for 22 November, both in the Missale Mixtum and the Breviarum Gothicum. The former especially is more specific regarding the life and martyrdom of St. Cecilia than any church office yet considered. It mentions the penance of the hair-cloth garment, the attendance of the angels, the immortal flowers, the conversions of Valerian and Tiburtius, their martyrdom and ascent to glory. Urban's name is mentioned once, and St. Cecilia is recorded to have suffered martyrdom by fire. The place and time of her death are not mentioned.

Venantius Fortunatus (530-600?), one of Cecilia's earliest chroniclers, has placed her martyrdom in Sicily,' but has assigned no dates.' He also shows by his verses,' written at the consecration of the church of St. Andrew, by Vitalis, bishop of Ravenna, that Cecilia was commonly venerated in the sixth century. Brower' believes that Fortunatus received the impression that Cecilia had been born in Sicily from the fact that in his time she was held in especial veneration in that country.

Bede (673-735), was familiar with the life of St. Cecilia, and refers to her twice in the Ecclesiastical History. Concerning his martyrology, which is of especial interest in this case, he says at the conclusion of Bk. V:-"A martyrology, concerning the festivals of the holy martyrs, in which all that I could find, not only on what day, but also in what form of strife and under what judge they prevailed over the world, I carefully wrote." The extracts from this martyrology are given in full."

The Metrical Martyrology which was made in addition to this, in order to "imitate the method of the Holy Scripture

I PATR. LAT. 85. 926; 86. 1251.

2 Cæciliam Sicula profert, Seleucia Teclam, Carm. Lib. VIII. 3. 171, PATR. Lat. 88.

3 "Fortunatus places her in Sicily in the time of Commodus or Aurelius." Dict. of Chr. Biog., Cæcilia.

4 Sanctus Alexander felixque Cecilia pollent,

Quos meritis omnes una corona manet. Carm. Lib. 1, c. ii. 23-4, Patr. Lat. 88. 5 Forte in Sicilia, ætate Fortunati, sanctæ Cecilia memoria præcipuo honore colebatur quam cæteroquin Romanam matronam fuisse proditus est. Fortun. Op.

6 Cæcilia infestos læta ridet gladios, Hymn to Virginity, Hist. Eccl. IV. 18; also in the lines concerning the consecration of Wilbrord in the church of St. Cecilia at Rome. Ordinatus est autem in ecclesia sanctæ martyris Ceciliæ, die Natalis ejus, Hist. Eccl. V. 11.

7 XVIII. Kal. Maii. Romæ Tiburtii, Valeriani & Maximi, sub Almachio Urbis Præfecto: quorum primi fustibus cæsi & gladio sunt percussi, ultimus tamdiu plumbatis verberatus, donec spiritum redderet.

VIII. Kal. Junii. Romæ natale S. Urbani Papæ & Confessoris, cujus doctrina multi martyrio coronati sunt.

X. Kal. Decem. Natale S. Ceciliæ Virginis quæ & sponsum suum Valerianum & fratrem ejus Tiburtium ad credendum Christo ac martyrium perdocuit: & ipsa diende martyrizavit, ignem quidem superans, sed ferro occisa sub Almachio Urbis Præfecto.

Johannis Smith, Cambridge, 1722, Martyrologium Bædae in 8 antiquis MSS. acceptum cum auctario Flori.

in whose history poetical pieces in meter are often inserted," also refers to Cecilia.1

The English bishop Aldhelm (640?-709), mentions Cecilia twice. His prose account' relates her musical powers, concerning which he approaches the modern conception of a Cecilia of music and angels and flowers.

The Liber Pontificalis of Anastasius who died A.D.721, the surviving document drawn from more ancient records and interesting for its subsequent relations, mentions the martyrdom of Cecilia' as one of the significants events of St. Urban's papacy. The interdependence however of the Urban and Cecilia history is such as to give to neither the value of separate and corroborative testimony.

From the group of ninth century martyrologists,* when the passion for investigation of church history was at its height, Cecilia receives due and constant attention. From these sources a connected story of her life in miniature begins to appear.

Rabanus Maurus (786-856), Archbishop of Mayence, who compiled a martyrology based upon the Liber Pontificalis and also upon the work of Bede, gives on X Kal. December the first brief record of St. Cecilia."

Odo, Archbishop of Vienna, toward the middle of the ninth century compiled a calendar on the basis of the Parvum Romanum, an old martyrology discovered by him and esteemed of superior authenticity. The account of Odo, since it elaborates several points and adds some details, is of particular value

6

¡Cecilia merito decimis cum laude migravit. PATR. LAT. 94. 606.

2.. Quomodo Cecilia virgo sacratissima indulta jugalitatis consortia, ac pacta proci sponsalia obtentu castitatis refutans, velut spurca latrinarum purgamenta laudabili spiritus fervore contempserit, dispexerit, respuerit; quæ licet organica bis quinquagenis et ter quinis sonorum vocibus concreparet harmonia. Quamobrem angelicis perfrui conspectibus fecit, quibus cœlicola ab astris destinatus candidis ac purpureis contexta serta floribus obtulit: Istas, inquiens, coronas immaculato et mundo corpore custodite, quia de paradiso Dei eas ad vos attuli. De Laudibus Virginitatis. PATR. LAT. 89. 141.

3 Sanctus Urbanus. Anno Christi 226. Alex. imp. 4. Urbanus, Natione Romanus, ex patre Pontiano, sedit annos octo, menses undecim, dies duodecim. Hic sua traditione multos convertit ad batismum et credulitatem etiam Valerianum, nobilissimum virum, sponsum sanctæ Cæcila, quos etiam usque ad martyrii palmam perduxit, et per ejus monita multi martyrio coronati sunt. Qui etiam sepultus est in coemeterio Prætextati, via Appia, VIII. Kal. Junias. PATR. LAT. 127, 1325.

.

4 For a discussion of the relation of these martyrologies to one another, see Preface to works of Usuard. PATR. LAT. 123. 459-482.

5 Sanctæ Ceciliæ, quæ et sponsum suum Valerianum, et fratem ejus Tiburtium ad credendum Christo ac martyrium perdocuit, et ipsa deinde martyrizavit, ignem quidem superans, sed ferro occisa sub Almachio urbis præfecto. PATR. LAT. 110. 1180.

6 The compilation was rendered further reliable he tells us, (Preface to Martyrology), from the fact that manuscripts of the Acts of the Martyrs had been collected by him from all quarters.

in the study of the Acts of St. Cecilia. On X Kal. December is given an account which in abstract is as follows:

On the X Kal. December, Cecilia, the blessed virgin was born at Rome. She converted her husband Valerian and her brother Tiburtius to the faith, for which they endured martydom. Urban the Pope, moreover, as the result of her preaching, baptized no less than four hundred souls, among whom there was an illustrious man named Gordian.

Thereupon Almachius commanded that the blessed Cecilia be brought to him, and when she held true to the faith, he commanded further that she be conducted to her own home and burned to death in its bath.

Cecilia remained therein an entire day and night without injury, as if it had been a cold place. Hearing which, Almachius sent messengers who should behead her. These struck three blows but were not able to strike off her head. She lived after that for three days. Then St. Urban, bearing away her body by night buried it with the bodies of the popes. This blessed virgin lived during the times of the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Commodus.

On the XVIII. Kal. Maii in Rome, via Appia, in the cemetery of Prætextatus, the holy martyrs Tiburtius, Valerian, and Maximus under the prefect Almachius slain by the sword, (the last, beaten with leaden plumbets until he gave up the ghost).

On the VIII. Kal. Junii. In Rome, via Numentana, in the cemetery of Prætextatus, St. Urban, bishop and martyr, by whose teaching, in the time of the persecution of Alexander, many martyrs were crowned.

Usuard who compiled the martyrology which bears his name died in 876 or 877. The martyrology was adopted in most of the churches of France, Italy and Germany and is important since it became the basis of the Roman martyrology. He follows Maurus closely.1

During this period the Greek menologies continued to borrow the Latin legend. The great Menology of the Greeks,' and the Menology of Sirleti' follow Jerome's reference for 14 April and 22 November, and add that the martyr suffered under Diocletian (283-290). The Ephemerides, the Græcorum Metricus," and the Martyologium Græcum of Seberus also commemorate November 22.

6

The Greek Simeon Metaphrastes, scribe to the emperor Leo VI. (886-911), in the tenth century compiled from many sources an important but unauthenticated' work which includes an elaborate account of St. Cecilia and her associates.

I Romæ, natalis sanctæ Ceciliæ virginis, quæ sponsum Valerianum et fratrem ejus Tiburtium ad credendum Christo ac martyrium perdocuit, et ipsa deinde martyrizata est, ignem quidem superans, sed ferro occisa. Passa est autem Marci Aurelii et Commodi imperatorum temporibus. PATR. LAT. 124. 2 Mænæa Magna Græcorum, die in textu notata, Venetiis, 1528.

3 Menologium Sirleti, ed. Canisius Jac. Basnagius, Thesaur. Monument. III. p. 22, Nov. p. 490. 4 Lipsius, Chron. der Röm. Bish. p. 81, observes that St. Cecilia was not first as sociated with the reign of Diocletian by the Greeks of the eleventh century, but that in the Latin Papal Records (MS. Berner 225) of the eighth or ninth century, Urban is mentioned in this connection.

5 X Kal. Dec. Δευτερί ἐἰχάδι ΚΙΚΙΛΙΑΝ τάμον ἀμφί λόετρον;-Ciciliam necat in balneo vicena secunda. Bollandus, Acta Sanct.1 Maii. Vol. 14, p. LIII. Henschen and Papebroke.

6 PATR. GR. 116. 3; Latin of Surius, ed. Lipomanus (see Bibliography).

7 Surius avoit de l'érudition, mais il donnoit tête baissée dan les fables, et manquoit de critique. L'Advocat, Dict. Portatif.

8 For a defense of the credibility of this compilation and its assignment to an earlier date, see Ceillier, Hist. des Auteurs Sacrés, Vol. II.

By Metaphrastus and Surius his translator, it is claimed that Urban I. was Bishop and Pope of the Christians at the time of Cecilia's death and consequently under the temporal rule of Alexander Severus (222-230). This in general is the accepted statement of the medieval legends.

Proceeding from the monasteries of England, in the time of Bede to the eleventh century there was a host of calendars and missals, in Latin, intended for the celebration of great festivals and fasts, Sundays and Saint's days. Of them all, only a few escaped the adversities of the time of King Edward VI (1547).1

The Sarum, York, Bangor, and Hereford missals, drawn directly from the Sacramentaries of Leo, Gelasius, and Gregory, celebrate the office of St. Cecilia on her usual days.

The earliest English life of St. Cecilia is found in the martyrology attributed by Cockayne' and others to Alfred (849-901). The Old English text in full for both days is as follows :*

Nov. 22.

On pone XXII dæg þæs mondes byð sẽa cecilian browung þære halgan fæmnan. Seo was on hyre geogoðe æðelum were be weddod, and se wæs hæðen, and heo was cristen. Heo was ge gyred myd hæran æt hyre lychaman, and on ufan þære hæran heo was ge gyred myd golde awefenum hrægelum. And on pære nyhte pa heo was ingelæded on pone bryd bur, þa sæde heo þam brydguman pat heo gesawe engel of heofenum, and se wolde hyne slean myd fær deade gif he hyre æfre onhryne myd unclænre lufon. pa gelærde heo þone bryd guman, þat he onfeng fullwyhte, and on god gelyfde. pa he gefullod wes and yn eode on pone bryd bur, þa stod se engel big hyre myd scynendum fyðerum; and hæfde twegen beagas on hys handa, þa glysnodon hwylum swa rosan blosman, hwylum swa lilian blostman; and þa sealde he oðerne þæra

I Piper, Die Kalendarien und Martyrologien der Angelsachsen, Berlin, 1862, gives a valuable account of a group of these, including the Martyrologies of Bede.

2 The York Missal is as follows, (Publ. Surtees Soc., 1872, II):

Sanctæ Cæciliæ, virginis et martyris. X. Kal. Dec.

Officium. Loquebar.

Oratio. Deus qui nos annua beatæ Cæcilia martyris tuæ sollemnitate lætificas, da, ut quam veneremur officio, etiam piæ conversationis sequamur exemplo. Per Dominum.

Epistola. De virginibus præceptum.

Graduale. Audi filia. Alleluya V. Cantantibus organis Cæcilia virgo soli. Domino decantabat dicens. Fiat cor meum et corpus meum immaculatum ut non confundar.

Sequentia. Exsultemus, ut in Communi.

Evangelium. Simile est regnum cœlorum decem virginibus.

Offertorium. Offerentur, majus.

Secreta. Hæc hostia, Domine, placationis et laudis, quæsumus, ut interveniente beata Cæcilia martyre tua, nos tua propitiatione dignos semper efficiat. Per.

Communio. Confundantur.

Post communio. Satiasti, Domine, familiam tuam muneribus sacris, ejus semper intercessione nos refove, cujus sollemnia celebramus. Per.

3 We must conclude that this martyrology is of the age of Alfred; none of its materials are more recent; and it is further directly indebted to that king himself, and doubtless composed under his direction; it draws from Benedictine, Roman, English, and Syriac sources. Oswald Cockayne, The Schrine, p. 157.

4

For a translation see Skeat, The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, Vol. IV. p. 489.

beaga þære fæmnan, and oderne þam brydguman, and cwæð: "Healdað ge þas beagas myd clænlicum dædum, forpam de ic hig brohte ync of godes neorxna wange. peos fæmne geprowode martyrdom for cryste. Almatheus hatte rome burge gerefa, he nydde hig þæt heo cryste wyd soce þa heo þæt ne gẹ þafode, þa het he hig belucan on byrnendum baðe on þam heo wæs, dæg and nyht, swa heo na ne geswætte. pa eode hyre se cwellere to myd sweorde, and he hig slob prywa myd þam sweorde. And he ne myhte hyre pet heafod of aslean. Ac heo ge bad híg to þam papan, se wæs haten urbanus, and þa, be foran þam papan, heo to dælde eall pet hyre was, and hym gesealde, and cwed to hym: Pyssa preora daga fæc íc me abad æt dryhtne pat ic pe þys sealde, þæt du ge halgie myn hus to cyrcan.' "And pa on sende hyre gast to gode.

66

April 14.

On done feowerteogdan1 dæg þæs mondes, bið þara haligra gebroðra tid. sče ualerianes and see tiburties, da allmachius rome burge gerefa nedde mid witum dæt hi criste wiosocan. Da hi pat ne gepafodan pa het he hi beheafdian. pa se man de þæt sceolde behealdan þæt hi man beheafdade wepende and swergende he sæde þæt he gesawe heora sawle gongan ut of þæm lichoman fægre gefretwade. And þat he gesawe godes englas swa scinende swa sunne, and þa hi bæron to heofonum mid2 hiora feðra flihte. And se mon ða gelefde gode, and he was [of] s[w]ungen on dead for criste, and his noma was maximus.

This, it will be seen, does not differ materially from the main line of Latin legends which have as their significant points Rome, Urban, Almatheus or Almachius, the attempted martyrdom of Cecilia by fire, her final execution, and her request that her home be hallowed for a church.

Just before the middle English period, and distinct in its literary qualities from the martyrologies and church uses which surround it, is the long account of Cecilia given by Ælfric (10th century) in his Saints' Lives.* Cecilia is represented as a Roman virgin living in the days of the emperors “who cared not for Christ.'

995

Ælfric's version contains most of the material, including the theological arguments, of the finished legend as it appeared in the Middle Ages, in the Latin of Jacobus a Voragine, the French of De Vignay, the English of Caxton, Bokenam, and Chaucer, and the closely related family of monastic legends which overlaps both boundaries of the Middle English period.

1 3 erased, MS.

2 Here begins an older copy in MS. Add. 23211 of two pages.

3 The date of Ælfric's birth is estimated as probably the year 955. c. II. p. 35, Elfric, A New Study of his Life and Works, a doctoral thesis presented to the Philosophical Faculty of Yale University by C. L. White, Boston, 1898.

4 The life of St. Cecilia is to appear shortly (1898), in the fourth part (Vol. II) of Ælfric's Saints' Lives, edited for the E. E. T. S. by W. W. Skeat.

5 Iu on ealdum dagum was sum æɣele mæden
Cecilia gehaten fram cild-hade cristen

On romana rica þa þa seo rede ehtnys stod

On þæra casera dagum þe cristes ne gymdon.

-Elfric's Saints' Lives, XXXIV, 1-4.