Volume 1

A dictionary of Christian antiquities : being a continuation of the 'Dictionary of the Bible' / edited by William Smith and Samuel Cheetham ; illustrated by engravings on wood.

Date:: [between 1890 and 1899?]

Credit: A dictionary of Christian antiquities : being a continuation of the 'Dictionary of the Bible' / edited by William Smith and Samuel Cheetham ; illustrated by engravings on wood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

991/1096 (page 971)

$tion with memories refreshed. When the daily services were reduced to order, the martyrology was appointed to be read in choir, at the end of Prime, after the Orison (Oratio) which is fol- lowed by the usual “ Benedicamus Domino,” R. Deo gi'atias; the lection which contains the memorials of the saints for the next day being read. The lection is followed by the Verse and Eesponse. V. Pretiosa in conspectu Domini. R. Mors sanctorum ejus ; and a few prayers. From a MS. appendix to the Roman Respon- sorial and Antiphonary, which is considered to be of the 9th centuiy, it appears that the passion and acts of a saint w^ere only read in the churches dedicated to that saint (ubi ipsius tihclus erat) until the time of pope Adrian 1. a.d. 772. This reading of the martyrology with the prayers which follow it is usually considered a distinct ollice fi’om Prime, and known as officium capitulare. In many churches it was said in a ditfeient place. Thus in the old statutes of the church of Paris: “ Thence {i.e. from the choir after Prime) they go into the chapter ^house, [or possibly another chapel in the church], where, after the reading of the acts of the saints, and the diptychs of the deceased, let prayers be made for their repose.” [Inde in capitulum progrediuntur, ubi gestis sanctorum et diptychis defunctorum perlectis, fiant preces pro eorum requiem.] Again in the rite of Avranches: “ Prime ended, let the brothers assemble in the chapter house, and let the lection of the Martyrology be read, lest any festival of a saint which should be celebrated on the morrow be omitted through inadvertence.” [Prima finite, in capitulum conveniant fratres, Martyrologii lectio legatur; ue aliqua sancti festivitas in crastino celebranda negligenter omittatur.] So also the old ritual of St. Martin at Tours. Chrodegang, bishop of Metz, a.d. 742, introduced the practice into his chapter among his reforms. On the other hand the martyrology was often read in choir, not in chapter. This was directed by the old ordi- nari'im of Senlis, which, after directions for the office of Prime, proceeds : “ After the aforesaid orison the calendar « (calenda) is read by one of the boys, and terminates thus: and of all the many other holy martyrs and confessors and virgins. Then the anniversary which is con- tained in the Martyrology is announced.” So also the ordinarium of the Cathedral of Tours. “Thenfollows the lection from the martyrology, read in cAo/rwdtha sufficiently loud voice . . . . A boy says ‘ Jvbe, Vomine, benedicere’ The priest gives the bent diction,'^ and after the reading of the lection is to say “ Pretiosa in conspectu, &c. After this a boy is to announce the anni- vei’sary which is to be celebrated on the following day. The reading of the Martyrology in chapter appears to have been limited to the more im- portant monastic houses and colleges of canons, and usually in connexion with the reading of the mde of the house, which by the council of Aix la Chapelle (a.d. 817) was directed to be bound in >» Locus in quern conveniunt Iklonachi et Canonici, sic dictum, inquit Papias, quod tapitula ibi legantur(Du- cange in loco). [Ciiaptek-housk, I. 349.j ' I. e. the list of names for the day. d I.e. the appointed benedictory formula before the lection. one volume with the martyrology. The custom gradually died out (it had ceased at St. Martin’s at Tours in the 15th century) ; and in the printed breviaries, monastic as well as secular, the officium capitulare is printed so as to form part of Prime without any break. In a decree of the Congregation of Rites (10 Jun. 1690. Meratus in Ind. Deer. Brev. 163) we find the following ruling:— “ After what has been said, the hour of Prime is terminated when ‘Benedicamus Domino’ is said, and what follows is only a sort of appen- dix ; whence it appears, that in the same manner as the church here inserts daily the reading of the Martyrology, and Prime of the Blessed Virgin, when this is to be said, so anything else may be inserted ; though we do not recommend that this should be done, because what is now supplemented is considered to complete Prime as it w'ere [Primam veluti integrare],® or to be an additional part of it.” In addition to the readings at Prime, on fes- tivals with three nocturns, the lessons of the second nocturn are as a rule taken from the acts of the saint of the day. The custom of reading at nocturns such acta as W’ere worthy of credit is thought to have grow'u up in the 8th century; that of reading them in the liturgy much earlier, as has been already stated. They were read before the epistle and briefly recapitulated in the preface. In the course of the liturgy, the bi.shop ascended the chair (cathedram conscendente) and gave an explanation of them, which was the origin of the sei*mons of the Fathers in honour of the martyrs (see, inter alia, S. August. Sermo 2, de S. Steph.'). This custom was kept up in France till the 9th century, and in Spain till beyond the 10th; and the acts w^ere inserted in the sacramentaries and missals of both countries.^ They were never inserted in the Roman, as appears from the Gelasian and Gregorian sacra- mentaries and missals, which make but spare and cautious mention of the martyrs and their suflerings in the preface alone. Among Latin martyrologies, those compiled by Bede, and by the Benedictine menk Usuardus, in the 9th century, may be mentioned. The Gi’eek equivalent to the martyrology is the menology (firjvoXoyiovf so called because its contents are arranged according to months. The lection for the day is called the “ synaxarion ” (awa^dpiov'), and is inserted at full length in the menaea (which contains the variable parts of the office, and so in some measure correspond to the proprium Sanctorum of the Latin brevi- aries) after the sixth ode of the canon for the day said at Lauds. It is introduced by its proper stichos, nearly always two iambic lines, con- taining some allusion to the saint or play upon his name, followed by a hexameter line, of the * /. e. to fill up the measure of. Compare Lucretius, i. 1031. f The Mozarabic Missal V still disJinguisbed for the variety and length of its prefaces, called lUatio-es. They vary with each mass, and that for St Vincent, for ex- ample, occupies more ihan three closely-printed quarto columns, and one and a half or nearly two columns of the same type is a frequent length. The prefaces of the old Gallican Missal, called Iianiolatioiies or Contestationes, are as varied as the Mozarabic, but as a rule consider ably shorter. [Peeface.]$