduct of papal functions. Even in Rome, the pope's absence must have lessened the authority and importance of the rites performed 11 without the pope," and the influence which they had Charlemagne to End of Fourteenth Century 101 exercised upon other churches. Henceforth it was the usages of the curia (Consuetudo capellce papalis) which laid down the law for a papal function. But the curia was no longer fixed in Rome, but wherever the pope might happen to be. A vain attempt was made during the residence of the popes in Rome from 1 1 87 to 1 198 to restore the ceremonial of the Roman church in accordance with ancient tradition {Ordo Romanus XII written by Cardinal Cencius under Celestine III.). 1 The ritual of the papal chapel attained an independent position of its own, and became the preponderating factor in the history of the Roman Breviary. Section 3. — The Roman Breviary in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries I. History of the Formation of the Roman Breviary. Raoul of Tongres, a writer at the end of the four- teenth century, gives us the following information concerning what was done by the papal chapel or Roman curia : " Either by order of the pontiff or upon their own initiative, the clergy constantly shorten the office, and sometimes modify it to suit the convenience of the cardinals." This author knew what he was talking about, for he was able to compare a copy of the Roman office of the time of Innocent 1 See the ordo in Migne, Pair, Lat., lxxviii. 1063-1106. 102 The Roman Breviary III. (1198-1216) with the ceremonial of Peter Amelius, the Ordo Romanus X V., still used in his own day in the papal chapel. 1 This form of the Roman office owed its success and its universal extension to the recently founded order of the Friars Minor, who at once adopted it. As they were bound to devote themselves to external works, to preaching and ministering to souls, it was only natural they should choose an abridged office. So they adopted the Breviary of the Roman curia, save that instead of the Roman psalter — St. Jerome's first revision, which kept close to the old Itala — they em- ployed the Gallican — St. Jerome's second revision. 2 Other modifications soon followed as circumstances required. Either in obedience to the command or with the approval of Gregory IX. (1227-1241), Haymon, general of the Franciscans, undertook the revision and correction of the Breviary of the Roman curia, which Nicholas III. (1277-1280), himself a Franciscan, appointed to be used in all the churches of Rome. 3 It appears, notwithstanding, that the Lateran remained faithful to its ancient office, for, later on, Pope Gregory XI. (1370- 1378), when draw- ing up the statutes for the canons who formed the Lateran chapter, states that " the members should agree with the head, and that, in the church of the Lateran, the day and night offices ought to be sung 1 Migne, Patr. Lat., lxxviii. 1 273-1 367. 2 For the Gallican psalter, see above, p. 63. 3 Addenda, I. Charlemagne to End of Fourteenth Century 103 according to the rubric, order, and usage of the Holy Roman Church or of the chapel of our Lord Pope." This is the first official declaration enjoining the ordo of the Roman curia as the usage of the holy Roman church. Henceforth, and especially after the exile at Avignon, the ancient Roman office came to be regarded as out of date. The office according to the ordo of the holy Roman church, as St. Francis of Assisi calls it, meant nothing else than the usage of the curia. The history of the substitution passed out of men's minds, and at the end of the fourteenth cen- tury it was the common opinion that the Franciscans alone followed the ordo of the holy Roman church. Raoul of Tongres states quite simply that the Franciscans adopted the usage of the curia or office of the papal chapel. This he substantiates by pass- ing in review the facts of the case, and in his zeal for the maintenance of the purity of the liturgy, he passes over nothing of importance bearing upon the subject. His chief complaints against the new Franciscan books are as follows : (A) Shortening, alteration, or suppression of lections. Instead of the sermons, homilies, and passions of the saints, the Friars Minor often read only a short passage from the chronicle of Damasus, or from the Liber Pontifi- calis. (B) The Franciscans have always nine lections for all their saints, and for each day within the chief octaves, entirely omitting all feasts of three lections. Hence arises great confusion from the transference of 104 The Roman Breviary so many feasts arbitrarily raised by them to a higher rank. (C) Their arrangement suppressed almost en- tirely the reading of Holy Scripture in the office, the legends of saints were spread over nine lections, and were even drawn upon for the text of the little chapters. Thus the Franciscans went far beyond the reform effected by the Roman curia, pushing its plan of simplification to greater lengths, shortening the lections until only three or four lines remained. It must be said in their defence that, as a rule, if not always, these Breviaries with exceedingly short lections were reserved for use on journeys or the private recita- tion of office, since it was then impossible to carry great choir books about with one. The result of the multiplication of festivals of nine lections, and of raising the days within octaves to the rank of doubles, was to render the recitation of the ferial office very infrequent, and to make the recitation of the psalter within the week an impossibility. 1 While leaving the contents of the Breviary unchanged, the way in which the office was recited was modified. From hence- forth the office as recited by the Franciscans con- 1 Until the twelfth century, the term octave meant in the Roman rite that a simple commemoration of the feast was made in the office of the eighth day. On the days within the octave (dies i7ifra octava7)i) there was no mention in the office of either the feast or the octave. We have an example of this still in the Roman Breviary with regard to St. Agnes. Her feast is cele- brated on the 2 ist January, and on the 28th it is mentioned only at Vespers and Lauds, and in the ninth lection at Matins. The name in ancient Roman service-books is Octava S. Agnetis. Charlemagne to End of Fourteenth Century 105 sisted for the most part in the common of saints with lections taken from their legends, and an important part of the Breviary fell practically into disuse. On the other hand, there was a parallel tendency which led to a contrary result. While some wished to simplify and curtail the Roman office, others speedily made new additions to it. Additional offices began to make their appearance — De Beata Maria Virgine and Defunctorum — then special prayers, such as the penitential and gradual psalms, finally metrical hymns, short concluding prayers such as the Com- memoratio S. Cruets and the Suffragia Sanctorum. The metrical hymns, so highly esteemed in Milan in St. Ambrose's day, and prescribed by St. Benedict in his arrangement of the office, fell for a time into disfavour. Spain long refused to admit them. They were disapproved of in the Carolingian empire when the Roman office was introduced. Hence it followed that for a long period they were not used in the Roman basilicas, although the monks who served in these churches recited them in the office of their own monasteries. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries some feeble and arbitrary attempts were made in Rome to revive the ancient office. The other additions just referred to are almost without exception non- Roman. From the ordos of the Cluniacs, Carthusians, Cistercians, they found their way into the " ordines romani" after the constitution of Gregory XI. (1370- 1378). The piety of individual priests and religious 106 The Roman Breviary added yet other offices, such as those of All Saints, the Holy Cross, the Holy Spirit, etc. It must be borne in mind that these additions (with the exception of the Quicumque and some of the hymns) are merely artificial adjuncts, having but slight connection with the ancient office ; they are no integral part of it, but are placed at the end of the Breviary as a sort of appendix, and can be separated from it without dis- locating the different parts which compose the ancient contents of the book. 1 II. The Breviary in the Thirteenth Century. Notwithstanding the abridgements and simplifica- tions of which we have spoken, the liturgical office which the great men of the patristic period bequeathed to the church seems to have remained intact as a whole. The Roman curia and the Franciscans had only made it shorter and more definite. 2 Dom Gueranger 3 states that there is perhaps some bitter- ness and sharpness in the reproaches which Raoul of Tongres casts upon the Franciscans. (a) As far as the Antiphonary is concerned, it does not seem that they made much change : " In the liturgical collection of Blessed Tommasi," says Dom Gueranger, "there is an Antiphonary written in the reign of Alexander III. (1159). Now this book, 1 For the details, see Dom Baumer, vol. ii. pp. 39-46. 2 Dom Baumer, vol. ii. p. 57. 3 hist. Liturgy i. p. 324. Charlemagne to End of Foztrteenth Century 107 which contains the office as curtailed by St. Gregory VII., is almost identical with the existing Roman Breviary, which in its turn is both the abridgement of the Gregorian Antiphonary and the Franciscan Breviary. Therefore the Franciscan collection left the Gregorian foundation untouched." (b) The psalter retains its ancient traditional division intact for the canonical hours throughout the week {i.e. nine or ten psalms for Prime on Sundays) ; the structure of the office, with its well thought-out co- herence, and its succession of psalms, antiphons, hymns, versicles, lections, responses, and prayers, is plainly to be seen. Therefore the Ordo Romanus XI. can say : " Sicut mos est, sicut Ecclesia consuevit." x (c) The Canonical Hours: — The arrangement of psalms at Matins is the same as at present. Fre- quently the whole passage forming the gospel for the festival was sung. The name of this office underwent a change. The term Vigilice formerly given to it was re- stricted to the first Matins of festivals (i.e. to the office of the feria) ; the Matins of the festival itself were called Matutinum. Lauds were still called Matutince Laudes, but later began to be called simply Laudes. In Advent, Matins were richer than at present. The responds Aspiciens, Aspiciebam, Missus est had several versicles. The Gloria, Te Deum, and the Gloria in excelsis at Mass were sung in Rome on the Sundays in Advent. 1 Cf. Mabillon, Museum Italicum. Migne, Pair. Lat., lxxviii. 951-954. 108 The Roman Breviary Lauds were very often shortened by reciting all the psalms under one antiphon. With the exception of Saturday, when the Officium de Beata V.M. was re- cited, there was a daily commemoration of our Lady ; during the paschal period a commemoration of the Passion and of the Resurrection. Raoul of Tongres shows that the concluding antiphons of our Lady — Alma, Ave Regina, Regina Cceli, and Salve Regina — formed at this time no essential part of the office. It was only in 1239 that Gregory IX. ordered the recita- tion of the Salve Regina on Fridays after Compline. The custom of interpolating antiphons after each verse of the Benedicite and Benedictus on Sundays and festivals — known as triumphare antiphonas — was given up. There was no difference between the little hours as recited in the twelfth century and in the preceding period. RaouPs only complaint is that the custom has commenced of suppressing the five or six psalms (20-26) which ought to have been recited on Sundays in addition to the ordinary psalms {i.e. psalm 53, the commencement of psalm 118, and Confitemini). The omissions at Vespers were of no importance. On Sundays and festivals, the five psalms of the first vespers were almost always sung under one antiphon, as is still done during the paschal season. The Magnificat was no longer chanted " triumphaliter" with a great number of antiphons. Compline was almost the same as at present. The lection, Fratres sobrii estote, was varied according to the festival. The Charlemagne to End of Fourteenth Century 109 order followed was Confiteor, Converte nos, Deus in adjutorium, four psalms, a hymn which varied with the season, chapter, respond and versicle, antiphon and canticle, Kyrie eleison, Pater and Credo with versicles, except on great feasts, the collect Illumina\ the benediction, and, in choir, the aspersion with versicle and collect Exaudi nos. (d) We have seen already that the amount of altera- tion in the lections was more considerable. As we learn from the rules of St. Benedict and St. Caesarius and the Ordines Romani XL and XII , the ruler of the choir used formerly to arrange the lections as he thought fit. It was thought sufficient to point out the book to be read. Along with the new custom of shortening the lections, there came in also the custom of definitely indicating the verses of Scripture, or the passage from the sermons, homilies, and legends which were to form the lection. In order to give more space to the Holy Scriptures, the lections of the second nocturn on Sundays were allotted to them. St. Bernard and Raoul of Tongres inform us that the books of Scripture commenced in the church were to be continued in the refectory, as is still done in some monasteries. (e) The inconvenience arising from the increase of festivals can only be understood by a study of the change effected during the period with which we are now concerned. Hitherto the festivals of saints, which were much less numerous, as well as the feasts of our no The Roman Breviary Lord, falling on the average once a week, had an office in addition to the office de tempore \ i.e. Matins and Lauds were duplicated, once for the feria and once for the feast. The former were usually said on the eve a little after sunset, 1 and were composed of three psalms, with antiphons and versicles, but no invitatory, three lections with responds, and the Te Deum or Te decet laus. The second Matins and Lauds were recited towards midnight. According to the Ordo Romanus XL of the canon Benedict, this custom is accounted for at Rome by the fact that the two offices were not to be recited by one and the same choir, one being recited by the canons of the church to which the pope had proceeded in order to hold his chapel there, and the other by the pope and cardinals. As feasts with two offices, we may name the Nativity, the Epiphany, Ascension, SS. Peter and Paul, the Assumption, and the feasts of the local Patron Saints. The existing Matins for these festi- vals, according to the Ordo Romanus XL, are made up from the double Matins of this earlier period, 2 a fact which accounts for the absence of the invitatory on the feast of the Epiphany. This custom, however, seems to have been peculiar to Rome, for nowhere else do we hear of a double office being imposed as 1 It has been thought that in this we have the origin of anti- cipating Matins and Lauds of the morrow by reciting them the evening before. 2 Migne, Pair. Lat., lxxviii. 1029 and 103 1. Charlemagne to End of Fourteenth Century 1 1 1 of obligation. The Roman curia first, and then the Franciscans, began to fuse the two offices into one organic whole. The little hours did not change their fixed psalms and hymns on festivals, but at the greater hours the psalms and hymns varied with the festival. Thus, by introducing the special prayers and lections of the feast, or by simple commemorations, the festivals of the saints became, as it were, enshrined in the office de tempore. As festivals increased, the ferial office was recited more rarely — a circumstance which, as we have seen, caused distress to Raoul of Tongres. It is true that the Franciscans gave an impetus to the increase of festivals in the calendar, but Gregory VII. began the movement by deciding that the office of the majority of canonized popes should be celebrated throughout the whole church. After him, other festivals were thus extended, two of which deserve to be mentioned, as both had previously given rise to controversies — the feast of the Holy Trinity, and the feast of the Immaculate Conception. The feast of the Holy Trinity, established at Liege in the tenth century, in spite of the opposition it en- countered from Leo IX. and Alexander II., was adopted in widely distant parts of the church, and was extended to the whole church by Pope John XXII. before 1334. According to recent investigations, the festival of the Immaculate Conception originated in the Benedictine monasteries of England, and was sanctioned by a council of English bishops held at 1 1 2 The Roman Breviary London in 1129. 1 It early became popular in Normandy, and was instituted at Lyons about 1140, when it gave rise to objections on the part of St. Bernard. It spread throughout France, and was adopted in Rome in 1246, and in 1476 was extended to the universal church by Pope Sixtus IV. 2 The office was copied from that of the Nativity of Our Lady, the word Nativitas being replaced by Con- ceptio. III. The Roman Breviary during the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. As we have seen, the Franciscans gladly availed themselves of the shortened office of the Roman curia, while they, in turn, made this office still more accept- able to the clergy of the papal court by the simplifica- tion and the portable form which they tended to give to it. It is this reciprocal influence which forms the most striking feature in the liturgical development in the thirteenth century. In 1227 the Synod of Trier prescribed the use of a small Breviary for ecclesiastics when travelling, " Breviaria sua in quibus possint horas suas legere, quando sunt in itinere." These volumes were called porteforia y portues, viatica when adapted for travelling; cameraria when used in private apartments. Such a book was necessary for a friar minor always occupied in preaching from place to place, and unable from his many occupations to 1 Addenda, II. ■ Addenda, III. Charlemagne to End of Fourteenth Century i 13 celebrate the office in choir. It was equally necessary for the episcopal schools under their changed condi- tions, for in the thirteenth century the ancient monastic schools, where clerks and scholars shared in the whole divine office, and joined in the liturgical life of the monastery in the choir, at the same time as they pursued their studies, were no longer in existence. It was also the sort of book required at the universities, where a feverish activity allowed the young clerks and theological students no leisure for assisting at the long divine office celebrated in the ancient manner in the cathedrals. The new generation had to content itself with a small portable volume containing the parts indispensable for the fulfilment of their obligation, and facilitating the rapid discharge of the daily pensum of official prayer, and this they found in the Breviary of the Roman curia adopted by the Franciscans. Under Innocent III., or about his time {i.e. between 1 192 and 1230), further modifications were introduced, as may be seen from a comparison of the Ordo Romanics XL of the canon Benedict and the Ordo Romanus XII. of Cardinal Cencius. The Te Deum was suppressed for Advent Sunday. 1 The long prayers and the penitential and gradual psalms were to be recited only during Lent. Gregory IX. (1227-1241) ordered the recital or chanting of the Salve Regina on Fridays after 1 Migne, Pair. Lat., lxxviii. 1063. 8 1 1 4 The Roman Breviary Compline, and also took part in the composition of the office of St. Francis of Assisi. Then, during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, a number of festivals hitherto restricted to Rome became universal ; i.e. SS. Vincent and Anastasius, 22nd January ; the Apparition of St. Michael, 8th May ; Our Lady of the Snows, 8th August ; the Dedication of the Lateran basilica of the Saviour, 9th November ; the Dedication of St. Peter's and St. Paul's, 13th November, etc. Saints of the Francisan order were honoured in the calendar by festivals much higher in rank than those of the ancient Saints. Accordingly, the Breviaries secundum usum romance curice belonging to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries give the festival of St. Francis of Assisi with a privileged octave, and they have also octaves for the translation of St. Francis and St. Clare, St. Bernardine, and many others. The festival of Corpus Christi, too, belongs to the thirteenth century, having been instituted by Urban IV. in 1264. St. Thomas Aquinas wrote the office for the feast, so remarkable for its style and theological exactitude. In 1298, Pope Boniface VIII. ordered that the festi- vals of all the Apostles and Evangelists and of the four great Doctors of the Latin church — SS. Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, Gregory the Great — should be celebrated throughout the whole church as doubles. In 1389, Urban VI. added the feast of the Visitation. For the fifteenth century one may mention the feast Charlemagne to End of Fourteenth Century 1 1 5 of the Seven Dolours in 1423, which was celebrated in Cologne and Germany before being inserted into the calendar of the universal church ; the feast of the Transfiguration, instituted by Calixtus III. in 1457 ; the feast of the Presentation of our Blessed Lady, sanctioned for Germany in 1464 by Paul II. It is almost impossible to leave the thirteenth century without saying something about one branch of liturgical poetry — the metrical office-hymns. Fr. Dreves has published a large number of these compositions in his Analecta Hyrnnica, which can thus be made the subject of further studies. The examination that he has made of the subject has led him to the conclusion that these productions first began to appear in the twelfth century. But it seems their origin may be pushed even further back, for there exists a metrical office-hymn of the tenth century. The office for the feast of the Lance and Nails in the Roman Breviary gives an idea of this kind of composition. The frequent disturbances, political, ecclesiastical, and social, of the fourteenth century, have left their traces in the liturgy. The sojourn of the popes at Avignon, known as the Babylonian exile on account of its duration (1305-1378), was from our point of view, as well as from others, productive of unfortunate results. It left indelible traces upon the history of the church ; and since the liturgy is closely bound up with the facts of history, we can infer its fortunes 1 1 6 The Roman Breviary during this period. The canonical hours could not fail to be modified by the fact that the Lateran basilica, the mother church and mistress of the Catholic world, was no longer the usual scene of the pontifical office. There were no Roman basilicas in Avignon. In com- parison with St. Peter's, the Lateran, St. Paul's, St. Mary Major, the church within which the liturgical functions of the papal court had to be performed was no better than a temporary chapel. The ceremonies must needs be curtailed, the sacred text cut short, and the magnificent ritual reduced, just what the Ordines Romani of that date show actually to have taken place. The Ordo Romanus XIV. shows how the vicissi- tudes of the papal court had the effect of reducing the splendour of the liturgy, while the calendar was en- riched by the addition of a large number of feasts and saints which had hitherto been of merely local observance. Such, for example, were the festivals of the Holy Trinity, St. Martial, St. Giles, St. Anne. From this period dates the definite separation between the rite of the Roman curia and the rite of the basilicas of Rome, the former drifting away ever further from the latter, and exhibiting more and more its own poverty. CHAPTER III THE ROMAN BREVIARY FROM THE END OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY TO THE MIDDLE OF THE SIXTEENTH BEFORE bringing to a conclusion the history of the Roman Breviary during this second period, we must briefly examine the effect of the schism of the West on the liturgy, and the attempts at reform which preceded the Council of Trent. Section i. — The Effects of the Schism. i. The Liturgy in general : — The consequences of the schism were deplorable as far as the liturgy is concerned. As we have said, it was impossible for the liturgy to be performed in a manner worthy of itself at the pontifical court of Avignon. When Christendom was divided into two obediences, the liturgical functions at Avignon were at times even ridiculous, as may be seen from reading, for example, in the Gesta Benedicti XIII. 1 the account of the celebration of the Purification. 1 Muratori, Rerum italicarum scrip/ores, iii. 177 and 800. 117 1 1 8 The Roman Breviary Still, Peter de Luna was one of those who attached the greatest importance to the observance of the liturgy during this melancholy period. Things were little better even in Rome. The 167th chapter of the Ordo Romanus X V. gives us to understand that the cardinals were anything but easy to manage, and showed great disinclination to take part in the ceremonies of the divine office whenever an order of the pope or master of ceremonies did not suit their convenience. 1 It was inevitable that the text, the rites, and the formulas of prayers should suffer in consequence. A papal decision called forth by particular circumstances could easily be transformed into a universal law. Thus, Pope Urban VI., in 1389, having celebrated the festival of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist on a Sunday, and so displaced the Sunday office, it soon became an established rule that a feast, with certain responds proper to itself, like that of the 29th August, was to take precedence of the Sunday (see the Ordo Romanus XV., ch. 124). 2 The special object of the Ordo Romanus XV. is not to set out the rules and regulations of the ceremonial performed at the papal curia, but to give a series of notes on how this ceremonial was carried out under such and such a pope under given circumstances. Just because Rome laid down no hard and fast rules, many local churches, in adopting the Breviary of the 1 Migne, Patr. Lat., lxxviii. 1368. 2 Ibid., lxxviii. 1344. Fro7n Fourteenth to Sixteenth Century 119 curia, continued at the same time to keep to their ancient customs and their ancient liturgical texts. Thus the offices of national or local saints were introduced into the setting of the new Roman office, while customs belonging to particular localities found their way into the office de tempore and into the festivals of our Lord. 2. Lastly, the recitation of the canonical hours was attended with much uncertainty and disorder. No one knew exactly what rule to follow, and everyone set about drawing up an ordo according to his own ideas. An edict of Pope Clement VI. gave rise to a new regulation, according to which a great number of saints, who had hitherto been commemorated by a memorial only, had now an office of their own, and also certain festivals gained the privilege of being transferred when necessary. 1 Thus, in the fifteenth century, we find the beginnings of those abuses of which the theologian John de Arze, consultor of the Council of Trent, was to complain later on. An enumeration of these abuses shows into what a condition the divine office had fallen : — (1) The suppression almost entirely of the Sunday and ferial offices ; the consequent impossibility of reciting the psalter in the course of a week ; the total omission of certain psalms. (2) The multiplication of different offices on the 1 Ordo Romanus X V. y ch. 101 and 123. Migne, Patr. Lat '., lxxviii. 1339, 1344. 120 The Roman Breviary same day, throwing into the shade the chief features of the special celebration, and interfering with the pleasure which might have been given by the simple office de Tempore. It has to be remembered that the little office of our Lady, the office for the Dead, and the penitential or gradual psalms regularly followed the ferial office. (3) The substitution of legends, apocryphal stories, and certain other texts of doubtful value for Holy Scripture in the antiphons, hymns, and responds. 1 Doubtless, the increase in the number of festivals of saints did not fail to benefit those who had to recite the Breviary ; still, as canonizations became very numerous during these centuries, as may be seen from a study of the Bullarium, the increase in festivals must have obscured the character of the liturgical year, which represents the teaching, sufferings, and triumph of the God-Man. Humanism, which we shall see patronized by some popes, such as Nicholas V. and certain of his successors, had also its influence upon the divine office — an influence not always conducive to piety. The super- natural beauty of the formulas was imperilled by the rejection of the rough and inelegant form in which they were cast. Attractiveness of outward form went for everything, no importance being attached to what lay beneath the surface ; the connection between the 1 Compare the complaints of Raoul of Tongres mentioned above, p. 10 1. From Fourteenth to Sixteenth Century 121 natural and the supernatural was disregarded ; a dislike of the spiritual nourishment offered by the Holy Scripture became general. Section 2. — Attempts at Reform before the Council of Trent I. Efforts made by the Popes : — In the second half of the fifteenth century a new era seemed to dawn, in which Rome was to be the centre of science, art, and religious life. The attempts of Nicholas V. (1455) paved the way for a revival of truly Christian life in Italy and in other lands. This reform, however, was not lasting. Those about the pope, in the fear of losing their benefices if abuses were abolished, did all they could to place obstacles in his way. Under Calixtus III. and Pius II., we find several papal masters of ceremonies who carefully collected the traditions of a better age, and endeavoured to pre- serve them intact. Julius II. (1503-1513) was rather embarrassed on all sides by wars and disturbances. Leo X. (15 1 3-1 521) was enthusiastic for pagan ideas. Under him, whatever was done in the way of change or correction is sure to bear the stamp of humanism. Under such conditions, the attempts of a Nicholas of Cusa and a Domenico de Domenichi are all the more deserving of praise. These men, moved by a serious enthusiasm for the restoration of the liturgy, proposed certain reforms, and drew up 122 The Roman Breviary schemes for the more correct observance of the canonical regulations, and, above all, for celebrating the canonical hours with greater dignity, and their attempts produced lasting results. The care shown by Sixtus IV. for the solemn celebration of the office and for the liturgical chant in the foundation of the Sistine chapel (1471-1481) did not in any way affect the Breviary or the office in itself. 2. Individual Attempts : — Two currents, to which a third was soon added, began to exert themselves in transforming the divine office — the humanist, the traditional, and the golden mean. A word must be said in explanation of each in order to show the character of the attempts made at this time to reform the liturgy. (a) The humanist school, represented by Bembo, Ferreri, Marsilio Ficino, Pomponazzi, Bessarion, Leo X., considered that the fault of the Breviary lay in its inelegant language. The ideal of this school was an office book written in Ciceronian Latin, with hymns modelled as closely as possible upon the odes of Horace. One must avoid, Bembo says somewhere, " maculam illam jam per tot ssecula illi hominum generi (priests and religious) inustam quod scribendi non calleat elegantiam." Accordingly, certain of the higher and lower clergy began, M in order to avoid spoiling their good taste," to recite the office in Greek, and the psalms and other parts in Hebrew. Ferreri undertook the correction of the Breviary, and began From Fourteenth to Sixteenth Century 123 with a new collection of hymns, because, from the point of view of classic ideals, the hymns seemed to be the part of the Breviary most devoid of taste. Leo X., who had suggested this undertaking, and en- couraged Ferreri in his attempts, did not live long enough to see the work completed. It appeared in February 1525. Everything is new: nothing of the ancient chants is preserved ; a few obscure remini- scences recall slightly the ancient hymns. For the old verse Ave maris Stella Dei Mater alma Atque semper virgo Felix cceli porta, we have — Ave, superna janua, Ave beata semita, Salus periclitantibus Et ursa navigantibus. The author frequently, and with an almost incredible naivete, introduced heathen expressions, allusions, and types. The Holy Trinity is called triforme numen Olympi\ of our blessed Lady it is said: " Belluam tristem Phlegethontis atri interemisti, superosque nobis conciliasti." True, by the side of these, we find some magnificent strophes, in which the parables and characters of Scripture, the characteristic features of the lives of the saints, and Christian doctrines and ideas shine out like precious stones in the setting of classical phraseology in which they are placed. Dom 124 The Roman Breviary Gueranger 1 singles out as especially simple and beautiful the hymn for the common of Apostles and Evangelists : — Gaudete mundi principes Qui veritatis dogmate Vita profusa et sanguine Plantastis omnem ecclesiam. The use of the new hymns was allowed by Clement VII. in the private recitation of the Breviary. The hymnal announced the early appearance of a Breviary drawn up upon a new plan by the same author, which was to be conspicuous for brevity, con- venience, and freedom from errors of all kinds. This plan, however, was never realized. (b) The traditional school comprised men of piety, of deep religious feeling, from Raoul of Tongres (f 1 401) to Burchard of Strassburg, who were strongly attached to liturgical tradition ; among them the Thea- tines, Caraffa, afterwards Pope Paul IV, and, later on, John de Arze, were their chief representatives. These champions of ancient rites, formulas, and texts were ready to admit the defects of the Breviary at this period, i.e. the excessive number of festivals, the too frequent omission of the lections from Scripture, along with the psalms for Sundays and ferias, apocry- phal legends, and, chief of all, the accumulation of several offices on the same day. Their love for the past, however, was perhaps excessive. 1 Institute liturgiques, i. p. 355. ed. Palme, 1880. From Fourteenth to Sixteenth Century 125 (c) The moderate school was represented by Cardi- nal Francis Quignonez, a Spaniard, who before his elevation to the cardinalate had been general of the Franciscans; Reginald Pole; Contarini; Sadolet and the Benedictine Gregory Cortesius, who had been cardinal since 1542. These also set a high value on a polished classical style, pure latinity, and well- turned periods, but, at the same time, laid the chief stress on a dignified Christian spirit. 3. Cardinal Quignonez and the " Breviarium Sanctce Cruris" : — The work of Quignonez requires to be mentioned here on account of the influence it exercised on the Breviary put out later by St. Pius V., and because of the fact that, after enjoying great popularity during several years, it was afterwards so completely forgotten. While the author of this new Breviary broke away from tradition and antiquity, it must be borne in mind that he did not undertake to compose a Breviary for public use in choir. An outline of his preface will give an idea of the plan he had in his mind. The church, he says, lays the obligation of reciting the Breviary upon the priest for three reasons — (a) because he is the official intermediary between God and the people ; (b) in order that, while preserved from temptations through union with God in his thoughts and meditations, he may be an example to the faithful ; (c) in order that he may gain sufficient knowledge, and a diction which may enable him to 126 The Roman Breviary preach with good effect. Quignonez did not find these intentions of the church realized in the Breviaries of his day. He regards the Breviary itself as respon- sible for this, and draws a distinction between the public and the private recitation of the Breviary, the latter, in his opinion, being almost impossible owing to the arrangement of the existing Breviaries. The axe must therefore be laid to the root of the tree, and a complete re-arrangement effected. In order that the entire psalter should be recited once each week, that the principal portions of Scrip- ture should be read through once at least in the course of the year, that the office should be almost the same length every day, and that the Sunday office should not be of inordinate length, Quignonez deter- mined — (A) Each hour was to be made up, as a rule, of three psalms, to which were added the Benedictus, Magnificat, and Nunc Dimittis at Lauds, Vespers, and Compline. At Lauds, the Benedicite took the place of the third psalm. (B) The arrangement of the psalms was such that no psalm was repeated in the course of a week. (C) The lections were limited to three : the short lections in the little hours, Lauds and Vespers, disappeared altogether. The lections at Matins were drawn, the first from the Old Testament ; the second from the New Testament; the third, on saints' days, from the legend or acts of the saint, on Sundays, ferias, feasts of our Lord and our Lady, from the homilies of the Fathers, on the gospel for the Fro?n Fourteenth to Sixteenth Century i 2 7 day, and also from the New Testament. They were of considerable length, in order to ensure the reading of the chief part of the Old Testament and the whole of the New during the course of the year, and of the epistles of St. Paul twice. A choice was made among the legends, to the exclusion of those whose truth was doubtful. (D) There was thus greater simplicity, and the burden of the office was lightened. There was scarcely any difference between the Sunday and ferial offices and the offices for saints' days. The only essentially variable parts of the office were the Invitatory, the hymns at Matins, Lauds, and Vespers, the Collect, and the third lection at Matins ; to these were added the antiphons after 1536. The psalms were invariable, their selection depending solely upon the day of the week. (E) Everything else — versicles, great and little responds, chapters, and, in the edition of 1535, even the antiphons — was swept away. The office for the dead and the office of our Lady were restricted to a very few days in the year. It is worthy of notice that some of the ideas of Quignonez were shared by others. Thus, one of the first authorities on liturgical matters at that period, the Blessed J. M. Tommasi, in a project he put out for a new Breviary intended for private use, held that the Holy See could well dispense the clergy from antiphons and responds when reciting the office out of choir. In this he relied upon certain well-known passages of the Apostolic Constitutions, of Amalarius 128 The Roman Breviary and certain other writers, but these passages prove little when one remembers that before the fifth or sixth centuries the psalmody in the choir was very simple, and that in the time of Amalarius the impossibility of procuring the necessary office-books could excuse many things. The Breviary of Quignonez was called the Bre- viarium Sanctce Cruets because its author was known by the name of the Cardinal of Santa Croce, as he took his title from the basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. Advantages of this Breviary: — The preface mentions three : those who adopt this manner of prayer will gain a knowledge of both Testaments by reading a considerable portion of them every year, they will also find great simplicity of arrangement coupled with brevity, and, although the lections are longer, yet there are only three, while in the old Breviaries there were more than twelve, with versicles and responds besides {i.e. counting the office of our Lady). The new arrangement prevents loss of time and lessens fatigue. The first two lections follow an invariable course throughout the year. Finally, the histories of the saints contain nothing offensive to the ears of the grave and learned. Disadvantages ofthe"Breviarium Sanctce Cruets "; — The work of Quignonez was intended at first as only a provisional book for use in the private recitation of the office. It never enjoyed more than a " domestic " From Fourteenth to Sixteenth Century 129 approbation from the pope. Paul III. permitted its use only to those clergy who individually asked for the permission. Although at first received with favour, it gave rise also to strong objections. In 1535, the year of its appearance, it was strongly censured by the Sorbonne upon its arrival in France. The Faculte de Paris, to which the Parliament had referred the Breviary, convicted as audacious an author who suppressed ancient and universal customs, and broke away altogether from tradition in order to welcome all sorts of liturgical novelties. This was also the view taken by celebrated theo- logians such as Dominic Soto, who could see no advantage in abandoning in this way the customs and practices of antiquity, and called attention to the grave results which would arise from the use of this new Breviary, such as dislike on the part of clergy for the public office, aversion from prayer, and carelessness in the service of God ; and then, in the work itself, the frequent unsuitableness of the psalms recited to the mystery commemorated. For example, if the Nativity of our Lord or the Assumption fell on a Friday, the psalms 21 {Dens, Dens mens, respice), 68 (Salvum me fac, Dens), 70 (In te speravi), expressive of sadness, would come in Matins, while the mysteries speak of joy and happiness. Martin de Azpilcueta, known as the Doctor of Navarre, also remarks that while Ouignonez laid great stress on Holy Scripture, sup- pressed legends without sufficient reason, avoided the 9 130 The Roman Breviary confusion caused by the transference of feasts, pro- cured more time of study for students, he yet cut out things of great importance on insufficient grounds. The most decided and energetic condemnation of this Breviary came from the Spanish theologian John de Arze, one of the consultors at the Council of Trent, whom we have already mentioned. Like the Sorbonne and Soto, he finds fault with Quignonez for having rashly departed from ecclesiastical tradition and gone against the express decrees of the Holy See. The chief end of the Breviary is prayer and not instruction. To speak of brevity and convenience of arrangement, is only to cast dishonour upon the clergy and scandalize the laity, by reducing the daily obligations of the former while their incomes are increased. It is well known that those of the clergy who are most zealous and active in the cure of souls, in study, or in teaching, can yet find sufficient time for prayer, and experience great spiritual joy in reciting the anti- phons, chapters, etc. To adopt this Breviary officially and universally would be to strip the divine office of its character as a witness to dogma which it has en- joyed from the earliest times. Finally, Quignonez is too severe in his criticisms on the legends, and, out of rationalistic zeal, has suppressed everything approach- ing the supernatural. It may cause some astonishment to find a work approved of by the Holy See criticized in this style. but the terms in which Paul III. explained his in- From Fozcrteenth to Sixteenth Century 131 tentions must not be left out of sight. "We grant," he says, "to each and all of the secular clerks and clergy who shall desire to recite this office, and to them alone, 1 to be no longer bound to the recitation of the ancient office now in use in the Roman Curia or in any other church. . . . Each of them is bound to obtain special leave from the Apostolic See to this effect." Expressions such as these are far from a formal approbation. Moreover, Quignonez, far from sheltering himself under this pronouncement, did not disdain to defend his Breviary against the Faculte de Paris, granting that it was a book like any other and must submit to public criticism ; this is the substance of the preface to the new edition of 1536. In spite of the enthusiasm with which the work was hailed at first, it did not live ; it had a run of less than forty years. Even in 1558, Paul IV., with- out condemning its provisional employment, decided it was undesirable to authorize it to be reprinted. Still, by the reception given to it, this Breviary indirectly prepared the way for the later reform carried out by St. Pius V. The Breviarium Planum could not have replaced so easily the local Breviaries of various countries, provinces, dioceses, and mona- 1 It is plain from this, says Dom Gueranger {Institut. litur- giques, i. p. 363, note), that Rome feared to do anything to relax the religious orders by allowing them to adopt this shortened office, and so to overthrow the ancient traditions more faithfully preserved in the cloister than elsewhere. 132 The Roman Breviary steries, many of which could claim the presumption of an antiquity from three to five centuries, had not the forma brevis et expedita of Quignonez's office already supplanted them. But we must reserve for the third part the explanation of the manner in which the Breviarium Sanctce Cruets paved the way for the reform which followed immediately upon the Council of Trent. Part III THE MODERN PERIOD In the modern period of the Breviary's history, it is the Church herself who undertook the work of reforma- tion, and one of the chief results of the holy Council of Trent was to have set on foot the movement towards the unification of the divine office. Not- withstanding all that was done to render further correction unnecessary, it was not long before it was felt and stated that this Breviary still left something to be desired, and the successors of St. Pius V. made no difficulty in yielding to the requests for improve- ment addressed to them. Perhaps Urban VIII. went too far in his corrections, but he was soon to be surpassed by others. Without troubling themselves to obtain the consent of the supreme authority, local churches, and among them nearly all the dioceses of France, thought fit to try their hand at reforming the Breviary, to the detriment of the unity of the faith. The pontifical authority, while deploring these mistaken attempts, was nevertheless alive to the importance of questions i33 134 The Roman Breviary relating to the reform of the Breviary, and sought for means whereby to satisfy all reasonable objections. Until the present time, nothing has ever gone beyond the stage of mere suggestions ; the church, in the wise deliberation characteristic of her, has not thought fit to carry them out. She has rested satisfied with modifications in matters of detail, while at the same time continuing to enrich the calendar by adding fresh saints' days. In order the better to follow the stages in this period of the Breviary's history, we shall divide it into three chapters: — (i) The Council of Trent and the Breviary of St. Pius V. ; (2) The Roman Breviary from St. Pius V. to the end of the eighteenth century; (3) The Roman Breviary in the nineteenth century. In an appendix will be given a bird's-eye view of the changes which the Roman calendar has undergone in the past. CHAPTER I THE COUNCIL OF TRENT AND THE BREVIARY OF ST. PIUS V. Section i. — Preparation for the Reforma- tion of the Breviary i Quignonez .- 1 — At the end of the second part of this book we have seen the fate of Cardinal Quignonez's work. Notwithstanding the enthusiasm with which it had been hailed in certain quarters, it could not hold its own, for, as Dom Gueranger remarks, it lacked the conditions essential to all serious reforma- tion of the liturgy, "(i) A liturgical formula drawn up to satisfy the requirements of literary pretensions can never last ; (2) the reformation of the liturgy, if it is to last, must be effected, not by the learned, but by the pious, and those endowed with competent authority; (3) novelties must be avoided: wherever the ancient formulas have become defective, they must be restored to their original purity, not 1 [The text of the second recension of Cardinal Quignonez's Breviary was published in 1908 by the Henry Bradshaw Society.] 135 136 The Roman Breviary destroyed ; (4) to shorten the office is not the same thing as to reform it, as its length is no defect in the eyes of those who are bound to live a life of prayer ; (5) the reading of a quantity of Holy Scripture in the office does not constitute the whole of a priest's obligation with regard to prayer ; (6) there is no real distinction between the public and private office, for there are not two formulas of official prayer in the church : a cleric, when absent with good reason from choir, is still bound to unite with his brethren in reciting the office which they are singing in union with him." l We have only to see how the Gallicans of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were influenced by Quignonez, and adopted his ideas, to understand how the Breviarium Sa)ictce Cruris paved the way for a dangerous individualism. 2 This is not to be taken as meaning that all his ideas were to be rejected. The Spanish theologian, John de Arze, when criticizing the work, recognized that there were points to be recommended in the Cardinal's proposal. The statement addressed to the Council of Trent with a view to the revision of the Breviary, and, later on, the report of the com- mission institued by Pius IV. and Pius V., express in 1 Dom Gueranger, Institutions liturgiques, i. pp. 378, 379, ed. Palme, 1880. 2 Batiffol, History of the Roman Breviary ', Eng. ed., p. 248, speaks of " the affinities, unrealized but only too real, which sub- sisted between the work of Quignonez and the spirit of the Reformation.'" The Breviary of St. Puis V. 137 different terms what Quignonez had said at the commencement and conclusion of his letter to Paul III. We cannot delay over the remarks of John de Arze, "and if there were others [of his criticisms] less well-founded, or which prove nothing by trying to prove too much ; if it is true that some of his considerations are pushed too far in the direction of declamatory vehemence, there are, on the other hand, some pages of his memorandum which are characterized by a simple and lively eloquence." l The publication of this Breviary was the means of hastening on a reform which everyone regarded as necessary. John de Arze laid down the broad lines on which this reform should proceed when he ex- pressed the desire that at a future date the rubrics should be made clearer, the entire arrangement of the Breviary simplified, the legends and also the Sunday and ferial offices revised, and the lections taken from Holy Scripture. On the other hand, he desired that all the essential parts of the ordo officii hitherto followed should be preserved, that the work should be undertaken by experts who were both learned and pious, and should be carried out with deliberation. 2. The Theatines and Caraffa : — The men for the work had already been found : in the silence of their cells they had before this commenced a work, with the blessing of the sovereign pontiff, which was later 1 Batiffol, History of the Roma?t Breviary, Eng. ed., p. 246. 138 The Roman Breviary on to serve as the basis for the projected reform. Alongside the projects of Ferreri and Quignonez, another attempt of a similar nature took shape under the patronage of Pope Clement VII. (1 523-1 534). The pope had given order to the founder of the congregation of the Theatines, St. Cajetan of Theate, and his fellow-worker John Peter Caraffa (the future Paul IV.), to draw up a plan for the improvement of the Breviary. The brief is dated 20th February 1529, an earlier brief, of 24th June 1524, grant- ing the Theatines permission to use in choir and in private recitation the Breviary as corrected by themselves, in order to discover by practical ex- perience which alterations were suitable and which were not. The result of their labours, in which Caraffa took the chief part, led to the rejection of the homilies of Origen and others of a similar character, the drawing up of new and clearer rubrics, the elucidation of the obscure rubrics concerning Advent, the notable shortening of Sunday Prime, It was especially laid down that when another office came on Sunday, the commemoration of the Sunday was never to be omitted. Finally, Caraffa selected homilies of St. Leo the Great for the two offices of the Holy Cross, allotted the sermon of St. Ambrose, taken from the second book of De Virginibus, for St. Agnes, and an abridged account of the martyrdom of St. Thomas a Becket for the office of that Saint, and replaced the The Breviary of St. Pius V. 139 hymns for the Transfiguration and Trinity Sunday by better ones. 1 The work was attended by many difficulties, chiefly due to the hesitation of Clement VII., who, under the circumstances, was always ready to listen to fresh advice before coming to a decision. The authors of the reform were inspired with fresh courage when Clement VII. was succeeded first by Paul III., in whose pontificate appeared the Breviarium Sanctce Cruets, and then by Julius III., from whom Caraffa, whose patience was worn out by these delays, asked to be dispensed from the ancient office, in order to become familiar with the Breviary of Quignonez. This, however, seems highly improbable: it would be nearer the mark to imagine that, along with the petition to be dispensed from the ancient Breviary, he coupled the request for permission to use either his his own work or a copy corrected by himself. When Caraffa became pope, under the name of Paul IV. (1555-1559)) he resumed his labours with the aid of faithful advisers, and, combining practice with theory, recited his reformed office along with them in his private chapel. Soon after his coronation, he forbade the ecclesiastical authorities in Rome and the nuncios abroad to grant leave for the recitation of Quignonez's Breviary, and indeed from this date, 1556, no new edition of the Breviarium Sanctce 1 Cf. the Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandists for August, ii., die 7, n. 50. 140 The Roman Breviary Cruris appeared at Rome. Paul IV. died before the completion and publication of his reformed Breviary, but an act of his regarding the calendar may be mentioned here. On the 14th January 1558 he decreed in a solemn consistory, in consequence of a report presented by Cardinal Sirleto, that from hence- forth the St. Peter's chair at Rome should be celebrated on the 18th January as well as the other feast of St. Peter's chair kept on the 22nd February. The former feast had been already in existence, as it is mentioned in MSS. of the eighth and even of the seventh centuries, and the learned have long sought, but without success, an explanation of the existence of two solemnities with the same name — Cathedra Sancti Petri} 1 Little importance is now paid to the words in Ant 'ioc/u'a, added to the notice on the 22nd Feb., although they are in the Martyrology : they were only added at the beginning of the eighth century when people were beginning to forget the reasons which had led to the establishment of the double solemnity. Stevenson and de Rossi think that the feast of the 18th Jan. commemorates an historical event, i.e. the arrival of St. Peter in Rome, while that of the 22nd Feb. commemorates the bestowal of the Primacy on St. Peter by Jesus Christ, which descended as a heritage to the Roman pontiffs. Mgr. Duchesne {Origifies du Culte chretien^ pp. 267-268) expresses the opinion " que la fete du 22 fevrier tombait souvent en careme et comme dans les pays gallicans on estimait Inobservance quadrajesimale incompatible avec les solemnites en Thonneur des saints, on se tira de cette difficulte en avancant la fete au 18 Janvier." In this case the two solemnities would commemorate the same event ; and after the disappearance of Gallican ideas as to Lent, they were both con- tinued. \Cf. Kellners Heortology (Eng. trans.)) pp. 301 et seqq."] The Breviary of St. Pitts V. 141 3. The Council of Trent: — The holy Council, in view of the circumstances just alluded to, could not pass over the question of the Breviary, especially as it was necessarily bound up with the correction of the missal. Nevertheless, it was only at the con- clusion of its sittings that it considered the matter in detail (1 562-1 563). At the German court, under Ferdinand I., successor of Charles V., a plan for the reform of the Breviary had been drawn up for presentation to the Council. After finding fault with Pope Paul IV., who had confined his attention to some saints' days alone, although he had promised an extensive reform, the authors of this document demanded emphatically " greater piety and devotion in the celebration of the divine office in the first place, and then a searching examination and correction of the Breviary." Above all, " everything unsuitable and apocryphal which had crept in must be cut out ; prayers of great length are to be curtailed and reduced in number. It would be better to recite only five psalms with devotion and pleasure, than the whole psalter with dislike and fatigue " (cf. Martene et Durand, Veterum scriptorum .... collectio, viii., 1426). Fortunate times, when secular princes made it their aim to ensure the worthy celebration of the divine office, and considered they could render no greater benefit to their people than by obtaining for them the blessing of a devoutly recited form of prayer ! The legates did not present this document to the Council 142 The Roman Breviary exactly as they received it, but they made extracts from it to serve as a basis for further deliberations. The imperial envoys were informed that the revision of the Breviary would be submitted to the Commission of the Index, but it must not be anticipated that the traditional rite followed by the Roman church since Gregory VII. would be set aside, or that the office would be lessened by the diminution of the Pensunt servitutis imposed upon the clergy. 1 The French court, on its part (Charles IX. or his mother and the States General), made representations to the Council of Trent through the Cardinal of Lor- raine, Charles de Guise, who strongly insisted upon the necessity of purifying divine service, cutting off superstitions, and submitting the prayers and cere- monies to a revision. St. Charles Borromeo presented to the legates a promemoria from the Spanish bishop of Huesca, coupled with an order to summon the author to Trent in order to discuss with him the measures to be taken. This bishop had complained of the substitution of Ouignonez's Breviary for the Roman in many Spanish churches. The legates soon set to work, and on the 23rd November following (1562) sent to Pope Pius IV. and his Secretary of State, Cardinal Charles Borromeo, the draft of a decree which was well received at Rome. They received an answer that they were to continue their labours until the matter was completed. How- 1 Letter of St. Charles Borromeo to the legates, 7th Nov. 1562. The Breviary of St. Pius V. 143 ever, heated debates on the primacy of the pope and the source of episcopal jurisdiction led to the question of the Breviary being postponed for a time. It came up again in the middle of 1563, and a commission for the revision of the divine office was appointed, which took as a basis the work of Paul IV. We have no details concerning this commission, and it is probable it was none other than the Commission of the Index — a supposition which receives support from the fact that among those who worked at the correction of the Breviary in Rome we find three belonging to the Commission of the Index, i.e. the Dominican Leonardo Marini of Genoa, Archbishop of Lanciano, afterwards Bishop of Albe ; Muzio Calinio, Archbishop of Zara, one of the most energetic members of the Council ; Egidio Foscarari, a Domini- can, born at Bologna, Bishop of Modena, where for a time he was unjustly imprisoned for heresy, a man remarkable for his charity. Along with these there appears an Englishman, Thomas Goldwell, Bishop of St. Asaph, who must not be confused with the monk of the same name ; he belonged to the congregation of the Theatines, was appointed Bishop of St. Asaph, and deprived of his diocese under Queen Elizabeth ; after the Council of Trent he was Vicar-general of St. Charles at Milan, papal master of ceremonies, and, finally, under Gregory XIII., took an active part in the revision of the Martyrology. Before the commission had finished its labours, 144 The Roman Breviary two currents of opinion relating to liturgical reforms had shown themselves in the Council — some desiring complete uniformity throughout the whole church, others giving preference to the diocesan rites, and pre- pared to recognize them as privileged. In view of the impossibility of arriving at an understanding and of the necessity of proceeding calmly in a matter of such importance, the Council, in its twenty-fifth session, decided to refer the matter to the judgement of the Roman pontiff, after sending him the Acts relating to the question. 1 This decision was not arrived at without, indeed, meeting with much opposition, but the majority of the Fathers wisely judged that as it was a question of revising and correcting the liturgy, Rome was the only place where this work could be carried out, since all were agreed that the Roman liturgy had precedence of all others, and was to serve as the type and rule for all the countries of the West. Section 2.— The Reform of the Breviary carried out I. The Roman Commission and its Labours. 1. The bull of St. Pius V., Quod a nobis, states that Pius IV., having received the Acts of the Commission of the Breviary (towards the close of 1563), summoned the commission to Rome and added to it some new 1 Deer eta SS. Concilii Tride?itini, sess. xxv., de Reformatione : De Indice . . . Breviario. The Breviary of St. Puts V. 145 members — who they were still remains uncertain. Pius IV. died in 1565. Pius V., who succeeded, con- firmed the commission in all its powers, and added some more members, concerning whom we have only the vaguest details. We shall set down all that is known about the seven or eight individuals who worked on the commission in company with the four prelates from Trent mentioned above. These were the Cardinal of Trani; Bernardino Scotto (or Scotti), Theatine, Bishop of Piacenza, who seems to have been president of the congregation, at least for part of the time ; Sirleto, one of the most learned men of the Roman curia, the life and soul of the commission, and its president in the absence of Scotto; the elegant Latinist, Julius Poggiani, who worked at the literary composition of most of the legends; Curtius de' Franchi, Canon of St. Peter's; Vincent Masso, Theatine, celebrated for his knowledge of church history ; Messer Accurzio, about whom we know nothing definite ; Antony Carafifa, born at Naples, nephew of Paul IV., created cardinal by Pius V., protector of the Olivetans, among whom he revived the taste for scientific studies, and restored the practice of regular discipline ; Ponce de Leon, who, although he took no actual part in the deliberations of the commission, was of great use to its members by his correspondence with Sirleto. It was he who suggested in particular — (a) that special notice should be taken of all the saints mentioned in the canon of the Mass, 10 146 The Roman Breviary of the Greek and Latin doctors, of all founders of religious orders, of the two princes of scholasticism, SS. Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure, and also of certain Spanish saints, such as St. Isidore and his brothers, St. Leander and St. Fulgentius ; (6) that in the proper de tempore the lections should as a rule be taken from Holy Scripture, with the indication of the book from which they are taken ; (c) that care should be taken to point out the work or sermon from which the lections drawn from the homilies and sermons of the Fathers are taken. He emphasized certain critical difficulties in the offices of St. Catharine, of St. Simon the Apostle — often confused with St. Simeon, first Bishop of Jerusalem — of the two Apostles James, and of St. Cyprian. Eleven or twelve members thus took part in the work of revising the Breviary accomplished in Rome. 2. It is impossible to describe these labours in detail ; it is sufficient to point out the principles which underlay them, and the general lines forming the method upon which they were carried on, and for this three documents are of primal importance, i.e. the Breviary itself, as published in 1568; the bull Quod a nobis, which forms the preface to all the editions at the commencement of the volume for the winter quarter ; and an Italian report, or promemoria, in the form of a letter written by a member of the com- mission, probably Marini, Archbishop of Lanciano, and addressed to one of the cardinals. The Breviary of St. Puts V. 147 The ruling principle is an idea diametrically opposed to that of Quignonez — no essential part of the ancient Roman Breviary is to be expunged. Their object was not to create a new Breviary, but to restore that already in existence to its primitive condition, having regard at the same time to altered circumstances ; there ought to be no difference between the text of the public office and the office recited in private, for the office is always to be recited by the priest in the name and by the authority of the church, and as the representative of the Christian people, humanity, and the whole creation — it is still essentially a public office even though the priest or religious recites it in the silence of his cell. Thus alone can the continuity of the liturgical tradition of Christianity be preserved free from essential alteration, while allowing for the development and progress necessary in every living body. Such was the principle to which the com- mission constantly return, as may be seen by the numerous statements of its president, Sirleto; it was this which moved them to examine the oldest MSS., to study the printed editions of the most important antiphonaries, breviaries, psalters, lectionaries, re- sponsories, hymnaries, sacramentaries, and ordines belonging to the Roman churches and the Vatican library. These were taken as the basis of the cor- rections introduced, while the rite as regulated by recent canons was never set aside. As we have seen when describing the contents of 148 The Roman Breviary the new Breviary, the commission turned its attention to the correction of the legends of the saints in the second nocturn. It made a very judicious selection of passages taken from the works of the Fathers, and showed great reserve in admitting festivals of saints, in order to avoid too great reduction of the Sunday and ferial office. The commission did not feel bound to accept all Caraffa's preliminary labours, as we can see from its appointing a new legend for the office of St. Agnes. II. The Publication of the new Breviary. 1. The bull Quod a nobis, dated 9th July 1568, is to be found in all editions of the Breviary, usually at the commencement of the volume for the winter quarter. It states in substance the reasons which moved Rome to undertake the publication of an official text of the church's public prayer, the labours expended on its correction, and entirely withdraws the authorization accorded to the Breviary of Quig- nonez and to every other Breviary which cannot plead an existence of two centuries in its favour, or an express approbation of the Holy See. In the case of churches who have truly ancient customs of their own, freedom is given to the bishop and chapter to adopt the new Breviary by common consent. All other churches must adopt the Breviary of Pius V. within a certain period ; i.e. in Rome, one month after publi- cation ; in the rest of Italy, at the end of three months ; The Breviary of St. Pitts V. 149 in other Catholic countries, at the end of six months. The regulations relating to the manner of promulgation, authorization for printing, and the prohibition of all alterations follow. 2. The contents and arrangement of the new Breviary: — The preliminary pages indicate how to calculate beforehand the date of Easter and the other festivals dependent thereon ; the same tables serve also for determining the date of events in the past. The corrections in the computations in the calendar and in the astronomical calculations were not happy ; the error due to the calculation of the lunar cycle had led to misplacing the golden numbers and the ad- ditional day in leap year, but the attempt to remedy this by altering the golden number only made matters worse; no notice was taken of the fact that the Julian year was about ten days behind. These mis- takes soon disappeared (1582) after the reform of the calendar by Gregory XIII. (A) The calendar follows. — Allowance was made for the ferial office in order that it might be possible to recite more frequently the psalter in the course of a week. Dom Gueranger thinks it was desired to leave days free for new saints in the future ; in the new calendar, as a matter of fact, half the year is left free for (1) feasts of our Lord: Christmas, Circumcision, Epiphany, Passion Week and Holy Week, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, and Corpus Christi, with their octaves and vigils ; (2) the feast of 150 The Roman Breviary the Holy Cross, Transfiguration, Dedication of the Church, and for the offices of Sunday and the feria ; the other half of the year was left for festivals of our Lady and the saints. There were about sixty doubles, comprising the mysteries celebrated in honour of our Lady — the same as at present, with the exception of the Presentation in the Temple — the festivals of apostles and evangelists, and those of other saints, which were not so numerous as at the present day. Certain feasts, such as those of St. Joachim, St. Francis of Paula, St. Bernardine, St. Antony of Padua, St. Louis of Toulouse, were entirely suppressed, while others were reduced from being doubles or semi- doubles to a lower rank, or merely commemorated, such as St. Nicholas, St. Thomas a Becket, St. Hilary, St. Bonaventure, and others now no longer in existence. There were from thirty to forty semi-doubles, and thirty-three commemorations or feasts and simple offices ; some of these latter were placed on days when the festival of another saint was celebrated, as, for example, the commemoration of St. Mennas, martyr, comes on St. Martin's day, the nth November. On the other hand, certain festivals, as the Nativity and Assumption of our Blessed Lady, the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, the festivals of SS. Peter and Paul, St. Lawrence, and All Saints had an octave, during part of which the festival of no other saint was celebrated. For the simple feasts The Breviary of St. Pius V. 151 and offices, the office was taken principally from the psalter, one or two lections taken from the life of the saint were read, and a prayer was recited in his honour. In this manner more than two hundred days in the year were kept clear for the ferial office. Care was taken that the offices for saints' days, usually con- sisting of only the lections of the second nocturn, should have no proper hymns or antiphons of their own. In some editions of the Breviary of St. Pius V., the calendar was placed after the general rubrics, but it now precedes in all editions. (B) The general rubrics were at that time a novelty, for the old Breviaries had no such detailed instruc- tions embracing the whole office : they were framed after a Directorium officii, published in 1540 by an Observantine called Louis Ciconiolano, and approved by Paul III. After their insertion in the Breviary, they were corrected and added to under Clement VIII. and Urban VIII. (1623 -1644), and under Leo XIII. they were modified as far as concerns the transference of feasts and the weekly votive offices ad libitum] with these exceptions they remain as they were in 1568. " It is a unique fact in the history of legislation," says Dom Gueranger, " that, during the three centuries since the establishment in Rome of the tribunal known as the Congregation of Rites for solv- ing difficulties arising from the rubrics of both the Breviary and Missal, after more than six thousand 152 The Roman Breviary consultations and answers have been printed, the judges should never once have deviated from the text of the law in their decisions." ! In thirty-seven sections, the rubrics of the Breviary deal with the office in general, and of the different ranks of festivals, of its parts, i.e. the canonical hours of which it is composed, and then of the constituent part of the hours themselves. We beg leave to make here a short digression with regard to the different rank of festivals, sufficient being said elsewhere in the course of this little book about the different parts of the hours and their constituent elements. It was about the beginning of the eighth century that, owing to the increase of saints' days, a distinction was made as to the degree of solemnity with which they were to be celebrated. The majority were merely mentioned in the reading of the Martyrology at Prime ; others were commemorated at Vespers and in the Night Office ; others, again, regarded as "simples," had one or two lections taken from the saint's life, a collect, and some antiphons and hymns ; the more important had an office of their own, which was either a " semi-double n or a "double." About the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries, the custom arose at Rome and elsewhere of celebrating " simple " feasts as " semi-doubles, ,; i.e. they were provided with nine lections and three nocturns, and, in the case of their concurrence with other festivals of a higher rank, they were transferred 1 Institutions liturgiques^ i. pp. 371-372. The Breviary of St. Phis V. 153 to the first free day, and even from one year to an- other. The Breviarium Pianum remedied this awkward arrangement by suppressing or reducing to a lower rank, as we have said, a certain number of feasts, and secondly, by deciding that "simples" should not be transferred, but that their office should by preference be that of the feria, as it stands in the psalter, and that their lections should be taken from the life of the saint, and, above all, from Holy Scripture. This arrangement still holds good, as may be seen from the general rubrics (Nos. 3 and 26). The chief reason which, before the Council of Trent, had led to the increase of doubles or semi-doubles over simples was that, when the office for the day was ferial or simple,, there had to be added to it the office of the dead, the little office of our Lady, and on certain days the seven penitential or the fifteen gradual psalms as well, along with a large number of additional prayers. 1 In order not to increase the amount of the office through the establishment of the ferial and simple offices, it was decided to suppress these accessory additions as of obligation. They still remained in the new Breviary to be said according to devotion, or as of obligation under certain circum- stances in choro, as in monasteries and cathedral chapters, but only on the first free day in each month, on the Mondays in Advent and Lent, on certain Vigils and in Embertide (see the general rubrics, 1 See above, p. 105. 154 The Roman Breviary No. 37, and the special rubrics prefixed to these offices at the end of the Roman Breviary). The lengthy ferial prayers were no longer to be recited at either the Little Hours or Matins, but only at Lauds, Vespers, and Prime during Advent and Lent, on vigils and in Embertide. Compline, Terce, Sext, and None had only two versicles, with the Pater Noster (with the Creed in addition at Compline), as prayers when the office was simple (see the general rubrics, No. 34). Another change for the better had to do with the octaves, which, since the thirteenth century, had enormously increased. The Breviarium Pianum suppressed the octaves belonging to festivals of Franciscan Saints — St. Francis, St. Clare, St. Antony of Padua, St. Bernardine, St. Louis of Toulouse ; those of the Conception of our Lady and the Visitation, on account of Advent, and the octave of SS. Peter and Paul. It then laid down the following rule : — (a) For feasts of our Lord, the octaves of Easter and Pentecost were specially privileged, to the exclusion of all other festivals ; the octaves of Christmas, Epiphany, Corpus Christ! were simply privileged, only allowing of the celebra- tion within them of a festival of high rank — that of the Epiphany excludes these festivals, with the exception of the festival of the Patron Saint, by authorization of the Holy See ; finally, the octave of the Ascension was simple or not privileged. The eighth day was to be kept as a double, provided no The Bi-cviary of St. Phis V. 155 special mystery was commemorated on it such as the Circumcision or the Holy Trinity. The Sunday falling within the octave was to be kept as a semi- double with a collect, versicles, and antiphons to the Magnificat and Benedictus, a homily on the gospel, chapters at the Little Hours, special lections at the first and second nocturns. The six days within the octave were to be celebrated as semi-doubles or simples, sometimes, when privileged, to the exclusion of other festivals, and only allowing memorials from the fourth day onwards, sometimes only yielding precedence to feasts of the first and second class, as, for example, the octave of the Ascension. (b) For festivals of saints with an octave, it was allowable during the octave to celebrate an office of the rank of a double with a commemoration of the octave ; the eighth day was to be a double, and the Sunday within the octave was to have neither prayers or suffrages ; there were to be no octaves in Lent. Generally speaking, Sundays were to be kept as semi-doubles, but would give place to a double, except that a memorial of the Sunday was always to be made in such a case. The Sundays in Advent and from Septuagesima to Low Sunday inclusive were to be privileged, and so not give place to festivals of the rank of doubles (see general rubrics, Nos. 4 and 7). One point of interest in connection with the general rubrics (Nos. 13, 15, 16, 17) may be noticed here: the Ave Maria appears for the first time with the addition 156 The Roman Breviary Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis, etc. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, only the first part, ending with fructus ventris tui, was recited ; in the fifteenth century the word Jesus was added, and it was in this form that the Benedictines of Lorraine, in 1503, decided to add the angelic salutation to the Pater Noster at all the canonical hours. The form now in use is found in some Breviaries, at least in France, from the beginning of the sixteenth or end of the fifteenth century. St. Pius V. gave it official sanction, and imposed its recitation upon the whole church at the beginning and end of the divine office and at the beginning of the Little Hours and Vespers. C. The psalter was little altered either in text or arrangement in the Breviary of St. Pius V. The ancient distribution is maintained except in the case of Prime ; every Sunday, before the psalm Beati Immaculati (118) six other psalms were said, i.e. psalms 21-25, and 117 Confitemini. 1 From henceforth these psalms were to be distributed over the first five days of the week, one for each day (see the Roman Breviary ; Dominica ad Primam and hi feriali officio ad Primam). As regards the text, 2 or version of the psalms, the Psalterium Gallicanum was in general use, while the Psalterium Romanian was used in St Peter's, in St. Mark's at Venice, and at Milan ; the older version 1 See above, p. 66. 2 See above, pp 62 seq. The Breviary of St. Pius V. 157 still supplied the words for the antiphons and responds, because of the difficulty which a change of words would have caused to the musical setting. By the express desire of Pius V., the commission marked the accented syllables with an accent, in order to prevent mispronunciation of the Latin. D. The Proper " de Tempore" : — The liturgical year preserves its essential arrangement and character in the Breviarium Planum. Three great cycles are dis- tinguishable : (1) Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany; (2) around Easter are grouped the mysteries which precede and follow this great feast, from Septuagesima to the octave of the Ascension; (3) lastly, Pentecost, with the festivals immediately following, and the intervening season extending to Advent. The litur- gical weeks and days are in the same order as in the older Breviaries. The chief alteration is in the lections from Scripture, legends, and homilies. (a) Holy Scripture : — Attention is given to the principal desire of Quignonez — Matins are never recited without a lection from Scripture, either from the Old or New Testament. In the offices with nine lections, the three first are taken from Holy Scripture, and are either proper to the feast, or from the com- mon, or from those appointed for the day : in the last case the lections are said to be taken de Scriptura occurrente. In the offices with three lections, ex- cepting greater ferias and the days of Easter and Pentecost which have a gospel and homily of their 158 The Roman Breviary own, these lections, or the two first at any rate, are still taken from Scripture. The order observed in the reading of the books of the Bible, agreeing with the prescriptions of the Corpus juris canonici, is maintained, and so the book of Genesis is commenced on Septuagesima Sunday. " It was only the books of Paralipomenon, 1 Esdras, and Baruch," says Dom Gueranger, 2 " which found no place, but the choice of passages to be read was made with so much taste and precision that, on the whole, they may be said to give quite as good a view of the Holy Scriptures as that given in the Breviarium Sanctce Cruris, which professed to read the Bible through in the course of the year — a profession, however, which it did not fulfil." The variations as regards Easter caused the Sundays between Epiphany and Septuagesima, and between Pentecost and Advent, to vary in number ; an office was then drawn up for several Sundays, which can be inserted when required before Septuagesima or Advent by inserting in the first nocturn either the continuation of St. Paul's epistles, or the continua- tion of the Prophets — these Sundays being called " intercalary/' The double recitation of Matins for one and the same feast, in cases where it may still have remained in force, was now definitely suppressed. (/3) The Legends : — It is here that the most striking 1 They are used, however, in the office for the Dedication. 2 Institut. liturgiques, i. p. 416. The Breviary of St. Phis V. 159 changes were effected. While the commission did not succeed in eliminating every passage to which the better instructed historical criticism of succeeding ages could take exception, still many apocryphal stories were cut out. After earnest deliberation, it was decided to select from the biographies of the saints and other sources only the most authentic and characteristic passages, and to recast them in a more suitable form. The commission did not feel bound to give the names of the authors of these biographies or relations, except when they are taken from the writings of St. Jerome and St. Gregory the Great, considering the name of the pope under whom the Breviary was published sufficient guarantee ; it was not until later, in the reign of Clement VIII., that the sources from which the legends are drawn were more particularly specified. Quignonez had helped to throw light on the legends of the saints, and the commission of Pius IV. and Pius V. did not hesitate to avail themselves of the materials he had collected. Eighty-four of these legends were sub- jected to repeated examinations of considerable length, after having been carefully compared with these sources and corrected ; many were completely recast. The aim of the commissioners was to foster piety, to select the most edifying passages of the biographies, to give them a style at once liturgical and charac- teristic ; the legends were not to be too dry or monotonous, but sufficiently long and varied. ^Egidio 160 The .Roman Breviary Foscarari, Bishop of Modena, and the able Latinist Poggiano, succeeded in solving these problems. (y) Homilies and passages from the Fathers: — The old Breviaries had many homilies and sermons of the Fathers ; Paul IV. in his revision replaced by others such as seemed to him unsuitable; the commission felt satisfied with the work accomplished by this pope without making any further essential alteration. Dom Gueranger says that the selection has been made " generally with discretion. Although some passages are taken from works accounted apocryphal by modern criticism, it must be borne in mind that in those days the great and correct editions of the Fathers were not in existence. No fair-minded man would blame Baronius and Bellarmine for im- perfections of this kind found in their immortal works." l Dom Morin says the same when he states, in an article in the Revue Benedictine (1892, p. 270, Les lemons apocryphes du Breviaire romairi), that "at the time of St. Pius's reform the general aim was to sup- press everything in the Breviary not undoubtedly authentic," although the work admitted of improve- ment, and, as a matter of fact, was satisfactorily im- proved under the successors of St. Pius V., for " the magnificent editions of the Benedictines of St. Maur have classed as apocryphal only a comparatively small number of the passages admitted by Gavanti under Clement VIII." Unfortunately, "in most of 1 Institutions liturgiques, i. p. 416. The Breviary of St. Puts V. 161 the offices recently added to the Breviary the same amount of care does not seem to have been taken in choosing only such sermons and homilies as were admittedly authentic." Dom Morin brings forward several proofs in support of this last assertion, in which one may see an indirect homage paid to the Breviarium Planum. Further on we shall see the criticisms which have been made on this point. 3. It now remains for us to say a few words upon the advantages obtained by the publication of St. Pius. The Catholic world was not slow to recognize them — a chorus of satisfaction arose on all sides, and it was realized that the new Breviary put an end to the complaints which had been made regarding the state of disorder into which the office had fallen. The arrangement of the Breviary was considerably simpli- fied ; the psalter per hebdomadam, the office de tempore, and the readings from Holy Scripture, were better arranged; the selection of Scriptural lections and passages from the homilies might well pass as excellent, for, with a few exceptions, the homilies are the choicest passages from patristic literature, and the lections from Holy Scripture give an excellent abridgement of the book from which they are taken ; the hymns, antiphons, responds, versicles, and prayers are, save in some offices of recent date, essentially the same as those of the hymnaries, antiphonaries, psalters, responsories, and sacramentaries of the 1 1 1 62 The Roman Breviary eighth, ninth, and thirteenth centuries. 1 The new Breviary was thus conservative in tone, preserving the tradition of more than a thousand years, while satisfying to some extent the requirements of modern times. Certainly there are still some things which might be altered with advantage, such as the long Sunday office, so burdensome for priests occupied with the cure of souls, some legends which cannot stand the test of criticism, some passages from the writings of the Fathers which might have been chosen with more care ; but these, after all, are matters of detail ; as a whole, the work is excellent and has never been improved on. Such was the praise given to it in 1836 by the future Cardinal Newman, then a Protestant clergyman. " There is," he said, " so much of excellence and beauty in the services of the Breviary, that were it skilfully set before the Protestant by Roman controversialists as a book of devotions received in their communion, it would undoubtedly raise a prejudice in their favour, if he were ignorant of the circumstances of the case and but ordinarily candid and unprejudiced." 2 The bull authorizing the publication concludes with an express order to all and each of the patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, abbots, and other prelates to introduce this Breviary into their churches, and to remove all other Breviaries, even those established by 1 See Tommasi, Patr. Lat., lxxviii. 2 Tracts for the Times, No. 75 — The Roman Breviary, p. 1. The Breviary of St. Pius V. 163 their private authority, and commands them, as well as all other priests, clerics, seculars, and regulars upon whom has been imposed the obligation of reciting the divine office, to take care to recite it, both in choir and elsewhere, according to the form contained in this Breviary. The obligation to recite the Little Office of our Lady, and the office of the Dead, and the peni- tential and gradual psalms was confined to certain days, in order that the clergy might be more zealous in their recitation of the reformed Breviary, but indulgences are granted to those whose devotion moves them to continue these practices; these additional offices and prayers form a supplement to the new work. " Rome," concludes Dom Gueranger, " could not have applied a more efficacious or wise remedy to the evil of liturgical anarchy." l III. The Reception accorded to the New Breviary. As soon as the Breviarium Planum was published, the Sovereign Pontiff received from all sides ex- pressions of joy called forth by this reform ; every- where it was adopted without delay. Italy .-—All the churches in Rome adopted it at once ; the Vatican Basilica alone made some reserves by continuing the use of the ancient Italic psalter and offices of the canonized popes and other saints whose bodies are preserved within its walls. Among the religious orders, of which Rome is the common 1 Institutions liturgiques, i. p. 423. 164 The Roman Bi'eviary home, there were some who preserved the ancient form of the divine office, being able to plead a prescription not only of two hundred years, as the bull required, but of nearly a thousand years ; others, such as the mendicant orders, with the exception of the Dominicans and Carmelites, reformed their offices in accordance with the office of St. Pius V., which, in its turn, was nothing else than a purified edition of the Breviary of the Friars Minor ; the Franciscans and other branches of the order of St. Francis added the proper offices of the saints of their order, but the Capuchins refused to do this, in order to agree as closely as possible with the Roman office. The orders of Clerks Regular, under the powerful influence of the Theatines, without exception followed the new edition. The Jesuits, by the wish of their founder, were always to keep to the form of the office observed by the Roman Church, and other religious families of the same kind were led to follow their example by the nature of their constitution. Finally, the orders of Canons Regular — with the exception of the Premon- stratensians, whose office is a mixture of Roman and Parisian — hastened to accept the reformed liturgy everywhere. The orders of religious women followed suit. The church of Milan 1 was then ruled by St. Charles 1 For the Ambrosian rite see the article by P. Lejay, vi., Lannee liturgique, in the Dictiotmaire d Archeologie chretienne et de liturgique, i. 1393 et seqq. The Breviary of St. Pius V. 165 Borromeo, whose intercession on behalf of the Ambrosian liturgy was crowned with success. When the diocesan synod of Milan in 1568 declared in favour of maintaining this liturgy, St. Charles availed himself of the liberty allowed by the bull Quod a nobis, and undertook to revise and re-edit the service- books of the Ambrosian rite, and a commission was appointed to carry this into effect ; the calendar, psalter (Psalterium Romanum) and hymns were revised, and permission to make some changes was obtained from Rome. When, somewhat later, St. Charles obtained leave from Pope Gregory XIII. to introduce the Ambrosian rite into parts of the diocese where it had not hitherto been in use, he met with opposition in the two towns of Monza and Trevi, and an appeal against his action was even sent to Rome. Without being the least disturbed by this, St. Charles defended the customs of his church, and succeeded in obtain- ing the wished-for uniformity throughout his arch- diocese. The case of the church and province of Aquileia was not quite parallel, for the rite there in use was formed by a fusion of the Roman liturgy with a certain number of customs and texts taken from other liturgies. Some hesitation was felt about going to the expense of reprinting the Breviaries, which were much needed, and the patriarch accordingly asked and obtained permission from the Holy See to use the Roman Breviary, but only out of choir and until those 1 66 The Roman Breviary of the Aquileian rite should be reprinted ; they never were reprinted, and, ten years later, the Roman service-books were definitely adopted. The church of Como, subject to the patriarch of Aquileia although situated in the duchy of Milan, was shortly afterwards obliged to adopt the Roman rite by Pope Clement VIII.; this did not involve much difficulty, as the difference between the Roman and Aquileian Brevi- aries was insignificant. From these examples one sees that Rome knew how to proceed with caution in the application of the regulations of St. Pius V. in cases where ancient cus- toms were already in possession. The regulations of St. Pius were not slow in winning their way almost universally; every year saw some fresh church join the others in the adoption of one and the same Breviary. By the end of the sixteenth century the whole of Italy, except where the Ambrosian rite prevailed, had fallen in with the intention of the Holy See by adopting the liturgical customs of Rome. Spain : — The Spanish peninsula, in spite of the op- position of some cathedrals, followed suit; thanks to the expressed will of Philip II., who was full of zeal for the Catholic faith, Roman service-books found their way to the vast colonies which looked up to him as their ruler. By way of compensation, Gregory XIII. granted leave to the churches of Spain to cele- brate the feasts of a number of local Saints. Portugal followed the example of Spain, although in the church The Breviary of St. Pius V. 167 of Braga, then governed by Dom Bartholomew of the Martyrs, the metropolitan chapter opposed the intro- duction of the Roman Breviary, on the ground of the expense caused by the purchase of the new books. Then there were disputes as to the correct text of the Breviary in use, which had been tampered with by some of the suffragan bishops, and an appeal to Rome became necessary for leave to bring out a new edition ; the archbishop seized this opportunity for inserting passages taken from the new Roman Breviary,and thus, to some extent at least, bringing about its adoption. France : — At first the church of France worked in concert with the Holy See in bringing about liturgical uniformity within its boundaries. We have seen already what the University of Paris thought in the sixteenth century of liturgical innovations, and the reception it gave to the Breviary of Quignonez. When the Breviary and Missal of St. Pius V. appeared, the University, along with the whole French church, at once recognized their superiority over the service- books used within the kingdom, and provincial synods proclaimed the necessity of submitting to the bull Quod a nobis. At the Council of Rouen in 1 58 1 it was said that " the bishops must set about the printing and correction of the service-books of their different dioceses in agreement with the constitutions of Pius V. of holy memory concerning the Breviary and Missal published and revised in accordance with the decree of the Holy Council of Trent." This decree 1 68 The Roman Breviary was carried into effect as far as concerns Norman Breviaries printed at the close of the sixteenth century, as we see from those of Bayeux, Lisieux, Evreux, and Avranches, for, with the exception of the office of the Saints belonging to the diocese and a few other peculiarities, they entirely correspond to the existing Roman Breviary. The Council of Rheims in 1583 exhorted the bishops of the province to examine the Breviaries, Missals, and other service- books, and if they found them badly drawn up, or not altogether conformable to piety, to have them at once reformed and reprinted at the expense of the diocese, in accordance with the usage of the Roman Church, in obedience to the constitution of Pius V. The service-books of that date bear witness to the fidelity with which this rule was observed, especially in the dioceses of Amiens and Noyon. The Council of Bayeux, of the same date, decreed the adoption of the Breviary and Missal of St. Pius V. pure and simple, because of the scarceness of the diocesan books and because it would be too long and difficult a task to correct them ; it ordered the exclusive use of the Roman books both in public and private. This went beyond the directions of the Councils of Rouen and Rheims, which had at least preserved the name of the diocese at the head of their Breviaries, but in many places the Roman service-books were thus adopted pure and simple, to avoid confusion and expense. The bishops of the Council of Tours in 1583 had no The Breviary of St. Phis V. 169 doubt whatever as to the obligation of everywhere observing the constitution of St. Pius V., although up to that date there had been no sign of the promulga- tion, still less of the acceptance, of this bull in France, but they did not all set to work in exactly the same manner, for the bishops of Brittany gave up all their ancient customs, and even the proper of the Saints of each diocese, while the bishops of Tours, Le Mans, and Angers reprinted their Breviaries under the dio- cesan title, with the addition of the words " ad romani forniam" The Fathers of the Council of Bourges were of opinion that the liturgical reform carried out in Rome had reference to the whole West, although, as at Tours, they did not agree as to the manner of putting the pontifical decree into force. The pro- vincial council of Aix decided that, in order to make use of the books already in use, they should be cor- rected in accordance with the Roman rite, at the expense of the clergy of the diocese. At Toulouse, it was agreed that * for the establishment of perfect concord amongst Christians, the canonical hours were to be recited both publicly and privately according to the Roman Breviary." Finally, at Narbonne, the bishops expressly stated that they received the bull of St. Pius V. and declared it to be promulgated, draw- ing attention to the penalties therein laid upon all who reject it. " These eight provincial councils," says Dom Gu^ranger, 1 " include almost all France ; and the other 1 histitntions litur%iques, i. pp. 448-449. 170 The Roman Breviary provinces, without assembling in a council, adopted similar measures. Lyons preserved the essential characteristics of her own office, a mixture of Roman and Gallican ; Besangon kept the diocesan title at the head of her service-books, which contained many special customs ; Sens merely reformed her ancient books by aid of those of St. Pius V. ; Meaux and Chartres did the same ; Vienne retained her ancient Breviary, without bringing out even a reformed edition. " In Paris, from 1583 the Chapel Royal adopted the Breviary of St. Pius V. King Henry III., at the request of the Jesuits, granted leave to the Parisian printers to print the Breviary Romano- Planum, which the parliament had forbidden up to that time. The bishop, Pierre de Gondy, seized this as an opportunity for declaring his intention to introduce the Roman Breviary throughout his diocese ; the metropolitan chapter and the Sorbonne protested ; Gondy relin- quished his project, but the commission appointed by his predecessor for the correction of the ancient Parisian Breviary in accordance with that of St. Pius V. executed its task so successfully that the Roman Breviary of 1568 was almost entirely inserted into that of Paris. " Thus liturgical uniformity was re-established in France ; the manner in which it was brought to pass was so striking that there is no other instance of a papal constitution being regarded as of obligation in The Breviary of St. Pius V. 171 so large a number of councils. We see, too, that these councils even went beyond the limits of obedi- ence laid down by the Holy See itself. More than a third of our churches used a Breviary which was originally Roman, but had been for more than two centuries corrected and reformed by the diocesan authority. The bishops for the most part made no difficulty about adopting the new Breviary pure and simple ; some made no objection to its being printed almost altogether at the cost of the diocese. We know of scarcely another instance, besides Lyons, through- out the whole of France, where the ancient Breviary was retained, and even there some improvements were adopted from the new Roman book." England, Germany, and other Countries : — England had already separated from the communion of Rome when the reformed Breviary of Pius V. was published ; up to that time she had preserved her own liturgical formularies, derived from the three (or five) principal uses of Salisbury, York, Hereford, Bangor, and Lincoln. The Catholic priests and bishops who laboured on the English mission had been educated on the continent, where they had followed the Breviarium Pianum. In Germany, Mainz, Constance, Miinster, Prague, Spires, Trier, Worms, Wiirzburg still kept to their ancient Breviaries, but before long most of them adopted the Roman Breviary as it stood. The same thing happened in the dioceses of Osnabruck and 172 The Roman Breviary Minden, and in several of the dioceses of Hungary. Cologne corrected her own Breviary on the model of the new Roman book, and Trier and Mtinster followed suit. With regard to these adhesions as a whole, they can easily be divided into two classes : some churches availed themselves of the liberty given them, and brought their own Breviaries into closer conformity to the Roman by effecting certain alterations ; others simply adopted the Roman Breviary as it stood. Yet the second class of churches gradually felt the need of preserving certain diocesan customs, or of obtaining special offices for local Saints or specially venerated patrons. Accordingly, Rome soon began to receive from all the European countries, and from others still more distant, requests either for per- mission to have an office for some particular festival, or for the approbation of a proper of Saints belong- ing to the diocese, by way of supplement to the Breviarium Planum. Whenever these offices could plead the consecration of antiquity, and did not deviate from the Roman office to any great extent in their external form, or in the style and character of their legends, antiphons, hymns, responds, and prayers, approbation was readily accorded. The mere enumeration of these offices does not fall within the scope of a general history of the Breviary ; it is sufficient to draw attention to their existence. CHAPTER II THE ROMAN BREVIARY FROM ST. PIUS V. TO THE END OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY BEFORE long, the Breviarium Pianum underwent those alterations which the pontiff who authorised its publication seemed to dread ; of these alterations some were made with the consent of the popes, others crept in under cover of Gallican or Jansenist influences, while there was a third class consisting of alterations desired by the popes which never got beyond the stage of mere suggestions. We shall endeavour briefly to give an idea of all those in this chapter. Section i.— Alterations effected by the Popes in the Roman Breviary at the end of the Sixteenth and during the Seven- teenth Centuries i. Changes in some matters of detail immediately after St. Pius V. — Gregory XIII. made the following additions to the calendar: in 1573, he gave permis- sion for the celebration of a special festival of the 173 174 The Roman Breviary Holy Rosary in churches which had an altar of the Rosary, in thanksgiving for the victory of Lepanto; he also extended the feast of St. Anne to the universal church, at the suggestion of Cardinal Sirleto. But the most important work of Gregory XIII. was the reform of the Julian calendar, which he had himself proposed when cardinal at the Council of Trent ; by his orders a commission of experts was formed for this purpose, the most learned men in Italy, France, Germany, Poland, and Spain were consulted, and, all the information necessary for carrying out a scientific reform having been collected, the learned pope ordered the calendar known as the Gregorian to be introduced. Through his efforts another work, closely allied to the reform of the calendar and the recitation of the Breviary, was also achieved, i.e. the revision and correction of the Martyrology or extended calendar, containing notices of the festivals of the Christian year, to be read daily in choir at Prime, at least in monasteries and collegiate churches or cathedrals. 2. Under Sixtus V. and Gregory XIV. (1585- 1591) the calendar received further additions, a new edition of the Vulgate was set on foot, and also a revision of the Breviary itself, which was soon after- wards concluded under Clement VIII. The new festivals added under Sixtus V. were those of St. Francis of Paula (2nd April), St. Nicholas of Tolentino (10th September), St. Peter Martyr (29th St. Pitts V. to End of Eighteenth Century 175 April), St. Antony of Padua (13th June), St. Januarius and his companions (19th September), all doubles; St. Diego or Didacus (13th November), without specification as to rank ; we may also add the memorial of St. Placidus (5th October), the festival of the Stigmata of St Francis (17th September) extended to the universal church ; the title of Doctor conferred on St. Bonaventure (14th July), and the elevation of his festival to the rank of a double ; and, finally, the re-introduction of the festival of the Presentation of our Lady (21st November). Sixtus V. desired that in all parts of the Breviary the text of Scripture should be that of the Vulgate, which he had just published. It is well known that this important undertaking had been asked for by the Council of Trent ; since 1560 a commission had been appointed for this purpose and had at once commenced its labours, but the progress was slow, though pains- taking ; the length of time occupied in the work shows how difficult and arduous the task was. Cardinal Peretti (the future Sixtus V.) suggested to Gregory XIII., who agreed to the proposal, that a critical edition of the Greek text of the Septuagint should first be undertaken. On the conclusion of this work, the commission (henceforth called the Sixtine Com- mission, having had its powers confirmed by Sixtus V.) resumed its labours on the text of the Vulgate, with Cardinal CarafTa as president ; numerous MSS. were collated ; the text, as corrected, was presented 176 The Roman Breviary in 1589 to Pope Sixtus V., who revised it, gave his decision upon the passages which still remained uncertain, altered some of the readings decided upon, and published his bull JEternus giving an account of the scope and history of the new edition. In July 1590, it made its appearance in three volumes, shortly after the pope's death, but it was far from perfect, for full use had not been made of the labours of the commission, and, on the accession of Gregory XIV. it was necessary to resume once more the work of revision, using this time the Sixtine Bible as a basis. Bellarmine was called upon to give his advice, but it was not until the pontificate of Clement VIII. that a correct edition appeared, thanks to the assistance of the two Cardinals Valerio and Frederic Borromeo and of the Jesuit F. Toletus. There were still more than two hundred mistakes made in printing, and it was only in 1598 that a really correct text was published, and all further revision put an end to by the church. According to the bull of Clement VIII. (of the year 1592), printed at the beginning of our copies of the Vulgate, all liturgical texts, theological treatises and discussion must employ this text as the authorised version. To return to the labours of Sixtus V. in respect of the liturgy, it has been maintained, according to original documents of that date, that the revision of the Breviary, usually attributed to Clement VIII., was really initiated by Sixtus V. To him is due the St. Phis V. to End of Eighteenth Century 177 creation of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, 1588, which is entirely occupied with the oversight and maintenance of the liturgy. At once, upon its forma- tion, the pope charged its prefect Gesualdo to collect information from different Christian countries as to whether the service-books of St. Pius V., especially the Breviary, fulfilled all requirements, or were in need of some alterations. Gesualdo wrote in this sense to the nuncios in the different countries, but the exact date of these letters is not known. The measure was a wise one, for in the twenty years that the Breviarium Planum had been in use, it was possible to discover if further changes were required, and at the same time due respect was shown to the legitimate wishes of local churches, in accordance with the views of St. Gregory the Great and St. Pius V. During 1588 and 1589 answers were received from Naples, Vercelli, Leon, etc., and the nuncios at Paris, Prague, Cracow, Venice, Turin, Madrid, Lisbon sent in numerous observations, for the most part reason- able and moderate. These answers were submitted under Clement VIII. to the commission of 1592, of which Cardinal Baronius was the moving spirit. Up to the present time nothing has come to light to show what action Sixtus V. took upon receipt of these letters, but perhaps the Vatican archives will one day yield information on this point ; probably the pope, who was drawing near his end when the answers 12 i;8 The Roman Breviary arrived, merely appointed a commission to deal with the preliminary undertakings. Gregory XIV. proceeded with the work thus com- menced, but his death soon led to the suspension of the commission's labours for a few months ; the report which it drew up has recently been published, and increases our knowledge of the history of the Roman Breviary. Briefly, it was decided — I. to add to the common of saints seven or eight sets of lections for the second and third nocturns, in order to provide for the offices of patron or titular saints who had no lections of their own ; 2. to proceed with the examina- tion of the general rubrics of the Breviary, so as to correct and explain them, and arrange them in better order; 3. to go through the proper of saints with a view to introduce some corrections. In consequence of this last resolution, the lections of St. Andrew the Apostle, St. Nicholas, St. Ambrose, St. Melchiades, and St. Damasus were examined in the course of several sittings. The work was once more resumed with vigour under the pontiff of whom we have now to speak. 3. The work of Clement VIII. (1 592-1605). — Cardinal Ippolito Aldobrandini, having ascended the chair of St. Peter, brought to a conclusion the work initiated by Sixtus V. ; to him we owe, amongst other works, the authentic edition of the Vulgate now in use, and a new edition of the Breviary. The com- mission which he instituted with a view to the latter St. Pius V. to End of Eighteenth Cenhiry 179 undertaking included, amongst many men remarkable for learning and piety, Baronius, Bellarmine, Silvio Antoniano, Ghisleri, Gavanti, etc. The report of this commission drawn up by Baronius has been published in recent times. The writer, after a careful examina- tion of the criticisms sent in from various quarters, states that his part consisted rather in eliminating than in making additions, explains the object of the alterations he suggests, and declares himself prepared to give still fuller explanations to the Sacred Con- gregation of Rites. It had been proposed to print a small volume containing the new offices, along with the corrections to be made in the old offices, provided with a well drawn up table by which each one could correct his own Breviary. Baronius accepted this suggestion as far as it concerned the new offices only, and was of opinion that it was better to prepare an edition containing all the approved improvements and alterations, leaving each one free to buy the new Breviary or not, but giving leave in the future ex- clusively for the sale of the corrected text He thought that in this way the end in view would be quietly attained in a few years. In favour of a complete new edition there may be urged — (a) the necessity of putting the new offices in their proper place, which had not been given them heretofore ; {b) the need of octaves for those churches whose patron saints had no proper office ; (c) the idea of checking the rashness of some who had inserted into 180 The Roman Breviary the Breviary, on their own private authority, false or uncertain matter, such as, for example, the lections for St. Alexius. The commission, having taken this report of Baronius into consideration, decided in favour of the retention of vigils for several of the chief festivals and of the offices for the dedication of the basilicas of the Lateran and of SS. Peter and Paul on the 9th and 1 8th November; rejected the idea of shortening the newly added offices for doubles and the Sunday office ; stated that the fewest changes possible were to be made, and that it was sufficient to make some changes in the hymns when they were manifestly incorrect ; added the two hymns Fortem virili pectore by Silvio Antoniano, and Pater superni nuniinis by Bellarmine — the former for the newly-composed common of holy women, and the latter for the feast of St. Mary Magdalen The commission further decided to make corrections in the lections : first, Clement VIII.'s edition of the Vulgate was adopted for the lections of the first nocturn and for the short lections ; secondly, certain sermons and homilies were sup- pressed in the second and third nocturns, and others substituted in their place, eg. a sermon by St. John Damascene on the 15th August, and another by the Venerable Bede on the 1st November; the De Vir- ginibus of St. Ambrose reappeared on the feast of St. Agnes, 2 1st November, the fourth lection being taken from St. John Damascene ; thirdly, certain statements St. Pius V. to End of Eighteenth Century 1 8 1 historically unjustifiable and certain expressions con- sidered unsuitable were eliminated from the legends of the Saints. There were some corrections suggested by Baronius and Bellarmine which met with the approval of neither the commission nor the pope, such, for example, as the alteration in the legend of St. Alexius, and the elimination of the pretended identity of the areopagite with St. Denys of Paris. At any rate, the efforts of these two learned men led to the formulation of the principle, " the Roman Breviary is a work capable of being brought to perfection." Some strictly prohibitive expressions of Pius V. seemed to have emptied this formula of its meaning, but these expressions are not enforced in the bull Cunt in ecclesia published by Clement VIII. on the ioth May 1602, which still appears at the beginning of the editions actually in use, in company with the other bull Quod a nobis. What is expressly forbidden is the printing of the Roman Breviary without the permission of the ordinary, and all additions or omissions deviating from the Vatican edition. The work of Clement VIII. included the general rubrics of the Breviary, several of which were modified, corrected, or expressed in a more simple form. As we have just seen, a common for holy women was added to the commons for other Saints. The increased rank given to festivals which Pius V. 1 82 The Roman Breviary had reduced to a lower grade, and the creation of new offices, led to the introduction of a distinction among doubles. Pius V. had admitted only three kinds of doubles — doubles of the first class, doubles of the second class and simple doubles per annum, but Clement VIII. introduced a fourth kind — greater doubles — between those of the second and third class, and gave this rank to the festivals of the Transfiguration, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the Visitation, our Lady of the Snows, the Presentation and Conception of our Blessed Lady, the Apparition of St. Michael, the two feasts of St. Peter's Chair, St. Peter's Chains, the Conversion of St. Paul, St. John before the Latin Gate, and St. Barnabas. A number of feasts were raised and others lowered one degree, and several new offices were extended to the universal church, two of which (St. Romuald, 7th February, and St. Stanislas, 7th May) were semi-doubles. The festival of the Stigmata of St. Francis created by Sixtus V. was suppressed. In fact, a fresh impulse was given to the preponderance of the sanctorale over the temporale, which was followed by the successors of Clement VIII. with a few exceptions, such as Benedict XIV. Thus before we reach Urban VIII., we have already Paul V., who restored the festival of St. Francis' Stigmata as a semi-double ad libitum, raised St Francis of Paula to the rank of double from having St. Pitts V. to End of Eighteenth Century 183 been a semi-double under Clement VIII., added the feasts of St. Casimir, St. Norbert, and St. Charles Borromeo ; and Gregory XV., who canonized the saints of the sixteenth century — St. Ignatius Loyola, St. Francis Xavier, St. Philip Neri, St. Isidore the husbandman, St. Teresa, St. Aloysius — and added their offices to the proper of saints, except that of St. Isidore, which was only admitted pro aliquibus locis. 4. Changes made by Urban VIII. (162 3- 1644). — The poet and patron of the arts, who before his elevation to the Holy See was known as Maffeo Barberini, had also a mind to try his hand at the revision of the Breviary. The commission which he appointed for this purpose comprised Cardinal Luigi Cajetan as President, and, amongst its members, the Jesuit Alciati, who prepared a history of the Council of Trent,published after his death by Cardinal Pallavicini; the celebrated annalist of the Friars Minor, Luke Wadding ; the most learned liturgist of the period, the Barnabite Gavanti, etc. The corrections effected with the approval of Urban VIII. were not of much importance. The commission was of opinion that after all that had been done by Bellarmine and Baronius under Clement VIII., nothing remained for it to do with regard to bringing the legends into closer agreement with historical exactitude, and so it maintained the facts or details called in question, but modified some expressions in fourteen or fifteen of 184 The Roma7i Breviary these legends ; next, it examined once more the sermons and homilies taken from the Fathers, com- pared them with the best editions of the period, and made such alterations and additions as it judged necessary. Urban VIII. desired that for the psalms and canticles, as well as for all other passages taken from Holy Scripture, the punctuation of the edition of Clement VIII. should be strictly followed, but permitted that, in order to mark the pause, an asterisk should be employed to divide each verse of the psalms into two parts. A more important correction was carried out inde- pendently of the commission, i.e. the correction of the hymns. Is this to be regarded as chiefly the work of the Jesuit Fathers Sarbiewski, Strada, Galluzzi, and Petrucci, to whom the pontiff appealed to undertake it? Or are we to give the honour of it to Urban himself, who was quite capable of carrying through this difficult enterprise, to judge from the hymns for St. Martina and St. Elizabeth of Portugal which he composed and placed in the Breviary? These are delicate questions, which need not be gone into here. The result has always given rise to very different judgements, and for the most part unfavourable. It seemed to be exceedingly rash to regard as barbarous the hymns of men like Prudentius, Sedulius, Sidonius Apollinaris, Venantius Fortunatus, St. Ambrose, St. Paulinus of Aquileia, and Rhabanus Maurus, and to desire to remodel them after the pattern of Horace's St. Pius V. to End of Eighteenth Century 185 Odes. It is difficult to suppress a feeling of astonish- ment when one hears these reformers call the Te Dettvi and the Ave maris stella "hymns in prose," and the hymns of St Thomas Aquinas (Pange lingua, Sacris solemniis, Verbum supermini), composed in an Etruscan metre, Etrusco rhythmo compositi. We may also add that the work of revising the hymns was rendered all the more difficult by the fact that Urban VIII. required that the measure and sense of each line should be preserved, that the expressions used should not be fundamentally altered, and that the well-known music of the hymns should not be changed either. As a critic of the last century remarks, 1 it is useful to remember that the Jesuits chosen by Urban VIII. as being best suited and prepared for this difficult task, owing to the fact that they were occupied in teaching, were on that account necessarily under the influence of the spirit and taste of the period ; and also not being bound to the recitation of the Breviary in choir, were the less able to judge of compositions which depended more upon their suitability for singing than on their literary form. It is only fair to give them the credit that out of respect for the wishes of Urban VIII. they treated these ancient compositions with extreme reserve, and, while they made some expressions clearer, they maintained the primitive unction in a large number of passages. 1 Pimont, Les Hymnes du Breviaire romain, preface. 1 86 The Roman Breviary In 952 places they corrected what were faults in their eyes (58 in the psalter per hebdomadam, 359 in the proper de Tempore, 283 in the proper of Saints, and 252 in the common of Saints). Two hymns were entirely recast : Tibi Christe splendor Patris for St. Michael's day, and Coelestis urbs for the dedication of a church. On the 17th March 1629, the Sacred Congregation of Rites approved of the proposed changes, all priests and clerics were authorised to recite these hymns in the office for the future, and, by the bull Divinam psalmodiam inserted after the bulls of Pius V. and Clement VIII. , Urban introduced these alterations into the official edition of the Breviary in 1632. To avoid all cause for scandal which might arise from the estimates which writers have formed of the work of Urban VIII., it is well to state that it has always been looked upon as a disciplinary act. Neither in the intention of the church nor of Urban VIII. was this revision to be regarded as aimed against the retention of the ancient hymns. Since Urban VIII., the Holy See has done very little towards imposing the usage of the corrected hymns. " It was impossible," says Dom Gueranger, 1 "to establish their use in St. Peter's, but they spread rapidly through the other churches of Rome, Italy, and Christendom, with the exception of France. Few French editions of the Breviary before 1789 are 1 Institutions liturgiques, i. p. 517. St. Pius V. to End of Eighteenth Century 187 found with the new hymns; most frequently they come at the end, in a sort of appendix. ... As far as regards the religious orders,, those bound to the use of the Roman Breviary adopted the new hymns, except the Franciscans of the French provinces. The religious orders and congregations kept to the old; the congregation of St. Maur is the only one which, after many variations, adopted the revision of Urban VIII. At the present day in Rome itself the Benedictines of Monte Cassino, the Cistercians, the Carthusians, etc., sing the ancient hymns, which keep their place in the Dominican Breviary also." We conclude our criticism of this undertaking with the words of M. Ulysse Chevalier : l " the Jesuits have spoiled the work of Christian antiquity, under pretext of restoring the hymns in accordance with the laws of metre and elegant language" ; — w r ith the best canonists, who say that while respecting the obligation of reciting the Breviary hymns, one may, with the consent of the sovereign pontiff, entertain the prospect of a return to the ancient forms (a change which would make the use of the Gregorian melodies easy) ; — with M. Pimont, 2 who says " that Christian sentiment and true piety have lost by the change, without any advantage to poetry." Some examples will enable the reader to form his own judgement. 1 U. Chevalier, Uitiversite catholique, viii., 1891, p. 122 etseqq. 1 Pimont, op. cit., preface. 88 The Roman Breviary The hymn for Vespers in Advent : — The Ancient Version. Qui condolens interitu Mortis perire saeculum Salvasti mundum languidum, Donans reis remedium. Cujus fasti potentiae Genu curvantur omnia Coelestia, terrestria Nutu fatentur subdita. Corrections of Urban VIII. Qui daemonis ne fraudibus Periret orbis, impetu Amoris actus, languidi Mundi medela factus es. Cujus potestas gloriae Nomenque cum primum sonat Et coelites et inferi Tremente curvantur genu. The hymn at Lauds during Paschal time : The Ancient Version, Ille qui clausus lapide Custoditur sub milite Triumphans pompa nobili Victor surgit de funere. Solutis jam gemitibus Et infemi doloribus, Quia surrexit Dominus Resplendens clamat Angelus. St. Pius V. to End of Eighteenth Century 189 Corrections of Urba?i VIII. Cujus sepulchrum plurimo Custode signabat lapis, Victor triumphat et suo Mortem sepulcro funerat. Sat funeri, sat lacrimis, Sat est datum doloribus : Surrexit extinctor necis, Clamat coruscans Angelus. Those who wish to follow out the comparison of the two versions may consult Daniel, Thesaurus hymnologicus (Halle, 1841). Urban VIII. manifested special zeal in instituting new offices and new festivals of saints ; e.g. the office of St. Elizabeth of Portugal (8th July) is entirely his. Then he created, as a double, St. Hyacinth (16th August); as semi-doubles, the feasts of St. Bibiana (2nd December), St. Martina, St. Hermengild (13th April), St. Catharine of Siena (30th April), St. Eustace and his companions (20th September) ; as semi- doubles ad libitum, St. Teresa (15th October), St. Elizabeth of Portugal; St Henry (15th July) and St. Stephen of Hungary (2nd September) were given a commemoration. 5. The successors of Urban VIII. to the end of the seventeenth century. — The Roman Breviary of Urban VIII. has continued to the present day with- out any considerable alteration — we have only to note how it has been enriched under his successors. The 190 The Roman Breviary aim of Innocent X. seems to have been to guarantee the regular recitation of the Sunday office, and to bring the ferial office into more frequent use, in order that the entire psalter should be recited several times in the course of the year. With the exception of the festival of St. Frances of Rome (9th March), which he made a double, the festivals extended by him to the universal church are semi-doubles, e.g. St. Ignatius Loyola, St. Teresa and St. Charles Borromeo. The festival of St. Clare became a double ad libitum. Alexander VII. established the festival of St. Francis of Sales and composed the collect for it himself; raised the festival of St. Charles Borromeo to the rank of a double, and that of St. Philip Neri to the rank of a semi-double de precepto ; inserted in the calendar St. Peter Nolasco, St. Bernardine of Siena, and St. Francis Xavier, all of the same rank as the preceding ; and, as semi-doubles ad libitum, St. Andrew Corsini and St. Thomas of Villanova. Under Clement IX. and Clement X., the feasts of St. Philip Neri, St. Nicholas of Tolentino, and St. Teresa were raised to the rank of doubles ; the feasts of St. Monica, St. Peter Celestine, and several others, formerly semi-doubles ad libitum, were made semi- doubles de precepto, and the new feasts of St. Vincent Ferrer, St. Raymond Nonnatus, and St. Remigius (semi-doubles ad libitum) made their appearance at this time. Clement X. also added new Saints to the Breviary ; he raised the feast of St. Joseph to the St. Pius V. to End of Eighteenth Century 191 rank of a double of the second class, made that of St. Elizabeth of Hungary a double, and also the feasts of St. Francis Xavier, St. Nicholas of Myra, St. Peter Nolasco, St. Peter Martyr, St. Catharine of Siena, St. Norbert, St. Antony of Padua, St. Clare, St. Cecilia, St. Eustace and his companions, St. Bruno, and made the office of the Guardian Angels obligatory upon the whole church. He introduced some semi- doubles which he also made of obligation for the whole church, such as St. Raymond of Penaforte, St. Venantius of Camerino, St. Mary Magdalen dei Pazzi, St. Cajetan of Theate, St. Peter of Alcantara, St. Didacus or Diego, and finally, as semi-doubles ad libitum, St. Canute and St. Wenceslas. The festivals thus gradually got the upper hand, and the Sunday office, except in Advent and Lent, often gave way to them, while the week became so full of transferred feasts that the recitation of the psalter became impossible for the greater part of the time. Innocent XI. in- stituted the festival of the Name of Mary, and raised some festivals to the rank of doubles or semi-doubles ; so also did Alexander VII. and Innocent XII. Section II. — Liturgical Developments outside Rome, and especially in France While each pope in turn added some new saints to the calendar, and preparations were being made for a fresh reform of the Breviary by papal authority in the more or less distant future, an independent atti- 192 The Roman Breviary tude was adopted in France, the consequences of which made themselves felt until the middle of the eighteenth century. It may be interesting to briefly describe this attitude in a history of the Roman Breviary ; for, as M. Batiffol says, it shows us " in what respects the work of St. Pius V., Clement VIII., and Urban VIII. was incomplete, and at the same time in what respects it was excellent," l and at the same time it explains the abortive attempt at reform under Benedict XIV. 1. As a matter of fact, the degree of freedom granted by St. Pius V. as to the mode of adopting the new Breviary had been productive of good results in France, and, until the reign of Louis XIV., the Roman was regarded as the model for all Breviaries. Our readers will remember how the Archbishop of Paris had the ancient Parisian Breviary revised and corrected {vide p. 170). About 1650, owing to the zeal of the archbishops who succeeded Pierre de Gondy, the Roman Breviary and the Parisian were regarded as identical ; the Parisian Breviary was forbidden in choir, but everyone was free to recite it in private. While the Sulpicians used the Roman Breviary, St. Vincent de Paul advised that it was better to follow the diocesan use. But when the reign of Louis XIV. was well advanced, two tendencies, fatal to religion and made up of 1 Batiffol, History of the Roman Breviary^ p. 289 (Eng. trans.). St, Pius V. to End of Eighteenth Century 193 many different shades of opinion — Gallicanism and Jansenism — began to manifest themselves. The pre- ponderance given to the secular power in matters religious was the cause of Gallicanism, which in its turn found it advantageous to render the church of France entirely independent of Rome. In this it found a powerful ally in Jansenism, with its claim to follow pure and original theories, its spirit of excessive criticism, and its intolerance of advice. In spite of the lack of common objects, these two tendencies nevertheless found means for drawing together in their common antipathy to Rome and the liturgical tradition. 1 It must be granted that Gallicanism and Jansenism knew how to use with advantage the progress that had been made in sacred criticism by such men as Baronius and Bellarmine, and later, by Thomassin and Mabillon. During the last thirty years of the seventeenth century, people began to speak of liturgical reform in those dioceses which had service-books of their own : as a matter of fact, the general character of these diocesan Breviaries was far from harmonizing with recent historical and literary discoveries. In 1678, the Archbishop of Vienne, Henri de Villars, opened the way for the innovators by having the legends altered, and by replacing the ancient Gregorian responds with 1 The history of the Gallican reformations of the Roman Breviary will be found at length in the second vol. of Dom Gueranger's Institutions litiirgiques* 13 194 The Roman Breviary new ones entirely taken from Holy Scripture. In 1680, under the auspices of Francois de Harlay, Arch- bishop of Paris, the new Parisian Breviary appeared, celebrated for other reasons than the Breviary of Vienne, for in it an attempt had been made to cut out * whatever was superfluous or not in keeping with the dignity of the church, and to banish whatever had been introduced of a superstitious character, in order that only what was in harmony with the dignity of the church and the institutions of antiquity should remain therein." The salient points of a reform of this nature easily arouse our suspicion when we consider the good understanding existing between the reformers and the Jansenist school upon the three following points : — the restriction of the cultus of the saints, the diminution in particular of all outward signs of de- votion towards our Blessed Lady, and the restrictions put to the exercise of the power of the Roman pontiff. 2. But this was only the beginning ; much might be said on the Breviary of Cluny, upon which Claude de Vert bestowed so much labour under the patronage of the Cardinal de Bouillon and for which Santeuil composed hymns, but we hasten on to the edition of the Parisian Breviary of 1736, generally known as de Vintimille's Breviary. The Jansenists carried their audacity to the length of preparing an entirely national liturgy, in which they flattered the bad literary taste of the period, exaggerated what historical St. Pius V. to End of Eighteenth Century 195 criticism had been able to allege against the ancient service-books, and dwelt upon the advantages of having a shorter office to recite. These ideas found realization in the Breviary of Orleans, published by Cardinal Coislin in 1693 and composed by a pupil of Port-Royal, J. B. Lebrun Desmarettes. The bishop professes that in his reformed Breviary " he has chosen whatever is most suitable to praise and propitiate God, as well as to instruct clerics in their duties. . . . We have decided/' he adds, "to admit nothing into the antiphons, versicles, and responds except what is taken from Holy Scripture." Soon afterwards, in 1720, a work appeared entitled Projet dun nouveau Brtviaire, according to which the divine office, while preserving its usual form, was to be composed of Holy Scripture, instructive, and very short; a number of observations on the old and new Breviaries were also included in the book. The author was Frederic Foinard, formerly cure of Calais, and before long he added example to precept by publishing a Breviary drawn up according to his own plan (1726). The following year the doctor Gran colas, in his Commentaire du Breviaire romain, devoted an entire chapter to the project for bringing out a new Breviary. The object of these men and their imitators, at least to judge from what they said, was to present a liturgy to a church not possessing one, and, strange to say, the French bishops of the eighteenth century, in their desire to bring about this 196 The Roman Breviary great revolution, submitted to the direction of mere priests who had assumed to themselves the office of legislating in liturgical matters. And what was this liturgy to be ? Foinard undertakes to tell us. The following proportion must be maintained among the Christian festivals : — There must be one principal class for festivals of our Blessed Lord, into which no other festival whatsoever, neither of our Blessed Lady nor of any other saint, was to intrude; the sanctity of Sunday is so great that its office can only give way to a solemnity of our Blessed Lord, being privileged even to take precedence of the Assumption and All Saints ; in Lent, all festivals were to be cut out, even the Annunciation (Grancolas was more tolerant and admitted the Annunciation and even St. Joseph). A new set of feasts of the martyrs was to be introduced, arranged according to the different persecutions, while many feasts were to be lowered one or two degrees in rank, and others were merely to be commemorated, and that only in special places ; all feasts of the finding and translation of relics were to be suppressed. By this means the ferial office effectually gained the preponderance over the festal. Then, to avoid weariness, the office was to be the same length on festivals and ferias, the number of feasts with nine lections being diminished as far as possible. The " social " character of the Breviary was to vanish by cutting out the Dominus vobisatm, the repetition of the invitatory, the short responds, the St. Pizcs V. to End of 'Eighteenth Century 197 Jube dom?ie benedicere, Tu autem Domine miserere nobis and Benedicamus Domino ; it almost seemed as if everything in the plural was to disappear. Before all things, the Breviary must be very short ; Foinard went as far as to propose the establishment of feasts with six lections. He professed to find precedent for this revolution in what St. Gregory the Great in the sixth century wrote to St. Augustine, the Apostle of England, when he left him " free in divine service to admit customs either from Gaul or from any other churches, if their addition to those of the Roman church could assist and strengthen the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons." The first result of these unpractical attempts was to lower the liturgy, hitherto regarded as a monument of tradition, to the level of a merely human document which everyone was free to criticise and alter accord- ing to his taste. Having neither diocese nor parish. Foinard composed a Breviary according to these ideas and entitled it Breviarium ecclesiasticum (1726) ; whereupon a number of dioceses of France took up the work of creating new liturgies, such as Sens, Rouen, Orleans, Paris, where the Breviary of Cardinal de Noailles prepared the way for the book soon after- wards authorized by Archbishop de Vintimille, etc. This latter prelate, in order to bestow a new set of service-books upon his church, turned for assistance to Father Vigier, an Oratorian, who was assisted in his turn by the acolyte Mesenguy and by Charles 198 The Roman Breviary Coffin, a mere layman, principal of the College of Beauvais and a thoroughgoing Jansenist. It was he who undertook to compose the hymns. The new Breviary appeared in 1735 along with a pastoral of the bishop ; everything, or almost everything, in it was new ; even the imprudences of de Harlay's Breviary against the cultus of the saints, and against devotion to our Blessed Lady in particular, were sur- passed, and, in addition, cautious attempts were made to instil into the Breviary the errors then current on the question of grace. The favourite principles of Foinard and Grancolas were put into force j 1 Sunday took precedence of all kinds of feasts except those of the very highest rank ; so, too, did Lent, the solemn gladness of festivals not being in harmony with fast- ing and the wholesome sadness of penitence ; the psalms for the feria were recited on all feasts except those of martyrs and our Blessed Lady ; finally, the most striking innovation was that the psalms were divided in such a way that proper psalms were assigned to each feria and even to each canonical hour, such as seemed too long being divided into sections, and thus almost the whole psalter could be read through in the course of a week. 2 The calendar 1 See BatifTol, History of the Roma?i Breviary, p. 295, Eng. trans. 2 Perhaps it may be allowed to state that this last provision can scarcely be called an innovation, for in the sixth century St. Benedict followed it in his rule for the distribution of the psalms. See above, p. 42. St. Puis V, to End of Eighteenth Century 199 was relieved of a number of feasts, such as St. Peter's Chair at Antioch, and of a number of octaves, etc., while others were reduced to mere commemorations, such as St. George, Pope St. Martin, and St. Sylvester. " The hymnal was not suppressed, but was re-written and developed. Most of this work was done by Santeuil and Coffin, in a style which surpassed even the literary prettiness of the Jesuits of Urban VIII., and with a flavour about their poetic inspiration which suggested reminiscences of the Augustinus" The legends of the saints bore the mark of the new criticism, the other lections and responds were taken entirely from Holy Scripture. As a final characteristic, showing how the authors desired to lower the apostolic authority of the Holy See, we may give the invitatory for the solitary feast of St. Peter's Chair : " Caput corporis Ecclesiae Dominum, venite, adoremus," instead of " Tu es Pastor ovium." More than fifty dioceses of France adopted the Breviary of M. de Vintimille with certain modifi- cations; nevertheless there were protests from among the clergy, but in other districts new ideas quite as alien to the Roman Breviary were extensively followed. At Rouen, for instance, Dr. Urban Robinet, in his desire to check the spread of the Breviary of Vigier and Mesenguy, seized the oppor- tunity of making public his ideas on liturgical matters. " With regard to the general principles/ 5 says Dom 200 The Roman Breviary Gueranger, " we find just the same teaching and just the same fever for recasting the church's language according to the taste of one particular period and the views of a mere private scholar ; Holy Scripture regarded as the sole source for antiphons, versicles, and responds; the Breviary shortened. Still, when all is said, we are bound to recognize in Robinet one of those sincere Catholics not unaffected by the prevail- ing tone of their time, who, while quite alive to the duty of following submissively the decisions of the Holy See against new errors, did not realize to an equal extent the evil of breaking with unity and universality in liturgical matters. ,, In this new Breviary the hymns were Robinet's composition (they owed their unction quite as much as their orthodoxy to Coffin) ; the arrangement of the psalter followed the new Parisian Breviary ; the antiphons and responds were all taken from Holy Scripture ; the selection of lections, though showing remarkable knowledge of Holy Scripture on the author's part, was yet marked by quite unheard-of eccentricities ; no attention is paid to the canon of St. Gregory VII. determining the order in which the books of Scripture are to be read. An example will give the reader some idea of what is meant : during the six weeks after Epiphany we find Tobias, the Acts of the Apostles, and Job. We often find passages from the Bible chosen for the second nocturn on Sundays more or less parallel to those of the first nocturn ; the St. Pitts V. to End of Eighteenth Century 201 Apostolic Epistles are read at the third nocturn ; the homilies of the Fathers appear only in the ninth lection : finally, lesser doubles are reduced to six lections. Here we see the curious idea of Foinard put into practice. Irreproachable as it was in respect of orthodoxy, this Breviary enjoyed only a moderate success, being adopted by barely three or four dioceses. 3. All these innovations, so widespread during the eighteenth century in France, gave rise to an episode of the greatest interest in liturgical matters, i.e. the manner in which the story of St. Gregory VII. was treated. This great pontiff, one of the glories of the Benedictine Order, had many admirers, among whom can be ranked saints such as St. Peter Damian and St. Anselm of Canterbury, historians such as Baronius and Bellarmine, and popes such as Benedict XIV. He was canonized in 1584 by Gregory XIII. by equipollent canonization, as was customary at that period; Alexander VII. ordered his office to be celebrated in the basilicas, and placed him as a confessor in the Breviaries of the Benedictines and Cistercians ; and lastly, Benedict XIII., by a decree of the 25th September 1728, extended his office to the universal church, and provided him with a proper collect and new lections for the second nocturn. No doubt Rome thought by these means to rescue from oblivion one of the heroes of humanity, who was regarded as " the vindicator of civilization, the pre- 202 The Roman Breviary server of liberty, public as well as ecclesiastical ; perhaps, at the same time, Rome intended to protect her honour, which had been insulted by the Declaration of the Clergy in 1682 and subsequent events." At any rate, the Gallicans evinced a lively horror at the publication of this history ; they pretended it was contrary to revealed truth. " which enjoined upon popes, as well as on other members of society, sub- mission to the civil authority " ; even the bishops bestirred themselves against the legend of St. Gregory VII.; the parliament grew excited, 5nd spoke of for- bidding the publication and execution of the pontifical briefs. The Archbishop of Paris had the boldness to write to the pope begging him " to shut his eyes to this affair, for he needed all his courage not to forbid the office by a mandate/' The more moderate, such as Mgr. d'Hallencourt, Bishop of Verdun, while not daring to question the sanctity of Gregory VII., still thought that he had done penance for his sin, for, said they, whatever the faults of the Emperor Henry IV. may have been, the pope had no right to deprive him of his crown, or to free his subjects from their allegiance. The general assembly of the clergy in 1730 resolved to oppose the cultus of him whom they dared to call merely Gregory VII.; the parlia- ment was on the point of stirring up a fresh storm when the pacific Fleury succeeded in calming the agitation ; finally, " by order of the king," the affair was taken out of the hands of the magistrates in 1 St. Pius V. to End of Eighteenth Century 203 order to be dealt with by the council of state. The matter was then let drop, but until the end of the eighteenth century France took no share in the cultus offered by the world to the memory of St. Gregory VII. 4. The consequences of this fancy for special liturgies and Breviaries of each diocese were to silence the church, in order to leave unauthorized teachers free to speak ; to break the bonds of unity which hitherto had put one uniform form of prayer into the mouths of the ministers of the church ; and to place the liturgy in a false position in France, which led to very evil results during the period of the revolution. The following fact will give an idea of the con- sequences. 1 In 1798 nine hundred priests were imprisoned at Rochefort ; some Breviaries were con- veyed to them, greatly to their joy, as they thought they would now be able to recite the divine office in common; but how bitter was their disappointment to find that the Breviaries came from different dioceses, and consequently all common recitation of the office seemed impossible. This fact has been narrated by the Abbe Menochet, Vicar-general of Le Mans, one of the survivors. Inconveniences of the same sort must soon have become universally felt ; after the new arrangement of dioceses in 1801, when the old boundaries were swept away, and portions of 1 Quoted from Dom Baumer, Histoire du Breviaire, vol. ii. PP. 333-334- 204 The Roman Breviary six or seven different dioceses were united round one cathedral church, it often happened that in the same diocese half a dozen Breviaries and Missals held their own against that of the cathedral. 5. A revolution of this nature was not effected without protestation from Rome. Clement XII., 1 730- 1 740, required M. de Vintimille to put out a pastoral letter withdrawing his Breviary, "in order that certain antiphons and responds therein be corrected and that the hymns of the Sieur Coffin, appellant, be cut out." The archbishop would consent to nothing. When the first edition was exhausted, a new one was spoken of, and the nuncio demanded of Cardinal Fleury that " this edition should be corrected in conformity with the criticisms sent from Rome." Still, in 1743, Benedict XIV., who succeeded Clement XI L in 1740, instructed the nuncio * not to insist upon the public withdrawal, but to confine himself to getting the corrections required by Clement XII. adopted." The pope's forbearance produced no result, and the second edition of Vintimille's Breviary was the same as the first. We may find the explanation of the fact that Benedict XIV. did not feel justified in enforcing the demands of his predecessor in the circumstance that, " deeply read in the knowledge of the customs of antiquity as he was," says Dom Gueranger, 1 " he was 1 Institutions liturgiques^ vol. ii. p. 468. St. Pius V. to End of Eighteenth Century 205 not unmoved by the serious alterations made in the calendar of the Roman Breviary since St. Pius V. The ferias were greatly reduced in number by the addition of more than a hundred new offices, and the rank of a double given to the majority of these offices resulted in the suppression of the Sunday office for the greater part of the year. These faults had been made the most of by the innovators in France. Ought one, therefore, to leave untouched a state of things which had given a pretext for many people to regard their abandonment of the Roman service-books as unjustifiable? The pope began by forming a resolution, to which he remained faithful throughout the eighteen years of his pontificate, i.e. to add no new office to the Breviary. It is true he conferred upon St. Leo the Great the title of Doctor, but this saint had been in the calendar for centuries. Next, he set about reforming the Breviary." How this revision proceeded and why it came to nothing we shall now endeavour to relate, following M. Batiffol 1 and Dom Baumer. 2 1 History of the Roman Breviary, p. 289 et seqq. (Eng. trans.). This writer has had the advantage of studying the documents belonging to the Congregation instituted by Benedict XIV. for the reform of the Breviary, and is the first to give an account of its labours. 2 Dom Baumer, Histoire du Breviaire, vol. ii. 372 et seqq., refers to the same sources as M. Batiffol, i.e. Roskovany, Coeli- batus et Brev., vol. v. ; the report of Valenti, the Analecta juris po?itificii of 1885; and in addition, codex xiv. of the library of the monastery of St. Paul without the Walls. 206 The Roman Breviary Section 3. — Attempt at Reform of the Roman Breviary under Benedict XIV. Benedict XIV. was deeply impressed by the fact that the Roman Breviary had lost its ancient simplicity, and so, from the beginning of his reign, entertained the idea of its revision, which he thought would find favour with all friends of ecclesiastical antiquity. With this end in view, he consulted the Promotor of the Faith, Valenti, to whom he explained the plan he had in view, and then established a congregation to study the difficulties of the question and prepare the material necessary for the undertaking (1741). The members of this first congregation were Filippo Maria Monti, secretary of the Propaganda, Nicholas Anto- nelli, secretary of the Sacred College, Domenico Giorgi, one of the papal chaplains ; to these were added the following theologians — Sergio, secretary to the Inquisition, Baldini, consulter of the Congregation of Rites, Galli, canon regular of the Lateran, Azzo- guidi of the Conventuals. The pope's wish was that Valenti should be secretary to the congregation. All were agreed upon the necessity of a revision and reform of the Breviary, but the question was what methods to adopt and where to begin ? In order to throw light on these points, the members of the com- mission were obliged to study two memoranda com- municated to them by the pope — the one in French, the other in Italian. They formed part of Valenti's St. Pius V. to End of Eighteenth Century 207 report, but have never as yet been published. The Italian memorandum suggested "a simple expurga- tion," and distinguished between what was essential {i.e. the number, order, and division of the canonical hours, the nocturns, the order of the antiphons, the lections and the collects) and what was accessory (i.e. the calendar, the text of the lections, responds, and antiphons), maintaining that, while the first could scarcely be altered without destroying the character of the Roman rite, the second required reformation throughout. The French memorandum goes much further : it is grieved to detect in the Breviary many errors which have escaped the diligence of former revisers, though historical criticism had pointed them out. With regard to the arrangement of the psalms, it states that there are some which are very often re- cited during the week, while others hardly ever occur, and that the longest psalms come on Sundays and feasts, when priests had already quite enough to do. It found fault with many antiphons for affording neither meaning to the intelligence nor nourishment to the soul, which often were unsuitable to the office of which they formed a part. With regard to feasts, it drew attention to the excessive number of doubles among recent saints, while the ancient saints were commemorated with the rank of a semi-double or simple merely. Lastly, the number of doubles had the effect of almost entirely cutting out the Sunday- office, which was devoted to honouring the mysteries 208 The Roman Breviary of our Lord's life. It is to be borne in mind, concludes the memorandum, that many bishops have seized upon this as a pretext for forsaking the Roman Breviary and adopting one for their own dioceses, to the injury and confusion of the liturgy. The ideas contained in both these memoranda found supporters among the members of the congregation. Some desired that the question of the arrangement of the psalms should be taken in hand first, and ap- proved of the arrangement adopted in several French churches. Others declared that novelties must be avoided, that the Roman arrangement of the psalter was ancient and must not be lightly set aside, that the task before the consulters was not the creation of a new Breviary, but the correction of the existing one ; that for the present the question of the psalter should be postponed, while the calendar must first of all be dealt with {i.e. the number and arrange- ment of festivals). This proposal was accepted by the majority. In order to set about correcting the calendar, it was important to know what had been the leading idea in previous reforms, chiefly in that of St. Pius V. Valenti produced a document discovered by himself, which clearly expressed the ideas of the Fathers of the Holy Council of Trent and of Pius IV. and Pius V. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, in order to lessen the heavy burden of the ferial ofifice, 1 simple feasts had 1 We have already indicated the source of this increase. St. Pitts V. to End of Eighteenth Century 209 been assimilated to semi-doubles and doubles, and so transferred to another free day when they fell on a Sunday or festival. The result was that the ferial office was scarcely recited any more during Lent, that the lections from the Bible were only read on rare occasions, that the recitation of the hundred and fifty psalms in the course of a week was made impossible because of the same psalms being constantly repeated in the common of saints. This led St. Pius V. to suppress the privilege belonging to simple feasts, and to forbid their transference, to suppress the obligatory recital of other prayers (except the ferial prayers in Advent and Lent), to insist at least that two lections out of three should be taken from Holy Scripture. Between 1568 and 1741 the number of doubles and semi-doubles had increased from 138 to 228. The number of movable feasts came to about 36 in the year, and thus scarcely ninety days were left free for the Sunday and ferial offices, and the festivals granted to particular churches, dioceses, and religious orders have again to be deducted from these. The state of the case being the same in 1741 as it had been in 1568, the thing to be done now, as then, was to effect a reduction or simplification of the calendar. The commission discussed the question as to which festivals should be suppressed. Among the feasts of our Blessed Lord there was only one — the finding of the Holy Cross on the 3rd May — which was nearly being suppressed or amalgamated with the feast of H 210 The Roman Breviary the 14th September. Another feast — that of the Holy Name of Jesus — found no favour with the con- suiters, as it was of recent institution, having been extended to the universal church only since 1724 by Innocent XIII., and so its suppression was demanded by the commission. As regards the feast of our Blessed Lady, while the ancient and undisputed feasts, such as the Purification, Annunciation, Assump- tion, and Nativity, were preserved, a proposal was made to change the name of the Assumption to Pausatio, Dormitio, or Transitus^ and to suppress its octave and that of the Nativity. Nothing, however, was decided, and the question was postponed until the rank of these two octaves should be fixed. Some of the consulters wished to suppress the octave of the Immaculate Conception, but, owing to disagree- ment among the members on this point, it was decided to refer the matter to Benedict XIV. It was agreed that the decree of St. Pius V. suppressing the feast of our Lady's Presentation should be put into force, but the question was re-opened later on. The remaining feasts — the Name of Mary, the Holy Rosary, Our Lady of Pity, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the Seven Dolours, the Espousals, the Patron- age, the Translation of the Holy House of Loreto, Our Lady's Expectation — found but feeble support from the commission, and, because they interfered with the Sunday office, their suppression was seriously considered. As regards the feasts of the holy angels, St. Pius V. to End of Eighteenth Cenhtry 21 1 that of the 8th May in honour of St. Michael was suppressed, because it seemed a mere repetition of that of the 29th September. The feast of the Guardian Angels, in spite of its recent institution, was retained, because it directed the minds of priests and people to the Divine Providence, and stirred them up to beseech their heavenly guardians for necessary aid. There were many and lengthy discussions on the subject of the holy confessors. Those named in the Old and New Testaments, such as the Machabees (1st August), St. Joseph, St. Joachim, and St. Anne, were to be retained. Although it was desired that St. Joachim and St. Anne should be commemorated together by one festival, in order to add to the number of free Sundays, no difficulties were raised con- cerning the two feasts of St. John the Baptist, or the feasts of the Apostles and Evangelists, including St. Barnabas, or the feast of the Holy Innocents. St. Mary Magdalen's feast was to be retained, while St. Martha's was reduced to the rank of a simple. The question of the secondary feasts of the Apostles then came up for discussion. No difficulty was made about the Conversion of St. Paul, St. John before the Latin Gate, St. Peter's Chains, but it was suggested that the two feasts of St. Peter's Chair should be amal- gamated ; but nothing was decided, out of respect to the decrees of Paul IV. and the reasons brought for- ward by Sirleto. The commemoration of St. Paul on the 30th June was only to be kept in churches 212 The Roman Breviary dedicated in his honour. The anniversaries of the dedications of the three great Roman basilicas, the Lateran, St. Peter's, and St. Paul's, were to remain distinct, but the feast of the 5th August, instead of being called Our Lady of the Snows, was to have the name of Dedication of St. Mary Major's. Many difficulties arose over the saints in general, and the principles according to which they were to be sup- pressed or retained. The members of the commission got tired and did not always agree, and it became almost impossible to get them to assemble for a session. At the earnest request of the pope, some of them continued their special work, and a meeting was held on the 15th July 1742. Valenti proposed that the feasts which Father Guyet, S.J., in his Hortologia, said were celebrated throughout the whole church should be retained. The proposition was adjourned, for the question of the principles to be followed was more pressing at the moment. The eight following rules were passed: 1 1. all the saints mentioned in the canon of the Mass were to be retained; 2. also those mentioned in the ancient Roman sacramentaries ; 3. no saint was to be rejected whose authentic acts were in existence, and who had been celebrated by any of the Fathers, provided they had always received a cultus ; 4. canonized popes who had received a cultus from early times were to be retained ; 5. also holy doctors, 6. and founders 1 See Roskovany, p. 586, Analecta juris pontiff p. 523. St. Pius V. to End of Eighteenth Century 2 1 3 of religious orders ; 7. one saint to represent each nation of Christendom was to be retained ; 8. all other saints were to be cut out unless the devotion of the whole church, or some specially urgent reason, did not decide to the contrary. August and September were spent in investigating the ancient sacramentaries and calendars, and the work of bringing the results into form was entrusted to Galli, who occupied the autumn in composing the revised calendar. The number of festivals suppressed was at least ninety-five, 1 many of them simples, and many of those contained in the supplement to the Breviary. The list of saints was a mere catalogue ; and in order that it should become a calendar in the true sense of the word, it was necessary to regulate the privilege attaching to the ferias in Lent, and also, as far as possible, those in Advent. It was proposed to sup- press all feasts falling in Lent except the Annuncia- tion, St. Joseph, and St. Peter's Chair. It was decided to leave untouched the rank of festivals established by Clement VIII. and Urban VIII., as well as the general rubrics, and the table relating to the concurrence of feasts, but it was necessary to fix the rank of the festivals retained. It was agreed to maintain the rank of a double of the first class for ten feasts, i.e. the six feasts of our Blessed Lord, the 1 We cannot enumerate them all here : they fill a whole page in Batiffol, pp. 315-316 in the Eng. trans. Ct. Baumer, vol. ii. pp. 384-385 ; also Appendix, column v. 214 The Raman Breviary Assumption, St. John Baptist, SS. Peter and Paul, and All Saints. There were to be twenty-seven feasts of the second class, twelve greater doubles, twenty-three lesser doubles, twenty-seven semi- doubles. The number of simples amounted to sixty- three, and there were twenty-nine saints merely com- memorated at Vespers and Lauds. In addition, each church could celebrate as a double of the first class the anniversary of its dedication and the feast of its titular or patron saint. The calendar was submitted to the pope, who expressed his approval, and asked that it should be examined — at least, so says Valenti. In reality, Benedict XIV. was not satisfied, as M. Batiffol proves by publishing a letter of the pope to Cardinal de Tencin of the 7th June 1743. From this it appears that the pope was desired to satisfy the punctilious criticism of the period by publishing a Breviary " in which everything will be taken from Holy Scripture, which contains many things concerning the mysteries commemorated by the church, and concerning the Apostles and the Holy Virgin. What is not furnished by Holy Scripture will be supplied from the authentic writings of the early Fathers. As for the other saints at present contained in the Breviary, it will be sufficient to simply commemorate them." All this may be an innovation ; " still such a criticism seems much more preferable than that which re- proaches the church with harbouring what is apocry- St. Pius V. to End of Eighteenth Century 2 1 5 phal or doubtful. However carefully the new Breviary may be drawn up, criticism of this sort is unsuitable." 1 The members of the first commission did not fall in with the plans of Benedict XIV. Under pressure from different sides, the sovereign pontiff agreed that a commission of five cardinals (Gentili, Silvio Valenti, Monti, Tamburini, and Bezozzi) should reconsider the project. Luigi Valenti was to be the secretary of this commission of cardinals. In the first session, the members agreed to accept the calendar proposed by the consulters, but it was considered suitable to take the advice of Cardinal de Tencin as a personage of great influence in France, who could do much to make the reform accepted there. This took time, and meanwhile the distribution of the psalter was taken in hand ; the innovations introduced in France had found some partisans in Italy, but the consultors were unanimous in declaring again that the arrange- ment of the Roman psalter was ancient, and must not be interfered with. In order to give greater weight to their opinion, they decided once more to investigate the Roman libraries and archives. The result was summarized by Galli in a memoir to the effect that none of the arrangements of the psalms now in vogue in France or proposed elsewhere were preferable to the ancient Roman distribution, and the commission endorsed this opinion. 1 Corresp. de Rome, vol. 792, p. 21. 216 The Roman Breviary They next took in hand the transference of feasts, but were unable to come to any agreement. In the midst of these events, the rumour spread that Benedict XIV. took little interest in the correction of the Breviary; to counteract this, the pope appointed a new consulter, Lercari, who had been in France and was secretary to the Propaganda, and then invited the consulters and cardinals to hold a sitting in his presence on the 29th September 1744. Benedict XIV. addressed them himself on the necessity for reform, and the method to be followed — necessity, for things were now in almost the same state as they were at the time of the Council of Trent; and as for method, the pope approved of the resolu- tion not to interfere with the existing distribution of psalms ; he approved of the distinction of rank among festivals, and also the eight rules for regulat- ing the admission of saints into the calendar, only to these he wished to add a ninth. Since the saints in the calendar had been canonized, some before Alexander III. by general consent of the church, others after Alexander III. by a solemn decree of canonization, others by the fact that the popes had prescribed an office in their honour throughout the church, it was important not to confuse these three classes, but to determine what was necessary with regard to each separately. The pope encouraged them to examine, correct, and even replace by new matter the several parts of the Breviary ; they St. Pius V. to End of Eighteenth Century 2 1 7 were to distribute the labour among themselves, but to discuss everything in common. They resumed work after the autumn vacation : very little arose out of the examination of the lectionary, and only a few questions followed upon the examination of the antiphons and responds. In fine, the office de Tempore did not come under dis- cussion. Upon a consulter proposing to replace the short lection at Prime by the reading of a canon of some council, the pope, as soon as he had heard of the suggestion, at once informed the commission that their labours were not those of innovation, but of a reform of the Breviary. The proper of saints was next taken in hand. A consulter suggested a new office, with more appropriate antiphons and responds, for the Conversion of St. Paul, but, out of respect for the past, this office was not accepted, and only the homily was replaced by another. It was not without difficulty that the secretary of the com- mission was able to present the result of the labours achieved up to 22nd June 1746, i.e. a copy of the reformed Breviary for the first six months of the year, accompanied by a memoir explaining the pro- posed alterations. The pope was highly satisfied, and ordered the speedy accomplishment of the same work for the second half of the year, and the whole was finished by Easter 1747. Nothing remained but the final decision of his Holiness. The commission showed the same respect for the 2 1 8 The Roman Breviary ancient elements in the Breviary as it had done to- wards the distribution of the psalter de Tempore, and thereby clearly dissociated itself from the Gallican liturgists. Its aim was to work in conformity with the Council of Trent and St. Pius V., to give greater clearness to the ideas by which they were animated, i.e. to prevent the festivals of saints from becoming too numerous, and so interfering with the Sunday and ferial offices ; but it would seem as if they failed in realizing this aim, for lack of solid reasons, a criterium and tact ; and some saints were retained who never were the object of universal devotion in spite of their antiquity, while the exclusion of others more popular, for the sole reason of their being less ancient, was to be regretted. The commission took scrupulous pains to purge the text of the Breviary from errors of all sorts ; and in our days we should perhaps be more conservative in drawing up the historical legends ; but towards the close of its labours the commission seemed to abate its rigorism, for it retained some antiphons in the common of saints of which the authenticity was not proved. Why did not Benedict XIV. ratify the project placed before him ? M. Batiffol has shown from the pope's own correspondence that he was animated by real zeal for the reform of the Breviary. 1 But, accus- 1 See the letters of Benedict XIV. to Cardinal Tencin in Batiffol, History of the Roman Breviary, p. 346 et seqq., Eng. trans. St. Pius V. to End of Eighteenth Century 219 tomed as he was to do everything himself, he was unwilling merely to adopt the labours of others, and desired this edition of the Breviary should be entirely his own work. He took it up as his personal work, but, as he wrote to Peggi in 175 5, " some time would be needed, and one cannot find it easily ; or if one finds it, the weight of years and infirmities makes itself felt." Next year, after the question of the Greek rite had been decided, the Breviary came again to the fore, but attacks of gout and press of business overwhelmed the pope, and he found little leisure for the undertak- ing, although he much desired to set to work upon it. On the 6th April 1758 he wrote again, "the task is a difficult one, and the age hard to satisfy." Three weeks later his work was interrupted by death (4th May 1758). CHAPTER III THE ROMAN BREVIARY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Section i.— The Period after the Death of Benedict XIV. The projected reform of the Breviary inaugurated by Benedict XIV. was never realized ; and while it was engaging the attention of the pope at Rome, almost the whole of France had adopted local Breviaries, in which one looked in vain for the original book as it had been given to the world by Pius V., Clement VIII., and Urban VIII., and moreover these Breviaries were almost entirely independent of one another — liturgical unity was at an end. Germany and Austria also were more or less adopting innovations, either through French influence or owing to contact with Lutheran Protestantism. The Cologne Breviary of 1780 differed considerably from the Roman : in it the preparatory and concluding prayers {Aperi and Sacrosanctce) were suppressed, and also the repetition of antiphons, which were only to be said entire once after the psalms ; the Roman Breviary in Nineteenth Century 221 prayers of the ferial office were changed or curtailed ; entire verses were altered in the hymns, so too were several lections in the proper de Tempore, many legends were cut out of the proper of Saints, etc.; Josephist and Febronian tendencies were shown by the sup- pression of passages which celebrated the authority of St. Peter and his successors, and the office of St. Gregory VII. was entirely omitted. The example of Cologne was followed at Miinster and Trier. The Miinster Breviary of 1784 introduced a radical change into the proper of Saints by the simplification or suppression of a great number of feasts, and in the Trier Breviary there was also much that was capri- cious, though not to the same extent. In this way the rationalistic temper, encouraged by Josephism and Febronianism, destroyed all real knowledge of the Breviary in these and many other churches of Germany, and more than a century passed before their return to the Roman office was brought about. In the meantime, the popes devoted their energies to combating the organized conspiracy of Jansenists and rationalists of all sorts directed against the worship of our Blessed Lord and the Holy Eucharist. To Clement XIII. (1758-1769) we owe the first institution of the festival of the Sacred Heart, already celebrated for nearly a century (since 1688) in France, at Coutances in Normandy. Every- one knows the circumstance from which this feast took its origin, and how our Lord used as His 222 The Roman Breviary instrument a humble religious of the Visitation at Paray le Monial, Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque. The festival made its way very slowly, and at first was confined to a small number of churches. At length, in response to the petition of certain sovereigns and of a large number of Polish, Spanish, and Italian bishops, Clement XIII. gave permission in 1765 for a special office in honour of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, but it was only under Pius IX. that the feast was ex- tended to the universal church in 1856. Clement XIII. established also the feasts of St. Camillus of Lellis as a double, St. Lawrence Justiniani as a semi-double, and St. Juliana dei Falconieri as a double, and thus, after an interval of eighteen years, during the reign of Benedict XIV., new festivals were again added to the calendar. Clement XIV. (1769-1774), being a Franciscan, aimed at increasing the glory of the saints of his order ; he advanced the feast of the Stigmata of St. Francis to the rank of a double, also the feasts of St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, St. Joseph of Cupertino, St. Jerome Emilian, St. Joseph Calasanctius, and St. Jane Frances de Chantal. Pius VI. (1775-1799) raised the Beheading of St. John the Baptist to the rank of a greater double, and those of St. Pius V. and St. John Cantius to the rank of doubles, besides instituting the two festivals of St. William and St. Pascal Baylon. The opening years of the nineteenth century Roman Breviary in Nineteenth Century 223 scarcely seemed the time for returning to the Roman office in France. Immediately after the concordat of 1801. the confusion consequent upon the new circum- scriptions of dioceses turned the minds of the bishops towards the question of a uniform liturgy for the whole of France, but no one thought of the simplest way of bringing this about, viz. by the adoption of the Roman Breviary. u But," says Dom Gueranger, 1 " God did not permit this anti-catholic undertaking to come to anything. A commission was appointed to draw up new service-books for the church of France, but the result of its labours was never made public. The project fell through, and the only trace of it is to be found in the Organic Articles." But Napoleon being emperor, and an emperor, too, whom the pope had crowned, must needs have a chapel royal, and a chapel royal must follow a ritual of some sort. The ancient court of France had followed the Roman use since Henri III., but the new emperor abolished the Roman liturgy, and de- cided that the Parisian service-books alone should be used in his presence. So long as the empire lasted, no new liturgy adapted for the use of any one par- ticular diocese was put out, not even a new edition of the Parisian service-books of Archbishop de Venti- mille. Louis XVIII., for reasons of etiquette, re- established the Roman liturgy in his chapels royal, and during the Restoration there was much liturgical 1 Institutions liturgiques, vol. ii. p. 591. 224 The Roman Breviaiy activity on the lines of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, though with signs of a tendency in a better direction. Under Louis Philippe, the church of Quimper, which had been faithful to the Roman use up to 1835, adopted a new Breviary, which contained an office for the anniversary of the ordination of each priest, to be recited as a semi-double on the first free day after Trinity Sunday. The " presbyterian " spirit manifested itself in a manner never known before ; among the lections chosen for this office, there were some for deacons, and even sub-deacons — the bishop alone was entirely forgotten ; the privilege was denied him of interrupting the course of the liturgy of the universal church, but it by no means follows that an individual thus inserted annually into the calendar will afterwards find a place in heaven. 1 All these novelties and differences resulted in pro- ducing a reaction ; distaste and weariness gave rise to a feeling of restlessness, and it came to be felt among the clergy that the first thing to be done was to fall into line with the Roman church ; all agreed that " if the lex credendi follows from the lex orandi, the latter ought to be fixed, universal, and promul- gated by an infallible authority." 2 Accordingly, from 1822 onwards, the new edition of the Parisian Breviary was relieved of several of the anti-liturgical principles which had hitherto disfigured 1 Vide Dom Gueranger, Inst liturgy vol. ii. pp. 611-612. 2 15., loc. cit., p. 613. Roman Breviary in Nineteenth Century 225 it. By a pastoral letter of Mgr. de Quelen, the feast of the Sacred Heart was established with due solemnity, the cultus of SS. Peter and Paul increased, and All Saints advanced to a higher rank : the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was clearly indicated in the collect for the feast. The Sulpicians played the chief part in carrying out this reform, such as it was. The Jansenist party took the alarm ; and although the work of Vigier and Mesenguy still remained untouched, protests were made against even these ameliorations, but in vain, for the work of 1736 was unable to hold its own. Within less than two hundred years it had been changed, modified, and altered in every sort of way. " Mgr. de Vintimille's Breviary," says Dom Gueranger, u underwent more alterations and revisions in a century than the Roman Breviary since the days of St Pius V. ; for the addition of new offices to the Breviary does not entail any real alteration, and we leave similar additions of this kind out of sight when speaking of the variations through which the Parisian Breviary has gone/ 5 It was the Bishop of Langres, Mgr. Parisis, who gave the signal in France for a return to the ancient traditions: in a magnificent pastoral letter, dated 15th October 1839, he ordained that from the begin- ning of 1840 the Roman liturgy should be the liturgy of Langres. The following passage concerns the Breviary: "Those priests who have hitherto recited the Breviary of Mgr. d'Orcet can satisfy their obliga- 15 226 The Ro7>ian Breviary tion by continuing to recite it ; still it would be better for them to make use of the Roman Breviary, and we exhort them to do so." The letter concludes: "We implore you all, our fellow-labourers in the Lord, to give to this great work all the zeal of which you are capable, in order that, as there is but one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 1 there may be but one language amongst us." 2 This example was followed by Cardinal Gousset, Archbishop of Rheims, in 1842, and soon afterwards by a large number of other bishops, who utilized their provincial and diocesan synods to effect the change. In 1853 Pius IX. was able, in an encyclical to the French bishops, to congratulate them upon the return of France to the unity of the Roman liturgy which had then taken place in the majority of their dioceses. Those who still held back yielded to the general movement — Mgr. Sibour, Archbishop of Paris, in 1856, the others a little later. The end in view was won all the more surely owing to the slow and gradual character of the movement, and the absence of all pressure or insistence on Rome's part. Liturgical unity between Rome and France was a fait accompli at the period of the Vatican Council (1869-70). All are unanimous in attribut- ing the chief merit of this to Dom Gueranger, Abbot of Solesmes, and Pius IX. himself bore 1 Ephes. iv. 5. 2 Gen. xi. 1. Roman Breviary in Nineteenth Century 227 witness to the same effect in the brief published after the abbot's death in 1875. A similar movement took place in Germany. At Cologne the moving spirits were the Archbishops Johann von Geissel in 1857, and Philip Krementz in 1887 ; at Miinster, a proper for the diocese approved by Rome was drawn up in 1865, and in 1880 the cathedral adopted the Roman use ; at Trier the Roman Breviary became obligatory for the whole diocese on the 1st January 1888, etc. Section II. — Attempts at Reform in the Nineteenth Century, especially at the Vatican Council 1. The popes of the nineteenth century have shown themselves quite as zealous as their predecessors in adding to the number of intercessors of the church militant. Pius VII. added the feast of St. Francis Caracciolo to the calendar as a double, raised to the same rank the feast of St. Clement (23rd November) and St. Callixtus (14th October), and prescribed a second feast in honour of Our Lady's Dolours on the third Sunday in September ; lastly, he instituted for the States of the Church the feast of Our Lady Help of Christians, since extended to the universal church. Under Leo XII. and Pius VIII., St. Peter Damian was declared a Doctor of the church, and his feast raised to the rank of a double, the same being done for St. Bernard. Gregory XVI. added 228 The Roman Breviary to the Breviary the feast of St. Alfonso de Liguori, whom he had canonized, as a double, and also the feasts of St. Aloysius Gonzaga and St. Antoninus of Florence. 2. Accordingly, notwithstanding the projects for reform drawn up under Benedict XIV., the edition of Urban VIII., enriched by a certain number of feasts, remains in force until the present day. For a moment the question of revision came to the fore under Pius VI., a scheme was presented to the Sacred Congregation of Rites, but nothing further was done at the time or until 1856. At that date, Pius IX. appointed a commission to examine the question : — Is the reform of the Breviary opportune? Dom Gueranger, who was then at Rome, was one of the consultors, and his correspondence of that date contains information about the sittings held for the study of the question, at the residence of Mgr. Capalti. At one sitting the four following questions were put : (1) Does the Roman Breviary require revision? (2) Is the present a suitable time for revising it? (3) Ought this revision to include the rubrics? (4) Ought this revision to include legends, homilies, and antiphons ? The first three questions were answered in the affirma- tive, the fourth in the negative. As far as we can tell, Dom Gueranger did not quite agree with the majority as far as the legends were concerned. 3. The rest of Italy and the other Christian countries viewed things from another point of view, as we Roman Breviary hi Nineteenth Century 229 learn from a whole series of proposals, opinions, and motions intended to draw the attention of the Vatican Council to the correction and simplification of the Breviary. The following is a brief outline, by order of nationalities : — The French scheme required reform in the lections, which were not sufficiently expurgated, and still contained apocryphal matter ; in hymns of an obscure and unpolished style ; in the distribution of the psalms, which ought to be more varied ; in the transference of feasts, which was done too often, and extended over too long an interval; in the choice of saints, too many of which belong to Rome, and are little known outside the Eternal City; in the length of the offices, which appeared excessive, especially on Sunday. The German scheme pointed out that in some places the Roman Breviary contained what was not in harmony with either authentic history or exegesis, and requested that permission should be given to all ecclesiastics engaged in the care of souls to recite all the year round Matins and Lauds the day before, any hour after 2 P.M. The Canadian scheme went still farther : the postnlatum contained the demand for many im- portant changes, with the reasons for the demand in each case. It appealed to the customs of the primitive church, and complained of the almost constant repetition of the same psalms caused by the 230 The Roman Breviary number of saints' days, as injurious to piety. It asked that, as far as possible, and as a rule, the whole psalter should be recited once a week ; and that on days when priests engaged in the ministry of souls were more occupied, such as the eves of great festivals, Saturdays, and Sundays in Advent and Lent, the office should be shortened. The Italian scheme drawn up by the bishops of Central Italy requested the correction of those passages in the Breviary which did not agree with historical criticism ; desired that better versicles and more suitable homilies should be chosen for some feasts ; especially asked for some sort of arrangement by which the recitation of the whole psalter would be rendered possible at least several times in the course of the year. Credit must be given to the good intentions prompting these schemes, though perhaps in some points they traversed the formation and history of the Canonical Hours. This can especially be laid to the charge of Raphael Ricea, the General of the Minims, who had the boldness to ask for a decree from the holy council obliging all seculars and regulars bound to the recitation of the Breviary of the Latin church to recite everywhere one and the same office, day by day, under the pretext that only by this means could complete liturgical uniformity be obtained. This suggestion, in which there was more zeal than knowledge, could scarcely have met Roman Breviary in Nineteenth Century 231 with approval, and would have produced only a dead and mechanical uniformity, to the prejudice of the liturgical traditions handed down for centuries. Dom Gueranger showed more wisdom in his op- position to the Gallican Breviaries when he asked that everything should be maintained which had a historical right to exist ; for, as he said, " the Church does not wish for monotony." However, the Vatican Council was never concluded and was unable to deal with the above questions : the most to be hoped for is that the Congregation of the Council should find time to study and report on them. Section 3.— Additions and Alterations under Pius IX. and Leo XIII. 1. Under these two popes a remarkable number of additions were made to the calendar. To start with Pius IX., we have the Patronage of St. Joseph on the third Sunday after Easter, the Precious Blood on the first Sunday in July, the feast of the Visitation (2nd July) raised to the rank of a double of the second class, St. Hilary of Poitiers declared a Doctor of the church, an office drawn up for St. Titus, the feasts of St. Timothy and St. Ignatius of Antioch raised to the rank of doubles, the lections of St. Callixtus (14th October) and those of the dedication of the basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul (18th November) corrected, the feast of the Sacred Heart made obliga- 232 The Roman Breviary tory for the whole church with a special office, St. Patrick and St. Andrew Avellino raised to the rank of doubles, St. Angela dei Merici (31st May) added to the Breviary, a new office for the Immaculate Concep- tion, the feast of St. Paul of the Cross made obligatory for the whole church, St. Joseph raised to the rank of a double of the first class, proclaimed patron of the universal church, and his commemoration added to the suffrages between that of our Lady and that of SS. Peter and Paul, St. Alfonso de Liguori and St. Francis of Sales both declared Doctors, and finally, the feast of St. Boniface, Apostle of Germany, extended to the universal church. Under Leo XIII., to speak only of his regulations for the universal church, we have the feasts of St. Joachim and St. Anne raised to doubles of the second class, the Immaculate Conception to a double of the first class with a vigil, the feast of SS. Cyril and Methodius extended to the universal church, new lections drawn up for the second nocturn of the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, a special homily assigned to the day of the octave of St. John the Baptist. In 1882 five new doubles were added to the calendar, i.e. St. Justin, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Cyril of Alexandria, St. Augustine of Canterbury, and St. Josaphat. In 1883 five feasts already existing were raised to the rank of greater doubles, i.e. the Guardian Angels, the Commemoration of St. Paul, St. Benedict, St. Dominic, and St. Francis of Assisi. In 1887 the Roman Breviary in Nineteenth Century 233 feast of the Holy Rosary was made a double of the second class, and, the year following, Leo XIII. ap- pointed a new office for the same solemnity. To these were soon added the Seven Founders of the Servite Order (nth February), St. John Damascene (27th March), St. John Capistrano (28th March), St. Sylvester, founder of a special congregation of Benedictines (26th November), St. Antonio Maria Zaccaria, founder of the Barnabites (5th July, which caused SS. Cyril and Methodius to be moved to the 7th), the Venerable Bede declared a Doctor of the church and placed on the 27th May for the whole church, and lastly, St. John Baptist de la Salle (15th May). 2. Still, Leo XIII. was well aware that the addition of these new feasts to those already of obligation throughout the whole church was prejudicial to both the ferial office and that of national or local saints. In 1882 he attempted a remedy by a decree afterwards inserted as a correction among the general rubrics of the Breviary {Tit. X., de translatione festorum)^ accord- ing to which " semi-doubles and minor doubles, ex- cepting feasts of doctors, were not to be transferred when they fell on a Sunday or coincided with a feast of higher rank. A memorial only of them is to be made at Vespers and Lauds, and, if the rubrics permit, their legend {i.e. the lections of the second nocturn recounting the saint's life) is to be read as a ninth lection at Matins." A note added in 1897 states 234 The Roman Breviary that " if the feasts in question have to be dealt with in this manner every year through their concurrence with a feast of higher rank, they shall be assigned to the first free day following." This produced a result which seems to have been present to the mind of the sovereign pontiff, to wit, the increase of the days on which the ferial office was to be recited. However, numbers of clergy complained that the new arrangement materially increased the pensum of obligatory devotions ; and that, moreover, the ferial office, with which they were unfamiliar, did not nourish their personal devotion. Accordingly, the following year (5th July 1883), Leo XIII. published a general indult giving leave to all priests and religious communities to recite as semi- doubles on ferias, excepting the concluding days of Advent and Lent, a votive office belonging to the day of the week ; the office of the Angels on Monday, of the Holy Apostles on Tuesday, of St. Joseph on Wednesday, of the Blessed Sacrament on Thursday, of the Passion on Friday, and of the Immaculate Con- ception on Saturday. Finally, in 1897 the same pope had inserted among the general rubrics an abstract of the decisions of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, hitherto difficult of access. These corrections and modifications have been worked into the text of the rubrics, and can only be discovered by comparing the new editions of the Breviary with the old. Roman Breviary in Nineteeyith Century 235 Conclusion 1. Here we bring to a close the history of the Roman Breviary, and the modifications and changes it has undergone during the course of centuries, and we may ask ourselves if there is any chance of a new revision in the immediate or more remote future? Some likelihood of it may be inferred from the fact that Leo XIII. in 1902 instituted a commission for the study of questions relating to the history of the liturgy. The alterations made in the rubrics by the pope in 1897 do not seem to answer to the desiderata frequently expressed since St. Pius V., and more especially under Benedict XIV. and at the Vatican Council. It is unfortunate that something was not done towards reinstating the ferial office, that the permission to recite the votive offices almost entirely frustrated the object Leo XIII. had in view; and it is unfortunate also that no new distribution of the psalter has been agreed on, in order to do away with monotony, and to reduce the length of the office for certain ferias, and especially for Sundays. With a view to shortening some of the offices, it might well be suitable to cut down some of the legends of the second nocturn, especially in the offices of more modern saints. Their burden has become especially pressing since the decree limiting the transference of feasts when the legend of the saint replaces the ninth lection, for often two or three 236 The Roman Breviary lections are run into one, each of them being as long as three ordinary lections. In respect of the extracts from the Fathers, atten- tion should be paid to certain criticisms and studies recently published. " In the majority of the offices added in our own days," says Dom Morin, 1 " it does not seem as if great care had been taken to select from sermons and homilies only such passages as are authentic. Thus, for example, in spite of its repeated revisions, the office, dogmatically so important, of the Immaculate Conception, has for the lessons of its second nocturn a passage from the famous composition, Cogitis me, attributed to St. Jerome, although the learned of the ninth century had already entertained doubts of its authenticity, and all critics without exception, from Baronius' time, have rejected it as manifestly apocryphal. It is, in fact, a pious fraud of the learned abbot Ambrosius Autpert, one of the writers who have had the greatest influence on the development of Marian doctrine before Charlemagne." " As the Roman church continues to make use of these passages," adds Dom Morin, " they receive from this an authority to which their origin gives them no claim. This authority I, as a good Catholic, revere, and expressly leave out of the question in this study." The article referred to extends over eight pages, full of critical observations upon the offices the recital 1 "Les Legons apocryphes du Breviaire romain," article in the Revue Benedictine in 1891, p. 271. Roman Breviary in Nineteenth Century 237 of which is obligatory throughout the whole Latin Church. As the Roman calendar becomes more and more filled, owing to new canonizations, the time will come when necessity will require some sort of selection to be made in confining the office to the better-known saints, or to those more famous from the power of their intercession or the devotion paid to them by the people. 2. The unity of liturgical tradition would not be affected by this, for, in fact, it has not suffered from those lawful changes through which the office has passed in the course of centuries. M The official prayer-book of the church has remained in its main features the same as prescribed by St. Pius V. Essentially his Breviary was the same as that of Innocent III. and the pontifical chapel of the thirteenth century, which, in its turn, was only an abridgement of the public office recited during the eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries in the Roman basilicas, and the cathedrals of France, Germany, and England. This abridgement had reference only to certain parts, and hence the name Breviarium. Leo 1 1 1, and Charlemagne never dreamed they were reciting any other office, a few additions apart, than that prescribed by St. Gregory the Great or his disciples. The work of Gregory was nothing else than a codification and abridgement of the canonical hours recited during the fourth, fifth, and 238 The Roman Breviary sixth centuries in Rome, throughout Italy, and even in other countries. Thus the canonical hours are a magnificent growth of divine service, the germ of which had been planted in apostolic times : it is the living development of ritual devotions which have their root in the needs of the human heart and in the relations of the man and the Christian with his Creator and Redeemer. 1 We conclude with the following words of Dom Baumer : " The earthly psalmody, or, in other words, the praises of God uttered by the lips of priests and monks, either in their solitary cells or in the choir in church, are but the echo of those eternal songs which the elect, in union with the choirs of saints and angels, sing to the melodies of the heavenly Jerusalem before the throne of the Lamb. May we all find ourselves among the elect, that we may for ever be eternally associated with those choirs of blessed spirits. Here below in our exile let us practise with fervour that which is to be our endless occupation in the realms of bliss in our Father's House." " Ut in omnibus honorificetur Deus, per Jesum Christum, cui est gloria et imperium in ssecula saecu- lorum. Amen." 2 1 Don Baumer, Histoire du Breviaire, vol. ii. p. 420. 8 1 Pet. iv. 11. APPENDIX In the following tables we have aimed at showing the date at which each Saint was inserted in the Roman Breviary, the rank given to his festival, and the variations it has undergone. It is often difficult to give precise dates, and so it has been thought best to divide the history of the Breviary into periods following the divisions of our book. This will sufficiently indicate the progressive development of the cultus of the Saints, the gradual filling up of the calendar until scarcely any room remains for the ferial office, and how the transference of semi-doubles and doubles, which cannot be celebrated on the day on which they fall, has been made impossible. 239 240 Appendix EXPLANATION OF THE FOLLOWING TABLES 1. The Roman figures at the head of each column represent each a period in history : — I. The patristic period, /.fc* Ordo, 5, 37, 56, 60, 119; Clunia- censis, 78 ; Romanus, 56, 67, 73, 76, 90, 96, 100-116 passim, 118. Our Lady, Festivals of, 81-84, 114- 116, 150, 210. Pacomius, St., 19. Paul the Deacon, 75, 90. Paulinus, 31, 43. Pepin, King, 58. Peregrinatio S. Sylvia;, 19, 25, 28, 44, 81. Peter de Luna, 118. Philocalus, 16. Pliny, 7. Popes — Calixtus I. (217-22), 15. Damasus (366-84), 36, 56, 63. Celestine I. (422-32), 31. Gelasius (492-96), 75, 81. Gregory the Great (590-604), 49-55, 59, 72, 73, 75, 79, 197- Honorius I. (625-38), 75. Agatho (678-81), 56. Sergius I. (687-701), 81. Gregory II. (715*37), 57- Stephen (752- ), 58. Adrian I. (772-95), 51. Index 259 Popes {continued) — Leo III. (795-816), 92. Leo IV. (847-55), 60, 83. John XIX. (1024-33), 97. Leo IX. (1048-54), in. Alexander II. (1061-73), 81, in. Gregory VII. (1073-85), 77, 80, 93, 98, 107, in, 201. Innocent II. (1130-43), 100. Alexander III. (1159-81), 106. Innocent III. (119S-1216), 91, 102, 113. Gregory IX. (1227-41), 102, 113. Urban IV. (1261-64), 114. Nicolas III. (1277-S0), 102. Boniface VIII. (1294-1303), 114. John XXII. (1316-34), in. Clement VI. (1342-52), 119. Gregory XI. (1370-78), 102, 105. Urban VI. (1378-89), 114, 118. Benedict XIII. (1394-1424), 117. Nicolas V. (1447-55), 120, 121. Calixtus III. (1455-58), 115, 121. Pius II. (1458-64), 121. Paul II. (1464-71), 115. Sixtus IV. (1471-84), 112, 122. Julius II. (1503-1513), 121. Leo X. (1513-21), 121, 122, 123. Clement VII. (1523-34), 124, 138. Paul III. (1534-49), 129, 139, 151. Paul IV. (1555-59), 124, 131, 138-141, 160. Pius IV. (1559-65), 136, 142. Pius V. (1566-72), 125, 135- 172, 182. Gregory XIII. (1572-85), 149, 165, 173-175. Sixtus V. (1585-90). 174-178. Gregory XIV. (1590-91), 174- 178. Clement VIII. (1592-1605), 151, 159, 160, 164, 174, 178-183. PaulV. (1605-21), 182. Gregory XV. (1621-23), 183. Popes {continued) — Urban VIII. (1623-44), 133, 151, 183-189. Innocent X. (1644-55), I 9°- Alexander VII. (1655-67), 190. Clement IX. (1667-69), 190. Clement X. (1670-76), 190. Clement XII. (1730-40), 204. Benedict XIV. (1740-58), 182, 192, 204, 206-219. Clement XIII. (1758-69). 221. Clement XIV. (1769-74), 222. Pius VI. (1775-99), 222. Pius VII. (1800-23), 227. Leo XII. (1823-29), 227. Pius VIII. (1829-30), 227. Gregory XVI. (1831-46), 228. Pius IX. (1846-78), 226, 228, 231. Leo XIII. (1878-1903), 151, 232. Prayers, 70, 105, ill, 113. Preces feriales, 65, 67, 154. Presentation, 84. Proper for each country, 172. Propriwn de Tempore, 78, no, ill, 119, 146, 157-161, 186, 217. Propriwn Sanctonwi, 78, 186. Psalms, Gradual, 70, 105, 113, 120, 153, 163; Penitential, 70, 105 113, 120, 153, 163. Psalter, text of the, 36, 62, 71, 78, 102, 107, 156. Psalteriuvi per Hebdo7nadam^ 41 65-67, 161, 186. Purification, 81. Putta of Rochester, 52. Quignonez, Cardinal, 48, 125-132, 135-137, 138, 147, 159. Rabanus Maurus, 68. Raoul of Tongres, 101, 103, io6 ) 108, in, 124. Recitation of the Office, 38, 112, 124, 125, 126, 128, 138, 147, 192. Religious Orders, 164, 187. Responds, 49, 84, 87, 92, 107, 11S, 120, 127, 157. Responsory, the. 54, 86, 95. 260 Index Rites, Congregation of, 2, 151, 177, 179, i86, 234. Robert the Pious, 92. Robinet, 199. Rubrics, 138, 151, 178, 181. Sacramentary, 54 ; Gelasian, 83. Santeuil, 194, 199. Satuminus of Toulouse, St., 10. Schism of the West, 48 ; effects of, 117-121. Script ura, occurrente de, 157. Sequences and tropes, 98. Shepherd of Hennas, 11. Silvia, St., 19, 25, 28, 44, 81. Socrates the historian, 32. Sorbonne, 129, 167. Stephen of Liege, 80. Suffrages, 70, 90, 105. Sulpicians, 225. Sunday Offices, 119, 126, 137, 180, 190, 196, 205, 207, 209, 218. Synods : of Milan, 165 ; of Trier, 112 ; of Elvira, II, 44. Te Deum, 107, no, 113. Tertullian, 8-10, 16. Theatines, 124. 137-141. Theodore of Mopsuestia, 33. Theodoret, 33. Thomas Aquinas, St., 114. Thomassin, 38, 193. Tommasi, Blessed, 106, 127. Valenti, 206. Vatican Council, 229. Versicles, 23, 2>^ t 127. Vigier, Fr., 197. Vigils, 11, 13, 19-22, 27-30, 34, 40, 44, 54, 64, 107. Votive Office, 234. Vulgate, 175. Walafrid Strabo, 62, 68. Wilfrid, St., 56. printed and published by the catholic truth society, 69 south wark bridge road, london, s.e. HUB NiSH iillH mm Ban wm ■ BB9 1111111 3BH SKSra H H BUI HmhS HI 11 Mi ^h ^H fl ^^^^K IBB Bag! «1 &s5fiH&^^uBs BnHi lillllliil |H |||g|