Herbert Thurston

“ The fact that a white linen tunic was a common feature of secular attire also makes it difficult to determine the epoch to which we must assign the introduction of our present alb as a distinctly liturgical garment. The word alba, indeed, meets us not infrequently in connection with ecclesiastical vesture in the first seven centuries, but we cannot safely argue from the identity of the name to the identity of the thing. ”

“ It is impossible to speak positively about the origin of this vestment. Medieval liturgists, e.g. Rupert of Deutz, favoured the view that the Christian vestments in general were derived from those of the Jewish priesthood, and that the alb in particular represents the Kethonet, a white linen tunic of which we read in Exodus, xxviii, 39. But a white linen tunic also formed part of the ordinary attire of both Romans and Greeks under the Empire, and most modern authorities, e.g. Duchesne and Braun, think it needless to look further for the origin of our alb. ”

“ A letter of Pope Innocent I (401–417) to Decentius of Eugubium makes it clear that no Mass was said in Rome on Good Friday and Holy Saturday, and some writers have wished to draw the conclusion that the same was true of all Fridays and Saturdays throughout the year. In Spain Canon xxvi of the Council of Elvira (300) may be quoted as evidence that the faithful at that time fasted every Thursday evening to the Sunday morning, and that the liturgy was probably celebrated during the vigil of the Saturday night as the fast drew to its close. ”

“ Ailbe, Saint, Bishop of Emly in Munster (Ireland) ; d. about 527, or 541. It is very difficult to sift out the germs of truth from among the mass of legends which have gathered round the life of this Irish saint. Beyond the fact, which is itself disputed, that he was a disciple of St. Patrick and was probably ordained priest by him, we know really nothing of the history of St. Ailbe. Legend says that in his infancy he was left in the forest to be devoured by the wolves, but that a she-wolf took compassion upon him and suckled him. ”

“ King David loved the pious English youth, promoted him in his household, and wished to make him bishop, but Ælred decided to become a Cistercian monk, in the recently founded abbey of Rievaulx in Yorkshire. Soon he was appointed master of novices, and was long remembered for his extraordinary tenderness and patience towards those under his charge. In 1143 when William, Earl of Lincoln, founded a new Cistercian abbey upon his estates at Revesby in Lincolnshire, St. Ælred was sent with twelve monks to take possession of the new foundation. ”

“ The Cambridge Professorship of Modern History was offered to him by Lord Rosebery in 1895, and, besides the lectures which he delivered there, he conceived and partly organized the "Cambridge Modern History", the first volume of which was only to see the light after his death. Lord Acton never produced anything which deserves to be called a book, but he wrote a good many reviews and occasionally an article or a lecture. ”

“ Alfwold, Saint, Bishop of Sherborne, in Dorsetshire; d. 1058. Alfwold, or Ælfwold, is a rather obscure English saint of whom we know little beside the few details preserved by William of Malmesbury (Gest. Pont., Bk. II, § 82) . Alfwold had been a monk of Winchester, and was consecrated Bishop of Sherborne in 1045, succeeding his own brother Brightwy. He gave great edification by the frugality of his way of life, which was in marked contrast to the riotous banquetings which the example of the Danish monarchs had rendered popular at that epoch. ”

“ Gilbert of Sempringham, was not of long duration, for in 1146 he was elected abbot of Rievaulx. In this position the saint was not only superior of a community of 300 monks, but he was head of all the Cistercian abbots in England. Causes were referred to him, and often he had to undertake considerable journeys to visit the monasteries of his order. Such a journey in 1153 took him to Scotland, and there meeting King David, for the last time, he wrote on his return to Rievaulx, where the news of David's death reached him shortly afterwards, a sympathetic sketch of the character of the late king. ”

“ Aldhelm, Saint, Abbot of Malmesbury and Bishop of Sherborne, Latin poet and ecclesiastical writer (c. 639–709) . Aldhelm, also written Ealdhelm, Ældhelm, Adelelmus, Althelmus, and Adelme, was a kinsman of Ine, King of Wessex, and apparently received his early education at Malmesbury, in Wiltshire, under an Irish Christian teacher named Maildubh. ”

“ Councils.—Other acclamations meet us in the acts of some of the early councils. They seem in most cases to have taken the form of compliments to the emperors, and may often perhaps be no more significant than a toast to the king and royal family at a modern banquet. But we read of other cries, for instance, that at the first session of the Council of Chalcedon (October, 451) the Fathers shouted, regarding Dioscurus: "The scoffer always runs away. Christ has deposed Dioscurus, Christ has deposed the murderer" ”

“ Then Tacitus was taken out to the Campus Martius to be presented to the soldiers and the people. "Whereupon the people acclaimed: 'Most happily may the gods keep thee, Tacitus', and the rest which it is customary to say." ”

“ It was made, he says, of white linen, to symbolize the self-denial and chastity befitting a priest. It hung down to the ankles, to remind him that he was bound to practice good works to his life's end. At present the priest in putting on the alb says this prayer: "Purify me, O Lord, from all stain, and cleanse my heart, that washed in the Blood of the Lamb I may enjoy eternal delights." The symbolism has evidently changed but little since the ninth century. ”

“ Aldegundis was urged to marry, but she chose a life of virginity and, leaving her home, received the veil from Amandus, Bishop of Maastricht. Then she walked dry-shod over the Sambre, and built on its banks a small nunnery at a desert placed called Malbode. This foundation afterwards, under the name Maubeuge, became a famous abbey of Benedictine nuns, though at a later date these were replaced by canonesses. St. Aldegundis' feast is kept on 30 January. There are several early Lives, but none by contemporaries. ”

“ Not long afterwards Agilulfus was elected Bishop of Cologne. He is said to have tried to persuade King Pepin on his death-bed not to leave the succession to Charles Martel, his illegitimate son, and the Bishop's death by violence soon after is attributed to the vengeance of the prince he sought to exclude. A letter of Pope Zacharias in 747 commends Agilulfus for signing the Charta veræ et orthodoxæ professionis. His remains were conveyed to the Church of Our Lady of the Steps, at Cologne, where they have recently again received public veneration. ”

“ His feast was on May the 25th, and in 857 King Ethelwulf erected a magnificent silver shrine at Malmesbury in his honour.
"Aldhelm was the first Englishman who cultivated classical learning with any success, and the first of whom any literary remains are preserved" (Stubbs) . Both from Ireland and from the Continent men wrote to ask him questions on points of learning. His chief prose work is a treatise, "De laude virginitatis" ("In praise of virginity") , preserved to us in a large number of manuscripts, some as early as the eighth century. ”

“ Beyond a certain enlargement or contraction as to lateral dimensions, no great change has taken place in the shape of the alb since the ninth century. In the Middle Ages the vestment seems to have been made to fit pretty closely around the waist, but it broadened out below so that the lower edge, in some cases, measured as much as five yards, or more, in circumference. ”

“ Alto, Saint, recluse and missionary in Bavaria, c. 750. Alto has been variously described as an Anglo-Saxon and an Irishman (Scotus) , but the name Alt is undoubtedly Irish. We know little of his life except the broad facts that he lived for some time as a hermit, reclaiming the wild forest-land around him, and that he afterwards founded a Benedictine monastery in this spot, now called Altomünster, in the Diocese of Freising, having previously obtained a grant of land from King Pepin. ”

“ In the long account given by Vopiscus of the election of the Emperor Tacitus (283) we are told that when Tacitus at first declined the honour in the senate on the score of his advanced age, "these were the acclamations of the senators, 'Trajan, too, acceded to the Empire as an old man!' (ten times) ; 'and Hadrian acceded to the Empire in his old age' (ten times) ... 'Do you give orders, let the soldiers fight' (thirty times) ; 'Severus said: It is the head that reigns not the feet' (thirty times) ; 'It is your mind, not your body, we are electing' (twenty times) ”

“ Ethelbert, King of the East Angles, but when he came to the court of Offa to claim her, he was treacherously murdered by the contrivance of Cynethritha, Offa's queen. After this Alfrida retired to the marshes of Crowland, where she was built into a cell and lived as a recluse to the end of her days. It is impossible not to suspect the existence of some confusion with Ælfleda, another daughter of Offa, whose husband was also murdered by treachery. ”

“ After five years spent at Oscott, Acton complete his education at Munich, as the pupil of the celebrated historian Döllinger. With Döllinger he visited France, and both there and in Germany lived on terms of intimacy with the most eminent historical scholars of the day. Returning to England, however, in 1859, to settle upon the family estate of Aldenham in Shropshire, he entered parliament as member for an Irish constituency, and retained his seat for six years, voting with the Liberals, but taking little part in the debates. ”

“ The only writing of Acca's which we possess is a letter addressed to St. Bede and printed in his works. This document, together with much other material relating to Acca, has also been printed in Raine's Priory of Hexham (London, 1864) , Surtees Society, 1864. Our knowledge of Acca's life is derived primarily from Bede, Eddius, Simeon of Durham, Richard of Durham, and Ælred. ”

“ The future historian was thus in an extraordinary degree cosmopolitan, and much of his exceptional mastery of historical literature may be ascribed to the fact that the principal languages of Europe were as familiar to him as his native tongue. ”

“ Although we do not possess much which can be regarded as direct and clear evidence, there is every reason to believe that in early centuries of the Church aliturgical days were numerous both in East and West. ”

“ But he had adopted the views of Ratramnus of Corbie, whom he repeatedly paraphrases, insisting that in the Eucharist was a "spiritual" presence as opposed to a "bodily" (i.e., fleshly or carnal) one. That Ratramnus was no opponent of Transubstantiation has recently been proved to demonstration in the monograph of Dr. Aug. Naegle (Vienna, 1903) . Ælfric's numerous works in Anglo-Saxon, which give evidence of much literary power, have been edited with translations ”

“ In these imperial laudes the words Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat (Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ commands) , nearly always find a place. It should be added that these acclamations or some similar feature have been retained to this day in the Eastern coronation rituals and in a few of Western origin, amongst others in that of England. ”

“ This last feature closely reproduces the laudes of the Middle Ages, chanted at the coronation of kings. Similar acclamations seem to have been familiar from very early times at the election of bishops, though it would probably be going much too far to represent them as regularly forming part of the ritual. The classical instance is that recorded by St. Augustine, who proposed Heraclius to the people of Hippo as his successor. ”

“ Some time after his ordination into the priesthood, he was sent to Carne Abbey, or as he himself writes it "Cernel", in Dorsetshire. Thence he became, in 1005, abbot of the recently-founded monastery of Eynsham, near Oxford, where he probably remained until his death. ”

“ Neither does he appear to possess any proper day. He is mentioned in Jocelyn's life of St. Werburg as a pious neatherd at Weedon who bore with great patience the ill-treatment of the bailiff placed over him, and who afterwards became a hermit in a very lonely spot, where he was eventually murdered by two robbers. ”

“ His executioner was converted, and the man who replaced him, after striking the fatal blow, was punished with blindness. A later development in the legend informs us that the cleric's name was Amphibalus, and that he, with some companions, was stoned to death a few days afterwards at Redbourn, four miles from St. Albans. What germ of truth may underlie these legends it is difficult to decide. The first authority to mention St. Alban is Constantius, in his Life of St. ”

“ This view is confirmed, first, by the fact that in the Eucharistic scenes of the catacomb frescoes (e.g. those indicated by Monsignor Wilpert in his "Fractio Panis") the white under-tunic is not always found ”

“ Barbier de Montault in Analecta Juris Pontificii, VIII, 1475; Baldassari, I Pontifici Agnus Dei (Venice, 1714) ; Thurston, Holy Year of Jubilee (London, 1900) , 247–256; Barbier de Montault, Un Agnus Dei de Grégoire II (Poitiers, 1880) ”

“ Adequate accounts may be also found in Stanton's English Menology (London, 1892) , 507; Dict. of Nat. Biog.; Dict. of Christ. Biog. For some archæological sidelights, cf. Browne (Anglican Bishop) , Theodore and Wilfrith (London, 1897) . ”

“ Dict. Christ. Biog. s.v.; Dict. Nat. Biog., Supplem., I, 27; Bright, Early Eng. Ch. Hist. (London, 1897) , 6–7; Hardy, Descriptive Catalogue, I, 3–24; Plummer, Bede (Oxcord, 1896) , II. 17–20; Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, I, 7; Atkinson, French Legend of St. Alban (Dublin, 1876) ; Allard, Histoire des persecutions (Paris, 1800) , IV, 41; Narbe) , Supplément aux Acta Sanctorum (Paris, 1902) , II, 104; but especially Meyer, Die Legende des h. Albanus in the Abhandlungen d. K. Gesellschaft d. Wissenschaften, (Göttingen, 1904) , new series, VIII. ”