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289
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Have been a litany found in a manuscript of prayers,
copied in 1524 by Fra Giovanni da Faleroiia. It con-
sists of fifty-seven praises, and the "Sancta Maria" is
repeated, but only at intervals of six or seven praises,
perhaps because the shape or size of the parchment
was so small that it held only six or seven lines to the
page» and the oop3ast contented himself with writing
the "Sancta Maria" once at the head of each page.
But, because of its archaic form, this litany must
be eoDsiderably anterior to 1524, and may have
been copied from some fifteenth-centurv MS. The
praises are chosen in part from previous fitanies, and
m part they are original. Moreover, their arrange-
ment is better and more varied. The first place is
given to praises bestowed on the name of "Mater";
then come those expressing the Blessed Virgin's ten-
der love for mankind; then the titles given her in the
creeds; then those beginning with "Regina", which
are identical with those we now have in the Litany of
Loreto. Two new titles are introduced: "Causa
nostne UetitisB" and "Vas spirituale", which are not
found in earlier litanies. Noteworthy also are three
invocations, "Advocata christianorum", "Refugium
desperatorum", Auxilium peccatonim", which
passed by an easy change into the " Ref ugium pecca-
tonim" and " Aoxilium christianorum" of the Litany
of Loreto. In a word, if we omit the petitions of this
older form, and its reiteration of the "Sancta Maria",
we have a litany which in the choice and arrangement
of praises comes very close to the Litany of Loreto.
Now there are many similar examples in which the litany consists of praises alone without the re]3ctition of the " Sancta Mairia", and in which arrangement and form come nearer and nearer to the Litany of Lo- reto. Such are: (1) a litany in a manuscript of the Biblioteca Angelica in Rome (formerly. No. 392; sec- ond half of the fifteenth century; fol. 123). Except for light variants, it is identical with one printed at Venice in 1561, and another printed at Capri in 1503; (2) a litany found in a manuscript missal of the six- teenth century; (3) a litany printed at Venice in two different editions of the Officium B. Virginis" in 1513 and 1545; (4) a litany found in a codex of the '^Gompagnia della Concezione di Maria SS." of Fiorcn- suola a'Arda (Piacenza), founded in 1511; (5) a litany found in a codex of the priory of Sts. Philip and James, Apostles, at Montegranaro, m which the baptisms dur- ing the years 1548-58 are recorded. This litany is the shortest ^ all and the closest in similarity to that of Loreto.
This form of litanv was widely circulated, both in script and in print, during the sixteenth century. A comparison ot the texts will show that they contain the praises in the Loreto Litany, with two exceptions: the "Virgo prudentissima" of the Loreto Litany is found as *' Virgo prudens", and the " Auxilium chris- tianorum", though it appears in no text before this time, is, as remarked above, an easy variant of the litany of 1524. So far no MS. of the Loreto Litany has been discovered, but it cannot be doubted that it is nothing more than a happy arrangement of a text be- longing to the last group. And, moreover, it may be laid down as probable that the Loreto text became customary in the Holy House towards the close of the fifteenth century, at a time when in other places sim- ilar litanies were being adapted for pul:)Iic use to ob- tain deliverance from some calamity. It is only in 1531, 1547, and 1554, that the documents afford indi- cations of litanies being sung in that sanctuary, though ibe text is not given.
The earliest printed copy of the Litany of I^orcto 80 far known is that of Dillingen, which is undated, and seems to belong to the end of 1557 or the begin-
nof 1558. As Dr. Paulus, following up a discovery ) by Gass, has observed, it was probably pul>- Hshed and circulated in Germany by Blessed Canisius. It is entitled: "Letania Loretana. Ordnung der - DL— 10
Letaney von unser lieben Frawen wie sie zu Ix>reto
alle Samstaff gehalten" (Order of the Litany of Our
Lady as said every Saturday at Loreto). The text is
just the same as w^e have it to-day, except that it has
"Mater piissima" and "Mater mirabilis", where we
have "Alater purissima and "Mater admirabilis.
Further, the invocations "Mater creatoris" and "Ma-
ter salvatoris" are wanting, though this must be due
to some oversight of the editor, since they are found in
ever>' manuscript of this group; on the other hand, the
"Auxilium chnstianorum " is introduced though it
does not occur in the other texts. We find this title in
a Litany of Loreto printed in 1 558. As already shown
in the writer's book on this subject. Pope Pius V could
not have introduced the invocation "Auxilium chris-
tianorum" in 1571 after the Battle of Lepanto, as
stated in the sixth lesson of the Roman Breviary for
the feast of S. Maria Auxiliatrix (24 May); and to this
conclusion the Dillingen text adds indisputable evi-
dence. •
The Litany of Loreto had taken root at Loreto, and was being spread throughout the world, when it ran
frave risk of being lost forever. St. Pius V by Motu •roprio of 20 March, 1571, pu' lished 5 April, had prohibited all existing offices of the B. V. Alary, disapproving in general all the prayers therein, and substituting a new **Officium B. Virginis with- out those prayers and consequently without any litany. It would seem that this action on the part of the pope led the clergy of Loreto to fear that the text of their litany was likewise prohibited. At all events, in order to keep up the old time custom of singing the litany every Saturday in honour of the BlesS(^ Virgin, a new text was drawn up containing praises drawn directly from the Scriptures, and usu- ally applied to the fil. Vii^gin in the Liturgy of the Churcn. This new litany was set to music by the choirmaster of the Basilica of Loreto, Costanzo Porta, and printed at Venice in 1575. It is the earliest set- ting to music of a Marian litany that we know of. In the following year (1576) these Scriptural litanies were printed in two different handbooks for the use of pilgrims. In both they Iwar the title: "Litaniae dei- parss Virginis ex Sacra Script ura depromptaj quie in alma Domo laurctana omnibus diebus Sahhathi, Vig- iliarum et Festorum decantari solent". But in the second handbook, the work of Bemardine Cirillo, archpriest of Loreto, the old text of the litxiny is also printed, though with the plainer title, "Alice LitanisB Beatse Marise Virgiuis", a clear sign that it was not quite fc^otten.
On 5 Feb., 1578, the archdeacon of Loreto, Giulio Candiotti, sent to Pope Gregory XIII the "Laudi o Icttanie modeme della s°^ Verginc, cavate dalla sacra Scrittura" (New praises or litanies of the most holy Virgin, drawn from Sacred Scripture), with Porta? masic and the text apart, expressing the wish tliat Ilis Holiness would cause it to Ixj sung in St. Peter's and in other churches as was the custom at Loreto The pope's reply is not known, but we have the opin- ion of the theologian to whom the matter was referred, in which the composition of the new litany is praised, but which does not judge it opportune to introduce it into Rome or into church use on the authority of the pope, all the more l)eoause Pius V "in reforming the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin completely abolished, among other things, some proper litanies of the Blessed Virgin which existed in the old [office], and which (if I remember rightly) were somewhat similar to these ". The judgment concludes that the litany might be sung at Loreto as a devotion proper to that shrine, and if others wanted to adopt it they might do so by way of private devotion.
This attempt having failed, the Scriptural litany straightway began to lase favour, and the Loreto text was once more resumed. In another manual for ^U grims, published by Angelita in that same year 1578^
