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DOXOLOGY (Gr. 3oi oXoyia, a praising,...

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 461 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DOXOLOGY (Gr. 3oi oXoyia, a praising, giving See also:glory)  , an ascription of praise to the Deity . The See also:early Christians continued the Jewish practice of making such an ascription at the See also:close of public See also:prayer (See also:Origen, IIepi ehxi s, 33) and introduced it after the See also:sermon also . The name is often applied to the Trisagion (tersanctus), or "See also:Holy, Holy, Holy," the scriptural basis of which is found in See also:Isaiah vi . 3, and which has had a See also:place in the See also:worship of the See also:Christian See also:church since the 2nd See also:century; to the Hallelujah of several of the See also:Psalms and of Rev. xix . ; to such passages of glorification as Rom. ix . 5, xvi . 27, Eph . 21; and to the last clause of the See also:Lord's Prayer as found in Matt. vi . 13 (A.V.), which critics are generally agreed in regarding as an See also:interpolation, and which, while used in the See also:Greek and the See also:Protestant churches, is omitted in the See also:Roman rite . It is used, however, more definitely as the designation of two See also:hymns distinguished by liturgical writers as the Greater and Lesser Doxologies . The origin and See also:history of these it is impossible to trace fully . The germ of both is to be found in the Gospels; the first words of the Greater See also:Doxology, or Gloria in Excelsis, being taken from See also:Luke ii .

14, and the See also:

form of the Lesser Doxology, or Gloria Patri, having been in all See also:probability first suggested by Matt. See also:xxviii . 19 . The Greater Doxology, in a form approximating to that of the See also:English prayer-See also:book, is given in the See also:Apostolical Constitutions (vii . 47) . At this See also:time (c . 375) it ran thus: " See also:Glory to See also:God on high, and on See also:earth See also:peace to men of (his) See also:goodwill . We praise thee, we bless thee, we worship thee, we glorify thee, we give thanks to thee for thy See also:great glory . 0 Lord God, heavenly See also:king, God the See also:Father Almighty; 0 Lord, the only begotten Son, Jesus See also:Christ; 0 Lord God, Iamb of God, Son of the Father, that takest away the sins of the See also:world, have See also:mercy upon us; See also:Thou that takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer; Thou that sittest at the right See also:hand of the Father, have mercy upon us; For Thou alone See also:art holy . Thou only, Jesus Christ, with the Holy See also:Ghost, art most high in the glory of God the Father . See also:Amen." This is the earliest See also:record of it, but it is also found in the Alexandrine Codex . See also:Alcuin attributes the authorship of the Latin form—the Gloria in Excelsis—to St Hilary of See also:Poitiers (died 367) . The quotations from the hymn in the pseudo-Athanasian De Virginitate, and in See also:Chrysostom (See also:Horn .

69 in Matth.), include only the opening words (those from St Luke's See also:

gospel), though the passage in See also:Athanasius shows by an et caetera that only the beginning of the hymn is given . These references indicate that the hymn was used in private devotions; as it does not appear in any of the earliest liturgies, whether Eastern or Western, its introduction into the public services of the church was probably of a later date than has often been supposed . Its first introduction into the Roman See also:liturgy is due to See also:Pope See also:Symmachus (498-514), who ordered it to be sung on Sundays and festival days . There was much opposition to the expansion, but it was suppressed by the See also:fourth See also:council of See also:Toledo in 633 . Until the end of the 11th century its use was confined to bishops, and to priests at See also:Easter and on their See also:installation . The Mozarabic liturgy provides for its eucharistic use on Sundays and festivals . In these and other early liturgies the Greater Doxology occurs immediately after the beginning of the service; in the English prayer-book it introduced at the closeof the communion See also:office, but it does not occur in either the See also:morning or evening service . This doxology is also used in the Protestant Episcopal and Methodist Episcopal churches of See also:America, as indeed in most Protestant churches at the See also:eucharist . The Lesser Doxology, or Gloria Patri, combines the See also:character of a creed with that of a hymn . In its earliest form it ran simply —" Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, world without end, Amen," or " Glory be to the Father, in (or through) the Son, and in (or through) the Holy Ghost." Until the rise of the Arian See also:heresy these forms were probably regarded as indifferent, both being equally capable of an orthodox See also:interpretation . When the Arians, however, finding the second form more consistent with their views, adopted it persistently and exclusively, its use was naturally discountenanced by the Catholics, and the other form became the See also:symbol of orthodoxy . To the See also:influence of the Arian heresy is also due the See also:Catholic addition—" as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be," the use of which was, according to some authorities, expressly enjoined by the council of See also:Nicaea .

There is no sufficient See also:

evidence of this, but there exists a See also:decree of the second council of See also:Vaison (529), asserting its use as already established in the See also:East propter haereticorum astutiam, and ordering its See also:adoption throughout the churches of the See also:West . In the Western Church the Gloria Patri is repeated at the close of every See also:psalm, in the Eastern Church at the close of the last psalm . This last is the optional See also:rule of the See also:American Episcopal Church . Metrical doxologies are often sung at the end of hymns, and the See also:term has become especially associated with the See also:stanza beginning " Praise God from whom all blessings flow," with which See also:Thomas See also:Ken, See also:bishop of See also:Winchester, concluded his morning and evening hymns . See J . See also:Bingham, Biog. See also:eccles. xiv . 2; Siegel, Christi . Alterthumer, i . 515, &c.; F . See also:Procter, Book of See also:Common Prayer, p . 212 ; W . See also:Palmer, Orig .

Liturg. iv . § 23; art . " Liturgische Formeln " (by Drews) in Hauck-See also:

Herzog, Realencyk. See also:fur prof . Theol. xi . 547 .

End of Article: DOXOLOGY (Gr. 3oi oXoyia, a praising, giving glory)
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