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wer% used in choir duriiiff Office the reader either read certain definitelv marked passages, indicated by
markings of which our existing manuscripto constantly
show traces, or, in the earlier periods especially^ he
read on until the abbot or priest who presided gave
him the signal to stop. After the thirteenth century
however, this type of book was much more rarely
transcribed. It was replaced by w^hat may conven-
iently be called for distmction's sake the *'Lectiona-
rium par excelleficef a book which consisted not of
entire narratives, but only of extracts arranged ac-
cording to feasts, and made expressly to be read in the
Office. It may be added that about the same period
the still more comprehensive liturgical book, known to
us so familiarly as the Breviary (q. v.) also began to
make its appearance. In the early centuries the
Scriptural passages to be read at Mass, whether taken
from the Gospels, the Epistles, or the Old Testament,
were very commonly mcluded in one book, often
called a Comes " or ** Liber Comicus ". But no con-
stant or uniform practice was followed, for sometimes
the Epistles and Lessons were read from a continuous
text equipped with rubrics indicating the different
days for which the passages were intended — ^this is the
case with the famous *'Epistolarium" of St. Victor
of Capua in the sixth century; sometimes Lessons,
Epistles, and Gospels were all transcribed in their
proper order into one volume, as in the case of the
- Liber Comicus" of the Church of Toledo lately
edited by Dom Morin, or of the Lectionnaire de Luxeuil, published by Mabillon in his Liturgia Galhcana .
Baudot. Les Lectionnairea in Science ei Reliffion ^aris, 1007), noo. 4d3, 464; Sauea in Buchderoer, Kirchlichea Uandlex.^ a. v. Lektionar; Morin, Liber Comicus, introduction (Mareclsous, 1883): and many articles of tho same writer in Revtie B&rUdic' tine: PoNCELBT in Analecta BoUandiana, XXIX (Brussels, 1010). 1-48; Bbissel. EnttAehungder Perikopen dee rrim. Mesa- buchea (Freibuiis ioQ Bn^lOO?); Ranke, Daa kirch. Perikojten- System (Berlin, 1847); Wordsworth and Littlehales, Old Service Book* of the EngliA Church (London, 1904).
Herbert Thurston.
Lector. — A lector (reader) in the West is a clerk having the second of the four minor orders. In all E^astem Churches also, readers are ordained to a minor order preparatory to the diaconate. The primary reason for a special class of readers was the need of some persons sufficiently educated to be able to read the books in church, for the Christians continued the Jewish practice of reading the Sacred Books publicly. The first mention of a Christian liturgical reader is by Justin Martyr (d. about 165) in I ApoL, Ixvii, 3, 4. The homily known as " II Clem, ad Corinthios " also contains a reference to a lector, dvayivii<rK<av (xix, 1). The position of reader was honourable and dignified. It involved a higher standard of education than that of most offices. Although Justin says that the bishop preached the sermon, it appears that the reader him- self often went on to expound what he had read. As the idea obtained that a special blessing and dedica- tion should be given to everyone who performs an office for the Church, the reader too was instituted by prayers and some ceremony. Readers were blessed and set apart, as were the fossores who dug graves, the nokirii who kept registers, and widows. AH the group of rituals that depend on the "Apostolic Constitu- tions" contain the rite of ordaining readers. " Apost. Const.", viii, xxii. tells the bishop to ordain a reader by laying on his hand and saying a prayer, which is given. The derived documents however forbid an imposition of hands. ("Epitome Const. Ap.", xiii; Funk. "Didascalia", Paderborn, 1905, II, p. 82; see also the "Egyptian Church Order". V, ib., p. 105).
During the first centuries all the lessons in the liturgy, including the Epistle and Gospel, were read bv the lector. Cornelius I (251-53) in a letter to fwius of Antioch mentions that the Churcli of Rome has forty-two acolytes and fifty-two cxorclsUj, readers
and doorkeepers. (Denzinger, " Enchiridion '*, n. 15}.
In the fourtn century in Africa the Church of Cirta
had four priests, three deacons, four suodeacons. and
seven readers. The account of the persecution ( Ges*
ta apud Zenophilum" printed in the appendix to Op-
tatus of Mileve in the Vienna edition ot Corp. Script,
eccl. lat.", XXVI, 185-97) describes how the readers
kept the sacred books which the magistrate demanded
to be given up (p. 1 87) . An old set of Western canons,
ascribed (wrongly) to a supposed Council of Carthage
in 398, but really of the sixth centurj", gives forms for
all ordinations. Canon 8 is about our subject : " When
a reader is ordained let the bishop speak about him
(facial de Ulo verbum) to the people, pointing out his
faith and Ufe and skill. After this, while the people
look on, let him g^ve him the book from which he is to
read, saying to him: Receive this and be the spokes-
man (relator) of the word of God and you shall have,
if you do your work faithfully and usefully, a part with
those who have administered the word of God " (Den-
zinger, op. cit., n. 156). But gradually the lectorate
lost all importance. The deacon obtained the office
of reading the Gospel; in the West the Epistle bo-
came the privilege of the subdeacon. In the East-
em Churches this and other lessons are still supposed
to be read by a lector, but everywhere his office (as all
minor orders) may be supplied by a layman. The
lector is still mentioned twice in the Roman Missal.
In the rubrics at the beginning it is said that if Mass be
sung without deacon and subdeacon a lector wearing
a surplice may sing the Epistle in the usual place; but
at the end he does not kiss the celebrant's hand ("Ri-
tus celebr. Missam", vi, 8). On Good Friday the
morning 8er\'ice begins with a prophecy read by a lec-
tor at the place where the Epistle is usually read (first
rubric on Good Fridav).
Everywhere the order of reader has become merely a stepping-stone to major orders, and a memory oi early days. In the Roman Rite it is the second minor order (Ostiarius, Lector^ Exordsta^ AcolyUius). The minor orders are conferred during Mass after the first Lesson; but they may be given apart from Mass, on Sundays or doubles, in the morning. The lectorate involves no obligation of celibacy or of any other kind. The Byzantine Office will be found in the " Eucholo- gion " (Ei^xoX^ioy t6 /x^a, Venetian 8th edition^ 1898,
Ep. 186-87). The Armenians (Gregorian and Lniate) ave adopted the Roman svstem of four minor orders 'exactly. Their rite of ordaining a reader also con- sists essentially in handing to him the book of the
Epistles.
WxELAND, Die Oenetiache Entwickduno dcr eog. Ordinet minorea in den S eraten Jahrhundertcn in R^miache Quartahrhrift, Suppl. no. 7 (Rome, 1892); Harnack. Vber dm Vraprunp dea Ledorala u. dcr anderen niederen Weihen in Texle u. Unter' auchungent II, 5.
Adrian Fortescub.
Ledochowski, Miecislas Halka, count, cardinal, Archbishop of Gnesen-Posen, b. at Gorki near San- domu- m Russian Poland, 29 October, 1822; d. at Rome, 22 July, 1902. After studying at Radom and Warsaw, he entered the Accademia dei Nobili Ecclesiastici in Rome in 1842, and was ordained priest 13 July, 1845. He became domestic prelate of Pius IX in 1846, auditor of the papal nunciature at Lisbon in 1847, Apostolic delegate to Colombia and Chile in 1856, nuncio at Brussels and titular Archbishop of Thebes in 1861, and finally Archbishop of Gnesen- Posen in December, 1865. He was preconized on 8 January, 1866, and enthroned on 22 April of the same year. Being on friendly terms with the Ki^^ oi Prussia, he was sent to Versailles by Pius IX in November, 1870, to ask the services of Prussia for the re-establishment of the Pontifical States, and to offer the services of the pope as mediator between France and Germany, but his mission proved fruitless.
