Liturgy.--The word "Liturgy" is derived from the Greek _leitourgia_,
meaning a public work or duty, whether civil or religious. It then
became generally used with reference to sacred offices, whence arose
its ecclesiastical use to signify the solemnization of the rites of
the Christian Church. Afterwards, it came to be especially applied
to the office for the celebration of the Holy Eucharist and as such
the term is technically used in Church History. The Liturgy being
the Office of the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, it has for
its nucleus our Lord's words of Institution. These with their
accompanying Divine acts form the centre around which all subsequent
prayers, praises and ritual customs gathered, and the history of
these is the history of Liturgies. Liturgies have been used in the
Christian Church from the beginning as the ancient Liturgies
demonstrate. Of these there are many still extant in MSS. some of
them fully as old as the oldest MSS. of the Bible. While they vary
in arrangement and phraseology, yet the leading and essential {173}
TABLE SHOWING THE DESCENT OF PRINCIPAL LITURGIES
------------------------------------------------
OUR LORD'S WORDS OF INSTITUTION
|
APOSTOLIC NUCLEUS OF A LITURGY
|
--------------------------------------------------------------
| | | |
Liturgy of St. James, Liturgy of St. Mark, Liturgy of Liturgy of St. John,
Antioch, or Jerusalem or Alexandria St. Peter, St. Paul, or Ephesus
| | or Rome |
------------- | | |
| | Present Liturgy | Liturgy of Lyons
Liturgy of Syriac of Egypt | |
St. Basil Liturgy of | ---------------------
| St. James | | | |
Liturgy of | | Mozarabic Liturgy Liturgy
St. Chrysostom Monophysite | or Spanish of Britain of Tours
| Liturgies | Liturgy | |
Present Liturgy -------------- -------------
of Oriental or | | |
Russian Church Ambrosian Sacramentary Augustine's Revised
Liturgy of St. Leo Liturgy of Britain
| | |
Present Sacramentary Salisbury, York and
Liturgy of St. Gelasius other English Liturgies
of Milan | |
Sacramentary Present Liturgy of the
of St. Gregory Church of England
| |
Present Liturgy --------------------
of Rome | |
Liturgy of Liturgy of
Scottish Church American
Church
{174} parts are common to them all and are found without substantial
variation, thus pointing to one common source. All Liturgies existing
at the present time trace their origin back to Apostolic times
through four main sources, as follows:
I. The Liturgy of St. James, composed in the first instance for the
Churches of Palestine.