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]
Two or three decades later, Usuardus composed his martyrology after Ado’s example, which he dedicated to Charles the Bald in 875. Usuardus was a monk of St Germain des Près, then outside the gates of Paris, but now surrounded by the city; his work is by no means so full as Ado’s, but is more polished in style, and more uniform in its treatment of the different entries, and on this account is more suited for use in choir. It was accordingly used throughout the entire West, and in all Benedictine monasteries,[825] and even in Rome itself with the exception of the Vatican basilica. At the end of the fifteenth century it was so to speak, the universal martyrology of the Western Church, and indeed no other was known.[826]
The value of these works depends naturally upon the sources employed by the redactor, and also upon his personal qualities, as, for instance, whether he revelled in the miraculous or was inclined to be critical.
Two martyrologies by German authors must now be dealt with—those of Rabanus Maurus and Notker Balbulus.
The former when Archbishop of Mainz completed a martyrology which he had compiled from secondary sources; it is dedicated to Abbot Radleich of Seligenstadt, who died in 853-54, and whose epitaph was composed by Rabanus,[827] but the composition of the martyrology must be dated a few years earlier, about 850, though the exact date cannot be discovered. As sources, he drew upon the Acts of the martyrs which he found ready to hand, and also the Hieronymianum, Bede, and Florus; the treatment of the material is very unequal, sometimes a long account being given, sometimes nothing more than the name; legends and historical errors are frequent.
The same is true of the martyrology of Notker Balbulus who was a monk at St Gall from 840 to 912, and composed his work under Pope Formosus (891-896). He knew and used the Hieronymianum, as, for example, for the 9th August, V. Id. Aug. First class sources were beyond his reach, a loss of which he was himself conscious.[828]
All these martyrologies of which we have spoken, were private compilations without anything of an official character about them. The existence of so many following upon the Hieronymianum shows that it did not satisfy liturgical requirements and was little used. On this account, martyrologies were drawn up at a later date containing full descriptions of the lives and sufferings of the saints for each day of the year, which would serve as edifying and entertaining reading for religious, priests and other pious persons. However even the best of them were no longer practicable in the sixteenth century, and Gregory XIII. conceived the purpose of putting out one better adapted for use in divine service. A further step was taken in 1580 when he commissioned the learned Cardinal Sirleto to compare the martyrology used in Rome with the oldest and best MSS. and to correct the errors which had crept into it in course of time.[829] Sirleto associated ten other learned men with himself among whom were Cæsar Baronius and Aloysius Lilius, the astronomer. Baronius was the soul of the undertaking, and, after three years’ labour, the Martyrologium Romanum Gregorii XIII. was completed, and a papal brief of the 14th January 1584, prescribed the exclusive use of this work in choir at the canonical hours. Baronius based his labours on Usuardus, correcting and enlarging his martyrology by means of the materials then forthcoming; could he have used the materials discovered later, or those which we now possess, his work would naturally have been much better; many, too, of the earlier mistakes remain uncorrected. The editors were far from claiming freedom from errors for their work, and made improvements in later editions, beginning with that of 1586. It is not necessary to regard all the individuals named in the Roman martyrology as saints in the liturgical sense of the word, and their admission there, according to the expression of Benedict XIV. is in no wise equal to canonisation.[830] Since the time of Baronius, the official martyrology has indeed remained untouched, but science has not been inactive during this long period; much has been explained and corrected, and, on the whole, it has come to be recognised as a principle which must be followed in investigating the histories of the saints of ancient times, that recourse is to be had to the earliest existing sources of information, and also, where the evidence is contradictory, local official sources, where they exist, are to have the preference.
13. Important Calendars from the Eighth to the Eleventh Centuries
While the martyrologies were for the most part the outcome of individual effort, the calendars, on the other hand, are entirely official in their origin. In times when annual calendars, like our present ordos, had not yet appeared, their place was taken by the official calendar, and every one had to make out his ordo for himself with its assistance. From many points of view they are more important for our purpose than the martyrologies.
As complete missals took the place of the sacramentaries they were usually provided with a table, like an index, which gave a list of the saints’ days contained in the missal; these so-called calendars have from then until now formed an integral part of written and printed missals, and even appear by themselves like abbreviated martyrologies. A remarkably large number of calendars of this kind have come down to us from the Middle Ages, and, since they are important for the history of local churches, they have recently been published, as, for example, by Martène-Durand, Misset and Weale, Grotefend, Ulysse Chevalier, Lechler, etc.[831] For our purpose, the following deserve to be noticed:
1. A Roman calendar of the seventh century, discovered by Prof. de Ram, and printed in Binterim, Denkw. vii. 56-67. It begins with Christmas, March is called mensis primus, the station churches of Rome are given in Lent, on the 13th May there is the Dedicatio Mariæ ad Martyres, All Saints does not appear. The only litany is the so-called litania major; the Annunciation and the Cathedra Petri are omitted, in March a pascha annotina is inserted without date, St Athanasius is passed over on the 20th January; there are only faint traces of Advent. This calendar is very ancient and formed part of the codex of the gospels written under Louis the Pious; in the time of Lothaire I., it belonged to the Monastery of Münsterbilsen in the diocese of Liège.
2. A calendar belonging to Bologna. It is found in a codex of the Monastery of Leno, was discovered by Giovanni Mercati in the Ambrosiana, and published in the Révue Bénédictine, 1902 (353-355). It has the Ordinatio Episcopatus Jacobi Apost. on the 27th December, and, on the 17th May a natalis S. Marci Evang., found nowhere else.
3. The so-called calendar of Charlemagne forms, along with an Easter table, the beginning of an Evangeliarum written in 781 by command of the emperor and his consort by a scribe called Godescale.[832] It is only deserving of notice from the number of names of Frankish saints inserted into a calendar originally Roman, e.g. Bishop Maximin of Treves (31st May), Boniface (5th June), Medard (8th June), Martialis (30th June) Kilian (1st August), Mauritius (22nd September), Remigius (1st October), etc. The Apostle Thomas is placed, strange to say, on the 3rd July, and St Petronilla on the 31st May.
4. A calendar is incorporated in a treatise De Computo, by an unknown author, written in 810 (published by Muratori, Analecta, iii. 108, and also in Migne, Patr. Lat., cxxix. 1274). It seems to come from the diocese of Sens on account of S. Columbæ Virg. on the 31st December; All Saints is omitted. This calendar is Roman with Frankish additions; for the date see chap. 153, Migne, cxxix., 1364.
5. The last four months of the year are unfortunately missing from the calendar of Alt-Corbie (Corbeiense) given by Martène-Durand, Thes. Nov. Anced., iii., 1591, Paris, 1717. The same is the case with a very old calendar of Tours.
6. Codex 83ᴵᴵ. of the cathedral library in Cologne contains an ancient calendar, fol. 72 B-76. This codex contains a large collection of annalistical writings and computation tables and was written under Archbishop Hildebold. The second treatise in the volume is Isidore’s chronicle which concludes with the words: “Seven hundred and eighty-nine years have passed since Christ’s Nativity”; further on, fol. 76 B, was inserted after the death of Charlemagne, and also of Hildebold (818). Thus the codex was written between 798 and 818, and belonged to the old cathedral of Cologne which was dedicated to St Peter. The calendar, however, does not belong to Cologne for the local saints are absent, but there is a number of names of Frankish saints, pointing to the north of France as the locality where it was drawn up; no explanation of the legend of St Ursula can be learnt from it. For a calendar of its early date, it is remarkably full of saints, while the Cologne Calendar, shortly to be referred, to has many vacant days. The codex has been described by Jaffé and Wattenbach, Ecclesiæ Metrop. Colon. codices manuscripti, Berlin, 1874, 29 et seqq.
7. The Gellonense comes from the Monastery of St Guillaume du Désert in the diocese of Lodève, and belongs to the beginning of the ninth century, and has been edited by D’Achery, Spicilegium, ii. 25 et seqq. It begins with Christmas and is preceded by a Breviarum Apostolorum in thirteen sections containing information concerning the apostles.
8. A Kalendarium Gothicum (ed. Lorenzana) of the seventh century (Migne, lxxxvi. 38 et seqq.). Besides this, there is the Mozarabic Sanctorale (ib. 1031 et seqq.) and a fragment of a Kalendarium Gothico-Hispanum (Migne, lxxxv. 1050 et seqq.).
Of later date, but still always useful for historical investigation are:—
9. Two Anglo-Saxon calendars of the tenth century belonging apparently to the diocese of Winchester (Migne, lxxii. 619 et seqq.).
10. Two from Corbie; in Martène and Durand (Thes. Nov. Anecd., iii. 1571-1594).
11. A calendar of Floriac and a martyrology of Auxerre (Migne, cxxxviii. 1186-1258).
12. A calendar of Mantua and two of Vallombrosa (Ib. 1258 et seqq.).
13. A calendar of Besançon of the eleventh century, which goes by the name of S. Protadii (Migne, lxxx. 411), and an old French calendar called after the name of its first owner Chauvellin (Migne, lxxii. 607).
For convenience we separate the most ancient calendars of German origin from the others, and consider them by themselves.
1. The oldest calendar of Mainz belongs to the first half of the ninth century, and was published from a codex in the Vatican by Jostes in the Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum (Schröder and Röthe) for 1896, 148-158. All Saints is absent, and the resurrection of Christ is entered on the 25th March.
2. A Kalendarium Verdinense, from the Monastery of Werden on the Ruhr, published by Bandini (Catal. Bibl. Lauretianæ Suppl., Migne, cxxxviii. 1203 et seqq.). It contained All Saints, and the Dedicatio S. Mariæ s. Turris Vincentii on the 13th May as well. Among the special saints of Cologne are given the two Ewalds, Kunibert, Gereon, the Moors, and the eleven thousand virgins, but without Ursula, and designated as simply virgins and not martyrs; it also contains the names of the two first bishops of Halberstadt, Thiatgrim († 840) and Hildegrim († 21st December 888), which indicates the date of its composition, and it has the name of the first abbot of Werden, Hetharicus, and the Dedicatio Eccl. Majoris. Unfortunately the months from April to July are missing.
3. The sacramentary in the cathedral library of Cologne (codex 88, fol. 3-9) contains a complete calendar for this cathedral. It is essentially the Roman Calendar of the ninth century, with the addition of the local saints of Cologne, the two Ewalds, Kunibert, Brictius, Quintinus, Severin, Gereon and his 318 companions, the 360 Moors, and the 11,000 virgins without Ursula, and designated simply as virgins. Other names deserving notice are: Briga (Brigida) 1st February, Arealis (?) 28th April, Marcus episcopus, Boniface the martyr, Medard, Lambert, and Mauricius with 6666 companions. The calendar belongs to the second half of the ninth century, and is proved to have belonged to the cathedral of Cologne begun by Hildebold and consecrated by Willibert in 873, by the fact that it gives the day of the consecration of the cathedral correctly (23rd September), and is described as belonging to the Church of St Peter, to whom the former cathedral was dedicated. The sacramentary, but not the calendar, has been printed by J. Pamelius in his “Liturgicon Ecclesiæ Latinæ,” tom. ii. (Col. Agr. 1571), but unfortunately with so many arbitrary alterations that it is quite useless as an edition of the text.
4. In the library at Düsseldorf there is a sacramentary, (codex D. I.) written in the lifetime of Bishop Altfrid of Hildesheim († 874), which contains (fol. 217-222) a calendar showing northern French influence. Only the 11,000 virgins are given of the local saints of Cologne, and here again Ursula is not named, and the virgins are not called martyrs. The book belonged to the Convent of Essen on the Ruhr founded by Altfrid. This MS. gives in fol. 64 A the order of the festivals observed within the jurisdiction of the monastery during the ninth century: “Istas præcipuas solemnitates in anno totus populus sabbatizare debet: In die Nat. Domini dies IV., in octabas Domini, in Teophania, in Purificatione Mariæ, in Pascha Domini dies IV., in Ascensione Domini, in Pentecoste dies IV., in Nat. S. Johannis, in Nat. Sanctorum Apostolorum Petri et Pauli, in Assumptione S. Mariæ, in Nat. S. Remedii [Remigii], in Missa Michahelis, in Solemnitate Omnium Sanctorum, in Nat. S. Martini, in Nat. S. Andreæ.”
Binterim published a Cologne calendar, apparently of the ninth century, under the title Kalendarium Ecclesiæ Germ. Coloniensis Sæculi Noni (Cologne, 1824), and Harless attributes it to the second half of the same century (Archiv. f. die Gesch. des Niederrheins, vi. 67). It is, however, much later, for it gives all the feasts of the apostles, and provides them with vigils, and all the days of the year are filled in with the names of saints. For these reasons I should date the calendar as belonging to the eleventh century at the earliest.
5. The Kalendarium Germanicum Pervetustum Sæc. X., printed by M. Fr. Beck (Aug. Vind., 1687). Gerbert (Mon. Lit. Alem. i. 455 A. I.) correctly regards it as coming from Alsace and probably from Strassburg, because it contains the saints venerated in that city, Arbogast (20th July), Florentius, Ottilia and Aurelia. The basis of this document is again the Roman Calendar, still many Frankish saints have been added, but Gereon alone of the saints of Cologne. The latest date given in it is the Dormitio S. Uodalrici (4th July). It has only one name from the Old Testament, that of the prophet Ezechiel.
6. A calendar of Freising, drawn up under Bishop Abraham, between 893 and 993. The 25th March is marked as Conceptio Domini. There is only one feast of St Peter’s Chair. The calendar has been printed by Lechler, “Mittelalterliche Kirchenfeste und Kalendarien in Bayern,” Freiburg, 1891.
7. The so-called Martyrologium Stabulense, the calendar of the Monastery of Stablo. The date of the original MS. can be deduced from the fact that on the vii. Idus Junii the coronation of King Henry II., which was performed by Archbishop Willigis at Mainz on the 7th June 1002, is entered by the first hand, while the ordination of Archbishop Tagino of Magdeburg in the 2nd February 1004, has been entered by a second hand. Archbishop Tagino’s death is not entered. The calendar has only Gereon with 319 companions of the local saints of Cologne. St Ulrich of Augsburg, although he died in 997, is entered by the second hand. The calendar has been published by Martène, Ampl. Coll., and by Zaccaria, Antiq. Med. Ævi (see Migne, cxxxviii. 1194).
8. Hontheim has published the five most ancient calendars of Treves in the Prodromus Historiæ Trevirensis, i. 378-405. According to him, only the first belongs to the tenth century, all the others being later. For a calendar of the tenth century, it is very full of names, many of them being from the old Testament—Ezechial, Daniel, etc.; it mentions neither the legend of the Innumerable Company of Martyrs at Treves on the 4th and 5th October, nor Palmatius, Thyrsus, etc.; neither does it contain All Souls, St Catherine, or St Peter’s Chair, but it has Gereon and his 318 companions. It is only in the fourth and fifth calendars which belong to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that Thyrsus, Palmatius, etc., appear.
When one considers the details presented by calendars, one is bound to acknowledge that the Roman Depositio Martyrum stands at the head of this long line of liturgical documents, and was the model after which they were composed. Like them, the Depositio Martyrum was drawn up according to months, and commenced with Christmas. Like them, it contained the official list of the martyrs who received ecclesiastical veneration in the local church of Rome in the fourth century. Were it not so, it would not have deserved to be incorporated in the Philocalian collection, the Hemerologium Valentini, since this comprised only official documents; had it not been official it would not have been worth transcribing.
CONCLUSION
All estates of men in the Church have had their share in the formation of the ecclesiastical year, for the growth of the Church’s festivals has continued without interruption from the beginning until now, and has extended over all the countries of Christendom. Having wended our way through the centuries and arrived at the conclusion of our work, it is a pleasure to render our tribute of thanks and praise to the men who have in the past made this sphere of study their own.
The few writers of the Middle Ages who treated the Church’s year and the festivals of the saints in a comprehensive manner were entirely occupied with contributing to the correct performance of ecclesiastical ceremonies, and with explaining why each ceremony must be done in one way and not in another. They not infrequently brought allegorical and symbolical considerations to bear on the question.
In more modern times, Cornelius Schulting, a native of Steenwijk in North Holland, and afterwards professor of theology at Cologne and canon of St Andrew’s († 1604) undertook a full exposition of the matter; his object was mainly practical, and his work can only be regarded as a first attempt. The keen controversialist, Jacobus Gretser S.J. († 1625), is more occupied with his polemic against the Calvinists than with lucid demonstration. More in harmony with modern requirements, is the French oratorian Louis Thomassin, a native of Aix in Provence, and a partisan of Port Royal, who died in 1695; he wrote a small compendium which may be used with profit at the present day.
The study of the ecclesiastical year was considerably advanced by the labours of Adrien Baillet, born in 1649, in the diocese of Beauvais († 1706), parish priest of a small country living at Baumont and librarian to M. de Lamoignon; he was entirely devoted to the pursuit of knowledge, and scarcely ever allowed himself any relaxation. He composed a great work worthy of ranking alongside the labours of Tillemont, to whom he is closely related in spirit. The course of his historical treatment of the subject is considerably obscured by the superabundance of biographical matter. Two valuable monographs were published by Prosper Lambertini (Pope Benedict XIV.) when bishop of Bologna, which treat in a masterly manner of the feasts of our Lord and of our Lady respectively.
Finally, the learned priest of Bilk, near Düsseldorf, Fr. Ant. Binterim († 1855) dealt with this subject in one volume of his Denkwürdigkeiten. He treats in the first place of the observance of Sunday, then of the Sundays of the Church’s year in general, and finally of the movable and immovable feasts. Of these he naturally deals only with the most important, following the order of the calendar, by which arrangement Christmas comes last.
The author of this book commenced his researches by a comparative study of the martyrologies, calendars, annals, and works dealing with the computation of time, and then set to work upon the historical and liturgical material which he had before him from the point of vantage thus obtained. The fortunate circumstance that the most of the works required for this branch of study are contained in Migne’s collection, renders the labour of comparison possible, and frequently brings remarkable parallels to light.