Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

Marks of

antiquity.

Manuscript authority.

Hymn ὁ Μονογενής, κ. τ. λ. (p. 27, h), the Hymn οἱ τὰ χερουβὶμ μVOTIKOS, K. T. λ. (p. 32, § vII. b), the Hymns that accompany the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin (p. 45, § xvI. b), and the Great Entrance itself, were all first introduced into the service at Constantinople, and spread to other Churches from that. Further, these insertions point to a time not earlier than the end of the fifth century; indeed the Hymn oi тà xepovßíμ belongs to the seventh: and the numerous words of controversial theology, already alluded to, which occur passim; and the use of the Creed; all tell of times when protests against heresy were needful. A limit in the other direction is placed by the earliest MS. of the text, which belongs to the tenth century; whence of course there can be nothing of later date than this in the text.

On the other hand, it must not be supposed that these obviously later insertions overcloud the earlier elements: for there is very much of the staple of the prayers that is manifestly of very great antiquity. The close parallelism of the very wording of a large part of the Liturgy with the Syriac S. James is a good warrant for claiming for such prayers an age greater than the Council of Chalcedon (A.D. 451). Then again the very close agreement of this Liturgy with the account of the Liturgy given by S. Cyril of Jerusalem in his Fifth Mystical Catechesis, delivered in the middle of the fourth century, has great significance, while such special points as the general simplicity of the diction of the prayers, the rubric for the reading of the Lections (p. 29, § ш), in which there is no mention of any Lection from the New Testament; and the simple way in which several times the Apostles are mentioned, without the string of epithets with which a later age thought to do them greater honour, all seem to lay claim to an early period rather than a late one. The ritual too is cumbrous as compared with that of S. Basil or S. Chrysostom, which superseded it. We seem in looking at these Liturgies side by side to be reminded of a Norman Church in contrast to one in Early English, and one in the Decorated, style of architecture.

There are only three MSS. of this Liturgy known to exist :

viz. 1. One of the twelfth century, from which Demetrius Ducas published the Editio princeps in 1526, and of which all the texts that have been published, including the present one, are reprints.

2. Cod. Messanensis, so-called from having been first found in the monastery of S. Salvador near Messina. This belongs to the end of the 10th century. Daniel's dercription of it is mutilus et oscitanter conscriptus.'

[ocr errors]

3. Cod. Rossanensis, found at Rossano in Calabria, and thence carried to the library of the Basilian monks at Rome. It is of the early twelfth century.

These last two Codices give a text substantially the same as the first, but with a great many small differences. The various readings from them were first published by Assemani in the fourth volume of his Codex Liturgicus, and again by Daniel in his Cod. Liturg., vol. iv.

The text of S. James's Liturgy has been often published. Besides Dr. Neale's well-known 'Primitive Liturgies,' there are useful editions with notes by Dr. Daniel (as above), by Rev. W. Trollope, and by Bp. Rattray. The last, however, called 'Liturgy (the Ancient) of the Church of Jerusalem,' 1744, 4to., is a rare book.

iii. The Liturgy of S. James (Syriac).

1

of Syrian

Christians.

Ecclesiastically the Syrian Christians may be divided into Four bodies four classes. There are the orthodox, or Melchites, as they speaking are sometimes called, who are now in communion with the see of Constantinople, and have adopted the Liturgy of S. Chrysostom for that of the Syriac S. James; the Nestorians, of whom we shall speak presently, when we discuss the Liturgies of Group III; the Jacobites; and the Maronites. The Jacobites are Monophysites, as regards their creed. The Maronites were originally Monothelites, but in the twelfth century they abjured this heresy and were admitted into com

1 Cf. Prof. G. Bickell, 'Conspectus rei Syrorum literariae,' pp. 59-70, for much of the substance of this paragraph.

The Syriac S. James derived from

the Greek S. James.

The Text printed below.

Letter of James, Bp. of Edessa.

munion with the Roman Church. Both Jacobites and Maronites use for the most part the same Liturgies, of which that of S. James is the chief and prototype: the Maronites however do not recognise some few of the latest of the many Jacobite Liturgies, and they have two peculiar to themselves. They also have altered the Words of Institution into conformity with the Roman use, and reduced the Invocation into a Prayer for spiritual benefit to the communicants.

The great authority on the Syrian Liturgies is Renaudot, who in his second volume gives translations in Latin of the texts of thirty-eight of them, and two versions of the Proanaphoral service, prefaced by a learned Dissertation, and with notes to each Liturgy. He asserts (tom. ii. p. xviii) that, if we compare the Syriac Liturgy of S. James with the Greek Liturgy of the same name, not only do the contents of the prayers but their very wording, as well as the arrangements of the ritual, prove that the latter is the original from which the former is derived.

The Pro-anaphoral service, called the Ordo communis or generalis, is used with all the Anaphorae alike. It ends in our reprint with the third line of p. 67, below. We have given1 the first of Renaudot's two Ordines, which he prefers as being (in his opinion) the one most usually found in good codices. (tom. ii. p. 47). But Professor Bickell gives reasons for believing that the first of the two Ordines is Maronite, and the second Jacobite. The second is certainly the most consistent and intelligible; and it agrees almost entirely with that given in the two MSS. obtained in Travancore by the Rev. G. B. Howard, and described by him in his work on 'the Christians of S. Thomas and their Liturgies.' This work, we may remark by the way, is one which cannot fail to interest and instruct the reader; and will give life to the study of this Liturgy.

An early illustrative document, valuable for the information it gives about the Syrian Liturgy in the seventh century, is the

1 The text of this Liturgy was in type before Prof. Bickell's pamphlet came to hand.

Epistle of James, Bishop of Edessa, A.D. 651-710, ‘ad Thomam Presbyterum. Bunsen1 praises it as 'the only rational liturgical commentary on the Eastern Liturgies which exists." The original Syriac with a Latin translation is to be found in Assemani's Bibliotheca Orientalis, tom. i. pp. 479, etc. The Latin translation is reprinted in No. II, of 'Excerpta Liturgica.' (Messrs. Jas. Parker and Co., Oxford). We learn from this document that the Syrian Liturgy of the seventh century was essentially the same as that which we still have.

Siv. The Liturgy of Constantinople.

Orthodox

Church.

There are three Liturgies in use in the great Orthodox The three Liturgies of Oriental Church, viz. those of S. Basil, of S. Chrysostom, and the Great of 'the Presanctified.' That of S. Chrysostom is the one com- Eastern monly said throughout the year; that of S. Basil is said on all Sundays in Lent, except Palm Sunday, on Maundy Thursday, Easter Eve, the Vigils of Christmas and the Epiphany, and the Feast of S. Basil. The Liturgy of the Presanctified is said during Lent on the first five week days of each week. It is an office with a Communion but no Consecration; the five Holy Loaves necessary for the purpose (one for each day) having been consecrated on the previous Sunday. Its form is a combination of the Vesper Office (for it is said at three o'clock in the afternoon, the fast being strictly preserved until then) with a Pro-anaphoral office, a Great Entrance and Communion, that are similar in form to the corresponding parts of the Liturgy of S. Chrysostom, though of course specially appropriate.

chologion.

The standard authority on these Liturgies is Goar's great Goar's Euedition of the Euchologion, in which he gives the variations in reading of several important MSS, and illustrates every point that can arise with copious notes of immense learning.

S. Chryso

S. Basil's

In the Euchologion the Liturgy of S. Chrysostom is always Relation of printed first entire, and from it are taken such parts as are stom's to necessary to complete S. Basil's. But 'S. BASIL'S Liturgy is a Liturgy. recast of S. JAMES', as S. CHRYSOSTOM's is an abbreviation and

[ocr errors][merged small]

Reasons for

mode of printing

them below.

Their reputed authors.

S. Basil.

new edition of S. Basil's 1.' This, which is evident upon an examination of the two, is confirmed by the Barberini MS2. of the eighth century, the oldest and most important documentary authority for the Greek Liturgies, in which several prayers, which in the common texts are attributed to S. Chrysostom's Liturgy, are seen to be part of S. Basil's.

The arrangement presented in our pages has been adopted in order to make clear to the eye that the Pro-anaphoral portion is common to both Liturgies, and used with either Anaphora, and also to facilitate comparison of the two Anaphorae. The text is the ordinary one, as at present used in the Greek Church, taken from Daniel's 'Codex Liturgicus,' vol. iv.

Whether these Liturgies are really to be ascribed to the great men whose names they bear is a disputed question. There is much less reason to doubt it in the case of S. Basil than in the case of S. Chrysostom. Some alterations must indeed have taken place, for in the time of S. Basil the Prayers for the Catechumens and Penitents would still be regularly said, as S. Chrysostom testifies. But the early, wide spread, and continuous tradition that he arranged a Liturgy seems to demand some better reason for its rejection than the mere refusal to accept anything that cannot be directly demonstrated; there being no antecedent improbabilities here, as in the similar claims for S. James and S. Mark, arising from the difficulties that may be felt about thus implying an over-early development of ritual, or a crystallization of the whole series of prayers into fixed forms, at a period when it may well be believed that much of the exact wording of the prayers, though their order were fixed, was still left to the discretion and the powers of the

Evidence for officiant. Gregory of Nazianzus, an intimate friend of S. Basil3, 1 Dr. Neale, Introduction to the History of the Holy Eastern Church,' P. 325.

2 An account of this MS, with the text of these two Liturgies transcribed from it, and arranged in parallel columns, will be found in Bunsen's 'Anal. Ante-Nic.' pp. 197-236.

3 S. Basil died A.D. 379. For a fuller statement of this argument with authorities, see Palmer's 'Origines,' Introd. § ii. p. 46, etc.

« PoprzedniaDalej »