and adop present sys. tem. see in 814,) and expressing himself thus in the preface: "In my travels through different parts, I have frequently heard the Divine Offices celebrated in a hurried manner, and without anything to gratify the sense of hearing. There are some who go to church merely for the sake of keeping up appearances, and that they may not be considered idle by men, and who negligently perform God's service, without any Antiphons, and with all possible celerity,-active enough though they may be in the business of this. world. They know not that the holy doctors and teachers of the Church, full of the HOLY GHOST and of the grace of GoD, instituted that most excellent modulation, the repetition of Antiphons or Responses; to the end that the soul, excited by their sweetness, might be more ardently inflamed in the praises of GOD, and in the desire after the celestial country." From this time it would seem that the abbreviation of antiphons continued rapidly: for in the tenth century we read, in the life of S. Odo of Cluny, that the monks of that religious house, having a singular devotion to S. Martin, intercalated the Antiphons on that Festival (for the Matins, remarks the writer, are short, and the nights are long) between every two verses. This clearly shows that by that time the original practice was obsolete. 45. The first change was undoubtedly the repetion of the tition of the Antiphon before and after each Psalm only. A still further abbreviation shortly took place. It was now, on ordinary occasions, said only so far as the mediation at the commencement; and repeated entire at the end of the Psalm. Festivals were distinguished by doubling the Antiphon: that is, saying it whole before as well as after. And then came the last step, the binding several Psalms under one Antiphon. The first edition of Quignon's revised Breviary went further still, and destroyed the Antiphons altogether. The mediation of an Antiphon sometimes elicits a singularly beautiful emphasis. Thus: that in Wednesday Matins for Psalm 55 and 56 is simply the word FOR; that for the 7th Psalm, as recited in the Office for the Dead, LEST; the two being respectively parts of, "For my soul trusteth in Thee," and "Lest he devour my soul like a lion, and tear it in pieces." The only Psalm in which the ancient use is at all retained is the 95th, when the Invitatory-which is simply an Antiphon-is repeated, not indeed after every verse, but nine times. The present use was already ancient in the age of Durandus, 1216; for he gives its mystical explanation. The Invitatory is repeated six times at full length, according to him, because six is the first perfect number; and the sixfold repetition, therefore, sets forth the perfection with which we should endeavour to perform the service of GOD. Three is an imperfect number; and therefore the imperfect repetition takes place three times. 46. I now proceed to offer some remarks on the Invitatory. general spirit (1.) Of the Invitatory. (2.) Of Antiphons generally. tatories. The Ferial Invitatories of the Gregorian use are Ferial Invisimply clauses of the 95th Psalm itself, taken in order. Thus : On Monday the Invitatory is, O come *let us sing unto the LORD. * On Tuesday: Let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation. On Wednesday: In Thy hands, O LORD * are all the corners of the earth.1 On Thursday: Let us worship the LORD our Maker. 47. I will give the principal Invitatories during the other Grecourse of the Ecclesiastical year. Advent: The King, the LORD that is to come * O come let us worship. The Vigil of the Nativity: CHRIST shall come to us: *O come let us worship. The Nativity: CHRIST is born to us: * O come let us worship. This, according to the ancient Gregorian usage, was, "The LORD, the Great King, O come let us worship." 2 The ancient Gregorian usage "In Thy hands, O LORD, are all the corners of the earth." was gorian Invitatories. Gallican Invitatories. Sundays in 66 The Epiphany: "To-day," says the ancient rubric, we sing no Invitatory, but begin at once." Sunday in the Octave: The LORD is a great GOD, and a great King above all gods. Third Sunday in Lent: O come let us worship, and fall down before the LORD: let us weep before the LORD our Maker. Fourth Sunday: People of the LORD, and sheep of His pasture: 0 come let us worship the LORD. Passion Sunday: To-day if ye will hear the voice of the LORD harden not your hearts. : Palm Sunday: They did not know My ways, unto whom I sware in My wrath, if they shall enter into My rest. Easter Day: The LORD hath risen indeed. Alleluia. Whitsun Day: The most ancient usage is varied. Some have "Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia;" some (which is the modern use,) "Alleluia. The Spirit of the LORD hath filled the world: O come let us worship. Alleluia." Others: "Suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, Alleluia." The Common of Apostles: The LORD, the King of Apostles* O come let us worship. And so of other Saints. For virgins there were originally two Invitatories: that for those to whom most honour was paid was, “The Lamb, the Bridegroom of the virgins;" that for those of less celebrity, "The LORD, the King of the virgins," &c. 48. Having thus considered the Gregorian Invitatories, I will proceed to another form of the same Versicles; that, namely, which they assumed in the great Gallican reformation in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Of these I will take six specimens: the Breviaries of Paris, Rouen, and Amiens, which are, as it were, the heads of their various families; and to these I will add three others of considerable beauty, those of Coutances, Blois, and S. Omer. The interval from the beginning of Lent till Whitsuntide will give us à sufficient idea of their general arrangement. In these, as in every Response and Antiphon, the compilers confine themselves to the exact words of Holy Scripture. 49. The Sundays in Lent. Here the Amiens and Rouen have: "O come let us worship, and fall down * and weep before the LORD our Maker." The others: "O come let us return unto the LORD and He will heal us." In this last, observe the beauty of the refer * vitatories. ence to the sheep of His hand, taken in connection Gallican Inwith that one sheep that went astray in the wilderness, and could not return till the Good Shepherd went to seek it. In the week-days of Lent, while the others merely repeat the Sunday Invitatory, the Amiens very beautifully has it: "The GoD that calleth sinners to repentance * O come let us worship." In Passiontide, the Amiens and the Rouen have: "The Son of Man, about to be betrayed into the hands of sinners, * O come let us worship." The others: "CHRIST, Who suffered for us, * O come let us worship." On Palm Sunday, while the Rouen merely continues the former Invitatory, all the others have: "CHRIST JESUS, Who gave Himself a Redemption for all, * O come let us worship." On Easter Day the Amiens has: "Alleluia. CHRIST, Who was crucified, hath arisen: * O come let us worship." All the others: "Alleluia. The LORD is risen indeed: * O come let us worship. Alleluia.” In Ascensiontide, all agree in giving: "Alleluia. JESUS going into heaven, * O come let us worship. Alleluia." This is rather an amusing example of the determination of the Gallican compilers to keep close to Scripture; "CHRIST ascending into heaven" being, for this reason alone, transformed into "JESUS going into heaven." In the Octave of the Ascension, the Amiens rite differs, and very nobly, from all the others, by substituting: "JESUS, the Great High Priest, Who for us hath entered into the heavens, * O come let us worship. Alleluia." On Whitsun Day, all agree in: "Alleluia. The Spirit of the LORD hath filled the world: * O come let us worship. Alleluia;" except the Amiens, which has: "Alleluia. The Spirit of Truth, Which proceedeth from the FATHER, O come let us worship. Alleluia." Saints. 50. We will now proceed to the Common of Saints. Common of That of Apostles is very differently given. Thus the Amiens and the Blois: "The Master and LORD of Apostles * O come let us worship." The Coutances, S. Omer, and Paris: "The LORD, the Head of the Church, His Body, * O come let us worship." The Rouen: "JESUs, the Apostle of our Confession, * ( Examples of and deve by their means. : come let us worship." In the Common of Martyrs, the Amiens: "CHRIST, Who giveth to him that overcometh the hidden manna, O come let us worship." The Blois and Rouen: "The GoD of patience and consolation * O come let us worship.' The others: "The LORD, Who crowneth those that strive lawfully, O come let us worship." For Bishops, they all agree in: "CHRIST, the Chief Shepherd, O come let us worship." For Doctors, all have "The LORD, the Fountain of Wisdom, *O come let us worship;" except the Amiens, which gives it: "The Fountain of Wisdom, the Word of GOD, O come let us worship." For Abbats and Monks, all have: "GOD, Who is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, * O come let us worship;" except the Rouen, which has: "JESUS, Who was led into the wilderness, * O come let us worship." For a righteous man, all agree in: "The LORD that loveth the righteous * O come let us worship." For a virgin, all again are agreed: "The Lamb Whom the virgins follow* O come let us worship." For a holy woman, S. Peter supplies the Invitatory to all: "The GOD in Whom holy women have trusted * O come let us worship." This may serve as an example of the manner in which those Reformers dealt with their Invitatories. I have examined more than eighty different French uses; but to enter into further details would be uselessly to swell an essay already too long. 51. We will now take some examples of the method Antiphons, in which the different meanings of the same Psalm lopement of are educed by its different Antiphons. The 1st the Psalms Psalm is said in the ordinary Sunday service, in the Common of one Martyr, in the Common of many Martyrs, in the Common of a Confessor and Bishop, on Easter Day, and on Whitsun Day. In the first we have this ordinary, every-day duty of a Christian : "Serve the LORD in fear, and rejoice unto Him with reverence;" eliciting no peculiar sense from the Psalm, but leaving it appropriate to the duties of comCommon of mon life. In the Common of a Martyr: "His delight was in the law of the LORD, day and night;" that is, Psalm 1. Ferial use. a Martyr. |