(Liber Responsalis.) Observationes Praeviae

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS TO THE COLLECTION OF RESPONSORIES, ANTIPHONS, VERSES, ETC. Since we foresee that this Collection will be read by few, we shall not be reluctant to indicate here those things which have seemed to us more worthy of note in it. In the Codex of Compiègne this book bears no name. It is called *Responsalis* by some, from the Responsories (Mabillon, *De Cursu Gallicano*, p. 598). By Amalarius Fortunatus it is called *Antiphonarius*, on account of the Antiphons, as is evident from his book *De Ordine Antiphonarii*; on account of the entire ecclesiastical office, that is, the course both nocturnal and diurnal described in it, some have called this Codex *Officialis*. Moreover, although many have made mention of this book in various places (Amalarius, *De Ecclesiasticis Officiis*, Book IV, ch. 29, and elsewhere), nevertheless no one among the ancients has yet made the compilation of Responsories, Antiphons, etc., public property. We, however, have judged it fit to be brought to light, and indeed from a very ancient Codex, although not free from errors, so that it might be, as it were, a complement to all liturgical books. Whoever wishes to compare these things with the modern Antiphonaries will find it most gratifying to observe that almost nothing new has been introduced into our ecclesiastical books, since among the most certain marks of the Catholic Church, that which is derived from antiquity holds not the last or lowest place.

To the use of which Church our Codex of Compiègne was written is obscure. Certainly, although it exhibits the office of Saint Benedict (which for some will perhaps be an argument that Benedictine monks used it), nevertheless in the number and distribution of the Psalms, both for the night and for the day hours, and in many other things, it not infrequently departs from the Rule of Saint Benedict. It includes the proper offices of many saints celebrated especially in Gaul, particularly Belgica, such as Saints Remigius, Vedastus, Medardus, the martyrs Crispinus and Crispinianus, Quintinus, etc. Whence it is conjectured that it originally belonged to the sacred furnishings of some church in Gaul. On the other hand, what is read in the order for Vespers on the most holy day of Easter seems to have been copied from the Roman Order, as we have observed in that place. Having weighed all these things, we consider that the ancient rite of celebrating the divine office observed in the Roman Church, according to the prescription of the earlier supreme pontiffs, but especially of Saint Gregory, is here exhibited, accommodated to the use of some Gallican church, with the proper offices of saints, especially those whose memory is celebrated in Gaul, having been brought in.

In this book, not only are proper psalms assigned for the greater solemnities, both in the night hours and in the morning and evening hours; but also, where the office is prescribed from the common of apostles, or of martyrs or confessors, etc., the psalms of the feria being omitted, others are prescribed which agree with the antiphons set before them, as is also now customary in the Roman Church. Just as in the Sacramentary certain prayers are assigned for the cross and for the fonts, so also in this Collection antiphons are indicated for the cross or for the fonts, for the octave of Theophany, perhaps because the memory of Christ's Baptism was celebrated at Theophany, and baptism was solemnly administered. In the office of the Purification, which is entirely about the most holy Virgin, this responsory is worthy of note: "Rejoice, Mary; you alone have destroyed all heresies, you who of Gabriel, etc." On the Sunday of Lent, of the Passion, already so called, these verses: "Deliver me from the evil man, Deliver me from my enemies, Save me from the sword, From the lion's mouth," are called declinatory verses. Many others occur elsewhere, as on the most holy day of Easter, with the same little book. But why they are so called, we have not yet been able to ascertain, except by mere conjecture; which we timidly put forward, until something more certain is available to us. These verses are altogether different from those which are inserted in responsories; and they have this peculiarity, that they close the psalmody or the chanting of the psalms.

When the verses are sung, the face is turned toward the altar, a rite which Amalarius observes. Therefore these verses could be called *declinatorii*, both on account of the inclination or turning of the face and of the whole body toward the East or the altar, and on account of the end of the psalmody which they indicate; for things that tend toward an end are said to decline. On Palm Sunday the verses *Gloria, laus, et honor*, etc., are by no means read. In the Order for Vespers of Easter Day it is read: *And then they go to Saint John at the Vestment*; to illustrate which place we have employed the conjecture of the most learned Mabillon in his notes to the first Roman Order, volume II of the *Museum Italicum*, page 37. Another is here. Book III, epistle 3, Saint Gregory orders the tunic of Saint John, which was in the possession of a certain bishop, to be sent to him. It was brought to Rome, as he had wished, and placed under the altar of Saint John in the Constantinian Basilica, as John the Deacon relates in book III of the *Life of Saint Gregory*, chapter and following. *Which vestments*, says John, *are proven to shine with such great miracles even to this day*, etc. From this sacred tunic, perhaps, the basilica of Saint John, in which it was kept, was called *Saint John at the Vestment*.

It is not unknown to me that the testimony of John the Deacon is rejected by the most learned Tillemontius (Tom. i, Hist. eccl., in notis, p. 640), as being contrary to Gregory himself. But this proves nothing. After the office of the Ascension and Pentecost is read: *Ans in matutinis de sancto Germano*. Whether this is to be understood of the Germanus of Auxerre, or of Paris, or of some other Germanus, is not clearly established. About that time, namely May 28, the feast of Saint Germanus, bishop of Paris, is celebrated. It seems more likely that this feast is the one treated in the Codex of Compiègne. In the third office of Saint Peter, the last responsory of the second nocturn is not to be passed over: *Tu es pastor ovium, princeps apostolorum; tibi tradidit Deus omnia regna mundi et ideo tibi traditae sunt claves regni coelorum*. The office of Saint Hippolytus, martyr, on the day of August, is very ample and among the more solemn ones. The antiphons and responsories which are sung in the feast of Saints Dionysius and his fellow martyrs are all taken from their Acts, in which Saint Dionysius is said to have been sent by Saint Clement, the successor of the apostle Peter.

In our Codex, the office of Saint Andrew is patched together from his Acts, much as it is now found in the Roman Breviary. On the feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle, mention is made of his preaching and martyrdom among the Indians. Among the Responsories collected here, some are inscribed *de auctoritate*. What this signifies, Amalarius attempts to explain, in his book *On the Order of the Antiphonary*, chapter 53. But he touches upon the difficulty, never, I say, scarcely even lifts it. Concerning the matter itself, so obscure, we prefer to be silent than to opine rashly. Many other things not unworthy of observation you will find in the brief notes inscribed at the foot of the columns, which we have not thought fit to be here repeated and retracted.