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. λεῖτος, public, and ἔργον, work; λειτουργός, 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 λειτουργία 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 λειτουργίαι, 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.