modified by
recent legislation. The order followed may not be the order followed in
the general rubrics as given in the Breviary, as matters treated in the
general rubrics found in the Breviary are treated under other headings
here. However, a look at the table of contents or at the index shows the
pages treating of these Titles.

TITLE I. THE DOUBLE OFFICE.

"Consequently, the civilised peoples already in remote antiquity have
found a call to the worship of God in the changing seasons and times and
so have introduced sacred seasons. Sacred times and places are common to
all religions in general. The change of times bringing with them
corresponding changes in nature made a religious impression upon
mankind. In turn, man sanctified certain times and dedicated them to
God, and these days, thus consecrated to God, became festivals."

The entire number of ecclesiastical holydays and seasons is codified
for us in the different Church calendars. Their contents fall into two
essentially different divisions, each possessing an entirely different
origin and history. The first division consists of festivals of our
Lord, distributed over the year, regulated and co-ordinated in
accordance with certain laws. The second division consists of
commemorations of saints in no wise connected with festivals of our Lord
or with one another. Occupying to some extent an intermediate position
between these two chief divisions come the festivals of our Blessed
Lady, which have this in common with the festivals of the saints, that
they fall on fixed days; but, on the other hand, they are to a certain
extent connected with each other and with some feasts of our Lord. This
is carried out in such a way that they are distributed throughout the
Church year and are included in each of the festal seasons (Kellner,
_Heortology_, Part I.).

From Apostolic times the feasts of Easter, the Ascension and Pentecost
were celebrated. In the second century feasts of the Apostles were
celebrated and the cult of the Martyrs was of speedy and widespread
development. But it was not, probably, till the fourth century, that the
feasts of saints who were not martyrs were celebrated.

_Origin of the different grades of feasts_. To-day, we find Church
festivals arranged in three grades, doubles, semi-doubles and simples,
and it is very difficult, to determine clearly and accurately the origin
and the nature of the arrangements. But from the works of scholars, w