Heortology : $b A history of the Christian festivals from their origin to the present dayKellner, K. A. Heinrich (Karl Adam Heinrich)
Religion
Heortology : $b A history of the Christian festivals from their origin to the present day
Kellner, K. A. Heinrich (Karl Adam Heinrich)
Church year; Fasts and feasts
While there had been calendars in the West containing the names of
martyrs belonging to a particular diocese or country, the compiler of
the _Hieronymianum_ regarded the Church as a whole—as catholic. The
meaning of this will be seen from a glance at the service-books, the
sacramentaries especially. In the ninth century and later, the Roman
sacramentaries, even those intended for use in other countries such as
those of St Gall, Mainz, Cologne, and Essen, contain only Masses for the
Roman saints, confining themselves to one or two local saints in the
supplement. The principle of universality only very gradually affected
the formularies of the Mass, and did not reach its full expression until
the sixteenth century, but it came to the fore much earlier in the
martyrologies, as early indeed as Ado, Usuardus, Notker, and Rabanus
Maurus, chiefly owing to the influence of the _Hieronymianum_.
This document is not without peculiarities of its own. In all recensions
of the text, the 25th March is given as the day of Christ’s death, and
since James the Lord’s brother, here called also “The Just,” died at
Easter, his death is placed also on the 25th March. In the Berne Codex
the sacrifice of Isaac is commemorated on the same day. There is a goodly
array of Old Testament names, _e.g._ Aggeus, Habacuc, Job, Joel, Aaron,
Eliseus, etc. In the Berne Codex, the 28th September is given as the day
of Noe’s going out of the ark, the 7th January as the day of the Exodus,
and the 1st May as the commencement of our Lord’s preaching.
Now that the date of its composition has been fixed, the _Hieronymianum_
is specially valuable for the information which it gives concerning
Frankish hagiography and its gradual development. Whoever will
devote himself in the future to investigating St Denys of Paris, St
Ursula, etc., must pursue his studies in the various recensions and
transcriptions of the _Hieronymianum_. It will well repay the trouble,
if someone would investigate how many of the reputed martyrs of Lower
Germany are named in this important document. It only knows of two
martyrs at Cologne, Asclinius and Pamphilus, in addition to the Moorish
martyrs whose numbers, however, vary greatly in the MSS.; their commander
is named Gereon. No saints are given for Mainz. For Treves we have
Valerius, Paulinus, Maximinus, and a Bishop Militius; Palmatius Thyrsus
and his Innumerable Company had not yet been discovered or invented. For
Bonn the connection in which Cassius, Florentius, and Mallusius stand to
one another on the 10th October is worthy of notice. We find some African
martyrs first of all on this day, and then, without indication of Bonn or
any other locality, we have: “Et alibi Cassi, Eusebi, Florenti, Victoris,
Agrippinæ, Mallusi cum alii trecentos xxx.” (_sic_). The later legends
omit Eusebius, and put Mallusius instead, who was buried at Birten and
discovered by Bishop Evergisil; the martyr Victor is said to have been
also originally buried at Birten.[778]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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