The Origins of the Modern Roman Liturgy by S. J. P. van Dijk, O. F. M., J. H. Walker (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 673 The Origins of the Modern Roman Liturgy. By S. J.P. VAN DIJK, 0. F. M. and J. H. WALKER London: Darton, Longman & Todd; The Newman Press, Westminster, Md. 1960. Pp. 617. Price $10.50. Histories of the Roman rite are apt to convey the impression that the complete story of both the Roman missal and of the Roman breviary is now known in practically all its details. However, every liturgist knows that this is not true. There are still periods about which there is no little uncertainty. The first half of the thirteenth century is one of these hazy periods. Several mediaeval writers called attention to the fact that the Divine Office as recited by the Papal Curia differed from that chanted in the basilicas of Rome. Since St. John Lateran's is omnium urbis et orbis ecclesiarum mater et caput, the critics were rather scandalized that the Curia did not scrupulously follow the ancient Roman rite as observed in the basilicas. Nor were these traditionalists appeased by the knowledge that the Curia often had to travel from city to city and that the transportation of the big heavy tomes used in the basilicas for chanting the office constituted a serious difficulty. But this was no reason for shortening or simplifying the office! The liturgist Ralph van der Beke (d. 1403) was outspoken in his condemnation . A man strongly conservative in his views, he made in his famous book Liber de Canonum Observantia a number of uncomplimentary charges against the Franciscans and their " revision " of the Roman Office. As a matter of fact, nearly a century earlier a Franciscan, Angelus Clarenus had made similar accusations against his Order; but it was Ralph's criticism which was repeated with varying degrees of emphasis by all the leading modem historians of the Roman breviary: Jean Grancolas, Suitbert Baumer, Msgr. Batiffol, Jules Baudot, J. Brinktrine, H. Leclercq and others. It was probably this chorus of disapproval which goaded van Dijk into writing the book: The Origins of the Modern Roman Liturgy. Fortunately , he did not restrict himself to Ralph's specific charges but took up the whole subject of the origins of the present Roman rite. Mrs. Joan H. Walker collaborated with him. Judging from previous articles written separately by these two authors, I deduce that most of the research was done by the Franciscan friar. Jules Baudot, 0. S. B., in his book: The Roman Breviary. Its Sources and History, p. 101, asserts that Ralph of Tongres "knew what he was talking about." It is van Dijk's contention that Ralph did not know what he was talking about! The Minorite declares that " when Ralph scornfully questions the general belief that no Church observed the customs of the ' Roman Church ' except the friars, who actually followed the use of the ' Roman Curia,' he either failed or refused to see the historical evidence ... He is to be blamed for both ignorance and short-sightedness." And the 674 BOOK REvmws author undertakes to prove the " ignorance and shortsightedness " of the dean of Tongres. Our two authors contend that there was in progress an evolution-not a decay or a deformation-of the Roman rite, an evolution which had the support of Pope Innocent III. It was this evolution which resulted in the modem Roman rite. In this connection the authors raise an interesting point: at the period in question, just what did constitute the Roman rite? Was it the practices observed in the ancient basilicas of Rome? Or was it the liturgy of the Pope and his Curia? When the future Innocent III wrote his masterpiece-De Sacro Altaris Mysterio-it was not the liturgy of the basilicas he described but that of the Papal Curia. De facto, it was the latter rite which, with the assistance of the Franciscans, became after various revisions the present Roman rite; the ancient liturgy of the Roman basilicas lost the fight. Do our two authors prove their contention that Ralph of Tongres displayed ignorance and shortsightedness in making the charges he did? This question can be resolved only by examining the liturgical books used by Rome in the second half of the twelfth and...