Wednesday and Friday.

Long prior to any clear evidence for the special observance among Christians of the last day of the week we find testimonies to a religious character attaching to the fourth and sixth days.

The devout Jews were accustomed to observe a fast twice a week, on the second and fifth days, Monday and Thursday[18]; and these days, together with the Christian fasts substituted for them, are referred to in the Teaching of the Apostles (8), ‘Let not your fastings be with the hypocrites, for they fast on the second and fifth day of the week; but do ye keep your fast on the fourth and parasceve (the sixth).’ In the Shepherd of Hermas we find the writer relating that he was fasting and holding a station[19]. And this peculiar term is applied by Tertullian to fasts (whether partial or entire we need not here discuss) observed on the fourth and sixth days of the week[20]. Clement of Alexandria, though not using the word station, speaks of fasts being held on the fourth day of the week and on the parasceve[21].

At a much later date than the authorities cited above we find the Apostolic Canons decreeing under severe penalties that, unless for reasons of bodily infirmity, not only the clergy but the laity must fast on the fourth day of the week and on the sixth (parasceve). And the rule of fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays still obtains in the Eastern Church[22].

These two days were marked by the assembling of Christians for worship. But the character of the service was not everywhere the same. Duchesne[23] has exhibited the facts thus: In Africa in the time of Tertullian the Eucharist was celebrated, and it was so at Jerusalem towards the close of the fourth century. In the Church of Alexandria the Eucharist was not celebrated on these days; but the Scriptures were read and interpreted. And in this matter, as in many others, the Church at Rome probably agreed with Alexandria. It is certain, at least as regards Friday, that the mysteries were not publicly celebrated on these days at Rome about the beginning of the fifth century. The observance of Friday as a day of abstinence is still of obligation in the West.

CHAPTER II
DAYS OF THE MARTYRS

We now pass from features of every week to days and seasons of yearly occurrence.

In point of time the celebrations connected with the Pascha are the earliest to emerge of sacred days observed annually by the whole Church. But for reasons of convenience it has been thought better to defer the consideration of the difficult questions relating to the Easter controversies till the origin of the days of Martyrs and Saints has been dealt with.

The Kalendar in some of its later stages exhibits a highly artificial elaboration. But in its beginnings it was, to a large extent, the outcome of a natural and spontaneous feeling which could not fail to remember in various localities the cruel deaths of men and women who had suffered for the Faith with courage and constancy in such places, or their neighbourhoods. The origins of the Kalendar show in various churches, widely separated, the natural desire to commemorate their own local martyrs on the days on which they had actually suffered.

As regards the order of time there is ample reason to convince us that the commemorations of martyrs were features of Church life much earlier than those of St Mary the Virgin, of most of the Apostles, and even of many of the festivals of the Lord Himself.

The marks of antiquity that characterise generally the older Kalendars and Martyrologies are (1) the comparative paucity of entries, (2) the fewness of festivals of the Virgin, (3) the fewness of saints who were not martyrs, (4) the absence of the title ‘saint,’ and (5) the absence of feasts in Lent.

Again, the local character of the observance of the days of martyrs is a marked feature of the earlier records which illustrate the subject. Now and then the name of some martyr of pre-eminent distinction in other lands finds its way into the lists; but it remains generally true that in each place the martyrs and saints of that place and its neighbourhood form the great body of those commemorated. And in addition to the natural feeling that prompted the remembrance of those more particularly associated with a particular place, the fact that the commemorations were originally observed by religious services in cemeteries, at the tombs or burial places of the martyrs, tended at first to discountenance the commemoration of the martyrs of other places whose story was known only by report, whether written or oral.

The day of a martyr’s death was by an exercise of the triumphant faith of the Church known as his birthday (natale, or dies natalis, or natalitia). It was regarded as the day of his entrance into a new and better world. The expression occurs in its Greek form as early as the letter of the Church of Smyrna concerning the martyrdom of Polycarp (c. 18).

There can be no doubt that at an early date records were kept of the day of the death of martyrs. Cyprian required that even the death-days of those who died in prison for the faith should be communicated to him with a view to his offering an oblation on that day (Ep. xii. (xxxvii.) 2). It is in this way probably that the earliest Kalendars of the Church originated.

We purpose dealing more particularly with the early Roman Kalendars. The earliest martyrology that has survived is contained in a Roman record transcribed in A.D. 354. It is known, sometimes as the Liberian Martyrology (from the name of Liberius, who was bishop of Rome at the time), sometimes as the Bucherian Martyrology, from the name of the scholar who first made it known to the learned world[24], and not uncommonly as the Philocalian, from the name of the scribe. It presents many interesting, and some perplexing features, which cannot be dealt with here. We must content ourselves with noticing that, besides recording, as in a serviceable almanack, several pagan festivals, it marks the days of the month of the burials (depositiones) of the bishops of Rome from A.D. 254 to A.D. 354, and also the burial-days of martyrs, twenty-five in number. In both lists the cemeteries at Rome where the burials took place are noted. But there are also entered three ecclesiastical commemorations which do not mark entombments, (1) ‘viij Kal. Jan. (Dec. 25) Natus Christus in Bethleem Judeae’; (2) ‘viij Kal. Mart. (Feb. 22) Natale (sic) Petri de Cathedra’; (3) ‘Nonis Martii (March 7) Perpetuae et Felicitatis Africae[25].’ The appearance of St Perpetua and St Felicitas in a characteristically Roman document is a striking testimony to the fame of these two African sufferers for the Faith[26]. The use of the word natale in connexion with St Peter’s chair not improbably marks the dedication of a church; and, at all events at a later period, the word seems sometimes used as equivalent simply to a festival, or perhaps a festival marking an origin or beginning—as, for example, Natale Calicis, of which something will be said hereafter (p. 40). Easter could not appear in the Kalendar properly so-called; but the document contains cycles for the calculation of Easter, and a list of the days on which it would fall from A.D. 312 to A.D. 412.

Early Kalendars would be of much value in our enquiries; but they are few in number. The following three deserve notice. (1) The Syrian Martyrology first published by Dr W. Wright in the Journal of Sacred Literature (Oct. 1866). It was written in A.D. 411-12, but represents an original of perhaps about A.D. 380. It is Arian in origin, and has elements that show connexions with Alexandria, Antioch, and Nicomedia; and its range of martyrs is much wider than that of other early documents of the kind. Yet of Western martyrs we find only in Africa Perpetua and Satornilos and ten other martyrs[27] (March 7) and ‘Akistus (?Xystus II) bishop of Rome’ (Aug. 1). We find St Peter and St Paul on Dec. 28; St John and St James on Dec. 27; and ‘St Stephen, apostle’ on the 26th[28]. (2) The Kalendar of Polemius Silvius, bishop of Sedunum, in the upper valley of the Rhone (A.D. 448). It contains the birthdays of the Emperors and some of the more eminent of the heathen festivals, such as the Lupercalia and Caristia, but with a view, apparently, of supplanting them by Christian commemorations. The Christian festivals recorded are few in number, those of our Lord being Christmas, Epiphany, and the fixed dates, March 25 for the Crucifixion, and March 27 for the Resurrection. There are only six saints’ days. The depositio of Peter and Paul on Feb. 22; Vincent, Lawrence, Hippolytus, Stephen, and the Maccabees on their usual days. Other features of interest must be passed over[29]. (3) The Carthaginian Kalendar[30] has been assigned as probably about A.D. 500[31]. It is thus described by Bishop J. Wordsworth, ‘It has, in the Eastern manner, no entries between February 16 and April 19, i.e. during Lent. Its Saints are mostly local, but some twenty are Roman, and a few other Italian, Sicilian, and Spanish. It also marks SS. John Baptist (June 24), Maccabees, Luke [Oct. 13], Andrew, Christmas, Stephen [Dec. 26], John Baptist [probably an error of the pen for John the Evangelist] and James (Dec. 27) [‘the Apostle whom Herod slew’], Infants [Dec. 28] and Epiphany [sanctum Epefania][32].’ It may be added that this Kalendar marks the depositiones of seven bishops of Carthage, not martyrs, whose anniversaries were kept.

In one of the African Councils of the fourth century it was enacted that the Acts of the martyrs should be read in the church on their anniversaries. But Rome was slow in adopting this practice[33].

It will be seen that as time went on the strictly local character of the martyrs commemorated was invaded by a desire to record the famous sufferers of other parts of the Christian world. Rome, with its characteristic conservatism in matters liturgical, seems to have been slower than other places to yield to this impulse. At Hippo we find Augustine commemorating, beside local martyrs, the Roman Lawrence and Agnes, the Spanish Vincent and Fructuosus, and the Milanese Protasius and Gervasius whose bones (as was believed) had been recently discovered. He also commemorated the Maccabees, St Stephen, and both the Nativity and Decollation of the Baptist. On the other hand in the laudatory sermons that have come down to us we find Chrysostom at Antioch commemorating only the saints of Antioch, and Basil, at Caesarea in Cappadocia, only those of his own country.

The Sacramentary, which is called after Pope Leo (A.D. 440-461), shows signs of a somewhat later date; but it is unquestionably a Roman book; and the Kalendar which we can construct from it represents the Kalendar of Rome as it was not later than about the middle of the sixth century. It gives us the following days; but it must be observed that the months of January, February, March, and part of April are unfortunately missing[34].

It has been thought well to give in full this list, defective though it is (as lacking the opening months of the year). It exhibits indeed a large preponderance of celebrations of local interest; but there are clear indications that already the martyrs of other places than Rome are securing themselves positions in the Roman Kalendar.

The collection of masses and other liturgical offices known as the Gelasian Sacramentary are not without interest in illustrating the development of the Kalendar, more particularly among the Franks. But we pass on to consider the features of the distinctively Roman service book, which, by a somewhat misleading name, has been called the Gregorian Sacramentary. In its present form (though it contains many ancient elements) it is probably not earlier than the close of the eighth century. Omitting notices of moveable days, and exhibiting the dates by the days of the month in our modern fashion, the Kalendar runs as follows[38], some remarks being added within marks of parenthesis.

When we examine these lists we find (1) the principal festivals of the Lord, of His Mother, and of His Apostles placed as they are still noted in the Kalendar. It may be observed that Jan. 1 is not styled the Circumcision; and there is no reference to the Circumcision in the collect. In the mass for the Epiphany the leading of the Gentiles by a star and the gifts of the Magi are the prominent features. The use of the name Ypapante as the first name for the Purification (Feb. 2) suggests the Eastern origin of the festival. We find (2) the great majority of the saints recorded to be Roman martyrs—or of martyrs connected with Rome, either in fact or by legend; but (3) there are a few famous martyrs from other regions of the world, as St George, St Vincent, SS. Cosmas and Damian, and St Lucy, of Dec. 13. And Martin of Tours has a place. We also find that some of the obscurer saints of the earlier list disappear. Frequent pilgrimages to the East, together with the interchange of literary correspondence between the churches, are sufficient to account for the appearance of the Oriental martyrs. The leading features of the Western Kalendar, as it prevailed in the mediaeval period, and has subsisted to the present day, are already apparent.

It will be seen that All Saints does not appear on Nov. 1; and yet it was certainly observed in many churches in England, France, and Germany during the eighth century. It is placed at Nov. 1 in the Metrical Martyrology attributed to Bede, who died in A.D. 735. Though therefore this Martyrology, as we now possess it, shows signs of having been re-handled, it seems hazardous to attribute the origin of the festival, as is done by some, to the dedication of a church at Rome ‘in honorem Omnium Sanctorum’ by Pope Gregory III (A.D. 731-741).

Much obscurity attends the origin of All Souls’ Day. It would seem that Amalarius of Metz, early in the ninth century, had inserted in his Kalendar an anniversary commemoration of all the departed, and this was probably (as the context suggests) immediately after All Saints’ Day; but the practice of observing the day did not at once become general, and the earliest clear testimony to Nov. 2 does not emerge till the end of the tenth century, when Odilo, abbot of Clugny, stimulated by a vision of the sufferings of souls in purgatory, reported to him by a pilgrim returning from Jerusalem, enjoined on the monastic churches subject to Clugny the observance of Nov. 2. The practice rapidly spread.

The dominant influence of the Roman Church in Europe carried eventually the main features of the Roman Kalendar into all regions of the West. In early times at Rome the anniversary of a martyr was ordinarily kept, not in the various churches of the city and suburbs, but at the particular cemetery or catacomb where he was buried, or at the tomb within some church which had been erected over the place where his remains rested. Outside the walls, and at various distances along the great roads that led from the city, most of these commemorations were celebrated. As M. Batiffol has put it, with substantial correctness, ‘the old Roman Sanctorale is the Sanctorale of the cemeteries[40].’ It is a striking and impressive illustration of the looking of the Western peoples to Rome for guidance in matters of religion that even obscure saints buried in the cemeteries of the neighbourhood of the Apostolic See now have places in the religious commemorations of all the remotest Churches of the Roman obedience.

The study of the origins of the Kalendar of the city of Rome illustrates the general proposition that the martyrdoms of a particular city or district form the main feature of each local Kalendar. To enter into detail in respect to the early Kalendars of the other provinces and dioceses of Europe, even when the scanty evidence surviving makes the enquiry possible, is too large a task to be attempted here.

The account of the commemorations of the early martyrs may be brought to a close by calling attention to a festival of general and perhaps universal observance before the fifth century—the festival of the pre-Christian martyrs, the seven Maccabees, on Aug. 1. It was not unnatural in the age of persecution, or when the memories of the great persecutions were still fresh, to fasten upon the Old Testament story of heroic constancy. After the Feast of St Peter’s Chains in the West, and the Procession of the Holy Cross in the East had displaced it from a position of primary importance, it was not wholly forgotten; and even now in both East and West in a subsidiary manner the memory of the Maccabees is still preserved in the services of the Church on Aug. 1. Chrysostom speaks of the celebration being attended in his day by a great concourse of the faithful, and we possess three homilies of his for the festival. Augustine shows us that the festival was observed in Africa in his time, and mentions that there was a church called after the Maccabees at Antioch, a city named, he makes a point to inform us, after their persecutor, Antiochus Epiphanes. There are still extant sermons for the festival preached by Gregory Nazianzen, and, at a later date, by Pope Leo the Great.

CHAPTER III
THE LORD’S NATIVITY: THE EPIPHANY: THE FESTIVALS WHICH IN EARLY TIMES FOLLOWED IMMEDIATELY ON THE NATIVITY

It is certain that the assigning of the birth of the Lord to Dec. 25 appears first in the West; and it is not till the last quarter of the fourth century that we find it becoming established in some parts of the East. St Chrysostom in a homily delivered in A.D. 386 distinctly relates that it was about ten years earlier the festival of Dec. 25 came to be observed at Antioch, and that the festival had been observed in the West from early times (ἄνωθεν)[41]. At Constantinople the festival was kept on Dec. 25, apparently for the first time, in A.D. 379 or 380; and about the same time it appears in Cappadocia, as we learn from the funeral oration on Basil the Great pronounced by his brother, Gregory of Nyssa. At Alexandria this date was adopted before A.D. 432. At Jerusalem, however, the Nativity was observed on Jan. 6 not only in the time of the Pilgrimage of ‘Silvia,’ but, if we may credit the Egyptian monk Cosmas Indicopleustes, even as late as at the middle of the sixth century. This writer relates that the people of Jerusalem, arguing from Luke iii. 23 (where, as he interprets the passage, Jesus is said to be beginning to be thirty years of age at His baptism) celebrated the Nativity together with the Baptism on Jan. 6[42].

But when did the observance of Dec. 25 make its appearance in the West? It must have been a well-marked festival at Rome when it appeared in the Bucherian Kalendar in A.D. 336 (see p. 15). And about one hundred years earlier (as we learn from his commentaries on Daniel) Hippolytus was led to infer, partly from a belief (however it originated) that the Incarnation took place at the Passover, and partly by a process of calculation with the help of his cycle, that the actual Incarnation took place on March 25 in the year of the world 5500 (or B.C. 3), and consequently the Nativity on Dec. 25[43].

The Bishop of Salisbury (J. Wordsworth) offers an ingenious conjecture which may possibly point to the early Eastern practice of commemorating the Nativity on Jan. 6 having originated in a similar way. Sozomen, the historian, writing in the fifth century, states that the Montanists always celebrated the pascha on the eighth day before the Ides of April (i.e. April 6), if it fell on a Sunday, otherwise on the following Sunday (H.E. vii. 18). The Bishop thinks that the belief that April 6 was the proper day of the pascha ‘may probably have been an opinion quite unconnected with their [the Montanists’] sect.’ But he rightly admits that ‘actual facts are not yet forthcoming[44].’

Conjectures of this kind, though at present unsupported, are well worth remembering, if for no other reason, because students of early Christian literature are thus put on the alert to note any testimonies which make for, or else go to invalidate, the suggestion offered. I may add that the Montanist notion, as recorded by Sozomen, that the creation of the sun in the heavens took place on April 6, is of a kind that would well fall in, among fanciful speculators, with the notion that the Incarnation also took place on the same day[45].

Why this time of the year, late in December or early in January, was assigned for the Nativity is a question which it is not possible to answer with confidence. It is conceivable that the insecure and blundering argument alleged, among others, by Chrysostom may have had weight. He supposes that Zacharias, the father of the Baptist, was the High Priest, and that he had entered the Holy of Holies on the day of Atonement when the angel appeared to him. The day of Atonement was in September. Six months later (Luke i. 26) the Annunciation was made to St Mary; and after nine months the Saviour was born.

By others it has been suggested that the festival of Christmas on Dec. 25 did not originate in any such calculations; but was suggested by the pagan festival Natalis Solis Invicti marked at that day. The solstice was passed. The sun was entering on its new increases. ‘The Light of the world,’ ‘the Sun of righteousness’ was to take the place of the sun-god in the heavens[46].

The Theophany, or Epiphany (Jan. 6), is, like its name, as characteristically Eastern in its origin as the feast of the Nativity (Dec. 25) is Western; but when it passed into the West it was in thought, either at the outset or certainly soon, separated from the Nativity; and eventually, while the baptism of Christ was not ignored, the main stress of liturgical allusion was on the visit of the Magi, so that the festival is not uncommonly designated simply as the feast of the Three Kings. In the East the dominant thought is the manifestation of Christ’s divinity at his baptism: and in the Basilian Menology the day is simply named ‘The Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ And it is to this connexion, baptism among the Greeks being known as ‘illumination,’ that has been attributed another name for the day, ‘the lights’ (τὰ φῶτα)[47].

It is not improbable that the feast of the Epiphany made its way to the West, through the churches of Southern Gaul, whose affinities with the East are recognised facts of history. At all events it is in connexion with Gaul that we find the first reference to the Epiphany in the West. The pagan historian Ammianus Marcellinus, in his account of the Emperor Julian in A.D. 361 visiting a Christian church at Vienne, says that it happened on the day in the month of January which Christians call ‘Epiphania’ (Hist. xxi. 2).

The Epiphany was observed in the African Church by the orthodox in the time of Augustine, but he tells us that the Donatists did not observe it, ‘because they love not unity, nor do they communicate with the Eastern Church.’ The latter expression falls in with the supposition that the West derived the festival from the East. In the ancient Kalendar called the Kalendar of Carthage (unfortunately of uncertain date) we find at Jan. 6 the entry ‘Sanctum Epefania’ (sic). In Spain, as we learn from the canons of the Council of Saragossa (can. 4), the festival was recognised as a considerable commemoration before A.D. 380. For Rome, we have to note the silence of the Bucherian Kalendar; but for the fifth century we have the testimony of Pope Leo, and we possess no fewer than eight sermons of his upon the festival of the Epiphany; in these the manifestation of Christ to the Magi is the truth upon which he chiefly enlarges. Elsewhere in the West we have references to other manifestations of the Deity of Christ, as at His baptism, and His first miracle at Cana. But generally, as in the East the baptism, so in the West the manifestation to the Gentiles is the leading note of preachers or theologians[48].

Among the Armenians the Epiphany is reckoned one of the five chief festivals: it is preceded by a week’s fast, and is followed by an octave. It is by them still reckoned as the day of the Nativity.

The festivals of the days immediately following Christmas.

We see that in the Gregorian Kalendar the commemorations of St Stephen (Dec. 26), St John the Evangelist (Dec. 27), and Holy Innocents (Dec. 28), in the order with which we are familiar, were already established in the West. And long before the period of the Gregorian Kalendar we have evidence that in some parts of the East before the close of the fourth century a group of festivals commemorating eminent saints of the New Testament were celebrated between the feast of the Nativity and the first of January. Basil the Great died on Jan. 1 A.D. 379; and his brother Gregory of Nyssa delivered the funeral oration at his burial. In this discourse the preacher speaks of a group of feasts preceding the first of January, namely of St Stephen, St Peter, St James and St John, and St Paul. It may with some reason be believed that the dates of these festivals had no relation, real or fancied, to the days of the deaths of these saints of the Church’s beginnings.

There is little doubt that at the close of the fourth century the churches of Asia Minor had festivals of St Stephen on Dec. 26, St James and St John on Dec. 27, and St Peter and St Paul on Dec. 28[49]. And in the West our earliest information shows us St Stephen on Dec. 26; but there are variations as regards the other festivals. The ancient Kalendar of Carthage shows us on Dec. 27 ‘St John the Baptist and James the Apostle, whom Herod slew,’ and Holy Innocents on Dec. 28[50].

The earliest Roman service-books show us only St John on Dec. 27, and he is St John the Evangelist[51]. Yet in the so-called Martyrology of St Jerome (which, though interpolated, contains many ancient features), we find at this day, together with ‘the Assumption of St John at Ephesus,’ ‘the ordination to the episcopate of James, the Lord’s brother, who was crowned with martyrdom at the paschal time[52].’ The Holy Innocents (Dec. 28) is known in the Latin books since the sixth century, and may well have been earlier; but Peter and Paul are found together on another day (June 29), the day of their martyrdom at Rome, as was generally assumed. Though we are not able to determine with precision on what day the Innocents of Bethlehem were commemorated in early times, there can be little doubt that there was some commemoration of those whom, as St Augustine says, ‘the Church has received to the honour of the martyrs.’

There are some reasons for conjecturing that the commemoration of the Innocents was at first in association with the Epiphany. In the second half of the fourth century the poet Prudentius has some pretty lines on the Holy Innocents as martyrs in his hymn on the Epiphany[53]. And Leo the Great in more than one of his sermons on the Epiphany has laudatory passages on the martyrdom of the Innocents. Yet in estimating the weight that should attach to such references it should be remembered that Herod’s slaughter of the children at Bethlehem is in the Gospel narrative so closely connected with the visit of the Magi that it would not be unnatural for both poet and preacher to touch on that striking story, although there were no intentional commemoration of the Innocents attached by the Church to that day. In the Byzantine Kalendar the Fourteen Thousand Holy Infants are commemorated on Dec. 29. In the Armenian Kalendar the Fourteen Thousand Innocent Martyrs are commemorated on June 10. It deserves notice that in the Mozarabic Kalendars we find ‘St James the Lord’s Brother’ at Dec. 28; ‘St John Evangelist’ at Dec. 29; and ‘St James the Brother of John’ at Dec. 30.

CHAPTER IV
OTHER COMMEMORATIONS OF EVENTS IN THE LORD’S LIFE. PENTECOST

The commemoration of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was in the nature of things a natural and inevitable outcome of the religious beliefs and feelings of the infant Church. The fixing of days for the commemoration of other events in the life of our Lord came with thought and reflection; they belong to the period of constructiveness, and we have no evidence to show that their appearance was very early. Tertullian is silent about other days than Sunday (the Lord’s Day), the Pasch (including the Passion and the Resurrection), and Pentecost[54]; and Origen particularises the Lord’s Day, the Parasceve (perhaps in the sense of the weekly Friday ‘station’), the Pasch, and Pentecost, as being days specially observed by Christians[55].

The Circumcision is obviously dependent on whatever was regarded as the date of the Nativity, and is the result of reflection and ecclesiastical constructiveness. It is eight days after the Nativity on Jan. 1, with all Christendom, save the Armenians, who celebrating the Nativity (together with other Epiphanies of the Lord) on Jan. 6, naturally observe Jan. 13 as the day of the Circumcision. The day is not noted in the Bucherian Kalendar, nor in the Carthaginian. Baillet[56] comes to the conclusion that it appears first as appointed for general observance as a festival, about the middle of the seventh century, and in Spain, where servile work was forbidden on this day. But it would appear from the Canons of the Fourth Council of Toledo that the day was then observed with penitential features (canon 11). From the Sermons of Augustine we learn that in his time Jan. 1 was observed by Christians as a solemn fast, in protest against the licentious revelry and excesses of the pagans at this time of the year[57]. And as late as the Second Council of Tours (A.D. 567) it is enjoined that, while all other days between the Nativity and the Epiphany are to be treated (in regard to use of food) as festivals, an exception is to be made for the space of three days at the beginning of January, for which time the fathers had appointed litanies to be made ‘ad calcandam Gentilium consuetudinem.’ But it should be remarked that the canon (17) dealing with the subject has special reference to fasts to be observed by monks. It is therefore not impossible that the fast had by this time ceased to be observed by the general body of the faithful, but, in a spirit of conservatism, was regarded as proper to be maintained in the monasteries. The canon is interesting for another reason; it affords perhaps the earliest example of the use of the term ‘Circumcision’ as applied to this day, which appears in the Gelasian and Gregorian Sacramentaries simply as Octava Domini, i.e. the octave of the Nativity. In the Gelasian Sacramentary there is no emphasis in the service on the Circumcision, while the prayer called Ad populum distinctly points to a prohibition against partaking of the convivium diabolicum of the pagans. And a mass immediately following that for the Octave, entitled Ad prohibendum ab idolis, points in the same direction. The Gregorian Sacramentary shows no reference to the Circumcision in the prayers of the mass[58].

Even in the early part of the seventh century Isidore of Seville condemns the indecent gaieties indulged in on this day, and recalls the ancient injunction that the day should be observed as a fast[59]. The fourth Council of Toledo (canon 11) represents as the practice of Spain and Gaul the omission of the singing of Alleluia on the Kalends of January, propter errorem gentilium.

In the later Western service-books the thought of the Circumcision is given greater prominence, and intermingles with the thoughts suggested by the Octave. The feast of the Circumcision appears in the Greek Church in the eighth century[60].

Commemoration of Passiontide; Holy Week (the ‘Great Week,’ as it is styled in the East). The commemoration of the death of the Saviour is the primitive and essential element: other days were given places as the result of reflection, and of the desire to reproduce liturgically in a mimetic way the events of the Lord’s history during the last paschal week. We possess the early testimony of Tertullian for the dies Paschae, for so he names the day. He tells us that it was a public and general fast, and that the kiss of peace was omitted from the services of the Church[61]. But for Palm Sunday, Coena Domini, and the Great Sabbath we have no evidence till much later. It is from Palestine that we get the earliest notice of the rites of Palm Sunday. In her account of the ceremonies at Jerusalem ‘Silvia’ describes the procession of palm-bearers on the Sunday of the Great Week. The feast of Palms is also mentioned in the life of Euthymius, abbot in Palestine, who died at a very advanced age in A.D. 473. But in the West the carrying of palms does not appear earlier than the ninth century. The commemoration (Natalis Calicis) of the institution of the Eucharist on the night before the Lord suffered probably had its rise about the same time as Palm Sunday; and a certain mimetic character was given to the rites of the Thursday by delaying the celebration of the Liturgy till the evening. This was further enhanced in the Church of Carthage (A.D. 397), which in view of the original institution of the Eucharist having been after supper, made an express synodical declaration that the rule of fasting communion was binding ‘excepto uno die anniversario, quo coena domini celebratur[62].’ And St Augustine expressly affirms that the practice of the Church did not condemn communion after the evening meal on the Thursday in Holy Week[63]. The name Dies Mandati (which has probably given us our Maundy Thursday) is not very ancient. In mediaeval times the particular mandate of the Lord was taken to be the feet-washing, before or during which were sung the words ‘Mandatum novum do vobis[64].’

At Rome, as late as the time of St Leo, in regard to the days specially observed in Holy Week, the only distinction from ordinary weeks seems to have been the commemoration of the institution of the Eucharist on Thursday. The adoration of the Cross on Good Friday (which we find at Jerusalem in the days of ‘Silvia’) and the mass of the pre-sanctified were later additions, and are regarded by Duchesne as having been introduced into the West in the seventh or eighth century[65]. The observances of the Saturday were those of the vigil of Easter.

The Ascension: in the Greek Kalendar, and frequently in Greek writers, with a different connotation, ‘the Taking up,’ ‘Assumption’ (ἀνάληψις)[66], was celebrated forty days after Easter, as the actual Ascension took place forty days after the Resurrection; it is obviously a festival of the constructive period. There is no mention of it in the earliest Christian writings; but, without here going into details of evidence, it may be stated that the festival was observed, possibly early in, and certainly before, the close of the fourth century. It is noticed by ‘Silvia’ (though the name Ascensa is not given to it) as a day on which at Bethlehem, where the vigil was kept, the bishop of Jerusalem and the presbyters preached, but it does not appear that the Eucharist was celebrated. There was a procession back to Jerusalem in the evening. Augustine classes the day with the Passion, the Resurrection, and the advent of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost), as observed ‘anniversaria solemnitate[67].’ In the Sacramentary of Leo many masses in Ascensa (= Ascensione) Domini are to be found. Both in the East and in some parts of the West it was customary to celebrate the festival outside the cities,—a practice suggested doubtless by Luke xxiv. 50.

It may be remarked that many old English writers, both before and after the Reformation, use the term ‘Holy Thursday’ for this day.

The Transfiguration (Aug. 6 in the Byzantine[68], Ethiopic, and later mediaeval and modern Roman Kalendars: on the 7th Sunday after Pentecost in the Armenian) is of late appearance. If a certain canon (or prose hymn) on the Transfiguration attributed to John of Damascus be really his, it would point to the probable observance of the day in the eighth century in the East. In the West the festival appears much later; but the evidence indicates its having had a partial and local observance long before it was enjoined by Pope Calixtus III for the Church generally in A.D. 1457. This Pope appointed an office for the day, which was afterwards somewhat altered by Pius V. The action of Calixtus was prompted by thankfulness for a victory over the Turks at Belgrade. Among the Greeks the Transfiguration is a day of great solemnity. It is preceded by a ‘proheortia’ and affects the following eight days. The Armenians observe a preparatory fast for a week[69].

Pentecost. This word as commonly employed by early Christian writers signifies the whole period of fifty days after the Resurrection. It is thus that the term is used by Tertullian in a passage (de Idolat. 14) where he compares the number of festival days among the pagans with the number of Christian festivals. The same is probably true where he speaks of Pentecost as ‘ordinandis lavacris latissimum spatium’ (de Baptismo 19). During that period fasting, and kneeling at prayer, at least in the public assemblies, were forbidden: and Alleluia, which had been silent, was resumed. It seems, however, that once at least Tertullian had in view, in the use of the word, the day on which the period closed[70]. Origen in a similar way uses the word for the whole period, but also seems to distinguish between the general and more restricted signification of the word[71]. Earlier than either of these is the testimony of Irenaeus (if we may accept it as his) cited, as from his lost book On the Pascha, by Pseudo-Justin (Quaest. et Respons. ad Orthodoxos, 115), where Irenaeus speaks of not kneeling in Pentecost, as that time is of equal dignity with the Lord’s day, ‘Pentecost’ being here used evidently for a season. On the other hand, the compiler, whoever he was, of the Quaestiones, in which Irenaeus is quoted, in the same place speaks of not kneeling ‘from the Pascha to Pentecost,’ using the latter term in its restricted sense. In the newly-recovered Testament of the Lord[72] Pentecost is used for the fifty days between Easter and our Whitsunday (i. 28, 42; ii. 12). An interesting survival of the old signification of Pentecost is still to be found in the Greek service-books, where the term Mesopentecoste is used for special festal observances mid-way between Easter and Whitsunday, commencing on the Wednesday following the third Sunday after Easter, and lasting for a week.

In the forty-third canon of the Council of Elvira (A.D. 305) we have a clear example of the use of the word Pentecost for the fiftieth day. And after that date the word is widely used in that sense: while the festival itself assumes gradually more and more dignity and importance. ‘Silvia’ describes the elaborate ceremonial observed on this day at Jerusalem towards the close of the fourth century.

There are considerable difficulties attendant on an attempt to assign a precise date to the addition of an octave to this festival; and the festal character of the octave week was affected by the ember days occurring in that week. In the Gelasian Sacramentary, as it has come down to us, we have the ‘propers’ for a mass on the Sunday of the octave of Pentecost. The mass may be described as a mass of the Holy Spirit, praying for protection for the Church from the allurements of the vain and deceitful philosophy of the world; true knowledge of the nature of God was given by the bestowal of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of wisdom, and knowledge, and understanding, and counsel. The benedictions, which immediately follow, on those who return to the Catholic unity from the Arian and other heresies, suggest that it was in this way that the octave of Pentecost came at a later date to be made a festival in honour of the mystery of the blessed Trinity[73]. The public reception to the Catholic unity of Arian and other heretics would gradually cease to be a feature of the season: but the liturgical colouring of the service would remain, and would have to be accounted for. As a matter of fact, however, the establishment of a festival of the Trinity with a special office and mass was of late date. It makes its appearance in the Low Countries in the tenth century, and made its way but slowly, and with varying success. Pope Alexander II, who died in A.D. 1073, when consulted on the subject, wrote that according to the Roman rite there was no day set apart to commemorate the Trinity any more than the Unity of the Divine Being, and that every day of the year was truly consecrated to the honour of the Trinity in Unity. It was not till the fourteenth century, under the pontificate of John XXII, that the Roman Church received the feast of the Trinity and attached it to the first Sunday after Pentecost[74].

In England, according to Gervase of Canterbury, Archbishop Thomas Becket instituted the principal feast of the Trinity on the octave of Pentecost[75].

CHAPTER V
FESTIVALS OF ST MARY THE VIRGIN

I. Western Kalendars.

The history of the origin of some of the following festivals is obscure; and it is impossible to be precise as to the dates of their first appearance. We speak with some reservation of the Festival of Feb. 2, known first in the West, as well as in the East, by the name Hypapante (i.e. ‘the Meeting’ of Simeon with the Lord and His Mother), and afterwards as the Purification of the Virgin. It seems at first in the West to have been a festival of our Lord rather than of the Virgin. In the propria for ‘Yppapanti’ (sic) in the Gregorian Sacramentary the allusion to St Mary is of the slightest. Hence at the time when it first appeared in the West it may be reckoned as having no special reference to St Mary. The Church of Rome does not appear (according to Duchesne) to have observed any festival of the Virgin before the seventh century, when it adopted the four following festivals from the Church of Byzantium.

1. The Purification (or, in early times, Hypapante). Its date (Feb. 2) is determined by counting forty days from Christmas (Luke ii. 22: compare Levit. xii. 2, 4).

A feast of much dignity and importance (cum summa laetitia, ac si per Pascha) commemorating the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple is noticed as celebrated (towards the close of the fourth century) at Jerusalem at the time of the pilgrimage of ‘Silvia.’ It was observed on Feb. 14 (the 40th day after the Epiphany, reckoned as the day of the Lord’s Nativity): but ‘Silvia’ does not appear to have regarded it as in any sense having special reference to St Mary. The words of the pilgrim simply record the incident in the Temple; and it looks as if the feast were only commemorative of a remarkable event in the history of the Lord.

It may be pointed out that the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple is still observed by the Armenians on Feb. 14, as they still celebrate the Nativity on Jan. 6.

The origin of the consecrating of candles and carrying them in procession which has given us the low Latin names candelaria and candelcisa, the French chandeleur, the Italian candelora, the German Lichtmesse, and our English name Candlemas, and which from early times formed a striking feature in the ritual of the Feast, has been conjecturally connected by some with a symbolical setting forth of the words of Simeon (Luke ii. 32); and by others with the ceremonial of the heathen Lupercalia. But the matter is still involved in doubt.

In the East the establishment of the festival throughout the Empire is generally assigned to Justinian in the year 542. The appearance of Hypapante in the so-called Gregorian Sacramentary is, it need scarcely be said, no proof that the festival was observed in the time of Gregory the Great.

The word ‘Hypapante’ lingered long in the West. We find it as the only name of the festival in the Martyrology of Bede; and one hundred and fifty years later the day is marked in Usuard as simply ‘Hypapante Domini.’

2. The Annunciation (March 25) like ‘Hypapante’ was probably originally a feast of our Lord, as marking the time of the Incarnation. Inferentially it may be considered as well established both in the East and West considerably before the close of the seventh century. Duchesne considers that we have very clear testimony to this feast before the Council in Trullo (A.D. 692), where it was spoken of as already established. Perhaps earlier, or, at latest, almost contemporary, in the West is the testimony of what is known as the tenth Council of Toledo (?A.D. 694)[76] where the complaint is made that in various parts of Spain the festival of St Mary was observed on various days, and it is further added that as the festival cannot be fitly celebrated either in Lent, or when overshadowed by the Paschal festival, the Council ordains that for the future the day should be xv Kal. Jan. (Dec. 18) and the Nativity of the Lord on viii Kal. Jan. (Dec. 25). It is plain that something of the nature of an octave was to follow the festival of Dec. 18; and there is added in a somewhat apologetic tone, ‘nam quid festum matris nisi incarnatio verbi?’ (canon 1). The Trullan Council took a different course. While continuing to prohibit all other festivals during Lent, it sanctioned the celebration of this. In the Milanese rite the feast was celebrated on the fourth Sunday in Advent. In the Mozarabic Missal we find in the Kalendar the Annunciation of St Mary marked both on March 25 and Dec. 18; the latter being distinguished as the ‘Annunciation of the O,’ referring to the great Antiphons sung at that season.

The older titles of the festival were the ‘Annunciation of the Lord,’ ‘the Annunciation of the Angel to the Blessed Virgin Mary,’ or ‘the Conception of Christ.’

The rules in the Roman rite for transferring the Annunciation to another day under certain circumstances will be found in technical works of the commentators.

3. The Nativity of the Virgin (Sept. 8). This also is found in the West towards the close of the seventh century. Durandus, who is often more fanciful than wise, had in this case perhaps some historical foundation for his assertion that the festival was founded by Pope Sergius I in A.D. 695. The story of Joachim and Anna, the parents of St Mary, is found in certain apocryphal Gospels which circulated among the Gnostics[77].

4. The Sleep, or (later) Assumption, of the Virgin (Aug. 15) appears in the West about the same time as the Annunciation and the Nativity of the Virgin. All three were unknown to Gregory the Great. It originated in the East, and was there known as the Sleep and (afterwards) the Translation. According to the historian, Nicephorus Callistus, the festival was founded by the Emperor Maurice (A.D. 582-602). It is beyond our province here to deal with the legend of St Mary’s body as well as soul being taken up to heaven. The festival made its way slowly in Gaul, but was eventually adopted by Charlemagne. As late as the twelfth century it was not universally observed in the East.

The advance in the titles of the festival from depositio, pausatio, dormitio to transitus and assumptio is not without significance. In Bede the name is Dormitio.

It will be observed that all these four festivals came to Rome from Byzantium. In the later mediaeval period they were of universal obligation in the West[78].

For notices of the observance of the death of St Mary on Jan. 18, see Baillet, op. cit., VI. 11.

5. The Presentation of St Mary (praesentatio, illatio, oblatio) in the Temple at Jerusalem. In the modern Roman Kalendar at Nov. 21, it is a ‘greater double.’ It does not appear in the Kalendar of the Sarum Breviary or Missal; but the Sarum Enchiridion (1530) gives Nov. 21, and the Office is printed in the Breviary. There were many exceptions to this feast being observed[79]. The festival is based on a legend[80] that at an early age Mary was dedicated to the service of God in the Temple, and that there she grew up, and served under the priests and Levites. The first appearance of the festival is at Constantinople; and there is evidence for it there in A.D. 1150. It passed to the West towards the close of the fourteenth century[81]. And with more certainty than is usually possible in such enquiries we can trace its introduction to the impression made by the accounts, brought back from Cyprus, by Philip de Mazières, of the solemnities of the feast in the East. Pius V (A.D. 1566-1572) withdrew it from the Roman Kalendar; but it was restored by Sixtus V (A.D. 1585-1590).

6. The Conception of St Mary (Dec. 8). Since Dec. 8, 1854, when Pius IX (in the Apostolic Letters Ineffabilis Deus) decreed the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception to be a necessary article of the Faith, the epithet Immaculate has been prefixed to the original title in the service-books of the Roman Communion. In the Greek Church the day observed is Dec. 9, and the title is the Conception of St Anna, grandmother of God, the Easterns connecting the word ‘conception’ with the person who conceived, while the Latins connected it with the person who was conceived. The festival was commanded to be observed throughout the Empire of the East by the Emperor Manuel Comnenus in the middle of the twelfth century.

The evidence seems to point to the fact that, like several other festivals of the Virgin, this originated in the East. In the Greek Horologion we find it related that, according to the ancient tradition of the Church, Anna was barren and well stricken in years, and also that her spouse Joachim was an aged man. In sorrow for their childlessness they prayed to the Lord, who hearing their prayers intimated to them by an angel that they would have a child, and in accordance with the promise Anna conceived[82]. It appears that the festival had no dogmatic significance; and it had its parallel in the historical festival, still observed in the Greek Church on Sept. 23, of the Conception of St John the Baptist, a festival which also had a place in the old Latin Martyrologies.

In the West the local observance of the day is associated commonly with the name of St Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, who, in one form of the story, on a voyage from England to Normandy during a storm vowed to establish the festival. But the day is marked in some English Kalendars just before the Norman Conquest, though at first it had a very limited acceptance[83]. It is plain that at an early date there were some who connected the festival with the belief that St Mary differed from other mortals in being without original sin. For when the Chapter of the Cathedral of Lyons were about to institute the festival in that church, St Bernard of Clairvaux wrote (A.D. 1140) expostulating with them partly on the ground that though St Mary was, as he believed, sanctified in the womb, yet her conception was not holy. He added that this was a novel festival, ‘quam ritus Ecclesiae nescit, non probat ratio, non commendat antiqua traditio’; and declares that it was the outcome of the simplicity of a few unlearned persons, the daughter of inconsiderateness (levitatis), and the sister of superstition (Epist. 174).