Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/568

 EPICURUS

502

EFIELESIS

T\iscuL, V, xxxi; De Xat. Dear., xvi, xvii, xxv; Sextus Em- PIRICT'S. Adv. Matkem., XI, clxix; Gassendi, De Vild, Moribu.'i, et DoctriiHi Epicuri, libri oclo (Lyons, 1647); De V-Ud, Moribua, el Placitis Epicuri, seu Animadvcrsiones in A'. Librum Diog. Lavr. (1649): Syntagma Philosophic Epicuri (1649); Wallace in Encyclopadia Briltannica (London, 1880), s. v. Epicurus; TuRNKR, Hislort/ of Philosophy (Boston, 1903) 175-183; Lewes, Biogr. Hist, of Phil., II; Zeller, Philos. of the Stoics, Epicur- eans, ami Sceptics tr. Reichel; Schwegler, Hist, of Phil., XVIII (New York, 1901'); Trezza, Epicuro e I'Epicurismo (Florence, 1877); Masson, Lucretius, Epicurean and Poet (Lon- don, 1908).

M. J. Ryan. Epicurus. See Epicureanism.

Epidaurum, Diocese of. See Ragusa.

Epigraphy, Christian. See Inscriptions.

Epikeia. See Law.

Epiklesis (Gr. iTrlK\ri<ri.s; Lat. invocatio) is the name ot a prayer that occurs in all Eastern liturgies (and originally in Western liturgies also) after the words of Institution, in which the celebrant praj's that God may send down His Holy Spirit to change this bread and wine into the Body and Blood of His Son. This form has given rise to one of the chief controver- sies between the Eastern and Western Churches, inas- much as all Eastern schismatics now believe that the Epiklesis, and not the words of Institution, is the essential form (or at least the essential complement) of the sacrament.

Form of the Epiklesis. — It is certain that all the old liturgies contained such a prayer. For instance, the Liturgy of the Apostolic Constitutions, immediately after the recital of the words of Institution, goes on to the Anamnesis — " Reraemliering therefore His Pas- sion . . . " — in which occur the words: "Thou, the God who lackest nothing, being pleased with them (the Offerings) for the honour of Thy Christ, and send- ing down Thy Holy Spirit on this sacrifice, the witness of the Passion of the Lord Jesus, to manifest {6wui airo(pT)vrj) this bread as the Body of Thy Christ and this chalice as the Blood of Thy Christ ..." (Brightman, Liturgies Eastern and Western, I, 21). So the Greek and SjTian Liturgies of St. James (ibid., 54, 8S-S9), the Alexandrine Liturgies (ibid., 134, 179), the Abyssinian Rite (ibid., 233), those of the Nesto- rians (ibid., 2S7) and Armenians (ibid., 439). The Epiklesis in the Byzantine Liturgy of St. John Chrys- ostom is said thus: " We offer to Thee this reasonable and unbloody sacrifice; and we beg Thee, we ask Thee, we pray Thee that Thou, sending do^\-n Thy Holy Spirit on us and on these present gifts" (the Deacon says: "Bless, Sir, the holy bread") "make this bread into the Precious Body of Thy Christ" (Deacon: "Amen. Bless, Sir, the holy chalice"); " and that which is in this chalice, the Precious Blood of Thy Christ" (Deacon: "Amen. Bless, Sir, both"), "changing [iieraPoKiiv] them by Thy Holy Spirit" (Deacon: "Amen, Amen, Amen. "). (Brightman, op. cit., I, 3S6-3S7.)

Nor is there any doubt that the Western rites at one time contained similar invocations. The Gallican Liturgy had variable forms according to the feast. That for the Circumcision was: " Ha-c nos, Domine, instituta et prscepta retinentes suppliciter oramus uti hoc sacrificium suscipere et benedicere et sancti- ficare digneris: ut fiat nobis eucharistia legitima in tuo Filiiciue tui nomine et Spiritus sancti, in trans- formationem corporis ac sanguinis domini Dei nostri Jcsu Christi unigeniti tui, per quem omnia creas ..." (Duchesne, "Origines du culte chretien", 2nd ed., Paris, 1898, p. 208, taken from St. Germanus of Paris, d. 576). There are many allusions to the Gallican Invocation, for instance St. Isidore of Seville (De eccl. officiis, I, 1.5, etc.). The Roman Rite too at one time had an Epiklesis after the words of Institution. Pope Gelasius I (492-496) refers to it plainly: "Quo- modo ad divini mysterii consecrationem coelestis Spiritus a<lvenict, si saccrdos . . . criminosis plenus

aetionibus reprobetur?" ("Epp. Fragm.", vii, in Thiel, "Epp. Rom. Pont.", I, 486.) Watterich (Der Konsekrationsmoment im h. Abendmahl, 1896. pp. 133 sq.) brings other evidences of the old Roman In- vocation. He (p. 166) afid Drews (Entstehungs- gesch. des Kanons, 1902, p. 28) think that several secrets in the Leonine Sacramentary were originally Invocations (see article Canon of the Ma.ss). Of this Invocation we have now only a fragment, with the essential clause left out — our prayer: " Supplices te rogamus" (Duchesne, op. cit., 173-5). It seems that an early insistence on the words of Institution as the form of Consecration (see, for instance, Ps.-.\m- brose, "DeMysteriis",IX, 52, and "De Sacramentis", rV, 4, 14-15, 23; St. Augustine, Sermo ccxxvii. in P. L., XXXyill, 1099) led in the West to the neglect and mutilation of the Epiklesis.

Origin. — It should be noticed that the Epiklesis for the Holy Eucharist is only one of manj^ such forms. In other sacraments and blessings similar prayers were used, to ask God to send His Holy Spirit to sanctify the matter. There was an Epiklesis for the water of baptism. Tertullian (De bapt., iv), Optatus of Mileve ("De schism. Don., III. ii, VI, iii, in "Corp. Script, eccl. Latin.", vol. XXVI, 69, 148, 149), St. Jerome (Contra Lucif., \i, "ni), St. Augustine (De bapt., V, XX, xxviii), in the West; and St. Basil (De Spir. Sanc- to, XV, 35), St. Gregory of Nyssa (Orat. cat. magn. xxxiii), and St. CjtII of Jerusalem (Cat. iii, 3), in the East, refer to it. In Egj'pt especially, Epikleses were used to bless wine, oil, milk, etc. In all these cases (inclu<ling that of the Holy Eucharist) the idea of in- voking the Holy Ghost to sanctify is a natural one derived from Scripture (Joel, ii, 32; Acts, ii, 21: 6' 6.v 4TrLKaK4ff7}Tai t6 6vo^a Kvpiou . . . ; cf. Rom., x, 13; I Cor., i, 2). That in the Liturgj- the Invocation should occiu after the words of Institution is only one more case of many which show that people were not much concerned about the exact instant at which all the essence of the sacrament was complete. They looked upon the whole Consecration-prayer as one simple thing. In it the words of Institution always occur (with the doubtful exception of the Nestorian Rite); they believed that Christ would, according to His promise, do the rest. But they did not ask at which exact moment the change takes place. Besides the words of Institution there are many other blessings, prayers, and signs of the cross, some of which came before and some after the words, and all, including the words themselves, combine to make up the one Canon of which the effect is Transubstantiation. So also in our baptism and ordination services, part of the forms and prayers whose effect Ls the sacramental grace comes, in order of time, after the e.ssential words. It was not till Scholastic times that theologians began to discuss the minimum of form required for the essence of each sacrament.

The Controversy. — The Catholic Church has decided the question by making us kneel and adore the Holy Eucharist immediately after the words of Institution, and by letting her old Invocation practically disap- pear. On the other hand Orthodox theologians all consider the Epiklesis as being at least an essential part of the Consecration. In this question they have two schools. Some, Peter Mogilas, for instance, con- sider the Epiklesis alone as consecrating (Kimmel, Monumenta fidei eccl. orient., Jena, 1850, I, 180), so that presumably the words of Institution might be left out without affecting the validity of the sacrament. But the greater number, and now apparently all, re- quire the words of Institution too. They must be said, not merely historically, but as the first part of the es- sential form; they sow as it were the seed that comes forth and is perfected by the Epiklesis. Both ele- ments, then, are essential. This is the theory defemled by their theologians at the Council of Florence (1439). A deputation of Latins and Greeks was appointed then