l r t 
acute, leaves, about two inches long! Three, four, or 
more, naked ftalks arife from between the leaves, about 
an inch and a half long, terminated each with one greenifli 
male flower. The female flowers are fertile, commonly 
two, fometimes three, at the bafe of the male ilalk. Lin¬ 
naeus in bis earlier works, following Tournefort, placed 
this plant with the Plantagos. It has indeed their flower; 
but the ftamens and piftils being found in feparate flowers, 
though on the fame plant, and the fruit being different 
from that of the plantains, he afterwards feparated it from 
that genus. He remarks, that the male flower is on a 
ftalk, taller than the female ; the female flower fertile at 
the root, and the ftyle often as long as the ftalk of the 
male flower. Native of the north of Europe, on the 
fhores of lakes. Ray, who ranges it with the rulh-graffes, 
and calls it the fmalleft marfh-plantain, obferved it near 
Cambridge, Glafgow, and Penzance. It is frequent alfo in 
Scotland and fome parts of Wales; on Hounflow heath ; 
near LoweltofF, Suffolk; Hofeiey-lough, Northumberland, 
&c. and on the margins of all the lakes in Ireland that 
have gravelly fhores. 
LITU'BIUM, in ancient geography, a town of Liguria. 
Strabo. 
LITVINTZO'VA, a town of Ruflia, in the govern¬ 
ment oklrkutlk : thirty-fix miles fouth of Iiimfk. 
To LIT'URATE, v. a. To blot out. Cole. _ 
LITUR'GIC, adj. [from liturgy.] Belonging to the li¬ 
turgy. 
LIT'URGY, f. [hurvgyict, Gr. of -AeiIcc, public, and 
£§yo», work.] Form of prayers; formulary of public de¬ 
votions.—We dare not admit any fuch form of liturgy, 
as either appointeth no fcripture at all, or very little, to 
be read in the church. Hooker. —The blefledeft of mortal 
wights began to be importuned, fo that a great part of 
divine liturgy was addreffed iolely to her. Hoiuel. 
Liturgy is ufed among the Romanifts to fignify the 
Mafs ; and among us the Common Prayer. 
All who-have written on liturgies agree, that in the pri¬ 
mitive days divine fervice was exceedingly fimple, attend¬ 
ed with very few ceremonies, and con lifting of but a 
fmall number of prayers; but, by degrees, they increafed 
the number of external ceremonies, and added new pray¬ 
ers, to make the office look more awful and venerable to 
the people. At length things were carried to fuch a pitch, 
that a regulation became neceffary ; and it was found pro¬ 
per to put the fervice, and the manner of performing it, 
into writing; and this was what they called a liturgy. 
In the more early ages of the church, every bifhop had 
a power to form a liturgy for his own diocefe; and, if he 
kept to the analogy of faith and doftrine, all other matters 
•were left to his own difcretion. Afterwards the praftice 
was for the whole province to follow the metropolitan 
church, which alfo became the general rule of the church ; 
and this Lindwood acknowledges to be the common law 
of the church ; intimating that the ufe of feveral fervices 
in the fame province, which was the cafe in England, was 
not to be warranted but by long cuftom. The Liturgy 
of the Church of England was compofed in the year 1547, 
and eftablifhed in the fecund year of Edward VI. In the 
fifth year of this king it was reviewed ; becaufe fome 
things were contained in that liturgy which fhowed a 
compliance with the fuperftition of thofe times, and 
exceptions were taken againft it by fome learned men at 
home, and by Calvin abroad. Some alterations were made 
in it, which confided in adding the General Confeflion 
and Abfolution, and the Communion to begin with the 
Ten Commandments. The ufe of oil in confirmation and 
extreme unftion was left out, and alfo prayers for fouls 
departed, and what tended to a belief of Chrilt’s real pre¬ 
fence in the eucharilt. This liturgy, fo reformed, was ef- 
tabliftied by the aft of 5 & 6 Edw. VI. c. 1. However, 
it was abolifhed by queen Mary, who enafted, that the 
fervice Ihould ftand as it was moll commonly ufed in the 
laftyear of the reign of king Henry VIII. The liturgy 
©f 5 & 6 Edw. VI. was re-eltabliftied, with fome few al- 
Vql. XII. No. 875. 
L I T 329 
teaations and additions, by 1 Eliz. c. 2. All the bifhops 
prefent diflented both in this and the former afts; and, 
therefore, the expreffion “lords fpiritual” doth not occur 
in either of them. Gibf. 268. Some farther alterations 
were introduced, in confequence of the review of the Com¬ 
mon Prayer Book, by order of king James, in the firlt 
year of his reign; particularly in the office of Private 
Baptifm, in feveral rubrics and other paflages, with the ad¬ 
dition of five or fix new prayers and thanklgivings, and 
all that part of the Catechilm which contains the doftrine 
of the facraments. The Book of Common Prayer, fo al¬ 
tered, remained in force from the firft year of king James 
to the fourteenth of Charles II. But the laft review of 
the liturgy was in the year 1661, and the lalt aft of uni¬ 
formity enjoining the obfervance of it, is 15 & 14 Car. II, 
c. 4. See Common Prayer. 
Set forms of prayer, precompofed, and daily repeated, 
have ever been in ufe where there has been any conftant 
practice of religious duties ; and fuch eftablilhed forms 
appear neceffary, not only to aflift the meditations of thofe 
who cannot always command their thoughts, and direft 
them to the proper object; but alfo for the purpofe of 
uniting perfons in public devotion, which could never be 
carried on without fome fettled and known expreffion of 
fentiment and words, in which they all agreed, and to 
which they all were accuttomed. 
The praftice of the Jewifli and Chriftian church has 
been the lame, in conforming to the ufe of fome pre-com- 
pofed prayers. We are told, that David appointed the 
Levites to Jlartd every morning to thank and praise the Lord t 
and hkewi/e at even, x Chron. xxiii. 30; which could not 
be performed by many perfons together, without fome fet 
form in which they all could join. As our Saviour al¬ 
ways joined in communion with the Jewifli church, he 
lent his fanftion to fuch fet forms by his compliance with 
them ; and he finally gave the ftrongeft approbation to 
continuing the praftice, by delivering to his difciples at 
leaft one let form of prayer, when they alked it of him. 
No doubt, the apoftles and difciples joined in the Jewifli 
worfliip till our Lord’s afeenfion; and, when they had form¬ 
ed Chriftian affemblies, it is plain they ufed in them pre¬ 
compofed forms, more efpecially in pfalms, and hymns, and 
Jpiritual fongs, Ephef. v. 61 ; which, and the like deicriptions 
of public devotions, fo frequently mentioned in the New 
Teftament, give an idea of fome liturgical order obferved 
among thofe who had converfed with Chrill; and gave a 
degree of credit to the liturgies which have been, from 
the earlieft ages, aferibed to St. Peter, St. Mark, and St. 
James; which, though not compofed by thofe perfons, 
are certainly of an age very near to them. 
That the primitive Chriltians ufed let forms of prayer, 
is alfo evident from the exprelfions to be found, in the 
earlieft fathers, of “ Common prayers,” “conllituted pray¬ 
ers,” and “folemn prayers.” But this matter is put out 
of all doubt, by the evidence of the Apoltolical Conlti- 
tutions, where the forms both of morning and evening 
prayer are given, with as much regularity as in any mo¬ 
dern liturgy. After the period of that work, which, 
though not apoltolical, as it purports to be, is of a very 
high and acknowledged antiquity, the forming of liturgies 
became an exercife for fome of the molt eminent among 
the fathers. St. Bafil, St. Chryfoftom, and St. Ambrole, 
compofed each their orders and forms of prayer, which 
we now poffefs. In this clafs of works may be reckoned, 
the Leftionary of Sr. Jerome, and the Sacramentary of St. 
Gregory ; which lalt perfon teems to have brought the of¬ 
fices of the weltern church to a more complete form than 
they had yet received ; and, by fuch eminent fervices to 
the church, he obtained the furname of the Great. 
Out of thefe various liturgies had been compiled, at 
different times, the forms of public fervice that were ufed 
ia this kingdom, for many centuries, during the reign of 
popery. They were known, under the feveral names of 
Breviaries, Miffals, and Mafs-books ; and thofe of the fame 
name and defeription differed the one from the other; 
