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SECT. 7.-This Salutation sometimes used by the Bishop immediately before the Reader began to read.

St. Austin in another place mentions the bishop's using this form of salutation as soon as he came into the church, immediately before the reader began to read the lessons, which in Afric, in those days, was the first part of the service, with a responsory psalm between every lesson. "I went to church," says he," I saluted the people, that is, said. 'Peace be unto you! And then silence being made, the solemn lessons of the Holy Scriptures were read in order." This custom of saluting the people in this form is also mentioned by Chrysostom in several places. "When we are come into the church," says he, "we say immediately, 'Peace be unto you!' according to this law, and ye answer, And with thy spirit!' Again, the bishop at his entrance into the church says always, Peace be unto you!" as a proper salutation when he comes into his Father's house." And in another place," when the bishop enters the church, he immediately says, ' Peace be with you all! when he begins his sermon, he says, again,' Peace be with you all! &c." Now, considering that this was the common, salutation at the beginning of all offices, and that the Scriptures began to be read as soon as the bishop came into the church, it is plain that such a form of salutation was always used by one or other before the reading of the Scriptures.

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SECT. 8.-The Deacon enjoined Silence, before the Reader began, and required Attention: As the Reader also did before every Lesson, saying, "Thus saith the Lord."

St. Chrysostom takes notice of two other customs relating to this matter, as introductory to the reading and hearing the Scriptures with greater advantage: that is, the dea

1 Aug. de Civ. Dei. lib. xxii. cap. viii. p. 1489. Procedimus ad populum, plena erat ecclesia, personabat vocibus gaudiorum: Deo gratias, Deo laudes. —Salutavi populum.---Facto tandem silentio, Scripturarum divinarum sunt lecta solennia. 2 Chrys. Hom. xxxiii. in Mat. p. 218. Ko nãoɩ τὴν εἰρήνην ἐπιλέγομεν εἰσιόντες εὐθέως κατὰ τὸν νόμον ἐκεῖνον. Hom, xxxvi. in 1 Cor. p. 653. Chrys. Hom. iii. in Colos. p. 1338.

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* Chrys.

cons enjoining silence and requiring attention, and the reader himself, after the naming any lesson, saying, “Thus saith the Lord." "The deacon," says he," who is the common minister of the Church, first stands up and cries with a loud voice, Пpóoxwμev, Let us give attention :' this he repeats several times, and after that the reader names the prophet, Isaiah suppose, or any other; and before he begins. to read, he also cries aloud, ' Táde λéyei Kópios, Thus saith the Lord." So again in another place, "When the reader rises up and says, Thus saith the Lord;' and the deacon stands up, and commands all men to keep silence, he does not say this to honour the reader, but God, who speaks to all by him." This enjoining of silence is spoken of by St. Ambrose and others: but it differed from another Act of the deacon's under the same name, "silentium indicere, which was calling upon the people to fall to their private prayers, of which we shall have occasion to say more in the next Book, chap. i.

SECT. 9.-At the naming of the Prophet or Epistle the People in some Places said, "Deo Gratias," and "Amen!" at the End of it.

Mabillon observes, that at the naming of the lessons out of the Prophets or Epistles the people sometimes said, "Deo gratias, Thanks be to God!" As it is in the Mosarabic Liturgy. But we have little notice of this elsewhere. Only St. Austin says," it was a very common phrase among the monks, when they met a brother-christian, to say, "Deo gratias, Thanks be to God!" for which the Circumcellions, or Agonistici, as they called themselves, among the Donatists, were wont to insult them, though they themselves often used to say, "Deo laudes !" which in their mouth was more to be dreaded than the roaring of a lion. It appears also from the Acts of Eradius's election to be his successor, that it

Chrys. Hom. xix. in Act, Apost.

2 Chrys. Hom. iii. in 2 Thes. 3 Ambros. Præfat. in Psalmos. Quantum laboratur in ecclesiâ ut fiat silentium, cùm lectiones leguntur. &c. Vid. Aug. de Civ. Dei. lib. xxii. c. 8. Mabil. de Liturg. Gallic. lib. i. cap. ii. n. 10. 5 Aug. in Psal. 132. p. 630. A quibus plus timetur, Deo laudes,' quàm fremitus leonis, hi etiam insultare nobis audent, quia fratres, cùm vident homines, Deo gratias,' dicunt.

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was an usual acclamation upon many other occasion for as soon as he had nominated Eradius to be his successor, the people cried out for a long time together," Deo gratias, Christo laudes, Thanks be to God! Praise be to Christ!" What therefore was so common upon other occasions, might very probably be said by way of acclamation at the naming of the lessons of the Holy Scriptures. Grotius says, it was also customary at the end of the Epistle for the people to answer, "Amen!" and that hence it was, that at the end of all St. Paul's Epistles the word, Amen, was added by the Church. I know not upon what grounds he asserts this, and therefore I shall let it rest upon the authority of that learned man, without affirming or denying his

assertion.

SECT. 10.-At the Reading of the Gospel all stood up, and said in some Places, "Glory be to Thee, O Lord !"

At the reading of the Gospel it was a general custom for all the people to stand up and some of the middle age Ritualists take notice of their saying, "Glory be to thee, O Lord!" at the naming of it. The author of the Homily, De Circo vel Hippodromo, under the name of St. Chrysostom, says, "When the deacon goes about to read the Gospel, we all presently rise up, and say, ' Glory be to Thee, O Lord!" But as that Homily is known to be none of Chrysostom's, we cannot certainly say, it was the custom in his days. But the custom of rising up at the reading of the Gospel is certainly as old as Chrysostom: for he speaks of it in one of his Homilies on St. Matthew. "If the letters of a king are read in the theatre with great silence: much more ought we to compose ourselves, and stand up with attentive ears, when the letters not of an earthly king, but of the Lord of Angels are read to us."

The Author of the Constitutions mentions the same:5 "When the Gospel is read, let the presbyters and deacons,

Aug. Ep. 110. de Actis Eradii. A populo acclamatum est trigesies sexies, 'Deo gratias, Christo laudes.' 2 Grot. Annot. in Philem. ver. 25.

Chrys. Hom. 52. de Circo. tom. vi. p. 491. in Mat. p. 11. 5 Const. lib. ii. cap. 57.

Chrys. Hom. i.

and all the people stand with profound silence." And so Isidore of Pelusium, "When the true Shepherd appears at the opening of the Holy Gospels, then the bishop himself rises up, and lays aside his pastoral habit or authority, signifying thereby, that then the Lord himself, the Author of the pastoral function, his God and his Master is present." This was every where observed, except at Alexandria, where it is noted by Sozomen, as a singular thing in that Church, "That the bishop did not use to rise up, when the Gospel was read." And Cassian observes it, as no less singular in the Monks of Egypt, that excepting the reader, who always stood up, the rest sat upon low seats both when the psalms and the lessons out of the Old or New Testament were reading. Which was only indulged them because of their excessive watchings and fastings and labours. In other places sitting at the Gospel was reckoned a corruption and abuse: insomuch that Philostorgius tells us,* that Theophilus, the Arian bishop, who went to the Indies, corrected it as an indecency that had crept in there against the rules of the Church. And Anastasius did the same at Rome, as is said in his Life by the Author of the Pontifical.5 For he made a decree," that, as often as the Holy Gospels were read, the priests should not sit, but stand in a bowing posture." In Afric the general custom was, not only to stand at the Gospel, but at all the other lessons out of Scripture for they gave equal honour to every part of the word of God, insomuch as that their sermons and homilies and whatever was rehearsed in the Church, was heard standing, as we shall see more in the next chapter. Here it will be sufficient to observe, that Cyprian's readers not only stood up to read, but that all the people stood about them when they read the Scriptures. And in St. Austin's time the custom was the same: for he says," the

1 Isidor. Pelus. lib. i. ep. 186.

2 Sozom. lib. vii. cap. 19. Philostorg. lib. iii. c. 5.

8 Cassian. Instit. lib. ii. cap. 12. 5 Pontifical. Vit. Anastas. Hic constituit, ut quotiescunque sancta Evangelia recitarentur, sacerdotes non sederent, sed curvi starent. 6 Cypr. Ep. 34.al. 39. p. 78. In loco altiore constitui oportet, ubi ab omni populo circumstante conspecti, &c. 7 Aug. Hom. 26. ex 50. tom. x. p. 174. Quando passiones prolixæ aut certè aliquæ lectiones longiores legun

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longest lessons were then heard by all sorts and sexes standing, except only such as through some infirmity in the feet or weakness of body were disabled, who upon that account were indulged in sitting, but no others whatsoever. Bona thinks there was no certain answer made,' when the Gospel was ended. For some said only, ' Amen!' as it is in the Mosarabic Liturgy, and the Rule of St. Benedict. Which Alexander Hales interprets the same as saying, "God grant we may persevere in the doctrine of the Gospel." "Others said, "Deo gratias, Thanks be to God!" and others," Laus tibi, Christe, Praise be to Thee, O Christ!" But all this is said only out of the middle-age writers, whilst there is a perfect silence as to this matter in the more ancient writers of the Church.

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SECT. 11.-Lights carried before the Gospel in the Eastern Churches.

There was one ceremony more ancient, which St. Jerom makes peculiar to the Eastern Churches, which was the carrying lights before the Gospel, when it was to be read. He says, they had no such custom in the Western Church, either as burning candles by day at the monuments of the martyrs, as Vigilantius falsely accused them; nor at any other time, save only when they met in the night, to give light to their assemblies: but in the Eastern Church it was otherwise; for without any regard to the relics of the martyrs, whenever the Gospel was read, they lighted candles, partly to demonstrate their joy for the good news, which the Gospel brought, and partly by a corporeal symbol to represent that light of which the Psalmist speaks, " Thy word is

tur, qui stare not possunt, humiliter et cum silentio sedentes, attentis auribus audiant quæ leguntur, &c. Note, that this Homily is by Mabillon and the Benedictins in their new edition ascribed to Cæsarius Arelatensis: if it be his, it proves the custom of standing to hear the lessons, to have been according to the usage of the French Churches.

Bona. Rer. Liturg. lib. ii. cap. vii. n. 4. 2 Hieron. cont. Vigilant. cap. iii. Cereos autem non clarâ luce accendimus, sicut frustra calumniaris, sed ut noctis tenebras hoc solatio temperemus- -Absque martyrum reliquiis per totas Orientis Ecclesias, quum legendum est evangelium, accenduntur luminaria jam sole rutilante, non utique ad fugandas tenebras, sed ad signum lætitiæ demonstrandum, &c.

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