LITANY. This word ([Greek: litaneia]), like [Greek: litê] (both from [Greek: litomai]), is used by Eusebius and Chrysostom, commonly in the plural, in a general sense, to denote a prayer or prayers of any sort, whether public or private; it is similarly employed in the law of Arcadius (_Cod. Theod._ xvi. tit. 5, leg. 30), which forbids heretics to hold assemblies in the city "ad litaniam faciendam." But some trace of a more technical meaning is found in the epistle (_Ep._ 63) of Basil to the church of Neocaesarea, in which he argues, against those who were objecting to certain innovations, that neither were "litanies" used in the time of Gregory Thaumaturgus. The nature of the recently introduced litanies, which must be assumed to have been practised at Neocaesarea in Basil's day, can only be conjectured; probably they had many points in common with the "rogationes," which, according to Sidonius Apollinaris, had been coming into occasional use in France about the beginning of the 5th century, especially when rain or fine weather was desired, and, so far as the three fast days before Ascension were concerned, were first fixed, for one particular district at least, by Mamertus or Mamercus of Vienne (A.D. c. 450). We gather that they were penitential and intercessory prayers offered by the community while going about in procession, fasting and clothed in sackcloth. In the following century the manner of making litanies was to some extent regulated for the entire Eastern empire by one of the _Novels_ of Justinian, which forbade their celebration without the presence of the bishops and clergy, and ordered that the crosses which were carried in procession should not be deposited elsewhere than in churches, nor be carried by any but duly appointed persons. The first synod of Orleans (A.D. 511) enjoins for all Gaul that the "litanies" before Ascension be celebrated for three days; on these days all menials are to be exempt from work, so that every one may be free to attend divine service. The diet is to be the same as in Quadragesima; clerks not observing these rogations are to be punished by the bishop. In A.D. 517 the synod of Gerunda provided for two sets of "litanies"; the first were to be observed for three days (from Thursday to Saturday) in the week after Pentecost with fasting, the second for three days from November 1. The second council of Vaison (529), consisting of twelve bishops, ordered the _Kyrie eleison_--now first introduced from the Eastern Church--to be sung at matins, mass and vespers.