GALLIC RITE

We devote here but a passing notice to this rite, for the reason that it never made any headway, if we except a few ceremonial embellishments, after the time of Charlemagne—that is, after the ninth century. In one of the cities of France—viz., the ancient Lugdunum of the Romans, now Lyons—a few peculiar liturgic customs are yet kept up, such as reading the Gospel from the ambo, and singing without the aid of the organ or any musical instrument whatever. The Lyonese ascribe the introduction of their rite into Gaul to St. Irenæus, Bishop of their city in the early part of the third century (see Recherches sur l’Abolition de la Liturgie Antique dans l’Eglise de Lyon, by M. De Conny; Kozma, 157; Cardinal Bona, Divina Psalmodia, p. 559).