Gregory prepared the people for the procession some days before by a sermon. The procession was divided into seven parts, and hence received the name of _Litania Septiformis_. Each division started from a different church, and all met in the basilica of St Mary Major. As Gregory says in another place, “The return of this annual solemnity warns us to keep it with devout hearts,” we conclude it was not a new observance just introduced.[427] In Rome the _litaniæ_ of Rogation Week, as the _Liber Pontificalis_ informs us, were first adopted under Leo III. (795-816), through the Frankish influence[428] then dominant there. The observance of days of penitence in this season of the year was a departure from the original principle that the Quinquagesima was a time of ecclesiastical joy, as Amalarius rightly observes. The procession of the 25th April belonged especially to the city of Rome, and the name _litania major_ is due to the fact that the processions of Rogation Week were only introduced later. They too were performed with great solemnity. In other places there were yet other days appointed for litanies, but whether in addition to those already mentioned or in place of them is not clear. Thus the second Council of Lyons in 567, in its sixth canon, enjoined that in the first week of November, litanies similar to those customary before the Ascension should be performed. The Church of Milan celebrated the Rogations in the week after the Ascension. The Council of Gerunda in 517, in its second canon, places them in the week after Pentecost, and a second _litania_ on the first of November when it was not a Sunday (Ib., Can. 3). The second canon of the sixth Council of Toledo (638) places them on the Ides of December. It may be conjectured from this that the litanies in Spain developed on peculiar lines.[429] Here as in Gaul, the Rogation Days were kept as fasts. In Germany, the Rogations were only introduced in the ninth century, for the Council of Mainz in 813 (Can. 33), prescribed they should be observed by a three days’ fast, and the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle in 836 (Can. 11), ordered expressly the performance of the processions after the Roman manner. 3. _The Dedication of a Church and the Festival of the Patron Saint_ The festival of the dedication of a Church has indeed no connection with the ecclesiastical year, and the festival of the patron saint belongs to the same category as the ordinary saints’ days, but formerly, and even to some extent at the present time, both have such a marked position among the festivals that they deserve some special mention.