The Ethiopic Liturgy: Antient Liturgies 9781463218188

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The Ethiopie Liturgy

Analecta Gorgiana

173 Series Editor George Kiraz

Analecta Gorgiana is a collection of long essays and short monographs which are consistently cited by modern scholars but previously difficult to find because of their original appearance in obscure publications. Carefully selected by a team of scholars based on their relevance to modern scholarship, these essays can now be fully utilized by scholars and proudly owned by libraries.

The Ethiopie Liturgy

An tient Liturgies

C. E. Hammond

l gorgias press 2009

Gorgias Press LLC, 180 Centennial Ave., Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA www.gorgiaspress.com Copyright © 2009 by Gorgias Press LLC Originally published in 1878 All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise without the prior written permission of Gorgias Press LLC.

ISBN 978-1-60724-188-1 ISSN 1935-6854 This book is an extract of C. E. Hammond, Antient Uturgies, London: Macmillan, 1878.

Printed in the United States of America

§ viii.

The Elhiopic

Liturgies.

The Ethiopic, or Abyssinian, Church is a daughter of the Church of Alexandria; Christianity having been brought thither by Frumentius about A.D. 330. When the Schism took place in the Alexandrian Patriarchate, in the time of Dioscorus and of the Council of Chalcedon, the Abyssinian Church gave its adherence to the Monophysite Patriarch. This ecclesiastical connexion is still maintained: the Abuna (as the head of the

[1]

Relations of

lvi

Their chief

1 liturgy.

Other autho-

The Antient Liturgy

Introduction.

Abyssinian Church is designated) being always chosen and consecrated by the Patriarch of Alexandria. Their principal Liturgy, or Canon Universalis, called also the , , Liturgy of ' All Apostles,' is given below from Renaudot, whose Latin version was made from the text printed at Rome (1548). There is also an English Translation made by the Rev. J. M. Rodwell (Williams and Norgate, 1864), from the same Edition, and compared with an independent (but recent) MS, now in the British Museum, which may be consulted with advantage. This Liturgy will be found to keep on the whole very close to the Coptic S. Cyril and the Greek S. Mark. It is unique in not having the ' Sursum Corda' with the usual response. A few remarks are required on the short ' Antient Ethiopic

given by

Liturgy,' which is reprinted from the Commentary of Ludolphus (1691). The chief reason for giving it is because Bunsen, in the third Volume of his 'Analecta Ante-Nicaena,' attaches so much importance to it, unduly, as we venture to think. real oPd?'° Ludolphus gives an account of ' T h e Apostolical Ordinances' nances. f T om an important MS. in the Vatican Library, of which a partial transcript had been sent to him. The full transcript stops at the twenty-third section, or paragraph ; after that merely giving the titles. The MS. was given by King ZeraJacob, in the middle of the 15th century, to some Monks who were going to Jerusalem. Its age is not stated. The Liturgy in question occurs in § xxi. which is headed, ' De ordinatione Bunsen's Episcoporum et ritu Eucharistiae,' and Bunsen, who speaks r r r estimate of it. of the Clementine Liturgy as ' the work of a learned falsifier of old texts ' (' Anal. Ante-Nic.', p. 34), eagerly accepts this Liturgy as without doubt a genuine specimen of the Liturgy of the middle of the second century. His reasons appear to be partly, that it can be made to give some support to his theory of the Eucharistic sacrifice, viz. that though the Holy ' Spirit could be called down not only upon the people but also upon the gifts,' 'the blessing would be directed pre-eminently towards the people, as a Benediction. They were the spiritual real victim, which was to be blessed and sealed' (p. 15). Partly too he rests upon its 'Apostolic beauty and simplicity' (p. 21).

[2]

Introduction.

lvii

But there are some strong objections to assigning a date thus early. First, these Ethiopic Apostolical ordinances run closely parallel with the Coptic Apostolical Constitutions (translated by Dr. Tattam for the Oriental Translation Fund, 1848), though the two sets are divided differently; § 31 of the Coptic Constitutions answering to § xxi. of the Ethiopic (Ludolphus). Now it is remarkable that in two places in this section, where the Coptic simply gives directions for a prayer to be used, the Ethiopic recension gives the formula to be used, viz. the actual Consecration-Prayer to be said over the new Bishop, and this form of Liturgy, which he is to say immediately upon his consecration. It is evidently then a characteristic of the Ethiopic recension to fill in these formulae. But, if we go a little further on, we find that § lii. of the Ethiopic bears the title, De ordinaiione Episcoporum et rilu Eucharistiae: and we might expect it to correspond to the Coptic, §§ 65, 66, which treat of the ordination of Bishops, and give a description of the Eucharistic service. This description in the Coptic almost exactly resembles the rubrics (the actual forms of prayer being omitted) of the Clementine Liturgy from the Greek Apostolical Constitutions. W e might then fairly expect to find, if we had the Ethiopic § lii. in extenso, that it supplied the formulae, and so presented the regular type of the Eucharistic service, probably not unlike the Clementine.

Difficulties,

AiaterCanon gives the of L i t u r g y ,

But there are these further direct objections, Disagree1. So far from agreeing with Justin Martyr's account of Justin Marthe Liturgy of the Second Century, as Bunsen attempts to t y r s a c c o u n t make out that it does, it presents several striking points of difference (see p. xl). T o mention only one, the Preface is very short, whereas Justin says it was ¿TU TTO\V. 2. Another difficulty, and a grave one, is the entire absence A b s e n c e of of Intercession. Seeing that the use of Intercession in con- '"emeM!5017 nexion with the Eucharist depends upon Apostolic injunction (1 Tim. ii. 1), and the universal voice of antiquity testifies to its being an essential part of the Eucharistic service: it is difficult to accept as a specimen of Apostolic beauty a

[3]

Iviii

Introduction.

form of Liturgy in which this essential element finds no place. Nestorian° 3" ^ been remarked (Probst, ' Lit. der drei ersten heresy. christlichen Jahrh.' p. 239 n.) that the expressions in the Preface, Et misisti eum de caelo in uterum Virginis. Caro factus est, et gestatus fuit in ventre ejus, savours of a time later than Nestorius. These reasons, coupled with other obvious deficiencies, such as the very imperfect form of the Words of Institution, suggest that it was not intended for more than the outline of a service, and that a special one: and that we cannot argue from it as if it had ever been the normal Liturgy of a Church, or of a period.

[4]

LITURGIA IN AETHIOPUM

AETHIOPICA, CONSTITUTIONIBUS

APOSTOLICIS A D S E R V A T A . (E L U D O L P H I

COMMENTARIO AD H I S T O R I A M

AETHIOPICAM,

PP. 324 SEQ.)

Cui contigerit istud munus, Diaconus praebeat illi

EucharistiamAdhaec

ponens manurn suam super panem eucharisticum cum omnibus presbyteris gratias agit Domino, dicens hoc modo: ffifte atta» pfjots. Benediction. SURSUM CORDA,

Dominus vobiscum omnibus. Respondei populus. Totus cum Spiritu tuo sit. Dicit Episcopus. Sursum corda. Respondei omnis populus. Sunt apud Dominum Deum nostrum. Dicii Episcopus. Gratias agamus Domino. Populus. Rectus 2 et justus est. 1 T h e context shows that the word which Ludolphus here translates ' Eucharistia' must really represent oblata, TCL Swpa, the oblations intended for consecration: for this is in immediate connexion with the directions for the election and ordination of a Bishop. In fact this gives the form according to which the newly ordained Bishop was to celebrate the H o l y Eucharist for the first time in his new office. Euxapioria as a concrete word is only, I believe, used of the consecrated elements, being equivalent to •fj (vxapiaTTjSuaa TpotyTj (Just. M. A p o l . i. c. 66). 2 T h e ' Coptic Apostolical Constitutions,' translated by Dr. H . Tattam (1848), agree down to this point with this Abyssinian recension: and D r . Tattam, as well as Ludolphus, has the masculine here. Bunsen suggests the alteration ' rectum et justum est,' which is of course the usual response at this point to the ' gratias agamus Domino.' But the combined evidence of the two versions, Coptic and Ethiopic, for the masculine gender is weighty. It is a singular variation. T h e rest of the Liturgy is not given in the Coptic recension.

[5]

Ancient Ethiopic Liturgy.

235

Deinde dicunt orationem Eucharisticam, Episcopum praeeuntem sequendo.

Gratias agimus tibi, Domine, per dilectum Filium tuum Jesum II. Christum, quem in ultimis diebus misisti nobis Salvatorem et commemóRedemptorem, nuncium consilii tui. Iste (est) verbum quod Redemption ex te est, per quod omnia fecisti volúntate tua. Et misisti eum de caelo in uterum Virginis. Caro factus est, et gestatus fuit in ventre ejus: Et Filius tuus manifestatus fuit a Spiritu Sancto, ut impleret voluntatem tuam, et populum tibi efficeret expandendo manus suas : passus est ut afflictos liberaret, qui confidunt in te. Qui traditus est volúntate sua ad passionem, ut mortem dissolveret, vincula Satanae rumperet, et conculcaret infernum, et sanctos educeret, et statuta conderet, et resurrectionem patefaceret. Accipiens ergo panem gratias egit, et dixit, Acápite, comedite, Hoc est corpus meum, quod pro nobis frangitur. THE I N S T I Et similiter calicem quoque, et dixit: Hie est sanguis meus qui pro vobis effunditur: cum facitis hoc, in commemorationem mei id facietis. Recordantes igitur mortis ejus et resurrectionis ejus, offerimus III. tibi hunc panem et calicem, gratias agentes tibi quod nos red- TION° b l a didisti dignos ut stemus coram te et sacerdotio tibi fungamur. Suppliciter oramus te ut mittas Spiritum tuum Sanctum IV. super oblationes hujus Ecclesiae. Pariterque largiaris omnibus, C A T I O N ? " " qui sumunt de iis Sanctitatem, ut repleantur Spiritu Sancto; et ad confirmationem fidei in veritate, ut te celebrant et laudent in Filio tuo Jesu Christo, in quo tibi sit laus et potentia in sancta Ecclesia, et nunc et semper et in saecula saeculoram. Amen \ Populus dicit. Sicut erat, est, et erit in generationes generationum et in saecula saeculoram. Amen. 1

Here is inserted in the text:— De oblatione olei. Qui oleum offert tempore Eucharistiae, ut et panem et vinum, gratias agit eodem modo. Quamvis autem iisdem verbis non fuerit usus, pro facúltate sua propria etiam, aliis verbis gratias agat, dicens:— Sanctificans oleum hoc, (gratiam) tribue illis qui únguntur et accipiunt (panem et vinum), sicuti unxisti Sacerdotes et Prophetas. Similiter et illos et unumquemque, qui gustat (illud), corrobora: et santifica illos qui accipiunt illud.

[6]

236

Ancient Ethiopie

Littirgy.

Episcopus (ait). V. a forth?Con"

gregation.

Iterum supplicamus wavroKp&ropi Domino omnipotenti, Patri Domini et Salvatoris nostri Jesu Christi, ut concédât nobis in benedictione accipere hoc sanctum sacramentum, utque neminem ex nobis reum faciat, sed omnes dignos reddat qui sumunt et accipiunt sanctum sacramentum corporis et sanguinis Christi jravTOKpÓTopos Domini Dei nostri. Diaconus dicit.

VI. Prayer of Humble Access.

Sancta

Orate.

Domine omnipotens! Dum accipimus hoc sanctum mysterium, robur nobis tribue, neque quemquam ex nobis reum age, sed omnibus benedic in Christo; in quo tibi cum illo et cum Spiritu Sancto sit laus et potentia nunc et semper et in saecula saeculorum. Amen. Diaconus dicii. Vos qui statis, demittite capita vestra. Domine aeterne, gnarus occultorum! declinaverunt tibi capita sua populus tuus, et tibi subjecerunt duritiem cordis et carnis. Respice de parata habitatione tua, et benedic illos et illas. Inclina illis aures tuas et exaudi preces eorum. Corrobora eos virtute dextrae tuae, et protege eos a passione mala. Custos eorum esto, tam corporis quam animae. Auge et illis et nobis fidem et timorem. Per unicum Filium tuum, in quo tibi cum illo et cum Spiritu Sancto sit laus et potentia in perpetuum et in saecula saeculorum. Amen. Diaconus ait. Respiciamus, etc. Episcopus. Sancta 1 sanctis.

Confession of Populus respondet. Unus Faith. u n u s e g t gpj r ; L u s S a n c tus.

Pater sanctus; unus Filius sanctus ;

Episcopus dicit. Dominus vobiscum omnibus. Populus respondet. Et cum Spiritu tuo. 1 Ludolphus has here sanctuarium sanctis, and marks a hiatus: but it is obviously the regular exclamation before the Communion. Perhaps there is some confusion in the Ethiopic translation from the Greek t