To this must be added another fact. That which was performed in secret in the Assemblies, and was carefully concealed from the uninitiated, was laid open to the Neophytes after their baptism, and before they partook of the holy mysteries. They were then not only allowed, as before, to assist at the instructions given to the Catechumens, but were, moreover, detained, that what had hitherto been withheld, and what they were soon to receive, might be explained to them. This explanation we find in the Catechistical Discourses, which have come down to us.—Now, “all these so plainly exhibit our mysteries, that it would be impossible, at the present day, to express in terms more clear, precise, and energetic, the oblation of Sacrifice, Transubstantiation, and the Real Presence, with the adoration which it demands.” This will be clearly proved hereafter by the Extracts from the Catecheses of St. Cyril, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Ambrose, St. Gaudentius, and others.
THE LITURGIES.
All the Holy Fathers, who, during the first ages of the Church, make mention of the Liturgies before they were committed to writing; and all those who had occasion afterwards to speak of them, agree that “the substance of them was derived from the Apostles, and communicated by them to the Churches where they preached and established the Religion of Christ.[1] The first Liturgy was that which was formed and used by the Apostles in the Church of Jerusalem. -Then other Liturgies were introduced into the other Patriarchate Churches in the East, viz. of Alexandria, Antioch, and Constantinople.
- ↑ I quote the words of the late Ven. Dr. Poynter, in his “ Christianity, or the Evidences and Characters of the Christian Religion."
