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The Cambridge Handbooks of Liturgical Study
General Editors:
H. B. SwETE, D.D.
J. H. Srawley, D.D.
THE
ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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C. F. CLAY, Makaqeb
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All rights reserved
ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
BY
ARTHUR JOHN MACLEAN, D.D.,
Hon. D.D. Glasgow, Bishop of Moray, Ross and Caithness
Cambridge: tJU-^^^^ -^^^
at the University Press f}LTi'' Cl^Z^
1910
Cambritjgc :
PRINTED BY JOHN CIAY, M.A.
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
NOTE BY THE EDITORS
THE purpose of The Cambridge Handbooks of
Liturgical Study is to offer to students who
are entering upon the study of Liturgies such help
as may enable them to proceed with advantage to
the use of the larger and more technical works upon
the subject which are already at their service.
The series will treat of the history and rationale
of the several rites and ceremonies which have found
a place in Christian worship, with some account
of the ancient liturgical books in which they are
contained. Attention will also be called to the
importance which liturgical forms possess as ex-
pressions of Christian conceptions and beliefs.
Each volume will provide a list or lists of the
books in which the study of its subject may be
pursued, and will contain a Table of Contents and
an Index.
The editors do not hold themselves responsible
for the opinions expressed in the several volumes of
the series. While offering suggestions on points of
detail, they have left each writer to treat his subject
in his own way, regard being had to the general plan
and purpose of the series.
H. B. S.
J. H. S.
a3
PREFACE
I HAVE endeavoured in the following pages to do for
the whole series of Church Orders what was done
in greater detail for the Testament of our Lord in the
edition of that work published by Professor Cooper
and myself in 1902. The Church Orders are an
interesting series of manuals, and it may be useful to
make them better known to the modern reader, and
to explain the extent to which they throw light on
early Christian worship and customs.
It will perhaps not be superfluous to give a word
of caution to those entering on a study of the subject.
There must always be some uncertainty in the
determination of dates of documents when we have
only internal evidence to guide us. The results
arrived at in this volume must, therefore, be con-
sidered as only tentative. And I may explain that
I have taken a different view of the date of the
Canons of Hippolytus from that which I took in the
English edition of the Testament. As in that edition
PREFACE
VUl
it was held that the former was not a direct ancestor
iX latter work, the date of the ^-- ^ -
closely considered. ^--^^^^'''^''''ZfZrZ
ment unseres Herrn und dteverwandte, S^krjten
which appeared after the EngUsh edition of the
Testa Jt..s written, but before it was pub is^d
has led me to some modification of view hough 1
have not been able to accept his theory of the dat«8
of the Church Orders as a whole. A summary of
the results which have been tentatively reached may
be seen at the end of Chapter IX.
Another caution which must always be borne m
„,ind is that many of the Church Orders are only
known to us in translations. It is always possible
that if they were discovered in their original language,
le inferences which we draw from the translations
might require modification.
A. J. M.
Easter, 1910.
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. General Characteristics of the
Literature. The pseudonymous form.
Antiquarianisms. Experimental cha- -^
racter. The compilations ... 1
II. Contents of the Canons of Hippolytus
AND Cognate Church Orders (Egyptian
and Ethiopia Church Orders, Verona r
Fragments part 3, Testament of our Lord,
Apostolic Constitutions bk viii. [in five
forms], Appendix to Arabic Didascalia) 12
III. Contents of the other Church Orders,
etc. (Didache, Apostolic Church Order,
Didascalia, Apostolic Constitutions bks
i.-vii., Ethiopic Didascalia; Sarapion,
Pilgrimage of ' Silvia,' Cyril of Jerusa-
lem's Catechetical Lectures, Apostolic
Canons, Edessene Canons) ... 25
^}-
vC
IV. Church Buildings and Worship. The
Eucharist. The Liturgies. Days for the
Eucharist. Daily prayers. The Agape \,
and Funeral Commemorations. Clerical
Vestments 35
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAF<
V. The Ministry and Ordination. Bishops,
presbyters, deacons. Archdeacons, chor-
episcopi, metropolitans. Ordination of
a bishop. Minor Orders. Widows and
deaconesses. Confessors. Promotion.
Clerical marriage. Discipline . • 67
VI. Baptism and Confirmation. Baptismal
ceremonies. Creed Immersion, Anoint-
ing, Imposition of hands. Baptismal
Eucharist. Baptism by deacons and
women. Teaching about the Resurrec-
. . 96
tion
VII. Doctrine in the Church Orders. Dox-
ologies to the prayers . . • .112
VIII. Festivals, Fasts, and Seasons. The .
festal cycle. Date of Easter. 'Pascha y
and Pentecost.' Fasts .... 128
IX. Relative Position and Dates of the ^^
Church Orders. Hypothesis of a lost / ^
Original. Summary .... 1^1
174
Bibliography
Index ^"^"^
PLATES
Canons of Hippolytus . . ■ «o/ac« p. 12
Svriac Translation of the Dktes^lift . to face p, 30
ABBREVIATIONS
I. The Church Orders, etc.
AC
Apostolic Constitutions
ApCan
Apostolic Canons
ApCO
Apostolic Church Order
ArD
Arabic Didascalia
CH
Canons of Hippolytus
ConstH
Constitutions through Hippolytus
D
Didache
Didasc
Didascalia
EdCan
Edessene Canons
EgCO
Egyptian Church Order
COBRIGENDA
Page X, last line. For Syriac Translation of the Didascalia,
read Syriac Translation of the Apostolic Church Order.
Title of plate to face page 30. For Syriac Translation of
the Didascalia, read Syriac Translation of the Apostolic
Church Order.
: CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
V. The Ministry and Ordination. Bishops,
presbyters, deacons. Archdeacons, chor-
episcopi, metropolitans. Ordination of
a bishop. Minor Orders. Widows and
deaconesses. Confessors. Promotion.
Clerical marriage. Discipline . . 67
VI. Baptism and Confirmation. Baptismal
ceremonies. Creed. Immersion, Anoint-
ing, Imposition of hands. Baptismal
Eucharist. Baptism by deacons and
women. Teaching about the Resurrec-
tion 96
VII. Doctrine in the Church Orders. Dox-
ologies to the prayers . . . .112
VIII. Festivals, Fasts, and Seasons. The
festal cycle. Date of Easter. 'Pascha y
and Pentecost.' Fasts . . . .128
IX. Relative Position and Dates of the
Church Orders. Hypothesis of a lost
Original. Summary . . . . 141
Bibliography 174
Index 177
PLATES
Canons of Hippolytus . . . to face -p. VI
Syriac Translation of the Didaacalm . to face p. 30
P^ CO
/
/
ABBREVIATIONS
I. The Church Orders, etc.
AC Apostolic Constitutions
ApCan Apostolic Canons
ApCO Apostolic Church Order
ArD Arabic Didascalia
CH Canons of Hippolytus
ConstH Constitutions through Hippolytus
D Didache
Didasc Didascalia
EdCan Edessene Canons
EgCO Egyptian Church Order
EthCO Ethiopic Church Order
EthD Ethiopic Didascalia
EthS Ethiopic Statutes
H Hauler's Latin Verona Fragments [Hi = part 1,
H2=part 2, H3=part 3]
Sar Sarapion's Sacramentary
SEC Sahidic Ecclesiastical Canons (Egyptian Hepta-
teuch)
Test Testament of our Lord
[app = Appendix; syr = Syria c; sah = Sahidic;
arab = Arabic ; eth = Ethiopic ; boh = Bohairic ; 1 1 = parallel]
The references in AC are to Funk's sections; the
superior numbers denote the subsections.
The Roman figures in CH give the Arabic chapters,
the Arabic figures Achelis' sections.
^l ABBREVIATIONS
II. Literature
ANCL Ante-Nicene Christian Library
CL Cyril of Jerusalem's Catechetical Lectures
DCA Smith and Cheetham's Dictionary of Christian
A ntiquities
DCB Smith and Wace's Dictionary of Christian Bio-
graphy
DCG Hastings' Dictionary of Christ and the GospeU
DidCA Funk's DidascaZia et Constitutiones Apostolorum
ERE Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics
HE Hi^toria EccUsiastica
JThSt Journal of Theological Studies
LEW Brightman's Liturgies Eastern and Western
MG Wordsworth's Ministry of Grace
SApC Harnack's Sources of the Apostolic Canons [Apos-
tolic Church Order], English Translation
TUH Funk's Das Testament unseres Eerrn und die
verwandten Schriften
CHAPTER I
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
LITERATURE
1. The object of the present book is to give a
description of certain early Christian manuals of
instruction and worship which are conveniently called
Church Orders. Many of them have been unknown,
at least in modern times, until quite lately. Others
have been known, but strangely neglected. We are
now, however, in a position to estimate the value of
the attempts which were made in early ages to
provide the clergy and the faithful with liturgical
and hortatory manuals, before the era of the Great
Liturgies began. While considerable doubt exists as
to the exact date and the relation to one another of
several of the documents, yet we know enough to
make for ourselves a general picture of the worship
of the Church in the fourth and fifth centuries.
The Church Orders which, so far, are known to
us, may be divided into several classes. Those of the
first class are descended from one original, agreeing
together largely, not only in topics treated, but even
M. 1
2 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
in the order of treatment and in the wording and
phraseology ; yet exhibiting the greatest freedom in
the handling of material. The same may be said of
the second and fourth classes. The Church Orders
treated of in this volume are the following :
(a) Canons of Hippolytus.
Egyptian Church Order*.
Ethiopic Church Order*.
Hauler's Verona Latin Fragments, part 3 *.
Testament of our Lord.
Apostolic Constitutions viii. 3 — 46.
Constitutions through Hippolytus.
Appendix to Arabic (and Ethiopic ?) Didascalia.
Sahidic Ecclesiastical Canons 64 — 78.
Syriac Octateuch, books iv. — vii.
Ethiopic Statutes 53—72.
{b) Didache, or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles.
Apostolic Church Order.
Apostolic Constitutions vii. 1 — 32.
(c) Apostolic Constitutions vii. 33 — viii. 2.
(d) Didascalia, early forms (Syriac, Latin).
Apostolic Constitutions i. — vi.
Ethiopic Didascalia.
Arabic Didascalia.
We shall also have occasion to examine the
Sacramentary of Sarapion (or Serapion), and some
other illustrative literature.
* These three works are joined together by Funk under the
name 'Egyptian Church Order.' But as they exhibit considerable
differences in detail it will be convenient to keep them separate.
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 3
It is proposed in the following pages to describe
the contents of these manuals, and then to derive
from them sketches of various features of Church life ;
the Church buildings, the daily prayers, the eucharistic
liturgy, the Agape, the ministry and ordination, the
baptismal customs, the fasts and festivals; also to
consider the doctrinal complexion of the various
books ; and so to arrive at a determination of their
date.
2. It will be well, however, first to mention some
general characteristics of the literature, as these
characteristics greatly affect our estimate of its
value. We are at once struck, in most of these
manuals, with their pseudonymous form. Many
of them profess to have been written, or handed
down, by the Twelve Apostles. In the earliest of
them, the Didache, this fiction only extends to the
title : ' The teaching of the Lord to the Gentiles by
the Twelve Apostles.' Others are much more thorough-
going. In ApCO the pretence runs all through the
book. The Apostles are enumerated, and the precepts
are ascribed e'ach to one Apostle by name. All
forms of Didasc keep up the fiction {e.g. Hi pp. 19,
59 f., 63, 72). So does AC in all its books \e,g. ii.
39^— cf. II Didasc, EthD ; iv. 7^— cf. || EthD, not
Didasc; vii. 1^\ 11, 22\ not || D); in bk. viii. it
divides the precepts among the Apostles, including
Paul and James the Lord's brother, whom it names
as being present with the Twelve, together with 'the
rest of the presbyters and the seven deacons' (viii. 4').
Indeed in AC the pretence is emphasised. It is
1—2
4 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
found in EdCan, which is called in one MS 'The
doctrine of the Apostles through Addai * and which
has a subscription mentioning Addai. In EgCO>
EthCO, H3, the fiction is only found in a bare
reference to the 'apostolic tradition' (H p. 121),
unless the title of EgCO found in SEC (Eg}T)tian
Heptateuch) is part of this manual, and is not rather
due to the compiler of the Heptateuch. In this title
the work is said to have been given ' by the hands of
Clement' The reference to Clement is found else-
where (AC title and viii. 46 ^^ ApCan 85, Test titles
and subscriptions to both books, ArD preface, EthD
preface). Clement is also mentioned, but not as
part of the fictitious setting, in AC vi. 9^ 18",
vii. 46", viii. 10 ^ In Test the pretence is pushed
to its utmost limit. This manual professes to be
the legacy left by our Saviour to his Apostles before
the Ascension, and to give his own words and
commands as to the government of the Church
through Thomas, Matthew and John (i. preface) and
Clement (title etc.). The ascription to our Lord is
removed in the derived ArD-app. The only manual
which may be thought to be quite free from the
pseudonymous form is CH, and even there it seems
probable that the title is an instance of it.
It is of some importance for us to consider the
meaning of this pretence, and the closely related
question of antiquarianisms. If the intention
of the authors was to pass the manuals off as
being several hundred years older than they really
were, they would naturally try to introduce as many
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 5
antiquarianisms as possible, and thus the books
would give us no true picture of the times of the
writers. But three considerations make us pause before
taking this view, (a) One is the extraordinarily
widespread prevalence of the habit. Besides the
literature in question we find a large number of
Jewish and Christian works affected by it. This
would lead us to consider the ascription of books to
older writers as a fashion of the day — it extended
over a long period — and as'a dramatic fiction, rather
than as what we understand in the present day by
the phrase ' a literary forgery.' Instances of such a
* dramatic fiction' will at once occur to us, in the
canonical books of the Bible (e.g. Deuteronomy and
Ecclesiastes), in the Apocrypha (e.g. the Wisdom of
Solomon), in the Jewish and Christian apocalyptic
literature, or among the Gnostic sects (e.g. the
Clementine Recognitions and Homilies). The fashion
has even remained to the present day when we speak
of the 'Apostles' Creed,' or when we read in the
eighth Anglican Article of Religion of ' Athanasius's
Creed.' (b) Another consideration is the want of
motive. These Church Orders were not literary
bombshells bursting from a supposed antiquity on a
circle of learned men ; but by their very nature were
intended for the use of the people themselves. Any-
thing obviously out of date would defeat the object
of the book. And though the individual writers
have, as we shall see, each their own doctrinal stand-
point, yet there is no very clear 'tendency' discernible
in at any rate the great majority of the books.
6 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
(c) The thinness of the disguise is another reason
for doubting whether a serious forgery was intended.
In some cases the merest tyro could detect cases of
anachronism. No serious forger would be so care-
less. (See e.g. for Test, Cooper-Maclean, p. 27.)
With the moral right or wrong of this custom
we need not concern ourselves. But the arguments
given above will lead us to discard the idea that the
authors introduced antique features for the sake of
deception.
This however does not exhaust the question of
antiquarianisms in the literature under consideration.
The various writers used, it is clear, older material,
belonging to an age in some cases considerably earlier
than their own. In the older material many customs
would be described which had become obsolete when
the original was adapted. Did the adapters leave
these features of the older material, though they did
not apply to their own time ? The answer seems to
be that old features were allowed to remain, pravidsd
that they did not contradict the usage of the compilers*
own time. An old phrase would be left, but perhaps
given another turn or another meaning. If however
the old features were so contradictory of present
usage that they would only produce confusion in the
reader, then they were modified or omitted. The
best way of considering the method of treatment of
old material is to compare (as in YnvikDidCA vol. i.)
D and AC vii. 1 — 32, or Didasc and AC i. — vi., when
the above remarks will, it is believed, be fully
justified. As a concrete example, we may consider
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 7
the references to persecution. Few will doubt that
at least the greater part of the literature is post-
Nicene ; yet we find many such references, both in
the liturgical forms and in the canonical rules and
exhortations. These passages in the post-Nicene
books have been taken from ante-Nicene sources,
but are retained and might be applied by the reader
either to persecutions from other Christians, or to a
possible recrudescence of heathen opposition. But it
must be said that the language used rather points to
an era when the time of persecution had not been very
long a thing of the past (see also below, pp. 28, 31 f.).
3. Another preliminary remark may be made, on
the experimental nature of the liturgical
forms in these Church Orders. Liturgies were only
just beginning to crystallise into fixed shapes. The
writers of these manuals saw no harm in dealing with
the works of their predecessors very freely. For
Eucharist, Baptism, Ordination one general outline
runs through them all and was well established.
But the words with which the outline was clothed
were still in a fluid condition. The forms were in
their nature experimental ; some of them did not
stand the test of usage ; some contained not quite
advisable phraseology ; all were on their probation ;
and their chief interest lies in their exhibiting to
us the steps by which the Great Liturgies, their
successors, were gradually built up.
4. Before we proceed to consider the Church
Orders in detail, it will be desirable to mention the
compilations in which some of them are embedded,
8 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
and to explain where they may be found. We will
later on consider the question whether any or all of
these works are mere compilations, or whether their
authors were also the authors of any of the Church
Orders contained in them. The compilations are as
follows :
Sahidic Ecclesiastical Canons, or Egyptian
Heptateuch (bk. i. [§§ 1—30] = ApCO ; bk. ii. [§§ 3i^
62] =EgCO ; bks. iii. [63], iv. [64— 71a], v. [716—73,
75 6 — 78], vi. [74, 75 a], parallel to AC viii.; bk.
vii. = ApCan). The books are here given as in the
Bohairic (Tattam), the sections as in the Sahidic
(Homer) ; the Bohairic sections are not quite the same
as the Sahidic.
Syrian Octateuch (bks. i., ii. = Test; bk. iii.=
ApCO ; bks. iv. — vii., parallel to AC viii.; bk. viii. =
ApCan).
Ethiopic Statutes (1— 21 = ApCO ; 22—48 =
EthCO ; 49—72, parallel to AC viii.).
Hauler's Verona Latin Fragments (i. — briv.
[part 1, HJ = fragments of Didasc ; Ixv. — Ixvii. a
[part 2, H2] = fragments of ApCO ; Ixvii. b — Ixxx. [part
3, H3] = fragments of a Church Order very like EthCO).
Apostolic Constitutions (bks. i. — vi.= Didasc
largely interpolated; vii. 1 — 32 = D interpolated;
vii. 33 — end, liturgical matter, source uncertain ;
viii. 1, 2 a tract 'Of Charismata'; viii. 3 — end, a
Church Order parallel to CH. In some MSS, ApCan
follows, almost as a ninth book [in Funk's edition =
AC viii. 47 f.]).
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 9
Some of these compilations have only become known
in modern times ; but AC has been known since the
Reformation. An epitome in Latin was published in
1646 by Carolus Capellus, and the full Greek text in
1563 by Turrianus {DC A i. 119). Many modern editions
of the Greek have appeared ; especially we may notice
those of Ueltzen 1853, Lagarde 1862, and Funk {DidCA)
1905. This last contains also D, ApCan, Didasc (in a Latin
translation), ConstH, ArD-app, a conflation of EgCO,
EthCO, and H3, also Sar, and some minor matter. We
need not adhere to Funk's theory of the dates of the
documents to benefit by the admirable way in which the
materials are displayed. An English translation of AC
is somewhat anachronistically included in ANCL. The
eighty-five Apostolic Canons may also be seen in Hefele's
Councils vol. i. — Of other manuals, SEC was published, in
Bohairic with English translation, by Tattam in 1848 ; the
Sahidic and Arabic texts of it, with English translations,
have lately been published (1904) by Horner in the same
volume as EthS, which we are now fortunate enough to
have entire with full Ethiopic text and English transla-
tion. Hitherto we had only known the Ethiopic in part,
through a book by Job Ludolf (Leutholf), entitled Ad
suam historiam aethiopicam commentarius (1691). Lagarde
gives SEC in Aegyptiaca. — Of the Syrian Octateuch only
three books have been published. The first two (Test) were
first published by Rahmani in 1899. The third book
(ApCO) was published in Syriac and English by Arendzen
in 1901 {JThSt iii. 59 ff.) ; this is the most convenient
form of ApCO, though it may also be seen elsewhere (see
below). As it has been preserved in several languages, it
has often been edited, first by Bickell in Greek from a MS
at Vienna, 1843. Bickell invented the useful name
'Apostolic Church Order.' The Verona fragments have
been published, from a palimpsest at Verona, by Hauler
in 1900.
It will be convenient to mention here the books in
10 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
which the individual Church Orders may most con-
veniently be seen. The Didache was discovered at
Constantinople by Bryennius and first published by him
in 1883. It may be conveniently read in Lightfoot and
Harmer's Apost. Fathers^ compendious edition, in Greek
and English. For CH we have several editions. These
canons were first published in Arabic with a Latin trans-
lation by De Haneberg (1870) ; they may most conveniently
be seen in Latin, with parallels from other manuals, and
commentary, in Achelis' edition published in 1891, Die
Canones Hippolyti ('Texte und Untersuch.' vi. 4). Riedel
published a German version in 1900. For EdCan see
ANCL vol. XX. (' Syriac Documents,' p. 35 fi".). For Test
in Syriac and Latin see Rahmani, Testamentuvi Domini
nostri, 1899, and for an English version Cooper- Maclean,
The Testament of our Lord, 1902. For EgCO in Bohairic
and English see Tattam, The Apost. Const..., in Coptic, 1848,
p. 31 ; translation* of the Sahidic, Horner, Statutes of the
Apostles, 1904, p. 306 ; in Arabic and English, Horner,
pp. 95, 244. For EthCO in Ethiopic and English see
Homer, pp. 10, 138. For Didasc in a Latin translation
see Funk, DidCA i. (in parallel columns with AC i. — vi.);
in Syriac and English, Mrs Gibson, Horae Semiticae i, ii ;
in Latin (fragments), Hauler, Didascaliae Apostolorum
Fragmenta Veron. Lat. 1900, pp. 1 — 90. For H3 see Hauler,
pp. 101 — 121 (Latin fi*agments). For ApCO in Syriac and
English see Arendzen as above ; in Bohairic and English,
Tattam, p. 1 ; in Ethiopic and English, Homer, pp. 1, 127 ;
translation * of Sahidic, ib. p. 295 ; in Arabic and English,
ib. pp. 89, 233 ; in Latin (fragments), Hauler, pp. 92 — 106 ;
in Greek, Lagarde, Reliquiae juris ecclesiae antiquissimae,
1856. For ConstH see Funk, DidCA ii. 72—96. For AC
see above. For ArD (appendix, etc.) see Funk, DidCA
ii. 120 — 136. EthD was first published (in Ethiopic and
English) by Piatt in 1834, from an Ethiopic MS found at
* For the Sahidic text see Lagarde's A egyptiaca.
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 11
Jerusalem. Sarapion's sacramentary was discovered in
the Laura Monastery of Mount Athos, and first published
by Wobbermin at Leipzig in 1899. The Greek text, with
notes by Brightman, may be conveniently seen in JThSt
i. 88 ff., 247 fif. ; an English translation with Introduction
has been edited by Bp J. Wordsworth (S.P.C.K., 1899).
The student may also consult discussions on one or
other of these Church Orders in Brightman Z^TT (which
gives the liturgical part of AC with an elaborate discussion
of problems of authorship), Funk TUH, and Wordsworth
MO. The Pilgrimage of ' Silvia ' or of ^ Etheria,^ which
was discovered at Arezzo in Italy by Dr Gamurrini in
1884, and first pubHshed by him in 1887 — 88, may be
most conveniently read (in Latin) in the Appendix to
Duchesne's Origines du culte chrMen (Eng. tr. Christian
Worship ; its origin and evolution^ S.P.C.K., 1903).
CHAPTER II
CONTENTS OF THE CANONS OF HIPPOLYTUS
AND COGNATE CHURCH ORDERS
Taking a general view of the whole of this series
of books we may summarise the contents thus. Rules
are given for the election and ordination of a bishop,
and for the first Liturgy celebrated by him, with or
without forms of prayer ; for the ordination of presby-
ters and deacons, for the appointment of minor orders,
widows and deaconesses, and with regard to con-
fessors and gifts of healing ; for the reception of
converts, and their preparation, baptism, confirmation
and first communion ; for the Agape ; for hours of
prayer, for feasts and fasts, and for various minor
Church observances.
It will probably bring the scope of the books most
conveniently before the reader if the contents of
seven of them are set forth in tabular form. The
arrangement of EgCO has been adopted as a basis, as
being most in accordance with that of other manuals.
Achelis has rearranged CH on this basis, on the sup-
position that in course of time and of translation
^f
Canons of Hippolytus
(Brit.Mus. Add. 7211 (Rich)>/. 200b) MS. written a.d. 1682.
The last four lines show the Preface to the Mass (' Lift up your
hearts,' etc.). •
CONTENTS OF THE CHURCH ORDERS I 13
into Eastern languages, the order of the sections has
become dislocated. We must notice that except in
one or two minor points (notably in the sections
about widows, subdeacons, and readers) the order in
the first five Church Orders here given is the same
up to the Communion of the neophytes. After this
EgCO, EthCO and H3 agree in arrangement, and
that of Test is nearly the same ; but the order of
CH is quite different. The sections on fasting,
almsgiving, the Agape, firstfruits, etc. (xxxii — xxxvi)
come in CH at the end, much later than in the
parallels ; while those on the Hours of prayer, etc.
(xxv b — xxvii) come earlier. It is difficult to conceive,
with Achelis, that this disarrangement is entirely
due to later translators or scribes. It seems much
more probable that the Compiler, who added several
new sections to his source— in particular those
dealing with married and travelling presbyters,
married women, fasts, the Paschal Vigil, the com-
putation of Easter, and vestures — at the same time
altered the order of his source with regard to the
minor regulations in the latter part of the book.
In this table the contents of CH are given as we
have them ; the numbers in the first column are
those of Haneberg ; the question of interpolations
in CH will be considered later. The numbers in the
second column are the sections of SEC-sah ; those
of EthS being added in brackets.
i Contents of the Canons of Hippolytus, Egyptian and
Testament of our Lord, Apostolic Constitutions,
CH.
i. Preface, independent.
ii, iiia. Election and Con-
secration of bishop (form given).
Liturgy celebrated by new bishop
referred to, but only opening of
Anaphora (Salutation and Sursum
Corda) given.
iii b. Blessing of oil and first-
fruits (no form given), ending with
Gloria Patri.
iv. Ordination of presbyter
with same form as for bishops,
except in the name of the episco-
pate and enthronement. Bishops
and presbyters equal except in
power of ordaining and the name
of the cathedra.
V. Ordination of deacon (form
given, independent). His duties ;
he does not belong to the pres-
byterate.
vi. Honorary presbyterate of
Confessors (confused).
vii a. Appointment of reader
and subdeacon, without laying on
of hands. No form given.
EgCO, EthCO, Hj.
[In Hg Preface, see p. 162.]
31 (22). Election and Con-
secration of bishop ; form given
in EthCO, H, not EgCO. Liturgy
in EthCO, H (Anaphora), but H
has not the latter part ; in EgCO
asCH.
In EthCO, H (not EgCO) form
for blessing oil for healing (and
in H cheese and olives), in Liturgy
after Epiclesis. In H Gloria Patri.
32 (23). Ord. of presbyter by
bishop, the presbyters touching
him. Same form (not given) as
for bishops in EgCO ; in EthCO,
H simple but separate form.
33 (24). Ord. of deacon by
bishop alone (reason stated and
caution added). Form given in
EthCO, H, not in EgCO.
34 (25). Honorary presbyte-
rate of Confessors (confused).
[Lacuna in H until baptism.]
35, 36 (27 a, c).
subdeacons as CH.
Reader and
Ethiopic Church Orders, Verona Fragments (Part 3),
Book viii, and Constitutions through Hippolytus
Test.
I. 1-18. Apocalyptic prelude.
10. Church buildings.
20, 21, 23. Election and Con-
secration of bishop, form given
(long). Liturgy much developed,
with some peculiar features.
22. Rules for bishops; days
for Eucharist.
24, 25. Blessing of oil for
healing and water (form inde-
pendent).
26-28. Pro-anaphoral prayers,
Lections, Mystagogia.
29. Qualification of presbyters.
30-32. Ord. of presbyter by
bishop, the presbyters touching
him. Separate form, based on
EthCO, but much developed.
Duties and daily prayers of pres-
byters.
33-37. Qualifications and
duties of deacons. The Ectene
(independent).
38. Ord. of deacon by bishop
alone (reason and caution). Form
given, developed from EthCO or
H.
39. Honorary presbyterate of
Confessors (confused).
44,45. Subdeacons and reader
(note order) appointed without
laying on of hands. Short forms
given.
AC viii, ConstH.
3. Preface (not ConstH).
4-15. Election, Consecration
and Enthronement of bishop (in
ConstH short form like CH, in
AC much developed). In AC (not
ConstH) very full Liturgy, with
Deacon's Ectene and forms for
dismissal of Catechumens.
29. Blessing of water and oil
for healing by bishop or by pres-
byter in his absence ; form in-
dependent. [Not in ConstH.]
16. Ord. of presbyter by bishop
in 'presence of the presbytery and
of the deacons. Separate form
(independent except one sentence).
ConstH a little shorter.
17, 18. Ord. of deacon by
bishop in presence of the xvhole
presbytery and the deacons. Form
given, independent.
23. A Confessor to be honour-
ed ; if occasion arises, he is to be
ordained bishop, priest, or deacon
(note development).
21,22, Ord. of subdeacons and
readers (note order). In AC with
laying on of hands; form given
[and so ConstH of subdeacons ;
about Reader only one sentence,
and no laying on of hands].
16
THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
CH.
ix 6. Honour due to widows
(one sentence).
vii 6. Of Virgins, male and
female.
vii c. Position of subdeacons
and readers at prayer.
and
viii a. Gifts of healing.
viii 6, ix a. Married
travelling presbyters.
X. Enquirers after the faith.
xi-xvi. Forbidden trades, etc.
xvii a, c. Duties of married
women. Catechumenate (length
not fixed). Rules for women after
(?) childbirth ; women pray apart ;
women's veils.
xvii b, xviii, xix a. Dismissal
of catechumens. Women after
ciiildbirth. Martyred catechu-
mens.
xix h. The Competentes ;
their bathing, fasting, exorcism
(no form given), vigil.
xix d. Baptism. Blessing of
two oils (no form given). Form
of Renunciation (after which first
anointing) and of Submission to
God. Creed (Roman) in 3 parts,
one at each immersion. Formula
of baptism (repeated thrice).
Anointing by presbyter after
baptism.
EgCO, EthCO, Eg.
37 (26). Appointment of
widows. (Note change of order
in EthCO.) Not to be ordained.
38 (27 b). Of Virgins, female.
39 (27 d). Gifts of healing.
40 (28 a). Enquirers (* new
men').
41 (28 &-30) . Forbidden trades,
42,43(31,32). Catechumenate
(3 yrs.); catechumens' prayers;
kiss of peace ; women pray apart ;
women's veils.
44 (33). Dismissal of cate-
chumens (no prayer given). Mar-
tyred and persecuted catechu-
mens.
45 (34). The Competentes j
their bathing, fasting, exorcism
(no form given), and in EgCO,
their vigil.
46 (35). Baptism. Blessing
of water and two oils (no form).
Form ofRenunciation (after which
first anointing) and of Submission
to God, latter repeated at each
immersion. Creed (not Roman
inEgCO, EthCO) a/f^r immersion.
EthCO adds clause on Resurrec-
tion to Creed. [H fragment begins
in middle of {Roman) Creed, in
3 parts, one at each immersion.]
No formula of baptism given.
Anointing by presbyter after bap-
tism.
CONTENTS OF THE CHURCH ORDERS I
17
Test.
40-43. Appointment of widows
and of presbyteresses or ' widows
trpoKad-qixevai..^ Form given. Their
duties and prayers (at great
length).
46. Of Viigins, male and
female (long).
47. [Charismatic] gifts.
II. 1. Enquirers.
2. Forbidden trades, etc.
^ 3,4. Catechumenate (3 yrs.);
catechumens' prayers ; kiss of
peace ; women pray apart ; wo-
men's veils.
5. Prayer at dismissal of
catechumens. Martyred and per-
secuted catechumens.
6-8a. The Competentes, their
bathing, fasting, exorcism (long
form given), vigil.
8 h. Baptism. Blessing of
two oils, one with form already
given (in ii 7). Form of Renun-
ciation (after which first anoint-
ing) and of Submission to God.
Creed (Roman) in 3 parts, one at
each immersion. No formula of
baptism given. Anointing by
presbyter after baptism.
AC viii, ConstH.
25. Of widows. Not to be
ordained.
11), 20. Ordination of deacon-
esses with laying on of hands
(form given).
24. Of Virgins.
2G. Exorcists not to be or-
dained.
27, 28. Functions of the
clergy, etc.
321-6. Enquirers.
327-16, Forbidden trades, etc.
3216-19. Catechumenate (3
yrs.). Instruction of the faithful.
Duty to servants.
M.
18
THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
CH.
xix e. Confirmation by bishop
(form given) with laying on of
hands, kiss of peace, but no third
anointing.
xixf. Communion (words of
administration in both kinds
given). Milk and honey par-
taken of.
xix^r, XX, xxxii-xxxv. Fast
before first Communion. Fasts
on Wed. Fri. and the Forty Days.
Of fasting and alms to the poor.
Agape on Sunday. Commemora-
tion of departed. Catechumens
not to be at Agape ; bread given
them. Supper for widows.
xxxvi. Firstfruits (indepen-
dent form, chiefly prayer for the
Offerer).
x>cxviii. Paschal Vigil.
xxii. Holy week fast. Easter
computed with Jews,
xxiii. Exhortation,
xxiv a. Bishop visiting sick.
xxviii, xxix a. Fast before
Communion. Only the faithful
to receive. Care for Eucharistic
elements. Reverence in the Sanc-
tuary.
EgCO, EthCO, H3.
Confirmation by bishop (form
given) with laying on of hands,
anointing and kiss of peace.
Communion (words of adm. in
both kinds [in H only of Bread]).
Milk and honey Jiiixed. Three
cups in EthCO (honey, milk, wine)
andH (water, milk, wine). Teach-
ing of tbe Resurrection only after
baptism (?). H has a lacuna be-
fore this.
47-52 (36-39). Of Fasting
[H deest]. Agape (called The
Lord's Supper in EgCO, H, not
EthCO). Catechumens not at
Agape; bread and a cup given
them. (H : bread given them and
each to offer a cup.) [EthCO
adds: Gifts to the sick; pubkc
praj^ers at the lamplighting [(arm
given), psalm singing, offering of
a cup (cf. H); fragments given to
the faithful as eulogiae.] Supper
for widows.
53 , 51 (40 B) . Firstfruits, form
given. [For interpolation in
ElhCO see p. 21.]
55 (41). Two days absolute
fast before Easter.
Bishop visiting
Private prayers
instructions in
56 (42).
sick.
57 (43).
on waking
Church. , ,
58-60 a (44, 45). Fast before
Communion. Only the faithful
to receive. Care for Eucharistic
elements.
CONTENTS OF THE CHURCH ORDERS I 19
Test.
9. Confirmation by bishop
(form given, developed from
EgCO) with laying on of hands,
anointing and kiss of peace.
10 a. Communion (words of
adm. of Bread). No milk and
honey. Reference to water in
chalice (cf. H). Caution as to
care of the Eueharistic elements
(see below). Teaching of the
Resurrection only after baptism.
11-13. Alms to a widow or
poor woman. Rules for Pascha,
' the lamplighting,'' Pentecost.
The Agape (catechumens not to
receive) . The faithful not to con-
sort with heathen.
AC viii, ConstH.
14-17. Firstfruits (form al-
most as EgCO, with short prayer
for Offerer added). Property.
Things strangled or sacrificed
not to be eaten*.
18, 19. Paschal Vigil (inde-
pendent).
20. Two days absolute fast
before Easter.
21. Bishop visiting sick.
22. Singing the psalms.
25 6. Fast before Commu-
nion ; see also ii. 10 above.
* So AC vi. 1213 and |l Didasc.
ApCan 63 and Ac. xv. 20, 29.
Cf.
41-44. Commemorations of
the departed and memorial feasts.
30, 31, 40. Firstfruits (inde-
pendent form), tithes and eulogiae
for the clergy.
2—2
20
THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
CH.
XXX, sxxi. Distribution of
' oblations '; communicating sick
presbyters.
xxi. Clergy's daily
meeting, with the people.
prayer
xxiv h, XXV a. Burials.
XXV &-xxvii, xxix b. Hours of
private prayer ; duty of going to
church when there is a meeting
' for the word of God.' Coming
of the Bridegroom. At cockcrow
prayer in the church. Sign of
the cross, like the sprinkling of
the blood of the Paschal Lamb.
xxxvii. Vestments at the
Eucharist.
EgCO, EthCO, Hg,
60&(46). Clergy's daily prayer
meeting (H deest).
61 (47). Burials (H deest).
62 (48). Hours of private
prayer (at great length) ; duty of
going to church if there is an
•exhortation.' [H fragment be-
gins here.] Coming of the Bride-
groom. At cockcrow private
prayer. Sign of the cross etc. as
CH. [In H this paragraph is
given twice with slight variations.]
CONTENTS OF THE CHURCH ORDERS I
21
Test.
10 b. Communicating sick
presbyters ; deacon baptises if
presbyter absent.
See i. 32 above.
23. Burials.
24, 25 a. Hours of private
prayer either in the church or
in the house. Christians and
catechumens exhorted. [25c-27,
Conclusion.]
AC viii, ConstH.
33. Festivals, etc.
35-39. Public prayers /or all
men twice daily (form given). Not
in ConstH.
34. Hours of private prayer
either in the church or in the
house.
45, 46. Hospitality for the
persecuted. Long exhortation to
good order (evTa^ia).
Note 1. There is an interpolation in EthCO as given
by Horner (pp. 162—178). Statute 40 (on firstfruits),
here called 40 B, is preceded by another Statute 40, here
called 40 A, which is no part of EthCO. The interpolation
begins with another version of the prologue to H3 (see
below, p. 162), and proceeds to give a description of baptism,
with a large number of forms for consecrating oil, the
font, etc. In some particulars this description is incon-
sistent with what had been said before, in Statute 35, and
it is a repetition in fuller terms of that Statute.
Note 2. AC viii. and ConstH consist of five tracts :
(1) Of gifts, Trepi ;^apt(r/xarcoi', §§1, 2; (2) Constitutions of
the holy Apostles about ordination through Hippolytus,
§§ 4 — 31 ; (3) Constitutions of Paul the holy Apostle
about ecclesiastical canons, § 32 ; (4) Constitutions of Peter
and Paul the holy Apostles, §§ 33 — 45; (5) Teaching
about good order (evra^ia), of all the holy Apostles, § 46.
22 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
ii. Appendix to the Arabic Didascalia
The last five chapters of this work (35 — 39) con-
sist of part of a Church Order closely akin to Test.
The contents are : description of the buildings
(=Test i, 19 very nearly); ordination of bishops,
with ordination prayer (= Test i. 20, 21 very nearly) ;
times of prayer of bishops and presbytei's (= Test i.
22 «, but there presbyters are not mentioned) ;
bishops' fasts (= Test i. 22 h) ; description (only)
of the Liturgy, corresponding to Test i. 26, 27, 23 ;
Mystagogia (rather shorter than, but closely re-
sembling Test i. 28). This is expressly said to be
the end of the book.
Funk {DidCA ii. 122) gives a duplicate of § 38, with
some omissions, as § 23. The repetition of this chapter
may perhaps show that the Appendix was added to ArD
by a later hand. Funk also publishes (ii. 120) the preface
to ArD, which is prefixed to the older (Syriac) Didasc in
Mrs Gibson's MS as an interpolation, and which is also
almost the same as that of EthD (below, p. 32). Funk
gives four sections of the first chapter, but no other part of
this work is published.
It is probable that a portion of the Ethiopic Didascalia
(§§ 25 — 30), of which we only know the headings, through
Wansleb and Ludolf (Piatt, p. xv f.), is also closely akin
to Test. The headings are : (25) De structura Ternpli et
ejusdem Heikel ( 7^^n) I (26) lacuna ; (27) De ordmatione
episcoporum ; (28) De oratione episcoporum cum ecclesi-
asticis ; (29) De jejunio episcopi ; (30) continet Mystago-
giam seu doctrinam occultam quam apostoli docuerunt.
The Mystagogia in these works and in Test is an
CONTENTS OF THE CHURCH ORDERS I 23
instruction on the Christian religion given to the
faithful on certain festivals at the Eucharist, after
the dismissal of the catechumens ; see below, p. 168.
iii. Sahidic Ecclesiastical Canons 63 — 78
(Egyptian Heptateuch iii. — vi.)
These sections are a reproduction of AC viii. with
several omissions and variations. The ascription of
various sections to the different Apostles is not
retained. Similarly AC viii. 4^ (the account of those
said to be present) is omitted. There are no ordination
prayers, and no Liturgy, but a description of the latter
and a few of the shorter formulas are given, and a
rubric is added at the end with reference to the con-
sumption of the elements that remain. It is expressly
said, in opposition to AC and CohstH, that none of
the minor orders are to be ordained (below, p. 78 f.).
There are no benedictions of oil and water ; no daily
public prayers are given. In the Bohairic (Tattam),
but not in the Sahidic (Horner), the rules about new-
comers and forbidden trades (=AC viii. 32 a) are
postponed till after the Exhortation to Good Order.
This work is either an excerpt from our AC viii.,
the writer altering what he had before him to suit
his own Egyptian customs, or else an excerpt from
an earlier form of AC. The statement that the minor
orders are not to be ordained may perhaps incline us
to the latter supposition.
24 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
Four of the books of the Syrian Octateuch
(iv. — vii.), which have not been published, appear to
correspond closely with SEC 63 — 78. The table of
contents is published in hiigaLTde's Iteliquiae jur. can.
p. xvii.
The Ethiopic Statutes 49 — 72 are almost the
same as SEC 63—78 (see Horner, pp. 186—232).
There are some slight variations ; there is a long
passage about resting on Saturday and on Sunday ;
and at the end several prayers for various occasions
are iven.
CHAPTER III
CONTENTS OF THE OTHER CHURCH ORDERS
i. The Didache and its cognates
1. The Didache is so well known that it re-
quires but little notice here. It begins (1 — 5) with
a Tract on the Two Ways (of life and death). Then
after a connecting sentence it gives various rules for
Christian life and worship, for meats (6), for baptism,
with a formula (7), for fasts on Wednesday and Friday,
and for the use thrice a day of the Lord's Prayer
(8) ; it provides two prayers before and one after
the 'Eucharistic thanksgiving' (9, 10), see below,
p. 62 ; it gives injunctions as to an itinerant ministry
of 'apostles and prophets,' and as to firstfruits given
to them (11 — 13), as to Sunday services (14) and
the appointment of a local ministry of ' bishops and
deacons ' (15) ; and concludes with an exhortation
to watchfulness (16). Its primitive character is seen
by the arrangements for the ministry, and it is
probably divided in time by a very considerable
interval from all the other Church Orders mentione'^
26 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
in this volume. Yet it is of great importance for our
purpose, because it has been, in whole or in part,
incorporated into the works next mentioned. The
name ' Teaching of the Twelve Apostles ' is given
in MSS to several other works, e.g. to ApCO-syr and
EdCan.
2. The Apostolic Church Order. This
manual, to which, as we have seen, some MSS give
the name * Teaching of the Twelve Apostles,' is also
called ' The Canons of the Apostles,' but it must not
be confused with the much lat^r and much better
known work of the same name, called in this volume
the 'Apostolic Canons.' ApCO considerably de-
velopes the apostolic fiction found in the title of
D, naming the Twelve in the prelude in a curious
manner. Thus it makes Cephas and Nathanael
different from Peter and Bartholomew, and it omits
Matthew. Only one James is mentioned ; perhaps
the son of Zebedee is omitted, as ex hypotkesi he was
dead at the supposed time of writing. The sections
are ascribed to different Apostles, as was afterwards
done in AC. John begins the speaking, and is named
first in the list, though Peter is the chief speaker.
The preeminence of John leads us to think of Asia
Minor as the home of this Church Order.
After a prelude which reechoes a phrase from the
Epistle of Barnabas (' Rejoice 0 sons and daughters
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ '), and which
prescribes the appointment of bishops, presb}i:ers,
deacons, readers and ividows (no other minor order is
mentioned), the Tract on the Two Ways is reproduced
CONTENTS OF THE CHURCH ORDERS II 27
(4 — 13* = Dl — 4:a with some interpolations, and
slight omissions in the first part) ; but the end of the
Tract as given in D, including the * Way of Death,' is
altogether omitted, though the latter is referred to in
ApCO 4. It is probable therefore that the Compiler
had before him a mutilated copy of D, or of the Tract.
The rest of D finds no place in ApCO, but instead,
after two sections (14, 15) inserted to bridge over a
gap, we have a series of regulations for the Christian
ministry. The qualifications of a bishop are based
on the Pastoral Epistles. Three presbyters are to be
appointed by the bishop, and an elaborate reference
is introduced to the elders of the Apocalypse
(Rev. iv. 4), and to the position of the presbyters on
either side of the bishop ; those on the right are to
regulate the service of the altar, those on the left to
regulate the people ; the presbyters are * sharers in
the mysteries ' with the bishop, who is the ' shepherd '
(see below, p. 68). The appointment of a reader,
curiously enough, comes next. The deacons are
three in number (so syr) ; their qualifications are
based on the Pastoral Epistles. We have also sections
dealing with good order among laymen and the
ministry of women, including a curious side-remark
about Martha and Mary, and an oiypa(f>ov of our
Lord : ' The weak shall be saved through the strong.'
Women must approach the Eucharist with heads
covered (so rightly syr, see below, p. 42 ; other ver-
sions have * must not pray standing,' apparently
* The sections in the Ethiopic and Arabic versions (Horner)
are numbered differently.
28 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
reading -n-poa-evx^o^OaL for irpoa-epx^o'OaL, a very ancient
corruption of the text), and must only minister to
women (see below, pp. 83 f., 105 f ). This Church
Order has no liturgical forms.
3. AC vii. 1 — 32. In these chapters the
whole of D is reproduced, with many interpolations
and with alterations made in order to bring the
material into harmony with the age of the inter-
polator. It is instructive to note the manner of
treatment. The interpolator has in several places
introduced the apostolic fiction (above, p. 3 f.) ;
also an allusion to the Emperor (§ 16), whose appoint-
ment (x^ipoTovLo) is of the Lord, and to whose rulers
tribute must wiUingly be paid. The regulations of
D about apostles and prophets are omitted or reduced
to an injunction to receive a strange teacher if he be
tested, but to reject a false teacher (§ 28). First-
fruits and tithes are to be paid to the priests
(Upiv(rL)j orphans, and poor, not as D to the prophets
or to the poor (§ 29). Bishops, presbyters, and
deacons are to be ordained (§31^). A protest against
Judaic distinctions of meats is introduced, but those
offered to idols are to be avoided (§ 20 f.), as in D. In
Baptism anointing before and after the act of immer-
sion is introduced (§ 22). The injunction of D that
the candidate is to fast — the interpolator does not,
like D, add the baptizer and others — is accounted for
by the fact that our Lord fasted (see below, p. 137).
The weekly fasts are to be either Wednesday and
Friday, as D, or ' the five days,' i.e. Monday to Friday ;
but every Saturday is to be kept as a festival except
CONTENTS OF THE CHURCH ORDKRS II 29
that on which our Lord was in the grave, the Creator
under the earth (§ 23). One instance of a change of
phraseology may be given. D (§4) has a rather diih-
cult phrase about the duty of Christians to one who
speaks the word of God. He is to be remembered
'night and day,' for 'whence the Kvptor-qq is spoken,
there is 6 Kvpios' (so ApCO-syr [JThSt iii. 65], with
* where ' for ' whence '). The interpolator (§ 9) says
that he is to be remembered 'day and night... for
where the teaching about God is, there God is
present.' Thus a difficult phrase is simplified, as
indeed is also the case in ApCO-boh where the
paronomasia is altogether removed.
ii. Apostolic Constitutions vii. 33 — viii. 2
1. The latter part of the Seventh Book consists
of liturgical and other matter of which the source is
unknown. We have first a long and diffuse prayer
or meditation to be said by Christians in private
(§§ 33 — 38) ; then a description of the instruction of
catechumens and of the baptismal ceremonies, with
prayers, etc. (§§ 39 — 45, see p. 96 ff. below). A list
of early bishops of different sees is somewhat un-
expectedly added (§ 46). And our present copies end
with a text of the hymn Gloria in excelsis and with
the Nunc Dimittis, both with additional clauses at
the end, as is the case with the Te Deum as sung
to-day (§§ 47 — 49). It may however be doubted if
these last three chapters are not a later addition ;
they have no connexion with the rest of the book,
30 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
and ^ 46 seems to be the more natural conclusion. —
The presence in this book of the baptismal regulations
explains their omission in bk. viii., where the parallel
Church Orders have them (above, p. 16 ff.).
2. The first two chapters of bk. viii. (also found
with some variations in ConstH, SEC, EthS, and
Syrian Octateuch) are a diffuse tract Of Charismata
(spiritual gifts), mpX xapi-o'/j-droiv. This tract is thought
to be based on a treatise of that name by Hippolytus,
now lost ; but it is certainly largely interpolated by
the AC compiler.
iii. The Didascalta and its Cognates
1. The older Didascalia^ now existing in
Syriac and (in fragments) in a Latin version, itself
probably interpolated, was doubtless originally written
in Greek. It is a diffuse and loosely connected
manual of instruction, with references to Church
organisations and customs. It begins with moral
precepts (= AC i.), which are followed by a long series
of sections on the qualifications and duties of bishops
and clerg}^, with a description of a church (= AC ii.) ;
it gives directions about widows and the ministration
of women (= AC iii.), about orphans and almsgiving
(= AC iv.), about confessors and mart}Ts, with sections
on the Resurrection, on the Paschal fast, and on the
training of children (= AC v.). The work concludes
with remarks on heresies and schisms (AC vi.).
Those who study this manual in Mrs Gibson's edition
should note that the manuscript used by her has a
•H' • •• .•
t:^
;"<
^•nin
-M;»»
i<
"pi
. «-\ y /^ 51^ '
vV-to-
^^fc-»»,-
j?,'*i
Syriac Translation of the DMaooalkr A|>.Cd.
('Malabar Bible,' Cambridge Univ. Lib. Oo. i. 2,foL 315 r,
col. 2). MS. written in the 12th century. The plate shows the
conversation about Martha and Mary laughing.
CONTENTS OF THE CHURCH ORDERS II 31
very long post-Nestorian interpolation not found in
Codex Sangermanensis, which Lagarde used. This
interpolation consists of passages from Test, ApCO,
and elsewhere. It must be later than Jacob of Edessa,
the translator of Test into Syriac (seventh century),
as the Syriac of the interpolation is almost verbatim
the same as that of Jacob.
2. AC i. — vi. The older Didasc has been freely
treated by the compiler of AC. He has omitted some
passages, but on the whole has enlarged his source by
several interpolations. He has also altered many pas-
sages. We may notice some instances which illustrate
his method. Didasc shows great fondness for Biblical
quotations ; but AC goes much further, and has
profuse quotations, unlike Test, which, true to its
pretence of authorship, is sparing of direct citations of
the NT, though it constantly refers to it. Of altera-
tions due to changed circumstances we note AC ii. 59 \
where the lay people are bidden to assemble for
public worship twice daily, whereas Didasc only
mentions the Lord's day ; in AC v. 13 an elaborate
festal cycle is introduced (below, p. 129); in AC vi.
17 directions about the marriage of the clergy in
all grades are added. An unbalanced statement in
Didasc on sin after baptism is modified in AC ii. V
(below, p. 94). One other change of phrase may be
mentioned. In Didasc we read (in the passage
II AC ii. 26^): 'These (the bishops) are your high
priests ; the priests and levites, who then were, are
now deacons, presbyters, widows and orphans.' Here
AC has : * These are your high priests ; but your
32 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
priests (icpcls) are the presbyters, and your levites
are the present deacons and your readers and singers
and doorkeepers, your deaconesses and widows and
margins, and your orphans ' (see p. 67 «. below). The
interpolations, which are extremely numerous, are
in the marked style of the AC Compiler (Brightman
Z^IFp. xxivf.).
3. The Ethiopic Didascalia is apparently
derived from AC. The preface is nearly the same as
that of ArD (p. 22). It begins with a sentence
from AC viii. 4^ enumerating those present (the
Twelve, Paul, James) at the putting forth of the
Teaching. This is followed by a passage which
recalls ApCO 1, names the ranks of the clergy —
bishops, presbyters, deacons, subdeacons, readers,
singers, * nipilobanos ' (= Trap^e'rous ?), but deaconesses
are omitted — and introduces the reference to Clement.
In the middle of a sentence we reach the beginning of
the older Didasc, and the first four books of AC are
then followed, with some considerable alterations
and omissions. At a point parallel to the end of
AC iv. 12 Piatt's MS comes to an abrupt end. It is
divided into 22 chapters.
We have, however, the table of contents of another MS.
It is given by Piatt (p. xv) from Ludolf, who borrowed it
from Waiisleb's Histoire de VEglise d Alexandrie. In the
Table the first 16 chapters appear to agree with Piatt's,
except that it omits the preface. The remaining six of
Piatt's chapters appear in the Table as 31, 32, 17, 33 (and
34), 18, 35 ; that is, the order of AC is departed from, for
Piatt's order is that of AC. The additional chapters in
the Table are : (19) Of Virgins' vows, = AC iv. 14?; (20) Ot
CONTENTS OF THE CHURCH ORDERS II 33
Festivals and Pascha, = v. 13 fF. ; (21) Of martyrs, =v. 1 ff. ;
(22) Of avoiding scandals, =v. 10; (23) Of swearing by
idols, =v. 11 ; (24) Of the computation of Pascha, which
must be in the week in which the fourteenth day of the
moon falls, =v. 17 ff. ; (25 — 30) chapters corresponding to
ArD-app (see p. 22) ; (36) Of the resurrection of all men,
= AC V. 7?; (37) Of keeping festivals joyfully, =v. 20^^1;
(38) Of observing burials with hymns and prayers.
4. For the Arabic Didascalia^ see above,
p. 22.
iv. Other illustrative literature
1. The Sacramentary of Sarapion^ Bishop
of Thmuis in the Nile Delta (so §§ 1, 15) and a friend
of Athanasius, c. a.d. 350, is a set of prayers for the
use of a bishop. It contains the Eucharistic Ana-
phora, with benedictions of water and oil for healing
(1 — 6), baptismal prayers (7 — 11), ordination prayers
for deacons, presbyters and bishops (12 — 14 ; there
are none for minor orders), benedictions of oils for
baptism and confirmation, and for sickness, see below,
p. 43 (15 — 17), a funeral prayer (18), and pro-
anaphoral prayers (19 — 30). Only the bishop's part
is given.
2. The Pilgrimage of 'Silvia' or of
'Etheria' is an anonymous account of the travels
in the East of a lady of Gaul or Spain at the end of
the fourth century. She appears to have been the
head of a religious community in her own land. She
describes the services at Jerusalem ; and to her we
are indebted for a large amount of information about
M. 3
34 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
the liturgical customs of that time. The name of
the authoress is unknown ; * Silvia ' and * Etheria ' are
mere conjectures. The bishop of Jerusalem mentioned
was probably St Cyril's successor.
3. The Catechetical Lectures of St Csrril
of Jerusalem {CL) were delivered at Jerusalem
A.D. 348, while St Cyril was still a presbyter. They
give us a detailed description of the baptismal and
Eucharistic usages of his time at Jerusalem.
4. The Eighty-five Apostolic Canons^
often attached to AC, and perhaps by the same
author, illustrate the ecclesiastical customs current
in Syria at the end of the fourth century. They will
be frequently referred to in these pages. They re-
ceived canonical authority from the Trullan Council,
A.D. 692. They are also to be found in SEC, as the
seventh book of the Egyptian Heptateuch (Tattam,
p. 174 ff.), but there are several variations ; the order
frequently differs, and the canon of Scripture in § 85
is not quite the same as in the Greek. These canons
also form the eighth book of the Syrian Octateuch,
but tliis part is not published.
5. The Edessene Canons appear to have
been composed in Syriac. In addition to the canons
there is an account of the preaching of the Apostles.
CHAPTER IV
CHUKCH BUILDINGS AND WORSHIP
1. Church Buildings. The earliest account
of Church buildings is given in Didasc, which men-
tions 'hoi}'- churches,' presbyters' seats 'in the part
of the house which is turned to the East,' the bishop's
throne in the midst of them, the laymen also sitting
*in another part turned to the East' behind the
presbyters, the women behind them, so that when
they stand to pray the rulers {praepositi) rise first
and after them the laymen, and then the women.
All pray towards the East (so 11 AC ii. 57 ^ 57",
EdCan 1, Tertullian Apol. 16). One deacon attends
to the Eucharistic oiFerings, another guards the door
outside ; later in the service both serve together
inside the church. The deacon arranges the con-
gregation and keeps order, the aged and the young
sitting in separate parts of the church (Funk DidCA
i. 158 if., Gibson p. 65 f. ; Hi is wanting here).
The corresponding part of AC (ii. 57) adds several
particulars. There are porticoes or chambers {ra
7raa-To<{>6pLa or 7racrTo<f>op€ia) ' towards the East ' (cf.
Test below) ; these may be sacristies, for in viii. IS^"^
the deacons carry into them what remains of the
3—2
36 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDEEIS
Eucharistic elements after the communion of the
people. The church, which is oblong, and turned to
the East, is like a ship, with the bishop as helmsman*,
the deacons in trim garments as sailors and head-
rowers (roLxapxoi), the laymen ('the brethren') as
passengers. The reader stands in the middle on a
raised place (EthD 10 is similar). The idea of the
ship is also found in the ' Clementine ' Epistle to
James (§ 14), but there the Church referred to is the
Christian society, not the building. God is the ship-
master, Christ the pilot, the bishop the man in the
prow (Trpwpeus), the deacons the sailors, the cate-
chists the midshipmen, the laity the passengers.
In Test and ArD we have a much fuller account.
In Test i. 19 we read of the bishop's tlirone, raised
three steps, on the East (?), with the presbyters right
and left, the altar, which is on the raised steps, veiled
(cf. CH xxix. 210, XXX vi. 188, both bracketed by
Achelis), as is also the baptistery. There are two
porches (a-ToaC) on right and left, apparently near the
altar, for the men and the women. AH the places are
to be lighted, both for a type, and for reading. The
lectern is outside the ' altar ' (sanctuary). There is
a courtyard with various buildings — a diaconicum or
deacons' chamber, an oblong baptistery, a building
for catechumens and for exorcists, a building for
receiving the oblations, a place for the presbyters, a
house of ' offering ' and the treasury, houses for the
bishop, presbyt-ers, deacons, widows, deaconesses, and
a guest house (see below, p. 65). There are three
* In Test i. 23 (last prayer) God is called ' the Helmsman of souls.
CHURCH BUILDINGS AND WORSHIP 37
entrances (to the courtyard?) 'as a type of the
Trinity.' The description of ArD 35 is very similar.
The dimensions of the baptistery, called here ' photis-
terium ' ((^wrtoTTyptov) are slightly different (24 x 12
instead of 21 x 12 cubits), and the phrase about
lights is expanded thus : ' Let them be lighted with
many lights as a figure of heavenly things, especially
in the reading of the pericopae of the sacred books.'
This is a clear sign of the dependence of ArD on Test
and not vice versa. The completeness of the description
shows that neither of these works can be ante-Nicene.
In the foregoing descriptions of the seats of the
clergy there is some ambiguity. Is the meaning that
there was an apse at the East end, with the bishop and
presbyters seated in a semicircle round the East wall
looking West, the holy table at the chord of the
apse ? The Church Orders are far from clear on this
point. But in any case all prayed looking East.
This is seen in the above accounts, and also in the
description of the Liturgy in Test i. 23, where the
bishop stands to celebrate it in the middle, the
presbyters immediately behind him on either side,
the deacons and widows behind them on the right
and left respectively, the readers, subdeacons and
deaconesses in turn behind them, and all within the
veil. Thus, if the semicircular arrangement of seats
is meant, the bishop and presbyters must have left
their seats and have stood on the West of the holy
table, facing East*.
* We read of some exceptions to the rule of churches facing
East; e.g. at Antioch (Socrates, HE v. 22).
38 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
In Didasc we read of the clergy and people 7'ising
for prayer; so in AC ii. 57^*; and so Cyprian de
Orat. Dom. 31, Origen, in Num. horn. xx. 5, etc.
Standing was the normal attitude (cf. Mk. xi. 25,
Lk. xviii. 11,13); kneeling or genuflexion was practised
as a sign of special penitence, but was forbidden on
Sundays and between Easter and Pentecost (Nicaea
can. 20 ; cf. Test ii. 12, Tertullian de Cor. Mil. 3,
Augustine Ep. Iv. 32 (Ben.) ad Januarium^ Cassian
Inst. ii. 18). We find, however, kneeling in Hernias
Vis. ii. 1 and in NT (Ac. vii. 60, ix. 40, xx. 36, xxi. 5,
Eph. iii. 14).
2. The Eucharist. Four of the Church Orders
give, more or less fully, the Eucharistic Liturg}^;
several others give some slight description of the
same. From this material we may get some idea of
the service. It would appear that the structure of
the Liturgy was allowed to remain in a more or less
fluid condition till the fourth century. The first
part to be crystallised into a written form was
probably from the Sursum Corda to the end of the
Invocation or Epiclesis. In other portions, such as
the deacon's Ectene or Litany, the pro-anaphoral
prayers, the Intercession for the Church, the prayers at
the dismissal of the catechumens, and the Communion
of the people, this process followed a little later.
That the Communion was not put into a fixed form
quite so soon as the Eucharistic Thanksgiving is
made probable by the following fact. The Liturgy
in H3, as far as it goes, is almost identical with that
in EthCO, and is closely connected with that of Test
CHURCH BUILDINGS AND WORSHIP 39
(see below). But it stops short at the end of the
Blessing of Oil etc., which immediately follows the
Epiclesis. The part which in EthCO follows this is
not only absent from H, but, so far as the wording
of its prayers etc. is concerned, is quite independent
of Test and AC. The conclusion is that all which
follows the Blessing of the Oil in EthCO is a later
addition (see also below, p. 53).
But the general scheme of the service is the same
in all the authorities, and seems to be much more
ancient than the set forms. We may conjecture from
our materials that even before (perhaps long before)
the fourth century the Eucharistic service consisted
of (1) prayers and psalmody, (2) lections and in-
structions, (3) dismissal of catechumens and perhaps
a * fencing of the tables,' (4) requests for prayer and
a litany-like series of petitions, (5) kiss of peace and
offertory, (6) salutation and Sursum Corda, with
Eucharistic Thanksgiving commemorating creation (?)
and redemption and describing the Last Supper, and
containing the Oblation and Invocation, (7) blessing
of oil for healing (?), (8) communion of clergy and
people, (9) thanksgiving and dismissal. This scheme
is somewhat fuller than, but is consistent with, the
well-known accounts in Justin Martyr (Apol. i. 65,
67) and Cyril of Jerusalem (CL xxiii.), and agrees
with the detached references to the Liturgy in St
Chrysostom's Antiochene Avritings, which have been
collected by Brightman (LEW p. 470 ff.).
The details of the Liturgy in the four Church
Orders will best be seen by the following Table.
40
THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
EthCO and H3.
[Eth. Stat. 22 ; Hau-
ler Ixix.-lxxi.]
Offertory.
Salutation and
sum Corda.
Sor-
Eueharistic thanks-
giving (short) with
commemoration of
Redemption (one
sentence refers to
creation, no refer-
ence to Angels, no
Sanctus), Words of
our Lord, Oblation
(* Remembering
therefore ') and In-
vocation (implicit,
asking for the Holy
Ghost).
Test i.
[The order of 26-28,
35 is uncertain.]
26, 27 a. Prayers and
psalmody (not daily).
27 h. Lections and
instruction.
27 c. Catechumens
dismissed (no form
given) with laying on
of hands.
35. Deacon's Ectene
(independent) ; the
bishop 'concluding
the prayer ' (no form
given).
28. Mystagogia on
festivals.
23 a. Kiss of peace.
Offertory, Deacon's
short admonition.
23 h. Salutation and
Sursum Corda.
23 c. Sancta Sanctis.
23 d. Euch. thanksg.
from EthCO with
long preamble and
with interpolations,
reference to Angels
but no Sanctus; only
half of our Lord's
Words given; Obla-
tion from EthCO
closely (said by the
people with the
bishop). Invocation
(implicit, addressed
to Holy Trinity, not
expHcitly asking for
the Holy Ghost).
23 e. Prayer for
communicants and
very short Interces-
sion for Church.
AC viii.
35-39. Public morn-
ing prayer (daily).
5^-. Lections and
instruction.
6-9. Long dis-
missals of catechu-
mens, penitents, etc.
10-11«. Deacon's Ec-
tene (independent),
the bishop conclud-
ing the prayer (form
given).
117_i23, Kiss of peace,
Lavabo, Deacon's
short admonition.
Offertory.
12-*' ^ Salutation and
Sursum Corda.
126-39_ Eucharistic
thanksg. with very
long commemora-
tion of Creation,
reference to Angels
and Sanctus, com-
memoration of Re-
demption, Words of
our Lord, Oblation
and explicit Invoca-
tion, asking for the
Holy Ghost.
1240-51^ Intercession
for Church (long).
CHURCH BUILDINGS AND WORSHIP
41
EthCO and Hg.
Blessing of oil [and
cheese and oliveSjH]?
short form given.
[The rest not in H.]
Prayers for communi-
cants.
Sancta Sanctis.
Benediction and Com-
munion with hymn
of praise.
Thanksgiving after
Reception.
Benediction by pres-
byter, Prayer for
congregation and
benediction by
bishop.
Dismissal by deacon.
[see above]
Test i.
[see above]
23 /. Benedictus qui
venit.
2Sg. Communion
and rubrics as to who
is not to receive.
23 h. Thanksgiving
after Reception, pre-
faced by deacon's ex-
hortation similar to
AC but independent.
24, 25. Benediction
of oil and water
(form given, inde-
pendent).
AC viii.
131-1^ Benediction,
deacon's shorter
Ectene, bishop's
prayer.
1312,13^ Sancta Sanc-
tis, Gloria in excelsis
(one sentence), Ho-
sanna, Benedictus
qui venit.
1314-17, Communion,
with psalms.
14, 151-6. Thanks-
giving after Recep-
tion, prefaced by
deacon's exhortation
'Having partaken.'
157-9. Prayer for the
congregation.
151*. Dismissal by
deacon.
29. Benediction of
water and oil (form
given, independent).
JVote 1. In the above Table, by an 'explicit Invocation'
is meant one which prays that the elements may become
or be made the body and blood of Christ to the end that
the communicants may be blessed; by an 'implicit
Invocation ' one which omits the express reference to the
change in the elements.
Note 2. The order of communicating is suggestive.
After bishops, presbyters and deacons, come in Test, widows,
42 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
readers, subdeacons, those that have gifts, neophytes,
babes, old men, virgins (male), other laymen, deaconesses,
lay women; in AC, subdeacons, readers, singers^ ascetics,
deaconesses, virgins (female), widows, children, all the
lay people in order. Each communicant replies Amen,
and in Test also says a prayer for himself. In ApCan 8, 9^
all the faithful, clergy and laity, who attend, are expected
to communicate except for good cause. Women com-
municate veiled; "see ApCO-syr 27, AC ii. 57^ (not
11 Didasc), EthD 10; cf. Test ii. 4.
Note 3. In EdCan 10 the 'OT' and Prophets and
Gospel and Acts are the only lections allowed ; the Epistles
seem to be excluded. Standing for the Gospel is prescribed
in EdCan 8, AC ii. 57^, EthD 10 (cf. Sozomen HE Yii. 19).
Note 4. The Sursum Corda is mentioned in Cyprian
de Orat. Dora. 31, and Cyril of Jerusalem, CL xxiii. 4 £
Note 5. The Lord's Prayer comes before Sancta
Sanctis and Communion in Cyr. Jer. CL xxiii. 11 — 18, and
St Augustine says that it was used 'daily in the Church
before the altar of God' in his day {Serra. Iviii. 12 Ben.,
aliter xlii.), and that 'almost the whole Church concludes
the [Eucharistic] petition with the Lord's Prayer' {Ep.
cxlix. 16, ad Paulinum). But it is not found in the
Liturgies of our Church Orders ; it is not in EthCO, though
this is the part which seems to be the later addition, nor
in Test nor in AC. Nor do we find it in Sar, though
Brightman sees traces of it both there and in EthCO
{JThSt i. 97) ; but this is far from obvious. The witness
of St Chrysostom is doubtful but rather points to its use
{LEW p. 480, note 28). The private use of the Lord's
Prayer is prescribed in AC iii. 18 and (thrice daily) in D 8
and II AC vii. 24. St Cyprian {de Orat. Dom. 2f.) urges
its private use, but though he refers to the Eucharist
more than once in the treatise {e.g. 4, 31), he does not
expressly say that the Prayer was in public use as part of
the Liturgy.
CHURCH BUILDINGS AND WORSHIP 43
Note 6. There is a prayer in Sar 17 over oil or bread
or water, and another (5f.) for oils and waters that are
being offered, with a benediction ; in Test and AC there
are prayers over oil and water, in EthCO over oil. All
these seem to be for the healing of the sick. But this
can hardly be the case with the blessing of cheese and
olives in H3 p. 108.
The descriptions in CH and EgCO are meagre,
only giving the Salutation and Sursum Corda ; but
CH alludes to the benediction of oil and firstfruits,
which is to end with the Gloria Patri in this form :
* Glory to thee, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost for ever,
Amen' (see below, p. 125). There is also a descrip-
tion of a Liturgy (clearly founded on AC viii.) in SEC
64 f. ; a few of the deacon's proclamations are given
(including that before the Thanksgiving after recep-
tion) ; the words of administration are given in full
('This is the body of Christ'; 'This is the blood of
Christ, this is the cup of life'); and the Invocation
described is an explicit one: 'Let the High Priest
pray over the oblation, that the Holy Ghost may
descend on it, making the bread the body of Christ,
and the cup the blood of Christ.' EthS 53 has
almost identically the same description of the
Liturgy, but it mentions Church gates, and says
of the Epiclesis : ' The High Priest shall pray over
the same that the Holy Ghost may descend and
dwell upon them, upon the bread that it may become
the body of Christ, and upon the cup that it may
become the blood of Christ ; and then the bishop
shall say the Coming of the Holy Spirit.' To the
44 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
first formula of administration is prefixed: 'This is
the bread which came down from the heavens'
(Horner p. 200). The description in SEC-arab adds
incense* at the time of the ordination of a bishop,
and in the Epiclesis agrees with EthS 53 (Homer
p. 274 ff.). That in ArD 38 (Funk DidCA ii. 132,
Brightman LEW 510) begins with a prayer of
Thanksgiving, followed by instruction and psalmody ;
the presbyter (not the deacon) brings in the elements ;
there is a procession with incense; lections are
read ; a long prayer is made for the Church {i.e. the
deacon's Ectene), and the Anaphora is said, the veil
being let down, and the clergy (including subdeacons,
a reader [or readers], 'widows who are deaconesses' and
those with gifts) being inside the veil; the deacons
wave fans (so AC viii. 12^ and II SEC-sah-arab 65,
EthS 53, and perhaps Test ii. 10). Apparently ArD
and Test are the only manuals which allow women
inside the veil.
The Epiclesis in Test is a remarkable one, as not
expressly asking for the Holy Ghost. The words of our
Lord * Do this in remembrance of me ' are omitted in the
Recital of the Last Supper, and yet the Invocation begins
with 'Remembering therefore.' This would prove (since
the rationale of these words is to take up our Lord's
command) that 'Do this' was in the source of Test.
According to the mosc probable reading the Epiclesis runs
as follows : 'Remembering therefore thy death and
resurrection, we offer to thee bread and the cup, giving
thanks to thee who alone art God for ever and our Saviour,
since thou hast promised us to stand before thee and to
• So m EtM) 14, 16 incense is added to the |l AC ill. 10, 20.
CHURCH BUILDINGS AND WORSHIP 45
serve thee in priesthood. Therefore we render thanks to
thee, we thy servants 0 Lord [the people repeat this,
with (?) the bishop]. We offer to thee this thanksgiving,
Eternal Trinity, 0 Lord Jesus Christ, 0 Lord the Father
...0 Lord the Holy Ghost; we have brought this drink
and this food to thy holiness [so the derived 'Anaphora of
our Lord']; cause that it may be to us not for condemna-
tion...but for the medicine and support of our spirit.'
"VVe notice the confusion of Persons, so characteristic of
this writer (see below, p. 119); the Father had been
addressed in the immediately preceding paragraph. The
writer seems deliberately to have omitted a prayer for the
Holy Ghost which was in his source ; and this is surprising
in one who had such a clear conception of the personality
of the Third Person (below, p. 119).
Keference may here be made to two later forms of the
Test liturgy ; the Arabic translation of it (made through
the Coptic) which is referred to in Eahmani's notes but is
not published ; and the Ethiopic 'Anaphora of our Lord '
derived from Test (for an English version see Cooper-
Maclean p. 245 ff.). Test-arab alters the sentences of the
deacon's admonition at the Offertory, and omits some of
them, adds the Sanctus, and has an Epiclesis addressed
to the Holy Ghost (so Rahmani p. 39); inserts long
diptychs and, before the Communion, the Lord's prayer.
The 'Anaphora of our Lord ' begins with the Eucharistic
thanksgiving, into which it interpolates diptychs as in
the later Egyptian rite ; in the Commemoration of the
Last Supper, like AC but unlike Test, EthCO, H, occurs
the phrase ' In that night in which they betrayed him ' ;
as in Test our Lord's words over the cup are omitted ; an
explicit Epiclesis is added to and precedes the implicit
one of Test; the latter remains with slight alterations,
one correcting the order of the Three Persons ; the Inter-
cession for the Church follows as in Test, but unlike the
modern Egyptian and Ethiopic rites. All that follows the
46 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
Intercession in Test is omitted in the 'Anaphora of our
Lord' as given by Ludolf, except that the post-Communion
prayer is added.
The above is the Liturgy when a bishop is con-
secrated, the new bishop himself being the celebrant.
But many of the Church Orders have also, as in
Justin Martyr, a second but shorter description of
the Eucharist, in connexion with the first communion
of the newly baptized. Similarly, though this bap-
tismal Eucharist is wanting in AC viii. (see above,
p. 19), we have a description of the Liturg}^ in AC
ii. 57, where it is interpolated into Didasc. — This
second description supplies us with one or two details
in the Communion of the people which are wanting
in the first description, such as the words of adminis-
tration ; and speaks of the custom of giving milk
and honey to the neophytes. This custom is men-
tioned by TertuUian (de Cor. 3, ado. Marc. i. 14),
Clement of Alexandria {Paedag. i. 6), and at the
third Council of Carthage (can. 24, some MSS); it
seems to have been originally Egyptian and African
only, for it is not found in Test or AC.
The Church Orders diifer in the directions for
administering Holy Communion. The older custom
seems to have been for the deacons to administer in
both kinds (cf. Justin Apol. i. 65), and so perhaps
Test ii. 10. But the custom varied, the bishop
sometimes administering in both kinds, as in CH xix.
146 f. (but in xxxi. 216 the bishop or presbyter
may allow deacons to administer * oblations' — whether
that means the Eucharist or the eulogiae), ArD 38 ?
CHURCH BUILDINGS AND WORSHIP 47
(so LEW 511, but not Funk), cf. Tertull. de Cor. 3 ?
(*nec de aliorum manu quam praesidentium sumi-
mus'); in some cases (EgCO 46, EthCO 35, Hg p. 112)
the bishop administers the bread, the presbyters (or
if there are not enough presbyters, the deacons) the
cups (see above, p. 18) ; and so in AC viii. 13^^
SEC 66, EthS 53 (where there is no milk and honey),
the bishop administers the bread, the deacon the cup.
Deacons are forbidden to communicate presbyters in
Test ii. 10, Nicaea can. 18, and probably in EthCO 35 and
CH XXX. 215. The two last are unintelligible without the
hint given in Test : —
Test. The deacon does not give the oblation to a
presbyter. Let him open the disc or paten, and let the
presbyter receive {i.e. communicate himself).
EthCO. Whenever the deacon approaches the presbyter,
he shall hold out his robe, and the presbyter himself
shall take (the bread) and deliver to the people with his
hand. [The last clause seems to have been added by EthCO
to its source.] There is no parallel to this in EgCO.
CH. If the presbyter is sick, let the deacon carry the
mysteries to him, and let the presbyter alone accept
them.
In EdCan 27 it is prescribed that the 'bread of the
oblation ' is to be used in the Eucharist on the day
on which it is baked. This is still the East Syrian
(Nestorian) custom.
In several Church Orders reference is made to
'eulogiae,' or bread such as that used for the
Eucharist, but not consecrated ; it was given to the
people much in the same way as the pain benit is
given in French churches at the present day. It
48 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
seems to have been the same as the 'bread of exorcism '
or ' bread of blessing ' given to catechumens who were
not allowed to be present at Eucharist or Agape. For
this custom see CH xx. 171, xxxiii. 170, EgCO 47 f.
(* this is a blessing [cvXoyta] and is not an Eucharist
like the body of the Lord'), EthCO 36 f., H3 p. 113,
Test ii. 19. In AC viii. 31 and II SEC 73, EthS 61,
that which remains over from the Eucharist but is not
consecrated (so expressly SEC, EthS) is called eulogiae,
and is to be distributed among the clergy, including
the minor orders and deaconesses.— The name is also
used for the consecrated bread sent from one church
to another as a proof of intercommunion, or to absent
sick persons {DC A i. 629).
The usual word in the Church Orders for celebrating
the Eucharist is 'to ofifer' {TrpoacfiepeLv, offerre), or Ho offer
the oblation*.' In AC ii. 25^ we read of the bishops
being priests, levites, to their people, ministering (Xetrovp-
yodvTfs) in the holy tabernacle, the holy catholic Church,
and standing at the altar of the Lord our God and bringing
to him the reasonable and bloodless sacrifices through
Jesus the great High priest (|1 EthD 5 similar, but with
'offer unto Jesus Christ'), where the phrase 'reasonable
and bloodless sacrifices ' is not in |1 Didasc. This method
of expression is even more emphatically repeated in
AC vi 23 ^ viii. 5^ (ordination prayer for bishops), 46^5 ;
it is found in Sar 1. We must however notice that in
Test ii. 10 the phrase 'to offer the oblation' is used
of deacons bringing in the elements to the bishop at
the Offertory; and H CH xix. 142 (bracketed by Achelis)
has- 'Deinde diaconus incipit sacrificare,' i.e. probably,
'rrpo(Tct>€peLy. [This corresponds to iii. 20: 'Diaconus
* Of. Tertullian de Exhort. Cast. 7: 'Offers et tinguis,' i.e.
♦thou celebratest the Eucharist and baptisest.'
CHURCH BUILDINGS AND WORSHIP 49
autem aflferat oblationes.'] But this sense is unusual ;
H3 p. 112 has : 'Let the oblation be offered by the deacons
to the bishop,' and so EgCO 46, EthCO 35, with 'bring' for
'offer.' In the sense of celebrating the Eucharist deacons
are said to be unable 'to offer' in AC viii. 28*, and so at
Aries (can. 15*) and Nicaea (can. 18). Indeed the verb
'to offer' used absolutely seems almost always to have
this sense.
3. Relationship of the Liturgies. We may
now consider how the Eucharistic Liturgies given in
the Table on p. 40 f. are connected with one another.
It seems clear that the Test compiler had before him,
for the portion from the Offertory to the end of the
Invocation, a liturgy almost if not quite identical
with that of H3. He has treated his materials very
freely ; having, for example, added a long preamble
to the Eucharistic Thanksgiving (as he added a pre-
amble to the bishop's ordination prayer, p. 77), and
having inserted many phrases in it, all in his own
style. His Epiclesis is addressed to the Holy Trinity,
see above, p. 44 f. There is an interesting develop-
ment in the brief Intercession for the Church after
the Eucharistic Thanksgiving ; the Intercession is
wholly wanting in H3 and EthCO. There can be no
doubt that the Test liturgy is later than both these.
There are no signs of direct connexion between
the Test and AC liturgies. But AC throughout
shows by far the greater development. Except in
the prayer said in Test by the communicant at
* This canon says that many deacons actually did attempt to
celebrate the Eucharist. In the fourth century deacons were
pressing their claims.
M. 4
50 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
the time of reception (which seems to have been
entirely the invention of the compiler of that work),
every detail in Test is less developed than the cone
sponding one of AC.
The question of the relation of the liturgies in
EthCO (H3) and AC is raised by Funk {DidCA
ii. p. xxi, TUH 140 ff.)- He assigns the priority to
AC, which he believes to be the parent of EthCO and
the grandparent of Test. He takes the shortness of
the liturgy in EthCO as compared with AC to be
due to omission. Let us therefore compare these
liturgies.
In EthCO and H3 we go straight from the ordina-
tion of a bishop to the Offertory. AC interposes a
large mass of material with set forms, which doubtless
represent in outline preexisting practice, but which
seem to be emerging in AC from a fluid or oral to a
more fixed condition. The Sursum Corda in EthCO
is prefaced by the salutation ' The Lord be with you
all,' almost exactly as CH, Test, H3, and the later
Egyptian and the Roman liturgies ; while in AC it is pre-
faced by 2 Co. xiii. 14 as in St Chrysostom's Antiochene
writings, and in the later Antiochene, East Syrian,
and Byzantine liturgies, and in the Mozarabic (for
details see Cooper-Maclean p. 169). The Eucharistic
Thanksgiving in EthCO and H3 is very short ; it goes
straight to the passage which speaks of the sending
of the Son by the Father ; AC prefixes a very long
preamble in its own style, referring copiously to OT
and to the angels, and gives the Sanctus. There is
apparently no literary connexion, other than the use
CHURCH BUILDINGS AND WORSHIP
51
of a common Christian vocabulary and a common
knowledge of the Gospels, between the two forms down
to the end of the account of the Last Supper. Funk
has placed extracts in parallel columns {TUH 144)
which show how unlike they are. Note also that
EthCO and H do not introduce 1 Co. xi. 26 as part
of our Lord's words, whereas AC does so^.
In the Epiclesis, however, there is a certain
relation. The forms are :
EthCO (Horner p. 140).
Remembering therefore
thy death and thy resurrec-
tion, we offer to thee this
bread and this cup, giving
thanks to thee because thou
hast made us worthy to stand
before thee and minister as
priests'to thee. Wepray to thee
Lord, and we beseech thee
to send thy Holy Spirit upon
this oblation of the Church,
that in joining (them) together
thou mayest grant to them, to
all of them, to them who take
of it, that it may be to them
for holiness and for filling
(them) with the Holy Spirit,
and for strengthening of faith
in truth, that thee they may
glorify and praise through thy
Son our Saviour Jesus Christ,
tl trough whom to thee be glory
and might in the holy Church
AC viii. 1238.
Remembering therefore his
passion and death and resur-
rection from the dead and
return into heaven and his
future second parousia when
he Cometh loith glory and power
to judge the quick and the
dead and to give to each one
according to his works, we
offer to thee, King and God,
according to his command this
bread and this cup, giving
thanks to thee through him
because thou hast made us
worthy to stand before thee
and minister as priests to thee.
And we beseech thee to look
graciously on these gifts lying
before thee, thou, 0 God, who
needest naught, and to be well
pleased with them to the honour
of thy Christ, and to send
doion thy Holy Spirit the
* So (in different ways) do Test and many later liturgies. Cf.
also the North-Italian de Sacramentis iv. 5, 6 (c. a.d. 400); and
Maxitnus of Turin (c. a.d. 450): 'Sicut ipse [sc. Dominus] ait:
Quotiescunque hoc feceritis, mortem meam annunciabitis donee
veniam' (Migne Patr. Lat. Ivii. 690). For the Ambrosian and
Mozarabic forms see Duchesne Christian Worship p. 216 (Eng. tr.) ;
and for others Cooper-Maclean p. 172.
4—2
52 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
now and always and for ever
and ever. Am^n.
[The Hg Epiclesis is almost
identical. ]
Xote. There is apparently
witness of the sufferings of the
Lord Jesus upon this sacrifice
that he may constitute (or
declare, a.iro<p-f)vi^ this bread
the body of thy Christ and
this cup the blood of thy Christy
that they who partake of it
may be strengthened in god-
liness, may receive forgiveness
of sins, may be delivered from
the devil and his deceit, may
be filled with the Holy Spirit,
an Invocation of the Holy ! may become worthy of thy
Spirit in Didasc, but the form { Christ, may receive eternal
is not given {Hj p. 80, cf. j life, thou being reconciled to
p. 85). I thejn, 0 Master Almighty.
Here AC shows by far the greater development.
The compiler seems to have taken the EthCO form
(or one very like it but lacking the doxology)
and to have practically incorporated it entire in his
form, adding characteristic phrases of his own. Of
these phrases we may note : (1) ' 0 God who needest
naught... well pleased with them,' cf vi. 20^**; (2)
'witness of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus/ cf. v.
1^; (3) *may receive (rv'xwo-i) forgiveness of sins,' cf.
ii. 18°; (4) 'may become worthy of thy Christ, may
receive eternal life' ; these are found in the Compiler's
writings elsewhere than in the Epiclesis ; the second,
a most striking phrase, being also found in another
context in Pseudo-Ignatius Bom. 2, and the fourth
(both clauses) in substance in Philad. 3 (cf Smyrn. 6);
see LEW p. xli f. ; for Pseudo-Ignatius see below,
p. 124.
Side by side with this development of the Epiclesis
we may put the greatly developed Intercession for
the Church which immediately follows in AC. As
CHURCH BUILDINGS AND WORSHIP 53
we have seen, this feature is wholly wanting in
EthCO.
There is however one point adduced by Funk {TUH
p. 58) which quite possibly indicates priority in AC. The
answer to the Sancta Sanctis {i,e. 'Holy things to holy
persons ') in AC is ' One holy, one Lord Jesus Christ, to
the glory of God the Father thou art blessed for ever,
Amen' (viii. 13i3), while in EthCO 22 it is *One holy
Father, one holy Son, one is the Holy Spirit.' Funk says
that the former is the earlier phraseology. The question
is much the same as in the case of the doxologies to the
prayers (below, p. 124 ff,). But we need not consider it here,
for we have already (p. 39) seen reason to believe that this
portion of the Liturgy is a later addition to EthCO.
The probable deduction from the evidence, in the
opinion of the present writer, is that neither of the
two compilers had the other's work before him, but
that the AC compiler used a liturgy very like EthCO
/(»' the Epiclesis. Or a still more probable hypothesis
may be hazarded. Considering that so many of the
descriptions of the Liturgies have rather full details
about the Invocation {e.g. SEC 65, EthS 53, Cyr.
Jer. CL xxiii. 7, Chrys. de Sacerd. iii. 4, § 179 etc.) it
is not impossible that this was one of the very first
parts of the service that were written down. If the
common rubrical scheme which underlies the Liturgies
of the Church Orders was a document rather than
an oral tradition, it is quite probable that it had a
written Epiclesis, even though that Epiclesis was not
regarded as being so authoritative that it could not
be changed.
Whether the AC compiler had any source before
54 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
him other than such a rubrical scheme it is difficult
to say. For theories of Probst and others see Bright-
man LEW p. xliii flf.
4. The Liturgy in Sarapion. In this sacra-
mentary we have several pro-anaphoral prayers : the
'first prayer of the Lord's day' (19); prayers after
the sermon, for the people and the catechumens (20 f.) ;
and a benediction of the catechumens (28). There is
no mention of any dismissal of penitents (cf. Test)
as in AC. The prayers of the faithful follow ; a
litany was probably said (not given), and the bishop
would ' complete the prayer ' (cf. Test) with several
collects : for the people, for the sick, for fruitfulness,
for the Church, for the bishop and clergy, for solitaries
and virgins, for the married, for children, etc. (22 —
27, 29 f.). The list of clergy includes subdeacons,
readers and interpreters.
Then would doubtless come the Kiss of peace, the
Offertory, and Sursum Corda, which are not men-
tioned. But we have the Eucharistic Thanksgiving
(1 — 4, €v\r) 7rpo(T<l>6pov 2apa7rta)vos CTrttTKOTTOv). This
begins with ' It is meet and right to praise, hymn,
and glorify thee, the uncreated Father of the only-
begotten Jesus Christ.' It refers to the angelic
hierarchy, and introduces the Sanctus ; then mention
is made of the ' bloodless oblation ' to God (cf. p. 48
above), and the narrative of the Last Supper is given,
the oblation being joined with it. The command
'Do this' is omitted, and so consequently are the
words ' Remembering therefore.' The Invocation of
the Logos follows, praying the Father that the Word
CHURCH BUILDINGS AND WORSHIP 55
may come upon (iTTLSrjfjLrjcrdTOi*) the bread 'that it may
become body of the Word,' and upon the cup
* that it may become blood of the Truth ' ; and that
all who partake may receive a medicine of life etc.
The Epiclesis ends : ' We have invoked thee, the
Uncreated, through the Only-begotten in Holy Spirit'
(cV aytu) nv€v/xaTt). An intercession for the living
and departed (including a recitation or vrropoXri of
the names of the departed) and for those who have
made offerings follows the Epiclesis. The last sen-
tence (ascribed by Brightman to the people) is : 'As
it was and is and shall be to generations of generations
and to all the ages of the ages. Amen.' Then the
fraction is mentioned, and in connexion with it a
prayer for the communicants is given ; and after the
communion of the clergy we have a benediction
(x^LpoOeo-Lo) of the laity, and after the communion of
the laity a thanksgiving prayer. A prayer or blessing
of oil and water (5) follows, and a 'benediction
(x^LpoOca-Lo) of the people after the blessing (evXoyLo)
of water and oil' (6). Except for the headings of the
prayers, there are no rubrics, and only the bishop's
part is given. The wording of the prayers seems to
be quite independent of the Church Orders.
5. Days for the Eucharist. Sunday, in the
earlier period covered by our literature, seems to
have been the only day for the liturgy, as in D 14,
Didasc ii. 59 (Hi p. 44), ApCO 19t, and apparently in
* k-jTidttfiia is used in Sar for the In(farnation.
f EthS 15 alters the phrase to : ' who is quick to go every day to
the church.'
56 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
EdCan 2 (which mentions the Sunday Eucharist ex-
pressly, whereas the assembly on Wednesdays and
Fridays seems to have been only for prayer).
Brightman {JThSt i. 92) thinks that this appropria-
tion of the Eucharist to Sunday is impHed by the
title of Sar 19, ' The first prayer of the Lord's day.'
So also in Justin Martyr {Apol. i. 67), and PHny
{Ep. 96 ; his ' fixed day ' was doubtless Sunday) ;
and even Athanasius {Apol. c. Avian. 11) speaks of
a certain event happening on a day which * was not
the Lord's day' and 'did not require the use of the
sacred office — language which may perhaps exclude
the celebration of the Eucharist on a week day, at
any rate as a general rule (cf. Acts xx. 7). We have
evidence, however, even at an early date, of a more
extended use of the Eucharist. TertuUian expressly
mentions a Eucharist on Wednesdays and Fridays,
' station days ' (de Orat. 19). Cyprian alludes to
a daily Eucharist in Africa {Ep. Ivii. [liii.] 3 : *we, as
priests who daily celebrate the sacrifices of God') and
advocates daily reception {de Orat. Dom. 18). In
CH xxxvii. 201 the bishop may celebrate the
Eucharist when he pleases. One caution in review-
ing the witness of Christian antiquity on this subject
must be borne in mind. As reservation of the
sacrament was commonly practised, especially in
Egypt (cf. Tertull. de Orat. 19, ad Uxor. ii. 5,
Ambrose Orat. de excessu fratris Sati/ri i. 43, Basil,
Ep. xciii. ad Caesariamy etc.), the mention of reception
on certain days does not necessarily mean that there
were Eucharists on those days. Thus Basil {loc. dt.)
CHURCH BUILDINGS AND WORSHIP 57
says that he communicated four times a week (or
oftener if a Saint's day fell in the week), though some
communicated daily ; Test ii. 25 (though elsewhere,
in i. 22, it forbids a daily Eucharist) advises the
Christian believer to ' take care that before he eat he
partake of the Eucharist, that he may be incapable of
receiving injury.' The II EgCO 58, EthCO 44 only
deal with days when there is an Eucharist.
In the fourth century and later Saturday and
Sunday were special days for the Eucharist. In
Test i. 22 the Liturgy is to be celebrated only on
Saturday and [the text has ' or ' but this seems to be
a corruption] Sunday and on a fast day. So ArD 38
says 'Saturday and Sunday... and on festivals which
fall in the week ' ; but if a festival fall on the two fast
days, Wednesday and Friday, they are to pray and
receive the holy mysteries, but not to break the fast
till the ninth hour. Saturday and Sunday Eucharists
are hinted at in AC ii. 59^, which provides for daily
public services, but says that these two days are to
be specially observed ; Saturday is a festival as the
commemoration of the Creation, Sunday as that of
the Resurrection (vii. 23^). EthD 10 developes the
former passage by calling Saturday 'the Jewish
sabbath' and the Lord's day 'the Christian sabbath.'
In these manuals the provision for a Saturday Eu-
charist betrays a post-Nicene date. Socrates {HE y.
22) says that in his time (c. a.d. 440) Saturday
Eucharists were almost universal except at Alexandria
and Rome where, ' on account of some ancient tradi-
tion' they had ceased. He adds that some other
58 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
Eg)rptians celebrated the Eucharist on Saturdays,
apparently after'an Agape (see further DCG i. 254 f.,
ERE i. 172). Yet in a.d. 380 there was a Saturday
Eucharist at Alexandria (Timoth. Alex. Resp. Can.
in Migne, P. G. xxxiii. 1306). Cassian {Inst. iii. 2)
speaks of it in Egypt ; and the Council of Laodicea in
Phrygia, as far as Lent is concerned. This council
(c. A.D. 380) forbids Christians to Judaize and abstain
from work on Saturday (can. 29 ; AC viii. 33^ says
the exact opposite). In Lent, however, Saturday and
Sunday are the only liturgical days, and no feasts of
martyrs are to be observed in Lent except on these
two days (can. 49, 51 ; so Trullan Council can. 52).
Pseudo-Pionius in his fourth-century Life of Poly ccirp
23 (Lightfoot Ignatius iii. 455) speaks of the Eucharist
' on the Sabbath and on the Lord's day.' In the
Acts of Pionius^ which are probably genuine (a.d 250),
the real Pionius tastes the holy bread and water on
the day of his martyrdom, a Saturday, but this was
probably an Agape (§ 3, Ruinart Acta Sincera, ed. 2,
p. 140). St Augustine says that in his day some
celebrated the Eucharist daily, some on Saturday and
Sunday only, and some on Sunday only (Ep. liv. Ben.
ad Januarium, 2). Pseudo-Hippolytus in Prov. ix. 1
speaks of a daily Eucharist ; but the date and
authorship of this work are uncertain {DCB iii.
103).
Maundy Thursday Eucharists are first found in
the latter half of the fourth century ; in Test ii. 1 1
and 'Silvia' (both apparently in the evening), and
at the third Council of Carthage, a.d. 397 (can. 29).
CHUI^CH BUILDINGS AND WORSHIP 59
Augustine {Ep. liv. 9) speaks of the Eucharist on
this day (see further DCG i. 260).
No religious rites at marriages are mentioned in the
Church Orders ; TertuUian mentions the ' Oblation ' and the
'Benediction' at a Christian marriage {ad Uxor. ii. 8).
A Benediction seems to be implied in Ignatius Polyc. 5.
6. Daily prayers. Daily public service for all
men was a comparatively late development ; it did
not immediately follow even when persecution ceased.
In D, Didasc, ApCO (above, p. 55) Sunday is the only
day mentioned for the Christian assembly. In EgCO
60, EthCO 46 we find a morning daily prayer as-
sembly for the clergy who meet the bishop to talk
over the day's work ; perhaps a phrase about ' giving
information to ' (Eg) or 'instructing' (Eth) those who
are in the church points to some of the laity being
present ; so more plainly EgCO-arab (Horner p. 262).
The II CH xxi. 217 f. turns this into a public daily
prayer meeting at cockcrow for 'presbyters and sub-
deacons [see below, p. 82] and readers and all the
people' ; but xxvi. 231 has an older flavour, speaking
of the duty of going to church ' on all days when
there are prayers.' Test (i. 32) does not go quite so far
as EgCO, for though it provides fixed daily prayers
for the presbyters, no hour is stated for them,
but each presbyter says them 'at his own time,*
though he is evidently meant to get some of the
faithful to respond. The same thing is true with
regard to the prayers appointed for use by the
' widows who sit in front' (i. 42 f. ; see below, p. 83 f.).
60 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
At midnight the clergy and ' those of the people who
are more perfect' give praise by themselves (i. 32).
A public service *at the lamplighting ' is spoken of
in Test ii. 11, but this appears to refer only to
Pascha. The daily service is greatly developed in
AC. The laity are very expressly bidden to attend
prayers with the clergy twice daily, at dawn and in
the evening (the 'lamplighting'), and Ps. Ixii. is
appointed for the former, Ps. cxl. for the latter
service (ii. 59, interpolated into 11 Didasc). In AG
viii. 35 — 39 we have an order of service with fixed
prayers ; canticles are given in vii. 47 — 49 (but
see p. 29 above). EdCan 19 implies public service
at least once daily. St Basil seems to refer to a
daily prayer meeting at the * lamplighting ' {de Spir.
S. xxix. [73]). Socrates (HE v. 22) speaks of
expositions of Scripture at the * lamplighting ' in some
places. With the rise of religious communities daily
service developed. In the treatise de Virginitate
(c. A.D. 390 ?)* we find fixed psalms. Nunc Dimittis,
Benedicite. 'Silvia' describes daily public services
at Jerusalem during her visit, with psalms, hymns,
litanies, and prayers, but no lections. Later,
c. A.D. 420, Cassian gives an elaborate account of
the monastic 'hours of prayer' {Inst, ii., iii.).
Although the Church Orders show a somewhat
slow development in this respect, most of them pre-
scribe private prayers at fixed hours. We find seven
such hours of prayer in EgCO 62, EthCO 48, H3 p. 119
* The Athanasian authorship is defended by Von der Groltz in
Texte und Untersuchungen xiv. 2 a. He suggests the date 320 — 340.
CHURCH BUILDINGS AND WORSHIP 61
(probably, but this is a fragment), Test ii. 24; on
rising, at the third, sixth, and ninth hours, before
going to bed, at midnight, and at cockcrow (Test by
error has ' dawn ' a second time instead of * cockcrow').
In connexion with the midnight prayer we have a
reference to the Benedicite in EthCO and H, and it
is developed in Test, though there not specially asso-
ciated with the midnight prayer. Probably this
canticle was used at that hour. CH xxv. fF. 223 — 5,
233 — 245 has the same hours of prayer (and the
reference to the Benedicite) but apparently adds an
eighth. It has 'at sunset... then at the lamp light-
ing' for the fifth hour of prayer. Achelis looks on
the last five words as an interpolation, as the lamp-
lighting and sunset prayer would be the same ; but
Funk denies this. It may be suspected that the
words are genuine, but that ' then' is a mistake which
has arisen in the course of the various translations
through which we know CH ; probably the ' lamp-
lighting' is an explanation of ' sunset,' and does not
involve an additional hour of prayer. It is note-
worthy that AC viii. 34 has six hours of prayer only ;
it omits the midnight hour and the reference to the
Benedicite. Funk {TUH p. 55 f.) marks this as a
sign of priority in AC, as hours of prayer showed a
tendency to increase. Cyprian (de Orat. Dom. 34 &.)
mentions six hours (not five, as Funk) : morning, the
third, sixth, and ninth hours, ' at the sunsetting and
at the decline of day ' (cf. CH), and * even during the
night.' The last is perhaps only expected of the
more earnest. There does not here seem to be any
62 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
sign of priority in AC, as compared with EgCO etc.
Is the omission of the difficult midnight hour due to
the less ascetic tone of AC? It would be a com-
pensation for the addition of the two public daily-
prayer meetings which it makes binding on the laity.
These private prayers might take place either in
the home (when they would usually take the form
of family worship), or in the church. AC viii. 34®
speaks of the possibility of Christians not being able to
go to church ' because of the unbeHevers.' So II SEC
75, which bids the Bishop ' make the synaxes ' (sah)
or ' celebrate the Eucharist ' (arab) in his house in
such a case ; and so EthS 69, which however does not
refer to the Eucharist (Horner, pp. 215, 286, 355).
7. The Agape and Funeral Commemora-
tions. The Church Orders do not add much to our
knowledge on this head. In D the Agape and Holy
Communion were apparently united under one name
' Eucharist*.' The prayers given are probably 'graces '
before and after the Agape, and the Eucharistic
thanksgiving is not given, the prophets being allowed
* to give thanks as much as they desire ' ; that is, the
Eucharistic worship was in the main extemporaneous.
But this conclusion is much disputed ; and for the
various opinions reference may be made to the article
'Agape' in ERE'i. 168 by the present writer, and to
DCB iv. 807 (Salmon).
* The verb evxapto-Telv was often used of grace before meals ;
it clearly underlies the ' gave thanks ' of Clementine Recogn. i. 19 J
cf. Mk. viii. 6, Jn. vi. 11, Ac. xxvii. 35, Ro. xiv. 6, etc.
CHURCH BUILDINGS AND WORSHIP 63
In the later Church Orders the Agape and
Eucharist are entirely distinct. The Agape in
Didasc (and II AC ii. 28, EthD 6) is a feast given to
old women (the poor and widows and orphans EthD) ;
a portion is to be given to the bishop and the other
clergy (see below, p. 86). In CH xxxiii. f. 169 —
179 and the parallel manuals (EgCO 48—52, EthCO
37—39, H3 p. 113 f., Test ii. 13) we read of the
Agape as an institution quite distinct from the
Eucharist ; in neither Agape nor Eucharist may the
catechumens, still less the heathen, share*. The
bishop presides and exhorts, and gluttony and
drunkenness are strictly forbidden. In EgCO and
H (not EthCO) the Agape is called 'the Lord's
supper.' EthCO speaks of 'the Lord's table.' In
these manuals there is mention made of the supper
to widows as a separate thing.
Further, there is some connexion between the
custom of the Agape and the commemoration of the
faithful departed. The passage in AC (viii. 44)
which corresponds to those just given refers only to
these commemorative feasts ; a prayer for the de-
parted immediately precedes (§41). And CH xxxiii.
169 f. has this direction : 'If there is a memorial of
the departed, before they sit (at meat) let them par-
* So in D 9 only the baptized may partake of the ' Eucharist ' ;
and in Clem. Becogn. i. 19, ii. 71, Peter expressly excludes all un-
baptized persons, even Clement, from eating with him, because they
are 'not free from an unclean spirit.' For the exclusion of cate-
chumens and heathen from the Eucharist, see e.g. Athanasius
Apol. c. Arian. 11. The exclusion is doubtless based on Ex. xii.
45.
64 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
take of the mysteries, though not on the first day of
the week. After the oblation let the bread of exor-
cism (above, p. 18) be distributed to them before
they sit down.' This precedes the regulations for the
Sunday Agape. Offerings for the dead are mentioned
in Tertullian de Cor. 3. And at funerals hymns and
prayers were used (EthD 38 in Ludolf s table of con-
tents, above, p. 33 ; AC vi. 30*), but the only form
given is in Sar 18 which is a prayer ' for one who is
dead and is being carried forth ' (ckko/uh^o/ao'ov) ; it
seems to have been said in the house. Commemora-
tive Eucharists are referred to in AC vi. 30- and in
llDidasc (Funk D'ldCA i. 376, Ha p. 85). AC viii.
42 gives directions for observing the * third day of
the departed ' with psalms and lections and prayers,
also the ninth and fortieth [one MS 'thirtieth']
days and the anniversary ; alms are to be given to
the poor from the goods of the deceased as a
memorial of him. So 11 SEC 76 but with ' seventh '
for ' ninth' and with 'a month' for the 'fortieth day.'
EthS 70 agrees with SEC but gives both * a month '
and ' the fortieth day ' and adds a commemoration
after six months. For martyrs' anniversaries see
below, p. 129 f.
8. Clerical Vestments. These are referred
to in CH xxxvii. 201 — 3. The presbyters and deacons
are to wear ' white vestments more beautiful than all
the people, very splendid ' when the bishop celebrates
the Eucharist. Even the readers are to wear festal
garments. In Test i. 34 the deacon who is in charge
CHURCH BUILDINGS AND WORSHIP 65
of the guest-house is to be 'clothed in white gar-
ments, a stole only on his shoulder ' ; but this is not
in church — the vestments are a badge of office. This
is probably the first mention of a stole (the word used
is iopdpLov, orarium, transliterated into Syriac)|; the
other early reference to it is c. a.d. 380 at Laodicea
(can. 22 f ) where the subdeacon (vTrrjpiTrjs') is for-
bidden to wear it and to leave his place at the door,
and the readers and singers are also forbidden to
wear it or to read and sing with it on. At Laodicea
the reference is to the stole used in service by a large
number of people. In Test it is, apparently, restricted
to one of the deacons ; and this is an indication that
that Church Order is of an earlier date than the
Council. On the stole see further in JDCA ii. 1934 if.
Note. It is interesting to compare the liturgies of the
Church Orders with the Liturgical Homilies of Narsai
lately published by Dom Connolly ('Texts and Studies'
viii. 1). These belong to the latter half of the fifth
century. One of the homilies describes the Eucharist,
but it is not too much to say that it breathes an
atmosphere widely removed from that of the Church
Orders. The ceremonial and liturgical development is
great. Much is made of the vestments of the clergy
(including stoles), of lights, incense, fans, bowings and
genuflexions (which are forbidden after the Epiclesis) ;
the Creed is introduced into the service, and this is one of
the very first instances of the introduction. We find in
Narsai the same general scheme as in the present East
Syrian litiu-gies, in which the Narrative of the Last Supper
is followed by the Intercession (in Narsai a very long one,
expressly said to be fashioned on 'Mar Nestorius,' z'.e., pro-
bably, on the original of the East Syrian liturgy so named),
M. 5
66 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
and the Intercession by the I-^f^"' ttui't
Z'T^'T^'^^n^. C>s3Tf^o the Father,
be addressed to tbe noiy vj , ^^.^
/^ n,o r.thpr hand no sanctuary Neil ana no j
On the ^f^r'l^^^^:^^ probably presupposes the
:-re%I^ttan^rlyWth^
Et Syrian Uturg.^ (' A d^^^^ .fthf fusion that
rctSUrs Won^g to a ti.e considerably before
Karsai.
CHAPTER V
THE MINISTRY AND ORDINATION
1. Bishops^ presbyters, deacons. In D
the organisation of the ministry closely resembles
that of NT. There is a local ministry of bishops
and deacons (§ 15), chosen by the people especially
for Sunday worship (' On the Lord's own day as-
semble.... Appoint for yourselves tke7r/(yrehishoi^s and
deacons ') ; presbyters are not mentioned. In addition,
there is an itinerant ministry of 'apostles' and
'prophets' (§ 11). This is a decisive argument for
the very early date of this manual. The possibility
of the prophet settling in the place is contemplated "'^j
this is perhaps a step towards a localised (monarchical)
episcopate (§ 13). The prophets instruct ; they are
* your high priests f ' ; they ' speak in the Spirit ' ; at
the Eucharist they *give thanks as much as they
* If there is no prophet, D says that firstfruits are to be given
to the poor. In Hermas the prophets have apparently become sub-
ordinate to the presbyters {e.g. Vis. iii. 1).
t The name 'high priest' for bishops is common, e.g. AC ii. 26
(and 1 Didasc and EthD 6), vii. 422 (some MSS), viii. Ill, 12^ etc.
(cf. viii. 5^ and U Const H, dpxiepaTeveiv, in bishop's ordination
prayer) ; CH xxiv. 200 ; EgCO 56 ; SEC 65 ; EthCO 42 ; Test ii. 21 ;
Ha p. 105. Cf. Test i. 21 (ordination prayer), EthS 53.
5—2
68 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
will/ i.e. their utterance is unrestraiDed (§ 10)*. The
functions of the * apostle ' are not defined. Perhaps
the word is used in the sense of a delegate or
messenger from other churches as in 2 Co. viii. 23,
Ph. ii. 25. — The primitive features of D are removed
in the parallel portions of AC vii.
The other Church Orders have bishops, presbyters,
and deacons. The Bishop is the ruler — in EdCan 5,
17 he is called 'the Guide' (Diiqa = dux); he is the
shepherd t of the sheep; he is the normal president of
Christian worship, and celebrates the Eucharist when
he is present, though the presbyter is expressly
recognised as being capable of celebrating it
(AC iii. 20", vii. 26^ [where 'presbyter' takes the
place of the 'prophet' of ||D 10], EthD 16, Test i. 31);
he confirms, and he alone ordains, a presb}i:er being
forbidden to ordain even the minor orders (AC iii. IP,
20^ EthD U, CH iv. 32).
The deacon, on the other hand, is 'ordained not to
the priesthood, but to minister to the bishop and the
Church' (Test i. 38, cf EgCO 33, EthCO 24, Hap. 109).
The Council of Nicaea says that he is the irmjpeTr]? of
the bishop (can. 18). CH v. 33 f. says that he does
not belong to the presbyterate, but that he is to
minister to the bishop and presbyters and to the sick.
* So in Justin Martyr {Apol. i. 67), after the Offertory the
president 'offers prayers and thanksgivings' {i.e. the Eucharistic
TharLksgiving) 'as far as he is able' (oo-tj 5ui/a/iis avT<Z).
t The name 'shepherd' used absolutely as a title for the bishop
(apart from the metaphor of the flock) is not common, but is found
in ApCO 18 (cf. 22 syr, lat), AC ii. li 282 42i 433 (the first and two
last also in Didasc) and frequently in Test.
THE MINISTRY AND ORDINATION 69
So in AC ii. 26 ^ 30 ff., iii. 19 f. and ||Didasc iii. 13,
EthD 16. The ' Gallican Statutes ' (§ 4; Wordsworth,
MG p. 166) say that the deacon is not consecrated
to the sacerdotium, but for ministerium. In AC viii.
46^^ he is expressly forbidden to celebrate the
Eucharist. The Church Orders show that deacons
were pressing their claims ; almost all (except Test
which is enthusiastic about both deacons* and
widows) have regulations intended to repress their
claims.
There are some interesting indications of the
relative positions of presbyters and bishops in the
Church Orders. In all of them (after D) the bishop
is supreme ; the presbyters are his counsellors and
sit in judgment with him (AC ii. 28 S and II Didasc,
Hi p. 39 f. ; cf. Ignatius passim). Yet in some of
these manuals there are traces of a closer relation.
In CH iv. 30 — 32 the presbyter is to be ordained
with the same prayer as a bishop except that the
words 'bishop,' 'episcopate/ are to be altered to
' presbyter,' ' presbyterate,' and enthronisation is to
be omitted. ' The bishop in all things is to be put
on an equality with the presbyter except in the name
of the chair (cathedrae) and in ordination, for the
power of ordaining is not given to him' (the presbyter).
With this we may compare the direction in CH ii. 10
that ' one of the bishops and presbyters (unus ex
episcopis et presbyteris) is to lay hands on a bishop-
* Contrast Test i. 34, which calls the deacon the 'counsellor of
the whole clergy,' with EgCO 33, EthCO 24, H3 p. 109, which say
the exact opposite.
70 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
elect and to say the prayer over him.' The meaning
seems to be : ' one of those who have both the
episcopate and the presbjrt^rate ' ; for in CH iv. 32
a presbyter is said not to have power to ordain. The
earlier section therefore cannot contemplate the case
of a simple presbyter ordaining a bishop-elect. There
is hardly enough here to prove that CH belongs to the
time of Hippol}i:us or earlier, for Jerome has almost
the same expression : ' What does a bishop that a
presbyter does not, except ordination ? ' {E}). cxlvi.
ctd Evangelum 1). But, without entering on the
disputed question of the origin of the episcopate, we
may remark that there is little doubt that the
direction to use the same prayer for bishop and
presbyter is an archaic feature, and goes a long way
to prove the priority of those manuals which have it
to those which have it not. It would be extremely
unlikely that a compiler who found two separate
prayers in his sources would go out of his way to
suppress one of them. The direction in EgCO-sah 32
for the ordination of presbyters is : ' Let him [the
bishop] pray over him according to the form which
we said for the bishop.' The Arabic translation has :
' He prays over him according to the pattern which
we have said concerning the bishop' (Horner, pp. 307,
245). This would seem to mean the same thing as
CH, that the same form was to be used for bishop
and presbyter. But Funk (TUH p. 45) disputes
this. EthCO 23 (the parallel passage) has : ' In the
form which we said before he shall pray, saying...,'
and gives a separate ordination prayer for the
THE MINISTRY AND ORDINATION 71
presbyter ; so H3 (p. 108) has : * et dicat secundum
ea quae praedicta sunt, sicut praediximus super
episcopum, orans et dicens,' and adds the separate
prayer. From this Funk deduces the conclusion that
EgCO (which contains no ordination prayers at all) does
not exclude, but rather implies, the use of a separate
prayer for presbyters. But this view is made very
improbable by the phrase used. It is much more
likely that EthCO (which perhaps was the first to
make the change) took over the reference to bishops
from the older form in its source, and then rather
awkwardly added a separate prayer to it.
The ordination prayer for presbyters in EthCO
and H (which closely agree) is very simple, and
refers to Moses' elders. The only function of a
presbyter which is mentioned is ruling. Separate
prayers are also found in Test i. 30 (developed
from H3), AC viii. 16 and ConstH 6 (mentioning
priestly duties, Upovpyia?, on behalf of the people),
Sar 13 (referring to the function of reconciliation). —
In EgCO, EthCO, Hg, Test, the presbyters also lay
hands on, or touch, the candidate; but this is not
mentioned in AC, which only says that the presbyters
and deacons are present.
Ordination prayers for deacons are given in
CH v. 39—42, EthCO 24, H3 p. 110 (a fragment),
Test i. 38, AC viii. 17, Sar 12. Those in EthCO and
H3 are practically the same (as far as H goes) ; that
in Test is clearly derived from them. Those in CH,
AC, Sar, seem to be quite independent of them and
of one another, except that CH and AC both refer to
72 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
Stephen, while Sar refers to the seven ' deacons ' of
Acts vi.
Archdeacons (apxihuiKovoL) are not heard of
by name till the end of the fourth centur}^, when
we find them in 'Silvia.' The name there, however,
does not seem to denote a separate office, but is given
to the deacon whose duty it is to call people to
prayer. So in Test i. 19, 34 there is a 'chief deacon,'
not one of a separate order, but selected from the
other deacons to be guest-master and to help the
priest to write the names of those who make oflferings.
ArD does not mention the chief deacon in the
parallel passage. It is not probable that the word
ap;(iStaKovos was used in the Greek original of Test,
for Jacob of Edessa in translating the book into
Syriac does not use the usual S>Tiac transliteration
of the word, but translates by the phrase 'chief of
the deacons.'
Chorepiscopi are not mentioned in the Church
Orders. But EdCan 24 apparently alludes to them
in the injunction that a Ruler is to be appointed as
head over village presb}i:ers.
Metropolitans also are not found in them.
Although the neighbouring bishops are said to attend
at an episcopal election, there is not much trace of
the existence of ecclesiastical provinces (for ApCO
see below p. 171). This is natural enough in the
fourth century, when provincial organisation was
only just beginning ; but it would be difficult to
explain at a lat^r date. We may, as it is, perhaps
THE MINISTRY AND ORDINATION 73
make the deduction that none of these manuals came
from great centres like Alexandria and Antioch.
The name 'metropolitan' is found at Nicaea (can. 6),
and Laodicea(can. 12); cf. Antioch inEncaen. (can. 19).
There is just a trace of a primacy in ArD 36 where
the ' first bishop among them ' says the ordination
prayer (cf. AC viii. 4^ ' one of the first bishops*). A
similar but fainter trace in EgCO-boh 31 (Tattam
p. 32) is shown by the Sahidic and Arabic versions
to be a mistake. 'They request (axiou =a^Lov(ri) one
of the bishops ' [to lay on hands and pray] has
become in the Bohairic ' He who is worthy (a^tos)
out of the bishops/ etc.
2. Ordination of a bishop. The ordination
or consecration to the episcopate (there is no differ-
ence of nomenclature at this early period) takes a
very simple form in these manuals. A prayer is said
by one or more bishops, with laying on of hands ;
the new bishop, being then placed in his throne,
receives from all the kiss of peace, and himself
proceeds to celebrate the Eucharist. At least three
bishops must attend ; see AC iii. 20^ (' or at least
two ') EthD 16, ApCan 1 (' two or three '), Nicaea
can. 4. AC viii. 27^ says that if because of persecu-
tion or any similar cause only one bishop may be
had, he must have authority from several bishops.
The real significance of the attendance of these
bishops is that they come to assent to the election ;
probably the idea of securing validity for the ordina-
tion in case of any defect in one of the consecrators
74 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
had not arisen at this date. The bishops assist in
the ceremony, but as a rule only one, chosen by the
others, says the prayer (so CH ii. 10, where only one
lays on a hand; EgCO 31 and H3 p. 103, where all
have previously laid on hands and then one again
does so alone). But in EthCO 22 all lay on hands
and aU say the prayer. In Test i. 21 they all lay on
hands and say a declaration, and then one bishop
lays on hands and says the prayer ; ArD 36 is
similar. In AG viii. 4^ one of the principal bishops
standing near the altar with two others, says the
prayer, the other bishops and the presbyters praying
in silence, and the deacons holding the Gospels over
the new bishop's head. But it is not certain what
the three bishops do. Laying on of hands is not
expressly mentioned. Yet from the analogy of the
other Church Orders and from the other ordinations
of AC, all of which mention imposition of hands, it is
probable that the three bishops lay on hands ; and
from the fact that the other bishops are expressly
told to keep silence, it is not unlikely that all three
join in saying the prayer. As Sarapion gives us
hardly any rubrical directions the usage in his diocese
is uncertain.
The ordination prayer for a bishop is very
nearly the same in CH, EthCO, H3, and ConstH. It
is short and simple. The functions mentioned are,
visiting and feeding the people, oifering the gifts of
the congregation (the Eucharist), absolution, exor-
cising and healing (CH), and ' reconciling ' God's face
THE MINISTRY AND ORDINATION
75
(ConstH, H3). The prayer is given below, the words in
italics being found in only one of the four authorities.
[The form in H and EthCO is nearly the same as in
ConstH, all but quite insignificant differences being
given in the notes.]
ConstH
O God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, Father of
mercies and God* of all
comfort, who dwellest in the
heights and lookest on humble
things, who knowest all things
before they are made ; thou
who hast given the bounds
off the Church through the
word of thy grace, who hast
preordained the just race
from the beginning from
Abraham:):, who hast consti-
tuted rulers § and priests,
and hast not left thy sanctuary
without a ministry, who from
the foundation of the world
wast well pleased to be glori-
fied || in those whom thou
hast chosen, even now pour
out the power proceeding from
thee of thy ruling IT Spirit
whom thou gavest through
thy beloved son Jesus Christ**
to thy holy Apostles ft who
* Eth: Lord. f Eth: an ordinance to.
t H: the race of the just, Abraham.
§ Eth: judges. H: princes.
u H: preached (?).
H nyenoviKov, from Ps. H. 12 LXX. Eth: holy.
** H : gavest to thy beloved Son Jesus Christ, which he bestowed
on the holy Apostles [Test, AC similar, ArD like ConstH] .
ft Eth: gavest to thy beloved Son Jesus Christ, which thou
grantest to us the holy Apostles thy helpers in thy Church
(working) with the plough of thy cross, and in the place of thy
sanctuary— to thee be glory, and praise unceasingly to thy Name.
CH
0 God, Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, Father of mercies
and God of all comfort, who
dwellest in the heights and
lookest on humble things, who
knowest all things before they
are made ; thou who hast
constituted the bounds of the
Church, by whose power it is
that from Adam there should
remain a just race in the man-
ner of this bishop who is great
Abraham (? ratione hujus
episcopi qui est magnus A.),
who hast constituted prelacies
and principalities; look on N.
thy servant, giving thy power
and effectual Spirit, whom
thou gavest through our Lord
Jesus Christ thy only Son to
thj holy Apostles who founded
the Church in every place to
the honour and glory of thy
holy Name. Forasmuch as
thou knowest (cognovisti) the
76
THE ANCIEXT CHURCH ORDERS
CH
hearts of each one, grant to
him that without sin he may
see thy people, that he may be
worthy to feed thy great and
holy flock. Cause also that
his life (mores) may be an
example (superiores) to all the
people without any falling
away, and that he may be
envied by all for his excellency ;
and receive his prayers and
offerings which he shall offer
to thee day and night, and
may they be to thee a sweet
savour. Give also to him, 0
Lord, the episcopate, and a
mild spirit, and power to
forgive sins ; and give him
ability to loose all bonds of
iniquity of demons, and to
heal all diseases, and bruise
Satan under his feet shortly,
through our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom be glory to
thee with him and the Holy
Ghost, for ever and ever.
Amen.
ConstH
founded the Church in the
place of thy sanctuary* to
the unending glory and praise
of thy Name. 0 thouf who
knowest the hearts of all,
grant ij: to this thy servant,
whom thou hast chosen to
thy holy episcopate, even§
to serve the highpriesthood
to thee, without blame mini-
stering night and dayll, and
unceasingly to reconciled
thy face and to offer to thee
the gifts of thy holy Church,
and to have in the high-priestly
spirit power to forgive sins
according to thy command,
to give lots according to thy
ordinance, * *and to loose every
bondft according to the power
which thou gavest to the
Apostles, and to please thee
in mildness and a pure heart,
offering to thee a sweet savour,
through thy Son Jesus Christ
our Lordtt. ^th§§ whom be
glory, might and honour to
thee with the Holy Ghost ||||,
now and for ever and ever.
Amen.
This short prayer is expanded in Test and AC.
* H : in every place, even thy sanctuary,
t H inserts: Father.
I Eth inserts : the Holy Ghost.
§ Eth, H insert: to feed thy [holy, H] flock and.
II Eth : day and night.
•[ Eth: supphcating worthily to see.
•* Eth: to give the ordination of thy ordinance,
ft Eth inserts : of iniquity.
U Eth, H omit: our Lord.
§§ Eth, H: through.
III! Eth: to Father, Son and Holy Ghost. H : to Father and Son
with the Holy Ghost. Eth inserts: in thy holy Church.
THE MINISTRY AND ORDINATION 77
Each has a long preamble before *0 God and Father,'
quite independent of the other, and each in its own
style ; and each has several additional sentences, also
independent, and also each in its own style, in the
text of the prayer itself. Funk supposes that AC is
the original of all the Orders, and that Test is derived
from one of the EthCO type. This would mean,
first, that a compiler of the EthCO type freely treated
AC by omitting the preamble and long passages —
those which are specially in the style of AC ; then
that other compilers followed suit, agreeing together
in one short type of prayer, though not in exact
verbal concurrence with one another ; then that the
Test compiler inserted into the resultant short form
another preamble and long interpolations, both in his
own style. All this is most improbable*. Speaking
generally, we may notice that in liturgical forms
interpolation is a priori more likely than omission.
They grew rather than diminished in length ; and it
may confidently be said, that the earlier the form,
the simpler it is. In this particular case we must
come to the conclusion that the simpler ordination
prayer given above represents the original much
better than the more complex forms of Test or AC,
which are produced by enlargement and interpolation.
Indeed we may (though very tentatively) reconstruct
the original prayer by omitting all phrases in the
form given above which are not common to all. And
we may also probably conclude that in the Original,
* Similarly the ordination prayer for a presbyter is shorter in
ConstH than in AC.
78 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
the prayer for presbyters and for bishops was the
same.
3. Minor Orders. There was a tendency to
supplement the organisation of the ministry by offices
which are additional, and (with one possible exception)
inferior, to those of bishop, presbyter, and deacon.
Most of the Church Orders draw a distinction between
those offices that have, and those that have not,
laying on of hands (x^LpoOcata), which is commonly
used only in the ordination of bishops, presbyters, and
deacons. But ConstH extends it to deaconesses and
subdeacons, and AC also to readers (see the Table,
p. 15). Similarly St Basil (Ep. can. tertia ccxvii. 51)
makes a clear distinction on these lines, a.d. 375.
He says that lapsed clergy are ejected from the
ministry, 'whether they be in orders (ev ^a^/xaJ,
cf. ApCan 82), or remain in the ministry which is
conferred without imposition of hands.' And in
A.D, 341 the Council of Antioch in Encaeniis (can. 10)
expressly uses x«^po'''o»'€t^* (though this word need
not necessarily imply laying on of hands) of presbyters
and deacons, but Kadia-rav of readers, subdeacons, and
exorcists, though the latter word may be used of any
order from bishops downwards (e.g. AC iii. 20 \ vi. 17 \
viii. 17^ ApCO-sah 17, 20 f., EgCO 33, 35, 37;
Sar 14 has }(€ipo6ecrta KaTao-Tttcrcws CTTtCTKOTrov, and SO
for presbyters and deacons, § 12 f. : Sarapion has no
benedictions of minor orders ; for other instances see
Brightman JThSt i. 273 f.). Epiphanius includes
* For the meaning of x^'poroi/ta, x^tpo^f*^*" in AC see below
p. 153 fif.
THE MINISTRY AND ORDINATION 79
the subdeacons in the Upoiavvrj, but not readers : 'The
reader is not a priest (Upev?), but as it were a scribe
(ypa/x/xarcvs) of the word' {Expos. Fid. 21, ed. Petavius,
i. 1104). At Laodicea, c. a.d. 380, the bishops, pres-
b3rters, and deacons are apparently placed in a class by
themselves as UpariKot ; the rest are KXr/piKot (can. 27,
30, etc.). But in AC iii. 15^ the minor orders are
included in the UpariKoi (so ApCan 63).
The natural conclusion from this is that at first
these minor orders were not ordained with laying on
of hands, but that ConstH made some advance in
the case of subdeacons and deaconesses, and that AC
went still further and added readers to those who
were so ordained. But Funk {DidCA ii. p. xv,
TUH 41, 52 f., 192 ff.) thinks that the process was
the reverse ; that laying on of hands for the minor
orders was dropped, first partially by ConstH (which
he regards as later than AC) and then wholly by the
rest. He says that the Monophysites do not use laying
on of hands for this purpose, while the Nestorians
use it (Denzinger Bitus Orientalium ii. p. 228) for a
reader [apparently not for a subdeacon, ih. p. 229].
Thus the older sect follows the usage of AC, the
younger that of EgCO; and he deduces from this
the priority of AC over EgCO. It is difficult to see
the force of this argument. In the first place, though
the Monophysites do not use the ordinary laying on
of hands, the ordainer touches the temples of the
reader or subdeacon (for the Copts see Denzinger ii.
3, 5 ; for the Syrian Jacobites see ii. 66 f.). And
even if it were not so the deduction would not follow.
80 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
The Nestorians have more affinity to AC, the
Monophysites to Test (which here follows the EgCO
custom) for doctrinal reasons ; and therefore no
chronological deductions can be made one way or the
other*.
4. Divisions of the Minor Orders. Readers
and 'widows' (with whom we may class deaconesses)
seem to be the oldest of the minor orders. Sub-
deacons, singers, interpreters, doorkeepers, acolytes,
exorcists, virgins (or ascetics, or solitaries), 'those
with gifts' (charismata), appear in various parts of
the world. But the last three are not properly
orders at all, as is expressly said in several of the
Church Orders ; though exorcists are on the border
line (they are 'appointed,' like readers and sub-
deacons, at Antioch in Encaen. can. 10 ; but the
Church Orders look on them as charismatic, e.g,
AC viii. 26).
Acol3rtes only appear in the West. Cornehus
in his letter to Fabius of Antioch (Eusebius HE ^d.
43^) says that there were then (a.d. 251) forty-two
in Rome.
Subdeacons are also first mentioned at the same
time and place. Cornelius {loc. cit.) mentions seven t.
Cyprian {Ep. xxxiv. [xxvii.] 4) and Didasc ii. 34*
* For the qnestion whether the text of ConstH about a reader
shows signs of being an alteration of AC, see below, p. 153 f .
\ In Cornehus' hst there are ' 36 (or 46) presbyters, 7 deacons,
7 subdeacons, 42 acolytes, 52 exorcists, readers and doorkeepers,
and over 1500 widows and persons in distress.' Test (i. 34) has 12
THE MINISTRY AND ORDINATION 81
(DidCA i. p. 116, H^ p. 40, Gibson p. 51) also
mention subdeacons ; and they are the only minor
order mentioned at Elvira in Spain, c. a.d. 305
(can. 30). The reference in Didasc is perhaps an
interpolation, for otherwise they are not found in
the East till the fourth century. They are not
mentioned in ApCO, and Eusebius apparently does
not recognise them as existing in the persecution of
his own time in the East {HE viii. 6^). At Neo-
caesarea in Cappadocia (c. a.d. 320?) a subdeacon
is called a ' minister,' v-n-qpiry]^ (can. 10) ; an offend-
ing deacon is to be degraded to the rank of a
'minister.' This name is also found at Laodicea
(can. 20 ff.), and in AC (iii. IV'\ vi. 17^, viii. 28^
cf. xrrrqpea-La viii. 10^ j in ii. 28^ and apparently in
II Didasc it is used of deacons). The name wo-
StttKovos is found at Antioch in Encaen. (can. 10),
in Sar 25, and in Athanasius Hist, Avian. ^ ad
Tnonachos,^ § 60 {yirohLaKOVov...vTrqpiTOvvra). Sub-
deacons are found in EgCO, EthCO, Hg (p. 116),
Test, ConstH, AC ; and also in EdCan 5, where in
an apparently exhaustive list no other minor order is
mentioned. They are found in our present text of
CH, but Achelis thinks they are interpolated. In
presbyt-ers, 7 deacons, 14 snbdeacons, 13 widows 'who sit in front.'
ApCO (18 ff.) has 3 presbyters, 3 deacons (so syr), 3 widows; the
number of readers is not mentioned, probably only one. Hamack
{SApC p. 95) suggests that as there were 14 regions in Rome, and as
Pope Fabian, c. a.d. 236, had divided the regions among the deacons
{Catal. Liberianus), 7 subdeacons were added in his time to the
7 deacons, so as to have one deacon or subdeacon for each region,
while the 42 acolytes would provide three for each region.
M. 6
82 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
xxi. 217 Achelis suggests that we should alter
* presbyters and subdeacons and readers ' into * pres-
byters and deacons and readers ' as otherwise deacons
would be omitted ; Funk, on the other hand, thinks
that the omission of deacons is merely due to a
scribe, and is a clerical error {TUH 227).
Singers (i/AaXrat, wSoi, i//a\Tu)Sot) are not found as
a separate class or order in Test, EgCO, EthCO, H,
CH; but they have become such in AC (iii. 11,
vi. 17^), at Laodicea (can. 23), in ApCan 43, 69,
and in Test-arab, which alters the Test enumeration
given above to 'four subdeacons and readers, three
widows and singers,' and which adds to Test i. 45 a
chapter about the appointment of a singer.
Interpreters would only exist in bilingual
countries. They are found in Egypt (Sar 25) and
in S}Tia and Palestine (Epiphanius, Expos. Fid. 21 ;
and in ' Silvia,' where however the presbyter in-
terprets for the bishop, vii. 5). They are not found
in the Church Orders. For this office in later times
see Brightman LEW 578.
Doorkeepers (TrvXwpot) as an order are men-
tioned in Cornelius' list, and in AC ii. 57^^ iii. 11,
EthD 10, etc. ; not in Test, EgCO, EthCO, H3. Their
function seems at first to have been performed by
deacons, who as they grew in importance gave up
their more menial offices to subdeacons and door-
keepers. But the direction for deacons to watch the
doors is preserved in almost all the Church Orders,
THE MINISTRY AND ORDINATION 83
even in AC, which makes a separate order of door-
keepers.
5. Widows and deaconesses are frequently
mentioned in early Christian literature in connexion
with the ministry to women as well as with the receipt
of alms. The Pastoral Epistles and the reference in
Ignatius to * the virgins who are called widows '
{Smyrn. 13) prepare us for a considerable develop-
ment. In ApCO there is a trace of a struggle between
those who desired to push women's work, and those
who wished to minimise it, the latter position being
evidently taken by the writer ; but three widows
are to be appointed, two to pray and (strange to say)
to receive spiritual revelations (so ApC0-S3n' 21 and
Ha p. 95), the third to visit the sick. There is not
much said of ' widows ' in most of the manuals
parallel to CH. But in Test there is a great ex-
tension of their position, and this is one of the
marked characteristics of the writer. Corresponding
to presbyters there are ' presbyteresses ' or 'widows
who sit first ' (jrpoKaOrjfxevaL) to whom is given almost
all the women's ministry. But deaconesses are also
incidentally mentioned, as corresponding to the
deacons ; nothing, however, is said about their
appointment, nor yet of the functions they are to
perform, except that they are to carry the Eucharist
to a sick woman just as deacons carry it to a sick
man (ii. 20 for deacons and deaconesses ; for the
former cf. Justin, Apol. i. 65). ' Widows ' in Test
take the part in the baptism of women usually
6—2
84 THE ANCIEXT CHURCH ORDERS
assigned to deaconesses. Both widows and dea-
conesses are allowed to stand within the veil at the
Eucharist (so ArD) -, but in the rubric about the
communion widows are included in the * priesthood,'
while deaconesses are excluded from it (i. 23). ArD
shows traces of some confusion : it talks of ' widows
who are deaconesses' (§ 38). In Test widows are not
to be ordained with laying on of hands, though a
form of prayer is given, to be used at their appoint-
ment (KarcuTTao-t?). They are bidden to be silent in
church* (i. 40). In AC the deaconess (rj Slolkovo^ or
SiaKovLo-cra) takes the place assigned in Test to 'widows
who sit first' (see on baptism below, p. 105 f.), and
widows are subject to deaconesses (iii. 8^ ; so EthD
12). Widows are, however, mentioned frequently in
AC, chiefly as receiving alms and as praying for the
donors. They must be not less than sixty years of age,
and monogamous (iii. 1^; so EthD 12, cf. 1 Ti. v. 9).
Presbyteresses (Trpeo-^vriSc?) are identified with ' those
who sit in front' (TrpoKaOtjixevai,) at Laodicea (can. 11),
where their appointment for the future is forbidden.
The same council forbids women to 'approach near
the altar' (can. 44), apparently referring to the
custom approved in Test and ArD. Presbyteresses are
also found in Didasc ii. 28' {DidCA i. 108, Hi p. 38);
its ' presbji^rae ' appear as Trpco-ySvrtSc? in II AC.
In AC iii. 5^ this word again occurs, but it is
not in 11 Didasc; in AC ii. 57^- at x^P^' '^°^*- ^^
Trpeo-^vTiSc? = * anus ac viduae' of II Didasc, The
* So AC iii. 61, EthD 12 ; the H Didasc forbids them to teach at
aU (cf. 1 Ti. ii. 12).
THE MINISTRY AND ORDINATION 85
* presbyteresses ' and * widows ' seem to be the same
persons, both in Didasc and in AC. The name
TrpccryguTts was not liked by Epiphanius {Haer, Ixxix.
4), except as a designation of an elder widow. There
are no deaconesses in CH, EgCO, EthCO, H3. In
AC ii. 58 ^ EthD 10 they arrange the places of the
women in church, as deacons do those of the men.
They may do nothing without the authority of the
deacon ; and are the intermediaries when any women
have business to transact with the deacon or bishop
(ACii. 26«; cf. EthD 6*).
6. Readers. There is some evidence that the
reader once occupied a very high position, though
we see by Cornelius' list that in the third century
he had sunk to a low one in Rome. In Test i.
35, 44 f. and AC viii. 21 f. he comes after the sub-
deacon, in EgCO 35 f , EthCO 27, CH vii. 48 f. and
at Antioch in Encaen. (can. 10) before him ; but
Test is inconsistent, for in i. 23 (twice) the reader
comes first. There is also an indication that Test
has deliberately altered in i. 44 f. the order of his
source, for he begins about the appointment of a
subdeacon with the word ' similarly ' which is inap-
propriate as it stands, but would be very appropriate
if the chapter about the reader had preceded. AC
also is inconsistent ; in iii. llHhe reader comes first,
in vi. 17^ the subdeacon; but in these passages the
order of offices is vague. CH also is inconsistent;
* SEC-arab 53 (corresponding to SEC-sah 66) and EthS 54,
which are parallel to AC viii., speak of subdeaconesses and female
readers. But SEC-boh, sah has 'subdeacons and readers.'
86 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
see xxi. 217, where the subdeacon comes first. In
ApCO 19 f. the reader comes before the dea<xm, and
Harnack sees here a very old arrangement dating
from the second century, in which the office of
reader (like that of the exorcist) was charismatic,
and he was not included among the clergy ; whereas
eariy in the third century, in Rome, he came to be
reckoned among the clergy. He points out that in
Didasc the reader was to receive a double portion at
the Agape like the presb3rters and dea<?ons, while in
II AC ii. 28 '^ this is reduced to a single portion (SApC
p. 71 f.). We remember what an important position
the reader takes in Justin's account of the Eucharist
(Apol. i. 67).
There are other traces of the old position of the
reader, even after that position had been lost. For
example, ApCO 19 insists that the reader must be
able to instruct or narrate (Si-qyTjrLKo^) — he * fills the
place of an Evangelist*' — though the same manual
does not insist that a bishop should be sot ('if he
knows not letters, he shall be meek ' etc. § 16). So in
Test (i. 45) the reader must have had * much expe-
rience ' and be ' learned and of much learning, with a
good memor}\' At one time, it would appear, the
reader expounded as well as read ; when his function
was limited to the mechanical reading of the Scrip-
• The Bohairic has altered this (Tattam p. 22).
+ The possibUity of an unlearned (a'i/aX</)a'/3rjTo« or dypdfi-
fiaTosi) bishop is often recognised : e.g. AC ii. 1- and Didasc, EthD 3.
Some manuals however \\ill not tolerate an ignorant bishop : of.
Test i. 20, AC riii. 2* (another inconsistency), SEC 63 (Homer,
p. 338).
THE MINISTRY AND ORDINATION 87
tures his position fell. In the Clementine Epistle to
James 1 3 there are catechists who are to instruct and
must be learned. In Cyprian {Ep. xxxviii. [xxxii.] 2),
though the reader is inferior to the subdeacon, he
reads the Gospel in the Liturgy ; and in CH vii. 48
the Book of the Gospels is given him at his appoint-
ment. In Test (i. 45) this becomes * a book ' only ;
and (i. 27) the reader reads 'the Prophets and the
rest' {i.e. the Apostle). In ConstH he receives a
book, in EgCO 35 the 'book of the Apostle' (the
Pauline Epistles; EgCO-arab 26 has simply 'the book,'
and so EthCO 27 'the Scripture'). AC viii. 22=^ merely
refers to his reading the Scriptures. In Sarapion the
office is mentioned, but we learn nothing about it.
Another probable trace of older custom is that in Test
i. 19 the reader is allowed to say the ' commemoration '
(probably the suffrages of the Ectene) as an alternative
to the chief deacon. Harnack goes so far as to say
{SApG p. 69) that the ordination prayer for a reader
in AC viii. 22 points back to the time when readers
were regarded as having a charisma. But those who
had a charisma in old times were not ordained.
Doubtless, however, AC, like Test, contains relics of a
bygone point of view. Another thing that points in
the same direction is the comparative scarcity of
readers. AC ii. 28^ and II Didasc say : 'if there be
a reader.' ApCO 19 apparently only provided for
o/i€ reader in each church (Harnack, SApC -p. 15, pro-
poses to insert ct?). See also above, pp. 14 f., 81 n.
7. Confessors. Those who in times of persecu-
tion had confessed the faith, even though they had
88 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
not been martyred, received for the rest of their lives
great reverence. A sort of honorary presbyterate
was extended to them all as a class, and this is
provided for in CH vi. 43—47, EgCO 34, EthCO 25,
Test i. 39 [H3 is wanting]. Achelis {Die Can. Hipp.
p. 221 ff.) has adduced some evidence that in the
third century confessors were held as qualified to be
among the clergy. But there is no evidence that
they were allowed to perform ministerial functions
without ordination. The section in CH and its
cognates is much confused, and we can only arrive
at the sense by comparing one with another. That
in EgCO runs as follows : —
If a confessor has been in chains for the Name of the
Lord, they shall not lay hand upon him for the diaconate
(or ministry) or presbyterate, for he has the honour of the
presbyterate by his confession. But if he is to be appointed
bishop, then there shall be laying on of hands on him.
But if he is a confessor who was not brought before an
authority, nor was punished with chains, nor shut up in
prison, nor condemned with any sentence, but in a casual
way he was only insulted for the Name of oiu* Lord, and
he was pimished in the house (privately?), though he
confessed, hand is to be laid on him for every office of
which he is worthy. Now the bishop shall give thanks
according as we have said before. It is not altogether
necessary for him to recite the same words which we said
before, as if learning to say them by heart in his thanks-
giving to Grod ; but according to the abihty of each one he
is to pray. If indeed he can pray sufficiently well with
a grand prayer, then it is good. But if also he should
pray and recite a prayer in (due) measure, no one may
forbid him, only let him pray being sound in orthodoxy
(slightly altered from Horner, p. 308 f.).
THE MINISTRY AND ORDINATION 89
EthCO is still more confused, and Test, in which
the passage is shorter, scarcely less so. But the
general sense is clear. A confessor is to rank with
presbyters ; if he is required for the episcopate he is
to be ordained with laying on of hands. This is
intelligible. Apart from the question of the bishop
having the sole right of ordination of others, it would
be difficult to have honorary bishops, as there was
only one bishop for each diocese ; while it would be
easy to have honorary presbyters, as there were so
many ordinary presbyters. The rest of the section
deals with another class of confessors, who are
worthy of ordination by their confession; and with
the permission to deviate from the fixed prayer of
ordination. The II AC viii. 23 is quite plain. Its
object is to repress the undue claims of confessors to
minister, and it is a simplification of what was an
ambiguous chapter in its source. It says that a
confessor is not ordained, for it (confessorship) is of
his own will (yvw/utry) and endurance ; but he is to be
honoured, and if wanted for a bishop or 'presbyter or
deacon he is to be ordained. A self-asserting con-
fessor is to be cast out. Here is a clear instance of
the posteriority of AC (see below, p. 145).
8. Promotion. The promotion of readers is
mentioned in AC viii. 22 ^ Test i. 45, but not in
EgCO, EthCO ; that of subdeacons in Test i. 44.
St Basil forbids the advancement of an offending
reader or minister (subdeacon) in Ep. canon, tert.
ccxvii. 69, and implies that ordinarily they would be
90 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
promoted. In Cyprian Ep. xxxix. (xxxiii.) 5 some
readers are mentioned as about to become presbyters
directly, because they had been confessors ; this
has a bearing on what was said about confessors
above. The promotion of deacons is referred to in
the ordination prayers in AC viii. 17 ^ EthCO 24 and
probably Test i. 38 (this is made likely by || EthCO
24, now newly published) ; Hg breaks off before
this sentence in the prayer is reached. In the
fourth-century Life of Polycarp by Pseudo-Pionius
(Lightfoot, Ignatius^ iii. 433 ff.)j Polycarp is made to
be successively deacon, presbyter, and bishop (§§ 11,
17, 23) ; and so the Council of Sardica (c. a.d. 347)
says (can. 10) that a bishop mu«t have been reader,
deacon, and presbyter in succession and for a con-
siderable time ; but the genuineness of these canons
is disputed. ApCO-syr 22 (so Hs p. 97) refers to the
promotion of the deacons to the episcopate (Trot/xevtKos
TOTTos), a comment on 1 Ti. iii. 13 ; it is not said that
they can become presb}i;ers.
9. Marriage of the clergy. The Church
Orders do not all take quite the same line on this ques-
tion. CH, EgCO, EthCO, Hg say nothing about it.
ApCO-syr 16 shows a somewhat ascetic tendency. A
bishop is better as a celibate or if 'from one wife,' i.e.^
probably, a widower. This is softened in ApCO-boh,
sah ; a married bishop ' having children ' (rratStuv /xeroxos
for TraiSeta? ^. * one who can impart discipline ' which
is undoubtedly the original) is to abide with his wife
(Ha is wanting here ; ApCO-arab, eth read * before he
THE MINISTRY AND ORDINATION 91
becomes bishop ' for ' having children '). ApCO
suggests that presbyters should not marry (§ 18), but
deacons are expressly allowed to do so once; they
must be 'monogamous' (a different expression from
that used of bishops) and ' educating their children '
(T€KvoTp6(f)0L, § 20). Test says nothing of presbyters'
marriage, but evidently would wish bishops and
deacons to be celibates or widowers, though it actually
prescribes a less strict rule (i. 20, 33). AC ii. 2
and II Didasc (Hi p. 16), and ApCan 5, 40, 51,
on the other hand, rather favour married bishops
than otherwise, as also apparently do the Clementine
Homilies* (iii. 68). Thus also ArD 36 is less ascetic
than II Test, and makes no suggestion that the
bishop should be a widower; it prefers a celibate,
but a bishop may be married. EthD 3 seems to
insist that a bishop must be married.
Funk (TUH &S) remarks that while in the time
of Clement of Alexandria presbyters might marry, a
stricter discipline came in during the fourth century,
as Epiphanius witnesses. He argues that AC, which
is more lax on this subject, must therefore be earlier
than Test, which is more strict. The history of
opinion does not justify this view. The tendency
in the fourth century is undoubted ; but it was far
from universal, and there were differences of opinion
between men of opposite schools of thought then as
* The date of the ' Clementine ' literature is uncertain : it used
to be thought to belong to the second or to the third century ; but
the latest writers on the subject attribute it to the fourth (Dom
Butler in JThSt x. 457 ; cf. Hort, Clementine Recognitions, London
1901, p. 130).
92 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
now. Test and AC represent such opposite schools ;
ApCan, as we should expect, favours the AC view.
The councils of Antioch in Encaeniis and of Gangra
(c. A.D. 370?) do the same. The former (can. 25)
assumes as a probable state of things that a bishop
will have a 'household' and 'sons.' Funk's argument,
then, would require us to put, not only Test, but
ApCO into the fifth century, which is impossible.
His deduction that Test insists on presbyters being
celibates or widowers is not warranted by the text,
which says nothing about it, but only that they
must be 'pure, without blame' (i. 29), almost the
same phraseology as is used about subdeacons and
readers (i. 44 f.).
Those Church Orders which mentiou the subject
of clerical marriage at all insist at least on monogamy;
the clergy must not have married again after their
first wife's death, for this was the interpretation
which they put on the injunction of the Pastoral
Epistles ; see e.g. AC vi. 17, which expressly extends
the injunction of monogamy to the minor orders. In
ApCan 17 — 19 no one who has married twice aft^r
baptism, or who has married a widow or a divorced
or an unworthy woman, or two sisters, or a niece,
may enter even the minor orders. It may be re-
marked that even the less austere Church Orders
show a great dislike of second marriages. They are
to be avoided by laymen also, though not forbidden
to them. But third or fourth marriages are abomi-
nated. Thus EthD 12 says: 'A first marriage is
pure before the Lord, but they who marry a second
THE MINISTRY AND ORDINATION 93
time are transgressors of the Law.... And they who
marry a third time are not to be numbered with the
flock of Christ. But as to those who marry a fourth
time, their lasciviousness is yet more evident, and
they shall find reproach and dishonour. For in the
first creation the Lord gave one woman to one man
and for this cause they two became one flesh.' The
remarriage of widows is in question ; the writer goes
on, however, to allow (though grudgingly) a second
marriage. The II AC iii. 2 is similar, but not quite
so strong. St Basil says that digamists and trigamists
were subject to penance ; trigamy, indeed, was no
longer described as marriage at all {Ep. canon, prim.
cLxxxviii. 4 ; cf. also Ep. canon, sec. cxcix. 50).
Marriage after ordination is forbidden in AC vi. 17 ^
(not in 11 Didasc) to bishops, presbyters, deacons, but
not to subdeacons, singers, readers and doorkeepers ;
in ApCan 26, to all clergy except readers and singers.
And this was the general rule, though post-ordination
marriage was only forbidden by civil law under
Justinian, a.d. 528. The council of Neocaesarea
(c. A.D. 320?) forbids it to presbyters (can. 1), and
a few years earlier that of Ancyra also to deacons,
unless they have given notice of marriage before they
are ordained (can. 10).
94 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
Note on Discipline.
It is a matter of some surprise that the Church Orders
do uot show an elaboi*ate system of discipUne, such as the
canons of some of the Councils would lead us to expect.
Grades of penitents* are found in several fourth century
writers, e.g. Basil {Ep. canon, sec. cxcix. 22, tert. ccxvii.
56 ff., 80 f.). But it would seem that the division of
penitents into ' stations ' was never a universal thing in
all countries. In the canons of Elvira in Spain they are
not divided into ' stations,' but are punished according to
the nature of their offences, in no very methodical manner.
In the AC liturgy we find divisions of penitents, but not
elsewhere. The discipline of the laity is exercised by the
bishop and presbyters through the deacons (Test i. 36 f.,
AC ii. 16i'2, EthD 4, not || Didasc). AC and EthD
speak of quite short periods of penitence, from two to
seven weeks ; they make a protest (as does Didasc)
against too great severity, e.g. AC ii. 13 f., EthD 3 ; of.
ApCan 52. A rather unguarded statement of Didasc (so
EthD 3) that one who sins after baptism is condemned
in hell, is qualified in 1| AC ii. 7^ by the addition of the
words ' unless he repent and cease from his transgression.'
Later phrases in Didasc and EthD show that this is the
meaning there also. In CH xv. 79 (not in i| EgCO, EthCO)
it is said that those who fall into great sin after baptism
are to be expelled until they repent with weeping, fasting,
and works of mercy ; but this manual has no specially
ascetic tone. A stricter tendency is found in Test, due
probably to the Montanistic influence at work in it (see
below, p. 118). In i. 37 the deacon is forbidden to
bring into the church 'for partaking' one who, having
been baptized, has committed violence on a woman * even
* Traces of them are found in Tertullian {e.g. especially de
Poenit. 6 where 'auditor' probably = a penitent) and in Cyprian.
THE MINISTRY AND ORDINATION 95
if he repent.' It would, however, be a mistake to build
too much on this. The meaning probably is that the
matter is taken out of the hands of the deacon, who in
this Church Order is otherwise given a very large dis-
cretion ; nothing is said further. The extremely rigorist
line taken by the Council of Elvira (c. a.d. 305) is not
imitated, so far as we can judge, by any of the Church
Orders.
In all this literature the catechumens are dismissed
before the more solemn part of the Liturgy, the Missa
Fidelium as it was afterwards called, begins.
For the subject of ' Penitential Discipline in the First
Three Centuries ' reference may be made to an article by
Dr Swete in JThSt iv. 321 ff.
CHAPTER VI
BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION
The following description is taken from six of the
Church Orders (CH xix. 101—153, EgCO 45 f.,
EthCO 34 f., H3 p. 110 ff., Test ii. 6—10, AC vii. 22,
40 — 45). In the first five the passages are parallel ;
but the fragment of H3 begins in the middle of the
baptismal creed. The description in AC is inde-
pendent (see above, p. 28 fi*.).
1. Baptismal ceremonies. The time for
baptism is Easter Day at cockcrow (Test * after mid-
night'). But CH xix. 107 and Test ii. 6 contemplate
in some cases the baptism being postponed to another
day ; AC does not mention any season. None of
these manuals speak of 'Pentecost' as a time for
baptism, as Tertullian does ; he says that Pascha and
Pentecost were the usual seasons {de Bapt. 19),
but by the latter term he means the fifty days before
Whitsunday (below, p. 133). And this long continued
to be the general rule ; for baptism at Epiphany and
on other days in some places see DC A i. 165.
These Church Orders (including AC viii. 32 and
II ConstH 22 and SEC 75, EthS 63) give strict direc-
BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION 97
tions as to the care to be taken in the selection of the
candidates, as to trades and occupations which are
forbidden to Christians, and as to the reception of
concubines. Military service is forbidden in most of
these books ; CH xiii. 71 f. is slightly less strict, and
AC viii. 32 ^^ ConstH 22 ^"soften down the prohibition
into a direction that a soldier is to be taught to carry
out the Baptist's rules (Lk. iii. 14 ; so || SEC 75,
EthS 63). The prohibition, however impossible in
practice, argues the relative antiquity of EgCO,
EthCO, Test (H3 has a lacuna here). ApCan 83
only forbids bishops, presbyters, and deacons to be
soldiers. (See further below, p. 145 f.)
The selected candidates or ' competentes ' were
set apart for instruction. The selection was made at
the beginning of the ' forty days of Pascha ' (Lent).
The 45th canon of Laodicea says that none are to be
received after the second week in Lent. As the time
for baptism comes on, the competentes have the
Gospel read over them ; on Maundy Thursday they
bathe (so also Augustine Epp. liv. 10, Iv. 33
Ben., ad Januarium) ; on the Friday they fast (see
below, p. 137) ; on the Saturday they are exorcised
by the bishop after the deacon's litany (so explicitly
Test ii. 7, the rest implicitly), and receive the sign of
the cross, or seal (see below, p. 108 f.). They keep
vigil till cockcrow on Easter Day and then ' come to
the water' (the baptistery). Two oils are consecrated
by the bishop, one called the 'oil of exorcism,' the
other the ' oil of thanksgiving' (CH, EgCO, EthCO ;
Test similar ; cf. Cyr. Jer. CX xx. 3 ' exorcised oil ').
M. 7
98 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
Sar 15 f. has two prayers of consecration over the
oil (oAci/x/xa) and chrism (xP^a-fxa) ; but Brightman
(JThSt i. 264 f.) treats the former as being said
when the candidates are anointed the first time,
and the second at the Confirmation. The water is
hallowed (so expressly EgCO, EthCO, AC) ; this is
impHed in the epithet 'sacram' in CH xix. 112, but
it is not mentioned in Test ; it is spoken of in Cyprian
Ep. Ixx. (Ixix.) 1, Sar 7, Cyril of Jerusalem CL iii. 3,
Basil de Spir. S. xxvii. (66) (which also mentions the
blessing of the chrism), and elsewhere. The inter-
polated EthS 40 A (see above, p. 21) gives prayers
for hallowing the water.
The candidate makes a renunciation of the devil,
turning (CH, Test, Cyr. Jer.) to the West. The
renunciation is universal, at any rate from Tertullian's
time onwards. He gives the form as : ' I renounce
the devil and his pomp and his angels' (de Cor. 3,
de Spect. 4t ; ci.de Idol. 6) and it is practically the
same in the Church Orders, though, except in CH, the
word ' pomp ' loses its neutral sense of ' retinue ' and
is used (often in the plural, as it is in the Book of
Common Prayer, though there coupled with the
singular ' vanity ') in the bad sense of ' display,'
'pride' (so Cyr. Jer. CL xix. 6 expressly; see further
art. 'Abrenuntio' in ERE'i. 38 fF.). The renuncia-
tion is sometimes put interrogatively, with the answer
* I renounce ' ; and in the case of infants, sponsors,
that is, the ' parents or relations,' make the replies
(Test, CH, EgCO, EthCO; for the sponsors cf.
Tertullian, de Bapt. 18). The sponsors are said to
BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION 99
take up (suscipere) the baptized from the font
(cf. Tertullian, de Cw. 3 ; so dva\r](f>0€Ls, Socrates
HE vii. 4), and are therefore called * suscep tores,'
dvdSoxoL. Infant baptism is expressly prescribed in
AC vi. 15^, the preceding chapter having forbidden
circumcision ; these are interpolations into Didasc by
the AC writer. So in Test ii. 8 ' babes ' are baptized
before the adults, just as in i. 23 (and AC viii. 13")
they are communicated before them.
The first anointing, by the presbyter, follows the
Renunciations. The ' oil of exorcism ' is used, and
the presbyter says : * Let every spirit depart from
thee ' (Test developes this a little). This anointing
is in all these manuals. In AC vii. 22^ it is
interpolated into 1| D 7, which does not mention
anointing at all; but AC says that if there is neither
oil (tXaioi/) nor unguent (ixvpov), water sufiices. So
there is an anointing with consecrated oil before
baptism in Clementine Recognitions iii. 67, Sar 15,
Cyr. Jer. CL xx. 3.
This pre-baptismal anointing seems to be the only one
in Didasc (iii. 12 ; the || AC iii. 16* interpolates another
after the immersion, see DidCA i. 210 f.), and this also was
apparently the custom in the Syriac-speaking Church in
the earliest ages. Dom Connolly ('Texts and Studies' viii.
p. xlii) cites the Acts of Judas Thomas (in five places), the
Acts of John the Son of Zebedee (in two places), the Life of
Babbula, a Syriac account of the baptism of Constantino,
and the Liturgical Homilies of Narsai (fifth century).
On the other hand post-baptismal anointing only is
mentioned in Tertullian {adv. Marc. i. 14 ['water — oil —
honey and milk — sacramental bread '], de Resurr. Cam. 8
7—2
100 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
[Hhe flesh is washed, anointed, signed, shadowed with
laying on of hands, it feeds on the body and blood of
Christ'], de Bapt. 7), and apparently in Cj^prian {Ep. Ixx.
[Ixix.] 2) and Origen {in Rom. v. 8).
2. The Baptismal Creed and the Immer-
sions. In CH and Test the candidate turns to the
East and makes his act of submission to God*, saying
(CH) : ' I believe and bow myself before thee and all
thy pompt, 0 Father, Son, and Holy Ghost' He
then goes down to the water, led by the deacon or
(CH) the presbyter 'performing the office of a
deacon.' The act of submission to God in the other
Church Orders takes the form of a recital of a Creed
or a profession of faith at the time of baptizing ; this
is also found as an addition in CH, Test. This is
the ' redditio symboli,' as the teaching of the Creed
during the catechumenate is the * traditio symboli.'
[At Laodicea (can. 46) the competentes recite the
Creed on Maundy Thursday.] The Creed is given
in most of the manuals interrogatively; in CH, H3,
Test it is divided into three parts, one for each
immersion, but in EgCO, EthCO the whole of the
first form of Creed (p. 101) is said thrice j.
In CH, H3, Test, the Creed is of the Roman form,
and is as follows, the italicised passages being only
found in one of these three manuals : —
* avvrdaaofiai is the usual word, as opposed to dvTiTaaaofiai
'I renounce'; so AC vii. 413, Athauasius q^ ^ Arian. ii. 43. The
substantive diroTayi] is used in Sar 9 and AC vii. 41^.
t Here 'pomp' = 'retinue,' as above, p. 98.
J A reminiscence of a Creed is found in Didasc {DidCA i. 382,
H, p. 89), and is preserved in I AC vi. 30^ ; but baptism is not being
spoken of. There is no mention of a creed in D.
BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION 101
Dost thou believe in God the Father Almighty] [H
fragment begins here]. Dost thou believe also (Test) in
Christ Jesus [CH : Jesus Christ] the Son of God, who came
from the Father^ who is of old with the Father (Test), who
was born of Mary the Virgin [CH : whom Mary the Virgin
bore] of the Holy Ghost, who came to save the human race
(CH), who was crucified for us (CH) under [Test : in the
days of] Pontius Pilate, and died and was buried (H) and
rose the third day, coming to life (not CH) from the dead,
and ascended into heaven, and sat down (CH : sitteth) at
the right hand of the Father, and shall come [Test :
Cometh] to judge the quick and the dead? Dost thou
believe also (Test) in the Holy Ghost, the Paraclete,
proceeding from the Father and the Son* (CH) and in the
holy Church (not CH), and the resurrection of thefiesh% (H).
The Creed or form of submission in EgCO and
EthCO is a double one ; the second part rather
strangely has no clause about God the Father. Both
parts are said in the water, the former at each
immersion, thrice in all ; the latter after immersion.
In what follows, the three versions of EgCO, the
Sahidic and Arabic given by Horner, and the Bohairic
given by Tattam, are collated, as well as EthCO.
I. I believe [arab : Dost thou believe] in the one true
(Eth omits) God, the Father Almighty, and in his only
Son our Lord and our Saviour Jesus Christ, and his
[boh, Eth : the] Holy Spirit, Giver of life to the universe
[arab, Eth : all creation ; boh omits], the Trinity of the
same substance {o\ioov(tiov\ one Godhead [arab, Eth : the
Trinity equal in Godhead], one Lordship [Eth: Lord],
one kingdom, one faith, one baptism, in the catholic
apostolic [arab, Eth omit] holy Church, and life eternal.
Amen. Answer : I believe this.
* The Filioque is probably an interpolation ; see below, pp. 116,
158.
102 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
II. Dost thou believe [sah: Thou belie vest] in the
Name of (Eth) our Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God
the Father, that he became man for our sake (sah, boh) by
a miracle in an incomprehensible imity [arab, Eth : in an
incomprehensible miracle ; boh : in a wonderful manner]
in his [arab : from the ; Eth : by the] Holy Spirit, from
[Eth : and by] our lady (Eth) Mary the holy (sah, boh)
Virgin without seed of man, and that he was crucified for
us (boh, sah) in the time of Pontius Pilate and died
voluntarily for our salvation ; that he rose from the dead
(Eth, arab) on the third day ; that he released the captives
[boh : bonds], ascended into heaven, and sat down at
the right hand of his good [arab, Eth : the] Father on high
(sah, boh) ; and that he cometh [arab, Eth : shall come]
to judge the quick and the dead at [sah : according to] his
appearing and his kingdom ? And dost thou believe [sah :
thou believest] in the holy, good, and life-giving [arab,
Eth : sanctifying] Spirit, purifying the universe (sah, boh),
in the holy Church ; and dost thou believe the resurrection
of the body which shall happen to all men^ and the kingdom,
of heaven and eternal judgment ? (arab, Eth ; boh omits ;
sah has a lacuna after ' Church '). Answer : I believe.
It is very noteworthy that Hg has departed from
EgCO and EthCO, and has the Roman form of Creed.
The submission to God and the baptismal Creed in
AC vii. 41 come immediately after the Renunciation
and be/are the first anointing. So in Cyril CL
xix. 9 the candidate before the anointing makes his
submission, saying : * I believe in the Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost, and in one baptism of repentance ' ;
but in this account there is another, interrogatory,
profession at the immersion (see below). The form
in AC is as follows : —
Ajid I associate myself {avvrdcra-ofiai) with Christ, and
BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION 108
believe and am baptized into one unbegotten only
true God Almighty, the Father of Christ, the Creator
and Maker of all things, from whom are all things ; and
into the Lord Jesus the Christ his only begotten Son,
the Firstborn of all creation, who before the ages was
begotten by the good pleasure of the Father, not created,
by whom all things were made, which are in heaven and
on earth, both visible and invisible, who in the last days
descended from heaven and took flesh and was born of the
holy Virgin Mary, and did live (iroXiTcvcrdixfvov) holily
according to the laws of his God and Father, and was
crucified under Pontius Pilate, and died for us, and rose
again from the dead after his passion on the third day,
and ascended into heaven, and sat down on the right hand
of the Father, and again cometh at the end of the world
with glory to judge the quick and the dead, of whose
kingdom there shall be no end. And I am baptized into
the Holy Ghost, that is, the Paraclete, who wrought in all
the saints from the beginning of the world, but was
afterwards sent both to the Apostles by the Father
according to the promise of our Saviour and Lord, Jesus
Christ, and after the Apostles to all those that believe
in the holy catholic and apostolic Church ; into the
resurrection of the flesh and into the remission of sins,
and into the kingdom of heaven and into the life of the
world to come.
In Cyril (CL xx. 4) there is, in addition to
the formula of submission already mentioned, an
interrogation at the water. The candidates are
asked if they believe in the Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost ; they descend three times into the water
and ascend again. And in the North Italian de
Sacramentis (ii. 7 ; c. a.d. 400) there is a short
interrogatory Creed, one clause being said at each
104 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
immersion : ' Dost thou believe in God the Father
Almighty? Dost thou believe in our Lord Jesus
Christ and in his cross? Dost thou believe also in
the Holy Ghost?'
The act of baptizing is performed by the presbyter.
The formula of baptism is given in D 7, CH xix. 133,
AC iii. 16*, vii. 22S 44^ ; cf. ApCan 50. In CHitis:
* I baptize thee in the Name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Ghost, who is equal.' The
formula is not given in Test, but it is implied in
ii. 7, in the long prayer of exorcism said over the
competentes. Trine immersion is the usage (cf.
Tertullian de Cor. 3, in Prax. 26, ApCan 50), though
it is disputed whether this means actual dipping {total
immersion). The water must be flowing according
to D 7 (cv vSart ^wkti, omitted in 1| AC vii. 22^), CH,
EgCO, EthCO ; that is, as explained in the two
last, it must flow into the font. D, EgCO, EthCO
make an exception in case of scarcity of water.
D says : ' If thou hast not running water, then
baptize in other water ; if thou art not able in cold
(water), then in wann ; but if thou hast neither,
then pour water on the head thrice in (ci?) the Name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.'
CH mentions the water of a stream (xix. 112), not of
the sea, as Achelis ; see Burkitt in JThSt i. 279.
[So in xxix. 213 the dust swept up from the church
(loco sacro) is to be cast into a stream.^
3. Confirmation. After the baptized come
up from the water, the second anointing by the
BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION 105
presbyter takes place. The 'oil of thanksgiving' is
used, and the presbyter says : ' I anoint thee with oil
in the Name of Jesus Christ' (so Test, Hg, EgCO ; but
EthCO and EgCO-arab omit the last six words ; CH
substitutes : ' in the Name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Ghost '). The neophyte is then
clothed (in white. Test ii. 12 ; and so often in
Christian antiquity, see DC A i. 163, but the other
Church Orders merely mention the clothing), and
brought from the baptistery into the church. In the
anointing of women the services of deaconesses (AC
iii. 16^) or of * widows who sit first' (Test ii. 8) are
employed, but the presbyter says the words of
anointing (Test). Similarly in baptism, the bishop
says the renunciations and submissions, but the
widows 'beneath a veil receive' women 'by a veil'
{ih.). In AC iii. 16^ the deacon anoints 'the forehead
of the women with the holy oil ' and ' after iiim the
deaconess ' anoints them ; so ' in the laying on of
hands' (xeipo^co-ta) the bishop anoints the head.
The writer goes on (iii. 16^) to say that the bishop
anoints the head of those who are being baptized,
whether men or women, with the holy oil (that is,
the first anointing). Then the bishop or presbyter
baptizes them, and a deacon receives the men and a
deaconess the women, so that the ' seal ' may be
given solemnly (o-c/xvoTrpcTrws), and then the bishop
anoints the baptized with ^ivpov. In 11 Didasc {DidCA
i. p. 210) a deaconess or another woman, if there
is one, anoints women before baptism. In the laying
on of hands the bishop is to anoint the head only,
106 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
whether of men or women, and afterwards when he
(or the deacon or presbyter at his command) baptizes,
a deaconess is to anoint the women. But a man is
to repeat the baptismal formula. Then a deaconess
receives the newly baptized ascending from the water,
so that the seal may be given *in purity and holiness.*
Both AC and Didasc are a little confused. In II EthD
16 the deaconess anoints the women before baptism
and clothes them again afterwards, and the bishop
anoints both the men and women on the forehead,
and so on, as before.
When the newly baptized are brought into the
church, the bishop lays a hand on them and invokes
for them the Holy Ghost, or the grace of God. The
prayer is as follows : —
EgCO 46 (sah, boh, arab), EthCO 35
Lord (Eg) God, as thou hast made these worthy of
receiving (Eg) the laver of the new birth and of (arab, Eth)
forgiveness of sins unto the future life (sah, boh), make
them worthy to be filled with thy (sah, boh) Holy Spirit,
and speed forth (Eth) and send down (Eg) upon them thy
grace [Eth : the grace of the Holy Spirit], that they may
serve thee according to (Eg) thy will, for thine is the glory
[Eth : Glory to], Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in the holy
Church, now and always and for ever and ever.
H3 p. Ill
Lord God who hast made these worthy to obtain forgive-
ness of sins by the washing of regeneration of the Holy
Spirit, send upon them thy grace that they may serve thee
according to thy will, for thine is the glory. Father, and
Son, with the Holy Spirit, in the holy Church, both now
and for ever and ever. Amen.
BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION 107
CH xix. 137 f.
We bless thee, Almighty Lord God, that thou hast
made these worthy to be born again, and pourest on them
thy Holy Spirit, that they may be joined to the body of
the Church, never to be separated by heathen (alienis)
works. Give rather to those to whom thou hast given
forgiveness of sins, a pledge of thy kingdom through our
Lord Jesus Christ, through whom to thee with him and
the Holy Ghost be glory for ever and ever. Amen,
The forms in EgCO, EthCO, H3* are mere
variants ; that in CH does not directly invoke,
though it refers to, the gift of the Spirit, but it is
not independent of the others, as we see by the
common use of phrases and the identity of the drift
of the prayers. These forms, then, all seem to depend
on a common original. The prayer in Test is longer,
being derived from the original, directly or indirectly,
by interpolation. It is very similar to H, but like
EgCO and EthCO has : 'make them worthy to be filled
with the Holy Spirit.' The form in AC vii. 44 is
quite independent. It is a prayer for the efficacy of
the anointing.
There is at this point in EgCO, EthCO, H3, Test,
a third anointing, by the bishop (but in EthCO by
the presbyter t), with the 'oil of thanksgiving,' on
the head. The bishop says : ' I anoint thee with the
holy anointing oil from (or 'in,' or 'in the Name of)
God the Father Almighty, and Jesus Christ [Christ
* The scribe of H seems to have made a slip in connecting
•Spiritus sancti' with ' regenerationis ' instead of with 'gratiam.'
■j" In Sar the bishop blesses the oil and no more is said ; perhaps
the presbyter did the rest.
108 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
Jesus] (the only Son) and the Holy Ghost [Test
amplifies]. He then ' seals ' him on the forehead, gives
him the kiss of peace, saying : * The Lord [God of the
meek, Test] be with thee ' and each one answers sepa-
rately * And with thy spirit.' In CH there is no third
anointing, but the sign of the cross and salutation
follow the laying on of hands and its prayer im-
mediately. In AC also (vii. 43 f.) only one anointing
after baptism is spoken of, and the laying on of hands
is only referred to incidentally (vii. 44^)*; after the
anointing and laying on of hands the neophyte stands
up, as a sign that he is raised with Christ, and says
the Lord's prayer and another. — For the laying on of
hands in Confirmation and the invocation of the
Holy Ghost see Tertullian de Bapt. 8 (cf. de Resurr.
Cam. 8), Cyprian Epp. Ixxii. (Ixxi.) 1 ; Ixxiii. (Lxxii.)
9. Tertullian mentions the anointing in both treatises.
Cyril of Jerusalem (CL xxi.) speaks of the anointing,
but not of the laying on of hands. Athanasius {ad
Serap. Orat. i. 6) says that by the laying on of the
Apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given to those
who were being regenerated (so Origen de Princip.
i. 3^).
A word may be added about the 'seal,* which has
several meanings. (1) It is used for baptism, in the
Ancient Homily, 'Pseudo-Clement 2 ad Cor.^ 7f. and
* It is perhaps not a mere coincidence that AC also apparently
takes the laying on of hands for granted in the ordination of a
hishop ; but there it is not even referred to (see above, p. 74). In
AC ii. 323, iii. 163 the laying on of hands by the bishop in confirma-
tion is exphcitly mentioned, and probably also in iii. 10^. On the
question of the presbyter confirming in AC see p. 155.
BAPllSM AND CONFIRMATION 109
Hermas Sim. viii. 6 ; for other second century references
see Lightfoot Clement ii. p. 226 ; perhaps also in ApCO 12
(not in II D). (2) It denotes the sign of the cross, at
any time, Cyril CL xiii. 36 ; so the competentes are
'sealed' before baptism (see above). But especially (3) it
denotes the sign of the cross in Confirmation, and so
Confirmation itself, or the anointing at Confirmation, as
above, and AC iii. 17^ (not in || Didasc), vii. 22^ (expressly,
as distinguished from the immersion), Cyril CL iii. 3. (4) It
is used for the action of presbyters at the ordination of
presbyters, H3 p. 110 (not in || EthCO 24) ; or (5) for
the conclusion of a service, Test i. 26, where perhaps
a final blessing is meant, the word being used in this
sense among the Nestorians to this day ; or (6) for the
Eucharistic bread, Brightman LE W p. 587. In EdCan 8
the liturgical gospel is called the 'sealer' of the lec-
tions; and in Tertullian {de Orat. 18) the kiss of peace is
called the 'seal' (signaculum) of prayer.
4. The Baptismal Eucharist follows im-
mediately after the Confirmation ; for this see above,
p. 46. The newly-baptized communicate in Test
(i. 23) directly after the clergy and those that have
charismata, and just before the infants and the rest
of the laity. One feature may be mentioned. In
EgCO 45, EthCO 34, Test ii. 8, the candidates for
baptism are forbidden to bring anything with them
(EgCO specifies, 'any other vessel ' : EthCO has ' any
ornament of gold, or ring or gem of any kind') except
an offering for the Eucharist. Funk objects {TUH
p. 54) that the custom of communicants bringing
golden or other vessels to the Eucharist, to receive
the sacrament in them, was forbidden a.d. 692 by the
TruUan Synod (can. 101) and was not known before,
110 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
its non-existence being implied by the silence of Cyril
of Jerusalem and Chrysostom ; and that therefore
these manuals cannot be of the fourth century. The
argument from silence, however, is usually insecure ;
and in this case, even if the custom condemned by
the Trullan Synod is the same as that referred to in
the Church Orders, and even if it did not obtain in
the fourth century at Jerusalem and at Antioch,
there is no reason why it should not have existed in
Egypt.
Note 1. Baptism by deacons in case of necessity is
allowed in Test ii. 10, and, if permitted by the bishop, in
Didasc iii. 12^ {DidCA i. 210, Gibson, p. 78, not || AC iil.
16*)*. It is prohibited in AC viii. 28*, 46" expressly, and
by implication in AC iii. 11^ and EthD 14, which forbid
readers, singers, doorkeepers [and subdeacons, AC] to
baptize and only allow the deacons to assist. Women are
forbidden to baptize in AC iii. 9 and |1 Didasc, EthD 13 ;
the language used shows that it was not an uncommon
custom. The same prohibition is found in Tertullian de
Bapt. 17 (he allows deacons, and even laymen, to baptize in
case of necessity), and in the 100th canon of the so-called
Fourth Council of Carthage, a.d. 398 (Hefele ii. 417).
But, at any rate in the last two instances, the case of
necessity is not specially referred to.
Note 2. In Test ii. 10, there is a curious provision
that no one is to learn about the Resurrection before
baptism. This may have been in the original Church
Order of this series, for there is a difl&cult phrase in the
corresponding place of EgCO 46 (sah, boh, arab) and EthCO
• In Canon 7 of the Roman Synod of a.d. 402 a presbyter and a
deacon (t.e. acting together) may baptize in Eastertide; at other
times, in cases of necessity, only a presbyter, not a deacon
(Hefele ii. 429).
BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION 111
35 (H3 breaks off just before this) about instruction in the
resurrection of the flesh, a phrase which has no appro-
priateness as it stands, but which may have been a
corruption of a prohibition like that of Test. In the
baptismal creed of Test and EgCO (sah, boh) there is no
clause about the resurrection, but it has been introduced
into those of H3, EgCO-arab, EthCO. Teaching about
the resurrection is however given to catechumens before
baptism in 'Silvia,' in Cyril of Jerusalem {CL iv. 30, xiv.
etc.) and perhaps it is implied in AC vii. 39^
CHAPTER VII
DOCTRINE
In this chapter it is proposed to glance at the
doctrinal pre-suppositions of the Church Orders, as
the determination of them will be a help in ascertain-
ing the dates when the various books were written.
In two of them, AC and Test, the dogmatic position
is clearly marked.
1. The Didache has but few doctrinal indi-
cations. Its tone is slightly ascetic, and the
reference to the prophets has led Hilgenfeld and
Bigg to treat it as having a Montanistic tendency.
But this view is generally rejected. There is in D
no trace of the Montanistic idea that true prophecy
consisted in the prophet being a passive and self-
abandoning channel of the Spirit. The Christological
indications are negative. There is no clear assertion
of our Lord's divinity, except that the Trinitarian
formula is prescribed for baptism. There is no
prominence given to our Lord's death*. Thus it is
* Prof. Lake has lately {Guardian, Feb. 17, 1909) called atten-
tion to the fact that we find the same thing in the Apology of
Aristides, and suggests that perhaps both it and D represent a
point of view little influenced by St Paul's teaching. Certainly D
does not seem to refer to the Pauline Epistles anywhere.
DOCTRINE 113
thought that D, which was intended (as the title
shows) for the Gentiles, emanated from some not very
well instructed Christian, probably from one who
lived in a secluded community.
2. The Apostolic Church Order has no
decided dogmatic tone. It shows some Montanistic
leanings, as in the remark about the two widows who
are to expect revelations (21) ; it shows a desire that
bishops and presbyters should be celibates or widowers
(16, 18 ; see above, p. 90 f ). But it is more concerned
with moral precepts and canonical provisions than
with doctrine. Both ApCO and D advocate liberality
and almsgiving 'as a redemption for sins' (ApCO
13 = D4).
3. The Didascalia also shows no strong
doctrinal leanings. The chief indications of the
writer's position may be seen in the sections on
heresies and schisms corresponding to AC vi.
{DidCA i. 302—384, Hi pp. 60—90, Gibson, pp.
102—112; but the MS used by Mrs Gibson ends
with the passage corresponding to AC vi. 18). Simon
Magus and Cleobius are the only heretics named
(Hi p. 61); and the chief heresy ascribed to Simon
(who is spoken of as meeting St Peter in Rome and
as pretending to fly in the air, as in the Clementines)
is the denial of the resurrection of the flesh. The
Judaistic tradition (* secundatio ' - Mishna) regarding
the distinction between clean and unclean things is
attacked. Bp Wordsworth {MG p. 38) sees an anti-
M. 8
114 THE AN'CIENT CHURCH ORDERS
Montanistic aversion to austerity in Didasc, Harnack
a polemic against Novatianism. At any rate the
tendency of the book is such that we can understand
why the AC compiler, who exhibits the same trend of
thought, adopted and amplified it in his own work.
4. The Egyptian and Ethiopic Church
Orders and the canonical part of the Verona
fi*agments (H3) may for this purpose be taken
together. The first, however, yields but little result,
as it has hardly any liturgical forms. Taking EthCO
and H3, we find emphasis laid on the work of the
Holy Spirit, though no technical or controversial
terms are introduced which would lead us to think
that the Macedonian controversy had begun ; nor is
anything said about the personality of the Third
Person. Prayer is offered that he may descend on
bishops and presbyters at their ordination ; in the
Eucharistic Thanksgiving his work in the Incarnation
is spoken of (so in the baptismal Creed), and he is
prayed for by name that he may cause the Eucharistic
oblation to convey holiness to the communicants, and
that they may be filled with him ; in the baptismal
Creed he is the Sanctifier (Eth) or Lifegiver (Eg) ; he
is prayed for in the Confirmation prayer (for H3 see
above, p. 106 f.) ; he is in the Church (EgCO 57,
62 = EthCO 43, 48).— The Eucharistic Thanksgiving
also touches on the voluntary death of Jesus (cf. CH
XXV. 233) who ' spread out his hands for suffering,' and
the harrowing of hell — points much emphasised also
in Test i. 23, 28 ; it speaks of our Lord as the Son,
DOCTRINE 115
the Word, the Instrument in Creation, and as sent by
the Father from heaven into the Virgin's womb.
Trinitarian doctrine is taught by some of the doxo-
logies to the prayers (see below, p. 124 f.) ; by the
answer to the Sancta Sanctis in the EthCO Liturgy
(but for this see above, p. 39) ; and by the emphatic
phrase 'consubstantial Trinity' (EgCO-sah, boh) or
* Trinity equal in Godhead' (EgCO-arab, EthCO) in
the baptismal Creed. H3 shares with EthCO all the
above indications except those in the baptismal
Creed, and such as are indicated above.
The word 'trinity' (rptaV, trinitas) is as old as
Theophilus of Antioch {c. a.d. 180) who says {ad AutoL ii.
15) that the three first days of creation ' are types of the
trinity, God, and his Word, and his Wisdom ' ; but
perhaps it is not here a technical term. It is also found
in Hippolytus (c. Noet. 14: 'through this Trinity the
Father is glorified ; for the Father willed, the Son did,
the Spirit manifested') and TertuUian {de Pudic. 21 :
'the Trinity of the one Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit ' ; and adv. Prax. 2). But the emphasis on the
consubstantiality and equality of the Trinity betokens
a time after the Arian troubles had begun.
5. The Canons of Hippolytus have the
same doctrinal tone as the manuals just mentioned,
if we accept as part of the book the sections which
Achelis brackets and rejects. Let us first take the
supposition of their genuineness. There is not the
same scope in CH for an examination of doctrine as
in EthCO and H3 , since there are but few liturgical
forms. The opening canon, however, speaks of our
8-2
116 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
Lord as Son of the living God ; the Word is the Son
of God, who (the antecedent is uncertain) is Creator
of every creature, visible and invisible (i. 1, 3) ; the
Trinity is altogether equal in honour and glory and
without beginning and end (i. 2). The Trinitarian
equality is seen in the baptismal formula (xix. 133) :
* I baptize thee in the Name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Ghost, who is equal ' ; in the
doxology over oil etc. (see below, p. 125) ; and in the
direction, not in the other Church Orders, to teachers
of heathen subjects, who are received into the Church,
to say to their people : ' There is no God but Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost ' (xii. 69). The Holy Spirit is
prayed for in the ordination prayers of bishops (iii. 13)
and deacons (v. 39). In the Baptismal Creed the
Holy Ghost is called * the Paraclete, proceeding from
the Father and the Son' ; but it is difficult to suppose
that the Filioque at least is not an interpolation.
If, on the other hand, with Achelis we regard all that
speaks of the ' equal Trinity ' as interpolated, there is
nothing doctrinal in CH which is inconsistent with
the time of Hippolytus. For the alleged inter-
polations, see p. 158. There is no specially ascetic
tone in this Church Order ; see above, p. 94.
6. Sarapion does not exhibit any very decided
theological characteristics. He is anti-Arian, as is
shown by the phrase at the beginning of the Eucha-
ristic thanksgiving * We praise thee who art known of
thy Son... We praise thee who knowest the Son,'
where the Arian idea that the Son was ignorant of
DOCTRINE 117
the Father and of his own essence is attacked (see
Brightman, JThSt i. 91) ; he has a special fondness
for the name 'Only-begotten ' (Wordsworth counts 50
instances ; it is frequent also in Test, etc.). Other
favourite phrases are, (God's) 'love of mankind'
(<^t Aav^pojTTta, with <f>i\aLvOpu)iro<;, SO often Test); 'living'
or ' life ' ; and ' uncreated ' (d-ycvr/ros), of the Father.
For other characteristic phrases see Wordsworth's
Sarapion, p. 28 f. He has a special fondness for the
name ' The Word ' for our Lord, and in the Epiclesis
at the Eucharist the Word is prayed for instead of
the Holy Spirit (above, p. 54 f.); he uses lirih-qiJiia,
€7n8r)fjL€Lv of the Incarnation, or of the coming of the
Logos in the Eucharist, or of the Spirit in ordination.
He has not a very strong hold on the doctrine of the
personality of the Holy Spirit ; he generally uses the
phrase Trvev/xa ayiov without the article, only twice
with it. Generally, it may be said that Sarapion was
a follower of Athanasius, but that he had not grasped
the faith as fully as Athanasius ; and that his
doctrinal tendency indicates the period before the
Macedonian controversy had arisen. For the doxo-
logies see below, p. 124 f.
7. The Testament of our Lord shows a
much more marked theological tendency. We may
first notice the influence of Montanism on the book.
The expectation of revelations and of charismatic
gifts, the continuance of the prophets, the frequent
references to the Apocalypse, the mention (once only,
i. 24) of the ' Paraclete ' (but this is common in AC
118 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
and is often found in fourth century literature), the
frequent references to works of the Spirit, to bearing
the cross, and to 'children of the light,' together
with some non- doctrinal characteristics, such as
presbyteresses, and the college of clergy, might lead
us to suppose that the author was a Montanist (see
Cooper-Maclean, p. 15). The ascetic tone of Test
has also been alleged in this connexion, but while it
is more ascetic than AC with regard to celibacy, it
is less so in regard to fasting ; for the treatment of
post-baptismal sin see above, p. 94 f. There are several
non-Montanistic features ; there are no prophetesses,
and the widows (presbyteresses) are to be silent in
the church (above, p. 84) ; so that while there is a
Montanistic influence at work in this Church Order,
it is not itself Montanistic. — The chief characteristic
of the book is a strong dislike of Arianism and
of anything like an exaggerated subordinationism.
Thus, the Son is named before the Father and the
Holy Ghost in the Eucharistic Epiclesis (i. 23), as in
2 Co. xiii. 14, Ignatius Magn. 13 and ConstH 1^ (see
p. 153 below). Several prayers to the Son are found,
as in the middle of the Eucharistic Thanksgiving and
in the Epiclesis and Intercession* (i. 23), in five of
the six pro-anaphoral prayers (i. 26), and in the
night prayer of widows (i. 43), all being apparently
the work of the compiler. There is, moreover, in
* The Council of Hippo, a.d. 393, forbade prayer to be addressed
to the Son instead of the Father, or the Father instead of the Son,
except at the altar, when prayer shall always be addressed to the
Father (can. 21 ; Hefele ii. 398).
DOCTRINE 119
several of the prayers much confusion of the Persons
addressed (i. 23 twice, 30, 43, ii. 7). The writer
emphasises the truths that Christ dwells in Christians
(i. pref, 1, 8, 17, 18, 22, 40, ii. 25), and that he
clothed himself with 'man,' i.e. humanity (i. 28) ; he
personifies Power, Thought, Wisdom, as names of
our Lord, and is especially fond of using * the Word '
as a title (i. 23, 26 often, 28, 30, 32, 38, 43, ii. 7, 16,
24). The Word is the Creator (i. 26, first prayer).
The writer has a strong hold on the doctrine of the
personality of the Holy Ghost (i. 24, 26 twice, 28, 41,
ii. 9, 10 [see Cooper-Maclean's note, p. 223]), but
does not attack Macedonianism. The Holy Ghost
is 'the Lord,' and the 'Maker of life' (^wottoio?,
i. 24, 41) and consubstantial with the Father (i. 41).
Nothing is said about the procession of the Holy
Spirit. The dogmatic bias of the writer makes it
strange that the Holy Ghost is not prayed for in
the Eucharistic Epiclesis, as almost certainly would
have been the case in an author of his tone if
he had written after the rise of the Macedonian
heresy. The name Trinity is used (i. 19, 21, 23
thrice, ii. 7), and there are two prayers addressed to
the Holy Trinity in i. 23. For other characteristics
see Cooper-Maclean, p. 16 ff.
We have to consider some other tendencies which have
been found in Test. Bp J. Wordsworth {Church Qu. Rev.
Jan., Mar. 1900, Revue interval, de thiol. 1900, vol. 31) has
suggested that this Church Order arose in the school of
the heretic ApoUinarius, who seceded from the Church
A.D. 375. There are certainly some phrases in Test,
120 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
especially in the Mystagogia (i. 28), which are found in
works written by, or ascribed to, ApoUinariua. But there
is no Apollinarian heresy in Test ; and it seems unlikely
that the writer should have used phrases common in the
circle of Apollinarius without advocating his errors, if he
had been of his school and had lived after his secession.
The more probable conclusion is that Test used phrases
common in extreme anti- Arian circles before the outbreak of
Apollinarianism. It is noteworthy that 1 1 ArD has removed
the quasi- Apollinarian phrases in the Mystagogia. This
is an indication that ArD is later than the rise of that
heresy.
Can we trace Aphtharto-doceticism in Test? This
Church Order dwells much on the thought of the incor-
ruptibility of Jesus and of ourselves in him (i. 26, 28
twice), of God (i. 21) who is the Treasure of incorruptibility
(i. 23), and of incorruptibility as attained by us through
the Eucharist (ii. 25, cf. H EgCO 58, EthCO 44, H3 p. 117 ;
compare also the prayer at the lamplighting in EthCO 37
which speaks of Grod revealing the incorruptible light).
Harnack sees traces of Aphtharto-doceticism in i. 26 :
' the only-begotten Son, the Firstborn, and Word of the
Father... who hast an essence that cannot be injured,
where neither moth nor worm doth corrupt.' This is
thought to betray the teaching of that section of the
Monophysites who in the sixth century upheld the incor-
ruptibility of our Lord's body before the resurrection, as
opposed to the Severians who only allowed it to be
incorruptible after the resurrection {DCB i. 128).
Funk, who denies this idea {TUR p. 301), sees in Test
language directed against Nestorianism {ih, p. 299 f.).
In the Eucharistic ThanksgiWng these words are used
(i. 23) : — ' Thou, Lord, didst send thy Word who is of thy
counsel and covenant, by whom thou madest all things,
being well pleased with him, into a virgin womb ; who, when
he was conceived (and) made flesh, was shown to be thy
DOCTRINE 121
Son, being bom of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin.' This,
in a sh'ghtly shorter form, is also found in EthCO and in
H3 (see above, p. 50). It is not paralleled by anything in
Sar, except that in this connexion (§1) Sar quotes Jn xvii. 3
*him whom thou didst send, Jesus Christ'; but in AG
viii. 1230^- we have a similar phrase, though the word-
ing is quite different: 'Holy is also thine only-begotten
Son our Lord and God Jesus Christ, who... was himself
pleased, according to thy will, the Creator to become man
...being born (ycvofxevos) of a Virgin, being born in the
flesh, God the "Word, the Beloved Son, the Firstborn of
all Creation,... he who fashioneth all that are begotten was
born of a virgin womb, the Fleshless became flesh, and he
that was begotten before time was born in time.' But no
one would suspect AC of being an anti-Nestorian polemic.
A similar sentence occurs in the presbyter's daily prayer
of Test (i. 32, apparently the compiler's own words) :
* We praise thee, 0 Lord, who didst send thy Thought, thy
Word, thy Wisdom, thy Energy, him who is of old and
was with thee before the worlds, the uncreated Word of
the Uncreated one (cf. Sar), but appeared incarnate in the
end of times for the salvation of created man, thy beloved
Son, Jesus Christ.'
Both these two ideas may probably be dismissed.
There is nothing in these passages which a fourth century
writer might not fitly use ; and those cited in the last
paragraph, if possible in the mouth of the AC writer
before A.D. 400, are equally so in that of the Test writer
in the same century.
8. The Apostolic Constitutions have also
a clearly marked doctrinal tendency, though perhaps
not so emphatic as that of Test, of whose dogmatic
standpoint we find here almost the exact opposite.
There is in AC a somewhat definite subordinationism.
Thus : ' As Christ does nothing without the Father,
122 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
SO neither does a deacon do anything without his
bishop, and as the Son without the Father is nothing,
so..., and as the Son is subject to the Father, so...,
and as the Son is messenger and prophet of the
Father, so' etc. (ii. 30^). 'Let the deacon refer all
things to the bishop as Christ does to the Father...^
receiving power from the bishop, as the Lord [Christ]
did from the Father the power [of creation and] of
providence'* (ii. 44^). These sentences, except the
italicised clause which is in II Didasc, are the work
of the AC compiler. So in the sentence in the
Eucharistic Thanksgiving (viii. 12^): 'who in all
things ministered to thee his God and Father.' So
where Didasc says {DidCA i. 104) : * The deacon
stands as a type of Christ ; therefore let him be
loved by you. But let the deaconess be honoured by
you as a type of the Holy Ghost,' the II AC ii. 26^^
has : * Let the deacon serve him (the bishop) as
Christ serves the Father (some MSS omit the last
phrase, or read : * as the powers do to God,' orthodox
corrections), and let him minister to him in all things
without blame, as Christ, doing nothing of himself,
ever does that which pleases the Father. Let also
the deaconess be honoured by you as a type of the
Holy Ghost, and not do or say anything without the
deacon, as neither does the Paraclete do or say
anything of himself, but, glorifying Christ, waits for
his will.' Though the AC writer calls Jesus 'this
Saviour, our King and God' (ii. 24''), taking the phrase
* The ' EthD 8 modifies this a little, aud adds : ' There is one
will of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.'
DOCTRINE 123
from II Didasc*, yet he avoids the use of ©cos absolutely
for our Lord. These are a few out of a large number
of instances. — The author never attributes a human
soul to our Lord, and in one passage (vi. 26^) is
thought to deny it. * Some... imagine the Lord to be
a mere (if/iXov) man, supposing him to consist of a
soul and body ; but others of them think that Jesus
himself is the God over all, and glorify him as his
own Father, and (think of him) as both Son and
Paraclete. What can be more detestable than these
(doctrines) ? ' Generally speaking, he inclines to semi-
Arianism without being actually heretical. It will
be remembered that the Arians put the Logos in the
place of the human soul of our Lord. There is
little probability in the idea of Funk, rejected by
Lightfoot (Ignatius i. 271 f), that the AC writer was
an Apollinarian. His tendency is rather the opposite
one. — We may notice also the stress that he lays on
our being baptized into the death of Christ ; e.g. ii. 7^
(so II EthD 3), iii. 17^ v. l'\ vi. 15S 23^ vii. 22^,
25% 43^'" (not in II D or Didasc). For other doctrinal
characteristics see Brightman LEW p. xxv f. ; such
as the emphasis on the title 'First begotten of all
creation,' and on the high priesthood of Christ, on
the frequent use of the name ' Paraclete ' for the
Holy Ghost, and on his witness (e.g. in the phrase
in the Eucharistic Epiclesis [viii. 12^^] adopted by
the Nonjurors' Liturgy of 1718 : 'the witness of the
* But it omits the phrase of Didasc a few lines before ' Ye did
not believe our Saviour God' which, as the context shows, refers to
our Lord.
124 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
sufferings of the Lord Jesus ' ; cf. Jn xv. 26, 1 Pet.
V. 1). For the doxologies, see below.
If we could be sure that the interpolator of the
Ignatian Epistles was the same as the AC writer, —
an identity which Brightman {LEW p. xxvii f.),
Lagarde, Funk, Ussher, and Harnack afl^m, but
Lightfoot {Ignatius i. 265 ff., ed. 2) denies, — we could
speak much more positively on the doctrinal stand-
point, as the indications in the passages interpolated
into the Ignatian epistles are more definite than
those in AC. The interpolator certainly denied our
Lord's human soul {Philipp. 5, Philad. 6), but also
certainly was not an Arian, though his leanings
were in that direction. See the matter treated fully
in Lightfoot he. cit.
It has already been said (p. 91) that AC is not
ascetic on clerical marriage. In vi. 26^ he takes
over from Didasc and extends a passage condemning
those who * abstain from meats and forbid to marry ' ;
and generally he is against severity in dealing with
penitents (p. 94).
9. Doxologies to the prayers, etc. The
doxologies have been reserved to the end of this
chapter, as we must consider all the Church Orders
together with regard to them. The doxologies used
may be thought to give indications of theological
tendencies.
The prayers usually end with an ascription of
praise and glory to God in one of four ways :
(a) through Christ to the Father, in or with the Holy
DOCTRINE 125
Ghost ; this is the most common form, and is found
in CH three times, in EthCO six times (excluding the
interpolated statute 40 a, where it is the regular
form, occurring fourteen times, but including the
latter part of the Liturgy which is probably an
addition ; see above p. 39), in Test seven times, in
AC vii., viii. seven times, in ConstH five times, in Sar
most frequently ; also in Pseudo-Pionius Z^^ of Poly-
carp, § 23 (Lightfoot, Ignatius iii. 455) ; cf. Basil de
Spir. S., as below ; (/?) through Christ to the Father,
as in EthCO once (once also in statute 40 a). Test
twice, AC four times, Sar several times ; (y) ' to thee
[the Father], to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,' or
' glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the
Holy Ghost ' (or similar phrase), as in CH for ' every
single prayer said over oil, firstfruits, etc.,' (iii. 29,
but see below), EthCO twice, H3 twice, EgCO once
(the only occasion where a doxology occurs in this
manual), AC twice* (viii. 12^^, 15^), Test five times;
also with : 'through whom be glory... to thee. Father
and Son with the Holy Ghost', twice in EthCO, thrice
in H3 and once in CH (xxxviii. 26^) ; (S) * with Christ
to the Father and to the Holy Ghost,' AC fourteen
times (Funk's revised text). Besides this, CH (xxxvi.
193) has a doxology in a prayer over firstfruits
* through Christ and the Holy Ghost.' In AC some
prayers end without a doxology, or with 'thine is
* Cf . also in the Gloria in excelsis : ' God the Father Almighty,
Lord, Only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, and Holy Ghost ' (AC
vii. 47 ; so also in Codex Alex. [OT in Greek, ed. Swete, iii. 833]),
But this may be an addition to AC (see above, p. 29), and the text
is uncertain (see Funk DidCA i. 456). So AC vii. 483.
126 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
the glory and power for ever' (vii. 27 ^ cf. vii. 330,
or merely 'through Jesus Christ' (vii. 34^. Hg (p. 115)
has once merely : * through whom be glory to thee ' ;
EthS 40 A has once 'to Son and to Father,' and
once *to the Father with the Holy Ghost.'
These facts have a considerable doctrinal signifi-
cance. Mr Brightman says {JThSt i. 92) that a was
perhaps the usual form, at least in some Churches; y is
said by Philostorgius (HE Hi. 13) to have been first
used by Flavian of Antioch, c. a.d. 350; 'but this is the
prejudiced statement of an Arian, which is sufficiently
refuted by St Basil de Spiritu Sancto.' This work of
St Basil may be called a treatise on the doxology.
The author says that he himself used in doxologies
the form ' to the Father, with (ficra) the Son, together
with ((Tvv) the Holy Ghost,' or 'to... through (8ia)...
in ' (for the latter he quotes Eusebius of Caesarea and
others), and affirms that they are both the same
thing as saying 'to Father and Son and Holy Ghost,'
joining the Three together as our Lord does [Mt xxviii.
19], and Clement of Rome [Cor. 58] and other fathers,
or as in the ancient form in the thanksgiving at the
Lamplighting : ' We praise Father, Son, and God's
Holy Spirit ' ; there is (he adds) no one written form
(see esp. §§ i., iv., xxv., xxix.). — The form a, which is
the most common one in the Church Orders — we may
class /? with it — was probably the usual doxology in
the first half or first three quarters of the fourth
century. But the Arians and Macedonians took it
up warmly as implying the inferiority of the Son and
the Holy Ghost, and this caused it to decline in
DOCTRINE 127
favour. Sozomen {HE iii. 20) says that in the
doxologies at the end of the antiphonal odes 'some
offered praise to the Father and the Son,' regarding
them as coequal in glory, and that others glorified
*the Father in the Son.' He is speaking of the
times of Athanasius. But we find that in Egypt, c.
A.D. 370, Didymus {de Trin. i. 32, 34, iii. 23) treats the
form a as heretical, though Athanasius had sometimes
used it. Its presence then in so many Church
Orders is a mark of antiquity. Funk (TUH 53 f.,
156 f., 235 f.) holds that the predominance of a in
AC and of y in EthCO and H3 is a sure proof of the
priority of the first over the other two. This, how-
ever, is a very uncertain test, even if the facts were as
stated. Much depends on the place of writing and
on the tone of thought of the writer. In Egypt,
in anti-Arian circles, the common form a soon sank
into disfavour. We are not therefore surprised to
find y in CH, EgCO, EthCO, H3. But elsewhere the
change was much slower, as St Basil shows. The
semi-Arian tendency of AC amply accounts for the
occurrence in that work of the older form a, even
though the writer lived in the last quarter of the
fourth century (see below, p. 149 f. ; he doubtless wrote
in Syria). Yet the form y is found twice (or once)
in AC vii., viii., and the half-way form S no less than
fourteen times. What is much more noteworthy is
that in Test, a strongly anti-Arian work, the form
a or y8 is used nine out of fourteen times. This points
to that manual having been written before the con-
troversy on the doxology became acute in the writer's
country.
CHAPTER VIII
FESTIVALS, FASTS, AND SEASONS*
1. The Festal Cycle. The development of
festivals in the early ages of Christianity was very
gradual ; and the Church Orders bear witness to this
fact. In some places, towards the end of the fourth
century, for example in Syria and at Jerusalem, it was
more rapid than elsewhere ; and we see traces in
some authorities of a desire to increase the number of
festivals. No festival is mentioned in D and ApCO ;
in Didasc only Easter; in CH, EgCO, EthCO, Hg,
Pentecost also. Test, which gives elaborate rules for
Easter, and one or two for Pentecost, adds also
Epiphany (the commemoration of the Nativity),
though it only just mentions it ; it would almost
seem that it had only recently been introduced. It
is rather curious that EdCan calls Epiphany (on
January 6, expressly) the chief of the festivals of the
Church (can. 6). Now neither Epiphany (January 6)
* Reference may be made to the author's article on 'The
Christian Calendar' in DCG i. 251 ff., where the subject of this
chapter is treated in greater detail.
FESTIVALS, FASTS, AND SEASONS 129
nor Christmas (December 25) seems to have been
observed as festivals before the fourth century, and
it was not till the last quarter of that century that
they were both observed together in the same Church.
In AC (and || ConstH, also in |i SEC 75 and EthS 67)
we have a much more elaborate system : Easter,
Ascension, Pentecost, Christmas, Epiphany (com-
memorating the baptism of Christ), the Apostles' days
(plural), ' the day of Stephen. . .and the rest of the holy
martyrs' are given in AC viii. 33 (Funk DidCA
i. 541, and Horner, p. 214, understand the last to
mean 'the day of Stephen. . .and the dajt/s of the other
martyrs ' ; for St Stephen's day cf. also AC v. 8\ which
also mentions 'James the Bishop'). In v. 13^^- Christmas
is said to fall on the 25th day of the ninth month,
and Epiphany on the 6th day of the tenth month.
We see here, then, a great extension of the cycle ; it
must be noticed that x\C exhibits an enthusiastic
desire to extend it beyond what had been customar>\
— In 'Silvia' c. a.d. 385, we have Epiphany with
Octaves (Christmas was not yet a separate festival at
Jerusalem) ; Presentation of our Lord in the Temple,
forty days after Epiphany, which here is the com-
memoration of the Nativity ; Palm Sunday ; Easter
with Octaves* ; the fortieth day after Easter,
apparently not the feast of the Ascension, which was
commemorated, together with the descent of the
Holy Ghost, at Pentecost t ; Pentecost; the Dedication
* Easter week is also mentioned in AC viii. 33^ (slares rest
from work then) and in Augustine Ep. lv. 32 Ben., ad Januanum.
+ So EdCan 9, but the reading is doubtful ; cf . Barnabas 15,
M. 9
130 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
(Holy Cross day). Perhaps also there was a martyrs'
festival, but there is a lacuna in the MS after the
reference to the Dedication. — Of the Cappadocian
fathers, Gregory of Nyssa, in the funeral oration on
his brother St Basil {In laudem fratris Basilii^ ad
init.), mentions the commemoration of the Apostles
and Prophets after Christmas, namely Stephen, Peter,
James, John, Paul (perhaps all on one day). A
Syriac Martyrology c. a.d. 400 (BCG i. 263) gives
St Stephen on December 26, St James and St
John on December 27, St Peter and St Paul on
December 28. The death-days of martyrs (called
in Latin natales) are ordered to be commemorated
in EdCan 18 ; and of this we have other instances,
e.g. the letter of the Smyrnaeans on the martyrdom
of Polycarp, § 18, Cyprian Ep. xxxix. (xxxiii.) 3 (he
mentions the Eucharist at such commemorations), and
Basil Ep. xciii.
It appears from what has been said that in the
fourth century there was a considerable development.
The cycle of festivals in AC is the same as that of
St Chrysostom {De heato Philogonio 3, a.d. 386) ; and
this fact goes far to date and place this Church
Order. The observance at Antioch of both December
25 and January 6 first took place less than ten years
before 386 (Chrysostom in Diem Natal. 1) ; but the
former festival was unknown to Epiphanius a.d. 375
where the Ascension is (perhaps) said to have taken place on a
Sunday ('the eighth day,' so numbered because following the
sabbath) ; some indeed have interpreted Barnabas as meaning that
our Lord rose and ascended on the same day (so Hamack). 8ee
Swete, The Apostles Creed, p. 68 f.
FESTIVALS, FASTS, AND SEASONS 131
{Haer. li. 16, 27), and, as we have just seen, at
Jerusalem at a still later date. The fact that AC
seems to press the separation of Epiphany and
Christmas would point to a date at least as early as St
Chrysostom's writings just quoted. In Alexandria we
do not hear of their being separated before a.d. 432 ;
but the division may have taken place some years
before that, as Augustine tells us that in his time
both days were observed {Serin. 199 — 204 Ben. (on
the Epiphany) : see especially Serm. 201 ; cf. DCG
i. 262).
2. Date of Easter. Those of our authors
who mention Easter are clearly no Quartodecimans.
Easter with them always falls on a Sunday. But
they do not all agTee as to the computation of the
Paschal fast and festival. CH (xxii. 195) says that
the week when the Jews observe Pascha is to be
carefully observed by all the people. So Didasc
V. 17' {DidCA p. 286, Gibson p. 97) bids Christians
keep this feast with all care * when your brethren of
the Nation keep the Passover.' And the fourth
century Pseudo-Pionius {Life of Polycarp 2, Light-
foot, Ignatius iii. 434) says that Pascha is not to be
kept outside the season of unleavened bread as the
heretics do, especially the Phrygians [Montanists],
nor yet on the other hand of necessity on the
fourteenth day. But AC (v. 17, parallel to Didasc
as above) enjoins independence of the Jews; the
'days of Pascha' (see below, p. 132) are to be
observed exactly, and after the vernal equinox, so that
9—2
132 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
the ' memorial of the one Passion ' be not kept twice
in one year ; Christians are not to be careful to keep
the feast with the Jews, for there is no communion
with them, and the Jews have erred in their calcula-
tion ; the day of the Resurrection is always to be
kept on a Sunday. So ApCan 7 deposes any bishop,
presbyter, or deacon, who keeps Easter before the ver-
nal equinox with the Jews (cf.can. 70). It is a little
remarkable that the compilers of CH and Didasc,
and Pseudo-Pionius should say what they do, for
Hippolytus and others had made their careful (but,
as it proved, inexact) calculations with the purpose
of making the Christians independent of the Jews
(DCG i. 258 ; Wordsworth MG 359 fif.). It appears
therefore that these writers had not come under the
influence of Hippolytus in this matter ; whatever may
be said of the CH writer, the other two, at least,
lived long after Hippolytus' time. The other Church
Orders do not allude to the subject.
3. ' Pascha ' and * Pentecost.' These terms
in the Church Orders more frequently denote a
season than a day. We read of 'the days of Pascha'
or * the forty days of Pascha,' meaning the season
before the feast, of the Resurrection (Test ii. 8, 18 ;
so ApCan 69, but some MSS omit rov irda-xa here).
In Test i. 28, ' Pascha ' is said to include the Saturday
and Sunday of Easter, and in the context is joined to
* the days of Epiphany and of Pentecost.' The last
week of 'Pascha' includes Maundy Thursday (ii. 11)
and the 'end of Pascha ' is Easter Even at midnight
FESTIVALS, FASTS, AND SEASONS 133
(ii. 12). On the other hand Test once mentions the
'feast ofPascha' (i. 42). In CH xxii. 197 Holy Week is
called the ' time of Pascha.' In EgCO 55, H3 p. 116,
no one is to take anything ' in the Pascha ' before
[the Eucharist], where || EthCO 41 has 'during the fasts
of Pascha ' ; while the same section of EgCO speaks of
'the day of the Pascha,' but || EthCO 41 and H3
simply have 'the day.' In AC v. 13^^- we read of
' the holy week of Pascha ' and ' the fast of Pascha';
in V. 17\ 18^ (so || Didasc) of 'the days of Pascha.'
But ApCan 7 speaks of ' the holy day of Pascha.'
Similarly 'Pentecost' means both the fifty days
from Easter Day to Whitsunday, and also Whitsunday
itself. For the former cf. ' the days of Pentecost ' in
Nicaea can. 20; and Test i. 28, 42, ii. 12, TertuUian
de Bapt. 19 (both senses are used there), Origen c. Cels.
viii. 22 (both senses), Basil De Spir. S. xxvii. (66). For
the latter see Ac. ii. 1, xx. 16, 1 Co. xvi. 8, Elvira can.
43, * Silvia ' vi. and TertuUian de Cor. 3. The phrase
'after Pentecost' in CH xvii. 198, EgCO 55, EthCO
41, H3 p. 116 (where one who could not fast in Pascha
because of illness is told to carry out this duty at
the later season) might fit either meaning.
4. Fasts. The germ of future fasts may per-
haps be seen in D 7 f., which prescribes (a) fasts on
Wednesday and Friday, in emulation of the Jews
('the hjrpocrites ') who fasted on Monday and Thurs-
day— so it is stated explicitly ; (b) a fast of a day or
two before baptism for the candidate, the baptizer,
and others who are able. As Easter is not mentioned
134 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
in this manual, the baptismal fast in it is very sig-
nificant. The pre-baptismal fast for the candidate
and others is alluded to in Justin Martjr, Apol. i. 61,
Tertullian de Bapt. 20 ; and in the Clementim
Recognitions vii. 36, where it is for one day.
It will be convenient to collect the facts about
the fasts from the Church Orders, and then to
consider what deductions may be drawn from them.
(i) Fast of Pascha.
(a) There is a two days' absolute fast before
Easter in EgCO 55, EthCO 41, H3 p. 116, Test ii 20,
and no other Paschal fast is mentioned in these
books. In Test, indeed, as stated above, the * forty
days of Pascha ' are spoken of, but there is no word
of fasting then (ii. 8) ; the people are to keep vigil
and to pray in the church, hearing the Scriptures and
hjnnns of praise and books of doctrine. Funk {TUH
p. 65) thinks that the ' forty days ' were probably
fasts. But the evidence is the other way ; the com-
piler is so particular in laying down rules, that if he
does not do so, we are led to suppose that it is of set
purpose, or else that the rules had not entered his head
because they did not exist around him. It is true,
as Funk says, that the injunction to fast absolutely
on two days does not necessitate the absence of a
partial fast on the preceding days (see below, /?
and €). But the absence in these Church Orders of
any direction to fast for forty days would be surprising
if as a matter of fact the forty days' fast eiristed in
FESTIVALS, FASTS, AND SEASONS 135
their Churches. A parallel to the Test conception
of the Forty Days merely as a solemn season may be
seen in the fifth canon of Nicaea where the Teara-apaKoa-Trj
is only mentioned as a season before which synods
are held; nothing is said about fasting during the
season, and it is not very likely that as early as
A.D. 325 a forty days' fast was, at any rate, common.
Irenaeus speaks of a variety of usage in the second
century, mentioning fasts of one day, of two days, of
forty hours ; and shows that the variety in his time
had long existed ; Eusebius (HE v. 24^^) gives the
passage. For the two days' fast see Tertullian de
Jejim. 1 3 f. In these Church Orders sick persons who
cannot fast the two days are allowed to fast on the
Saturday only*. This has some bearing on the ques-
tion whether the two days' fast was a Good Friday fast
prolonged, or simply a fast in preparation for Easter ;
as a matter of fact, in the Church Orders mentioned
above, the Friday before Easter is only mentioned in
connexion with the preparation of candidates for
baptism (see above, p. 97). It is not impossible
that these compilers commemorated the Death and
Resurrection of our Lord on the same day (see
further, DCG i. 259) ; or at least that this was the
case with their sources (see S below).
{P) We find a Holy Week fast, not an absolute
one, in CH xxii. 195 — 198, where bread, salt, and water
are allowed, and in Didasc v. 14 {DidCA i. 278, Gibson
p. 95) : ' from the Monday fast fully six days, till the
* So alao AC v. 182.
186 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
night after the sabbath.' This at first sight seems
inconsistent with a later passage, v. 18 (DidCA i.
288, Gibson p. 98), but the inconsistency seems to be
due to the quotation from Ex. xii. 3 — 6; the meaning is
that from Monday to Thursday a partial fast is kept
\vith bread, salt, and water (cf CH), but that on
Friday and Saturday an absolute fast is prescribed*.
For the Holy Week fast see Dionysius of Alexandria
£rp. ad Basiliden can. 1 (where he says that some
fasted absolutely the whole six days, some two, some
three, some four days, but others not even one day),
and Epiphanius {Ha^r. 1. 1 — 3, Exp. fid. 22), who says
that the Quartodecimans only observed one day's fast.
(y) The Montanists observed 'two weeks of
xerophagies ' (partial fasts) in the year, Saturdays
and Sundays being excepted (TertuUian de Jejun.
15). This is expressly said to be more than the
fasts of the Catholics.
(8) A forty days' fast is found in EdCan 7, which
speaks of fasting for the * forty days before the day
of the passion of our Saviour ' ; * then ' Christians are
to * celebrate the day of the passion and the day of
the resurrection.' The reason given for fasting for
forty days is that our Lord, Moses, and Elijah fasted
for that period. Thus the forty days included Holy
Week, as in Test, or at least the greater part of it.
It is possible that here also we have a relic of the
observance of the Passion and the Resurrection on
the same day (see above, a).
• The chronology of Didasc as to the events of Holy Week is
much coufused.
FESTIVALS, FASTS, AND SEASONS 137
(c) A forty days' fast and a Holy Week fast in
addition are found in AC v. 13^^-, 18, the last two days
being kept as an absolute fast ; Mk ii. 20 is quoted. So
also Holy Week is an extra week of Lent in Pseudo-
Ignatius P^?7ejt?jt?. 13 ; the forty days are first mentioned,
and then the * week of the passion.' This makes a fast
in all of nearly fifty days, and this is the custom of
the Orthodox and of the East Syrians to this day. It
seems to have been a common custom in the East
from the latter years of the fourth century onwards,
but not in Palestine or Egypt ; nor did it obtain in
the West (see Brightman LEW p. xxviii). In
ApCan 69 it is not stated if the 'holy forty days
[of Pascha] ' include Holy Week or not, but they are
a compulsory fast for all men; so also in CH xx. 154.
(ii) Baptismal fasts.
The fast before baptism is found in D 7 (as
above) ; in CH xix 150 — 152 (bracketed by Achelis),
for the candidates and others (cf. D. etc. as above
p. 133), but the length of the fast is not stated ;
also in CH xix. 106 and 11 EgCO 45, EthCO 34 (H»
has a lacuna here) on the Friday before Easter, for
the candidates ; in II Test ii 6 the fast is extended
to Friday and Saturday. In AC vii. 22^ a fast is
prescribed for the candidates — though its duration is
not stated — because Jesus fasted after his baptism,
and reasons are given for the difference of fasting
before and after baptism. — Thus we have a double
injunction to fast on these days, both as a preparation
138 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
for Easter, and as a preparation for baptism. As
baptism ordinarily took place early on Easter morning,
this is a repetition, but doubtless an intentional
repetition, since baptism might take place at another
time, and moreover catechumens would hardly come
under the stricter law of fasting which would be binding
on the faithful. The suspicion arises that the fast
before baptism is the real rationale of the fast before
Easter ; or at any rate that the author of the
original of these parallel Church Orders considered
it in that light (see further DOG i. 258 f.).
(iii) Weekly fasts.
Weekly fasts are found in most of the Church
Orders. Wednesday and Friday fasts, as stated
above, are found in D 8, and so in || AC vii. 2V
which adds : ' or the entire five days,' i.e. from
Monday to Friday inclusive (for Saturday fasting,
except on Easter Eve, is forbidden in AC ; see v.
20"'-, which also prescribes the Wednesday and
Friday fasts). So also we find these two fasts in
OH XX. 154, ArD 38, ApCan 69, Pseudo-Ignatius
Philipp. 13, TertuUian de Jejun. 2, 14, Clement of
Alexandria Strom, vii. 12. 75, Origen in Lev. Horn. x.
2, Peter of Alexandria Ep. cannon. 15, Epiphanius
Exp. Fid. 22. The mention in EdCan 3 f of service
on these two days points to their being fasts.
But Test prescribes no fixed days for weekly fasts,
only contemplating the contingency of a fast day
happening in the week (i. 22). So Hermas {8im. v. i)
TESTIVALS, FASTS, AND SEASONS 139
does not say which were the fast days, and per-
haps they were indeterminate in his time. Bp J.
Wordsworth {MG p. 327) conjectures that except in
Egypt the observance of the Wednesday and Friday
fasts was not general, or died out, and that their
restoration was due to Epiphanius. 'Silvia' speaks of
the observance of Wednesday and Friday in Lent,
and says that unless a festival of the martyrs fell on
one of them even the catechumens fasted.
Special fasts are prescribed in Test (i. 22) for
bishops, first for three weeks after their ordination,
and then on three days in every week for the rest
of the first year, some relaxation being allowed on
Sundays ; but it is not stated which were the
days. ArD 23, 38 has the same rule, but (§ 38)
limits the three weeks' fast to the first five days of
each week, and definitely excludes the season of
Pentecost : also it introduces a mention of Wednesday
and Friday fasts. In EgCO 47 (cf. EthCO 36 ; the II H,
is wanting) widows and virgins are bidden to fast
often ; presbyters and laymen (Eth says ' deacons '
also) are to fast ' at any time that they will ' ; but the
bishop ought not to fast except when all the people
fast.
We can now see what bearing these facts have
upon the determination of the surroundings of the
Church Orders. A forty days' Lenten fast was
unknown till the fourth century*, and this at once
determines that AC, EdCan, CH (unless interpolated
* A reference to the forty clays' fast in Rufinas' translation of
Origen in Lev. Horn. x. 2 is doubtless his interpolation.
140 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
here, as Achelis supposes), and Pseudo-Ignatius, are
not earlier than that time. Fasting for forty days
seems to have gradually grown during the fourth
century. Even in the fifth century Socrates tells us
(^HE V. 22) that the Lenten fast varied ; at Rome it
was three weeks, save Saturday and Sunday ; in
lUyria and Greece and at Alexandria it was six weeks,
elsewhere seven weeks, but still called Tio-crapaKoarrj.
This will make us suspect that the name xco-aapaKocm^'
in the instances given above must not be tied down
to the exact number forty. And the fact that in so
many places the catechumenate lasted for forty days
from the final choosing of the * competentes ' * may
have done much to fix forty days as the length
of the fast preparatory to Easter and to the Easter
baptism. But the absence of a forty days' fast in
EgCO, EthCO, H3, Test, and Didasc, points to the
comparatively early date of these Church Orders.
Fasting was forbidden on Sundays or in Pentecost ;
cf. AC V. 20 ^« (not in II Didasc). So in Test ii. 12 it
is forbidden to fast or kneel (cf. above p. 38) during
these fifty days, and workmen are to relax their work
' in the days of Pentecost and on every first day of
the week.'
* At Elvira, c. a.d. 305, it lasted for two years, and, as we have
seen (p. 16 f.),in EgCO, EthCO, Hg, Test, it lasted for three years,
cotmting all the stages of it.
CHAPTER IX
RELATIVE POSITION AND DATES OF THE
CHURCH ORDERS
1. It was remarked in the first chapter of this
book that several of the Church Orders agree so
closely together that it is necessary to postulate a
common original for them. This applies to those in
the first division particularly, but also to those in two
of the other divisions. The problem is not unlike
that of the Synoptic Gospels. Let us then begin by
taking the first division, and endeavour to place the
manuals contained in it in their right order, and to
fix their approximate dates. Here we shall find very
considerable differences of opinion, and any result
which we obtain must be considered tentative only.
It is well, however, at the outset to make quite clear
what the question is. Most of these Church Orders
are parts of longer compilations; and it is often
necessary to separate the question of the date of the
Church Order from that of the date of the compilation.
In the case of AC, indeed, it is common ground that
the compiler of the eight books was also the compiler
of the Church Order found in book viii. In the case
142 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
of SEC (the Egyptian Heptateuch) and EthS it is
very unlikely that the compilers of the whole were
also the compilers of EgCO and EthCO respectively ;
for the same matter is gone over twice, in different
ways — that is, first in EgCO (EthCO) and then in the
Church Order which is nearly identical with AC viii.
He would be a strange compiler who published in the
same work a Church Order of his own and a closely
parallel Church Order adapted from AC. We must,
then, be on our guard against assuming that the date
of a Church Order is necessarily the date of the
compilation in Avhich it is found. On the other
hand we must remember that all the writers of the
first division, with, at most, a single exception, used
one or more sources. And it is always possible that
the Church Orders themselves have been more or less
interpolated. We have then, further, to guard against
the presupposition that the date of a Church Order,
as a separate work, is necessarily the date of
either the earliest or of the latest custom or phrase
found in it. For example, the reference to persecu-
tion does not necessarily mean that AC is ante-
Nicene, nor the presence of the Filioqtie in CH that
that manual belongs to the sixth century. The
question to be solved is, At what dates did these
writers produce out of the materials at their hand
the Church Orders, as separate books of instruction
and guidance for their fellow Christians ?
2. H3rpothe8i8 of a Lost Original. One of
the Church Orders in our first division must be the
DATE OF THE CHURCH ORDEBS 143
source on which the rest depend, or all must depend
on some lost source. The view that oue of them is
the source on which the rest depend is taken by
Achelis {Die Can. Hipp.) and Funk, the former
taking CH, the latter AC viii. as the original.
Funk's hypothesis will be considered later ; but it
seems desirable to say here at once why in the
present writer's opinion Achelis' view (at any rate in
the form in which he has put it) cannot be accepted.
Putting aside the questions of the passages marked
by Achelis as interpolations (below p. 157 f) and of
the Hippolytean authorship, it is hardly credible that
there should be such a large amount of material in
CH which does not appear in any of the other Church
Orders, if CH is the parent of them all. The preface
(i. 1 — 6) would surely have left some trace behind
it ; the ordination prayer for bishops could hardly be
the original of that in the other manuals, containing
as it does so many phrases which have absolutely
disappeared (above p. 75 f.) ; that for deacons (p. 71)
has left no trace in the other Church Orders ; the pro-
visions about married and travelling presbyters (viii.,
ix. 55 — 58), the exhortation in xxxviii. 255 — 261, and
the rules about vestments at the Eucharist (xxxvii.
201 — 204) are wholly wanting elsewhere ; as also are
several individual passages, for which see Cooper-
Maclean p. 9, note.
We may conclude, then, that CH is not the
original ; indeed Achelis only maintains that it is so
after omitting several passages which he marks as
interpolations (not, however, most of those just noted).
144 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
We shall see equal reasons later for rejecting Funk's
hypothesis. If so, it follows that there must have
been an original which is now lost ; for no one
maintains that any other extant manual is the source
of all the others.
One indication that these Church Orders depend
on a lost Original is that they contain obscure and
confused passages which it is impossible to understand
completely, and which could not with an}^ probability
be held to be original in any of the manuals. Take, for
instance, a phrase in EthCO, H3, and Test about the
first communion of the neoph}1:es. Each writer has
treated the phrase in a different way :
EthCO 35 (Horner)
He (the bishop) shall give thanks over the bread and
the cup ; the bread that it may become the body of our
Lord Christ, and the cup, the wine mixed, that it may
become the blood of our Lord Christ, this which was shed
for us and for all of us indeed who believe in him... [milk
and honey]... All this the bishop shall go through to those
who are baptized. And the water also of the Oblation he
shall show in the bread like the inward part of man, who
is soul as well as body.
Hs p. 112
Gratias agat panem quidem in exemplum, quod dicit
Graecus antitypum, corporis Christi ; calicem uino mil-
ium propter antitypum, quod dicit Graecus similitudinem,
sanguis quod effusum est pro omnibus qui crediderunt in
eum...[milk and honey ]...aquam uero in oblationem in
indicium lauacri, ut et interior homo, quod est animale,
similia consequantur (sic) sicut et corpus.
DATE OF THE CHURCH ORDERS 145
Test ii. 10
Let the shepherd give thanks. But the bread is offered
for a type of my body. Let the cup be mixed with wine —
mixed with wine and water, for it is a sign of blood and of
the laver ; so that also the inner man, that is to say, that
which is of the soul, may be counted worthy of those
things which are like (them), that is to say, those things
of the body also.
There is nothing in any of the other Church
Orders corresponding to these difficult passages about
the water in the chalice. We may probably conclude
that there was such a passage in the original Church
Order, that it early became corrupt, and that some
compilers omitted it as unintelligible, while others
made the best sense they could out of it. We cannot
conceive that any of the above passages is the original
of the others.
Or, again, take as an example the treatment of the
honorary presbjrterate of confessors (above, p. 87 ff.).
In all these Orders, with the exception of AC (which
in this instance could not possibly be the original of
the rest, and which in any case has not become
corrupted in the MSS) the passage is hopelessly
confused, though the general sense is clear. Here
again we can hardly believe that any one of them is
the parent of all the others.
The same thing is seen from some passages which
are not confused. Take the passage about soldiers
(CH xiii.f. 71—75, EgCO 41, EthCO 28 f., Test ii. 2,
AC viii. 32^^ ConstH 22^^ see above, p. 97). CH
says that no one who has received the power of
M. 10
146 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
killing or is a soldier is to be received- Those who,
being soldiers, are commanded to fight, but have
abstained from evil talk and have not placed crowns
on their heads, etc. (may be received) ; a magistrate
not clothed with justice is to be excommunicated ; no
Christian is to become a soldier except by force, and
if so he is not to shed blood. EgCO says that a
soldier who is in authority is not to kill men ; if
commanded to do so he is not to hasten to the work,
nor to swear ; one who has power over the sword or
a magistrate of a city who is clothed with purple,
unless he leaves (his occupation), is to be rejected ;
no catechumen or believer is to become a soldier.
EthCO says that a soldier of the prince is not to be
received, and if ordered to kill he is not to do so ; a
soldier, whether baptized or a catechumen,... and a
magistrate with the sword, or chief of prefects, and
he who is clad in red is to be rejected ; no catechu-
men or believer is to become a soldier. [H, has
a lacuna here.] Test says that a soldier or one in
authority is to be taught not to oppress or kill or rob. . .
but if they wish to be baptized they must leave (their
occupation). No catechumen or believer is to become
a soldier. For AC and ConstH, which remove the
prohibition, see above, p. 97. In these passages the
meaning is quite clear. Yet the wording is such
that we can hardly conceive any one of them to be the
source of the rest.
It does not, of course, necessarily follow that each
of the extant Church Orders is independent of all
the others, except in being derived from a common
DATE OF THE CHURCH ORDERS 147
original. There is much evidence, for example, that
the Test writer had a manual very like H3 before
him when he was writing*. But it seems clear that
those Orders which are now extant are not all in one
line of tradition. For example, it is commonly said
that Test is derived from the Church Order of the
Egyptian Church, and this is very possibly true, if
we take that phrase in a wide sense, as meaning
some Church Order written in Egypt ; but Test is
certainly independent of our EgCO in some things ;
e.g. in the formula of submission to God at baptism
and in the baptismal creed ; in much of the baptismal
section (ii. 8) Test is unlike EgCO and nearer CH
and H; so the passage (ii. 11) about alms for a
widow t is in Test and CH, not in EgCO ; that
quoted above about the water in the chalice is in
Test, H3, and EthCO, not in EgCO.
It appears, then, to be a fundamental mistake to
assume that, if one of these Church Orders has
earlier features than another, it must be its direct
ancestor. Indeed it would not be surprising if it
proved to be the case that most of the extant manuals
had only an indirect relationship with one another,
as cousins rather than as parents or children. At
any rate it is probable that many forms of the
Original Church Order were extant in widely different
circles — Montanist, Catholic, anti-Arian, semi-Arian,
* Similarly it is manifest that ApCO was known to, and had a
great influence upon, him.
t Another very confused passage (see CH xxxii. 160 — 163, and
Arendzen's translation of the Arabic in JThSt iv. 282), which illus-
trates the necessity of our present hypothesis of a lost Original.
10—2
148 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
perhaps Arian — and that each author dealt very
freely with his materials, adapting them as he thought
best for his own immediate surroundings. It is not
improbable that many of the writers were bishops,
drawing up rules for their own dioceses.
It may be permissible to hazard a conjecture
with regard to the * Lost Church Order.' It is quite
possible that it was the work of the great Hippolytus,
Bishop of Portus, and that this was the reason why
two of the extant manuals (CH, ConstH) received
their titles. We know that Hippolytus wrote a work
called The A2X)stolic Tradition (ctTroo-roXiK^ irapdSoais) ;
this is mentioned on the Chair of Hippolytus at Rome*
immediately after the treatise 0/ Gifts (-n-epl x^pw-
fjMToyv). Perhaps these two works came together in the
earliest MSS, and were read as one book, which would
account for the arrangement of ConstH and AC viii
(where the sections 0/ Gifts are followed immediately
by the Church Order), and also for the prologue of Hj
(below, p. 162 f.). Lightfoot, indeed, regards these
two phrases as one single title (Tcpl x- c^"". irapdStxris),
but he thinks that perhaps Hippolytus drew up some
canons, and that early canonists prefixed to their
canons some sentences of Hippolytus from the Trcpl
xapLo-fxaTojv (Clement, ii. 400 ; see also his remarks
on p. 402 and his account of the chair at pp. 440
ff. 324 ff.). Either of these-hypo theses would account
* A marble chair, with part of a seated figure, was discovered
near Rome (close to San Lorenzo) in 1651, and was proved to be
that of Hippolytus by the names of the works inscribed on the
back. It is in the Lateran Museum. The date, according to
Lightfoot, is c. A.D. 236.
DATE OF THE CHURCH ORDERS 149
for the phenomena. — It is probable that the Lost
Church Order contained at least the outline of a
Liturgy, and also ordination prayers and rules for the
organisation of the Christian community.
3. Date of the Apostolic Constitutions.
It will be convenient to begin with this work, as
there is general agreement that it was compiled, and
that the Church Order in bk. viii. was composed, by
a single writer in the latter half of the fourth century.
The indications of date come from the book itself, as
we must dismiss the idea that Epiphanius quotes
AC ; he is really quoting a form of Didasc older than
AC. That the book is a uniform whole, by a writer
who first interpolated Didasc (i. — vi.), then D (vii.
1 — 32), and added some liturgical matter (vii. 33 —
end), a treatise On Gifts (viii. 1, 2), and a form of
our Church Order^ (viii. 3 — end), is seen by an
examination of the phraseology, style, and other
characteristics ; see the careful summary in Brightman
LEW p. xxivff. The date of AC is determined
very closely by the festal cycle (see above, p. 129 f ).
This would have merely given us a terminus a quo,
but for the obvious fact that the AC writer is
endeavouring to lead the way in separating Epiphany
and Christmas and in developing the cycle ; and
therefore we are brought to a date as early in the
last quarter of the century as possible, say c. a.d.
375. That the work is post-Constantinian is seen
e.g. by vi. 24 ^ which speaks of the conversion of the
Roman Empire, and in which the reference to the
150 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
Romans is in striking contrast to that in II Didasc
(DidCA i. 364). It is generally agreed that AC was
written in Syria ; the Syro-Macedonian calendar is
used in V. 14 \ 17 ^ 20 ^ where the months Xanthicus,
Dystros, Gorpiaeus are named (not in II Didasc).
The fact that Holy Week is not included in the Forty
Days (p. 137 above) excludes Palestine, Eg}^t and
the West. For other indications see LEW p. xxviii.
But the absence of metropolitans suggests that
neither Antioch itself nor its immediate neighbour-
hood was the home of the writer (above, p. 72 f ).
The forms of Church Order in SEC 63—78 and EthS
49 — 72, which are no doubt derived from AC (or from an
earlier draft of AC), may only date from the time of those
compilations. "We cannot get very near to the date, but
they may have been composed at any time in the fifth
century, perhaps early in the century.
4. Relation of the Constitutions through
Hippolytus to the Apostolic Constitutions.
These two documents are very closely related,
whether they are the work of the same author or not.
The question arises as to which document has
priority. Is ConstH the original, or an epitome, of
AC?
We must first notice that in both documents the
sections are divided among the Apostles, and that
both enumerate fourteen as being present, the
Twelve, St Paul aud St James (AC viii. 4\ ConstH
3). But in ConstH, of the fourteen only ten have
sections assigned to them, while in AC all fourteen
DATE OF THE CHURCH ORDERS 151
have sections, and the four omitted in ConstH have
in AC those sections assigned to them which ConstH
has not got. Moreover in AC viii. 29 Matthias has
assigned to him the section about oil and water
(which is not in ConstH) as well as viii. 30 : * I the
same....' But ConstH 20 (which corresponds to
AC viii. 30) is assigned to Simon the Cananaean (to
whom both works assign the sections preceding that
about oil and water). It begins * I, the same Simon
the Cananaean command....' Thus it appears that
ConstH is an excerpt of a work in which all fourteen
Apostles had sections assigned to them. Of what
work is it an excerpt ?
The simplest solution is undoubtedly that of
Funk, who holds that ConstH is an epitome of AC
viii. {DidCA ii. p. xiv if. TUH 179 if.). Funk
considers that a writer other than the AC compiler
shortened that work by omitting the liturgical matter,
abbreviating the bishop's and presbyter's ordination
prayer, and so forth, and corrected what he did not
approve of, such as the ordination of a reader with
laying on of hands. He holds also that one or two
phrases in ConstH show posteriority.
The problem, however, is far from easy. The
careful attention of the reader is asked for what is
said above (pp. 74 — 80) about the development of the
ordination prayer for a bishop, and the ordination of
minor orders by imposition of hands. Funk's idea
of successive writers becoming more antiquarian and
producing simpler forms as time went on is hardly
credible. If the ConstH writer was a corrector of
152 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
AC, and did not approve of what seems to have been
an invention of the latter, i.e. the ordination to some
of the minor orders by laying on of hands, why did
he not cut it out altogether as the || SEC 66 and EthS
54 (see above p. 23) have done ? Why did he only
forbid it in the case of readers, and leave it for
subdeacons and deaconesses ? Is it not much more
probable that the AC compiler was gradually feeling
his way] At first he prescribes the laying on of
hands in the ordination of subdeacons and deaconesses,
as these offices might be supposed to be derived from
the diaconate, but he does not yet (in ConstH or its
original) venture so far in the case of the old
charismatic office of the reader. Then, later, he goes
to the logical conclusion of ordaining readers in the
same way. Funk seems to have overiooked the fact
that the ordination to minor orders with imposition
of hands is not found before AC, and to all appearance
was the invention of the AC compiler. The invention
did not find favour at first, at any rate in Egypt, as
we see in SEC and EthS. The fact, then, of the
ordination conditions being simpler in ConstH than
in AC (and simpler still in EgCO, EthCO, H3, and,
as far as minor orders go, in Test) makes Funk's
solution of the relation between ConstH and AC an
improbable one.
Let U8, however, consider the points of phraseology
which are thought to indicate posteriority in ConstH.
(a) In § 1 ^ we read of believing ' through Christ our God
on him and on his undefiled Father and the all holy and
life-giving Spirit,' while in || AC viii. 1* we have simply
DATE OF THE CHURCH ORDERS 153
* through Christ on God.' The AC phrase is said to
indicate a ' more ancient doctrine of the Trinity ' and the
same is said of the subsection which follows. It is not
very easy to see the force of this. When the documents
confessedly do not date from before the last quarter of
the fourth century, we are not helped to decide on a
question of priority by the presence in one or the other
of an older phraseology on this subject. In this case the
probability is rather the reverse of what Funk supposes.
The AC writer, a pronounced subordinationist, probably
altered the phrase which he had at first written (as we read
it in ConstH) so as not to name the Son first (cf. above,
p. 118) ; and if he is the same as Pseudo-Ignatius we must
remember that his semi-Arian tendencies increased as
time went on (p. 124), for the interpolated Ignatian
Epistles are certainly later than AC (Lightfoot, Ignatius i.
263 f ). (6) The phrase in the bishop's ordination prayer
about the Spirit given to or through Jesus and to the
Apostles (above, p. 75) is thought to show the priority of
AC over ConstH. This does not follow. And if it did
follow, H3 and Test would be, equally with AC (with which
they here agree), older than ConstH ; which supposition
(though probably quite true) would upset Funk's theory
of their relationship, (c) In the matter of the reader
ConstH is said to show signs of being a correction of AC.
We have already discussed whether the provision of ConstH
or that of AC about the reader is likely to have been
the older, and have seen reason for assigning the priority
to ConstH. But Funk says that the wording itself shows
the posteriority of ConstH. That manual omits, at the
section in question, the name of the Apostle who gives
the command ; AC inserts it ; this, however, we need not
consider, as we have already reached the result that ConstH
is an excerpt from a work which had the full comple-
ment of Apostolic ascriptions. But whereas the preceding
and following sections of ConstH use x^iporovia, x^iporoviiv,
154 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
this section has ov8€ yap x^f-poBfrf'trai — those about con-
fessors, virgins, widows have ov x^'-porove'iTcu — and this
may be thought to show that the ConstH section about
a reader is a correction. AC itself uses xft^porovia, x^*P*>-
Tovflv in all these sections except in those about deaconesses
and readers, where neither x^'-porovflv nor ;(ftpo^€T(r»', nor
their substantives, are used. The conclusion that because
ConstH uses xfipo6erelv in the section about the reader,
therefore it is a correction of AC, is an insecure one. The
fact is that AC uses x^'-P^^'''^'^^ of laying on of hands in
general ; when the laying on of hands is emphasised,
Xft-poO^Tflv is used ; when ordination as a whole rite is
spoken of, AC uses ;(eiporo»'eti/. Both ConstH and AC
therefore say that an exorcist or a confessor or a virgin or
a widow ' is not ordained ' {ov x^'-poTovelrai) — they are not
set apart by any office which could be called ordination,
because their position was still entirely a charismatic one ;
but a reader, like a subdeacon, is in this sense ' ordained,'
though he is not in ConstH, as he is in AC, ordained with
laying on of hands. Therefore ConstH uses ;^eipo^frfTi/
here. It would not be quite true, or at least it would be
ambiguous and inconsistent with AC usage, to say of a
reader ov x^f-poTovelrai ; it is true of him, in ConstH, to say
ov x^^poOrrclrai (see appended note below).
The indications, then, point in the opinion of the
present writer to the priority of ConstH over AC.
But as the former is certainly an excerpt from a
document which named all the fourteen Apostles, the
solution which perhaps is the most probable is that
once propounded by Harnack, that ConstH is a
shortened form of an original draft of AC viii.
DATE OF THE CHURCH ORDERS 155
Appended Note on x^iporovla^ x^'^P^^^^^^ ^^ ■^^'
The word x"po^*o't« (or x^tpo^^Tft'') is used in AC for
the various impositions of hands, or even (probably) where
a hand is extended over the people as in a blessing. It
seems to include both Confirmation and Ordination in iii.
10^ : laymen are not to do * any of the priestly works such
as the sacrifice {Svala, the Eucharist) or baptism, or
laying on of hands (xfipoBea-la), or blessing (evXoyia), great
or small ; for no one takes this honour to himself unless
he be called of God, for by the laying on of the bishop's
hands {dia yap TTJs enideaccos tmv x'^'-P^v tov emaKOTrov) SUch
an office (d^ia) is given.' It is used of Confirmation in ii.
32^, iii. 16^, vii. 44 3, and apparently in viii. 282*- {eiria-KOTros
€v\oy€i. ..x^i-pod€T€7, ;^6tporoi/er...7rpfcr/3vrepo$' €ij\oy€2...xfi-po-
6€T€l, ov x^f^poTovel) ; so ConstH 19, except that the first
xetpoOerel is omitted ; in the last passage a presbyter is
perhaps allowed to lay on hands in Confirmation, doubtless
only in the absence of the bishop, see above, p. 107 f. It is
used of the dismissal of catechumens with a blessing in vii.
39* ; of the reception of penitents (ii. 18^, 41 2, 43 1) ; and
of blessing in general (viii, 37 ^ 39^).
X^ipoTovla (or x^tpoTovelv) is used in AC for Christian
ordination to all grades ; thus, in AC iii. 11 ^ it is used of dfo^Cj^tn 6r<
ri/^ all minor orders, including singers and doorkeepers, who
in AC are not ordained with laying on of hands (cf. also
iii. 20 2). It is also used in ii. 27^ of the 'ordination' of
Aaron by God ; in iii. 9^ of heathen appointments of
priestesses; in v. 20", vii. 16 of God's 'ordaining' the
Roman empire and the Roman emperor. It is true that
elsewhere than in AC x^i-poTovelv is used when laying on
of hands is emphasised, as in SEC-sah 66, which says that
' it is not right to ordain (khirodonei) subdeacons, readers
and deaconesses,' but this is not the case in AC.
As we have already seen (p. 78 above), KaTdaracns is
used of appointments to any grade of the ministry.
156 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
5. Date of the Canons of Hippolsrtus. It
is in the case of this book that the widest difference
of opinion exists. Achelis, who believes that it was
written by Hippolytus himself, necessarily dates it
very early, c. a.d. 220 ; but he considers that it has
been considerably interpolated. Morin assigns it to
Dionysius of Alexandria and identifies it with the
'diaconal' epistle 'sent to those in Rome through
Hippolytus ' (c. A.D. 250 ; Euseb. HE vi. 46). Funk,
on the other hand, holds this Church Order to have
been derived (through ConstH and EgCO) from AC
viii. and takes the alleged interpolations to be part
of the text. Harnack has lately given his adherence
to this view, with some considerable modifications.
Funk inclines to a date in the sixth century.
There are many indications in CH of an eariy
date (Achelis, Die Can. Hipp. p. 217 ff.). Although
persecutions were not going on at the time of writing —
for there are no penalties for the lapsed, and the
section about teachers (xii. 69 f. ; see above, p. 116)
would not be possible in times of persecution — yet it
was probable that persecution would revive (vi. 43 —
47). The traces of close relationship between bishop
and presbyter (p. 69 f.) betray a date earlier than that
of the Church Orders which have a separate prayer
for ordaining bishops and presbyters; the simple
nature of the ordination prayer (p. 75 f.), the fact that
there is no fixed day but Sunday for the Eucharist
(p. 55 ff.), the arrangement that Easter is to be kept
at the same time as the Jews' Passover, and the sim-
plicity of the festal cycle, all tend to show an early
DATE OF THE CHURCH ORDERS 157
date. Some of Achelis' indications will hardly command
assent, such as the fact that charismata are still held
in the highest honour ; for the other manuals have
the same phraseology. Achelis is on firm ground when
he points out the great similarity between CH and
Tertullian in fasts, in baptismal ceremonial, in rules
about virgins' veils, about soldiers, and about care for
the Eucharistic elements ; but this need prove no
more, in view of similar regulations being found in
other Church Orders, than that the customs of the
lost Original closely agreed with those mentioned by
Tertullian. Achelis thinks that Egjrpt is excluded
as a place of writing of CH by the fact that Agape
and Eucharist are already separated, each with a
ceremonial of its own, whereas in Clement of Alex-
andria they are still joined [but it is doubtful if
this was the case, see ERE'i. 170]. This, however,
is a two-edged argument. If the rest of CH inclines
us to assign it to Egypt, then the separation of Agape
and Eucharist would lead us to a date later than
Clement.
On the other hand there are indications of a later
date : e.g. the passages referring to the * equal
Trinity' (i. 2, xix. 133), to subdeacons (vii. 49, 52,
xxi. 217), to the forty days' fast of Lent and to the
Holy Week fast (xx. 154, xxii. 195 ff.), and the
Filioqm* in the Baptismal Creed (xix. 131). Most
* The Filioque as part of the Nicene Creed is found first at the
Third Council of Toledo (a.d. 589) which introduced the Creed into
the Eucharistic Liturgy of the West. But Western writers after
Augustine had spoken of the procession from the Son.
158 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
of these are considered by Achelis to be interpolations ;
Funk on the other hand considers them necessary to
the text and ineradicable, and Hamack agrees
{Chronologk ii. 507). Certainly interpolations are
probable in an Arabic translation ; a parallel case
is the Arabic translation of Test which constantly
alters and interpolates. But there is much force in
Funk's argument on this head (TUEy. 224 ff.), and
it is hardly satisfactory to date a document from
certain features of it and then to mark all that does
not agree with that date as interpolation.
It has already been argued that CH is not the
direct parent of the other Church Orders (above,
p. 143). May not the truth be that we should look on
the early features as survivals from the lost Original,
provided we do not make CH so late that the early
features have become mere antiquarianisms put in for
effect (see above, p. 6) ? On the other hand, it is
a fatal defect in Funk's argument for a late date that
CH would be absolutely useless as a manual at the
time which he suggests. It would be merely a
pseudo-historic curiosity, a farrago of false anti-
quarianisms. The existence of the parallel Church
Orders forbids such a supposition. We must therefore
reject Funk's late date, while we may nevertheless
incline to the idea that almost all the alleged
interpolations are part of the text. Yet some
passages may remain as interpolations. Such, at
least, must be the FiUoque in the Creed — the very
place where we should expect assimilation to a later
writer's own usage. This is the only phrase in the
DATE OF THE CHURCH ORDERS 159
whole book which points to a date later than the
middle of the fourth century. Putting together all
these considerations, the first half of that century-
seems to be the most likely time of writing ; the
doctrinal position, the ordination conditions, the
regulations for festivals and fasts, the existence of
subdeacons, all point to a rather early year in the
century. Nevertheless, it is probable that CH
reproduces the lost Original more faithfully than
any other of these manuals ; and to this extent
AcheUs' theory may be held to be well founded.
In considering the place of writing, we must
dismiss pre-suppositions of Hippolytean or Dionysian
authorship, and take the book as it stands, while
allowing for a very few possible interpolations. The
internal evidence seems to point either to Rome or to
Egypt. But in reality only one feature, the presence
of the Roman Creed in the baptismal service, indicates
Rome ; and as the same creed is found in Test and
H3 (which are certainly Eastern) the only inference
that can safely be drawn from its presence in CH, is
that at an early date it made its way to the East. The
other arguments adduced for a Western origin (as by
Wordsworth, MG p. 22 fif.) apply to the Lost Church
Order which is so faithfidly reproduced by CH,
rather than to CH itself. On the other hand, CH
bears a great likeness to EgCO, EthCO, H3; to
take only two examples among many, these four
manuals agree in differing from the cognate Church
Orders in saying nothing about clerical marriage or
about deaconesses. These resemblances would point
160 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
to Egypt as the place of writing ; and this indication
is to some extent confirmed by the existence of the
forty days' fast in a writing probably compiled before
A.D. 350, for it was in Bgypt that the forty days' fast
seems to have been first established (Duchesne,
Ckr. Worship. Eng. tr. p. 242). A stronger con-
firmation may be found in the administration of
milk and honey in CH at Baptism, a custom for
which there is no evidence outside Egypt and Africa
(above, p. 46). If CH had been written in Rome we
should have expected to find acolytes mentioned, for
even in the third century there were forty-two of
these officials there (above, p. 80). The form of the
salutation before the Sursum Corda in the Liturgy
[' The Lord be with (you) all '] points either to Rome
or to Egypt (Cooper- Maclean, p. 169). On the whole,
while the evidence is far from being conclusive, the
most probable conclusion seems to be that CH was
written in Eg5rpt, though, since no metropolitan is
mentioned (above, p. 72 f.), not in Alexandria. The
influence of Alexandria may perhaps be seen in the
retention by the CH writer (from the Lost Church
Order) of the very archaic ordination conditions.
6. Date of Egsrptian and Ethiopic
Church Orders and Verona Fragments^
part 3. These manuals may for this purpose be
considered together. None of them can with any
probability be dated before the fourth century. The
emphasis on the ' equal Trinity ' and the form of the
doxologies (pp. 115, 125) would make an earlier date
DATE OF THE CHURCH ORDERS 161
very unlikely. But there are several indications that
they are earlier in date than AC. TheLiturgy in EthCO
and H3 is almost certainly more primitive than that
in AC (above, p. 50 ff.) ; the absence of the Sanctus
would be difficult to explain after the fourth century ;
the absence (unlike AC, Test) of any account of the
church buildings would be natural early in that
century. The ordination prayer for a bishop in AC,
as well as that in Test, are almost certainly based on
that in EthCO and Hg or on something very like it
(p. 77). On the other hand EgCO must probably
be earlier than EthCO and Hg if, as seems likely, it
prescribes the same prayer to be used in ordaining a
bishop and a presbyter (p. 70f.); and this consideration
also points to its being earlier than Sar which (c. a.d.
350) has separate prayers. The doctrinal indications
in all three manuals points to the first half of the
fourth century (p. 114 f.). The Macedonian heresy
seems not yet to have broken out. That the Arian
heresy had arisen is shown by the phrases about the
Holy Trinity ; but the writers do not seem to have
occupied themselves much with the controversy. We
may probably assign these three manuals, or rather
their Greek originals, to the first half of the fourth
century, perhaps rather early in that period. Their
home was, doubtless, Egypt.
Funk {DidCA ii. p. xxi, TUH 132 ff.) gives two
indications of a date later than AC. (a) In the section
about the appointment and ordination of a bishop, EgCO
and EthCO begin with *as we have before said.' Funk
thinks that these words are derived from AC viii. 4^ and
M. 11
162 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
refer to the foregoing books of AC, thus showing that EgCO
and EthCO are later than AC. But this argument is not
sound. The words are not in H3 ; they seem therefore to
have been no part of the original EgCO, but to be due to
the compiler of SEC (who has been followed here, as often,
by EthS), and to refer to ApCO, which immediately
precedes in that compilation. If Funk's argument shows
anything, it is that the compilers of SEC and EthS lived
after the AC writer, which no one doubts. (6) H3 has a
prologue, i.e. a section between ApCO and the Church
Order which follows it ; and the prologue begins by
referring to a tract 0/ Gifts. No such tract precedes in
H, but one so named does precede AC viii. 3, which also
refers to it. Funk's deduction is that H3 is later than
and derived from AC, and that its prologue is derived
from AC viii. 3*. But there are other facts about the
prologue which show that the problem is not nearly so
simple as Funk thinks. The prologue and AC viii. 3
nearly agree in the first sentence (' we have now finished
the first part of the discourse concerning gifts, whatever
they be, which God has bestowed upon man according to
his will,' AC)t. But after this sentence they are quite
independent. Again, the H prologue reappears, in nearly
but not quite identical terms throughout, in the inter-
polated EthS 40 A (p. 21) in quite another connexion.
In both these two forms the paragraph is confused
(especially in H3) and neither could well have come
directly from the other. In these two forms the language
used has a much older flavour than that of AC viii. 3, and it
is^not easy to think of them as deriving their first sentence
from AC and then proceding on their own lines. Again,
• This section is not in ConstH, but reappears in SEC 63 and
EthS 52 (much altered).
t H : Ea quidem qnae nerba fueront, digne posnimoB de dona-
tionibns, quanta qaidem Dens a principio secondnm propriam
uolontat^m praestitit honiinibns....
DATE OF THE CHURCH ORDERS 163
the prologue is not found in EgCO or EthCO (the inter-
polated EthS 40 A is no part of EthCO), and if, as Funk
says, it is ' not doubtful ' that it formed originally a part
of the Egyptian law book, it is hard to see why all trace
of it (not only of the first sentence) has vanished from
EgCO and EthCO, which begin, without preface, im-
mediately after ApCO in the compilations where they are
found (SEC, EthS). The solution of this small but
puzzling problem which the present writer would offer has.
already been hinted at. The prologues in H3 and in EthS
40 A clearly had a common ancestor ; this seems to have
become corrupted at an early date, and so it has reached
us in two confused forms. One is tempted, then, to think
that the Lost Church Order, which as we have already
seen reason to suppose, was perhaps added on to the
Hippolytean treatise nepl xapKriidroiv (p. 148), had a
preface, of which the prologues of H3 and EthS 40 A are
corrupt versions, and which gave the idea for AC viii. 3.
Here the prologue has been spoken of as an original
part of H3. We must always bear in mind another
possibility, that the author of the Church Order (H3) is
not the same as the compiler of the whole of the Verona
fragments, and that the prologue in question is due to the
compiler. In that case the prologue would give us no
indication of date for H3 .
7. Date of the Testament of our Lord.
Here, again, we have great difference of opinion ;
Rahmani, the first editor, assigned it to the time of
Irenaeus; Zahn gives c. 350, Wordsworth and
Harnack c. 400 (Harnack would now place it later),
Funk c. 475.
That this Church Order cannot be dated before
the fourth century appears from the existence of
gubdeacons in it (for it is an Eastern manual), from
11—2
164 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
'the forty days of Pasclia ' (p. 132), the elaborate
churcli buildings (p. 36), the appointment of Satur-
day for public service (p. 57), the doctrinal tone
(p. 117 ff.), the elaboration of the Liturg)^ and the
steps taken towards a (not yet existing) daily public
service for all men (p. 59). See, further, Funk
{TUH p. 62 fF.), who refutes Rahmani at length.
On the other hand, marks of ante-Nicene date, such
as the mention of persecution, and the relics of the
ancient position of the reader still found in Test, can
be well accounted for as having been taken from older
materials ; they fulfil the conditions suggested on p. 6
as not contradicting contemporary usage, and as not
being mere antiquarianisms.
There are many positive marks of date. Tlie
doctrinal indications suggest a date before the
secession of Apollinaris from the Church in a.d. 375,
even before the outbreak of the Macedonian heresy
(p. 119 f.) ; the prevalent form of doxology points to
a date a good deal earlier than the end of the century,
if we remember the standpoint of the writer (p. 127).
The less developed prayers, especially in the Liturgy
(p. 49 f.), suggest that Test is earlier than AC, as do
the restriction of laying on of hands in ordination to
the thi*ee highest orders (p. 78) and the festal
cycle (p. 128). Funk remarks {TUH i^. 82 f.) that
the simple festal cycle in Test only means that it
and AC were not written in the same place, since we
find in ' Silvia ' that Christmas and Epiphany were
still one at Jerusalem at the end of the fourth centurj'.
That is so ; but even making every allowance for the
DATE OF THE CHURCH ORDERS 1()5
AC writer having desired to extend the festal cycle,
it is difficult to conceive that the very simple cycle of
Test (Easter, Pentecost, Epiphany) was that used in
any country where the manual is likely to have
been written, even at the beginning, much less at the
end, of the fifth century. The absence of metro-
politans would be very unlikely in that century
(p. 72 f.). The supposed mention of an archdeacon
has been alleged (Wordsworth, MG 32, 162 n) as
forbidding us to date this Church Order before
A.D. 400. But the Syriac suggests that the name
dipxi^idKovo'i was not used in the Greek original
(p. 72), and in any case there is no mention of such an
official as holding a distinct rank ; the ' chief deacon '
is merely one of the deacons told oif for two special
tasks, neither of them in the Church services. This
feature really points to a date a good deal before
A.D. 400. So also does the mention of a 'stole'
worn by him (p. 65). Singers in Test are not yet a
class or order, as in AC and at Laodicea (p. 82).
The widows -n-poKaO-rjixevaL are represented as being at
the height of their popularity ; at the time of the
Laodicean council they were dying out (p. 84). The
absence of monasticism and of penitential ' stations '
requires some consideration. The latter gives us no
certain indication (p. 94) ; the former points to a
date before the end of the fourth century. In the
latter half of the century many monastic communities
were founded and were enthusiastically received. In
so strict a writer as the compiler of Test we should
certainly expect a reference to them if he wrote in
166 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
the fifth century. The only ascetics mentioned are
the * virgins, male and female,' who are expressly
described in i. 46 as individuals, helping on the work
of the Church, but clearly not living in community.
On the other hand we have seen in the preceding
chapters that Test is derived, at least in part, from
a Greek manual very like Hg. We shall therefore
probably be approximately right if we ascribe this
Church Order to a date about a.d. 350.
The country of the writer had a sea coast (i. 34)
and was well watered, there being no reference, as in
EgCO, to scarcity of water for the font (ii. 8) ; there
are no interpreters, ho milk and honey at baptism, no
stated Wednesday and Friday fasts. It was probably
therefore not Egypt, though the Liturgj^ is derived
from an Egyptian source. The great dissimilarity
between Test and AC makes S}Tia unlikely ; and
perhaps, if we take into account the Montanist
influence and the position of women, we are within
the bounds of probability if we fix on Asia Minor as
its home.
Note. In the foregoing nothing has been said about
the apocalyptic prelude of Test (i. 2— 14a), which describes
the signs to be ext>ected before the end of the world and
the coming of Antichrist, because it is quite uncertain if
it was composed by the compiler of Test, or if it was an
already existing tract merely prefixed by him to his work.
Thus a mark of early date in the prelude is not necessarily
a mark of early date in Test. A mark of late date in the
prelude would, however, ix)int to a late date for Test.
There is some trace of its having had once an independent
existence ; at any rate we have an independent Syriac
DATE OF THE CHURCH ORDERS 167
translation of it {JThSt ii. 401, Arendzen). A shorter
form of it exists, which ends with ' Dexius shall be the
name of Antichrist,' and Harnack suggests that this is a
disguise for Decius, and that the shorter form dates from
the Decian persecution. Some considerations, however,
point to the shorter form being an excerpt from the
longer. In any case it is doubtful if the prelude is by the
Test compiler ; it has some of the favourite expressions of
Test, but on the other hand it has some striking diflferences
of style. Then there are in Test chapters introducing the
prelude (i. 1) and joining it on to the Church Order (i.
146 — 18), which have the appearance of having been added
by a hand other than that of the writer of the prelude,
and which show marked diflferences of style as compared
with the prelude. It seems therefore probable that the
Test compiler took an already existing tract on the End
(from which he perhaps got the idea of ascribing his book
to our Lord), and incorporated it in his manual (see,
further. Cooper- Maclean p. 141 flf.). The prelude shows
no sign of a post-Nicene date, certainly not of a date later
than the fourth century. It has therefore no certain
bearing either on the place or on the time of writing of
Test. — The connecting chapter i. 16 has a mark of the
influence of ApCO on Test. In the former Martha and
Mary are mentioned, and some slight is thrown on the
ministry of women. In Test (where the bias is all the
other way) Martha and Mary and Salome are introduced,
and not only is the slight removed, but the opportunity is
taken to include women among 'all those who minister in'
the 'Church' (i. 15).
8. Date of the Appendix to the Arabic
Didascaha. It is clear that ArD-app is derived
from Test, or else that Test is derived from it. But
several minute points show the priority of Test.
168 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
Thus for example, (a) in the ordination prayer for a
bishop ArU corrects the name Kapiioyv<o(m]i applied to
the Father in Test (as in '\ CH, H3, EthCO, ConstH),
conscious that in Acts i. 24, which i« here referred to, it is
appHed to our Lord, as it is applied in Hj p. 48, AC ii 24^,
iii. 7®. The corrected phrase in ArD 36^* is '0 God
who triest the heart* and reins.' (6) In ArD 37 the
fiction of Test i. 22 '* I have said unto you ') is removed
by reading * The Lord hath said ' ; here also the ' pres-
byters' are clearly an addition of ArD (above, p. 22).
(c) ArD 38 has altered a difficult allusion in Test to the
'eighteen entrances' of our Lord to the Passion, which are
connected with the bishop's three weeks' fast (six days a
week), not understanding the reference, and has, not very
happily, substituted three ' entrances,' death, resurrecttaPy
and ascension, as connected with the bishop's fast three
days a week. Here Test apparently makes an allusion to
which his readers had the key, though we have not ; the
ArD writer did not understand it, and made the best
sense he could. His insertion in this section of the
Wednesday and Friday fast is another sign of his being
later than Test (above, p. L38 f.). {d) ArD 38^8 developes the
Liturgy (which it only describes) by the addition of incense ;
here also the presbyter, instead of the deacon, brings in the
Eucharistic elements (p. 44). («) The Mystagogia is on
the whole shorter in ArD 39 than in Test. This seems to
be chiefly because the former writer has removed the
quasi-' Apollinarian ' phrases of the latter. On the other
hand the address of Death is slightly longer in ArD. The
long concluding thanksgiving in Test (spoken by our
Lord) could hardly have been deduced from the short
phrase in ArD : ' I thank thee, 0 King, with the word
(sermone) with which all creation has been created by
thee. This is the word (uerbum) which is in us through
the Spirit, who speaks with thee only.' See also p. 37.
DATE OF THE CHURCH ORDERS 169
These and other considerations lead us to consider
these chapters of ArD as derived from Test. As
Funk is of opinion that the unpublished part of ArD
is derived from AC, the probability is that the ArD
compiler (or a later writer) added on to his form of the
Didascalia this fragmentary Church Order, adapted
from Test, soon after a.d. 400. For the probability
of some of these additional chapters being found in
EthD, see above, p. 22.
9. Date of the Didache. The early date of
this manual is seen from the undeveloped nature of
the Liturgy and of the Church Organisation (above,
pp. 62, 67), and also from the absence of references to
Montanism (though Dr Bigg denied this last state-
ment*). This will fix D before a.d. 157. Harnack
thinks that D quotes ' Barnabas,' which he dates
c. A.D. 130. But the dependence on 'Barnabas' and
the date of that epistle are alike doubtful. Other
writers are inclined to place D even earlier, at the
beginning of the second, or at the end of the first,
century. It is probable that it is the product of some
remote district, perhaps of Syria, apart from the
ordinary stream of Church life. — This Church Order
has been so often edited and commented on that it is
here dealt with very briefly. Those who desire more
information about it may be referred to the editions
of C. Taylor (1886) and Harnack (1881), to Harnack's
* Dr Bigg stands almost alone in assigning D to the fourth
century.
170 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
discussiou in his Chronologie (1897), and to Dr
Salmon's article on the subject in DCB.
10. Date of the Didascalia. It is a little
diflficult to determine this, because it is not certain
that even the oldest form of it which we possess (the
Syriac) is the original. Hi is probably interpolated, if
only in a slight degree. We must certainly dismiss
Bickell's idea that Didasc-sjT is an abridgment of,
and therefore later than, AC i. — vi. Parallel passages
constantly show AC as describing later, never as
giving earlier, customs ; some examples may be seen
at p. 31 f. The points which we may consider in
arriving at the date are these. The arrangement of
a Christian assembly is described, but not elaborate
church buildings ; only Sunday assemblies are men-
tioned. Pascha is to be determined by following the
Jewish computation ; a Holy Week fast is described.
Hamack at one time considered that the work was
anti-Novatianist (see above, p. 114), and assigned
it to the la^t half of the third century ; Wordsworth
(and now Harnack also agrees with him) places it in
the first half of that century {MG p. 39), but
Harnack thinks that the sections about clemency to
sinners are interpolated. Funk {DidCA i. p. iv f.) and
Achelis agree with Harnack's earlier view. Thus,
while the exact date is quite uncertain, we can only
be on safe ground if we date the work some time in
the third century. The Holy Week fast may perhaps
incUne us to the later date. Its original country is
doubtful ; perhaps Syria.
DATE OF THE CHURCH ORDERS 171
11. Date of the Apostolic Church Order.
This manual has some extremely ancieut features,
such as the position of the reader above the deacon in
§ 19, though not in § 1 (see p. 86). As § 22 is to
some extent a repetition of the direction of § 20 (on
deacons), Harnack suggests {SApC p. 7 ff., and in his
edition of D, p. 212 fF.) that §§ 16 — 28 consist of two
very early law books, each of the second century ;
these he calls 'Source A' and 'Source B.' He
ascribed the Church Order itself to c. a.d. 300 ; but
now with Funk, he is inclined to put it a little later
{DidCA ii. p. xliv). In § 1 we find the word
* eparchy ' which in the sense of an ecclesiastical
province is not found before Eusebius ; but there is
nothing to show that the writer is referring to
ecclesiastical rather than civil divisions. Subdea-
cons are not mentioned. This Church Order perhaps
comes from Asia Minor (above, p. 26).
12. Date of the Edessene Canons. The
reference in can. 25 to Christian Emperors shows
that this work is post-Nicene. But it does not seem
to have been written long after the conversion of the
Empire, and may perhaps be ascribed to the second
or third quarter of the fourth century. It came from
Edessa.
13. Date of the Apostolic Canons.
Several of these canons are taken from those of the
Council of Antioch inEncaen., a.d. 341; this therefore
is the earliest possible date. Whether compiled by
172 THE ANCIENT CHURCH ORDERS
the AC writer or not, they are closely comiected with
AC, and we may probably therefore assign them to
the last quarter of the fourth century or to the
beginning of the fifth, and believe that they were
written in Syria.
Summary
It will be convenient to sum up the results which
have been tentatively reached in this volume.
Reasons have been given for thinking that a large
number of the Church Orders are descended from a
single Original, now lost, and that this may even have
been the work of Hippolytus. The extant Church
Orders seem not to be all in one line of tradition.
Neither the Canons of Hippolytus nor the Apostolic
Constitutions can with much probability be considered
as the parent of the rest. With regard to the
former, a dat^ early in the fourth century is here
suggested for the work as we now have it, excepting
only one or two trifling intei-polations ; the theory of
a largely interpolated work of the era of Hippolytus
now appears to the present writer to be as little
tenable as that ot a late composition of the sixth
century. Yet the Canons probably reproduce several
primitive features of the lost Original with great
fidelity. It is suggested that most of the extant
Church Orders here placed in the first division, or
rather their Greek originals, date from the fourth
century ; the Canons of Hippolytus, and the three
forms of the Church Order of Egypt ('Egyptian/
DATE OF THE CHURCH ORDERS 173
* Ethiopic ' and ' Verona fragments ') having been
probably compiled early in the century, the Testament
of our Lord about the middle, and the Apostolic
Constitutions towards the end of it. The com-
pilations in which most of these Church Orders are
found may, at least in some cases, be a good deal
later.
We have now come to the end of the task proposed
in the hrst chapter of this book. The contents of the
Church Orders have been considered from various
points of view, and conclusions have been drawn as
to their date and home. With regard to these, it
will doubtless be disappointing to some that there is
a certain amount of uncertainty about the results
arrived at. But it is better to speak cautiously than
to be over-positive, when, by the nature of the case,
it can only be a question between what is more
probable and what is less probable. The result of
the investigation which does appear to be certain is
that this whole class of literature is an important
one, and cannot safely be neglected. It is hoped
that the present volume may at least point out to
the English student the value of the Church Orders,
and the best method of studying them.
LITERATURE REFERRED TO IN THIS VOLUME
AcHELis, Die Caiwaes Hippolyti^ in ' Texte und Unter-
suchungen' (Leipzig, 1891).
Arendzen, Articles on Test and ApCO in JThSt ii. ill.
(London, 1901, 1902).
Bigg, The Doctrine of the Twelve Apostles (London, 1898).
Brightman, Liturgies Eastern and Western^ vol. i. Eastern
Litiirgiefi (Oxford, 1896) ; The Sacramentary ofSerapion
of Thmui^ in JThSt i. (London, 1900).
CoNNOLXY, The Liturgical Homilies of Narsai, in ' Texts
and Studies' (Cambridge, 1909).
Cooper and Maclean, The Testament of our Lord
(Edinburgh, 1902).
De Lagarde, Constitutiones Apostolorum (Leipzig, 1862) ;
Reliquiae juris ecclesia-stici antiquissimae (Leipzig,
1856) ; Aegyptiaca (Gottingen, 1883) ; Diduscalia
Apostolorum Syriace (Leipzig, 1856).
Di Haneberg, Canones Hippolyti Arabice..,cum Versione
latina... {^vmich, 1870).
Denzinger, Ritus Orientalium (Wirceburgi, 1863, 1864).
Duchesne, Origines du ctUte chretien (Paris, 1889, 1898) ;
English translation : Christian icorship, its origin and
evolution (London, 1903).
Funk, Die Apostolischen Konstitutionen(Bx)i\j&nb\yTg^ 1891);
Da4 Testament unseres Hemi und die verwandten
Schriften (Mainz, 1901) ; Dida^alia et Constitutiones
Apostolorum [for contents see above, p. 9] (Pader-
born, 1906).
BIBLIOGRAPHY 175
Gibson, The Didascalia Apostolorum, ' HoraeSemiticae' i. ii.
(London and Cambridge, 1903).
Harnack, Die Lehre der Zwolf Aposiel^ in ' T. und Unters.'
(Leipzig, 1884) ; Sources of the Apostolic Canons
[ApCO], Eng. tr. (London, 1895) ; Chroiiologie d.
cdtchristl. Litteratur (Leipzig, 1897).
H-4.STINQ8, Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels, vol. i., art.
'The Christian Calendar' (Edinburgh, 1906) ; Encyclo-
paedia of Religion and Ethics, vol. i.,art8. 'Abrenuntio'
and 'Agape' (Edinburgh, 1908).
Hauler, Didascaliae Apostolorum Fragmenta Veronensia
Latina, vol. i. (Leipzig, 1900).
Hepele, ConcilieTigeschichte, Eng. tr., vols. i. ii. (Edin-
burgh, 1872, 1876).
Horner, The Statutes of the Apostles [for contents see
p. 9f. above] (London, 1904).
LiGHTFOOT, J. B., Apostolic Fathers, part 1 Clement
(London, 1890), part 2 Ignatius and Poly carp*
(London, 1889) ; compendious edition, with ' Barn-
abas,' ' Didache,' ' Hermas,' ' Ep. to Diognetus,'
' Fragments of Papias' etc. (London, 1891).
LuDOLF, Ad suam historiam Aethiopicam commentarius
(Frankfort-on-Main, 1621).
Platt, The Ethiopic DidascaZia (London, 1834).
Rahmani, Testamentum Domini nostri Jesu Christi (Mainz,
1899).
Riedel, Die Kirchenrechtsquellen des Patriarchats Alex-
andrien (Leipzig, 1900).
Robertson and Donaldson, Ante-Nicene Christian
Library, 24 vds. (Edinburgh, 1866—1872).
Smith and Cheetham, Dictionary of Christian Antiquities
(London, 1875, 1880).
Smith and Wage, Dictionary of Christian Biography
(London, 1877—1887).
• The third volume of part 2 contains Psendo-Pionius' Life of
Folycarp.
I'JQ BIBLIOGRAPHY
Tattam, The Apostolic ConMitutiom or Camns of the
Apostles in Coptic (LoudoD, 1848,.
Ueltzen, Constitutiones Apostolicae (Suerini et Rostochii,
Wordsworth, J., The Ministry of Grace (London, 1901) ;
three articles on Test in Church Qiuirterly Review
(London, 1900) and in Revae intemationale d^ thcologie,
vol 31 ' (1900) ; Bishop Sarapion's Prayer Book
(London, 1899).
INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
[See also Table of Contents, p. ix.]
Acolytes 80, 160
Addai 4
Administration of Holy Com-
munion 43 f., 46 f.
Agape 18 f., 62-64, 86, 157
Almsgiving 18 f., 64, 113
Altar 36
Amen of Communicants 42
Anointing at baptism 16-19,
99 f., 105-108
Antiquarianisms 4-7, 158
Aphthartodoceticism 120
ApoUinarianism 119 f., 123,
168
Apostles' festivals 129 f.
'Apostles ' in Didache 25, 67 f.
Apostolic fiction 3 f., 26, 28,
150 f.
Archdeacon 72, 165
Arianism 115 f., 118, 123,
126f., 161
Ascension (festival) 129
Ascetics, 166. See Virgins
Baptism 16 f., 96-111; for-
mula of 25, 104, 112; season
of 96; by deacons, laymen
and women 110; into Christ's
death 123 ; of Christ 129 ;
of infants 98 f . See also
Fasts
M.
Baptistery 36 f., 97
Bathing before baptism 16 f.,
97
Benedicite 60 f.
Benediction, of oil etc. 14 f.,
16 f., 21, 33, 39, 41, 43,
97 f. ; of the font 21, 98
Benedictus qui venit 41
Bishop, election and consecra-
tion of 14 f., 70 f., 73-78;
visiting the sick 18 f. ; rela-
tion to presbyters 69 f.;
sometimes unlearned 86
Bread, Eucharistic 47 ; of
blessing and exorcism, see
Eulogiae
Burial of the dead 20 f., 83, 64
Catechumenate 16 f., 140
Catechumens, dismissal of
16 f., 39 f., 54, 95, 155; not
at Agape and Eucharist
18 f., 63; house of 36
Celibacy, see Marriage
Chair of Hippolytus 148
Charismata 16 f., 42, 80, 87,
109, 152; the treatise 'Of
Charismata' 21, 30, 148 f.,
162 f.
Chief deacon, see Archdeacon
Chorepiscopi 72
12
178
INDEX
Chrism, see Anointing
Christmas 129, 149, 164. See
also Epiphany
Church buildings 35-37
Clement 4, 32
Clementine literature 5, 113 ;
date of 91
Cleobius 113
' Commemoration ' (Litany) 87
Communion of clergy and
people 41 f.
Communion, first 18 f., 46,109
Competentes 16 f., 97
Compilations, list of, 8
Confessors, 14 f., 87-90, 154
Confirmation 18 f., 104-109;
by presbyter (?) 107 f., 155
Confusion of Persons in
prayer 45, 119
Creed, 16 f.. 65, 100-104, 157-
159
DaQy prayers 31, 40, 59 f., 164
Deaconesses 17, 36, 42, 44,
83-85, 152, 154, 159
Deacons, ordination of 14 f.,
71 f.; number of 27, 80 f. ;
duties in church 85, 37 ; ex-
ercising discipline 94 f. ;
their claims repressed 49,
68 f.
Dedication festival 129 f.
Departed, commemoration of
18 f., 63 f.
Diaconicum 36
Digamy, see Monogamy
Diptychs 45
Discipline 94 f.
Doorkeepers 80, 82 f., 93, 155
East, prayer towards 35, 87;
turning to at baptism 100
Easter 128 f., 165; date of 18,
33, 131 f., 156; baptism at
96 f. ; Easter Even 29, 97,
132, 135; Easter Week 129
Ectene, see Litany
Eparchy 171
Epiclesis, see Invocation
Epiphany 96, 128-132, 149,
164 f.
Eucharist, description of 38 ft.;
celebrant of 14, 46, 68;
after baptism 46, 109 f.;
days for 55-59
Eucharistic elements, care for
18 f.
Eucharistic Thanksgiving 25,
39 f., 50, 54
Eulogiae 18 f., 47 f., 64
Exorcism 16 f., 97
Exorcists 17, 80; house of 36
Experiments in liturgiology 7
Fans 44, 65
Fasts, before baptism 16 f.,
28, 97, 133, 187 f. ; before
communion 18 f. ; in Di-
dache 133 f. ; before Easter
18f., 134-137, 140 (see Holy
Week) ; weekly (Wed. Fri.)
18, 25, 28, 138 f., 168;
special for bishops 139 ;
forbidden on Sundays and
in ' Pentecost ' 140
Festal cycle 21, 81, 12&-131,
164 f.
FiUoque 101, 116, 142, 157 f.
Firstfruits 18 f., 28, 125
Font, hallowmg of 16, 21, 98
Forbidden food 19, 28, 113, 124
Forbidden trades 16 f., 97
'Forty days,' as a solemn
season 134 f. ; as a fast 135-
187, 157, 160; inexact use
of the term 140
Fraction, at Eucharist 55
Funerals, see Burial of the
dead
Gates in church 43
Genuflexion 38, 65
INDEX
179
Gifts, see Charismata
Gloria in excelsis 29, 41, 125
Good Friday 135
Guest house 36, 65
Guide (bishop) 68
High Priest (our Lord) 123;
(bishop) 31, 43, 67
Hippolytus, perhaps author
of 'Lost Church Order' 148
Holy Cross Day 180
Holy Spirit, doctrine of 114-
119, 122. See Invocation
Holy Week 135-137, 157, 170
Hosanna 41
Ignatian Epistles, Interpolator
of 124
Immersion, trine, at baptism
104
Incense 44, 65, 168
Infant baptism 98 f. ; com-
munion 42
Instruction 39 f., 59 f., 86 f.
Intercession, Eucharistic 40,
45, 49, 52, 55, 65
Interpreters 82
Invocation, at Eucharist 39-
41, 43-45, 49,51-55, 66; at
Confirmation 106 f.
James, St (festival) 130
John, St (festival) 130
Jews' Passover, 18, 131 f ., 156
Kiss of peace 18 f., 89 f., 54,
108 f.
Kneeling 38, 140
Lamplighting, praver at the
18 f., 60, 120, 126
Lavabo 40
Laying on of hands 14-19, 74,
781 152, 154 f., 164; at
Confirmation 108
Lectern 36 f.
Lections 37, 39 f., 42, 60, 87,
109
Lent, see Pascha and Forty
Days
Levites 31 f., 48
Light, children of the 118
Lights 36 f., 65
Litany 38-41, 54, 66, 87
Logos, Invocation of 54
Lord's prayer 25, 42, 45
Lord's Supper (Agape) 63
Macedonian controversy 114,
117, 119, 126, 161
Marriage, of clergy 13, 16, 31,
90-93, 159 ; of the laity 92 f. ,
124 ; solemnization of 59
Martyrs' festivals 129 f.
Maundy Thursday 58, 132
Memorial feasts 19, 63
Metropolitans 72 f., 150, 160,
165
Military service, see Soldiers
Milk and honey 18 f., 46, 160,
166
'Minister' (subdeacon) 81
Minor Orders 14-17, 78-87,
89 f., 93, 151-155, 159 f.,
165, 171 ; in Sarapion 33, 54
Mishna 113
Monasticism 165 f.
Monogamy 84, 91-93
Monophysites 79 f., 120
Montanism 94, 112-114, 117f.,
131, 136, 169
Mystagogia 22 f., 40, 120, 168
Natales 130
Nestorians 79 f., 109, 120f.
Novatianism 114, 170
Number of clergy 80 f.
Nunc Dimittis 29, 60
Oblation 36, 39 f., 48 f., 54
Octaves 129
'Offer,' to 48 f.
180
INDEX
Offertory 39 f., 54
Oil, see Anointing, Benediction
Orientation of churches 37
Palm Sunday 129
Paraclete 116 f., 122 f.
Papchal8f.,33, 96 f.; meaning
of 132. See Easter
Passion and Resurrection ob-
served on same day 135 f.
Penitents, reception of 155.
See Stations
Pentecost 19, 96, 129, 165;
meaning of 132 f.
Persecution 7, 21, 87 f., 164
Personification of Divine at-
tributes 119
Persons, order of 118, 153;
confusion of 119
Peter and Paul, SS. (festival)
130
Pomp 98, 100
Porticoes 35 f.
Prayer, hours of 20 f., 59-62
Prayer meeting 20 f.
Prayers to the Son 118; to the
Trinity 119
Presbyteresses 17, 83-85, 118
Presbyters, ordination of 14 f.,
69-71, 77 f.; number of 27,
80 f. ; seats of, in churcli
27, 35-37 ; relation to
bishops 69 f. ; cannot or-
dain 69 f. ; married and
travelling 16, 143
Presentation of Christ in the
Temple 129
Promotion of clergy 89 f.
Prophetesses 118
Prophets in Didache 25, 67,
112
Psalmody 19, 40, 44
Pseudonvmity of Church Or-
ders 3*^f., 26,28, 150 f.
Quartodecimans 131, 136
Readers 14f., 27, 42, 54,85-87,
90, 93, 151-155; number of
80 f., 87; female 85
Redditio symboli 100
Regions in Rome 81
Renunciations at baptism
16 f., 98
Reservation of Eucharist 56 f.
Resurrection, instruction in
the 18 f., 110 f.
Roman Emperors, allusion to
28, 149, 155, 171
Sabbath 57
Sacrifice, the unbloody 48, 54
Sancta Sanctis 40 f., 53
Sanctus 40, 45, 50, 54, 161
Saturdav, a festival in the
East 28 f., 57
Seal, the 108 f.
Secundatio 113
Severians 120
Shepherd (bishop) 68
Ship, the Church as a 36
Sick, communion of 20 f., 47
Sign of the cross 97, 108 f.
Simon Magus 113
Sin after baptism 31, 94
Singers 82, 93, 155, 165
Soldiers 97, 145 f.
Soul (human) of our Lord
123
Sponsors 98 f.
Standing, for prayer 38; for
the Gospel 42
Stations 56 (days); 94, 165
(penitential)
Stephen, St (festival) 129 f.
Stole 65, 165
Subdeaconesses 85 n.
Subdeacons 14 f., 42, 80 f., 89,
93, 152,171; numberof80f.
Submission to God in baptism
16 f., 100-103
Subordinationism 118, 121 f.,
153
INDEX
181
Sursnm Corda and Saluta-
tion 39 f., 42, 50, 54, 160
Syro-Macedonian calendar
150
Thanksgiving after commu-
nion 41
Throne, episcopal 14 f., 36, 69
Tithes 28
Traditio symboli 100
Trinity, the name 115, 119;
'equal Trinity' 115 f., 157,
160
Veils, in churches 36, 44, 66 ;
at baptism 36, 105 ; of
women 27, 42
Vestments, at Eucharist 20,
64 f., 143; of chief deacon 65
Vigils 16 f., 18 f.
Virgins 16 f., 42,154, 166
Voluntary death of our Lord
102, 114
Water, in chalice 144 f. ; flow-
ing, in baptism 104
Wednesday and Friday, see
Fasts
Widows 41 f ., 154, 165 ; ap-
pointment of 16 f.; alms and
supper for 18 f., 63; inside
the veil 44, 84; number of
80 f.; duties of 83, 105;
silent in church 84
Witness of the Spirit 123
Women, ministry of 27, 105,
167. See also'Veils
Word, the 115-117, 119 ff.
Words of our Lord at the
Last Supper 40, 45
Xerophagies 136
dy^vTjTos 117
dvaSoxos 99
dvaXa/x^dveiv 99
dyTiTd<x<TO/xai 100
dpXiSLdKOi^os 72
dpxicpo-revew 67
/3a Ms 78
iiridrjfxla , -fxeiv 55, 117
€VXO.pi-<TTUV 62
^wo7roi6s 119
iepariKdi 79
iepovpyla 71
lepojaiL/yr] 79
Kadiarqv 78
Kap8Loyvu}(rTr)s 168
Kardffraais 78, 155
KXrjpiKds 79
XeiTovpyeip 48
ira(TTo<f>6pLa 35
TrpoKad'^/xeuai 83
irpo<7<pipeiv 48
(TTod 36
avvTd<T<ro/ji.ai 100, 102
TecraapaKOffTT^ 140
vimjpiTT)^, -ala 81
(piKavdpujiria 117
<pu}TicrT7ipiou 37
Xeipodeaia, -relv 55, 78, 105,
153-155
X^tpoTOvia, -veXv 78, 153-155
(JTatnbritjge :
PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A.
AT THE UNIVERSIIT PRESS.
IMS
Maclean^ Arthur John,
1858-19A3.
The ancient church
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