In the Western Christian Church, the order of canons regular of Prémontré (O. Praem.). They are also known as ‘White Canons’, from the colour of their habit, or ‘Norbertines’, after the name of their founder, St Norbert (c1080–1134). The name of Prémontré comes from the place near Laon where Norbert and his first disciples established themselves in 1120. The early Premonstratensian Statutes (1131–4), based on the Rule of St Augustine, were monastic and largely modelled on the carta caritatis of the Cistercians. A certain degree of centralization was also reminiscent of Cîteaux. As the order developed, the individual houses (‘canonries’) were grouped into ‘circaries’ according to regional or (later) linguistic affinities. The order suffered greatly during the Reformation and the French Revolution, and at the end of the 20th century there were fewer than 1500 members worldwide.
The Constitutions of 1971 stress community and pastoral activities, whereas previously the emphasis was on contemplation and the liturgy. The canons used to sing each day in choir the full daily Office and conventual Mass according to their own rite. This rite dates from the 12th century, but from the beginning had a constant struggle for existence. It was approved by Pope Alexander III in his bull In apostolicae sedis (1177) and by Alexander IV in Felicis recordationis (1256). The early Statutes, those of 1505 and of 1630, and visitation injunctions such as those of Bishop Redman in England during the 15th century, stressed the need for uniformity in the books of the rite and for the preservation of the traditional forms of worship. The rite has had to contend with the rival claims of the Roman rite in the 16th and 17th centuries, and twice in the 20th century.
The
medieval Premonstratensian rite contained many sequences, of which only a
handful were retained in later centuries, among them the Christmas sequence Laetabundus.
Another feature of the rite was its series of rhymed and historiated antiphons.
Many Premonstratensian chant melodies are fairly close to their Roman
counterparts, but there are also notable differences: the opening of the
offertory Jubilate Deo universa terra, for example, has no repeat and no
melisma, and there is a slightly different tone for the Lamentations and for
the litany of the saints. Some Venite tones contain a B
in places where the Roman
equivalents use B
.
Sometimes the differences are textual as well as musical: for example, the
sequence Victimae paschali laudes includes the original line now missing
in the Roman version, and the alleluia for Easter Day has two verses (‘Pascha’
and ‘Epulemur’) instead of one.
After a period of decadence following the Council of Trent, and of increasing Romanization, which lasted until Pius X’s Moto proprio of 1903, a commission for sacred music was set up under Lambert Wendelen of Tongerloo, charged with re-editing the service books according to the earliest and best traditions of the order. In 1908 the new gradual was accepted by the general chapter and published two years later; the processional followed in 1932 and the antiphoner in 1934, but these books and indeed the rite itself were discarded some 40 years later when Latin was replaced by the vernacular in many canonries.
Music other than chant does not appear to have been extensively cultivated among the Premonstratensians. The minutely detailed 17th-century Statutes banned certain musical instruments (‘violas, citharas aliaque instrumenta’). The organ was a notable exception, for organ alternatim performance was used to add solemnity to the services on Sundays and festivals. The Ordo of 1635 gave full instructions as to its use during Mass and the Divine Office.
See also Antiphoner, §3(v); Gradual (ii), §4(iii).
Ordinarius sive liber caeremoniarum: ad usum candidissimi et canonici Ordinis Praemonstratensis renovatus (Paris, 1635)
Statuta candidi et canonici Ordinis Praemonstratensis renovata, ac anno 1630 … plene resuluta (Averbode, 1898)
Graduale ad usum canonici Praemonstratensis Ordinis (Paris, 1910)
F. Petit: L’ordre de Prémontré (Paris, 1927)
Processionale ad usum sacri et canonici Ordinis Praemonstratensis (Paris, 1932)
Antiphonarium ad usum sacri et canonici Ordinis Praemonstratensis (Paris, 1934)
P.F. Lefèvre: L’ordinaire de Prémontré d’après les manuscrits du XIIe et XIIIe siècle (Leuven, 1941)
B. Lerykx: ‘Essai sur les sources de “l’Ordo missae” prémontré’, Analecta praemonstratensia, xxii (1946), 35–90
H.M. Colvin: The White Canons in England (Oxford, 1951)
P.F. Lefèvre: La liturgie de Prémontré (Leuven, 1957)
J.B. Valvekens, ed.: Acta et decreta capitulorum generalium Ordinis Praemonstratensis, I–III, Analecta praemonstratensia, xlii (1966); xlv (1969); xliv (1973)
N.J. Weyns: ‘Le missel prémontré’, Analecta praemonstratensia, xliii (1967), 203–25
P. Lefèvre: ‘L’antiphonale psalterii d’après le rite de Prémontré’, Analecta praemonstratensia, xlix (1968), 247–74
P. Lefèvre: ‘L’office de Noël et de son octave dans la liturgie de Prémontré’, Analecta praemonstratensia, xlvi (1970), 179–219
The Day of Pentecost: Constitutions of the Canons Regular of Prémontré (De Pere, WI, 1971)
P. Lefèvre: ‘Les antiennes empruntées aux livres des rois dans la liturgie de Prémontré’, Analecta praemonstratensia, xlvii (1971), 24–32
P. Lefèvre: ‘Les répons prolixes aux heures diurnes du “triduum sacrum” dans la liturgie canoniale’, Analecta praemonstratensia, xlviii (1972), 5–19
N.J. Weyns, ed.: Antiphonale missarum praemonstratense (Averbode, 1973)
J. Harper: The Forms and Orders of Western Liturgy from the Tenth to the Eighteenth Century (Oxford, 1991)
MARY BERRY