as it existed in the time of Leo I., 440-461. It was discovered at
Verona by Bianchini in 1735 and assigned by him to the 8th century and
published under the title of _Sacramentarium Leonianum_; but this
title was from the first conjectural, and is in the teeth of the
internal evidence which the MS. itself affords. The question is
discussed at some length by Muratori (_Lit. Rom. Vet._ tom. i. cap. i.
col. 16). Assemani published it under the title of _Sacramentarium
Veronense_ in tom. vi. of his _Codex Liturg. Eccles. Univ_.
A MS. of the 7th or 8th century was found at Rome by Thomasius and
published by him in 1680 under the title of _Sacramentarium
Gelasianum_. But it was written in France and is certainly not a pure
Gelasian codex; and although there is historical evidence of Pope
Gelasius I. (492-496) having made some changes in the Roman liturgy,
and although MSS. have been published by Gerbertus and others,
claiming the title of Gelasian, we neither have nor are likely to have
genuine and contemporary MS. evidence of the real state of the liturgy
in that pope's time. The most modern and the best edition of the
Gelasian Sacramentary is that by H. A. Wilson (Oxford, 1894).
The larger number of MSS. of this group are copies of the Gregorian
Sacramentary, that is to say, MSS. representing or purporting to
represent, the state of Roman liturgy in the days of Pope Gregory the
Great. But they cannot be accepted as certain evidence for the
following reasons: not one of them was written earlier than the 9th
century, not one of them was written in Italy, but every one north of
the Alps; every one contains internal evidence of a post-Gregorian
date in the shape of masses for the repose or for the intercession of
St Gregory and in various other ways.
The Roman liturgy seems to have been introduced into England in the 7th,
into France in the 9th and into Spain in the 11th century, though no
doubt it was known in both France and Spain to some extent before these
dates. In France certain features of the service and certain points in
the ritual of the ancient national liturgy became interwoven with its
text and formed those many varying medieval Gallican Uses which are
associated with the names of different French sees.
The chief distinguishing characteristics of the Roman rite are these:
(a) the position of the great intercession for quick and dead within the
canon, the commemoration of the living being placed just before and the
commemoration of the departed just after the words of institution; (b)
the absence of an "Epiklesis" or invocation of the Holy Ghost upon the
elements; (c) the position of the "Pax" or "Kiss of Peace after the
consecration" and before the communion, whereas in other liturgies it
occurs at a much earlier point in the service.
_Liturgies of the British Islands._
Period I. _The Celtic Church._--Until recently almost nothing was known
of the character of the liturgical service of the Celtic church which
existed in these islands before the Anglo-Saxon Conquest, and continued
to exist in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Cornwall for considerable
though varying periods of time after that event. But in recent times a
good deal of light has been thrown on the subject, partly by the
publication or republication of the few genuine works of Patrick,
Columba, Columbanus, Adamnan and other Celtic saints; partly by the
discovery of liturgical remains in the Scottish _Book of Deer_ and in
the Irish _Books of Dimma and Mulling_ and the _Stowe Missal_, &c.;
partly by the publication of medieval Irish compilations, such as the
_Lebar Brecc_, _Liber Hymnorum_, _Martyrology of Oengus_, &c., which
contain ecclesiastical kalendars, legends, treatises, &c., of
considerable but very varying antiquity. The evidence collected from
these sources is sufficient to prove that the liturgy of the Celtic
church was of the Gallican type. In central England the churches, with
everything belonging to them, were destroyed by the heathen invaders at
the close of the 5th century; but the Celtic church in the remoter parts
of England, as well as in the neighbouring kingdoms of Scotland and
Ireland, retained its independence for centuries afterwards.
An examination of its few extant service-books and fragments of
service-books yields the following evidence of the Gallican origin and
character of the Celtic liturgy: (a) the presence of collects and
anthems which occur in the Gallican or Mozarabic but not in the Roman
liturgy; (b) various formulae of thanksgiving after communion; (c)
frequent biddings or addresses to the people in the form of Gallican
_Praefationes_; (d) the Gallican form of consecration, being a prayer
called "Post-Sanctus" leading up to the words of institution; (e) the
complicated rite of "fraction" or "the breaking of bread," as described
in the Irish treatise at the end of the _Stowe Missal_, finds its only
counterpart in the elaborate ceremonial of the Mozarabic church; (f) the
presence of the Gallican ceremonial of _Pedilavium_ or "Washing of feet"
in the earliest Irish baptismal office.
For a further description of these and other features which are
characteristic of or peculiar to the Celtic liturgy the reader is
referred to F. E. Warren's _Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church_
(Oxford, 1881).
Period II. _The Anglo-Saxon Church._--We find ourselves here on firmer
ground, and can speak with certainty as to the nature of the liturgy of
the English church after the beginning of the 7th century. Information
is drawn from liturgical allusions in the extant canons of numerous
councils, from the voluminous writings of Bede, Alcuin and many other
ecclesiastical authors of the Anglo-Saxon period, and above all from a
considerable number of service-books written in England before the
Norman Conquest. Three of these books are missals of more or less
completeness: (1) the _Leofric Missal_, a composite 10th- to
11th-century MS. presented to the cathedral of Exeter by Leofric, the
first bishop of that see (1046-1072), now in the Bodleian library at
Oxford; edited by F. E. Warren (Oxford, 1883); (2) the missal of Robert
of Jumièges, archbishop of Canterbury (1051-1052), written probably at
Winchester and presented by Archbishop Robert to his old monastery of
Jumièges in the neighbourhood of Rouen, in the public library of which
it now lies; edited by H. A. Wilson (London, 1896); (3) the _Red Book of
Derby_, a MS. missal of the second half of the 11th century, now in the
library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
A perusal of these volumes proves what we should have expected a priori,
that the Roman liturgy was in use in the Anglo-Saxon church. This was
the case from the very first. That church owed its foundation to a Roman
pontiff, and to Roman missionaries, who brought, as we are told by Bede,
their native liturgical codices with them (_Hist. Eccles_. lib. ii. cap.
28). Accordingly, when we speak of an Anglo-Saxon missal, we mean a
Roman missal only exhibiting one or more of the following features,
which would differentiate it from an Italian missal of the same century.
(a) Rubrics and other entries of a miscellaneous character written in
the vernacular language of the country. (b) The commemoration of
national or local saints in the kalendar, in the canon of the mass and
in the litanies which occur for use on Easter Even and in the baptismal
offices. (c) The presence of a few special masses in honour of those
local saints, together with a certain number of collects of a
necessarily local character, for the rulers of the country, for its
natural produce, &c. (d) The addition of certain peculiarities of
liturgical structure and arrangement interpolated into the otherwise
purely Roman service from an extraneous source. There are two noteworthy
examples of this in Anglo-Saxon service-books. Every Sunday and festival
and almost every votive mass has its proper preface, although the number
of such prefaces in the Gregorian sacramentary of the same period had
been reduced to eight. There was a large but not quite equal number of
triple episcopal benedictions to be pronounced by the bishop after the
Lord's Prayer and before the communion. This custom must either have
been perpetuated from the old Celtic liturgy or directly derived from a
Gallican source.
Period III. _Anglo-Norman Church._--The influx of numerous foreigners,
especially from Normandy and Lorraine, which preceded, accompanied and
followed the Conquest, and the occupation by them of the highest posts
in church as well as state had a distinct effect on the liturgy of the
English church. These foreign ecclesiastics brought over with them a
preference for and a habit of using certain features of the Gallican
liturgy and ritual, which they succeeded in incorporating into the
service-books of the church of England. One of the Norman prelates,
Osmund, count of Séez, earl of Dorset, chancellor of England, and bishop
of Salisbury (1078-1099), is credited with having undertaken the
revision of the English service-books; and the missal which we know as
the _Sarum Missal_, or the _Missal according to the Use of Sarum_,
practically became the liturgy of the English church. It was not only
received into use in the province of Canterbury, but was largely adopted
beyond those limits--in Ireland in the 12th and in various Scottish
dioceses in the 12th and 13th centuries.
It would be beyond our scope here to give a complete list of the
numerous and frequently minute differences between a medieval Sarum and
the earlier Anglo-Saxon or contemporaneous Roman liturgy. They lie
mainly in differences of collects and lections, variations of ritual on
Candlemass, Ash Wednesday and throughout Holy Week; the introduction
into the canon of the mass of certain clauses and usages of Gallican
character or origin; the wording of rubrics in the subjunctive or
imperative tense; the peculiar "Preces in prostratione"; the procession
of Corpus Christi on Palm Sunday; the forms of ejection and
reconciliation of penitents, &c. The varying episcopal benedictions as
used in the Anglo-Saxon church were retained, but the numerous proper
prefaces were discarded, the number being reduced to ten.
Besides the famous and far-spreading Use of Sarum, other Uses, more
local and less known, grew up in various English dioceses. In virtue of
a recognized diocesan independence, bishops were able to regulate or
alter their ritual, and to add special masses or commemorations for use
within the limits of their jurisdiction. The better known and the more
distinctive of these Uses were those of York and Hereford, but we also
find traces of or allusions to the Uses of Bangor, Lichfield, Lincoln,
Ripon, St Asaph, St Paul's, Wells and Winchester.
_Service-books._--The Eucharistie service was contained in the volume
called the Missal (_q.v_.), as the ordinary choir offices were
contained in the volume known as the Breviary (_q.v_.). But besides
these two volumes there were a large number of other service-books. Mr
W. Maskell has enumerated and described ninety-one such volumes
employed by the Western Church only. It must be understood, however,
that many of these ninety-one names are synonyms (_Mon. Rit. Eccles.
Anglic_. 1882, vol. i. p. ccxxx.). The list might be increased, but it
will be possible here only to name and briefly describe a few of the
more important of them. (1) The _Agenda_ is the same as the Manual,
for which see below. (2) The _Antiphonary_ contained the antiphons or
anthems, sung at the canonical hours, and certain other minor parts of
the service. (3) The _Benedictional_ contained those triple episcopal
benedictions previously described as used on Sundays and on the chief
festivals throughout the year. (4) The _Collectarium_ contained the
collects for the season, together with a few other parts of the day
offices. It was an inchoate breviary. (5) The _Epistolarium_ contained
the epistles, and the _Evangelistarium_ the gospels for the year. (7)
The _Gradual_ contained the introit, gradual, sequences, and the other
portions of the communion service which were sung by the choir at nigh
mass. (8) The _Legenda_ contained the lections which were read at
matins and at other times, and may be taken as a generic term to
include the _Homiliarium, Passional_ and other volumes. (9) The
_Manual_ was the name usually employed in England to denote the
_Ritual_, which contained the baptismal, matrimonial and other offices
which might be performed by the parish priest. (10) The _Pontifical_
contained the orders of consecration, ordination, and such other rites
as could, ordinarily, only be performed by a bishop. To these we must
add a book which was not strictly a church office book, but a handy
book for the use of the laity, and which was in very popular use and
often very highly embellished from the 14th to the 16th century, the
_Book of Hours_, or _Horae Beatae Mariae Virginis_, also known as the
_Prymer_ or _Primer_. It contained portions of the canonical hours,
litanies, the penitential Psalms, and other devotions of a
miscellaneous and private character. Detailed information about all
these and other books is to be found in C. Wordsworth and H.
Littlehales', _The Old Service Books of the English Church_.
The Eastern Church too possessed and still possesses numerous and
voluminous service-books, of which the chief are the following: (1)
The _Euchologian_, containing the liturgy itself with the remaining
sacramental offices bound up in the same volume. (2) The _Horologion_,
containing the unvarying portion of the Breviary. (3) The _Menaea_,
being equivalent to a complete Breviary. (4) The _Menologion_ or
Martyrology. (5) The _Octoechus_ and (6) The _Paracletice_, containing
Troparia and answering to the Western antiphonary. (7) The
_Pentecostarion_, containing the services from Easter Day to All
Saints' Sunday. (8) The _Triodion_, containing those from Septuagesima
Sunday to Easter Even. (9) The _Typicum_ is a general book of rubrics
corresponding to the Ordinale or the Pie of Western Christendom.
Period IV. _The Reformed Church._--The Anglican liturgy of Reformation
and post-Reformation times is described under the heading of PRAYER,
BOOK OF COMMON, but a brief description may be added here of the
liturgies of other reformed churches.
_The Liturgy of the Scottish Episcopal Church._--This liturgy in nearly
its present form was compiled by Scottish bishops in 1636 and
imposed--or, to speak more accurately, attempted to be imposed--upon the
Scottish people by the royal authority of Charles I. in 1637. The
prelates chiefly concerned in it were Spottiswood, bishop of Glasgow;
Maxwell, bishop of Ross; Wedderburn, bishop of Dunblane; and Forbes,
bishop of Edinburgh. Their work was approved and revised by certain
members of the English episcopate, especially Laud, archbishop of
Canterbury; Juxon, bishop of London; and Wren, bishop of Ely. This
liturgy has met with varied fortune and has passed through several
editions. The present Scottish office dates from 1764. It is now used as
an alternative form with the English communion office in the Scottish
Episcopal Church.
The general arrangements of its parts approximates more closely to that
of the first book of Edward VI. than to the present Anglican Book of
Common Prayer. Among its noteworthy features are (a) the retention in
its integrity and in its primitive position after the words of
institution of the invocation of the Holy Spirit. That invocation runs
thus: "And we most humbly beseech thee, O merciful Father, to hear us
and of thy almighty goodness vouchsafe to bless and sanctify with thy
word and Holy Spirit these thy gifts and creatures of bread and wine
that they may become the body and blood of thy most dearly beloved Son"
(edit. 1764). This kind of petition thus placed is found in the Eastern
but not in the Roman or Anglican liturgies. (b) The reservation of the
sacrament is permitted, by traditional usage, for the purpose of
communicating the absent or the sick. (c) The minimum number of
communicants is fixed at one or two instead of three or four.
For fuller information see Bishop J. Dowden, _The Annotated Scottish
Communion Service_ (Edinburgh, 1884).
_American Liturgy._--The Prayer Book of "the Protestant Episcopal
Church" in America was adopted by the general convention of the American
church in 1789. It is substantially the same as the English Book of
Common Prayer, but among important variations we may name the following:
(a) The arrangement and wording of the order for Holy Communion rather
resembles that of the Scottish than that of the English liturgy,
especially in the position of the oblation and invocation immediately
after the words of institution. (b) The Magnificat, Nunc dimittis and
greater part of Benedictus were disused; but these were reinstated among
the changes made in the Prayer Book in 1892. (c) Ten selections of
Psalms are appointed for use as alternatives for the Psalms of the day.
(d) _Gloria in excelsis_ is allowed as a substitute for _Gloria Patri_
at the end of the Psalms at morning and evening prayer. In addition to
these there are many more both important and unimportant variations from
the English Book of Common Prayer.
_The Irish Prayer Book._--The Prayer Book in use in the Irish portion
of the United Church of England and Ireland was the Anglican Book of
Common Prayer, but after the disestablishment of the Irish church
several changes were introduced into it by a synod held at Dublin in
1870. These changes included such important points as: (a) the excision
of all lessons from the Apocrypha, (b) of the rubric ordering the
recitation of the Athanasian Creed, (c) of the rubric ordering the
vestments of the second year of Edward VI., (d) of the form of
absolution in the office for the visitation of the sick, (e) the
addition to the Catechism of a question and answer bringing out more
clearly the spiritual character of the real presence.
_The Presbyterian Church._--The Presbyterian churches of Scotland at
present possess no liturgy properly so called. Certain general rules for
the conduct of divine service are contained in the "Directory for the
Public Worship of God" agreed upon by the assembly of divines at
Westminster, with the assistance of commissioners from the Church of
Scotland, approved and established by an act of the general assembly,
and by an act of parliament, both in 1645. In 1554 John Knox had drawn
up an order of liturgy closely modelled on the Genevan pattern for the
use of the English congregation to which he was then ministering at
Frankfort. On his return to Scotland this form of liturgy was adopted by
an act of the general assembly in 1560 and became the established form
of worship in the Presbyterian church until the year 1645, when the
Directory of Public Worship took its place. Herein regulations are laid
down for the conduct of public worship, for the reading of Scripture and
for extempore prayer before and after the sermon, and in the
administration of the sacrament of baptism and the Lord's Supper, for
the solemnization of marriage, visitation of the sick and burial of the
dead, for the observance of days of public fasting and public
thanksgiving, together with a form of ordination and a directory for
family worship. In all these cases, though the general terms of the
prayer are frequently indicated, the wording of it is left to the
discretion of the minister, with these exceptions: At the act of baptism
this formula must be used--"I baptize thee in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost"; and for the Lord's Supper these
forms are suggested, but with liberty to the minister to use "other the
like, used by Christ or his apostles upon this occasion"--"According to
the holy institution, command, and example of our blessed Saviour, Jesus
Christ, I take this bread, and having given thanks, break it, and give
it unto you. Take ye, eat ye; this is the body of Christ which is broken
for you; do this in remembrance of him." And again "According to the
institution, command and example of our Lord Jesus Christ, I take this
cup and give it unto you; this cup is the New Testament in the blood of
Christ, which is shed for the remission of the sins of many; drink ye
all of it."
There is also an unvarying form of words directed to be used before the
minister by the man to the woman, and by the woman to the man in the
case of the solemnization of matrimony. The form of words on all other
occasions, including ordination, is left to the discretion of the
officiating minister or of the presbytery.
_European Protestant Churches. The Calvinistic Churches._--Rather more
of the liturgical element in the shape of a set form of words enters
into the service of the French and German Calvinistic Protestants. The
Sunday morning service as drawn up by Calvin was to open with a
portion of Holy Scripture and the recitation of the ten commandments.
Afterwards the minister, inviting the people to accompany him,
proceeded to a confession of sins and supplication for grace. Then one
of the Psalms of David was sung. Then came the sermon, prefaced by an
extempore prayer and concluding with the Lord's Prayer, creed and
benediction. The communion service began with an exhortation leading
up to the apostles' creed; then followed a long exhortation, after
which the bread and wine were distributed to the people, who advanced
in reverence and order, while a Psalm was being sung, or a suitable
passage of Scripture was being read. After all had communicated a set
form of thanksgiving was said by the minister. Then the Song of Simeon
was sung by the congregation, who were then dismissed with the
blessing. This form of service has been modified in various ways from
time to time, but it remains substantially the type of service in use
among the reformed Calvinistic churches of Germany, Switzerland and
France.
_The Lutheran Church._--Luther was far more conservative than the rest
of the Protestant reformers and his conservatism appeared nowhere more
than in the service-books which he drew up for the use of the church
which bears his name. In 1523 he published a treatise _Of the Order of
the Service in the Congregation_ and in 1526 he published the _German
Mass_. Except that the vernacular was substituted for the Latin
language, the old framework and order of the Roman missal were closely
followed, beginning with the Confiteor, Introit, Kyrie eleison, still
always sung in Greek, Gloria in excelsis, &c. The text of this and
other Lutheran services is given in _Agende für christliche Gemeinden
des Lutherischen Bekenntnisses_ (Nördlingen, 1853). At the same time
Luther was tolerant and expressed a hope that different portions of
the Lutheran church would from time to time make such changes or
adaptations in the order of service as might be found convenient. The
Lutheran churches of northern Europe have not been slow to avail
themselves of this advice and permission. Most of them have drawn up
liturgies for themselves, sometimes following very closely, sometimes
differing considerably from the original service composed by Luther
himself. In 1822, on the union of the Lutheran and Reformed
(Calvinistic) churches of Prussia, a new liturgy was published at
Berlin. It is used in its entirety in the chapel royal, but great
liberty as to its use was allowed to the parochical clergy, and
considerable variations of text appear in the more recent editions of
this service-book.
The Church of the New Jerusalem (Swedenborgians) and the Catholic
Apostolic Church (Irvingites) and other Protestant bodies have drawn
up liturgies for themselves, but they are hardly of sufficient
historical importance to be described at length here.
The Old Catholics, lastly, published a _Rituale_ in 1875 containing
the occasional offices for baptism, matrimony, burial, &c., and a form
for reception of Holy Communion, in the German language. This latter
is for use in the otherwise unaltered service of the mass,
corresponding in purpose to the order of Communion in English
published the 8th of March 1548 and in use till Whitsunday 1549.
(F. E. W.)