(vol.  I, p. 289).  From a passage in Walafridus Strabo he is led to admit that at his time (the ninth century) “these invocations must have been for some time in use, and accordingly manuscript litanies containing invocations have been discovered by learned men, which appear from internal evidence to be as old as the eighth century”.  He attempts however by negative arguments to shew, that these invocations are not more ancient than that period; although at the same time he confesses that “we have no distinct account of the nature of the service which was used on occasions of peculiar supplication during the earliest ages”. p. 272.  To his arguments we may oppose the positive testimony of Walafridus Strabo, who says “The litany of the holy names is believed to have come into use after Jerome, following Eusebius of Cesarea, had composed the martyrology”.  A long time, about three centuries, elapsed before the canon of the scriptures was determined; and it is not therefore surprising if the canon of saints, (if such it may be called), who died at considerable intervals, required some time for its formation.  Invocations of the saints in ancient litanies may be seen ap.  Martene (lib. 4f c. 27 and lib. 1, c. 1, art. 18).  One would conceive from Palmer’s account of the Ambrosian litany that it did not contain invocations of the saints, p. 276; yet in the Ambrosian processional, to which he alludes, we read as follows “Afterwards they go to the altar, were the litanies are recited on bended knees, in reciting which the names of the saints without Intercede pro nobis are sung aloud by the provost and clergy of the first collegiate church; and by the other clergy with Intercede pro nobis and this rite of singing the litanies and antiphons is observed in every other stational church”. ap.  Martene lib. 4, c. 28.  In the Ordo Romanus also De Benedictione Ecclesiae these invocations are found.  The question however concerning their antiquity in the litanies is of minor importance.  Even Palmer admits, that “Catholic fathers in the 4th century invoked the saints” p. 292, though he gravely assures his readers, that “they were too well instructed in the Christian faith to believe positively that the saints heard our prayers”.  He mentions the learned work of Serrarius called “Litaneutici seu de Litaniis etc.” as an instance of the writings, in which “innumerable passages have been cited from ancient writers to prove, that the invocation of saints is more ancient than the eighth century.  But most of those passages do not refer to the invocation of saints, but to prayers made to God for the intercession of saints”.  Palmer, vol.  I, p. 278.  We consider that there is little difference in principle between these two things:  we shall however, to satisfy him, quote only one passage from an ancient Oriental liturgy.  “Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, pray for me to the only begotten Son, who was born of thee, that