Elucidations.
————————————
I.
(The God-bearing Mary, p. 242.)
“
This
name”
(
θεοτόκος
),
says Pearson, “was first in use in the Greek Church, which,
delighting in the happy compositions of that language, so called the
Blessed Virgin; from which the Latins, in imitation, styled her
Virginem Deiparam
,” etc.…Yet those ancient Greeks
which call the Virgin
θεοτόκος
, did not
call her
μητέρα τοῦ
Θεοῦ
, “Mother of
God.” This was very different to a pious ear, and rests on
no synodical authority. The very learned notes of Pearson,
On
the Creed
, pp. 297, 299, should by all means be consulted.
Leo of Rome, called “the Great,” seems to have coined the
less orthodox expression, relying on Holy Scripture, indeed, in the
salutation of Elisabeth (
Luke i. 43
). This term has been sadly abused
for Mariolatry.
II.
(Synaxis, p. 257.)
It seems to me worth while to quote a few words
from the new and critical edition of Leighton’s
Works
,
which should be consulted for fuller information.
2084
The editor says:
“Leighton uses a word for the Holy Communion which is worth
noting, because it is rarely used by
Western
theologians
.” The word
Synaxis
is but a
Christianized form of the word
Synagogue
; but, like the
word
κοινωνία
,
it points to Christ’s mystical body,—“gathering
together in one the children of God.”
Synaxis
=
συνάγει εἰς
ἕν
. It sums up the idea, “We, being many,
are one Bread and one Body, for we are all partakers of that one
Bread.” Compare John xi. 52 and 1 Cor. x. 15.
St. Chrysostom calls the
Synaxis
φρικωδεστάτη
,
which is a very different thing from
maxime tremenda
, as
applied to the modern “Mass,” in behalf of which it is
quoted. For Chrysostom applies it to the
participation
of
the “Synaxis,” and not to the “oblation,” much
less to the “Host” as an object of adoration, of which he
never heard or dreamed. He calls “the Synaxis”
Shudderful
(to borrow a word from
the Germans), because the unworthy recipient, in the
Synaxis
,
eats and drinks his own condemnation.
2085
One must ever be on his guard
against the subtlety which reads into the Fathers
modern ideas
under ancient phrases.
2086
Precisely so Holy Scripture itself
is paraphrased into Trent doctrine, as in
Acts xiii. 2
the Louvain versionists rendered
the text, “And while
they offered the sacrifice of the
Mass
and fasted.”
2084
Leighton,
Works
, edited by West, of Nairn, vol. vi. p.
243, note. London, Longmans, 1870.
2085
1 Cor. xi.
29–34
.
Chrysostom evidently has in view the apostle’s argument, based on
the Communion as a
Synaxis
, and not on its
hierurgic
aspects.
2086
Mendham’s
Literary Policy of the Church of Rome
(
passim
), and also the old work of James,
On the Corruption
of Scripture, Councils, and Fathers
, a new edition.
London: Parker, 1843.