Peter Riga on Paradise and the Fall of Man

The Aurora, written by Peter Riga, (c. 1140–1209), likely a priest and canon of the cathedral of Rheims, is a paraphrase and explication of the Bible written in verse, and was widely used in schools. We have previously offered translations of its prologue to the Gospels and its praises of Our Lady using Scriptural titles. The following extracts are taken from its section on Genesis.

Hortus deliciis florens, iocundus, amenus,     Fertilis, ecclesiam rite notare potest;	The garden, pleasing, beautiful, teeming with delights,     Fertile, is a fitting image of the Church.
Huius delicie sunt pure balsama vite,     Virtutum fructus angelicusque cibus.	Its pleasures are the balms of a pure life,     The fruits of virtues, and angelic food.
Quatuor ex isto procedunt flumina, quorum     Nomina vel numerus mystica signa gerunt.	Four rivers flow out from it, whose     Names and number are mystical signs.
Ut dicunt plures, oris mutatio Phison     Iure potest dici nomine teste suo	As many say, Phison may justly be called     ‘A change of mouth,’1 as its name attests.
Os mutat qui falsa loquens, post illa relinquit     Et verum vero predicat ore Deum.	He changes his mouth who ceases to speak falsehood,     And preaches the true God with a true mouth.
Designatque Gion pectus, quia lex nova monstrat     Ut sapienter agens, fortia queque geras.	Gehon means ‘breast,’ for the New Law shows you     How to perform mighty deeds by acting wisely.
Qui celer est, Tigris signat currendo per orbem     Terrarum legis scripta volasse nove.	The Tigris, ‘one who is quick,’ marks how the New Law     Flew speedily through the whole world.
Frugifer Euphrates notat hoc quod plurima profert     Germina virtutum legis origo nove.	Euphrates, ‘the fruit-bearer,’ indicates that the stock of     The New Law shoots out many virtues like sprouts.
His fluviis numerus scriptores comparat illos     Quos in lege nova quatuor esse legis,	Their number assimilates these rivers to those writers     Of the New Law, who were four.
Qui dum scripta serunt, animarum vulnera mundant,     Irrorant, satiant more salubris aque.	As they pen their writings they cleanse souls’ wounds,     Bedew them, and sate them like wholesome water.
Qui foris est factus, hominem tulit in paradisum     Conditor ut coleret hunc operando locum.	Man, who was made without, the Creator did bring within paradise,     That he might till this place with his work.
Otia quippe nocent anime, prodest labor illi;     Hec mala multa movent, hic bona multa parit.	For idleness harms the soul; labour profits her;     The one stirs up many evils; the other begets much good.

From Aurora, Liber Genesis lines 249–272.

God introduces Adam into paradise, with its four rivers. St. Mark’s basilica, Venice.

Plantarat Dominus a principio paradisum,     Plenum deliciis mirificisque bonis.	In the beginning, the Lord planted a paradise     Full of pleasures and marvellous delights.
Christum principium notat, Ecclesiam paradisus;     Extitit Ecclesie Conditor ille sue.	The beginning is Christ, paradise the Church;     He was the Creator of his Church.
Formatum Dominus hominem tulit in paradisum     Ut custos esset ac operator ibi,	The Lord formed man and brought him into paradise     That he might be a guardian and labourer there,
Preceptumque novum protoplasto prebuit istud,     Iussa tenenda docens et prohibenda vetans.	And he gave a new precept to his first-made,     Teaching him to obey orders and forbidding the prohibited:
«Ex omni ligno paradisi vescere preter     Lignum quo scitur cum bonitate malum.	‘Eat from every tree in paradise except     The tree by which good and evil are known.
Quaque die comedes, morieris morte, sequetur     Mors anime, tibi sit carne necesse mori.»	On what day soever thou shalt eat it, thou shalt die the death,     The death of thy soul shall follow, and thou must needs die in the flesh.’
Per quandam speciem, quam Conditor ipse creavit,     Hec homini primo iussio facta fuit.	By a certain creature, which the Creator himself created,     This commandment was first given to man.

Lines 285–298.

‘Of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat.’ Palatine Chapel, Palermo.

Nudus uterque parens erat absque pudore; moveri     Nescia ditabat singula membra decor.	Naked were both our parents and not ashamed;     Beauty graced all their parts, unknowingly.
Qui iam corruerat de celo, Lucifer illos     Vidit et invidit instituitque dolos;	Lucifer, who had already fallen from heaven,     Saw, envied, laid snares for them,
Et quia perdiderat celestis gaudia vite,     Temptat ut eternis privet utrumque bonis;	And, having lost the joys of heavenly life,     Tried to deprive both of eternal goods.
Femineumque sciens sexum cito perdere sensum,     Ut flecti tanquam possit arundo levis,	Knowing that the female sex soon loses its wits,     Bending like a thin reed,
Serpentem, qui tunc erat erectus, subit, eius     Linguam movit in hec, cor muliebre movens:	He took the form of a serpent, then still upright,     Moved its tongue, moved the woman’s heart:
«Cur vetuit vobis Deus unum tangere lignum?»     «Ne moriamur,» ait; «cetera ligna licet.»	‘Why did God forbid you from touching a tree?’     ‘Lest we die,’ quoth she, ‘The other trees are licit.’
«Non,» inquit serpens, «ita; sed si tangitis illud,     Vivetis; vestrum fiet uterque deus.»	‘Not so,’ said the serpent, ‘but if ye touch it,     Ye shall live, and both of you be gods.’
Femina capta dolo discerpit ab arbore malum     Datque viro; comedunt, nascitur inde malum.	The woman, tricked, plucked from the tree a fruit,     And gave it to the man. They ate; thence sprang evil’s root.
Tunc prius agnoscunt se nudos esse, reatum     Percipiunt, foliis membra pudenda tegunt.	Only then they realized they were naked,     Perceived their disgrace, and covered their shameful parts with leaves.
In libris legitur grecis quod ab arbore cuius     Fructu peccauit primus uterque parens	Greek books say a branch from the tree whose     Fruit caused our parents’ sin
Ramus Ierusalem fuerit translatus, ibidem     Plantatur, crescit, magna fit arbor ibi,	Was taken to Jerusalem and planted there.     It grew into a large tree
De qua facta fuit domus, ut reparetur in illo     Quo periit ligno perditus omnis homo.	From which a house was made,2 wherein     Mankind, ruined by a tree, might be restored.
Facta Dei iussu sequitur maledictio culpam:     Vir, mulier, serpens, debita quisque luit.	By God’s command punishment followed the fault:     Man, woman, serpent, all pay their debts.
Terre cultura vir, partu femina, serpens     Pectore punitur, cui datur esca cinis.	Man is punished by tilling earth, woman by childbirth,     The serpent by crawling, given ash to eat.
Dicitur huic: «Fraudem pones plante muliebri,     Sed vires capitis conteret illa tui.»	To it God said, ‘Thou shalt lie in wait for the woman’s foot,     But she shall crush thy head’s power.’
Verbum dicitur hoc pro partu Virginis; hostis     Demonis attrivit Virgo Beata caput.	He spoke of the virgin birth; the Blessed Virgin     Quashed the fell demon’s head.
Vipera vim perdit, sine vi pariente Puella; Exclusit virus nescia Virgo viri.	The viper lost its venom when a virgin gave birth;     The ban was banished by a maid who knew not man.

Lines 329–362.

The disobedience of Adam and Eve and expulsion from paradise, Palatine Chapel, Palermo.

1. See Philo the Jew, Liber nominum Hebraicorum; St. Jerome, Liber interpretationis hebraicorum nominum. ↩︎
2. According to the Golden Legend, which attributes the tale to an unspecified apocryphal Greek history, an angel gave Seth a branch from the tree, which he placed upon Adam’s grave. It grew into a large tree which Solomon cut down to build his ‘house of the forest of Libanus’ (see 3 Kings 7). Eventually this wood was cast in the pool called Probatica. As Our Lord’s Passion neared, it floated up, and was used by the Jews to make the Cross which bore Our Lord. ↩︎

The Bollandists on St. Peter Maiumenus

Historical Commentary on Saint Peter Maiumenus, 
Chartulary and Martyr in Palestine

in the year 743, 21 February.

1. Maiuma is a city in Palæstina Prima, only twenty stades away from Gaza, which Constantine the Great raised to the honour of a city because it had embraced the Christian faith, naming it Constantia after his son. Julian the Apostate, for the same reason, deprived it of its name, ordering it to be called λιμένα τῆς Γάζης (Portum Gazae, Port of Gaza), and subjected it to the Gazans. But thereafter Christian emperors restored it to the former dignity bestowed upon it by Constantine. Nicephorus Callistus recounts this more fully in book 10, chapter 4, as do other earlier writers. Here St. Peter Maiumenus, Πετρὸς ὁ κατὰ τὸν Μαϊουμᾶν, was either born or received the martyr’s palm, as Theophanes writes. Baronius calls him Mavimenus, and has him crowned in Damascus, inscribing his memory in the Roman Martyrology thus:

At Damascus, Saint Peter Mavimenus, who was killed by some Arabs visiting him when he was sick, when he said to them, ‘Everyone who does not embrace the Christian Catholic faith is damned, just as Mahomet, your false prophet’.

2. Baronius, like Maximus Margunius of Cythera, seems to have followed the Menæa, which state, for 9 February, Τῇ αὐτῆ ἡμέρᾳ ὁ ἅγιος ἱερομάρτυς Πέτρος ὁ Δαμασκηνὸς ξίφει τελειοῦται, ‘on the same day the Hieromartyr St. Peter Damascene was finished by the sword.’ The Menæa add:

Ὁ διελέγξας τοὺς παραπλῆγας Πέτρος,
Θνήσκει μονόπληξ τῷ διὰ ξίφους τέλει.

Peter, rebuking the madmen,
Fell by a single stroke, reaching his end by the sword.

Although St. Peter, metropolitan of Damascus, also died by the sword, as we shall say on 4 October, what is said about the rebuke of the frenzied Mahometans properly applies to Maiumenus. Perhaps the author of the Menæa calls him ‘Damascene’ because Theophanes, after recounting the death of St. Peter Damascene, immediately adds about Maiumenus: Τούτου ζηλωτὴς καὶ ὁ ὁμώνυμος Πέτρος, ὁ κατὰ τὸν Μαϊουμᾶν ἐν τοῖς ἀυτοῖς ἀνεδείχθη χρόνοις, μάρτυς ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ αὐτομόλως. The most learned James Goar of the Order of Friars Preacher, Vicar General of the Congregation of St. Lewis, translates: Eius æmulus & eiusdem nominis consors Petrus apud Maiumam, insigne pro Christo martyrium sub hæc tempora sponte tulit (‘His imitator and namesake Peter willingly underwent a famous martyrdom at Maiuma in these times.’) For his part, Anastasius the Librarian translates these words thus: Huius æmulator et Omonymus Petrus apud Maiumam eisdem temporibus ostensus est pro Christo Martyr vltroneus (‘His imitator and homonym Peter was revealed as a willing martyr for Christ at Maiuma in the same times.’) And Baronius himself writes the following in his Annals, vol. 9, year 742, n. 3, based on Theophanes: Huius æmulator homonymus Petrus apud Mauimenam iisdem temporibus ostensus est pro Christo Martyr vltoneus. (‘His homonymous imitator Peter was revealed as a willing martyr for Christ at Mavimena in the same times.’) 

It should not disturb anyone that St. John Damascene is said to have written his eulogy, for Damascus is not so far from Maiuma that the report of such a celebrated event could not have reached it swiftly. Even closer to Maiuma lies the Laura of St. Sabbas, where John was a monk at the time. Moreover, perhaps St. Cosmas, bishop of Maiuma, immediately conveyed the news of Peter’s martyrdom to John, since both had together been educated at home and later became monks.

But let us listen to Theophanes’s account of this martyrdom, which occurred on the second year of Constantine Copronymus, who succeeded his father Leo the Isaurian upon his death on 18 June 741:

3. ‘His,’ he writes, that is, of Peter, the most holy metropolitan of Damascus, killed at the orders of Valid, prince of the Arabs,

imitator and namesake Peter willingly underwent a famous martyrdom at Maiuma in these times. Yea verily, when he was detained by illness, he invited the leading Arabs to a private conversation. He was known to them because of his office as chartulary of the public taxes, and they were his intimates. 

Then he spake to them, ‘May ye receive from God, I pray, the reward for your journey to visit me, for although you are bereft of the light of faith, nevertheless you are to be counted among my friends. Therefore, I want you be witnesses of my testament, which is the following: He who believeth not in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the consubstantial and life-giving Trinity in the unity of the nature of its persons, is blinded in the eyes of his soul and worthy of everlasting punishment. Such a one was Mohamet, your false prophet and precursor of Antichrist. Hence if ye give any credence to me who now call upon heaven and earth as witnesses before you, abjure his fabulous and senseless teaching. This is present proof of my affection for you; heed this friendly counsel, lest you suffer the same torments as he.’ 

The Arabs, hearing him uttering these holy words and others like unto them, were all seized by astonishment and fury. They bid the man farewell, judging him to have fallen into madness of mind. When he had regained strength from his illness, he began to vociferate loudly: ‘Anathema on Mahomet and his fabulous teaching, and on all who believe in him!’ Subjected forthwith to the punishment of the sword, he achieved his martyrdom. He was praised in sermons by our holy father John, who is justly called Chrysorrhoas on account of the spiritual grace of his speech and holiness, bright and radiant as gold.

4. Thus Theophanes in Goar’s new translation. He who is here called Chrysorrhoas—from χρυσὸς, which means ‘gold’, and ῥοὴ, ‘flow’—is St. John Damascene, whom we shall discuss on 6 May. Perhaps he bore the nickname Chrysorrhoas, akin to the Damascene river Chrysorrhoas, because he watered souls far and wide through his various books, like unto streams of his teaching. Strabo writes these words about this river in book 16: ‘The Chrysorrhoas, beginning from the city and region of the Damascenes, is nigh entirely consumed in streams, for it waters many deep places.’ And the river itself perhaps acquired its name because it was a source of great fertility and wealth for the inhabitants, and enriched them with its golden flow, as it were.

5. He whom Theophanes calls Valid, prince of the Arabs—Οὐαλίδ υἱὸς Ἰσάμ—Anastatasius calls Hualiad or Uhalid, son of Hisan; the author of the Miscella, in Gruterus’s edition, Uhalid, son of Isam; from Henry Canisius, Gizid, son of Habdimelich. 

Goar defines ‘chartulary’, St. Peter’s position, as an ‘archivist’ (scriniarium), that is, ‘one who records deeds or accounts on charters and codies’. Anastasius explains: ‘Because he was a chartulary, and gathered public tribute with due account’. He writes about the nickname Chrysorrhoas: ‘He was well named Chrysorrhoas, because of the Holy Ghost’s golden and shining grace which blossomed in him both in word and deed.’

Acta Sanctorum, Februarius, vol. 3 (Antwerp, 1658), pp. 266–267.

The prophetaster Mahomet writhes as he is tortured in hell by the demons he served on earth (detail from Giovanni da Modena, The Inferno, 1410, St. Petronius’s Basilica, Bologna).

Rudolph of Liebegg on the Lenten Fast

Propers for Ash Wednesday, Missale notatum Claustroneoburgense (CRSA Klosterneuburg, Ms. 0073), fol. 18r.

On fasting

Through pious fasting man makes satisfaction for sin,
Causing the sinful flesh to suffer,
Justly punishing that part in which
He has sinned. He seeks forgiveness, trodding down the flesh,
So prone to sin. Thus the whole man becomes
A burnt offering sacrificed wholly to the Lord.

But reason must hold tight the reins, lest
Fasting too intense or long endure,
Killing the spirit, impeding meditation.
No good comes from fasting two
Or three days, if thereafter you gorge yourself.
Fast every day instead,
Eat not to satiety, but only
When hungry, ceasing before surfeit.
Supporting nature with a moderate repast,
You tear up vice at its root.

So fast in flesh, that mind may brim with virtue.
For our Lord does not desire that such fasts
Be a sort of torture. To him the work of piety
Is more pleasing, for bodily exercise is
Profitable to little, but piety is profitable to all things.¹
Kept within these bounds fasts dissolve the debt
Our body owes and curbs its inner pestilence,
Making man fit for all the virtues.

We read how Daniel unlocked God’s hidden mysteries
Through fasts and tamed the proud lions;
John the Baptist our Lord praised for his fasts.
They are, moreover, sure remedies for bodily disease:
Books tell how many have been healed by them:
To those whose bellies are swollen by excess liquid
And to those whose knotty limbs are bound by gout,
The physician declares abstinence the surest remedy.

On the Church’s Fasts

Hence it pleased the Church to set certain
Times for fasting, lest the continuous fasts
Of apostolic custom should entirely die out.

On Lent

Therefore blessed Telesphorus, seventh from Peter,
Orders us to fast forty days before the holy Pasch,
Thus duly to return the tithe of days
To him who tithes the whole world,²
And to cleanse the year’s sins of omission,³
And thus come more worthily to the sacred feast.
These days are called by their number, Quadragesima.⁴
Whosoever violates a single day in Lent
Is guilty of marring its entirety.⁵

He also bade the clergy to abstain beginning in Quinquagesima,⁶
But this custom has not been retained
For we read Moses was the first to fast
For forty days, that he might become the lawgiver.
Elias kept forty days, that he might reach the Lord’s mountain
And eventually be carried to heaven in flame.
Jesus himself consecrated these forty days with his own fasting.

We, too, to whom each of Christ’s deeds is a teaching,
And to follow our Lord is a great glory, let us follow him
By keeping these days, hallowed by such weighty reason.
During these, let us eat but once a day,
And no fleshmeat or animal products,
Such as milk, cheese, or eggs.
For flesh feeds flesh. If you so feed it, you often
Fuel its vices; but if you restrain it, you also
Curb its deeds. It is good to abstain not only from fleshmeat,
But from all things which
Supply the flesh with nourishment. Let us therefore
Be sparing with food and drink, and with sleep, chatter, and play.
During these days, law permits eating fish,
So long as eating them does not lead to excess.
During them, we may also drink wine.

From Pastorale nouellum III, 10 (lines 589–654),
by Rudolph of Liebegg (c. 1275–1332), canon of Constance.

1. 1 Timothy IV, 8. ↩︎
2. See Gratian, Decretum III, 5, 16. ↩︎
3. See Exodus XII and 1 Corinthians V, 7. ↩︎
4. ‘Lent’ in Latin. ↩︎
5. See Gratian, Decretum III, 3, 7–9; III, 5, 17. ↩︎
6. See ibid. III, 3, 6. ↩︎

De Canonum Observantia 17: On Saints’ Feasts

Proposition XVII

Various uses venerate God’s saints under different ranks; this is based partly on the Gospel; partly on the City; partly on general custom; partly on the country or place

Gather ye together his saints to him, who set his covenant before sacrifices.^[1] God’s saints are gathered together with the God of Abraham, and their names are in the book of life.^[2] Knowledge of their names and passions are collected in the Church’s Martyrology, but we are unable to venerate each one of them in the sacrifice of divine praise. Yet out of their number a certain few should be gathered and noted in a public register, that we may duly venerate them when their days occur. We call this public register a Calendar. Gather therefore for our God his saints in the Church’s calendar, who set Christ’s covenant before the sacrifices of their own praise, and we are by every means obliged to render this praise to him.

But as we gather such saints into this Calendar, those saints of God are to be chosen whom we are obliged to venerate by the Holy Gospel or the Roman office of St. Gregory, as well as those whom the general custom of the Church venerates and worships. These ones are to be written into everyone’s use and we have included them in the calendar placed at the beginning, though among the Romans Saints Bartholomew, Ambrose, Chrysogonus, Pope Martin, Eustachius, Linus, Chrysanthus and Daria, the Seven Sleepers, and several others are assigned to different days than they have among us. On this point the Apostolic See commands “let local custom be observed,” Extra, De observation ieiuniorum, Consilium^[3] and De verborum significatione, Quaesivit.^[4] Furthermore, every use should include in its proper calendar those saints who are especially venerated in their land or place. And in order to avoid errors in the redaction of a church’s calendar on these and other matters, the custom is to rely on the cathedral church. The statues of Cologne and Liège order as much. And saints whom we do not venerate in the office should not be noted in the calendar. Otherwise the calendars become complex and simple priests are furnished an excuse for omitting the ferial office. Moreover, none should be allowed to institute new saints by writing them in, giving them their own office in contravention of the aforementioned authorities. Having gathered and inscribed, therefore, those of God’s saints whom we are bound to venerate, let us see about their offices.

It is clear that we must not and cannot venerate all the saints equally, nor is it the general custom. Therefore some saints are classed as a simple commemoration, others as three lesson feasts, and others as nine. Those who must have nine lessons are:

First, the saints’ feasts celebrated by the clergy and people based on Roman or diocesan authority, and classed as double feasts must be observed with nine lessons. Further, let those saints’ days which episcopal statutes order be observed with nine lessons be so kept. Feasts of our Lord and his Mother, the Invention of the Holy Cross, the twelve apostles, the Nativity of John the Baptist, of St. Laurence, Michael, and the Dedication of a church are celebrated by the clergy and people based on apostolic authority; likewise general custom celebrates a church’s patron, the Conversation of Paul, the Chair and Chains of Peter, the feasts of Martin and Nicholas, Mary Magdalene and Catherine. In the statues of Cologne, moreover, the clergy and people are enjoined to celebrate Agnes, George, Pantaleon, the Decollation of John, the Exaltation of the Cross, Gereon, the twelve thousand virgins, Severinus, Cunibert, and Cecilia. The statues of Liège enjoin the celebration of Servatius, Lambert, Dionysius, and Hubert. And thus let each add the feasts important to their place. 

Likewise, according to the constitution of Pope Boniface VIII, the Church celebrates, “the principal feasts of the twelve apostles, the four evangelists, and the four doctors as double feasts.”^[5] Further, by general custom the Apostle Barnabas, Pope Clement, Benedict, Dionysius, Agatha, Agnes, Cecilia, and the Division of the Apostles are kept as feasts of nine lessons. According to the statues of Cologne, Fabian and Sebastian, Giles, Lambert, Dionysius, Maurice, and Remigius; and according to the statutes of Liège, Dominic, Francis, Leonard, and the eleven thousand virgins have nine lessons in their places and dioceses. And similarly in other dioceses the bishop and his clergy must determine which feasts they should observe with nine lessons. For just as bishops determine the feasts to be celebrated by their people (as stated in De consecratione, distinction 3 chapter Pronunciandum; Extra, De feriis, chapter Capellanus), so they must also determine the festivities for their clergy.^[6]

If a diocese has not determined the feasts, great discretion must be exercised so that the general and reasonable observance of the whole diocese is taken into account, hewing to the principle of moderation, that we should not admit too many feasts of nine lessons. For we find that the statues of the aforementioned dioceses assign nine lessons to only a few of their bishops even though they possess the bodies of many saints and have many local saints—such as the bodies of Saints Maurice and Ewald, and the local saints Eliphius, Heribert, and many others in Cologne; and Theodard, Remacius, Mono, Oda, and several others in Liège, for that church had over thirty canonized bishops. But the same bishops were moderate in instituting nine-lesson feasts. And according to Saint Bernard in his epistle to the canons of Lyons, festivities are not to be multiplied because “such a frequency of joys belongs to our fatherland, not to our exile, and the numerosity of feasts befits citizens, not exiles.”^[7]

The Carthusians, Cistercians, Preachers, and others have few particular or special festivities. The special feasts of the Carthusians are Anthony, Vincent, Barnabas, Bernard, Maurice, Dionysius, the eleven thousand virgins, Catherine, Thomas of Canterbury, and—on account of their Order—the two Hughs and the feast of Relics. If it be objected that the use of the Friars Minor keeps everything with nine lessons, we respond that, although the Romans have more festivities than other nations because of the great number of local saints, nevertheless the said Friars abusively go far beyond the ancient Roman use with respect to their nine-lesson feasts, and that their abuse is not to be followed, but rather altogether abominated, as, with God’s grace, I shall further explain in good time when my books arrived from the City, and say below in Proposition 22. 

Let this be, then, the great and foremost principle, which you must follow with decency and according to order, namely that your places receive local festivals of nine lessons only sparingly and on the weightiest authority. For we keep one festival of our Lord Jesus Christ, namely Sunday, followed by six ferias; that the feast days of his servants and private days should be in this proportion of one to six is a mystery we find in the Gospel. For every apostle our Lord put in a higher rank, he put six disciples in a lower, and when he chose the twelve apostles, he picked out six times as many disciples. For six times twelve makes seventy-two, which is the number of Christ’s disciples. “For his actions themselves are precepts: what he does without saying anything shows us what we must do,” according to a homily of St. Gregory.^[8] So just as there are few Sundays and many ferias, few apostles and many disciples, so festivals should be few and ferias or saints’ days of three lessons many. And let the ultimate goal be to sing the entire psalter, which is the primary purpose of the Office, as shown above. If you count and order things well, there will not be as many festivals in the year as there are Sundays, since “the servant” should not be “above the master, nor the disciple above his master.” Be assured that it pleases God’s saints more in the end when the psalter, sacred Scripture, the Office of the Dead, the seven Penitential psalms, the fifteen Gradual psalms, and the like are kept in their right order, and there are few. For God’s saints do not seek undue praise, preferring that our “service [to them] be reasonable.”^[9] Now that we have seen which saints ought to be venerated with nine readings, let us see which are to be venerated with three readings or a commemoration.  

Note especially that all the saints we have given a Mass for in the prefixed calendar have a proper mass in the Gregorian office and everywhere else, and every use venerates them with three lessons unless they coincide with a major festival, in which case they have a commemoration [in the Office] and should have a separate Mass. These saints especially, therefore, should be venerated with at least three readings on their days. For that reason our calendar lists them with three lessons and a Mass; several of them also have a proper history. 

Apart from these, the various uses differ over which saints they venerate with three readings, such as, among the Carthusians, Polycarp, Blaise, Peter Martyr, Cyriacus and Julitta, Leo, Margaret, Christina, Nazarius and companions, Germanus, Eusebius, Lucy and Euphemia, Thecla, Faith, Crispin and Crispinian, Eustace and companions, Brice, Columban, Linus, Vitalis and Agricola, Silas the Apostle, Saturninus, and Eulalia. Further, they keep Fabian and Sebastian, the Invention of the Holy Cross, the Invention of St. Stephen, Dominic, Remigius, and Francis with three lessons, though others keep them with nine. 

Others they keep with a commemoration, either because they coincide with a major feast or fall within major octaves, as Sylvester, Paul the First Hermit, Hilary, Alexander, and others, and the rest noted as commemorations. On days free of festivals or major octaves they keep any occurring saints of three lessons or the ferial office.  Some, such as the Preachers and their imitators, have saints of a lower class on such days, which they keep with only a commemoration in the temporal office. Such is the third way of commemorating a saint, if he be of lesser importance.  

Behold, I give examples from the use of the Teutonic Knights of Prussia, who beyond the saints who have proper masses noted in the Calendar above, keep the following with three lessons: Anthony, Timothy, Chrysogonus, Blaise, Vitus and Modestus, Paulinus of Nola, Pantaleon and others, Germanus, the Octave of St. Laurence, Bernard, Giles, Lambert, and Remigius; and the following with nine: Maurice and companions, Cosmas and Damian; and with a commemoration in the ferial office: Maurus, Emerentiana, Polycarp, Vedastus and Amandus, Scholastica, Albinus, Perpetua and Felicity, Pudentiana and Petronilla, Nicomedes, Medard, Quiricus and Julitta, Christina, Donatus, Romanus, Eusebius, Rufus, Euphemia, Leodegar, Faith, Martha, Crispin and Crispinian, Narcissus, Quentin, Leonard, Pope Martin, Brice, Agricola and Vitalis, Bishop Saturninus, Eligius, Barbara, Sabbas, the Octave of Andrew, Damasus, and Lazarus. And since their name is Hospitalers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Jerusalem, they keep the following bishops of Jerusalem: Simeon and Alexander with three readings; and Matthias, Zacharias, and Mark with a commemoration. 

Now let us recall the reasons we venerate the saints. Saints are venerated with nine lessons either because they are celebrated by the clergy and people, or because they are classed as duplex feasts, or because they are so designated by episcopal statute or an equivalent authority. They are kept with three lessons either because they have a proper mass office in the Roman office, or because they have been raised to this level of honor in a particular use. They pass with only a commemoration either because they coincide with a greater festival, or fall within major octaves; at least, those are the two general conditions, though the low rank of the saint in a particular use is another cause. Many keep this rule, including the Liègois during Paschaltide for saints who do not have a Mass.   

Consider, my lords and brothers, how reasonably and almost identically the Carthusian brethren stationed in the desert and the Teutonic lords equipped for battle keep this “salutary worship” in their orders, namely, with regard to their saints, observing few of them as festivals or three lesson feasts on account of the temporal office of our High God; both of them, however, say a nocturn on all feasts of three lessons, in accord with Proposition 10. The majority of secular churches abandon the temporal office on ordinary days when a saint occurs. The Cistercians, on the contrary, similarly to other uses, keep but a rare few festivals of twelve lessons. All other saints they keep with a simple commemoration. In this matter, the Carthusians are exemplary.

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^[1] Psalm 49:5.

^[2] Philippians 4:3.

^[3] CJC, Decr. Greg. III, 16.2—Frdbrg II, 630

^[4] CJC, Decr. Greg. V, 10.14—Frdbg. II, 915. Cf. Prop. 19.

^[5] CJC, Sexti Decr. III. 22 – Frdbg. II, 1059.

^[6] CJC, Decr. III, 3.1 – Frdbg. I, 1353; Decor. Greg. II, 9.4 — Frdbg. II, 272.

^[7] Saint Bernard, Epistula CLXXIV (PL 182:334 ff.)

^[8] Gregory, Homilia XVII in Evangelia, Luke 10:1–9 – ML 76:1159.

^[9] Cf. Romans 12:1

De Canonum Observantia 21: On the Penitential and Gradual Psalms

Proposition XXI

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.

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^[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.”