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 ORDINES

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ORDINES

hence often known as the Ordo Romanus of Hittorp. This is not a pure Roman document of early date. Already in the seventeenth century G. M. Tomasi rightly characterized it as a "farrago diversorum rituum secundum varias consuetudines", and de- clared that its heterogeneous elements could only be disentangled by careful study of the earlier Ordines. At present it is regarded as the work of a compiler in Gaul in thi' scciiiul half of the tenth century, the pre- cise date being still disputi'd (cf. Monchemeyer, "Am- alar von Metz", 14Uand214; Biiumerin "Katholik", 18S9, I, 621)). Moreover, this conflated Ordo Roma- nus of Hittorp which is largely derived from the first, second, third, and sixth of the Ordines of Mabillon, mentioned below, is only one among a number of analogous compilations. Similar documents of about the same period have been published by other scholars ; c. g.,by Martene ("Thes. nov.anec", V, 101 — this is a valuable monastic Ordo of comparatively early date), by Muratori ("Lit. Rom. Vet.", II, 391), by Gattico ("Acta caremon.", I, 226), and by Gerbert ("Mon. Vet. lit. alem.", II, 1 sqq.). In view of its composite character, the Ordo Vulgatus is of no great liturgi- cal importance, though it sometimes fills a gap in our knowledge upon points not elsewhere minutely treated. It deals primarily with pontifical high Mass, but it also describes the rite of the consecration of the jiope and of a bishop, the dedication of churches, the blessing of bells, the coronation of the emperor and of a king, the blessing of a knight, that is of a soldier {militis) dedicated to the service of the Church, the benediction of a bride, and the ceremonies to be ob- served in the opening of a general or provincial coun- cil. It should be noticed, moreover, that in these miscellaneous offices we do not find the characteristic features of an ordo in its technical sense. In the later portions of the Ordo Romanus of Hittorp not only are the details of the ceremonial indicated in their due sequence, but, as in a modern Pontifical, the text of the prayers, blessings etc., to be recited by the cele- brant, is given in full.

Much more valuable to the liturgical student is the series of fifteen consuetudinaries, first printed by Mabillon in his " Museum ItaUcum" (1689), to which the terra Orduies Romani is commonly applied. They are not indeed all of them pure and homogeneous documents, neither do they represent an unadul- terated Roman tradition, nor are they all, strictly speaking, Ordines in the sense defined above. But in default of better material, and while we are waiting for more profound critical investigation to sort out our earliest documents and assign to them their proper date and provenance, Mabillon's Ordines constitute the most rehable source of information regarding the early liturgical usages of the Roman Church. Cov- ering the whole period from the sixth to the fifteenth century, they may be said, taken collectively, to have some pretensions to completeness.

Ordo I. — The first of these Ordines Romani, de- scribing the ceremonies of a solemn Mass celebrated by the pope himself or his deputy, is the most valua- bie, as it is also one of the most ancient. Modern opin- ion inclines to the belief that the early part of it (num- bers 1-21) really represents in substance the usages of a stational Mass in the time of Pope Gregory the Great (Kosters, "Studien zu Mabillons rom. Ord.", 6; cf. Grisar, ".Vnalecta Romana", I, 193), but there are also, undoubtedly, in our present text adjustments and additions which must be attributed to the end of the seventh century (Atchley, "Ord. Rom. Primus", 7, fa- vours a later date, but in this he only follows Probst). The fact that .\malarius, who seems to have had a copy of this Ordo before him, did not find its description of paschal ceremonies in agreement with the actual Roman practice of his day, as expounded to him by Archdeacon Theodore in 832, need not lead us, with Monchemeyer ("Amalar", 141), to the conclusion

that the ceremonial never represented the official Ro- man use, and that it was merely an outline serving as a model for similar ceremonies in the Prankish domin- ions. On the contrary, so far as regards numbers 1- 21, every detail attaches itself in th.^ rliisrst way to the pontifical ceremonies of Rome. An iutnidmt ion por- tions out the liturgical service among the' cIi tics of the seven regions. Then the procession to the stational church and the arrival and reception there are mi- nutely described. This is followed with an account of the vesting, the Introit, the Kyries, the Collects, and all the early part of the Mass. Very full details are also given of the manner of the reception of the offer- ings of bread and wine from the clergy and people, and to this succeeds a description of the Canon, the Kiss of Peace, the Communion, and the rest of the Mass. The account ends with number 21.

This is the section which Grisar has proved, with all reasonable probabiUty, to belong to the time of Greg- ory the Great ("Analecta Romana", 195-213). In one or two points the evidence of early date must im- press even the casual reader. Such is the bringing of the holy Eucharist to the pontiff when the procession moves towards the altar-steps before the beginning of Mass. It is thus described in n. 8: "But before they arrive at the altar . . . two acolytes approach holding open pixes containing the Holy Things [temmtcs capsas cum Sanctis palenles]; and the subdeacon attendant taking them and keeping his hand in the aperture of the pix shows the Holy Things to the pontiff or to the deacon who goes before him. Then the pontiff or the deacon salutes the Holy Things with bowed head." Nothing of this appears in the account of Amalarius, who could hardly have failed to record it if it had been in existence in his time. Quite in accordance with such an inference, this bringing of the Eucharist to the pontiff has, in the second Ordo Romanus, admittedly of later date, been replaced by a sort of visit of the pontiff to the Blessed Sacrament in the church, a practice observed in pontifical Masses to this day. Again we may note that the first Ordo contains no mention of the Credo, which was certainly in use in Rome, according to Walafrid Strabo, about the year 800. Again the word cardinales, in accordance with the usage of St. Gregory's own letters, is not applied to the bishops, priests, and deacons attached to the papal service, but in the later chapters of the same Ordo, we do find reference to preshyteri cardinales (n. 48). All these, with other indications of early date, are pointed out by Grisar. It is not easy to prove that the second portion of the first Ordo, nn. 22-51, was all originally one document. On the contrary, nn. 22 and 48-51 seem to be closely connected, while all the intervening numbers (23-47), giving an account of the services in Lent and the last three days of Holy Week and showing, in several details, signs of a later origin, are clearly continuous and indcprndent of the rest. The fact that Pope Hadrian and Charlemagne are mentioned in this section, as al.so that the Mass of the Presanctified (contrary to the Einsicddii Ordo of the seventh century pubhshed by De Kossi in "In- scrip. Christ.", II, i, 34) was celebrated by the iioiitiff on Good Friday after the veneration of the Cross, prove that this section can hardly be older than the ninth century. Finally the chapters published by Mabillon from another manuscript as an appendix to Ordo I under a separate numeration have clearly no immediate connexion with what goes before. They simply provide another series of directions for Lent and the last days of Holy Week, sometimes coinciding even verbally with the rubrics given in nn. 23-47 and Hoirietiiiii's differing in various particulars. This ap- pendix is genrrally assumed to be later in date than the sec<]nd section of the Ordo.

Ordo II. — The second Ordo Romanus printed by Mabillon describes again a solenm pontifical Mass and is clearly based upon the first portion of Ordo I, some-