MENOLOGION: The equivalent in the Greek Church of the Calendarium and Martyrologium of the Latin Church. It contains a list of the festivals in honor of the saints and martyrs, together with short notices of the life and death of the saint or martyr celebrated. It is not to be confused with the Menaion (q.v.), which contains the offices for the day as well as the "Acts" of the saint. The basis of the present Menologion was laid in 886 under the Emperor Basil. See Acta Martyrum, Acta Sanctorum, II., § 1.

MENSES PAPALES ("PAPAL MONTHS"): A term applied to the pope's right of making appointments to certain benefices falling vacant in certain specified months, while the bishops and other patrons appointed in the remaining months. The arrangement is set down in the Roman chancery regulations, under No. IX. The point should be particularly noted that in common parlance the expression "papal months" is incorrectly supposed to mean the same as odd months, alternating months, alternativa mensium, while in fact the papal months are January, February, April, May, July, August, October, and November. There is one defined exception to the rule as stated, and this is specifically laid down in the chancery regulations, namely, that in favor of the patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops who contemplate personal residence in their sees, the eight papal months are reduced to six, and in such fashion that the pope has reserved for himself only the six odd months (January, March, May, July, September, November).

The origin of the papal months rests on the following facts. From the twelfth century, the popes began to recommend incumbents for vacant benefices in case of particular churches, at first through the channel of written requests (precw); and if this proved ineffectual, they would then supply the place with the designated incumbent, by a mandatory reseript (naandatum de providendo). When the mandate itself was not observed, it was customary to issue, in due succession, liUrw monir torim, prmceptarim and executorim (briefs of admo. nition, injunction, and execution); and then, if necessary, the " execution "followed. Since these mandates came to be issued, for the most part, in favor of indigent petitioners, such concessions were styled per f-m communem, or in forma pauperum. Before long, however, the issue of mandata de providendo was applied to benefices not only actually but also prospectively vacant, which involved a violation of a provision of the Lateran Council of 1179, forbidding the bestowal of a contingent incumbency. A regulation of the practise was undertaken by the Council of Basel (1418) and by the Concordat of Vienna 1448; though it came to be much modified later by custom and by special indults.

The right of the papal months is still in existence, although with fresh modifications in modern times, or under special agreements. Thus the Bavarian concordat of 1817 provides that the king shall appoint two canonries in the six apostolic or papal months. In the case of Prussia, the bull De salute am marum (1821) decrees "from this time forth, canonries falling vacant in the months of January, March, May, July, September and November, shall be bestowed in the manner hitherto observed in the Chapter of Breslau." In Breslau, by virtue of his title as sovereign duke of Silesia, the king had exercised the right of nomination to vacant canonries in the odd months, the bishop supplying credentials as to canonical fitness, whereupon the papal brief of provision was issued. In various other countries, the papal months have lapsed along with other curial reservations; as in Hanover, the territories belonging to the ecclesiastical province of the Upper Rhine, etc. E. SEHLING.