CHAPTER VI.

PRIMITIVE ELEMENTS OF THE PRAYER BOOK

(CONTINUED) THE GLORIA IN EXCELSIS.

HE Gloria in excelsis is among the most ancient

THE

of the elemental forms of the Book of Common Prayer. The most careful investigator of this hymn in this generation, Rev. E. C. S. Gibson,* in his scholarly article in the Church Quarterly Review (October, 1885), after discussing the evidence, sums up as follows:-" All we can say is that the hymn cannot be later than the fourth century, while it may well be two or three centuries earlier. In the midst of so much uncertainty as to its date it is useless to inquire who was its author."

This magnificent hymn is a product of the Eastern Church. Very characteristic of its source is the rushing storm of praise and jubilation with which it opens. Words seem to fail to express the glowing ardour of devotion :-" We praise thee, we bless thee, we worship thee, we glorify thee, we give thanks to thee for thy great glory, O Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty." Even the dignified grandeur of the Te Deum pales before this superb outburst of adoring praise.

* Now Dr. Gibson, Vicar of Leeds.

To those familiar with the different liturgical styles and methods of the East and the West there is scarce need of external evidence (which we have in abundance) to establish the Oriental origin of this glorious doxology.*

The earliest known manuscript form of this hymn is to be found in the great Codex Alexandrinus, which Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constantinople, "the rash and hapless reformer of the Eastern Church," gave—a right royal gift-to our king, Charles I., and which now forms what is perhaps the chief treasure of the British Museum. This great manuscript of the Bible may, in the judgment of Dr. Scrivener, "belong to the fourth century; it cannot be later than the beginning of the fifth.” †

But attention should be directed to the fact that in this MS. the Gloria in excelsis (entitled there "A Morning Hymn ") is given a place with the Scripture canticles immediately after the Psalter. Before the MS. was written the hymn had obviously already attained a rank of such distinction as to be given a place among the inspired songs of the Bible.

"The unchanging East" is a phrase which, as applied to liturgical matters, doubtless much exaggerates the general immobility of the Oriental Churches. But in this particular instance the early position of this hymn is retained, and it is still sung

* It is known in the East as "the Great Doxology," as distinguished from the Gloria Patri, which is styled "the Little Doxology."

† Westcott and Hort consider that it is certainly of somewhat later date than the middle of the fourth century, and add that the best judges assign it to the fifth. See Introduction to the N. T., p. 75.

as "a morning hymn" (as also in the Eastern Compline), while it has no place in the service of the Eucharist. And even in the West, when the Gloria in excelsis first came into use it was used at Matins on Sunday. In the Irish Church of the seventh century it was used (as in the modern Greek Church) both morning and evening.†

We need not here attempt any inquiry into the date of the introduction of the Gloria into the service of the Mass. It was there our Reformers found it; and in the Prayer Book of 1549, in the office entitled "The Supper of the Lord and the Holy Communion, commonly called the Mass," it was retained in the opening part of the service, where it had stood in English Missals for several centuries, indeed not improbably from the time of St. Augustine of Canterbury. § In the second revision (1552) it was removed to the concluding part of the service, where it stands in our present Prayer Book. To neither part of the service can it be said to be inappropriate; but, though I am sensible that one may be favourably prejudiced by familiar associations, it seems to me that there is a peculiar fitness in its bringing to a close the great

* Rule of S. Cæsarius of Arles, about the beginning of the sixth century.

+ See Mr. F. E. WARREN'S edition of the Antiphonary of Bangor, ii., p. 75.

Dr. Gibson's article in the Church Quarterly Review details the evidence with much fulness.

§ It was preceded by the introit, the Lord's Prayer, the collect, "Almighty God, unto whom all hearts be open," etc., and the Kyrie.

Christian sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. Even the supplications for mercy, which are so marked a feature of the later part of this great hymn, are not unsuited to the devout heart which is conscious of the unworthiness of the miserable imperfections of its best devotions.

The reasons which prompted this change of position are not obvious. It may be imagined that it was felt that its use in immediate juxtaposition with the extensive didactic element (introduced in 1552) in the recitation of the ten commandments was somewhat unsuitable. But, however this may have been, I see no good reason for regretting the change.

More questionable, it seems to me, was the rule of the reformed Prayer Book that the Gloria should be said on every occasion when the Eucharist is celebrated. In the Church of England in pre-Reformation times the rule (put roughly) was that it should be said on Sundays and Festivals only, and not at all during Advent or the period from Septuagesima to Easter. Each rule, no doubt, is attended by both gains and losses. The simplest and quietest of "said" Eucharists may indeed, at any season, well claim that the great thanksgiving of the Gloria forms a fitting conclusion to the rite. And again, it is to be always remembered that the Gloria is not only a hymn of adoration and of gratitude, but of suppliant entreaty. The prayer for mercy, repeated with such tender and wistful earnestness, imparts to the concluding section of the Gloria a note of penitence that is distinctly audible amid the triumphant praise.

But there is certainly a sensible loss in reducing to one uniform level the services of the penitential and festal seasons of the Christian year. Even Easter and Christmas are now distinguished for us from Ash-Wednesday (setting aside the Epistle and Gospel) only by the few words of the proper Prefaces. A rubric, if thought expedient, permissive in form (in some such words as, "The Gloria in excelsis may be omitted on ordinary week-days, and also during the whole of the seasons of Advent and Lent"), would by many be felt as a liturgical gain.

The interesting question of the variations in the text of the Gloria in early times must not occupy us here.* We turn to consider how our Reformers dealt with the text of the hymn as it stood in the old English Missals. With the exceptions about to be noticed they simply translated it closely and literally from the Latin. Indeed, the only very important variation is that the words "Et in terra pax hominibus bonæ voluntatis" become in English "And in earth peace, good will towards men." Here we must recognise a clear example of an exercise on the part of the Reformers of the critical spirit applying itself to textual emendation. The change may perhaps be sufficiently accounted for by the conviction of the revisers that the text of the Greek Testament, as it was then in their hands, in the

* The English reader will find the texts of the hymn as it is found in the Apostolic Constitutions, the Codex Alexandrinus, and the Antiphonary of Bangor, exhibited in parallel columns by Mr. F. E. WARREN in his Liturgy of the Ante-Nicene Church (S.P.C.K.).