Roman Ritual

ROMAN RITUAL. - Liturgical book of the Latin Church for priests, containing the ceremonies for the administration of the Sacraments, for the assistance of the sick, and the formulas of the numerous blessings (v. LIBRI LITURGICI).

I. HISTORICAL FRAMEWORK

Only from the 6th-7th century is it possible to ascertain the existence of special libelli for ritual, sacramentary and sacramental purposes. The Fourth Council of Toledo (633) ordained in can. 26 (Mansi, X, 627) that the bishop should provide every priest whom he sent to the care of a parish of a libellus officialis which could only be a small R. A Capitulary of 742 (ed. Et. Baluze, I, 824) likewise recommends the libellus ordinis, which is the same thing. However, the ritual notices were rather included in the Liber Sacramentorum, which served the priest primarily for the Mass but ordinarily also contained the formulas for the administration of the Sacraments, for the care of souls (illness, death, burial) and for the blessing of the things most needed. With the 8th-9th centuries the rites and ceremonies reserved to bishops pass into the first attempts at pontificals (v.), while the rites and formulas common to priests pass slowly into collections of their own bearing the most varied denominations: manuale, obsequiale, ordinarius, pastorale, etc.

The oldest R. preserved, as far as is known, is the one written for the use of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine, in the monastery of Sankt Florian (Upper Austria), and still existing there (CFI, XI, 467), a parchment booklet which begins with the blessing of the candles on the feast of the Purification. From the 12th century certain notices of R. in use in various churches have been preserved. The Dominican Anselm of Ermland, first bishop of Warmia (1250-77), brought a Dominican R. into his diocese, adapting it for the secular clergy: this is the first official diocesan R. From this period diocesan and provincial synods also begin to take an interest in the R., above all to procure a certain uniformity within the diocese or ecclesiastical province and to obviate the insertion of superstitious and suspect texts and formulas. At the provincial Council of Salzburg (14 April 1465), under Archbishop Sigismund of Volkerndorf, all the suffragans insisted on the compilation of a common R.

Among the first printed books R.'s are often found, and from then on the editions are controlled by the diocesan authorities. Considerable importance had the Sacerdotale seu Liber sacerdotalis collectus (Rome 1523) published by the Dominican A. Castellani, in whose compilation Leo X had taken an interest; Pius IV, then, after the author's death, had the work examined and corrected; it had not a few editions, among them, for example, that of 1506 with the title: Sacerdotale ad consuetudinem S. R. Ecclesiae aliarumque Ecclesiarum. Castellani, following the practice of these books, had introduced into it, besides the strictly liturgical-ritual texts, also many pastoral treatises, based on the writings of the Fathers, of the scholastics or canonists; in the later editions the canons of the Council of Trent were also introduced. Thus a true ritual-pastoral compendium had been formed.

The Council of Trent, treating in sess. VII of the Sacraments in general, condemned all personal arbitrariness as regards rites; however in sess. XXIV (De reformatione matrimonii, cap. 1) it also took up the defense of reasonable particular rites and ceremonies. This provision then passed over and still remains in the R. r. (ed. 1952, tit. VIII [olim VII], cap. 2, 6). After the Council of Trent the Lateran canon Franc. Samarino prepared and published a new Sacerdotale sive sacerdotum thesaurus ad consuetudinem S. R. E. aliarumque Ecclesiarum collectus iuxta Tridentini Concilii sanctiones. Venice 1579, of which A. Rocca (v.) edited the three editions of 1583, 1587 and 1597. Meanwhile Card. A. Santoro, encouraged by Gregory XIII and Gregory XIV, had set his hand to a new R. and the work was already in print when the author died in 1602, and the publication was interrupted. There exist 26 copies with an added title page (v. B. Löwenberg, Das R. des Kard. Jul. Ant. Sanctorius. Ein Beitrage zur Entstehungsgeschichte des R. R., Munich 1937). The printed [copy] comprises 712 pages and is a true mine of rites and treatises, gathered from a very notable quantity of sources, Italian and foreign. Indeed, Santori had certain rites tested for some years, in order to check their pastoral efficacy. Meanwhile various extracts from his Sacerdotale were printed which had enormous

(Int. Enc. Cstl.)
ROMAN RITUAL - R. Wesprimiens seu formula agendarum in administratione Sacramentorum, ac cæteris Ecclesiae Publicis Functionibus, Iussu et authoritate, Josephi Bajrath de Pézzah, episcopi Wesprimiensis, Wesprimii, typis Michaelis Semmer, 1801, p. 20; part of the rite of Baptism in Latin, Hungarian, German and Croatian - Vatican City, copy from the Archives of the S. Congregation of Rites.

diffusion, such as, for example, the Ordo baptizandi iuxta ritum S. R. Eccl., 1575, with numerous editions up to 1623.

II. THE « R. r. ». - Paul V (1605-21) thought of completing the collection of official Roman liturgical books with the edition of the R.; therefore in 1612 he instituted a commission of cardinals of the S. Congregation of Rites which took as its basis the work of Card. Santori, which was distributed to the members of the Commission itself (v. B. Löwenberg, Die Erstausgabe des R. R. von 1614, in Zeitschr. f. kath. Theol., 66 [1942], 141-47; a valuable study, in which are also indicated, on the basis of a ms. from the Barberini collection of the Vatican Library [Barb. lat. 1022, ff. 56-68], the sources that served for the definitive compilation of the R. R. One can observe the Commission's concern to seek out the most ancient and purely Roman rites; cf. also G. Mercati, Ancora sul R. del card. Santori, in Rass. gregoriana, 5 [1906], 443-46). Finally, with a bull of 17 June 1614, the first official edition of the R. r. appeared; but unlike the other official Roman liturgical books, it was not prescribed but only recommended. With the first editions (v. the list in Zaccaria, op. cit. in bibl.), the R. r., as was to be expected, spread rapidly throughout the Catholic world. But precisely because its use had only been recommended, proper ritual books continued to circulate everywhere, at times adapted in various ways to the R. r., and even when Ordinaries introduced the R. r. into their dioceses, particular R. often persisted, at least in part. Benedict XIV also had a new and revised edition of the R. r. prepared, with additions, which he approved with the brief Quam ardenti studio of 25 March 1752. Finally Leo XIII published in 1884 the first « typical » edition. Another appeared under the b. Pius X, approved by the S. Congr. of Rites on 11 June 1913 (v. L. Barin, Le mutazioni al R. r. secondo l'edizione tipica, Rome-Rovigo 1915).

The publication of the CIC, in 1917, made necessary a complete revision of the R. r., which appeared with the approval of the S. Congr. of Rites on 10 June (v. also AAS, 17 [1925], p. 326), but not as a « typical » edition (v. anon., Il nuovo R., in Il Monitore ecclesiastico, 37 [1925], p. 293 ff.; Fr. Schubert, Das neue R. r., in Liturgische Zeitschr., 2 [1930], pp. 161-74; and above all Fr. Battistini, De novo R. R. ed. Vaticana, in Eph. lit., 38 [1925], pp. 221, 246, 287, 308, 341, 387 ff.). In 1952, finally, with the approval of the S. Congr. of Rites (25 Jan.) the new typical edition appeared with a completely remade arrangement, with some rubrical retouching and the necessary additions (cf. M. Brandys - I. Pizzoni, in Ephemerides lit., 66 [1952], pp. 220-24; H. Schmidt, Editio typica 1952 Ritualis Romani, in Periodica de re morali, canonica, liturgica, 41 [1952], pp. 157-82; the author makes interesting observations therein).

III. THE « R. r. » TODAY: OBLIGATION. - The R. r., as appears from the pontifical document of Paul V that has remained at its head, was only recommended for use to all those whose concern it is; but later the S. Congr. of Rites declared it obligatory for all parochial functions (Decr. auth., 1642, ad 7); moreover the Ordinary can oblige all parish priests and all other priests ad Ritualis Romani praescripta omnia servanda, notwithstanding any contrary custom, even immemorial (Decr. auth., 3276, ad 6); on the other hand the S. Congr. has established that licet ubique adhiberi et in quibuscumque functionibus il R. r., even when there exists a discordant approved diocesan R. (Decr. auth., 3792 dub. IX). But by now all dioceses have adopted the R. r., and insofar as they still preserve their own rites and functions, they submit them to the approval of the S. Congr. of Rites. In practice, therefore, it can be said that the R. r. in its substance is in force throughout the Roman Catholic world and that the S. Congr. of Rites continues to approve the particular rites existing in ancient dioceses, faithful to the desire of the Council of Trent that rites and ceremonies worthy of being maintained be preserved as well.

IV. « R. », PARTICULAR NON-ROMAN, AND THE QUESTION OF LANGUAGE

There exists no systematic study concerning the ancient particular R., manuscript and printed. Zaccaria (v. bibl.) published a list of printed ones for his time, very considerable; Franz (v. bibl.) goes far beyond it, although he is far from being complete.

From the earliest printed R. there are examples of the use of the vernacular, to a greater or lesser extent, up to a complete or nearly complete version of it. The R. r., faithful to tradition and to the spirit of the Church of Rome, has very few references to the vernacular; thus in the general instruction preceding on the administration of the Sacraments (tit. I, n. 10), then several times in the particular instructions the priest is admonished to explain beforehand what he is about to do so that the faithful may follow it attentively. When the form of Baptism is discussed (tit. II, cap. 1, n. 9), it is explicitly prescribed: Latinus presbyter latina forma semper utatur; the apostolic delegation, however, by which a priest may confer St. Confirmation, lingua vernacula legatur, alta et intelligibile voce; likewise the fitting admonition to the confirmands and godparents. In the Sacrament of Matrimony the questions to the spouses are to be asked, by express command of the rubric, vulgari sermone. In 1575, therefore, even before the R. r., the Libellus agendorum of the archdiocese of Salzburg appeared with not a few texts in the vernacular (the questions in Baptism, prayers for the care of the sick, Matrimony, etc., blessings) and with an appendix of popular songs in German. The Sacerdotale Basileense of 1595, for the diocese of Basel, has the relevant texts in German and French; in the Agenda Colonensis Ecclesiae (Cologne 1614) there is found, besides the calendar proper to the diocese, and, in the ritual part, the questions and prayers in the vernacular, also an entire small catechism in German.

As soon as the R. r. appeared, translations into the vernacular also began; at Rome itself in 1621; into Albanian in 1640, into Croatian, into French (Lyons); in 1646 another at Paris; an Italian version appeared at Lucca in 1724. Much more widespread were the abridged editions, that is, extracts from the R. r. for various circumstances: Baptismale, Poenitentiale, Exsequiale, Processionale, etc., often also in vernacular versions, for example, Le petit Rituel romain (Avignon, no date, 17th century) and many similar editions.

The R. of Alet had great renown: Rituel romain... à l'usage du diocèse d'Alet, in Languedoc, due to the Jansenist bishop N. Pavillon (1597-1677), in Latin, but with many texts in the vernacular; in the rubrics and explanations there are found erroneous Jansenist infiltrations, so much so that Clement IX placed it on the Index (1668; v. Pastor, XIV, I, pp. 462 ff., p. 483); a similar fate befell in 1725 the R. r., published with additions by P. Lucatelli at Bergamo. Meanwhile the diocesan editions of their own R. continued undisturbed, more or less dependent on the R. r., and with variously extensive use of the vernacular, such as the R. sacramentorum ac aliarum Ecclesiae caerimoniarum (Braunsberg, 1733) for the diocese of Warmia, with Polish and German texts; the already cited one of Basel which now bears the title Rituale Basiliense iuxta R. R. (1700, 1739, 1788); those of the dioceses and Josephine ones, that is, erected by Joseph II in Austria, R. R. usibus dioecesis S. Hippolyti accomodatum (St. Pölten 1787), with Latin and vernacular text, and many others likewise. Very noteworthy and also instructive for the question and the difficulties in regions of mixed language is the R. Romanum Zagabriense (Zagreb 1796) which often gives the texts in five columns: Latin, Croatian, Slovenian, Hungarian and German, to which must be added the Ritual Rimski (Venice 1827); of the same type is the R. Westprimiense (Hungary 1801), with text in four columns: Latin, Hungarian, German and Slovak, and that of Strigonia (1859) with the same title and the same arrangements.

In 1875 a Rituel romain-lyonnais appeared with a double text, Latin and vernacular; at Bahia, in Brazil, in 1869 an R. in Latin and Portuguese; while throughout Austria, Hungary, Poland, Alsace the polyglot R. continued. In 1906 an R. in Danish appeared for Denmark and Iceland. An R. published at Barcelona (1912) has in vol. II (1914) some texts in Spanish. With the explicit approval of the Sacred Congregation of Rites there appeared in 1927 an R. R... Ecclesiae Poloniae adaptatum (Katowice) with texts in Latin, Polish, German, French, Lithuanian and Russian. An edition entirely in Croatian received the approval of the Sacred Congregation of Rites in 1930, for the use of the Catholics of Yugoslavia. In 1932 the same Sacred Congregation permitted the Agenda provinciae ecclesiasticae Moraviae (Olomouc), where there is also found a special decree concerning usum linguae vulgaris in liturgia in territorio ditionis Caecocleucacae, of 21 May 1920. Again in 1936 there was published at Scepusio (Slovakia) an R. omnium latini ritus dioecesium Slovacchiae, ad instar Appendicis R. R. with texts in Latin, Slovak, German, Hungarian. In 1950 there appeared at Toledo an R. R... cum Appendice Toletana in the Spanish language. But above all the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda has been very generous in granting the vernacular in ritual books for the missionary regions; thus India, Indochina, Japan, New Guinea and Africa have their own R. in the vernacular for liturgical use.

Important is the R. parvum ad usum dioecesium Gallicae linguae (Tours 1948), approved by the Sacred Congregation of Rites on 28 Nov. 1947 and with extensive use of the French language, for whose use general norms are also given. Well known is the very recent Collectio rituum ad instar appendicis Ritualis Romani pro omnibus Germaniae dioecesibus (Regensburg 1950), with the approval of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, dated 21 March 1950, a truly excellent work, prepared over years under the direction of the German episcopate, taking into account the particular uses still in force and with extensive use of the vernacular. - See plate LV.

Giuseppe Low