Master of the Ceremonies of the Apostolic Palace, they were locked up in a box adorned with silk, the keys of the box given to the Master of the Ceremonies by the altarist, and the box itself containing the palls kept amongst the other relics.1

Here we have a distinct recognition of the idea that the pall is a relic, as it is kept among the other relics of the Basilica. But Benedict XIV changes this; and orders the palls, after being blessed, to remain in the confession of St. Peter, close to the tomb of the Apostles. The key, however, is to be kept by the Master of the Ceremonies, as before.2

1 See page 146.

2 See page 149.

An Early Sequence of Liturgical Colours, hitherto but little known, apparently following the Use of the Crusaders' Patriarchal Church in Jerusalem in the Twelfth Century1

IT

T has been said by many that the first writer who gives any complete account of the colours used for the frontals of the altars and the vestments of the ministers is Innocent III. The treatise, De sacro altaris mysterio, was written before the author's election as Pope, and therefore before the year 1198. But there is evidence of the existence of a sequence of colours earlier than this. There are some scattered notices to which I have alluded in my paper, 'On the History of the Liturgical Colours,' of particular colours being assigned to particular days in the tenth and eleventh centuries. And I have also come across an

1 To my knowledge first edited by Josephus Maria Giovene in Kalendaria vetera MSS., Neapoli, typ. Viduai Realis et Filiorum, 1828, p. 7.

2 See the first volume of the Transactions of the St. Paul's Ecclesiological Society.

almost complete sequence of colours belonging to the early twelfth century.

When the Crusaders established themselves in Jerusalem after its conquest in 1099, they set up, as every one knows, a Latin Church, just as they set up a feudal kingdom. The head of this Church was the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, and his patriarchal Church was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, served by Augustinian or Black Canons.

Nothing is more likely than that, as soon as the Patriarch and the canons were settled in Jerusalem, they drew up a particular liturgy of their own, just as every diocese in France and England had a special liturgy and rites of its own. More than sixty years ago Giovene had noticed a manuscript of the end of the thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth century, which belonged to the canons of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Barletta. This MS. was clearly a copy of the Liturgy used at the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem during the Latin domination. This domination lasted from 1100 to 1187, so that the Liturgy would have been compiled between these two dates, and there is internal evidence which shows that it was put together early in the twelfth century.

In his Kalendaria Vetera MSS. (Neapoli, 1828), Giovene gives large extracts from this interesting manuscript. They differ but little from the liturgical forms in use in the Middle Ages in the dioceses of Western Christendom; and it seems impossible to resist the inference that the Black Canons must have brought their Liturgy with them into the Holy Land.

It is very remarkable that the Liturgy should contain a tolerably full account of the colours used by these canons. It is very rare to find much about colours in manuscript missals, and it may be noticed that the account given by Innocent III is not in a liturgical book, but in a treatise on the ceremonies of the mass in vogue in his time. He merely describes the ceremonies which were customary in the Church of Rome some time before his election as Pope, and the book, of course, has no authority beyond that of a contemporary observer. He cannot in any way be said to have promulgated these ceremonies.

The Jerusalem sequence of colours is as follows:

Haec sunt vestimenta quibus solent indui Canonici Dominici sepulchri in festivis diebus. In primis dominica die Adventus Domini, et per totum Ad

ventum, nisi festivitas occurrerit, casulas et cappas cericas (sericas?) nigras. Sabbato (sic) quando pronunciatur missus est Gabriel angelus de melioribus vestimentis casulam et tunicam.

In vigilia natalis Domini quando incipiuntur laudes debent habere archichori cappas cericas nigras. Casulam, tunicam, et dalmaticam nigram cum albis paratis ad missam. Ad vesperas pannus niger ante altare: Prior et archichori cappas nigras ad matutinum similiter. Sed Evangelium Liber generationis cantatur cum melioribus vestimentis deauratis. Missa de nocte cum . . . Casula quae vocatur dracho et aliis nigris vestimentis tamen melioribus omnibusque sunt illius coloris. Ad missam in mane cooperiatur altare panno rubeo super alios duos et Sacerdos diaconus et subdiaconus, et archichori vestimentis rubeis omnibus deauratis

vel fulgentibus auro. Ad magnam missam ante altare optimus pannus super alios tres et omnes habeant alba vestimenta et ad vesperas similiter usque ad antiphonam beati Stephani. In festo beati Stephani vestimentis rubeis omnes usque ad antiphonam beati Johannis Apostoli, albis vestimentis omnes usque ad commemorationem sanctorum innocentium et tunc cum rubeis vestimentis. In circumcisione domini nostri festivitas sicut in nocte nativitatis cum pannis nigris.

In Epiphania domini ante altare pannus celestis, et omnia alia vestimenta sint eiusdem coloris, tamen evangelium factum est autem cantetur cum vestimentis deauratis.