d
century; though it had been cultivated by the "Gnostics" long before,
and traces of it are found at an earlier period in some of the older
Fathers, such as Ignatius.

Among the liturgical fragments still preserved to us from the first
three centuries two strata may be distinguished. Apart from the
responsory hymns in the Book of Revelation, which can hardly represent
fixed liturgical pieces, the only portions of the older stratum in our
possession are the Lord's Prayer, originating with Jesus himself and
used as a liturgy, together with the sacramental prayers of the Didache.
These prayers exhibit a style unlike any of the liturgical formulae of
later times; the prayer is exclusively addressed to God, it returns
thanks for knowledge and life; it speaks of Jesus the [Greek: pais
theou] (Son of God) as the mediator; the intercession refers exclusively
to the Church, and the supplication is for the gathering together of the
Church, the hastening of the coming of the kingdom and the destruction
of the world. No direct mention is made of the death and resurrection of
Christ. These prayers are the peculiar property of the Christian Church.
It cannot, however, be said that they exercised any important influence
on the history of dogma. The thoughts contained in them perished in
their specific shape; the measure of permanent importance they attained
in a more general form, was not preserved to them through these prayers.

The second stratum of liturgical pieces dates back to the great prayer
with which the first Epistle of Clement ends, for in many respects this
prayer, though some expressions in it remind us of the older type
([Greek: dia tou egapemenou paidos sou Iesoun Christou], "through thy
beloved son Jesus Christ "), already exhibits the characteristics of the
later liturgy, as is shewn, for example, by a comparison of the
liturgical prayer in the Constitutions of the Apostles (see Lightfoot's
edition and my own). But this piece shews at the same time that the
liturgical prayers, and consequently the liturgy also, sprang from those
in the synagogue, for the similarity is striking. Here we find a
connection resembling that which exists between the Jewish "Two Ways"
and the Christian instruction of catechumens. If this observation is
correct, it clearly explains the cautious use of historical and dogmatic
material in the oldest liturgies--a precaution not to their
disadvantage. As in the prayers of the synagogue, so als