Folia Theologica 17. (2006)

Uwe Michael Lang: Early Christian Latin as a Liturgical Language

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U. M. LANG

sermons of Zeno, bishop of Verona from 362 to 372, which would testify to the geographical spread of this Eucharistic prayer.34

The wording of the prayers cited by Ambrose is different from the Canon that was settled by Gregory the Great in the late sixth century and has come down to us, with only a few minor changes, in the oldest extant liturgical books, especially the Old Gelasian Sacramentary, dating from the middle of the eighth century, but believed to reflect the liturgical use of the middle of the seventh century. The differences between Ambrose's Eucharistic prayer and the Gregorian Canon are far less remarkable than their similarities, given that the almost three hundred years lying between the two texts were a period of intense liturgical development.35

It is generally believed that the shift from Greek to Latin in the Roman liturgy happened slowly and gradually.36 This development took more than a hundred years and that it was completed in the pontificate of Damasus I, who died in 384. From then on, the liturgy in Rome was celebrated in Latin, with the exception of a few reminders of the older use, such as the Kyrie eleison in the Ordo and the Greek readings in the Papal Mass. According to Optatus of

34 G. JEANES, ‘Early Latin Parallels to the Roman Canon? Possible References to a Eucharistic Prayer in Zeno of Verona’, in JThS 37 (1986), pp. 427-431.

35 Ambrose, De sacramentis IV,5,21-22; 6,26-27; see J. BEUMER, “Die ältesten Zeugnisse für die römische Eucharistiefeier bei Ambrosius von Mailand,“ Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie 95 (1973), pp. 311-24; BOULEY, From Freedom to Formula, pp. 200-215. The term ‘canon’ seems to have been used first in the sixth century; the oldest known reference to ‘prex, canonica’ is Pope Vigilius, Ep. ad Profuturum 5, PL 69:18; see BOULEY, From Freedom to Formula, pp. 208-209.

36 MOHRMANN, Liturgical Latin, pp. 50-53; J. A. JUNGMANN, Missarum Sollemnia: Eine genetische Erklärung der römischen Messe, 2 vol., Wien: Herder, 51962, vol. I, pp. 65-66; BOULEY, From Freedom to Formula, pp. 203-207. Against T. KLAUSER, ‘Der Übergang der römischen Kirche von der griechischen zur lateinischen Liturgiesprache’, in Miscellanea G. Mercati I (Studi e testi 121), Città del Vaticano 1946, pp. 467-482 (= T. KLAUSER, Gesammelte Arbeiten zur Liturgiegeschichte, Kirchengeschichte und christlichen Archäologie, hg. v. E. DASSMANN [Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum. Ergänzungsband 3], Münster 1974, pp. 184-194). Against Klauser’s hypothesis that the Latin Canon of the Mass came from Milan, see C. MOHRMANN, ‘Rationabilis - Loyikôç’, Tome I, pp. 179-187 (originally published in Mélanges Fernand de Visscher IV, Revue international des droits de l’Antiquité 5 [1950], pp. 225-234).