RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Lord's Supper
the additions not found in the Scriptural text and adding the Scriptural words " quod pro vobis datur " after " hoc est corpus meum "; (c) the Sanctus and Hosanna, during the singing of which (d) the elevation was to take place. Then followed (e) the Lord's Prayer, (f) the Pax Domini, (g) the Communion, during which the choir was to sing (h) the Agnus Dei. He left optional a prayer from the mass, and the old formula of administration " Corpus (Sanguis) Domini nostri Jesu Christi custodial animam tuam." The service closed with (i) two post-communion prayers from the mass, (j) the Benedicamus Domino, to be sung invariably with the addition of Alleluia; (k) the blessing of Aaron (Num. vi. 24-27), which had never been used except in the Spanish liturgy.
Three years passed between the publication of Luther's Formula missce and his Deutsche Messe und Ordnung des Gottesdienstes. During this time a number of other services came into use. The earliest German mass known is that composed in 1524 by Kantz, a preacher of Nord- 2^uther's Hngen. There is a Latin one of 1524 at Nuremberg, which in the following
Revised Form.
year began to be used in German with a few changes; this is characterized by the introduction of a German exhortation to the communicants immediately before the Pax. The same feature is found in a Prussian vernacular service of 1525, but is lacking in the Strasburg order of the same year. Luther's new service of 1526 retained his earlier Latin form for week-days, but introduced the German form for Sundays. In the latter the preface was replaced by a paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer and an exhortation supposed to be written beforehand, of which Luther gives an example not intended to be binding; this was no innovation, but a medieval custom, which seems to have arisen in South Germany. During the communion of the people, either a German paraphrase of the Sanctus, or another German hymn, or the Agnus Dei was to be sung, followed by a new German prayer.
Although Luther did not regard the form drawn up by him as in any way generally obligatory, the types appearing in these two services became models for the Lutheran liturgies of the sixteenth century. These Kirchenordnungen may be generally described as follows: At the beginning of the
celebration, as prescribed by Luther,
r. Th riant the communicants were to take their
Forms places m the choir, the men on the
south and the women on the north. The preface was either retained as in Luther's two forms, or replaced for ordinary Sundays by an exhortation, or both preface and exhortation were used. In Southern Germany a general confession and absolution followed. The same variety appears in regard to the retention of the Sanctus and Hosanna, which were still sung in Latin in North Germany, elsewhere in either Latin or German. During the Sanctus, some liturgies prescribed three German prayers to be said by the celebrant; one for secular rulers, one for the ministers of the word, and one for Christian unity. Other new prayers were added in different places before the
consecration. As the most important and indispensable part of the liturgy, all retained the words of institution, through which the real consecration of the elements for their sacred purpose was supposed to take place. Luther omitted the sign of the cross made over the elements, and no sixteenthcentury service has it, while the Hanover form of 1536 directly forbids it. It is first mentioned in the Lutheran Church by Johann Gerhard in the begin ing of the seventeenth century as "an indifferent ceremony," possessing " no spiritual force "; and afterward it occurs not infrequently. The breaking of the bread and the placing of a fragment of it in the chalice were dropped because the former was connected with the Roman Catholic theory of sacrifice, and the latter with the denial of the cup to the laity. Unleavened bread was still generally used, but the mixture of wine and water was discontinued; the recitation of the words of institution was ordered to be in a loud voice, contrary to the Roman usage. The elevation of the elements after consecration was retained by Luther expressly for the sake of weak brethren who might be offended by too many striking changes in the service; and it was retained also in a number of sixteenth-century forms. The place of the Lord's Prayer, generally sung in German, varied. Though Luther had omitted the Pax Domini in his German mass, it was frequently retained in the light of a formula of absolution. The usual manner of distribution was for the minister to communicate first himself and then the people, placing the bread directly in their mouths. First the men and then the women were to approach; occasionally the young were to come before the old. Stress was frequently laid on provision that none of the consecrated elements should remain or be thrown away at the conclusion of the service. Luther first retained the Roman formula of administration as permissible, but gave no formula in his German mass. The other services show a great variety in this regard; but ultimately the struggle against Crypto-Calvinism (see Philippists) brought about an agreement to adhere either to something like the Latin formula, or to the other one which had been frequently used, " Take and eat; this is the body of Jesus Christ, which is given for you." The later Lutheran formula came into use first in 1647 at Liibeck, where through Bugenhagen's influence no formula had previously been used. The blessing of Aaron generally concluded the service after Luther's example. The old liturgies tended more and more to fall into disuse, under the influence of Pietism, with its depreciation of liturgical forms, and still more under that of rationalism. The preface was almost universally omitted and replaced by exhortations in the spirit of the time. The words of institution, however, and the Lord's Prayer (the latter frequently in a weak paraphrase), were still considered essential.
2. Zwingrli: Zwingli at first (1523), in relation to the order of divine service, adhered to the canon of the mass; but in his treatise De canone missm epichiresis he expressed himself with much severity about this part of the mass. In place of the offertory he inserted a general prayer. Then he went
Lord's Supper