s
Pope's time, were in use in the Netherlands and afterwards in England,
Germany and France; and in 1260 were spread far and wide. In 1334, Pope
John XXII. ordered uniformity and general observance of this feast on
the Sunday after Pentecost. The Office in our Breviaries dates from the
time of Pius V. It is beautiful and sublime in matter and in form.
Whether this is a new Office or a blending of some ancient offices, is a
matter of dispute. Baillet, _Les Vies des Saints_ (Tom ix. c. 2, 158)
thinks it a new Office. But Binterim, _Die Kirchichle Heortology_, Part
I., 265, and Baumer-Biron, _Histoire du Breviaire_, 298, take a
different view. The Roman rite follows the older form of enumeration,
second Sunday after Easter and so forth, and not first Sunday after
Trinity. The latter form of enumeration is adopted in the Anglican
church service books.

THE PROPER OF THE SAINTS.

_December. The Feast of the Immaculate Conception._ The discussion of
the question of this feast lasted for more than a thousand years. A
feast of the Conception was celebrated in the Eastern Church in the
early part of the eighth century and was celebrated on the 9th December
(Kellner, _Heortology_, p. 242, _et seq._). The feast was celebrated in
England before the Norman Conquest (1066) (Bishop, _On the Origins of
Feast of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary_, London, 1904).

But there is an earlier codex than those mentioned by Bishop, and from
it, it is argued that the feast is of Irish origin. In a metrical
calendar, which is reasonably referred to the time of Alfred the Great
(871-901), there is the line "Concipitur Virgo maria cognomine senio";
and this calendar exhibits, says Father Thurston, S.J., "most
unmistakable signs of the influence of an Irish character." It was
written, Dr. Whitely Stokes believed, by an Irishman in the ninth
century or thereabouts. The script appears to him to be "old Irish,
rather than Anglo-Saxon, and the large numbers of commemorations of
Irish saints and the accuracy with which the names are spelt, point to
an Irish origin." This calendar places the feast of our Lady's
Conception on the 2nd May. In the metrical calendar of Oengus, the feast
is assigned to the 3rd May, and in his _Leabhar Breac_, the scribe adds
the Latin note, "Feir mar Muire et reliqua, _i.e._, inceptio ejus ut
alii putant--sed in februo mense vel in Martio facta est illa, quae post
VII. menses nata est, ut innaratur--vel quae libet