Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 2.djvu/854

 BREVIARY

774

BREVIARY

of such workers as Delisle. Ebner, or Ehrensperger, on the Sacramentaries and Missals.

It was under Innocent III (1198-1216) that the use of Breviaries began to spread outside Bene- dictine circles. At Rome, no longer solely for the Roman Basilicas, but still for the Roman Court alone, Breviaria were drawn up, which, from their source, are called Brei'iaria de CaTnerd, or Breviaria secundum usum Romano: Curice. Texts of this period (beginning of thirteenth century) speak of " Missalia, Breviaria, csterosque libros in quibus Officium Ecclesiasticum continetur", and Raoul de Tongres specifically refers to this Roman Breviary. But tliis use of the Breviary was still hmited, and was a kind of privilege reservetl for the Roman Court. A special cause was needed to give the use of this Breviary a greater extension. The Order of Friars Minor, or Franciscans, lately founded, un- dertook the task of popularizing it. It was not a sedentary order vowed to stability, like those of the Benedictines or Cistercians, or like the Regular Canons, but was an active, missionary, preaching or- der. It therefore needed an abridged Office, conven- ient to handle antl contained in a single volume small enough to be carried about by the Friars on their journeys. This order adopted the Breviarium Curi;c with certain modifications which really constitute, as it were, a second edition of tliis Breviary. It is sometimes called the Breviary of Gregory IX because it was authorized by that pontiff. One of the chief modifications effected by the Friars Minor was the substitution of the Galilean version of the Psalter for the Roman. The cause was won; this eminently popular and active order spread the u.se of this Breviarj' everywhere. Antiphonaries, Psalters, Leg- endaries, and Responsoraries disappeared by degrees before the advance of the single book which replaced them all. Still more, by a kind of jus postliminii — a right of resumption — the Church of Rome, under Nicholas III (1277-80), adopted the Breviary of the Friars not merely for the Curia, but also for the Basilicas; and, as an inevitable consequence, this Breviary was bound, sooner or later, to become that of the Universal Church.

VI. Reforms of the Breviary. — In the pre- ceding sections, the history of the ecclesiastical Office has been unfolded from its inception. If this history could be put into few words, though nec- essarily forming an incomplete statement, it might be said that from the first to the fifth century it was in formation; from the fifth to the eleventh century it was in process of development and expansion; and during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the Breviary properly so called was emerging into being. From then till now (that is, from the fourteenth century onwards) might be termed the period of reform. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries represent for the Liturgy, as for the greater number of other ecclesiastical institutions, a period of de- cline, for it is the time of schisms, and in that one word everything harmful is summed up. The few documents that are available for the liturgical history of that time attest this, as, for example, the "Gesta Benedicti XIII" and the "XV Ordo Ro- manus". Disorder and abuses crept into the Lit- urgy as into everything else.

Dom Baumer, in his ' Histoire du br^viaire", repeatedly points out that it is impossible to separate the history of the Liturgy from the occurrences that make up the general historj' of the Church, and that the phases through which the general history takes us are reflected in the evolution of the Liturgj-. It is not surprising, therefore, that the sojourn of the popes at Avignon and the Great Schism have exerted their baneful influence on the history of the Liturgy. And the reaction is still being felt. Raoul de Tongres, who died early in the fifteenth

century, was even at that early period a critic and a reformer; in his famous work "De observantia Canonum" he agitated for some settlement of h- turgical rules. The "XV Ordo Romanus" already referred to. the work of ,\melius, sacristan to L^rban V and librarian to Gregory XI, breathes the same idea. The abuses pointed out by the different authors of the time may be reduced to the following: (a) The almost complete suppression of the Offices of Sun- days antl ferias, so that it became impossible that the whole Psalter should be recited every week, and certain psalms were never recited at all. (b) An accumulation of Offices on the same day, tending to the destruction of their solemnity and also to the elimination of the Offices of the Season, (c) Sub- stitution for the lessons from Holy Scripture of legends and apocryphal liistories and of texts of doubtful value for antiphons. hymns, and respon- sories. On this subject the " Consultatio" presented by Jolin de Arzo to the Council of Trent should l)e studied. (d) The introduction of superstitious usages, strange formularies of prayer, and feasts bortlering in character on the grotesque.

The Humanism of the Renaissance, which had its ardent cliampions e\'en in the Church, as Bembo, Sadoletus, etc., to say nothing of certain popes, caused the idea of a special reform of the Breviary, in the direction of greater literary purity and per- fection, to be entertained in certain quarters. Strange schemes were propounded, little in consonance with the spirit of the Church. A Florentine canon, Mar- siglio Ficino, and Peter Pomponatius, for instance, suggesteil that the clergj' should read the classical authors instead of the Breviary. Others, though not going so far as this, thought the diction of the Brevi- ary barbaric, and wanted to translate it into Cicero- nian Latin. The corrections suggested included such astounding phrases as the following: the forgiveness of sins becomes "superosque manesque placare"; the Begetting of the Word w;is to be "Minerva Jovif capite orta"; the Holy Ghost was "Aura ZephjTi crelestis", etc. These attempts failed; nevertheless, at a later date, under Urban VIII, similar Hvunanist tendencies came again to the surface and this time asserted their power by an emendation of the hynuis Amongst such attempts may be mentioned that of Ferreri. He was the Bishop of Guarda Alfier in the Kingdom of Naples, a Humanist, and wiot« under the auspices and patronage of Leo X. Ht began with the hymns. His work, which has beer preserved, is interesting antl contains some ^'erj beautiful pieces, polished in style. A good numbei of them have, unfortunately, nothing more of th( spirit of poctrj' in them than harmony and rhythm they are wanting in inspiration and above all in th< warmth of piety; nearly all are strewn with Pagai names and allusions, representing Christian verities as "Triforme Numcn Olympi" for the Trinity " Natus Eumolpho Lyricenque Sappho . . . Thraciui Orpheus", referring to the Blessed Virgin, etc Ferreri also busied himself with a revision of Ihi Breviary, but nothing was published, and now n( trace of the materials he collected is forthcoming

.\nother attempt at reform, much better known and having results of far-reaching importance, wa that of Quignonez, Cariiinal of Santa Croce in Ge rusalemine, who was entrusted by Clement VII witl the task of completing the work begun by Ferreri He was a Franciscan, and had been successful!; employed on various commissions. His revision wa the most original that has ever been attempted and liturgical experts, like Gueranger, Edmuni Bishop, antl Baimier, have studied his labours ii detail. Only the principal points of his scheme caj be mentioned here. Considered theoretically, i cannot be denied that his Breviary is drawn up oi easy, convenient, and logical lines, and, on the whole