Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 411
Pope Sixtus I (early 2nd c.) is said to forbid lay men from touching holy vessels and to order the priests to sing the "Sanctus" during the Mass. Account of the Liber Pontificalis (written in Rome), AD 530/546.
8. Xystus: […] Hic constituit ut ministeria sacrata non tangerentur nisi a ministris. […] Hic constuit ut intra actione sacerdos incipiens populum hymnum decantaret: Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth et cetera.
 
(ed. Duchesne 1886: 128)
8. Sixtus: [...] He decreed that the holy vessels be touched only by ministers. [...] He decreed that during the Mass the priest should begin, and the people sing: Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, and so on.
 
(trans. S. Adamiak)

Discussion:

The author ascribes to the pope from back in the early-second-century, later liturgical developments: the requirement of accepting at least lower orders even to touch the vessels used during the liturgy, and the insertion of the "Sanctus" chant in the Mass.
 

Place of event:

Region
  • Rome
City
  • Rome

About the source:

Title: Liber Pontificalis, The Book of Pontiffs, Gesta Pontificum Romanorum
Origin: Rome (Rome)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian
Liber Pontificalis is a major source for the history of the papacy in the first millenium. It is a collection of the lives of popes, starting from St Peter and kept going through to 870. Liber Pontificalis is prefaced by two apocryphical letters of Pope Damasus and Jerome, but it cannot be dated to that period. Although Mommsen tended to put the date of the actual compilation as late as the seventh century, nowadays Duchesne`s view is generally accepted that there were two editions made in the 530s-540s. The first, presumably completed soon after 530, has not survived as such, though we have two epitomes made from it (known as “Felician” and “Cononian” from the names of the popes at which they end). Duchesne tried to reconstruct it in his edition, but we follow the second edition presented by him, which was completed by the siege of Rome in 546. The work was then left aside for some time, and taken up again probably under Honorius (625-638) or shortly afterwards; hence the additions were written shortly after each pontiff`s death.
Liber starts to provide some more reliable information with the times of Pope Leo I (440-461), and becomes very well informed with the end of the fifth century. The lives of earlier popes cannot be considered as a valid source of information about their lifetime. However, those notices are a precious source for the sixth century: we learn what was considered an old tradition at the time, and how the past of the Roman church was being seen and constructed then. It is especially important when we deal with the liturgy
Edition:
 Editions:
 L. Duchesne ed., Le `Liber Pontificalis`, vol. 1., Paris 1886.
 T. Mommsen ed., Liber Pontificalis pars prior, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Gesta Pontificum Romanorum 1, Berlin 1898.
Translation:
 The Book of Pontiffs (Liber Pontificalis). The ancient biographies of the first ninety Roman bishops to AD 715, revised edition, translated with an introduction by R. Davis, Liverpool 2000.

Categories:

Described by a title - Sacerdos/ἱερεύς
    Usurping presbyterial power
      Ritual activity - Eucharist
        Described by a title - Minister/λειτουργός/ὑπηρέτης
          Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: S. Adamiak, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER411, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=411