LBSBOMS
195
LBSBOMS
stand at the Gospel is a special mark of reverence for
its special dignity.
in. Text of thb Various Epistles. — ^The reason of the present order of Epistles in the Roman Rite throughout the year is even more dilEcult to find than the parallel case of the Gospels (see Gospel in the LrruRGT, II). In the first period the Question does not so much concern what we now call the Epistle as rather the whole group of Biblical lessons preceding the Gospel. We may deduce with some certainty that there was at first the principle of reading succes- sive books of the Bible continuously. The second book of the Apostolic Ck>nstitutions (third century) says that " the reader standing on a hcieht in the mid- dle shall read the Books of Moses and Jesus son of Nave, and of the Judges and Kings, and of Paralip- (nnenon and the Return [Esdras and Nchemias], after these those of Job and Solomon and the sixteen Prophets [these are the first lessons]. The lessons havmg been read by two [readers], another one sliall sing the hymns of David and the people answer back the verses [this is the psalm between the lessons, our Gradual]. After this our Acts [the Apostles are sup- posed to be speaking] shall be read and the letters of Paul, our fellow-worker, which he sent to the Churches". ("Const. Apost.", II, Ivii, ed. Funk, Pa- derbom, 1905, p. 161.) This then implies continuous readings in that order. For the rest the homilies of the Fathers that explain continuous books (and often ex- plicitly refer to the fact that the passage explained has just been read) show us certain oooks rcacl at certain seasons. Thus, for instance, in Lent Genesis was read in East and West. So St. John Chrysostom (d. 407), preaching in Lent, says: "To-day I will explain the passage you have heard read and proceeds to preach on Genesis, i, 1 (Hom. vii, de statuis, 1). His nomilies on Genesis were held during Lent (Hom. i, in Gen., i). It is also probable that St. Basil's sermons on the Hexaemeron were held in Lent. In the Ro- man Office still Genesis begins at Septuagesima (in Matins) and is read in part of Lent. The reason of this is apparentljr that the ecclesiastical vear was counted as oeginning then in the spring. Other books read in Lent were Job (e. g. , St. Am brose, ' 'ad Marcell. ' ', Ep. xz, 14; P. L., XVI, 998), as an example of patient giurering,and Jonas (ibid., 25; col. 1001), as a prepara- tion for the Resurrection. During Eastertide the Acts of the Apostles were read (St. Augustine, Tract, vi in Joh. xviii, P. L., XXXV, 1433). For special feasts and on special occasions suitable lessons were chosen, thus breaking the continuous readings. In the Aiiddle A^es it was believed that St. Jerome (d. 420), in obe- dience to an order of Pope Damasus, had arranged the lessons of the Roman Liturgy; a spurious letter of his to tiie Emperor Constantius was quoted as the first cornea, or list of lessons, for each day. Dom G. Morin thinks that Victor, Bishop of Capua (541-554), was the author (Revue B^n^ictine, 1890, p. 416 seq.) . The letter is c^uoted in Beissel, " Entstehung der Perikopen des Romischen Messbuches" (Freiburg, 1907), 54-5.
From the fifth century various lists of lessons were drawn up. Gennadius of Marseilles (fifth century) says of one Muscus, priest of Marseilles: "Exhorted by the holy Bishop Venerius he selected lessons from Holy Scripture suitable for the feast days of all the year" (De viris illustr., Ixxix). The " Lectionarium Gallicanum" published by Mabillon (in P. L., LXXII), written in Burgundy in the seventh century, is an- other scheme of the same kind. A codex at Fulda contains the Epistles for Sundays and feast days ar- ranged by Victor of Capua in the sixth century. Probst ("Die filtesten romischen Sacramentarien und Ordines", MOnster, 1892, p. 33) thinks that they are those read at Rome. All are taken from St. Paul (see the list. loo. cit., and in Beissel, " Entstehung der Peri- kopen '\ 57-8). From this time there are a number of « H ii tl fl i aznuifed for use in different Churches. Of
these one of the most famous is the cornea arranged by
Albinus (i. e., Alcuin^ by command of the Emperor
Charles. This contains only the Epistles; it is part of
the Roman Rite introduced by Charles the Great in
the Prankish Kingdom (published in "Thomasii Op-
era", ed. Vezzosi, V, 418, cf. Ranke: "Das kirchliche
Perikopensystem",1850, supplem. Ill; Beissel, od. cit.,
141). The " Liber comicus edited by Dom G. Morin
("AnecdotaMarcdsol.",1, 1893, cf. "Revue B6n6d.",
1892, 442) contains the full lessons of the old Moz*
arable use. Paul the Deacon composed a collection of
homilies between 786 and 797, from which one may de-
duce the lessons read on Sundays under Charles the
Great (P. L., XCV, 1159 sq., cf. Wiegand, "Das
Homilarium Karls des Grossen", Leipzig,- 1897, and
"Rev. Bdn^.", 1898, 400 seq.). Beissel (op. cit.)
has collected a great number of such comites, lection-
aries, and references in the early Middle Ages, from
which the set of lessons in the present Roman Missal
gradually emerges.
Of the arrangement one can onlv say that the spe- cial suitableness of certain Epistles for the various feasts and seasons soon quite disturbed the principle of continuous reading. Of continuous readings there is now hardly a*trace in the Missal. On the other hand. Epistles obviously suitable for each occasion may be traced back through a long list of comites. Thus our Epistles from Romans at the beginning of Advent recur in many lists: they are chosen obviously because of their appropriateness to that season. In some cases a connexion of ideas with the Gospel seems to be the reason for the choice of the Epistle. In the Missal as reformed by Pius V in 1570 about two- thirds of the Epistles are taken from St. Paul; the others are from other Epistles, the Acts, Apocalypse, and various books of the Old Testament. A principle observed fairly regularly is that on fast days the Epis- tle is a lesson from the Old Testament. This applies to all week-days in Lent except Maundy Thursdav, which has, of course, a festal Mass. The Mass on Holy Saturday is the first Easter Mass and has an Easter Epistle (Col., iii, 1-4). So also on most of the ember- days (which still have several lessons); but on the Whitsun ember Wednesday the sense of Pentecost predominates, so that it has two lessons from the New Testament (Acts, ii and v). It may be a remnant of the old system of reading Acts in East<;rtide that, ex- cept Friday and Saturday, all the Masses of Easter Week have lessons from Acts, though, on the other hand, they are all in themselves appropriate. Practi- cally all feasts and special occasions have Epistles chosen for their suitableness, as far as such could be found.
Occasionally, as on St. Stephen's feast and, to some extent. Ascension Day and Whitsunday, it is the Epis- tle ratner than the Gospel that tells the story of the feast. The three Epistles for Cliristmas Day are sufficiently^ obvious: St. Stephen has of course the story of his martyrdom from Acts, vi and vii. Holy Innocents the lesson from Aix>calyi)se, xiv. al)out the immaculate first-fruit« of the saints. The Epiphany has a magnificent lesson alx)ut the Gentiles seeing the glory of the Lord in Jerusalem and the people who bring gold and incense, from Isaias, Ix. Palm Sunday in its Epistle tells of the olx?dicnce of Our Lord to the death of the Cross and of His exaltation (Phil., ii), in the tone of the " Vexilla Regis". The Easter Epistle could Ixj no other than the one appointed (I Cor., v): Ascension Day and AMiitsunday have their stories from the Acts. The feast of the Holy Trinity has the passage in Romans, xi, about the inscrutable mystery of God. Corpus Christi brings, of course, St. Paul's ac- count of the Holy Eucharist (I Cor., xi). St. John Baptist has a lesson from Isaias, xlix, about vocation ana sanctification in the mother's womb. St. Peter and St. Paul have the story of St. Peter's imprison- ment in Acts, xii. For All Saints we have the lesson
