RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Perioope
reading in course of Genesis was interrupted by
the passion season; it appears that special seasons
had their appropriate lessons (Chrysostom, Cur. in
Pentec. , in Princ. Act., Horn. iv. ;
3. Series of Augustine on I John) ; Augustine Lections speaks of the " order of the lections,"
not Fixed, the indispensable history of the celebration, and the free choice of the preacher. Augustine says further (Horn, ccci., chap. 1) that " on the day of the resurrection, according to custom, there are readings taken from all the books of the holy Gospel," and a closer description of these readings is found in Horn, ccxxxii., chap. 1. Still, the order given there is not absolutely binding, and he himself made changes — to the discomfort of some who had not heard what they were accustomed to hear. The preacher had a certain independence over the reading, this being in the interest of his discourse or in view of congregational needs (Augustine, Sermon ccclxii.). The first attempt, at least for a diocese, to fix definite readings for a part of the year was in Gaul in the middle of the fifth century. Gennadius (De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis, lxxix.) reports that Musseus of Marseilles excerpted from the Scriptures readings for the year suited to the days celebrated. The second comes from the present Clermont, where Bishop Apollinaris Sidonius reports in an epitaph of a certain Claudianus that he prepared lections for the annual celebrations. Both these were, however, only for special seasons, not the whole year. The Lectionarium Gallicanum (MPL, lxxii.) belongs to a later period and to Burgundy. For the same period there is known a Greek lectionary. But in general, so far as present knowledge goes, the reading in course never extended, in this early period, to the whole Scriptures; yet the custom was gradually becoming fixed of reading certain passages or from certain books at certain seasons, though the choice was not yet narrowly limited.
The liturgies confirm the conclusions reached. Yet it must be confessed that the liturgies themselves offer a difficult problem as to
4. Indica- origin and age, worked over and altions of the tered as they have been, some bearing
Liturgies, celebrated names which are supposititious or unreal so far as authorship goes. The Syrian edition of the Liturgy of St. James names the reading from Paul and the Gospel. The Armenian Liturgy mentions prophetical, apostolic, and Gospel readings. That of the Coptic Jacobites omits the Old-Testament lection, but has two from the epistles, one from the Acts, and one from the Gospel, and the Ethiopic liturgy agrees with this. The Nestorian Liturgy for Ascension Day has lections from II Cor., Acts, I Tim., and Luke. Renaudot {Liturgiarum orientalium collectio, ii. 61-62, Paris, 1716) notes that among the Syrians the Scriptures were read in Syriac with an interpretation in Arabic following; the interpretation of the Gospel was twofold, literal and paraphrastic. This last confirms what appeared from the sermons of the Church Fathers, that the sermon pericopes developed from the lections, and that entire freedom was not the fact. For indexes and indications of just what selections were chosen for certain times the libraries
of churches and monasteries in the East must be searched; but the lections of the East and the perioope system of the West are not interworked. The Evangelarium Hierosolymitanum was apparently completed 1030, but probably depends upon a collection of readings much older. The lectionary is in Syriac, and was for the use of the Melchites; it begins with Easter; the lessons till Whitsuntide are from John, those till September 11 (feast of the cross) from Matthew, from then till Septuagesima from Luke, and after that from Mark with selections from the other Gospels. A second lectionary, Palestinian-Syriac, has among the epistolary selections many from Old-Testament books and from Acts, while a sort of series appears for the sixteen Sundays before Christmas.
The lections of the present Greek Church reach back into the Middle Ages. A distinction is made between synaxarion and menologion, the former corresponding broadly to " church year," the latter to the calendar called in Roman usage De Sanctis. Synaxarion may also mean exposition of
5. Early the lives of saints and martyrs (see Eastern and Acta Martyeum, etc., II., § 1). Al-
Western latius describes among the books of Lectionaries. the Greek Church the lectionary, then the Evangelium, the latter adapted for use on certain days and festivals (De libris ecclesice Grcecce, dissertatio 1), and the Sundays take the name from the lection, as also the week preceding that Sunday. The partition of the Gospels among the church seasons resembles that of the Evangeliarium Hierosolymitanum (ut sup.; cf. F. A. H. Scrivener, Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the N. T., pp. 74 sqq., London, 1894). Another lectionary is named by Allatius as inferior in dignity, named by some Apostolos because in great part it is taken from the Pauline writings, by others Praxapostolos because it contains also readings from Acts. The third book contains selections from the Old Testament fitted to the days of the year, and is called Anagnosmata or Anagnoseis (see § 1 above). The Greek Church has a second series of lections, for days of saints and martyrs, contained in the Menaion or Menologion (qq.v.), corresponding to the Proprium missarum de Sanctis of the Roman missal. Some lectionaries of the Western Church have distinct interest as being the predecessors of the lessons or pericopes. Some of these, as they have come down, are of early date — pre-Carolingian — like the two Gallican lectionaries found at Luxeuil and Bobbio (in MPL, lxxii.). Others, like the Mozarabic and the Milan forms, had their beginnings in the early period, though their present form is that developed in the Middle Ages. The oldest is the Liber comicus (ed. G. Morin, in Anecdota Maredsolana, vol. i., Oxford, 1893 sqq.), the form of which is of the sixth century, being threefold, Old Testament, epistle, and Gospel, covering Advent to Whitsuntide, special festivals, and twentytwo Sunday readings. Morin makes it Carthaginian. This is the region of the Mozarabic form (see Mozarabic Liturgy), which has much in common with Liber comicus and also .many divergencies. These western lectionaries are distinguished from the Greek by emphasis upon Advent.
Pericope