The Psalter of Pope Pius V Abolished
Through the Apostolic Constitution Divino afflatu, by which Pope Pius X promulgated his revision of the Roman Breviary, he abolished the Psalter established by his predecessor Pope Pius V and forbade its use, declaring that those who were obliged to recite the Divine Office every day failed to fulfil this grave duty unless they used the new arrangement.
The wording of his Apostolic Constitution echoed closely that of his predecessor's Quod a nobis, promulgating the Tridentine Roman Breviary, and also the same predecessor's Quo Primum, promulgating the Tridentine Roman Missal. It included the paragraph:
- This we publish, declare, sanction, decreeing that these our letters always are and shall be valid and effective, notwithstanding apostolic constitutions and ordinances, general and special, and everything else whatsoever to the contrary. Wherefore, let nobody infringe or temerariously oppose this page of our abolition, revocation, permission, ordinance, precept, statue, indult, mandate and will. But if anybody shall presume to attempt this let him know that he will incur the indignation of almighty God and of his apostles the blessed Peter and Paul.
Quod a nobis concluded with:
- Nulli ergo omnino hominum liceat hanc paginam Nostrae ablationis, abolitionis, permissionis, praecepti, statuti, indulti, mandati, decreti, relaxationis, cohortationis, prohibitionis, innodationis, et voluntatis infringere, vel ei ausu temerario contraire. Si qui autem hoc attentare praesumpserit, indignationem omnipotentis Dei, ac beatorum Petri et Pauli Apostolorum eius se noverit incursurum.
An article published on the September 2003 issue of The Angelus, associated with the Society of St. Pius X remarks: "The distribution of the psalms in St. Pius X's breviary was entirely new. It only partially took into account the ancient tradition of the Church, for example, abandoning the number of 12 psalms at Matins, a number consecrated by a tradition going back to the Desert Fathers and expressly codified in the Rule of St. Benedict. Another point controversial at the time was the suppression of the immemorial and universally held usage of reciting psalms 148, 149, and 150 at the end of Lauds daily. This amounts to saying that the Breviary of Pius X did not have so much in common with that of his predecessor and that clerics were significantly unsettled in their habits!"
To correspond to the new psalms, the antiphonary of the traditional Roman Office was also almost completely overhauled as well. Pre-1911, there were 141 unique antiphons in the psalter. Post-1911, there were 220. Only 62 antiphons were recognizably the same, and several of these added words or removed them. Many of the overlapping ones were those for the special seasons (Advent, Lent, Passiontide), not for the per annum (Ordinary Time) ferias. Thus 79 antiphons of the pre-1911 Breviary were removed, and 158 unique to the post-1911 Breviary introduced.
Read more about this topic: Reform Of The Roman Breviary By Pope Pius X
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