liturgy

(lit’ér-ji), n.; pl. litwrgies (-jiz). [Former- ly liturgie; épyov = E. work: see work. | 1. In ancient Greece, particularly at Athens, a form of personal service to the state which citizens po e ing property to a certain amount were bound, when called upon, to perform at their own cost. These liturgies were ordinary, including the presentation of dramatic performances, musical and poetic contests, etc., the celebration of some festivals, and other public functions entailing expense upon the incumbent; or extraordinary, as the fitting out of a trireme in case of war. 2. Aform or method of conducting publie worship; an appointed form for the words and acts used in the rites and ceremonies of the Christian church. The word denotes especially an appointed form for the holy communion, the hours or daily prayer, litanies, baptism, confirmation, marriage, burial, penance, visitation and unction of the sick or dying, ordinations, and other offices such as are contained in the Mi al, Breviary, Ritual, Pontifical, Euchologion, Horologion, etc., of the Roman Catholic and the Greek Church, or united in one volume in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. Liturgies seem to have originated partly in the inheritance or adoption of Jewish forms of worship and their adaptation to Christian purposes. The Book of Psalms, especially as containing inspired prayers, praises, thanksgivings, etc., furnished a large amount of liturgical material. On the other hand, the forms given by Christ, such as the Lord’s Prayer, the words of institution in the eucharist, the baptismal formula, etc., became centers of development for the new and distinctively Christian parts of the offices. 3. Specifically, in liturgiology, and as the name most frequently used in the Greek Church, the form of service used in the celebration of the eucharist, or that service itself. In this last sense Latin and Roman Catholic writers generally prefer the word ma . An account of primitive Christian liturgical worship is given by Justin Martyr (in the middle of the second century A. D.), and this agrees with the Clementine Liturgy, a form referable to about A. D, 250, and so called because incorporated in the Apostolical Constitutions, a compilation attributed to St. Clement of Rome. Five great groups or families of liturgies are recognized, each of which can be referred to a single original liturgy represented by one or more direct derivatives still existing. They are: (1) The Liturgy of St. James (or of Jerusalem), also called the Hierosolymitan Liturgy, the Greek form of which has been somewhat modified by that of St. Chrysostom; it exists also in a Syriac Jacobite form, with numerous derivatives. From its Greek form came the Greek Liturgy of St. Basil (of Cappadocia), and from this the Liturgy of St. Chrysostom on the one hand and the Armenian Liturgy on the other, The liturgies of St. Basil and St. Chrysostom, together with the Liturgy of the Presanctified (see below), are known as Liturgies of Constantinople, and are almost exclusively used at the present day by the whole Greek Church. (2) The Liturgy of St. Mark (or of Alexandria), the original Catholic or Greek form of which has been influenced by that of Constantinople. It is used also to the present day in a Coptic (Egyptian Monophysite) form named after St. Cyril. The Copts, however, use as their principal liturgy one named after St. Basil, different from that of the same name in the first group. The Ethiopian (that is, Aby in i an) forms belong to this group. (3) The Liturgy of Sts. Adeus and Maris (or of Ede a), also known as the Liturgy of the Apostles. It is a very ancient orthodox liturgy, and is the original of the East Syrian group. It is often called West or i an, because used by Nestor i ans, and because the ancient Malabar and other Nestor i an liturgies are derived from it. (4) The Liturgy of St. Peter (or of Rome), the earliest extant forms of which are the Gel asian and Greg or i an Sacramentaries. It is the principal liturgy of the Roman or Petrine group, and has almost entirely supplanted all the liturgies in the Latin language — that is, those in this and the next group. Allied but independent forms are the Ambrosian Liturgy, which is that of the archdiocese of Milan, still sometimes used, and the liturgies or uses of the Anglo-Saxon and medieval English Church, of which the most important was the Use of Sarum. These medieval English uses are the sources of the Communion Office in the succe ive revisions of the Anglican Prayer-book. The Nonjurors’ office of 1718 and the Scottish office of 1764 were, however, largely conformed to the Liturgy of St. James, and from these the American office derives its prayer of consecration. (5) The Liturgy of St. Paul (or of St. John), also called the Liturgy of Ephesus, is the inferred original of the so-called Hphesine Liturgies, these names being not historical or traditional, but the generally accepted result of scientific combination. These liturgies are also called Gallican or Hispano-Gallican, and are the forms, Latin in language, anciently used in Britain, Gaul, and Spain, and traced through the church at Lyons to Ephesus. The varieties used in Gaul have been supplanted since the time of Charlemagne by the Roman form, which has also been substituted since the eleventh century for the ancient liturgy of Spain, known as the Moz arabic. This last, however, as revived at the beginning of the sixteenth century by Cardinal Ximenes, is still used in three or four chapels or churches, but with some a imilation to the Roman rite.— Liturgy or Ma of the Presanctified, an office with a communion (the elements having been consecrated at a previous celebration), but no consecration, and therefore not a liturgy or-ma in the strict sense of these words. Such a service (containing parts of the Liturgy of St. Chrysostom) is said in the Greek hurch throughout Lent, except on Saturdays, Sun days, 3486 and the Feast of the Annunciation. In the Roman Catholic Church the rite is confined to Good Friday. lit us (Ji’tus), ». [ML., also let us, let us; AS. let: see let.) In old Saxon law, a member of the third order in the nation, the first being the nobilis, and the second the ingenwus, corresponding to the eorl, the ceorl, and the let of the Kentish laws. The lit us appears to be distinctly recognized as a member of the nation. Instead of being amere dependent with no political rights, the remnant of a conquered alien people, he is free in relation to every one but his lord, and simply unfree as cultivating land of which he is not the owner. Stubbs, Const. Hist., § 22. lituus (lit’a-us), ».; pl. litu i (i). [L., an augur’s staff, a trumpet; supposed to be of Etruscan origin, meaning ‘crooked.’] 1. In Rom. antiq.: (a) A staff with a recurved or crooked top, used by the augurs in quartering the heavens; an augural wand. (6) An instrument of martial music; a kind of trumpet curved at the outer extremity, and haying a shrill tone.—2, A spiral of which the character- © istic property Lituus. is that the squares of any two radii vectores are reciprocally proportional to the angles which they respectively make with a certain line which is given in position and which is an asymptote to the spiral. This name was given by Cotes (died 1716).— 8. [cap.] In zodl.: (a) A genus of cephalopods: same as Spirula. Breyn, 1732. (b) A genus of gastropods: same as Cyclos tom a. Martyn, 1784. liunt, ». A Middle English form of lon.