Before
doing this, however, it may be profitable to explain the general rules for
repeating responsories during the week. If a feria does not have proper texts,
those of the preceding Sunday are generally used: those from the first nocturn
on Monday and Thursday; those of the second on Tuesday and Friday; those of the
third on Wednesday and Saturday (which is presumably why the Saturdays after
Epiphany reused those of Wednesday after the loss of their proper texts).
During Paschaltide, when the Te Deum usually replaces a third
responsory, the first two of each nocturn are used. The same order is normally
followed for taking responsories from a Common on a simplex feast. When the
third nocturn has only one or two responsories that can be repeated (because of
the Te Deum and/or a text that is specific to the Sunday), the second
and third on Wednesday and Saturday are the second and third of the preceding
Monday, if that day had propers, or from the first nocturn of Sunday. These
general rules can help in understanding some of the rearrangements described
below, although in some weeks, other arrangements are followed. For example,
during the weeks of Sexagesima and Quinquagesima, the Wednesdays and Saturdays
use the first of the two proper responsories appointed for Monday. It should
also be noted that not all the Breviaries explicitly print which responsory to
use after each lesson: some, especially the older ones, will often just give
directions to use those of the preceding week, or to use the Sunday’s ones on
ferias according to the usual order.
The first
change in arrangement occurs on the Wednesday in the second week of Advent. All
the breviaries examined agree on the first two texts: Rex noster adveniet and
Ante multum tempus, both taken from the previous Wednesday. For the
third, however, there is some discrepancy. Given that the responsories of
Monday and Tuesday of that week, and the first two of Wednesday, are taken, not
from the previous Sunday, but from the proper ferial texts of the previous
week, one may expect Ecce dies veniunt to be used here, and this is what
we find in the rubrics of the Vatican 1568 as well as editions from 1570, 1575,
1580 and 1587. From 1592, however, as well as in the other 1568 breviary, the
text given is Ecce Dominus veniet cum splendore, which is the ninth
responsory from the Second Sunday of Advent. This is particularly surprising in
the 1568 given the agreement of other early breviaries, and also because this
and the 1592 edition both have the same rubric on Monday as the editions mentioned
above; namely, to use the preceding week’s responsories until Thursday.
From Thursday, one is directed to reuse the Second Sunday’s texts in the usual
order (this split arrangement is unique to this week). In the 1610 breviary,
that rubric for Monday – Wednesday has been removed, and the opening words of
the appropriate responsories are printed after each lesson. The reason for the
change may have been that the preceding Wednesday only had two proper
responsories, the third, Ecce dies veniunt, being the last of the First
Sunday of Advent. Thus, it may have been deemed appropriate to replace this
with the ninth responsory of the Second Sunday during the second week of
Advent. The new arrangement remained through subsequent reforms, including that
of 1960.
The next
discrepancy concerns the Epiphany. From 1575, nearly all the texts examined
specify that the first responsory of the feast, Hodie in Jordane, is
repeated on the Sunday within the Octave and the Octave Day, whilst the other
days in the Octave have an alternative text, Tria sunt munera. The same
arrangement can be inferred from the Rubricæ generales of the 1568 and
1570 editions, but I have not found it stated anywhere in the Vatican 1568,
which has much sparser rubrics at the beginning compared to other editions
(just six and a half pages compared to thirty-five in the other 1568 edition).
More surprisingly, the 1592 edition gives Hodie in Jordane as expected
for the Octave Day, but Tria sunt munera for the Sunday. Given that this
edition has the same prescription in the Rubricæ generales as 1570, it
seems reasonable to suspect this is simply a misprint.
For the
next change, we jump to Paschaltide. The first discrepancy I noted here seems
to be another typographical error. All the versions I checked give Plateæ
tuæ and Decantabant for the Wednesday after the Third Sunday after
Pasha, except for the Vatican 1568, which gives Dignus es Domine for the
second. The reason I think this may be a misprint is that the rubric in this
edition states to use this responsory from the third nocturn of Sunday. Dignus
es Domine, however, is from the first nocturn, whereas Decantabant,
which all the others give, is from the third nocturn.
Rogation
Monday presents the next discrepancy. This day, alone of all the days in
Paschaltide, has three responsories, since it lacks the Te Deum. The
1568 Breviaries both give Si oblitus, Viderunt te and Narrabo,
which are all from the first nocturn of the preceding Sunday. As the general
rubrics direct one to use the responsories of the first nocturn on a Monday,
this makes sense. However, the preceding Sunday (the Fifth Sunday after Pascha)
repeats the responsories of the Fourth Sunday. In cases like this, it is common
to reuse proper ferial texts from that week in the subsequent week as well. And
thus from 1570–1592, we find Dicant nunc, Cantate Domino and Si
oblitus, the first two being from the preceding Monday, the last being the
first of Sunday. From 1610 onwards, the first two remain unchanged, but the
third is restored to Narrabo, the third of Sunday’s responsories. This
gives the impression of subsequent changes trying to ‘tidy up’ the arrangement
a bit to be more in line with the usual rules. A comparison with other Mondays
that have only two proper texts reveals that they use the third of Sunday’s
rather than the first to supply the third responsory (see Septuagesima,
Sexagesima, Quinquagesima, the second week of Lent and the first week of
September). This does not seem to be an unchanging rule though, since Decantabant,
discussed in the previous paragraph, is the first, not the second, responsory
of the third nocturn of that week.
The next
two changes are found in the third week after Pentecost. The first two
responsories assigned to the Tuesday of this week are consistently Domine,
si conversus and Factum est dum tolleret. These are both proper to
Tuesday, and are used on all subsequent ferial Tuesdays until August.
(Interestingly, they were not used in the first week after Pentecost, but I
would hazard a guess that this is because the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity
prevents the use of the Sunday’s responsories, so these are distributed over
the first three days of that week. The second week is within the Octave of
Corpus Christi, so uses the responsories composed by St Thomas Aquinas for that
feast.) From 1568 to 1580, the third responsory was Percussit Saul, the
first of the second nocturn of the preceding Sunday. From 1592 onwards,
however, this is replaced by Ego te tuli, the third of that nocturn.
Unfortunately, the breviary I found from 1587 only goes as far as the octave of
Pentecost, so I have not yet been able to determine the date of this change
further. Clement VIII ascended the papal throne early in 1592, so it seems
possible, given that many other changes described here occurred in his reign,
that he authorised this. As mentioned above, it does seem to be a case of
making this day conform to the general rule.
The
following day sees more consistency across the Breviaries, with all those
examined save one giving Peccavi, Exaudisti and Audi Domine. The
first is the first of the third nocturn of the preceding Sunday. The eighth of
Sunday is specific to Sundays (Duo Seraphim, used on all Sundays after
Epiphany and Pentecost), so the second and third are taken from Monday’s
propers. So all is as one would expect from the general rubrics. The Vatican
reprint of the 1568, however, (but, notably, not the other 1568 edition) gives Montes
Gelboe, Ego te tuli and Peccavi, which are the fifth, sixth
and seventh of Sunday. At first this seems an odd arrangement, but when it is
remembered that the last responsory of the previous day was the fourth of
Sunday at that time, one can see a certain logic to it. The only other, vague,
support for this arrangement I have found so far is that the 1570 breviary,
though referencing the same responsories as the other editions, adds that the
first is from the second nocturn of Sunday, the last from the third. This is
not correct for Peccavi (which is actually from the third) or Audi
Domine, but would be correct for the Vatican 1568 arrangement, but given
the names of the responsories are unmistakable, it seems these are
typographical mistakes, though perhaps influenced by that alternative
arrangement.
Our final
example from the temporal comes from the very end of the year: the Wednesdays
of November. The 1568 editions give Indicabo, Laudabilis populus and
Redemit populum, being respectively proper, the seventh of Sunday, and
the first of Monday. The 1570 and all later editions have Indicabo, Angustiæ
and Misit Dominus, the latter two being the second and third proper
texts of Monday and thus agreeing with the general rubric. It should also be
noted, however, that the 1568 editions do often print a rubric at the end of
Sundays, giving which responsories are to be used on Wednesdays and Saturdays
of that week. In November, this doesn’t specifically mention Wednesday or
Saturday, but states Infra hebdomadam ii. & iii. R. secundæ feriæ (during
the week, the second and third responsories of Monday [are used]), so does seem
to be pointing to the use of Angustiæ and Misit for those days,
in which case, perhaps the 1570 was correcting a typographical error rather
than altering the texts.
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