Palmer: Origines Liturgicæ 18
Vol. I: Antiq. of the English Rit., Ch. IIIA, to Quinquagesima.
CHAPTER III.
COLLECTS, EPISTLES, AND GOSPELS.
BEFORE I proceed to ascertain the antiquity of this portion of our ritual, I would observe, that the collects, and the lessons which we now call Epistles and Gospels, were originally recited from two books, the former entitled the Sacramentary, the latter the Lectionary. These two books, with a third called Antiphonary, contained the whole service for the Eucharist. The Sacramentary comprised the collects and the canon or prayers that never varied1. The Lectionary consisted of lessons from the Old and New Testaments, corresponding to our Law, Epistles, and Gospels2: and the Antiphonary supplied the anthems or verses for the beginning of the communion, the offertory, &c.3 About the eleventh or twelfth century it was found convenient generally to unite these three books, and the volume obtained the name of the Complete or Plenary Missal, or Book of Missæ4. Of this description were almost all [309] the liturgical books of the western churches, and the arrangement is still preserved in our own.
The eastern churches have, no sacramentaries, because they do not employ different prefaces and collects for different days, but make use of several liturgies, each of which is appropriated to a particular season of the year. The lessons and anthems are by them recited from distinct lectionaries and anthem books5.
The origin of collects, or prayers read before or between the lessons during the celebration of the liturgy, is involved in obscurity. Such prayers have certainly been used in all the western churches from a remote period; for we not only find them in the earliest monuments of the Roman liturgy, and of all which adopted that rite, but even in those of Gaul and Spain. None such occur in the ancient liturgies of Jerusalem, Antioch, Cæsarea, or Constantinople; but they appear in the same position as in the western liturgies in that of the Monophysites of Alexandria6; and we conclude that they must have been used in the Alexandrian liturgy prior to the council of Chalcedon, A.D. 451, because the liturgy of the orthodox of that church gives plain signs of having been altered from one resembling in this respect that of the Monophysites7; and such resemblance must have been caused by the derivation of both from a common original, before their total [310] separation at that time. We have also Cassian’s testimony that collects were recited in his time, amongst the psalms and lessons of morning and evening prayer, by the Egyptians8: and Athanasius, in more than one place, seems plainly to allude to the existence of the same practice in his time, or early in the fourth century9. There is therefore a high degree of probability that the collects of the Alexandrian liturgy are of great antiquity. The use of collects is certainly very ancient in the west, but they probably cannot be traced so far as those of Alexandria. The latter indeed look much as if they were the models on which those of Rome and other western churches were formed; and if I were to hazard a conjecture on the origin of collects, I should say that they were introduced from Alexandria. We know certainly that the eastern Christians at an early period devised many improvements in the mode of celebrating divine service, which did not occur to the less lively and inventive imaginations of their brethren in the west; and that the latter were accustomed to imitate the former in their rites and ceremonies10. A time came, however, when [311] the tide of invention turned, and innumerable additions and alterations began to he originated in the west, while the eastern rites continued with little variation from age to age.
It has been thought that the collects originally did not vary with each celebration of the liturgy, but were always the same; and the office for Good Friday, or Parasceve in the ancient Roman sacramentary where there are several collects for the clergy, people, heretics, Jews, infidels11 &c. has been pointed out as a relic of the primitive custom. Augustine seems to allude to some such custom in his epistle to Vitalis of Carthage, who affirmed that we ought not to pray for unbelievers. "Employ thy disputations against the prayers of the church; and when thou hearest the priest of God at the altar exhorting the people to pray for the unbelieving, that God may convert them to the faith; and for the catechumens, that he may breathe into them a desire for regeneration; and for the faithful, that by his grace they may persevere in that which they have begun to be, then ridicule the pious words12." [312] Cœlestinus of Rome, about the same time, speaks of prayers resembling those mentioned by Augustine13. The ancient Leonian sacramentary, used in the Roman church in the fifth century, contains several collects for each feast, sometimes four or five; and the Irish sacramentary, originally derived from the Roman, contained several collects for different estates of men, which did not vary14. It is so difficult, however, to reconcile the idea of the invariableness of collects with the directions of the African church in the fourth and fifth centuries, which prohibited the use of collects, &c. that were not approved by competent authority15, evidently permitting any new collects that should be so approved; and with the variety of collects seen in the most ancient sacramentaries of Rome, Milan, &c. that I am inclined to think the variation of collects has been customary in the west from a most remote period; and the words of Augustine and Cœlestinus probably relate to some peculiar offices.
I now proceed to consider the antiquity of those individual collects which are found in the English [313] ritual. The majority of these occur in the Latin language, in the ancient missals of Salisbury, York, Hereford, &c. and they are also in the sacramentaries of the English church written before the Norman Conquest. We meet them in all the ancient MSS. of Gregory’s sacramentary, as used in the Roman, Italian, and other western churches, and thence shew that they formed part of that sacramentary when it was introduced into England by Augustine, first archbishop of Canterbury; and in consequence, that they have been used by the church in this country for above twelve hundred years. Many of the collects, however, are much more ancient than the time of Gregory, A.D. 590; they occur in the sacramentary of Gelasius, patriarch of Rome A.D. 494, and some may be traced to the Leonian sacramentary, used in the Roman church about A.D. 483. In the following pages I have placed in parallel columns the English text of our collects, and the Latin, extracted from the ancient liturgical offices of the church of Salisbury, with which those of York and Hereford almost always agree16. I have also cited a manuscript sacramentary of the Anglo-Saxon church, written probably about the ninth or tenth century, and given by Leofric, bishop of Exeter, to his church before the Norman Conquest17. I have likewise referred to the sacramentary of Gregory, as published by Menard. When references to the above three monuments are appended to any collect, we may fairly consider it to have formed part of the sacramentary of Gregory [314] A.D. 590, and may conclude that it has been used in the English church for above twelve hundred years. When to these references I have subjoined another to the sacramentary of Gelasius, the collect to which it is appended may be considered as old as the year 494. Those collects which I have traced to the sacramentary of Leo are much more ancient than the time of Gelasius, and may be referred to the end of the fourth, or the earlier part of the fifth century18. I have also occasionally quoted the sacramentary or missal of Ambrose, or more properly of the church of Milan. This sacramentary has been different from that of Rome from a most remote period, and though the liturgy of Milan was originally derived from Rome19, yet the latter church may afterwards have borrowed from the sacramentary of the former some of those collects which are found in both, and have been so long used in the church of England. I have also had occasion to refer to the sacramentaries of the ancient Gallican church, which were in use before the emperor Charlemagne introduced the Roman liturgy into France20.
THE EPISTLES AND GOSPELS.
In another part of this work the reader will find some remarks on the antiquity of the custom of reading lessons from scripture in the Christian liturgy21. I have there remarked on the custom of the English church, of continually reading the same portion of the Law, containing the Decalogue, [315] before the other lessons22. In addition to this lesson from the Law, two others are taken from the Prophets, the Epistles of Paul, the catholic Epistles, the Acts of the holy Apostles, and the Gospels. The first being frequently taken from St. Paul’s Epistles, and the second always from the Gospels, they have long currently obtained the names of "the Epistle and the Gospel."
Almost all our Epistles and Gospels have been appropriated to their present situations for a great length of time. They are appointed for the same occasions in the most ancient monuments of the English church. In the succeeding pages I have traced the Epistles and Gospels now used by the church of England to her ancient liturgies. I have thought it sufficient to refer to the missal or sacramentary of the church of Sarum, because it generally agrees with those of Hereford and York, and was commonly used in England. I have traced these lessons to a period antecedent to the Norman Conquest, by means of the manuscript of Leofric before referred to23: and, finally, by means of the ancient Lectionarium or Comes of the Roman church, published by Pamelius24, I have already shewn that they [316] were brought to this country by Augustine, archbishop of Canterbury, and consequently have been used in the church of England, as at present, for more than twelve hundred years.
Before I conclude these introductory remarks, I wish to explain the manner in which the Epistles and Gospels are referred to in the following pages. I have only thought it necessary to insert the chapter and verse which mark the commencement of those lessons in the English ritual, because any one may immediately refer to them in the Prayer Book. In like manner I have only extracted the title, and the beginning and concluding words of the corresponding passage in the ancient lectionaries, &c. because any one with a Latin Bible can easily find the original.
Palmer: Origines Liturgicæ
[317]
COLLECTS, EPISTLES, AND GOSPELS.
THE FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT
25.