bema or sanctuary, was raised three steps above the nave, and upon this was placed the altar with the Bishop's throne behind it, and the seats of the presbyters in a semicircle on either side of him. The deacons arrange the congregation, attend the door, and keep order. There are chambers toward the east, to the north and south of the sanctuary, which are used as sacristies by the clergy. The church is like a ship (Latin, navis, hence nave); the Bishop is the helmsman, the priests are his officers, the deacons in trim garments are sailors and head rowers, the laymen are passengers.

A plan of the round Church of the Resurrection (Anastasis), built by Constantine early in the fourth century over the Holy Sepulchre, and of the Basilica of the Holy Cross, built close by to the west, with a porch or court connecting the two, will be found in the Lectures of S. Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem, translated by R. W. (afterwards Dean) Church (Oxford, 1838), with the description given by Eusebius the Church historian, on which the plan is based.' It was in this basilica that the lectures to his candidates for Baptism were delivered by S. Cyril in the Lent of 347 or 349. In the recently discovered Peregrinatio of a lady from Gaul named Etheria (or Silvia) we have a very interesting account of the churches which she visited in that city about the year 385.2

These descriptions and allusions give unmistakable corroboration to the testimony of all the liturgies that the earliest worship of the Christian Church was based, not on that of the synagogue with its platform, and reading desk, and lay officials only, but on that of the Temple with its altar, its priesthood, and its sacrificial service.

1 Pp. xxiv-xxix.

2 See Duchesne. Christian Worship, pp. 490-523.

CHAPTER VI

THE PARENT LITURGIES

"The same kind of synthetic criticism which traces back all known languages to three original forms of speech, can also trace back the multitude of differing Liturgies which are used by the various Churches of East and West to a few, that is to say, four or five, — normal types, all of which have certain strong features of agreement with each other, pointing to the same liturgical fountain."-J. H. BLUNT.

URING the years that the Church was under the ban

of the Roman Empire as an illegal or unlicensed religion (religio illicita), suspected as hostile to the imperial government, with which the worship of the heathen gods was inextricably entwined, it was natural that little progress would be made in rendering the services of the Church with much external beauty. There were few permanent church buildings. There were lulls, indeed, when the rulers ceased to persecute, but no one knew when the order might go out to crush the new religion. The Christians had to gather as best they could. Necessity knew no law. A table or a shelf would serve as an altar. Ordinary dress would suffice for a vestment. Instrumental music was impossible. Yet in spite of all these disadvantages it is abundantly evident that the worship of the Church everywhere was marked by extreme solemnity and dignity. In all the glimpses we obtain during this period we find no trace of eccentricity or familiarity in the presence of God. The Breaking of the Bread or Eucharist is the centre round which all worship gathers, and the tone of the prayers is one of profound reverence and elevation of thought.

Though the liturgies in the earliest days were not generally committed to writing for the reason that I have already given, it is unquestioned that the use of them, though in a somewhat fluid state, in the first three centuries was universal. The absence of original documentary evidence of this fact need not surprise us. When it is remembered that out of all the manuscript copies of the New Testament, which must have existed in these three centuries, not one has come down to our own day, and only two from the fourth and two from the fifth century, we need not wonder that we have no manuscript of the liturgies of this period. This fact is all the more striking when it is recalled that the New Testament was an unchangeable record, possessing the highest possible authority as containing God's final revelation to men, whereas the liturgies, while clearly defined in their general character, were variable according to the people or race among whom they were used, and subject to revision and enrichment at the hands of the Bishops of every diocese. It is not, then, to be expected that manuscript copies of the many forms of the Liturgy would be so carefully preserved and handed on to future ages as were the sacred Scriptures.

Modern liturgical scholars are generally agreed in reckoning all the ancient liturgies in existence today, of which there are more than a hundred, as traceable to six principal types known by the names of the Apostles with whom they were traditionally connected, or by the names of the places in which they have been in use. These are (1) the Syrian, of S. James; (2) the Egyptian or Alexandrian, of S. Mark; (3) the Persian, of SS. Adeus and Maris, including that of the Christians of S. Thomas on the Malabar coast of India; (4) the Byzantine, of S. Chrysostom, represented by the present Greek and Armenian rites; (5) the Ephesine, of S. John or

S. Paul; (6) the Roman, of S. Peter, originally Greek for three centuries, and not Latin.

The Syrian Liturgy was that which was used throughout the patriarchates of Jerusalem and Antioch, which included the countries of Judea, Syria, Mesopotamia, and some provinces of Asia Minor. This liturgy, Palmer says, "merits our particular attention for several reasons. First, because the Church of Jerusalem was the mother Church of Christendom, and the faithful first received the title of Christians at Antioch; 1 secondly, because the Liturgy used there appears likewise to have prevailed to a great extent in the adjoining regions; and thirdly, because we have more ancient and numerous notices of this Liturgy in the writings of the Fathers than of any other in existence." 2

1

This does not imply that the liturgies now in use in these Churches have remained absolutely unchanged through all these centuries. That is not true of any liturgy. Many revisions and enrichments take place from time to time in all liturgies in adaptation to changed conditions or new needs. Among men specially gifted for this purpose Basil, commonly called "the Great," Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia about A.D. 370, whose patriarchate extended from the Hellespont to the Euphrates, has a most prominent place. It is this improved form of S. Basil which has been used from time immemorial throughout the whole of Asia Minor.3

The Byzantine seems to be only another form of this Liturgy of S. James. It still bears the name of S. Chrysostom, "the golden-mouthed" Bishop of Constantinople, as

1 Acts xi, 26.

2 Origines Lit., I, pp. 15, 19. A list of sixty-four liturgies belonging to this family is given by Brightman in Lit. Eastern and Western, pp. lviiiIxi. See also Neale and Littledale, Prim. Lit. pp. xi, xii.

• Palmer, I, 45, 48.

enriched by him while he was still a priest of the Church in Antioch (386-397). This is today "the normal Liturgy of the Eastern Church." 1

It is concerning the many forms of this great oriental liturgy used throughout the East that Palmer writes: "Whoever compares these venerable monuments will not fail to perceive a great and striking resemblance throughout. He will readily acknowledge their derivation from one common source; and will admit that they furnish sufficient means for ascertaining all the substance, and many of the expressions, which were used in the solemn Anaphora of the partriarchates of Antioch and Jerusalem, before the Council of Chalcedon, A.D. 451.”

"2

Concerning the earliest form of the parent liturgy we obtain our knowledge chiefly from four sources, (1) THE CATECHETICAL LECTURES OF S. CYRIL, Bishop of Jerusalem in A.D. 349; (2) THE PRAYER BOOK OF BISHOP SARAPION, the contemporary and friend of Athanasius (c. A.D. 350); (3) the collection of early documents of the Church called THE APOSTOLICAL CONSTITUTIONS; and (4) THE SERMONS OF S. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, Bishop of Constantinople, A.D. 397.

(1) Cyril delivered his CATECHETICAL LECTURES about the year 347 when he was still a priest of the Church in Jerusalem. They were instructions addressed to candidates preparing for Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Communion.

1 Neale and Littledale, p. xx. Duchesne says, "It has ended by supplanting the older liturgies in all the Greek patriarchates of the East. It is in use in the national Church of Greece, and in those of Servia, Bulgaria, Roumania, etc. . . . In these latter countries, where the liturgical language is not Greek, translations are employed which are made from the Greek text used in the Patriarchate of Constantinople. . . . In Greece the liturgical language is Greek; in Georgia, Georgian; in Roumania, Roumanian; in the other countries Slavonic." Christian Worship, pp. 71, 72, and note. 2 Orig. Lit, pp. 28, 29. For what is meant by Anaphora, see p. 67.