SECRETARIES
674
SECT
"Rat. div. off.", IV, xxx\'), did not begin earlier than
the sixth or seventh century; Cardinal Bona thinks
not till the tenth (.Rer. liturg., II, 13, §1). More-
over all our present offertorj' prayers are late addi-
tions, not made in Rome till the fourteenth century
(see Offertory). Till then the offertory act was
made in silence, the corresponding prayer that
followed it was our Secret. Already in "Apostolic
Const.", VIII, XII, 4, the celebrant, receiving the
bread and wine, prays "silently" (Brightman,
"Eastern Liturgies", p. 14), doubtless for the same
reason, because a psalm was being sung. Since it
is said silently the Secret is not mtroduced by the
invitation to the people: "Oremus". It is part of
the Proper of the Mass, changing for each feast or
occasion, and is built up in the same way as the
Collect (q. v.). The Secret too alludes to the saint
or occasion of the day. But it keeps its special
character inasmuch as it nearly always (always in
the case of the old ones) asks God to receive these
present gifts, to sanctify them, etc. All this is found
exactly as now in the earliest Secrets we know, those
of the Leonine Sacramentary. Already there the
Collect, Secret, Postcommunion, and "Oratio ad
populum" form a connected and homogeneous group
of prayers. So the multiplication of Collects in one
Mass (see Collect) entailed a corresponding multi-
plication of Secrets. For every Collect the corres-
ponding Secret is said.
The name "Secreta" is used in the "Gelasian Sacramentary"; in the Gregorian book these prayers have the title "Super oblata". Both names occur frequently in the early Middle Ages. In "Ordo Rom. II" they are: "Oratio super oblationes secreta" (P. L., LXXVIII, 973). In the Galilean Rite there was also a variable offertory prayer introduced by an invitation to the people (Duchesne, "Origines du culte", Paris, 1898, pp. 197-8). It has no special name. At Milan the prayer called "Oratio super Bindonem" {Sindon for the veil that covers the oblata) is said while the Offertory is being made and another "Oratio super oblata" follows after the Creed, just before the Preface. In the Mozarabic Rite after an invitation to the people, to which they answer: "Prajsta a;terne omnipotens Deus", the celebrant says a prayer that corresponds to our Secret and continues at once to the memory of the saints and intercession prayer. It has no special name (P. L., LXXXV, 540-1). But in the.se other Western rites this prayer is said aloud. All the East- ern rites have prayers, now said silently, after the Great Entrance, when the gifts are brought to the altar and offered to God, but they are invariable all the year round and no one of them can be exactly compared to our Secret. Only in general can one say that the Eastern rites have prayers, correspond- ing more or less to our offertory idea, repeated when the bread and wine are brought to the altar.
At either high or low Mass the celebrant, having answered "Amen" to the prayer "Suscipiat Dominus sacrificium", says in a low voice the Secret or Secrets in the same order as he said the Collects, finding each at its place in the proper Mass. He ends the first and last only with the form "Per Dominum nostrum" (as the Collects). The last clause of the last Secret: " Per omnia saecula sajculorum" is said or sung aloud, forming the ekphonesis before the Preface.
DcKASDUB, Ra'iomU diointrum oficiorum, IV, xxxii; GlHR, Ths Holy Sacrifice of the Mats ftr. St. Louis. 1908). .547-9.
Adrian Fortescue.
SecretarieB, Papal. See Roman Curia.
Secret Discipline, See Discipline of the Secret.
Sect and Sects. — I. Etymology and Meaning. — The word "sect" is not derived, as is sometimes as- serted, from secare, to cut, to flisseot, but from .vqui, to follow (Skeat, "Etymological Diet.", 3rd ed., Oxford,
1898, s. v.). In the classical Latin tongue secta sig-
nified the mode of thought, the manner of life and, in
a more specific sense, designated the pohtical party
to which one had sworn allegiance, or the philosoph-
ical school whose tenents he had embraced. Ety-
mologically no offensive connotation is attached to the
term. In the Acts of the Apostles it is applied both
in the Latin of the Vulgate and in the English of the
Douay version to the rehgious tendency with which
one has identified himself (xxiv, 5 ; xxvi, 5; xxviii, 22;
see xxiv, 14). The Epistles of the New Testament
disparagingly apply it to the divisions within the
Christian communities. The Epistle to the Galatians
(v, 20) numbers among the works of the flesh, "quar-
rels, dissensions, sects"; and St. Peter in his second
Epistle (ii, 1) speaks of the "lying teachers, who shall
bring in sects of perdition". In subsequent Catholic
ecclesiastical usage this meaning was retained (see
August, contra Faust. Manich. XX, 3); but in Chris-
tian antiquity and the Middle Ages the term was
of much less frequent use than "heresy" or "schism".
These words were more specific and consequently
clearer. Moreover, as heresy directly designated
substantial doctrinal error and sect applied to ex-
ternal fellowship, the Church, which has always
attached paramount importance to soundness in
doctrine, would naturally prefer the doctrinal designa-
tion.
With the rise of Protestantism and the consequent disruption of the Christian religion into numerous denominations, the use of the word sect has become frequent among Christians. It usually implies at present disapproval in the mind of the speaker or writer. Such, however, is not necessarily the case as is evidenced by the widely used expression "sec- tarian" (for denominational) institutions and by the statement of the well-known authority H. W. Lyon that he uses the word "in no invidious sense" ("A Study of the Sects", Boston, 1891, p. 4). This extension of the term to all Christian denominations results no doubt, from the tendency of the modern non-Catholic world to consider all the various forms of Christianity as the embodiment of revealed truths and as equally entitled to recognition. Some churches, however, still take exception to the application of the term to themselves because of its implication, in their eyes, of inferiority or depreciation. The Protestant denominations which assume such an attitude are at a loss to determine the essential elements of a sect. In countries like England and Germany, where State Churches exist, it is usual to apply the name "sect" to all dissenters. Obedience to the civil authority in religious matters thus becomes the nec^essary pre- requisite for a fair religious name. In lands where no particular religion is officially recognized the distinc- tion between Church and sect is considered impossible by some Protestants (Loofs, "Symbolik", Leipzig, 1902, 74). Others claim that the preaching of the pure and unalloyed Word of God, the legitimate administration of the sacraments and the historical identification with the national life of a people entitle a denomination to be designated as a Church; in the absence of these qualifications it is merely a sect (Kalb, .')92-94). This, however, does not solve the question; for what authority among Protestants will ultimately and to their general satisfaction judge of the character of the prcacliing or tlie manner in which the sacraments are adiiiiDistcrcd? Furlhcrmore, an historical religion may contain many elements of falsehoofl. Roman jjaganism was more closely iden- tified with tlie life of the nation than any Christian religion ever was, and still it was an utterly defective religious system. It was a non-Christian system, but the example nevertheless illustrates the point at issue; for a religion true or false will remain so inde- pendently of subsequent historical association or national service.
