evidence to prove the original derivation of the African rites from those of the Roman church.

When we reflect on the patriarchal jurisdiction of the archbishop of Carthage, the resolute independence of the African churches in the third and following centuries, and their rejection of the pretended jurisdiction of the patriarch of Rome", we shall find it difficult to account for the identity of the African and Roman rites in any other manner, than by supposing that the first bishops of Africa were ordained at Rome, and carried thence the liturgy and ritual, which in after-ages prevailed in Africa. It is unknown at what period the church was founded in Africa ; but as Tertullian was presbyter of Carthage at the end of the second century, as the acts of the martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas speak of Optatus as bishop of Carthage about the year 200, and Agrippinus bishop of Carthage is said to have assembled a council of many bishops about A. D. 215; it seems probable that the church of Africa was founded some time not remote from the middle of the second century, or about the same time as the church of Gaul.

* See these points proved by Basnage, Hist. de l'Eglise, lib. iv. ch. 1.

SECTION IX.

LITURGY OF GAUL.

It has been long known that the ancient liturgy of Gaul differed from that of Rome, though the precise nature of the difference was unknown, until Bona and Thomasius discovered and published some ancient monuments of the Gallican liturgya. To the learned Mabillon we are indebted for a valuable commentary and observations on these remainsb; and at a later period, Martene published an ancient treatise on the Gallican liturgy, professing to have been written by Germanus, bishop of Paris, in the sixth century, which materially elucidates this subject“.

Mabillon traces the composition of the Gallican liturgy principally to three authors; Musæus, presbyter of Marseilles; Sidonius, bishop of Auvergne; and Hilary, bishop of Poictiers. Had this learned writer said “missal," instead of “ liturgy,” it would probably have been more correct; for we must in the present instance, as before, distinguish between these two things. Musæus, who died after the middle of the fifth century, is said by Gennadius to have composed for Eustasius, bishop of Marseilles, an excellent and considerable book of sacraments, with lessons, psalms, and forms of supplicating God, and attesting (contestandi) his beneficence". This word contestandi is referred by Mabillon to the ancient Gallican custom of calling the preface, which begins Vere dignum &c., by the name of contestatio, a term which we find applied to it in ancient MSS. of the Gallican liturgy. Sidonius, bishop of Auvergne, who died A. D. 494, also composed a book of sacraments; and Gregory of Tours, in the sixth century, wrote a preface to it?. Hilary bishop of Poictiers, who died A. D. 368, is said by Jerome to have composed a book of hymns, and another of mysteries, that is, of sacraments

Such seem to have been the authors of the Gallican missal, which contained the liturgy adapted to the various feast days. This liturgy at the close of the sixth century was different from the Roman, as appears by the interrogations of Augustine, first archbishop of Canterbury, to Gregory, patriarch of Rome. He asks, “why the customs of churches “ are different, when their faith is the same, and one “custom of liturgy prevails in the church of Rome, “ another in those of Gaul "?" Abbas Hilduinus, in

h“ Cum una sit fides, sunt ecclesiarum diversæ consuetudines, et altera consuetudo missarum in sancta Romana ecclesia, atque altera in Gal

his Epistle to Louis the Pious, prefixed to the Areopagitica, speaks of ancient MSS. then extant, containing the old Gallican rite, which had prevailed from the first reception of the Christian faith in Gaul, until the Roman was introduced. The Roman rites were introduced in place of the ancient Gallican, in the time of the emperor Charlemagne. A beginning had been made with the Roman chanting and psalmody, which king Pepin introduced into the Gallican church; as Paul, bishop of Rome, intimates, in the epistle which, with the Roman books of anthems and responses, he sent to that prince. Pepin also sent young men to Rome, for instruction in chanting. Thus the Roman chant and psalmody were introduced, which was very displeasing to the members of many churches", who had not the same political attachment and obligations to the Roman patriarch as their king. Afterwards Charlemagne, son of Pepin, who was also politically indebted to the bishop of Rome, obtained from pope Hadrian the sacramentary of Gregory, or the ancient Roman sacramentary, improved and revised by that bishop; and subsequently he ordained, by an imperial edict, that every priest should celebrate the liturgy in the Roman manner. This exer

c. 6.

liarum tenetur.” Bed. Hist. rium, Octob. 9. Eccles. lib. i. c. 27.

į Mabillon, Lit. Gall. p. 16. i “Cui adstipulari videntur Carol. Mag. adv. Imag. lib. i.

. antiquissimi et nimia pene vetustate consumpti, missales li- k Carol. Magn. adv. Imabri, continentes missæ ordi- gines, lib. i. c. 6.

“ Plures ecnem more Gallico, qui ab ini- clesiæ quæ quondam apostotio receptæ fidei, usu in hac licæ sedis traditionem in psaloccidentali plaga est habitus, lendo suscipere recusabant, usque quo tenorem, quo nunc nunc eam cum omni diligentia utitur, Romanum susceperit." amplectantur." p. 54, ed. 1549. Hilduin. Areopagit. apud Su- 1 Mabill. Lit. Gall. p. 17. VOL. I.

L

m

tion of royal power was probably very disagreeable to many of the churches of Gaul; and we find, in fact, that not very long after, in the time of the emperor Charles the Bald, there seems to have been some question whether the ancient rite was not to be resumed again". However, the liturgy that was introduced being orthodox, and there being no valid ground of objection to it in itself, the churches of Gaul obeyed the decree of Charlemagne, and gave their sanction to it. Thus the ancient Gallican liturgy was exchanged for the Roman; “whether, as Mabillon says, “it was effected by the Roman “pontiffs, who took every care within their power to

bring all other churches to an accordance with the “Roman; or whether it was done by Charlemagne, “ to please them. And being once effected, the power of the Roman see, which now became very great, prevented any restitution of the ancient rite.

From the time of Charlemagne, all the sacramentaries were taken from the Roman order; and so effectually was the ancient liturgy abolished, that Charles the Bald, grandson of Charlemagne, appears to have seen the peculiar rites of the Gallican church for the first time celebrated by priests from Toledo in Spain, where the same liturgy as the

Usque ad tempora ab- coram nobis missarum officia avi nostri Pipini, Gallicanæ more Hierosolymitano, auctore ecclesiæ aliter quam Romana Jacobo apostolo; et more Convel Mediolanensis ecclesia di- stantinopolitano, auctore Bavina celebrabant officia, sicut silio : sed nos sequendam ducividimus et audivimus ab iis, mus Romanam ecclesiam in qui ex partibus Toletanæ ec- missarum celebratione." Caclesiæ ad nos venientes, se- rol. Calv. Imper. Epist. ad cundum morem ipsius ecclesiæ Cler. Ravennatens. coram nobis sacra officia cele- n Mabill. Lit. Gall.

p.

16. brarunt. Celebrata etiam sunt