REGIONAL RITES I
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WHILE the liturgy was developing during the first two centuries of the Christian era there must have been not only individual variations but also local customs and traditions. The tendency in forms of worship is always in the direction of stereotyping certain modes of expression that have pleased the mind or the ear of those who have heard them. Those religious bodies which have rejected set liturgies nevertheless fall into the almost unconscious habit of forming collections of stock phrases, which often frame themselves into quite long prayers, in which the variation is more by way of differing selections and permutations than by original composition. It is but natural therefore that the presence in any particular local Church of a bishop with talent in the happy expression of the spiritual needs of the Church would set a fashion, which would be followed by those who heard him. In fact, in spite of the meagreness of our early evidence, we can see the operation of this tendency, though, because we know So little that is certain of the provenance or history of the documents, we cannot readily relate it to its proper locality. But it will be useful to illustrate this point.
We have seen in the Didache the following passage:
For as this broken bread scattered over the mountains and gathered together is one, &c.
This is a curious and striking phrase, expressing rather mystically the union in Christ of an infinite variety of different people. It has no place in the normal liturgy, but we find the phrase with variations cropping up here and there. We have already seen it in the 'Grace at meals' of the De Virginitate; but it is also used by Bishop Sarapion of Egypt in the middle of the fourth century at the Oblation:
And as this bread has been scattered on the top of the mountains
and when gathered together came to be one,
so also gather thy holy Church out of every nation
and every country and every city
and village and house
and make one living Catholic Church.
No doubt Sarapion has simply borrowed this from the Didache, which has by some been associated, though without much to go on, with Egypt. But this figure is also found in some of the Ethiopian Anaphoras. That of St. John has, at the Anamnesis, after mentioning the resurrection :
As the bread was gathered
when it was scattered over mountains and hills
and in the desert and valleys,
and being gathered was made one perfect loaf,
even so gather us from every evil thought of sin into thy perfect faith,
and as the mingling of this wine with water cannot be separated into two parts,
even so may thy Godhead be joined with our manhood.
The Anaphora of St. James of Serug, after the Fraction, has:
As thou didst gather this bread
while it was scattered amidst the mountains and hills
and in the valleys and the field,
and as it being gathered became one prosphora (oblation) ...
(here this sentence seems to break off abruptly).
Other examples of these local peculiarities will be found in this interesting group of Anaphoras that have been preserved in the Ethiopian liturgy. Some of them are, in their present state, evidently late in date, but most of them show signs of an ancient and complicated ancestry. An interesting example is given in the opening of the Epiclesis (or Invocation of the Holy Ghost) of three of these Anaphoras, those of St. John, St. James of Serug, and the 318 Fathers (of Nicaea). The differences are no less striking than the resemblances.
The last two only will be given here.
James of Serug:
Flung wide be the gates of light,
and opened the doors of glory,
and drawn back the veil that is before the Father's face,
and let him descend;
behold the Lamb of God, &c.
The 318:
Flung wide be the doors of light,
and opened the gates of glory,
and thy living and holy Spirit
shall be sent from the place of his secret essence.
This tendency towards local peculiarities, which might well have ended in a multiplicity of entirely different forms of worship instead of the universal 'Christian Liturgy', which exhibits under manifold modes of expression the same organic structure, was counteracted by two impulses in the opposite direction. The first was due to the authority and influence of the great metropolitan and patriarchal sees; the second to the prestige that certain liturgies obtained through their association with the names of great figures in Church history. These influences led to the establishment of national liturgical characteristics, and along with them, and to a certain extent cutting across them, of rites which, while not altogether ousting others, obtained an ascendancy which placed them in the position of being looked on as the national or regional rite. It will be necessary to study these movements in detail.
The conversion of Constantine to Christianity, and the consequent peace of the Church, was an event of the highest importance for the liturgy. For the future the mysteries would be celebrated openly, and with all and more than the splendour which characterized civil celebrations. Moreover, as the world flocked into the doors of the Church, the character of the Church, and of its liturgy, changed. Hitherto the Church was a messenger from another world; now it was to be, or hoped to be, the soul of the world, guiding it to righteousness. Previously, as we are frequently told, it prayed for the Emperors and rulers as possible enemies who were to be softened, and guided in spite of themselves; henceforward it prayed for them as the first of her sons. And as the world became more conspicuously and generally Christian, the reserve of the 'Mysteries' and the discipline of those who sought admission to the Faith, or departed from it, became less real, and gradually disappeared, with considerable effect on the liturgy itself. From this time too we should probably date the beginning of national rites and regional customs, the sentiment towards common Christian tradition being replaced by local unity and patriotism. The distinction that first arose between East and West was due to the weakening of the sense of unity of the whole body of Christians, and a closer association of the Church with the Eastern and Western Empires.
The early Christian world was entirely dominated by the Roman Empire; but this Empire was unable for long to maintain unity. It was too unwieldy. Thus at the end of the third century a plan, which had already been tentatively used by Marcus Aurelius in 161
'that of dividing the Empire amongst two or more rulers in an independent partnership' was permanently established; and the Eastern and Western Empires came into existence. This division of the ancient world into East and West, with its capitals in Constantinople and Rome, or more frequently a Gallic or north Italian city, corresponded roughly to a real distinction in the character of the peoples who comprised them. There had been, during the last years of the Republic, and still more during the Empire, a flood pouring into the northern shores of the Mediterranean of peoples from the East, bringing with them the pomp and luxury and barbaric splendour of Egypt, Persia, and the Far East. While Rome itself was infected with this new civilization, it specially established itself in the new capital city of Constantinople and throughout Asia, giving the East and consequently Eastern Christianity a character quite distinct from that exhibited by the West. Nowhere has this shown itself more clearly than in the theological literature and the liturgy of the Church. The Eastern liturgies are marked by a great profusion of rhetorical and exuberant language and ideas, often heaping up strange and rare compound adjectives, and never tiring in expressions of self-abasement. The Western liturgies, although in Spain and Gaul they were not uninfluenced by similar tendencies,
[The exuberance of these rites is of a different character, pedantic rather than majestic; in spite of their extravagance, they cultivated an excessive conciseness in individual phrases. See App. B.]
retained the austerity and conciseness that was so great a beauty in the classical languages.
There were also three well-marked divisions of Eastern Christianity:
Syria, which may be subdivided into Western and Eastern Syria;
Egypt, of which region Abyssinia forms a subdivision;
and the Byzantine world, which comprised the eastern portion of Europe and so much of Asia as was directly under the influence of Constantinople.
SYRIA
(a) Jerusalem.
The Holy City of Jerusalem was at first the centre of the Church, and throughout the ages has always had a special claim on the affections and loyalty of Christians. But its fortunes deprived it of that supreme position which it might have held in Christian organization. In the year 70 Titus destroyed it, and in 132 Julius Severus destroyed it again. Shortly after this the Emperor Hadrian rebuilt the city under the name of Aelia Capitolina, forbidding Jews to occupy it, but allowing Christians to live there. Little is known about the Church there up to the end of the third century, but it was already the object of pilgrimages. We read that Justin and Melito, Bishop of Sardis, visited it in the second century, and Clement of Alexandria, Julius Africanus, Firmilian, and Gregory of Neocaesarea in the third. But with the conversion of Constantine a new era dawned for the Holy City. By his orders the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Church of the Cross (now disappeared) were erected, and the Church at Jerusalem from this time exercised an influence out of proportion to the importance of the city. In 349 and again in 399 General Councils were held there, as well as many in later centuries. In 325 the Council of Nicaea gave to the Bishop of Jerusalem (still called Aelia), according to ancient tradition, the second place of honour {next to Rome), but preserving as a matter of jurisdiction the authority over him of his Metropolitan the Bishop of Caesarea. Macarius, the bishop at this time, was a man of great influence. The position of the Church became in the time of Cyril, bishop in 351, a cause of strife. Cyril claimed priority by virtue of the apostolic nature of his see, and refused to obey a summons of his Metropolitan, Acacius, to Caesarea. He was therefore deposed, and only after a long and stormy career was he at last confirmed in his possession of the see, though not of his independence of Caesarea. Juvenal, however, bishop from 420 to 458, did succeed at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 in settling the matter, and Jerusalem was created a Patriarchate over the 'three Palestines' (Caesarea, Scythopolis, and Petra); Arabia was added later. The Bishop of Jerusalem is now one of the four ancient Patriarchs who preside over the Eastern Churches.
The Cyril mentioned above has preserved to us valuable information of the liturgy in Jerusalem in his time in a series of catechetical lectures given by him in which he explains the sacred mysteries to the catechumens. During his episcopate also a lady from Spain, named Etheria, a relation of the Emperor Theodosius, paid a visit to Jerusalem and wrote an account of the services she attended there during the Holy Week of 380. Frequent pilgrimages at this time gained Jerusalem a special influence. From St. Cyril we learn much of the rite in use, and from Etheria a great deal about the ceremonies.
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(b) Antioch.
The city of Antioch on the river Orontes, founded in 300 BC, had been the capital of the Syrian Empire. It was a great and magnificent city, with a population estimated by St. Chrysostom in the fourth century at 200,000, not including slaves. There was a tradition, on which the Church still founds its patriarchal claim, that St. Peter first preached there and became its bishop, and the converts there were the first to be called Christians. St. Paul made Antioch the centre of his missionary activities. Later it became the chief centre of Christianity in Asia, until its importance was somewhat eclipsed by the growth of Constantinople. It included in its sphere the regions of Pontus, Asia, and Thrace. With the rise of Constantinople, Thrace became independent, while the Council of Chalcedon definitely transferred these three provinces to Constantinople by requiring that their metropolitans should be consecrated by the Patriarch of Constantinople.
[Canon 28.]
Antioch was distinguished by a brilliant succession of great Churchmen, Ignatius the martyr, Theophilus the Apologist, Serapion, an eminent theologian, Babylas, saint and martyr, the heretic Paul of Samosata (260-8), and the group of teachers known as the School of Antioch, followers of Origen, who taught there for some time, Diodorus of Tarsus, and Theodore of Mopsuestia, and, for a part of his life, John Chrysostom. The school mentioned stood, in opposition to the mystical and allegorical School of Alexandria, for the literal interpretation of Scripture, and for the humanity and historical character of our Lord.
The Church of Antioch was unfortunately divided during the last half of the fourth century by one of the most serious of the ancient schisms, owing to the appointment as bishop in 361 of Meletius, an orthodox bishop, who had, however, been consecrated by Arians. The strict Catholics of Antioch would not accept him, and Paulinus was consecrated in his place. This schism was not healed 1 ill about AD 415. Before this, however, a new subject of division had broken out, due chiefly to the unwise emphasis which the School of Antioch were giving to their humanistic tendencies in theology, which seemed to the theologians of Alexandria to divide Christ into two separate beings. Their teaching, not itself heretical, was exaggerated by Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople, in order to counteract the excessive honour given to the Blessed Virgin by the Egyptian party, of which he disapproved. The controversy became embittered, and ended in the condemnation of Nestorius at the Council of Ephesus in 431. John, Patriarch of Antioch, was also excommunicated, but reconciled two years later. In 435 stern laws were enacted against Nestorians, and they were forced out of the Empire. Bar-sumas. Bishop of Nisibis, became its apostle in the Far East, and Nestorianism became and has continued to be the teaching of the Church of Persia.
The opponents of Nestorius had gone too far; their revulsion from that heresy led them into the opposite extreme, which received from an archimandrite in Constantinople the name of Eutychianism. Another but shorter, though even more disastrous, wrangle began. It ended by the condemnation of the Eutychians at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria, was exiled, and the Emperor Marcian issued harsh edicts against the Eutychians, or as their successors came to be known, Monophysites.
This proscription of the Monophysites had not the same success as that of their opponents. A monk, Theodosius, hurried from the Council to Jerusalem and stirred up the people there against their Patriarch Juvenal, who only just escaped assassination on his return, and had to flee. Theodosius usurped the episcopate at Jerusalem, organized a reign of terror, and, when threatened by the Emperor, repaired to Mount Sinai, and spread disaffection there. In Egypt the bishop who was chosen to succeed Dioscorus was killed, and, in spite of the efforts of the Court, the dispute continued, and involved a breach between Constantinople and Rome, though without any difference in doctrine. Gradually the Monophysites prevailed in Syria, excepting Jerusalem, and in Egypt; while the Catholics were predominant in Constantinople and the West. Eventually, between the years 565 and 622, separate Monophysite national Churches were established in Syria, Armenia, and Egypt. They were called in derision 'Jacobites' after Jacob Baradaeus, who was consecrated a bishop in Syria in 541; but they have themselves proudly retained that name, deriving it from the Apostle James.
There are therefore in the Syrian Church three ancient divisions,
(a) The Orthodox, once called Melchites, a term now usually applied to Syrian and Egyptian Uniats of the Byzantine rite. They still use the Greek liturgy, but an Arabic version is also used.
(b) The Jacobites, using a Syrian liturgy,
(c) The East Syrian or Persian Nestorian Church.
(1) THE SYRIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH.
This is in communion with, and subject to the primacy of, the 'Great Church' of Constantinople. There are still the two Patriarchs of Antioch and Jerusalem. The former lives at Damascus and presides over Syria, Cilicia, Mesopotamia, and portions of Asia Minor. Till recently he was always a Greek. The Patriarch of Jerusalem has authority from the Lebanon to Sinai. He also is a Greek. In both these Churches the people and most of the clergy are Arabs.
The earliest Syrian liturgy preserved is that of the Apostolic Constitutions, Book VIII. This work dates from the end of the fourth century or the beginning of the fifth, and was compiled in Syria. The eighth book is based on the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus, but in sections 5-14, which give the liturgy, though here and there the phraseology of Hippolytus is apparent, a different source is drawn upon, and it is mainly independent. The text is given in Brightman, pp. 1-27. The prayers are largely the composition of the compiler, but the framework and much of the language probably go back to the third century. The writer, who seems to be the interpolator of the Ignatian epistles, makes special use of Clement's epistle to the Corinthians, whence it is often known as the Clementine liturgy, though the Mass of the Catechumens is attributed to St. Andrew, and the Anaphora to St. James of Zebedee. [Brightm. 3, L. 10; 13, L. 24.] This liturgy also contains parallels with other writers, Justin Martyr, and especially Novatian (c. 250). This can be explained by its being compiled by a learned writer familiar with the Christian literature, but to some it seems more natural to suppose that it is based on a widespread primitive rite used by all its apparent sources. [Leclercq, D.A.C.L. xi. 617.] The last theory, however, is improbable.
The ancient liturgy of the Church of Syria bears the name of St. James. It was of Palestinian origin, and seems to have replaced the native rite in Antioch at an early date. The earliest manuscripts extant are a roll of the tenth century (Vat. gr. 2282), which represents an eighth-century text of Damascus, and a manuscript in Messina University (Graec. 177), of the tenth or early eleventh century. The latter is printed in Swainson, pp. 224-328. Brightman's text, pp. 31-68, is from a fourteenth-century manuscript (Paris Bib. Nat. graec. 2509).
This liturgy is mentioned as the composition of St. James, brother of our Lord, in Canon 32 of the Council of Constantinople (in Trullο), AD 692, but it must be much older than that, for the Jacobites, who separated from the Orthodox c. 550, used it and must have looked on it as ancient. It seems to have been known by Jerome, who says 'The mouths of the priests daily proclaim "ὁ μόνος ἀναμάρτητος that is to say in our tongue, "who alone is without sin" ', [contra Pelagium, ii. 23.] a phrase which occurs in the Greek James. [Brightm. Lit. E. & W. 57, L. 31.] In the eighth and ninth centuries it was much drawn on in the West, and must have had a fairly wide range, but by the twelfth century it was becoming very restricted, and about the thirteenth century the Byzantine rite took its place. It is, however, still used at Jerusalem on the Sunday after Christmas and St. James's Day, and in Cyprus and Zante.
(2) THE SYRIAN JACOBITE CHURCH.
The first Patriarch of the Monophysite Church, Sergius of Tella, was consecrated by James Baradaeus in 543, which may be taken as the date of the definite schism with the Orthodox Church. The Arab conquest of Syria in 638 prevented the Jacobites from increasing, but at times they have flourished. They are under a Patriarch of Antioch, who lives in Mardin. The liturgy is a Syriac form of the Greek St. James, with a good deal of adaptation. There are also a large number of anaphoras in existence, which have been used for special occasions, but are little used now. One of these is of special interest as it is believed to contain an ancient tradition before the influence of Jerusalem. It is named after St. Athanasius. [Baumstark, Oriens Christ, ii. 90-129.] Many other manuscripts date from the eighth century onwards. Brightman constructs his text from a number of sources (pp. 69-109). There is also in existence a letter from James of Edessa (late 7th cent.) to Thomas the Presbyter which gives an account of the Jacobite rite of that time. [Brightm. L.c. 490.]
A branch of the Jacobite Church is that of the SYRIANS OF MALABAR, who have a curious history. The Church was founded as a result of Nestorian evangelization in the sixth century. In the fifteenth century it suffered much persecution from the Moslems, and in 1490 being without clergy applied for help to the Catholicos of the Nestorians. [J. A. Assemani, Bibl. or. iii. i, 590.] Two bishops were consecrated, and the Church renewed. During the Portuguese rule in southern India in the sixteenth century the Church was compelled to submit to Rome; all their books were burned, and the ancient liturgy revised, though not extensively. When the Dutch seized the Malabar coast in the seventeenth century the non-Uniat remnant led the way to gaining independence again, but instead of securing consecration for their bishop from the Nestorians, they arranged for a Syrian bishop from Jerusalem to go to India and consecrate him. Thus the Malabar Church became Jacobite instead of Nestorian, and has remained so since. They use the Syrian Jacobite liturgy with six variable anaphoras. But the term 'Malabar Liturgy' refers to the ancient liturgy. No copy of the unrevised rite exists and it has to be reconstructed by comparison with that of Addai and Mari (see next section). The Nestorian liturgy is also used by a small remnant of the old Malabar Church.
There is also a SYRIAN UNIAT Church (subject to the Roman obedience) with a Patriarch of Antioch living at Beirut, and a Syrian liturgy in Arabic. This body dates from 1781 as a result of a schism. There is a Uniat Church of Malabar with a much romanized Nestorian rite in Syriac.
(3) THE NESTORIAN CHURCH.
Before the separation of the Nestorians from the Orthodox bodies as related above, the small Persian Church was under the Patriarch of Antioch. In 410 the Bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon took the title of Catholicos and became Patriarch of the East, and a few years later the Church declared its independence. There are three ancient liturgies used by Nestorians.
(i) The Liturgy of the Apostles Addai and Mari, which is supposed to have been finally edited by the Patriarch Jesuyab III (645-7). It has been suggested that this is a primitive type of Eucharist, and addressed to the Son; it is unique in not containing the Words of Institution. [E. C. Ratcliff, J.T.S. (Oct. 1928), 23-32.]
(ii) Theodore the Interpreter (of Mopsuestia), which is probably Cilician in origin, of the fourth century.2
(iii) Nestorius, which is Byzantine much expanded, with theological tendencies. Baumstark thinks it may be the work of the heresiarch. [Both in Renaudot, Lit. Orient. Coll. ii; Baumst. Irenikon, xi (July-Aug. 1934), 296. For evidence of Theodore's authorship, see Brightm. J.T.S. xxxi (Jan. 1930), 160.] The last two were revised on the lines of the Jerusalem rite in the sixth century.
There is also a fragment of an anaphora of the sixth century. [Brightm. Lit. E. & W. 511.] Light is thrown on the history of the rite by the Homilies ofNarsai (d. 502), of which No. 17 is an exposition of the 'Mysteries'. [Connolly, Camb. Texts & Studies, viii. No. i.]
In the Middle Ages the Nestorian missionaries founded Churches far and wide through eastern Asia, as far as China and Tibet, but in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the Mohammedan conquests almost extinguished Christianity in these regions. Since the Great War the small Christian community that remained has again been almost exterminated by the Arabs. The hereditary Patriarch of the East had his seat in a remote village, Qudshanis.
There is a UNIAT 'CHALDAEAN' Church that seceded in the sixteenth century, with a Patriarch of Babylon. They use a slightly revised Syriac Nestorian liturgy with three anaphoras.
Another Uniat body, the MARIONITES, originally a Monothelite sect connected with the monasteries of the Lebanon, and founded by John Maro in the fifth century, became united to the Roman See in the twelfth century. Their head is called 'Patriarch of Antioch and all the East'. Their liturgy is a form of St. James in Syriac, much romanized, and with eight anaphoras. It has some points of resemblance to Nestorian rites.
EGYPT
The Patriarch of Alexandria in the earliest times held an authority unequalled in the Eastern Church. The city of Alexandria was, after Rome, the first city in the world, and in scholarship and philosophy was the recognized centre of learning. Throughout the early centuries of the Church it produced a series of scholars, theologians, and ecclesiastics who were always in the front rank. And it had its own character. It was the home of the mystical and allegorical school, which was the Christian representative of the philosophic thought that had made its heathen schools famous. The Patriarch of Alexandria was, at the Council of Nicaea, recognized as second only to the Bishop of Rome; but the growth of Constantinople as the imperial city caused the Council of Chalcedon in 451 to place Constantinople second.
The Eutychian controversy, which has been referred to, was the occasion of schism in Egypt as in Syria. When the Patriarch Dioscorus was banished as a Eutychian, an Orthodox succeeded him; but the people of Egypt were predominantly inclined towards Monophysitism, and racial differences added force to the theological divisions, the Orthodox being mainly Greek. As in Syria, the difference first showed itself in a fight for control, now the Orthodox and now the Monophysites gaining possession of the patriarchal throne; in most cases there were two rivals. These conflicts lasted till 642, when Egypt was conquered by the Islamites, and the native Copts who refused to accept that religion were now at least free from ecclesiastical aggression, and their Church attained independence. It is historically interesting to notice that the Trisagion in the Coptic liturgy is in a Greek text but in a Monophysite form, showing that the translation to the vernacular was made after the schism.
There are therefore in Egypt, as in Syria, an Orthodox and a Jacobite Church, the former mainly Greek and the latter Coptic.
(1) THE ORTHODOX CHURCH OF ALEXANDRIA.
This is a small body.
The Patriarch, whose jurisdiction extends over Egypt, Libya, Arabia, Ethiopia, and Nubia, lives in Alexandria with his seven Metropolitans, and most of his flock are in the large Egyptian cities.
The liturgy used is called after the patron Saint Mark, but is, according to Coptic tradition, due to St. Cyril. It is of very ancient date, perhaps fifth century, of Alexandrian origin, but it has been much affected by Byzantine influences. The first mention of this liturgy is not till the twelth century, when it was about to be superseded. Isaac, the Catholicos of Armenia, then said that the Rites of James and Mark both had the Commixture. Theodore Balsamon of Antioch tells that the Patriarch Mark (c. 1190) on a visit to Constantinople inquired why they did not use the Liturgies of St. James or St. Mark there, and was told that the Catholic Church of the Ecumenical throne did not know them, and that all Churches were by imperial legislation bound to use the rites of New Rome. Being impressed by this, he followed from that time the Byzantine custom.
The earliest manuscript is that of Messina, also containing James, of the twelfth century. Swainson gives this with two other manuscripts, Rossanensis and Vaticanus, [Greek Lit. 349-95.] and Brightman uses his text with additions (pp. 113-43). There are two other manuscripts at Mount Sinai and Cairo.
There are also two other anaphoras:
(a) St. Basil;
(b) St. Gregory (of Mopsuestia), which is addressed to the Son.
Both are printed in Renaudot from a fourteenth-century manuscript.
Another interesting anaphora has recently been discovered on some fragments of papyri from Deir Balyzeh in Upper Egypt of the seventh or eighth century. There are portions of the prayers of the Faithful, a Creed (not Nicene), the Sanctus with its Preface, and the Words of Institution preceded by an Invocation. [Text in D.A.C.L. xi. 624.]
An early liturgy from Egypt is preserved with the name of Bishop Sarapion of Thmuis. [G. Wobbermin, Texts und Untersuch. n.F. ii. 36. English version by John Wordsworth (S.P.C.K.).] It has peculiar features which will be noticed later.
(2) THE COPTIC (JACOBITE) CHURCH.
Coptic Mass. Photograph, J V Morton,
'Through the Lands of the Bible', 1938.
There is a Patriarch of Alexandria with a flock of somewhat under a million, mostly peasants. The clergy are very uneducated, and the deacons are usually boys. The liturgies are:
(i) St. Cyril (also called St. Mark), representing the Greek St. Mark. Brightman (pp. 144-8) gives a translation from a thirteenth-century manuscript. This is the most ancient rite; it is used In Advent and Lent.
(ii) St. Basil. Translated in Bute, Coptic Liturgy. It is adapted from the Byz. Basil.
This is the most commonly used.
(iii) St. Gregory, from the Greek Gregory, and, like it, addressed to the Son. [Lat. trans. in Renaudot, i. 9-51.] It is used at Festivals.
The Uniat Copts are under a Patriarch of Alexandria who lives in Cairo; they use a modified form of the Coptic Rite. The Greek Uniats (Melchites) are under the Patriarch of Antioch.
(3) THE ABYSSINIAN CHURCH.
Abyssinia was converted in the fourth century by the efforts of Frumentius, who was consecrated bishop c. AD 340. It was early infected with Monophysitism. With the conquest of the north of Africa by Islam, it became isolated, and we know little of its history, except that its metropolitan was dependent on the Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria, and consecrated by him. During the time of Portuguese colonial activity (16th cent.) the Jesuits made their way into the country, and in 1626 the Negus accepted a Jesuit Patriarch, but ten years later the Church returned to its Monophysite character and Coptic allegiance.
The oldest form of the liturgy is that printed in Rome in an edition of the New Testament, edited by Petrus Ethiops (Tasfa Sion), but it has some Latin alterations. This contains the Anaphora of the Apostles, which is based on the Apostolic Tradition. Besides this there is a number of manuscripts, none of them earlier than the seventeenth century. Brightman's translation is from five manuscripts in the British Museum with additions (pp. 194-244).
There are no less than sixteen anaphoras extant, but only one pre-anaphora, and the Anaphora of the Apostles is used except on rare occasions. [Harden, The Anaphoras of the Ethiopia Liturgy.] The present use of the Ethiopian Church is given in Mercer. [Ethiopic Liturgy.]
THE BYZANTINE CHURCH
The founding of New Rome, the Imperial Capital of Constantinople, in the year 328 almost immediately placed it in a position of supremacy over the Eastern world, and the interest taken by the Christian Emperors in Church affairs, and their readiness to interfere in the disputes which marked the centuries following the reign of Constantine, gave exceptional authority to the Patriarchs of the great city. In 451 the Council of Chalcedon decreed 'the same things respecting the privileges of the most holy city of Constantinople, the new Rome', as had been given by the Fathers of Nicaea to old Rome, 'so that she should be magnified like her in ecclesiastical matters, and be second after her'. [Canon 28.]
The same Council also deprived the Patriarch of Antioch of much of his importance and influence, by transferring from his authority to that of Constantinople the dioceses of Asia, Pontus, and Thrace. As Christianity spread northwards so did the influence of the Ecumenical Patriarch, as the Patriarch of Constantinople came to be known, increase; and today he is recognized as the Primate of the whole of the Orthodox Churches, which are for the most part autonomous.
In addition to the Syrian and Egyptian Churches there are the following well-established autonomous Churches:
THE CHURCH OF RUSSIA.
The Patriarch of Moscow is the fifth Patriarch, but the Soviet Government has prevented the Office from being filled since 1926. The liturgical language is Old Slavonic.
THE CHURCH OF CYPRUS,
which was originally included in the Patriarchate of Antioch, but was made independent on the ground of ancient usage at the Council of Ephesus in 431. Its head is the Archbishop of Nova Justiniana and all Cyprus, who has his seat at Nicosia.
THE MONASTERY OF ST CATHERINE
on Mount Sinai.
The Hegumen is a bishop with the title of Archbishop of Mount Sinai. He was subject to the Patriarch of Jerusalem till 1782, since which time he has been independent. He lives in the daughter monastery at Cairo.
THE CHURCH OF GREECE,
which was proclaimed to be independent when the nation attained its freedom in 1833, though its autonomy was only recognized by Constantinople in 1850. It is presided over by the Metropolitan of Athens.
THE CHURCH OF BULGARIA.
After its conversion it was attached to Constantinople, but with the establishment of the Bulgarian Empire in the tenth century it attained independence, which, however, it lost again at the conquest by the Turks in 1398, and not till 1870 was it made into an Exarchate, independent of Constantinople. The conflict which led to this was so heated that the Church of Bulgaria is not in communion with the Ecumenical Patriarch, though it is with the rest of the Orthodox Church. The language is Old Slavonic.
THE CHURCH OF SERVIA
was in the thirteenth century under the Servian Empire a Patriarchate (of Ypek). In 1804 the country revolted against the Turks, and in 1879 the Church became autonomous. After the Great War, in 1920 the Patriarchate of Karlovcy, the dioceses of Bosnia and Herzegovina, parts of Dalmatia and Macedonia, and the ancient Church of Montenegro, were included in the Patriarchate of Belgrade.
THE CHURCH OF RUMANIA,
which became autonomous in 1885, with two Metropolitans, those of Bucharest and Jassy; but the Great War increased the country and a Patriarchate was constituted in 1925 at Bucharest. The vernacular is used.
Since the War the constitution of some of these Churches has been very unsettled and it is likely to remain so for some time. The persecution of the Russian Church by the Soviet Government has led to schism. There are now several bodies not in communion with one another, often covering the same ground and working against one another.
The following are the chief:
(a) Within Russia:
(i) THE PATRIARCHAL CHURCH
under the locum tenens.
(ii) THE SYNODAL CHURCH,
established under the aegis of the Government,
(b) Outside Russia amongst the exiles:
(i) THE SYNOD OF KARLOVCY
in Yugoslavia,
(ii) THE WESTERN EXARCHATE
under a Metropolitan at Paris.
A number of smaller independent Churches have also been formed, which will only be mentioned, with the liturgical language: Finland (Finnish and Slavonic), Estonia (Estonian and Slavonic), Poland (vernacular), Latvia (vernacular), Lithuania (vernacular), Albania (Greek), and Georgia (vernacular).
There are also Russian missionary Churches in Siberia and the Far East and in other countries, and in several of the countries already mentioned there are Uniat Churches.
The following are the Byzantine liturgies:
(i) ST. BASIL.
The first mention of this liturgy seems to be in the history of the Armenian nation by Faustus of Byzantium (early 5th cent.), who quotes the passage ἀλλὰ παραλούσαντα ... τῆς εικονος τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ of the Great Thanksgiving. [Brightm. 324 I. 22-326 I. 7. So De Meester, D.A.C.L. vi. 1599.] Peter the Deacon (c. 520) in a letter written for the monks of Scythia to the African bishops in exile in Sardinia says: 'Hence the blessed Basil, bishop of Caesarea, in a prayer at the sacred altar, which almost the whole East uses, says: "... Make, we beseech thee, the evil good, and keep the good in their goodness".' [Ep, xvi. (De incarn. et gratia, 8).] Leontius of Byzantium (c. 531) [Adv. Nest. et Eutych, iii. 19.] and the 32nd Canon in Trullo also speak of the liturgy as Basil's. There seems no reason to doubt that its nucleus comes from St. Basil, and therefore from Caesarea. It was in great vogue in the early centuries, and was translated and adapted into Armenian, Syriac, Coptic, and Arabic. Not till after the ninth century did the rite of St. Chrysostom oust it from its place in the normal Greek liturgy. It has the most prominent position in the Barberini manuscript (c. 800), and is referred to in the time of Charles the Bald (823-77) as the 'Constantinopolitan liturgy'.
The most important manuscript is the Barberini. [Rome Bibl. Barb. MS. iii. 55.]
This is printed in Brightman, pp. 309-44.
As it is a living rite there are numerous printed books of the present form.
The prayers are given in Brightman, pp. 400-11.
It is now used only on the first five Sundays in Lent, Maundy Thursday, the Eves of Christmas, Epiphany, and Easter, and the Feast of St. Basil.
(ii) ST. CHRYSOSTOM.
It is not probable that St. Chrysostom had any important part in the formation of this liturgy, but it may well go back to his time or not long after. It has now superseded St. Basil as the ordinary liturgy. It is contained in the Barberini manuscript mentioned above, though only three of the prayers are there attributed to Chrysostom, [Brightman thinks this is an oversight and that the writer intended to illuminate a title, but omitted to do so (op. cit. xcii).] and the modern form is given in Brightman, pp. 353-99.
(iii) ST. GREGORY DIALOGOS
(i.e. Gregory the Great of Rome).
This is also in Barberini.
It is the Liturgy of the Presanctified, used at Vespers to communicate with the reserved Sacrament.
It is first mentioned in Chronicon Paschale (ann. AD645).
The text is in Brightman, pp. 345-52.
There is another Greek liturgy, that of ST. PETER, compiled for the use of the Greek residents in Latin areas. Baumstark suggested Illyricum as its source. Codrington shows that it is translated from a Latin text used by the Lombards of south or south-central Italy, for the use of Greek-speaking priests who celebrated in Latin [J.T.S. xxxviii (July 1937), 280-1.]. It is a mixture of Byzantine and Roman rites; the Roman Canon is substituted for the Eastern Anaphora. It is contained in a ninth-century manuscript of Grottaferrata.
ARMENIA
The conversion of Armenia was due to St. Gregory the Illuminator, an Armenian who himself was converted in Caesarea of Cappadocia, and returned to be the Apostle of his native land in 302. In 491 the Church refused to accept the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon, and became Monophysite. The country has had a disastrous history, and in successive tyrannies the Armenians have been wellnigh exterminated. The Catholicos has his seat at Etchmiadzin. Under him are four other ecclesiasts bearing the name of Patriarch, one at Sis in Armenia and one each at Constantinople and Jerusalem, and a titular Patriarch of Agthamar.
The liturgy seems to have been established in Armenia not later than the fourth century. It was, however, worked over again in the fifth century, when the Armenian alphabet had been perfected, and about the ninth century it became more distinctly Byzantine. As the result of Dominican activities in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries it has been infected with Roman elements. It is apart from this one of the most beautiful liturgies in Christendom. The oldest manuscripts are of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Brightman's text, pp. 412-57, is translated from modern books.
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