cited by Mabillon, uses this argument to the people, why they should stay the whole time of divine service, "because the lessons were not so properly called Missa, or divine service, as was the oblation or consecration of the body and blood of Christ, for they might read at home, or might hear others read the lessons, whether out of the Prophets, or Apostles, or Evangelists; but they could not hear or see the consecration any where else but only in the house of God." Where it is plainly implied, that the lessons were then read in the Church as well out of the Prophets, as the Epistles and Gospels. And so in the relation of the Conference between the Catholics and Arians in the time of Gundoba dus, King of Burgundy, which we have had occasion to mention before1 out of the same learned writer, it is said, that in the vigil held the night before the Conference, four lessons were read, one out of Moses, another out of the Prophet Esaias, a third out of the Gospel, and the last out of the Epistles. And in the old Lectionarium Gallicanum, published by Mabillon, there is always a lesson out of the Old Testament before the Epistle and Gospel: and on the Sabbatum Sanctum, or Saturday before Easter, there are no less than twelve lessons appointed out of Genesis, Exodus, Joshua, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Jonah, beside the Epistle and Gospel, which follow after. It further appears from the canons of the Council of Laodicea, and the the third Council of Carthage, and St. Cyril's Catechetical Discourses," that all the Books of the Old Testament were then read in the Church, as well as the New. For they give us catalogues of what books might or might not be read in the church, among which all the Books of the Old Testament are specified as such, as were then ac

missæ, quando divinæ lectiones in Ecclesiâ recitantur, sed quando munera offeruntur, et corpus vel sanguis Domini consecratur: nam lectiones, sive propheticas, sive apostolicas, sive evangelicas, etiam in domibus vestris aut ipsi legere, aut alios legentes audire potestis; consecrationem verò corporis et sanguinis Domini non alibi, nisi in domo Dei, audire vel videre poteritis. 1 Book xiv. chap. i. sect. 2. 2 Lectionar. Gallican. ap. Ma8 Con. Laodic. Cyril.

billon. de liturg. Gallic. lib. ii. p. 138. can. 59. et 60.

Catech. iv. n. xxii. p. 67.

4 Con. Carth. iii. can. 47.

tually read in the public service; and Cyril allows his catechumens to use no other books in private but the Books of the Old and New Testament, which he thought they might safely read, because they were both publicly read in the Church.

SECT. 3.-Proper Lessons for certain Times and Festivals.

2

The next observation to be made is upon their method of reading the Scriptures, which seems always to be done by some rule, though this might vary in different Churches. St. Austin tells us, there were some lessons so fixed and appropriated to certain times and seasons, that no others might be read in their stead. And he particularly instances in the festival of Easter, when for four days successively the history of Christ's resurrection was read out of the four Gospels. On the day of his passion they read the history of his sufferings out of St. Matthew's Gospel only. And all the time between Easter and Pentecost he says,* they read the Acts of the Apostles. This last particular is frequently mentioned by St. Chrysostom, who has a whole sermon to give an account of the reasons of it. There he takes notice of many things together relating to this matter of reading the lessons by rule and order. First he tells us,5 how by the appointment of the Church, on the day of our Saviour's passion, all such Scriptures were read as had any relation to the cross; then how on the great Sabbath or Saturday before Easter, they read all such portions of Scripture as contained the history of his being betrayed, crucified, dead and buried. He adds also, that on Easter day they read such passages as gave an account of his resurrection; and on every festival, the things that related to that festival. But it seemed a difficulty, why then the Acts of the Apostles

1 Aug. Expos. in 1 Joan. in Præfat. tom. ix. p. 235. Interposita est. solennitas sanctorum dierum, quibus certas ex Evangelio lectiones oportet in ecclesiâ recitari, quæ ita sunt annuæ, ut aliæ esse non possint.

Vid. Aug. Serm. 139, 140, 141, 144, 148. de Tempore. Item. Chrys. Hom. SS. in Mat. p. 731. Aug. Serm. 144. de Tempore. p. 320.

8

4 Aug. Tract. vi. in Joan. tom. ix. p. 24. et Hom. 83. de Diversis.

Chrys. Hom. 63. Cur in Pentecoste Acta legantur. tom. v. p. 949. p. 951.

Chrys. ibid.

which contain the history of their miracles done after Pentecost, should not rather be read after Pentecost than before it? To this he answers, that the miracles of the Apostles contained in that Book, were the great demonstration of our Saviour's resurrection: and therefore the Church appointed that Book to be read always between Easter and Pentecost, immediately after our Saviour's resurrection, to give men the evidences and proofs of that holy mystery, which was the completion of their redemption. So that though the lessons for other festivals related the things that were done at those festivals; yet for a particular reason, the Acts of the Apostles, which contained the history of things done after Pentecost, were read before Pentecost, because they were more proper for the time immediately following our Saviour's resurrection. And upon this account it became a general rule over the whole Church to read the Acts at this time, as not only Chrysostom testifies here, but in many other places of his writings. In his Homily upon those words, Saul yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples," Acts ix. he gives this reason, why he could not preach in order upon every part of that Book,' because the law of the Church commanded it to be laid aside after Pentecost, and the reading of it to conclude with the end of the present festival. In another place he says, it was appointed by law to be read on that festival, and not usually read in any other part of the year. And in another place he gives this reason, why he broke off his sermons upon Genesis in the Passion-week, because the intervention of other solemnities obliged him to preach then upon other subjects, agreeable to what was read in the Church, as against the traitor Judas, and upon the Passion, and our Saviour's resurrection, at which time he took in hand the Acts of the Apostles, and preached upon them from Easter to Pentecost. Cassian says, the same order was observed among the Egyptians: and it appears from the ancient Lec

'Chrys. Hom. 47. tom. v. p. 637. Τῶν πατέρων ὁ νόμος κελεύει μετὰ τὴν Πεντεκοτὴν ἀποτίθεσθαι τὸ βιβλίον. &c. 2 Hom. 48. in Inscriptionem Altaris. Act. xvii. tom. v. p. 650. Tý koρry raúry vevoμoJÉTηTai avrò ἀναγινώσκεσθαι, &c. 3 Hom. 33. in Gen. p. 478.

* Cassian. Instit. lib. ii. cap. 6.

VOL. V.

E

tionarium Gallicanum, that it was so in the French Churches: for there almost on every day between Easter and Pentecost, except the Rogation-days, and some few others, two lessons are ordered to be read out of the Apocalypse and the Acts of the Apostles. Whence it may be concluded further, that the reading of the Apocalypse, was also in a great measure appropriated to this season in the Gallican Church. And so it was in the Spanish Churches by an order of the fourth Council of Toledo,' which enjoins the reading of it in this interval, under pain of excommunication. In Lent they usually read the book of Genesis, as is plain from Chrysostom, whose famous Homilies, called 'Avopiávres, because they are about the statues of the Emperor, which the people of Antioch had seditiously thrown down, were preached in Lent: and in one of these he says, he would preach upon the Book that had been read that day, which was the Book of Genesis, and the first words "In the beginning God created Heaven and earth," were the subject of his discourse. In another sermon, preached upon the same text in the beginning of Lent, he says, the words had been read in the lesson that day. And for this very reason he preached two whole Lents upon the Book of Genesis, because it was then read of course in the Church. For the thirty-two first of those homilies were preached at Constantinople in Lent, in the third year after he was made bishop, Anno 400, or 401; but the festivals of the Passion, and Easter, and Pentecost coming on, this subject was interrupted, and he preached upon other subjects, as he himself tells us, suitable to those occasions. Afterward he resumed his former work, and finished his comment upon Genesis in thirty-two sermons more in the year ensuing. Which makes it plain that Genesis was

2

1 Con. Tolet. iv. can. 16. Si quis Apocalypsin à Paschâ usque ad Pentecosten missarum tempore in ecclesiâ non prædicaverit, excommunicationis sententiam habebit. Chrys. Hom. vii. ad Pop. Antioch. tom. i. p. 107. Τὸ σήμερον ἡμῖν ἀναγνωσθεν μεταχειριμαι βιβλίον. Serm. i. in Gen. i. tom. ii. p. 880. Tavra yàp yμìvȧveyvwoŷn onμepov. Vid. Chrys. Hom. vi. de Pœnitentia in Edit. Latinis. Chrys. Hom. 33. in Gen. p. 480. Vid. Severiani Gabalensis Hom. i. in Gen. ap. Combesis. Auctar. Noviss. p. 214. Et. Aug. Serm. 71. de Temp.

For

then read in Lent, as the Acts were in Pentecost, and that Chrysostom conformed his discourses according to the order of reading then established in the Church. It appears further from St. Ambrose, that the Book of Job and Jonah were both read in the Passion-week. For, speaking of a sermon, which he made to the people at this time, he says, "Ye have heard, children, the Book of Job read, which is in course appointed to be read at this time." And again, says he,2" the Book of Jonah was read." That is, as Pagi critically remarks, on the third day of the Passion-week. And that this was an ancient rule of the Church, appears from Origen's Comment upon Job, which, St. Jerom says, St. Hilary translated into Latin. there he not only tells us," that the Book of Job was read in the Church in Passion-week, but also gives us the reason of it, "because it was a time of fasting and abstinence, a time, in which they that fasted and abstained, had, as it were, a sort of fellow-suffering with admirable Job, a time in which men by fasting and abstinence followed after the passion of Christ Jesus our Lord: and because the passion of Job was in a great measure a type and example of the passion and resurrection of Christ, therefore the history of Job's passion was with good reason read and meditated upon in these days of passion, these days of sanctification, these days of fasting." Thus far Origen: but in the Lectionarium Gallicanum there is no mention of the Book of Job, but only of Jonah, on the Sabbatum Magnum, or Saturday before Easter-day. St. Jerom seems to say, that the Prophet Hosea was also read on the Vigil of our Saviour's passion. For he mentions a long discourse of Pierius, which he had read, made by that martyr on the beginning of that book,

Hieron. cont. Vigilant.

3 Pagi. Critic.

1 Ambros. Ep. 33. ad Marcellin. Soror. p. 160. Audistis, filii, librum legi Job, qui solenni et munere est decursus et tempore. 2 Ibid. p. 162. Sequenti die lectus est de more liber Jonæ. in Baron. an. 387. n. 4. * Origen. in Job. lib. i. p. 366. In conventu ecclesiæ in diebus sanctis legitur passio Job, in diebus jejunii, in diebus abstinentiæ, &c. Gallic. ap. Mabillon. de Liturg. Gallic. p. 139. Hosea ad Pammach. Pierii quoque legi tractatum longissimum, quem in exordio hujus Prophetæ die Vigiliarum Dominicæ passionis extemporali et diserto sermone profudit.

6 Lectionar. Hieron. Proœm. in