The Synod of Laodicea - A.D. 343/381

Edited from a variety of translations (mentioned in the preface) by H. R. Percival

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St. Paul is by some learned writers supposed to have quoted in several places the already existing liturgy, especially in I. Cor. ij. 9., [183] and there can be no doubt that the Lord's prayer was used and certain other formulas which are referred to by St. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles [184] as "the Apostles' prayers." How early these forms were committed to writing has been much disputed among the learned, and it would be rash to attempt to rule this question. Pierre Le Brun [185] presents most strongly the denial of their having been written during the first three centuries, and Probst [186] argues against this opinion. While it does not seem possible to prove that before the fourth century the liturgical books were written out in full, owing no doubt to the influence of the disciplina arcani, it seems to be true that much earlier than this there was a definite and fixed order in the celebration of divine worship and in the administration of the sacraments. The famous passage in St. Justin Martyr [187] seems to point to the existence of such a form in his day, shewing how even then the service for the Holy Eucharist began with the Epistle and Gospel. St. Augustine and St. Chrysostom bear witness to the same thing. [188]

Within, comparatively speaking, a few years, a good deal of information with regard to the worship of the early Church has been given us by the discovery of the Didache, and of the fragments the Germans describe as the K. O., and by the publication of M. Gamurrini's transcript of the Peregrinatio Silviae. [189]

From all these it is thought that liturgical information of the greatest value can be obtained. Moreover the first two are thought to throw much light upon the age and construction of the Apostolical Constitutions. Without in any way committing myself to the views I now proceed to quote, I lay them before the reader as the results of the most advanced criticism in the matter.

(Duchesne. Origines du Culte Chrétien, p. 54 et seq.)

[183] J. M. Neale. Essays on Liturgiology.

[184] Acts ij. 42.

[185] Pierre Le Brun. Explic. Tom. II., Diss. j. p. II., et seqq.

[186] Probst. Liturgie der drei ersten Christichen Jarhunderten.

[187] Apolog. Cap. LXVII.

[188] I venture to draw the reader's attention to the rest of this article as containing information not readily found elsewhere.

[189] The ms. from which this was printed was found in a library in Arezzo. Silvia was a lady of rank, living in the times of Theodosius, who made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Places from Meridian Gaul. To us the chief interest of her book lies in the account she gives of the services. The following is the title, S. Silviae Aquittanae peregrinatio ad loca Sancta. It will be found in the Biblioteca dell' Accademia storica giuridica. Tom. IV. Rome, 1887, and again in the Studi e Documenti di storia e dir itto, April-September, 1888, and the liturgical parts in an appendix to Duchesne. Of the other books the best edition is Adolf Harnack's.

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