Imprimatur
✠ GULIELMUS,
Episcopus Arindelensis, Vicarius Generalis.
Westmonasterii,
die 24 Feb., 1908.
Friburgi Brisgoviæ,
die 8 Maii, 1906.
Author’s Preface to the First German Edition
In older works on liturgy, the festivals of the Church have been generally dealt with as forming part of a greater whole, while in more recent times various questions relating to them have been discussed in separate articles in encyclopædias and reviews. The time seems now to have come when the cycle of ecclesiastical festivals ought to be regarded as a definite department of study by itself. The older works, besides being difficult of access, do not come up to the standard of modern works on the same subject, and the independent investigations of recent date, although throwing much new light upon some points, have left others untouched, with the result that the reader is unable to gain a clear conception of the matter as a whole.
The solid results gained by investigations into this branch of study in earlier and later times must now be collected, and systematised, and brought up to the level demanded by modern science. Much remains to be done in this department owing to the fresh light that has been thrown upon it by the publication of documents hitherto inaccessible, among which we may mention the so-called Peregrinatio Silviæ discovered by Gamurrini, the Lectionaries of Silos, and the critical edition of the so-called Martyrologium Hieronymianum of de Rossi and Duchesne. The last-named document has so far been more of a hindrance than a help in this branch of study, some attributing too much importance to it, and others none at all.
It has seemed to the author that the time for gathering together the ascertained results derived from these and similar books has come. It is chiefly for theological students and the younger clergy that the following book is intended. Such a work as would make it easy to deal with the subject in sermons and catechetical instructions, and, at the same time, would give clearly and briefly all the information necessary for dealing with the question from the historical standpoint, avoiding equally uncritical credulity and sceptical unbelief—such a work seems to the author demanded by the circumstances of the time.
Moreover, the Minister of Public Worship in Prussia has recently (12th Sept. 1898) required from candidates for the office of catholic teacher in higher grade schools, a considerable acquaintance with the ecclesiastical year among their other qualifications.
This is the reason why the author has confined his attention solely to the worship of the Roman Catholic Church, merely alluding occasionally to the usages of other religious bodies. For the same reason, in accordance with the meaning of the term “Heortology,” he has concerned himself with those festivals alone which are publicly celebrated, or were so celebrated formerly. The majority of these afford no features of historical interest, owing, as they do, their origin to the action of authority. In cases which do not here come under discussion, reference may be made to separate works and to the Bollandists in general. In a matter of such practical interest as this, it cannot fail that some points have been omitted; still, I think, the amount of material collected in the following pages is sufficient for the end I have had in view. In support of the views herein expressed, a somewhat detailed account is given in the third part of the documents which serve as the sources of our information. It has not seemed practical to print a selection from the large number of these documents by way of supplement, since to have done so would have interfered with the object of this book.
Bonn, All Saints’, 1900.