2 we have little remaining besides the bare names, and therefore it will be sufficient just to mention them. St. Jerom says,' St. Hilary, bishop of Poictiers, composed a book of hymns: and these, we are sure, were many years after his death of famous note and use in the Spanish Churches, being ratified and confirmed in the fourth Council of Toledo. But none of these are come to our hands, except a morning hymn prefixed before his works, which he sent with an epistle to his daughter Abra. It is a prayer to Christ for preservation from the perils of day and night, savouring of ancient piety, and concluding with the common glorification of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Sidonius Apollinaris says also, that Claudianus Mamercus collected the psalms and hymns and lessons proper for the festivals in the Church of Vienna in France, and made some hymns of his own, one of which he highly commends for its elegancy, loftiness, and sweetness, as exceeding any of the ancient lyrics, in the greatness of its composure and historical truth, Savaro says in his Notes upon the place, that it is` the same, which is now in the Roman Breviary, and because it answers the character, which Sidonius gives it and has none of the superstition of a modern composure in it, such as the "Vexilla Regis," fathered upon St. Ambrose, I think it not improper to transcribe it in the margin here for the use 2 Con. Tolet. iv. can. 12. 1 Hieron. de Scriptor. Eccl. cap. c. Hilar. Epist. ad, Fil. Abram. Interim tibi hymnum matutinum et serotinum misi, ut memor mei semper sis. The hymn begins thus: Lucis Largitor Optime, &c. And ends in these words of the Doxology: Sidon, lib. iv. ep. 11. docuit sonare classes. lecta convenirent. Gloria tibi Domine, Gloria Unigenito, Cum Spiritu Paracleto, Nunc et per omne sæculum ! Psalmorum hic modulator et phonascus, instruetas Hic solennibus annuis paravit, quæ quo tempore 5 Id. lib. iv. ep. 3. Jam verò de hymno tuo si percunctere quid sentiam, commaticus est, copiosus, dulcis, elatus, et quoslibet lyricos dithyrambos amoenitate poeticâ et historicâ veritate supereminet, 6 Breviar. Rom. Dominica v. Quadragesimæ, sive in Passione Domini ad Matutinum. Pange lingua gloriosi of the learned reader. And I say further, that if every thing in the Roman Breviary had been in this strain, it had much more resembled the piety and simplicity of the ancient hymns, and been free from those marks of superstition and idolatry, which now it labours under, by mixing the follies of the modern superstitious admirers of the worship of the Virgin Mary and the cross, which were so great a deviation from the ancient worship, and stood so much in need of reformation. There were many other hymns for the use of Et super crucis trophæum De parentis Protoplasti Hoc opus nostræ salutis Quando venit ergo sacri Missus est ab arce Patris Natus orbis Conditor: Ac de ventre Virginali Vagit infans inter arcta Virgo mater alligat ; Et manus pedesque et crura Stricta cingit fascia, Gloria et honor Deo Cui laus est et potestas Per æterna sæcula. Amen! particular Churches, composed by learned men, as Nepos, and Athenogenes, and Ephrem Syrus, not to mention those spoken of by Pliny and Tertullian, and frequently by Eusebius; nor those, which Paulus Samosatensis caused in his anger to be cast out of the Church of Antioch; nor those, which, Sozomen says,' were made upon a special occasion, when the people of Antioch had incensed Theodosius, by throwing down his statues; which were both sung in the Church, and before Theodosius himself by the singing boys, as he sat at table. Of all which we have no further account but only the bare mention of them in their several authors. As for those composed by Gregory Nazianzen, Paulinus, Prudentius, and other Christian poets, they were not designed for public use in the Church, but only to antidote men against the poison of heresies, or set forth the praises of the martyrs, or recommend the practice of virtue in a private way: for which reason I take no notice of them in this place, being only concerned to give an account of such hymns as related to the ancient psalmody, as a part of the public service of the Church. And so I have done with the first part of their worship in the Missa Catechumenorum, or service of the catechumens. CHAP. III. Of the Manner of Reading the Scriptures in the public Service of the Church. SECT. 1.-Lessons of the Scripture sometimes mixed with Psalms and Hymns, and sometimes read after them. NEXT to the psalmody and hymns, we are to take a view of their way of reading the Scriptures, which was another part of the service of the catechumens, at which, as has been observed before, all sorts of persons were allowed to Sozom. lib. vii. cap. 23. be present for instruction. Which is an argument of itself sufficient, if there were no other, to prove, that they were always read in a known tongue: of which I need say no more here because it has been so fully evinced by great variety of arguments in the last Book. What we are now to observe further, relates to the manner and circumstances of this service. Where, first of all it is proper to remark, that though many times the psalms, and lessons, and hymns, were so intermixed, as now they are in our Liturgy, that it is hard to tell which came first in order, or with which the service began; yet in some places it was plainly otherwise: for the psalms were first sung all together, only with short prayers between them, and then the lessons were read by themselves, to such a number as the rules of every Church appointed. Of which I have given sufficient proof out of Cassian and St. Jerom in the beginning of the last chapter, which may supersede all further confirmation in this place. SECT. 2.-The Lessons read both out of the Old and New Testament, except in the Church of Rome, where only Epistle and Gospel were read. The next thing worthy of our observation, is the number of the lessons, which were always two at least, and sometimes three or four, and those partly out of the Old Testament, and partly out of the New. Only the Church of Rome seems to have been a little singular in this matter: for as Bishop Stillingfleet observes,' out of Walafridus Strabo and others of her old ritualists, for four hundred years, till the time of Pope Celestine, they had neither psalms nor lessons out of the Old Testament read before the sacrifice, but only Epistle and Gospel. In other Churches they had lessons out of the Old Testament as well as the New. Cassian says, in Egypt, after the singing of the psalms, they had two lessons read, one out of the Old Testament, and the other out of the New only on Saturdays and Sundays, and the fifty days of Pentecost they were both out of the New Testament, one out of the Acts of the Apostles, or the Epistles, and the Stilling. Orig. Britan. chap. iv. p. 215. Eccl. cap. xii. 3 Cassian Instit. lib. ii. cap. 6. 2 Strabo de Reb other out of the Gospels. The Author of the Constitutions1 speaks of four lessons, two out of Moses and the Prophets besides the Psalms, and then two out of the Epistles or Acts of the Apostles, and the Gospels. Again, he mentions the reading of the Prophets on Sundays. And in another place, the Law and the Prophets, the Psalms and the Gospels. And again, the Law and the Prophets, and the Epistles, and the Acts, and the Gospels. So Justin Martyr, describing the business of the christian assemblies on the Lord's day, speaks of the reading of the writings of the Prophets, as well as the Apostles. In like manner Chrysostom, reproving some who were very negligent at Church, says, "Tell me what Prophet was read to day, what Apostle?" Implying that the one was read as well as the other. Particularly he tells us, that the Book of Genesis was always read in Lent, of which more by and by, in the following observation. St. Basil, in one of his Homilies upon Baptism in Lent,' takes notice of the several lessons that were read that day, besides the psalms, whereof one was out of Isaiah, i. the second out of Acts ii. and the third out of Matthew xi. And in another Homily, he speaks of the Psalms and Proverbs, and Epistles and Gospels, as read that day. Maximus Tauriensis in one of his Homilies upon the Epiphany says, the lessons were out of Isaiah Ix. Matthew ii. and John i for that festival. St. Austin sometimes only mentions Epistle and Gospel. But in other places he expressly mentions the reading of the Prophets,10 and particularly mentions the Prophet Micah, and those words of the sixth chapter, "What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" Which were the theme for his discourse upon the lesson for the day. In the French Churches there is still more evidence for this practice for Cæsarius Arelatensis," in one of his Homilies 1 Constit. lib. ii. cap. 57. Idem. lib. v. cap. 19. 5 Justin. Apol. ii. p. 98. 2 Idem. lib. ii. cap. 59. * Idem. lib. viii. cap. 5. 6 Chrys. Hom. xxiv. in Rom. p. 270. Basil. Hom. xiii. Hom. iii. de David et Saul. tom. ii. p. 1037. de Bapt. tom. i. p. 409. 8 Basil. Hom. xxi. in Lacizis. p. 460. 9 Maxim. Taurin. Hom. iv. in Epiphan. Temp. p. 384. 10 Aug. Hom. 237. de 11 Cæsar. Arelat. De non recedendo ab Ecclesia; &c. ap. Mabillon. de Liturg. Gallic. lib. i. cap. iv. n. 4. Non tunc fiunt |