THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
In the history of the (German) pericope system it is to be remembered that Luther retained the epistle and Gospel selections used before the Reformation on Sundays and festivals. There are also remains of a medieval lectionary which
6. The is most probably derived from that incomes as a troduced into the Frankish realm by Lectionary. the founders of that kingdom, which
was superseded by the later national church lectionaries. Present opinion is that Jerome was not the compiler, as the prologue (or title) states (cf. E. Ranke, Das kirchliche Pericopensystem, appendix III., Berlin, 1847). Morin (Revue Benedictine, 1890, pp. 416 sqq.) suspects that Victor of Capua was the compiler for Bishop Constantius of Aquino. The book is interesting as teaching what is meant by the term Comes which is so frequently met in this relation. The word occurs in the title of this book and in the preface; it appears also as marking a special collection alongside " codices, Gospels, the Apostolum, and the Psalter," and clearly means a collection of " heavenly readings," and not merely an index with the data of day, place in Scripture, and extent. Thus the Liber comicus was a comes, containing as it did the selections in full. The same conclusion is reached through the Comes Albini corrected for Charlemagne, the copyist of which notes that the Comes is in many hands, but mostly in defective form; for this reason the king had Alcuin correct it, and the copyist, having made a correct exemplar, hopes that it will be kept in that shape by following transcribers. The word comes, " companion," arose from the book's being used at the service, for which it was designed, private use being only secondary. The clerics used it at the altar since the sacramentary did not contain the lections. From such a " comes," indeed from a lectionary which may be called " the comes," are the early ecclesiastical (German) pericopes derived. But this source lies in several differing recensions — the Comes Albini, Comes Theotinchi, Liber Comitis secundum Pamelii codices expressus, and Lectionarius missce juxta ritum ecclesice Romance. While these do not go back of the age of Charlemagne, they embody older lectionaries, indeed the pre- Carolingian Roman lectionary is their root. Present pericopes embody epistle and Gospel, as did the Roman mass. With this agrees the Sacramentarium Gregorianum (MPL, lxxviii.). Two lections to the mass is the rule with the complete recensions of the comes. The comes has more selections simply because Luther lopped off many occasions of special service.
With the exception of Milan, which retained the
old lectionary with the old mass, and some Spanish
churches which retained the Mozarabic liturgy, the
Western Church had an essentially
7. Early identical pericope system, not derived Western immediately from the needs of the Pericope medieval period but from the past System, usage of the church at Rome. Whether
it goes back to Gregory the Great or his time is uncertain, though in his time a system of lections was in use (cf. the preface to Gregory's forty homilies on the Gospels). The medieval expositors also give no clue. The Advent group of
pericopes find explanation in the construction of Isidore of Seville, that the Advent refers first to the birth of Christ and then to his coming in a wider sense. The epistles are selected from a like point of view. The Gospels of Christmastide are self-explanatory; the Gospel of the flight into Egypt and of the slaughter of the innocents fall on the days which precede the Gospel of the Epiphany; also, since the second part of the narrative precedes the first, it is indicated that the first pericope is not to be regarded as the continuation of the others. With Jan. 6, called in the comes " Theophany " and in the homiliarium " Epiphany," a new point of view comes in — the revelation of the glory of Jesus.
It is not sought here to show how every epistolary and Gospel pericope has been set for its day, but merely to illustrate that, choosing the fasting season par excellence, certain groups re- 8. Evidences veal a definite orderliness and plan. A of Orderly double point of view comes into sight Planning. — preparation for the passion and the resurrection, and the discipline of fasting. It can not be said that the Gospels for the fasting-season have exclusive reference to the fasting and penitential discipline of catechumens, for in Quinquagesima the thought is directed to the passion (Luke xviii. 31^3) and in Quadragesima in the sixteenth century some places read on the first or second Sunday the transfiguration instead of the temptation. Other points of anticipation of the period of the passion might be cited. The second point of view, the discipline of fasting, appears in other Gospel pericopes of this period. For this reason the history of the temptation is placed at the beginning of Quadragesima (Gregory the Great, Horn, on the Gospels, xvi., chap. 5); the two following Sunday pericopes deal with expulsion of demons. It is not improbable that the purpose of these selections was, by calling attention to the attacks and power of the devil, to urge the faithful to fasting, almsgiving, and prayer (cf. Augustine, Sermon ccx., chap. 6). The epistolary pericopes bear out this construction and so fall into the general scheme. The examples cited show that they were selected with due care, and that the point of view involved is in part still available, though also in part obsolete. It is not improbable that other portions of the collections of readings, the plan of which is not now perceptible, were not put together at haphazard. In the Homiliarium the Gospels for the Trinity period are in four groups : after Pentecost, after June 29, after Aug. 10, and after Sept. 29. In the second section, which is that of Peter and Paul, on the first Sunday was read the call of Peter, and on following Sundays addresses and commissions of Jesus to his disciples. While this last construction is only hypothetical, if it is true, it shows purpose within certain groups.
In the West during the centuries in which the pericope system developed, a second transformation occurred which had the highest importance for the reading of Scripture as lessons in worship. The language of the service ceased to be intelligible to the people. The high opinion of the lection held in the early Church is easily shown: the lector