GOSPEL
660
GOSPEL
last words of each lesson [pcricope). The complete
Capitularium giving references for all the Lessons to be
read each day is a Comes, Liber comitis, or eomiciis.
Later the}- are composed with the whole text, so as to
dispense with searching for it ; they have thus become
Evangeliaria. The next step is to arrange together
all the Lessons for each day, Prophecy, Epistle, Gospel,
and even readings from non-canonical books. Such a
compilation is a Lectionariinyi. Then, finally, when
complete Missals are drawn up (about the tenth to the
thirteenth centuries) the Lessons are included in them.
IL Selection of Gospels. — What portions were
read? In the first place there was a difference as to
the text used. Till about the fifth century it seems
that in Sj'ria, at any rate, compilations of the four
Gospels made into one narrative were used. The
famous "Diatessaron" of Tatian is supposed to have
been composed for this purpose (Martin in Revue
des Quest. Hist., 1883, and Savi in Revue bibl.,
1893). The Mozarabic and Gallican Rites may have
imitated this custom for a time (Cabrol, "Etude sur
la Peregrinatio Silvia", Paris, 1895, 168-9). St.
Augustine made an unsuccessful attempt to introduce
it in Africa bj- inserting into one Gospel passages taken
from the others ( Sermo 232, P. L., XXXVIII, 1108).
But the commoner use was to read the text of one of
the Gospels as it stands (see Baudot, "Les Evangeli-
aires", quoted below, 18-21). On great feasts the
appropriate passage was taken. Thus, at Jerusalem,
on Good Friday, "Legitur iam ille locus de evangelio
cata Johannem, ubi reddidit Spiritum" (Per. Silvia^,
Duchesne, 1. c, 492), on Easter Eve "denuo legitur
ille locus evangelii resurrectionis " (ibid.. 493), on Low
Sunday they read the Gospel about St. Thomas "Non
credo nisi videro" (494), and so on. The "Peregrina-
tio ' ' gives us the Gospels thus read for a number of days
throughout the year (Baudot, op. cit., 20). For the
rest of the year it seems that originally the text was
read straight through (probably with the omission of
such special passages). At each Synaxis they began
again where they had left off last time. Thus Cas-
sian says that in his time the monks read the New
Testament through (Coll. patr., X, 14). The homilies
of certain Fathers (St. John C'hrysostom, St. Augus-
tine, etc.) show that the lessons followed each other
in order (Biiumer, "Gesch. des Breviers", Freiburg,
1895, 271). In the Eastern Churches the principle
obtained that the Four Gospels should be read right
through in the course of each year (Scrivener in Smith,
" Diet, of Christ. .\ntiquitics",s. v. " Lectionary"). The
Byzantine Churcli began reading St. Matthew imme-
diately after Pentecost. St. Luke followed from Sep-
tember (when their new year begins), St. Mark began
before Lent, and St. John was read during Eastertide.
There were some exceptions, e. g. for certain feasts and
anniversaries. A similar arrangement is still ob-
served by them, as any copy of their Gospel-book will
show (E'i>a77Aioj', Venice, 1893). The Syrians have
the same arrangement, the Copts a different order, but
based on the same principle of continuous readings
(Scrivener, "Introduction to the criticism of the N.
Test.", London, 1894, I; Baudot, op. cit., 24-32). For
the present arrangement of the Byzantine Church see
Nilles, "Kalendarium manuale", Innsbruck. 2n(l ed.,
1897, pp. 444-52. It is well known that they name
their Sundays after the Sunday Gospel, e. g., the fourth
after Pentecost is "Sunday of the Centurion" because
Matt., viii, 5 sqq., is read then. This brings us to a
much-disputed question: what principle underlies the
order of the Gospels in the Roman missal? It is
clearly not that of continuous readings. Father
Bei.ssel, S.J., has made an exhaustive study of this
question (" Entstehung der Perikopen", see below), in
which he compares all manner of Comites, Eastern and
Western. Shortly, his conclusions are these: The
root of the order is the selection of appropriate Gos-
pels for the chief feasts and seasons of the year; for
these, the account that seemed most complete was
chosen, without regard to the particular Evangelist.
The intervals were then filled up so as to complete the
picture of Our Lord's life, but without chronological
order. First, Easter was considered with Holy Week.
The lessons for this time are obvious. Working back-
wards, in Lent the Gospel of Our Lord's fast in the
desert was put at the beginning, the entry to Jerusa-
lem and the anointing by Mary (John, xii, 1, "six days
before the Pasch") at the end. This led to the resur-
rection of Lazarus (in the East, too, always at this
place). Some chief incidents from the end of Christ's
life filled up the rest. The Epiphany suggested three
Gospels about the Wise Men, the Baptism, and the
first miracle, which events it commemorates (of.
Antiph. ad Magn., in 2 vesp.) and then events of
Christ's childhood. Christmas and its feasts had
obvious Gospels; Advent, those of the Day of Judg-
ment and the preparation for Our Lord's coming by
St. John Baptist. Forward from Easter, Ascension
Day and Pentecost demanded certain passages clearly.
The time between was filled with Our Lord's last mes-
sages before He left us (taken from His words on
Maundy Thursday in St. John). There remains the
most difficult set of Gospels of all — those for the Sun-
days after Pentecost. They seem to be meant to
complete what has not yet been told about His life.
Nevertheless, their order is very hard to understand.
It has been suggested that they are meant to corre-
spond to the lessons of Matins. In some eases, at any
rate, such a comparison is tempting. Thus, on the
third Sunday, in the first Nocturne, we read about Saul
seeking his father's asses (I Kings, ix), in the Gospel
(and therefore in the third Nocturne) about the man
who loses one sheep, and the lost drachma (Luke, xv);
on the fourth Simday, David fights Goliath " in nom-
ine Domini exercituum" (I Kings, xvii), in the
Gospel, St. Peter throws out his net "in verbo tuo"
(Luke, v); on the fifth, David mourns his enemy Saul-
(II Kings, i), in the Gospel we are told to be reconciled
to our enemies (Matt., v). The eighth Sundaj' begins
the Book of Wisdom (first Sunday in August), and in
the Gospel the wise steward is commended (Luke,
xvi). Perhaps the nearness of certain feasts had an
influence, too. In some lists Luke, v, whsre our Lord
says, "From henceforth thou shalt catch men", to St.
Peter, came on the Simday before his feast (29 June),
and the story of St. Andrew and the multiplied bread
(John, vi) before 30 November. Durandus notices
this ("Rationale", VI, 142, "Dedom. 25a post Pent.";
see also Beissel, op. cit., 195-0). Beissel is disposed to
think that much of the arrangement is accidental, and
that no satisfactory explanation of the order of Gos-
pels after Pentecost has been found. In any case the
order throughout the year is very old. A tradition
says that St. Jerome arranged it by command of St.
Damasus (Berno, "De officio missse". i. P. L., CXLII,
1057; "Micrologus", xxxi, P. L., CLI, 999, 1003).
Certain!}' the Lessons now sung in our churches are
those that St. Gregory the Great's deacon chanted at
Rome thirteen hundred years ago (Beissel, op. cit.,
196).
III. Ceremony of Singing the Gospel. — The Gospel has been for many centuries in East and West the privilege of the deacon. This was not always the case. At first a reader {amyvdaT-rii, lector) read all the lessons. We have seen a case of this in the story of St. Cyprian and Aurelian (see above). St. Jerome (d. 420) speaks of the deacon as reader of the Gospel (Ep. cxlvii, n. 6), but the practice was not yet uniform in all churches. At Constantinople, on Easter day, the bishop did so (Sozom., H. E., vii, 19) ; in Alexandria, it was an archdeacon (ibid., he says that: "in other places deacons read the Gospel ; in many churches only priests"). The Apostolic Constitutions refer the Gospel to the deacon ; and in 527 a council, at Vaison, says deacons "are worthy to read the words that
