Liturgical books of the Roman Rite
Encyclopedia
The liturgical books of the Roman Rite
are officially issued books that contain the words of the prayers to be recited and indicate the actions to be performed in the celebration of the Catholic
liturgy
as done in Rome
.
To the titles of some of these books the adjective "Roman" is attached, so as to distinguish them from the liturgical books intended for use in other liturgical rites. An example is the "Roman Missal
".
, the Pontifical
, the Liturgy of the Hours
(in earlier editions called the Breviary
), the Ritual
, the Martyrology
, the Gradual
, and the Antiphonary
. Another sevenfold list indicates, instead of the last two, the Cæremoniale Episcoporum
, and the Memoriale Rituum.
In reality, the number is not fixed. Some names, such as the Ritual and the Pontifical, refer not to a single volume but to a collection of books that fit within the same category. Official liturgical books that appear in neither of the above lists also exist, such as the Lectionary
and the Evangeliary or Gospel Book
. The 28 March 2001 Fifth Instruction for the Right Implementation of the Constitution on the Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council listed several more. Liturgical books exist also for rare occasions, such as the Order of Rites for the Conclave and the Order of the Rites for the Beginning of the Petrine
Ministry of the Bishop of Rome, issued in 2005.
Other liturgical books that no longer exist today, were in use in the past, such as the Epistolary and the Sacramentary
(in the proper sense of this word). The catalogue of the illuminated manuscripts of the British Library
indicates how varied were the classes of liturgical books for the celebration of Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours.
To avoid confusion between different ways of naming and classifying liturgical books, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions has drawn up a List of Uniform Titles for Liturgical Works of the Latin Rites of the Catholic Church
The Caeremoniale Episcoporum, though listed above as a liturgical book, has also been described as "not a liturgical book in the proper sense, since it is not used in liturgical celebrations".
The contents of the liturgical books vary over the centuries. The prayers and rubrics are modified, new rites are added to the books, others are dropped, sometimes long after they have fallen into disuse. For instance the Roman Pontifical
continued to have until the Second Vatican Council a ceremony for the first shaving of a cleric's beard.
(until perhaps the fourth century) there were no books except the Bible, from which lessons were read and psalms were sung. Nothing in the liturgy
was written, because nothing was fixed. Even after certain forms had become so stereotyped as to make already what we should call a more or less fixed liturgy, it does not seem that there was at first any idea that they should be written down. Habit and memory made the celebrant repeat more or less the same forms each Sunday; the people answered his prayers with the accustomed acclamations and responses - all without books.
Adrian Fortescue, in his article on liturgical books in the 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia, quotes one writer who argued that there were liturgical books back to the time of the Apostolic Fathers
, and another who claimed that there were no liturgical books even by the end of the fourth century. He himself concludes that they were certainly in existence by the fourth century.
. A Sacramentary is not the same thing as a Missal. It is the book for the priest celebrating Mass. It contains all and only the prayers that he says. At that time he did not repeat at the altar the parts that were chanted by the ministers or choir, as became the custom in the period of the Tridentine Mass
Thus Sacramentaries contain no Readings, Introits, Graduals, Communion Antiphons and the like, but only the Collects, the Eucharistic Prayer with its Prefaces, all that is strictly the priest's part at Mass. On the other hand they provide for occasions other than Mass, with prayers for use at ordinations and at the consecration of a church and altar, and many exorcisms, blessings, and consecrations that were later inserted in the Roman Pontifical
and the Roman Ritual
. Many Sacramentaries now extant are more or less fragmentary, and do not contain all of these elements.
Another name for the Sacramentary (in Latin Sacramentarium) was Liber Sacramentorum (Book of Sacraments), but "Sacrament" in this case means the Mass.
At the same time as the Sacramentaries, books for the readers and choir were being arranged. Gradually the Comes or Liber Comicus, a book that indicated the texts of the Bible to be read developed into the Evangelarium (Gospel Book) and Lectionarium (Lectionary). The homilies of Fathers to be read were collected in Homilaria, the Acts of the martyrs, read on their feasts, in Martyrologia. The book of Psalms was written separately for singing, then arranged in the order in which the psalms were sung in the Psalterium (Psalter). The parts of the Mass sung by the choir (Introit, Gradual, Offertory, Communion) were arranged in the Liber Antiphonarius or Gradualis (Antiphonary or Gradual), while the Antiphons and Responsories in the Office formed the Liber Responsalis (Responsory Book) or Antiphonarius Officii (Antiphonary of the Office), as distinct from the Antiphonarius Missae (Antiphonary of the Mass). Hymns (in our sense) were introduced into the Roman Rite about the fifth or sixth century. Those of the Mass were written in the Gradual, those of the Divine Office at first in the Psalter or Antiphonary. But there were also separate collections of hymns, called Hymnaria, and Libri Sequentiales or Troponarii containing the sequences and additions (farcing) to the Kyrie and Gloria, etc. Other services, the Sacraments (Baptism, Confirmation, Penance, Marriage, Extreme Unction), the Visitation of the Sick, the Burial Service, all manner of blessings, were written in a very loose collection of little books, predecessors of the Roman Ritual
, called by such names as Liber Agendorum, Agenda, Manuale, Benedictionale, Pastorale, Sacerdotale, Rituale.
Finally there remained the rubric
s, the directions not about what to say but what to do. This matter would be one of the latest to be written down. Long after the more or less complicated prayers had to be written and read, tradition would still be a sufficient guide for the actions. The books of prayers (Sacramentaries, Antiphonaries, etc.) contained a few words of direction for the most important and salient things to be done - elementary rubrics. For instance the Gregorian Sacramentary tells priests (as distinct from bishops) not to say the Gloria except on Easter Day; the celebrant chants the preface excelsa voce (in a loud voice), and so on. In time, however, the growing elaborateness of the papal functions, the more complicated ceremonial of the Roman Court, made it necessary to draw up rules of what custom and etiquette demanded. These rules are contained in the "Ordines" - precursors of the Cæremoniale Episcoporum
. The first of them was probably drawn up about the year 770 in the reign of Pope Stephen III
(768-72), but is founded on a similar "Ordo" of the time of Pope Gregory I
(590-604). The "Ordines" contain no prayers, except that, where necessary, the first words are given to indicate what is meant. They supplement the Sacramentary and choir-books with careful directions about the ritual.
changed the Sacramentary into a Missal. At Low Mass the celebrant had to supplement personally what was normally chanted by the deacon and subdeacon or sung by the choir. This then reacted upon High Mass
, so that here too the celebrant began to say himself in a low voice what was sung by some one else. For this purpose he needed texts that were not in the old Sacramentary. That book was therefore enlarged by the addition of Readings (Epistle and Gospel, etc.) and the chants of the choir (Introit, Gradual, etc.). So it becomes a Missale plenarium, containing all the text of the Mass. Isolated cases of such Missals occur as early as the sixth century. By about the twelfth century they have completely replaced the old Sacramentaries. But Lectionaries and Graduals (with the music) are still written for the readers and choir.
In the same way, but rather later, compilations are made of the various books used for saying the Divine Office. Here too the same motive was at work. The Office was meant to be sung in choir. But there were isolated priests, small country churches without a choir, that could not afford the library of books required for saying it. For their convenience compendiums were made since the eleventh century. Pope Gregory VII
(1073-85) issued a compendium of this kind that became very popular. First we hear of Libri nocturnales or matutinales, containing all the lessons and responses for Matins. To these are added later the antiphons and psalms, then the collects and all that is wanted for the other canonical hours too. At the same time epitomes are made for people who recite the Office without the chant. In these the Psalter is often left out; the clergy are supposed to know it by heart. The antiphons, versicles, responsories, even the lessons are indicated only by their first words. The whole is really a kind of concise index to the Office, but sufficient for people who said it day after day and almost knew it by heart. Such little books are called by various names – Epitomata, Portiforia, and then especially Breviaria divini officii (Abbreviations of the Divine Office). They were used mostly by priests on journeys. The parts of these Breviaries were filled up eventually so as to leave nothing to memory, but the convenient arrangement and the name have been kept. It is curious that the word Breviary, which originally meant only a handy epitome for use on journeys and such occasions, came to be the usual name for the Divine Office itself. A priest "said his breviary" that is, recited the canonical hours.
The development of the other books took place in much the same way. The Missals now contained only the Mass and a few morning services intimately connected with it. Daily Mass was the custom for every priest; there was no object in including all the rites used only by a bishop in each Missal. So these rites apart formed the Pontifical. The other non-Eucharistic elements of the old Sacramentary combined with the Libri Agendarum to form the later Ritual.
with the Apostolic Constitution Quod a nobis of 9 July 1568, and the Roman Missal soon afterward, with the Apostolic Constitution Quo primum of 14 July 1570. The Roman Martyrology was produced by Pope Gregory XIII
in 1584. The Roman Pontifical appeared in 1596. The Caeremoniale Episcoporum was issued by Pope Clement VIII
in 1600. The Roman Ritual was published in 1614.
All the books have been constantly revised and re-edited with additions and revisions down to our own time, and more information may be found in the articles dedicated to the individual books.
Roman Rite
The Roman Rite is the liturgical rite used in the Diocese of Rome in the Catholic Church. It is by far the most widespread of the Latin liturgical rites used within the Western or Latin autonomous particular Church, the particular Church that itself is also called the Latin Rite, and that is one of...
are officially issued books that contain the words of the prayers to be recited and indicate the actions to be performed in the celebration of the Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
liturgy
Liturgy
Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...
as done in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
.
To the titles of some of these books the adjective "Roman" is attached, so as to distinguish them from the liturgical books intended for use in other liturgical rites. An example is the "Roman Missal
Roman Missal
The Roman Missal is the liturgical book that contains the texts and rubrics for the celebration of the Mass in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church.-Situation before the Council of Trent:...
".
Classification
These liturgical books have been classified as seven: the MissalMissal
A missal is a liturgical book containing all instructions and texts necessary for the celebration of Mass throughout the year.-History:Before the compilation of such books, several books were used when celebrating Mass...
, the Pontifical
Pontifical
Pontifical may refer to the Roman Pontifical, a Roman Catholic liturgical book used by a bishop.When used as an adjective, Pontifical may be used to describe things related to the office of a bishop, such as the following:*Solemn Pontifical Mass...
, the Liturgy of the Hours
Liturgy of the hours
The Liturgy of the Hours or Divine Office is the official set of daily prayers prescribed by the Catholic Church to be recited at the canonical hours by the clergy, religious orders, and laity. The Liturgy of the Hours consists primarily of psalms supplemented by hymns and readings...
(in earlier editions called the Breviary
Breviary
A breviary is a liturgical book of the Latin liturgical rites of the Catholic Church containing the public or canonical prayers, hymns, the Psalms, readings, and notations for everyday use, especially by bishops, priests, and deacons in the Divine Office...
), the Ritual
Ritual
A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value. It may be prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. The term usually excludes actions which are arbitrarily chosen by the performers....
, the Martyrology
Martyrology
A martyrology is a catalogue or list of martyrs , arranged in the calendar order of their anniversaries or feasts. Local martyrologies record exclusively the custom of a particular Church. Local lists were enriched by names borrowed from neighbouring churches...
, the Gradual
Roman Gradual
The Roman Gradual is an official liturgical book of the Roman Rite containing chants, including the Gradual but many more as well, for use at Mass...
, and the Antiphonary
Antiphonary
An Antiphonary, Antiphonal, "Antiphony" or Antiphoner is one of the present Catholic liturgical books. It is intended for use in choro An Antiphonary, Antiphonal, "Antiphony" or Antiphoner (Latin antiphonarium, antiphonarius, antiphonarius liber, antiphonale; Greek ’antíphonon, antiphon,...
. Another sevenfold list indicates, instead of the last two, the Cæremoniale Episcoporum
Cæremoniale Episcoporum
The Cæremoniale Episcoporum is a book that describes the Church services to be performed by Bishops of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church....
, and the Memoriale Rituum.
In reality, the number is not fixed. Some names, such as the Ritual and the Pontifical, refer not to a single volume but to a collection of books that fit within the same category. Official liturgical books that appear in neither of the above lists also exist, such as the Lectionary
Lectionary
A Lectionary is a book or listing that contains a collection of scripture readings appointed for Christian or Judaic worship on a given day or occasion.-History:...
and the Evangeliary or Gospel Book
Gospel Book
The Gospel Book, Evangelion, or Book of the Gospels is a codex or bound volume containing one or more of the four Gospels of the Christian New Testament...
. The 28 March 2001 Fifth Instruction for the Right Implementation of the Constitution on the Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council listed several more. Liturgical books exist also for rare occasions, such as the Order of Rites for the Conclave and the Order of the Rites for the Beginning of the Petrine
Saint Peter
Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...
Ministry of the Bishop of Rome, issued in 2005.
Other liturgical books that no longer exist today, were in use in the past, such as the Epistolary and the Sacramentary
Sacramentary
The Sacramentary is a book of the Middle Ages containing the words spoken by the priest celebrating a Mass and other liturgies of the Church. The books were usually in fact written for bishops or other higher clegy such as abbots, and many lavishly decorated illuminated manuscript sacramentaries...
(in the proper sense of this word). The catalogue of the illuminated manuscripts of the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
indicates how varied were the classes of liturgical books for the celebration of Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours.
To avoid confusion between different ways of naming and classifying liturgical books, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions has drawn up a List of Uniform Titles for Liturgical Works of the Latin Rites of the Catholic Church
The Caeremoniale Episcoporum, though listed above as a liturgical book, has also been described as "not a liturgical book in the proper sense, since it is not used in liturgical celebrations".
The contents of the liturgical books vary over the centuries. The prayers and rubrics are modified, new rites are added to the books, others are dropped, sometimes long after they have fallen into disuse. For instance the Roman Pontifical
Roman Pontifical
The Roman Pontifical or Pontifical, also referred to in Latin as the Pontificale or Pontificale Romanum, is the Roman Catholic liturgical book that contains the rites performed by bishops....
continued to have until the Second Vatican Council a ceremony for the first shaving of a cleric's beard.
Earliest Christian liturgical books
In early ChristianityEarly Christianity
Early Christianity is generally considered as Christianity before 325. The New Testament's Book of Acts and Epistle to the Galatians records that the first Christian community was centered in Jerusalem and its leaders included James, Peter and John....
(until perhaps the fourth century) there were no books except the Bible, from which lessons were read and psalms were sung. Nothing in the liturgy
Liturgy
Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...
was written, because nothing was fixed. Even after certain forms had become so stereotyped as to make already what we should call a more or less fixed liturgy, it does not seem that there was at first any idea that they should be written down. Habit and memory made the celebrant repeat more or less the same forms each Sunday; the people answered his prayers with the accustomed acclamations and responses - all without books.
Adrian Fortescue, in his article on liturgical books in the 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia, quotes one writer who argued that there were liturgical books back to the time of the Apostolic Fathers
Apostolic Fathers
The Apostolic Fathers are a small number of Early Christian authors who lived and wrote in the second half of the first century and the first half of the second century. They are acknowledged as leaders in the early church, although their writings were not included in the New Testament...
, and another who claimed that there were no liturgical books even by the end of the fourth century. He himself concludes that they were certainly in existence by the fourth century.
Earliest Roman liturgical books
In the Roman Rite the first complete books known are the SacramentariesSacramentary
The Sacramentary is a book of the Middle Ages containing the words spoken by the priest celebrating a Mass and other liturgies of the Church. The books were usually in fact written for bishops or other higher clegy such as abbots, and many lavishly decorated illuminated manuscript sacramentaries...
. A Sacramentary is not the same thing as a Missal. It is the book for the priest celebrating Mass. It contains all and only the prayers that he says. At that time he did not repeat at the altar the parts that were chanted by the ministers or choir, as became the custom in the period of the Tridentine Mass
Tridentine Mass
The Tridentine Mass is the form of the Roman Rite Mass contained in the typical editions of the Roman Missal that were published from 1570 to 1962. It was the most widely celebrated Mass liturgy in the world until the introduction of the Mass of Paul VI in December 1969...
Thus Sacramentaries contain no Readings, Introits, Graduals, Communion Antiphons and the like, but only the Collects, the Eucharistic Prayer with its Prefaces, all that is strictly the priest's part at Mass. On the other hand they provide for occasions other than Mass, with prayers for use at ordinations and at the consecration of a church and altar, and many exorcisms, blessings, and consecrations that were later inserted in the Roman Pontifical
Roman Pontifical
The Roman Pontifical or Pontifical, also referred to in Latin as the Pontificale or Pontificale Romanum, is the Roman Catholic liturgical book that contains the rites performed by bishops....
and the Roman Ritual
Roman Ritual
The Roman Ritual is one of the official ritual works of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. It contains all of the services which may be performed by a priest or deacon which are not contained within either the Missale Romanum or the Brevarium Romanum...
. Many Sacramentaries now extant are more or less fragmentary, and do not contain all of these elements.
Another name for the Sacramentary (in Latin Sacramentarium) was Liber Sacramentorum (Book of Sacraments), but "Sacrament" in this case means the Mass.
At the same time as the Sacramentaries, books for the readers and choir were being arranged. Gradually the Comes or Liber Comicus, a book that indicated the texts of the Bible to be read developed into the Evangelarium (Gospel Book) and Lectionarium (Lectionary). The homilies of Fathers to be read were collected in Homilaria, the Acts of the martyrs, read on their feasts, in Martyrologia. The book of Psalms was written separately for singing, then arranged in the order in which the psalms were sung in the Psalterium (Psalter). The parts of the Mass sung by the choir (Introit, Gradual, Offertory, Communion) were arranged in the Liber Antiphonarius or Gradualis (Antiphonary or Gradual), while the Antiphons and Responsories in the Office formed the Liber Responsalis (Responsory Book) or Antiphonarius Officii (Antiphonary of the Office), as distinct from the Antiphonarius Missae (Antiphonary of the Mass). Hymns (in our sense) were introduced into the Roman Rite about the fifth or sixth century. Those of the Mass were written in the Gradual, those of the Divine Office at first in the Psalter or Antiphonary. But there were also separate collections of hymns, called Hymnaria, and Libri Sequentiales or Troponarii containing the sequences and additions (farcing) to the Kyrie and Gloria, etc. Other services, the Sacraments (Baptism, Confirmation, Penance, Marriage, Extreme Unction), the Visitation of the Sick, the Burial Service, all manner of blessings, were written in a very loose collection of little books, predecessors of the Roman Ritual
Roman Ritual
The Roman Ritual is one of the official ritual works of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. It contains all of the services which may be performed by a priest or deacon which are not contained within either the Missale Romanum or the Brevarium Romanum...
, called by such names as Liber Agendorum, Agenda, Manuale, Benedictionale, Pastorale, Sacerdotale, Rituale.
Finally there remained the rubric
Rubric
A rubric is a word or section of text which is traditionally written or printed in red ink to highlight it. The word derives from the , meaning red ochre or red chalk, and originates in Medieval illuminated manuscripts from the 13th century or earlier...
s, the directions not about what to say but what to do. This matter would be one of the latest to be written down. Long after the more or less complicated prayers had to be written and read, tradition would still be a sufficient guide for the actions. The books of prayers (Sacramentaries, Antiphonaries, etc.) contained a few words of direction for the most important and salient things to be done - elementary rubrics. For instance the Gregorian Sacramentary tells priests (as distinct from bishops) not to say the Gloria except on Easter Day; the celebrant chants the preface excelsa voce (in a loud voice), and so on. In time, however, the growing elaborateness of the papal functions, the more complicated ceremonial of the Roman Court, made it necessary to draw up rules of what custom and etiquette demanded. These rules are contained in the "Ordines" - precursors of the Cæremoniale Episcoporum
Cæremoniale Episcoporum
The Cæremoniale Episcoporum is a book that describes the Church services to be performed by Bishops of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church....
. The first of them was probably drawn up about the year 770 in the reign of Pope Stephen III
Pope Stephen III
Pope Stephen III was pope from August 1 or August 7, 768 to January 24, 772. He was a native of Sicily.He came to Rome during the pontificate of Gregory III and gradually rose to high office in the service of successive popes....
(768-72), but is founded on a similar "Ordo" of the time of Pope Gregory I
Pope Gregory I
Pope Gregory I , better known in English as Gregory the Great, was pope from 3 September 590 until his death...
(590-604). The "Ordines" contain no prayers, except that, where necessary, the first words are given to indicate what is meant. They supplement the Sacramentary and choir-books with careful directions about the ritual.
Middle Ages
During the Middle Ages these books were rearranged for greater convenience. The custom of Low MassLow Mass
Low Mass is a Tridentine Mass defined officially in the Code of Rubrics included in the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal as Mass in which the priest does not chant the parts that the rubrics assign to him...
changed the Sacramentary into a Missal. At Low Mass the celebrant had to supplement personally what was normally chanted by the deacon and subdeacon or sung by the choir. This then reacted upon High Mass
Solemn Mass
Solemn Mass , sometimes also referred to as Solemn High Mass or simply High Mass, is, when used not merely as a description, the full ceremonial form of the Tridentine Mass, celebrated by a priest with a deacon and a subdeacon, requiring most of the parts of the Mass to be sung, and the use of...
, so that here too the celebrant began to say himself in a low voice what was sung by some one else. For this purpose he needed texts that were not in the old Sacramentary. That book was therefore enlarged by the addition of Readings (Epistle and Gospel, etc.) and the chants of the choir (Introit, Gradual, etc.). So it becomes a Missale plenarium, containing all the text of the Mass. Isolated cases of such Missals occur as early as the sixth century. By about the twelfth century they have completely replaced the old Sacramentaries. But Lectionaries and Graduals (with the music) are still written for the readers and choir.
In the same way, but rather later, compilations are made of the various books used for saying the Divine Office. Here too the same motive was at work. The Office was meant to be sung in choir. But there were isolated priests, small country churches without a choir, that could not afford the library of books required for saying it. For their convenience compendiums were made since the eleventh century. Pope Gregory VII
Pope Gregory VII
Pope St. Gregory VII , born Hildebrand of Sovana , was Pope from April 22, 1073, until his death. One of the great reforming popes, he is perhaps best known for the part he played in the Investiture Controversy, his dispute with Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor affirming the primacy of the papal...
(1073-85) issued a compendium of this kind that became very popular. First we hear of Libri nocturnales or matutinales, containing all the lessons and responses for Matins. To these are added later the antiphons and psalms, then the collects and all that is wanted for the other canonical hours too. At the same time epitomes are made for people who recite the Office without the chant. In these the Psalter is often left out; the clergy are supposed to know it by heart. The antiphons, versicles, responsories, even the lessons are indicated only by their first words. The whole is really a kind of concise index to the Office, but sufficient for people who said it day after day and almost knew it by heart. Such little books are called by various names – Epitomata, Portiforia, and then especially Breviaria divini officii (Abbreviations of the Divine Office). They were used mostly by priests on journeys. The parts of these Breviaries were filled up eventually so as to leave nothing to memory, but the convenient arrangement and the name have been kept. It is curious that the word Breviary, which originally meant only a handy epitome for use on journeys and such occasions, came to be the usual name for the Divine Office itself. A priest "said his breviary" that is, recited the canonical hours.
The development of the other books took place in much the same way. The Missals now contained only the Mass and a few morning services intimately connected with it. Daily Mass was the custom for every priest; there was no object in including all the rites used only by a bishop in each Missal. So these rites apart formed the Pontifical. The other non-Eucharistic elements of the old Sacramentary combined with the Libri Agendarum to form the later Ritual.
Council of Trent and after
The Council of Trent (1545-63) considered the question of uniformity in the liturgical books and appointed a commission to examine the question. But the commission found the work of unifying so many and so varied books impossible at the time, and so left it to be done gradually by the popes. The reformed Breviary was promulgated by Pope Pius VPope Pius V
Pope Saint Pius V , born Antonio Ghislieri , was Pope from 1566 to 1572 and is a saint of the Catholic Church. He is chiefly notable for his role in the Council of Trent, the Counter-Reformation, and the standardization of the Roman liturgy within the Latin Church...
with the Apostolic Constitution Quod a nobis of 9 July 1568, and the Roman Missal soon afterward, with the Apostolic Constitution Quo primum of 14 July 1570. The Roman Martyrology was produced by Pope Gregory XIII
Pope Gregory XIII
Pope Gregory XIII , born Ugo Boncompagni, was Pope from 1572 to 1585. He is best known for commissioning and being the namesake for the Gregorian calendar, which remains the internationally-accepted civil calendar to this date.-Youth:He was born the son of Cristoforo Boncompagni and wife Angela...
in 1584. The Roman Pontifical appeared in 1596. The Caeremoniale Episcoporum was issued by Pope Clement VIII
Pope Clement VIII
Pope Clement VIII , born Ippolito Aldobrandini, was Pope from 30 January 1592 to 3 March 1605.-Cardinal:...
in 1600. The Roman Ritual was published in 1614.
All the books have been constantly revised and re-edited with additions and revisions down to our own time, and more information may be found in the articles dedicated to the individual books.
Articles in Wikipedia
Wikipedia has articles on the following liturgical books of the Roman Rite and on their history and content:- Roman MissalRoman MissalThe Roman Missal is the liturgical book that contains the texts and rubrics for the celebration of the Mass in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church.-Situation before the Council of Trent:...
- SacramentarySacramentaryThe Sacramentary is a book of the Middle Ages containing the words spoken by the priest celebrating a Mass and other liturgies of the Church. The books were usually in fact written for bishops or other higher clegy such as abbots, and many lavishly decorated illuminated manuscript sacramentaries...
- Gelasian SacramentaryGelasian SacramentaryThe so-called "Gelasian Sacramentary" is a book of Christian liturgy. A sacramentary contains the priest's texts for celebrating the Eucharist throughout the year...
- Drogo SacramentaryDrogo SacramentaryThe Drogo Sacramentary is a Carolingian illuminated manuscript on vellum of c.850 AD, one of the monuments of Carolingian book illumination...
- Gelasian Sacramentary
- Mass of Paul VIMass of Paul VIThe Mass of Pope Paul VI is the liturgy of the Catholic Mass of the Roman Rite promulgated by Paul VI in 1969, after the Second Vatican Council...
- Tridentine MassTridentine MassThe Tridentine Mass is the form of the Roman Rite Mass contained in the typical editions of the Roman Missal that were published from 1570 to 1962. It was the most widely celebrated Mass liturgy in the world until the introduction of the Mass of Paul VI in December 1969...
- Pre-Tridentine MassPre-Tridentine MassThe term Pre-Tridentine Mass here refers to the variants of the liturgical rite of Mass in Rome before 1570, when, with his bull Quo primum, Pope Pius V made the Roman Missal, as revised by him, obligatory throughout the Latin-Rite or Western Church, except for those places and congregations whose...
- Sacramentary
- LectionaryLectionaryA Lectionary is a book or listing that contains a collection of scripture readings appointed for Christian or Judaic worship on a given day or occasion.-History:...
- Gospel BookGospel BookThe Gospel Book, Evangelion, or Book of the Gospels is a codex or bound volume containing one or more of the four Gospels of the Christian New Testament...
- Gospel Book
- Liturgy of the HoursLiturgy of the hoursThe Liturgy of the Hours or Divine Office is the official set of daily prayers prescribed by the Catholic Church to be recited at the canonical hours by the clergy, religious orders, and laity. The Liturgy of the Hours consists primarily of psalms supplemented by hymns and readings...
- Divine OfficeLiturgy of the hoursThe Liturgy of the Hours or Divine Office is the official set of daily prayers prescribed by the Catholic Church to be recited at the canonical hours by the clergy, religious orders, and laity. The Liturgy of the Hours consists primarily of psalms supplemented by hymns and readings...
- BreviaryBreviaryA breviary is a liturgical book of the Latin liturgical rites of the Catholic Church containing the public or canonical prayers, hymns, the Psalms, readings, and notations for everyday use, especially by bishops, priests, and deacons in the Divine Office...
- Reform of the Roman Breviary by Pope Pius X
- PsalterPsalterA psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the later medieval emergence of the book of hours, psalters were the books most widely owned by wealthy lay persons and were...
- Book of hoursBook of HoursThe book of hours was a devotional book popular in the later Middle Ages. It is the most common type of surviving medieval illuminated manuscript. Like every manuscript, each manuscript book of hours is unique in one way or another, but most contain a similar collection of texts, prayers and...
- Divine Office
- Roman Catholic calendar of saintsRoman Catholic calendar of saintsThe General Roman Calendar indicates the days of the year to which are assigned the liturgical celebrations of saints and of the mysteries of the Lord that are to be observed wherever the Roman Rite is used...
- Tridentine CalendarTridentine CalendarThe Tridentine Calendar is the calendar of saints to be honoured in the course of the liturgical year in the official liturgy of the Roman Rite as reformed by Pope Pius V, implementing a decision of the Council of Trent, which entrusted the task to the Pope....
- General Roman Calendar of 1954
- General Roman Calendar of Pope Pius XIIGeneral Roman Calendar of Pope Pius XIIIn 1955 Pope Pius XII made several changes to the General Roman Calendar of 1954, changes that remained in force only until 1960, when Pope John XXIII, on the basis of further recommendations of the commission that Pius XII had set up, decreed a further revision of the Roman Catholic calendar of...
- General Roman Calendar of 1962General Roman Calendar of 1962This article lists the feast days of the General Roman Calendar as it was in 1962, following the reforms that Pope John XXIII introduced with his motu proprio Rubricarum instructum of 23 July 1960...
- Tridentine Calendar
- Roman PontificalRoman PontificalThe Roman Pontifical or Pontifical, also referred to in Latin as the Pontificale or Pontificale Romanum, is the Roman Catholic liturgical book that contains the rites performed by bishops....
- Roman RitualRoman RitualThe Roman Ritual is one of the official ritual works of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. It contains all of the services which may be performed by a priest or deacon which are not contained within either the Missale Romanum or the Brevarium Romanum...
- BenedictionalBenedictionalA Benedictional is a book containing a collection of benedictions or blessings in use in the Roman Catholic Church, essentially collected from those in sacramentary....
- Benedictional
- Roman MartyrologyRoman MartyrologyThe Roman Martyrology is the official martyrology of the Roman Rite of the Roman Catholic Church. It provides an extensive but not exhaustive list of the saints recognized by the Church.-History:...
- MartyrologyMartyrologyA martyrology is a catalogue or list of martyrs , arranged in the calendar order of their anniversaries or feasts. Local martyrologies record exclusively the custom of a particular Church. Local lists were enriched by names borrowed from neighbouring churches...
- Martyrology of UsuardMartyrology of UsuardUsuard was a Benedictine monk of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris. He seems to have died about the year 875, and the prologue in which he offers to Charles the Bald his most important work, the Martyrology, which he had undertaken at that monarch's instigation, was apparently written very...
- Martyrologium Hieronymianum
- Liberian CatalogueLiberian CatalogueIn compiling the history of the Early Christian Church, the Liberian Catalogue , which was part of the illuminated manuscript known as the Chronography of 354, is an essential document, for it consists of a list of the popes, designated bishops of Rome, ending with Pope Liberius , hence its name...
- Martyrology
- Gradual
- Roman GradualRoman GradualThe Roman Gradual is an official liturgical book of the Roman Rite containing chants, including the Gradual but many more as well, for use at Mass...
- KyrialeKyrialeThe Kyriale is a collection of Gregorian chant settings for the Ordinary of the Mass. It contains eighteen Masses , six Credos, and several ad libitum chants...
- Roman Gradual
- Cæremoniale EpiscoporumCæremoniale EpiscoporumThe Cæremoniale Episcoporum is a book that describes the Church services to be performed by Bishops of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church....
- Ordines Romani
- Liber UsualisLiber UsualisThe Liber Usualis is a book of commonly used Gregorian chants in the Catholic tradition, compiled by the monks of the Abbey of Solesmes in France....
See also
- Texts used in the Roman Rite of Mass
External links
- Catholic Encyclopedia (1910): Liturgical Books
- Éric Palazzo, Madeleine M. Beaumont, A history of liturgical books from the beginning to the thirteenth century (Liturgical Press, 1998 ISBN 0-8146-6167-X, 97808146616730
- Fr. D. J. Wollaston, SDB, Liturgical Catechism, contains chapter on liturgical books used in the Roman Rite (Canisius Books, 2009) ISBN 978-0-9809183-0-4