Double Origins of the Eucharist and the Degradation of Clergy in Antiquity

The article suggests revisiting the typology of a symposium-type versus a mass-type of Eucharistic celebrations and hence the assumption that the structure of the mass emerged from sympotic Eucharists. Even if one assumes pre-Constantinian origins for the principle that Eucharists must be preceded by a liturgy of the word, the masstype of the Eucharist is only attested as part of the mass. Thus, the question is open when and why symposium-type Eucharists were given up in favour of celebrations of the mass. The paper claims that the mass is conceptually built of at least three components: the liturgy of the word and the Eucharist, where the Eucharist is an amalgamation of its symposium- and salutatio-types.