can realize that a tradition of theology, that is influenced neither by St. Augustine nor, later, by St. Thomas, must be in many ways very different from ours. One notices this difference most plainly in modern times, but it existed already in the time before the schism. Our Fathers had no St. Thomas then, but they had the tendencies that would afterwards give his work such enormous importance.
The faith of the Orthodox Eastern Church, then, during the first eight centuries was the same as that of Rome, although naturally the difference of race and of theological traditions (since they could not understand our Fathers) gradually formed a different system of philosophy and a different way of looking at certain articles of faith. But these differences did no sort of harm to the unity of faith.
2. Eastern Liturgies.[1]
After the faith come rites. Here there is a real difference. None of the Eastern Churches ever knew anything of our Roman Liturgy. In this matter the different Churches followed their own traditions from the very beginning. There has never been a parent-rite from which the later ones were derived.
The Apostles left only in the most general way the practice of meeting together for prayer, for reading the Scriptures, for singing psalms, and especially for the Breaking of Bread. This was, of course, the chief thing. As our Lord had commanded, the first Christians met together to do what he had done at the Last Supper, in memory of him. The story of that Supper in the New Testament gave the general outline of the rite. They did what he had done. They took bread and wine, gave thanks, broke, said again his own words, and then received the Blessed Sacrament in Communion. They certainly also said prayers and read parts of the Bible. This office gradually crystallized into the liturgy, and it crystallized into
- ↑ The word Liturgy in classical Greek means a public work (λεῖτον ἔργον. λειτουργεῖν, to perform a public service). The LXX and N.T. (Luke i. 23; Heb. ix. 21) use it for the temple service. In the East of Europe Liturgy means only the service of consecrating the Holy Eucharist, i.e., exactly the same as our word Mass.
