Homiliarium

From a very early time the homilies of the Fathers were in high esteem, and were read in connection with the recitation of the Divine Office (see also Breviary).

St. Gregory the Great refers to this custom, and St. Benedict mentions it in his rule, dating it to as early as the sixth century.

In the first half of the ninth century Smaragdus of Saint-Mihiel compiled from the Fathers a book of homilies on the Gospels and Epistles for the whole year.

Haymo, a monk of Fulda and disciple of Alcuin, afterwards Bishop of Halberstadt (841), made a collection for Sundays and feasts of the saints.

Johann Lorenz von Mosheim[4] and August Neander,[5] followed by various encyclopedias and many Protestant writers, describe it as compiled in order that the clergy might at least recite to the people the Gospels and Epistles on Sundays and holidays.

The manuscript mentioned by Mabillon, and rediscovered by Ranke, in Karlsruhe, is older than the tenth century Monte Cassino copy.

The Second book of Homilies contained twenty-one sermons and was written mainly by Bishop John Jewel, and were fully published by 1571.

Ælfric selected and translated into the same language passages from St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Jerome, Bede, St. Gregory, Smaragdus and occasionally from Haymo.

They were frequently deposited in a highly wrought casket (Arca Testamenti), which in Ireland was called cumdach (shrine).