Five Sundays after Epiphany. { Four Sundays _post Pentecosten_. { Five Sundays _post natale SS. Apostolorum_. 21 { Five Sundays _post natale S. Laurentii_. { One _Dominica mensis septimi_. { Six Sundays _post S. Angeli_ _scil._ _dedicationem basilicæ S. Archangeli_ (_Michælis_). Four Sundays in Advent. The Gregorian sacramentary, written for Mainz under Archbishop Otgar about 840, has six Sundays after Epiphany, four _post Pentecosten_, then six _post natale Apostolorum_, six more _post natale S. Laurentii_ and eight _post S. Archangeli_—in all, twenty-four. The Lectionary of Luxeuil of the seventh century stands alone in giving merely two Sundays _post Theophaniam_, and three _post Cathedram S. Petri_. The Sundays in Lent as well as Septuagesima are not marked in any special way. The first of these peculiarities is less remarkable since, even in the Gelasian sacramentary, the Sundays after Epiphany are not given a distinctive name. All these attempts to split up the Sundays into small groups were subsequently abandoned, and the simple manner of enumeration found in the Roman rite was adopted. A careful observer will have noticed that the year is divided into two very unequal parts. The movable feasts all fall in the first half, leaving the second half devoid of festivals. Even the week-days in Lent, and in the octaves of Easter and Pentecost, are each provided with special lections and masses. Without doubt this is due to the fact that in the earliest times the entire season before Easter was occupied with the instruction of Catechumens. The necessity of providing them with as much instruction as possible led to this increased liturgical activity. It appears almost as if the abandonment of the Catechumenate resulted in a decrease of this activity, and brought matters to a standstill. A long period elapsed before any fresh efforts were made in the direction of completing the course of the ecclesiastical year. The Greeks have stopped short with their ecclesiastical year only half made. They have a fairly complete cycle of Easter festivals, and they have adopted Christmas, but without its proper setting since they have no Advent. But their manner of enumerating the Sundays after Pentecost is very different from that adopted in the West. That is to say, they name the Sundays after the passages of Scripture read in the Gospel for the day.