Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/197

 COMMEMORATION

155

COMMENDATORY

heresy, there appeared many popular works in defence of the authority of the Church and setting forth in a special manner her precepts. Such among others were the "SummaDoctrinaeChristianae" (1555) of St. Peter Canisius and the "Doctrina Christiana" of Bellarmine (1589). It is plain, however, that the precepts of the Church, as a particular and distinct body of laws, were recognized long before the six- teenth century ; the contention that they were first definitely formulated by St. Peter Canisius is un- warranted.

III. Cl,^ssific.\tion. — The Church in her supreme authority has defined nothing regarding the form and mimber of the Commandments of the Church. The Covmcil of Trent while recommending in a general way in its twenty-fifth session the observance of these pre- cepts says nothing regarding them as a particular body of laws. Neither is any specific mention made of them in the "Catechismus ad parochos" published by order of the council and known as the " Catechism of the Coim- cil of Trent" or " Roman Catechism". We have seen that St. Antoninus of Florence enumerates ten such commandments while Martin Aspilcueta mentions only five. This last number is that given by St. Peter Canisius. According to this author the precepts of the Church are: To observe the feast days appointed by the Church; to hear Mass reverently on these feast days ; to obser\'e the fasts on the days during the sea- sons appointed ; to confess to one's pastor annually ; to receive Holy Communion at least once a year and that around the feast of Easter. Owing imdoubtedly to the influence of Canisius, the catechisms generally used at present throughout Germany and Austria- Hungary have adopted the above enmrieration. The fourth precept has, however, been amended so as to allow of confession being made to anj' duly authorized priest.

In Spanish America the number of church pre- cepts is also five; this being the number, as we have seen, set down by Aspilcueta in the sixteenth century. Here, however, the First and Second commandment in the table of Canisius are combined into one, and the precept to pay tithes appears. It is to be noted, also, that the precept of annual confession is more specific ; it enjoins that this confession be made in Lent, or be- fore, if there be danger of death. (Synod of Mexico, 1585, Lib. I, tit. i, in Hardouin, Cone, X, 1596.) French and Italian catechists reckon six precepts of the church, the enumeration given by Bellarmine. According to this writer the Commandments of the Church are: To hear Mass on Sundays and Holy Days; to fast during Lent, on prescribed vigils, and the ember-days; to ab- stain from meat on Fridays and Saturdays; to go to confession once a year; to receive Holy Communion at Easter ; to pay tithes ; and finally not to solemnize mar- riage during the prohibited times.

The French catechisms, following that of Bossuet, omit the last two precepts, but retain the same number as that given by Bellarmine. This they do by making two Commandments cover the ob- ligations to observe Sunday and the Holy Days, and two also regarding the obligations of fast and abstinence. It will be readily observed that the omission by French writers of the Commandment to pay tithes was owing to local conditions. In a "Ca- techism of Christine Doctrine" approved by Cardinal Vaughan and the bishops of England, six Command- ments of the Church are enumerated. These are: (1) To keep the .Sundays and Holy Days of obligation holy, by hearing Mass and resting from servile work ; (2) to keep the days of fasting and abstinence appointed by the Church ; (.3) to go to confession at least once a year ; (4) to receive the Blessed Sacrament at least once a year and that at Raster or thereabouts; (5) to contri- bute to the support of our pastors; (0) not to I7iarrv within a certain degree of kindred nor to solemnize marriage at the forbidden times. This list is the same

as that which the Fathers of the Third Plenary Coun- cil of Baltimore (1886) prescribed for the United States.

Antoninus, Summa Theoiogica, part I, tit. xvii, p. 12 (Ve- rona, 1740); Aspilcueta, Enchiridion sive manuale confess sariorum et pcentienliutn (Rome, 1588), c. xxi, n. I, p. 289 sqq.; Saint Peter Canisius, Summa Doctrin(e ChristiancB (ed. 1833), I, 3S7; Bellarmine, Doctrina Christiana (1614); Saint Al- PHONSUS LiGUORi. Theologia Moralis, III, n. 1004; Ballerini- Palmieri, Opus Theologicum Morale (Prato, 1890), II, 776; Hafner in Theologiache Qriartalschrifl, (1898). LXXX. 99; Vacant in Dictionnaire de theolngie calholique article Command- ments de VEglise; Slater, Manual of Moral Theology (New York, 190S). I,

John Webster Melody,

Commemoration (in LixtrnGv) is the recital of a part of the Office or Mass assigned to a certain feast or day when the whole cannot be said. When two Offices fall on the same day and when, according to the rules of the rubrics, one of them cannot be transferred to another day, it is in part celebrated by way of a commemoration. Offices have different degrees of importance (doubles, semi-doubles, etc.) assigned them at their institution, and it is this that mainly determines precedence in cases of conflict.

At Mass a commemoration consists in saying the collect, Secret, and Post-Communion proper to the feast or day which is being commemorated. In the Office commemorations occur at Lauds and Vespers and consist in reciting the antiphons, with their ver- sicles and responses, of the Benedictus and Magnificat respectively, adding in each case an oremus with the oratio proper. These are called special commemora- tions as distinguished from the common, which are certain prayers said in Mass with corresponding ones in the Office when the latter is of an inferior rite. These commemorative prayers of the Mass vary according to the season of the year. When two or more special commemorations have to be made, the order is determined by the rank or relative impor- tance of the feasts and Offices. WTien two Offices fall on the same day there is said to be "occurrence"; and when the second Vespers of a preceding Office coincides with the first Vespers of the following there is " concurrence." When one of the two occurring, or concurring. Offices is verj' solemn and the other relatively unimportant, all mention of the latter is omitted.

Ruhricm generates Breviarii Romani, IX: Rubricae generates Mi.'^f'alis VII; de Herdt, Sacrm LiturgifF Praxis (Louvain, 1903), II, 326 sq. Gavantus, De Commemorationihiis, sect, iii, 11, 33; Kossino in Kirchenlexikon, III, 693.

Patrick Morrisroe.

Commemoration of St. Paul. See Paul, Saint.

Commemoration of the Dead. See Canon op THE Mass., undrr III, ('ommcmoratio pro dcjunelU.

Commemoration of the Faithful Departed. See

All Souls' D.vy.

Commemoration of the Living. See Canon of THE Mass, under III, Commcmoralio pro virU.

Commendatory Abbot, an ecclesiastic, or some- times a lajTiian, who holds an abbey in commenHnm, that is, wlio draws its revenues and, if an ecclesiastic, may also have some jurisdiction, but does not exercise any authority over its inner monastic discipline. Originally only vacant abbeys, or such as were tem- porarily without an actual superior, were given in commondam, in the latter ca.se only until an actual superior was elected or appointed. An abbey is held in cnmmenslnm, i. e. provisorily, in distinction to one held in iitulum, which is a permanent benefice. .'Vs early as the time of Pope Gregory the Great (.590- 604) vacant abbeys were given in commendam to bishops who had been driven from their episcopal sees by the invading barbarians. The practice began to be serioii.sly abused in the eighth century when the .\nglo-Saxon and Prankish kings assumed the right to set commendatory abbots over monasteries that were