AUGUSTINE'S LECTIONARY

Andrew McGowan

Readings from Hippo in St Augustine's time can be reconstructed to some extent from his homiletical works: the Sermones, Enarrationes in Psalmos and various tractates.[1]

Sometimes we can be clear about the liturgical use of a reading, psalm or canticle because Augustine refers to it explicitly as sung or read. Since he is liberal in quoting from scripture thematically, other citations must be treated cautiously. In conjunction with a particular feast or season, repeated use of a text in sermons that may come from different years could allow tentative proposals. The location in which Augustine preached a particular address is also important, since a number were delivered at Carthage or elsewhere, and their evidence is accordingly less relevant for Hippo if still valuable in a wider sense.

The Councils of this time in Africa were still establishing which books were appropriate to be read in Church, which suggests that concern for uniformity and consistency was still focussed more widely than on specific lections.[2] The evidence of the sermons is also that there was no year-round lectionary as such in Augustine's time. The Bishop's discretion was paramount; Augustine refers to his choice of readings for particular occasions (362, 93[3]). He sometimes preaches through a particular book in a sequence of sermons. He might accept a lector's mistake as providential and preach accordingly (352). That there were authoritative traditions of readings at particular seasons emerges both in some statements by Augustine (see below with regard to Easter) and in the consistency of texts used in sermons for the same feast in different years.[4]

WILLIS' ST AUGUSTINE'S LECTIONARY

G. G. Willis' study of 1962 is the most specific in English on this subject to date.[5] Willis' purpose was to include only explicit references by Augustine to readings that were used in the liturgy, since other citations are very many and not a reliable basis for reconstruction of lections.[6] Willis is generally trustworthy in deriving readings from the sermons but perhaps less reliable in applying the evidence to the liturgical year, as will be indicated below in comments on particular feasts and texts. Given also that there have been significant studies since St Augustine’s Lectionary, a review of the evidence is timely.[7]

This paper reviews all the major feasts and addresses specific problems, but does not repeat all the information given by Willis. Readings provided in the tables here are allocated a degree of certainty as having been read, from "vague" to "clear." “Vaguely” attested readings are those which are referred to constantly or solely in a sermon that can be dated, or are used in sermons for the same day in successive years. Here "reasonable" indicates the same, with some further positive evidence such as a not wholly unambiguous statement by Augustine that suggests it had been read. A “clear” reading is one referred to explicitly as being used.

There are places where even such qualifications as these cannot suffice to indicate the difficulties in deciding whether or not a reading was used. Where possible, these are discussed in the commentary, especially where my conclusions differ from those of previous studies.[8]

CHRISTMAS AND EPIPHANY

There does not seem to have been either an Advent season as such, or even any less formal liturgical preparation for Christmas at Hippo. Sermons close before and after Christmas show little sense of "season." There are two examples of sermons for the Kalends of January, which are devoted to warning the congregation against Pagan observances; to call this part of an "Octave of Christmas,"[9] let alone "Circumcision"[10] is misleading. Epiphany sermons do look back to Christmas, and the stories told in the Gospels on the two days are often compared.

While the Christmas Gospel seems to have been fixed, other readings are not as clear. It seems possible that there are two patterns attested, one involving Isaiah 1:3 and Psalm 95 (96) and the other Is.53:8 and Psalm 84 (85).[11]

CHRISTMAS READING Isa 1:-3- Isa 53:-8- Ps 84 (85) Ps 95 (96) Rom 5:1f 2 Cor 11:-2- Luke 1-2	SERMONS 190,189[12] 195,196 185,191,192,189 190,189 185 188,191,195 190,193,196	SUPPORT Vague Vague Vague Vague Vague Vague Clear
EPIPHANY READING Ps 18 Eph 2:11-22 Matt 2	SERMONS 200,203,204 200,201,202 199,202	SUPPORT Vague Vague Reasonable

LENT I - GENERAL

Lent was observed at Hippo; the Sermons indicate only that its beginning was a time of admonition to fasting, and that during Lent catechetical and liturgical preparations for Easter baptisms were taking place. Homilies for catechumens may have been given at a separate gathering; these will be treated separately in any case. Some of the Tractates on John's Gospel were given in Lent (7-12), as were some of the Enarrationes (95, 128-133).[13]

One sermon from the beginning of Lent (an exact day is not specified) may indicate readings from the Law, the Prophets, and the Gospel, concerning fasts by Moses, Elijah, and Jesus (205); the same pattern is given in another sermon. The ‘Law’ reading would be either Exod 24:12-18, or more probably Deut 9:8ff, where Moses indicates that he did not eat or drink for forty days. The "Prophets" passage would be 1 Kgs 19; for the Gospel, we can only guess which of the three accounts it was. We should be cautious in accepting Willis' assertion that there were never separate lessons from the Law and Prophets.[14]

The agreement of the Manuscript tradition with the Indiculum of Possidius suggests that Sermons 5, 6, 45 and 137 were preached in succession[15]; the similarity between 6 and 7 indicates these might belong to the same day in different years. There is no clear basis for ordering the other Lenten sermons, and they are listed here in no particular order. Neither these nor others identified by Willis indicate obvious themes or patterns, unless the choice of the time of year for presenting the Tractates reflects the interest shown in John's Gospel in other places during Lent.

BEGINNING OF LENT Deut 9:8ff 1 Kgs 19 Matt 4:1-11	205 (206) " " " "	Reasonable Reasonable or Mk.1/Luke 4
DURING LENT (one day) Gen 32:22-32	5	Clear
(next assembly) Exod 3 Acts 7:-30- John 9:-7-/ Matt 5:1-12	6,7 6,7 7 6	Clear Clear Reasonable Reasonable
(2 days[?] later) John 10:1-16	137	Clear
(another day) Ps 104 (105)	28	Reasonable

LENT II - CATECHESIS

There are sermons associated with the “Tradition” of the Creed and with its “Rendition,” which latter was also the occasion for instruction on the Lord's Prayer. The chronology of these events is not absolutely clear; Willis and Poque put the Traditio on the Saturday 15 days before Easter, the Redditio a week later, but there is also a suggestion that the Traditio was a further week before Easter.[16] Preaching on these occasions was geared to those liturgical texts, but the Matthean account of the Lord's Prayer may have been the Gospel on the day that Prayer was the focus.

CATECHETICAL READINGS Catechesis (one) Job 5:19	216	Vague
(another) John 6	132	Clear
Trad. Symboli Ps 102 Col 1	213 214	Reasonable Reasonable
Redd. Sym/Trad. Pat Rom 10:13-15 Matt 6:9-13	58(56,57,59) 58 (56,57,59)	Reasonable Clear

GOOD FRIDAY

There is no evidence for a Holy Week as such at Hippo. The three sermons that seem appropriate for Good Friday are said only to belong to the "Passion", but evidence (not from sermons) for a Holy Thursday observance counts in favor of a Good Friday also.[17]

Whenever it happened, the reading of the Passion from the Gospels is of particular interest. In a sermon for Easter Tuesday (232) Augustine refers to the discomfiture of the people when he once changed the custom of reading Matthew's Passion. This has been interpreted as referring to his wanting all four Gospels read, but the expression used could well mean that he wanted to read different Gospels in successive years.[18] This would help explain a detailed exposition of John 19 (218) as perhaps belonging to that one ill-fated year, although Augustine might have preached on another reading in any case. The only other attested reading is Psalm 21 (22).[19]

EASTER[20]

Augustine interrupts his sequence of homilies on John's Gospel because Gospel readings were regarded as set for that time of the year (Tract. in Io. Ep., Prol.).

At the Vigil, a series of readings was involved, interspersed with prayer and psalms. Readings other than those clearly cited are presumably among Augustine's scriptural quotations and allusions in sermons of the Vigil, but there are too many of these to separate them out.

The Gospel reading provides a particular problem. Because Augustine refers to Gospel readings for Easter week, beginning with Matthew (232, 235, 247, 239), Willis and Poque agree at least that Matthew 28 was read at the Vigil.[21] The patterns of reading for successive days are as follows:

232 Matthew Mark Luke

247 Matthew Luke Mark John John (Luke?)

235 Matthew Luke

239 Luke Mark

Augustine could have been specific about separate morning and Vigil readings but simply says Matthew was read "primo die." Commentators all seem to assume also that there were two distinct Eucharistic celebrations, one included in the Vigil and another of Easter morning. Yet Augustine's statements provide no further Gospel for Easter morning.

Willis assumes that the second Gospel Augustine indicates in his statements about a sequence was that of Easter morning, which is at odds with the evidence of the sermons of the week.[22]

Poque argues that John 1 was read on Easter morning, given the prominence it receives in the sermons for Easter (e.g. 221[23]). Although it is the Gospel text most discussed, this could also be said for many other sermons throughout the year, and is really only evidence of its importance to Augustine's theology in general and his anti-Arian polemic in particular.[24]

The sermon 223A,[25] which is titled (in the Campanian collection) In Vigiliis Paschae de Principio Genesis and placed at the end of a long series of vigil readings, deals with both Genesis 1 and John 1, like 119[26] and 226[27]. Since these latter are seen as sermons of the morning, the similarity suggests the distinction drawn between the Vigil and the morning service may be illusory. The catalogue of sermons in Augustine's library given by Possidius speaks of twenty-three items from the Vigil but none from Easter day.[28]

Accordingly, the sermons titled of Easter day, rather than the Vigil, are taken here to belong to the later part of proceedings, rather than to a completely different event.

Sermon 227, which is an Easter instruction to the newly baptized on the Eucharist, refers to the reading of the Acts of the Apostles beginning that day, and seems to be placed during the Eucharistic celebration. Hence Acts seems to have been read in course beginning at Easter. This is corroborated by the Tractatus in Epistulam Iohannis, which began on Easter day or the next day and which refer to successive episodes from the Acts. Two different readings are attested on the Sunday after Easter (see below), which suggests that the custom was not of specific readings for specific days.[29]

EASTER VIGIL Gen 1:1ff Exod 3:-14- Exod 15:1f Isa 2 Pr Azar[30] Ps 41 (42) Ps 117 (118) Rom 6:(4-11?) Matt 28

223A[31] 223A 223E[32] Tr.in.Io.Ep.1.13 Cont.Lit.Pet.2.211 En.in.Ps.41.1 223 223B[33] 232,235,247.

Clear Vague Clear (canticle) Clear Clear (canticle) Clear Vague Clear

EASTER WEEK

As already mentioned, Augustine gives various patterns for the reading of Resurrection stories from the Gospels at Easter. These could be reduced to two patterns (see 11 above). Poque seeks to establish four, by allocation of days in Easter week given to the tractates on the Epistle of John in some MSS and Gospel references therein, but this is somewhat overdrawn.[34] It is better to take these references as a general rubric that the accounts all ought to be read. The pattern agreeing with the canonical order of the Gospels may be later, and since Augustine does explain the practice of reading all the Gospels in these terms (235.1) it is logical to see a movement in that direction during his time.[35]

Two particular Gospel readings in this season are worthy of note: on the Sunday after Easter, John 20:24-31 and possibly the preceding verses were read; this seems more fixed than the readings for the week. Secondly, two of the Tractates on John's first Epistle mention Gospels from Matthew 5-6, but whether this is still in Easter week must be open to question. In favor is the MS tradition title of Tr.7 as of Saturday of the week, but Augustine explains the origin of the tractates on the Johannine Epistle by saying that only the Resurrection Gospels could be read that week, hence his suspending preaching on John's Gospel. As the MS titles may be somewhat dubious, the matter remains unclear.[36]

Since there are various patterns attested, that given here is the more "developed" one reflecting the canonical order of the Gospels.[37] The divisions of the passages are somewhat suppositional.

EASTER WEEK Monday Acts 2 Mark 16	Tr.in Io.Ep.2, 229E[38] 233	Clear Clear
Tuesday Luke 24:(1-33?)	232,234	Clear
Wednesday Luke 24:-39-53	242	Clear
Thursday Acts 2-4? John 20:1-18	229G[39] 243,246,244	Reasonable Clear
Friday John 21:1-14	248,249,250,251	Clear
Saturday John 21:15-25	147,253