Usage as noted by the Early Church writers,
bishops, teachers, translators:
As early as 3rd Century, the
Christian writer Tertullian wrote
in On Prayer, the faithful of his
time used to insert many alleluias
in their private devotions. Jerome of Stridon
writing to Marcella, a patron, praised
the pious farmers and tradesmen who
used to sing it at their toil, and the
mothers who taught their babies to
pronounce alleluias before any other
word. Even Roman soldiers fighting
against pagan barbarians used it as
a battle cry and war song. Bede the
Venerable in his Ecclesiastical history
of England reported an "Alleluia
Victory" won by the Christian Bretons
over the Picts and Scots in 429.
Francis X. Weiser's The Easter Book
(Harcourt, Brace, Co., 1954)
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