6. It is most significant, that, as St. Paul was not present at the institution of the Lord's Supper, he was, nevertheless, "not behind the chiefest of the Apostles," even in this. He also "received" the whole knowledge of the institution, and became, in so far, the author of an original Gospel in his details of Christ's great oblation of Himself. Hereupon, he adds the sacrificial expositions [4041] of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and "delivered the ordinances" to every church [4042] (kata` ta'xin), providing for order and decorum in divine offices.
This he seems to have done as "Liturge" and "Hierurge," or evangelical priest, [4043] "ministering in sacrifice [4044] the Gospel of God," etc.
Compare, then, with the Scriptures, Justin Martyr's account of the early worship of Christians; and after consulting the (so-called) "Clementine Liturgy," [4045] the student will be qualified to form an enlightened judgment upon the primitive and the interpolated elements of the following liturgies. For we must bear in mind that they are reflected from mss., not one of which has any claim to represent the Ante-Nicene period. To purify them, therefore, by Scripture, and the truly primitive testimonies of this series, is a task yet remaining to be accomplished, and one which may well invoke the most conscientious and patient labours of the most learned in the land.
Here follows the Edinburgh Introductory Notice:--
The word Liturgy has a special meaning as applied to the following documents. It denotes the service used in the celebration of the Eucharist.
Various liturgies have come down to us from antiquity; and their age, authorship, and genuineness have been matter of keen discussion. In our own country two writers on this subject stand specially prominent: the Rev. William Palmer, M.A., who in his Origines Liturgicæ [4046] gave a dissertation on Primitive Liturgies; and the Rev. J. Mason Neale, who devoted a large portion of his life to liturgies, edited four of them in his Tetralogia Liturgica, [4047] five of them in his Liturgies of St. Mark, St. James, St. Clement, St. Chrysostom, and St. Basil, [4048] and discussed them in a masterly manner in several works, but especially in his General Introduction to a History of the Holy Eastern Church [4049]
Ancient liturgies are generally divided into four families,--the Liturgy of the Jerusalem Church, [4050] adopted throughout the East; the Alexandrian, [4051] used in Egypt and the neighbouring countries; and the Roman and Gallican Liturgies. To these Neale has added a fifth, the Liturgy of Persia or Edessa.
There is also a liturgy not included in any of these families--the Clementine. It seems never to have been used in any public service. It forms part of the eighth book of the Apostolical Constitutions. [4052]
The age ascribed to these documents depends very much on the temperament and inclination of the inquirer. Those who have great reverence for them think that they must have had an apostolic origin, that they contain the apostolic form, first handed down by tradition, and then committed to writing, but they allow that there is a certain amount of interpolation and addition of a date later than the Nicene Council. Such words as "consubstantial" and "mother of God" bear indisputable witness to this. Others think that there is no real historical proof of their early existence at all,--that they all belong to a late date, and bear evident marks of having been written long after the age of the apostles. [4053]
There can scarcely be a doubt that they were not committed to writing till a comparatively late day. Those who think that their origin was apostolic allow this. "The period," says Palmer, [4054] "when liturgies were first committed to writing is uncertain, and has been the subject of some controversy. Le Brun contends that no liturgy was written till the fifth century; but his arguments seem quite insufficient to prove this, and he is accordingly opposed by Muratori and other eminent ritualists. It seems certain, on the other hand, that the liturgy of the Apostolical Constitutions was written at the end of the third or beginning of the fourth century; and there is no reason to deny that others may have been written about the same time, or not long after."
Neale [4055] sums up the results of his study in the following words: "I shall content myself therefore with assuming, (1) that these liturgies, though not composed by the Apostles whose names they bear, were the legitimate development of their unwritten tradition respecting the Christian Sacrifice; the words, probably, in the most important parts, the general tenor in all portions, descending unchanged from the apostolic authors. (2) That the Liturgy of St. James is of earlier date, as to its main fabric, than a.d. 200; that the Clementine Office is at least not later than 260; that the Liturgy of St. Mark is nearly coeval with that of St. James; while those of St. Basil and St. Chrysostom are to be referred respectively to the saints by whom they purport to be composed. In all these cases, several manifest insertions and additions do not alter the truth of the general statement."
1. The Roman Liturgy. The first writer who is supposed to allude to a Roman Liturgy is Innocentius, in the beginning of the fifth century; but it may well be doubted whether his words refer to any liturgy now extant. [4056] Some have attributed the authorship of the Roman Liturgy to Leo the Great, who was made bishop of Rome in a.d. 451; some to Gelasius, who was made bishop of Rome in a.d. 492; and some to Gregory the First, who was made bishop of Rome in a.d. 590. Such being the opinions of those who have given most study to the subject, we have not deemed it necessary to translate it, though Probst, in his Liturgie der drei ersten christlichen Jahrhunderte, [4057] probably out of affection for his own Church, has given it a place beside the Clementine and those of St. James and St. Mark.
2. The Gallican has still less claim to antiquity. In fact, Daniel marks it among the spurious. [4058] Mabillon tries to prove that three ecclesiastics had a share in the authorship of this liturgy: Musæus, presbyter of Marseilles, who died after the middle of the fifth century; Sidonius, bishop of Auvergne, who died a.d. 494; and Hilary, bishop of Poictiers, who died a.d. 366. [4059] Palmer strives to show with great ingenuity that it is not improbable that the Gallican Liturgy may have been originally derived from St. John; but his arguments are merely conjectures.
3. The Liturgy of St. James, the Liturgy of the Church of Jerusalem. Asseman, Zaccaria, Dr. Brett, Palmer, Trollope, and Neale, think that the main structure of this liturgy is the work of St. James, while they admit that it contains some evident interpolations. Leo Allatius, Bona, Bellarmine, Baronius, and some others, think that the whole is the genuine production of the apostle. Cave, Fabricius, Dupin, Le Nourry, Basnage, Tillemont, and many others, think that it is entirely destitute of any claim to an apostolic origin, and that it belongs to a much later age. [4060]
"From the Liturgy of St. James," says Neale, "are derived, on the one hand, the forty Syro-Jacobite offices: on the other, the Cæsarean office, or Liturgy of St. Basil, with its offshoots; that of St. Chrysostom, and the Armeno-Gregorian." [4061]
There are only two manuscripts of the Greek Liturgy of St. James,--one of the tenth, the other of the twelfth century,--with fragments of a third. [4062] The first edition appeared at Rome in 1526. In more recent times it has been edited by Rev. W. Trollope, M.A., [4063] Neale in the two works mentioned above, and Daniel in his Codex Liturgicus Bishop Rattray edited the Anaphora, [4064] and attempted to separate the original from the interpolations, "though," says Neale, "the supposed restoration is unsatisfactory enough." Bunsen, in his Analecta Ante-Nicæna, [4065] has tried to restore the Anaphora to the state in which it may have been in the fourth century, "as far as was possible--quantum fieri potuit "
4. The Liturgy of St. Mark, the liturgy of the church of Alexandria. The same difference of opinion exists in regard to the age and genuineness of this liturgy as we found existing in regard to that of St. James, and the same scholars occupy the same relative position.
The offshoots from St. Mark's Liturgy are St. Basil, St. Cyril, and St. Gregory, and the Ethiopic Canon or Liturgy of All Apostles. In regard to the Liturgy of St. Cyril, Neale says that it is "to all intents and purposes the same as that of St. Mark; and it seems highly probable that the Liturgy of St. Mark came, as we have it now, from the hands of St. Cyril, or, to use the expression of Abu'lberkat, that Cyril perfected' it." [4066]
There is only one manuscript of the Liturgy of St. Mark, probably belonging to the twelfth century. The first edition appeared at Paris in 1583. The liturgy is given in Renaudot's Liturgiarum Orientalium Collectio, tom. i. pp. 120-148, [4067] in Neale's two works, and in Daniel's Codex Liturgicus
5. The Liturgy of the Apostles Adæus and Maris. This liturgy has been brought prominently forward by Neale, who says: "It is generally passed over as of very inferior importance, and Renaudot alone seems to have been prepared to acknowledge in some degree its great antiquity." [4068] He thinks that it is "one of the earliest, and perhaps the very earliest, of the many formularies of the Christian Sacrifice." [4069] It is one of the three Nestorian liturgies, the other two being that of Nestorius and that of Theodore the interpreter.
A Latin translation of it is given in Renaudot's Collectio, [4070] which is reprinted in Daniel's Codex Liturgicus It is from this version that our translation is made. Several prayers and hymns are indicated only by the initial words, and the rubrical directions are probably of a much later date than the text.
The Liturgies are divided into two parts,--the part before "Lift we up our hearts," and the part after this. The first is termed the Proanaphoral Part, the second the Anaphora.
Trollope describes what he conceives to be the form of worship in the early Church, thus: [4071] "The service of this day divided itself into two parts; at the latter of which, called in the Eastern churches Liturgia mystica, and in the Western Missa fidelium, none but perfect and approved Christians were allowed to be present. To the Missa Catechumenorum, or that part of the service which preceded the prayers peculiar to communicants only, not only believers, but Gentiles, were admitted, in the hope that some might possibly become converts to the faith. After the Psalms and Lessons with which the service commenced, as on ordinary occasions, a section from the Acts of the Apostles or the Epistles was read; after which the deacon or presbyter read the Gospel. Then followed an exhortation from one or more of the presbyters; and the bishop or president delivered a Homily or Sermon, explanatory, it should seem, of the Scripture which had been read, and exciting the people to an imitation of the virtues therein exemplified. When the preacher had concluded his discourse with a doxology in praise of the Holy Trinity, a deacon made proclamation for all infidels and non-communicants to withdraw; then came the dismissal of the several classes of catechumens, energumens, competents, and penitents, after the prayers for each respectively, as on ordinary days; and the Missa fidelium commenced. This office consisted of two parts, essentially distinct: viz., of prayers for the faithful, and for mankind in general, introductory to the Oblation; and the Anaphora or Oblation itself. The introductory part varied considerably in the formularies of different churches; but in the Anaphora all the existing liturgies so closely agree, in substance at least, if not in words, that they can only be reasonably referred to the same common origin. [4072] Their arrangement, indeed, is not always the same; but the following essential points belong, without exception, to them all:--1. The Kiss of Peace; 2. The form beginning, Lift up your hearts; 3. The Hymn, Therefore with angels, etc.; 4. Commemoration of the words of Institution; 5. The Oblation; 6. Prayer of Consecration; 7. Prayers for the Church on Earth; 8. Prayers for the Dead; 9. The Lord's Prayer; 10. Breaking of the Bread; 11. Communion."
Neale gives a more minute account of the different parts of the service. He divides the Proanaphoral portion into parts in the following manner: [4073] --
"Liturgy (or Missa) of the Catechumens.
I.
The Preparatory Prayers.
II.
The Initial Hymn or Introit.
III.
The Little Entrance.
IV.
The Trisagion.
V.
The Lections.
VI.
The Prayers after the Gospel, and expulsion of the Catechumen.
"Liturgy (or Missa) of the Faithful.
I.
The Prayers for the Faithful.
II.
The Great Entrance.
III.
The Offertory.
IV.
The Kiss of Peace.
V.
The Creed."
The Anaphora he divides into four parts in the following manner: [4074] --
"The great Eucharistic Prayer.
I.
The Preface.
II.
The Prayer of the Triumphal Hymn.