Cap. XVIII
QUO ORDINE IPSI PSALMI DICENDI SUNT

[Ms P, fol. 82r – Paulus Diaconus – 
Ps.-Basil: Ms K¹, fol. 8v; Ms E¹, fol. 93r; Ms E², fol. 141v]

Ch. 18
IN WHAT ORDER THE PSALMS ARE TO BE SAID

Translated by: Renie Choy

₁Inprimis semper horis diurnis dicatur versus: Deus in adjutorium meum intende, Domine ad adjuvandum me festina [Ps 69:2], et Gloria; inde hymnus uniuscujusque horae et rel.

₁Each of the day hours begins with the verse, God, come to my assistance; Lord, make haste to help me [Ps 69:2], followed by Glory be to the Father and the appropriate hymn, etc.

In hoc vero loco, ubi S. Benedictus dicit: ₂₂hoc praecipue commonentes: si cui forte haec distributio psalmorum displicuerit, ordinet, si melius aliter judicaverit, ₂₃dummodo omnimodis id attendatur, ut omni hebdomada psalterium ex integro numero centum quinquaginta psalmorum psallatur, et dominico die semper a capite repetantur ad vigilias; ₂₄quia nimis iners devotionis suae servitium ostendunt monachi, qui minus psalterium cum canticis consuetudinariis per septimanae circulum psallunt, ₂₅dum [quando] legamus, sanctos patres nostros uno die strenue implevisse, quod nos tepidi utinam septimana integra, persolvamus¹

In this place where St. Benedict says – ₂₂We urge this in particular: if this distribution of the psalms happens to displease someone, he should arrange it otherwise if he thinks it better, ₂₃although in any case he must ensure that the entire Psalter is sung every week, the full complement of 150 psalms, and it is taken up again from the beginning at Sunday Vigils. ₂₄For those monks who sing less than the entire Psalter with the customary canticles in the course of a week show themselves lazy in the service of devotion, ₂₅since what--as we read--our holy fathers energetically completed in a single day, we, more lukewarm as we are, ought to manage in an entire week.

Sunt multi monachi minus intelligentes hunc locum dicentes: ‘Ecce S. Benedictus dedit licentiam, ut, si volumus, possimus canonicum officium facere, quia melius est non regulare.’ E contrario sunt [page 311] alii, qui respondent dicentes, non esse verum, ut ille omnimodo licentiam dedisset, ut aliud officium canendum fuisset, quia more sanctorum doctorum locutus est.

There are many monks misunderstanding this phrase, saying, ‘Behold, St. Benedict gave permission that, if we wish, we may do the canonical office, since the regular office is not better’. And there are others [page 311] on the contrary who respond, saying, ‘It is not true that he has given permission for all ways, so that there would have been another office for singing, since he spoke of the way of the holy doctors’.

Sancti enim doctores definiunt causam profundius, quae melius non potest definiri, et tamen post definitionem causa humilitatis dicunt: si alius judicaverit melius, faciat,² veluti B. Gregorius in libris moralium facit.

Indeed the holy doctors thoroughly defined the structure, which is not able to be defined any better, and yet after the definition, they say by way of humility, ‘If anyone judges any other way to be better, let him do it’, just as Blessed Gregory did in his Moralia.

Ille enim, cum de onagro secundum duos sensus nobiliter definisset, dicit hoc modo: Haec autem de onagro exposita sub duplici intellectu sufficiant. Lectoris vero judicio relinquendum est, quid magis duxerit eligendum; et si utriusque expositionis intelligentiam fortasse despexerit, libenter ipse lectorem meum subtilius veriusque sentientem velut magistrum discipulus sequor, quia mihi proprie donatum credo, quidquid illum me melius sentire cognosco. Omnes enim, qui fide pleni de Deo aliquid sonare nitimur, organa veritatis sumus, et in ejusdem veritatis potestate est, utrum per me sonet alteri, an per alterum mihi. [Gregory the Great, Moralia in Job XXX, XXVII, 81, CCSL 143B, pp. 1546-1547]

For he, after he had skillfully defined the wild ass according to the two senses, spoke in this way: Let this twofold exposition of the wild ass be sufficient. But it must be left to the judgment of the reader, which he thinks best to select. But if he chance to scorn the meaning of either exposition, I will willingly myself follow my reader, as a pupil his master, if he thinks more accurately and truly. Because whatever I find he knows better than myself, I believe it to be vouchsafed as a special gift to myself. For all we, who endeavour, full of faith, to utter something concerning God, are organs of truth: and it is in the power of this same Truth, whether It utters Its voice through me to another, or through another to me. [Gregory the Great, Moralia in Job XXX, XXVII, 81, transl. Morals on the Book of Job by S. Gregory the Great, 3 vols, Library of the Fathers 31 (Oxford, 1850), vol. 3B, p. 421].

Ac per hoc cum ita sit, i. e. per humilitatem dictum, unde cognoscitis, melius esse officium romanum quam regulare? Scimus enim veraciter, quia officium romanum sanctum est, videlicet duobus modis: sive quia ipsa verba divina et sancta sunt et salubria, sive quia multi sunt sancti et pii homines, qui illud cantant et illud cantando Deo omni modo placent. Similiter officium regulare omnimodo sanctum est, sive quia ipsa verba divina et sancta sunt, quae canuntur; nam ipsa verba resonant in officio regulari, quae resonant in officio romano, quamvis non eodem per omnia ordine. Deinde sancti etiam sunt et pii, qui illud officium regulare decantant, et ipsum decantando Deo omnimodo placent, maxime cum B. Gregorius, qui dicitur romanum officium fecisse, regulam B. Benedicti laudavit, dicens hoc modo: Hoc vero nolo, te, Petre, lateat, quod vir Dei inter tot miracula, quibus in mundo claruit, doctrinae quoque verbo non mediocriter fulsit. Nam scripsit monachorum regulam discretione [page 312] praecipuam, sermone luculentam. Cujus si quis velit subtilius mores vitamque cognoscere, potest in eadem institutione regulae omnis magisterii illius actus invenire, quia sanctus vir nullo modo potuit aliter docere quam vixit. [Gregory the Great, Dialogorum Libri II, c. 36, SC 260, p. 242]

And if it [Benedict’s saying] be so through this, i.e. through a humility formula, from where do you learn that the Roman Office is better than the Regular Office? Of course we know truly that the Roman Office is holy, namely in two ways: both because its divine words are holy and salubrious, and because there are many holy and pious men who sing it and who by their singing please God in every way. Similarly the Regular Office is holy in all ways, both because the words which are sung are divine and holy, for the same words resonate in the Regular Office which resonate in the Roman Office, though not through the same order; and also because those who sing the Regular Office are holy and pious, and by their singing please God in every way, and especially since Blessed Gregory, who is said to have composed the Roman Office, praised Blessed Benedict, saying in this manner, However, I do not wish you to be unaware that amidst all the miracles which made him famous throughout the world the man of God was no less outstanding for the wisdom of his teaching. For he wrote a Rule for the brothers which is remarkable for its discretion [page 312] and the clarity of its language. If anyone should wish to know about his character or his way of life in greater detail, he can discover in the teaching of that Rule a complete account of Benedict’s practice: for the holy man was incapable of teaching anything that was contrary to the way he lived. [Gregory the Great, Dialogorum Libri II, c. 36, transl. C. White, Early Christian Lives (London, 1998), p. 202.]

Ecce, laudavit B. Gregorius regulam, quia illam legit, et nisi legeret, non laudaret. Et cum legeret, invenit ibi ipsum officium regulare et illud laudavit, quia non excepit dicens: 'discretione praecipuam, excepto officio, quod inibi continetur.'

Behold, Blessed Gregory praised the rule because he had read it, and unless he had read it, he would not have praised it. And when he read it, he found there this same Regular Office, and he praised it, since he did not receive it saying, 'What is contained in this is remarkable for its discretion, with the exception of the Office.'

Quod si ille laudavit officium regulare, qui canonicum scripsit: qui estis vos, qui audetis contra vestrum magistrum dicere, melius esse officium romanum quam regulare? O quam indecorosum et inhonestum atque superbum sonat, in his causis discipulos non laudare et velle relinquere, quod magister illorum humiliter laudavit et amplexus est, h. e. amavit! Magister enim illorum laudat, et discipuli illius nolunt recipere, quod cognoscunt magistrum laudasse et amplexum fuisse, sicuti ipse jam fatus B. Gregorius laudavit atque amplexus fuit Benedicti officium.

Because he who wrote the Canonical Office praised the Regular Office, who are you who dare to speak against your master that the Roman Office is better than the Regular? Oh how indecorous, dishonest, and arrogant it sounds that the disciples in this case do not praise but wish to relinquish what their master humbly praised and embraced, that is, loved! Indeed, their teacher praises, and his disciples do not wish to receive what they know their teacher had praised and embraced, as already said, that Blessed Gregory praised and embraced the Office of Benedict.

Denique dicunt: ‘S. Benedictus non concessit, ut totum officium suum relinquatur, sed tantum ipsa distributio psalmorum.’ Ille enim distribuit et ordinavit, qui et quanti psalmi per unumquodque officium canendi sint, et subjunxit: ₂₂Si forte alicui displicuerit haec distributio psalmorum, ordinet aliter, si melius judicaverit, ₂₃dummodo omnimodis id attendatur, ut totum psalterium cum suis canticis per septimanae circulum psallatur.

Finally they say, ‘Holy Benedict did not permit that his whole Office be relinquished, but only the distribution of the psalms’. Indeed he distributed and ordained which and what number of psalms through one or another Office must be sung, and he added, ₂₂if this distribution of the psalms happens to displease someone, he should arrange it otherwise if he thinks it better, ₂₃although in any case he must ensure that the entire psalter is sung every week.

Ac per hoc vos, qui relinquitis officium regulare, quid facitis de intervallo, quod B. Benedictus praecipit meditatione inservire? quid facitis de hymnis et de lectionibus, quando duodecim leguntur, et de tribus canticis, quae tunc canuntur? Et iterum si romanum officium facitis, minus psallitis, quam regulae officium contineat; nam³ in hebdomada post Pascha, quae vocatur alba, et in hebdomada Pentecosten, in quibus totum psalterium non canitur, quod praecipit regula per unamquamque septimanam omnimodo esse canendum cum canticis [page 313] suis, quia, si non fuerit cantatum, nimis iners h. e. negligens ostenditur esse devotionis monachorum servitium, maxime cum plus debent monachi quam canonici in officiis laborare?

And through this, what do you, who relinquish the Regular Office, do in the interval that Blessed Benedict orders to be spent in meditation? What do you do concerning the hymns and readings when twelve are read, and concerning the three canticles, which are then sung? And again, if you follow the Roman Office, it contains fewer psalms than the Regular Office: [what do you do] in the week after Easter, which is called ‘White week’, and in the week of Pentecost, in which not all the psalms are sung, which the [Benedictine] rule orders must be sung through one week along with the canticles [page 313], since, if it is not sung, the service of the devotion of monks is seen to be excessively lazy, in other words, negligent, especially when monks ought to work more than canons in the Office?

Canonici enim aliquando propter populorum turbam et feminarum atque infantum non possunt prolongare suum officium, a quibus impedimentis monachi liberi et expediti existunt. Et ideo cum ita agitis, i. e. cum officium romanum facitis, non videmini amatores esse sanctae regulae sed transgressores; quia illi, qui amatores hujus vitae sunt, nolunt aliud officium canere quam regulare.

Indeed canons sometimes are not able to prolong their Office because of the crowd of people and women and infants, from which impediments monks exist to be free and excepted. And therefore when you act in this way, in other words, when you do the Roman Office, you are not seen to be lovers of the holy rule but transgressors, because they, who are lovers of this [regular] life, do not want to sing any office other than the Regular.

Quod vero dicit uno die strenue implevisse - quasi diceret: uno die totum psalterium cantasse; et non est intelligendum uno die, ut tantum semel, h. e. ut unus fuisset dies, in quo psalterium totum cantassent, sed cum dixit uno die - quasi diceret: per singulos dies, i. e. in unoquoque die. Strenue i. e. diligenter et studiose, non negligenter et tepide.

For truly he says that they energetically completed in a single day, as if he were saying that they sang the whole of the psalter in a single day; and in a single day ought not to be understood as only a single time, that is, that there would have been one day in which they would have sung the entirety of the psalter, but when he said in a single day, it is as if he were saying through single days, in other words, on one and the same day. Strenuously, in other words, diligently and studiously, not negligently and tiredly.

Sciendum est enim, quia sunt nonnulli, qui pro aliquo impedimento volunt mutare psalmos, i. e. v. gr.: cum sunt in via et praeoccupat eos dies, in ea nocte, in qua majores psalmi canendi sunt, veluti sunt: Domine exaudi orationem meam et clamor meus ad te veniat [Ps 101:2], tunc volunt canere pro eisdem psalmis majoribus minores psalmos, veluti sunt: Ad Dominum cum tribularer [Ps 119:1], dicentes: [quia] audemus hoc facere, quia regula dicit: duodecim psalmi per unamquamque constituantur noctem. Hi tales convincuntur in eo, quod ₂₀digesto ordine psalmodiae diurnae reliqui omnes psalmi, qui supersunt, acqualiter dividantur in septem noctium vigiliis, ₂₁partiendo scil. qui inter eos prolixiores sunt psalmi; qui cum mutant, non dividunt, et cum non dividunt, transgressores fiunt hujus praecepti. Levius est enim illos dividere psalmos et ordine suo cantare etiam per diem, quam mutare et non dividere.

It ought to be known that there are some who, on account of another impediment, wish to change the psalms, in other words, for example: when they are on the road and the day preoccupies them, in the night when the major psalms ought to be sung, as in, Lord hear my prayer and let my cry come to you [Ps 101:2], then they wish to sing minor psalms in place of these major psalms, as in In my trouble I cried to the Lord [Ps 119:1], saying, ‘We dare to do this, since the rule says: twelve psalms are to be said each night’. By this they convince themselves that ₂₀This order of daytime psalm-singing has been arranged, the psalms that remain should be distributed equally across the seven night Vigils, ₂₁with longer psalms among them divided; [these who have convinced themselves that] when they change, they do not divide, and when they do not divide, the transgressors follow this command. But it is a lighter thing for them to divide the psalms and to sing in the right order through the day, than to change and not to divide.

Quod enim dicit ₁₀uniforme cunctis diebus servata, ad numerum attinet - ac si diceret aliis verbis: quot psalmos, quot hymnos, quot versus, quot lectiones in uno die dicit, tot dicat in alio

What he says ₁₀should remain the same each day pertains to the number, which he said with other words: ‘as many psalms, hymns, verses, readings as he says in a single day, so let him say in another.’