In general this word means
a short verse praising God and beginning, as a rule, with the Greek
word Doxa. The custom of ending a rite or a hymn with such a formula
comes from the Synagogue (cf. the Prayer of Manasses: tibi est gloria
in sęcula sęculorum. Amen). St. Paul uses doxologies constantly (Romans
11:36; Galatians 1:5; Ephesians 3:21; etc.). The earliest examples are
addressed to God the Father alone, or to Him through (dia) the Son
(Romans 16:27; Jude 25; I Clem., xli; Mart. Polyc., xx; etc.) and in
(en) or with (syn, meta) the Holy Ghost (Mart. Polyc., xiv, xxii,
etc.). The form of baptism (Matthew 28:19) had set an example of naming
the three Persons in parallel order. Especially in the fourth century,
as a protest against Arian subordination (since heretics appealed to
these prepositions; cf. St. Basil, "De Spir, Sancto", ii-v), the custom
of using the form: "Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the
Holy Ghost", became universal among Catholics. From this time we must
distinguish two doxologies, a greater (doxologia maior) and a shorter
(minor). The greater doxology is the Gloria in Excelsis Deo in the
Mass. The shorter form, which is the one generally referred to under
the name "doxology", is the Gloria Patri. It is continued by an answer
to the effect that this glory shall last for ever. The form, eis tous
aionas ton aionon is very common in the first centuries (Romans 16:27;
Galatians 1:5; 1 Timothy 1:17; Hebrews 13:21; 1 Peter 4:11; I Clem.,
20, 32, 38, 43, 45, etc.; Mart. Polyc., 22, etc.). It is a common
Hebraism (Tobit 13:23; Psalm 83:5; repeatedly in the Apocalypse 1:6,
18; 14:11; 19:3; etc.) meaning simply "for ever". The simple form, eis
tous aionas, is also common (Romans 11:36; Doctr. XII Apost., 9:10; in
the Liturgy of the Apostolic Constitutions, passim) Parallel formulę
are: eis tous mellontas aionas (Mart. Polyc., xiv); apo geneas eis
genean (ibid.); etc. This expression was soon enlarged into: "now and
ever and in ages of ages" (cf. Hebrews 13:8; Mart. Polyc., 14:etc.). In
this form it occurs constantly at the end of prayers in the Greek
Liturgy of St. James (Brightman, Eastern Liturgies, pp. 31, 32, 33, 34,
41, etc.). and in all the Eastern rites. The Greek form then became:
Doxa patri kai yio kai hagio pneumati, kai nun kai aei kai eis tous
aionas ton aionon. Amen. In this shape it is used in the Eastern
Churches at various points of the Liturgy (e.g. in St. Chrysostom's
Rite; see Brightman, pp. 354, 364, etc.) and as the last two verses of
psalms, though not so invariably as with us. The second part is
occasionally slightly modified and other verses are sometimes
introduced between the two halves. In the Latin Rite it seems
originally to have had exactly the same form as in the East. In 529 the
Second Synod of Vasio (Vaison in the province of Avignon) says that the
additional words, Sicut erat in principio, are used in Rome, the East,
and Africa as a protest against Arianism, and orders them to be said
likewise in Gaul (can. v.). As far as the East is concerned the synod
is mistaken. These words have never been used in any Eastern rite and
the Greeks complained of their use in the West [Walafrid Strabo (9th
century), De rebus eccl., xxv]. The explanation that sicut erat in
principio was meant as a denial of Arianism leads to a question whose
answer is less obvious than it seems. To what do the words refer?
Everyone now understands gloria as the subject of erat: "As it [the
glory] was in the beginning", etc. It seems, however, that originally
they were meant to refer to Filius, and that the meaning of the second
part, in the West at any rate, was: "As He [the Son] was in the
beginning, so is He now and so shall He be for ever." The in principio,
then, is a clear allusion to the first words of the Fourth Gospel, and
so the sentence is obviously directed against Arianism. There are
medieval German versions in the form: "Als er war im Anfang".
The doxology in the form in
which we know it has been used since about the seventh century all over
Western Christendom, except in one corner. In the Mozarabic Rite the
formula is: "Gloria et honor Patri et Filio et Spiritui sancto in
sęcula sęculorum" (so in the Missal of this rite; see P.L., LXXXV, 109,
119, etc.). The Fourth Synod of Toledo in 633 ordered this form (can.
xv). A common medieval tradition, founded on a spurious letter of St.
Jerome (in the Benedictine edition, Paris, 1706, V, 415) says that Pope
Damasus (366-384) introduced the Gloria Patri at the end of psalms.
Cassian (died c. 435) speaks of this as a special custom of the Western
Church (De instit. coen., II, viii). The use of the shorter doxology in
the Latin Church is this: the two parts are always said or sung as a
verse with response. They occur always at the end of psalms (when
several psalms are joined together as one, as the sixty-second and
sixty-sixth and again the one hundred and forty-eighth, one hundred and
forty-ninth and one hundred and fiftieth at Lauds, the Gloria Patri
occurs once only at the end of the group; on the other hand each group
of sixteen verses of the one hundred and eighteenth psalm in the day
Hours has the Gloria) except on occasions of mourning. For this reason
(since the shorter doxology, like the greater one, Gloria in Excelsis
Deo, in naturally a joyful chant) it is left out on the last three days
of Holy Week; in the Office for the Dead its place is taken by the
verses: Requiem ęternam, etc., and Et lux perpetua, etc. It also occurs
after canticles, except that the Benedicite has its own doxology
(Benedicamus Patrem . . . Benedictus es Domine, etc. -- the only
alternative one left in the Roman Rite). In the Mass it occurs after
three psalms, the "Judica me" at the beginning, the fragment of the
Introit-Psalm, and the "Lavabo" (omitted in Passiontide, except on
feasts, and at requiem Masses). The first part only occurs in the
responsoria throughout the Office, with a variable answer (the second
part of the first verse) instead of "Sicut erat," the whole doxology
after the "Deus in adjutorium," and in the preces at Prime; and again,
this time as one verse, at the end of the invitatorium at Matins. At
all these places it is left out in the Office for the Dead and at the
end of Holy Week. The Gloria Patri is also constantly used in
extraliturgical services, such as the Rosary. It was a common custom in
the Middle Ages for preachers to end sermons with it. In some
countries, Germany especially, people make the sign of the cross at the
first part of the doxology, considering it as chiefly a profession of
faith.
Publication information
Written by Adrian Fortescue. Transcribed by Tony de Melo.
The Catholic Encyclopedia,
Volume V. Published 1909. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Nihil
Obstat, May 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley,
Archbishop of New York
Bibliography
ERMELIUS, Dissertatio
historica de veteri christianā doxologia (1684); SCHMIDT, De insignibus
veteribus christianis formulis (1696); A SEELEN, Commentarius ad
doxologię solemnis Gloria Patri verba: Sicut erat in principio in his
Miscellanea (1732); BONA, Rerum liturgicarum libri duo (Cologne, 1674),
II, 471; THALHOFER, Handbuch der kath. Liturgik, I, 490 sq.; IDEM in
Augsburger Pastoralblatt (1863), 289 sq.; RIETSCHEL, Lehrbuch der
Liturgik, I, 355sq.; KRAUS, Real-Encyk., I, 377 sq.
