Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/363

 CONSTANTINOPLE

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CONSTANTINOPLE

c I ; 1 1 ine and frame remain ; into this frame new prayers Hi littod. As a general rule liturgies keep the disposi-

I I n of their parts, but tcuil to change tlie text of the u-.' of Ca-sarea in the fourth century. There is reason
 * T lyers. St. Basil took as the basis of his reform the

III l.rHeve that that use, while retaining the essential nidir of the original Antioehene .service, had already r iii>iderably modified various parts, especially the ■ii Mial prayers. We have seen, for instance, that l; I'-il shortened the Liturgy. But the service that I" lis his name is not at all shorter than the present

i>f St. James. \\"e may, then, suppose that by his

the Liturgy of Ca'sarea had Ijeen considerably

^ihened by additional prayers (this is the common

ii' \ rlcipnient of Liturgies). When we say, then, that

till' rite of Constant innplo that bears his name is the

I iiiirgy of St. James as modified by St. Basil, it must III understood that Basil is rather the chief turning- I II lint in its development than the only author of the < li:inge. It had already passed through a period of ill \ clopment before his time, and it has developed fur- iliiT since. Xevertheless, St. Basil and his reform of ilii- i-iteof his own city are the starting-point of the

I 'rial u.se of Constantinople.

\ comparison of the present Liturgy of St. Basil >'. I ill earlier allusions .shows that in its chief parts it is

II lily the service composed by him. Peter the Dea-

I who was sent by the Scythian monks to Pope

1 Imiiiisdas to dt^fend a famous fonnula they had drawn up ("One of the Trinity w.as crucified") about the year 512, writes: "The ble.s.sed Basil, Bishop of Ca'sarea, says in the prayer cf the holy altar which is used by nearly the whole East: Give, oh Lord, strength and protection ; make the bad good, we pray, keep the good in their virtue; for Thou canst do all things, and no one can withstand Thee ; Thou dost save whom Thou wilt and no one can hinder Thy will" (Petri diac. Ep. ad Fulgent, vii, 2.5, in P, L., LXV, 449). This is a compilation of three texts in the Ba- silian Liturgj': Keep the good in their virtue; make the bad good hij thy merry (Brightman, op. cit., pp. 333- 334); the words: Give. O Lord, strength and protection come several times at the begiiming of prayers; and the last words are an acclamation made by the choir or people at the end of several (Renaudot, I, p. xxxvii). The Life of St. Basil ascribed to Amphi- lochios fP. G., XXIX, 301, .302) quotes as composed by him the beginning of the Introduction-prayer and that of the Elevation exactly .as they are in the existing Liturgy (Brightman, 319, 341). The Second Council of Nicxa (787) says: "As all priests of the holy Lit- urgy know, Basil says in the |iraycr of the Divine .\na- phora: We approach with confidence to the holy altar ... ". The prayer is the one that follows the Anamnesis in St. Basil's Liturgy (Brightman, p. .329. Cf. Hardouin, IV, p, 371),

From the.se and similar indications we conclude that the Liturgy of St. Basil in its oldest extant form is Bubstantially authentic, namely, from the beginning of the .\n;iphora to the ( 'ommunion. The Mass of the Cateeluunens and the Offertory prayers have devel- oped since his death. St. Gregory Xazianzen, in de- scribing the saint's famous encounter with Valens at Ca'sarea, in 372, describes the Offertory as a simpler rite, accompanied with psalms sung by the people but without an audible Offertory prayer (Greg. Naz.,Or., xliii, .52, P, C!.. XXXVl, .5(il), This oldest form of the Basilian Liturgv is contained in a manuscript of the Harberini Libra'rv of about the year 800 (MS., Ill, 55, reprinted in Brightman, 309 .344). The Liturgy of St. Basil now used in the Orthodox and Melkite (or Melchite) Churches (Euchologion, Venice, 1898, pp, 75-97; Brightman, 400-411) is printed after that of St. Chrj'sostom and differs from it only in the prayers said by the priest, chiefly in the .\naphora; it has re- ceived further linimportant modifications. It i.s probable that even before t he time of St. John Chrysos-

tom the Liturgy of Basil was used at Constantinople. We have seen that Peter the Deacon mentions that it wa.s "used by nearly the whole East". It would seem that the importance of the See of Csesarea (even beyond its own exarchy), the fame of St. Basil, and the practical convenience of this short Liturgy led to its adoption by many Chvn-ches in Asia and Syria. The "East" in Peter the Deacon's remark would probably mean the Roman Prefecture of the East (Proefectura Orientis) that included Thrace. More- over, when St. Gregory of Nazianzos came to Constan- tinople to administer that diocese (381) he found in u.se there a Liturgy that was practically the same as the one he had known at home in Cappadocia. His Sixth Oration (P. G.. XXXV, 721 sq.) was held in Cappa- docia, his Thirty-eighth (P. G., XXXVI, 311) at Con- stantinople. In both he refers to and quotes the Eu- charistic prayer that his hearers know. A comparison of the two texts shows that the prayer is the same. This proves that, at any rate in its most important element, the liturgy used at the capital was that of Cappadocia — the one that St. Basil used as a basis of his reform. It would therefore be most natural that the reform too should in time be adopted at Constanti- nople. But it would seem that before Chrysostom this Basilian Rite (according to the imiversal rule) had received further development and additions at Con- stantinople. It has been suggested that the oldest form of the Nestorian Liturgy is the original Byzan- tine Rite, the one that St. Chrysostom found in use when he became patriarch (Probst, "Lit. des IV. Jahrhts.", 413).

The next ejioch in the history of the Byzantine Rite is the reform of St. John Chrysostom (d. 407). He not only further modified the Rite of Basil, but left both his own reformed Liturgy and the unreformed Basilian one itself, as the exclusive uses of Constanti- nople. St. John became Patriarch of Constantinople in 397; he reigned there till 403, was then banished, but came back in the same year; was banished again in 404, and died in exile in 407. The tradition of hi.s Church says that during the time of his patriarchate he eompo.sod from the Basilian Liturgy a shorter form that is the one still in connnon u.se througho\it the Orthodox Church. The same text of Proklos (Proc- lus) quoted above continues: "Not long afterwards our father, John Chrj-sostom, zealous for the salvation of his flock as a shepherd should be, considering the carelessness of human nature, thoroughly rooted up every diabolical objection. He therefore left out a great part and shortened all the forms lest anyone . . . stay aw.ay from this Apostolic and Divine Institution", etc. He would, then, have treated St. Basil's rite exactly as Basil treated the older rite of Ca'sarea. There is no reason to doubt this tradition in the main issue. .\ comparison of the Liturgy of Chrysostom with that of Basil will show that it follows the same order and is shortened considerably in the text of the prayers; a further comparison of its text with the numeroit^ allusions to the rite of the Holy Eucharist in Chrysostom's homilies will show that the oldest form we have of the Liturgj' agrees substantially with the one he describes (Brightman, .530-.534). But it is also certain that the modern Liturgy of St. Chrysos- tom has received considerable modifications and addi- tions since his time. In order to reconstruct the rite used by him we must take away from the present Liturgy all the Preparation of the Offerings (Ilpotrico- liiS-/i), the ritual of the Little and Great Entrances, and the Creed. The service began with the bi.shop's greet- ing, "Peace to all", and the answer, ".\nd with thy spirit." The lessons followed from the Prophets and Apostles, and the deacon read the Gospel. .Vfter the Gospel the bishop or a priest preached a homily, and the prayer over the catechumens was said. Origi- nally it had been followed by a prayer over penitents, but Xektarios (381-.397) had abolished the discipline