OFFICE
220
OFFICE
sons (roadinus from llic Old and New Testaments, the
origin of tlu' capitulaK and prayers (see Uueviary).
Thisilevclopinent of the Dixiiu' Office, asfar as con- cerns the Roman litiirfjy, was completed at the close of the sixth century. Later changes are not in essential points but rather concern additions, as the antiplions to Our Lady at the end of certain ofhces, matters of the calendar, anil optional offices, like those of .Satm- day (see Little Office of Ouu Lady), or of the dead (see Office of the Dead), and the celebration of new feasts etc. The influence of St. Gregory the Tireat on the formation and fixation of the Roman Antiphon- ary, an influence that has been questioned, now ap- pears certain (see "Diet, d'archcol. et de liturgie", 8. V. "Antiphonaire).
While allowing a certain liberty as to the exterior form of the office (e. g. the liberty enjoyed by the monks of Egypt and later by St. Benedict in the constitution of the Benedictine Office), the Church insisted from ancient times on its right to supervise the orthodoxy of the liturgical formulie. The Council of Milevis (416) forbade any liturgical formula not approved by a council or by a competent authority (of. Labbe, II, 1.540). The Councils of Vannes (461), Agde (506), Epaon (517), Braga (56.3), Toledo (especially the fourth council) promulgated similar decrees for Gaul and Spain. In the fifth and sixth centuries several facts (sec Canon of the Mass) made known to us the rights claimed by the popes in liturgical matters. The same fact is established by the correspondence of St. Gregory I. Under his successors the Roman liturgy tends gradually to replace the others, and this is ad- ditional proof of the right of the Church to control the liturgy (a thesis well established by Dom Gueranger in his "Institutions Liturgiques", Paris, 1883, and in his letter to the Archbishop of Reims on liturgical law, op. cit.. Ill, 453 sq.). From the eleventh century, under St. Gregory VII and his successors, this influ- ence gradually increases (Baumer-Biron, "Hist, du Brcviaire", especially II, 8, 22 sqq.). From the Council of Trent the reformation of the liturgical books enters a new phase. Rome becomes, under Popes Pius IV, St. Pius V, Gregory XIII, Sixtus V, Gregory XIV, Urban VIII and his successors, Ben- edict XIV, the scene of a laborious undertaking — the reformation and correction of the Divine Office, re- sulting in the modern custom, with all the rubrics and rules for the recitation of the Divine Office and its obhgation, and with the reformation of the liturgical books, corrected in accordance with the decisions of the Council of Trent and solemnly approved by the popes (Baumer-Biron, "Hist, du Brcviaire").
Bona. De diiina Psatmodia, ii, par. 1 ; Thomassin, De vet. ccd. due. Part I, II. Ixii-lixviji; Gr.ancola8, Traite de la messe et de Voffice divin (Paris, 1713); Machietta, Commentarius historico- theologicM de divino officio (Venice, 1739) ; Pianacci, Del offizio divino, tratlato historico-critico-morale (Rome, 1770); De divini officii nominibus et definitione, antiquitate et excellentia in Zac- CARIA. Disciplina populi Dei in N. T.. 1782, I, 116 sq.; Moroni. Ditionarin di erudizione storico ecclesimtica, LXXXII, 279 sqq.; Bacmer-Biron, Histoire du brSxriaire (Paris, 1905), passim; Cabhol, Did. d'arMol. et de liturgie, s. w. ATitiphonaire. Breci- aire; Gavanti. Compendio delle cerimonie ecclesiastiche, the part devoted to the rubrics of the Breviary, sections on the obligation, omission, and in general all the questions concerning tiie recita- tion of the Office; RobkovAnv. De calibofu et Bremario (Buda- pest. 1861); Batiffol. Origine de Vobligation pergonnelle des clercs d la recitation de Voffice canonique in I^e canonisU contemporain, XVII (1S94). 9-15; Idem, Hintoire du brniaire romain (Paris, 1893).
Fernand Cabrol.
Office of the Dead. — I. Composition of the Of- fice.— This office, as it now exists in the Roman Lit- urgy, is composed of First Vespers, Mass, Matins, and Lauds. The Vespers comprise psalms, cxiv, cxix, cxx, cxxix, cxxx\'ii, with the Magnificat and the preces. The Matins, composed like those of feast days, have three nocturns, each consisting of three psalms and three les.sons; the Lauds, as usual, have three psalms (Ps. Ixii and Ixvi united are counted as one) and a can- ticle (that of Ezechias), the three psalms Laudate, and
the Benedictus. We shall speak presently of the
M;iss. The office ilitTcrs in important points from the
other ofliccs of the Uoiiuin Liturgy. It has not the
Little Hours, the Sccdiid N'cspers, or the Complin. In
this respect it ri'seiiibles the ancient vigils, which be-
gan at eventide (First \Cs])ers), (■(jiitinucd during the
night (Matins), and ended ;it the d:iwn (L;iuds); Mass
followed and terniiiKited the vigil of the feast. The
ab.senceof the introduction, " Deus in adjutorium", of
the hymns, absolution, blessings, and of the do.xology
in the ps:dms also recall ancient times, when the.se ad-
ditions luid not yet lieen made. The psalms are chosen
not in their seri;d order, as in the Sunday Office or the
Roman ferial Office, but because certain verses, which
serve as antiphons, seem to allude to the state of the
dead. The use of some of these psalms in the funeral
service is of high antiquity, as appears from passages
in St. Augustine and other writers of the fourth and
fifth centuries. The lessons from Job, so suitable for
the Office of the Dead, were also read in very early
days at funeral services. The responses, too, deserve
notice, especially the response "Libera me, Domine,
de viis inferni qui portas areas confregisti et visitasti
inferuni et dedisti eis lumen . . . qui erant in pcrnis
. . . advenisti redemptor noster" etc. This is one
of the few texts in the Roman Liturgy alluding to
Christ's descent into hell. It is also a very ancient
composition (see Cabrol, "La descente du Christ aux
enfers" in "Rassegna Gregor.", May and June, 1909).
The "Libera me de morte a-terna", which is found more complete in the ancient MSS., dates also from an early period (see Cabrol in "Diet, d'archeol. et de liturgie", s. v. Absoute). Mgr Batiffol remarks that it is not of Roman origin, but it is very ancient (Hist, du brev., 148). The distinctive character of the Mass, its various epistles, its tract, its ofTertory in the form of a prayer, the communion (like the offertory) with versicles, according to the ancient custom, and the sequence, "Dies Ira;" (q. v.; concerning its author see also Burial), it is impossible to dwell upon here. The omission of the Alleluia, and the kiss of peace is also characteristic of this mass. There was a time when the Alleluia was one of the chants customary at fu- neral services (see Diet, d'archcol. et de liturgie, s. v. Alleluia, I, 1235). Later it was looked upon exclu- sively as a song of joy, and was omitted on days of pen- ance (e.g. Lent ard ember week), sometimes in Advent, and at all funeral ceremonies. It is replaced to-day by a tract. A treatise of the eighth-ninth century pubhshed by Muratori (Liturg. Rom. vet., II, 391) shows that the Alleluia was then suppressed. The omission of the kiss of peace at the Mass is probably due to the fact that that ceremony preceded the dis- tribution of the Eucharist to the faithful and was a preparation for it, so, as communion is not given at the Mass for the Dead, the kiss of peace was suppressed.
Not to speak of the variety of ceremonies of the Moza- rabic, Ambrosian, or Oriental liturgies, even in countries where the Roman liturgy prevailed, there were many variations. The lessons, the responses, and other for- mula; were borrowed from various sources; certain Churches included in this office the Second Vespers and Complin ; in other places, instead of the lessons of our Roman Ritual, they read St. Augustine, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Ecclesia,sticus, Osee, Isaiah, Daniel etc. The responses varied likewise; many examples may be found in Mart^ne and the writers cited below in the bibliography. It is fortunate that the Roman Church preserved carefully and without notable change this office, which, like that of Holy Week, has retained for us in its archaic forms the memory and the atmos- phere of a very ancient liturgy. The Mozarabic Lit- urgy possesses a very rich funeral ritual. Dom F^ro- tin in his "Liber Ordinum" (pp. 107 sqq.) has pub- lished a ritual (probably the oldest extant), dating back possibly to the seventh century. He has also published a large number of votive masses of the dead.
