Chapter XVIII: Part III: The Material Upon Which the History of the Ecclesiastical Year Is Based (2)

The martyrs themselves are only distinguished by their rank in the hierarchy, when they belonged to the sacred ministry, _i.e._ deacon, presbyter, bishop, but by far the larger number of personages are without any indication of place, date, etc. In many cases it is evident that the same person has been entered twice or oftener,[780] and mutilations, disfigurements and alterations are very numerous, more especially in the later MSS. The transcribers allowed themselves considerable freedom, adding supplements and corrections, apart from the unintentional mistakes they made. A hint of a literary nature is given by the remark, “cujus” or “quorum acta habentur,” indicating the existence of the acts of such and such a martyr. Later transcribers were not satisfied with this, but, when the acts were forthcoming, added larger or shorter notices from them to the text.[781] Had we the work as it came originally from the hands of the compiler of Auxerre, these imperfections would disappear to a considerable extent. A glance at any entry in the three recensions shows how freely the earliest transcribers dealt with the original text; in the new edition the three recensions are printed in parallel columns.[782] All these remarks have an intimate bearing upon the question of the sources and origin of the work. With regard to sources, the Roman _Depositio Martyrum_ has been incorporated bodily, and a great part of the Carthaginian Calendar as well, but the compiler must have had the Arian Martyrology in a better copy than that which has come down to us, or even in its original form; this is shown by the fact that frequently he has quite correctly enlarged some of its indefinite entries.[783] His use of this martyrology is clear from his inserting Eusebius among the saints, in ignorance of his Arianism; he inserted the name in all simplicity, a mistake avoided by the Greek menologies, and the same may possibly have been the case with regard to Arius in the Weissenburg Codex.[784]

This employment of earlier sources coupled with the numerous correct entries in the _Hieronymianum_ entirely excludes the view that the document is a fabrication. Indeed its composition can safely be said to have come about in the following manner:—in the two first centuries the persecutions were on the whole local, and the number of martyrs not very large, although the persecution at Lyons in 177 caused the death of more than forty martyrs, not counting confessors; a change took place in the third century, when persecutions were commanded by the emperors for the whole extent of the empire, and, under Diocletian, the martyrs were to be reckoned, if not by millions, at least by thousands. At the conclusion of the persecutions, it must have occurred to many to ask how many had lost their lives in this troublous period, and the idea of drawing up statistics of the martyrdoms must have sprung up. We have no evidence of anything of this sort actually having been done, but in the sixth century there was a widespread opinion that a work of this kind had been accomplished by Eusebius under Constantine, and the passages quoted from Cassiodorus and Gregory the Great show it was believed a list of the martyrs for the whole year existed in Italy or in Rome. If this work contained merely a list of names and dates, its interest must have been merely statistical and in no wise scientific, since little could be learnt from the names by themselves. In the seventh century, however, either in Auxerre or in North Italy, it seems to have been held in greater esteem; it found a transcriber and reviser, and finally was brought into connection with the liturgy owing to its being read at the choir-offices in monasteries and convents, and by this means, it won its way to a position of widespread importance, which, however, did not have an advantageous effect on the purity of the text.

With regard to the printed editions, there are several published by various scholars who relied upon late MSS. of little value. We may mention the editions of Fiorentini, Lucca 1668 (incomplete), of D’Achery in the _Spicilegium_, ii. 1 (Migne, xxx.), and of Galesinius, Milan, 1577. It used to be disputed which of these editions gave the earliest text, but they are all quite superseded now. There are also many abstracts of the _Hieronymianum_ in mediæval handwriting, as, for example, the _Martyrol. Gallicanum_; Martène, _Ampliss. Coll. VI._, called after Chauvelin (Migne, _Patr. Lat._, xxx. 607); the _Fuldense_; _Anal. Boll. XIII._; the Reichenau martyrology, etc., but they are of small scientific importance.

5. _The Lectionary and Martyrology of Silos_

Since the appointment of special Masses in honour of the saints is a distinguishing feature of the Latin rite, Western liturgical books are in themselves a source from which we can increase our knowledge of the saints’ festivals, the most important in this respect being the sacramentaries, but the other books used at the celebration of Mass, the collections of epistles and gospels especially, also throw light on the subject.

In addition to the books of this kind already named, the _Lectionarius_ of Silos has, in recent times, attracted much attention in this connection.[785] It is of the highest importance both for the history of the development of the ecclesiastical year and for the festivals of the saints, for as it belongs to the period preceding the Carolingian liturgical reform, it represents a very ancient rite of which, until its discovery, all trace had disappeared. This rite is not the same as the southern Spanish rite of the Province of Boetica from which the so-called Mozarabic rite is derived, but belongs to the ancient ecclesiastical province of Toledo. The codex in which it is contained was written before the year 1062, for a later event, _i.e._ the translation of St Isidore’s relics from Seville to Leon, is added by a later hand. This codex, originally belonging to the monastery of St Sebastian at Silos and now in the National library of Paris, contains two distinct documents, a lectionary giving the lections from scripture for the whole of the year, and a martyrology; the latter was compiled between 925 and 1000; but the lectionary much earlier. Its antiquity is proved: (1) By the limited numbers of saints’ days; (2) by the circumstance that the catechumenate is still in force; (3) that the Saturdays in Lent are not fast days, agreeing with the eastern custom; (4) the Sundays after Epiphany and Pentecost do not appear as forming part of the ecclesiastical year, and are not even numbered, but, as in the _Gelasianum_, there are added twenty-four Masses called “dominicæ quotidianæ”; (5) there are five Sundays in Advent; (6) with regard to saints’ days, Anastasius the Persian is not yet placed along with St Vincent on the 21st January, and the Apostle James is also omitted along with all reference to the Spanish legend connected with his name. From this it is plain that St James, at the time when this work was compiled enjoyed no special worship in Spain. On these grounds the first editor, G. Morin, regards the lectionary as certainly belonging to 650.

The book represents a rite hitherto entirely unknown but which can be no other than the ancient rite of Toledo, since in it the Annunciation is placed on the 18th December as is prescribed by the first canon of the tenth council of Toledo. It differs from the Mozarabic rite as to the number of Sundays in Advent, of which the latter reckons six, and also in the eight Masses for the Sundays after Epiphany and Pentecost; another peculiarity is that the Innocents’ Day is omitted on the 27th December, but an “Allisio Infantium” is kept instead in the 8th January. None of the Roman and Byzantine feasts of our Lady are mentioned, and only one feast of the Holy Cross on the 3rd May, omitting the other on the 14th September; all Masses for saints’ days have two epistles.

The martyrology of Silos also is an important document on account of its original character, although it is some three centuries later than the lectionary. It is entitled, _Martyrum Legium_, and it is considerably richer in names of saints than the lectionary, and is quite independent of the _Hieronymianum_, though influenced in a slight degree by the Roman rite. The martyrs in the Moorish persecution, under, Abdurrhaman II., which lasted from 850 to 860, appear in large numbers. The historian of this persecution, the priest Eugenius of Toledo, who was put to death on 11th March 859, is entered, but placed on 1st June, the day of the translation of his relics; St Pelagius of Corduba, who suffered death on 26th June 925 under Abdurrhaman III. is also entered, and this date gives one limit in fixing the date of the work, the other limit being the year 1000. There are five additions by a later hand, _i.e._ on 12th March, _Gregorii Papæ_; on 1st May, _Transitus Philippi Apostoli_, without St James; on 28th April, _Prudentii et Sociorum ejus_; on 21st December, _S. Thomæ Apostoli_, and on 22nd December the _Translatio corporis S. Isidori_. Some personages are entered, who are not called saints, but only _Domnus_, four of whom belong to Toledo, two being bishops: Julian († 6th March 690) and Eugenius II. († 29th May 647); on 14th January, another Julian, and, on 13th March, _Depositio Leandri_. Half of the entire names belong to Spain, the other half to Rome and the East; of the Frankish martyrs, Denys of Paris, Afra of Augsburg, and Boniface of Mainz are commemorated. As regards the feasts of our Lady, besides the ancient Spanish feast on the 18th December, we have only the Assumption on 15th August. Litanies are appointed for 10th September, 7th November, and 15th December, besides a fast on 2nd January. The name of the Apostle St James is absent from the martyrology as well as from the lectionary. Bishop Torquatus and his companions are placed on 1st May, in both documents, but in the martyrology they are not described as disciples of the apostles, which is favourable to their historical existence. The Apostles Simon and Jude are on the 1st July instead of the 28th October, and there is also a _Symon Apostolus_ on 19th October as well. Although traces of later influence appear in this martyrology, it has still preserved the independent character of the early Christian Calendars.

6. _Egyptian (Coptic) Calendars and Synaxaria_

The anglican archeologist, John Selden († 1634), has given us the earliest Egyptian calendars in his work on the Jewish Sanhedrin which was left unfinished when he died. In the third book of this work, Selden intended to deal with the rite for the dedication of Christian churches, although this lay beyond the immediate purpose of his investigations, and he thought that some Arabic Calendars in his possession might have some bearing on the question.[786] Unfortunately, he gave no information concerning the MSS. from which these calendars were taken, and they seem, moreover, when discovered, to have been by no means in a good condition. Ludolf declared himself dissatisfied with these publications, and Wüstenfeld remarked: “The Arabic MSS. employed, must have been faulty, and were made still worse by the faulty reading and transcribing of the editor and the printing is so incorrect that some words would be almost, and others quite unintelligible, were there not other helps to their meaning at hand.”[787] Still, in spite of these well-founded criticisms from specialists, Selden’s work cannot be over-looked. There seem also to have been gaps and undecipherable passages in the MS. itself.

There are three calendars edited by Selden: two short, and one long, the latter being of later date than the others. The two first have a supplement to each month, called _ordo alter_, both appear to have been originally drawn up for the use of monasteries, but are distinguished from one another in important points. We shall designate them by the letters A and B. A is at any rate of Egyptian origin and is monophysite in character, because the heresiarch Severus, who lived in the sixth century, twice appears in it, on 8th February and 29th September. Other peculiarities in the document are: 1. It has two feasts of the Holy Cross, on 6th March _Inventio Crucis_, by which doubtless the recovery of the Cross by Heraclius in 629 is meant, and _festum crucis gloriosæ_ on 14th September. 2. The Nativity of our Lady is on 26th April. 3. The commemorations of the Mother of God in use in Egypt, are given on the 21st of the months January, March, May, July, and October: B omits these feasts. 4. A has the archangel Gabriel on the 18th December, but no festival of the Annunciation, while B places _Evangelismus_ on the 25th March, and no feast on the 18th December pointing onwards to the impending Nativity of our Lord. 5. A has the four living creatures of the Apocalypse on the 4th November who appear also later on in Coptic calendars: B omits them. 6. In A the conquest of Egypt by the Mahometans is seven times mentioned, _e.g._ 26th May, 10th December, etc. 7. A does not mention St Ignatius of Antioch, but B places him on the 20th December. 8. B has the Emperor Theodosius on the 3rd March, St John Chrysostom on the 7th May and 13th November, also Ephrem Syrus on the 9th July, and Dioscorus of Alexandria on the 31st August.

From these entries we see that B is catholic and Syrian, and A monophysite and Egyptian. Both certainly belong to the same period. B was probably also used in Egypt, for the Patriarch Isaac I. of Alexandria is mentioned, who died on the 10th Athyr = 6th November 688 or 689.[788] The Athanasius mentioned on the 6th September must have been Athanasius II. who became patriarch of Antioch in 629.[789] These calendars and the following one as well are contained in the Arabic translation of Abulaibsan Achmed Calcasendi who has prefaced them with a list of Coptic festivals (see above p. 26). Had they come down to us in better condition, they would be of the utmost importance in the investigation of our subject, notwithstanding their heretical character. The third of the calendars published by Selden has fared little better; it certainly belongs to the same period as the others, although somewhat later in date. The latest person mentioned in it seems to be the Patriarch Isaac I., named already in A. It was thought that this was the second monophysite patriarch of that name who died in 954, but it is not so, for this personage is named on the 10th Athyr = 6th November, and the Coptic Synaxarium, translated by Wüstenfeld, which mentions him on the same day, expressly states that he was the immediate successor of John, surnamed Semnudæus from the place of his birth, Sebennytos, who died on the 9th Athyr 686, after having pointed him out as his successor. The predecessor of Isaac II., however, was Sophronius, and his successor was called Job. Accordingly Isaac I. must be intended here, and thus the calendar belongs to the end of the seventh or the beginning of the eighth century.[790]

Its monophysite character is proved from the mention of the heresiarch Severus three times, _i.e._ on the 26th April (_festum Severi_), on the 4th September, and on the 1st December. It has no feast of St Peter and St Paul on the 29th June, but only a _Planctus Pauli_ on the 18th March. The following points are worthy of notice:—25th March is the day of the Crucifixion, the 28th May is kept as the _Inventio ossium S. Lucæ_ and the 6th March as the _Manifestatio Crucis_, where the later calendar adds, _per Heraclium imperatorem_. We have the beginnings of the Egyptian custom of commemorating the Mother of God on the 21st of each month, _i.e._ on the 21st Payni and the 21st Phaophi. The _festum Dominæ_ on the 2nd August is certainly a feast of our Lady, but the _festum Mirjam_ on the 22nd July is probably a festival of St Mary Magdalen. There are many things in this document the meaning of which can only be surmised.

A welcome addition to our knowledge of liturgical matters among the Copts exists in a calendar of the ninth century in the Vatican library; it is found along with a Coptic _Evangeliarium_ in a codex written in 1328. The document is described and translated into Latin by A. Mai in the fourth volume of his _Nova Collectio_.[791] The date is determined by the fact that the Patriarch Amba Zacharias, who is entered as a saint in the later Synaxarium on the 13th Athyr,[792] does not appear in the calendar; he was patriarch, according to Le Quien from 1005 to 1032. The last Jacobite patriarchs mentioned are those who succeeded one another from Alexander to Michael (Chail). Michael was succeeded by John, after a vacancy of ten years, who ruled from 766-799.[793] Accordingly this calendar belongs to the ninth century. A striking peculiarity in it is that the _Manifestatio Crucis_ is on the 17th-19th September instead of the 14th as in all other calendars.

The circumstance that several saints, instead of having one commemoration, have several, may give rise to confusion. St Thecla appears no less than five times, twice with the title martyr (on the 25th February and the 10th September), once as _apostola_ (on the 12th July), on the 6th May and 3rd December she has no title. Although there was a second St Thecla, still this would not altogether explain the entries. Then James the son of Zebedee is mentioned on the 28th and 30th of April, as well as James the Lord’s brother on the 12th July and 23rd October. St Michael the Archangel occurs eight times. Our Lady’s Nativity is celebrated on both the 26th April and the 7th September. No importance is to be attached to these repetitions; they are purely arbitrary, and are due to the desire to provide a name for every day in the calendar, and to fill up vacant places.[794] This appears especially from the circumstance that on the 29th of every Egyptian month, corresponding to the 25th in the Julian Calendar, a commemoration of Christ’s Nativity is given, and on the 21st of each month a feast of our Lady (Commemoratio Dominæ S. Mariæ). The Death and Assumption of our Lady is placed on the 16th January. St Joseph the Carpenter has his commemoration on the 20th July. Fides, Spes, and Charitas appear as three martyrs under Hadrian on the 25th January; they are said to be daughters of a reported Sophia. No St Catherine appears either in this calendar or in the later _Synaxarium_ but the heretic Severus († 539) is twice commemorated: on the 29th September (_Adventus Severi Patrarchæ in Ægyptum_) and on the 8th February, when he died.

Coptic calendars of a later date are still richer in names, but are full of legends and absurdities which show the steady decline of culture among the sect under Mahometan rule. This is especially the case with the _Synaxarium_ or collection of legends compiled from ancient sources by Bishop Amba Michael of Atriba and Malidsch at the end of the fourteenth century.[795] The basis of the collection is an older work of the same kind composed sometime about the year 1090 (see 3rd Athyr).[796] Information concerning the saints who lived in monasteries was taken by Bishop Michael from a so-called “Guide,” used by both the Egyptian Copts and Melchites.[797] A “Guide” of this kind had been written especially for Alexandria by Bishop Amba John of Kift. Michael refers in his work to the years 1382 and 1387 (see 7th Bermahat and 19th Bermuda), and so must have lived in the fourteenth century.

As the work contains much information drawn from the ecclesiastical histories of the Copts and Abyssinians, it has been translated and much used in spite of its faulty character. It affords many useful particulars concerning the traditions and feasts of the Egyptian Church, and on this account Stephen Assemani undertook to make an abstract of the whole work which is printed in the fourth volume of Mai’s _Nova Collectio_. F. Wüstenfeld made a translation of the first part containing the first half of the Egyptian year, from September to February; the second half, from March to August including the intercalary days, is unfortunately still untranslated.

7. _The Menology of Constantinople (Eighth Century)_

The Eastern Church possesses a calendar of Saints belonging to the eighth century, which occupies an intermediate position between a merely Eastern Calendar, and one that is universal. Its title runs, Calendar of the Gospels for Festivals (μηνολόγιον τῶν εὐαγγελίων ἑορταστικῶν), for it gives the passage from the Gospels to be read on each day; it contains a considerable number of saints belonging to the East, though the days are far from being all occupied. March and April have remarkably few feasts; this is owing to the ancient, but even then obsolete injunction of the Trullan Council that the feasts of no martyrs were to be kept in Lent.

Several circumstances prove that Constantinople was the locality where this document originated and was in use. Certain quarters of the city, as for example, Blachernæ and Chalcoprateia, are mentioned; the 11th May is mentioned as the day of the city’s foundation; so too is the earthquake which threw down the city walls on the 24th September 557. A large number of the patriarchs of Constantinople are included, twenty-nine in all, beginning with Metrophanes (4th June 305-325) and ending with Paul who was patriarch from September 686 to the 2nd September 693. The absence of the twenty-one reputed bishops from St Andrew to Metrophanes suggests the thought that when this document was drawn up this invention had not been accepted.

Morcelli maintains that the Paul the younger mentioned on the 2nd September is the Patriarch Paul II., under whom the Trullan Council was held in 692, but he would, however, exonerate him from participation in the schismatic council, since he opposed it at a later date; this, however, contradicts the accepted chronology. No patriarch, not even Germanus, and none of the many martyrs and confessors belonging to the time of the Iconoclastic controversy under Leo the Isaurian and Constantine Copronymus, are mentioned. From this one concludes that the menology was composed immediately after the cessation of the first Iconoclastic controversy, at a date when the judgment on the sanctity of these personages had not yet been concluded, or when people were unwilling to revive the painful recollections which their name evoked.

The martyrs, confessors, and doctors of the Eastern Church are there in long array, at least all the celebrated ones, not only those belonging to all four patriarchates, but also those belonging to other countries, such as Anastasius the Persian († 628, on the 22nd January). The popes and saints of the West are excluded with the exception of the three martyrs Lawrence, Gervasius, and Protasius.

The names of many Old Testament personages are included: Moses, Aaron, Elias, Jeremias, etc., also almost all the apostles and their immediate disciples, but for the most part they occur on different dates from those which they usually occupy in the Roman Calendar. For instance, St John the Evangelist is on the 8th May and the 26th September, St Barnabas on the 11th June, SS. Peter and Paul on the 29th June, St Titus on the 25th August, St Thomas on the 6th October, St Philip on the 14th November, St Andrew on the 30th November. SS. Joachim and Anna appear on the 9th September, the day after our Lady’s Nativity, the Archangel Michael on the 8th November, St Thecla (here entitled proto-martyr) on the 24th September, and the Holy Innocents on the 31st December. For the first time, Constantine and his mother Helena, appear as saints in the calendar; they are commemorated together on the 21st May, a day which falls before that on which Constantine actually died. Justinian and his consort Theodora are commemorated also, but do not appear with the title “saint”; they are placed on the 14th November, the day on which Justinian died, Theodora having preceded him on the 28th June 548. Justinian was called a prince of pious memory by the popes Pelagius II. and Gregory the Great.[798]

From these indications it appears that this martyrology was intended principally if not exclusively for the city and diocese of Constantinople. The safest conclusion to arrive at is to regard it as the martyrology of the patriarchate of Constantinople, since it steers a middle course, as it were, between particularism and universality: it is the most ancient of the Greek menologies known to us. Among the Greeks St John Damascene is regarded as the originator of calendars of this kind,[799] corresponding to Ado in the Latin Church. The menology has been edited with an excellent commentary by Stephen A. Morcelli (Rome, 1788), having previously been published in Latin at Urbino (1727) from the Codex of Cardinal Albani.

8. _The Menology of the Emperor Basil II., and the Syrian Lectionary of the Eleventh Century_

This menology takes its name from Basil II. _Porphyrogenitus_ (976-1025), and was given to the public for the first time in its entirety by Cardinal Albani at Urbino in 1727, from two codices each containing six months. It is distinguished from the menology which we have just described by having a saint on every day of the year, and most of the days have more than one; the saints are drawn from the whole extent of the Eastern Church, and the Western Church, especially Sicily and Rome, is more prominent than in the former document.

As regards Rome, there are a large number of popes given who are entirely absent from the other menology: Silvester, Leo, Agatho, Gregory I., Celestine, etc. With the exception of Gregory I. they are generally placed on different dates from those on which they are commemorated in the West, _e.g._ Silvester on the 2nd January, Leo on the 18th February, and Alexander on the 16th March, etc. It appears as if the sources which the compiler had at his disposal for the West were insufficient, since, for example, he gives St Perpetua, St Felicitas and companions once on the 2nd February, and again on the 14th March, with the addition, “in Rome”; from this it would appear that he thought the saints mentioned on the first date had belonged to some other locality. St Agnes is given on the 5th July.

Not so many patriarchs of Constantinople are given as one would have expected, and many, indeed, are omitted who are included in the menology of which we have spoken in the previous section, as, for example, Nectarius, Paul II., Gennadius, Thomas II., but on the other hand we find some who lived after the composition of the earlier document, especially Germanus, Tarasius, and Antonius II., surnamed Cauleas († 12th February 896).[800]

In other points the _Basilianum_ resembles the former work, except that it is fuller in every respect. The most striking feature is the large number of saints belonging to religious orders contained in it, who for the most part are specially designated; even the patriarch of the Western monks, St Benedict, is not forgotten, and is given on his proper day. Names from the Old Testament occur frequently, and from the New Testament, we have almost all the disciples of the apostles whose names are given, and these are designated as “belonging to the Seventy.” The number of the days of apostles is considerable, though seldom coinciding with the days observed in the Western Church, except in the case of St Mark, St Barnabas, SS. Peter and Paul, and St Andrew. Both the St James are absent, and so are deprived of veneration within the region in which this document was followed,[801] but there is a feast of all the apostles on the 30th June. St Anna appears on the 25th July; St John the Baptist on the 24th June and 29th August. It is to be noticed that the first four general councils have each a special day allotted to them, while in the _Constantinopolitanum_ all are commemorated on the same day—16th July. It is strange to find not only earthquakes, included, but also defeats in the wars with the Persians, Arabs, and Bulgarians, but unfortunately there is nothing to indicate the localities where these events happened (see the 7th and 20th February, the 23rd March, the 24th May, etc.). This exceeds the limits observed in liturgical documents.

As the day of the foundation of Constantinople (the 11th May) is again included in this document, we must conclude that it belongs to this city. Since, too, Goths and Persians find a place in it, it is ahead of its predecessors in its attempts to achieve universality.[802]

While the admission of foreign names is to be welcomed as a step in advance, it may yet, on the other hand, be a source of confusion and give rise to mistakes later on. We find, namely, in this menology, that the names of foreign saints are not always given on the correct date, but are arbitrarily placed on other days than those to which they belonged. Later redactors, when they found the same name on different dates, may have thought that different persons were meant, and this may have been the cause of the repetition of the names of saints. This shows that in admitting names of new saints, and the correct day of whose death had not been transmitted, they acted according to their fancy. This was the case with regard to the majority of the Seventy Disciples, many of whom appear here for the first time. The same must have taken place also with feasts of our Lord, as when the Flight in Egypt is given on the 26th December, and so placed before the Circumcision and the Presentation. The admission of foreign names was left to chance or opinion. Thus, _e.g._ the Western saints Ambrose, Martin of Tours, and Hosius are admitted, but Hilary, Augustine, Jerome, etc., are passed over.

The impression made by the entire document is that the principles which were on the whole followed in its composition were not maintained with sufficient care, but yielded more than was right to opinion and caprice. In many cases, too, the necessary knowledge of history, and a sufficient supply of literary material seems to have been lacking.

A useful document, especially for saints’ days, is a lectionary of the orthodox Syrians contained in the codex xix. of the Vatican Library. It was written in the monastery of Mar Mussa at Antioch in 1030, and contains in the first section the lections for the ecclesiastical year, in the second, those for saints’ days, beginning with the 1st September as New Year’s Day. In it are given the martyrs of the Iconoclastic controversy, several orthodox patriarchs of Constantinople, Nicephorus († 2nd June 828) being the last; then come many names from the old Testament, and many feasts of apostles, the _Catenæ Petri_ on the 16th January being one of them, four feasts of St John the Baptist, and six of our Lady. There are no Roman or Western saints with the exception of St Lawrence. This document has been published by Count F. Miniscalchi-Errizzo under the title _Evangeliarium Hierosolymitanum_ (2 vols. 4to, Verona, 1682).

In using documents of this kind for purposes of historical investigation, as for instance in order to determine the day on which a historical personage died, the appeal must always be to the local sources. In the case of saints belonging to the Western Church no importance must be attached to the fact that the Easterns may have transferred them to a different day, and _vice versâ_, as, for example, in the case of St Ignatius of Antioch. Where the day is given in some local source, otherwise deserving of credit, we can be then certain that it is correct. This must be done with regard to SS. Peter and Paul, for whom the local sources give invariably the 29th June, while foreign calendars give other dates, as we find is the case with Polemius, Silvius, and the Arian martyrology. The compilers of these calendars wished to celebrate the Princes of the Apostles, but, being ignorant of the actual day of their death, placed them on any day that seemed suitable. Finally, at a later date the correct date came to the knowledge of foreign churches, and found its way into their calendars.

9. _The Kalendarium Marmoreum of Naples_

In the ninth century, a time of great activity in matters relating to hagiography, the Church of Naples undertook a revision of its calendar, which exhibits noteworthy peculiarities.

First of all, nearly every day of the year is provided with the name of a saint, which indicates considerable care and study. This result was achieved by following the Eastern custom of admitting Old Testament personages, although not to the same extent. The grounds on which the selection was made cannot be discovered, for we have Abraham on the 9th October, Isaac on the 17th March, Eliseus on the 28th November, Daniel on the 17th December, Zacharias on the 13th May, while other important personages, such as Isaias, etc., are omitted. We are also reminded of eastern usage by the commemoration of the council of Ephesus on the 4th August, and other traces of eastern influence are noticeable in the admission of a few bishops of Constantinople, such as Metrophanes, and also of the names of Constantine (without Helena) on the 21st May, and Theodosius on the 10th November. With regard to Metrophanes, the compiler is guilty of a remarkable oversight; he has placed him once on the right day (the 4th June), without his title, and again on the 4th January with his title, “_Patr. Const._” The confusion between the 4th of June and the 4th of January might easily escape a transcriber, and must have already existed in the source which the compiler used. In order not to omit any name the compiler preferred to enter the same name twice, once with, and once without, its proper title.

This reminds us that St Mark also occurs twice, on the 25th April and the 17th May. St Philip is united to St James on the 1st May (a trace of Roman influence), and is found again alone on the 14th November. St Silvester comes on the 31st December and a _Depositio Silvestri P.P._, on the 2nd January; a _Jacobus Ap._ and Mattheus on unusual dates, the 15th and 16th November, other Apostles are on more usual dates, _e.g._ St Jude is commemorated on the 21st May. St Bartholomew’s day (the 25th August) is given wrongly as _Nat. Pass._, being in reality the day of his translation. The names of Apostles and their disciples are very numerous.

With regard to the worship of the Holy Cross, both days occur (_i.e._ the 3rd May and 14th September), with the title now in use, although formerly, the feast of the 3rd May was alone observed in the West, and that of the 14th September in the East. The reason for this circumstance has been already given in this book. Bishops of Naples naturally appear frequently; _e.g._ Maro (15th June) belongs to the third century, others belong to the period from the sixth to the eighth century, such as Redux on the 27th March († 584), Agnellus on the 9th January († 691), Adeodatus on the 1st October († 671), Fortunatus on the 14th June († 600 circ.), Paulus the elder on the 3rd March († 760). The last to be named is probably Paul the younger on the 17th February († 820).[803] Paul III. of Constantinople cannot be intended here, for his day is the 30th August. We may add that the feast of All Saints had not yet been admitted, a circumstance which throws light on the probable date when this calendar was drawn up. Special importance attaches to this calendar on account of its intermediate position between the calendars of the Eastern and Western Churches.

It was discovered in 1742 in S. Giovanni Maggiore and edited incorrectly, according to Mai, by Marinius, correctly by Mazzochius (Naples, 1744). The most recent edition is by A. Mai himself.[804]

10. _Western Authorities from the Sixth to the Eighth Centuries_

In the West the worship of the saints exerted a much stronger influence on the liturgy than in the East. The Roman and kindred rites provided special Masses for saints’ days, while in the East the worship of saints as far as it effected the liturgy continued to be limited to the canonical hours. At first the lections used at the Psalmody were drawn from the Holy Scriptures alone, but from the sixth century, passages from the _passiones martyrum_ were admitted.[805] In course of time, these became more numerous, and in this way the martyrologies obtained an ever increasing importance. As regards the Mass, in the earliest Gallican Masses published by Mone, we find one for the feast of St Germanus,[806] and several in the _Sacramentarium Leoninum_, and for many centuries the Masses for saints’ days remained considerably less numerous than the Masses _de tempore_. Later on, however, they became so numerous that they were finally indicated in a special calendar bound up with the sacramentary, such as is now prefixed to the massal as one of its integral parts. Equally important with the sacramentaries in this connection are the service-books, containing the epistles and gospels, called lectionaries. We shall examine these first, and then those of the martyrologies specially bearing upon the subject we are investigating, and afterwards we shall utilise whatever we find in the sacramentaries in connection with saints’ days.

The lectionaries of Luxenil and Silos show very plainly that in the seventh century the worship of the saints had as yet very slightly affected the liturgy. The saints’ days are somewhat more numerous in the _Leoninum_ and in the _Missale Gothico-Gallicanum_ edited by Mabillon and belonging to the end of the same century.

In both the other Roman sacramentaries the increase of saints’ days is noticeable. The _Gelasianum_ was originally drawn up especially for the city of Rome, but the recension in which it has come down to us was obviously compiled at the request of some other church; at any rate it contains a number of saints who do not belong to the city of Rome. For instance, on the 7th August we have the Confessor Donatus who belongs to Imola, on the 19th a martyr called Magnus who can only be assigned to Cæsarea in Cappadocia, and on the 27th a martyr Rufus belonging to Capua; the appearance of the legendary family of martyrs Marius, Martha, Audifax, and Ambacum or Habacuc is curious, and in addition to these, there is also a number of saints whose names one would search for in vain in the better and older recensions of the _Gregorianum_, _e.g._ Soter, Vitalis, Felicula, Juliana, Euphemia, Juvenal, Nereus and Achilleus, Cyrinus, Nabor, Nazarius, and Vitus. Of these many were certainly venerated in Rome, yet had hitherto received no recognition in the calendars attached to the service-books.

For the Gregorian Sacramentary, the edition most frequently employed is that of Menard printed in Migne. According to the introduction, it is taken from a _codex S. Eligii_ and a somewhat later _codex Rodradi_, which, in Menard’s opinion, was written about 853, but even the earlier codex has additions belonging to a later period, _e.g._ Projectus (25th January)[807] and Leo (28th June), as a comparison with the Mainz codex of St Alban shows. This codex (_i.e._ of St Eligius) according to the received opinion, was written between 834 and 847, and consists of three different parts, proceeding indeed from the same hand, but clearly distinguished from one another. The first part contains the _Gregorianum_ (fol. 1-129) to which have been added as an appendix the Masses of St Alban, SS. Sergius and Bacchus, All Saints’, and St Augustine, which the transcriber did not find in the original. In the second part (Collectio ii., fol. 165-183) the expressions _contestatio_ and _ad complendum_ are used which show it to be of Frankish origin, and like the first part it contains the ecclesiastical year, beginning with Christmas. The third part (fol. 183-204) contains a few additions consisting of prayers and Masses for special occasions.

It is to be observed that the first part still has the obsolete feast of the 13th May, _Dedicatio S. Mariæ ad Martyrs_, and only the _Natalis S. Cæsarii_ on the 1st November, the Mass for All Saints’ being placed at the end, and not in its proper place (fol. 131). This recalls the circumstance that Gregory IV. (827-844) transferred the feast of the 13th May to the 1st November. This change was also introduced into the Frankish empire in 835. The original document was then certainly written before 835, or indeed earlier, for the _litania minor_, introduced into the Roman rite by Leo III. about 801, is not given; nevertheless the three chief feasts of our Lady are already inserted in their proper places. In the following period until the fifteenth century only a limited number of new saints’ days were added to the Roman Missal. A missal written in 1374—_Ordo Missalis secundum Consuetudinem Romanæ Curiæ_—belonging to the Public Library of Munich, shows an increase of only twenty-five Masses for saints’ days over the _Gregorianum_ after more than five hundred years.

Fronteau, chancellor of the University of Paris, published a lectionary which has important bearings on the study of liturgies; he took it from a codex written in gold characters belonging to the Church of St Geneviève in Paris.[808] The editor correctly described it as appertaining to the city of Rome, because the Roman station churches are given, and the saints mentioned almost all belong to the city of Rome. The omission of the festival of St Petronilla (the 31st May) is of importance in fixing the date of this document, for Gregory III. was the first to add the Church of the _Cœmeterium S. Petronillæ_ to the other station churches.[809] Petronilla had already been regarded as a saint in the city of Rome, but her festival had not made its way into the liturgy because no _statio_ was held in her Church or in her _Cœmeterium_. The _Litania Minor_ on the three days before the Ascension, introduced into the Roman rite by Leo III., is also not to be found here. The editor, however, deduces that the Lectionary of St Geneviève is later than Gregory II. from the fact that the Thursdays in Lent are provided with an _officium_ of their own, an addition introduced first by this pope.[810]

Accordingly this lectionary was composed under Gregory II., between 714 and 731, and it is of great importance for the liturgical student. Its manner of naming the Sundays after Pentecost deserves especially to be noticed, the feasts of our Lady of the 15th August and the 8th September do not fall on these days, but on the 14th August and the 9th September, and the beheading of St John the Baptist on the 30th August. The only Greek saint mentioned is Mennas and the only non-Italian, St Cyprian. The _Cathedra Petri_, _Exaltatio Crucis_ (3rd May), and _Joannes ante Portam Lat._ (6th May), are not yet known, and on the 28th June, where _Leo II. Papa et Confessor_ now stands, we have a _Translatio corporis S. Leonis_. Fronteau points out that this cannot refer to Leo II.[811]

11. _The Martyrologies of Bede, Florus, Wandelbert, and Œngus_[812]

Before the ninth century, the Frankish Church had produced no martyrology of its own, apart from the so-called _Hieronymianum_, but on the other hand the young Anglo-Saxon Church put out a work of this kind in the eighth century, its author being the learned historian of the Anglo-Saxon Church, the Venerable Bede. Whether he undertook the work spontaneously or at the desire of his superiors, whether it was intended merely for his own monastery, or for a wider circle are questions which cannot be answered, for there is no introduction to the work to inform us on these points. The work was used in the Frankish empire as is proved by the MSS. of it found there as well as by the later additions of Florus.

Bede composed his _Martyrologium_ in 731, as he informs us at the conclusion of his history.[813] It was his intention to give in addition to the days of the saints’ deaths, the nature of their deaths, and the names of the judges by whom they were condemned, for by this means the date of their deaths could be determined with certainty. The basis of his work was the existing Roman Calendar while he exceeded its limits in many directions. In the first place, he added to it the saints of England such as were then venerated; these were few in number, Alban, Cuthbert, Augustine, Mellitus, Etheltrud, Victor and Paulinus (10th October), Brigid, etc. Then a comparatively large number of names of Frankish saints were also introduced, _e.g._ Maximin of Treves (31st May), Clodoald (St Cloud), Remigius, Denys, Lambert († 17th September 709), the Theban legion, and a few others. Bede rises still further above the standpoint of national churches and particularism by admitting some names from the Old Testament, _e.g._ Ezechiel (10th April), Jeremias (1st May), Eliseus (14th June), Isaias (6th July), Samuel (20th August), etc.; the dates on which they are commemorated being taken for the most part from Greek menologies.

Bede collected material for his _Martyrologium_ with great diligence, and enriched his subject matter with notes from his own reading, as is shown for instance by his reference to St Cyprian’s treatise _De Lapsis_ in connection with the martyrs Castus and Æmilius (22nd May) who are named in it; other sources upon which he also drew were the _Gesta Pontificum_, the writings of Eusebius, St Gregory’s Dialogues, and especially a number of _Passiones Martyrum_. Bede’s work shows both diligence and originality, and an intelligent employment of the materials which came to hand. Yet, in spite of his diligence, he found material to fill up only a hundred and eighty days, and so the half of the year remains vacant; still his compilation is fuller than the Frankish calendars of the eighth century, and the notes attached to the names of each saint are remarkable for brevity and precision.

Although the value of Bede’s work is incontestable it was soon found insufficient; it was diligently copied, and used, but additions of all sorts were made to it as is proved by the large number of variations in the existing MSS. Perhaps it met with more acceptance abroad than at home, for the thirteenth canon of the second council of Cloveshove which met in 747, only twelve years after Bede’s death, enjoined the use of the Roman martyrology, without even mentioning Bede.

As regards its publication, the martyrology of Bede was printed for the first time in Cologne in 1616, but as in the text thus published, all the days of the year are provided with the names of saints, it is impossible that it represents the original text of Bede, for all old writers agree in stating that in it many days were left vacant. The Bollandist Henschen found first of all a fragment of the genuine Bede among the MSS. of Queen Christina of Sweden, and then, later on, the complete text at Dijon.[814]

Bede’s martyrology was newly worked over and considerably enlarged by a certain Florus; according to Wandelbert of Prüm,[815] this was the subdeacon Florus of Lyons, who, later on, as deacon, wrote against Scotus Erigena in 852, and died in 860; he was a contemporary of Wandelbert’s. Against this must be set down the authority of Trithemius, who considers that this Florus was a Monk of the monastery of St Trudo in the diocese of Liège about 760. Although Trithemius gives no authority for this statement, still writers on the history of literature, especially Fabricius, are in complete agreement with him. Still which ever of the two is correct, one is inclined to ask how it came to pass that so striking an enlargement of the work—each day of the year being provided with the name of a saint—could have appeared so soon after Bede and before the appearance of the great martyrology of Ado.

Wandelbert of Prüm turned Bede’s martyrology into verse in the twenty-fifth year of the Emperor Lothaire I. (848); his version is of no importance for the history and development of this department of liturgical studies, yet it may be consulted for questions connected with local history.[816]

The martyrology of Œngus the Culdee, written in the ancient Irish (Celtic) language certainly belongs to the same period. Nothing further is known of the author except that he was a monk in the Monastery of Conenagh in the ninth century. The martyrology is written in rhymed verse, extends over the entire year, and contains for the most part the names of Irish saints.[817] Certainly later is the similar work of Gorman, Abbot of Louth in Leinster. It was written in unrhymed verse between 1166 and 1174.[818]

12. _The Martyrologies of Ado, Usuardus, Rabanus Maurus, and Notker Balbulus_

The most important document in this department of literature, and one which bears directly upon scientific investigations, is the martyrology of Ado, Bishop of Vienne. Ado was born in northern France about 800, and entered at an early age the Monastery of Ferrières in the diocese of Sens, from whence he was sent to the Monastery of Prüm where he lived for many years under Abbot Markward (829-853). In consequence of some misunderstandings he left Prüm and went to Rome, where he spent five years and then went to Ravenna. He returned to France later and lived for some time as a simple monk in a monastery in the neighbourhood of Lyons. After the death of Bishop Agilmar of Vienne († 7th July 860) he succeeded to the see and died on the 16th December 873.

He compiled the martyrology which bears his name in 858 before he became bishop,[819] the basis of his work being a very ancient martyrology with which he had become acquainted in Ravenna. If his information can be trusted, a bishop of Ravenna, whose name he does not give, received this ancient document from a bishop of Rome who is also nameless. The rest of the material he collected himself, and in particular he made notes of any information concerning martyrs which had come in his way. Many of the sources at his disposal have since been lost, thus rendering his martyrology all the more important for us.

It consists of three parts: 1. A calendar containing the names of one or more saints for each day accompanied by notices naturally brief; in the printed edition it bears incorrectly the title, _Vetus Martyrologium Romanum_, given to it by its first editors, Jacob Mosander and Heribert Rosweyde;[820] 2. _A Libellus de Festivitatibus SS. Apostolorum_;[821] 3. The martyrology itself,[822] consisting of extracts from the acts of the martyrs and other writings.

His preface contains matter which deserves attention.[823] He had often been urged, he says, by holy men, by his superiors, and by Bishop Remigius of Lyons to complete the martyrology; since the martyrology of Bede, which Florus had enlarged, still leaves many days without saints, he had undertaken to fill up these gaps, and for this purpose he had made use of the MSS. describing the sufferings of the martyrs, from which he had made quotations for the benefit of the weaker brethren; the ancient martyrology which came originally from Rome, served him as a foundation upon which to build.

The frank avowal of his intention to fill in the spaces left vacant by his predecessors, might create a prejudice against the trustworthiness and excellence of his work, but a closer inspection will dispel this suspicion, and this would be still more the case had we the original form of the work before us; in the existing editions there are additions of a later date, such as the name Rictiovarus.

From the entries on the 20th April and the 17th November it is plain that the Cologne MS. of this martyrology edited by Rosweyde comes from Stablo, and it may have been that at Stablo the names of some Frankish saints were inserted into it. Ado went much further than Bede in admitting names from the Old Testament. Roseweyde’s conjecture that this calendar, the so-called “Little Ado,” is the Roman martyrology mentioned by Gregory I. in his letter to Eulogius, is devoid of proof and obviously mistaken, for in that document there were no Old Testament names. This “Little Ado” is not a martyrology at all, but a calendar, and displays none of the peculiarities which characterise the calendars of the city of Rome of that date; neither is it an independent work, but only an abstract made by Ado from his own larger work, and a summary of its contents. The preface prefixed to the two other parts is chiefly concerned with the martyrology, and not with this abstract, and it is only the circumstance that this abstract is found in MSS., with some later additions and altogether separate from the larger work, which led the first editor to regard it as a treatise by itself; it is merely the abstract used at Stablo and Malmedy, and not an original Roman work, though it is plain from Ado’s preface that the existing Roman calendar was employed in its composition.[824]