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of God, Light of Light, very' God of very God; begotten not made; being of one substance with the Father; by whom3 all things were made: and of the Holy Ghost that He is the Lord' (i.e. the Lord God) and the Giver of life, Who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, Who spake by the Prophets.

5. The Athanasian Creed. What is commonly termed the Creed of St Athanasius, a great bishop of Alexandria in the fourth century, is so called, not because it was drawn up by him, for it was not composed till at least a hundred years after his death, but because it prominently asserts and enlarges upon those great truths which he spent his life in defending, the doctrines of the Holy Trinity and of the union of the Godhead and Manhood in our Lord Jesus Christ. It was drawn up in Latin, probably in Gaul, either, as some

1 In Greek Θεὸν ἐκ Θεοῦ = God from God; Φῶς ἐκ φῶτος = Light from Light.

2 In Greek Θεὸν ἀληθινὸν ἐκ Θεοῦ ἀληθινοῦ = true God of (from) true God. Very="true" "real" from the Latin Fr. vrai; comp. Gen. xxvii. 21; Jn. vii. 26.

verus,

3 This article refers to the Son and not to the Father, of whom it has been already said. It contains in fact the words of St John i. 3, All things were made by Him (the Word); and without Him was not anything made that was made; with which compare Heb. i. 2; Rev. iv. 11.

4 In Greek Το Κύριον, καὶ τὸ ζωοποιόν.

5 The words Filioque, and from the Son, are not in the Nicene Creed, but were gradually adopted in the West. They first appear in the acts of an assembly of bishops at Braga, A. D. 412. Their use gave rise to the great schism between the East and the West, A. D. 1053. See Hardwick's Middle Ages, pp. 195, 298, and the notes.

6 See the Rubric of 1552 before the Athanasian Creed. In Bishop Hilsey's Prymer it is called the "Symbole or Crede of the great Doctour Athanasius."

think, by Hilary of Arles, A.D. 429, or, as others, by Victricius, Bishop of Rouen, a. D. 401.

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6. The Athanasian Creed sung publicly. The Creed that was sung publicly in the Matin Offices of the Medieval Church was the Athanasian. In the English Churches this had been the custom ever since the year A.D. 800, and probably long before that date1. In the Sarum Breviary it was appointed to be sung daily at Prime," after the Psalms and before the Prayers. In the Roman Breviary it is ordered to be used on Sundays only. In the First Prayer-Book of 1549 the Apostles' Creed was appointed to be said ordinarily in this part of the Service, and the Athanasian Creed in its stead upon the six Festivals of Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, and Trinity. The Rubric of Edward VIth's Second Prayer-Book added seven saints' days to these Festivals3, so that the Creed should be used at intervals of about a month throughout the year.

7. The Nicene Creed was first ordered to be recited in the Eucharistic Office in the Eastern Church by Peter, surnamed the Fuller, Bishop of Antioch, A.D. 471, and his example was followed A. D. 511 by Timotheus, Bishop of Constantinople. Somewhat more than seventy years afterwards the custom was adopted in Spain, to bring the people back to the true faith after the Arian Gothic invasion, and the third Council of Toledo (A.D. 589) ordered it to be sung aloud by the people before the Lord's Frayer was said. A similar reason induced the Gallican Church to order its public

1 It is found in MS. Psalters of the 7th and 8th centuries. 2 The reformed Breviary of Quignonez had appointed the Athanasian Creed on Sundays, and the Apostles' Creed on week-days.

3 See the Rubric before the Athanasian Creed.

4 See Procter, On the Book of Common Prayer, p. 229 n.

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recitation in the time of Charlemagne1. Hitherto the Church of Rome, being free of the taint of Arianism, had retained only the Apostles' Creed, and the constant public use of the Nicene Creed in the Roman Liturgy was not adopted till A. D. 1014.

8. The Apostles' Creed was used in the AngloSaxon Office of Prime, and was constantly repeated in the Medieval Offices of Matins, Prime, and Compline. But it was said, together with the Lord's Prayer, privately by the choir at Matins, and inaudibly by the Priest at the beginning of the Prayers at Prime and Compline. Only at the words The resurrection of the body did he raise his voice, to which the choir responded in the concluding words And the life everlasting. Amen. In our present Prayer-Book the Rubric directs that the Apostles' Creed shall be sung or said by the Minister and the people, and that it is to be repeated standing, to express our resolution to hold fast the true faith.

CHAPTER VII.

THE PRAYERS.

1. The Salutation. After the public recitation of the Creed follows, according to the order of the Medieval Services, the Prayers, during which the rubric directs that all shall devoutly kneel. The transition from the former to the present portion of the

1 In this country the Nicene Creed was sung at Mass, being probably received from the Gallican Church.

2 This custom originated in the concealment of these formularies from the heathen and from the catechumens who were not prepared for baptism, a practice of early times, but of later introduction than the use of these formularies themselves in the Daily Offices; See Bingham Antiq. x. 5; Freeman's Principles of Divine Service, pp. 97, 227.

3 Just as the Hallelujah marked the transition from Penitence to Praise; see above p. 72.

Service is marked by the mutual salutation1 of Minister and people:

The Lord be with you.

Answer. And with thy spirit, and is to be said while they are still standing.

2. The Lesser Litany. And now that we are on the point of asking of God "those things which are requisite and necessary as well for the body as the soul," the words Let us pray exhort us to earnest and devout attention. The Prayers commence with the Lesser Litany, the Lord's Prayer and the Versicles. (1) The Lesser Litany is the prelude to supplication, just as the Doxology is to the Praise of the Service2, and being addressed to each Person of the Holy Trinity, by its three clauses it fixes the object of Christian worship3. (2) The Lord's Prayer is directed in the rubric to be said by the Minister, Clerks, and people, with a loud voice, as a corrective, doubtless, to the Medieval practice of repeating it inaudibly. (3) The Versicles are a small selection from the Preces said daily in the Mediæval Offices of Prime and Compline, and also at

1 The Greek Form is Ειρήνη πᾶσι. Answer, Καὶ μετὰ TVεúμатÓя σov; comp. Ruth ii. 4; Jn. xx. 19, 26; 2 Thess. iii. 16. Hence the Latin Pax vobiscum.

2 See above p. 71.

3 In the old offices, each clause was usually thrice repeated. The Greek Versicle Kúpte éλéŋoov was retained untranslated in the Latin Church.

The Clerks here spoken of were an inferior class of Ministers, sometimes, but not always in Holy Orders, of whom every Incumbent, before and immediately after the Reformation, had at least one to assist him in the performance of Divine Service. With the office of Clerk was combined that of Aquabajalus (who carried the Holy Water before the Priests), and thence our Parish Clerks, who are still in a few Churches Clerks in Orders, took their rise. See Burn's Eccl. Law, III. 82; Trollope On the Liturgy and Ritual, p. 113.

5 See above, p. 70.

Lauds and Vespers on week-days. Though apparently derived from this source, they were altered by the introduction of words from the Psalms1, whence they were originally taken.

3. The Collects occupy the same position in our Prayer-Book, in which they stood before the Reformation, viz. after the Versicular Prayers. The etymology of the word Collect is extremely doubtful. (1) Some suppose them to be so called because they are collected out of the portions of Scripture appointed for the Epistle and Gospel of the day, or bear upon the particular duty therein enforced or illustrated?. (2) Others suppose they derive their name from the fact that they are repeated by the Minister super collectam populi, over or in behalf of a collected assembly of worshippers. (3) Others again find the origin of the name in the fact that several petitions are therein collected or comprised in a brief summary.

Their Characteristics.

Collects may be re

4. garded as brief but impressive Prayers, severally addressed to God through Christ, but sometimes to Christ Himself, and comprising (1) a petition for some special temporal or spiritual benefit, and (2) assigning the motive for asking it. Those contained in the PrayerBook are of great antiquity; forty-seven being taken from the Sacramentary of Gregory A.D. 590, who himself adopted them from formularies of still earlier date;

1 (1) Ps. lxxxv. 7; (2) Domine, salvum fac regem, Sarum Brev. and Ps. xx. 9; (3) Ps. cxxxii. 9; (4) Ps. xxviii. 9; (6) Ps. li. 10, 11. The Fifth Versicle Give peace, &c. with its Response was an Antiphon belonging to the Collect for Peace. See Henry VIIIth's Primer, A. D. 1545. This Petition evidently supposes a state of war, and war seldom ceased in the rude times in which these Versicles were framed; the Response implies that God alone can give the victory which will secure peace as its result.

2 See Trench's Study of Words, p. 213, Seventh Edition.

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