Folia Theologica 17. (2006)
Uwe Michael Lang: Early Christian Latin as a Liturgical Language
146 U. M. LANG and 'in omnibus' are embellishments on stylistic grounds, which make the form of the prayer more rounded and graceful. The verb 'dignare' is taken from curial style and often found in papal correspondence.49 There is another example for a simpler and more 'popular' paratactic construction being exchanged for a more formal relative clause: where Ambrose has 'Et petimus et precamur ut hanc oblationem sucipias', the received text of the Canon reads 'Supra quae propitio ac sereno vultu respicere digneris et accepta habere' ('Vouchsafe to look upon them with a merciful and pleasant countenance; and to accept them The parataxis can also be replaced by an ablative absolute; thus 'respexit in caelum' in Ambrose's Institution Narrative becomes 'elevatis oculis in caelum' ('with eyes lifted up to heaven'). In the Quam oblationem prayer, which I have just cited, we can observe is the tendency to employ series of consecutive synonyms. This is a typical feature of the Roman prayer-style that is already there in Ambrose's early form, for instance, 'et petimus et precamur', 'we both ask and pray'. The doubling of the verb and the alliteration are typical of pagan prayers, where you find formulae such as 'do dedicoque' (T give and devote'). The formula in Ambrose in fact an elegant one if compared with the common 'precor quaesoque’ ('I pray and beseech'), well attested in Livy, because it avoids the exact repetition of the verb and introduces some variation.50 There are several examples of this stylistic feature in other parts of the Canon, for instance, in the Te igitur: 'supplices rogamus ac petimus', ‘haec dona, haec munera, haec sancta sacrificia illibata'; 'quam pacificare custodire et regere digneris'. 49 It has been translated here as ‘vouchsafe’ here; etymologically, it is related to ‘deign’, a word that was rejected in the new (much improved!) ICEL version of the Roman Canon; see A. ROCHE, ‘Search for Truth and Poetry’, The Tablet of 5 August 2006, pp. 10-11, at p. 11: ‘Early in the process, we proposed that the priest should say: “To us sinners also ... deign to grant some share and fellowship with your holy apostles and martyrs.“ “Deign“ was greeted with howls of derision from all sides: it was thought to belong to too formal a register for the liturgy. So we tried a much more colloquial version, “please grant some share and fellowship”. This was judged too informal. So we finally settled on “be pleased to grant”, which seems to fall between the two’. 50 On ‘precor quaesoque', see F. HICKSON, Roman Prayer Language: Livy and the Aeneici of Virgil, Stuttgart: Teubner, 1993, pp. 49 and 77.
