Folia Theologica 17. (2006)

Uwe Michael Lang: Early Christian Latin as a Liturgical Language

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U. M. LANG

understanding of Latin.58 The two clausulae ‘sánguinem sumpserimus' and 'gratia repleámur' would then form a neat parallelism at the end of the prayer, emphasizing the petition to enjoy the supernatural fruits of sacramental communion:

that all we who at this partaking of the altar shall receive the most sacred Body and Blood of thy Son (sánguinem sumpserimus),

may be fulfilled with all heavenly benediction and grace (grátia repleámur).

Finally, there are examples of the cursus trispondaicus, consisting of three spondees, that is three metrical feet with long or stressed syllables: ‘grege numerari', 'respicere dignéris'.

Note that there are no clausulae in the Institution Narrative. This suggests that this part of the prayer did not undergo the same revision according to the rules of rhetoric as the other parts. The sacrosanct character of the Narrative with the Lord's own words would seem to account for this reticence.

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To sum up this cursory analysis, the many rhetorical features of the Roman Canon mark the text as belonging the world of antiquity, where any literary text was formed according to technical rules of composition.59 These rhetorical features help to create a distinctive prayer-style that is both Roman and Christian. The Canon draws on the style of pagan prayer, including its juridical elements, but its vocabulary and contents is distinctively Christian, indeed Biblical. Its diction has Roman gravitas and avoids the exuberance of the Eastern Christian prayer style, which is also found in the

58 I owe this point to a discussion with Dr Zoltán Rihmer in Oxford in September 2006.

59 Cf. E. NORDEN, Die antike Kunstprosa vom VI. Jahrhundert v. Chr. bis in die Zeit der Renaissance, 2 vols., Leipzig: Teunber, "1909, vol. II, p. 457: ‘Es findet sich ... in der ganzen antiken Literatur (abgesehen von einzelnen fachwissenschaftlichen Schriften), kein stilistisches axexvov, was sich eben aus ihrem dem gemeinen Leben abgewandten, aristokratischen Grundcharakter erklärt’. Cf. C. MOHRMANN, ‘Problèmes stylistiques dans la littérature latine chrétienne’, Tome III, pp. 147-170 (Originally published in Vigiliae Christianae 9 (1955), pp. 222-246), at pp. 147-148.