A unbloody, with a pure conscience, for the remission of my sins and my iniquities, for the forgiveness of the sins of thy people, and for rest and refreshment for our fathers, who have long ago fallen asleep in the orthodox faith, for the edification of all thy people, and for thy glory, with thy only-begotten Son, our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ, and thy life-giving Spirit, consubstantial with thee, now, etc.
Prayer of the Kiss of Peace
(In some manuscripts of St. Gregory; in others of St. Severus the Patriarch.) Eternal Son, who subsistest from eternity, consubstantial with the Father, and equal to him in throne and creation, who alone in thy goodness didst make man from nothing and didst place him in the paradise of delight; who, when he had fallen through the deception of the enemy and the transgression of thy commandment, didst wish to renew him and to restore him to his pristine dignity: thou didst not wish angels, nor archangels, nor patriarchs, nor prophets to be the authors of our salvation, but thou didst B take on flesh without change, and wast made man, like us in all things, sin excepted, and wast made a mediator for us before the Father; thou didst break down the middle wall of partition, and didst reconcile those on earth with those in heaven, and didst make of the two ONE, through the dispensation in the flesh: thou didst ascend into heaven corporally, and didst fill all things with thy divinity. Thou didst say to thy holy disciples and apostles, My peace I give unto you, my peace I leave with you. Grant it now unto us, O Lord; and cleanse us from every stain, from every deceit, from every evil malice, from every fraud, and from the deadly remembrance of injuries: and make us all worthy, O Lord, that we may greet one another with a holy kiss, and may not fall, through judgment, away from thy immortal and heavenly gifts; through thy grace and the kindness of thy Father, and the operation of thy Spirit: for thou art the provider and giver of all good things; and unto thee we offer glory and honor, magnificence and adoration, with thy good, life-giving, and consubstantial Father, now, etc.Another Prayer to the Son
. O Christ our God, tremendous and incomprehensible power of God the Father, who sittest upon the fiery throne of the cherubim, whom the powers serve, C But in this, as in many things, the meaning is determined by ecclesiastical style. [original-script column: see facsimile] and it is followed by the other, which the same codex contains—not because two prayers for the kiss of peace were commonly recited, but because one would be chosen according to the diversity of feast days, or at the priest’s discretion. Here, however, as in other places, the kiss of peace is called ἄσπασμος, a word which the Egyptians and Arabs have made their own. The individual Liturgies begin, moreover, not with preparatory prayers, but with that which precedes the kiss of peace, since the rest is customarily requested from the common office. And from that point, strictly speaking, the anaphora, the oblation or sacred action, begins: whence in the Greek codex, before the following prayer, which corresponds to our Preface, this title is added:The Beginning of the Oblation
, which words the Arab interpreter translates: Beginning of the sacrifice. In certain Coptic copies this D Prayer of the kiss of peace is attributed to Severus, namely the Antiochene, whom the common tradition of the Jacobites holds to have written the Liturgy, and whom many Syriac codices represent, from which this prayer could have been translated, owing to the very close bond between the Jacobite Alexandrian see and the Antiochene, and the singular veneration of Severus. For a double commemoration is made of him, namely of his death, and of his arrival in Egypt, the seventh of Toth, and the second of Paophi. No one, however, ought to think from that title that Severus was any Alexandrian patriarch, as Guido Fabricius Boderianus persuaded almost everyone without any authority when he published the book of the Ritual of Baptism under the name of Severus the Alexandrian patriarch, even though no codex among the many that exist in libraries bears this title. Certainly no Severus among the Jacobites held the Alexandrian see: and the Syriac language, in which that book is written, was never used in sacred offices among the Egyptians. In the Coptic Liturgy of Basil there occurs a certain prayer which some manuscript codices attribute to John Chrysostom, others to John of Bostra, or of Basora. The former as a common doctor of the Churches: the latter as he was recognized in the same sect in which the Jacobite Egyptians were; and both obtained such authority among them for diverse reasons that prayers from their Liturgies were transferred into the Coptic ones.A fiery. Thou art a consuming fire through Thy divinity, and through Thy ineffable splendor, and Thy love toward men. Thou didst not burn, nor didst Thou repel the fraudulent traitor when he approached Thee, but Thou didst kiss him with the kiss of a friend, that Thou mightest draw him to repentance, and to the acknowledgment of his boldness. Make us worthy, O Lord, in this terrible hour, that unanimous and without duplicity of heart, and other wickedness, we may greet one another with a holy kiss: and do not cast us into judgment, if we are less than perfectly clean, nor, as pleases Thy goodness, from the dregs of sin, from wickedness, and from the deadly memory of injuries: but do Thou, through Thy ineffable clemency, who knowest the weakness and the propensity of our frame toward lower things, wipe away all the stains of our sins, that this mystery of Thy divinity may not be for us into judgment and B condemnation. For Thou art powerful to take away all sins, and to take away the injustices and iniquities of miserable men, Thou who cleansest the whole world: and to Thee belongs glorification, with one mouth, and from everyone, veneration, magnificence and adoration with Thy good Father and the life-giving Holy Spirit, and consubstantial to Thee, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
*Priest.* The charity of God the Father, the grace of the only-begotten Son, our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ, and the communion and gift of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.
*People.* And with thy spirit.
*Priest.* Lift up your hearts.
*People.* We have them unto the Lord.
*Priest.* Let us give thanks unto the Lord.
*People.* It is meet and right.
*Priest.* It is meet and right. Thrice.
It is truly meet and right that I should praise Thee, bless Thee, and serve Thee, and adore and glorify Thee, who art one, sole, true God, lover of men, ineffable, invisible, incomprehensible, without beginning, eternal, without time, uncircumscribed, unsearchable, immutable, Creator of all, Savior of all; who forgivest our sins, who redeemest our life from destruction, who crownest us in mercy and compassions. Thou art He whom angels praise, and archangels adore; Thou art He whom the heavenly powers bless C, that we may say with them, casting away all absurd and useless thoughts, and let us cry out the same that they say with unceasing voice, and with tireless mouth, let us bless Thy greatness.
*Deacon.* Look toward the east.
*Priest.* For Thou art He unto whom the cherubim and seraphim, instructed with six wings, stand by: six wings for one, and six wings for the other; with two wings they veil their faces, with two they cover their feet, and with two they fly: and crying one to another, they say the triumphal hymn of our salvation, and with glorious voices they praise, crying and saying:
*Deacon.* Let us attend.
*People.* Holy, holy, holy.
*Priest.* Holy, holy is the Lord, and holy in all things, and the glorious light of Thy substance, just as the power of Thy wisdom is ineffable, nor can the sea of Thy love toward men be explained in words. Thou didst create me, a man, through Thy benignity, nor didst Thou need my servitude, but I needed Thy dominion: because of Thy great clemency, Thou madest me when I was not: Thou didst erect the heavens for me as a roof; Thou didst firm the earth for me that I might walk upon it; for my sake Thou didst enclose the sea; for my sake Thou didst bring forth the nature of animals, and Thou didst subject all things under my feet, nor didst Thou suffer anything from the works of Thy magnificence to be lacking to me: Thou who didst create me, didst place Thy hand upon me: Thou didst describe in me the image of Thy power: Thou didst give me the gift of reason: Thou didst open the paradise of pleasure: Thou didst give me the knowledge of Thy cognition: Thou didst manifest to me the tree of life: Thou didst show me the thorn of death, lest I should eat of it: Thou didst forbid me, that I should not eat of it alone: I ate voluntarily; of my own accord I ignored Thy command, and I despised Thy precepts; and I brought upon myself the sentence of death.
*People.* Kyrie, eleison. Lord, have mercy.
*Priest.* Thou, O Lord, didst convert my punishment into salvation; as a good shepherd Thou didst solicitously seek the straying: as a true father Thou didst labor with me who had fallen: Thou didst bind me with all vivifying medicines: Thou didst send prophets unto me: D because of the principalities, unto whom the dominations cry; Thou art He whose glory the powers celebrate; Thou art He unto whom thrones send up glory and honor: thousands of thousands stand before Thee, and ten thousand times ten thousand minister to Thee. Thou art He whom the invisibles bless, whom the visibles adore, and all perform Thy word, our Lord.
*Deacon.* You who are seated, arise.
*Priest.* Eternal Lord, true God from true God, who didst show us the light of the Father, who hast bestowed upon us the knowledge of the truth of the Holy Spirit; who didst manifest to us this great mystery of life: who didst constitute a choir of incorporeals among men: who didst give to them who are on earth, the canticle of the seraphim, receive our voices, with the voices of those who are invisible. Number us among the heavenly powers, that we may say with them, casting away all absurd and useless thoughts, and let us cry out the same that they say with unceasing voice, and with tireless mouth, let us bless Thy greatness.
A dead from the sepulchres: Thou didst restore nature: Thou didst manifest to me the dispensation of Thy clemency; Thou didst endure the injuries of the iniquitous: Thou didst offer Thy back to the lashes, and didst permit Thy cheeks to the smiters; for my sake, O Lord, Thou didst not avert Thy face from the ignominy of spittings. *People.* Lord, have mercy. *Priest.* Thou didst come to the slaughter as a lamb, even to the cross: Thou didst demonstrate Thy solicitude for me: Thou didst slay my sin through Thy burial: Thou didst raise my first-fruits even to the heavens: Thou didst manifest to me Thy future coming, in which Thou art to come to judge the living and the dead, that Thou mayest render to each according to his works. *People.* According to Thy mercy, O God, etc. *Priest.* I offer unto Thee, O Lord, the symbols of my liberation: I inscribe my works according to Thy words: Thou art He who hast given me this ministry B full of mystery: and Thou hast given me participation in Thy body in bread and wine. *People.* We believe. *Priest.* For on that night in which Thou didst will to be betrayed, by Thy will and power alone, Thou didst take bread into Thy holy, pure, immaculate, blessed, and life-giving hands. *People.* We believe it to be so. *Priest.* And Thou didst look up to heaven to Thy Father God, and Lord of all, and didst give thanks. *People.* Amen. *Priest.* And Thou didst bless it. *People.* Amen. *Priest.* And Thou didst sanctify it. *People.* Amen. *Priest.* And Thou didst break it, and didst give it to Thy glorious, holy disciples and pure apostles, saying: Take, eat, all of you of it. For this is my body which is broken for you, and for C many.
[Regarding the Latin commentary on the text:] ...is: it does not seem to fit this place, whatever it may be, of other interpreters. Nor should anyone wonder that the authors of translations, especially the Arabic versions, have sometimes hallucinated in interpreting the Greeks, for they often did not sufficiently understand the Greek words infused into the Coptic prayer: which we shall point out when there is need. Thus, in that prayer which most immediately precedes this one, *Thou didst raise my first-fruits even to heaven*, as the Coptic text has it, and the Greek, εἰς οὐρανόν μου τὴν ἀπαρχὴν ἀνεβίβασας, the meaning is simple and most theological: that Christ raised His flesh, or rather the man assumed from the progeny of Adam, as the first-fruits of the human race, into heaven, both through the union of the divine nature and through the ascension into heaven. Indeed, *Christ is the first-fruits, the first-fruits of those who sleep* (I Cor. xv, 23): and in the same sense, in the Liturgy of Nestorius, the Eucharist is called a living offering and unspotted sacrifice of our first-fruits. But when the Copts retained the Greek word itself, ἀπαρχή, the Arab translated it ambiguously, for he who interpreted the Greek codex... [the text continues technical philological notes] D ...the series of the entire prayer, as anyone can easily notice, signifies something else entirely. ... 5 This whole part of the eucharistic office agrees with the Greek codex of the same Liturgy, as also with all others regarding the recitation of the Eucharist instituted by Christ, and of His words, about which there is nothing singular to be observed, beyond those things which were said concerning the same place in the Liturgy of Basil. *Broken and given*, concerning the body of Christ, as *poured out* concerning the blood of Christ, can be understood in the present and future tense, according to the Arabic versions. In the Coptic version it is *is broken, and will be given*. In either way, the meaning is the same: the Syrians commonly expressed it in the present tense. This place confirms the mixture of water with wine, which all churches observe, and against which the Protestants think, as do all the remaining Liturgies. The Nestorians say that Christ ate and drank from the bread and cup already consecrated: here the Copts say from the cup alone, which however is not read in the Greek codex.
A ...he will be given, for the remission of sins: do this in my commemoration. People. It is so in truth. Amen. Priest. Likewise after they had eaten, thou didst take the cup, and didst mix it of the fruit of the vine and water; and didst give thanks. People. Amen. Priest. And didst bless it. People. Amen. Priest. And didst sanctify it. People. Amen. Priest. And didst taste, and gavest it to thy glorious holy disciples and pure apostles, saying: Take, drink from it all of you. For this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for you and for many, and is given for the remission of sins: do this in my commemoration. People. It is so also in truth. Priest. For as often as you eat of this bread, and drink of this cup, you shall proclaim my death and confess my resurrection, and shall make memory of me, until I come. People. We proclaim thy death, O Lord, and confess thy holy resurrection and ascension; we praise thee, we give thanks to thee, and we pray to thee, O Lord our God. Priest. And now also, O Lord, we make memory of thy descent to earth, and thy life-giving death, and thy three-day burial, and thy resurrection from the dead, and thy ascension into the heavens, and thy session at the right hand of thy Father, and thy second coming from the heavens, fearful and glorious: and we offer to thee these thy gifts, from those things which are thine, for all, and through all, and in all. Deacon. Adore God with fear and trembling. Priest. Do thou, O Lord, by thy voice alone change these things which are set forth 6; being present before us, perfect for us this ministry full of mysteries:
6 This prayer contains a truly remarkable testimony to the faith of the Copts regarding the true and real transmutation of the elements: which is read no less in the Greek codex than in the Coptic. They ask, namely, that God transmutate the gifts set forth, by his voice alone, that is, by his divine command, which is the same as if to say that they ask for that which is the work of divine omnipotence alone. The words which signify 'transmutation' in Greek, Egyptian, and Arabic, designate that full and complete transformation of a thing into a thing: *Phonkh* and *phont*: the Greek is *metapoiēson*. They address Christ as if he were present, and direct the prayer to him, in whom is contained the worship of adoration, and at the same time the profession of faith concerning his true presence at the Eucharistic table. The words of the Greek Liturgy sufficiently signify this: *Autos parōn tēn mystikēn tautēn leitourgian katartison* ("Behold us present, and perfect this mystical liturgy"), which might indeed be taken otherwise, namely, that Christ be asked to be present, and being present to complete this mystical ministry, from which the Protestants conclude that he is not present whose presence is being requested. But the Coptic and Arabic versions solve the whole difficulty, while they express that *parōn* ("being present") as "thou placed before us," which the Coptic and Arab interpreters express: another reading, "thou who art present, and among us." It follows: "Send upon us the grace of thy Holy Spirit, who may sanctify and transfer these gifts set forth into the body and blood of our salvation." The Greek codex is slightly different: "Do thou send down thy Holy Spirit; that he may descend upon this holy, and good, and glorious presence of his, and may sanctify and transmutate these things set forth and these holy gifts into it, the body and the blood of our redemption." There is no difference of meaning: the Greek formula is fuller and richer, but comes to the same thing. The Arabic version, joined to the Greek text, represents it accurately and verbatim. Therefore, which is to be observed in passing, Christ is asked to send his Holy Spirit; in which words the Copts acknowledge that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Son, and is sent by him. The Holy Spirit is sent for some divine work, and one superior to human powers, which can be understood as nothing other than the transmutation of the gifts into the body and blood of Christ. Therefore, there is nothing in this opinion more clear, or more simple, or more accommodated to the ancient doctrine of the Oriental Church, since all the Liturgies—Greek, Syriac, and Coptic, of whatever rite or sect—present the same prayer constructed in nearly the same words. Regarding the censure that some later scholars have brought against it... we have spoken at length in our notes to the Basilian Liturgy, which it is not necessary to re-state. This only we shall add: that while these uncharitable censors feel that one cannot pray for gifts already consecrated—contrary to the example of the whole ancient Church, both Oriental and Occidental, which never thought that the efficacy of Christ's words was destroyed by such prayers—from this we understand that the Copts acknowledge the body of Christ to be already present when they pronounce it, and the Invocation which follows. But this controversy does not help the Protestants; nor does it bring any detriment to the authority which the Church brings against them from the testimony of the Orientals concurring in the faith of the real presence: since as to the certainty of the faith which they have, it does not matter when, or by what words, the consecration be perfected, provided it be truly done in the Liturgy, so that they profess that the bread and wine on the altar, they do not deny them to be perfect, but the body and blood of Christ. Furthermore, that which is said in this very prayer, that Christ is present and placed before the priest, is inculcated so often in the homilies for the circle of the year for the use of the Copts, in the treatises of Severus, Bishop of Ashmonin, and in many others, that there can be no room for ambiguity. From that very prayer, however, Claudius Salmasius, a man indeed most learned, but who ought not to have touched theology, boasted that he had the means to fully refute certain missionaries returned from the East, who were affirming that the Orientals believed the same as we do concerning the Eucharist. Thus he wrote to Jean Daillé, and—since the letter was published in print after the death of Salmasius—he could be excused on the ground that, careless and having rashly poured out to his friends what had first come into his mind, he would not have done so had he not inserted that war of his own commentary into his book *De transsubstantiatione*. Therefore that particle which we have reported, which, so that nothing of the testimony's authority would be missing, he described in Arabic, he interpreted thus (ep. 32, p. 72): "Do thou confirm in us the commemoration of thy holy ministry: do thou send upon us the grace of thy Holy Spirit, that we may be purified, and may change these vile offerings into the body and blood of our Savior." In the same letter we read a vernacular version of the same prayer, in which there is some difference. *Afin qu'estant sanctifiez, nous puissions convertir ces Oblations viles et terriennes, au corps et au sang de nostre Sauveur, ou de nostre Salut.* He fortified the interpretation with a commentary, the meaning of which is: that it is sufficiently recognized that the invocation is not made so that the grace of the Holy Spirit may hover over the bread and wine, so that by changing it under...
A in us the memory of your holy ministry; send upon us the grace of B your Holy Spirit, who may sanctify and transfer these gifts set forth, into the body and blood of our salvation. And this bread, make it your holy body, Lord God C and our Savior Jesus Christ, which is given for the remission of sins and eternal life to those who communicate from it. And again, this chalice, the precious blood of your new Testament, Lord God, and our Savior Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins and into eternal life for those D communicating from it.
People. Amen.
Priest. And so we entreat you, Christ our God, confirm the foundations of the Church: plant the concord of charity within us from the root: let the purity of faith increase: prepare for us the right way of piety: strengthen the pastors: confirm their flocks: give to the clergy morals rightly composed, to monks continence, to virgins purity, to the married concord, mercy... [omitted footnote]... we have said, all those who have saluted the Oriental letters from the threshold know: it is necessary to be moderately skilled in the Egyptian language, which is not so common, for the error to be recognized, since it suffices to observe from very imperfect grammar that *vre* is the marker of the third person of the future or subjunctive, used in that place, not the marker of the first person plural. Add the testimony of the Greek codex, and the annexed Arabic version, which destroy that false and absurd interpretation of Salmasius, since they have *ἁγιάσῃ καὶ μεταποιήσῃ*. The body and blood of our liberation, or salvation, are called the body and blood of Christ, because through the sacrifice of the body, and the shedding of the blood in the passion, and then the participation of it in the sacraments, salvation and liberation from sins have been granted to us, and are still granted. In that place most codices have *revolt.*, an abbreviated word, as elsewhere more often, from which *soter* or *soteria* can be read. But the Greek codex determines the ambiguity, where *τῆς ἡμετέρας ἀπολυτρώσεως* is found, as is its Arabic version, and others which are joined to Coptic exemplars.
...which we have followed in interpreting, so that we might express, it has *netchaf*, "make": the Arabic version similarly so, yet in such a way that it can be referred to the Holy Spirit; *et faciat*: because as has been said, the Arabic word *Rouah* is of the feminine gender, in which gender it is, the third person, it presents the same characteristic as the second of either gender. But the better reading entirely is according to the Greek exemplar, *καὶ ποιήσει*, or rather *ποιήσῃ*, "and may He make," so that it may be referred to the Holy Spirit, whose coming is requested. So it is read also in other Coptic codices, which excel in antiquity: *paiōik men nteiaiph nsōma ethouab ntan*: and thus the Arabic versions. The meaning, however, is the same in both cases, whether Christ makes it, or the Holy Spirit sent by Him. The Maronite version: "And here let this bread be your most holy body, O Lord," does not respond to the Coptic, nor the Arabic, nor the Greek text.
Now truly it is incumbent upon the admirers of Salmasius to provide us with some plausible reason for the silence which he observed concerning this part of the prayer, when yet it is necessarily conjoined to the preceding, and therefore one ought to be explained by the other. From his interpretation, which he attributes to the former, it must be translated thus: "And this bread indeed, let us make, your holy body, O Lord," which is repugnant to the Greek, Coptic, and Arabic codex no less than to the Liturgies of every language, and the theology of the holy Fathers, and especially to the Oriental writers. For they commonly say that the Holy Spirit glides down upon the gifts set forth, just as He glided down upon the Blessed Virgin Mary, and on the altar forms the body of Christ, just as He formed it in the womb of the Virgin from her own flesh and blood. So Severus of Ashmunein, *Homily on the Cycle of the Year*, Barsalibi, Abulfaragius, and others whose testimonies have been related elsewhere. The priest is the ministerial cause: the Holy Spirit is the principal cause: if anyone has philosophized further, like the Diamperian censors, and some ignoble emenders of the Liturgies, their authority in this kind of matter is the least.
A to those who are in penitence (8), kindness to the wealthy, modesty to those who are in dignity, aid to the poor: give strength to the old: instruct the young: convert the infidels: let schisms cease from the Church: abate the pride of heresies, and deign to unite us all in the concord of piety. *People.* Lord, have mercy. *Deacon.* Pray for the peace of the one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church of God. *Priest.* Remember, Lord, the peace of your one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, which is from the ends to the ends of the earth, and those who rightly dispense in it the word of truth. *Deacon.* Pray for our pontiff, Pope Anba N., archbishop of the great city of Alexandria, and for the orthodox bishops. *Priest.* Especially indeed for our patriarch, the venerable Father Anba N., and our Father the Bishop Anba N., and for those who are present here, and who have rested, bishops, hegumens, priests, deacons, subdeacons, readers, chanters, exorcists, monks, virgins, widows, the continent, the orphans, the laity, and all the faithful of your holy Church. *Deacon.* Pray for our Christ-loving king (9). *Priest.* Remember, Lord, those who have reigned with piety, and those who reign. *Deacon.* Remember, Lord, our faithful brothers. B *Deacon.* Pray for those who are in the palace, our faithful and orthodox brothers, and for the whole army. *Priest.* Remember, Lord, those who have offered these gifts to you, and those for whom they have offered them, and those for whom they were offered: grant to all a reward from heaven. *Deacon.* Pray for those who have presented. *Priest.* Remember, Lord, those who dwell in mountains and caverns: and our brothers who are in captivity: grant them to return peacefully to their dwellings. *Deacon.* Pray for the captives. *People.* Lord, have mercy. *Deacon.* Adore the Lamb, the Word of God (10). *Priest (in a low voice).* Remember, Lord, my unworthiness and forgive me my sins, so that where iniquity has abounded, there your grace may superabound: and do not, because of my own sins and the stains of my heart, deprive your people of the grace of your Holy Spirit. *People.* Have mercy on us, God our Savior. *Priest (aloud).* Because your people and your Church beseech you and your Father with you, saying: Have mercy on us, God our Savior. Grant your people one heart: give peace to the world: good temperateness to the air: deign, Lord, to bless this year with the winds of heaven and the fruits of the earth. Deign, Lord, to bless the waters of the river, to make them ascend according to their measure, according to your grace…
(8) This demonstrates that penitence once had a place in the Coptic Church, long before those obscene times of John and Mark, sons of Zaraa, the patriarchs, who attempted to remove the confession of sins and the Canon—or the laborious penitence—concerning which reform it is spoken of in the Alexandrian History (a) and elsewhere. To be in penitence is a state, as those who are commemorated in the same prayer are various. But this passage is not to be understood as that public penitence which was in use in the first centuries of the Church, the discipline of which has long since been omitted, except for the amendment of public sinners. But here are to be understood those who, having made confession to the priest, received the Canon—that is, canonical penances—and had completed a part of them before obtaining the communion of the sacraments, from which they were barred for some interval of time. This discipline will be explained more fully elsewhere, from various authors and from the penitential canons which exist in manuscript codices. Mention is also made below of the penitents, who perhaps ought to be understood as those who are in confession.
(9) This formula is preserved from ancient discipline, from before Egypt was occupied by the Muhammadans, in the Greek phrase τῶν εὐσεβῶς βασιλευσάντων, which certain Arabic versions have expressed. Namely, when Christian emperors reigned, this formula was used, which was later preserved in books, with the final words added, however, because Orientals pray for princes, whoever they may be, excluding the Nestorians, in whose Liturgy there is C mention of faithful kings, but not of others. From that place Salmasius rightly commends the antiquity of the Liturgy, as if written while Christians held Egypt, because prayers are offered for them, and for those who are in the palace. But "palace" designates not so much Christian as Muhammadan princes, nor ought it to be referred to the royal family, but to the orthodox brothers—that is, the Jacobite Christians, who then were in court service. For it is evident from various places in the Alexandrian history that there were many who exercised authority in the sultan’s court or in the divan; which likewise happened very often in the Bagdad court, where many Christians flourished with great authority under certain caliphs, especially the Nestorians. Hence both Churches, the Jacobite and the Nestorian, were often agitated by the greatest disturbances due to the ambition of those men: and in Egypt under the final sultans, the Turks and Circassians, whom they call Mamelukes, the most severe persecutions were incited. What reading the Maronite interpreter followed when he translated: "Remember, Lord, the kings who have been chosen in the perfection of piety, and those who are to be chosen," is not sufficiently understood, since neither the Coptic nor the Arabic text offers a similar sentiment.
(10) This deacon’s exhortation does not occur in the Greek codex: it is pious indeed and singular, which we have translated word-for-word from the Coptic language, with the agreement of the Arabic version. In one of the Royal codices, that frequent formula is read: "Adore God with fear": because it is not pronounced in Greek, as all similar ones are, it seems to signify that it is not quite so ancient. It was in Scaliger’s codex, but the interpreter rendered it very poorly: "Pray for him who carries the Word of God."
A And deal with them according to their measure and according to thy grace. Make the face of the earth glad, etc. From the Liturgy of Basil.
Grant health to the infirm: grant solace to the needy: grant liberation to the captives: receive the orphans unto thee: grant aid to the widows: support those who are in distress: raise up those who have fallen: confirm those who stand: remember the dead: receive the supplications of those who are in confession: number the penitent with thy faithful, and thy faithful with thy martyrs; and make those who are present here like unto thine angels: receive us also, who, though unworthy, have been called to thy ministry by thy grace.
Kyrie, eleison, in a loud voice.
Priest. Remember, O Lord, the salvation of this thy holy place, and of all places, and of all the monasteries of our orthodox Fathers, and of all the cities of the whole province and region, and of all its beauty; and deliver us all from famine, from pestilence, from earthquakes, from submersion, from shipwreck, and from fire; from the captivity of barbarians, from foreign sword, and from the insurrection of heretics.
Deign, O Lord, to be mindful of all the saints who have pleased thee from the beginning, our holy Fathers, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, evangelists, martyrs, confessors, and those who have announced the Gospel to thy Church, and of all the spirits of the just who have been perfected and have died in the faith. But especially of the holy, glorious, ever-virgin, Mother of God, holy Mary, and of holy John the Precursor, Baptist and martyr, and of holy Stephen the archdeacon and protomartyr, and of the contemplative and God-seeing evangelist Mark, holy apostle and martyr: and of our patriarch holy Severus; and of our doctor Dioscorus, holy Cyril, holy Basil, holy Gregory, holy John Chrysostom, holy Athanasius the apostolic; and of our lords the righteous Fathers, the great abbot Antony, and the pious holy abbot Paul, and the three Macarii, and thy whole choir of saints, by whose prayers and intercessions, have mercy upon us all, and deliver us all for the sake of thy holy name which has been invoked upon us.
Priest in a low voice. Remember, O Lord, our fathers and brethren who have long since fallen asleep in the faith B orthodox: grant them all rest, with thy saints, and with those whose names have been commemorated.
Priest after the Diptychs shall say. Remember, O Lord, those of the faithful whose memory we have made, and those of the orthodox whom we have not remembered, and ourselves also along with them, O good lover of men, God.
People. Remit, pardon, forgive us, O God, our offenses which we have committed voluntarily or involuntarily, knowingly or ignorantly: O Lord, forgive them to us.
Priest. For thou art indeed a merciful God who dost not desire the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live. Convert us, O Lord, unto thy salvation, and deal with us according to thy goodness; thou who bringest about more than we ask or understand: that in this, as in all things, thy great, most holy, glorious and blessed name may be glorified, blessed, and extolled, with thy good Father, and the Holy Spirit.
Peace to all.
O Lord, our Saviour, good lover of men, who quickenest our souls, who didst deliver thyself for us for the salvation of our sins: who in the multitude of thy mercy hast dissolved the enmities of men: O Only-begotten God, who art in the bosom of the Father.
Kyrie, eleison. Bless. Amen.
Priest. Thou who didst bless at that time, bless now (11).
People. Amen.
Priest. Thou who didst sanctify at that time, sanctify now.
People. Amen.
Priest. Thou who didst divide at that time, divide now.
People. Amen.
Priest. Thou who didst give to thy holy disciples and pure apostles at that time, now, O Lord, give to us, and to all thy people, O almighty Lord our God.
Deacon. Pray.
Prayer of Fraction to the Son (12)
Benedicted art thou, Christ God almighty, Saviour of thy Church: logical Word and visible man, who through thy incarnation, C incomprehensible, didst prepare for us the heavenly bread, before the host is broken into smaller parts, for the distribution of communion. To be sure, as we have warned elsewhere, various prayers are written in liturgical codices, to be said according to the diversity of feasts or the discretion of the priest. This one appears more ancient, since the former [prayer] in the Greek codex contains a fully developed profession of the Monophysite doctrine; but that could only have come about after the Church was split by the followers of Dioscorus. This prayer, however, has not a little obscurity, not only concerning the matters, but also from the ambiguity of certain words themselves, which the first Coptic interpreters and the Arabs did not sufficiently elucidate in their versions. Immediately it is said to Christ: Logical Word and visible man: In Greek: Ὧ λόγε δν προνοοῦσιν αὐτὸν, καὶ ἄνθρωπε ὂν προθεωροῦσιν αὐτόν. These words do not D full of most exquisite theology; namely, that Christ, through his divine omnipotence, according to the promise made to his own, *Lo, I am with you always, even unto the consummation of the world*, and in a singular manner, through the transmutation of bread and wine into his body and blood, renders himself present, [and] the mystery instituted by himself, and invisibly operates in the completing of it. Many things occur to the same effect in various prayers to be recited at the time of the distribution of the Eucharist, both among the Jacobites and among the Nestorians, such as these: That this very thing is the mystery of the cross and of the last supper: that this cup itself is that which Christ mixed, and many similar things.
A
The Greek texts, however, already smelling of barbarism, appear to have been interpolated in antiquity, for those Alexandrians could have expressed the sentiment more simply and accurately. As for the words: *Word, whom they understand, man, whom they behold*, which the first Arabic interpreter correctly expressed: *Word, that is understood: man, who is seen*. By those few words, the authors of the prayer signified that they acknowledged two natures in Christ, not yet being infected, as we may conjecture, by the novelty of the Monophysites. Thus also the Coptic interpreter rendered them: *Christ*, to be sure, as the *Word of God*, is conceived only by the mind: as *man*, He could be seen by the eyes. But that article of faith is wont by Oriental Christians—Severus, Bar-Salibi, the author of the Homilies, and many others—to be adapted to the mystery of the Eucharist, when they say: the apostles and others, who conversed with Christ while He was on earth, saw a simple man with the eyes of the body, but recognized God with the eyes of the mind: so ought Christians, in receiving the Eucharist, to conform their faith, that although they perceive only the elements of bread and wine with their senses, by the inner eye of faith they see, recognize, and adore Christ in them, just as the thief on the cross recognized Him, and by his example say: *Remember me, O Lord, when Thou comest into Thy kingdom*. The Arabic versions which are read in the Coptic codices express the same sentiment. B
(13) *By your incomprehensible incarnation, you prepared for us bread from heaven, this holy body of yours, in a mystery altogether holy*. The sense of this prayer is simple: because, to be sure, the Incarnation of the Son of God is an incomprehensible mystery, by which the living bread descended from heaven: but the bread sanctified on the altars is the very body which the Son of God received from the Virgin Mary, and which He gives to us in the sacrament, as the Copts themselves subsequently acknowledge in the confession which is made before the reception of it. Hence all the commentaries of the Albertinians and Claudians are in vain in their attempt to pervert the meaning of this prayer. For it is not said that the body of Christ is given in the sacrament, which could be understood as the same one received by faith, but *this* body, namely that which the priest beholds placed on the paten, and which, soon lifting up and demonstrating, he testifies is the very true body of Christ. *This is your body which You have placed in a mystery*, for so it seems to be read in the Greek exemplar, where it is written *in a mystery altogether holy in all things*, which, whether it refers to the body of Christ or to the mystery, is the same. The Arabic version refers it to the body of Christ. *This body of yours*, which is sacramental; *mysterious*, and altogether holy. For the word *serri* signifies the same thing as *mysterious*, and he who thus calls the body of Christ in the sacrament, by opposition to the natural, does not deny the true and real presence of the same body in the sacrament. Gennadius alone, among others, sufficiently demonstrates this, who in his recently published homily, while he clearly teaches transubstantiation, wrote this title: *On the mysterious body* (a), etc. The Arabic versions use a double word, both that one, and another which signifies that which is written in Coptic: *in a mystery*; they refer *altogether holy* to the body of Christ. The Maronite did not correctly express this whole prayer. *Spiritual Word, who became man, and conversed among C men, who by your incomprehensible incarnation prepared for us bread, this your most holy body, a mystery altogether holy*: for the translation does not correspond to the Coptic or Arabic text.
(14) There is a distinction between the purification, which the priest prays may be conferred by God upon himself and those standing around, and the sanctification of the elements. In the first instance, the word *touso* is used, which the Arabs express by that which properly signifies cleansing and purification, and sometimes also sanctification: the other they render by the Greek word itself, *sanctify*, which occurs in the Greek codex in both places. The Arabic interpreter of the Greek codex used the same word, which *to sanctify* properly corresponds to: others have used a different one. Thus they constituted a distinction, not indeed entirely necessary, between the sanctification of the recipients and of the offerings set forth. For they seem to have taken care, in a way, that the comparison might not be understood inadequately, since the sanctifications are of an entirely different nature: for men are sanctified in one way, the offerings set forth in another. But the simplest understanding is: As You have sanctified the offerings set forth, namely by a singular manner which the words that follow explain, so may You sanctify Christians to receive them worthily.
How God sanctified the offerings set forth is explained immediately, namely by making them invisible out of visible things; *invisible out of that which is visible*, as the Greek codex has it. The Maronite, with little accuracy, says: *and you made them not shadowed, but whatever appears is your spiritual mystery*, with no sense, and contrary to the faith of the Coptic and Arabic codices. The meaning is this: these offerings you made out of those things which were seen, to be something else which is not seen: namely, they were bread and wine, you made them to be the body and blood of Christ. Before sanctification or consecration, they were, and were seen as, bread and wine; after sanctification they are the body and blood, which are not seen. There is no ambiguity here, and a true transmutation is recognized in these words, far distant from that which Salmasius so audaciously affirmed was the only meaning believed by the ancients and by the Copts themselves. Truly, if he had acted in good faith, while he strove to contaminate the invocation of the Holy Spirit of this Liturgy with a trifling and absurd interpretation, he ought to have compared this prayer with that one, and should have owed his own explanation to both. In this one, the sanctification of Christians and of the priest himself is requested, as in the first is the coming of the Holy Spirit upon them and upon the offerings set forth: namely, says Salmasius, that we may be sanctified and convert these offerings into the body and blood of Christ: although, as we have observed above, nothing of the sort is read in the Coptic and Arabic text. In this prayer which follows not long after the first, there is a full refutation of the Salmasian paradox. For the priest prays to God that He may sanctify himself and those standing around, not that they may convert the elements into the body and blood through communion, since he acknowledges that the consecration has already been done, when God made them invisible out of visible things; and the whole series of words shows that those who pronounce them believe the body of Christ to be present on the altar. Moreover, what we have said regarding Salmasius pertains no less to Albertinus, to Claudius, and to their disciples, who, with a few of the Liturgies D
A existing in the Church, might pluck out their testimonies to abuse the obscurity of some passage, rather than acknowledge those that are clear and that thoroughly overturn their newfangled notions.
There follows in the same prayer, "and the mysteries known to thee alone." In the Greek text, which manifests a faulty reading μυστήρια ὧν προνοοῦσιν αὐτά σοι, Κύριε, with no sense—the Arabic interpreter expressed this as "invisibile mysteries, understood by thee, O Lord." The Coptic reading is: "And the mysteries that are known to thee, O Lord." The Arabic version: "Full of mystery which is known to thee, O Lord." The Maronite is wrong: "spiritual mystery." The meaning from the preceding context is this: Thou hast made invisible offerings out of visible things, and a mystery, or through a mystery which thou alone, O Lord, understandest, since it surpasses the powers of the human mind. For *pronooein* which is in the Greek text, the Coptic, as above, explains by *erov*, that is, "to understand," and the Arabs by those words which signify to understand and to conceive in the mind.
(15) Regarding that excellent confession, wide of any Protestant interpretation, it was stated in reference to the Liturgy of St. Basil; we will observe only a few things, which pertain strictly to this one. There exists in that very Liturgy the one which Salmasius cited as providing arguments by which he might both shut the mouths of Catholics and enable the Calvinist cause to triumph. Why therefore did he speak thus of this confession in his letter to Daillé, so that he did not report the entire prayer, which was nevertheless necessary, and added a most false note? His words are: "After the celebration of the Supper, and the participation in it has taken place, the same priest admonishes that what has been received by the communicants is the true body and blood of Christ, that is, the fruit of the true vine, which is Christ, thus signifying that the wine of the chalice is called the true blood of the Lord in no other way than he himself called himself the true vine." The Calvinist can certainly be excused for using the term "Supper" B in a ridiculous way to signify the Liturgy and the entire sacramental action of celebrating the Eucharist. But when they write publicly, they ought to use those words which the universal Church has consecrated by the uninterrupted use of many centuries; especially since it is found that no Christian nation, of whatever rite and language, ever spoke thus. Let those learned men, who everywhere display such great skill in Oriental languages, yield an author who has called the Supper "the celebration of the Eucharist" in Greek, Latin, Syriac, Egyptian, Ethiopic, Persian, or Armenian?
But that is of lesser moment: the things he adds, being untruthful, false, and full of error, ignorance, and rashness, can in no way be excused, save for the ignorance of the author—an excuse which has no place here. For who compelled a man, who was born and baptized in the Catholic Church and had youthfully deserted the ancestral faith, to write on theological matters?
The prayer which contains the confession is not said after the celebration of the Liturgy, nor after communion, but before it is distributed: as the very order of the rites sufficiently indicates: so much so that Salmasius must either not have read the Liturgy or have thought that there would be no one who, with eyes cast upon it, would recognize him as guilty of false testimony.
And he affirms no less falsely that it is said by the priest after communion, that what has been received by the communicants is the body and blood of Christ, that is, the fruit of the true vine, which is Christ. For nothing of the sort is read in the prayers of thanksgiving, and when the priest says: "This is the true body and the precious blood, of Christ our God, etc.," these things are said before communion. The communicants respond, before they have received the holy mysteries, that they so believe, and will believe until the very last breath of life, that what they see in the hand of the celebrating priest, which the bishop and priest receive with their hand when they are ordained, C and have not yet brought to their mouths, is the body and blood of the Lord; and yet, by the Salmasian hypothesis, the proposed gifts are nothing thus far but bread and wine, since they become the body and blood of Christ only in the use thereof.
Nor in this entire Liturgy, or in any of any rite and language, will there be found such an admonition of the priests to the communicants as Salmasius invented, to the effect that the elements are the body of Christ just as Christ is the true vine. In the prayer of the breaking to the Son it is read: "Thou hast prepared for us heavenly bread, this holy body of thine in mystery... Thou hast mixed for us the chalice from the fruit of the true vine, which is thy divine and immaculate side." Thus Gaudentius of Brescia, tract. 11, *De Pasch.*: "Because what you receive is the body of that heavenly bread, and the blood is that of that sacred vine." Therefore, the Christians did not say D of the Son of our God. Amen.
People: Amen.