Lectureship

LECTURESHIP. - It is the second of the minor orders in the Latin Church, the only minor order in the Eastern Church, since the subdiaconate has been recognized as a major order. The one who is invested with it, receiving the office of reading Holy Scripture before the assembly of the faithful, is called a lector.

I. HISTORY

The first mention of the lectorate is found in Justin: "Commentarii Apostolorum vel scripta prophetarum leguntur, quoad tempus fert. Deinde ubi lector desiti, antistes oratione admonet et incitat ad haec praeclara imitanda" (Apol., I, 67, 3-4: PG 6, 429). According to de Rossi (in Bullettino di archeologia cristiana, 2nd series, 2 [1871], p. 32) the inscriptions that commemorate Favor and Claudius Attacianus as lectors belong to the 2nd century. At the beginning of the 3rd century Tertullian speaks of the lectorate as of a regularly established Order: he criticizes the Marcionites, among whom: "hodie est diaconus, qui erat lector" (De praescriptione haereticorum, 41: PL 2, 69). Shortly afterward Hippolytus of Rome describes the ordination of the lector: "Lector constituatur episcopo librum apostoli ei dante et oret super eum, manum autem ei non imponat" (Ἀποστολικὴ παράδοσις, ed. A. Casamassa, Rome 1947, p. 22 [for private use]). St. Cyprian frequently recalls the name of the lectors of the Church of Carthage (Ep. 24, 29, 33, 34: PL 4, 294, 310, 326, 329). Pope Cornelius in 251 enumerates the lectors among the members of the Roman clergy (Ep. ad Pubium, in Eusebius, Hist. eccl., VI, 43: PG 20, 621; the lectors and the ostiarii numbered 52). At Cirta, in the persecution of 303, seven lectors were captured (PL 8, 731-33). In the East the lectors are mentioned in the Councils of Antioch (can. 10) and of Laodicea (can. 24), in the Constitutiones Apost. (VIII, 22) and in the Ordinatio ecclesiastica Apostolorum (1, 19).

II. FORMATION OF THE LECTURESHIP

In the 4th century the lectorate was the ordinary beginning of the ecclesiastical life. While the other minor orders were conferred only on the faithful over twenty years of age, even children were admitted to the lectorate: St. Epiphanius of Pavia was a lector at eight years of age, Pope St. Damasus at thirteen, Messius Romulus of Fiesole at fifteen; even Julian the Apostate had been a lector in his youth at Nicomedia. Victor of Vita attests that in the clergy of Carthage "quam plurimi erant lectores infantes" (De persecutione vandalica, 5, 9: PL 58, 246). Very soon they were gathered into a schola lectorum, of which there is evidence for Rome, Lyons, Reims, Perrè (in the regions of the Euphrates). After the 7th century it was transformed into a schola cantorum, since the lectors now had no office but that of singing. The schola had as its head a prior or primicerius, who was assisted by paraphonists, a kind of group leader. Some ancient writer speaks of a master of the lectors. Trained in letters and music, the lectors many times became true secretaries and confidants of the bishops.

III. ORDINATION OF THE LECTOR

St. Cyprian is the first to speak of an ordination of the lector (Ep. 33: PL 4,325). The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus attests that the rite consisted solely in the traditio of the book of the letters, and expressly excludes the imposition of hands, which is instead introduced by the Constitutiones Apost., VIII, 22. The present Byzantine rite has added the traditio libri.

The West has never accepted the imposition of hands, but has perfected the primitive ritual with an admonitio praevia, with an oratio accompanying the traditio of the book, of which there is testimony in the Statuta Ecclesiae antiqua and in the Sacramentarium Gelanianum (PL 74, 1146), and with a final benedictio. This scheme is definitively fixed in the Pontificale romano. According to a response of the Sacred Congregation of Rites (27 Sept. 1873) the codex that the bishop has the ordinands touch may be the Missal, the Breviary or a volume of Sacred Scripture, e.g., a book of the Gospels.

IV. FUNCTIONS OF THE LECTOR

In ancient times the lector not only read and sang Sacred Scripture in the liturgical assemblies (cf. St. Cyprian, Epp. 33 and 34: PL 4, 325, 333), but also guarded its codices (cf. H. Leclercq, L'Afrique chrétienne, I, Paris 1904, pp. 320-23). According to the Roman Pontifical, which fuses Gallican and Roman elements, «lectorem oportet legere ea quae (vel ei qui) praedicat et lectiones cantare et benedicere panem et omnes fructus novos». The Sacred Congregation of Rites declared (27 Sept. 1873) that the clause vel ei qui is a rubric, which the ordaining bishop may freely substitute for the text ea quae.

In practice these functions are now reduced to the reading or chanting of the lectiones alone in the solemn office. Canon 1147 § 4 still grants lectors the power to bless (bread and new fruits, as the Roman Pontifical determines: «de ordinatione lect.»), at least according to the most common interpretation, but its exercise has been abrogated, since these two blessings as well are reserved to priests. - See plate LXXVII.

Antonio Piolanti