The 1537 antiphoner of diocese of Münster contains the musical notation for the office of St. Charlemagne, whose feast is celebrated to-day, 28 January. His office was sung in the Age of Faith not only in the former imperial capital of Aachen, but throughout the lands of the old Carolingian empire, from Gerona in the Spanish March to Bremen in Saxony, and even beyond, in dioceses like Prague and Cracow.
The Magnificat antiphon at first Vespers is a charming rhyming piece with a melody typical of the 6th mode:
O spes afflictis, timor hostibus, hostia victis, regula virtutis, iuris via, forma salutis, Karole seruorum pia suscipe vota tuorum.
O hope of the afflicted, bane of thine enemies, ransom of the vanquished, standard of virtue, path of justice, pattern of salvation, Charles! receive the pious petitions of thy servants.
From the Antiphonarium secundum ordinem atque usum Ecclesie et diocesis Monasteriensis (Cologne, 1537), f. 382r.
As we have seen before, the Spanish Reconquista was as much a military enterprise as a religious one; as Diego de Valera told King Ferdinand the Catholic, “the Queen fights [the Muslims] no less with her many alms and devout prayers than you, my Lord, armed with the lance”. This is especially true of the final chapter in that long saga: the liberation of Granada by the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella on 2 January of that portentous year for Spain, 1492.
The feast of the Miraculous Triumph over the Most Impious Infidel King of the Arabs, Benamarin by Name, Around the Year of Our Lord 1340, in a Missal of Palencia from 1567.
The battle of Las Navas de Tolosa on 1212, liturgically remembered as the feast of the Triumph of the Holy Cross, was a decisive Christian victory from which the Mohammedans were never able to recover. Within a few decades, their hold on the Iberian peninsula was limited to the rump kingdom of Granada, a vassal of the kingdom of Castile. In a final bid to undo Christian advances, in 1340 the Sultan of Granada called upon his counterpart of Morocco (whom the Spaniards called the king of Benamarín) for succor, and the latter obliged with a massive host. In the ensuing battle of Río Salado, despite being outnumbered by more than three to one, the combined forces of Castile and Portugal struck a splendid victory which proved the harbinger of the end of Muslim Iberia. The triumph was duly commemorated liturgically on 30 October as the feast of the Victory of Christians (Victoriæ Christianorum) in Portugal and Victory or Triumph against Benamarín in Spain (in some manuscripts, confusingly, it is called the Triumph of the Holy Cross, like the feast of Las Navas de Tolosa).
The beleaguered Mohammedan kingdom of Granada still ambled on for over a century, though wracked by civil wars and at the perpetual mercy of Castile’s benevolence. In response to Granadan raids and internecine struggles for power within the sultanate, Ferdinand and Isabella made war upon it with the approbation of the Lord Pope Sixtus IV, who granted a Bull of Crusade in 1479. The Pope gifted the Monarchs a great silver crucifix, which was borne by the soldiers during the entire campaign; after the surrender of each city, the soldiers adored the crucifix and sung the Te Deum. The papacy also provided much financial aid for the campaign, and this was administered by the Hieronymite friar Hernando de Talavera, bishop of Ávila and confessor of Queen Isabella.
The Lord Hernando de Talavera, first Archbishop of Granada.
Talavera accompanied the Catholic Monarchs to Granada when its last sultan, Boabdil, finally surrendered in 1492, and, at the suggestion of the Monarchs, was appointed the first archbishop of Grenada by the Lord Pope Alexander VI. He set upon the task of organizing his new diocese and converting its Moorish population with zeal. He commissioned his Hieronymite confrère Pedro de Alcalá to write an Arabic grammar and Spanish-Arabic dictionary to help his priests evangelize the region, and he himself tried to learn the Moorish language. He owned a copy of the Koran and took counsel with the local alfaquíes, and encouraged the zambras—Moorish musical ensembles—to participate not only in processions such as that of Corpus Christi, but even in Mass itself, where he also made use of his knowledge of Arabic, as recounted by his one-time page Francisco Núñez Muley, a Moorish convert:
When His Lordship said Mass in person, the zambra was in the choir with the clerics. At the moments when the organ was to be played, since there was none, the zambra responded with its instruments. He said some words in Arabic during Mass, especially that instead of saying Dominus bobyspon [sic!] he said Y barafiqun. I remember this as if it were yesterday, in the year five hundred and two.1
A Moorish dance, by Christoph Weiditz, 1529.
In these pre-Tridentine days, Talavera had full freedom to dispose the liturgy of Granada, and he decreed that “the Divine Office be prayed in accordance with the Roman, and the chant be as that of the Church of Toledo”. When setting up the kalendar, Talavera was keenly aware of the power of the liturgy to cement the Christian conquest and convert the local population, and became a prolific composer of new Offices for these very purposes. The Archbishop, whohad become a choirboy in the collegiate church of Santa María la Mayor in Talavera de la Reina at the age of five, was renowned for his musical talent, being described as “as learned in chant as he was in theology”, and put these abilities into use when writing the musical propers of these Offices.
A manuscript of the propers of the Feast of the Surrender of the Most Renowned City of Granada.
He established 2 January as the feast of the Surrender of the Most Renowned City of Granada (In festo deditionis nominatissime urbis Granate) and composed its Mass and Office, which were effusively praised by the German traveller Hieronymus Münzer: “Oh! I can scarcely describe how noble and elegant is the Office he composed about the [surrender of the] kingdom of Granada by the mercy of God and the victory of the King”2. Like other Crusader feasts, the Office contains many echoes of the Easter liturgies: the first lesson of Mattins, for instance, is a beautiful panegyric of the Day of victory, which brought an end to the Night of Mohammedanism, reminiscent of the Exultet:
A solemn and illustrious day has come to us, most beloved brethren, a day of gladness and rejoicing, a day of joy and jubilation, a day of good tidings, in which it would be criminal to keep silent. A venerable day, a holy day of the Lord, a most renowned day, a day to us more renowned and holy than all others, for it is the day of God’s mercy. A day for which our forefathers yearned and waited, but saw not. But blessed are our eyes, for they are merited to see it. A day which is almost double, and one day better than a thousand. A day the Lord hath made that we might rejoice and be glad thereon. A day on which the city of Granada is made subject to the Catholic faith and acquired by the Christian religion and restored to the empire of the Spanish. A most powerful city, with secure bridges and surrounded by walls. A most mighty city, a city of refuge and excellent dwelling, a city full of delights, a glorious city, deservedly renowned throughout the whole globe, the mistress of the gentiles and prince of the provinces, a city of perfect beauty, the gladness and pride of the Sarracens, the head and summit of the Mohammedan madness in the lands of the Spanish.3
The Mattins responsories, too, connect the day of victory over the Mohammedans to Christ’s day of victory over Death:
To-day true peace has come down to us from heaven. To-day has shone down upon us the day of our redemption, of renewal of the old, of desired happiness.4
The Paschal theme continues in Mass, where the Gradual is Haec dies, and the Alleluia Dies sanctificatus, though taken from Christmas Day Mass, follows the same idea. The Gospel pericope is from Luke 10, 21-24, which is by the line “Blessed are the eyes that see the things which you see” tied into the Mattins lesson. The Epistle, from Isaias 54, 1-5, appropriately represents Granada as the city of Jerusalem awaiting her salvation. But the liberation of Granada is not only a type of the day of Resurrection, but the antitype of Old Testament figures and events: in the Mattins lessons, King Ferdinand is called an alter Iosue and Queen Isabella an altera sapientissima Delbora (sic, Debbora) and altera venustissima, religiosissima ac honestissima Iudich (sic, Judith). The antiphons are expertly written to link the psalm to the victory at Grenada; e.g., in First Vespers:
Ant. Let us celebrate the solemn day in which God the Father almighty placed the gable of the enemies of His Son as His footstool. Psalm 109. Aña. Solemnem agamus diem in qua Deus Pater omnipotens fastigium inimicorum Filii sui posuit scabellum pedum eius.
Ant. Let us praise the Lord, and magnify His works, Who on this holy day hath given his people the inheritance of the gentiles, and redeemed many captives. Psalm 110. Aña. Confiteamur Domino, et magnificemus opera eius qui hac sacra die dedit populo suo hereditatem gentium, et fecit redemptionem plurimorum captivorum.
Ant. King Ferdinand with Queen Isabella shall enjoy eternal memory, for by his works and toil to-day the Lord hath given to the Christian people the glory and riches of the Saracens. Psalm 111. Aña. In memoria eterna erit Fernandus rex cum regina Helisabeth, quia sua opera et labore dedit hodie Dominus populo Christinano gloriam et diuicias Agarenorum.
Ant. From the rising of the sun unto its going down let the name of the Lord be praised, who by the works of faith made barren Granada a joyful mother of many churches. Psalm 112. Aña. A solis ortu usque ad occasum laudetur nomen Domini, qui Granatam fidei operibus sterilem matrem fecit multarum ecclesiarum letantem.
Ant. All the peoples of the Spains praise the Lord, who to-day hath confirmed his mercy upon you, putting an end to the ancient sin. Psalm 116. Aña. Omnes populi Ispaniarum laudate Dominum, quia confirmauit hodie super uos misericordiam suam, finem imponens antiquo peccato.
Thus does Talavera deftly weave the liberation of Granada into the history of Salvation.
The feast of the Exaltation of the Faith, i.e. the feast of Granada, in a Breviary of Santiago de Compostela from 1569.
This feast does not show up in later propers for the archdiocese of Granada, but it might have survived in certain monasteries, such as the Abbey of Sacromonte, where copies of this office have been found dating as late as the 18th century. A much longer future was enjoyed by another Office and Mass for the liberation of Granada, under the name of the feast of the Exaltation of the Faith (Exaltationis fidei), composed for the Archdiocese of Santiago de Compostela by the Mercedarian friar Diego de Muros, bishop of Ciudad Rodrigo, on the orders of the Catholic Monarchs, who wanted the feast inserted into the kalendar of that important archdiocese. In remained there until the 18th century, and some of the propers were put into polyphonic settings. A third Office and Mass in memory of the liberation was written by the humanist Juan Maldonado for the diocese of Burgos at the request of its bishop, Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca. It was expunged from the kalendar of Burgos by Rodriguez de Fonseca’s successor’s Antonio de Rojas, who went on to succeed Talavera in the see of Granada, and therefore might be responsible for the suppression of the feast there as well.
Talavera himself also set his sights upon the old Office for the feast of the battle of Río Salado. Disappointed with the quality of the Mattins lessons of that feast, he rewrote them, as he explained to Queen Isabella herself:
Since Your Highness is so fond of the writings that I present or communicate, and shews them with, perhaps, not much prudence and too much charity, when they are things that ought not be shewn; because of that and because it is in Latin, I am sending it to Doctor [Rodrigo Maldonado] de Talavera5. so that, if he approves it, he might present it to Your Serenity: the most excellent victory, worthy of immortal memory, which Our Lord gave to the Lord King Alphonse XI, your four-times grandfather, near the river they call the Salado against the King of Morocco and Bellamarín, etc., which I put into Latin accompanied by some phrases from Holy Scripture so that we might read them as lessons on Mattins of that feast, which we began to celebrate some time ago with much solemnity, as is reasonable, because the lessons I saw in the Breviary of Toledo seemed to me brief and not such as I should like, and so Your Highness shall see some of the occupations that fill up my time.6
Talavera also wrote an office for the feast of the Guardian Angel, which was celebrated in Toledo and Aragon on 1 March in thanksgiving for King Ferdinand’s victory over King Alphonse V of Portugal in the battle of Toro in 1476. By establishing this feast in Granada, he may have been trying to exploit Mohammedan belief in the angels. Indeed, he also wrote the propers for the feast of the Archangel Gabriel, who is mentioned in the Koran.
Knowing that Our Lady was highly regarded by the Muslims, and seeing this as an opportunity for their conversion, he established and wrote two Marian Offices. One was for the feast of the Expectation of Our Lady, or Our Lady of the O, the celebration whereof was already widespread in Spain on 18 December. In it, Talavera emphasizes the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Our Lady, since it was an idea widely accepted amongst Muslims. The other was for the feast of the Transfixion of Our Lady.
Finally, Talavera composed an office for the feast of St Joseph, to whom he had a particular personal devotion. One of the first churches he set up Granada, taking over a former mosque, was dedicated to him.
Any perusal of such compositions should suffice to demonstrate Talavera’s deep piety and firm orthodoxy, but unfortunately, his benignity towards the local population of Granada, which revered him as el santo alfaquí, earned him the distrust of churchmen eager to pursue a tougher policy with respect to the Moors. The Inquisition especially resented his refusal to allow it to operate in Granada, and in 1505, after the death of his protectress Queen Isabella, Diego Rodríguez de Lucero, the Inquisitor of Córdoba, ordered the arrest of Talavera’s friends and family on suspicion of heresy, and tried to gather, or rather, fabricate evidence arraign the Archbishop himself on charges of heresy and apostasy. He was firmly defended by the Lord Pope Julius II, but died, before the matter was entirely settled, on 14 May 1507, having fallen ill after walking barefoot during a procession whilst it was raining. After his death, the scandal caused by Lucero’s witch-hunt against Talavera, and his numerous other excesses, led to the General Congregation of the Spanish Inquisition to investigate Lucero, and he was finally removed from his post, whereafter he died.
We finish with the excellent hymn Talavera wrote for Vespers of the feast of the Surrender of Granada, inspired by St Venantius Fortunatus’ well-known panegyric on the triumph of the Holy Cross:
Pange, lingua, voce alta triumphi preconium. Laudes Deo semper canta, conditori omnium qui, edomita Granata, bellis dedit somnium.Dedit quippe pacem plenam populis Ispaniae; dedit autem malam cenam Mahumeti insanie qui illusit Sarracenam gentem et Arabie.
Personarum Trinitatem diffitetur impius, et sumpsisse humanitatem Deum negat inscius; tollit fidei pietatem multis aliis nescius.
Deum Patrem nos laudemus atque Sanctum Spiritum; verbum quoque adoremus vere carni insitum; et uterum honoremus quo fuit nobis editum. Amen.
Sing, my tongue, with lofty voice,
the praise of victory.
Sing praises to God for aye,
to the author of all,
who, with the conquest of Granada,
hath put war to sleep.Lo! he hath given full peace
to the peoples of Spain,
but hath given a bad banquet
to the madness of Mohammed,
who cozened the Saracen people
and the Arabians.
That blasphemer rejects
the Trinity of Persons,
and, benighted, denies that God
took up humanity;
this fool destroys the piety of faith
in sundry other ways.
Let us praise the Father
and the Holy Ghost;
let us also adore the Word
who truly became flesh;
and let us honour the womb
whence he was begotten for us. Amen.
The Mass and parts of the Office of the feast of the Surrender of Granada, composed by the Lord Archbishop de Talavera.
Notes
1. Y quando su señoría dezia la misa en persona, estaua la zanbra en el coro con los clerigos, y en los tienpos que avian de taner los organos porque no los avia rrespondia la zanbra y estrumentos della, y dezia en la misa en algunas palablas en arabigo, en espeçial quando dezia «dominus bobyspon», dezia «y barafiqun». Esto me acuerdo dello como si fuese ayer, en el año de quinientos y dos.
2. O quam nobile et elegans officium de regno Granate, misericordia Dei et victoria Regis scripsit, non possum scribere.
3. Adest nobis, dilectissimi fratres, dies solemnis et preclara; dies gaudii et exsultationis; dies leticie et iubilationis, dies boni nuntii, in quo, si tacuerimus, sceleris arguemur. Dies uenerabilis, dies sanctus Domini, dies celeberrimus, dies nobis celebrior et sancior uniuersis, quia dies miserationis Domini; dies quam optauerunt et expectauerunt patres nostri, nec uiderunt. Nostri autem beati oculi, qui eam videre meruerunt. Dies que facta est quasi duo. Et dies una: melior super millia; Dies quam fecit Dominus ut exultemus et letemur in ea. Dies uidelicet in qua fidei catholice subiicitur; in qua Christiane religioni acquiritur; et in qua Ispaniarum imperio restituitur, ciuitas Granata. Ciuitas fortissima, firma pontibus et muris circumsepta. Ciuitas potentissima. Ciuitas refugii et optime habitationis. Ciuitas plena deliciis. Ciuitas feracissima. Ciuitas inclita. Ciuitas gloriosa. In toto terrarum orbe merito nominatissima. Domina gentium, et princeps prouinciarum. Urbs perfecti decoris. Gaudium et superbia Agarenorum. Caput et fastigium Mahumetice insanie in partibus Ispanorum.
4. Hodie nobis de caelo pax vera descendit. Hodie illuxit nobis dies redemptionis nostre, reparationis antique, felicitatis optatae.
5. Rector of the University of Salamanca and counsellor of the Catholic Monarchs.
6. Porque vuestra alteza es avarienta de las escripturas que le presento o comunico, y no las muestra quizá con mucha prudentia y no menos caridad, sino son tales que se deban mostar, por esso y porque va en latín, envío al doctor de Talavera para que si le pareciere bien, la presente a vuestra serenidad, la muy excelente victoria y digna de inmortal memoria que nuestro Señor dió al Rey D. Alonso XI, vuestro cuarto abuelo, cerca del rio que dicen del Salado contra el Rei de Marruecos y de Bellamarín etc.: la cual puse en latín acompañada de algunas sentencias de la santa escritura para que la leyésemos por lecciones a los maitines de aquella fiesta, porque unas lecciones que ví en un breviario toledano me parecieron breves y no tales como yo quisiera, y así verá vuestra alteza alguna de las ocupaciones que estragan mi tiempo.
In many praiseworthy uses other particular offices, such as the penitential and gradual psalms and in Lent the whole psalter and others, are kept in certain seasons
We spoke in praise of the seven penitential psalms above in Proposition 9, and will now say how to do them fittingly. The psalms begin immediately[1] and each is said with Gloria Patri. At the end of the last, Alleluia or Laus tibi; the versicle Intret oratio; then Kyrie eleison while lying prostrate; the greater preces with the psalm Inclina and the orations used for this office: of all saints, for the pope, for peace, for the bishop, for the emperor, against heretics, for benefactors, for travelers, for the people, for sins, for serenity, for the living and the dead, and for necessities of this sort. The use of Liège has thirteen orations. This office must be said after Prime on days of three lessons outside of Eastertide and major octaves. This is the general custom, as I saw stated in a Roman ordinary. Innocent III, however, ordered his chaplains to say it only in Lent,[2] and the Friars Minor follow suit.
The fifteen gradual psalms are said in three parts: the first five for the dead, under one Requiem aeternam with Pater noster, versicle, and collect; the last five are said for all the faithful in the same way as the second five. The aforesaid religious say this office before Matins on three-lesson days, but few of those who say them also bother to say the seven penitential psalms. But other religious and seculars, acting with better reason, fulfill both offices by saying the fifteen gradual psalms in succession at the five little hours of the daily office of the Holy Virgin, saying the seven penitential psalms on the requisite days, thus lightening the day’s service without omitting the seven psalms. The orations which are said with the fifteen gradual psalms at Prime and after the seven penitential psalms have already been discussed. But on days when the principal service is of theBlessed Virgin, it fittingly takes the places of the fifteen gradual psalms.
And because during holy Lent the holy Fathers wished to augment the Church’s office with other good works in sundry ways, as said above in Proposition 16, hence, for the augmentation of the divine worship in that season, on ferial days of Lent without nine-lesson feasts, after Prime the psalter is read in the following manner. After a prostration, the priest begins: Deus in adiutorium, Gloria, Laus tibi. Then each day are read ten psalms from the psalter, two by two under one Gloria. After the last one, Laus tibi, the versicle Intret, then the entire litany, after which all prostrate themselves and say the greater preces with the aforesaid seven psalms and orations. At Per Dominum, all rise. Others, however, observed other particular offices both during Lent and during private days. But the offices we have mentioned always seem fitting and devout.
Moreover, on vigils of feasts which they wish to solemnize, the Romans perform a certain office in the evening, which they call a “vigil,” in the following way. After the bells toll, they begin the office with the antiphon and say three psalms with three antiphons, a versicle, the Pater noster, and three lessons and responsories, as in one Matins nocturn. Having sung the Te Deum or Te decet, they conclude with an oration and Benedicamus Domino. On the Vigil of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, this office is celebrated at Saint Peter’s with nine lessons and their responsories. Ancient Roman antiphonaries, on the aforesaid vigil and the Vigil of Christmas, have nine antiphons with their psalms and nine responsories assigned for this office.[3] In the Ambrosian custom, the office of this sort of vigil is richly supplemented with a proper processional chant. This is the reason why on vigils in many collegiate churches parish priests sing Matins in the evening. Other particular offices, such as processions, both festive and of Rogations, blessings of various objects for ecclesiastical use and other things of this sort, are common and well known.
[1] I.e. without any introductory verse or antiphon.
[2] Mohlberg: This provision of Innocent III is quoted by liturgists after Radulph. See G. Catalani, Rituale Romanum commentariis illustratum, vol. 1, pg. 341 (Rome, 1757); B. Gavanti, Thesaurus sacrorum rituum, vol. 2, pg. 249 (Venice, 1749); V. Thalhofer-Eisenhofer, Handbuch der katholischen Liturgik, vol. 2, pg. 628 (Fribourg, 1912).
[3] On this Roman “double office” on certain solemnities, see Joseph Dyer, “The double office at St Peter’s Basilica on Dominica de Gaudete,” in Terence Bailey and Alma Santosuosso, eds., Music in Medieval Europe (Aldershot, 2007): 200–219, who writes, “How long any of the double offices persisted anywhere in Rome after the twelfth century is a question beyond the scope of this chapter. Radulph de Rivo (d. 1403), something of a liturgical antiquarian, gives the impression that a double office was still observed on some feasts.[…] His historical description is well informed, but he may have been reporting on an admired, idealized past.”
The Office of the Dead and the Office of Our Glorious Lady are obligatory and everyone must observe them
It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins (2 Machabees 2:46). And “there is no doubt but that whatever praise is worthily given to God’s Mother applies to God himself,” as Saint Jerome says in the letter that begins Cogitis.[1] This is the reason why not only the apostolic constitutions, but also the general custom of all nations urge us to celebrate the offices of both God and his Mother must be celebrated according to the appropriate seasons. Extra, De celebratione Missarum, chapter Cum cantatur gives instructions on the Office of the Dead.[2] About the Office of Our Lady, on the other hand, we read in the Chronica that Urban II—who added to the nine older prefaces a tenth one of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as shall be said below—celebrated a council in Clermont when he went to France in November of the year of Our Lord 1096. In this council, it was established that the hours “of the Blessed Virgin Mary are to be said daily and her office on Saturdays is to be celebrated solemnly.”[3]
First let us make a few remarks about the Office of the Dead, about which we should note that according to universal custom it has Vespers, Vigils, and Lauds but not the remaining hours, as well as a Mass office. The same antiphons and psalms are used at Vespers everywhere, but in the Magnificat antiphon local custom prevails. Vigils has nine antiphons, nine psalms, and nine lessons. There is some discrepancy of customs with regard to the psalms of the third nocturn. The Romans, Ambrosians, Benedictines, and almost all other uses are in agreement over the lessons, except for some variation of the ninth lesson, and there is also some discrepancy in the responsories. So let each keep his own custom. There is a slight difference in Lauds. The general use of many is that Vespers and Vigils of the Dead are said on the previous day and Lauds on the next day after Matins, each of the three stated hours ending with its own preces, psalms, and orations. But some join Vespers and Vigils together under one conclusion. All three offices have prostrations whenever the principal office has them. Some Germans seem to be the only ones not content with the universal readings and their responsories, and try to keep other readings with contrived responsories. But religious men ought not to follow such singular novelties, since it behooves them to observe what is common and simple. On the days when these three hours are to be said, there should be a conventual Mass of the Dead. The Office of the Dead is omitted when it would be incongruous to say it, as in Easter week and the three days before it; and sometimes on account of the day’s feast, as on all nine-lesson and major feasts; and in some uses during Paschaltide and in major octaves. In this, you may use your discretion. To make this observance easier, some have the custom of singing the psalms and antiphons recto tono on ordinary days, while singing the lesson and responsories. In Lent and Advent one should say the nine lessons and their responsories. Outside these seasons let three lessons and their nocturns be said according to the day of the week. On days of burial and anniversaries of the dead, nine lessons should be said. If any should wish to subtract from the aforesaid, let him do so at his own discretion.
The Office of Our Glorious Lady, on the other hand, has, according to universal custom, seven hours, just like the main Office, and the following is a suitable way to observe it: at Vigils, during the night, let the sweet invitatory Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum and the hymn Quem terra be said. In the Roman use, three nocturns with their nine antiphons are split up according to the day of the week, i.e, on Sunday, Monday, and Thursday the first nocturn is said; on Tuesday and Friday the second; and on Wednesday and Saturday the third. In this arrangement the nocturns of the Little Office are fittingly said twice while not impeding the Saturday Nocturn. There is much diversity of practice about the three Matins lessons. Some read the passages In omnibus requiem from Ecclesiasticus; others three short lessons from the Sermons of Augustine; others three short ones from an unknown author which begin Sancta Maria, piarum piissima. It seems more appropriate for religious to reject these and follow the Carthusians, reading three lessons from the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke: the first from In mense autem sexto missus est angelus Gabriel until Dixit autem, the second from there until Exsurgens autem Maria, and from there let the third finish with Et exsultavit spiritus meus in Deo, salutari meo, but add Mansit autem Maria cum illa quasi mensibus tribus et reversa est in domum suam at the end. The three responsories are almost universal. There should be no Te Deum, as was demonstrated in Proposition XIII. In the Roman use, Lauds has five antiphons: Assumpta est Maria and the others. For the short chapters, orations, and hymns, let the local use be followed.
It is a praiseworthy custom to say a certain compensation in this office. In the Ambrosian and Benedictine offices, the litany Kyrie eleison is said at each hour, but we say it daily only at Compline and Prime. And so let them be supplied in this office, such that at the minor hours, following the Benedictine office, after the short chapter the versicle is said, with no responsory, and at each hour before the collect let Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison, Dominus vobiscum or Domine exaudi, and Oremus be said, following the Roman custom. But the suffrages at Lauds and Vespers may be said according to devotion. The Romans say suffrages of their patrons Peter and Paul and of all the saints. Others out of devotion add three orations of the Blessed Virgin, of the Holy Ghost, and of all the saints to the little hours. Hence at Prime, Terce, Sext, and None it is appropriate to put the verse Veni creator before the hymn.[4]
It is fitting to distribute the fifteen gradual psalms over the five minor hours; this holds especially for those who do not say them before the night Vigils.[5] And the Benedictines, because they say these same psalms at the main hours of certain days, invert the order, saying at Prime, Terce, Sext, and None of the Office of the Blessed Virgin those psalms which we say at those same hours in the main Office.[6]
At Vespers, five antiphons—Dum esset rex and the others—are said with the usual five psalms,[7] as was stated in Proposition X and as the Romans do. And if any commemorations were omitted in the main Office for some reason, they can be supplied in this Office.
Moreover, in the Roman use, this Office has special antiphons and other proper elements at Lauds, Vespers, and the little hours in Advent and after Christmas, which you can find in the use of the Friars Minor. And in Eastertide the antiphon Regina caeli is said with the three Evangelical [canticles].
This Office is sometimes omitted when it would be incongruous to say it, as in Easter week and the three days before it; sometimes, when the main service is of the glorious Virgin and on a few major solemnities, lest it seem the Little Office is being said for their sake. In this matter we must have recourse to the use of the Carthusians and of similar religious, and not to the writings of Friars Minor, which depart exceedingly from what I saw written at Rome.
Likewise, in many uses, each hour of this Office, whether they be said in choir or outside of it in private, is said before the main hour, except Compline, which is said after the main hour. But according to the use of the Friars Minor, so-called “Roman,” Matins and Vespers are said before the main hour and the little hours thereafter.
In the general use of everyone, on Saturdays, when there is no proper Mass, the Mass of the glorious Virgin is sung, which office is contained in all missals according to the season of the year. About this Mass it is written that neither Gloria in excelsis nor Credo are to be said, as was explained above in Proposition XIII. On the question whether on Saturdays the main service should be of the Blessed Virgin when there is no major feast, however, there is divergence; for the more solemn churches and religious do not do so, lest they repeatedly omit the Saturday Nocturn. They are supported by the reasoning of Pope Alexander III—Extra, De feriis, chapter 2, towards the end—that every day praise be given to the glorious Virgin in a private Office.[8] And these churches and religious say the psalm and antiphon of the three Nocturns in the same private Office, as I said above. But there are others who disregard the omission of the Saturday Nocturn and on said days say the main service of the Virgin with nine antiphons and psalms, and they uniformly say the private Office throughout the year. Even if saying it as the main service is fitting out of devotion, nevertheless it does not seem that the Saturday Nocturn should be omitted according to what was said above in Proposition X. And then this service can be done without prostrations, the seven [penitential] psalms, and the rest, as is done during Eastertide and within major octaves.
Although on vacant weeks the Mass of the patron can be said, do not let these praises be extended to the main hours, lest the ferial office suffer too much detriment. We have no writing or example that this can be done licitly.
[1] Pseudo-Jerome, Epistula IX ad Paulam et Eustochium (ML 30:126). This letter, a veritable sermon on the Assumption of Our Lady, was actually written in the 9th century by Paschasius Radbertus for the abbess of Soissons, Theodrada, and her daughter.
[2] This canon makes no reference to the Office of the Dead.
[3] Cf. Minorite of Erfurt, Chronica Minor (MGH, SS. Bd. 24, p. 191) and the Flores temporum (MGH, SS. Bd. 24, p. 246).
[4] In many uses, at all the minor hours, the hymn Memento salutis auctor was prefaced by the first stanza of the Veni Creator. The custom was continued in places into at least the 18th century.
[5] It was customary to say the 15 gradual psalms as a sort of extra “office” before Mattins, usually on Wednesdays (cf. proposition 21). They were said in sets of five with preces and a collect in between the sets. Radulph means that those who do not say this “office” of the gradual psalms should at least say those 15 psalms as part of the Office of Our Lady. The other option would be not to say them except as part of the normal cursus of the main office (at Tuesday and Wednesday Vespers).
[6] This is no longer the case in the Monastic Breviary of 1612, in which the Little Office of Our Lady is identical to that of the Roman Breviary of 1568.
[7] The usual Vespers psalms of feasts of Our Lady, i.e. 109, 112, 121, 126, and 147.
[8] The quotation is incorrect. This canon says nothing about the Office of Our Lady.
Major solemnities are sometimes preceded by a vigil office, and sometimes extended through an octave
As Pope Alexander III, who began to rule on the year of Our Lord 1159, says (Extra, De feriis, chapter II): “Although it is written, From evening until evening you shall celebrate your sabbaths, nevertheless the beginning and end of feasts must be considered according to their kind and the custom of the several regions. And just as the importance of the day demands that it be begun earlier and ended later,”[1] the regulars, following the authority of Sacred Scripture, place the start and end of feasts from Vespers to Vespers. But based on their importance they precede them earlier with a vigil office and extend them longer with an octave office. Let us therefore discuss these two.
Vigil offices precede feasts of Our Lord, two feasts of his mother (namely the Assumption and, following a constitution of Gregory XI promulgated when he returned to Rome,[2] the Nativity of Mary), and the days of John the Baptist, Laurence, and, as Innocent III says in De observatione ieiunii chapter 2, “the vigils of all the apostles are to be celebrated with a fast except the vigils of the apostles Philip and James and John the Evangelist, because the feasts of the former pair are celebrated within the solemnity of Easter, and the latter within Christmas.”[3] As Alexander III says in De verborum significatione, chapter Quaesivit, “on the Vigil of Blessed Matthew, unless it fall on a Sunday, fasting is observed.”[4] Vigils on which there is fasting consequently also have a Mass. In the antiphoner which I brought from Rome, the vigil office for the Assumption of Mary begins with Matins, as we shall see for Christmas. In the Ambrosian Office, the major solemnities of the place, such as Gervase and Protase, Nazarius and Celsus, Nabor and Felix, Simplicianus and Dionysius and other local saints also have a proper Mass office on the vigils. Other nations are also accustomed to do this for their patrons and similarly important saints, such as for Saint Lambert in Liège and Saint Martin in Utrecht.
According to the pious and religious custom of the more solemn churches, whenever fasting is observed on the vigil, and the de tempore service is celebrated at the hours with a commemoration of the saints, if any occur, as we do in the fasting seasons of Advent and Lent. And they say this should be piously observed likewise on other vigils of saints for which Mass is said but on which there is no fasting obligation.
The vigil Mass is said in ferial fashion on account of the fast, and—according to Micrologus chapter 55—“this, too, is appropriately observed on all vigils, namely that if None is postponed until after Mass, it should be said of the future feast. In other words, once we have begun the feast after Mass, let us not introduce any dissonance into the office at None, since the holy Fathers especially strove to avoid such dissonance in their arrangement of the offices.” And if the vigil falls on a Sunday, the Sunday office, which is greater, is not changed on account of it, and the Mass of the vigil should be said as the Sunday morrow mass, or on Saturday, or at some other apposite time.
Now that we have spoken about vigils, by which feast days are “begun earlier,” we must speak about octaves, by which they are “ended later.” In the first place we must note that according to the more approved uses such as that of the Carthusians and others, and as written in many liturgical commentaries, octaves are of two sorts: major and minor. In major octaves the first and eighth day as well as the intervening Sunday have nine lessons, while the rest have three. The office of the first and eighth day are identical to that of the feast. But the Sunday Mass is celebrated within the office borrowed from the feast day, because both Vespers use the psalms of the feast day, and at Vigils the Invitatory, hymn, nine responsories are from the feast, and likewise Lauds and the rest are of the feast itself. Further, the three nocturns use the Sunday psalms under three or nine antiphons, depending on how many the feast has; six of the readings are taken from the history that is being read at that time, along with the Sunday homily and the Te Deum; at both Vespers and at Lauds there is a commemoration of the Sunday; at Prime the psalms Deus in nomine, Confitemini, etc. The Mass of the Sunday is celebrated with a commemoration of the feast. On private days, the Invitatory will be brief and in the ferial tone, while the hymn is of the feast, the nocturn of the feria, recited under one antiphon from the festal nocturns, whichever is most appropriate, the lessons from the current history, the responsories from the feast in proper order, omitting the first according to Roman custom, and, once they are used up, beginning again from the second. Neither Te Deum nor Gloria in excelsis should be said, as shown in proposition 13; at Lauds use five antiphons over the common psalms; at Vespers five antiphons from Lauds over the ferial psalms, unless the ferial antiphons are used. The rest of the office is of the feast.
In minor octaves, the solemnity is not mentioned on any day before the octave day, which is kept with three lessons like any simple feast of three lessons. Hence we read in Micrologus chapter 44:
According to Roman authority, we must not observe the octaves of any saints unless we have a certain tradition to that effect from the holy fathers. And during those octaves which we do celebrate, there should be no daily commemoration on the days intervening, because we have no authority for such a thing, except for the Virgin Mary and for St. Peter, both of whom we never cease to commemorate even in other times.
We find the same in the commentary called Gemma Ecclesiae:
“Saints’ feasts of nine lessons within major octaves and to be kept with a commemoration of the octave. Let other saints be only commemorated; but if they should have a proper mass, let it be sung with Ite missa est.”[5]
Christmas, Epiphany, the Ascension, Trinity, Corpus Christi, the Assumption, the Nativity of Mary, and Peter and Paul have this sort of major octave. Andrew, Laurence, and Martin, and, according to the Carthusians, John the Baptist have minor octaves. And note that private days within major octaves are regarded as if they were within Eastertide. Hence on those days there are no prostrations, preces with Miserere, and other things of that sort which are omitted on Eastertide; even the Carthusians observe this. Based on this consideration, many Germans on these days say only three psalms with three antiphons at Matins, as they are accustomed to do in Eastertide, but this practice was castigated above in Proposition 10.
[2] Pagi, Breviarium Rom. Pont, p. 1? in Greg. XI, Nr. 32; cf. Benedict XIV De festis BMV, pars II, 138, and O. Raynaldus, Annales Ecclesiastici, ed. J. D. Mansi, t. 7, 297 (Lucca, 1752)
[3] CJC, Decr. Greg. III, 46, 2 – Frdbg. II, 650–51. See proposition 17 and ML 215, 810.
[4] CJC, Decr. Greg. V, 40, 14 – Frdbg. II, 915 and proposition 17.
[5] If he refers to the Gemma anime (which often appeared under the title Gemma ecclesiae), then this passage is either a later addition or belongs to a tradition of unedited Gemma manuscripts.
Canticum Salomonis 