For the processions that formed part of the ritual of the eucharist, those of the introit, the gospel and the oblation, the earliest records date from the 6th century and even later (see Duchesne, Origins, 2nd ed. pp. 77, 154,
78,
but they evidently were established at a much earlier date. As to public processions, these seem to have come into rapid vogue after the recognition of Christianity as the religion of the empire. Those at Jerusalem would seem to have been long established when described by the authoress of the Peregrinatio Silviae towards the end of the 4th century (see PALM SUNDAY, for the procession of palms).
Very early were the processions ac companied by hymns and prayers, known as litaniae (Gr. Xtravei..a from
prayer), rogationes or supplicationes (see LITANY). It is to such a procession that reference appears to be made in a letter of St. Basil (c. 375), which would thus be the first re corded mention of a public Christian procession. The first mention for the Western Church occurs in St. Ambrose (c. 388, Ep. 4o § i6, Ad Theodos.: "monachos . . . qui . . . psalmos canentes ex consuetudine usuque veteri pergebant ad celebritatem Macha baeorum martyrum"). In both these cases the litanies are stated to have been long in use. There is also mention of a procession accompanied by hymns, organized at Constantinople by St. John Chrysostom (c. 390-400) in opposition to a procession of Arians, in Sozomen, Hist. eccl. viii. 8. In times of calamity litanies were held, in which the people walked in robes of penitence, fasting, barefooted, and, in later times, frequently dressed in black (lita niae nigrae). The cross was carried at the head of the procession and often the gospel and the relics of the saint were carried. Greg ory of Tours gives numerous instances of such litanies in time of calamity; thus he describes (Vita S. Remig. I.) a procession of the clergy and people round the city, in which relics of St. Remig ius were carried and litanies chanted in order to avert the plague. So, too, Gregory the Great (Ep. xi. 57) writes to the Sicilian bishops to hold processions in order to prevent a threatened in vasion of Sicily. A famous instance of these penitential litanies is the Wank!, septiformis ordered by Gregory the Great in the year 59o, when Rome had been inundated and pestilence had fol lowed. In this litany seven processions, of clergy, laymen, monks, nuns, matrons, the poor and children respectively, started from seven different churches, proceeded to hear mass at Sta. Maria Maggiore (see Greg. of Tours, Hist. Fr. x. 1, and Johann. Diac. Vita Greg. Magn. i. 42). This litany has often been confused with the litania major, introduced at Rome in 598 (vide supra), but is quite distinct from it.
Funeral processions, accompanied with singing and the carry ing of lighted tapers, were from very early times customary and in some ways similar to these; also very early, were the processions connected with the translation of the relics of martyrs from their original burying place to the church where they were to be enshrined (see, e.g., St. Ambrose, Ep. 29 and St.
Augustine, De civitate Dei, xxii. 8 and Conf. viii. 7, for the finding and translation of the relics of Saints Gervasius and Protasius). From the time of the emperor Constantine I. these processions were of great magnificence.
Some liturgists maintain that the early Church in its processions followed Old Testament precedents, quoting such cases as the procession of the ark round the walls of Jericho (Josh. vi.), the procession of David with the ark (2 Sam. vi.), the processions of thanksgiving on the return from captivity, etc. The liturgy of the early Church as Duchesne shows (Origins, ch. i.) was influenced by that of the Jewish synagogue, but the theory that the Church adopted the Old Testa ment ritual is of quite late growth. What is certain is that certain festivals involving processions were adopted by the Christian Church from the pagan calendar of Rome. Here we need only mention the litaniae majores et minores, which are stated by Usener ("Alte Bittgange," in Zeller, Philosophische Aufsiitze, p.
seq.) to have been first instituted by Pope Liberius (352-366). It is generally acknowledged that they are the equivalent of the Christian Church of the Roman lustrations of the crops in spring, the Ambarvalia, etc. The litania major, or great procession on St. Mark's day (April 25) is shown to coincide both in date and ritual with the Roman Robigalia, which took place a.d. vii. Kal. Mai., and consisted in a procession leaving Rome by the Flam inian gate, and proceeding by way of the Milvian bridge to a sanc tuary at the 5th milestone of the Via Claudia, where the flamen quirinalis sacrificed a dog and a sheep to avert blight (robigo) from the crops (Fasti praenestini, C.T.L.T., p. 317). The litania major followed the same route as far as the Milvian bridge, when it turned off and returned to St. Peter's, where mass was cele brated. This was already established as an annual festival by 598, as is shown by a document of Gregory the Great (Regist. ii.) which inculcates the duty of celebrating litaniam, quae major ab omnibus appellatur. The litaniae minores or rogations, held on the three days preceding Ascension Day, were first introduced into Gaul by Bishop Mamertus of Vienne (c. 470), and made binding for all Gaul by the ist Council of Orleans (511). The litaniae minores were also adopted for these three days in Rome by Leo III. (c. 800). A description of the institution and character of the Ascensiontide rogations is given by Sidonius Apollinaris (Ep. v. 14). "The solemnity of these," he says, "was first estab lished by Mamertus. Hitherto they had been erratic, lukewarm and poorly attended (vagae, tepentes, infrequentesque), those which he instituted were characterized by fasting, prayers, psalms and tears." In the Ambrosian rite the rogations take place after Ascensiontide, and in the Spanish on the Thursday to Saturday after Whitsuntide, and in November (Synod of Girona, 517).