hat
we call a Litany. Thus in the Liturgy (i.e. Holy Communion Office) of
S. James, the Deacon says _The Universal Collect_, consisting of
fifteen suffrages (see Appendix F), each ending with, _Let us beseech
the Lord_: and the Response of the people is, _Lord have mercy_, which
is said thrice at the end of the petitions. Similar to this is _the
Prayer of Intense Supplication_, in the Liturgy of S. Chrysostom. Cf.
also the modern Liturgy of Constantinople.

We should expect to find the further development of Litanies, in
Churches where the Eastern influence was felt; it is therefore no
surprise to us, that the history of them next takes us to the Churches
of Southern France. "The South of Gaul had been colonized originally
from the Eastern shores of the Aegaean. Its Christianity came from the
same regions as its colonization. The Church of Gaul was the {154}
spiritual daughter of the Church of proconsular Asia[1]."

Pothinus, Bp of Lyons and Vienne, had come probably from Asia Minor.
When, at the age of more than 90, he was martyred (A.D. 177), his
successor as Bishop was Irenaeus, who received part of his early
education in Asia Minor from Polycarp, a disciple of S. John the
Evangelist. Other martyrs, at Vienne and Lyons, in that year (A.D.
177), had come from Asia Minor. A map will show that Vienne is about
16 miles south of Lyons. Thus from the first days of the Church in
France, a close connection existed between it and the Church in Asia
Minor.

About A.D. 467[2], Mamertus, Archbishop of Vienne, ordered Litanies to
be said in procession on the three days before Ascension Day; being
moved thereto by a succession of calamities--earthquake, war, wild
beasts invading the city itself--followed shortly by the destruction of
the royal palace in Vienne by lightning. The practice spread to
neighbouring dioceses, and was confirmed by the Council of Orleans
(A.D. 511). The three days before Ascension Day are thence called
'Rogation Days'; and processions for purposes of prayer are called
Rogations, or Litanies.

The Rogation Litanies were not adopted at Rome {155} until the time of
Leo III. (795-816): but in a time of pestilence at Rome, Gregory the
Great, A.D. 590, instituted the Sevenfold Litany of S. Mark's Day.

Gregory the Great has been called the Apostle of the English, because
he intended to come as a missionary to convert the English; and, when
prevented from so doing by his election as Bishop of Rom