### OBLAZIONARI OF SANT'AMBROGIO
Thus are also called the ten men and ten women, elderly and lay, who composed the *Schola S. Ambrosii veglounum (old men) et vegloniassarum (old women)*, which in the 12th century was summoned by Berloldo
to the material of the Holy Sacrifice.
Now they no longer exist.
pp. 244–51; Moroni, XLVIII, pp. 210–11; L. Duchesne, *Origines du culte chrétien*, sac. ed., Paris 1909, p. 207; J. A. Jungmann, *Missarum sollemnia*, II, Vienna 1948, p. 27. A. Pietro Frutaz
### II. THE “OBLATIONES COMMUNES”
The use of these offerings was a liturgical requisite of the Mass itself.
(VII, 31: ed. F. X. Funk, Paderborn 1905, p. 533), the fruit of the sacrifice. For the rite, V. OFFERTORIO.
### III. THE “OBLATIONES SPECULIARES”
The use of these offerings is attested in the ancient Church (cf. 1 Cor 16:2). St. Paulinus, speaking of what was offered, distinguishes between the offerings for the poor and those for the distribution of the Eucharist.
### IV. THE OFFERING AS A LEGAL INSTITUTION
Originally, the offerings were voluntary and spontaneous. They were later transformed into a juridical institution, especially in the West, where they became obligatory. The first testimonies of this transformation date back to the 4th century. The first collections for the poor and for the Church are mentioned in the canons of the Synod of Sardica (343), and in the letters of St. Basil (Ep. 93, 199, 200, 210).
In the Decretum, Gratian collected very indicative documentation regarding the obligatoriness of the offerings. Suffice it to recall the canon *Omnis christianus* (c. 69 D. I de Consecr.), which reports the canon 13 of the Roman Synod of 1078 under Gregory VII, and the canon *Statutimus* (can. 55 C. 16, q. 1), which, referring to a disposition of Anastasius III (d. 913), imposes a pecuniary composition and excommunication against the recalcitrant. These canons, alongside the chapters *Cum secundum* (c. 16 X, 3, 5) to *ad apostolicam* (c. 42 X, 5, 3), were the principal texts upon which decretists and decretalists based the doctrine regarding the obligatoriness of the offerings. As the primary title of such an obligation, besides the duty to support the sacred minister, the *laudabilis consuetudo* was particularly invoked (c. 42 X, 5, 3).
### V. FURTHER EVOLUTION
The first step in this evolution was the separation of particular offerings from the common offerings; this separation, already noticeable in the 6th century, was accompanied by a general cooling in the impulse to offer, while the emerging concept of obligatoriness paved the way for the autonomy of new institutions that had developed from them, such as, for example, the tithe and the firstfruits. It is certain that originally these were simple offerings later rendered obligatory by custom; by the 7th century they had already become autonomous figures. Even the benefice finds its first root in the particular offerings. Simultaneously, the common offerings for the altar also underwent a transformation that gradually led them to become individual and particular. The collective offering for the celebration of Mass was gradually replaced by individual offerings, so that alongside the *Missa communis* or solemn, there came to be the *Missae peculiares*. Thus, between the 8th and 9th centuries, there arose and consolidated a distinct figure, as a legitimate continuation of the offerings for the altar, the individual *stipendium Missae* (v. ELEUSINI, MISTERI). The common offerings are still found in the 10th and 11th centuries, and only in the 12th century can they be said to have been replaced by the particular stipend. In the Middle Ages, under the term *oblationes*, one primarily understands those *peculiares*, although the distinction from the *communes* seems by then to have lost its foundation. The extension of the term is vast. It comprehends everything that, for whatever reason, is offered in church, in various chapels and altars, and outside the church, *ad domum*. Not only does it include the stipend of Mass, now autonomous, and the *iura stolae* which are its most genuine continuation, but also many other institutions that arose and developed from the common fund of the offerings, such as pious legacies, donations, pious foundations, certain forms of taxes, pious causes, and pious wills in general.
### VI. MODERN LAW
Even today, under the name of *oblationes*, one primarily understands the voluntary offerings collected in church and outside of church for the purpose of worship or pious causes (can. 1503, 1182 § 2, 3; 630 § 4; 691 § 2, 5; etc.), as well as several other more or less obligatory forms of sacred contributions and counter-services, such as the rights of stole (v.), ecclesiastical taxes (v.), Mass stipends (can. 824–44), the *cattedraticum*, the *seminarium-sticum* (v.), and other extraordinary diocesan levies (can. 1505).
**