§ 98. THE LITUSGIES. THEIR ORIGIN AKD CONTENTS. 523
universal introduction of infant baptism. The Latin liturgies connect the two parts in one whole.
2. The Eastern liturgies contain, after the "Words of Inijtitution, an express Invocation of the Holj Ghost, without whicli the sanctification of the elements is not fully effected Traces of this appear in the Galilean liturgies. But in the Roman liturgy this invocation is entirely wanting, and the sanctification of tlie elements is considered as effected by the priest's rehearsal of the Words of Institution. This has remained a point of dispute between the Greek and the Roman cburches. Gregory the Great asserts that the apostles used nothing in the consecration but the Words of Institution and the Lord's Prayer.' But whence could he know this in the sixth century, since the E'ew Testament gives us no information on the subject? An invocatio Spiritus Sanctiw^on the elements is nowhere mentioned; only a thanksgiving of the Lord, preceding the Words of Institution, and forming also, it may be, an act of consecration, though neitlier in the sense of the Greek nor of the Koman cliurch. The Words of Institution : " This is my body," &c., are moreover addressed not to God, but to the disciples, and express, so to speak, the result of the Lord's benediction.'
' Epjst. ad Joann. Episc. Syriac.
' On this disputed point Neale agrees with the Oriental church, Freeman with ihe Latin. Comp. Neale, Tetralogia Liturgica, Prafat. p. xv. sqq., and his English edition of the Primitive Liturgies of S. Mark, S. James, etc., p. 23. In the latter place he says of the eTri/cAijiris Uviiixaros ayiov: "By the Invocation of the Holy Ghost, according to the doctrine of the Eastern church, and not by the words of institution, the bread and wine are ' changed,' ' transmuted,' ' transelemented,' ' transubstantiated ' into our Lord's Body and Blood. This has always been a point of contention between the two churches — the time at which the change takes place. Originally, there is no doubt that the Invocation of the Holt Ghost formed a part of all liturgies. The Petrine has entirely lost it : the Ephesine (Galilean and Mozarabic) more or less retains it : as do also those mixtures of the Ephesine and Petrine— the Ambrosian and Patriarchine or Aquileian. To use the words of the authorized Russian Catechism : ' Why is this (the Invocation) so essential ? Because at the moment of this act, the bread and wine are changed or transubstantiat(,<l into the V .>ry Body of Christ and into the very Blood of Christ. How are we to understand the word Transubstantiation ? In the exposition of the faith by the Eastern Patriarclis, it is said that the word is not to be taken to define the manner in wliicb the bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of our Lord ; for thi4
624: THIRD TEKIOD. A.II. 311-590.
3. Tlie Oriental liturgy allowed, more like the Prolestan church, the use of the various vernaculars, Greek, Syriac, Armenian, Coptic, &c. ; while tlie Roman mass, in its desire for uniformity, sacrifices all vernacular tongues to the Latin, and 80 makes itself unintelligible to the people.
4. The Oriental liturgy is, so to speak, a symbolic drama of the history of redemption, repeated with little alteration every Sunday. The preceding vespers represent the creation, the fall, and the earnest expectation of Christ ; the principal service on Sunday morning exhibits the life of Christ from his birth to his ascension ; and the prayers and lessons are accom- ])anied by corresponding symbolical acts of the priests and deacon : lighting and extinguishing candles, opening and closing doors, kissing the altar and the gospel, crossing the forehead, mouth, and breast, swinging the censer, frequent change of liturgical vestments, processions, genuflexions, and prostrations. The whole orthodox Greek and Russian worship has a strongly marked Oriental character, and exceeds the Roman in splendor and pomp of symbolical ceremonial.'
The Roman mass is also a dramatic commemoration and representation of the history of redemption, especially of the passion and atoning death of Christ, but has a more didactic character, and sets forth not so nmch the objective history, as the subjective application of redemption from the Confiteor to
none can understand but God ; but only this much is signified, that the bread, truly, really, and substantially becomes the very true Body of the Lokd, and the wine the very Blood of the Lord.' " Freeman, on the contrary, in his Principles of Div. Scrv. ToL ii. Part ii. p. 196 f., asserts: "The Eastern clmrcli cannot maintain the position which, as represented by her doctors of the last four hundred years, and alleging the authority of St. Cyril, she has taken up, that there is no consecration till there has followed (1) a prayer of oblation and (2) on'! of Invocation of the Holy Ghost. In truth, the view refutes itself, for it disqualifies the oblation for the very purpose for wliich it is avowedly placed there, namely to make offering of the already consecrated Gifts, i. c, of the Body and Blood of Christ ; thus reducing it to a level with tlie oblation at the beginning of the office. The only view that can be taken of the.«e very ancient prayers, is that they <»re to be conceived of as offered simultaneously with the recitation of the Institution."
On the mystical meaning of the Oriental cultus comp. the Commentary of Symeon of Thcssalonica (f 1429) on the Liturgy of St. Chrysostom, and Neale 5 In. troduction to his I^nglish edition of the Oriental Liturgies, pp. xxvii.- ixivj.