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.

996/1096 (page 976)

$Orleans, in whose Oipitulaie (c. 41, supra) it is ordained that all, save excommunicate ])ersons, shall communicate on every Sunday in Lent. (Cf. also Augustine, Serin. 141 in Append, c. 5, vol. V. 2715.) 4. Liturgical Notices.—The earliest Roman sacramentary, the Leonine, is unfortunately de- fective in the part where Lent would occur, and we therefore tirst notice the references in the Gelasiansacramentary(/^ai/'o/. Ixxiv. 1064 sqq.). This, in the form in which we now have it, has prefixed to the services for Lent an ordo agentibus puhlicam poenitentiam (c. 16), wherein it is ordained that the penitent be taken early on the morning of Ash Wednesday, clothed in sackcloth, and put in seclusion till Maundy Thursday, when he is reconciled. Then follow the forms for the week from Quinquagesima to the fol- lowing Sunday, provision being made for the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, viewed as preliminary to, but as yet not Ibrming part of. Lent. Thus in the Secreta of the first Sunday in Lent, we find “ Sacrificium Domini, quadra- gesimalis initii solemniter immolamus ” Services are given for all the Sundays in Lent, and for all the week-days except Thursday [save only in the case of Maundy Thursday]. In the Micrologus (/. c.), Melchiades, bishop of Rome (ob. A.D. 314) is credited with the order that the Thursdays in Lent should not be observed as fasting days. As we have above remarked, the same authority speaks of Gregory 11. as having been the first to require the Thursdays to be observed like the other days of Lent. After the forms for the first week is given that for the first sabbath of the first month “ in xii. lect. mense primo,” which is followed by forms for ordination. The mass for the third Sunday bears the heading, “ Quae pro scrutiniis electorum (i.e. for baptisTn) celebratur.” In the Canon mention is to be made of the names of those who are to act as sponsors for those about to be baptized, and afterwai-ds the names of these latter themselves. The fourth Sunday is headed, “pro scrutinio secundo,” with the recitations of names as before, as also on the fifth Sunday. After this are given the various forms requi.site for baptism, and the attendant rites, ad faciendum catechumenum, henedictio sails, exorcism, etc., with the setting forth of the creed (Greek and Latin), and the Lord's Prayer. It may be noted finally that Palm Sunday beaFs the further head- ing De Passione Pornin , a title which in the Gre- gorian sacramentary is given to the previous Sunday. For details as to the week from thence to Easter (the real Passion-week, though this name, by an imitation of Roman usage, is often, with infinitely less point, applied to the preceding week), reference may be made to the special article [Holy Wkek]. In the Gregorian Sacramentary, after forms for Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima, comes the mass for Ash Wednesday (col. 35, ed. Menard). It is headed Feria iv.. Caput Jejunii, the latter words, however, are wanting in one of the best MSS., the Cd. Leg. Suec., a fact which has a bearing on the que.stion as to Gregory the Great having been the first to add on the four ecclesiastics a.ssembling together from the neiKhboiiring churches, and “ per sanctorum Biisilicas ambulantes. {Concil. Bracar. lii. [a.d. 572], can. 9, Labbe, v. «98.) days at the beginning of Lent, a tfiew which we considered his own words already cited rendered very improbable. It may further be noted that while this sacramentary provides services for every day from Ash Wednesday to Easter, there is no trace of the word Quadragesima till the first Sunday, the previous Saturday, e. g., being Sabhatum intra Quin/uagesimam. In the Ambrosian Liturgy, the service for Quinquagesima is immediately followed by that for “ Dominica in capita Quadragesimae ” (Pa- melius, Liturgg, Latt. i. 324). The services for the week days in this liturgy are the same as in the Gregorian. The Sundays after the first bear the following names, from the subjects of the Gospels, (2) Dominica de Samaritan, (3) de Abraham, (4) de Caeco, (5) de Lazam, [to the Saturday in this week is the heading in traditione Symbuli, that is, for the approaching baptism], (6) in Paulis olivarum. The ancient Gallican lectionary and missal, edited by Mabillon, make no mention of Septua- gesima. Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima, or of Ash Wednesday. The former gives for the Prophetic Lection and Epistle for the “ Inicium Quadraginsimae ” (s«c) i. e. the first Sunday in Lent, Isaiah Iviii. 1-14, 2 Cor. vi. 2-15. (Mabil- lon, de Liturgia Gallicana, lib. ii. p. 124.) The Gospel is unknown, as well as all the lections for the succeeding days till Palm Sunday, eight leaves of the MS. being wanting. The numbers, however, prefixed to the sets of lections shew that the missing ones correspond exactly with the number of Sundays in Lent, with nothing for any week day. For Palm Sunday the Prophe- tic Lection, Epistle and Gospel, are respectively Jeremiah xxxi... .34 [the beginning is unknown, owing to the gap in the MS.], Heb. ii. 3-34, John xii. 1-24. In the Gothico-Gallic missal are seven masses in all for the season of Lent, the first being headed “ in initium Quadraginsimae {op. cit. p. 228), follow'ed by four headed “ Missa jejunii,” and these by one “Missa in Quad.” The seventh is a “ Missa in Symbuli traditione ” (cf. op. cit., infra, p. 338 sqq.). Probably the two last masses are both for Palm Sunday; and these are followed by one for Maundy Thursday. As regards the mass “ in Sy nbuli traditione ” it will have been observed that the Ambrosian liturg}' orders the creed to be communicated to the catechumens on the previous Saturday. Palm Sunday was the time ordinarily chosen in Spain and Gaul (cf. Isidore, de Fccles. Off. i. 37. 4; IPitrol. Ixxxiii. 772: also Conril. Agath. [a.d. 506], can. 13; Labbe, iv. 1385), where eight days is fixed as the period before baptism when the creed is to be imparted. Leslie (pp. cit. 283) speaks of the above name as given to the fourth Sunday in Lent, but only cites a canon of the third council of Ilraga, which fixes the interval as twenty days (Conctl. Brae. iii. [a.d. 572], can. 1 ; Labbe, v. 896). According to Isidore {1. c.), Palm Sunday was called capiti- lavi'im, because the children’s heads were then washed with a view to the approaching Easter baptism. In the Mozarabic liturgy, as we now have it, Sundays are reckoned up to the eighth after the octave of the Epiphany, followed by the “ Dominica ante diem Cineris,” and this by “ feria iv. in Capite jejunii.” It is cleai’, how-$