S. Clemens I Romanus (opera dubia), Liturgia S. Clementis Romani

(27) ‹anchor: et operatione aequalem› · call in col 609

Invocatio ejusdem sententiae est, ac omnes reliquae Syrae, quarum nulla eam lectionem repraesentat, quam editores Missalis Chaldaici elegerunt: etsi aliquos codices vidimus, quos ex commemoratione sancti Maronis et aliis indiciis, Maronitarum orthodoxorum esse constabat, qui veterem et communem omnibus Liturgiis formam continebant. Invocatur Spiritus sanctus ut illabatur coelitus: ut requiescat, ut habitet super dona proposita, et illis verbis exprimitur oratio, quorum vim jam superius exposuimus, cum ad significandum illapsum et obumbrationem Spiritus sancti in Maria Virgine adhibeantur. Effectum exprimit Liturgia per verba duo נגמור perficiat: et נעבד faciat: quae respondent Graecis τελειώσῃ et ποιήσῃ. Illud magis observatione dignum, quod in illa ipsa invocatione de Spiritu sancto dicitur qui a te absque initio procedit per unigenitum Filium tuum: quod non in aliis Liturgiis, imo nec precibus diversi generis, facile reperiatur. In Jacobi Syra et in quibusdam aliis dicitur qui a te procedit, et qui a Filio tuo, quae ad essentiam spectant, aut τὰ οὐσιώδη accipit: quae rectam de processione sancti Spiritus doctrinam ita exprimunt, ut a Graecis schismaticis rejiciantur. Non spernendum sane testimonium istud est, qualiscunque tandem sit ista Liturgia: nam ab interpolatoribus nihil passam illam esse certissimum est. Atque ita constat non apud Latinos natam opinionem esse de processione Spiritus sancti a Patre et Filio, seu per Filium, quod idem esse Graeci agnoscunt, cum in media Syria, inter eos qui alieni sunt a Romanae Ecclesiae communione, testes illius reperiantur.

The invocation has the same sense as all the other Syriac ones, none of which presents the reading that the editors of the Chaldaic Missal chose; although we have seen some codices, which from the commemoration of Saint Maron and other indications were plainly those of the orthodox Maronites, that contained the old form common to all the Liturgies. The Holy Spirit is invoked to descend from heaven: to rest, to dwell upon the gifts set forth; and the prayer is expressed in those words whose force we have already explained above, since they are used to signify the descent and overshadowing of the Holy Spirit upon the Virgin Mary. The Liturgy expresses the effect through two words, נגמור may he perfect and נעבד may he make, which answer to the Greek τελειώσῃ and ποιήσῃ. More worthy of notice is that in that very invocation it is said of the Holy Spirit who proceeds from Thee without beginning through Thy only-begotten Son: which is not easily found in other Liturgies, nor indeed in prayers of a different kind. In the Syriac of James and in some others it is said who proceeds from Thee, and who receives from Thy Son the things that pertain to the essence, or τὰ οὐσιώδη: words which express the right doctrine of the procession of the Holy Spirit in such a way that they are rejected by the Greek schismatics. This testimony is surely not to be despised, whatever this Liturgy may finally be: for it is quite certain that it has suffered nothing from interpolators. And so it is established that the opinion of the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son, or through the Son, which the Greeks acknowledge to be the same thing, did not arise among the Latins, since witnesses to it are found in the midst of Syria, among those who are strangers to the communion of the Roman Church.

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(28) ‹anchor: regum orthodoxorum› · call in col 611

Memento, Domine, regum orthodoxorum. In aliis hujus generis formulis, quales occurrunt non paucae, quasdam tractas ex veteri disciplina fuisse credibile est: istam non item. Nam planam et perspicuam orationem continet pro Christianis principibus, ut inimicis fidei superiores fiant divino auxilio, et pro infidelium debellatione, quod qua ratione Christianis moribus, legibus ipsorum Orientalium ecclesiasticis, et exemplis convenire possit, explicare facile non est. Nam orare pro principibus infidelibus jubet Christiana religio, et testimonia multa veterum, ut Alexandrinae Historiae palam faciunt, et Aegyptiacae quoque Liturgiae, ad quas videnda quae notavimus. Neque ulli ex quo Muhamedani rerum in Oriente potiti sunt, Jacobitae, tales principes habuerunt, quales hac oratione designantur, quod notavit in Commentario ad hunc locum Barsalibi, qui etiam abbreviari diptycha, hac de causa testatur. Haec igitur formula inter singulares et inusitatas videtur reponenda.

Remember, Lord, the orthodox kings. In other formulas of this kind, of which not a few occur, it is credible that some were drawn from the ancient discipline: not so this one. For it contains a plain and clear prayer for Christian princes, that by divine help they may prevail over the enemies of the faith, and for the overthrow of the unbelievers; and how this can agree with Christian ways, with the church laws of the Orientals themselves, and with their examples, is not easy to explain. For the Christian religion bids us pray for unbelieving princes, as many testimonies of the ancients make plain, such as the Alexandrian Histories, and the Egyptian Liturgies too, on which see what we have noted. Nor, since the Muhammadans became masters of affairs in the East, have any Jacobites had such princes as this prayer describes, as Barsalibi noted in his Commentary on this passage; he also testifies that for this reason the diptychs are shortened. This formula, then, seems to be counted among the singular and unusual ones.

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(ᵃ) ‹editor's reference within note (29)› · call in col 613 Perv. t. V, l. VIII, c. 9.

Perv[?] [probably Perpétuité de la foi], vol. V, book VIII, ch. 9. (The siglum reads "Perv." on this scan; it may be "Perp.")

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(29) ‹anchor: printed at the foot of page 304, beginning under col 613 and running on under col 614; lemma "Ubi piorum animae…"; text runs from col 613 "ubi" into col 614› · call in col 614

Ubi piorum animae primitias vitae absque labore exspectant. Locus iste, et quae sequuntur ad communem Graecorum opinionem videntur referenda, qui animas piorum usque ad ultimi judicii diem coelesti beatitudine non perfrui existimant; qua de re, maxima Ferrariae et Florentiae contentio fuit, ut de Purgatorio: quia duae illae quaestiones maximam inter se habent affinitatem. De hoc argumento fuse dictum est alibi ᵃ. Sane Graecorum de animarum post mortem conditione, absurdas opinationes, Orientalibus ignotas esse certissimum videtur. Quod vero beatorum animae coelestem gloriam plenam atque perfectam ad ultimum usque judicium exspectent, scripsit Moses Barcepha in Tractatu de Paradiso, atque ita fieri potuit, ut auctor hujus Liturgiae in eadem sententia fuerit, cum magna sit Mosis illius apud Jacobitas suos auctoritas. Nihil tamen obstat quin figurata haec oratio, de plena consummataque beatitudine possit intelligi. ᵃ Perv. t V, l. VIII, c. 9.

Where the souls of the godly await the first fruits of life without toil. This passage and what follows seem to refer to the common opinion of the Greeks, who think that the souls of the godly do not enjoy heavenly beatitude until the day of the last judgement; on this matter there was very great dispute at Ferrara and Florence, as about Purgatory, since those two questions are very closely akin. This subject has been treated at length elsewhere ᵃ. Certainly it seems quite certain that the absurd notions of the Greeks about the condition of souls after death are unknown to the Orientals. That the souls of the blessed await full and perfect heavenly glory until the last judgement was indeed written by Moses Bar Kepha in his treatise On Paradise, and so it may be that the author of this Liturgy held the same view, since that Moses has great authority among his Jacobites. Yet nothing prevents this figurative prayer from being understood of full and consummated beatitude.

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