From: St. Dominic and His Work, by Pierre Mandonnet, O.P., Translated by Sister Mary Benedicta Larkin, O.P., B
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From: St. Dominic and His Work, by Pierre Mandonnet, O.P., Translated by Sister Mary Benedicta Larkin, O.P., B. Herder Book Co., St. Louis/London, 1948. CHAPTER XV Liturgy and Art A Dominican church, always established in a large city, was a center of intense religious life. Frequent preach- ing, practiced for the first time in the Christian world, was its essential and special attribute. To this direct in- struction of the faithful, the prayer of the liturgy and the voice of art contributed their share as in the past, but in new forms. LITURGY Established in the beginning as canons regular, the Preachers were bound to the canonical Office. Therefore, they required a liturgy. Their status also as a centralized and apostolic order created a liturgical problem that had to be solved: their liturgy had to be uniform and brief. The establishment of a special liturgy for the Order of Preachers gave rise to serious difficulties. The chief of these proceeded from the fact that the attempt at unifica- tion was not made from the very first hour. Dispersed rapidly in 1217 throughout every country of Christendom, the friars had accommodated themselves to the liturgy of the place where they were established. Consequently there was a great divergence, from the beginning, in the Divine Office of the Preachers. The Order quickly felt a sense of this disharmony. For purposes of study, preaching, and administration, the Preachers made frequent journeys not only from convent to convent, but from one country to another. Each of these moves on the part of an individual friar entailed the difficulty of adaptation to a new ecclesiastical Office. To obviate this inconven- ience, it was decided to attempt a unification which, before reaching completion, passed through three stages and took about twenty-five years. The first attempt was certainly made, we believe, before the year 1235 and proba- bly after 1230. It was carried on, very likely, at Paris where at the same time work was undertaken on the revi- sion of the Latin text of the Bible. This first formation of the Dominican liturgy, whatever its date, has endured as the groundwork of later reforms which seem not to have introduced essential changes. The development of the Order and the multiplication of the liturgical books led the general chapter of Bologna in 1244, probably seeking to parallel the work of the Church for the reform of the breviary, to take measures to verify the state of its liturgi- cal books, and it directed the definitors of the chapter of the next year to bring with them, for the purpose of establishing a concordance, the rubrics and notations of the breviary, the gradual, and the missal. In view of the work to be accomplished by the next general chapter, the provincial chapter of the Roman Province had in the same year decided upon the correction of its liturgical books; but it was not simply a matter of textual correction. At any rate, the chapter assigned to two religious the composition of a lectionary for the lessons of the seasons and feasts. The Dominican liturgy did not yet have such a book. THE WORK OF HUMBERT OF ROMANS The general chapter of Cologne in 1245 probably found itself faced with a problem more complex than it had appeared to the preceding chapter. Four religious taken from the provinces of France, England, Lombardy, and Teutonia were assigned to the convent at Angers to correct, harmonize, and rectify, as economically as possible, the text and chant of the Divine Office. The three general chapters of 1246- 48 promulgated a constitution ap- proving the revision made by the four friars. The project of a lectionary confided by the chapters of 1246 and 1247 to the provincial of France, then Humbert of Romans, was not confirmed by the chapter of 1248, probably because the introduction of this new book was not yet approved by everyone. The revision accomplished at An- gers gave rise to numerous complaints. Many mistakes were found in it, and the general chapter of London 1 (1250) again appointed the four revisers to go to the convent at Metz, for All Saints' Day, in order to revise their work and compose a directory, or little book containing the changes to be introduced into their previous work. The general chapter of the next year, held at Metz, approved of the revision and ordered that a copy of the direc- tory be deposited in the convents of Paris and Bologna that they might correct all the books according to its indi- cations and compose in conformity with it whatever would be written in the future. The general chapter of Budapest, in 1254, placed the provincial of France, Humbert of Romans, at the head of the Order. The new master, who had already collaborated in the revision of the liturgy while it was carried on in his province by the four friars, had himself made responsible by the chapter for "every ordinance of the ecclesi- astical office and whatever is related to it, as well as for the correction of the ecclesiastical books and of the text of the Rule." The undertaking extended to the whole Dominican liturgy, taken in the broadest sense of the word. His spirit of organization inclined Humbert of Romans to establish for the great body of which be was the head a definitive monument, worthy of the reputation which the Order of Friars Preachers had already acquired in the Church and in the world. Versed as was no other in ecclesiastical matters, Humbert presided with a free hand over the work of the revision, surrounding himself with competent religious of his own choice. Confident in the skill of the Master General, the general chapter of Budapest began the legislation which approved his work. The new liturgy received its final sanction in the two general chapters of 1255 and 1256. In the last of these chapters, held at Paris, Humbert addressed to the Order his annual encyclical announcing the completion of the liturgical reform. The General mentioned the diversity of the demands made upon him and pleaded his excuse for not having been able to please everyone. He asked patience of those whose hopes had not been satisfed. He ordained above all that this unity so long desired by the Order should be henceforth conserved. That they might know everywhere whether they had the complete Office, the General enumerated the fourteen volumes which embraced the whole Dominican liturgy. These were the following: the antiphonary, the lectionary, the psaltery, the collectarium, the martyrology, the processional, the gradual, the missal for the main altar, the Book of Gospels and the Book of Epistles for the same altar, the missal for the side altars, the pulpitary, aud the breviary for travel. He does not enumerate the Rule of St. Augustine and the Constitutions of the Preachers which had a place in the original codex of the Do- minican liturgy. On the petition of the Order, Clement IV (July 7, 1267) gave his official approval to the work of Humbert. That the liturgy might not be an absolutely closed work, Honorius IV (October 1, 1285) granted the Preachers the power of modifying it through enactments of general chapters, though the liturgical books might not be changed or destroyed. While he was pursuing this reform, Humbert of Romans codified it so that it was standardized, and henceforth there was no room for uncertainty. It took shape in a monumental volume, one of the most beautiful productions of the Parisian art of bookmaking in the thirteenth century. This manuscript which was designed to serve as a model, a type, or exemplar, the term then given to books from which other copies were made, was deposited at the College of St. Jacques at Paris, the most important house of the Order. It is now in Rome in the general ar- chives of the Friars Preachers. A few copies were made for other provinces. That of the province of Spain still exists at Salamanca. Finally, Humbert of Romans had a manuscript composed, containing the essential part of the Dominican liturgy, for the use of the master general. That it might be a portable volume it was written on extremely fine parchment. It is now in the British Museum. By means of this copy, in the course of his travels, the master general could verify the condition of the liturgical books, and in case of need provide an official in- strument for the work of correction. To cover the expense of the composition of these general exemplars, a tax of twenty pounds was imposed on each province by the general chapter of 1256. Successive corrections of the Dominican liturgy seem not to have greatly modified the primitive character as it appeared after its first unification. There is proof for this in the fact that the second and third revisions suppose that their innovations do not require the composition of new liturgical books, but only the correction of the old one. Whence also comes the fact that there are no manuscripts containing the liturgy in its first and second form. But it must be acknowledged that no research studies have been undertaken on the liturgical monuments of the Order scattered through the libraries of Europe. Since the unification of the liturgy was carried on, it seems, for the first time in Paris or in the province of France, the Parisian liturgy must have exercised a special influence on that of the Order, a fact which would explain the statement of the Dominican Henry of Herford in the fourteenth century to the effect that Humbert of Romans standardized and corrected, at the same time improving, the Divine Office of the Preachers according to the Gallican Office.