Goar has inserted this into the Euchologium: and I have discovered that, except for the order and minor parts, the Vatican codex agrees with the printed editions; this solemn concord of the liturgies was pointed out to us long ago by Allatius in his former dissertation, chap. 20, in these words: "But do all celebrate the liturgy with the same rite with which it was celebrated of old? If you consider the thing itself, and the substance of the sacrifice, it is certain that for all who celebrate in the Greek rite, the same one thing has been uniform: but as for the prayers and those things which are provided for the adornment of the sacrifice, just as happened in the complete Mass, it is not alien to what is likely that, not only in that same age but at various different times, many things were changed in accordance with the opportunity of the matter." And the same Allatius in chap. 4: "I also observe this, that the liturgy of the Presanctified was not one and the same among all, but varied according to the variety of the Churches and times." In the Epiphanian [liturgy], indeed, that beginning which we have ascribed differs from the published liturgies. The prayers also for kings, the army, the bishop, and the rest of the ministers of the Church seemed to vary somewhat. The prayer, however, which begins: *Ὁ Θεὸς ὁ ἐπισκεψάμενος* (O God who has visited), accords with the Nazianzen liturgy that we have in Assemani, *Cod. lit.*, vol. VII, p. 87. I shall say no more; for I believe I have sufficiently explained the contents of the Vatican codex.
V. It remains for us to see whether there is any argument from the known books of Epiphanius to vindicate this liturgy for him, or otherwise. In *Heresy* 79, 3, Epiphanius says that the apostles, among whom was James, were A *μυστηρίων ἀρχηγέτας*, that is, if it is rightly understood, the founders of the divine liturgy. What follows from this? Behold, Assemani, *Cod. lit.*, vol. V, pref., pp. 26, 55, 57, from this saying of Epiphanius, divines that the liturgy of St. James also pertained to Cyprus. Why? Because, forsooth, Cyprus, in Assemani's age, was subject partly to the Syrian patriarchs and partly also to the Franciscan custodian of the Holy Sepulchre; he, improperly transferring things of the present time to those of old, thought that the Jerusalem liturgy had flourished in Cyprus as well: an argument which would weaken the point that Epiphanius, the Cypriot archbishop, had instituted his own liturgy, whether complete or perhaps a particular one, of the sort that this Presanctified liturgy is. Yet Assemani was not ignorant that the province of Cyprus was formerly *ἀκέφαλον* (acephalous), that is, of its own right, not subject to the ordination of any foreign archbishop or patriarch. Therefore, Assemani seems to be foisting the Jerusalem liturgy onto the ancient Cypriots in vain. There is a narrative in his Greek *Life* (ed. Petav., vol. II, p. 351) chap. 38, not indeed about Epiphanius writing, but about his celebrating the liturgy, where the biographer says that Epiphanius was never accustomed to complete the oblation in the Mass until he had seen a vision, *ὀπτασίαν*. A thing truly B wondrous, and worthy of a holy man! A similar example is read concerning another bishop in John Moschus, chap. 150, and likewise in the *Lives of the Fathers* according to Rosweyd, book 1, p. 199, where St. Basil is said to have celebrated Mass surrounded by very bright light and angels, as is also to be seen in the paintings we have recently described. And indeed in the fifth icon, where an archangel drives the devil away from the mystery and temple of the Mass, although the inscription denotes nothing but the devil lying in wait for the pious bystanders, I nevertheless think the expulsion of the possessed is specifically signified, whom Dionysius, *Eccl. hierarch.*, chap. 3, narrates were accustomed to be removed from the sight of the sacrament and excluded from the church along with catechumens and penitents. Finally, I say that all those icons were painted according to a certain vision and mystical allegory, by which heaven is coupled with earth—that is, Christ is represented in the priest, and the lesser ministers are represented in the angels, or are mingled with them, by a happy phantasy of art and doctrine of theology. But let this be the end, especially since those paintings do not at all pertain to the codex or liturgy of Epiphanius; concerning which it C seems that enough of our words have already flowed; and we judge that the evidence of others should rather be awaited.
OF SAINT EPIPHANIUS: PRAYER AND EXORCISM FOR CASTING OUT AN UNCLEAN SPIRIT.
[Fragments.]
(Iriarte, *Catalog. cod. Græc. Matrit.*, p. 423.)
The prayer begins: *Ἐπικαλούμεθά σε, Θεὲ παντοκράτορ Κύριε Ἰησοῦ Χριστὲ οὐράνιε βασιλεῦ· ἐπικαλούμεθά σε τὸν ποιήσαντα τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν.* (We call upon Thee, God almighty, Lord Jesus Christ, heavenly King; we call upon Thee who created the heaven and the earth.) The exorcism, however, begins: *Ἐξορκίζω σε, πνεῦμα ἀκάθαρτον, κατὰ τοῦ λόγου Θεοῦ τοῦ ποιήσαντος τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν.* (I exorcise thee, unclean spirit, by the word of God who created the heaven and the earth.) It ends: *φοβήθητι τὸν ἀναβαλλόμενον φῶς ὡς ἱμάτιον· τὸν μόνον ἔχοντα ἀθανασίαν καὶ φῶς ἀπρόσιτον· ᾧ ἡ δόξα καὶ τὸ κράτος εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας. Ἀμήν.* (Fear Him who covers Himself with light as with a garment; who alone possesses immortality and light inaccessible; to Him be the glory and the power unto the ages. Amen.)
This prayer and exorcism are absent both from the editions of the Works of St. Epiphanius and from Goar's *Euchologium*. Nevertheless, Fabricius, *Biblioth. Græc.*, vol. VIII, page 95, praises the Baroccian codex VIII, in which adjurations or exorcisms of this kind by Epiphanius and other Holy Fathers are read. Which is not a light argument that this one D of St. Epiphanius and others by other Fathers are still lurking in some manuscripts in the libraries.