Byzantine Rite
I. NAME AND DEFINITION
Ritus in classical Latin in
means primarily, the form and manner of any religious observance, so
Livy, 1, 7: "Sacra diis aliis albano ritu, græco Herculi ut ab Evandro
instituta erant (Romulus) facit"; then, in general, any custom or
usage. In English the word "rite" ordinarily means, the ceremonies,
prayers, and functions of any religious body, whether pagan, Jewish,
Moslem, or Christian. But here we must distinguish two uses of the
word. We speak of any one such religious function as a rite -- the rite
of the blessing of palms, the coronation rite, etc. In a slightly
different sense we call the whole complex of the services of any Church
or group of Churches a rite-thus we speak of the Roman Rite, Byzantine
Rite, and various Eastern rites. In the latter sense the word is often
considered equivalent to liturgy, which, however, in the older and more
proper use of the word is the Eucharistic Service, or Mass; hence for a
whole series of religious functions "rite" is preferable.
A Christian rite, in this
sense comprises the manner of performing all services for the worship
of God and the sanctification of men. This includes therefore: (1) the
administration of sacraments, among which the service of the Holy
Eucharist, as being also the Sacrifice, is the most important element
of all; (2) the series of psalms, lessons, prayers, etc., divided into
unities, called "hours", to make up together the Divine Office; (3) all
other religious and ecclesiastical functions, called sacramentals. This
general term includes blessings of persons (such as a coronation, the
blessing of an abbot, various ceremonies performed for catechumens, the
reconciliation of public penitents, Benediction of the Blessed
Sacrament etc.), blessings of things (the consecration of a church,
altar, chalice, etc.), and a number of devotions and ceremonies, e.g.
processions and the taking of vows. Sacraments, the Divine Office, and
sacramentals (in a wide sense) make up the rite of any Christian
religious body. In the case of Protestants these three elements must be
modified to suit their theological opinions.

Maronite Rite
II. DIFFERENCE OF RITE
The Catholic Church has
never maintained a principle of uniformity in rite. Just as there are
different local laws in various parts of the Church, whereas certain
fundamental laws are obeyed by all, so Catholics in different places
have, their own local or national rites; they say prayers and perform
ceremonies that have evolved to suit people of the various countries,
and are only different expressions of the same fundamental truths. The
essential elements of the functions are obviously the same everywhere,
and are observed by all Catholic rites in obedience to the command of
Christ and the Apostles, thus in every rite is administered with water
and the invocation of the Holy Trinity; the Holy Eucharist is
celebrated with bread and wine over which the words of institution are
said; penance involves the confession of sins. In the amplification of
these essential elements in the accompanying prayers and practical or
ceremonies, various customs have produced the changes which make the
different rites. If any rite did not contain one of the essential notes
of the service it would be invalid in that point, if its prayers or
ceremonies expressed false doctrine it would he heretical. Such rites
would not be tolerated in the Catholic Church. But, supposing
uniformity in essentials and in faith, the authority of the Church has
never insisted on uniformity of rile; Rome has never resented the fact
that other people have their own expressions of the same truths. The
Roman Rite is the most, venerable, the most archaic, and immeasurably
the most important of all, but our fellow Catholics in the East have
the same right to their traditional liturgies as we have to ours. Nor
can we doubt that other rites too have many beautiful prayers and
ceremonies which add to the richness of Catholic liturgical
inheritance. To lose these would be a misfortune second only to the
loss of the Roman Rite. Leo XIII in his Encyclical, "Præclara" (20
June, 1894), expressed the traditional attitude of the papacy when he
wrote of his reverence for the venerable able rites of the Eastern
Churches and assured the schismatics, whom be invited to reunion, that
there was no jealousy of these things at Rome; that for all Eastern
customs "we shall provide without narrowness."
At the time of the Schism,
Photius and Cerularius hurled against Latin rites and customs every
conceivable absurd accusation. The Latin fast on Saturday, Lenten fare,
law of celibacy, confirmation by a bishop, and especially the use of
unleavened bread for the Holy Eucharist were their accusations against
the West. Latin theologians replied that both were right and suitable,
each for the people who used them, that there was no need for
uniformity in rite if there was unity in faith, that one good custom
did not prove another to be bad, thus defending their customs without
attacking those of the East. But the Byzantine patriarch was breaking
the unity of the Church, denying the primacy, and plunging the East
into schism. In 1054, when Cerularius's schism had begun, a Latin
bishop, Dominic of Gradus and Aquileia, wrote concerning it to Peter
III of Antioch. He discussed the question Cerularius had raised, the
use of azymes at Mass, and carefully explained that, in using this
bread, Latins did not intend to disparage the Eastern custom of
consecrating leavened bread, for there is a symbolic reason for either
practice. "Because we know that the sacred mixture of fermented bread
is used and lawfully observed by the most holy and orthodox Fathers of
the Eastern Churches, we faithfully approve of both customs and confirm
both by a spiritual explanation" (Will, "Acta et scripta quæ de
controversiis ecclesiæ græcæ et latinæ sæc. XI composite extant",
Leipzig, 1861, 207). These words represent very well the attitude of
the papacy towards other rites at all times. Three points, however, may
seem opposed to this and therefore require some explanation: the
supplanting of the old Gallican Rite by that of Rome almost throughout
the West, the modification of Uniat rites, the suppression of the later
medieval rites.

Coptic Rite
The existence of the
Gallican Rite was a unique anomaly. The natural principle that rite
follows patriarchate has been sanctioned by universal tradition with
this one exception. Since the first organization of patriarchates there
has been an ideal of uniformity throughout each. The close bond that
joined bishops and metropolitans to their patriarch involved the use of
his liturgy, just as the priests of a diocese follow the rite of their
bishop. Before the arbitrary imposition of the Byzantine Rite on all
Orthodox Churches no Eastern patriarch would have tolerated a foreign
liturgy in his domain. All Egypt used the Alexandrine Rite, all Syria
that of Antioch-Jerusalem, all Asia Minor, Greece, and the Balkan
lands, that of Constantinople. But in the vast Western lands that make
up the Roman patriarchate, north of the Alps and in Spain, various
local rites developed, all bearing a strong resemblance to each other,
yet different from that of Rome itself. These form the Gallican family
of liturgies. Abbot Cabrol, Dom Cagin, and other writers of their
school think that the Gallican Rite was really the original Roman Rite
before Rome modified it Paléographie musicale V, Solesmes, 1889;
Cabrol, Les origines liturgiques Paris 1906). Most writers, however,
maintain with Mgr Duchesne ("Origines du culte Chrétien", Paris, 1898,
8489), that the Gallican Rite is Eastern, Antiochene in origin.
Certainly it has numerous Antiochene peculiarities (see GALLICAN RITE),
and when it emerged as a complete rite in the sixth and seventh
centuries (in Germanus of Paris, etc.), it was different from that in
use at Rome at the time. Non-Roman liturgies were used at Milan,
Aquileia, even at Gobble at the gates of the Roman province (Innocent
I's letter to Decentius of Eugubium; Ep. xxv, in P. L., XX, 551-61).
Innocent (401-17) naturally protested against the use of a foreign rite
in Umbria; occasionally other popes showed some desire for uniformity
in their patriarchate, but the great majority regarded the old state of
things with perfect indifference. When other bishops asked them how
ceremonies were performed at Rome they sent descriptions (so Pope
Vigilius to Profuturus of Braga in 538; Jaffé, "Regesta Rom. Pont.", n.
907), but were otherwise content to allow different uses. St. Gregory I
(590-604) showed no anxiety to make the new English Church conform to
Rome, but told St. Augustine to take whatever rites he thought most
suitable from Rome or Gaul (Ep. xi, 64, in P. L., LXXVII, 1186-7).

Syro-Malankara
Rite
Thus for centuries the
popes alone among patriarchs did not enforce their own rite even
throughout their patriarchate. The gradual romanization and subsequent
disappearance of Gallican rites were (beginning in the eighth and ninth
centuries), the work not of the popes but of local bishops and kings
who naturally wished to conform to the use of the Apostolic See. The
Gallican Rites varied everywhere (Charles the Great gives this as his
reason for adopting the Roman Use; see Hauck, "Kirchengesch.
Deutschlands", 11, 107 sq.), and the inevitable desire for at least
local uniformity arose. The bishops' frequent visits to Rome brought
them in contact with the more dignified ritual observed by their chief
at the tomb of the Apostles, and they were naturally influenced by it
in their return home. The local bishops in synods ordered conformity to
Rome. The romanizing movement in the West came from below. In the
Frankish kingdom Charles the Great, as part of his scheme of unifying,
sent to Adrian I for copies of the Roman books, commanding their use
throughout his domain. In the history of the substitution of the Roman
Rite for the Gallican the popes appear as spectators, except perhaps in
Spain and much later in Milan. The final result was the application in
the West of the old principle, for since the pope was undoubtedly
Patriarch of the West it was inevitable, that sooner or later the West
should conform to his rite. The places, however, that really cared for
their old local rites (Milan, Toledo) retain them even now.
It is true that the changes
made in some Uniat rites by the Roman correctors have not always
corresponded to the best liturgical tradition. There are as Mgr
Duchesne says, "corrections inspired by zeal that was not always
according to knowledge" (Origines du culte, 2nd ed., 69), but they are
much fewer than is generally supposed and have never been made with the
idea of romanizing. Despite the general prejudice that Uniat rites are
mere mutilated hybrids, the strongest impression from the study of them
is how little has been changed. Where there is no suspicion of false
doctrine, as in the Byzantine Rite, the only change made was the
restoration of the name of the pope where the schismatics had erased
it. Although the question of the procession of the Holy Ghost has been
so fruitful a source of dispute between Rome and Constantinople the
Filioque clause was certainly not contained in the original creed, nor
did the Roman authorities insist on its addition. So Rome is content
that Eastern Catholics should keep their traditional form unchanged,
though they believe the Catholic doctrine. The Filioque is only sung by
those Byzantine Uniats who wish it themselves, as the Ruthenians. Other
rites were altered in places, not to romanize but only to eradicate
passages suspected of heresy. All other Uniats came from Nestorian,
Monophysite, or Monothelete sects, whose rites had been used for
centuries by heretics. Hence, when bodies of these people wished to
return to the Catholic Church their services were keenly studied at
Rome for possible heresy. In most cases corrections were absolutely
necessary. The Nestorian Liturgy, for instance, did not contain the
words of institution, which had to be added to the Liturgy of the
converted Chaldees. The Monophysite Jacobites, Copts, and Armenians
have in the Trisagion the fateful clause: "who wast crucified for us",
which has been the watchword of Monophysitism ever since Peter the Dyer
of Antioch added it (470-88). If only because of its associations this
could not remain in a Catholic Liturgy.

Dominican Rite
In some instances, however,
the correctors were over scrupulous. In the Gregorian Armenian Liturgy
the words said by the deacon at the expulsion of the catechumens, long
before the Consecration: "The body of the Lord and the blood of the
Saviour are set forth (or "are before us") (Brightman, "Eastern
Liturgies", 430) were in the Uniat Rite changed to: "are about to be
before us". The Uniats also omit the words sung by the Gregorian choir
before the Anaphora: "Christ has been manifested amongst us (has
appeared in the midst of us)" (ibid., 434), and further change the
cherubic hymn because of its anticipation of the Consecration. These
misplacements are really harmless when understood, yet any reviser
would be shocked by such strong cases. In many other ways also the
Armenian Rite shows evidence of Roman influence. It has unleavened
bread, our confession and Judica psalm at the beginning of Mass, a
Lavabo before the Canon, the last Gospel, etc. But so little is this
the effect of union with Rome that the schismatical Armenians have all
these points too. They date from the time of the Crusades, when the
Armenians, vehemently opposed to the Orthodox, made many advances
towards Catholics. So also the strong romanizing of the Maronite
Liturgy was entirely the work of the Maronites themselves, when,
surrounded by enemies in the East, they too turned towards the great
Western Church, sought her communion, and eagerly copied her practices.
One can hardly expect the pope to prevent other Churches from imitating
Roman customs. Yet in the case of Uniats he does even this. A Byzantine
Uniat priest who uses unleavened bread in his Liturgy incurs
excommunication. The only case in which an ancient Eastern rite has
been wilfully romanized is that of the Uniat Malabar Christians, where
it was not Roman authority but the misguided zeal of Alexius de
Menezes, Archbishop of Goa, and his Portuguese advisers at the Synod of
Diamper (1599) which spoiled the old Malabar Rite.

Ambrosian Rite
The Western medieval rites
are in no case (except the Ambrosian and Mozarabic RiteRites), really
independent of Rome. They are merely the Roman Rite with local
additions and modifications, most of which are to its disadvantage.
They are late, exuberant, and inferior variants, whose ornate additions
and long interpolated tropes, sequences, and farcing destroy the
dignified simplicity of the old liturgy. In 1570 the revisers appointed
by the Council of Trent restored with scrupulous care and, even in the
light of later studies, brilliant success the pure Roman Missal, which
Pius V ordered should alone be used wherever the Roman Rite is
followed. It was a return to an older and purer form. The medieval
rites have no doubt a certain archæological interest; but where the
Roman Rite is used it is best to use it in its pure form. This too only
means a return to the principle that rite should follow patriarchate.
The reform was made very prudently, Pius V allowing any rite that could
prove an existence of two centuries to remain (Bull "Quo primum", 19
July, 1570, printed first in the Missal), thus saving any local use
that had a certain antiquity. Some dioceses (e.g. Lyons) and religious
orders (Dominicans, Carthusians, Carmelites), therefore keep their
special uses, and the independent Ambrosian and Mozarabic RiteRites,
whose loss would have been a real misfortune still remain.
Rome then by no means
imposed uniformity of rite. Catholics are united in faith and
discipline, but in their manner of performing the sacred functions
there is room for variety based on essential unity, as there was in the
first centuries. There are cases (e.g. theGeorgian Church) where union
with Rome has saved the ancient use, while the schismatics have been
forced to abandon it by the centralizing policy of their authorities
(in this case Russia). The ruthless destruction of ancient rites in
favour of uniformity has been the work not of Rome but of the
schismatical patriarchs of Constantinople. Since the thirteenth century
Constantinople in its attempt to make itself the one centre of the
Orthodox Church has driven out the far more venerable and ancient
Liturgies of Antioch and Alexandria and has compelled all the Orthodox
to use its own late derived rite. The Greek Liturgy of St. Mark has
ceased to exist; that of St. James has been revived for one or two days
in the year at Zakynthos and Jerusalem only (see ANTIOCHENE LITURGY).
The Orthodox all the world over must follow the Rite of Constantinople.
In this unjustifiable centralization we have a defiance of the old
principle, since Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria, Cyprus, in no way
belong to the Byzantine Patriarchate. Those who accuse the papacy of
sacrificing everything for the sake of uniformity mistake the real
offender, the oecumenical patriarch.

Domninican Rite
III. THE OLD RITES (CATHOLIC AND SCHISMATICAL)
A complete table of the old
rites with an account of their mutual relations will be found in the
article LITURGY. Here it need only be added that there is a Uniat body
using each of the Eastern rites. There is no ancient rite that is not
represented within the Catholic Church. That rite, liturgical language,
and religious body connote three totally different ideas has been
explained at length in the article GREEK RITES. The rite a bishop or
priest follows is no test at all of his religion. Within certain broad
limits a member of any Eastern sect might use any rite, for the two
categories of rite and religion cross each other continually. They
represent quite different classifications: for instance, liturgically
all Armenians belong to one class, theologically a Uniat Armenian
belongs to the same class as Latins, Chaldees, Maronites, etc., and has
nothing to do with his Gregorian (Monophysite) fellow-countrymen (see
EASTERN CHURCHES). Among Catholics the rite forms a group; each rite is
used by a branch of the Church that is thereby a special, though not
separate, entity. So within the Catholic unity we speak of local
Churches whose characteristic in each case is the rite they use. Rite
is the only basis of this classification. Not all Armenian Catholics or
Byzantine Uniats obey the same patriarch or local authority; yet they
are "Churches" individual provinces of the same great Church, because
each is bound together by their own rites. In the West there is the
vast Latin Church, in the East the Byzantine, Chaldean, Coptic, Syrian,
Maronite, Armenian, and Malabar Uniat Churches. It is of course
possible to subdivide and to speak of the national Churches (of Italy,
France, Spain, etc.) under one of these main bodies (see LATIN CHURCH).
In modern times rite takes the place of the old classification in
patriarchates and provinces.
IV. PROTESTANT RITES
The Reformation in the
sixteenth century produced a new and numerous series of rites, which
are in no sense continuations of the old development of liturgy. They
do not all represent descendants of the earliest rites, nor can they be
classified in the table of genus and species that includes all the old
liturgies of Christendom. The old rites are unconscious and natural
developments of earlier ones and go back to the original fluid rite of
the first centuries (see LITURGY). The Protestant rites are deliberate
compositions made by the various Reformers to suit their theological
positions, as new services were necessary for their prayer meetings. No
old liturgy could be used by people with their ideas. The old rites
contain the plainest statements about the Real Presence, the
Eucharistic Sacrifice, prayers to saints, and for the dead, which are
denied by Protestants. The Reformation occurred in the West, where the
Roman Rite in its various local forms had been used for centuries. No
Reformed sect could use the Roman Mass; the medieval derived rites were
still more ornate, explicit, in the Reformers' sense superstitious. So
all the Protestant sects abandoned the old Mass and the other ritual
functions, composing new services which have no continuity, no direct
relation to any historic liturgy. However, it is hardly possible to
compose an entirely new Christian service without borrowing anything.
Moreover, in many cases the Reformers wished to make the breach with
the past as little obvious as could be. So many of their new services
contain fragments of old rites; they borrowed such elements as seemed
to them harmless, composed and re-arranged and evolved in some cases
services that contain parts of the old ones in a new order. On the
whole it is surprising that they changed as much as they did. It would
have been possible to arrange an imitation of the Roman Mass that would
have been much more like it than anything they produced.
They soon collected
fragments of all kinds of rites, Eastern, Roman, Mozarabic, etc., which
with their new prayers they arranged into services that are hopeless
liturgical tangles. This is specially true of the Anglican
Prayer-books. In some cases, for instance, the placing of the Gloria
after the Communion in Edward VI's second Prayer-book, there seems to
be no object except a love of change. The first Lutheran services kept
most of the old order. The Calvinist arrangements had from the first no
connexion with any earlier rite. The use of the vulgar tongue was a
great principle with the Reformers. Luther and Zwingli at first
compromised with Latin, but soon the old language disappeared in all
Protestant services. Luther in 1523 published a tract, "Of the order of
the service in the parish" ("Von ordenung gottis diensts [sic] ynn der
gemeine" in Clemen, "Quellenbuch zur prakt. Theologie", 1, 24-6), in
which he insists on preaching, rejects all "unevangelical" parts of
theMass, such as the Offertory and idea of sacrifice, invocation of
saints, and ceremonies, and denounces private Masses (Winkelmessen),
Masses for the dead, and the idea of the priest as a mediator. Later in
the same year he issued a "Formula missæ et communionis pro ecclesia
Vittebergensi" (ibid., 26-34), in which he omits the preparatory
prayers, Offertory, all the Canon to qui pridie, from Unde et memores
to the Pater, the embolism of the Lord's Prayer, fraction, Ite missa
est. The Preface is shortened, the Sanctus is to be sung after the
words of institution which are to be said aloud, and meanwhile the
elevation may be made because of the weak who would be offended by its
sudden omission (ibid., IV, 30). At the end he adds a new ceremony, a
blessing from Num., vi, 24-6. Latin remained in this service.
Karlstadt began to hold
vernacular services at Wittenberg since 1521. In 1524 Kaspar Kantz
published a German service on the lines of Luther's "Formula missæ"
(Lohe, "Sammlung liturgischer Formuläre III, Nördlingen, 1842, 37 sq.);
so also Thomas Münzer the Anabaptist, in 1523 at Alstedt (Smend, "Die
evang. deutschen Messen", 1896, 99 sq.). A number of compromises began
at this time among the Protestants, services partly Latin and partly
vernacular (Rietschel, "Lehrbuch der Liturgik", 1, 404-9). Vernacular
hymns took the place of the old Proper (Introit, etc.). At last in 1526
Luther issued an entirely new German service, "Deudsche Messe und
ordnung Gottis diensts" (Clemen, op. cit., 3443), to be used on
Sundays, whereas the "Formula missæ", in Latin, might be kept for
week-days. In the "Deudsche Messe" "a spiritual song or German psalm"
replaces the Introit, then follows Kyrie eleison in Greek three times
only. There is no Gloria. Then come the Collects, Epistle, a German
hymn, Gospel, Creed, Sermon, Paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer, words of
institution with the account of the Last Supper from I Cor, xi, 20-9,
Elevation (always kept by Luther himself in spite of Karlstadt and most
of his colleagues), Communion, during which the Sanctus or a hymn is
sung, Collects, the blessing from Num., vi, 24-6. Except the Kyrie, all
is in German; azyme bread is still used but declared indifferent;
Communion is given under both kinds, though Luther preferred the
unmixed chalice. This service remained for a long time the basis of the
Lutheran Communion function, but the local branches of the sect from
the beginning used great freedom in modifying it. The Pietistic
movement in the eighteenth century, with its scorn for forms and still
more the present Rationalism, have left very little of Luther's scheme.
A vast number of Agendæ, Kirchenordnungen, and Prayer-books issued by
various Lutheran consistories from the sixteenth century to our own
time contain as many forms of celebrating the Lord's Supper. Pastors
use their own discretion to a great extent, and it is impossible to
foresee what service will be held in any Lutheran church. An
arrangement of hymns, Bible readings (generally the Nicene Creed), a
sermon, then the words of institution and Communion, prayers (often
extempore), more hymns, and the blessing from Num., vi, make up the
general outline of the service.
Zwingli was more radical
than Luther. In 1523 he kept a form of the Latin Mass with the omission
of all he did not like in it ("De canone missæ epichiresis" in Clemen,
op. cit., 43-7), chiefly because the town council of Zurich feared too
sudden a change, but in 1525 he overcame their scruples and issued his
"Action oder bruch (=Brauch) des nachtmals" (ibid., 47-50). This is a
complete breach with the Mass an entirely new service. On Maundy
Thursday the men and women are to receive communion, on Good Friday
those of "middle age", on Easter Sunday only the oldest (die
alleraltesten). These are the only occasions on which the service is to
be held. The arrangement is: a prayer said by the pastor facing the
people, reading of 1 Cor, xi, 20-9, Gloria in Excelsis, "The Lord be
with you" and its answer, reading of John, vi, 47-63, Apostles' Creed,
an address to the people, Lord's Prayer, extempore prayer, words of
institution, Communion (under both kinds in wooden vessels), Ps. cxiii,
a short prayer of thanksgiving; the pastor says: "Go in peace". On
other Sundays there is to be no Communion at all, but a service
consisting of prayer, Our Father, sermon, general confession,
absolution, prayer, blessing. Equally radical was the Calvinist sect.
In 1535 through Farel's influence the Mass was abolished in Geneva.
Three times a year only was there to be a commemorative Supper in the
baldestform; on other Sundays the sermon was to suffice. In 1542 Calvin
issued "La forme des prières ecclésiastiques"" (Clemen, op. cit.,
51-8), a supplement to which describes "La manière de célébrer la cène"
(ibid., 51-68). Thisrite, to be celebrated four times yearly, consists
of the reading of 1 Cor, xi, an excommunication of various kinds of
sinners, and long exhortation. "This being done, the ministers
distribute the bread and the cup to the people, taking care that they
approach reverently and in good order" (ibid., 60). Meanwhile a psalm
is sung or a lesson read from the Bible, a thanksgiving follows (ibid.,
55), and a final blessing. Except for their occurrence in the reading
of I Cor, xi, the words of institution are not said; there is no kind
of Communion form. It is hardly possible to speak of rite at all in the
Calvinist body.
The other ritual functions
kept by Protestants (baptism, confirmation as an introduction to
Communion marriage, funerals, appointment of ministers) went through
much the same development. The first Reformers expunged and modified
the old rites, then gradually more and more was changed until little
remained of a rite in our sense. Psalms, hymns, prayers, addresses to
the people in various combinations make up these functions. The
Calvinists have always been more radical than the Lutherans. The
development and multiple forms of these services may be seen in
Rietschel, "Lehrbuch der Liturgik", II, and Clemen, "Quellenbuch zur
praktischen Theologie", I (texts only). The Anglican body stands
somewhat apart from the others, inasmuch as it has a standard book,
almost unaltered since 1662. The first innovation was the introduction
of anEnglish litany under Henry VIII in 1544. Cranmer was preparing
further changes when Henry VIII died (see Procter and Frere, "A New
History of the Boo of Common Prayer" London, 1908, 29-35). Under Edward
VI (1547-53) many changes were made at once: blessings, holy water, the
creeping to the Cross were abolished, Mass was said in English (ibid.,
39-41), and in 1549 the first Prayer-book, arranged by Cranmer, was
issued. Much of the old order of the Mass remained, but the Canon
disappeared to make way for a new prayer from Lutheran sources. The
"Kölnische Kirchenordnung" composed by Melanchthon and Butzer supplied
part of the prayers. The changes are Lutheran rather than Calvinist. In
1552 the second Prayerbook took the place of the first. This is the
present Anglican Book of Common Prayer and represents a much stronger
Protestant tendency. The commandments take the place of the Introit and
Kyrie (kept in the first book), the Gloria is moved to the end, the
Consecration-prayer is changed so as to deny the Sacrifice and Real
Presence, the form at the Communion becomes: "Take and eat this in
remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on him in thy heart by
faith with thanksgiving" (similarly for the chalice). In 1558
Elizabeth's Government issued a new edition of the second Prayer-book
of Edward VI with slight modifications of its extreme Protestantism.
Both the Edwardine forms for communion are combined. In 1662 a number
of revisions were made. In particular the ordination forms received
additions defining the order to be conferred. A few slight
modifications (as to the lessons read, days no longer to be kept) have
been made since.
The Anglican Communion
service follows this order: The Lord's Prayer, Collect for purity, Ten
Commandments, Collect for the king and the one for the day, Epistle,
Gospel, Creed, sermon, certain sentences from the Bible (meanwhile a
collection is made), prayer for the Church militant, address to the
people about Communion, general confession and absolution, the
comfortable words (Matthew 11:28; John 3:16; 1 Timothy 1:15; 1 John
2:1), Preface, prayer ("We do not presume"), Consecration-prayer,
Communion at once, Lord's Prayer, Thanksgiving-prayer, "Glory be to God
on high", blessing. Very little of the arrangement of the old Mass
remains in this service, for all the ideas Protestants reject are
carefully excluded. The Boo of Common Prayer contains all the official
services of the Anglican Church, baptism, the catechism, confirmation,
marriage, funeral, ordination, articles of religion, etc. It has also
forms of morning and evening prayer, composed partly from the Catholic
Office with many modifications and very considerably reduced. The
Episcopal Church in Scotland has a Prayer-book, formed in 1637 and
revised in 1764, which is more nearly akin to the first Prayer-book of
Edward VI and is decidedly more High Church in tone. In 1789 the
Protestant Episcopal Church of America accepted a book based on the
English one of 1662, but taking some features from the Scotch services.
The Anglican service-books are now the least removed from Catholic
liturgies of those used by any Protestant body. But this is saying very
little. The Non-jurors in the eighteenth century produced a number of
curious liturgies which in many ways go back to Catholic principles,
but have the fault common to all Protestant services of being conscious
and artificial arrangements of elements selected from the old rites,
instead of natural developments (Overton, "The Non-jurors", London,
1902, ch. vi). The Irvingites have a not very-successful service-book
of this type. Many Methodists use the Anglican book; the other later
sects have for the most part nothing but loose arrangements of hymns,
readings, extempore prayers, and a sermon that can hardly be called
rites in any sense.
V. LITURGICAL LANGUAGE
The language of any Church
or rite, as distinct from the vulgar tongue, is that used in the
official services and may or may not be the common language. For
instance theRumanian Church uses liturgically the ordinary language of
the country, while Latin is used by the Latin Church for her Liturgy
without regard to the mother tongue of the clergy or congregation.
There are many cases of an intermediate state between these extremes,
in which the liturgical language is an older form of the vulgar tongue,
sometimes easily, sometimes hardly at all, understood by people who
have not studied it specially. Language is notrite. Theoretically any
rite may exist in any language. Thus the Armenian, Coptic, and East
Syrian Rites are celebrated always in one language, the Byzantine Rite
is used in a great number of tongues, and in other rites one language
sometimes enormously preponderates but is not used exclusively. This is
determined by church discipline. The Roman Liturgy is generally
celebrated in Latin. The reason why a liturgical language began to be
used and is still retained must be distinguished in liturgical science
from certain theological or mystic considerations by which its use may
be explained or justified. Each liturgical language was first chosen
because it was the natural language of the people. But languages change
and the Faith spreads into countries where other tongues are spoken.
Then either the authorities are of a more practical mind and simply
translate the prayers into the new language, or the conservative
instinct, always strong in religion, retains for the liturgy an older
language no longer used in common life. The Jews showed this instinct,
when, though Hebrew was a dead language after the Captivity, they
continued to use it in the Temple and the synagogues in the time of
Christ, and still retain it in their services. The Moslem, also
conservative, reads the Koran in classical Arabic, whether he be Turk,
Persian, or Afghan. The translation of the church service is
complicated by the difficulty of determining when the language in which
it is written, as Latin in the West and Hellenistic Greek in the East,
has ceased to be the vulgar tongue. Though theByzantine services were
translated into the common language of the Slavonic people that they
might be understood, this form of the language (Church-Slavonic) is no
longer spoken, but is gradually becoming as unintelligible as the
original Greek. Protestants make a great point of using languages
"understanded of the people", yet the language of Luther's Bible and
the Anglican Prayerbook is already archaic.
History
When Christianity appeared
Hellenistic Greek was the common language spoken around the
Mediterranean. St. Paul writes to people in Greece, Asia Minor, and
Italy in Greek. When the parent rites were finally written down in the
fourth and fifth centuries Eastern liturgical language had slightly
changed. The Greek of these liturgies (Apost. Const. VIII, St. James,
St. Mark, the Byzantine Liturgy) was that of the Fathers of the time,
strongly coloured by the Septuagint and the New Testament. These
liturgies remained in this form and have never been recast in any
modern Greek dialect. Like the text of the Bible, that of a liturgy
once fixed becomes sacred. The formulæ used Sunday after Sunday are
hallowed by too sacred associations to be changed as long as more or
less the same language is used. The common tongue drifts and develops,
but the liturgical forms are stereotyped. In the East and West,
however, there existed different principles in this matter. Whereas in
the West there was no literary language but Latin till far into the
Middle Ages, in the East there were such languages, totally unlike
Greek, that had a position, a literature, a dignity of their own hardly
inferior to that of Greek itself. In the West every educated man spoke
and wrote Latin almost to the Renaissance. To translate the Liturgy
into a Celtic or Teutonic language would have seemed as absurd as to
write a prayerbook now in some vulgar slang. The East was never
hellenized as the West was latinized. Great nations, primarily Egypt
and Syria, kept their own languages and literatures as part of their
national inheritance. The people, owing no allegiance to the Greek
language, had no reason to say their prayers in it, and the Liturgy was
translated into Coptic in Egypt, into Syriac in Syria and Palestine. So
the principle of a uniform liturgical language was broken in the East
and people were accustomed to hear the church service in different
languages in different places. This uniformity once broken never became
an ideal to Eastern Christians and the way was opened for an indefinite
multiplication of liturgical tongues.
In the fourth and fifth
centuries the Rites of Antioch and Alexandria were used in Greek in the
great towns where people spoke Greek, in Coptic or Syriac among
peasants in the country. The Rite of Asia Minor and Constantinople was
always in Greek, because here there was no rival tongue. But when the
Faith was preached in Armenia (from Cæsarea) the Armenians in taking
over the Cæsarean Rite translated it of course into their own language.
And the great Nestorian Church in East Syria, evolving her own
literature in Syriac, naturally used that language for her church
services too. This diversity of tongues was by no means parallel to
diversity of sect or religion. People who agreed entirely in faith, who
were separated by no schism, nevertheless said their prayers in
different languages. Melchites in Syria clung entirely to the Orthodox
faith of Constantinople and used the Byzantine Rite, yet used it
translated into Syriac. The process of translating the Liturgy
continued later.. After the Schism of the eleventh century, the
Orthodox Church, unlike Rome, insisted on uniformity of rite among her
members. All the Orthodox use the Byzantine Rite, yet have no idea of
one language. When the Slavs were converted the Byzantine Rite was put
into Old Slavonic for them; when Arabic became the only language spoken
in Egypt And Syria, it became the language of the Liturgy in those
countries. For a long time all the people north of Constantinople used
Old Slavonic in church, although the dialects they spoke gradually
drifted away from it. Only the Georgians, who are Slavs in no sense at
all, used their own language. In the seventeenth century as part of the
growth of Rumanian national feeling came a great insistence on the fact
that they were not Slavs either. They Wished to be counted among
Western, Latin races, so they translated their liturgical books into
their own Romance language. These represent the old classical
liturgical languages in the East.
The Monophysite Churches
have kept the old tongues even when no longer spoken; thus they use
Coptic in Egypt, Syriac in Syria, Armenian in Armenia. The Nestorians
and their daughter-Church in India (Malabar) also use Syriac. The
Orthodox have four or five chief liturgical languages: Greek, Arabic,
Church-Slavonic, and Rumanian. Georgian has almost died out. Later
Russian missions have very much increased the number. They have
translated the same Byzantine Rite into German, Esthonian, and Lettish
for the Baltic provinces Finnish and Tartar for converts in Finland and
Siberia, Eskimo, a North American Indian dialect, Chinese, and
Japanese. Hence no general principle of liturgical language can be
established for Eastern Churches, though the Nestorians and
Monophysites have evolved something like the Roman principle and kept
their old languages in the liturgy, in spite of change in common talk.
The Orthodox services are not, however, everywhere understood by the
people, for since these older versions were made language has gone on
developing. In the case of converts of a totally different race, such
as Chinese or Red Indians, there is an obvious line to cross at once
and there is no difficulty about translating what would otherwise be
totally unintelligible to them. At home the spoken language gradually
drifts away from theform stereotyped in the Liturgy, and it is
difficult to determine when the Liturgy ceases to be understood. In
more modern times with the growth of new sects the conservative
instinct of the old Churches has grown. The Greek, Arabic, and
Church-Slavonic texts are jealously kept unchanged though in all cases
they have become archaic and difficult to follow by uneducated people.
Lately the question of liturgical language has become one of the chief
difficulties in Macedonia. Especially since the Bulgarian Schism the
Phanar at Constantinople insists on Greek in church as a sign of
Hellenism, while the people clamour for Old-Slavonic or Rumanian.
In the West the whole
situation is different. Greek was first used at Rome, too. About the
third century the services were translated into the vulgar tongue,
Latin (see MASS, LITURGY OF THE), which has remained ever since. There
was no possible rival language for many centuries. As the Western
barbarians became civilized they accepted a Latin culture in
everything, having no literatures of their own. Latin was the language
of all educated people, so it was used in church, as it was for books
or even letter-writing. The Romance people drifted from Latin to
Italian, Spanish, French, etc., so gradually that no one can say when
Latin became a dead language. The vulgar tongue was used by peasants
and ignorant people only; but all books were written, lectures given,
and solemn speeches made in Latin. Even Dante (d. 1321) thought it
necessary to write an apology for Italian (De vulgari eloquentia). So
for centuries the Latin language was that, not of the Catholic Church,
but of the Roman patriarchate. When people at last realized that it was
dead, it was too late to change it. Around it had gathered the
associations of Western Christendom; the music of the Roman Rite was
composed and sung only to a Latin text; and it is even now the official
tongue of he Roman Court. The ideal of uniformity in rite extended to
language also, so when the rebels of the, sixteenth century threw over
the old language, sacred from its long use, as they threw over the
oldrite and Id laws the Catholic Church, conservative in all these
things, would not give way to them. As a bond of union among the many
nations who make up he Latin patriarchate, she retains the old Latin
tongue with one or two small exceptions. Along he Eastern coast of the
Adriatic Sea the Roman Rite has been used in Slavonic (with the
Glagolitic letters) since the eleventh century, and the Roman Mass is
said in Greek on rare occasions at Rome.
It is a question how far
one may speak of a special liturgical Latin language. The writers of
our Collects, hymns, Prefaces, etc., wrote simply in the language of
their time. The style of the various elements of the Mass and Divine
Office varies greatly according to the time at which they were written.
We have texts from the fourth or fifth to the twentieth century.
Liturgical Latin then is simply late Christian Latin of various
periods. On the other hand the Liturgy had an influence on the style of
Christian Latin writers second only to that of the Bible. First we
notice Hebraisms (per omnia soecula soeculorum), many Greek
constructions (per Dominum nostrum, meaning" for the sake of", dia) and
words (Eucharistia, litania, episcopus), expressions borrowed from
Biblical metaphors (pastor, liber proedestinationis, crucifigere
carnem, lux, vita, Agnus Dei), and words in a new Christian sense
(humilitas, compunctio, caritas). St. Jerome in his Vulgate more than
any one else helped to form liturgical style. His constructions and
phrases occur repeatedly in the non-Biblical parts of the Mass and
Office. The style of the fifth and sixth centuries (St. Leo I,
Celestine I, Gregory I) forms perhaps the main stock of our services.
The mediæval Schoolmen (St. Thomas Aquinas) and their technical
terminology have influenced much of the later parts, and the Latin of
the Renaissance is an important element that in many cases overlays the
ruder forms of earlier times. Of this Renaissance Latin many of the
Breviary lessons are typical examples; a comparison of the earlier
forms of the hymns with the improved forms drawn up by order of Urban
VIII (1623-44) will convince any one how disastrous its influence was.
The tendency to write inflated phrases has not yet stopped: almost any
modern Collect compared with the old ones in the "Gelasian
Sacramentary" will show how much we have lost of style in our
liturgical prayers.
Use of Latin
The principle of using
Latin in church is in no way fundamental. It is a question of
discipline that evolved differently in East and West, and may not be
defended as either primitive or universal. The authority of the Church
could change the liturgical language at any time without sacrificing
any important principle. The idea of a universal tongue may seem
attractive, but is contradicted by the fact that the Catholic Church
uses eight or nine different liturgical languages. Latin preponderates
as a result of the greater influence of the Roman patriarchate and its
rite, caused by the spread of Western Europeans into new lands and the
unhappy schism of so many Easterns (see Fortescue, "Orthodox Eastern
Church", 431). Uniformity of rite or liturgical language has never been
a Catholic ideal, nor was Latin chosen deliberately as a sacred
language. Had there been any such idea the language would have been
Hebrew or Greek.
The objections of
Protestants to a Latin Liturgy can be answered easily enough. An
argument often made from I Cor., xiv, 4-18, is of no value. The whole
passage treats of quite another thing, prophesying in tongues that no
one understands, not even the speaker (see 14: "For if I pray in a
tongue, my spirit prayeth but my understanding is without fruit"). The
other argument, from practical convenience, from the loss to the people
who do not understand what is being said, has some value. The Church
has never set up a mysterious unintelligible language as an ideal.
There is no principle of sacerdotal mysteries from which the layman is
shut out. In spite of the use of Latin the people have means of
understanding the service. That they might do so still better if
everything were in the vulgar tongue may be admitted, but in making
this change the loss would probably be greater than the gain.
By changing the language of
the Liturgy we should lose the principle of uniformity in the Roman
patriarchate. According to the ancient principle that rite follows
patriarchate, the Western rite should be that of the Western patriarch,
the Roman Bishop, who uses the local rite of the city of Rome. There is
a further advantage in using it in his language, so the use of Latin in
the West came about naturally and is retained through conservative
instinct. It is not so in the East. There is a great practical
advantage to travellers, whether priests or laymen, in finding their
rite exactly the same everywhere. An English priest in Poland or
Portugal could not say his Mass unless he and the server had a common
language. The use of Latin all over the Roman patriarchate is a very
obvious and splendid witness of unity. Every Catholic traveller in a
country of which he does not know the language has felt the comfort of
finding that in church at least everything is familiar and knows that
in a Catholic church of his own rite he is at home anywhere. Moreover,
the change of liturgical language would be a break with the past. It is
a witness of antiquity of which a Catholic may well be proud that in
Mass today we are still used to the very words that Anselm, Gregory,
Leo sang in their cathedrals. A change of language would also abolish
Latin chant. Plainsong, as venerable a relic of antiquity as any part
of the ritual, is composed for the Latin text only, supposes always the
Latin syllables and the Latin accent, and becomes a caricature when it
is forced into another language with different rules of accent.
These considerations of
antiquity and universal use always made proportionately (since there
are the Eastern Uniat rites) but valid for the Roman patriarchate may
well outweigh the practical convenience of using the chaos of modern
languages in the liturgy. There is also an æsthetic advantage in Latin.
The splendid dignity of the short phrases with their rhythmical accent
and terse style redolent of the great Latin Fathers, the strange beauty
of the old Latin hymns, the sonorous majesty of the Vulgate, all these
things that make the Roman Rite so dignified, so characteristic of the
old Imperial City where the Prince of the Apostles set up his throne,
would be lost altogether in modern English or French translations. The
impossibility of understanding Latin is not so great. It is not a
secret, unknown tongue, and till quite lately every educated person
understood it. It is still taught in every school. The Church does not
clothe her prayers in a secret language, but rather takes it for
granted that people understand Latin. If Catholics learned enough Latin
to follow the very easy style of the Church language all difficulty
would be solved. For those who cannot take even this trouble there is
the obvious solution of a translation. The Missal in English is one of
the easiest books to procure; the ignorant may follow in that the
prayers that lack of education prevents their understanding without it.
The liturgical languages used by Catholics are:
1. Latin in the Roman, Milanese, and Mozarabic RiteRites (except in parts of Dalmatia).
2. Greek in the Byzantine Rite (not exclusively).
3. Syriac in the Syrian, Maronite, Chaldean, and Malabar Rites.
4. Coptic in the Coptic Rite.
5. Armenian by all the Churches of that rite.
6. Arabic by the Melchites (Byzantine Rite).
7. Slavonic by Slavs of the Byzantine Rite and (in Glagolitic letters) in the Roman Rite in Dalmatia.
8. Georgian (Byzantine Rite).
9. Rumanian (Byzantine Rite).
VI. LITURGICAL SCIENCE
A. Rubrics
The most obvious and
necessary study for ecclesiastical persons is that of the laws that
regulate the performance of liturgical functions. From this point of
view liturgical study is a branch of canon law. The rules for the
celebration of the Holy Mysteries, administration of sacraments, etc.,
are part of the positive law of the Church, just as much as the laws
about benefices, church property, or fasting, and oblige those whom
they concern under pain of sin. As it is therefore the duty of persons
in Holy orders to know them, they are studied in all colleges and
seminaries as part of the training of future priests, and candidates
are examined in them before ordination. Because of its special nature
and complication liturgical science in this sense is generally treated
apart from the rest of canon law and is joined to similar practical
matters (such as preaching, visiting the sick, etc.) to make up the
science of pastoral theology. The sources from which it is learned are
primarily the rubrics of the liturgical books (the Missal, Breviary,
and Ritual). There are also treatises which explain and arrange these
rubrics, adding to them from later decrees of the S. Congregation of
Rites. Of these Martinucci has not yet been displaced as the most
complete and authoritative, Baldeschi has long been a favourite and has
been translated intoEnglish, De Herdt is a good standard book, quite
sound and clear as far as it goes but incomplete, Le Vavasseur is
perhaps the most practical for general purposes.
B. History
The development of the
various rites, their spread and mutual influence, the origin of each
ceremony, etc., form a part of church history whose importance is
becoming more and more realized. For practical purposes all a priest
need know are the present rules that affect the services he has to
perform, as in general the present laws of the Church are all we have
to obey. But just as the student of history needs to know the decrees
of former synods, even if abrogated since, as he studies the history of
earlier times and remote provinces of the Church, because it is from
these that he must build up his conception of her continuous life, so
the liturgical student will not be content with knowing only what
affects him now, but is prompted to examine the past to inquire into
the origin of our presentrite and study other rites too as expressions
of the life of the Church in other lands. The history of the liturgies
that deeply affect the life of Christians in many ways, that are the
foundation of many other objects of study (architecture, art, music,
etc.) is no inconsiderable element of church history. In a sense this
study is comparatively new and not yet sufficiently organized though to
some extent it has always accompanied the practical study of liturgy.
The great mediæval liturgists were not content with describing the
rites of their own time. They suggested historical reasons for the
various ceremonies and contrasted other practices with those of their
own Churches. Benedict XIV's treatise on the Mass discusses the origin
of each element of the Latin liturgy. This and other books of
seventeenth and eighteenth-century liturgiologists are still standard
works. So also in lectures and works on liturgy in our first sense it
has always been the custom to add historical notes on the origin of the
ceremonies and prayers.
But the interest in the
history of liturgy for its own sake and the systematic study of early
documents is a comparatively new thing. In this science England led the
way and still takes the foremost place. It followed the Oxford Movement
as part of the revived interest in the early Church among Anglicans. W.
Palmer (Origines liturgicæ) and J. M. Neale in his various works are
among those who gave the first impulse to this movement. The Catholic
Daniel Rock ("Hierurgia" and "The Church of our Fathers") further
advanced it. It has now a large school of followers. F.C. Brightman's
edition of "Eastern Liturgies" is the standard one used everywhere. The
monumental editions of the "Gelasian Sacramentary" by H.A. Wilson and
the "Leonine Sacramentary" by C. L. Feltoe, the various essays and
discussions by E. Bishop, C. Atchley, and many others keep up the
English standard. In France Dom Guéranger (L'année liturgique) and his
school of Benedictines opened a new epoch. Mgr Duchesne supplied a
long-felt want with his "Origines du suite chrétien", Dom Cabral and
Dom Leclereq ("Mon. eccl. lit.", etc., especially the monumental "Dict.
d'arch. chrét. et de liturgie") have advanced to the first place among
modern authorities on historical liturgy. From Germany we have the
works of H. Daniel (Codex lit. eccl. universæ), Probst, Thalhofer,
Gihr, and a school of living students (Drews, Rietschel, Baumstark,
Buchwald, Rauschen). In Italy good work is being done by Semeria,
Bonaccorsi, and others. Nevertheless the study of liturgy hardly yet
takes the place it deserves in the education of church students.
Besides the practical instruction that forms a part of pastoral
theology, lectures on liturgical history would form a valuable element
of the course of church history. As part of such a course other rites
would be considered and compared. There is a fund of deeper
understanding of the Roman Rite to be drawn from its comparison with
others, Gallican or Eastern. Such instruction in liturgiology should
include some notion of ecclesiology in general, the history and
comparison ofchurch planning and architecture, of vestments and church
music. The root of all these things in different countries is the
liturgies they serve and adorn.
Dogmatic Value
The dogmatic and apologetic
value of liturgical science is a very important consideration to the
theologian. It must, of course, be used reasonably. No Church intends
to commit herself officially to every statement and implication
contained in her official books, any more than she is committed to
everything said by her Fathers. For instance, the Collect for St.
Juliana Falconieri (19 June) in the Roman Rite refers to the story of
her miraculous communion before her death, told at length in the sixth
lesson of her Office, but the truth of that story is not part of the
Catholic Faith. Liturgies give us arguments from tradition even more
valuable than those from the Fathers, for these statements have been
made by thousands of priests day after day for centuries. A consensus
of liturgies is, therefore, both in space and time a greater witness of
agreement than a consensus of Fathers, for as a general principle it is
obvious that people in their prayers say only what they believe. This
is the meaning of the well known axiom: Lex orandi lex credendi. The
prayers for the dead, the passages in which God is asked to accept this
Sacrifice, the statements of the Real Presence in the oldest liturgies
are unimpeachable witnesses of the Faith of the early Church as to
these points. The Bull of Pius IX on the Immaculate Conception
("Ineffabilis Deus", 8 Dec., 1854) contains a classical example of this
argument from liturgy. Indeed there are few articles of faith that
cannot be established or at least confirmed from liturgies. The
Byzantine Office for St. Peter and St. Paul (29 June) contains plain
statements about Roman primacy. The study of liturgy from this point of
view is part of dogmatic theology. Of late years especially dogmatic
theologians have given much attention to it. Christian Pesch, S.J., in
his "Prælectiones theologiæ dogmaticæ" (9 vols., Freiburg i. Br.)
quotes the liturgical texts for the theses as part of the argument from
tradition. There are then these three aspects under which liturgiology
should be considered by a Catholic theologian, as an element of canon
law, church history, and dogmatic theology. The history of its study
would take long to tell. There have been liturgiologists through all
the centuries of Christian theology. Briefly the state of this science
at various periods is this:
Liturgiologists in the
Ante-Nicene period, such as Justin Martyr, composed or wrote down
descriptions of ceremonies performed, but made no examination of the
sources of rites. In the fourth and fifth centuries the scientific
study of the subject began. St. Ambrose's "Liber de Mysteriis" (P. L.,
XVI, 405-26) the anonymous (pseudo-Ambrose) "De Sacramentis" (P. L.,
XVI, 435-82), various treatises by St. Jerome (e.g., "Contra
Vigilantium" in P. L., XXIII, 354-367) and St. Augustine, St. Cyril of
Jerusalem's "Catechetical Instructions" (P. L., XXXIII, 331-1154) and
the famous "Peregrinatio Silvæ" (in the "Corpus script. eccl. Latin. of
Vienna: "Itinera hierosolymitana", 35-101) represent in various degrees
the beginning of an examination of liturgical texts. From the sixth to
the eighth centuries we have valuable texts (the Sacramentaries and
Ordines) and a liturgical treatise of St. Isidore of Seville ("De eccl.
officiis" in P. L., LXXXIII). The Carlovingian revival of the eighth
and ninth centuries began the long line of medieval liturgiologists.
Alcuin (P. L., C-CI), Amalarius of Metz (P. L., XCIX, CV), Agobard (P.
L., CIV), Florus of Lyons (P. L., CXlX, 15-72), Rabanus Maurus (P. L.,
CVII-CXII), and Walafrid Strabo (P. L., CXIV, 916--66) form at this
time a galaxy of liturgical scholars of the first importance. In the
eleventh century Berno of Constance ("Micrologus" in P. L., CLI,
974-1022), in the twelfth Rupert of Deutz ("De divinis officiis" in P.
L., CLXX, 9-334), Honorius of Autun ("Gemma animæ" and "De Sacramentis"
in P. L., CLXXII), John Beleth ("Rationale div. offic." in P. L., CCII,
9-166), and Beroldus of Milan (ed. Magistretti, Milan, 1894) carry on
the tradition. In the thirteenth century see DURANDUS) is the most
famous of all the William Durandus of Mende ("Rationale div. medieval
liturgiologists. There is then a break till the sixteenth century. The
discussions of the Reformation period called people's attention again
to liturgies, either as defenses of the old Faith or as sources for the
compilation of reformed services.
From this time editions of
the old rites were made for students, with commentaries. J. Clichtove
("Elucidatorium eccl.", Paris, 1516) and J. Cochlæus ("Speculum ant.
devotionis", Mainz, 1549) were the first editors of this kind. Claude
de Sainctes, Bishop of Evreux, published a similar collection
("Liturgiæ sive missæ ss. Patrum", Antwerp, 1562). Pamelius's
"Liturgies. latin." (Cologne, 1571) is a valuable edition of Roman,
Milanese, and Mozarabic texts. Melchior Hittorp published a collection
of old commentaries on the liturgy ("De Cath. eccl. div. offic."
Cologne, 1568) which was re-edited in Bigne's "Bibl. vet. Patrum.", X
(Paris, 1610). The seventeenth century opened a great period. B.
Gavanti ("Thesaurus sacr. rituum", re-edited by Merati, Rome, 1736-8)
and H. Menard, O.S.B. ("Sacramentarium Gregorianum" in P. L., LXXVIII)
began a new line of liturgiologists. J. Goar, O.P. ("Euchologion",
Paris, 1647), and Leo Allatius in his various dissertations did great
things for the study of Eastern rites. The Oratorian J. Morin ("Comm.
hist. de disciplina in admin. Sac. Poen." Paris 1651, and "Comm. de
sacris eccl. ordinationibus", Paris, 1655). Cardinal John Bons ("Rerum
lit. libri duo", Rome, 1671), Card. Tommasi ("Codices sacramentorum",
Rome, 1680; "Antiqui libri missarum", Rome, 1691), J. Mabillon, O.S.B.
("Musæum Italicum" Paris 1687-9), E. Martène, O.S.B. (" De ant. eccl.
ritibus; Antwerp, 1736-8), represent the highest point of liturgical
study. Dom Claude de Vert wrote a series of treatises on liturgical
matters. In the eighteenth century the most important names are:
Benedict XIV ("De SS. Sacrificio Missæ", republished at Mainz, 1879),
E. Renaudot ("Lit. orient. collectio", Paris, 1716), the four Assemani,
Maronites ("Kalendaria eccl. universæ", Rome, 1755; "Codex lit. eccl.
universæ", Rome, 1749-66, etc.) Muratori ("Liturgia romana vetus",
Venice, 1748). So we come to the revival of the nineteenth century, Dom
Guéranger and the modern authors already mentioned.
ADRIAN FORTESCUE
BENEDICTINE RITE
The only important rite
peculiar to the Benedictine Order is the Benedictine Breviary
(Breviarium Monasticum). St. Benedict devotes thirteen chapters
(viii-xx), of his rule to regulating the canonical hours for his monks,
and the Benedictine Breviary is the outcome of this regulation. It is
used not only by the so-called Black Benedictines, but also by the
Cistercians, Olivetans, and all those orders that have the Rule of St.
Benedict as their basis. The Benedictines are not at liberty to
substitute the Roman for the Monastic Breviary; by using the Roman
Breviary they would not satisfy their obligation of saying the Divine
Office. Each congregation of Benedictines has its own ecclesiastical
calendar.
MICHAEL OTT
CARMELITE RITE
The rite in use among the
Carmelites since about the middle of the twelfth century is known by
the name of the Rite of the Holy Sepulchre, the Carmelite Rule, which
was written about the year 1210, ordering the hermits of Mount Carmel
to follow the approved custom of the Church, which in this instance
meant the Patriarchal Church of Jerusalem: "Hi qui litteras noverunt et
legere psalmos, per singulas horas eos dicant qui ex institutione
sanctorum patrum et ecelesiæ approbata consuetudine ad horas singulas
sunt deputati." ThisRite of the Holy Sepulchre belonged to the Gallican
family of the Roman Rite; it appears to have descended directly from
the Parisian Rite, but to have undergone some modifications pointing to
other sources. For, in the Sanctorale we find influences of Angers, in
the proses traces of meridional sources, while the lessons and prayers
on Holy Saturday are purely Roman. The fact is that most of the clerics
who accompanied the Crusaders were of French nationality; some even
belonged to the Chapter of Paris, as is proved by documentary evidence.
Local influence, too, played an important part. The Temple itself, the
Holy Sepulchre, the vicinity of the Mount of Olives, of Bethany, of
Bethlehem, gave rise to magnificent ceremonies, connecting the
principal events of the ecclesiastical year with the very localities
where the various episodes of the work of Redemption has taken place.
The rite is known to us by means of some manuscripts one (Barberini 659
of A. D. 1160) in the Vatican library, another at Barletta, described
by Kohler (Revue de I'Orient Latin, VIII, 1900-01, pp. 383-500) and by
him ascribed to about 1240.
The hermits on Mount Carmel
were bound by rule only to assemble once a day for the celebration of
Mass, the Divine Office being recited privately. Lay brothers who were
able to read might recite the Office, while others repeated the Lord's
Prayer a certain number of times, according to the length and solemnity
of the various offices. It may be presumed that on settling in Europe
(from about A. D. 1240) the Carmelites conformed to the habit of the
other mendicant orders with respect to the choral recitation or chant
of the Office, and there is documentary evidence that on Mount Carmel
itself the choral recitation was in force at least in 1254. The General
Chapter of 1259 passed a number of regulations on liturgical matters,
but, owing to the loss of the acts, their nature is unfortunately not
known. Subsequent chapters very frequently dealt with the rite chiefly
adding new feasts, changing old established customs, or revising
rubrics. An Ordinal, belonging to the second half of the thirteenth
century, is preserved at Trinity College, Dublin, while portions of an
Epistolarium of about 1270 are at the Maglia, becchiana at Florence
(D6, 1787). The entire Ordinal was rearranged and revised in 1312 by
Master Sibert de Beka, and rendered obligatory by the General Chapter,
but it experienced some difficulty in superseding the old one.
Manuscripts of it are preserved at Lambeth (London), Florence, and else
where. It remained in force until 1532, when a (committee was appointed
for its revision; their work was approved in 1539, but published only
in 1544 after the then General Nicholas Audet had introduced some
further changes. The, reform of the Roman liturgical books under St.
Pius V called for a corresponding reform of the Carmelite Rite, which
was taken in hand in 1580, the Breviary appearing in 1584 and the
Missal in 1587. At the same time the Holy See withdrew the right
hitherto exercised by the chapters and the generals of altering the
liturgy of the order, and placed all such matters in the hands of the
Sacred Congregation of Rites. The publication of the Reformed Breviary
of 1584 caused the newly established Discaleed Carmelites to abandon
the ancient rite once for all and to adopt the Roman Rite instead.
Besides the various manuscripts of the Ordinal already mentioned, we
have examined a large number of manuscript missals and breviaries
preserved in public and private libraries in the United Kingdom,
France, Italy, Spain, and other countries. We have seen most of the
early prints of the Missal enumerated by Weale, as well as some not
mentioned by him, and the breviaries of 1480, 1490, 1504, 1516 (Horæ),
1542, 1568, 1575, and 1579.
Roughly speaking, the
ancient Carmelite Rite may be said to stand about half way between the
Carthusian and the Dominican rites. It shows signs of great antiquity
-- e.g. in the absence of liturgical colours, in the sparing use of
altar candles (one at low Mass, none on the altar itself at high Mass
but only acolytes' torches, even these being extinguished during part
of the Mass, four torches and one candle in choir for Tenebræ);
incense, likewise, is used rarely and with noteworthy restrictions; the
Blessing at the end of the Mass is only permitted where the custom of
the country requires it; passing before the tabernacle, the brethren
are directed to make a profound inclination, not a genuflexion. Many
other features might be quoted to show that the whole rite points to a
period of transition. Already according to the earliest Ordinal
Communion is given under one species, the days of general Communion
being seven, later on ten or twelve a year with leave for more frequent
Communion under certain conditions. Extreme Unction was administered on
the eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, both hands (the palms, with no
distinction between priests and others) and the feet superius. The
Ordinal of 1312 on the contrary orders the hands to be anointed
exterius, but also without distinction for the priests; it moreover
adds another anointing on the breast (super pectus: per ardorem
libidinis).
In the Mass there are some
peculiarities. the altar remains covered until the priest and ministers
are ready to begin, when the acolytes then roll back the cover;
likewise before the end of the Mass they cover the altar again. On
great feasts the Introit is said three times, i.e. it is repeated both
before and after the Gloria Patri; besides the Epistle and Gospel there
is a lesson or prophecy to be recited by an acolyte. At the Lavabo the
priest leaves the altar for the piscina where he says that psalm, or
else Veni Creator Spiritus or Deus misereatur. Likewise after the first
ablution he goes to the piscina to wash his fingers. During the Canon
of the Mass the deacon moves a fan to keep the flies away, a custom
still in use in Sicily and elsewhere. At the word fregit in the form of
consecration, the priest, according to the Ordinal of 1312 and later
rubrics, makes a movement as if breaking the host. Great care is taken
that the smoke of the thurible and of the torches do not interfere with
the clear vision of the host when lifted up for the adoration of the
faithful; the chalice, however, is only slightly elevated. The
celebrating priest does not genuflect but bows reverently. After the
Pater Noster the choir sings the psalm Deus venerunt genies for the
restoration of the Holy Land. The prayers for communion are identical
with those of the Sarum Rite and other similar uses, viz. domine sancte
pater, Domine Jesu Christe (as in the Roman Rite), and Salve salus
mundi. The Domine non sum dignus was introduced only in 1568. The Mass
ended with Dominus vobiscum, Ite missa est (or its equivalent) and
Placeat. The chapter of 1324 ordered the Salve regina to be said at the
end of each canonical hour as well as at the end of the Mass. The Last
Gospel, which in both ordinals serves for the priest's thanksgiving,
appears in the Missal of 1490 as an integral part of the Mass. On
Sundays and feasts there was, besides the festival Mass after Terce or
Sext, an early Mass (matutina) without solemnities, corresponding to
the commemorations of the Office. From Easter till Advent the Sunday
Mass was therefore celebrated early in the morning, the high Mass being
that of the Resurrection of our Lord; similarly on these Sundays the
ninth lesson with its responsory was taken from one of the Easter days;
these customs had been introduced soon after the conquest of the Holy
Land. A solemn commemoration of the Resurrection was held on the last
Sunday before Advent; in all other respects the Carmelite Liturgy
reflects more especially the devotion of the order towards the Blessed
Virgin.
The Divine Office also
presents some noteworthy features. The first Vespers of certain feasts
and the Vespers during Lent have a responsory usually taken from
Matins. Compline has various hymns according to the season, and also
special antiphons for the Canticle. The lessons at Matins follow a
somewhat different plan from those of the Roman Office. The singing of
the genealogies of Christ after Matins on Christmas and the Epiphany
gave rise to beautiful ceremonies. After Tenebræ in Holy Week (sung at
midnight) we notice the chant of the Tropi; all the Holy Week services
present interesting archaic features. Other points to be mentioned are
the antiphons Pro fidei meritis etc. on the Sundays from Trinity to
Advent and the verses after the psalms on Trinity, the feasts of St.
Paul, and St. Laurence. The hymns are those of the Roman Office; the
proses appear to be a uniform collection which remained practically
unchanged from the thirteenth century to 1544, when all but four or
five were abolished. The Ordinal prescribes only four processions in
the course of the year, viz. on Candlemas, Palm Sunday, the Ascension,
and the Assumption.
The calendar of saints, in
the two oldest recensions of the Ordinal, exhibits some feasts proper
to the Holy Land, namely some of the early bishops of Jerusalem, the
Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Lazarus. The only special
features were the feast of St. Anne, probably due to the fact that the
Carmelites occupied for a short time a convent dedicated to her in
Jerusalem (vacated by Benedictine nuns at the capture of that city in
1187), and the octave of the Nativity of Our Lady, which also was
proper to the order. In the works mentioned below we have given the
list of feasts added in the course of three centuries, and shall here
speak only of a few. The Chapter of 1306 introduced those of St. Louis,
Barbara, Corpus Christi, and the Conception of Our Lady (in Conceptione
seu potius veneratione sanctificationis B. V.); the Corpus Christi
procession, however, dates only from the end of the fifteenth century.
In 1312 the second part of the Confiteor, which till then had been very
short, was introduced. Daily commemorations of St. Anne and Sts. Albert
and Angelus date respectively from the beginning and the end of the
fifteenth century, but were transferred in 1503 from the canonical
Office to the Little Office of Our Lady. The feast of the "Three
Maries" dates from 1342, those of the Visitation, of Our Lady ad nives,
and the Presentation from 1391. Feasts of the order were first
introduced towards the end of the fourteenth century -- viz. the
Commemoration (Scapular Feast) of 16 July appears first about 1386; St.
Eliseus, prophet and St. Cyril of Constantinople in 1399; St. Albert in
1411; St. Angelus in 1456. Owing to the printing of the first Breviary
of the order at Brussels in 1480, a number of territorial feasts were
introduced into the order, such as St. Joseph, the Ten Thousand
Martyrs, the Division of the Apostles. The raptus of St. Elias (17
June) is first to be found in the second half of the fifteenth century
in England and Germany; the feast of the Prophet (20 July) dates at the
earliest from 1551. Some general chapters, especially those of 1478 and
1564, added whole lists of saints, partly of real or supposed saints of
the order, partly of martyrs whose bodies were preserved in various
churches belonging to the Carmelites, particularly that of San Martino
ai Monti in Rome. The revision of 1584 reduced the Sanctorale to the
smallest possible dimensions, but many feasts then suppressed were
afterwards reintroduced.
A word must be added about
the singing. The Ordinal of 1312 allows fauxbourdon, at least on solemn
occasions; organs and organists are mentioned with ever-increasing
frequency from the first years of the fifteenth century, the earliest
notice being that of Mathias Johannis de Lucca, who in 1410 was elected
organist at Florence; the organ itself was a gift of Johannes Dominici
Bonnani, surnamed Clerichinus, who died at an advanced age on 24 Oct.,
1416.
BENEDICT ZIMMERMAN
CISTERCIAN RITE
This rite is to be found in
the liturgical books of the order. The collection, composed of fifteen
books, was made by the General Chapter of Cîteaux, most probably in
1134; they are now included in the Missal, Breviary, Ritual, and
calendar, or Martyrology. When Pius V ordered the entire Church to
conform to the Roman Missal and Breviary, he exempted the Cistercians
from this law, because their rite had been more than 400 years in
existence. Under Claude Vaussin, General of the Cistercians (in the
middle of the seventeenth century), several reforms were made in the
liturgical books of the order, and were approved by Alexander VII,
Clement IX, and Clement XIII. These approbations were confirmed by Pius
IX on 7 Feb., 1871, for the Cistercians of the Common as well as for
those of the Strict Observance. The Breviary is quite different from
the Roman, as it follows exactly the prescriptions of the Rule of St.
Benedict, with a very few minor additions. St. Benedict wished the
entire Psalter recited each week; twelve psalms are to be said at
Matins when there are but two Nocturns; when there is a third Nocturn,
it is to be composed of three divisions of a canticle, there being in
this latter case always twelve lessons. Three psalms or divisions of
psalms are appointed for Prime, the Little Hours, and Compline (in this
latter hour the "Nunc dimittis" is never said), and always four psalms
for Vespers. Many minor divisions and directions are given in St.
Benedict's Rule.
In the old missal before
the reform of Claude Vaussin, there were wide divergences between the
Cistercian and Roman rites. The psalm "Judica" was not said, but in its
stead was recited the "Veni Creator"; the "Indulgentiam" was followed
by the "Pater" and "Ave", and the "Oramus te Domine" was omitted in
kissing the altar. After the "Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum", the
"Agnus Dei" was said thrice, and was followed immediately by "Hæc
sacrosancta commixtio corporis", said by the priest while placing the
small fragment of the Sacred Host in the chalice; then the "Domine Jesu
Christe, Fili Dei Vivi" was said, but the "Corpus Tuum" and "Quod ore
sumpsimus" were omitted. The priest said the "Placeat" as now, and then
"Meritis et precibus istorum et onmium sanctorum. Suorum misereatur
nostri Omnipotens Dominus. Amen", while kissing the altar; with the
sign of the Cross the Mass was ended. Outside of some minor exceptions
in the wording and conclusions of various prayers, the other parts of
the Mass were the same as in the Roman Rite. Also in some Masses of the
year the ordo was different; for instance, on Palm Sunday the Passion
was only said at the high Mass, at the other Masses a special gospel
only being said. However, since the time of Claude Vaussin the
differences from the Roman Mass are insignificant.
In the calendar there are
relatively few feasts of saints or other modern feasts, as none were
introduced except those especially prescribed by Rome for the
Cistercian Order; this was done in order to adhere as closely as
possible to the spirit of St. Benedict in prescribing the weekly
recitation of the Psalter. The divisions of the feasts are: major or
minor feast of sermon; major or minor feast of two Masses; feast of
twelve lessons and Mass; feast of three lessons and Mass; feast of
commemoration and Mass; then merely a commemoration; and finally the
feria.
The differences in the
ritual are very small. As regards the last sacraments, Extreme Unction
is given before the Holy Viaticum, and in Extreme Unction the word
"Peccasti" is used instead of the "Deliquisti" in the Roman Ritual. In
the Sacrament of Penance a shorter form of absolution may be used in
ordinary confessions.
EDMOND M. OBRECHT
A name denoting the distinctive ceremonies embodied in the privileged liturgical books of the Order of Preachers.
(a) Origin and development
The question of a special
unified rite for the order received no official attention in the time
of St. Dominic, each province sharing in the general liturgical
diversities prevalent throughout the Church at the time of the order's
confirmation (1216). Hence, each province and often each convent had
certain peculiarities in the text and in the ceremonies of the Holy
Sacrifice and the recitation of the Office. The successors of St.
Dominic were quick to recognize the impracticability of such conditions
and soon busied themselves in an effort to eliminate the embarrassing
distinctions. They maintained that the safety of a basic principle of
community life unity of prayer and worship-was endangered by this
conformity with different diocesan conditions. This belief was
impressed upon them more forcibly by the confusion that these
liturgical diversities occasioned at the general chapters of the order
where brothers from every province were assembled.
The first indication of an
effort to regulate liturgical conditions was manifested by Jordan of
Saxony, the successor of St. Dominic. In the Constitutions (1228)
ascribed to him are found several rubrics for the recitation of the
Office. These insist more on the attention with which the Office should
be said than on the qualifications of the liturgical books. However, it
is said that Jordan took some steps in the latter direction and
compiled one Office for universal use. Though this is doubtful, it is
certain that his efforts were of little practical value, for the
Chapters of Bologna (1240) and Paris (1241) allowed each convent to
conform with the local rites. The first systematic attempt at reform
was made under the direction of John the Teuton, the fourth master
general of the order. At his suggestion the Chapter of Bologna (1244)
asked the delegates to bring to the next chapter (Cologne, 1245) their
special rubrics for the recitation of the Office, their Missals,
Graduals, and Antiphonaries, "pro concordando officio". To bring some
kind of order out of chaos a commission was appointed consisting of
four members, one each from the Provinces of France, England, Lombardy,
and Germany, to carry out the revision at Angers. They brought the
result of their labours to the Chapter of Paris (1246), which approved
the compilation and ordered its exclusive use by the whole Order. This
same chapter approved the "Lectionary" which had been entrusted to
Humbert of Romains for revision. The work of the commission was again
approved by the Chapters of Montepulciano (1247) and Paris (1248).
But dissatisfaction with
the work of the commission was felt on all sides, especially with their
interpretation of the rubrics. They had been hurried in their work, and
had left too much latitude for local customs. The question was reopened
and the Chapter of London (1250) asked the commission to reassemble at
Metz and revise their work in the light of the criticisms that had been
made; the result of this revision was approved at the Chapters of Metz
(1251) and Bologna (1252) and its use made obligatory for the whole
order. It was also ordained that one copy of the liturgical books
should be placed at Paris and one at Bologna, from which the books for
the other convents should be faithfully copied. However, it was
recognized that these books were not entirely perfect, and that there
was room for further revision. Though this work was done under the
direction of John the Teuton, the brunt of the revision fell to the lot
of Humbert of Romains, then provincial of the Paris Province. Humbert
was elected Master General of the Chapter of Buda (1254) and was asked
to direct his attention to the question of the order's liturgical
books. He subjected each of them to a most thorough revision, and after
two years submitted his work to the Chapter of Paris (1256). This and
several subsequent chapters endorsed the work, effected legislation
guarding against corruption, constitutionally recognized the authorship
of Humbert, and thus once and for all settled a commonrite for the
Order of Preachers throughout the world.
(b) Preservation
Clement IV, through the
general, John of Vercelli, issued a Bull in 1267 in which he lauded the
ability and zeal of Humbert and forbade the making of any changes
without the proper authorization. Subsequent papal regulation went much
further towards preserving the integrity of the rite. Innocent XI and
Clement XII prohibited the printing of the books without the permission
of the master general and also ordained that no member of the order
should presume to use in his fulfilment of the choral obligation any
book not bearing the seal of the general and a reprint of the
pontifical Decrees. Another force preservative of the special Dominican
Rite was the Decree of Pius V (1570), imposing a common rite on the
universal Church but excepting those rites which had been approved for
two hundred years. This exception gave to the Order of Friars Preachers
the privilege of maintaining its old rite, a privilege which the
chapters of the order sanctioned and which the members of the order
gratefully accepted. It must not be thought that the rite has come down
through the ages absolutely without change. Some slight corruptions
crept in despite the rigid legislation to the contrary. Then new feasts
have been added with the permission of the Roman Pontiffs and many new
editions of the liturgical books have been printed. Changes in the
text, when they have been made, have always been effected with the idea
of eliminating arbitrary mutilations and restoring the books to a
perfect conformity with the old exemplars at Paris and Bologna. Such
were the reforms of the Chapters of Salamanca (1551), Rome (1777), and
Ghent (1871). Several times movements have been started with the idea
of conforming with the Roman Rite; but these have always been defeated,
and the order still stands in possession of the rite conceded to it by
Pope Clement in 1267.
(c) Sources of the rite
To determine the sources of
the Dominican Rite is to come face to face with the haze and
uncertainty that seems to shroud most liturgical history. The
thirteenth century knew no unified Roman Rite. While the basis of the
usages of north-western Europe was a Gallicanized-Gregorian
Sacramentary sent by Adrian I to Charlemagne, each little locality had
its own peculiar distinctions. At the time of the unification of the
Dominican Rite most of the convents of the order were embraced within
the territory in which the old Gallican Rite had once obtained and in
which the Gallico-Roman Rite then prevailed. Jordan of Saxony, the
pioneer in liturgical reform within the a order, greatly admired the
Rite of the Church Paris and frequently assisted at the recitations of
the Office at Notre-Dame. Humbert of Romains, who played so important a
part in the work of unification, was the provincial of the French
Province. These facts justify the opinion that the basis of the
Dominican Rite was the typical Gallican Rite of the thirteenth century.
But documentary evidence that the rite was adapted from any one
locality is lacking. The chronicles of the order state merely that the
rite is neither the pure Roman nor the pure Gallican, but based on the
Roman usage of the thirteenth century, with additions from the Rites of
Paris and other places in which the order existed. Just from where
these additions were obtained and exactly what they were cannot be
determined, except in a general way, from an examination of each
distinctive feature.
Two points must be
emphasized here: (1) the Dominican Rite is not an arbitrary elaboration
of the Roman Rite made against the spirit of the Church or to give the
order an air of exclusiveness, nor can it be said to be more
gallicanized then any use of the Gallico-Roman Rite of that period. It
was an honest and sincere attempt to harmonize and simplify the widely
divergent usages of the early half of the thirteenth century. (2) The
Dominican Rite, formulated by Humbert, saw no radical development after
its confirmation by Clement IV. When Pius V made his reform, the
Dominican Rite had been fixed and stable for over three hundred years,
while a constant liturgical change had been taking place in other
communities. Furthermore the comparative simplicity of the Dominican
Rite, as manifested in the different liturgical books, gives evidence
of its antiquity.
(d) Liturgical books
The rite compiled by
Humbert contained fourteen books: (1) the Ordinary, which was a sort of
an index to the Divine Office, the Psalms, Lessons, Antiphons, and
Chapters being indicated by their first words. (2) The Martyrology, an
amplified calendar of martyrs and other saints. (3) The Collectarium, a
book for the use of the hebdomidarian, which contained the texts and
the notes for the prayers, chapters, and blessings. (4) The
Processional, containing the hymns (text and music) for the
processions. (5) The Psalterium, containing merely the Psalter. (6) The
Lectionary, which contained the Sunday homilies, the lessons from
Sacred Scripture and the lives of the saints. (7) The Antiphonary,
giving the text and music for the parts of the Office sung outside of
the Mass. (8) The Gradual, which contained the words and the music for
the parts of the Mass sung by the choir. (9) The Conventual Missal, for
the celebration of solemn Mass. (10) The Epistolary, containing the
Epistles for the Mass and the Office. (11) The Book of Gospels. (12)
The Pulpitary, which contained the musical notation for the Gloria
Patri, the Invitatory, Litanies, Tracts, and the Alleluia. (13) The
Missal for a private Mass. (14) The Breviary, a compilation from all
the books used in the choral recitation of the Office, very much
reduced in size for the convenience of travellers.
By a process of elimination
and synthesis undergone so by the books of the Roman Rite many of the
books of Humbert have become superfluous while several others have been
formed. These add nothing to the original text, but merely provide for
the Addition of feasts and the more convenient recitation of the
office. The collection of the liturgical books now contains: (1)
Martyrology; (2) Collectarium; (3) Processional; (4) Antiphonary; (5)
Gradual; (6) Missal for the conventual Mass; (7) Missal for the private
Mass; (8) Breviary; (9) Vesperal; (10) Horæ Diurnæ (11) Ceremonial. The
contents of these books follow closely the books of the same name
issued by Humbert and which have just been described. The new ones are:
(1) the Horæ Diurnæ (2) the Vesperal (with notes), adaptations from the
Breviary and the Antiphonary respectively (3) the Collectarium, which
is a compilation from all the rubrics scattered throughout the other
books. With the exception of the Breviary, these books are similar in
arrangment to the correspondingly named books of the Roman Rite. The
Dominican Breviary is divided into two parts: Part I, Advent to
Trinity; Part II, Trinity to Advent.
(e) Distinctive marks of the Dominican Rite
Only the most striking
differences between the Dominican Rite and the Roman need be mentioned
here. The most important is in the manner of celebrating a low Mass.
The celebrant in the Dominican Rite wears the amice over his head until
the beginning of Mass, and prepares the chalice as soon as he reaches
the altar. The Psalm "Judica me Deus" is not said and the Confiteor,
much shorter than the Roman, contains the name of St. Dominic. The
Gloria and the Credo are begun at the centre of the altar and finished
at the Missal. At the Offertory there is a simultaneous oblation of the
Host and the chalice and only one prayer, the "Suscipe Sancta
Trinitas". The Canon of the Mass is the same as the Canon of the Roman
Rite, but after it are several noticeable differences. The Dominican
celebrant says the "Agnus Dei" immediately after the "Pax Domini" and
then recites three prayers "Hæc sacrosancta commixtio" "Domine Jesu
Christe", and "Corpus et sanguis" Then follows the Communion, the
priest receiving the Host from his left hand. No prayers are said at
the consumption of the Precious Blood, the first prayer after the
"Corpus et Sanguis" being the Communion. These are the most noticeable
differences in the celebration of a low Mass. In a solemn Mass the
chalice is prepared just after the celebrant has read the Gospel,
seated at the Epistle side of the sanctuary. The chalice is brought
from the altar to the place where the celebrant is seated by the
sub-deacon, who pours the wine and water into it and replaces it on the
altar.
The Dominican Breviary
differs but slightly from the Roman. The Offices celebrated are of
seven classes:--of the season (de tempore), of saints (de sanctis), of
vigils, of octaves, votive Offices, Office of the Blessed Virgin, and
Office of the Dead. In point of dignity the feasts are classified as
"totum duplex", "duplex" "simplex" "of three lessons", and "of a
memory". The ordinary "totum duplex" feast is equivalent to the Roman
greater double. A "totum duplex" with an ordinary octave (a simple or a
solemn octave) is equal to the second-class double of the Roman Rite,
and a "totum duplex" with a most solemn octave is like the Roman
first-class double. A "duplex" feast is equivalent to the lesser double
and the "simplex" to the semi-double. There is no difference in the
ordering of the canonical hours, except that all during Paschal time
the Dominican Matins provide for only three psalms and three lessons
instead of the customary nine psalms and nine lessons. The Office of
the Blessed Virgin must be said on all days on which feasts of the rank
of duplex or "totum duplex" are not celebrated. The Gradual psalms must
be said on all Saturdays on which is said the votive Office of the
Blessed Virgin. The Office of the Dead must be said once a week except
during the week following Easter and the week following Pentecost.
Other minor points of difference are the manner of making the
commemorations, the text of the hymns, the Antiphons, the lessons of
the common Offices and the insertions of special feasts of the order.
There is no great distinction between the musical notation of the
Dominican Gradual, Vesperal, and Antiphonary and the corresponding
books of the new Vatican edition. The Dominican chant has been
faithfully copied from the manuscripts of the thirteenth century, which
were in turn derived indirectly from the Gregorian Sacramentary. One is
not surprised therefore at the remarkable similarity between the chant
of the two rites. For a more detailed study of the Dominican Rite
reference may be had to the order's liturgical books.
IGNATIUS SMITH.
FRANCISCAN RITE
The Franciscans, unlike the
Dominicans, Carmelites, and other orders, have never had a peculiar
rite properly so called, but, conformably to the mind of St. Francis of
Assisi, have always followed the Roman Rite for the celebration of
Mass. However, the Friars Minor and the Capuchins wear the amice,
instead of the biretta, over the head, and are accustomed to say Mass
with their feet uncovered, save only by sandals. They also enjoy
certain privileges in regard to the time and place of celebrating Mass,
and the Missale Romano-Seraphicum contains many proper Masses not found
in the Roman Missal. These are mostly feasts of Franciscan saints and
blessed, which are not celebrated throughout the Church, or other
feasts having a peculiar connexion with the order, e.g. the Feast of
the Mysteries of the Way of the Cross (Friday before Septuagesima), and
that of the Seven Joys of the Blessed Virgin (First Sunday after the
octave of the Assumption). The same is true in regard to the Breviarium
Romano-Seraphicum, and Martyrologium Romano-Seraphicum. The Franciscans
exercised great influence in the origin and evolution of the Breviary,
and on the revision of the Rubrics of the Mass. They have also their
own calendar, or ordo. This calendar may be used not only in the
churches of the First Order, but also in the churches and chapels of
the Second Order, and Third Order Regular (if aggregated to the First
Order) and Secular, as well as those religious institutes which have
had some connexion with the parent body. It may also be used by secular
priests or clerics who axe members of the Third Order. The order has
also its own ritual and ceremonial for its receptions, professions, etc.
FERDINAND HECKMANN
FRIARS MINOR CAPUCHIN RITE
The Friars Minor Capuchin
use the Roman Rite, except that in the Confiteor the name of their
founder, St. Francis is added after the names of the Apostles, and in
the suffrages they make commemorations of St. Francis and all saints of
their order. The use of incense in the conventual mass on certain
solemnities, even though the Mass is said and not sung, is another
liturgical custom (recently sanctioned by the Holy See) peculiar to
their order. Generally speaking, the Capuchins do not have sung Masses
except in parochial churches, and except in these churches they may not
have organs without the minister general's permission. By a Decree of
the Sacred Congregation of Rites, 14 May, 1890, the minister general,
when celebrating Mass at the time of the canonical visitation and on
solemnities, has the privileges of a domestic prelate of His Holiness.
In regard to the Divine Office, the Capuchins do not sing it according
to note but recite it in monotone. In the larger communities they
generally recite Matins and Lauds at midnight, except on the three last
days of Holy Week, when Tenebræ is chanted on the preceding evening,
and during the octaves of Corpus Christi and the Immaculate Conception
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, when matins are recited also on the
preceding evening with the Blessed Sacrament exposed. Every day after
Compline they add, extra-liturgically, commemorations of the Immaculate
Conception, St. Francis, and St. Anthony of Padua. On the feast of St.
Francis after second Vespers they observe the service called the
"Transitus" of St. Francis, and on all Saturdays, except feasts of
first and second class and certain privileged feriæ and octaves, all
Masses said in their churches are votive in honour of the Immaculate
Conception, excepting only the conventual mass. They follow the
universal calendar, with the addition of feasts proper to their order.
These additional feasts include all canonized saints of the whole
Franciscan Order, all beati of the Capuchin Reform and the more notable
beati of the whole order; and every year the 5th of October is observed
as a commemoration of the departed members of the order in the same way
as the 2nd of November is observed in the universal Church. Owing to
the great number of feasts thus observed, the Capuchins have the
privilege of transferring the greater feasts, when necessary, to days
marked semi-double. According to the ancient Constitutions of the
Order, the Capuchins were not allowed to use vestments of rich texture,
not even of silk, but by Decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, 17
December, 1888, they must now conform to the general laws of the Church
in this matter. They are, however, still obliged to maintain severe
simplicity in their churches, especially when nonparochial.
FATHER CUTHBERT
PREMONSTRATENSIAN RITE
The Norbertine rite differs
from the Roman in the celebration of the Sacrifice of the Mass, in the
Divine Office, and in the administration of the Sacrament of Penance.
(1) Sacrifice of the Mass
The Missal is proper to the
order and is not arranged like the Roman Missal. The canon is
identical, with the exception of a slight variation as to the time of
making the sign of the cross with the paten at the "Libera nos". The
music for the Prefaces etc. differs, though not considerably, from that
of the Roman Missal. Two alleluias are said after the "Ite missa est"
for a week after Easter; for the whole of the remaining Paschal time
one alleluia is said. The rite for the celebration of feasts gives the
following grades: three classes of triples, two of doubles, celebre,
nine lessons, three lessons. No feasts are celebrated during privileged
octaves. There are so many feasts lower than double that usually no
privilege is needed for votive Masses. The rubrics regulating the
various feasts of the year are given in the "Ordinarius Sen. liber
cæremomarum canonici ordinis Præmonstratensis". Rubrics for the special
liturgical functions are found in the Missal, the Breviary, the
Diurnal, the Processional, the Gradual, and the Antiphonary.
(2) Divine Office
The Breviary differs from
the Roman Breviary in its calendar, the manner of reciting it,
arrangement of matter. Some saints on the Roman calendar are omitted.
The feasts peculiar to the Norbertines are: St. Godfried, C., 16 Jan.;
St. Evermodus, B. C., 17 Feb.; Bl. Frederick, Abbot, 3 Mar.; St.
Ludolph, B. M., 29 Mar.; Bl. Herman Joseph, C., 7 Apr.; St. Isfrid, B.
C.,' 15 June; Sts. Adrian and James, MM., 9 July; Bl. Hrosnata, 19
July, 19; Bl. Gertrude, V., 13 Aug.; Bl. Bronislava, V., 30 Aug.; St.
Gilbert, Abbot, 24 Oct.; St. Siardus, Abbot, 17 Nov. The feast of St.
Norbert, founder of the order, which falls on 6 June in the Roman
calendar, is permanently transferred to 11 July, so that its solemn
rite may not be interfered with by the feasts of Pentecost and Corpus
Christi. Other feasts are the Triumph of St. Norbert over the
sacramentarian heresy of Tanchelin, on the third Sunday after
Pentecost, and the Translation of St. Norbert commemorating the
translation of his body from Magdeburg to Prague, on the fourth Sunday
after Easter. Besides the daily recitation of the canonical hours the
Norbertines are obliged to say the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin,
except on triple feasts and during octaves of the first class. In choir
this is said immediately after the Divine Office.
(3) Administration of the Sacrament of Penance
The form of absolution is
not altogether in harmony with that of the Roman Ritual. The following
is the Norbertine formula: "Dominus noster Jesus Christus te absolvat,
et ego auctoritate ipsius, mihi licet indignissimo concessa, absolvo te
in primis, a vinculo excommunicationis ... in quantum possum et
indiges", etc.
The liturgical books of the
Norbertines were reprinted by order of the general chapter held at
Prémontré, in 1738, and presided over by Claude H. Lucas,
abbot-general. A new edition of the Missal and the Breviary was issued
after the General Chapter of Prague, in 1890. In 1902 a committee was
appointed to revise the Gradual, Antiphonary, etc. This committee
received much encouragement in its work by the Motu Proprio of Pius X
on church music. The General Chapter of Tepl, Austria, in 1908, decided
to edit the musical books of the order as prepared, in accordance with
ancient manuscripts by this committee
G. RYBROOK
SERVITE RITE
The Order of Servites (see
SERVANTS OF MARY) cannot be said to possess a separate or exclusive
rite similar to the Dominicans and others, but follows the Roman
Ritual, as provided in its constitutions, with very slight variations.
Devotion towards the Mother of Sorrows being the principal distinctive
characteristic of the order, there are special prayers and indulgences
attaching to the solemn celebration of the five major Marian feasts,
namely, the Annunciation, Visitation, Assumption, Presentation, and
Nativity of our Blessed Lady.
The feast of the Seven
Dolours of the Blessed Virgin Mary, celebrated always on the Third
Sunday of September, has a privileged octave and is enriched with a
plenary indulgence ad instar Portiunculoe; that is, as often as a visit
is made to a church of the order. In common with all friars the Servite
priests wear an amice on the head instead of a biretta while proceeding
to and from the altar. The Mass is begun with the first part of the
Angelical Salutation, and in the Confiteor the words Septem beatis
patribus nostris are inserted. At the conclusion of Mass the Salve
Regina and the oration Omnipotens sempiterne Deus are recited. In the
recitation of the Divine Office each canonical hour is begun with the
Ave Maria down to the words ventris tui, Jesus. The custom of reciting
daily, immediately before Vespers, a special prayer called Vigilia,
composed of the three psalms and three antiphons of the first nocturn
of the Office of the Blessed Virgin, followed by three lessons and
responses, comes down from the thirteenth century, when they were
offered in thanksgiving for a special favour bestowed upon the order by
Pope Alexander IV (13 May, 1259). The Salve Regina is daily chanted in
choir whether or not it is the antiphon proper to the season.
Publication information
Written by P.J. Griffin. Transcribed by Jeffrey L. Anderson.
The Catholic Encyclopedia,
Volume XIII. Published 1912. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Nihil
Obstat, February 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, D.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John
Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Bibliography
LITURGICAL
SCIENCE.--RENAUDOT, Liturgiarum orientalium collectio (Frankfurt,
1847); MARTENE Le antiquis ecclesioe ritibus (Antwerp and Milan,
1736-8); ASSEMANI, Codex liturgicus ecclesioe universoe (Rome,
1749-66); DANIEL, Codex liturgicus ecclesioe universoe (Leipzig, 1847);
DENZIGER, Ritus Orientalium (Wurzburg, 1863); NILLES, Kalendarium
manuals (Innsbruck, 1896); HAMMOND, Liturgies, Eastern and Western
(Oxford, 1878); BRIGHTMAN, Eastern Liturgies (Oxford, 1896); CABROL,
Introduction aux études liturgiques (Paris, 1907); RIETSCHEL, Lehrbuch
der Liturgik (Berlin, 1900); CLEMEN, Quellenbuch zur praktischen
Theologie, 1: Liturgik (Giessen, 1910); The Prayer-books of Edward VI
and Elizabeth are reprinted in the Ancient and Modern Library of
Theological Literature (London); PROCTOR AND FRERE, A New History of
the Book of Common Prayer (London, 1908); MAUDE, A History of the Book
of Common Prayer (London, 1899).
CARMELITE RITE.--ZIMMERMAN,
Le cérémonial de Maitre Sibert de Beka in Chroniques du Carmel
Jambes-lez-Namur, 1903-5); IDEM, Ordinaire de l'Ordre de Notre-Dame du
Mont Carmel (Paris, 1910), being the thirteenth volume of Bibliothèque
liturgique; WESSELS, Ritus Ordinis in Analecta Ordinis Carmelitarum
(Rome, 1909); WEALE, Bibliographia liturgica (London, 1886). The oldest
Ordinal, now in Dublin but of English origin, written after 1262 and
before the publication of the Constitution of Boniface VIII, "Gloriosus
Deus," C. Gloriosus, de Reliquiis, in Sexto, has not yet been printed.
CISTERCIAN RITE.--Missale
Cisterciense, MS. of the latter part of the fourteenth century; Mis.
Cist. (Strasburg, 1486); Mis. Cist. (Paris, 1516, 1545, 1584); Regula
Ssmi Patris Benedicti; Breviarium Cist. cum Bulla Pii Papoe IX die 7
Feb., 1871; BONA, Op. omnia (Antwerp, 1677); GUIGNART, Mon. primitifs
de la règle cist. (Dijon, 1878); Rubriques du bréviaire cist., by a
religious of La Grande Trappe (1882); TRILHE, Mémoire sur le projet de
cérémonial cist. (Toulouse, 1900); IDEM, Man. Coeremoniarum juxta usum
S.O. Cist. (Westmalle, 1908).
DOMINICAN RITE.--MORTIER,
Hist. des mattres généraux de l'Ordre des Frères Prêcheurs, I (Paris,
1903), 174, 309-312, 579 sq.; CASSITTO, Liturgia Dominicana (Naples,
1804); MASETTI, Mon. et Antiq. vet. discipl. Ord. Præd. (Rome, 1864);
DANZAS, Etudes sur too temps prim. de l'ordre do S. Dominique (Paris,
1884); Acta Capitulorum Ord. Proed., ed. REICHERT (Rome, 1898-1904);
Litt. Encyc. Magist. Gener. O. P., ed. REICHERT (Rome, 1900); TURON,
Hist. des hommes ill. do I'Ordre de St. Dominique, 1, 341; Bullarium O.
P., passim.
FRANCISCAN RITE.--Coerem.
Romano-Seraph. (Quaracchi, 1908); Rit. Romano-Seraph. (Quaracchi,
1910); Promptuarium Seraph. Quaracchi, 1910).
CAPUCHIN RITE.--Ceremoniale Ord. Cap.; Analecta Ord. Cap.; Constit. ord. (Rome).