[578] Holzapfel, S. Dominicus und der Rosenkranz, Munich, 1903.
[579] The originators of this form of prayer were Dominic of Prussia and Adolf of Essen, two monks of the Charterhouse in Treves in the fifteenth century. Th. Esser, Beitrag zur Gesch. des Rosenkranzes, Katholik, 1897, ii. 409 seqq., and 1904, ii. 98 seqq.
[580] There is historical proof for the existence of confraternities of the Holy Rosary in the second half of the fifteenth century. That founded in Cologne in 1474 by Prior Jacob Sprenger, O.P., was celebrated. Th. Esser, U.L. Fr. Rosenkranz, Paderborn, 1889, 289. It was confirmed by Sixtus IV. in 1478. Kirchenlexikon, x., 2nd ed. 1281.
[581] Kirchenlexikon, viii. 2nd ed. 818; Brev. Rom. Dom i., Oct. lectio 7-9. On the 5th August takes place the local feast of Our Lady of the Snows, “Maria ad Nives,” in the basilica of Sta. Maria Maggiore in Rome. As the office has been incorporated in the Breviary, a short account of it may be justified in this place. Pope Liberius erected a basilica on the Esquiline, on the site of Livia’s market, which was called after him “Liberiana.” In the next century, Sixtus III. restored the church and changed its title, dedicating it to the Mother of God (Lib. Pont., Liberius, No. 52, Xystus III., No. 63). From henceforth it was known as “Basilica S. Mariæ,” at the present day, Sta. Maria Maggiore. The miracle of the snow is not mentioned in any of the original documents, but only in mediæval writings. The 5th August may have been the day of the dedication of the basilica. See Grisar, Gesch. Roms., i. 153 A. 1. The legend of the translation of the Holy House of Loreto (10th Dec.) will not stand historical investigation. According to trustworthy accounts, pilgrims to Nazareth already in the eighth century found the holy house there no longer, but only a church on the site where it had stood. Adamnan, De Locis Sanctis, 2, 26; Migne, Patr. Lat., lxxxviii. 304. Antoninus Plac., Itinerarium, c. 5, in Geyser, Itinerarium Hieros., 161, 197; Nicephorus Call., (Hist. Eccl., 8, 30), names Helena as the foundress of the church built on the spot where the house of the Anunnciation had stood. See L. de Feis, La Santa Casa di Loreto ed il Santuario di Nazareth, Florence, 1904.
[For Our Lady’s feasts as observed in England, see Fr. Bridgett, op. cit., chap. vi. For what may be urged in favour of the Holy House of Loreto, see an article by the Rev. G. E. Phillips, S.J., in the Ushaw Magazine, March 1908. Trans.]
[582] Pfülf, Die Verehrung des hl. Joseph in der Geschichte, in Stimmen aus Maria-Laach, xxxviii (1890), 117, et seqq. Révue Bénédictine, xiv. 1897, 106 seqq., 145 seqq., 203 seqq. Le Développement Hist. du Culte de St Joseph.
[583] De Syn., iii. c. 15, 220 et seqq.
[584] Script. Vet. Nova Coll., iv. 15, et seqq.
[585] “In Antioch. natalis Josephi,” Codex Epternac.
[586] Printed in the Analecta Bolland., i. 19.