Liber qualiter adventus Domini celebretur
by Berno of Reichenau
Source text: Public Domain. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://migne.app/pl/150/liber-qualiter-adventus-domini-celebretur/
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## A Book on How the Advent of the Lord Is to Be Celebrated

[1079B] Here begins the letter of Berno, abbot of the monastery of Reichenau, to Aribo, archbishop of Mainz, on how the Advent of the Lord ought to be celebrated in this year, when the Nativity of the Lord has fallen on the second weekday.

To ARIBO, archbishop, raised on high to the summit of the highest dignity, through whom in the Lord's threshing-floor the good measure of wheat is faithfully dispensed to his fellow servants: BERNO, though a worthless bondman of the Mother of God, wishes him for a preface that "Well done" of the good servant.

As often as we are less than agreed in the rite of the ecclesiastical order, we must have recourse to the counsel of the masters, through whom, as Scripture testifies, divine Wisdom searched out the depths of the rivers and brought hidden things into the light — the lawgiver also enjoining this: Ask thy father, and he will declare unto thee; thy elders, [1079C] and they will tell thee. For this reason we have judged that you above all, most devoted Father, are to be consulted about those matters which have come into doubt concerning the celebration of the Lord's Advent — you to whom the providence from above has granted such a fullness of knowledge that it has led you through the water of the divine Scriptures not only as far as the ankles or to the knees, or even as far as the loins, but has brought you all the way to that very torrent which you cannot cross over: For, he says, the deep waters of the torrent had swollen, which cannot be waded through. And though it cannot be crossed, yet one can come to it with the help of that very Wisdom of God which is signified by the torrent. Therefore touch in some measure the water of this torrent, which no mortal can cross, and offer some taste of understanding to our thirsting [1079D] breasts.

## CHAPTER ONE. The argument of the present question is set forth, and various opinions are brought forward, and it is established that no more than four weeks are to be given to the celebration of Advent.

[1080B]

That you may recognize the more plainly what we are asking about, we make known what nevertheless we by no means believe to have escaped you this long while: that as often as the Lord's Nativity has fallen on the second weekday, as in the present year, a great error pours itself through the churches of God — some saying that no more than four Lord's days ought to be celebrated together with the most sacred vigil of the Lord's Nativity itself; but others contending on the opposite side that the Lord's Advent ought rather to have four full weeks, dedicating the fifth Lord's day especially to the vigil of the Lord, having, so far as we have been able to investigate, no other argument or reason for their position, except that those four offices [1080C] which are found in the night Antiphonaries, and likewise the lessons of the holy Gospels and of the Apostle, may be more fully carried through.

Against these, others bring forward the fuller opinion of the ancients, resting on the reason of the truth — namely that of blessed Pope Gregory and of Jerome the priest — of whom the one, in the book of the Sacraments, that is, the Missal, gave these titles: The first Sunday of the Advent of the Lord; the second Sunday; the third Sunday; the fourth Sunday, which is nearest before the Nativity of the Lord. But the other, in the Lectionary, the book which he called the Comes, thus: The fourth Sunday before the Nativity of the Lord (which Amalarius the priest named the preparation of the Lord's Advent), then the fourth Sunday before the Nativity of the Lord; the third Sunday before the Nativity of the Lord; the second Sunday [1080D] before the Nativity of the Lord; the first Sunday before the Nativity of the Lord — so that, by an inverted manner, the one which in Jerome is called the first or nearest before the Nativity of the Lord is in Gregory called the fourth Sunday of the Advent of the Lord; [1081A] not unfittingly, as I think, on account of the five ages of this world in which the human race was held captive under the yoke of the devil, until by being born he should appear in the flesh through the womb of the untouched Virgin — he who by the victim of his own body should abolish the sins of the flesh and sanctify the beginning of the sixth age that followed. Or else because our inner man is corrupted through the five senses of the body, so that death works in us, as the prophet says: Death is come in through your windows; so that in these five weeks a lodging of the mind may be prepared for that king of ours, whom the prophetic lesson in that very fifth week announces as about to come, in these words: Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, and I will raise up to David a just branch.

Likewise, in the day Antiphonary, after three offices there [1081B] immediately follows the fast, and then the Sunday is vacant, so that from this it may be clearly proved how greatly they also fail in this matter who in the present year place after the vacant Sunday the fast which ought to have preceded it, beginning the Advent of the Lord on VI Kal. Decemb.

But if, guarding against this, they fast earlier, they nonetheless act against the institutions of the Fathers, who laid down that the fast of the tenth month is always to be celebrated on the Saturday nearest before the Nativity of the Lord. But the number four, which, as we noted above, St. Gregory set in the days of the fourth Sunday of the Advent of the Lord, celebrating it by such a mystery: that man, who consists of four elements, should through four weeks await the Advent of him whom of old he promised through the three orders of the books, namely of the law, of the prophets, of the psalms, [1081C] and through the fourth, that is, the beginning of the Gospel — the angel telling to holy Mary ever virgin the order of his conception and birth — and whom we know most certainly to have been presented to this world for the salvation of the human race. And lest so great an attestation of my littleness, which I have brought forward out of the opinion of others rather than my own, should seem to be lightly esteemed, let the sayings of our elders be set forth in the midst, so that from these too it may be clearly proved whose usage is held to be the more correct.



## CHAPTER II. The same is confirmed from Amalarius, Fortunatus, and Bede.

Amalarius indeed says [n: (lib. III Eccles. Offic., c. 40)] , no contemptible searcher of the divine offices: « In the ancient books of the Missals and Lectionaries it is found written, the fifth week before the Nativity of the Lord: [1081D] for just so many lessons are had in the Lectionary, and just so many Gospels from the time mentioned, through the Lord's days, up to the Nativity of the Lord. The Antiphonary has three day offices, and a fourth on the Lord's day which is vacant, after the twelve lessons; but four night offices, as I said above, through the Lord's days. The author of the Lectionary rouses our faith to call to mind, through the five ages of the world, the proclamation of our Lord Jesus Christ who was to come into the world. The author of the Missal which is called the Gregorial, and of the Antiphonary, touches us so that we may call to mind the Nativity of the Lord celebrated through the three orders of the books, namely of the law, of the prophets, and of the psalms, and likewise through a fourth, that is, the beginning of the Gospel, in which is narrated [1082A] the archangel Gabriel sent to Zechariah, that is, the messenger of the birth of the Lord's forerunner. And also the prophecy of Zechariah concerning the Advent of the Lord, and Gabriel sent to the Virgin Mary telling her of the conception of our Savior, and other such things up to the Nativity itself. Indeed that fourth week too — that is, the one which is nearest before the Nativity of the Lord, or in which it is celebrated — is singular. It has in the morning office, for each several weekday, its own antiphons in the psalms. And in another way the author of the Lectionary teaches us how mighty is the Lord who is to come to us and to enter our house, that he may dwell in it — the house which we are wont to befoul with our five senses. Enticing forms enter through the eyes, evil suspicion of a brother through the ears, a lustful smell [1082B] through the nostrils; through the mouth gluttony defiles, through touch cruelty. The king who is to come does not wish to dwell in filth. And so unless the lodging be cleansed, so that not even the dust of such phantasms remains, the guest who is to come will not deign to enter into it. Therefore the author writes five lessons for five weeks, that he may exhort us to circumcise our five senses from every vice, and to prepare a dwelling worthy of the king and Lord and true prophet.

« Of this king the first lesson says: Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, and I will raise up to David a just branch, and a king shall reign, and shall be wise. And again of the Lord: And this is the name that they shall call him, The Lord our just one. And again in the Gospel, of the prophet: For this is truly the prophet who is to come into the world.

[1082C] « The author of the Missal, or of the Antiphonary, exhorts us to make the same preparation through four weeks. For just as man, by the five senses as go-betweens, works well or ill toward the soul, so through the four elements he either rushes down to bodily evils or rises to goods. Wherefore the aforesaid author exhorts us, as I have said, that if until now we have been sluggish through negligence, from this point we should rise to cleanse our house, so that he who was not roused in the fifth week may at least rise in the fourth. For this is what the lesson sounds which is read in the fourth week: We know that it is now the hour for us to rise from sleep, and the rest.

« I do not doubt that for this reason the cantor in the aforesaid week lifts up his voice as with a trumpet: To thee have I lifted up my soul, that he may rouse those who in the fifth [1082D] week have been overwhelmed with the drowsiness of negligence.

« But how we ought to prepare our house, the aforesaid lesson shows in what follows: Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.

« The Sacramentary drives home the same preparation into the ears of our heart, saying: Let us receive, O Lord, thy mercy in the midst of thy temple, that with fitting honors we may go before the coming solemnities of our restoration.

« If anyone should wish to break down what we have said, as though there were not four full weeks from the aforesaid Sunday up to the Nativity of the Lord, he seems to me [1083A] to be ignorant of the rule of Holy Scripture, which is accustomed to fill out the whole from a part. »

By these words it is sufficiently given to be understood that those men overstep this rule of Holy Scripture — which not only signifies the whole from a part, but sometimes also the part from the whole — who reckon up to the Nativity of the Lord not four Lord's days but five. Agreeing with this account is that argument of the most famous and most learned reckoner, namely the lord Bede — if indeed it is granted to be his and not another's — an argument most widely known, as I think, to nearly the whole world. « Let it be known, he says, to all men, that whoever wishes diligently to celebrate the Advent of the Lord should see that he neither begin it before V Kal. Decemb., nor pass beyond III Nonas of that same month; but on whichever of these seven days [1083B] the Lord's day shall have fallen, there without doubt he will be able to celebrate it. »

This custom the whole of Gaul — nearly the whole, as is reported — observes, and the city of Rome itself, once mistress of the world, as we have learned through most truthful reporters, and especially through Adalbold, bishop of holy memory, who, being urged by our writings, inquired into this while he was staying at Rome; although afterward, for what cause I do not know, they acted otherwise: the church of Piacenza, however, as I myself at that same time learned both by hearing and by seeing, and other cities of Italy, keeping the rule of the ancient institution. But the abbot Heriger too, a man of no small authority in our times, composed a book of his own upon this matter, in which, as those who have read it assert, he convicts by convincing arguments of acting [1083C] against the institutions of the Fathers those who contend that more than four Lord's days of the Advent of the Lord are to be celebrated.



## CHAPTER III. The objection against what has been said is dissolved.

But what they object on the other side — that four Lord's days, the vigil of the Lord excepted, ought to be celebrated so that those four night offices, or the lesson of the holy Gospel or of the Apostle, may be carried through on that Sunday which is vacant — can be undone by an easy reply. For who does not see that it is exceedingly unfitting that, on account of three or four responsories which can be sung on the earlier days of the week (if indeed it should so seem good), or a lesson of the holy Gospel or of the Apostle which can be fulfilled on the third weekday before the fast — as we ourselves have heard and seen done in the regions of Italy — [1083D] or rather on that very Sunday, when the vigil is celebrated with the morning hymns, in the first hour of the morning: that on account of these such mystical reasons for the four weeks should have to be emptied out?

The fourth Sunday of the Advent of the Lord would certainly not be vacant if it had its own proper office. The introit *Memento* is found in no authentic Antiphonary; but that office was added on by someone at his own pleasure, and therefore no great care need be taken if for a more reasonable cause it should sometimes be omitted. For that Sunday is vacant, just as the other three Lord's days also are, which are set in like manner after the twelve lessons; to which nevertheless there are by no means lacking the lessons [1084A] of the Epistles and of the Gospels, so as to fill out the number of the fifty-two Sundays of the year. For between the Nativity of the Lord and Septuagesima there are four offices through the Lord's days; from Septuagesima up to Easter, eight (for the ninth in the middle is vacant); but from Easter up to the octave of Pentecost, eight. Then there follow twenty-three up to the Advent of the Lord. In the Advent of the Lord only three are set, the fourth, as we said above, being vacant. Four and eight, and again eight and twenty-three, and three, make forty-six. Add to these the four vacant Sundays, and the one which is the preparation of the Lord's Advent, and likewise that of the holy Trinity, and you will see the sum of the fifty-two Sundays fulfilled.

[1084B]But in the book of the Sacraments more Masses are found appended — as for instance after the Theophany three abound, after the octave of Pentecost one, and one in the seventh month when the fast is to be celebrated — by no unfitting arrangement, as I think, so that the number five, which here goes beyond the fifty-second number, may nonetheless be joined to the fifth Sunday before the Nativity of the Lord by the words of the prayer. For thus the priest prays: Stir up, O Lord, we beseech thee, the wills of thy faithful, and the rest. Although in certain books of the Missals yet another is found, composed by I know not whom. And if in some books more are found, they are not, however, authentic books.

These things being so, it is worth asking those who this year strive with so great effort to add [1084C] one week to the Lord's Advent, what they judge is to be done when Easter shall have fallen first on XI Kal. April., but Septuagesima on XV Kal. Febr., and on this account two offices — namely *Omnis terra*, *Adorate* — will be left over as less than necessary; unless perhaps they give place to the former, that is, *Omnis terra*, in such a way that before the Epiphany they sing *In excelso throno* contrary to custom, although in all authentic Antiphonaries this very thing is titled thus: The 1st Sunday after the Epiphany of the Lord.

Not only this, but the responsories *Domine, ne in ira* will be able to reach no Lord's day, since the third weekday nearest to the octave of the Epiphany falls before Septuagesima. And if it is so — nay, since it is so — they must understand one of these two things: either that they pass over all these things altogether as though unnecessary, that is, the offices, the responsories *Domine, ne in ira*, [1084D] the four lessons, the five Masses; or that they insert them wherever they can find room, and grant to us to do with only one Mass and one apostolic or evangelical lesson what they think permitted to themselves in very many. Otherwise let them transfer the paschal term so far that those two offices — not to speak of the lessons and the Masses — may find place between the Epiphany and Septuagesima; and we grant to them to anticipate the Advent of the Lord, so that the Sunday which is vacant, with the whole of its week, may this year be able to go before the vigil of the Nativity of the Lord.

But if they answer that this is forbidden by canonical authority, we too say truly that the rite by which we celebrate the Advent of the Lord we have without doubt received from the holy [1085A] Fathers Gelasius, Gregory, Jerome, and Hilary, who stand like bases upon the foundations of holy Church, and to be unwilling to acquiesce in their judgments is a transgression of the divine law.

## CHAPTER IV. Berno implores Aribo's authority, that he not permit more than four Sundays of Advent to be celebrated.

Although we believe these things to be so, we shall not easily persuade others of them. Wherefore let a sentence go forth from the authority of your holy see, decreeing that the institutions of the holy Fathers be kept, lest the sons of holy mother Church, divided in schism, be less able to dwell of one mind in the house of the Lord. For we desire at last to draw a pure draught of this knowledge from the sweetest fountain of your sacred breast, lest through the various [1085B] rivulets of errors we stray any longer from the truth — so that you may be worthy to be given that reward which the Lord has deigned to promise to such men through the prophet in these words: Blessed are ye that sow upon all waters.

May the beloved Bridegroom of the Church, who daily comes down into his garden to the bed of spices, gather you — you who feed among the gardens of the virtues, among the lilies of the chastity of the valleys — into his barn [1086A] after the end of this life! The humble little band of the brethren of Reichenau greets you, ever mindful of you amid the sacred offerings of their prayers.

The reply of Aribo the archbishop.

Desiring to keep your holiness undefiled for everlasting ages, we rejoice at your circumspect solicitude in those things which pertain to the Lord. And at last we favor from the heart your treatises also, well and skillfully devised, excellently arranged, eloquently expressed, and finally set forth with a firm memory; and, if there is any authority in so slight a pontificate as mine, we lay its hand upon them, as you asked. May the Lord make fruitful and enlarge so great a grace in you, so that if you should perceive that there yet remains any obstacle by which the Church is offended, you may be willing to drive it away with the same [1086B] caution and diligence.

For the rest, we desire to be refreshed by your prayers and by those of the holy company that makes honey under your governance; and we earnestly ask that you would be willing to call back by your prayers me also, who from afar strive but feebly, and who now and then, leaving my post, give ground — you who now, under the habit of the cross, are fed with a portion of broiled fish, that we may one day be held worthy of the honeycomb.
