Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 9.djvu/61

 ULUDIAVUS

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LkVDB

Katsbr, B€UTqM §ur OtaohUhU imtf Briitrmqder all&h KirAgnhumnmi^ 11 (Paderbom and Manster, 1886), 77; Juuan, Dictianary of Hymnohgy (New York, 1882), s.v. for referenoes to MSS. and translatKnis; Dretbs and Blumb, Analeeta Hymnica (Leipiig), x. 123; zxxvii, 58; zxxix. 226, 220: xl, 311; xlii, 104, 151, for poems founded on the Lauda Sion, and zxxvii, 269 (no. 312) for a sequence in honour of St. Thomas Aquinas, beginnhig Lauda Sion increatamf Sodegiaatical Review, Iv, 443, for text and translation, notes and commoit.

H. T. Henry.

Laudianos Oodex. See Hanxtbcrifts of the Bible.

Lauds. — ^In the Roman Litui^gy of to-day lauds designates an office composed of psalms and canticles, usiuuly recited after Matins.

I. The Term Lauds and the Hour op the Of- fice. — ^The word Lauds (i. e. praises) explains the particular character of this office, the end of which is to praise God. All the Canonical Hours have, of course, the same object, but Lauds may be said to have Uiis cluuucteristio par excellence. The name is certainly derived from the three last psalms in the office (cxlviii, cxlix, cl), in all of which the word laudate is repeated frequently, and to such an extent that originally the word Lauda designated not, as it does nowadays, the whole office, but only* the end, that is to sav, these three psalms with the conclusion. The title Afi>ot (praises) has been retained in Greek. St. Benedict also employs this term to designate the last three psalms: poet hoc [viz, the canticle] aequantur Laudee (Regula, cap. xiii). In the fifth and sixth cen- turies the Office of the Lauds was called Matutinunif which has now become the special name of another office, the Night Office or Vigils, a term no longer used (see Matins). Little b^ little the title Lauds was applied to the whole office, and supplanted the name of Matins. In the ancient authors, however, from the fourth to the sixth or seventh century, the names MatuHnum, Laudes maiviiruBj or Malutini hymnif are used to designate the office of daybreak or dawn, the Office of Matins retaining its name of Vig- ils. The reason of this confusion of names is, perhaps, that originally Matins and Lauds formed but a single office, the Night Office terminating only at dawn.

In the liturgy, the word Lauds has two other mean- ings: It sometimes signifies the Alleluia of the Mass; thus a Council of Tol^o (IV Council, c. xii) formally pronounced: "Lauds are sun^ after the Epistle and before the Gospel'' (for this mterpretation compare Mabillon, *'De Liturgia gall.", I, iv). Saint Isidore sajrs : *' Laudes, hoc est. Alleluia, canere *' (De div. offic, xiii). The word Lauds also designates the public acclamations which were sung or touted at the ac- cession of princes, a custom which w^as for a long time observed in the Christian Church on certain occasions.

II. The Office in Various Liturgies. — In the actual Roman Liturgy, Lauds are composed of four psalms with antiphons (in reality there are usually seven, but, foUowmg the ordinary rules, psalms with- out the Gloria and antiphon are not counted sepa- rately), a Canticle, Capitulum, Hymn, Versicle, the Bencdictus with Antipnon, Oratio, or (Collect, and, on certain days, the Preces, or Prayers and Vcrsicles. The psalms, unlike those of Matins and Vespers, are not taken in the order of the Psalter, but are chosen in accordance with special rules without reference to their position in the Psalter. Thus the psalm which a feast does not occur. The psalms Deus^ Deus mens" (Ps. Ixii) and "Deus miscreatur nostn et benedicat nobis" (Ps. Ixvi), and finally the last three psalms, "Laudate Dominum de coelis, "Can- tate Domino canticum novum'', and "Laudate Dominum in Sanctis ejus" (Pss. cxlviii-cl), are recited every day without exception. As we have remarked, it is from these last that this office derives its name. It will be noticed that, in general, the other psalms useil at Lauds have also been chosen for special
 * Miserere mei Deus" (Pe. 1) is said every day on

reasons, beoauaeone or other of their verses (xmtains an allusion eitiier to the break of day, or to the Resur- rection of Christ, or to the prayer of the morning, which, as we shall presently point out, are the raisan iTitre of this office. Such are the verses: " Deus Deus mens ad te de luce vigilo"; "Deus misereatur nostri . . . illuminet vultum suum super nos"; "Mane astabo tibi et videbo"; "Emitte lucem tuum et veri- tatem tuam"; "Exitus matutinum et vespere de- lectabis"; "Mane sicut herba transeat, mane fioreat et transeat "; " Ad annuntiandmn mane misericordiam tuam ", ete. Another characteristic of this office are the canticles which take place between the psalms bdi-lxvi and the last three psalms. This collection of seven canticles from the Old Testament (Canticle " Benedicite", Canticle of Isaias, Canticle of Ezechias, Canticle of Anne, the two Canticles of Moses, the Canticle of Habacuc) is celebrated, and is almost in agreement with that of the Eastern Church. St. £»)edict borrowed it from the Roman Church and, having designed the plan of the Office of Lauds in accoroance with that of the Church of Rome, pre- scribed a special canticle for each day: "Canticum unumquodque die suo ex prophetis, sicut psallit Ecclesia Romana, dicatur" (Reg., xiii).

To these canticles the Roman Liturgy adds, as the finale to this office, that of S^achary, "Benedictus Dominus Deus Israel ", which is recited eveiy da^ and which is also a canticle to the Light, viz. dbrist: " Hluminare his qui in tenebris et in umbra mortis se- dent". The hymns of Lauds, which in the Roman Church were only added later, also form an inter- esting collection; they generally celebrate the break of day, the Resurrection of Christ, and the spiritual light which He has made to shine on earth. Tney are very ancient compositions, and are probably anterior to Saint Benedict. In the Ambrosian Office, and also in the Mosarabic, Lauds retain a few of the principal elements of the Roman Lauds — the Benedictus, can- ticles from the Old Testament, and the psalms cxlviii, cxlix, cl, arranged, however, in a different order (cf. Dom G. Morin, op. cit. in bibliography). In the Benedictine Lituigy, the Office of Lauds resembles the Roman Lauds very closely, not ovly in its use of the canticles which St. Beneoict admits, as we have already remarked, but also in its general construc- tion. The Greek office corresponding to that of Lauds is the 6p0pos, which also signines "morning"; its com- position is different, but it nevertheless retains a few elements of the Western Lauds-;-notabl^ the can- ticles and the three psalms, cxlviii-cl, 'which in the Greek Liturgy bear the name AIvoi or Praises, corre- sponding to the Latin word Laudes (cf. "Diet, d'ar- cn^l. chr6t. et de lit.", s. v. Ainoi; "Horologion", Rome, 1876, p. 65).

III. Lauds in the Early Christian Ages and THEIR Origin. — Lauds, or, to speak more precisely, the Morning Office or Office of Aurora corresponding to Lauds, is incontestably one of the most ancient offices and can be traced liack to Apostolic times. In the sixth century St. Benedict gives us a very de- tailed description of them in his Rule (chap, xii and xiii) : the psalms (almost identical with those of the Roman Liturgy), the canticle, the last three psalms, the capitulum, hymn, versicle, the canticle Benedic- tus, and the concluding part. St. Columb^us and the Irish documents give us only very vague information on the Office of Lauds (cf. "Regula S. Columbani", c. vii, " De cursu psalmorum" ' in P. L., LXXX, 212). An effort has been made to reconstruct it in accord- ance with the Antiphonary of Bangor, but this docu- ment, in our opinion, eives us but an extract, and not the complete office (cf. Cabrol in "Diet, d' archil, et de lit.", 8. V. Bangor, Antiphonaire de). St. Gregory of Tours also makes several allusions to this office, which he calls Maiutini hymni; he gives us, as ite con- stitutive parts, psalm 1, the Benedicite, the thrse