Anni circulus
In 581, the Synod of Macon decreed that the pre-Christmas fast in Gaul should begin
after St Martin's day, November 11. Gregorian sacramentaries seem to indicate that
Advent in Rome was confined to the month of December, ie, after St Andrew's day,
November 30. Gregory I turned his own house into a monastery named after St Andrew
(the brother of St Peter and patron saint of Greece, which Gregory had visited) and his
collection of homilies start with explicit reference to the second Sunday of Advent.
Observance of Advent in Spain is dateable to 650.
John Hymonides, the Deacon (d.882) wrote a life of Gregory I (a very good organiser)
stating that he compiled an antiphonarium centonem (patchwork antiphonary). Like
many popes, Gregory had a hand in liturgical matters (indeed, preferring them to 'wordly
affairs') and his most notable innovation appears to be the position of the Pater noster
(Our Father) prayer in the Roman rite. He actually forbade deacons from singing
anything but the gospel because their voices were too fine. After his problems with the
exarch of Ravenna ended, he is said to have sent the prior of St Andrew's, St Augustine,
along with forty other monks to Kent in England which then fed cantors to other parts of
England, a move ultimately destined to quash Columban ecclesiastical influence.
This is related by Bede (b.672/3 d.735) who uses the terms cursum canendi annuum
(annual cycle of chant) and totius anni circulus (complete cycle of the year) in relation to
the monk John, abbot and archicantor of St Martin's, the monastery attached to St
Peter's in Rome, who came to England between 678 and 681 to teach the Roman chant
in Wearmouth monastery. The Roman schola cantorum seems to have been
established at least by the time of Pope Adeodatus II (672-76). The phrase 'ordinis anni
circuli' (of the order of the cycle of the year) is part of the title of the so-called Gelasian
sacramentary. This document contains source material dated to between 628 and 720
(some material is much earlier) and its appendix contains the first liturgical instructions
for Advent Sundays.
Concern with chant and the annual cycle precedes the period of the Carolingian dynasty
of Frankish kings and continues into it.