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As therefore Litanies have been of longer continuance than that we should make either Gregory or Mamercus the author of them, so they are of more permanent use than that now the Church should think it needeth them not. What dangers at any time are imminent, what evils hang over our heads, God doth know and not we. We find by daily experience that those calamities may be nearest at hand, readiest to break in suddenly upon us, which we in regard of times or circumstances may imagine to be farthest off. Or if they do not indeed approach, yet such miseries as being present all men are apt to bewail with tears, the wise by their prayers should rather prevent. Finally, if we for ourselves had a privilege of immunity, doth not true Christian charity require that whatsoever any part of the world, yea any one of all our brethren elsewhere doth either suffer or fear, the same we account as our own burden? What one petition is there found in the whole Litany, whereof we shall ever be able at any time to say that no man living needeth the grace or benefit therein craved at God’s hands? I am not able to express how much it doth grieve me, that things of principal excellency should be thus bitten at, by men whom God hath endued with graces both of wit and learning for better purposes.

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Footnotes

  1. Exod. xv. 20; Wisd. x. 20; 2 Samuel vi. 2; 1 Chron. xiii. 5; 2 Chron. xx. 3; Joel ii. 15. ↩

  2. Tertull. lib. ii. ad Uxor. [c. 4. “Domino certe non potest pro disciplina satisfacere, habens in latere diaboli servum, procuratorem domini sui ad impedienda fidelium studia et officia. Ut si statio facienda est, maritus de die condicat ad balneas: si jejunia observanda sunt, maritus eadem die convivium exerceat: si procedendum erit, nunquam magis familiæ occupatio adveniat.”] ↩

  3. Terent. Andr. [1. i. 100. “funus procedit.” Phorm. v. 8. 37. “Exsequias Chremeti, quibus est commodum ire, hoc tempus est.”] ↩

  4. “Martyres tibi quærantur in cubiculo tuo. Nunquam causa deerit procedendi, si semper quando necesse est progressura sis.” Hier. Epist. xxii. ad Eust. [al. xviii. § 17.] ↩

  5. Socrat. lib. vi. c. 8. [Οἱ Ἀρειανίζοντες, ὥσπερ ἔϕημεν, ἔξω τη̑ς πόλεως τὰς συναγωγὰς ἐποιου̑ντο· ἥνικα οὐ̑ν ἑκάστης ἑβδομάδος ἑορταὶ κατελάμβανον, ϕημὶ δὴ τό τε σάββατον καὶ ἡ κυριακὴ, ἐν αἷς αἱ συνάξεις κατὰ τὰς ἐκκλησίας εἰώθασι γίνεσθαι, αὐτοὶ ἔντος τω̑ν τη̑ς πόλεως πυλω̑ν περὶ τὰς στοὰς ἀθροιζόμενοι, καὶ ᾠδὰς ἀντιϕώνους πρὸς τὴν Ἀρειάνων δόξαν συντιθέντες ᾐ̑δον· καὶ του̑το ἐποίουν κατὰ τὸ πλει̑στον μέρος τη̑ς νυκτός· ὑπὸ δὲ ὄρθρον, τὰ τοιαυ̑τα ἀντίϕωνα λέγοντες, διὰ μέσης τη̑ς πόλεως ἐξῄεσαν τω̑ν πυλω̑ν, καὶ τοὺς τόπους ἔνθα συνη̑γον κατελάμβανον … . τότε δὴ καὶ Ἰωάννης [Χρυσόστομος] εὐλαβηθεὶς, μήτις τω̑ν ἁπλουστέρων ὑπὸ τω̑ν τοιούτων ᾠδω̑ν ἀϕελκυσθῃ̑ τη̑ς ἐκκλησίας, ἀντιτίθησιν αὐτοι̑ς τοὺς του̑ ἰδίου λαου̑, ὅπως ἂν καὶ αὐτοὶ ται̑ς νυκτεριναι̑ς ὑμνολογίαις σχολάζοντες, ἀμαυρώσωσι μὲν τὴν ἐκείνων περὶ τούτου σπουδὴν, βεβαίους δὲ τοὺς οἰκείους πρὸς τὴν ἑαυτω̑ν πίστιν ἐργάσωνται.] Sozom. lib. viii. c. 8; Theod. lib. ii. c. 24; lib. iii. c. 10. [Julian having permitted the remains of St. Babylas to be removed from Daphne, the Christians ἀσμένως τὸ ἄλσος καταλαβόντες, καὶ ἐπὶ ζεύγους τεθεικότες τὴν λάρνακα, πανδημεὶ ταύτης ἡγου̑ντο, χορεύοντες καὶ τὴν Δαυϊτικὴν ᾄδοντες μελῳδίαν, καὶ καθ’ ἕκαστον κω̑λον ἐπιϕθεγγόμενοι, “αἰσχυνθήτωσαν πάντες οἱ προσκυνου̑ντες τοι̑ς γλυπτοι̑ς.”] Novel. lxviii. 51. [lxvii. 1. p. 261. ed. Gothofred. 1688. “Nulli licentiam esse neque monasterium neque ecclesiam neque orationis domum incipere ædificare, antequam civitatis Deo amabilis [Θεοϕιλέστατος] episcopus orationem in loco faciat, et crucem figat, publicum processum [δημοσίαν πρόσοδον] ipse faciens, et causam manifestam omnibus statuens.” Ibid. cxxiii. cap. 31, 32, are laws for the protection of the litany services from disturbance, and forbidding them to be solemnized except by the clergy. Both enactments are by Justinian.] ↩

  6. Basil. Epist. lxiii. [al. 207. t. iii. 311. αἱ Λιτανει̑αι, ἃς ὑμει̑ς νυ̑ν ἐπιτηδεύετε. But it is truly observed by the Benedictine editor, that the word Litany is not employed here in its technical sense; no procession being mentioned or implied.] Niceph. (758-828.) lib. xiv. c. 3. [“The younger Theodosius, having to preside at the Circensian games in a time of excessive rain, which threatened famine, said to the people, ‘It were better for us, deferring the festivity, to appease God:’ and they went forth in procession with the Litany, offering hymns to God: and the city with accordant voice became in a moment one church.”] Cedren. (Eleventh Cent.) in Theodos. [juniore, p. 281, ed. Xyland. Basil. 1566. Σεισμοὶ μεγάλοι γεγόνασιν ἐν Κωνσταντινουπόλει· … του̑ γου̑ν … πατριάρχου μετὰ του̑ κλήρου καὶ του̑ λαου̑ ται̑ς λιται̑ς [ἔξω τη̑ς πόλεως] προσκαρτερου̑ντος, περὶ ὥραν τρἰτην, ἄϕνω πάντων ὁρώντων ἡρπάγη νεανίας εὶς τὸν ἀέρα, καὶ ἤκουσε θείας ϕωνη̑ς παρεγγυώσης αὐτῳ̑, ἀναγγει̑λαι τῳ̑ ἐπισκόπῳ καὶ τῳ̑ λαῳ̑, λιτανεύειν οὕτω, καὶ λέγειν, Ἅγιος ὁ Θεὸς, ἅγιος ἰσχυρὸς, ἅγιος ἀθάνατος, ἐλέησον ἡμα̑ς· καὶ μηδὲν ἔτερον προστιθέναι· καὶ εὐθέως του̑το ψάλλοντος του̑ λαου̑, ἔστη ὁ σεισμός. Ὅθεν ὁ βασιλεὺς Θεοδόσιος, καὶ ἡ μακαρία Πουλχερία, ὑπεραγασθέντες τῳ̑ θαύματι, ἐθέσπισαν κατὰ πα̑σαν οἰκουμένην οὕτω ψάλλεσθαι τὸν θει̑ον ὕμνον.] ↩

  7. Sidon. (430-487.) lib. vii. Epist. 1. [ad Mamercum. “Rumor est, Gothos in Romanum solum castra movisse. Huic semper irruptioni nos miseri Arverni janua sumus . . Solo tamen invectarum te auctore Rogationum palpamur auxilio … Non enim latet nostram sciscitationem, primis temporibus harumce supplicationum institutarum civitas cælitus tibi credita per cujusmodi periculorum terriculamenta vacuabatur. Nam modo scenæ mœnium publicorum crebris terræ motibus concutiebantur; nunc ignes sæpe flammati caducas culminum cristas superjecto favillarum monte tumulabant; nunc stupenda foro cubilia collocabat audacium pavenda mansuetudo cervorum: cum tu inter ista discessu primorum populariumque statu urbis exinanito, ad nova celer veterum Ninevitarum exempla decurristi … Qua devotione placatus inspector pectorum Deus, fecit esse obsecrationem vestram vobis saluti, cæteris imitationi, utrisque præsidio … . . Quæ omnia sciens populus iste, Viennensibus tuis et accidisse prius et non accessisse posterius, vestigia tam sacrosanctæ informationis amplectitur, sedulo petens, ut conscientiæ tuæ beatitudo mittat orationum suarum suffragia, quibus exempla transmisit.” Biblioth. Patr. Colon. V. 1020.] ↩

  8. Concil. (First Council of Orleans, 511 (not 506) Can. 27.) tom. ii. p. 513. [iv. 1408. E. “Rogationes, i.e. Litanias ante ascensionem Domini ab omnibus ecclesiis placuit celebrari: ita ut præmissum triduanum jejunium in dominicæ ascensionis festivitate solvatur: per quod triduum servi et ancillæ ab omni opere relaxentur, quo magis plebs universa conveniat.”] ↩

  9. [See Palmer’s Origines Liturgicæ, i. 267-272.] ↩

  10. Concil. tom. v. anno 1536. [Conc. Colon. i. p. 9. c. 7, 8; xiv. 546, 547. “Quod processiones per agros et campos peraguntur, rationem quidem habet, nempe quod populus oret, ut segetes ac fruges terræ a Domino conserventur: verum ut alia plurima, ita et hic mos hominum malitia depravatus est, quod per occasionem talis deambulationis, quæ Deo placando erat instituta, multa scelera committantur. Quamobrem nobis satius videtur, ut hæ, aliæque supplicationes ac processiones, de cætero intra septa ecclesiarum religiose fiant, ac ut in templo, loco precationibus peculiariter dedicato, oretur Deus, habeaturque tum pius rei ac tempori conveniens ad populum commonitorius sermo.”] ↩

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