Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 9.djvu/347

 LITUROT

310

UTUBQT

ceivcd them sends up praise and glor>' to the Father of all through the name of his Son and the Holy Ghost, and makes a long thanks^ving that we have been made worthy of these thmgs oy him; when these prayers and thanksgivings are ended all the people present cry 'Amen'. ... 5. And when the presi- dent has given thanks (e^opurrijtroi^of, already a technical name for the Eucharist) and all the people have answered, those whom we call deacons give the bread and wine and water for which the 'thanks- giving' (Eucharist) has been made to be tasted by those who are present, and they carry them to those that are absent. LXVI. This food is called by us the Eucharist" (the well-known passage about the Real Presence follows, with the quotation of the words of Institution). LXVII. 3 " On the day which is called that of the Sun a reunion is made of all those who dwell in the cities and fields; and the conmien- tarics of the Apostles and writings of the prophets are read as long as time allows. 4. Then, when the reader has done, the president admonishes us in a speech and excites us to copy these glorious things. 5. Then we all rise and say prayers and, as we have said above, when we have done praying bread is brought up and wine and water; ana the president sends up prayers with thanksgiving for the men, and the people ac- claim, saying 'Amen', and a share of the Eucharist is given to each and is sent to those absent by the deacons."

This is by far the most complete account of the Eucharistic Service we have from the first three cen- turies. It will be seen at once that what is describod in chapter Ixvii precedes the rite of Ixv. In Ixvii Justin begins his account of the Liturgy and repeats in its place what he had already said above.

Putting it all together we have this scheme of the service:

1. Lessons (Ixvii, 3).

2. Sermon by the bishop (Ixvii, 4).

3. Prayers for all people (Ixvii, 5; Ixv, 1).

4. Kiss of peace (Ixv, 2).

5. Offertory of bread and wine and water brought

up by the deacons (Ixvii, 5; Ixv, 3).

6. Thanksgiving-prayer by the bishop (Ixvii, 5;

bcv, 3).

7. Consecration by the words of institution (?

bcv, 5; Ixvi, 2-3).

8. Intercession for the people (Ixvii, 5; Ixv, 3).

9. The people end this prayer with Amen (Ixvii, 5;

bcv, 3).

10. Communion (Ixvii, 5; Ixv, 6). This is exactly the order of the Liturgy in the " Apos- tohc Constitutions" (Brightman, " Eastern Liturgies", 3-4, 9-12, 13, 14-21, 21-3, 25). Moreover, as in the case of I Clement, there are manv passages and phrases in Justin that suggest parallel ones in the Apost. Const." — not so much in Justin's account of the Litui^gy (though here too Drews sees such parallels, op. cit., 68-9) as in other works in which Justin, like Clement, may be supposed to be echoing well-known liturgical phrases. Drews prints many such passages side by side with the corresponding ones of the " Apost. Const.", from which comparison he concludes that Justin knows a dismissal of the catechumens (cf. "I ApoL", xlix, 5; xiv, 1; xxv, 2, with "Apost. Const.", VIII, vi, 8; X, 2) and of the Energumens (Dial.,xxx; cf. "Apost. Const.", VIII, vii, 2) corresponding to that in the Lit- urgv in question. From " I Apol. ', Ixv, 1; xvii, 3; xiv, 3; deduces a prayer for all kinds of men (made by the conmiunity) of the tj'pe of that praver in "Apost. Const.", VIII, X. " I Apol.", xiii, 1-3, Ixv, 3; v, 2, and Dial., xli, Ixx, cxvii, give us the elements of a preface exactly on the lines of that in " Apost. Obnst.'', VIII, xii, 6-27 (see these texts in parallel columns in Drews, •*op. cit.", 59-91).

We have, then, in Clement and Justin the picture of a Liturgy at least remarkably like that of the "Apos-

tolic Constitutions ". Drews adds as sinking paralleifl from Hippolytus (d. 235), "Contra Noetum", etc. (op. cit., 95-107) and Novatian (third cent.) "De Trlnitate" (ibid., 107-22), both Romans, and thinks th^t this same type of lituiYy continues in the known Roman Rite (122-66). That the Liturgy of the " Apostolic Constitutions " as it stands is Antiochene, and is closely connected with the Rite of Jerusalem, is certain. It would seem, then, that it represents one form of a vaguer type of rite that was in its main outline imiform in the first three centuries. The other references to the Liturgy in the first age (Igna- tius of Antioch, d. about 107, "Eph.", xiii, xx, " Phil. ", iv, " Rom.", vii, " Smym.", vii, viii; Iremeus, d. 202, "Adv. haer.", IV, xvii, xviii: V, ii, Clement of Alexandria, d. about 215, "Psed.', I, vi; ll, ii, in P.G., VIII, 301, 410; Origen,d. 254," Contra Cels.", VIII, xxxiii, "Hom. xix in Lev.", xviii, 13; "In Matt.", xi, 14; "In loh.", xiii, 30) repeat the same ideas that we have seen in Clement and Justin, but add little to the picture presented by tJiem (see Cabrol and Leclercq, "Mon. Eccles. Liturg.", I, passim).

IV. The Parent Rites, from the Fourth Cen- tury. — From about the fourth centuir our knowledge of the Liturgy increases enormously. We are no longer dependent on casual references to it: we have definite ntes fully developed. The more or less imi- form type of Liturgy used everywhere before crystal- lized into four parent rites from which all others arc derived. The four are the old Liturgies of Antioch, Alexandria, Rome, and Gaul. Each is described in a special article. It will be enough here to trace an outline of their general evolution.

The development of these liturgies is very like what happens in the case of languages. From a general imiformity a number of local rites arise with charac- teristic differences. Then one of these local rites, because of the importance of the place that uses it, spreads, is copied oy the cities around, drives out its rivals, and becomes at last the one rite used through- out a more or less extended area. We have then a movement from vague uniformity to diversity and then a return to exact imiformity. Except for tie GalHcan Rite the reason of the final survival of these liturgies is evident. Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch are the old patriarchal cities. As the other bishops accepted the jurisdiction of these three patriarchs, so did they imitate their services. The Liturgy, as it crystallized in these centres, became the type for the other Churches of their patriarchates. Only Gaul and north-west Europe generally, though part of the Roman Patriarchate, Kept its own rite till the seventh and eight centuries.

Alexandria and Antioch are the startins-points of the two original Eastern rites. The earliest form of the Antiochene Rite is that of the "Apostohc Constitu- tions " written down in the earlv fiftn century. From what we have said it seems tliat this rite has best preserved the type of the primitive use. From it is derived the Rite of Jerusalem (till the Council of Chal- cedon, 451, Jerusalem was in the Antiochene Patri- archate), which then retiuned te Antioch and became that of the patriarchate (see Antiochene Ltturgt and Jerusalem, Liturgy of). We have this liturgy (called after St. James) in Greek (Bright man, " East- em Liturgies", 31-68) and in Syriac (ibid., 69-110). The Alexandrine Rite differs chiefly in the place of the great intercession (see Alexandrine Liturgy). This too exists in Greek (Brightman, 113-43) and the language of the country, in this case Coptic (ibid., 144-88). In both cases the original form was cer- tainly Greek, but in both the present Greek forms have been considerably influenced by the later Rite of Constantinople. A reconstruction of the original Greek is possible by removing the Byzantine additions and changes, and comparing the Greek and 8)rriao or Coptic forms. Both these liturgies have giv^i^