Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/811

 EXUPERIUS

731

EYE

century), the Missale Gothicum and the Missale Galli- canum Vetus (both of the eighth century). The earli- est MS. of the Gregorian Sacramentary (Vat. Reg. 337) does not contain the " Exultet ", but it was added in the supplement to what has been loosely called the Sacramentary of Adrian, and probably drawn up under the direction of Alcuin.

As it stands in the liturgy, it may be compared with two other forms, the Blessing of Palms, and the Bless- ing of the Baptismal Font. The order is, briefly: — (1) An invitation to those present to join with the deacon in the invocation of the blessing of God, that the praises of the candle may be worthily celebrated. This invitation, wanting in the two blessings just mentioned, may be likened to an amplified " Orate fratres", and its antiquity is attested by its presence in the Ambrosian form, which otherwise differs from the Roman. This section closes with the " Per omnia sa!cula .saeculorum ", leadmg into: — (2) "Dominus vo- biscum" etc., "Sursum corda" etc., "Gratias aga- mus" etc. This section serves as the introduction to the body of the " Pra-conium ' ', cast in the Eucharistic form to emphasize its solemnity. (3) The "Pra;- conium" proper, which is of the nature of a Preface, or, as it is called in the Missale Gallicanum Vetus, a cnntestatio. First, a parallel is drawn between the Passover of the Old and the New Covenants, the can- dle being here a type of the Pillar of Fire. And here the language of the liturgy rises into heights to which it is hard to find a parallel in Christian literature. We are drawn out of cold dogmatic statement into the warmth of the deepest mysticism, to the region where, in the light of paradise, even the sin of Adam may be regarded as "truly necessary" and "a happy fault'. Secondly, the candle itself is offered as a burnt-sacri- fice, a type of Christ, marked by the grains of incense as with the five glorious wounds of His Passion. And, lastly, the " Prsconium" ends with a general interces- sion for those present, for the clergy, for the pope, and for the Christian rulers. For these last the text as it stands cannot now be used. The head of the Holy Roman Empire alone coul<l be prayed for in this for- mula, and the resignation (1804) of the prerogatives of that august position, bj^ the Emperor Francis II of Aus- tria, has left that position unfilled to the present day. It remains to notice three accessaries of the " Ex- ultet": the ceremonial carried on during its perform- ance- the music to which it has been sung; and the so- called "Exultet-rolls" on which it was sometimes written. The deacon is vested in a white dalmatic, the rest of the sacred ministers are vested in purple. The affixing of five grains of incen.se at the words in- cenfti hujus siicrificium has probably arisen from a misconception of the meaning of the text. The light- ing of the candle is followed by the lighting of all the lamps and candles of the church, extinguished since the close of Matins. The chant is usually an elaborate form of the well-known recitative of the Preface. In some uses a long bravura was introduced upon the word (iccendit, to fill in the pause, which must other- wise occur during the lighting of the candle. An elab- orate analysis of the chant, as found in early MSS., has been published in " Paleographie Musicale, IV, viu 171. Dom Latil has published the text, and part of the highly ornate chant, of an " Exultet" at Salerno. The text is almost identical with one previously pub- lished isy Duchesne from a roll at Ban. In Italy the "Pra-conium" was sung from long strips of parch- ment gradually unrolled as the deacon proceedeil. The.se "Exultet-rolls" were decorated with illumina- tions and with portraits of contemporary reigning sovereigns, whose names were mentioned in the course of the " Pncconium ". The use of these rolls, as far as is known at present, was confined to Italy. The best examples date from the tenth and eleventh centuries. Duchesne. Christian Worship, 2<1 e<i. (Lomlon 1904); Gvi^olnMurgical Year.tr. (^tanbrook, 1901), VI; Feasev,

Holy Week Ceremonial (London, 1897); Paleographie Musimle (Solesmes. 1894), IV; Gavanti-Merati. Thesaurus Sacr. Kit. (Venice. 1823), IV; Latil, Rassegna Gregonana (Rome, 1908); Perate in the Gazelle des Beaux-Arts, 2 p^r.. 1888. XXXIV, 346. For the texts, see Migne, P. L., LXXII, LXXVIII; Mura- TORI, Lit. Rom. Vet. (ed. 1772); Pamelius (Cologne, \a7\); Codex Bergomensis (Solesmes. 1900); and the reprints of Mis- sals of English uses by Henderson and the Henry Beadshaw

Charlton Benedict Walker.

Exuperius (Exsuperius), S.unt, Bishop of Tou- louse in the beginning of the fifth century; place and date of birth unascertained; d. after 410. Succeeding St. Silvius as bishop, he completed the basilica of St. Saturninus, begun by his predecessor. St. Jerome praises him for his munificence towards the monks of Palestine, Egypt, and Libya, and for his charity to the people of his owti diocese, who were then suffering from the depredations of the Vandals, Alans, and Suevi. Of great austerity and simplicity of life, he sought not his own, but gave what he had to the poor. For their sake he even sold the altar vessels and was compelled in consequence to carry the Sacred Host in an osier basket and the Precious Blood in a vessel of glass. In esteem for his virtues and in gratitude for his gifts, St. Jerome dedicated to him his " Commen- tary on Zacharias ". Exuperius is best known in con- nexion with the Canon of the Sacred Scriptures. He had written to Innocent I for instructions concerning the Canon and several points of ecclesiastical disci- pline. In reply, the pope honoured him with the let^ ter " Consulenti tibi ", dated February, 405, which con- tained a list of the canonical Scriptures as we have them to-day, including the deuterocanonical books of the Catholic Canon. The assertion of non-Catholic WTiters that the Canon of Innocent I excluded the Apocrypha is not true, if they mean to extend the term Apocn/pha to the deuterocanonical books.

The opinion of Baronius, that the bishop Exuperius was identical \\-ith the rhetor of the same name, is quite generally rejected, as the rhetor was a teacher of Hannibalianus and Dalmatius, nephews of Constan- tine the Great, over half a century before the period of the bishop. From St. Jerome's letter to Furia of Rome, in 394, and from the epistle of St. Paulinus to Amandus of Bordeaux, in 397, it seems probable that Exuperius was a priest at Rome, and later at Bor- deaux, before he was raised to the episcopate, though it is possible that in both of these letters reference is made to a different person. Just when he became bishop is unknown. That he occupied the See of Tou- louse in February, 405, is evident from the letter of Innocent I mentioned above; and from a statement of St. Jerome in a letter to Rusticus it is certain that he was still living in 411. It is sometimes said that St. Jerome reproved him, in a letter to Riparius, a priest of Spain, for tolerating the heretic Vigilantius; but, as Vigilantius did not belong to the Diocese of Toulouse, St. Jerome was probably speaking of another bishop.

Exuperius was early venerated as a saini.. Even in the time of St. Gregory of Tours he was held in eiiual veneration with St. Saturninus. His feast occurs on 28 September. The first martyrologist to assign it to this date was Usuard, who wrote towards the end of the ninth century. ..

Acta SS., Sept., VII, 623-30; St. Jerome, Epp. iv, x xi, hv. xcv cxxv; Idem, Comm. in Zachariam, preface to Books 1 ana II- 'Gregory of Tours. Hist. Francorum, II. xiii; Baronius, Ann Eccl ad. an. 406; Denzinger, Enchiridion (Freiburg, 1908), no. 96 (old no. 59).

Leo a. Kelly.

Eyb, Albrecht von, one of the earliest German humanists, b. in 1420 near Ansbach in Franconia; d. in 1475. After preliminary studies at Erfurt he went to Italy and devoted himself to humanistic study at the Universities of Pavia and Bologna. He returned to Germany in 1451, having in the meantime been appointed canon at Eichstiitt and Bamberg. From 1452 to 1459 he was again a student at Bologna, win-