in origin proper to individual saints. They contain passages of great literary beauty. The lessons read at the third nocturn are patristic homilies on the Gospels, and together form a rough summary of theological instruction.
5. Extra Services.—Here are found the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Office of the Dead (obligatory on All Souls’ Day), and offices peculiar to each diocese.
It has already been indicated, by reference to Matins, Lauds, &c., that not only each day, but each part of the day, has its own office, the day being divided into liturgical “hours.” A detailed account of these will be found in the article Hours, Canonical. Each of the hours of the office is composed of the same elements, and something must be said now of the nature of these constituent parts, of which mention has here and there been already made. They are: psalms (including canticles), antiphons, responsories, hymns, lessons, little chapters, versicles and collects.
The psalms have already been dealt with, but it may be noted again how the multiplication of saints’ festivals, with practically the same special psalms, tends in practice to constant repetition of about one-third of the Psalter, and correspondingly rare recital of the remaining two-thirds, whereas the Proprium de Tempore, could it be adhered to, would provide equal opportunities for every psalm. As in the Greek usage and in the Benedictine, certain canticles like the Song of Moses (Exodus xv.), the Song of Hannah (1 Sam. ii.), the prayer of Habakkuk (iii.), the prayer of Hezekiah (Isaiah xxxviii.) and other similar Old Testament passages, and, from the New Testament, the Magnificat, the Benedictus and the Nunc dimittis, are admitted as psalms.
The antiphons are short liturgical forms, sometimes of biblical, sometimes of patristic origin, used to introduce a psalm. The term originally signified a chant by alternate choirs, but has quite lost this meaning in the Breviary.
The responsories are similar in form to the antiphons, but come at the end of the psalm, being originally the reply of the choir or congregation to the precentor who recited the psalm.
The hymns are short poems going back in part to the days of Prudentius, Synesius, Gregory of Nazianzus and Ambrose (4th and 5th centuries), but mainly the work of medieval authors. Together they make a fine collection, and it is a pity that Urban VIII. in his mistaken humanistic zeal tried to improve them.
The lessons, as has been seen, are drawn variously from the Bible, the Acts of the Saints and the Fathers of the Church. In the primitive church, books afterwards excluded from the canon were often read, e.g. the letters of Clement of Rome and the Shepherd of Hermas. In later days the churches of Africa, having rich memorials of martyrdom, used them to supplement the reading of Scripture. Monastic influence accounts for the practice of adding to the reading of a biblical passage some patristic commentary or exposition. Books of homilies were compiled from the writings of SS. Augustine, Hilary, Athanasius, Isidore, Gregory the Great and others, and formed part of the library of which the Breviary was the ultimate compendium. In the lessons, as in the psalms, the order for special days breaks in upon the normal order of ferial offices and dislocates the scheme for consecutive reading. The lessons are read at Matins (which is subdivided into three nocturns).
The little chapters are very short lessons read at the other “hours.”
The versicles are short responsories used after the little chapters.
The collects come at the close of the office and are short prayers summing up the supplications of the congregation. They arise out of a primitive practice on the part of the bishop (local president), examples of which are found in the Didachē (Teaching of the Apostles) and in the letters of Clement of Rome and Cyprian. With the crystallization of church order improvisation in prayer largely gave place to set forms, and collections of prayers were made which later developed into Sacramentaries and Orationals. The collects of the Breviary are largely drawn from the Gelasian and other Sacramentaries, and they are used to sum up the dominant idea of the festival in connexion with which they happen to be used.
The difficulty of harmonizing the Proprium de Tempore and the Proprium Sanctorum, to which reference has been made, is only partly met in the thirty-seven chapters of general rubrics. Additional help is given by a kind of Catholic Churchman’s Almanack, called the Ordo Recitandi Divini Officii, published in different countries and dioceses, and giving, under every day, minute directions for proper reading.
Every clerk in orders and every member of a religious order must publicly join in or privately read aloud (i.e. using the lips as well as the eyes—it takes about two hours in this way) the whole of the Breviary services allotted for each day. In large churches the services are usually grouped; e.g. Matins and Lauds (about 7.30 a.m.; Prime, Terce (High Mass), Sext, and None (about 10 a.m.; Vespers and Compline (4 p.m.); and from four to eight hours (depending on the amount of music and the number of high masses) are thus spent in choir. Laymen do not use the Breviary as a manual of devotion to any great extent.
The Roman Breviary has been translated into English (by the marquess of Bute in 1879; new ed. with a trans, of the Martyrology, 1908), French and German. The English version is noteworthy for its inclusion of the skilful renderings of the ancient hymns by J. H. Newman, J. M. Neale and others.
Authorities.—F. Cabrol, Introduction aux études liturgiques; Probst, Kirchenlex. ii., s.v. “Brevier”; Bäumer, Geschichte des Breviers (Freiburg, 1895); P. Batiffol, L’Histoire du bréviaire romain (Paris, 1893; Eng. tr.); Baudot, Le Bréviaire romain (1907). A complete bibliography is appended to the article by F. Cabrol in the Catholic Encyclopaedia, vol. ii. (1908).
BREVIARY OF ALARIC (Breviarium Alaricanum), a collection of Roman law, compiled by order of Alaric II., king of the Visigoths, with the advice of his bishops and nobles, in the twenty-second year of his reign (A.D. 506). It comprises sixteen books of the Theodosian code; the Novels of Theodosius II., Valentinian III., Marcian, Majorianus and Severus; the Institutes of Gaius; five books of the Sententiae Receptae of Julius Paulus; thirteen titles of the Gregorian code; two titles of the Hermogenian code; and a fragment of the first book of the Responsa Papiniani. It is termed a code (codex), in the certificate of Anianus, the king’s referendary, but unlike the code of Justinian, from which the writings of jurists were excluded, it comprises both imperial constitutions (leges) and juridical treatises (jura). From the circumstance that the Breviarium has prefixed to it a royal rescript (commonitorium) directing that copies of it, certified under the hand of Anianus, should be received exclusively as law throughout the kingdom of the Visigoths, the compilation of the code has been attributed to Anianus by many writers, and it is frequently designated the Breviary of Anianus (Breviarium Aniani). The code, however, appears to have been known amongst the Visigoths by the title of “Lex Romana,” or “Lex Theodosii,” and it was not until the 16th century that the title of “Breviarium” was introduced to distinguish it from a recast of the code, which was introduced into northern Italy in the 9th century for the use of the Romans in Lombardy. This recast of the Visigothic code has been preserved in a MS. known as the Codex Utinensis, which was formerly kept in the archives of the cathedral of Udine, but is now lost; and it was published in the 18th century for the first time by P. Canciani in his collection of ancient laws entitled Barbarorum Leges Antiquae. Another MS. of this Lombard recast of the Visigothic code was discovered by Hänel in the library of St Gall. The chief value of the Visigothic code consists in the fact that it is the only collection of Roman Law in which the five first books of the Theodosian code and five books of the Sententiae Receptae of Julius Paulus have been preserved, and until the discovery of a MS. in the chapter library in Verona, which contained the greater part of the Institutes of Gaius, it was the only work in which any portion of the institutional writings of that great jurist had come down to us.
The most complete edition of the Breviarium will be found in the collection of Roman law published under the title of Jus Civile Ante-Justinianum (Berlin, 1815). See also G. Hänel’s Lex Romana Visigothorum (Berlin, 1847–1849).
BREWER, JOHN SHERREN (1810–1879), English historian, was born in Norwich in 1810, the son of a Baptist schoolmaster. He was educated at Queen’s College, Oxford, was ordained in the Church of England in 1837, and became chaplain to a central London workhouse. In 1839 he was appointed lecturer in classical literature at King’s College, London, and in 1855 he became professor of English language and literature and lecturer in modern history, succeeding F. D. Maurice. Meanwhile from 1854 onwards he was also engaged in journalistic work on the Morning Herald, Morning Post and Standard. In 1856 he was commissioned by the master of the rolls to prepare a calendar of the state papers of Henry VIII., a work demanding a vast amount of research. He was also made reader at the Rolls, and subsequently preacher. In 1877 Disraeli secured for him the crown living of Toppesfield, Essex. There he had time to continue his task of preparing his Letters and Papers of the Reign of King Henry VIII., the Introductions to which (published separately, under the title The Reign of Henry VIII., in 1884) form a scholarly and authoritative history of Henry VIII.’s reign. New editions of several standard historical works were also produced under Brewer’s direction. He died at Toppesfield in February 1879.
