Page:EB1911 - Volume 18.djvu/608

 In every liturgy of all the five groups a passage similar to this occurs, beginning with Sursum corda, followed by a Preface and the recitation of the Sanctus or Angelic Hymn. The “canon” or consecration prayer, which in all of them comes immediately after, invariably contains our Lord’s words of institution, and (except in the Nestorian liturgy) concludes with the Lord’s Prayer and “embolism.” But there are certain differences of arrangement, by which the groups of liturgies can be classified. Thus it is distinctive of the liturgy of Jerusalem that the “great intercession” for the quick and the dead follows the words of institution and an Epiklesis (  ) or petition for the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the gifts; in the Alexandrian the “great intercession” has its place in the Preface; in the East Syrian it comes between the words of restitution and the Epiklesis; in the Ephesine it comes before the Preface; while in the Roman it is divided into two, the commemoration of the living being before, and that of the dead after, the words of institution. Other distinctive features of the Roman liturgy are (1) the position of the “Pax” after the consecration, and not as in all the other liturgies at a very early stage of the service, before the Preface even; and (2) the absence of the Epiklesis common to all the others. The words of its “canonical prayer” are of unknown antiquity; they are found in the extant manuscripts of the Sacramentarium gelasianum, and were already old and of forgotten authorship in the time of Gregory the Great, who, in a letter to John, bishop of Syracuse (Registr. Epist. vii. 64), speaks of it as “the prayer composed by a ‘scholastic’&#8198;” (precem quam scholasticus composuerat). The same letter is interesting as containing Gregory’s defence, on the ground of ancient use, of certain parts of the Roman ritual to which the bishop of Syracuse had taken exception as merely borrowed from Constantinople. Thus we learn that, while at Constantinople the Kyrie eleison was said by all simultaneously, it was the Roman custom for the clergy to repeat the words first and for the people to respond, Christe eleison being also repeated an equal number of times. Again, the Lord’s Prayer was said immediately after the consecration aloud by all the people among the Greeks, but at Rome by the priest alone.

The meagre liturgical details furnished by the Sacramentarium gregorianum are supplemented by the texts of the Ordo romanus, the first of which dates from about the year 730. The ritual they enjoin is that for a pontifical high mass in Rome itself; but the differences to be observed by a priest “quando in statione facit missas” are comparatively slight. Subjoined is a précis of Ordo Romanus I.

To complete our idea of the Roman communion office as it was prior to the end of the 8th century we must now turn to the Gregorian Antiphonarius sive gradualis liber ordinatus per circulum anni, which as its name implies contains those variable portions of the mass which were intended to be sung by the schola or choir. It gives for each day for which a proper mass is provided: (1) the Antiphona (Antiphona ad Introitum) and Psalmus; (2) the Responsorium and Versus, with its Alleluia and Versus; (3) the Offertorium and Versus; (4) the Communio and Psalmus. Some explanation of each of these terms is necessary. (1) The word Antiphon (, O.Eng. Antefn, Eng. Anthem) in its ecclesiastical use has reference to the very ancient practice of relieving the voices of the singers by dividing the work between alternate choirs. In one of its most usual meanings it has the special signification of a sentence (usually scriptural) constantly sung by one choir between the verses of a psalm or hymn sung by another. According to the Roman liturgiologists it was Pope Celestine who enjoined that the Psalms of David should be sung (in rotation, one presumes) antiphonally before mass; in process of time the antiphon came to be sung at the beginning and end only, and the psalm itself was reduced to a single verse. In the days of Gregory the Great the introit appears to have been sung precisely as at present—that is to say, after the antiphon proper, the Psalmus with its Gloria, then the antiphon again. (2) The Responsorium, introduced between the epistle and gospel, was probably at first an entire psalm or canticle, originally given out by the cantor from the steps from which the epistle had been read (hence the later name Graduale), the response being taken up by the whole choir. (3) The Offertorium and Communio correspond to the “hymn from the book of Psalms” mentioned by early authorities (see, for example, Augustine, Retr. ii. 11; Ap. Const. viii. 13) as sung before the oblation, and also while that which had been offered was being distributed to the people. A very intimate connexion between these four parts of the choral service can generally be observed; thus, taking the first Sunday in the ecclesiastical year, we find both in the Antiphonary and in the modern Missal that the antiphon is Ps. xxv. 1-3, the psalmus Ps. xxv. 4, the responsorium (graduale) and versus Ps. xxv. 3 and xxv. 4, the offertorium and versus Ps. xxv. 1-3 and xxv. 5. The communio is Ps. lxxxv. 12, one of the verses of the responsorium being Ps. lxxxv. 7. In the selection of the introits there are also traces of a certain rotation of the psalms in the Psalter having been observed.

The first pages of the modern Roman missal are occupied with the Calendar and a variety of explanations relating to the