MISSAL 509 from those of the Eastern Church by its flexibility. Partly by conscious effort, no doubt, but partly also by happy accident, a well-marked distinctive character has been given in one or all of the above-mentioned respects to the office for each ecclesiastical season, for each fast or festival of the year, almost for each day of the week ; and provision has also been made of a suitable communion ser vice for many of the special and extraordinary occasions both of public and of private life. This richness of variety is seen not only in the collects but also in the lessons and antiphonal parts of the service, passages of Scripture in the selection and collocation of which an exquisite delicacy of religious and aesthetic instinct has been for the most part strikingly shown. The different parts of the Roman communion office are not all of the same antiquity. Its essential and character istic features are most easily caught, and their rationale best understood, by reference to the earliest Sacramentaries (particularly the Gregorian, which was avowedly the basis of the labours of the Tridentine committee), to the Gregorian Antiphonary, and to the oldest redaction of the Ordo Romanus. 1 The account of the mass (qualiter Missa Romana celebratur) as given by the Sacramentarium Gregorianum is to the effect that there is in the first place "the Introit according to the time, whether for a festival or for a common day ; thereafter Kyrie Eleison. (In addition to this Gloria in Excelsis Deo is said if a bishop be [the celebrant], though only on Sundays and festivals ; but a priest is by no means to say it, except only at Eastertide. When there is a litany (quando letania agitur) neither Gloria in Excelsis nor Alleluia is sung.) After wards the Oratio is said, whereupon follows the Apostolus, also the Gradual and Alleluia. Afterwards the Gospel is read. Then comes the Ofertorium, 2 and the Oratio super oblata is said." Then follow the Sursum Corda,, the Pre face, Canon, Lord s Prayer and "embolism" (ffj.ftoia-fj.a or insertion, Libera nos, Domine), given at full length precisely as they still occur in the Roman missal. In every liturgy of all the five groups a passage similar to this occurs, beginning with Sursum Corda, followed by a Preface and the recitation of the Sanctus or Angelic Hymn. The " canon " or consecration prayer, which in all of them comes immediately after, invariably contains our Lord s words of institution, and (except in the Nestorian liturgy) concludes with the Lord s Prayer and " embolism." But within this framework there are certain differences of arrangement, furnishing marks by which the various groups of liturgies can be classified (see vol. xiv. p. 709 sq.). Thus it is distinctive of the liturgy of Jerusalem that the "great intercession" for the quick and the dead follows the words of institution and an Epiklesis (CTTIKA^CTIS TOV TTveu/xaros ayiov) or petition for the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the gifts ; in the Alexandrian the " great intercession " has its place in the Preface ; in the East Syrian it comes between the words of restitution and the Epiklesis ; in the Ephesine it comes before the Preface ; while in the Roman it is divided into two, the commemora tion of the living being before, and that of the dead after, the words of institution. Other distinctive features of the Roman liturgy are (1) the position of the "Pax" after the consecration, and not as in all the other liturgies at a very early stage of the service, before the Preface even ; and (2) the absence of the Epiklesis common to all the others. 3 1 For the genealogical relationships of the Roman with other liturgies, the reader is referred to the article LITURGY (vol. xiv. 706 sq.), where some account is also given of the three Sacramentaries. For the doctrines involved in the " sacrifice of the mass," see EUCHARIST, vol. viii. p. 650 sq. 2 Some editions do not mention the Offertory here. 3 This was one of the points discussed at the council of Florence, and Cardinal Bessarion for a time succeeded in persuading the Greeks to give up the Epiklesis. The words of its " canonical prayer " are of unknown antiquity ; they are found in the extant manuscripts of the Sacramentarium Gelasianum, and were already old and of forgotten authorship in the time of Gregory the Great, who, in a letter to John, bishop of Syracuse (Regutr. Epist., vii. 64), speaks of it as " the prayer composed by a scholastic " (precem quam scholasticus composuerat). The same letter is interesting as containing Gregory s defence, on the ground of ancient use, of certain parts of the Roman ritual to which the bishop of Syracuse had taken exception as merely borrowed from Constantinople. Thus we learn that, while at Constantinople the Kyrie Eleison was said by all simultaneously, it was the Roman custom for the clergy to repeat the words first and for the people to respond, Christe Eleison being also repeated an equal number of times. Again, the Lord s Prayer was said immediately after the consecration aloud by all the people among the Greeks, but at Rome by the priest alone. The somewhat meagre and imperfect liturgical details furnished by the Sacramentarium Gregorianum are supple mented in a very full and interesting manner by the succes sive texts of the Ordo Romanus, the first of which dates from about the year 730. The ritual they enjoin is that for a pontifical high mass in Rome itself ; but the differences to be observed by a priest "quando in statione facit missas" are comparatively slight. Subjoined is a precis of Ordo Romanus I. It is first of all explained that Rome has seven ecclesiastical regions, each with its proper deacons, subdeacons, and acolytes. Each region has its own day of the week for high ecclesiastical functions, which are celebrated by each in rotation. [This accounts for the Statio ad S. Mariam Majorem, ad S. Crucem in Jerusalem, ad S. Petrum, &c., prefixed to most of the masses in the Gregorian Sacramentary, and still retained in the " Proprium de Tempore" of the Roman missal.] The regulations for the assembling and marshalling of the procession by which the pontiff is met and then escorted to the appointed station are minutely given, as well as for the adjustment of his vestments " ut bene sedeant," when the sacristy has been reached. He does not leave the sacristy until tlie Introit has been begun by the choir in the church. Before the Gloria he takes his stand at the altar, and after the Kyrie Eleison has been sung (the number of times is left to his discretion) he begins the Gloria in Excelsis, which is taken up by the choir. Dur ing the singing he faces eastward: at its close he turns round for a moment to say " Pax vobis," and forthwith proceeds to the Oratio.* This finished, all seat themselves in order while the subdeacon ascends the ainbo and reads [the Epistle]. After he has done, the cantor with his book (cantatorio) ascends and gives out the response (Responsnm) with the Alleluia and Tractus in addition if the season calls for either. The deacon then silently kisses the feet of the pontiff and receives his blessing in the words " Dominus sit in corde tuo et in labiis tuis." Preceded by acolytes with lighted candles and subdeacons burning incense, he ascends the ambo, where he reads the Gospel. At the close, with the words "Pax tibi" and "Dominus vobiscum," the pontiff, 5 after another Oratio, descends to the " senatorium " accompanied by certain of the inferior clergy, and receives in order the oblations of the rulers (oblationes princi- pum), the archdeacon who follows taking their " amulas " of wine and pouring them into a larger vessel ; similar offerings are received from the other ranks and classes present, including the women. This concluded, the pontiff and archdeacon wash their, hands, the offerings being meanwhile arranged by the subdeacons on the altar, and water, supplied by the leader of the choir (archiparaphonista), being mingled with the wine. During this ceremony the schola have been engaged in singing the Offcrtorium; when all is ready the pontiff signs to them to stop, and enters upon the Preface, the sub- deacons giving the responses. At the Angelic Hymn (Sanctus) all kneel and continue kneeling, except the pontiff, who rises alone and begins the Canon. At the words "per quern haec omnia" the archdeacon lifts the cup with the oblates, and at " Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum " he gives the peace to the clergy in their order, and to the laity. The pontiff then breaks off a particle from the consecrated bread and lays it upon the altar; the rest he, places on the paten held by the deacon. It is then distributed while Agnus Dei is sung. The pontiff in communicating puts the particle into the cup, saying, "Fiat commixtio et consecratio corporis et sanguinis Domini nostri Jesu Christi accipientibus nobis in vitam seternam." Those present communicate in their order under this species also. 4 Quam collectam dicunt, Ord. Rom. II.
5 After singing "Credo in unum Deum," Ord. Rom. 11.