[419] The disagreement arose from the fact that the ancient missals (Sacramentorum libri), only mentioned the month without specifying the week when the Ember fasts were to be observed. See Berno of Reichenau (Migne, Patr. Lat., cxlii. 1097), whose small treatise, composed between 1020 and 1031, deals with the question.

[420] Micrologus, c. 24.

[421] Servius, Comm. on Virgil., Bucol. Eccl., 3, 77.

[422] See examples in Usener, 305 A. 22, 306-345.

[423] Obid., Fasti, 4, 905 seqq., and Fasti Prænest., Corp. Inser. Lat. i. 392. For the “Robigaliæ” see Marquardt-Mommsen, Staatsverwaltung, iii. 574.

[424] Vigilii, Epist. ad Simpl. i.; Migne, Patr. Lat., xiii. 550.

[425] Avitus, Hom. de Rogat. Migne, Patr. Lat., lix. 289. Gregor. Tur., Hist. Franc, 2, 34.

[426] This fact is mentioned by both the biographers of Gregory, Joan. Diac. i. 41-43, and Paul. Diac. c. 10, as well as by Amalarius 4, 24, and Beleth c. 122, etc., but all draw their information from Gregor. Tur., Hist. France, 10, 1. See Baillet ix, 2, 87-103, who also makes use of the designations “Litaniæ Gallicanæ” and “Litaniæ Romanæ.”

[427] These words come from a letter without an address in the appendix to the Register of Gregory the Great. Migne, lxxvii. 1329.

[428] Lib. Pont. ed., Bianchini, ii. 386.

[429] In Spain the litanies were on 10th Sept., 7th Nov., and 15th Dec., according to the lectionary of Silos.

[430] The Martyrium was erected on Golgotha, close to the site of the present Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Anastasis, built by Constantine, was the larger of the two, and served as the usual place of assembly for the faithful in the fourth century. (Peregr. Silviæ, ed. Geyer, c. 27, 30, 39, 43).

[431] J. P. Kirch, Die Christl. Kultusgeände in Altertum, 34-40.

[432] St Gregory the Great ordered that the Anglo-Saxons should keep the dedication of churches and the natalitia martyrum in the same way as they had previously observed the festivals while they were yet heathen, that is to say by erecting huts of branches and by feasting. (Epist. ii. 76, of the year 601).

[433] For the East, see Johannes Eub., Orat. in Concep. B.M.V., c. 23. Migne, Patr. Gr., xcvi. 1499. For the West, see the Sermons of St Augustine on the “Dedicatio,” Sermo 336-338.

[434] Our informants are Euseb., Vita Constant, 4, 6; Sozomen, Hist. Eccl., 2, 26; 3, 5; Socrates, Hist. Eccl., 2, 6.

[435] Euseb., Hist. Eccl., 10, 3; Ambrose, Ad Marcellinam Epist., 22, 1 (Migne, Patr. Lat., xvi. 1019). Paulinus of Nola, Nat. S. Fel., 9; Poema, 27, 402 seqq. (Migne, lxi. 657); Peregr. Silviæ, as above.

[436] Missale Francorum in Migne, Patr. Lat., lxxii. 328.

[437] Dionys, De Hier. Eccl., 4, 12. See Rahmani, Testam. D.N.I. Chr., 156.

[438] Durandus (Rationale Div. Off. 1, 23; 7, 262) expressly follows the model of the Old Testament.

[439] Muratori, Lit. Rom. Vet. i. 308, 609, 613.

[440] Op. cit. ii. 467-489 and 186.

[441] Gregor., ix. c. 5, x. de feriis 2, 9. See Burchard of Worms, Decr. 2, 77; Ivo of Chartres, Decr., in Migne, Patr. Lat., clxi. 203.

[442] Liber Ordin. of Essen, 62 et seqq.

[443] Binterim (Denkw., v. 1, 303 et seqq.; Conc., v. 91) places this synod in 1308. Hartzheim, Conc. Germ., iv. 106; vi. 498.

[444] Amongst others, Naogeorgius (Kirchmair aus Straubing) poured contempt on the observance of these feasts and the abuses to which they gave rise. Hospinianus, 175.

[445] Dumont, Sammlung Kirchl. Erlasse für d. Erzd. Köhn, 2nd ed., 165, 167.

[446] Remigius, a monk of St Germain, a diligent exegete who lived at the end of the ninth century, attempted to give an allegorical interpretation to the rites observed at the consecration of a church. The custom of writing the letters of the alphabet in Greek and Latin on the floor of the church seems to have presented difficulties to him. He commences his explanation of this rite by the words: “Quæ res puerilis ludus videretur, nisi ab apostolius viris instituta crederetur.” He interprets it as meaning that the Church instructs the unlearned in the elements of faith. His tractate in seven chapters is in Migne, Patr. Lat., cxxxi. 846-866. G. Mercati, however (Studi et Testi, Roma, 1902, 9) attributes it to Ivo of Chartres.

[447] Literature: Lebrun, De Martyrum Natalitiis Diss. Migne, Patr. Lat., lxi. 519, seq. Sollerius, Præf. to the Mart. Usuardi. Migne, cxxiii. 459, seqq. Ruinart, Præf. to the Acta mart. sincera et genuina. Le Blant, Les Actes des Martyrs, in Mémoires de l’Institut, 1888, 57-336.

[448] Passio S. Pionii et Soc., c. 2 in Ruinart, 188.

[449] Digg., 48, tit. 24, No. 3: “Corpora animadversorum quibuslibet petentibus ad sepulturam danda sunt.”

[450] Lib. Pont., ed. Duchesne, i. 52, 128.

[451] Op. cit. 65, 148, Euseb., Hist. Eccl., 6, 45, § 11, also refers to the seven deacons and seven subdeacons of Rome in the third century.

[452] Lib. Pont., I. xcv. 147.

[453] Epist., 12, 2.

[454] Bullettino d. Comm. Arch. Communale di Roma, 1894, 240 seqq.

[455] Ruinart, Acta Sincera, 630, with his Admonitio.

[456] Gregor. Nyss., Vita Greg. Thaum. Migne, Patr. Gr., xlvi. 954.

[457] Sozom., Hist. Eccl., 5, 3.

[458] Maximus Taur., Hom. 81. Migne, Patr. Lat., lvii. 427.

[459] Lib. Pont., Symmachus, c. 9.

[460] [See The Legends of the Saints, Delehaye, translated by Mrs V. M. Crawford (London, 1907), especially chap. iv. Trans.]

[461] Bäumer, Gesch. des Breviers, 456; see also 429, 447.

[462] Regula ad Monachos, ed. Migne, Patr. Lat., lxviii. 396. See also N. Paulus, Martyrologium und Brevier als historische Quellen; Katholik, 1900, i. 355 seqq.

[463] De Gloria Martyrum, c. 48.

[464] Cf. Hist. Eccl., 8, 13.

[465] Muratori, in a valuable work, De Martyrum Natalibus, shows in opposition to Pagi that “natales martyrum” indicates the actual day of their death. The work is printed in Migne, Patr. Lat., lxi. 819-26; Dissert. 19.

[466] De Anima, 51.

[467] Augustin., Epist. 288. Gregor. Tur., De Gloria Conf., 104.

[468] See the fourth canon of the Council of Valentia in A.D. 524.

[469] Edited by Baluzius, Capitul. Reg. Franc., Appendix. Also in Migne, Patr. Lat., xcix. 633. Other formulæ of the Carolingian period are given in Migne, cxxxviii. 885-902.

[470] This branch of hagiography has been carefully dealt with by Baillet. The entire first volume of his great work, Les Vies des Saints, is devoted to Old Testament Saints, more than a hundred in number, and to the history of their cultus.

[471] E. A. Kneller, in order to explain the choice of the 24th for the 25th June, draws attention to the way in which the ancient Roman Calendars were written, i.e. viii. Kal. Jan. = 25th December; viii. Kal. Jul. = 24th July (Innsbr. Zeitschr. für kath. Theol., 1901, 527).

[472] Agath. Can. 31, 63.

[473] Ivo Carn., Decretum, 4, 14. Migne, Patr. Lat., clxi. 266.

[474] According to St Augustine (sermo 292, c. i.) it was “traditione majorum receptum.”

[475] Morcelli, Menol. Const., ii. 13 seq. No less than fifteen churches and chapels were dedicated to St John the Baptist in Constantinople.

[476] Josephus, Antt., 18, 5, 2.

[477] Tillemont, Mém., i. 44; vii. 163.

[478] Seldenius, De Synedriis, iii. 220-47.

[479] Dionysius Exiguus translated this account into Latin (Migne, Patr. Lat., lxvii. 418). See also Tillemont, Mém., i. 44; vii. 163. Morcelli, Menol. Const., i. 167; ii. 65, 222. Baillet, iv. 825 seqq.; vi. 291 seqq. Du Cange, Traité du Chef de S. J. B. (Paris, 1665), wrote against the trustworthiness of Marcellus. The chronology of the Paschal Chronicle was corrected by Du Cange and Pagi. See Rauschen, Jahrbücher d. Theol., 356 A.

[480] Nilles, i., 2nd ed., 111.

[481] Migne, Patr. Lat., lxxviii. 120, 394.

[482] Pseudo-Alcuin, De off. Eccl., c. 30.

[483] Ordo Rom. XI., c. 66. Migne, Patr. Lat., lxxviii. 1050. There is not sufficient evidence to support Binterim’s view (Denkw., v. 379) that the procession to the Baptistry proves that solemn baptism was administered at Rome on the 24th June.

[484] Sermo 287-93. In Sermo 292, c. 1, appears the passage quoted on page.... “Hoc majorum traditione suscepimus, etc.”

[485] A town of Gamala was situated on the eastern shore of the Lake Genesareth, on a mountain. Josephus, Bello Jud., 4, 1, 1-7; Antt., 18, 1, 1, etc. Nothing is known of the village of Gamala near Jerusalem.

[486] For the fullest account of the particulars, see Hydatius, Chron. (Roncalli, ii. 99), “Honorio X. et Theodosio VI. Conss.” With this date agrees Marcellinus (op. cit., ii. 279), but not the Chron. Breve. (op. cit., ii. 259) or Theophanes, Chrongr., ed. Bonn, i. 133.

[487] Gennadius, De Script. Eccl., 46, 47. The writings relating to the “Inventio S. Stephani” are in Latin. The translation is printed in Migne, xli., Opera S. Augustini VII., 805-54.

[488] Augustin., Sermo, 316, 320-24; Civ. Dei, 22, c. 8.

[489] Theophanes, Chrongr., ad ann. 420.

[490] Muralt, Chron. Byz., i. 48.

[491] As, for example, to Antoninus. See Geyer, Itinera Hierosol., 176.

[492] Codinus, ii.

[493] The Syrian list of Abul Barakat gives for the date of St Stephen’s death the 12th Sept. A.D. 37, and for the date of the first discovery of his relics the 27th Dec. A.D. 40. Chr. IV. Caji. Baumstark, Oriens Christ., i. 266.

[494] Grisar, Gesch. Roms und der Päpste, i. 194 seqq.

[495] See the Calendars in Seldenius, op. cit.; also the Synaxaria in Mai, Bibl. Vet. Patr., iv.

[496] Usener, Der hl. Theodosius, Leipsig, 1890, 38, 144.

[497] Julian of Toledo in the Vita S. Ildephonsi Tol., c. 6. Migne, Patr. Lat., xcvi. 46.

[498] It is printed in Migne, Patr. Lat., cxxi. 798, from Pamelius Liturgica Lat., Col. Agr. 1571, tit. ii. 70. [See also an article in the Dublin Review, vol. cxv., on “The Earliest Roman Mass-book,” by Mr Edmund Bishop.—Tr.]

[499] Liber Pont., Sergius, No. 86.

[500] In the calendar of Sonnatius of Reims (quoted on p. 21), dating from ten or twenty years after Gregory the Great, these three feasts are already mentioned.

[501] There are, however, among the sermons of Peter Chrysologus, three (140, 142, and 143) entitled “de annuntiatione,” but of these No. 140 contains no allusion to a festival of our Blessed Lady, and the two others belong to Christmas.

[502] St Thomassin, 409. See Migne, Patr. Lat., cxxxv. 406. Fulbert, however, speaks of the feast as of recent institution. Sermo, 4. Migne, cxli. 320 seqq.

[503] Migne, Patr. Gr., xcvii. 806 seqq.

[504] So in the passage from the Liber Pontificalis quoted above and in the Kalend. Fronteau. Bede calls it the “Annuntiatio Dominica.” The Greek name for the feast is Εὐαγγελισμός τῆς ἁγίας θεοτόκου.

[505] Chron. Pasch. Olymp., 351, ed. Bonn, i. 713.

[506] Petrus Chrys., Sermo, 140, 142, ed. Migne, Patr. Lat., lii. Among the spurious sermons of Leo the Great is one which is believed to be a translation of a discourse of Proclus, Sermo 15. See the note of Ballerini in Migne, Patr Lat., liv. 508. Proclus, Orat. I. Migne, Patr. Gr., lxv. 679.

[507] Radulfus Glaber, Hist., 3, 3.

[508] Migne, Patr. Lat., lxxxv. 170, 734.

[509] Holweck, 292. When the 25th March falls on one of the three last days in Holy Week or Easter Week, it must be translated. Binterim (Denkw., v. 356) gives several historical references concerning this.

[510] Proclus, Oratio III., c. 2. When we find in collections of sermons (e.g. Combefis, Bibl. Conc.), some by the Fathers, such as Origen, St Ambrose, St Athanasius, etc., ascribed to the feasts of our Lady, we must not jump to the conclusion that these feasts were observed at the period when the authors of these sermons lived. These reputed sermons are only homilies on texts which suit the feast in question, and on this account have been inserted into the collection.

[511] Epiph., Hær., 79, c. 11: “I say not she did not die, yet I am not certain that she did die.”

[512] Vetter, Tüb. Theol. Quartalschr., 1887, 133 seqq. The letter is also given in the treatise by Nirschl, Das Grab der heiligen Jungfrau Maria, Mainz, 1896, 80 seqq.

[513] Transitus Mariæ in Tischendorf, Apocal. Apocr., Lips., 1866, 114.

[514] We have three sermons of John on the Assumption (Migne, Patr. Gr., xcvi.), one of Modestus, patriarch of Jerusalem (Migne, Patr. Gr., lxxxvi. pars 2), three of Andrew of Crete, who, before becoming bishop, was a monk in Palestine (Migne, Patr. Gr., xcvii., oratio 12-14), and three of Germanus (Migne, Patr. Gr., xcviii. 339-72).

[515] De Gloria Mart., i. 4.

[516] Nicephorus, Hist. Eccl., 17, 28.

[517] Migne, Patr. Lat., lxxii. 225. See also Mabillon’s note in the same col., 475.

[518] In the Martyr. Luccense of Fiorentini, on the 22nd January: “Depositio B. Mariæ Matris D. N. J. C.”

[519] Migne, Patr. Lat., lxxx. 446. In Harduin (iii. 2946) it is so named.

[520] H. Jürgens, Die kirchl. Uberlieferung von der leibl. Aufnahme Mariens in den Himmel: Innsbr. Zeitschr. für kath. Theol., 1880, 595-650.

[521] Wüstenfeld, Synaxarium of Bishop Michael of Atriba and Malidsch, 251. Mai, Script. Vet. Nova Collectio, iv. 1. 5. Seldenius, De Synedriis, iii. c. 15, 320 seqq.

[522] A form for the blessing of the fruits of the field appears in the Ritual of Augsburg, 1487. See Raich, Katkolik, 1901, ii. 144. Franz, Das Ritual von St Florian aus dem 12. Jahrhundert; Freiburg, 1904.

[523] Baillet (viii. 434-441) and Benedict XIV. (De festis, c. 184-210) collected materials for this purpose.

[524] The Emperor Leo VI., the Philosopher (896-903), spread the observance of the feast. Passaglia relied (iii. 1750) on a speech of his preserved in the Sforza library in Rome. It does not appear among the speeches of this Emperor printed in Migne, Patr. Gr., cvii.

[525] Εἰ καὶ μὴ παρὰ τοῖς πᾶσι γνωρίζεται, c. 23. Migne, Patr. Gr., xcvi. 1499. Observe the article with πᾶσιν. Οἱ παντες means all collectively, i.e. the whole community or church.

[526] For the so-called Typicum S. Sabæ, See Appendix xi.

[527] It is the first among his sermons. Migne, Patr. Gr., c. 1353.

[528] The change from the 9th Dec., the date of the festival among the Greeks, to the 8th, is probably to be explained by the fact that in the Roman Calendar vi., Idus Dec. corresponds to the vi. Idus Sept., the date of our Lady’s Nativity, while the 9th Dec. is written v. Idus Dec.

[529] [The feast was, however, observed in England before the Norman Conquest. The evidence for this is given by Mr Edmund Bishop in his tract, On the Origins of the Feast of the Conception of the Bl. V. M., London, Burns & Oates, 1904. From this the following is taken: (1) Calendar contained in Cotton MS. Titus D., xxvii., has the entry in the original hand at 8th Dec: “Conceptio sancte Dei genitricis Mariæ.” This MS. was written in the New Minster, Winchester, under Abbot Aelfwin (1034-57). (2) Calendar of the Old Minster, Winchester (Cotton MS., Vitellius E., xviii.), has the same entry. The MS. is attributed by Hicks to or about 1030. (3) Add. MS., 28, 188, a pontifical and benedictional of the eleventh century probably written for Bp. Leofric (1046-72), and “distinctly pre-Norman.” In this, fol. 161, is a “Benedictio in Conceptione Sancte Mariæ.” (4) Harl. MS. 2892, also a pontifical and benedictional written for Canterbury in the first half of the eleventh century (to judge from the handwriting); a similar benediction occurs, ff. 189-90. (5) To these, in a letter to the translator, Mr Bishop adds: I. In the Leofric Missal, among the Masses added to the book by Bp. Leofric, is a Mass for the feast of the Conception (p. 268); II. In a Worcester Calendar of about 1064, and written therefore under St Wulstan and before the conquest, the feast of the Conception is entered at 8th Dec. Trans.]

[530] See Appendix x.

[531] Two accounts of Elsinus are found among the spurious writings of St Anselm (Migne, Patr. Lat., clix. 319-326). Three others have recently been published by Thurston & Slater, Eadmeri Mon. Cant. Tractatus de Conceptione S. Mariæ, 88-98. Another by Lechler, Mittelalterl. Kirchenfeste, 92 et seq.

[532] E.g. in the Roman Breviary of 1473 (Univ. Bibl., Freiburg i. Br.), in the Breviary of Sitten of 1493, National Mus., Zurich, and in that of Constance of 1509.

[533] Gerberon in the introduction to Anselm’s works. Migne, Patr. Lat., clviii. 43 et seq.

[534] Osbert’s letters were first published along with those of Herbert de Losinga by Robt. Anstruther (Brussels, 1846), unfortunately very imperfectly. Lately they are given by Thurston and Slater, op. cit., 53 et seq.

[535] Osbert de Clara in Thurston and Slater, App. B. 60 et seq.

[536] [Mr Bishop, op. cit., 30, 31, says the Normans probably treated the celebration of this feast by the English with contempt, as “a product of insular simplicity and ignorance.” Its public celebration was discontinued most probably at Winchester and Canterbury, but “it did not die out of the hearts of individuals.”—Trans.]

[537] Osbert, Epist. i. op. cit. 55. “Et in hoc regno et in transmarinis partibus a nonnullis episcopis et abbatibus in ecclesiis Dei instituta est illius diei recordatio.” That the feast was introduced “in hoc regno,” i.e. England, by abbots but not by bishops, is clear from Osbert’s second letter, and from other evidence; and, therefore, his remark is true only of Normandy. Of the one English bishop whom he names as in favour of the feast, he can only say he was “de his sufficienter instructus” (op. cit. 58). Osbert has no knowledge of his having introduced the feast. By “transmarinæ partes,” British chroniclers of that period always mean Normandy and Brittany.

[538] Matthæus Paris. ad ann., 1228, Chron. maj. 3, 161.

[539] Wilhelm. Malmsbur., Gesta Reg. Angl. 4, 338. Migne, Patr. Lat., clxxix., 1290. Eadmer., Hist. Nov., Præf. et passim. Migne, clix. 347.

[540] This appears from a decree of Bishop Walter of Rouen in 1207, printed in the collection of Bigot in Migne, Patr. Lat., ccvii. 1179. Walter had withheld certain endowments which his predecessor Rotricus appointed for the metropolitan chapter on certain festivals. These he now restored. Vacandard (Les origines de la Fête d. C. Imm.: Révue des Questions Hist., 1897, 166) was unacquainted with this decree, else he would have arrived at a different conclusion. Moreover he himself brings forward proof that the feast was celebrated during the twelfth century in Jumièges and St Owen, but not until the thirteenth century at Fécamp.

[541] Syn. Rotom. of 1189, can. 1. Migne, Patr. Lat., ccvii. 1180.

[542] Henricus a Gandavo, Quæst. quodlib., 15 qu. 13 fol., 584 B.: “Normanni, in quorum territorio dicitur hujusmodi revelatio facta fuisse, præ ceteris populis illam conceptionem praccipue celebrant.” Again, fol. 385 A., it is twice called “festum quod a Normannis celebratur.” It would appear from this that the Normans before 1260 were still the only people who kept the feast.