The Divine Office - Rev. E. J. Quigley
This Curial Breviary was adopted by the Franciscans in their active
lives. They changed the text of the Psalter only, _Psalterium
Romanum_, to the more approved text, the _Psalterium Gallicanum_.
The improved Curial Breviary was imposed on the churches of Rome by the
Franciscan Pope, Nicholas III. (1277-1280), and henceforth it is called
the Roman Breviary. Thus we see that the book used daily by priests got
its name in the thirteenth century, although the divine office is almost
from Apostolic times.
But liturgy is a progressive study, a progressive practice capable and
worthy of perfecting. And the friars strove for the greater perfection
and beauty of the new Breviary. They added variety to the unity already
achieved and yet did not reach liturgical perfection nor liturgical
beauty. They loaded the Breviary by introducing saints' days with nine
lessons, thus avoiding offices of three lessons. And by keeping octave
days and days within the octave as feasts of nine lessons, they almost
entirely destroyed the weekly recitation of the psalter; and a large
portion of the Breviary ceased to be used at all. The Franciscan book
became very popular owing to its handy form. Indeed its use was almost
universal in the Western Church. But the multiplication of saints'
offices, universal and local, no fixed standard to guide the recital,
and the wars of liturgists, made chaos and turmoil.
Liturgical reform became an urgent need. Everyone reciting the canonical
hours longed for a great and drastic change. The Humanists, Cardinal
Bembo (1470-1549), Ferreri, Bessarion, and Pope Leo X. (1513-1521)
considered the big faults of the Breviary to lie in its barbarous
Latinity. They wished the Lessons to be written In Ciceronian style and
the hymns to be modelled on the Odes of Horace. Ferreri's attempt at
reforming the Breviary dealt with the hymns, some of which he re-wrote
in very noble language, but he was so steeped in pagan mythology that he
even introduced heathen expressions and allusions, His work was a
failure. The traditional school represented by Raoul of Tongres,
Burchard, Caraffa, and John De Arze loved the past with so great a love
that they refused to countenance any notable reforms, A third school,
the moderate school, was represented by Cardinal Pole, Contarini,
Sadolet and Quignonez, a Spanish cardinal who had been General of the
Franciscans. The work of reform of the Breviary was undertaken by
Cardinal Quignonez (1482-1540). He was a man of great personal piety and
possessed a love for liturgy and an accurate knowledge of its history,
its essentials, and its acquired defects. After seven years' labour at
the matter and form of the Breviary, his work, Quignonez's Breviary
(_Brevarium Romanum a Francisco Cardinali Quignonio_) appeared in
1535. It was for private use only, and was not intended as a choir
manual. Yet so popular was his work that, in 1536, six editions had
appeared, and in thirty-three years (until its suppression by St. Pius
V,) it went through no less than a hundred editions. Its immense success
shows how much the need of Breviary change and reform was felt by the
clergy. The book, too, had an important influence on shaping the
Breviary produced by Pius V. (1566-1572). Quignonez's book was
reproduced with the variations of the four earliest editions, by the
Cambridge University Press in 1888. It is an interesting study in itself
and in comparison with later breviaries.
But it was felt by scholars that Quignonez's reforms were too drastic.
Tradition was ignored. The labour for brevity, simplicity and uniformity
led to the removal from this Breviary of antiphons, responses, little
chapters and versicles, and to the reduction of lessons at matins to
three, and the number of psalms in each hour was usually only three. His
work had as a set principle the grand old liturgical idea of the weekly
recitation of the whole psalter. The quick and almost universal demand
for Quignonez's Breviary indicated the need of a reform and the outline
of such a reform. The Pope, who commissioned Quignonez to take up
breviary reform, requested the Theatines to take up similar work. The
Council of Trent (1545-1563) took up the work of reform. But the Council
rose before the work had made headway, and the matter of reform was
finally effected by St. Pius V. (1566-1572), by his Constitution, _Quod
a nobis_ (1568).
The Reformed Breviary of 1568 is, in outline, the Breviary in our hands
to-day. The great idea in the reform was to restore the weekly
recitation of the whole psalter. Theoretically, the Breviary made such
provision, but practically the great number of saints' offices
introduced into the Breviary made the weekly recitation of the psalter
an impossibility. The clergy were constantly reading only a few psalms
out of the 150 in the psalter. The rubrics, too, were in a confused
state. Changes were made in the calendar by suppression of feasts, by
restoring to simple feasts the ferial office psalms, and by reducing the
number of double and semi-double feasts. But in the body of the Breviary
the changes were few and slight. The lives of some saints drawn from
Quignonez's work were used, St. Gregory's canon of scripture lessons was
adopted and the antiphons, verses, responses, collects and prayers were
taken from the old Roman liturgy. The antiphons and responses were given
in the older translation of St. Jerome owing to their suitability for
musical settings. And the text of the psalms was the _Psalterium
Gallicanum_, which had been in use in the Roman Curial Breviary,
But the Pian reform was soon to be followed by a reform of the Breviary
text, in accordance with the Sixtine Vulgate, the Clementine Vulgate,
and the Vatican text. Clement VIII. (1592-1605) published his edition of
the revised Breviary in 1602; and thirty years afterwards Urban VIII,
(1623-1644) issued a new and further revised edition, which is
substantially the Breviary we read to-day. He caused careful correction
of errors which had crept in through careless printing; he printed the
psalms and canticles with the Vulgate punctuation, and he revised the
lessons and made additions. He established uniformity in texts of Missal
and Breviary. But the greatest change made in this new edition was in
the Breviary hymns, which were corrected on classical lines by Urban
himself aided by four learned Jesuits (see Note, Hymns, p. 259).
"The result (of their labours) has always given rise to very different
judgments and for the most part unfavourable. It seemed to be
exceedingly rash to regard as barbarous the hymns of men like
Prudentius, Sedulius, Sidonius, Apollinaris, Venantius, St. Ambrose, St.
Paulinus of Aquileia and Rabanus Maurus and to desire to remodel them
after the pattern of Horace's Odes.... It is only fair to give them the
credit, that out of respect for the wishes of Urban VIII. they treated
these compositions with extreme reserve, and while they made some
expressions clearer they maintained the primitive unction in a large
number of passages" (Baudot, The Roman Breviary, part iii., chap. ii.).
The commission appointed by Clement VIII. in his work of revision and
reform included Baronius, Bellarmine and Gavantus. The commission of
Urban VIII. included, amongst other famous men, the famous Irish friar
minor, Luke Wadding (1588-1657).
The need of revision, rearrangement and reform of the Breviary was in
the mind of every Pope, and nearly every one of them took some step to
perfect the historic book. In the eighteenth century Benedict XIV.
(1740-1758) contemplated Breviary reform in some details, particularly
in improving the composition of some legends and of replacing some
homilies of the Fathers. He entrusted this work to Father Danzetta,
S.J., but when the learned Jesuit's labour was presented to the Pope, so
grave and so contrary were the reasons there put forth, that the Pope
thought it well to abandon the thought of reform. Father Danzetta's
notes are marvels of research and learning. They are to be seen in
Ruskovany's _Coelibatus et Breviarium,_ vol. v. They show to the
ignorant and the sceptical, the dangers and difficulties which all
Breviary reformers have to contend with.
Pope Pius VI. (1775-1799) returned to the project of Breviary reform.
Dom Gueranger tells us that the plan of reform was drawn up and
presented to the Congregation of Rites, but the actual reform was not
entered on. Pope Pius IX. (1846-1878), at the request of Monsignor
Sibour, Archbishop of Paris, appointed a commission to revise the
Breviary, but their report caused the work to be abandoned. Petitions
for reform were sent to the Vatican Council, but very little resulted.
Leo XIII. (1878-1903) enriched the calendar by adding the names of many
saints; he added votive offices, corrected the Breviary lessons for the
feasts of a number of Popes, and, in 1902, he appointed a commission to
deal with the hagiography of the Breviary and with its liturgy; but his
death in the following year ended the work of the commission,
The unsatisfactory condition of the rules for the recitation of the
Divine Office were apparent to everyone. Scholars feared to face
Breviary reform, the difficulties were so innumerable and so immense.
However, with wonderful courage and prudence, Pope Pius X. (1903-1914)
tackled the work. He resolved not to adopt a series of minor changes in
the Breviary, but to appoint an active commission of reform, whose first
work should be a rearrangement of the psalter which must bring back the
recitation of the Divine Office to its early ideal--the weekly
recitation of the whole psalter. The problem which faced Pope Pius X. in
1906 was the very same problem which faced his predecessor St, Pius V.
(1566-1572), more than three hundred years ago. St. Pius tried to solve
the problem by a reform of the calendar, but the solution produced no
permanent effect. Pius X. and his commission went to the root of the
difficulty, and by a redistribution of the psalms have made the ferial
and the festive offices almost equal in length, and have so arranged
matters that the frequent recitation of every psalm, and the possible
and probable recitation of every psalm, once every week, is now an
accomplished fact; and the old and much-sought-after ideal--the weekly
recitation of the whole Psalter--is of world-wide practice.
On the publication of the new Psalter, Pope Pius announced that a
commission would undertake a complete revision of the Breviary, a matter
of great importance and one which must demand long years of care and
study to accomplish. A member of the committee which re-arranged the
Psalter, Monsignor Piacenza, tells us that such revision must embrace:--
1. A reform of the calendar and the drafting of rules for the admission
of feasts into the calendar of the universal Church;
2. The critical revision and correction of the historic and patristic
texts;
3. The removal of spurious patristic texts;
4. The remodelling of the rubrics;
5. The institution of a new form of common office for confessors and for
virgins to facilitate the lessening of the number of feasts of saints,
without diminishing the honour due to them (Burton and Myers, _op.
cit._, p. 144).
We may sum up, then, all that has been said in this long section by
stating that from Apostolic times there was public prayer, thrice daily.
The Jewish converts, having the psalms committed to memory needed not,
nor could they have in those bookless days, a psalter script. In the
third century, morning, evening, and night offices are mentioned.
Compline was in existence in the time of St. Benedict. "From the seventh
century onwards, ecclesiastical writers, papal decrees and conciliar
decrees recognise the eight parts of the office, which we have seen took
shape during the sixth century, and regard their recitation by priests
and monks as enjoined by positive law. During this period, or at least
at its commencement, Lauds and Vespers alone had a clearly defined
structure and followed a definite arrangement. As far as we can see, St.
Gregory arranged the little hours for Sunday only, and their arrangement
for week days was left to the care of the bishops and metropolitans, or
even of abbots. This was also the case, in many instances, with regard
to Matins, for the number of psalms to be recited thereat was not
definitely fixed. As regards the little hours--Prime, Terce, Sext, None
and Compline--the freedom of the competent ecclesiastical authorities
was as yet unconfined by canonical restrictions. Chrodegang (766) was
first to follow the usages of the Benedictines of the Roman Basilica,
in prescribing for secular clergy the celebration at Prime of the
_officium Capituli_ (_i.e._, the reunion in the chapter for
reading the rule or, on certain days, the writings and homilies of the
Fathers). The rest of the chapter--_i.e._, all that follows the
_confiteor_ in Prime as a preparation for the work of the day,
seems to have been composed in the ninth century.... Under Charlemagne
and his successors variations in the canonical hours completely
disappeared" (Baudot, _op. cit._, pp. 63-65).
On this foundation was built up the Office, to which additions were
made, and of which reforms were effected, up to our own time.
"For us, traditional liturgy is represented by the Roman Breviary of
Urban VIII., a book which constitutes for us a Vulgate of the Roman
Office.... The thing which renders this Vulgate of 1632 precious to us
is that, thanks to the wisdom of Paul IV., Pius V., and Clement VIII.,
the differences between it and the Breviary of the Roman Curia of the
thirteenth century are mere differences of detail: the substantial
identity of the two is beyond dispute. The Breviary of Urban VIII. is
the lineal descendant of the Breviary of Innocent III. And the latter in
its turn is the legitimate descendant of the Roman canonical Office, as
it was celebrated in the basilica of St. Peter at the end of the eighth
century, such as it had gradually come to be in the course of the
seventh and eighth centuries, a genuinely Roman combination of various
elements, some of them Roman and some not, but of which some, at all
events, go back to the very beginnings of the Catholic religion"
(Battifol, _op. cit._, p. 353).
CHAPTER III.
EXCELLENCE OF THE ROMAN BREVIARY--THE ESTEEM
WHICH WE SHOULD HAVE FOR THE BOOK ITSELF.
The Roman Breviary is excellent, firstly, in itself; and, secondly, in
comparison with all other breviaries.
It is excellent in itself, in its antiquity, for in substance it goes
back to the first ages of Christianity. It is excellent, in its author,
for it has been constructed and imposed as an obligation by the supreme
pontiffs, the vicars of Jesus Christ, the supreme pastors of the whole
Church. It is excellent, in its perpetuity, for it has come down to us
through all the ages without fundamental change. It is excellent in its
universality, in its doctrine, in the efficacy of its prayer, the
official prayer of the Church. It is excellent in the matter of which it
is built up, being composed of Sacred Scripture, the words of the
Fathers and the lives of God's saints. It is excellent in its style and
in its form for the parts of each hour; the antiphons, psalms,
canticles, hymns, versicles, follow one another in splendid harmony.
The opinions and praises of the saints who dwelt on this matter of the
Breviary would fill a volume. Every priest has met with many such
eulogies in his reading. Newman's words are very striking. "There is,"
he wrote, "so much of excellence and beauty in the services of the
Breviary, that were it skilfully set before the Protestants, by
Romanistic controversialists, as the book of devotions received by
their communion, it would undoubtedly raise a prejudice in their
favour, if he were ignorant of the case and but ordinarily candid and
unprejudiced.... In a word, it will be attempted to wrest a weapon out
of our adversaries' hands, who have in this, as in many other instances,
appropriated to themselves a treasure" (Newman, _Tracts for the
Times_, No. 275, _The Roman Breviary_). This tract raised a
storm amongst Newman's fellow Protestants. All the old Protestant
objections against the Breviary and its recitation (See Bellarmine,
_Controv_. iii., _de bonis operibus de oratione_ i., i. clx.)
were re-published in a revised and embittered form. What a change has
come amongst non-Catholics! Hundreds of Anglican clergymen are reading
daily with attention and devotion the once hated and despised prayer
book, the Roman Breviary. How old Bellarmine would wonder if he saw
modern England with its hundreds of parsons reading their _Hours_!
How he would wonder to read "The Band of Hope" (1915), an address
delivered by an Anglican clergyman to a society of London clergymen.
It includes a rule of life beginning, "Every day we say our Mass and
our Office." (_Cf_. R. Knox's _Spiritual Aeneid_, p. 102.)
The Roman Breviary is excellent, too, in comparison with every other
breviary (e.g., Aberdeen, Sarum, Gallican). For none of these can show
the antiquity, the authority, the doctrine, the sublime matter, the
beautiful order, which the Roman Breviary presents. It was for these
reasons that the emperors, Pepin (714-768), Charlemagne (742-814),
Charles the Bald (823-888), adapted the Roman rite (Gueranger,
_Institutiones Liturgiques_, tom. i.). And Grandicolas (1772), an
erudite liturgist, but a prominent Gallican with no love for Roman
rites, declared that the Roman Breviary stands in relation to other
breviaries as the Roman Church stands in relation to all other Christian
bodies, first and superior in every way (_Com. Hist. in Brev. Rom._,
cap. 2). St. Francis De Sales applied to his Breviary the words of St.
Augustine on the Psalter, "_Psalterium meum, gaudium meum._"
CHAPTER IV.
THE CONTENTS OF THE BREVIARY.
SECTION I.
The title of the Breviary is, BREVIARIUM ROMANUM EX DECRETO SACROSANCTI
CONCILII TRIDENTINI RESTITUTUM S. PII V. PONTIFICIS MAXIMI JUSSU EDITUM,
ALIORUMQUE PONTIFICIUM, CURA RECOGNITUM PII PAPAE X., AUCTORITATE
REFORMATUM. This work is divided into four parts, the first part being
called _Pars Hiemalis_, the winter part; the second part, _Pars
Verna_, the spring part; the third part, _Pars Aestiva_, the
summer part; and the fourth part, the _Pars Autumnalis_, the autumn
part.
The Church, guided by the Holy Ghost, has drawn up these volumes of
liturgical prayer, so that for each season, even for each day, her
official prayer may be suited to the time, to different degrees of
solemnity and of rite, and so that it may be fixed and determined, yet
having great beauty in its wonderful unity and variety. Hence, nothing
in her official prayer is left to chance, nothing is left to the
selection or caprice of the individual who recites this prayer; all is
foreseen, everything is in order, every tittle has a reason for its
existence and its place in the liturgy, and represents the end and the
intentions of the Church. For, every part of the Roman Breviary is
stamped with the wisdom, the zeal and the piety of the Church, which
presents it, as an offering all suitable for and worthy of God's honour
and glory.
Considering, then, the Breviary as a liturgical book, we find that the
Divine Office has four general divisions, corresponding to the divisions
of our Lord's life. First, from Advent to Septuagesima; second, from
Septuagesima to Easter; third, from Easter to Pentecost; fourth, from
Pentecost to Advent. These divisions correspond also to the divisions of
the year, winter, spring, summer and autumn.
The end and object of the Office are to invite us to join in the
infinite praise which the Son of God rendered to His Father during His
life, and which He renders still in Heaven and in the Tabernacle.
"_Domine in unione illius divinae intentionis qua ipse in terris laudes
Deo persolvisti, has tibi Horas persolvo,_" "O Lord, in union with that
divine intention wherewith Thou whilst here on earth Thyself didst
praise God, I offer these Hours to Thee." The life of Christ is divided
into four principal divisions: first, His birth, circumcision, epiphany,
presentation; second, His public life and His death; third, His
resurrection, ascension, and descent of the Holy Ghost; fourth, His
mystic life in the Church and in Heaven. Hence arise the four general
divisions of the Divine Office:--
_First General Division which begins the Church's year_. From Advent
to Septuagesima:--The birth of the Saviour preceded by His life in Mary's
womb, and by the four weeks of Advent, representing (it is said) the
passing of the four thousand years, and embracing the mysteries of the
Holy Infancy, Circumcision, Epiphany, Holy Name of Jesus, and the
Presentation.
_Second General Division, from Septuagesima till Easter_:--The death
of Christ preceded by the events of His public life, His fasting,
temptation, preaching, miracles, passion and death.
_Third General Division, from Easter to Pentecost_:--The
Resurrection, the Ascension, Pentecost.
_Fourth General Division, from Pentecost till Advent_, the
termination of the Church's year. The mystic life of Christ in the
Church, which will end on the Judgment Day.
These divisions make up the four parts of the Roman Breviary.
The first part, _Pars Prima_, contains the Pontifical Bull,
_Quod a nobis_, of Pope Pius V. (1568). It states:--1. That the
cause of the new edition was to remove the regrettable variety in the
public liturgy. 2. It recalls the labours of Pope Paul IV., Pius IV.,
and Pius V. for the same end. 3. It announces the abolition of the
too-abbreviated Breviary of Quignonez and of all those which have not,
for two hundred years preceding 1568, an authentic approbation or a
lawful custom. 4. It gives permission to those using such breviaries
to adopt the Roman Breviary. 5. It withdraws all privileges in respect
to other breviaries. 6. It declares the Roman Breviary obligatory on all
except those mentioned (_vide 3, supra_). 7. Even bishops are
forbidden to make the smallest change in the new Breviary. 8. The
recitation of offices from other breviaries does not fulfil the
obligation of those bound to breviary recitation. 9. Bishops are
requested to introduce the new Breviary. 10. The Pope suppressed the
obligation of reciting on certain days the little Office of the Blessed
Virgin, the Office of the Dead, the Penitential and the Gradual Psalms,
11. But he recommends their recitation on certain fixed days and grants
an indulgence for the practice. 12. Where the custom of reciting the
little Office, in choir, exists, it should be retained. 13. The
appointment of the time for the adoption of the Breviary is obligatory.
14. Prohibition, under pain of excommunication, is made against those
who print, distribute or receive copies of this Breviary without lawful
authority. 15. The authentic publication and obligation of the Bull.
The second document in the _Pars Prima_ of the Roman Breviary is
the Bull _Divino Afflatu_, issued by Pope Pius X, on 1st November,
1911. It tells us:--
1. That the psalms were composed under divine inspiration, and that it
is well known that from the beginning of the Church they were used not
only to foster the piety of the faithful, who offered "the sacrifice of
praise to God, that is to say, the fruit of lips confessing to His name"
(Heb. xiii. 15), but--that retaining the custom of the Old Law--they
held a conspicuous place in both the liturgy and Divine Office of the
New Law. He quotes St. Basil, who calls psalmody the voice of the infant
Church, and Urban VIII., who calls psalmody the daughter of hymnody
which is chanted before the throne of God in Heaven. Two quotations from
St. Athanasius and St. Augustine, in praise of psalmody, are added.
2. In the Psalms there is a certain wonderful power which arouses in
souls a zeal for all virtues. Two quotations from St. Augustine are
added. One says that as it is written that all Scriptures both of the
Old and the New Testaments are divinely inspired and useful for our
instruction.... Nevertheless, the book of the Psalms is, as it were, a
very Paradise containing in itself the fruits of all the other books and
expressing them in hymns; and moreover it joins its own hymns to them
and merges them in the general song of praise. Two further quotations
from St. Augustine, in similar strain, follow. For who will be, asks the
saint, unmoved by those frequent passages in the Psalms in which are
proclaimed the immensity, the omnipotence, the infallible justice, the
goodness, the clemency of God? Or who is not moved by the prayers and
thanksgivings for benefits received by the humble and trustful
petitions, by the cries of souls sorrowing for sin, found in the Psalms?
Whom will the Psalmist not fill with admiration when he recounts the
gifts of the Divine loving kindness towards the people of Israel and all
mankind, and when he sets forth the truths of heavenly wisdom? Who,
finally, will not be inflamed with love by the carefully foreshadowed
figure of Christ, our Redeemer, whose voice St. Augustine heard in the
Psalms, either singing or sighing or rejoicing in Hope or mourning in
present sorrow?