COMES (liber comitis, liber comicus). — The Comes was originally simply a book for private spiritual reading, containing a collection of texts from Holy Scripture and other devout authors. This is precisely what the word *comes* means, i.e., “companion,” and it was used for both persons and things. For example, the *paidagogos*, or tutor of young boys, was called by the Romans *comes* because he had to accompany the boy entrusted to him everywhere. Likewise, the book that was to accompany the Christian throughout his life as his spiritual *vademecum* was called a Comes. (Cf. C. Du Cange, *Glossarium ad scriptores mediae et infimae latinitatis*, new ed., Paris 1937, p. 422).
However, the word *comes* soon came to acquire a particular technical sense in the field of liturgy, and in this sense it designated the book containing the passages from Holy Scripture to be read at Mass throughout the liturgical year. The best-known collection that went by this name is the one attributed by medieval liturgists to St. Jerome and reworked by Alcuin at the behest of Charlemagne (v. LITURGIA).
The first printed editions of this Comes, such as J. Pamelius, *Liturgicon ecclesiae latinae*, Cologne 1571, p. 1 ff.; G. M. Tomasi, *Opera omnia*, ed. A. F. Vezzosi, V, Rome 1750, pp. 297 ff.; *PL* 30, 487–532, etc., provided only the *incipits* and *explicits* of the individual passages, since these were well known; however, this method of publication led some later authors to believe that the word *comes* designated exclusively an “index” of the passages, i.e., a “capitulare,” but this is incorrect. The Comes was a book containing the full text of the individual passages, as is clearly shown by recent editions, such as that of Alcuin’s Comes, edited by A. Wilmart, *Le lectionnaire d’Alcuin*, Rome 1937 (offprint from *Ephemerides liturgicae*). It should be noted, however, that besides the term *comes*, there were many other names for the various types of books containing the passages for Mass (v. EPISTOLARIO; EVANGELIARIO; LEZIONARIO).
Giuseppe Löw
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**“COME SE,” PHILOSOPHY OF.** — Title of VAIHINGER, HANS (v.) and summary formula (*als ob* or *wie wenn*) of the interpretation he attempted of Kantian philosophy. With this elaborate conjunction, Vaihinger sought to express precisely the so-called “method of fictions,” which plays a more or less significant role in all the sciences and demonstrates the enormous task exercised by appearances of representations and judgments based on false convictions in the conception of the world and of life. He characterized this philosophy as “positivist idealism.”