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Days.

tione docuisti; da nobis, quæsumus, ut qui ejus hodie conversionem The Saints' colimus, per ejus ad te exempla gradiamur.1

Deus, qui beatum Marcum evangelistam tuum evangelicæ præ- St. Mark. dicationis gratia sublimasti: tribue, quæsumus, ejus nos semper

et eruditione perficere et oratione defendi.

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui hujus diei venerandam sanc- St. Bartamque lætitiam in beati Bartholomei Apostoli tui festivitate tri-tholomew. buisti: da ecclesiæ tuæ, quæsumus, et amare quod credidit, et prædicare quod docuit.2

Magdalene.

The Collect for St. Andrew's Day, composed in 1549, St. Andrew. referred to the sufferings of his death :3 this was changed in 1552 for an entirely new Collect, making mention of his ready obedience to the calling of Christ. The Prayer Book in 1549 also retained a Collect in commemoration of St. Mary Magdalene. The feast of St. John the Baptist differs from the other festivals, in commemorating his birth. It is the only nativity, besides Baptist. that of Jesus Christ Himself, that is kept by the Church. The reason for this difference appears to be, that the birth of the Baptist was foretold by an angel, and brought to pass after an uncommon manner. He was also the forerunner of our Blessed Lord, and by preaching

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shall come, unto us for thy sake, as
things profitable for us toward the
obtaining of everlasting life: through
Jesus Christ our Lord." This festival
is traced to the fourth century.

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4 Merciful Father, give us grace that we never presume to sin through the example of any creature; but if it shall chance us at any time to offend thy divine majesty, that then we may truly repent, and lament the same, after the example of Mary Magdalene, and by lively faith obtain remission of all our sins: through the only merits of thy Son our Saviour Christ.' The earliest extant mention of this festival is in the 26th canon of the Council of Toulouse (1229) Guericke, p. 193, note.

St. John the

The Saints'
Days.

Festivals of the Virgin Mary.

repentance prepared the way for the publishing of the Gospel.1

The medieval Church held seven festivals in honour of the Virgin Mary.2 The two oldest of these are founded on the Gospel history, and are pure expressions of reverence for her who is blessed among women, if indeed they may not also be regarded as festivals of our Lord Himself. The reformers of our Offices accordingly retained these two Commemorations. The Annunciation of the blessed Virgin Mary (March 25) was observed probably as early as the fifth century: and soon afterwards, at latest in the sixth century, the feast of the Purification of St. Mary the Virgin1 (Feb. 2) was held by the Western Church, while the Eastern had a corresponding festival, differing chiefly in name, commemorating the Presen

3

1 This festival has been observed Rome, having been defined_by_the since the fourth or fifth century: Pope (Dec. 8, 1854), by the Bull Guericke, p. 186. 'Ineffabilis Deus,' that 'the blessed Virgin Mary, at the first instant of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace of the omnipotent God, in virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ the Saviour of mankind, was preserved immaculate from all stain of original sin.' See Guericke, pp. 190 sqq.; Hardwick, Middle Age, pp. 100, 328, 454; Gieseler, Eccles. Hist. (in Clark's Theol. Library), III. pp. 339 sqq.. and v. pp. 64 sqq.; Milman, Latin Christianity, VI. pp. 239 sqq.

2 The festival of the Assumption (Aug. 15) grew out of a legend of the fifth century, but was not received by the Latin Church before the ninth century. The festival of the Visitation (July 2) was not known before the fourteenth century; a commemoration of the Virgin's Nativity (Sept. 8) was observed in the East at the close of the seventh century, but not introduced into the West till long afterwards; and the Presentation of Mary (Nov. 21) was observed in the East since the eighth century, but is not clearly traced in the Latin Church before the fourteenth century. The feast of the Conception, resting upon the notion that the Virgin was not sanctificata, but sancta, and which 4 Festum Purificationis began to be received about the This was substituted for the heathen twelfth century, was fixed to Dec. 8 Februaria, or Lupercalia, and celeby the Council of Basle (1439), brated with processions with waxwhich also sanctioned the doctrine tapers: hence it was called Candleof the immaculate conception, as 'a mass, or Festum Candelarum sive pious opinion.' This is now an luminum. Guericke, p. 192, note: article of faith in the Church of cf. Bingham, xx. 8, § 5.

3 Festum Annuntiationis, incarnationis, conceptionis Christi, ǹ Toû εὐαγγελισμοῦ ἡμέρα, ἡμέρα ἀσπασε μoû, annuntiatio dominica. Cf. Bingham, Antiq. xx. 8, § 4.

Maria.

The Collects for these

tation of Christ in the Temple.
days were taken from the Missal :—

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, majestatem tuam supplices exoramus, ut sicut unigenitus Filius tuus hodierna die cum nostræ carnis substantia in templo est præsentatus, ita nos facias purificatis tibi mentibus præsentari. Per eundem.2

Gratiam tuam, quæsumus, Domine, mentibus nostris infunde; ut qui angelo nuntiante Christi Filii tui incarnationem cognovimus, per passionem ejus et crucem ad resurrectionis gloriam perducamur. Per eundem.3

The Saints'
Days.

The Furifi cation.

The Annus ciation.

The feast of St. Michael and all Angels, commemo- St. Michael. rating the ministry of the holy angels to the heirs of salvation, originated in some provincial festivals which were introduced between the third and ninth centuries, and which were then combined into one common celebration on the 29th September. Its observance was not enjoined upon the Greek Church before the twelfth century.5

Our Collect is taken from the Missal :

Deus, qui miro ordine angelorum ministeria hominumque dispensas; concede propitius ut a quibus tibi ministrantibus in cœlo semper assistitur, ab his in terra vita nostra muniatur. dominum.6

1 Festum occursus, kopt†) TĤs væávTηS, ÚTαTανTŃ Our Prayer Book retains both commemorations, calling the festival, The Presentation of Christ in the Temple, commonly called, The Purification of Saint Mary the Virgin.

2 Missal. Sar. In purificatione beatæ Mariæ Virginis, col. 703. The Epistle was, Lectio Malachia, iii. [1-4], and the Gospel, Luc. ii. [22-32]. In 1549 no Epistle was appointed, but the same that is appointed for the Sunday' was to be read; and the Gospel was, Luc. ii. [22-27]. The ancient Lection from Malachi was re-appointed for the

Per

Epistle' in 1662, and the Gospel
extended to the 40th verse.

3 Missal. Sar. In annunciatione
beata Maria Postcommunio, col. 730.
4 The Council of Mayence (813)
ordered the dedicatio Sancti Michaelis
to be observed among the Church
festivals: Concil. Mogunt. can. 36;
Mansi, XIV. 73.

5 Guericke, pp. 194 sq.

6 Missal. Sar. In festo Sancti Michaelis Archangeli. The Epistle was Rev. i. 1-5. This was changed in 1549 for the portion from Rev. xii. which had been read for the Epistle in die Sancti Michaelis in monte Tumba (Oct. 16).

The Saints' Days. All Saints.

At first each Church celebrated the memorial of its own martyrs; but afterwards some few became the objects of commemoration by the whole Church. In the Greek communion a festival in honour of the whole army of Martyrs was kept on the Octave of Pentecost.1 In the course of time the idea of Martyr and Saint became very naturally identified: and when the Roman Pantheon was given to the Christians by the Emperor Phocas (610), and converted into a Church of St. Mary and All Saints, Boniface IV. instituted a festival of All Saints; 2 which, however, did not long continue. It was renewed, and celebrated at Rome in the eighth century, on the 1st of November, and was made a festival of the universal Church by Pope Gregory IV. (834). The power of canonization, assumed by the Popes towards the end of the tenth century, increased the number of saints, till the frequency of Church Holy Days became most inconvenient. These celebrations were removed from the reformed Offices; but All Saints' Day was retained in commemoration of all the known and unknown departed Christian worthies, and of the communion of the Church triumphant with the Church as yet militant on earth.

1 Now ή Κυριακὴ τῶν ̔Αγίων Πάντων.

2 Festum omnium Sanctorum (May I).

8 See Guericke, p. 181. Abbot Odilo of Cluny (998) appointed the morrow of All Saints for Masses for the repose of All Faithful Souls: Robertson, Ch. Hist. 11. 536.

4 Canonization (the ir sertion of a name in the Canon or list of Saints) has been distributed into three periods. Down to the tenth century the Saint was exalted by the popular voice, the suffrage of the people with the bishop. After this the sanction of the Pope was required, but the

bishops retained their right of initia-
tion. The first instance of canon-
ization conferred by the decree of a
Pope is that of Ulric, bishop of
Augsburg, by John XV. (993). Alex-
ander III. (1159-1181) seized into
the hands of the Pope this much-
abused prerogative: in 1170 this
Pope declared that, even although
miracles be done by one, it is not
lawful to reverence him as a saint
without the sanction of the Roman
Church. Cf. Milman, Latin Christ-
ianity, v. 243; Hardwick, Middle Age,
p. 212; Robertson, Ch. Hist. II.
534; Notes and Queries, 3rd Series,
XII. 316.

CHAPTER III.

THE ORDER FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE LORD'S
SUPPER, OR HOLY COMMUNION.

SECT. I.-Primitive Liturgies.

THE traces of the form of worship used by the Christian' converts, which we find in the New Testament, refer to the Eucharist, as being emphatically the Christian Service.1 Hence naturally arose the ecclesiastical use of the word Liturgy, to designate the form employed by the Church in celebrating that Office which was called the Mass by the medieval and the Latin Church, but which we now call the Lord's Supper and the Holy Communion. From the scanty remains of very early

denotes any public service, religious
or secular. In the LXX. translation
it is used for the ministry of the
Levites (e. g. I Chron. xxvi. 30, εἰς
πᾶσαν λ. Κυρίου); in the New Testa
ment, for the ministry of prophets

1 The description of the earliest converts (Acts ii. 42, hσav dè πрooκαρτεροῦντες τῇ διδαχῇ τῶν ἀποστόλων, καὶ τῇ κοινωνίᾳ, καὶ τῇ κλάσει τοῦ ἄρτου, καὶ ταῖς προσευχαῖς) is supposed to contain a summary of the several and successive parts of and teachers (Acts xiii. 2, where see the primitive Service:-instruction from the word of the Apostles, and from the Scriptures; the charitable contributions (cf. I Cor. xvi. 2; Rom. xv. 26, &c.); the Eucharist; and the prayers. Comp. also I Cor. x. 16, referring to the consecration of the bread and wine; and I Cor. xiv. 16, to the use of the word Amen by the people after the Eucharistical prayer offered by the minister. See Professor Blunt's Introd. Lecture, pp. 16 sq.; and Parish Priest, Lect. ix. p. 284.

2 In classical Greek Merovpyla

Wordsworth's note; cf. Trench,
Synonyms of the New Test. 1. § xxxv.);
and in ecclesiastical writers, for any
sacred function, and, in an especial
and strict sense, for the Eucharistic
Office. Strictly this should be
uvσTIK XEITOUрyía. See Bingham,
Antiq. XIII. I. Thus we speak of
the Liturgies of St. James, St. Mark,
St. Chrysostom, &c., for the Service
used in celebrating the Lord's Supper
in the Churches of Antioch, Alex-
andria, Constantinople, &c.

3 Dr. Waterland (Doctr. of the
Eucharist, ch. 1.) adduces the fol-

X

Primitive
Liturgies.

Traces of the
Service in

Christian

the New

Testament.

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