la langue française_, which was, however, not to be completed till
thirty years after. In the revolution of July 1848 he took part in the
repression of the extreme republican party in June 1849. His essays,
contributed during this period to the _National_, were collected
together and published under the title of _Conservation, révolution et
positivisme_ in 1852, and show a thorough acceptance of all the
doctrines propounded by Comte. However, during the later years of his
master's life, he began to perceive that he could not wholly accept all
the dogmas or the more mystic ideas of his friend and master, but he
concealed his differences of opinion, and Comte failed to perceive that
his pupil had outgrown him, as he himself had outgrown his master
Saint-Simon. Comte's death in 1858 freed Littré from any fear of
embittering his master's later years, and he published his own ideas in
his _Paroles de la philosophie positive_ in 1850, and at still greater
length in his work in _Auguste Comte et la philosophie positive_ in
1863. In this book he traces the origin of Comte's ideas through Turgot,
Kant and Saint-Simon, then eulogizes Comte's own life, his method of
philosophy, his great services to the cause and the effect of his works,
and finally proceeds to show where he himself differs from him. He
approved wholly of Comte's philosophy, his great laws of society and his
philosophical method, which indeed he defended warmly against J. S.
Mill, but declared that, while he believed in a positivist philosophy,
he did not believe in a religion of humanity. About 1863, after
completing his Hippocrates and his Pliny, he set to work in earnest on
his French dictionary. In the same year he was proposed for the Académie
Française, but rejected, owing to the opposition of Mgr. Dupanloup,
bishop of Orleans, who denounced him in his _Avertissement aux pères de
famille_ as the chief of the French materialists. He also at this time
started with G. Wyrouboff the _Philosophie Positive_, a review which was
to embody the views of modern positivists. His life was thus absorbed in
literary work till the overthrow of the empire called on him to take a
part in politics. He felt himself too old to undergo the privations of
the siege of Paris, and retired with his family to Britanny, whence he
was summoned by M. Gambetta to Bordeaux, to lecture on history, and
thence to Versailles to take his seat in the senate to which he had been
chosen by the department of the Seine. In December 1871 he was elected a
member of the Académie Française in spite of the renewed opposition of
Mgr. Dupanloup, who resigned his seat rather than receive him. Littré's
_Dictionary_ was completed in 1873. An authoritative interpretation is
given of the use of each word, based on the various meanings it had held
in the past. In 1875 Littré was elected a life senator. The most notable
of his productions in these years were his political papers attacking
and unveiling the confederacy of the Orleanists and legitimists, and in
favour of the republic, his republication of many of his old articles
and books, among others the _Conservation, révolution et positivisme_ of
1852 (which he reprinted word for word, appending a formal, categorical
renunciation of many of the Comtist doctrines therein contained), and a
little tract _Pour la dernière fois_, in which he maintained his
unalterable belief in materialism. When it became obvious that the old
man could not live much longer, his wife and daughter, who had always
been fervent Catholics, strove to convert him to their religion. He had
long interviews with Père Millériot, a celebrated controversialist, and
was much grieved at his death; but it is hardly probable he would have
ever been really converted. Nevertheless, when on the point of death,
his wife had him baptized, and his funeral was conducted with the rites
of the Catholic Church. He died on the 2nd of June 1881.
The following are his most important works: his editions of
Hippocrates (1839-1861), and of Pliny's _Natural History_ (1848-1850);
his translation of Strauss's _Vie de Jésus_ (1839-1840), and Müller's
_Manuel de physiologie_ (1851); his edition of the works of Armand
Carrel, with notes (1854-1858); the _Histoire de la langue française_,
a collection of magazine articles (1862); and his _Dictionnaire de la
langue française_ (1863-1872). In the domain of science must be noted
his edition, with Charles Robin, of Nysten's _Dictionnaire de
médicine, de chirurgie_, &c. (1855); in that of philosophy, his
_Analyse raisonnée du cours de philosophie positive de M. A. Comte_
(1845); _Application de la philosophie positive au gouvernement_
(1849); _Conservation, révolution et positivisme_ (1852, 2nd ed., with
supplement, 1879); _Paroles de la philosophie positive_ (1859);
_Auguste Comte et la philosophie positive_ (1863); _La Science au
point de vue philosophique_ (1873); _Fragments de philosophie et de
sociologie contemporaine_ (1876); and his most interesting
miscellaneous works, his _Études et glanures_ (1880); _La Verité sur
la mort d'Alexandre le grand_ (1865); _Études sur les barbares et le
moyen âge_ (1867); _Médecine et médecins_ (1871); _Littérature et
histoire_ (1875); and _Discours de réception à l'Académie française_
(1873).
For his life consult C. A. Sainte-Beuve, _Notice sur M. Littré, sa vie
et ses travaux_ (1863); and _Nouveaux Lundis_, vol. v.; also the
notice by M. Durand-Gréville in the _Nouvelle Revue_ of August 1881;
E. Caro, _Littré et le positivisme_ (1883); Pasteur, _Discours de
réception_ at the Academy, where he succeeded Littré, and a reply by
E. Renan. (H. M. S.)
LITURGY (Low Lat. _liturgia_; Gr. [Greek: leitos], public, and [Greek:
ergon], work; [Greek: leitourgos], a public servant), in the technical
language of the Christian Church, the order for the celebration and
administration of the Eucharist. In Eastern Christendom the Greek word
[Greek: leitourgia] is used in this sense exclusively. But in
English-speaking countries the word "liturgy" has come to be used in a
more popular sense to denote any or all of the various services of the
Church, whether contained in separate volumes or bound up together in
the form of a Book of Common Prayer. In this article the liturgy is
treated in the former and stricter sense. (For the ancient Athenian
[Greek: leitourgiai], as forms of taxation, see FINANCE.)
In order to understand terms and references it will be convenient to
give the tabular form the chief component parts of a liturgy, selecting
the Liturgy of Rome as characteristic of Western, and that of
Constantinople as characteristic of Eastern, Christendom; at the same
time appending an explanation of some of the technical words which must
be employed in enumerating those parts.
ORDER OF THE ROMAN LITURGY
_Ordinary of the Mass_.
1. Introit, or as it is always called in the Sarum rite, "Office," a
Psalm or part of a Psalm sung at the entry of the priest, or clergy
and choir.
2. Kyrie eleison, ninefold, and sometimes lengthily farsed
representing an older, now obsolete, litany.
3. Collect, _i.e_. the collect for the day.
4. Prophetic lection, now obsolete, except on the Wednesday and
Saturday Ember Days, Good Friday and Easter Even, and Wednesday after
fourth and sixth Sundays in Lent.
5. Epistle.
6. Gradual. A few verses from the Psalms, the shrunken remainder of a
whole Psalm.
7. Sequence. A hymn now obsolete except on Feast of the Seven Dolours,
Easter, Pentecost, Corpus Christi and at Masses for the dead.
8. Gospel.
9. Creed.
10. Collect, now obsolete, though the unanswered invitation, "Let us
pray," still survives.
11. Offertory. A verse or verses from the Psalms sung at the offering
of the elements.
12. Secret. A prayer or prayers said at the conclusion of the
Offertory.
13. Sursum Corda. "Lift up your hearts," with following versicles.
14. Preface. There are now ten proper or special prefaces and one
common preface. In older missals they were extremely numerous, almost
every Sunday and Holy-day having one assigned to it. Many of them were
very beautiful. In older missals, Nos. 13, 14 and 15 were sometimes
arranged not as the concluding part of the Ordinary, but as the
opening part of the Canon of the mass.
15. Sanctus, or Tersanctus, or Triumphal Hymn, "Holy, Holy, Holy,"
&c., ending with the Benedictus, "Blessed is he that cometh," &c.
_Canon of the Mass._
1. Introductory prayer for acceptance. Te igitur, &c.
2. Intercession for the living. Memento, Domine famulorum, &c.
3. Commemoration of apostles and martyrs. Communicantes et memoriam,
&c.
4. Prayer for acceptance and consecration of offering. Hanc igitur
oblationem, &c.
5. Recital of words of institution. Qui pridie quam pateretur, &c.
6. Oblation. Unde et memores, &c.
7. Invocation. A passage difficult of interpretation, but apparently
meant to be equivalent to the Eastern Epiklesis or invocation of the
Holy Ghost. Supplices te rogamus, &c.
8. Intercession for the dead. Memento etiam, Domine, famulorum, &c.
9. Lord's Prayer, with a short introduction and the expansion of the
last petition into a prayer known as the "Embolismus."
10. Fraction, i.e. breaking of the host into three parts, to symbolize
the death and passion of Christ.
11. Commixture, i.e. placing a small portion of the consecrated bread
into the chalice symbolizing the reunion of Christ's body and soul at
the resurrection.
12. Agnus Dei, i.e. a three-fold petition to the Lamb of God.
13. Pax, i.e. the kiss of peace. The ancient ritual of the Pax has
become almost obsolete.
14. Three prayers, accompanying the Pax and preliminary to communion.
15. Communion of priest and people (if any), a short anthem called
"Communio" being sung meanwhile.
16. Ablution of paten and chalice.
17. Post-communion, i.e. a concluding prayer.
18. Dismissal.
The Canon of the Mass strictly ends with No. 9; Nos. 10-18 being an
appendix to it.
LITURGY OF CONSTANTINOPLE
_Mass of the Catechumens. After preparation and vesting._
1. The Deacon's Litany.
2. Three Anthems with accompanying prayers.
3. Little Entrance, i.e. ceremonial bringing in of the Book of the
Gospels.
4. The Trisagion, i.e. an anthem with an accompanying prayer different
from the Latin Sanctus or Tersanctus.
5. Epistle.
6. Gospel with a prayer preceding it.
7. Bidding prayer.
8. Prayer for catechumens.
9. Dismissal of catechumens.
10. Spreading of the corporal.
_Mass of the Faithful._
11. Prayers of the faithful.
12. Cherubic Hymn, "Let us who mystically represent the Cherubim, &c."
not represented in the Latin liturgy.
13. Great Entrance, i.e. of the unconsecrated elements with incense
and singing and intercessions.
14. Kiss of Peace.
15. Creed.
16. The Benediction, i.e. 2 Cor. xiii. 14.
17. Sursum corda.
18. Preface.
19. Sanctus, or Tersanctus, or "Triumphal Hymn."
20. Recital of Words of Institution, prefaced by recital of the
Redemption.
21. The oblation.
22. The invocation or Epiklesis.
23. Intercession for the dead.
24. Intercession for the living.
25. The Lord's Prayer.
26. Prayer of humble access (a) for people (b) for priest.
27. Elevation with the invitation "Holy things to holy people."
28. Fraction.
29. Commixture.
30. Thanksgiving.
31. Benediction.
In both these lists many interesting features of ceremonial, the use
of incense, the infusion of warm water (Byzantine only), &c., have not
been referred to. The lists must be regarded as skeletons only.
There are six main families or groups of liturgies, four of them being
of Eastern and two of them of Western origin and use. They are known
either by the names of the apostles with whom they are traditionally
connected, or by the names of the countries or cities in which they have
been or are still in use.
Group I. _The Syrian Rite_ (St James).--The principal liturgies to be
enumerated under this group are the Clementine liturgy, so called from
being found in the eighth book of the Apostolic Constitutions, which
claim in their title, though erroneously, to have been compiled by St
Clement, the 1st-century bishop of Rome; the Greek liturgy of St James;
the Syriac liturgy of St James. Sixty-four more liturgies of this group
have existed, the majority being still in existence. Their titles are
given in F. E. Brightman's _Liturgies, Eastern and Western_ (1896), pp.
lviii.-lxi.
Group II. _The Egyptian Rite_ (St Mark).--This group includes the Greek
liturgies of St Mark, St Basil and St Gregory, and the Coptic liturgies
of St Basil, St Gregory, St Cyril or St Mark; together with certain less
known liturgies the titles of which are enumerated by Brightman (_op.
cit._ pp. lxxiii. lxxiv.). The liturgy of the Ethiopian church
ordinances and the liturgy of the Abyssinian Jacobites, known as that of
the Apostles, fall under this group.
Group III. _The Persian Rite_ (SS. Adaeus and Maris).--This Nestorian
rite is represented by the liturgy which bears the names of SS. Adaeus
and Maris together with two others named after Theodore of Mopsuestia
and Nestorius. This group has sometimes been called "East-Syrian." The
titles of three more of its now lost liturgies have been preserved,
namely those of Narses, Barsumas and Diodorus of Tarsus. The liturgy of
the Christians of St Thomas, on the Malabar coast of India, formerly
belonged to this group, but it was almost completely assimilated to the
Roman liturgy by Portuguese Jesuits at the synod of Diamper in 1599.
Group IV. _The Byzantine Rite._--The Greek liturgies of St Chrysostom,
St Basil and St Gregory Dialogus, or The Presanctified, also extant in
other languages, are the living representatives of this rite. The Greek
liturgy of St Peter is classified under this group, but it is merely the
Roman canon of the Mass &c., inserted in a Byzantine framework, and
seems to have been used at one time by some Greek communities in Italy.
To this group also belongs the Armenian liturgy, of which ten different
forms have existed in addition to the liturgy now in general use named
after St Athanasius.
We now come to the two western groups of liturgies, which more nearly
concern the Latin-speaking nations of Europe, and which, therefore, must
be treated of more fully.
Group V. _The Hispano-Gallican Rite_ (St John).--This group of Latin
liturgies, which once prevailed very widely in Western Europe, has been
almost universally superseded by the liturgy of the Church of Rome.
Where it survives, it has been more or less assimilated to the Roman
pattern. It prevailed once throughout Spain, France, northern Italy,
Great Britain and Ireland. The term "Ephesine" has been applied to this
group or family of liturgies, chiefly by English liturgiologists, and
the names of St John and of Ephesus, his place of residence, have been
pressed into service in support of a theory of Ephesine origin, which,
however, lacks proof and may now be regarded as a discarded hypothesis.
Other theories represent the Gallican to be a survival of the original
Roman liturgy, or as an importation into Western Europe from the east
through a Milanese channel. The latter is Duchesne's theory (_Christian
Worship_, London, 1904, 2nd ed., p. 94).
We must be content with mentioning these theories without attempting
to discuss them.
The chief traces of oriental influence and affinity lie in the
following points:--(1) various proclamations made by the deacon,
including that of "Silentium facite" before the epistle (Migne, _Pat.
Lat._ tom. lxxxv. col. 534); (2) the presence of a third lesson
preceding the epistle, taken from the Old Testament; (3) the
occasional presence of "preces" a series of short intercessions
resembling the Greek "Ektené" or deacon's litany; (4) the position of
the kiss of peace at an early point in the service, before the canon,
instead of the Roman position after consecration; (5) the exclamation
"Sancta sanctis" occurring in the Mozarabic rite, being the
counterpart of the Eastern "[Greek: Ta hagia tois hagiois]," that is
"holy things to holy people"; (6) traces of the presence of the
"Epiklesis," that is to say, the invocation of the Holy Spirit, in its
Eastern position after the words of institution, as in the prayer
styled the Post-pridie in the Mozarabic service for the second Sunday
after the octave of the Epiphany: "We beseech thee that thou wouldest
sanctify this oblation with the permixture of thy Spirit, and conform
it with full transformation into the body and blood of our Lord Jesus
Christ." (Migne, _Pat. Lat._ tom. lxxxv. col. 250). On the other hand
the great variableness of its parts, and the immense number of its
proper prefaces, ally it to the Western family of liturgies.
We proceed now to give a more detailed account of the chief liturgies of
this group.
1. _The Mozarabic Liturgy.--_This was the national liturgy of the
Spanish church till the close of the 11th century, when the Roman
liturgy was forced upon it. Its use, however, lingered on, till in the
16th century Cardinal Jimenes, anxious to prevent its becoming quite
obsolete, had its books restored and printed, and founded a college of
priests at Toledo to perpetuate its use. It survives now only in several
churches in Toledo and in a chapel at Salamanca, and even there not
without certain Roman modifications of its original text and ritual.
Its date and origin, like the date and origin of all existing
liturgies, are uncertain, and enveloped in the mists of antiquity. It
is not derived from the present Roman liturgy. Its whole structure, as
well as separate details disprove such a parentage, and therefore it
is strange to find St Isidore of Seville (_Lib. de Eccles. Offic_. i.
15) attributing it to St Peter. No proof is adduced, and the only
value which can be placed upon such an unsupported assertion is that
it shows that a very high and even apostolic antiquity was claimed for
it. A theory, originating with Pinius, that it may have been brought
by the Goths from Constantinople when they invaded Spain, is as
improbable as it is unproven. It may have been derived from Gaul. The
Gallican sister stood to it in the relation of twin-sister, if it
could not claim that of mother. The resemblance was so great that when
Charles the Bald (843-877) wished to get some idea of the character of
the already obsolete Gallican rite, he sent to Toledo for some Spanish
priests to perform Mass according to the Mozarabic rite in his
presence. But there is no record of the conversion of Spain by
Gallican missionaries. Christianity existed in Spain from the earliest
times. Probably St Paul travelled there (Rom. xv. 24). It may be at
least conjectured that its liturgy was Pauline rather than Petrine or
Johannine.
2. _Gallican Liturgy._--This was the ancient and national liturgy of the
church in France till the commencement of the 9th century, when it was
suppressed by order of Charlemagne, who directed the Roman missal to be
everywhere substituted in its place. All traces of it seemed for some
time to have been lost until three Gallican sacramentaries were
discovered and published by Thomasius in 1680 under the titles of
_Missale Gothicum_, _Missale Gallicum_ and _Missale Francorum_, and a
fourth was discovered and published by Mabillon in 1687 under the title
of _Missale Gallicanum_. Fragmentary discoveries have been made since.
Mone discovered fragments of eleven Gallican masses and published them
at Carlsruhe in 1850. Other fragments from the library at St Gall have
been published by Bunsen (_Analecta Ante-Nicaena_, iii. 263-266), and
from the Ambrosian library at Milan by Cardinal Mai (_Scriptt. Vet. Vat.
Coll._ iii. 2. 247). A single page was discovered in Gonville and Caius
College, Cambridge, published in _Zeitschrift für Kath. Theologie_, vi.
370.
These documents, illustrated by early Gallican canons, and by
allusions in the writings of Sulpicius Severus, Caesarius of Arles,
Gregory of Tours, Germanus of Paris and other authors, enable us to
reconstruct the greater part of this liturgy. The previously
enumerated signs of Eastern origin and influence are found here as
well as in the Mozarabic liturgy, together with certain other more or
less minute peculiarities, which would be of interest to professed
liturgiologists, but which we must not pause to specify here. They are
the origin of the Ephesine theory that the Gallican liturgy was
introduced into use by Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons (c. 130-200) who had
learned it in the East from St Polycarp, the disciple of the apostle
St John.
3. _Ambrosian Liturgy._--Considerable variety of opinion has existed
among liturgical writers as to the proper classification of the
"Ambrosian" or "Milanese" liturgy. If we are to accept it in its present
form and to make the present position of the great intercession for
quick and dead the test of its _genus_, then we must classify it as
"Petrine" and consider it as a branch of the Roman family. If, on the
other hand, we consider the important variations from the Roman liturgy
which yet exist, and the traces of still more marked variation which
confront us in the older printed and MS. copies of the Ambrosian rite,
we shall detect in it an original member of the Hispano-Gallican group
of liturgies, which for centuries underwent a gradual but
ever-increasing assimilation to Rome. We know this as a matter of
history, as well as a matter of inference from changes in the text
itself. Charlemagne adopted the same policy towards the Milanese as
towards the Gallican church. He carried off all the Ambrosian church
books which he could obtain, with the view of substituting Roman books
in their place, but the completion of his intentions failed, partly
through the attachment of the Lombards to their own rites, partly
through the intercession of a Gallican bishop named Eugenius (Mabillon,
_Mus. Ital._ tom. i. Pars. ii. p. 106). It has been asserted by Joseph
Vicecomes that this is an originally independent liturgy drawn up by St
Barnabas, who first preached the Gospel at Milan (_De Missae_ Rit. 1
capp. xi. xii.), and this tradition is preserved in the title and proper
preface for St Barnabas Day in the Ambrosian missal (Pamelius,
_Liturgicon_, i. 385, 386), but it has never been proved.
We can trace the following points in which the Ambrosian differs from
the Roman liturgy, many of them exhibiting traces of Eastern
influence. Some of them are no longer found in recent Ambrosian
missals and only survive in earlier MSS. such as those published by
Pamelius (_Liturgicon_, tom. i. p. 293), Muratori (_Lit. Rom. Vet._ i.
132) and Ceriani (in his edition, 1881, of an ancient MS. at Milan).
(a) The prayer entitled "oratio super sindonem" corresponding to the
prayer after the spreading of the corporal; (b) the proclamation of
silence by the deacon before the epistle; (c) the litanies said after
the Ingressa (Introit) on Sundays in Lent, closely resembling the
Greek Ektené; (d) varying forms of introduction to the Lord's Prayer,
in Coena Domini (Ceriani p. 116) in Pascha (Ib. p. 129); (e) the
presence of passages in the prayer of consecration which are not part
of the Roman canon and one of which at least corresponds in import and
position though not in words to the Greek Invocation: _Tuum vero, est,
omnipotens Pater, mittere_, &c. (Ib. p. 116); (f) the survival of a
distinctly Gallican formula of consecration in the Post-sanctus "in
Sabbato Sancto." _Vere sanctus, vere benedictus Dominus noster,_ &c.
(Ib. p. 125); (g) the varying nomenclature of the Sundays after
Pentecost; (h) the position of the fraction or ritual breaking of
bread before the Lord's Prayer; (i) the omission of the second
oblation after the words of institution (Muratori, _Lit. Rom. Vet._ i.
133); (k) a third lection or _Prophetia_ from the Old Testament
preceding the epistle and gospel; (l) the lay offering of the
oblations and the formulae accompanying their reception (Pamelius,
_Liturgicon_, i. 297); (m) the position of the ablution of the hands
in the middle of the canon just before the words of institution; (n)
the position of the "oratio super populum," which corresponds in
matter but not in name to the collect for the day, before the Gloria
in Excelsis.
4. _Celtic Liturgy._--We postpone the consideration of this liturgy till
after we have treated of the next main group.
VI. _The Roman Rite_ (St Peter).--There is only one liturgy to be
enumerated under this group, viz. the present liturgy of the Church of
Rome, which, though originally local in character and circumscribed in
use, has come to be nearly co-extensive with the Roman Catholic Church,
sometimes superseding earlier national liturgies, as in Gaul and Spain,
sometimes incorporating more or less of the ancient ritual of a country
into itself and producing from such incorporation a sub-class of
distinct Uses, as in England, France and elsewhere. Even these
subordinate Uses have for the most part become, or are rapidly becoming,
obsolete.
The date, origin and early history of the Roman liturgy are obscure. The
first Christians at Rome were a Greek-speaking community, and their
liturgy must have been Greek, and is possibly represented in the
so-called Clementine liturgy. But the date when such a state of things
ceased, when and by whom the present Latin liturgy was composed, whether
it is an original composition, or, as its structure seems to imply, a
survival of some intermediate form of liturgy--all these are questions
which are waiting for solution.