EASTER
226
EASTEE
chapters, and little responses is taken by the jubilus,
"Haec Dies quam fecit Dominus, exultemus et laite-
mur in ea". The Masses of Easter Week have a se-
quence of dramatic character, "Victimae paschali",
which was composed by Wipo, a Burgundian priest at
the courts of Conrad II and Henry III. The present
Preface is abridged from the longer Preface of the
Gregorian Sacramentary. The "C'ommunicantes"
and " Hanc igitur" contain references to the solemn
baptism of Easter eve. To the " Benedicamus Dom-
ino " of Lauds and Vespers and to the " Ite Missa est "
of the Mass two alleluias are added during the entire
octave. Every day of the octave has a special Mass;
an old MS. Spanish missal of 855 contains three
Masses for Easter Sunday; the GalUcan missals have
two Masses for every day of the week, one of which
was celebrated at four in the morning, preceded by a
procession (Migne, La Liturgie Catholique, Paris,
1S63, p. 952). In the Gelasian Sacramentary every
day of Easter Week has its own Preface (Probst, Sac-
ramentarien, p. 226).
To have a correct idea of the Easter celebration and its Masses, we must remember that it was intimately connected with the solemn rite of baptism. The preparatory liturgical acts commenced on the eve and were continued during the night. When the number of persons to be baptized was great, the sacramental c.eremonies and the Easter celebration were united. This connexion was severed at a time when, the dis- cipline having changed, even the recollection of the old traditions was lost. The greater part of the cere- monies was transferred to the morning hours of Holy Saturday. This change, however, did not produce a new liturgical creation adapted to the new order of things. The old baptismal ceremonies were left un- touched and have now, apparently, no other reason for preservation than their antiquity. The gap left in the hturgical services after the solemnities of the night had been transferred to the morning of Holy Saturday was filled in France, Germany, and some other countries bj' a twofold new ceremony, which, however, was never adopted in Rome. — First, there was the commemoration of the Resurrection of Christ. At midnight, before Matins, the clergy in silence en- tered the dark church and removed the cross from the sepulchre to the high altar. Then the candles were lit, the doors opened, and a solemn procession was held with the cross through the church, the cloister, or cemetery. Whilst the procession moved from the altar to the door, the beautiful old antiphon, "Cum Rex glorisE ", was sung, the first part softly {humili ac depressd foce), to sjTnbolize the sadness of the souls in limbo; from Adrenisti dcsiderabilis the singers raised their voices in jubilation wliilst the acolytes rang small bells which they carried. The full text of this anti- phon, which has disappeared from the liturgy, follows: Cum rex gloria Christus infernum debellaturus intraret. et chorus angelicus ante faciem ejus por- tas principum tolli pra?ciperet, sanctorum popu- lus, qui tenebatur in morte captivus, voce lacri- mabili clamabat dicens: Advenisti desiderabilis, quern expectabamus in tenebris, ut educeres hac nocte vinculatos de claustris. Te nostra voca- bant suspiria, te larga requirebant lamenta, tu factus est spes desperatis, magna consolatio in tormentis. AUeluja. When the procession returned, in many churches the ".\ttollite portas" (Ps. xxiii) was sung at the door, in order to symbolize the victorious entrj' of Christ into limbo and hell. After the procession Matins were sung. In later centuries the Blessed Sacrament took the place of the cross in the procession. This ceremony is, with the approval of the Holy See, still held in Germany on the eve of Easter with simpler ceremonies, in the form of a popvilar devotion. — Sec- ond, the visitation of the Sepulchre. After the third lesson of theNoctum two clerics, representing the holy
women, went to the empty sepulchre where anothei
cleric (angel) announced to them that the Sav-iour was
risen. The two then brought the message to the choir,
whereupon two priests, impersonating Peter and John,
ran to the tomb and. finding it empty, showed to the
people the linen in which the body had been wrapped.
Then the choir sang the "Te Deum" and the "Vic-
timae paschali ". In some churches, e. g. at Rouen,
the apparition of Christ to Mary Magtlalen was also
represented. Out of this solemn ceremony, which
dates back to the tenth century, grew the numerous
Easter plays. (Nord-Amerikanisches Pastoralblatt,
Oct., 1907, p. 149, has a long article on these two cer-
emonies.) The Easter plays in the beginning used only
the words of the Gospels and the "Victimse paschali";
in the course of development they became regular
dramas, in Latin or vernacular verses, which con-
tained the negotiation between the vender of un-
guents and the three women, the dialogue between
Pilate and the Jews asking for soldiers to guard the
Sepulchre, the contest of Peter and John running to
the tomb, the risen Saviour appearing to Magdalen,
and the descent of Christ into hell. Towards the end
of the Middle Ages the tone of these plays became
worldly, and they were filled with long burlesque
speeches of salve-dealers, Jews, soldiers, and demons
(Creizenach, Gesch. des neueu Dramas, Halle, 1893).
The procession combined with the solemn Second
Vespers of Easter Sunday is very old. There was
great variety in the manner of solemnizing these
Vespers. The service commenced with the nine
Kyrie Eleisons, sung as in the Easter Ma.ss, even
sometimes with the corresponding trope lux et origo
botii. After the third psalm the whole choir went in
procession to the baptismal chapel, where the fourth
psalm, the "Victima; paschali", and the Magnificat
were sung; thence the procession moved to the great
cross at the entrance to the sanctuary (choir), and
from there, after the fifth psalm and the Magnificat
were sung, to the empty sepulchre, where the services
were concluded. The Carmelites and a number of
French dioceses, e. g. Paris, Lyons, Besancon, Chartres,
Laval, have, with the permission of the Holy See,
retained these solemn Easter Vespers since the re-in-
troduetion of the Roman Breviary. But they are
celelirated differently in every diocese, very much mod-
ernized in some churches. At Lyons the Magnificat
is sung three times. In Cologne and Trier the solemn
^'espe^s of Easter were abolished in the nineteenth
century (Nord-Amerikanisches Pastoralblatt, April,
190S, p. 50). Whilst the Latin Rite admits only com-
memorations of saints in Lauds. Mass, and Vespers
from Wednesday in Easter Week and excludes any
commemoration on the first three days of the week,
the Greek and Russian Churches transfer the occurring
Offices (canons) of the saints from Matins to Complin
during the entire oct.ave, even on Easter Sunday.
After the Anti-pascha (Low Sunday), the canons and
other canticles of Easter are continued in the entire
Office up to Ascension Day, and the canons of the
saints take only the second place in Matins. Also
the Greeks and Russians have a solemn procession at
midnight, before Matins, during which they sing at
the tloor of the church Ps. Ixvii. repeating after each
verse the Easter antiphon. When the procession
leaves, the church is dark; when it retvims, hundreds
of candles and coloured lamps are lit to represent
the splendour of Christ's Resurrection. After Lauds
all those who are present give each other the Easter
kiss, not excluding even the beggar. Oncsays: "Christ
is risen"; the other answers: "He is truly risen";
and these words are the Russians' greeting during
Easter time. A similar custom had, through the in-
fluence of the Byzantine court, been adopted at Rome
for a time. The greeting was: Surrexit Dominris
vere; R. Kt apparuit Simoni. (Maximilianus, Princ.
Sax., Praelect. de liturg. Orient., I, 114; Mart^ne, De
