Messe und Herrenmahl: Eine Studie zur Geschichte der Liturgie

VI
PREFACE

exceeded my expectations, and above all, that much more extensive preparatory and side work was necessary than I had thought. In addition, there were the countless external constraints of the war years and the so-called time of peace that followed them. So it is not surprising that only now, as I am preparing to send that book on Peter and Paul to press for the second time, can I present this liturgical study. I have worked more broadly for myself than is expressed here. But it seems right to me that I have only drawn upon the great, authoritative branches of the liturgies of the East and West for comparative analysis. For I am well aware that this book is only a first attempt to cut a path through the primeval forest, and that therefore the strongest concentration of all strength in the direction of the goal had to remain the supreme law of the work. There is not a single chapter that exhausts its topic completely: all are only sketches, which I hope will stimulate further research and be replaced in time by monographs from other fellow researchers. In doing so, the necessary corrections to some of the now unavoidable one-sidedness of my judgment will emerge of their own accord. The main features will, I hope, be confirmed; and I believe, also the correctness of my method, in contrast, for example, to that followed by G. P. Wetter.

The restriction of which I just spoke had to extend not only to the number of liturgies but also to the parts of the Mass to be processed. I have only examined the core pieces touching upon the actual service of the Lord's Supper. And indeed, in the order determined by the center as the starting point. I reluctantly put the intercessory prayer original: "Fürbitten-Gebet" aside in the end. But of course, the work will eventually have to extend over all parts of the Mass before the history of the main Christian service can be written and, with its help, the entire abundance of the inner-church interrelationships between the