Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Series 2 - The Still Small ...

VI.—Liturgical.
It is beyond the scope of the present work to discuss at length the history and relation
of the extant Liturgies, which go by the name of St. Basil. St. Basil’s precise share in their
composition, as we possess them, must be conjectural.
(i) The Liturgy, which St. Basil himself used and gave to his clergy and monks, preserved
the traditional form in use in the archdiocese of Cæsarea. 700 It is mentioned in the xxxii nd
canon of the council “in Trullo” of 692. This is no doubt the basis of the Greek Liturgy
known as St. Basil’s, and used in the East as well as the Liturgy of St. Chrysostom. The form
in use is contained in Neale’s Primitive Liturgies (1875). Dr. Swainson (Greek Liturgies
chiefly from Oriental Sources, p. 75) printed an edition of it from the Barberini ms. in 1884.
(ii) There is an Alexandrine Liturgy in Coptic, Arabic, and Greek form, called St. Basil’s,
and used on fast days by the Monophysites (Renaudot, Lit. Orient. Collectio, i. 154). This
differs entirely from the first named.
(iii) Yet again there is a Syriac Liturgy called St. Basil’s, translated by Masius, and given
by Renaudot in his second volume. 701
700 cf. De Sp. Scto. chap. xxvii. p. 41.
701 cf. Dict. Christ. Ant. s.v. “Liturgy,” and C. Hole, Manual of the Book of Common Prayer, chap. ii. Fessler
notes: “Extat Liturgia S. Basilii tam fusior quam brevior gr. et lat. in Eucholog. Gr. ed. J. Goar Venetiis 1730 et
alia gr. et lat. in E. Renaudot Coll. Lit. Or. Paris, 1716, item alia latine tantum conversa ex Coptico Jacobitarum
in eadem collect, ac rursus alia latine tantum ex Syriaco conversa.…De formæ varietate hæc optime monet
Renaudot: ‘Liturgia illa, quod extra dubium est, usurpatur in Græca ecclesia ab annis plus mille ducentis; atque
inde originem habuerunt leves aliquot discrepantiæ in precibus præparatoriis aut in aliis orationibus. Quædam
exemplaria cæremoniales rubricas habent, quæ in aliis non reperiuntur; at alicujus momenti discrimen in illis
partibus quæ canonem sacræ Actionis constituunt, non reperitur.…Varietates in codicibus omnes prope ad ritus
spectant, qui enucleatius in aliquibus, in aliis brevius explicantur, in nonnullis omittuntur, quia aliunde peti de-
bebant.’ Eo autem sensu Liturgiæ hujus auctor dicitur Basilius, non quod proprio ingenio eam excogitaverit, sed
quod preces publicas, eisque contiguos ritus, quoad rei essentiam ex communi traditionis Apostolicæ fonte manantes,
ordinaverit et in scriptis codicibus ad certam formam redegerit.”
Liturgical.
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