§ 97. thp: celebration of the eucharist. 511
similar passages, and under the influence of previous Jewish and heathen ideas and customs, arose, after Gregory the Great, the E-ouiau doctrine of the purgatorial fire for imperfect believers who still need to be purified from the dross of their sins before they are fit for heaven, and the institution of special masses for the dead^ in which the perversion of the thankful remembrance of tlie one eternally availing sacrifice of Christ reaches its height, and the idea of the communion utterly disappears.*
In general, in the celebration of the Lord's Supper the sacrament continually retired behind the sacrifice. In the Roman churches in all countries one may see and hear splendid masses at the high altar, where the congregation of the faithful, instead of taking part in the communion, are mere spectators of the sacrificial act of the priest. The communion is frequently despatched at a side altar at an early hour in the morning.
§ 9Y. The Celebration of the Eucharist.
Oomp. the Liturgical Literature cited in the next section, especially the works of Daniel, Neale, and Freeman.
The celebration of the eucharistic sacrifice and of the communion was the centre and summit of the public worship of the Lord's day, and all other parts of worship served as preparation
rkthers in favor of the doctrine of purgatory are collected in the much-cited work of Berington and Kirk : The Faith of Cathohcs, etc., vol. iii. pp. 140-207.
' There are silent masses, missae solitarise, at which usually no one is present but the priest, with the attendant boys, who offers to God at a certain tariff the magically produced body of Christ for the deliverance of a soul from purgatory. This institution has also a heathen precedent in the old Roman custom of offering sacrifices to the Manes of beloved dead. On Gregory's doctrine of the mass, which belongs in Uie next period, comp. the monograph of Lau, p. 484 f. The horrible abuse of these masses for the dead, and their close connection with superstitious impostures of purgatory and of indulgence, explain the moral anger of the Reformers at the mass, and the strong declarations against it in several symbolical books, especially in the Smalcald Articles by Luther (ii. 2, where the mass is called draconis cauda), and in the Heidelberg Catechism (the 80th question, which, by the way, is wtnting entirely in the first edition of 1563, and was first inserted in the second editiou by express command of the Elector Friedrich III., and in the thud edition was enriched with the epithet " damnable idolatry ").
612 THreD PEKIOD. A.D. 311 -590.
and accompaniment. The old liturgies are essentially, and almost exclusively, eucharistic prayers and exercises ; they contain nothing besides, except some baptismal formulas and prayers for the catechumens. Tlie word litui-gy (XetTovpyla), which properly embraces all parts of the worship of God, denotes in the narrower sense a celebration of the eucharist or the mass.
Here lies a cardinal diflPerence between the Catholic and Evangelical cultus : in the former the sacrifice of the mass, in the latter the sermon, is the centre.
With all variations in particulars, especially in the introductory portions, the old Catholic liturgies agree in the essential points, particularly in the prayers which immediately precede and follow the consecration of the elements. They all (excepting some Syriac copies of certain Nestorian and Monophysite formularies) repeat the solemn Words of Institution from the Gospels,' understanding them not merely in a declaratory but in an operative sense ; they all contain the acts of Consecration, Intercession, and Communion ; all (except the Roman) invoke the Holy Ghost upon the elements to sanctify them, and make them actual vehicles of the body and blood of Christ ; all conceive the Eucharist primarily as a sacrifice, and then, on the basis of the sacrifice, as a communion.
The eucharistic action in the narrower sense is called the Anaphora, or the canon missm, and begins after the close of the service of the catechumens (which consisted principally of reading and preaching, and extended to the Ofiertory, i. e., the preparation of the bread and wine, and the placing of it on the altar). It is introduced with the "Avoj tcl^; KapSia<i, or Sursurr, cor da, of the priest : the exliortation to the faithful to lift up their hearts in devotion, and take part in the prayers ; to which the congregation answers : Ilabermis ad Dominum, " We lift them ujp unto the Lord.'''' Then follows the exhortation : " Let us give thanks to the Lord," with the response: '■'■It h meet and rights "
' Though in various forms. See below.
' Or, according to the Liturgia S. Jacobi: "Acai (rxw/xey rhi/ yovv koI ras Kaphiaj with the response : "A f I o r Kal SiKaiov. In the Lit. S. Clem. : Priest :' Avu rb*