reform that the whole Bible should be read yearly. But his book was
withdrawn by Pope Paul IV. in 1558.

Although the ecclesiastical year begins with Advent, the beginnings of
the Bible are not read till March. Hence, we begin the lessons from
Genesis, after Septuagesima Sunday, and not, as we should naturally
expect, at Advent, the beginning of the ecclesiastical year. The order
in which the Scripture lessons are read does not follow the order in
which the books of the Bible stand in the sacred volume. Thus, the Acts
of the Apostles begin on the Monday after Low Sunday and are read for a
fortnight; The Apocalypse begins on the third Sunday after Easter and is
read for a week; then the Epistle of St. James begins, and so on, with
special regard to the feasts of the time, rather than to the order of
the books of the Bible.

The lessons of the second nocturn are generally commemorative of a saint
or some episode of a saint's life. They have been much, and often
ignorantly criticised, even by priests. The science of hagiology is a
very wide and far-reaching one, which demands knowledge and reverence.
Priests wishing to study its elements may read with pleasure and profit
and wonder _The Legends of the Saints_, by Pere H. Delehaye, S.J.,
Bollandist (Longmans, 3s. 6d.). "Has Lectiones secundi Nocturni ex
Historiis sanctorum, quas nunc habemus recognitas fuisse a doctissimis
Cardinalibus Bellarmino et Baronio, qui rejecerunt ea omnia, quae jure
merito in dubium revocari poterant et approbatus sub Clemente VIII."
(Gavantus). And Merati adds "quod aliqua qua controversia erant utpote
alicujus aliquam haberent probabilitatem, ideo rejecta non fuerant sed
retenta eo modo quo erant cum falsitatis argui non possent, quamvis
fortasse opposita sententia sit a pluribus recepta" (Merati, _Obser. ad
Gavant_, sec. v., chap. xii., nn. 10 and 16). The words of these learned