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| Chapter V. How the fact that the number of the Psalms was to be twelve was received from the teaching of an angel.
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Chapter V.
How the fact that the number of the Psalms was to be
twelve was received from the teaching of an angel.
For in the early days of
the faith when only a few, and those the best of men, were known by the
name of monks, who, as they received that mode of life from the
Evangelist Mark of blessed memory, the first to preside over the Church
of Alexandria as Bishop, not only preserved those grand characteristics
for which we read, in the Acts of the Apostles, that the Church and
multitude of believers in primitive times was famous (“The
multitude of believers had one heart and one soul. Nor did any of them
say that any of the things which he possessed was his own: but they had
all things common; for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold
them, and brought the price of the things which they sold, and laid it
at the feet of the Apostles, and distribution was made to every man as
he had need”),683
but they added
to these characteristics others still more sublime. For withdrawing
into more secluded spots outside the cities they led a life marked by
such rigorous abstinence
that even to those of another creed the
exalted character of their life was a standing marvel. For they gave
themselves up to the reading of Holy Scripture and to prayers and to
manual labour night and day with such fervour that they had no desire
or thoughts of food—unless on the second or third day bodily
hunger684
| 684 Petschenig’s
text has inedia, others inediam. | reminded them, and they took their meat
and drink not so much because they wished for it as because it was
necessary for life; and even then they took it not before sunset, in
order that they might connect the hours of daylight with the practice
of spiritual meditations, and the care of the body with the night, and
might perform other things much more exalted than these. And about
these matters, one who has never heard anything from one who is at home
in such things, may learn from ecclesiastical history.685
| 685 Cf. Eusebius, Book
II. c. xv., xvi. Sozomen, Book I. c. xii., xiii. | At that time, therefore, when the
perfection of the primitive Church remained unbroken, and was still
preserved fresh in the memory by their followers and successors, and
when the fervent faith of the few had not yet grown lukewarm by being
dispersed among the many, the venerable fathers with watchful care made
provision for those to come after them, and met together to discuss
what plan should be adopted for the daily worship throughout the whole
body of the brethren; that they might hand on to those who should
succeed them a legacy of piety and peace that was free from all dispute
and dissension, for they were afraid that in regard of the daily
services some difference or dispute might arise among those who joined
together in the same worship, and at some time or other it might send
forth a poisonous root of error or jealousy or schism among those who
came after. And when each man in proportion to his own
fervour—and unmindful of the weakness of others—thought
that that should be appointed which he judged was quite easy by
considering his own faith and strength, taking too little account of
what would be possible for the great mass of the brethren in general
(wherein a very large proportion of weak ones is sure to be found); and
when in different degrees they strove, each according to his own
powers, to fix an enormous number of Psalms, and some were for fifty,
others sixty, and some, not content with this number, thought that they
actually ought to go beyond it,—there was such a holy difference
of opinion in their pious discussion on the rule of their religion that
the time for their Vesper office came before the sacred question was
decided; and, as they were going to celebrate their daily rites and
prayers, one rose up in the midst to chant the Psalms to the Lord. And
while they were all sitting (as is still the custom in Egypt686
), with their minds intently fixed on the
words of the chanter, when he had sung eleven Psalms, separated by
prayers introduced between them, verse after verse being evenly
enunciated,687
| 687
Cumque…undecim Psalmos orationum interjectione distinctos
contiguis versibus parili pronunciatione cantassat. | he finished the
twelfth with a response of Alleluia,688
| 688 So, according to
the Benedictine rule, the Psalms at mattins are ended with Alleluia (c.
ix.): “After these three lessons with their responds there shall
follow the remaining six Psalms with the Alleluia.” Cf. c. xi.
and xv. | and then,
by his sudden disappearance from the eyes of all, put an end at once to
their discussion and their service.689
| 689 This story is
referred to in the Eighteenth Canon of the Second Council of Tours,
a.d. 567. “The statutes of the Fathers
have prescribed that twelve Psalms be said at the Twelfth (i.e.
Vespers), with Alleluia, which, moreover, they learnt from the showing
of an angel.” | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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