HANDBOOK TO CHRISTIAN AND ECCLESIASTICAL ROME CHAPTER I. THE LITURGY. The Liturgy-Ordinary of the Roman mass— FROM the dawn of the Church all the elements of the Mass are clearly traceable, although the Liturgy is itself a wonderful growth, full of interest for the student" being indeed a living creature, taking up, transforming, and accommodating still more closely to the human heart, what of right belonged to it."* The Apocalyptic Seer shows us what a vision of worship had dawned on the new community-of a temple constructed not with hands but with the moral elements of adoration and praise and by the presence of God. This vision unites the Temple worship with the aspirations of the new Faith. "The marvellous liturgic spirit of the Church, her wholly unparalleled genius for worship, being thus awake, she was rapidly organising both pagan and Jewish elements of ritual, * Walter Pater, Marius the Epicurean. for the expanding therein of her own new heart of devotion."* Thus arose what- -"destined surely one day, to take exclusive possession of the religious consciousness"-is in fact the greatest act of worship the world has seen. Professor Harnack says that the Lord's Supper was "viewed as a mystical communication of gnosis, and of life." It was called pápμакov álavaσías, the medicine of immortality. It was "at once a communion meal and a sacrificial meal." Edersheim in his book on Jewish worship says: "To sacrifice seems as natural to man as to pray; the one indicates what he feels about himself, the other what he feels about God." In the Dialogue with Tryphon the Jew Justin Martyr calls the Eucharist a sacrifice, and speaks of it as that which had been prophesied by Malachi. Irenæus also says: "The oblation of the church a pure sacrifice before God." And the Council of Arles in Constantine's reign uses the word offerre, to offer, of the celebration of the Eucharist. The Jews had themselves two sacrifices, the one a preparation, the other a communion with the Deity. The latter was the most joyous, and was the offering of Completion or Peace offering: "Here God condescended to become Israel's Guest at the sacrificial meal, as He was always their Host." Leviticus x. 19, 20, refers to the joyousness; the Apocalypse iii. 20 may be compared for the idea of the divine Guestship. All sacrifice means at one and the same time a gift from God, a gift to God, and a divine approach; in a word the power of receiving from God, and giving Him, gifts. The Eucharistic Gift is the most perfect example of these aspects of sacrifice, for here our oblation is itself the divine gift to us; in offering which men learn to offer, what alone they have to give, themselves; for Christ had offered Himself. So inseparable from the idea of sacrifice is the institution of the Eucharist. * Walter Pater, Marius the Epicurean. + Ibid. Neither can it be overlooked that Christ laid a stress on this meaning, which could not be missed by His Hebrew auditors, and was obvious to them from the first. It had always been the ritual custom to consume the sacrifice as a part of the sacrificial act, and on this Paschal night the Hebrew ate of the lamb sacrificed that afternoon in the temple. Christ in giving His disciples, not the lamb, but the bread and the wine as His memorial, speaks of them as His body sacrificed and offered (Matt. xxvi. 26, 27; Luke xxii. 19, 20). among Jews. oblation the as a sign In the Mosaic Law there is no mention of public Public prayer in such expressions as: "To see the beauty Prayer of the Lord," to visit his temple, abide in his courts, and in the beautiful injunction "Forget not the words that thine eyes have seen," there is the expectation of something to be looked upon which would teach the spirit. And this is undoubtedly one intention of the Christian liturgy. But its main intention was a united act of the whole Christian body; nowhere was Importthe desire to emphasise this greater than in Rome ance of the where everything was done to make the oneness of the Christian Act manifest. The two special places of the where this joint act is most clear are the oblation unity of and the communion. For many ages no one was the sacriallowed to take part in the oblation if he was guilty fice. of grave sin. In the ix. and again in the XII. century, 2 popes, Nicholas I. and Eugenius III., allow the Communion to be given to criminals, but do not allow them to offer. Already in the Apocalypse (v. 10) and in I Peter ii. 9 Christians are called a royal priesthood; and the same idea is repeated by Tertullian. The idea, too, that the eucharistic sacrifice is that of the whole people joined to Christ the chief offerer, is prominent in every prayer of the whole liturgy. An * Justin Martyr (140) points the distinction between the pagan and Christian form of worship, telling the Emperor that Christians deemed it right to "send pomps and hymns" to the Creator by means of language also. Con-celebration. ancient Benedictine manual says that the minister who helps at the altar "represents the people standing round and con-sacrificing with the priest." S. Augustine emphasises the view that the Eucharist is the Sacrament of the Church Catholic. There is, he says, no character in the sacrifice of charity,* where there is not the Church catholic. For the eucharistic mystery is essentially the mystery of unity, the "Sacramentum unitatis." The acts of the Popes always confirmed this view. It is strange to see how early a disciplina arcani attached to the mystery of Christ's institution at the last Supper. Even the Audaxt says: "Let no one eat or drink your Eucharist, save those baptized in the name of Jesus: for of this the Lord said: Give not what is holy to the dogs." In the early Church con-celebration was the rule. The bishop, that is, used to consecrate together with the presbyters round him, and with the other bishops should any be present. "Let the presbyters stand right and left and give consent to his sacrifice" says Pseudo-Isidore. This concurrence was the common Roman practice in the vi. century. In the VIII. cen * Sacrificium Charitatis. †The Audaxý, or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, discovered in 1883 by Bryennios Metropolitan of Nicomedia, is a very early Christian document, the place in which it was written, and its date, being variously determined by scholars. The discoverer thinks it was written in Egypt, and with him agree Harnack and Zahn. Antioch, Jerusalem, Asia Minor, Greece, Macedon, Rome, even Constantinople, have been suggested. M. Paul Sabatier places it in Syria or Palestine itself. Funk says preferably Syria, as its place of origin, but that it was much read in Alexandria. It was presumably written among Jews, as a reference is made to the days on which the "hypocrites or Pharisees fast, as though they were round them when it was written. Prof. Harnack places its date between A.D. 120-165, and suggests A.D. 140. Sabatier places it in the middle of the 1. century, on account of the undeveloped ritual of the Eucharist. Funk considers the Epistle of Barnabas copied from the Audax, and not vice-versâ ; he places the former in the reign of Nerva (A.D. 96-98), and dates the Audaxý to some few years before this. M. tury it was usual on the 3 great feasts of the year, and on that of S. Peter: and this continued to be the usage till the XIII. century. Innocent III. refers to the custom in his work on the mass: "The Cardinal priests have been accustomed to stand round the Roman Pontiff and celebrate together with him." The only two instances of con-celebration to-day in the Latin Church are at the consecration of a bishop and the ordination of priests (see pp. 178 and 289). Innocent I. (402-416) speaks of his custom of sending Fermen"fermentum," a part of the consecrated host, to the tum different titles: "De fermento vero quod die dominico (leaven). mittimus."* The reason he assigns is that the presbyters who are not able to assist at his liturgy should not think themselves, especially on that day, separated from his communion. A fermentum was also used Commixin the commixture in solemn mass; a portion of a pre- ture. consecrated Host being then placed in the chalice. Perhaps when the custom of the faithful, who reserved the Eucharist in their own homes for communion, had ceased, and the only usage retained was this reservation from one mass to another for the commixture, the word fermentum became commonly, though wrongly, applied to the Host sent to the sick, the tituli, etc., it being still sent as the sign and pledge of unity, though not intended as a “leaven." Indeed we find the same thing called the consecrated oblations in the life of Pope Melchiades (311). Authors disagree as to the date when private mass, When that is, mass celebrated by a presbyter alone, was first mass was permitted. The Abbé Duchesne concludes from the first said fact that a fermentum was sent to the tituli from the by a simple Solemn mass, that presbyters already celebrated in presbyter. the early v. century: but the Bollandist Father de Smedt considers that the fermentum was sent as a communion, and does not admit that presbyters celebrated so early. Later in the century, in the time of Leo (440-461), several Eucharists were celebrated in *Letter to Decentius. |