La liturgie oubliee: la priere eucharistique en Gaule antique et dans l'Occident non romain (review)

This monumental synthesis of a century of scholarship on ancient liturgical sources endeavors to uncover a "paradigm" for western eucharistic prayers that pre-dates the spread of Roman influence over western liturgy. The author proceeds with the conviction that there exists, hidden beneath the revisions of the seventh and eighth centuries that mark most of the surviving liturgical manuscripts, a stratum of material that was common throughout the non-Roman West and that dates to a much earlier era.

In the first part of the volume, Smyth epitomizes the sources witnessing to ancient Gallic eucharistic prayers, especially those from Gaul proper, northern Italy, and Ireland but also, to a lesser extent, from Spain and North Africa. He considers the state of scholarship on each source, beginning with citations or allusions to prayer texts among early Christian authors, then moving on to the surviving manuscripts of relevant liturgical books in chronological order. The result is an updated guide to the ancient sources including a number of early palimpsests and numerous manuscript fragments. Building on the efforts of previous scholars, the author does not directly consult the manuscripts himself. Chapter VII sets forth the various elements of the Gallic Ordo missae. Finally, Smyth provides a substantial collection, drawn from a variety of sources, of Latin texts along with his own French translations including diptyches, post nomina, contestationes, narratives of institution, post mysterium and postcommunion orations.

The second part contains detailed analyses of the sources presented in the first part. Smyth's method consists primarily in unearthing commonalities and literary or thematic signs of antiquity among extant prayers. For example, he notes a very widespread use of the word mittere within various constetationes, describing a widespread theme regarding how the Father effects the work of salvation through the mediation of the Son, which he suggests is unaffected by the Arian controversies and likely pre-dates them. Another important aspect of the author's argument entails comparing these ancient prayer texts with writings pertaining to the eucharistic synax by numerous early Christian writers. Smyth argues that a first stratum of material within the texts dates as far back as the second and third centuries. He also uncovers a second, more elaborate stratum that reflects the literary characteristics of the Latin Fathers during the time of their apogee from the fourth to the sixth centuries.

Perhaps Smyth's most engaging hypothesis, to which an entire chapter is devoted, regards the North African roots of Gallic liturgy. Only a few fragments of African liturgical books are extant, but Smyth makes good use of them while drawing extensively from comments on or allusions to eucharistic prayers in the writings of Cyprian, Augustine, Fulgentius, and others. Smyth bolsters these textual analyses by insisting on the literary hegemony enjoyed by Africa in the first stages of Latin Christianity and depicting Carthage as a center for the creation of western (or Gallic) liturgy. Noting numerous similarities between the Gallic rites and those of Asia Minor and Syria, the author further posits a line of eastern influence on western rites which remained strong until the fourth century.

Many of Smyth's arguments are more suggestive than conclusive. He certainly uses an impressive number of sources, but exactly how representative they are, especially the earliest palimpsests and fragments, is an open question. Moreover, he also tends to overlook the difficulties in determining liturgical prayers from such sources as homilies and letters. Hence the value of the book lies primarily in the first part, which can prove to be a good point of reference regarding witnesses to the ancient western liturgy. Serious scholars will find many avenues that merit further exploration in the second part, but they will also quibble with many details of Symth's arguments.

A good number of pages might have been spared by better use of the assembly of texts in the...