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?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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.

    1045/1096 (page 1025)
    four patriarchates and Russia, except on the days when the liturgy of St. Basil is used. To us this ii a disadvantage, because, if this were the only evidence we possessed, it would be the more difficult to discover what parts of it are truly ancient. Dr. Neale gives the service as he found it in a work printed at Venice in 1840, corrected by a later edition from Constantinople ; Daniel (vol. iv. 327-372) “ad normam ecclesiae Graecorum hodie acceptam et probatam.” Dr. Neale’s book was originally published in the year 1850, two years before Baron Bunsen printed in the fourth volume of his work Hipijolyius and his Age, a transcript of this liturgy from the Barberini manuscript. It seems to be inex- cusable, howevoi-, that Daniel, whose fourth volume came out in 1853, should have been con- tent with the meagre collations with this MS. given by'Goar in his Euchologion, and have neglected the transcript of Bunsen. (32.) With the aid of this manuscript we may put upon one side as of uncertain date the thirteen paragraphs which occupy pages 337 to 339 in Daniel’s book, and besides this, we must reject the eight succeeding pages, with the exception of one brief prayer. Almost all the rubrical directions (as in St. Basil) disappear; they belong to a period since the time of Charle- magne. Onje more, the prayers which the deacon is requested to repeat (, utside, whilst the priest within the veil is praying fiv(TTiKu>s, must be rejected also as of later introduction ; and the division of the consecrated bread into the four parts, each part containing two letters of icxcNiKA [see Elements, I, 603; Fraction, I. 687], is also proved to be later. The rubric directing the elevation of the bread (Daniel, p. 365; Neale’s G. L. p. 140) is also shewn to be modern; so too the introduction of the boiling water. And one thing more attracts attention. As in the rite of St. Basil so here, it was assumed that all would partake. This is altered now. Lastly, in the modern Greek ritual there is an appeal at the very close to St. John Chrys stom that, “ having used his liturgy, we may have his interces ion that our souls may be saved ; ’ this is also proved now to be of later date than the year 900. Indeed, the liturgy itself is sine (Bunsen, iii. 197). ihe very ascription of the Liturgy, therefore, to S‘. Chryststom may be of a date subsequent to the time when this MS. was transcribed. (33.) It only remains for us to note that in this the early edition of St. Chrysostom, the Kiss ot Peace precedes the Creed, and the Creed precedes the Apostolic Benediction. The “ dignum et justum est ” is truly eucharistic, and the “ Sanctus, sanctus ” is speedily followed by the words of institution. The text with reference to the bread resembles that accepted now in the Epistle to the Corinthians, tout’ eurt rh awixa. uov rh vwep v/xcov. The liturgy proceeds : “ Re- membering His saving command and all things done by Him, and offering Thine own of Thine own, we praise Thee.” The priest proceeds: “We offer to Thoe, moreover, this reasonable and bloodless service, and we beseech Thee, send down Thy Holy Spirit on us and on these gifts that lie here before Thee, and make this bread the Body of Thy Christ . . . .” The offeri..g is represented as made on behalf of all who have gone to rest in the faith, “ Fathers, patriarchs, prophets, especially the Holy Virgin ” Then intercessions follow on behalf of the living; —amongst them, “ for those in mountains, caves, and holes in the earth.” (This is now omittjd.) “For faithful Kings, and our Queen, lover of Christ.” (This possibly points to a precise date when the original of this manuscript was prepared.) Then there is a prayer of com- mendation to God of ourselves, our lives, and our hopes, followed by the Lord’s Prayer. Christ is entreated to come to sanctify us. At last we have the “ Sancta sanctis,” the “ Unus sanctus,” and the thanksgiving after the Com- munion. (34.) Liturgy of the Nestorians or ' Chaldean (7An■s^^t^ns.—Notwithstanding the fearful mas- sacres to which even during ti.e last forty years they have been subjected, there still remain among the cities of Mesopotamia Christians who trace their origin to the influx of Nestorians after the council of Ephesus. They possess three liturgies, or rather three anaphorae, ascribed respectively to the Apostles (i. e. SS. Adaeus or Thaddeus and Mari), to Theodore of Mc.psuestia, and to Nestorius himself. Th.'se are used at specified times of the year, but the pro-anaphoral and post-Communion portions of the liturgy of the.“ Apostles ” are never omitted. Latin trans- lations of the three from Syriac manuscripts brought into Europe by eiriis.'aries cf the Roman church are given by Renaudot in his collection (vol. ii.). An English translation of the services now in use has been recently published by Dr. Badger. Any efl'ort to point out what portions of these are really ancient, apart from the iust uction we have received from our previous investigations, must rest on hypothesis only; but the distin- guishing features of the liturgy of the Apostles are (1) that in it our Lord’s words of institu- tion are not introduced at all, and (2) that the prayers of intercession both lor the living and the dead are connected with the oblation which is made before the epiclesis. In the liturgies of Theodore and of Nestorius, the words of institu- tion are found. It would certainly seem from this that, so far, the ‘Liturgy of the Apostles’ must be very ancient, as it is inconceivable that the words of our Lord, if at any time brought into the service, could at any subsequent period have been omitted (see § 59 below). There are some points of difference between the liturgy as given by Renaudot and that givin by Dr. Badger, indicating probably that even during the last few hundred years additions have been made to that which had been in use ; but as these additions must fall into a period far below the 9th century, it is unnecessary to discuss them further here. We should mention, how- ever, that the canon begins with the apostolic benediction, and we have, as everywhere else, the “ s'lrsum corda.” The words are introduced simply in the liturgy of the Apostles ; but in the liturgies of Theodore and Nestorius, as given by Dr. Badger, they ai*e embodied in a highly rhetoiical appeal. Some passages of a Nesto- rian tendency are discoverable in the last-named liturgy. The other two have no such traces. (35.) Liturgy of the Apostolic Constitutions.— It remains now only that we should briefly discuss the liturgy of the Apostolic Constitu* tions, commonly called, “The Liturgy of St