Volume 1

A dictionary of Christian antiquities : being a continuation of the 'Dictionary of the Bible' / edited by William Smith and Samuel Cheetham ; illustrated by engravings on wood.

Date:: [between 1890 and 1899?]

Credit: A dictionary of Christian antiquities : being a continuation of the 'Dictionary of the Bible' / edited by William Smith and Samuel Cheetham ; illustrated by engravings on wood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

1026/1096 (page 1006)

$Then the Aposticha are begun, and while they are being sung, the procession returns into the nave, preceded by lights, and singing both the Apostkha and the Scichi belonging to them (eirdSoyres Kal rods rvxoyras CTixovs avTuv). The office then finishes with the benediction of the loaves [see Article]. [This is extracted from the office for vespers {oLKoKovdia Tov eairepivov) given in the euchology. The “ order of the sacrea ministry ” (^didra^is rrjs i(po^iaKovias), in the same book, gives fuller and more complicated rubrics, but the office is the same.] Symeon. Archbishop of Thessalonica**, speaking of this office (op. cont. Hteres,') sa\'s, “ This (Xirii) is celebrated out of doors (e^wOey) in the Narthex of the church, on Saturdays and chief festivals.” He assigns also as the reason why the Lite is celebrated in the Narthex, that as the Saviour descended to our lower regions, so we implore His mercy, standing at the doors of the church as though at the doors of heaven. Other occasional and extraordinary Litae take place, he say.s, when any plague or public calamity threatens. [See also Litaxy and Pro- cession.] [H. J. H.] LITERAL COMMENDATORIAE. [Com- mendatory Letters.] LITERAL DIMISSORIAE. [Dimissory LETTER.S.] LITERAL FOR^ilATAE. [Forma.] LITERAL PASCHALES. [Paschal Let- ters.] LIETRAE PEREGRINORUM. [Koino- KIKON, I. 907.] LITIGATION (lites). Lawsuits of any kind, especially before secular courts, were dis^ couraged as far as possible. The 3rd Council of Carthage (c. 9) provides that any of the clergy who might appeal to a secular court in a civil matter, should in case of success forfeit what they had gained, if they desired to retain their offices. The 4th council of Carthage goes still farther. A bishop is altogether forbidden to undertake any lawsuit about a temporal matter (Stutut. Led. Anti'i. c. 19; Bruns, Canones, i. 14:>)• The disputes of the clergy among them- selves were to be settled by the bishop, either by persuasion or authority, those refusing to obey him were to be condemned by the synod (c. 59). Any catholic, lay or clerical, who referred any cause, just or unjust, to the decision of a non-catholic (alterius fidei) judge was to be excommunicated (c 87). The council of Chalce- don (c. 9) provides a series of appeals to eccle- siastical courts, ending with the tribunal of the emperor at Constantinople (cf. Codex Led. Afri-. c. 125). The council of Vannes however (c. 9) permits the clergy to appeal to the secular courts by permission of their bishops, but an appeal from the decision of a bishop, or a suit e Goar (in loco) calls these ra anb arixov errix-npa. They are stichera appended to stichi. or fragmentary verses from the psalms, and are explained as “ versus e Davidicis versihus compositi. £ibl. Max. Pat. xxii. against a bishop, must be made to other bishops, and on no account, on peril of excommunication, be referred to a secular court. The council of Agde(c. 31, 32; Bruns, Can. ii. 152) provides that those who refuse to cease from litigation at the bidding of the bishop shall be excommunicated, and forbids any of the clergy to carry a cause into a secular court without permission of the bishop, but permits them to plead in a cause that has already been taken there. The evi- dence of those who were prone to litigation was to be regarded with suspicion and not received without very careful inquiry into its truth (Statut. Led. Antiq. c. 58). In all lawsuits the faith and moral character of both parties were to be taken into consideration (ibid. c. 96). [P. 0.] LITTEUS (Liteus), bishop and confessor in Africa ; commemorated Sept. 10 (Mart. Usuard. Ado ; Acta 6S. Sept. iii. 483). [C. H.] LITURGICAL BOOKS. The present article relates not merely to such books as are neces- sary for the performance of the Liturgy proper, or Mass; but to all that are used in the per- formance of the offices of the church. 1. Before enumerating these, it will be con- venient to attempt some answer to the question, “ When were liturgies or other formularies com- mitted to writing for use in the diurch i ” It is sometimes alleged that the great variety and length of the prayers, &c. in the liturgies and offices of the church preclude the supposi- tion that these can ever have been said without book. And this is no doubt true; but it only throws us back on the further enquiry, when it was that liturgies and services became so lengthy and complicated as absolutely to require written manuals for their due performance—a question to which no definite answer can be given. We cannot, in fact, inquire when liturgies were first written, without first inquiring when they were first celebrated in set forms ; forms must have been adopted before they were written down, though it by no means follows that they were at once written; some forms may have been long handed down by tradition before they were committed to writing. As it is certain that the tiews used forms of devotion in the Temple and in the Synagogue before the Incarnation, and as the services of the church were unquestionably influenced by those of the Synagogue, it seems to be a fair presump- tion that Christians also adopted set forms in their public devotions from an early period.* To this it is objected that Justin Martyr (Apol. i. c. 67) desciibes the president of a Christian assembly as sending up prayers “according to his ability ”—an expression which (it is thought) must imply that the prayers were wholly de- pendent upon the powers of him wffio uttered them. But in fact it is probable that the words oat) Svyapis avTcp simply mean “ with all his strength,” referring to the vehemence with which the prayer was uttered, and not to the matter of it; and Valesius has noted (on Euseb. //. E. iv. 15, § 36), that dyaTripL-nfiy is used specially of uttering with a loud voice. Indeed, when Justin describes (1. c.) the Christians as » In saying this, the writer does not contend that forms of prayer were adopted to the exclusion of ex temport prayer.$