From Easter to Whitsunday, the Gospels for Sundays and other days are taken from St John; from the Sunday after Pentecost to the exaltation of the Holy Cross (14th September), from St Matthew; and for the following fifteen weeks from St Luke. The former Sundays are called Sundays after St Matthew, the latter, Sundays after St Luke. The latter extend over the New Year and Epiphany—for no notice is taken of Advent in the lections. St Mark’s Gospel supplies lections for most of the Saturdays and Sundays of Lent, as well as for a number of week-days throughout the course of the year. But the Sundays in question are not called Sundays after St Mark, any more than the Sundays between Easter and Pentecost are called Sundays after St John; but they take their names partly from their position as Sundays in Lent and partly from the incidents related in the Gospel for the day. In the Eastern system the connection between the Sundays and the festivals is purely external and not organic.[398] In speaking of the ecclesiastical year of the Greeks and Orientals, it must be borne in mind that they do not possess the same quantity of formularies for the Mass as we do, but, throughout the course of the year, they employ only two or three. The result is monotony, and it is practically only the Gospel for the day in which the festal character of the celebration finds expression. Among the Latins, on the other hand, the introit, collect, etc., all emphasise the character of the feast, and still more clearly the lections from Scripture. On this account, a few remarks as to their origin and that of the lections in the Breviary may not be out of place. Evidence for the earliest period is lacking, but there is no doubt the choice of what was to be read rested with the bishop and that he also fixed the length of the lections. In certain cases, and for many days, the choice presented no difficulty, the lections being determined by the character of the feast itself. We can, for example, determine the lections for a number of days used in the fourth century in Jerusalem. Several of them agree with those now in use.[399] Very early, a series of lections for the canonical hours must have been drawn up for use in monasteries, and then this in its turn influenced the lections in the liturgy. In the Middle Ages, it was thought that St Jerome was the originator of such a series of lections, and accordingly the lectionary was called by his name. It is certain that a lectionary existed as early as the fifth century, for which the so-called _Carta Cornutiana_ affords proof.[400]