The Sacramentary (Liber Sacramentorum): Historical & Liturgical Notes on the Roman Missal

Preface

T HESE hasty notes were originally intended by

me for the limited circle of my own pupils, whether at the Pontifical Higher School of Sacred Music, or later at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome. In thus yielding to the persuasion of influential persons desirous of a wider field for my efforts, I have, in giving them to the Press, no other end in view save that of sharing with devout and studious souls, especially among my brother-priests, whatever sentiments of faith and reverence our Lord may have deigned to grant me, his unworthy servant, in the course of my daily meditation on the Roman Missal.

It has not been my wish either to write a book exclusively for the learned, or to compose a mere manual of piety. The whole of theology will be found contained in the revered and time-honoured Roman formulas of the holy Sacrifice; and faith, moreover, reminds me that our divine Saviour has constituted the Church to be the depositary of the mystical science of prayer, and has given her, through the unspeakable groanings of the Spirit, the key to the very heart of God himself. Omnipotentia supplex! I have, therefore, guarded against analyzing the eucharistic formularies with that critical indifference which would fail to estimate at its true value the venerable antiquity of the documents under con¬ sideration. Rather have I approached their study with the fearful reverence of the believer, who feels, in those sublime pages, the heart-beat of a thousand generations of martyrs, doctors, and saints, who have not alone conceived nor merely recited the words they contain, but have actually experienced them in their own lives.

It is a fact without doubt that the Roman Missal represents in its entirety the loftiest and most important work in eccle¬ siastical literature, being that which shows forth with the greatest fidelity the life-history of the Church, that sacred poem in the making of which ha posto mano e cielo e terra . 1

To bring out clearly the subject-matter in its historical and archaeological aspect, by rapid but accurate touches, to illus¬ trate it by expressive comparisons, to point out the theo¬ logical authority for its most important statements, whilst

1 Dante, Paradiso , xxv, i-a.—T*.

v

VI at the same time drawing attention to the artistic beauty of its mystical aspect—such has been the aim that I have ever kept in view. Some would, perhaps, have wished me to be less concise, preferring a full exposition and commentary to a work of private study and spiritual preparation for the intelligent recitation of the prayers in the Missal— Psallam spiritu, psallam et mente, as says St Paul. This was likewise my own original idea, but I had to condense my scheme when, with barely a third of the work completed, our Lord thought fit to call me away from books and libraries to take up the pastoral rule of this ancient and world-renowned church, which, in place of the pen, now claims the whole of my strength. The notes which follow represent, conse¬ quently, but the scanty fruit of those rare moments of leisure that a shepherd of souls may find at his disposal. Yet the wishes expressed by friend and disciple alike will, I trust, in some measure be satisfied by the publication of this Liber Sacramentorum, and in dedicating it to them in particular I will make my own the prayer of that great Apostle near whose sacred tomb its teachings were first uttered : Et nunc commendo vos Deo et verbo gratiae ipsius, qui potens est aedificare et dare hereditatem in sanctificatis omnibus (Acts xx, 3 2 )-

t ILDEFONSO,

Abbot and Ordinary.

Pateubchal Basilica of St Paul, Rome, In Natali Afostolorum, 1919.

Contents

PACK

Preface. .

Part I Songs Of Zion Beside The Waters Of

REDEMPTION

(GENERAL CONCEPTIONS OF SACRED LITURGY)

CHAPTSK

I. The Sacked Liturgy : Its Divisions and Sources 3

II. Christian Initiation , 3

III. Ecclesiastical Prayer in the Early Church - 26

IV. The Historical Setting of St Gregory’s Reform of the

Roman Liturgy . . -39

V. " Fractio Panis ” * 53

VI. The Papal Mass at the Roman Stations - - 66

VII. Poetry and Music in the Eucharistic Synaxis - 72

VIII. The Part of the Lateran Musical “ Schola ” in the

Development of thr Roman Liturgy - - 78

IX. Sinners and Penitents under Ancient Ecclesiastical

Discipline - - . . . - u6

X. Holy Orders - . .126

XI. The Consecration of Basilicas in Early Christian Times 136

XII. Sacred Art in the House of God - - i6x

XIII. Religious Consecration - 173

XIV. The Church’s Consecration of States and Rulers - 180

XV. The Nuptial Blessing - 190

XVI. The Liturgy on the Threshold of Eternity 198

vii

Vlll part n

THE INAUGURATION OF THE KINGDOM

OF THE MESSIAH

Introduction

PAG!

Chapter I. Hierarchy and Worship in Rome in the Early Centuries op Christianity . . - azx

„ II. The Roman Calendar - - - - 330

„ III. The Origin and Evolution of the “ Ordinarium

THE SACRED LITURGY FROM ADVENT TO

SEPTUAGESIMA

First Sunday of Advent : Station at St Mary Major - - 319

Second Sunday of Advent: Station at Holy Cross in Jeru¬ salem ........ 333

Third Sunday of Advent : Station at St Peter’s - - 325

Wednesday in Ember Week : Collecta at the Title of Eudoxia. Station at St Mary Major ..... 329

Friday in Ember Week : Collecta at St Mark’s. Station at the Twelve Holy Apostles - - - -333

Saturday in Ember Week : Station at St Peter’s - - 337

Fourth Sunday of Advent: Station at the Twelve Holy Apostles ........ 352

Christmas Eve : Station at St Mary Major - - - 356

The First Mass—at Midnight. Station at St Mary ad Praesepe - - - - - 361

The Second Mass—at Dawn. Station at St Anastasia 368

The Third Mass—in Daylight. Station at St Mary

Major (at St Peter’s) - - - - -373

St Stephen the Protomartyr : Station at St Stephen’s on the Ccxlian Hill ....... 378

St John, Apostle and Evangelist: Station at St Mary Major 381 The Holy Innocents : Station at St Paul’s - - . 385

Contents

Sunday within the Octave or the Nativity

December ag . St Thomas or Canterbury, Bishop and Martyr -

December 31. St Sylvester, Pope and Contessor : Station at the Cemetery or Priscilla •

January i. Octave or our Lord: Station at St Mary in Trastevere -

January a. Octave or St Stephen -

January 3. Octave or St John -

January 4. Octave or the Holy Innocents

January 5. Vigil or the Epiphany : Station at St Peter's

January 6. The Epiphany or our Lord : Station at St Peter's

Sunday within the Octave or the Epiphany : Station at the Title or Pammachius .....

Octave or the Epiphany .....

Second Sunday atter the Epiphany : Station at St Eusebius

Third Sunday atter the Epiphany ....

Fourth Sunday atter the Epiphany -

Fifth Sunday atter the Epiphany ....

Sixth Sunday atter the Epiphany - ix

PAGE

39 *

4*4

4*5

PART I

SONGS OF ZION BESIDE THE WATERS

OF REDEMPTION

(GENERAL CONCEPTIONS OF SACRED LITURGY)

CHAPTER I

THE SACRED LITURGY : ITS DIVISIONS

AND SOURCES

T HE sacred Liturgy, in its widest sense, has for its

objective the religious and supernatural polity of Christianity in its various expressions, whether sacramental, euchological, ritual, literary or artistic. It embraces, therefore, as in a vast combination, the highest efforts of the human mind to grasp and express that which is indescribable and divine.

Nor is this all. As children of the Catholic Church, and heirs of the truths revealed to the former patriarchs and prophets of Israel, our religious polity not only dates in its fundamental principles from before the coming of the Son of God, but is many centuries older than the oldest civilizations recorded in history, and by this fact alone commands the respect and veneration of the learned. Indeed, it is im¬ possible to speak of its origin as merely natural and human, both because the dogmatic element in Christianity emanates from a direct and positive divine revelation, and because the life and action of the Church are derived from the Spirit of Christ, which dwells and works within her.

The Church’s Liturgy may, therefore, be considered as a sacred poem, in the framing of which both heaven and earth have taken part, and by which our humanity, redeemed in the blood of the Lamb without spot, rises on the wings of the Spirit even unto the throne of God himself. This is more than a mere aspiration, for the sacred Liturgy not only shows forth and expresses the ineffable and the divine, but also, by means of the sacraments and of its forms of prayer, develops and fulfils the supernatural in the souls of the faithful, to whom it communicates the grace of redemption. It may even be said that the very source of the holiness of the Church is fully contained in her Liturgy; for, without the holy sacraments, the Passion of our Lord, in the existing dispensation instituted by almighty God, would have no efficacy in us, since there would be no channels capable of conveying its treasures to our souls.

The domain of liturgy is unsurpassed in range by any other science, embracing as it does the origin of man, his essential relations with his Creator, the Redemption, the sacraments, divine grace, Christian eschatology; in fact, whatever is most sublime and beautiful, most necessary and important in the whole world. For the sake of order, however, this vast field may be divided into various sections, each of which concerns one special aspect of Catholic worship.

The division may be made thus :

Sacred

Liturgy i assjFB.

(» Paalmodf f "“'“'“S. (Divine Office) \ «»usi

( Antiphonal Psalmody Responsorial Psalmody Direct Psalmody

/.\ Dedication of f Altars

W ?oSJSJ. Churches iCeme.er.es

Liturgy Consecration or f Virgins

' tm • r J A KKnte

Architecture Painting Sacred Arts

( 4 ) Liturgy of the Dead

Blessing of i Abbots

l Sovereigns

As a science, sacred Liturgy has its canons, its laws, its subdivisions, in the same manner as the other sciences, especially that of dogmatic theology, to which it is closely related both in its method and in its object. It aims, in fact, at a systematic study of Christian worship, distinguishing and classifying the various liturgical forms according to the type which marks each family, arranging them in accordance with the date of their institution, examining and comparing the various types, in order to trace them back to a common origin. Thus only does it become possible to follow out the development from a single stock of liturgies apparently so unconnected as, for instance, the Roman, the Gallican, and the Mozarabic. Yet, unless this were done, we should fail to understand how it was that the unity of the faith did not have as its immediate consequence a like unity in its primitive liturgical expression; whereas recent careful study and patient research have discovered in all liturgies, even in those which differ most from one another, a common foun¬ dation. Occasionally the same idea is expressed by wholly different forms and wording; but there is no longer room for doubt that the Eastern and Western liturgies all spring from one and the same root of great antiquity, which forms, as it were, the foundation and support of Catholic unity in religious worship.

The sources from which we gain information about the sacred Liturgy are both direct and indirect.

To the first category belong the ancient and modern publi¬ cations of Eastern Anaphoras and of the various Latin Sacra-

The Sacred Liturgy 5

mentaries. Prince Maximilian of Saxony hat recently under¬ taken the publication in successive parts of the different texts of the Oriental liturgies, including the Syro-Maronite, Chaldaic, Greek, Armenian, and Syro-Antiochene; but there is no lack of good illustrative examples and annotations on almost all the Oriental liturgical books edited up to the present time. 1 Among the Western sources, the Leonine, Gelasian and Gregorian Sacramentaries call for special notice, as well as the Ordines Romani, the Missale Gothicum, the ancient Gallican Missal and the Mozarabic liturgical books.

The various liturgies, taking into account their chrono¬ logical development and their ethnographical relationship, may be roughly grouped as shown on p. 6.

This table indicates merely the main outlines of classifica¬ tion of the various liturgical families; and, in some cases, the relationships suggested have a purely approximate value, as, for instance, in deriving from the Roman all the other Latin liturgies.

Particular mention should be made of the ancient Roman Sacramentaries, although they are far from giving us the actual state of the Liturgy in Rome in its primitive period, as they have all, more or less, been affected by Gallican influences in adapting them to local usage.

The Gregorian Sacramentary. —This is the title given by Pope Adrian I (784-791) to a collection of Masses said at the “ Stations,” some of which are undoubtedly anterior to the pontificate of Gregory the Great. The collection, however, contains many elements of a decidedly later date. The compiler has evidently based his work on a Sacramentary attributed to St Gregory, but as we do not know to what extent he modified the original, we should, perhaps, be more accurate in calling it after Pope Adrian I. This Sacramentary contains only the stational Masses at which the Pope usually assisted, omitting all other feasts and solemnities to which no station was attached. 1

The Gelasian Sacramentary. —This name was formerly given in France to a Roman liturgical collection, which found its way into Gaul between the years 628 and 731, long after the time of Gregory the Great, but considerably before that of Adrian I. The original Roman work, however, suffered many alterations in France, on account of which it needs to be examined with much discrimination before it can be cited as a witness to the liturgical customs of Rome before the time of Charlemagne. The introduction of the Gregorian

1 The most important work on this subject is still that of F. E. Brightman, Liturgies Eastern and Western, vol. i, Oxford 1896.

1 Cf. Duchesne, Christian Worship: its Origin and Evolution, 5th ed., London 1919, pp. 120 sq.

Sab-Apostolic Sources— f (a) AiSavh 1 (b) Epistola I. CUmmtxs v (c) Epistola S Ignatii

Second Century / Western Liturgies. St Justin. Fragmentary

l Latin Palimpsest of Verona. Tertullian

Third Century. Canones Hippolyti

Eastern

Antiochene

Fourth .

Century. ( Liturgies l

/ Catecheses of St ' Cyril Apostolic Con¬ stitutions 1 | Liturgy of St I I James (Greek)

Syriac ( Li J ur Ky ° f . St ' James (Syriac)

Liturgy of St

Basil

Liturgy of St John Chryso¬ stom

Greek -

Armenian r Anaphora of Bickel (Sixth Nestorian of Century)

Persia and J Liturgy of SS Addai and Mari Mesopotamia 1 Anaphora of Theodore of

l. Mopsuestia, of Nestorius, etc.

Alexandrine

( of'serapion { Greek Litur «y of St Mark

Coptic

Liturgies

St Cyril of Alex- /-Abyssinian andria I Liturgy of

| the Twelve l Apostles

St Gregory

Nazianzen St Basil

Latin | Roman

/ Aquileia

( Milanese \ Ravenna Gallican Mozarabic Celtic

Sacramentary into France threatened for a time to over¬ shadow the Gelasian collection, but the former, having been found wholly inadequate to the Church’s daily requirements, was amplified and enriched from that attributed to Pope

1 Cf. Funk, Didascalta et Constitutiones Afostolorum, Paderborn , 9 °S*

The Sacred Liturgy 7

Gelasius, which, as a result of this fusion, has left many marks of its influence even in the Romano-French Liturgy of the present day. 1

Mis sale Francorum. —This is represented by a single frag¬ mentary uncial codex of the seventh century, originally preserved in the Abbey of St Denis, and now in the Vatican Library. The eleven Masses which it contains are all Roman in form, but the collection is not free from Gallican interpola¬ tions, especially in the rubrics.*

The Leonine Sacramentary. —This is the fullest and most ancient of the Sacramentaries; but, unfortunately, the very nature of the matter brought together by the compiler and the unusual disorder in its arrangement show that it could never have borne an official character. It contains, for instance, vigorous denunciations of false zealots, who sub specie gratiae deceive the simple, and insists upon the necessity of guarding against their craftiness. Some of the Masses would appear to have been inspired by the misery and anguish of the Romans whilst their city was being besieged by the Ostrogoths (537"539)» and one of the collects for the dead has reference to the burial of Pope Simplicius (died 483). In any case, the collection is prior to the time of St Gregory, and seems to be the only Roman source untainted by extraneous additions. Perhaps the fortunate preservation of this text is due to the strictly private nature of the collection, which was therefore kept wholly within the confines of the basilica or titular church for which it was destined. The material collected by the compiler has every mark of authenticity, but the hypothesis is not to be dis¬ missed that the collection, as a whole, never had an official character nor any practical aim, for the very reason that it was never actually brought into use. According to some authorities, the compiler had in view merely the literary interest of the contents. 3

The Ravenna Roll. —The document bearing this name is an opistographical scroll in large uncial characters which belonged, in all probability, to the metropolitan archives of Ravenna. It contains in all forty prayers of the Roman type in preparation for Christmas, but it is extremely difficult to

1 Cf. Duchesne, Christian Worships 5th ed., pp. 125 sq.

* of. cit., pp. 134 sq.

* This Sacramentary was first published by Bianchini from an uncial codex of the seventh century, preserved in the Chapter Library of Verona (Liber Pontifical., vol. iv). Muratori re-edited it in Liturgia Romana vetus I; but the brothers Bailer ini brought out later a more correct edition, which is reproduced in Migne, P.L., vol. lv. An ex¬ cellent edition is that recently published by Feltoe, Sacramentarium Leonianum, Cambridge Univ. Press 1896. Cf. Duchesne, of. cit., determine their date, which might be as early as the time of St Peter Chrysologus. 1

Or dines Romani. —These form a very important collection of ceremonials of various periods, enabling us to follow, step by step, the development of the papal liturgy in Rome from the eighth to the fifteenth century. The first of these Ordines, which is the most ancient, appears to date from the eighth century, but not all the matter which it contains is of the same period, nor has it the same right to be considered exclusively Roman. As in the case of the Sacramentaries, so here, when introduced into other episcopal sees, these forms become modified and are adapted to local usage, without maintaining any further connection with that development which the Liturgy was continuing to show even in Rome itself. Thus we read of the curious case of Amalarius, 3 who, after having recognized the authority of the Ordo Romanus as unquestioned, found, to his great amazement, on the occasion of his journey to Rome in 832, that the clergy there were completely ignorant of the very existence of the said Ordo . 9

The most important documents of the Gallican Liturgy are the Missale Gothicum of the Church of Autun, dating from the end of the seventh century ; 4 the Missale Gallicanum vetus of the same period ; 5 the eleven Masses discovered by Mone in a palimpsest of 760-781, formerly belonging to John II, Bishop of Constance;* the Lectionarv of Luxeuil (seventh century); the Homilies of St Germanus of Paris; and the Missal of Bobbio (seventh century).

The Spanish or Mozarabic Liturgy has left us a greater number of documents, but these have not yet all been published. Dom Morin brought out in 1803 the Liber Comicus or Comes, containing the lessons of the Mass with very important rubrics. Dom F£rotin has published the Liber Ordinum, a kind of prayer-book or ritual; but a careful study of the Sacramentary and Antiphonary is still required, for the Mozarabic rite, as revived in the fifteenth century by Cardinal Ximenes for use in a chapel of the Cathedral of Toledo, contains many additions borrowed from the Roman Liturgy; consequently the Mozarabic Missal and

1 It was first edited by Ceriani : II rotolo opistografo del principe Antonio Pio di Savoia, Milan 1883. Later this article was republished in Archiv. Stor. Lombardo, 1884, vol. i sq.

* Duchesne, op. cit., 146 sq.

4 Cf. Delisle in Mimoires de V Acadimxe des Inscriptions , Part I, vol. zxxii, in which the author has collected and catalogued all the Latin Sacramentaries known to him.

• Cf. Duchesne, op. cit., pp. 1 $2 sq.

The Sacred Liturgy 9

Breviary reproduced by Migne in his Latin Patrology (vol. lxxxv) are of no real scientific use.

The Liturgy of Milan, too, has its own documentary sources, among which the most important are the tenthcentury Sacramentary of Biasca and that of Bergamo of the eleventh. The monks of Solesmes have brought out an Ambrosian Antiphonary accompanied by a minute and ex¬ haustive treatise by Cagin. Magistretti also has published the Beroldus of the twelfth century, showing the great historical and liturgical importance of these collections of ceremonial usages, recalling as they do the Or dines Romani. Lastly, Ceriani edited the ancient text of the Ambrosian Missal, and since his death, Magistretti and Ratti, 1 con¬ tinuing the work of the great master, have completed the materials for a critical study of that most precious heirloom of the Church of Milan.

Regarding the word “ Missal,” it should be noted that this name, as well as the liturgical work thus designated, dates only from the Middle Ages, towards the Carlovingian period. The faithful of earlier times were acquainted with the Sacramentaries, but these correspond as to their contents in part only to the Missale plenarium.

In order to understand the question more clearly, it is necessary to bear in mind the special character of religious worship in the primitive Church. Unlike modern Christians, who are content in church to unite their intention with that of the priest, without understanding the words of the prayer, the ancient Christians were desirous that the actio should be truly shared by all, and be eminently dramatic, so that not only the bishop, but the priests, deacons, and other clergy, the singers and the people should have their own distinct parts to perform. From this arose the necessity of having separate texts for these various parts. Thus, while the bishop or the priest had for his use the Liber Sacrament or um, the soloist would have the Responsorial, the pupils of the schola their Antiphonary, the sub-deacon his Epistolarium, and so on.

The Sacramentary, or Liber Sacramentorum, therefore, contained all the prayers to be recited by the bishop or by the priest, not only in the Mass, but in the administration of all the other sacraments, which were, in fact, intimately con¬ nected with the eucharistic actio. Thus the forms for the administration of Baptism and of Confirmation were part of the liturgy of Easter Eve; those of Absolution were contained in the rites for reconciling penitents on Maundy Thursday. The prayers in that of Extreme Unction followed the Absolu¬ tion of the Sick ad succurrendum before the Mass and the

1 Now Pope Pius XI.

Viaticum; the rites of Ordination were contained in the ceremonies of the nocturnal Station at St Peter’s on Ember Saturday, while the nuptial benediction was to be found in a sort of appendix containing the Masses for special occasions — e.g., marriages, funerals, the dedication of churches, the anniversaries of the consecration of bishops and priests, etc. The whole is so intimately linked together and disposed in such order as to show, even in its bibliographical arrange¬ ment, that the holy Eucharist is the true centre of Christian worship, whereby all the other sacraments are co-ordinated with it, either by preparing the soul to receive it worthily, or by preserving the grace conferred by it. Consequently all those parts of the service intended for the minor orders of ministers, such as introits, lessons, antiphons, and graduals, were excluded from the Sacramentary, which comprised, on the other hand, all those which are used by the priest in the administration of the sacraments, and are now scattered through the Missal, the Pontifical, and the Roman Ritual. In such manner did the Sacramentary completely justify its ancient title of Liber Sacramentorum .

This system, however, though possible in Rome and in other metropolitan churches, where a special place was set apart in the sanctuary for the liturgical codices, in order to have them close at hand, presented grave difficulties in country parishes and in churches where, for want of clergy and of funds, the Roman stational liturgy had been reduced to its most simple expression.

We can well imagine the case of a poor country priest, somewhat advanced in years, assisted only by three or four fidgety boys acting as lectores. He would require an entire library for the celebration of Mass—to wit, the Sacra¬ mentary, the book of the Gospels, that of the Epistles, the Antiphonary, the Responsorial; and would, moreover, have the trouble of searching through the collection in order to find the collects, the scriptural readings, the proper chants; in a word, the various parts required in the service. The simplest solution of his difficulties would have been to com¬ bine all these compilations into one, by copying out for each day at full length the entire Mass belonging to the different feasts of the year. This is the origin of the Mis sale plenarium of the Carlovingian epoch. It was entitled plenarium because, unlike the early Sacramentaries, it contained the whole of the eucharistic liturgy, without the need of employing any other book.

When we compare the Missal in use in our churches since the Tridentine reform with the medieval Missal and with the Gregorian Sacramentary, the difference is by no means funda¬ mental. Ours is richer and more varied in the proper of the

The Sacred Liturgy n

Saints, but the stational Masses of the Sunday, of Advent, of Lent, and of the saints* days comprised in the Sacramentary of St Gregory are, with few exceptions, almost identical. We can, therefore, say that our eucharistic codex, taking into account the natural development con¬ tinued through several centuries of existence, is the same in substance as that used by the great doctors of the Church in the Middle Ages, under the name of Gregory the Great.

We have said that it is in substance the same, but by this we do not mean that there is an absolute identity. Altera¬ tions and additions have been made, the greater number of them before the time of the Council of Trent; but, happily, the severe standard of liturgical reform which inspired the Popes of the latter half of the sixteenth century purified the Roman Missal of many additions, tropes, sequences, collects and Masses of the later Middle Ages, which detracted from the harmony of the marvellous liturgical structure erected by the Popes who ruled from the fourth to the eighth century. The Masses of the auxiliatorum were suppressed, together with those for the judgements of God, as also the custom of celebrating on Sundays the Mass de Trinitate in place of the proper of the Sunday. There were further abolished the festivals of fools, of asses, etc., and other grotesque abuses which had crept into the sanctuary. Some valuable material, however, which might perhaps have been reintroduced was omitted, owing, no doubt, to the want of documents at the disposal of the liturgists of the sixteenth century. Thus among the gaps in the Missal of to-day we deplore the suppression of the various prefaces in which both the Leonine and Gregorian Sacramentaries were so rich; so much so that each feast in the year, and each Sunday of special importance, had its own proper preface. The Middle Ages, in order to economize time and paper, had too readily cast away all this Roman accumulation,, barely retaining some ten or twelve special prefaces for Lent, Easter, Pentecost, etc., while the praefatio communis still in daily use sufficed for all other occasions.

May we be permitted to hope that in some future revision of the Missal the supreme authority will restore to its former place of honour this venerable and beautiful portion of the liturgical treasure bequeathed to us by SS Leo, Gelasius, and Gregory the Great? It is true that primitive Roman tradition showed itself somewhat adverse from admitting into the actual Canon Missae all those changing and variable portions which found so much favour with the Gallican mind; but it is certain that the tradition of the prefaces proper to the feast dates back in Rome at least as far as the time of Leo I.

CHAPTER II B APTISM is not merely a form by which one is

admitted to the fellowship of the faithful, but is the sacrament which contains and confers on the soul supernatural life itself. Wherefore, whatever may be the degree of holiness to which that soul is eventually raised by God, whatever spiritual gifts may after¬ wards adorn it, these graces will only develop and confirm in it the pristine sanctity infused by the sacrament of Baptism. As the tree is virtually contained in the seed, so Baptism is the very life of the Christian soul. It is the chaste and fruitful womb of holy Mother Church, in which she conceives and brings forth for Christ all the peoples of the earth. A clear understanding of this is necessary in order to raise our minds to the sublime ideal which inspired the rites that we are about to describe. By grasping their spiritual sense we shall be better able to comprehend the mind of those men of true genius, those builders of an earlier age, who raised the grand baptisteries of the Lateran, of Ravenna, Pisa, Florence, Siena and many other cities of Italy.