LITTLETON

littleton, sir thomas de (_c._ 1407-1481), english judge and legal author, was born, it is supposed, at frankley manor house, worcestershire, about 1407. littleton's surname was that of his mother, who was the sole daughter and heiress of thomas de littleton, lord of frankley. she married one thomas westcote. thomas was the eldest of four sons of the marriage, and took the name of littleton, or, as it seems to have been more commonly spelt, luttelton. the date of his birth is uncertain; a ms. pedigree gives 1422, but it was probably earlier than this. if, as is generally accepted, he was born at frankley manor, it could not have been before 1407, in which year littleton's grandfather recovered the manor from a distant branch of the family. he is said by sir e. coke to have "attended one of the universities," but there is no corroboration of this statement. he was probably a member of the inner temple, and lectured there on the statute of westminster ii., _de donis conditionalibus_. his name occurs in the paston letters (ed. j. gairdner, i. 60) about 1445 as that of a well-known counsel and in 1481/2 he received a grant of the manor of sheriff hales, shropshire, from a sir william trussel as a reward for his services as counsel. he appears to have been recorder of coventry in 1450; he was made escheator of worcestershire, and in 1447/8 was under-sheriff of the same county; he became serjeant-at-law in 1453 and was afterwards a justice of assize on the northern circuit. in 1466 he was made a judge of the common pleas, and in 1475 a knight of the bath. he died, according to the inscription on his tomb in worcester cathedral, on the 23rd of august 1481. he married, about 1444, joan, widow of sir philip chetwind of ingestrie in staffordshire, and by her had three sons, through whom he became ancestor of the families holding the peerages of cobham (formerly lyttelton, q.v.) and hatherton. his _treatise on tenures_ was probably written after he had been appointed to the bench. it is addressed to his second son richard, who went to the bar, and whose name occurs in the year books of the reign of henry vii. the book, both historically and from its intrinsic merit, may be characterized as the first text-book upon the english law of property. the law of property in littleton's time was mainly concerned with rights over land, and it was the law relating to this class of rights which littleton set himself to digest and classify. the time was ripe for the task. ever since the conquest regular courts of justice had been at work administering a law which had grown out of an admixture of teutonic custom and of norman feudalism. under henry ii. the courts had been organized, and the practice of keeping regular records of the proceedings had been carefully observed. the centralizing influence of the royal courts and of the justices of assize, working steadily through three centuries, had made the rules governing the law of property uniform throughout the land; local customs were confined within certain prescribed limits, and were only recognized as giving rise to certain well-defined classes of rights, such, for instance, as the security of tenure acquired by villeins by virtue of the custom of the manor, and the rights of freeholders, in some towns, to dispose of their land by will. thus, by the time of littleton (henry vi. and edward iv.), an immense mass of material had been acquired and preserved in the rolls of the various courts. reports of important cases were published in the "year books." a glance at statham's _abridgment_, the earliest digest of decided cases, published nearly at the same time as littleton's _tenures_, is sufficient to show the enormous bulk which reported cases had already attained as materials for the knowledge of english law. littleton's treatise was written in that peculiar dialect compounded of norman-french and english phrases called law french. although it had been provided by a statute of 36 edward iii. that _viva voce_ proceedings in court should no longer be conducted in the french tongue, "which was much unknown in the realm," the practice of reporting proceedings in that language, and of using it in legal treatises, lingered till a much later period, and was at length prohibited by a statute passed in the time of the commonwealth in 1650. unlike the preceding writers on english law, glanville, bracton and the authors of the treatises known by the names of britton and fleta, littleton borrows nothing from the sources of roman law or the commentators. he deals exclusively with english law. the book is written on a definite system, and is the first attempt at a scientific classification of rights over land. littleton's method is to begin with a definition, usually clearly and briefly expressed, of the class of rights with which he is dealing. he then proceeds to illustrate the various characteristics and incidents of the class by stating particular instances, some of which refer to decisions which had actually occurred, but more commonly they are hypothetical cases put by way of illustration of his principles. he occasionally refers to reported cases. his book is thus much more than a mere digest of judicial decisions; to some extent he pursues the method which gave to roman law its breadth and consistency of principle. in roman law this result was attained through the practice of putting to jurisconsults hypothetical cases to be solved by them. littleton, in like manner, is constantly stating and solving by reference to principles of law cases which may or may not have occurred in actual practice. in dealing with freehold estates littleton adopts a classification which has been followed by all writers who have attempted to systematize the english law of land, especially sir m. hale and sir william blackstone. it is indeed the only possible approach to a scientific arrangement of the intricate "estates in land" known to english law. he classifies estates in land by reference to their duration, or in other words by reference to the differences between the persons who are entitled to succeed upon the death of the person in possession or "tenant." first of all, he describes the characteristics of tenancy in fee simple. this is still as it was in littleton's time the largest interest in land known to the law. next in order comes tenancy in fee tail, the various classes of which are sketched by littleton with brevity and accuracy, but he is silent as to the important practice, which first received judicial recognition shortly before his death, of "suffering a recovery," whereby through a series of judicial fictions a tenant in tail was enabled to convert his estate tail into a fee simple, thus acquiring full power of alienation. after discussing in their logical order other freehold interests in land, he passes to interests in land called by later writers interests less than freehold, namely, tenancies for terms of years and tenancies at will. with the exception of tenancy from year to year, now so familiar to us, but which was a judicial creation of a date later than the time of littleton, the first book is a complete statement of the principles of the common law, as they for the most part still exist, governing and regulating interests in lands. the first book concludes with a very interesting chapter on copyhold tenures, which marks the exact point at which the tenant by copy of court roll, the successor of the villein, who in his turn represented the freeman reduced to villenage by the growth of the manorial system, acquired security of tenure. the second book relates to the reciprocal rights and duties of lord and tenant, and is mainly of historical interest to the modern lawyer. it contains a complete statement of the law as it stood in littleton's time relating to homage, fealty and escuage, the money compensation to be paid to the lord in lieu of military service to be rendered to the king, a peculiar characteristic of english as distinguished from continental feudalism. littleton then proceeds to notice the important features of tenure by knight's service with its distinguishing incidents of the right of wardship of the lands and person of the infant heir or heiress, and the right of disposing of the ward in marriage. the non-military freehold tenures are next dealt with; we have an account of "socage tenure," into which all military tenures were subsequently commuted by a now unrecognized act of the long parliament in 1650, afterwards re-enacted by the well-known statute of charles ii. (1660), and of "frankalmoign," or the spiritual tenure by which churchmen held. in the description of burgage tenure and tenure in villenage, the life of which consists in the validity of ancient customs recognized by law, we recognize survivals of a time before the iron rule of feudalism had moulded the law of land in the interests of the king and the great lords. finally he deals with the law of rents, discussing the various kinds of rents which may be reserved to the grantor upon a grant of lands and the remedies for recovery of rent, especially the remedy by distress.[1] the third and concluding book of littleton's treatise deals mainly with the various ways in which rights over land can be acquired and terminated in the case of a single possessor or several possessors. this leads him to discuss the various modes in which several persons may simultaneously have rights over the same land, as parceners:--daughters who are co-heiresses, or sons in gavelkind; joint tenants and tenants in common. next follows an elaborate discussion upon what are called estates upon condition--a class of interests which occupied a large space in the early common law, giving rise on one side to estates tail, on another to mortgages. in littleton's time a mortgage, which he carefully describes, was merely a conveyance of land by the tenant to the mortgagee, with a condition that, if the tenant paid to the mortgagee a certain sum on a certain day, he might re-enter and have the land again. if the condition was not fulfilled, the interest of the mortgagee became absolute, and littleton gives no indication of any modification of this strict rule, such as was introduced by courts of equity, permitting the debtor to redeem his land by payment of all that was due to the mortgagee although the day of payment had passed, and his interest had become at law indefeasible. the remainder of the work is occupied with an exposition of a miscellaneous class of modes of acquiring rights of property, the analysis of which would occupy too large a space. the work is thus a complete summary of the common law as it stood at the time. it is nearly silent as to the remarkable class of rights which had already assumed vast practical importance--equitable interests in lands. these are only noticed incidentally in the chapter on "releases." but it was already clear in littleton's time that this class of rights would become the most important of all. littleton's own will, which has been preserved, may be adduced in proof of this assertion. although nothing was more opposed to the spirit of norman feudalism than that a tenant of lands should dispose of them by will, we find littleton directing by his will the feoffees of certain manors to make estates to the persons named in his will. in other words, in order to acquire over lands powers unknown to the common law, the lands had been conveyed to "feoffees" who had full right over them according to the common law, but who were under a conscientious obligation to exercise those rights at the direction and for the exclusive benefit of the person to whose "use" the lands were held. this conscientious obligation was recognized and enforced by the chancellor, and thus arose the class of equitable interests in lands. littleton is the first writer on english law after these rights had risen into a prominent position, and it is curious to find to what extent they are ignored by him. bibliography.--the work of littleton occupies a place in the history of typography as well as of law. the earliest printed edition seems to be that by john lettou and william de machlinia, two printers who probably came from the continent, and carried on their business in partnership, as their note to the edition of littleton states, "in civitate londoniarum, juxta ecclesiam omnium sanctorum." the date of this edition is uncertain, but the most probable conjecture, based on typographical grounds, places it about the latter part of 1481. the next edition is one by machlinia alone, probably about two or three years later than the former. machlinia was then in business alone "juxta pontem quae vulgo dicitur fleta brigge." next came the rohan or rouen edition, erroneously stated by sir e. coke to be the earliest, and to have been printed about 1533. it was, however, of a much earlier date. tomlins, the latest editor of littleton, gives reasons for thinking that it cannot have been later than 1490. it is stated in a note to have been printed at rouen by william le tailleur "ad instantiam richardi pynson." copies of all these editions are in the british museum. in all these editions the work is styled _tenores novelli_, probably to distinguish it from the "old tenures." there are three early mss. of littleton in the university library at cambridge. one of these formerly contained a note on its first page to the effect that it was bought in st paul's churchyard on july 20, 1480. it was therefore in circulation in littleton's lifetime. the other two mss. are of a somewhat later date; but one of them contains what seems to be the earliest english translation of the _tenures_, and is probably not later than 1500. in the 16th century editions of littleton followed in rapid succession from the presses of pynson, redmayne, berthelet, tottyl and others. the practice of annotating the text caused several additions to be introduced, which, however, are easily detected by comparison of the earlier copies. in 1581 west divided the text into 746 sections, which have ever since been preserved. many of these editions were printed with large margins for purposes of annotation, specimens of which may be seen in lincoln's inn library. the practice of annotating littleton was very general, and was adopted by many eminent lawyers besides sir e. coke, amongst others by sir m. hale. one commentary of this kind, by an unknown hand of earlier date than sir e. coke's, was edited by cary in 1829. following the general practice of dealing with littleton as the great authority on the law of england, "the most perfect and absolute work that ever was written in any human science," sir e. coke made it in 1628 the text of that portion of his work which he calls the first part of the institutes of the law of england, in other words, the law of property. the first printed english translation of littleton was by rastell, who seems to have combined the professions of author, printer and serjeant-at-law, between 1514 and 1533. many english editions by various editors followed, the best of which is tottyl's in 1556. sir e. coke adopted some translation earlier than this, which has since gone by the name of sir e. coke's translation. he, however, throughout comments not on the translation but on the french text; and the reputation of the commentary has to some extent obscured the intrinsic merit of the original. see e. wambaugh, _littleton's tenures in english_ (washington, d.c., 1903). footnote: [1] these two books are stated, in a note to the table at the conclusion of the work, to have been made for the better understanding of certain chapters of the _antient book of tenures_. this refers to a tract called _the old tenures_, said to have been written in the reign of edward iii. by way of distinguishing it from this work, littleton's book is called in all the early editions "tenores novelli." littre, maximilien paul emile (1801-1881), french lexicographer and philosopher, was born in paris on the 1st of february 1801. his father had been a gunner, and afterwards sergeant-major of marine artillery, in the french navy, and was deeply imbued with the revolutionary ideas of the day. settling down as a collector of taxes, he married sophie johannot, a free-thinker like himself, and devoted himself to the education of his son emile. the boy was sent to the lycee louis-le-grand, where he had for friends hachette and eugene burnouf. after he had completed his course at school, he hesitated for a time as to what profession he should adopt, and meanwhile made himself master, not only of the english and german languages, but of the classical and sanskrit literature and philology. at last he determined to study medicine, and in 1822 entered his name as a student of medicine. he passed all his examinations in due course, and had only his thesis to prepare in order to obtain his degree as doctor when in 1827 his father died, leaving his mother absolutely without resources. he at once renounced his degree, and, while attending the lectures of p. f. o. rayer and taking a keen interest in medicine, began teaching latin and greek for a livelihood. he carried a musket on the popular side in the revolution of february 1830, and was one of the national guards who followed charles x. to rambouillet. in 1831 he obtained an introduction to armand carrel, the editor of the _national_, who gave him the task of reading the english and german papers for excerpts. carrel by chance, in 1835, discovered the ability of his reader, who from that time became a constant contributor, and eventually director of the paper. in 1836 littre began to contribute articles on all sorts of subjects to the _revue des deux mondes_; in 1837 he married; and in 1839 appeared the first volume of his edition of the works of hippocrates. the value of this work was recognized by his election the same year into the academie des inscriptions et belles-lettres. at this epoch he came across the works of auguste comte, the reading of which formed, as he himself said, "the cardinal point of his life," and from this time onward appears the influence of positivism on his own life, and, what is of more importance, his influence on positivism, for he gave as much to positivism as he received from it. he soon became a friend of comte, and popularized his ideas in numerous works on the positivist philosophy. at the same time he continued his edition of hippocrates, which was not completed till 1862, published a similar edition of pliny's _natural history_, and after 1844 took fauriel's place on the committee engaged on the _histoire litteraire de la france_, where his knowledge of the early french language and literature was invaluable. it was about 1844 that he started working on his great _dictionnaire de la langue francaise_, which was, however, not to be completed till thirty years after. in the revolution of july 1848 he took part in the repression of the extreme republican party in june 1849. his essays, contributed during this period to the _national_, were collected together and published under the title of _conservation, revolution et positivisme_ in 1852, and show a thorough acceptance of all the doctrines propounded by comte. however, during the later years of his master's life, he began to perceive that he could not wholly accept all the dogmas or the more mystic ideas of his friend and master, but he concealed his differences of opinion, and comte failed to perceive that his pupil had outgrown him, as he himself had outgrown his master saint-simon. comte's death in 1858 freed littre from any fear of embittering his master's later years, and he published his own ideas in his _paroles de la philosophie positive_ in 1850, and at still greater length in his work in _auguste comte et la philosophie positive_ in 1863. in this book he traces the origin of comte's ideas through turgot, kant and saint-simon, then eulogizes comte's own life, his method of philosophy, his great services to the cause and the effect of his works, and finally proceeds to show where he himself differs from him. he approved wholly of comte's philosophy, his great laws of society and his philosophical method, which indeed he defended warmly against j. s. mill, but declared that, while he believed in a positivist philosophy, he did not believe in a religion of humanity. about 1863, after completing his hippocrates and his pliny, he set to work in earnest on his french dictionary. in the same year he was proposed for the academie francaise, but rejected, owing to the opposition of mgr. dupanloup, bishop of orleans, who denounced him in his _avertissement aux peres de famille_ as the chief of the french materialists. he also at this time started with g. wyrouboff the _philosophie positive_, a review which was to embody the views of modern positivists. his life was thus absorbed in literary work till the overthrow of the empire called on him to take a part in politics. he felt himself too old to undergo the privations of the siege of paris, and retired with his family to britanny, whence he was summoned by m. gambetta to bordeaux, to lecture on history, and thence to versailles to take his seat in the senate to which he had been chosen by the department of the seine. in december 1871 he was elected a member of the academie francaise in spite of the renewed opposition of mgr. dupanloup, who resigned his seat rather than receive him. littre's _dictionary_ was completed in 1873. an authoritative interpretation is given of the use of each word, based on the various meanings it had held in the past. in 1875 littre was elected a life senator. the most notable of his productions in these years were his political papers attacking and unveiling the confederacy of the orleanists and legitimists, and in favour of the republic, his republication of many of his old articles and books, among others the _conservation, revolution et positivisme_ of 1852 (which he reprinted word for word, appending a formal, categorical renunciation of many of the comtist doctrines therein contained), and a little tract _pour la derniere fois_, in which he maintained his unalterable belief in materialism. when it became obvious that the old man could not live much longer, his wife and daughter, who had always been fervent catholics, strove to convert him to their religion. he had long interviews with pere milleriot, a celebrated controversialist, and was much grieved at his death; but it is hardly probable he would have ever been really converted. nevertheless, when on the point of death, his wife had him baptized, and his funeral was conducted with the rites of the catholic church. he died on the 2nd of june 1881. the following are his most important works: his editions of hippocrates (1839-1861), and of pliny's _natural history_ (1848-1850); his translation of strauss's _vie de jesus_ (1839-1840), and muller's _manuel de physiologie_ (1851); his edition of the works of armand carrel, with notes (1854-1858); the _histoire de la langue francaise_, a collection of magazine articles (1862); and his _dictionnaire de la langue francaise_ (1863-1872). in the domain of science must be noted his edition, with charles robin, of nysten's _dictionnaire de medicine, de chirurgie_, &c. (1855); in that of philosophy, his _analyse raisonnee du cours de philosophie positive de m. a. comte_ (1845); _application de la philosophie positive au gouvernement_ (1849); _conservation, revolution et positivisme_ (1852, 2nd ed., with supplement, 1879); _paroles de la philosophie positive_ (1859); _auguste comte et la philosophie positive_ (1863); _la science au point de vue philosophique_ (1873); _fragments de philosophie et de sociologie contemporaine_ (1876); and his most interesting miscellaneous works, his _etudes et glanures_ (1880); _la verite sur la mort d'alexandre le grand_ (1865); _etudes sur les barbares et le moyen age_ (1867); _medecine et medecins_ (1871); _litterature et histoire_ (1875); and _discours de reception a l'academie francaise_ (1873). for his life consult c. a. sainte-beuve, _notice sur m. littre, sa vie et ses travaux_ (1863); and _nouveaux lundis_, vol. v.; also the notice by m. durand-greville in the _nouvelle revue_ of august 1881; e. caro, _littre et le positivisme_ (1883); pasteur, _discours de reception_ at the academy, where he succeeded littre, and a reply by e. renan. (h. m. s.) liturgy (low lat. _liturgia_; gr. [greek: leitos], public, and [greek: ergon], work; [greek: leitourgos], a public servant), in the technical language of the christian church, the order for the celebration and administration of the eucharist. in eastern christendom the greek word [greek: leitourgia] is used in this sense exclusively. but in english-speaking countries the word "liturgy" has come to be used in a more popular sense to denote any or all of the various services of the church, whether contained in separate volumes or bound up together in the form of a book of common prayer. in this article the liturgy is treated in the former and stricter sense. (for the ancient athenian [greek: leitourgiai], as forms of taxation, see finance.) in order to understand terms and references it will be convenient to give the tabular form the chief component parts of a liturgy, selecting the liturgy of rome as characteristic of western, and that of constantinople as characteristic of eastern, christendom; at the same time appending an explanation of some of the technical words which must be employed in enumerating those parts. order of the roman liturgy _ordinary of the mass_. 1. introit, or as it is always called in the sarum rite, "office," a psalm or part of a psalm sung at the entry of the priest, or clergy and choir. 2. kyrie eleison, ninefold, and sometimes lengthily farsed representing an older, now obsolete, litany. 3. collect, _i.e_. the collect for the day. 4. prophetic lection, now obsolete, except on the wednesday and saturday ember days, good friday and easter even, and wednesday after fourth and sixth sundays in lent. 5. epistle. 6. gradual. a few verses from the psalms, the shrunken remainder of a whole psalm. 7. sequence. a hymn now obsolete except on feast of the seven dolours, easter, pentecost, corpus christi and at masses for the dead. 8. gospel. 9. creed. 10. collect, now obsolete, though the unanswered invitation, "let us pray," still survives. 11. offertory. a verse or verses from the psalms sung at the offering of the elements. 12. secret. a prayer or prayers said at the conclusion of the offertory. 13. sursum corda. "lift up your hearts," with following versicles. 14. preface. there are now ten proper or special prefaces and one common preface. in older missals they were extremely numerous, almost every sunday and holy-day having one assigned to it. many of them were very beautiful. in older missals, nos. 13, 14 and 15 were sometimes arranged not as the concluding part of the ordinary, but as the opening part of the canon of the mass. 15. sanctus, or tersanctus, or triumphal hymn, "holy, holy, holy," &c., ending with the benedictus, "blessed is he that cometh," &c. _canon of the mass._ 1. introductory prayer for acceptance. te igitur, &c. 2. intercession for the living. memento, domine famulorum, &c. 3. commemoration of apostles and martyrs. communicantes et memoriam, &c. 4. prayer for acceptance and consecration of offering. hanc igitur oblationem, &c. 5. recital of words of institution. qui pridie quam pateretur, &c. 6. oblation. unde et memores, &c. 7. invocation. a passage difficult of interpretation, but apparently meant to be equivalent to the eastern epiklesis or invocation of the holy ghost. supplices te rogamus, &c. 8. intercession for the dead. memento etiam, domine, famulorum, &c. 9. lord's prayer, with a short introduction and the expansion of the last petition into a prayer known as the "embolismus." 10. fraction, i.e. breaking of the host into three parts, to symbolize the death and passion of christ. 11. commixture, i.e. placing a small portion of the consecrated bread into the chalice symbolizing the reunion of christ's body and soul at the resurrection. 12. agnus dei, i.e. a three-fold petition to the lamb of god. 13. pax, i.e. the kiss of peace. the ancient ritual of the pax has become almost obsolete. 14. three prayers, accompanying the pax and preliminary to communion. 15. communion of priest and people (if any), a short anthem called "communio" being sung meanwhile. 16. ablution of paten and chalice. 17. post-communion, i.e. a concluding prayer. 18. dismissal. the canon of the mass strictly ends with no. 9; nos. 10-18 being an appendix to it. liturgy of constantinople _mass of the catechumens. after preparation and vesting._ 1. the deacon's litany. 2. three anthems with accompanying prayers. 3. little entrance, i.e. ceremonial bringing in of the book of the gospels. 4. the trisagion, i.e. an anthem with an accompanying prayer different from the latin sanctus or tersanctus. 5. epistle. 6. gospel with a prayer preceding it. 7. bidding prayer. 8. prayer for catechumens. 9. dismissal of catechumens. 10. spreading of the corporal. _mass of the faithful._ 11. prayers of the faithful. 12. cherubic hymn, "let us who mystically represent the cherubim, &c." not represented in the latin liturgy. 13. great entrance, i.e. of the unconsecrated elements with incense and singing and intercessions. 14. kiss of peace. 15. creed. 16. the benediction, i.e. 2 cor. xiii. 14. 17. sursum corda. 18. preface. 19. sanctus, or tersanctus, or "triumphal hymn." 20. recital of words of institution, prefaced by recital of the redemption. 21. the oblation. 22. the invocation or epiklesis. 23. intercession for the dead. 24. intercession for the living. 25. the lord's prayer. 26. prayer of humble access (a) for people (b) for priest. 27. elevation with the invitation "holy things to holy people." 28. fraction. 29. commixture. 30. thanksgiving. 31. benediction. in both these lists many interesting features of ceremonial, the use of incense, the infusion of warm water (byzantine only), &c., have not been referred to. the lists must be regarded as skeletons only. there are six main families or groups of liturgies, four of them being of eastern and two of them of western origin and use. they are known either by the names of the apostles with whom they are traditionally connected, or by the names of the countries or cities in which they have been or are still in use. group i. _the syrian rite_ (st james).--the principal liturgies to be enumerated under this group are the clementine liturgy, so called from being found in the eighth book of the apostolic constitutions, which claim in their title, though erroneously, to have been compiled by st clement, the 1st-century bishop of rome; the greek liturgy of st james; the syriac liturgy of st james. sixty-four more liturgies of this group have existed, the majority being still in existence. their titles are given in f. e. brightman's _liturgies, eastern and western_ (1896), pp. lviii.-lxi. group ii. _the egyptian rite_ (st mark).--this group includes the greek liturgies of st mark, st basil and st gregory, and the coptic liturgies of st basil, st gregory, st cyril or st mark; together with certain less known liturgies the titles of which are enumerated by brightman (_op. cit._ pp. lxxiii. lxxiv.). the liturgy of the ethiopian church ordinances and the liturgy of the abyssinian jacobites, known as that of the apostles, fall under this group. group iii. _the persian rite_ (ss. adaeus and maris).--this nestorian rite is represented by the liturgy which bears the names of ss. adaeus and maris together with two others named after theodore of mopsuestia and nestorius. this group has sometimes been called "east-syrian." the titles of three more of its now lost liturgies have been preserved, namely those of narses, barsumas and diodorus of tarsus. the liturgy of the christians of st thomas, on the malabar coast of india, formerly belonged to this group, but it was almost completely assimilated to the roman liturgy by portuguese jesuits at the synod of diamper in 1599. group iv. _the byzantine rite._--the greek liturgies of st chrysostom, st basil and st gregory dialogus, or the presanctified, also extant in other languages, are the living representatives of this rite. the greek liturgy of st peter is classified under this group, but it is merely the roman canon of the mass &c., inserted in a byzantine framework, and seems to have been used at one time by some greek communities in italy. to this group also belongs the armenian liturgy, of which ten different forms have existed in addition to the liturgy now in general use named after st athanasius. we now come to the two western groups of liturgies, which more nearly concern the latin-speaking nations of europe, and which, therefore, must be treated of more fully. group v. _the hispano-gallican rite_ (st john).--this group of latin liturgies, which once prevailed very widely in western europe, has been almost universally superseded by the liturgy of the church of rome. where it survives, it has been more or less assimilated to the roman pattern. it prevailed once throughout spain, france, northern italy, great britain and ireland. the term "ephesine" has been applied to this group or family of liturgies, chiefly by english liturgiologists, and the names of st john and of ephesus, his place of residence, have been pressed into service in support of a theory of ephesine origin, which, however, lacks proof and may now be regarded as a discarded hypothesis. other theories represent the gallican to be a survival of the original roman liturgy, or as an importation into western europe from the east through a milanese channel. the latter is duchesne's theory (_christian worship_, london, 1904, 2nd ed., p. 94). we must be content with mentioning these theories without attempting to discuss them. the chief traces of oriental influence and affinity lie in the following points:--(1) various proclamations made by the deacon, including that of "silentium facite" before the epistle (migne, _pat. lat._ tom. lxxxv. col. 534); (2) the presence of a third lesson preceding the epistle, taken from the old testament; (3) the occasional presence of "preces" a series of short intercessions resembling the greek "ektene" or deacon's litany; (4) the position of the kiss of peace at an early point in the service, before the canon, instead of the roman position after consecration; (5) the exclamation "sancta sanctis" occurring in the mozarabic rite, being the counterpart of the eastern "[greek: ta hagia tois hagiois]," that is "holy things to holy people"; (6) traces of the presence of the "epiklesis," that is to say, the invocation of the holy spirit, in its eastern position after the words of institution, as in the prayer styled the post-pridie in the mozarabic service for the second sunday after the octave of the epiphany: "we beseech thee that thou wouldest sanctify this oblation with the permixture of thy spirit, and conform it with full transformation into the body and blood of our lord jesus christ." (migne, _pat. lat._ tom. lxxxv. col. 250). on the other hand the great variableness of its parts, and the immense number of its proper prefaces, ally it to the western family of liturgies. we proceed now to give a more detailed account of the chief liturgies of this group. 1. _the mozarabic liturgy.--_this was the national liturgy of the spanish church till the close of the 11th century, when the roman liturgy was forced upon it. its use, however, lingered on, till in the 16th century cardinal jimenes, anxious to prevent its becoming quite obsolete, had its books restored and printed, and founded a college of priests at toledo to perpetuate its use. it survives now only in several churches in toledo and in a chapel at salamanca, and even there not without certain roman modifications of its original text and ritual. its date and origin, like the date and origin of all existing liturgies, are uncertain, and enveloped in the mists of antiquity. it is not derived from the present roman liturgy. its whole structure, as well as separate details disprove such a parentage, and therefore it is strange to find st isidore of seville (_lib. de eccles. offic_. i. 15) attributing it to st peter. no proof is adduced, and the only value which can be placed upon such an unsupported assertion is that it shows that a very high and even apostolic antiquity was claimed for it. a theory, originating with pinius, that it may have been brought by the goths from constantinople when they invaded spain, is as improbable as it is unproven. it may have been derived from gaul. the gallican sister stood to it in the relation of twin-sister, if it could not claim that of mother. the resemblance was so great that when charles the bald (843-877) wished to get some idea of the character of the already obsolete gallican rite, he sent to toledo for some spanish priests to perform mass according to the mozarabic rite in his presence. but there is no record of the conversion of spain by gallican missionaries. christianity existed in spain from the earliest times. probably st paul travelled there (rom. xv. 24). it may be at least conjectured that its liturgy was pauline rather than petrine or johannine. 2. _gallican liturgy._--this was the ancient and national liturgy of the church in france till the commencement of the 9th century, when it was suppressed by order of charlemagne, who directed the roman missal to be everywhere substituted in its place. all traces of it seemed for some time to have been lost until three gallican sacramentaries were discovered and published by thomasius in 1680 under the titles of _missale gothicum_, _missale gallicum_ and _missale francorum_, and a fourth was discovered and published by mabillon in 1687 under the title of _missale gallicanum_. fragmentary discoveries have been made since. mone discovered fragments of eleven gallican masses and published them at carlsruhe in 1850. other fragments from the library at st gall have been published by bunsen (_analecta ante-nicaena_, iii. 263-266), and from the ambrosian library at milan by cardinal mai (_scriptt. vet. vat. coll._ iii. 2. 247). a single page was discovered in gonville and caius college, cambridge, published in _zeitschrift fur kath. theologie_, vi. 370. these documents, illustrated by early gallican canons, and by allusions in the writings of sulpicius severus, caesarius of arles, gregory of tours, germanus of paris and other authors, enable us to reconstruct the greater part of this liturgy. the previously enumerated signs of eastern origin and influence are found here as well as in the mozarabic liturgy, together with certain other more or less minute peculiarities, which would be of interest to professed liturgiologists, but which we must not pause to specify here. they are the origin of the ephesine theory that the gallican liturgy was introduced into use by irenaeus, bishop of lyons (c. 130-200) who had learned it in the east from st polycarp, the disciple of the apostle st john. 3. _ambrosian liturgy._--considerable variety of opinion has existed among liturgical writers as to the proper classification of the "ambrosian" or "milanese" liturgy. if we are to accept it in its present form and to make the present position of the great intercession for quick and dead the test of its _genus_, then we must classify it as "petrine" and consider it as a branch of the roman family. if, on the other hand, we consider the important variations from the roman liturgy which yet exist, and the traces of still more marked variation which confront us in the older printed and ms. copies of the ambrosian rite, we shall detect in it an original member of the hispano-gallican group of liturgies, which for centuries underwent a gradual but ever-increasing assimilation to rome. we know this as a matter of history, as well as a matter of inference from changes in the text itself. charlemagne adopted the same policy towards the milanese as towards the gallican church. he carried off all the ambrosian church books which he could obtain, with the view of substituting roman books in their place, but the completion of his intentions failed, partly through the attachment of the lombards to their own rites, partly through the intercession of a gallican bishop named eugenius (mabillon, _mus. ital._ tom. i. pars. ii. p. 106). it has been asserted by joseph vicecomes that this is an originally independent liturgy drawn up by st barnabas, who first preached the gospel at milan (_de missae_ rit. 1 capp. xi. xii.), and this tradition is preserved in the title and proper preface for st barnabas day in the ambrosian missal (pamelius, _liturgicon_, i. 385, 386), but it has never been proved. we can trace the following points in which the ambrosian differs from the roman liturgy, many of them exhibiting traces of eastern influence. some of them are no longer found in recent ambrosian missals and only survive in earlier mss. such as those published by pamelius (_liturgicon_, tom. i. p. 293), muratori (_lit. rom. vet._ i. 132) and ceriani (in his edition, 1881, of an ancient ms. at milan). (a) the prayer entitled "oratio super sindonem" corresponding to the prayer after the spreading of the corporal; (b) the proclamation of silence by the deacon before the epistle; (c) the litanies said after the ingressa (introit) on sundays in lent, closely resembling the greek ektene; (d) varying forms of introduction to the lord's prayer, in coena domini (ceriani p. 116) in pascha (ib. p. 129); (e) the presence of passages in the prayer of consecration which are not part of the roman canon and one of which at least corresponds in import and position though not in words to the greek invocation: _tuum vero, est, omnipotens pater, mittere_, &c. (ib. p. 116); (f) the survival of a distinctly gallican formula of consecration in the post-sanctus "in sabbato sancto." _vere sanctus, vere benedictus dominus noster,_ &c. (ib. p. 125); (g) the varying nomenclature of the sundays after pentecost; (h) the position of the fraction or ritual breaking of bread before the lord's prayer; (i) the omission of the second oblation after the words of institution (muratori, _lit. rom. vet._ i. 133); (k) a third lection or _prophetia_ from the old testament preceding the epistle and gospel; (l) the lay offering of the oblations and the formulae accompanying their reception (pamelius, _liturgicon_, i. 297); (m) the position of the ablution of the hands in the middle of the canon just before the words of institution; (n) the position of the "oratio super populum," which corresponds in matter but not in name to the collect for the day, before the gloria in excelsis. 4. _celtic liturgy._--we postpone the consideration of this liturgy till after we have treated of the next main group. vi. _the roman rite_ (st peter).--there is only one liturgy to be enumerated under this group, viz. the present liturgy of the church of rome, which, though originally local in character and circumscribed in use, has come to be nearly co-extensive with the roman catholic church, sometimes superseding earlier national liturgies, as in gaul and spain, sometimes incorporating more or less of the ancient ritual of a country into itself and producing from such incorporation a sub-class of distinct uses, as in england, france and elsewhere. even these subordinate uses have for the most part become, or are rapidly becoming, obsolete. the date, origin and early history of the roman liturgy are obscure. the first christians at rome were a greek-speaking community, and their liturgy must have been greek, and is possibly represented in the so-called clementine liturgy. but the date when such a state of things ceased, when and by whom the present latin liturgy was composed, whether it is an original composition, or, as its structure seems to imply, a survival of some intermediate form of liturgy--all these are questions which are waiting for solution. one ms. exists which has been claimed to represent the roman liturgy as it existed in the time of leo i., 440-461. it was discovered at verona by bianchini in 1735 and assigned by him to the 8th century and published under the title of _sacramentarium leonianum_; but this title was from the first conjectural, and is in the teeth of the internal evidence which the ms. itself affords. the question is discussed at some length by muratori (_lit. rom. vet._ tom. i. cap. i. col. 16). assemani published it under the title of _sacramentarium veronense_ in tom. vi. of his _codex liturg. eccles. univ_. a ms. of the 7th or 8th century was found at rome by thomasius and published by him in 1680 under the title of _sacramentarium gelasianum_. but it was written in france and is certainly not a pure gelasian codex; and although there is historical evidence of pope gelasius i. (492-496) having made some changes in the roman liturgy, and although mss. have been published by gerbertus and others, claiming the title of gelasian, we neither have nor are likely to have genuine and contemporary ms. evidence of the real state of the liturgy in that pope's time. the most modern and the best edition of the gelasian sacramentary is that by h. a. wilson (oxford, 1894). the larger number of mss. of this group are copies of the gregorian sacramentary, that is to say, mss. representing or purporting to represent, the state of roman liturgy in the days of pope gregory the great. but they cannot be accepted as certain evidence for the following reasons: not one of them was written earlier than the 9th century, not one of them was written in italy, but every one north of the alps; every one contains internal evidence of a post-gregorian date in the shape of masses for the repose or for the intercession of st gregory and in various other ways. the roman liturgy seems to have been introduced into england in the 7th, into france in the 9th and into spain in the 11th century, though no doubt it was known in both france and spain to some extent before these dates. in france certain features of the service and certain points in the ritual of the ancient national liturgy became interwoven with its text and formed those many varying medieval gallican uses which are associated with the names of different french sees. the chief distinguishing characteristics of the roman rite are these: (a) the position of the great intercession for quick and dead within the canon, the commemoration of the living being placed just before and the commemoration of the departed just after the words of institution; (b) the absence of an "epiklesis" or invocation of the holy ghost upon the elements; (c) the position of the "pax" or "kiss of peace after the consecration" and before the communion, whereas in other liturgies it occurs at a much earlier point in the service. _liturgies of the british islands._ period i. _the celtic church._--until recently almost nothing was known of the character of the liturgical service of the celtic church which existed in these islands before the anglo-saxon conquest, and continued to exist in ireland, scotland, wales and cornwall for considerable though varying periods of time after that event. but in recent times a good deal of light has been thrown on the subject, partly by the publication or republication of the few genuine works of patrick, columba, columbanus, adamnan and other celtic saints; partly by the discovery of liturgical remains in the scottish _book of deer_ and in the irish _books of dimma and mulling_ and the _stowe missal_, &c.; partly by the publication of medieval irish compilations, such as the _lebar brecc_, _liber hymnorum_, _martyrology of oengus_, &c., which contain ecclesiastical kalendars, legends, treatises, &c., of considerable but very varying antiquity. the evidence collected from these sources is sufficient to prove that the liturgy of the celtic church was of the gallican type. in central england the churches, with everything belonging to them, were destroyed by the heathen invaders at the close of the 5th century; but the celtic church in the remoter parts of england, as well as in the neighbouring kingdoms of scotland and ireland, retained its independence for centuries afterwards. an examination of its few extant service-books and fragments of service-books yields the following evidence of the gallican origin and character of the celtic liturgy: (a) the presence of collects and anthems which occur in the gallican or mozarabic but not in the roman liturgy; (b) various formulae of thanksgiving after communion; (c) frequent biddings or addresses to the people in the form of gallican _praefationes_; (d) the gallican form of consecration, being a prayer called "post-sanctus" leading up to the words of institution; (e) the complicated rite of "fraction" or "the breaking of bread," as described in the irish treatise at the end of the _stowe missal_, finds its only counterpart in the elaborate ceremonial of the mozarabic church; (f) the presence of the gallican ceremonial of _pedilavium_ or "washing of feet" in the earliest irish baptismal office. for a further description of these and other features which are characteristic of or peculiar to the celtic liturgy the reader is referred to f. e. warren's _liturgy and ritual of the celtic church_ (oxford, 1881). period ii. _the anglo-saxon church._--we find ourselves here on firmer ground, and can speak with certainty as to the nature of the liturgy of the english church after the beginning of the 7th century. information is drawn from liturgical allusions in the extant canons of numerous councils, from the voluminous writings of bede, alcuin and many other ecclesiastical authors of the anglo-saxon period, and above all from a considerable number of service-books written in england before the norman conquest. three of these books are missals of more or less completeness: (1) the _leofric missal_, a composite 10th- to 11th-century ms. presented to the cathedral of exeter by leofric, the first bishop of that see (1046-1072), now in the bodleian library at oxford; edited by f. e. warren (oxford, 1883); (2) the missal of robert of jumieges, archbishop of canterbury (1051-1052), written probably at winchester and presented by archbishop robert to his old monastery of jumieges in the neighbourhood of rouen, in the public library of which it now lies; edited by h. a. wilson (london, 1896); (3) the _red book of derby_, a ms. missal of the second half of the 11th century, now in the library of corpus christi college, cambridge. a perusal of these volumes proves what we should have expected a priori, that the roman liturgy was in use in the anglo-saxon church. this was the case from the very first. that church owed its foundation to a roman pontiff, and to roman missionaries, who brought, as we are told by bede, their native liturgical codices with them (_hist. eccles_. lib. ii. cap. 28). accordingly, when we speak of an anglo-saxon missal, we mean a roman missal only exhibiting one or more of the following features, which would differentiate it from an italian missal of the same century. (a) rubrics and other entries of a miscellaneous character written in the vernacular language of the country. (b) the commemoration of national or local saints in the kalendar, in the canon of the mass and in the litanies which occur for use on easter even and in the baptismal offices. (c) the presence of a few special masses in honour of those local saints, together with a certain number of collects of a necessarily local character, for the rulers of the country, for its natural produce, &c. (d) the addition of certain peculiarities of liturgical structure and arrangement interpolated into the otherwise purely roman service from an extraneous source. there are two noteworthy examples of this in anglo-saxon service-books. every sunday and festival and almost every votive mass has its proper preface, although the number of such prefaces in the gregorian sacramentary of the same period had been reduced to eight. there was a large but not quite equal number of triple episcopal benedictions to be pronounced by the bishop after the lord's prayer and before the communion. this custom must either have been perpetuated from the old celtic liturgy or directly derived from a gallican source. period iii. _anglo-norman church._--the influx of numerous foreigners, especially from normandy and lorraine, which preceded, accompanied and followed the conquest, and the occupation by them of the highest posts in church as well as state had a distinct effect on the liturgy of the english church. these foreign ecclesiastics brought over with them a preference for and a habit of using certain features of the gallican liturgy and ritual, which they succeeded in incorporating into the service-books of the church of england. one of the norman prelates, osmund, count of seez, earl of dorset, chancellor of england, and bishop of salisbury (1078-1099), is credited with having undertaken the revision of the english service-books; and the missal which we know as the _sarum missal_, or the _missal according to the use of sarum_, practically became the liturgy of the english church. it was not only received into use in the province of canterbury, but was largely adopted beyond those limits--in ireland in the 12th and in various scottish dioceses in the 12th and 13th centuries. it would be beyond our scope here to give a complete list of the numerous and frequently minute differences between a medieval sarum and the earlier anglo-saxon or contemporaneous roman liturgy. they lie mainly in differences of collects and lections, variations of ritual on candlemass, ash wednesday and throughout holy week; the introduction into the canon of the mass of certain clauses and usages of gallican character or origin; the wording of rubrics in the subjunctive or imperative tense; the peculiar "preces in prostratione"; the procession of corpus christi on palm sunday; the forms of ejection and reconciliation of penitents, &c. the varying episcopal benedictions as used in the anglo-saxon church were retained, but the numerous proper prefaces were discarded, the number being reduced to ten. besides the famous and far-spreading use of sarum, other uses, more local and less known, grew up in various english dioceses. in virtue of a recognized diocesan independence, bishops were able to regulate or alter their ritual, and to add special masses or commemorations for use within the limits of their jurisdiction. the better known and the more distinctive of these uses were those of york and hereford, but we also find traces of or allusions to the uses of bangor, lichfield, lincoln, ripon, st asaph, st paul's, wells and winchester. _service-books._--the eucharistie service was contained in the volume called the missal (_q.v_.), as the ordinary choir offices were contained in the volume known as the breviary (_q.v_.). but besides these two volumes there were a large number of other service-books. mr w. maskell has enumerated and described ninety-one such volumes employed by the western church only. it must be understood, however, that many of these ninety-one names are synonyms (_mon. rit. eccles. anglic_. 1882, vol. i. p. ccxxx.). the list might be increased, but it will be possible here only to name and briefly describe a few of the more important of them. (1) the _agenda_ is the same as the manual, for which see below. (2) the _antiphonary_ contained the antiphons or anthems, sung at the canonical hours, and certain other minor parts of the service. (3) the _benedictional_ contained those triple episcopal benedictions previously described as used on sundays and on the chief festivals throughout the year. (4) the _collectarium_ contained the collects for the season, together with a few other parts of the day offices. it was an inchoate breviary. (5) the _epistolarium_ contained the epistles, and the _evangelistarium_ the gospels for the year. (7) the _gradual_ contained the introit, gradual, sequences, and the other portions of the communion service which were sung by the choir at nigh mass. (8) the _legenda_ contained the lections which were read at matins and at other times, and may be taken as a generic term to include the _homiliarium, passional_ and other volumes. (9) the _manual_ was the name usually employed in england to denote the _ritual_, which contained the baptismal, matrimonial and other offices which might be performed by the parish priest. (10) the _pontifical_ contained the orders of consecration, ordination, and such other rites as could, ordinarily, only be performed by a bishop. to these we must add a book which was not strictly a church office book, but a handy book for the use of the laity, and which was in very popular use and often very highly embellished from the 14th to the 16th century, the _book of hours_, or _horae beatae mariae virginis_, also known as the _prymer_ or _primer_. it contained portions of the canonical hours, litanies, the penitential psalms, and other devotions of a miscellaneous and private character. detailed information about all these and other books is to be found in c. wordsworth and h. littlehales', _the old service books of the english church_. the eastern church too possessed and still possesses numerous and voluminous service-books, of which the chief are the following: (1) the _euchologian_, containing the liturgy itself with the remaining sacramental offices bound up in the same volume. (2) the _horologion_, containing the unvarying portion of the breviary. (3) the _menaea_, being equivalent to a complete breviary. (4) the _menologion_ or martyrology. (5) the _octoechus_ and (6) the _paracletice_, containing troparia and answering to the western antiphonary. (7) the _pentecostarion_, containing the services from easter day to all saints' sunday. (8) the _triodion_, containing those from septuagesima sunday to easter even. (9) the _typicum_ is a general book of rubrics corresponding to the ordinale or the pie of western christendom. period iv. _the reformed church._--the anglican liturgy of reformation and post-reformation times is described under the heading of prayer,