Sister Projects: Wikichristian | WikiMD
BelieversCafe is a large collection of christian articles with over 40,000 pages
Our sponsors:
4 Antiphona. In this passage the word appears to mean the actual Psalms sung antiphonally, rather than what is generally meant in later writings by the term. Cf. the Rule of Aurelian, "Dicite matutinarios i.e., primo canticum in antiphona, deinde directaneum, judica me Deus . . . in antiphona dicite hymnum, splendor patudae gloriae." And see the use of the word later on by Cassian himself, c. vii.
5 The third, sixth, and ninth hours were observed as hours of prayer from the earliest days. Cf. Tertullian De Oratione, c. 25; Clem. Alex. Stromata, VII. c. 7, § 40.
6 I.e., that at Tierce there should be three Psalms, at Sext six, and at Nones nine.
7 Castor had founded a monastery about the year 420.
10 The rule of Caesarius also prescribes twelve Psalms on every Sabbath, Lord's day, and festival (c. 25); so also, according to the Benedictine rule, there are twelve Psalms at mattins, besides the fixed ones, iii. and xcv. (see c. 9 and 10), as there are still in the Roman Breviary on ordinary week-days.
11 The custom of having two lessons only appears to have been peculiar to Egypt. Most of the early Western rules give three, e.g. those of Caesarius and Benedict, while in the Eastern daily offices there are no lections from Holy Scripture.
13 Petshenig's text has inedia, others inediam.
14 Cf. Eusebius, Book II. c. xv., xvi. Sozomen, Book I. c. xii., xiii.
16 Cumque . . . undecim Psalmos orationum interjectione distinctos contiguis versibus parili pronunciatione cantassat.
17 So, according to the Benedictine rule, the Psalms at mattins are ended with Alleluia (c. ix.): "After these three lessons with their responds there shall follow the remaining six Psalms with the Alleluia." Cf. c. xi. and xv.
18 This story is referred to in the Eighteenth Canon of the Second Council of Tours, a.d.. 567. "The statutes of the Fathers have prescribed that twelve Psalms be said at the Twelfth (i.e. Vespers), with Alleluia, which, moreover, they learnt from the showing of an angel."
19 Apostolus, the regular name for the book of the Epistles.
20 Cf. the note above on c. v.
21 Totis Quinquagessimoe diebus; i.e., the whole period of fifty days between Easter and Whitsuntide (cf. c. xviii. and the Conferences XXI. viii., xi., xx.). This is the usual meaning of the term Pentecost in early writers, though it is also used more strictly for the actual festival of Whitsunday. Cf. the Twentieth Canon of the Council of Nicaea, and see Canon Bright's Notes on the Canons, p. 72, for other instances.
22 Ad celeritatem missoe. Theword "missa" is here used for the breaking up of the congregation after service, as it is again in Book III. c. vii., where Cassian says that one who came late for prayer had to wait, standing before the door, for the "missa" of the whole assembly. Cf. III. c. viii. "post vigiliarum missam," and the rule of S. Benedict (c. xvii.): "After the three Psalms are finished let one lesson be read, a verse, and Kyrie Eleison: et missoe fiant." A full account of the various meanings given to the word will be found in the Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, Vol. II. p. 1193 sq.
23 Colligere orationem. The phrase corresponds to the Greek suna/ptein, but Ducange gives but few instances of its use in Latin. It is found however, in Canon xxx. of the Council of Agde. "Plebs collecta oratione ad vesperam ab Episcopo cum benedictione dimittatur."
24 Antiphona. The word must certainly be used here not in the later sense of "antiphon," but as descriptive of the whole of the Psalmody of the office. Cf. note on c. i.
25 In the Eastern offices the Psalter is divided into twenty sections called kaqi/smata, each of which is subdivided into three sta/seij, at the close of each of which the Gloria is said, and not, as in the West, after every Psalm. This Western custom which Cassian here notices seems to have originated in Gaul, and thence spread to other churches as, according to Walafrid Strabo, at Rome it was used but rarely after the Psalms in the ninth century. See Walafrid Strabo, c. xxv. ap. Hittorp. 688. The earliest certain indications of the use of the hymn itself are found in the fourth century. See S. Basil De Spiritu Sancto, c. xxix.; Theodoret, Eccl. Hist., II. xxiv., Sozomen, Eccl. Hist., III. xx. TheGreek form is Do9ca patri\ kai\ u9i9w[ kai\ a9gi/w pneuma/ti kai\ nu=n kai\ a0ei\ kai\ e0ij tou\j a0iw=naj tw=n a0iwnw=n, a0mhn. The additional words in use in the West, "sicut erat in principio," were first adopted in the sixth century, being ordered by the Council of Vaison, a.d.. 529, "after the example of the apostolic see."
26 Synaxis (su/acij) a general name for the course of the ecclesiastical offices.
28 Cf. Augustine Ep. cxxx. § 20 (Vol. II. 389): "Dicuntur fratres in Aegypto crebras quidem habere orationes, sed eas tamen brevissimas, et raptim quodammodo jaculatas, ne illa vigilantes erecta, quae oranti plurimum necessaria est, per productiores mores evanescat atque hebetetur intentio;" and Hooker, Eccl. Polity, Book V. c. xxxiii.: "The brethren in Egypt (saith S. Augustine) are reported to have many prayers, but every of them very short, as if they were darts thrown out with a kind of sudden quickness, lest that vigilant and erect attention of mind which in prayer is very necessary should be wasted or dulled through continuance, if their prayers were few and long.... Those prayers whereunto devout minds have added a piercing kind of brevity, as well in that respect which we have already mentioned, as also thereby the better to express that quick and speedy expedition wherewith ardent affections, the very wings of prayer, are delighted to present our suits in heaven, even sooner than our tongues can devise to utter them," etc.
29 This plan of dividing some of the longer Psalms (as is still done with the 119th in the English Psalter) was adopted sometimes in the West also. Cf. the Rule of S. Benedict, c. xviii., and the Third Council of Narbonne (a.d.. 589), Canon 2: "Ut in psallendis ordinibus per quemque Psalmum Gloria dicatur Omnipotenti Deo, per majores vero Psalmos, prout fuerint prolixius, pausationes fiant, et per quamque pausationem Gloria Trinitatis Domino decantetur." Further, the rule that prayers should be intermingled with Psalms which was perhaps introduced into the West by Cassian, was, widely adopted both in Gaul and in Spain.
31 Cum rationabili assignatione.
32 Viz.: Ps. civ., cv., cvi., cx., cxi., cxii., cxiii., cxiv., cxv., cxxxiv., cxxxv., cxlv., cxlvi., cxlvii., cxlviii., cxlix., cl., in the LXX. and the Latin.
33 This arrangement by which the Psalm was sung by a single voice, while the rest of the congregation listened, is that which was afterwards known by the name of Tractus.
34 Missoe. The use of this word for the offices of the Canonical Hours, though not common, is found also in the Thirtieth Canon of the Council of Agde, a.d. 506. "At the end of the morning and evening missoe, after the hymns, let the little chapters from the Psalms be said."
36 Exterioris hominis stipendia cum emolumentis interioris exoequant.
37 Post orationum missam. See note on c. vii.
38 Cf. III. vii., and the description of this penance in IV. xvi. 5 1 Cor. v.
40 The rule of S. Benedict is similarly careful that the brethren may not oversleep themselves. See c. xi. and xlvii.