[Footnote 122: In the 4th century, S. Basil writing to the clergy of Neocesarea observes, that the litanies, which they then used, were introduced after the time of S. Gregory Thaumaturgus (Epist. 63). In Gaul about the year 452, S. Mamertus bishop of Vienne appointed solemn litanies to be recited on the three _rogation_ days. "At Rome," say Palmer, "no doubt litanies were in use at an early period, since we find that in the time of Gregory the great (A.D. 590), the appellation of litany had been so long given to processional supplications, that it was then familiarly applied to those persons who formed the procession". Vol. 1, p. 271. That holy Pontiff gave the following directions; "Let the litany of the clergy set out from the church of S. John the Baptist, the litany of the men from the church of the holy martyr Marcellus, the litany of the monks from the church of SS John and Paul: the litany of the handmaids of God from the church of the blessed martyrs Cosmas and Damian, the litany of the married women from the church of the blessed protomartyr Stephen; the litany of the widows from the church of the blessed martyr Vitalis, the litany of the poor and children from the church of the blessed martyr Cecilia". Vita S. Gregorii a Joanne Diacono, lib. 1, c. 42. That the litanies were recited on holy-saturday appears from several ancient _rites_ quoted by Marlene (De Ant. Eccl. Ritibus, lib. 4, c. XXV, and lib. 1, c. I, art. 18). Palmer, wishing to defend the liturgy of the church of England, maintains the antiquity of litanies, but pretends that the invocations of saints were not originally contained in them, but were added to them in the west about the eighth century (vol. I, p. 289). From a passage in Walafridus Strabo he is led to admit that at _his_ time (the ninth century) "these invocations must have been _for some time_ in use, and accordingly manuscript litanies containing invocations have been discovered by learned men, which appear from internal evidence to be as old as the eighth century". He attempts however by _negative_ arguments to shew, that these invocations are not more ancient than that period; although at the same time he confesses that "we have no _distinct account_ of the _nature_ of the service which was used on occasions of peculiar supplication during the earliest ages". p. 272. To his arguments we may oppose the _positive_ testimony of Walafridus Strabo, who says "The litany of the holy names is believed to have come into use after Jerome, following Eusebius of Cesarea, had composed the martyrology". A long time, about three centuries, elapsed before the _canon_ of the scriptures was determined; and it is not therefore surprising if the _canon_ of saints, (if such it may be called), who died at considerable intervals, required some time for its formation. Invocations of the saints in ancient litanies may be seen ap. Martene (lib. 4f c. 27 and lib. 1, c. 1, art. 18). One would conceive from Palmer's account