A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

It is true, that many of the ancient liturgies were destroyed by the persecuting heathens, yet some fragments of them still remain in the writings of the Fathers, and are such as are used in our Church at this day; as the words before and after the consecration of the sacrament are to be found in St. Ambrose: the question demanded of the godfathers in the sacrament of baptism, viz. “Whether they do, in the name of the infant, renounce the devil and all his works, and the pomps and vanities of this wicked world,” are to be found in the same St. Ambrose, and in Tertullian; the Gloria Patri, of which more hereafter, is in Sozomen; and the supplement to that doxology, viz. “As it was in the beginning,” &c., is to be found in Irenæus.

In the sacrament of the Lord’s supper, the words pronounced by the priest, viz. “Lift up your hearts,” and the answer, “We lift them up; it is meet and right for us so to do,” are to be found in St. Augustine and St. Chrysostom; and so are these words, viz. “The Lord be with you, And with thy spirit;” and, lastly, Isidore mentions the usual conclusion of all our collects, viz. “Through Jesus Christ our Lord,” &c.

In the Western Church, St. Cyprian tells us there was a liturgy, viz. in the Church of Africa, which is usually accounted amongst the Churches of the West; and we find some pieces of such liturgies in St. Augustine; and not only approved by him, but by all the Fathers of that Church assembled in a synod, as it appears by the canons which they made, and which are mentioned both by Balsamon and Zonaras, viz. that prayers be performed by all, and not any to be said in public, but only such as have been composed by wise and understanding men, lest anything should be vented against the faith, either through ignorance or want of meditation.

Tertullian mentions a liturgy used in Rome, which was probably begun by St. Peter, for it bears his name; and Platina tells us, that several additions were made to it by St. Basil in his time; and in some things this author is very particular, as that Celestine added the Introitus, Gregory added the Kyrie Eleison, Telesphorus the Gloria in Excelsis, Sixtus the First added “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts,” which is called the Trisagion; Gelasius the Collects, St. Jerome the Epistles and Gospels.

The Gloria Patri, which has been mentioned before, was not only appointed by the Council of Nice to encounter the Arian heresy, but it was used long before that council, even by the apostles themselves, who were commanded by their Master to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

This is found in the writings of all those ancient fathers who lived near the time of the apostles, as in Clemens, who was their scholar, and in Dionysius of Alexandria; but the following words, which make up the whole form of the doxology, viz. “As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end,” were not brought into the Church till the Arian heresy began to spread, and this was about the time of the Council of Nice.

It is true this began first in the Eastern Church, and from thence it came to the West, where Pope Damasus [A. D. 366–384] was the first who appointed it to be used at the end of the psalms, which made up the greatest part of the public liturgy of that Church. The Churches of France, Spain, and England had the like liturgies, though not exactly the same.

Although we have no certain account what rites or forms were used here among the Britons, yet Bede, in his ecclesiastical history, tells us, that as soon as the gospel was planted here, there was a liturgy formed out of the rituals of the most flourishing Churches then in the world. For Pope Gregory advised St. Augustine not to follow the Roman office strictly, but to take what he should approve in any Church, and prescribe the same to the English, which he did; and this liturgy of St. Augustine continued for some ages, till Osmond, bishop of Sarum, [A. D. 1078,] finding that new prayers and offices abounded everywhere, reduced them all to one form, and from thence it was called secundum usum Sarum.

The liturgy of the Irish Church, according to Mr. Palmer, was, during the first ages, probably the same as that of Britain. The ancient Irish liturgy still extant differs considerably from the Roman. It seems, he adds, that in later times there were great varieties in the mode of celebrating Divine worship in Ireland, which were mentioned by Gillebert, bishop of Limerick, A. D. 1090. And which appear to have been removed by the Synod of Arles, A. D. 1152, when the Roman rites were established.

By the seventh statute of the Synod, or rather Council, of Cashel, 1172, the regulations of the Irish Church were assimilated to those of England. The use of Sarum was adopted; though it has been supposed that the Irish use lingered for a considerable time in parts of the more distant provinces.