derived. The Roman was among the earliest, and soon the chief Patriarchate of the Catholic Church. The contentions of the neighbouring provinces, the irruptions of barbarians, the local influence of her bishops, and above all, under God, her anxious and untiring energy in the cause of the propagation of the true Faith, rapidly strengthened the primacy of the Church of Rome and within eight hundred years of the death of our Blessed Lord, she had obtained throughout the West almost imperial power, and in the East considerable influence. We might naturally, therefore, expect that in the remains of antiquity which have been spared to us, we should find a complete Liturgy which she had used from her first foundation, with perhaps also a history of it, exactly detailing the various alterations which it has undergone. But we know little about it. Some have denied altogether the claims of the Roman Liturgy to any great age: ascribing it to Gregory the Great, or to Gelasius, or Vigilius, or Leo, in succession Bishops of Rome. Others, on the contrary, have boldly given it to S. Peter, as the sole author, at least of the Canon, and that it has come down to us in the main points unimpaired.

37

The truth is most certainly not with the advocates of the first of these opinions, whatever may be the objections against the other. The essential rites which are in all ancient Liturgies, are to be found also in the Canon of the Church of Rome, in every age, up to the most early, through which we are able to trace it: and we may assert that it springs equally with them from the Apostolic Form; and that it has preserved all

37 Martene. De Ant. Ecc. Ritibus. 1. 98.

those essentials with a most jealous care, whilst successive Bishops have exerted their legitimate power, and added such prayers and ceremonies as they thought fit. As Muratori says, "Canoni certe, in quo tremendi Mysterii summa consistit, nihil unquam additum fuit, quod vel minimum substantiam rei mutet.” 38

In most briefly attempting to give an account of this Liturgy, and from the same sources, I cannot do better than follow the guidance of a very careful inquirer, (to whose labours both upon this and other subjects,39 the English Church owes a heavy debt of gratitude,) the Author of the Origines Liturgica. He tells us “that many of the mistakes into which men have fallen on this matter have arisen from confounding two very different things, the Missal and the Liturgy. The Missal is a large volume containing a number of missæ, or offices for particular days, which were to be added in the proper place to the Canon. By the Liturgy we are to understand the Canon which did not vary, and the number and order of the prayers which were to be added from the Missal. It is acknowledged that Gregory collected, arranged, improved, and abbreviated11

40

38 Muratorii de Rebus Lit. 119.

39 More particularly, in his excellent Treatise of the Church, a work to which we owe very much of the better tone of theology, which of late years has distinguished writers in the English Church.

40 This must necessarily include in the later ages, the Ordinary also.

41 I would add from Muratori. "Certe vetustis sæculis Præfationes complures in usu fuere. Hasce Sanctus Gregorius M. ad paucas nunc usitatas redegit. Psalmi etiam integri adhibiti antiquitus, sive cantati in Missa fuerunt; idque ex non uno sancti Augustini loco, et ex Homiliis sancti Petri Chrysologi constat; verum nostris temporibus versiculus tantummodo ex iis canitur, aut recitatur. Cur autem a sancto Gregorio Pontifice breviata fuerit Liturgia,

1942

66

the contents of the individual Missæ, and inserted a short passage into the Canon, viz. "Diesque nostros in tua pace disponas, atque ab æterna damnatione eripi, et in electorum tuorum jubeas grege numerari." He joined also the Lord's Prayer to the Canon, from which it had previously been separated by the breaking of bread. All this amounts to positive proof that Gregory was the reviser and improver, not the author, of the Roman Liturgy." Seventy years before Gregory, Vigilius, Patriarch of Rome, in an epistle to Profuturus, Bishop of Braga in Spain, says that he had received the text of the Canon from Apostolical tradition: he then gives him a description of it, which coincides accurately with the Roman Liturgy in subsequent times." fore him, Gelasius, Patriarch A.D. 492, ordained prayers or collects, and prefaces, and arranged them in a sacramentary, which in after ages commonly bore his name.' Again; "a manuscript sacramentary is in existence, supposed to have been written before the time of Gelasius, evidently referring to the same order and Canon as that used in his time: and is known by the name of the Leonian Sacramentary. Leo the Great, Bishop in

“Be

id factum suspicari licet ad majus Fidelium commodum, atque ut omnes divinis Mysteriis interesse possent. Olim quoque multos occupabat cura filiorum, custodia agrorum et bestiarum, servitium dominis præstitum, ut alia impedimenta omittam. Hosce, ut opinari fas est, absterrebat a sacris prolixitas Liturgiæ. Idcirco satius visum fuit, eamdem contrahere, et præsertim postquam præceptum invaluit de Missa audienda singulis Dominicis, aliisque Festis solennibus." De rebus Liturg. 14.

42 So Renaudot observes: "In Latina Ecclesia, præcipuum locum obtinet Canon Romanus, qui, quod a Gelasio Papa primum, deinde a Gregorio magno, in eam quam nunc habet formam reductus est Gregorianus vulgo appellatur." Dissertatio. vol. i. 8.

451, is said to have added certain words, which also are specified; "sanctum sacrificium, immaculatam hostiam:" so that the remainder of the Canon was in existence before his time.” "Some time again before Leo, Innocentius the Bishop speaks13 of the Roman rites as having descended from S. Peter the Apostle, and there is no sort of reason to think that they differed materially from those used by Gelasius at the end of the same century." And we are brought to this conclusion: "That this Liturgy was substantially the same in the time of Gelasius as it was in that of Gregory, that it appears to have been the same in the time of Innocentius at the beginning of the fifth century, and was then esteemed of Apostolical antiquity."

944

It is most probable that in the earliest centuries, the Roman Liturgy was considerably longer than it now is, which indeed is certain, if S. Gregory, as it has been remarked, not only arranged but abbreviated it. Therefore, it would then be more like the other ancient Liturgies, and the account given us by Justin Martyr. Muratori observes, 45 that as in the Greek Churches before

66

43 Muratori, p. 10, says, Accipe nunc, quæ de ipsa Romana Ecclesia Anno Christi 416, hoc est tot ante Gregorium Magnum annos, scripserit Innocentius I. summus Pontifex: Si instituta Ecclesiastica ut sunt a beatis Apostolis tradita, integra vellent servare Domini Sacerdotes, nulla diversitas, nulla varietas in ipsis Ordinibus, et Consecrationibus haberetur. Addit infra: 'Quis enim nesciat aut non advertat id, quod a Principe Apostolorum Petro Romanæ Ecclesiæ traditum est, ac nunc usque custoditur, ab omnibus debere servari.'" Mr. Palmer gives the same passage from Labbe. Concil. 2. 1245.

44 66

'Neque enim a Græcis sacros Ritus Romani acceperunt, sed ab Apostolorum Principibus." Muratori. p. 13.

45 De Rebus Lit. 14.

the Preface prayers were said for the Church, for Kings, for Catechumens, &c. and others again, after the Consecration, for the Clergy, so an old Latin writer upon the Sacraments, speaking of the Eucharist, says: "in it praises are offered to God, and prayers for the people, for Kings, and others." But in the present Roman Canon, the Pope, the Bishop, and the King, &c. are recommended to God, not merely in very few words, but in the secret prayers. There is no doubt also, that formerly there were many more Prefaces than there are

now.

It is a most interesting question (one which we can scarcely hope to be answered, because of the almost certain destruction of all copies of it which may be identified,) what was the primitive Liturgy of the Churches of England before the arrival of S. Augustine. Mr. Palmer inclines to the use of Gaul, that having been the nearest Christian province, and her Bishops the probable ordainers of the British.

The ancient Gallic Churches used the same order of prayers in the celebration of the Eucharist, although, as appears from three editions published by Thomasius, and from a fourth by Mabillon, the prayers themselves somewhat differed: a brief description of their arrangement is given by Martene in his first volume. He says:

46

The Gallic Liturgy began with antiphon, which was sung by the choir. This was followed by a Preface or sermon to the people, in which the Priest exhorted them to come with due reverence to the holy Mysteries. Silence being then proclaimed, the Priest saluted the

46 De Antiquis Ecc. Ritibus. i. 98.