HOMILY
448
HOMILY
for the recitation of the Breviary, as even a cursory
reading of tiie royal decree would at once show.
Its liturgical character is corroborated by the fact
that copies were made only for such churches as were
wont to recite the Office in choir. Manuscript copies
of this homiliarium are still found at Heidelberg,
Frankfort, Darmstadt, Fulda, Giessen, Kassel. The
manuscript mentioned by Mabillon, and rediscovered
by Ranke, is in Carlsruhe, and is older than the tenth-
century Monte Cassino copy. The earliest printed
edition is that of Speyer in 1482. In the Cologne
edition (sixteenth century) the authorship is ascribed
to Alcuin, but the royal decree alluded to leaves
no doubt as to the purpose or author. Alcuin may
have revised it. Though not intended expressly for
preachers, the homiliarium of Charlemagne no doubt
exerci.sed an indirect influence on the pulpit, and as
late as the fifteenth or sixteenth century served for
homiletic purposes. Translations of homilies were
frequently ordered by the Church (v. g. Second Coun-
cil of Reims, S13; Third Council of Tours, 81.3—
cf. Thomassin, Ixxxv, .510), and became common.
Alfred the Great translated into Anglo-Saxon the
homilies of Venerable Bede, and, for the clergy,
the "Regula Pastoralis" of St. Gregory the Great.
^Ifric selected and translated into the same lan-
guage passages from St. Augustine, St. Jerome, Bede,
St. Gregory, Smaragdus, and occasionally from
Haymo. His aim was to work the extracts into a
whole, and thus present them in an easy and intelli-
gible style (Lingard, 11, 313). These translations
held a prominent place in early English literature.
The first German translation of this kind was due to
Ottfried of WeLssenburg. (See Homiletics; Homily.)
Collections of the homilies of the Greek and Latin Fathers will be found in Migne's "Patrology ". For an account of the editions of their works, homilies in- cluded, the reader is referred to Bardenhewer's "Pa- trology" (tr. Shahan, St. Louis, 1908). The Irish homilies that have come down to us are found princi- pally in "The Speckled Book" (Leabhar Breac), which IS written partly in Latin and partly in Irish (see extract "Passions and Homilies", ed. Atkinson, Dub- lin, 1887). It is largely taken up with homilies and passions, and lives of the saints, etc. The "Book of Ballymote " contains, amongst miscellaneous subjects, Biblical and hagiological matter; and the "Book of Lismore" contains lives of the saints under the form of homilies (see Hull, " Text Book of Irish Literature ", appendix).
The binding and illumination of gospels and homi- liaria were Ijotli elaborate and artistic. They were frequently deposited in a highly wrought casket (.4 rca Testamenti), which in Ireland was called cumdiich (shrine). Constantine the Great presented a text of the Gospels with costly binding to the church of St. John Lateran; and Queen Theodolinda made a similar presentation to the church at Monza (Kraus, "Ges- chichte der Christlichen Kunst", I, 528).
Keppler in Kirchcnlcx., s. v.; Batiffol, Hintory of the Roman Breviary (tr. Londou, 1898); Thomassin. Vetits et Nova Ecclesice Disciplina (Paris. 1688); Bardenhewer. Patrolonu, tr. Shahan (St. Louis, 1908); Duchesne, Christian Worship, tr. McClure (London, 1903).
P. A. Beecher.
Homily. — The word hnmibj is derived from the Greek word biiMa (from o^iXeri'), which means to have communion or hold intercourse with a person. In this sense b^Ma is used in I Cor., xv, 33. In Luke, xxiv, 14, we find the word iinVKovv, and in Acts, xxiv, 26, ii/iCXei, both used in the sense of "speaking with". In Acts, XX, 11, we meet the term o/wX^as; here it is used, for the first time, to signify a sermon to the Christians in connexion with the breaking of bread: it was evidently an informal discourse, or exposition of doctrine, for we are told that St. Paul "talked a longtime. . . until daylight". Thereafter the word
was used as a sign of Christian worship (Justin, " Apol.
I", c. Ixvii; Ignatius, "Ep. ad Polyc. ", v). Origen
was the first to distinguish between X67o$ (sermo) and
ofuXla (Iractatus). Since Origen's time homilj' has
meant, and still means, a commentary, without for-
mal introduction, division, or conclusion, on some
part of Sacred Scripture, the aim being to explain the
literal, and evolve the spiritual, meaning of the Sacred
Text. The Latter, as a rule, is the more important:
but if, as in the case of Origen, more attention be paid
to the former, the homily will be called expository
rather than moral or hortatory. It is the oldest form
of preaching. Christ himself may be said, Ijut with
a difference to be noted later, to have preaclied in this
style (cf. Luke, iv, 16-20). It was the kind of preach-
ing that was used by the Apostles and Fathers in
addressing the faithful. In the "First Apology" of
Justin Martyr (c. Ixvii) we read: "On the day called
Sunday all assembled in the same place, where the
memorials {aTroiivr))wvivfMTa\ of the Apostles and
Prophets were reail . . . and when the reader has
finished, the bishop delivers a sermon", etc. In this
connexion, the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" (ninth
edition) says: "The custom of delivering expositions
or comments more or less extemporaneous on the les-
sons of the day at all events passed over soon and
readily into the Christian Church " [i. e., from the Jew-
ish synagogue]. From this the Catholic view differs,
and maintains that the kind of homily referred to by
Justin was not a continuation of the Jewish commen-
tary on Scripture, but was an essential part of Chris-
tian worship, a continuation of the Apostolic sermon,
in fulfilment of Christ's commission to His disciples.
Both indeed had an external similarity (see Luke, iv,
16-20), but in essence one differed from the other as
much as the Christian religion differed from the
Jewish.
The oldest homily extant is the so-called Second Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians; it is now generally admitted, however, that it is not by Clement (see Bardenhewer, " Patrologie", tr. Shahan, p. 29). We have a hundred and ninety-sLx by Origen; some from St. Athanasius, although he was more of a con- troversialist than a homilist; the brief and antithetic homilies of St. Leo the Great have also come down to us; and the more important ones of St. Gregory the Great. Also well-known homilists are: Hilary, Am- brose, Chrysostom, Jerome, Augustine, Fulgentius, Isi- dore, Bede, Bernard of Clairvaux; and there are many others. Even after the art of rhetoric was brought to bear on preaching, the homiletic form continued, so that there were recognized two styles of preaching, the extempore, unpolished, or familiar, and the polished, or carefully prepared, style. Fine examples of both may be seen in St. Chrysostom; also in St. Augustine, who, in referring to his homiletic preaching, said that he humbled himself that Christ might be exalted. The homiletic was the favourite style of preaching during the Middle Ages; and many of the sermons then preached might, from the frequent use of the Sacred Text, be called Scriptural mosaics (see Neale, " Mediteval Sermons"). At present there are four recognized ways of treating the homily, but not all to be equally commended. The first method consists in treating separately each sentence of the Gospel. This was the uniform methotl of St. Anselm, as we gather from the sixteen sermons that have come down to us. It is not to be recommended, for it gives, at best, but a fragmentary and scattered treatment. The second method is auite the opposite; it focuses the entire content of the Gospel in a single idea. It is usually called the " higher homily", and differs from the for- mal or set sermon only in the al)sence of introduction and peroration. It is clear that onlv certain Go.spels can be treated in this way. The tliird kind selects some virtue or vice arising out of the Gospel, and treats one or the other to the exclusion of all else.
