THE LITURGY OF THE

NORWEGIAN LUTHERAN CHURCH.

THE Congregation comes to church to glorify God and to upbuild itself. It does not come together simply to serve God through prayer, confession, thanksgiving and praise, but also to receive the peculiar blessing which God has promised it, and which gives and nourishes a new spiritual life.

God's means of blessing are His Word and the Sacraments. That God comes to His people through these means of grace, and that they can serve Him in the manner already stated, are basic principles in the Norwegian Lutheran Church Service.

These principles were fixed by Luther and the "Augsburg Confession."

Luther, in his Formula Missæ of 1523 followed the Roman Catholic Liturgy as closely as possible, leaving out whatever was false. And in Central and North Germany this formula was made the basis of the Order of Service, while in Southwest Germany, where the Lutherans came into touch with the Catholics and the Reformed, his Deutsche Messe was used. Even this latter formula has had an influence on the Norwegian Liturgy, in that it has been followed in the Order of Service that has to do with the Sacraments, as the Formula Missa has been followed in what has to do with the Word.

The Order in the Formula Misse is: Introit, Kyrie, Gloria, Collect, Epistle together with Gradual and Hallelujah, Gospel, Nicene Creed, Sermon, Preface in Latin, the Words of the Institution in German, the Sanctus, Benedictus, Lord's

Prayer and Pax, and the singing of the Agnus Dei during the Distribution, and finally another Collect and the Aaronitic blessing.

The Deutsche Messe is more radical, that is, it is less like the Roman Catholic. In the first part of the Service there remains only Kyrie, Collect, Epistle, Gospel, Creed and Sermon. A noteworthy addition were the hymns sung in German. Even the Creed was made a hymn-but that goes too far. The sacramental ceremonies are likewise impoverished, for the Preface was dropped, the Lord's Prayer was paraphrased as a part of the Exhortation, the rich expressions about the death of Christ and the remembrance were not given at all.

The more strict Lutherans adopted the Formula Missæ and strove hard to get a beautiful Service. They began to use the Apostles' Creed instead of the Nicene; they introduced Confession and Absolution, and the General Prayer after the Sermon; they established the Exhortation to the communicants; and they provided for the singing of the Litany if there was no Communion. Their Service carries out the basic principles of the Lutheran Service fully; it shows a harmonious and living activity by both minister and congregation; it balances between freedom and rule, between the free word and the liturgical parts.

At the time of the Reformation Norway was united with Denmark. It is true that Norway was still called a kingdom and retained her old national laws; yet, as she was really governed by Copenhagen, we may consider her little else than a Danish province. Therefore when the Reformation entered Denmark, it came also to Norway.

The transition from the Roman Catholic to an Evangelical faith and practice was naturally slow; and during these many years there was an uncertainty in the forms of the Church Service. When the authority of the Pope was set aside in 1536 and the State Church of Denmark was established, King Christian III was obliged to write to the Elector of Saxony to "borrow" Bu

genhagen and Melanchthon "for the glory of God and the establishment of a Christian Order." Denmark did not then have capable men for this work, and Germany could not spare those asked for.

Thereupon King Christian appointed a committee of his own men to draw up an Order of Service. He changed it somewhat and then sent it to Luther, who, together with the theologians at Wittenberg, approved of it. At the same time that Luther made his reply, Bugenhagen came to Denmark. The King and he went through the Order of Service again, making a few changes in it and adding eight appendices. In 1537 the “Ordinance” went into force and in 1539 it was passed by the Diet; in 1542 it was published in Danish. It treats of Church Government as well as the Order of Service; it is at once a manual of Church Law and Liturgy. As already stated, it follows both the Formula Missa and the Deutsche Messe. It remained in force until 1685, when it was superseded by the "Ritual." In Norway it was copied in all its essentials by the "Ordinance" of 1607.

During this transition period just described there was no fixed form of Service, owing to the fact that each pastor was left to follow his own judgment in the matter. But even after the "Ordinance" of 1542 was published, there was considerable shifting, because, while the "Ordinance" specified the Order of Service, it did not give the specific form of each part. In this matter it simply referred to other handbooks, of which there was already a number, such as, Peder Plades' "Enchiridion" of 1538, and Frantz Vormordsen's "Manual" of 1539. The first named is a translation of Luther's "Enchiridion" and his book on Baptism and Marriage. The last is a handbook of the whole Service, giving forms, Collects, references to the speeches that belong to the several liturgical parts, etc.; it did not contain the texts, but only the references to them in the Bible. The great fault with these and other handbooks was, that they did not contain all that was to be used in each part

of the Service; another was, that they did not agree in all parts. The "Ritual" mentioned above was the "Ordinance" without the parts on Church Government. Its authorization was due to Bishop Hans Bagger, Provost Henrik Bornemann, Dr. Hans Leth and Bishop Thomas Kingo. The "Book of Service" appeared three years later in 1688, published by Bishop Bagger, -the Ritual which, excepting a few changes, has been used in the Norwegian Church to the present day. This book of Bagger's contained also a good deal of pastoral advice, some of it very curious to our notions. This was printed in the Norwegian editions of the book until the "New Ritual" came out. As an example of this pastoral advice, I quote the following from a Norwegian edition of 1879: "Whoever wantonly swears and curses, and thus takes the Name of God in vain, shall be considered as one who does not deal honestly. . . . . If, during the Service at church, the children profane it by play, noise or any other misdemeanor on the church grounds, then the authorities shall have the power to punish the younger ones with whippings and the older ones with the pillory," etc.

In the first decades after the Reformation in Denmark there were made two important changes in the Service: the one, that the Sermon was given a fixed place; the other, that Danish hymns took the place of some of the old chants sung by the preacher and the choir. Both of these changes became perma

nent.

The "Ordinance" Service began with silent confession by the minister, during which he knelt at the altar, and after which, at the King's desire, he offered up prayer for the Word, the King and the realm. While he was doing this the congregation, kneeling, read a silent confession. In place of this, in the "Ritual" there was an opening prayer which was read while the congregation knelt. Then, in the "Ordinance," followed the Introit and Kyrie (sung three times by the congregation), but in the "Ritual" the Kyrie followed the opening prayer. The next

part was the angels' anthem, "Gloria in Excelsis," which was afterwards made a hymn. Then, the minister, turning to the congregation, sang, "The Lord be with you," to which the congregation, rising, sang: "And with thy spirit." The next was the Collect, with an "Amen" by the congregation; and then the Epistle, followed by the Hallelujah. But in the "Ritual" a hymn bearing on the Epistle or introducing the Gospel was substituted for the Hallelujah. The Gospel was thereupon read and replied to by the congregation in: "God be praised for His glad tidings," or, as in the "Ritual," "Praise be to Thee, O Christ." The Creed was read next, later replaced by a hymn. The Service from the pulpit was to begin with prayer. The "Ritual" required the minister to admonish to prayer and all to unite in the Lord's Prayer. In the festival season of the year, from Christmas to Pentecost, a festival verse was sung before the reading of the Gospel text, and sung three times on the great Festivals, while the minister knelt in the pulpit. After the Sermon followed a general Confession and Absolution, which, however, was soon dropped. The "Ordinance" and the "Ritual" prescribed the form of the General Prayer after the Sermon, leaving the contents to the judgment of the minister, but the "Handbook" of 1539 gives a model. Thereupon came the Lord's Prayer and (in the "Ritual" only) the Aaronitic blessing and a hymn.

Baptism and the Lord's Supper were next. The Exhortation before Communion, of a polemical-dogmatical tone, was originally from Melanchthon's "Articles of Visitation", though here from Deutsche Messe, and is still used. It was followed by the Lord's Prayer and the Words of the Institution of the Sacrament and the Consecration. The minister gives the bread and wine to the Communicants saying to each one: "This is the true Body of Christ" and "This is the true Blood of Christ." This formula was introduced for the first time by Jesper Brockmann, in 1646, the word "true" being against the Calvin doctrine. The Agnus