Corpus of Latin Ecclesiastical Writers, Vol. LXV: Hilary's Treatise on the Mysteries, Fragments, and Hymns

namely, some codex of Saint Emmeram and another parchment volume of the Cathedral Church of Freising, whose characters seemed to match the age of Berno (Pez VII). We recognized the former codex in Munich codex 14477 (Em. E 100) of the 12th century (= M), which hands down the Hilarian words on leaf 72. We could not find the Freising codex, but we found another Munich codex, namely 27300 (Regensburg, Niedermünster) of the early 12th century (= N), containing the treatise and those Hilarian words on leaf 66. These words are also found in the Little Book on Certain Matters Pertaining to the Mass Office, which Melchior Hittorp brought to light under Berno's name (On the Divine Offices and Ministries of the Catholic Church [Cologne 1568] 419—433) (p. 425 = CXLII 1055 M). Giovanni Mercati and Andreas Wilmart have re-edited the fragment, the former according to Bernard Pez's edition in The Journal of Theological Studies VIII (1907) 429 sq., the latter also using the Paris codex 2265 of the 14th century (leaf 168) in Revue Bénédictine XXVII (1910) 500—513.

Some have denied the Hilarian origin of that fragment on the grounds that the beginning of the liturgical Advent before the feast of the Lord's Nativity or Epiphany could not be traced back to such great antiquity. To this argument, others respond ¹ Cf. W. C. Bishop, The three Weeks Advent of 'Liber officiorum' S. Hilarii in The Journal of Theological Studies X (1909) 127 and Wilmart l. c. that the liturgical Advent of the Lord celebrated festively in Spain is already commemorated at the First Council of Zaragoza in the year 380 (381), which was held almost twelve years after Hilary's death ² cf. A. Lesley, Preface to the Mixed Missal n. 207 (LXXXV 66 M)., and indeed exactly as the Advent of three weeks by Hilary: twenty-one days, from the 16th day before the Kalends of January until the day of the Epiphany, which is the 8th day before the Ides of January, etc. We have discovered that Berno of Reichenau himself, whether or not he is the author of the General Ratio, held those words to be Hilarian, from his letter to Archbishop Aribo, How the Lord's Advent is to be celebrated. For in that letter he writes the following: And we truly say that we have received the rite by which we celebrate the Lord's Advent (adds "this year" in N) from the holy fathers Gelasius, Gregory, Jerome, and Hilary without a doubt (M f. 71v, N f. 65v, in Pez p. 48).

Andreas has shown in many places that the things contained in that fragment correspond perfectly with the style, elocution, way of thinking, and exegetical method of Hilary of Poitiers.