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from Part III - Themes, topics and trajectories
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 September 2011
One of the earliest surviving accounts of Christian liturgy is a report of Sunday Eucharist written at Rome around AD 150 by Justin Martyr:
And on the day named for the sun there is an assembly in one place for all who live in the towns and in the country; and the memoirs of the Apostles and the writings of the Prophets are read as long as time permits. Then when the reader has finished, he who presides speaks, giving admonishment and exhortation to imitate those noble deeds. Then we all stand together and offer prayers. And when, as we said above, we are finished with the prayers, bread is brought, and wine and water, and he who presides likewise offers prayers and thanksgiving, according to his ability, and the people give their assent by exclaiming Amen. And there takes place the distribution to each and partaking of that over which thanksgiving has been said, and it is brought to those not present by the deacon.
A description of a solemn mass as celebrated at Rome some six centuries later runs to several thousand words. The account of the introit, cited here in abbreviated form, is in itself longer than the entirety of Justin Martyr's earlier description.
Then [the choir] rises up and passes in order before the altar, and the two rows arrange themselves in this manner: the men-singers on either side without the doors [of the presbytery], and the children on each side within. Immediately the precentor begins the anthem for the entry: and when the deacons hear his voice, they at once go to the pontiff in the sacristy. Then the pontiff, rising, gives his right hand to the archdeacon, and his left to the second [deacon], or whoever may be appointed: who, after kissing his hands, walk with him as his supporters . . . After this the pontiff passes on, but before he comes to the choir the bearers of the candlesticks divide, four going to the right and three to the left; and the pontiff passes between them to the upper part of the choir, and bows his head to the altar . . . Then turning towards the precentor, he signs to him to sing, Glory be to the Father, and to the Son etc.; and the precentor bows to the pontiff, and begins it . . .
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