REREDOS
782
RERUM
(cf. Ephem. Liturg., 1S99, p. 607); these Masses
have all the pri\-ileges of the exequial low Mass. The
same is true of all the Masses that are said in what are
called mortuary chapels, in the palaces of cardinals,
bishops, and princes, at the death of such personages,
as long as the body remains exposed there, pro\'ided
these Masses are for the repose of the deceased prince
or prelate. By a recent decree of the Sacred Con-
gregation of Rites these Masses are forbidden also
on all Doubles of the Second Class.
D. Low Masses in Cemetery Chapels. — In the public or semi-public oratories of cemeteries, and also in the private chapels erected in burial places, Requiem Masses may be said cverj^ day, providing they be offered for the dead, except (1) on all feasts of precept, inclucUng Sundays ; (2) on the Doubles of the First or of the Second Class; (3) on Ash Wednesday and during Holy Week; (4) on the vigils of Christmas and of Pentecost; and (5) during the privileged octaves of Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Pentecost, and Corpus Christi (S. R. C, deer. 3944). This privilege, how- ever, does not extend to the parochial church, al- though that church may be surrounded by a cemeten,', and therefore considered a cemeterj' chapel; neither does it extend to those oratories which have been erected in disused cemeteries (S. R. C, Deer. 28 April, 1902, in "Ephem. Ut.", 1902, p. 355).
E. Daily Low Masses. — These Masses of Requiem, called daily in the Missal, may be celebrated under the same restrictions as the Rubrics establish for votive Masses (General Decree 3922, III, 2; and Rubr. Miss., V, 5); that is they are allowed on days of the Simple or the Semi-Double Rite, and are forbidden on all days of the Double, even the Lesser Double, Rite, as well as on the days named above under IX. By a recent decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites the daily low Masses are forbidden on the fol- lowing days of a Semi-Double or Simple Rite: (a) all ferials of Lent; (b) quart ertenses; (c) Rogation Monday; (d) ^^gils; (e) ferial on which the office of a Sunday is anticipated. In the Masses of these ferials or \'igils, if they are celebrated for one or more deceased persons, it is permitted to insert, in the penultimate place, the oration for the deceased per- son or persons, and although those Masses are cele- brated in ^^olet or green vestments, nevertheless, by concession of the reigning pontiff, the indulgence of a privileged altar may be gained. The Sacred Congregation of Rites had already declared this by the Decrees nn. 1793, 2041, and 2962. They are of the Semi-Double Rite, and have three prayers at least, and sometimes five or seven, the num- ber always being an odd one, as the Missal shows (V, 4). According to the new hturgical laws, however (S. R. C, deer. 3920), if the Mass is offered for one or more dead who are named, the first prayer is said accordingly, the second is taken ad libitum, and the third is always the " FideUum ". If, on the other hand, the Mass be offered for the dead in general, the three prayers are said as the Missal provides. If the cele- brant wishes to say five or seven praj'ers, he may say two or four, between the second, "Deus veniae", and the last, "Fidelium", from among those given in the Missal, following the order in which they are there given. As is knowTi, the Sequence may be omitted or recited in the daily low IVIass, according to the choice of the celebrant.
Gavan'TI. Thesauru-'^ .^acr. Rilnum, cum nolix Merali (Venice. t799): GuYET. Heorlolonia (Urbinn. 172R1; Cavalieri. Com- turU. in S. R. C. decret. (Bassano. 177S1; Cabpo. Bibliol. Liturg. (Bologna. 1885).— For the now liturKiral law. Ephemeridea Ulurg. (Rome, 1896-1908); de Herdt. Lilurg. Praxis (Louvain. 1902); VAN DER Stappen. Lilurg.: Tract. Miss. (Mechlin, s. d.); Coppi-j AN-D Stimart, Lit. Comp. (Tournai, 1905); Ebkeb. M\s3(r de R. (Laibach, 1903): Aertxts. Comp. Lilurg. (Geloof. 1909): S. L. P., Retuiem Masses in Am. Eccl. Rer.. XXVII (Philadolphia. 1902), 475-501. PlETRO PlACENZA.
Reredos. See Altar, sub-title Altar-Screen.
Renun Creator Optime, the hymn for Matins
of Wednesday in the Divine Office. It comprises
four strophes of four iambic dimeters rhymed in
couplets, e. g.
Rerum Creator optime,
Rectorque noster aspice:
Nos a quiete noxia
Mersos sopore libera. Its ascription to St. Ambrose is not sanctioned by the most recent authorities. Mone cites it as in an eighth-century manuscript at Trier, denjnng it to St. Ambrose because of its rhj-me and thinking it may possibly be by St. Gregory the Great (d. 604); Pimont also refers it to Gregory with the remark that, if a choice must be made between the two, he would certainly choose him; Biraghi does not in- clude it in his inni sinceri of St. Ambrose, nor does Drevesplace it among those "possibly his". Blume thinks that neither St. .Ambrose nor St. Gregory may seriously be considered for ascription of authorship. Daniel, citing it as in a manuscript of the tenth cen- tury at Rheinau, puts it in his category of hj-mns of the seventh and eighth centurj'. Pimont ("Les hj-mnes du bre\-iaLre romain", I Paris, 1874, pp. 192-9) gives the Latin text and an extended commen- tary. The "H\-mnarium Sarisburiense" (London, 1851, p. 49) gives the uncorrected Latin text with various manuscript readings. The variants from the text of the Roman Bre\'iary are nine in number and of small importance, but Pimont thinks that in the couplet of what he styles the texte primilif
Te, sancte Christe, poscimus,
Ignosce Tu criminibus, the contrast between the holiness of Christ and the sinfulness of His petitioners is better emphasized by criminibus than by the culpis of the Roman Bre\'iar}' text (Ignosce culpis omnibus), while the Te of the first line and the 7^u of the second line heighten the energy of the prayer. He also defends gessimus in the line, "Mdes malum quod gessimus", changed in our Bre^•iar^• to fccimus (possibly because in the older poem the three forms, gerendum, gestis, gessimus, of the verb gero, occur in close proximity, and also possibly because of the words of the "Mis- erere") ("Et malum coram Te feci"). There are thirteen translations into English verse, eight by Catholics. Newman's version is given in the Mar- quess of Bute's "The Roman Breviarj-". To the list given in Julian's "Dictionary of HjTnnology" (2nd ed., 1907, p. 956) should be added the version of Archbishop Bagshawe, "INIost Holy Maker of the world" ("Bre\-iary HjTnns and Mis.'^al Sequences", London, 1900, p. 11) and that of Judge D. J. Donahoe, "Creator of the earth and skies" ("Early Christian H\Tnns", New York, 1908. p. 99).
Blume. Die Hymnen des Thes. H>/mnol. H. A. Daniels, etc. in Analectn hymnica. LI (Leipzig, 1909), with MSS. references and readings. JJ. T. HeNBY.
Renun Deus Tenaz Vigor, the daily hjinn for None in the Roman Bre\"iary, comprises (like the hymns for Terce and Sext) only two stanzas of iambic dimeters together with a doxology varjnng according to the feast or season. .\s in the h\-mns for Prime, Sext, and Compline, the theme is found in the steady march of the sun that defines the periods of the day: Rerum, Deus. tenax vigor Immotus in te permanens, Lucis diuma' tempora Successibus determinans. O God, whose power immoved the whole Of Nature's vastness doth control, WTio mark'st the day-hours as they run By steady marches of the sun. The moral application is, as usual, made in the following stanza:
Largire lumen vespere
Quo vita nusquam decidat, etc.
