GENUFLEXION
425
GENUFLEXION
called. It must not, in this connexion, escape atten-
tion that, in proportion as the faithful have ceased to
follow the liturgy, replacing its formula; by private
devotions, the standing attitude has fallen more and
more into disuse among them. In our own time it is
quite usual for the congregation at a high Mass to
stand for the Gospel and Creed ; and, at all other times
either to remain seated (when this is permitted) or to
kneel. There are, nevertheless, certain liturgical
praj'ers to kneel during which is obligatory, the reason
being that kneeling is the posture especially appro-
priate to the supplications of penitents, and is a charac-
teristic attitude of hiunble entreaty in general. Hence,
litanies are chanted, kneeling, unless (which in ancient
times was deemed even more fitting) they can be gone
through by a procession of mourners. So, too, public
penitents knelt during such portions of the liturgy as
they were allowed to assist at. The modern practice
of Solemn Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament for
public adoration has naturally led to more frequent
and more continuous kneeling in church than formerly.
Thus, at a Benediction service it is obligatory to kneel
from beginning to end of the function, except during
the chant of the Te Deiun and Uke hjTnns of praise.
It has been remarked that penitents knelt during public prayer, the rest of the faithful standing. A corollary easily drawn from this was that in Lent and other penitential seasons, when all Christians without distinction professed themselves to be " penitents", the whole congregation should kneel during the celebra- tion of the Divine Mysteries and during other liturgi- cal prayers. This has given occasion to the Missal rubric, requiring the clergy and bj' implication the laity, to kneel in Lent, on vigils, ember-da3-s, etc., while the celebrant recites the collects and post-com- munions of the Mass, and during the whole of the Canon, that is, from the Sanctus to the Agnus Dei. In early times an attempt was made to insist yet more emphatically on the character of penitents as that most befitting ordinary Christians. A practice crept in of posing in church as penitents, that is, of kneeling, on all days alike. It was a principle akin to that which deemed it a great virtue to fast even on Sunda}'s and feast days. In both cases the exaggeration was con- demned and severely repressed. In the twentieth canon of the Council of Nicsa (a.d. 325) the fathers lay down (the canon, though passed over by Rufinus, is undoubtedly genuine): — "Because there are some who kneel on the Lord's Day and in the days of Pente- cost [the fifty days between Easter and Whit-Sunday] : that all things may be uniformly performed in every parish or diocese, it seems good to the Holy Synod that the prayers [ras evxas] he by all made to God, stand- ing". The canon thus forbids kneeling on Sundays; but (and this is carefully to be noted) does not enjoin kneeling on other days. The distinction indicated of days and seasons is very probably of Apostolic origin. TertuUian, long before NicEea, had declared kneeling on the Lord's Daj' to be nefas (De Cor. Mil., c. iii). See also pseudo- Justin (Quaest. et Resp. ad Orthodox., Q. 115); Clement of Alexandria (Strom., VII); Peter of Alexandria (can. xv); with others. For post-Nicene times, see St. Hilary (Prolog, in Psalm.); St. Jerome (Dial, contra Lucif., c. iv); St. Epiphanius (Expos. Fidei, 22 and 24); St. Basil (De Spir. Sanct., c. xxvii); St. Maximus (Hom. iii, De Pentec); etc. Note, how- ever, with Hefele (Councils, II, ii, sect. 42) that St. Paul is expressly stated to have prayed kneeling, dur- ing paschal time (Acts, xx, 36; xxi, 5). Moreover St. Augustine, more than fifty years after the Council of Nicaja, writes:^ "Ut autem stantes in illis diebus et omnibus dominicis orenius utrum ubique servetur nescio" (i.e. but I do not know whether there is still observed everywhere the custom of standing, whilst praying, on those days and on all Sundays). Ep. cxix ad Januar. By canon law (II Decretal., bk., IX, ch. ii) the prohibition to kneel is extended to all principal
festivals, but it is limited to public prayer, "nisi ali-
quis ex devotione illud facere velit in secreto", i. e.
(unless anyone, from devotion, should wish to do that
in private). In any case, to have the right to stand
during public prayer was looked upon as a sort of
privilege — an "immunitas" (Tertull., loc. cit.).
On the other hand, to be degraded into the class of the "genuflectentes", or "prostrati", wlio (Fourth Council of Carthage, can. Ixx.xii) were obliged to kneel during public services even on Sundays and in paschal time, was deemed a severe punishment. St. Basil calls kneeling the lesser penance (iieTdvoia. luxpa) as opposed to prostration, the greater penance (fierdfOLa ij.eyd\ri). Standing, on the contrary, was the attitude of praise and thanskgiving. St. Augustine (loc. cit.) considers it to signify joy, and therefore to be the fitting pos- ture for the weekly connnemoration by Christians of the Lord's Resurrection, on the first day of the week (See also Cassian, Coll. , XXI). Hence, on all days alike, the faithful stood during the chant of psalms, hymns, and canticles, and more particularly during the solemn Eucharistic or Thanksgiving jirayer (our Preface) pre- liminary to the Consecration in the Divine Mysteries. The diaconal invitation (2^Twij.ev Ka\ws, k. t. X; SpBoi; Arab. Urtlii; AriTien. Ortlii) is frequent at this point of the liturgy. Nor have we any grounds for believing, against the tradition of the Roman Church, that dur- ing the Canon of the Mass the faithful knelt on week- days, and stood only on Sunday's and in paschal time. It is far more likely that the kneeling was limited to Lent and other seasons of penance. What precisely were the prayers which the Fathers of Nica-a had in view when insisting on the distinction of days is not at once evident. In our time the decree is observed to the letter in regard to the Salve Regina or other antiphon to Our Lady with which the Divine Office is concluded, and also in the recitation of the Angelus. But both these devotions are of comparatively recent origin. The term praj'er (evxv) used at Nicjea, has in this connection always been taken in its strict signifi- cation as meaning supplication (Probst, Drei ersten Jahrhund., I, art. 2, ch. xlix). The diaconal litany, general in the East, in which all conditions of men are prayed for, preparatory to the ottering of the Holy Sacrifice, comes under this head. And in fact in the Clementine Liturgy (Brightman, 9; Funk, Didascalia, 489) there is a rubric enjoining that the deacon, before beginning the litany, invite all to kneel down, and ter- minate by bidding all to rise up again. It remains however unexplained why the exception for Sundays and paschal time is not expressly recalled. In the Western or Roman Rite, traces of a distinction of days still exist. For instance at the end of the Complin of Holy Saturday there is the rubric : " Et non flectuntur genua toto tempore Paschali", which is the Nicene rule to the letter. The decree has likewise (though slightly varied in wording) been incorporated into the canon law of the Church iDist. iii, De consecrat., c. x). It may be added that, both in the East and in the W'est. certain extensions of the exemption from the penitential practice of kneeling appear to have been gradually insisted upon. "The 29th Arabic Canon of Nicsa extends the rule of not kneeling, but onlv bend- ing forward, to all great festivals of Our Lord" (Bright, Canons of Nicaea, 86). Consult Mansi, xiv, 89, for a similar modification made bj' the Third Council of Tours, .\.D. 813. See also the c. Quoniam (II Decretal., bk. 9, c. 2) cited above.
To fix with some precision the import of the Nicene canon, as it was understood and reduced to practice by the ancients, the supplications, to which the name "bidding prayers" has sometimes been given, merit careful notice. They are the Western analogues of the Eastern diaconal litanies, and recur with great fre- quency in the old Galilean and Mozarabic uses. In their full form they seem peculiar to the Roman Rite. The ofEciating bishop or priest invites the faithful
