The Divine Office | Page 8

barbarous the hymns of men like
Prudentius, Sedulius, Sidonius, Apollinaris, Venantius, St. Ambrose, St.
Paulinus of Aquileia and Rabanus Maurus and to desire to remodel
them after the pattern of Horace's Odes.... It is only fair to give them
the credit, that out of respect for the wishes of Urban VIII. they treated
these compositions with extreme reserve, and while they made some
expressions clearer they maintained the primitive unction in a large
number of passages" (Baudot, The Roman Breviary, part iii., chap. ii.).
The commission appointed by Clement VIII. in his work of revision
and reform included Baronius, Bellarmine and Gavantus. The
commission of Urban VIII. included, amongst other famous men, the
famous Irish friar minor, Luke Wadding (1588-1657).
The need of revision, rearrangement and reform of the Breviary was in
the mind of every Pope, and nearly every one of them took some step
to perfect the historic book. In the eighteenth century Benedict XIV.
(1740-1758) contemplated Breviary reform in some details, particularly
in improving the composition of some legends and of replacing some
homilies of the Fathers. He entrusted this work to Father Danzetta, S.J.,
but when the learned Jesuit's labour was presented to the Pope, so grave
and so contrary were the reasons there put forth, that the Pope thought
it well to abandon the thought of reform. Father Danzetta's notes are
marvels of research and learning. They are to be seen in Ruskovany's
_Coelibatus et Breviarium,_ vol. v. They show to the ignorant and the
sceptical, the dangers and difficulties which all Breviary reformers
have to contend with.
Pope Pius VI. (1775-1799) returned to the project of Breviary reform.
Dom Gueranger tells us that the plan of reform was drawn up and
presented to the Congregation of Rites, but the actual reform was not
entered on. Pope Pius IX. (1846-1878), at the request of Monsignor
Sibour, Archbishop of Paris, appointed a commission to revise the
Breviary, but their report caused the work to be abandoned. Petitions
for reform were sent to the Vatican Council, but very little resulted.
Leo XIII. (1878-1903) enriched the calendar by adding the names of

many saints; he added votive offices, corrected the Breviary lessons for
the feasts of a number of Popes, and, in 1902, he appointed a
commission to deal with the hagiography of the Breviary and with its
liturgy; but his death in the following year ended the work of the
commission,
The unsatisfactory condition of the rules for the recitation of the Divine
Office were apparent to everyone. Scholars feared to face Breviary
reform, the difficulties were so innumerable and so immense. However,
with wonderful courage and prudence, Pope Pius X. (1903-1914)
tackled the work. He resolved not to adopt a series of minor changes in
the Breviary, but to appoint an active commission of reform, whose
first work should be a rearrangement of the psalter which must bring
back the recitation of the Divine Office to its early ideal--the weekly
recitation of the whole psalter. The problem which faced Pope Pius X.
in 1906 was the very same problem which faced his predecessor St,
Pius V. (1566-1572), more than three hundred years ago. St. Pius tried
to solve the problem by a reform of the calendar, but the solution
produced no permanent effect. Pius X. and his commission went to the
root of the difficulty, and by a redistribution of the psalms have made
the ferial and the festive offices almost equal in length, and have so
arranged matters that the frequent recitation of every psalm, and the
possible and probable recitation of every psalm, once every week, is
now an accomplished fact; and the old and much-sought-after ideal--the
weekly recitation of the whole Psalter--is of world-wide practice.
On the publication of the new Psalter, Pope Pius announced that a
commission would undertake a complete revision of the Breviary, a
matter of great importance and one which must demand long years of
care and study to accomplish. A member of the committee which
re-arranged the Psalter, Monsignor Piacenza, tells us that such revision
must embrace:--
1. A reform of the calendar and the drafting of rules for the admission
of feasts into the calendar of the universal Church;
2. The critical revision and correction of the historic and patristic texts;

3. The removal of spurious patristic texts;
4. The remodelling of the rubrics;
5. The institution of a new form of common office for confessors and
for virgins to facilitate the lessening of the number of feasts of saints,
without diminishing the honour due to them (Burton and Myers, _op.
cit._, p. 144).
We may sum up, then, all that has been said in this long section by
stating that from Apostolic times there was public prayer, thrice daily.
The Jewish converts, having the psalms committed to memory