Chapter I: The Church’s Year (5)

According to this document a procession from Jerusalem to Bethlehem took place on the eve, returning in the early morning. After a time for rest, the service commenced about the second hour of the day in the great church on Golgotha, which was richly decorated. At the conclusion of the function the faithful proceeded to the church of the Anastasis, and, about the sixth hour, or twelve o’clock, the festival was at an end. In the evening vespers (_lucernare_) were sung. On the second and third days service was held in the same church, on the fourth day in the church called Eleona on the Mount of Olives, on the fifth day in the _Lazarium_, the grave of Lazarus in Bethania, on the sixth day in Sion, on the seventh day in the church of the Anastasis, on the eighth day in the church of the Holy Cross. Thus both in Jerusalem and in Bethlehem the feast lasted eight days—a kind of octave.

In the Eastern Churches the day is further distinguished by the solemn blessing of the water, mentioned by Chrysostom and intended to recall the miracle at Cana. This is a very popular festival, but in many places has been stripped of its religious character; it is performed by the clergy going in procession to the sea or to a river, reciting a prayer, and then throwing a crucifix into the water which is fetched out again by swimmers and takes place on the 18th January (old style).

With regard to the antiquity and spread of the feast, it was unknown in North Africa during the third century, for Tertullian makes no reference to it, and even in the time of St Augustine it was rejected by the Donatists as an Oriental novelty.[385] In Origen’s time, at least, it was not generally observed as a festival in Alexandria, since he does not reckon it as such. For Rome, evidence is wanting for the earliest times, but since the daughter Church of North Africa knew nothing of the festival at first, it may be inferred that originally it was not kept at Rome but was introduced there in the course of time. In Spain, it was a feast-day in 380, in Gaul, in 361, and there is evidence of its existence in Thrace as early as 304.[386] In the East it generally held the place of Christmas as our Lord’s birth-day,[387] and as such it had already, as early as the first half of the third century, become domiciled in the Church, as is shown by the recently published _Testamentum Jesu Christi_, where it is twice named as a high festival along with Easter and Pentecost.[388] In the Roman Empire, as early as A.D. 400, Epiphany was one of the days on which games in the circus were forbidden by law. Not until Justinian’s[389] time were the law courts closed[390] on this day also.

5. _The Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary_

(CANDLEMAS)

By the mosaic law, every mother, after giving birth to a son, remained unclean for seven days, in the first instance, and then, for thirty-three days longer, was excluded from participation in public worship. After the birth of a daughter the period of ceremonial uncleanness was twice as long. Thus the whole period lasted for forty or eighty days, and at its conclusion the woman had to bring a yearling lamb for a holocaust and a pigeon for a sin-offering. In case of poverty, two young pigeons or turtle-doves sufficed as an offering (Lev. xii. 2-8). According to the narrative in the Gospels, Mary, after the birth of Jesus, fulfilled the commands of this law and brought the prescribed offering to the Temple on the fortieth day, on which occasion the meeting with Simeon and Anna took place (St Luke ii. 22 _et seqq._).

Our Blessed Lady and her divine Son, in the first place, and, secondarily, Simeon and Anna are the actors in this scene, and it would have been strange had this event not been commemorated very early among the Church’s festivals.

The first reference to such a commemoration belongs to the last decades of the fourth century and comes from Jerusalem. It is contained in the diary of the so-called Silvia. The day was ushered in by a solemn procession, followed by a sermon on St Luke ii. 22 _seqq._, and a Mass. It had as yet no special name, but was known merely as the fortieth day after the Epiphany. This goes to prove that at that time the Epiphany was regarded in Jerusalem as the day of the Lord’s birth, and it follows indirectly from the expressions used (_hic_) that the festival was not yet known in the Pilgrim’s home.[391]

It seems probable that the festival was first of all observed in Jerusalem from whence it spread through out the whole Church. The person by whom, and the time when it was first introduced into Constantinople and the Byzantine empire, are known to us. A plague having caused frightful mortality, the Emperor Justinian, as soon as it had passed away, ordered the Purification to be observed for the first time in 542.[392] The contradictory evidence in Georgius Hamartolus and Nicephorus[393] that it was the Emperor Justin, Justinian’s predecessor, who introduced the festival and ordered it to be observed throughout the world, seems due simply to a confusion between the two emperors. In any case the spread of the feast throughout a wider area dates from this time.

The name by which the festival was known, now that it was widely adopted in different districts, was “The Meeting,” in Greek _Hypapante_, in Latin _Occursus Domini_, in reference to the meeting between the Child Jesus and Simeon and Anna; it may be that this festival was introduced at Rome in consequence of Justinian’s commands, but no evidence to that effect is extant. As far as Rome is concerned, it appears in the Gelasian sacramentary with the new name of _Purificatio_, and as a feast of our Blessed Lady, without any mention of a procession.[394] Pope Sergius I. (687-701) ordained, however, a procession on this as on the other principal festivals of Our Lady. In the passage in question of the _Liber Pontificalis_, the festival has the remarkable name of St Simeon’s Day, “which the Greeks call Hypapante,” which seems to show that the festival had not yet been well established in Rome. Moreover, the 2nd February was observed among the Greeks as the actual day of Simeon’s death, because in his canticle he had said, “_Now_ Thou dost dismiss Thy servant ... in peace.”[395] That the festival was only introduced at a late date in many places in the West is proved by the fact that in the Lectionary of Silos, the oldest belonging to the Spanish Church, and dating about 650, it does not appear. The same is the case with regard to the Calendar of St Geneviève in Paris (731-741) published by Fronteau.

Formerly the general opinion was that it had been introduced in Rome by Pope Gelasius I. in order that he might replace the heathen _Lupercalia_, with their midnight torch processions and disorderly proceedings, by a popular Christian festivity. This opinion[396] cannot be maintained in the face of the facts referred to above. The _Lupercalia_ indeed fell on the 15th February, which also happened to be the day on which this festival was originally kept in Jerusalem, but the Gallic pilgrim makes no mention of lights carried in the procession. Again, processions, with or without lights, were so common both among the Christians and heathen of the early Christian era, that any connection between the procession on Candlemas Day and the _Lupercalia_ cannot be inferred.

The _Invitatorium_ (_Gaude et lætare, Jerusalem, occurrens Deo tuo_), and the preface, which is that for Christmas, show that originally the feast was rather a festival of Our Lord than of Our Lady. The collect for the day speaks of the presentation of the Lord in the Temple alone, and the antiphons for the most part refer to the same event, while the psalms are those of Our Lady’s feasts. The Gospel for the day (St Luke ii. 22-23), the same now as in the fourth century, chronologically speaking, precedes the Gospel for the previous Sunday. For the Sunday after Christmas has St Luke ii. 33-40 for its Gospel, which relates the return of the Holy Family from Judæa to Galilee.

6. _The Sundays of the Church’s Year as forming connecting-links between the principal Feasts_

During the age of the persecutions it was scarcely possible for Christians to observe any other festival than Sunday, and so it is not surprising that the two writers, who have occasion to speak of the institution of the festivals of the Church, mention only Easter and Pentecost, both of which fall on Sundays. To these Christmas was added in the fourth century, and Epiphany somewhat earlier. These chief festivals, along with others soon added to their number, formed the elements for the organisation of a festal system in the Church, as centres round which the lesser festivals grouped themselves.

The last step of importance, however, in this development of the Church’s year was to connect these chief festivals with one another, so as to make them parts of a whole. The Sundays afforded a convenient means for effecting this. They were associated with the festal character of the nearest feast and were connected with it as links in a chain. The way for this development had been prepared by the season of preparation before Easter, and by the relation in which Easter stood to Pentecost. The Sundays of Lent had their own character as a preparation for Easter, and the Sundays in the fifty days between Easter and Pentecost—Quinquagesima—were marked by the festal character with which antiquity invested the whole period. All that was needed was, first of all, to connect Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, and, in the second place, the institution of a season of preparation before Christmas. This was accomplished between the sixth and the eighth centuries.

During the first six centuries, the ordinary Sundays of the year had neither liturgical position or character, since they were not even enumerated. There was a sort of _commune dominicarum_, _i.e._, a number of masses existed from which one could be chosen at will for each Sunday. To these Sundays, which were called simply _dominicæ quotidianæ_, those after Epiphany and Pentecost belonged.

They numbered altogether twenty-nine or thirty, according as the Calendar gave fifty-two or fifty-three Sundays in the year. For the sum of the days of the year, 365, divided by seven makes fifty-two and one over, and so the year which commences on a Sunday has fifty-three Sundays, the others only fifty-two. The smaller number of these, six at most, come between Epiphany and Septuagesima, but the larger, twenty-three to twenty-eight, between Whitsunday and Advent. The variation depends upon the date of Easter. There is no historical circumstance forthcoming to give these Sundays a specially festal character. With Pentecost the commemoration of Our Lord’s redemptive acts concludes, and it was not the custom in the West to include events from Church history in the cycle of feasts, although the East celebrated a few, as, for example, the General Councils.

With regard to the Roman rite in particular, there are no special masses for the Sundays after Easter and Pentecost in the Leonine sacramentary. A further development appears in the Gelasian sacramentary, where the Sundays in Lent and those between Easter and Pentecost alone have a clearly defined liturgical character, and keep their special place in the Calendar. For the remaining Sundays of the year, there was a choice of only sixteen masses, which are not in the first book of the Gelasian sacramentary containing the course for the year (_anni circulus_, i.e., _Proprium de tempore_), but at the commencement of the third book. Along with the masses for week-days and masses for special occasions, they form the contents of this volume. The masses for Advent, however, strange to say, are contained in the second book, thus out of chronological order.

In the Gregorian sacramentary, at the end of the eighth century, the Church’s year has the same form as at the present day, with the sole exception that the Sundays in Advent come at the end, instead of, as at the present time, at the beginning of the Missal. This is due to the fact that Christmas was then usually regarded as the commencement of the year.

In the construction of the ecclesiastical year, the Gallic and Spanish Churches followed the Roman. The Mozarabic breviary has five Sundays in Advent, but they stand at the beginning. They are in the same position in the _Liber Responsalis sive Antiphonarius_, contained in a Codex of Compiègne belonging to the ninth century, and falsely attributed to Gregory the Great.[397]

The Gregorian sacramentary simply numbers the Sundays consecutively after Pentecost, but in the Frankish lectionaries there are signs of an attempt to separate the Sundays after Pentecost into groups—Sundays after SS. Peter and Paul, Sundays after St Lawrence, etc.—but the custom was afterwards abandoned.

In France, this division of the Sundays after Pentecost seems to have been general in the eighth century. The _Homilarium_ of Charlemagne divides them as follows:—

{ Four Sundays after Epiphany.
{ Three Sundays after Pentecost.
{ Seven Sundays after SS. Peter and Paul (Post Natale Apostolorum).
22 { Five Sundays after St Lawrence.
{ The September Ember Week (Feria iv., vi., et sabb. et Dominica).
{ Six Sundays after St Michael, 29th Sept. (Post S. Angeli).

The _Kalendarium Frontonis_ divides them thus:—

{ Two Sundays after Pentecost.
{ Six Sundays after SS. Peter and Paul (Post Natale Apostolorum).
19 { Four Sundays after St Lawrence.
{ Seven Sundays after St Cyprian (Post S. Cypriani).

This gives only nineteen after Pentecost, and so the _Kalendarium Frontonis_ has ten Sundays after Epiphany until Septuagesima, which must clearly have helped to fill up, when necessary, what was wanting at the end of the year.

The _Comes Albini_ in Ranke (App. iv.) gives:—

Five Sundays after Epiphany.
{ Four Sundays _post Pentecosten_.
{ Five Sundays _post natale SS. Apostolorum_.
21 { Five Sundays _post natale S. Laurentii_.
{ One _Dominica mensis septimi_.
{ Six Sundays _post S. Angeli_ _scil._ _dedicationem basilicæ S.
Archangeli_ (_Michælis_).
Four Sundays in Advent.

The Gregorian sacramentary, written for Mainz under Archbishop Otgar about 840, has six Sundays after Epiphany, four _post Pentecosten_, then six _post natale Apostolorum_, six more _post natale S. Laurentii_ and eight _post S. Archangeli_—in all, twenty-four.

The Lectionary of Luxeuil of the seventh century stands alone in giving merely two Sundays _post Theophaniam_, and three _post Cathedram S. Petri_. The Sundays in Lent as well as Septuagesima are not marked in any special way. The first of these peculiarities is less remarkable since, even in the Gelasian sacramentary, the Sundays after Epiphany are not given a distinctive name. All these attempts to split up the Sundays into small groups were subsequently abandoned, and the simple manner of enumeration found in the Roman rite was adopted. A careful observer will have noticed that the year is divided into two very unequal parts. The movable feasts all fall in the first half, leaving the second half devoid of festivals. Even the week-days in Lent, and in the octaves of Easter and Pentecost, are each provided with special lections and masses. Without doubt this is due to the fact that in the earliest times the entire season before Easter was occupied with the instruction of Catechumens. The necessity of providing them with as much instruction as possible led to this increased liturgical activity. It appears almost as if the abandonment of the Catechumenate resulted in a decrease of this activity, and brought matters to a standstill. A long period elapsed before any fresh efforts were made in the direction of completing the course of the ecclesiastical year.

The Greeks have stopped short with their ecclesiastical year only half made. They have a fairly complete cycle of Easter festivals, and they have adopted Christmas, but without its proper setting since they have no Advent. But their manner of enumerating the Sundays after Pentecost is very different from that adopted in the West. That is to say, they name the Sundays after the passages of Scripture read in the Gospel for the day.

From Easter to Whitsunday, the Gospels for Sundays and other days are taken from St John; from the Sunday after Pentecost to the exaltation of the Holy Cross (14th September), from St Matthew; and for the following fifteen weeks from St Luke. The former Sundays are called Sundays after St Matthew, the latter, Sundays after St Luke. The latter extend over the New Year and Epiphany—for no notice is taken of Advent in the lections. St Mark’s Gospel supplies lections for most of the Saturdays and Sundays of Lent, as well as for a number of week-days throughout the course of the year. But the Sundays in question are not called Sundays after St Mark, any more than the Sundays between Easter and Pentecost are called Sundays after St John; but they take their names partly from their position as Sundays in Lent and partly from the incidents related in the Gospel for the day. In the Eastern system the connection between the Sundays and the festivals is purely external and not organic.[398]

In speaking of the ecclesiastical year of the Greeks and Orientals, it must be borne in mind that they do not possess the same quantity of formularies for the Mass as we do, but, throughout the course of the year, they employ only two or three. The result is monotony, and it is practically only the Gospel for the day in which the festal character of the celebration finds expression. Among the Latins, on the other hand, the introit, collect, etc., all emphasise the character of the feast, and still more clearly the lections from Scripture. On this account, a few remarks as to their origin and that of the lections in the Breviary may not be out of place.

Evidence for the earliest period is lacking, but there is no doubt the choice of what was to be read rested with the bishop and that he also fixed the length of the lections. In certain cases, and for many days, the choice presented no difficulty, the lections being determined by the character of the feast itself. We can, for example, determine the lections for a number of days used in the fourth century in Jerusalem. Several of them agree with those now in use.[399] Very early, a series of lections for the canonical hours must have been drawn up for use in monasteries, and then this in its turn influenced the lections in the liturgy. In the Middle Ages, it was thought that St Jerome was the originator of such a series of lections, and accordingly the lectionary was called by his name. It is certain that a lectionary existed as early as the fifth century, for which the so-called _Carta Cornutiana_ affords proof.[400]

When we examine more closely the order of lections, we notice they do not harmonise with the ideas presented by the different parts of the ecclesiastical year, as now existing, but they do agree with the form which it took in the earliest stages of its development. The consequence is that the lections are appropriately chosen for the pascal season and for Whitsuntide, but do not fit in with the festal character of Advent and the Christmas cycle. As we have said, the ecclesiastical year began originally with the preparation for Easter, _i.e._ Lent. The lections from the five books of Moses which start with Septuagesima were then in their proper place, treating as they do of the fall and the divine scheme for man’s restoration.

C. OTHER INCIDENTS IN THE CHURCH’S YEAR

1. _The Embertides_

The Embertides[401] are peculiar to the Western or Roman Church. In Rome they have been observed from the earliest times, and so Leo the Great was inclined to ascribe to them an apostolic origin. This Pope connects them with the four seasons of the year,[402] and gives them a special signification in as much as we then give God due honour and praise for the gifts He gives us to support our bodily life. Again, they move us to make a good use of the gifts thus bestowed, to abstain from superfluities, and to impart our gifts generously to those in need. We must neither murmur over the fewness of some gifts, nor be discontented with the excess of others, as may even sometimes happen. God’s will should be our will.[403] The Embertides in general, but especially that of December, he directly connects with agriculture and the harvest (_ut omnium fructum collectione conclusa_, etc., _Sermo 16_, c. 2); and the earliest liturgies[404] contain prayers for the same purpose; such indications as these give us the clue to the origin of these fasts. By them practices originally heathen have assumed a Christian form and character. The Romans, originally, were compelled to be an agricultural people, and their gods were for the most part deities who presided over agriculture, as Tertullian early remarked (Sterculus, Epona, Mutunus, etc.), and their worship was closely connected with the stages of cultivation. The chief incidents were accompanied by religious ceremonies and usages. A blessing was asked on the sowing of the seed at the _feriæ sementivæ_, observed between the end of November and the Winter solstice, _i.e._ in December. At the time of harvest, the _feriæ messis_ were celebrated, and at the vintage, the _feriæ vindemiales_.[405]

With the fact that the heathen worship of Rome recognised three sorts of such _feriæ_ observed thrice in the year (no evidence of a fourth being forthcoming), agrees a passage in the _Liber Pontificalis_, which has long been regarded as the earliest evidence for the observance of Embertides, though it fell short of absolute proof. The passage states that Calixtus (217-222) ordained a fast on three Saturdays in the year.[406] The number corresponds well with the three sets of heathen _feriæ_ mentioned above. As St Leo speaks of four fasts of this kind yearly in the fifth century, the fourth fast, corresponding to the fourfold division of the year, must have been added in the course of the fourth century. It may be that the passage, Zacharias viii. 19, referring to a Jewish custom of sanctifying by a fast the four seasons of the year, helped to bring this about.

All four Embertides are mentioned in the sermon of Leo the Great, and both the Leonine and Gelasian sacramentaries agree in marking Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday as the days to be observed as fasts.[407] Pope Gelasius[408] appointed that ordinations of priests and deacons were to be held on all Embertides, and in the middle of Lent, whereas in St Leo’s time the ordination of priests took place at Easter only.[409]

The Ember fasts were called _jejunium primi, quarti, septimi et decimi mensis_, in the earliest service-books, and fell in March, June, September, and December. The week in each of the aforesaid months, in which the Ember fast was to be observed, appears not to have been definitely fixed in earlier days.

If the opinion of Morin is correct, this would agree with the fact that the harvest feast was not fixed for any day in particular, but was determined by the pontiffs in each case. However, it remained for a long period undetermined whether the first Embertide should be observed before or during the course of Lent, and also in which week of Advent the last Embertide should fall. The present arrangement, according to the Micrologus[410] was first made by Gregory VII., _i.e._, the first Embertide to fall in the first week of Lent, the second in Whitsun week, the third in the third week of September, the fourth in the third week in Advent.

According to what has been said the Ember fasts were distinctively Roman in origin, and indeed belonged to the city of Rome, and the Roman bishops by repeated injunctions ordered their colleagues in Italy to adopt them in the first instance. In Gaul and in the Christian districts of Germany, their adoption was due to the patronage given to Roman usages by the Carolingians: in Spain the Ember Days were unknown until the Roman ritual was introduced in the eleventh century, and in Milan they were introduced much later, in fact by St Charles Borromeo.[411] It does not appear from history that the original object of the Ember Days was to petition God to raise up worthy priests in His Church. They are first mentioned in this connection after the popes had appointed them as the fixed times for ordinations. They owe their origin to the agricultural festivals of ancient Rome, as appears plainly from the references of Leo the Great,[412] to the December fast.

In a later age, they lost entirely their early significance and came to be regarded solely as days of penitence and prayer. In the prayers of the actual Roman missal, no trace of their original character is to be found. The Ember masses of Advent refer to the coming of Christ, those of Lent to the suffering caused by sin, and its Atonement, those of Whitsun week to the descent of the Holy Ghost. Where the prayers do not relate to these subjects they contain no special references, or deal only with fasting in general and its necessity. The masses for the September Ember Days alone preserve some traces of their historical origin, in as much as they are principally of a festive character (_Exultate_, etc.), such as might refer to a harvest safely gathered in. But such a connection cannot be proved beyond doubt.

When we go through the prayers in the oldest sacramentaries we find the same thing. The name of Embertide is not indeed employed, and the days are not yet marked as fast-days, but the Saturdays are distinguished, twice in the Gelasian, and on all four Embertides in the Gregorian sacramentary, by having twelve lessons.[413] With regard to the later recensions of these two sacramentaries, the Gelasian contains two formulæ for announcing the Ember fasts to the faithful after the “_Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum_”[414] in the Mass. In the first part, there is a Mass for the three Ember Days of the fourth month, June, and, in the second part, for September and December as well,[415] while the March Ember Days are merely indicated in Nos. XIX. and XX. of the first part. In the Frankish Gregorian sacramentary it is the same; masses are given for March, June, and September but not for December.[416] Few of the prayers in these two sacramentaries are contained in the missal actually in use. It is to be remarked concerning the lections that they numbered twelve on the Saturdays. The present Roman missal prescribes three lections for the Wednesdays, but for the Fridays only two as usual. For the Saturdays, however, the number reaches six, and, in the Advent Embertide, seven, including the Gospel.

That there were only three Embertides (_i.e._ the _jejunium quarti, septimi, et decimi mensis_) given in the ancient service-books is not surprising, since the fast in March fell usually in Lent and so needed no special mention.

With regard to the spread of Ember Days in the West, they made their way slowly and seemed to have been earliest adopted by the Anglo-Saxons, who at their conversion accepted the Roman ritual as a whole. They are ordered to be observed by the Council of Cloveshoe (can. 18) in 747. Neither Chrodegang nor Theodulf speak of Ember Days in their writings, though they seem to have been introduced by St Boniface into Germany and France. Even if the so-called statutes of St Boniface are not in all points contemporary with the saint, Ember Days were certainly enjoined in the Frankish Empire by the Capitulary of Charlemagne in 769, where up till then they had not been observed.[417] The circumstance, too, that their observance had to be repeatedly enjoined by the Councils of the ninth century, _e.g._ the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle in 813, and later ones, proves that they had not yet won their way as a popular observance in northern countries.[418]

Moreover, it still remained uncertain in which week of the months in question the Ember Days should come. In Rome they came in the first week of the month. Elsewhere doubts arose as to what ought to be done when the Ember Days in June came in Whitsun Week, and as to whether one ought to fast when the 1st March fell on a Thursday or Friday, the Wednesday falling on the last day of February.[419] Gregory VII. put an end to these variations by establishing the present usage.[420]

2. _Litanies or Rogations_

_Litaniæ_ is the name given to solemn processions of clergy and people accompanied by prayer at which sacred pictures and emblems are carried. It was impossible to perform such devotions in the days before Constantine. But when Christianity became a recognised religion they were quickly adopted, and all the more so as the heathens had similar practices which they performed frequently and at stated times.

Litanies were especially frequent in Rome. There, during Lent, the Pope was wont to set out with his assistants with great solemnity from his residence to celebrate Mass in the various churches of the city. Each day he went to a different church, where the halt or station was made. A survival of this remains in the word _Statio_, which appears so often in the missal. This custom was abandoned in course of time.

Still some of these _litaniæ_ found their way into the regular worship of the Church, and have their place in the ecclesiastical year, _i.e._ the procession on the 25th April, St Mark’s day, called _litania major_, and those on the three days before the Ascension, called _litania minor_. The names are remarkable, for the _minor_ lasts three days and the _major_ only one, but it is explained by the history of their institution.

The Christian processions are a continuation of the heathen processions which they have replaced. This is especially clear with regard to the _litania major_ which was performed on a stated day, the 25th April. It has nothing to do with St Mark, whose feast was only much later introduced in the Roman Church.

The ancient Romans had their processions which took place both within and without the city, the latter corresponding to our rogation processions; the former were called _amburbalia_ from _urbs_, and the latter _ambarvalia_ from _arva_.[421] They served as supplications either for blessings from the gods on the fruits of the earth, and were observed yearly on stated days, or to avert calamities and were appointed as need required.[422]

The better known of these processions of ancient Rome, the _ambarvalia_, took place on vii. a. Kal. Maias (25th April). The procession passed along the _Via Flaminia_, the present Corso, and went as far as the fifth milestone, _i.e._ as far as the Milvian Bridge, where, the entrails of a dog and of a sheep were offered to the god _Robigus_.[423] As the procession was primarily intended to ward off blight (_robigo_) from the crops the day was called “_Robigalia_” in the Calendar. When Rome became a great city, agriculture and its festivals fell unto the back ground, and both in the Calendar of the fourth century and in that of Polemius Silvius the _Robigalia_ is no longer mentioned on this day. There was another great procession in heathen Rome, the _Argea_, which took place on the 16th and 17th March, and Bishop Vigilius of Trent, speaks of a rural festival of the same character.[424]

As to Christian Rome, Rupert of Deutz is of opinion that processions had been performed there since Constantine’s days, and Beleth names Liberius as their originator. Although it is not impossible these writers may have gained their information from ancient sources, still one cannot draw any certain conclusion from their remarks.

We have, however, sure proof of the introduction of Rogations by Bishop Mamertus of Vienne. That part of the country had been visited for a considerable period by various calamities and earthquakes. On Easter night, 469, the royal palace in Vienne was struck by lightning, which caused such a panic among the entire congregation assembled in church, that they fled from the building. Mamertus put himself into connection with the civil authorities and along with them organised the Litanies, which had been used before this time, but in an informal and irregular manner. It was ordained they should take place on the three days before the Ascension, that they should be accompanied by a fast, and that the slaves should do no servile work. This institution was soon imitated throughout the whole of Gaul. Under Bishop Sidonius Apollinaris they were adopted at Clermont, next the first Council of Orleans (511), in its twenty-seventh canon, prescribes them for the Frankish part of the country, and Avitus could say they had already spread throughout the whole world, and been accepted with eagerness.[425]

Nevertheless there is no clear evidence in antiquity, to show how matters were arranged in Rome. Only when we come to the time of Gregory the Great, do we get detailed accounts which have been preserved by Gregory of Tours. In autumn of the year 589, a terrible inundation devastated the city of Rome, overthrowing the ancient buildings, destroying all provisions, and leaving behind it a pestilence which carried away Pope Pelagius II. in February 590. To avert the divine wrath, Gregory, as administrator of the vacant see, ordered a procession of especial solemnity.[426] It was apparently the procession of the 25th April, but carried out on a larger scale than heretofore. It may, however, have been an extraordinary procession such as had never before taken place, for its date is unknown, and it is not certain if the often quoted statement of Gregory really refers to it. In his numerous letters there is no mention of this procession.

Gregory prepared the people for the procession some days before by a sermon. The procession was divided into seven parts, and hence received the name of _Litania Septiformis_. Each division started from a different church, and all met in the basilica of St Mary Major. As Gregory says in another place, “The return of this annual solemnity warns us to keep it with devout hearts,” we conclude it was not a new observance just introduced.[427] In Rome the _litaniæ_ of Rogation Week, as the _Liber Pontificalis_ informs us, were first adopted under Leo III. (795-816), through the Frankish influence[428] then dominant there. The observance of days of penitence in this season of the year was a departure from the original principle that the Quinquagesima was a time of ecclesiastical joy, as Amalarius rightly observes. The procession of the 25th April belonged especially to the city of Rome, and the name _litania major_ is due to the fact that the processions of Rogation Week were only introduced later. They too were performed with great solemnity. In other places there were yet other days appointed for litanies, but whether in addition to those already mentioned or in place of them is not clear. Thus the second Council of Lyons in 567, in its sixth canon, enjoined that in the first week of November, litanies similar to those customary before the Ascension should be performed. The Church of Milan celebrated the Rogations in the week after the Ascension. The Council of Gerunda in 517, in its second canon, places them in the week after Pentecost, and a second _litania_ on the first of November when it was not a Sunday (Ib., Can. 3). The second canon of the sixth Council of Toledo (638) places them on the Ides of December. It may be conjectured from this that the litanies in Spain developed on peculiar lines.[429] Here as in Gaul, the Rogation Days were kept as fasts. In Germany, the Rogations were only introduced in the ninth century, for the Council of Mainz in 813 (Can. 33), prescribed they should be observed by a three days’ fast, and the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle in 836 (Can. 11), ordered expressly the performance of the processions after the Roman manner.

3. _The Dedication of a Church and the Festival of the Patron Saint_

The festival of the dedication of a Church has indeed no connection with the ecclesiastical year, and the festival of the patron saint belongs to the same category as the ordinary saints’ days, but formerly, and even to some extent at the present time, both have such a marked position among the festivals that they deserve some special mention.

In order to distinguish one church from another, different ways of naming them were adopted in course of time. In Rome they took their names originally from their founders and from those to whom the site on which they stood had previously belonged, _e.g._, the Basilica of the Lateran, the Sessorian Basilica (Sta. Croce), the Licinian Basilica (Sta. Bibiana), the Liberian (Sta. Maria Maggiore), etc. Elsewhere they received their names partly in the same way, and partly from other reasons, as we see from the oldest churches in Jerusalem—the _Martyrium_ and Anastasis in the city, the Eleona or Imbomon on the Mount of Olives, and the _Lazarium_ in Bethania, close to Jerusalem.[430] Churches built over the graves of martyrs, _Martyria_, were naturally called after the saint over whose tomb they were erected, and as many such churches served for ordinary divine worship, it gradually became customary to call churches after a saint, or to dedicate them specially to his honour.[431] Such was the custom in Carthage. From the point of view of the historical development, one must consider (1) the day on which the church was made over for public use, and (2) the patron saint. The former was the day of the church’s dedication or consecration. The heathen, both civilised and barbarian, had been accustomed to set apart the edifices erected for the service of their gods by a special ceremony of consecration.[432] Everyone knows with what magnificence Solomon dedicated the first temple. Accordingly, it only was to be expected that so symbolical a ceremony would be adopted by the Church, and, as a matter of fact, immediately after the cessation of persecution, under the first Christian Emperor, we find the dedication of churches performed with great display. We have an example of this in the dedication of the Church at Tyre, about which Eusebius has so much to say in his Ecclesiastical History, having himself delivered a long and very tedious and commonplace discourse on that occasion. (Euseb., _Hist. Eccl._, 10, 3 and 4.)

The dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem in 335, was performed with remarkable magnificence. After the Synod of the Eusebians at Tyre in this year, many bishops at the invitation of the imperial representative proceeded to Jerusalem, for the great basilica which Constantine had commenced to build on Mount Calvary was now finished. The dedication took place on the 14th September, the day on which the Empress Helena had found the Holy Cross, and which, as the Gallic Pilgrim states, was observed later as an annual festival. Two anniversaries fell, in this case, on the same day and consequently we are unable to conclude that the anniversary of a church’s dedication was at this time already celebrated as a regular thing. It became customary to do so, however, shortly afterwards both in the East and in the West.[433] To the same period belongs the consecration of the so-called Golden Basilica at Antioch, also commenced by Constantine but completed under Constantius in 341. On this occasion also a Synod was held.[434]

Unfortunately nothing definite regarding the ceremonies employed at the dedication of a Church can be gathered from Eusebius’ wordy description. He says: “The bishops performed the divine service, and the priests fulfilled their functions, and very magnificent were the ecclesiastical ceremonies. One heard the psalms and the other hymns which come from God, and saw the mystic rites of the service performed; the mystical symbols of the saving Passion were there also. Moreover each of the bishops present delivered a festal address and strove to the best of his ability to promote the festivity.” In the West, even in the fourth century, special ceremonies of dedication were in use, and Ambrose mentions them as generally observed, but the particulars of which they were composed, we cannot now ascertain. However, one of the ceremonies was the placing of relics of the martyrs in the new church, if there were not some there already. In an unconsecrated church there could be no performance of divine service.[435]

Before this, and in many places afterwards, it appears that the consecration of the altar alone was required. At least the oldest Gallic missal[436] contains a mass for the consecration of an altar only, and none for the dedication of a Church. This is borne out by the fact that in the liturgical writings of Ephrem and of the pseudo-Dionysius we find mention of the consecration with holy oil of the altar, while nothing is said of the consecration of churches. Neither the Apostolic Constitutions nor the so-called Testament of Jesus Christ contain any reference to it.[437] The Old Testament furnished models for the elaboration of the liturgical services used at the dedication of churches; in particular, the octave and the annual commemoration of the dedication day follow Jewish precedents.[438] The impressive solemnities with which Solomon dedicated the first temple in the twelfth year of his reign lasted for seven days (iii. Kg. viii. 65). When the second temple, built by Zorobabel, had been defiled by the heathen rites of the Syrians, it was purified by Judas Machabeus, B.C. 165, and restored to the worship of Jehovah. It was then settled that the festival of this purification of the temple should be observed annually for eight days, beginning on the 25th Casleu (1 Mach. iv. 42 _et seq._, 2 Mach. i, 9 and 18).

The prolongation of the dedication festival for eight days, and the recurring celebration of its anniversary soon make their appearance in liturgical writings and spread throughout all Christian countries. The Leonine Sacramentary contains a mass for the anniversary of the dedication of St Peter’s, the Gelasian Sacramentary has a short rite for the consecration of a church along with forms for the consecration of altars, chalices, and altar cloths, but omits the blessing of the water.[439] At the consecration of a church in St Augustine’s time, the twenty-ninth psalm was directed to be sung. We possess three sermons preached by St Augustine at a _Dedicatio_ (336-338). In the text of the Gregorian sacramentary, there is no Mass for the consecration of a new church, but a special one for the anniversary. That the latter was kept as a festival of obligation is not stated. The form for the consecration of a church, with the Mass belonging to it, is given in the Appendix.[440]

In the middle ages, the anniversary of the dedication (_natale ecclesiæ_) was observed as a general festival of obligation for the local congregation irrespective of whether it fell on a week-day or on a Sunday; it was also to be observed with an octave.[441] In Germany it was ordered by the Synod of Mainz in 813, and, along with the feast of the Patron Saint, in the statute of Bishop Hetto of Basel about 827. Both festivals are found together in the statutes of Lanfranc of Canterbury and in the decrees of the Council of Szabolcs in Hungary, in 1092. The ecclesiastical celebration consisted of a vigil, solemn High Mass, and procession in which the relics of the saints belonging to the church were carried. A flag was wont to fly from the church tower, the floor was strewn with green leaves, the altar and pulpit were decorated with boughs, and a bunch of flowers was placed before the picture of the Patron Saint. The anniversary of the dedication of each altar was also observed, but only inside the walls of the church.[442]

Festivals of the Patron Saints were not enjoined as of obligation in the decretal of Gregory IX. in 1232, although placed by Lanfranc in the highest class of feasts. They were regarded as such in various countries, especially throughout Germany. Thus, the diocesan Synod of Cologne, under Archbishop Heinrich II., placed them along with the dedication of churches among the holy days of obligation,[443] and so also did the statute of Archbishop Baldwin of Treves in 1338. On the other hand, the provincial Synod of Cologne in 1549, under Adolf III., expressly suppressed them as holy days of obligation, and desired they should be celebrated only in choir, in order, as it said, festivals should not become too numerous. It also forbade noisy revels, such as dancing, etc., at the festival of the dedication of a church.

To have a church of its own, especially a parish church, was of the greatest importance to each district, on account of the spiritual and even material benefits of which it was the source. This explains the enthusiasm with which the dedication of the church was observed. With the ecclesiastical festival were soon associated secular amusements, fairs, merry-makings, and shows. The dedication was especially the festival of the people in the middle ages, and, as always happens in such cases, the secular influences proved stronger than the spiritual, although the dedication was one of the days on which indulgences were usually granted.

As parishes and churches became more numerous, the number of these festivals increased also, and the result was that not only the parish in question observed the feast, but all the neighbouring parishes joined in the celebration. Thus these feasts and the merry-making associated with them increased without limit. Among the country people especially it was inevitable that excess and licence should give rise to grave disorders.

At the outbreak of the Reformation, the innovators availed themselves of these abuses to wage war against all Dedication Feasts,[444] and some provincial Synods of the sixteenth century directed that all the dedications in a diocese should be kept on one and the same day. In the bull of Urban VIII. in 1642, reducing the number of festivals, the dedication is no longer named among the festivals which were to be retained. By a decree of Clement XIV. in 1772, the festival of the Patron Saint was to be celebrated on its proper day, and if there were more than one patron, only the chief patron was to be commemorated. The brief of Pius VI. of 1788 for Breslau removed the festival of the Patron Saint out of the range of the ordinary life of the people by transferring its celebration to the Sunday.[445] Finally, the French revolution and the Concordat abolished these celebrations altogether, and put an end to all Dedication Festivals throughout the extent of the French Empire. This caused the churches in most dioceses to keep a general Dedication Festival on some one Sunday in the year, and only inside the walls of the church. The dedication of the cathedral is either included in this general celebration, or, in some instances as in Cologne, is still celebrated by itself.

The people were by no means pleased at the suppression of these popular feasts, but consoled themselves by transferring to the festival of the Patron Saint, even when transferred to the Sunday, the rejoicings which they had hitherto associated with the Dedication Festival.

In those parts of Germany which in 1802 did not belong to France, the earlier usages continued and the traditional rejoicings still continue to be observed, but in a manner corresponding to the more refined spirit of the time.

The custom of keeping the day of the Patron Saint as a holiday of ecclesiastical and civil obligation still continues in all the several Austrian crown lands. In Bavaria each diocese celebrates the feast of the Patron Saint of the diocese on the proper date.

As regards the present usage, the law for every parish is that the feast of the patron of the church, or, if the church is dedicated to a mystery, the day on which that mystery is commemorated in the calendar, is to be kept as a double of the first class with an octave. The popular festival, called in Germany _Kirmes_, takes place on the following Sunday. The existence of these popular feasts to the present day, in spite of so much opposition, proves their inherent right to exist, for each part of a great whole, having its own separate existence, naturally wishes to have something distinctively its own in addition to what it shares in common with others.[446]