Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 9.djvu/226

 1X8B01IS

193

LB880MS

logical treaiiaes, notes on morals, some letters and documents on the discussion mentioned above, ans- wers to various consultations, etc. No complete edition of Lessius's works has ever appeared. The books "De perfectionibus divinis", "De gratia effi- caci", "De summo bono'^etc. were published in Paris (1878-81); "De divinis nominibus and **De summo bono" at Freiburg (1862 and 1869); Bouixmadea new French translation of the "De divinis nominibus'' (Paris, 1882).

Db Ram, Vie ei EcriU de L. Leeeiua in Revue Catholique, XIX (1861), 189; DC Block, Le Pbre Lesnus in Pride Hidoriquee, XII (1863), 133. 188. 210; Hubtsr, Nomendiiior: Schoof8. J}€ Vtta ei Moribue L. Lessii (Bnisseb, 1640); Soumervoqel. BibL de la Comp. de Jistu, IV (BnuBebi, 1893), 1726. Bt6/»o- gpaphie NatioruUe.Xlh 79; IV. 774; Wbrneb, Derhl. Thomae van Aquino, III (Ratiabon, 1859), 382.

J. DE GhELUNCK.

Lassons in the Liturgy (exclusive of Gospel). L History. — ^The reading of lessons from the Bible, Acts of Martyrs, or approved Fathers of the Church, forms an important element of Christian services in all ntes since the beginning. The Jews had divided the Law into portions for reading in the synagogue. The first part of the Christian synaxis was an imitation or contmuation of the service of the synagogue. Like its mredecessor it consisted of lessons from the Sacred nookBj pealmHsinging, homilies, and prayers. The Gbristians, however, naturally read not only the Old Testament but their own Scriptures too. Among these Christian Scriptures the most important were the histories of Our Lord's life, that we call Gospels, and the letters of the Apostles to various Churches. So we find St. Paul demanding that his letter to the Thessalonians be read to all the holy brethren (I Theas., v, 27). Such a public reading could onlv take place at the sjmaxis. Again, at the end of the Epistle to the Colossians he tells the people to send the letter to Laodicea to be read there, and to demand and read his letter to the Laodiceans (Col., iv, 16). Here too he seems to imply a public reading ("when this epistle shall have been read with you"). That the public reading of lessons from the Holy Books was a well- known incident of Christian services in the first cen- turies appears also from the common idea that the " Gospel* to which St. Paul alludes as being " through all the churches" (II Cor., viii, 18) was the written Gospel of St. Luke read in the assemblies (Eusebius, "Hist, eccl.", Ill, iv, 8; Jerome, "De viris illustr.", vii). TTie famous text of St. Justin Martyr (I Apol., Ixvii, quoted in CxOSPel in the Liturgy) shows that Biblical texts were read at the Sunday asseml)Iics. So also Tertullian (d. about 240) says of the Roman Church, that she ** combines the Law and the Prophets with the Gospels and Apostolic letters" in her public needing (De praescript. nser., 36). There is evidence that at first, not only the canonical Scriptures, but Acts of Martyrs, letters, homilies of prominent bish- ops, and other edifying documents were read publicly in the assemblies. St. Cyprian (d. 258) demands that his letters be read publicly in church (e. g., Ep. ix, in P. L., IV, 253, etc.). The first Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians was used for public reading; it is in- cluded (with II C'lem. ad. Cor.) in the Codex Alexan- drinus. The Epistle of Barnabas and the ** Shep- herd" of Hennas are in the Codex Sinaiticus. These manuscripts represent collections made for public reading. So fdso in the East, Acts of Martyrs were read on their anniversaries. Even as lat4> as his time St. John Chrjrsostom (d. 407) seems to imply that let- ters from various Churches were still read in the Lit- utgy (Horn. 30 on II 0>r., in P. G.. LXI, 605). ^ From the third and fourth centuries, however, the principle obtained that in the liturgy only the canonical Scriptures should be read. The Muratorian Canon (third century) expressl3r forbids the "Shepherd" to be read publicly. The ideas of public reading and oanonioity beeome aynonymousi bo that the fact that DC.— 13

a l>ook is read at the Liturgy in any local Church is understood to be evidence that tliat Church accepts it as canonical. Headings during the Office (Matins, etc.) outside the Liturgy have always been more free in this regard.

Originally, as we see from Justin Martyr's account, the amoimt read was quite indeterminate; the reader went on " as long as time allowed". The pre- siding bishop would then stop him with some sign or formula, of which our clause, "Tu autem Domine, miserere nobis", at the end of lessons (once undoubt- edly said by the celebrant) is still a remnant. The gradual fixing of the whole liturgical function into set lorms naturally involved the fixm^ of the portions of the Bible read. There was an obvious convenience in arranging beforehand more or less equal sections to be read m turn. These sections were called "peri- copes" (xepiKOTilj), a fragment cut off, almost exactly the Grcrman Abschnitt); they were marked in the text of the Bible, as may be seen in most early manu- scripts. An index (called Xwa^dpiop in Greek, capitu- larium in Latin), giving the first and last words of the pericopes for each Sunday and feast, made it easier to find them. There are many remnants of the practice of naming a pericope after its first words, as in the capitularium. The Fathers preach on Gro&- pels which they so call, as if it were a proper name (so St. Bernard's "Homilies on the Mtssiis est** is on Luke, i, 26-38, etc.). Eventually, for greater con- venience the lessons are written out in their liturgical order in a lectionarium, and later still they are inserted in their place w^ith the text of the whole service, in Breviaries and Missals (see Gospel in the Liturgy,

I)-

Meanwhile the number of leasons, at first undeter- mined, became fixed and reduced. The reading of the Gospel, as being the most important, the crown and fulfilment of the prophecies in the Old Law, was put in the place of honour, last. Every allusion to the lessons read in churches implies that the Gospel comes last. A further reason for this arrangement was that in some Churches the catechumens were not allowed to hear the Gospel, so it was read after their dismissal (see Gospel in the Liturgy, I). We are concerned here with the other lessons that preceded it. For a time their number was still vague. The liturgy of the Apostolic Constitutions refers to "the reading of the Law and the Prophets and of our Epistles and Acts and Gk)8pls" (VIII, v, 11). The Sj-riac, Coptic, and Abyssinian Rites have several lessons before the Gos- pel (Brightman, "Eastern Liturgies", Oxford, 1896, pp. 76-8, 152-4, 212-5). In the Roman Rite we still have Masses with a number of lessons before the Gos- pel. Then gradually the custom obtains of reading two only, one from the Old Testament and one from the New. From the fact that the text read from the Old Testament is looked upon as a promise or type of what followed in Our Lord's life (vory commonly taken from a Prophet) it is called the prophecy' . The lesson of the New Testament (exclusive of the Gospel) would naturally in most cases bo part of an Epistle of St. Paul or another Apostle. So we have three lessons in the Liturgy — prophetia, cpistMa (or aposU)lus)^evaf}n gelium. This was the older arrangement of the lit- urgies that now have only two. The Armenian Rite, derived at an early date (in the sixth century) from that of CJonstantinople, has these three lessons (Bright- man, op. cit., 425-426). St. John Chrysostom also alludes to three lessons in the Byzantine Rite of his time (Horn. 29 on Acts. P. G., LX'218; cf. Brightman, op. cit., 470). In the West, Gormanus of Paris (d. 576), describing the Gallican Rite, mentions them: "The prophetic lesson of the Did Testament has its place. . . . The same God speaks in the prophecy who teaches in the Apostle and is glorious in the light of the Gospels", etc. (Duchesne, "Origines du Culte", 185). This Gallican use is still preserved in the Mozarabic