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last words of each lesson [pcricope). The complete Capitularium giving references for all the Lessons to be read each day is a Comes, Liber comitis, or eomiciis. Later the}- are composed with the whole text, so as to dispense with searching for it ; they have thus become Evangeliaria. The next step is to arrange together all the Lessons for each day, Prophecy, Epistle, Gospel, and even readings from non-canonical books. Such a compilation is a Lectionariinyi. Then, finally, when complete Missals are drawn up (about the tenth to the thirteenth centuries) the Lessons are included in them. IL Selection of Gospels. — What portions were read? In the first place there was a difference as to the text used. Till about the fifth century it seems that in Sj'ria, at any rate, compilations of the four Gospels made into one narrative were used. The famous "Diatessaron" of Tatian is supposed to have been composed for this purpose (Martin in Revue des Quest. Hist., 1883, and Savi in Revue bibl., 1893). The Mozarabic and Gallican Rites may have imitated this custom for a time (Cabrol, "Etude sur la Peregrinatio Silvia", Paris, 1895, 168-9). St. Augustine made an unsuccessful attempt to introduce it in Africa bj- inserting into one Gospel passages taken from the others ( Sermo 232, P. L., XXXVIII, 1108). But the commoner use was to read the text of one of the Gospels as it stands (see Baudot, "Les Evangeli- aires", quoted below, 18-21). On great feasts the appropriate passage was taken. Thus, at Jerusalem, on Good Friday, "Legitur iam ille locus de evangelio cata Johannem, ubi reddidit Spiritum" (Per. Silvia^, Duchesne, 1. c, 492), on Easter Eve "denuo legitur ille locus evangelii resurrectionis " (ibid.. 493), on Low Sunday they read the Gospel about St. Thomas "Non credo nisi videro" (494), and so on. The "Peregrina- tio ' ' gives us the Gospels thus read for a number of days throughout the year (Baudot, op. cit., 20). For the rest of the year it seems that originally the text was read straight through (probably with the omission of such special passages). At each Synaxis they began again where they had left off last time. Thus Cas- sian says that in his time the monks read the New Testament through (Coll. patr., X, 14). The homilies of certain Fathers (St. John C'hrysostom, St. Augus- tine, etc.) show that the lessons followed each other in order (Biiumer, "Gesch. des Breviers", Freiburg, 1895, 271). In the Eastern Churches the principle obtained that the Four Gospels should be read right through in the course of each year (Scrivener in Smith, " Diet, of Christ. .\ntiquitics",s. v. " Lectionary"). The Byzantine Churcli began reading St. Matthew imme- diately after Pentecost. St. Luke followed from Sep- tember (when their new year begins), St. Mark began before Lent, and St. John was read during Eastertide. There were some exceptions, e. g. for certain feasts and anniversaries. A similar arrangement is still ob- served by them, as any copy of their Gospel-book will show (E'i>a77Aioj', Venice, 1893). The Syrians have the same arrangement, the Copts a different order, but based on the same principle of continuous readings (Scrivener, "Introduction to the criticism of the N. Test.", London, 1894, I; Baudot, op. cit., 24-32). For the present arrangement of the Byzantine Church see Nilles, "Kalendarium manuale", Innsbruck. 2n(l ed., 1897, pp. 444-52. It is well known that they name their Sundays after the Sunday Gospel, e. g., the fourth after Pentecost is "Sunday of the Centurion" because Matt., viii, 5 sqq., is read then. This brings us to a much-disputed question: what principle underlies the order of the Gospels in the Roman missal? It is clearly not that of continuous readings. Father Bei.ssel, S.J., has made an exhaustive study of this question (" Entstehung der Perikopen", see below), in which he compares all manner of Comites, Eastern and Western. Shortly, his conclusions are these: The root of the order is the selection of appropriate Gos- pels for the chief feasts and seasons of the year; for

these, the account that seemed most complete was chosen, without regard to the particular Evangelist. The intervals were then filled up so as to complete the picture of Our Lord's life, but without chronological order. First, Easter was considered with Holy Week. The lessons for this time are obvious. Working back- wards, in Lent the Gospel of Our Lord's fast in the desert was put at the beginning, the entry to Jerusa- lem and the anointing by Mary (John, xii, 1, "six days before the Pasch") at the end. This led to the resur- rection of Lazarus (in the East, too, always at this place). Some chief incidents from the end of Christ's life filled up the rest. The Epiphany suggested three Gospels about the Wise Men, the Baptism, and the first miracle, which events it commemorates (of. Antiph. ad Magn., in 2 vesp.) and then events of Christ's childhood. Christmas and its feasts had obvious Gospels; Advent, those of the Day of Judg- ment and the preparation for Our Lord's coming by St. John Baptist. Forward from Easter, Ascension Day and Pentecost demanded certain passages clearly. The time between was filled with Our Lord's last mes- sages before He left us (taken from His words on Maundy Thursday in St. John). There remains the most difficult set of Gospels of all — those for the Sun- days after Pentecost. They seem to be meant to complete what has not yet been told about His life. Nevertheless, their order is very hard to understand. It has been suggested that they are meant to corre- spond to the lessons of Matins. In some eases, at any rate, such a comparison is tempting. Thus, on the third Sunday, in the first Nocturne, we read about Saul seeking his father's asses (I Kings, ix), in the Gospel (and therefore in the third Nocturne) about the man who loses one sheep, and the lost drachma (Luke, xv); on the fourth Simday, David fights Goliath " in nom- ine Domini exercituum" (I Kings, xvii), in the Gospel, St. Peter throws out his net "in verbo tuo" (Luke, v); on the fifth, David mourns his enemy Saul- (II Kings, i), in the Gospel we are told to be reconciled to our enemies (Matt., v). The eighth Sundaj' begins the Book of Wisdom (first Sunday in August), and in the Gospel the wise steward is commended (Luke, xvi). Perhaps the nearness of certain feasts had an influence, too. In some lists Luke, v, whsre our Lord says, "From henceforth thou shalt catch men", to St. Peter, came on the Simday before his feast (29 June), and the story of St. Andrew and the multiplied bread (John, vi) before 30 November. Durandus notices this ("Rationale", VI, 142, "Dedom. 25a post Pent."; see also Beissel, op. cit., 195-0). Beissel is disposed to think that much of the arrangement is accidental, and that no satisfactory explanation of the order of Gos- pels after Pentecost has been found. In any case the order throughout the year is very old. A tradition says that St. Jerome arranged it by command of St. Damasus (Berno, "De officio missse". i. P. L., CXLII, 1057; "Micrologus", xxxi, P. L., CLI, 999, 1003). Certain!}' the Lessons now sung in our churches are those that St. Gregory the Great's deacon chanted at Rome thirteen hundred years ago (Beissel, op. cit., 196).

III. Ceremony of Singing the Gospel. — The Gospel has been for many centuries in East and West the privilege of the deacon. This was not always the case. At first a reader {amyvdaT-rii, lector) read all the lessons. We have seen a case of this in the story of St. Cyprian and Aurelian (see above). St. Jerome (d. 420) speaks of the deacon as reader of the Gospel (Ep. cxlvii, n. 6), but the practice was not yet uniform in all churches. At Constantinople, on Easter day, the bishop did so (Sozom., H. E., vii, 19) ; in Alexandria, it was an archdeacon (ibid., he says that: "in other places deacons read the Gospel ; in many churches only priests"). The Apostolic Constitutions refer the Gospel to the deacon ; and in 527 a council, at Vaison, says deacons "are worthy to read the words that