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The Liturgical Prayers of St. Gregory the Great

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

Henry Ashworth*
Affiliation:
Quarr Abbey, Ryde, Isle of Wight

Extract

The authenticity of the service book known to scholars as the Gregorian Sacramentary or simply the Gregorianum has long been a matter of discussion. From the mid-eighth century to the end of the ninth we find a strong external tradition assigning its authorship to St. Gregory the Great. Doubts on this point were first expressed by George Baron d'Eckhart in 1729, and the controversy flared up once more in 1890, when the traditional view was vigorously defended by Dom G. Morin.

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Copyright © Fordham University Press 

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References

1 See Morin, G. O.S.B., ‘Les témoins de la tradition grégorienne,’ Revue Bénédictine 7 (1890) 289323 (esp. 289) and, for a recent estimate of the situation (with bibliography), Klaus Gamber, Sakramentartypen: Versuch einer Gruppierung der Handschriften und Fragmente bis zur Jahrtausendwende (Texte und Arbeiten, 1. Abt. 49/50; Beuron 1958) 81–85; also Gerald Ellard, S.J., Master Alcuin, Liturgist: A Partner of Our Piety (Chicago 1956) 22f., 26f.Google Scholar

2 Op. cit. Google Scholar

3 La main de saint Grégoire dans le sacramentaire grégorien,’ Revue Bénédictine 49 (1937) 1328.Google Scholar

4 Das Sacramentarium Gregorianum nach dem Aachener Urexemplar (Liturgiegeschichtliche Quellen 3; Münster in Westf. 1921).Google Scholar

5 MGH Epist. 1 and 2 (1891–1899). Google Scholar

6 On the derivation of the text of Cambrai see the convincing article of Abercrombie, Nigel J., ‘Alcuin and the Text of the Gregorianum: Notes on Cambrai MS. No. 164,’ Archiv für Liturgiewissenschaft 3.1 (1953) 99103.Google Scholar

7 Gregorian Elements in the Gelasian Sacramentary,’ Ephemerides liturgicae 67 (1953) 1421.Google Scholar

8 In the subjoined list, as in the notes to the Tables infra (p. 000ff.), the formulae of Reginensis 316 are cited from the edition of Wilson, H. A. (The Gelasian Sacramentary [Oxford 1894]) and are indicated by book- and formulary-number, followed by a designation of the particular formula in question (when there are several formulae of the same kind — e.g. two or more Postcommunions — a suprascript numeral shows which of the series is meant).Google Scholar

In the citation of the H(adrianum), the first number indicates the formulary, the second, the formula. — In the Hadrianum the list takes account of those prayers only which appear to me (see the following paragraph) to be of St. Gregory's composition. On identities in general between the Gelasianum and the Gregorianum, see H. Schmidt. S.J., ‘De lectionibus variantibus in formulis identicis Sacramentariorum Leoniani, Gelasiani et Gregoriani,’ Sacris Erudiri 4 (1952) 103–173 (esp. 109).

9 See the Mass formulae H. 30/1, 30/3 and 107/1 in the Tables infra and my article, ‘Did St. Gregory the Great Compose a Sacramentary?’ Studia Patristica 2 (TU 64; Berlin 1957) 3–16 Google Scholar

10 Dialogus ecclesiasticae institutionis 16, De primo …, De secundo ieiunio (ed. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents Relating to Great Britain 3 [Oxford 1871] 411, 412).Google Scholar

11 Codex Carolinus, Epist. 89 (MGH Epist. 3.626.27); Hadriani epist. 2 (MGH Epist. 5.10.40).Google Scholar

12 Adversus Elipandum 2.9 (PL 101.266–67).Google Scholar

13 Epist. variorum 24 (MGH Epist. 5.339.8).Google Scholar

14 Epist. 6 (MGH Epist 5.251.2).Google Scholar

15 De ecclesiasticarum rerum exordiis et incrementis 22 (PL 114.946BC).Google Scholar

16 De vita sancti Gregorii 2.17 (PL 75.94).Google Scholar

17 See Η. Bannister, M., ‘Liturgical Fragments,’ Journal of Theological Studies 9 (1908) 398; id., ‘Fragments of an Anglo-Saxon Sacramentary,’ ibid. 12 (1911) 451.Google Scholar

18 Frere, W. H., Studies in the Early Roman Liturgy , I: The Kalendar (Alcuin Club Collections 28; Oxford 1930) 44.Google Scholar

19 Hist. eccl. 2.1 (ed. Plummer, C. I 75–77).Google Scholar

20 Quentin, H., Les martyrologes historiques du moyen âge (Paris 1908) 684.Google Scholar

21 Ce n'est pas assez de reconnaître que Bède ne dit rien en faveur de la tradition grégorienne: il est impossible de lire ses textes sans se convaincre qu'il l'ignorait: il a trop parlé du chant et de l'organisation de l'office divin, il s'est étendu trop complaisamment sur la vie et les œuvres de saint Grégoire pour que l'on puisse raisonnablement expliquer son silence sur les titres liturgiques du grand pape s'il les avait connus’ (H. Quentin, art. ‘Bède le Vénérable,’ DACL 2.648).Google Scholar

22 Tertio decimo definitur decreto: Ut uno eodemque modo Dominicae dispensationis in carne sacrosanctae festiuitates, in omnibus ad eas rite competentibus rebus, id est, in Baptismi officio, in Missarum celebratione, in cantilenae modo celebrantur, iuxta exemplar uidelicet quod scriptum de Romana habemus Ecclesia’ (Haddan and Stubbs, Councils 3.367).Google Scholar

23 Op. cit. 45.Google Scholar

24 Sed et sancta catholica et apostolica ecclesia ab ipso sancto Gregorio papa ordo missarum, sollemnitatum, orationum suscipiens, pluras nobis edidit orationes, ubi Spiritum sanctum per dominum nostrum Iesum Christum infundi atque illustrari et confirmari nos suppliciter petere docuit’ (Epist. 2 [MGH Epist. 5.10.40]).Google Scholar

25 Text supra, No. 6. Google Scholar

26 Text supra, No. 4. Google Scholar

27 Et ut scolae legentium puerorum fiant. Psalmos, notas, cantus, compotum, grammaticam per singula monasteria uel episcopia et libros catholicos bene emendate; quia saepe, dum bene aliqui Deum rogare cupiunt, sed per inemendatos libros male rogant. Et pueros uestros non sinite eos uel legendo uel scribendo corrumpere; et si opus est euangelium, psalterium et missale scribere, perfectae aetatis homines scribant cum omni diligentia’ (Admonitio generalis 72 MGH Leg. Sect. II 1.60.2).Google Scholar

28 Sacramentarium unusquisque habeat, quod episcopus debet considerare, quomodo scriptum sit secundum ordinem’ (Arnonis Instructio pastoralis 5 [MGH Leg. Sect. III 2. 198.29]).Google Scholar

29 Die Quellen zur Angelsachsenmission Gregors des Grossen (Münster in Westf. 1941).Google Scholar

30 Bourque, E., Etude sur les sacrameniaires romains , 2e partie, I: Le Gélasien du VIII e siècle (Quebec 1952) 444.Google Scholar

31 Le sanctoral romain et les dimanches après la Pentecôte,’ La vie et les arts liturgiques 12 (1925–1926) 392.Google Scholar

32 Mohlberg, K., O.S.B., Die älteste erreichbare Gestalt des Liber Sacramentorum anni circuli der römischen Kirche: Cod. Pad. D 47 … (Liturgiegeschichtliche Quellen 11/12; Münster in Westf. 1927) xxxix.Google Scholar

33 Wege zum Urgregorianum: Erörterung der Grundfragen und Rekonstruktionsversuch des Sacramentars Gregors d. Gr. vom Jahre 592 (Texte und Arbeiten, 1. Abt. 46; Beuron 1956). Cf. Gamber's later statement: loc. cit. supra (note 1).Google Scholar

34 See my paper, ‘The Influence of the Lombard Invasions on the Gregorian Sacramentary,’ Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 36 (1953/4) 314–326. Google Scholar

35 For example, such formulae as ‘Deus qui conspicis’ (H. 33/1). This prayer is repeated with variants throughout the Sacramentary, yet it forms a new style of prayer proper to the Gregorianum and proper to St. Gregory. Google Scholar

36 Cf. supra note 9. Google Scholar

37 Liber Pontificalis (ed. Duchesne, L.) I (Paris 1880) 317, 321, 323.Google Scholar

38 See my article, ‘Gregorian Elements in Some Early Gallican Service Books,’ Traditio 13 (1957) 431443.Google Scholar

39 Ibid. 433435.Google Scholar

40 For the most part small capitals are used to call attention to similarities of thought or expression. Italics, while sometimes simply performing this same function — especially when, as at H. 8/2, it was desired to keep distinct two sets of parallels — serve also in a variety of other ways to pick out the sometimes intricate pattern of relationship. Google Scholar

41 For example, H. 164/1. — The Leonianum is cited from the edition of Mohlberg, Dom C., Sacramentarium Veronense (Rome 1956, 1955); to Mohlberg's formula-number is added the page- and line-reference to Feltoe, C. L.'s edition (Cambridge 1896).Google Scholar

42 PL 76.1149BC. — Moricca, U., Storia della letteratura latina cristiana III 2 (Turin 1934) 1656f., calls this sermon the most interesting of the forty delivered on the Gospels but pays no attention to the prayer with which it closes. This, however, is especially noted, and translated, by Duckett, Eleanor S., The Gateway to the Middle Ages (New York 1938) 559, yet without reference to St. Gregory as a composer of liturgical texts,Google Scholar

43 Exception must be made for the work of the ‘pseudo-Gregory’ found in H. 30/1, 30/3 and 107/1. See supra at note 9.Google Scholar

page 119 note * H. 2/8 Cf. H. 34/2, 52/2, 61/2, 109/2, 164/3. One important manuscript of the Gregorianum, Vatic. Ottobonianus 313, reads ‘ad celebrandum sacrificium,’ a reading which may well be the original, being found in Reg. Epist. 1.54 and 1.67 as quoted above.Google Scholar

page 120 note * H. 5/1 Reg. 316 2.84 Additional prayer11 (p. 219 Wilson): Deus, qui nos redemptions nostrae annua expectatione laetificas, praesta ut unigenitum Filium tuum, quem redemptorem laeti suscipimus, uenientem quoque iudicem securi uideamus. Per.Google Scholar

page 120 note * H. 6/1 Reg. 316 1.2 Oratio1 (p. 2 Wilson): Deus, qui hanc sacratissimam noctem ueri luminis fecisti illustratione clarescere, da, quaesumus, ut cuius lucis mysterium in terra cognouimus, eius quoque gaudiis in caelo perfruamur. Per.Google Scholar

page 121 note * H. 6/3 See Capelle, Dom B. O.S.B., ‘La préface de Noël,’ Questions liturgiques et paroissiales 18 (1933) 273 - 283; Rev. Bénéd. 49.19 (cit. supra, p. 107 n. 3).Google Scholar

page 124 note * H. 17/1 See Dom Capelle, in Rev. Bénéd. (49.14-18 cit. supra, p. 107 n. 3).Google Scholar

page 125 note * H. 21/2 Reg. 316 2.60 In xii Lectiones. Die Sabbati—Oratio (p. 202 Wilson): Haec hostia, Domine, quaesumus, et uincula nostrae iniquitatis absoluat, et tuae nobis misericordiae dona conciliet. Per.Google Scholar

page 125 note ++ Moral. 9.93: Saepe namque peccator iniquitatis suae uinculis constringitur, ut pondus quidem peccatorum toleret, sed tamen quia tolerat, ignoret.Google Scholar

page 125 note ++ Cf. H. 66/2, 100/8.Google Scholar

page 127 note * H. 25/1 Cf. H. 181/1.Google Scholar

page 127 note * H. 25/3 Cf. H. 105/3, 124/3, 173/3.Google Scholar

page 128 note * H. 29/1 Cf. H. 103/1, 106/1, 121/1, 168/1. See Verbeke, G., ‘Saint Grégoire et la Messe de saint Agathe,’ Ephemerides liturgicae 52 (1938) 67 - 76.Google Scholar

page 129 note * H. 30/1 For the authorship of this formula and that which follows (H. 30/3) see supra note 43.Google Scholar

page 129 note * H. 30/3 See note on H. 30/1.Google Scholar

page 129 note * H. 32/1 Reg. 316 2.85 Sabbato in xii Lectiones—Oratio5 (p. 222 Wilson): Preces populi tui, quaesumus, Deus, clementer exaudi; ut qui iuste pro peccatis nostris affligimur pietatis tuae visitatione consolemur. Per.Google Scholar

page 129 note ++ Cf. H. 44/5, 191/5.Google Scholar

page 131 note * H. 34/3 CI. H. 25/3.Google Scholar

page 131 note * H. 38/5 CI. H. 202/48.Google Scholar

page 133 note * H. 44/2 See Dom Louis Brou, O.S.B., ‘Les oraisons du quatrième dimanche après l'Epiphanie,’ Paroisse et liturgie 32 (1950) 25 - 38.Google Scholar

page 134 note * H. 44/5 Cf. H. 32/1.Google Scholar

page 135 note * H. 44/6 Cf. H. 52/1.Google Scholar

page 135 note * H. 44/8 Reg. 316 2.60 In xii Lectiones. Die Sabbati—Oratio6 (p. 201 Wilson): Deus qui tribus pueris mitigasti flammas igneas, concede quaesumus, ut nos famulos tuos non exurat flamma uitiorum. Per.Google Scholar

page 135 note ++ Cf. H. 117/6, 166/6, 191/6.Google Scholar

page 136 note * H. 45/1 Cf. H. 202/1.Google Scholar

page 136 note * H. 46/1 Cf. H. 58/1. Reg. 316 2.60 In xii Lectiones. Die Sabbati—Oratio2 (p. 201 Wilson): Praesta quaesumus omnipotens Deus, ut qui se affligendo carnem ab alimentis abstinet, sectando iustitiam, culpa ieiunet. Per Dominum nostrum.Google Scholar

page 137 note * H. 52/1 Cf. H. 44/6. See Dom Louis Brou, O.S.B., ‘Les oraisons du troisième dimanche du Carême,’ Paroisse et liturgie 32 (1950) 111 - 118.Google Scholar

page 138 note * H. 64/4 Cf. H. 202/49.Google Scholar

page 140 note * H. 84/5 Cf. H. 110/5.Google Scholar

page 141 note * H. 90/1 Reg. 316 1.78 Oratio1 (p. 120 Wilson): Deus, qui ecclesiam tuam nouo semper fetu multiplicas, concede famulis tuis ut sacramentum tuum uiuendo teneant, quod fide perceperunt. Per.Google Scholar

page 142 note * H. 91/1 Reg. 316 1.46 Oratio2 (p. 90 Wilson): Deus, qui nos resurrectionis Dominicae annua solemnitate laetificas, concede propitius, ut per temporalia festa quae agimus per venire ad gaudia aeterna mereamur. Per Dominum.Google Scholar

page 144 note * H. 100/8 Reg. 316 2.60 In xii Lectiones. Die Sabbati-Secreta (p. 202 Wilson): Haec hostia, Domine, quaesumus, et uincula nostrae iniquitatis absoluat, et tuae nobis misericordiae dona conciliet. Per.Google Scholar

page 144 note ++ Cf. H. 21/2.Google Scholar

page 144 note * H. 101/1 Reg. 316 2.4. Oratio2 (p. 163 Wilson): Praesta, quaesumus, Domine, ut intercedente beato Sebastiano martyre tuo, et a cunctis adversitatibus muniamur in corpore, et a pravis cogitationibus mundemur in corde. Per.Google Scholar

page 144 note * H. 102/1 Cf. H. 120/1, 122/1.Google Scholar

page 145 note * H. 107/1 For the authorship of this prayer see supra note 43 and at note 36.Google Scholar

page 147 note * H. 110/6 Cf. H. 84/5.Google Scholar

page 149 note * H. 120/1 Cf. H. 102/1.Google Scholar

page 150 note * H. 122/1 Cf. H. 102/1.Google Scholar

page 150 note * H. 128/4 Reg. 316 2.14 Postcommunio (p. 169 Wilson): Quos caelesti, Domine, alimento satiasti, intercedente beata et gloriosa semperque uirgine Dei genitrice Maria, ab omni nos, quaesumus, aduersitate custodi. Per Dominum. Cf. ibid. 3.16 Postcommunio1 (p. 236 Wilson).Google Scholar

page 150 note ++ Cf. H. 129/4.Google Scholar

page 151 note * H. 129/5 Reg. 316 2.30 Oratio (p. 181 Wilson) Deus, qui beato apostolo tuo Petro, collatis clauibus regni caelestis, animas ligandi atque soluendi pontificium tradidisti: concede ut intercessionis eius auxilio a peccatorum nostrorum nexibus liberemur. Per. See Joseph Lecler, S.J., ‘Formules liturgiques et pouvoir pontifical’: a propos de deux textes du Missel romain,’ Recherches de science religieuse 46 (1958) 211 - 226.Google Scholar

page 152 note * H. 163/1 Cf. Leonianum 925 (Mohlberg; p. 117.20 Feltoe): Absolue, domine, quaesumus tuorum delicta populorum, et quod mortalitatis contrahit fragilitate purifica; ut cuncta pericula mentis et corporis te propellente declinan s, tua consolatione subsistat, tua gratia promissae redemptionis perficiatur hereditas: per.Google Scholar

page 152 note * H. 164/1 Cf. Leonianum 1058 (Mohlberg; p. 135.8 Feltoe): Misericordiae tuae remediis, quaesumus, domine, fragilitas nostra subsistat, ut quae sui condicione defecit, tua uegetatione reparetur: per.Google Scholar

page 153 note * H. 169/1 See Vandenbroucke, Dom F. O.S.B., ‘La collecte pour la fête de saint Michel: son sens, son origine,’ Questions liturgiques et paroissiales 25 (1946) 163 - 169.Google Scholar

page 154 note * H. 186/3 Cf. Leonianum 421 (Mohlberg; p. 55.30 Feltoe): Praesta nobis, quaesumus, domine, terrena despicere et amare caelestia; ut per haec sacra quae gerimus, et a transituris desideriis expiari mereamur, et incipiamus inherere perpetuis: per.Google Scholar

page 154 note ++ Reg. 316 2.80 Postcommunio (p. 214 Wilson): Repleti cibo spiritalis alimoniae supplices te deprecamur, omnipotens Deus, ut huius participatione mysterii doceas nos terrena despicere et amare caelestia, atque omni nexu mortiferae cupiditatis exutos regno perpetuae libertatis consortes efficias. Per Dominum.Google Scholar

page 155 note * H. 188/1 Reg. 316 2.83 Oratio3 (p. 217 Wilson): Uoci nostrae, quaesumus, Domine, aures tuae pietatis accommoda: et cordis nostri tenebras lumine tuae uisitationis illustra. Per.Google Scholar

page 156 note * H. 191/3 Reg. 316 2.84 Additional prayer1 (p. 219 Wilson): Indignos, quaesumus, Domine, famulos tuos, quia actionis propriae culpa contristat, Unigeniti tui nos adventu laetifica. Per Dominum.Google Scholar