GENUFLEXION, the act of kneeling or bending the knees in worship. As an act of adoration, or. .reverence, there are frequent allusions to genuflexion in the Old and in the New Testaments: as Gen. xvii. 3 and 17; Numbers xvi. 22; Luke xxii. 41; Acts vii. 00, and ix. 40; Philip. ii. 10. That the use continued among the early Christians is plain from the Shepherd of Hennas, from Ensebitis's HtWory, ii. 33, and from number less other authorities; and especially from the solemn proclamation made by the deacon to the people in all the liturgies—" Fleetamms genua" (Let us bend our knees); where upon the people knelt, till, at the close of the prayer, they received a corresponding summons—"Levate" (Arise). It is worthy of remark, however, that in celebration of the up-rising (resurrection) of our Lord, the practice of kneeling down at prayer, so early as the age of Tertullian, was discontinued throughout the Easter-time, and on all Sundays through the year. The kneeling posture was especially assigned as the atti
tude of penance, and one of the classes of public penitents in the early church took their name, genuflectentes, from this circumstance. In the modern Roman Catholic church, the act of genuflexion belongs to the highest form of worship, and is frequently employed during the mass, and in the presence of the consecrated elements when reserved for subsequent communion. In the Anglican church, the rubric prescribes the kneeling posture in many parts of the service; and this, as well as the practice of bowing the head at the name of Jesus, was the subject of much controversy with the Puritans. The same controversy was recently revived in Germany.