Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/45

 FEASTS

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FEBRONIANISM

(2) Particular feasts, celebrated only by certain religious orders, countries, provinces, dioceses or towns. These latter are either prescribed by the general rubrics, like the patronal feasts, or are specially approved by the Apostolic See, and pre- scribed by bishops or synods, for particular countries or dioceses (Jesta pro aliquibus hcis in the Breviary). The universal feasts are contained in the Roman Calendar.

(c) According to their position in the calendar: (1) Movable feasts, which always fall on a certain day of the week, depending on the date of Easter, or the position of the Sunday, e. g. Ascension of Christ (forty days after Easter), or the feast of the Holy Rosary, the first Sunday of October; (2) Immovable feasts, which are fixed to a certain date of the month, e. g. Christmas, 25 December. In the Armenian Church all the feasts of the year are movable, except six: Epiphany, Purification (14 Febr.), Annunciation (7 April), Nativity (8 Sept.), Presentation (21 Nov.), and (8 Dec.) Conception of Mary (Tondini, "Calen- drierliturgique de la Nation Armenienne", Rome, 1906).

(d) According to the solemnity of the office or rite (see Calendar and Duplex). Since the thirteenth century there are three kinds of feasts: festum simplex, semiduplex, and duplex, all three regulated by the recitation of the Divine Office or Breviary. The simple feast commences with the chapter (capitulum) of First Vespers, and ends with None. It has three lessons and takes the psalms of Matins from the ferial office; the rest of the office is like the semi- double. The semidouble feast has two Vespers, nine lessons in Matins, and ends with Compline. The antiphons before the psalms are only intoned. In the Mass, the semidouble has always at least three " ora- tiones" or prayers. On a double feast the antiphons are sung in their entirety, before and after the psalms. In Lauds and Vespers there are no suffrogia of the saints, and the Mass has only one "oratio" (if there be no commemoration prescribed). The ordinary double feasts are called duplicia minora; occurring with feasts of a higher rank, they can be simplified, except the octave days of some feasts and the feasts of the Doctors of the Church, which are transferred. The feasts of a higher rank are the duplicia majora (introduced by Clement VIII), the duplicia seeundos classis and the duplicia pritnoe classis. Some of the latter two classes are kept with octaves. Before the reformation of the Breviary by Pius V (1566-72), the terms by which the solemnity of a feast could be known were, in many churches, very different from the terms we use now. We give a few examples from Grotefend, " Zeitrechnung", etc. (Hanover, 1891-98, II-III): Chur: "Festum summum, plenum ofBcium trium lectionum, commemoratio." Havelberg: " Fes- tum summum, seraisummum, secundum, tertium, no- vem majus, novem minus, compulsatio 3 lect., anti- phona." Halle: "Festum prspositi, apostolicum, dominicale, 9 lect., compulsatio 3 lect., antiphona." Breslau: "Festum Triplex, duplex, 9 lectionum, 3 lect., commemoratio." Carthusians: " Festum Candelarum, capituli, 12 lect., missa, commemoratio." Lund: "Festum Praelatorum, canonicorum, vicarionmi, du- plex, simplex, 9 lect., 3 lect., memoria."

Some of the religious orders which have their own breviary, did not adopt the terms now used in the Roman Breviary. For example, the Cistercians have the following terminology: "Festum sermonis majus, sermonis minus, duarum missarum majus, 2 miss, minus, 12 lectionum, 3 lect. commemoratio." The Dominicans: "Totum duplex, duplex, simplex, 3 lect., memoria." The Carmelites: " Duplex majus I. classis solemnis, dupl. maj. I. cl., duplex majus 2. classis, du- plex minus I. classis, duplex minus 2. classis, semi- duplex, simplex, simplicissimum."

Among the feasts of the same rite there is a differ- ence in dignity. There are (1) primary feasts which

commemorate the principal mysteries of our religion, or celebrate the death of a saint ; (2) secondary feasts, the object of which is a particular feature of a mystery, e. g. the feast of the Crown of Thorns, of the relics of a saint or of some miracle worked by him, e. g. the feast of the translation of St. Stephen, the Apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The list of primary and secondary feasts has been determined by a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites (22 Aug., 1893), and is found in the introduction to the Roman Breviary. (3) Within the two classes mentioned the feasts of Christ take the first place, especially those with privi- leged vigils and octaves (Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Pentecost, and Corpus Christi); then follow the feasts of the Blessed Virgin, the Holy Angels, St. John the Baptist, St. Joseph, the Apostles and Evange- lists, and the other saints.

Duchesne, Origines du CiiUe Chretien (Paris, 18S9); tr. Mc- Ci-URE (London, 1904); Kellner, Heorlology (tr. London, 1909); Probst. Liiurgie das vierten Jahrh. (Miinster, 1893); Baumer, G&>cA!<-We dra iJrei'irrs (Freiburg, 1S95); Binterim, Denkwurdigkeiten (Mainz, 1829); Lingard, Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church (London, 18'iS]; Maximilian, Prince op Saxony, Prwlect. de Li/mj': ri: :. ^ '>ilil,us (Freiburg, 1908); Kirchliches Handiexikon iM ii i^ '. \''n;); Kirchetilexikmi {Frei' burg, 1886), IV; Nille-, A < -h manuale, etc. (Inns-

bruck, 1897); MoRlsoT, /; '..',,,„,, .u/r les fites de I'annce (Paris, 1908).

F. G. HOLWECK.

Feasts among the Jews. See Atonement; Bib- lical Antiquities; Dedication; Jubilee; Pass- over; Pentecost; Purim; Sabbath; Tabernacles;

Trumpets.

Febronianism, the politico-ecclesiastical system outlined l>y Johann Nikolaus von Hontheim, Auxili- ary Bishop of Trier, under the pseudonym Justinus Febronius, in his work entitled "Justini Febronii Juris consulti de Statu Ecclesite et legitira;! potestate Romani Pontificis Liber singularis ad reuniendos dis- sidentes in religione christianos compositus" (BuUioni apud Guillelmum Evrardi, 1763; in realitj- the work was published by Esslinger at Frankfort-on-the-Main). Taking as a basis the Galilean principles which he had imbibed from the canonist Van Espen while pursuing his studies in Louvain, Hontheim advanced along the same lines, in spite of many inconsistencies, to a radi- calism far outstripping traditional Gallicanism. He develops in this work a theory of ecclesiastical organi- zation founded on a denial of the monarchical consti- tution of the Church. The ostensible purpose was to facilitate the reconciliation of the Protestant bodies with the Church by diminishing the power of the Holy See.

According to Febronius (cap. i), the power of the keys was entrusted by Christ to the whole body of the Church, which holds it prineipah'ler et radicaliter, but exercises it through her prelates, to whom only the ad- ministration of this power is committed. Among these the pope comes first, though even he is subordi- nate to the Church as a whole. The Divine institu- tion of the primacy in the church is acknowledged (cap. ii), but Febronius holds that its connexion with the Roman See does not rest on the authority of Christ, but on that of Peter and the Church, so that the Church has the power to attach it to another see. The power of the pope, therefore, should be confined to those essential rights inherent in the primacy which were exercised by the Holy See during the first eight centuries. The pope is the centre with which the in- dividual Churches must be united. He must be kept informed of what is taking place everjTvhere through- out the Church, that he may exercise the care de- manded by his office for the preservation of unity. It is his duty to enforce the observance of the canons in the whole Church; he has the authority to promulgate laws in the name of the Church, and to depute legates to exercise his authority as primate. His power, as head of the whole Church, however, is of an adminis- trative and unifying character, rather than a power of