(Gk. evangelion; Lat. evangelium etc.).
In Eastern and Western Christian liturgies, the final biblical lesson in the Liturgy of the Word, or pre-eucharistic synaxis (see Mass, §1). It was traditionally chanted by a deacon to a recitation tone that was normally simple but occasionally subject to elaboration.
2. The Latin liturgical books transmitting the Gospels.
MICHEL HUGLO, JAMES McKINNON
The first section of the Eucharist in all the ancient liturgies contains a series of lessons concluding with one from the Gospels. The Gospel, because it bore direct witness to the life and teaching of Christ, was accorded a place of pre-eminence, underlined by an elaboration of ceremonies at the point where it occurs: for example, the book containing the Gospel was carried in solemn procession from the altar to the ambo from which it was read. Such a procession, with lighted candles, was already attested by St Jerome (d 420). The procession came eventually to be accompanied by a chant: an antiphona ante evangelium in the Gallican rite and at certain festivals in the Ambrosian rite; an alleluia with verse, followed by a prosa or sequence in the Roman rite; or a monophonic conductus. (Although the texts of the chants are not always clearly related to those of the Gospels, the psalm verses originally sung with the alleluias of Easter week were gradually replaced by verses from the Gospels of the Easter cycle, though not always those of the day.)
There were no readings from the Gospels in the earliest eucharistic celebrations for the simple reason that the books were not written until near the end of the 1st century. The earliest description of a pre-eucharistic synaxis, however, that of Justin Martyr (d c165), refers to both Gospel and Old Testament readings: ‘the memoirs of the Apostles and the writings of the Prophets are read as long as time permits’ (First Apology, 67). It is not known precisely when the Gospel achieved its fixed position as an obligatory reading at the end of the pre-eucharistic series, but it clearly occupies this place in a wealth of 4th-century patristic references, both Eastern and Western.
At one time it was believed that in the early Church the Gospel was read according to the system of lectio continua or scriptura currens, that is, the resumption of the reading of a text from the point where it had been discontinued at the previous service. Liturgical historians are now more inclined to look upon such a practice as more appropriate to an instructional gathering than to the Eucharist. Certainly the 4th-century literature provides little evidence of lectio continua but rather creates the impression that the choice of Gospel each day was at the discretion of the presiding bishop.
With the passage of time certain readings became traditional for certain dates, particularly the major festivals, a practice that developed along with the growth of the liturgical year, although the lack of early sources makes the process difficult to trace, especially at Rome. Finally, however, a series of 42 homilies on the Gospel of the day preached by Gregory the Great (590–604) establish the late 6th-century Roman Gospels for the 42 liturgical occasions in question. These Gospels can be compared with those of the so-called π-type of Roman evangeliary from about 645 (see Klauser); the Gospels of this book, the earliest complete Roman evangeliary that can be reconstructed, are largely the same as the standard medieval readings. The comparison shows that by Gregory’s time, the Gospels for many of the important dates of the Temporale were fixed but that most of those for ordinary Sundays and for sanctoral dates were not.
Gospels were chosen, whenever possible, by the obvious expedient of liturgical appropriateness; thus the Gospel for the night-time Mass of Christmas is Luke ii.1–14, where the birth of Jesus is narrated, and the Gospel for Quadragesima Sunday is Matthew iv.1–11, which tells of Jesus’s 40-day fast in the desert. Other factors could enter in when there was no clear choice available: the Roman stations (see Rome, §II, 1), for example, determined the Gospel of some Lenten weekdays, and the proximity of certain sanctoral dates had a similar effect on a few of the post-Pentecostal Sundays.
Three methods were employed to record the choice of Gospels in Latin manuscripts (Roman and non-Roman alike): the use of marginal markings in Gospel books or Bibles; the provision of lists of readings with their incipits and explicits; the readings were given in full. These three methods conform to a broad chronological continuum if not an absolute one; they existed together for several centuries during the early Middle Ages.
The first method, that of marginal markings, was introduced at a time when the selection of liturgical readings was still fluid and scriptural books continued to be employed as liturgical books. The beginning of a reading would be indicated by an ‘X’ or cross in the margin, while much less often its ending would also be marked, for example, by the letter ‘F’.
Lists of readings were referred to as capitularia, that is, lists of capitula (chapters). These came into common use as the annual cycle of Gospels became both longer and more stable. A typical listing gave the festival, the Roman station (see Rome, §II, 1), and the incipit and explicit of the reading; for example, the indication for night-time Mass of Christmas might read: In natale domini ad scam Mariam maiorem. Scd. Luc. Cap. III. ‘Exiit edictum a Caesare Augusto’ usq. ‘Pax hominibus bonae voluntatis’. Luc. Cap. III, the equivalent of the later Luke ii.1–14, is a reference to the so-called Eusebian sections or canons, an ancient sectionalization of the Gospels that was in use long before the medieval system of chapters and verses. Capitularia were generally added at the end of a Gospel book or Bible. The book might already have marginal indications, and in many cases the later capitularia gave readings that differed from those indicated by the marginal markings.
A book providing the complete readings was rare at first, something of a luxury for the average church, but by the later Middle Ages it had become the preferred type. It is generally referred to today as an evangeliary; when combined with the book of Epistles (the epistolary), as was often the case in later centuries, it is called a lectionary. In earlier centuries a book with complete readings of either Gospels or Epistles was sometimes called a comes (‘companion’).
The Roman gradual of 1907 prescribed two ways of chanting the Gospel: a simple tone (with a variant) and another, ‘ancient’ tone. The simple tone consists of an unvarying recitation on a monotone C with a single inflection on the fifth syllable from the end (ex.1). Its optional variant permits further inflections at cadences (at the end of a sentence) or half-cadences, and a slightly more elaborate final cadence (ex.2). Ex.3 shows the structure of the ‘ancient’ tone. (On variants in Italian manuscripts, see MGG1, iii, 1619–20.)
The genealogy of Christ was sung, either at Matins or at the end of Mass, according to Matthew i.1–16 on Christmas night, and to Luke iv.23–8 at Epiphany. The St Matthew genealogy contains three series of 14 names (see Matthew i.17), in groups of three or four according to the different traditional tones. Even in the oldest evangeliaries, some of the St Matthew genealogies were notated with neumes, for example, in the 9th-century Gospels of Noyon Cathedral, the 9th-century Gospels of Avesgaud, copied at Tours (F-Pn lat.261, f.19v), the 9th-century Gospels of Corbie (Pn lat.11958, f.14r; see fig.1) and the 10th-century Gospels of St Denis (Pn n.a.lat.305).
Many manuscripts contain this genealogy notated diastematically (missals, breviaries and evangeliaries; see the facsimiles cited by Bernard). Several tones may be distinguished: one with F as final, four with D as final and 14 with E as final; the official version of the Vatican edition is one of the latter group. (The final may vary at the end of the genealogy; for variants, see MGG1, iii, 1623–5.) This genealogy was sometimes performed by three readers, occasionally in polyphony (see (v) below).
The St Luke genealogy is arranged differently from the St Matthew: Matthew traces Christ’s ancestors to Abraham, whereas Luke goes back to the Creation, and in the reverse order. The names are often copied in columns in the liturgical books, rather than in long lines, and are sometimes provided with neumes: for example, B-Br 18723 (9th century, from Xanten); F-LM 76 (10th century, from La Couture); Pn lat.270, f.70v (9th century, from the school of Corbie); Pn lat.8849 (c830, from Salzburg; lacking neumes); Pn lat.11956, f.110v (9th century, from Noyon); Psg 1190, f.105 (see Bernard, i, pl.ix); GB-Lbl Add.9381 (9th or 10th century, from St Petroc).
In the manuscripts with diastematic notation, eight distinct tones survive, some with D and some with E as final (for examples, see MGG1, iii, 1625–7).
The Passions, sung in Holy Week, were provided with so-called significative letters during the late 8th century. These guided the (originally single) reciter as to the nuances of performance: the rapidity (marked c, ‘celeriter’) of the narrative as against the majestic slowness (t, ‘tarde’, ‘trahere’) of the words of Christ. Other letters indicated various nuances. A division occurred later between manuscripts from Germanic areas and those from Romance-speaking countries, the former using the letter a (‘alte’) for the words of the disciples and the Jews, and the latter s (‘sursum’) for the same purpose (see Passion, §1). Later these letters were interpreted to signify a division of the chant between three deacons.
From the 12th century the music appeared in diastematic notation. Its traditional tone is known from two 12th-century manuscripts with alphabetic notation – F-Pn lat.11958, ff.75–82 (from Corbie; see Passion, §1, fig.2) and RS 259 (from Reims) – and approximately 30 other manuscripts with notation on lines, the oldest of which date from the 12th century – F-CA 50 and 65, and DOU 93 and 95.
The Passion tone contains three different reciting notes: the narrative and all indirect speech are sung on a central reciting note, the words of Christ a 5th lower, and other direct speech a 4th higher. The final sections of the four Passions, recounting the burial of Jesus, were, however, normally sung to the usual Gospel tone (‘sicut evangelium’, F-LNs 126, and D-TRs 27; ‘sub tono evangelii’, Sl Brev.144; ‘legitur sicut evangelium’, TRs 28). For these sections, A-Z 407, dated 1584, provided the source for the Vatican edition of the Passions.
Some of the words of Christ in the Passions are given elaborate melismatic treatment, such as his last words, ‘Pater, in manus tuas’, which in the Gospels of Glandèves (F-Pn lat.325, f.178) are decorated with neumes. The words ‘Eli Eli lama sabachthani’ (Matthew xxvii.46) are often extended in this way in the early manuscripts: D-Mbs Clm.3005 (11th-century addition to a 9th-century manuscript); E-Mah 18 (11th or 12th century); F-CO 443 (11th century); ME 452 (11th or 12th century); Pn lat.258, f.53v (11th-century neumes in a 9th-century manuscript); Pn lat.326, f.45 (12th century); Pn lat.9391, f.51v (10th or 11th century); I-Mt D.127 (11th century); NON, ff.161, 171 (11th century); and VEcap CV(98), f.160v. However, these melismas seldom appear in diastematic notation in 12th-century manuscripts, for example, I-MC Q.318, p.278 and US-NYpm M.379, f.94 (facs. in AnnM, vi, 1958–63, p.15, pl.iv). Some central Italian manuscripts contain a long melisma on this word, for example I-Rv C.105, f.152 and Rvat S Pietro E.II (see also the Dominican processional). (For further details of the monophonic Passion, and for the polyphonic Passion, see Passion.)
In some 10th- and 11th-century manuscripts a number of other Gospels were treated in a more ornate manner than usual: for example, the Gospel for the Third Mass of Christmas (John i) in Pa 206, f.2v (from Metz), Pn lat.263, f.89v (from Tours) and Pn lat.266 (Gospels of Lotharius), f.172v (see fig.2); the Gospel for St Stephen’s Day (26 December, or ‘Feast of the Deacons’) in Pa 612, ff.3–3v (from St Etienne de Metz), Pn lat.11960, f.65v (from Toul); and the Gospels of St John’s Day (27 December) and the Holy Innocents (28 December). These festivals of the Christmas cycle have special Gospel tones in the Moosburg Gradual (D-Mu 2o 156, ff.227ff) and a Bamberg lectionary (BAs lit.45, ff.2–3v).
The Easter Gospel was provided with elaborate neumes in F-Pn lat.260, f.107 (the Aquitanian neumes were added at St Martial de Limoges to this 9th-century manuscript, originally from Tours), and in Pn lat.13251, f.32 (an 11th-century lectionary from St Germain-des-Prés). A special melody for the Gospel of the feast of Dedication is given in diastematic notation in D-FUl Aa.71 (reproduced in MGG1, iii, 1624). The manuscript F-Pn lat.9387 has Gospels in Greek for St Denis’s Day (9 October: f.157v), and for Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and the Dedication festival, with notation in imitation of Greek lectionary (ekphonetic) notation, besides the Latin pericopes (see Huglo, p.80).
In 1296 the Council of Grado prohibited the use of ornate melodies for the Gospels of these festivals and others such as the ‘Feast of Fools’ (1 January) and the Assumption (15 August) (see C.H. Héfélé and D.H. Leclercq: Histoire des conciles, iv, Paris, 1911), retaining only the special chant of the genealogies, and of the Gospel chanted for the first time by a newly ordained deacon.
Polyphony was occasionally applied to the Gospel – more particularly to the genealogy and Passion – as to the Epistle, as a means of rendering it more ornate and solemn. Thus in B-TO 17 the conclusion of the genealogy (‘de qua natus est Jesus qui vocatur Christus’) was notated in the margin for three voices, with a vocalise on the word ‘Christus’. In F-Pm 438 (facs. in Bernard, ii, pls.xiii–xvi; Göllner, i, pp.107ff), the genealogy is divided among three singers who each sing a verse and then the fourth verse in polyphony; this arrangement also occurs in B-Br 3950 (14th century), with the difference that the singers sing each fourth verse ‘pariter’, that is, in unison. In the latter manuscript the three parts are notated in void notation, and the final verse is sung in polyphony as in TO 17. The polyphonic genealogy enjoyed great popularity in east Germany and Bohemia (lists of manuscripts in MGG1, iii, 1628, and Göllner, i, pp.107ff).
In a similar fashion the reading of Isaiah at Christmas was sung in polyphony, as, in German-speaking areas, were the standard introduction to the Gospel and certain pericopes for important festivals such as the Dedication and the Visitation of the BVM (2 July). (For the polyphonic Passion tradition, see Passion, §§2–7.)
See also Epistle.
MGG1 (‘Evangelium’; B. Stäblein, C. Mahrenholz)
MGG2 (M. Huglo, J. Stalmann)
S. Beissel: Entstehung der Perikopen des römischen Messbuches (Freiburg, 1907)
K. Young: ‘Observations on the Origin of the Medieval Passion-Play’, Publications of the Modern Language Association, xxv (1910), 309–54
G. Godu: ‘Evangiles’, Dictionnaire d’archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie, ed. F. Cabrol and H. Leclercq, v/1 (Paris, 1922)
H. Leclercq: ‘Evangéliaires’, ibid., 775–845
R.-J. Hesbert: ‘La liturgie bénéventaine dans la tradition manuscrite’, Le codex 10673 de la Bibliothèque vaticane, Pal Mus, xiv (1931–6/R), 60–465
W.H. Frere: Studies in Early Roman Liturgy, ii: The Roman Lectionary (London, 1934)
T. Klauser: Das römische Capitulare Evangeliorum: Texte und Untersuchungen zu seiner ältesten Geschichte, i: Typen (Münster, 1935, 2/1972)
A. Dold: Vom Sakramentar, Comes und Capitulare zum Voll-Missale (Beuron, 1943)
J.A. Jungmann: Missarum sollemnia: eine genetische Erklärung der römischen Messe (Vienna, 1948, 5/1962; Eng. trans., 1951–5/R as The Mass of the Roman Rite)
G. Willis: St. Augustine’s Lectionary (London, 1962)
M. Bernard: Répertoire de manuscrits médiévaux contenant des notations musicales, i: Bibliothèque Ste. Geneviève (Paris, 1965), pls.vii, ix, xx
M. Bernard: Répertoire de manuscrits médiévaux contenant des notations musicales, ii: Bibliothèque Mazarine (Paris, 1966), pls.xi–xvi
M. Huglo: ‘Les chants de la Missa greca de Saint Denis’, Essays Presented to Egon Wellesz, ed. J. Westrup (Oxford, 1966), 74–83
C. Vogel: Introduction aux sources de l’histoire du culte chrétien au Moyen Age (Spoleto, 1966/R; Eng. trans., rev., 1986, as Medieval Liturgy: an Introduction to the Sources)
T. Göllner: Die mehrstimmigen liturgischen Lesungen (Tutzing, 1969)
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A. Zwinggi: ‘Der Wortgottesdienst bei Augustinus’, Liturgisches JB, xx (1970), 92–113, 129–40, 250–53
M. Bernard: Répertoire de manuscrits médiévaux contenant des notations musicales, iii: Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal et petites bibliothèques (Paris, 1974), 234, pls.xxvi, xlvii
A. Chavasse: ‘L’evangéliaire romain de 645 – un recueil: sa composition, façons et matériaux’, Revue bénédictine, xci (1982), 33–75
A. Hughes: Medieval Manuscripts for Mass and Office: a Guide to their Organization and Terminology (Toronto, 1982)
A.G. Martimort: ‘A propos du nombre des lectures à la messe’, Revue des sciences religieuses, lviii (1984), 42–51
A. Chavasse: ‘Après Grégoire le Grand: l’organisation des évangéliaires, au VIIe et VIIIe siècle’, Rituels: mélanges offerts au Père Gy O.P., ed. P. de Clerck and E. Palazzo (Paris, 1990), 125–30
J. McKinnon: ‘Antoine Chavasse and the Dating of Early Chant’, PMM, i (1992), 123–47
A.G. Martimort: Les lectures liturgiques et leurs livres (Turnhout, 1992)
G.G. Willis: A History of Early Roman Liturgy (London, 1994)