The Liturgical Prayers of St. Gregory the Great

¹ See Morin, G. O.S.B., ‘Les témoins de la tradition grégorienne,’ Revue Bénédictine 7 (1890) 289–323 (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.

² Op. cit.

³ ‘ La main de saint Grégoire dans le sacramentaire grégorien,’ Revue Bénédictine 49 (1937) 13–28.

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

⁵ MGH Epist. 1 and 2 (1891–1899).

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) 99–103.

⁷ ‘ Gregorian Elements in the Gelasian Sacramentary,’ Ephemerides liturgicae 67 (1953) 14–21.

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).

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

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).

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

¹² Adversus Elipandum 2.9 (PL 101.266–67).

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

¹⁴ Epist. 6 (MGH Epist 5.251.2).

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

¹⁶ De vita sancti Gregorii 2.17 (PL 75.94).

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.

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

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

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

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).

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).

²³ Op. cit. 45.

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]).

²⁵ Text supra, No. 6.

²⁶ Text supra, No. 4.

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).

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

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

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

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

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.

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).

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.

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.

³⁶ Cf. supra note 9.

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

³⁸ See my article, ‘Gregorian Elements in Some Early Gallican Service Books,’ Traditio 13 (1957) 431–443.

³⁹ Ibid. 433–435.

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.

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).

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,

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.

^{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.

^{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.

^{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.

^{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).

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

^{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.

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

^{page 125 note ++} Cf. H. 66/2, 100/8.

^{page 127 note *} H. 25/1 Cf. H. 181/1.

^{page 127 note *} H. 25/3 Cf. H. 105/3, 124/3, 173/3.

^{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.

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

^{page 129 note *} H. 30/3 See note on H. 30/1.

^{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.

^{page 129 note ++} Cf. H. 44/5, 191/5.

^{page 131 note *} H. 34/3 CI. H. 25/3.

^{page 131 note *} H. 38/5 CI. H. 202/48.

^{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.

^{page 134 note *} H. 44/5 Cf. H. 32/1.

^{page 135 note *} H. 44/6 Cf. H. 52/1.

^{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.

^{page 135 note ++} Cf. H. 117/6, 166/6, 191/6.

^{page 136 note *} H. 45/1 Cf. H. 202/1.

^{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.

^{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.

^{page 138 note *} H. 64/4 Cf. H. 202/49.

^{page 140 note *} H. 84/5 Cf. H. 110/5.

^{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.

^{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.

^{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.

^{page 144 note ++} Cf. H. 21/2.

^{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.

^{page 144 note *} H. 102/1 Cf. H. 120/1, 122/1.

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

^{page 147 note *} H. 110/6 Cf. H. 84/5.

^{page 149 note *} H. 120/1 Cf. H. 102/1.

^{page 150 note *} H. 122/1 Cf. H. 102/1.

^{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).

^{page 150 note ++} Cf. H. 129/4.

^{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.

^{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.

^{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.

^{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.

^{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.

^{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.

^{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.

^{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.