HOURS
501
HOURS
pronouncement there must be considered (1) the obli-
gatory character of this recitation; it deals with a
precept of the Church which aims at binding to this
duty certain classes of persons whom she makes her
representatives with God. The obligation is founded
on the virtue of religion; its infraction may be a
mortal sin if the omitted part is notaljle. (2) The
validity of private recitation, but in tliis case the per-
son who recites it must actually pronounce the words,
for it is something more than mental prayer. (3) The
persons obliged to recite the hours: (a) All clerics in
Holy orders, that is, all who have received the sub-
diaconate or one of the superior orders, for, since the
twelfth century, the sub-diaconate has been incon-
testably ranked among Holy orders; (Innocentius III,
cap. " Miramur", 7, "de servis non ordinandis"). All
are bound unless legitimately dispensed by the sov-
ereign pontiff even though they are excommunicated,
suspended, or interdicted, (b) AH beneficiaries, that
is, all who enjoy a perpetual right to derive revenue
from the goods of the Church, by reason of a spiritual
charge with which the Church has invested them, even
though they are merely tonsured; this obligation binds
under pain of losing their right to the benefice, in pro-
portion to the extent of their omission, conformal^ly
to the statute of the Fifth Council of the Lateran
(1512-17). (c) Lastly, religious, both men and women,
bound by their rule to the office of choir, from the
instant they have made solemn profession in an order
approved by the Church.
As for the solemnly professed, everyone agrees that they are bound to recite the Office whether in choir, or in private (if they cannot assist at choir), even when they are not yet in Holy orders; this is the meaning of the ancient custom observed in religious orders, and a reply of the Penitentiary has definitively consecrated this interpretation (26 November, 1S.52). But Pope Pius IX having (17 March, 1857) decreed through the Congregation of Regulars that, in future, solemn vows should 1)6 preceded by a trienniate of simple vows the question arose whether during this trienniate the reli- gious are bound to the recitation of Divine Office. The doubt submitted by the general of the Dominicans to the Sacred Congregation on the condition of regu- lars received a negative reply. This reply, neverthe- less, maintained for these religious the oljligation of assisting at choir (6 .August, 1858). Whence it follows that for religious with simple vows exemption from Office Ijears simply on private recitation when they cannot assist at choir. Such is, in brief, the condition of canonical legislation on the oljligation of reciting the canonical hours in as far as concerns persons.
B. — Origins and Successive Development of this Ob- ligation. (1) The official prayer of the Church called in the Bible " the sacrifice of the lips " was from the early times of Christianity confided to persons charged with praying for the whole Christian people. It may be said that the obligation imposed on a class of per- sons is found in germ in the confiding liy the Apostles (.Acts, vi, 4) to the deacons of the external care of the community, the Apostles themselves reserving the duties of prayer and evangelical preaching. (2) We will summarize here the chapters in which Thomassin gives the history of prayer and the development of this obligation (" Vetus et nova eeclesi® disciplina ",. Part I, II, Ixxii sqq.; Roskovany has treated the same subject in "Coelibatus et Breviarium", v, viii, xi, xii). During the first five centuries, although the christian body under the presidency of the bishop and priests took part daily in the Divine Offices, clerics were under a stricter obligation to assist thereat; if they were prevented by some other duty they were under obligation to supply the omission by private recitation. Witness for the Church of the Orient in the fourth century this text of the Apostolic Constitu- tions: " Precationes facite mane et tertia hora, ac sexta et nona vespera atque in gallicinio" (VIII,
xxxiv, P. G., I, 11.35). The same chapter adds that if
the assembly could not take place in the Church be-
cause of the infidels, the bishop should assemble his
flock in some private house, and if he could not, each
one should discharge this pious duty either alone or
with two or three of his brethren. Thus, says Thom-
assin, from the infancy of the Church there lias been a
Divine Office composed of psalms, prayers, and les-
sons, this office has been publicly chanted in the
churches or oratories, the ecclesiastics were charged
with presiding at the prayer in union with the bishop,
the faithful were included in the same obligation of
piety, and if prevented from assembling these prayers
had to be said in private. The liturgical prescriptions
of the Council of Laodicea (c. .387) which appear to be
borrowed from the Liturgy of Constantinople are an
echo of these practices (Hefele-Leclercq, " Histoire des
conciles", I, 994). The anchorites, disciples of St.
Pachomius, the monks of Egypt and the Thebaid
derived inspiration from this legislation of the Church
regarding prayer (see Sozomen, " Hist. Eccles.", P. G.,
LXVII, c. 1071; Cassian, "De coenobiorum institu-
tione", P. L., XLIX, c. 82-7).
In this way the idea of the Church is manifested; if she no longer formulates in precise terms the law of prayer for clerics and monks she lets it be understood to what extent she holds them bound. Clerics are by their ordination attachetl to the service of a church; the principal function of the ministers in each church is the Mass and public prayer; this public prayer con- sists in the recitation of the Divine Office. It must be remarked further that the material subsistence of clerics is assured them by the Church as a consequence of their ordination, but on condition that they assist at Divine Office; those who fail will have no part in the daily distributions. For the Western Church the same conclusion is drawn from the manner in which the Fathers express themselves when they speak of public prayer (see some of their testimony in this respect under BRE^^.\RY). In their eyes, in the meas- ure in which they are formed and developed, the can- onical hours are as the attestation and result of the continual prayer of the Church; clerics have so many more reasons for taking an active part, as they have more liberty and leisure, and it is in great measure to this end that an honest livelihood is assured them. From the fifth century councils formulated laws on this subject with sanctions and penalties; such is the fourteenth canon of a provincial council of the prov- ince of Tours held at Vannes, in Brittany, in 465. (Hefele-Leclercq, "Histoire des conciles", II, 905; see also Baumer, "Histoire du Br6viaire", I 219. For Spain may be mentioned various decisions of a council held at Toledo about 400. Hefele-Leclercq, op. cit., II, 123.)
(3) Sixth to eighth century. — Decisions multiplied especially in the West obliging clerics to celebrate publicly the Divine Office. To-day the "statuta ecclesise antiqua" are most commonly ascribed to the sixth century and the Church of .-Vrles in Gaul, though long attributed to the fourth Council of Carthage (.398); canon xlix ordains "that a cleric who without being sick fails in the vigils should be deprived of his benefice (Hefele-Leclercq, "Histoire des conciles", II, 105). Particular councils followed in great num- bers and, while displaying solicitude in establishing uniformity in the order of psalmody and the Office, made regulations for their worthy celebration by priests, deacons, and the other members of the clergy. The monks, called upon to supply the insufficiency of the clergj' in the accomplishment of this duty, had likewise to abide l:)y these decisions; indeed, on many occasions they were instrumental in their preparation. Among these councils may be quoted that of Agde in 506, that of Tarragona in 516, that of Epaon in 517, etc. In these councils the aim was to follow the Eastern and the Roman usages. The
