406 



LITURGIA LITURGY. 



their territories, on the northern coast of Dalmatia. 

 It formerly belonged to the military district of 

 Croatia. The emperor Joseph II. annexed it to 

 Hungary in 177(i, and gave it a civil government 

 for the encouragement of Hungarian commerce. 

 Th> di-trict had. in 1787, 19,928 inhabitants upon 

 14O square miles. From 1809 to 1814, it formed 

 part or the Illyrian provinces of France. In 1814, 

 it was restored to the Austrian empire, and, in 

 1822, was reunited with the provinces of the crown 

 of Hungary. The seat of government is at Fiume. 

 (q. v.) 



LITURGIA (Greek, Xi,T/gy<); the office of the 

 lurtvpyti. These were persons in Athens, of con- 

 siderable estates, who were ordered by their own 

 tribe, or by the whole people, to perform some 

 public duty, or supply the commonwealth with 

 necessaries at their own expense. This institution 

 indicates the rudeness of an age in which political 

 science had made but little progress. These Xj/roi/y/ 

 were of divers sorts, all elected out of 1200 of the 

 richest citizens, who were appointed by the people 

 to undertake, when required, all the burdensome 

 and chargeable offices of the commonwealth, every 

 tribe electing 120 out of their own body. These 

 1200 were divided into two parts, according to their 

 wealth. Out of the wealthiest half, were appointed 

 300 of the richest citizens, who, upon all exigencies, 

 were to furnish the commonwealth with necessary 

 supplies of money, and, with the rest of the 1200, 

 were to perform all extraordinary duties in turn. 

 If any person, appointed to undergo one of the 

 duties, could find another person more wealthy than 

 himself, and free from all the duties, the informer 

 was excused. This obnoxious institution was abol- 

 ished on the proposition of Demosthenes. (See 

 Wolfs Prolegomena to Demosthenes, Bockh's Poli- 

 tical Economy of Athens, and Potter's Grecian Anti- 

 quities.} The word Kurtu^yia. is the origin of the 

 English word liturgy (q. v.), the sense having 

 become contracted from public ministry, in general, 

 to the ceremonies of religious worship. 



LITURGY (Greek, kurovpyiu, from XS/TUV, public, 

 and t^yer, work); a precomposed form of public wor- 

 ship. It is merely our intention here to mention 

 some of the most important liturgies, without enter- 

 ing at all into the question of the primitive forms of 

 worship in the Christian church. There are three 

 liturgies used in the Greek church those of Basil, 

 of Chrysostom, and of the Presanctified. They are 

 used in all the Greek churches subject to the patriarch 

 of Constantinople ; also in the countries originally 

 converted by the Greeks, as Russia, Georgia, Min- 

 grelia, and by the Melchite patriarchs of Alexandria, 

 Antioch, and Jerusalem. (King, Rites of the Greek 

 Church) There are various liturgical books in use 

 in the Roman Catholic church, the greater part of 

 which are common to all the members in communion 

 with the church, while others are only permitted to 

 be used in particular places, or by particular monas- 

 teries. The Breviary contains the matins, lauds, &c., 

 with the variations made therein according to the 

 several days, canonical hours, and the like. There 

 are various breviaries appropriated only to certain 

 places ; as the Ambrosian breviary used in Milan, 

 the Gallican, by the church of France, and those 

 of different monastic orders; but the Roman breviary 

 is general. It consists of the services of matins, 

 lauds, prime, third, sixth, nones, vespers, complines, 

 or the post-communie, that is, of the seven hours, on 

 account of the saying of David, " Seven times a day 

 do I praise thee." It is recited in Latin. The Missal, 

 or volume employed in celebrating mass, contains the 

 calendar, the general rubrics, or rites of the mass, 

 and, besides such parts as are invariably the same, the 



tie temporc, that is, the variable parts on Sundays and 

 holydays that have proper masses ; the propri/tm 

 .iti/ii'furitm, or the variable parts in the masses for the 

 festivals of such saints as have proper masses ; ami 

 commune sdnctnritm, or the variable parts on the 

 feasts of those saints that have no proper mass. The 

 canon of the mass was committed to writing about 

 the middle of the fifth century. Gregory the Great 

 made many additions to it. The Ceremonial contains 

 the offices peculiar to the pope, treating of his elec- 

 tion, consecration, benediction and coronation, the 

 canonization of saints, the creation of cardinals, the 

 vestments of the pope and cardinals when celebrating 

 the divine offices, &c. The Pontificale describes the 

 functions of the bishops of the Roman church; such 

 as the conferring ecclesiastical orders, consecrating of 

 churches, manner of excommunicating, absolving, 

 &c. The Ritual treats of those functions which are 

 to be performed by simple priests, or the inferior 

 clergy, both in the public service of the church, and 

 in the exercise of private pastoral duties. Tlie 

 ancient Gallican liturgy is that which was in use 

 among the Gauls before the time of Pepin and 

 Charlemagne, who introduced the Roman mode of 

 celebrating divine worship. The Spanish liturgy, 

 more commonly called the Mozarabic liturgy, is 

 derived from that of Rome. The Ambrosian liturgy, 

 used in the cathedral at Milan, derives its name from 

 St Ambrose, who made some changes in it. It does 

 not differ from the Roman in doctrines, though it 

 does in form. The whole of the Roman liturgy is in 

 Latin. The Protestants all adopted their vernacular 

 tongue in the celebration of divine service. In 1523, 

 Luther drew up a liturgy, or form of prayer and 

 administration of the sacraments, which, in many 

 points, differed but little from the mass of the church 

 of Rome (Opera, ii., 384). He did not, however, 

 confine his followers to tin's form, and hence every 

 country, in which Lutheranism prevails, has its own 

 liturgy, agreeing with the others in the essentials, 

 but differing in many things of an indifferent nature. 

 The prayers are read or chanted by the minister at 

 the altar, and the subject of the discourse is, in most 

 cases, limited to the epistle or gospel of the day. A 

 new liturgy for the principal divine service on Sun- 

 days, holidays, and the celebration of the holy com- 

 munion, was published at Berlin, in 1822. This was 

 designed primarily for the use of the royal and 

 cathedral church in Berlin, but has been generally 

 adopted in Prussia. Calvin prepared no liturgy, but 

 his followers in Geneva, Holland, France, and other 

 places, drew up forms of prayer, of which the 

 Genevese and the French are the most important. 

 The Genevese liturgy contains the prayer with which 

 divine service begins, a confession of sins, public 

 prayers for every day in the week, and for some par- 

 ticular occasions, the Lord's prayer, decalogue, ana 

 creed, &c. A new liturgy of the French reformed 

 church was compiled in 1826. The Kirk of Scotland, 

 or the Scotch Presbyterian church, has no liturgy. 

 The Directory for the public Worship of God con- 

 tains directions for the assembling of the congrega- 

 tion, the manner of proceeding, &c. In 1562, the 

 Book of Common Order, or Knox's Liturgy, was re- 

 commended to be used by those who were unable to 

 pray without a set form. In England, before the 

 reformation, the public service of the church was per- 

 formed in Latin, and different liturgies were used in 

 different parts of the kingdom. The most celebrated 

 of these were the Breviary and Missal, secundum 

 usum Sarum, compiled by the bishop of Salisbury 

 about 1080. They consisted of prayers and offices, 

 some of very ancient origin, and others the produce 

 oflater times. In 1536, by Henry VIII. 's direction, 

 the Bible, Paternoster, creed and decalogue, were 



