“Far from blaming those who preserve the Gregorian usage, they should rather praise them.” (p. 94.)
“In the authentic model of St. Gregory, the Alleluia and the Gloria are suppressed at the Mass for Innocents’ Day, in order to express the grief of the mothers or of the Church.” (p. 96.)
Amalarius was commissioned by Louis the Debonair to procure at Rome a copy of the Antiphoner to serve as a model for an uniform use in place of the varying uses then to be found. The Pope in answer to his request replied, “I have no Antiphoner that I can send to my son and lord the Emperor. Those which we had, were taken to France by Wala, Abbot of Corbie, when he came here on a mission.” On his return to France, Amalarius went to Corbie, where he found the four volumes brought by Wala. They contained an inscription saying that this collection was put in order by Pope Adrian I. But he found that they differed from the books at Metz, which were older still; so in despair he made a compilation of his own, taking from each what seemed to him the best.
Now it has been argued that if these Antiphoners had either of them borne the name of Gregory the Great, Amalarius would not have had the audacity to alter them in this manner, nor would he if there had existed anywhere in Gaul any bearing his name. But this idea has arisen from the confusion attending the name “antiphoner.” The book that Amalarius was dealing with was not the Antiphoner for Mass, but the Antiphoner for Divine Service. There were great variations in the latter in different localities down to the reform by Pius V., far more than in the former. When the “famous authentic model of Gregory” is spoken of, it is the Antiphonale Missarum which is meant.
VII.—Amalarius, Bishop of Trèves (809-814). Liber Officiorum, from a MS. at Trèves, quoted by Morin, fol. 6, De Missa Innocentium. “The Mass of the Innocents begins in the Diurnal with this Rubric: ‘Gloria in Excelsis Deo is not sung, nor Alleluia, unless it be Sunday; this day is passed in a sort of sadness.’ The Holy Pope Gregory, in whom dwelt in very truth the Holy Ghost, and to whom is due the composition of this office, means us to share the feelings of the pious women who bewailed and lamented the death of the Innocents. And if it is permitted to transgress the order of so great a Father, it would equally be lawful to chant Alleluia with the complete office of the day on Good Friday.”
It is a question here of the Antiphoner of the Mass.
(fol. 7.) On the day of the Epiphany “we lose one of the chants which we have at Christmas, viz., the Invitatory. St. Gregory, the organizer of the offices, meant by this peculiarity to recall to our memory as strongly as he could what passed formerly at the time of the accomplishment of the mysteries which we honour. That is why we chant in the sixth place the psalm which we had avoided in the beginning. It is true that certain blunderers treat this with indifference and contempt, thinking it much better to follow the ordinary usage of each day. But, as we have already said, he wished by this to distinguish” &c., &c.
This passage refers to the Antiphoner of the Office.
(fol. 9-10.) “That is why Gregory, the author of our office, has placed Septuagesima.... However, Gregory the institutor of our office....”
It is a question of the Antiphoner and of the Sacramentary.