Doxology

Doxology (Gr., 'a praising'), an exclamation or prayer in honour of the majesty of God, such as Paul uses at the close of his epistles, and sometimes even in the middle of an argument (Rom. ix. 5). The hymn of the angels (Luke, ii. 14) is also called a doxology by the Christian church; so likewise are the close of the 'Lord's Prayer' and the 'Trisagion' ('Holy, holy, holy'). The so-called 'Greater Doxology,' which is simply an expansion of the angelic hymn, in the Roman liturgy is placed immediately after the beginning of the Mass, and in the English Prayer-book at the close of the communion office. It commences with the words, Gloria in excelsis Deo ('Glory to God in the highest'). The Lesser Doxology, 'Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was,' &c., is repeated at the end of each psalm in the service of the Roman and Anglican churches. The Greater Doxology is of Eastern origin, and is first met with, though not in its final form, in the seventh book of the Apostolic Constitutions (q.v.), where it is described as the 'morning prayer'; but it is probable that this, as well as the Lesser Doxology and the 'Trisagion,' came into use at a much earlier date, as the Scriptures began to circulate among the churches, the 'Trisagion' (cf. Isa. vi. 3) being presumably the earliest. The origin of the Lesser Doxology (perhaps traceable to Matt. xxviii. 19) is the most obscure, and it is only certain that its present form is the result of the Arian controversy, the second clause having been unknown in Christendom for several centuries.