Worship During The Fourth And Fifth Centuries Part I

The fundamental pattern of early Christian worship continued to develop through the fourth and fifth centuries. However,"families" of liturgical practice began to emerge, and styles of worship varied from one Christian region to the other. By this time, one can begin to speak of "Eastern" and "Western" characteristics of Christian liturgy. With the end of the persecutions and the beginning of the period in which Christianity became the public cultus of the Roman imperial government, the number and variety of liturgical sources multiply, though they still reflect the oral-formal tradition continued in these new circumstances. It has been common to speak of this period as witnessing the emergency of "families of rites," results of the growing influence on local practices of the great sees [areas governed by prominent bishops] of the time. It would perhaps be truer to say that our evidence, still scattered and incomplete, suggests a more specific process of consolidation, at least in …