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LIBRARY  OF  PRINCETON 


THEOLOGICAIJEMINARY 


BR75  .B5 

1852  V 

.2 

Origines 

eccles 

I  AS! 

■ic5. 

The 

ANTIQUITIES  OF 

the 

Chri 

STIAN 

/  With  two  serm 

ONS 

AND 

TWO  LE 

OEIGINES    ECCLESIASTICS. 


THE   ANTIQUITIES 


THE    CHRISTIAN    CHURCH. 


WITH  TWO  SERMONS  AND  TWO  LETTERS 
ON    THE   NATURE   AND   NECESSITY   OF    ABSOLUTION. 

y 

BY  JOSEPH   BINCIHAM, 

RECTOR  OF  IIAVANT. 


REPRINTED  FROM  THE  ORIGINAL  EDITION, 
MDCCVIII.— MDCCXXII. 

WITH  AN  ENLARGED  ANALYTICAL  INDEX. 


VOL.  II. 

LONDON : 
HENRY  G.  BOHN,  YORK  STREET,  COVENT  GARDEN. 

MDCCCLIL 


JOHN  CHILDS  AND  SON,  BUNGAY 


BOOK   XIV. 

OF  THAT  PART  OF  DIVINE  SERVICE  WHICH  THE  ANCIENTS  COMPRISED  UNDER  THE 
GENERAL  NAME  OF  MISSA  CATECHUMENORUM,  THE  SERVICE  OF  THE  CATECHUMENS, 
OR  ANTE-COMMUNION  SERVICE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

OF    THE    PSALMODY    OF    THE    ANCIENT    CHUECH. 


It  has  been  observed  before,  that  the 

That  the  service  ancients  Comprised  their  whole  ser- 

cf   the   nncient  ^ 

churrh  usually  be-  yicB  undcr  two  general  heads,  to  which 

gan  with  psalmody.  o  ' 

they  gave  the  distinguishing  names 
of  missa  catechumenorum,  and  missa  JideUum,  the 
service  of  the  catechumens,  and  the  service  of  com- 
municants or  believers ;  that  is,  as  we  would  now 
term  them,  the  ante-communion  service,  and  the 
communion  service.  The  service  of  the  catechu- 
mens was  that  part  of  Divine  worship,  at  which  the 
catechumens,  and  all  others  who  were  not  perfect 
and  full  communicants,  were  allowed  to  be  present ; 
and  it  consisted  of  psalmody,  reading  the  Scriptures, 
preaching,  and  prayers  for  such  particular  orders  of 
men,  as  were  not  admitted  to  participate  of  the  holy 
mysteries :  and  under  these  several  heads  we  must 
now  consider  it. 

The  service  usually  began  with  reading  or  sing- 
ing of  psalms,  as  appears  from  that  of  St.  Jerom,' 
describing  the  service  of  the  Egyptian  monks  :  They 
meet  at  nine  o'clock,  and  then  the  psalms  are  sung, 
and  the  Scriptures  are  read,  and  after  prayers  they 
all  sit  down,  and  the  father  preaches  a  sermon  to 
them.  And  so  Cassian  represents  it,^  that  first  the 
psalms  were  sung,  and  then  followed  two  lessons, 
one  out  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  the  other  out  of 
the  New.  Only  on  the  Lord's  day,  and  the  fifty 
days  of  Pentecost,  and  the  sabbath,  or  Saturday, 
they  read  one  lesson  out  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles, 
or  the  Epistles,  and  the  other  out  of  the  Gospels. 
But,  probably,  there  might  be  a  difference  in  the 


'  Hieron.  Ep.  22.  ad  Eustoch.  cap.  ]5.  Post  horam  no- 
nam  in  commune  conciuritur,  psalmi  resonant,  Scriptiu-aj 
recitantur  ex  more.  Et  completis  orationibus,  cunctisque 
residentibus,  medius,  quem  patrem  vocant,  incipit  dispn- 
tare,  &c. 

-  Cassian.  Institut.  lib.  2.  cap.  6.  Qnibus  (psalmis)  lec- 
tiones  geiuinas  adjungentes,  id  est,  unam  Veteris  et  aliam 
Novi  Testamenti,  &c.  In  die  vero  sabbati  vel  Dominico 
utrasque  de  Novo  recitant  Testamento,  id  est,  unam   de 


order  of  reading  in  different  churches.  And  that 
may  reconcile  the  different  opinions  of  learned  men 
concerning  the  order  of  their  service.  For  some 
think  they  began  with  reading  the  Scriptures,  and 
others,  with  a  prayer  of  confession.  The  author  of 
the  Constitutions,  it  is  certain,  prescribes'  first  the 
reading  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  then  the  psalms, 
and  after  that  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  and  Epistles, 
and  last  of  all  the  Gospels.  So  that  the  psalms 
were  intermingled  with  the  lessons  according  to  the 
rules  and  prescriptions  which  that  author  had  ob- 
served in  some  churches.  St.  Basil*  speaks  of  a 
confession  made  to  God  upon  their  knees,  after 
which  they  rose  up,  and  betook  themselves  to  sing 
psalms  to  God.  But  that  was  in  their  vigils  or 
morning  prayers  before  day,  and  most  probably 
only  a  private  confession,  which  every  man  made 
silently  by  himself,  before  they  began  the  public 
service.  But  if  we  take  it  for  a  public  confession, 
as  the  learned  Hamon  L'Estrange'  does,  then  it  will 
argue,  that  the  Eastern  churches  began  their  morn- 
ing antelucan  service  with  a  prayer  of  confession, 
and  so  went  on  to  their  psalmody,  which  was  the 
great  exercise  and  entertainment  of  their  nocturnal 
vigils.  And  indeed  it  was  their  exercise  at  all  times 
in  the  church,  as  St.  Austin"  notes,  to  fill  up  all 
vacuities,  when  neither  the  reading  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, nor  preaching,  nor  prayers,  interposed  to 
hinder  them  from  it.  All  other  spaces  were  spent 
in  singing  of  psalms,  than  which  there  could  not  be 
any  exercise   more  useful  and   edifying,  or  more 


Apostolo,  vel  Actibus  Apostolorum,  et  aliam  de  Evangeliis. 
Quod  etiam  totis  quinquagesima;  diebus  faciunt. 

3  Constit.  lib.  2.  cap.  57.  lib.  5.  cap.  19. 

*  Basil.  Ep.  63.  ad  Neocaesar.  t.  3.  p.  96. 

^  L'Estrange,  Alliance  of  Div.  Offic.  cap.  3.  p.  75. 

^  Aug.  Ep.  119.  ad  Januar.  cap.  18.  Qiiando  non  est 
tcmpus,  cum  in  ecclesia  fratres  congrcgantur,  sancta  cantan- 
di,  nisi  cum  legitur,  aut  disputatur,  aut  antistites  clara  voce 
deprecantur,  aut  communis  oratio  voce  diaconi  iudicitur  ? 


2 


G78 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIV. 


holy  and  pious,  in  his  opinion.  And  upon  this  ac- 
count, (if  the  observation  of  L'Estrange  be  rightly 
made  out'  of  Chrysostom,)  the  people  were  used  to 
entertain  the  time  with  singing  of  psalms,  before 
the  congregation  was  complete  and  fully  assembled. 
I  take  Ho  notice  here  of  their  psalmody  at  other 
times,  at  their  meals,  at  their  labours,  and  in  their 
private  devotions :  because,  though  this  is  fre- 
quently mentioned  by  the  ancients  with  great  and 
large  encomiums,  yet  it  differed  in  many  respects 
from  the  common  psalmody,  and  we  can  draw  little 
light  or  ai'gument  from  that  to  explain  the  public 
service. 

As  to  the  public  psalmody  of  the 
The  psalms  inter-  clim'ch,  though  wc  take  it  fov  the  first 

mixed  with  lessons  .         '^  <.      i 

and  prayers  in  some  and  leaduiff  part  of  the  service,  yet 

i-liurches.  o     '  ... 

we  are  not  so  to  understand  it,  as  if  it 
was  all  performed  at  once  in  one  continued  course 
of  repeating  many  psalms  together  without  intermis- 
sion, but  rather  with  some  respite,  and  a  mixture  of 
other  parts  of  Divine  service,  to  make  the  whole  more 
agreeable  and  delightful.  At  least,  it  was  apparently 
so  in  the  practice  of  some  churches.  For  the  coun- 
cil of  Laodicea  made  a  decree,'  That  the  psalms 
should  not  be  sung  one  immediately  after  another, 
but  that  a  lesson  should  come  between  every  psalm. 
And  St.  Austin  plainly  intimates,  that  this  was  the 
practice  of  his  own  church.  For  in  one  of  his 
homilies' he  takes  notice  first  of  the  reading  of  the 
Epistle,  then  of  singing  the  95th  Psalm,  "  O  come, 
let  us  worship,  and  fall  down,  and  kneel  before  the 
Lord  our  Maker,"  and  after  that  of  a  lesson  read  out 
of  the  Gospel.  And  in  another  homily '"  he  speaks 
of  them  in  the  same  order.  In  the  lesson  out  of  the 
Epistle,  says  he,  thanks  are  given  to  God  for  the 
faith  of  the  Gentiles.  In  the  psalm  we  said,  "  Turn 
us  again,  thou  Lord  God  of  hosts,  show  the  light  of 
thy  countenance,  and  we  shall  be  whole."  In  the 
Gospel  we  were  called  to  tlie  Lord's  supper.  By 
comparing  these  two  places  of  St.  Austin  together, 
we  may  observe,  that  it  was  not  any  particular 
j)salm  that  was  appropriated  to  come  between  the 
Epistle  and  Gospel,  but  the  psalm  that  was  in  the 
ordinary  course  of  reading.  For  the  95th  is  men- 
tioned in  one  place,  and  the  80th  Psalm  in  the  other. 


'  L'Estrange,  Alliance  of  Div.  Offic.  cap.  3.  p.  77. 

"  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  17. 

"Aug.  Serin.  10.  de  Verbis  Apos^oli,  p.  H'i.  Hoc  de 
apostolica  lectionc  percepimus.  Deinde  cantavimiis  psal- 
inum,  e.xhortantes  nos  invicem  una  voce,  una  corded iceutes, 
Venite  adoremus,  &c.  Posthaec  evangelica  lectio  decern 
leprosos  raundatos  nobis  ostendit. 

'"  Aug.  Horn.  33.  de  Verb.  Domini,  p.  49.  In  lectione 
apostolica  ;^rati;c  aguntur  Deo  de  fide  gentium.  In  psalmo 
diximus.  Deus  virtutum  converte  uos,  &c.  In  evan^elio 
ad  ccEnam  vocati  sumus,  &c. 

"  Collat.  &c.  ap.  Mabillon,  de  Cursu  Gallicano,  p.  390. 
Evenit  autem  ut  ea  nocte,  cum  lector  secundum  morem  in- 
ciperet  lectioncm  a  Moyse,  incidit  in  ea  verba  Domini,  Sed 
ego  indurabo  cor  ejus,  &c.     Deinde  cum  post  psalmos  de- 


Mabillon  has  observed  the  same  practice  in  the 
French  churches,  out  of  the  collation  between  the 
catholics  and  Arians  in  the  reign  of  Gundobadus, 
king  of  Burgundy,  anno  499.  For  in  the  relation  of 
that  conference  "  it  is  said.  That  on  the  vigil  before 
the  day  of  disputation,  in  celebrating  the  Divine 
offices,  it  happened  that  the  first  lesson,  that  was 
out  of  the  Pentateuch,  had  those  words,  "  I  will 
harden  Pharaoh's  heart,"  &c.  After  which  the 
psalms  were  sung,  and  then  another  lesson  was  read 
out  of  Isaiah,  in  which  were  these  words,  "Go  and 
tell  this  people.  Hearing  ye  shall  hear,  and  shall  not 
understand."  After  the  psalms  were  sung  again, 
another  lesson  was  read  out  of  the  Gospel,  wherein 
were  those  words  of  our  Saviour  upbraiding  the  Jews 
with  their  infidelity,  "Woe  unto  thee,  Chorazin," 
(S:c.  And  last  of  all  the  Epistle  was  read,  contain- 
ing those  words,  "  Despisest  thou  the  riches  of  his 
goodness,"  &c. :  where  it  is  easy  to  observe,  that  as 
there  were  four  lessons  read  out  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testament,  so  there  were  psalms  sung  between  each 
lesson,  except  the  last,  which  is  not  mentioned. 

These  psalms  were  styled  by  a  pe- 
culiar name,  responsoria,  and  psalmi     which  psaims 

,,  1   .    1      were  called  by  a  \)e- 

resnonsoru,  the  responsories  ;   which  cuiiar  name, ps«;mi 

^  ^  responsorii. 

was  not  a  name  affixed  to  any  par- 
ticular psalms,  but  was  given  to  all  such  as  happened 
to  fall  in  here,  in  the  common  course  of  reading. 
The  fourth  council  of  Toledo  is  to  be  understood  of 
such  psalms,  when  it  speaks  of  responsories,'^  blam- 
ing some  for  neglecting  to  use  the  Gloria  Patri 
after  them.  And  Gregory  Turonensis"  often  men- 
tions them  more  expressly  under  the  name  oi psalmi 
responsorii,  making  it  a  part  of  the  deacon's  office  to 
repeat  them.  The  ancient  ritualists  are  not  agreed 
about  the  reason  of  the  name,  why  they  were  called 
responsoria  ;  some  saying  '*  they  were  so  called,  be- 
cause one  singing,  the  whole  quire  did  answer  them; 
whilst  others'^  say,  they  had  their  name  because 
they  answered  to  the  lessons,  being  sung  immedi- 
ately after  them.  Which  seems  to  be  the  more 
likely  reason. 

But  we  are  not  to  imagine,  that         g^.^^  ^ 
these  were  the  only  psalms  which  the  propnate'd"tir%a^ 
ancients  used  in  their  psalmody.  For  *"'"''"'  """'"• 


cantatos  rccitaret  ex  prnphetis,  occurrenint  verba  Domini 
ad  Esaiam  dicentis,  Vade  et  dices  popiilo  huic,  Audite  aiuli- 
entes,  &c.  Cumque  adhuc  psalmi  t'uissent  decantati,  et 
legeret  ex  Evangelio;  incidit  in  verba,  quibus  Salvator  ex- 
probrat  Judaiis  incredulitatem,  Vjctibi,  Chorazin,  &c.  De- 
nique  cum  lectio  fierct  ex  Apostolo,  &c. 

'■-  Cone.  Tolet.  4.  can.  15.  Sunt  quidam  qui  in  fine  rc- 
sponsorioium,  Gloria  non  dicunt,  &c. 

'^  Greg.  Turon.  de  Vitis  Patrum,  cap.  8.  Diaconus 
responsorium  psalmum  canere  coepit.  It.  Hist.  Francor. 
lib.  8.  cap.  3.  Jubet  rex  ut  diaconum  nostrum,  qui  ante 
diem  ad  missas  psalmum  responsorium  dixerat,  canere  ju- 
berem. 

n  Isidor.  de  Offic.  lib.],  cap.  8. 

'^  Huport.  de  Offic.  lib.  1.  cap.  15. 


Chap.  I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


679 


some  psalms  were  of  constant  use  in  the  church,  as 
being  appropriated  to  particular  services.  We  have 
seen  "  before,  that  the  G3rd  Psalm,  "  O  God,  my 
God,  early  will  I  seek  thee,"  was  peculiarly  styled 
the  morning  psalm,  because  it  was  always  sung  at 
morning  service,  as  the  95th  Psalm  is  now  in  our 
Hturgy.  And  the  14Ist  Psalm,  "  Let  my  prayer  be 
set  forth  in  thy  sight  as  the  incense,  and  let  the  lift- 
ing up  of  my  hands  be  an  evening  sacrifice,"  was 
always  sung  "  at  evening  service.  They  had  also 
some  proper  psalms  adapted  to  the  nature  of  their 
communion  service,  and  their  funeral  offices,  as  we 
shall  see  hereafter.  And  in  the  French  church, 
from  the  time  that  Musajus,  presbyter  of  Marseilles, 
composed  his  Lectionarium,  or  order  of  reading  the 
psalms  and  lessons,  at  the  instance  of  Venerius  his 
bishop,  the  responsory  psalms  were  all  adapted  to 
their  proper  times  and  lessons,  as  Gennadius"*  in- 
forms us.  And  this,  some  learned  men  '^  think, 
was  at  first  peculiar  to  the  Gallican  office,  and  a 
singular  usage  of  the  French  church.  Which  may 
be  true  as  to  the  appropriating  of  several  psalms  to 
their  proper  lessons  in  the  general  course  of  the 
year ;  but  it  cannot  be  true,  if  it  be  meant  only  of 
particular  and  solemn  occasions.  For  the  church 
had  not  only  proper  lessons,  but  proper  psalms  read 
upon  greater  festivals,  suitable  to  the  occasion  ;  and 
that  long  before  the  time  of  IMuseeus's  composing 
his  Calendar  for  the  Gallican  church.  For  St.  Aus- 
tin^ plainly  informs  us,  that  the  22nd  Psalm,  "  My 
God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me,"  &c.,  was 
always  read  upon  the  day  of  our  Saviour's  passion 
in  the  African  church ;  and  he  seems  to  intimate 
that  the  Donatists  did  the  same,  though  they  were 
so  stony-hearted  as  not  to  make  a  just  application 
of  it.  And  there  is  little  question  to  be  made,  but 
that  as  they  had  proper  psalms  for  this  occasion,  so 
they  had  for  all  the  other  solemn  festivals. 

gg^f  g  The  other  psalms  were  sung  in  the 

ord^'MiT  ^cc^frse  "as  Ordinary  course  of  reading  from  end 
ing^ipp'ropriat"d  to  to  cud,  lu  the  Same  order  as  they  lay 
any  ime  or  ay.  ^^  ^-^^  book,  without  bciug  appropri- 
ated to  any  times,  or  lessons,  or  days,  except  those 
particular  psalms,  which  were  appointed  as  proper 
for  each  canonical  hour.     Cassian  observes,^'  That 


in  Egypt,  at  the  first  beginning  of  the  monastic  life, 
there  were  almost  as  many  types,  rules,  or  orders 
about  this  matter,  as  there  were  monasteries,  some 
singing  eighteen  psalms  immediately  one  after  an- 
other, others  twenty,  and  some  more.  But  at  last, 
by  common  consent,  the  number  for  morhing  and 
evening  service  was  reduced  to  twelve,  w^hich  were 
read  in  one  continued  course,^-  without  any  lessons 
coming  between  them ;  for  they  had  only  two  les- 
sons, one  out  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  the  other 
out  of  the  New,  and  those  read  only  when  all  the 
psalms  were  ended.  He  tells  us  also,  that  in  some 
places  they  sung  six  psalms'-^  every  canonical  hour, 
and  some  proportioned  the  number  of  psalms  to  the 
number  of  the  hour  at  which  they  met  at  their  de- 
votions :  so  that  at  the  third  hour  they  had  only 
three  psalms,  but  six  at  the  sixth,  and  nine  at  the 
ninth  hour;  till  upon  more  mature  dehberation  they 
came  at  last  to  this  resolution,  to  have  only  three 
psalms  at  every  diurnal  hoiu:  of  prayer,-*  reserving 
the  greater  number  of  twelve  for  the  more  solemn 
assemblies  at  morning  and  evening  prayer.  Though 
the  custom  of  conforming  the  number  of  psalms  to 
the  number  of  hours  continued  in  use  in  some  parts 
of  France,  or  else  was  taken  up  in  the  time  of  the 
second  council  of  Tours,  anno  567>  as  appears  from 
a  singular  canon  of  that  council,-^  which  I  have  re- 
cited at  large  before  in  the  last  Book.^ 

Besides  these,  it  was  usual  for  the 
bishop  or  precentor  to  appoint  any    Andsomeappoint- 

,  -  •  11       •  ^^    occasionally    at 

psalm  to  be  sung  occasionally  m  any  the  discretion  of  the 

.  •'  •'     bishop  or  precentor. 

part  of  the  service  at  discretion  :  as 
now  our  anthems  in  cathedrals  are  left  to  the  choice 
of  the  precentor,  and  the  psalms  in  metre  to  the 
discretion  of  the  minister,  to  choose  and  appoint 
what  psalms  he  pleases,  and  what  times  he  thinks 
most  proper  in  Divine  service.  Thus  Athanasius 
tells  us  he  appointed  his  deacon  to  sing  an  occa- 
sional psalm'-'  when  his  church  was  beset  with  the 
Arian  soldiers.  And  St.  Austin^  sometimes  speaks 
of  a  particular  psalm,  which  he  ordered  the  reader 
to  repeat,  intending  himself  to  preach  upon  it :  and 
it  once  happened,  that  the  reader,  mistaking  one  of 
these  psalms,  read  another  in  its  stead ;  which  put 
St.  Austin  upon  an  extempore  discourse  upon  the 


"=  Book  XIII.  chap.  10.  sect.  1. 

"  See  Book  XIII.  chap.  11.  sect.  2. 

'^  Genuad.  de  Scriptor.  cap.  79.  Responsoria  etiam 
psalmorum  capitula  tempori  et  lectionihus  congruentia  ex- 
cerpsit. 

'•■>  Stillingfleet,  Orig.  Britan.  chap.  4.  p.  218. 

-"  Aug.  in  Psal.  xxi.  in  Praef.  Serm.  2.  p.  43. 

2'  Cassian.  Instit.  lib.  2.  cap.  2. 

"  Cassian.  ibid.  cap.  4.  Per  universam  ^Egyptum  et 
Thebaidem  duodenarius  psalmorum  niimerus  tarn  vesper- 
tinis  quam  nocturnis  solennitatibus  custoditur,  ita  duntaxat 
ut  post  hunc  numei'um  duae  lectiones,  Veteris  scilicet  ac 
Novi  Testamenti,  singula;  subsequantur. 

^  Ibid.  cap'.  2.    Sunt  quibus  in  ipsis  quoqne  diurnis  ora- 


tionum  officiis,  id  est,  terfia,  scxta,  nonaque  id  visimi  est,  ut 
secundum  horarum  modum,  in  quibus  haec  Domino  reddun- 
tur  obsequia,  psalmorum  etiam  el  orationum  putareut  nu- 
merumcoaequandum:  nonuuUis  placuit  senarium  numenuu 
singulis  diei  conventibus  deputari. 

"*  Cassian.  lib.  3.  cap.  3.  "  Cone.  Turon.  2.  can.  19. 

"-"  Book  XIII.  chap.  9.  sect.  9. 

2' Athan.  Apol.  2.  717. 

^  Aug.  in  Psal.  cxxxviii.  p.  650.  Psalmum  nobis  brevein 
paraveramus,  quern  mandaveramus  cantari  a  lectore:  sed 
ad  horam,  quantum  videtur,  perturbatus,  alterum  pro  altery 
legit.  Malumus  nos  in  errore  lectoris  sequi  voluntateni 
Dei,  quam  nostram  in  nostro  proposito.  Vid.  Aug.  Pra;fat. 
in  Psal.  xxxi. 


G80 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIV. 


psalm  that  was  read  by  mistake  to  the  people.  And 
when  we  consider  that  they  sometimes  spent  whole 
days  and  nights  almost  in  psalmody ;  as  when  St. 
Ambrose's  church  was  beset  with  the  Arian  soldiers, 
the  people  within  continued  the  whole  night  and 
day  ^  in  singing  of  psalms ;  it  will  easily  be  imagined, 
that  at  such  times  they  did  not  sing  appropriated 
psalms,  but  entertained  themselves  with  such  as  the 
bishop  then  occasionally  appointed,  or  left  them  at 
large  to  their  own  choice,  to  sing  at  liberty  and  dis- 
cretion. Sometimes  the  reader  himself  pitched  ujion 
a  psalm,  as  the  necessitj-  of  affairs  would  allow  him, 
or  his  own  discretion  direct  him.  Thus  St.  Austin 
tells  us,  in  one  of  his  homilies,'"  That  he  had  preach- 
ed upon  a  psalm,  not  which  he  appointed  the  reader 
to  sing,  but  what  God  put  into  his  heart  to  read, 
which  determined  his  sermon  to  the  subject  of  re- 
pentance, being  the  51st,  or  penitential  psalm, 
which  the  reader  sung  of  his  own  accord,  or  rather, 
as  St.  Austin  words  it,  by  God's  direction.  Sulpi- 
cius  Severus  tells  a  remarkable  story  to  the  same 
purpose,  in  the  Life  of  St.  Martin.^'  He  says.  When 
St.  Martin  was  to  be  elected  bishop,  one,  whose 
name  was  Defensor,  among  the  bishops,  was  a  great 
stickler  against  him.  Now,  it  happened  that,  in  the 
tumult,  the  reader,  whose  course  it  was  to  sing  the 
psalm  that  day,  could  not  come  at  his  place  in  due 
time,  and  therefore  another  read  the  first  psalm  that 
he  lighted  upon  when  he  opened  the  book,  which 
happened  to  be  the  8th  Psalm,  wherein  were  those 
words,  "  Out  of  the  mouths  of  babes  and  sucklings 
thou  hast  perfected  praise,  because  of  thine  enemies, 
that  thou  mightest  destroy  the  enemy  and  defensor," 
as  the  Galilean  Version  then  read  it,  t'7  destruas 
inimicum  et  defensorcm.  And  this,  though  it  seem- 
ingly were  but  a  chance  thing,  was  looked  upon  as 
providential  by  the  people,  to  overthrow  the  machin- 
ations of  Defensor. 

In  some  places,  instead  of  lessons 

Sect.  7. 

Prayers  in '  some  bctwecn  cvery  psalm,  they  allowed  a 

places  between  every 

psalm,  instead  of  a  short  spacc  for  prlvatc  prayer  to  be 
made  in  silence,  and  a  short  collect  by 
the  minister,  which,  Cassian'-  says,  was  the  ordinary 
custom  of  the  Egyptian  fathers.  For  they  reckon- 
ed, that  frequent  short  prayers  were  more  useful^ 
than  long  continued  ones,  both  to  solicit  God  more 
earnestly  by  frequent  addresses,  and  to  avoid  the 


temptations  of  Satan,  drawing  them  into  lassitude 
and  weariness,  w^hich  was  prevented  by  their  suc- 
cinct brevity.  And  therefore  they  divided  the  longer 
psalms  into  two  or  three  parts,'*  interposing  prayers 
between  every  distinction. 

In  all  the  Western  churches,  except 
the  Roman,  it  w^as  customary  also,  at     The  Gloria  PatH 

^  1        i*  1  r  ^  added  at  the  end  of 

the  end  oi  every  psalm,  lor  the  con-  every  psaim  in  the 

Western,  but  not  in 

gregation  to  stand,  and  say,  "  Glory  be  ^^^^^^^^"^ 
to  the  Father,  and  to  the  Son,  and  to 
the  Holy  Ghost:"  but  in  the  Eastern  churches  it 
was  otherwise;  for,  as  I  have  noted  before^  out  of 
Cassian,'"  in  all  the  East  they  never  used  this  glori- 
fication, but  only  at  the  end  of  the  last  psalm,  which 
they  called  their  antiphona  or  hallelujah,  which 
was  one  of  those  psalms  which  had  hallelujah  pre- 
fixed to  it,  and  which  they  repeated  by  way  of  an- 
tiphona, or  responsal,  and  then  added,  "  Glory  be  to 
the  Father,  and  to  the  Son,  and  to  the  Holy  Ghost." 
But  in  the  Western  churches,  he  says,  it  was  used 
at  the  end  of  every  psalm.  And  so  we  are  to  un- 
derstand those  canons"  of  the  council  of  Toledo, 
which  order,  "  Glory  and  honour  be  to  the  Father, 
and  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,"  to  be  said  at  the  end  of 
the  psalms  and  responsories :  but  the  Decretal  of 
Vigilius,*'  which  orders  the  same  at  the  end  of  the 
psalms,  must  be  taken  according  to  the  custom  of 
the  Roman  church,  to  be  used  only  at  the  conclu- 
sion of  all.  Other  differences  relating  to  the  use  of 
this  doxology,  and  its  original,  shall  be  considered  in 
the  next  chapter  hi  their  proper  place. 

As  to  the  persons  concerned  in  this  g^^  ^ 

service  of  singing  the  psalms  publicly  tim^s"  sun"  by" one 
in  the  church,  we  may  consider  them  '"^"'""  °"'''" 
in  four  different  respects,  according  to  the  different 
ways  of  psalmody.  1.  Sometimes  the  psalms  were 
sung  by  one  person  alone,  the  rest  hearing  only 
with  attention.  2.  Sometimes  they  were  sung  by 
the  whole  assembly  joining  all  together.  3.  Some- 
times alternately  by  the  congregation  divided  into 
distinct  quires,  the  one  part  repeating  one  verse,  and 
the  other  another.  4.  Sometimes  one  person  repeat- 
ed the  first  part  of  the  verse,  and  the  rest  joined  all 
together  in  the  close  of  it.  The  first  of  these  ways, 
Cassian  notes  as  the  common  custom  of  the  Egyp- 
tian monasteries.  For  he  says,  Except  hifli'"  who 
rose  up  to  sing,  all  the  rest  sat  by  on  low  seats  in 


-'  Ambros.  Epist.  33.  ad  Mavcellinam  Sororem. 

'"  Aug.  Horn.  27.  e.v  50.  t.  10.  p.  175.  Proinde  aliquid  de 
pcenitentia  dicere  divinitus  jubemur.  Ncque  enim  nos  istum 
psalmuin  cantandiim  lectori  imperavimus:  sed  quod  ille 
censuit  vobis  esse  utile  ad  audiendum,  hoc  cordi  etiam  pu- 
erili  jmperavit. 

31  Sulpit.  Vit.  Martin,  cap.  7.  p.  21b. 

'-'  Cassian.  Instit.  lib.  2.  cap.  5.  Undecim  psalmos  ora- 
tionum  interjectione  distinctos,  &c. 

^  Ibid.  cap.  10.  Utilius  consent  breves  quidem  orationos, 
sed  creberrimas  fieri,  &c. 

''  Ibid.  cap.  11.     Et  idcirco  nc  psalmos  quidem  ipsos, 


qiios  in  congregatione  decantant,  continuata  student  pro- 
nunciatione  concludere  :  sed  eos  pro  numero  versuum  dua- 
bus  vel  tribus  intercessionibus,  cum  orationum  interjectione 
divisos,  dislinctim  particulatimque  consummant.  &c. 

^^  Book  XIII.  chap.  10.  sect.  xiv. 

^"  Cassian.  Instit.  lib.  2.  cap.  8.  Strabo  de  Reb.  Eccles. 
cap.  25. 

"  Cone.  Tolet.  4.  can.  14  et  15. 

'"  Vigil.  Ep.  2.  ad  Eutherium,  cap.  2.  In  fine  psalmoruni 
ab  omnibus  catholicis  ex  more  dicatur,  Gloria  Patri,  et  Filio, 
et  .Spiritui  Sancto. 

^•'  Cassian.  Instit.  lib,  2.  cap.  12.    Absque  co  qui  dicturus 


Chap.  I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH, 


681 


silence,  giving  attention  to  him  that  sang.  And 
though  sometimes  four  sang  the  twelve  psalms  in 
one  assembl}',  yet  they  did  it  not  all  together,  but  in 
course  one  after  another,^"  each  singing  three  psalms, 
and  the  rest  keeping  silence  till  the  last  psalm, 
which  they  all  sang  by  way  of  antiphona  or  alter- 
nate song,  adding  the  Gloria  Patri  in  the  close. 
spi-t  in  iSometimes,  again,  the  whole  assem- 

bly joined  together,  men,  women,  and 
children,  united  with  one  mouth  and 
one  mind  in  singing  psalms  and  praises  to  God. 
This  was  the  most  ancient  and  general  practice,  till 
the  way  of  alternate  psalmody  was  brought  into  the 
church.  Thus  Christ  and  his  apostles  sung  the 
hymn  at  the  last  supper,  and  thus  Paul  and  Silas 
at  midnight  sung  praises  unto  God.  Bellarmine,'"  in- 
deed, and  some  other  writers  of  the  Romish  church, 
say,  tliis  custom  was  not  in  use  till  the  time  of  St. 
Ambrose ;  but  they  plainly  mistake  the  introduction 
of  the  alternate  way  of  singing  psalms  for  this  more 
ancient  way,  which  derives  its  original  from  the 
foundation  of  the  church.  Thus  St.  Hilary,  who 
lived  before  St.  Ambrose,  takes  notice,"  that  the 
people  all  prayed,  and  all  sang  hymns  together. 
And  St.  Chrysostom,  comparing  the  apostohcal 
times  with  his  ovm,  says,"  Anciently  they  all  met 
together,  and  all  sang  in  common.  And  so  do  we 
at  this  day.  And  again,"  Women  and  men,  old  men 
and  children,  differ  in  sex  and  age,  but  they  differ 
not  in  the  harmony  of  singing  hymns ;  for  the 
Spirit  tempers  all  their  voices  together,  making  one 
melody  of  them  all.  After  the  same  manner  St. 
Austin  sometimes"  speaks  of  singing  the  psalms 
between  the  lessons  with  united  voices,  though  be- 
fore his  time  the  way  of  alternate  psalmody  was 
become  very  common  in  all  parts  of  the  church. 

This  way   of  singing   the  psalms 

Sect.  11.  ,  ,      -^  ,    °       °, 

somrtimes  alter-  alternately  was,  when  the  congi'ega- 

natcly,  by  the  con-  J  1  O      C5 

murtwo"paii's''^''     tion,   dividing    themselves    into  two 

parts,  repeated  the  psalms  by  courses, 

verse  for  verse  one  after  another,  and  not,  as  formerly, 

all  together.    As  the  other,  for  its  common  conjunc- 


tion of  voices,  was  properly  called  symphony ;  so 
this,  for  its  division  into  two  parts,  and  alternate 
answers,  was  commonly  called  antiphony,  and  some- 
times responsoria,  the  singing  by  responsals.  This 
is  plain  from  that  noted  Iambic"  of  Gregory  Nazi- 
anzen,  aifi<piovov,  avr'Kpwvov  dyysXwv  ardaiv,  where 
the  symphony  denotes  their  singing  alternately 
verse  for  verse  by  turns.  Socrates"  calls  it  dvri- 
<pu>vov  vfivwdiav,  the  antiphonal  hymnody ;  and 
St.  Ambrose,*"  responsoria,  singing  by  way  of  re- 
sponsals. For,  comparing  the  church  to  the  sea, 
he  says.  From  the  responsories  of  the  psalms,  and 
singing  of  men,  women,  virgins,  and  children,  there 
results  an  harmonious  noise,  like  the  waves  of  the 
sea.  He  expressly  mentions  women  in  other  places," 
as  allowed  to  sing  in  public,  though  otherwise  the 
apostle  had  commanded  them  to  keep  silence  in 
the  church.  St.  Austin  also  frequently  mentions'*" 
this  way  of  singing  by  parts,  or  alternately  by  re- 
sponses ;  and  he  carries  the  original  of  it  in  the 
Western  church  no  higher  than  the  time  of  St. 
Ambrose,  when  he  was  under  the  persecution  of 
the  Arian  empress  Justina,  mother  of  the  younger 
Valentinian ;  at  which  time  both  he^'  and  Paulinus, 
who  writes"  the  Life  of  St.  Ambrose,  tell  us  the 
way  of  antiphonal  singing  was  first  brought  into 
the  church  of  Milan,  in  imitation  of  the  custom  of 
the  Eastern  churches  ;  and  that  from  this  example 
it  presently  spread  all  over  the  Western  churches. 
What  was  the  first  original  of  it  in  the  Eastern 
chiu'ch,  is  not  so  certainly  agreed  upon  by  writers 
either  ancient  or  modern.  Theodoret  says*'  that 
Flavian  and  Diodorus  first  brought  in  the  way  of 
singing  David's  Psalms  alternately  into  the  church 
of  Antioch,  in  the  reign  of  Constantius.  But  So- 
crates'* carries  the  original  of  this  way  of  singing 
hymns  to  the  holy  Trinity  as  high  as  Ignatius. 
Valesius  thinks  Socrates  was  mistaken :  but  Car- 
dinal Bona"  and  Pagi'^  think  both  accounts  may 
be  true,  taking  the  one  to  speak  of  DaWd's  Psalms 
only,  and  the  other  of  hymns  composed  for  the  ser- 
vice of  the  church.     Some  say  the  custom  w'as  first 


in  medium  psalmos  surre.xeiit,  ciincti  seJilibiis  humillimis 
insideutes,  ad  vocem  psallentis  omui  cordis  intentione  de- 
pendent. 

"  Ibid.  cap.  5  et  8. 

*'  Bellarm.  de  Bonis  Operibus,  lib.  I.  cap.  16.  t.  4.  p.  1077. 

*■-  Hilar,  in  Psal.  Ixv.  p.  332.  Audiat  orantis  populi  con- 
sistens  quis  extra  ecclesiam  vocem,  spectct  celebres  hymno- 
rum  sonitus. 

"  Chrys.  Horn.  3G.  in  1  Cor.  p.  653.     'E-n-t'i/raXov  Tri'tvTti 

K01V7I. 

"  Chrys.  in  Psal.  c.xlv.  p.  824. 

**  Aug.  de  Verb.  Apost.  Serm.  10.  p.  112.  Cantavimus 
psalnium  cxbortantes  nos  invicem  una  voce,  imo  corde, 
dicentes,  Veuite  adoremus,  &c. 

*'^  Naz.  Carm.  18.  de  Virlute,  inter  lambica,  t.  2.  p.  218. 

"  Socrat.  lib.  6.  cap.  8. 

^'  Ambros.  Hexaraer.  lib.  .3.  cap.  .'j.  Rcsponsoriis  psal- 
morum,  cantu  virorum,  mulierum,  virginum,  parvulorum, 


consonans  undarum  fragor  resultat. 

^^  Ambros.  Expos.  Psal.  i.  Mulieres  apostolus  in  ecclesia 
tacorejubet:  psalmuin  etiam  bene  clamant,  &c. 

**•  Aug.  Serm.  in  Psal.  xxvi.  in  Prajfat.  Voces  ista; 
psalmi,  quas  audivimus,  et  ex  parte  cantavimus.  Item  in 
Psal.  xlvi.  In  hoc  psalmo,  quern  cantatum  audivimus,  cui 
caiitando  respondimus,  ea  sumus  dicturi  quw  nostis. 

*'  Aug.  Confess,  lib.  9.  cap.  7.  Tunc  hymni  et  psalmi  ut 
canerentur  secundum  moremOrientalitim  partium,  ne  popu- 
lus  mseroris  toedio  contabesceret,  institutmu  est:  et  ex  illo 
in  hodiernum  retentum,  miiltis  jam  ac  poene  omnibus  gre- 
gibus  tuis  et  per  ceteras  orbis  paries  imitantibus. 

5-  Paulin.  Vit.  Ambros.  p.  4.  Hoc  in  tempore  primo 
antiphona;  hymni  et  vigiliae  in  ecclesia  Mediolanensi  cele- 
brari  Ciepcrunt,  &c. 

^  Theod.  lib.  2.  cap.  24.  "  Socrat.  lib.  6.  cap.  8. 

*»  Btma  de  Psalmod.  cap.  16.  sect.  10.  n.  1. 

5«  Pagi,  Critic,  in  Baron,  an.  400.  n.  ]0. 


682 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XiV. 


begun  by  Ignatius,  but  destroyed  by  Paulas  Samo- 
satensis,  and  revived  again  by  Flavian.  But  Pagi's 
conjecture  seems  most  reasonable,  that  Flavian  only 
introduced  this  way  of  singing  the  psalms  in  the 
Greek  tongue  at  Antioch,  whereas  it  had  been  used 
in  the  Syrian  language  long  before,  as  he  shows  out 
of  Theodorus  of  Mopsuestia,  and  Valesius  himself 
confirms  this  out  of  the  same  author,  whose  testi- 
mony is  preserved  by  Nicetas."  However  this  mat- 
ter be  as  to  the  first  original  of  this  way  of  antipho- 
nal  psalmody,  it  is  certain,  that  from  the  time  that 
Flavian  either  instituted  or  revived  it  at  Antioch,  it 
prevailed  in  a  short  time  to  become  the  general 
practice  of  the  whole  church.  St.  Chrysostom^ 
encouraged  it  in  the  vigils  at  Constantinople,  in 
opposition  to  the  Arians.  St.  BasiP^  speaks  of  it 
in  his  time,  as  the  received  custom  of  all  the  East. 
And  we  have  seen  before,  how  from  the  time  of  St. 
Aiubrose  it  prevailed  over  all  the  West.  And  it  was 
a  method  of  singing  so  taking  and  delightful,  that 
they  sometimes  used  it  where  two  or  three  were  met 
together  for  private  devotion;  as  Socrates""  par- 
ticularly remarks  of  the  emperor  Theodosius  junior 
and  his  sisters,  that  they  were  used  to  sing  alternate 
hymns  together  every  morning  in  the  royal  palace. 
Besides  all  these,  there  was  yet  a 

Sect.  12. 

J^^'^^lntorV-  fourth  way  of  singing,  of  pretty  com- 
Tart'Tf  «.e  %"L  mon  usB  iu  the  fourth  age  of  the 
pning  wftnim  "a  chuTch :  which  was,  when  a  single  per- 
aiso  'of'"'diapsaim"  SOU  (whom  that  age  called  a  jjJionas- 
and  acrostics  m     cus,  vTvoBokivc,  OX  prccentor"')  began 

psalmody.  '■  .... 

the  verse,  and  the  people  jomed  with 
him  in  the  close.  This  the  Greeks  called  inrrjxt'^v, 
and  viraKoviiv,  and  the  Latins,  succinere.  And  it  was 
often  used  for  variety  in  the  same  service  with  al- 
ternate psalmody.  Thus  St.  Basil,  describing  the 
different  manners  of  their  morning  psalmody,  tells 
us,  They  one  while  divided  themselves  into  two 
parts,  and  sung  alternately,  answering  to  one  an- 
other ;  and  then  again,  let  one  begin  the  psalm,  and 
the  I'est  joined  with  him"  in  the  close  of  the  verse. 
This  was  certainly  in  use  at  Alexandria  in  the  time 
of  Athanasius,  as  I  have  observed  in  the  last  Book.'^ 
For  both  he  himself,"*  and  all  the  historians**  who 
relate  the  story  after  him,  in  speaking  of  his  escape 


*'  Nicet.  Thesaur.  Orthod.  Fid.  lib.  5.  cap.  .30. 

^  Socrat.  lib.  6.  cap.  8.      ^"■'  Basil.  Ep.  63.  ad  .Neocaesar. 

^  Socrat.  lib.  7.  cap.  22. 

•"  See  Book  III.  chap.  7.  sect.  .3.  and  Sidoii.  Apollin. 
lib.  4.  Ep.  11.     Psalmovum  hie  luodiilator  et  phonascus. 

^  Basil.  Ep.  63.  ad  Neocsesar.  NCi;  ixiv  oixv  oiavi/xi]- 
Qiimi,  avTL  \l/dWov(Tiv  a\\j)\ois'  tirtiTa  TrdXiu  kiriTpi- 
x]ntVTi^  tvL  KaTapy^iiv  tov  /xiXov^,  ol  Xonroi  uTDjj^oucri. 

'•3  Book  XIII.  chap.  b.  sect.  6. 

'^*  Athanas.  Apol.  2.  p.  717. 

'■^  Theodor.  lib.  2.  cap.  1.3.  Socrat.  lib.  2.  cap.  11.  So- 
zoin.  lib.  3.  cap.  6. 

*"*  Hist.  Tripart.  lib.  5.  cap.  2.  Praecepi  ut  diaconus 
psalmum  legeret,  populi  responderent,  &c. 


out  of  the  church,  when  it  was  beset  with  the  Arian 
soldiers,  tell  us  he  avoided  the  assault  by  setting  the 
people  to  psalmody,  which  psalmody  was  of  this 
kind:  for  he  commanded  the  deacon  to  read  the 
psalm,  and  the  people  viraKovuv,  to  repeat  this 
clause  after  him, "  For  his  mercy  endureth  for  ever." 
The  common  translations  of  Athanasius  make  this 
viruKovuv  to  signify  no  more  than  the  people's  at- 
tending to  what  the  deacon  read ;  but  Epiphanius 
Scholasticus,  the  ancient  author  of  the  Historia  Tri- 
partita, having  occasion  to  relate  this  very  passage"* 
of  Athanasius,  rightly  renders  viraKoviiv  by  respon- 
dcre.  The  deacon  read,  and  the  people  answered 
in  these  words,  "  For  his  mercy  endureth  for  ever." 
Valesius"  thinks  it  should  be  read  iittjjx"",  instead 
of  viraKoiiiv,  ill  all  those  places  of  Athanasius,  and 
the  historians  after  him:  but  there  is  no  need  of 
that  critical  correction  ;  for  both  the  words  among 
the  Greeks  are  of  the  same  import,  and  signify  to 
make  answer  or  responses,  as  Cotelerius,  a  judicious 
critic,  has"*  observed.  And  so  the  word  viraKovtiv 
is  used  both  by  Theocritus""  and  Homer.  So  that 
there  is  no  reason  to  dispute  the  use  of  it  in  this 
sense  in  ecclesiastical  writers.  St.  Chrysostom  uses 
the  word  irn-rj^f 'v,'"  when  he  speaks  of  this  practice : 
The  singer  sings  alone,  and  all  the  rest  answer  him 
in  the  close,  as  it  were  with  one  mouth  and  one 
voice.  And  elsewhere  he  says"  the  priests  began 
the  psalm,  and  the  people  followed  after  in  their 
responses.  Sometimes  this  way  of  psalmody  was 
called  singing  acrostics.  For  though  an  acrostic 
commonly  signifies  the  beginning  of  a  verse,  yet 
sometimes  it  is  taken  for  the  end  or  close  of  it. 
As  by  the  author  of  the  Constitutions,"  w;hen  he 
orders  one  to  sing  the  hymns  of  David,  and  the 
people  to  sing  after  him  the  acrostics  or  ends  of 
the  verses.  This  was  otherwise  called  hypopsalma 
and  diapsahna,  and  aKportXtvTiov  and  tipvfiviov,  which 
are  all  words  of  the  same  signification.  Only  we 
must  observe,  that  they  do  not  always  denote 
precisely  the  end  of  a  verse,  but  sometimes  that 
which  was  added  at  the  end  of  a  psalm,  or  some- 
thing that  was  repeated  frequently  in  the  middle  of 
it,  as  the  close  of  the  several  parts  of  it.  Thus  St. 
Austin  composed  a  psalm  for  the  common  people  to 


«'  Vales.  Not.  in  Theod.  lib.  2.  cap.  1.3. 

•^  Coteler.  Not.  in  Coiistil.  Apost.  lib.  2.  cap.  57.  p.  262. 

"'  Theocrit.  Idyl.  14.  de  Hyla.  Tpis  o'  ap'  6  ttuIs  uttu- 
Kov<T^v.  Ter  piier  respondit.  Vid.  Homer.  Odyss.  4.  et 
Stephani  Le.xicon. 

'"  Chrys.  Hom.  36.  in  1  Cor.  p.  655.  'O  \l/dXXuw  \(/dXXiL 
fiovoi,  Kclv  TravTES  aVijxtocrji'  (leg.  vTri])(fo(XLv)  cos  i^  i/'os 
o-ro'/xaxos  )';  (^tuyi/  (piptTai.  Vid.  Horn.  II.  iu  Mat.  p.  108. 
'Y-TTijX'yo'ai'Tis,  &c. 

''  Chrys.  in  Psal.  cxx.xvii.  p.  518.  MtTa  tou/  Upiwu 
KaTup^Ofxtvuiv,  Trpot^yov/JiivoDt/  'i\l/op.ai.,  Kal  a\oXouGii(T(j», 
KUL  acrto  CTot,  &c. 

"'  Constit.  lib.  2.  cap.  57.     'O  Xaos  tu   iiKpo'^i'^ia  vtto- 

xJ/a\XiTW. 


Chap.  I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


683 


learn  against  the  Donatists,  and  in  imitation  of  the 
II 9th  Psalm,  he  divided  it  into  so  many  parts,  ac- 
cording to  the  order  of  the  letters  in  the  alphabet, 
(whence  such  psalms  were  called  abecedarii,)  each 
part  having  its  proper  letter  at  the  head  of  it,  and 
the  hypnpsahna  (as  he  calls  it"')  or  answer,  to  be  re- 
peated at  the  end  of  every  part  of  it,  in  these  words, 
Omncs  qui  gaudctis  de  pace,  jnodo  vcrum  judicate ; 
as  the  Gloria  Patri  is  now  repeated  not  only  at  the 
end  of  every  psalm,  but  at  the  end  of  every  part 
of  the  1 1 9th  Psalm.  And  in  this  respect  the  Gloria 
Patri  itself  is  by  some  ancient  writers  called  the 
h'jpopsahna,  or  epode,  and  acroteleutic  to  the 
psalms,  because  it  was  always  used  at  the  end  of 
the  psalms.  Thus  Sozomen,  giving  an  account  of 
the  Allans'  management  of  their  psalmody  at  Con- 
stantinople in  their  morning  processions,  says.  They 
divided  themselves  into  parts,  and  sung  after  the 
manner  of  antiphona,  or  alternate  song,  adding  in 
the  close  their  acroteleutics,"  framed  and  modelled 
after  their  own  way  of  glorification.  Where,  as 
Yalesius  rightly  observes,  it  is  plain,  acroteleutic  is 
but  another  name  for  the  Gloria  Patri,  which  they 
added  at  the  end  of  the  psalms,  but  perversely 
modelled  to  favour  their  own  heresy ;  not  saying, 
"  Glory  be  to  the  Father,  and  the  Son,  and  the 
Holy  Ghost ;"  but  "  Glory  be  to  the  Father,  by  the 
Son,  and  in  the  Holy  Ghost."  Again,  Sozomen 
speaking  of  the  psalmody  with  which  the  Chris- 
tians brought  the  body  of  the  martyr  Babylas  from 
Daphne  to  Antioch  in  the  time  of  Julian,  says. 
They  who  were  best  skilled  began  the  psalms,  and 
the  multitude  answered  them  with  one  harmonious 
consent,  making  these  words  the  epode  of"  their 
psalmody,  "  Confounded  be  all  they  that  worship 
graven  images,  and  boast  themselves  in  images,  or 
idol-gods."  Meaning  that  this  sentence  was  fre- 
quently repeated  in  the  several  pauses  of  their  psalm- 
ody ;  which  the  ancients,  we  see,  sometimes  called 
an  epode  or  diapsahn,  like  that  of  the  107th  Psalm, 
"  Oh  that  men  would  therefore  praise  the  Lord  for 
his  goodness,  and  declare  the  wonders  that  he  doth 
for  the  children  of  men ! "  which  in  the  distinct  parts 
of  that  one  psalm  is  four  times  repeated. 

_  ,  ,^  From  all  this,  it  is  as  clear  as  the 

Sect.  13.  ' 

ob?e"tion  made  ^"  ^^^  ^^  noou-day,  that  the  people 
ing'a''pS''"in  generally  had  a  share  m  the  psalm- 
ody of  the  ancient  church ;  and  that 
this  was  not  an  exercise  strictly  confined  to  the 
canonical  singers,  or  any  particular  order  in  the 


psalmody. 


church ;  but  that  men,  women,  and  children  were 
all  allowed  to  bear  a  part  in  it,  under  the  direction 
and  conduct  of  precentors,  or  those  who  presided 
in  this  and  all  other  offices  of  the  church.  There- 
fore the  reflection  which  I  have  formerly  made 
upon  Cabassutius,"'  I  cannot  choose  but  here  again 
repeat,  who  charges  this  way  of  singing  as  a  mere 
novelty  and  protestant  whim,  because  it  differs  from 
the  present  practice  of  his  own  church  ;  though  it 
be  exactly  agreeable  to  the  practice  of  the  ancient 
church  in  all  its  several  methods,  and  in  all  ages 
since  the  apostles.  Neither  is  there  any  one  thing 
can  be  objected  against  it,  save  a  single  canon  of 
the  council  of  Laodicea,"  which  forbids  all  others 
to  sing  in  the  church,  except  only  the  canonical 
singers,  who  went  up  into  the  amho  or  reading-desk, 
and  sung  out  of  a  book.  This  I  have  explained  to 
be  only  a  temporary  provision  of  a  provincial  coun- 
cil, designed  to  restore  or  revive  the  ancient  psalm- 
ody, when  it  might  be  in  some  measure  corrupted 
or  neglected,  and  not  intended  to  abridge  or  destroy 
the  primitive  liberty  of  the  people.  Or  if  any  thing 
more  was  intended  by  it,  it  was  an  order  that  never 
took  place  in  the  practice  of  the  church  :  it  being 
evident,  beyond  all  contradiction,  from  what  has 
now  been  said,  that  the  people  always  enjoyed  their 
ancient  privilege  of  joining  in  this  Divine  harmony, 
and  were  encouraged  in  it  by  the  gi-eatest  luminaries 
of  the  church. 

To  proceed,  then :  we  are  to  con-  ^.^^^  ,^ 
sider  further,  that  psalmody  was  al-  peKorS''  i'"?K 
waj-s  esteemed  a  considerable  part  '"=»"<'"'§  p"^""'^- 
of  devotion,  and  upon  that  account  was  usually,  if 
not  always,  performed  by  those  that  were  engaged 
in  it,  in  the  standing  posture.  Cassian  indeed  seems 
to  make  an  exception  in  the  way  of  the  monasteries 
of  Egypt :  but  his  exception  helps  to  clear  the  con- 
trary rule,  and  shows  also  that  their  devotion  was 
in  the  main  performed  in  the  standing  posture.  For 
he  says,  though  by  reason  of  their  continual  fast- 
ings and  labour  night  and  day,  they  were  unable  to 
stand  all  the  time,  while  twelve  psalms  were  read- 
ing, yet  they  that  read  in  coiu-se,  always  stood™  up 
to  read :  and  at  the  last  psalm,  they  all  stood 
up"  and  repeated  it  alternately,  adding  the  Gloria 
Patri  at  the  end.  In  other  places  it  was  always 
the  custom  to  stand,  as  is  plain  not  only  from  this  ex- 
ception, but  from  the  testimony  of  St.  Austin,**"  who 
speaks  of  the  psalmody  as  an  act  of  devotion,  which 
all  the  people  performed  standing  in  the  church. 


'■^  Vid.  Aiif;'.  Psalmum  contra  partem  Donati,  t.  7.  p.  1. 
Et  Retract,  lib.  1.  cap.  20. 

''  Sozom.  lib.  8.  cap.  8.  Km-a  tov  twv  avTKpuivtov  Tpo- 
irov  ii^aWov,  aKpoTEXtu-ria  trvvTiQivTi^  ■np6<3  ti'ji/  au-rwv 
oo^au  ■wf.iroir)fxiva. 

"  Sozom.  lib.  5.  cap.  19.  "i^wiirri^fL  t6  •7r\r;6tis  iv  arvfi- 
tpMvia.  Kai  xauTj)!/  xi')!/  ptjtnti  etti/Ssi/,  k.  t.  X. 

"•  Book  III.  chap.  7.  sect.  2. 


"  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  15. 

"  Cassian.  Instit.  lib.  2.  cap.  12.  Absque  eo  qui  dicturws 
in  medium  psalmos  surrexerit,  cuncti  sedilibus  humiUimis 
insidentes,  &c. 

"  Cassian.  ibid.  cap.  8. 

""  Aug.  Serm.  3.  in  Psal.  xx.xvi.  p.  122.  Ccrte  venim  est 
quod  cantavi,  certe  verum  est  quod  in  ecclesia  staus  tarn  de- 
vt)ta  voce  personui,  &c. 


684 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIV. 


song,  and  its 
mendation 
the  ancients. 


As  to  the  voice  or  pronunciation 
Of  thVuseofpiain  used  in  singing,  it  was  of  two  sorts, 
s  the  plain  song,  and  the  more  artificial 
and  elaborate  tuning  of  the  voice  to 
greater  variety  of  sounds  and  measures.  The  plain 
song  was  only  with  a  little  gentle  inflection,  and 
agreeable  turn  of  the  voice,  with  a  proper  accent, 
not  much  different  from  reading,  and  much  re- 
sembling the  musical  way  of  reading  the  psalms 
now  in  our  cathedral  churches.  This  was  the  way 
of  singing  at  Alexandria  in  the  time  of  Athanasius. 
For  St.  Austin  says,*"  he  ordered  the  reader  to  sing 
the  psalm  with  so  little  inflection  or  variation  of 
the  tone,  that  it  looked  more  like  reading  than 
singing.  And  this  St.  Austin ^^  seems  to  intimate 
to  have  been  the  common  way  of  the  African 
churches,  as  most  agreeable  to  the  slow  genius  of 
the  African  people.  Whence  some  of  the  warmer 
Donatists  made  it  a  matter  of  objection,  that  the 
catholics  sung  the  Divine  hymns  of  the  prophets 
soberly  in  the  church,  whilst  they  sung  their  own 
psalms  of  human  composition  in  a  ranting  way, 
and  even  trumpeted  out,  like  men  that  were  drunk, 
their  own  exhortations.  St.  Austin  does  not  speak 
this,  as  if  he  wholly  disapproved  the  other  more  ar- 
tificial and  melodious  way  of  singing,  but  only  as 
it  was  intemperately  abused  by  many,  and  particu- 
larly by  the  Donatists.  For  otherwise  he  commends 
this  way  of  singing,  as  very  useful  to  raise  the  af- 
fections, when  performed  with  a  clear  voice,*^  and 
a  convenient  sweetness  of  melody:  and  says,  it  was 
that  that  melted  him  into  tears,  when  he  first  heard 
it  in  the  beginning  of  his  conversion,  in  the  church 
of  St.  Ambrose. 

This  plainly  implies,  that  the  arti- 
Ariificiai  ai.d  me-  ficlal  aud  mclodious  way  of  singing, 

lodious    tuning    of        ,  _  .  _  - 

the  voice  allowed  in  With  vancty  01  uotes  lor  greater  sweet- 
singing,  when  ma.  •'  tut  ^^ 

naged  with  sobriety  ncss,  was  uscd  and  allowed,  as  well 

and  discretion. 

as  plain  song,  in  the  Italic  churches  : 
and  they  mistake  St.  Austin,  who  think  he  speaks 
in  commendation  of  the  one,  to  the  derogation  of 
the  other.  For  he  professes  to  admire  both  ways 
for  their  usefulness,  and  particularly  the  more  me- 
lodious way,  for  this,  ut  per  ohlectamenta  aurium 
itifirmior  animus  in  affectum  inetatis  assurgat,  that 


weaker  minds  may  be  raised  to  affections  of  piety,  by 
the  delight  and  entertainment  of  their  ears.  And 
whilst  it  kept  within  due  bounds,  there  is  nothing 
plainer  than  that  it  had  the  general  approbation  of 
pious  men  throughout  the  church. 

Neither  was  it  any  objection  against  j,^^|.  ^^ 
the  psalmody  of  the  church,  that  she  a?li,S-'psaims'"and 
sometimes  made  use  of  psalms  and  conipositi'on,''b^eiy 
hymns  of  human  composition,  besides  ""  '""^^ '' 
those  of  the  sacred  and  inspired  writers.  For 
though  St.  Austin,  as  we  have  just  heard  before, 
reflect  upon  the  Donatists  for  their  psalms  of  human 
composition,  yet  it  was  not  merely  because  they  were 
human,  but  because  they  preferred  them  to  the 
divine  hymns  of  Scripture,  and  their  indecent  way 
of  chanting  them  to  the  grave  and  sober  method  of 
the  church.  St.  Austin  himself  made  a  psalm  of 
many  parts,  in  imitation  of  the  II  9th  Psalm,  as 
has  been  observed  above  in  this  chapter,  sect.  12. 
And  this  he  did  for  the  use  of  his  people,  to  pre- 
serve them  from  the  errors  of  Donatus.  And  it 
would  be  absurd  to  think,  that  he  who  made  a  psalm 
himself  for  the  people  to  sing,  should  quarrel  with 
other  psalms  merely  because  they  were  of  human 
composition.  It  has  been  demonstrated  in  the  fifth 
chapter  of  the  last  Book,  that  there  were  always 
such  psalms,  and  hymns,  and  doxologies  composed 
by  pious  men,  and  used  in  the  church  from  the 
first  foundation  of  it ;  nor  did  any  but  Paulus  Sa- 
mosatensis  except  against  the  use  of  them ;  which 
he  did  not  neither  because  they  were  of  human 
composition,  but  because  they  contained  a  doctrine 
contrary  to  his  own  private  opinions.  St.  Hilary 
and  St.  Ambrose  made  many  such  hymns,  which 
when  some  muttered  against  in  the  Spanish  churches, 
because  they  were  of  human  composition,  the  fourth 
council  of  Toledo**  made  a  decree  to  confirm  the 
use  of  them,  together  with  the  doxology,  "  Glory  be 
to  the  Father,"  &c.,  and,  "  Glory  be  to  God  on  high ;" 
threatening  excommunication  to  any  that  should 
reject  them.  The  only  thing  of  weight  to  be  urged 
against  all  this,  is  a  canon  of  the  council  of  Laodi- 
cea,"^  which  forbids  all  iSmriKovQ  TpaXfxovQ,  all  private 
psalms,  and  all  uncanonical  books,  to  be  read  in  the 
church.  For  it  might  seem,  that  by  private  psalms. 


^'  Aug.  Confes.  lib.  10.  cap.  33.  Tam  modico  fiexu  vocis 
faciebat  sonare  lectorein  psalmi,  ut  pronuncianti  viciiiior 
esset  qiiaiu  canenti. 

'^-  Aug.  Ep.  119.  ad  Jamiar.  cap.  18.  Plcraque  in  Africa 
ecclesiae  membra  pigriora  sunt:  ita  ut  Donatist;c  nos  repre- 
hendant,  quod  sobrie  psallimus  in  ecclesia  divina  cantica 
prophctarum,  cum  ipsi  ebrietates  suas  ad  canticum  psalmo- 
riim  humauo  ingenio  compositorura,  quasi  tubas  exhorta- 
tionis  inflamment. 

•*■'  Aug.  Confes.  lib.  10.  cap.  33.     Veruntamen  cum  rcmi- 

niscor  lachrymas  meas,  quas  fudi  ad  cantus  ecclcsi;c  tuic 

Et  nunc  ipso  commoveor — Cum  liqu.ida  voce  et  convenion- 
tissima  modulatione  cantantur,  inagnain  instituti  hujus  uti- 
litatem  asrnosco. 


"'  Cone.  Tolet.  4.  can.  12.  Quia  a  nonnullis  hymni  hu- 
niano  studio  compositi  esse  noscuntur  in  laudeiii  Dei,  et 
apostolorum  ac  martyrum  triumphos,  sicut  hi  qiios  beatissi- 
mi  (loctores  Hilarius  atque  Anibrosius  ediderunt,  quos  tamen 
quidam  specialiter  reprobant,  pro  eo  quod  de  Scripturis 
sanctorum  canonum,  vel  apostolica  traditione  non  existiint: 
rcspuant  ergo  et  ilium  hymnum,  quem  quotidie  publico  pri- 
vatoqne  officio  in  tine  omnium  psalmorum  dicimus,  Gloria 

et  honor  Patri,  &c. Sicut  ergo  oratioues,  ita  et  hymnos 

in  laiidcm  Dei  compositos  uullus  nostrum  ulterias  improbet, 
sed  pari  modo  in  Gallicia  Hispaniaque  celebrent,  cxcommu- 
nicationc  plecteudi,  qui  hymnos  rejicere  fueriut  aiisi, 

"*  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  59. 


Chap.   I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


685 


they  mean  all  hymns  of  human  composition.  But 
it  was  intended  rather  to  exclude  apociyphal  psalms, 
such  as  went  under  the  name  of  Solomon,  as  Bal- 
zamon  and  Zonaras  understand  it ;  or  else  such  as 
were  not  approved  by  public  authority  in  the  church. 
If  it  be  extended  further,  it  contradicts  the  current 
practice  of  the  whole  church  besides,  and  cannot, 
in  reason,  be  construed  as  any  more  than  a  private 
order  for  the  churches  of  that  province,  made  upon 
some  particular  reasons  unknown  to  us  at  this  day. 
Notwithstanding,  therefore,  any  argument  to  be 
drawn  from  this  canon,  it  is  evident  the  ancients 
made  no  scruple  of  using  psalms  or  hymns  of  hu- 
man composition,  provided  they  were  pious  and 
orthodox  for  the  substance,  and  composed  by  men 
of  eminence,  and  received  by  just  authority,  and 
not  brought  in  clandestinely  into  the  church. 

But  there  were  some  disorders  and 

Sect  IS. 

But  two  corrup-  irregularities  always  apt  to  creep  into 

tions  severely  in-  o  J         i:  r 

FiJft'^ove^r-g"reat  this  practlcc,  and  corrupt  the  psalmody 
?yTa'sirg?ng?i'r''  aud  devotlons  of  the   church:    and 

imitation  of  the  •,,!  .1  n    ,-\  r  .1 

modes  and  music  of  agaiust  thcse  the  lathcrs  irequently 

tlie  tlieatre.  i       i     •  •   i  1 

declaim  with  many  sharp  ana  severe 
invectives.  Chiefly  they  complain  of  the  lightness 
and  vain  curiosity  which  some  used  in  singing,  who 
took  their  measures  from  the  mean  and  practice  of 
the  theatres,  introducing  from  thence  the  corrup- 
tions and  elTeminacy  of  secular  music  into  the  grave 
and  solemn  devotions  of  the  church.  We  have 
heard  St.  Chrysostom  before ^'^  complaining  of  men's 
using  theatrical  noise  and  gestures  both  in  their 
prayers  and  hymns.  And  here  I  shall  add  the  re- 
flection which  St.  Jerom  makes  upon  those  words 
of  the  apostle,  Ephes.  v.,  "  Singing,  and  making 
melody  in  your  hearts  to  the  Lord :"  Let  young  men 
hear  this,  let  those  hear  it  who  have  the  office  of 
singing  in  the  church,  that  they  sing  not  with  their 
voice,  but  with  their  heart  to  the  Lord ;  not  like 
tragedians,  physically  preparing  their  throat  and 
mouth,  that  they  may  sing  after  the  fashion  of  the 
theatre  in  the  church.  He  that  has  but  an  ill  voice, 
if  he  has  good  works,  is  a  sweet  singer  before  God. 
The  other  vice  complained  of  was, 
And,  2diy,  Pleas-  thc  regarding  more  the  music  of  the 

ing  the  ear  without  °  ° 

r/'thlfsoui''*'^''''"^  words,  and  sweetness  of  the  compo- 
sure, than  the  sense  and  meaning  of 
them ;  pleasing  the  ear,  without  raising  the  affec- 
tions of  the  soul,  which  was  the  true  reason  for 
which  psalmody  and  music  was  intended.  St.  Je- 
rom takes  notice  of  this  corruption  in  the  same 
place,*'  giving  this  caution  against  it :  Let  the  serv- 


ant of  Christ  so  order  his  singing,  that  the  words 
that  are  read  may  please  more  than  the  voice  of  the 
singer  ;  that  the  spirit  that  was  in  Saul,  may  be  cast 
out  of  them  who  are  possessed  with  it,  and  not  find 
admittance  in  those  who  have  turned  the  house  of 
God  into  a  stage  and  theatre  of  the  people.  St. 
Austin**"  confesses  he  was  for  some  time  thus  moved 
to  a  faulty  complacency  in  the  sweetness  of  the 
song,  more  than  the  matter  that  w'as  sung,  and  then 
he  rather  wished  not  to  have  heard  the  voice  of  the 
singer.  St.  Isidore  of  Pelusium  brings  the  charge 
of  these  abuses  more  especially  against  women,  and 
goes  so  far  as  to  say,  that  though  the  apostle  had  al- 
lowed them  to  sing  in  the  church,  yet  the  perverse 
and  licentious  use  they  made  of  this  liberty,  was  a 
sufficient  reason ^^  why  they  should  be  totally  de- 
barred from  it.  And  some  are  of  opinion,  that  it 
was  abuses  of  this  kind,  in  excess,  and  not  in  defect, 
that  made  the  council  of  Laodicea  forbid  all  but 
thc  canonical  singers  to  sing  in  the  church ;  as  think- 
ing, that  they  might  be  better  regulated  and  restrain- 
ed fi-om  such  abuses  by  the  immediate  dependence 
they  had  upon  the  rulers  of  the  church.  But  the 
experience  of  later  ages  rather  proves,  that  this  was 
not  the  true  way  to  reform  such  abuses ;  since  there 
are  greater  complaints  made  by  considering  men,  of 
the  excesses  committed  in  church  music  after  it  was 
wholly  given  up  to  the  management  of  canonical 
singers,  than  there  were  before.  Witness  the  com- 
plaints made  by  Polydore  Virgil,°°  Maldonat,"'  Du- 
rantus,"-  and  others  in  the  Romish  church,  and  Bi- 
shop WettenhaP^  in  the  protestant  communion, 
which  it  is  none  of  my  business  in  this  place  any 
further  to  pursue. 


CHAPTER  II. 

A  PARTICULAR  ACCOUNT  OF  SOME  OF  THE  MOST 
NOTED  HYMNS  IN  USE  IN  THE  SERVICE  OF  THE 
ANCIENT    CHURCH. 

But  there  is  one  thing  more  may  ^ect.  i. 
be  of  use  for  the  better  understanding  oi"gs^'J*Gi^^'bt°to 
the  psalmody  of  the  ancient  church,  '  ^  "  '"' 
which  is,  to  give  a  distinct  account  of  the  most  noted 
hymns  that  made  a  part  of  her  service.  Among 
these,  one  the  most  ancient  and  common,  was  that 
which  was  called  the  lesser  doxolog}-,  "  Glory  be  to 


6«  Book  XIII,  chap.  8.  sect.  11. 

*'  Hieron.  in  Ephes.  v.  Sic  cautet  servus  Christi,  lit  non 
vox  cauentis,  sed  verba  placeant  quaj  leguntur :  ut  spiritus 
qui  erat  in  Saule,  ejiciatur  ab  iis,  qui  similiter  ab  eo  possi- 
dentur,  et  non  iutroducatur  in  eos,  qui  de  domo  Dei  scenam 
fecere  populorum. 

*'  Aug.  Confess,  lib.  10.  cap.  33.     Cum  mihi  accidit,  tit 


me  amplius  cantus,  quam  res  quae  eanitur  moveat,  poenaliter 
me  peccare  confiteor,  et  tunc  mallem  non  audire  cantantem. 

«9  Isidor.  lib.  1.  Ep.  90. 

9"  Polyd.  Virgil,  dc  Her.  Invent,  lib.  6.  cap.  2.  p.  359. 

"  Maldonat.  de  Sepiem  Sacramentis,  t.  2.  p.  23S. 

92  Duiant.  de  Ritibus,  lib.  2.  cap.  21.  n.  11. 

93  Wettenhal,  Gift  of  Singing,  chap.  1.  p.  277  and  247. 


G86 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIV. 


the  Father,  and  to  the  Son,  and  to  the  Holy  Ghost." 
Concerning  which  we  are  to  note,  in  the  first  place, 
that  it  was  something  shorter  than  it  is  now ;  for 
the  most  ancient  form  of  it  was  only  a  single  sen- 
tence without  a  response,  running  in  these  words, 
"  Glory  be  to  the  Father,  and  to  the  Son,  and  to  the 
Holy  Ghost,  world  without  end.  Amen."  Part  of  the 
latter  clause,  "  as  it  was  in  the  beginning,  is  now, 
and  ever  shall  be,"  was  inserted  some  time  after  the 
first  composition.     This  appears  from  the  most  an- 
cient form  used  both  in  the  Greek  and  Latin  church 
without  those  words  in  it.     The  fourth  council  of 
Toledo,  anno  633,  reads  it  thus :'  "  Glory  and  hon- 
our be  to  the  Father,  and  to  the  Son,  and  to  the 
Holy  Ghost,  world  without  end.   Amen."     Where 
we  may  observe,  that  not  only  the  words,  "  as  it 
was  in  the  beginning,"  &c.,  are  omitted,  but  the 
word  honour  is  added  to  glory,  according-  to  another 
decree  made  in  that  council ;  that  it  should  not  be 
said,  as  heretofore  some  did,  "  Glory  be  to  the  Fa- 
ther," but,  "  Glory  and  honour  be  to  the  Father ;" 
forasmuch  as  the  prophet  David  says,  "  Bring  glory 
and  honour  to  the  Lord,"  Psal.  xxviii.  2.    And  John 
the  evangelist,  in  the  Revelation,  heard  the  voice 
of  the  heavenly  host,  saying,  "  Honour  and  glory 
be  to  our  God,  who  sitteth  on  the  throne,"  Rev.  v.  13. 
From  whence  they  conclude,  that  it  ought  to  be  said 
on  earth  as  it  is  sung  in  heaven.     The  Mosarabic 
liturgy,  which  was  used  in  Spain  a  little  after  this 
time,  has  it  in  the  very  same'  form.     "  Glory  and 
honour  be  to  the  Father,  and  to  the  Son,  and  to  the 
Holy  Ghost,  world  without  end.    Amen."     Which 
shows,  that  that  was  the  received  way  of  using  this 
hymn  in  the  Spanish  churches.    The  Greek  church 
also,  for  several  ages,  used  it  after  the  same  manner, 
only  they  did  not  insert  the  word  "  honour,"  which 
seems  to  be  peculiar  to  the  Spanish  church.     Atha- 
nasius,  or  whoever  was  the  author  of  the  treatise  of 
Virginity  among  his  works,*  repeats  it  thus,  "  Glory 
be  to  the  Father,  and  to  the  Son,  and  to  the  Holy 
Ghost,  world  without  end.    Amen."     And  Strabo^ 
says  of  the  Greeks  in  general,  that  they  omitted 
those  words  in  the  latter  clause,  "  as  it  was  in  the 
beginning."    So  that  it  is  not  easy  to  tell  what  time 
they  first  began  to  be  used  in  it.     Some  say,  the 
council  of  Nice  ordered  them  to  be  inserted  against 
Arius ;  others,  that  the  church  by  common  consent 
admitted  them,  in  compliance  with  the  doctrine  of 


that  council,  to  confront  the  Arian  tenet,  which 
asserted,  that  the  Son  was  not  in  the  beginning, 
and  that  there  was  a  time  when  he  was  not.  But 
if  so,  it  is  strange  we  should  not  hear  of  this  addi- 
tional part  of  the  hymn  in  any  Greek  or  Latin  writer 
for  above  two  whole  centuries  after.  The  first  ex- 
press mention  that  is  made  of  it,  is  in  the  second 
council  of  Vaison,"  anno  529,  which  says.  It  was 
then  so  used  at  Rome,  and  in  Italy,  and  Africa, 
and  all  the  East,  and  therefore  is  now  so  ordered  to 
be  used  in  the  French  churches.  Whence  it  is  plain 
it  was  not  in  the  French  churches  before.  And  there 
is  reason  to  conjecture,  that  the  East  is  here  put 
for  the  West,  by  a  mistake  of  some  transcriber, 
since  it  appears  from  Strabo,  that  in  his  time  the 
custom  of  the  Greek  church  was  still  otherwise ;  and 
how  long  it  had  been  the  custom  of  the  Western 
churches  before  the  time  of  this  council,  is  uncer- 
tain. The  Spanish  churches,  as  we  have  seen,  did 
not  admit  it  till  afterwards. 

There  goes  an  epistle,  indeed,  under  the  name  of 
St.  Jerom  to  Pope  Damasus,  which,  if  it  were  ge- 
nuine, would  make  this  addition  more  ancient  than 
now  it  can  be  allowed  to  be :  for  there  he  advises 
Damasus  to  order,  that  in  the  Roman  church  at  the 
end  of  every  psalm  there  should  be  added,  "  Glory 
be  to  the  Father,  and  to  the  Son,  and  to  the  Holy 
Ghost ;  as  it  was  in  the  beginning,  is  now,  and  ever 
shall  be,  world  without  end.  Amen." '  But  this  epistle 
is  rejected  as  spurious  by  learned  men  of  all  sides, 
Bellarmine,  Baronius,  Bona,  and  others  of  the  Ro- 
manists, as  well  as  protestants  in  general,  because 
it  contradicts  the  known  practice  of  the  Roman 
church  in  another  particular ;  for  at  Rome  they  did 
not  use  the  Gloria  Patri  at  the  end  of  every  psalm 
long  after  this,  in  the  time  of  Walafridus  Strabo,* 
neither  do  they  now,  by  the  rubrics  of  the  Roman 
Breviary  at  this  day :  whereas,  if  Damasus  had  made 
those  orders,  as  this  epistle  directs,  the  Gloria  Patri 
would  have  been  used  at  Rome  at  the  end  of  everj'- 
psalm ;  which  it  was  not,  either  there  or  in  any  of 
the  Eastern  churches,  but  only  in  France  and  some 
few  other  churches,  as  we  have  heard  before  in  the 
last  chapter. 

There  was  another  small  difference  in  the  use  of 
this  ancient  hymn,  which  yet  made  no'  dispute 
among  catholics,  till  the  rise  of  the  Arian  heresy, 
and  then  it  occasioned  no  small  disturbance.     The 


'  Cone.  Tolet.  4.  can.  12.  In  fine  omnium  psalmorum  di- 
cimus,  Gloria  et  honor  Patri,  et  Filio,  et  Spiritui  Sancto, 
in  soecula  sccculorum.    Amen. 

-  Ibid.  can.  14.  In  fine  psalmorum,  non  siciit  a  quibus- 
dam  hue  usque,  Gloria  Patri,  sed  Gloria  et  honor  Patri, 
dicatur,  &c. 

^  Missa  Mozarab.  in  Nativ.  Christi,  ap.  Mabillon.  de 
Littirg.  Gallic,  p.  453.  Gloria  et  honor  Patri,  et  Filio,  et 
Spiritui  Sancto,  in  sxcula  sajculorum.     Amen. 

•<  Athan.  de  Virgin,  p.  IU51. 

5  Strabo  de  Reb.  Eccles.  cap.  25. 


*  Cone.  Vasens.  2.  can.  5.  Quia  non  solum  in  sede  aposto- 
lica,  sed  etiam  per  totum  Orientem  et  totam  Africara  vel 
Italiam,  propter  ha;reticorum  astutiam,  qua  Dei  Filium 
non  semper  eum  Patre  fuisse,  sed  a  tempore  fuisse  blasphe- 
mant,  in  omnibus  clausulis  post,  Gloria  Patri,  &c.,  sicut 
erat  in  principin,  dicitur,  etiam  et  nos  in  universis  ecclesiis 
nostris  hoc  ita  esse  dicendum  decrevimus. 

'  Hieron.  Ep.  ad  Damasum,  53.  et  inter  Decreta  Damasi, 
ap.  Crab.  Cone.  t.  1.  p.  383.  Istud  carmen  laudis  omni 
psalmo  conjungi  prsecipias,  &c. 

*  .Strat)o  de  lieb.  Eccles.  cap.  25. 


Chap.  1 1. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


687 


catholics  themselves  of  old  were  wont  to  say,  some, 
"  Glory  be  to  the  Father,  and  to  the  Son,  and  to  the 
Holy  Ghost ;"  others,  "  Glory  be  to  the  Father,  and 
to  the  Son,  with  the  Holy  Ghost;"  and  others, 
"  Glory  be  to  the  Father,  in"  or  "  by  the  Son,  and 
by  the  Holy  Ghost."  Now,  these  difierent  ways  of 
expressing  were  all  allowed,  so  long  as  no  heterodox 
opinion  was  suspe'cted  to  be  couched  under  them, 
as  Valesins'lias-obscrved  in  his  notes  upon  Socrates 
and  Theodoret,  and  St.  Basil '"  shows  more  at  large 
in  his  book  De  Spiritu  Sancto.  But  when  Arius 
had  broached  his  heresy  in  the  world,  his  followers 
would  use  no  other  form  of  glorification  but  the  last, 
and  made  it  a  distinguishing  character  of  their  party, 
to  say,  "  Glory  be  to  the  Father,  in  "  or  "  by  the  Son, 
and  Holy  Ghost :"  intending  hereby  to  denote,  that 
the  Son  and  Holy  Ghost  were  inferior  to  the  Father 
in  substance,  and,  as  creatures,  of  a  different  nature 
from  him,  as  Sozomen  "  and  other  ancient  writers 
inform  us.  And  from  this  time  it  became  scandal- 
ous, and  brought  any  one  under  the  suspicion  of 
heterodoxy,  to  use  it,  because  the  Arians  had  now, 
as  it  were,  made  it  the  shihholeth  of  their  party. 
Philostorgius  indeed  says,'-  That  the  usual  form  of 
the  catholics  was  a  novelty,  and  that  Flavian  at 
Antioch  was  the  first  that  brought  in  this  form  of 
saying,  "  Glory  be  to  the  Father,  and  to  the  Son, 
and  to  the  Holy  Ghost ;"  whereas  all  before  him 
said  either,  "  Glory  be  to  the  Father,  by  the  Son,  in 
the  Holy  Ghost ;"  or,  "  Glory  be  to  the  Father,  in 
the  Son  and  in  the  Holy  Ghost."  But  this  is  no 
more  than  what  one  might  expect  from  the  partiality 
of  an  Arian  historian,  and  it  is  abundantly  confuted 
by  the  ancient  testimonies  which  St.  Basil  produces  " 
in  his  own  vindication  against  some,  who  charged 
him  with  the  like  innovation  ;  in  answer  to  which, 
he  says,  he  did  no  more  than  what  was  done  before 
by  Irenceus,  Clemens  Romanus,  the  two  Dionysii 
of  Rome  and  Alexandria,  Eusebius  of  Ceesarea, 
Origen,  Africanus,  Athenogenes,  Gregory  Thauma- 
turgus,  Firmilian,  and  Meletius,  and  what  was  done 
in  the  prayers  of  the  church,  and  with  the  consent 
of  all  the  Eastern  and  Western  churches.  Which 
would  make  a  man  amazed  to  hear  Cardinal  Bona'* 
charging  St.  Basil  as  blameworthy,  for  displeasing 
the  cathohcs  in  using  the  form  of  the  heterodox 
party ;  when  it  is  plain,  it  was  the  heterodox  party 
that  quarrelled  with  him  for  using  the  catholic  form 
of  the  church.  And  yet,  though  he  blames  St.  Basil 
without  grounds,  teUing  us.  That  a  catholic  doctor 
ought  to  be  without  rebuke,  and  abstain  from  terms 
that  have  a  suspected  sense,  and  offend  pious  ears ; 


yet  he  has  nothing  to  say  to  Pope  Leo,  who,  if  eithei-, 
was  more  certainly  liable  to  his  censure,  for  using 
the  Arian  form  of  doxology,  though  in  a  catholic 
sense,  in  one  of  his  Christmas  sermons,  wl;ich  he 
thus  words.  Let  us  give  thanks,  beloved,  to  the 
Father,'^  by  his  Son,  in  the  Holy  Ghost.  St.  Basil 
never  used  this  suspected  form,  (though  he  says  it 
might  be  used  with  an  orthodox  meaning,)  but  al- 
ways, "  Glory  be  to  the  Father,  with  the  Son  and 
Holy  Ghost."  For  which  he  was  charged  by  some 
heterodox  men  as  an  innovator ;  but  there  was  no 
room  for  Bona's  censure. 

Having  thus  stated  the  ancient  form  and  modifi- 
cation of  this  hymn  in  its  first  original,  and  subse- 
quent progress  that  it  made  in  the  church,  we  are 
next  to  see  to  what  use  it  was  applied,  and  in  what 
parts  of  Divine  service.  And  here  we  may  observe, 
that  it  was  a  hymn  of  most  general  use,  and  a 
doxology  offered  to  God  in  the  close  of  every  solemn 
oflfice.  The  Western  church  repeated  it  at  the  end 
of  every  psalm,  and  the  Eastern  church  at  the  end 
of  the  last  psalm,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  former 
chapter.  Many  of  their  prayers  were  also  concluded 
with  it,  as  we  shall  find  in  various  instances  in  the 
following  parts  of  this  and  the  next  Book  ;  particu- 
larly the  solemn  thanksgiving  or  consecration  prayer 
at  the  eucharist,  to  which  Irenajus  "*  and  Tertullian  " 
refer,  when  they  mention  the  close  of  it,  ending  in 
these  words,  aiwvaQ  rdv  uiwvwv,  "  world  without  end. 
Amen."  The  whole  doxology  commonly  running 
thus:  "To  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  be  all 
glory,  worship,  thanksgiving,  honour,  and  adoration, 
now  and  for  ever,  throughout  all  ages,  world  with- 
out end.  Amen."  As  it  is  in  the  Constitutions.'* 
Or,  if  the  prayer  ended,  "  by  the  intercession  of 
Christ,"  then  it  was,  "  To  whom  with  thee,"  or, 
"  with  whom  unto  thee  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  be  all 
honour,  glory,  &c.,  world  without  end."  Amen." 
This  was  also  the  ordinary  conclusion  of  their  ser- 
mons, "  That  we  may  obtain  eternal  life  through 
Jesus  Christ,  to  whom  with  the  Father,  and  the 
Holy  Ghost,  be  all  glory  and  power,  world  without 
end :"  as  may  be  seen  in  the  homilies  of  Chrysostom, 
Austin,  Leo,  and  all  others,  of  which  more  in  the 
fourth  chapter  of  this  Book. 

Another  hymn  of  great  nole  in  the  j.^^^  ^ 
ancient  church,  was  that  which  they  oi"/y!"'Giorfbt'to 
commonly  called,  the  angelical  hymn,  ^°  °"  '^  ' 
or  great  doxology,  beginning  with  those  words 
Avhich  the  angels  sung  at  our  Saviour's  birth, "  Glory 
be  to  God  on  high,"  &c.  This  was  chiefly  used  in 
the  communion  service,  as  it  is  now  in  our  church  ; 


'  Vales.  Not.  in  Socrat.  lib.  2.  cap.  21.  et  Theod.  lib.  2. 
cap.  24. 

'»  Basil,  de  Spir.  Sanct.  cap.  7,  25,  et  29. 

"  Sozom.  lib.  3.  cap.  20.  'Eooga^oi/  IlaTipaiv'Yiw,  dtv- 
Tsptvtw  Tov  'Yiov  dTTorpaii/oVTe^, 

'-  Philostorg.  lib.  3.  cap.  13. 


'3  Basil,  de  Spir.  Sanct.  cap.  29. 
"  Bona,  Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  2.  cap.  3.  n.  2. 
'^  Loo,  Serm.  1.  de  Nativ.    Agamiis,  dilectissimi,  gratias 
Deo  Patri,  per  Filiumejus,  in  Spiritu  Sancto. 
'"  Irena;.  lib.  1.  cap.  1.         "  Teitul.  de  Spectac.  cap.  25. 
'8  Constit.  lib.  8.  cap.  12.  "*  Ibid.  cap.  13. 


688 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIV. 


and  there  we  shall  speak  of  it  again  in  its  proper 
place.  It  was  also  used  at  morning  prayer  daily  at 
men's  private  devotions,  as  I  have  showed  before 
out  of  Athanasius  and  the  Constitutions,""  where 
the  reader  may  find  it  repeated  at  length  under  the 
title  of  Trpocrevx>)  iioOnn),  the  morning  prayer.  In  the 
jMozarabic  liturgy  it  is  appointed  to  be  sung  in 
public  before  the  lessons  on  Christmas  day.  St. 
Chrysostom*'  often  mentions  it,  and  in  one  place 
particularly  observes"  of  those  who  retired  from  the 
world  to  lead  an  ascetic  life,  that  they  met  together 
daily  to  sing  their  morning  hymns  with  one  mouth 
to  God,  among  which  they  sung  this  angelical  hymn 
with  the  angels  in  heaven.  But  I  have  observed 
before,  that  this  was  not  the  common  practice  of  all 
churches,  to  sing  it  every  day  at  morning  prayer, 
but  only  in  the  communion  service  ;  or  at  least  only 
upon  Sundays,  and  Easter  day,  and  such  greater 
festivals  of  the  church.  Who  first  composed  this 
hymn,  adding  the  remaining  part  to  the  words  sung 
by  the  angels,  is  uncertain.  Some  suppose  ^  it  to 
be  as  ancient  as  the  time  of  Lucian,  who  lived  in 
the  beginning  of  the  second  century,  and  is  thought 
to  mean  it  in  one  of  his  dialogues,  where  he  speaks 
of  the  hymn  with  many  names,  iroXvwt'vfiov  wSi]v,  as 
used  by  the  Christians  :  others  take  it  for  the  Gloria 
Patri:  which  is  a  dispute  as  difficult  to  be  deter- 
mined, as  it  is  to  find  out  the  first  author  and  origin- 
al of  this  hymn.  And  all  I  shall  say  further  of  it, 
is  only  what  was  said  heretofore  by  the  fourth  coun- 
cil of  Toledo^*  against  some,  who  rejected  the  hymns 
of  St.  Hilary  and  St.  Ambrose  and  others,  because 
they  were  of  human  composition :  That  by  the 
same  reason  they  might  have  rejected  both  the  lesser 
doxolog\%  "  Glory  and  honour  be  to  the  Father,  and 
to  the  Son,  and  to  the  Holy  Ghost,"  which  was 
composed  by  men;  and  also  this  greater  doxology, 
part  of  which  was  sung  by  the  angels  at  our  Sa- 
viour's birth,  "  Glory  be  to  God  on  high,  and  on  earth 
peace  to  men  of  good  will ; "  (so  they  read  it,  as  many 
other  Greek  and  Latin  writers  did;)  but  the  rest 
that  follows  was  composed  and  added  to  it  by  the 
doctors  of  the  church. 

A  third  hymn  of  great  note  in  the 
Of  the  Trisnffion  cliurcli  was  tile  cherubical  hymn,  or 

or  cherubical  hymn,      ■•        rn    •  • 

'•  Holy,  holy,  holy,"  ttic  Irisagion,  as  it  was  called,  because 
of  the  thrice  repeating,  "  Holy,  holy, 
holy,  Lord  God  of  hosts,"  in  imitation  of  the  se- 
raphims  in  the  vision  of  Isaiah.  The  original  form 
of  this  hymn  was  in  these  words,  "  Holy,  holy,  holy, 


2»  See  Book  XIII.  chap.  10.  sect.  9. 

-'  Chrys.  Horn.  3.  in  Colos.  p.  1337.  Horn.  9.  in  Colos. 
p.  138().'  --  Ibid.  Horn.  G8.  vel  69.  in  Mat.  p.  GOO. 

^  Smith's  Account  of  the  Greek  Church,  p.  226. 

-'  Cone.  Tolet.  4.  can.  12.  Nam  et  ille  hymniis,  quem 
nato  in  came  Christo,  angeli  cecineruut,  Gloria  in  e.Kcelsis 
Deo,  et  in  terra  pax  hominibus  bonae  voluntatis,  rcliquaque 
quae  ibi  sequuntur,  ccclesiastici  doctoies  coniposuerunt. 

=5  Const,  lib.  8.  cap.  12.  p.  402, 


Lord  God  of  hosts,  heaven  and  earth  are  full  of  thy 
glory,  who  art  blessed  for  ever.  Amen."  Thus  it 
is  in  the  Constitutions,*^  and  frequently  in  St.  Chrj^- 
sostom,-"  who  says  always,  that  it  was  in  the  same 
words  that  the  seraphims  sung  it  in  Isaiah.  After- 
ward the  church  added  some  words  to  it,  and  sung 
it  in  this  form,  "Ayioq  6  Qeog,  iiyiog  'ia^vpog,  liyioq  aOdva- 
Tog,  i\t}]aov  rifiag,  Holy  God,  holy  Mighty,  holy  Im- 
mortal, have  mercy  upon  us.  This  form  is  ascribed 
by  some  to  Proclus,  bishop  of  Constantinople,  and 
Theodosius  junior,  anno  446.  And  in  this  form 
not  long  after  we  find  it  used  by  the  fathers  of  the 
council  of  Chalcedon,-'  in  their  condemnation  of 
Dioscorus.  Which  is  also  noted  by  Damascen,"* 
who  says,  the  church  used  this  form  to  declare  her 
faith  in  the  holy  Trinity,  applying  the  title  of  holy 
God  to  the  Fa'ther,  and  holy  Mighty  to  the  Son, 
and  holy  Immortal  to  the  Holy  Ghost:  not  as  ex- 
cluding any  of  the  three  persons  from  each  of  the 
titles,  but  in  imitation  of  the  apostle,  who  says,  "  To 
us  there  is  but  one  God  the  Father,  of  whom  are  all 
things,  and  we  by  him;  and  one  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
by  whom  are  all  things,  and  we  by  him."  And 
thus  this  hymn  continued  to  be  applied  to  the 
whole  Trinity,  till  Anastasius  the  emperor,  as  some  -" 
say,  or,  as  others  relate,^"  Peter  Gnapheus,  bishop  of 
Antioch,  caused  the  words,  6  cravpwOiiQ  £i  imag,  that 
was  crucified  for  us,  to  be  added  to  it.  Which 
was  intended  to  bring  in  the  heresy  of  the  Theo- 
paschites,  who  asserted  that  the  Divine  nature  it- 
self suflTered  upon  the  cross ;  and  was  in  effect  to  say, 
that  the- whole  Trinity  suflTered,  because  this  hymn 
was  commonly  applied  to  the  whole  Trinity.  To 
avoid  this  inconvenience,  one  Calandio,  bishop  of 
Antioch,  in  the  time  of  Zeno  the  emperor,  made 
another  addition  to  it,  of  the  words,  "  Christ  our 
King,"  reading  it  thus,  "  Holy  God,  holy  Mighty, 
holy  Immortal,  Christ  our  King,  that  wast  crucified 
for  us,  have  mercy  on  us,"  as  Theodoras  Lector^' 
and  other  historians  inform  us.  These  last  ad- 
ditions occasioned  great  confusion  and  tumults  in 
the  Eastern  church,  whilst  the  Constantinopolitans 
andWestern  churches  stiffly  rejected  them;  and  some 
of  the  European  provinces,  the  better  to  confront 
them,  and  maintain  the  old  way  of  applying  it  to  the 
whole  Trinity,  instead  of  the  words,  "  crucified  for 
us,"  expressly  said,  "  Holy  Trinity,  have  mercy  on 
us,"  as  we  find  it  in  Eplirem  Antiochenus,'-  recorded 
in  Photius. 

This  is  the  short  historj^  and  account  of  the  rise 


«  Chrys.  Horn.  1.  de  Verb.  Esai.  t.  3.  p.  834.  Hom.  6.  iu 
Seraphim,  ibid.  p.  890.  Horn.  21.  ad  Pop.  Antioch.  t.  1.  p. 
266.  et  passim.  Vid.  Cyril.  Catech.  Myst.  5.  n.  5.  Core. 
Vasens.  2.  can.  4. 

-'  Cone.  Chalced.  Act.  1.  p.  310.  t.  4.  Labbe. 

-"  Damascen.  de  Orthod.  Fide,  lib.  3.  cap.  10. 

^  Evagr.  lib.  3.  cap.  44.  '"  Damascen.  ibid. 

^'  Theodor.  Lect.  lib.  2.  p.  566.    Cedren.  an.  16.  Zenonis. 

=-  Phot.  Bibliothec.  Cod.  228.  p.  773. 


Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


6S9 


and  progress  of  this  celebrated  hymn  in  the  service 
of  the  church,  and  of  tlie  heretical  corruptions  and 
interpolations  that  were  intended  to  be  made  upon 
it.  As  to  its  use,  it  was  chieflj'  sung  in  the  middle 
of  the  communion  ser%ace,  as  we  shall  see  more  ex- 
pressly hereafter  in  the  next  Book :  but  it  was  some- 
times used  upon  other  occasions,  as  we  have  heard 
in  the  council  of  Chalcedon  before.  And  some 
Greek  ritualists  ^  tell  us,  that  it  was  always  sung 
before  the  reading  of  the  Epistle,  which  was  an- 
ciently a  part  of  the  service  of  the  catechumens. 
But  then  they  distinguish  between  the  Trisar/ion 
and  Epinicion,  or  triumphal  hymn,  calling  the  sim- 
ple form,  "  Holy,  holy,  holy,  Lord  God  of  hosts," 
the  Ejnnicion,  which  was  sung  in  the  communion 
service ;  and  the  other,  the  Trisagion,  which  was 
sung  in  the  service  of  the  catechumens :  but  the 
more  ancient  writers  do  not  observe  this  distinction; 
and  therefore  I  have  here  put  both  forms  under  the 
common  name  of  the  Trisagion.  He  that  would  see 
this  history  more  at  large,  may  consult  Christianus 
Lupus '^  upon  the  council  of  Trullo,  and  Mr.  Allix,^ 
who  has  written  a  peculiar  treatise  upon  the  subject. 
g^^,  ^  Next  to  the  Trisagion,  there  is  fre- 

and'^hlaleiuatic'"^*''  qucut  mcntiou  made  among  the  an- 
'"'^™^'  cient  writers  of  singing  the  hallelujah. 

By  which  they  sometimes  mean  the  repetition  of 
this  single  word,  which  signifies,  "  Praise  the  Lord:" 
which  they  did  in  imitation  of  the  heavenly  host, 
singing  and  saying,  again  and  again,  "  Hallelujah," 
Rev.  xix.  Sometimes  they  mean  one  of  those 
psalms  which  were  called  halleluatic  psalms,^^  be- 
cause they  had  the  word  hallelujah  prefixed  before 
them  in  the  title,  such  as  the  1 45th,  and  those  that 
follow  to  the  end.  The  singing  of  these  was  some- 
times called  singing  the  hallelujah,  as  has  been  ob- 
served out  of  Cassian,'^  more  than  once,  in  the  fore- 
going parts  of  this  and  the  former  Book.  But  the 
more  common  acceptation  of  hallelujah,  is  for  the 
singing  of  the  word  itself,  by  a  frequent  solemn  re- 
petition of  it,  upon  certain  days,  and  in  special  parts 
of  Divine  service ;  it  being  a  sort  of  invitatory,  or 
mutual  call  to  each  other  to  praise  the  Lord.  There- 
fore, as  St.  Austin'*  observes,  they  always  used  it 


in  the  Hebrew  language,  because  that  w;i,s  tlie 
known  signification  of  it :  and  so  it  was  in  our  first 
liturgy,  though  now  we  say,  "  Praise  ye  the  Lord," 
with  a  response  of  the  people,  "  The  Lord's  name 
be  praised."  Anciently  there  was  no  dispute  about 
the  lawfulness  of  the  hymn  itself,  but  some  variation 
and  some  dispute  there  was  about  the  times  of  using 
it.  St.  Austin  says,  In  some  churches  it  was  never 
sung  but  upon  Easter  day,  and  the  fifty  ^  days  of 
Pentecost :  but  in  other  churches,  it  was  used  at, 
other  times  also.  Vigilantius  contended  fiercely^" 
against  St.  Jerom,  that  it  ought  never  to  be  sung 
but  only  upon  Easter  day.  And  in  this  he  seems 
to  have  followed  the  practice  of  the  church  of  Rome, 
where  Sozomen  ^'  assures  us,  it  was  never  sung  but 
once  a  year,  and  that  was  upon  Easter  day ;  inso- 
much that  it  was  the  common  form  of  an  oath 
among  the  Romans,  As  they  hoped  to  live  to  sing 
hallelujah  on  that  day.  Cardinal  Bona"  and  Ba- 
ronius "  are  very  angry  at  Sozomen  for  this :  but 
Valesius"  honestly  defends  him,  forasmuch  as  Cas- 
siodore,  who  was  a  Roman,  reports  the  same  in  his 
Historia  Tripartita.  But  we  must  note,  that  an- 
ciently, in  those  churches  where  it  was  most  fre- 
quented, there  were  some  exceptions  in  point  of 
time  and  season.  For  in  the  time  of  Lent  it  was 
never  used,  as  appears  from  St.  Austin,"  who  says, 
That  was  a  time  of  sorrow,  and  therefore  from  the 
beginning  of  Lent  till  Easter  day  they  always  omit- 
ted it;  the  ancient  tradition  of  the  church  being 
only  to  use  it  at  certain  seasons.  The  fourth  coun- 
cil of  Toledo  ^^  forbids  the  use  of  it  not  only  in  Lent, 
but  upon  other  days  of  fasting,  as  particularly  upon 
the  first  of  January,  which  was  then  kept  a  fast  in 
the  Spanish  church,  because  the  heathen  observed 
it  with  great  superstition  of  many  idolatrous  rites 
and  practices.  In  the  same  council,  the  hallelujah 
is  mentioned  under  the  name  of  Zaudcs*''  and  ap- 
pointed to  be  sung  after  the  reading  of  the  Gospel ; 
which,  as  Bona^"  and  Mabillon"  observe,  was  ac- 
cording to  the  Mozarabic  rite ;  for  in  other  churches 
it  was  sung  between  the  Epistle  and  the  Gospel. 
It  w^as  also  sung  at  funerals,  as  St.  Jerom  ac- 
quaints us  in  his  Epitaph  of  Fabiola,  where  he 


3'  German.  Theoria  Eccles.  Bibl.  Patr.  Or.  Lat.  t.  2. 
p.  145. 

^'  Lupus,  Not.  in  Can.  81.  Trullan. 

'^  AUix  de  Trisafjio. 

^•^  A\ig.  in  Psal.  cv.  p.  .505.  Psahui  alleluatici.  It.  in 
Psal.  cxviii.  p.  542. 

"  Cassian.  Instit.  lib.  2.  cap.  5  et  II. 

•'"*  Aug.  Ep.  178.  et  Horn.  16.  ex  50.  t.  10.  p.  165. 

""  Aug.  Ep.  119.  ad  Januar.  cap.  17.  Ut  alleluia  per  so- 
los dies  quinquaginta  cantetur  in  ecclesia,  non  usquequaque 
cbservatur.  Nam  et  in  aliis  diebus  varie  cantatur  alibi 
atque  alibi.  Vid.  Ep.  86,  et  Horn,  in  Psal.  cvi.  et  Senn. 
151.  de  Tempore. 

"  Hieron.  cont.  Vigilant,  cap.  1.  Exortus  est  subito 
Vigilantius,  qui  dicat — nunquam  nisi  in  Pascha  alleluia 
cantandum. 

2   Y 


■"  Sozom.  lib.  7.  cap.  19. 

^'-  Bona  de  Psalmod.  cap.  16.  sect.  7.  n.  4. 

"  Baron,  an.  384.  n.  28. 

■"  Vales,  in  Sozom.  lib.  7.  cap.  19. 

*'^  Aug.  in  Psal.  ex.  Venorunt  dies  ut  jam  cantemus  al- 
leluia, &c.     Vid.  in  Psal.  cvi.  et  cxlviii. 

■"^  Cone.  Tolet.  4.  can.  10.  In  omnibus  qucwlragesimae 
diebus  (quia  tempus  non  est  gaiidii,  sed  mceroris)  alleluia 
non  decantetur — Hoc  euiin  ecclesia^  universalis  consensio 
roboravit.  In  temporibus  vero  reliquis,  id  est,  kalendis 
Januarii,  quae  propter  errorem  gentilitatis  aguntur,  omniuo 
alleluia  non  decantabitur. 

■"  Ibid.  can.  II.  Laudes  ideo  Evangeliuni  sequuntur  prop- 
ter gloriam  Christi,  qua-  per  idem  Evangelium  praedicatur. 

^^  Bona,  Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  2.  cap.  6.  n.  4. 

<'  Mabil.  de  Liturg.  Gallican.  lib.  I.  cap.  4.  n.  12. 


690 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIV. 


speaks  of  the  whole  multitude  singing  psahns  toge- 
ther/" and  making  the  golden  roof  of  the  church 
shake  with  echoing  forth  the  hallelujah.     The  au- 
thor under  the  name  of  Dionysius,"  speaks  of  it 
also  as  used  in  the  confection  of  the  chrism,  or  holy 
oil  to  be  used  in  the  unction  of  confirmation.     St. 
Austin*'  says,  it  was  sung  every  Lord's  day  at  the 
altar,  for  the  same  reason  that  they  prayed  stand- 
ing, as  a  memorial  of  Christ's  resurrection,  and  as 
a  figiu-e  of  our  future  rest  and  joy  fulness,  to  signify 
that  our  business  in  the  life  to  come,  will  be  nothing 
else  but  to  praise  God,  according  to  that  of  the 
psalmist,  '•'  Blessed  are  they  that  dwell  in  thy  house, 
O  Lord,  they  will  be  always  praising  thee."     The 
meaningof  hallelujah  being  nothing  else  but  "Praise 
the  Lord,"  as  both  he  and  others^  represent  it.     In 
the  second  council  of  Tours^'  it  is  appointed  to  be 
sung  immediately  after  the  psalms,  both  at  the  sixth 
hour,  that  is,  noon-day,  and  the  twelfth  hour,  that 
is,  evening  prayer.     But  whether  they  mean  the 
shorter  hallelujah,  or  one  of  those  psalms  called  the 
halleluatic  psalms,  of  which  St.  Austin  and  Cassian 
speak,  is  not  very  easy  to  determine.    Isidore"  says, 
it  was  sung  every  day  in  Spain,  except  upon  fast 
days ;   though   it   was   otherwise  in    the    African 
churches.     St.  Jerom^^  says,  it  was  used  in  private 
devotion ;  for  even  the  ploughman  at  his  labour  sung 
his  hallelujahs.     And  this  was  the  signal  or  call 
among  the  monks"  to  their  ecclesiastical  assem- 
blies ;  for  one  went  about  and  sung  hallelujah,  and 
that  was  the  notice  to  repair  to  their  solemn  meet- 
ing.   Nay,  Sidonius  ApoUinaris  seems  to  intimate,^ 
that  the  seamen  used  it  as  their  signal  or  ceJeusma 
at  their  common  labour,  making  the  banks  echo 
while  they  sung  hallelujah  to  Christ.     I  only  ob- 
serve fiu-ther,  that  in  the  church  hallelujah  was  sung 
by  all  the  people,  as  appears  not  only  from  what  is 
said  before  by  St.  Jerom,  that  the  church  echoed 
with  the  sound  of  it ;  but  also  from  that  of  Paulinus, 
in  his  epistle  to  Severus,^*  Alleluia  novis  halat  ovile 
choris,  Thewhole  sheepfoldofChristsings hallelujah 
inhernew  choirs.  And  St.  Austin,™  alluding  to  this, 
says,  it  was  the  Christians'  sweet  celeusma,  or  call. 


whereby  they  invited  one  another  to  sing  praises 
unto  Christ. 

I  do  not  here  insist  upon  the  ho-         g^^^  ^ 
sanna,  or  the  evening  hymn,  because  ^°^  j'he  ^'tH^^ 
it  does  not  appear  that  either  of  these  ^J^^s.^or*^  the  "song 
were  used  in  the  service  of  the  cate- 
chumens.    The  hosanna  was  but  a  part  of  the 
great  doxology,  "  Glory  be  to  God  on  high,"  and 
only  used  in  the  communion  service,  where  we  shall 
speak  of  it  hereafter.     And  the  evening  hymn  has 
been  mentioned®'  before  in  the  former  Book,  where 
we  have  given  an  account  of  the  daily  evening  ser- 
\ace,  and  showed  it  to  be  rather  a  private  hymn, 
than  any  part  of  the  public  worship  of  the  church. 
In  it  was  contained  the  Nunc  diniittis,  or  song  of 
Simeon,  "  Lord,  now  lettest  thou  thy  servant  depart 
in  peace,  according  to  thy  word,"  &c.    But  whether 
any  of  this  was  used  in  public,  or  only  by  Christians 
in  their  private  devotions  in  their  families  at  their 
setting  up  of  lights,  is  what  I  ingenuously  confess 
I  am  not  yet  able,  from  any  ancient  records,  to  de- 
termine.    For  though  there  is  frequent  mention  of 
the  Xvxva^/ia  among  the  Greeks,  and  of  the  lucer- 
narium  among  the  Latins,  as  of  a  public  office,  for 
vespers  or  evening  prayers ;  yet  I  will  not  assert, 
that  this  hymn  was  a  part  of  that  office,  without 
clearer  proof,  but  leave  it  to  further  disquisition  and 
inquiry.    The  only  thing  we  find  more  of  the  Nunc 
dimittis,  is  in  the  Life  of  Maria  j^lgyptiaca,  who 
died  about  the  year  525,  of  whom  it  is  said,  that  a 
little  before  her  death  she  received  the  eucharist, 
repeated  the  creed  and  the  Lord's  prayer,  and  sung 
the  Nunc  dimittis,  '*  Lord,  now  lettest  thou  thy  serv- 
ant depart  in  peace,  according  to  thy  word.""    But 
this  was  only  an  act  of  private  devotion,  and  whe- 
ther it  was  then  received  into  the  public  offices  of 
the  church  remains  uncertain. 

But  we  are  more  certain  of  the  use  „  _^  , 

Sect.  6. 

of  the  hymn,  called  Benedicite,  or  song  o^the\on^'ti"i\i 
of  the  three  children  in  the  burning  ">ree  children. 
fiery  furnace.     For  not  only  Athanasius**  directs 
virgins  to  use  it  in  their  private  devotions,  but  the 
fourth  council  of  Toledo*^*  says,  it  was  used  in  the 


^  Hieron.  Ep.30.  cap.  4.  Sonabant  psalmi,  aurata  tecta 
teiuplorum  reboans  in  sublime  quatiebat  alleluia. 

^'  Dionys.  de  Hierarch.  Eccles.  cap.  4. 

"  Aug.  Ep.  119.  ad  Januar.  cap.  15.  Omnibus  diebus 
Dominicis  ad  altare  stantes  oramus,  et  alleluia  canitur,  quod 
significat  actionem  nostram  futuiam  non  esse  nisi  laudare 
Deum,  &c. 

^^  Vid.  Justin.  Quaest.  ad  Orthodox,  qu.  50. 

'"'  Cone.  Turon.  2.  can.  19.  Patrum  statuta  praeceperunt, 
ut  ad  sextam,  sex  psalmi  dicantur  cum  alleluia;  et  ad  duo- 
decimam  duodecim,  itemque  cum  alleluia. 

^*  Isidor.  de  Offic.  lib.  1.  c.  1.3.  In  Afrieanis  ecclesiis  non 
omni  tempore,  sed  tantum  Dominicis  diebus  et  50  post  Do- 
mini resiirrectionem  alleluia  cantatur:  verum  apud  nos 
secundum  antiquam  Hispaniarum  traditionem  praeter  dies 
jejiiniorum  et  quadragesimrc  omni  tempore  canitur  alleluia. 

*'  Hieron.  Ep.  18.  ad  Marcellam.  Quocunque  te  verteris, 


arator  stivam  retinens  alleluia  decantat. 

^^  Id.  Ep.  27.  Epitaph.  Paulae,  cap.  16.  Post  alleluia 
cantatum,  quo  signo  vocabantur  ad  collectam,  nulli  residere 
licitum  erat. 

^^  Sidon.  lib.  2.  Ep.  10.  Curvorum  hinc  chorus  helciario- 
rura,  responsantibus  alleluia  ripis,  ad  Christum  levat  amni- 
cum  celeusma. 

^^  Paulin.  Ep.  12.  ad  Sever. 

•"  Aug.  de  Cantico  Novo,  cap.  2.  t.  9.  Celeusma  nostrum 
dulce  cantemus  alleluia. 

"'  Book  XIII.  chap.  II.  sect.  5. 

^-  Vita  Marias  .^gypt.  ap.  Durautum  de  Ritibus,  lib.  1. 
cap.  16.  n.  9. 

"^  Athan.  de  Virgin,  p.  1057. 

"*  Cone.  Tolet.  4.  can.  13.  Hymnum  quoque  trium  pup- 
rorum,  in  quo  universa  coeli  terraeque  creatura  Deum  col- 
laudat,  et  quern  ecclesia  catliolica  per  totum  orbem  diffusa 


Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


691 


church  over  all  the  world,  and  therefore  orders  it 
to  be  sung  by  the  clergy  of  Spain  and  Gallicia  every 
Lord's  day,  and  on  the  festivals  of  the  martyrs,  un- 
der pain  of  excommunication.  L'Estrange"*  thinks 
this  is  the  first  time  there  is  any  mention  made  of 
this  hymn,  as  of  public  use  in  the  church:  but 
Chrysostom  lived  two  hundred  years  before  this 
council,  and  he  makes  the  same  observation  as  the 
council  does,  that  it  was  sung  in  all  places"^  through- 
out the  world,  and  would  continue  to  be  sung  in 
future  generations.  The  Lectionarium  Gallicanum, 
published  by  Mabillon,*'  appoints  this  hymn  to  be 
sung  after  the  reading  of  the  Prophets,  much  after 
the  same  manner  as  it  is  now  ordered  to  be  sung 
between  the  first  and  second  lesson  in  the  liturgy 
of  our  church. 

g^^j  ^  The  use  of  the  Mac/nijicat,  or  song 

o^o^l'/lThfho"^  of  the  holy  Virgin,  "  My  soul  doth 
Virgin.  magnify  the  Lord,"  &c.,  is  not  quite 

so  ancient :  for  the  first  time  we  meet  with  it  as 
prescribed  for  public  use,  is  in  the  Rules  of  Cassarius 
Arelatensis  and  Aurelian,®  who  order  it  to  be  sung 
in  the  French  churches  at  morning  ser\ace.  And 
that  was  about  the  year  506. 

Some  learned  persons  reckon  the 
■w^r  first  the  singing  of  the  Creed  into  the  psalm- 

Creed   began  to  be  .  i         f  • 

sung  as  a  hymn  in  odv  ot  the  church,  and  speak  oi  it  as 

the  church.  -^  .  '  ^  . 

an  ancient  custom  :  but  herein  they 
mistake  by  suffering  themselves  to  be  imposed  upon 
by  modern  authors.  Bishop  Wettenhal  says,*'''  it  is 
no  improbable  conjecture,  that  the  hymn  which 
the  primitive  Christians  are  said  by  Pliny  to  have 
sung  to  Christ  as  God,  was  their  creed ;  and  that 
it  is  certain,  the  Nicene  Creed  has  been  sung  in  the 
church  in  a  manner  from  the  very  compiling  of 
it.  For  this  he  cites  Platina  in  the  Life  of  Pope 
Mark,  who  affirms,  that  it  was  ordained  by  that 
pope,  that  on  all  solemn  days,  immediately  after  the 
Gospel,  the  Creed  should  be  sung  with  a  loud  voice 
by  the  clergy  and  people,  in  that  form  wherein  it 
was  explained  by  the  Nicene  council.  When  yet  it 
is  certain,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  Creed  was 
never  so  much  as  barely  repeated  in  the  Roman 
church  in  time  of  Divine  service,  till  the  year 
1014,  when  Benedict  VIII.  brought  it  into  use, 
to  comply  with  the  practice  of  the  French  and 
Spanish  churches,  as  has  been  showed  at  large 
in  a  former  Book,™  where  we  have  noted,  that  it 


was  never  read  publicly  in  the  Greek  churcli,  but 
once  a  year,  till  Peter  Fullo  brought  it  into  the 
church  of  Antioch,  anno  471,  and  Timotheus  into 
the  church  of  Constantinople,  anno  51 1,  from  whose 
example  it  was  taken  by  the  third  council  of  Toledo, 
anno  589,  and  brought  into  custom  in  the  Spanish 
churches.  After  which  it  was  four  whole  centuries 
before  it  gained  admittance  in  the  church  of  Rome. 
So  little  reason  is  there  to  depend  upon  the  author- 
ity of  modern  authors,  in  cases  where  they  plainly 
contradict  the  testimony  of  more  ancient  and  credi- 
ble writers.  And  this  is  a  good  argument,  as  Bishop 
Stillingfleet  well  urges  it,"  to  show  the  differences 
betwixt  the  old  Galilean  and  Roman  offices,  and 
that  the  church  of  England  did  not  follow  pre- 
cisely the  model  of  the  Roman  offices,  but  those 
that  were  more  ancientl}'  received  in  the  general 
practice  of  the  Galilean  and  British  churches. 

There  remains  one  hymn  more,  the  ^^^^  ^ 
Te  Beum,  which  is  now  in  use  among  ^^^^'^roTJlThj^n 
us,  the  author  and  original  of  which  ^''  ■""""• 
is  variously  disputed.  The  common  opinion  ascribes 
it  to  St.  Ambrose  and  St.  Austin  jointly;  others  to 
St.  Ambrose  singly,"  because  he  is  known  to  have 
composed  hymns  for  the  use  of  the  church.  Two 
things  are  chiefly  said  in  favour  of  these  opinions, 
which  have  no  real  weight  or  force  in  them.  I. 
That  the  Chronicle  of  Dacius,  one  of  St.  Ambrose's 
successors,  says,  he  composed  it.  2.  That  it  is  ap- 
proved as  his  hymn  in  the  fourth  council  of  Toledo, 
anno  633.  But  to  the  first  it  is  replied  by  learned 
men,  that  the  pretended  Chronicon  of  Dacius  is  a 
mere  counterfeit,  and  altogether  spurious.  Mabil- 
lon"  proves  it  to  be  at  least  five  hundred  years 
younger  than  its  reputed  author :  whence  the  story 
that  is  so  formally  told  in  it,  is  concluded  to  be  a 
mere  fiction,  and  invention  of  later  ages.  The  story 
is  this,  as  Spondanus,"  a  favom'er  of  it,  reports  it 
out  of  Dacius  :  That  when  St.  Austin  was  baptized 
by  St.  Ambrose,  whilst  they  were  at  the  font,  they 
sung  this  hymn  by  inspiration,  as  the  Spirit  gave 
them  utterance,  and  so  published  it  in  the  sight  and 
audience  of  all  the  people.  But  the  authority  of 
the  story  resting  merely  upon  the  foundation  of  this 
fabulous  writer,  there  is  no  credit  to  be  given  to  it. 
Neither  is  there  any  greater  weight  to  be  laid  upon 
what  is  alleged  from  the  council  of  Toledo :  for  the 
council  only  says.  That  some  hymns  were  composed 


celebrat,  quiilam  sacerdotes  in  missa  Dominicorum  dieriim 
et  in  solennitatibus  martyrum  canere  negligunt.  Proinde 
sanctum  concilium  instituit,  ut  per  omnes  Hispanioe  eccle- 
sias  vel  Galliciae,  in  omnium  missarum  solennitate  idem  in 
publico  (al.  pulpiti))  decantetur,  &c. 

^  L'Estrauge,  Alliance  of  Div.  Offic.  chap.  3.  p.  79. 

^  Chrj'S.  Quod  nemo  laeditur  nisi  a  seipso,  t..  4.  p.  593. 
Qoi'jw  iravray^  Ti'/s  olKi^f^tv^^i  doo/xiutji',  Kal  acrOijcro/uti'iji/ 
£15  Tri<s  (Ufxa  TttDra  yEi/Sfis. 

"  Mabillon.  de  Liturg.  Gallic,  lib.  2.  p.  108. 
2  Y  2 


•"  Apud  Mabillon.  de  Cursu  Gallican.  p.  407. 

«"  Wettenhal,  Gift  of  Singing,  chap.  .3.  p.  .330. 

•"  Book  X.  chap.  4.  sect.  17. 

"  Stilling.  Orig.  Britan.  chap.  1.  p.  237. 

"-  Comber  of  Liturgies,  p.  180. 

"  Mabil.  Analecta  Veterum,  t.  1.  p.  5. 

■'  Spondan.  anno  .388.  n.  9.  In  quibus  fontibus,  prout 
Spiritus  Sanctus  dabat  eloqui  illis,  Te  Deum  laudamus,  can- 
tantes,  cunctis  qui  aderant  audientibus  et  videntibus,  edide- 
runt.     Ex  Chronico  Dacii,  lib.  I.  c.  10. 


692 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIV. 


for  the  use  of  the  church  by  St.  Hilary  and  St.  Am- 
brose, without  any  particular  mention  of  this  hymn  ; 
so  that  it  might  as  well  be  ascribed  to  St.  Hilary 
as  St.  Ambrose,  for  any  thing  that  is  said  in  that 
council.  The  truth  of  the  matter  is,  that  it  was 
composed  by  a  French  writer  about  a  hundred 
years  after  St.  Ambrose's  death,  for  the  use  of  the 
GalHcan  church.  Pagi"  says,  Gavantus  found  it  in 
some  MSS.  ascribed  to  St.  Abundius;  and  others 
have  the  name  of  Sisebutus  prefixed  to  it.  Bishop 
Usher'"  found  it  in  two  MSS.  ascribed  to  Nicettus, 
bishop  of  Triers,  who  lived  about  the  year  535. 
And  he  is  now  by  learned  men  generally  reputed 
the  author  of  it.  The  learned  Benedictins,  who 
lately  published  St.  Ambi-ose's  works,  judge  St. 
Ambrose  not  to  be  the  author  of  it :  and  Dr.  Cave, 
though  he  was  once"  of  a  different  judgment,  yet 
upon  maturer  consideration''  subscribes  to  theii- 
opinion.  Wherefore  the  most  rational  conclusion 
is  that  of  Bishop  Stillingfleet,''  that  it  was  composed 
by  Nicettus,  and  that  we  must  look  on  this  hymn 
as  owing  its  original  to  the  Gallican  church  ;  since 
not  long  after  the  time  of  Nicettus  it  is  mentioned 
in  the  Rule  of  St.  Benedict,  cap.  II,  and  the  Rule 
of  Ctesarius  Arelatensis,  cap.  21,  and  the  Rule  of 
Aurelian,  where  they  prescribe  the  use  of  it :  but 
Menardus^"  is  confident,  there  is  no  mention  of  this 
hymn  in  any  writers  of  credit  before  them. 

But  though  St.  Ambrose  cannot  be 
The'hymns'of  St.  allowcd  to  be  tlic  autlior  of  this  hymn, 

Ambrose.  . 

yet  there  is  no  doubt  to  be  made  but 
that  he  composed  hymns  for  the  use  of  the  church, 
some  of  which  are  yet  extant.  For  St.  Austin" 
mentions  one  of  his  evening  hymns  in  several 
places,  Deus  Creator  omnium,  &c. ;  which  I  for- 
bear to  relate  here  at  length,  because  I  have  done 
it  in  the  former  Book.'^  Again,  St.  Austin  in  his  Re- 
tractations "'  speaks  of  another  hymn  composed  by 
St.  Ambrose,  upon  the  repentance  of  Peter  after  the 
crowing  of  the  cock,  part  of  which  he  there  relates, 
and  says,  it  was  used  to  be  sung  by  many  in  his 
time.     Du  Pin  thinks*^  most  of  those  hymns  which 


"  Pagi,  Critic,  in  Baron,  an.  388.  n.  11. 

'"  Usser.  de  Symbolo,  p.  3. 

"  Cave,  Hist.  Liter,  vol.  1.  p.  215. 

'^  Id.  Hist.  Liter,  vol.  2.  p.  75.  Ambrosii  esse,  nuUo 
idoneo  testimomo  probari  potest,  et  fabulam  pro  origine 
iiabere  videtur. 

'■'  Stillingfl.  Orig.  Britan.  chap.  4.  p.  222. 

•**  Menard.  Not.  in  Gregor.  Sacramentar.  p.  35L 

•*'  Aug.  Confess,  lib.  9.  cap.  12.  It.  de  Musica,  lib.  6.  cap. 
2  6117." 

s-  Book  XIII.  chap.  5.  sect.  7. 

^  Aug.  Retract,  lib.  1.  cap.  21.  Cantatur  ore  multornm 
in  versibus  beatissimi  Ambrosii,  ubi  de  gallo  gallinaceo  ait, 
Hoc,  ipsa  Petra  ecclesia  canente,  culpam  diluit. 

"  Du  Pin,  Bibliothec.  Cent.  4.  p.  231. 

^^  Breviar.  Horn.  Hebdom.  4.  Quadragcsimaedie  Sabbati. 
O  Crux  ave  spes  unica, 
Hoc  passionis  tempore, 


are  now  the  daily  office  of  the  Roman  service,  are 
taken  from  St.  Ambrose,  but  that  the  rest  are  in  a 
different  style,  and  owing  to  other  authors.  Par- 
ticularly that  the  hymn,  Vexilla  Regis  prodeunt,  is 
none  of  his,  which  is  now  used  in  the  Romish 
church  in  the  fourth  week  of  Lent,  so  notorious  for 
their  kneeling  down  to  the  cross,  and  worshipping 
it  in  these  words  :  ^'^  Hail,  cross,  our  only  hope,  in 
this  time  of  passion,  increase  the  righteousness  of 
the  pious,  and  grant  pardon  of  sins  to  the  guilty. 
We  are  sure  this  could  not  be  the  composition  of 
St.  Ambrose,  nor  any  writer  of  that  age ;  being  so 
much  the  reverse  of  the  practice  of  the  ancient 
church,  in  whose  hymns  or  other  devotions  there  is 
not  the  least  footstep  of  worshipping  the  cross,  or 
any  material  image  of  God,  as  has  been  demon- 
strated in  a  former  part  of  this  work,""  where  the  his- 
tory of  images  has  been  handled  ex  professo,  in  con- 
sidering the  way  of  adorning  the  ancient  churches. 

There   were  many  other    hymns, 
and  some  whole  books  of  hymns,  com-     The"^hymn8'of  st. 

Hilary,    Claudiaiius 

posed  by  other  writers  of  the  church,  o„^^"'="^'  *"■* 
of  which  we  have  httle  remaining  be- 
sides the  bare  names,  and  therefore  it  will  be  suf- 
ficient just  to  mention  them.  St.  Jerom  says,'' 
St.  Hilary,  bishop  of  Poictiers,  composed  a  book  of 
hymns :  and  these  we  are  sure  were,  many  years 
after  his  death,  of  famous  note  and  use  in  the 
Spanish  churches,  being  ratified  and  confirmed  in 
the  fourth  council  of  Toledo."**  But  none  of  these 
are  come  to  our  hands,  except  a  morning  hymn"'* 
prefixed  before  his  works,  which  he  sent  with  an 
epistle  to  his  daughter  Abra.  It  is  a  prayer  to 
Christ  for  preservation  from  the  perils  of  day  and 
night,  savouring  of  ancient  piety,  and  concluding 
with  the  common  glorification  of  "  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Ghost."  Sidonius  Apollinaris™  says  also,  that 
Claudianus  Mamercus  collected  the  psalms  and 
hymns  and  lessons  proper  for  the  festivals  in  the 
church  of  Vienna  in  France,  and  made  some  hymns 
of  his  own,  one  of  which  he  highly  '*  commends  for 
its  elegancy,  loftiness,  and  sweetness,  as  exceeding 


Auge  piis  justitiam, 
Reisque  dona  veniam. 
««  Book  VIII.  chap.  8.  sect.  6,  &c. 
"  Hieron.  de  Scriptor.  Eccl.  cap.  110. 
ss  Cone.  Tolet.  4.  can.  12. 

""  Hilar.  Epist.  ad  Fil.  Abram.     Interim  tibi  hymnum 
matutiuum  et  serotinum  misi,  ut  memor  mei  semper  sis. 
The  hymn  begins  thus,  Lucis  largitor  optimc,  &c.  ;    and 
ends  in  these  words  of  the  do.xology, 
Gloria  tibi  Domine, 
Gloria  Unigenito, 
Cum  Spiritu  Paracleto. 
Nunc  et  per  omne  saculum. 
*•  Sidon.  lib.  4.  Ep.   11.     Psalmorum  hie  modulator  et 
phonascus,  instructas  docuit  sonare  classes.    Hie  solennibus 
annuis  paravit,  quoe  quo  tempore  lecta  convenirent. 

"•  Id.  lib.  4.  Ep.  3.  Jam  vero  de  hymno  tuo  si  percunctere 
quod  sentiam,  commaticus  est,  copiosus,   dulcis,  elatus,  et 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


693 


any  of  the  ancient  lyrics,  in  the  greatness  of  its 
composure  and  historical  truth.  Savaro  says,  in  his 
notes  upon  the  place,  that  it  is  the  same  which  is 
now  in  the  Roman  Breviary,  and  because  it  answers 
the  character  which  Sidonius  gives  it,  and  has  none 
of  the  superstition  of  a  modern  composure  in  it, 
(such  as  the  Vexilla  Regis,  fathered  upon  St.  Am- 
brose,) I  think  it  not  improper  to  transcribe  in  the 
margin  here,'-  for  the  use  of  the  learned  reader. 
And  say  further,  that  if  every  thing  in  the  Roman 
Breviary  had  been  in  this  strain,  it  had  much  more 
resembled  the  piety  and  simplicity  of  the  ancient 
hymns,  and  been  free  from  those  marks  of  supersti- 
tion and  idolatry,  which  now  it  labours  under,  by 
mixing  the  follies  of  the  modern  superstitious  ad- 
mirers of  the  worship  of  the  Virgin  Mary  and  the 
cross,  which  were  so  great  a  deviation  from  the 
ancient  worship,  and  stood  so  much  in  need  of  re- 
formation. There  were  many  other  hymns  for  the 
use  of  particular  churches,  composed  by  learned 
men,  as  Nepos,  and  Athenogenes,  and  Ephrem  Syrus, 
not  to  mention  those  spoken  of  by  Pliny  and  Ter- 
tuUian,  and  frequently  by  Eusebius;  nor  those  which 
Paulus  Samosatensis  caused  in  his  anger  to  be  cast 
out  of  the  church  of  Antioch ;  nor  those  which 
Sozomen,''  says  were  made  upon  a  special  occasion, 
when  the  people  of  Antioch  had  incensed  Theodo- 
sius,  by  throwing  down  his  statues;  which  were 
both  sung  in  the  church,  and  before  Theodosius 
himself,  by  the  singing  boys,  as  he  sat  at  table.  Of 
all  which  we  have  no  further  account  but  only  the 
bare  mention  of  them  in  their  several  authors.  As 
for  those  composed  by  Gregory  Nazianzen,  Paulinus, 
Prudentius,  and  other  Christian  poets,  they  were  not 
designed  for  public  use  in  the  church,  but  only  to 
antidote  men  against  the  poison  of  heresies,  or  set 
forth  the  praises  of  the  martyrs,  or  recommend  the 
practice  of  virtue  in  a  private  way :  for  which  rea- 
son I  take  no  notice  of  them  in  this  place,  being 
only  concerned  to  give  an  account  of  such  hymns 
as  related  to  the  ancient  psalmody,  as  a  part  of  the 
public  service  of  the  church.  And  so  I  have  done 
with  the  first  part  of  their  worship  in  the  missa 
catechiimenorum,  or  service  of  the  catechumens. 


CHAPTER  III. 

OF  THE    MANNER  OF    READING    THE    SCRIPTURES    IV 
THE  PUBLIC    SERVICE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

Next  to  the  psalmody  and  hymns,  we 

are  to  take  a  view  of  their  way  of     lmsous''  of  tii» 

T  ,,        n       •     i  1   ■    1  Scripturesomctinies 

reading  the  Scriptures,  which  was  an-  mixed  .vith  p»ain.s 

.  and      hjiiiiis,     and 

other  part  of  the  service  oi  the  cate-  sunietinR-Brtadafttr 
chumens,  at  which  (as  has  been  ob- 
served before)  all  sorts  of  persons  were  allowed  to 
be  present  for  instruction.  Which  is  an  argument 
of  itself,  sufficient  (if  there  were  no  other)  to  prove, 
that  they  were  always  read  in  a  known  tongue :  of 
which  I  need  say  no  more  here,  because  it  has  been 
so  fully  evinced  by  great  variety  of  arguments  in  the 
last  Book.  What  we  are  now  to  observe  further, 
relates  to  the  manner  and  circumstances  of  this 
service.  Where,  first  of  all,  it  is  proper  to  remark, 
that  though  many  times  the  psalms,  and  lessons, 
and  hymns  were  so  intermixed,  (as  now  they  are 
in  our  liturgy,)  that  it  is  hard  to  tell  which  came  first 
in  order,  or  with  which  the  service  began ;  yet  in 
some  places  it  was  plainly  otherwise ;  for  the  psalms 
were  first  sung  all  together,  only  with  short  prayers 
between  them,  and  then  the  lessons  were  read  by 
themselves,  to  such  a  number  as  the  rules  of  every 
church  appointed.  Of  which  I  have  given  suffi- 
cient proof  out  of  Cassian  and  St.  Jerom,  in  the 
beginning  of  the  last  chapter,  which  may  supersede 
all  further  confirmation  in  this  place. 
The  next  thing  worthy  of  our  ob- 
servation, is  the  number  of  the  lessons.     The'  ks^is  rend 

...  ,  ,  -,     both  out  of  the  Old 

which  were  always  two  at  least,  and  and    New  Testa- 
ment, except  in  the 

sometimes  three  or  four,  and  those  <^'|"'''-''  f  Rome, 

wjiere  only   Epistle 

partly  out  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  ^^^  ^°^i"'^  ""^ 
partly  out  of  the  New.  Only  the  church 
of  Rome  seems  to  have  been  a  little  singular  in  this 
matter;  for,  as  Bishop  Stillingfleet'  observes  out  of 
Walafridus  Strabo^  and  others  of  her  old  ritualists, 
for  400  years,  till  the  time  of  Pope  Celestine,  they 
had  neither  psalms  nor  lessons  out  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament read  before  the  sacrifice,  but  only  Epistle 
and  Gospel.     In  other  churches  they  had  lessons 


quoslibet  lyricos  dithyrambos  amoenitate  poetica  et  histo- 
tica  veritate  supereminet. 

"-  Breviar.  Rom.  Dominica  5.  Quadragesimee,  sive  in  Pas- 
sione  Domini  ad  Matutinum. 

Pange  lingua  gloriosi  Morsu  in  mortem  corruit, 

Praclium  certaminis,  Ipse  lignum  tunc  notavit, 

Et  super  crucis  trophaeum       Damna  ligni  ut  solveret. 

Die  triumphum  nobilem,  u  »  i     ■ 

„     ,.         ^,  ,  .'  Hoc  opus  nostraj  salutis 

Uuaiiter  redemptor  orbis  <~v  j     i 

,  ,  .     ^.  Urdo  depoposcerat, 

Immolatus  vicerit.  »,   ,.•,.  j.^ 

Multitormis  proditoris 

De  parentis  protoplasti        Ars  ut  artem  falleret, 

Fraude  factor  condolens,         Et  medelam  ferret  inde, 

Quando  pomi  noxialis  Hostis  unde  laeserat. 


Quando  venit  ergo  sacri 
Plenitudo  temporis, 
Missus  est  ab  arce  Patris 
Natus  orbis  conditor  : 
Ac  de  ventre  virginali 
Caro  factus  prodiit. 

Vagit  infans  inter  arcta 
Conditus  preesepia: 
Membra  pannis  involuta 


Virgo  mater  alligat; 

Et  raanus  pedesque  et  crura 

Stricta  cingit  fascia. 

Gloria  et  honor  Deo 
Usquequaque  altissimo, 
Una  Patri,  Filioque, 
Inclito  Paraclito, 
Cui  laus  est  et  potestas 
Per  a;terna  sajcula.    Amen. 


"'  Sozom.  lib.  7.  cap.  23. 

'  Stilling.  Orig.  Britan.  chap.  4.  p.  215. 

2  Strabo  de  Keb.  Eccl.  cap.  22. 


694 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIV. 


out  of  the  Old  Testament  as  well   as  the  New. 
Cassian'  says,  In  Egypt,  after  the  singing  of  the 
psalms,  they  had  two  lessons  read,  one  out  of  the 
Old  Testament,  and  the  other  out  of  the  New :  only 
on  Saturdays  and  Sundays,  and  the  fifty  days  of 
Pentecost,  they  were  both  out  of  the  New  Testament, 
one  out  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  or  the  Epistles, 
and  the  other  out  of  the  Gospels.     The  author  of 
the  Constitutions*  speaks  of  four  lessons,  two  out 
of  Moses  and  the  Prophets,  besides  the  Psalms,  and 
then  two  out  of  the  Epistles  or  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
and  the  Gospels.     Again,^  he  mentions  the  reading 
of  the  Prophets  on  S  unday s.    And  in  another  place," 
the  Law  and  the  Prophets,  the  Psalms  and  the  Gos- 
pels.    And,  again,  the  Law  and  the  Prophets,'  and 
the  Epistles,  and  the  Acts,  and  the  Gospels.     So 
Justin  Martyr,  describing  the  business  of  the  Chris- 
tian assemblies  on  the  Lord's  day,  speaks  of  the 
reading  of  the  writings  of  the  prophets,  as  well  as 
the  apostles.*    In  like  manner  Chrysostom,  reprov- 
ing some  who  were  veiy  negligent  at  church,  says,' 
Tell  me  what  prophet  was  read  to-day,  what  apostle  ? 
implying,  that  the  one  was  read  as  well  as  the  other. 
Particularly  he  tells  us,  that  the  Book  of  Genesis 
was  always  read  in  Lent,  of  which  more  by  and  by, 
in  the  following  observation.     St.  Basil,  in  one  of 
his  homilies '°  upon  baptism  in  Lent,  takes  notice 
of  the  several  lessons  that  were  read  that  day,  be- 
sides the  psalms,  whereof  one  was  out  of  the  1st  of 
Isaiah,  the  second  out  of  Acts  ii.,  and  the  third  out 
of  Matthew  xi.     And  in  another  homily  "  he  speaks 
of  the  Psalms  and  Proverbs,  and  Epistles  and  Gos- 
pels, as  read  that  day.     Maximus  Taurinensis,  in 
one  of  his  homilies  upon  the  Epiphany,'^  says,  The 
lessons  were  out  of  Isaiah  Ix.,  Matt,  ii.,  and  John 
i.,  for  that  festival.      St.  Austin  sometimes  only 
mentions  Epistle  and  Gospel.     But  in  other  places 
he  expressly  mentions  "  the  reading  of  the  Prophets, 
and  particularly  mentions  the  prophet  Micah,  and 
those  words  of  the  6th  chapter,  "  What  doth  the 
Lord  require  of  thee,  but  to  do  justly,  to  love  mercy, 
and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God;"  which  were 
the  theme  for  his  discourse  upon  the  lesson  for  the 
day.     In  the  French  churches  there  is  still  more 
evidence  for  this  practice :  for  Cssarius  Arelaten- 
sis,"  in  one  of  his  homilies,  cited  by  Mabillon,  uses 


this  argument  to  the  people,  why  they  should  stay 
the  whole  time  of  Divine  service,  because  the  lessons 
were  not  so  properly  called  missa  or  Divine  service, 
as  was  the  oblation  or  consecration  of  the  body  and 
blood  of  Christ ;  for  they  might  read  at  home,  or 
hear  others  read  the  lessons,  whether  out  of  the 
prophets,  or  apostles,  or  evangelists ;  but  they  could 
not  hear  or  see  the  consecration  any  where  else  but 
only  in  the  house  of  God.     Where  it  is  plainly  im- 
plied, that  the  lessons  were  then  read  in  the  church 
as  well  out  of  the  Prophets,  as  the  Epistles  and  Gos- 
pels.    And  so  in  the  relation  of  the  conference  be- 
tween the  catholics  and  Arians  in  the  time  of  Gun- 
dobadus,  king  of  Burgundy,  which  we  have  had 
occasion  to  mention  before  '^  out  of  the  same  learned 
writer,  it  is  said,  that  in  the  vigil  held  the  night 
before  the  conference,  four  lessons  were  read,  one 
out  of  Moses,  another  out  of  the  prophet  Esaias,  a 
third  out  of  the  Gospel,  and  the  last  out  of  the 
Epistles.    And  in  the  old  Lectionarium  Gallicanum, 
published  by  Mabillon,  there  is  always  a  lesson  out 
of  the  Old  Testament  before  the  Epistle  and  Gospel ; 
and  on  the  sahhatum  sanctum,  or  Saturday  before 
Easter,'^  there  are  no  less  than  twelve  lessons  ap- 
pointed out  of  Genesis,  Exodus,  Joshua,  Isaiah, 
Ezekiel,  Daniel,  and  Jonah,  beside  the  Epistle  and 
Gospel  which  follow  after.     It  further  appears  from 
the  canons  of  the  council  of  Laodicea,"  and  the 
third  council  of  Cai'thage,'*  and  St.  Cyril's  Cate- 
chetical Discourses,"  that  all  the  books  of  the  Old 
Testament  were  then  read  in  the  church,  as  well  as 
the  New.     For  they  give  us  catalogues  of  what 
books  might  or  might  not  be  read  in  the  church, 
among  which  all  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament 
are  specified  as  such  as  were  then  actually  read  in 
the  public  service ;  and  Cyril  allows  his  catechu- 
mens to  read  no  other  books  in  private  but  the 
books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  which  he 
thought  they  might  safely  read,  because  they  were 
both  publicly  read  in  the  church. 

The  next  observation  to  be  made  is,         s^^.f  3 
upon  their  method  of   reading  the  cert;T."tire?\nl 
Scriptures,  which  seems  always  to  be 
done  by  some  rule,  though  this  might  vary  in  differ- 
ent churches.  St.  Austin  tells  us^"  there  were  some 
lessons  so  fixed  and  appropriated  to  certain  times 


'  Cassian.  Instit.  lib.  2.  cap.  6.       ■*  Constit.  lib.  2.  cap.  57. 

'^  Idem,  lib.  2.  cap.  59.  "  Idem,  lib.  5.  cap.  19. 

'  Idem,  lib.  8.  cap.  5.  "  Justin.  Apol.  2.  p.  98. 

^  Chrys.  Horn.  24.  in  Rom.  p.  270.  Horn.  3.  de  David  et 
Saul.  t.  2.  p.  It>37. 

'»  Basil.  Horn.  13.  de  Bapt.  t.  1.  p.  409. 

"  Ibid.  Horn.  21.  in  Lacizis,  p.  4G0. 

'-  Maxim.  Taurin.  Hom.  4.  in  Epiphan. 

'3  Aug.  Hom.  237.  de  Temp.  p.  3&4. 

•^  Cajsar.  Arelat.  De  non  recedendo  ab  Ecclesia,  &c.  ap. 
Mabillon.  de  Liturg.  Gallic,  lib.  1.  cap.  4.  n.  4.  Nnn  tunc 
fiunt  misspe,  quando  divinae  lectiones  in  ecclesia  recitantur, 
sed  quando  munera  offeruntur,  et  corpus  vol  sanguis  Domini 


consecratur:  nam  lectiones,  sive  propheticas,  sive  apostoli- 
cas,  sive  evangelicas,  etiam  in  domibus  vestris  aut  ipsi 
legore,  aut  alios  legentes  audire  potestis  ;  consecrationera 
vero  corporis  et  sanguinis  Domini  non  alibi,  nisi  in  domo 
Dei,  audire  vel  videre  poteritis. 

'5  Book  XIV.  chap.  I.  sect.  2. 

'"  Lectionar.  Gallican.  ap.  Mabillon.  de  Liturg.  Gallic, 
lib.  2.  p.  138. 

''  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  59  et  60. 

"*  Cone.  Carth.  3.  can.  47. 

'■'  Cyril.  Catech.  4.  n.  22.  p.  67. 

'•^"  Aug.  Expos,  in  I  Joan,  in  Praefat.  t.  9.  p.  235.  Inter- 
posita  est  solennitas  sanctorum  dierum,  quibus  certas  e% 


Chap.  III. 


i\NTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


693 


and  seasons,  that  no  others  might  be  read  in  their 
stead.  And  he  particnlarly  instances  in  the  festival 
of  Easter,  when  for  four  days  successively  the  his- 
tory of  Christ's  resurrection-'  was  read  out  of  the 
four  Gospels.  On  the  day  of  his  passion  "  they  read 
the  history  of  his  sufferings  out  of  St.  Matthew's 
Gospel  only.  And  all  the  time  between  Easter  and 
Pentecost,^  he  says,  they  read  the  Acts  of  the  Apos- 
tles. This  last  particular  is  frequently  mentioned 
by  St.  Chrysostom,  who  has  a  whole  sermon  to  give 
an  account  of  the  reasons  of  it.  There  he  takes 
notice  of  many  things  together  relating  to  this  matter 
of  reading  the  lessons  by  rule  and  order.  First,  he 
tell  us-*  how,  by  the  appointment  of  the  church,  on 
the  day  of  our  Saviour's  passion  all  such  Scriptures 
were  read,  as  had  any  relation  to  the  cross ;  then 
how,  on  the  great  sabbath,  or  Saturday  before  Easter, 
they  read  all  such  portions  of  Scripture  as  contained 
the  history  of  his  being  betrayed,  crucified,  dead,  and 
buried.  He  adds  also,^  that  on  Easier  day  they 
read  such  passages  as  gave  an  account  of  his  resur- 
rection ;  and  on  every  festival,  the  things  that  re- 
lated to  that  festival.  But  it  seemed  a  difficulty, 
why  then  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  which  contain 
the  history  of  their  mira.cles  done  after  Pentecost, 
should  not  rather  be  read  after  Pentecost,  than  be- 
fore it  ?  To  this  he  answers.  That  the  miracles  of 
the  apostles,  contained  in  that  book,  were  the  great 
demonstration  of  our  Saviour's  resurrection :  and 
therefore  the  church  appointed  that  book  to  be  read 
always  between  Easter  and  Pentecost,  immediately 
after  om-  Saviour's  resurrection,  to  give  men  the 
e%'idences  and  proofs  of  that  holy  mystery,  which 
was  the  completion  of  their  redemption.  So  that 
though  the  lessons  for  other  festivals  related  the 
things  that  were  done  at  those  festivals  ;  yet,  for  a 
particular  reason,  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  which 
contained  the  history  of  things  done  after  Pentecost, 
were  read  before  Pentecost,  because  they  were  more 
proper  for  the  time  immediately  following  our  Sa- 
viour's resurrection.  And  upon  this  account  it  be- 
came a  general  rule  over  the  whole  church,  to  read 
the  Acts  at  this  time,  as  not  only  Chrysostom  testi- 
fies here,  but  in  many  other  places  of  his  writings. 
In  his  homily  upon  those  words,  "  Saul  yet  breath- 
ing out  threatenings  and  slaughter  against  the  disci- 
ples," Acts  ix.,  he  gives  this  reason  why  he  could 


not  preach  in  order  upon  every  part  of  that  book,^ 
because  the  law  of  the  church  commanded  it  to  be 
laid  aside  after  Pentecost,  and  the  reading  of  it  to 
conclude  with  the  end  of  the  present  festival.  In 
another  place"  he  says,  it  was  appointed  by  law  to 
be  read  on  that  festival,  and  not  usually  read  in  any 
other  part  of  the  year.  And  in  another  place^  he 
gives  this  reason  why  he  broke  off  his  sermons  upon 
Genesis  in  the  Passion  Week,  because  the  interven- 
tion of  other  solemnities  obliged  him  to  preach  then 
upon  other  subjects,  agreeable  to  what  was  read  in 
the  church,  as  against  the  traitor  Judas,  and  upon 
the  passion,  and  our  Saviour's  resurrection,  at  which 
time  he  took  in  hand  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and 
preached  upon  them  from  Easter  to  Pentecost.  Cas- 
sian^  says,  the  same  order  was  observed  among  the 
Egj-ptians :  and  it  appears  from  the  ancient  Lec- 
tionarium  Gallicanum,  that  it  was  so  in  the  French 
churches :  for  there  almost  on  every  day  between  Eas- 
ter and  Pentecost,  except  the  rogation  days,  and  some 
few  others,  two  lessons  are  ordered  to  be  read  out  of 
the  x\pocalypse  and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  Whence 
it  may  be  concluded  further,  that  the  reading  of 
the  Apocalypse  was  also  in  a  great  measure  ap- 
propriated to  this  season  in  the  Galilean  church. 
And  so  it  was  in  the  Spanish  churches,  by  an  order 
of  the  fourth  council  of  Toledo,  which  enjoins  the 
reading  of  it*"  in  this  interval  under  pain  of  excom- 
munication. In  Lent  they  usually  read  the  Book 
of  Genesis,  as  is  plain  from  Chrysostom,  whose  fa- 
mous homilies  called  av^piavng,  because  they  are 
abovit  the  statues  of  the  emperor,  which  the  people 
of  Antioch  had  seditiously  thrown  down,  were 
preached  in  Lent :  and  in  one  of  these"  he  says,  he 
would  preach  upon  the  Book  that  had  been  read 
that  day,  which  was  the  Book  of  Genesis,  and  the 
first  words,  "  In  the  beginning  God  created  heaven 
and  earth,"  were  the  subject  of  his  discourse.  In 
another  sermon,^  preached  upon  the  same  test  in 
the  beginning  of  Lent,  he  says,  the  words  had  been 
read  in  the  lesson  that  day.  And  for  this  very  rea- 
son he  preached  two  whole  Lents  upon  the  Book  of 
Genesis,  because  it  was  then  read  of  com-se  in  the 
church.  For  the  first  thirty-two  of  those  homilies 
were  preached  at  Constantinople  in  Lent,  in  the 
third  year  after  he  was  made  bishop,  anno  400,  or 
401 ;  but  the  festivals  of  the  Passion,  and  Easter, 


evangelio  lectiones  oportet  in  eeclesia  recitari,  quae  ita  sunt 
annuae,  ut  aliae  esse  non  possint. 

2'  Vid.  Aug.  Serm.  139,  140,  141,  144,  148.  de  Tempore. 
Item,  Chrys.  Horn.  88.  in  Mat.  p.  731. 

"  Aug.  Serm.  143.  de  Tempore,  p.  320. 

» Aug.  Tract.  6.  in  Joan.  t.  9.  p.  24.  et  Horn.  83.  de 
Diversis. 

^'  Chrys.  Horn.  G3.  Cur  in  Pentccoste  Acta  legantur,  t.  5. 
p.  919. 

^Ibid.  p.  951. 

-*  Ibid.  47.  t.  5.  p.  637.  Tfi>i;  iraTipwv  6  vofxo^  KiKiva 
utTii  T)/i/  T\.tvri.KO(nj]v  diroTi^ia^ai  to  PijiXiov,  &c. 


^  Ibid.  48.  iu  Inscriptionem  Altaris,  Act.  17.  t.  5.  p.  650. 
T);  iopTtj  Tayx;7  vtvofxo6t.Ti]Te.L  auTo  dvayivwaKtadai,  &c. 

■■»  Ibid".  .33.  in  Gen.  p.  478. 

-'  Cassian.  Instit.  lib.  2.  cap.  6. 

^  Cone.  Tolet.  4.  can.  IG.  Si  quis  Apocalypsin  a  I'ascha 
usque  ad  Pentecostcn  missarum  tempore  in  eeclesia  non 
praedicaverit,  excommunicationis  sententiam  habebit. 

3'  Cbrvs.  Horn.  7.  ad  Pop.  Antioch.  t.  1.  p.  107.  To  (r.i- 
/xtpov  v/up  avayvuxjdtv  ixiTayiipiKjiai  fiiftXiov. 

'-  Serm.,  1.  in  Gen.  i.  t.  2.  p.  880.  TauTa  yap  vfuv  nvt- 
yixurrfli)  avfiepov.  Vid.  Chrvs.  Horn.  6.  de  Paniitentia  in 
Edit.  Latinis. 


696 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIV. 


and  Pentecost  coming  on,  this  subject  was  inter- 
rupted, and  he  preached  on  other  subjects,  as  he 
himselP'  tells  us,  suitable  to  those  occasions.  Af- 
terward he  resumed  his  former  work,  and  finished 
his  Comment  upon  Genesis  in  thirty-two  sermons 
more  in  the  year  ensuing.  Which  makes  it  plain, 
that  Genesis  was  then  read  in  Lent,  as  the  Acts  were 
in  Pentecost,  and  that  Chrysostom  conformed  his 
discourses  according  to  the  order  of  reading  then 
established  in  the  church.  It  appears  further  from 
St.  Ambrose,  that  the  Book  of  Job  and  Jonah  were 
both  read  in  the  Passion  Week.  For  speaking  of  a 
sermon  which  he  made  to  the  people  at  this  time, 
he  says,'*  Ye  have  heard,  children,  the  Book  of  Job 
read,  which  is  in  course  appointed  to  be  read  at  this 
time.  And  '^  again,  says  he,  the  Book  of  Jonah  was 
read.  That  is,  as  Pagi^'*  critically  remarks,  on  the 
third  day  of  the  Passion  Week.  And  that  this  was 
an  ancient  rule  of  the  church,  appears  from  Origen's 
Comment  upon  Job,  which,  St.  Jerom"  says,  St. 
Hilary  translated  into  Latin.  For  there  ^  he  not 
only  tells  us,  that  the  Book  of  Job  was  read  in  the 
church  in  Passion  Week,  but  also  gives  us  the  rea- 
son of  it,  because  it  was  a  time  of  fasting  and  ab- 
stinence, a  time  in  which  they  that  fasted  and 
abstained  had,  as  it  were,  a  sort  of  fellow  suffering 
with  admirable  Job,  a  time  in  which  men  by  fasting 
and  abstinence  followed  after  the  passion  of  Christ 
Jesus  our  Lord :  and  because  the  passion  of  Job 
was  in  a  great  measure  a  type  and  example  of 
the  passion  and  resurrection  of  Christ,  therefore 
the  history  of  Job's  passion  was  with  good  rea- 
son read  and  meditated  upon  in  these  days  of 
passion,  these  days  of  sanctification,  these  days 
of  fasting.  Thus  far  Origen:  but  in  the'"  Lec- 
tionarium  Gallicanum  there  is  no  mention  of  the 
Book  of  Job,  but  only  of  Jonah  on  the  sahbatum 
magnum,  or  Saturday  before  Easter  day.*"  St.  Je- 
rom  seems  to  say,  that  the  prophet  Hosea  was  also 
read  on  the  vigil  of  our  Saviour's  passion.  For  he 
mentions  a  long  discourse  of  Pierius,  which  he  had 
read,  made  by  that  martyr  on  the  beginning  of  that 
book,  in  an  elegant  but  extemporary  style,  on  the 
vigil  before  the  Passion.  St.  Chrysostom,*'  in  one 
of  his  homilies  upon  the  Gospel  of  St.  John,  which 


he  was  then  expounding,  advises  his  auditors  to  read 
at  home,  in  the  week  days  before,  such  portions  of 
the  Gospel  as  they  knew  were  to  be  read  and  ex- 
pounded on  the  Lord's  day  following  in  the  church. 
Which  implies  some  certain  rule  and  order.  So 
that  though  we  have  not  any  complete  Lectionarium, 
or  calendar  of  lessons,  now  remaining,  yet  we  are 
sure  their  reading  of  Scripture  was  some  way  me- 
thodized and  brought  under  rule,  especially  for  the 
gi'eater  solemnities  and  festivals  of  the  church.  The 
first  calendar  of  this  kind  is  thought  by  some  to  be 
Hippolytus's  Canon  Paschalis,  which,  as  I  have 
showed  before,*-  no  less  men  than  Scaliger  and  Go- 
thofred  take  to  be  a  rule  appointing  lessons  proper 
for  the  festivals.  But  Bucherius  and  others  give 
another  account  of  it,  which  leaves  the  matter  un- 
certain. There  goes  also  under  the  name  of  St, 
Jerora,  a  book  called  his  Comes  or  Lectionarium  ; 
but  critics  of  the  best  rank*'  reckon  this  a  counter- 
feit, and  the  work  of  a  much  later  writer,  because  it 
mentions  lessons  out  of  the  prophets  and  Old  Tes- 
tament, whereas  in  St.  Jerom's  time,  as  we  have 
noted  before,  there  were  no  lessons  read  besides 
Epistles  and  Gospels  in  the  church  of  Rome.  How- 
ever, some  time  after  there  were  several  books  of  this 
kind  composed  for  the  use  of  the  French  churches. 
Sidonius  Apollinaris**  says,  Claudianus  Mamercus 
made  one  for  the  church  of  Vienna,  anno  450.  And 
Gennadius*'^  says,  Musteus  made  another  for  the 
church  of  Marseilles,  about  the  year  458.  But  both 
these  are  now  lost,  and  the  oldest  of  this  kind  is  the 
Lectionarium  Gallicanum,  which  Mabillon  lately 
published  from  a  manuscript,  which  he  judges  by 
the  hand  to  be  above  a  thousand  years  old,  but  wrote 
after  the  time  of  Gregory  the  Great,  because  it  men- 
tions the  festival  of  Genovefa,*^  who  is  supposed  to 
live  after  his  time.  But  though  we  have  no  more 
ancient  calendar  now  remaining,  yet  the  authorities 
alleged  before  do  indisputably  evince  the  thing  itself, 
that  the  lessons  of  Scripture  were  generally  appro- 
priated to  times  and  seasons,  according  as  the  fes- 
tivals required  :  and  for  the  rest,  they  were  either 
read  in  order  as  they  lie  in  the  Bible,  as  Mabillon*' 
shows  from  the  Rulfes  of  Csesarius  and  Aurelian  ;  or 
else  were  arbitrarily  appointed  by  the  bishops  at 


^  Chrys.  Horn.  33.  in  Gen.  p.  480.  Vid.  Severiani  Gaba- 
lensis,  Horn.  1.  in  Gen.  ap.  Combefis.  Auctar.  Noviss.  p. 
214.     Et  Aug.  Serm.  71.  de  Temp. 

^'  Ambros.  Ep.  33.  ad  Marcellin.  Soror.  p.  IGO.  Audistis, 
filii,  librum  legi  Job,  qui  solenni  et  munere  est  decursus  et 
tempore. 

^^  Ibid.  p.  162.  Seqiicnti  die  lectus  est  de  more  liber  Jon<x>. 

'^  Pagi,  Critic,  in  Baron,  an.  387.  n.  4. 

*'  Hieron.  cont.  Vigilant. 

38  Origen  in  Job,  lib.  ].  p.  366.  In  conventu  ecclesia;  in 
(liebns  Sanctis  legitur  Passio  Job,  in  dicbus  jejunii,  in  die- 
bus  abstinentias,  &c. 

^-'Lectionar.  Gallic,  ap.  Mabillon.  de  Litiirg.  Gallic,  p.  139. 

'"'  Hieron.  Procem.  in  Hoseam,  ad  Pammach.  Pierii  quo- 


que  legi  tractatum  longissimum,  quern  in  exordio  hiijus  pro- 
pheta;  die  vigiliarum  Dominicae  passionis  e.Ktemporali  et 
diserto  sermone  prof'udit. 

■"  Chrys.  Horn.  10.  in  Joan.  al.  II.  edit.  Savil.  p.  597. 

'-'  Book  XIII.  chap.  5.  sect.  6. 

"•'  Vid.  Stilling.  Orig.  Britan.  chap.  4.  p.  229.  et  Cave, 
Hist.  Literar.  vol.  I.  p.  225. 

**  Sidon.  lib.  4.  Ep.  II.  Hie  solennibus  annuis  paravit, 
quoe  quo  tempore  lecta  convenirent. 

■•^  (jennad.  de  Scriptor.  cap.  79.  Excerpsit  de  Scripturis 
lectiones  totius  anni  festivis  diebus  aptas  ;  respousoria 
psalmorum  capitula  tempoiibus  et  lectiouibus  congruentia. 

^''  Lectionar.  Gallic,  ap.  Mabil.  p.  114. 

"  Mabil.  de  Cursu  Gallicano,  p.  406. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


697 


discretion,  as  sometimes  particular  psalms  were 
upon  emergent  occasions,  according  to  the  'observa- 
tion that  has  been  made^'  in  speaking  of  that  sub- 
ject. St.  Austin  says  expressly,^"  he  sometimes 
ordered  a  lesson  to  be  read  agreeable  to  the  subject 
of  the  psalm  upon  which  he  was  preaching.  And 
Ferrarius^"  gives  several  other  instances,  both  out  of 
St.  Austin''  and  Chrysologus,'-  to  the  same  purpose, 
which  need  not  here  be  repeated. 

The  next  question  may  be  concern- 
By  whom  the       inff  thc  Dcrsons  by  whom  the  Scrip- 

Scriptures  were  an-         ^  ^         ■,,.i  -,  ■        i         i  i 

rientiy  read  in  the  turcs  wcrc  publicly  read  m  the  church. 
Which  is  a  question  that  has  been  in 
some  measure  answered  before,  in  speaking  of  the 
order  of  readers.^'  Where  I  showed,  that  for  the 
two  first  centuries,  before  the  order  of  readers  was 
instituted,  it  is  probable  the  Scriptures  were  read 
by  the  deacons,  or  else  in  imitation  of  the  Jewish 
church,  by  such  as  the  bishop  or  president  for  that 
time  appointed.  But  in  the  time  of  St.  Cyprian,  it 
was  the  pecuhar  office  of  the  readers,  which  were 
become  an  inferior  order  of  the  clergy,  to  read  all 
the  lessons  of  Scripture,  and  even  the  Gospel,  as 
well  as  other  parts,  as  appears  from  several'*  of  Cy- 
prian's epistles.  Here  I  must  add,  that  in  after 
ages  the  reading  of  the  Gospel  was  in  some  churches 
confined  to  the  office  of  the  deacons  and  presbyters. 
For  so  the  author  of  the  Constitutions''  words  it: 
After  the  other  lessons  are  read  by  the  readers,  let  a 
deacon  or  a  presbyter  read  the  Gospels.  And  so 
St.  Jerom  reminds  Sabinianus'^  the  deacon,  how  he 
had  read  the  Gospels  in  the  church.  And  Socrates" 
notes  the  same  of  Sabbatius,  a  presbyter  in  the  No- 
vatian  church.  Sozomen  says,"  At  Alexandria  the 
Gospel  was  read  only  by  the  archdeacon ;  in  other 
places,  by  the  deacons ;  in  others,  only  by  the  pres- 
byters, and  on  the  greater  festivals  by  the  bishop, 
as  at  Constantinople  on  Easter  da3^  In  the  French 
churches,  it  was  the  ordinary  office  of  deacons,  as 
appears  from  that  canon  of  the  council  of  Vaison, 
which  says,'"  That  if  the  presbyter  was  sick,  the 
deacon  might  read  a  homily,  giving  this  reason  for 
it,  that  they  who  were  thought  worthy  to  read  the 
Gospels  of  Christ,  were  not  unworthy  to  read  the 
expositions  of  the  holy  fathers.  Yet  in  the  Spanish 
churches  the  ancient  custom  continued,  that  the 


readers  read  the  Gospel  as  well  as  other  lessons. 
Which  may  be  collected  from  that  canon  of  the  first 
council  of  Toledo,**  which  allows  no  one  that  had 
done  public  penance,  ever  to  be  ordained,  unless  it 
were  to  the  office  of  a  reader,  in  case  of  great  neces- 
sity, and  then  he  should  read  neither  the  Epistle 
nor  the  Gospel.  Which  implies,  that  other  readers, 
who  were  never  under  penance,  read  both  thc  Gos- 
pel and  all  other  lessons,  as  Albaspintcus "  in  his 
notes  rightly  observes  upon  it. 

But  in  one  thing  that  learned  per- 
son seems  to  be  mistaken,  when  he     wheoferthe 

,         „  _.  c  .1        r'  1     J'T's'le   and  Gospel 

supposes  that^-  rcadm<ir  of  the  Gospel  were  read  twice,  first 

,  I  .  ,  to  tliecateclmmens, 

to  have  been  in  the  communion  ser- 
vice. For  anciently  the  Scriptures, 
and  even  the  Gospel  itself,  were  only  read  in  the 
service  of  the  catechumens.  Cardinal  Bona®  in- 
deed says,  the  ancient  custom  was  to  read  the  Gos- 
pel only  to  the  faithful,  and  that  the  council  of 
Orange  in  France,"''  and  the  council  of  Valentia  in 
Spain,*"  were  the  first  that  ordered  it  otherwise. 
But  nothing  is  plainer,  than  that  the  reading  of  the 
Gospel  was  always  before  the  sermon,  and  the  ser- 
mon was  always  before  the  communion  service  be- 
gan, in  the  presence  of  the  catechumens,  and  before 
their  dismission,  ordinaril}^,  being  designed  chiefly 
for  their  instruction.  Therefore,  though  some  ill 
custom  might  have  crept  into  the  churches  of 
France  and  Spain,  excluding  the  catechumens  from 
hearing  the  Gospel  and  the  sermon,  which  those 
councils  endeavoured  to  correct ;  yet  that  is  far 
from  proving  it  to  be  the  ancient  custom,  to  confine 
the  hearing  of  the  Gospel  to  the  faithful  only :  and 
a  man  cannot  look  into  the  homilies  of  St.  Austin, 
or  St.  Chrysostom,  but  he  will  find  this  mistake  every 
where  confuted.  For  they  always  speak  of  reading 
the  Gospel  before  the  homily,  and  the  homily  made 
in  the  presence  of  the  catechumens :  and  the  contrary 
supposition  is  merely  owing  to  a  common  prejudice 
and  conceit,  that  the  ancient  service  was  in  all  things 
like  the  modern,  where  the  Gospel  is  twice  read,  first 
among  the  lessons,  and  then  with  the  Epistle,  by 
itself  in  the  communion  service ;  whereas  anciently 
they  were  both  read  in  the  ordinary  course  of  the 
lessons,  in  that  part  of  the  service  only,  which  was 
properly  called  the  service  of  the  catechumens. 


*8  Book  XIV.  chap.  1.  sect.  6. 

■"  Aug.  in  Psal.  xe.  Ser.  2.  p.  412.  Propterea  fecimus 
ipsam  lectionem  Evangelii  recitari,  ubi  Domiuus  teutatus 
est,  per  ea  verba  psalmi  quae  hie  audistis. 

^t"  Ferrar.  de  Ritu  Concionum,  lib.  I.  cap.  17. 

"'  Aug.  Ser.  2.3.  de  Verbis  Domini.  Ser.  121.  de  Diversis. 
Tract.  12.  in  Joan. 

"  Chrysolog.  Ser.  6G  et  118.  ■"  Book  III.  chap.  5. 

^  Cypr.  Ep.  34.  al.  39.  Ep.  .38.      ^^  Constit.  lib.  2.  cap.  57. 

^  Hieron.  Ep.  48.  ad  Sabinian.  Evangelium  Christi  quasi 
(liacnnus  lectitabas. 

"  Socrat.  lib.  7.  cap.  5.  ^^  Sozom.  lib.  7.  cap.  19. 

''  Cone.  Vasens.  2.  can.  2.     Si  enim  digni  sunt  diaconi, 


quae  Christus  in  Evangelic  locutus  est,  legere,  quare  indigni 
judicentur  sanctorum  patrum  expositiones  publice  recitare? 

""  Cone.  Tolet.  I.  can.  2.  Pcenitentes  non  admittantur 
ad  clerum,  nisi  tantum  si  necessitas  aut  usus  e.xegerit,  et 
tunc  inter  lectores  deputentur,  ita  ut  Evangelia  aut  Aposto- 
lum  non  legant.  Vid.  can.  4.  ibid. 

"'  Albaspin.  Not.  in  Cone.  Tol.  1.  can.  2.  Liquido  px 
his  constat  lectores  non  Evangelium  tantum,  sed  et  lectiones 
pronunciasse. 

"-  Albaspin.  Not.  in  Can.  4.  Cone.  Carthag.  .3. 

•^  Bona,  Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  2.  cap.  7.  n.  1. 

"'  Cone.  Arausican.  1.  can.  18. 

"'  Cone.  Valentin,  can.  1. 


698 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIV. 


The  next  thing  worthy  our  observa- 

The  solemnity  and  tion,  is  the  solemnitv  and  ceremony- 
ceremonies  of  read-       .11.11  .  •         I 

iiig  the  lessons.        With  which  thc  ancicHts  appointed 

Where   fii-st   of  the  ^ '■ 

salutation.  Pax  lo-  thc  Scriptures  to  be  Tcad.  The  reader, 

I'tSf  belore  readmg.  ^  ' 

before  he  began  to  read,  was  com- 
monly used  to  say,  Pax  vobis,  Peace  be  wdth  you, 
which  was  the  usual  form  of  salutation  at  the  en- 
trance of  all  offices  in  the  church.  St.  Cyprian*" 
plainly  alludes  to  this,  when,  speaking  of  a  new 
reader  whom  he  had  ordained  to  the  office  the  Lord's 
day  before,  he  says,  Aiispicatus  est pacem,  dmn  dedi- 
cat  lectionem,  He  began  to  use  the  salutation,  Peace 
be  with  you,  when  he  first  began  to  read.  I  know 
none  of  the  commentators  that  take  notice  of  this 
custom  in  Cyprian,  or  make  any  remark  upon  the 
phrase ;  but  this  is  evidently  the  sense  of  it,  and  so 
the  learned  Albaspinajus  *"  understands  it.  This 
custom  seems  to  have  continued  in  Africa  till  the 
third  council  of  Carthage*®  made  an  order  to  the 
contrary,  that  the  reader  should  no  longer  salute  the 
people.  This  form  of  salutation.  Peace  be  with  you, 
to  which  the  people  usually  answered,  And  with 
thy  Spirit,  was  commonly  the  office  of  a  bishop,  or 
presbyter,  or  deacon,  in  the  performance  of  their 
several  functions  in  the  church,  as  is  noted  by 
Chrysostom,*'  in  many  places :  and,  therefore,  this 
council  took  away  this  power  from  the  readers,  and 
put  it  into  the  hands  of  the  deacons  or  the  other 
superior  ministers  of  the  church.  So  that,  as  the 
reader  had  used  to  say  before  reading,  Peace  be  with 
you,  this  canon  only  ordered  that  it  should  be  said 
by  some  other  minister.  For  that  it  was  used  either 
by  the  reader,  or  some  other  minister  before  he  be- 
gan to  read,  appears  from  St.  Austin,  who,  writing 
against  the  Donatists,  says,'"  nothing  could  be  more 
perverse  than  their  own  practice,  who,  before  the 
reader  began  to  read  the  Epistle,  said  to  him.  Peace 
be  with  thee,  and  yet  separated  from  the  peace  of 
those  churches  to  which  the  Epistles  were  written. 
g^^^  ,  St.  Austin,  in  another  place,  men- 

someUm?'s"usri"i,y  tious  the  blshop's  uslug  this  form  of 
IteVblfore  ™eTead'-  salutatlon  as  soou  as  he  came  into  the 
egan  o  rea .  cliurch,  immediately  before  the  reader 
began  to  read  the  lessons,  which  in  Africa,  in  those 
daj'^s,  was  the  first  part  of  the  service,  with  a  respon- 
sory  psalm  between  every  lesson.  I  went  to  church, 
says  he,"  I  saluted  the  people,  that  is,  said,  Peace 


be  unto  you ;  and  then,  silence  being  made,  the  so- 
lemn lessons  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  were  read  in 
order.  This  custom  of  saluting  the  people  in  this 
form  is  also  mentioned  by  Chrysostom,  in  several 
places.  When  we  are  come  into  the  church,'"  says 
he,  we  say  immediately,  Peace  be  unto  you,  accord- 
ing to  this  law,  and  ye  answer.  And  with  thy  spirit. 
Again,"  The  bishop,  at  his  entrance  into  the  church, 
says  always,  Peace  be  unto  you,  as  a  proper  saluta- 
tion when  he  comes  into  his  Father's  house.  And 
in  another  place,'*  When  the  bishop  enters  the 
church,  he  immediately  says,  Peace  be  with  you  all: 
when  he  begins  his  sermon,  he  says  again.  Peace  be 
with  you  all,  &c.  Now,  considering  that  this  was 
the  common  salutation  at  the  beginning  of  all  offices, 
and  that  the  Scriptures  began  to  be  read  as  soon  as 
the  bishop  came  into  the  church,  it  is  plain  that 
such  a  form  of  salutation  was  always  used  by  one 
or  other  before  the  reading  of  thc  Scriptures. 

St.  Chrysostom  takes  notice  of  two         sect.  s. 
other  customs  relating  to  this  matter,  joined  suence  before 

the    reader    ben:an, 

as  introductory  to  the  reading  and  and  required  atten- 

•^  ^  lion:  as  the  reader 

hearing  the  Scriptures  with  greater  also  did  before ^ery 

o  1  O  lesson,  saymg,  Thus 

advantage :  that  is,  the  deacon's  en-  ^^'^^  '''^  ^"''''• 
joining  silence,  and  requiring  attention,  and  the 
reader  himself,  after  the  naming  any  lesson,  say- 
ing, Thus  saith  the  Lord.  The  deacon,  says  he, 
who  is  the  common  minister  of  the  church,  first 
stands  up  and  cries  with  a  loud  voice,"  ITpoo'xw/tfj', 
Let  us  give  attention :  this  he  repeats  several  times, 
and  after  that  the  reader  names  the  prophet,  Isaiah, 
suppose,  or  any  other ;  and  before  he  begins  to  read, 
he  also  cries  aloud,  Jah  \kyii  Kvptof,  Thus  saith  the 
Lord.  So,  again,  in  another  place,'"  When  the  reader 
rises  up  and  says.  Thus  saith  the  Lord ;  and  the  dea- 
con stands  up,  and  commands  all  men  to  keep  si- 
lence, he  does  not  say  this  to  honour  the  reader, 
but  God,  who  speaks  to  all  by  him.  This  enjoining 
of  silence  is  spoken  of  by  St.  Ambrose"  and  others; 
but  it  differed  from  another  act  of  the  deacon's  un- 
der the  same  name,  Silentimn  indicere,  which  was 
calling  upon  the  people  to  fall  to  their  private  pray- 
ers, of  which  we  shall  have  occasion  to  say  more 
in  the  next  Book,  chap.  I. 

Mabillon  observes,'"  That  at  the         sect.  9. 
naming  of  the   lessons    out  of    the  the  Prophet  m'slis- 

-r-,  1      ,  Ti     •    ii  il  1  "*    *be    people    in 

Prophets  or  Epistles,  the  people  some-  some  places  said, 


'•«  Cypr.  Ep.  33.  al.  38.  ad  Clcr.  Carthag.  p.  75. 

'■'  Albaspin.  Not.  in  Cone.  Carthag.  3.  can.  4. 

"*  Cone.  Carth.  3.  can.  4.  Ut  lectures  pnpuhim  non  salutent. 

"■'  Chrys.  Horn.  18.  in  2  Cor.  p.  873.  Horn.  3.  in  Colos.  p. 
13.37  et  ia38. 

'"  Aug.  Ep.  165.  Quid  autem  perversius  et  insanius,  quam 
lectoribuscasdem  Epistulas  legentibtisdicere,  Pa.\  tecum,  et 
ab  earuni  ecclesiarum  pace  separare,  quibus  ipsa;  Epist(jbc 
seripta;  sunt  ? 

"  Aug.  de  Civ.  Dei,  lib.  22.  cap.  8.  p.  I4S9.  Procedimus 
ad  populum,  plena  erat  ecclesia,  persouabat  vocibus  gaudio- 
rmn :    Deo  gratias,  Deo  laudes. Salutavi  populum. 


Facto  tandem  silentio,  Scripturarum  Divinarum  sunt  lecta 
solenuia. 

''  Chrys.  Horn.  33.  in  Matt.  p.  318.  KotyjJ  iratri  ti;i' 
ilpnvi]v  iiriXt'yo/xf.v  £t(rtoyT£S  evQiui^KaTa  tok  voixoutKiivov. 

'3  Ibid.  Horn.  36.  in  1  Cor.  p.  G53. 

'<  Ibid.  Horn.  3.  in  Colos.  p.  13.38. 

'^  Ibid.  Horn.  19.  in  Act.  Apost. 

'Mbid.  Horn.  3.  in2Thess. 

"  Ambros.  Praefat.  in  Psalmos.  Quantum  laboratur  in 
ecclesia  ut  fiat  silentium,  cum  lectiones  Icj^untur,  &c.  Vid. 
Aug.  de  Civ.  Dei,  lib.  22.  c.  8. 

'8  Mabil.  de  Liturg.  Gallic,  lib.  1.  cap.  2.  n.  10. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


699 


Di-o  gratias,  and  timcs  Said,  Deo  gratius,  Thanks  be  to 
of'"it."'  "  '"  ""  God,  as  it  is  in  the  Mozarabic  liturgy. 
But  we  have  httle  notice  of  this  elsewhere.  Only 
St.  Austin  says,  it  was  a  very  common  phrase 
among  the  monks  "  when  they  met  a  brother  Chris- 
tian, to  say,  Deo  r/ratias,  Thanks  be  to  God ;  for 
which  the  CircumceUions,  or  Ar/onisfici,  as  they 
called  themselves,  among  the  Donatists,  were  wont 
to  insult  them,  though  they  themselves  often  used 
to  say,  Deo  laudes,  which  in  their  mouth  was  more 
to  be  dreaded  than  the  roaring  of  a  lion.  It  ap- 
pears also  from  the  Acts  of  Eradius  his  election  to 
be  his  successor,  that  it  was  a  usual  acclamation 
upon  many  other  occasions  ;  for  as  soon  as  he  had 
nominated  Eradius  to  be  his  successor,  the  people 
cried  out  for  a  long  time  together,"***  Deo  r/rafias, 
Chrisfo  laudes,  Thanks  be  to  God,  Praise  be  to 
Christ.  What  therefore  was  so  common  upon  other 
occasions,  might  veiy  probably  be  said  by  way  of 
acclamation  at  the  naming  of  the  lessons  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures.  Grotius  says,"  it  was  also  cus- 
toTnary  at  the  end  of  the  Epistle  for  the  people  to 
answer  Amen;  and  that  hence  it  was,  that  at  the 
end  of  all  St.  Paul's  Epistles  the  word.  Amen,  was 
added  by  the  church.  I  know  not  upon  what 
grounds  he  asserts  this,  and  therefore  I  shall  let  it 
rest  upon  the  authority  of  that  learned  man,  with- 
out affirming  or  denying  his  assertion. 

j,^^(  ,g  At  the  reading  of  the  Gospel  it  was 

thfGo''speTau"fo«f  a  general  custom  for  all  the  people  to 
;f;,ct"fGl!fr;"be"?o  staud  up :  and  some  of  the  middle- 
age  ritualists  take  notice  of  their  say- 
ing, Glory  be  to  thee,  O  Lord,  at  the  naming  of 
it.  The  author  of  the  homily  De  Circo  vel  Hip- 
podromo,^'-  under  the  name  of  St.  Chrysostom,  says, 
When  the  deacon  goes  about  to  read  the  Gospel, 
we  all  presently  rise  up,  and  say.  Glory  be  to  thee, 
O  Lord.  But  as  that  homily  is  known  to  be  none 
of  Chrysostom's,  we  cannot  certainly  say  it  was  the 
custom  in  his  days.  But  the  custom  of  rising  up 
at  the  reading  of  the  Gospel  is  certainly  as  old  as 
Chiysostom  ;  for  he  speaks  of  it  in  one  of  his  ho- 
milies on  St.  Matthew:^  If  the  letters  of  a  king 
are  read  in  the  theatre  with  great  silence ;  much 
more  ought  we  to  compose  ourselves,  and  stand  up 
with   attentive   ears,  when  the  letters  not  of  an 


earthly  king,  but  of  the  Lord  of  angels,  are  read 
to  us. 

The  author  of  the  Constitutions'"  mentions  the 
same  :  When  the  Gospel  is  read,  let  the  presbyters 
and  deacons  and  all  the  people  stand  with  profound 
silence.  And  so  Isidore  of  Pelusium:*^  When  the 
true  Shepherd  appears  at  the  opening  of  the  holy 
Gospels,  then  the  bishop  himself  rises  up,  and  lays 
aside  his  pastoral  habit  or  authority,  signifying 
thereby,  that  then  the  Lord  himself,  the  author 
of  the  pastoral  function,  his  God  and  his  Master, 
is  present.  This  was  every  where  observed,  except 
at  Alexandria,  where  it  is  noted  by  Sozomen  "^  as  a 
singular  thing  in  that  church,  that  the  bishop  did 
not  use  to  rise  up  when  the  Gospel  was  read.  And 
Cassian*'  observes  it  as  no  less  singular  in  the 
monks  of  Egypt,  that,  excepting  the  reader,  who  al- 
waj-s  stood  up,  the  rest  sat  upon  low  seats  both 
when  the  Psalms  and  the  lessons  out  of  the  Old  or 
New  Testament  were  reading ;  which  was  only  in- 
dulged them  because  of  their  excessive  watchings, 
and  fastings,  and  labours.  In  other  places,  sitting 
at  the  Gospel  was  reckoned  a  corruption  and  abuse : 
insomuch  that  Philostorgius  tells  us,^'  That  Theo- 
philus,  the  Arian  bishop,  who  went  to  the  Indies, 
corrected  it  as  an  indecency  that  had  crept  in  there 
against  the  rules  of  the  church.  And  Anastasius 
did  the  same  at  Rome,  as  is  said  in  his  Life  by  the 
author  of  the  Pontifical;'''  for  he  made  a  decree, 
that  as  often  as  the  holj^  Gospels  were  read,  the 
priests  should  not  sit,  but  stand  in  a  bowing  pos- 
ture. In  Africa,  the  general  custom  was  not  only 
to  stand  at  the  Gospel,  but  at  all  the  other  lessons 
out  of  Scripture :  for  they  gave  equal  honour  to 
every  part  of  the  word  of  God,  insomuch  as  that 
their  sermons  and  homilies,  and  whatever  was  re- 
hearsed in  the  church,  was  heard  standing,  as  we 
shall  see  more  in  the  next  chapter.  Here  it  will 
be  sufficient  to  observe,  that  Cyprian's  readers  not 
only  stood  up  to  read,  but  that  all  the  people  stood 
about  them  when  they  read  the  Scriptures.^"  And 
in  St.  Austin's  time  the  custom  was  the  same  : 
for  he  says,"  the  longest  lessons  were  then  heard 
by  all  sorts  and  sexes  standing,  except  only  such  as 
through  some  infirmitj^  in  their  feet  or  weakness  of 
body  were  disabled,  who  upon  that  account  were 


"  Aug.  in  Psal.  cxxxii.  p.  630.  A  quibus  plus  timetur, 
Deo  laudes,  quam  fremitus  leonis,  hi  etiam  insultare  nobis 
audent,  quia  fratres,  cum  vident  homines,  Deo  gratias, 
dicunt. 

^  Anjr.  Ep.  110.  de  Actis  Eradii.  A  pnpulo  acclamatum 
est  trigesies  sexies;  Deo  gratias,  Christo  laudes. 

^'  (irot.  Annot.  in  Philem.  ver.  25. 

"  Chrys.  Horn.  52.  de  Circo,  t.  6.  p.  491. 

«Chrys.  Hom.  1.  in  Matt.  p.  11. 

■"  Constit.  lib.  2.  cap.  57. 

"  Isidor.  Pelus.  lib.  1.  Ep.  136.      ''^  Sozom.  lib.  7.  cap.  19. 

'■  Cassian.  Instit.  lib.  2.  cap.  12. 

<"  Philostorg.  lib.  3.  c.  5. 


^'  Pontifical.  Vit.  Anastas.  Hie  constituit,  ut  quotiescun- 
que  sancta  Evangelia  recitarentur,  sacerdotes  non  sederent 
sed  curvi  starent. 

^  Cypr.  Ep.  34.  al.  .39.  p.  78.  In  loco  altiore  constitui 
oportet,  ubi  ab  omni  populo  circumstante  conspecti,  &c. 

"  Aug.  Hom.  26.  ex  50.  t.  10.  p.  174.  Quando  passiones 
prolixa;  aut  certe  aliquce  lectiones  longiores  leguntur,  qui 
stare  not  possunt,  humilitcr  et  cum  silentio  sedentes,  atten- 
tis  auribus  audiant  qune  lejjuntur,  &c.  Note,  that  this  homily 
is  by  Mabillon,  and  the  Benedictins,  in  their  new  edition 
ascribed  it  to  Cffisarius  Arelatensis:  if  it  be  his.  it  proves  the 
custom  of  standing  to  hear  the  lessons,  to  have  been  accord- 
ing to  the  usage  of  the  French  churches. 


700 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIV. 


indulged  sitting,  but  no  others  whatsoever.  Bona"" 
thinks  there  was  no  certain  answer  made  when 
the  Gospel  was  ended.  For  some  said  only,  Amen, 
as  it  is  in  the  Mozarabic  liturgy,  and  the  Rule  of 
St.  Benedict.  Which  Alexander  Hales  interprets 
the  same  as  saying,  God  grant  we  may  persevere  in 
the  doctrine  of  the  gospel.  Others  said,  Deo  gratias, 
Thanks  be  to  God ;  and  others,  Laus  tibi  Christe, 
Praise  be  to  thee,  O  Christ.  But  all  this  is  said 
only  out  of  the  middle-age  writers,  whilst  there  is  a 
perfect  silence  as  to  this  matter  in  the  more  ancient 
writers  of  the  church. 

There  was  one  ceremony  more  an- 
Lightsc'arri'ed  be-  cicnt,  which  St.  Jcrom  makcs  Dcculiar 

fore   the   Gospel   in  i  -o  i  i  i    ■    i 

the  Eastern  to  thc  Eastcm  churchcs,  which  was 

churches. 

the  carrpng  lights  before  the  Gospel 
when  it  was  to  be  read.  He  says,"'  They  had  no  such 
custom  in  the  Western  church,  either  as  burning 
candles  by  day  at  the  monuments  of  the  martyrs, 
(as  Vigilantius  falsely  accused  them,)  nor  at  any 
other  time,  save  only  when  they  met  in  the  night, 
to  give  light  to  their  assemblies  :  but  in  the  Eastern 
church  it  was  otherwise ;  for  without  any  regard 
to  the  relics  of  the  martyrs,  whenever  the  Gospel 
was  read,  they  lighted  candles,  partly  to  demon- 
strate their  joy  for  the  good  news  which  the  Gospel 
brought,  and  partly  by  a  corporeal  symbol  to  re- 
present that  light  of  which  the  psalmist  speaks, 
"  Thy  word  is  a  lamp  to  my  feet,  and  a  light  unto 
my  paths."  I  know  no  other  author  beside  St. 
Jerom  that  mentions  this,  and  as  far  as  his  author- 
ity will  prevail  it  may  be  credited,  and  no  further. 
Dr.  Cave  judges'*  it  might  not  be  much  older  than 
his  time :  however  it  was,  it  is  no  argument  to 
patronize  the  burning  of  lamps  and  wax  candles, 
without  the  same  reason,  in  churches  at  noon-day. 
It  is  further  observable,  that  in 
Threemir iburics-  somc  churchcs,   upon    soHie   solemu 

sons  sometimes  read  ,  i  i        i       i 

out  of  the  Gospels  occasious,  they  had  three  or  four  les- 

on  the  same  day. 

sons  read  out  of  the  Gospels  on  the 
same  day.  St.  Austin  says,"^  he  would  have  had 
four  lessons  read  out  of  the  four  Gospels  on  the 
day  of  our  Saviour's  passion ;  but  the  people  were 
disturbed  at  it,  as  what  they  had  not  been  accus- 
tomed to,  so  he  was  forced  to  wave  it.  But  the 
custom  prevailed  in  the  French  churches.  For  in 
the  old  Lectionarium  Gallicanum,  published  liy  Ma- 
billon,  the  lessons  of  several  festivals  are  thus  ap- 
pointed :  On  the  feast  of  Epiphany,  there  is  one 


lesson  out  of  St.  Matthew  ii.  for  morning  service, 
and  three  more  out  of  Matthew,  Luke,  and  John, 
for  the  communion  service.  So  on  the  parascece, 
or  day  of  our  Saviour's  passion,  there  is  one  lesson 
of  the  Gospel  for  morning  service,  another  for  the 
second,  another  for  the  third,  another  for  the  sixth, 
another  for  the  ninth  hours  of  prayer,""  collected 
out  of  the  four  Gospels  by  way  of  harmony  or  catena. 
Whence  we  may  observe,  that  the  old  Galilean 
liturgy  (from  whence  our  English  service  is  thought 
chiefly  to  be  dei'ived,  and  not  from  the  Roman," 
by  learned  men)  had  distinct  offices  for  morning 
and  communion  service,  and  distinct  Gos^jels  for 
each  service  on  solemn  days,  as  ours  now  has  for 
all  the  festivals,  which  probably  were  designed  at 
first  for  distinct  offices,  though  they  are  now  com- 
monly read  together  in  the  greatest  part  of  our 
churches. 

There  is  another  distinction  made  ,  ,   , 

hect.  13. 

by  some  between  the  longer  and  shorter'fe'sfons,  and 
shorter  lessons.  The  longer  lessons  lecordingtoDurTn- 
are  said"*  by  Durantus  to  be  used  at 
the  long  nocturnal  or  antelucan  service,  and  the 
lesser  at  the  other  canonical  hours  of  prayer.  So 
that  this  distinction  could  have  no  place  till  the 
canonical  hours  were  settled  in  the  church ;  which 
was  not  till  the  fourth  or  fifth  century,  as  has  been 
showed  in  another  place.""  Radulphus  Tungrensis,'"" 
whom  Durantus  cites,  speaks  somewhat  of  this  dis- 
tinction in  his  time,  and  says  the  lesser  sort  of  les- 
sons were  called  vulgarly,  capitula,  chapters,  and 
designed  for  the  praise  of  God.  Which  makes  it 
more  probable,  that  these  lesser  lessons  were  no 
other  than  the  Psalms,  or  antiphonal  hymns  col- 
lected out  of  the  Psalms,  for  the  service  of  the  se- 
veral hours  of  devotion.  Which  are  expressly  called 
capitella  de  Psahnis,  chapters  out  of  the  Psalms,  by 
the  council  of  Agde,""  and  were  the  same  as  an- 
tiphonal hymns,  collected  out  of  the  Psalms,  and 
to  be  said  alternately  by  way  of  responses.  So  that, 
whatever  may  be  said  of  the  middle  ages,  there 
seems  to  be  no  ground  for  this  distinction  of  greater 
and  lesser  lessons  in  the  ancient  service,  save  only 
as  we  take  the  reading  of  the  Psalms  for  lessons  of 
Scripture. 

It  is  true,  indeed,  St.  Austin,  in  one 
of  his  homilies,'"- which  Mabillon  and     what^'^migiit  or 
the  Benedictins  in  their  late  edition  hy  way  of  lessons  tn 

the  church. 

ascribe  to  Csesanus,  bishop  of  Aries, 


■^  Bona,  Rer.  Litiirg.  lib.  2.  cap.  7.  n.  4. 

•'^  Hioron.  cont.  Vigilant,  cap.  3.  Cerens  autem  non 
rlara  luce  accendimus,  siciit   friistra  cahimniaris,  sed    ut 

iioctis  teuebras  hoc  solatio  temperemus Absque  inar- 

tvrum  reliqiiiis  per  totas  Orientis  ecclesias,  quum  legendum 
est  Evangelium,  acccnduntur  luminaria  jam  sole  rutilante, 
noil  utique  ad  fugandas  tenebras,  sed  ad  signum  lajtitia;  de- 
monstrandum, &c. 

"'  Cave,  Prim.  Christ,  lib.  ].  c.  7.  p.  203. 

'■  Aug.  Serin.  141.  de  Tempore,  p.  320. 


»"  Vid.  Mabillon.  de  Liturg.  Gallic,  p.  116.  et  134. 

»'  Vid.  Stillingfleet,  Orig.  Britan.  chap.  4. 

'•*  Durant.  de  Ritib.  lib.  3.  cap.  18.  n.  4et  5. 

""  Book  XIII.  chap.  9.  sect.  8. 

"">  Radulph.  de  Canon.  Observant.  Propos.  8  et  13. 

""  Cone.  Agathen.  can.  30.  In  conclusione  matutinarum 
vel  vespertinarum  et  missarum,  post  hymnos  capitella  de 
Psalmis  dici,  &c. 

'"■^  Aug.  Horn.  26.  e.\  50.  qune  est  Horn.  300.  in  Appendice 
Edit.  Benedictin. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


701 


speaks  of  longer  and  shorter  lessons ;  but  it  is  not 
in  relation  to  the  long  morning  service,  and  the 
shorter  service  of  the  canonical  hours,  but  upon  a 
quite  different  occasion.  For  there  it  is  supposed, 
that  besides  the  lessons  of  Scripture,  sometimes 
other  lessons  were  read  out  of  the  homilies  of  the 
fathers,  or  the  acts  of  the  martyrs,  which,  because 
they  were  sometimes  very  prolix,  an  indulgence  was 
therefore  granted  to  infimi  persons  to  sit  down  to 
hear  them  read.  And  this  leads  us  to  a  new  ob- 
servation and  further  remark  upon  the  ancient  prac- 
tice, that  in  some  churches,  at  least,  other  things 
were  allowed  to  be  read  by  way  of  lesson  and  in- 
struction, besides  the  canonical  Scriptures,  such  as 
the  passions  of  the  martyrs  on  their  proper  festi- 
vals, and  the  homilies  of  the  fathers,  and  the  epis- 
tles and  tracts  of  pious  men,  and  the  letters  com- 
municatory of  one  church  to  another,  with  other 
things  of  the  like  nature.  That  the  passions  of  the 
martyrs  were  sometimes  read  among  the  lessons  in 
the  church,  appears  not  only  from  the  foresaid 
homily  of  Caesarius  or  St.  Austin,  but  from  a  rule 
made  in  the  third  council""  of  Carthage,  which  for- 
bids all  other  books  to  be  read  in  the  church  besides 
the  canonical  Scripture,  except  the  passions  of  the 
martyrs  on  their  anniversary  days  of  commemora- 
tion. Eusebius  probably  collected'"*  the  passions 
of  the  martyrs  for  this  very  purpose ;  as  Paulinus, 
bishop  of  Nola,  did  after  him,  which  Johannes  Di- 
aconus  '"*  says  were  used  to  be  read  in  the  churches. 
Thus  Gelasius""'  says  the  Acts  of  Pope  Sylvester 
were  read  in  many  of  the  Roman  churches,  though 
not  in  the  Lateran,  because  they  were  apocryphal, 
and  written  by  an  unknown  author.  And  Mabil- 
lon '"'  gives  several  other  such  instances  out  of  Avi- 
tus  and  Ferreolus ;  and  in  the  old  Lectionarium 
Gallicanum,  which  he  published,  there  are  fre- 
quently lessons  appointed  out  of  St.  Austin  and 
others  upon  the  festivals  of  St.  Stephen,  and  the 
Holy  Innocents,  and  Julian  the  martyr,  on  Epi- 
phany, and  the  festivals  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul. 
Whence  some  learned  men'"'  conjecture,  not  impro- 
bably, that  such  sort  of  histories  and  passions  of 
the  martyrs  had  particularly  the  name  of  kgenda, 
legends :'  for  though  now  that  name  be  commonly 
taken  in  a  worse  sense,  for  a  fabulous  history,  be- 


cause many  lives  of  saints  and  martyrs  were  written 
by  the  monks  of  later  ages  in  a  mere  fabulous  and 
romantic  way,  yet  anciently  it  had  a  good  significa- 
tion, and  in  its  original  use  denoted  only  such  acts 
and  monuments  of  the  martyrs  as  were  allowed  by 
authority  to  be  read  in  the  church.  The  curious 
reader  may  find  frequent  references  made  by  St. 
Austin  in  his  homilies  ^  to  such  lessons  read  out  of 
the  passions  of  the  martyrs  on  their  anniversary 
days  in  the  church,  as  also  in  the  homilies  of  Pope 
Leo'"*  and  others,  which  it  is  needless  to  recite  in 
this  place. 

But  besides  the  passions  of  the  martyrs,  and  ho- 
milies relating  to  them,  there  were  also  many  other 
pious  books  read  by  way  of  moral  exhortation  in 
many  churches.  Thus  Eusebius'"  says,  the  book 
called  Hermes  Pastor  was  anciently  read  in  the 
church.  He  says  the  same  of  Clemens  Romanus's 
first  Epistle"-  to  the  Corinthians,  that  it  was  read 
in  many  churches,  both  in  his  own  time,  and  the 
ages  before  him.  And  Dionysius,  bishop  of  Co- 
rinth,"' says.  They  read  not  only  that  epistle  of 
Clemens,  but  another  written  by  Soter,  bishop  of 
Rome,  which  they  would  always  continue  to  read. 
Sozomen  says,"*  The  book  called  the  Revelations  of 
Peter  was  read  once  a  year,  on  Good  Friday,  in 
many  of  the  churches  of  Palestine.  Athanasius"^ 
testifies  the  same  of  the  book  called  At^ax?) ' kiroaTo- 
\ix)v,  The  Doctrine  of  the  Apostles.  And  St.  Je- 
rom"*  saj's,  The  homilies  of  Ephrem  Syrus  were  in 
such  honour  as  to  be  read  in  the  church  after  the 
reading  of  the  Scriptures.  St.  Austin'"  assures  us, 
That  the  Acts  of  the  Collation  of  Carthage  were 
read  always  in  the  church  in  Lent.  And  in  one  of 
his  epistles,"'  he  desires  of  Marcellinus  Comes,  that 
the  Acts  of  the  Trial  of  the  Donatists,  who  were 
convict  of  the  murder  of  the  catholics,  might  be 
sent  him,  to  be  read  in  all  the  churches  of  his  dio- 
cese. And  it  is  remarkable,  that  in  the  accounts 
we  have  of  the  burning  of  the  Bible  in  the  Diocle- 
tian persecution,  there  is  sometimes  mention'"  made 
of  burning  the  salutary  or  communicatory  letters, 
which  were  sent  from  one  church  to  another.  St. 
Austin  adds  further.  That  when  any  one  received  a 
signal  mercy  from  God,  the  relation  of  it  was  many 
times '""  read  publicly  in  the  church.     Of  which  he 


""  Cone.  Carth.  3.  can.  47.  Liceat  legi  passiones  mar- 
tyrum  cum  anniversarii  eorum  dies  celebrantur. 

'"  Euseb.  lib.  5.  cap.  4.  speaks  of  these  collections. 

'"^  Joan.  Diac.  PraBfat.  ad  Vit.  Gregor.  Magni. 

"«i  Gelas.  Decret.  ap.  Crab.  Cone.  t.  1.  p.  992. 

""  Mabil.  de  Ciirsu  Gallicano,  p.  403  et  4U7. 

'"s  Vid.  Chainier.  Panstratia,  t.  1.  <le  Canon.  Script,  lib. 
1.  cap.  4.  n.  I.  p.  101. 

'»=  Vid.  Aug.  Serm.  12.  de  Sanctis,  p.  408.  Serrn.  45.  de 
Diversis,  p.  508.  Item,  Serm.  63.  p.  553.  Serm.  93.  p.  564. 
Serm.  101,  10.3,  105,  109.  de  Diversis. 

""  Leo.  Serm.  de  Maccabceis. 

'"  Euseb.  lib.  3.  cap.  3.     Hieron.  de  Scriptor.  cap.  10. 

"-  Euseb.  lib.  3.  cap.  16. 


"3  Ap.  Euseb.  lib.  4.  cap.  23.      "*  Sozom.  lib.  7.  cap.  19. 

•15  Athan.  Ep.  ad  Ruffin.  t.  2.  p.  39. 

"^  Hieron.  de  Scriptor.  cap.  115. 

"'  Aug.  de  Gestis  cum  Emerito,  t.  7.  p.  215. 

lis  Aug.  Ep.  158.  Gesta  quoc  promisit  prajstantia  tua, 
vchementer  expecto,  et  in  ecdesia  H  ipponensi  jam  jam  cupio 
recitari,  ac  si  fieri  potest,  per  ouines  ecclesias  etiam  in  nos- 
tra dicccesi  constitutas. 

"'  Gesta  Purgationis  Felicis  et  Caeciliani,  ad  calcem 
Optati,  p.  276.  Inde  cathedram  tulimus,  et  epistolas  salu- 
tatorias,  et  ostia  omnia  comburimus  secundum  sacrum  pra:- 
ceptum. 

'*>  Aug.  de  Civ.  Dei,  lib.  22.  cap.  8.  p.  1489.  Libelli 
eorum,  quibeneficia  percipiunt,  recitaatur  in  populo,  &c. 


702 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIV. 


gives  several  instances  in  his  own  and  other  churches 
of  Africa.  And  St.  Chrysostom  says,  sometimes 
the  emperor's  letters '-'  were  read  in  the  church,  and 
heard  with  great  attention,  which  he  urges  as  an 
argument,  why  men  should  hear  with  reverence  the 
writings  of  the  prophets,  because  they  come  from 
God,  and  their  epistles  are  from  heaven.  Such  cir- 
cular epistles  also  as  were  sent  from  one  church  to 
another,  to  notify  the  time  of  keeping  Easter,  (which 
were  called  heortastical  or  festival  epistles,)  were 
generally  published '"  in  their  churches  :  but  these 
I  mention  not  as  lessons,  but  only  hint  the  custom 
incidentally,  corresponding  to  that  of  our  reading 
briefs  for  charity,  or  the  circular  letters  of  bishops, 
or  notifying  holidays,  or  bans  of  marriage,  or  things 
of  the  like  kind  relating  to  the  public. 

As  to  those  books  which  we  now 
Thosf  which  we  call  apocryphal,  they  were   read  in 

now    call     apocry-  ,  ,  . 

phai  books  were  an-  somc  churchcs,  but  not  lu  all.     ror 

ciently  read  in  some  i         /•  t 

churches,  but  not  in  the  churcli  of  Jerusalem  they  were 

in  all.  "^ 

utterly  forbidden,  as  appears  plainly 
from  Cyril's  Catechisms,  where  he  directs'^  the 
catechumens  to  read  no  apocryphal  books,  but  only 
such  books  as  were  securely  read  in  the  church : 
and  then  he  specifies  what  books  w^ere  then  read  in 
the  church,  viz.  all  the  canonical  books  which  are 
now  in  our  Bibles,  except  the  Revelation,  without 
any  mention  at  all  of  the  apocryphal  books ;  which 
is  a  certain  argument  that  they  were  not  allowed  to 
be  read  in  the  church  of  Jerusulem,  as  I  have  more 
fully  demonstrated  in  another  place.'-*  The  like 
determination  was  made  for  some  other  churches 
by  the  council  of  Laodicea,'"^  which  forbids  all  but 
the  canonical  books  to  be  read  in  the  church,  and 
likewise  specifies  what  she  means  by  canonical 
books,  viz.  Genesis,  Exodus,  Leviticus,  Numbers, 
Deuteronomy,  Joshua,  Judges,  Ruth,  Esther,  four 
books  of  Kings,  two  of  Paralipomena  or  Chronicles, 
two  of  Esdras,  The  book  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
Psalms,  Proverbs,  Ecclesiastes,  Canticles,  Job, 
twelve  Prophets,  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Lamentations 
and  Epistles  of  Baruch,  Ezekiel,  Daniel,  the  four 
Gospels,  The  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  the  seven  Catho- 
lic Epistles,  fourteeen  Epistles  of  St.  Paul.  Where 
none  of  the  apocryphal  books,  nor  the  Revelation, 
are  mentioned,  which  is  a  plain  evidence  that  none 


of  them  were  read  in  the  churches  of  that  district. 
After  the  same  manner  the  author  of  the  Constitu- 
tions,'-^ giving  orders  about  what  books  of  the  Old 
Testament  should  be  read  in  the  church,  mentions 
the  five  books  of  Moses,  and  Joshua,  and  Judges, 
Kings,  Chronicles,  Ezra,  and  Nehemiah,  (which  he 
means  by  the  histories  of  their  return  from  Baby- 
lon,) the  books  of  Job  and  Solomon,  the  sixteen 
Prophets,  and  the  Psalms,  but  says  nothing  of  any 
of  the  apocryphal  books ;  which  argues,  that  he  did 
not  find  them  to  be  read  in  the  rituals  of  those 
churches  whence  he  made  his  collections. 

However,  in  other  churches  they  were  allowed  to 
be  read'^'  with  a  mark  of  distinction,  as  books  of 
piety  and  moral  instruction,  to  edify  the  people ; 
but  they  neither  gave  them  the  name  of  canonical 
books,  nor  made  use  of  them  to  confirm  articles  of 
faith.  This  is  expressly  said  by  St.  Jerom.  And 
Ruffin,'^  who  was  presbyter  of  Aquileia,  delivers 
the  same  as  the  ancient  tradition  and  practice  of 
that  church,  when  these  books  were  neither  reckoned 
canonical,  nor  yet  in  the  worst  sense  apocryphal, 
but  Cralled  ecclesiastical,  because  they  were  read  in 
the  church,  but  not  used  to  confirm  matters  of 
faith.  Among  these  he  reckons  the  Wisdom  of 
Solomon,  and  Ecclesiasticus,  and  Tobit,  and  Judith, 
and  Maccabees,  and  Hermes  Pastor,  and  the  book 
called  the  Two  Ways,  or  the  Judgment  of  Peter. 
Athanasius '-^  also  ranks  these  books,  not  among 
the  canonical,  but  among  those  that  might  at  least 
be  read  to  or  by  the  catechumens,  among  which  he 
reckons  Wisdom,  and  Ecclesiasticus,  and  Tobit,  and 
Judith,  and  Esther,  and  the  Doctrine  of  the  Apostles, 
and  the  Shepherd,  that  is,  Hermes  Pastor.  So  in 
the  Lectionarium  Gallicanum,  published  by  Mabil- 
lon,  there  are  lessons  appointed  out  of  Tobit,  and 
Judith,  and  Esther,  particularly  in  the  Rogation 
Week,  for  several  days  together. 

In  some  churches  these  books  were 
also  read  under  the  general  name  of    And" fn  some 

churches,  under  the 

canonical  Scripture,  taking  that  word  title  of  canonical 

'^  '  '^  Scripture,    takuig 

in  a  large  sense,  for  such  books  as  ;'"•'  ""'■''  '"  » 

t)  '  larger  sense. 

were  in  the  rule,  or  canon,  or  cata- 
logue of  books  authorized  to  be  read  in  the  church. 
Thus  at  least  we  must  understand  the  canon  of  the 
third   council  of  Carthage,''"  which  ordered    that 


'21  Chrys.  Horn.  3.  in  Thes.  p.  1-501. 

•22  Vid.  Cassian.  CoUat.  10.  cap.  2. 

'23  Cyril.  Catech.  4.  n.  22.  p.  66  et  67. 

'2<  Book  X.  chap.  1.  sect.  7.        '"  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  59. 

'26  Constit.  lib.  2.  cap.  57. 

'2'  Hieron.  Preefat.  in  Libros  Salomonis.  Sicut  ergo 
Judith  et  Tobiae  et  MacchabaBovum  libros  legit  quidem 
ecclesia,  sad  eos  inter  canonicas  Scripturas  non  recipit:  sic 
et  hsec  duo  vohrmina  (Sapientiara  et  Ecclesiasticum)  legit 
ad  aedificationem  plebis,  non  ad  auctoritatem  ecclesiastico- 
rum  dogmatum  confirmandam. 

'2^  Ruffin.  in  Symbolum,  ad  calcem  Cypriani.  Oxon.  p. 
26.  Sciendum  tamen  est,  quod  et  alii  libri  sunt,  qui  non 
canonici,  sed  ecclesiastic!  a  majoribus  appellati  sunt:  ut 


est  Sapientia  Solomonis,  et  alia  Sapientia  quae  dicitur  Filii 

Syrach. Ejusdem  ordinis  est  libellus  Tobiae,  et  Judith, 

et  Maccabaeorum  libri.  In  Novo  vero  Testamento  libellus, 
qui  dicitur,  Pastoris  sive  Hermatis,  qui  appellatur,  Duse 
Viue,  sive  Judicium  Petri;  quae  omnia  legi  quidem  in  eccle- 
siis  voluerunt,  non  tamen  proferri  ad  auctoritatem  ex  his 
fidei  confirmandam. 

'23Athan.  Ep.  Heortastic.  ad  Ruifin.  t.  2.  p.  39.  It. 
Synops.  Scriptur.  ibid.  p.  55. 

""  Cone.  Carth.  3.  can.  47.  Prseter  Scripturas  canonicas 
nihil  in  ecclesia  Icgatur  sub  nomine  Divinarum  Scriptura- 
rum.    Sunt  autera  canonicae  Scripturae,  id  est.  Genesis,  &c. 

Salomonis  libri  quinque Tobias,  Judith,  Hester,  Esdree 

libri  duo,  JMaccabasorum  libri  duo. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


703 


notliing  but  the  canonical  writings  should  be  read 
in  the  church  under  the  name  of  the  Divine  Scrip- 
tures, among  which  canonical  Scriptures  there  are 
reckoned  Wisdom  and  Ecclesiasticus,  under  the 
name  of  Solomon,  together  with  Tobit,  Judith, 
Hester,  and  the  Maccabees.  St.  Austin  seems  to  have 
followed  this  canon,  making  all  these  books  canoni- 
cal, but  giving  preference  to  some  above  the  other, 
as  they  were  more  or  less  generally  received  by  the 
churches.  In  his  book  of  Christian  Doctrine'"  he 
ctills  all  the  apocryphal  books  canonical,  but  he 
does  not  allow  them  so  great  authority  as  the  rest, 
because  they  were  not  generally  received  as  such 
by  the  churches.  He  says  the  Books  "^  of  Wisdom 
and  Ecclesiasticus  were  none  of  Solomon's,  but  yet 
received  into  authority  by  the  Western  church.  By 
which  he  must  mean  the  Roman  church,  where 
Pope  Innocent  had  received  them.'^^  For  in  the 
Eastern  church  their  canonical  authority  was  always 
rejected :  and  in  many  of  the  Western  churches ; 
for  neither  Ruffin  at  Aquileia,  nor  Philastrius  at 
Brixia  in  Italy,"*  nor  Hilary  at  Poictiers  in  France,"^ 
gi'ant  them  any  authority  in  the  canon  of  Scripture. 
Nay,  Hilary  of  Aries""  expressly  told  St.  Austin, 
that  the  churches  of  France  were  offended  at  him, 
because  he  had  used  a  proof  out  of  the  Book  of 
Wisdom,  which  was  not  canonical.  And  it  is  re- 
markable, that  at  Rome  itself  Gregory  the  Great, 
having  occasion  to  quote  a  text  out  of  Maccabees, 
makes  a  prefatory  excuse  for  alleging  a  text  out  of 
a  book  that  was  not  canonical,'"  but  only  published 
for  the  edification  of  the  church.  And  even  St. 
Austin  himself,'^  in  answer  to  the  French  divines, 
pleads  no  further  for  the  Divine  authority  of  the 
Book  of  Wisdom,  which  he  had  cited  as  canonical, 
but  that  it  was  so  received  by  the  Christians  of 


Africa  before  him ;  which,  by  his  own  rule  laid 
down  before  in  his  book  of  Christian  Doctrine,  did 
not  make  it  in  the  highest  sense  canonical,  because 
it  was  rejected  by  all  the  churches  of  the  East,  and 
a  great  part  of  the  West,  from  the  authority  of 
canonical  Scripture.  So  that  though  these  books 
were  read  in  the  African  church  under  the  name  of 
canonical  Scripture,  yet  they  were  not  esteemed  of 
equal  authority  with  the  rest,  because  they  were  re- 
puted by  all  the  world  besides  as  apocryphal,  or,  as 
some  call  them,  ecclesiastical  only,  being  such  as 
were  allowed  to  be  read  in  the  church  for  moral  in- 
struction and  edification,  but  not  used  to  confirm 
articles  of  faith.  And  this  is  the  account  which 
Cajetan  himself  gave  of  the  practice  of  the  church, 
before  the  council  of  Trent  defined  a  new  canon  of 
Scripture.  He  says,  They  are  not ""  canonical,  that 
is,  regular,  to  confirm  articles  of  faith :  yet  they  may 
be  called  canonical,  that  is,  regular,  for  the  edifica- 
tion of  the  people,  as  being  received  and  authorized 
in  the  canon  of  the  Bible  only  for  this  end.  And 
with  this  distinction  he  thinks  we  are  to  understand 
both  St.  Austin  and  the  coimcil  of  Carthage,  all 
whose  sayings  are  to  be  reduced  to  the  rule  of  St. 
Jerom.  But  if  any  think  that  St.  Austin  or  the 
African  church  meant  more,  it  may  be  said,  their 
authority  is  of  no  weight  against  the  general  consent 
of  the  whole  church  in  all  ages  besides,  from  the 
first  settling  of  the  canon  down  to  the  council  of 
Trent;  the  proof  of  which  consent  is  so  fully  and 
unanswerably  made  out  by  Bishop  Cosins,  in  that 
excellent  book,  called  his  Scholastical  History  of 
the  Canon  of  Scripture,  where  he  produces  the  tes- 
timonies of  the  writers  of  every  age  distinctly  in 
their  order,  that  little  more  can  be  added  to  it,"° 
and  it  is  wholly  needless  to  detain  the  reader  upon 


"'  Aug.  de  Doctrin.  Christ,  lib.  2.  cap.  8.  Tenebit  hunc 
modum  in  Scripturis  canonicis,  ut  eas  quae  ab  omnibus  acci- 
piuntur ecclesiis,  proeponat  eis  quas  quacdam  non  accipiunt. 
In  eis  vero  quae  non  accipiuntur  ab  omnibus,  praeponat  eas 
quas  plures  graviovesque  accipiunt,  eis  quas  pauciores  mi- 
norisque  authnritatis  ecclesiae  tenent. 

'*-  Aug.  de  Civ,  Dei,  lib.  17.  cap.  20.  Non  esse  ipsius, 
non  dubitant  doctiores,  eos  taraen  in  authoritatem  maxime 
Occidentalis  antiquitus  recepit  ecclesia. 

"'  Innocent.  Ep.  3.  ad  Esuper.  cap.  7. 

"'  Philastr.  de  Haeres.  cap.  40.  de  Apocryphis.  Et 
cap.  9. 

'^^  Hilar.  Praefat.  in  Psalmos. 

''"  Ibid.  Arelat.  Epist.  ad  Aug.  inter  Oper.  Aug.  t.  7.  p. 
54.').  lUud  etiam  testimonium  quod  posuisti,  raptus  est  ne 
malitia  mutaret  intellectum  ejus,  tanquam  non  canonicum 
definiunt  omittendum. 

"'  Greg.  Magn.  Moral,  in  Job.  lib.  19.  cap.  13.  Qua  de  re 
non  inordinate  agimus,  si  ex  libris  licet  non  canonicis,  sed 
tamen  ad  a^dificationem  ccclesice  aeditis,  testimonium  pro- 
feramus. 

'•»  Aug.  dc  Prxdestin.  lib.  I.  cap.  14.  t.  7.  p.  55.3.  Non 
debuit  repudiari  sententia  bbri  Sapientiap,  qui  meruit  in  ec- 
clesia Christi  de  gradu  lectorum  ecclesiae  Christi  tarn  longa 
annositate.recitari,  et  ab  omnibus  Christianis,  ab  episcopis 


usque  ad  extremos  laicos,  fideles,  pcenitentes,  catechumenos, 
cum  veneratione  Divinae  authoritatis  audiri. 

'^'Cajetan.  in  fine  Comment,  in  Histor.  Vet.  Test.  Ad 
Hieronymi  limam  reducenda  sunt  tam  verba  conciliorum 
quam  doctorum.  Et  juxta  illius  sententiam  libri  isti  non 
sunt  canonici,  id  est,  regulares,  ad  firmandum  ea  quae  sunt 
fidei ;  possinit  tamen  dici  canonici,  id  est,  regulares,  ad  aedi- 
ficationem  fidelium,  utpote  in  canone  Bibli<E  ad  hoc  re- 
cepti  et  authorati.  Cum  hac  distinctione  disccrnere  po- 
teris  dicta  Augustini  et  scripta  in  proviuciali  concilio  Car- 
thaginensi. 

'^''  To  the  testimonies  cited  by  Bishop  Cosins,  the  learned 
reader  may  add  this  of  Franciscus  Georgius  Venetus,  a 
Franciscan,  who  lived  a  little  before  the  Reformation  : 
Problem,  in  Scriptur.  t.  6.  sect.  5.  Problem.  184.  Par.  1622. 
4to.  Cur  Raphael  venit  in  comitatum  Tobiae?  Respond. 
Quamvis  historia  sit  sine  certo  auctore,  nee  in  canone  ha- 
beatur,  tamen  quia  admittitur  legenda  in  ecclesia  tanquam 
vera,  hiijus  quoque  rei  rationem  assignare  conabimur.  Here 
he  plainly  rejects  the  Book  of  Tobit  out  of  the  canon,  and 
speaks  of  it  no  otherwise  than  as  of  a  common  hisloiT,  which 
was  allowed  to  be  read  iu  the  church.  Which  words  are  so 
displeasing  to  the  curators  of  the  Roman  Index  Expur- 
gatorius,  that  they  order  it  to  be  struck  out,  with  many  other 
passages  of  the  same  author,  where  he  reflects  on  the  Vulgar 


704 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIV. 


that  subject ;  it  being  sufficient  to  our  present  pur- 
pose, to  have  observed,  that  these  books  of  contro- 
verted authority  were  read,  either  under  the  name 
of  apocrj^hal,  or  ecclesiastical,  or  canonical,  in 
most  of  the  ancient  churches. 

There  is  one  thing  more,  which  it 
A  short  account  of  will  not  bc  improper  to  give  a  short 

the   translations    of  n    i      n  i 

Scripture  iisedinlhe  aCCOUUt  of,  bcforC  WC  put  aU  Cnd  tO 
ancient  church. 

this  chapter ;  that  is,  of  the  transla- 
tions of  Scripture  that  were  commonly  used  in  the 
ancient  church.  I  mean  not  here  to  prove  again 
(what  has  been  abundantly  done  before  in  the  last 
Book)  that  the  Scriptures  were  translated  and  read 
in  the  vulgar  language  in  every  church ;  but  the 
thing  I  would  observe  in  this  place,  is  only  this  : 
that  they  generally  read  the  translations  of  the 
Septuagint,  where  Greek  was  the  vulgar  language, 
or  else  such  translations  into  other  languages,  as 
were  derived  from  it.  For  they  had  no  translation 
of  the  Bible  from  the  Hebrew,  till  the  time  of  St. 
Jerom,  in  the  Latin  church,  but  only  such  as  were 
made  from  the  Greek  translation  of  the  Septuagint. 
The  Septuagint  was  used  all  over  the  Greek  church, 
except  perhaps  that  part  of  Syria  where  Syriac  was 
the  most  vulgar  language,  that  is,  in  Osdroene  and 
Mesopotamia,  where  they  had  a  Syriac  translation 
made  from  the  Hebrew  not  long  after  the  time  of 
the  apostles.  This  was  called  the  Old  Translation, 
in  opposition  to  another,  which  was  made  from  the 
Septuagint  in  after  ages.  In  all  other  parts  of  the 
East  the  Septuagint  was  the  common  translation. 
But  this  by  tract  of  time  and  variety  of  copies  was 
much  corrupted,  upon  which  account  it  was  revised 
and  corrected  by  several  learned  men,  which  la- 
boured in  this  work,  particularly  by  Origen  and 
Hesychius  the  Egyptian,  and  Lucian  of  Antioch, 
two  martyrs  who  suffered  in  the  Diocletian  persecu- 
tion. Hence,  as  St.  Jerom"'  informs  us,  there  came 
to  be  three  famous  exemplars  or  editions  of  the 
Septuagint  used  in  the  Eastern  churches.  Alex- 
andria and  Egypt  followed  the  copy  revised  by  He- 
sychius. Constantinople  andall  the  Asiatic  churches 
as  far  as  Antioch  used  that  of  Lucian.  The  churches 
of  Palestine  and  Arabia  read  the  copy  corrected  by 
Origen,  and  published  by  Eusebius  and  Pamphilus. 
And  so  between  these  three  editions,  the  whole 
world  was  divided.  Origen  did  two  things  further 
in  this  matter.  First,  He  published  an  edition  of  the 


Bible,  which  he  called  his  Hexapla,  because  it  was 
in  six  columns  :  the  first  was  the  Hebrew  in  Hebrew 
characters,'"  the  second  the  Hebrew  in  Greek  cha- 
racters, the  third  the  translation  of  Aquila  the  Jew, 
the  fourth  the  translation  of  Symmachus,  the  fifth 
the  translation  of  the  Septuagint,  and  the  sixth  the 
translation  of  Theodotion  the  Ebionite.  To  these 
he  afterward  added  two  other  translations  found  at 
Nicopolis  and  Jericho,  and  these  made  up  his  Oc- 
tapla.  And  in  process  of  time,  he  published  another 
lesser  edition,  containing  only  the  four  translations, 
of  the  Septuagint,  Aquila,  Symmachus,  and  Theo- 
dotion, which  he  called  his  Tetrapla.  Secondly, 
He  published  the  Septuagint  with  the  additions  of 
Theodotion  mixed  with  it,  to  supply  the  places 
where  it  was  defective,  which  additions  he  marked 
with  an  asterisk  to  distinguish  them ;  and  such  places 
as  were  redundant  in  the  Septuagint,  and  not  to  be 
found  in  the  Hebrew,  nor  in  Theodotion,  he  also 
marked  with  an  obelisk  or  straight  line  for  distinction 
also.  But  this  mixing  of  the  two  translations  to- 
gether in  process  of  time  occasioned  some  confusion, 
and  St.  Jerom  complains  of  it '"  as  a  bold  under- 
taking, and  therefore  he  set  about  a  new  edition  and 
translation'"  of  the  Septuagint  for  the  use  of  the 
Latin  church.  Hitherto  all  churches  used  the  trans- 
lation of  the  Septuagint,  except  the  Syrian  churches, 
as  was  said  before,  and  except  on  the  Book  of  Da- 
niel, which  in  all  churches  was  read  according  to  the 
translation  of  Theodotion,  as  the  same  St.  Jerom 
informs  us  in  several  places,'"  particularly  in  his 
preface  upon  Daniel,'"  because,  by  some  means  or 
other,  the  Septuagint  translation  of  that  book  was 
more  corrupt  than  any  other  part  of  Scripture.  But 
there  were  abundance  of  faults  in  that  translation 
in  other  places,  partly  by  the  design  of  the  interpret- 
ers, (who  added  some  things  of  their  own,  and  left 
out  others,  and  often  changed  the  sense  at  pleasure, 
especially  in  texts  that  had  any  relation  to  the  holy 
Trinity,  as  St.  Jerom  shows  at  large  in  his  preface 
upon  the  Pentateuch,  where  he  exposes  the  story  of 
their  having  distinct  cells,  and  their  being  esteemed 
inspired  writers,)  and  partly  from  the  great  variety 
of  copies,  and  the  great  corruptions  that  were  crept 
into  them  by  the  ignorance  or  negligence  of  transcrib- 
ers ;  and  this  both  in  the  Septuagint  copies  them- 
selves, and  the  Latin  translations  that  were  made 
from  them.  Upon  this  account  St.  Jerom,  by  the  in- 


translation  as  corrupt  and  false,  and  corrects  its  errors  from 
the  original  Hebrew,  of  which  he  was  a  considerable  master, 
though  in  other  things  he  had  his  failings.  Vid.  Index 
Libror.  Prohibitoriim  et  Expurgandorum,  per  Sotomajor.  p. 
417.  Madriti,  16G7.  fol. 

'*'  Hieron.Praefat.in  Librum  Paralipomcnon.  Alexandria 
et  iEgvptus  in  Septuagintasuis  Hesychium  laudat  auctorera. 
Constantinopolis  usque  Autiochiam  Luciani  martyris  exem- 
plaria  probat.  MediiE  inter  has  provinciae  Palicstinos  co- 
dices legunt,  qiios  ab  Origene  elaborates  Eusebius  et  Pam- 
philus vulgaverunt :   totusque    orbis  hac   inter  se  veritate 


compugnat. 

"-  Vid.  Euseb.  lib.  6.  cap.  16. 

H3  Hieron.  Proefat.  in  Paralipom. 

'"  Ibid.  Proefat.  in  Josue. 

'^^  Ibid.  Prffifat.  in  Josue.  It.  Com.  in  Daniel.  4.  et 
Apolog.  2.  cont.  Ruffin. 

""  Hieron.  Prajfat.  in  Daniel.  Danielem  prophetam 
juxta  Septuaginta  interpretes  Domini  Salvatoris  ecclesia 
non  legunt,  utentes  Theodotionis  editione  :  et  hoc  cur  acci- 

derit  nescio. Hoc  unum  affirmare  possum,  quod  niidtiim 

a  veritate  discordet,  et  recto  judicio  repudiatus  sit. 


ClIAP.    III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


705 


stigation  of  Chromatins  and  Heliodore,  and  other 
pious  bishops  of  the  Latin  church,  set  about  a  transla- 
tion of  the  Psalms  and  Old  Testament  from  the  ori- 
ginal HebreAV.  but  this  met  with  great  opposition  for 
some  time  ;  for  though  many  applauded  it,  and  read 
it  in  the  churches,  yet  others  opposed  it,  and  Ruflin 
and  others  bitterly  inveighed  against  it,  as  reflecting 
on  the  church,  which  had  used  and  recommended  the 
Septuagint,  and  the  translations  made  from  it,  ever 
since  the  time  of  the  apostles.  St.  Austin'"  himself 
dissuaded  him  from  the  undertaking,  and  when  it 
w-as  finished,  he  would  not  suffer  it  to  be  read  in  his 
diocese  for  fear  of  giving  scandal  to  the  people ; 
telling  him,  further,"*  what  a  tumult  had  been  raised 
in  one  of  the  churches  of  Africa,  by  a  bishop's  in- 
troducing his  translation,  which  he  was  forced  to 
lay  aside  again  for  fear  all  his  people  should  have 
deserted  him.  But  in  other  places  it  met  with  a 
kinder  reception ;  for  by  degi'ees  it  came  to  be  used 
by  learned  men  in  their  expositions.  Gregory  the 
Great  makes  use  of  both  translations,'"  caUing 
St.  Jerom's  the  New  Translation,  and  the  other  the 
Old ;  which  was  otherwise  called  the  Itala,  and  Vul- 
gata,  and  Communis,  because  it  was  the  most  com- 
mon and  vulgar  translation  used  in  all  the  Latin 
and  Italic  churches.  The  present  Vulgar  Latin 
translation  is  supposed  by  learned  men  neither  to  be 
the  ancient  Vulgar,  nor  St.  Jerom's  New  one,  but  a 
mixture  of  both  together.'^  The  Psalms,  in  the 
present  Vulgar,  are  not  from  the  Hebrew,  but  are  of 
St.  Jerom's  Translation  from  the  Septuagint  of  Ln- 
cian's  Emendation.  The  other  books  come  nearer 
the  Hebrew  than  they  do  to  the  Septuagint,  which 
shows  that  they  have  something  of  St.  Jerom's 
Translation.  But  the  Psalms  were  always  read  at 
Rome  according  to  the  Old  Version,  and  continued 
so  to  be  used  till  Pope  Pius  V.  ordered  St.  Jerom's 
Version,  with  Emendations  from  the  Septuagint,  to 
be  put  in  its  place.  And  so  the  Old  Translation  of 
the  Psalms  came  to  be  called  the  Roman  Psalter; 
and  St.  Jerom's  New  Translation,  the  Galilean  Psal- 
ter, because  it  was  immediately  received  in  the  Gal- 
ilean church.  This  is  observed  both  by  Mabillon'^' 
and  Bona,"-  out  of  Berno  Augiensis  and  Strabo, 
who  say,  The  French  and  Germans  took  the  New 
Translation  of  the  Psalms  corrected  from  the  Sep- 
tuagint by  St.  Jerom,  whilst  the  Romans  continued 
to  use  the  old  Vulgar  corrupt  edition :  which  is  still 
read  in  the  Vatican  church  at  Rome,  and  the  Am- 
brosian  church  at  Milan,  and  St.  Mark's  at  Venice: 
and  Bona  is  so  free  as  to  say,  he  thinks  it  had  been 
more  for  the  honour  and  benefit  of  the  church  to 
have  kept  still  to  the  Old  Version  of  the  Psalter, 


since  now  there  is  a  great  disagreement  between  the 
Breviary  and  the  Missal,  whilst  the  same  Psalms  arc 
sung  diirerent  ways,'-'^  in  the  Missal  according  to  the 
Old  Translation,  and  in  the  Breviary  according  to 
the  New  one  :  which  he  speaks  of  as  a  mistake,  but 
tenderly,  because  though  it  was  a  deviation  from  the 
old  rule  observed  in  Gregory's  Sacramentarium,  and 
the  Missa  Mozarabica,  and  the  Ambrosian  Liturgy, 
yet  it  was  Pope  Pius's  order  that  made  the  cor- 
rection. 

I  might  here  have  added  several  other  things  re- 
lating to  the  ancient  way  of  dividing  the  several 
books  of  Scripture  into  chapters,  and  verses,  and 
canons,  and  sections,  and  sub-sections,  very  much 
differing  from  the  present  way  of  dividing  them  into 
chapter  and  verse :  but  because  observations  of  this 
kind  are  very  intricate  of  themselves,  and  have  no 
relation  to  the  service  of  the  church,  which  is  the 
subject  in  hand,  I  shall  omit  them  here,  with  many 
other  miscellany  rites  of  the  same  nature,  which  will 
be  more  proper  to  be  explained  in  a  critical  discourse 
by  themselves ;  and  now  proceed  to  the  next  part 
of  the  service  of  the  church  in  the  missa  catcchu- 
menorum,  which  was  the  sermon  or  homily,  imme- 
diately after  the  reading  of  the  Psalms  and  other 
Scriptures,  before  any  prayers  were  made  either  for 
particular  orders  of  men,  such  as  catechumens, 
energumens,  penitents,  &c.,  or  for  the  general  state 
of  Christ's  church. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

OF    PREACHING,  AND  THE  USAGES    RELATING    TO  IT, 
IN    THE   ANCIENT    CHURCH. 

Immediately  after  the  reachng  of  the  ^  ,  , 

^  Sect.  ]. 

Psalms  and  lessons  out  of  the  Scrip-  ci^nVcXThom'i- 
tures,  before  the  catechumens  were  iTiocuHm,'Ii'''<rarto- 
dismissed,  followed  the  sermon,  which  '""'  *'^' 
the  bishop,  or  some  other  appointed  by  him,  made 
to  the  people.  This  being  done  in  the  presence  of 
the  catechumens,  Avas  therefore  usually  reckoned  a 
part  of  the  missa  catechumenorum,  or  ante-commu- 
nion service.  Such  discourses  were  commonly 
termed  homilies,  from  the  Greek  oniMai,  which  sig- 
nifies indifferently  any  discourse  of  instruction  to 
the  people,  whether  composed  by  the  preacher  him- 
self, or  read  out  of  a  book  composed  by  another; 
though  we  now  generally  restrain  it  to  the  latter 
sense  in  our  modern  way  of  speaking.     Among  the 


'"  Aug.  Ep.  19.  ad  Hieron.      '«  Aug.  Ep.  10.  ad  Hieron. 
us  Greg.  M.  Ep.  ad  Leandr.  ante  Moral,  in  Job.  et  lib. 
20.  Moral,  cap.  3. 

"»  Vide  Walton.  Prolegom.  10.  n.  9. 
'^'  Mabil.  de  Ciirsu  GaUicano,  p.  398. 
•2  Z 


'"  Bona,  Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  2.  cap.  3.  n.  4. 

'■•'  Bona,  ibid.  n.  5.    Haec  autem  dissonantia,  ablato  nunc 
Veteri  Psalterio,  saepeoccurrit.  Ca;terum  istahocloconotare 
libuit,  non  ut  quenquam  carperem,  sed  ne  prisca  ecclesisB  ' 
disci plina  ignoraretur. 


706 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIV. 


Latins,  they  were  frequently  called  tracfatus,  as  ap- 
pears from  many  passages  of  Cyprian,  Optatus,  St' 
Ambrose,  St.  Austin,  St.  Jerom,  Gaudentius,  Chry- 
sologus,  and  many  others  collected  by  Ferrarius,' 
Avhich  I  think  it  needless  to  recite.  Only  I  shall 
observe  one  thing,  that  this  word  signifies  any  ex- 
position or  handUng  of  Scripture,  as  well  by  way  of 
writing,  as  preaching :  and  in  both  senses  the  trac- 
tciforcs,  the  preachers  and  expositors  of  Scripture, 
were  opposed  to  the  canontci  et  authentici,  the  pro- 
phets, evangelists,  and  apostles,  who  wrote  by  in- 
spiration, and  whose  authority  was  absolutely  in- 
fallible and  authentic;  which  could  not  be  said  of 
any  expositors,  however  excellent  or  learned,  who 
dictated  their  thoughts  without  any  such  peculiar 
assistance.  This  distinction  is  often  inculcated  by 
St.  Austin :  I  confess,  says  he,  writing  to  St.  Je- 
rom," I  have  learned  to  pay  this  reverence  and 
honour  only  to  those  books  of  Scripture  which  are 
called  canonical,  that  I  most  firmly  believe  none  of 
the  authors  of  them  was  guilty  of  any  error  in  writ- 
ing. And  if  I  find  any  thing  in  those  books  which 
seems  contrary  to  truth,  I  make  no  doubt  but  that  it 
is  either  a  corruption  of  the  copy,  or  that  the  trans- 
lator did  not  hit  the  sense,  or  that  I  myself  do  not 
understand  it.  But  I  read  all  others  with  this  cau- 
tion and  reserve,  that  however  eminent  they  be  for 
piety  and  learning,  I  do  not  believe  what  they  say 
to  be  true  merely  because  it  was  their  opinion ;  but 
because  they  persuade  me  either  by  those  canonical 
authors,  or  by  probable  reason,  which  cames  the 
appearance  of  truth.  So  again,  in  his  book  De 
Catechizandis  Rudibus,^  he  distinguishes  the  in- 
spired writers,  by  the  name  of  canonical,  from  all 
others,  whom  he  calls  tractators  and  expositors  of 
Scripture.  As  Claudianus  Mamertus  speaks'  of  all 
expositors  under  the  name  of  tractators,  but  of  the 
holy  penmen  themselves  under  the  title  of  authen- 
tics.  St.  Austin  *  and  St.  Jerom  *  often  speak  of 
preaching  under  the  name  of  disputations.  Tertul- 
lian'  calls  them  allocutions;  dividing  the  whole 
service  into  these  four  parts,  reading  the  Scriptures, 
singing  the  Psalms,  making  allocutions,  and  send- 


ing up  prayers.  Among  the  Greeks  they  are  fre- 
quently called  Xoyoi,  which  answers  to  the  Latin 
word  sermones,  and  the  English  sermons.  The  most 
ancient  name  is  that  of  evangcJium,  and  ivayyiXiKia- 
Bai,  appropriated  more  peculiarly  to  the  preaching 
of  the  apostles;  and  therefore  seldom  or  never 
ascribed  to  any  others  by  ecclesiastical  writers.  A 
more  general  name  in  Scripture,  is  that  of  SiSatrKu- 
Xia,  doctrine  and  teaching :  whence  preachers  of 
the  word  are  called  SiddaKoXoi,  doctors  and  teachers, 
by  St.  Paul,  I  Cor.  xii.  2S,  29,  which  Vincentius 
Lirinensis  observes  to  be  the  same  as  tractatores^  in 
after  ages.  St.  Paul  also  uses  the  word  Kti^vyfia,  for 
preaching,  1  Cor.  ii.  4,  and  in  many  other  places* 
of  his  Epistles.  And  so  it  is  sometimes  used  by  ec- 
clesiastical writers  after  him.  But  we  must  carefully 
note,  that  more  commonly  the  words  Ktjpvaaeiv  and 
Ktjpvyna  among  the  Greeks,  as  also  pradicatio  and 
prcedicare  among  the  Latins,  signify  a  very  different 
thing,  viz.  that  part  of  the  deacon's  office,  which 
he  performed  as  the  common  K^pw^  or  preeco  of  the 
church,  dictating  the  usual  forms  of  prayer  to  the 
people,  in  which  they  were  to  join,  and  calling  upon 
them  as  their  guide  and  director  in  all  other  parts 
of|Divine  service.  This  I  have  had  occasion  to 
speak  more  largely  of  in  a  former  Book,'"  where  we 
have  particularly  considered  the  ordinary  office  of 
deacons,  and  showed,  that  they  had  no  authority 
in  ordinary  cases  either  to  preach,  or  consecrate  the 
eucharist,  or  baptize,  but  whatever  they  did  of  this 
kind,  was  either  in  case  of  great  necessity,  or  by 
special  commission  and  direction.  And  therefore 
those  ancient  canons  which  speak  of  their  predica- 
tion," are  not  to  be  understood  of  their  preaching 
sermons,  but  of  their  proclaiming  to  the  people  such 
directions  in  performing  Divine  oflSces,  as  they 
were  concerned  to  give  them  by  virtue  of  their 
office,  as  the  common  heralds  and  criers  of  the 
church. 

The   deacons  indeed,  in   cases  of         ^^^^  ^ 
exigence,  were  allowed  to  read  the  pe^''offi«o?Mrh'o'i^ 
homilies  of  the  fathers,  as  they  did  o'rdina''rv' M^es^and 

,11  /•ri'j.  ^   '    ^     •     A.^         not  of  tiencous. 

the  lessons  or  Scripture  :  which  is  the 


'  Ferrar.  de  liitu  Concion.  lib.  1.  cap.  1. 

-  Aug.  Ep.  19.  ad  Hieron.  cap.  ].  Ego  enim  fateor  cha- 
ritati  tuae,  solis  eis  Scripturariim  libris  qui  jam  canonici  ap- 
pellantur,  didici  hunc  tiniorem  lionoremqiie  deferre,  et  nul- 
hiiu  eoruni  auctorem  scribendo  aliquid  errasse  firmissime 
credam.  Ac  si  aliquid  ia  eis  offendero  literis,  quod  videa- 
tur  contrarium  vcritali :  nihil  aliud,  quam  vel  mendosum 
esse  codicem,  vel  intcrpretem  non  asseqiuitum  esse  quod 
dictum  est,  vel  me  minime  intellexisse,  non  amhigam.  Alios 
autem  ita  lego,  ut,  quanta  libet  sanctitate  doctrinaque  prae- 
polleaut,  non  ideo  ve.runi  putem,  quia  ipsi  ita  senserunt ; 
sed  quia  mihi  per  illos  auctores  canonicos,  vel  probabili  ra- 
tione,  quod  a  veio  non  abhorreat,  persuadere  potuerunt. 

3  Aug.  de  Catechiz.  lludibus,  cap.  8.  t.  4.  p.  298.  Si  li- 
bris ei  persuasum  esse  videris,  sive  cauonicis  sive  utilium 
tractatorum,  &c. 

^  .Mamert.  de   Statu  Animas,  lib.  2.  cap.  10.     Sed  nimc 


locus  et  tempus  est,  ut  sicut  a  philosophis  ad  tractatores,  a 
tractatoribus  ad  authenticos  gradum  consequar,  ita,&c.  It. 
lib.  1.  cap.  2.   Post  authenticorum  plurimos  tractatores,  &c. 

*  Aug.  Tract.  89.  in  Joan.  Confess,  lib.  5.  cap.  13.  Horn. 
50  et  81.  de  Diversis. 

«  Hieron.  Ep.  22.  ad  Eustoch.  cap.  15. 

'  Tertul.  de  Aniraa,  cap.  9.  Jam  vero  prout  Scriptures 
leguntur,  aut  Psalmi  canuntur,  aut  adlocutiones  proferuutur, 
aut  petitiones  delegantur,  &c.  So  frequently  in  Gregory 
the  Great  the  sermon  is  called  simply,  Locutio.  Horn.  5,  9, 
14,  et  22.  in  Ezekiel. 

*  Vincent.  Commonitor.  cap.  40.  Doctores,  qui  tracta- 
tores nunc  appellantur. 

9  Vid.  1  Cor.  i.  21.  It  1  Cor.  xiv.  15;  2  Tim.  iv.  17  ; 
Tit.  i.  3. 

•"Book  II.  chap.  20.  sect.  10  and  11. 

"  Cone.  Ancyran.  can.  2.     Cone.  Tolet.  4.  can.  39. 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


707 


reason  assigned  by  the  council  of  Vaison'-  for  per- 
mitting them  so  to  do,  when  the  presbyter  was  sick 
or  infirm.  For  if  deacons  were  worthy  to  read  what 
Christ  has  spoken  in  the  Gospel,  why  should  they 
be  thought  unworthy  to  rehearse  publicly  the  ex- 
positions or  homilies  of  the  fathers  ?  But  except- 
ing such  cases,  we  very  rarely  find  any  permission 
so  much  as  to  read  a  homily  granted  them.  For 
preaching  anciently  was  one  of  the  chief  offices  of 
a  bishop :  insomuch  that  in  the  African  churches 
a  presbyter  was  never  known  to  preach  before  a  bi- 
shop in  his  cathedral  church  till  St.  Austin's  time, 
but  the  bishop  always  discharged  this  office  him- 
self, and  St.  Austin  was  the  first  presbyter  in  that 
part  of  the  world,  that  ever  was  allowed  to  preach 
in  the  presence  of  his  bishop,  as  has  been  showed 
out  of  Possidius,"  the  writer  of  his  Life,  in  a 
former  Book."  It  is  true,  in  the  Eastern  churches 
presbyters  were  sometimes  allowed  to  preach  in  the 
great  church  before  the  bishop  ;  but  that  was  not 
to  discharge  him  of  the  duty  ;  for  still  he  preached 
a  sermon  at  the  same  time  after  them,  as  we  shall 
see  from  the  practice  of  Chrj^sostom  and  Flavian  at 
Antioch,  and  other  examples  hereafter. 

In  the  lesser  churches  of  the  city  and  countrj^ 
about,  this  office  was  devolved  upon  presbyters,  as 
the  bishop's  proper  assistants ;  and  the  deacons,  ex- 
cept in  the  forementioned  cases,  were  not  author- 
ized to  perform  it.  So  that  this  office  of  preach- 
ing the  Gospel,  was  then  esteemed  the  proper  office 
of  bishops  and  presbyters ;  the  bishop  discharging 
it  personally  in  his  cathedral  church,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  his  presbj^ters,  or  alone  without  them ; 
and  vicariously  by  his  presbyters,  where  he  could 
not  be  present,  in  the  lesser  churches.  There  are  a 
great  many  serious  passages  in  the  ancient  records 
relating  to  this  matter,  as  well  in  the  imperial  laws 
as  the  canons  of  the  church,  and  the  writings  of 
the  most  considerable  fathers,  partly  impressing 
this  as  a  necessary  duty  of  the  episcopal  and  pas- 
toral function,  and  partly  complaining  of  the  neg- 
lect of  it,  and  partly  threatening  censures  and 
punishments  to  the  offenders.  St.  Chrysostom,'*  on 
those  words  to  Timothy,  "  A  bishop  must  be  apt  to 
teach,"  dtdoKUKov,  says.  Other  qualifications,  such  as 
those,  "  He  must  be  sober,  vigilant,  of  good  be- 
haviour, given  to  hospitality,"  &c.,  may  be  in  sub- 
jects; but  because  a  bishop  ought  to  have  those 
qualifications  that  belong  to  rulers,   the   apostle 


therefore  added,  "He  must  be  apt  to  leach:"  for 
this  is  not  required  of  subjects  ;  but  is  most  espe- 
cially required  of  those  who  have  the  office  of 
governing  committed  to  them.  And  again,  on  those 
words  to  Titus,  "  Holding  fast  the  faithful  word,  as 
he  hath  been  taught,"  (or,  which  relates  to  teaching, 
Tov  Kara  SiSaxriv  \6yov,)  "  that  he  maybe  able  by  sound 
doctrine  both  to  exhort  and  to  convince  the  gain- 
sayers,"  he  says,  St.  Paul  converted  the  world,  not 
so  much  by  his  miracles,  as  by  his  continual  preach- 
ing :  and  therefore  a  bishop  must  be  able  to  exhort 
by  sound  doctrine,  that  is,  to  preserve  his  flock,  and 
overthrow  its  enemies.  And  unless  he  be  such  a 
one,  all  is  lost.  For  he  that  knows  not  how  to  op- 
pose the  enemy,  and  captivate  every  thought  to  the 
obedience  of  Christ,  and  pull  down  the  vain  imagin- 
ations of  men,  as  he  knows  not  how  to  teach  ac- 
cording to  sound  doctrine,  so  he  ought  to  be  far" 
from  the  teaching  throne,  Troppoj  i^io  ^povov  SiSav- 
KaXiKov ;  where  it  is  observable,  that  Chrj^sostom 
therefore  calls  the  bishop's  throne,  the  throne  of 
doctrine,  or  teaching  throne,  because  preaching 
sound  doctrine  was  so  necessary  a  part  of  the  bi- 
shop's office,  that  he  could  not  be  without  it.  St. 
Ambrose  likewise,  describing  the  office  of  a  bishop, 
does  it  chiefly  by  styling  it  the  office  of  teachifig  ; 
complaining  modestly  of  his  own  hard  fate,  in  being 
forced  against  his  will  to  take  upon  him  the  office 
of  the  priesthood,"  that  is,  to  be  made  a  bishop ; 
which  obliged  him  to  teach  others,  before  he  had 
well  learned  himself.  For  he  was  made  bishop  of  a 
catechumen.  Sidonius  Apollinaris  makes  the  same 
description  of  the  office  of  a  bishop,  complaining,  in 
the  like  modest  way  with  St.  Ambrose,''  of  the  weight 
of  the  profession  that  was  laid  upon  his  shoulders^ 
when,  by  being  made  a  bishop  against  his  will,  he 
was  forced  to  teach  before  he  had  learned,  and 
preach  good  to  others  before  he  had  done  any 
himself :  hke  a  barren  tree,  when  he  had  no  works 
to  show  for  fruit,  he  was  forced  to  scatter  words 
for  leaves  :  meaning  the  necessity  of  preaching, 
that  was  laid  upon  him  by  taking  the  office  of 
a  bishop.  St.  Cyril  of  Alexandria,  in  like  manner, 
calls  the  office  of  a  bishop,"  a^iwua  MavKaXiKov, 
the  dignity  or  honour  of  teaching.  And  in  the 
sixth  general  council,  where  Maximus,  bishop  of 
Antioch,  was  degraded  for  his  heresy,  he  is  said  to 
be  removed^"  from  the  throne  of  teaching,  that 
is,  from  the  episcopal  office,  of  which  preaching 


'=  Cone.  Vasens.  2.  can.  2.  Si  presbyter,  aliqua  infirmi- 
tate  prohibente,  per  seipsum  non  potiierit  praedicare,  sanc- 
torum patrum  homiliae  a  diaconibus  recitentur.  Sienim 
digni  sunt  diaconi,  quae  Christus  in  Evangelic  loquutus  est, 
legere  :  quare  indigni  judicentur,  sanctorum  patrum  expo- 
sifiones  publice  recitare  ? 

"  Possid.  Vit.  Aug.  cap.  5.     '<  Book  11.  chap.  3.  sect.  4. 

'5  Chrys.  Horn.  10.  in  1  Tim.  iii.  p.  1569. 

'«  Ibid.  Horn.  2.  in  Tit.  p.  1703. 

"  Ambros.  de  Offic.  lib.  1.  cap.  1.  Titul.  Capitis.  Epis- 
2  7.  2 


copi  proprium  munus  docere  populum.  Item,  Cum  jam  ef- 
fugere  non  possimus  ofBcium  docendi,  quod  nobis  refugien- 
tibus  imposii-t  sacerdotii  necessitudo,  &c. 

"  Sidon.  lib.  5.  Ep.  3.  Indignissimo  tantse  professionis 
pondus  impactum  est,  qui  miser  ante  compulsus  docere, 
quam  discere,  et  ante  praesumens  bonum  praedicare,  quani 
faceve,  tanquam  sterilis  arbor,  cum  non  babeam  opera  pro 
pomis,  spargo  verba  pro  foliis. 

'»  Cyril.  Ep.  ad  Monachos,  in  Cone.  Ei)hes.  par.  1.  cap. 28. 

™  Cone.  6.  Gencr.  Act.  12.  p.  937.     OiiSafiw^  6  5'fTos  ko- 


TOS 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIV. 


was  a  special  ingredient.  The  rule  of  the  Apos- 
tolical Canons  is,  That  a  bishop  who  neglects  his 
clergy  or  his  people,  and  teaches  them  not'' 
the  rules  of  piety,  shall  be  suspended ;  and  if  he 
persists  in  his  neglect,  shall  be  deposed.  For  it  was 
his  office  to  teach  the  clergy  as  well  as  the  people, 
and  to  expound  the  Scriptures  to  them.  Whence 
St.  Jerom  gives  it  as  part  of  the  character  of  Gregory 
Nazianzen,  That  he  was  an  eloquent  teacher,  and 
the  master  under  whom  he  learned  the  Scriptures, 
as  he  explained^  them.  Some  would  have  excused 
themselves,  by  saying  they  would  teach  the  people 
by  their  example.  To  which  St.  Jerom  replies,^ 
That  a  bishop's  innocent  conversation,  without 
preaching,  did  as  much  harm  by  its  silence  as  it  did 
good  by  its  example.  For  the  barking  of  the  dogs 
is  as  necessary  as  the  shepherd's  staff,  to  terrify  and 
beat  off  the  fury  of  the  wolves.  Athanasius'^  gives 
a  very  pathctical  exhortation  to  Dracontius,  a 
bishop  newly  ordained :  Now  that  you  are  made 
bishop,  says  he,  the  people  expect  that  you  should 
bring  them  food  from  the  doctrine  of  the  Scrip- 
tures ;  but  if,  while  they  expect  it,  they  suffer  want, 
and  you  only  feed  yourself,  what  excuse  will  you 
have,  when  the  Lord  Jesus  shall  come  and  find  his 
sheep  starving  for  want  of  food?  St.  Austin,  in 
one  of  his  homilies"  upon  the  anniversary  of  his 
orc^ination,  represents  this  part  of  a  bishop's  office 
with  great  concern,  as  a  matter  in  which  he  was 
deeply  interested,  and  nearly  affected.  First,  he 
tells  his  people  what  a  burden  was  laid  upon 
him  by  God  in  the  prophet  Ezekiel,  chap,  xxxiii., 
which  was  the  lesson  appointed  for  that  solemnity, 
wherein  were  these  words,  so  full  of  terror :  "  I  have 
made  thee  a  watchman.  If  I  say  to  the  sinner. 
Thou  shalt  surely  die,  and  thou  boldest  thy  peace, 
and  he  die  in  his  sins;  he  indeed  dies  justly,  and 
according  to  his  desert  in  his  sins :  but  his  blood 
will  I  require  at  thy  hands,"  &c.  Upon  which  he 
makes  this  reflection  with  regard  to  his  own  office : 
I  am  a  steward ;  if  I  lay  not  out  my  Lord's  monej% 
but  keep  it  by  me,  the  gospel  terrifies  me.  I  might 
say,  indeed.  What  have  I  to  do  to  be  troublesome 
unto  men,  to  say  to  the  wicked.  Do  not  thus ;  Do 
thus ;  Desist  from  doing  evil  ?  what  have  I  to  do  to 
Ije  thus  iToublesome  unto  men  ?  I  have  received 
how  I  ought  to  live  myself,  as  I  am  enjoined,  as  I 
am  commanded.  I  will  return  what  I  have  received. 
What  have  I  to  do  to  give  account  of  others  ?  But 
the  gospel  terrifies  me.     There  is  nothing  more 


pleasant  than  to  seek  after  the  Divine  treasure  in 
quiet ;  this  is  sweet  and  good ;  but  to  preach,  to 
reprove,  to  coiTCCt,  to  edify,  to  take  the  care  of  every 
other  man  upon  myself,  this  is  a  great  burden,  a 
great  weight,  a  great  laboiu-.  Who  would  not  fly 
fi-om  such  a  labour  ?  But  the  gospel  terrifies  me. 
There  we  read  of  a  certain  servant,  who  said  to  his 
Lord,  "  I  knew  thee  to  be  a  hard  man,  reaping 
where  thou  hast  not  sowed,  therefore  I  kept  thy 
money,"  I  would  not  lay  it  out ;  "  take  that  which  is 
thine."  To  whom  the  Lord  answered,  "  Out  of  thine 
own  mouth  will  I  condemn  thee,  O  thou  wicked 
servant.  Thou  oughtest  to  have  given  my  money 
to  the  bank,  that  when  I  came,  I  might  have  received 
my  own  with  usury."  The  curious  reader  may  find 
a  great  deal  more  to  the  same  purpose  in  St.  Basil's 
Epistles,^"  and  Gregory  Nazianzen's  Complaints,^' 
and  those  of  Cyprian,^  which  I  care  not  here  to 
transcribe.  But  nothing  is  more  remarkable  than 
what  is  said  by  St.  Chrysostom,^  in  his  homily  upon 
the  man  who  was  to  account  to  God  for  ten  thou- 
sand talents ;  where  he  thus  represents  the  account 
which  bishops  must  make  to  God :  Not  only  secular 
magistrates,  says  he,  but  the  rulers  of  the  church, 
Tu>v  tKKXijaiuiv  TrpoiarioTic,  must  render  an  account  of 
their  government  and  administration;  and  they, 
above  all  others,  shall  suffer  bitter  and  grievous 
punishment.  For  they  who  are  intrusted  with  the 
ministry  of  the  word,  shall  be  examined  most  strictly 
and  severely  in  the  next  world,  whether  they  have 
not,  through  sloth  or  envy,  neglected  to  speak  any 
thing  which  they  ought  to  have  spoken ;  and  whe- 
ther they  have  demonstrated  by  their  works  and 
labour,  that  they  have  delivered  all  things  faithfully, 
and  concealed  nothing  that  was  profitable  unto  men. 
Again,  He  that  has  obtained  the  office  of  a  bishop, 
by  how  much  he  is  exalted  to  greater  dignity,  so 
much  the  more  ample  account  shall  he  be  required 
to  give,  not  only  of  his  doctrine  or  teaching,  and 
care  of  the  poor,  but  also  of  his  examination  and 
trial  of  those  who  are  ordained,  with  a  thousand 
other  things  of  the  like  nature.  Where  it  is  evident, 
that  teaching  is  reckoned  as  necessary  a  part  of 
the  bishop's  function,  as  ordination :  and  as  he 
proves  the  one  from  those  words  of  St.  Paul  to 
Timothy,  "  Lay  hands  suddenly  on  no  man,  neither 
be  partaker  of  other  men's  sins ;"  so  he  proves 
the  other  from  those  words  of  the  same  apostle 
to  the  Hebrews,  "  Obey  them  that  have  the  rule 
over  you,  and  submit  yourselves  unto  them :   for 


vwv   irapaoiy^tTxtL   tou   Xonrov    tis    diSaaKaXiKov   KaDi<rui 
bpovov,  K.  T.  \. 

2'  Canon.  Apost.  c.  58. 

"  Hieron.  de  Scriptor.  cap.  117.  Vir  eloquentissimus 
propceptor  mens,  quo  Scripturas  explanante  didici. 

^  Id.  Ep.  83.  ad  Oceanuni.  Sacerdofis  innocens,  sed 
absque  sermone  conversatio,  quantum  e.xempio  prodest, 
tantuni  silentio  nocet.     Nam  et  latratu  canum,  baculoque 


pastoris  luporum  rabies  deterrendaest.  Vid.  Ep.  2.  ad 
Nepotian. 

2^  Athan.  Ep.  ad  Dracont.  t.  ].  p.  954. 

M  Aug.  Serm.  25.  ex  50.  t.  10.  p.  173. 

-«  Basil.  Ep.  61,  69,  185,  293. 

-'  Naz.  Oral.  1.  de  Fuga,  p.  15,  &c.  It.  Tract,  de  Episc. 
Latine,  t.  2.  p.  304.  et  Oral.  32.  p.  519. 

=*  Cypr.  de  Lapsis,  p.  123.        -^  Chiys.  Horn.  1. 1.  5.  p.  9. 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


709 


they  watch  for  your  souls,  as  they  that  must  give 
account,"  Heb.  xiii.  17-  Which,  as  he  truly  ob- 
serves, is  an  argument  full  of  terror.  St.  Chrysos- 
tom  has  abundance  more  to  the  same  purpose  in 
those  excellent  books  of  the  priesthood,  which  were 
composed  on  purpose  to  describe  the  offices  and 
duties  of  a  bishop,  among  which  he  reckons  the 
laborious  work  of  making  continual  homilies'"  and 
set  discourses  to  the  people.  And  whereas  some 
were  ready  to  plead,  that  a  good  life  was  the  main 
thing  required,  to  excuse  their  want  of  knowledge, 
and  study,  and  preaching,  and  disputing,  he  an- 
swers. That  both  these  qualifications  were  required ; 
they  must  not  only  do,  but  teach  the  commands  of 
Christ,  and  guide  others''  by  their  word  and  doc- 
trine, as  well  as  their  practice :  each  of  these  had 
their  part  in  the  episcopal  office,  and  were  neces- 
sary to  assist  one  another,  in  order  to  consummate 
men's  edification.  With  much  more  to  the  same 
purpose,  which  I  here  omit,  because  I  have  more 
fully  represented  it  in  another  Book,'-  where  I  had 
occasion  to  treat  of  the  general  duties  of  the  eccle- 
siastical function. 

What  is  thus  pathetically  pressed  by  private  men, 
is  more  authoritatively  enjoined  by  the  laws  of  the 
church  and  state,  both  concurring  to  enforce  this 
duty.  The  council  of  Laodicea"  speaks  of  it  as  a 
customary  thing,  for  the  bishop  to  make  always  a 
sermon  before  the  catechumens  were  dismissed. 
And  the  council  of  Valentia  in  Spain  does  the  same, 
when  it  orders.  That  catechumens,  and  penitents, 
and  even  heathens,  should  be  allowed  to  hear  the 
bishop's  sermon,'*  because  they  had  experienced 
how  that  by  this  means  many  infidels  had  been 
brought  over  to  the  faith.  These  councils  do  not 
so  much  enjoin  bishops  to  preach,  as  presuppose  it 
to  be  their  constant  and  general  practice.  But  the 
council  of  Trullo  '*  speaks  more  expressly  by  way 
of  injunction.  That  the  rulers  of  churches,  twv 
iKK\rimu)v  TrpoiarCJ-ug,  ought  every  day,  but  especially 
on  the  Lord's  day,  to  teach  all  the  clergj'^  and  peo- 
ple the  words  of  truth  and  godliness,  gathered  out 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  And  in  the  imperial  laws, 
there  are  several  edicts  of  the  secular  power  to  the 
same  purpose.  In  the  Theodosian  Code,  there  is  one 


jointly  made  by  the  three  emperors,  Gratian,  Valen- 
tiuian,  and  Theodosius,  which  bears  this  title,  De 
Munere  seu  Officio  Episcoporum  in  pr.cdicando 
Verbo  Dei,  Of  the  Duty  and  Office  of  Bishops  in 
Preaching  the  Word  of  God.  And  the  body  of  the 
edict '°  charges  all  those  with  sacrilege,  who  either 
confound  the  sanctity  of  the  Divine  law  by  ignorance, 
or  violate  it  by  neglecting  to  preach  it.  And  the 
same  law  now  stands  inserted"  into  the  Justinian 
Code  under  the  charge  of  sacrilege,  both  in  the 
title  and  the  body  of  it  also.  In  another  law  of 
Arcadius  and  Honorius,'*  bishops  are  styled,  the 
men  who,  in  their  several  districts,  are  to  govern  the 
people,  by  instilling  into  them  the  doctrines  of  the 
Christian  religion,  and  more  especially  the  princi- 
ples of  subjection  and  obedience  to  civil  magistrates, 
which  were  often  violated  by  the  tumultuous  prac- 
tices of  the  monks,  who  were  under  their  inspection. 
And  in  another  law'°  of  Theodosius,  all  heretics  are 
forbidden  either  to  teach  or  hear  their  profime  doc- 
trines in  their  unlawful  assemblies  :  more  particu- 
larly, they  who  were  called  bishops  among  them, 
should  not  presume  to  teach  the  faith,  which  they 
themselves  had  not,  nor  ordain  ministers,  when  they 
themselves  were  really  none.  This  supposes  that 
the  offices  of  ordination  and  preaching  were  equally 
the  duties  of  cathohc  bishops,  and  that  the  pretence 
in  heretical  bishops  to  perform  them  was  mere 
usurpation.  And  upon  the  whole  it  appears,  that 
as  preaching  was  an  office  originally  invested  in 
bishops,  as  supreme  pastors  of  the  fiock  of  Christ ; 
so,  by  all  the  rules  and  laws  of  church  and  state,  and 
all  the  ties  of  religion,  they  were  obliged  to  perform 
this  duty  with  all  assiduity  and  diligence,  as  we  find 
they  generally  did  out  of  the  sense  of  the  great  obli- 
gation that  was  laid  upon  them.  And  some  in  the 
Romish  church  (where  this  part  of  the  episcopal 
function  was  for  many  ages  scandalously  neglected) 
have  earnestly  wished  and  laboured  for  the  restora- 
tion and  revival  of  it.  Ilabertus  pleads  hard  for  it, 
and  says  one  thing'"  particularly  remarkable,  to  ex- 
cite those  to  whom  he  writes,  That  he  could  aver 
upon  certain  experience  in  France,  that  there  was 
more  weight  in  the  words  of  every  bishop  to  the 
people,  than  in  six  hundred  of  the  most  eloquent 


^^  Chr^s.  de  Sacerdot.  lib.  5.  cap.  1. 

^'  Chrys.  ibid.  lib.  4.  cap.  8. 

^-  Book  VI.  chap.  3.  sect.  2. 

'■')  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  19.    Ilipl  tou  StUv,  /xtxa  -ras  o/ii- 

Xias   Tolv  iTTKTKOTTUJV,  Kal  TtilV  KaT1]}(OVfxiviOV  tVX'l^  ITTLTe- 

XfTcrOai. 

"  Cone.  Valentin,  can.  1.  Sic  enim  pontificum  prscdica- 
tione  audita  nonnutlos  attractos  ad  fideni  evidenter  scimus. 

'^  Coiic.  Trull,  can.  19.  See  al^ci  in  Cone.  Nic.  2.  can.  2. 
et  Cone.  Ticinense,  can.  5. 

=»  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  IG.  Tit.  2.  de  Episcopis,  Leo^.  2.5.  Qui 
Divinae  legis  sanctitatem,  aut  nesciendo  confundunt,  aut 
negligendo  violant  et  offendunt,  saciilegium  conimittunt. 

"  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  9.  Tit.  29.  de  Crimine  Sacrilegii,  Leg.  1. 


^Cnd.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  40.  de  Poenis,  Leg.  IG.  Ad 
episcoporum  sane  culpam  (ul  coctera)  redundabit,  si  quid 
forte  in  ea  parte  refjionis,  in  qua  ipsi  populo  ChristianiL'  re- 
ligionis,  doctrinoe  iusinuatione  moderantur,  e.\  his  quae  fieri 
hac  lege  jubemus,  amouachis  perpetratum  esse  cognoveriut, 
uec  viudicaverint. 

59  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  IG.  Tit.  5.  de  ILereticis,  Leg.  21.  Nus- 
quam  profana  prascepta  vel  docere  vel  discere  :  ne  antis- 
tites  eorundem  audeant  fidcra  insinuare,  qiiam  non  habeut, 
et  niinistros  creare,  quod  non  sunt. 

*"  Habert.  Archieratic.  par.  7.  Obscrv.  5.  p.  9L  Id  scio 
e.xpertusque  sum,  plus  esse  momenti  in  unius  episcopi  ad 
popidum.  quam  in  sexcentisaliorum  quantumvis  orationibus 
atque  elaboratis. 


710 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIV, 


and  elaborate  discourses  of  other  men.  But  I  re- 
turn to  the  ancient  church. 

It  being  thus  certain  from  what  has 
The  singular  prac-  ^ggn  related,  that  the  work  of  preach- 

ficeof  the  L-liurch  of  '  ^ 

Sermons" iorsefen,"  ing  ^as  Ordinarily  performed  by  bi- 
s«omen"'and"to-^  shops  thcmselves  lu  their  own  church, 
"°'^'"''  either  in  conjunction  with  their  pres- 

byters, or  without  them;  it  is  very  wonderfully 
strange,  and  even  astonishing  and  surprising,  to  hear 
what  Sozomen"  relates  of  the  church  of  Rome  in 
his  time,  that  they  had  no  sermons,  either  by  the 
bishop  or  any  other;  which  was  contrary  to  the 
custom  of  all  other  churches.  For  at  Alexandria, 
the  bishop  alone  preached  without  his  presbyters 
from  the  time  of  Arius  ;  and  in  other  churches  it 
was  done  by  the  bishop  and  presbyters  together ; 
but  in  the  church  of  Rome,  by  neither  the  one  nor 
the  other.  Pagi"  and  Quesnel"  think  Sozomen 
must  needs  be  mistaken,  and  that,  being  a  Greek, 
he  took  this  report  up  by  uncertain  rumour  ;  be- 
cause Pope  Leo,  in  whose  time  Sozomen  lived,  not 
only  preached  constantly  to  the  people,  but  declared 
it  his  duty  so  to  do,  professing  that  he  was  afraid" 
it  should  be  imputed  to  him  as  a  crime,  if  he  was 
wanting  in  this  part  of  his  office  and  ministry.  But 
Valesius,  on  the  other  hand,  is  very  confident  that 
Sozomen's  relation  is  true,  because  Cassiodore,  who 
was  a  senator  and  consul,  and  prtpfectus  jjrcptorio 
at  Rome,  has  the  same  out  of  Sozomen  in  his  His- 
toria  Tripartita,  without  any  correction ;  and  he 
says  further.  That  no  one  can  produce  any  sermons 
preached  to  the  people  by  any  bishop  of  Rome  be- 
fore those  of  Leo,  which  were  not  preached  till  after 
Sozomen  wrote  his  history.  I  will  not  pretend  to 
decide  this  controversy  among  these  learned  men  ; 
but  only  say,  that  however  it  was  in  Sozomen's 
time,  it  seems  to  have  been  otherwise  in  the  days  of 
Justin  Martyr,  when  he  presented  his  Apology  to 
Antoninus  Pius  and  the  senate  of  Rome,  where  he 
lived  and  wrote  at  that  time :  for  there,  describing 
the  business  of  the  Christian  assemblies  on  the 
Lord's  day,  he  expressly  says.  That  after  the  read- 
ing of  the  writings  of  the  apostles  and  prophets,  the 
Trpocarwc,  the  bishop  or  president  of  the  assembly," 
made  a  sermon  to  exhort  and  excite  the  people  to 
the  imitation  of  the  good  things  they  had  heard 
read  out  of  them.  Where  it  must  reasonably  be 
supposed,  that  writing  at  Rome,  and  to  the  Roman 
senate,  he  spake  at  least  of  the  usual  custom  and 


practice  of  the  Roman  church.  And  if  it  was  other- 
wise in  the  time  of  Sozomen,  some  alteration  must 
have  happened  in  the  intei-val.  Perhaps  they  might 
have  taken  up  the  custom  of  reading  the  homilies 
of  famous  writers  among  the  lessons,  or  immediately 
after,  by  the  deacon,  (as  I  have  showed  before,  they 
read  in  some  churches  the  homilies  of  Ephrem  Syrus, 
and  the  books  of  Clemens  Romanus  and  Hermes 
Pastor ;"  and  in  the  old  Lectionariums,  there  are 
frequently  lessons  appointed  out  of  the  homihes  of 
St.  Austin,  St.  Ambrose,  and  others,  as  it  is  now  in 
the  Roman  Breviary,)  and  this  might  supply  the 
place  of  a  sermon,  till  Leo  brought  up  the  ancient 
way  of  preaching  in  the  Roman  church  again,  which 
was  afterwards  discontinued  for  live  hundred  years 
together,  till  Pius  Quintus,  like  another  Leo,  revived 
the  practice,  as  we  are  told  by  Surius,  one  of  their 
own  writers." 

But  there  is  another  question  must 
be  resolved  with  relation  to  the  an-     whether  I'aymen 

11-  111  "^'■^  ^^"  allowed  to 

cient  church,  that  is,  whether  laymen  p.^sach  in  the  an- 

''  cient  church. 

were  ever  allowed  by  authority  to 
make  sermons  to  the  people  ?  That  they  did  it  in  a 
private  way  as  catechists  in  their  catechetic  schools 
at  Alexandria  and  other  places,  there  is  no  ques- 
tion. For  Origen  read  lectures  in  their  catechetic 
schools  of  Alexandria,  before  he  was  in  orders,"'  by 
the  appointment  of  Demetrius ;  and  St.  Jerom  says,''* 
There  was  a  long  succession  of  famous  men  in  that 
school,  who  were  called  ecclesiastical  doctors  upon 
that  account.  But  this  was  a  different  thing  from 
their  public  preaching  in  the  church.  Sometimes 
the  monks,  who  were  only  laymen,  took  upon  them 
to  preach  publicly  in  the  church  :  but  this  was  op- 
posed and  censured,  as  a  usurpation  of  an  office 
that  did  not  belong  to  them.  All  monks  anciently, 
considered  only  as  monks,  were  no  more  than  lay- 
men, as  I  have  fully  showed^"  in  another  place :  and 
therefore,  as  monks,  they  had  no  title  to  any  part  of 
the  ecclesiastical  office  or  function.  Particularly 
St.  Jerom'*'  says.  The  office  of  a  monk  was  not  to 
teach,  but  to  mourn.  And  that  the  case  of  the 
monks  and  clergy  was  very  different  from  each 
other:  the  clergy^-  are  those  that  feed  the  sheep, 
the  monks  are  among  those  that  are  fed.  And  there- 
fore, when  some  monks  in  the  Eastern  parts  about 
Antioch,  presuming  on  their  own  qualifications  and 
knowledge,  took  upon  them  to  preach  publicly  in  the 
churches.  Pope  Leo  wrote  two  letters  '^  to  Maximus, 


<>  Sozom.  lib.  7.  cap.  19. 

*^  I'agi,  Critic,  in  Baton,  an.  57.  n.  3. 

43  Quesnel.  Dissert.  6.  de  Jejuuio  Sabbali,  et  Dissert.  1. 
(le  Vita  Leonis. 

■•^  Leo,  Serin.  3.  de  Epiphania.  Ut  nostri  nihil  desit 
officii,  &c. 

•"5  Justin.  Apol.  2.  p.  08.  "  Chap.  3.  sect.  14. 

•"  Surius,  Hist.  ap.  Blondel.  Apolog.  pro  Sentent.  Hiero- 
iiymi,  p.  58. 

«  Vid.  Euseb.  lib.  6.  c.  3.       *"  Hieron.  de  Script,  cap.  36. 


^o  Book  111.  chap.  2.  sect.  7. 

^'  Hieron.  Ep.  55.  ad  Riparium.  Monachus  non  docentis, 
sed  plangentis  habet  officium. 

^'  Id.  Ep.  1.  ad  Heliodor.  Alia  monachorum  est  causa, 
alia  clericorum  :  clerici  pascunt  oves,  ego  pascor. 

''  Leo,  Ep.  60.  al.  62.  ad  Maximum,  Antioch.  lUud 
quoque  convenit  praecavere,  ut  prater  eos  qui  sunt  Domini 
sacerdotes,  nullus  sibi  jus  docendi  et  preedicaudi  audeat  ven- 
dicare,  sive  sit  ille  monachus,  sive  laiciis,  qui  alicujus  sci- 
entia;  nomine  glorietur.    It.  Ep.  61.  al.63.  ad  Theodorit. 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHIilSTIAN  CHURCH. 


711 


bishop  of  Antioch,  and  Theocloret,  to  engage  them  to 
lay  a  restraint  upon  them,  telling  them,  That  besides 
the  priests  of  the  Lord,  none  ought  to  presume  to 
take  upon  them  the  power  of  teaching  or  preaching, 
whether  he  were  monk  or  layman,  whatever  know- 
ledge he  could  pretend  to.  Yet,  in  some  cases,  a 
special  commission  was  given  to  a  layman  to  preach, 
and  then  he  might  do  it  by  the  authority  of  the 
bisho2:)'s  commission  for  that  time.  Thus  Eusebius*^ 
says,  Origen  was  approved  by  Alexander,  bishop  of 
Jerusalem,  and  Theoctistus  of  Cfcsarea,  to  preach 
and  expound  the  Scriptures  publicly  in  the  church, 
when  he  was  only  a  layman.  And  when  Demetrius 
of  Alexandria  made  a  remonstrance  against  this,  as 
an  innovation,  that  had  never  been  seen  or  heard 
of  before,  that  a  layman  should  preach  to  the  peo- 
ple in  the  presence  of  bishops ;  Alexander  replied 
in  a  letter,  and  told  him,  he  was  much  mistaken ; 
for  it  was  a  usual  thing  in  many  places,  where  men 
were  well  qualified  to  edify  the  brethren,  for  bishops 
to  entreat  them  to  preach  to  the  people.  As  Euelpis 
was  requested  by  Neon  at  Laranda,  and  Paulinus 
by  Celsus  at  Iconium,  and  Theodorus  by  Atticus  at 
Synada.  These  had  all  special  directions  from  their 
bishops  to  preach ;  and,  therefore,  whatever  other 
irregularity  or  novelty  there  might  be  in  the  thing, 
it  was  not  liable  to  the  charge  of  usurpation.  Hal- 
lier,  a  famous  Sorbonne  doctor,  is  of  opinion,  that 
they  might  do  it  by  permission :"  and  he  thinks  this 
may  be  deduced  from  that  canon  of  the  fourth  coun- 
cil of  Carthage,^*  which  forbids  a  layman  to  teach 
in  the  presence  of  the  clergy,  except  they  request 
him  to  do  it.  If  this  relate  to  public  teaching  in 
the  church,  it  implies,  that  they  might  do  it  by 
special  indulgence  and  concession.  The  ancient 
author  of  the  Comment  upon  the  Epistles,*'  under 
the  name  of  St.  Ambrose,  says.  That  in  the  begin- 
ning of  Christianity,  for  the  augmentation  and  in- 
crease of  the  church,  a  general  commission  was 
granted  unto  all,  both  to  preach  the  gospel,  and 
baptize,  and  explain  the  Scriptures,  in  ecclesiastical 
assemblies.  But  when  the  church  had  spread  itself 
into  all  places,  buildings  were  erected,  and  rulers  and 
other  officers  were  appointed,  that  no  one  among 
the  clergy  should  presume  to  meddle  with  any  office, 
which  he  knew  was  not  committed  to  his  trust.  And 
hence  it  was  that  deacons  in  his  time  did  not  preach 
to  the  people,  nor  the  inferior  clergy  or  laymen  bap- 
tize.    What  he  says  of  the  apostles'  days,  must  rest 

^*  Euseb.  lib.  6.  c.  19.  Epiphan.  Haer.  64.  seems  to  say_he 
was  then  a  presbyter:  but  it  must  be  a  mistake. 

**  Hallier.  de  Hierarch.  Ecclesiast.  lib.  1.  cap.  7.  p.  67. 
Laicis  non  nisi  ex  indulgentia  illud  attingere  debere.  It. 
p.  79.  ibid. 

^^  Cone.  Carth.  4.  can.  98.  Laicus,  prwsentibus  clericis, 
nisi  ipsis  rogantibus,  docere  non  audeat. 

"  Ambros.  Com.  in  Ephes.  iv.  p.  948.  Ut  cresCeret  plebs 
et  multiplicaretur,  omnibus  inter  initia  concessum  est  et 
evangelizareetbaptizare,  etScripturasinecclcsiaexplanare. 


upon  his  authority  :  if  he  means  an  unlimited  com- 
mission to  all  in  general,  without  previous  qualifi- 
cations, and  examination  of  them,  his  opinion  is 
certainly  singular.  But  if  he  means  only,  that  all 
who  had  extraordinary  measures  of  spiritual  gifts, 
were  allowed  to  exercise  those  gifts  sometimes  in 
preaching  in  public  assemblies,  without  any  external 
ordination,  besides  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  of  pro- 
phecy; that  is  no  more  than  what  the  best  inter- 
preters of  those  words  of  St.  Paul,  I  Cor.  xiv.  31, 
"  Ye  may  all  })rophesy  one  by  one,"  commonly  allow: 
that  is,  all  who  had  the  gift  of  prophecy,  not  every 
Christian,  might  use  the  word  of  exhortation  in  the 
church.''  But  then,  as  such  extraordinary  gifts  of 
the  Spirit  of  prophecy  were  in  a  manner  peculiar  to 
the  apostolical  age,  this  could  not  be  a  rule  to  the 
following  ages  of  the  church.  And,  therefore,  w-hen 
once  these  gifts  were  ceased,  the  church  went  pru- 
dently by  another  rule,  to  allow  none  but  such  as 
WTre  called  b}'^  an  ordinary  commission,  to  perform 
this  office,  except  where  some  extraordinary  natural 
endowments,  (such  as  were  in  Origen,)  answering 
in  some  measure  to  those  spiritual  gifts,  made  it 
proper  to  grant  a  licence  to  laymen  to  exercise  their 
talents  for  the  benefit  of  the  church.  Or  else,  when 
necessity  imposed  the  duty  on  deacons  to  i)erform 
the  office  of  preaching,  when  the  bishop  and  pres- 
byters were  by  sickness  or  other  means  debarred 
from  it.  For  the  foresaid  author  plainly  says.  That 
deacons  in  his  time  did  not  ordinarily  pradicarc  in 
popido,  preach  to  the  people ;  as  being  an  office  to 
which  they  had  no  ordinary  commission.  And  the 
same  is  said  by  the  author  of  the  Constitutions,** 
and  many  others.  Therefore,  since  deacons  were 
not  allowed  this  power,  but  only  in  some  specia' 
cases,  it  is  the  less  to  be  wondered,  that,  after  the 
ceasing  of  spiritual  gifts,  it  should  generally  be  de- 
nied to  laymen. 

As  to  women,  w^hatever  gifts  they 
could  pretend  to,  they  were  never  al-  women  never  ai- 
lowed  to  preach  publicly  in  the  church, 
either  by  the  apostles*  rules,  or  those  of  succeeding 
ages.  The  apostle  says  expressly,  "  Let  your  women 
keep  silence  in  the  churches :  for  it  is  not  permitted 
unto  them  to  speak  :  but  they  are  commanded  to  be 
under  obedience,  as  also  saith  the  law,"  I  Cor.  xiv. 
34.  And,  "  if  they  w-ill  learn  any  thing,  let  them 
ask  their  husbands  at  home ;  for  it  is  a  shame  for 
women  to  speak  in  the  church."  And  again,  I  Tim. 


At  ubi  autem  omnia  loca  circumplexa  est  ecclesia,  conven- 
ticula  conslituta  sunt,  et  rectoreset  cajtera  officia  inecclesiis 
sunt  ordinata,  ut  nullus  de  clero  auderet,  qui  ordinatus  non 
esset,  praesumere  officium,  quod  sciret  non  sibi  crcditum  vel 
concessum.  Hinc  ergo  est,  unde  nunc  neque  diaconi  in 
populo  praedicant,  neque  clerici  vel  laici  baptizant. 

^  Vide  Bezam  et  Estium  in  loc. 

^  Constit.  lib.  3.  cap.  20.  Vigil.  Ep.  ad  Rusticum.  Cone. 
t.  5.  p.  554. 


712 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIV. 


ii.  11,  "Let  the  woman  also  learn  in  silence  with 
all  subjection.  But  I  suiTcr  not  a  woman  to  teach, 
nor  to  visnrp  authority  over  the  man,  but  to  be  in 
silence."  And  this  rule  was  always  strictly  observed 
in  the  ancient  church.  The  same  council  of  Car- 
thage, which  allows  laymen  to  teach  by  permission, 
expressly  forbids  women  to  do  it  in  any  case :  Let 
not  a  woman,  however  learned  or  holy,™  presume  to 
teach  men  in  a  public  assembly.  But  they  might 
teach  women  in  private,  as  private  catechists,  to 
prepare  catechumens  for  baptism.  For  the  same 
council  of  Carthage  requires"'  this  as  one  qualifica- 
tion in  deaconesses  when  they  were  ordained,  that 
they  should  be  so  well  instructed  and  expert  in 
their  office,  as  to  be  able  to  teach  the  ignorant  and 
rustic  women,  how  to  make  their  responses  to  the 
interrogatories,  which  the  minister  should  put  to 
them  in  baptism,  and  how  to  order  their  conversa- 
tion afterward.  And  the  author  of  the  Short  Notes 
upon  St.  Paul's  Epistles,  under  the  name  of  St. 
Jerom,*^  says.  That  deaconesses  were  thus  employed 
in  all  the  Eastern  churches,  both  to  minister  to 
their  own  sex  in  baptism,  and  in  the  ministry  of 
the  word,  to  teach  women  privately,  but  not  in  pub- 
lic. This  matter  was  carried  much  further  in  many 
heretical  assemblies ;  for  they  ordained  women 
priests,  which  the  author  of  the  Constitutions  calls 
a  heathenish'^  practice;  for  the  Christian  law  al- 
lowed of  no  such  custom.  TertuUian  says.  They 
allowed"  women  to  teach  and  dispute  in  their  as- 
semblies, and  to  exorcise  demoniacs,  and  administer 
baptism  :  all  which  w^as  expressly,  he  says,**^  against 
the  rule  of  the  apostle,  1  Cor.  xiv.  35,  which  is  so 
far  from  allowing  them  to  teach,  that  it  does  not 
allow  them  to  ask  questions  or  dispute  publicly  in 
the  church.  And  whereas  some  pretended  the  au- 
thority of  St,  Paul  for  this,  from  a  book  called. 
The  Acts  of  Paul  and  Thecla,  he  says.  That  was  a 
spurious  book,  and  the  author  of  it  was  convict, 
and  confessed  the  forgery,  and  was  censured  for  it 
by  the  church.  The  Montanists  were  a  noted  sect 
for  giving  this  liberty  to  women,  under  pretence  of 
inspiration  by  the  Spirit ;  so  that  they  had  not  only 
their  prophetesses,  such  as  Prisca  and  Maximilla, 
the  first  followers  of  Montanus,  but  also  their  wo- 
men bishops,  and  women  presbyters,  as  Quintilla 
and  Priscilla,  who,  as  Epiphanius ""'  and  St.  Austin"' 


inform  us,  were  dignified  among  the  Pepuzians  (a 
subdivision  of  tlie  Montanists)  with  the  highest 
offices  of  the  priesthood.  Epiphanius  brings""  the 
same  charge  against  the  Collyridians,  so  called 
from  their  offering  collyria,  or  cakes,  in  sacrifice  to 
the  Virgin  Mary,  against  whom  he  disputes  at  large, 
not  only  for  their  idolatry  in  offering  sacrifice  to 
her,  but  also  for  their  presumption  in  putting  wo- 
men into  the  priest's  office ;  which  was  a  thing 
never  done  among  the  people  of  God  from  the  be- 
ginning of  the  world ;  and  if  it  had  been  allowed 
to  any,  would  doubtless  have  been  granted  to  the 
Virgin  Mary.  Firmilian,  in  his  letter  to  Cyprian,"* 
mentions  another  such  woman  among  the  Cata- 
phrj'gians,  who  pretended  by  the  Spirit  of  prophecy, 
to  preach,  and  pray,  and  baptize,  and  offer  the  eu- 
charist  in  their  public  assemblies.  So  that  this 
was  a  common  practice  among  the  heretics,  but  al- 
ways refuted  and  opposed  by  the  church  of  God, 
which  always  kept  strictly  to  the  apostle's  rule,  not 
to  suffer  a  woman  to  teach  publicly  in  the  church, 
whatever  sanctity  or  learning  she  could  pretend  to, 
but  to  reserve  this  office  to  men,  for  whom  it  was 
originally  appointed. 

Having  thus  examined  what  per-  ^^^^  g 

sons  were  allowed  to  execute  this  office,  m'Ms°sometimls^1n 
we  are  next  to  inquire  after  what  man-  ""^  ^"'^  "''^'""^• 
net  it  was  performed.  And  here  we  may  observe, 
that  they  had  sometimes  two  or  three  sermons 
preached  in  the  same  assembly,  first  by  the  presby- 
ters, and  then  by  the  bishop,  who  usually,  when 
present,  closed  up  this  part  of  the  service  with  his 
paternal  exhortation.  The  author  of  the  Constitu- 
tions'" gives  this  rule  about  it :  When  the  Gospel  is 
read,  let  the  presbyters  one  by  one,  but  not  all, 
speak  the  word  of  exhortation  to  the  people,  and 
last  of  all  the  bishop,  who  is  the  governor  or  pilot 
of  the  ship.  And  that  thus  it  was  in  the  Eastern 
churches,  whose  customs  that  author  chiefly  re- 
presents, appears  evidently  from  St.  Chrysostom's 
sermons,  which  he  preached  when  he  was  presbyter 
at  Antioch.  For  in  these  he  plainly  speaks  of 
Flavian  the  bishop  as  designing  to  preach  after  him, 
whom  he  usually  complimented  in  some  such  form 
as  this :  It  is  now  time"  for  me  to  keep  silence,  that 
our  master  may  have  time  to  speak.  And  again," 
Let  us  remember  these  things,  and  now  attend  to 


™  Cone.  Carthag.  4.  can.  99.  Mulier,  quamvis  docta  et 
sancta,  viros  in  conventu  docere  non  praisumat. 

•"  Ibid.  can.  12.  Viduoe  vel  sauctimoniales,  qua3  ad 
ministerium  baptizandarum  inulieruin  eliguntur,  tam  in- 
structa;  sint  ad  officium,  ut  possint  apto  et  sano  sermone 
docere  imperilas  et  rusticas  mulieres,  tempore  quo  bapti- 
zanda;  sunt,  qualiter  baptizatori  interrogataj  respondeant; 
et  qualiter,  accepto  baptismate,  vivant. 

^  Hieron.  Com.  in  Rom.  xvi.  1.  Sicut  etiam  nunc  in 
Orieutalibus  diaconissoe  mulieres  in  suo  sexu  miuistrare 
videntur  in  baptismo,  sive  in  ministcrio  verbi,  quia  privatim 
docuisse  femiaas  invenimus,  &c. 


«'  Constit.  lib.  3.  cap.  9.      "♦  Tertul.  de  Pra;script.  cap.  41. 

^  Idem,  de  Baptismo,  cap.  17.  Vid.  De  Velandis  Virgin, 
cap.  9. 

""  Epiphan.  Haer.  49.  Pepuzian.  n.  2. 

"  Aug.  Ha;r.  27.  Pepuzian.  Tantum  dantes  raulieribus 
principatum,  ut  sacerdotio  quoque  apud  eos  honorentur. 

^^  Epiphan.  Haer.  78.  AntiJicomarian.  n.  23.  et  Ha;r.  79. 
CoUyridian. 

"»  Firmil.  Ep.  75.  ad  Cypr.  p.  223. 

">  Constit.  lib.  2.  cap.  57. 

"  Chrys.  Horn.  2.  de  Verbis  Esai.  t.  3.  p.  853. 

"  Horn.  3.  ibid.  p.  861. 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


713 


the  more  perfect  admonition  of  our  good  master. 
It  would  be  as  endless  as  it  is  needless,  to  relate  all 
the  passages  that "  occur  in  Chrysostom  or  other 
writers,  such  as  St.  Basil,  Gregory  Nyssen,  Theo- 
doret,  St.  Austin,'*  and  St.  Jerom,"  who  particularly 
reflects  upon  the  contrary  practice  in  some  churches, 
(meaning  Egypt  and  Africa,)  where  the  bishops  al- 
lowed none  to  preach  but  themselves ;  which  he 
thought  was  an  indecent  contempt  of  their  presby- 
ters, as  if  they  either  envied  or  disdained  to  hear 
them;  when  yet  the  apostolical  rule  was,  "If  any 
thing  be  revealed  to  another  that  sitteth  by,  let  the 
first  hold  his  peace :  for  ye  may  all  prophesy,  one 
by  one,  that  all  may  learn,  and  all  may  be  comfort- 
ed," 1  Cor.  xiv.  30,  31.  When  two  or  more  bi- 
shops happened  to  be  present  in  the  same  assembly, 
it  was  usual  for  several  of  them  to  preach  one 
after  another,  reserving  the  last  place  for  the 
most  honourable  person  ;  as  St.  Jerom  tells  us,'* 
that  Epiphanius,  and  John,  bishop  of  Jerusa- 
lem, preached  together  in  the  church  of  Jerusa- 
lem ;  and  nothing  was  more  common  than  this 
practice  at  Constantinople,  where  a  multitude  of 
bishops  were  often  present  to  attend  the  court,  or 
advise  with  the  patriarch  about  the  affairs  of  the 
church. 

J,  In  some  places  they  had  sermons 

in^tZTt^l7tnl  everyday,  especially  in  Lent,  and  the 
"'=""'•  festival  days  of  Easter.     St.  Chrysos- 

tom's  homilies  upon  Genesis,  were  preached  in  a 
running  course  of  two  Lents,  one  day  after  another, 
as  any  one  may  perceive  that  peruses  them.  His 
famous  homilies  De  Statuis  were  preached  in  Lent 
after  the  same  manner.  And  it  were  easy  to  note 
some  scores  of  passages  in  his  other  sermons,  espe- 
cially in  his  first,  third,  and  fifth  volumes,"  which 
make  mention  of  their  being  preached  successively 
one  day  after  another.  St.  Jerom"  observes  the 
same  practice  among  the  monks  of  Egypt,  where 
it  was  customary  every  day,  after  the  singing  of  the 
Psalms,  and  reading  of  the  Scriptures,  and  repeating 
of  their  prayers,  for  the  father  (that  was  the  title  of 


the  presbyter  that  presided  over  them)  to  make  (hem 
a  sermon,  to  elevate  their  minds  to  the  contempla- 
tion of  the  glory  of  the  next  world,  which  made 
every  one  of  them,  with  a  gentle  sigh,  and  eyes  lift 
up  to  heaven,  to  say  within  himself,  "  Oh  that  I  had 
wings  like  a  dove,  for  then  would  I  flee  away  and  be 
at  rest ! "  Pamphilus,  in  his  Apology  for  Origen,  re- 
lates the  same  thing  of  him,  that  he  was  used  to  make 
sermons  extempore  almost  every  day"  to  the  peo- 
ple :  and  a  man  cannot  look  into  St.  Austin's  homi- 
lies, but  he  will  find  references  made  almost  every 
where  to  the  sermon  made  ho-i,  and  hesterno  die, 
the  day  before,'"  which  either  denotes  some  day  in 
the  weekly  course,  or  at  least  some  festival  of  a 
martyr.  For  the  festivals  of  the  martyrs  were  al- 
ways kept  with  great  solemnity,  and  they  never 
omitted  to  make  a  panegyrical  homily  upon  those 
days,  to  excite  the  people  to  imitate  the  virtue  of 
the  martyrs  ;  as  appears  from  St.  Austin's  sermons 
De  Sanctis,  and  abundance  throughout  St.  Chrysos- 
tom's  works  upon  such  occasions."  In  France  also 
Csesarius,  the  famous  bishop  of  Aries,  preached 
almost  every  day.  For  he  is  said,  by  the  writer  of 
his  Life,'-  to  have  made  homiUes  to  the  people  fre- 
quently both  at  morning  and  evening  prayer,  that 
none  of  them  might  have  the  excuse  of  ignorance 
to  plead  in  their  behalf.  And  the  council  of  TruUo 
has  a  canon  to  promote  this  practice.** 
And  this  leads  us  to  another  ob- 

,  1        •  1    •  Sect.  8. 

servation   proper  to  be  made  in  this     sermons  twi«  a 

^       ^  ^  day  m  many  places. 

matter,  which  is,  that  in  many  places 
they  had  sermons  twice  a  day,  for  the  better  edifica- 
tion of  the  people.  Mr.  Thorndike'*  and  Hamon 
L'Estrange  '^  make  a  little  question  of  this  as  to  the 
extent  of  the  practice.  The  former  says,  there  are 
examples  of  preaching  as  well  evening  as  morning 
in  the  ancient  church,  but  only  at  particular  times, 
and  on  particular  occasions,  and  therefore  he  is  not 
satisfied  of  any  rule  or  custom  of  the  church.  The 
other  says,  the  custom  only  prevailed  at  Csesarea  in 
Cappadocia,  where  St.  Basil  lived,  and  at  Cyprus. 
St.  Basil  preached  some  of  his  homilies  upon  the 


"3  Horn.  31.  de  Philogonio,  t.  1.  p.  399.  Horn.  48.  de  Ro- 
mano, t.  1.  p.  621.  Horn.  53.  de  Puenitentia,  Tit.  1.  p.  662. 
Horn.  59.  de  Babyla,  p.  721.  Horn.  31.  de  Natali  Christi,  t. 
5.  p.  476.  Horn. 47  et  66.  ibid.  Horn,  in  Psal.  xlviii.  p.  813. 
Horn.  36.  in  I  Cor.  p.  652. 

'^  Basil.  Horn.  18.  inBarlaam.  t.  1.  p.  443.  Nyssen.  Orat. 
in  sui  Ordinal,  t.  2.  p.  41.  Theod.  in  1  Cor.  xiv.  31.  Aug. 
Ser.  in  Psal.  xciv.,  xcv.,  et  cxxxi. 

"  Hieron.  Ep.  2.  ad  Nepotian. 

'"  Hieron.  Ep.  61.  ad  Pammach.  cap.  4. 

"  Chrys.  t.  1.  Horn.  9,  25,-32,  40,  42,  46,  49,  71.  T.  3.  in 
Psal.  xliv.  et  1.  Horn.  1,  2,  4,  et  5.  de  Verbis  Esaia;.  T.  5. 
Horn.  2.  de  Lazaro.  Horn.  30,  34,  48,  56,  62,  63,  &c. 

"  Hieron.  Ep.  22.  ad  Eustoch.  cap.  15.  Post  horani  no- 
nam  in  commune  concurritur,  Psalmi  resonant,  Scripturn;  re- 
citantur  ex  more.  Et  completis  orationibus,  cunctisque  resi- 
dentibus,  medius,  quern  patrem  vocant,  incipit  disputare,  &c. 

"  Pamphil.  Apol.   pro  Orig.  inter   Opera  Orig.  t.  I.   p. 


756.     Tractatus  pane  quotidie  habebat  in  ecclesia,  &c. 

s"  Vid.  Aug.  Serm.  in  Psal.  1.  Serm.  2.  in  Psal.  Iviii. 
Serm.  in  Psal.  Ixiii.  Serm.  2.  in  Psal.  Ixviii.  Serm.  2.  in 
Psal.  Ixx.  Serm.  2.  in  Psal.  .\c.  Serm.  2.  in  Psal.  ci.  et  pas- 
sim in  Sermonibus  de  Tempore  et  de  Sanctis. 

**'  Chrys.  t.  1.  Serm.  31.  de  Philogonio.  Serm.  40.  de  Ju- 
ventino.  Et  sequentes  de  Pelagia,  Ignatio,  Romano,  Me- 
titio,  Juliano,  Luciano,  Bernice,  Eustathio,  &c.  Aug.  Serm. 
in  Psal.  Ixxxi.  See  also  what  has  been  observed  before  of 
their  preaching  on  Saturdays,  and  the  stationary  days,  in 
the  former  Book. 

*■-  Cyprian.  Tolonensis,  Vit.  Ca;sarii,  cap.  4.  ap.  Mabillon, 
de  Cursu  Gallicano,  p.  401.  Frequenter etiam  admatutinos, 
et  lucernarium  propter  advenientes  recitabat  homilias,  ut 
nuUus  esset  qui  se  do  ignorantia  cxcusaret. 

"  Cduc.  'I'rullan.  can.  19. 

*'  Thorndike  of  Religious  Assemblies,  chap.  10.  p.  405. 

"  L'Estrange  of  Divine  Offices,  chap.  4.  p.  98. 


714 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIV. 


Hexameron**  at  evening  prayer.  But  he  thinks  So- 
crates'' confines  the  custom  to  those  places,  because 
he  speaks  of  it  as  a  pecuhar  usage  of  those  places,  to 
have  sermons  made  by  bishops  and  presbyters  on 
Saturdays  and  Sundays  at  candle-light  in  the  even- 
ing. Bishop  Wettenhal  was  of  a  different'*  judg- 
ment :  he  thinks  that  in  cities  and  greater  churches, 
it  was  usual  for  the  pastors  to  preach  on  Sundays 
both  morning  and  afternoon.  And  he  supports  his 
opinion  from  several  testimonies  of  Chrysostom,  who 
entitles  one  of  his  homihes,*"  An  Exhortation  to  those 
who  were  ashamed  to  come  to  Sermon  after  Dinner. 
And  in  another,'"  he  inveighs  against  them  who 
condemned  his  usage  of  preaching  after  dinner,  as 
a  new  and  strange  custom,  telling  them  he  had 
much  more  reason  to  condemn  that  wicked  custom 
then  prevailing  among  some,  to  rise  from  table  to 
sleep.  In  another  place,  he  defends  his  practice 
from  our  Saviour's  long  sermon  to  his  disciples  after 
his  last  supper."'  And  in  another  homily,  preached 
to  the  people  of  Antioch,"'  he  highly  commends 
them  for  coming  to  church  in  the  afternoon  in  a 
full  audience.  All  these  are  cited  by  Wettenhal,  to 
w^hich  may  be  added  what  he  says  in  his  homily  of 
Satan's  temptations,*'  that  the  bishop  attended  his 
sermons  which  he  preached  both  morning  and 
afternoon.  For  that  sermon  was  preached  in  the 
afternoon,  the  same  day  that  he  had  preached  his 
twenty-first  sermon  to  the  newly  baptized,  as  he 
there  expressly  tells  us.  So  again,  it  appears  that 
the  fifteenth  and  nineteenth  homilies  to  the  people 
of  Antioch,  against  oaths,  were  preached  on  the 
same  day.'^  And  his  homily  of  bearing  reproof 
patiently,  was  an  evening  sermon.  For  there'*  he 
thus  addresses  himself  to  the  people :  Be  not  weary, 
though  the  evening  now  be  come  upon  us.  For  all 
our  discourse  is  in  defence  of  Paul,  that  Paul  who 
taught  his  disciples  three  years  night  and  day.  In 
his  homily'"  upon  Elias  and  the  widow,  he  says, 
one  of  his  Lent  discourses  was  broken  off  by  the 
evening  coming  upon  them.  And  in  one  of  his 
homilies  upon  Genesis,"'  he  as  plainly  intimates, 
that  he  was  then  preaching  an  evening  sermon. 
For  he  makes  this  apostrophe  to  the  people :  I  am 
expounding  the  Scriptures,  and  ye  all  turn  your 


eyes  from  me  to  the  lamps,  and  him  that  is  lighting 
the  lamps.  What  negligence  is  this,  so  to  forsake 
me,  and  set  your  minds  on  him !  For  I  am  lighting 
a  fire  from  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  in  my  tongue 
is  a  burning  lamp  of  doctrine.  This  is  a  greater 
and  a  better  light  than  that.  For  we  do  not  set  up 
a  light  like  that  moistened  with  oil,  but  we  inflame 
souls  that  are  watered  with  piety,  with  a  desire  of 
hearing.  The  whole  allusion  and  similitude  shows, 
that  he  was  preaching  an  evening  sermon,  when 
candles  were  lighting,  which  gave  him  the  hint  to 
draw  the  comparison  between  the  material  hght  of 
the  lamps,  and  the  spiritual  light  of  the  Scriptures. 
And  in  his  third  homily  of  repentance,"*  to  name  no 
more,  he  says.  He  would  continue  his  discourse  to 
the  evening,  'iwg  tampaQ,  that  he  might  finish  the 
subject  he  was  then  handling.  From  all  which  it 
is  apparent,  this  was  no  occasional  usage  in  St. 
Chrysostom's  church,  but  his  constant  and  ordinary 
practice.  And  in  the  Latin  church  we  sometimes 
meet  with  examples  of  this  kind,  though  not  so  fre- 
quent. St.  Austin  not  only  preached  every  day,  but 
sometimes  twice  on  the  same  day.  As  is  evident 
from  the  two  sennons  on  the  88th  Psalm,  in  the 
latter  of  which "  he  says,  he  had  preached  before 
in  the  morning,  and  remained  in  their  debt  for 
the  afternoon.  Gaudentius  also,  bishop  of  Brixia,'"" 
speaks  of  his  having  preached  twice  on  the  vigil 
before  Easter.  And  it  is  probable,  the  same  solemn- 
ity was  observed  in  like  manner  in  other  places. 
For  at  this  solemnity,  especially,  they  made  a  dis- 
tinction in  their  sermons,  preaching  one  to  the  cate- 
chumens, and  another  to  the  neophytes,  or  persons 
newly  baptized ;  as  Gaudentius  says  in  the  same 
place,  that  his  second  sermon  was  preached  to  the 
neophytes.  The  like  is  said  by  St.  Ambrose,""  and 
Theodoret,'""  and  St.  Austin,'"'  as  I  have  had  occa- 
sion to  show  in  another  place,  in  speaking  of  the 
distinction  that  was  made  '"*  between  the  catechu- 
mens and  the  faithful :  to  the  former,  they  preached 
only  upon  moral  subjects  ;  to  the  latter,  upon  mys- 
tical points  of  religion,  and  abstruser  articles  of 
faith.  Therefoi'e  St.  Austin  '"*  says  in  another  place. 
There  were  some  points  which  required  more  intent 
auditors,  and  therefore  the  preacher  was  not  to 


86  Vide  Basil,  in  Hexameron.  Horn.  2,  7,  9. 

8'  Socrat.  lib.  6.  cap.  21. 

*"  Wettenhal,  Duty  of  Preaching,  chap.  3.  p.  779. 

"  Chrj's.  Horn.  10.  in  Genes. 

"'  Horn.  1.  de  Lazaro. 

»'  Horn.  9.  ad  Pop.  Antioch.  p.  121. 

"2  Horn.  10.  ad  Pop.  Antioch.  p.  132. 

^  Horn.  25.  de  Diabolo  Tentatore,  t.  1.  p.  318  et  319. 

«  Horn.  15.  ad  Pop.  Antioch.  t.  1.  p.  198. 

^'  Horn.  13.  de  ferendis  Reprehen.  t.  5.  p.  194. 

96  Horn.  54.  in  Heliam  et  Viduam,  t.  5.  p.  722. 

"  Horn.  4.  in  Gen.  t.  2.  p.  902. 

"»  Horn.  3.  de  Poenit.  t.  4.  p.  559. 

**  Aug.  Serm.  2.  in  Psal.  l.xxxviii.    Ad  reliqua  psalmi. 


dc 


quo  in  matutino  locuti  sumus,  aninium  intendite,  et  pium 
debitum  exigite. 

""'  Gaudent.  Tract.  4.  Carnalem  Judaicoe  Paschae  ob- 
servantiam,  spiritualibus  typis  refertam,  trino  jam  tractatu 
docuimus  ;  semel  hesterno  die,  et  bis  in  vigiliis.  It.  Tract. 
5.  Oportebat  in  ilia  node  vigiliarum  secundo  tractatu — 
congrua  neophytis  explanari. 

""  Ambros.  de  iis  qui  Mysteriis  initiantur,  cap.  1. 

'"2  Theod.  Quaest.  15.  in  Num. 

103  Aug.  Serm.  1.  ad  Neophytos,  in  Append,  t.  10.  p.  845. 

'»'  Book  I.  chap.  4.  sect.  8. 

105  Aug.  Tract.  62.  in  Joan.  Intentiorflagitatur  auditor  : 
et  ideo  eum  prsecipitare  non  debet,  sed  diflferre  potius  dis- 
putaloi^ 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


715 


hasten  them,  but  defer  them  to  another  opportunity. 
And  in  another  homily,'"*  upon  Easter  day,  he  ex- 
cuses the  shortness  of  it,  because  he  was  to  preach 
again  to  the  infants,  as  they  then  called  all  persons 
newly  baptized.  Cyril's  Mystical  Catechisms  were 
of  this  kind.  And  probably  those  Mystical  Homihes 
of  Origen,  whereof  he  wrote  two  books,  mentioned 
by  Rufhn'""  and  St.  Jerom,  were  of  the  same  nature. 
However,  we  have  seen  sufficient  evidence  other- 
wise for  more  sermons  than  one  upon  the  same  day 
upon  many  occasions. 

But  this  is  chiefly  to  be  understood 

Sect.  9.  o      ■    •  11  11  f         • 

Not  60  fre<)uent  in   of  citics  and  large  churches ;  tor  in 

country  villages.  ^ 

the  country  parishes  there  was  not 
such  frequent  preaching.  St.  Chrysostom  says, 
They  that  lived  in  the  city"*  enjoyed  continual 
teaching,  but  they  that  dwelt  in  the  country  had 
not  such  plenty ;  therefore  God  compensated  this 
want  of  teachers  with  a  greater  abundance  of  mar- 
tyrs, and  so  ordered  it  that  more  martyrs  lay  buried 
in  the  country  than  in  the  city ;  where,  though  they 
could  not  hear  the  tongues  of  their  teachers  con- 
tinually, yet  they  always  heard  the  voice  of  the  mar- 
tyrs speaking  to  them  from  their  graves,  and  that 
^vith  greater  force  of  eloquence  and  persuasion  than 
living  teachers  could  do ;  as  he  there  goes  on  after 
his  manner  to  describe  it.  There  were  sometimes 
great  assemblies  held  at  these  monuments  of  the 
martyrs  :'  for  on  their  anniversary  festivals  the 
whole  city  went  forth  to  celebrate  their  memorials 
in  the  churches  where  they  lay  buried ;  as  Chrysos- 
tom tells  us,  both  here  and  in  other  places  : '"'  but 
at  other  times  their  chief  resort  for  preaching  was 
to  the  city  churches.  It  was  not  till  the  beginning 
of  the  sixth  century,  that  preaching  was  generally 
set  up  throughout  the  country  parishes  in  the 
French  church ;  but  about  that  time  an  order  was 
made  in  the  council  of  Vaison,  anno  529,  That  for 
the  edification  of  all  the  churches,  and  the  greater 
benefit  of  the  whole  body  of  the  people,  presbyters 
should  have  power""  to  preach,  not  only  in  the 
cities,  but  in  all  the  country  parishes ;  and  if  the 
presbyter  was  infirm,  a  deacon  should  read  one  of 
the  homilies  of  the  holy  fathers.  So  that  in  this 
respect  the  state  of  the  present  church  may  be 
reckoned  happier  than  that  of  the  ancient  church ; 
since  there  is  scarce  a  country  parish  among  us,  but 
has  a  sermon  preached  every  Lord's  day  throughout 
the  year  by  a  presbyter  or  deacon. 

The  next  thing  to  be  observed  is. 

Sect.  10.  ,      .       T~.  . 

Of  their  different    their  diiierent  sorts  of  sermons,  and 

ways  of  preacmng. 

different  ways  of  preaching.     I  have 


already  noted'"  some  difference  to  have  been  made 
between  sermons  to  the  catechumens,  and  sermons 
to  tlie  faithful ;  but  that  was  chiefly  in  the  matter 
and  subject  of  them.  What  I  observe  here,  relates 
more  to  the  manner  and  method  of  preaching,  in 
which  respect  they  were  distinguished  into  four 
kinds:  I.  Expositions  of  Scripture.  2.  Panegyrical 
discourses  upon  the  saints  and  martyrs.  3.  Sermons 
upon  particular  times,  occasions,  and  festivals.  4. 
Sermons  upon  particular  doctrines,  and  moral  sub- 
jects, to  illustrate  the  truth  against  heresy,  and 
recommend  the  practice  of  virtue  in  opposition  to 
immorality  and  ungodliness.  There  are  examples 
of  all  these  kinds  in  St.  Chrysostom's  and  St. 
Austin's  homilies,  the  two  great  standards  and  pat- 
terns of  preaching  in  the  Greek  and  Latin  church. 
St.  Austin  has  some  homilies  upon  whole  books  of 
Scripture,  as  those  upon  the  Psalms,  and  St.  John's 
Gospel.  He  has  others,  styled  De  Sanctis,  which 
are  panegyrics  upon  the  saints  and  martyrs  ;  others, 
styled  De  Tempore,  which  are  upon  the  festivals 
and  great  solemnities  of  the  church,  such  as  the 
Nativity,  Epiphany,  Lent,  Passion,  Easter,  Pente- 
cost, and  the  Lord's  days  throughout  the  year  ; 
others,  styled  De  Diversis,  which  are  a  miscellany 
upon  doctrinal  points  and  moral  subjects.  So  like- 
wise in  Chrysostom,  we  have  his  homilies  by  way 
of  exposition  on  the  whole  Book  of  Genesis,  the 
Psalms,  the  Gospels  of  St.  Matthew  and  St.  John, 
and  all  St.  Paul's  Epistles.  Then,  again,  his  pane- 
g5'rics  upon  the  saints  and  martjTS ;  his  homilies 
upon  the  noted  festivals,  Easter,  Pentecost,  &c. ; 
and,  lastly,  his  moral  and  doctrinal  discourses  upon 
various  subjects,  repentance,  faith,  charity,  humility, 
the  truth  of  the  Christian  religion,  the  Divinity  of 
Christ,  and  such  important  subjects  as  the  occasion 
of  the  times,  and  the  opposition  of  Jews,  Gentiles, 
and  heretics,  required  him  to  discourse  upon,  in  a 
plain  and  familiar  way  to  the  people.  His  homihes 
by  way  of  exposition  of  any  book  of  Scripture, 
usually  consist  but  of  two  parts,  an  exposition  of 
some  portion  of  a  chapter,  and  an  ethicon,  or  moral 
conclusion,  upon  some  useful  subject,  which  the 
last  part  of  the  words  expounded  gave  him  the 
hint  or  occasion  to  discourse  upon.  But  his  other 
homilies  are  commonly  introduced  with  a  useful 
preface,  not  relating  always  to  the  subject  that  was 
to  follow,  but  such  as  the  occasional  necessities  of 
his  auditory,  either  in  matters  of  reproof  or  com- 
mendation, seemed  to  require.  But  in  both  these 
ways,  he  still  excelled  in  this,  that  he  always  ex- 
pounded the  Scripture  in  its   most  natural  and 


los  Anc^.  Horn.  82.  de  Diversis.  Satis  sint  -fobis  pauca 
ista,  quoniam  et  post  laboraturi  sumus,  et  de  sacramentis 
altaris  hodie  iufantibus  disputandum  est. 

'"'  Ruffin.  Invect.  2.  cont.  Hierou.  cited  by  Valesius, 
Not.  in  Euseb.  lib.  6.  cap.  24. 

'"8  Chi-ys.  Horn.  65.  de  Martyribiis,  t.  5.  p.  973. 


""  Ibid.  72.  de  S.  Droside,  t.  5.  p.  989  et  990. 

""  Cone.  Vasens.  2.  can.  2.  Hoc  etiam  pro  aedificatione 
omnium  ecclesiaiiim,  et  pro  utilitate  totius  pnpuli  nobis 
placuit,  ut  non  solum  in  civitatibus,  sed  etiam  in  omnibus 
parochiis,  verbum  faciendi  daremus  presbytcris  potesta- 
tem,  &c.  "'  See  before,  sect.  8. 


716 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH, 


Book  XIV. 


genuine  sense,  (not  giving  way  to  tropological 
descants,  as  too  many  others  did,)  and  made  such 
useful  observations  and  reflections  upon  it,  as  were 
pertinent  and  proper,  which  he  applied  to  his  hear- 
ers with  the  strongest  reasoning,  and  utmost  force 
of  Divine  eloquence,  becoming  the  seriousness  and 
gravity  of  a  Christian  orator.  It  is  a  just  character, 
which  a  late  learned  critic"-  gives  him,  and  there- 
fore I  think  it  not  improper  here  to  transcribe  it,  for 
the  encouragement  of  all  young  students  to  read 
him.  "  His  eloquence  is  popular,  and  very  proper 
for  preaching ;  his  style  is  natural,  easy,  and  grave ; 
he  equally  avoids  negligence  and  affectation  ;  he  is 
neither  too  plain  nor  too  florid ;  he  is  smooth,  yet 
not  effeminate ;  he  uses  all  the  figures  that  are  usual 
to  good  orators  very  properly,  without  employing 
false  strokes  of  wit ;  and  he  never  introduces  into 
his  discourses  any  notions  of  poets  or  profane 
authors ;  neither  does  he  divert  his  auditory  with 
jests.  His  composition  is  noble,  his  expressions 
elegant,  his  method  just,  and  his  thoughts  sublime; 
he  speaks  like  a  good  father  and  a  good  pastor ;  he 
often  directs  his  words  to  the  people,  and  expresses 
them  with  a  tenderness  and  charity  becoming  a 
holy  bishop;  he  teaches  the  principal  truths  of 
Christianity  with  a  wonderful  clearness,  and  diverts 
with  a  marvellous  art,  and  an  agreeable  way  of 
ranging  his  notions,  and  persuades  by  the  strength 
and  solidity  of  his  reasons ;  his  instructions  are  easy, 
his  descriptions  and  relations  pleasant ;  his  induce- 
ments so  meek  and  insinuating,  that  one  is  pleased 
to  be  so  persuaded ;  his  discourses,  how  long  soever, 
are  not  tedious,  there  are  still  some  new  things  that 
keep  the  reader  awake,  and  yet  he  hath  no  false 
beauties  nor  useless  figures  ;  his  only  aim  is  to  con- 
vert Jiis  auditors,  or  to  instruct  them  in  necessary 
truths ;  he  neglects  all  reflections  that  have  more 
of  subtilty  than  profit ;  he  never  busies  himself  to 
resolve  hard  questions,  nor  to  give  mystical  senses, 
to  make  a  show  of  his  wit  or  eloquence;  he  searches 
not  into  mysteries,  neither  endeavours  to  compre- 
hend them ;  he  is  contented  to  propose,  after  an 
easy  way,  palpable  and  sensible  truths,  which  none 
can  be  ignorant  of  without  danger  of  failing  of  sal- 
vation; he  particularly  applies  himself  to  moral 
heads,  and  very  seldom  handleth  speculative  truths ; 
he  affects  not  to  appear  learned,  and  never  boasts 
of  his  erudition  ;  and  yet,  whatever  the  subject  be, 
he  speaks  with  terms  so  strong,  so  proper,  and  so 
well  chosen,  that  one  may  easily  perceive  he  had  a 
profound  knowledge  of  all  sorts  of  matters,  and  par- 
ticularly of  true  divinity."  This  is  the  character 
which  that  judicious  critic  gives  that  famous  and 
eloquent  preacher;  and  he  that  will  dihgently  peruse 
his  homilies,  (especially  those  of  his  first  and  fifth 


volumes,  which  contain  his  most  elaborate  dis- 
courses, as  also  those  on  St.  Matthew,  St.  John,  and 
St.  Paul's  Epistles,  where  he  excels  in  his  moral 
applications,)  will  find  his  sermons  to  answer  the 
character  that  is  given  of  them,  only  making  some 
allowances  for  the  different  way  and  method  then 
used,  not  so  agreeable  to  the  model  of  sermons  in 
the  present  age.  I  had  once  some  thoughts  of  pub- 
lishing a  volume  of  his  select  discourses,  which  I 
translated  for  my  own  entertainment,  when  I  was 
unfortunately  cut  off  from  other  studies  for  a  whole 
j^ear :  but  because  they  are  not  altogether  of  the 
present  stamp,  and  many  men  have  a  different  taste 
and  relish  of  things,  I  choose  rather  to  encourage 
men  to  read  them  in  the  original,  where  they  may 
select  what  they  find  proper  for  their  use  or  imita- 
tion. As  for  those  who  can  endure  to  read  nothing 
but  what  is  either  modern,  or  dressed  up  in  the 
modern  dress,  I  neither  court  them  to  read  Chrysos- 
tom,  nor  any  other  ancient  father ;  but  to  others, 
who  can  be  at  pains  to  peruse,  and  judiciously  select 
the  beauties  of  style,  the  strains  of  piety,  and  the 
flights  of  divine  and  manly  eloquence,  that  almost 
every  where  display  themselves  in  this  author,  I 
dare  venture  to  say,  they  will  never  think  their  time 
lost,  nor  find  themselves  wholly  disappointed  in 
their  expectation.  St.  Basil's  homilies  come  the 
nearest  to  St.  Chrysostom's,  in  solidity  of  matter, 
beauty  of  style,  ingenuity  of  thought,  and  sharpness 
and  vivacity  of  expression.  A  vein  of  piety  runs 
equally  through  them  both,  and  by  some  St.  Basil's 
are  reckoned  to  come  nearer  to  the  Attic  purity  and 
perfection.  Next  after  these,  the  two  Gregories, 
Nyssen  and  Nazianzen,  are  esteemed  the  greatest 
masters  of  divine  eloquence ;  though  the  latter  is 
rather  luxuriant  and  tedious,  by  his  too  frequent  and 
long  similitudes  and  digressions.  Those  of  Ephrem 
Syrus  were  also  of  great  repute  in  the  ancient 
church,  having  the  honour  to  be  read  as  lessons 
after  the  readingof  the  Scriptures  in  many  churches, 
as  has  been  noted  before  out  of  St.  Jerom."'  They 
are  highly  commended  by  Sozomen  "*  and  Photius,"^ 
for  the  beauty  of  their  style  and  sublime  thoughts, 
which  were  not  wholly  lost  by  being  translated  out 
of  Syriac  into  Greek.  Gregory  Nyssen""  is  more 
copious  in  his  praise,  and  he  particularly  observes, 
that  his  discourses  of  morality  were  so  full  of  com- 
passionate and  affecting  expressions,  that  they  were 
able  to  move  the  hardest  heart.  For  who  that  is 
proud,  says  he,  would  not  become  the  humblest  of 
men,  by  reading  his  discourse  of  humility  ?  Who 
would  not  be  inflamed  with  a  divine  fire,  by  reading 
his  treatise  of  charity  ?  Who  would  not  wish  to  be 
chaste  in  heart  and  spirit,  by  reading  the  praises  he 
has  given  to  virginity  ?  Who  would  not  be  frighted, 


"=  Dii  Pin,  Bibliothcc.  vol.  3.  p.  34. 
"^  Hieron.  de  Scriptor.  cap.  115. 


'"  Sozom.  lib.  3.  cap.  16.  "^  Phot.  Cod.  196. 

"=  Nyssen.  Vit.  Ephrem  Syri,  t.  3.  p.  GUI 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


7W 


to  hear  the  discourse  he  has  made  upon  the  last 
judgment,  wherein  he  has  represented  it  so  lively, 
that  nothing  can  be  added  to  it  but  the  real  appear- 
ance of  judgment  itself?  This  is  a  character  that 
would  tempt  any  man  to  look  into  them.  It  is  dis- 
puted now  among  the  critics,  whether  those  homi- 
lies that  go  under  his  name  be  his  genuine  oflspring. 
Some  utterly  reject  them,  and  they  who  say  most 
in  their  defence,  own  that  they  may  have  lost  some- 
thing of  their  native  beauty  and  majesty,  by  being 
translated  out  of  Syriac  into  Greek,  and  then  out 
of  Greek  into  Latin.  And  therefore  I  will  not  so 
confidently  assert,  they  deserve  the  character  which 
Gregory  Nyssen  gives  of  those  that  were  so  much 
admired  in  his  time.  As  for  those  of  Origen,  and 
others  who  followed  him,  though  they  have  some 
flights  of  rhetoric,  and  a  vein  of  piety  in  them,  yet 
they  are  so  full  of  allegorical  and  tropological  inter- 
pretations, that  they  are  neither  good  expositions 
nor  good  homilies,  and  fall  far  short  of  the  majesty 
and  simplicity  of  those  of  Chrysostom.  Among  the 
Latins,  those  few  moral  discourses  we  have  of  Cy- 
prian's, whether  homilies  or  treatises,  are  excellent 
in  their  kind.  And  so  are  many  of  St.  Austin  and 
St.  Ambrose,  and  Leo  the  Great,  and  Petrus  Ra- 
vennas,  who,  for  his  eloquence,  had  the  name  of 
Chrysologus,  or  the  Latin  Chrysostom  ;  though  his 
eloquence  is  of  a  different  kind,  being  more  like 
that  of  Seneca,  than  of  Tully  or  Demosthenes, 
whom  Chrysostom  copied  after. 

Sect.  u.  But  of  all  these  we  must  observe 

cours"'f"Suen?'a-  auothcr  distiuctiou,  that  though  many 
mong  e  ancien  s.  ^^  them  wcrc  studicd  and  elaborate 
discourses,  penned  and  composed  beforehand,  yet 
some  were  also  extempore,  spoken  without  any  pre- 
vious composition,  and  taken  from  their  mouths  by 
the  Taxvypd(poi,  or  men  who  understood  the  art  of 
writing  shorthand  in  the  church.  Origen  was  the 
first  that  began  this  way  of  preaching  in  the  church. 
But  Eusebius'"  says,  he  did  it  not  till  he  was  above 
sixty  years  old,  at  which  age,  having  got  a  con- 
firmed habit  of  preaching  by  continual  use  and  ex- 
ercise, he  suffered  the  raxvypaipoi,  or  notaries,  to  take 
down  his  sermons  which  he  made  to  the  people, 
which  he  would  never  allow  before.  Pamphilus,  in 
his  Apology"'  for  Origen,  speaks  the  matter  a  little 
more  plainly :  for  he  makes  it  an  instance  of  his 
sedulity  in  studying  and  preaching  the  word  of 
God,  that  he  not  only  composed  a  great  number  of 


laborious  treatises  upon  it,  but  preached  almost 
every  day  extempore  sermons  in  the  church  ;  which 
were  taken  from  his  mouth  by  the  notaries,  and  so 
conveyed  to  posterity  by  that  means  only.  The 
Catechetical  Discourses  of  St.  Cyril  are  supposed 
to  be  of  this  kind ;  for  at  the  beginning  of  every  one, 
almost,  it  is  said  in  the  title  to  be,  (rxtSiaaOdaa,  which 
Suidas  and  other  critics  expound,  an  extempore 
discourse.  St.  Jerom  says,  Pierius  thus  expounded 
the  Scripture.""  St.  Chrysostom  also  sometimes 
used  this  way  of  preaching,  being  of  a  ready  inven- 
tion and  fluent  tongue.  Sozomen '-"  says.  After  his 
return  from  banishment,  the  people  were  so  desir- 
ous to  hear  him,  that  he  was  forced  to  go  up  into 
the  episcopal  throne,  and  make  an  extempore  dis- 
course to  them,  which  is  now  extant'^'  in  his  second 
tome  in  Latin.  Suidas  also  gives  him  this  cha- 
racter,'" That  he  had  a  tongue  flowing  like  the 
cataracts  of  Nile,  whereby  he  spake  many  of  his 
panegyrics  upon  the  martyrs  extempore,  without 
any  hesitation.  And  it  appears  from  several  of  his 
sermons,  that  he  often  took  occasion  in  the  middle 
of  a  discourse,  from  some  accidental  hint  that  was 
casually  given,  to  t-urn  his  eloquence  from  the  sub- 
ject in  hand,  and  make  some  extempore  apostrophe 
to  the  people,  either  of  praise  and  commendation, 
or  of  reproof  and  correction,  as  the  occasion  of  the 
thing  required ;  as  in  that  sennon  we  have  already 
mentioned,  sect.  8,  where  he  takes  occasion,  from  the 
people's  turning  their  eyes  to  see  the  lighting  of  the 
candles,  to  reprove  their  negligence'-^  in  turning 
away  their  attention  from  him,  who  was  holding 
forth  to  them  a  greater  light  from  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures. And  there  are  many  other  such  apostrophes 
and  occasional  reflections  throughout  his  homilies, 
which  must  needs  be  extempore,  because  the  occa- 
sion of  them  could  not  be  foreseen,  being  they  were 
pure  contingencies,  and  things  altogether  accident- 
al. But  Chrysostom  was  not  the  only  man,  whose 
fluency  enabled  him  to  make  extempore  discourses. 
For  Ruffin,  speaking  in  praise  of  Gregorj'  Nazianzen 
and  St.  Basil,  says,  There  were  several  of  their  ser- 
mons extant,'"  which  they  spake  extempore  in  the 
church,  twenty  of  which  he  himself  had  translated 
into  Latin.  Socrates  gives  the  same  account  of 
Atticus,  That  though,  whilst  he  was  a  presbyter,  he 
was  used  to  preach  composed  and  studied  sermons, 
yet  afterwards,  by  industry  and  continued  exercise 
having  gained  confidence  and  a  freedom  or  fluency 


>"  Euseb.  lib.  6.  cap.  3G. 

"*  Pamphil.  Apol.  pro  Orig.  inter  Opera  Origen.  t.  I.  p. 
756.  Quod  prae  caeteris  verbo  Dei  et  doctrinse  operam  de- 
derit,  dubium  non  est  et  ex  his  quae  ad  nos  laboris  et  studii 
ejus  certissima  designantur  Indicia  :  prsccipue  vero  per  eos 
tractatus,  quos  pene  quotidie  in  ecclesia  habebat  extempore, 
quos  et  describentes  notarii  ad  monuraenta  posteritatis 
Iradebant.  Dr.  Cave  reckons  his  homilies  upon  Gen!,  Exod., 
Levit.,  and  Numbers,  to  be  all  extempore.  Vid.  Cave, 
Hist.  Liter,  vol.  1.  p.  78. 


119  Hieron.  Proopm.  in  Hosea. 

'-»  Sozom.  lib.  8.  cap.  18. 

'^'  Chi-)s.  Sermo  post  Ileditum,  t.  2.  p.  49.  in  Appendice. 

'22  Suidas,  Voce  Joannes,  t.  1.  p.  1258.  Tds  twu  fiap- 
TupiDV  Sk  iravijyvpiLi  iiri^C^ricTEV  iv  Tto  (rx^OLoX^nv  avtfxTro- 
OlTtOS,  K.  T.  \. 

'23  Chiys.  Horn.  4.  in  Gen.  t.  2.  p.  902. 

'■-*  Ruffin.  Hist.  lib.  2.  cap.  9.  Extant  quoque  utriusqne 
ingenii  monumenta  magnifica  tractatuiim,  quos  extempore 
in  ecclesiis  declamabant,  &c. 


718 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIY. 


of  speaking,  he  preached  extempore  to  the  people  ;'^ 
and  his  sermons  were  so  well  received  by  his  audi- 
tors, that  they  took  them  down  in  writing.     Sozo- 
men,  indeed,  gives  a  ditlerent  account  of  them ;  for 
he  says,'-*  His  performances  were  so  mean,  that 
though  they  had  a  mixture  of  heathen  learning  in 
them,  yet  his  auditors  did  not  think  them  worth 
writing.     However,  they  both  seem  to  agree  in  this, 
that  whatever  characters  they  bare,  they  were  ex- 
tempore discourses.     Sidonius  Apolhnaris '"  seems 
to  give  the  like  account  of  Faustus,  bishop  of  Riez 
in  France  ;  for  he  says,  Some  of  his  discoiirses  were 
i-epejitincs,  and  others  elucuhratce,  that  is,  the  one 
spoken  off-hand,  and  the  others  elaborate  and  stu- 
died.    And  there  is  nothing  more  certain,  than  that 
St.  Austin  did  often  use  the  extempore  way.     For 
he  sometimes  preached  upon  places  of  Scripture 
that  were  accidentally  read  in  the   church,  and 
which  he  knew  nothing  of  before  he  came  thither. 
Of  which  we  have  an  undeniable  instance  in  one  of 
his  homilies,'*  where  he  tells  us,  he  was  determined 
to  preach  upon  a  certain  psalm  about  repentance, 
which   he  thought  nothing  of  before  the  reader 
chanced  to  read  it  of  his  own  accord  in  the  church. 
And  in  another  place  he  tells  us,'""  When  he  had 
appointed  the  reader  to  read  a  certain  psalm,  upon 
which  he  intended  to  preach,  the  reader,  in  some 
hurry,  read  another  in  its  room ;  and  this  obliged 
him  to  preach  an   extempore   sermon   upon  that 
psalm  that  was  so  accidentally  read  in  the  church. 
Possidius  also,  in  his  Life,  mentions  a  sermon,  where- 
in he  left  his  subject  that  he  was  discoursing  upon, 
to  dispute  against  the  Manichees,  which  he  had  no 
thoughts'^"  to  have  done  when  he  first  began  to 
preach ;  but  he  reckoned  it  was  the  providence  of 
God  that  directed  him  so  to  do,  to  cure  the  error  of 
some  latent  Manichee  in  the  congregation.     And  it 
is  very  probable,  that  many  of  his  sermons  upon  the 
Psalms  were  extempore,  because  he  so  often  uses 
the  phrase,  quantum  Deus  donaverit,  as  God  should 
enable  him  to  speak ;  which  seems  to  imply,  that  he 
spake  without  any  previous  study  or  composition. 
It  is  evident,  his  sermon  on  the  86th  Psalm  was  of 


this  kind ;  for  he  says,  he  would  explain  it"'  as  God 
should  enable  him,  seeing  it  was  appointed  by  his 
holy  father  the  bishop,  then  present :  but  such  a 
sudden  appointment  would  have  been  an  oppression, 
were  it  not  that  the  prayers  of  the  proponent  gave 
him  continual  assistance.  For  indeed  they  looked 
upon  it  as  so  necessary  a  work  to  preach  continually, 
that  when  they  had  not  time  to  compose  before- 
hand, they  doubted  not  but  that  the  grace  of  God, 
and  a  peculiar  assistance  of  the  Spirit,  would  concur 
with  their  honest  endeavours  in  such  sudden  under- 
takings. Nay,  Gregory  the  Great,  who  also  used 
this  way  in  explaining  some  of  the  most  difficult 
books  of  Scripture,  as  particularly  Ezekiel,  scruples  '^ 
not  to  say,  that  he  often  found  those  obscure  places 
of  Scripture,  which  he  could  not  comprehend  in  his 
private  study,  to  flow  in  upon  his  understanding 
when  he  was  preaching  in  public  to  his  brethren. 

And  in  regard  to  this,  they  are  wont  g^^^  ,, 
frequently  to  mention  the  assistance  prSi'n™by"the''^ 
of  the  Spirit,  both  in  composing  and  '''""'■ 
preaching  their  sermons.  Thus  Chrysostom'^says 
in  one  of  his  sermons,  when  he  had  the  happiness 
to  see  a  large  auditory,  and  a  table  well  furnished 
with  guests,  that  then  he  expected  the  grace  of  the 
Spirit  to  sound  in  his  mind.  In  another,'^*  I  do  not 
think  that  I  spake  those  words  of  myself,  but  God, 
that  foresaw  what  would  happen,  put  those  words 
into  my  mind.  And  again,'^  speaking  of  the  preach- 
ing of  Flavian  his  bishop,  he  says,  It  was  not  hu- 
man thought  that  poured  forth  his  discourse,  but 
the  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit :  as  it  was  not  the  na- 
ture of  the  vine,  but  the  power  of  Christ,  that  made 
the  water  wine.  St.  Austin  also  often  speaks  of 
such  illapses  and  assistances  of  the  Spirit  in  preach- 
ing; which  he  sometimes  calls  the  gift  of  God,"* 
sometimes  the  revelation  of  the  Spirit,'"  and  some- 
times the  help  of  God,  and  his  Divine  assistance. 
In  one  place  more  particularly,  speaking  of  his  un- 
willingness to  preach  before  certain  bishops  when 
he  was  but  young,  he  brings  them  in  making  this 
answer :  If  thou  art  in  want  of  words,  "  Ask,  and  it 
shall  be  given  "'  thee :  for  it  is  not  ye  that  speak," 


'-5  Socrat.  lib.  7.  cap.  2. 

'26  Sozom.  lib.  8.  cap.  27. 

'27  Sidon.  lib.  9.  Ep.  3.  ad  Faustum  Regicnsem.  Licet 
praedicationes  tiias,  nunc  repentinas,  nunc,  cum  ratio  po- 
poscerit,  elucubratas,  raucus  plausor  audierim,  &c.  Gen- 
nadius  de  Scriptor.  cap.  40,  gives  the  same  account  of  Max- 
imus  Taurinensis. 

'28  Aug.  Serm.  27.  ex  50.  t.  10.  p.  175.  See  before,  Book 
XIV.  chap.  1.  sect.  6. 

'25  Aug.  in  Psal.  cxxxviii.  p.  650. 

""  Possid.  Vit.  Aug.  cap.  15. 

'"  Aug.  in  Psal.  Ixxxvi.  p.  .390.  Hie  nobis,  quantum 
Dominus  donare  dignatur,  cum  vestra  charitate  tractandus 
modo  est,  propositus  a  beatissimo  praesente  patie  nostro. 
Repentina  propositio  me  gravarot,  nisi  me  continuo  propo- 
nentis  sublevaret  oratio. 

'^2  Greg.  Magn.  Horn.  19.  in  Ezck.  p.  1144.     Non  hoc 


temeritate  aggredior,  sed  humilitate.  Scio  enim,  quia  ple- 
rumque  multa  in  sacro  eloquio,  qua;  solus  intelligere  non 
potui,  coram  fratribus  mcis  positus  inteUexi,  &c. 

'^3  Chrys.  Horn.  23.  de  Verbis  Apost.  Habentes  eandem 
Fidem,  &c.  t.  5.  p.  .331.  TlpoaooKu)  ti^u  too  UvtufxaTos 
y^apiv  kvi)')(ii}(TUL  v/iwv  t;;  ciuvoia. 

'3J  Hom.  2.  ad  Pop.  Antioch.  1. 1.  p.  .30. 

'«  Hom.  2.  de  Verbis  Esaiee,  t.  2.  p.  331. 

'S6  Aug.  Serm.  17.  de  Verbis  Apost.  t.  10.  p.  132.  Do- 
nante  illo,  &c.     Et  passim  Sermon,  in  Psalmos,  34,  96. 

"'  Aug.  Serm.  15.  de  Verb.  Apost.  Ut  ea  quae  ille  nobis 
revelare  dignetur,  ad  vos  apte  et  salubriter  proferre  possi- 
mus.     Vid.  ibid.  Serm.  14  et  15. 

138  Aug.  Serm.  46.  de  Tempore,  t.  10.  p.  240.  Si  sermo 
deest,  pete  et  accipies.  Non  enim  vos  estis  qui  loquimini: 
sed  quod  datur  vobis,  hoc  ministratis  nobis.  It.  de  Doctrina 
Christi,  lib.  4.  cap.  15,  he  has  more  to  the  same  purpose. 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


ri9 


but  ye  minister  what  is  given  unto  you.  If  a  man 
would  disingenuously  interpret  these  and  the  like 
expressions  of  the  ancients,  he  might  make  them 
seem  to  countenance  that  preaching  by  the  Spirit, 
which  some  so  vainly  boast  of,  as  if  they  spake 
nothing  but  what  the  Spirit  immediately  dictated 
to  them,  as  it  did  to  the  apostles,  by  extraordinary 
inspiration.  Which  were  to  set  eveiy  extempore, 
as  well  as  composed  discom'se  upon  the  same  level 
of  infallibility  with  the  gospel.  Which  sort  of  en- 
thusiasm the  ancients  never  dreamed  of.  For, 
notwithstanding  the  assistance  of  the  Spirit  they 
speak  of,  they  always  put  a  wide  difference  between 
the  apostles'  preaching  and  their  own,  styling  the 
one  infallible  and  authentic,  as  we  have  heard  be- 
fore'^ out  of  St.  Austin  and  others,  and  themselves 
only  fallible  expositors  of  the  Scripture.  All,  there- 
fore, they  pretended  to  from  the  assistance  of  the 
Spirit,  was  only  that  ordinary  assistance  which  men 
may  expect  from  the  concurrence  of  the  Spirit  with 
their  honest  endeavours,  as  a  blessing  upon  their 
studies  and  labours ;  that  whilst  they  were  piously 
engaged  in  his  service,  God  would  not  be  wanting 
to  them  in  such  assistance  as  was  proper  for  their 
work,  especially  if  they  humbly  asked  it  with  sin- 
cerity by  fervent  supplication  and  prayer. 

And  upon  this  account  it  was  usual 

Sect.  13.  .        ,         '^        ,  .  , 

What  sort  of  pray-  tor  the  prcachcr  many  times  to  usher 

ere  they  used  before    ... 

Ifte'theiS"'''"'^''  ^^  ^^^  discourse  with  a  short  prayer 
for  such  Divine  assistance,  and  also 
to  move  the  people  to  pray  for  him.  St.  Austin,  in 
the  aforesaid  homily,  havnng  mentioned  the  assist- 
ance of  the  Spirit,  immediately  adds,  Whither  shall 
I  betake  myself,  thus  violently  pressed  in  these 
straits,  but  to  the  footstool  of  charity,  or  grace  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  ?  And  to  that  I  make  now  my  sup- 
plication,'" that  he  would  grant  me  ability  to  speak 
something  worthy  of  him,  whereby  I  may  at  once 
fulfil  my  ministry,  and  satisfy  your  desire.  And  in 
his  book  of  Instructions  of  the  Christian  Orator,'" 
where  he  prescribes  many  excellent  rules  for  preach- 
ing, he  lays  down  this,  among  others.  That  the 
Christian  orator  should  pray  both  for  himself  and 
others  before  he  begins  to  teach ;  that  he  may  be 
able  to  speak  those  things  that  are  holy,  just,  and 
good ;  and  that  his  auditors  may  hear  him  with  un- 


derstanding, with  willingness,  and  with  an  obedient 
heart.  To  this  end,  before  he  looses  his  tongue  to 
speak,  he  should  lift  up  his  thirsting  soul  to  God, 
that  he  may  be  able  to  discharge  what  he  has  im- 
bibed, and  pour  forth  to  others  that  wherewith  he 
has  filled  himself  And  this  the  rather,  because 
both  we  and  all  our  words  are  in  the  hand  of  God, 
who  teaches  us  both  what  to  speak,  and  after  what 
manner  to  speak.  And  therefore,  though  ecclesias- 
tical men  ought  to  learn  what  they  are  to  teach,  and 
to  get  the  faculty  of  speaking ;  yet  when  the  hour 
of  speaking  comes,  they  should  imagine  that  what 
our  Lord  says,'*-  belongs  to  every  good  soul :  "  Take 
no  thought  how  or  what  ye  shall  speak,  for  it  shall 
be  given  to  you  in  that  hour  what  ye  shall  speak : 
for  it  is  not  ye  that  speak,  but  the  Spirit  of  your 
Father  that  speaketh  in  you."  If,  therefore,  the 
Holy  Spirit  speak  in  them,  who  are  delivered  up  to 
persecutors  for  the  name  of  Christ,  why  should  he 
not  also  speak  in  those  who  preach  Christ  to  them 
that  are  disposed  to  learn  him?  I  have  related 
this  passage  at  length,  both  because  it  shows  us  to 
what  degree  they  depended  on  the  Spirit's  assistance 
in  preaching,  and  also  what  sort  of  prayers  those 
were  which  they  commonly  made  before  sermon ; 
viz.  not  the  common  prayers  of  the  church,  (as 
some  mistake,  who  measure  all  usages  of  the  an- 
cient church  by  the  customs  of  the  present,)  but 
these  short  prayers  for  the  assistance  and  conduct 
of  the  Spirit,  to  direct  both  them  and  the  people  in 
speaking  and  hearing.  And  wherever  we  meet  with 
any  mention  of  prayer  before  sermon,  it  is  to  be 
understood  only  of  this  short  sort  of  prayers,  in 
ancient  writers.  Such  as  that  of  St.  Austin's,  in 
one  of  his  homilies  upon  the  Psalms,  which  begins 
with  these  words  :  Attend  to  the  psalm,  and  the 
Lord'"  grant  us  ability  to  open  the  mysteries  that 
are  contained  in  it.  He  begins  another  thus  :  My 
lords  and  brethren,  (meaning  the  bishops  then  pre- 
sent,) and  the  Lord  of  all  by  them,  have  com- 
manded me  to  discourse  upon  this  psalm,  that  you 
may  understand  it,'"  so  far  as  the  Lord  shall  grant 
us  understanding.  And  may  he  by  your  prayers 
assist  me,  that  I  may  speak  such  things  as  I  ought  to 
speak,  and  such  as  ye  ought  to  hear :  that  the  word 
of  God  may  be  profitable  to  us  all.     In  this  sense 


139  Aug.  Ep.  19.  ad  Hieron.  See  before  in  this  chap.  sect.  1. 

"°  Aug.  Horn.  46.  de  Tempore.  His  coarctatus  angustiis, 
quo  me  conferam,  nisi  ad  sancta vestigia  charitatis?  Eamque 
deprecor,  ut  donet  mihi  aliquid  dignum  de  se  dicere,  quo  et 
meum  ministerium,  et  vestrum  satiem  desiderium.  Vid. 
Hom.  51.  de  Divevsis. 

'"  De  Doctrin.  Christ,  lib.  4.  cap.  15.  Noster  eloqtiens, 
orando  pro  se,  ac  pro  illis  quos  est  allocuturus,  sit  orator  an- 
tequara  dictor.  al.  doctor.  Ipsa  bora  jam  ut  dicat  acce- 
dcns,  priusquam  exserat  proferentem  linguam,  ad  Deum  levet 
animam  sitientem,  ut  eractet  quod  biberit,  vel  quod  imple- 
verit  fundat,  &c. 

'*-  Ibid.    Ad  horam  vero  ipsius  dictionis  illud  potius  bonae 


menti  cogitet  convenire  quod  Dominus  ait:  Nolite  cogitare 
quomodo  aut  quid  loquamini ;  dabitur  enim  vobis  in  ilia  hora 
quid  loquamini :  nou  enim  vos  estis  qui  loquimini,  sed  Spi- 
ritus  Patris  vestri  qui  loquitur  in  vobis.  Si  ergo  loquitur  in 
eis  Spiritus  Sanctus  qui  persequentibus  traduntur  pro  Christo, 
cur  non  et  in  eis  qui  tradunt  discentibus  Christum  ? 

'"  Aug.  in  Psal.  xci.  p.  417.  Attendite  ad  psahnum:  det 
nobis  Dominus  aperire  mysteria  quae  hie  continentur. 

'**  In  Psal.  cxxxix.  Jusserimt  domini  fratres,  et  in  ipsis 
Dominus  omnium,  ut  ipsum  psalmum  afferam  ad  vos  intelli- 
gcndum,  quantum  Dominus  donat.  Adjuvet  oration ibus 
vestris,  ut  ea  dicam  quae  oportet  me  dicere  et  vos  audire : 
uti  omnibus  nobis  sit  utilis  sermo  Divinus. 


720 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


♦  Book  XIV. 


we  are  to  understand  St.  Chrysostom,  when  he  says, 
We  must  first  pray,'"  and  then  preach.  So  St.  Paul 
does,  praying  in  the  prefaces  of  his  Epistles,  that  the 
light  of  prayer,  as  the  light  of  a  candle,  may  lead 
the  way  to  his  discourses.  Such  is  that  prayer 
which  St.  Ambrose""  is  said  to  use  before  his  ser- 
mons :  "  I  beseech  thee,  O  Lord,  and  earnestly  en- 
treat thee,  give  me  a  humble  knowledge,  which 
may  edify  ;  give  me  a  meek  and  prudent  eloquence, 
which  knows  not  how  to  be  puffed  up,  or  vaunt  it- 
self upon  its  own  worth  and  endowments  above  its 
brethren.  Put  into  my  mouth,  I  beseech  thee,  the 
\\ord  of  consolation,  and  edification,  and  exhort- 
ation, that  I  may  be  able  to  exhort  those  that  are 
good  to  go  on  to  greater  perfection,  and  reduce 
those  that  walk  perversely  to  the  rule  of  thy  right- 
eousness, both  by  my  word  and  by  my  example. 
Let  the  words  which  thou  givest  to  thy  servant, 
be  as  the  sharpest  darts  and  burning  arrows,  which 
may  penetrate  and  inflame  the  minds  of  my  hearers 
to  thy  fear  and  love."  But  this  seems  rather  to 
have  been  a  private  prayer  of  St.  Ambrose  between 
God  and  himself,  as  Bishop  Wettenhal'"  and  Mr. 
Thorndike"'  understand  it :  who  yet  are  mistaken 
in  one  thing,  when  they  suppose  that  the  common 
prayers  of  the  church  came  before  the  sermon,  and 
that  there  were  no  other  prayers  before  sermon  but 
those :  for  nothing  is  more  certain,  than  that  the 
common  prayers  did  not  begin  till  the  sermon  was 
ended ;  and  yet  there  were  such  short  prayers  for 
gi'ace  and  assistance,  as  we  are  speaking  of,  pecu- 
liarly adapted  to  the  business  of  preaching  and 
hearing,  and  not  respecting  any  other  subject.  And 
sometimes  the  people's  prayers  were  required  to  be 
joined  with  them,  as  appears  from  thaft  of  St.  Aus- 
tin,'" in  one  of  his  homilies  iipon  the  Psalms, 
where  he  desires  the  people  to  assist  him  with  their 
prayers  to  the  Lord,  that  he  M^ould  grant  him  ability 
to  explain  the  latent  mysteries  and  difllculties  of 
the  Psalms,  as  well  for  their  sakes  as  his  own.  In 
Origen's  homilies  upon  Genesis,  Exodus,  Leviticus, 
Numbers,  Kings,  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel,  and  St.  Luke, 
there  are  abundance  of  such  short  prayers,  not 
only  in  the  beginning  of  his  discourses,  but  some- 
times also  in  the  middle  of  them,  when  any  more 
abstruse  passage  of  Scripture  presented  itself  to 


consideration ;  and  generally  in  the  close  he  makes 
another  such  short  prayer  in  a  few  words  suitable 
to  the  subject,  sometimes  praying  for  himself  and 
the  people,  and  sometimes  exhorting  them  to  pray 
for  themselves  and  him.  All  which  being  pro- 
duced at  large  in  a  noted  book  of  Mr.  Daille's,'^"  I 
shall  not  think  it  needful  to  transcribe  them  in  this 
place.  But  I  cannot  omit  to  observe,  that  as  St. 
Austin  often  began  his  sermon  with  a  short  prayer, 
so  he  usually  ended  it  with  another  of  the  like  na- 
ture ;  the  forms  of  which  are  some  of  them  now 
to  be  found  at  the  end  of  several  of  his  homilies. 
In  some  of  them'^'  we  have  this  form  at  length; 
"  Let  us  now  turn  to  the  Lord  God,  our  Father  Al- 
mighty, with  a  pure  heart,  and  give  him  thanks 
with  all  our  might,  beseeching  his  singular  clemency, 
•with  our  whole  soul,  that  of  his  good  pleasure  he 
would  vouchsafe  to  hear  our  prayers  ;  that  he  would 
drive  away  the  enemy  from  all  our  thoughts  and 
actions  by  his  power  ;  that  he  would  increase  our 
faith,  govern  our  minds,  grant  us  spiritual  thoughts, 
and  conduct  us  to  everlasting  happiness,  through 
Jesus  Christ  his  Son,  our  Lord,  who  liveth  and 
reigneth  with  him  in  the  unity  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
one  God,  world  without  end.  Amen."  And  in  many 
other  homilies  this  prayer  is  referred  to  as  a  known 
form'^'^  used  frequently  by  him  in  the  close  of  his 
sermons  :  Conversi  ad  Dominum,  &c.  But  he  some- 
times varied  and  shortened  this  form,  as  the  matter 
of  his  sermon  required.  Thus  in  his  long  sermon 
upon  the  resurrection,'^'  having  said,  That  the  saints 
in  the  next  world  will  keep  a  perpetual  sabbath, 
and  have  nothing  to  do  but  to  sing  hallelujah ; 
and' applying  the  words  of  the  psalmist  to  this  pur- 
pose, "  Blessed  are  they  that  dwell  in  thy  house,  for 
they  will  be  always  praising  thee ; "  he  concludes 
his  sermon  with  this  prayer  :  "  Let  us  turn  to  the 
Lord,  and  beseech  him  for  ourselves,  and  all  the 
people  that  stand  with  us  in  the  courts  of  his  house ; 
which  house  may  he  vouchsafe  to  preserve  and  pro- 
tect, through  Jesus  Christ  his  Son  our  Lord,  who 
liveth,  and  reigneth  with  him,  world  without  end. 
Amen."  In  another  of  his  homilies  (a  fragment  of 
which  is  cited  by  Sirmond,'^'  as  it  is  preserved  in 
Eugippius's  collections  out  of  St.  Austin's  works) 
he  has  another  form  in  these  words  :  "  Let  us  turn 


'*^  Chrys.  Horn.  28.  de  Inconiprchensibili  Dei  Natura,  t. 

1.    p.    363.        UpoTipOV    ti^X')   '^''"  TOTf.    Xoyoi,   K.   T.    \. 

'■"^  Ainbros.  Orat.  ap.  Ferrarium  ile  Concionib.  Veter.  lib. 
1,  cap.  8.  Obsecio  Doniine,  et  suppliciter  ro^o,  da  mihi 
semper  humilem  scientiain,  qiiaj  aedificet,  da  mitissimam  sa- 
pientem  eloquentiani,  quae  nesciat  inflari,  et  de  suis  bonis 
super  fratres  extolli,  &c. 

1"  Wettenhal,  Gift  of  Prayer,  chap.  4.  p.  116. 

'^8  Thorndike's  Just  Weights  and  Measures,  chap.  16. 

"'  Au;^.  in  Psal.  cxlvii.  p.  099.  Adsit  ergo  nobis  apud 
Dominum  Deum  nostrum  iste  affectus  precum  vestrarum  : 
etsi  non  propter  nos,  certe  propter  vos  donare  dignetur, 
quod  hie  abscondituiii  latet.  V'id.  Homil.  50.  de  Diversis. 


Orate  ut  possimus,  Sec. 

'5«  Dallw.  de  Objecto  Cultus  Relig.  lib.  3.  cap.  13. 

'=•  Aug.  Serm.  30.  de  Verb.  Dom.  t.  10.  Et  Serm.  102. 
de  Diversis,  et  120.    Et  Serm.  18.  e.x  editis  a  Sirmondo. 

'M  Aug.  de  Verb.  Dom.  1,  5,  7,  8,  10,  14,  31,  32,  37,  40. 
Et  passim  Homiliis  de  Diversis. 

'^^  De  Divers.  Ser.  121. 

ii>  Fragment.  Homil.  e.K  Eugippii  Thesauro,  lib.  2.  cap. 
288.  ap.  Sirmond.  Not.  in  Aug.  Homil.  18.  a  se  edit.  Au- 
distis  mo,  credo,  fratres  mei,  quando  dico,  conversi  ad  Do- 
minum benedicamus  nomen  ejus,  de  nobis  perscverare  in 
mandatis  suis,  ambulare  in  via  eruditionis  sua;,  placere  ill!  in 
omni  opere  bono,  &c.,  ne  vos  sine  tausa  amen  subscribatis. 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


721 


to  the  Lord,  and  bless  his  name,  that  we  may  have 
grace  to  persevere  in  his  commandments,  to  walk 
in  the  way  of  his  instructions,  and  please  him  in 
every  good  work,"  &c.  From  all  which  it  is  mani- 
fest, they  used  such  short  prayers  both  in  the  be- 
ginning and  conclusion  of  their  sermons,  and  some- 
times, as  occasion  required,  in  the  middle  of  them 
also,  and  that  these  were  distinct  from  the  common 
prayers  of  the  church. 

Before  they  began  to  preach,  it  was 

Sect.  U.  J  o  I 

The  sauitation,     ugual  also,  HI  many  places,  to  use  tiie 

J'nr  vobis,  "  Ihe  '  ^    r  ' 

lfmmonv,'''uJrbe-   common  salutatiou.  Pax  voh's,  "  Peace 

fore  sermons.  ^^  ^^^^  y^y^,.  ^j.^  „  -pj-^g  L^j.^   Jjg  ^^.jj]^ 

you,"  which  was  the  usual  preface  and  introduction 
to  all  holy  offices,  to  which  the  people  answered, 
"And  with  thy  spirit."  This  the  author  of  the 
Constitutions  calls,  npoaprjmv,  the  salutation,  giving 
this  rule  to  the  bishop  newly  ordained :  After  the 
reading  of  the  Law,  and  the  Prophets,  and  the  Epis- 
tles, and  the  Acts,  and  the  Gospels,  let  him'"  salute 
the  church,  saying,  "  The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  the  love  of  God  the  Father,  and  the 
fellowship  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  be  with  you  all :"  and 
let  all  the  people  answer,  "  And  with  thy  spirit :" 
and  after  this  salutation,  fitrd  t>)v  irpotrfirjfftv,  let 
him  speak  to  the  people  the  words  of  exhortation. 
And  that  this  author  did  not  impose  any  new  cus- 
tom upon  the  church,  appears  from  Chrysostom, 
who,  in  several  of  his  homilies,  makes  mention  of  it. 
In  his  third  homily  upon  the  Colossians,  he  says. 
The  bishop,  when  he  first  entered  the  church,  said, 
"  Peace  be  unto  you  all ;"  and  when  he  began  ""  to 
preach,  "  Peace  be  unto  you  all."  And  a  little  be- 
fore he  says,  the  bishops  used  it,  ev  toIq  irpoa priatai, 
by  which  he  means  their  sermons,  or  at  least,  the 
form  of  salutation  itself  ushering  in  the  sermon,  as 
we  have  seen  the  author  of  the  Constitutions  under- 
stands it.  Chrysostom'"  adds.  That  the  people  re- 
turned the  salutation  of  peace  to  him  that  gave  it, 
sapng,  "  And  with  thy  spirit."  In  another  place 
he  says.  Nothing  is  comparable  to  peace  and  unity : 
and  for  this  reason  the  father,  the  bishop,  when  he 
enters  the  church,  before  he  goes  up  to  his  throne, 
prays  for  peace  to  all;  and  when  he  rises  up  to 
preach,  he  does  not  begin  to  discourse  '^'  before  he 
has  given  the  peace  to  all.  In  other  places  he 
opens  the  reason  of  this  practice,  by  declaring  the 
original  intent  and  design  of  it.  For,  he  says,  it 
was  an  ancient  custom  in  the  apostles'  days,  when 


the  rulers  of  the  church  had  the  gift  of  inspira- 
tion, and  spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  for  the  people  to  say  to  the  preacher, 
"  Peace  be  with  thy  spirit :"  therefore,  now,  when 
we  begin  to  preach,'^"  the  people  answer,  "  And  with 
thy  spirit:"  showing,  that  heretofore  they  spake 
not  by  their  own  wisdom,  but  as  they  were  moved 
by  the  Spirit.  And  though  this  gift  of  extraordi- 
nary inspiration  was  ceased,  yet  all  preachers  still 
were  presumed  to  be  under  the  conduct  and  assist- 
ance of  the  Spirit,  in  a  lower  degree :  and  therefore 
he  says""  in  another  place,  That  the  Holy  Ghost 
was  in  their  common  father  and  teacher,  meaning 
the  bishop,  when  he  went  up  into  the  episcopal 
throne,  and  gave  the  peace  to  them  all,  and  they 
with  one  voice  answered,  "  And  with  thy  spirit." 
And  this,  not  only  when  he  went  into  his  throne, 
but  also  when  he  preached  to  them,  when  he 
prayed,  and  when  he  stood  by  the  holy  table  to 
offer  the  oblation.  And  by  this  we  may  understand 
what  Sozomen'^'  and  others  say  of  Chrysostom 
after  his  return  from  banishment,  that  the  people 
forced  him  against  his  ^\^ll,  before  he  was  synodically 
reinstated,  to  go  up  into  the  throne,  and  give  them 
the  peace  in  the  usual  form,  and  preach  to  them. 
Optatus  speaks  of  the  same  custom  in  Africa  both 
in  the  beginning  and  end  of  their  sermons.  For 
he  says,"'^  they  used  a  double  salutation ;  the  bishop 
never  began  to  speak  to  the  people,  before  he  had 
first  saluted  them  in  the  name  of  God.  Every 
sermon  in  the  church  began  in  the  name  of  God, 
and  ended  in  the  name  of  the  same  God,  And  by 
this  he  proves,  that  Macarius,  the  emperor's  officer, 
did  not  take  upon  him  the  office  of  a  bishop  among 
the  catholics,  as  the  Donatists  falsely  objected 
against  them.  For  though  he  spake  to  the  people 
in  the  church,  yet  it  was  upon  some  other  business, 
and  not  by  way  of  preaching,  which  was  the  office 
of  bishops,  which  they  always  began  and  ended 
vnih.  this  salutation :  but  Macarius  used  no  such 
salutation ;  and  from  thence  he  argues  that  he  did 
not  preach.  Bona  ""  cites  also  Athanasius's  epistle  to 
Eustathius,  where  he  inveighs  against  the  Arian 
bishops,  who,  in  the  beginning  of  their  sermons,  used 
that  kind  word,  "  Peace  be  with  you,"  and  yet  were 
always  harassing  others,  and  tragically  engaged  in 
war.  But  as  there  is  no  epistle  under  that  title 
among  Athanasius's  works,  I  let  it  rest  upon  the 
credit  of  our  author. 


'^^  Constit.  lib.  8.  cap.  5.  'Acnra(ra(r6to  b  \tipoTovi]dih 
TijU  iKK\^]<Tiav,  \iywv,  »;  X"P'^  '^"^  Kupi'ou,  k.t.X. 

'5*  Chrys.  Horn.  .3.  in  Colos.  p.  1338.  "O-rav  o/ii\{i,  Xtyii, 
iipi'ivij  iraaiv,  k.t.X. 

'^'  Ibid.  p.  1339.  ' AvTlOOVTl.'S  tuJ  ^I^OVTL  Tt;!/  ilpnv^V, 
K.T.X. 

'^  Horn. 52.  in  eos  qui  Pascha jejunant,  t.5.  p.  713.  ' Avn- 
CTas  oil  irpoTEOov  ap\tTai  xij?  tt/jos  v/ia9  6i6a(TKa\ia9, 
4(1)1  dv  airacTiv  i/fxiv  tipvvv  tirfv^ijiai. 

^^  Chrys.  Horn.  36.  in  1  Cor.  p.  652. 
3  A 


'™  Horn.  36.  de  Pentecost,  t.  5.  p.  553. 

"^1  Sozom.  lib.  8.  cap.  18. 

x'- Optat.  lib.  3.  ad  calcem,  lib.  7.  p.  112.  Episcopalis 
tractatus  probatur  salutatione  geminata.  Non  enim  aliquid 
incipit  episcopus  ad  populum  dicere,  nisi  primo  in  nomine 
Dei  populum  salutaverit.  Similes  sunt  exitus  initiis.  Om- 
nis  tractatus  in  ecclesia  a  nomine  Dei  incipitur,  et  ejusdem 
Dei  nomine  tenninatur,  &c.  It.  lib.  3.  p.  73.  Salutas  de 
pace,  qui  non  amas. 

'"^  Bona^  Rerum  Liturgic.  lib.  2.  cap.  5.  n,  1, 


71^-^ 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIV. 


But   I   cannot   but    observe,  that 
But'  the  use  of  among-  all  the  short  prayers  used  by 

Ave  Marias   before  °      .  ,.  i      • 

sermons,  unknown  the   ancicnts    before  their    sermons, 

to  the  ancients. 

there  is  never  any  mention  of  an 
Ave  3faria,  now  so  common  in  the  practice  of  the 
Romish  church.  Their  addresses  were  all  to  God, 
and  the  invocation  of  the  holy  Virgin  for  grace  and 
assistance  before  sermons  was  a  thing  not  thought 
of.  They  who  are  most  concerned  to  prove  its  use, 
can  derive  its  original  no  higher  than  the  beginning 
of  the  fifteenth  centiuy.  For  Ferrarius"^^  ingenu- 
ously confesses,  that  Vincentius  Ferrerius  was  the 
first  ecclesiastical  writer  that  ever  used  it  before  his 
seiinons.  Baronius  has  not  a  syllable  of  its  an- 
tiquity in  all  his  Twelve  Centuries ;  there  being  a 
perfect  silence  both  among  the  ancients  and  all  the 
ritualists  about  it,  till  that  Dominican  preacher,  in 
his  abundant  zeal  for  the  worship  of  the  holy  Virgin, 
began  to  use  it  before  his  sermons ;  from  whose  ex- 
ample (for  he  was  a  celebrated  preacher  in  the  age 
he  lived)  it  gained  such  reputation  and  authority,  as 
not  only  to  be  prefixed  before  all  their  sennons,  but 
to  be  adapted  and  joined  with  the  Lord's  prayer  in 
the  Roman  Breviary.  Ferrarius  says  all  he  can  to 
justify  a  novelty;  but  nothing  can  clear  this  hyper- 
dulia  of  idolatiy ;  and  he  might  have  spared  his 
censure  of  Erasmus,  who  says  a  witty  thing  upon 
it,  That  their  preachers  were  used  to  invoke  the 
virgin  mother  in  the  beginning  of  their  discourses, 
as  the  heathen  poets  were  used  to  do  their  muses : 
for  Epiphanius  would  have  said  much  severer  things 
against  it,  had  he  had  the  like  occasion  given  him 
to  inveigh  against  this  idolatry,  as  he  had  to  censure 
that  of  the  Collyridians  :  but  then  this  idolatry  was 
confined  to  the  weaker  sex,  and  had  not  yet  made 
its  way  into  the  pulpits,  or  any  part  of  the  liturgy 
of  the  ancient  church,  when  preachers  were  used  to 
pray  for  grace  and  assistance  only  from  Him,  who  is 
the  proper  donor  of  it. 

I  observe  further,  that  as  their  ser- 

Seet.  16.  ,  n  f  T        •   1 

Sometimes  their    mous  wcrc  thus  usually  prciaccd  with 

sermons  were  pre- 
faced with  a  bene-  a  short  prayer,  so  they  were  some- 
times introduced  with  a  short  form  of 
benediction.  This  seems  to  have  been  peculiar  to 
times  of  calamity  and  distress,  or  to  happy  deliver- 
ances out  of  them.  There  are  instances  of  both 
kinds  in  Chrysostom's  sermons  to  tlie  people  of  An- 
tioch,  when  they  were  under  apprehensions  of  being 
destroyed  by  the  emperor's  displeasure.  His  fourth 
sermon  begins  thus :    Blessed  be  God,  who  hath 


comforted  your  sorrowful  souls,  and  comforted  your 
wavering  minds.  His  eleventh,  twelfth,  thirteenth, 
and  twentieth  homilies,  begin  much  after  the  same 
manner.  And  Ms  homily  after  his  return  from 
banishment,"^  is  thus  prefaced :  What  shall  I  say  ? 
What  shall  I  speak?  Blessed  be  God.  This  was 
the  word  which  I  spake  when  I  went  away ;  and 
this  I  repeat  now  at  my  return.  And  this  he  tells 
them  he  did  after  the  example  of  Job,  who,  in  ad- 
versity, as  well  as  prosperity,  said  always,  "  Blessed 
be  the  name  of  the  Lord." 

It  appears  further  from  those  homi- 

,  .  Sect.  17. 

lies,'^  and  several  others  both  in  him    sometimes  preach- 
ed without  any  text, 

and  other  writers,  that  they  sometimes  and  sometimes  upon 

'  •'  more  texts  than  one. 

preached  without  any  text ;  only  treat- 
ing of  such  matters  as  they  thought  most  proper  for 
the  occasion.  But  most  commonly  they  took  their 
text  out  of  some  paragraph  of  the  Psalms  or  lessons, 
as  they  were  read.  And  sometimes  they  so  ordered 
the  matter,  as  to  preach  upon  the  Psalm,  the  Epis- 
tle, and  Gospel,  all  together,  when  they  were  either 
accidentally,  or  by  their  own  appointment,  upon  the 
same  subject.  Thus  St.  Austin  preached  upon  the 
subject  of  praise  and  thanksgiving  out  of  the  Epis- 
tle, the  Psalm,  and  the  Gospel  together,'"  because 
they  had  all  something  relating  to  his  subject.  But 
they  never  showed  so  little  reverence  for  Scripture, 
as  to  choose  their  text  out  of  Aristotle's  Ethics,  as 
Sixtinus  Amama"^  tells  us  one  of  the  Romish 
preachers  did  at  Paris,  in  the  hearing  of  Melancthon. 

Neither  did  they  entertain  their  au-  g^^^  ,g 
ditory  with  light  and  ludicrous  mat-  wa^liVon^mpon- 
ters,  or  fabulous  and  romantic  stories,  ""'  subjects. 
such  as  those  with  which  preaching  so  much  abound- 
ed in  the  age  before  the  Reformation ;  of  which 
Erasmus,'"'  and  Faber,""  and  Hottinger,'"  and  many 
other  learned  men,  have  made  so  great  and  so  just 
complaints.  There  is  one  instance  given  by  Hot- 
tinger,  out  of  one  of  their  authentic  books  of  homi- 
lies, which,  for  its  singular  vanity,  and  to  show  the 
difference  between  the  ancient  and  the  modern  way 
of  edifying  a  popular  auditory,  I  shall  here  tran- 
scribe out  of  him,  as  he  relates  it  in  his  history. 
He  says,  in  a  book  of  sermons"^  composed  by  the 
Theological  Faculty  of  Vienna,  anno  1430,  which 
was  read  in  their  monasteries  and  their  churches, 
this  ridiculous  story  is  told,  to  recommend  their 
relics  to  the  people :  That  the  thirty  pieces  of  gold 
(though  the  Scripture  calls  them  silver)  which  Ju- 
das had  for  betraying  his  Master,  were  coined  by 


IG4  Ferrar.  do  Ritu  Concioii.  lib.  1.  cap.  11.  p.  30. 

'"  Chrys.  Homil.  post  Ilcditum,  t.  2. 

"»  Ibid.  Horn.  3,  4,  5,  6.  ad  Popul.  Antioch. 

'"  Aug.  de  Verbis  Apost.  Serm.  10.  t.  10.  p.  112.  Has  tres 
lectiones,  quantum  pro  tempore  possumus,  pcrtractemus,  di- 
ceates  pauca  de  singulis,  et  qtiantum  conaii  possumus,  adju- 
vante  Domino,  non  in  aliqua  earum  immorantes,  &e. 

"•"^  Sixtin.  Amama,  Orat.  de  Barbarie.    Cited  by  Mr.  Sel- 


ler, Life  of  Justin  Martyr,  p.  123. 

"""  Erasm.  Moria;  Encomium,  p.  176,  &c. 

""  Joannes  Fabcr,  Declainat.  de  Humanae  Vitee  miseria, 
ap.  Hottinger.  Hist.  Ecd.  Saecul.  16.  par.  4.  p.  1271. 

I"  Hottinger.  16.  Saicul.  par.  3.  p.  263,  &c. 

"^  Id.  Saecul.  15.  p.  63.  St.  Bernard's  censure  of  such 
trifles  is,  Inter  seculares  nuga;,  nugae  sunt :  in  ore  sacerdotis 
blasphomioe.     De  Consider,  lib.  2.  cap.  13. 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


723 


Terah,  Abraham's  father;  who  was  a  famous  arti- 
ficer under  King  Nimrod ;  that  he  gave  them  to  his 
son  Abraham ;  that  Abraham  therewith  purchased 
the  field  of  Ephron  the  Hittite ;  from  whence  they 
came  into  the  hands  of  the  Ishmaehtes,  who  there- 
with bought  Joseph,  when  his  brethren  sold  him 
into  Egypt;  that  Joseph's  brethren  paid  them  to 
Joseph,  when  they  went  to  buy  corn  in  Egypt,  and 
so  they  came  into  the  king  of  Egypt's  treasury  ;  that 
hence  they  were  given  to  Moses,  when  the  king  of 
Egypt  sent  him  with  an  army  to  subdue  Ethiopia ; 
that  Moses  upon  this  occasion  gave  them  as  a  dowry 
to  the  queen  of  Sheba ;  and  the  Ethiopian  queen 
afterward  made  a  present  of  them  to  King  Solomon; 
who  put  them  into  the  treasury,  where  they  con- 
tinued, till  Nebuchadnezzar,  among  the  spoil,  seized 
them  in  the  devastation  of  Jerusalem ;  Nebuchad- 
nezzar, having  an  Arabian  king  among  his  auxilia- 
ries, made  a  present  of  them  unto  him ;  and  of  him 
sprang  one  of  those  Eastern  kings,  who  came  to 
worship  Christ  at  his  birth,  and  made  a  present  of 
them  to  the  Virgin  Mary;  and  the  Virgin,  when 
she  presented  her  Son  in  the  temple,  made  them 
an  oflering  for  her  purification.  So  this  very  silver 
(which  was  gold  before)  was  the  price  which  Judas 
had  for  betrapng  his  Master.  And  these  silver 
pieces  are  there  said  to  be  dispersed  over  all  the 
world,  and  kept  as  sacred  relics,  one  of  which  in 
gold,  as  big  as  an  English  noble,  is  showed  at  Rome 
in  the  entrance  of  St.  Peter's  church.  One  would 
hardly  believe,  that  such  absurd  and  ridiculous  fic- 
tions should  have  been  authorized  from  the  pulpit 
among  the  rules  of  eternal  life,  had  not  undeniable 
proof  been  often  made,'"  that  their  breviaries  and 
legends,  as  well  as  sermons,  before  the  Reformation, 
were  stuffed  with  such  fables ;  though,  I  believe, 
this  story  outdoes  any  in  the  Golden  Legend,  (of 
which  Ludovdcus  Vives  "*  and  Melchior  Canus '" 
so  much  complain,)  and  Jacobus  de  Voragine  was 
but  an  ass  to  these  men  for  invention.  Now*,  let  us 
see  how  the  ancient  way  of  preaching  differed  from 
this.  Justin  Martyr  makes  it  a  plain,  but  a  very 
edifying  way  of  instruction.  For  he  says.  When 
the  writings  of  the  apostles  and  prophets  were  read, 
the  bishop  made  a  discourse  to  exhort  and  excite 
the  people  to  imitate  and  transcribe  into  their  prac- 
tice the  good"^  things  they  had  heard  read  out  of 
them.  Their  subjects,  as  Gregory  Nazianzen  '"  de- 
scribes the  choice  of  them,  w'ere  commonly  such  as 
these":  of  the  world's  creation,  and  the  soul  of  man  ; 
of  angels,  as  well  those  that  kept,  as  those  that  lost 


'"  See  Patrick's  Devotions  of  the  Rom.  Church.  Lend. 
1674.  8vo. 

"*  Lud.  Vives  de  Tradend.  Disciplinis,  lib.  5.  p.  360. 
'"  Canus,  Loci  Theolog.  lib.  II.  cap.  6.  p.  55.3. 
'"^  Justin.  Apol.  2.  p.  98.     •"  Naz.  Orat.  1.  de  Fuga,  p.  15. 
"*  Chijs.  Horn.  21.  de  Baptismo  Christi,  t.  1.  p.  309. 
'"'  Aug.  de  Doctriua  Christ,  lib.  4.  cap.  4. 
3  .4   2 


their  first  integrity ;  of  Providence,  and  its  wise  laws 
and  constitutions  ;  of  the  formation  of  man,  and  his 
restoration ;  of  the  two  covenants,  the  types  of  the 
old,  and  the  antitypes  of  the  new ;  of  Christ's  first 
and  second  coming ;  of  his  incarnation  and  passion; 
of  the  general  resurrection  and  end  of  the  world; 
of  the  day  of  judgment,  and  the  rewards  of  the  just, 
and  the  punishment  of  the  wicked ;  and  above  all, 
of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  which  was  the  prin- 
cipal article  of  the  Christian  faith.  In  like  manner 
Chrysostom  puts  his  auditors '"*  in  mind  of  what 
matters  he  had  used  to  preach  to  them :  of  the  na- 
ture of  the  soul,  of  the  fabric  of  the  body,  of  the 
state  of  immortality,  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  and 
the  torments  of  hell ;  of  the  long-suflfering  of  God, 
and  the  methods  of  pardon ;  of  the  powers  of  re- 
pentance, of  baptism,  and  the  forgiveness  of  sins ; 
of  the  creation  of  the  superior  and  inferior  world ; 
of  the  nature  of  men  and  angels  ;  of  the  subtlety  of 
Satan,  and  his  methods  and  policies  ;  of  the  differ- 
ent opinions  of  the  Christian  world ;  of  the  true 
faith,  and  the  gangrene  of  heresies,  and  other  such 
mysteries,  which  it  behoves  a  Christian  to  be  ac- 
quainted with. 

And  as  they  were  thus  careful  in 
the  choice  of  their  subjects,  so  thev     *"''  "'•'"^ 

■J  '  J      way  most  ar 

were  no  less  careful  to  put  their  well-  capaci't!et''of  their 
chosen  matter  into  the  most  useful  '^'urpVJilur^'S 
and  pleasing  dress ;  that  they  might  """^ "  ^'=""""''- 
answer  the  true  ends  of  Christian  oratory,  and,  as 
the  wise  man  words  it,  make  their  apples  of  gold 
appear  the  more  beautiful  by  being  set  in  pictures 
of  silver.  The  design  of  Christian  oratory,  as  St. 
Austin""  observes,  is,  either  to  instruct  men  in  the 
truth,  or  to  refute  their  en'ors,  or  to  persuade  them 
to  the  practice  of  holiness  and  virtue,  and  dissuade 
them  from  the  contrary  vices.  The  first  of  these 
requires  plain  narration ;  the  second,  strength  of 
argument  and  ratiocination ;  and  the  third,  the  art 
and  power  of  mo\ang  the  mind  and  affections.  And 
in  doing  each  of  these,  the  Christian  orator,  as  he 
never  speaks  any  thing  but  what  is  holy,  just,  and 
good,  so  he  endeavoiu's  to  speak  these  in  such  a 
manner,  as  that  he  may  be  heard  with  understand- 
ing, wdth  pleasm-e,  and  with  obedience,"*  as  the 
chief  thing  of  all.  That  he  may  be  heard  with  un- 
derstanding, he  speaks  every  thing  with  a  natural 
plainness  and  perspicuity,  and  also  a  regard  to 
men's  capacities  and  apprehensions.  He  reckons 
the  greatest  oratory  of  no  use,  if  it  cannot  be  under- 
stood :  For  what  signifies  a  golden  key,'*'  if  it  can- 


Sect  10. 

cred  in; 
afletting, 
and  suitable  to  the 


'*"  Ibid.  cap.  ]5.  Agit  noster  eloqucns,  cum  et  jiista,  et 
sancta  et  bona  dicit  (neque  cnim  alia  debet  dicere)  :  agit 
ergo  quantum  potest,  cum  ista  dicit,  ut  iutelligentcr,  ut  li- 
benter,  ut  obedienter  audiatur. 

'*'  Ibid.  cap.  II.  Quid  enim  prodest  clavis  aiirea,  si  ape- 
rire  quod  volunius  non  potest?  Aut  quid  obcst  lij,'nea,  si  hoc 
potest,  quando  nihil  quocrimus,  nisi  patcre  quod  clausumest? 


724 


ANTIQUITIES  OP  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIV. 


not  open  what  we  intend  ?  A  wooden  key  is  of 
more  use,  if  it  will  answer  the  true  design  of  a  key, 
which  is  only  to  open  what  is  locked  up  and  shut 
before.  Therefore  the  Christian  orator  labours 
chiefly  at  perspicuity  in  his  speech,  never  thinking 
he  has  done  justice  to  any  truth  by  his  eloquence, 
unless  he  has  also  delivered  it  with  a  sufficient 
evidence  to  men  of  reasonable  capacities  and  com- 
prehensions. There  are  some  things,  which  are  un- 
intelhgible  in  their  own  natm-e,  or  not  to  be  under- 
stood by  the  ordinary  sort  of  men,  though  they  be 
spoken  ^\  ith  never  so  much  plainness  of  the  orator ; 
and  therefore  such  things  are  seldom  or  never,  with- 
out great  necessity,  to  be  handled  in  a  popular"*- 
audience.  For  the  same  reason,  he  that  studies 
perspicuity  and  evidence,  will  sometimes  neglect 
rhetorical  expressions,  and  not  regard  how  sonorous, 
but  how  significant  his  words  are,  to  intimate  and 
declare  his  sense  to  the  minds  of  his  hearers.  For 
there  is  a  iJiligens  negligentia,  a  useful  negligence, 
proper  in  this  case  to  ecclesiastical  teachers,  who 
must  sometimes  condescend  to  improprieties  of 
speech,  when  they  cannot  speak  otherwise  to  the 
apprehensions  of  the  vulgar.  As  he  notes,  that  they 
were  used  to  say  ossum,  instead  of  os,  to  distinguish 
a  mouth  from  a  bone  in  Africa,  to  comply  with  the 
understandings'*'  of  their  hearers.  For  what  ad- 
vantage is  there  in  purity  of  speech,  when  the  hearer 
understands  it  not,  seeing  there  is  no  occasion  at  all 
of  speaking,  if  they,  for  whose  sake  we  speak  to  be 
understood,  apprehend  not  what  we  say  ?  And  for 
this  reason,  I  doubt  not,  there  are  so  many  African- 
isms, or  idioms  of  the  African  tongue,  in  St.  Austin, 
because  he  thought  it  more  commendable  sometimes 
to  deviate  a  little  from  the  strict  gi-ammatical  purity 
and  propriety  of  the  Latin  tongue,  than  not  be  un- 
derstood by  his  hearers.  This  was  a  laudable  con- 
descension in  every  respect,  and  much  valued  by  the 
ancients,  who  thought  it  the  first  office  of  a  preacher, 
to  speak  always  to  the  capacity  and  understanding 
of  his  hearers.  It  is  this  which  Nazianzen  '*'  so 
highly  commends  in  Athanasius,  that  he  tempered 
his  style  according  to  the  difference  of  his  auditory  ; 
he  condescended  to  speak  to  mean  capacities  in  a 
lower  w^ay,  whilst  to  the  acute,  his  words  and  no- 
tions were  more  sublime.  And  there  was  but  one 
case  in  which  they  affected  to  speak  any  thing  dark- 
ly and  obscurely,  and  that  was  when  they  preached 
in  a  mixed  auditory,  w^here  the  catechumens  were 
present,  from  whom  they  purposely  intended  to  con- 


ceal the  profounder  knowledge  of  some  of  the  Chris- 
tian mysteries  for  a  time,  and  therefore  they  usually 
spake  of  them  in  a  covert  way,  with  an  iaamv  oi  fit- 
fivTiixEvoi,  The  initiated  know  what  we  mean,  as 
being  well  understood  by  them,  though  they  spake 
only  by  hints  and  dark  terms  upon  the  account  of 
the  catechumens  :  of  the  reasons  of  which  discipline 
and  practice,  I  have  spoken  largely  heretofore,''*^ 
and  therefore  need  say  no  more  of  it  in  this  place. 
The  next  thing  which  St.  Austin  commends  in 
his  Christian  Orator,  is,  that  he  labours  to  be  heard 
with  pleasure.  Ut  mtcllu/cnter,  tit  Uhcnter.  For 
though  a  plain  declaration  of  truth  may  satisfy  those 
who  regard  nothing  but  truth  ;  yet  the  greater  part 
of  men  love  sweetness  and  ornament  of  speech : 
and  therefore,  if  it  be  unpleasant,  the  benefit  of  it 
will  reach  but  very  few,  who  are  desirous  to  hear 
what  they  ought  to  learn,  though  it  be  in  a  mean 
and  uncomely  ""  dress :  but  the  generality  of  men 
are  not  pleased  with  this :  some  similitude  be- 
tween eating  and  speaking :  and  therefore,  because 
weak  stomachs  cannot  relish  their  most  necessary 
food,  without  which  they  cannot  live,  their  food  is 
to  be  seasoned  to  make  it  pleasant  for  them.  Upon 
this  account  he  commends  the  saying  of  an  ancient 
orator,  who  said  truly.  That  an  orator '"  ought  so 
to  speak,  as  not  only  to  teach  and  instruct,  but  also 
to  delight  and  move.  And  some  hearers  are  to  be 
induced  to  hear  by  the  pleasure  of  a  discourse,  which 
arises  from  the  sweetness,  and  beauties,  and  orna- 
ments of  it.  St.  Chrysostom  inculcates  the  same 
rule,  in  describing  the  office  of  a  bishop,  whose 
task,  he  says,  was  something  the  more  difficult  upon 
this  account,'*'  because  men  had  generally  nice  and 
delicate  palates,  and  were  inclined  to  hear  sermons 
as  they  heard  plays,  rather  for  pleasure  than  profit : 
which  added  to  the  preacher's  study  and  labour ; 
who,  though  he  was  to  contemn  both  popular  ap- 
plause and  censure,  yet  was  he  also  to  have  such  a 
regard  to  his  auditory,  as  that  they  might  hear  him 
with  pleasure,  to  their  edification  and  advantage.  It 
was  not  required,  indeed,  that  every  preacher  should 
speak  with  the  smoothness  of  Isocrates,  or  the  lofti- 
ness of  Demosthenes,  or  the  majesty  of  Thucydides, 
or  the  sublimity  of  Plato,  as  the  same  St.,  Chrysos- 
tom'"" words  it.  Lower  degrees  of  eloquence,  says 
St.  Austin,  would  please  a  Christian  auditory,  pro- 
vided he  had  a  decent  regard  to  the  common  rules 
of  eloquence,  to  say  noihrngohtiise,  deforiniter,  frigule, 
nothing  that  was  blunt,  nothing  that  was  indecent 


iw  Aiit;.  de  Doctrina  Christ,  lib.  4.  cap.  9. 

"'  Ibid.  cap.  10.  Cur  pietatis  doctorom  pigeat  impcritis 
loqueiitein  ossum  potius  quain  os  dicere,  &c. 

'»'  Naz.  Orat.  21.  de  Laud.  Athan.  p.  396. 

"*^  Book  X.  chap.  5. 

1S6  Aug.  de  Doctrin.  Christ,  lib.  4.  cap.  11.  Si  fiat  insiia- 
viter,  ad  paucos  qiiidem  studiosissimos  suus  pervenit  t'ruc- 
tus,  qui  ea  qua;  discenda  sunt,  quamvis  atijecte  incultoque 
dicantur,  scire  desiderar.t. Sed  quoniatn  inter  se  habeiit 


nonnullam  siniilitudinem  vescentes  atque  dicentes,  propter 
t'astidia  plurimorum  etiam  ipsa  sine  quibus  vivi  non  potest, 
alimenta  condieiida  sunt. 

'"  Aug.  ibid.  cap.  12.  Dixit  ergo  quidam  eloquens,  et 
venun  dixit,  ita  dicere  debere  cloquenteui,  ut  duceat,  ut  dc- 
Icctet,  ut  flectat. — Ut  teuealur  ad  audiendum,  delectandus 
est  auditor  :  et  delectatur,  si  suaviter  loquaris. 

1"^  Chrys.  de  Sacerdotio,  lib.  5.  cap.  1. 

'*'^  Chrys.  ibid.  lib.  4.  cap.  G. 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


725 


or  unbecoming,  nothing  that  was  cold  or  languid ; 
but  every  thing  acute,  ornate,  rchementer,  with  sharp- 
ness, and  handsomeness,  and  force :  which  are  St. 
Austin's  rules  in  this  very  case."**  Or  if  men  could 
not  attain  to  this  perfection  of  exotic  eloquence, 
yet  there  was  a  manly  and  majestic  eloquence,  an 
art  of  speaking  wisely,  which  no  one  could  fail  of, 
that  would  diligently  study  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
For  there  the  subject  is  not  only  great  and  Divine, 
but  the  diction  also  eloquent  and  beautiful,  as  St. 
Austin  shows  in  several  instances  out  of  the  apos- 
tles and  prophets  ; '"  the  style  not  glittering  with 
sallies,  and  flashes  of  juvenile  wit,  (which  would  not 
become  a  manly  eloquence,)  but  altogether  agree- 
able to  the  dignity  and  authority  of  the  persons 
who  were  the  inspired  authors  of  it ;  who  spake 
with  an  eloquence  becoming  both  themselves  and 
their  subjects ;  such  as  is  no  ways  inferior  to  the 
eloquence  manj'  times  of  the  greatest  masters  and 
pretenders  to  it,  and  for  its  wisdom  (which  is  the 
most  true  divine  eloquence)  far  exceeds  them. 
They  therefore  who  were  well  versed  both  in  the 
phrase  and  sense  of  the  Scriptures,  and  knew  how 
to  make  a  proper  use  and  application  of  them,  could 
never  want  true  eloquence  to  recommend  their  dis- 
courses with  pleasure  to  their  hearers.  And,  in- 
deed, the  very  custom  of  applauding  the  preachers 
pubUcly  in  the  church  (of  which  more  by  and  by) 
is  a  certain  evidence  that  they  were  commonly 
heard  with  pleasure. 

The  last  thing  which  St.  Austin  commends  in 
the  Christian  orator,  is,  that  he  endeavours  to  be 
heard  obedienter ;  that  is,  speaks  to  the  conviction 
and  persuasion  of  his  hearers ;  convincing  their 
judgments  by  sound  and  solid  reasonings ;  and 
raising  the  affections,  and  drawing  them  into  com- 
pliance, by  such  motives,  and  methods,  and  ad- 
dresses, as  are  proper  to  work  upon  the  several 
passions  of  human  nature,  and  bend  and  subdue 
the  will,  and  lead  it  captive  into  the  obedience  of 
faith.  When  the  sacred  orator  has  done  this,  he  is 
at  his  utmost  height :  then  he  leads  his  hearers,  as 
it  were,  willingly  in  triumph,  having  gained  a  com- 
plete and  pleasing  victory  over  them.  For,  as  St. 
Austin  again  observes,  till  men  are  wrought  into 
compliance  and  obedience  by  the  orator,  they  are 
not  properly  conquered  by  him.  For  they  may  be 
taught '°- and  pleased,  and  yet  jneld  no  comi:)liance 
or  practical  assent ;  witliout  which,  the  two  former 
are  of  no  advantage  :  but  when  his  oratory  has 
gained  their  wills,  it  has  then  subdued  all  opposition, 
and  gotten  a  complete  victory.     Now,  this  is  done, 


as  St.  Austin  there  goes  on  to  intimate,  when  the 
orator  can  bring  men  to  love  what  he  promises,  to 
fear  what  he  threatens,  to  hate  what  he  rebukes,  to 
embrace  what  he  commends,  to  sorrow  for  what 
he  aggravates  as  sorrowful,  to  rejoice  at  what  he 
amplifies  as  matter  of  rejoicing,  to  commiserate 
those  whom  he  represents  before  their  eyes  as  ob- 
jects of  compassion,  to  avoid  and  fly  from  those 
whom  he  brands  and  stigmatizes  as  dangerous  per- 
sons, and  gives  them  terrible  apprehensions  of,  as 
men  with  whom  it  is  not  safe  to  converse ;  and 
whatever  else  may  be  done  by  force  of  gi'and 
eloquence,  to  move  the  minds  of  the  hearers,  not  to 
know  what  they  are  to  do,  but  to  do  what  they 
already  know  to  be  their  duty  to  do.  This  he 
calls  by  the  name  of  c/ramUs  eloquentia,  ct  gravis,^^ 
grand  and  grave  eloquence  ;  and  opposes  it  to  what 
he  calls  spumeus  verborum  ambitus,  that  light  and 
frothy  sort  of  eloquence,  which  consists  only  in  a 
jingling  multiplicity  of  words,  which  does  not  be- 
come any  subject,  much  less  the  gravity  of  a  Chris- 
tian discourse  upon  the  weightiest  and  most  serious 
of  all  subjects,  where  nothing  is  said  but  what  is 
great,  as  having  no  regard  to  the  affairs  of  this 
temporal  life,  but  to  the  things  of  eternal  happi- 
ness and  eternal  misery.  For,  if  a  Christian  orator 
speaks  of  temporal  things,  though  they  be  small  in 
themselves,  yet  they  are  great  in  his  way  of  hand- 
ling them  ;  because  he  treats  of  them  with  respect 
to  justice,  and  charity,  and  piety  in  the  use  of 
them,  which  are  great  things  in  the  smallest  mat- 
ters. As  when  the  apostle  speaks  of  going  to  law 
for  pecuniary  matters,  1  Cor.  vi.  I,  &c.,  he  uses  all 
the  force  of  grand  eloquence,  raising  his  indignation 
correcting,  upbraiding,  rebuking,  threatening,  and 
showing  the  concern  of  his  soul  by  sharpening  his 
style  into  the  utmost  keenness  and  quickness  of  ex- 
pression ;  not  because  secular  affairs  deserved  all 
this,  but  for  the  sake  of  justice,  charitj'',  and  piety, 
that  were  so  deeply  concerned  in  them.  Thus  he 
observes  again,""  That  a  cup  of  cold  Avater  is  but  a 
small  thing  in  itself,  but  it  was  great  in  our  Lord's 
mouth,  when  he  said.  He  that  gives  it  to  a  disciple, 
shall  not  lose  his  reward.  He  adds.  That  he  him- 
self once  spake  so  movingly  and  affectionately,  by 
the  help  of  God,  upon  that  subject  to  the  people, 
that  out  of  that  cold  water  there  arose  a  flame, 
which  warmed  the  cold  hearts  of  men,  and  inflamed 
them  to  do  Avorks  of  mercy  in  hopes  of  a  heavenly 
reward.  But  he  observes  further,  That  although  a 
preacher  upon  this  account  ought  never  to  speak 
but  of  great  things,  yet  he  is  not  always  obliged  to 


'^  Aug.  de  Doct.  Christ,  lib.  4.  cap.  5.  Cum  alii  faciant 
obtuse,  deformiter,  frigide;  alii  acute,  ornate,  vehementer; 
ilium  ad  hoc  opus  jam  oportet  acccdere,  qui  potest,  dispu- 

tare  vel  dicere  sapieuter,  etiamsi  non  potest  eloqucuter 

Sapientcr  autem  dicit  homo  tanto  ma^^is  vel  miuus,  quunto 
in  Scripturis  Sauctis  magis  minusve  profecit. 


«"  Ibid.  cap.  6  et  7. 

'"■-  Ibid.  cap.  12.  Ideo"  autem  victorioe  est  flcctere,  quia 
fieri  potest  ut  doceatur,  ct  delectetur,  et  non  assentiatur. 
Quid  autem  ilia  duo  prodcrint,  si  dcsit  hoc  tertiuui  ? 

1™  Ibid.  cap.  1.3  ct  ]  1. 

'»'  Ibid.  cap.  IS. 


726 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIV. 


to  this  gramUter,  in  the  way  of  vehement  and  grand 
eloquence,  or  the  elated  and  lofty  style  ;  but  when 
he  speaks  only  to  inform  the  judgment,'"^  the  sub- 
miss  or  low  style  is  to  be  used,  as  more  proper  for 
doctrinal  instruction ;  and  the  temperate  or  middle 
style,  when  he  speaks  to  praise  or  dispraise ;  but 
when  any  thing  is  to  be  done,  and  they  to  whom  he 
speaks  are  u'lwdlllng  to  do  it  when  they  ought  to 
do  it,  then  those  things  which  are  great  in  them- 
selves, are  to  be  spoken  granditer,  in  a  grand  and 
vehement  style,  or  in  such  a  way  as  is  proper  to  in- 
cline and  bend  the  wills  of  the  hearers.  And  some- 
times every  one  of  these  three  ways  is  used  about 
the  same  subject ;  the  submiss  style,  when  any 
doctrine  is  delivered  about  it ;  the  temperate  style, 
when  any  commendation  is  to  be  given  to  it ;  and 
the  grand  style,  when  the  mind  that  is  averse  from 
its  duty,  is  to  be  converted  and  forcibly  induced  to 
practise  it.  Thus  ;  if  a  man  is  discoursing  concern- 
ing God;  to  show  the  unity  of  the  Trinity,  he 
ought  only  to  reason  in  the  submiss  and  plain  way, 
that  what  is  difficult  to  be  conceived,  may  be  un- 
derstood, as  far  as  men  are  capable  of  understanding 
it.  Here  is  no  ornament  required,  but  only  plain 
documents  and  instruction.  But  when  God  is  to  be 
praised,  either  in  himself  or  his  works,  then  there 
is  a  fair  occasion  for  beautiful  and  splendid  oratory, 
to  extol  him  whom  no  man  can  sufficiently  praise. 
And,  again,  if  his  worship  be  neglected,  or  other 
things  be  taken  in  to  rival  him  in  his  worship, 
whether  they  be  idols,  or  devils,  or  any  other  crea- 
ture, then  the  evil  of  the  practice  is  to  be  aggra- 
vated with  all  the  grandeur  and  vehemence  of 
oratory,  to  dissuade  and  turn  men  from  it.  And  he 
gives  us  several  instances  of  all  the  three  kinds, 
both  out  of  Scripture  and  the  ancient  writers, 
Cyprian  and  Ambrose,  assuring  us  in  the  end,  That 
what  he  had  said  of  those  two,  might  be  found  in 
the  writings  and  discourses  of  other  ecclesiastical 
men,""'  who  treated  always  of  weighty  subjects  in  a 
proper  manner,  that  is,  as  the  matter  required,  with 
perspicuity  and  acuteness,  with  ornament  and  beauty, 
with  ardency  and  grandeur  in  their  applications. 
So  that  if  we  will  take  St.  Austin's  character  of 
the  ancient  preachers,  it  was,  in  short,  this  ;  That 
their  discourses  were  always  upon  weighty  and  hea- 
venly matters,  and  their  style  answerable  to  the 
subject,  that  is,  plain,  elegant,  majestic,  and  nervous ; 
fitly  adapted  to  instruct,  to  delight  and  charm,  and 
to  convince  and  persuade  their  hearers.     And  if 


their  method  was  different  from  ours,  or  not  so  ex- 
act, and  visible  to  the  hearers,  that  must  be  imputed 
to  custom  and  the  times  they  lived  in ;  for  every 
age  has  its  peculiarities  and  proper  taste  of  things  ; 
and  though  I  believe  the  modern  way  of  methodiz- 
ing sermons  to  be  most  useful  to  the  hearers,  yet  if 
the  question  were  to  be  determined  by  the  rules  and 
practice  of  the  most  famous  orators,  whether  an 
open  or  a  concealed  method  were  fittest  to  be  chosen, 
the  judgment  and  decision  would  fall  upon  the  side 
of  the  ancients.  However,  if  they  failed  in  this, 
they  made  it  up  in  other  excellencies,  by  their  per- 
spicuity and  clearness,  their  elegancy  and  fineness, 
their  sublimity  of  thought  and  expression,  and  above 
all,  by  the  flaming  piety  of  their  lives,  corresponding 
to  their  doctrine,  and  giving  the  greatest  force  and 
energy  to  all  their  discourses.  For,  as  St.  Austin 
truly  observes  in  the  last  place,'''  The  life  of  the 
preacher  has  more  weight  in  it,  than  the  greatest 
grandeur  and  force  of  eloquence,  to  induce  his  hear- 
ers to  obedience ;  for  he  that  preaches  wisely  and 
eloquently,  but  lives  wickedly,  may  edify  some  who 
are  desirous  to  learn  and  observe  the  commands  of 
Christ ;  as  many  will  learn  from  the  scribes  and  the 
Pharisees,  who  sit  in  Moses's  chair,  and  say,  and 
do  not ;  but  he  that  Uves  as  he  speaks,  will  advan- 
tage abundance  more.  For  men  are  very  apt  to  ask 
this  question,  Quod  niihi  2})'(scijns,  cur  ipse  non  facts? 
Why  dost  not  thou  do  that  which  thou  commandest 
me  to  do  ?  and  so  it  comes  to  pass,  that  they  will 
not  obediently  hear  him,  who  does  not  hear  himself, 
but  contemn  both  the  word  of  God  and  the  preacher 
together.  But  he  whose  life  is  unblamable,  his 
very  example  is  grand  oratory,  and  his  form  of  liv- 
ing an  eloquent  discom'se,  coj^ia  diccndi  forma  viven- 
di.^^^  And  by  these  methods,  what  by  their  oratory, 
what  by  their  example,  the  ancients  gained  so  much 
upon  their  hearers,  as  often  to  receive  their  public 
acclamations,  and  hear  their  groanings,  and  see 
their  tears,  and,  what  was  most  delightful  of  all, 
found  the  happy  effects  of  their  labour  in  their  holy 
obedience  and  sincere  conversion.  But  of  these,  more 
presently,  when  we  come  to  the  hearers,  having  made 
two  or  three  remarks  more  concerning  the  preachers. 

And  among  these,  I  must  observe 
one  thing  .negatively,  that  it  was  no     That^'^it  was  no 

.        »    .  1  .        ,  .  .  .  part  of  tlie  ancient 

part  or  the  ancient  oratory  to  raise  oratory  to  move  tiie 

~,        .  /•     T      •       1  -1  passions  by  geslicu- 

the  affections  oi  their  hearers,  either  'ations  and  vain 

images  of  tilings. 

by  gesticulations,  or  the  use  of  exter- 
nal shows  and  representations  of  things  in  their 


"•^Aiig.  de  Doct.  Christ,  lib.  4.  cap.  ]9.  Et  tamon  cum 
doctor  iste  debeat  reriim  dictor  esse  magnarum,  non  semper 
eas  debet  granditer  diccre;  sed  subraisse,  cum  aliciuid  do- 
cetur;  temperate,  cum  aliquid  vituperatur  sive  laudatur. 
Cum  vero  aliquid  agendum  est,  et  ad  eos  loquitur,  qui  hoc 
agere  debent,  nee  tamen  voliuit,  tunc  ca  quae  magna  sunt, 
dicenda  sunt  granditer,  et  ad  flecteudos  animos  congruenter. 

'™  Ibid.  cap.  '21.     In  his  autem,  quos  duos  ex  omnibus 


proponere  volui,  et  in  aliis  ecclesiasticis  viris,  et  bona  et 
bene,  id  est  sicut  res  postulat,  acute,  ornate,  ardcnterque 
dicentibus,  per  multa  eorum  scripta  vel  dicta  possunt  hajc 
tria  genera  reperiri,  et  assidna  lectione  vel  anditione,  ad- 
mixta  etiam  exercitatione,  studentibus  inolescere. 

'"  Ibid.  cap.  27.  Habet  autem  ut  obedienter  audiatur 
qnantacunque  granditate  dictionis  majus  pondus  vita  dicen- 
tis,  &c.  'M  Ibid.  cap.  29. 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


727 


sermons,  as  is  now  very  common  in  the  Romish 
church,  especially  when  they  preach  upon  our 
Saviour's  passion,  to  produce  a  cross,  and  the  image 
of  Christ  bound  to  a  pillar,  and  whip  it  to  death, 
and  show  the  nails,  and  tear  a  veil,  and  many 
other  the  like  things  to  create  sorrow  in  their  hear- 
ers. Ferrarius  "^  owns  there  was  no  such  practice 
among  the  ancients,  and  confesses,  that  except 
it  be  done  very  appositely  and  prudently,  it  is 
more  apt  to  excite  laughter  than  sorrow.  And 
which  of  the  two  it  oftener  produces,  is  easy  to  guess, 
as  well  from  the  nature  of  the  thing,  as  the  com- 
plaints of  wise  men  against  it.  What  Ferrarius 
produces  out  of  Chrysostom,-""  bidding  the  people 
take  St.  John  Baptist's  head  into  their  hands,  and 
carry  it  home  with  them,  and  hear  it  speak,  is  no- 
thing to  the  purpose ;  for  this  is  only  a  rhetorical 
scheme,  made  up  of  two  usual  figures  among  ora- 
tors, an  hypotyposis  and  prosopopoeia,  that  is,  a  lively 
description  of  a  thing,  and  an  introduction  of  a  per- 
son speaking ;  which  are  figures  that  have  a  mighty 
influence  upon  the  mind  to  raise  in  it  a  just  con- 
cern, but  are  no  precedents  for  such  practices  as 
rather  incline  men  to  ridicule  and  laughter,  of  which 
there  is  no  footstep  in  the  ancient  oratory  of  the 
church. 

Next  to  the  matter  and  style  of  their 
Of  the'ien?th  of  scmions,  tlic  oucstion  may  be  asked 

their  sermons.  .  ^  •' 

concerning  the  length  of  them.  Fer- 
rarius-"' and  some  others  are  very  positive,  that 
they  were  generally  an  hour  long:  but  Ferrarius  is 
at  a  loss  to  tell  by  what  instrument  they  measured 
their  hour;  for  he  will  not  venture  to  afliirm,  that 
they  preached  as  the  old  Greek  and  Roman  orators 
declaimed,  by  an  hour  glass ;  which  yet  he  might 
have  said  with  as  much  truth,  as  that  all  their  ser- 
mons were  an  hour  long,  from  no  better  proof,  than 
their  mentioning  sometimes  the  hour  of  preaching, 
which  signifies  no  more  than  the  time  in  general,  as, 
"  the  hour  of  temptation,"  and  "  the  hour  cometh,"  and 
"  my  hour  is  not  yet  come,"  are  often  used  in  Scrip- 
ture. It  is  a  more  just  and  pertinent  observation 
of  Bishop  Wettenhal's,^"-  That  their  sermons  were 
often  very  short :  there  are  many  in  St.  Austin's 
tenth  tome,  which  a  man  may  pronounce  distinctly 
and  deliver  decently  in  eight  minutes,  and  some 
almost  in  half  the  time :  and  such  are  many  of 
those  of  Leo,  Chrysologus,  Maximus,  Csesarius  Are- 
latensis,  and  other  Latin  fathers.  Some  of  St.  Aus- 
tin's are  much  longer,  and  so  are  the  greater  part  of 


Chrysostom's,  Nazianzen's,  Nyssen's,  and  Basil's; 
but  scarce  any  of  them,  would  last  an  hour,  and 
many  not  half  the  time  :  and  when  it  is  considered, 
that  they  had  many  times  two  or  three  sermons  at 
once,  as  I  have  showed  it  was  very  usual  in  Chry- 
sostom's church,  it  would  be  absurd  to  think, 
that  each  of  them  was  an  hour  long,  when  the 
whole  service  lasted  not  above  two  hours  in  the 
whole;  as  Chrysostom""'  often  declares  in  his  ser- 
mons, making  that  an  argument  to  the  people,  why 
they  should  cheerfully  attend  Divine  service,  since 
of  seven  days  in  the  week  God  had  only  reserved 
one  to  himself,  and  on  that  day  exacted  no  more 
than  two  hours,  like  the  widow's  two  mites,  to  be 
spent  on  his  service. 

It  may  be  inquired  further.  Whe- 
ther all  preachers  were  obliged  to  de-     whethe'r"' every 

, .  -      .  ,    .  mail  was  obliged  to 

liver  their  own  compositions,  or  were  preach  iiis  own  com- 

*■  ^    ,  position,  or  the  ho- 

at  Uberty  to  use  the  compositions  of  mines  and  sermons 

•'  *■  composed  by  others. 

others  ?  To  this  it  has  been  already 
answered  in  some  measure,  that  the  homilies  of 
famous  preachers,  such  as  Chrysostom  and  Ephrem 
Cyrus,  were  often  read  instead  of  other  sermons 
from  the  pulpit  in  many  churches.  And  Mabillon 
says,-°^  those  of  CsBsarius  Arelatensis  were  read  in 
the  French  churches ;  where  also  deacons  were 
authorized  by  the  council  of  Vaison,-"^  in  cases  of 
necessity,  when  the  preaching  presbyter  was  dis- 
abled, to  read  the  homilies  of  the  ancient  fathers  in 
country  churches.  Neither  was  this  only  the  prac- 
tice of  deacons,  but  bishops  sometimes  also  did  the 
same.  For  Gennadius  says,^"  Cyril  of  Alexandria 
composed  many  homilies,  which  the  Grecian  bishops 
committed  to  memory,  in  order  to  preach  them.  He 
says  the  same  of  Salvian,""'  the  eloquent  presbyter 
of  Marseilles,  that  he  wrote  many  homilies  for 
bishops,  homiUas  episcopis  facias  vmltas,  which  Fer- 
rarius ■^'**  and  Dr.  Cave  understand,  not  of  homilies 
made  before  bishops,  but  for  their  use  :  whence  he 
is  also  styled  by  Gennadius  in  the  same  place,  epis- 
coporum  magister,  the  teacher  or  master  of  bishops, 
because  they  preached  the  eloquent  homilies  which 
he  composed.  Ferrarius  and  Sirmondus^"' observe 
the  same  of  some  of  the  dictiones  sacrce,  or  sermons 
of  Ennodius,  which  are  said  to  be  written  by  him, 
and  spoken  by  others  :  Honoratus,  bishop  of  Nova- 
ria,  is  named  for  one.  St.  Austin  more  particularly 
considers  this  question,  and  makes  a  case  of  con- 
science of  it.  For  having  laid  down  all  the  rules  of 
Christian  oratory  for  those  who  had  ability  to  com- 


I9D  Ferrar.  de  Ritu  Concion.  lib.  1.  cap.  31. 

=«•  Chrys.  Horn.  14.  ad.  Pop.  Antioch.  p.  177. 

2"'  Ferrar.  de  Ritu  Concion.  lib.  1.  cap.  33. 

202  Wettenhal's  Gift  of  Preaching,  chap.  2.  p.  666. 

2»'  Chrys.  Horn.  48.de  Inscript.  Allaris,  t. 5., p.  648.  Horn. 
50.  de  Util.  Lection.  Script,  ibid.  p.  676.  Horn.  24.  de  Bapt. 
Christi,  t.  1.  p.  309. 

■■'»'  Mabil.  de  Liturg.  Gallican.  lib.  2.  p.  99. 

^*  Cone.  Vasens.  2.  can.  2. 


""^  Gennad.  de  Scriptor.  cap.  57.  Homilias  etiam  coni- 
posuit  plurimas,  quae  ad  declamandum  Grajcia)  episcopis 
commendantur. 

-'"  Gennad.  ibid.  cap.  67. 

208  Ferrar.  de  Ritu  Concion.  lib.  2.  cap.  7.  Cave,  Hist. 
Litcrar.  vol.  1.  p.  346.     Du  Pin,  Centur.  5.  p.  146. 

-'"'  Sirraond.  Not.  in  Enuodiuna.  Dictio  2.  inissa  Honora- 
to  in  Dedicatioue  Basilicsc,  &c. 


7:28 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIV. 


pose,  he  at  last  confesses,  there  were  some  who, 
though  they  could  speak  well,  were  not  able  to  in- 
vent and  compose  a  handsome  discourse  of  their 
own  :  and  he  does  not  severely  condemn  them,  or 
with  a  magisterial  air  debar  them  from  preaching, 
but  with  a  gi'eat  deal  of  tenderness  says  favourably 
in  their  case,^'"  that  if  they  take  that  which  was 
elegantly  and  wisely  written  by  others,  and  commit 
it  to  memory,  and  preach  it  to  the  people,  if  they 
are  called  to  that  office,  they  are  not  to  be  blamed 
as  doing  an  ill  thing.  For  by  this  means  there  are 
many  preachers  of  truth,  which  is  very  useful,  and 
not  many  masters,  whilst  they  all  speak  things  of 
the  one  true  Master,  and  there  are  no  schisms  among 
them.  Neither  ought  such  men  to  be  deterred  by 
the  words  of  the  prophet  Jeremiah,  (chap,  xxiii.  30,) 
by  whom  God  rebukes  those  who  steal  his  words 
every  one  from  his  neighbour.  For  they  which  steal, 
take  away  that  which  they  have  no  right  or  pro- 
perty in :  which  cannot  be  said  of  those  who  obey 
the  word  of  God,  but  rather  belongs  to  those  who 
speak  well  and  hve  ill.  From  whence  he  concludes, 
it  is  very  lawful  for  a  man  to  preach  the  composi- 
tion of  other  more  eloquent  men,  provided  he  com- 
pose his  own  life  answerable  to  God's  word,  and 
earnestly  pray  to  God,  that  he  would  make  his  word 
in  his  mouth  edifying  to  others. 

I  must  note  also,  that  they  always 

Sect.  23.  1      T     1      1      • 

Tiieir  sermons  .-U-  concludcd  theu"  scrmous,  as  we  now 

ways  concluded  with 

hoi''°Trimt''  '°  "'*  ^°'  "^^^^^  ^  doxology  to  the  holy 
Trinity,  as  may  be  seen  not  only  in 
the  sermons  of  St.  Austin,  Chrysostom,  Basil,  Leo, 
Fulgentius,  and  others,  who  lived  after  Arius  broach- 
ed his  heresy  against  the  Divinity  of  our  Saviour ; 
but  also  in  those  of  Origen,  and  others  who  lived 
before,  such  as  Dionysius  of  Alexandria,  and  the 
rest  that  are  mentioned  by  St.  Basil,  who  had  seen 
their  homilies,  out  of  which  he  wrote  a  vindication^" 
of  that  ancient  form  against  some,  who  pretended 
to  charge  him  with  innovation  for  using  a  form, 
which,  he  says,  the  ancients  had  always  used  be- 
fore him. 

There   are  some  other   incidental 
Sermons  delivered  thlngs  takcu  notice  of  by  Ferrarius, 

by  the  preacher  sit-  °  •'  ' 

tmg,  for  the  most  which  are  either  very  minute  in  them- 

part.  .^ 

selves,  or  are  more  proper  to  be  spoken 
of  in  other  places ;  such  as  the  deacon's  causing  si- 
lence to  be  made  before  sermons ;  and  the  preacher's 


reading  his  text  over  again  after  the  readers ;  and 
his  appointing  lessons  to  be  read  agreeable  to  his 
subject ;  and  giving  notice  of  them  the  week  before 
to  the  people ;  as  also  the  reading  of  the  Acts  of 
the  Martyrs  before  sermon  upon  their  proper  festi- 
vals ;  the  giving  notice  of  Easter  and  Lent  on  the 
day  of  Epiphany  in  their  sermons ;  the  notification 
of  vigils,  and  fasts,  and  festivals,  and  appointing 
collections  for  the  poor ;  preaching  covertly  of  the 
mysteries  of  religion  before  the  catechumens ;  com- 
plimenting the  bishops  that  were  present,  in  their 
sermons ;  the  distinction  of  places  for  the  hearers ; 
the  usual  appellations  of  love  and  respect  that  were 
given  them ;  the  usual  place  of  the  sermon,  some 
eminency  in  the  church,  the  ambo  or  reading-desk, 
or  else  the  bishop's  throne,  or  the  steps  of  the  altar ; 
the  usual  days  of  preaching,  the  Lord's  day,  the 
Saturday  or  sabbath,  the  vigils  and  festivals,  the 
anniversaries  of  bishops'  consecrations,  and  dedica- 
tion of  churches;  with  some  other  things  of  the 
like  nature,  some  of  which  are  so  minute,  that  they 
are  scarce  worth  the  reader's  notice ;  and  others,  that 
are  more  material,  are  accounted  for  and  explained 
in  other  parts  of  this  work.  I  shall,  therefore,  speak 
of  one  thing  more  relating  to  the  preachers  ;  which 
is,  of  the  posture  in  which  their  sermons  were  de- 
livered. The  general  received  custom  now  is,  for 
the  preacher  to  stand,  and  the  people  to  sit;  but 
the  ancient  custom  was  usually  the  reverse  of  this ; 
for  the  preacher  commonly  delivered  his  sermon 
sitting,  and  the  people  heard  it  standing;  though 
there  was  no  certain  rule  about  this,  but  the  custom 
varied  in  several  churches.  In  Africa  the  preacher 
commonly  sat,  as  appears  from  that  of  Optatus^'^ 
to  the  Donatist  bishops :  When  God  reproves  a  sin- 
ner, and  rebukes  him  that  sits,  the  admonition  is 
specially  directed  unto  you ;  for  the  people  have  not 
liberty  to  sit  in  the  church.  He  says  this  upon 
occasion  of  those  words  of  the  psalmist,  "  Thou 
sattest  and  spakest  against  thine  own  mother's 
son."  St.  Austin,  in  like  manner,  speaks  of  his  own 
preaching  sitting :  Why  do  I  sit  here  ?  Why  do  I 
live,  but  with  this  intention,^"  that  I  may  live  with 
Christ?  And  again,"'^  That  I  may  not  detain  you, 
especially  considering  that  I  speak  sitting,  and  ye 
labour  standing.  And  he  intimates,  that  in  some 
churches  *"  sitting  was  allowed  both  to  the  preacher 
and  the  people.     St.  Chrysostom  also'-'"  speaks  of 


2'»  Aug.  de  Doctrin.  Christ,  lib.  4.  cap.  29.  Sunt  sane 
quidara,  qui  bene  pronunciare  possunt,  quid  autem  prouun- 
cient  excogitare  nou  possimt.  Quod  si  ab  aliis  sumunt  elo- 
quenter  sapienterque  conscriptiun,  memoi-ioeque  commen- 
dent,  atque  ad  populum  proferant,  si  earn  personam  gerunt, 
non  improbe  faciunt,  &c. 

2"  Basil,  de  Spir.  Sancto,  cap.  29. 

^'-  Optat.  lib.  4.  p.  78.  Dum  peccatorem  arguit,  et  se- 
deutem  increpat  Deus,  specialiter  ad  vos  dictum  esse  con- 
stat, non  ad  populum,  qui  in  ecclesia  sedendi  non  habent 
licentiam. 


='3  Aug.  Horn.  28.  ox  50.  t.  10.  p.  179.  Qiiare  loquor? 
Quave  hie,  sedeo?  Quare  vivo,  nisi  hac  iutentione,  ut  cum 
Christo  simul  vivamus  ? 

-"  Horn.  49.  de  Diversis.  Ut  ergo  vos  non  diu  teneam, 
prassertim  quia  ego  sedens  loquor,  vos  staiulo  laboratis. 

^'^  Aug.  de  Catechizandis  Rudibus,  cap.  1-3.  t.  4.  p.  300. 
Longe  consultius  in  quibusdam  ecclesiis  transmarinis  non 
solum  antistites  sedentes  loquuntur,  sed  ipsi  etiam  populo 
sodilia  subjacent. 

-"^  Chrys.  Horn.  1.  de  Poenit.  t.  1.  p.  GG2. 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


729 


his  own  sitting  when  he  preached.  And  this  he 
did  usually  in  the  ambo,  or  rcachng-desk,  where  he 
sat  when  he  preached  that  fomous  sermon  upon 
Eutropius,  when  he  fled  to  take  sanctuary  in  the 
church,^"  and  lay  trembling  before  the  altar,  as  all 
the  historians  inform  us.  GregoryNyssen  speaksalso 
of  himself  as  sitting  when  he  preached,  and  rising  up 
to  prayer'-"*  in  the  conclusion.  Which  is  also  noted 
by  Justin  Martyr,""  and  Origen,--'°  and  Athanasius,"' 
and  Chrysostom,^--  whom  Ferrarius  cites,  and  remarks 
upon  them,  That  their  rising  up  in  the  close  of  the 
sermon  to  prayer,  implies  that  they  preached  sitting 
before  ;  which  is  certainly  a  very  just  observation. 
Yet,  after  all,  he  pretends  to  assert.  That  standing 
to  preach  was  the  more  common  posture,  and  that 
they  never  used  sitting  but  only  in  case  of  infirmity 
or  old  age :  which  shows  us  only  how  far  prejudice 
will  carry  a  man,  against  the  clearest  evidence,  in 
favour  of  a  modern  custom.  The  observation  made 
by  the  author  of  the  Comments  upon  St.  Paul's 
Epistles  ^  under  the  name  of  St.  Ambrose,  has 
much  more  truth  and  solidity  in  it,  That  the  Chris- 
tian bishops  used  to  preach  sitting,  and  that  this 
custom  was  taken  from  the  tradition  of  the  syna- 
gogue :  where  Ferrarius  himself  owns,  and  proves 
it  to  have  been  the  more  usual  custom  for  the 
scribes  and  doctors  of  the  law  to  expound  the 
Scriptures  sitting,  though  there  may  be  some  in- 
stances to  the  contrary.  Matt,  xxiii.  2,  it  is  said, 
that  "  the  scribes  and  Pharisees  sat  in  Moses's 
chair."  Luke  ii.  46,  our  Saviour  was  found  sitting 
and  disputing  among  the  doctors  in  the  temple. 
Again,  chap.  iv.  20,  after  he  had  stood  up  to  read 
the  prophet  Esaias,  he  sat  down  to  teach  the  peo- 
ple. And  chap.  v.  3,  he  sat  down  and  taught  the 
people  out  of  the  ship.  John  viii.  2,  he  sat  down 
and  taught  the  people  in  the  temple.  Matt.  v.  I, 
he  sat  and  taught  his  disciples  in  the  mountain. 
And  Matt.  xxvi.  55,  "  I  sat  daily  with  you  teach- 
ing in  the  temple."  This  was  according  to  the  cus- 
tom of  the  Jewish  synagogue,  which  was  generally 
followed  by  the  Christian  church.  And  the  in- 
stances which  Ferrarius  brings  out  of  St.  Chrysos- 
tom's"'  and  St.  Austin's  homilies-^  to  the  contrary. 


are  rather  exceptions  to  a  general  rule,  than  proper 
evidences  for  his  own  assertion.  The  matter  is  not 
indeed  great  in  itself,  it  being  a  very  indifTerent 
tiling,  whether  a  preacher  delivers  his  sermon  stand- 
ing or  sitting  :  but  when  men  are  representing  an- 
cient practices,  they  ought  not  to  make  every  thing 
conform  to  the  customs  and  model  of  the  present 
age,  but  represent  things  nakedly  as  they  find  them. 
We  have  hitherto  considered  what 

Sect.  25. 

relates  to  the  preachers,  and  a  few     And  heard  hy  the 

■*  .  auditors  i>taiidine in 

things  must  be  added  concerning  the  ^™!'_^',''''"''"- ''"' 
hearers.  Of  whom  it  has  been  al- 
ready observed  in  the  last  paragraph,  out  of  Op- 
tatus  and  St.  Austin,  that  in  the  African  churches 
the  peojde  had  no  licence  to  sit  down,  but  were 
generally  obliged  to  stand  to  hear  the  sermon.  Fer- 
rarius'"'' has  collected  a  multitude  of  testimonies 
more  out  of  St.  Austin  to  the  same  purpose,  which 
it  is  needless  to  relate  here.  But  we  may  observe, 
that  the  same  custom  pi'evailed  also  in  many  other 
churches.  Sidonius  Apollinaris  speaks  of  it  as 
the  usage  of  the  Galilean  church,  in  those  lines 
to  Faustus,  bishop  of  Riez,  where  he  speaks  of  his 
preaching  from  the  steps  of  the  altar,  the  people 
standing  about  him:"'  Scu  te  cotispicuis  gradibus 
venerabilis  arce  concionaturum  2)lebs  sedula  circum- 
sistit.  Which  is  further  confirmed  by  a  homily, 
that  used  to  go  under  the  name  of  St.  Austin,^^  but 
is  now  more  certainly  determined  by  Mabillon  and 
the  Benedictines,  in  their  new  edition  of  St.  Austin's 
Works,  to  belong  to  Ca?sarius,  bishop  of  Aries,  where 
he  grants  an  indulgence  to  such  as  were  diseased 
or  infirm  in  their  feet,  that  they  should  have  liberty 
to  sit,  when  the  passions  of  the  martyrs,  or  long 
lessons,  were  read,  or  the  sermon  was  preached : 
but  to  all  others,  women  as  well  as  men,  this  privi- 
lege is  utterly  denied.  Which  implies,  that  stand- 
ing was  then  the  usual  posture  of  the  hearers  in  the 
French  churches.  And  that  it  was  usual  also  in 
some  of  the  Greek  churches,  may  be  infen-ed  from 
that  famous  story  which  Eusebius  reports  of  Con- 
stantine,  that  when  he  made  a  discourse  before 
him  in  his  own  palace,  he  stood  all  the'  time^ 
with  the  rest  of  the  hearers  :    and  when  Eusebius 


'•^"  Socrut.  lib.  G.  cap.  b.  Suzora.  lib.  8.  cap.  5.  Cassio- 
dor.  Hist.  Tripartita,  lib.  10.  cap.  4.  Residens  super  am- 
bonem,  &c. 

2'^  Nyssen.  Horn.  5.  de  Oral.  Dominica,  t.  1.  p.  761. 

2"  Justin.  Apol.  2.  p.  97. 

"^'-0  Orig.  Horn.  20.  ui  Num.  Horn.  3.  in  Esai.  Horn.  36. 
in  Luc.     Horn.  19.  in  Jerem. 

-'-'  Athan.  Hom.  de  Seinente. 

"-  Chrys.  Hom.  coat.  Hareticos,  ap.  Ferrarium,  lib.  2. 
cap.  9. 

^■•^  Ambros.  Com.  in  1  Cor.  xiv.  29.  Hacc  traditio  syna- 
gogae  est,  quam  nos  vult  sectari — ut  sedentes  disputent  se- 
niores  dignitate  in  cathedris,  &c. 

-^  Chrys.  Hom.  16.  ad  Pop.  Antioch.  et  Hom.  .33.  in 
Matt. 

-^  Aug.  Ser.  122.  de  Diversis.  Tract.  19.  in  Joan,  et  Ser. 


2.  in  Psalm,  xx.xii.  ap.  Ferrar.  lib.  2.  cap.  9. 

'-6  Ferrar.  lib.  2.  cap.  15.  ex  Aug.  Tract.  19  et  112.  in 
Joan.  Hom.  28.  ex  50.  Ser.  49  et  122.  de  Diversis.  Ser.  2. 
in  Psal.  xxxii.  et  cxlvii.   Ser.  20.  de  'Verb.  Domini,  &c. 

2^'  Sidon.  Carmen  16.  ad  Faustuni  lleiensem. 

--■*  Aug.  Ser.  26.  ex  50.  qui  est  300  novae  editionis.  Prop- 
ter eos  qui  aut  pedibus  dolent,  aut  aliqua  corporis  inoe- 
qualitate  laborant,  paterna  pietate  solicitus  consilium  dedi, 
et  quodam  mndo  supplicavi,  ut  quando  aut  passionos  pro- 
lixae.  aut  certe  aliquic  lectiones  longiores  leguntur.  qui  stare 
non  possunt,  humiliter  et  cum  silcntio  sedentes,  attentis 
auribus  audiant  quae  leguntur,  &c.  Ut  quando  aut  lectiones 
lei^untur,  aut  vorbum  Dei  proedicatur.  nulla  (fu?mina)  se  in 
terram  projiciat,  nisi  forte  quam  niniium  gravis  iutirmitas 
cogit. 

''^  Euscb.  de  Vit.  Constant,  lib.  4.  cap.  33. 


730 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIV. 


requested  him  to  sit  down  in  the  throne  that  was 
prepared  for  him,  he  refused,  saying,  It  was  fit  that 
men  should  stand  to  hear  discourses  of  Divine 
things.  But  in  the  churches  of  Italy  the  contrary 
custom  prevailed  :  for  St.  Austin  says,  in  the  trans- 
marine churches  (by  which  he  certainly  means 
those  of  Italy)  it  was  prudently  ordered,  that  not 
only  the  bishops  sat  when  they  preached  to  the 
people,  but  that  the  people  also  had  seats  to  sit 
upon,  lest  any  weak  person  through  weariness  grow 
remiss  in  his  attention,^-*"  or  be  forced  to  leave  the 
assembly.  And  he  thinks  it  more  advisable,  that 
the  same  indulgence  should  be  granted,  where  it 
could  prudently  be  done,  in  African  churches.  That 
it  was  so  in  Rome  in  the  time  of  Justin  Martyr, 
seems  pretty  plain  from  his  Second  Apology,  where 
he  says,-"  That  as  soon  as  the  bishop's  sermon  was 
ended,  they  all  rose  up  to  prayer  together.  And 
the  same  thing  being  noted  by  Origen"^"  and  Atha- 
nasius,^  makes  it  probable,  that  the  same  custom 
prevailed  in  many  of  the  Eastern  churches.  Cyril 
of  Jerusalem  says  expressly,^*  that  the  people  heard 
his  discourses  sitting.  Consider,  says  he,  how  many 
sit  here  now,  how  many  souls  are  present;  and  yet 
the  Spirit  works  conveniently  in  them  all.  He  is  in 
the  midst  of  us,  and  sees  our  behaviour,  and  discerns 
our  hearts  and  consciences,  and  what  we  speak, 
and  what  we  think.  And  the  author  of  the  Con- 
stitutions,"'^ who  chiefly  relates  the  customs  of  the 
Eastern  churches,  represents  the  people  as  sitting 
also  to  hear  the  sermon.  And  so  Cassian^'"  and 
St.  Jerom^'  say  it  was  in  all  the  monasteries  of 
Egypt,  where  they  sat  not  only  at  sermon,  but  at 
the  reading  of  the  Psalms  and  other  lessons  out  of 
Scripture.  So  that  this  must  be  reckoned  among 
those  indifferent  rites  and  customs,  about  which 
there  was  no  general  rule  of  the  universal  church ; 
but  every  one  followed  the  custom  of  the  place 
where  he  lived,  and  every  church  appointed  what  she 
judged  most  proper  for  the  edification  of  the  people. 
It  was  a  peculiar  custom  in  the 
A  peculiar'  cus-  African  church,  when  the  preacher 

torn  of  the  African 

churcti  to  quicken  chauccd  to  citc  somc  remarkable  text 

t  he  attention  of  the 

hearers.  ^f  Scripturc  in  the  middle  of  his  ser- 

mon, for  the  people  to  join  with  him  in  repeating 
the  close  of  it.  St.  Austin  takes  notice  of  this  in 
one  of  his  sermons,^'  where  having  begun  those 


«o  All",  de  Catechiz.  Rudibus,  cap.  13.  Sine  dubitatione 
melius  fiat,  ubi  decenter  fieri  potest,  ut  a  principio  sedens 
audiat.  Loncrequo  consultius  in  quibusdam  ecclesiis  trans- 
mavinis  ncm  solum  autistites  sedentcs  loquuntur,  sed  ipsi 
etiam  populo  sedilia  subjacent,  &c. 

-31  Justin.  Apol.  2.  p.  98. 

232  Orig.  Horn.  3.  in  Esai.  Hmn.  19.  in  .lerem. 

233  Athan.  Horn,  dc  Scniente. 

234  Cyril.  Catech.  IG.  n.  11.  AoyiaaL  ttoo-ol  KnOi'^fodE 
vvv,  K.T.X.  "■''  Constit.  lib.  2.  cap.  58. 

236  Cassian.  Instit.  lib.  2.  cap.  12. 

23'  Hieron.  Ep.  22.  ad  Eustoch.  cap.  15.     Completis  ora- 


words  of  St.  Paul,  "  The  end  of  the  commandment 
is  " — before  he  would  proceed  any  further,  he  called 
to  the  people  to  repeat  the  remainder  of  the  verse 
with  him ;  upon  which  they  all  cried  out  immedi- 
ately, "  Charity  out  of  a  pure  heart."  By  which, 
he  says,  they  showed  that  they  had  not  been  un- 
profitable hearers.  And  this,  no  doubt,  was  done 
to  encourage  the  people  to  hear,  and  read,  and  re- 
member the  Scriptures,  that  they  might  be  able  up- 
on occasion  to  repeat  such  useful  portions  of  them,, 
having  then  liberty  not  only  to  hear,  but  to  read 
and  repeat  them  in  their  mother-tongue.  Whether 
this  was  a  custom  in  any  other  place,  I  cannot  say; 
having  met  with  it  only  in  St.  Austin :  for  which 
reason  I  have  spoken  of  it  only  as  a  particular  cus- 
tom of  the  African  church,  designed  to  quicken  the 
attention  of  the  hearers,  and  show  that  they  read 
and  remembered  the  Holy  Scriptures. 

It  was  a  much  more  general  custom         sect.  27. 

,  How  the  people  were 

for  the  people  to  testify  their  esteem  "sed  to  give  puwic 

r       r  J  applauses    and    ac- 

for  the  preacher,  and  express  their  '^'*™'',,"°"^  [^^  "'^ 
admiration  of  his  eloquence,  or  appro-  '^''"■■'=''- 
bation  of  his  doctrine,  by  public  applauses  and  ac- 
clamations in  the  church.  This  was  done  sometimes 
in  express  words,  and  sometimes  by  other  signs  and 
indications  of  their  consent  and  approbation.  The 
Greeks  commonly  call  it  icporoe,  which  denotes  both 
kinds  of  approbation,  as  well  by  clapping  of  hands,  as 
by  vocal  and  verbal  acclamations.  The  first  use  of  it, 
as  Suicerus^' observes  out  of  Casaubon,'"'wasonlyin 
the  theatres.  From  thence  it  came  into  the  senate ; 
and  in  process  of  time,  into  the  acts  of  the  councils, 
and  the  ordinary  assemblies  of  the  church.  We 
are  not  concerned  at  present  to  inquire  after  synod- 
ical  acclamations,  but  only  such  as  were  used  toward 
the  preachers  in  the  church.  This  was  sometimes 
done  in  words  of  commendation,  as  we  find  in  one 
of  the  homilies  of  Paulus  Emisenus,-"  spoken  in  the 
presence  of  Cyril  at  Alexandria,  where,  when  Paul 
had  used  this  expression,  agreeing  with  Cyril's  doc- 
trine that  had  been  preached  before,  Mary,  the 
mother  of  God,  brought  forth  Emanuel ;  the  people 
immediately  cried  out,  O  orthodox  Cyril,  the  gift  of 
God,  the  faith  is  the  same,  this  is  what  we  desirad 
to  hear,  if  any  man  speak  otherwise,  let  him  be 
anathema.  Sometimes  they  added  other  indications 
of  their  applause,  as  clapping  of  their  hands,  &c. 


tionibus,  cunclisque  residentibus,  medius,  quern  Patrem  vo- 
cant,  incipit  disputare,  &c. 

23'<  Aug.  36.  ex  editis  a  Sirmondo,  t.  10.  p.  837.  Finis 
priEcepti  est,  (Jam  vos  dicite  mecum  :  A  populo  acclama- 
tum  est)  Caritas  de  corde  pure.  Omnes  dixistis,  quod  non 
infructuose  semper  audistis.  Vid.  Sen  13.  de  Verbis  Dom. 
Ser.  2.  de  Verb.  Apost. 

23"  Suicer.  Thesaur.  Eccles.  voce  YipoToi,  vol.  2.  p.  173. 

2*"  Casaub.  Notis  in  Vulcatium  Gallicau.  Vit.  Avidii 
Cassii,  p.  89. 

2"  Paul.  Emisen.  Horn,  de  Incarnat.  Cone.  t.  3.  p.  109G. 
in  Actis  Concilii  Ephes.  par.  3.  cap.  31. 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


731 


Thus  St.  Jerom  tells  Vigilantius,  The  time  was"" 
when  he  himself  had  applauded  him  with  his  hands 
and  feet,  leaping  by  his  side,  and  crying  out,  Ortho- 
dox, for  his  sermon  upon  the  resurrection.  And  so 
George  of  Alexandria  tells  us,**^  The  people  applaud- 
ed the  sermons  of  St.  Chrysostom,  some  by  tossing 
their  thin  garments,  others  moving  their  plumes, 
others  laying  their  hands  upon  their  swords,  and 
others  waving  their  handkerchiefs,  and  crying  out, 
Thou  art  worthy  of  the  priesthood,  thou  art  the 
thirteenth  apostle,  Christ  hath  sent  thee  to  save 
our  souls,  &c.  In  like  manner,  Gregory  represents 
in  his  Dream,^"  how  the  people  were  used  to  applaud 
him  when  he  preached,  some  by  their  praises,  and 
others  by  their  silent  admiration;  some  in  their 
words,  and  some  in  their  minds,  and  others  moving 
their  bodies  as  the  waves  of  the  sea  raised  by  the 
wind.  St.  Jerom  refers  to  this,  when  he  tells  us,"" 
how  Gregory  Nazianzen,  his  master,  once  answered 
a  difficult  question,  which  he  put  to  him  concerning 
the  sabbation,  ttvTtp6irp<j>Tov,  the  second  Sunday  after 
the  first,  mentioned  Luke  vi.  I  will  inform  you, 
says  he,  of  this  matter  in  the  church,  where,  when 
all  the  people  are  apiplauding  me,  you  shall  be  forced 
to  confess,  you  understand  what  you  do  not ;  or  if 
you  alone  be  silent,  you  shall  be  condemned  of  folly 
by  all  the  rest.  The  same  custom  is  often  hinted 
by  Sidonius  ApolUnaris,""  and  Isidore  of  Pelusium,^" 
and  in  abundance  of  places  of  St.  Austin  "^^  and  St. 
Chrysostom,  cited  at  length  by  Ferrarius,""  which, 
after  what  has  been  said,  I  think  it  needless  to  re- 
cite in  this  place.  The  curious  reader  may  either 
consult  Ferrarius,  or  the  passages  referred  to  in  their 
authors.  To  which  he  may  add  many  other  pas- 
sages of  Chrysostom,^  and  Socrates,^'  and  Pros- 
per,^^  not  mentioned  by  that  diligent  writer,  tjiough 
he  spends  four  whole  chapters  upon  this  subject. 

I  think  it  more  material  to  observe 

BuC  more  Chris-    OUt    of    tllC    cllicf   of    tllOSC    paSSa^eS, 
tia.llike,    express  '^  ° 

their- approbation  by  that  thougli  the  aucicnts  did  uot  ut- 


-*-  Hieron.  Ep.  75.  cont.  Vigilant.  Recordare  quaeso  illius 
diei,  quando,  me  de  resurvectioiie  et  verilate  corporis  praedi- 
cante,  es  latere  subsultabas,  et  plaudebas  manu,  et  applode- 
bas  pede,  et  orthodoxum  conclamabas. 

-^  Georg.  Alex.  Vit.  Chrys.  ap.  Ferrar.  de  Ritu  Con- 
cionum,  lib.  2.  cap.  20. 

-^^  Naz.  Somnium  de  Temple  Anastasiae,  t.  2.  p.  78. 

^*  Hieron.  Ep.  2.  ad  Nepot.  Praeceptor  quondam  mens 
Gregorius  Nazianzemis  rogatiis  a  me,  ut  exponeret,  quid 
sibi  vellet  in  Luca  sabbatum  Cf-vr^poTrpuiTov,  elegauter 
lusit,  Docebo  te,  inquiens,  super  bac  re  in  ecclesia;  in  qua, 
mihi  omni  populo  acclamante,  cogeris  invitus  scire  quod 
nescis  ;  aut  certe,  si  solus  tacueris,  solus  ab  omnibus  stul- 
titias  condemnaberis. 

=«  Sidon.  lib.  9.  Ep.  3.        ="  Isid.  lib.  .3.  Ep.  34.3  et  382. 

'^*^  Aug.  Serm.  5.  de  Verb.  Domini.  Serm.  19  et  28.  de 
Verb.  Apostoli.  Serm.  25.  ex  Quinquaginta.  Serm.  45.  de 
Tempore.  Tract.  57.  in  Joan.  Serm.  27.  de  Diversis.  Serm. 
in  Psal.  cxlvii.  De  Catechiz.  Kudibiis,  cap.l3.  De  Doctr. 
Christ,  lib.  4.  cap.  26. 


terly  refuse  or  disallow  those  sorts  of  tea™  and  (rmans, 
applauses,  but  received  them  \^^th  auJ  obedience, 
humility  and  thankfulness  to  God,  as  good  indica- 
tions of  a  towardly  disposition  in  their  hearers ;  yet, 
forasmuch  as  they  were  often  but  fallacious  signs, 
they  neither  much  commended  those  that  gave 
them,  nor  those  preachers  that  barely  by  their  elo- 
quence obtained  them  ;  much  less  those  that,  out  of 
a  worldly  spirit,  and  a  popular  and  vain  ambition, 
laboured  at  nothing  else  but  to  court  and  affect 
them:  but  what  they  chiefly  desired  to  effect  by 
their  gi-and  eloquence,  was  to  warm  their  hearts, 
and  melt  them  into  tears  ;  to  work  them  into  groans, 
and  sorrow,  and  compunction  for  sin  ;  to  bring  them 
to  resolutions  of  obedience,  and  compliance  with 
the  holy  rules  they  preached  to  them ;  to  work  in 
them  a  contempt  of  earthly  things,  and  raise  their 
souls,  by  all  the  arts  of  moving  the  affections,  to  a 
longing  desire  and  aspiration  after  the  things  of 
another  world.  This  was  their  gi-and  aim  in  all 
their  elaborate,  and  all  their  free  and  fluent  dis- 
courses, and  this  they  valued  far  above  all  the  popu- 
lar applauses  that  could  be  given  them.  This  they 
reckoned  their  grand  eloquence,  and  rejoiced  in 
nothing  more,  than  when  they  could  triumph  in  the 
conviction  and  conversion  of  their  hearers.  To  this 
purpose,  St.  Jerom,^  in  his  directions  to  Nepotian, 
lays  it  down  as  a  rule,  That,  in  preaching,  he  should 
labour  to  excite  the  groans  of  the  people,  rather 
than  their  applauses ;  and  let  the  tears  of  the  hear- 
ers be  the  commendation  of  the  preacher.  And  so 
he  observes  =^^  it  was  in  fact  among  the  fathers  of 
Egypt ;  when  they  discoursed  of  the  kingdom  of 
Christ  and  the  glories  of  the  world  to  come,  then 
one  might  behold  every  one,  with  a  gentle  sigh,  and 
eyes  lift  up  to  heaven,  say  within  himself,  "  Oh  that 
I  had  wings  like  a  dove,  for  then  I  would  flee  away, 
and  be  at  rest !"  In  like  manner.  Prosper^  bids  the 
preacher,  not  place  his  confidence  in  the  splendour 
of  his  words,  but  in  the  power  of  their  operation  ; 


2«  Chrj's.  Horn.  I,  4,  et  54.  in  Genes.  Horn.  2,  5,  G.  ad 
Pop.  Ant.  Hom.  2.  in  Lazar.  Horn.  2.  in  Joan.  Horn.  3et 
5.  De  Incomprehensib.  Hom.  30.  in  Act.  ap.  Ferrar.  lib. 
2.  cap.  18. 

2^»  Chrys.  Hom.  1.  De  Verbis  Esai.  t.  3.  p.  910.  Hom.  G. 
in  Gen.  p. 918.  Hom.  27.  in  Gen.  p.  358.  Horn.  ].  cont.  Ju- 
daeos,  t.  1.  p.  4.3.3.  Hom.  ]6.  in  illud,  Si  esurierit  inimicus, 
t.  5.  p.  220.  Hom.  56.  Quod  nou  sit  desperandiim,  t.  5. 
p.  742. 

-^'  Socrat.  lib.  7.  cap.  13. 

'■"■-  Prosper,  de  Vita  Contemplativa,  lib.  I.  cap.  23. 

-^'  Hieron.  Ep.  2.  ad  Nepotian.  Docenle  te  in  ecclesia, 
non  clamor  populi,  sed  gemitus  suscitetur;  lachrynuf  audi- 
torum  laudes  tuae  sint. 

-^'  Ep.  22.  ad  Eustoch.  cap.  15. 

2o5  Prosper,  de  Vita  Contemplativa,  lib.  1.  cap.  23.  Non 
in  verborum  splendore,  sed  in  operum  virtute  totam  praedi- 
candi  fiduciam  ponat ;  non  vocibus  delectetur  populi  accla- 
mantis  sibi,  sed  fletibus  :  nee  plausum  a  populo  studeat 
expectare,  sed  gemitum. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIV. 


nor  be  delighted  with  the  acclamations  of  the 
people,  but  their  tears;  nor  study  to  obtain  their 
applauses,  but  their  groans.  St.  Austin  did  not 
refuse  these  acclamations  of  the  people,  yet  he  al- 
ways takes  care  to  remind  them  rather  to  repay 
him  with  the  fruit  of  their  lives  and  actions.  You 
praise  the  preacher^^  of  the  word,  says  he,  but  I 
desire  the  doer  of  it.  Those  praises  ^'  are  but  the 
leaves  of  the  tree,  I  desire  the  fruit  of  it.  I  would 
not  be  praised  by  ill  livers,^^  I  abhor  it,  I  detest 
it;  it  is  a  grief  to  me,  and  not  a  pleasure.  But 
if  I  sav,  I  would  not  be  praised  by  good  livers, 
I  should  tell  a  lie;  if  I  should  say,  I  desire  it, 
I  am  afraid  of  seeming  desirous  more  of  vanity 
than  solidity.  Therefore  what  shall  I  say  ?  I 
neither  perfectly  desire  it,  nor  perfectly  refuse  it. 
I  do  not  desire  it  absolutely,  for  fear  I  should  be 
insnared  by  human  praise ;  I  do  not  utterly  refuse 
it,  for  fear  I  should  be  ungrateful  to  those  to  whom 
I  preach.  In  his  book  of  Christian  Doctrine,^" 
where  he  speaks  of  that  sort  of  ecclesiastical 
rhetoric,  which  is  called  grand  eloquence,  he  says, 
A  man  should  not  think  he  had  attained  to  it  be- 
cause he  frequently  received  the  loud  acclamations 
of  the  people ;  for  those  were  often  gained  by  the 
acumen  and  ornaments  of  the  submiss  and  moderate 
style ;  and  the  grand  eloquence  did  often  suppress 
those  acclamations  by  its  weight,  and  extort  tears 
in  their  room.  He  gives  there  a  remarkable  instance 
of  his  own  preaching  once  an  occasional  sermon 
with  such  effect  to  the  people  of  Caesarea  in  Mauri- 
tania. It  seems,  in  that  place  a  very  barbarous  and 
unnatural  custom  had  for  a  long  time  prevailed, 
that  at  a  certain  season  of  the  year,  for  some  whole 
days  together,  the  whole  city,  dividing  themselves 
into  two  parties,  were  used  to  maintain  a  bloody 
fight  by  throvvdng  stones  at  one  another,  and  this 
without  any  regard  to  kindred  or  relation ;  for 
sometimes  a  man  slew  his  brother,  or  a  father  his 
son,  or  a  son  his  father.  Now,  says  St.  Austin, 
I  set  myself  with  all  the  force  of  grand  eloquence  to 
root  out  and  expel  this  cruel  and  inveterate  evil 
out  of  their  hearts  and  practice  ;  yet  I  did  not  take 
myself  to  have  made  any  impression  to  purpose 
upon  them,  whilst  I  heard  their  acclamations,  but 
when  I  saw  their  tears.  For  they  showed  indeed 
by  their  acclamations  that  they  were  instructed 
and  pleased;  but  by  their  tears,  that  they  w^re 
sensibly  alTccted,  and  really  converted.  Which 
when  I  perceived,  I  then  began  to  think  I  had  got 
the  victory  over  that  barbarous  custom,  which  had 
so  long,  by  tradition  from  their  ancestors,  possessed 


^^  Aug.  Serm.  19.  de  Verbis  Apostoli.  Tu  laudas  tiac- 
tantein  :  ego  quaero  faciontem. 

M7  Serm.  5.  de  Verbis  Domini.  Laudes  ist;e  folia  sunt 
arborum,  fructus  quaeritur. 

■i58  Jiom.  25.  e.\  50.  Laudari  a  male  viventibiis  nolo,  ab- 
horreo,  detcstor,  dolori  mihi  est,  noii  voiuptati,  &c. 


their  souls ;  before  I  saw  any  more  visible  proof  in 
their  actions.  Whereupon,  as  soon  as  sermon  was 
ended,  I  turned  both  their  mouths  and  hearts  to 
give  God  thanks  for  it.  And  so,  by  the  help  of 
Christ,  there  are  now  almost  eight  years  passed 
since  any  thing  of  this  kind  was  ever  attempted 
among  them.  He  adds.  That  he  had  made  many 
other  experiments  of  the  like  nature,  by  which  he 
had  learned,  that  men  ordinarily  showed  what 
impressions  the  force  of  wise  and  powerful  rhetoric 
made  upon  them,  not  so  much  by  their  acclamations 
as  by  their  groans,  and  sometimes  by  their  tears, 
and  finally  by  their  real  change  of  life  and  sincere 
conversion.  So  that,  in  the  judgment  of  this  pious 
father,  the  best  praise  of  a  sermon,  and  its  rhetoric, 
is  the  compunction  of  its  hearers,  and  melting  them 
into  tears,  and  subduing  their  minds  by  bending 
them  to  obedience,  which  far  exceeds  the  honour  of 
the  greatest  acclamations  and  applauses.  After 
the  same  manner  the  great  orator  of  the  East,  St. 
Chrysostom,  often  tells  his  hearers,  he  rejoiced 
not  in  their  applauses,  but  in  the  effects  which 
his  discourses  had  on  their  minds,  in  making  them 
become  new  men.  He  says,  in  one  place,-*  they 
had  made  him  happy  in  receiving  his  discourses 
about  prayer  with  a  ready  mind ;  for  happy  is 
the  man  that  speaks  to  an  obedient  ear.  And  he 
judged  of  their  obedience,  not  so  much  from  their 
acclamations  and  praises,  as  from  what  he  had 
observed  in  their  actions.  For  when  he  had  used 
this  argument,  why  they  should  not  pray  against 
their  enemies,  because  it  was  a  provocation  of 
God,  and  setting  up  a  new  law  in  opposition  to 
his  law  ;  (for  God  says,  "  Pray  for  your  enemies  ;" 
but  they  that  pray  against  them  do  in  effect  pray 
God  to  disannul  his  own  law ;)  he  says,  upon  his 
mentioning  this  and  the  like  arguments,  he  had 
observed  many  of  them  to  smite  upon  their  face  and 
breast,  and  mourn  bitterly,  and  lift  up  their  hands 
to  heaven,  and  ask  God  pardon  for  such  unlawful 
prayers.  Which  made  him  at  the  same  time  lift  up 
his  own  eyes  to  heaven,  and  give  God  thanks,  that  the 
word  of  his  doctrine  had  so  quickly  produced  fruit 
in  them.  In  another  place,^"  says  he.  What  do  your 
praises  advantage  me,  when  I  see  not  your  progress 
in  virtue  ?  Or  what  harm  shall  I  receive  from  the 
silence  of  my  auditors,  when  I  behold  the  increase 
of  their  piety  ?  The  praise  of  the  speaker  is  not 
the  (fporoe,  the  acclamations  of  his  hearers,  but  their 
zeal  fbr  piety  and  rehgion ;  not  their  making  a 
great  stir  in  time  of  hearing,  but  showing  diligence 
at  all  other  times.     Applause,  as  soon  as  it  is  out 


"^5  De  Doctrina  Christ,  lib.  4.  cap.  24.  Non  sane,  si  di- 
centi  crebrius  et  vehementius  acclametur,  ideo  granditer 
putandus  est  dicere:  grande  autem  genus  plerumque  pon- 
dcre  suo  voces  premit,  sed  lachrymas  exprimit. 

^n"  Chr3s.  56.  Quod  non  sit  desperanduni,  t.  5.  p.  742. 

=«  Horn.  IG.  ibid.  p.  220. 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


7:33 


of  the  mouth,  is  dispersed  into  the  air,  and  vanishes  ; 
but  when  the  hearers  grow  better,  this  brings  an 
incorruptible  and  immortal  reward  both  to  the 
speaker  and  the  hearers.  The  praise  of  your  ac- 
clamations may  render  the  orator  more  illustrious 
here,  but  the  piety  of  your  souls  will  give  him  great 
confidence  before  the  tribunal  of  Christ.  There- 
fore if  any  one  love  the  preacher,  (or  if  any  preacher 
love  his  people,)  let  him  not  be  enamoured  with  ap- 
plause, but  with  the  benefit  of  the  hearers.  It  were 
easy  to  transcribe  many  other  such  passages  out  of 
Chrysostom,  where  he  shows  a  great  contempt  of 
such  popular  applauses  in  comparison  of  their  obe- 
dience. I  will  only  relate  one  passage  more,  where 
he  gives  a  severe  rebuke  to  all  preachers,  who  made 
this  the  only  aim  of  their  discourses.  Many,  says 
he,""^  appear  in  public,  and  labour  hard,  and  make 
long  sennons  to  gain  the  applause  of  the  people,  in 
which  they  rejoice  as  much  as  if  they  had  gained  a 
kingdom ;  but  if  their  sermon  ends  in  silence,  they 
are  more  tormented  about  that  silence,  than  about 
the  pains  of  hell.  This  is  the  ruin  of  the  church, 
that  ye  seek  to  hear  such  sermons  as  are  apt  not  to 
move  compunction,  but  pleasure,  hearing  them  as 
you  would  hear  a  musician  or  a  singer,  with  a  tink- 
ling sound,  and  composition  of  words.  And  we  act 
miserably  and  coldly,  whilst  we  indulge  our  own 
affections,  which  we  ought  to  discard.  We  curiously 
seek  after  flowers  of  rhetoric,  and  composition,  and 
harmony,  that  we  may  sing  to  men,  and  not  profit 
them ;  that  we  may  be  had  in  admiration  by  them, 
and  not  teach  them ;  that  we  may  raise  delight,  and 
not  godly  sorrow ;  that  we  may  go  off  with  applause 
and  praise,  and  no  ways  edify  them  in  their  morals. 
Believe  me,  for  I  would  not  otherwise  say  it,  when 
I  raise  applause  in  preaching,  I  am  then  subject  to 
human  infirmity,  (for  why  should  not  a  man  confess 
the  truth  ?)  I  am  then  ravished  and  highly  pleased. 
But  when  I  go  home,  and  consider  that  my  applaud- 
ers  are  gone  away  without  fruit,  though  they  might 
have  done  otherwise,  I  weep,  and  wail,  and  lament 
that  they  perish  in  their  acclamations  and  praises, 
and  that  I  have  preached  all  in  vain :  and  I  reason 
thus  with  myself.  What  profit  is  there  in  all  my  la- 
bours, if  my  hearers  reap  no  fruit  from  my  words  ? 
I  have  often  thought  of  making  it  a  law  to  forbid 
such  acclamations,  and  to  persuade  you  to  hear  in 
silence.  By  this  it  appears,  that  St.  Chrysostom 
could  rather  have  wished  to  have  had  this  custom 
wholly  banished  out  of  the  church,  because  it  was 
so  frequently  abused  by  vain  and  ambitious  spirits, 
who  regarded  nothing  else  but  to  gain  the  applause 
of  their  hearers :  to  which  purpose,  they  sometimes 


suborned  men  to  applaud  them  in  the  church,  as  is 
complained  of  Paulus  Samosatcnsis  by  the  council 
of  Antioch:"'^  and  sometimes  aflected  to  preach  in 
such  a  manner  upon  abstruse  subjects,  as  neither 
the  people  nor  themselves  understood,  only  to  be 
admired  by  the  ignorant  multitude,  who,  as  St.  Je- 
rom  complains''**  in  this  very  case,  are  commonly 
most  prone  to  admire  what  they  do  not  understand. 
For  which  reason,  it  was  the  care  of  all  jjious 
preachers,  to  show  a  tender  regard  to  the  under- 
standings of  men  ;  and,  whether  it  gained  applause 
or  not,  to  speak  usefully,  and,  as  far  as  might  be,  to 
the  capacities  and  apprehensions  of  their  hearers  ; 
and  by  all  the  powers  of  divine  eloquence,  and  pro- 
per arts  of  edification  and  persuasion,  incline  them 
to  obedience  and  a  heavenly  temper.  Without 
VA^iich,  they  imagined  the  success  and  event  of  their 
preaching,  however  eloquent  and  pleasing  to  the 
ear,  was  no  better  received  than  that  of  the  prophet, 
complained  of  Ezek.  xxxiii.  32,  "  Thou  art  unto 
them  as  a  very  lovely  song  of  one  that  hath  a  very 
pleasant  voice,  and  can  play  well  on  an  instrument: 
for  they  hear  thy  words,  but  they  will  not  do  them." 
There  is  one  thing  more  must  be         ^  ^  „„ 

G  Sect.  29. 

taken  notice  of  with  relation  to  the  iy^penn"d"by'7iie 
hearers,  because  it  expressed  a  great  '"■"■'"• 
deal  of  zeal  and  diligence  in  their  attention :  which 
is,  that  many  of  them  learned  the  art  of  notaries, 
(the  Greeks  call  them  6^vypa(poi,  and  TaxvypcKpoi, 
ready  writers,)  that  they  might  be  able  to  take  down 
in  writing  the  sermons  of  famous  preachers,  word 
for  word,  as  they  delivered  them.  By  this  means, 
some  of  their  extempore  discourses  were  handed 
down  to  posterity,  which  otherwise  must  have  died 
with  the  speaking;  as  has  been  observed  before"'* 
out  of  Eusebius,  concerning  some  of  Origen's,  which 
he  preached  in  his  latter  years.  St.  Austin  makes 
the  same  observation"'^'^  concerning  his  own  sermons 
upon  the  Psalms,  That  it  pleased  the  brethren  not 
only  to  receive  them  with  their  ears  and  heart,  but 
with  their  pens  Ukewise ;  so  that  he  was  to  have 
regard  not  only  to  his  auditors,  but  his  readers 
also.^"'  Socrates  says  the  same  of  Chrysostom's 
sermons,  that  some  of  them  were  pubUshed  by  him- 
self, and  others  by  notaries,  who  took  them  from  his 
mouth  as  he  spake  them.  But  they  did  not  thus 
honour  all  preachers,  but  only  those  that  were  most 
celebrated  and  renowned.  For  Sozomen'-'*  observes 
of  the  sermons  of  Atticus,  That  they  were  so  mean 
after  he  gave  himself  to  preach  extempore,  when  he 
was  bishop  of  Constantinople,  that  the  notaries  did 
not  think  fit  to  write  them.  These  notaries  were 
some  of  them  allowed  by  the  preacher  himself,  and 


="2  Chrys.  Horn.  30.  in  Act. 
■"^  Ap.  Euseb.  lib.  7.  cap.  30. 
^'  Hieron.  Ep.  2.  ad  Nepotiau. 

-"*  Euseb.  lib.  G.  cap.  3G.  et  Pamphil.  Apol.  pro  Oiig. 
cited  before,  sect.  11. 


-'^^  Aug.  in  Psal.  li.  p.  201.  Placuit  fratribus,  non  tan- 
tum  aure  et  cordo,  sod  et  stylo  excipienda  qure  diciniiis  :  lit 
non  auditoreni  tantum,  sed  et  lectorcm  cogitare  dcbeamus. 

-"  Socrat.  lib.  6.  cap.  4. 

-'^  Sozoin.  lib.  8.  cap.  27. 


734 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIV. 


were  therefore  a  sort  of  public  notaries  appointed 
for  this  purpose  ;  but  others  did  it  privately,  accord- 
ing to  their  inclination  and  discretion.  This  differ- 
ence is  hinted  by  Eusebius,  when  he  says,  Origen 
allowed  no  notaries  to  take  his  sermons,  till  he  was 
sixty  years  old;  and  by  Gregory  Nazianzen,  in  his 
farewell  sermon,  where  he  thus  takes  his  leave  of 
his  church.  Farewell,  ye  lovers  of  my  sermons,  and 
ye  pens,^®  both  public  and  private.  In  which  he 
plainly  alludes  to  the  two  sorts  of  notaries  that  wrote 
his  sermons  in  the  church.  The  public  notaries 
were  generally  allowed  by  the  author's  consent  to 
publish  what  they  wrote  :  in  which  case,  it  was 
usual  for  the  preacher  to  review  his  own  dictates, 
and  correct  such  mistakes,  and  supply  such  de- 
ficiencies, as  might  be  occasioned  by  the  haste  of 
the  scribe,  or  some  things  not  so  accurately  spoken 
by  themselves  in  sudden  and  extempore  discourses. 
This  is  evident  from  what  Gregory  the  Great"'" 
says  in  his  preface  to  his  homilies  upon  Ezekiel, 
That  those  homilies  were  first  taken  from  his  mouth, 
as  he  spake  them  to  the  people,  and  after  eight 
years  he  collected  them  from  the  papers  of  the  no- 
taries, and  reviewed,  and  corrected,  and  amended 
them.  So  again,  in  his  preface  upon  Job,  he  says, 
Some  of  his  homilies  were  composed  by  himself, 
and  others  taken  by  the  notaries  ;  and  those  which 
were  taken  by  the  notaries,  when  he  had  time,  he 
reviewed,  adding  some  things,"'  and  rejecting  others, 
and  leaving  many  things  as  he  found  them,  and 
with  such  emendations  he  composed  them  into 
books,  and  published  them.  But  many  times  the 
notaries  published  what  they  had  written,  without 
the  author's  knowledge  or  consent.  In  which  case, 
we  sometimes  find  them  remonstrating  against  this 
as  a  clandestine  practice."^  Thus  Gaudentius  says. 
He  did  not  own  those  homilies,  which  were  first 
taken  by  the  notaries  latently  and  by  stealth,  and 
then  published  by  others  imperfectly,  and  only  by 
halves,  with  great  chasms  and  interruptions  in 
them.  He  would  not  acknowledge  them  for  his 
discourses,  «vhich  the  notaries  had  written  in  ex- 
treme haste,  and  published,  without  giving  him  any 
opportunity  to  supervise  and  correct  them.  And, 
probably,  there  may  be  reason  for  the  same  com- 
plaint in  other  writers.  However,  it  shows  a  great 
diligence  and  attention  in  the  hearers  of  those  days, 


and  a  great  respect  and  honour  paid  to  their  teach- 
ers, that  they  wovdd  be  at  so  much  pains  to  treasure 
up  and  preserve  their  pious  instruction. 

These  things  may  be  justly  spoken 
to  their  honour,  and  it  is  no  reflec- 


Sect.Sn. 
Two    leflections 
,  ....  (•      1      •       'lacle  b?  the  an- 

tion  on  them,  or  dimmution  or  their  cicnts  upon 


thei 


pt  audit- 
I.  The  negligent 


good  character,  that  there  were  some      ,     _     ,    . 

^  '  and  profane  hearers. 

others  in  those  times  (as  there  will 
be  in  all  times)  who  deserved  a  contrary  cha- 
racter, either  for  their  deficiency  and  want  of  zeal 
in  this  matter,  or  for  their  indiscreet  and  intem- 
perate zeal,  in  placing  all  religion  in  a  sermon,  and 
speaking  contemptuously  of  prayer,  or  other  parts 
of  Divine  service  without  it.  The  two  errors  in  the 
contrary  extremes,  the  one  in  excess,  the  other  in 
defect,  the  ancients  had  sometimes  occasion  to  re- 
buke, and  they  did  it  wdth  a  becoming  sharpness. 
Though  St.  Chrysostom  was  so  much  admired,  that 
the  people  generally  said,  when  he  was  sent  into 
banishment,  that  it  was  better"'  the  sun  should 
withdraw  its  rays,  than  his  mouth  be  shut  up  in 
silence  ;  yet  he  was  often  forced  with  grief  to  com- 
plain of  some  for  their  abstaining  from  religious  as- 
semblies,-'* where  they  were  scarce  seen  once  a 
year  ;  of  others,  that  they  spent  their  time  there  in 
nothing  but  idle  discourse,  or  laughing  and  jesting, 
or  transacting  worldly  business,'"  laying  them- 
selves open  to  the  assaults  of  the  wicked  spirit, 
who  found  their  house  fit  for  his  reception,  empty, 
swept  and  garnished ;  of  others,  that  they  turned 
the  church  into  a  theatre,""'  and  sought  for  nothing 
there,  but  to  please  their  ears  without  any  other 
advantage  ;  and  finallj',  of  others,  who  extolled  his 
discourses  by  great  applause  in  words,  but  disgraced 
them  by  the  disobedience  of  their  lives  and  actions  ; 
of  whom  we  have  heard  so  much  before.  In  one 
place  he  more  particularly  reproaches  them  that 
absented  from  church,  with  the  example  of  the 
Jews,  who  could  abstain  from  work,  for  ten,  twenty, 
or  thirty  days  together,  without  contradiction,"" 
at  the  command  of  their  priest,  and  neither  open 
their  doors,  nor  light  a  fire,  nor  carry  in  water  for 
any  necessary  use,  which  yet  they  submitted  to, 
though  it  was  an  intolerable  corporal  slavery ; 
whereas  Christians  were  only  required  to  set  apart 
one  day  in  seven,  and  only  two  hours  of  the  day 
for  religious  assemblies,  to  obtain  the  greatest  spi- 


"^  Naz.  Orat.  32.  p.  528.  XalptrE  yparjiiSsi  (pavipal 
Kal  Xavdavovcrai.. 

270  Greg.  Praefat.  in  Ezek.  Homilias,  quaB  in  beatum 
Ezekielem  prophetam,  ut  coram  populo  loquebar,  excepta; 
sunt,  miiltis  curis  irruentibus  in  abolitinne  reliqueram.  Sed 
post  annos  octo,  petentibus  f'ratribus,  notariorum  schedulas 
requirere  stiidui,  easque  favente  Dnmino  transcurrens,  in 
quantum  ab  angustiis  tribulationum  licuit,  emendavi,  &c. 

-"  Id.  Proef.  in  Job.  Cumque  niihi  spatia  largiura  suppe- 
terent,  multa  augens,  pauca  subtrahens,  atqiie  ita  ut  inventa 
sunt  nonnuUa  derelinquens,  ea,  quae  me  loquente  excepta 
sub  oculis  fuerant,  per  libros  emendando  composui,  &c. 


2'2  Guadent.  Praefat.  ad  Benevolum,  Bibl.  Patr.  t.  2.  p. 
.3.  De  illis  vero  tractatibus,  quos  notariis,  ut  eomperi,  laten- 
ter  adpositis,  proculdubio  interruptos  et  semiplenos  otiosa 
quorundam  studia  eoUigere  praesumpserunt,  nihil  ad  me  at- 
tinet.  Mea  jam  non  sunt,  quae  constat  praecipiti  excipien- 
tium  festinatione  esse  conscripta. 

2'^  Chvys.  Ep.  125.  ad  Cyriacum. 

2'<  Horn.  46.  in  Luciau.  Martyr,  t.  1.  p.  597.  Horn.  48. 
In  Inscript.  Altaris,  t.  5.  p.  648. 

""  Hom.  4.  de  Incomprehensibili,  t.  1.  p.  374. 

2^"  Hom.  2.  a  1  Pop.  Antioch.  t.  1.  p.  31. 

="  Horn.  18.  de  Inscript.  Altaris,  t.  5.  p.  G18. 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


735 


ritual  advantages  to  the  soul ;  and  yet  they  neg- 
lected such  opportunities,  and  chose  any  meetings 
rather  than  the  church.  St.  Ambrose  in  like  man- 
ner upbraids  those,  who  spent  their  time  in  talking 
in  the  church,  from  the  example  of  the  heathen,"'' 
who  reverenced  their  idols  by  their  silence,  whilst 
Christians  even  drowned  the  voice  of  the  Divine 
oracles,  and  the  declaration  of  them,  by  their  con- 
fused noise  and  confabulations  in  the  church.  This, 
Ca?sarius  tells  them,""''  was  in  effect  to  offer  men 
poison  or  a  sword.  For  such  a  one  neither  heard 
the  word  of  God  himself,  nor  suffered  others  to  hear 
it :  and  such  must  expect  not  only  to  give  account 
of  their  own,  but  other  men's  destruction  at  the  day 
of  judgment.  Origen,^"  and  some  others,  tell  these 
men,  their  own  practice,  in  another  case,  would  rise 
up  in  judgment  against  them:  for  they  themselves 
showed  a  great  reverence  to  the  body  of  Christ  in 
the  eucharist;  and  yet  it  was  no  less  a  piacular 
crime,  to  show  contempt  to  the  word  of  God,  than 
to  his  body ;  and  they  would  be  held  guilty  for  a 
disrespect  in  the  one  case  as  well  as  the  other. 
Thus  they  showed  men,  what  reverence  was  due  to 
the  preaching  of  the  word  of  God,  by  setting  before 
them  the  sin  and  danger  of  those  abuses  some  were 
apt  to  run  into,  by  an  error  in  defect  and  want  of  a 
just  reverence  to  it. 

On  the  other  hand,  they  were  no 
And  secondly,  (he  Icss   carcful  to  guard  mcu    against 

intemperare  7ea!ots,  .    ,  . 

"im  placed  au  reii-  supcrstitiou  lu    tlic    Other    cxtrcme. 

gion  in  a  sermon.  ■'■ 

For  there  was  an  error  in  excess,  as 
well  as  in  defect,  of  reverence  for  preaching.  Some 
were  so  over-run  with  an  indiscreet  bigotry  and  in- 
temperate zeal  for  preaching,  as  to  reckon  all  other 
parts  of  Divine  service  useless  and  insignificant,  if 
they  were  not  accompanied  with  a  sermon.  These 
men  had  their  arguments  to  plead  in  their  own  be- 
half, which  are  thus  proposed  and  answered  by  St. 
Chrysostom:-'^'  Why  should  I  go  to  church,  said 
they,  if  I  cannot  hear  a  preacher  ?  This  one  thing, 
says  St.  Chrysostom,  has  ruined  and  destroyed  all 
religion.  For  what  necessity  is  there  of  a  preacher  ? 
That  necessity  arises  only  from  our  sloth  and  neg- 
ligence. For  why  otherwise  should  there  be  any 
need  of  a  homily  ?  All  things  are  clear  and  open 
in  the  Holy  Scriptures ;  all  things  necessary  are 
plainly  revealed.  But  because  ye  are  hearers  that 
study  only  to  delight  your  ears  and  fancy,  therefore 
ye  desire  these  things.  Tell  me,  I  pray,  with  what 
pomp  of  words  did  St.  Paul  preach  ?  And  yet  he 
converted  the  world.  What  pomp  did  the  ilHterate 
Peter  use  ?  But,  say  they,  we  cannot  understand 
the  things  that  are  written  in  Scripture,     Why  so  ? 


Are  they  spoken  in  Hebrew,  or  Latin,  or  any  other 
strange  tongue  ?  Are  they  not  spoken  in  Greek,  to 
you  that  understand  the  Greek  tongue  ?  Yea,  but 
they  are  spoken  darkly.  How  darkly  ?  What  diffi- 
culties do  the  histories  contain  ?  You  understand 
the  plain  places,  that  you  may  take  pains  and  in- 
quire about  the  rest.  There  are  a  thousand  histories 
in  the  Bible  :  tell  me  one  of  them.  But  you  cannot 
tell  one  of  these :  therefore  all  this  is  mere  pretence 
and  words.  O  but,  say  they,  we  have  the  same 
tilings  read  to  us  every  day  out  of  Scripture.  And 
do  you  not  hear  the  same  things  every  day  in  the 
theatre  ?  Have  you  not  the  same  sight  at  the  horse- 
race ?  Are  not  all  things  the  same  ?  Does  not  the 
same  sun  rise  every  morning?  Do  you  not  eat  the 
same  meat  every  day  ?  I  would  ask  you,  seeing  you 
say  you  hear  the  same  things  every  day,  what  por- 
tion of  the  prophets,  what  apostle,  what  epistle  was 
read?  But  you  cannot  tell :  they  are  perfectly  new 
and  strange  to  you.  When,  therefore,  you  are  dis- 
posed to  be  idle,  you  pretend  the  same  things  are 
read ;  but  when  you  are  asked  concerning  them, 
you  are  as  men  that  never  heard  them.  If  they  are 
the  same,  you  should  have  known  them :  but  you 
know  nothing  of  them.  This  is  a  thing  to  be  la- 
mented, that  the  workman  labours  in  vain.  For 
this  reason  you  ought  to  attend,  because  they  are 
the  same,  because  we  bring  nothing  strange  or  new 
to  your  ears.  What  then,  because  ye  say  the  Scrip- 
tures are  always  the  same,  but  what  we  preach  are 
not  so,  but  always  contain  something  new,  do  ye  at- 
tend to  them  ?  In  no  wise.  And  if  we  ask  you. 
Why  do  you  not  remember  them  ?  ye  answer.  How 
should  we,  seeing  we  hear  them  but  once?  If  we 
say.  Why  do  you  not  remember  the  Scriptures  ?  ye 
answer.  They  are  always  the  same.  These  are  no- 
thing but  pretences  for  idleness,  and  mere  indica- 
tions of  a  sceptical  temper.  Thus  that  holy  father 
rebukes  that  intemperate  zeal,  which  set  up  preach- 
ing in  opposition  to  reading  of  the  Scriptures,  under 
various  pretences  of  their  being  obscure,  or  tedious 
repetitions  of  the  same  things,  when  in  truth  a  fana- 
tical affectation  of  novelty,  and  a  fantastical  scep- 
ticism, and  a  vicious  desire  of  being  freed  from  all 
the  burden  of  attending  upon  religious  assemblies, 
was  really  at  the  bottom  of  all  their  objections. 

There  is  but  one  thing  more  to  be 
observed  upon  this  head ;  which  is,     how  men  were 

,  ,  ,  treated,  who 

that  as  there  were  some  who  com-  thought  their  ser- 

.  mons  too  long. 

plamed,  that  their  sermons  were  not 
frequent  enough,  or  too  short ;  so  there  were  others 
that  complained,  they  were  too  long,  and  were  dis- 
posed to  leave  the  assembly  before  sermon  was  end- 


™  Ambros.  de  Virgin,  lib.  3.  An  quicquam  est  indignius, 
quain  oracula  divina  circumstrepi,  ne  audiantur,  ne  credan- 
tur,  ne  revelentur  ?  circumsonare  sacramenta  confusis  vo- 
cibus,  cum  Gentiles  idolis  suis  reverentiara  tacendo  de- 
ferant  ? 


2™  Cajsar.  Arelat.  Horn.  34. 

^  Oiig.  Horn.  13.  in  E.xod.  t.  I.  p.  102.  Quomcdo  pu- 
tatis  minorisesse  piaculi,  verbum  Dei  uegle.xisse,  quaui  cor- 
pus ejus?     Vid.  Aug.  Horn.  26.  ex  50. 

^'  Chrys.  Horn.  3.  in  2  Thess.  p.  lc')02. 


736 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIV. 


ed.     Some  canons  are  pretty  severe  upon  such  au- 
ditors.     The   fourth   council   of  Carthage   orders 
them  to  be  proceeded  against^'  with  excommunica- 
tion.    But  others  used  a  more  gentle  way,  content- 
ing themselves  to  admonish  their  auditors  of  their 
duty,  and  sometimes  using  ingenious   stratagems 
and  feigned  apologues  to  detain  them ;  and  some- 
times ordering  the  doors  of  the  church  to  be  kept 
shut,  till  all  was  ended :  which  is  particularly  re- 
marked of  Cffisarius  Arclatensis,  by  the  author  of 
his  Life.^'     St.  Chrysostom  considers  the  matter 
with  some  distinction.     He  makes  some  allowance 
for  the  w^eakness  of  such  as  were  unable  to  hold  out 
the  whole  time  at  a  long  sermon :  and  forasmuch 
as  many  were  more  desirous  of  long  sermons  than 
short  ones,  he  thinks  the  matter  was  so  to  be  order- 
ed, as  to  accommodate  both.    Seeing  there  are  some, 
says  he,  in  so  great  a  multitude,  who  cannot  "*"  bear 
a  long  discourse,  my  advice  to  such  is,  that  when 
they  have  heard  as  much  as  they  can  contain,  and 
as  much  as  suffices  them,  they  should  depart,  (for 
no  one  hinders  them,  or  compels  them  to  stay  longer 
than  their  strength  is  able  to  bear,)  that  they  may 
not  impose  a  necessity  on  us  of  making  an  end  be- 
fore the  proper  time.     For  thou  art  satisfied,  but 
thy  brother  is  yet  hungry :  thou  hast  drunk  thy 
fill  of  what  is  spoken,  but  thy  brother  is  yet  athirst. 
Therefore  neither  let  him  burden  thy  weakness,  by 
compeUing  thee  to  receive  more  than  thy  strength 
will  bear  ;  neither  be  thou  injurious  to  his  desire  of 
hearing,  by  hindering  him  from  taking  as  much  as 
he  is  able  to  receive.  For  so  it  is  at  a  common  table, 
some  are  filled  sooner,  some  later,  and  neither  do 
these  accuse  those,  nor  they  condemn  the  other. 
But  there  is  a  commendation  to  depart  quickly;  but 
here  to  depart  quickly  is  not  commendable,  but  only 
pardonable.     To  stay  long  at  a  carnal  feast,  is  a 
matter  worthy  of  reproof,  because  it  proceeds  from 
an   intemperate  appetite ;    but   to   stay  long  at  a 
spiritual  feast,  deserves  the  highest  praise  and  com- 
mendation, because  it  proceeds  from  a  spiritual  de- 
sire and  holy  appetite,  and  argues  patience  and  con- 
stancy in  giving  attention.     Thus  that  holy  father 
decides  the  controversy  about  long  and  short  ser- 
mons, and  prudently  divides  the  matter  between 
strong  and  weak  hearers  ;   commending  the  one, 
w-ithout  condemning  the  other  ;  and  making  some 
apology  for  the  length  of  his  sermons,  without  of- 
fence  to   either  party.     I    shall   make   the   same 
apology  to  my  readers  for  the  length  of  this  chap- 


ter :  if  there  be  any  whose  curiosity  leads  them  to 
know  all  that  relates  to  the  preaching  of  the  an- 
cients, they  may  read  the  whole,  and  perhaps  will 
not  think  it  too  long ;  but  they  whose  appetite  is 
not  so  sharp,  may  shorten  it  as  they  please,  and 
accommodate  it  to  their  own  use,  by  selecting  such 
parts  as  are  most  agreeable  to  their  own  taste,  and 
proper  for  their  own  instruction.  And  so  I  end  the 
discourse  about  preaching  in  the  ancient  church. 


CHAPTER  V. 

OF  THE  PRAYERS  FOR  THE  CATECHUMENS,  ENERGU- 
MENS,  COMPETENTES  OR  CANDIDATES  OF  BAPTISM, 
AND  THE  PENITENTS. 

As  soon  as  the  sermon  was  ended, 

Sect.  1. 

the  public  prayers  of  the  church  be-  ^^That  prayers  in 

^  ^       -'  the   ancient  church 

gan,  and  not  before.  For  anciently  X','^^^^,^J^^'„^"' 
the  order  of  Divine  service  was  a  lit- 
tle different  in  its  method  from  what  it  is  usually 
now  in  the  church;  for  anciently  the  greatest 
part  of  the  public  prayers  came  after  sermon.  This 
is  expressly  said  by  Justin  Martyr  in  his  Apology, 
where  he  is  giving  an  account  of  the  Christian  wor- 
ship on  the  Lord's  day.  He  says,  They  first  read 
the  Scriptures,  then  the  president  or  bishop  made  a 
discourse  or  exhortation  ;  after  which  they  rose  up 
all  together  and  made  their  common '  prayers  :  and 
then,  when  these  were  ended,  the  bishop  prayed 
again,  and  gave  thanks  for  the  consecration  of  the  . 
bread  and  wine  in  the  eucharist,  the  people  answer- 
ing. Amen.  And  so  St.  Chrysostom  affirms  also, 
saying  in  one  place,^  The  exhortation  comes  first, 
and  then  immediately  prayer.  And  in  another* 
place.  You  need  both  advice  and  prayer :  therefore 
we  advise  you  first,  meaning  in  the  sermon,  and 
then  we  make  prayers  for  you.  They  that  are  in- 
itiated know  what  I  say.  So  that  when  Chrysos- 
tom or  any  others  say,  prayer  went  before  sermon^ 
they  are  to  be  understood  either  of  that  short  salut- 
ation, which  the  minister  used  at  the  entrance  upon 
every  office,  "  The  Lord  be  with  you,"  the  people 
answering,  "  And  with  thy  spirit ;"  or  of  some  short 
prayer  of  the  preacher ;  or  of  the  private  prayers 
of  people  intermingled  with  the  psalmody  ;  and  not 
of  the  common  prayers  of  the  church.     For  many 


2S2  Cone.  Carth.  4.  can.  24.  Sacerdote  verbura  faciente  in 
ecclesia,  qui  egressus  dc  auditorio  fuerit,  e.xcomraunicetur. 

2«3  Cyprian.  Vit.  C^sar.  cap.  12.  Saepissime  ostia,  lectis 
evangeliis,  occludi  jussit;  donee  propitio  Deo  ipsi  gratu- 
larentur,  ea  coercitionc  se  profeeisse,  qui  solebant  esse  fu- 
gitivi.     Vid.  Cajsar.  Horn.  12. 

28<  Chrjs.  GO.  Daemones  non  gubernare  Mundum,  t.  5. 
p.  784. 


'  Justin.  Apol.  2.  p.  98.  'O  irpoecrTajs  tiju  vovdea-iau 
TTOiELTaL'  tVtiTa  uVLGTCifiida  KOivrj  -iravTEi,  Kal  iiix^^ 
TrifjLirofxtv,  (c.t.X. 

^  Chrys.  Horn.  2S.  quoe  est  3.  de  Incomprehensibili,  t.  1. 
p.  3G5.   MfTti  Ti'jy  TrapciLi/Eoriu  (.udtws  tux'l- 

^  Id.  Horn.  11.  in  1  Thess.  p.  1480.     TipoTfpov  rrvfi^ov- 

\f.UOVTl^,  TOT£  xas   VTrip  llfXloV  EUX''^  TTOlOVIXiOu,  Kal  TOVTO 
i(Xa(TLV  OL  fxifivmxtvoi. 


Chap.  V. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


T:i7 


orders  of  men  might  be  present  at  the  sermon,  and 
to  hear  the  Scriptures  read,  who  might  not  join  in 
prayers  with  the  faithful ;  and  for  that  reason  the 
sermon  and  reading  of  the  Scriptures  went  before, 
that  such  persons  might  have  the  benefit  of  them, 
who  were  to  be  dismissed  when  the  prayers  begun, 
because  they  had  as  yet  no  title  to  communicate  in 
them. 

These  praj^ers  were  of  two  sorts: 
wi.o^'^mi|i,t,  or  prayers   pecuHar   to  the   faithful    or 

nii^lit  not,  oe  pre-  '  ,  ,  .  ^1*1  •  ^^ 

sentatihfsenrayers.  commuuicants  Only,  at  wlncu  ncitlier 

Infldfls    and    mere 

hearers  obliged  to  catecliumens,  nor  penitents,  nor  ener- 
gumens,  nor  any  persons  yet  unbap- 
lized  might  be  present;  and  prayers  made  particu- 
larly for  these  several  orders,  at  which  therefore 
they  were  allowed  to  be  present,  and  both  hear  the 
prayers,  and  pray  for  themselves.  But  even  from 
these  prayers  some  were  obliged  to  withdraw,  who 
were  allowed  to  be  present  at  sermons  for  their  in- 
struction. Such  were  all  Jews  and  infidels,  and 
such  of  the  catechumens  and  penitents  as  were 
known  by  the  distinct  name  of  aKpoui/iivoi  among 
the  Greeks,  and  audientes  among  the  Latins,  that  is, 
hearers  only.  Therefore,  as  soon  as  sermon  was 
ended,  before  any  of  these  prayers  began  in  the 
service  of  the  catechumens,  a  deacon  was  used  to 
make  proclamation  from  some  eminency  in  the 
church,  Ke  quis  audientium,  ne  quis  injklelium,  Let 
none  of  the  hearers,  let  none  of  the  unbelievers  be 
present,  as  it  is  worded  in  the  Constitutions.* 

This  said,  and  silence  being  made, 

Of  tiieVrayers  for  tlie  dcacou  cried  again,  "  Pray,  ye  cate- 

The  lemiine'for^s  chumcus  :"  and,  "  Let  all  the  faithful 

of  them   out  of  St.  •  r  ^ 

chrTso^tom  and  the  \\\i\\  attention  pray  for  them,  saying. 

Constitutions.  r      J  '        .'       O' 

Lord  have  mercy  upon  them."  Then 
the  deacon  began  a  prayer  for  them,  which  in  the 
Constitutions  is  called  npoaipwvrjmg  vntp  tu>v  Kartjxov- 
^kvuiv,  a  bidding  prayer  for  the  catechumens,  be- 
cause it  was  both  an  exhortation  and  direction  how 
they  were  to  pray  for  them.  We  have  two  ancient 
forms  of  this  prayer  still  remaining,  one  in  St.  Chry- 
sostom,  and  another  in  the  Constitutions.  That  in 
the  Constitutions  is  in  these  words :  ^  "  Let  us  all 
beseech  God  for  the  catechumens  ;  that  he,  who  is 


gracious,  and  a  lover  of  mankind,  would  mcrci fully 
hearken  to  their  supplications  and  prayers,  and,  ac- 
cepting their  petitions,  would  help  them,  and  grant 
them  the  requests  of  their  souls  according  to  what 
is  expedient  for  them ;  that  he  would  reveal  the  gos- 
pel of  Christ  to  them ;  that  he  would  enlighten  and 
instruct  them,  and  teach  them  the  knowledge  of  God 
and  Divine  things  ;  that  he  would  instruct  them  in 
his  precepts  and  judgments ;  that  he  would  open 
the  ears  of  their  hearts  to  be  occupied  in  his  law 
day  and  night ;  that  he  would  confirm  them  in  re- 
ligion ;  that  he  would  unite  them  to,  and  number 
them  with  his  holy  flock,  vouchsafing  them  the 
laver  of  regeneration,  with  the  garment  of  incor- 
ruption,  and  true  life ;  that  he  would  deliver  them 
from  all  impiety,  and  give  no  place  to  the  adversary 
to  get  advantage  against  them ;  but  that  he  would 
cleanse  them  from  all  pollution  of  flesh  and  spirit, 
and  dwell  in  them,  and  walk  in  them  by  his  Christ; 
that  he  would  bless  their  going  out,  and  their  coming 
in,  and  direct  all  their  designs  and  purposes  to  their 
advantage.  Further  yet,  let  us  earnestly  pray  for 
them,  that  they  may  have  remission  of  sins  by  the 
initiation  of  baptism,  and  be  thought  worthy  of  the 
holy  mysteries,  and  remain  among  his  saints." 

Then  the  deacon,  addressing  himself  to  the  cate- 
chumens themselves,  said,  "  Catechumens,  arise. 
Pray  for  the  peace  of  God,  that  this  day,  and  all  the 
time  of  your  life,  may  pass  in  quietness,  and  without 
sin ;  that  you  may  make  a  Christian  end,  and  find 
God  propitious  and  merciful,  and  obtain  remission 
of  your  sins.  Commend  yourselves  to  the  onlj'  un- 
begotten  God  by  his  Christ." 

To  every  petition  of  this  bidding  prayer,  the  peo- 
ple, and  especially  children,  are  appointed  to  subjoin, 
Kvpie  i\it]<Tov,  "  Lord  have  mercy  upon  them." 

After  this  the  deacon  bids  them  bow  down,  and 
receive  the  bishop's  benediction ;  which  is  in  the 
following  form  of  direct  invocation. 

"  0  Almighty  God,  who  art  without  original  and 
inaccessible,  the  only  true  God,  thou  God  and  Fa- 
ther of  Christ  thy  only  begotten  Son,  God  of  the 
Comforter,^  and  Lord  of  all  things ;  who  by  Christ 
didst  make  learners  become  teachers  for  the  propa- 


*  Constit.  Apost.  lib.  8.  c.  5.  =•  Ibid.  c.  6. 

*  This  phrase,  6  ©£os  tov  JlapaK\7)Tov,  and  a  like  phrase, 
which  occurs  in  the  prayer  of  this  author  in  the  daily  even- 
ing service,  lib.  8.  cap.  37,  where  the  Father  is  styled,  6  tou 
Jlvsufiaros  Kiioios,  the  Lord  of  the  Spirit,  are  harsh  ex- 
pressions, and  not  very  usual  in  catholic  writers  ;  which 
makes  some  suspect  this  author,  as  if  he  were  tainted  with 
the  Macedonian  heresy,  which  denies  the  Divinity  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  makes  him  a  mere  creature.  But  this  seems 
not  to  have  been  the  intent  of  our  author,  who  no  where  de- 
nies the  true  Divinity  of  the  S(in  or  Holy  Ghost,  but  only 
gives  such  titles  of  pre-eminence  to  the  Father,  as  Justin 
Martyr  did  before  him,  in  regard  to  the  Father's  being  the 
fountain  of  the  Deity,  and  the  origin  of  e.xistence  in  the 
Son  and  Holy  Spirit,  not  as  creatures,  but  as  his  eternal 
Son  and  eternal  Holy  Spirit,  equal  to  him  in  all  essential 

3   B 


perfections,  but  only  deriving  those  Divine  perfections  from 
him,  as  the  author  and  fountain  of  their  being,  as  God  of 
God,  and  Light  of  Litrht,  by  eternal  generation  and  proces- 
sion. In  this  sense,  Bi.shop  Bull  has  observed,  that  Justin 
Martyr,  in  his  Dialogue  with  Tryphon,  p.  358,  uses  the  very 
same  expression,  in  speaking  of  the  Son,  as  our  author  does 
of  the  Spirit:  for  he  says,  The  Father  is  Kvniov  Kufuo?, 
(OS  Tla-r))p  Kni  0£os,  (Jtixios  T£  uutm  tou  tivai,  Kal  Siivwrco^ 
Kai  Kvpiut,  Kal  BfoT,  the  Lord  of  the  Lord,  as  Father  and 
God,  and  cause  of  his  being,  of  and  from  whom  he  has  even 
this,  that  he  is  omnipotent,  and  Lord  and  God.  Where 
Bishop  Bull  rightly  observes.  That  God  the  Father  is  said 
to  be  God  and  Lord  of  his  Son,  not  as  he  is  Lord  of  the 
creatures,  but  quatenus  estfons  Divinitatis  et  causa  Filio, 
nt  sit,  as  he  is  the  fountain  of  the  Deity,  and  cause  of  his 
Son's  existence  :  which  does  not  make  the  Son  a  creature, 


738 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIV. 


gation  of  Christian  knowledge;  look  down  now 
upon  these  thy  servants,  who  are  learning  the  in- 
structions of  the  gospel  of  thy  Christ,  and  give  them 
a  new  heart,  and  renew  a  right  spirit  within  them, 
that  they  may  know  and  do  thy  will  with  a  perfect 
heart,  and  a  willing  mind.  Vouchsafe  them  thy 
holy  baptism,  and  unite  them  to  thy  holy  church, 
and  make  them  partakers  of  thy  holy  mysteries, 
through  Christ  our  hope,  who  died  for  them,  by 
whom  be  glory  and  worship  unto  thee,  world  with- 
out end.  Amen."  After  this,  let  the  deacon  say, 
"  Catechumens,  depart  in  peace." 

St.  Chrysostom,  in  one  of  his  homilies,  gives  us 
a  like  form  of  the  deacon's  bidding  prayer  for  the 
catechumens.  The  law'  of  the  church,  says  he, 
moves  the  faithful  to  pray  for  those  who  are  yet 
unbaptized.  For  when  the  deacon  says,  "  Let  us 
pray  fervently  for  the  catechumens,"  he  does  no- 
thing else  but  excite  the  whole  multitude  of  the 
faithful  to  pray  for  them.  For  the  catechumens 
are  as  yet  aliens ;  they  are  not  yet  ingrafted  into 
the  body  of  Christ,  nor  made  partakers  of  the  holy 
mysteries,  but  remain  divided  from  the  spiritual 
flock.  And  for  that  reason  he  says,  "  Let  us  pray 
fervently ;"  that  you  may  not  reject  them  as  aliens, 
that  you  may  not  disown  them  as  strangers.  For 
they  are  not  yet  allowed  to  use  the  prayer  that  was 
introduced  and  established  by  the  law  of  Christ. 
He  means  the  Lord's  prayer.  They  have  not  yet 
liberty  or  confidence  enough  to  pray  for  themselves, 
but  need  the  help  of  those  that  are  already  initiated. 
For  they  stand  without  the  royal  gates,  and  at  a 
distance  from  the  holy  rails.  And  for  that  reason 
are  sent  away  when  the  tremendous  prayers  are 
offered  at  the  altar.  Upon  this  account  the  deacon 
exhorts  you  to  pray  for  them,  that  they  may  be 
made  members,  and  be  no  longer  foreigners  and 
aliens.  For  that  word,  "  Let  us  pray,"  is  not  spoken 
to  the  priests  only,  but  also  to  the  people.  For 
when  he  says,  Srwjutv  uaXug,  derjOdiisv,  "  Let  us  stand 
decently,  let  us  pray,"  he  exhorts  all  to  pray.  And 
then  he  begins  the  prayer  in  these  words  : 

"  That  the  merciful  and  gracious  God  would 
vouchsafe  to  hear  their  prayers  ;  that  he  would  open 
the  ears  of  their  hearts ;  that  they  may  hear  what 
*  eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard,  neither  hath  it 
entered  into  the  heart  of  man  ;'  that  he  would  instil 
into  them  the  word  of  his  truth  ;  that  he  would  sow 
the  word  of  his  truth  in  their  hearts,  and  confirm 
his  faith  in  their  minds  ;  that  he  would  reveal  unto 
them  the  gospel  of  righteousness ;  that  he  would 
give  them  a  divine  and  heavenly  mind,  pure  and 
holy  thoughts,  and  a  virtuous  conversation  ;  always 

but  the  true,  consubstantial,  and  eternal  Son  of  God ;  or,  as 
our  author  expresses  himself  accurately  elsewhere,  he  is 
hereby  Gsds  fwvojfV))^,  (Jod  the  only-begotten  ;  that  is,  the 
true  Son  of  the  Father,  who  is  styled  Lord  of  the  Son,  not 
as  a  Creator,  but  as  a  Father. 


to  mind,  always  to  regard,  and  meditate  upon  the 
things  that  belong  to  him,  and  to  be  occupied  in 
his  law  day  and  night.  Let  us  pray  yet  more 
ardently  for  them,  that  he  would  deliver  them  from 
all  evil  and  absurd  employments,  from  all  diabolical 
sin,  and  all  the  circumventions  of  the  adversary; 
that  he  would  vouchsafe  to  bring  them  in  due  time 
to  the  laver  of  regeneration,  and  grant  them  remis- 
sion of  sins,  and  the  clothing  of  incorruption ;  that 
he  would,  during  their  whole  lives,  bless  their  going 
out  and  their  coming  in,  their  houses  and  families ; 
that  he  would  increase  and  bless  their  children,  and 
bring  them  to  the  measure  of  perfect  age  with  the 
instruction  of  wisdom;  and  that  he  would  direct 
all  their  purposes  to  their  advantage." 

After  this,  the  deacon  bids  them  rise  up  and  pray 
for  themselves,  dictating  what  they  were  to  pray 
for :  "  Pray,  ye  catechumens,  for  the  angel  of  peace ; 
that  all  your  purposes  may  be  peaceably  directed : 
pray,  that  this  present  day,  and  all  the  days  of  your 
lives,  may  be  spent  in  peace,  and  that  you  may 
make  a  Christian  end.  Commend  yourselves  to 
the  living  God  and  to  his  Christ." 

This  being  done,  says  Chrysostom,  we  bid  them 
bow  their  heads,  and  receive  the  benediction  of  God, 
as  a  sign  that  their  prayers  are  heard.  For  it  is 
not  man  that  blesses  them,  but  by  his  hands  and 
tongue  we  present  their  heads,  as  they  stand  there, 
to  the  heavenly  King ;  and  then  all  the  congregation 
with  a  loud  voice  cry  out,  "  Amen." 

Here  is  a  plain  account  of  the  second  prayer  that 
was  made  for  the  catechumens  by  the  bishop,  which 
is  styled  here,  as  it  is  also  in  the  Constitutions,  the 
bishop's  commendation  or  benediction. 

Learned  men  think  this  homily  was  preached  by 
Chrysostom  when  he  was  bishop  of  Constantinople. 
And  if  so,  we  must  conclude  that  these  prayers 
were  the  forms  that  were  used  then  in  the  liturgy 
of  Constantinople. 

And  I  the  rather  incline  to  this 
opinion,  because  there  is  some  little     what  meim  by 

their  praying  for  the 

difference  between  this  form  of  Chry-  angei  of  peace  in 

'^        this  form  of  prayer. 

sostom's  and  that  in  the  Constitutions. 
For  in  this  of  Chrysostom's  the  catechumens  are 
bid  to  pray  for  the  angel  of  peace,  which  is  not 
mentioned  in  the  form  of  the  Constitutions ;  though 
it  be  in  another  place,'  where  directions  are  given 
for  the  ordinary  morning  and  evening  service.  St. 
Chrysostom  often  mentions  this  same  petition  for 
the  angel  of  peace  in  his  other  homilies.  As  in  his 
third  homily  upon  the  Colossians,  where  he  says, 
Every  man  has  angels  attending  him,  and  also  the 
devil  very  busy  about  him.     Therefore  we  pray^ 


'  Chrys.  Horn.  2.  in  2  Cor.  p.  740. 
*  Constit.  lib.  8.  cap.  36  et  37. 

"  Chrys.  Horn.  .3.  in  Colos.  p.   1338.    Aia  touto  ivxo- 
fitdu,  Kul  Xf'yo^ti/  niToui/xES  tov  dyyt\ov  Tf/s  iipnin)i. 


Chap.  V. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


739 


and  make  our  supplications  for  the  angel  of  peace. 
And  so  in  his  sermon '''  upon  the  Ascension ;  speak- 
ing of  the  air  being  filled  with  good  and  bad  angels, 
the  one  always  raising  war  and  discord  in  the 
world,  and  the  other  inclining  men  to  peace,  he 
tells  his  auditory,  they  might  know  there  were  an- 
gels of  peace,  by  hearing  the  deacons  always  in  the 
prayers  bidding  men  pray  for  the  angel  of  peace. 
This  undoubtedly  refers  to  the  forementioned  form 
of  prayer,  wherein  the  catechumens  are  directed  to 
ask  of  God  the  protection  of  the  angel  of  peace.  In 
like  manner  in  another"  place,  when  the  deacon 
bids  men  pray  with  others,  he  enjoins  them  this 
among  the  rest  of  their  petitions,  to  pray  for  the 
angel  of  peace,  and  that  all  their  purposes  may  be 
peaceably  directed.  Which  are  the  very  words  of 
the  catechumens'  prayer  abovesaid. 

The  design  of  all  which  was,  not  to  teach  their 
catechumens  to  pray  to  their  guardian  angels ;  (ac- 
cording to  the  modern  way  of  instructing  in  the 
Romish  church ; "  though  this  had  been  a  very 
proper  season  to  have  admonished  the  catechumens 
of  it,  had  there  been  any  such  practice  in  the  an- 
cient church ;)  but  it  was  to  teach  them  to  pray  to 
the  God  of  angels :  that  he  who  makes  his  angels 
to  encamp  about  his  servants,  would  by  their  minis- 
try defend  them  from  the  incursions  of  wicked  spi- 
rits, those  fomenters  of  war  and  division  and  enmity 
among  men,  and  so  keep  them  and  all  their  pur- 
poses in  a  course  of  perpetual  and  uninterrupted 
peace,  that  they  might  finally  make  a  Christian  and 
a  peaceable  end. 

Another  thing,  wherein  the  form  in 
,-°"j  the  Constitutions  differs  from  that  in 
with Yhe'fest  orth"  St.  Chrysostom,  is,  that  it  appoints 
the  children  of  the  church  particu- 
larly and  more  especially  to  join  in  this  common 
prayer  for  the  catechumens ;  whereas  the  form  used 
in  St.  Chrysostom's  chm'ch  mentions  no  such  thing: 
and  Chrysostom  himself  in  another  place "  says 
plainly.  That  children  were  not  called  upon  to  join 
in  the  prayers  for  the  energumens  and  penitents, 
(which  were  of  the  same  sort  with  these  for  the 
catechumens,)  but  only  in  the  prayers  for  the  com- 
municants at  the  altar.  As  these  differences  prove 
the  two  forms  not  to  belong  to  the  liturgy  of  one 
and  the  same  church ;  so  they  make  it  probable, 
that  St.  Chrysostom  gives  us  the  form  used  in  the 
church  of  Constantinople,  and  the  author  of  the 
Constitutions  the  form  that  was  used  at  Antioch,  or 
some  other  eminent  church,  whose  rituals  he  tran- 
scribed and  put  together. 


Sect. 
Children 
churches  appointed 
to    say  this   pray 
with  thf 
people. 


Now,  by  having  fixed  this  prayer 
in  its  proper  place,  we  mav  interpret     •what'^notice  «e 

,,  i  .  ,'  .  have  or  this  prayer 

all    ottier    nassagos    in    the    ancient  ■". other  ancient 

*  ^  HTltmgS. 

writers,  which  speak  of  praying  over 
the  catechumens,  or  praying  with  them.  As  that 
of  the  council  of  Nice,  which  orders,  that  if  any  of 
those,  who  were  catechumens  properly  so  called, 
that  is,  of  that  rank  who  had  these  prayers  said 
over  them,  became  lapsors,  then  they  should  for 
three  years  be  thrust  down  to  the  rank  of  hearers 
only,  and  after  that  be  admitted"  to  pray  with  the 
catechumens  again.  And  that  canon  of  the  council 
of  Neocaesarea,"  which  orders,  that  if  any  such 
catechumens,  as  were  called  yovw  KXivovrec,  that  is, 
prostrators,  or  kneelers,  who  bowed  down  to  have 
these  prayers  said  over  them,  should  fall  into  any 
scandalous  sin,  then  they  should  be  excluded  from 
the  prayers,  and  be  ranked  among  the  hearers  only  : 
and  if  they  fell  again  when  they  were  hearers,  they 
should  be  excluded  from  the  very  entrance  of  the 
church. 

The  next  sort  of  persons  for  whom 
prayers  were   now  made,   were    the     or  the  prayers  for 

.1       ,     .  1  the  energumens,  or 

energumens,  triat  is,  such  persons  as  persons  possessed 

°        .        -  ^     /^  „     by  evil  spirits.    The 

were  seized  or  possessed  by  an  evil  forms  of  these  pray- 
spirit.  For  though  these  were  under 
the  peculiar  care  of  the  exorcists,  an  order  set  apart 
particularly  to  attend  them,  and  pray  over  them  in 
private,  as  has  been  showed  more  fully  in  a  former '" 
Book ;  yet  their  case  being  pitiable  and  deplorable, 
it  was  thought  an  act  of  becoming  mercy  and  charity 
to  let  them  have  the  public  prayers  of  the  church, 
and  gi-ant  them  liberty  to  be  present  at  such  prayers 
as  immediately  respected  their  condition.  There- 
fore, as  soon  as  the  deacon  had  dismissed  the  cate- 
chumens, with  the  usual  form,  "  Catechumens,  de- 
part in  peace  :"  he  said  again,  "  Pray,  ye  energumens, 
who  are  vexed  ^\^th  unclean  spirits."  And  exhort- 
ing the  congregation  also,  he  said,  "  Let  us  ardently 
pray  for  them,"  (as  the  form  of  this  bidding  prayer 
runs  in  the  Constitutions,")  "  that  the  merciful 
God,  through  Christ,  would  rebuke  the  unclean  and 
evil  spirits,  and  deliver  his  supplicants  from  the  op- 
pression and  tyranny  of  the  adversary ;  that  he 
who  rebuked  the  legion  of  devils,  and  the  prince  of 
devils,  the  fountain  of  evil,  would  now  rebuke  these 
apostates  from  piety,  and  deliver  the  works  of  his 
own  hands  from  the  molestations  and  agitations  of 
Satan,  and  cleanse  them  which  he  hath  created  in 
great  wisdom.  Let  us,  further,  most  ardently  pray 
for  them.  Save  them,  and  raise  them  up,  O  God, 
by  thy  power. 


'"  Horn.  35.  in  Ascension.  Domini,  t.  5.  p.  535.  "Iva 
/ud6;;s  otl  dyyi^Xoi  £ip»/i/»(s  fiCTii/,  a.KOV(Tov  kv  Tail  -rrpoa-- 
£i')(als   del    XiyovTujv    Tcoy    olukovoiv,    tov    ayytKov    xf/s 

"  Horn.  52.  in  eos  qui  Pascha  jejunant,  t.  5.  p.  71.3.  'O 
^ictKovoi  ok  KtXivuiv  t'v^iadai  /xtxa  Ttov  ciWwv,  Koi  touto 

3  B  2 


iTTLTCtTTei.    KUTa    TJ/i/    Ei'X'/i',    aiTtlv    TOV    uyyiXou    Tl)^ 
tipt'ji/ijs,  Kai  Ta  TrpoKiifXiva  iravTa  iipijviKcc. 

'-'  Vid.  Drexel.  de  Cultu  Coelitum,  lib.  2.  cap.  3. 

»  Chrys.  Horn.  71.  in  Mat.  p.  624. 

"  Uonc.  Nicen.  can.  14.  '"  Cone.  Neocajsar.  can.  6. 

'«  Book  III.  chap.  4.  sect.  6,  7.     "  Constit.  lib.  8.  cap.  6. 


740 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIV. 


Then  he  bids  them  bow  down  their  heads,  and 
receive  the  bishop's  benediction,  which  is  in  the 
following  form  of  words,  immediately  addressed  to 
Christ. 

"  0  thou  only  begotten  God,  the  Son  of  the  great 
Father ;  thou  that  bindest  the  strong  one,  and  spoil- 
cst  his  goods  ;  that  givest  power  unto  us  to  tread  on 
serpents  and  scorpions,  and  over  all  the  power  of  the 
enemy ;  that  hast  delivered  up  the  murdering  ser- 
pent unto  us  a  prisoner,  as  a  sparrow  unto  children ; 
thou,  before  whom  all  things  shake  and  tremble  at 
the  presence  of  thy  power ;  that  makest  Satan  to 
fall  from  heaven  to  the  earth  as  lightning,  not  by  a 
local  fall,  but  by  a  fall  from  honour  to  disgrace,  be- 
cause of  his  voluntary  malice  ;  thou  whose  looks  dry 
up  the  deep,  and  threatenings  make  the  mountains 
melt,  whose  truth  endures  for  ever;  whom  infants 
praise,  and  sucklings  bless,  and  angels  celebrate  and 
adore ;  that  lookest  upon  the  earth,  and  makest  it 
tremble;  that  touchest  the  mountains,  and  they 
smoke ;  that  rebukest  the  sea,  and  driest  it  up,  and 
turnest  the  rivers  into  a  wilderness ;  that  makest  the 
clouds  to  be  the  dust  of  thy  feet,  and  walkest  upon 
the  sea  as  upon  a  pavement :  rebuke  the  evil  spirits, 
and  deliver  the  works  of  thy  hands  from  the  vexa- 
tion of  the  adverse  spirit :  for  to  thee  belongs  glory, 
honour,  and  adoration,  and  by  thee  to  thy  Father 
in  the  Holy  Spirit,  world  without  end.     Amen." 

St.  Chrysostom  has  not  this  whole 
An  account  of       fomi,  but  hc  oftcn  rcfcrs  to  it  as  one 

these  prayers  out  of  /"ill 

ht.  Chrysostom  and  ot  thc  public  praycrs  ot  the  church. 
Common  prayers,  says  he,  are  made 
by  the  priests  '^  and  people  together  for  the  energu- 
mens,  and  for  the  penitents ;  we  all  say  one  and  the 
same  prayers,  the  prayer  that  is  so  full  of  mercy. 
And  again.  For  this  reason '"  the  deacon,  at  this  time, 
brings  those  that  are  vexed  with  evil  spirits,  and 
commands  them  to  bow  down  their  heads  only,  and 
in  that  posture  of  body  make  their  supplications. 
For  they  may  not  pray  with  the  whole  congrega- 
tion of  the  brethren.  And  for  this  reason  he  pre- 
sents them  before  you,  that  you,  having  mercy  on 
them,  both  in  regard  of  their  vexation,  and  their 
disability  to  speak  for  themselves,  may,  by  your  free- 
dom of  access,  give  them  patronage  and  assistance. 
In  another  place""  he  more  fully  explains  the  reason 
why  this  prayer  for  the  demoniacs  came  before  thc 
oblation  of  the  eucharist,  and  why  at  that  time  the 
deacon  commanded  them  to  be  brought  forth  and 
bow  their  heads.  Their  being  possessed  of  the  devil, 
says  he,  is  a  cruel  and  grievous  chain,  a  chain  harder 
than  any  iron.  As,  therefore,  when  a  judge  is  about 
to  come  forth,  and  sit  upon  the  judgment  seat,  the 


''  Chrys.  Horn.  18.  in  2  Cor.  p.  873.  Kal  yap  virip  twv 
ivipyovixtvuiv,  vTTtp  Twv  IV  fjLtTavoia,  Koivai  Kal  airo  tov 
lipiwi  Kal  Trap'  auTwv  yivovTai  i.u\ai,  kui  irdvTt^  XiyovaL 
jxiav  iv\}]ii,  fuX''"  ''"'''''  ^'^'''"'  yinovcrav. 

'"  Id.   Horn.  .3.  de  Incompreheiisibili,  f.  1.  p.  3G5.     Aia 


keepers  of  the  prison  bring  forth  all  the  prisoners, 
and  place  them  before  the  rails  and  curtains  of  the 
tribunal,  in  all  their  filth  and  nastiness,  with  their 
hair  undressed,  and  clothed  in  rags;  so  our  fore- 
fathers appointed,  that  when  Christ  was  in  a  little 
time  about  to  sit  as  it  were  upon  his  high  throne, 
and  shortly  to  appear  in  the  holy  mysteries,  then 
the  demoniacs  should  be  brought  forth,  as  so  many 
prisoners  in  chains,  not  to  be  condemned  or  suffer 
punishment  for  their  sins,  as  other  prisoners,  but 
that,  when  the  peojile  and  whole  city  are  present 
together  in  the  church,  common  prayer  might  be 
made  for  them,  whilst  they  all  with  one  consent 
besought  the  common  Lord  for  them,  and  with  loud 
voices  entreated  him  to  show  mercy  on  them.  Here,  . 
though  he  does  not  specify  the  whole  form,  yet  he 
plainly  intimates  both  the  time  and  subject  matter 
of  the  prayer,  and  also  the  manner  of  the  address ; 
that  it  was  a  prayer  sent  up  by  the  common  voice  of 
the  people,  some  time  befoi'e  the  appearance  of  Christ 
in  the  eucharist,  and  that  as  an  address  to  God,  to 
implore  his  mercy  on  those  pitiable  objects  that  lay 
in  that  forlorn  condition  before  him.  In  which  re- 
spect he  elsewhere  styles  it  the  first  prayer  of  mercy,'" 
saying.  The  first  prayer  is  full  of  mercy,  when  we 
pray  for  the  energumens.  The  second  also,  wherein 
we  pray  for  the  penitents,  sues  equally  for  mercy. 
And  the  third,  when  we  pray  for  ourselves,  presents 
the  children  of  the  people  before  God,  crying  out  to 
him  for  mercy.  Where,  by  the  first  prayer,  he  does 
not  absolutely  mean  the  first  prayer  that  was  made 
in  this  part  of  Divine  service ;  for  it  is  plain,  the 
prayer  for  the  catechumens  came  before  it :  but  be- 
cause the  energumens  were  in  a  more  miserable 
condition  than  the  catechumens,  and  greater  objects 
of  pity  than  they  were,  he  therefore  styles  the  prayer 
for  them,  the  first  prayer  for  mercy;  as  he  does  the 
prayer  for  the  penitents,  the  second  prayer  for 
mercy,  though  it  was  in  order  the  fourth ;  and  the 
prayer  for  the  faithful,  the  third  prayer  for  mercy, 
though  it  belonged  to  another  part  of  the  service,  of 
which  we  shall  speak  more  particularly  in  the  first 
chapter  of  the  next  Book. 

The  third  prayer  that  came  in  the 
ordinary  course  of  this  part  of  the     of  tiie  third  sort 

of   prayers,  for  the 

service,  was  the  prayer  for  the  compe-  cmnpeieHtcs.  or  c^n- 

'  I        ''  -*  uidates  of  baptism. 

tentes,  or  candidates  of  baptism,  that 
is,  such  as  had  now  given  in  their  names,  and  ex- 
pressed their  desire  of  receiving  baptism  at  the  next 
approaching  festival.  This,  I  conceive,  was  but  an 
occasional  prayer,  appropriated  to  certain  seasons, 
as  the  time  between  Mid-Lent  and  Easter  day,  or 
other  solemn  times  of  baptism,  when  men  were 


TOUTO   Kai  TOVI  IVtpyOVfJitVOV^  KUT    IKtLVOV  i(7T;;<7t   TOU  Kat" 
pOV  6   StaKOVO^,   K.T.X. 

-"  Id.  Horn.  4.  de  Inconipvchcns.  t.  1.  p.  374. 
■^'  Id.  Horn.  71.  al.  72.  in  Matt.  p.  Wl. 


Chap.  V. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


741 


more  than  ordinarily  intent  in  preparing  themselves 
for  the  reception  of  that  sacred  mystery.  The 
forms  of  these  kind  of  prayers  we  have  also  in  the 
Constitutions,"  where,  as  soon  as  the  deacon  has 
dismissed  the  energumens,  he  is  api)ointed  to  cry 
out,  E5|acr0e  oc  0(«ri?o/t£voi,  "  Pray,  ye  candidates  of 
baptism :  and  we  that  are  already  believers,  let  us 
ardently  pray  for  them ;  that  the  Lord  would  make 
them  worthy  to  be  baptized  into  the  death  of  Christ, 
and  to  rise  again  with  him,  and  to  be  made  members 
of  his  kingdom,  and  partakers  of  his  mysteries ; 
that  he  would  unite  them  to  his  holy  church,  and 
number  them  with  those  that  shall  be  saved  therein. 
Save  them,  and  raise  them  up  by  thy  grace." 

Then  they  are  ordered  to  bow  down  their  heads, 
and  receive  the  bishop's  benediction,  which  is  ex- 
pressed in  the  following  words  : 

"  0  God,  who  didst,  by  the  prediction  of  thy  holy 
prophets,  say  to  them  that  are  to  be  initiated,  Wash 
ye,  make  you  clean  ;  and  by  Christ  didst  appoint  a 
spiritual  regeneration  :  look  down  now  upon  these 
persons,  who  are  to  be  baptized ;  bless  and  sanctify 
them ;  fit  and  prepare  them,  that  they  may  be 
worthy  of  thy  spiritual  gift,  and  the  true  adoption 
of  sons,  and  thy  spiritual  mysteries,  and  be  de- 
servedly numbered  among  those  that  are  saved,  by 
Christ  our  Saviour,  through  whom  be  all  glory, 
honour,  and  adoration  unto  thee,  and  the  Holy 
Ghost,  world  without  end.     Amen." 

I  have  nothing  further  to  remark  concerning 
these  prayers,  because  neither  Chrysostom  nor  any 
other  ancient  writer,  as  far  as  I  know,  have  said 
any  thing  particularly  about  them.  Only  this  au- 
thor in  another  place  -'  makes  them  part  of  the  daily 
morning  and  evening  service,  as  has  been  noted 
before  in  speaking  of  that,  under  a  former  head.  It 
is  probable  in  many  churches  they  were  included 
in  the  forms  for  the  catechumens  in  general.  For 
the  council  of  Laodioea,-^  which  settles  the  order 
of  the  Divine  service  in  the  church,  and  appoints 
in  what  method  it  should  proceed,  speaks  of  the 
prayers  of  the  catechumens,  as  immediately  follow- 
ing the  sermon,  and  then  the  prayers  for  the  peni- 
tents, and  after  those  the  prayers  for  the  faithful, 
which  began  the  communion  service  ;  but  makes  no 
mention  of  any  prayers  for  the  candidates  of  baptism, 
as  distinct  from  those  of  the  catechumens.  And 
this  might  be  one  reason  why  other  writers  make 
no  mention  of  them.  In  other  churches  they  were 
but  occasional  prayers,  for  the  particular  times  of 
baptism,  and  therefore  it  is  as  little  wonder  that 
other  authors  pass  them  over  without  the  least  no- 
tice taken  of  them.  However,  that  the  author  of 
the  Constitutions  found  them  distinct  in  the  rituals 
of  some  churches,  is  not  at  all  unlikely,  because 


=2  Constit.  lib.  8.  cap.  7. 
-'  Cone.  Liiodic.  can.  19. 


^  Ibid.  cap.  21et  37. 
"  Goar,  Euchnlog.  p.  3.TJ. 


such  forms  for  the  candidates  of  baptism  are  now 
in  use  in  the  Greek  church,  as  may  be  seen  in 
Goar;^  and  Cardinal  Bona'-''  has  observed  the  like 
in  a  very  ancient  Ordo  Sacramcntorum,  lately  in  the 
possession  of  the  queen  of  Sweden,  where,  in  the 
office  for  the  third  Sunday  in  Lent,  there  is  a  spe- 
cial prayer  inserted  for  those  who  were  then  ex- 
amined and  elected  to  receive  baptism  at  Ecaster. 
But  I  proceed  wath  the  service  of  the  ancient 
church. 

The  last  sort  of  prayers  in  this  part  ^^^^  ^^ 
of  the  service,  were  those  which  were  pra4re''fifthrpJ.if 
made  for  the  penitents,  who  were  **"'"' 
under  the  discipline  and  censures  of  the  church. 
Some  of  these,  called  hearers  only,  were  sent  away 
with  that  order  of  catechumens  which  were  dis- 
tinguished by  the  same  denomination  of  hearers  ; 
but  others  of  them,  called  kneelcrs  or  prostrators, 
were  permitted  to  stay  longer,  to  receive  the  prayers 
of  the  church,  and  the  bishop's  benediction.  There- 
fore, as  soon  as  the  candidates  of  baptism  were  dis- 
missed, the  deacon  cried  out,  Orate  pcenitentes,  Ye 
that  are  under  penance,  make  your  praj'ers :  and 
let  us  ardently  pray  for  our  brethren  that  are  doing 
penance;  "That  the  God  of  mercy"' would  show 
them  the  way  of  repentance;  that  he  would  admit 
their  recantation  and  confession;  that  he  would 
shortly  bruise  Satan  under  their  feet,  and  deliver 
them  from  the  snare  of  the  devil,  and  the  incursion 
of  evil  spirits,  and  preserve  them  from  all  evil  words, 
all  absurd  practices,  and  all  impure  thoughts  ;  that 
he  would  grant  them  pardon  of  all  their  sins,  volun- 
tary and  involuntary,  and  blot  out  the  hand-writing 
that  is  against  them,  and  write  them  in  the  book  of 
life ;  that  he  would  cleanse  them  from  all  pollution 
of  flesh  and  spirit,  and  unite  and  restore  them  to 
his  holy  flock :  for  he  knows  our  frame :  for  who 
can  glory  that  he  has  a  clean  heart  ?  or  who  can 
say,  that  he  is  pure  from  sin  ?  for  we  are  all  liable 
to  punishment.  Let  us  still  pray  more  ardently 
for  them,  because  there  is  joy  in  heaven  over  one 
sinner  that  repenteth;  that  they  may  turn  from 
every  evil  work,  and  accustom  themselves  to  all 
that  is  good ;  that  the  merciful  God,  receiving  them 
kindly,  may  restore  to  them  the  joy  of  his  salvation, 
and  confirm  them  with  his  principal  Spirit,  that 
they  may  never  fall  or  be  shaken  again  ;  that  they 
may  communicate  in  his  holy  solemnities,  and  be 
partakers  of  his  sacred  mysteries  ;  that  being  made 
worthy  of  the  adoption  of  sons,  they  may  obtain 
eternal  life.  Let  us  all  further  say  for  them,  Lord, 
have  mercy  upon  them :  save  them,  O  God,  and 
raise  them  up  by  thy  mercy." 

This  said,  the  deacon  bids  them  rise  up,  and  l)Ow 
their  heads  to  receive  the  bisho[)'s  benediction,  which 


Bona,  Rer.  Litiirj;.  lib.  2.  cap.  12.  n.  4.  p.  fvBO. 
Constit.  Apost.  lib.  8.  cap.  8. 


742 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIV. 


IS  styled  also  imposition  of  hands  and  prayer  for 
the  penitents,  and  is  conceived  in  the  following 
words :  ^ 

"  O  almighty  and  eternal  God,  the  Lord  of  the 
whole  world,  the  Maker  and  Governor  of  all  things, 
who  hast  made  man  to  be  an  ornament  of  the  world, 
through  Christ,  and  hast  given  him  both  a  natural 
and  a  written  law,  that  he  might  live  by  the  rules 
thereof,  as  a  rational  creature  ;  that  hast  also,  when 
he  hath  sinned,  given  him  a  motive  and  encourage- 
ment to  repent,  even  thy  owTi  goodness :  look  down 
now  upon  those  men,  who  bow  the  necks  of  their 
souls  and  bodies  unto  thee ;  for  thou  desirest  not 
the  death  of  a  sinner,  but  his  repentance,  that  he 
should  turn  from  his  evil  way  and  live.  Thou  that 
acceptest  the  repentance  of  the  Ninevites;  that 
wouldst  have  all  men  to  be  saved,  and  come  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  truth ;  that  receivedst  again  the 
prodigal  son,  who  had  spent  his  substance  in  riot- 
ous living,  with  the  compassionate  bowels  of  a  father, 
because  of  his  repentance  :  accept  now  the  repent- 
ance of  these  thy  supplicants  ;  for  there  is  no  man 
that  sinneth  not  against  thee :  if  thou,  Lord,  wilt 
mark  what  is  done  amiss,  O  Lord,  who  may  abide 
it?  For  there  is  mercy  and  propitiation  with 
thee.  Restore  them  to  thy  holy  church,  in  their 
former  dignity  and  honour,  through  Christ  our  God 
and  Saviour;  by  whom  be  glory  and  adoration 
unto  thee,  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  world  without  end. 
Amen." 

St.  Chrysostom  does  no  where  give 
Sect.  u.  ,  •'  .        •,        1     ^ 

What  notice  we  US  these  praycrs  entn-e,  but  he  fre- 

have  of  these  pray-  ^        "^ 

ers  in  Chrysostom  Qvieutly  rcfcrs  to  them  as  then  used  in 

and  other  writers.         ^  J 

the  church  in  this  part  of  Divine  ser- 
vice. We  have  heard  him  say  before,^'  that  common 
prayers  were  made  by  the  priest  and  the  people 
jointly  together,  as  well  for  the  penitents  as  the 
energumens;  and  that  they  all  said  one  and  the 
same  prayer,  the  prayer  fall  of  mercy.  In  another 
place,^  The  first  prayer  is  full  of  mercy,  when  we 
pray  for  the  energumens  :  the  second  prayer  like- 
wise, wherein  we  pray  for  the  penitents,  makes  in- 
tercession for  mercy.  I  have  given  the  reason  al- 
ready why  both  these  prayers  were  styled  prayers 
for  mercy  by  Chrysostom,  and  I  need  here  only  ob- 
serve, that  they  were  used  before  the  prayers  for 
the  faithful  or  communicants,  as  Chrj^sostom  says 
expressly  in  the  same  place  ;  and  that  they  were  by 
a  certain  form,  because  they  were  offered  by  the 
common  voice  both  of  minister  and  people.  The 
council  of  Laodicea^'  also  mentions  this  prayer  for 


the  penitents,  as  coming  after  the  oermon,  next  to 
the  prayers  for  the  faithful.  And  in  all  ancient 
canons,'-  wherever  we  meet  with  the  names  of  yoj/u- 
kXIvovtiq,  vnoTTi-KTovTii;,  andjii'ostratt,  kneelers  or  pros- 
trators,  we  are  to  understand  this  order  of  penitents, 
who  in  this  part  of  the  service  bowed  down  to  re- 
ceive the  church's  prayers  and  the  bishop's  bene- 
diction. 

As  to  the  Greek  church,  then,  it  is  g^^j  jj 
demonstrated  beyond  all  contradic-  ,i,e"  Xrch'^^hesi 
tion,  that  there  was  a  particular  ser-  ^''^^"^ '""'"'  "'"^^• 
vice  of  prayers  for  the  catechumens,  energumens, 
and  penitents,  distinct  from  the  communion  ser- 
vice, in  which  they  were  again  prayed  for,  though 
absent,  among  all  other  states  and  conditions  of 
men.  But  there  remain  two  questions,  which 
have  a  little  more  difficulty  in  them.  1.  In  what 
part  of  the  church  these  prayers  were  made  ?  2. 
Whether  there  were  any  such  prayers  at  all  in  use 
in  the  Latin  church  ?  As  to  the  first  question, 
some  learned  persons'^  are  of  opinion,  that  not  only 
the  oblations  were  made  at  the  altar,  and  the  com- 
munion received  there,  but  that  all  the  prayers  of 
the  church  were  made  at  the  altar  likewise.  Which 
is  certainly  true  of  all  the  prayers  in  the  commu- 
nion service,  but  not  so  certain  of  these  prayers  in 
the  service  of  the  catechumens.  For,  1.  The  se- 
veral orders  for  whom  these  prayers  were  made, 
and  over  whom  they  were  made  with  imposition  of 
hands  also,  had  their  station  in  a  different  part  of 
the  church ;  and  we  do  not  read  that  they  were 
ever  called  up  to  the  altar  to  receive  their  benedic- 
tion ;  but  in  some  canons  are  expressly  ordered'*  to 
receive  imposition  of  hands  even  in  absolution  be- 
fore the  apsis,  or  reading-desk,  in  case  of  scandalous 
offences ;  though  absolution  was  usually  given  in 
ordinary  cases  at  the  altar.  Now,  if  the  prayer  of 
absolution,  which  was  their  reconcilement  to  the 
altar,  was  sometimes  made  before  the  reading-desk, 
there  is  little  question,  but  that  the  other  prayers, 
which  were  but  the  introduction  to  their  reconcile- 
ment, were  made  there  also.  2.  This  service  of  the 
catechumens  and  penitents  was  altogether  a  dis- 
tinct service  from  that  of  the  Jideles  or  communi- 
cants, and  a  final  dismission  of  them  was  always 
made  before  the  latter  service  began.  3.  There  is 
an  express  order  in  the  third  council  of  Carthage, 
that  all  prayers  made  at  the  altar  should  be  direct- 
ed to  the  Father  only,  and  not  to  the  Son:''  and 
yet  it  is  evident,  that  the  prayer  for  the  energumens 
was  directed  to  the  Son,  as  we  have  seen  before  in 


®  Constit.  Apost.  lib.  8.  cap.  9. 

2»  Chrys.  Horn.  18.  in  2  Cor.  cited  above,  sect.  8. 

^  Ibid.  Horn.  71.  in  Matt.  p.  624. 

''  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  19. 

'-  Vid.  Cone.  Nic.  can.  11.  Cone.  Ancyran.  can.  4,  .j,  G, 
7,  8,9,  et  25.  Cone.  Neocaisar.  can.  6.  Basil.  Epist.  Canun. 
can.  75. 


^^  Stillingfl.  Unreason,  of  Separat.  part  3.  sect.  9.  p.  250. 

^'  Cone.  Carthag.  3.  can.  32.  Cujuscunque  pa?nitentia  pub- 
licum et  vulgatissimum  crimen  est,  quod  universam  eccle- 
siara  commoverit,  ante  apsideni  manus  ei  imponatur. 

'^  Ibid.  can.  23.  Ut  nemo  in  precibus  vel  Patrem  pro  Filio, 
vcl  Filium  pro  Patre  nominet:  et  cum  ad  altare  assistitur^ 
1   semper  ad  Patrem  dirigatur  oratio. 


Chap.  V. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


743 


the  form  cited"  out  of  the  Constitutions.  So  that 
either  the  discipline  of  the  Eastern  churches  dif- 
fered very  much  from  those  of  the  West ;  or  else 
we  must  necessarily  conclude,  that  these  prayers, 
some  of  which  are  directed  to  the  Son,  were  not 
made  at  the  altar. 

But  it  may  be  said,  the  prayers  in 

wheScr  there      tlic  Latiu  church  wcrc  never  directed 

timtp"Iyeli\oT\ue  to  tlic  Son :  or  pcrliaps  they  had  no 

caterlR.mens  and  ,  ,  , 

penitents  in  the  La-  sucii  praycrs  lor  the  catechumens  and 

tin  church.  -^        -^ 

penitents  in  particular,  as  they  had  in 
the  Oriental  liturgies,  distinct  from  those  which 
were  made  for  all  orders  of  men  both  before  and 
after  consecration  in  the  communion  service.  The 
matter  indeed  is  not  so  clear,  I  confess,  in  the  La- 
tin church,  as  I  have  showed  it  to  be  in  the  East- 
ern :  and  that  which  increases  the  difficulty  is,  that 
some  authors  seem  to  intimate,  that  as  soon  as  the 
sermon  was  ended,  the  catechumens  were  dismissed, 
and  then  the  communicants  betook  themselves  to 
prayers  at  the  altar.  Behold,  says  St.  Austin,  after 
the  sermon  the  catechumens  have  their  dismission ; 
but  the  faithful  abide  still,  and  come"  to  the  place 
of  prayer,  meaning  the  altar,  where  the  Lord's  prayer 
was,  according  to  custom,  to  be  repeated  by  the 
communicants  only.  St.  Ambrose,'*  speaking  of 
the  same  matter,  says.  When  the  sermon  was  done, 
he  dismissed  the  catechumens,  and  rehearsed  the 
creed  to  some  candidates  of  baptism  in  the  bap- 
tisteiy  of  the  church.     But  these  do  not  amount  to 


a  proof,  that  the  comnmnion  service  succeeded  im- 
mediately after  the  sermon,  and  that  no  other  praycrs 
or  business  came  between  them.  For  this  very 
place  of  St.  Ambrose  shows,  that  at  least  sometimes 
the  repetition  of  the  creed  to  the  candidates  of  bap- 
tism was  in  the  interval.  And  one  of  the  forecited 
canons  of  the  council  of  Carthage  makes  it  evident, 
that  at  other  times  the  prayer  for  the  absolution 
and  reconcilement  of  a  scandalous  offender  was 
made  in  the  apsis,  or  reading-desk,  before  the  com- 
munion sei'vice  likewise.  And  the  other  canon  as 
plainly  intimates,  that  some  prayers  were  directed 
to  the  Son  as  well  as  the  Father,  by  the  prohibition 
that  is  made  of  not  changing  the  name  of  the  Son 
for  the  Father,  or  the  Father  for  the  Son ;  which 
prohibition  had  been  needless,  had  there  been  no 
prayers  directed  to  the  Son.  Now,  admitting  there 
were  some  prayers  directed  to  the  Son,  these  must 
be  made  before  the  communion  service,  since  at 
that  time,  by  the  same  canon,  all  prayers  are  ordered 
to  be  directed  to  the  Father  only.  For  these  reasons 
I  conclude,  that  the  practice  of  the  Greek  and  Latin 
churches  was  the  same,  and  that  there  were  praycrs 
in  both  for  the  catechumens,  energumens,  and 
penitents,  in  their  presence,  distinct  from  those 
which  were  afterwards  made  for  them  in  their  ab- 
sence at  the  altar.  And  so  I  have  done  with  the 
first  part  of  Divine  worship,  which  the  ancient 
church  called  her  Jtiissa  catechumenorum,  or  ante- 
communion  service. 


'"  See  before,  sect.  7. 

"  Aug.  Horn.  237.  de  Tempore,  t.  10.  p.  385.  Ecce  post 
sevmonem  sit  missa  catechumenis.  Manebunt  fideles,  ve- 
nietur  ad  locum  orationis.  Scitis  quo  aceessuri  snmus,  quid 
prius  Deo  dicturi  sumus  ?     Dimitte  nobis  debita   nostra, 


sicut  et  nos  dimittimus  debitoribus  nostris. 

^'  Ambros.  Ep.  33.  ad  Mavcellinam  Sororem.  Post  lec- 
tiones  et  tractatum,  dimissis  catechumenis,  syrabolum  ali- 
quibiis  competentibus  in  baptisteriis  tradebam  ecdesiae. 


BOOK   XV. 

OF  THE  MISSA  FIDELIUM,  OR  COMMUNION  SERVICE. 


CHAPTER  I. 


OF  THE  TKAYEKS  PEECEDING  THE  OBLATION. 


Sect  1  When  the  several  orders  of  the  cate- 

cd'^'^a'^^''™^"^??  chumens,  penitents,  and  energumens 
orsiie'upva;"!'"-  ^-erg  disHiisscd,  wWch  was  the  com- 
pletion of  the  missa  catechumemrum ;  then  imme- 
diately began  that  part  of  the  service,  which  is  pro- 
perly called  missa  Jidelium,  or  communion  service, 
because  none  but  communicants  (or  at  least  such  of 
the  penitents  as  had  gone  through  all  the  stages  of 
repentance,  and  were  now  waiting  for  absolution, 
called  therefore  awiara^ivoi,  or  co-standers)  might 
be  present  at  it.  The  entrance  on  this  service  was 
made  by  a  mental  or  silent  prayer,  made  by  the 
people  in  private,  and  thence  called  fi^?)  hia  o-jwrijc, 
the  silent  prayer,  and  thxn  kutci  diavoiav,  the  mental 
prayer.  This  we  learn  from  a  canon  of  Laodicea, 
which  gives  a  summary  account  of  the  whole  order 
of  the  service  of  the  chui'ch  ;  and  therefore,  for  our 
clearer  proceeding  in  this  matter,  I  think  it  not  im- 
proper to  put  it  down  entire  in  this  place,  as  being 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  canons  in  the  whole 
Code,  and  that  which  will  give  great  light  to  the 
subsequent  discourse.  The  words  of  the  canon  are 
these:  That  after  the  homily  of  the  bishop,'  first 
the  prayer  of  the  catechumens  is  to  be  made  ;  and 
after  the  catechumens  are  gone  forth,  tlien  the 
prayer  for  the  penitents  ;  and  when  they  have  re- 
ceived their  benediction  by  imposition  of  hands,  and 
are  withdrawn,  then  the  three  prayers  of  the  faith- 
ful are  to  be  made ;  the  first  of  which  is  to  be  per- 
fonned  in  silence,  the  second  and  third  by  the  bid- 
ding and  direction  [of  the  deacon].  After  these  the 
kiss  of  peace  is  to  be  given  ;  presbyters  saluting  the 
bishop,  and  laymen  one  another  :  and  then  the  holy 
oblation  shall  be  celebrated ;  those  of  the  clergy  only 
communicating  in  the  chancel. 


Some  learned  persons  take  the  prayer  in  silence 
here  to  mean  no  more  than  prayers  made  over  the 
communicants  by  the  minister  alone,  the  people  not 
making  any  responses  ;  and  by  the  prayers  called 
tvxai  Sid  Trpoa<p(i}vy]anog,  they  understand  prayers 
made  by  way  of  responses,  the  minister  and  peo- 
ple mutually  answering  one  another.  But  this  ex- 
plication does  not  come  up  to  the  sense  of  this  ca- 
non. For  by  the  prayer  in  silence,  we  are  here  to 
understand  such  private  prayers  as  each  particular 
person  made  by  himself;  and  by  the  prayers  Sid 
Trpoa^wvnatwQ,  such  prayers  as  the  whole  church 
made  in  common  by  the  call  and  admonition  of  the 
deacon,  who  repeated  the  several  forms,  directing 
them  what  things  they  were  to  pray  for,  to  each  of 
which  petitions  they  subjoined  their  Kvpt£  thtriaov, 
"  Lord  have  mercy,  and  grant  the  petitions  we  ask ;" 
and  then  the  bishop  added  the  iTriKXrimg,  or  invoca- 
tion, which  was  also  called  collceta,  the  collect,  be- 
cause it  was  a  collection  or  repetition  of  all  the  pray- 
ers of  the  people.  That  there  were  these  three  sorts 
of  prayers  in  the  ancient  church,  is  evident  from 
the  accounts  that  are  given  of  each  of  them.  And 
first,  that  there  were  such  private  prayers  of  every  par- 
ticular person  by  himself,  appears  not  only  from  this 
canon,  but  from  several  ancient  writers.  St.  Chrysos- 
tom-  takes  notice  that  some  in  these  private  prayers 
spent  their  time  in  nothing  else  but  praying  for  re- 
venge upon  their  enemies.  Many  men,  says  he, 
fall  prostrate  upon  the  ground,  and  beat  the  earth 
with  their  foreheads,  and  shed  abundance  of  tears, 
and  groan  bitterly  within  themselves,  stretching 
forth  their  hands,  and  showing  great  zeal,  and  yet 
use  all  this  fervour  and  earnestness  only  against  their 
own  salvation.     For  they  pray  to  God,  not  for  their 


'  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  19.  Tltpl  tov  di.ti/  iSia  irpCoTou,  fxiTo. 
Tas  ofxiXia^  Twv  kirirrKoirwv,  Kai  tuiv  KaT^y^ovfxivtJOV  iv')(i]v 

ETTlTlXilffdai'  Kcd   fXtTU    TO    k^tXdtHv  TOUS    KaTIJ^OV/lilJUU?. 

Twv  kv fXiTavoia  Tiiviv)(i,vyivi:adai,  kui  tovt lovrr poaiXd 6v- 
Tvov  vird  )(£T()a,  Kal  inro')(^uopii<TdvTwv,  oi'Ttus  twv  itituiv  ti(s 


EU^as  yii/c(T0at  X/OeTs,  filav  f).ivTi]V'TrpwTi]V  5ia  cn(»'irr}<s,  tiju 
ok  SiVTtpav  Kal  TpiTi]V  Sia  'rrpocrffiuivtiirsioi  •7r\i]pou(ri)ai,  eid' 
ouTfo?  Tiiv  ilpt'iv^v  SioocTVai,  k.t.X. 

-  Chrysostom.  57.     De  non   evulgandis    Peccatis,   t.   &. 
p.  7G'2. 


!hap.  I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


745 


5wn  offences,  they  do  not  beseech  him  to  pardon 
;heir  own  sins,  but  tliey  spend  all  this  labour  against 
heir  enemies.  Which  is  the  same  thing,  as  if  a 
nan  should  whet  his  sword,  and  then  not  use  it 
igainst  his  adversaries,  but  thrust  it  into  his  own 
;hroat.  For  so  these  men  use  their  prayers,  not  to 
abtain  pardon  of  their  own  sins,  but  to  accelerate 
:he  punishment  of  their  enemies  ;  which  in  effect  is 
;o  run  the  sword  into  their  own  bowels.  A  little 
ifter  he  tells  us  the  very  words  of  their  prayers, 
ivhich  were  these  :  "  Revenge  me  of  my  enemies,  0 
Lord,  and  show  them  that  I  have  a  God."  By  all 
ivhich  it  appears,  that  these  were  the  private  pray- 
ers of  the  people,  which  they  might  abuse,  and  not 
the  public  prayers  of  the  church ;  for  the  church 
tiever  taught  her  children  to  curse  their  enemies,  but 
;o  bless  and  pray  for  them.  But  in  these  private 
prayers,  which  were  designed  for  confession  of  sins 
ind  deprecation  of  God's  judgments,  evil  men  took 
liberty  to  transgress  all  rules,  and  gratify  their  pas- 
sions by  asking  revenge  upon  their  enemies.  Now, 
though  this  was  a  grandabuse  of  these  private  pray- 
ers, yet  it  serves  to  show  us  both  what  the  custom 
ivas  in  the  church's  allowance  of  such  prayers,  and 
what  in  her  designation  was  the  true  use  of  them. 
St.  Basil,  speaking  of  their  vigils  or  night  assem- 
blies,' intimates  as  plainly,  that  they  were  spent  in 
5uch  private  prayers  intermingled  with  divers  sorts 
of  psalmody.  And  Cassian  gives  the  same  account 
of  them  both  in  the  Eastern  and  Western  chui'ches, 
as  I  have  showed  at  large  in  speaking  of  the  daily 
morning  and  evening  service,  which  began  with 
private  confession  in  the  Eastern  churches,  men- 
tioned by  St.  Basil,  and  ended  with  public  confes- 
sion, made  in  the  words  of  the  5 1st  Psalm,  which 
was  thence  called  the  psalm  of  confession,  or  the 
penitential  psalm*  for  the  morning  service.  But 
as  to  the  private  confessions  we  are  now  speaking 
of,  with  which  the  communion  service  here  began, 
we  are  to  note  further,  that  they  were  not  only  made 
by  the  people  in  silence  by  themselves,  but  by  the 
minister  in  private  also.  And  the  footsteps  of  this 
practice  remain  in  some  of  the  oldest  liturgies  of 
several  churches,  quite  different  from  the  present 
confessions  in  the  Roman  Missal :  for  whereas  now 
in  the  Roman  Missal  the  confession  of  sins  is  made 
to  saints  and  angels,  as  well  as  God,  all  the  offices, 
for  at  least  a  thousand  years  after  Christ,  had  their 
confessions  only  to  God.  Thus  it  is  in  the  forms 
of  confession  in  Gregory's  Sacramentarium,  and 
others  published  by  Menardus.  And  this  is  that 
manuscript,  which  Cardinal  Bona  so  much  magni- 
fies in  the  queen  of  Sweden's  lil)rary,  as  containing 
the  offices  of  the  old  Galilean  liturgy.  To  show  that 
these  confessions  were  made  only  to  God,  and  not 


to  any  saints  or  angels,  and  withal  that  they  were 
particular  confessions  made  by  the  priest  only  in 
private,  Sm  mwirfiQ,  as  the  Laodicean  canon  words  it, 
I  will  here  transcribe  that  which  Bona  gives  us  out 
of  that  ancient  MS.  as  the  confession  of  the  Galli- 
can  office.  It  is  there  called  Apologia  Saccrdotis,* 
The  Apology  of  the  Priest,  or  the  Confession  of  his  l^ 
Sins,  and  it  runs  in  these  words : 

"O  thou  most  admirable  Majesty,  and  great  God, 
Almighty  Father,  who  art  of  infinite  goodness  and 
power,  I,  who  am  a  most  vile  sinner,  and  condemned 
by  the  testimony  of  my  own  conscience,  do  ap- 
proach thee,  and  present  myself  in  the  sight  of  thy 
greatness,  before  the  eyes  of  thine  ineffable  Majesty, 
before  thy  holy  face,  not  without  due  reverence,  yet 
with  great  un worthiness  and  neglect  of  duty.  I  do 
not  excuse,  but  accuse  myself  unto  thee.  I  confess, 
I  say  I  confess  the  unrighteousness  of  my  impiety, 
that  thou  mayest  forgive  the  wickedness  of  my  sin. 
I  confess,  that  if  thou  dost  not  forgive,  thou  mayest 
punish  me.  I  confess  myself  a  criminal  before  thee, 
and  yet  I  know  my  amendment  is  only  in  words. 
In  words  I  endeavour  to  appease  thee,  but  in  works 
I  offend  thee.  I  am  sensible  of  my  faults,  and  yet 
I  defer  the  amendment.  Assist  me  therefore,  assist 
me,  O  thou  ineffable  Goodness.  Pardon  me,  pardon 
me,  O  most  adoi'able  Trinity.  Spare  me,  spare  me, 
spare  me,  I  beseech  thee,  0  merciful  God.  Hear 
me,  hear  me,  hear  me,  I  beseech  thee,  when  I  cry 
in  the  words  of  that  prodigal  son,  O  Father,  eternal 
God,  I  have  sinned  against  heaven  and  before  thee  : 
I  am  no  more  worthy  to  be  called  thy  son,  make  me 
as  one  of  thy  hired  servants.  And  now,  merciful 
Father,  I  fly  to  the  only  refuge  and  haven  of  thy 
mercy  under  the  protection  of  Christ,  that  what  is 
vile  in  me,  thou  mayest  favourably  vouchsafe  to  ac- 
cept in  him,  who  livest  and  reignest  for  ever  and 
ever.     Amen." 

It  is  plain  here,  that  as  there  is  no  address  to 
either  saint  or  angel  in  this  prayer,  so  it  is  a  private 
prayer  of  the  priest  alone  for  himself,  whilst  the 
people  were  likewise  employed  in  making  their  pri- 
vate confessions  to  God:  which  shows  us  the  mean- 
ing of  that  silent  prayer  spoken  of  in  the  council  of 
Laodicea,  which  is  called  the  first  prayer  in  the  en- 
trance of  the  communion  service. 

All  I  shall  add  further  here  concerning  these  pri- 
vate prayers,  is  to  make  an  observation  upon  two 
ancient  forms  of  speech,  which  have  some  relation 
to  this  matter,  and  help  to  confirm  it :  that  is,  the 
forms,  Silentnim  indicere,  and  Orationem  dure,  both 
which  are  used  to  denote  the  custom  of  bidding  the 
people  fall  to  their  private  devotions.  Sometimes 
the  bishop  was  used  to  give  the  signal,  by  saying, 
Oreimis,  Let  us  pray  ;  and  then  the  people  betook 


3  Basil.  Ep.  63.  ad  Neocaesar.  t.  3.  p.  %. 
*  See  Book  XIII.  diap.  10.  sett.  13. 


Bnna,  Rer.  Litiirjr.  lib.  2.  cap.  1.  ii.  1. 


;46 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV 


themselves  to  their  private  devotions,  after  which 
the   bishop  summed  up  their  prayers  in  a  short 
collect  by  way  of  solemn  invocation.     Thus  Ura- 
nms"  describes  the  rite  in  the  Life  of  Paulinus, 
bishop  of  Nola,  when  he  tells  us,  how  a  certain 
bishop  went  into  his  throne,  and  there  saluting  the 
people,  and  being  saluted  by  them  again,  he  then, 
according  to  custom,  gave  the  signal  for  prayer,  and 
afterward  summed  up  their  prayers  in  a  collect,  and 
so  breathed  out  his  last.     Sometimes  the  deacon 
gave  the  signal,  and  this  was  called  Sihmtium  indi- 
cere.     Thus  it  was  in   the  Galilean  churches,  as 
Bishop  Stillingfleet  has  observed  out  of  Gregory'  of 
Tours ;    and  the   priest  did  it  by  the  Mozarabic 
liturgy.      Where   he  rightly  concludes,   that  this 
phrase,  Silentium  indicerc,  does  not  barely  signify 
making  the  people  attentive,  but  there  was  a  further 
meaning  in  it,  that  they  were  for  a  time  there  to 
attend  to  their  own  private  prayers.     Which  he 
thinks  not  improbable  on  these  considerations.   "  1. 
Gregoiy  Turonensis  saith  in  the  place  before-men- 
tioned, That  the  king  took  that  time  to  speak  to  the 
people,  who  immediately  brake  forth  into  a  prayer 
for  the  king ;  not  that  any  collect  was  then  read  for 
him,  for  that  was  not  the  proper  time  for  it ;  but  it 
being  a  time  of  secret  prayers,  they  were  so  moved 
with  what  the  king  said,  that  they  all  prayed  for 
him.     2.    Among  the  heathens,  when  they  were 
bidden /a rere  lingms,  yet  then,  Brissonius'  saith. 
They  made  their  private  prayers  ;  and  as  the  dea- 
con's commanding  silence  seems  to  be  much  of  the 
same  nature,  it  is  not  probable  that  the  Christians 
should  fall  short  of  their  devotions.     3.  The  great 
argument,  says  he,  to  me,  is  the  small  number  of 
collects  in  the  ancient  churches ;  for  the  Christians 
spent  a  great  deal  of  time  in  the  public  service  on 
the  Lord's  day,  and  the  stationary  days  (I  add  also 
their  vigils) ;  but  all  other  offices  could  not  take  up 
that  time,  there  being  no  long  extemporary  prayers, 
nor  such  a  multitude  of  tedious  ceremonies  in  all 
parts,  as  the  Roman  Breviary  and  Missal  intro- 
duced ;  and  the  collects  of  greatest  antiquity,  being 
very  few  and  short,  it  seems  most  probable,  that  a 
competent  part  of  the  time  was  spent  in  private  de- 
votions.    A  remainder  whereof  is  still  preserved  in 
the  office  of  ordination  of  priests  in  our  church, 
whereby  silence  is  commanded  to  be  kept  for  a 
time,  for  the  people's  secret  prayers.    And  the  same 
custom  was  observed  at  the  bidding  of  prayers, 
which  was  a  direction  for  the  people  what  to  pray 
for  in  their  private  devotions."" 

Sect  2  ^"^^  ^^^^  leads  us  in  the  next  place 

caUed'^'L.rTo.T-  ^o  cousldcr  the  second  sort  of  prayers 
^SgTra^ere"  ^'^'  mentioned  in  the  Laodicean  canon. 


"  Uran.  Vit.  Paulini.  Ad  ecclesiam  processit,  et  ascenso 
tribunali  populum  ex  more  salutavit,  resalutatusque  a  pc- 
pulo  orationem  dedit,  et  collecta  oratione  spirituni  exhalavit. 

'  Stilliiigfl.  Oi-ig.  Britau.  cap.  4.  p.  223.  ex  Greg.  Tiiron. 


which  are  there  styled,  thxal  ha  TrpoaipiDprfctug, 
which  we  may  English,  bidding  prayers  ;  for 
they  were  not  only  a  call  to  the  people  to  pray, 
but  a  direction  what  particulars  they  were  to  pray 
for.  We  have  a  form  of  this  sort  of  prayer  in  the 
Apostolical  Constitutions,  immediately  after  the  dis- 
mission of  catechumens  and  penitents,  where  it  is 
called  Trpo(T(pu)vt]cng  virip  tu>v  mffruiv,  a  direction  or 
bidding  prayer  for  the  commvmicants  or  believers. 
It  is  there  ushered  in  with  these  words  :'"  Let  no 
one  of  those  that  are  not  allowed,  come  near.  As 
many  as  are  believers,  let  us  fall  upon  our  knees. 
Let  us  pray  to  God  through  his  Christ.  Let  us  all 
intensely  beseech  God  through  his  Christ.  Then 
follow  the  several  petitions  in  this  order. 

"  Let  us  pray  for  the  peace  and  tranquillity  of  the 
world  and  the  holy  churches ;  that  the  God  of  the 
whole  world  would  grant  us  his  perpetual  and  last- 
ing peace,  and  keep  us  persevering  to  the  end  in  all 
the  fulness  of  piety  and  virtue. 

"  Let  us  pray  for  the  holy  catholic  and  apostolic 
church,  from  one  end  of  the  earth  to  the  other ;  that 
the  Lord  would  keep  it  unshaken  and  undisturbed 
with  storms  and  tempests,  founded  on  a  rock,  to  the 
end  of  the  world. 

"  Let  us  pray  for  the  holy  church  (TrapoiKiae)  in 
this  place ;  that  the  Lord  of  all  would  grant  us 
grace  to  pursue  his  heavenly  hope  without  ceasing; 
and  that  we  may  render  him  the  continual  debt  and 
tribute  of  our  prayers. 

"  Let  us  pray  for  the  whole  episcopate  or  com- 
pany of  bishops  under  heaven,  that  rightly  divide 
the  word  of  truth.  And  let  us  pray  for  James  our 
bishop  and  his  churches  : 

"  Let  us  pray  for  Clemens  our  bishop  and  his 
churches : 

"  Let  us  pray  for  Euodius  our  bishop  and  his 
churches :  that  the  merciful  God  would  preserve 
them  in  safety,  honour,  and  length  of  days,  for  the 
benefit  of  his  holy  churches ;  and  grant  them  a 
venerable  old  age  in  all  piety  and  righteousness. 

"  Let  us  likewise  pray  for  our  presbyters,  that 
God  would  deliver  them  from  every  absurd  and 
wicked  thing,  and  preserve  them  safe  and  honour- 
able in  their  presbytery. 

"  Let  us  pray  for  the  whole  order  of  deacons  and 
subdeacons  in  Christ;  that  the  Lord  would  keep 
them  unblamable  in  their  ministry. 

"  Let  us  pray  for  the  readers,  singers,  widows,  and 
orphans. 

"  Let  us  pray  for  those  that  live  in  matrimony, 
and  procreation  or  education  of  children,  that  God 
would  have  mercy  upon  them  all. 

"  Let  us  pray  for  the  eunuchs  that  walk  in  holiness. 


lib.  7.  C.7. 

^  Brisson.  de  Formiilis,  p.  9,  10. 

■'  Vid.  Mat.  Parker,  Concion.  iu  Obit.  Buceri. 

'"  Constit.  Apost.  lib.  S.  c.  9  et  10.     Vid.  lib.  2.  cap.  57. 


Chap.  I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


7-^7 


"  Let  us  pray  for  those  that  live  in  continency  or 
virginity,  and  lead  a  pious  life. 

"  Let  us  pray  for  those  that  make  oblations  in 
the  holy  church,  and  give  alms  to  the  poor. 

"  Let  us  pray  for  those  that  offer  their  sacrifices 
and  firstfruits  to  the  Lord  our  God,  that  the  most 
gracious  God  would  reward  them  with  heavenly 
gifts,  and  restore  them  an  hundred-fold  in  this 
world,  and  grant  them  everlasting  life  in  the  world 
to  come;  giN'ing  them  heavenly  things  for  their 
earthly,  and  for  their  temporal  things  those  that  are 
eternal. 

"Let  us  pray  for  our  brethren  that  are  newly 
baptized,  that  the  Lord  would  confirm  and  establish 
them. 

"  Let  us  pray  for  our  brethren  that  are  afflicted 
with  sickness,  that  the  Lord  would  deliver  them 
from  all  their  distempers  and  infirmities,  and  restore 
them  again  in  health  to  his  holy  church. 

"  Let  us  pray  for  all  those  that  travel  by  sea  or 
by  land. 

"  Let  us  pray  for  those  that  are  in  the  mines,  and 
in  banishment,  and  in  prison,  and  in  bonds,  for  the 
name  of  the  Lord, 

"  Let  us  pray  for  our  enemies  and  those  that 
hate  us. 

"  Let  us  pray  for  those  that  persecute  us  for  the 
name  of  the  Lord,  that  the  Lord  would  mitigate  their 
fury,  and  dissipate  their  anger  conceived  against  us. 

"  Let  us  pray  for  those  that  are  without,  and  led 
away  with  error,  that  the  Lord  would  convert  them. 


"  Let  us  remember  the  infants  of  the  church,  that 
the  Lord  wiould  perfect  them  in  his  fear,  and  bring 
them  to  the  measure  of  adult  age. 

"  Let  us  pray  mutually  for  one  another ;  that  the 
Lord  would  keep  and  preserve  us  by  his  grace  unto 
the  end,  and  deliver  us  from  the  evil  one,  and  from 
all  the  scandals  of  those  that  work  iniquity,  and 
conduct  us  safe  to  his  heavenly  kingdom. 

"  Let  us  pray  for  every  Christian  soul. 

"  Save  us,  O  God,  and  raise  us  up  by  thy  mercy." 

It  is  here  to  be  supposed,  that  as  in  the  former 
prayers  for  the  catechumens  and  penitents,"  so 
here  at  the  end  of  every  petition  the  people  answered, 
Kiipit  i\kt)aov,  "  Lord  have  mercy  upon  them."  Or, 
as  it  is  in  the  close  of  this  prayer,  "  Save  them,  O 
God,  and  raise  them  up  by  thy  mercy." 

Any  one  that  will  compare  either  our  litany,  or 
the  prayer  for  the  whole  state  of  Christ's  church  in 
the  beginning  of  our  communion  service,  will  readily 
perceive,  that  there  is  a  near  affinity  between  them 
and  this  general  form  of  the  ancient  church.  We 
have  not  so  complete  a  form  either  in  Chrysostom's 
genuine  works,  or  any  other  ancient  writer,  to  com- 
pare this  with,  as  we  did  before  in  considering  the 
form  for  the  catechumens  ;  but  there  are  two  very 
ancient  forms  of  such  a  prayer,  without  any  addi- 
tion of  invocation  of  saints,  still  preserved,  one  in 
the  Ambrosian  liturgy,  and  the  other  in  an  ancient 
office  transcribed  by  Wicelius  out  of  the  library  of 
Fulda,  which,  because  they  come  near  this  ancient 
form  in  the  Constitutions,  I  will  here  insert  them  '- 


"  See  Book  XIV.  chap.  5. 

'-  In  Codice  Fuldensi  Litania  Missalis. 

Dicamus  omnes  ex  toto  corde  totaque  mente :  Domme 
miserere. 

Qui  respicis  terrain,  et  facis  earn  tremere.  Oramiis  te, 
Domine,  exaudi  et  miserere. 

Pro  altissima  pace  et  tranquillitate  temporum  nostrorum. 
Oramus  te  Domine,  ^c. 

Pro  sancta  ecclesia  catholica,  quae  est  a  finibus  usque  ad 
terminos  orbis  terrarum.     Oramus  te  Domine,  S^c. 

Pro  patre  nostro  episcopo,  pro  omnibus  episcopis  ac 
presbyleris  et  diaconis,  omniqueclero.    Oramus  te  Domine. 

Pro  hoc  loco  et  habitantibus  in  eo.  Oramus  te  Do- 
mi7ie,  S^c. 

Pro  piissimo  imperatore  et  toto  Romano  exercitu.  Ora- 
mus te  Domine,  SfC. 

Pro  omnibus  qui  in  sublimitate  constituti  sunt,  pro  vir- 
ginibus,  viduis,  et  orphanis.     Oramus  te  Domine. 

Pro  poenitentibus  et  catechumenis.    Oramus  te  Domine. 

Pro  his  qui  in  sancta  ecclesia  fructus  misericordiae  largi- 
untur.  Domine  Deus  virtutum  exaudi  preces  nostras.  Ora- 
mus te  Domine. 

Sanctorum  apostolorum  et  martyrum  memores  sumus,  ut 
orantibus  eis  pro  nobis  veniam  mereamur.  Oramus  te 
Domine. 

Christianum  ac  pacificura  nobis  finem  concedi  a  Domino 
comprecemur.     Prcesta  Domine,  prasta. 

Et  divinum  in  nobis  pennanere  vinculum  charitatis, 
Dominum  comprecemur.     Prcesta  Doniine,  prcesta: 

Conservare  sanctitatem  ac  puritatem  catholicaj  fidei, 
sanctum  Deum  comprecemur.     Prcesta,  Domine,  prcesta. 

Dicamus  omnes,  Domine,  exaudi  et  miserere. 


Altera  formula  ex  vita  Ambrosiana  in  Dominica  pri- 
ma quadragesimae,  incipiente  diacouo,  et  choro  re- 
spondeute. 

Divinae  pacis  et  indulgeutiae  munere  supplicantes  ex  toto 
corde  et  ex  tota  mente,  precamur  te.     Domine  miserere. 

Pro  ecclesia  sancta  catholica,  quK  hie  et  per  universum 
orbem  diffusa  est,  precamur  te.     Domine  miserere. 

Pro  papa  nostro  N.  et  pontifice  nostro  N.  et  orani  clero 
eorum,  omnibusque  sacerdotibus  ac  ministris,  precamur  te. 
Domine  miserere. 

Pro  famulis  tuis  N.  imperatore  et  N.  rege,  duce  nostro, 
et  omni  exercitu  eorum,  precamur  te.     Domine  miserere. 

Pro  pace  ecclesiarum,  vocatione  gentium,  et  quiete  po- 
pulnrum,  precamur  te.     Domine  miserere. 

Pro  civitate  hac  et  conservatione  ejus,  omnibusque  habi- 
tantibus in  ea,  precamur  te.     Domine  miserere. 

Pro  aeris  temperie,  ac  fructu  et  fcecunditate  terrarum, 
precamur  te.    Domine  miserere. 

Pro  virginibus,  viduis,  orphanis,  captivis,  ac  poenitenti- 
bus, precamur  te.     Domine  miserere. 

Pro  navigantibus,  iter  agentibus,  in  carceribus,  in  vin- 
culis,  in  metallis,  in  exiliis  constitutis,  precamur  te.  Do- 
mine miserere. 

Pro  iis  qui  diversis  infirmitatibus  detinentur,  quique 
spiritibus  vexantur  iramundis,  precamur  te.  Domine  mise- 
rere. 

Pro  iis  qui  in  sancta  ecclesia  tua  fructus  misericordia) 
largiuntur,  precamur  te.     Domine  miserere. 

Exaudi  nos  in  omni  oratione  atque  deprecatione  nostra, 
precamur  te.     Domine  miserere. 

Dicamus  omnes,  Domine  miserere. 


748 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


in  the  margin  for  the  use  of  the  learned  reader,  out 
of  Pamelius  his  Liturgies,  t.  3.  p.  307,  Jind  Cardinal 
Bona,  Rerum  Liturgicarum,  lib.  2.  cap.  4.  n.  3,  and 
then  see  what  remains  of  this  ancient  prayer  we 
meet  with  in  the  undoubted  writings  of  the  fathers. 
For  though  none  of  them  gives  us  the  same  form 
entire,  yet  one  may  easily  perceive,  by  the  near  al- 
liance of  the  fragments  that  remain,  that  they  all 
refer  to  the  same  original.  For  there  are,  both  in 
Chrysostom  and  other  writers,  several  fragments  of 
such  a  prayer,  and  plain  intimations  that  either  this 
or  a  like  form  was  in  use  in  many  churches.  And 
therefore  it  will  not  be  amiss  to  collect  these  refer- 
ences and  fragments  before  we  proceed  any  further. 
g^^j  g  St.  Chrysostom,  in  one  of  his  ser- 

The  form  of  this  jjions,  SDoken  to  the  people  of  Antioch, 

sort   of    prayers    in  '    .r  X        r  ' 

compaled'^'ith'Hie  pl^lnly  shows  that  they  had  such  a 
[;fl"r"sl"rm°T^^^^^^  form  of  bidding  prayer  in  use  in  that 

olher  writers.  ,  t  r        ^  t    j  /»ji 

church:  for  he  relates  some  ot  the 
petitions  of  it,  which  are  so  like  the  form  in  the 
Constitutions,  that  he  will  not  judge  amiss  that 
thinks  the  author  of  the  Constitutions  had  his  form 
from  the  same  original  whence  we  are  sure  St.  Chry- 
sostom had  his,  viz.  the  liturgy  of  the  church  of 
Antioch.  For,  says  he,  when  you  all "  in  common 
hear  the  deacon  bidding  this  prayer,  and  saying, 
"  Let  us  pray  for  the  bishop,  and  for  his  old  age,  and 
for  grace  to  assist  him,  that  he  may  rightly  divide 
the  word  of  truth,"  and  for  those  that  are  here,  and 
those  that  are  in  all  the  world,  you  refuse  not  to  do 
what  is  commanded  you,  but  offer  your  prayers  with 
all  fervency,  as  knowing  what  power  there  is  in 
common  prayer.  They  that  are  initiated  know  what 
I  say.  For  this  is  not  yet  allowed  in  the  prayer  of 
the  catechumens.  For  they  are  not  yet  arrived  to 
this  boldness  and  liberty  of  speech.  But  the  deacon, 
who  ministers  in  this  office,  exhorts  you  to  make 
prayers  for  the  whole  world,  and  for  the  church  ex- 
tended from  one  end  of  the  earth  to  the  other,  and 
for  all  the  bishops  that  rule  and  govern  it ;  and  ye 
obey  with  readiness,  testifying  by  your  actions,  that 
great  is  the  power  of  prayer,  when  it  is  offered  up 
by  the  people  with  one  voice  in  the  church.  Here 
we  may  observe,  that  this  was  the  bidding  prayer ; 
for  it  was  done  by  the  celeitsma,  or  call  and  admoni- 
tion of  the  deacon,  telling  them  what  they  were  to 
pray  for.  Then  again,  that  it  was  a  prayer  peculiar 
to  the  communicants,  and  used  only  in  the  commu- 
nion service ;  for  the  catechumens  were  not  allowed 
to  join  in  it.    And  further,  that  the  petitions  for  the 


whole  world,  for  the  church  over  all  the  earth,  for 
all  bishops  wheresoever  governing  the  church,  and 
particularly  for  the  bishop  of  the  place,  that  "  he 
might  live  to  a  good  old  age,  and  have  the  help  of 
God's  grace  to  enable  him  rightly  to  divide  the  word 
of  truth,"  are  the  same  petitions  that  occur  in  the 
Constitutions :  which  makes  it  evident  that  these 
forms  of  bidding  pi'ayer  were  then  commonly  used 
in  the  catholic  church.  Chrysostom,  in  another 
place,  speaks  of  this  same  prayer  as  performed  in 
common  both  by  ministers  and  people ;  and  by  both 
of  them  in  the  posture  of  kneeling  or  prostration. 
For  giving  an  account  of  the  several  prayers  of  the 
church,  in  which  the  people  bear  a  part  with  the 
minister,  he  says,  They  prayed  in  common  for  per- 
sons possessed  with  evil  spirits,  and  for  the  penitents ; 
and  then,  after  they  were  excluded  who  could  not 
partake  of  the  holy  table,  they  made  another  prayer," 
in  which  they  all  fell  prostrate  upon  the  earth  to- 
gether, and  all  in  like  manner  rose  up  together.  This 
is  a  plain  reference  to  that  bidding  prayer,  before 
which  the  deacon  commanded  all  to  fall  down  upon 
the  ground,  and  make  those  several  petitions  in  that 
posture,  and  then  gave  the  signal  to  rise  again,  by 
saying,  'Ai/aarw/xtv,  Let  us  rise,  as  it  is  worded  in 
the  Constitutions.  Chrysostom  has  many  other  pas- 
sages, which  speak  of  prayers  for  the  whole  state  of 
the  church,  for  bishops,  for  the  universe,  and  the 
public  peace;  but  because  these  refer  more  pecu- 
liarly to  the  prayer  immediately  following  the  con- 
secration and  oblation,  (where  a  more  solemn  com- 
memoration of  all  states  was  again  made,)  I  will 
refer  the  notice  of  them  to  the  discourse  upon  that 
prayer  in  its  proper  place. 

However,  I  cannot  omit  mentioning  one  remark- 
able thing  more  out  of  St.  Chrysostom,  relating  to 
this  prayer,  which  is.  That  this  pi-ayer  was  esteemed 
so  much  the  common  prayer  of  the  people,  that  the 
children  of  the  church  were  particularly  enjoined 
to  bear  a  part  in  it.  For  in  one  of  his  homilies 
upon  St.  Matthew,  speaking  first  of  the  prayer  for 
the  demoniacs,  secondly,  of  the  prayer  for  the  peni- 
tents, thirdly,  of  this  prayer  for  the  communicants, 
he  observes.  That  the  two  former  were  offered  by  the 
people  alone,  as  intercessors  for  mercy  for  othex's ;  | 
but  this  prayer,  which  was  for  themselves,  was  pre-  i 
sented  also  by  the  innocent  children  of  the  people,"* 
crying  to  God  for  mercy :  it  being  supposed,  that 
their  innocency  and  humility,  the  imitation  of  which 
qualifies  men  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  were  good 


"  Chrys.  Horn.  2.  'le  Obscuiit.  Prophetianim,  t.  3.  p.  916. 
Vioivi]  iruvTi^  aKovov-rti  tov  SiaKovov,  touto  keXsi/outos 
Kill  \iyouTO<;,  Of  )|(3tt)/jif  ii  virlp  tou  iiriaKoirov,  Kal  tou  -yijoo)?, 
Kril  Tfjs  ai/TiX)i»//f ais,  Kal  'ivn  6p6oTOfji.TJ  toii  \oyov  t»';<; 
ttXijOfias,  Kal  viri(i  -rw//  Ivravda,  kuI  uirtp  tu>v  diravTa^ou, 
ot)  irapaiTfla^dE  troitlv  to  tiriTuypa,  k.t.\. 

"  Chrys.  Horn.  18.  in  2  Cor.  p.  873.  YlaXiv  iTrnSuu 
t'i(i'^i>Hiii   Twv   'itpmv  TTtpipoXwv  TOWS   ov   dwa/nivovi  tj/s 


Itpai  p.tTa<7X.f~iV  TpaTTt'^ils.  tTtpav  OfT  yfvtaOai  tiix')^,  '>^«' 
■TravTt^  o/xoiw-i  Lit'  iSa<f>ovs  Kiiij.i6a,  Kal  ■navTi's  Ofxoiwi 
dvLrrTupada. 

"■  Chrys.  Horn.  71.  al.  72.  in  Matt.  p.  624.  'H  fit  TpiV., 
TrdXiv  ivX'l  '^■''■'P  v/iwi'  ainiiiv,  Kat  auTij  Ta  iraioia  Trt 
apwjxa  TOV  ori/iov  TrpoftaWtTai,  tov  Qtov  t-Ki  'iXiov  Trapa- 
KnXovvTa. 


Chap.  I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


749 


recommendations  of  their  prayers,  when  they  so- 
lemnly implored  the  Divine  mercy.  Which  plainly 
shows,  that  this  was  a  general  prayer  of  all  degrees 
of  persons  in  the  chmxh.  We  may  note  further 
out  of  St.  Austin,  that  the  universal  church,  or  the 
greatest  part  of  it,  had  such  prayers  preceding  the 
consecration  of  the  eucharist,  which  were  properly 
called  prccationes,  or  deprecationes,  supplications  for 
themselves  and  others,  and  communis  oratio,  common 
prayer,  because  they  were  performed  by  the  com- 
mon voice  of  the  deacon  and  the  people.  In  one  of 
his  epistles '"  he  divides  the  whole  service  of  the 
church  into  these  five  parts  :  I.  Singing  of  psalms. 
2.  Reading  of  the  Scriptures.  3.  Preaching.  4. 
The  prayers  of  the  bishops  and  presbyters.  5.  The 
common  prayers  indited  by  the  voice  or  direction 
of  the  deacons ;  which  were  the  bidding  prayers  we 
are  now  discoursing  of.  Whence  we  learn  the 
meaning  of  the  deacon's  being  said,  Tnclicere  com- 
mmiem  oratlonem ;  that  it  means  not  barely  his 
commanding  them  to  pray,  but  his  going  before 
them  in  a  form  of  words,  to  which  they  might  join 
their  common  responses. 

In  another  epistle,"  he  divides  the  communion 
service  into  four  parts,  according  to  that  division  of 
St.  Paul,  I  Tim.  ii.  I,  "  I  exhort  therefore,  that  first 
of  all,  supplications,  prayers,  intercessions,  and 
giving  of  thanks,  be  made  for  all  men;"  taking 
supplications  for  these  common  prayers  made  for 
all  men  before  the  consecration  of  the  elements ; 
and  prayers,  in  the  Greek  called  ihxal,  for  the  pray- 
ers of  consecration,  of  which  the  Lord's  prayer  was 
one,  because  the  people  did  then  solemnly  dedicate 
themselves  to  Christ,  which  is  the  most  common 
notation  of  the  word  thxfi,  a  vow.  By  intercessions, 
he  understands  the  benedictions  of  the  people  by 
imposition  of  hands,  used  at  that  time  by  the  bi- 
shops and  other  chief  ministers,  recommending 
them  to  the  mercy  of  God ;  and  by  thanksgiving, 
the  doxologies  and  returns  of  praise  after  the  par- 
ticipation was  over.  So  that  here  we  have  a  plain 
account  of  the  church's  service,  and  particularly 
that  the  prayers  before  the  consecration  were  those 
solemn  addresses,  which  were  made  chiefly  by  the 


deacon  and  people,  and  therefore  were  called,  cuyn- 
iminis  oratio  voce  diaconi  indicia,  the  common  prayers 
of  the  people,  enjoined  and  ordered  by  the  bidding 
of  the  deacon.  In  another  place  he  mentions  some 
of  the  particulars  then  prayed  for.  For  writing  to 
one  Vitalis  of  Carthage,  who  maintained  that  infi- 
dels were  not  to  be  prayed  for,  he  urges  him  with 
the  known  practice  of  the  church.  Dispute  then, 
says  he,  against  the  prayers  of  the  church,  and 
when  you  hear  the  priest  of  God"*  exhorting  the 
people  of  God  at  the  altar  to  pray  for  infidels,  that 
God  would  convert  them  to  the  faith ;  and  for  cate- 
chumens, that  God  would  inspire  them  with  a  de- 
sire of  regeneration ;  and  for  the  faithful,  that  they 
may  persevere  by  his  grace  in  that  wherein  they 
have  begun ;  mock  at  these  pious  words,  and  say 
you  do  not  do  what  he  exhorts  you  to  do,  that  is, 
that  you  do  not  pray  to  God  for  infidels,  that  he 
would  make  them  believers.  Here  we  see  the  pray- 
ers for  the  conversion  of  infidels  and  the  persever- 
ance of  believers  are  the  same  with  those  that  occur 
in  the  Constitutions,  and  in  both  places  are  said 
to  be  done  at  the  bidding  or  exhortation  of  the 
minister. 

St.  Basil  also  speaks  of  these  prayers,  under  the 
name  oi  Kripiynara  £icicXjj(Tta<r«(ca,  which  is  not  to  be 
understood  of  preaching  in  the  church,  but  of  these 
prayers,  which  the  deacon,  as  the  common  KrjpvK,  or 
proclaimer  and  director  of  the  service,  appointed 
the  people  to  make  for  all  orders  of  men  in  the 
church.  And  so  St.  Basil  himself  explains  his  own 
meaning.  For  writing  to  a  friend  in  a  foreign 
country,  he  tells  him  it  was  impossible  he  should 
forget  him  in  his  prayers,  unless  he  should  forget 
the  work  to  which  the  Lord  had  appointed  him. 
For  you,  says  he,  who  are  by  the  grace  of  God  a 
believer,  remember  very  well  the  bidding  prayers  of 
the  church ; '"  how  we  there  pray  for  all  our  bre- 
thren that  travel  in  foreign  countries,  and  for  all 
those  that  are  mustered  in  the  camp,  and  for  those 
that  undertake  any  brave  and  bold  thing  for  the 
name  of  the  Lord,  and  for  all  such  as  show  forth 
any  fruits  of  the  Spirit;  for  all  these  we  make 
prayers  in  the  holy  church.  And  he  tells  his  friend, 


'"  Aug.  Ep.  119.  ad  Januar.  cap.  18.  Quando  autem  non 
est  tempus  (cum  in  ecclesia  fratres  congregantur)  sancta 
cantandi,  nisi  cum  legitur,  aut  disputatur,  aut  antistites 
clara  voce  deprecantur,  aut  communis  oratio  voce  diaconi 
indicitur  ? 

"  Aug.  Ep.  52.  ad  Paulin.  Quaest.  5.  Eligo  in  his  verbis 
hoc  intelligere,  quod  omnis  vel  pene  omnis  frequentat  ec- 
clesia, ut  prccationes  accipiamus  dictas,  quas  facimus  in 
celebratione  sacramentorum,  antequam  iUud  quod  est  in 
Domini  mensa,  incipiat  benedici :  orationes,  cum  benedi- 
citur  et  sanctificatur,  et  ad  distribuendum  comminuitur 
quam  totam  petitionem  fere  omnis  ecclesia  Dominica  ora- 
tione  concludit.  —  Interpellationes  autem,  sive,  ut  vestri 
codices  habent,  postulationes,  fiunt  cum  populiis  benedici- 
tur.     Tunc  enim  antistites,  velut  advocati,  siisceptos  suos 


per  manus  impositionem  misericordissimae  offerunt  potcs- 
tati.  Quibus  peractis,  et  participatu  tanto  sacramento,  gra- 
tiarum  actio  cuucta  concludit,  quam  in  his  etiam  verbis  ul- 
timam  commendavit  apostolus. 

"*  Aug.  Ep.  107.  ad  Vital,  p.  187.  Exercere  contra  ora- 
tiones ecclesiae  disputationes  tuas,  et  quando  audis  sacerdo- 
tem  Dei  ad  altare  exhortantem  populum  Dei,  orare  pro 
incredulis,  ut  eos  Deus  convertat  ad  fidem;  et  pro  catechu- 
menis,  ut  eis  desiderium  regenerationis  inspire! ;  et  pro 
iidclibus,  ut  in  eo  quod  esse  coepenmt,  ejusmuncre  perscvc- 
reiit;  subsanna  pias  voces,  et  die  te  nou  facere  quod  horta- 
tur,  Hcc. 

"  Basil.  Ep.  241.      Mtfimirrai.-yap  ttuvtui'S  Ttov  Krtpvyixr't- 

TlOV  TVDV    SKK\l}<TLaTlKWD,   TTITOS   doV  TIJ    t5    Gfa    J^apiTt,    OTl 

Kcd  virtp  Tihv  iv  dTro8i]fiiai.<i  ade\<f>wv  SiOfitOa,  k.t.\. 


750 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


that  he  being  a  person  singularly  eminent,  and  in 
all  those  capacities,  as  a  traveller,  as  a  warrior,  as  a 
confessor,  as  a  virtuous  man,  was  alwaj's  remem- 
bered in  the  public  prayers  of  the  church.  He 
mentions  no  other  particulars,  because  he  had  no 
occasion  to  specify  any  more  but  what  related  to 
this  particular  man's  case  ;  but  we  need  not  doubt 
but  that  there  were  many  other  such  petitions  in 
the  liturgy  of  the  church  of  Casarea,  as  there  were 
in  those  of  Antioch,  and  the  African  churches. 
Ca!sarius  Arelatensis  also  speaks  of  these  bidding 
prayers  as  used  in  the  Galilean  churches.  For  in 
one  of  his  homilies  to  the  people™  he  exhorts  them, 
that  as  often  as  the  clergy  prayed  at  the  altar,  or 
prayer  was  enjoined  by  the  bidding  of  the  deacon, 
they  should  bow  not  only  their  hearts,  but  their 
bodies  also.  For  it  was  a  very  irregular  thing,  and 
unbecoming  Christians,  that  when  the  deacon  cried 
out,  "  Let  us  bend  the  knee,"  the  greatest  part  of  the 
people  should  stand  erect  like  pillars,  as  he  had  ob- 
served them  to  do  in  their  devotions.  Here,  though 
we  have  none  of  the  particular  petitions,  yet  there 
is  a  plain  reference  to  them,  and  two  of  the  circum- 
stances mentioned,  that  is,  that  they  were  to  be 
made  kneeling,  and  by  the  indiction  or  direction  of 
the  deacon. 

And  in  these  circumstances  they 

Sect.  4.  . 

Of  the  invocation,  differed   from  the  following  prayer, 

or  coUect,  Iblloiving  O      ST       J        ' 

tiie  prayers  of  tiie  made  by  tlic  blshoD  or  chief  minister, 

people.  *'  ^  ' 

which  the  Greeks  called  iiriKXrjmg,  the 
invocation,  and  the  Latins,  collecta,  the  collect,  be- 
cause it  was  the  recollection  or  recapitulation  of  the 
preceding  prayers  of  the  people.  As  the  former 
prayer  was  said  by  the  deacon  and  people  kneeling, 
so  this  was  presented  by  the  bishop  standing.  And 
therefore  the  deacon  was  used  to  say  immediately 
after  the  former  prayer,  eyfipw/xaSa,  "  Let  us  rise  up, 
and  praying  earnestly,  let  us  recommend  ourselves 
and  one  another  to  the  living  God  by  his  Christ." 
After  which,  the  bishop  makes  this  prayer,  as  the 
form  runs  in  the  Constitutions.-' 

"  0  Lord  Almighty  and  most  High,  thou  that 
dwellest  in  the  highest,  thou  Holy  One  that  restest 
in  thy  saints,  (or  holy  places,)  that  art  without 
original,  the  great  Monarch  of  the  world ;  who  by 
thy  Christ  hast  caused  thy  knowledge  to  be  preach- 
ed unto  us,  to  the  acknowledgment  of  thy  glory  and 
name,  which  he  hath  manifested  to  our  understand- 
ings :  look  down  now  by  him  upon  this  thy  flock, 
and  deliver  it  from  all  ignorance  and  wicked  works. 
Grant  that  it  may  fear  thee,  and  love  thee,  and 
tremble  before  the  face  of  thy  glory.  Be  merciful 
and  propitious  unto  them,  and  hearken  to  their 


prayers ;  and  keep  them  unchangeable,  unblamable, 
and  without  rebuke :  that  they  may  be  holy  both  in 
body  and  soul,  not  having  spot  or  wrinkle  or  any 
such  thing ;  but  that  they  may  be  perfect,  and  none 
among  them  deficient  or  wanting  in  any  respect.  O 
thou  their  Defender,  thou  Almighty,  that  regardest 
not  persons,  be  thou  the  help  of  this  thy  people, 
whom  thou  hast  redeemed  with  the  precious  blood 
of  thy  Christ.  Be  thou  their  defence  and  succour, 
their  refuge  and  keeper,  their  impregnable  wall, 
their  bulwark  and  safety.  For  no  one  can  pluck 
them  out  of  thy  hand.  There  is  no  other  God  like 
thee :  in  thee  is  our  hope  and  strong  consolation. 
Sanctify  them  by  thy  truth  ;  for  thy  word  is  truth. 
Thou  that  dost  nothing  out  of  partiality  and  fa- 
vour, thou  that  canst  not  be  deceived,  deliver  them 
from  sickness  and  infirmity,  from  sin,  from  all  in- 
jury and  fi-aud,  and  from  the  fear  of  the  enemy,  from 
the  arrow  that  flieth  by  day,  and  the  danger  that 
walketh  in  darkness  ;  and  vouchsafe  to  bring  them 
to  eternal  life,  which  is  in  Christ  thy  only  begotten 
Son,  our  God  and  Saviour;  by  whom  be  glory  and 
worship  unto  thee  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  now  and  for 
ever,  world  without  end.     Amen." 

This,  I  conceive,  is  of  the  same  nature  with  that 
prayer  mentioned  by  the  council  of  Laodicea,"-  as 
the  second  of  those  that  are  said  to  be  made  ha 
Trpo(T(pojvrj(rsw£ :  for  though  the  author  of  the  Con- 
stitutions distinguishes  between  the  deacon's  bid- 
ding prayer  and  the  bishop's  invocation,  calling  the 
former  ■n-po(T<pwv7i(7ig,  and  the  latter  sTr'iKXtjmg ;  j'et 
they  both  agreed  in  several  things  to  distinguish 
them  from  the  silent  prayer  that  went  before.  For, 
I.  They  were  both  pronounced  audibly  by  the 
minister,  so  as  the  whole  congregation  might  join 
with  them,  either  by  making  responses  to  every 
particular  petition  of  the  deacon's  prayer,  or  by  say- 
ing Amen  at  the  conclusion  of  the  bishop's  prayer ; 
whereas  the  silent  prayers  of  the  people  were  such 
as  every  man  said  privately  by  himself,  and  might 
be  very  different  from  one  another,  and  sometimes 
were  such  as  were  not  fit  to  be  heard,  because  some 
men  abused  this  opportunity  to  pray  to  God  for  re- 
venge upon  their  enemies.  2.  Both  these  prayers 
were  made  at  the  call  or  admonition  of  the  deacon, 
and  so  might  have  the  name  of  Trpoo-^wvj/ffic.  For 
he  said  before  the  one,  "  Let  us  fall  down  upon  our 
knees  and  pray  to  God : "  and  before  the  other, 
"  Let  us  rise  and  commend  ourselves  to  God," 
napaQwuESa  eavTovq  r^  Ga-J.  Whence  also  this,  and 
all  such  prayers  of  the  bishop,  had  the  name  of 
■jTopaOiaiiQ,  commendations,  because  they  recom- 
mended the  people  to  the  mercy  and  protection  of 


^  Caesar.  Arelat.  Horn.  34.  Rogo  vos  et  admoneo,  fratres 
charissimi,  ut  quotiesctinque  juxta  altare  a  clericis  oratur, 
aut  oratio  diacono  clamante  indicitur,  non  solum  covda, 
sed  etiatn  corpora  inclinetis.  Nam  diim  frequenter,  sicut 
oportet,  et  diligenter  attendo,  diacono  clamante,  Flectamus 


genua,  maximam  partem  populi  velut  columnas  erectas 
stare  conspicio,  quod  Christianis  omnino  nee  licet  nee  ex- 
pedit. 

-'  Constit.  Apost.  lib.  8.  cap.  11. 

"  Cone.  Laod.  can.  19. 


Chap.  I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


751 


God.     As  we  find  in  one  of  the  canons  of  the  Afri- 
can Code,^  which  made  an  injunction  that  no  pray- 
ers should  be  used  in  the  church  but  such  as  were 
authorized  by  a  synod,  whether  they  were  prefaces, 
or  commendations,  or  impositions  of  hands,  lest  any 
prayers  contrary  to  the  faith  should  surreptitiously 
creep  into  the  church.     Where,  as  by  prefaces  are 
meant  certain  proper  prayers  used  at  the  eucharist ; 
and  by  impositions  of  hands,  prayers  made  over  the 
penitents  or  people  by  way  of  benediction ;  so  by 
commendations  are  to  be  understood  partly  prayers 
for  the  catechumens,  and  partly  these  prayers  of 
the  bishop  for  the  people,  recommending  their  per- 
sons, and  prayers,  and  concerns  to  the  favour  of 
God.     This  canon  was  first  made  in  the  council  of 
Mile^•is,  where  what  the  Greeks  call  Trapa&ictic,  is 
by  the  Latins"'   called   commendationes.     But  the 
more  usual  name  in  the  Latin  church  was  collecf^p, 
collects,  because  these  prayers  of  the  bishop,  which 
in  any  part  of  the  service  followed  the  joint  prayers 
of  the  deacon  and  congregation,  were  both  a  recol- 
lection and  recommendation  of  the  prayers  of  the 
people.     In  this  sense  Cassian  takes  the  phrase, 
colUgere  orationem,  when,  speaking  of  the  service  in 
the  Egyptian  monasteries  and  Eastern  churches,  he 
says.  After  the  psalms  they  had  private  prayers, 
which  they  said  partly  standing  and  partly  kneel- 
ing ;   which  being  ended,  he  that  collected  the 
prayer"  rose  up,  and  then  they  all  rose  up  together 
with  him  ;  none  presuming  to  continue  longer  upon 
the  ground,  lest  he  should  seem  rather  to  pui'sue  his 
own  prayers,  than  go  along  with  him  who  collected 
the  prayers,  or  closed  up  all  with  his  concluding 
collect.     Where  we  may  observe,  that  a  collect  is 
taken  for  the  chief  minister's  prayer  at  the  close  of 
some  part  of  Di\ane  service,  collecting  and  con- 
cluding the  people's  preceding  devotions.     As  here 
in  Cassian,  it  is  the  close  of  the  ordinary  or  daily 
morning  service,  which  was  the  same  as  the  close 
of  that  part  of  the  communion  service,  which  imme- 
diately comes  before  the  consecration,  as  has  been 
showed  before,  in  speaking  of  the  daily  morning 
service,  more  fully  in  another  place.  Book  XIII. 
chap.  10. 

Parallel  to  this  passage  in  Cassian,  is  that  of 
Uranius,'-"  where,  speaking  of  one  John,  bishop  of 
Naples,  who  died  in  the  celebration  of  Divine  ser- 
vice, he  says.  He  gave  the  signal  to  the  people  to 


pray,  and  then,  having  summed  up  their  prayers  in 
a  collect,  he  yielded  up  the  ghost.     The  council  of 
Agde,"  in  France,  made  it  a  standing  rule  for  the 
Galilean  churches,  that,  after  all  other  things  were 
performed  in  the  daily  course  of  morning  and  even- 
ing service,  the  bishop  should  conclude  the  whole 
office,  collecta  oratione,  with  his  collect,  and  dismiss 
the  people  with  his  benediction.     From  which  it 
appears,  that  these  collects  among  the  Latins  were 
the  same  sort  of  prayers  which  the  Greeks  called 
iiriK\i]aiiQ  and  TrapaQkatiQ,  invocations  and  commend- 
ations, with  which  the  bishop  concluded  the  prayers 
of  the  deacon  and  people  in  each  distinct  part  of 
Divine  service.     As  we  have  seen  it  in  the  service 
of  the  catechumens  and  penitents,  and  in  the  offices 
for  the  daily  morning  and  evening  prayer,  and  here 
now  in  this  part  of  the  communion  service  which 
goes  before  the  consecration.      Of  which  I  have 
nothing  more  to  add,  but  only  a  short  passage'*  of 
St.  Austin,  who,  in  his  book  of  the  Gift  of  Per- 
severance, seems  plainly  to  intimate,  that  it  was 
one  petition  in  this  prayer,  of  common  use  in  the 
African  churches,  to  pray  for  God's  gi-ace  to  enable 
believers  to  persevere  to  the  end  of  their  lives.   For, 
writing  of  the  necessity  of  grace  to  guard  men 
against  the  error  of  the  Pelagians,  he  puts  them  in 
mind  of  the  common  prayer  of  the  church,  wherein 
the  priest  makes  invocation  for  the  faithful  or  com- 
municants, in  these  words,  "  Grant  them  grace,  O 
Lord,  to  persevere  in  thee  unto  the  end."    And  who 
is  there,  says  he,  that,  hearing  the  priest  thus  pray- 
ing, dares  either  in  word  or  thought  reprehend 
him,  and  is  not  rather  ready,  both  with  a  believing 
heart  and  a  confessing  mouth,  to  answer  Amen  to 
such  a  benediction  ?    It  is  observable  here,  1.  That 
this  prayer  has  the  same  name  which  the  Greeks 
gave  it  in  the  Eastern  church.  The  invocation  of  the 
bishop  or  priest  over  the  faithful.     And  therefore, 
2.  That  it  was  a  part  of  the  communion  service, 
where  such  prayers  were  only  made.     3.  That  it 
was  not  the  deacon's  bidding  prayer,  wliich  had  the 
people's  responses  to  every  particular  petition,  but 
a  prayer  to  which,  in  the  end,  they  only  answered, 
Amen.     4.  That  it  was  a  direct  invocation  of  God, 
by  way  of  benediction,  such  as  the  bishop  used  to 
make,  and  not  an  exhortation  to  pray,  which  was 
the  office  of  the  deacon.     5.  That  the  petition  in 
substance  is  the  same  with  that  of  the  bishop's 


^  Cod.  Afric.  can.  103.  "H/jto-f  kol  tovto,  uxttb  Tai 
KiKvpiDfiiva^  tv  T?;  avvoSto  iKiuia^,  tl-rs  irpooifxia,  e'lTE 
"Trapa&ityiL^,  £ix£  tijs  ^i.Lpoi  tTrt6io-£ts,  airo  iravTwu  Ittite- 
Xiladai,  K.T.X.    Vid.  Cone.  Toletan.  4.  can.  12. 

-*  Cone.  Milevitan.  can.  12. 

^  Cassian.  Institul.  lib.  2.  cap.  7.  Cum  autem  is  qui  ora- 
tionem collecturus  est,  e  terra  surrexerit,  omnes  pariter 
surgunt,  ita  ut  nuUus  remorari  praesumat,  ne  non  tam  secu- 
tus  fuisse  illius  conelusionem,  qui  precem  colligit,  quaui 
suam  celebrasse  credatur. 

^  Uran.   Vit.  Paulin.    Populo  orationem  dedit,  et  col- 


lecta oratione  spiritum  eshalavit. 

-'  Cone.  Agathen.  can.  30.  In  conclusione  raatutinanim 
vol  vespertinarum  missarum,  post  hymnos  capitella  de 
psalinis  dici,  et  plebem,  collecta  oratione  ad  vesperam  ab 
episcopo  cum  benedictione  dimitti. 

•^  Aug.  de  Dono  Perseverantiae,  cap.  23.  t.  6.  An  quis 
sacerdotem  super  fideles  Dominum  invocantem,  si  quando 
dixit,  Da  illis,  Domine,  in  te  perseverare  usque  in  fiuem, 
non  solum  voce  ausus  est,  sed  saltern  cogitatione  reprcheu- 
dere,  ac  non  potius  super  ejus  talem  benedictionem  et 
coide  credente  et  ore  confitente  respoudil,  Amen. 


752 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


})rayer  in  the  Constitutions,  "  Keep  them  unchange- 
ahle,  unblamahle,  and  without  rebuke;  that  they 
may  be  perfect,  both  in  body  and  soul,  not  having 
spot  or  WTinkle,  or  any  such  thing,  but  that  they 
may  be  perfect,  and  none  among  them  be  found 
wanting  in  any  respect."  All  which  circumstances 
make  it  highly  probable,  that  this  prayer  referred 
to  by  St.  Austin,  was  the  very  prayer  we  are  speak- 
ing of,  as  used  in  the  close  of  the  first  part  of  the 
communion  service,  in  the  African  churches.  These 
are  the  footsteps,  by  which  we  are  to  trace  the 
practice  of  the  ancient  chui'ch  in  that  part  of  her 
devotions,  which  was  appropriated  to  the  communi- 
cants or  believers  only,  in  the  entrance  of  the  com- 
munion service,  and  which  answers  to  the  prayer 
for  the  whole  state  of  Christ's  church  militant  here 
upon  earth,  in  the  beginning  of  our  communion 
service. 


CHAPTER  II. 

OF  THE  OBLATIONS  OF  THE  PEOPLE,  AND  OTHER 
THINGS  INTRODUCTORY  TO  THE  CONSECRATION 
OF   THE   EUCHARIST. 


Sect.  1. 


The  next  part  of  this  service,  was 
Of  the  customary  the  great  thanksffivingr  and  the  con- 

-ibhitions  wliich  the  °    .  OS 

peorie  made  at  the  sccratioii   of  tlic   elements   of  bread 

altar, 

and  wine  for  the  eucharist ;  which  be- 
cause they  were  generally  taken  out  of  the  obla- 
tions which  the  people  made  at  the  altar,  it  will  be 
necessary  to  give  some  account  of  these  oblations, 
and  of  the  elements  of  bread  and  wine  taken  out  of 
them.  It  was  an  ancient  custom,  derived  from 
apostolical  practice,  for  all  communicants,  that 
were  of  ability,  to  make  their  oblations  of  bread 
and  wine,  and  sometimes  other  things,  at  the  altar ; 
out  of  which  both  the  elements  were  taken,  and  a 
common  feast  was  made  for  the  poor.  This  the 
apostle  plainly  refers  to  in  that  reproof  which  he 
gives  the  Corinthians  for  their  excess  :  1  Cor.  xi. 
21,  "  In  eating  every  one  taketh  before  others  his 
own  supper,  and  one  is  hungry,  and  another  is 
drunken."  Justin  Martyr '  takes  notice  of  these 
oblations,  saying.  They  that  are  wealthy,  and 
they  that  are  willing,  give  according  as  they  are 
disposed  ;    and  what  is  collected,  is  deposited  with 


the  bishop,  who  out  of  it  relieves  the  orphans 
and  widows,  and  those  that  are  in  sickness,  or 
in  want,  or  in  bonds,  and  strangers  and  travel- 
lers :  in  a  word,  he  is  the  curator  of  all  that  are  in 
need.  Tertulhan  gives  the  like  account  of  this 
practice^  in  his  time,  only  he  distinguishes  between 
the  weekly  and  the  monthly  collection.  Every  one, 
says  he,  offers  a  small  alms  monthly,  or  when  he 
will,  and  as  he  will,  and  as  he  can  ;  for  no  one  is 
compelled,  but  makes  a  voluntfiry  collation.  This 
is  our  bank  for  piety.  For  it  is  not  expended  in 
feasting  and  drinking,  and  abusive  excesses,  but  in 
feeding  and  buiying  the  poor,  in  providing  for 
orphans  that  are  bereft  of  their  parents,  and  aged 
people,  and  such  as  suffer  shipwreck,  or  languish 
in  the  mines,  or  in  banishment,  or  in  prison.  Only 
one  part  of  it,  he  adds,  was  spent  upon  a  sober 
feast  of  charity,  where  the  poor  had  a  right  to  feed 
as  well  as  the  rich.  St.  Cyprian'  also  speaks  of 
this,  when  he  asks  a  rich  woman,  How  she  could 
think  she  celebrated  the  Lord's  supper,  who  had  no 
respect  to  the  corban ;  or  how  she  could  come  into 
the  Lord's  house  without  a  sacrifice,  and  eat  part 
of  the  sacrifice  which  the  poor  had  offered  ?  Parallel 
to  which  is  that  of  St.  Austin,^  that  a  man  of 
ability  ought  to  be  ashamed  to  communicate  of  an- 
other man's  oblation ;  and  therefore  he  exhorts 
every  one  to  bring  their  own  oblations  to  be  con- 
secrated at  the  altar. 

There  was  a  very  near  alliance  and  g^^^_ , 
great  affinity  between  these  oblations  auJwedto'make'"^ 
and  that  of  the  eucharist ;  and  there-  ™'''" 
fore,  as  they  had  the  same  common  name  of  ob- 
lation and  sacrifice,  so  in  many  respects  the  same 
rules  were  observed  about  them.  As,  first,  that 
none  but  actual  communicants  should  have  the 
privilege  to  offer  them.  For  in  those  days  it  was  a 
privilege  to  be  allowed  to  make  their  oblations,  and 
a  sort  of  lesser  excommunication  to  be  debarred 
from  it.  They  would  not  receive  the  oblations  of 
persons  that  were  at  enmity  or  variance  with  their 
brethren,*  neither  at  the  altar  nor  into  the  treasury. 
And  this,  as  Optatus  tells  us,®  was  grounded  upon 
that  rule  of  our  Saviour,  that  no  men's  gifts  should 
be  offered  at  the  altar,  but  those  which  were  sea- 
soned with  peace  and  reconciliation  with  their  bre- 
thren. "  If  thou  bring  thy  gift  to  the  altar,  and 
there  rememberest  that  thy  brother  hath  ought 
against  thee ;  leave  there  thy  gift  before  the  altar, 
and  go,  first  be  reconciled  to  thy  brother,  and  then 


'  Justin.  Apol.  2.  p.  98  et  99. 

2  Tertul.  Apol.  cap.  39.  Modicam  imusquisque  stipcm 
menstnia  die,  vel  quum  velit,  et  si  modo  velit,  et  si  modo  pos- 
sit,  apponit :  nam  nemo  compellitur,  sed  sponte  confert,  &c. 

5  Cypr.  de  Opere  et  Eleemos.  p.  203.  Locviples  et  dives 
es,  et  Dominicum  celebrare  te  crcdi.s,  quae  corbonam  om- 
iiino  non  respicis ;  quaj  in  Dominicum  sine  sacrificio  venis  ; 
quae  partem  dc  sacrificio,  quod  pauper  obtulit,  sumis  ? 


*  Aug.  Ser.  215.  de  Tempore.  Oblationes,  qua;  in  altario 
consecrentur,  offerte  :  erubescere  debet  homo  idoneus,  si  de 
aliena  oblatione  communicaverit. 

*  Cone.  Carthag.  4.  can.  93.  Oblationes  dissidentium  fra- 
trnm,  neque  in  sacrario,  neque  in  gazophylacio  recipiantur 

'  Optat.  lib.  6.  p.  93.  Altaria,  in  quibus  fraternitatis  mu- 
nera  non  jussit  Salvator  poni,  nisi  quae  essent  de  pace 
condita. 


I 


Chap.  1 1. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


753 


come  and  offer  thy  gift,"  Matt.  v.  23.  For  the  same 
reason  they  refused  tlie  obhitions  of  noted  and 
known  oppressors  of  the  poor,  as  appears  from  an- 
other canon''  of  the  council  of  Carthage.  With 
•which  agrees  the  rule  in  the  Constitutions,  that* 
they  should  not  receive  the  gifts  of  a  thief  or  a 
harlot.  Which  is  repeated  again  with  an  addition 
of  many  other  such  Hke  criminals."  A  bishop  must 
know,  whose  gifts  he  ought  to  receive,  and  whose 
not.  He  shall  not  receive  the  gifts  of  fraudulent 
hucksters,  Kon-riXoi :  "  For  an  huckster  shall  not  be 
free  from  sin,"  Ecclus.  xx\i.  29.  And  Esaias  speaks 
of  these,  when  he  upbraids  Israel,  sapng,  "  Thy 
hucksters  mix  wine  with  water,"  (so  the  Septuagint 
reads  it,)  Isa.  i.  22.  Neither  shall  he  receive  the 
oblations  of  whoremongers :  "  For  thou  shalt  not 
ofTer  to  the  Lord  the  hire  of  a  whore,"  Deut  xxiii. 
18.  Nor  the  oblations  of  covetous  and  adulterers  ; 
for  the  sacrifices  of  such  are  abomination  to  the 
Lord.  Nor  the  oblations  of  such  as  afflict  the 
widow  and  oppress  the  fatherless  by  their  power, 
and  fill  the  prisons  with  innocent  persons,  and  evil 
intreat  their  servants  ^\^th  stripes,  famine,  and  hard 
bondage ;  and  lay  waste  whole  cities  :  all  such  are 
to  be  rejected,  and  their  otferings  are  abominable. 
He  shall  also  refuse  all  corrupters,  and  lawyers  that 
plead  for  injustice,  and  makers  of  idols,  and  thieves, 
and  unrighteous  publicans,  and  those  that  use  frauds 
in  weight  or  measure ;  all  soldiers  that  are  false  ac- 
cusers, and  not  content  with  their  wages,  but  op- 
press the  poor ;  all  murderers  and  hangmen,  and 
unrighteous  judges,  drunkards,  blasphemers,  and 
abusers  of  themselves  with  mankind  ;  all  usurers ; 
and,  in  a  word,  every  wicked  man,  that  lives  in  re- 
bellion against  the  will  of  God.  St.  Chrysostom, 
particularly,  inveighing  against  oppressors,  who  of- 
fered alms  out  of  what  they  had  violently  taken 
from  others,  says  elegantly,'"  That  God  will  not  have 
his  altar  covered  with  tears  :  Christ  will  not  be  fed 
with  robbery ;  such  sort  of  sustenance  is  most  un- 
grateful to  him  :  it  is  an  aflft'ont  to  the  Lord,  to  offer 
unclean  things  to  him :  he  had  rather  be  neglected 
and  perish  by  famine  (in  his  poor  members)  than 
live  by  such  oblations.  The  one  indeed  is  cruelty, 
but  the  other  is  both  cruelty  and  an  affront.  It  is 
better  to  give  nothing,  than  to  give  that  which  is 
the  property  of  others.  What  the  author  of  the 
Constitutions  observes  of  idol-makers,  is  confirmed 
by  Tertullian,"  who  wrote  his  whole  book  of  Idol- 


atry in  a  manner  against  them,  where,  among  many 
other  things,  he  says,  they  that  followed  that  trade, 
were  not  to  be  admitted  into  the  house  of  God.  And 
it  is  very  remarkable  what  St.  Ambrose  told  Valen- 
tinian,  when  he  was  about  to  restore  the  heathen 
altars  at  the  intercession  of  Symmachus,  that  if  he 
so  far  contributed  toward  the  re-settlement  of  idol- 
atry, the  church  would  no  longer  receive  his  obla- 
tions :  What  will  you  answer,  says  he,  to  the  priest, '- 
when  he  sliall  say  unto  you.  The  church  requires 
not  your  gifts,  because  you  have  adorned  the  temples 
of  the  heathen  with  your  gifts.  The  altar  of  Christ 
refuses  your  oblations,  because  you  have  erected  an 
altar  to  the  idol-gods.  By  which  it  is  plain,  they 
rejected  the  oblations  not  only  of  professed  idolaters, 
but  all  such  as  were  abettors  of  them,  or  any  ways 
instrumental  in  giving  aid  or  encouragement  to 
idolatrous  practices.  Again,  it  was  a  standing  rule 
among  them,  not  to  admit  the  oblations  of  those, 
who,  having  a  right  to  communicate,  would  not  stay 
to  participate  of  the  communion.  This  is  expressly 
ordered  by  the  coimcil  of  Elibcris  -.'^  and  the  rule 
extended  further  to  all  those  that  for  any  crime  or 
heresy  were  excluded  from  communion  by  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  church,  or  were  not  in  full  commu- 
nion with  her.  Such  as  all  excommunicate  persons, 
all  catechumens,  penitents,  energumens,  and  stran- 
gers that  travelled  without  commendatory  letters, 
and  such  of  the  clergy  as  for  some  lesser  ofTenccs 
were  reduced  to  the  communion  of  strangers.  For, 
as  Albaspina?us  notes  rightly  upon  that  canon,  all 
these  were  in  some  measure  non-communicants,  as 
not  being  in  the  perfect  and  full  communion  of  the 
church.  The  energumens  are  particularly  specified  " 
in  the  next  canon  of  that  council,  as  persons  whose 
oblations  should  not  be  received,  nor  their  names 
mentioned  at  the  altar,  whilst  they  were  actually 
under  the  agitation  of  an  evil  spirit.  And  all  peni- 
tents, whilst  they  were  under  discipline,  were  in  the 
same  class ;  only  they  had  this  privilege,  that  if  they 
chanced  to  die  suddenly  whilst  they  were  doing  pe- 
nance, and  were  desirous  to  be  reconciled,  by  some 
canons'^  their  oblations  were  allowed  to  be  received 
after  death,  as  a  testimony  of  their  reconciliation 
and  admission  into  the  communion  of  the  church 
again  :  except  they  were  of  that  sort  of  penitents, 
to  whom  the  church  thought  fit  in  the  severity  of 
her  discipline  to  deny  all  external  communion  at 
the  hour  of  death;  of  which  there  are  many  instances 


'  Cone.  Carth.  4.  can.  94.  Eonun  qui  pauperes  oppri- 
munt,  (Jona  a  sacerdotibus  refutanda. 

^  Constit.  lib.  3.  cap.  8.  ^  Id.  lib.  4.  cap.  6. 

'» Chrys.  Horn.  86.  al.  87.  in  Mat.  p.  722.  Vid.  Horn.  72. 
in  Joan.  p.  466.    Et  Epiphan.  Exposit.  Fidei,  n.  23. 

"  Tertul.  de  Idololat.  cap.  5.  Respondebimus  ad  e.xcusa- 
tiones  hujusmodi  aitificum,  quos  nunquam  in  domum  Dei 
admitti  opnrtot,  si  quis  earn  disciplinam  norit. 

'-  Ambros.  Ep.  3U.  ad  Valenf.  Quid  respondebis  sacer- 
doti  dicenti  tibi:  Munera  tua  non  qua^rit  ecclesia,  quia 
3  c 


templa  gentilium  muneribus  ornasti.  Ara  Christi  dona 
tua  respuit,  quia  aram  siraulacris  fecisti. 

'^  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  28.  Episeopos,  plaeuit,  ab  eo  qui 
non  communicat,  munera  accipere  non  debere. 

"  Ibid.  can.  29.  Energumenus,  qui  erratico  spiritu  e.xa- 
gitatur,  bujus  nomen  neque  ad  altare  cum  oblatione  reci- 
tandum,  neque  permittendum  ut  sua  manu  in  ecclesia  uii- 
nistret. 

'^  Cone.  Arelatense  2.  can.  12.  Vasense  1.  can.  2.  Tolet. 
11.  can.  12. 


754 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


in  the  councils  of  Saixlicta,  Elibeiis,  and  others ; 
for  then  their  oblations  were  not  received  either 
living  or  drying :  or  else  when  they  had  been  so 
careless  as  not  to  desire  reconciliation  at  the  hour 
of  death ;  in  which  case,  as  Pope  Leo  says,"^  their 
cause  was  reserved  to  the  judgment  of  God,  in  whose 
hand  it  was  that  their  life  was  not  prolonged  till 
they  could  have  the  remedy  of  communion.  As  to 
the  church,  she  did  not  communicate  with  those 
after  death,  with  whom  she  did  not  communicate 
when  they  were  alive.  Nay,  sometimes  they  would 
not  receive  the  oblations  of  those  that  died  in  theii 
communion,  if  their  last  act  happened  to  have  any 
thing  irregular  in  it.  As  appears  from  a  case  in 
Cyprian,'"  who  tells  us.  That  it  had  been  determined 
by  an  African  synod,  that  no  one  should  appoint 
any  of  God's  ministers  a  curator  or  guardian  by  his 
will,  because  they  were  to  give  themselves  to  sup- 
plications and  prayer,  and  to  attend  only  upon  the 
sacrifice  and  service  of  the  altar:  and  therefore 
when  one  Geminius  Victor  had  made  Geminius 
Faustinus,  a  presbyter  of  the  church  of  Furni, 
guardian  or  trustee  by  his  last  will  and  testament, 
Cyprian  wrote  to  the  church  of  Furni,  That  they 
should  make  no  oblation  for  him,  or  name  him  in 
the  sacrifice  of  the  altar.  But  in  after  ages  this 
piece  of  discipline  was  a  little  moderated  in  France : 
for  by  a  canon  of  the  second  council  of  Orleans  it 
was  ordered,'^  That  if  any  one  died  in  the  commu- 
nion of  the  church,  his  oblation  should  be  received, 
though  he  happened  to  be  slain  in  some  fault,  pro- 
\dded  he  had  not  laid  violent  hands  upon  himself. 
But  this  privilege  was  not  allowed  the  catechumens 
that  died  without  baptism,  because  they  never  were 
perfectly  in  the  communion  of  the  church.  There- 
fore Chrysostom'^  says,  no  mention  was  ever  made 
of  them  after  death  in  the  prayers  of  the  church,  as 
was  usual  for  believers,  in  the  oblation  or  sacrifice 
of  the  altar.  The  only  thing  that  could  be  done  for 
such,  was  to  give  private  alms  to  the  poor.  If  they 
had  not  the  benefit  of  baptism,  they  were  to  be 
buried  as  persons  who  laid  violent  hands  upon  them- 
selves, or  fell  by  the  arm  of  justice,  without  any 
solemnity-"  of  burial,  or  commemoration  at  the  altar. 
In  short,  the  oblations  of  all  persons  who  were  not 


in  actual  or  full  communion  with  the  church,  were 
absolutely  rejected :  and  therefore  those  penitents 
who  had  gone  through  all  the  stages  of  discipline, 
and  were  now  allowed  to  stay,  and  hear  the  prayers 
with  the  rest  of  the  faithful,  were  not  yet  allowed 
to  make  any  oblations,  as  being  not  yet  fully  recon- 
ciled to  the  communion  of  the  altar.  Upon  this 
account  the  ancient  canons-'  style  them  koiviovovv- 
Tag  x'f'P'C  vpocTcpopag,  such  as  communicated  in  pray- 
ers only,  without  any  oblation.  But  this  was  more 
precisely  observed  in  the  beginning  of  their  censures. 
For  if  a  great  delinquent,  a  heretic  or  other  excom- 
municate person,  would  have  given  his  whole  estate 
to  the  church,  in  such  a  case  they  would  not  accept 
his  oblation.  There  goes  an  epistle  under  the 
name  of  St.  Austin  to  Count  Boniface,-^  wherein 
he  tells  him,  he  had  forbidden  all  his  clergy  to  ac- 
cept the  oblation  of  his  house,  and  interdicted  him 
all  communion,  till  he  had  done  penance  for  a  cer- 
tain bold  attempt,  and  offered  to  God  first  the  sacri- 
fice of  a  humble  and  contrite  heart  for  his  error. 
The  epistle  probably  is  not  St.  Austin's,  but  it  con- 
tains nothing  disagreeable  to  the  discipline  of  those 
times,  when  the  greatest  gift  would  not  be  accepted 
from  an  emperor,  if  he  were  a  heretic,  or  under  the 
censure  of  excommunication.  As  it  is  clear,  not 
only  from  what  has  been  observed  before  out  of  St. 
Ambrose's  epistle  to  Valentinian,  but  from  what 
Gregory  Nazianzen  ^  says  of  St.  Basil,  that  he  re- 
fused the  oblations  of  the  emperor  Valens,  because 
he  was  a  professed  enemy  of  the  Divinity  of  Christ, 
and  a  furious  defender  of  the  Arian  heresy.  So 
Liberius  refused  the  offering  of  Eusebius,  the  Arian 
statesman  under  Constantius,  as  we  are  told  by 
Athanasius "'  and  Theodoret,-*  who  reports  the  story 
with  all  its  circumstances  in  this  manner :  When 
Constantius  drove  Liberius  into  banishment,  be- 
cause he  would  not  subscribe  the  condemnation  of 
Athanasius  with  the  Nicene  faith,  he  sent  him  five 
hundred  shillings  {oXoKorlvovg)  to  bear  his  charges. 
But  Liberius  bid  the  messenger,  that  brought  them, 
return  them  to  the  emperor,  for  his  soldiers  had  more 
need  of  them.  The  empress  also  sent  him  the  same 
sum,  which  he  returned  to  the  emperor  with  a  like 
answer,  that  he  might  keep  them  for  bis  own  ex- 


'"  Leo,  Ep.  92.  ad  Rusticum,  cap.  6.  Horum  causa  Dei 
judicio  reservanda  est,  in  cujus  manu  fuit,  ut  talium  obitus 
non  usque  ad  comraunionis  remediuin  diffcrretur.  Nos  au- 
tem,  quibiis  viventibus  non  commuuicavimus,  mortuis  com- 
municare  non  possumus. 

"  Cypr.  Ep.  6G.  al.  1.  ad  Cler.  Furnitan.  p.  .3.  Ideo 
Victor  cum  contra  formam  nuper  in  concilio  a  sacerdotibus 
datam,  Geminium  Faustinum  presbyterum  ausus  sit  tutoreni 
constituere,  non  est  quod  pro  dormitione  ejusapud  vos  fiat 
oblatio,  aut  dcprecatio  aliqua  nomine  ejus  in  ccclesia  fre- 
quentetur. 

'"Cone.  Aurelian.  2.  can.  14.  Oblationem  defunctorum, 
qui  in  aliquo  crimino  fnerint  intercnipti,  recipi  deberc  cen- 
senius,  si  tauien  non   ipsi  sibi   mortem  probentur  propriis 


manibus  intulisse. 

'^Chrys.  Horn.  3.  in  Philip,  p.  1225.  Vid.  Horn.  1.  in 
Act.  et  Horn.  24.  in  Joan. 

^  Cone.  Bracar.  1.  can.  35.  Catechumenis  sine  redemp- 
tione  baptisnii  defunctis,  simili  modo,  non  oblationissanctae 
commemoratio,  ncque  psallendi  impendatur  officium. 

"'  Cone.  Nicen.  cau.  11.    Cone.  Ancyr.  can.  4,  5,  8,  &c. 

-'-  Aug.  Ep.  6.  ad  Bonifae.  in  Appendico,  t.  2.  Oblatio 
domijs  tuna  a  clericis  ne  suscipiatur,  indixi,  communionem 
que  tibi  interdico,  donee — pro  hoc  facto  corde  contrito  et 
huniiliato  dignuni  offeras  sacriliciiim  Deo. 

-3  Naz.  Oral.  20.  de  Laud.  Basil,  p.  351. 

-'  Athan.  Ep.  ad  Solitaries,  p.  834. 

-■''  Thcod.  lib.  2.  cap.  IG, 


Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


755 


peditions.  Last  of  all,  when  he  had  refused  both 
the  former,  Eusebius  the  eunuch  was  sent  to  make 
him  another  offer.  To  whom  Liberius  replied.  Thou 
hast  harassed  and  laid  waste  the  churches  over  all 
the  world,  and  dost  thou  now  offer  me  an  alms  as  a 
condemned  criminal  ?  But  go  thou  first,  and  learn 
to  become  a  Christian.  It  is  no  less  remarkable 
what  TertuUian  tells  us  of  the  church's  treatment 
of  INIarcion  the  heretic,  when  he  was  excommuni- 
cated with  Valentinus  for  his  heresy :  They  cast  him 
out,  with  his  two  hundred'-*  scstcrtia,  which  he  had 
brought  into  the  church.  They  were  so  far  from 
receiving  the  gifts  of  such  men,  that  they  rejected 
them  with  scorn,  as  St.  Peter  did  Simon  Magus, 
"  Thy  money  perish  with  thee :"  or  as  Abraham  re- 
jected the  gifts  of  the  king  of  Sodom,  saying,  "  I 
will  not  take  from  a  thread  even  to  a  shoe-latchet, 
I  will  not  take  any  thing  that  is  thine,  lest  thou 
shouldest  say,  I  have  made  Abraham  rich." 

And  as  they  thus  made  a  distinc- 

what  oblations  tlon  in  the  persons,  of  whom  they  re- 
might   be    received         .  '■  t,         , 

at  ttie  altar,  and  ccivcd,  SO,  secoudiy,  thcy  made  a  dis- 

what  not.  *^      _        •^ 

tinction  in  the  oblations  themselves, 
which  were  to  be  received.  For  the  most  ancient 
custom  was,  only  to  offer  such  things  at  the  altar 
as  were  proper  for  the  service  of  the  altar.  To  this 
purpose  there  are  several  canons  among  those  called 
the  Apostolical  Canons.  One  says,"  No  bishop  or 
presbyter,  under  pain  of  deposition,  shall  offer  any 
thing  in  the  sacrifice  on  the  altar  contrary  to  the 
Lord's  command,  as  honey,  milk,  or  strong  beer,  in- 
stead of  wine,  or  birds,  or  living  creatures,  excepting 
only  the  first-fruits  of  corn  and  grapes  in  their  proper 
season.  Another  forbids  any  thing  to  be  brought 
to  the  altar*  besides  oil  to  the  lamps,  and  incense  in 
the  time  of  the  oblation.  And  a  third ^  orders  all 
other  first-fruits  to  be  carried  home  to  the  bishop 
and  presbyters,  to  be  divided  between  them,  and  the 
deacons,  and  the  rest  of  the  clergy.  Some  of  the 
African  canons  are  to  the  same  purpose.  The  third 
council  of  Carthage  orders,^  That  in  the  sacra- 
ments of  the  body  and  blood  of  the  Lord  no- 
thing else  be  offered  but  what  the  Lord  commanded, 
that  is,  bread  and  wine  mingled  with  water.  Nor 
in  the  oblation  of  first-fruits  any  thing  more  be 
offered  but  only  grapes  and  corn.     The  collections 


of  African  canons,"  both  Greek  and  Latin,  give  us 
this  canon  a  little  more  at  large  in  these  words: 
Nothing  shall  be  offered  in  the  sacraments  of  the 
body  and  blood  of  the  Lord,  but  what  the  Lord 
himself  commanded,  that  is,  bread  and  wine  mingled 
with  water.  But  the  first-fruits,  and  honey  and 
milk,  which  is  offered  on  one  most  solemn  day  for 
the  mystery  of  infants,  though  they  be  offered  at  the 
altar,  shall  have  their  own  peculiar  benediction, 
that  they  may  be  distinguished  from  the  sacrament 
of  the  body  and  blood  of  the  Lord.  Neither  shall 
any  first-fruits  be  offered,  but  only  of  grapes  and 
corn.  Here  we  see,  milk  and  honey  was  only  to  be 
offered  on  one  solemn  day,  that  is,  on  the  great 
sabbath,  or  Saturday  before  Easter,  which  was  the 
most  solemn  time  of  baptism;  and  that  for  the 
mystery  of  infants,  that  is,  persons  newly  baptized, 
who  were  commonly  called  infants,  in  a  mystical 
sense,  from  their  new  birth,  in  the  African  church ; 
for  it  was  usual  to  give  them  a  taste  of  honey  and 
milk  immediately  after  baptism,  as  has  been  showed 
in  a  former  Book,*-  and  upon  that  account  an  obla- 
tion of  honey  and  milk  is  here  allowed  to  be  made 
for  this  mystery  of  infants,  which  was  to  be  offered 
and  consecrated  with  a  peculiar  benediction,  that  it 
might  not  be  thought  to  come  in  the  room  of  the 
eucharist.  And  no  other  first-fruits  are  allowed  to 
be  offered  at  the  altar  but  only  grapes  and  corn,  as 
being  the  materials  of  bread  and  wine,  out  of  which 
the  eucharist  was  taken.  In  the  time  of  the  coun- 
cil of  TruUo,  the  offering  of  milk  and  honey  at  the 
altar  was  universally  ^'  forbidden.  But  the  oblation 
of  the  first-fruits  of  grapes  was  still  allowed  ;  only, 
whereas  a  corrupt  custom  prevailed  in  some  places, 
to  join  them  in  the  same  sacrifice  with  the  eucha- 
rist, and  distribute  them  together  with  it  to  the  peo- 
ple, the  rule  of  the  African  Code  is  revived,  and 
orders  given,"  That  they  shall  have  a  distinct  con- 
secration, and  a  distinct  distribution,  if  the  people 
were  desirous  to  eat  their  first-fruits  in  the  church. 
In  the  meam  time  we  may  observe,  that  in  other 
churches  not  only  the  first-fruits  of  grapes  arid  corn, 
but  all  other  things  which  the  people  were  volun- 
tarily disposed  to  offer,  whether  money  or  the  Uke 
gifts,  were  received  at  the  altar.  For  in  France, 
the  first  council  of  Orleans  made  it  a  rule,*^  that  of 


*^  Tertul.  de  Praescript.  cap.  30.  Marcion  et  Valentinus 
semel  et  iterum  ejecti:  Marcion  quidem  cum  duceutis 
sestertiis,  quae  ecclesioe  intulerat. 

"'  Canon.  Apost.  can.  3.  ^  Can.  4. 

-9  Can.  5.   Vid.  Cone.  Eliber.  in  can.  49. 

^^  Cone.  Carth.  3.  can.  24.  Ut  in  sacramentis  corporis  et 
sanguinis  Domini  nihil  amplius  offeratur,  quam  ipse  Domi- 
nus  tradidit,  hoc  est,  panis  et  viuum  aqua  mixtum.  Nee 
amplius  in  sacrificiis  (al.  in  primitiis)  offeratur,  quam  de 
uvis  et  frumentis. 

"  Cone.  African,  can.  4.  ap.  Crab.  t.  ].  p.  503.  Ut  in 
sacramentis  corporis  et  sanguinis  Domini  nihil  amplius 
offeratur,  quam  quod  ipse  Dominus  tradidit,  hoc  est,  panis 
3  c  2 


et  vinum  aqua  mixtum.  Primitioe  vero,  sen  mel  et  lac, 
quod  uno  die  solennissimo  in  infantum  mysterio  solet  offerri, 
quamvis  in  altari  offerantur,  suam  tamen  propriam  habeant 
benedictionera,  ut  a  sacramento  Dominici  corporis  et  san- 
guinis distinguantur.  Nee  amplius  in  primitiis  offeratur, 
quam  de  uvis  et  frumentis.  Vid.  Cod.  Eccles.  Afric.  can 
37.  ap.  Justellum. 

3-  Book  XII.  chap.  4.  sect.  6. 

33  Cone.  Trull,  can.  57.  'i  ibid.  can.  28. 

*^  Cone.  Aurelian.  1.  can.  16.  Antiquos  canones  rele- 
gentes,  priora  statuta  credimus  renovauda,  ut  de  his  quae  in 
altario  oblatione  iidelnim  conferuntur,  medietatem  sibi  epis- 
copus  vLudicet,  Si:c.     Vid.  ibid.  can.  17. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


such  oblations  one  moiety  slionld  fall  to  the  bishop, 
and  the  other  be  divided  among  the  rest  of  the 
clerg)\  But  it  is  severely  censured  by  Strabo,""  as 
a  gross  piece  of  superstition  in  the  Roman  church, 
that  they  were  used  to  offer  and  consecrate  a  lamb, 
and  eat  the  consecrated  flesh  of  it,  out  of  a  pre- 
tended reverence  to  the  immaculate  Lamb  of  God, 
which  was  slain  for  the  sins  of  the  world.  Photius 
carries  the  charge  a  little  higher,  and  objects  to 
them,  that  they  offered  it  together  vdth  the  body  of 
Christ  upon  tlie  altar.  But  this  is  commonly^' 
said  to  be  an  aggravation  of  the  thing,  and  there- 
fore is  rejected  by  Carchnal  Bona  as  a  slander.  Bui 
he  owns  the  fact  so  far  as  it  is  related  by  Strabo, 
because  the  old  Ordo  Romanus  has  such  a  form  for 
the  consecration  of  a  lamb  on  Easter  day,  and  it  is 
agreeable  to  their  present  practice.  Only  he  blames 
Strabo  for  being  too  zealous  in  his  censure  of  this 
rite,  and  inveighing  against  it  as  a  superstitious  and 
erroneous  practice.  Which  only  shows,  how  much 
Bona  was  inclined  to  defend  the  superstitions  that 
Avere  crept  into  his  church,  without  any  foundation 
in  ancient  practice. 

But  I  proceed  with  the  practice  of 

Tiie  names  of       jj^g  aucicnt  churcli,  and  observe,  third- 
such  as  made  obla-    *"    ^  "■  J  ? 

siderabie  vXe're-"  ^^  that  when  their  oblations  were  re- 

liearsed  at  the  altar.    g^J^g^^  j|.  ^.jjg  ^gyj^^  j^  ^^^ny  plaCCS  tO 

rehearse  the  names  of  such  as  offered,  that  a  com- 
memoration of  them  might  be  made,  and  prayers 
and  praises  be  offered  to  God  for  them  at  the  altar. 
I  have  already  had  occasion  to  say  something  of 
this  custom^  out  of  St.  Cyprian  ^^  and  St.  Jerom,'"' 
in  speaking  of  deacons,  whose  office  it  was  to  recite 
the  names.  To  these  I  shall  now  add  some  further 
evidences,  both  out  of  these  and  other  writers.  Cy- 
prian, in  one  of  his  epistles  to  the  churches  of  Nu- 
midia,  speaking  of  a  collection  that  had  been  made 
at  Carthage  for  them,""  says,  he  had  sent  them  the 
names  of  every  brother  and  sister,  that  had  con- 
tributed willingly  to  so  necessary  a  work,  (it  was  to 
redeem  captives,)  that  they  might  remember  them 
in  their  prayers,  and  requite  their  good  work  in 
their  sacrifices  and  solemn  supplications;  he  had 
also  added  the  names  of  such  of  his  fellow  bishops 


^^  Strabo  de  Rebus  Eccles.  cap.  18.  Dupin  says  also, 
that  there  is  an  example  of  this  usage  in  the  Life  of  St. 
Uklarick,  and  that  both  Ratramnus  and  yEneas  Parisiensis 
wrote  in  defence  of  it  against  Photius,  but  he  says,  it  was 
not  authorized  in  all  the  Latin  churches.  Du  Pin,  Cent. 
9.  p.  113. 

^'  Nicolai  Pap;c  Epist.  ap.  Baron,  t.  10.  an.  807.  Bona, 
Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  2.  cap.  8.  u.  5.  Hoc  putiilura  niendaciuui 
est,  izc. 

^  Book  II.  chap.  20.  sect.  5. 

39Cypr.  Ep.  10.  al.  16.  p.37. 

"  Hieron.  Com.  in  Ezek.  .xviii.  p.  537. 

^'  Cyprian.  Ep.  GO.  al.  G2.  ad  Episcopos  Numidas,  p.  117. 
Ut  autem  fratres  nostros  ac  sorores,  qui  ad  hoc  opus  tarn 
necessarium  prompte  ac  libenter  opcrali  sunt,  ut  semper 


as  were  then  present,  and  had  contributed  both  in 
their  own  names,  and  the  names  of  their  respective 
churches ;  and  he  had  signified  the  sums  that  every 
one  gave,  that,  as  the  common  faith  and  charity  re- 
quired, mention  might  be  made  of  them  in  their 
supplications  and  prayers.  St.  Jerom  says"  the 
same  in  another  place,  That  now  the  names  of  such 
as  offered  were  publicly  rehearsed,  and  that  which 
was  the  redemption  of  sins,  was  made  matter  of 
praise  and  glory :  and  men  did  not  remember  the 
widow  in  the  Gospel,  whose  two  mites  cast  into  the 
treasury,  exceeded  all  the  gifts  of  the  rich,  who  cast 
in  of  their  abundance.  Some  think"  St.  Jerom 
here  reflects  upon  the  practice  of  the  church,  as  if 
he  disliked  the  mentioning  of  the  sums  offered, 
which  they  say,  without  doubt,  was  a  conniption. 
But  they  mistake  St.  Jerom's  meaning :  for  he  is 
not  blaming  the  practice  of  the  church,  but  the 
practice  of  those  who  gave  out  of  ostentation  and 
vain-glory ;  and  when  they  were  privately  guilty  of 
theft  or  oppression,  thought  to  get  esteem  and  re- 
putation, by  giving  a  little  of  their  ill-gotten  goods 
to  the  poor ;  pleasing  themselves  with  the  applause 
of  the  people,  whilst  their  own  consciences  must 
needs  lash  and  torment  them,  as  he  expresses  it  in 
another^'  place.  It  was  fit  for  them  to  remember 
the  widow's  mites,  which  were  a  moi'e  acceptable 
sacrifice  to  God  than  the  greatest  gifts  of  injustice 
that  they  could  offer  him.  So  he  does  not  condemn 
the  custom  of  rehearsing  the  names  of  the  donors 
as  a  corruption,  but  only  the  private  abuses  that  by 
the  viciousness  of  men  did  sometimes  accompany  it. 
St.  Chrysostom,'^  and  the  author  of  the  Constitu- 
tions,""* have  some  reference  to  the  same  custom :  the 
latter  orders  the  bishop  to  acquaint  the  poor  who 
were  their  benefactors,  that  they  might  pray  for 
them  by  name.  And  Cotclerius  observes "  a  like 
passage  in  the  acts  of  Cecilian  and  Felix,  where  the 
form  runs  thus :  Such  a  one  gives  so  much  of  his 
substance  to  the  poor ;  for  which  those  acts  appeal 
to  the  people's  own  eyes  and  ears.  When  the  obla- 
tions were  thus  presented,  and  the  names  of  the 
donors  rehearsed,  then  it  was  usual  in  some  places 
to  make  a  commendatory  prayer,  by  way  of  oblation 


operentur,  in  mentem  habeatis  in  orationibus  vestris,  et  eis 
vicem  boni  operis  in  sacrificiis  et  precibus  reprcesentetis, 
subdidi  uomina  singulorum,  &c. 

^-'  Hieron.  in  Jerem.  xi.  lib.  2.  p.  354.  Nunc  publice  re- 
citantur  ofl'erentium  nomina,  et  redemptio  peccatorum  mu- 
tatur  in  laudem  :  nee  meminerunt  vidua;  illius  in  Evangelio, 
quae  in  gazophylacium  duo  ajra  mittendo,  omnium  divitum 
vicit  donaria. 

"  Comber  of  Liturgies,  p.  196. 

■"  Hieron.  in  Ezek.  xviii. 

"■'  Chrys.  Hom.  18.  in  Act.  p.  175. 

^«  Constit.  lib.  3.  cap.  4. 

*'  Gesta  Purgationis  Caaciliani  et  Felic.  Vel  audisti,  vel 
vidisti,  si  dictum  est  paiiperibus,  Dat  et  vobis  de  re  sua 
Lucilla. 


Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


757 


to  God,  antecedent  to  those  eucharistical  prayers 
which  were  appropriated  to  the  consecration  of  the 
eucharist.  This  may  be  collected  from  the  epistle 
of  Pope  Innocent  to  Decentius,"*  a  neighbouring 
bishop  of  Eugubium,  where  he  speaks  of  such  an 
oblation  by  a  commendatory  prayer  going  before 
the  consecration :  which,  he  says  also,  in  the  Roman 
church  was  used  to  be  made  before  the  recital  of 
the  names  of  the  offerers,  which  were  not  rehearsed 
till  they  came  to  the  consecration.  But  whether 
such  a  distinct  oblation  of  the  creatures  was  made 
in  all  churches,  seems  not  so  very  clear,  because 
other  writers,  Justin  Martyr,  Ireneeus,  and  the  Con- 
stitutions, say  nothing  of  it. 

„  ,  Fourthly,  we  are  to  observe  upon 

Sect  0.  '  ^ 

The  eucharistical  ^his  head,  That  so  long  as  the  people 

elements  usimlly  '  o  x        i 

pk's"ob'ia.ions!an'd  contlnucd  to  make  oblations  of  bread 
of"va'}"i^"OT  uuiea!  and  wlue,  the  elements  for  the  use  of 
the  eucharist  were  usually  taken  out 
of  them ;  and  by  consequence,  so  long  the  bread 
was  that  common  leavened  bread,  which  they  used 
upon  other  occasions ;  and  the  use  of  wafers  and 
luileavened  bread  was  not  known  in  the  church  till 
the  eleventh  or  twelfth  centuries,  when  the  oblations 
of  common  bread  began  to  be  left  off  by  the  people. 
This  will  seem  a  great  paradox  to  all  who  look  no 
further  than  the  schoolmen,  and  only  read  their  dis- 
putes with  the  Greeks  about  leavened  and  unleavened 
bread,  which  are  fierce  enough  on  both  sides,  and 
have  little  of  truth  on  either :  as  commonly  such 
disputes  evaporate  into  smoke,  and  end  in  bitter 
and  false  reproaches  ;  the  Greeks  terming  the  La- 
tins Azymites,  for  consecrating  in  azi/mis,  that  is, 
unleavened  bread ;  and  the  Latins,  on  the  other 
hand,  charging  the  Greeks  with  deviating  from  the 
example  of  Christ,  and  the  practice  of  the  ancient 
church.  I  will  not  enter  into  the  detail  of  the  ar- 
guments on  both  sides,  which  belongs  not  to  this 
place  ;  but  only  acquaint  the  reader,  that  now  the 
most  wise  and  learned  men  in  the  Roman  church, 
who  have  more  exactly  scanned  and  examined  this 
matter,  think  fit  to  desert  the  schoolmen,  and 
maintain,  that  the  whole  primitive  church,  and  the 
Roman  church  herself  for  many  ages,  never  con- 
secrated the  eucharist  in  any  other  but  common 
and  leavened  bread.  The  first  that  ventured  to 
break  the  ice,  and  confront  the  schoolmen,  was 


Latinus  Latinius,  in  an  epistle  to  Antonius  Augus- 
tinus.  After  him  Sirmondus  wrote  a  particular 
disquisition  upon  it,  which  was  followed  and  com- 
mended by  Cardinal  Bona,"  who  has  a  long  dis- 
sertation to  establish  the  opinion,  wherein  he 
exposes  the  prejudices  and  false  argumentations  of 
Thomas  Aquinas  and  the  rest  of  the  schoolmen. 
And  though  Christianus  Lupus'"  set  himself  again 
with  all  his  might  to  defend  the  common  opinion 
of  the  schoolmen  against  Sirmondus;  yet  his  ar- 
guments are  of  no  weight  with  Schelstrate^'  and 
Pagi,  who  readily  give  in  to  the  position  of  Bona 
and  Sirmondus,  as  founded  upon  the  justest  reasons. 
The  chief  argument  of  the  schoolmen  is  no  ways 
conclusive,  that  the  primitive  church  followed  the 
example  of  Christ,  who  celebrated  his  last  supper 
with  unleavened  bread.  For  that  was  only  upon 
the  account  of  the  passover,  when  no  other  but  un- 
leavened bread  could  be  used  among  them.  After 
his  resurrection  he  probably  celebrated  in  leavened 
bread,  and  such  as  was  in  common  use  at  all  other 
times,  except  the  time  of  the  passover.  And  that 
the  church  always  used  common  bread,  appears 
from  the  following  arguments :  I.  That  the  ele- 
ments were  usually  taken  out  of  the  oblations  of 
the  peo[)le,  where,  doubtless,  common  bread  and 
wine  were  offered.  2.  It  is  noted  by  Epiphanius,'^ 
as  a  peculiar  rite  of  the  Ebionite  heretics,  that 
they  celebrated  in  unleavened  bread  and  water 
only ;  which  plainly  argues,  that  the  church  did 
otherwise.  3.  The  ancients  say  expressly  their 
bread  was  common  bread,  such  as  they  made  for 
their  own  use''  upon  other  occasions.  To  which 
purpose  there  is  a  remarkable  story  in  the  Life  of 
Gregory  the  Great,'*  of  a  woman,  who,  when  he 
gave  her  the  eucharist  in  the  usual  form  of  words 
"  The  body  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  preserve  thy 
soul,"  laughed  at  the  form ;  and  being  asked  the 
reason  of  her  so  doing,  said  it  was  because  he 
called  that  the  body  of  Christ,  which  she  knew  to 
be  bread  that  she  had  made  with  her  own  hands. 
4.  The  ancients  are  wholly  silent  as  to  the  use 
of  unleavened  bread  in  the  church.  But  they  many 
times  speak  of  leavened  bread,  and  sometimes  the 
eucharist  is  called  fennentum,  leaven,  upon  that 
account.  As  a])pears  from  the  Pontifical  in  the 
Lives"  of  Melchiades  and  Siricius,  and  a  letter  of 


^^  Innoc.  Ep.  1.  ad  Decentium,  cap.  2.  Do  uominibus 
vero  recitandis,  antequam  preces  sacerclos  facial,  atqiio 
eoriim  oblationes,  quorum  nomiua  recitanda  sunt,  sua  ora- 
tions commendet,  quam  superlluum  sit,  et  ipse  per  tuam 
prudentiam  recognoscis,  ut  cujus  hostiam  nocduni  Deo 
offeras,  ejus  ante  nomen  insinues,  quamvis  illi  incognituni 
sit  nihil.  Prius  ergo  oblationes  sunt  coinmendaudae,  ac 
tunc  eoruni  nouiina,  quorum  sunt  oblationes,  edicenda,  ut 
inter  sacra  mysteria  nominentur,  non  inter  alia,  quK  ante 
proeinittiiuus,  ut  ipsis  mysteriis  viam  futuris  piecibus  aperi- 
anuis. 

^'  Bona,  Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  1.  cap.  23. 


•'"  Lupus,  Not.  in  Concil.  t.  3.  p.  GSG,  &c. 

^'  I'agi,  Critic,  in  Baron,  an.  313.  n.  15.  ct  Schelstrate, 
Uisciplina  Arcaui,  cap.  7.  par.  5.  ap.  Pagi,  ibidem. 

"  Epiphan.  H.cr.  30.  Ebionit.  n.  16. 

*^  Ambros.  de  Sacram.  lib.  4.  cap.  4.  Tu  forte  dicis,  Meus 
panis  est  usitatus,  &c. 

'*'  Greg.  Vita,  lib.  2.  cap.  41. 

°^  Pontifical.  Vit.  Melchiadis.  Hie  fecit  ut  oblationes 
consecratae  per  ecclesias  e.\  consccratu  episcopi  dirigeutur, 
quod  declaratur  fernientum.  Id.  Vit.  Siricii.  Hie  con- 
stituit,  ut  nuUus  presbyter  missas  cclebraret  per  omneiu 
hebdomadam,  nisi  conseciatiim  episcopi  loci  designati  sus- 


758 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


Pope  Innocent,  where  he  says,  it  was  the  custom 
at  Rome  to  consecrate  the  fcrmcntum,  that  is,  the 
eucharist,  in  the  mother-church,  and  send  it  thence 
on  the  Lord's  day  to  the  presbyters  in  the  tltuli, 
or  lesser  churches,  that  they  might  not  think 
themselves  separated  from  the  bishop's  communion. 
But  they  did  not  send  it  to  any  country  parishes, 
because  the  sacraments  were  not  to  be  carried  to 
places  at  any  great  distance.  What  is  here  called  the 
consecrated  fermentum,  is,  by  Baronius  and  others, 
who  tread  in  the  track  of  the  schoolmen,  interpret- 
ed of  the  eulogia,  or  j)0'nis  benedictus,  the  bread  that 
was  blessed  for  such  as  did  not  communicate.  But 
Innocent  plainly  says,  he  meant  it  of  the  sacrament, 
which  was  consecrated  by  the  bishop,  and  sent  to 
the  presbyters  for  the  use  of  lesser  churches.  Which 
shows,  that  at  that  time,  even  in  Rome  itself,  the 
eucharist  was  consecrated  in  common  or  leavened 
bread.  5.  It  is  observable,  that  neither  Photius,  nor 
any  other  Greek  writer,  before  Michael  Cerularius, 
anno  1051,  ever  objected  the  use  of  unleavened  bread 
to  the  Roman  church :  which  argues,  that  the  use 
of  it  did  not  prevail  till  about  that  time ;  else  there 
is  no  doubt  but  Photius  would,  among  other  things, 
have  objected  this  to  them.  These  arguments  put 
the  matter  beyond  all  dispute,  that  the  church  for  a 
thousand  years  used  no  other  but  common  or  lea- 
vened bread  in  the  eucharist ;  and  how  the  change 
was  made,  or  the  time  exactly  when,  is  not  easy  to 
determine.  But  Bona's  conjecture  is  very  probable. 
That  it  crept  in  upon  the  people's  leaving  off  to  make 
their  oblations  in  common  bread,  which  occasioned 
the  clergy  to  provide  it  themselves,  and  they,  under 
pretence  of  decency  and  respect,  brought  it  from 
leaven  to  unleaven,  and  from  a  loaf  of  common 
bread,  that  might  be  broken,  to  a  nice  and  delicate 
wafer,  formed  in  the  figure  of  a  denarius,  or  penny, 
to  represent  the  pence  (as  some  authors^''  about  that 
time  will  have  it)  for  which  our  Saviour  was  be- 
trayed ;  and  then  also  the  people,  instead  of  offering 
a  loaf  of  bread,  as  formerly,  were  ordered  to  offer  a 
penny,  which  was  either  to  be  given  to  the  poor,  or 
to  be  expended  upon  something  appertaining  to  the 
sacrifice  of  the  altar.  Tliis  is  the  short  history  of 
a  great  change  made  insensibly  in  a  matter  of  small 
moment,  if  we  consider  barely  the  question  about 
the  use  of  leavened  and  unleavened  bread ;  for  it  is 


very  indifferent  in  itself,  whether  is  used,  so  long  as 
peace  is  preserved  in  the  church :  but  in  the  conse- 
quences and  progress  of  the  dispute  it  was  no  small 
matter ;  for  the  East  and  West  divided  about  it.,  and 
the  Western  church  ran  so  far  into  an  extreme,  as 
almost  to  lose  the  nature  of  the  sacramental  ele- 
ment, by  introducing  a  thing  that  could  hardly  be 
called  bread,  instead  of  that  common  staff  of  life 
which  the  Lord  had  appointed  to  be  the  representa- 
tion of  his  body  in  the  eucharist. 

There  wanted  not  some  discerning 
and  judicious  men  in  a  dark  age,  who  .  The  use  of 'wafers 

,     .         ^       p     ,  instead  of  bread,  con- 

complamed  of  the  abuse  as  soon  as  it  demnedinthekfirst 

^  _  originaL 

began  to  be  introduced.  For  Bernol- 
dus,  a  learned  presbyter  of  Constance,  about  the 
year  1089,  wrote  a  book  De  Ordine  Romano,  wherein 
he  thus  reflects  upon  these  wafer-hosts  or  oblations : 
If  no  less  measure  than  a  handful  be  found  men- 
tioned in  all  the  Old  and  New  Testament ;  and  no- 
thing ought  to  be  done  in  the  temple  of  the  Lord 
without  measure  and  reason ;  these  minute  oblations 
seem  not  to  appertain  to  Christ  or  his  church,*'  be- 
cause they  are  without  measure  and  reason.  This 
author  was  a  little  too  bold  and  free  with  the  cor- 
ruptions and  abuses  of  the  Roman  church,  ever  to 
see  the  light.  But  Trithemius  mentions  the  book,^ 
and  gives  an  honourable  character  of  the  author. 
And  Cassander  saw  it  in  manuscript,  and  published 
this  fragment  of  it  in  his  Liturgies  f^  where  he  also 
makes  a  severe  reflection  upon  the  corruption  and 
vanity  of  that  age,  for  departing  from  the  ancient 
practice,  and  introducing  an  imaginaiy  sort  of  bread, 
which  deserved  more  the  name  of  the  shadow  than 
the  substance.  Which  just  reflection  is  repeated 
from  Cassander,  not  only  by  Vossius,*"  but  ingenu- 
ously also  by  Cardinal  Bona,*^'  in  his  animadversions 
upon  this  unwarrantable  alteration.  Yet  some  there 
are  who  pretend  antiquity  for  this  also.  Durantus*' 
thought  he  had  found  this  wafer-bread  in  Epipha- 
nius,  because  he  says,  the  bread  was  dproQ  (rrpoyyv- 
XoiiStjs  Kat  ava'wQtjTOQ,^  which  they  render,  bread  of 
a  circular  figure,  and  so  minute  that  it  could  hardly 
be  perceived  by  the  senses.  Whereas  it  should  be 
rendered,  bread  of  a  solid,  round,  globular  figure, 
without  life  or  sense,  which  yet  might  represent 
Him,  who  is  all  life,  and  infinite,  and  incomprehen- 
sible.    Which  agrees  well  to  the  character  of  the 


fiperet  dcclaratum,  quoil  iiominatur  fermentum.  Innoc. 
Ep.  ad  Decentium,  cap.  5.  Presbyteri  fermentum  a  nobis 
confectum  per  acolythos  accipiunt,  ut  se  a  nostra  com- 
mnnione  inaxime  ilia  die  non  judiceut  separatos.  Quod 
per  parochias  fieri  debcre  non  puto,  quia  non  longe  por- 
tanda  sunt  sacraiuenta,  &c. 

^^  Honorius,  Gemma  Animoo,  lib.  1.  cap.  66.  ap.  Bonam. 
Quia  populo  non  communicante  non  erat  necesse  panem  tam 
magnum  fieri,  statutum  est  eum  in  modum  denarii  formari 
vel  fieri ;  et  ut  populus  pro  oblatione  fariusB  denarios  offer- 
ret,  pro  quibus  traditum  Domintim  recognoscerent,  &c. 

"  Beruoldus  de  Ordine  Romano,  ap.  Cassandrum  in  Li- 


turgicis,  cap.  27.  Si  minor  mensura  quam  pugillus  non  in- 
vcnitur  in  toto  serie  Veteris  et  Novi  Testamenti ;  et  si  nihil 
oumino  debet  fieri  intra  vel  e.xtra  templum  Domini  absque 
monsura  et  ratione;  videntur  oblatarum  minutiae  ad  Chris- 
tum et  ad  ecclesiam  nihil  pertinere,  quia  sunt  absque  men- 
sura et  ratione. 

■'*  Trithem.  de  Scriptor.  Eccles.  fol.  66. 

'••^  Cassander.  Liturgic.  x.  cap.  27. 

""  Voss.  Thes.  Theol.  de  Symbolis  Cccna3  Domin.  p.  441. 

«'  Bona,  Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  1.  cap.  23.  n.  II. 

"■-'  Durant.  de  Ritibus,  lib.  2.  cap.  38.  n.  6. 

''■*  Epiphan.  Anchorat.  n.  57. 


Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


759 


eiicharistical  bread  used  in  Epiphanius's  time,  when 
it  was  the  custom  to  ofter  round  and  whole  sohd 
loaves  of  bread,  but  has  no  rehvtion  to  the  wafei;- 
bread  of  later  ages.  Durantus  urges  further  the 
testimony  of  Gregory  the  Great,"  who  calls  the  ob- 
lations, ohlationum  coronas,  crowns  of  bread ;  which 
may  imply,  that  they  were  round  loaves  of  bread ; 
but  not  therefore  wafers,  unless  every  thing  that  is 
round  be  a  wafer.  He  adds  St.  Chrysostom  also, 
but  he  misquotes  him;  for  the  Greek"  has  nothing 
of  what  is  cited.  But  he  might  have  added  truly 
Ca?sarius,  Gregory  Nazianzen's  brother,*^  who,  com- 
paring the  natural  and  the  sacramental  body  of 
Christ  together,  says,  the  one  was  distinguished 
into  several  members,  but  the  other  was  roimd. 
And  Iso  the  monk,"  who  calls  the  oblations,  rotulas 
panis,  rolls  of  bread,  no  doubt  from  the  roundness 
of  their  figure :  and  the  sixteenth  council  of  Tole- 
do,*^  which  speaks  of  their  rotundity  also.  But,  as 
Cardinal  Bona  rightly  observes,  this  rotundity  im- 
plies round  loaves  of  bread,  and  not  round  wafers ; 
of  which  there  was  no  use  or  knowledge  in  former 
ages,  when  they  used  such  loaves  of  common  bread 
as  the  people  offered,  or  else  such  as  were  prepared 
particularly  for  the  purpose ;  yet  still  loaves  of 
bread,  not  wafers  ;  and  common  or  leavened  bread, 
not  unleavened,  of  which  there  is  not  the  least  in- 
timation given  in  any  part  of  the  church  for  above 
a  thousand  years,  as  that  learned  cardinal  has 
proved  beyond  all  exception,  to  whose  diligence  we 
chiefly  owe  the  illustration  of  this  matter  in  that 
curious  dissertation  of  his  upon  the  subject. 

The  other  part  of  the  sacrament 
Wine  nii.\'e'd  with  was  always  wine,  and  that  taken  also 

water    commonly  /.      i  i       . 

used  in  the  ancient    QUt    of    the     oblatlOHS    of    the    pCOple. 

Some  of  the  ancient  heretics,  under 
pretence  of  abstinence  and  temperance,  changed  this 
element  into  water,  and  consecrated  in  water  only. 
These  were  some  of  them  disciples  of  Ebion,  and 
some  the  followers  of  Tatian,  commonly  called  Hij- 
droparastat^  and  Aqiiarii,  from  the  use  of  water ;  and 
sometimes  Encratitce,  from  their  abstaining  wholly 
from  flesh  and  wine.  And  this  seems  to  have  been 
the  ground  of  their  errors,  that  they  thought  it 
universally  unlawful  to  eat  flesh  or  drink  wine. 
Under  this  character  they  are  frequently  condemn- 
ed, by  Epiphanius,'*''  who  terms  them  Encratites, 


®'  Greg.  Dialog,  lib.  4.  cap.  55. 
"  Chrys.  Horn.  ^3.  in  ]\Iatt. 
««  Coesar.  Dialoj,'.  3.  Quffist.  169. 
^'  Iso  de  Miraculis  S.  Othomavi,  cap.  3. 
•»  Cone.  Tolet.  16.  can.  6. 

^  Epiph.  Hot.  4G.  Encratit.  Hoer.  30.  Ebionit.  n.  10. 
'"  Aug.  de  HLPres.  cap.  64. 
"  Theod.  de  Fabulis  Iherot.  lib.  1.  cap.  20. 
'■-  Chrys.  Horn.  83.  in  Mat.  p.  700. 

"  Philastr.de  Ha^res.  cap.  77.    Iren.  lib. 5.  cap.  I.    Clem. 
Strom.  1.  p.  .375.   Pocdag.  lib.  2.  c.  2. 
"  Cone.  Trull,  can.  .32.     Vid.  Cod.  Theodosian.  lib.  16. 


and  by  St.  Austin,""  under  the  name  of  Aquarians, 
and  by  Theodoret,"  who  says  they  sprung  from 
Tatian,  and  were  called  Ili/droparastatce,  because 
they  oflered  water  instead  of  wine  ;  and  Encratita;, 
because  they  wholly  abstained  from  wine  and  living 
creatures.  St.  Chrysostom"  calls  it  the  pernicious 
heresy  of  those  that  used  only  water  in  their  mys- 
teries, whereas  our  Lord  instituted  them  in  wine, 
and  drunk  wine  at  his  common  table  after  his  re- 
surrection, to  prevent  the  budding  of  this  wicked 
heresy.  The  like  may  be  read  in  Philastrius,'' 
and  long  before  in  Irenajus  and  Clemens  Alexan- 
drinus,  not  to  mention  the  council  of  Trullo'*  or 
any  later  writers.  But  it  is  to  be  observed,  that 
beside  these  there  were  another  sort  of  Aquarians, 
who  did  not  reject  the  use  of  wine  as  simply  un- 
lawful, either  in  itself,  or  in  the  eucharist ;  for  in 
their  evening  service  they  consecrated  the  eucharist 
in  wine,  but  not  in  their  morning  assemblies,  for 
fear  the  smell  of  the  wine  should  discover  them  to 
the  heathen.  St.  Cyprian  gives  a  long  account  of 
these  in  one  of  his  epistles,'*  which  is  particularly 
designed  against  them.  From  which  it  also  ap- 
pears, that  the  custom  of  the  church  then  was  to 
use  wine  mixed  with  water,  and  he  pleads  for  both 
as  necessary  from  the  command  and  example  of 
Christ;  adding  some  other  reasons  why  it  should 
be  so,  as  that  the  water  represents  the  people,  as 
the  wine'^  does  the  blood  of  Christ;  and  when  in 
the  cup  the  water  is  mingled  with  the  wine,  Christ 
and  his  people  are  united  together.  And  so,  he  says, 
in  sanctifying  the  cup  of  the  Lord,  water  cannot  be 
offered  alone;  as  neither  can  the  wine  be  offered 
alone  :  for  if  the  wine  be  offered  by  itself,  the  blood 
of  Christ  begins  to  be  without  us ;  and  if  the  water 
be  alone,  the  people  begin  to  be  without  Christ. 
The  third  council  of  Carthage  seem  to  have  had  the 
same  opinion  of  the  necessity  of  v\ater,  when  they 
determined,  as  we  have  heard  before,  that  nothing 
should  be  offered  at  the  altar"  but  what  the  Lord 
himself  commanded,  that  is,  bread,  and  wine  min- 
gled with  water.  And  St.  Austin  was  a  member  of 
that  council,  and  therefore  may  be  supposed  to  have 
been  of  the  same  judgment.  He  also  quotes  the 
foresaid  epistle  of  Cyprian  with  approbation.™ 
Gennadius"  assigns  two  reasons  for  the  use  of 
mixing  water  with  wine  ;  first,  because  it  is  accord- 


Tit.  5.  de  Haereticis,  Leg.  7.  It.  Theodosii  Novel.  3.  ad 
calcem,  t.  6. 

"  Cypr.  Ep.  63.  ad  Ca;cilitira. 

'*  Ibid.  p.  15-3.     Videmus  in  aqua  populum  intelligi,  in 

vino  vero  osteudi  sanguincm  Christi Sic  autem  in  sane- 

tilicando  calice  Doiuiui,  ofl'erri  aqua  sola  non  putest,  quo- 
laodo  nee  vinuui  solum  potest :  nam  si  vinum  tantum  quis 
otferat,  sanguis  Christi  incipit  esse  sine  nobis  :  si  vero  aqua 
sit  sola,  plebs  incipit  esse  sine  Christo. 

•■  Cone.  Carth.  3.  can.  24. 

"  Aug.  de  Doetrina  Christ,  lib.  4.  cap.  21. 

"  Gennad.  de  Eccles.  Dogm.  c.  75.     In  eucharistia  non 


760 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV 


ing  to  the  example  of  Christ ;  and  secondly,  because 
when  our  Saviour's  side  was  pierced  with  the  spear, 
there  came  forth  water  and  blood.  This  latter  reason 
is  also  assigned  by  St.  Ambrose,  or  whoever  wrote 
the  book  De  Sacramentis  under  his  name  f"  and  by 
Martin  Bracarensis,"'  in  his  collection  of  Greek  ca- 
nons. The  author  of  the  epistle  to  the  Egyptians 
under  the  name  of  Pope  Julius,'-  insists  upon  Cy- 
prian's reason,  that  it  is  to  show  the  union  of  Christ 
with  his  people.  And  the  third  council  of  Braga 
relates  Cyprian's  words,  coiTecting  several  other 
abuses  that  were  crept  into  the  administration  of 
this  sacrament  ;"*  as  of  some  who  offered  milk  in- 
stead of  wine ;  and  others  who  only  dipped  the 
bread  into  the  wine,  and  so  denied  the  people  their 
complement  of  the  sacrament ;  and  others  who  used 
no  other  wine  but  what  they  pressed  out  of  the 
clusters  of  grapes  that  were  then  presented  at  the 
Lord's  table.  All  which  they  condemn,  and  order 
that  nothing  but  bread  and  wine  mingled  with  water 
should  be  offered,  according  to  the  determination  of 
the  ancient  councils.  The  council  of  Auxerre  notes 
some  others  who  offer  mead,  or  honey  and  water 
mixed  together,"  who  are  also  condemned,  as  going 
against  the  common  rule  of  offering  nothing  but 
wine  and  water  in  the  sacrifice  of  the  altar.  The 
author  of  the  Commentaries  upon  St.  Mark  under 
the  name  of  St.  Jerom,**  gives  another  reason  for 
mixing  water  with  wine,  that  by  the  one  we  might 
be  purged  from  sin,  and  by  the  other  redeemed  from 
punishment.  These  reasons  indeed  are  no  ways 
demonstrative  ;  however,  that  the  practice  was  both 
ancient  and  general,  is  evident  from  Justin  Mar- 
tyr,** and  Ireneeus,"  who  mention  it  as  the  custom 
of  the  church,  without  assigning  any  further  reason 
for  it.  And  so  likewise  Gregory  Nyssen'"  and  Theo- 
doret,'®  with  some  others  produced  by  Vossius  in  his 
dissertation*"  upon  this  subject.  The  Armenians 
are  said  to  have  consecrated  only  in  wine,  but  that 
is  reckoned  an  error  in  them  by  Theophylact,"  and 
they  are  equally  condemned  with  the  Hijdroparas- 
tatce  or  Aquarians  by  the  council  of  Trullo,'-  which 
produces  the  authority  of  St.  James  and  St.  Basil's 


liturgy  against  them.  To  which  may  be  added  the 
hturgies  under  the  name  of  St.  Mark  and  St,  Chry- 
sostom,  and  the  Constitutions.**  Yet,  after  all,  as 
there  is  no  express  command  for  this  in  the  institu- 
tion, notwithstanding  this  general  consent  of  the 
ancient  church,  it  is  commonly  determined  by  mo- 
dern divines,  as  well  of  the  Roman  as  protestant 
communion,  that  it  is  not  essential  to  the  sacrament 
itself,  as  the  reader  that  is  curious  may  find  demon- 
strated in  Vossius,**  in  his  dissertation  upon  this 
subject. 

As  to  the  ancients,  they  are  not  to  ^^^^  ^ 
be  blamed  in  keeping  strictly  to  this  ^l;l  '^^^  *'2'era! 
custom,  because  they  thought  it  a  Ihe"eiemenu"hi"the 
part  of  the  institution.  Upon  which 
account  they  censured  all  that  made  any  alteration 
in  the  elements,  either  by  addition,  or  subtraction, 
or  changing  one  element  for  another.  The  Aqua- 
rians, as  we  have  heard,  were  condemned  for  tak- 
ing away  the  wine  ;  the  Armenians  and  others,  for 
not  using  water  also;  others  were  condemned  for 
changing  the  wine  into  milk  or  honey  mixed  with 
water;  others  substituted  grapes  instead  of  wine; 
others,  pulse  instead  of  bread.  Of  all  which,  because 
we  have  spoken  before  in  the  two  foregoing  sec- 
tions, I  need  say  no  more  in  this  place.  But  beside 
these  there  was  once  a  senseless  sect,  which  thought 
they  did  not  celebrate  the  eucharist  in  perfection, 
unless  they  offered  cheese  together  with  the  bread. 
Whence  they  had  the  name  of  Artotyrita,  from  dprog, 
which  in  Greek  signifies  bread,  and  rvpbc,  cheese. 
This  is  the  account  which  Epiphanius*^  gives  of 
them,  and  after  him  St.  Austin**  saying.  The  Arto- 
tyrites  are  so  called  from  their  oblation:  for  they 
offer  bread  and  cheese,  saying,  that  the  first  obla- 
tions that  were  offered  by  men  in  the  infancy  of 
the  world,  were  of  the  fruits  of  the  earth  and  of 
sheep. 

There  were  others  who  wholly  re- 
jected the  use  of  all  external  symbols 
or  sacraments  in  general,  and  conse- 
quently both  baptism  and  the  euchar- 
ist, upon  a  pretence  that  faith  and  knoM'ledge  and 


Sect.  9. 
And  of  others  who 
rejected  t\ie  use  of 
the  sacrament  alto- 
gether. 


debet  pura  aqua  offerri,  ut  quitlam  sobrietatis  falluntur 
imagine,  sed  vinum  aqua  mi.xtum:  quia  et  vinutn  fuit  in  re- 
demptionis  nostra;  mysterio,  cum  dixit,  Non  bibam  a  modo 
de  hoc  genimine  vitis,  et  aqua  mixtum,  quod  post  coenam 
(labatur,  sed  et  de  latere  ejus  lancea  pcrl'osso  aqua  cum 
sanguine  egrcssa,  &c. 

""  Ambros.  de  Sacram.  lib.  5.  cap.  1. 

*'  Martin.  Bracar.  Collect.  Canonum,  cap.  55. 

"-  Julii  Epist.  ap.  Gratian.  de  Consecrat.  Dist.  2.  cap.  7. 

w  Cone.  Bracar.  3.  can.  1.  Audivimus  quosdam  schis- 
matica  ambitionc  detenlos,  lac  pro  vino  in  divinis  sacrificiis 
dedicate;  alios  quoque  intinctam  eucharistiam  populis  pro 
coniplemento  coinmunionis  porrigcre;  quosdam  etiam  ex- 
pressum  vinum  in  sacramento  Dominici  calicis  offerre,  &c. 
Ideo  nuUi  deinccps  licitura  sit,  aliud  in  sacrificiis  divinis 
offerre,  nisi  juxtaantiquorum  sententiam  conciliorum  pauem 
tautum,  et  calicem  vino  et  aqua  permixtum. 


^  Cone.  Antissiodor.  can.  8.     Non  licet  in  altario  in  sa-  i 
crificio  divino  mellitum,  quod  mulsum  appellatur,  nee  ullum 
aliud  poculum,  extra  vinum  cuui  aqua  mixtum,  offerre.  • 

*^  Hieron.  in  Marc.  xiv.     Accepit  Jesus  panem,  &c.  for-  , 
mans  sanguiueni  suum  in  calicem  vino  et  aqua  mixtum,  ut 
alio  purgemur  a  culpis,  alio  redimamur  a  pcenis. 

"'■  Justin.  Apol.  '2.  p.  97. 

""  Iren.  lib.  4.  cap.  57.  et  lib.  5.  cap.  2. 

*'''  Njssen.  Orat.  Catechet.  c.  37.  ' 

•<»  Thood.  Dialog.  1.  90  Voss.  Thes.  Theol.  p.  494.  j 

'"  Theophyl.  Com.  in  Joan.  xix.     "-  Cone.  Trull,  can.  32.  . 

"3  Const  it.  lib.  8.  cap.  12.  ^^  Voss.  Thes.  Theol.  ibid.  ' 

»^  Epiphan.  Ha>r.  49. 

°"  Aug.  de  Hajres.  cap.  48.  Artotyritae  sunt,  quibus  obla- 
tioeorum  hoc  nomen  dedit :  offoruntenira  panem  etcaseum, 
dicentes,  a  primis  hominibus  oblationes  de  fructibus  terra;  et 
ovium  fuisse  cclebratas. 


CllAP.    III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


7fil 


spiritual  worship  were  the  only  things  that  were 
required  of  Christians.  Upon  this  pretence  the 
ylscodrut(P,  who  were  a  sort  of  Gnostics,  neither  ad- 
ministered baptism  nor  the  eucharist  in  their  so- 
ciety :  they  said  the  Divine  mysteries  were  incor- 
poreal and  in^^sible  things,  and  therefore  not  to  be 
represented  by  such  corporeal  and  visible  things  as 
water  or  bread  and  wine ;  but  perfect  knowledge  was 
their  redemption.  So  Theodoret"'  describes  them. 
And  so  both  he  and  Epiphanius"'  describe  another 
abominable  sect,  who,  from  one  of  their  principal 
tenets,  were  called  Archontics.  They  taught,  that 
the  world  was  not  made  by  the  supreme  God,  but 
by  certain  inferior  powers,  seven  or  eight  in  number, 
whom  they  called  arclwntes,  rulers  of  the  several 
orbs  of  the  heavens  one  above  another,  to  the  chief 
of  which  they  gave  the  name  of  Sabaoth  :  and  they 
pretended,  that  baptism  and  the  eucharist  were  only 
institutions  of  this  Sabaoth,  the  God  of  the  Jews 
and  giver  of  the  law,  and  not  the  ordinances  of  the 
supreme  God ;  for  which  reason  they  wholly  re- 
jected the  use  of  them.  Some  other  such  sects  there 
were  among  the  ancient  heresies,  who  despised  the 
eucharist™  upon  the  like  pretences :  but  these  are 
sufficient  to  show  us  w'hat  sort  of  men  they  were, 
that  anciently  contemned  this  holy  ordinance  ;  and 
therefore,  without  further  digressing  to  make  any 
nicer  inquiry  after  them,  I  now  return  to  the  busi- 
ness and  service  of  the  church. 


CHAPTER  III. 

OF  THE  OBLATION  AND  CONSECRATION  PRAYERS. 

^^^j  ^  As  soon  as  the  people's  offerings  were 

s?wnff"Imico'!l;Tna-  "^'"^cl*?)  ^1"^  bread  and  wine  were  set 
S'"onrthrcon;  apart  for  the  eucharist,  they  proceed- 
ed to  the  solemn  consecration  of  them. 
The  manner  of  which  is  described  at  large  in  the 
Constitutions  ;  which  I  will  first  set  down  here,  and 
then  compare  the  several  parts  of  it  with  the  au- 
thentic accounts  we  have  in  other  ancient  writers. 
Immediately,  then,  after  the  first  prayers  for  the 
faithful  are  ended,  the  deacon  is  ordered'  to  give  a 
solemn  admonition,  saying,  npoaxwjufv.  Let  us  give 
attention.  Then  the  bishop  or  priest  salutes  the 
church,  saying,  "  The  peace  of  God  be  with  you 
all : "  and  the  people  answer,  "  And  with  thy  spirit." 
After  this,  the  deacon  says  to  them  all.  Salute  ye 
one  another  with  a  holy  kiss.  Tlien  the  clergy 
salute  the  bishop,  and  laymen  their  fellow  laymen. 


"  Theod.  de  Fabulis  Haerct.  lib.  1.  cap.  10. 
"*Theod.  ibid.  cap.  11.    Epiphan.  Ha;r.  40.  de  Aichon- 
ticis,  n.  2. 
"'  Vi'^-  Orig.  TTipl  firx'";?.  u.  13.     Ea  pcnitus  aiifeicntes 


and  the  women  the  women ;  the  children  standing 
before  the  hema,  that  is,  either  the  reading-desk  or 
the  altar,  with  a  deacon  attending  them,  to  see  that 
they  keep  good  order ;  others  of  the  deacons  walk- 
ing about  the  church,  and  inspecting  the  men  and 
women,  that  there  be  no  tumult,  nor  making  of 
signs  to  one  another,  nor  whispering,  nor  sleeping; 
and  others  standing  at  the  men's  gate,  and  the  sub- 
deacons  at  the  women's  gate,  that  the  doors  be  not 
opened  for  any  to  go  in  or  out  in  the  time  of  obla- 
tion. After  this,  the  subdeacon  brings  water  to  the 
priests  to  wash  their  hands,  as  a  sign  of  the  purity 
of  those  souls  that  are  consecrated  unto  God.  Im- 
mediately after  this  ^  a  deacon  cries  out,  Let  none  of 
the  catechumens  be  present,  none  of  the  hearers, 
none  of  the  unbelievers,  none  of  the  heterodox 
party.  Ye  that  have  made  the  first  prayer,  go  forth, 
irpokXQiTi  (or  rather,  as  Cotelerius  thinks  it  ought  to 
be  read,  ir^oa'iKBtTi,  Ye  that  have  made  the  first 
prayers,  draw  near  :  for  this  seems  to  be  spoken  to 
the  communicants,  as  an  invitation).  Ye  mothers, 
take  your  children,  and  bring  them  with  you.  Let 
no  one  come  with  enmity  against  another  ;  no  one 
in  hypocrisy.  Let  us  stand  upright  before  the  Lord, 
with  fear  and  trembling,  to  offer  our  sacrifice.  This 
said,  the  deacons  bring  the  rd.  Swpa,  the  elements,  to 
the  bishop  at  the  altar;  the  presbyters  standing  on 
each  hand  of  him,  and  two  deacons  with  their  fans 
to  drive  away  the  little  insects,  that  none  of  them 
fall  into  the  cup.  Then  the  bishop,  standing  at  the 
altar  with  the  presbyters,  makes  a  private  praver 
by  himself,  having  on  his  white  or  bright  vestment, 
and  signing  himself  with  the  sign  of  the  cross  in 
his  forehead.  Which  done,  he  says,  "  The  grace  of 
Almighty  God,  and  the  love  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
and  the  fellowship  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  be  with  you 
all."  And  the  people  answer  with  one  voice,  "  And 
with  thy  spirit."  Then  the  bishop  says,  "  Lift  up 
your  hearts  :"  and  they  all  answer,  "  We  lift  them 
up  unto  the  Lord."  The  bishop  says  again,  "  Let 
us  give  thanks  to  the  Lord  :"  and  the  people  answer, 
"  It  is  meet  and  right  so  to  do."  Then  the  bishop 
says,  "  It  is  very  meet  and  right,  above  all  things, 
to  praise  thee  the  true  God,  who  art  before  all  crea- 
tures, of  whom  the  whole  family  in  heaven  and 
earth  is  named,  who  art  the  only  Unbegotten,  with- 
out original,  without  king,  without  lord,  who  hast 
need  of  nothing,  who  art  the  Author  of  all  good, 
who  art  above  all  cause  and  generation,  and  always 
the  same,  of  whom  all  things  have  their  original 
and  existence.  For  thou  art  original  knowledge,  eter- 
nal sight,  hearing  without  beginning,  and  wisdom 
without  teaching;  the  first  in  nature,  and  the  law 
of  existing,  exceeding  all  number.     Who  madest 


quw  sensibus  percipiiiut\ir,  nee  baptisraimi  iiec  ciichaiistiam 
usurpantes,  &c. 

'  Constit.  lib.  S.  cap.  11. 

-  Ibid.  cap.  12. 


762 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


all  things  to  exist  out  of  nothing  by  thy  only  begot- 
ten Son,  whom  thou  didst  beget  before  all  ages  by 
thy  will,  and  power,  and  goodness,  without  the  inter- 
vention of  any,  who  is  thy  only  begotten  Son,  the 
Word  that  is  God,  the  living  Wisdom,  the  First-born 
of  every  creature,  the  Angel  of  thy  great  counsel,  thy 
High  Priest,  but  the  King  and  Lord  of  all  the  creatures 
both  visible  and  invisible,  who  is  before  all  things, 
and  by  whom  all  things  consist.  For  thou,  O  eternal 
God,  didst  create  all  things  by  him,  and  by  him  thou 
dost  vouchsafe  to  rule  and  govern  them  in  the  or- 
derly ways  of  thy  providence.  By  whom  thou  didst 
give  them  being;  by  him  also  thou  didst  give  them 
a  well-being.  O  God  and  Father  of  thy  only  be- 
gotten Son,  who  by  him  didst  create  the  cherubims 
and  seraphims,  the  ages  and  hosts,  the  dominions 
and  powers,  the  principalities  and  thrones,  the  arch- 
angels and  angels,  and  after  them  didst  by  him 
create  this  visible  world,  and  all  things  that  are 
therein.  For  thou  art  he  that  hast  established  the 
heavens  as  an  arch,  and  extended  them  like  a  cur- 
tain ;  that  hast  founded  the  earth  upon  nothing  by 
thy  sole  will ;  that  hast  fixed  the  firmament,  and 
formed  night  and  day ;  that  hast  brought  the  light 
out  of  thy  treasures,  and  superadded  darkness  for  a 
covering,  to  give  rest  to  the  creatures  that  move  in 
the  world ;  that  hast  set  the  sun  in  the  heaven  to 
govern  the  day,  and  the  moon  to  govern  the  night ; 
and  ordered  the  course  of  the  stars,  to  the  praise  of 
thy  magnificent  power ;  that  hast  made  the  water 
for  drink  and  purgation,  and  the  vital  air  both  for 
breathing  and  speaking ;  that  hast  made  the  fire  to 
be  a  comfort  in  darkness,  to  supply  our  wants,  and 
that  we  should  be  both  warmed  and  enlightened 
thereby ;  that  hast  divided  the  great  sea  from  the 
earth,  and  made  the  one  navigable,  and  the  other 
passable  on  foot ;  that  hast  filled  the  one  with  small 
and  great  animals,  and  the  other  with  tame  and  wild 
beasts;  that  hast  crowned  the  earth  with  plants 
and  herbs  of  all  sorts,  and  adorned  it  with  flowers, 
and  enriched  it  with  seeds ;  that  hast  established  the 
deep,  and  set  a  great  barrier  about  it,  walling  the 
great  heaps  of  salt  water,  and  bounding  them  with 
gates  of  the  smallest  sand ;  that  sometimes  raisest 
the  same  deep  to  the  magnitude  of  mountains  by  thy 
winds,  and  sometimes  layest  it  plain  like  a  field ; 
now  making  it  rage  with  a  storm,  and  then  again 
quieting  it  with  a  calm,  that  they  which  sail  therein 
may  find  a  safe  and  gentle  passage :  that  hast  begirt 
the  world,  which  thou  createdst  by  Christ,  with 
rivers,  and  watered  it  with  brooks,  and  filled  it  with 
springs  of  living  water  always  flowing,  and  bound 
up  the  earth  with  mountains,  to  give  it  a  firm  and 
unmovable  situation.  Thou  hast  filled  thy  world, 
and  adorned  it  with  odoriferous  and  medicinal  herbs, 
with  a  multitude  and  variety  of  animals,  weaker  and 
stronger,  some  for  meat  and  some  for  labour,  some 
of  a  mild  and  some  of  a  fiercer  nature;  with  the 


hissing  of  serpents,  and  sweeter  notes  of  birds  of 
divers  kinds ;  with  the  revolutions  of  years,  and 
numbers  of  months  and  days,  and  orders  of  stated 
seasons ;  with  flying  clouds  producing  rain,  for  the 
procreation  of  fruits,  and  preservation  of  animals ; 
with  winds  to  blow  in  order  at  thy  command,  and  a 
multitude  of  plants  and  herbs.  Neither  hast  thou 
only  made  the  world,  but  created  man  in  it  to  be 
citizen  of  the  world,  and  made  him  the  ornament  of 
thy  beautiful  structure.  For  thou  saidst  to  thy  own 
Wisdom,  '  Let  us  make  man  in  our  own  image  and 
likeness,  and  let  them  have  dominion  over  the  fish 
of  the  sea,  and  over  the  fowl  of  the  air.'  And 
therefore  thou  madest  him  of  an  immortal  soul,  and 
a  dissolvable  body ;  creating  the  one  out  of  nothing, 
and  the  other  out  of  the  four  elements :  and  gavest 
him  in  his  soul  a  rational  knowledge,  a  power  to 
discern  between  piety  and  impiety,  and  a  judgment 
to  distinguish  between  good  and  evil ;  and  in  his 
body  the  privilege  and  faculty  of  five  several  senses, 
with  the  power  of  local  motion.  For  thou,  O  God 
Almighty,  didst  by  Christ  plant  paradise  in  Eden 
towards  the  east,  adorning  it  with  all  kinds  of  plants 
meet  for  food,  and  placing  man  therein  as  in  a  well- 
furnished  house :  and  in  his  creation  thou  gavest  a 
natural  law  implanted  in  his  mind,  that  thereby  he 
might  have  within  himself  the  seeds  of  Divine 
knowledge.  And  when  thou  hadst  placed  him  in 
the  paradise  of  delights  and  pleasure,  thou  gavest 
him  power  to  eat  of  all  things,  only  forbidding  him 
to  taste  of  one  kind,  in  expectation  of  something 
better :  that  if  he  observed  that  command,  he  might 
attain  to  immortality,  as  the  reward  of  his  obedience. 
But  he,  neglecting  this  command,  and  by  the  fraud 
of  the  serpent,  and  the  counsel  of  the  woman, 
tasting  the  forbidden  fruit,  thou  didst  justly  drive 
him  out  of  paradise ;  and  yet  in  goodness  didst  not 
despise  him,  when  he  had  destroyed  himself;  for  he 
was  thy  workmanship ;  but  thou,  who  didst  put  the 
creatures  in  subjection  under  him,  didst  appoint 
him  to  get  his  food  by  labour  and  sweat,  thy  provi- 
dence concurring  to  produce,  augment,  and  bring 
all  things  to  maturity  and  perfection.  Thou  didst 
sulTer  him  for  a  while  to  sleep  the  sleep  of  death, 
and  then,  with  an  oath,  calledst  him  again  to  a  re- 
generation ;  dissolving  the  bands  of  death,  and  pro- 
mising him  life  by  a  resurrection.  And  not  only 
so ;  but  giving  him  an  innumerable  posterity,  thou 
didst  glorify  such  of  them  as  adhered  to  thee,  and 
punishedst  those  that  apostatized  from  thee;  re- 
ceiving the  sacrifice  of  Abel  as  a  holy  man,  and 
rejecting  the  offering  of  Cain  as  abominable  for 
murdering  his  brother.  Thou  didst  also  receive 
Seth  and  Enos,  and  translate  Enoch.  For  thou  art 
the  Creator  of  men,  and  the  Author  of  life,  and  the 
SuppHer  of  all  their  wants,  their  Lawgiver,  that 
rewardest  those  that  keep  thy  laws,  and  punishest 
those  that  transgress  them.     Thou  didst  bring  a 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


7G3 


universal  deluge  upon  the  world  because  of  the 
multitude  of  the  ungodly,  but  delivcredst  righteous 
Noah  out  of  the  flood  with  eight  souls  in  thy  ark, 
making  him  the  end  of  the  preceding  generation, 
and  the  father  of  those  that  were  to  come.  Thou 
didst  kindle  a  dreadful  fire  against  the  five  cities 
of  the  Sodomites,  and  turn  a  fruitful  land  into  a 
vale  of  salt,  for  the  ^dckcdness  of  them  that  dwelt 
therein,  but  didst  deliver  righteous  Lot  from  the 
burning.  Thou  art  he  that  didst  deliver  Abraham 
from  the  impiety  of  his  ancestors,  and  madest  him 
to  become  heir  of  the  world,  and  didst  manifest 
thy  Christ  unto  him.  Thou  didst  appoint  Melchi- 
sedec  to  be  the  high  priest  of  thy  service.  Thou 
didst  declare  thy  servant  Job,  after  many  sufferings, 
to  be  conqueror  of  the  serpent,  that  first  author  of 
evil.  Thou  madest  Isaac  to  be  the  son  of  promise. 
Thou  madest  Jacob  to  be  the  father  of  twelve  chil- 
dren, and  his  offspring  to  be  innumerable,  and 
broughtest  threescore  and  fifteen  souls  into  Egypt. 
Thou,  Lord,  didst  not  despise  Joseph,  but  for  his 
chastity  madest  him  to  rule  over  the  Egyptians. 
Thou,  Lord,  didst  not  forget  the  Hebrews,  when  the 
Egyptians  oppressed  them,  because  of  the  promise 
made  to  their  fiithers ;  but  didst  punish  the  Egyp- 
tians, and  deliver  thy  people.  And  when  men  had 
corrupted  the  law  of  nature  written  in  their  minds, 
and  some  began  to  think  the  creatures  had  their  ex- 
istence of  themselves,  and  honoured  them  above 
what  was  meet,  placing  them  in  the  same  rank  with 
thee  the  God  of  all ;  thou  didst  not  suffer  them  to 
wander  in  error,  but  raising  up  thy  holy  servant 
Moses,  thou  didst  by  him  promulge  a  written  law 
to  revive  and  support  the  law  of  nature ;  showing 
the  creatures  to  be  the  work  of  thy  hands,  and 
thereby  expelling  the  error  of  polytheism  out  of  re- 
ligion. Thou  didst  honour  Aaron  and  his  posterity 
with  the  dignity  of  the  priesthood.  Thou  didst 
chastise  the  Hebrews,  when  they  sinned ;  and  re- 
ceive them  into  favour,  when  they  turned  unto  thee. 
Thou  didst  punish  the  Egyptians  with  ten  plagues ; 
and  dividing  the  sea,  madest  the  Israelites  to  pass 
through  it ;  drowning  the  Egyptians  that  pursued 
them.  Thou  madest  the  bitter  water  sweet  with 
wood ;  thou  broughtest  streams  out  of  the  rock, 
when  thou  hadst  divided  the  top  of  it ;  thou  didst 
rain  down  manna  out  of  heaven,  and  give  them  food 
out  of  the  air,  a  measure  of  quails  for  every  day ; 
setting  up  a  pillar  of  fire  to  give  them  light  by 
night,  and  the  pillar  of  the  cloud  to  shadow  them 
from  heat  by  day.  Thou  didst  constitute  Joshua 
the  captain  of  thy  armieg,  and  by  him  destroy  the 
seven  nations  of  the  Canaanites,  dividing  Jordan, 
and  drying  up  the  rivers  of  Ethan,  and  laying  flat 
the  walls  (of  Jericho)  without  any  engines  of  war 
or  conciu-rence  of  human  power.  For  all  these 
things  we  glorify  thee,  O  Lord  Almighty.  The  in- 
numerable armies  of  angels  adore  thee :  the  arch- 


angels, thrones,  dominions,  principalities,  dignities, 
powers,  hosts,  and  ages  ;  the  chcrubims,  and  sera- 
phims  also  with  six  wings,  with  two  of  which  they 
cover  their  feet,  and  with  two  their  faces,  and  two 
fly,  saying,  with  thousand  thousands  of  archangels, 
and  ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand  angels,  all 
crying  out  without  rest  and  intermission :"  and  let 
all  the  people  say  together  with  them,  "  Holy,  holy, 
holy.  Lord  of  hosts :  heaven  and  earth  are  full  of 
thy  glory  :  blessed  art  thou  for  ever.  Amen."  And 
after  this  let  the  bishop  say :  "  For  thou  truly  art 
holy,  the  most  Holy,  the  most  High,  far  exalted 
above  all  things  for  evermore.  Holy  also  is  thy 
only  begotten  Son,  our  Lord  and  God,  Jesus  Christ; 
who,  ministering  to  thee  his  God  and  Father  in  all 
things,  both  in  various  works  of  creation  and  pro- 
vidence, did  not  despise  lost  mankind  ;  but  after  the 
law  of  nature,  after  the  admonitions  of  the  written 
law,  after  the  reprehensions  of  the  prophets,  after 
the  administrations  and  presidency  of  angels ;  when 
men  had  corrupted  both  the  natural  and  written 
law,  and  erased  the  memory  of  the  flood,  and  the 
burning  of  Sodom,  and  the  plagues  of  Egypt,  and 
devastations  and  slaughters  of  Palestine,  and  were 
now  all  ready  to  perish ;  he,  who  was  the  Creator 
of  man,  chose  by  thy  will  to  become  man ;  the  Law- 
giver, to  be  under  the  law ;  the  High  Priest,  to  be 
the  sacrifice;  the  Shepherd,  to  be  made  a  sheep: 
whereby  he  appeased  thee  his  God  and  Father,  and 
reconciled  the  world,  and  delivered  all  men  from  the 
wrath  that  hanged  over  their  heads,  being  born  of 
a  virgin,  and  made  flesh,  God  the  Word,  the  beloved 
Son,  the  First-born  of  every  creature ;  according  to 
the  prophecies  which  he  himself  predicted  of  him- 
self, made  of  the  seed  of  David  and  Abraham,  and 
of  the  tribe  of  Judah  :  he  who  was  the  Former  of  all 
things  that  are  made,  was  formed  himself  in  the 
virgin's  womb ;  he  who  is  without  flesh,  was  made 
flesh ;  and  he  who  was  begotten,  axporojg,  before  all 
time,  was  born  in  time :  he  lived  a  holy  life,  and 
taught  a  holy  doctrine ;  expelling  all  manner  of 
sicknesses  and  infirmities  from  the  bodies  of  men, 
and  working  signs  and  miracles  among  the  people ; 
he  who  feeds  all  that  have  need  of  food,  and  fills 
every  living  creature  of  his  own  good  pleasure  and 
bounty,  did  himself  partake  of  meat,  and  drink,  and 
sleep ;  he  manifested  thy  name  to  them  that  knew 
it  not ;  he  put  ignorance  to  flight,  and  revived  true 
piety  and  godliness,  fillfilled  thy  will,  and  finished 
the  work  which  thou  gavest  him  to  do :  and  when 
all  things  were  thus  set  in  order  and  rectified  by 
him,  he  was  betrayed  by  the  incural)Ie  maiice  of 
one  of  his  own  disciples,  and  apprehended  by  the 
hands  of  the  wicked,  priests  and  high  priests  falsely 
so  called,  together  with  a  sinfnl  people ;  of  whom 
he  sulTered  many  things,  and  underwent  all  manner 
of  indignities,  by  thy  permission ;  he  was  delivered 
to  Pilate,  the   governor;   the  Judge  himself  was 


7G4 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


judged;  the  Saviour  of  the  world  condemned;  he 
who  is  impassible,  was  nailed  to  the  cross  ;  he  who 
is  immortal  by  nature,  was  made  subject  to  death ; 
and  the  Author  of  life,  who  quickens  all  things,  was 
laid  in  the  grave,  that  he  might  deliver  those  from 
suffering,  for  whose  sake  he  came,  and  set  them  free 
from  death,  and  break  the  bonds  of  the  devil,  and 
deliver  men  from  his  frauds  and  impostures  :  he 
rose  again  the  third  day  from  the  dead,  and  con- 
versed forty  days  with  his  disciples,  and  was  taken 
up  into  heaven,  and  set  at  thy  right  hand,  his  God 
and  Father. 

"We  therefore,  in  commemoration  of  these  things, 
W'hich  he  suffered  for  us,  give  thanks  to  thee,  Al- 
mighty God,  not  as  thou  deservest  and  as  is  our 
duty,  but  oaov  SwaneBa,  as  far  as  we  are  able,  so 
fulfilling  his  command.  For  in  the  same  night 
that  he  was  betrayed,  he  took  bread  in  his  holy  and 
immaculate  hands,  and  looking  up  to  thee  his  God 
and  Father,  he  brake  it,  and  gave  it  to  his  disciples, 
saying,  '  This  is  the  mystery  of  the  new  testament, 
take  of  it  and  eat  it ;  this  is  my  body,  which  is  broken 
for  many  for  the  remission  of  sins.'  Likewise  he 
mixed  a  cup  of  wine  and  water,  and  sanctifying  it,  he 
gave  it  unto  them,  saying,  '  Drink  ye  all  of  this  ;  for 
this  is  my  blood,  which  is  shed  for  many  for  the  re- 
mission of  sins.  This  do  in  remembrance  of  me.  For 
as  often  as  ye  eat  this  bread,  and  drink  this  cup,  ye 
do  show  forth  my  death  till  I  come.'  We  therefore, 
being  mindful  of  his  passion,  and  death,  and  resur- 
rection from  the  dead,  and  his  return  into  heaven ; 
and  also  of  his  second  coming,  when  he  shall  return 
with  glory  and  power  to  judge  the  quick  and  dead, 
and  to  render  to  every  man  according  to  his  w^orks, 
do  offer  unto  thee,  our  King  and  God,  this  bread 
and  this  cup,  according  to  his  appointment,  giving 
thanks  to  thee  by  him,  for  that  thou  dost  vouch- 
safe to  let  us  stand  before  thee,  and  minister  unto 
thee;  and  we  beseech  thee  to  look  propitiously 
upon  these  gifts  here  set  before  thee,  our  God,  who 
hast  need  of  nothing,  and  to  accept  them  favourably 
to  the  honour  of  thy  Christ,  and  to  send  thy  Holy 
Spirit  upon  this  sacrifice,  who  is  the  witness  of  the 
suffering  of  our  Lord  Jesus,  that  it  may  make  this 
bread  the  body  of  thy  Christ,  and  this  cup  the  blood 
of  thy  Christ ;  that  they  who  partake  of  it  may  be 
confirmed  in  godliness,  and  obtain  remission  of 
sins,  may  be  delivered  from  the  devil  and  his  impos- 
tures, may  be  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  be 
made  worthy  of  Christ,  and  obtain  eternal  life,  thou 
being  reconciled  to  them,  O  Lord  Almighty. 

"  We  beseech  thee  further,  O  Lord,  for  thy  holy 
church  from  one  end  of  the  earth  to  the  other,  which 
thou  hast  purchased  with  the  precious  blood  of  thy 
Christ,  that  thou  wouldst  be  pleased  to  keep  it  un- 
shaken and  immovable,  by  any  storms  or  tempests, 
to  the  end  of  the  world.  We  pray  also  for  the 
whole  episcopacy  (or  universal  college  of  bishops) 


rightly  dividing  the  word  of  truth.  We  pray  for 
me  thy  unworthy  servant,  who  am  now  offering 
unto  thee,  and  for  the  whole  presbytery,  and  dea- 
cons, and  all  the  clergy,  that  thou  wouldst  give  them 
all  wisdom,  and  fill  them  with  thy  Holy  Spirit. 
We  pray  thee,  O  Lord,  for  the  king  and  all  that 
are  in  authority,  and  for  the  whole  army,  that  our 
affairs  may  be  transacted  in  peace :  that,  passing 
our  time  in  quietness  and  concord,  M'e  may  glorify 
thee  through  Jesus  Christ,  our  hope,  all  the  days  of 
our  life.  We  offer  unto  thee  for  all  thy  saints,  that 
have  lived  well-pleasing  in  thy  sight  from  the  found- 
ation of  the  world,  for  patriarchs,  prophets,  holy 
men,  apostles,  martyrs,  bishops,  confessors,  presby- 
ters, deacons,  subdeacons,  readers,  singers,  virgins, 
widows,  laymen,  and  all  whose  names  thou  knowest. 
We  offer  unto  thee  for  this  people,  that  thou  wouldst 
make  them,  to  the  glory  of  thy  Christ,  a  royal 
priesthood,  and  a  holy  nation ;  for  all  that  live  in 
virginity  and  chastity ;  for  the  widows  of  the  church ; 
for  all  that  live  in  honest  marriage  and  procreation 
of  children ;  for  the  infants  of  thy  people,  that  none 
of  us  be  a  cast-away.  We  praj^  thee  for  this  city, 
and  all  that  dwell  therein ;  for  those  that  are  in 
sickness,  in  cruel  bondage  and  slavery,  in  banish- 
ment, or  under  confiscation  and  proscription,  for  all 
that  travel  by  sea  or  by  land,  that  thou  wouldst  be 
their  succour,  and  a  universal  helper  and  defender 
to  them  all.  W^e  pray  thee  for  those  that  hate  us 
and  persecute  us  for  thy  name,  for  them  that  are 
yet  without,  and  wandering  in  error,  that  thou 
wouldst  convert  them  to  good,  and  mitigate  their 
fury.  We  pray  thee  for  the  catechumens  of  the 
church ;  for  the  energumens,  that  are  tossed  and 
tormented  by  the  adversary  the  devil ;  for  all  our 
brethren  that  are  doing  penance,  that  thou  wouldst 
perfect  the  former  in  faith,  and  cleanse  and  deliver 
the  second  from  the  power  and  agitation  of  the 
wicked  one ;  and  receive  the  repentance  of  the  last, 
and  pardon  both  them  and  us  whatever  offences  we 
have  committed  against  thee.  We  offer  unto  thee 
likewise  for  the  temperature  of  the  air,  and  the  in- 
crease of  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  that  we,  continually 
partaking  of  those  good  things  which  thou  bestow- 
est  on  us,  may  without  ceasing  praise  thee,  who 
givest  food  unto  all  flesh.  We  also  pray  for  those, 
who  upon  any  just  and  reasonable  cause  are  now 
absent,  that  thou  v/ouldst  vouchsafe  to  preserve  us 
all  in  godliness,  and  keeping  us  without  change, 
blame,  or  rebuke,  to  gather  us  into  the  kingdom  of 
thy  Christ,  the  God  of  all  things  in  nature,  visible 
and  invisible,  and  our  King.  For  to  thee,  Father, 
Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  is  due  all  glory,  and  worship, 
and  thanksgiving,  and  honour,  and  adoration,  now 
and  for  ever,  throughout  all  ages,  world  without 
end."    And  let  all  the  people  answer,  "  Amen." 

After  this  the  bishop  is  appointed  to  say  again, 
" The  peace  of  God  be  with  you  all;"  to  which  the 


ClIAP.    III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


765 


people  answer,  "  And  wilh  tliy  spirit."  And  then 
the  deacon  calls  upon  the  people  to  join  with  him 
in  another  prayer,  which  is  termed  Trpoafuivrjatg, 
&c.,  a  bidding  prayer  for  the  faithful  after  the 
Divine  oblation,  in  these  words :  "  Let  us  pray^  yet 
again  and  again  to  God  by  his  Christ,  for  this  gift 
•which  is  offered  to  the  Lord  God ;  that  the  good 
God  would  receive  it  to  his  altar  in  heaven  for  a 
sweet-smelling  savour,  by  the  mediation  of  his 
Christ.  Let  us  pray  for  this  church  and  people ; 
for  the  whole  society  of  bishops,  and  presbyters, 
and  deacons,  and  ministers,  and  the  whole  catholic 
church,  that  the  Lord  would  keep  and  preserve 
them  all.  Let  us  pray  for  kings  and  all  that  are  in 
authority,  that  our  aflairs  may  go  on  with  tranquil- 
lity, and  that  we  may  lead  a  quiet  and  peaceable 
life  in  all  godliness  and  honesty.  Let  us  commemo- 
rate the  holy  martyrs,  that  we  may  be  thought 
worthy  to  have  fellowship  in  their  conflicts  and 
engagements.  Let  us  pray  for  those  that  rest  in 
faith ;  let  us  pray  for  the  temperature  of  the  air, 
and  increase  of  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  that  they 
may  grow  to  perfection.  Let  us  pray  for  those  that 
are  newly  baptized,  that  they  may  be  confirmed  in 
faith.  Let  us  all  exhort  and  excite  one  another. 
Let  us  rise  and  commend  ourselves  to  God  by  his 
grace."  Then  let  the  bishop  say,  "  O  God,  that  art 
great,  great  in  name,  great  in  counsel,  and  mighty  in 
works ;  the  God  and  Father  of  thy  holy  Son  Jesus 
our  Saviour  ;  look  favourably  upon  us  and  this  thy 
flock,  which  thou  hast  chosen  in  him  to  the  glory  of 
thy  name.  Sanctify  our  bodies  and  souls ;  and 
grant,  that  we  being  pure  from  all  filthiness  of  flesh 
and  spirit,  may  obtain  the  good  things  that  are  set 
before  us  ;  and  that  thou  mayest  judge  none  of  us 
unworthy,but  be  our  helper,  defender,  and  protector, 
through  thy  Christ;  to  whom,  with  thee  and  the 
Holy  Spirit,  be  glory,  honour,  and  praise,  doxology 
and  thanksgiving,  for  ever.     Amen." 

And  when  all  the  people  have  said  "  Amen," 
let  the  deacon  cry  again,  ripoo-xwjuev,  Let  us  give 
attention.  Then  the  bishop  shall  speak  to  the  peo- 
ple, saying,  T«  liyia  toIq  ayioic,  "  Holy  things  for 
those  that  are  holy."  And  the  people  shall  answer; 
"  There  is  one  holy,  one  Lord,  one  Jesus  Christ,  to 
the  glory  of  God  the  Father,  blessed  for  ever. 
Amen.  Glory  be  to  God  on  high,  and  in  earth 
peace,  good  will  towards  men.  Hosanna  to  the 
Son  of  David  :  blessed  be  the  Lord  God,  that  came 
in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  and  manifested  himself 
unto  us  :  hosanna  in  the  highest." 

This  is  the  whole  service  preceding  the  act  of 
communicating,  as  it  is  delivered  in  the  Constitu- 


tions ;  which  I  have  here  represented  all  together 
as  it  lies  there,  that  the  reader  may  see  it  in  one 
view.  I  shall  now  compare  the  several  parts  and 
branches  of  it  with  the  certain  accounts  we  have  of 
them  in  other  authentic  writers  ;  beginning  with 
that  which  was  the  first  in  order,  the  minister's  sa- 
lutation of  the  people. 

It  has  been  observed  before,''  that  ^   .  „ 

Sect.  2. 

this  form  of  saluting  the  people,  by  pj^j'^^f^rwh"™' 
saying,  «  Peace  be  with  you,"  or, "  The  t"i;ot."Vi°rl!'"As"to 
Lord  be  with  you,"  or,  «  The  grace  of  tt'n.^^a^e'b'^lrh 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  &c.  be  with  *°"'  *"' 
yon,"  was  the  usual  preface  and  introduction  to  all 
holy  oflices,  and  therefore  always  used  before  pray- 
ers, especially  those  that  were  offered  up  at  the 
altar.  Theodoret  says,  it  was  used  both  at  the  en- 
trance of  their  sermons  and  the  mystical  service,* 
by  which  he  means  this  part  of  the  communion 
ofl[ice.  Cyril  of  Alexandria  says  the  same,  that  they 
used  it  in  the  beginning  "^  of  their  mysteries ;  and 
that  Christ  made  it  a  law,  as  it  were,  unto  the  church, 
by  saying  so  often  to  his  disciples,  "  Peace  be  unto 
you."  But  no  one  speaks  more  fully  of  it  than  St. 
Chrysostom.  He  says,  they  used  it  in  all  their  of- 
fices ;  when  they  first  came  into  the  church  ;  when 
they  preached  ;  when  they  gave  the  benediction  ; 
when  they  commanded  the  people  to  salute  one  an- 
other with  the  kiss  of  peace ;  when  the  sacrifice' 
was  offered  ;  and  at  other  times  in  the  communion 
service.  "Where  it  is  observable,  that  he  speaks  of 
this  salutation  as  used  four  times  at  least  in  this 
part  of  the  communion  office,  besides  other  occa- 
sions. In  another  place,  exhorting  Christians  not 
to  follow  the  customs  of  the  Jews,  but  to  be  at 
unity  and  peace  among  themselves,  he  uses  this  ar- 
gimient:  There  is  nothing  comparable  to  peace 
and  concord.  Therefore  when  the  bishop  first  en- 
ters the  church,  before  ever  he  goes  up  to  his 
throne,  he  says,  "Peace  be  unto  you  all:"  when 
he  rises  up  to  preach,  he  does  not  begin  befoi'e  he 
has  given  the  "  Peace  to  all : "  when  the  priests  are 
about  to  make  the  benediction  prayers,  they  first* 
use  this  salutation,  and  then  begin  their  benedic- 
tions. So  also  the  deacon,  when  he  bids  you  pray 
in  common,  among  other  things  he  reminds  you  to 
pray  for  the  angel  of  peace  ;  and  when  he  dis- 
misses you  from  this  assembly,  he  praj's  for  you 
in  the  same  manner,  saying,  "  Go  in  peace."  And 
there  is  nothing  at  all  said  or  done  without  this. 
In  another  homily,  upon  the  descent  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,''  he  gives  the  reason,  why  it  was  more  par- 
ticularly used  at  the  Lord's  table.  The  bishop, 
says  he,  not  only  when  he  goes  into  his  throne,  and 


^Constit.  lib.  8.  cap.  13. 

*  Book  XIV.  chap.  4.  sect.  14. 

^  Theod.  Ep.  146.  p.  1032.    Touto  lu  irurraii  xaTs  IkkXi}- 
aiat^  Till  /iUCTTthf;?  £=rt  XsiTOvpytai  irpooifiiov. 

*  Cyril,  lib.  12.  iu  Joan.  .\.\.  p.  1093,     llap'  avra^  tou 


/xv^iiniov   Tczs   dpXfis    touto    koI    aX\j;\ois   v/xtli   (pa/xti/. 
Vid. 'isidor.  Pelus.  lib.  I.  Ep.  112. 

'  Chrys.  Horn.  3.  in  Colos.  p.  1338. 

•*  Ibid.  Horn.  52.  in  eos  qui  Pascha  jejunanl,  f.  5.  p.  713. 

"  Ibid.  Horn.  36.  de  Pentecost,  t.  5.  p.  503. 


706 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


when  he  preaches,  and  when  he  prays,  uses  this 
form,  but  when  he  stands  at  this  holy  table,  when 
he  is  about  to  offer  the  tremendous  sacrifice,  he 
does  not  touch  the  oblation,  before  he  has  prayed 
that  the  "  grace  of  the  Lord  may  be  with  you,"  and 
ye  have  answered,  "And  with  thy  spirit:"  by 
which  answer  ye  remind  yourselves,  that  it  is  not 
the  minister  who  effects  any  thing  in  this  matter, 
neither  is  the  consecration  of  the  gifts  there  lying 
the  work  of  human  nature,  but  that  it  is  the  grace 
of  the  Spirit  then  present,  and  descending  upon  the 
elements,  that  makes  this  mystical  sacrifice.  There 
are  several  other  passages  to  the  same  purpose  in 
his  other  homilies'"  upon  the  Gospels  and  St.  Paul's 
Epistles,  Avhich  because  the  reader  may  find  them 
at  large  in  the  extract  of  the  liturgy  above"  out 
of  St.  Chrysostom's  works,  I  will  not  here  repeat 
them.  The  same  custom  was  always  observed  in 
the  Latin  church.  For  TertuUian  '^  plainly  refers  to 
it,  when  he  objects  it  to  the  heretics,  that  they  gave 
the  peace  to  all  without  exception ;  implying,  that 
the  church  used  it,  but  with  some  distinction.  Op- 
tatus  says,"  The  Donatists  retained  the  form,  but 
grossly  abused  it  in  their  practice.  They  could  not 
omit  the  solemn  words ;  they  said,  Peace  be  unto 
you.  But  why,  says  he,  dost  thou  salute  men  with 
that  which  thou  hast  not  ?  Why  dost  thou  name 
peace  that  hast  destroyed  it  ?  Thou  salutest  men 
with  the  words  of  love  and  peace,  who  hast  nothing 
of  the  reality  and  substance  of  it.  In  the  Spanish 
church  they  used  a  like  form,  though  not  altoge- 
ther the  same.  For  by  an  order  of  the  first  council 
of  Braga,"  it  was  appointed  that  both  bishops  and 
presbyters  should  use  one  and  the  same  form  of  sa- 
lutation, that  is,  "  The  Lord  be  with  you,"  as  it  is  in 
the  Book  of  Ruth;  and  that  the  people  should  an- 
swer, "  And  with  thy  spirit :"  as  all  the  East  receive 
it  by  tradition  from  the  apostles,  and  not  as  the 
Priscilhan  heresy  hath  changed  it.  What  change 
the  Priscillianists  had  made  in  this  matter,  is  not 
very  clear :  some  learned  men  are  of  opinion  '^  that 
they  would  allow  the  bishops  to  use  no  other  form 
but  Pax  vobis,  and  the  presbyters  only  to  say,  Do- 
minus  vohiscum:  whence  they  conclude  that  the  word 
Oriens,  the  East,  must  have  crept  into  the  canon 
instead  of  the  West,  because  it  is  so  evident,  that 
all  the  Eastern  church  used  the  form.  Pax  vobis, 
both  in  the  salutation  of  bishops  and  presbyters. 
But  I  should  rather  think  the  Priscillian  pravity 


'"  Chrys.  Horn.  18.  in  2  Cor.  p.  873.  Horn.  3G.  in  1  Cor. 
p.  652.     Horn.  .33.  in  Matt.  p.  318. 

"  Book  XIII.  chap.  G. 

'-  Tert.  (le  Procscr.  cap.  41.  Pacein  cum  omnibus  miscent. 

"  Optat.  lib.  3.  p.  73.     Non  potuistis  praetermittere  quod 

legitimum  est.     Utique  dixistis,  Pax  vobiscum. Quid  sa- 

lutas,  de  quo  non  babes  ?  Quid  nominas,  quod  exterminasti? 
Salutas  de  pace,  qui  non  amas. 

'^  Cone.  Bracar.  1.  can.  21.  Placuitut  non  aliter  episcopi, 
et  aliter  presbyteri  populum,  sed  uao  modo  salutent,  di- 


here  complained  of,  was  their  denying  the  people 
the  liberty  of  making  their  proper  response,  and 
bearing  their  part  in  the  service,  by  saying,  "  And 
with  thy  spirit,"  as  had  been  the  custom  of  all  the 
East  from  the  time  of  the  apostles.  However  this 
be,  I  cannot  forbear  to  say,  it  is  the  very  error  and 
pravity  which  the  church  of  Rome  has  since  run 
into.  For  Bona  owns  himself,'"  that  though  it  was 
customary  in  the  ancient  church  for  all  the  congre- 
gation, and  not  only  the  clerks,  to  answer  the  priest, 
by  saying,  "  And  with  thy  spirit ;"  yet  now  it  is 
otherwise  in  the  church  of  Rome,  where  the  clerks 
only  make  this  response,  and  the  people  are  wholly 
excluded  from  it.  For  which  no  other  reason  can 
be  assigned,  but  the  magisterial  authority  of  that 
chui'ch,  pretending  to  prescribe  what  she  pleases  to 
the  people,  with  a  tio}i  obstante  to  any  rule  or  tradi- 
tion of  the  ancient  church.  St.  Chrysostom's  rea- 
soning in  behalf  of  the  people's  bearing  a  part  in 
prayer  with  the  priest,  is  of  much  more  weight,  and 
with  it  I  will  conclude  this  paragraph. 

Great  is  the  power  of  the  congregation,  that  is, 
of  the  whole  church,  says  he."  It  was  their  prayer 
that  delivered  Peter  from  his  bonds,  and  opened  the 
mouth  of  Paul.  Their  suffrage  is  a  peculiar  orna- 
ment to  those  who  are  called  to  the  spiritual  offices 
of  government.  And,  therefore,  he  who  is  about  to 
perform  the  office  of  ordination,  at  that  time  requires 
their  prayers,  and  they  join  their  suffrage,  crying 
out  in  those  words,  which  they  that  are  initiated  in 
the  holy  mysteries  know :  for  we  may  not  speak  all 
things  openly  before  the  unbaptized.  There  are 
some  things  wherein  there  is  no  difference  between 
priest  and  people,  as  when  they  are  to  partake  of 
the  tremendous  mysteries.  For  we  are  all  alike  ad- 
mitted to  them :  not  as  under  the  Old  Testament, 
when  the  priest  eat  one  thing,  and  the  people  an- 
other ;  and  it  was  not  lawful  for  the  people  to  par- 
take of  those  things  which  the  priest  alone  might 
partake  of.  It  is  not  so  now,  but  there  is  one  body, 
and  one  cup  proposed  in  common  to  all.  So  also  in 
the  prayers  one  may  now  observe  the  people  to  con- 
tribute a  great  deal.  For  common  prayers  are  made 
for  the  energumens,  and  for  the  penitents,  both  by 
the  priests  and  people.  For  they  all  say  that  one 
and  the  same  prayer,  the  prayer  so  full  of  mercy. 
Again,  when  we  exclude  those  from  the  sanctuary, 
who  cannot  partake  of  the  holy  table,  we  are  all 
obhged  to  make  another  prayer,  in  which  we  all  fall 


centes,  Dominus  sit  vobiscum  :  sicut  in  Libro  Ruth  legitur, 
et  ut  respondeatur  a  populo,  Et  cum  spiritu  tuo:  sicut  et  ab 
ipsis  apostolis  traditum  omnis  retinet  Oriens,  et  non  sicut 
Priscilliana  pravitas  imnuitavit. 

'^  Garsias  Loaisa  in  loc.  Bona,  de  Reb.  Liturg.  lib.  2.  cap. 
5.  n.  1.  Habertus,  Archieratic.  p.330.  Hamon  L'Estrange, 
Alliance  of  Div.  Oific.  chap.  3.  p.  82. 

'"  Bona,  ibid.  p.  501.  Nunc  soli  clcrici  vel  ministri  re- 
spondent. 

"  Chiys.  Horn.  18.  in  2  Cor.  p.  872. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


767 


down  alike  on  the  earth,  and  all  rise  up  together. 
Again,  when  we  are  to  give  and  receive  the  peace, 
or  kiss  of  peace,  we  all  in  like  manner  salute  each 
other.  And  again,  in  celebrating  the  holy  myste- 
ries, the  priest  prays  for  the  people,  and  the  people 
for  the  priest;  for  these  words,  "  And  with  thy  spirit," 
are  nothing  else  but  the  people's  prayer.  In  like 
manner,  the  prayer  of  thanksgiving  is  a  common 
prayer.  For  not  only  the  priest  gives  thanks,  but 
all  the  people  also.  For  when  he  has  first  received 
their  answer,  declaring  their  consent,  that  "it  is  meet 
and  right  so  to  do,"  then  he  begins  the  thanksgiving. 
And  why  should  you  wonder,  that  the  people  some- 
times speak  with  the  priest,  when  they  are  allowed 
to  send  up  those  holy  hymns  in  common  with  the 
very  cherubims  and  celestial  powers  above?  I  have 
spoken  all  this,  adds  he,  to  make  every  member  of 
the  church,  though  he  be  an  inferior,  to  become 
watchful  and  vigilant ;  and  to  teach  us,  that  we  are 
all  one  body,  and  only  differ  from  each  other  as 
members  do  from  the  members  of  the  same  body ; 
and  that  we  should  not  cast  all  upon  the  priests, 
but  every  one  bear  his  share  in  his  concern  for  the 
whole  church,  as  one  common  body.  I  will  now 
leave  any  ingenuous  reader  to  judge,  whose  reasons 
are  strongest  and  most  rational ;  those  of  Chrysos- 
tom,  who  thus  pleads  the  people's  right  in  bearing 
a  part  in  the  public  service  of  God ;  or  theirs  who, 
by  an  overbearing  authority,  deny  them  their  just 
right ;  and  as  they  have  taken  away  the  cup,  and 
the  Bible,  and  the  key  of  knowledge  from  them,  so 
have  also  denied  them  the  liberty  of  joining  in  com- 
mon prayer  with  the  priest,  which  was  their  uncon- 
tested privilege  in  the  ancient  church. 

But  I  proceed  with  the  Constitu- 
tions. As  there,  immediately  after  the 
priest  has  given  the  salutation  of 
peace,  and  the  people  have  returned  their  answer,  a 
deacon  goes  on  to  proclaim  solemnly,  that  they 
should  salute  one  another  with  a  holy  kiss ;  and 
so  the  clergy  salute  the  bishop,  and  laymen  their 
fellow  laymen,  and  women  one  another ;  it  is  in  the 
very  same  manner  represented  in  other  writers. 
The  council  of  Laodicea,  describing  the  order  of  the 
ancient  service,  says.  After  the  prayers  '^  of  the  faith- 
ful, the  peace  should  be  given  :  and  after  the  pres- 
byters have  given  the  peace  to  the  bishop,  and  lay- 


Sect.  3. 

Secondly,  Tlie  k 

of  peace. 


'*  Cone.  Laodic.  19.  EI0'  ovtw^  ti)u  Elpi'iviiu  oLSnrrdai. 
Kttt  fitTu  Tous  TrpiafiuTipovi  oovvai  tm  i-rrLO-KOTrw  T?/y 
iLp-i}ut]v,  TOTS.  Tot/s  Xa'ucoOs  Ttjii  Eipi'ii/rju  Sioovai.  Kal  o'vTM 
Tt]v  ayiav  -irpocrcpopav  tTrixf XfTa-6ai. 

'"  Cyvil.  Catech.  Myst.  5.  n.  2. 

=»  Chrys.  Horn.  20.  in  Mat.  p.  205.  Horn.  22.  in  Rom.  p. 
251.  Horn.  30.  in  2  Cor.  p.  995.  Horn.  14.  in  Ephes.  p. 
1128.  Horn.  77,  in  Joan.  p.  500.  Horn.  30.  de  Proditore, 
t.  5.  p.  565.     Horn.  50.  ibid.  p.  C86. 

^'  Chrys.  de  Compunct.  Cordis,  lib.  1.  cap.  3.  t.  4.  p.  118. 
Ao-Tra^o'/ifyot  aWiJXoi/?  ixi\\ovTo<i  tov  Owpov  Trpoacpi- 
ptadat,  ^■,T.X. 


men  the  peace  to  one  another,  the  holy  oblation 
should  be  oiTered.  After  the  same  manner,  Cyril 
of  Jerusalem  "'  speaks  of  it  as  coming  before  the 
Sursiim  corda,  "  Lift  up  your  hearts  to  the  Lord." 
A  deacon  cries,  "  Receive  one  another,  salute  one 
another  with  a  holy  kiss."  Which,  he  says,  was 
a  symbol  of  reconciliation,  and  forgiving  all  injuries 
whatsoever.  St.  Chrysostom""  often  mentions  it 
among  other  arguments  to  excite  men  to  unity  and 
charity;  reminding  them  of  this  symbol  of  peace 
and  reconciliation,  and  how  great  a  piece  of  page- 
antry and  mere  hypocrisy  it  was  to  give  this  kiss, 
as  Judas  did,  without  cordial  love  and  sincere  afFec- 
tion.  Particularly  in  one  place'^^'hc  notes  the  cir- 
cumstance of  time  when  this  ceremony  was  used, 
that  is,  before  the  oblation,  when  the  sacrifice  was 
about  to  be  ofTered  :  which  agrees  exactly  with  the 
time  specified  in  the  Constitutions.  The  same  is 
noted  long  before  by  Justin  Martyr,"  that  it  was 
between  the  common  prayers  for  the  whole  state  of 
Christ's  church,  and  the  prayers  of  consecration. 
For,  says  he,  when  prayers  are  ended,  we  salute  one 
another  with  a  kiss  :  and  after  that,  bread  and  wine 
and  water  is  brought  to  the  president  of  the  bre- 
thren, who,  receiving  them,  gives  praise  and  glory  to 
the  God  of  all  things,  in  the  name  of  the  Son  and 
the  Holy  Spirit.  In  the  Latin  church  the  same 
custom  was  observed,  only  with  this  difference,  that 
it  came  not  before,  but  after  the  consecration  jiray- 
ers  and  the  Lord's  prayer,  immediately  before  the 
distribution.  For  so  St.  Austin  or  Ca-sarius  Arela- 
tensis  represents  it,  in  describing  the  order  of  the 
service  :  When  the  consecration "'  is  ended,  we  say 
the  Lord's  prayer  ;  and  after  that,  "  Peace  be  with 
you:"  and  then  Christians  salute  one  another  with 
a  holy  kiss,  which  is  a  sign  of  peace,  if  that  be 
really  in  their  hearts,  which  they  pretend  with  their 
lips.  He  mentions  the  thing  in  other  places,  and 
seems  to  intimate,  that  the  Donatists  observed  the 
same  ceremony,  though  they  had  nothing  of  the 
peace  that  was  intended  by  it.  In  his  books  against 
Petilian,-''  speaking  of  one  Optatus  Gildonianus,  a 
Donatist  bishop,  who  had  been  a  great  oppressor 
of  widows  and  orphans,  and  infamous  for  many 
other  barbarous  cruelties,  he  says,  notwithstandino- 
all  this,  they  gave  him  the  kiss  of  peace,  when  they 
received  the  sacrament  at  his  hands.     In  another 


"  Justin.  Apol.  2.  p.  97.  'A\X.i\ous  (^iXvfiaTi  a(r-TraX,6- 
fxtda  ■n-avcrdp.iLVOL  Tutv  tbxuiV  'iirtiTa  TrpoarrjitpeTaL  tiu  irpo- 
ta-TooTi  Twii  aOcXrpwu  lipTo^  Kal  TroTi'ipiov  iioaxos  Kal  Kpa- 
liaT09.  Vid.  Clem.  Alex.  Paedagog.  lib.  3.  cap.  11.  Athenag. 
Legat.  p.  36.    Dionys.  Eccl.  Hierarch.  cap.  3.  sect.  8. 

"'*  Aug.  Ilom.  83.  de  Diversis,  1. 10.  p.  556.  Ubi  poracta 
est  sauetificatio,  dicimus  oiatiouem  Dominicam.  Post  ipsam 
dicitur,  Pa.x  vobiscum,  ct  osculautur  se  Christiani  in  osculo 
sancto,  quod  est  signum  pacis,  si  quod  ostendunt  labia,  fiat 
in  couscientia. 

-'  Aug.  coni  Literas  Petilian.  lib.  2.  cap.  2-3.  Cui  pacis 
osculum  inter  sacramenta  copulabatis,  &c. 


768 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


place"  he  compares  the  Donatists  to  crows,  and  the 
cathoUcs  to  doves ;  because,  though  they  both  gave 
the  kiss  of  peace,  j^et  the  one  tare  the  church  in 
pieces,  and  fed  upon  its  rains,  but  the  other  were 
innocent  and  harmless  as  doves  ;  and  by  those  cha- 
racters they  might  be  distinguished  from  each  other. 
It  appears  also  from  Pope  Innocent's  letter^"  to 
Deccntius,  bishop  of  Eugubium,  that  it  was  the  ge- 
neral custom  of  the  ItaUc  churches  to  give  the  kiss 
of  peace,  not  before  the  consecration,  but  after:  for 
it  blames  those  that  gave  it  before,  and  says,  it 
ought  to  come  after,  as  a  testimony  of  their  consent 
to  all  that  was  done,  and  as  a  seal  of  the  consecra- 
tion prayer,  to  signify  that  all  was  ended.  Tertul- 
lian^'  probably  upon  this  account  gave  it  the  name 
of  sif/nacidiiin  orationis,  the  seal  of  their  prayers  ; 
as  being  in  his  time  used  when  all  the  prayers  of 
consecration  were  ended.  He  seems  to  intimate 
also  that  it  was  given  promiscuously,  and  without 
distinction  between  men  and  women.^  For  among 
other  arguments,  which  he  uses  why  a  Christian 
woman  should  not  marry  a  heathen,  this  is  one, 
that  he  would  be  unwilling  to  suffer  her  to  go  into 
the  prisons  to  kiss  the  martyrs'  chains,  or  at  any 
other  times  to  give  the  kiss  of  peace  to  a  brother. 
And  this  is  as  plainly  intimated  by  the  ancient 
writer  of  the  Passion  of  Felicitas  and  Perpetua,  about 
Tertullian's  time,  when  he  says^^  that  Felicitas,  Per- 
petua, and  Saturus  did  mutually  kiss  each  other  be- 
fore they  suffered,  that  they  might  consummate  their 
martyrdom  by  the  solemn  rite  of  peace  :  alluding  to 
the  usual  custom  of  giving  the  kiss  of  peace  without 
distinction,  though  it  was  otherwise  observed  in  the 
Greek  church.  There  is  one  thing  more  proper  to  be 
observed  out  of  TertuUian,^"  that  some  made  a  scruple 
of  giving  the  kiss  of  peace  upon  a  fast  day,  though  it 
were  but  a  private  fast  of  their  own ;  whom  he  re- 
proves, telling  them,  that  the  kiss  of  peace  was  the 
seal  of  prayer ;  that  it  was  never  more  proper  than 
when  joined  with  prayer;  that  there  was  no  prayer 
perfect  without  peace  ;  that  peace  was  no  impediment 
to  a  man  in  doing  his  duty  to  the  Lord ;  that  what- 
ever reason  they  had  for  it,  their  reason  was  not 
stronger  than  the  observation  of  the  precept  which 


obliges  us  to  conceal  our  fasts.  Whereas  when  we 
refrain  from  the  kiss  of  peace,  that  discovers  us  to 
be  fasting.  We  may  at  home  omit  this  ceremony 
of  giving  the  peace,  because  there  our  fasts  cannot 
be  wholly  concealed  from  the  family  :  but  in  other 
places,  where  you  may  conceal  your  action,  you 
ought  to  remember  the  precept  of  the  Lord ;  and 
so  you  may  observe  the  discipline  of  the  church 
abroad,  and  your  own  custom  at  home.  TertuUian, 
we  see,  speaks  this  of  private  fasts,  which  he  thinks 
no  reason  for  men's  refusing  the  kiss  of  peace  in 
public.  As  to  public  fasts,  the  case  was  otherwise. 
For,  by  the  laws  of  the  church,  this  ceremony  was 
omitted  on  some  more  solemn  days  of  fasting ;  as 
upon  the  day  of  our  Saviour's  passion.  For  Ter- 
tuUian adds  immediately  in  the  next  words,^'  that 
on  that  day,  because  it  was  a  public  and  common 
fast,  ordained  by  the  laws  of  the  church,  they  omit- 
ted the  kiss  of  peace,  and  no  one  then  regarded 
the  omission,  because  it  was  done  by  general  con- 
sent and  agreement.  And  this  seems  to  have  been 
an  exception  of  universal  extent  in  the  church  :  for 
Procopius  notes  it  in  the  Life  of  Justinian  and  Theo- 
dora, who  began  their  reign  on  this  day,  anno  527, 
that  they  began  it  with  an  ill  omen,  on  a  day^'^  that 
no  one  used  the  kiss  of  peace  in  the  church.  And 
thus  much  of  this  ancient  ceremony,  so  often  en- 
joined by  the  apostle,  Rom.  xvi.  16 ;  1  Cor.  xvi.  20 ; 
2  Cor.  xiii.  12;  1  Thess.  v.  26;  1  Pet.  v.  14.  Of 
which  some  have  wi'itten^  whole  volumes:  but  I 
content  myself  to  have  said  so  much,  as  may  serve 
to  confirm  the  observation  made  upon  the  author  of 
the  Constitutions,  that  this  was  an  ancient  rite  uni- 
versally observed  in  the  church  in  one  part  or  other 
of  the  communion  service. 

The  next  thing  mentioned  in  the  g^^.^  ^ 
Constitutions,  is  the  ceremony  of  the  of'h^nditefore'Jon? 
priest's  washing  his  hands  before  con-  ^"^"^ '°"' 
secration.  This  is  also  noted  by  Cyril  of  Jerusalem 
in  his  Mystagogical  Explication  of  the  Communion 
Service,  where,  speaking  to  the  newly  baptized,  he 
says.  Ye  have  seen  the  deacon  bring  water  to  the 
bishop  and  presbyters'*  standing  about  the  altar, 
to  wash  their  hands.     Did  he  give  it  to  wash  the 


23  Aug.  Tract.  6.  in  Joan.  p.  21.  Osculantur  corvi,  seel  la- 
niant  :  a  laniatu  innocens  est  natura  columbarum.  Ubi 
ergo  laniatus,  iion  est  vera  in  osculis  pax,  &c. 

'-"°  Innoc.  Ep.  1.  ad  Decent,  cap.  1.  Paceui  ergo  asseris 
ante  confecta  mysteria  quosdam  populis  imperare,  vel  sibi 
inter  sacerdotes  tradere  :  cum  post  omnia,  quae  aperire  non 
debeo,  pax  sit  neccssario  indicenda,  per  quam  constet  popu- 
lum,  ad  omnia  quae  in  mysteriis  aguntur,  atque  in  ecclesia 
celebrantur,  praebuisse  couseusum,  ac  fiuita  esse  pacis  con- 
cludentis  signaculo  demonstrentur. 

-'  Tertul.  de  Orat.  cap.  11. 

^  Ad  Uxor.  lib.  2.  cap.  4.  Quis  patietur  alicui  fratrum 
ad  osculum  convenire  ? 

^  Passio  Perpetu:p,  ad  calcem  Lactaut.  de  Mort.  Persec. 
p.  35.  Ante  jam  osculati  invicem,  ut  martyrium  per  solonnia 
pacis  consimimarent. 


^  Tertul.  de  Orat.  cap.  14.  Aliajam  consuetudo  invaluit, 
jejuuantes  habita  oratione  cum  fratribus  s\ibtrahunt  oscu- 
\\\m  pacis,  quod  est  signaculum  orationis.  Quando  autem 
magisconferenda  cum  fratribus  pax  est,  nisi  cum  oratione 

commendabilior  ascendit  ? Quae  oratio  cum  divortio 

sancti  osculi  Integra  ?  Qiiem  Domino  offieium  facientem 
impedit  pax  ?  Quale  sacrificium  est,  a  quo  sine  pace  rece- 
ditur?  &c. 

'•  Ibid.  Die  Paschac,  quo  communis  et  quasi  publica 
jejunii  relieio,  deponimus  osculum  ;  nihil  curantes  de  oscu- 
lando,  quod  cum  omnibus  faciamus. 

^-  Procop.  Hist.  Arcana,  cap.  9. 

^  MuUerus  de  Osculo  Sancto.  Jena;,  1675.  4to.  Martin 
Kempius  de  Osculo,  &c.  Lipsise,  1665. 

=*<  Cyril.  Catech.  Myst.  5.  n.  1. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


769 


filth  of  their  bodies  ?  By  no  means.  For  we  do 
not  use  to  go  into  the  church  with  bodies  defiled : 
but  that  washing  of  hands  is  a  symbol,  that  you 
ought  to  be  pure  from  sin  and  transgressions  of  the 
law.  For  the  hands  are  the  symbol  of  action,  and 
washing  them  denotes  the  purity  and  cleanness  of 
our  actions.  Have  you  not  lieard  holy  David  ex- 
plaining this  mystery,  and  saying,  "  I  will  wash  my 
hands  among  the  innocent,  and  so  will  I  compass 
thine  altar,  O  Lord."  Therefore  washing  the  hands 
is  a  symbol  or  indication  that  we  are  not  obnoxious 
or  liable  unto  sin.  The  author  of  the  Questions 
upon  the  Old  and  New  Testament  under  the  name 
of  St.  Austin,**  takes  notice  of  the  same  custom  as 
used  in  all  churches,  only  with  this  difference,  that 
whereas  in  other  churches  it  was  commonly  the 
office  of  the  deacons  to  bring  water  to  priests,  in  the 
Roman  church  it  was  devolved  upon  the  subdea- 
cons,  because  there  was  a  multitude  of  inferior  cler- 
gy in  that  church  above  many  others.  And  in  the 
author  under  the  name  of  Dionysius  the  Areopa- 
gite,  a  great  deal  more  may  be  read  to  the  same 
purpose. 

In  the  next  place,  whereas  in  the 
FourtMy^Thedea-  Coustitutions  the  dcacou  is  appointed 

con's  admonition  to  ,  _  ,  ,  . 

all  non  communi-  asTaiu  to  maKC  a  solcmn  proclamation, 

cants  to  withdraw  ;       ^ 

and  to  all  commu-  ordering:  all  non-communicants,  cate- 

nicants  to  come  in  ^ 

ceritj'''  '"^'^  ^'"'  chumens,  penitents,  and  unbelievers, 
to  be  excluded  ;  and  admonishing  all 
communicants  to  approach  in  charity  and  sincerity, 
not  in  enmity  with  their  bretlii'en,  or  in  hypocrisy 
towards  God,  but  in  reverence  and  fear ;  the  very 
same  is  suggested  by  Chrysostom :  Dost  thou  not 
hear  the  deacon,  the  herald  of  the  church,  standing 
and  crying.  All  ye  that  are  under  penance,'"  be 
gone.  All  they  that  do  not  partake  of  the  commu- 
nion, are  in  penance.  If  thou  art  in  penance,  thou 
mayest  not  partake.  And  Severianus,  bishop  of 
Gabala,  in  one  of  his  homilies  among  St.  Chrysos- 
tom's  works,''  speaks  of  the  same :  Ye  have  seen  the 
deacons  traversing  the  church,  and  crying,  Let  no 
catechumen  be  present,  none  of  those  that  may  not 
see  the  heavenly  blood  shed  for  the  remission  of 
sins,  &c.  Ye  remember  after  this  how  the  angels 
from  heaven  sing  the  hymns  and  praises,  saying, 
"  Holy  is  the  Father,  holy  is  the  Son,  holy  is  the 


Holy  Ghost."  By  which  it  is  plain,  these  admoni- 
tions of  the  deacon  were  here  repeated  as  prepara- 
tory to  the  oblation. 

The  circumstance  of  the  piiriSia,  or  j. 


fans  to  drive  away  the  insects,  is  so 


lie      P(7 

to  ifriv 


/a<a, 


minute,  that  it  is  no  great  wonder  it  """^  msicts. 
should  be  omitted  in  most  other  writers  beside  the 
Constitutions.  Bona  says,**  they  are  mentioned 
in  Jobius'"  and  Germanus  Theoria,  and  the  litur- 
gies that  go  under  the  name  of  St.  Chrysostom  and 
St.  Basil.  Suicerus  thinks,"  that  in  most  of  those 
writings  the  word  pnrlSta  signifies  one  of  their  holy 
vessels,  a  basket  or  the  like,  in  which  they  were 
used  to  carry  the  sacred  elements  to  and  from  the 
altar ;  such  as  that  spoken  of  by  St.  Jerom,  when 
describing  the  glorious  poverty  of  Exuperius,  bishop 
of  Tholouse,  he  says,"  he  was  used  to  carry  the 
Lord's  body  in  a  basket  of  osiers,  and  the  blood  in 
a  glass  cup.  And  indeed  in  Herodotus  the  word 
pnriowv  is  by  some  lexicographers  said  to  signify  a 
basket ;  but  in  the  liturgies  of  St.  Chrysostom  and 
Basil,  it  is  taken  in  the  common  sense  of  Greek 
authors,  and  as  it  is  used  in  the  Constitutions,  for  a 
fan  to  blow  with.  For  in  Chrysostom's  liturgy  the 
deacon  is  to  ventilate  ^^  or  blow  over  the  elementrs 
with  a  fan  ;  or  if  there  be  no  fan,  then  to  do  it  Avith 
the  covering  of  the  cup.  And  in  St.  Basil's  liturgy 
there  is  mention"  made  of  the  same  utensils,  pnri- 
Stov  77  KaXvfina,  either  the  fan,  or  the  covering  of  the 
cup,  to  be  used  for  the  same  purpose.  And  so  the 
word  piTTiSiov  ■'''  is  taken  both  hy  Germanus,  and  Jo- 
bius,  and  Suidas.  So  that  there  was  no  reason  for 
Suicerus  to  reckon  the  author  of  the  Constitutions 
so  singular  in  this  opinion.  But  as  these  authors 
are  not  very  ancient,  I  have  mentioned  them  rather 
to  explain  a  hard  word,  than  establish  an  ecclesias- 
tical custom.  St.  Jerom's  authority  is  produced  by 
Durantus,"  but  it  is  nothing  to  the  purpose :  for 
though  he  mentions  the  use  of  mnscaria,^^  that  is, 
fans  ;  yet  it  is  plain  he  speaks  of  them  not  as  any 
ecclesiastical  utensil,  but  as  a  civil  present  made  by 
Marcella  to  the  matrons,  though  he  gives  a  tropo- 
logical  turn  of  wit,  to  draw  something  of  a  mystical 
meaning  out  of  them.  So  I  let  this  matter  pass  as 
a  minute  circumstance  in  the  Constitutions,  about 
which  it  is  not  worth  our  while  to  be  further  soli- 


^»"Aug.  Qusest.  Vet.  et  Novi  Testamenti,  qu.  101.  Ut 
aulem  non  omnia  ministeria  obsequiorum  per  ortlinem  agant, 
inultitudo  facit  clericorum.  Nam  utique  et  altare  portarent 
et  vasaejus,  et  aquam  in  manus  funderent  saceiiloti,  sicut 
viileraus  per  omnes  ecclesias,  &c. 

3"  Chrys.  Horn.  3.  in  Ephes.  p.  1051. 

"  Ap.  Chi-ys.  t.  6.  Horn.  37.  do  Filio  Prodigo,  p.  375. 
See  before,  Book  XIII.  chap.  6.  sect.  6.  Vide  Chrvs.  Horn. 
I.  cont.  Judaeos,  1. 1.  p.  400.   'TLiriyLvwaKni  aWnXn's,  k.t.X. 

^^  Bona,  Rer.  Litm-g.  lib.  I.  cap.  25.  n.  6. 

39  Jobius  ap.  Photium,  Cod.  222. 

'"'  Suicer.  Thesaur.  Eccles.  voce  'PtTrtotoi',  t.  2. 

^'  Ilieron.  Ep.  5.   ad  Uiisticuni.     Nihil  illo  ditius,  qui 

3  u 


corpus  Domini  canistro  vimineo,  sanguinem  portat  in 
vitro. 

"■=  Chrys.  Liturg.  Bibl.  Patr.  Gr.  Lat.  t.  2.  p.  78.  'Pt-Tn'^fi 
iirdvu)  Tthv  dyiwv  /UETci  piiriSiu  EtiXaStos.  EI  Sk  hk  in 
pnriSov,  TTOifX  t5to  jXiTct  KuXu/ifxaTO^. 

■"  Basil.  Liturg.  ibid.  p.  51. 

**  German.  Contemplatio  Her.  Eccles.  ibid.  p.  157.  Jo- 
bius ubi  supra.     Suidaa  Le.xicon,  t.  2.  p.  686. 

■■^  Darant.  de  Ritib.  lib.  1.  cap.  10.  n.  2. 

*'^  Hieron.  Ep.  20.  ad  Mareellam.  Quod  autem  et  ina- 
tronis  offertis  muscaria  parva,  parvis  aniraalibus  eventilan- 
<lis,  elegans  significatio  est,  debere  luxuriam  cito  restia- 
guere,  quia  muscx  moriturae  oleum  suavitatis  exterminant. 


770 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


citous  in  our  inquiries,  to  give  collateral  evidence 
out  of  the  ancient  writei's. 

g^^,  ,  The  next  thing  mentioned  in  the 

.ig^onhhrossal  Constitutions  is,  the  use  of  the  sign 
th'e  Lord's  table.  ^f  ^^le  cross,  beforc  the  minister  pro- 
ceeds to  the  consecration.  And  of  this  there  is 
more  certain  evidence  in  the  ancient  writers.  For 
Chrysostom  says  expressly,"  that  it  was  not  only 
used  by  Christians  every  day,  but  particularly  at  the 
holy  table,  and  in  the  ordinations  of  priests,  and 
that  its  glory  shined  with  the  body  of  Christ  in  the 
mystical  supper :  which  implies,  that  it  was  used 
more  than  once  in  the  time  of  celebration.  St. 
Austin  says  likewise,  that  it  was  used  in  all  their 
offices,"'  in  consecrating  the  waters  of  baptism,  in 
the  unction  of  confirmation,  and  in  the  sacrifice  of 
the  eucharist ;  without  which  none  of  them  were 
solemnly  performed. 

Next  after  this,  immediately  before 
Of  the  usual  pre-  ^|^g  great  tlianksgiving  in  the  Consti- 

face,  called  Sursum  t3  O  o 

^".^Sonfolheg^eat  tutious,  the  prlcst  haviug  given  the 
thanksgiving.  people  auother  salutation  in  the  words 
of  St.  Paul,  "  The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
&c.  be  with  you ;"  and  they  answering  again,  "  And 
with  thy  spirit :"  the  priest  goes  on  and  says,  "  Lift 
up  your  hearts :"  to  which  the  people  answer,  "  We 
lift  them  up  unto  the  Lord."  The  priest  says  again, 
"  Let  us  give  thanks  to  the  Lord ;"  and  the  people 
answer,  "  It  is  meet  and  right  so  to  do."  Now,  this 
is  mentioned  almost  by  all  ecclesiastical  writers, 
that  have  said  any  thing  of  the  eucharist  or  prayer. 
St.  Cyprian'"'  calls  it  the  preface  that  was  premised 
by  the  priest,  to  prepare  the  brethren's  minds  to 
pray  with  a  heavenly  temper.  St.  Austin  men- 
tions it  above  ten  times  in  his  writings  :  the  places 
have  been  noted  above,'*"  in  the  general  discourse  of 
liturgies,  and  therefore  I  need  not  here  repeat  them. 
I  will  only  remark,  that  he  says.  It  was  the  custom 
of  the  whole  church  throughout  the  world  ^'  to  say 
daily  almost  with  one  voice,  "  We  lift  up  our  hearts 
unto  the  Lord."  And  that  therefore  the  hearts"  of 
Christian  people  were  a  sort  of  heaven,  because  they 
are  daily  lift  up  to  heaven,  whilst  the  priest  says, 
"  Lift  up  your  hearts ;"  and  they  answer,  "  We  lift 


them  up  unto  the  Lord."  St.  Chrysostom  also*" 
frequently  mentions  the  use  of  this  preface  in  his 
homilies,  which  because  I  have  related  at  length 
in  a  former  Book,  I  forbear  to  repeat  them  again  .in 
this  place.**  The  reader  that  is  curious,  may  find 
the  same  forms  related  in  Cyril's  Mystical  Cate- 
chisms,** and  Anastasius  Sinaita,*'^  and  Ceesarius 
Arelatensis,*'  and  Eligius  Noviomensis,**  not  to 
mention  the  Greek  liturgies,  or  any  later  writers.  I 
only  observe  further  out  of  the  council  of  Milevis,*' 
where  there  is  mention  made  of  prefaces  among 
other  prayers,  it  is  commonly  supposed  by  learner 
men,  that  these  forms  are  meant,  "  Lift  up  your 
hearts:  We  lift  them  up  unto  the  Lord.  Let  us 
give  thanks  unto  the  Lord:  It  is  meet  and  right  so 
to  do."  Which,  as  Mabillon'*  observes,  in  the  old 
Galilean  liturgy,  is  called  contestatio,  because,  by 
these  answers,  the  people  gave  in  their  attestation 
or  testimony  of  their  comphance  with  the  priest's 
exhortation ;  declaring  that  their  hearts  were  now 
in  heaven,  and  that  it  was  meet  and  right  to  praise 
the  Lord. 

After  this,  the  priest  went  on  with 

Sect.  9. 

the  tiixapiaria,  properly  so  called,  that  or  the  evx'^pia- 
is,  the  great  thanksariving  to  God  for  thanksgiving,  pro- 

'  °  a  O  purly  so  called. 

all  his  mercies,  both  of  creation,  pro- 
vidence, and  redemption ;  where  a  commemoration 
was  made  of  all  that  God  had  done  for  man  from 
the  foundation  of  the  world,  and  more  particularly 
in  the  gi'eat  mystery  of  redemption  :  upon  which  a 
solemn  and  magnificent  glorification  of  God  was 
framed,  always  including  the  Trisagion,  or  seraph- 
ical  hymn,  "  Holy,  holy,  holy.  Lord  of  hosts,"  &c,, 
which  was  sung  by  the  minister  and  people  jointly; 
and  then  the  minister  went  on  alone  to  finish  the 
solemn  thanksgiving.  We  have  no  where  else  in- 
deed so  long  a  thanksgiving  as  is  that  in  the  Con- 
stitutions :  but  the  substance  of  it  is  not  only  in  the 
liturgies  that  go  under  the  names  of  St.  James, 
Chrysostom,  and  Basil,  but  may  be  discovered  in 
more  authentic  writings.  For  Justin  Martyr,  de- 
scribing the  Christian  rites  and  mysteries,"'  says.  As 
soon  as  the  common  prayers  were  ended,  and  they 
had  saluted  one  another  with  a  kiss,  bread  and  wine 


^'  Chrys.  Demonstrat.  Quod  Christus  sit  Deus,  cap.  9.  t. 
5.  p.  840.  OStos  Iv  xj;  LEpa  TpairiX^ri,  axos  Iv  this  tcoi' 
'ifpitov  ')(iipOToviai'i,  arcs  iraXiv  fitTo.  tu  aoi^aros  x£ 
'S.pi':^  ETTL  TO  ixv^iKov  otiirvov  Sia\a/xTrii. 

■■8  Aug.  Horn.  118.  in  Joan.  p.  2'25.  Quid  est  signum 
Cliristi  nisi  crux  Christi?  Quod  signum  nisi  adhibeatur 
sive  fvontibus  credentiura,  sive  ipsi  aquae  ex.  qua  regeneran- 
tur,  sive  oleo  quo  'chrismute  unguntur,  sive  saciificio  quo 
aluntur;  niliil  horuin  rite  perficitur. 

«  Cypr.  de  Oral.  p.  152. 

5»  See  Book  XIII.  chap.  5.  sect.  7. 

*'  Aug.  de  Vera  Itelig.  cap.  3.  t.  1.  p.  302.  Quotidie  per 
miiversum  orbem  iiumanum  genus  una  pone  voce  respondet, 
Sursum  corda  se  habere  ad  Dominum. 

'^  Serm.  44.  de  Tempore.  Corda  fidelium  ccelum  sunt, 
quia  in  coelos  quotidie  criguntur,  diceute  sacerdote,  Sursum 


corda;  securi  respondent,  Habemus  ad  Dominum. 

ss  Chrys.  Horn.  18.  in  2  Cor.  p.  873.  Hom.  22.  in  Heb. 
p.  1898.  Hom.  5.  de  Pcenitent.  t.  6.  Edit.  Savil.  Hom. 
24.  in  1  Cor.  p.  536.     Hom.  38.  de  Euchar.  t.  5.  p.  5G9. 

^*  See  Book  XIII.  chap.  G. 

55  Cyril.  Catech.  Myst.  5.  n.  3. 

5"  Anastas.  Serm.  de  Syuaxi,  ap.  Albertin.  de  Eucharistia, 
p.  529. 

5'  Cffisar.  Hom.  12. 

^  Eligius,  Hom.  11.  de  Cona  Domini.  E.x  verbis  Cy- 
priani. 

5"  Cone.  Milevit.  can.  12.  Placuit,  ut  preces  vel  orationes 
et  missae  sive  praet'ationes,  quae  probata;  fuerint  in  concilio, 
ab  omnibus  celebrentur. 

•5"  Mabillon.  de  Liturg.  Gall.  lib.  1.  cap.  3.  n.  17. 

*'  Justin.  Apol.  2.  p.  97. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


771 


and  water  was  brought  to  the  president ;  who,  re- 
ceiving them,  gave  praise  and  glory  to  the  Father 
of  all  things  by  the  Son  and  Holy  Spirit,  and  made 
ivxapmriav  Itti  to  ttoXv,  a  long  thanksgiving  for  the 
blessings  which  he  vouchsafed  to  bestow  upon 
them.  And  when  he  had  ended  the  prayers  and 
thanksgiving,  all  the  people  that  were  present  an- 
swered with  acclamation.  Amen.  After  the  same 
manner  Irenaeus  -.'^  We  oiler  unto  him  his  own  gifts, 
thereby  declaring  the  communication  and  truth 
both  of  flesh  and  Spirit.  For  as  the  bread,  which 
is  of  the  earth,  after  the  invocation  of  God  upon  it, 
is  no  longer  common  bread,  but  the  eucharist,  con- 
sisting of  two  parts,  the  one  earthly,  the  other  hea- 
venly ;  so  all  our  bodies,  receiving  the  eucharist, 
are  no  longer  corruptible,  whilst  they  live  in  hopes 
of  a  resurrection.  But  we  offer  these  things  to 
him,  not  as  if  he  stood  in  need  of  them,  but  as  giv- 
ing him  thanks  for  his  gifts,  and  sanctifying  the 
creature.  So  Origen®^  says.  They  eat  the  bread 
that  was  offered  to  the  Creator  with  prayer  and 
thanksgiving  for  the  gifts  that  he  had  bestowed  on 
them,  which  bread  was  made  a  holy  body  by 
prayer,  sanctifjdng  those  that  used  it  with  a  pious 
mind.  Cyril  of  Jerusalem  more  particularly  speci- 
fies the  substance  of  this  thanksgiving  in  his  Mysti- 
cal Catechisms,  saying,"*'  After  this,  that  is,  after  we 
have  said,  "  Let  us  give  thanks  to  the  Lord,"  and  "  it 
is  meet  and  right  so  to  do,"  we  make  mention  of  the 
heaven,  and  earth,  and  sea,  and  the  sun,  moon,  and 
stars,  and  all  the  creatures,  rational  and  irrational, 
visible  and  invisible,  angels,  archangels,  hosts  and 
dominions,  principalities  and  powers,  thrones,  and 
cherubims  covering  their  faces,  saying,  with  David, 
"  Magnify  the  Lord  with  me."  We  also  make  men- 
tion of  the  cherubims,  which  Esaias  saw  in  the 
Spirit,  standing  about  the  throne  of  God,  and  with 
two  wings  covering  their  faces,  and  with  two  their 
feet,  and  flying  with  two,  and  saying,  "  Holy,  holy, 
holy.  Lord  God  of  hosts."  This  is  much  the  same 
with  the  thanksgiving  in  St.  James's  liturgy,  which 
was  used  in  the  church  of  Jerusalem,  in  this  form : 
It  is  very  meet  and  right,  becoming  us  and  our 
duty,"^  that  we  should  praise  thee,  and  celebrate 
thee  with  hymns,  and  give  thanks  unto  thee,  the 
Maker  of  all  creatures,  visible  and  invisible,  the 


Treasure  of  all  good,  the  Fountain  of  life  and  im- 
mortality, the  God  and  Lord  of  all  things,  whom 
the  heavens  and  the  heavens  of  heavens  praise, 
and  all  the  host  of  them ;  the  sun,  and  moon,  and 
the  whole  company  of  stars;  the  earth,  and  sea, 
and  all  that  are  in  them ;  the  celestial  congregation 
of  Jerusalem ;  the  church  of  the  first-born,  who  are 
written  in  heaven  ;  the  spirits  of  just  men  and  pro- 
phets, the  souls  of  martyrs  and  apostles ;  angels  and 
archangels,  thrones  and  dominions,  principalities 
and  powers,  the  tremendous  hosts  and  cherubims 
with  many  eyes,  and  seraphims  with  six  wings, 
with  two  whereof  they  cover  their  faces,  and  with 
two  their  feet,  and  with  two  they  fly,  crying  out  in- 
cessantly one  to  another,  and  singing  with  loud 
voices  the  triumphal  song  of  the  magnificence  of 
thy  glory,  "  Holy,  holy,  holy.  Lord  of  hosts,  heaven 
and  earth  are  full  of  thy  glory.  Hosanna  in  the 
highest.  Blessed  be  he  that  cometh  in  the  name  of 
the  Lord.     Hosanna  in  the  highest." 

St.  Chrysostom*"  also  speaks  of  this  thanksgiving, 
though  he  does  not  give  us  the  whole  form  of  it,  but 
only  the  introduction,  saying.  The  pi'ayer  of  thanks- 
giving is  common  both  to  priest  and  people.  For 
not  only  the  priest  gives  thanks,  but  all  the  people. 
For,  first,  he  receives  their  answer  and  attestation, 
That  it  is  meet  and  right  to  praise  the  Lord,  and 
then  he  begins  the  thanksgiving.  And  why  should 
you  wonder,  that  the  people  should  sometimes  speak 
with  the  priest,  when  they  do,  even  with  the  cheru- 
bims and  celestial  powers,  send  up  those  sacred 
hymns  to  heaven  above  ?  He  means  those  hymns, 
"  Holy,  holy,  holy,"  &c.,  and,  "  Glory  be  to  God  on 
high ;"  which,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  were  one 
part  of  this  great  thanksgiving. 

Among  the  Latin  writers  this  previous  giving  of 
thanks  is  mentioned  by  Fulgentius  also,"  who 
says.  In  the  Christian  sacrifice  there  was  both  a 
thanksgiving  and  a  commemoration  made  of  the 
flesh  of  Christ,  and  of  his  blood  which  he  shed  for 
our  sakes.  And  so  St.  Ambrose,  or  whoever  was 
the  author  of  the  books  De  Sacramentis  among  his 
works;  distinguishing  between  the  thanksgiving 
and  the  consecration,  he  asks,^  With  what  words,  and 
with  whose  words  is  the  consecration  made  ?  And 
answers,  With  the  words  of  the  Lord  Jesus.   For  all 


*-  Iren.  lib.  4.  cap.  34.  Offerimus  ei  quae  sunt  ejus,  con- 
gruenter  communicationem  et  veritatem  procdicantes  carnis 
et  Spiritus.  Quemadmodum  eniin  qui  est  a  terra  panis, 
percipiens  invocationem  Dei,  jam  non  communis  panis  est, 
sed  eucharistia,  es  duabus  rebus  constans,  terrena  et  coe- 
lesti:  sic  et  corpora  nostra,  percipientia  eucharistiam,  jam 
non  sunt  corruptibilia,  spem  resurrectionis  habentia.  Ofi'cr- 
imus  autem  ei,  non  quasi  indigeuti,  sed  gratias  agentes  do- 
nationi  ejus,  et  sanctificantes  creaturam. 

'^  Orig.  coqt.  Gels.  lib.  8.  p.  399. 

"«  Cyril.  Catech.  Myst.  5.  n.  5. 

•■•■•  Liturg.  .Tacobi,  Bibl.  Patr.  Gr.  Lat.  t.  2.  p.  ]2. 

«"  Chrys.  Horn.  18.   in  2  Cor.  p.  873.     It.  Horn.  2.  in 


2  Cor.  p.  739.  'Yirip  t;")?  OLKov/xtuii^  Kal  rHiv  kolvwv 
tiiyitpLdTOviXiV  &yaBwv. 

"='  Fulgent,  de  Fide  ad  Pctrum,  cap.  19.  In  isto  autem 
sacrificio  gratiarum  actio,  atque  commemoratio  est  carnis 
Christi,  quam  pro  nobis  obtulit,  sanguinis  qucm  pro  nobis 
idem  Deus  efFudit. 

•^^  Ambros.  de  Sacrament,  lib.  4.  cap.  4.  Consecratio 
igitur  quibiis  verbis  est,  et  cujus  sermonibus  ?  Domini 
Jesu.  Nam  rcliqua  omnia  quae  dicuntur,  laus  Deo  defertur, 
oratione  petitur  pro  populo,  pro  rogibus,  pro  cneteris.  Ubi 
venitur  ut  coniiciatur  vcnerabile  sacramentura,  jam  non 
suis  sermonibus  sacerdos,  sed  utitur  sermonibus  Christi. 

3  D  2 


772 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


that  goes  before,  is  either  the  glorification  and  praise 
of  God,  or  prayer  for  the  people,  for  kings,  and  the 
rest  of  mankind.  But  v/hen  the  priest  comes  to 
the  consecration  of  the  holy  sacrament,  then  he 
uses  not  his  own  words,  but  the  words  of  Christ. 
By  all  which  it  is  indisputably  evident,  that  the 
consecration  of  the  sacrament  was  ushered  in  with 
a  solemn  thanksgiving,  or  glorification  of  God,  for 
all  his  gifts  and  benefits,  whence  the  whole  action 
had  the  name  of  ivxapiaria,  the  eucharist  or  thanks- 
giving, because  this  was  always  premised  as  a 
necessary  part  of  the  sacred  mystery ;  and  the  whole 
action  and  ceremony  was  concluded  with  another 
thanksgiving  after  communicating,  as  we  shall  see 
hereafter. 

At  present  we  are  to  observe,  that 

Of  the  use  of  the  ouc  part  of  tliis  glorificatiou  or  thanks- 

ra|IS"''hymn,     giving,  was  the  hymn  called  the  Tri- 

"  Holjr,  holy,  holy,"    O       _    »'  .    :    .  t   ■       ^ 

in  this  thanksgiv-  scif/ion,  and  Ejumcioti,  the  seraphical 
and  triumphal  hymn^  "  Holy,  holy, 
holy.  Lord  God  of  hosts,  heaven  and  earth  are  full 
of  thy  glory."  This  is  evident  from  the  last-men- 
tioned passages  of  St.  Cyril,""  and  St.  Chrysostom,™ 
who,  in  other  places,  gives  a  more  particular  ac- 
count of  the  use  of  it  at  the  Lord's  table.  Hereto- 
fore, says  he,  this  hymn  was  only  sung  in  heaven ;" 
but  after  that  the  Lord  vouchsafed  to  come  down 
upon  earth,  he  brought  this  melody  to  us  also. 
Therefore  the  bishop,  when  he  stands  at  this  holy 
table,  to  present  our  rational  service,  and  offer  the  un- 
bloody sacrifice,  does  not  simply  call  upon  us  to  join 
in  this  glorification,  but  first  naming  the  cherubims, 
and  making  mention  of  the  seraphims,  he  then  ex- 
horts us  all  to  send  up  these  tremendous  words ;  and 
withdrawing  our  minds  from  the  earth  by  intimating 
with  what  company  we  make  a  quire,  he  cries  out  to 
every  man,  and  says,  as  it  were,  in  these  words, "  Thou 
singest  with  the  seraphims,  stand  together  with  the 
seraphims,  stretch  forth  thy  wings  with  them,  with 
them  fly  round  the  royal  throne."  In  another  place," 
showing  the  obligation  which  the  eucharist  lays 
upon  men  to  keep  every  member  of  the  body  pure 
from  sin,  the  hands  and  mouth  that  receive  it,  the 
eyes  that  view  it,  the  tongue  that  ministers  in  those 
mysteries  and  is  dyed  in  blood,  he  argues  thus  par- 
ticularly with  respect  to  the  ears  :  How  absurd  is  it, 
after  that  mystical  hymn,  which  was  brought  by  the 
cherubims  from  heaven,  to  pollute  your  ears  with 
songs  of  harlots,  and  the  effeminate  melodies  of  the 
theatre !  "Which  plainly  implies,  that  this  seraphical 
hymn  was  one  part  of  this  great  thanksgiving.    He 


69  Cyril.  Catech.  Myst.  5.  n.  5. 

'»  Chrys.  Horn.  18.  in  2  Cor.  p.  873. 

"  Horn,  in  Seraphim,  t.  3.  p.  890. 

'-  Horn.  21.  ad  Pop.  Antioch.  t.  1.  p.  266. 

"  Hom.  1.  in  Esai.  t.  3.  p.  8:34. 

"  Hom.  3.  in  Ephes.  p.  1052. 

'^  Hom.  21.  tie  Baptismo  Christi,  t.  1.  p.  .317. 


says  the  same  in  his  first  homily  upon  Isaiah  :^  The 
seraphims  above  sing  the  holy  Trisagion  hymn ;  the 
holy  congregation  of  men  on  earth  send  up  the 
same ;  the  general  assembly  of  celestial  and  earthly 
creatures  join  together ;  there  is  one  thanksgiving, 
n'la  svxapiaTia,  one  exultation,  one  quire  of  men  and 
angels  in  one  station  rejoicing  together.  In  another 
place,  reproving  those  who  stayed  at  the  commu- 
nion service,  when  they  would  not  communicate,  he 
tells  them,''*  It  was  better  that  they  should  be  ab- 
sent, for  they  did  but  affront  Him  that  invited  them, 
whilst  they  stayed  to  sing  the  hymn,  professing 
themselves  to  be  of  the  number  of  the  worthy, 
whilst  they  did  not  recede  with  the  unworthy.  How 
could  you  stay,  and  not  partake  of  the  table  ?  I  am 
unworthy,  say  you.  If  so,  you  are  unworthy  to 
communicate  in  prayers  also.  For  it  is  not  only 
the  bare  elements,  but  those  hymns,  that  cause  the 
Spirit  to  descend  upon  them.  Though  he  does  not 
here  name  the  hymns,  he  plainly  intimates,  however, 
that  they  were  commonly  used  in  this  part  of  the 
eucharistical  service.  And  elsewhere"  he  speaks 
more  plainly :  The  faithful,  says  he,  know  what  are 
the  hymns  of  the  powers  above;  what  the  che- 
rubims sing  in  heaven;  what  the  angels  sung,  "  Glory 
be  to  God  in  the  highest."  Therefore  hymns  come 
after  the  psalmody,  as  a  thing  of  greater  perfection. 
He  means,  that  psalmody  was  only  a  part  of  the 
service  of  the  catechumens ;  but  these  hymns  were 
vised  by  the  rsXttot,  the  communicants,  in  the  service 
of  the  altar.  He  mentions  the  same  in  many  other 
places,'^  which  the  reader  may  find  above,"  in  the 
collection  of  the  ancient  liturgy  out  of  St.  Chry- 
sostom's  works :  I  will  only  repeat  one  passage  more 
out  of  his  homily  upon  the  martyrs.  The  martyrs, 
says  he,'*  are  now"  joining  in  consort,  and  partaking 
in  the  mystical  songs  of  the  heavenly  quire.  For 
if,  whilst  they  were  in  the  body,  whenever  they 
communicated  in  the  sacred  mysteries,  they  made 
part  of  the  quire,  singing  with  the  cherubims  the 
Trisaf/ion  hjTnn,  "  Holy,  holy,  holy,"  as  all  ye  that 
are  initiated  in  the  holy  mysteries  very  well  know ; 
much  more  now,  being  joined  with  them  whose 
partners  they  were  in  the  earthly  quire,  they  do  with 
greater  freedom  partake  in  those  solemn  blessings 
and  glorifications  of  God  in  heaven  above.  There 
needs  no  recourse  now,  after  this,  to  be  had  to  the 
liturgy  of  St.  Chrysostom,  to  prove  that  this  Divine 
hymn  was  always  a  part  of  the  solemn  thanksgiving, 
since  it  is  more  solidly  proved  out  of  his  genuine 
writings.     To  which  we  may  add  Severianus"  of 


""  Horn.  4.  de  Incomprchcnsibili,  t.  1.  p.  374.  Hom.  16. 
Si  esurlerit  Inimicus,  t.  5.  p.  229.  Hom.  3.  de  Poenitent.  t. 
4.  p.  562.  Epist.  2.  ad  Olympiad,  t.  4.  p.  715.  Hom.  14.  in 
Ephes.  p.  1127. 

"  Book  XHI.  chap.  6.      '»  Hom.  74.  de  Mart.  1. 1.  p.  900. 

'"  Horn.  37.  de  Filio  Prodigo,  inter  Opera  Chrysost.  t.  G. 
p.  375. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


773 


Gabala  for  the  Greek  church,  and  the  council  of 
Vaison^"  for  the  Latin,  which  says,  that  in  all  com- 
munion services,  whether  they  were  morning  ser- 
vices, or  quadragesimal,  or  commemorations  for  the 
dead,  the  hymn,  "  Holy,  holy,  holy,"  should  be  used 
in  the  same  order  as  in  the  public  service. 

e  ,  ,„  Next  after  this,  there  follows  in  the 

Sect.  10. 

th'^Kvin-forthe  Coustitutions  a  particular  enumera- 
rXrjSioHf  n;an'  tlou  of  the  mcrcics  of  God  vouch- 
im  bychri!.t.  g^fcd  to  mankind  in  the  rederription 
of  the  world  by  the  death  of  Christ,  and  a  more 
special  thanksgiving  with  respect  to  them ;  wherein 
also  is  contained  a  sort  of  creed,  or  summary  of  the 
chief  articles  of  the  Christian  faith.  Which  was 
all  the  creed  that  the  church  in  that  age  made  use 
of  in  that  service.  For  as  yet  the  formal  repetition 
of  the  baptismal  creed  was  no  part  of  the  commu- 
nion service,  as  it  was  in  after  ages,  but  only  such 
doctrines  were  related  as  were  the  subject  of  a  par- 
ticular thanksgiving  for  the  great  mysteries  of  the 
incarnation  and  redemption.  Thus  it  is  represented 
in  the  Constitutions,  with  which  St.  Chrysostom 
exactly  corresponds.  For,  commenting  on  those 
words  of  the  apostle,  "  The  cup  of  blessing  which 
we  bless,  is  it  not  the  communion  of  the  blood  of 
Christ  ?  "  he  brings  in  the  apostle  thus  explaining 
himself:  When  I  speak  of  a  blessing,  I  unfold  all 
the  treasure  of  God's  beneficence,  and  commemorate 
all  his  great  and  glorious  gifts.  And  he  adds.  We 
also  in  offering  the  cup  recite  the  ineffable  mercies 
and  kindness  of  God,  and  all  the  good  things  we 
enjoy :  and  so  we  offer  it,  and  communicate ; 
giving  him  thanks  for  that  he  hath  delivered  man- 
kind from  error  ;  that  he  hath*'  made  us  near,  who 
were  afar  off;  that  when  we  were  without  hope, 
and  without  God  in  the  world,  he  hath  made  us  the 
brethren  of  Christ,  and  fellow  heirs  with  him.  For 
these  and  all  the  like  blessings  we  give  him  thanks, 
and  so  come  to  his  holy  table.  We  cannot  have  a 
plainer  proof  of  a  particular  thanksgiving  than  this 
is,  and  therefore  I  shall  seek  for  no  further  evi- 
dence in  the  case ;  but  proceed  to  the  immediate 
form  of  consecration. 

Now,  this  anciently  was  not  a  bare 
The^fom'of  con    repetition  of  those  words,  Hoc  est  cor- 

secration  always  nni  •      •  i.     j  l  •    i     j* 

toniposeii  of  a  re  piis  711611111,  1  his  IS  my  Dody,  which  tor 

pftitioii  of  the  words  i  i  i  t 

of  institution,  and  niauv  asfcs  has  been  the  current  doc- 
prayer   to   God   to  .       o  .11, 

sanctify  the  gifts  by  triue  of  the  Romish  schools;    but  a 

his  Holy  bpirit. 

repetition  of  the  history  of  the  insti- 
tution, together  with  prayers  to  God,  that  he  would 
send  his  Holy  Spirit  upon  the  gifts,  and  make  them 
become  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ ;  not  by  alter- 


ing their  nature  and  substance,  but  their  qualities 
and  powers,  and  exalting  them  from  simple  ele- 
ments of  bread  and  wine  to  become  types  and  sym- 
bols of  Christ's  flesh  and  blood,  and  efficacious 
instruments  of  conveying  to  worthy  receivers  all  the 
benefits  of  his  death  and  passion.  Thus  it  is  evi- 
dently set  forth  in  the  Constitutions,  which,  for  the 
reader's  ease,  I  will  here  again  repeat :  "  We,  there- 
fore, in  commemoration  of  these  things"^  which 
Christ  suffered  for  us,  give  thanks  to  thee.  Almighty 
God,  not  as  thou  dcservest,  and  as  we  ought,  but  as 
we  are  able,  so  fulfilling  his  command.  For  he,  in  the 
same  night  that  he  was  betrayed,  took  bread  in  his 
holy  and  immaculate  hands,  and  looking  up  to  thee 
his  God  and  Father,  he  brake  it,  and  gave  it  to  his 
disciples,  saying,  '  This  is  the  mystery  of  the  new 
testament ;  take  of  it,  and  eat  it.  This  is  my  body, 
which  is  broken  for  many  for  the  remission  of  sins. 
This  do  in  remembrance  of  me.  For  as  oft  as  ye 
eat  this  bread,  and  drink  this  cup,  ye  do  show  forth 
my  death  till  I  come.'  We,  therefore,  being  mindful 
of  his  passion,  and  death,  and  resurrection  from  the 
dead,  and  his  return  into  heaven  ;  and  also  of  his 
second  coming,  when  he  shall  return  with  glory  and 
power  to  judge  the  quick  and  dead,  and  render  to 
every  man  according  to  his  works  ;  do  offer  unto 
thee,  our  King  and  God,  this  bread  and  this  cup, 
according  to  his  appointment ;  giving  thanks  to 
thee  by  him,  for  that  thou  dost  vouchsafe  to  let  us 
stand  before  thee,  and  minister  unto  thee  :  and  we 
beseech  thee  to  look  propitiously  upon  these  gifts 
here  set  before  thee,  and  to  accept  them  favourably 
to  the  honour  of  thy  Christ,  and  to  send  thy  Holy 
Spirit  upon  this  sacrifice,  the  Spirit  that  is  witness 
of  the  suffering  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  that  it  may  make 
this  bread  become  the  body  of  thy  Christ ;  that  they 
who  partake  of  it,  may  be  confirmed  in  godliness, 
and  obtain  remission  of  sins ;  may  be  delivered 
from  the  devil  and  his  impostures ;  may  be  filled 
with  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  be  made  worthy  of  Christ, 
and  obtain  eternal  life,  thou  being  reconciled  to- 
them,  O  Lord  Almighty." 

Who  sees  not,  that  the  consecration  in  this  form 
is  made  by  a  repetition  of  the  history  of  the  in- 
stitution, and  prayer  for  the  coming  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  on  the  elements  to  sanctify  them  ?  And  for 
this  there  is  the  concurrent  testimony  of  all  an- 
tiquity. Justin  Martyr*'  makes  the  consecration 
to  consist  in  thanksgiving  and  prayers,  which  be- 
ing ended,  all  the  people  answer,  Amen.  Irenajus 
says  more  expressly,'*  that  it  is  done  by  invocation 
of  God :    for  the  bread,  which  is  taken  from  the 


^  Cone.  Vasens.  2.  can.  3.  Ut  in  omnibus  missis,  sen  in 
matutinis,  sen  in  quadragesimalibns,  sen  in  illis  quaj  pro  de- 
finictorum  commeiiiorationc  fiunt,  semper  Sanctus,  sancttis, 
sanctus,  eo  ordine  quo  ad  missas  piiblicas  dicitur,  dici 
debeat. 

«'  Chrys.  Horn.  24.  in  1   Cor.  p.  532.    So  Cyprian.  Ep. 


113.  p.  1.56.  Fassionis  ejus  mentionem  in  omnibus  sacrificiis 

facimus. 

S2  Constit.lib.8.  cap.  12.  p.402.     ^  .Justin.  A  pel.  2.  p.  97. 

*"  Iren.  lib.  4.  cap.  34.  Qui  est  a  terra  panis,  percipiens 
iiivocationera  Dei,  jam  non  communis  panis  est,  sed  eu- 
cbaristia. 


774 


ANTIQUITIES  OP  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


earth,  has  the  invocation  of  God  upon  it,  and  then 
it  is  no  longer  common  bread,  but  the  eucharist. 
Origcn  says,**  it  is  sanctified  by  the  word  of  God 
and  prayer.  Cyril  of  Jerusalem  tells  his  catechu- 
mens, that  before  the  invocation  of  the  holy 
Trinity*''  the  bread  and  wane  of  the  eucharist  is 
common  bread  and  wine  ;  but  after  the  invocation 
it  is  no  longer  bare  bread,  but  the  body  of  Christ : 
as  the  holy  oil  is  not  bare  oil  after  the  invocation, 
but  the  gift  of  Christ.  So  again,"  After  we  have 
sanctified  ourselves  by  those  spiritual  hymns,  we 
then  pray  the  merciful  God,  "that  he  would  send 
forth  his  Holy  Spirit  upon  the  elements  lying  upon 
the  altar,  that  he  may  make  the  bread  the  body  of 
Christ,  and  the  wine  the  blood  of  Christ.  Which 
manifestly  declares  that  the  consecration  was  made 
by  prayer  and  invocation.  And  the  same  is  im- 
plied by  St.  Basil,*'  when  he  asks,  Which  of  the 
saints  hath  left  us  in  writing  the  words  of  the  in- 
vocation, by  which  the  bread  of  the  eucharist  and 
the  cup  of  blessing  is  consecrated  ?  Gregory  Nys- 
sen,*"  St.  Basil's  brother,  says,  the  bread  is  sancti- 
fied by  the  word  of  God  and  prayer.  Theophilus 
of  Alexandria,  that  the  bread  and  wine,  which  re- 
present the  Lord's  body  and  blood  upon  the  table, 
are  consecrated  by  invocation  and  coming  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  °"  upon  them.  And  Theodoret  most 
plainly  in  one  of  his  dialogues,"'  What  do  you  call 
the  gift  that  is  offered,  before  the  priest  has  made 
the  invocation  over  it  ?  Bread  made  of  such  seeds. 
What  do  you  call  it  after  sanctification  ?  The  body 
of  Christ.  The  Latin  fathers  are  as  plain  in  their 
verdict.  St.  Ambrose^  says.  The  sacraments  which 
we  take,  are  ti'ansformed  into  flesh  and  blood  by  the 
mystery  of  holy  prayer.  And  Optatus,'"  describing 
the  fury  of  the  Donatists,  asserts  the  same,  when  he 


*^  Ovig.  in  Matt.  xv.  t.  2.  p.  27.  Sanctificatur  per  verbum 
Dei,  perque  obsecrationem. 

"^  Cyril.  Catech.  Myst.  3.  n.  3.  Mtxa  tiiv  iiriKXtia-iv  tou 
Ayiov  nviu/xaTO^,  ovk  txi  ct/OTOs  Xitos,  dWa  awfia  H-picr- 

TOV,  K.T.X. 

«'  Id.  Catech.  Myst.  5.  n.  5. 

^  Basil,  de  Spir.  Sancto,  cap.  27. 

^  Nyssen.  Orat.  Catechetic.  cap.  37. 

^  Theoph.  Ep.  Paschal.  1.  Panem  Dominicum,  quo  Sal- 
vatoris  corpus  nstenditur,  &c.,  per  invocationem  et  adven- 
tum  Sancti  Spiritus  consecrari. 

9'  Theodor.  Dial.  2.  t.  4.  p.  85. 

^-  Ambros.  de  Fide,  lib.  4.  cap.  5.  Quotiescunque  sacra- 
inenta  sumimus,  quae  ppr  sacrai  orationis  mysterium  in  car- 
nem  transfigurantur  et  sanguinem,  mortem  Domini  annun- 
ciamiis. 

^  Optat.  lib.  6.  p.  93.  Quid  tam  sacrilegum,  quam  altaria 
Dei  frangere — quo  Deus  omnipotens  invocatus  sit,  et  pos- 
tulatus  descendit  Spiritus  Sanctus  ? 

"*  Hieron.  Ep.  85.  ad  Evagriiim.  Ad  quorum  preces 
Christi  corpus  sanguisque  conficitur. 

^^  Id.  Com.  in  Zephan.  cap.  3.  p.  98.  Ei)X«.'Ho-T/«i'  im- 
precantis  facere  verba,  &c. 

9^  Ambros.  de  Sac  ram.  lib.  4.  cap.  5.  Vis  scire,  quia  ver- 
bis coelestibus  consccratur  ?  Accipe  quae  sunt  verba.  Dicit 
sacerdos :  Fac  nobis,  inquit,  banc  oblatiocem  ascriptam,  ra- 


asks  them,  what  greater  sacrilege  they  could  be 
guilty  of,  than  to  pull  down  the  altars  of  God,  where 
God  Almighty  was  invocated,  and  the  Holy  Spirit 
came  down  at  the  supplication  of  the  priest  ?  St. 
Jerom'^  says,  it  was  the  peculiar  office  of  the  pres- 
byters to  consecrate  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  by 
prayer.  And  again,  that  prayer  was  necessary  for 
this  purpose."^  The  author  of  the  books  De  Sacra- 
mentis,  under  the  name  of  St.  Ambrose,"^  gives  us 
the  very  form  of  words  used  in  this  prayer :  Make 
this  oiu-  oblation  a  chosen,  rational,  acceptable  ob- 
lation, which  is  the  figure  of  the  body  and  blood  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Juvencus"  says,  Christ  him- 
self consecrated  it  by  prayer.  And  Gregory  the 
Greaf  was  of  opinion,  that  the  apostles  used  only 
the  Lord's  prayer  as  the  form  of^  their  consecration. 
And  Cyprian  probably  was  of  the  same  opinion; 
for  he  thinks,  that  petition  in  the  Lord's  prayer, 
"  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread,"  may  be  under- 
stood both  in  a  spirituaP^  and  common  sense,  to  de- 
note the  body  of  Christ,  which  is  our  bread,  that 
we  pray  may  be  given  us  every  day.  A  great  many 
other  fathers  speak  of  the  """  benediction  or  thanks- 
giving as  that  which  consecrates  the  eucharist. 
Which  is  not  much  different  from  this ;  for  the 
thanksgiving  was  always  a  part  of  the  eucharistical 
prayers.  And  therefore  some  join  them  both  to- 
gether, as  Justin  Martyr  and  Ireneeus,  in  the  places 
now  mentioned.  And  so  Origen""  tells  Celsus,  that 
by  thanksgiving  and  prayer  they  made  bread  a  holy 
body,  sanctifying  such  as  received  and  eat  it  with  a 
pure  mind.  And  St.  Austin,  who  in  some  places 
calls  it  barely  the  benediction'"-  or  thanksgiving, 
in  other  places  says  more  expressly  that  the  eu- 
charist was  consecrated  by  prayer :  We  call  that 
the  body  of  Christ,'"'  which  is  taken  from  the  fruits 


tionalem,  acceptabilem,  quod  est  figura  corporis  et  sangui- 
nis Domini  nostri  Jesu  Christi. 

="  Juvencus,  Hist.  Evangel,  lib.  4.  Bibl.  Patr.  t.  8.  p.  654. 
Sancteque  precatus,  discipulos  docuit  proprium  se  tradere 
corpus. 

98  Greg.  lib.  7.  Ep.  63.  Orationem  Dominicam  ideirco 
mox  post  precem  dicimus,  quia  mos  apostolorum  fuit,  ut 
ad  ipsam  solummodo  orationem  oblationis  hostiam  conse- 
crarent. 

9'Cypr.  de  Orat.  p.  146.  Quod  potest  et  spiritaliter  et 
simpliciter  intelligi — quia  Christus  noster  panis  est.  Hunc 
autem  panem  dari  nobis  quotidie  postulamus. 

"">  Tertul.  cont.  Marcion.  lib.  I.  cap.  23.  Clem.  Alex. 
Pffidagog.  lib.  2.  cap.  2.  Chrys.  Hom.  82.  in  Mat.  Victor. 
Antioch.  in  Marc.  xiv.  Facundus  Hermianensis  Defens. 
Trium  Capitulor.  lib.  9.  Cyril.  Alexandria.  Com.  in  Esa. 
XXV.  item  passim  in  Glaphyris  super  Genes.  Exod.  Levit. 
styles  it  eulogia,  vphich  is  the  same  as  eucharist  or  bene- 
diction.    Vid.  Albertin.  de  Euchai'ist.  lib.  I.  cap.  6.  p.  21. 

101  Orig.  cont.  Cels.  lib.  8.  p.  390.  Meto;  tiixftpicTias  Kai 

£ll)(J;S,    K.X.X. 

'"2  Aug.  Ep.  59.  ad  Paul  in. 

103  Aug.  de  Trinitate,  lib.  3.  cap.  4.  Corpus  Christi  dici- 
mus illud,  quod  ex  frugibus  terrao  acceptum,  et  mystica 
prece  consecratum  rite,  sumimus  ad  spiritalcm  salutem,  in 
niemoriam  Dominicae  pro  nobis  passiouis. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


775 


of  the  earth,  and  consecrated  by  mystical  prayer 
in  a  solemn  manner,  and  so  received  by  us  unto  sal- 
vation in  memory  of  our  I^ord's  suffering  for  us. 
And  writing  against  the  Donatists,'"'  who  denied  the 
validity  of  the  sacraments  when  they  were  conse- 
crated and  administered  by  sinners,  he  asks  them, 
How  then  docs  God  hear  a  murderer,  when  he  prays 
either  over  the  water  of  baptism,  or  the  oil  for  unc- 
tion, or  over  the  eucharist,  or  over  the  heads  of  those 
that  receive  imposition  of  hands  ?  Implying,  that 
the  consecration  of  the  eucharist,  as  well  as  the  rest 
of  the  things  mentioned,  was  performed  by  prayer. 
To  this  mighty  cloud  of  witnesses,  the  Romanists 
have  nothingmaterial  to  oppose,  but  a  few  mistaken 
passages  of  the  ancients,  which  the  reader  may  find 
related  with  proper  answers  in  that  excellent  book 
of  Mr.  Aubertine  upon  the  Eucharist.'"^  I  shall 
only  take  notice  of  one,  which  carries  the  fairest 
pretence,  out  of  Chrysostom,  who  in  one  of  his  homi- 
lies ""'  speaks  of  the  consecration  after  this  manner : 
It  is  not  man  that  makes  the  elements  become  the 
body  and  blood  of  Clirist,  but  Christ  himself  that 
was  crucified  for  us.  The  priest  stands  fulfilling 
his  office,  and  speaking  those  words  ;  but  the  power 
and  grace  is  of  God.  Christ  said,  "  This  is  my  body :" 
this  word  consecrates  the  elements.  And  as  that 
word  which  said,  "  Increase  and  multiply,  and  re- 
plenish the  earth,"  was  spoken  but  once,  }'et  at  all 
times  is  effectual  in  deed  to  strengthen  our  nature 
to  beget  children ;  so  this  word  once  spoken,  from 
that  time  to  this  day,  and  until  his  coming  again, 
perfects  and  consummates  the  sacrifice  on  every 
table  throughout  the  churches.  The  meaning  of 
which  is  not,  as  the  Romanists  mistake,  that  the 
pronouncing  of  these  words  by  the  priest  is  the 
thing  that  makes  the  sacrifice  ;  but  that  Christ,  by 
first  speaking  those  words,  gave  pow^r  unto  men  to 
make  his  symbolical  body ;  as  by  once  speaking 
those  words,  "  Increase  and  multiply,"  he  gave  them 
power  to  procreate  children.  Christ's  words  are 
the  original  cause  of  the  consecration;  but  still 
prayer,  and  not  the  bare  repetition  of  his  words,  is 
the  instrumental  cause  and  means  of  the  sanctifica- 
tion.  As  Chrysostom  himself  says  plainly  in  ano- 
ther place,""  where  he  attributes  the  consecration 
of  the  elements  to  the  invocation  of  the  Spirit,  and 
the  Spirit's  descent  pursuant  to  such  invocation. 
What  meanest  thou,  0  man  ?  says  he.  When  the 
priest  stands  by  the  holy  table,  lifting  up  his  hands 
to  heaven,  and  invocating  the  Holy  Spirit,  to  come 
down  and  touch  the  elements,  there  should  then  be 


'"*  DeBaptismo,  lib.  5.  cap.  20.  Qiiomodo  ergo  exaiulit 
homicidain  deprecantem,  vel  super  aquam  baptismi,  vel 
super  oleum,  vel  super  eucharisfiam,  vel  super  capita  eorum 
qnibusmauus  iniponitui- ? 

'"•^  Albertin.  de  Eucharistia,  lib,  1.  cap.  7. 

'"^  Chi  vs.  Horn.  30.  de  Proditione  Juda;,  t.  5.  p.  4&3. 

'•'■  Ibid.  Horn.  32.  in  Coeineterii  Appellationem,  t.  5.  p. 


great  tranquillity  and  silence.  When  the  Spirit 
grants  his  grace,  when  he  comes  down,  when  he 
touches  the  elements,  when  thou  seest  the  Lamb 
slain  and  offered,  dost  thou  then  raise  a  tumult  and 
commotion,  and  give  way  to  strife  and  railing  ?  In 
which  words,  it  is  plain,  Chrysostom  attributes  the 
consecration  to  the  power  of  Christ  and  the  Holy 
Spirit,  as  the  principal  and  efficient  cause ;  to  prayer 
and  supplication,  as  the  instrumental  cause,  oper- 
ating by  way  of  condition  and  means,  to  sanctify 
the  elements  according  to  Christ's  command,  by  a 
solemn  benediction,  and  to  the  words,  "  This  is  my 
body,"  and  "This  is  my  blood,"  as  spoken  by  Christ 
in  the  first  institution,  implying  a  declaration  of 
what  was  then  done,  and  what  should  be  done  by 
his  power  and  concurrence  to  the  end  of  the  world. 
So  that  in  all  things  relating  to  the  consecration, 
we  find  the  practice  of  the  ancients  exactly  corre- 
sponding and  agreeing  to  the  order  prescribed  in  the 
Constitutions.  And  whereas  the  author  of  the  Con- 
stitutions makes  it  a  very  gi-eat  part  of  the  consecra- 
tion prayer,  that  they  who  partake  of  the  eucharist 
may  be  confirmed  in  godliness,  and  obtain  remission 
of  sins,  may  be  delivered  from  the  devil  and  his 
impostures,  may  be  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
be  made  w^orthy  of  Christ,  and  obtain  eternal  life  ; 
St.  Chrysostom  '°^  evidently  refers  to  such  a  prayer, 
when  he  says.  In  the  oblation  we  offer  up  our  sins, 
and  say,  "  Pardon  us  whatever  sins  we  have  com- 
mitted either  \villingly  or  unwiUingly."  We  first 
make  mention  of  them,  and  then  ask  pardon  for 
them.  And  so  it  is  in  the  liturgy  which  goes  under 
St.  Chrysostom's  name :  "  We  offer  unto  thee  this 
rational  and  unbloody  service,  beseeching  thee  to 
send  thy  Holy  Spirit'"'  upon  us  and  these  gifts; 
make  the  bread  the  precious  body  of  thy  Christ,  and 
that  which  is  in  the  cup,  the  precious  blood  of  thy 
Christ ;  transmuting  them  by  thy  Holy  Spirit,  that 
they  may  be  to  the  receivers  for  the  washing  of  their 
souls,  for  pardon  of  sins,  for  participation  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  for  obtaining  the  kingdom  of  heaven, 
for  boldness  towards  thee,  and  not  for  judgment  and 
condemnation." 

Immediately  after  the  consecration, 
followed  prayer  for  the  whole  catholic     AftorThis followed 
church,  as  redeemed  by  the  precious  "j''"'''  cathouc 
blood  of  Christ,  which  was  then  com- 
memorated in  the  oblation  and  sacrifice  of  the  altar. 
Thus  it  is  represented  in  the  Constitutions,  and 
thus   also  in  St.  Chrysostom,""  who,  speaking  of 
Eustathius,  bishop  of  Antioch,  says,  he  had  the  care 


487.  It.  de  Sacerdot.  lib.  6.  cap.  4.  p.  93.  t.  4.  Etde  Sacer- 
dot.  lib.  3.  cap.  4. 

"«*  Ibid.  Hem.  17.  in  Hebr.  p.  1870. 

""  Ibid.  Liturg.  t.  4.  p.  614.  It.  p.  619.  Snyx'-VN'^oi'  fiot 
Tin  dfiapTioXio  TO.  irapaiTTwixaTa  fxov  to.  tKovctd  Tt  Kal 

(CKOUCriCl,    K.T.X. 

"» Ibid.  Horn.  52.  in  Eustath.  t.  I.  p.  619. 


//» 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV 


of  the  whole  church  upon  him ;  which  he  learned 
to  be  his  duty  from  the  prayers  of  the  church.  For 
if  prayers  ought  to  be  made  for  the  catholic  church 
from  one  end  of  the  earth  to  the  other,  much  more 
did  he  think  it  his  duty  to  show  his  concern  for  the 
whole  church,  and  w^atch  for  their  preservation.  In 
another  place'"  he  says.  The  priest,  when  the  sacri- 
fice was  offered,  bid  the  people  to  pray,  or  give 
thanks  rather,  for  the  whole  world,  for  those  that 
were  absent,  and  those  that  were  present ;  for  those 
that  were  before  them,  and  for  those  that  were  then 
living,  and  for  those  that  should  be  after  them. 
And  again,"-  he  speaks  of  prayer  for  the  world,  the 
church,  and  the  common  peace  and  tranquillity  of 
mankind.  He  says,"'  The  priest  prayed  at  the  altar 
in  the  time  of  oblation  for  the  whole  city,  and  not 
for  the  whole  city  only,  but  for  the  whole  world. 
So  Cyril  of  Jerusalem"'  says.  As  soon  as  the  spi- 
ritual sacrifice  was  offered,  they  besought  God  for 
the  common  peace  of  the  church,  and  the  tranquil- 
lity of  the  world,  &c.  And  Vigilius,"*  in  a  letter  to 
Justinian,  reminds  him,  how  it  was  customary,  from 
ancient  tradition,  for  all  bishops,  in  offering  the 
sacrifice,  to  beseech  God  to  unite  all  men  in  the 
catholic  faith,  and  to  protect  and  keep  it  throughout 
the  world.  Nay,  Optatus  says,""  the  Donatists  con- 
tinued to  use  this  prayer  in  the  celebration  of  the 
sacramental  mysteries,  though  their  doctrine  and 
practice  were  the  absolute  reverse  of  it.  They  said, 
they  offered  for  the  church,  which  was  one,  diffiised 
over  all  the  world;  but  their  practice  gave  their 
prayers  the  lie ;  for  they  divided  it  into  two,  and 
confined  the  true  church  to  a  corner  of  Africa,  and 
the  party  of  Donatus.  However,  this  shows  it  was 
the  practice  both  of  Donatists  and  catholics  to  pray 
for  the  universal  church. 

Sect.  13.  More  particularly,  they  now  repeat- 

foMhl  wlh^ps"^'!  ed  their  prayers  again  for  the  bishops 
''"^^'  and    clergy    of    the   whole    catholic 

church,  and  that  church  especially  whereof  they 
were  members.  Which  is  not  only  noted  in  the 
Constitutions,  but  by  Epiphanius,'"  in  his  letter  to 
John,  bishop  of  Jerusalem,  where  he  wipes  off  a 
slander,  which  some  had  falsely  suggested  to  the 
bishop  of  Jerusalem,  as  if  he  had  prayed  pubhcly, 
that  God  would  grant  him  an  orthodox  faith,  imply- 
ing that  he  was  in  error ;  which  he  denies,  telling 


them,  That  however  he  might  pray  for  him  after 
that  manner  privately  in  his  heart,  yet  he  never 
did  so  in  the  oblation  of  the  sacrifice ;  for  in  offering 
those  prayers,  according  to  the  order  of  the  holy 
mysteries,  they  were  used  to  say  both  for  him  and 
all  other  bishops,  "  Keep  him,  0  Lord,  that  preach- 
eth  the  truth;"  or  else  after  this  manner,  "Pre- 
serve him,  O  Lord,  and  grant  that  he  may  preach 
the  truth  ;"  according  as  the  occasion  and  order  of 
prayer  required.  St.  Chrysostom  also  takes  notice 
of  this  solemn  praying  for  bishops  and  the  clergy, 
and  among  many  other  particulars,  when  the  obla- 
tion was  offered.  Some,  says  he,'"  are  so  incon- 
siderate, dissolute,  and  vain,  as  to  stand  and  talk, 
not  only  in  the  time  of  the  catechumens,  (that  is, 
when  prayers  were  made  for  them  in  the  first  ser- 
vice,) but  also  at  the  time  of  the  faithful  (or  when 
their  prayers  were  offered  at  the  altar).  And  this, 
says  he,  is  the  subversion  and  ruin  of  all  religion, 
that  at  that  time  when  men  ought  chiefly  to  render 
God  propitious  to  them,  they  go  away  provoking 
his  wrath  against  them.  For  in  the  prayers  of  the 
faithful,  we  are  commanded  to  supplicate  the  mer- 
ciful God  for  bishops,  for  presbyters,  for  kings,  for 
all  that  are  in  authority ;  for  the  earth  and  sea,  for 
the  temperature  of  the  air  or  good  weather,  and  for 
the  whole  world.  When  therefore  we,  who  ought 
to  have  so  much  boldness  and  freedom  as  to  pray 
for  others,  are  not  vigilant  enough  to  pray  for  our- 
selves with  an  attentive  mind,  what  excuse  can  we 
make  ?  what  pardon  can  we  expect  ?  We  cannot 
desire  a  plainer  evidence  than  this  of  Chrysostom, 
that  all  these  things  were  the  subject  matter  of 
their  petitions,  when  the  oblation  was  made  upon 
the  altar. 

And  therefore  hence  it    appears, 
that  as  they  prayed  for  the  bishops      For  kings  and 

<>      r       •^  *■  magistrates. 

and  the  clergy,  so  they  repeated  their 
supplication  for  kings  and  magistrates  in  this  prayer 
also.  I  have  noted  before'"  the  several  authors 
that  take  notice  of  their  praying  for  kings  in  the 
prayers  before  the  oblation,  and  here  I  will  subjoin 
such  as  mention  it  in  the  oblation  prayer.  Eusebius, 
describing  the  dedication  of  the  church  which  Con- 
stantine  built  at  Jerusalem,  says,  some  of  the  bishops 
then  present  made  panegyrical  orations  upon  Con- 
stan tine's  great  respect  for  the  common  Savioirr,  and 


"•  Chrjs.  Horn.  26. iu  Mat.  p.  259. 

"=  Horn.  37.  in  Act.  p.  329. 

'"  lbid.de  Sacerdot.  lib.  6.  cap.  4.  t.  3.  p.  93. 

"*  Cyril.  Catech.  Myst.  5.  n.  6. 

"*  Vigil.  Ep.  ad  Justinian.  Imperator.  Cone.  t.  5.  p.  315. 
Omnes  pontificcs,  antiqua  in  nfferendo  sacrificia  traditione, 
deposcimus,  ut  catholicam  fidom  adunare,  regere  Dominum 
et  custodire  toto  orbe  dignctur. 

""  Optat.  lib.  2.  p.  5.3.  Vos  illud  Icgitimum  in  sacramen- 
torum  mysterio  proeterire  non  posse.  Ofi'erre  vos  dicitis 
pro  ecclesia,  quae  una  est.  Hoc  ipsum  mendacii  pars  est, 
unam  vocare,  de  qua  feceris  duas.     Et  offerre  vos  dicitis 


pro  una  ecclesia,  quae  sit  in  toto  teiTarum  orbe  diffusa,  &c. 

'"  Epiphan.  Ep.  ad  Joan.  Hierosol.  p.  313.  Dixerunt 
quod  in  oratione,  quando  offerimus  sacrificia  Deo,  soleamus 
pro  te  dicere  :  Domine,  proesta  Joanni,  ut  recte  credat. 
Noli  nos  in  tantum  pntare  rusticos,  &c.  Qiiando  autem 
complemus  orationem  secundum  ritura  mysteriorum,  et  pro 
omnibus  et  pro  te  qiioque  dicimus:  Custodi  ilium  qui  prae- 
dicat  veritatem.  Vel  certe  ita :  Tu  prscsta  Domine,  et 
custodi,  ut  ille  verbum  prsodicet  veritatis,  sicut  occasio 
sermonis  se  tulerit,  et  habuerit  oratio  consequcntiam. 

""  Chrys.  Hem.  2.  in  2  Cor.  p.  745. 

""  Boo'kXIII.  chap.  10.  sect.  5.  Book  XV.  chap.  i.  sect.  3. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


777 


the  magnificence  of  his  temple;  others  preached 
upon  })oints  of  divinity  proper  to  the  occasion; 
others  explained  the  mystical  sense  of  Scripture ; 
and  others,  who  could  not  attain  to  this,  celebrated 
the  mystical  service,  and  offered  the  unbloody  sacri- 
fice to  God,  making  prayers  for  the  common  peace'-" 
of  the  world,  for  the  church  of  God,  for  the  em- 
peror himself,  the  founder  of  the  church,  and  for 
his  pious  children.  In  like  manner,  Cyril  of  Jeru- 
salem, describing  the  order  of  the  communion  ser- 
vice, says.  After  the  spiritual  sacrifice  and  the 
unbloody  service  of  the  propitiatory  oblation  is 
completed,  we  beseech  God  for  the  common  peace 
of  the  churches,  for  the  tranquillity  of  the  world, 
for  kings,  for  their  armies,  for  their  allies,  for  those 
that  are  sick  and  afflicted,  and,  in  short,  for  all  that 
stand  in  need  of  help  and  assistance.  St.  Chrysos- 
tom  elsewhere  mentions  both  private  and  public 
prayers'-'  for  kings,  the  latter  of  which  may  be 
understood  of  these  prayers  after  the  oblation,  as 
well  as  any  others.  Arnobius  says  expressly,'-^ 
they  prayed  at  once  for  the  magistrates,  for  their 
armies,  for  kings,  for  their  friends,  and  for  their 
enemies,  for  the  living,  and  for  the  dead.  Where 
his  mentioning  the  dead  plainly  shows,  that  he 
speaks  of  those  prayers  which  were  made  after  the 
eucharist  was  consecrated,  in  which,  as  we  shall 
see  by  and  by,  a  particular  commemoration  was 
made  of  all  those  that  were  departed  in  the  faith. 
Next  after  prayer  for  kings,  fol- 
lowed prayer  for  the  dead,  that  is,  for 
all  that  were  departed  in  the  true 
faith  in  Christ;  for  so  it  is  in  the  Constitutions: 
"  We  offer  unto  thee  for  all  thy  saints,  that  have 
lived  well-pleasing  in  thy  sight,  from  the  foundation 
of  the  world,  for  patriarchs,  prophets,  holy  men, 
apostles,  martyrs,  confessors,  bishops,  presbyters, 
deacons,  subdeacons,  readers,  singers,  virgins,  wi- 
dows, laymen,  and  all  whose  names  thou  knowest." 
And  that  this  was  the  general  practice  of  the  church, 
to  pray  for  all  without  exception,  appears  from  the 
concurrent  testimony  of  all  the  writers  of  the  church. 
We  have  heard  Arnobius  say  already,'^  that  they 
prayed  for  the  living  and  the  dead  in  general.  And 
long  before  him  Tertullian '^*  speaks  of  oblations 


Sect.  15. 

For  the  dead  in 

general. 


for  the  dead,  for  their  birth-days,  that  is,  the  day  of 
their  death,  or  a  new  birth  unto  happiness,  in  their 
annual  commemorations.  He  says  eveiy  woman  '■^ 
prayed  for  the  soul  of  her  deceased  husband,  desiring 
that  he  might  find  rest  and  refreshment  at  present, 
and  a  part  in  the  first  resurrection,  and  offering  an 
annual  oblation  for  him  on  the  day  of  his  death.  In 
like  manner'-*  he  says  the  husband  prayed  for  the 
soul  of  his  wife,  and  offered  annual  oblations  for 
her.  St.  Cyprian  often  mentions  the  same  prac- 
tice, both  when  he  speaks  of  martyrs  and  others 
For  the  martyrs  they  offered  the  oblation  of  prayer, 
and  of  praise  and  thanksgiving ;  for  others,  prayers 
chiefly.  Those  for  the  martyrs  he  calls  oblations '" 
and  sacrifices  of  commemoration,  which  they  offered 
especially  on  the  anniversary  days  of  their  martyr- 
dom,'^ giving  God  thanks  for  their  victory  and 
coronation.  But  for  others  th^ey  made  solemn  sup- 
plications and  prayers,  as  appears  from  what  he  says 
of  one  Geminius  Victor,''^  that  because  he  had  ap- 
pointed a  presbyter  to  be  his  executor  contrary  to 
law,  no  oblation  should  be  made  for  his  rest  or  sleep, 
nor  any  deprecation  be  used  in  his  name  according 
to  custom  in  the  church.  The  author  under  the 
name  of  Origen  upon  Job'^"  says.  They  made  devout 
mention  of  the  saints,  and  their  parents  and  friends, 
that  were  dead  in  the  faith;  as  well  to  rejoice  in 
their  refreshment,  as  to  desire  for  themselves  a  pious 
consummation  in  the  faith.  And  Origen '''  himself 
says,  They  thought  it  convenient  to  make  mention 
of  the  saints  in  their  prayers,  and  to  excite  them- 
selves by  the  remembrance  of  them.  Cyril  of  Je- 
rusalem, in  describing  the  prayer  after  consecration, 
says.  We  offer  this  sacrifice  in  memory  of  all  those 
that  are  fallen  asleep  before  us,"^  first  patriarchs, 
prophets,  apostles,  and  martyrs,  that  God  by  their 
prayers  and  intercessions  may  receive  our  supplica- 
tions ;  and  then  we  pray  for  our  holy  fathers  and 
bishops,  and  all  that  are  fallen  asleep  before  us,  be- 
lieving it  to  be  a  considerable  advantage  to  their 
souls  to  be  prayed  for,  whilst  the  holy  and  tremendous 
sacrifice  lies  upon  the  altar.  Epiphanius  disputes 
at  large  against  the  Aerians,  Avho  ridiculed  all  prayers 
for  the  dead.  For  they  said.  If  the  prayers  of  the 
living  will  advantage  the  dead,  then  it  was  no  mat- 


'^  Euseb.  Vit.  Constant,  lib.  4.  cap.  45. 

'■-'  Chrys.  Horn.  20.  ad  Pop.  Antioch.  t.  1.  p.  258. 

'-■-  .'Vrnob.  lib.  4.  p.  181.  Cur  immaniter  convent icula 
nostra  dimi  meruerint?  In  quibus  summus  oratur  Deus, 
pa.\  cunctis  et  venia  postulatur  magistratibiis,  e.\eicitibus, 
regibus,  familiaribus,  inimicis,  adhuc  vitani  degeutibus,  et 
resolutis  corporum  vinctione. 

'^  Ibid,  cited  above. 

'-'  Tertid.  de  Coron.  Militis,  cap.  .3.  Oblationes  pro  de- 
fuuctis,  pro  natalitiis,  annua  die  facimus. 

'=5  De  Monogainia,  cap.  10.  Pro  anima  ejus  orat,  et  re- 
frigerium  interim  adpostidat  ei,  et  in  prima  resurrectione 
consortium,  et  oifert  annuis  diebus  dormitionis  ejus. 

'"  Exhortat.  ad  Castitat.  cap.  11.  Jam  repete  apud  Deum 


pro  cujus  spiritu  postules,  pro  qua  oblationes  annuas  reddas. 

'■^'  Cypr.  Ep.  37.  al.  22.  ad  Clenmi,  p.  28.  Celebrentur  hie 
a  nobis  oblationes  et  sacrificia  ob  cnmmemoratioues  eorum. 

'^  Ep.  34.  al.  39.  p.  77.  Sacrificia  pro  eis  semper,  ut  me- 
ministis,  ofFerinius,  quoties  martyrum  passiones  et  dies  anni- 
versaria  coramemoratione  celebramus. 

'-"  Ep.  66.  al.  1.  p.  .3.  Non  est  quod  pro  dormitionc  ejus 
apud  vos  flat  oblatio,  aut  deprccatio  aliqua  nomine  ejus  ia 
eccdesia  frequeutetur. 

'3»  Orig.  in  Job,  lib.  3.  t.  1.  p.  437. 

"'  Orig.  lib.  9.  in  Rom.  xii.  t.  2.  p.  607.  Meminisse  sancto- 
rum sive  in  collectis  solennibus,  sive  pro  eo  ut  ex  recorda- 
tione  eorum  proficiamus,  aptum  et  conveniens  videtur. 

'^•-  Cyril.  Catech.  Myst.  5.  n.  6. 


778 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


ter  for  being  pious  or  virtuous ;  a  man  only  needed 
to  get  his  friends  to  pray  for  liim  after  death,  and 
he  would  be  liable  to  no  punishment,  nor  would  his 
most  enormous  crimes  be  required  of  him.  To  whom 
Epiphanius  replies,  that  they  had  many  good  rea- 
sons for  mentioning  the  names  of  the  dead ;  because 
it  was  an  argument  that  they  were  still  in  being, 
and  living  with  the  Lord ;  because  it  was  some  ad- 
vantage to  sinners,  though  it  did  not  wholly  cancel 
their  crimes ;  because  it  put  a  distinction  between 
the  perfection  of  Christ,  and  the  imperfection  of  all 
other  men :  therefore  they  prayed  for  righteous  men, 
fathers,  patriarchs,"'  prophets,  apostles,  evangelists, 
martyrs,  confessors,  bishops,  hermits,  and  all  orders 
of  men.  And  it  appears  from  all  the  ancient  litur- 
gies, under  the  names  of  St.  Basil,  Chrysostom, 
Gregory  Nazianzen,  and  Cyril,"'  that  they  prayed 
for  all  saints,  the  Virgin  Mary  herself  not  excepted. 
And  it  is  remarkable,  that  in  the  old  Roman  Mis- 
sal they  were  used  to  pray  for  the  soul  of  St.  Leo, 
as  Hincmar,'^  a  writer  of  the  ninth  age,  informs 
ns,  who  says  the  prayer  ran  in  this  form,  "  Grant, 
O  Lord,  that  this  oblation  may  be  of  advantage 
to  the  soul  of  thy  servant  Leo,  which  thou  hast 
appointed  to  be  for  the  relaxation  of  the  sins  of 
the  whole  world."  But  this  was  thought  so  incon- 
gruous in  the  following  ages,  that  in  the  later 
Sacramentaries,  or  Missals,  it  was  changed  into 
this  form,  "  Grant,  O  Lord,  we  beseech  thee,  that 
this  oblation  may  be  of  advantage  to  us  by  the 
intercession  of  St.  Leo,"  as  Pope  Innocent  the 
Third""  assures  us  it  was  in  his  time.  And  such 
another  alteration  was  made  in  Pope  Gregory's  Sa- 
cramentarium.  For  in  the  old  Greek  and  Latin 
edition'"  there  is  this  prayer :  "  Remember,  0  Lord, 
all  thy  servants,  men  and  women,  who  have  gone 
before  us  in  the  seal  of  the  faith,  and  sleep  in  the 
sleep  of  peace :  we  beseech  thee,  O  Lord,  to  grant 
them,  and  all  that  rest  in  Christ,  a  place  of  refresh- 
ment, Hght,  and  peace,  through  the  same  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord."  But  in  the  new  reformed  Mis- 
sals''"  it  is  altered  thus,  "  Remember,  Lord,  thy  serv- 
ants and  handmaids  N.  and  N.  that  have  gone  be- 
fore us,"  &c. ;  that  they  might  not  seem  to  pray  for 
saints  as  well  as  others  that  were  in  purgatory. 
Which  makes  it  very  probable,  that  St.  Cyril's  Cate- 
chism has  also  been  tampered  with,  and  a  clause 
put  in,  which  speaks  of  their  praying  to  God  by  the 
intercession  of  patriarchs,  prophets,  apostles,  and 
martyrs :  since  the  ancient  liturgies  prayed  for  them 


as  well  as  for  all  others.  St.  Chrysostom  says  ex- 
pressly'^' they  offered  for  the  martyrs.  And  so  it 
is  in  his  Greek  liturgy,'^"  "  We  offer  unto  thee  this 
reasonable  service  for  the  faithful  deceased,  our 
forefathers,  fathers,  patriarchs,  prophets,  and  apos- 
tles, evangelists,  martyrs,  confessors,  religious  per- 
sons, and  every  spirit  perfected  in  the  faith ;  but 
especially  for  our  most  holy,  immaculate,  most  bless- 
ed Lady,  the  Mother  of  God,  and  ever  Virgin  Mary." 
Though,  as  Bishop  Usher '"  has  observed,  some  of 
the  Latin  translators  have  also  given  a  perverse 
turn  to  these  words,  rendering  them  thus, "  We  offer 
unto  thee  this  reasonable  service  for  the  faithful 
deceased,  our  forefathers  and  fathers,  by  the  inter- 
cession of  the  patriarchs,  prophets,  apostles,  mar- 
tyrs, and  all  the  saints."  For  it  sounded  ill  to  the 
Latin  ears  to  hear  St.  Chrysostom  say.  The  ancient 
church  prayed  for  saints  and  martyrs.  And  yet  he 
says  it,  not  only  in  the  forementioned  places,  but 
over  and  over  again  in  others.  In  his  forty-first 
homily  upon  the  First  of  Corinthians,'"  speaking 
against  immoderate  sorrow  for  the  death  of  sinners, 
he  says.  They  are  not  so  much  to  be  lamented,  as 
succoured  with  prayers  and  supplications,  and  alms 
and  oblations.  For  these  things  were  not  designed 
in  vain,  neither  is  it  without  reason  that  we  make 
mention  of  those  that  are  deceased  in  the  holy  mys- 
teries, interceding  for  them  to  the  Lamb  that  is  slain 
to  take  away  the  sins  of  the  world ;  but  that  some 
consolation  may  hence  arise  to  them.  Neither  is 
it  in  vain,  that  he  who  stands  at  the  altar  when  the 
tremendous  mysteries  are  celebrated,  cries,  "  We 
offer  unto  thee  for  all  those  that  are  asleep  in  Christ, 
and  all  that  make  commemorations  for  them."  For 
if  there  were  no  commemorations  made  for  them, 
these  things  would  not  be  said. — Let  us  not  there- 
fore grow  weary  in  giving  them  our  assistance,  and 
offering  prayers  for  them.  For  the  common  pro- 
pitiation of  the  whole  world  is  now  before  us. 
Therefore  we  now  pray  for  the  whole  world,  and 
name  them  with  martjTs,  with  confessors,  with 
priests ;  for  we  are  all  one  body,  though  one  member 
be  more  excellent  than  another ;  and  we  may  ob- 
tain a  general  pardon  for  them  by  our  prayers,  by 
our  alms,  by  the  help  of  those  that  are  named  toge- 
ther with  them.  He  supposes  here  that  the  saints 
prayed  for  sinners,  though,  at  the  same  time,  the 
church  prayed  both  for  the  saints  and  martyrs  and 
sinners  together.  In  another  place'"  he  says.  Pray- 
ers were  made  in  general  for  all  those  that  were  de- 


I 


'™  Epiphan.  Haer.  75.  Aerian.  u.  3. 

'3<  See  these  quoted  by  Bisliop  Usher,  Answer  to  the 
Challenge,  p.  136.  Et  Dallajus  de  Poeuis  et  Satisfaction, 
lib.  5.  cap.  8. 

'3^  Hincmar.  de  Prscdestin.  lib.  1.  cap.  34.  Annue  nobis, 
Domine,  ut  aniniae  famuli  tui  Lcouis  haec  prosit  oblatio, 
quam  immolando  totius  mundi  tribuisti  relaxari  delicta, 
1.  1.  p.  297. 

'^^  Innoc.  Epist.  in  Decretal.  Gregor.  lib.  3.  Tit.  il.  cap. 


6.  p.  1372.  Annue  nobis,  queesumus  Domine,  ut  interces- 
sione  beati  Leonis,  haec  nobis  prosit  oblatio.  Missal.  Fest. 
Leonis,  Juu.  28.  '"  Bibl.  Patr.  Gr.  Lat.  t.  2.  p.  129. 

''"  Missal.  Roman,  in  Canone  Missae,  p.  301. 

"5  Chrys.  Horn.  21.  in  Act.  t.  4.     Edit.  Savil,  p.  736. 

"»  Chrys.  Liturg.  t.  4.  p.  614. 

'"  Usher's  Answer  to  the  Challenge,  p.  136. 

"-  Chrys.  Horn.  41.  in  1  Cor.  p.  701. 

"•■*  Ibid.  Horn.  3.  in  Philip,  p.  1225. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


ceased  in  the  faith,  and  none  but  catechumens  dying 
in  a  vohuitaiy  neglect  of  baptism,  were  exchided 
from  the  benefit  of  them.  At  that  time,  says  he, 
when  all  the  peoj^le  stand  with  their  hands  lift  up 
to  heaven,  and  all  the  company  of  priests  with 
them,  and  the  tremendous  sacrifice  lies  upon  the 
altar,  how  shall  we  not  move  God  to  mercy,  when 
we  call  upon  him  for  those  that  are  deceased  in  the 
faith  ?  I  speak  of  them  only  :  for  the  catechumens 
are  not  allowed  this  consolation,  but  are  deprived 
of  all  assistance,  except  only  giving  alms  for  them. 
This,  then,  was  a  punishment  inflicted  upon  the 
catechumens,  of  which  Chrysostom  speaks  in  other 
places ;  "*  and  it  appears  to  have  been  a  settled  rule 
by  some  ancient  canons '"  of  the  church,  of  which 
I  have  had  occasion  to  speak  in  a  former  Book,""  to 
deny^  catechumens  the  benefit  of  the  church's  pray- 
ers after  death.  Chrysostom  says  again,'"  that  a 
bishop  is  to  be  intercessor  for  all  the  world,  and  to 
pray  to  God  to  be  merciful  to  the  sins  of  all  men, 
not  only  the  living,  but  the  dead  also.  Cassian 
says  also  the  biothanati,  as  they  called  them,  that  is, 
men  that  laid  violent  hands  upon  themselves,  were 
excluded  from  the  benefit  of  the  church's  prayers. 
And  therefore  when  one  Hero,  an  old  hermit,  had 
by  the  delusions  of  Satan  cast  himself  into  a  deep 
well,  Paphnutius  the  abbot  could  hardly  be  prevailed 
upon  to  let  him  be  reckoned  any'  other  than  a  self- 
murderer,  and  unworthy '"  of  the  memorial  and  ob- 
lation that  was  made  for  all  those  that  were  at  rest 
in  peace.  Which  is  also  noted  in  the  council  of 
Braga,'"  where  catechumens  and  self-murderers  are 
put  in  the  same  class  together,  as  persons  that  de- 
served neither  the  solemnities  of  Christian  burial, 
nor  the  usual  prayers  and  commemoration  that  was 
made  for  the  rest  of  Christians  at  the  altar. 

St.  Austin  indeed  had  a  singular  opinion  in  this 
matter  about  prayer  for  the  dead ;  for  he  thought 
the  martyrs  were  not  properly  to  be  prayed  for  as 
other  men,  because  they  were  admitted  to  the  im- 
mediate fruition  of  heaven.     There  goes  a  common 


"^  Chrys.  Horn.  24.  in  Joan.  p.  159.  Horn.  1.  in  Act.  p.  14. 

'"  Cone.  Bracar.  1.  can.  35. 

'«  Book  X.  chap.  2.  sect.  18. 

'"  Chrys.  de  Sacerdot.  lib.  6.  cap.  4.  Vid.  Horn.  22.  in 
Mat.  p.  307. 

'"  Cassian.Collat.  2.  cap.5.  VixaprcsbyteroabbatcPaph- 
nutio  potuit  obtineri,  ut  nou  inter  biothanatos  reputatus, 
etianiiuemoriaet  oblatione  pausantium  judicareturiudignus. 

'■''  Cone.  Bracar.  1.  can.  35. 

'^^  Innoc.  in  DecretaU  Gregorii,  lib.  3.  Tit.  41.  cap.  5. 
Sacrue  Seriptura;  dicit  auctoritas,  quod  injuriam  tacit  mar- 
tyri,  qui  orat  pro  martyre. 

'*'  Aug.  Ser.  17.  de  Verbis  Apostoli,  1. 10.  p.  132.  Perfoctio 
in  hac  vita  nonnulla  est,  ad  quam  sancti  martyres  pcrvenc- 
runt.  Ideoque  habet  ecclesiastiea  disciplina,  quod  lideles 
noverunt,  cum  martyres  eo  loco  recitantur  ad  altare  Dei, 
ubi  noa  pro  ipsis  oretur,  pro  cajteris  autem  couimemoratis 
defunctis  oratur.  Injuria  est  euim  pro  martyre  orare,  cujus 
nos  debenius  orationibus  commendari. 


saying  under  his  name,  (which  Pope  Innocent  III. 
(juotes  as  Holy  Scripture,'"  )  That  he  who  prays  for 
a  martyr,  does  injury  to  the  martyr,  because  they 
attained  to  perfection  in  this  life,  and  have  no  need 
of  the  prayers  of  the  church,'^'  as  all  others  have. 
Therefore  he  says,'"  when  they  were  named  at  the 
altar,  and  their  memorials  celebrated,  they  did  not 
commemorate  them  as  persons  for  whom  they 
prayed,  as  they  did  all  others  that  rested  in  peace, 
but  rather  as  men  that  prayed  for  the  church  on 
earth,  that  we  might  follow  their  steps,  who  had 
attained  to  the  perfection  of  charity  in  laying  down 
their  Uves  for  Christ,  according  to  that  aphorism  of 
Christ  himself,  "Greater  love  than  this  hath  no 
man,  that  he  lay  down  his  life  for  his  friend." 
Upon  this  account  St.  Austin  thought  the  obla- 
tions and  alms,  that  were  usually  offered  in  the 
church  for  all  the  dead  that  had  received  baptism, 
were  only  thanksgivings  for  such  as  were  very 
good ;  '**  and  propitiations  for  those  that  were  not 
very  bad ;  and  for  such  as  were  very  evil,  though 
they  were  no  helps  to  them  when  they  were  dead, 
yet  they  were  some  consolation  to  the  living.  But, 
as  Bishop  Usher  rightly  observes,'^  this  was  but  a 
harsh  interpretation  of  the  prayers  of  the  church, 
to  imagine  that  one  and  the  same  act  of  praying 
should  be  a  petition  for  some,  and  for  others  a 
thanksgiving  only.  And  therefore  it  is  more  rea- 
sonable to  suppose,  that  the  church  designed  to 
pray  for  all;  especially  since  St.  Austin'"  himself 
owns  that  the  church  made  supplications  for  all 
that  died  in  the  society  of  the  Christian  and  catho- 
lic faith,  as  all  the  ancient  forms  of  prayer  do  mani- 
festly evince  beyond  all  possibility  of  exception. 

Supposing,  then,  that  the  ancient 
church  made  prayers  for  saints  and     upmrwhlt 

,,  ,,  ,  .  grounds  the  ancient 

martyrs,  as  well  as  all  others,  it  re-  church  prayed  for 

the  dead,  saints, 

mams    to    be    mqmrcd,   upon    what  martyrs,  confessors, 

^  ^  as  well  as  all  others. 

grounds  and  reasons  she  observed  this 

custom  ;  whether  upon  the  modern  supposition  of 

a  purgatorv  fire,  or  upon  other  reasons  more  agree- 


'^'-  Aug.  Tract.  8 '..  in  Joan.  t.  9.  p.  185.  Ad  ipsam  men- 
sam  nou  sic  eos  commenioramus,  queiuadniodum  alios  qui 
in  pace  requiescuiit,  sed  magis  ut  (orent)  ipsi  pro  nobis,  ut 
eorum  vestigiis  adhaereamus,  quia  implcverunt  ipsi  charita- 
tem,  &c. 

1^  Aug.  Enchirid.  ad  Laurent,  cap.  110.  Cum  ergo  sacri- 
ficia  sive  altaris  sive  quarumcumque  eleemosynarum  pro 
baptizatis  defunctis  omnibus  ofi'eruntur,  pro  valde  bonis 
gratiaruui  aetiones  sunt :  pro  non  valde  malis  propitia- 
tiones  sunt :  pro  valde  nialis  etsi  nulla  sunt  adjuiuenta  nior- 
tuorum,  qualescunque  vivorum  consolatioues  sunt.  Quibus 
aiitcm  prosuut,  aut  ad  hoc  prosuut,  ut  sit  plena  remissio, 
aut  ccrte  tolerabilior  fiat  ipsa  daninatio. 

'•^'  Usher's  Answer  to  the  Challenge,  p.  142. 

i.'i5  Aug.  de  Cura  pro  JNIortuis,  cap.  4.  Non  sunt  pra;ter- 
mittendee  supplicationes  pro  spiritibus  mortuorutn :  qiias 
faciendas  pro  omnibus  in  Christiana  et  catholiea  societate 
dcfimctis,  ctiam  tacitis  nominibus  quorumque,  sub  gencrali 
commemoratione  suscepit  ecclesia. 


780 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


able  to  such  a  general  practice  ?  That  she  did  not  do 
it  upon  the  supposition  of  purgatory,  appears  evi- 
dently from  what  has  been  already  observed  out  of 
the  public  offices  of  the  church,  that  she  prayed 
for  all  the  saints,  martyrs,  confessors,  patriarchs, 
prophets,  apostles,  and  even  the  Virgin  Mary  her- 
self, and  all  other  holy  men  and  women  from  the 
foundation  of  the  world,  who  were  supposed  to  be 
in  a  place  of  rest  and  happiness,  and  not  in  any 
place  of  purgation  or  torment.  And  this  appears 
further  from  the  private  prayers  made  by  St.  Am- 
brose'^'' for  the  emperors  Theodosius,  and  Valen- 
tinian,  and  Gratian,  and  his  own  brother  Saturus ; 
and  the  directions  he  gives  to  Faustinus,'"  not  to 
weep  for  his  sister,  but  to  make  prayers  and  obla- 
tions for  her ;  for  all  these  were  persons  of  whom 
he  had  not  the  least  doubt  but  that  their  souls 
were  in  rest  and  happiness.  As  all  the  funeral 
service  of  the  ancients  supposes,  where  they  usual- 
ly sung  those  verses  of  the  Psalms,  "  Return  again 
unto  thy  rest,  O  my  soul,  for  the  Lord  hath  re- 
warded thee  :  "  and  again,  "  I  will  fear  no  evil,  be- 
cause thou  art  with  me : "  and  again,  "  Thou  art 
my  refuge  from  the  affliction  that  compasseth  me 
about."  Which  St.  Chrysostom'^'  often  bids  his  hear- 
ers remember,  that  whilst  they  prayed  for  the  de- 
ceased party,  they  should  not  weep  and  lament  im- 
moderately, as  the  heathen  did,  but  give  God  thanks 
for  taking  him  to  a  place  of  rest  and  security : 
which  is  utterly  inconsistent  with  their  going  into 
the  dreadful  pains  of  purgatory.  St.  Austin  both 
prayed  in  private  for  his  mother  Monicha,'*'  and 
also  speaks  of  the  church's  prayers  for  her  at  her 
funeral,  and  afterward  at  the  altar ;  and  yet  he  made 
no  question  of  her  going  hence  fi'om  a  state  of  piety 
here  to  a  state  of  joy  and  felicity  hereafter.  And 
after  the  same  manner  Gregory  Nazianzen  "^''  prays 
God  to  receive  the  soul  of  his  brother  Caesarius, 
who  was  lately  regenerated  by  the  Spirit  in  baptism. 
It  is  certain  these  prayers  were  not  founded  on  a 
belief  of  a  purgatory  fire  after  death,  but  upon  a 
supposition  that  they  were  going  to  a  place  of  rest 
and  happiness,  which  was  their  first  reason  for 
praying  for  them,  that  God  would  receive  them  to 
himself,  and  deliver  them  from  condemnation,  2. 
Upon  the  same  presumption,  some  of  their  prayers 
for  the  dead  were  always  eucharistical,  or  thanks- 
givings for  their  deliverance  out  of  the  troubles  of 
this  sinful  world.  As  appears  not  only  from  the 
forementioned  testimonies  of  Chrysostom,  but  from 


the  author  under  the  name  of  Dionysius,"''  who,  in 
describing  their  funeral  service,  speaks  of  the  tvxn 
tvxapiT7ipioQ,  the  eucharistical  prayers,  whereby  they 
gave   God  thanks  not  only  for  martyrs,  but  all 
Christians  that  died  in  the  true  faith  and  fear  of 
God.     A  third  reason  of  praying  for  them  was,  be- 
cause they  justly  conceived  all  men  to  die  with  some 
remainders  of  frailty  and  corruption,  and  therefore 
desired  that  God  would  deal  with  them  according 
to  his  mercy,  and  not  in  strict  justice  according  to 
their  merits.    For  no  one  then  was  thought  to  have 
any  real  merit  or  title  to  eternal  happiness,  but  only 
upon  God's  promises  and  mercy.     St.  Austin  dis- 
courses excellently  upon  this  point  in  the  case  of 
his  mother  Monicha,  after  this  manner :  "  I  now 
pour  out  unto  thee,  my  God,  another  sort  of  tears 
for  thy  handmaid,  flowing  from  a  trembling  spirit, 
in  consideration  of  the  danger  that  every  soul  is  in 
that  dies  in  Adam.     For  although  she  was  made 
alive  in  Christ,  and  lived  so  in  the  days  of  her  flesh, 
as  to  bring  glory  to  thy  name  by  her  faith  and  prac- 
tice :  yet  I  dare  not  say,  that  from  the  time  she  was 
regenerated  by  baptism,  no  word  came  out  of  her 
mouth  against  thy  command.     And  thou  hast  told 
us  by  Him  who  is  truth  itself,  that  *  whosoever  shall 
say  to  his  brother,  Thou  fool,  shall  be  in  danger  of 
hell-fire.'     And  woe  to  the   most  laudable  life  of 
man,  if  thou  shouldst  sift  and  examine  it  without 
mercy !     But  because  thou  art  not  extreme  to  mark 
what  is  done  amiss,  we  have  hope  and  confidence 
to  find  some  "'"  place  and  room  for  indulgence  with 
thee.     But  whoever  reckons  up  his  true  merits  be- 
fore thee,  what  does  he  more  than  recount  thy  own 
gifts  ?     Oh  that  all  men  would  know  themselves, 
and  they  that  glory,  glory  in  the  Lord !     I  there- 
fore, O  my  Praise  and  my  Life,  the  God  of  my 
heart,  setting  aside  a  little  her  good  actions,  for 
which  I  joyfully  give  thee  thanks,  now  make  in- 
tercession for  the  sins  of  my  mother.     Hear  me 
through  the  medicine  of  His  wounds,  who  hanged 
upon  the  tree,  and  now  sitteth  at  thy  right  hand  to 
make  intercession  for  us."     He  adds  a  little  after, 
that  he  believed  God  had  granted  what  he  asked : 
yet  he  prays,  "  That  the  lion  and  the  dragon  might 
not  interpose  himself,  either  by  his  open  violence 
or  subtlety.     For  she  would  not  answer,  that  she 
was   no  debtor,  lest  the  crafty  adversary  should 
convict  her  and  lay  hold  of  her ;  but  she  would 
answer,  that  her  sins  were  forgiven  her  by  Him,  to 
whom  no  man  can  return  what  he  gave  to  us  with- 


"''*  Ambros.  de  Obitu  Theodosii.  De  Obitu  Valentin.  Dc 
ObiUi  Fratris. 

'"  Ep.  8.  ad  Faustin. 

''"  Chrys.  Horn.  4.  in  Hebr.  p.  1785.  Horn.  29.  de  Dor- 
luiontibus,  t.  5.  p.  4'23.  Vid.  Cassian.  Collat.  2.  cap.  5. 

IS9  Aug.  Confess,  lib.  9.  cap.  12  ct  13. 

'«»  Naz.  Oral.  10.  p.  176. 

""  Dionys.  Eccles.  Hierarch.  cap.  7.  p.  408. 

"^'^  Aug.  Confess,  lib.  9.   cap.   1.3.     Va;  etiam  laudabili 


vitae  hominiim,  si  remota  miscricnrdia  discutias  earn.  Quia 
vero  non  e.\q\iiris  delicta  vehementer,  fiducialitcr  speramus 
aliquera  apud  to  locum  invenire  indulgentiis.  Quisquis 
autem  tibi  enumerat  vera  merita  sua,  quid  tibi  onumerat 
nisi  munera  tua?  &c.  Ego  itaque,  Laus  meaet  Vitamea, 
Ueus  cordis  mei,  sepositis  paulisper  bonis  ejus  actibus,  pro 
quibus  tibi  gaudens  gratias  ago,  nunc  pro  peccatis  matris 
nieae  deprecor  te,  &c.  Et  credo  jam  feceris  quod  te 
rogo,  &c. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


7SI 


out  any  obligation.  Let  her  therefore  rest  in  peace 
with  her  husband;  and  do  thou,  my  Lord  God, 
inspire  all  those  thy  servants  that  read  this,  to 
remember  thy  handmaid  Monicha  at  thy  altar, 
with  Patricius  her  consort."  This  was  not  a  prayer 
for  persons  in  the  pains  of  purgatory,  but  for 
such  as  rested  in  peace,  only  without  dependence 
upon  their  own  merits,  and  with  a  humble  reli- 
ance upon  God's  mercy,  that  he  would  not  suffer 
them  to  be  devoured  by  the  roaring  lion,  nor 
deal  extremely  with  them  for  the  sins  of  human 
frailty.  4.  Another  like  reason  for  these  prayers, 
is  that  which  we  have  heard  before  out  of  Epipha- 
nius,'^  That  it  was  to  put  a  distinction  between  the 
perfection  of  Christ,  and  the  imperfection  of  all 
other  men,  saints,  martyrs,  apostles,  prophets,  con- 
fessors, &c.  He  being  the  only  person  for  whom 
prayer  was  not  then  made  in  the  chm'ch.  5.  They 
prayed  for  all  Christians,  as  a  testimony  both  of 
their  respect  and  love  to  the  dead,  and  of  their  own 
belief  of  the  soul's  immortality ;  to  show,  as  Epipha- 
nius  words  it  in  the  same  place,  that  they  believed 
that  they  who  were  deceased  were  yet  alive,  and 
not  extinguished,  but  still  in  being,  and  living  with 
the  Lord.  6.  Whereas  the  soul  is  but  in  an  imper- 
fect state  of  happiness  till  the  resurrection,  when 
the  whole  man  shall  obtain  a  complete  victory  over 
death,  and  by  the  last  judgment  be  established  in 
an  endless  state  of  consummate  happiness  and 
glory ;  the  church  had  a  particular  respect  to  this 
in  her  prayers  for  the  righteous,  that  both  the 
living  and  the  dead  might  finally  attain  this  blessed 
estate  of  a  glorious  resurrection.  It  is  observed  by 
some,'^*  that  there  are  some  prayers  yet  extant  in 
the  Roman  mass,  which  are  conformable  to  this 
opinion,  as  that  which  prays,  that  "  God  would  ab- 
solve the  souls  of  his  servants  from  eveiy  bond 
of  sin,  and  bring  them  to  the  glory  of  the  resun-ec- 
tion,"  &c. 

All  these  were  general  reasons  of  praying  for  the 
dead,  without  the  least  intimation  of  their  being 
tormented  in  the  temporary  pains  of  a  purgatory 
fire.  Besides  which,  they  had  some  particular  opi- 
nions, which  tended  to  promote  this  practice.  For, 
1.  A  great  many  of  the  ancients  believed,  that  the 
souls  of  all  the  righteous,  except  martyrs,  were  se- 
questered out  of  heaven  in  some  place  invisible  to 
mortal  eye,  which  they  called  hades,  or  paradise. 


or  Abraham's  bosom,  a  place  of  refreshment  and 
joy,  where  they  expected  a  completer  happiness  at 
the  end  of  all  things.  This  is  the  known  opinion 
of  Hermes  Pastor,  Justin  Martyr,  Pope  Pius,  Irc- 
neeus,  Tertullian,  Origen,  Caius  Romanus,  Victori- 
nus  Martyr,  Novatian,Lactantius,  Hilary,  Ambrose, 
Gregory  Nysscn,  Prudentius,  Austin,  and  Chrysos- 
tom.  Therefore,  in  praying  for  the  dead,  tliey  may 
be  supposed  to  have  some  reference  to  this,  and  to 
desire  that  the  souls  of  the  righteous  thus  sequestered 
for  a  time,  might  at  last  be  brought  to  the  perfect 
fruition  of  happiness  in  heaven.  2.  Many  of  the 
ancients  held  the  opinion  of  the  millennium,  or  the 
reign  of  Christ  a  thousand  years  upon  earth,  before 
the  final  day  of  judgment :  and  they  supposed,  like- 
wise, that  men  should  rise,  some  sooner,  some  later, 
to  this  happy  state,  according  to  their  merits  and 
preparations  for  it.  And  therefore  some  of  them 
prayed  for  the  deceased  on  this  supposition,  that 
they  might  obtain  a  part  in  this  resurrection,  and  a 
speedier  admittance  into  this  kingdom:  it  being 
reckoned  a  sort  of  punishment,  not  to  be  admitted 
with  the  first  that  should  rise  to  this  state  of  glory. 
TertulKan  plainly  refers  "**  to  this,  when  he  says, 
Every  little  oflence  is  to  be  punished  by  delaying 
men's  resurrection.  And  therefore  he  says,"*  They 
were  wont  to  pray  for  the  souls  of  the  deceased,  that 
they  might  not  only  rest  in  peace  for  the  present, 
but  also  obtain  part  in  the  first  resurrection.  And 
for  this  reason  St.  Ambrose'"  prayed  for  Gratian 
and  Valentinian,  that  God  would  raise  them  with 
the  first,  and  recompense  their  untimely  death  with 
a  timely  resurrection.  And  he  says  elsewhere,'®' 
That  they  that  come  not  to  the  first  resurrection, 
but  are  reserved  unto  the  second,  shall  be  burned 
until  they  fulfil  the  time  between  the  first  and 
second  resurrection ;  or  if  they  have  not  fulfilled 
that,  they  shall  remain  longer  in  punishment. 
Therefore  let  us  pray,  that  we  may  obtain  a  part  in 
the  first  resm'rection.  Bishop  Usher '^  also  shows 
out  of  some  Gothic  Missals,  that  the  church  had 
anciently  several  prayers  directed  to  this  very  pur- 
pose. 3.  Many  of  the  ancients  believed,  that  there 
would  be  a  fire  of  probation,  through  which  all  must 
pass  at  the  last  day,  even  the  prophets  and  apostles, 
and  even  the  Virgin  Mary  herself  not  excepted. 
Which  is  asserted  not  only  by  Origen,""  Irenajus '" 
and  Lactantius,'"  but  also  by  St.  Ambrose,  who 


'^  Epiphan.  Haer.  75.  Aerian.  n.  7. 

"='  Vid.  Du  Moiiliu,  Novelty  of  Popery,  lib.  7.  c.  i.  p.  459. 

•"5  Teitul.  de  Anima,  cap.  58.  INIodicum  quodque  delic- 
tum mora  resurrectionis  luendum,  &e. 

""*  De  Mouogam.  cup.  10.  Pro  auima  ejus  oral,  et  refri- 
gerium  iuterim  adpostulat  ei,  et  in  prima  resurrectione  con- 
sortium. Confer  1.  3.  cont.  RIarciou,  cap.  24.  Post  mille 
annos,  intra  quam  aetatem  concluditiir  sanctorum  resurrectio 
promeritis  maturius  vel  tardius  resurgentium,  &c. 

"^  Ambros.  de  Obitu  Valentin,  ad  finem.  Te  qu£Bso, 
summe  Deus,  ut  charissimos  juvenes  matura  resm-rectione 


suscites  et  resuscites;  ut  immaturum  hunc  vita;  istius  cnr- 
sum  matura  resurrectione  compenses. 

"*  Id.  in  Psal.  i.  Qui  non  veuiunt  ad  primam  resurrec- 
tionem,  sed  ad  secundam  reservantur,  isli  urentur  donee 
impleant  tempora  inter  priraam  et  secundam  resurrectio- 
nem  :  aut  si  non  impleveriut,  diutius  in  suppliciu  porniaiie- 
bunt.  Ideo  ergorogeraus,  ut  in  prima  resurrectione  partem 
habere  mereamur. 

"^^  Usher,  Answer  to  the  Cliallenge,  p.  151. 

"0  Orig.  Horn.  3.  in  Psal.  xxxvi.  p.  41G. 

'"  Ireu.  lib.  4.  cap.  9.  "-  Lactaut.  lib.  7.  cap.  21. 


782 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


says''^  after  Origen,  That  all  must  pass  through  the 
flames,  though  it  be  John  the  evangehst,  though  it 
be  Peter.  The  sons  of  Levi  shall  be  purged  by 
fire,"*  Ezekiel,  Daniel,  &c.  And  these  having  been 
tried  by  fire,  shall  say,  We  have  passed  through  fire 
and  water.  And  St.  Hilary,  much  after  the  same 
manner,'"  They  that  are  baptized  wath  the  Holy 
Ghost,  are  yet  to  be  perfected  by  the  fire  of  judg- 
ment. For  so  he  interprets  those  words  of  the 
evangelist,  "  He  shall  baptize  you  with  the  Holy 
Ghost  and  with  fire."  And  again,"*  Do  we  desire 
the  day  of  judgment,  in  which  we  must  give  an 
account  of  every  idle  word ;  in  which  those  grievous 
punishments  for  expiating  souls  from  sin  must  be 
endured  ?  If  the  Virgin  herself,  who  conceived  God 
in  her  womb,  must  undergo  the  severity  of  judgment, 
who  is  so  bold  as  to  desire  to  be  judged  by  God  ? 
There  are  many  like  passages  in  Gregory  Nazian- 
zen,'"  and  Nyssen,"'  and  St.  Jerom,'"  and  St.  Aus- 
tin,'^" which  the  Romish  writers  commonly  produce 
for  the  fire  of  purgatory,  whenas  they  plainly  relate 
to  this  purging  sacrament,  as  Origen'"  calls  it,  or, 
in  St.  Austin's  language,  the  purging  pains  of  the 
fire  of  judgment  at  the  last  day.  And  the  fear  of 
this  was  another  reason  of  their  praying  for  the 
dead.  4.  Some  of  the  ancients  thought,  likewise, 
that  the  prayers  of  the  church  Avere  of  some  use  to 
mitigate  the  pains  of  the  damned  souls,  though  not 
effectual  for  their  total  deliverance.  And,  lastly, 
that  they  served  to  augment  the  glory  of  the  saints 
in  happiness.  St.  Austin'^-  says,  they  were  of  use 
to  render  the  damnation  of  the  wicked  more  toler- 
able. And  this  was  the  opinion  of  Prudentius,"' 
and  St.  Chrysostom,"*  who  advises  men  to  pray  for 
the  dead  upon  this  account,  that  it  would  bring 
some  consolation  to  them,  though  but  a  httle ;  or  if 
none  at  all  to  them,  yet  it  would  be  accepted  of  God 
as  a  pleasing  sacrifice  from  those  that  offered  it. 
And  the  like  may  be  read  in  Paulinus,""  and  the 
author  of  the  Questions  to  Antiochus  under  the 
name  of  Athanasius."*  St.  Chrysostom  says'"  fur- 
ther, That  their  prayers  and  alms  were  of  use  to 
procure  an  addition  to  the  rewards  and  retribution 
of  the  righteous.  These  are  all  the  reasons  we  meet 
with  in  the  ancients  for  praying  for  souls  departed, 


none  of  which  have  any  relation  to  their  being  tor- 
mented in  the  fire  of  purgatory,  but  most  of  them 
tend  directly  to  overthrow  it.  Whence  we  may 
safely  conclude,  that  though  the  ancients  generally 
prayed  for  the  dead,  at  least  from  the  time  of  Tertul- 
lian,  who  first  speaks  of  it ;  yet  they  did  it  not  upon 
those  principles,  which  are  now  so  stiffly  contended 
for  in  the  Romish  church.  Which  is  also  evident 
from  many  ancient  forms  still  remaining  in  the  Mass- 
book,  and  the  liturgies  of  the  modern  Greeks,  who 
continue  to  pray  for  the  dead  without  any  belief  of 
purgatory,  as  it  were  easy  to  demonstrate  out  of  their 
Rituals,  but  that  it  is  wholly  foreign  to  the  design 
of  the  present  discourse. 

There  is  one  thing  more  to  be  noted 
upon  this  matter,  that  some  time  be- 


Sect.  17. 
A  short  account  of 
n  1  t  t  T       '  f  1         t        1      *'^^     diptvchs,    and 

tore  they  made  oblation  for  the  dead,  their  use  in  the  an- 


cient church. 


it  was  usual  in  some  ages  to  recite  the 
names  of  such  eminent  bishops,  or  saints,  or  martyrs, 
as  were  particularly  to  be  mentioned  in  this  part  of 
the  service.  To  this  purpose  they  had  certain  books, 
which  they  called  their  holy  books,  and  commonly 
their  diptychs,  from  their  being  folded  together, 
wherein  the  names  of  such  persons  were  written, 
that  the  deacon  might  rehearse  them,  as  occasion 
required,  in  the  time  of  Divine  service.  Cardinal 
Bona'^'  and  Schelstrate  make  three  sorts  of  these 
diptychs :  one,  wherein  the  names  of  bishops  only 
were  written,  and  more  particularly  such  bishops 
as  had  been  governors  of  that  particular  church  : 
a  second,  wherein  the  names  of  the  living  were  writ- 
ten, who  were  eminent  and  conspicuous  either  for 
any  office  and  dignity,  or  some  benefaction  and  good 
work,  whereby  they  had  deserved  well  of  ihe  church; 
in  this  rank  were  the  patriarchs  and  bishops  of  great 
sees,  and  the  bishop  and  clergy  of  that  particular 
church ;  together  with  the  emperors  and  magis- 
trates, and  others  most  conspicuous  among  the  peo- 
ple :  the  third  was,  the  book  containing  the  names 
of  such  as  were  deceased  in  catholic  communion. 
The  first  and  the  last  of  these  seem  to  be  much  the 
same,  and  the  consideration  of  them  is  only  proper 
to  this  place.  For  the  recital  of  the  names  of  the 
living,  as  benefactors  by  their  oblations,  has  been 
spoken  of  already,""  and  here  we  are  only  concerned 


'"'  Ambros.  Ser.  20.  in  Psal.  cxviii. 

"'  Id.  Horn.  .3.  in  Psal.  xx.xvi. 

»"  Hilar,  in  Mat.  Canon.  2.  p.  148.  Quia  baptizatis  in 
Spiritu  Sancto  reliquum  sit  consumraari  igne  judicii. 

""  Id.  Enarrat.  in  Psal.  cxviii.  voce  Gimel,  p.  254.  Cum 
ex  omni  ocioso  verbo  rationem  sinius  prsestituri,  diem  ju- 
dicii concupiscomus,  in  quo  nobis  est  indefessus  ignis  ob- 
eundus  :  in  quo  subeunda  sunt  gravia  ilia  expiandee  a  pec- 
catis  anima?  supplicia  ?  &c. 

'"  Naz.  Orat.  42. 

178  Nyssen.  De  Dormieutibus. 

'"  Hieron.  in  Esa.  Ixvi. 

'"»  Aug.  de  Civ.  Dei,  lib.  20.  cap.  25. 

'»'  Oiig.  Horn.  14.  in  Luc.  p.  22.3. 

"2  Aug.  Enchirid.  ad  Laurent,  cap.  110.   Pro  valdc  malis 


valere,  ut  tolerabilior  sit  damnatio. 

183  Prudent.  Cathemerinon.  Carm.  5.  de  Cereo  Paschali. 
Sunt  et  spiiitibus  sajpe  nocentibus  poenarum  celebres  sub 
Styge  feriaj,  ilia  nocte  sacer  qua  rcdiit  Deus  stagnis  ad 
superos  e.x  Acheronticis. 

'8^  Chrys.  Horn.  3.  in  Phil.  p.  1225.  Vid.  Horn.  21.  in 
Act.  et  Horn.  32.  in  Mat. 

'85  Paulin.  Ep.  19. 

^^^  Athanas.  Quast.  ad  Antioch.  qn.  34. 

'^"  Chrys.  Horn.  32.  in  Mat.  p.  307.  YlpoadnKy)  yivi]Tai 
fxirrdov  Kal  dv-rio6(Ttwi. 

"^^  Bona,  Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  2.  cap.  12.  n.  1.  Schelstiat.de 
Concilio  Aiitiocheno,  can.  2.  cap.  6.  p.  216. 

'89  Book  XV.  chap.  2.  sect.  4.  and  Book  II.  chap.  20. 
sect.  5. 


III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


783 


w  iih  the  dead.  Of  this  there  is  no  mention  made 
ill  the  Constitutions,  which  seems  to  argue,  that  the 
custom  of  rehearsing  the  diptychs  was  not  brought 
into  the  Rituals  of  that  church  whence  the  compiler 
of  that  book  made  his  collections.  But  Cyprian'"" 
Mild  Tertulhan'"  speak  of  them  under  another  name; 
a'ld  Thcodoret  mentions  them  in  the  case  of  St. 
vsostom,  whose  name  for  some  time  was  left  out 
I  he  diptychs,  because  he  died  excommunicate 
( I  hough  unjustly)  by  Theophilus,  bishop  of  Alexan- 
dria, and  other  Eastern  bishops,  with  whom  the  West- 
nii  church  would  not  communicate"*^  till  they  hadre- 
si  I  )ix'd  his  name  to  the  diptychs  again.  The  author 
under  the  name  of  Dionysius  '"^  gives  this  account  of 
tlu'in :  That  after  the  salutation  of  the  kiss  of  peace, 
the  diptychs  were  read,  which  set  forth  the  names  of 
those  who  had  lived  righteously,  and  had  attained  to 
till'  perfections  of  a  virtuous  life  ;  which  was  done, 
]i:!rily  to  excite  and  conduct  the  living  to  the  same 
happy  state  by  following  their  good  example  ;  and 
partly  to  celebrate  the  memory  of  them  as  still 
living,  according  to  the  principles  of  religion,  and 
not  properly  dead,  but  only  translated  by  death  to 
a  more  Divine  life.  It  appears  from  this  author, 
that  these  diptychs  were  then  read  before  the  con- 
secration, immediately  after  the  kiss  of  peace. 
And  so  it  is  in  the  Acts  of  the  Council  of  Constanti- 
nople under  Mennas,  which  makes  frequent  mention 
of  them,  and  particularly  in  one  place  '^*  notes  the 
time  of  reading  them,  namely,  after  the  reading 
of  the  Gospel  and  the  creed :  for  by  this  time  the 
creed  was  also  become  a  part  of  the  communion 
service  in  the  Eastern  church  :  therefore  it  is  said, 
after  the  reading  of  the  Gospel,  when  the  commu- 
nion service  was  begun,  (not  ended,  as  the  Latin 
translation  falsely  renders  it,)  the  creed  was  read  ac- 
cording to  custom,  Tov  ayiov  fiaQijiiarog  Kara  to  avvt]- 
Qiq  XtX^'ivTOQ ;  (not  the  prayers  and  prefaces  going 
before  the  oblation,  as  some  learned  men,'"^  not  un- 
derstanding the  true  meaning  of  the  word  naQr](ia, 
render  it  hctio,  and  interpret  it  prayers  and  prefaces, 
which  most  certainly'^''  signifies  the  creed  in  this 
place ;)  then,  after  the  reading  of  the  creed,  in  the 
time  of  the  diptychs,  all  the  people  ran  and  stood 
about  the  altar  with  great  silence,  to  give  attention ; 
and  when  the  deacon  had  named  the  four  holy 
synods,  and  the  archbishops  of  blessed  memory, 
Euphemius,  Macedonius,  and  Leo,  they  all  \\Ai\\  a 
loud  voice  cried  out,  "  Glory  be  to  thee,  O  Lord,"  and 


after  that,  with  great  tranquillity,  the  Divine  service 
was  piously  performed.  It  is  here  observable,  that 
the  recital  of  the  diptychs  was  before  the  consecra- 
tion prayer,  as  it  is  represented  in  the  hierarchy  of 
Dionysius,  (though  in  the  Latin  church  it  seems  to 
have  been  otherwise,)  and  that  now  it  was  usual  to 
mention  the  four  first  general  councils,  to  show  their 
approljation  of  them.  Which  may  be  also  evidenced 
from  one  of  Justinian's  letters  to  Epiphanius,  bi- 
shop of  Constantinople,  now  extant  in  the  Code,'"' 
wherein  he  assures  him,  that  it  was  in  vain  for  any 
one  to  trouble  him  upon  any  false  hopes,  as  if  he 
had  done,  or  ever  would  do,  or  suffer  any  other  to 
do,  any  thing  contrary  to  the  four  councils,  or  allow 
the  pious  memory  of  them  to  be  erased  out  of  the 
diptychs  of  the  church.  These,  therefore,  were  of 
use,  partly  to  preserve  the  memory  of  such  eminent 
men  as  were  dead  in  the  communion  of  the  church, 
and  partly  to  make  honourable  mention  of  such 
general  councils  as  had  established  the  chief  articles 
of  the  faith :  and  to  erase  the  names  either  of  men 
or  councils  out  of  these  diptychs,  was  the  same  thing 
as  to  declare  that  they  were  heterodox,  and  such  as 
they  thought  unworthy  to  hold  communion  with, 
as  criminals,  or  some  ways  deviating  from  the  faith. 
Upon  this  account  St.  Cyprian  ordered  the  name  of 
Geminius  Victor  to  be  left  out  among  those  that  were 
commemorated  at  the  holy  table,'"*  because  he  had 
broken  the  rules  of  the  church.  And  Evagrius  ob- 
serves'"" of  Theodorus,  bishop  of  Mopsuestia,  that 
his  name  was  struck  out  of  the  holy  books,  that  is, 
the  diptychs,  upon  the  account  of  his  heretical 
opinions,  after  death.  And  St.  Austin,  speaking 
of  Ceecilian,  bishop  of  Carthage,  whom  the  Do- 
natists  falsely  accused  of  being  ordained  by  tradi- 
tores,  or  men  who  had  delivered  up  the  Bible  to  be 
burned  in  time  of  persecution,  tells  them,^°  that  if 
they  could  make  good  any  real  charge  against  him, 
they  would  no  longer  name  him  among  the  rest  of 
the  bishops,  whom  they  believed  to  be  faithful  and 
innocent,  at  the  altar. 

Having  made  this  short  digression 
concerning  the  diptychs  of  the  church,     Next^o  the  dead, 

^  1   *"  1  p      1  praver  made  for  the 

1  now  return  to  the  order  ot  the  ser-  living  members  of 

,  ^  that  particular 

vice  laid  down  in  the  Constitutions,  '^''''■■c  .  and  every 

order  in  it. 

Where,  next  after  prayer  for  the  dead, 
supplication  is  made  for  the  living  members  of  that 
particular  church  then  assembled,  and  every  distinct 
order  of  persons  in  it :  "  We  offer  unto  thee  for 


'""  Cypr.  Ep.  66.  al.  1.  ad  Plebem  Fumitan. 

'"'  Tertid.  de  Coron.  Mil.  cap.  3. 

"2  Theod.  lib.  5.  cap.  .34. 

'^  Dioiiys.  Eccles.  Hieraich.  cap.  3.  p.  253  et  254. 

•"*  Cone.  Constant,  sub  Menna,  an.  536.  Act.  5.  Cone.  t. 
5.  p.  181. 

"*  Schelstrat.  de  Concil.  Antioch.  p.  217. 

'"«  See  this  proved  before,  Book  X.  chap.  3.  sect.  3. 

'"^  Cod.  Justin.  lib.  1.  Tit.  1.  de  Summa  Trinitate,  Leg.  7. 
NuUus  frustra  nos  turbet,  spc  vana  innixus,  q\iasi  nos  con- 


trarium  quatuor  conciliis  fecerimus,  aut  fieri  a  quibnsdain 
pennittaums,  aut  aboleri  eorundem  sanctorum  conciliorum 
piam  meinoriam  ex  ecclesiae  diptychis  sustineainus.  Vid. 
Evagrium,  lib.  4.  c.  4  et  II. 

'^8  Cypr.  Ep.  66.  al.  1.  ad  Pleb.  Furnitan. 

""  Evagr.  lib.  4.  cap.  38.    'Ek  rioy  hpwu  aTryiXtirfm  6t\- 

TWl>,   K.T.X. 

200  Aug.  Serm.  37.  e.\  edilis  a  Sinnondo,  t.  10.  p.  810.  In- 
ventus sit  prorsus  reus,  &c.,  deincepseum  ad  altare  inter  epis- 
copos,  qnos  fideles  et  innocentes  credimus,  non  recitabmius. 


784 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


this  people,"""  that  thou  wouldst  make  them,  to  the 
glory  of  thy  Christ,  a  royal  priesthood  and  a  holy 
nation ;  for  all  that  live  in  virginity  and  chastity ; 
for  the  widows  of  the  church ;  for  all  that  live  in 
honest  marriage ;  for  the  infants  of  thy  people ; 
that  none  of  us  may  be  a  cast-away ;  we  pray  thee 
for  this  city,  and  all  that  dwell  therein."  St.  Austin 
likewise  speaks  ^"^  of  these  prayers  at  the  altar,  for 
the  faithful,  that  they  by  the  gift  of  God  may  per- 
severe in  that  wherein  they  have  begun.  Again,^"' 
Who  ever  heard  the  priest  praying  over  the  faithful, 
and  saying,  "  Grant,  O  Lord,  that  they  may  perse- 
vere in  thee  unto  the  end,"  and  durst  either  in  word 
or  thought  reprehend  that  prayer,  and  not  rather 
answer  Amen  to  such  a  benediction  ?  Chrysostom 
in  like  manner,  describing  the  bishop's  office,  says,-"* 
It  is  his  business  to  pray  for  a  whole  city,  and  not 
for  a  whole  city  only,  but  as  an  ambassador  for  the 
whole  world,  that  God  would  be  propitious  and 
merciful  both  to  the  sins  of  the  living  and  the  dead. 
Which  makes  it  the  more  probable,  that  the  prayers 
of  the  like  kind  that  occur  in  St.  Chrysostom's 
liturgy ,°°^  are  but  a  copy  of  such  prayers  as  were  then 
commonly  used  in  the  ancient  church. 

The  next  petition  in  the  Constitu- 

For  those  that  are  tlous  is,  for  all  that  are  in  affliction, 

banishment,  and  '  wliethcr  by  sickness,  or  slavery,  or 

proscription,  and 

that  travel  by  sea  banishment,  or  confiscation  and  pro- 

or  by  land.  ^ 

scription :  and  for  all  that  are  exposed 
to  any  perils  upon  the  account  of  their  necessary 
travels  by  sea  or  by  land.  Of  these  petitions  I  find 
no  particular  mention  made  in  other  writers,  save 
only  in  Cyril  of  Jerusalem,  who  says,-"''  After  they 
had  prayed  for  the  common  peace  of  the  church, 
and  the  tranquillity  of  the  world,  for  kings,  and  for 
their  armies  and  allies,  they  also  besought  God  for 
all  that  were  sick  and  afflicted,  or  in  any  kind  of 
want :  and  last  of  all  they  prayed  for  the  dead.  By 
which  we  may  judge,  that  though  the  order  of  the 
petitions  was  a  little  varied  in  the  liturgies  of  difier- 
ent  churches,  yet  the  substance  was  the  same.  And 
there  is  little  question  but  the  sick  and  distressed 
were  remembered  in  these  prayers  in  all  the  churches ; 
since   in  the  deacon's  bidding  prayer  before  the 


oblation,  there  is  express  direction  given  to  the 
people,  to  pray  for  the  sick,  and  those  that  travel 
by  sea  or  by  land,  and  those  that  are  in  the  mines, 
in  banishment,  in  prison,  in  bonds,  and  in  slavery, 
as  I  have  showed  out  of  several  passages  in  St. 
Chi-ysostom,  St.  Basil,  and  St.  Austin,  comparing 
them  with  the  form  of  bidding  prayer  for  the  whole 
state  of  Christ's  church  in  the  Constitutions,  related 
before  in  the  first  chapter  of  this  Book,  sect.  2  and  3. 

The  next  petition  in  the  Constitu-         ^^^^  ^^ 
tions  is,  for  their  enemies  and  perse-  persecuior^heretk^ 

.  r         1  j_"  1  IT  and  unbehevei-s. 

cutors,  tor  heretics  and  unbehevers, 
those  that  are  without  the  pale  of  the  church,  and 
wandering  in  error  ;  that  God  would  convert  them 
to  good,  and  mitigate  their  fury.  And  of  this  there 
are  frequent  examples  in  the  writings  of  the  an- 
cients. For  nothing  was  more  strictly  observed  by 
the  ancients,  than  to  pray  for  their  enemies  and  per- 
secutors, for  Jews,  infidels,  and  heretics  ;  of  which  Dr. 
Cave-"'  has  given  several  instances  out  of  Cyprian,-"* 
Justin  Martyr,-""  and  Irenajus.^'"  Which  because 
they  may  seem  only  to  refer  to  their  private  prayers, 
I  will  add  a  few  more  which  more  expressly  relate 
to  their  public  devotions.  TertuUian  ^"  tells  the 
heathen,  they  were  taught  by  the  Scriptures  (which 
they  themselves  might  read)  to  exhibit  a  more  than 
ordinary  kindness  toward  men,  in  praying  to  God 
for  their  enemies,  and  wishing  all  good  to  their  per- 
secutors. For  they  had  no  greater  enemies  or  per- 
secutors in  those  days  than  those  very  emperors  for 
whom  they  made  supplications  to  God"'^  as  oft  as 
they  met  in  public,  and  for  their  officers,  and  for  the 
state  of  the  world,  and  for  the  peace  and  tranquillity 
of  their  affairs,  and  for  the  duration  of  their  em- 
pire. Arnobius  says  their  churches  were  oratories,"" 
wherein  they  prayed  for  peace  and  pardon,  for  the 
magistrates  and  princes,  for  their  armies,  for  their 
friends,  and  for  their  enemies.  St.  Austin"'*  par- 
ticularly notes,  that  the  priest  was  wont  to  exhort 
the  people  at  the  altar  to  pray  for  unbelievers,  that 
God  would  convert  them  to  the  faith.  And  again, 
When  does  not  the  church"'^  pray  for  infidels  and 
her  enemies,  that  they  may  believe  ?  In  like  man- 
ner Pope  Celestine^'^  says,  The  whole  church  prayed 


»»  Constit.  lib.  8.  cap.  12. 

202  Aug.  Ep.  107.  ad  Vitalem.  Pro  fidelibus,  vit  in  eo  quod 
esse  ca;perunt,  ejus  inunere  perseverent. 

-03  De  Dono  Porseverautiaj,  cap.  23.  t.  7.  p.  571.  Quis 
sacerdotem  super  fideles  Dorainum  iuvocantem,  si  quando 
dixit,  Daillis  Domine  in  te  perseverare  usque  in  liuem,  non 
solum  voce  ausus  est,  sed  saltern  cogitatioue  reprehendere, 
ac  non  potius  super  ejus  taleiu  benedictionem  et  corde  cre- 
dente  et  ore  confitente  respondit,  Amen  ? 

-"*  Chrys.  de  Sacerdot.  lib.  G.  cap.  4.  p.  93. 

2»5  Chrys.  Liturg.  t.  3.  p.  616. 

-•"!  Cyril.  Catech.  Myst.  5.  n.  G. 

-<"  Cave,  Prim.  Christ,  part  3.  chap.  2.  p.  212. 

-"'  Passio  Cypriani. 

=»'  Justin.  Dial,  cum  Tryphon.  p.  254,  323,  363. 

2'"  lien.  lib.  3.  cap.  46.  '  -"  Tertul.  Apol.  cap,  31. 


^'2  Ibid.  cap.  39.  Coimus  in  coetum — Oramus  pro  inipei  a- 
toribus,  pro  ministris  eorum,  pro  statu  saeculi,  pro  reruui 
quiete,  pro  mora  finis. 

213  Arnob.  lib.  4.  p.  181. 

-•''  Aug.  Ep.  107.  ad  Vitalem.  Audis  sacerdotem  Dei  ad 
altare  exhortantem  populum  Dei,  orare  pro  incredulis.  ut 
eos  Deus  convertat  ad  fidem,  &c. 

"'^  De  Dono  Perseverantia;,  cap.  23.  Quando  non  ma- 
tum  est  in  ecclesia  pro  infidelibus  atque  inimicis  ejus  ut 
crederent  ? 

-'"  Coelestin.  Ep.  1.  ad  Gallos,  cap.  11.  Postulant  et  pre- 
cantur,  ut  infidelibus  donetur  fides,  ut  idololatrae  ab  impie- 
tatis  suae  liberentur  errore,  ut  Judasis,  ablato  cordis  velamine 
lux  veritatis  appareat,  ut  haoretici  catholicoe  fidei  percop 
tione  resipiscant,  ut  schismatici  spiritum  redivivae  charitalii 
accipiant,  &c.  i 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


785 


with  the  priests  for  infidels,  that  faith  miyht  be 
given  unto  them ;  for  idolaters,  that  they  might  be 
delivered  from  the  errors  of  their  impiety ;  for  Jews, 
that,  the  veil  being  taken  away  from  their  heart, 
the  light  of  truth  may  appear  unto  them ;  for  here- 
tics, that  they  may  repent  by  returning  to  the  ca- 
tholic faith  ;  for  schismatics,  that  they  may  receive 
the  spirit  of  charity  reviving  from  the  dead.  And 
the  same  is  repeated  by  Gennadius,-"  or  whoever 
was  the  author  of  the  book  De  Ecclesiasticus  Dog- 
matibus  under  the  name  of  St.  Austin.  And  in 
both  places  it  is  said,  that  this  practice  was  de- 
rived from  the  apostles,  and  uniformly  observed  in 
the  whole  catholic  church  throughout  the  world. 
Nay,  it  is  evident  they  prayed  for  many  heretics, 
whom  they  looked  upon  as  guilty  of  the  sin  against 
the  Holy  Ghost.  For  they  did  not  esteem  that  sin 
absolutely  unpardonable,  but  only  punishable  in 
both  worlds,  on  supposition  that  men  did  not  re- 
pent of  it.  Therefore  St.  Austin^"  and  others  say, 
they  prayed  that  they  might  repent  and  be  saved ; 
and  accordingly  admitted  them  to  the  peace  and 
communion  of  the  church  upon  their  repentance. 
In  a  word,  as  Chrysostom  says,^"  they  prayed  for 
the  whole  world  without  exception ;  they  prayed 
that  all  men  whatsoever  might  be  converted. 

Next  after  heretics  and  unbelievers, 
Is^  prayer  is  made  in  the  Constitutions 
for  the  catechumens  of  the  church, 
that  God  would  perfect  them  in  the  faith ;  for  the 
energumens,  that  were  vexed  with  evil  spirits,  that 
God  would  cleanse  and  deliver  them  from  the 
power  and  agitation  of  the  wicked  one ;  and  for  the 
penitents,  that  God  would  accept  their  repentance, 
and  pardon  both  them  and  the  whole  church  what- 
ever offences  they  had  committed  against  him. 
Whence  we  may  observe,  that  these  several  orders 
were  three  distinct  times  prayed  for  in  Divine  ser- 
vice ;  first,  in  the  prayers  that  were  said  for  them  in 
their  presence,  in  the  first  service,  called  the  ser- 
vice of  the  catechumens ;  secondly,  in  the  deacon's 
bidding  prayer  for  the  whole  state  of  the  church 
before  the  oblation ;  and  now  again,  thirdly,  after 
the  oblation,  when  all  orders  of  men  were  prayed 
for  at  the  sacrifice  of  the  altar.  This  last  is  par- 
ticularly noted  by  St.  Austin,""  who  says.  The  priest 


Sect.  21. 
For    the  cat 
mens,  energumens 
and  penitents. 


at  the  altar  was  used  to  exhort  the  people  to  pray 
for  the  catechumens,  that  God  would  inspire  them 
with  a  desii'e  of  regeneration.  And  so  it  is  said  by 
Celestine"'  and  Gennadius ^-'^  in  the  same  words, 
that  they  prayed  for  the  lapsers,  that  God  would 
grant  them  the  remedy  of  repentance ;  and  for  the 
catechumens,  that  God  would  bring  them  to  the 
sacrament  of  baptism,  and  open  to  them  the  great 
treasure  of  his  heavenly  mercy. 

In  the  next  place  they  prayed  for 
health  and  provision  ;  for  the  tempera-    For  heaithfui  ami 

'■  '  ^  fruitful  seasons. 

ture  of  the  air,  and  the  increase  of  the 
fruits  of  the  earth,  as  the  Constitutions  word  it, 
that  they,  participating  of  the  good  things  which 
God  bestows  upon  men,  might,  without  ceasing, 
praise  him,  who  giveth  food  to  all  flesh.  St.  Chry- 
sostom, among  other  particulars  of  this  prayer, 
notes  the  same,^  when  he  says.  They  prayed  for 
the  earth  and  sea,  for  the  air,  and  for  the  whole 
world.  And  though  Tertullian  does  not  particularly 
speak  of  this  prayer,  yet  he  intimates  in  general, 
that  they  were  used  to  pray  for  temporal  blessings, 
and  among  these  for  rain,  as  in  the  German  expe- 
dition of  Marcus  Aurelius,  when  his  army  was 
saved  from  perishing  for  want  of  water  bj^  the 
prayers  of  the  Christians,  which  never  failed^*  to 
drive  away  drought  upon  other  occasions.  The 
like  observation  is  made  by  Cyprian,"^  that  they 
offered  continually  supplications  and  prayers  night 
and  day  for  victory  over  their  enemies,  for  obtaining 
rain,  for  averting  or  moderating  all  adversities,  and 
for  the  peace  and  safety  of  the  public.  Which  being 
their  continual  prayer  night  and  day,  it  is  not  to  be 
doubted  but  that  it  was  a  part  of  those  prayers  which 
they  now  more  solemnly  oflTered  at  the  altar. 
The  last  petition  mentioned  in  the 

^  ...  11       1  1  Sect.  23. 

Constitutions,    is     tor    all    those     that,    For  all  llielr  absent 

brethren. 

upon  just  and  reasonable  cause,  were 
then  absent  from  the  assembly,  that  God  would 
preserve  both  the  absent  and  present  in  godliness, 
and  keep  them  without  change,  blame,  or  rebuke, 
and  finally  gather  them  all  into  the  kingdom  of  his 
Christ,  the  universal  King,  and  God  of  all  things 
in  nature,  both  visible  and  invisible.  The  like 
petition  is  mentioned  by  Chrysostom,  in  one  of  his 
homilies  upon  St.  Matthcw,^"^  according  to  the  old 


-"  GennaJ.  de  Ecclcs.  Doffinat.  cap.  30. 

-18  Aug.  Retractat.  lib.  ].  cap.  19.  De  quocunque  pessimo 
in  hac  vita  constituto  non  est  utique  desperandum  ;  nee  pro 
illo  impnidenter  oratur,  de  quo  non  desperatur. 

-"'  Chrys.  Horn,  in  1  Thess.  p.  1413.  Horn.  6.  in  1  Tim. 
p.  1550. 

'--"  Aug.  Ep.  107.  ad  Vitalem.  Audis  sacerdotem  Dei  ad 
altare  exhortantein  populum  Dei,  orare  pro  incredulis  ut 
eos  Deus  convertat  ad  fidem,  et  pro  catechumenis  ut  eis 
desiderium  regenerationis  inspiret. 

^'  Celestin.  Ep.  1.  ad  (Jallos,  cap.  2.  Postulant  et  pre- 
cantur,  ut  lapsis  poeniteutia;  remcdia  conferantur;  ut  de- 
nique  catechumenis  ad  regenerationis  sacramenta  perductis, 
3    E 


coelestis  misericordiaj  aula  reseretur. 

"-  Gennad.  de  Eccles.  Dogmat.  cap.  30. 

■^  Chrys.  Horn.  2.  in  2  Cor.  p.  745. 

■^  Tertul.  ad  Scapul.  cap.  4.  Quando  non  gcniculationi- 
bus  et  jejunationibus  nostris  siccitates  sunt  depulsx'  ? 

-■^  Cypr.  ad  Demetrian.  p.  193.  Pro  arcendis  hostibus  et 
imbribus  impetrandis,  et  vel  auferendis  vel  temperandis  ad- 
versis,  rogamus  semper  et  preces  fundimus,  &.c. 

--^  Chrys.  Horn.  26.  in  Matt.  p.  259.  Ahari  assistens  sa- 
cerdos,  pro  universo  orbe  terraruni,  pro  absentibus  atque 
preesentibus,  pro  his  qui  pnstea  futuri  sunt,  sacrificio  illo 
proposito,  Deo  nos  gratias  jubct  offenc. 


786 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


translation  of  Anianus :  The  priest,  says  he,  when 
he  stands  at  the  altar,  bids  us  give  thanks  for  the 
whole  woi'ld,  for  those  that  are  absent,  and  those 
that  are  present,  for  those  that  are  gone  before  us, 
and  those  that  shall  be  after  us,  while  the  sacrifice 
lies  upon  the  altar. 

Sect  34  '^^'^  conclusion  of  this  long  prayer 

n  ^Sosy  ^to'the  ^^  tile  ConstitutioHs,  is  a  doxology  to 
wi.oic  Tr.nity.         ^j^^  ^j^^^^  Trinity :  and  this  was  of 

old  the  constant  custom  of  the  church,  as  is  evident 
from  what  has  been  largely  discoursed  before,'" 
both  concerning  the  adoration  of  the  whole  Trinity 
as  the  true  and  only  object  of  Divine  worship,  and 
also  concerning  the  use  of  Divine  hymns  and  dox- 
ologies  to  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost.  Of 
w^hich  I  need  say  no  more  in  this  place  to  confirm 
the  order  laid  down  in  the  Constitutions,  save  only 
to  observe,  that  two  of  the  most  ancient  writers  we 
have,  Irenaeus  and  TertuUian,"^  do  both  mention 
one  part  of  this  doxology,  as  particularly  used  at 
the  consecration  of  the  eucharist.  Irenaeus  says 
the  Valentinians  made  it  an  argument  for  their 
(sones,  that  the  catholics  used  to  say  ei'e  a'wvaq  tUv 
aibivbiv  in  their  eucharistical  service;  referring  to 
the  last  words  of  this  doxology,  "  world  without 
end."  And  Tertullian  particularly  asks  those  who 
frequented  the  Roman  games,  how  they  could  give 
testimony  to  a  gladiator,  with  that  mouth  where- 
with they  had  answered  Amen  at  the  eucharist  ?  or 
say  "  world  without  end"  to  any  other  but  Christ 
their  God?  implying,  that  the  glorification  of  Christ 
with  this  doxology  was  then  a  noted  close  of  the 
consecration  prayer,  as  the  author  of  the  Constitu- 
tions represents  it. 

And  from  this  passage  of  Tertullian 
To  \viiich  ■  the     it  is  no  Icss  apparent,  that  the  people 

people   with    one 

voice  answered,       wcre  uscd  to  subjoin  tlicir  Amen  to 

Amen.  '^ 

the  end  of  this  prayer.  Which  was  a 
custom  as  ancient  as  the  apostles.  For  St.  Paul 
seems  plainly  to  allude  to  it,  1  Cor.  xiv.  16 ;  "  When 
thou  shalt  bless  with  the  spirit,"  that  is,  bless  the 
cup  of  blessing,  or  the  eucharist,  in  an  unknown 
tongue,  "  how  shall  he  that  occupieth  the  room  of 
the  unlearned  say  Amen  at  thy  giving  of  thanks, 
seeing  he  understandeth  not  what  thou  sayest  ? " 
Justin  Martyr,-"  in  describing  the  Christian  rites  in 
celebrating  the  eucharist,  takes  notice  of  this  among 
the  rest,  that  when  the  president  had  ended  his 
prayers  and  thanksgivings  over  the  bread  and  wine, 
all   the  people  assented  with  their  acclamations. 


sajang.  Amen.  And  Dionysius  of  Alexandria,'-'"' 
speaking  of  one  who  had  never  been  truly  baptized, 
but  had  often  notwithstanding  been  partaker  of  the 
eucharist,  says.  They  would  not  rebaptize  him,  be- 
cause he  had  for  a  long  time  heard  the  thanksgiving, 
and  joined  with  the  people  in  the  common  Amen. 
And  so  Chrysostom,  interpreting  those  words  of  the 
apostle,  "  How  shall  he  that  occupieth  the  room  of 
the  unlearned  say  Amen  at  thy  giving  of  thanks, 
seeing  he  imderstandeth  not  what  thou  sayest  ?  " 
plainly  refers  to  this  custom  :  for  he  says,  idiurriQ, 
which  we  render  "unlearned,"  signifies  a  private  man 
or  layman :  and  if  thou  blesscst  in  an  unknown 
tongue,'^'  not  understanding  what  thou  sayest,  nor 
being  able  to  interpret  it,  the  layman  cannot  an- 
swer Amen  ;  for  he,  not  hearing  those  words, 
"  world  without  end,"  which  is  the  close  of  the 
thanksgiving,  cannot  say  Amen.  Where  we  may 
observe,  both  that  the  consecration  prayer  ended 
with  a  known  doxology  to  the  holy  Trinity,  whereof 
those  words,  "  world  without  end,"  were  a  part ; 
and  that  the  people  hearing  them  answered  Amen. 
There  is  no  mention  made  in  the         „  ,  .„ 

Sect.  26. 

Constitutions  of  the  formal  rehears-  ere^edTJsuT'' '''^ 
ing  either  of  the  creed  or  the  Lord's  ;;\"de''"a"par''t'of 
prayer  in  this  place  immediately  after  "^  '  ™''^' 
consecration :  and  the  reason  is,  that  when  that 
author  made  his  collections,  it  was  not  yet  become 
the  custom  to  use  the  creed  in  any  other  service, 
but  only  that  of  baptism,  in  any  church  whatsoever. 
The  first  that  brought  the  rehearsing  of  the  creed 
into  the  liturgy,  was  Peter  FuUo,  bishop  of  Antioch, 
about  the  year  471.  And  after  that,  about  the  year 
511,  Timotheus,  bishop  of  Constantinople,  brought 
it  into  use  in  the  liturgy  of  that  church,  as  we  learn 
from  the  history  of  Theodoras  Lector.  '■^^  After 
that  we  find  it  mentioned  in  the  council  of  Con- 
stantinople under  Mennas,  anno  536,  as  being  re- 
hearsed^^ according  to  custom  between  the  reading 
of  the  Gospel  and  the  diptychs.  After  this,  about 
the  year  589,  it  was  brought  into  the  Spanish 
church  at  the  petition  of  King  Rccaredus,  by  the 
order  of  the  third  council  of  Toledo,  and  that  after 
the  example  of  the  Eastern  churches :  and  then  it 
was  ordered  to  be  said***  with  a  loud  voice  after  the 
consecration,  immediately  before  the  Lord's  prayer, 
to  be  an  instruction  and  declaration  of  the  people's 
true  faith,  who  were  lately  converted  from  Arian- 
ism,  and  to  prepare  their  hearts,  thus  purified  by 
faith,  to  the  following  reception  of  the  body  and 


2"  Book  XIII.  chap.  2.    Book  XIV.  chap.  2.  sect.  1. 

^^  Iren.  lib.  1.  cap.  1.  Tertul.  de  Spectac.  cap.  25.  Quale 

est ex  ore  quo  Amen  in  sanctum  protuleris,  gladiatori 

testimonium  reddere?  fk-  aiwv<L<i  alii  omnino  dicere,  nisi 
Deo  Christo?  See  Chrysostomj  Horn.  35.  in  1  Cor.  in  the 
next  section. 

■■^■•»  Justin.  Apol.  2.  p.  97.      ^so  ^p.  Euseb.  lib.  7.  cap.  9. 

■«'  Chrys.  Horn.  35.  in  1  Cor.  p.  640. 

232  1'heodov.  Lector,  lib.  2.  p.  563  et  566. 


"^  Cone.  Constant,  sub  Menna,  Act.  1.  p.  41.  edit. 
Crab,  quae  est  Act.  5.  edit.  Labbe. 

-^'  Cone.  Tolet.  3.  can.  2.  Consnltu  Reccaredi  regis  con- 
stituit  synodus,  lit  per  omnes  ecclesias  Hispaniae  et  Gallicia?, 
secundum  fnrmam  Orientalium  ecclesiarum,  concilii  Con- 
stantinnpolitani,  hoc  est,  centum  quinquaginta  episcoporum 
symbolum  fidei  recitetur :  et  priusquam  Dominica  dicatnr 
oratio,  voce  clara  praedicetur,  quo  fides  vera  manifesta  sit  it 
testimonium  habeat.  &c. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


7>i7 


blood  of  Christ.  It  was  not  thus  used  in  the  Gal- 
ilean liturgy  till  the  time  of  Charles  the  Great ;  nor 
in  the  Roman  liturgy,  till  the  beginning  of  the 
eleventh  century,  as  I  have  more  fully  showed'^  in 
a  former  Book.  But  as  it  had  earlier  admittance  in 
the  Spanish  churches,  so  the  rehearsal  of  it  appears 
to  have  been  appropriated  to  the  time  after  conse- 
cration, between  that  and  the  Lord's  prayer,  which 
in  most  churches  they  were  used  to  repeat  also  to- 
ward the  conclusion  of  these  prayers  following  the 
oblation. 

For  though  there  be  no  mention 
And" fhe' Lords  made  of  the  Lord's  prayer  in  this  part 
of  the  service  in  the  Constitutions, 
(as  probably  not  in  use  in  that  church  whence  the 
author  made  his  collections,)  yet  we  are  assured  it 
was  almost  generally  used  in  all  churches.  For  not 
only  the  forementioned  council  of  Toledo,  and  the 
fourth  of  the  same  name,^^"  speak  of  the  Lord's 
prayer  as  coming  before  the  reception  of  the  bread 
and  wine  in  the  Spanish  churches ;  but  St.  Austin 
says,^'  the  whole  church  almost  concluded  the  ob- 
lation prayers  with  it.  And  I  have  already  confirmed 
his  observation  from  several  other  passages  of  St. 
Chrysostom,  and  Cyril  of  Jerusalem,  and  St.  Jcrom, 
and  Gregory  the  Great,^  who  was  also  of  opinion 
that  the  apostles  used  no  other  prayer  to  consecrate 
the  eucharist,™  but  the  Lord's  prayer.  In  which  he 
was  something  singular.  For  there  is  little  question, 
but  that  the  apostles  consecrated  as  the  Lord  had 
done  before  them.  As  to  the  practice  of  the  church 
in  using  the  Lord's  prayer  at  this  time,  Optatus^*" 
says  it  was  become  so  customary  by  necessary  pre- 
script, that  the  Donatists  themselves  did  not  pretend 
to  omit  it.  And  in  some  of  the  French  councils"' 
an  order  was  made.  That  no  layman,  even  of  those 
that  did  not  communicate,  should  leave  the  assembly 
before  the  Lord's  prayer  was  said. 

g^^j  ,g  It  appears,  from  the  last-mentioned 

tenu€t^dil?:f  place  of  Optatus,  that  when  any  peni- 
p^Iyer,  wfth  ^o°cca-  tcnts  werc  to  recclve  a  solemn  abso- 

eional  benedictions,     i     ,•  •        ,i  Ar  •  "U  i       '^ 

lution,  m  the  Aincan  church,  it  was 
usually  given  them  about  this  time,  between  the 
offering  of  the  oblation  and  the  Lord's  prayer.  For 
he  tells  the  Donatists,-"  that  the  very  moment  after 
they  had  given  penitents  imposition  of  hands  and 


pardon  of  sins,  they  were  obliged  to  turn  to  ihe 
altar,  and  say  the  Lord's  prayer ;  which  implies  that 
absolution  was  commonly  given  at  this  season.  And 
here  we  may  suppose  several  of  those  prayers  of 
thanksgiving  or  benecUction,  mentioned  in  the 
seventh  and  eighth  Books  of  the  Constitutions,  to 
have  had  their  place,  such  as  the  benediction  of  the 
holy  oil,  and  the  thanksgiving  for  the  first-fruits  of 
the  earth :"'  there  being  no  time  more  proper  for 
such  things,  than  the  time  of  the  oblation.  But  as 
nothing  is  said  positively  and  expressly  of  this  mat- 
ter, I  only  mention  it  by  way  of  conjecture. 

But  there  is  niore  evidence  of  an- 
other sort  of  benediction  following  the  Bencd'icMon«fterihe 
Lord's  prayer  in  many  of  the  Western  °'  ^ """'" 
churches.  For  the  third  council  of  Orleans-"  had  a 
canon,  which  orders  all  laymen  to  stay  till  they  had 
heard  the  Lord's  prayer,  and  received  the  bishop's 
benediction.  Cardinal  Bona-'^  understands  this  of 
the  final  benediction,  which  followed  the  commu- 
nion ;  but  Mabillon  more  truly  interprets  it  of  the 
benediction  before  communion,"^  immediately  fol- 
lowing the  Lord's  prayer.  Concerning  which  there 
is  a  canon  in  the  council  of  Toledo-"  which  censures 
some  priests  for  communicating  immediately  after 
the  Lord's  prayer,  without  giving  the  benediction  to 
the  people;  and  orders.  That  for  the  future,  the 
benediction  should  follow  the  Lord's  prayer,  and 
after  that  the  communion.  And  by  this  we  are  to 
interpret  some"*  other  canons  of  the  councils  of 
Agde  and  Orleans,  which  order  the  people  not  to 
depart  till  the  bishop  has  given  his  benediction; 
which  is  to  be  understood  of  the  benediction  before 
the  communion,  and  not  that  which  came  after  it. 
And  this  agrees  with  the  order  in  the  Constitutions ; 
where,  after  the  long  prayer  of  the  consecration  and 
oblation  is  ended,"^  the  bishop  is  appointed  to  give 
this  short  benediction,  "  The  peace  of  God  be  with 
you  all :"  and  then,  after  the  deacon  has  rehearsed 
a  bidding  prayer,  (much  to  the  same  purpose  with 
the  former,  for  the  whole  church,  and  every  order  in 
it,  and  particularly  for  the  sacrifice  then  offered,  that 
God  would  receive  it  to  his  altar  in  heaven,  for  a 
sweet-smelling  savour,  by  the  mediation  of  Christ,) 
the  bishop  again  recommends  the  people  to  God  in 
another  prayer,  which  the  Greeks  call  irapdOtmc,  and 


235  Book  X.  chap.  4.  sect.  17. 

236  Cone.  Tolet.  4.  can.  18.  237  Aug.  Ep.  59.  ad  Paulin. 
^^  See  these  cited  at  large,  Book  XIII.  chap.  7.  sect.  3. 
239  Greg. lib. 7.  Ep.  64.  Orationem  Dominicamidcircomo.x 

post  precem  dicimus,  quia  mos  apostolorum  fuit,  ut  ad  ipsam 
solummodo  orationem  oblatiouis  hostiam  cousecrarent. 

^^o  Optat.  lib.  2.  p.  57. 

*^'  Cone.  Aurelian.  3.  can.  28.  De  missis  nullus  laicorum 
ante  discedat,  quam  Dominica  dicatur  oratio,  &c. 

*'2  Optat.  ibid.  Inter  vicina  momenta,  dum  manus  im- 
ponitis,  et  delicta  donatis,  mox  ad  altare  conversi,  Domini- 
cam  orationem  praetermittere  non  potestis. 

"'  Vid.  Coastit.  lib.  7.  cap.  42.    Lib.  8.  cap.  40. 
3  E  2 


2'^  Cone.  Aurel.  3.  can.  28.  De  missis  nullus  laicorum 
ante  discedat,  quam  Dominica  dicatur  oratio,  et  si  cpiscopus 
fuerit  praesens,  ejus  benedictio  expectetur. 

-'*  Bona,  Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  2.  cap.  16.  n.  2. 

='"  Mabil.  de  Liturg.  lib.  ].  cap.  4.  n.  14. 

-"  Cone.  Tolet.  4.  can.  18.  NonnuUi  sacerdotes  post  dic- 
tam  orationem  Dominicam  statim  communicant,  et  postoa 
benedictionem  in  populodant:  quod  deinceps  interdicinius: 
sed  post  orationem  Dominicam  benedictio  in  populum  se- 
quatur,  et  tunc  demum  corporis  et  sanguinis  Dominici 
sacramentum  sumatur. 

-*"  Cone.  Agathen.  can.  44  et  47.   Cone.  Aurel.  3.  can.  28. 

="  Constit.  lib.  8.  cap.  13. 


r88 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


the  Latins,  commendatio,  and  hcneclictio,  the  com- 
mendation, or  benediction,  beseeching  God  to  sanc- 
tify their  bodies  and  souls,  and  to  make  them  worthy 
of  the  good  things  he  has  set  before  them ;  which 
relates  both  to  their  worthy  reception  of  the  eucha- 
rist,  and  their  obtaining  eternal  life.  This  is  what 
I  conceive  those  Latin  councils  call  the  bishop's 
benediction,  of  which  there  are  some  instances  in 
the  Mosarabic  liturgy,  and  many  more  in  the  old 
Gothic  and  Galilean  Missals  lately  published  by 
Mabillon,  where  the  prayer  that  follows  the  collect 
after  the  Lord's  prayer,  is  always  styled,  bencdictio 
populi,  the  benediction  of  the  people  :  and  these  are 
commonly  different  prayers,  composed  with  some 
respect  to  the  several  festivals  to  which  they  were 
appropriated,  like  the  collects  before  the  Epistles 
and  Gospels  in  our  present  liturgy.  But  I  return 
to  the  ancient  service. 

Sect  30  There  is  one  petition  in  the  deacon's 

b."ung''pr4vr™ter  blddlug  praycr  after  the  consecration 

thecoSsecniUon.        ^^   ^^^  CoUStltutionS,  which  is    UOt    tO 

be  passed  over  in  silence ;  that  is,  that  God  would 
receive  the  gift  that  was  then  offered  to  him,  to  his 
altar  in  heaven,  as  a  sweet-smelling  savour,  by  the 
mediation  of  his  Christ.  This  form  seems  as  ancient 
as  Irena?us:  for  he  says.  We  have  an  altar ^'' in 
heaven,  and  thither  om-  prayers  and  oblations  are 
directed.  And  so  it  is  in  all  the  Greek  liturgies, 
with  a  small  variation.  And  frequently  in  the 
Mozarabic  liturgy,^'  and  the  old  Gothic  Missal 
pubhshed  by  Mabillon,^'-  there  are  prayers  for  the 
descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost  to  sanctify  the  gifts,  and 
make  them  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  even  after 
the  repetition  of  the  words,  "  This  is  my  body,"  and, 
"  This  is  my  blood ;"  which  evidently  shows,  that 
the  ancient  formers  of  the  liturgy  did  not  think  the 
consecration  to  be  effected  by  the  bare  repetition 
of  those  words,  but  by  prayer  for  the  descent  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  upon  the  elements  of  bread  and  wine. 
And  it  is  very  remarkable,  that  even  in  the  present 
canon  of  the  Roman  Mass,  there  is  still  such  a  prayer 
as  this  remaining  after  what  they  call  consecra- 
tion :  the  priest  offering  the  host  says,  "  Be  pleased 
to  look  upon  these  things  with  a  favourable  and 
propitious  eye,^  as  thou  wert  pleased  to  accept  the 


gifts  of  Abel  thy  righteous  servant."  He  adds, "  We 
beseech  thee.  Almighty  God,  to  command  that  these 
things  may  be  carried  by  the  hands  of  thy  holy  an- 
gels to  thy  altar  on  high."  Concluding,  "By  Christ 
our  Lord,  by  whom  thou  dost  always  create,  sanc- 
tify, quicken,  and  bless  these  good  things  unto  us." 
These  words  in  this  prayer,  as  our  polemical  writ- 
ers"* have  rightly  observed,  were  used  before  tran- 
substantiation  was  invented,  and  when  the  conse- 
cration was  thought  to  be  made  by  prayer,  and  not 
barely  by  pronouncing  the  words,  "  This  is  my 
body."  And  then  they  were  good  sense,  when  they 
were  said  over  bread  and  wine,  to  consecrate  them 
into  the  memorial  and  symbols  of  Christ's  body 
and  blood.  But  now  they  are  become  absurd,  and 
contrary  to  the  primitive  intention.  For  how  can 
the  real  body  and  blood  of  Christ  be  called  these 
gifts  ?  or  be  compared  to  the  sacrifice  of  Abel,  who 
offered  a  beast  ?  How  can  men  pray  (without  in- 
dignity to  the  Son  of  God)  that  the  sacrifice  of  God's 
only  Son  may  be  as  acceptable  to  God  as  the  sacri- 
fice of  Abel  was  ?  Or  how  does  Christ,  who  sits  at 
the  right  hand  of  the  Father,  need  the  mediation 
of  angels  to  be  carried  or  presented  to  his  Father  at 
the  heavenly  altar  ?  With  what  propriety  of  speech 
can  Christ  be  called  "  all  these  good  things  ?  "  and  the 
good  things  "  which  God  createth  always,  and  quick- 
eneth,  and  sanctifieth  always  ?"  Doth  God  create, 
and  quicken,  and  bless  Jesus  Christ  by  Jesus  Christ? 
It  is  proper  to  say  all  this  of  the  gifts,  supposing 
them  still  to  be  real  bread  and  wine ;  but  altogether 
improper,  if  they  are  transubstantiated  into  the 
natural  flesh  and  blood  of  Christ.  Whence  we  may 
conclude,  that  the  first  compilers  of  this  prayer 
knew  nothing  of  the  new  doctrine  of  transubstan- 
tiation,  which  makes  this  prayer  absurd  in  every 
syllable  of  it ;  to  enter  here  no  further  upon  a  de- 
bate concerning  the  change  which  is  made  in  the 
elements  by  consecration,  which  every  one  knows ' 
where  to  find  discussed  at  large  in  our  polemical 
writers,  and  something  will  be  said  of  it  hereafter 
under  the  head  of  Adoration,  chap.  5.  sect.  4. 

Immediately  after  the  benediction         sect.  si. 
of  the  bishop,  the  deacon  in  the  Con-  .s°"«jTd''Z''' 
stitutions  is  appointed  to  say,  np6(Txa>-  God  "n  iiigh7 


-■'"  Ircn.  lib.  4.  cap.  34.  Est  altare  in  ca'lis,  illuc  preces 
nostrx'  etoblationes  diriguntiir. 

'"'  Missa  Mozarab.  in  Natali  Domini.  Item  Dnminica 
2  et  5.  post  Epiphan.  et  Domin.  ]  et  3.  Quadragesima!. 
Die  Paschatis,  et  Domin.  .3.  post  Pasch.  cited  by  Bona,  lier, 
Liturg.  lib.  2.  cap.  13.  n.  5. 

252  Missal.  Gothic,  a  p.  Mabil.  lib.  3.  p.  314.  in  Festo  As- 
sumptionis.  Dcscendat,  Domine,  in  his  sacrificiis  tua>  be- 
nedictionis  coajternus  et  coopcrator  Paracletns  Spiritus  :  ut 
oblationem  quam  tibi  de  ttia  terra  fructificante  porrigimus, 
ctele.sti  permutatione,  tc  sanctificante,  sumamiis ;  ut  trans- 
lata  fnige  in  corpore,  calice  in  cruore,  proficiat  meritis, 
quod  obtulimus  prodelictis,  S:c.  It.  Missa  in  Circumcisione, 
ibid.  p.  202.     Hoc  sacrificiiim  suscipere  et  bcnedicere  et 


sanctificare  digneris,  ut  fiat  nobis  cucharistia  legitima, 
&c.  Vid.  ibid.  Missa  20.  in  Cathedra  Petri,  p.  228.  et 
Missa  '65.  in  Festo  Leodegarii,  p.  285.  et  Missa  27.  iu 
SyraboliTraditione,  p.  235.    Missa  77.  Dominicalis,  p.  296. 

2^  Missal.  Roman,  in  Canone  Missaj,  p.  3(X).  Antwerp. 
1574.  Supra  qua;  propitio  ac  sereno  vultu  respicere  dig- 
neris,  nt  accepta  habere  dignatus  es  munera  pueri  tui  justi 
Abel — Snpplices  te  rogamus  Deus  omnipotens,  jube  haec 
perferri  per  raanus  sancti  angeli  tui  in  sublime  ahare  tunra. 
— Per  Christum  Dominum  nostrum,  perqnem,  Domine,  haac 
omnia  semper  nobis  bona  creas,  sanctiticas,  vivificas,  be-  | 
nedicis. 

2-''''  Vid.  Du  Moulin,  Novelty  of  Popery,  lib,  7.  chap.  5. 
p.  730.  and  Buckler  of  Faith,  p.  510. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


7>!a 


utv,  Let  us  give  attention.  And  then  the  bishop, 
caUing  to  the  people,  says,  "Ayia  toTq  dyioig,  "  Holy 
things  for  those  that  are  holy."  To  which  the 
people  answer,  "  There  is  one  holy,  one  Lord,  one 
Jesus  Christ,  to  the  glory  of  God  the  Father,  who 
is  blessed  for  ever.  Amen.  Glory  be  to  God  in  the 
highest,  and  on  earth  peace,  good  will  towards  men. 
Hosanna  to  the  Son  of  David.  Blessed  be  God  the 
Lord,  that  came  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  and  ap- 
peared unto  us;  hosanna  in  the  highest."  Cyril 
of  Jerusalem  takes  notice  of  one  part  of  this  in  the 
church  of  Jerusalem,  where  it  came  immediately 
after  the  Lord's  prayer.  After  that,  says  he,^^  the 
priest  says,  Holy  things  for  holy  men.  Holy  are 
the  elements  which  lie  before  us,  when  they  have 
received  the  illapse  of  the  Holy  Ghost  upon  them. 
Holy  are  ye  also,  when  ye  are  endowed  with  the 
Holy  Ghost :  and  therefore  holy  things  agree  to 
holy  men.  Then  ye  say,  There  is  one  holy,  one 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  There  is  one  truly  holy,  who  is 
holy  by  nature :  ye  also  are  holy,  not  by  nature,  but 
by  participation,  by  exercise  and  prayer.  St.  Chry- 
sostom  also'-^"  takes  notice  of  the  same,  comparing 
the  service  of  the  church  to  the  Olympic  exercises, 
where  the  herald  stands  and  cries  wdth  a  loud  voice. 
Does  any  one  accuse  this  man  ?  Is  he  a  thief?  Is 
he  a  slave  ?  Is  he  an  immoral  man  ?  So  the  eccle- 
siastical herald,  the  priest,  standing  on  high,  calls 
some,  and  rejects  others,  not  with  his  hand,  but 
with  his  tongue  :  for  when  he  says.  Holy  things  for 
holy  men,  he  says  this.  If  any  one  be  not  holj^,  let 
him  not  come  here.  He  does  not  barely  say,  if  he 
be  free  from  sin,  but,  if  he  be  holy  :  for  it  does  not 
make  a  man  holy,  merely  to  be  free  from  sin,  but  to 
be  endowed  with  the  Spirit,  and  to  abound  with 
good  works.  Therefore  he  says,  I  would  not  have 
you  only  free  from  mire,  but  white  and  beautiful. 
St.  Chrysostom  also  often  speaks  of  the  hymn, 
"  Glory  be  to  God  on  high,"  and  tells  us  particularly 
that  it  was  sung  at  the  eucharist,  as  well  as  upon 
other  occasions.  God,  says  he,^'  first  brought  the 
angels  down  hither,  and  then  carried  men  up  to 
them.  The  earth  was  made  a  heaven,  because 
heaven  was  about  to  receive  the  things  of  the  earth. 
Therefore,  tvxapi^c^TovvTiQ  Xsyo/isv,  when  we  give 
thanks,  or  celebrate  the  eucharist,  we  say,  "  Glory 
be  to  God  on  high,  in  earth  peace,  good  will  to- 
wards men."  And  that  by  the  thanksgiving  he 
here  means  the  eucharist,  is  evident  from  another 
place,  where  he  more  precisely  specifies  t1ie  time 
of  using  it  in  the  communion  service  :    tffacriv  oi 


TTtffroi,  &c.  They  who  are  communicants  know-'"' 
what  hymn  is  sung  by  the  spirits  above;  what  (he 
cherubims  say  above  ;  what  (he  angels  said,  "Glory 
be  to  God  on  high."  Therefore  our  hymns  come; 
after  our  psalmody,  as  something  more  perfect. 
Meaning  that  psalms  were  sung  in  the  service  of 
the  catechumens ;  but  these  hymns,  the  cherubical 
hymn  and  (he  angelical  hymn,  more  peculiarly  in 
the  communion  service. 

St.  Cyril  adds,""  that  after  the  sect. 32 
hymn,  "  One  holy,"  a  psalm  was  sung  i„^[^hT^^Zn. 
inviting  them  to  participate  of  the  '"°"' 
holy  mysteries,  which  was  the  thirty-first  Psalm, 
and  particularly  those  words,  "  Taste  and  see  that 
the  Lord  is  gracious."  "Which,  he  tells  them,  was 
not  to  be  estimated  or  discerned  by  their  corporeal 
taste,  but  by  the  certainty  of  faith.  For  they  were 
not  bid  to  taste  bread  and  wine,  but  the  antitype  or 
sign  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ.  This  was  a 
distinct  psalm  from  those  which  were  used  to  be 
sung  afterward,  whilst  the  people  were  communicat- 
ing :  for  this  was  an  invita'tory  to  communicate,  but 
the  other  were  for  meditation  and  devotion  whilst 
they  were  actually  partaking;  of  which  there  will 
be  occasion  to  say  something  further  in  the  next 
chapter. 

Here  we  must  note  tw^o  things  more 
which  concern  the  consecration  in     The  comwraiion 

.  ,    ,  always  perfornifd 

general,  in  opposition  to  the  corrup-  "''^  »"  auuiue 
tions  of  later  ages.  First,  That  as  all 
Divine  service  was  in  a  known  tongue,  so  par(icu- 
larly  the  consecration  of  the  eucharist  was  ordered 
to  be  pronounced  both  intelligibly  and  audibly,  that 
the  people  might  hear  it,  and  answer.  Amen.  The 
contrary  practice  now  prevails  in  the  Roman  church : 
but  both  Habertus'™  and  Bona"*"  own  it  to  be  au 
innovation,  of  which  there  is  no  footstep  till  the 
tenth  age,  when  first  the  ancient  custom  was  su- 
perseded. It  would  be  impertinent  to  produce 
authorities  for  a  thing  that  is  so  plainly  confessed 
and  beyond  dispute.  And  therefore  I  shall  only 
note  one  thing  upon  this  point,  that  when  some  liltle 
grumbling  of  this  disease  began  to  appear' in  the 
time  of  Justinian,  he  checked  it  in  its  first  symp- 
toms, by  a  severe  law,''^'  commanding  all  bishops 
and  presbyters  to  make  the  Divine  oblation,  and 
the  prayers  used  in  baptism,  not  in  secret,  or  with 
a  low  and  muttering  voice,  but  so  as  all  the  faithful 
people  might  hear  them,  to  the  greater  devotion  of 
their  souls,  and  the  greater  praise  and  glory  of  God. 
For  so  the  lioly  aposde  teaches,  saying  in  the  First 


-5^  Cyril.  Catech.  Myst.  5.  n.  16. 

2^«Chrys.  Horn.  17.  in  Ilebr.  p.  1873.     See  also  Horn. 
123.  t.  5.  p.  809,  810.  Edit.  Savil. 
«'  Horn.  .3.  in  Colos.  p.  1337. 
2^^  Ham.  9.  in  Colos.  p.  1380. 
=»'' Cyril.  Catech.  Myst.  5.  n.  17. 
■■"="  Hubert.  Archicratic.  par  8.  obser.  9.  p.  115. 


-•"  Bona,  Ker.  Litiirg.  lib.  2.  cap.  13.  n.  1. 

-"■-  Justin.  Novel.  137.  cap.  6.  Jnbenuis  omnes  episcopos 
et  presbytcros  nou  in  secreto,  sed  cnm  ca  voce  quoe  a  fideli 
populo  exautliatur,  Divinam  oblatiouem  et  procationcni 
qnce  fit  in  baptismatc  sancto,  facere,  nt  indc  audiontiuni 
animi  in  majorem  devotionem  ct  Dei  laudalionem  et  bene- 
dictioueui  efferantur,  &c. 


790 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  "  If  thou  shalt  bless  with 
the  spirit  only,  how  shall  he  that  occupieth  the 
room  of  the  unlearned  say  Amen  at  thy  giving  of 
thanks,  seeing  he  understandeth  not  what  thou 
sayest  ?  For  thou  verily  givest  thanks  well,  but  the 
other  is  not  edified."  Therefore  if  any  bishop  or 
presbyter  contemn  this  rule,  they  must  give  an  ac- 
count hereof  in  the  dreadful  judgment  of  our  God 
and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ ;  and  we,  when  they  come 
to  our  knowledge,  will  not  suffer  them  to  remain 
quiet  and  unpunished.  It  is  well  for  the  Roman 
church,  that  the  canon  law  is  superior  to  the  civil ; 
else  such  a  horrible  abuse  of  all  righteous  both 
Divine  and  human  laws,  would  not  go  without  its 
just  revenges.  This  is  tme  of  those  many  good 
laws  for  which  the  church  is  beholden  to  that  learn- 
ed emperor ;  whom  yet  Baronius,-*^  for  the  sake  of 
these  very  laws,  does  bespatter  and  rally,  as  an  ig- 
norant analphabetus,  an  impious  heretic,  an  in- 
vader of  Divine  rights,  a  man  sick  of  the  common 
distemper  of  kings,  and  whatever  a  partial  historian 
could  think  of,  that  was  indecent  to  be  said,  who 
was  himself  indeed  sick  with  prejudice  in  favour  of 
the  common  abuses  and  corruptions  of  his  own 
church,  among  which  this  is  one  of  the  most  flam- 
ing and  intolerable,  to  pray  every  day  in  an  un- 
heard and  unknown  tongue,  so  contrary  to  the  au- 
thority of  the  apostle,  and  the  rules  of  the  primitive 
church,  and  the  edification  of  Christian  people,  and 
the  common  sense  and  reason  of  mankind.-" 

The  other  ceremony  to  be  noted 

Sect.  34.  .       ^,  .  „    ,  .  .        , 

And  with  breaking  lu  the  practice  or  the  ancients  is,  that 

of  bread    to    repre- 

sent  our  Saviours  m  cousecratiug  the    cucharist  they 

passion.  o  J 

always  brake  the  bread,  in  conformity 
to  our  Saviour's  example,  to  represent  his  passion 
and  crucifixion.  Clemens  Alexandrinus  speaks  of 
this  as  a  general  custom,"'^^  when  the  eucharist  was 
divided  or  broken,  to  let  every  one  of  the  people 
take  his  part.  And  St.  Austin""^  says  the  whole 
church  observed  it,  in  blessing  the  bread,  to  break 
it  for  distribution.  The  reader  that  pleases  may 
find  other  testimonies  collected  by  Hospinian""  out 
of  Irenseus,-'**  Dionysius  the  Areopagite,-'''*  Theophi- 
lus  of  Alexandria,^'"  and  Cyril  of  Alexandria,"'  and 
St.  Chrysostom.-"-  Neither  does  Bona"'  himself 
deny  this,  but  proves  it  further  from  Gregory  Na- 
zianzen,-'*  and  Caesarius  Arelatensis,  and  all  the 
older  ritualists  and  liturgies,  of  which  he  says  there 


is  not  any  that  does  not  prescribe  this  breaking  of 
bread,  the  Greeks  into  four  parts,  the  Latins  into 
three,  and  the  Mosarabic  liturgy  into  nine  parts. 
Which  is  also  noted  by  Mabillon,  who  adds,^^  that 
these  nine  parts  in  that  liturgy  are  characterized  by 
so  many  several  names,  viz.  Incarnation,  Nativity, 
Circumcision,  Epiphany  or  Manifestation,  Passion, 
Death,  Resurrection,  Glory,  and  Kingdom.  Which 
is  a  little  deviation  from  the  simplicity  of  the  an- 
cient church,  yet  not  so  culpable  as  the  practice  of 
the  present  Roman  church,  where,  instead  of  break- 
ing bread  for  the  communicants  to  partake  of  it, 
they  only  break  a  single  wafer  into  three  parts  (of 
which  no  one  partakes)  only  to  retain  a  shadow  of 
the  ancient  custom.  Bona  indeed  calls  this  break- 
ing of  bread  according  to  Christ's  institution,  or 
rather,  breaking  of  Christ's  body  under  the  species 
of  bread,  when  yet,  according  to  their  doctrine, 
Christ's  body  is  not  broken,  neither  is  it  bread,  but 
the  species  of  bread;  nor  common  bread,  but  a 
wafer,  whereof  the  species  is  only  broken,  not  the 
substance,  and  that  not  for  communicating,  but  a 
show,  to  make  men  beheve  they  are  retainers  of  an 
ancient  custom.  The  first  disputers  against  the 
Reformation  are  more  ingenuous.  They  freely 
own,  that  the  Roman  church  has  made  an  alter- 
ation,'"^ only  they  say  she  had  good  reasons  for  it, 
lest  in  breaking  the  bread  some  danger  might  happen, 
and  some  crumbs  or  particles  of  it  perish  ;  and  then 
again,  because  the  pope  has  power  to  alter  any 
thing  relating  to  the  sacrament,  according  to  the 
exigence  of  time  and  place,  if  it  only  concerns  the 
ornament  or  accidentals  of  it.  As  if  Christ  himself 
could  not  have  foreseen  any  dangers  that  might 
happen,  or  given  as  prudent  orders  as  the  pope  con- 
cerning his  own  institution !  But  it  is  sufficient  to 
have  observed  this  variation  of  the  church  of  Rome, 
though  in  a  smaller  matter,  from  the  primitive 
practice,  together  with  their  reasons  for  such  a 
change ;  of  which  the  reader  may  see  more  in  Cha- 
mier  or  Bishop  Jewel,  who  have  more  particularly 
canvassed  and  examined  all  the  pleas  that  are  of- 
fered on  the  other  side  by  the  advocates  of  that 
church  for  this  and  many  other  alterations."'  I 
now  go  on  with  the  primitive  account,  which  leads 
us  next  to  consider  the  communicants  themselves 
who  were  allowed  to  receive  this  sacrament,  and  ^ 
the  manner  of  communicating  and  receiving  it. 


«®  Baron,  an.  528.  t.  7.  p.  144. 

"*•  See   Chamier  against  Bellarmine,  and  Jewel  against 
Harding  upon  this  subject. 
=«  Clem.  Strom,  lib.  I.  p.  318. 
26«  Aug.  Ep.  .')9.  ad  Paulin. 
^"  Hospin.  Hist.  Sacrament,  p.  30. 
^'s  Iren.  lib.  4.  cap.  34.       ^eo  Dionys.  Eccl.  Hier.  cap.  3. 
2-oTheoph.  Ep.  Paschal.  1. 
2"  Cyril,  in  Joan.  lib.  14. 
-'-  Chrvs.  Horn.  21.  in  1  Cor. 


2"  Bona,  Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  2. 

2'^  Naz.  Ep.  240.  ad  Amphiloc. 

2"  Mabil.  de  Liturg.  Gall.  lib.  1.  cap.  2.  p.  12.     Sub  haec    ' 
frangit  hostiam  in  novem   pavticulas,  quae  his  nominibus 
dcsignantur,   Corporatio,  Nativitas,   Circumcisio,   Appari- 
tio,  Passio,  Mors,  Resurrectio,  Gloria,  Regnum. 

2"=  Salmero,  Tract.  30.  in  Act.  ap.  Chamier.  de  Euch. 
lib.  7.  cap.  11.  n.  26.  p.  381. 

2"'  V'id.  Chamier,  ubi  supra.   Jewel,   Reply  to  Harding, 
A. tic.  11.  p.  327. 


Chap.  IV 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


791 


CHAPTER  IV. 

OF  COMMUNICANTS,  OR  PERSONS  WHO  WERE  ALLOW- 
ED TO  RECEIVE  THIS  SACRAMENT,  AND  THE  MAN- 
NER OF  RECEIVING  IT. 


Sect.  1. 


Now  that  we  are  come  to  the  act  of 
cept"  STumena  commuiiicating,  we  must  first  consider 
oMis'^d'to^rewive      what  pcrsoHs  wcre  allowed,  or  rather 

obliged,  to  receive  this  holy  sacra- 
ment ;  and  then,  after  what  manner  they  received  it. 
For  the  first,  we  are  to  remember,  what  has  been 
often  observed  before,  that  as  soon  as  the  service 
of  the  catechumens  was  ended,  a  deacon  was  used 
to  call  upon  all  catechumens,  and  those  that  were 
under  penance,  to  withdraw ;  and  admonish  all 
others  to  stay  at  the  prayers  of  the  faithful,  and 
make  their  oblation,  and  receive  the  communion. 
"Whence  it  is  evident,  that  the  most  ancient  and 
primitive  custom  was,  for  all  that  were  allowed  to 
stay  and  communicate  in  prayers,  to  communicate 
in  the  participation  of  the  eucharist  also,  except 
only  the  last  class  of  penitents,  who  were  admitted 
to  hear  the  prayers,  but  not  to  make  their  oblation, 
nor  receive  the  communion  ;  whence  they  had  the 
name  o{  co)isisfe})fes,  co-standers,  because  they  might 
stay  to  communicate  in  the  prayers,  but  still  Sixa 
7rpoa<popag,  without  the  oblation,  as  the  ancient 
canons  word  it.  These  only  excepted,  all  other 
baptized  persons  were  not  only  permitted,  but  by 
the  rules  of  the  church  obliged  to  communicate  in 
the  eucharist,  under  pain  of  ecclesiastical  censure. 
The  most  ancient  canons  are  very  express  to  this 
purpose.  Among  those  called  the  Apostolical 
Canons'  there  is  one  runs  in  these  words:  "All 
such  of  the  faithful  as  come  to  church,  and  hear  the 
Scriptures  read,  but  stay  not  the  prayers,  and  to  par- 
take of  the  holy  communion,  ought  to  be  suspended 
as  authors  of  disorder  in  the  church."  Which  the 
council  of  Antioch  -  repeats  with  a  little  enlarge- 
ment :  "  All  such  as  come  into  the  church  of  God, 
and  hear  the  Holy  Scriptures  read,  but  do  not 
communicate  with  the  people  in  prayer,  and  re- 
fuse to  partake  of  the  eucharist,  which  is  a  dis- 
orderly practice,  ought  to  be  cast  out  of  the  church, 
till  they  confess  their  fault,  and  bring  forth  fruits 
of  repentance  ;  when,  if  they  ask  pardon,  they  may 
obtain  it."  Martin  Bracarensis'  puts  this  canon 
into  his  coHection  for  the  use  of  the  Spanish  church. 
And  Gratian''  alleges  a  decree  of  Pope  Anacletus, 
which  orders  all  to  communicate  when  the  con- 
secration was  ended,  if  they  would  not  be  cast  out 
of  the  church  :  for  so  the  apostles  appointed,  and 
the  holy  Roman  church  observed  that  order ;  which 


though  it  be  a  supposititious  decree,  yet  it  is  made 
in  conformity  to  the  ancient  discipline,  and  shows 
the  practice  that  was  then  prevailing  even  in  the 
Roman  church. 

In  St.  Chrysostom's  time  some  be-  j.^^^  , 
gan  to  desire  they  might  have  liberty  .hiTdHS^^ 
to  stay  during  the  performance  of  the  «""°«'"- 
whole  office,  and  yet  not  be  obliged  to  communicate. 
They  wcre  not  willing  to  be  accounted  penitents, 
and  be  driven  out  with  them  ;  and  yet  they  would 
not  be  communicants,  and  orderly  partake  with  the 
church.  Against  these  St.  Chrysostom  inveighs, 
after  his  usual  manner,  with  a  great  deal  of  elo- 
quence, and  becoming  sharpness.  Are  you  un- 
worthy of  the  sacrifice,  and  unfit  to  partake  of  it  ?* 
(for  that  was  their  plea:)  neither  then  are  you 
worthy  of  the  prayers.  Do  you  not  hear  the 
church's  herald  standing,  and  proclaiming.  All  ye 
that  are  penitents,  withdraw  ?  All  they  that  do  not 
communicate,  are  penitents.  If  thou  art  of  the  num- 
ber of  penitents,  thou  mayest  not  partake.  For  he 
that  is  not  a  partaker,  is  a  penitent.  Why  does  he 
say.  All  j^e  that  cannot  pray,  be  gone  ?  And  why  do 
you  impudently  stay  ?  You  are  not  one  of  those, 
you  Avill  say,  but  of  those  that  may  partake.  Con- 
sider, I  pray,  and  seriously  weigh  the  matter.  The 
royal  table  is  prepared,  the  angels  stand  minister- 
ing by,  the  Lord  himself  is  present,  and  do  you 
stand  yawning  as  an  idle  spectator  only?  Your 
garments  are  defiled,  and  are  you  under  no  con- 
cern ?  Yea,  but,  say  you,  they  are  clean.  Then 
sit  down,  and  partake.  The  King  comes  daily  to 
see  the  guests,  and  discourses  with  them  all :  and 
now  he  says  in  your  consciences.  Friends,  how  come 
you  to  stand  here,  not  having  on  a  wedding  gar- 
ment ?  He  said  not.  Why  art  thou  set  down  ?  But 
before  he  was  set  down,  before  he  was  entered,  he 
pronounced  him  unworthy.  For  he  said  not,  Why 
art  thou  set  down  ?  but.  Why  camest  thou  in  hi- 
ther ?  The  same  now  he  says  to  every  one  of  us, 
that  stand  here  with  an  impudent  boldness.  For 
every  one  that  does  not  partake,  is  shameless  and 
impudent.  They  that  are  in  sin,  are  for  this  reason 
first  cast  out.  As  therefore  none  of  those,  who  are 
not  initiated,  ought  to  be  present ;  so  neither  any 
of  those  who  are  initiated,  if  they  be  defiled.  Tell 
me,  if  any  one  that  is  invited  to  a  feast,  washes  his 
hands,  and  sits  down,  and  is  ready  for  the  table, 
and  yet  after  all  eats  not,  does  he  not  affront  him 
that  invited  him  ?  Were  it  not  better  that  such  a 
man  should  not  be  present  ?  Likewise  thou  also 
art  present,  thou  hast  sung  the  hymn,  and  made  pro- 
fession with  the  rest  that  thou  art  one  of  those  tliat 
are  worthy,  in  that  thou  didst  not  depart  with  the 


'  Canon.  Apost.  10.    Vid.  can.  8.  ibid,  for  the  Clergy. 

-  Cone.  Antioch.  can.  2. 

'  Martin.  Bracarens.  Collect.  Canon,  c.  83. 

''  Gratian.  de  Consecrat.  Dist.  2.  cap.  10.     Peracta  con- 


secratione  omnes  commnnicent,  qui  nolueriut  ecclesiasticis 
carere  liminibus.    Sic  enim  et  apostoli  statiierunt.  et  saucta 
Romana  tenet  ccclesia. 
5  Chrys.  Horn.  3.  in  Ephes.  p.  1051. 


792 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV, 


unworthy.  How  is  it  that  thou  remainest,  and  yet 
dost  not  partake  at  the  table  ?  Thou  sayest,  I  am 
unworthj*.  Thou  art  then  unworthy  also  of  the  com- 
munion of  prayers.  I  have  transci-ibed  this  long, 
but  elegant  passage  of  Chrj-sostom,  to  show,  that 
in  his  time  by  the  rules  of  the  church  none  were 
allowed  to  refrain  fi-om  partaking  of  the  eucharist 
upon  the  pretence  of  unworthiness,  who  were  not 
deemed  unworthy  to  be  present  at  the  prayers  also. 
But  in  the  very  next  age  this  discipHne  was  a 
little  relaxed,  and  men  who  would  not  communicate 
were  not  only  permitted,  but  enjoined  to  stay 
during  the  whole  service,  till  after  the  Lord's  prayer 
and  the  bishop's  benediction ;  which,  as  has  been 
showed  in  the  last  chapter,  (sect.  29,)  was  not  till  the 
whole  consecration  was  ended,  immediately  before 
the  act  of  partaking;  at  which  time  this  sort  of 
non-communicants  were  dismissed  with  a  solemn 
prayer,  called  the  benediction,  as  appears  from  the 
councils  of  Orleans  and  Agde,  before  referred  to. 
For  the  council  of  Agde  gives  special  order,^  That 
all  secular  men  on  the  Lord's  day  should  stay  to 
hear  mass,  and  not  depart  before  the  bishop's  bene- 
diction. And  the  council  of  Orleans'  says  the 
same,  That  the  people  should  not  depart  before  the 
solemnity  of  the  mass  was  ended ;  that  is,  till  the 
consecration  prayers  were  completed ;  and  then, 
if  the  bishop  were  not  present,  they  should  receive 
the  benediction  of  the  priest.  So  that  what  in 
Chrysostom's  time  was  reckoned  a  crime,  was 
presently  after  accounted  a  piece  of  devotion,  for 
the  people  to  stay  and  hear  the  whole  solemnity  of 
the  service  to  the  time  of  communicating,  and  then 
they  might  depart  without  partaking  of  the  com- 
munion. Which  was  plainly  a  relaxation  of  the 
ancient  discipline,  and  a  deviation  from  the  primi- 
tive practice. 

And  this  brought  in  another  inno- 
whcn  first  the  vatiou  aloug  witli   it,   that  such  as 

use  of  culoqifB  cuTtie  ^  .  .    _ 

in  insifad  of  the  would  uot  commuuicate,  might  yet 

eucharist,   for  such  °  •' 

mu^catt  °°' '"'"'  Partake  of  the  eulogice,  or  a  sort  of 
consecrated  bread,  distinct  from  the 
eucharist.  The  euloc/ics,  in  the  more  ancient  writers, 
is  the  veiy  same  with  the  eucharist,  and  used  by 
them  to  signify  the  same  thing  as  St.  Paul  means, 
when  he  says,  "  The  cup  of  blessing,"  ■jror-npiov  rrjg 
tiXoyioQ,  "  which  we  bless,  is  it  not  the  communion 
of  the  blood  of  Christ  ?"  1  Cor,  x.  16.  And  so  it  is 
always  used  by  Cyril  of  Alexandria  and  Chrysos- 
tom,  as  learned  men*  have  observed  out  of  manv 


places  of  their  writings.  But  in  after  ages  it  was 
distinguished  from  the  eucharist,  as  something  that 
after  a  sort  supplied  the  room  of  it.  The  council 
of  Nante,^  about  the  year  890,  ordered  the  presby- 
ters to  keep  some  part  of  the  people's  oblations  till 
after  the  service,  that  such  as  were  not  prepared  to 
communicate,  might  on  every  festival  and  Lord's 
day  receive  some  of  this  eulogia,  when  blessed  with  a 
proper  benediction.  Some  collectors  of  the  canons '" 
ascribe  this  decree  to  Pope  Pius  the  martyr,  who 
lived  in  the  second  century ;  but  Bona  ingenuously 
owns  "  that  to  be  a  forgery,  and  says  further,  that 
the  men  who  father  this  decree  upon  him,  con- 
sidered not  that  in  his  time  there  was  no  such  thing 
as  this  kind  of  eulorjia  in  the  church,  about  which 
Tertullian,  Cyprian,  and  all  their  contemporaries 
are  altogether  silent ;  because  in  those  days  all  that 
were  present  at  the  sacrifice  were  wont  to  commu- 
nicate ;  but  these  eulocjifB  were  invented  in  after 
ages  for  those  who  could  not,  or  would  not,  be  par- 
takers of  the  holy  mysteries.  This  is  an  ingenuous 
confession  of  that  learned  writer,  who,  where  the 
cause  of  his  church  is  not  deeply  concerned,  com- 
monly speaks  his  mind  with  a  great  deal  of  freedom, 
and  uses  a  just  liberty  in  taxing  the  innovations  of 
the  monks  and  schoolmen. 

But  in  the  business  of  private  or 
solitary  mass,  where  the  credit  and     The  corruption  of 

private  and  solitary 

interest  of  the  Roman  church  is  more  "^^s,  unknown  to 

former  ages. 

immediately  concerned,  he  acts  a  little 
more  like  an  artist,  and  labours  to  palliate  what  he 
cannot  either  heartily  or  solidly  defend.  That  we 
call  solitary  mass,  where  the  priest  receives  alone 
^\-ithout  any  other  communicants,  and  sometimes 
says  the  office  alone  without  any  assistants :  such 
are  all  those  private  and  solitary  masses  in  the  Ro- 
man church,  which  are  said  at  their  private  altars 
in  the  corners  of  their  churches,  without  the  pre- 
sence of  any  but  the  priest  alone,  and  all  those 
public  masses,  where  none  but  the  priest  receives, 
though  there  be  many  spectators  of  the  action.  As 
there  is  no  agreement  of  either  of  these  with  the 
institution  of  Christ,  but  a  direct  opposition  to  it ; 
(for  that  was  designed  to  be  a  communion  among 
many :  "  We  being  many  are  one  bread  and  one 
body ;  for  we  are  all  partakers  of  that  one  bread :" 
which  is  impossible  where  there  are  no  communi- 
cants ;)  so  there  is  not  the  least  footstep  of  any  such 
practice  in  the  primitive  church.  Bellarmine  offers 
faintly  some  poor  conjectures  about  it,  whilst  he 


^  Cone.  Agathen.  can.  41.  Missas  die  Dominica  seculari- 
bus  audire  speciali  ordine  prEccipimns,  ita  lit  ante  benedic- 
tionem  sacerdotis  egredi  popiiliis  non  prassuniat,  &c. 

''  Cone.  Aurelian.  1.  can.  28.  Cum  ad  celebiandas  missas 
in  Dei  nomine  convenitur,  populus  non  ante  discodat,  quam 
niissoe  solennitas  compleatur;  et  ubi  episcopus  non  fuerit, 
benedictionem  accipiat  sacerdotis. 

*  Vid.  Casaubon.  Exercit,  16.  in  Baron,  n.  33.    Albertin. 


de  Eucharist,  p.  749.  Snicer.  Thesaur.  Eccles.  voce  EuXoyj'a. 
And  Bona  himself  owns  it. 

^  Cone.  Nannetens.  can.  9.  Partes  incisas  habeat  in  vase 
nitido  et  convcnicnti,  ut  post  missavum  solennia,  qui  com- 
municare  non  fuerint  parati,  eulogias  omni  die  Dominico, 
et  in  diebus  festis  e.xinde  accipiant,  quae  cum  bonedictiono 
prius  faciat.  '"  Crab.  Cone.  t.  1.  p.  87. 

"  Bona,  Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  1.  cap.  23.  n.  12. 


CH.vr.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


793 


fairly  owns,'-  that  there  is  no  express  testimony  to 
be  found  among  the  ancients,  that  they  ever  offered 
the  sacrifice  without  the  communion  of  one  or  more 
persons  beside  the  priest.  All  his  conjectures  are 
mere  trifles,  and  the  first  of  them  directly  against 
himself.  For  he  would  have  his  reader  conjecture, 
from  the  council  of  Nante,  cited  by  Ivo,"  that  the 
ancients  allowed  of  solitary  mass  by  the  priest  alone, 
because  that  council  takes  occasion  to  mention  the 
practice,  onlj'  to  forbid  and  censure  it.  Which  it 
does  in  very  severe  terms,  which  it  will  not  be  amiss 
here  to  transcribe,  to  show  what  opposition  the  cor- 
ruption met  with,  as  soon  as  it  began  to  appear 
among  the  monks,  who  were  the  first  inventors  of 
it.  The  holy  council,  say  they,  gives  strict  order. 
That  no  presbyter  shall  presume  to  celebrate  mass 
by  himself  alone.  For  to  whom  shall  he  say,  "  The 
Lord  be  with  you ;"  or,  "  Lift  up  your  hearts  ;"  or, 
"  Let  us  give  thanks  to  our  Lord  God ;"  when  there 
is  none  to  answer  him  ?  Or  how  shall  he  say  those 
words  in  the  canon  itself,  "  All  that  are  here  pre- 
sent," when  there  is  no  one  present  with  him  ?  Or 
whom  does  he  invite  to  pray,  when  he  says,  "  Let 
us  pray;"  when  there  is  no  one  to  pray  with  him? 
Therefore  he  must  either  pass  over  these  things  in 
silence ;  and  so  not  only  make  the  sacrifice  imper- 
fect, and  incur  that  terrible  sentence  which  says,  "If 
any  one  shall  take  away  from  this,  God  shall  take 
away  his  part  out  of  the  book  of  life :"  or  else,  if 
he  mutters  these  things  to  the  bare  stones  and  walls, 
it  will  be  ridiculous.  Therefore  this  dangerous  su- 
perstition is  by  all  means  to  be  exterminated,  espe- 
cially out  of  the  monasteries  of  the  monks.  And 
let  all  prelates  take  care,  that  the  presbyters  in 
convents  and  other  churches  have  always  some  fel- 
low workers  or  attendants  in  the  celebration  of  mass. 
One  must  needs  conclude,  that  Bellarminewas  driven 
to  very  hard  shifts  in  defence  of  a  desperate  cause, 
when  he  was  forced  to  allege  this  canon  as  a  proof  of 
the  practice  of  solitary  mass  among  the  ancients, 
which  does  not  so  much  as  prove  it  to  be  a  lawful 
practice  among  the  moderns,  but  is  such  a  flaming 
evidence  against  it,  as  a  novelty,  that  makes  nonsense 
of  all  their  service,  and  makes  them  speak  to  the 
walls,  and  is  by  all  means  to  be  exterminated  out  of 
the  monasteries,  where  it  first  began,  as  a  dangerous 
and  ridiculous  superstition.  Cardinal  Bona  is  not 
much  happier  than  Bellarmine,  in  his  management 
of  this  point.  For  in  one  chapter  he  inidertakes  '* 
to  prove  solitary  mass  a  novelty,  unknown  to  the 


ancient  church,  and  against  the  very  tenor  of  the 
l)resent  Roman  canon  ;  and  in  the  next  chapter  he 
pretends  to  prove,  that  private  mass,  without  com- 
municants or  assistants,  is  a  very  ancient  and  laud- 
able practice.  First  he  tells  us,  That  the  very  tenor 
of  the  mass  and  the  practice  of  the  ancient  church 
evince,  that  the  sacrifice  was  originally  instituted 
principally  to  be  publicly  and  solemnly  performed 
by  the  clergy  and  people  standing,  oflering  and  com- 
municating together.'^  For  all  the  prayers,  and  the 
very  words  of  the  canon,  are  spoken  in  the  plural 
number,  as  in  the  name  of  many.  Hence  it  is,  that 
the  priest,  inviting  the  people  to  pray,  says,  "  Let 
us  pray."  And  when  he  salutes  them,  he  says,  "  The 
Lord  be  with  you."  And  then  the  people,  being 
admonished  to  lift  up  their  hearts  unto  God,  answer, 
"  We  lift  them  up  unto  the  Lord."  Hence  it  is,  that 
in  the  very  canon  he  always  prays  in  the  name  of 
the  people  gathered  together,  of  which  giving  seve- 
ral instances,  he  infers,  that  from  thence  it  is  clear, 
that  the  mass  is  nothing  else  but  the  action  of  the 
priest  and  whole  congregation ;  which,  he  says,  is 
proved  further  from  those  words  of  the  prayer, 
Omnium  circumsfantium,  &c.,  "  All  that  stand  here, 
whose  faith  and  devotion  is  known  to  thee ;"  which 
cannot  be  wrested  to  any  other  sense.  And  that 
all  that  were  present  did  communicate,  he  says,  ap- 
pears from  those  words  of  the  priest,  when  he  prays, 
that  "  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  may  be  to  all 
that  receive  to  eternal  life."  And  after  the  commu- 
nion, he  says,  "  What  we  have  received  with  our 
mouths,  let  us  receive  with  a  pure  mind:"  and, 
"  Thou  hast  filled  thy  family  with  thy  gifts  :"  and 
almost  all  the  prayers,  which  are  said  after  commu- 
nicating, are  of  the  same  tenor,  because  no  others 
could  be  present  but  such  as  could  offer  and  partake 
of  the  sacrament.  Which  he  proves  from  Cyjjrian 
and  Pope  Leo,  and  the  Apostolical  Canons,  and  the 
council  of  Antioch.  To  these  he  adds  the  testi- 
monies of  Micrologus,  and  Odo  Cameracensis,  and 
Stephanus  Eduensis,  concerning  the  same  practice  of 
the  primitive  church,  which  they  own  was  different 
from  that  of  their  own  times,  when  solitary  mass 
was  brought  in  by  the  monks.  Nay,  he  adds,  that 
solitary  mass  was  forbidden  by  several  councils  and 
canons  expressly,  when  it  began  to  appear.  Among 
which,  he  relates  the  forementioned  canon  of  the 
council  of  Nante,  and  the  council  of  Mets  under 
Leo  III.  can.  43,  and  the  Capitular  of  the  kings  of 
France,  collected  by  Benedictus  Levita,  lib.  5.  cap. 


'-  Bellarmin.  de  IMissa,  lib.  2.  cap.  9.  p.  821.  Nusquam 
expresse  legitur  a  veteribus  oblatuin  sacrificiiim  sine  coui- 
mnnioue  alictijus  vel  aliquovum  prater  ipsum  sacerdotem. 

'*  Cone.  Nannetens.  apud  Ivouem,  par.  3.  cap.  70.  Dcfi- 
nivit  sanctum  concilium,  ut  nullus  presbyter  solus  prajsuniat 
missam  celebrare.  Cui  enim  dicit,  Dominus  vobiscum, 
Sursura  corda,  aut  Gratias  agamus  Domino  Deo  nostro,  cum 
nulhis  sit  qui  respondeat  ? — Si  ha;c  muris  et  parietibus  in- 


susurraverit,  ridiculosum  erit.  Quapropter  ilia  periculosa 
superstitio  maxinie  a  monastcriis  niouachorum  exterminan- 
da  est,  &c. 

"  Bona,  Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  I.  cap.  1.3.  n.  2. 

'^  Et  quidem  ab  initio  sic  sacrillcium  principaliter  insti- 
tutum  fuisse,  ut  publice  ac  solenniter  fieret,  clero  et  populo 
astante,  offereute,  ac  comraunicante,  ipse  tenor  missic  et 
veterisecdcsia;  praxis  evincunt,  &c. 


"94 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV 


93,  and  the  Capitular  of  Theodulphus  Aurelian- 
ensis,  cap.  7-  And  the  Synodical  Epistle  of  Rathe- 
rius  Veronensis,  published  by  Dacherius,  Spicileg. 
t.  2.  And  the  synod  of  Paris  under  Gregory  IV., 
anno  829;  which  is  most  remarkable,  because  it 
shows  us  both  the  original,  and  the  grounds  and 
motives  that  introduced  this  corruption.  A  very 
culpable  custom,  say  they,'°  is  crept  in  in  many 
places,  partly  by  negligence,  and  partly  by  covet- 
ousness,  which  ought  by  all  means  to  be  reformed, 
that  some  presbyters  celebrate  mass  without  any 
attendants.  Whence  it  is  proper  to  convene,  and 
ask  every  such  busy  consecrator  of  the  body  and 
blood  of  the  Lord,  to  whom  he  uses  those  words, 
"  The  Lord  be  with  you  ?"  And  who  answers  him, 
"  And  with  thy  spirit  ?  "  Or  for  whom  he  suppli- 
cates the  Lord,  when  he  says  among  other  things, 
"  Remember  those  that  stand  about  me ;"  when 
there  are  none  standing  about  him  ?  Which  cus- 
tom therefore,  being  contrary  to  apostolical  and  ec- 
clesiastical authority,  and  bringing  a  reproach  upon 
so  gi'eat  a  mystery,  it  seems  good  to  us  all  in  com- 
mon to  inhibit  it  for  the  futvn-e ;  and  that  every 
bishop  take  care,  that  no  presbyter  within  his  dio- 
cese shall  presume  to  celebrate  mass  by  himself 
alone.  Bona  owns,  that  all  these  councils  prohibit- 
ed solitary  mass  upon  this  ground,  that  it  made  all 
such  expressions  as  those,  "  The  Lord  be  with  you," 
and,  "  Lift  up  your  hearts,"  &c.,  to  be  nonsense  and 
absurd.  And  he  adds  some  canons  out  of  Gratian," 
under  the  name  of  Pope  Soter  and  Anacletus,  which 
ordain,  That  no  presbyter  should  presume  to  cele- 
brate mass,  except  there  be  at  least  two  present  be- 
side himself.  Upon  which  he  takes  occasion  to 
make  this  just  reflection.  That  these  could  not  be  the 
decrees  of  those  ancient  bishops,  because '^  solitary 
mass  was  a  thing  never  heard  of  in  their  age,  and 
he  could  not  think  they  would  make  laws  to  take 
away  an  abuse,  which  crept  not  in  till  some  ages 
after  among  the  monks.  Would  it  not  now  per- 
fectly amaze  a  man,  after  all  this,  to  hear  the  same 
author  declare  in  the  very  first  words  of  his  next 
chapter,  that  the  laudable  custom  of  private  mass, 
without  any  communicants,  or  the  presence  of  any 
but  one  priest,  was  always   the   practice  of  the 


church  ?  And  that  the  heretics  who  hate  liturgy 
(so  he  wrongfully'^  slanders  the  protestants)  could 
never  demonstrate  that  it  was  prohibited ;  when  he 
himself  has  so  fully  demonstrated  it  to  their  hands. 
But  now  he  will  undertake  to  demonstrate  on  the 
contrary,  that  private  mass,  in  whatever  sense  we 
take  it,  was  always  lawful  and  in  use,  from  the  most 
approved  testimonies  and  examples  of  the  primitive 
fathers.  And  yet,  when  he  comes  to  the  proof,  he 
offers  not  so  much  as  one  instance  of  that  sort  of 
private  mass,  where  the  priest  ministers  alone  with- 
out the  presence  of  the  people,  which  is  called  soli- 
tary mass,  though  he  approves  of  it ;  nor  says  he 
any  thing  material  for  that  sort  of  private  mass, 
where  the  priest  partakes  without  any  other  com- 
municants, though  in  the  presence  of  all  the  people; 
but  only  urges  a  mistaken  passage  of  Chrysostom, 
(urged  before  by  Bellarmine  and  Harding,  and  an- 
swered by  Chamier,)  where  he  says,  In  vain  do  we 
stand  at  the  altar,  in  vain  is  the  daily  sacrifice  offer- 
ed, there  is'"'  no  one  that  communicates.  As  if 
Chrysostom  had  had  neither  presbyter,  nor  deacon, 
nor  any  of  the  people  to  communicate  with  him 
above  once  a  year  in  the  great  churches  of  Antioch 
or  Constantinople,  because  many  were  so  negligent 
as  not  to  communicate  oftener ;  whom  he  justly  re- 
proves in  a  hyperbolical  way  of  speaking,  which 
does  not  mean  that  he  communicated  by  himself 
alone,  but  that  many  were  guilty  of  a  gross  neglect, 
whilst  others,  as  Chrysostom  himself  says,  were 
more  assiduous  and  zealous.  And  yet  this  is  one  of 
the  best  proofs  Bona  can  give,  after  all  his  boasts  of 
demonstration ;  which  shov/s,  that  he  was  as  hard 
put  to  it  to  defend  an  indefensible  cause,  as  Pope 
Innocent  III.  was,  when,  to  answer  the  objection 
that  is  urged  in  this  very  argument,  how  the  priest 
can  say.  Orate  pro  me,fratres,  "  Pray  for  me,  bre- 
thren ;"  seeing  he  is  alone  without  assistants  ?  he 
is  forced  to  say,-'  That  it  is  piously  to  be  believed, 
that  the  angels  of  God  are  our  associates  in  prayer. 
Which  answer  does  not  untie  the  knot :  *-  for  though 
they  are  present,  they  are  not  present  as  communi- 
cants to  eat  and  drink  with  us  the  body  and  blood 
of  Christ.  Neither  can  the  priest  be  supposed  to  say 
to  the  angels,  "  Take,  eat,  this  is  my  body;"  accord- 


•^  Cone.  Paris,  lib.  1.  cap.  48.  Irrepsit  in  plerisque  lo- 
cis  partim  incuria  partim  avaritia,  reprehensibilis  usus  et 
congnia  emendatione  dignus,  eo  quod  nonnulli  presbytero- 
rum  sine  ministris  missanim  solcnnia  f'requentent.  Unde 
conveniendus,  imo  interrogandus  nobis  videtur  hujusmoili 
corporis  ct  sanguinis  Domini  solitarius  consecrator,  qui- 
bus  dicit,  Uoniinus  vobiscuin,  et  a  quo  illi  respondetur,  Et 
cum  spiritu  tuo:  vcl  pro  quibus  supplicaudo  Domino  inter 
cajtera,  Memento  Domine,  et  omnium  circumstantium,  cum 
nuUus  circumstct,  dicit  ?  Quai  consuetude,  quia  apostolicac 
ct  ecclesiasticac  authoritati  refragatur,  et  tanto  mysterio 
quandam  dehouorationem  irrogare  videtur,  omnibus  nobis  in 
commune  visum  est,  ut  deinceps  hujusmodi  usus  inhibeatur, 
provideatque  unusquisqne  episcoporum,  ne  in  sua  parocbia 
quisquam  prcsbyterorum  missam  solus  celebrare  prscsumat. 


"  Grat.  De  Cousecrat.  Dist.  1.  cap.  61. 

'"  Bona,  lib.  1.  cap.  13.  n.  6. 

'^  Bona,  ibid.  cap.  14.  n.  1.  Semper  viguit  in  ecclesia 
private  missa?,  nno  saltern  preesente  et  ministraute,  lauda- 
bilis  consuetudo,  quam  hseretici  misoliturgi  aliquando  pro- 
hibitam  fuisse  nunquara  poterunt  demonstrare.  Sive  enim 
dicatur  privata  ex  eo  quod  solus  sacerdos  in  ea  communicet; 
sive  quia  vel  unus  duntaxat  vel  panci  ei  intersint,  sive  alia 
quacunque  e.x  causa  :  semper  earn  licitam,  semperque  in 
usu  fuisse,  probatissimis  patrum  testimoniis  et  exemplis  de- 
nionstrabo. 

2"  Chrys.  Hom.  3.  in  Ephes. 

='  hinoc.  de  Offic.  Missa;,  lib.  2.  c.  25.  ap.  .Juel.  Art.  1.  p.  51. 

--  Bona,lib.  2.  cap.  5.  n.  I,  says.  This  answer  of  the  pope 
is  piously  meant,  but  not  solid  and  true. 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


m 


and  those  called  b, 
jaciata  and  ti'ifud 
ata. 


ing  to  Christ's  command.  Evident  therefore  it  is, 
beyond  all  contradiction,  that  whether  we  consider 
the  institution  itself;  or  the  practice  of  the  apostles 
and  the  primitive  chm-ch ;  or  the  tenor  of  all  the 
ancient  htiirgies,  which  the  reader  may  find  collect- 
ed in  Chamier,-'  with  the  testimonies  of  the  fathers 
upon  the  subject;  or  even  the  tenor  of  the  Roman 
mass  itself;  or  the  opposition  this  corruption  met 
with  at  its  first  appearance.;  the  eucharist  was  not 
intended  as  a  sacrifice  to  be  offered  by  a  single  priest 
in  a  corner,  without  communicants  or  assistants, 
or  for  the  intention,  or  at  the  cost,  of  some  particu- 
lar person  paying  for  it ;  but  for  a  communion  to 
the  whole  church,  as  the  primitive  chm-ch  always 
used  it ;  and  there  is  not  an  example  to  be  found  of 
the  contrary  practice. 

But  this  was  not  the  only  abuse 
othc^/coVraptions  wliich  crcpt  iuto  the  church  in  later 

couutenanced  some  •        j    ji  •        ^  jy         ^ 

time  in  the  Roman  agcs  agaiust  the  ancicnt  way  oi  cele- 

church.  asthe  mjssrt    .  .  i  i      i  •  r 

n,  brating  the  holy  communion ;  tor 
Bona  himself-*  takes  notice  of  two 
more,  which  he  censures  as  heartily 
as  one  could  wish,  though  they  found  great  encou- 
ragement in  their  time.  They  are  corruptions  not 
commonly  met  with  in  other  authors,  and  therefore 
I  will  give  the  reader  an  account  of  them  from  him. 
The  one  was  called  missa  sicca,  dry  mass,  which,  he 
says,  took  its  original  from  the  indiscreet  and  pri- 
vate devotion  of  some,  to  which  the  priests  were  too 
indulgent.  It  is  a  mere  mask  and  counterfeit  of  the 
true  mass,  properly  dry  and  jejune,  as  wanting  not 
only  the  consecration,  but  the  participation  of  the 
body  of  Christ,  like  that  supper  of  wood  and  stones, 
which  Lampridius  and  other  historians  tell  us  was 
exhibited  by  Heliogabalus  to  his  guests.  Yet  it  so 
prevailed,  that  for  some  time  it  was  not  displeasing 
to  holy  and  learned  men.  Gulielmus  de  Nangiaco 
the  monk,  in  his  book  of  the  Actions  of  St.  Lewis, 
tells  how  that  most  religious  king,  returning  from 
beyond  sea  into  France,  had  the  body  of  Christ  in 
the  ship  with  him,  and  there  ordered  all  the  whole 
Divine  office  and  the  mass,  except  the  canon,  to  be 
daily  celebrated.  Genebrard  commends  the  same 
in  his  book  of  the  Apostolical  Liturgy,  cap.  30,  for 
those  that  cannot  be  in  the  morning  at  the  whole 
mass,  and  for  those  that  are  at  sea,  and  for  the  sick, 
and  for  any  that  are  buried  in  the  afternoon;  to 
which  purpose  he  says  it  was  used  in  his  time,  and 
he  himself  was  present  at  Turin,  anno  1587,  at  the 
funeral  of  a  nobleman,  who  was  buried  in  the  even- 
ing with  such  a  mass  sung  by  a  deacon  and  a  sub- 
deacon.  Durandus  describes  the  manner  of  cele- 
brating it  in  his  Rationale,  lib.  4.  cap.  1,  where  he 
says  the  whole  office  may  all  be  used  except  the 


canon,  although  in  the  preface  the  angels  seem  to 
be  invocated  to  the  consecration  of  the  body  and 
blood  of  Christ.     This,  Durantus,  in  his  book  De 
Ritibus,  lib.  2.  cap.  4,  says,  is  called  the  seamen's 
mass,  missa  nautica,  because  it  was  used  to  be  cele- 
brated at  sea,  and  upon  the  rivers,  where,  by  reason 
of  the  motion  and  agitation  of  the  waves,  the  sacri- 
fice could  hardly  be  offered  without  danger  of  effia- 
sion.      Estius  declaims  bitterly  against  it  in   his 
thirteenth   Theological   Oration,   and    Laurentius 
Laudmeter,  lib.  2,  De  Veteri  Clerico  et  Monacho, 
cap.  84,  who  both  think  it  began  a  little  before  the 
time  of  Guido  de  Monte  Rocherii,  who  commends 
and  approves  it  in  his  book,  called  Manipulus  Cu- 
ratorum,  Ti'act.  4.  cap.  7,  which  he  wrote,  anno 
1333 ;  but  they  were  mistaken,  because,  as  we  have 
seen,  it  was  in  use  in  the  time  of  King  Lewis  the 
Saint,  who  died  anno  12/0,  and  Durantus  describes 
it,  who  lived  at  the  same  time.    And  Petrus  Cantor, 
who  flourished  anno  1200,  mentions  it  in  his  book, 
called  Yerbum  Abbreviatum,  c.  29  ;  where  he  says, 
Dry  mass  is  without  the  grace  and  moisture  of 
the  consecrated  eucharist,  and  profits  the  faithful 
nothing.     Bona  adds,  that  now,  by  the  provident 
care  of  bishops,  he  thinks  this  abuse  is  abrogated 
and  destroyed  all  over  the  world.     But  he  forgets 
to  tell  his  reader  one  thing,  which  Durantus  tells 
us^  freely  oiit  of  Navarre,  that  the  book  called"* 
Liber    SacerdotaUs,   where   this    missa  nautica    is 
described,  was  approved  by  Leo  X. ;  and  that  St. 
Antonine   speaks  of   it  as  used  at   Tholouse  by 
way  of  funeral  office  in  the  afternoon.     By  which 
we  may  judge,  how  gi'eat  corruptions  may  creep 
into  the  church,  and  then  gain  the  approbation  both 
of  their  popes  and  saints,  by  their  own  confession. 
And  when  it  is  so,  they  will  never  want  advocates 
to  plead  their  cause,  and  put  the  face  of  antiquity 
upon  them.     As  in  this  very  case,  though  Bona  and 
others  censure  this  abuse  as  an  innovation,  yet  Du- 
rantus derives  its  original  from  the  primitive  church, 
and  tells  us  it  was  practised  at  Alexandria  in  the 
time  of  Socrates,  because  he  says^'  that  on  Wed- 
nesdays and  Fridays  they  had  the  Scriptures  read, 
and  expositions   made  upon    them,  and  all  other 
things  belonging  to  religious  assemblies,  except  the 
celebration  of  the  mysteries  :  which  indeed  is  very 
true ;  but  altogether  foreign  to  his  purpose,  unless 
we  shall  say,  that  there  can  be  no  prayers,  nor  ser- 
mons, nor  psalmody,  nor  reading  the  Scriptures  in 
the  church,  but  presently  it  must  be  called  dry  mass, 
that  is,  using  the  consecration  service  without  a 
consecration. 

The  other  corruption,  which  Bona  censures  as  a 
detestable  abuse,  is  that  which  they  call  missa  hi- 


^  Chamier  de  Euchar.  lib.  7.  cap.  17,  18,  1&. 
^'  Bona,  Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  1.  cap.  15.  n.  6. 
"■^  Duraiit.  de  Ritib.  lib.  2.  cap.  4.  n.  8. 


"^  Navar.  de  Oratione,  Misccl.  53.  .\ntonin.  par.  3.  tit.  13. 
cap.  6.  n.  4. 
"  Socrat.  lib.  5.  cap.  22. 


796 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


faciata  and  trifaciata,  which  he  says  Petrus  Cantor, 
in  the  forementioned  book,  sharply  rebukes.  For 
some  priests  in  his  time  had  got  a  trick  of  throw- 
ing many  masses  into  one,  saying  the  mass  of  the 
day,  or  some  special  mass  as  far  as  the  olFertory, 
and  then  beginning  another  as  far  as  the  same 
place  ;  and  after  that  a  third  and  a  fourth  in  the 
same  manner.  After  that  they  said  as  many  secret 
prayers  as  they  had  begun  masses,  and  then  made 
one  canon  serve  them  all,  adding  as  many  collects 
in  the  end,  as  they  had  repeated  in  the  beginning. 
Petrus  Cantor  ascribes  the  original  of  this  abuse  to 
the  covetousness  of  the  priests,  who,  knowing  it  to 
be  unlawful  for  them  to  celebrate  more  than  once 
in  one  day,  invented  this  grafting  of  many  masses 
upon  one  stock,  that  by  once  celebrating  they  might 
satisfy  the  devotion  of  many  together,  who  desired 
the  sacrifice  to  be  offered  for  them,  by  which  means 
they  got  the  pay  of  several  masses  for  one  sacrifice. 
These  masses  Petrus  Cantor  calls  by  a  barbarous 
name,  hifaciatas  and  trifaciatas,  because  they  had  a 
double  and  a  triple  face  :  which  he  abominates  and 
detests,  as  monstrous  and  contrary  to  the  institution 
and  custom  of  the  church.  It  is  great  pity  we  have 
not  this  book  of  Petrus  Cantor,  called  his  Verbum 
Abbreviatum,  or  Short  Work,  here  at  hand  in  some 
of  our  libraries.  It  is  a  book  so  rare,  that  I  find  no 
mention  made  of  it  in  Dr.  Cave.  But  Du  Pin  gives 
a  short  account^  of  the  author.  He  says,  He  was 
chanter  of  the  church  of  Paris  in  the  beginning  of 
the  thirteenth  century ;  that  he  composed  a  book 
called  The  Word  abridged,  a  work  of  great  renown 
among  the  authors  of  the  next  centuries,  of  which 
a  part  was  written  against  the  proprietary  monks. 
He  likewise  wrote  a  Grammar  for  Divines,  very 
necessary  for  understanding  the  Scriptures  ;  a  book 
of  Distinctions  ;  a  treatise  about  some  Miracles  ; 
three  books  of  the  Sacraments,  and  divers  sermons, 
mentioned  by  Trithemius.  Du  Pin  adds,  That  in 
their  libraries  they  had  his  Glosses  upon  the  Bible, 
and  A  Collection  of  Cases  of  Conscience.  But  none 
of  them  are  printed  beside  the  Verbum  Abbrevia- 
tum. Trithemius""  says  he  was  a  bishop  after- 
wards, as  he  had  heard  reported ;  and  he  gives  him 
this  character,  that  he  was  excellently  well  learned 
in  the  Scriptures,  and  eminent  in  all  philosophical 
knowledge ;  that  he  was  a  rector  of  the  Theological 
School  at  Paris  for  many  years,  where  he  trained 
up  many  eminent  disciples.  Were  his  books  now 
to  be  seen,  we  might  doubtless  find  many  other  such 


abuses  of  the  monks  as  severely  handled  in  them, 
as  those  which  we  have  here  noted  out  of  Bona. 

Whilst  I  am  upon  this  head  of  abuses,  the  reader 
will  not  be  displeased,  if  I  note  another  of  this  kind, 
which  Baronius  himself  takes  notice  of"  out  of  the 
17th  council  of  Toledo,  where  there  is  a  canon  to 
censure  and  correct  it.  Some  priests  in  Spain  were 
so  coniipt  as  to  gratify  revengeful  men  by  saying 
the  service  of  the  dead  for  the  living,  for  no  other 
end,  but  that  they  for  whom  the  office  was  said, 
might  incur  the  danger  of  death,  by  having  a  sacri- 
fice offered  for  them ;  and  so  that  which  was  de- 
signed for  men's  salvation,  was  perversely  abused 
at  the  instigation  of  wicked  men  to  their  destruc- 
tion. Against  such  compliers  with  the  detestable 
requests  of  wicked  men,  the  counciP'  pronounces 
the  severe  sentence  of  deposition  and  excommunica- 
tion. We  may  also  note  another  abuse  mentioned 
in  the  twelfth  council  of  Toledo,^  which  was,  that 
some  priests  having  occasion  to  consecrate  the 
eucharist  more  than  once  in  a  day,  would  not  com- 
municate themselves  every  time,  but  only  at  the 
last  consecration.  Which  was  another  sort  of  pri- 
vate mass,  but  as  it  were  the  reverse  of  that  of  the 
Romish  chiu-ch.  For  as  now  the  priest  communi- 
cates without  the  people,  (pardon  the  absurdity  of 
the  expression,  when  I  call  that  communicating 
where  there  is  no  communion,)  so  then  the  people 
were  forced  to  communicate  without  the  priest ; 
both  which  the  council  thought  preposterous  and 
absurd,  and  therefore  re-enforces  the  ancient  dis- 
cipline, that  both  priest  and  people  should  commu- 
nicate together ;  which  was  ever  the  constant  and 
universal  practice  of  the  whole  primitive  church,  to 
whose  laws  and  rules  about  communicants,  leaving 
these  abuses  and  innovations,  I  now  return. 

As  all  persons  were  obliged  to  re-         g^^^.  ^ 
ceive  the  communion  constantly  who  no7''giver\o"iler"J^ 
were  within  the  pale  of  the  church,  'i-thout  'confosion 

.1-1  ,  ...  /*  J 1  -I      and  reconciliation. 

in  the  largest  acceptation  01  the  word, 
except  catechumens  and  excommunicate  persons ; 
so  we  must  note,  to  avoid  ambiguity,  that  heretics 
and  schismatics  were  commonly  ranked  in  the 
same  class  with  excommunicate  persons ;  sometimes 
being  formally  cut  off  from  the  church  by  her  cen- 
sures, and  sometimes  voluntarily  by  theii'  own  separ- 
ation ;  and  therefore,  till  they  had  made  confession 
and  renunciation  of  their  errors,  and  were  reconciled 
by  imposition  of  hands  and  absolution,  they  were 
reckoned  in  the  number  of  those  to  whom  the  com- 


"''  Du  Pin,  Biblioth.  Cent.  13.  p.  54. 

^^Trithem.  de  Scriptor.  p.  81. 

3"  Baron,  an.  G94.  n.  9. 

^'  Cone.  Tolet.  17.  can.  5.  Missam  pro  requie  defunc- 
torum  promulgatam  fallaci  vote  pro  vivis  student  celebrare 
hominibus,  non  ob  aliud,  nisi  ut  is,  pro  qtio  idipsum  offertur 
officium,  ipsius  sacrosancti  libaminis  interventii,  mortis  ac 
perditionis  incurrat  periculum :  et  quod  cuuctis  datum  est 


in  salutis  remedium,  illi  hoc  perverso  instinctu  quibusdain 
esse  e.xpetunt  in  interitum,  &c. 

^-  Ibid.  12.  can.  5.  Quale  erit  illud  sacrificium  cui  noc 
ipse  sacrificans  particeps  esse  cognoscitur  ?  Ergo  modis 
omnibus  est  tenendmn,  ut  quotiescunque  sacrificans  corpus 
et  sanguinem  Jesu  Christi  Uomini  nostri  in  altario  inimulat, 
toties  perceptionis  corporis  et  sanguinis  Christi  participem 
se  pra;beat.     Vid.  Gratian.  De  Consecrat.  Dest.  2.  cap.  10. 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


797 


munion  of  prayers  and  this  holy  sacrament  was 
denied;  and  that  whether  they  had  been  baptized 
in  the  church,  or  were  baptized  in  heresy  and  schism. 
Sometimes  they  were  allowed  with  all  others  to 
hear  the  Scriptures  read,  and  the  sermon  preached, 
as  has  been  showed "^  in  a  former  Book  :  but  then, 
when  the  service  of  the  catechumens  was  over,  they 
were  obliged  to  depart  with  them ;  the  deacon's 
admonition  commonly  running  in  these  terms,  as 
we  have  often  heard  before,  "Let  no  catechumen, 
no  penitent,  no  unbeUever,  no  heretic  or  heterodox 
person,  be  present  at  the  holy  mysteries.  After 
what  manner  they  were  received  and  reconciled 
upon  their  confessions,  belongs  to  another  subject ; 
which  has  in  some  measure  been  handled  already,'^ 
and  will  come  again  under  consideration  in  the 
next  volume,  when  we  treat  of  the  discipline  of 
the  church :  at  present  it  is  sufficient  to  observe, 
that  whilst  they  continued  in  heresy  or  schism, 
they  were  of  the  number  of  those  to  whom  the 
church  refused  to  give  the  sacrament,  as  persons 
not  being  in  full  communion  wdth  her. 

g^^j  ,  On  the  other  hand  it  is  beyond  dis- 

fante  a^nd'"chudren  P^tc,  that  as  she  baptized  infants,  and 

for  several  ages.  ^^^,^  ^^^^  ^^le  UUCtloU  of  chrlsm  with 

imposition  of  hands  for  confirmation,  so  she  imme- 
diately admitted  them  to  a  participation  of  the 
eucharist,  as  soon  as  they  were  baptized,  and  ever 
after  mthout  exception.  Some  evidence  has  been 
given  of  this  already,  for  at  least  eight  centuries,  in 
speaking  of  confirmation,'*  out  of  Gennadius,  and 
Alcuin,  and  the  Ordo  Romanus,  and  Jesse  Ambi- 
anensis,  and  other  public  offices  of  the  church  con- 
taining the  rules  of  baptism  and  confirmation,  where 
orders  are  also  given  to  communicate  infants  as  soon 
as  they  were  baptized.  Here  I  will  add  the  testi- 
mony of  the  more  ancient  writers,  that  it  may  not 
be  thought  a  novelty  and  invention  of  latter  ages. 
Cyprian  often  mentions  it  as  the  common  practice :'" 
in  his  book  of  those  that  lapsed  in  time  of  persecu- 
tion, he  speaks  of  some  parents,  who  took  their  little 
children  in  their  arms,  when  they  went  to  sacrifice 
at  the  heathen  altars ;  and  he  brings  in  those  in- 


fants thus  complaining:  We  did  nothing  ourselves, 
neither  did  we  leave  the  bread  and  cup  of  the  Lord 
to  run  of  our  own  accord  to  the  profane  contagions : 
it  was  the  treachery  of  others  that  destroyed  us, 
we  fell  by  the  hands  of  our  parents.  A  little  fur- 
ther he  speaks  of  another  infant,  who  was  carried 
by  her  nurse,  unknown  to  her  ])arents,  to  the  magis- 
trates to  partake  of  the  idol  sacrifice;  who,  when 
she  was  brought  by  her  mother  afterwards ''  to  re- 
ceive the  eucharist,  vomited  up  the  wine  that  was 
given  her  to  drink  in  the  communion.  By  which 
it  is  undeniable  that  infants  were  then  admitted  to 
communicate  in  both  kinds,  if  they  were  capable  of 
receiving  them.  Upon  this  account  the  author  of 
the  Constitutions,^'  in  his  invitation  of  the  faithful 
to  the  communion,  bids  mothers  bring  their  chil- 
dren with  them.  And  again,'"  describing  the  order 
in  which  they  communicated,  he  says,  First  let 
the  bishops  receive,  then  the  presbyters,  deacons, 
subdeacons,  readers,  singers,  and  ascetics ;  among 
the  women,  the  deaconesses,  virgins,  and  widows ; 
after  that  the  children,  and  then  all  the  people  in 
their  order.  The  author  under  the  name  of  Diony- 
sius**  says  the  same.  That  children  were  admitted 
not  only  to  baptism,  but  the  eucharist,  though  they 
did  not  understand  the  reasons  of  either  mystery.  St. 
Austin  not  only  mentions  the  practice  in  Cyprian's 
time,"  citing  the  foresaid  passages  out  of  his  book  De 
Lapsis ;  but  also  seems  to  say  it  was  necessary  for  in- 
fants in  order  to  obtain  eternal  life  ;  grounding  upon 
that  saying  of  our  Saviour,  John  vi.,  "  Except  ye  eat 
the  flesh  of  the  Son  of  man,  and  drink  his  blood,"  ye 
have  no  life  in  you."  Which,  he  says,  is  to  be  under- 
stood not  of  the  sacrament  of  baptism,  but  of  the 
sacrament  of  the  Lord's  table,  where  no  one  is 
rightly  admitted  but  he  that  is  baptized.  And  dare 
any  one  be  so  bold  as  to  say,  that  this  sentence  does 
not  appertain  to  little  children,  or  that  they  can 
have  life  without  partaking  of  this  body  and  blood  ? 
He  repeats  the  same  frequently  in  his  disputes  with 
the  Pelagians,""  and  his  sermons  on  the  words  of 
the  apostle,"  and  in  his  epistle  to  Boniface,^*  written 
jointly  by  him  and  Ahpius  against  the  Pelagians. 


33  Book  XIII.  chap.  1.  sect.  2. 

3'  Scholast.  Hist,  of  Baptism,  part  1.  chap.  1.  n.  21. 

^  Book  XII.  chap.  1.  sect.  2. 

3'*  Cypr.  de  Lapsis,  p.  125.  Infantes  qiioque  parcntum 
manibus  vel  impositi  vel  attracti,  amiseriint  parviili,  quod 
in  primo  statim  nativitatis  e.xordio  fuerant  consecuti.  Nonne 
illi,  cum  judicii  dies  venerit,  dicent:  Nos  nihil  fecimus,  nee 
derelicto  cibo  et  poculo  Domini  ad  profana  contagia  sponte 
properavimus.  Perdidit  nos  aliena  perfidia,  parentes  sen- 
simus  parricidas. 

3'  Ibid.  p.  132.  In  corpore  atque  ore  violato  eucharistia 
permanere  nou  potuit.  Sanctiticatus  in  Domini  sanguine 
potus  de  pollutis  visceribus  erupit. 

38  Const,  lib.  8.  cap.  12.  39  HjJj   c^p.  13. 

*"  Dionys.  Eccl.  Hierar.  cap.  7.  p.  360 

*'  Aug.  Ep.  23.  ad  Bonifac. 

"  Aug.  de  Peccator.  Merit,  lib.  1.   cap.  20.     Dominum 


audiamus  non  quidera  hoc  de  sacramento  sancti  lavacri 
dicentem,  sed  de  sacramento  sanctaa  mensae  suae,  qvio  nemo 
rite  nisi  baptizatus  accedit.  Nisi  manducaveritis  carnem 
mcam,  &c.  An  vero  quisquam  audebit  etiam  hoc  dicere, 
q\iod  ad  parvulos  hcec  sententia  non  pertiueat,  possuntque 
sine  participatione  corporis  hujus  et  sanguinis  in  se  habere 
vitam  ? 

■■3  Cont.  duas  Epist.  Pelag.  lib.  1.  cap.  22.  Nee  illud  co- 
gitatis,  eos  vitam  habere  non  posse  qui  fuerint  e.xportes 
corporis  et  sanguinis  Christi,  dicente  ipso.  Nisi  manduca- 
veritis, &c. 

'*''  Serm.  8.  de  Verbis  Apostoli,  p.  110.  Infantes  sunt,  sed 
mensae  ejus  participes  fiunt,  ut  habcant  in  se  vitam. 

*^  Ep.  106.  ad  Bonifac.  p.  185.  Nulhis  qui  se  meminit 
catholicae  fidei  Christianum,  negat  aut  dubitat  parvulos  non 
accepta  gratia  regenerationis  in  Christo  sine  cibo  carnis 
ejus  et  sanguinis  potu,  non  habere,  in  se  vitam. 


798 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV, 


And  Pope   Innocent  his  contemporary  seems  to 
have  had  the  same  opinion  ;    for  he  argues  in  his 
epistle  to  St.  Austin  and  the  council  of  Milevis" 
for  the  necessity  of  baptizing  infants,  from  the  ne- 
cessity of  their  eating  the  flesh  and  drinking  the 
blood  of  the  Son  of  man.     There  is  great  dispute 
among  the  Romish  doctors  about  the  sense  of  St. 
Austin  and  this  Pope  Innocent  upon  this  point. 
Bona*'  and  others  think  it  would  be  a  great  re- 
proach to  their  church,  to  have  it  thought  that  the 
council  of  Trent  should  condemn  the  opinion  of  the 
necessity  of   communicating   infants,   whilst   two 
such  great  men  as  St.  Austin  and  their  own  Pope 
Innocent  were  conceived  to  be  of  that  opinion  :  and 
therefore  they  say,  Though  the  ancients  gave  the 
communion  to  infants,  yet  they  did  not  think  it 
necessary  to  salvation.    This  is  the  salvo  which  the 
council  of  Trent  put  into  their  mouths  ;  for  having 
condemned  the  opinion  itself  as  heretical,  yet,  to 
bring  off  the  ancient  church,  which  was  known  to 
practise  it,  she  adds  :  *'  We  do  not  hereby  intend 
to  condemn  antiquity  for  observing  this  custom  in 
some  places.     For  as  those  holy  fathers  had  a  pro- 
bable reason,  considering  the  state  of  the  times 
they  lived  in,  for  their  practice ;   so  it  is  certainly 
and  without  all  controversy  to  be  believed,  that  they 
did  not  do  it  upon  any  opinion  of  its  being  neces- 
sary to  salvation.     But  Maldonate  would  not  take 
the  council's  word  for  this  ;  for  without  any  regard 
to  their    interpretation    or    authority,   he    asserts 
roimdly,  that  the  ancients,  and  particularly  St.  Aus- 
tin and  Pope  Innocent,  did  believe,  that  infants 
could  not  be  saved  without  partaking  of  the  eucha- 
rist,"  and  that  they  were  induced  to  believe  this  by 
those  words  of  our  Saviour,  "  Except  ye  eat  the 
flesh  of  the  Son  of  man  and  drink  his  blood,  ye 
have  no  life  in  you."     And,  indeed,  any  one  that 
reads  but  with  half  an  eye  the  testimonies  of  St. 
Austin  now  alleged,  (which  Bona  thought  fit  to 
conceal  from  his  reader,  only  making  a  short  refer- 
ence to  some  of  them,)  may  easily  perceive  what  was 
his  opinion  in  the  matter.     And  it  were  absurd 
to  think,  that  the  whole  primitive  church,  Greek 
and  Latin,  from  St.  Cyprian's  time,  should  give  the 


communion  to  infants  without  imagining  any  man- 
ner of  necessity  from  any  Divine  command  to  do 
it.  But  Bona  endeavours  to  support  his  and  the 
council's  sense  from  the  authority  of  Fulgentius, 
who  was  one  of  St.  Austin's  disciples,  and  who,  as 
he  represents  him,  says,  that  actual  communion 
after  baptism  is  not  necessary  to  salvation.  But  he 
only  abuses  his  reader  with  a  false  state  of  the  case, 
and  a  false  assertion  grounded  on  it.  For  Fulgen- 
tius does  not  say  that  the  actual  participation  of  the 
eucharist  is  not  necessary  after  baptism  for  infants  ; 
for  he  is  not  speaking  of  infants,  but  adult  persons, 
who  die  as  soon  as  they  are  baptized,  without  having 
opportunity  to  receive  the  communion  :  concerning 
whom  he  concludes  favourably,  that  though  they 
die  before  they  receive  outwardly  the  elements  of 
bread  and  wine,  yet  they  are  not  to  be  despaired  of, 
because  they  were  made  partakers  of  the  body  and 
blood  of  Christ  in  baptism :  which  in  such  cases 
of  great  necessity^"  was  sufficient  to  answer  the  end 
of  the  communion,  when  men  were  desirous  of  it) 
but  had  no  opportunity  to  receive  it.  So  that  he 
believed  the  eucharist  ordinarily  to  be  necessary 
both  for  infants  and  adult  persons,  but  in  extra- 
ordinary cases  of  extreme  necessity,  not  to  be  ne- 
cessary for  either. 

But  to  set  aside  the  question  of  right,  and  only 
pursue  matter  of  fact,  we  find  that  this  custom  con- 
tinued even  in  the  Roman  church  for  many  ages  : 
Maldonate  says,  for  six  centuries,  but  Bona  makes  it 
double  the  number;  for  he  says,  it  was  not  ab- 
rogated in  France  till  the  twelfth  century.  In  Gre- 
gory's Sacramentarium^'  there  is  an  order  concern- 
ing infants.  That  they  should  be  allowed  to  suck 
the  breast  before  the  holy  communion,  if  necessity 
so  required.  And  the  old  Ordo  Romanus,^-  a  book 
composed  in  the  ninth  century,  has  a  direction  to 
the  same  purpose ;  That  infants,  after  they  were 
baptized,  should  not  eat  any  food,  nor  suck  the 
breast,  without  great  necessit}-,  till  they  had  com- 
municated in  the  sacrament  of  the  body  of  Christ. 
So  Alcuin,  or  whoever  wrote  under  his  name,  in  the 
time  of  Charles  the  Great,  says,  The  order  then 
was,"  that  when  infants  were  baptized,  they  were 


■•5  Innoc.  Ep.93.  inter  Epist.  Augustini.  Parvulos  aetei-nae 
vitse  proeiniis  etiaiii  sine  baptismatis  gratia  donari  posse, 
perfatuum  est:  Nisi  cnim  manducaverint  sanguinem  ejus, 
non  habebunt  vitam  in  semetipsis. 

"  Bona,  Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  2.  cap.  19.  n.  1. 

■•s  Cone.  Trident.  Sess.  21.  cap.  4.  Neque  ideo  tamen 
damnanda  est  antiquitas,  si  eum  morem  in  quibusdam  locis 
servavit.  Ut  enim  sanctissimi  illi  patres  sui  facti  probabi- 
lem  causam  pro  illius  temporis  ratione  habuerunt ;  ita  certe 
eos  nulla  salutis  necessitate  id  fecisse  sine  controversia  cre- 
dendum  est. 

^"  Maldouat.  Com.  in  Joan.  vi.  .53.  p.  316. 

^  Fulgent,  de  Baptismo  jEthiopis,  cap.  11.  p.  611.  Nul- 
lus  debet  moveri  fidelium  in  illis,  qui  ctsi  legitime  sana 
mente   baptizantur,  prseveniente  velocius   morte,    carnem 


Domini  manducare,  et  sanguinem  bibere  non  sinuntur, 
propter  illam  videlicet  sententiam  Salvatoris  qua  dixit,  Nisi 
manducaveritis  carnem  Filii  hominis,  &c.  Quod  quisquis— 
Mysterii  veritatem  considerarc  poterit,  in  ipsolavacrosanctae 
regenerationis  hoc  fieri  providebit. 

^'  Greg.  Sacram.  in  Officio  Sabbati  Sancti.  Non  prohi. 
bentur  lactari  ante  sacram  communionem,  si  necesse  fiierit. 

■"  Ordo  Rom.  Bibl.  Patr.  t.  10.  p.  84.  De  parvulis  pro- 
videndum,  ne  postquam  baptizati  fuerint,  uUum  cibum  ac- 
cipiant,  neque  lactentur  sine  summa  necessitate,  antequam 
communiccnt  sacramento  corporis  Christi. 

^'  Alcuin.  de  Officiis,  cap.  de  Sabbato  Sancto,  ibid.  p. 
259.  Si  episcopus  adest,  statim  confirmari  oportet  (infans 
tinctus)  chrismate,  et  postea  communicare  :  et  si  episcopus 
decst,  communicetur  a  presbytero,  &c.     Sed  et  hoc  provi- 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


799 


immediately  confirmed  by  the  bishop,  if  he  were 
present,  and  admitted  to  communicate ;  but  if  the 
bishop  was  absent,  they  should  receive  the  commu- 
nion from  the  presbyter.  Baluzius*'  alleges  two 
manuscript  Pontificals  of  the  same  age,  which  have 
rubrics  to  the  same  purpose.  And  the  orders  of 
Jesse,  bishop  of  Amiens,"  call  it  confirming  cliil- 
dren  with  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  as  they 
were  confirmed  before  with  imposition  of  hands  and 
chrism.  And  it  is  remarkable  of  Walter,  bishop  of 
Orleans,  in  the  same  age,  that  among  his  synodical 
rules  there  is  one  to  this  purpose :  That  a  presbyter*" 
shall  always  have  the  eucharist  ready  by  him,  that 
in  case  any  one  be  infirm,  or  a  young  child  sick,  he 
may  give  him  the  communion,  and  not  let  him  die 
without  his  riaticmn,  or  provision  for  his  journey 
into  the  next  world.  The  second  council  of  Mas- 
con,  which  was  held  anno  588,  and  the  third  council 
of  Tours,"  in  the  time  of  Charles  the  Great,  order 
the  remains  of  the  eucharist  to  be  given  to  innocent 
children.  Radulphus  Ardens,  who  lived  in  the  be- 
ginning of  the  twelfth  century,  speaks  of  it  still  as 
the  custom  to  give  little  children  the  sacrament,^'*  at 
least  in  the  species  of  wine,  immediately  after  they 
were  baptized,  that  they  might  not  go  without  the 
necessary  sacrament.  And  Hugo  de  Sancto  Victore 
at  the  same  time  recommends  the  giving  of  it  to 
children,*'  if  it  might  be  done  without  danger : 
though  he  intimates  now  the  custom  was  almost 
generally  laid  aside ;  there  being  only  a  mere  form 
and  shadow  of  it  remaining,  which  was  to  give  chil- 
dren newly  baptized  common  wine  instead  of  conse- 
crated, which  he  thinks  a  superfluous  rite,  that  ought 
to  be  laid  aside.  And  so  it  was,  not  long  after ;  for 
Odo,  bishop  of  Paris,  anno  1 1 75,  ordered.  That  nei- 
ther consecrated  nor  unconsecrated  bread  should  by 
any  means  be  given  to  little  children.'"'  And  so  says 
Bona,**'  The  custom  of  giving  the  communion  to 
infants  was  superseded  in  the  twelfth  age  in  the 
Galhcan  church.  It  continued  a  little  longer  in 
Germany,  if  Suicerus  does  not  mistake*^  in  his  au- 
thor ;  for  he  quotes  Joannes  Semeca,  surnamed 
Teutonicus,  who  wrote  the  Gloss  upon  Gratian,  as 


saying.  That  the  custom  prevailed  in  some  places  in 
his  time  to  give  the  eucharist  to  children.  But  there 
is  no  such  Gloss  in  the  place"  he  alleges,  in  the 
Roman  edition ;  so  that  either  he  mistakes  the  place, 
or  else  some  fraud  has  been  used  to  expunge  the 
passage  by  the  Roman  correctors.  Zuinglius  speaks 
of  the  custom  continuing  long  among  the  Helve- 
tians; for  he  says,  in  the  ritual  book  of  Claron,  called 
their  Obsequial,  there  was  this  rubric.  That  a  newly 
baptized  child  should  have  the  eucharist'^  in  both 
kinds  ministered  unto  him.  And  Hospinian  assures 
us  from  his  own  knowledge,"  that  in  Lorrain  and 
the  adjacent  parts  it  was  usual  for  the  priest,  when 
he  had  baptized  a  child,  to  dip  his  fingers  in  the  cup, 
and  drop  the  wine  into  the  child's  mouth,  saying, 
The  blood  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  of  advantage 
unto  thee  to  eternal  life. 

The  Greek  church  was  a  little  more  tenacious  of 
the  ancient  custom.  For  not  only  Basilius  Cilix,°" 
and  Evagi'ius,"  and  Johannes  ISIoschus,'^  mention 
the  communion  of  children,  and  the  giving  the  re- 
mains of  the  eucharist  to  children  after  the  commu- 
nion was  ended;  but  also  Nicephorus,  who  lived  in 
the  fourteenth  century ,'*'  mentions  the  same :  and 
Suicerus  tells  us  out  of  Metrophanes  Critopulus,  a 
modern  Greek  writer,'"  that  they  still  continue  to 
observe  the  custom  to  this  day.  As  he  also  observes 
out  of  Osorius  de  Gestis  Emanuelis,  lib.  9,  that  it 
continues  to  be  the  practice  of  the  Ethiopic  or 
Abyssinian  churches.  And  he  cites  Sigismundus  Ba- 
ro's  History  of  Muscovy  for  the  same  in  the  Russian 
churches.  Mr.  Brerewood"  notes  the  like  of  the 
Russian  churches  out  of  Guaguinus.  And  Dr. 
Smith"  tells  for  the  present  Greek  church,  that  they 
give  the  eucharist  in  both  kinds  to  little  children  of 
one  or  two  years  of  age,  and  sometimes  to  new-born 
infants  after  baptism,  in  case  of  imminent  danger 
of  death ;  grounding  their  belief  of  an  absolute  ne- 
cessity of  this  sacrament  upon  the  words  of  our 
Saviour,  John  vi.  53,  "  Except  ye  eat  the  flesh,"  &c., 
and  pleading  the  practice  of  the  primitive  church 
in  their  own  justification.  I  have  not  said  any 
thing  of  all  this  to  reduce  the  custom  into  practice 


dendum  est  ut  nullum  cibum  accipiant,  neque  lactentur,  an- 
tequam  communicent. 

**  Baluz.  Not.  in  Reginonem,  lib.  1.  cap.  G9. 

"  Jesse  Ambianensis  Epist.  de  Ordine  Bapt.  ap.  Baluz. 
ibid.  Episcopus  puerum  chrismate  confirmet ;  novissime 
autem  corpore  et  sanguine  Christi  coniirmetur  seu  commu- 
uicetur,  ut  Christi  membrum  esse  possit. 

*«  Walter.  Aurelian.  CapiUil.  7.  Cone.  t.  8.  p.  639.  Pres- 
byter eucharistiam  semper  habeat  paratam,  ut  quando 
quis  infirmatus  fuerit,  aut  parvulus  tegrotaverit,  statim  eum 
commuuicet,  ne  sine  viatico  moriatur.  The  same  is  in 
Ansegisus  Abbas  de  Legibus  Francorum,  lib.  1.  cap.  155. 
al.  161. 

"  Cone.  Matiscon.  2.  can.  6.    Couc.  Turon.  3.  can,  19. 

^'  Radulph.  Serm.  in  Die  Paschae.  De  eucharistiaj  neces- 
sitate statutum  est  ut  pueris  mox  baptizatis  saltern  in  specie 
vini  tradatur,  ne  sine  necessario  sacramento  discedant. 


^'  Hugo  de  S.  Victore,  de  Sacrament,  lib.  1.  cap.  20. 

'^  Odo,  Statut.  Synodal,  cap.  39. 

•>'  Bona,  Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  2.  cap.  19.  n.  2. 

'^-  Suicer.  Thesaur.  Ecdes.  t.  2.  p.  11.38. 

"'  Grat.  de  Consecrat.  Dist.  4.  cap.  4,  cited  also  by  Hos- 
pinian. 

'^  Zuingl.  Explanat.  Artie.  18.  Oper.  t.  1.  Baptizato 
puero  mox  detur  cucharistiae  sacramentum,  similiter  et  po- 
culum  sanguinis. 

"^  Hospinian,  Hist.  Sacram.  lib.  2.  cap.  2.  p.  60. 

«"  Basil,  ap.  Photium  Cod.  107.        «'  Evagr.  lib.  4.  c.  .35. 

'"  Moschus,  Viridarium,  cap.  196. 

•»  Niceph.  lib.  17.  c.  25. 

'"  Suicer.  t.2.  p.  1138.  Ex  Metroph.  Confess.  Eccl.  Orient, 
cap.  9. 

"  Brerewood's  Inquiries,  cap.  18. 

"  Smith,  Account  of  the  Greek  Church,  p.  161. 


800 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


again,  (though  Bishop  Bedle  and  some  others  have 
declared  entirely  for  it,)  because,  as  learned  men" 
have  showed,  there  are  good  reasons  to  persuade 
the  contrary:  I.  Because  it  has  no  firm  foundation 
in  the  word  of  God.  2.  Because  infants,  which  are 
baptized,  are  in  effect  thereby  partakers  of  the  body 
and  blood  of  Christ,  which  are  exhibited  spiritually 
in  baptism  as  well  as  the  eucharist,  according  to  St. 
Austin  himself  and  all  the  ancient  fathers,  of  which 
I  have  made  full  proof  in  another  place."  3.  Be- 
cause infants  cannot  do  this  in  remembrance  of 
Christ,  which  he  requires  all  that  partake  in  this 
sacrament  to  do.  4.  Because  there  is  the  same 
analogy  and  agreement  between  the  paschal  lamb 
and  the  Lord's  supper,  as  there  is  between  circum- 
cision and  baptism :  an  infant  Israelite  had  a  right 
to  enter  the  covenant  by  circumcision,  as  it  was  the 
seal  of  it ;  but  he  was  not  to  partake  of  the  pass- 
over,  till  he  could  ask  his  parents  the  meaning  of 
the  mystery,  Exod.  xii.  26.  So  an  infant  may  en- 
ter the  Christian  covenant  by  baptism,  but  not  par- 
take regularly  of  the  eucharist,  till  he  can  do  it  in 
remembrance  of  Christ.  What  I  have  therefore 
discoursed  upon  this  head,  by  deducing  the  matter 
historically  from  first  to  last,  is  rather  to  show  the 
vanity  of  that  pretence  to  infallibility  and  unerring 
tradition  in  the  church  of  Rome  in  matters  of  doc- 
trine and  necessary  practice ;  since  they  themselves 
have  thought  fit  to  alter  one  point,  which  their  in- 
fallible popes  and  forefathers  for  so  many  ages  ob- 
served as  necessary,  in  communicating  infants  upon 
a  Divine  command ;  and  withal  to  show,  that  any 
other  church  has  a  better  pretence  than  they  to  re- 
form any  practice,  however  generally  observed,  if 
upon  better  examination  it  be  found  not  to  be 
grounded  upon  a  good  foundation  in  the  word  of 
God.  I  now  return  to  the  business  of  the  ancient 
church. 

Where  we  find,  that  not  only  the 
Sent  to'  the  ab-  prcscut  members  were  all  communi- 

ppnt  iTipmbers  of 

their  own  or  other  cauts,  but  they  that  wcrc  absent  had 

churches.  •^ 

it  sent  to  them  by  the  hands  of  a  dea- 
con, to  testify,  that  while  they  were  absent  upon 
any  lawful  occasion,  they  were  still  reputed  to  be  in 
the  communion  of  the  church.  Thus  Justin  Mar- 
tyr says,"  The  same  eucharist,  which  was  received 
by  them  that  were  present,  was  carried  by  the  dea- 
cons to  the  absent.  For  as  they  prayed  for  those 
that  were  absent  upon  a  probable  or  reasonable 
cause,  so  they  allowed  them  to  communicate  in  the 
same  sacrament  also.     Upon  this  account,  as  we 


have  seen  before,""  the  eucharist  at  Rome  in  the 
time  of  Melchiades,  Siricius,  and  Innocent,  was 
usually  sent  from  the  bishop's  church  to  the  tituU, 
or  lesser  churches,  for  the  presbyters  ministering 
in  those  churches  to  communicate  with  him,  and, 
as  some  think,"  for  the  whole  congregations  also. 
For  they  suppose,  that  at  first  there  was  but  one 
altar  in  a  city,  and  that  at  the  mother-church,  where 
the  bishop  ministered,  and  consecrated  the  eucha- 
rist, and  sent  it  thence  to  the  lesser  congregations. 
And  so  they  understand  even  that  passage  in  Justin 
Martyr.  I  rather  think,  the  presbyters  had  the 
privilege  to  consecrate  the  eucharist  in  their  own 
churches ;  but,  however,  a  portion  of  the  eucharist 
was  for  all  that  sent  them  by  the  bishop  from  his 
own  church,  to  testify  that  they  were  in  communion 
with  him :  he  did  not  send  to  the  country  churches, 
because  the  sacraments  were  not  to  be  carried  to 
places  at  too  great  a  distance,  as  Innocent  words  it 
in  his  letter  to  Decentius.  Yet  in  case  of  testifying 
their  communion  with  foreign  bishops,  they  were 
wont  to  send  it  to  far  distant  churches.  As  Irenseus, 
in  his  Epistle  to  Pope  Victor,"*  when  he  menaced 
the  Asiatic  churches  with  excommunication  for 
their  different  way  of  observing  Easter,  tells  him 
his  predecessors  never  thought  of  such  rough  pro- 
ceedings against  them,  but,  notwithstanding  this 
difference,  always  sent  them  the  eucharist  to  testify 
their  communion  with  them.  Valesius"  and  others 
observe  the  same  in  the  Acts^"  of  Lucian  the  mar- 
tyr, and  Paulinus's^'  epistle  to  Severus.  This  was 
chiefly,  if  not  solely,  done  at  the  Paschal  festival,  in 
token  of  their  unity,  love,  and  charity.  But  the 
council  of  Laodicea,'-  for  some  inconveniences  at- 
tending the  practice,  absolutely  forbade  it ;  ordering 
that  the  holy  sacraments  should  not  be  sent  from 
one  diocese  to  another  under  the  notion  of  euloc/ice, 
or  benedictions,  at  the  Easter  festival.  Yet  in  some 
places  the  custom  continued  for  several  ages  after. 
For  Johannes  Moschus*^  speaks  of  the  communion 
being  sent  from  one  monk  to  another  at  six  miles' 
distance :  not  to  mention  again  the  custom  of  send- 
ing the  eucharist  by  Paulinus,  and  the  bishops 
of  Rome,  from  the  mother-church  to  all  the  other 
churches  throughout  the  city  in  every  region.  But 
where  they  left  off  this  custom  of  sending  the  eu- 
charist, they  introduced  another  way  of  testifying 
their  mutual  love  and  amity  to  one  another  by  cer- 
tain symbols  of  bread,  which  they  blessed  and  sanc- 
tified also  in  imitation  of  the  eucharist,  but  with  a 
different  benediction.     And  to  these  also  they  gave 


'3  Vid.  Hospin.  et  Snicer.  locis  citatis. 
'*  Book  II.  chap.  10.  sect.  4. 

"  Justin.  Apol.  2.  p.  98.  Vid.  Justinian.  Novel.  123.  cap. 
.36.     Aut  sanctam  eis  communionem  portandam. 
'«  Book  XV.  chap.  2.  sect.  5. 
"  Maurice  of  Diocesan  Episcopacy,  p.  39. 
'8  Ap.  Euseb.  lib.  5.  cap.  24. 


"^  Vales,  in  locum. 

8"  Acta  Lucian.  ap.  Metaphrast.  7.  Jan. 

'^  Paulin.  Ep.  1.  ad  Seveium. 

**-  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  13.,  Tlzpl  tov  fii)  to.  ciyia  tis  \6- 
yov  tuKoytwv  kcltcl  Tijv  topTijU  tov  irdcrxa  £is  iTtpas  irap- 
oiKia.'s  Sia'TrifxTTtardai. 

•*3  Mosch.  Pratum  Spiritual,  cap.  29. 


I 


CllAP.    IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


801 


the  names  ofeiihr/ice  andpanisbenedicttts,  consecrated 
bread,  which  the  modern  Greeks  call  dvridwpa,  vi- 
carious gifts,  because  they  were  given  in  many  cases 
instead  of  the  eucharist.  It  has  been  observed" 
already,  that  they  were  often  given  to  such  as 
would  not  communicate,  when  the  ancient  fervour 
of  popular  and  general  communions  began  to  de- 
cay. Here  we  are  to  observe,  that  they  were  used 
to  be  sent  from  one  country  to  another  instead  of 
the  eucharist,  as  testimonies  of  their  amity  and  af- 
fection. Some  not  improbably*'  thus  understood 
that  canon  of  the  council  of  Laodicea,^*  which  for- 
bids any  to  receive  the  eulor/ice,  or  blessings  of  here- 
tics, which  were  to  be  reckoned  curses  and  absurdi- 
ties rather  than  blessings.  As  also  that  other 
canon*'  which  forbids  them  to  receive  either  from 
Jews  or  heretics,  to.  Tninconiva  iopraariKa,  such  gifts 
or  presents  as  were  used  to  be  sent  in  festivals. 
Of  this  kind  was  that  bread  which  Paulinus^'  and 
Therasia  sent  to  St.  Austin  as  a  testimony  of  their 
unanimity  and  cordial  affection,  which  they  desire 
him  to  bless  by  his  acceptance.  Some  learned  men 
mistake  when  they  say  the  sending  of  the  eucharist 
came  in  the  room  of  this  :  for  it  was  plainly  the  re- 
verse :  these  eulogice  were  invented  in  the  room  of 
the  eucharist,  as  appears  from  the  testimony  of 
Irenseus,  which  speaks  of  sending  the  eucharist  as 
the  more  ancient  custom. 

Among  the  absent  members  of  the 

And^o^hosc  that  church  tlicy  had  a  more  especial  re- 
were  sick,  or  in  pri-  t  »  i  •    i  • 

son,  or  under  any  gard  to  thosc  that  Were  sick,  or  in 

confinement,  or   in 

penance  at  the  point  pnsou.  Or  uudcr  any  confinement,  as 
the  martyrs  and  confessors,  who  daily 
expected  their  dissolution ;  and  such  also  of  the 
penitents  as  were  seized  with  sickness  and  in  immi- 
nent danger  of  death.  To  all  these  they  commonly 
sent  the  eucharist,  which  in  this  case  is  more  pecu- 
liarly styled  the  k^ohov,  or  viaticum,  their  prepara- 
tion or  provision  for  their  journey  into  the  next 
world.  Thus  in  the  council  of  Nice*'  there  is  a 
canon  which  orders,  that  all  penitents  should  have 
their  necessary  and  final  t<p6Siov  or  viaticum,  when 


they  were  at  the  point  of  death.  Which  though 
Albaspinaeus'"  interpret  only  of  absolution,  yet  all 
others  with  better  reason  understand  it  of  the  eu- 
charist, because  it  is  added  in  the  end  of  the  canon, 
that  the  bishop  shall  impart  the  oblation  to  them. 
And  so  the  council  of  Agde  says,"'  the  viaticum 
shall  not  be  denied  to  any  penitents  at  the  point  of 
death.  The  first  council  of  Vaison'''  makes  a  pro- 
vision for  such  penitents  as  were  snatched  away  by 
sudden  death  without  the  viaticum  oi  the  sacrament, 
whilst  they  were  preparing  for  it,  that  their  obla- 
tions should  be  received,  and  their  funerals  and  me- 
morials celebrated  according  to  the  rites  of  the 
church.  And  the  1 1 th  council  of  Toledo"^  makes 
another  provision  for  such  as  by  reason  of  extreme 
weakness  could  not  take  the  whole  viaticum  of  the 
communion,  nor  swallow  the  bread,  but  only  drink 
the  cup,  that  since  this  proceeded  not  from  any 
infidehty,  but  from  mere  infirmity,  they  should  not 
be  cut  off  from  the  body  of  the  church.  The  fourth 
council  of  Carthage  mentions  it  in  several  canons, 
and  in  one  canon  particularly'*  speaks  of  a  very 
remarkable  case,  which  sometimes  happened,  that 
a  penitent  who  desired  to  be  admitted  to  penance 
in  time  of  sickness,  was  sometimes  suddenly  taken 
speechless,  or  turned  delirious  by  the  paroxysm  of 
his  distemper,  before  the  priest  could  come  to  him : 
in  which  case,  if  they  that  heard  him  could  testify 
his  desire,  he  was  to  be  admitted :  and  if  it  was 
thought  he  would  immediately  die,  he  was  to  be  re- 
conciled by  imposition  of  hands,  and  then  the  eucha- 
rist was  to  be  poured  into  his  mouth.  Which  is  called 
the  viaticum  of  the  eucharist"'  in  the  two  following 
canons.  As  it  is  also  in  the  council  of  Orange"''  and 
Girone,"^  and  many  other  places.  The  eucharist  in 
these  cases  was  commonly  carried  and  dehvered  by 
a  presbyter  or  a  deacon,  as  has  been  noted  out  of 
Justin  Martyr :  yet  in  cases  of  great  necessity  it 
might  be  carried  and  given  by  any  other.  As  ap- 
pears from  that  case  in  Eusebius,"*  related  out  of  an 
epistle  of  Dionysius,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  to  Fabian, 
bishop  of  Rome,  where  he  tells  of  one  Serapion, 


**  See  before  in  this  chapter,  sect.  3. 

'*  Habert.  Archieratic.  par.  11.  obser.  3. 

'*  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  31.  vel  32.  Oi>  5ii  alpiTiKuw  iu- 
Xoyia's  \afxjia.vtLV,  uiTivii  ii(7iu  aXoyiai  /ia.Woi>  ij  tii- 
Xoyiai. 

"  Ibid.  can.  .37. 

**  Paulin.  Ep.  31.  inter  Epist.  Aug.  Panem  umim,  quern 
unanimitatis  indicio  misimus  charitati  tuae,  rogamus  accipi- 
endo  benedicas.  Vid.  Aug.  Ep.  31.  ad  Faulinum. 

^^  Cone.  Ni'c.  can.  13.  ^  Albaspin.  Not.  in  bicum. 

^'  Cone.  Agathen.  can.  15.  Viaticum  tamen  omnibus  in 
morte  positis  non  est  negandum. 

'-Cone.  Vasens.  1.  can.  2.  Nefas  est  eorum  commemo- 
rationes  excludi  a  salutavibus  sacris,  qui  ad  eadem  sacra 
fideli  afFectu  contendentes — absque  sacramentorum  vi^atico 
intercipiantur,  &c. 

^'  Cone.  Tolet.  11.  can.  11.  In  multorum  exitu  vidimus, 
qui  optatum  suis  votis  sacraj  communionis  viaticum  e.xpe- 
3   F 


tentes,  collatam  sibi  a  sacerdote  eucharistiam  rejecerunt. 
Non  quod  intidelitate  haec  agerent,  sed  quod  pra;ter  Domi- 
nici  calicis  haustum,  traditam  sibi  non  possent  eucharistiam 
deglutire.  Non  ergo  hujusmodi  a  corpore  ecclesia:  sepa- 
randi  sunt,  &c. 

^*  Cone.  Carth.  4.  can.  76.  Is  qui  poenitentiam  in  infirmi- 
tate  petit,  si  easu,  dum  ad  eum  sacerdos  invitatus  venit,  op- 
pressus  iniirmitate  obmutuerit,  vel  in  phrenesim  versus 
f'uerit,  dent  testimonium  qui  eum  audierunt,  et  accipiat  poe- 
nitentiam. Et  si  continuo  creditur  moriturus,  reconcilietur 
per  manus  iinpositionem,  et  infundatur  ori  ejus  eucha- 
ristia,  &c. 

^^  Can.  77.  Pocnitentes  qui  in  infirmitate  sunt,  viaticum 
accipiant.  Can.  78.  Poenitentes  qui  in  iniirmitate  viaticum 
acceperint,  non  se  credant  absolutes  sine  manus  impositione, 
si  supervi.xerint. 

"^  Cone.  Arausican.  I.  can.  3. 

='Conc.  Gerundens.  can.  9.  ^  Euseb.  lib.  6.  cap.  14. 


S02 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


who  having  sacrificed  in  time  of  persecution,  could 
not  die  till  he  had  sent  for  the  presbyter  to  recon- 
cile him  :  but  the  presbyter,  being  sick,  sent  him  a 
small  portion  of  the  eucharist  by  the  hands  of  the 
messenger  that  came  for  him,  giving  him  orders  to 
dip  it  first  and  put  it  into  his  mouth,  which  he  had 
no  sooner  done,  but  the  man  gave  up  the  ghost  in 
peace.  But  this  was  forbidden  by  the  canons  ^'  in 
ordinary  cases. 

Sometimes  indeed  they  used  private 
The  em'hari=,t  some-  consccrations  of  the  cucharist  in  the 

times  consecrated  in  <»       •    i  •  • 

private  iiouses  for  houscs  01  SICK  men  or  in  prisons,  to 

tliese  purposes. 

answer  these  pious  ends  and  purposes : 
but  most  commonly  they  reserved  some  small  por- 
tion of  it  in  the  church  from  time  to  time  for  this 
use,  as  most  expeditious  and  convenient  for  sudden 
accidents  and  emergencies.  There  are  very  ancient 
instances  and  examples  of  both  kinds.  Cyprian 
speaks  of  private  consecrations  made  in  prisons  for 
the  martyrs  and  confessors  in  time  of  persecution. 
For  he  gives  orders,  that  neither  should  the  people 
visit  them  ghmeratim,  in  great  multitudes,  to  raise 
envy;  nor  the  presbyters,  who  went  to  offer'""  the 
eucharist  with  them,  go  more  than  one  at  once,  and 
that  by  turns,  accompanied  only  with  a  single  dea- 
con, to  decline  envy  and  observation.  There  is  no- 
thing more  certain,  than  that  in  times  of  persecu- 
tion the  Christians  performed  all  Divine  offices  in 
every  place  whither  necessity  drove  them  :  every 
place  was  then  a  temple,  as  Dionysius '"'  of  Alex- 
andria words  it  in  Eusebius,  for  them  to  hold  reli- 
gious assemblies  in,  whether  it  were  a  field,  or  a 
wilderness,  or  a  ship,  or  an  inn,  or  a  prison.  Luci- 
an's  prison  was  his  church,  and  his  own  breast  his 
altar  to  consecrate  the  eucharist  upon,  for  himself 
and  those  that'"^  were  with  him  in  confinement. 
In  such  a  case,  TertuUian "*^  says,  Three  were 
enough  to  make  a  church,  when  necessity  would 
not  allow  them  a  greater  number.  It  is  as  evident 
private  consecrations  were  made  in  private  houses 
upon  the  account  of  sickness.  St.  Ambrose  was 
thus  invited  to  offer  the  sacrifice  in  a  private  house 
at  Rome,  as  we  are  told  by  the  writer  of  his  Life.'"^ 
And  Paulinus,  bishop  of  Nola,  is  said  to  have  or- 
dered an  altar  to  be  prepared  for  himself  in  his 
chamber,  where  he  consecrated  the  cucharist  '"^  in 
his   sickness   not   many   hours   before   his   death. 


Thus  Gregory  Nazianzen '""  tells  us,  that  his  father 
consecrated  it  in  his  own  chamber ;  and  that  his 
sister  Gorgonia'"'  had  a  domestic  altar.  Therefore 
we  have  no  dispute  with  Bona  upon  this  point,  nor 
should  we  have  any  with  his  church,  if  this  were 
all  that  Avere  meant  by  private  mass  in  the  Roman 
communion.  The  reader  may  hence  observe  the 
mistake  of  those  learned  men,'°*  who  assert,  that 
the  primitive  fathers,  though  passionately  indulgent 
towards  their  sick  brethren  in  granting  them  their 
spiritual  viaticum,  yet  always  took  a  care  that  the 
elements  should  be  consecrated  in  the  church.  For 
the  instances  that  have  been  given,  both  concern- 
ing the  martyrs  and  the  sick,  are  undeniable  evi- 
dence to  the  contrary.  And  there  want  not  some 
instances  of  private  consecrations  upon  other  occa- 
sions ;  such  as  that  mentioned  by  St.  Austin  in  a 
private  house  at  Zubedi,  a  place  in  his  diocese, 
which  was  vexed  with  evil  spirits,  whither  one  of 
his  presbyters  went  to  pray  and  offer  the  sacri- 
fice '"'  of  the  body  of  Christ,  at  the  request  of  the 
owner,  that  it  might  be  delivered  from  them.  And 
what  the  historians""  tell  us  of  Constantine's  taber- 
nacle, which  he  carried  about  with  him  in  his  camp, 
where  all  Divine  offices  and  the  holy  mysteries  were 
celebrated,  may  be  reckoned  another  instance  of 
such  private  consecrations. 

It  was  also  very  usual  for  the  min-  s..ct.  n. 
isters  to  reserve  some  part  of  the  se?v"ed  i^^Th™?hurch 
consecrated  elements  either  in  the  "'  sesame  use. 
church,  or  with  them  at  their  own  house,  to  be  in 
great  readiness  upon  all  such  pressing  occasions. 
As  is  evident  from  the  forementioned  story  of  Sera- 
pion  in  Eusebius.  And  Optatus'"  intimates  as 
much  in  that  remarkable  story  which  he  tells  of  the 
Donatist  bishops,  who,  in  their  mad  zeal  against  the 
catholics,  threw  the  eucharist,  which  they  found  in 
their  churches,  to  the  dogs,  but  not  without  an  im- 
mediate sign  of  Divine  vengeance  ;  for  the  dogs,  in- 
stead of  devouring  the  elements,  fell  upon  their 
masters,  as  if  they  had  never  known  them,  and  tore 
them  to  pieces,  as  robbers  and  profaners  of  the 
holy  body  of  Christ.  The  same  is  evident  from  the 
like  complaint  of  Chrysostom  concerning  the  tu- 
mult that  happened  in  his  church  at  Constantino- 
ple, when  the  soldiers  broke  into  the  sanctuary  "^ 
where  the  holy  mysteries  were  reposited,  and  many 


*  Vid.  Gratian.  de  Consecr.  Dist.  2.  cap.  29. 

'""  Cypr.  Ep.  5.  ad  Cler.  p.  If.  Presbyteri  quoque,  qui  illic 
apiid  confessorcs  offerunt,  singuli  cum  singulis  diaconis  per 
vices  alterneut :  quia  et  mutatio  peisonarum  et  vicissiludo 
convenientiuin  minuit  iuvidiam. 

""  Ap.  Euseb.  lib.  7.  cap.  22. 

'"■-  Vita  Luciani,  Philostorg.  lib.  2.  cap.  13. 

""  Tertul.  de  Fuga,  cap.  14.  Noa  potes  discurrere  per 
singulos,  sit  tibi  et  in  tnbus  ccclesia. 

'"^  Paulin.  Vit.  Ambros.  Per  idem  tempus  cum  trans 
Tyberim  apud  quendam  clarissimum  invitavetur,  ut  sacri- 
ficium  iu  domo  otferret,  &c.  '"^  Urauius,  Vit.  Paulini. 


ws  Naz.  Orat.  19.  de  Laud.  Patris,  p.  305. 

""  Ibid.  11.  de  Gorgonia,  p.  187. 

'OS  Hamon  L'Estrange,  Allian.  of  Div.  Offic.  chap.  10. 
p.  299. 

'"'  Aug.  de  Civ.  Dei,  lib.  22.  cap.  8.  p.  1485.  Perrexit 
unus,  obtulit  ibi  sacvificium  corporis  Christi,  orans  quan- 
tum potuit,  ut  cessaret  ilia  vexatio :  Ueoprotinusmiserante 
cessavit. 

"»  Euseb.  Vit.  Const,  lib.  4.  c.56.    Sozom.  lib.  1.  cap.  9. 

'"  Optat.  lib.  2.  p.  55. 

"■^  Chrys.  Ep.  ad  Innocent,  t.  4.  qu.  681.    "Evda  rd  liyia 


aiTiKtii/ro,  K.T.X. 


t 


Chap.  IV, 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


803 


of  them  who  were  not  initiated,  saw  the  secrets  that 
were  concealed  within,  and  the  holy  blood  of  Christ 
was  spilt  upon  the  soldiers'  clothes,  as  is  usual  in 
such  tumults  and  confusion.  We  may  collect  the 
same  from  what  Victor  Uticensis  "^  says  of  Valerian, 
an  African  bishop,  that  he  was  banished  by  Geise- 
ricus,  king  of  the  Vandals,  because  he  would  not 
deliver  up  the  sacrament  that  was  kept  in  his 
church.  Cyril  of  Alexandria,  in  one  of  his  epistles,'" 
reproves  those  who  said  the  eucharist  was  not  to  be 
reserved  to  the  next  day.  And  in  the  council  of 
Constantinople  under  Mennas,"*  there  is  mention 
made  of  silver  and  golden  doves  hanging  at  the 
altar,  which  most  probably  were  then  used  as  the 
repositories  of  the  sacrament  kept  in  the  chui'ches. 
"Which  is  also  mentioned  in  Amphilochius's  Life  of 
St.  Basil,  but  no  stress  need  be  laid  upon  that,  be- 
cause it  is  a  spurious  writing ;  nor  need  we  descend 
to  the  second  council  of  Tours,'"^  or  other  modern 
decrees,  for  the  proof  of  that  which  has  so  good  au- 
thority among  the  more  ancient  writers. 

^  ^  J,  It  appears  also  from  a  canon  of  the 

use  "i^rsome  days  couucil  of  Trullo,  that  the  eucharist 

,  new"on!ecr°atk)n."°  was  sometimcs  rcscrvcd  for  the  pubUc 

pru^saZt^atontm.  use  of  thc  cliurch,  to  bc  receivcd  some 

Its  use  and  original.      .  c,  • , 

days  after  its  consecration,  particu- 
larly in  the  time  of  Lent,  when  they  communicated 
on  such  elements  as  had  been  consecrated  the  Sa- 
turday or  Sunday  in  the  foregoing  week,  which  were 
the  only  days  in  Lent  on  which  they  used  the  con- 
secration service,  though  they  communicated  on 
other  days  on  such  elements  as  they  reserved  out  of 
the  former  consecration.  The  words  of  the  canon 
are  these,"'  That  on  every  day  in  the  holy  fast  of 
Lent,  except  Saturdays  and  Sundays,  and  the  feast 
of  the  Annunciation,  the  liturgy  of  the  presanctified 
gifts  shall  be  performed.  This  is  best  understood 
from  another  canon  of  the  council  of  Laodicea,"^ 
which  orders,  that  the  eucharist  should  not  be  of- 
fered in  Lent  on  any  other  day  except  the  sabbath 
and  the  Lord's  day.  Not  that  they  prohibited  the 
communion  to  be  received  on  other  days,  (for  it  was 
received  every  day,)  but  on  these  days  they  received 
only  that  which  had  been  consecrated  before  on  the 
sabbath  and  Lord's  day,  and  what  was  reserved  for 
the  communion  of  these  days  without  any  new  con- 
secration. This  is  commonly  reckoned  by  learned 
men  the  beginning  of  this  sort  of  communions  upon 
reserved  hosts,  though  it  is  hard  to  guess  at  the 


reason  of  the  observation.     Leo  Allatius,  who  has 
written'"  two  peculiar  dissertations  upon  this  sub- 
ject, tells  us  the  reason  which  the  Greeks  themselves 
allege  for  it  is,  that  the  consecration  service  is  pro- 
per only  for  festivals,  and  therefore,  all  other  days 
in  Lent  besides  Saturdays  and  Sundays  being  fast 
days,  they  did  not  consecrate  on  those  days,  but 
only  communicated  in  the  elements  which  had  been 
consecrated  before.     This  he  shows  at  large '^^  out 
of  Alexius  Aristenus,  Matthew  Blastares,  Balzamon, 
Zonaras,  Michael  Cerularius,  and  Simeon  Thessa- 
lonicensis.     Whether  this  was  the  true  reason,  or 
whether  it  be  a  good  reason,  is  none  of  my  business 
to  inquire.     I  only  observe,  that  it  was  an  ancient 
practice  in  the  Greek  church,  as  it  continues  to  be 
at  this  day,'-'  though  the  Latin  church  never  adopted 
it  into  her  service :  for  they  used  to  consecrate,  as 
well  as  communicate,  about  three  in  the  afternoon> 
all  the  days  of  Lent,  as  is  evident  from  TertuUian,'" 
St.  Ambrose,'-^  and  many  others,  of  which  there  will 
be  occasion  to  speak  more  fully  when  we  come  to 
the  fasts  and  festivals  of  the  church.     Leo  Allatius 
thinks  this  7nissa  prcesandijicatorum  is  intended  by 
Socrates,'^*  when  he  says.  On  Wednesdays  and  Fri- 
days at  Alexandria  they  had  all  Divine  servdce  ex- 
cept the  consecration  of  the  eucharist :  but  it  does 
not  appear  that  they  communicated   at  all  upon 
those  days,  much  less  upon  preconsecrated  elements. 
However,  he  rightly  concludes,  that  Durantus  and 
others,  who  confound  this  7nissa  prcesanctijicatoruin 
with  the  missa  sicca,  or  dry  mass,  as  they  called  it, 
are  wholly  mistaken :  because  dry  mass  was  a  cor- 
ruption peculiarly  crept  into  the  Latin  church,  which 
was  condemned    by  many  of  their    own  divines, 
Eckius,  Estius,  Laudmeter,  and  the  Belgic  bishops,'" 
as  a  mere  novelty,  a  counterfeit,  and  a  perfect  piece 
of  pageantry ;  whereas  this  missa  prasancfijicatorum 
was  an  ancient  and  approved  usage  of  the  Greek 
church,  upon  the  account  of  which  a  certain  por- 
tion of  the  consecrated  elements  were  reserved  for 
the  pubUc  use  of  the  church  upon  those  days  of 
Lent,  on  which  they  made  no  new  consecration. 
But  besides  this  reservation  of  the         g^^^  ,3 
elements  for  public  use  by  the  minis-  somet,m«''"^eVed 
ters  of  the  church,  there  was  another  me'i',"for"'daUy''pIrt.^ 
private  reservation  of  them  allowed  "^'^ '""' 
sometimes  to  religious  persons,  who  were  permitted 
to  carry  a  portion  of  the  eucharist  home  with  them, 
and  participate  of  it  every  day  by  themselves  in 


"»  Victor,  de  Persecut.  Vandal,  lib.  1.  Bibl.  Pair.  t.  7. 
p.  593. 

'"  Cyril.  Ep.  ad  Calosyrium,  in  Precfat.  lib.  cont.  Au- 
thropomorph.  t.  6.  p.  365. 

>'*  Cone,  sub  Menna,  Act.  5.  t.  5.  p.  159. 

"*  Cone.  Turon.  2.  can.  3. 

'"  Cone.  Trullan.  can.  52.     'H  roiy  irpouytairfxiviuv  hpa 
XsiTovpyia  yiviGdu). 

"*  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  49.     Ou  otl  Tf.(TaapaKoaTtj  aprov 
irpo<T(f)iptiv,  £t  fxii  Iv  aajipaTw  nal  KvpiaKrj  fxovov. 
2i    F    2 


'"  Leo  Allat.  Epist. ad  Naudaeum  de  Libiis  Eccles. Grae- 
corum.  It.  Dissert,  de  Missa  Pracsanctilicatorum,  ad  calcem 
Libri  de  Consensu  Eccl.  Orient,  et  Occident. 

'20  Leo  Allat.  de  Missa  Pr.xsanctif.  n.  12. 

'2'  See  Dr.  Smith  of  the  Greek  Church,  p.  175. 

'--  Tertul.  de  Orat.  cap.  14. 

'»  Ambros.  Ser.  8.  in  Psal.  cxviii.  p.  6.56. 

>2^  Socrat.  lib.  5.  cap.  '22.  ap.  Allatium.  Ep.  ad  Naudaeum. 

'25  Allat.  de  Missa  Prajsanct.  n.  10.  Missa  sicca,  recens, 
et  simulata  et  histriouica,  confertur  cum  cwnis  Heliogabali. 


804 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


private.  This  custom  seems  to  owe  its  original  to 
tlie  times  of  persecution,  when  men  were  willing  to 
communicate  every  day,  but  could  not  have  the 
convenience  of  daily  assemblies.  To  compensate 
for  the  want  of  which,  they  took  a  portion  of  the 
eucharist  home  with  them,  and  participated  there- 
of every  day  in  private.  This  seems  very  plainly 
to  be  intimated  by  Tertullian,'-"  when,  speaking  of  a 
woman  marrpng  a  heathen  husband,  he  asks  her. 
Whether  her  husband  would  not  know  what  it  was 
that  she  eat  before  all  her  other  meat  ?  And  in  an- 
other place,'"'  answering  the  objection  which  some 
made  against  receiving  the  eucharist  on  a  fast  day, 
for  fear  of  breaking  their  fast,  he  tells  them,  (ac- 
cording as  some  copies  read  it,)  They  might  take 
the  body  of  the  Lord  and  reserve  it ;  and  so  they 
might  both  participate  of  the  sacrifice  and  fulfil 
their  duty  of  fasting.  But  I  lay  no  stress  upon 
this,  because  it  is  a  doubtful  reading.  The  testi- 
mony of  Cyprian  is  more  full  and  pregnant,'^  who 
tells  us  a  most  remarkable  story  of  a  woman,  who 
having  sacrificed  at  the  heathen  altars,  when  she 
came  afterward  to  open  her  chest,  where  she  kept 
the  holy  sacrament  of  the  Lord,  she  was  so  terrified 
with  a  sudden  eruption  of  fire,  that  she  durst  not 
touch  it.  And  the  ancient  author  who  writes 
against  the  Roman  shows,  under  the  name  of  Cy- 
prian,'^ brings  in  one  going  immediately  from 
chiu'ch,  as  soon  as  he  was  dismissed,  to  the  theatre, 
carrying  the  eucharist  with  him,  according  to  cus- 
tom, even  among  the  obscene  bodies  of  harlots. 
Gregory  Nazianzen  also  ""  speaks  of  his  sister  Gor- 
gonia  having  the  eucharist  in  her  chamber.  And 
Basil  says,'^'  it  was  customary  in  times  of  persecu- 
tion for  Christians,  when  they  could  not  have  a 
priest  or  a  deacon  present  with  them,  to  take  the 
eucharist  with  their  own  hands ;  as  they  who  led 
a  solitary  life,  at  a  great  distance  from  the  priest, 
commonly  took  the  eucharist  with  their  own  hands 
also.  And  it  was  customary  at  Alexandria  and 
throughout  Egypt  for  the  people  every  one  to  take 
the  sacrament  home  with  them.  St.  Jerom  '^-  also 
intimates  the  same,  when  he  asks  those  who  thought 
they  might  safely  take  the  sacrament  at  home,  when 
they  were  not  prepared  to  do  it  in  the  church,  whe- 


ther they  thought  there  was  one  Christ  in  public, 
and  another  in  private  ?  Why  were  they  afraid  to 
go  to  church  ?  If  it  was  not  lawful  to  receive  it  in 
the  church,  it  was  not  lawful  to  receive  it  at  home. 
St.  Ambrose  likewise,  in  his  funeral  oration  upon 
his  brother  Satyrns,  says  of  him,'**  that  he  obtained 
the  body  of  Christ  of  some  that  had  it  in  the  ship, 
wherein  he  suffered  shipwreck.  It  is  true  indeed 
this  custom  was  discouraged  in  Spain  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  fifth  century,  upon  the  account  of  the 
Priscillianists,  who  made  use  of  it  as  a  pretence  to 
cover  themselves  among  the  catholics,  and  yet 
never  eat  the  eucharist  at  all.  In  opposition  to 
whom  the  council  of  Saragossa,"'^  about  the  year  381 , 
made  a  severe  decree,  that  if  any  one  was  found  to 
take  the  eucharist  in  the  church,  and  not  eat  it,  he 
should  be  anathematized.  And  this  was  seconded 
by  a  like  decree  '^  in  the  first  council  of  Toledo. 
But  as  these  canons  were  only  made  upon  a  parti- 
cular occasion,  and  for  a  particular  country,  they 
did  not  much  affect  the  rest  of  the  world.  Inso- 
much that  Bona  himself  observes,'^"  out  of  Johan- 
nes Moschus  and  Anastasius  Bibliothecarius,  se- 
veral instances  of  the  custom  continuing  in  the 
seventh  and  eighth  centuries.  And  doubtless  it 
was  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation,  and  the 
adoration  of  the  host,  that  perfectly  abolished 
this  custom,  which  was  thought  inconsistent  with 
them. 

It  must  be  noted  under  this  head,         „  .  ,, 

'  Sect.  U. 

that  though  the  church,  for  the  rea-  ,„Xd  in'l^  p"uJc" 
sons  aforesaid,  allowed  the  people  to  *"""• 
carry  the  eucharist  home  with  them,  and  participate 
of  it  in  private  by  themselves ;  yet  she  never  per- 
mitted any  layman  to  have  any  hand  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  it  in  her  public  service.  As  the 
bishops  and  presbyters  were  the  only  persons  that 
were  allowed  to  consecrate  the  eucharist,  so  it  was 
the  ordinary  office  of  deacons  to  minister  it  to  the 
people.'"  And  when  any  laymen  presumed  to  ad- 
minister it  to  themselves  in  the  church,  they  were 
corrected  for  it  by  ecclesiastical  censures.'^*  And 
more  especially  women  were  debarred  from  this  "'' 
and  all  other  offices  in  the  public  ministrations,  ex- 
cept what  belonged  to  the  inferior  service  of  the 


'26  Tertul.  ad  Uxor.  lib.  2.  c.  5.  Non  seiet  maritus  quid 
secreto  ante  oiniiem  cibum  gustes  ? 

'"  De  Orat.  cap.  14.  Accepto  corpore  Domini,  et  re- 
servato,  (others  road  it,  re  servata,)  utrumque  salvum  est,  et 
participatio  sacrilicii,  et  executio  officii. 

'28  Cypr.  de  Lapsis,  p.  132.  Cum  quaedam  mulier  arcam 
suam,  in  qua  Domini  sanctum  fuit,  indignis  manibus  ten- 
tasset  aperire,  igne  inde  surgente  deterrita  est,  ne  auderet 
attingere. 

'-'"  Cypr.  do  Spectaculis,  p.  3.  in  Append.  Qui  festinans 
ad  spectaculum,  dimissus,et  adhuc  gerens  secum,  ut  assulet, 
eucharistiam  inter  corpora  obsccena  meretricum  tulit. 

'^0  Naz.  Orat.  11.  de  Gorgonia,p.  187. 

'5'  Basil.  Ep.  289.  ad  Caesariam  Patriciam. 

'^-  Hieron.  Ep.  ^yO.  ad  Pammachium.    Quare  ad  martyres 


ire  non  audent  ?  Quare  non  ingrediuntur  ecclesias  ?  An 
alius  in  publico,  alius  in  domi  Christus  est^?  Quod  in  ec- 
clesia  non  licet,  nee  domi  licet. 

"'  Ambros.  Orat.  de  Obitu  Fratris,  t.  3.  p.  19. 

'^'  Cone.  Coesaraugust.  can.  3.  Eucharistiae  gratiam  si 
quis  probatur  acceptam  in  ecclesia  non  sumpsisse,  anathe- 
ma sit  in  perpetuura. 

'^^  Cone.  Tolet.  1.  can.  14.  Si  quis  acceptam  a  sacerdote 
eucharistiam  non  sumpserit,  velut  sacrilegus  propellatur. 

'■"^  Bona,  Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  2.  cap.  17.  n.  4. 

'3'  See  Book  II.  chap.  20.  sect.  7  and  8. 

'^  Cone.  Trullan.  can.  58. 

"^  Vid.  Firmil.  Ep.  75.  inter  Epist.  Cypr.  Cone.  Paris, 
an.  829.  lib.  1.  cap.  45. 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


805 


deaconesses,  of  which  I  have  given  a  full  account"" 
in  another  place. 

Here  I  cannot  omit  the  pertinent  observation 
made  by  Morinus,'"  and  approved  by  Bona"'  as  a 
judicious  and  true  remark,  That  the  Mendicants 
were  the  first  that  introduced  the  custom  of  keep- 
ing the  sacrament  in  the  church  for  private  men  in 
health  to  partake  of  extra  sacrijicium,  out  of  the 
time  of  public  service  in  the  church.  They  freely 
own  this  to  be  a  novelty,  and  that  against  the  rules 
of  the  Roman  ritual,  which  orders  the  sacrament  to 
be  kept  in  the  church  only  for  the  sick.  They  say, 
the  ancients  kept  it  in  the  church  only  upon  this  ac- 
count, for  the  sake  of  the  sick ;  and  that  they  al- 
lowed no  use  of  the  communion  to  men  in  health 
out  of  the  time  of  the  oblation,  save  only  when 
they  permitted  the  people  to  carry  it  home  with 
them,  and  participate  thereof  in  private,  which  was 
a  different  thing  from  public  communicating  in  the 
church."' 

Whilst  we  are  speaking  of  reserving 
A  novel  ciistom  tlic  sacramcnt,  it  may  not  be  amiss  to 

noted,  of  reserving  i      -i  i 

the  eucharist   for  make  a  remark  by  the  way  upon  a 

forty  daya,  and  the  ^    ■    ^       •  ,  i      , 

inconveniencies  at-  novcl   custom,  wluch  IS  related   by 

lending  It.  .  . 

some  of  the  Roman  rituaUsts  about 
the  time  of  Charles  the  Great,  They  tell  us,  it  was 
usual  in  those  days,  in  the  ordination  of  a  bishop 
or  presbyter,  not  only  to  give  the  new  ordained  per- 
son the  communion  at  that  time,  but  also  as  much 
of  it  in  reserve  as  would  serve  him  to  partake  of  for 
forty  days  after.  This  custom  is  mentioned  by  Al- 
cuin,"*  and  the  Ordo  Romanus,  and  Fulbertus  Car- 
notensis,  and  Bona"*  does  not  pretend  to  find  it  in 
any  more  ancient  writers.  It  is  hard  to  guess  at  the 
reasons  of  this  custom,  and  therefore  I  content  my- 
self barely  to  mention  it,  without  further  inquiry 
into  the  mystery  of  it.  I  only  observe,  that  some- 
times great  inconveniences  followed  upon  this  long 
reservation  of  the  sacrament;  for  it  would  often 
grow  mouldy,  corrupt,  and  stink,  and  then  they 
were  hard  put  to  it  to  determine  which  way  to  dis- 
pose of  it.  Sometimes  by  the  negligence  of  the 
priest  it  was  devoiu-ed  by  mice  or  other  animals,  in 
which  case  the  priest  was  to  do  penance  forty  days 


•M  Book  II.  chap.  22. 

'"  Morin.  de  Pceniten.  lib.  8.  cap.  14. 

"-  Bona,  Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  2.  cap.  17.  n.  6. 

"■'  The  reader  that  would  see  more  abuses  crept  into  the 
Human  service,  may  consult  the  twenty-first  session  of  the 
council  of  Basil,  cap.  de  Spectaculis  in  Ecclcsia  non  facien- 
I  dis,  or  Mr.  Gregory's  dissertation,  called  Episcopus  Pucr- 
i'lum,  where  he  will  see  how  the  episcopal  office  was  used 
to  be  mimicked  in  pageantry  on  Innocents'  day  in  many 
clnirches. 

'"  Alcuin.  de  Offic.  cap.  37.  Pontifex  ad  communican- 
dum  porrigit  ei  formatam  et  sacram  oblationem,  quam  ac- 
cipiens  communicat  super  altare,  caetera  vero  reservat  sibi 
ad  communicandum  usque  ad  dies  quadraginta.  It.  Ordo 
Roma,  in  Ordinat.  Episcopi.  Et  Fulbert.  Ep.  ad  Finardiim. 

'«  Bona,  Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  1.  cap.  23.  n.  y. 


for  his  neglect,  as  Gratian"*  cites  a  canon  out  of 
some  council  of  Aries  or  Orleans  to  this  purpose. 
But  if  it  grew  stale  and  corrupted,  then  it  was  to  be 
burnt,  by  other  canons  cited  by  Ivo"'  and  Bur- 
chardus  ""  out  of  the  council  of  Aries,  ordering,  tliat 
in  this  case  it  should  be  burnt,  and  the  ashes  of  it 
buried  under  the  altar.  Which  Algerus""  assures 
us  was  the  custom  in  his  time,  as  Bona'^'  confesses 
out  of  him.  And  the  very  canon  of  the  mass'^'  has 
a  rubric  still  in  being.  That  if  a  fly  or  spider,  or 
any  such  animal,  falls  into  the  cup  after  consecra- 
tion, the  priest,  when  mass  is  ended,  nmst  take  it 
out  and  wash  it  with  wine,  and  burn  it  in  the  fire. 
And  so  he  must  do  if  it  be  spilt  up(m  the  grouud, 
he  must  gather  up  the  earth  and  burn  it.  And  yet 
some  of  the  schoolmen'*-  cry  out  against  this  as  an 
horrible  sacrilege,  to  burn  the  consecrated  host, 
though  it  be  grown  mouldy,  which,  according  to 
their  opinion,  woidd  be  to  burn  the  body  of  God. 
He  that  would  see  to  what  difficulties  the  Roman 
casuists  are  driven  upon  this  point,  to  tell  what  be- 
comes of  the  body  of  Christ  when  the  sacrament 
happens  to  be  thus  corrupted,  and  how  they  distress 
and  confute  one  another ;  may  considt  the  learned 
Aubertin,'*'  who  has  particidarly  considered  their 
several  different  answers,  no  less  than  seven  in 
number,  and  showed  the  vanity  of  them  all,  in  that 
elaborate  work  of  his  upon  the  eucharist,  against 
the  doctrine  of  the  Romish  church.  I  will  not  lead 
my  reader  too  far  out  of  his  way  with  long  digres- 
sions about  such  things,  but  return  to  the  business 
of  the  ancient  church. 

Though  they  did  not  receive  cner-  ^^^^  ,^ 
gumens,  or  persons  vexed  with  evil  J^:^,Z^';^iti  to 
spirits,  promiscuously  to  the  commu-  hiTeTv^^of'^hdr 
nion,  yet  neither  did  they  wholly  re-  '^''^'"p"- 
ject  them;  but  in  the  intervals  of  their  distemper, 
if  they  showed  any  signs  of  piety  and  sobriety,  they 
admitted  them  to  partake  of  it.  This  we  learn 
from  the  canons  of  Timothy,  bishop  of  Alexandria, 
who  proposes  this  question.  Whether  a  communi- 
cant may  commimicate  if  he  be  possessed  ?  and 
answers  it.  If  he  does  not  expose  or  blaspheme'*' 
the  mysteries,  he  may  communicate  now  and  then. 

'*"  Gratian.  de  Cnnsecrat.  Dist.  2.  cap.  91.  Qui  bene  nnn 
custodierit  sacrificium,  et  mus  vel  aliquod  aliud  animal  illiid 
comederit,  qnadragiiita  diebus  preuiteat. 

"'  Ivo,  Decret.  par.  2.  cap.  5G. 

'<''  Burchard.  lit).  5.  c.  50. 

•'»  Alger,  de  Euchar.  lib.  2.  cap.  1. 

'^^  Bona,  Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  2.  cap.  10.  n.  2. 

'^'  IMissuI.  de  Defcctibus  Missae,  can.  10.     Si  musca  vel 

aranea  vel  aliquid  aliud  ceciderit  in  calicem sacerilos 

extrahat  eaui  el  lavet  cum  vino,  iinitaquc  missa  comliu- 
rat,  &c. 

'^- Petrus  Paliidanns,  in  Sent.  lib.  4.  Dist.  9.  Qii.Tst.  1. 
art.  3.  Hostias  consecratas  quamvis  mucidas  comburcre 
immane  sacrilegium. 

'"■^  Albertin.  de  Euchar.  lib.  1.  c.  19.  p.  122. 

'^^  Timoth.  Respons.  Canon,  c.  3.  ap.  Bevereg.  t.  2. 


806 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


And  Cassian'"  says,  the  same  resolution  was  given 
to  the  question  by  the  Egyptian  fathers,  who  did 
not  choose  to  interdict  them  the  communion,  but 
rather  desired  they  should,  if  possible,  communicate 
every  day.  For  by  this  means  they  had  relieved 
one  abbot  Andi-onicus  and  many  others  of  their  dis- 
temper. So  that  though  the  canons  and  rules  of 
the  church  seem  to  drive  away  the  energumens  to- 
gether with  the  catechumens  and  penitents,  they 
are  to  be  imderstood  with  this  exception ;  or  at 
least  Ave  must  say,  the  church  observed  a  different 
discipline  in  different  places. 

It  would  be  endless  to  enumerate 

Au  men"  debarred  hcre  all    tlic    particular    crimes    for 

guuty  of  any  notori-  which  mcn  Were  debarred  the  holy 

ous  crime,  of  what  .  ,      „    , 

rank  or  degree  so-  communiou :   wc  Shall  liavc  a  morc 

ever. 

proper  occasion  to  specify  them  in  the 
next  volume,  when  we  come  to  treat  more  perfectly 
and  distinctly  of  the  church's  discipline  :  it  may  be 
sufficient  to  note  here  in  general,  that  all  who  were 
guilty  of  any  notorious  crimes,  were  rejected  from 
participating  at  the  holy  table,  whatever  rank  or 
degree  they  were  of,  even  though  it  were  the  em- 
peror himself,  as  appears  from  the  case  of  Theodo- 
sius,  whom  St.  Ambrose  resolutely  and  absolutely 
refused,  for  a  barbarous  murder  committed  by  his 
authority  upon  seven  thousand  men  at  Thessa- 
lonica,  till  he  had  both  confessed  his  fault,  and 
made  ample  satisfaction ;  as  the  reader  may  find  the 
story  at  large  excellently  related  by  Theodoret'^^  in 
his  History,  and  which  I  will  relate  from  him  in  the 
next  volume  in  its  proper  place.  Some  other  par- 
ticular cases  are  proposed  and  answered  in  the 
canons  of  Dionysius,'"  and  Timothy,'^'  and  by  St. 
Jerom,"'  which  because  they  are  rather  private 
cases  of  conscience  than  matters  of  public  dis- 
cipline, I  refer  the  reader  to  their  proper  authors 
for  them. 

There  is  one  question  in  a  doubtful 
The  q'uestion  of  casc,  wliich  the  obscurity  of  some  an- 

dieamy,   or   second       .  .  -,  -,  , 

marriage  stated.       cicnt  canous  lias  made  very  perplexed 

Whether  it  debarred  .  .  .  ,       . 

men  any  time  from  and  intricate  lu   the   resolutions   of 

the  communion. 

learned  men,  which  therefore  may 
not  be  silently  passed  over :  that  is,  the  question 
about  digamy  or  second  marriage,  in  what  sense  it 
excluded  men  for  some  time  from  the  holy  commu- 
nion ?  The  penalty  inflicted  upon  them,  is  ab- 
stinence from  the  sacrament  for  one  year  or  two ; 
which  I  freely  own,  as  it  is  ordered  and  worded  by 


the  canons  of  Neocsesarea,"^  Laodicea,'^'  and  St. 
Basil,"""  is  one  of  the  hardest  cases  we  meet  with  in 
all  the  history  of  the  ancient  church.  Bishop 
Beveridge  and  some  others  think  they  mean  only 
second  marriages  that  are  contracted  whilst  the 
first  remains  undissolved.  And  if  so,  there  would 
be  no  difficulty  in  the  case  ;  for  a  severer  penance 
might  be  laid  upon  such  as  retain  two  wives  at  once. 
And  therefore  others  think,  they  intended  to  dis- 
courage, though  not  absolutely  to  forbid,  second 
marriages  made  successively  after  the  obligation  of 
the  first  was  cancelled  by  death  :  but  then,  how  to 
reconcile  this  with  the  apostolical  rules,  is  not  very 
easy  to  determine.  Neither  can  it  be  excused  from 
inclining  to  the  errors  of  the  Novatians  and  Mon- 
tanists,  for  which  Tertullian  pleads  so  stiffly  against 
the  church  in  his  book  De  Monogamia,  and  other 
places.  I  should  rather  think  these  canons  intend- 
ed no  more  but  to  discountenance  marrying  after 
an  unlawful  divorce,  which  was  a  scandalous  prac- 
tice, however  allowed  by  the  laws  of  Jews  and  Gen- 
tiles. And  this  the  rather,  because  TertuUian's 
arguments  against  the  catholics  imply,  that  they 
allowed  of  second  marriages  successively  in  all  ex- 
cept the  clergy,  and  many  churches  admitted  diga- 
mists (in  that  sense)  even  into  orders  too,  as  I  have 
showed  out  of  Tertullian  himself,  and  Chr}"sostom, 
and  Theodoret  more  fully '^  in  another  place.  And 
if  these  canons  intended  any  thing  more,  they  must 
be  looked  upon  as  private  rules,  which  could  not 
prescribe  against  the  general  sense  and  practice  of 
the  catholic  church. 

There  was  one  very  corrupt  and         g^^^  ,3 
superstitious  practice  began  to  creep  tom''of'^''s"me',  who 
pretty  early  into  the  African  churches  foiL"e!d,'censur'ed 

T  .1  1  •    T_     ii^       i»  xi  by  the  ancients. 

and  some  others,  which  the  fathers 
censure  very  heartily,  as  it  justly  deserved :  that 
was,  giving  the  eucharist  to  the  dead.  The  third 
council  of  Carthage  has  a  canon  to  this  purpose,'" 
That  the  eucharist  should  not  be  given  to  the  bodies 
of  the  dead :  for  the  Lord  said,  "  Take  this  and 
eat : "  but  dead  bodies  can  neither  take  nor  eat. 
Caution  also  is  to  be  used,  that  the  brethren  may 
not  through  ignorance  believe,  that  dead  bodies 
may  be  baptized,  seeing  the  eucharist  may  not  be 
given  to  them.  And  this  with  a  little  variation  is 
repeated  in  the  African  Code,'"  where  the  cause 
of  both  errors,  as  well  in  baptism  as  the  eucharist, 
is  ascribed  to  the  ignorance  of  the  presbyters  mis- 


'"  Cassian.  CoUat..  7.  cap.  30.  Communionem  vero  eis 
sacrosanctam  a  senioribus  nostris  nunquam  meminimus  in- 
terdictam  :    quinimo,  si  possibile  esset,  etiam  quotidie  eis 

impartire  earn  deberc  censebant. Hoc   iiamque  modo 

curatum  et  Andronicuui  abbatem  nuper  aspeximus,  aliosque 
q'.ianiplures. 

'56  Theod.  lib.  5.  cap.  17.  '"  Dionys.  can.  2  et  4. 

'53  Timoth.  can.  5,  7,  12. 

'59  Hieroa.  Ep.  20.  ad  Pammach.  cap.  G. 


'™  Cone.  Neocaes.  can.  7.  '*'  Cone.  Laod.  can.  1. 

'«2  Basil,  can.  4.  "«  Book  IV.  chap.  5.  sect.  4. 

'^^  Cone.  Carth.  3.  can.  6.  Placuit  ut  corporibus  defunc- 
torum  eucharistia  non  detur.  Dictum  est  enim  a  Domino, 
Accipite  et  edite :  cadavera  autem  nee  aecipere  possunt  nee 
edere.  Cavendum  est  etiam,  ne  mortuos  baptizari  posse 
fratrum  infirmitas  credat,  quibus  nee  eueharistiam  dari  lici- 
tum  est. 

'«  Cod.  Afric.  can.  18. 


<     HAP.     IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


807 


quilling  the  people.  A  like  canon  was  made  in  the 
council  of  Auxerre  in  France,  anno  578,  a  little  ""^ 
before  the  time  of  Grcgorj'  the  Great ;  which  shows 
tliat  the  same  abuse  had  got  some  footing  there 
also.  St.  Chrysostom  also  speaks  against  it,'" 
though  he  does  not  intimate  that  it  was  practised 
by  any  catholics,  but  rather  (if  by  any)  by  the 
Marcionite  heretics,  who,  as  they  gave  a  vicarious 
baptism  to  the  hving  for  the  dead,  so  perhaps  might 
give  the  eucharist  to  the  dead  themselves;  both 
which  absurdities  he  refutes  at  once  from  the  words 
of  our  Saviour.  To  whom  did  he  say,  "  Except  ye 
eat  my  flesh,  and  drink  my  blood,  ye  have  no  life 
in  you  ?  "  Did  he  speak  to  the  li\ang,  or  to  the 
dead?  And  again,  "Except  a  man  be  born  of 
water  and  of  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom 
of  God."  It  appears  also,  that  long  after  St.  Chrysos- 
tom's  time  there  were  some  remains  of  this  error  in 
the  Greek  church :  for  the  council  of  TruUo '®  re- 
peats the  prohibition  in  the  words  of  the  council  of 
Carthage  :  Let  no  one  impart  the  eucharist  to  the 
bodies  of  the  dead ;  for  it  is  written,  "  Take,  and  eat ;" 
but  the  bodies  of  the  dead  can  neither  take  nor  eat. 
Bona  does  not  undertake  to  defend 
raraiid' to  which  thls  abusc,  but  he  does  another  which 

isllieabuscofburv-     . 

in:;  the  euchanst  IS  no  Icss  absurd,  bccausc  he  found  it 

with  the  dead, 

in  the  practice  of  St.  Benedict,  and 
related  with  approbation  by  Gregory  the  Great; 
that  is,  the  custom  of  burying  the  eucharist  with 
the  dead.  Bona  says,'*^  this  was  done  by  St.  Basil 
in  the  Greek  church,  as  is  reported  in  his  Life ;  but 
all  men  know  the  author  of  that  Life  to  be  both  a 
spurious  and  a  legendary  writer.  That  which  he 
alleges  out  of  Gregory  is  more  authentic ; ''°  for  he 
says,  St.  Benedict  ordered  the  communion  to  be 
laid  upon  the  breast  of  one  of  his  monks,  and  to  be 
buried  with  him.  He  reckons  these  things  were 
done  either  by  Divine  instinct,  or  by  compUance 
with  received  custom,  which  is  since  abrogated. 
But  he  produces  no  rule  of  his  church  to  show  its 
abrogation.  And  whatever  rules  there  may  be  to 
the  contrary,  it  is  certain  the  practice  continued 
still.  For  not  only  Balzamon'"  and  Zonaras  speak 
of  it  in  their  time  ;  but  Ivo  says,""  When  the  body 
of  St.  Othmar  was  translated,  the  sacrament  was 
taken  up  out  of  the  dormitory  with  him.  And  a 
learned  man  "^  now  living  assures  us,  that  he  him- 
self with  many  others   have  seen  the  chalice  in 


Sect.  21. 

The  order  of  com- 

muuicatiiig. 


which  the  sacred  blood  was  buried,  dug  out  of  the 
graves  of  divers  bishops  buried  in  the  church  of 
Sarura.  So  that  whatever  the  laws  might  prohibit, 
the  profanation  continued  under  pretence  of  piety 
among  the  greatest  men,  but  without  any  founda- 
tion or  real  example  in  the  practice  of  the  primitive 
church. 

We  have  hitherto  considered  what 
related  to  the  communicants  them- 
selves ;  we  are  now  to  examine  the 
manner  of  their  communicating.  Where  first  of  all 
the  order  of  their  communicating  occurs  to  our 
observation ;  which  is  thus  described  in  the  Con- 
stitutions :  First  let  the  bishop  receive,"^  then  the 
presbyters,  deacons,  subdeacons,  readers,  singers, 
and  ascetics ;  among  the  women,  the  deaconesses, 
virgins,  and  widows;  after  that  the  children,  then 
all  the  people  in  order.  In  Justin  Martyr's  time,'" 
when  the  bishop  had  consecrated,  the  deacons  dis- 
tributed both  the  bread  and  the  cup  among  the 
communicants ;  but  in  after  ages  the  bishop  or 
presbyter  commonly  ministered  the  bread,  and  the 
deacons  the  cup  after  them.  And  there  are  some 
canons  that  expressly  "®  forbid  a  deacon  to  minister 
the  body  of  Christ,  when  a  presbyter  is  present,  and 
others  enjoining  them  not '"  to  do  it  without  neces- 
sity, and  a  hcence  from  the  presbyter  to  do  it.  And 
it  was  ever  accounted  so  great  an  absurdity  for  a 
presbyter  to  receive  from  the  hands  of  a  deacon, 
that  the  council  of  Nice'"  thought  fit  to  make  a 
particular  canon  to  forbid  it.  But  by  permission 
and  custom  it  became  their  ordinary  ofiice  to  min- 
ister the  cup,'"  and  sometimes  both  species'^  to 
the  people,  observing  the  method  prescribed  to 
communicate  every  one  in  their  proper  order. 

Another  distinction  was  made  in  g^.^^  „, 
placing  the  communicants  in  their  se^°e?%o/"duunc- 
proper  stations.  For  though  no  dis-  """'"'p'^'^^- 
tinction  was  made  in  this  case  between  rich  and 
poor ;  they  being  all  called  alike  to  partake  toge- 
ther of  the  same  communion,  as  friends  of  one  com- 
mon Lord;'^'  yet  some  distinction  of  place  for 
order's  sake  was  generally  observed,  though  not 
exactly  the  same  in  all  places,  but  with  some  va- 
riety according  to  the  different  customs  of  difTerent 
churches.  In  the  Spanish  churches  it  was  custom- 
ary for  the  presbyters  and  deacons  to  communicate 
at  the  altar,  and  the  rest  of  the  clergy  in  the  quire, 


'^  Cone.  Antissiodor.  can.  12.  Non  licet  mortuis  nee  eu- 
charistiam  nee  osculum  tradi,  &c. 

""  Chrys.  Horn.  40.  in  1  Cor.  p.  688. 

>«  Cone.  Trull,  can.  133. 

'«•  Bona,  Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  2.  cap.  17.  n.  6. 

I'o  Greg.  Dial.  lib.  2.  cap.  24.  Jussit  communionera 
1  Domiaici  corporis  in  pectus  dcfuucti  reponi  atque  sic  tu- 
mulari. 

'"  Not.  in  can.  83.  Cone.  Trull. 

''-  Ivo,  Vita  Othmari,  lib.  2.  c.  3.  ap.  Surium,  die  16 
Nov. 


'•'  Dr.  Wliitby,  Idolatry  of  Host  Worship,  chap.  1.  p.  26. 

'"^  Constit.  lib.  8.  cap.  13.  '"  Justin.  Apol.  2.  p.  97. 

"^  Cone.  Arelat.  2.  can.  15.  Diaconi  corpus  Christi, 
praesente  presbytero,  tradere  non  praisumant. 

'"  Cone.  Carthag.  4.  can.  38.  Diaconus,  prsRsente  pres- 
bytero, eucharistiani  corporis  Christi  populo,  si  necessitas 
cogat,  jussus  eroget. 

'•"  Cone.  Nic.  can.  18. 

'"  Vid.  Cyprian,  de  Lapsis,  p.  132.    Constit.  lib.  8.  c.  13. 

^^  Cone.  Aneyr.  can.  2. 

'81  Vid.  Chrysost.  Horn.  10.  in  1  Thess.  p.  1485. 


808 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


and  the  people  without  the  rails  of  the  chancel,  as 
is  plain  from  a  canon  of  the  fourth  council'*^  of 
Toledo ;  and  to  this  a  reference  is  made,  as  to  an 
ancient  custom,  settled  long  before  by  former  canons, 
in  the  first  council  of  Braga.'^'  Which  implies  that 
there  were  rules  of  old  about  this  matter,  since  the 
council  of  Braga  could  not  mean  the  council  of 
Toledo,  for  that  was  after  it,  anno  633.  The  refer- 
ence must  be  to  more  ancient  canons,  such  as  that 
of  the  council  of  Laodicea,  which  '"*  orders.  That 
none  but  the  clergy  only  should  come  to  communi- 
cate within  the  chancel.  And  this  seems  to  have 
been  the  constant  practice  of  the  Greek  church, 
where  no  layman  from  that  time,  besides  the  em- 
peror, was  allowed  to  come  to  the  altar  to  make  his 
oblations,  and  communicate  there ;  but  this  privilege 
was  allowed  the  emperor  by  ancient  tradition,"*^  as 
the  council  of  TruUo  words  it.  And  yet  even  this 
was  denied  the  emperor  in  the  Italic  church.  For 
St.  Ambrose  would  not  permit  the  emperor  Theodo- 
sius  himself  to  communicate  in  this  place,  but 
obliged  him  to  retire  as  soon  as  he  had  made  his 
oblations  at  the  altar.  But  Valesius  '^^  has  observed 
out  of  the  epistles  of  Dionysius,  bishop  of  Alexan- 
dria, that  in  the  third  century  it  was  customary  both 
for  men  and  women  to  come  and  stand  at  the  altar 
to  communicate :  and  Mabillon  shows '"  out  of 
Gregory  of  Tours,'**  that  the  same  custom  prevailed 
in  the  Galilean  churches.  And  it  is  very  evident 
from  the  second  council  of  Tours,  which  has  a 
canon  to  this  purpose :  That  though  laymen  at  other 
times  should  not  come  into  the  chorus  or  chancel, 
yet  when  the  oblation  Avas  offered,"*^  both  men  and 
women  might  come  into  the  holy  of  holies  to  com- 
municate at  the  altar.  So  that  this  was  plainly  one 
of  those  rites  which  varied  according  to  the  differ- 
ence of  times  and  places,  and  the  various  usages  aud 
customs  of  different  churches.  There  are  a  great 
many  other  customs  relating  to  the  manner  of  com- 
municating, which  are  of  greater  moment,  and  be- 
come matters  of  great  dispute  in  these  latter  ages, 
and  therefore  it  will  be  necessary  to  consider  and 
examine  them  a  little  more  particularly,  which  I 
shall  do  in  the  following  chapter. 


CHAPTER  V. 

A  RESOLUTION  OF  SEVERAL  QUESTIONS  RELATING 
TO  THE  MANNER  OF  COMMUNICATING  IN  THE 
ANCIENT   CHURCH. 

The  first  and  most  momentous  ques- 
tion of  this  kind  is,  whether  the  peo-     That  the  'peopi* 

were  always  admit- 

ple,  and  such  of  the  clergy  as  did  not  Jf^fth'^io^s"'™ '" 
consecrate,  were  generally  admitted  to 
commimicate  in  both  kinds  ?  The  principal  advo- 
cates of  popery  at  the  beginning  of  the  Reforma- 
tion' were  not  willing  to  own,  that  the  universal 
practice  of  the  primitive  church  was  against  the 
modern  sacrilege  of  denying  the  cup  to  the  people  : 
and  therefore,  though  they  confessed  there  were 
some  instances  in  antiquity  of  communion  under 
both  kinds,  yet  they  maintamed,  the  custom  was 
not  universal.  So  Eckius,  and  Harding,  and  many 
others.  But  they  who  have  since  considered  the 
practice  of  the  ancient  church  more  narrowly,  are 
ashamed  of  this  pretence,  and  freely  confess,  that 
for  twelve  centuries  there  is  no  instance  of  the 
people's  being  obliged  to  communicate  only  in  one 
kind,  in  the  public  administration  of  the  sacrament,^ 
but  in  private  they  think  some  few  instances  may 
be  given.  This  is  Cardinal  Bona's  distinction, 
whose  words  are  so  remarkable,  that  I  cannot  for- 
bear to  transcribe  them :  It  is  very  certain,  says  he, 
that  anciently  all  in  general,  both  clergy  and  laity, 
men  and  women,  received  the  holy  mysteries  in 
both  kinds,  when  they  were  present  at  the  solemn 
celebration  of  them,  and  they  both  offered  and  were 
partakers.  But  out  of  the  time  of  sacrifice,  and  out 
of  the  church,  it  was  customary  always  and  in  all 
places  to  communicate  only  in  one  kind.  In  the 
first  part  of  the  assertion  all  agree,  as  well  catholics 
as  sectaries  ;  nor  can  any  one  deny  it,  that  has  the 
least  knowledge  of  ecclesiastical  affairs.  For  the 
faithful  always  and  in  all  places,  from  the  very  first 
foundation  of  the  church  to  the  twelfth  century, 
were  used  to  communicate  under  the  species  of 
bread  and  wine ;  and  in  the  beginning  of  that  age 


'*-  Cone.  Tolet.  4.  can.  17.  Sacerdos  et  Levita  ante  altare 
comniimicent,  in  clioro  clerus,  extra  chorum  populus. 

'^^  Cone.  Bracaren.  1.  can.  31.  Placiiit  ut  intra  sanctu- 
arium  altaris  ingredi  ad  communicaudum  non  liceat  laieis 
viris  vel  mulieribus,  sicut  et  antiquis  canouibus  statutum  est. 

"**  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  19.  MoVots  i^dv  tluut  toIs 
itprtTLKOL^  tiariivai  tis  to  Sfu(Tiai7T})piov  Kai  Koiviovtiv. 

'^5  Cone.  Trull,  can.  69.  Kara  ap)(aLOTu.Ti}v  Trapuoo- 
aiv,  K.T.X. 

186  Vales.  Not.  in  Euseb.  lib.  7.  cap.  9. 

'"  Mabil.  de  Liturg.  Gallic,  lib.  1.  cap.  5.  n.  24. 

'^  Greg.  Turon.  lib.  9.  cap.  3.  et  lib.  10.  cap.  8. 

"*"  Cone  Tnron.  2.  can.  4.  Ad  orandura  et  communi- 
candum  laieis  et  femiuis,  sicut  mos  est,  pateaiit  sancta 
sanctorum. 

'  Vid.  Eckii  Enchirid.  cap.  10.  de  Euchar.  p.  130.  Hard- 


ing's Answer  to  Juel's  Challenge,  Art.  2.  p.  30.     Bellar- 
luiu.  de  Euchar.  lib.  4.  cap.  24. 

2  Bona,  Her.  Liturg.  lib.  2.  c.  18.  n.  1.  Certum  est 
oinnes  passim  clericos  et  laicos,  viros  et  mulieres  sub  utraque 
specie  sacra  mysteria  antiquitus  suinpsisse,  cum  solemni 
eorum  celebrationi  adorant,  et  oft'erebant  et  de  oblatis  par- 
tieipabant.  E.xtra  saerificium  vero,  et  extra  ecclesiam  sem- 
per et  ubiqiie  communio  sub  una  specie  in  usu  fuit.  Primae 
parti  assertiouis  consentiunt  omnes,  tarn  catholici,  quam 
sectarii ;  nee  earn  negare  potest,  qui  vel  levissima  rerum 
ecclesiasticarum  notitia  imbutus  sit.  Semper  eniui  et  ubique 
ab  ecclesiiB  primordiis  usque  ad  sajculum  duodecimum  sub 
specie  panis  et  vini  conimuniearunt  fideles  ;  coepitque  pau- 
latim  ejus  speculi  initio  usus  calieis  obsolescere,  plerisque 
episcopis  eum  populo  interdicentibus  ob  periculum  irreve- 
rentia;  et  effusionis. 


'Chap.  V. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


809 


',  the  use  of  the  cup  began  by  little  and  little  to  be 
laid  aside,  whilst  many  bishops  interdicted  the  peo- 
j  pie  the  use  of  the  cup  for  fear  of  irreverence  and 
effusion.  And  what  they  did  first  for  their  own 
churches,  was  afterward  confirmed  by  a  canonical 
!  sanction  in  the  council  of  Constance.  This  is  as 
fair  and  ample  a  confession  for  the  practice  of  the 
universal  church  as  we  desire,  and  it  serves  to  show 
the  vanity  of  all  those  arguments,  from  Scripture 
and  antiquity,  that  were  offered  at  by  the  first 
managers  of  this  dispute,  to  prove  the  practice  of 
communicating  in  both  kinds  not  to  be  universal. 
It  supersedes  also  all  further  trouble  of  citing  au- 
thorities in  this  dispute,  as  unnecessary  in  a  matter 
so  much  beyond  all  doubt  and  exception  by  the  ad- 
versaries' own  confession.  Though  the  reader  that 
desires  to  see  the  authorities  produced  at  large,  may 
find  them  in  Vossius'  and  Du  Moulin,^  and  more 
amply  in  Chamier,^  and  a  late  treatise  of  a  learned 
writer'  in  our  own  tongue,  showing,  that  there  is 
no  catholic  tradition  for  communion  in  one  kind. 
But  Bona  not  only  grants  us  all  this,  but  tacitly  an- 
swers all  the  plausible  arguments  used  by  Bellar- 
mine'  and  others,  to  persuade  their  readers  into  a 
belief  of  the  ancient  church  giving  the  communion 
only  in  one  kind.  Bellarmine  urges  the  frequent 
mention  of  reducing  delinquent  clergymen  to  lay 
communion  ;  which  he  interprets  communion  in  one 
kind.  But  Bona  rejects  this  notion  of  lay  commu- 
nion as  utterly  false  f  reflecting  tacitly  upon  Bellar- 
mine, and  other  modern  writers  of  his  own  church, 
as  ignorant  of  the  ancient  discipline,  who  no  sooner 
hear  of  the  name,  lay  communion,  but  presently 
they  take  it  in  the  sense  that  it  now  bears,  and  in- 
terpret it  communion  in  one  kind ;  which  how  false 
it  is,  says  he,  we  may  learn  from  hence,  that  we 
often  read  of  clergymen  being  thrust  down  to  lay 
communion  at  that  time,  when  laymen  communi- 
cated in  both  kinds.  Others  draw  an  argument  from 
that  which  the  ancients  call  commimio  jKret/rhia,  the 
communion  of  strangers,  which  they  interpret  com- 
munion in  one  kind;  but  Bona"  takes  a  great  deal 
of  pains  to  show  the  ignorance  of  these  men,  and 
makes  an  accurate  inquiry  into  the  true  notion  of 


this  sort  of  communion,  concluding,  that  whatever 
it  meant,  it  did  not  mean  communion  in  one  kind. 
Bellarmine  draws  another  argument  or  two  from  the 
reservation  of  the  eucharist  for  the  use  of  the  sick, 
and  from  that  private  and  domestic  communion, 
which  we  have  seen  before  was  allowed  to  private 
Christians  in  their  own  houses,  or  in  a  journey,  or 
in  the  wilderness :  all  which  Bellarmine  will  have  to 
have  been  only  in  one  Idnd,  But  besides  that  this 
is  false  in  itself,  (for  they  reserved  not  only  one, 
but  both  kinds  for  these  uses,  as  we  shall  see  more 
by  and  by,)  Bona'"  says,  it  is  altogether  beside  the 
question  :  for  the  question  is  not  about  private  and 
extraordinary  communion  in  cases  of  great  exigence, 
but  about  the  public,  solemn,  and  ordinary  commu- 
nion of  the  church ;  concerning  which  he  concludes, 
no  instance  can  be  produced  before  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury of  its  being  celebrated  only  in  one  kind. 

But  then,  that  he  may  not  seem  to  give  up  the 
cause  of  his  church,  and  desert  it  as  whoUy  despe- 
rate, he  pretends  that  the  change  that  was  made  by 
the  council  of  Constance,  and  confirmed  by  the 
council  of  Trent,  was  against  no  Divine  law ;  for 
communion  in  both  kinds  was  neither  instituted  by 
God,  nor  did  the  ancient  fathers  ever  teach  it  to  be 
necessary  to  salvation.  One  would  wonder  to  see 
discerning  men  so  infatuated.  What  words  can  be 
able  to  express  a  Divine  institution,  if  those  of  our 
Saviour  are  not,  "  Drink  ye  all  of  this  ?  "  Or  how 
should  the  fathers  believe  communion  in  both  kinds 
not  to  be  necessary,  who  thought  it  necessary  for 
children,  and  actually  communicated  them  in  both 
kinds,  whenever  they  were  capable  of  receiving  it, 
as  we  have  seen  before  ?  But  he  was  sensible  some 
of  their  own  popes  have  called  it  a  grand  sacrilege 
to  divide  the  mystery.  Gelasius  "  complains.  That 
some  received  the  bread,  but  abstained  from  the  cup ; 
whom  he  condemns  as  guilty  of  superstition,  and 
orders,  that  they  should  either  receive  in  both  kinds, 
or  else  be  excluded  from  both  ;  because  one  and  the 
same  mystery  cannot  be  divided  without  grand  sacri- 
lege. Leo  the  Great'-  declaims  against  them  after 
the  same  manner :  They  receive  the  body  of  Christ 
with  an  unworthy  mouth,  but  refuse  to  drink  the 


'  Voss.  Thes.  Theol.  Disp.  5.  de  Symbolis  CcenEe  Domin. 

^  Moulin,  Novelty  of  Popery,  Book  7.  Controversy  12. 

■'  Chamier  de  Eucharist,  lib.  8.  cap.  9. 

'•  Demonstration  that  the  Church  of  Rome  has  erred  in 
her  Decrees  about  Communion  in  one  Kind. 

'  Bellarm.  de  Euchar.  lib.  4.  cap.  21. 

*•  Bona,  Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  2.  cap.  19.  n.  3.  Recentiores, 
qui  audito  nomine  communionis,  ejus  veteri  notione  neglecta, 
id  solum  concipiunt  quod  hodie  ea  voce  significatur,  laicam 
ciiiamunionem  nihil  aliud  esse  putaut,  quam  perceptionem 
eticharistiae  sub  unica  specie,  aut  extra  cancellos  morelaico- 
rum ;  quod  quam  falsum  sit  vel  e.\  eo  liquet,  quod  saepe  cle- 
ricosad  laicam  commuuiouem  detrusos  legimus,  eo  tempore, 
quo  ctiam  laici  sub  utraque  specie  comniunicabant. 

^  Bona,  ibid.  n.  5.  Quidam,  inter  quos  Binius  in  notis  ad 
concilium  Ilerdense,  communionem  peregrinam  cum  laica 


confundunt.  Alii  existimanmt  nihil  aliud  esse  quam  per- 
ceptionem eucharistiae  sub  una  tantum  specie.  Verum  quid 
magis  alienum  a  disciplina  veterum  patrum  ?  &c. 

'»  Bona,  ibid.  c.  18.  n.  1. 

"  Gelas.  ap.  Gratian.  de  Consecrat.  Dist.  2.  cap.  12. 
Comperimus  quod  quidam  sumpta  tan tummodo  corporis  sacri 
portione,  a  calice  sacri  cruoris  abstineant.  Qui  proculdubio, 
quia  nescio  qua  superstitione  docentur  obstringi,  aut  integra 
sacramenta  percipiant,  aut  integris  arceantur  :  quia  divisio 
unius  ejusdemque  mysterii  sinegrandi  sacrilegio  non  potest 
provenire. 

'-  Leo,  Ser.  4.  de  Quadragesima.  Ore  indip;no  corpus 
Christi  accipiunt,  sanguinem  autem  redemjjtionis  nostra; 
haurire  omniuo  declinant. — Quorum  deprehensa  fiierit  sacri- 
lega  simulatio,  notati  et  prohibiti  a  sanctorum  societate  sa- 
cerdotali  auctoritate  pellantur. 


810 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


blood  of  our  redemption.  Such  men's  sacrilegious 
dissimulation  being  discovered,  let  them  be  marked, 
and  by  the  authority  of  the  priesthood  cast  out  of 
the  society  of  the  faithful.  It  is  in  vain  to  say 
here,  as  Bona  does,  That  these  decrees  were  only 
made  against  the  Manichees,  who  believed  wine  to 
be  the  gall  of  the  prince  of  darkness,  and  the  crea- 
ture of  the  devil,  and  therefore  refused  to  drink  it ; 
for  their  reasons  are  general  against  all  superstition 
whatsoever,  and  in  their  opinion  the  sacrament 
may  not  be  divided  without  gi-and  sacrilege,  and 
thwarting  the  rule  of  the  first  institution.  Which 
Bona  might  also  have  learned  from  another  decree 
related  in  their  canon  law,'*  under  the  name  of  Pope 
Julius,  who  says.  The  giving  of  the  bread  and  the 
cup,  each  distinct  by  themselves,  is  a  Divine  order 
and  apostolical  institution,  and  that  it  is  as  much 
against  the  law  of  Christ  to  give  them  jointly  by 
dipping  the  one  into  the  other,  as  it  is  to  offer  milk 
instead  of  wine,  or  the  juice  of  the  grape  imme- 
diately pressed  out  of  the  cluster;  all  which  are 
equally  contrary  to  the  evangehcal  and  apostolical 
doctrine,  as  well  as  the  custom  of  the  church,  as 
may  be  proved  from  the  Fountain  of  truth,  by 
whom  the  mysteries  of  the  sacraments  were  or- 
dained. Does  not  this  plainly  imply,  that  com- 
municating in  both  kinds  distinctly,  was  according 
to  the  laws  of  Christ,  and  agreeable  to  his  rule  and 
doctrine,  as  well  as  his  example  ?  With  what  face 
then  could  Bona  say.  That  communion  in  both 
kinds  was  neither  instituted  by  God,  nor  did  the 
ancient  fathers  judge  it  necessary  ?  when  even  some 
of  their  ancient  popes  have  told  us  so  plainly,  that 
communion  distinctly  administered  in  both  kinds 
is  a  Divine  order,  and  that  it  is  grand  sacrilege  to 
divide  them.  And  the  ancients  always  administered 
in  both  kinds  upon  this  principle,  because  it  was 
the  law  of  Christ,  whatever  Bona  or  his  partisans 
can  say  to  the  contrary. 

As  to  the  other  part  of  the  question,  whether  the 
ancients  did  not  in  some  private  or  extraordinary 
cases  administer  the  sacrament  in  one  kind,  we 
have  no  dispute  with  Bona,  as  being  nothing  to  the 
dispute  of  public  communion  by  his  own  confession ; 
though  all  the  arguments  made  use  of  by  him  and 
Bellarmine  in  this  case,  are  far  from  being  exactly 


true  and  conclusive.  For,  whereas  they  argue  for 
communion  in  one  kind  from  pi-ivate  and  domestic 
communion,  it  appears  from  several  instances  that 
this  sort  of  communicating  was  often  in  both  kinds. 
Thus  Nazianzen"  says  of  his  sister  Gorgonia,  that 
she  laid  up  the  antitypes  both  of  the  body  and  blood 
of  the  Lord.  And  St.  Ambrose,  speaking  of  his 
brother  Satyrus,'^  and  othei's  at  sea,  expresses  the 
matter  in  such  terms,  as  plainly  imply  that  they 
both  eat  the  bread  and  drunk  the  wine.  And 
whereas  again  they  say,  the  communion  reserved 
in  the  church  for  the  use  of  the  sick  was  only  in 
one  kind;  the  contrary  is  evidently  proved  from 
Justin  Martyr,"'  who  says.  The  deacons  were  used 
to  carry  both  the  bread  and  wine  to  the  absent ; 
and  from  St.  Chrysostom's  complaint"  to  Pope  In- 
nocent, That  in  that  horrible  assault  that  was  made 
upon  his  church,  the  holy  blood  of  Christ  was  spilt 
upon  the  sokhers'  clothes.  Which  Baronius  him- 
self"* brings  as  an  argument  to  prove,  that  they 
were  used  to  reserve  the  sacrament  in  both  kinds 
in  the  church  for  the  use  of  the  sick.  They  argue 
further,  from  the  example  of  such  as  took  long 
journeys,  or  went  to  sea,  that  they  always  commu- 
nicated in  one  kind.  But  Baronius  '^  proves  in  the 
same  place  from  the  authority  of  Gregory  the  Great, 
that  they  who  went  to  sea  carried  both  the  body 
and  blood  of  Christ  along  with  them  in  the  ship. 
And  Bona  himself^"  tells  us,  there  are  some  in- 
stances of  the  communion  being  carried  in  both 
kinds  to  hermits  and  recluses  in  the  wilderness,  as 
he  gives  an  example  in  Maria  jEgyptiaca,  out  of 
Sophronius.  They  urge  likewise  the  use  of  the 
presanctified  sacrament,  which  the  Greeks  used  all 
Lent,  except  on  Saturdays  and  Sundays,  as  has  been 
noted  before ;  and  the  Latins,  on  the  Farasceue,  or 
Good  Friday :  and  this  they  pretend  to  tell  us,  with 
great  confidence,  was  only  communion  in  one  kind ; 
for  they  reserved  only  the  bread,  and  not  the  wine, 
for  this  sort  of  communion.  Bellarmine  refers  us  to 
abundance  of  authors  for  this,  as  Pope  Innocent, 
Ep.  1,  cap.  4,  who  has  not  a  word  about  it;  and 
Gregory's  Sacramentarium,  and  the  Ordo  Romanus 
in  Officio  Parasceues,  and  Rabanus  Maurus,  and 
Micrologus.  But  Cassander-'  has  unluckily  spoiled 
this  argument,  and  inverted  it  upon  them.     For  he 


"  Jul.  Ep.  ad  Episc.  jEgypt.  ap.  Gratian.  de  Coiisecr. 
Dist.  2.  cap.  7.  Audivimus  quosdam  schismatica  ambitione 
detentos,  contra  Divinos  ordines,  et  apostolicas  institu- 
tiones,  lac  pro  vino  in  Divinis  sacrificiis  dedicaro;  alios 
quoque  intinctatn  eiicharistiam  populis  pro  compleniento 

tommunionis  porrigere. Quod  quain  sit  cvangelicoe  et 

apostolicBc  doctrinae  contrariuni,  et  consuetudini  ecclesias- 
tieso  adversum,  non  difficile  ab  ipso  fonte  veritatis  proba- 
bitur,  a  quo  ordinata  ipsa  sacramentorum  mysteria  pro- 
tesserunt,  &c. 

'^  Naz.  Orat.  11.  de  Gorgon,  p.  187. 

'*  Ambros.  Orat.  de  Obitu  Fratris,  t.  2.  p.  19.  Toto 
pectoris  haurirct  arcano,  &c.     Vid.  Voss.  Theses,  p.  517. 


ex.  Tappero. 

"^  Justin.  A  pel.  2.  p.  97.  Thus  also  some  think  we  may 
take  St.  Jerom  speaking  of  Exuperius,  bishop  of  Thoulouse, 
Nihil  illo  ditius,  qui  corpus  Domini  canistro  vimineo,  san- 
guinem  portat  in  vitro,  meaning  his  carrying  both  kinds  to 
the  sick. 

"  Chrys.  Ep.  ad  Innoc.  t.  4.  p.  681. 

'8  Baron,  an.  404.  t.  5.  p.  194. 

'^  Baron,  ibid,  ex  Gregor.  Dial.  3.  cap.  36. 

-»  Bona,  Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  2.  cap.  18.  n.  2.  ex  Vita  Mariae 
.^jryptiacae. 

-''  Cassand.  de  Communione  sub  utraque  Specie,  p. 
1027.  ■ 


bnAP.  V. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


811 


has  observed,  and  Vossius  after  him,"  thnt  the 
Ordo  Romanus,  in  the  office  of  Good  Friday,  ap- 
points wine  to  be  consecrated  with  the  Lord's 
prayer,  by  putting  some  of  the  preconsecrated  body 
into  it,  ^d  jJojmUs  plenc  jjossit  commimicare,  that  the 
people  may  have  the  full  communion  in  both  kinds. 
jAnd  the  same  is  to  be  said  of  the  Greeks'  presancti- 
fied  communion  ;  for  in  that  liturgy,  wine  and  water 
is  ordered  to  be  put  into  the  cup,  and  then,  in  their 
prayers  before  the  communion,  the  elements  are 
called  the  body  and  blood  of  the  Lord.  So  Cassan- 
iler.  But  Leo  Allatius,^  who  wrote  a  peculiar  dis- 
sertation upon  this  subject,  has  more  effectually 
ruined  this  argument,  which  it  is  a  wonder  Bona 
should  not  observe,  who  so  often  refers  to  his  dis- 
ertation,  and  commends  it.  For  he  shows  out  of 
the  Greek  writers,  Nicolas  Cabasilas  ^*  and  Simeon 
rhessalonicensis,^  that  in  this  communion  there 
were  both  the  elements  of  bread  and  wine,  either 
Bonsecrated  before,  or  by  the  touch  of  one  another. 
So  that  this  argument  not  only  proves  nothing  to 
their  purpose,  but  ruins  the  hypothesis  of  the  ob- 
jectors. For  this  prcsanctified  communion  of  the 
Greeks  was  in  both  kinds.  And  the  very  prayers 
n  this  liturgy,  both  before  and  after  the  commu- 
lion,  (as  Allatius-^  there  observes,)  evidently  show 
it.  For  the  priest  thus  prays  before  communion ; 
"  Vouchsafe  by  thy  mighty  power  to  impart  to  us 
thy  immaculate  body  and  thy  precious  blood,  and 
by  our  ministry  to  all  the  people."  And  after  com- 
union,  "  We  give  thee  thanks,  0  Lord,  the  Sa- 
viour of  all,  for  all  the  good  things  thou  hast  given 
I  us,  and  for  the  participation  of  the  holy  body  and 
blood  of  thy  Christ."  And  Allatius  observes  fur- 
ther,-' that  the  same  sort  of  communion  in  both 
kinds  was  used  on  Good  Friday  in  Spain  by  the 
jjrder  of  the  Mozarabic  liturgy,  which  agrees  with 
ixrhat  Cassander  observed  before  out  of  the  Latin 
church.  And  that  which  led  Bellarmine  and  Bona 
into  the  mistake,  to  take  this  for  communion  in  one 
kind,  was,  that  both  the  Greek  and  Latin  church 
'eserved  only  the  bread,  and  not  the  wine,  for  this 
service ;  but  when  they  came  to  communicate,  they 
put  the  preconsecrated  bread  into  a  cup  of  wine, 
and  said  the  Lord's  prayer  and  some  other  prayers, 
,nd  that  was  esteemed  a  consecration  of  it,  and  so 
they  proceeded  to  communicate  in  both.  I  have  been 
a  little  more  particular  in  explaining  this  rite,  be- 
cause it  is  the  only  instance  our  adversaries  can 
urge  with  any  colour,  of  public  communion  in  one 


kind ;  which  yet  when  rightly  understood,  we  see, 
is  no  argument  for  them,  but  directly  against  them. 
And  at  this  day  the  Greeks,  and  Maronites,  and 
Abyssinians,  and  all  the  Orientals,  never  communi- 
cate but  in  both  kinds,  as  Bona^  himself  confesses, 
out  of  Abraham  Echellensis  and  other  writers.  And 
as  to  other  instances  of  the  sick,  or  infants,  or  men 
in  a  journey,  who  communicate  only  in  one  kind,  (if 
they  were  never  so  true,  as  we  see  many  of  them 
are  false,)  they  are  private  and  extraordinary  cases, 
that  relate  not  to  the  public  communion  of  the 
church,  and  so  come  not  within  the  state  of  the 
present  question,  which  is  only  about  public  com- 
munion, and  not  what  was  done  in  some  very  par- 
ticular and  extraordinary  cases. 

Having  thus  despatched  this  grand 
question   about  communion   in   one     That  In  receiving 
kind,  and  showed  the  practice  of  the  always  received  the 

elements    distinctly, 

church  to  be  constantly  to  receive  in  and  not  the  one  dip- 

•'  ped  m  tlie  other. 

both  elements,  we  are  next  to  inquire, 
whether  they  received  them  both  separately  and 
distinctly,  or  the  one  dipped  into  and  mixed  with 
the  other.  The  modern  Greeks  have  a  custom, 
which  they  have  retained  for  some  ages,  of  dipping 
the  bread  into  the  wine,  and  ministering  it  so  mixed 
in  a  spoon  to  the  people.™  Some  learned  men, 
among  whom  are  Latinus  Latinius  ^°  and  Arcudius," 
make  this  custom  as  ancient  as  the  time  of  Pope 
Innocent  and  St.  Chrysostom;  but  Habertus'^  and 
Bona'^  prove  there  could  be  no  such  custom  in 
those  days,  it  being  altogether  contrary  to  the  usage 
of  the  church  in  that  age  to  mingle  the  elements 
together,  or  minister  them  any  otherwise  than  sepa- 
rate to  the  people.  And  indeed  there  is  nothing 
more  evident  than  this  in  all  the  writings  of  the 
ancients,  who  speak  of  delivering  the  bread  first 
with  a  certain  form  of  words,  and  after  that  the  cup 
with  another  form,  (as  we  shall  see  more  by  and  by,) 
and  that  commonly  by  distinct  persons,  a  bishop  or 
a  presbyter  ministering  the  one,  and  a  deacon  the 
other.  So  that  it  is  needless  to  multiply  testimo- 
nies to  show,  that  mixing  of  the  elements  is  a  novel 
invention.  I  only  note  one  passage  of  an  epistle 
that  goes  under  the  name  of  Pope  Julius"  in  Gra- 
tian's  collection,  which  seems  to  hint  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  practice,  and  condemns  it  as  a  great 
corruption,  contrary  to  the  primitive  institution  of 
our  Saviour.  Whereas,  says  he,  some  give  the  people 
the  eucharist  dipped  in  the  cup  for  a  complement 
of  the  communion,  this  has  no  authority  to  be  pro- 


«  Voss.  Theses  Theol.  p.  519. 

^  Allat.  de  Missa  Praesanctiiicatorum,  n.  7.  p.  1559. 
**  Cabasilas,  Expos.  Missae,  cap.  24. 
^  Simeon.  Opiisc.  cont.  Haereses.  Id.  Resp.  56.  ad  Ga- 
briel. Pentapolitan.  26  Allat,  ibid.  n.  19. 
"  Ibid.  n.  18.     Ex  missa  Mosarab.  in  die  Parasceues. 
='"'  Bona,  Rer.  Lituig.  lib.  2.  cap.  18.  n.  2. 
^  Vid.  Dr.  Smith's  Account  of  the  Greek  Church,  p.  142. 
*'  LatiniuSj  Ep.  ad  Anton.  Augustin. 


"  Arcud.  de  Concord,  lib.  3.  cap.  53. 

'-  Habert.  Archieratic.  par.  10.  Observ.  10.  p.  271. 
•  ^  Bona,  Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  1.  cap.  23.  n.  8.  et  lib.  2.  cap. 
18.  n.  3. 

^*  Gratian.  de.  Consecrat.  Dist.  2.  cap.  7.  Quod  vero  pro 
complemento  communionis  intinctam  tradunt  eucharistiam 
populis,  nee  hoc  prolatumex  evangelio  testimonium  recipit, 
ubi  apostolis  corpus  suum  et  sanguinem  commendavit.  Seor- 
suui  enim  panis,  et  seorsum  calicis  commendatio  inemoratur. 


812 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


duced  for  it  out  of  the  Gospel,  where  Christ  com- 
mended his  body  and  blood  to  his  disciples.  For 
the  Gospel  speaks  of  the  bread  being  apart,  and  the 
cup  apart  by  themselves.  This  is  repeated  in  the 
same  words  in  the  third  council  of  Braga,  anno 
675.^  Bona  tells  us  further,  out  of  Micrologus,^ 
that  it  was  forbidden  by  the  old  Roman  Ordo  ;  and 
that  Humbertus  de  Sylva  Candida,  who  wrote 
against  the  Greeks  in  the  middle  of  the  eleventh 
century,  declaims"  bitterly  against  it;  though,  he 
thinks,  with  more  zeal  than  he  needed  to  do,  for  a 
very  good  reason,  we  may  be  sure,  because  the  same 
practice,  as  much  an  abuse  as  it  was,  and  contrary 
to  the  first  institution,  was  not  long  after  authorized 
in  the  Roman  church.  For  Pope  Urban  II.,  in  the 
council  of  Clermont,  ordered  it  in  case  of  neces- 
sity so  to  be  administered  to  the  sick,  and  in  other 
cases  out  of  abundant  caution,  for  fear  the  blood 
should  at  any  time  be  spilt.  However,  it  had  various 
fortune  in  the  Roman  church.  For  Paschal  II. 
not  long  after  revoked  the  licence  of  his  predeces- 
sor, and  ordered'^  that  neither  infants  nor  the 
sick  should  have  the  communion  mixed,  but  rather 
take  the  blood  alone,  which  he  thought  more  de- 
cent than  to  give  the  bread  dipped  in  the  cup.  Yet 
this  did  not  satisfy  the  council  of  Tours,^"  mentioned 
by  Ivo,  for  they  thought  still,  that  the  sick  in  case 
of  necessity  ought  to  have  it  dipped,  that  they  might 
have  it  in  both  kinds,  and  that  the  presbyter  who 
administered  it  might  say  with  truth.  The  body  and 
blood  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  unto  thee  for 
remission  of  sins  and  eternal  life.  The  men  of  this 
age  did  not  yet  think  it  lawful  to  communicate  even 
the  sick  in  one  kind  only,  nor  that  the  priest  could 
say  with  truth  to  the  communicant,  The  body  and 
blood  of  Christ,  when  he  did  not  give  him  both 
kinds.  But  Bona  here  pities  their  ignorance :  for 
they,  poor  men!  had  not  yet  learned  that  noble 
secret  in  divinity,  the  doctrine  of  concomitancy, 
to  know,  that  the  body  of  Christ  cannot  be  without 
the  blood.  But  he  goes  on  to  acquaint  us  out  of  an 
old  Ritual  of  Joannes  Abrincatensis,  that  this  mixed 
communion  was  ordered  to  be  given  to  all  the  peo- 
ple likewise,  for  fear  of  effusion.  And  in  the  ancient 
customs  of  the  monastery  of  Cluny,  published  by 
Dacherius,  there  is  an  order,  that  the  novices  should 
thus  communicate,  for  fear  that,  if  they  took  the 
blood  by  itself,  they  might  incur  some  negligence 
and  shed  it.  Thougli  it  is  intimated  in  a  marginal 
note  there,  that  the  old  custom  of  giving  both  kinds 
separately  was  used  in  other  churches.  In  Eng- 
land the  custom  of  mixing  the  elements  so  far  pre- 


vailed, that  Ernulphus,  or  Arnulphus,  bishop  of  Ro- 
chester, anno  1 120,  wrote  a  letter  in  defence  of  it, 
which  is  also  published  by  Dacherius  in  his  Spici- 
legium,  tom.  2,  where  one  Lambert  proposes  the 
question  to  him,  why  the  eucharist  was  administered 
at  present  after  a  different  and  almost  contrary  man- 
ner to  that  which  was  observed  by  Jesus  Christ ; 
because  it  was  customary  at  that  time  to  distribute 
a  host  steeped  in  wine  to  the  communicants,  where- 
as Jesus  Christ  gave  his  body  and  blood  separately  ? 
To  this  Arnulphus  answers.  That  this  was  one  of 
those  things  that  might  be  altered,  and  therefore, 
though  anciently  the  two  species  of  bread  and  wine 
were  given  separately,  yet  now  they  were  given  to- 
gether, lest  any  ill  accidents  should  happen  in  the 
distribution  of  the  wine  alone,  and  lest  it  should 
stick  on  the  hairs  of  the  beard  or  the  whiskers,  or 
should  be  spilt  by  the  minister.  Yet  for  all  this,  not 
long  after,  Richard,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  in  a 
synod  held  at  Westminster,  anno  1175,  prohibited^" 
the  giving  the  eucharist  steeped  in  wine  as  a  comple- 
ment of  the  communion.  Thus  this  matter  was 
bandied  about,  and  disputed  backwards  and  for- 
wards, in  the  Latin  church ;  some  allowing  it,  others 
condemning  it ;  now  a  council  settling  it,  and  then 
another  unsettling  it,  and  condemning  all  that  went 
before  them  ;  till  at  last  the  council  of  Constance 
came  in  with  her  paramount  authority,  and,  as  Bona 
thinks,  very  wisely  put  an  end  to  all  these  disputes 
and  inconveniences  at  once,  by  taking  the  cup 
wholly  from  the  people,  and  ordering  that  they 
should  neither  have  it  separately  nor  conjunctly: 
and  so  this  abuse  of  giving  the  eucharist  steeped  in 
wine,  after  a  long  course  and  struggle  of  various 
fortune,  was  cured  with  a  worse  error,  which  took 
away  the  cup  from  the  laity,  and  denied  one  part 
of  the  sacrament  wholly  to  the  people.  Let  us 
now  return  again  to  the  ancient  church. 

The  next  question  may  be  concern-  ^^^^  ^ 
ing  the  posture  in  which  they  received.  re«»"ed 'lometo"^ 
The  resolution  of  which  must  be  in  kSnl't'ilT^n^er 
these  three  conclusions :  1.  That  they  ^'  "'°' 
sometimes  received  standing.  2.  Sometimes  kneel- 
ing. 3.  Never  sitting,  that  we  read  of.  That  they 
frequently  received  the  communion  standing,  may 
be  evidenced  two  ways ;  by  a  direct,  and  by  a  col- 
lateral argument.  The  direct  argument  is,  their 
positive  assertions  concerning  the  standing  posture. 
Thus  Dionysius  of  Alexandria,  speaking  of  one  who 
had  often  communicated  among  the  faithful,  repre- 
sents him,  rpantZy  irapcKrravra,  as  standing"  at  the 
Lord's  table.      Upon  which   Valesius  makes  this 


^^  Cone.  Bracarens.  3.  can.  1. 

"*  Microlog.  cap.  19.  Non  est  authenticum  quod  quidam 
corpus  Domini  intingunt,  ct  intinctum  pro  coraplemento  com- 
muniiinis  populo  distribuunt,  nam  Ordo  Homanus  contradicit. 

"  Humbert.  Refutat.  Calumniar.  Michael.  Cerularii. 

^'  Paschal.  Ep.  .32.  ad  Pontium. 

^'  Cone.  Turon.  ap.  Ivouem,  par.  2.  cap.  19.     Sacra  ob- 


latio  intincta  debet  esse  in  sanguine  Christi,  ut  veraciter 
presbyter  possit  dicere  infirmo,  corpus  et  sanguis  Domini 
nostri  Jesu  Christi  proficiat  tibi  in  remissionem  peccatorum 
et  vitam  aetemam. 

'"'  Cone.  Westmonaster.  can.  II.  Inhibemus  ne  quis  quasi 
pro  coniplemento  communionis  intinctam  alicui  eucharis- 
tiam  tradat.  *'  Dionys.  Epist.  ap.  Euseb.  lib.  7.  cap.  9. 


Chap.  V. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


813 


remark,''-  that  anciently  they  received  the  eucharist 
standing,  not  kneehng,  as  now  the  custom  is.  And 
Habertus  undertakes  to  prove  against  the  ItaHan  di- 
vines," as  he  calls  them,  that  the  whole  Divine  liturgy 
was  celebrated  standing,  and  that  they  both  conse- 
crated standing  and  received  standing.  And  Bona" 
acknowledges  the  same  for  the  Greek  church,  though 
lie  is  a  little  more  doubtful  of  the  Latin.  For  the 
(ircck  church  he  produces  the  authority  of  Chry- 
sostom,  (Orat.  in  Encaenia,)  and  Cyril  of  Jerusalem, 
wlio  bids  his  communicant "  receive  it  bowing  his 
l)ody  in  the  posture  of  worship  and  adoration. 
Some  interpret  this  kneeling,"  but  it  signifies  stand- 
ing, with  inclination  or  bowing  of  the  body  in  the 
manner  of  adoration.  And  so  St.  Chrysostom" 
represents  both  priest  and  people  as  standing  at  the 
altar.  This  altar,  says  he,  (speaking  of  the  altar  of 
a  man's  own  soul,  sending  up  devoutly  prayers  and 
alms  to  God,)  is  a  more  tremendous  altar  than  that 
whereat  thou  who  art  a  layman  standest.  And 
again,  As  the  priest  stands  invoking  the  Spirit,  so 
thou  invokest  him  also,  not  by  thy  words,  but  by 
thy  works.  In  like  manner  St.  Austin,  representing 
the  Christians'  way  of  worshipping  God  at  the  altar, 
to  answer  the  calumny  of  the  heathen,  who  accused 
them  of  giving  Divine  worship  to  their  martyrs, 
says.  Which  of  the  faithful  ever  heard  the  priest 
when  he  stands*^  at  the  altar  say  in  his  prayers,  I 
offer  sacrifice  unto  thee,  O  Peter,  or  Paul,  or  Cy- 
prian, when  he  offers  to  God  at  their  monuments  or 
memorials  ?  Which  I  produce  here  only  to  show, 
that  their  prayers  were  then  offered  in  a  standing 
posture  at  the  altar.  Upon  which  account  it  was 
usual  for  the  deacon  at  such  times,  especially  on 
such  days  as  this  posture  was  used,  to  call  upon  the 
people  in  some  such  form  of  admonition  as  that 
mentioned  frequently  by  St.  Chrj-sostom"""  and  the 
author  of  the  Constitutions,^"  'Op9oi  (Tru>fiiv  KaXuJQ,  Let 
us  stand  rightly  and  devoutly  to  offer  our  sacrifices 
and  oblations.  Some  think  Tertullian  also  refers 
to  this  posture,  when  he  says,*'  Nonne  solennior  crit 
statio  tua,  si  et  ad  aram  Dei  steteris  ?  Will  not  your 
station  be  the  more  solemn,  if  you  also  stand  at  the 
altar  of  God  ?  But  to  speak  freely,  I  think  Tertul- 
lian in  that  place  uses  the  word,  standing,  not  to 
distinguish  any  particular  posture  of  prayer,  but 
only  to  denote  a  longer  continuance  in  it  on  the 


stationary  days,  or  half  fasts,  when  they  continued 
their  religious  assemblies  till  three  in  the  afternoon  : 
for  on  these  days,  as  we  shall  hear  presently,  they 
prayed  always  kneeling,  though  on  other  days  they 
did  not ;  and  therefore  Tertullian  could  not  mean 
that  they  prayed  standing  on  those  days,  but  only 
that  they  extei^ded  their  devotions  to  a  greater 
length  on  those  stationary  days  beyond  others.  But 
without  this  controverted  passage  of  Tertullian, 
there  is  sufficient  evidence  from  the  foregoing  tes- 
timonies of  their  standing  to  receive  the  eucharist  at 
the  Lord's  table. 

And  this  is  farther  confirmed  by  a  collateral  ar- 
gument, which  is,  that  on  the  Lord's  day,  and  all 
the  days  of  Pentecost,  they  were  obliged  to  pray 
standing,  and  in  no  other  posture,  as  has  been  show- 
ed *-  at  large  above  :  therefore  it  is  very  reasonable 
to  believe,  that  at  all  such  times  they  received  the 
eucharist  in  the  same  posture  they  were  obliged  to 
pray,  that  is,  standing  at  the  altar. 

But  then  the  usual  custom  was,  on  all  other  days, 
and  particularly  on  the  stationary  days,  for  the 
whole  church  to  pray  kneeling,  as  has  likewise  been 
fully 53  ^^vinced  before :  and  therefore  it  is  no  less 
reasonable  to  believe,  that  they  received  the  com- 
munion in  the  same  posture  as  they  prayed,  though 
there  are  not  such  positive  evidences  of  their  prac- 
tice. What  some  allege  out  of  Tertulhan,  that  the 
people  did  ctris  Dei  adf/cnicuhtri,  kneel  down  to  the 
altars  of  God,*^  is  no  good  proof:  for  that  is  only  a 
corrupt  reading  of  the  first  editions,  which  others 
since  read  more  correctly,  caris  Dei  adyeniculan, 
falling  at  the  knees  of  the  favourites  of  God ;  allud- 
ing to  the  custom  of  penitents  falling  at  the  feet  of 
the  ministers  and  people,  to  beg  their  prayers  for 
them  when  they  went  into  the  church.  Nor  is  the 
argument  much  more  solid  that  others  bring  out  of 
Cyril's  Catechism,  where  he  bids  his  communicant 
receive  the  eucharist  kvtttwv  :  for  that,  as  I  have  ob- 
served just  now,  signifies  not  kneeling,  but  standing 
in  a  bowing  posture.  What  St.  Chrysostom  says 
in  one  of  his  exhortations  to  communicants,  seem.s 
more  nearly  to  express  it :  "  Let  us  come  with 
trembling,  let  us  give  thanks,  let  us  fall  down"  and 
confess  our  sins,  let  us  weep  and  lament  for  our 
miscarriages,  let  us  pour  out  fervent  prayers  to  God, 
and  let  us  come  with  a  becoming  reverence  as  to 


"  Vales,  in  loc.  Stantes,  non  ut  hodie  genibus  flexis,  ac- 
cipiebant. 

^  Habert.  Archieratic.  par.  8.  observ.  10.  p.  150. 

"  Bona,  Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  2.  cap.  17.  n.  8. 

"  Cyril.  Catech.  Myst.  5.  n.  19.  TLvtttiov  kul  Tpoiru) 
irpocKwijaiw^  kcu  (ril3d<TfiaT09,  Xtycui',  ufii'iv. 

'*^  Hamon  L'Estrange,  Alliance  of  Div.  OfBc.  chap.  7. 
p.  2U9. 

"  Chrys.  Horn.  20.  in  2  Cor.  p.  886.  ToDto  (pptKioSiirTf- 
pov  Srv(yin<rT-npiov  iKiivov,  lo  (tu  irapiirTrjKa^  6  Xaiicoi.  It. 
KattaTrfp  iVxti/CE  6  uptv^  to  Tlveu/uLa  koXwv,  k.t.X. 

*^  Aug.  de  Civ.  Dei,  lib.  8.  cap.  27.     Qiiis  audivit  ali- 


quando  fiilelium   stantem  sacerdotem  ad  altare dicere 

in  precibus,  Ofl'ero  tibi  sacrificium  Petre,  vel  Paule,  vol 
Cypriane,  cum  apud  eorum  memorias  ofTeratur  Deo,  &c. 
It.  cont.  Faustum,  lib.  20.  cap.  21.  Quis  antistitum  assistens 
altari,  aliquando  dixit,  OfFerimus  tibi  Petre  aut  Paule  aut 
Cypriane  ?  sed  quod  offertur,  offertur  Deo,  &c. 

'^  Chns.  Horn.  2.  in  2  Cor.  p.  740.  Horn.  29.  de  lucom- 
prehensibili,  t.  1.  p.  375.  ^  Con&lit.  lib.  8.  cap.  12. 

^'  Tertul.  deOrat.  cap.  M.    *-  Book  XIII.  chap.  8.  sect.  3. 

^^  Ibid.  sect.  4.  ^  Tertul.  de  Pocnitent.  cap.  9. 

"  Chrys.  Horn.  Ser.  31.  in  Natal.  Christi,  t.  5.  p.  480. 
nno<nri(TU)p.tv  i^o/xoXoyoufxivoi,  k.t.X. 


814 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


i 


our  heavenly  King."  But  if  there  were  none  of 
these  expressions,  the  very  custom  of  kneehng  at 
prayers  on  these  days  is  a  sufficient  indication  of 
the  posture  in  which  at  the  same  time  they  received 
the  communion. 

As  to  sitting,  there  is  no  example  of  it,  nor  any 
intimation  leading  toward  it,  in  any  ancient  writer. 
I  have  showed  before,  that  in  many  churches  they 
allowed  no  sitting  at  all  in  time  of  Divine  service, 
neither  in  preaching,  nor  reading  the  Scriptures, 
nor  in  psalmody,  nor  in  praying,  nor  after  praying 
neither.  And  it  would  be  unreasonable  to  imagine, 
that  what  was  rejected  at  all  other  times,  should  be 
allowed  in  receiving  the  communion.  Cardinal 
Perron  indeed  labours  hard  to  prove,  that  the  apos- 
tles received  sitting,  and  that  sitting  was  also  a  pos- 
ture of  adoration.  But  his  vanity  is  abundantly 
chastised  and  exposed  by  the  learned  Daille,  as  I 
have  noted  before^''  upon  another  occasion.  So 
that  this  posture  is  wholly  without  example  in  the 
ancient  church.  Nor  are  there  many  examples  of 
it  among  the  moderns,  and  of  those  that  be,  some 
of  them  are  such,  as,  considering  their  motives,  one 
would  least  of  all  choose  to  imitate  them.  The 
Arians  in  Poland  are  said  to  receive  the  communion 
sitting,  to  show  that  they  do  not  beUeve  Christ  to 
be  their  God,  but  only  their  fellow  creature.  For 
which  reason  some  of  the  protestant  Polish  synods 
expressly  forbid  this  posture,"  as  peculiar  to  the 
Arians,  and  obliged  all  their  people  to  receive  either 
standing  or  kneeling,  not  sitting,  as  being  a  posture 
taken  up  by  the  Arians,  and  contrary  to  the  prac- 
tice of  all  protestant  churches.  We  are  likewise 
told,  that  it  is  the  singular  privilege  of  the  pope  to 
communicate  sitting,  whenever  he  performs  the 
office  of  consecration.  Bona^  not  only  tells  us 
this,  but  describes  the  whole  ceremony  out  of  the 
book  called  Ceremoniale  Romani  Pontificis,  and 
the  old  Ordo  Romanus,  which  they  that  are  curious 
in  such  matters  may  consult  in  their  proper  places. 
I  go  on  with  the  practice  of  the  ancient  church. 
^  ,  ,  There  is   no   one   thing  that  has 

Sect.  4.  _  => 

th^host'for'Divinl  ™ade  greater  stir  and  confusion  in  the 
cfenT'ThiTrch"  for  Christian  world,  for  some  ages  past, 
^se'of  uansubltan-  than  tile  adoratiou  of  the  host,  ground- 
ed upon  a  false  presumption,  that  it 
is  not  bread  and  wine,  but  transubstantiated  into 
the  real  body  and  blood  of  Christ.  I  intend  not 
to  enter  upon  the  history  of  transubstantiation, 
(which  is  a  doctrinal  point,  and  comes  not  pro- 


perly into  this  work,  which  only  inquires  into  the 
practice  of  the  church,)  but  shall  content  myself  to 
say,  that  in  fact  the  most  eminent  of  the  ancient 
fathers  have  declared  as  plain  as  words  can  make 
it,  that  the  change  made  in  the  elements  of  bread 
and  wine  by  consecration,  is  not  such  a  change  as 
destroys  their  nature  and  substance,  but  only  alters 
their  quaUties,  and  elevates  them  to  a  spiritual  use, 
as  is  done  in  many  other  consecrations,  where  the 
qualities  of  things  are  much  altered  without  any 
real  change  of  substance.  Thus  Gregory  Nyssen  :^' 
This  altar  before  which  we  stand,  is  but  common 
stone  in  its  nature,  differing  nothing  from  other 
stones,  wherewith  our  walls  are  built ;  but  after  it 
is  consecrated  to  the  service  of  God,  and  has  received 
a  benediction,  it  is  a  holy  table,  an  immaculate 
altar,  not  to  be  touched  by  any  but  by  the  priests, 
and  that  with  the  greatest  reverence.  The  bread 
also  at  first  is  but  common  bread,  but  when  once 
it  is  sanctified  by  the  holy  mystery,  it  is  made  and 
called  the  body  of  Christ.  So  the  mystical  oil, 
and  so  the  wine,  though  they  be  things  of  little 
value  before  the  benediction,  yet  after  their  sanctifi- 
cation  by  the  Spirit,  they  both  of  them  work  won- 
ders. The  same  power  of  the  word  makes  a  priest 
become  honourable  and  venerable,  when  he  is  se- 
parated from  the  community  of  the  vulgar  by  a  new 
benediction.  For  he  who  before  was  only  one  of  the 
common  people,  is  now  immediately  made  a  ruler 
and  president,  a  teacher  of  piety,  and  a  minister 
of  the  holy  mysteries :  and  all  these  things  he 
does  without  any  change  in  his  body  or  shape ;  for 
to  all  outward  appearance  he  is  the  same  that  he 
was,  but  the  change  is  in  his  invisible  soul,  by  an 
invisible  power  and  grace.  Cyril  of  Jerusalem** 
uses  the  same  similitude  and  illustration  :  Beware 
that  you  take  not  this  ointment  to  be  bare  ointment. 
For  as  the  bread  in  the  eucharist,  after  the  invoca- 
tion of  the  Holy  Spirit,  is  not  mere  bread,  but  the 
body  of  Christ ;  so  this  holy  ointment,  after  invo- 
cation, is  not  bare  or  common  ointment,  but  it  is 
the  gift  or  grace  of  Christ  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  who 
by  his  presence  and  Divine  nature  makes  it  effica- 
cious; so  that  the  body  is  anointed  symbolically  with 
the  visible  ointment,  but  the  soul  is  sanctified  by 
the  holy  and  quickening  Spirit.  St.  Chrysostom, 
in  his  famous  epistle  to  CEesarius,  makes  a  like 
comparison,  to  explain  the  two  natures  of  Christ, 
against  the  ApoUinarians,  to  show  that  he  had  both 
a  human  and  Divine  substance  in  reality,  without 


50  Book  XIII.  chap.  8.  sect.  7. 

"  Synod.  Wlodislav.  an.  1583.  Artie.  G.  in  Corpore  Con- 
fession, par.  2.  p.  3U9.  Sententia  jam  olim  in  Sendomiriensi 
synodo  agitata,  et  conclusio  in  generali  Cracoviensi  atque 
Petricoviensi  synodo  facta  ac  repetita,  in  hoc  etiam  con- 
fessu  approbata  est :  nempe  ne  in  usu  sit  sessio  ad  mensam 
Dominicam  in  uUis  hujus  nostri  consensus  ecclesiis.  Nam 
ha;c  ceremonia,  licet  cum  ca;teris  libera,  ecclesiis  Christia- 


nis  et  cnetibus  evangelicis  noa  est  usitata,  tantumque  in- 
fidelibiis  Arianis,  cum  Domino  pari  solio  sese  collocantibus 
propria,  &c.  Vid.  Synod.  Petricovens.  Art.  4.  ibid.  p.  30G. 
Synod.  Cracoviens.  Art.  4.  p.  303. 

^^  Bona,  Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  2.  cap.  17.  n.  8. 

'"  Nysseu.  de  Bapt.  Christi,  t.  3.  p.  369. 

"•  Cyril.  Catech.  Myst.  3.  n.  3. 


CllAP.    V. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


815 


any  transformation  or  confusion :  As  the  bread,  says 
lie,  before  it  is  sanctified,  is  called  bread,  but  after 
the  Divine  grace  has  sanctified  it  by  the  mediation 
of  the  priest,  it  is  no  longer  called  bread,  but  digni- 
fied with  the  name  of  the  body  of  the  Lord,  though 
the  nature  of  bread  remain  in  it,  and  they  are  not 
said  to  be  two,  but  one  body  of  the  Son ;  so  here, 
i  he  Divine  nature  residing  or  dwelUng  in  the  human 
l)ody,  they  both  together  make  one  Son  and  one 
I  'erson.  When  this  passage  was  first  produced  by 
i'eter  Martyr,  it  was  looked  upon  as  so  unanswer- 
ahle,  that  they  of  the  Romish  church  had  no  other 
way  to  evade  the  force  of  it,  but  to  cry  out,  It  was 
a  forgery.  Peter  Martyr  left  it  in  the  Lambeth 
library,  but  it  was  ravished  thence  in  the  reign  of 
Queen  Mary.  Bigotius,  a  learned  French  papist, 
published  the  original,  but  the  whole  edition  was 
suppressed.  Yet  Le  Moyne  published  it  again  in 
Latin  among  his  Varia  Sacra :  and  a  learned  pre- 
late, who  now  so  deservedly  holds  the  primacy  in 
(lur  own  church,  and  whose  indefatigable  industry 
against  popery  will  never  be  forgotten,  having  pro- 
eured  the  sheets  which  the  Sorbonne  doctors  caused 
to  be  suppressed  in  Bigotius's  edition  of  Palladius, 
])ublished  it*"  in  our  own  tongue,  with  such  of  the 
(I reek  fragments  as  are  now  remaining.  And  in 
these  monuments  it  will  stand  as  the  unanswerable 
testimony  of  St.  Chrysostom,  and  a  key  to  explain 
all  other  passages  of  the  Greek  writers  of  that  age, 
A\  ho  were  undoubtedly  in  the  same  sentiments  of 
the  bread  and  wine  still  remaining  unalterable  in 
their  substance. 

Theodoret  lived  not  long  after  St.  Chrysostom, 
and  he  as  plainly  says,  that  the  bread  and  wine  re- 
main still  in  their  own  nature  after  consecration. 
Our  Saviour,  says  he,  would  have  those  ^^  who  are 
jiartakers  of  the  Divine  mysteries,  not  to  mind  the 
nature  of  the  things  they  see,  but  by  the  change  of 
names  to  believe  that  change  which  is  wrought  by 
grace.  For  he  that  called  his  own  natural  body, 
wheat  and  bread,  and  gave  it  the  name  of  a  vine  ; 
he  also  honoured  the  visible  symbols  or  elements 
with  the  name  of  his  body  and  blood,  not  changing 
their  nature,  but  adding  grace  to  nature.  In  an- 
other place,^  he  uses  the  very  same  weapon  to  foil 
an  Eutychian  heretic,  who,  to  prove  that  Christ's 
human  nature  was  changed  into  the  Divine  nature 
after  union,  uses  this  argument:  As  the  symbols  of 
the  Lord's  body  and  blood  are  one  thing  before  the 
invocation  of  the  priest,  but  after  invocation  are 


changed,  and  become  another  thnig:  so  also  the 
body  of  our  Lord  after  its  assumption  was  changed 
into  the  Divine  substance.  To  which  Theodoret 
thus  replies :  Thou  art  taken  in  thy  own  nets  which 
thou  hast  made :  for  neither  do  the  mystical  sym- 
bols depart  from  their  own  nature  after  consecra- 
tion, but  remain  in  their  former  substance,  figure 
and  form,  and  are  visible  and  palpable,  as  they  were 
before ;  yet  they  are  understood  and  believed  to  be 
what  they  are  made,  and  are  reverenced  as  those 
things  which  they  are  made.  Compare  therefore 
the  image  with  the  original,  and  thou  shalt  see  their 
likeness.  For  the  type  must  answer  to  the  truth. 
That  body  has  the  same  form,  and  figure,  and  cir- 
cumscription, and,  in  a  word,  has  the  same  sub- 
stance of  a  body  that  it  had  before ;  but  it  is  im- 
mortal after  the  resurrection,  and  is  freed  from  all 
corruption,  and  sits  at  God's  right  hand,  and  is  adored 
by  every  creature,  as  being  called  the  body  of  the 
Lord  of  nature.  These  words  are  so  plain,  that  the 
bread  continues  in  its  own  substance  after  conse- 
cration, as  the  body  of  Christ  continues  in  the  sub- 
stance of  human  nature  after  its  assumption,  that, 
as  Bishop  Cosins"  has  observed,  Nicolin,  the  pope's 
printer,  who  set  forth  these  Dialogues  at  Rome, 
anno  1547,  owns  that  Theodoret's  opinion,  as  to 
what  concerns  transubstantiation,  was  not  sound, 
but  he  might  be  excused,  because  the  church  had 
made  no  decree  about  it. 

Ephrem,  bishop  of  Antioch,  lived  about  a  hun- 
dred years  after  Theodoret,  anno  540,  and  he  wrote 
against  the  Eutychians  in  the  same  manner.  No 
man,  says  he,  that  hath  any  reason,"  will  say,  the 
nature  of  palpable  and  impalpable,  of  visible  and 
invisible,  is  the  same.  For  so  the  body  of  Christ, 
which  is  received  by  the  faithful,  does  not  depart 
from  its  own  sensible  substance,  and  yet  it  is  united 
to  a  spiritual  grace :  and  so  baptism,  though  it  be- 
comes wholly  a  spiritual  thing,  and  but  one  thing, 
yet  it  preserves  the  property  of  its  sensible  sub- 
stance, I  mean  water,  and  does  not  lose  what  it 
was  before. 

The  Latin  fathers  are  not  less  plain  and  full  in 
their  testimony  about  this  matter.  TertuUian  not 
only  frequently  says  it  is  bread  representing  '*  the 
Lord's  body,  and  the  figure  of  his  body,"  but  also 
teaches  us  to  trust  to  the  testimony  of  our  senses  in 
this  and  many  other  things  relating  to  Christ.  We 
are  not  to  call  in  question  those  senses'®  of  ours, 
lest  we  begin  to  doubt  of  the  certainty  of  the  very 


•"  Defence  of  the  Exposition  of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Church 
of  England,  against  Mr.  de  Meaux.     Lond.  1686. 

«  Theod.  Dialog.  I.  t.  4.  p.  17.     Vid.  Ep.  130  et  145. 

'■'  Id.  Dial.  2.  p.  85. 

'•'  Cosins,  Hist,  of  Transubstan.  p.  77. 

"■^  Ephrem  ap.  Photium,  Cod.  229. 

^•^  Tertul.  cont.  Marc.  lib.  1.  cap.  14.  Panem  quo  ipsum 
corpus  suum  repraesentat. 

'^'  Cont.  Marc.   lib.   4.   cap.  40.     Panem   corpus   suum 


fecit,  Hoc  est  corpus  meum  dicendo,  id  est,  figura  corporis 
mei. 

^  De  Anima,  cap.  17.  Non  licet  nobis  in  dubium  sensus 
istos  vocare,  ne  et  in  Christo  de  fide  eorum  deliberetur — ne 
forte  deceptus  sit,  cum  Petri  socrum  tetigit,  aut  alium  postea 
unguenti  senserit  spiritum,  quod  in  sepulturam  suam  ac- 
ceptavit, alium  postea  vini  saporem,  quod  in  sanguinis  sui 
memoriam  consecvavit,  &c.  Falsa  utique  testatio,  si  oculo- 
rum  et  aurium  et  manuum  sensus  natura  mentitur. 


816 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


things  that  are  related  of  Christ,  whether  he  was 
not  deceived,  when  he  saw  Satan  fall  from  heaven, 
or  when  he  heard  the  Father's  voice  testifying 
of  him,  or  when  he  touched  the  hand  of  Peter's 
mother,  or  when  he  smelled  the  spirit  of  the  oint- 
ment which  he  accepted  to  his  burial,  or  when  he 
tasted  the  wine  that  he  consecrated  to  be  the  me- 
morial of  his  blood.  St.  John  argues  upon  the 
testimony  of  our  senses,  "  what  we  have  seen,  what 
we  have  heard,  what  we  have  seen  with  our  eyes, 
and  om-  hands  have  handled  of  the  word  of  life." 
But  this  attestation  is  false,  if  our  senses  may  be 
deceived  in  the  nature  of  things,  which  we  see  with 
our  eyes,  and  hear  with  our  ears,  and  touch  with 
our  hands.  It  is  plain  from  these  words  of  Tertul- 
lian,  that  he  never  thought  of  transubstantiation, 
which  contradicts  four  of  the  five  senses  of  all 
mankind,  the  sight,  the  touch,  the  taste,  and  the 
smell ;  and  that  he  must  be  the  most  absurd  man 
that  ever  wrote,  if  after  all  he  could  believe  that  not 
to  be  bread,  which,  according  to  his  own  rule,  had 
the  testimony  of  so  many  several  senses. 

St.  Austin  uses  the  same  argument  with  Tertul- 
lian,  in  one  of  his  homilies  to  the  newly  baptized, 
which,  though  it  be  not  now  among  St.  Austin's 
works,  yet  it  is  preserved  by  Fulgentius,'^  and  Bede, 
and  Bertram.  Here,  instructing  them  about  the 
sacrament,  he  tells  them,  that  what  they  saw  upon 
the  altar  was  bread  and  the  cup,  as  their  own  eyes 
could  testify '°  to  them ;  but  what  their  faith  required 
to  be  instructed  about  was,  that  the  bread  is  the 
body  of  Christ,  and  the  cup  the  blood  of  Christ. 
But  such  a  thought  as  this  will  presently  arise  in 
your  hearts;  Christ  took  his  body  into  heaven, 
whence  he  shall  come  to  judge  the  quick  and  the 
dead.  And  there  he  now  sits  at  the  right  hand  of 
the  Father.  How  then  is  bread  his  body  ?  or  how 
is  the  cup,  or  that  which  is  contained  in  the  cup, 
his  blood  ?  These  things,  my  brethren,  are  therefore 
called  sacraments,  because  in  them  one  thing  is 
seen,  and  another  is  understood.  That  which  is 
seen,  has  a  bodily  appearance ;  that  which  is  under- 
stood, has  a  spiritual  fruit.  If  therefore  you  would 
understand  the  body  of  Christ,  hear  what  the  apostle 
says  to  the  faithful.  Ye  are  the  body  of  Christ  and 
his  members.  If  therefore  ye  be  the  body  and 
members  of  Christ,  your  mystery  or  sacrament  is 
laid  upon  the  Lord's  table,  ye  receive  the  sacrament 
of  the  Lord.     Ye  answer,  "  Amen,"  to  what  ye  are. 


and,  by  your  answer,  subscribe  to  the  truth  of  it. 
Thou  hcarest  the  minister  say  to  thee,  "  The  body  of 
Christ,"  and  thou  answerest,  "  Amen."  Be  thou  a 
member  of  the  body  of  Christ,  that  thy  "  Amen" 
may  be  true.  But  why  then  is  this  mystery  in 
bread  ?  Let  us  here  bring  nothing  of  our  own,  but 
hear  the  apostle  speak  again.  When  he  therefore 
speaks  of  this  sacrament,  he  says,  "  We  being  many, 
are  one  bread  and  one  body."  Understand  and  re- 
joice. We  being  many,  are  unity,  piety,  truth,  and 
charity,  one  bread  and  one  body.  Recollect  and 
consider,  that  the  bread  is  not  made  of  one  grain, 
but  of  many.  When  ye  were  exorcised,  ye  were 
then,  as  it  were,  ground ;  when  ye  were  baptized,  ye 
were,  as  it  were,  sprinkled,  or  mixed  and  wet  to- 
gether into  one  mass ;  when  ye  received  the  fire  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  ye  were,  as  it  were,  baked.  Be  ye 
therefore  what  ye  see,  and  receive  Avhat  ye  are. 
Here  St.  Austin,  first,  says  plainly,  that  it  was  bread 
and  wine  that  was  upon  the  altar,  for  which  he  ap- 
peals to  the  testimony  of  their  senses.  2.  That 
this  very  bread  and  wine  is  the  body  and  blood  of 
Christ.  Consequently  it  could  not  be  his  natural 
body  in  the  substance,  but  only  sacramentally.  3. 
He  says,  the  natural  body  of  Christ  is  only  in  hea- 
ven ;  but  the  sacrament  has  the  name  of  his  body ; 
because  though  in  outward,  visible,  and  corporeal 
appearance  it  is  only  bread,  yet  it  is  attended  with 
a  spiritual  fruit.  4.  Lastly,  he  saj^s,  that  the  sacra- 
ment not  only  is  a  representative  of  the  natural 
body  of  Christ,  but  also  of  the  mystical  body,  the 
church  ;  and  that,  as  a  symbol  of  the  church's  unity, 
it  is  called  the  body  of  Christ  in  this  sense,  as  well 
as  the  other.  So  that  if  there  were  any  real  tran- 
substantiation, the  bread  must  be  changed  into  the 
mystical  body  of  Christ,  that  is,  his  church,  as  well 
as  into  the  body  natural.  These  things  might  be 
confirmed  from 'abundance  of  parallel  passages  in 
St.  Austin's  works,  but  this  one  is  sufficient  to  show 
his  meaning. 

The  next  irrefragable  testimony  is  that  of  Pope 
Gelasius,  who  wrote  against  the  Nestorians  and  Eu- 
tychians,  about  the  reality  of  the  two  natures  in 
Christ,  anno  490,  where  he  thus  proves  them : 
Doubtless,  the  sacraments  of  the  body  and  blood  of 
Christ  which  we  receive,  are  a  Divine  thing ;  and, 
therefore,  by  them  we  are  made  partakers  of  the 
Divine  nature,  and  yet  the  substance  and  nature"  of 
bread  and  wine  do  not  cease  to  be  in  them.     And, 


«9  Fulgent,  de  Bapt.  ^Ethiopis,  cap.  11.  Beda  in  1  Cor. 
X.    Bertram,  de  Corpore  et  Sanguine  Dom. 

'"  Quod  ergo  videtis,  panis  est  et  calix,  quod  vobis  etiam 
oculi  vestri  renunciant.  Quod  autem  fides  vestra  postulat 
instruenda,  panis  est  corpus  Christi,  calix  sanguis  Christi. 

Quomodo  est  panis  corpus  ejus?     Et  calix,  vel  quod 

habet  calix,  quomodo  est  sanguis  ejus.  Ista,  fratres,  ideo 
dicuntur  sacramenta,  quia  in  eis  aliud  videtur,  aliud  intel- 
ligitur.  Quod  videtur,  speciem  habet  corporalem;  quod 
intelligitur,  fruclum  habet  spiritalera.     Corpus  ergo  Christi 


si  vis  intelligere,  apostolum  audi  dicentem  fidelibus,  Vos 
estis  corpus  Christi  et  membra,  &c. 

"  Gelas.  de  Duabus  Natur.  cout.  Nestor,  et  Eutych.  Bibl. 
Patr.  t.  4.  p.  422.  Certe  sacramenta  qua;  sumimus  corporis 
et  sanguinis  Domini  Divina  res  est,  propter  quod  et  per 
eadum  Divinee  efficimur  consortes  naturae,  et  tamen  esse  non 
desinit  substantia  vel  natura  panis  et  vini.  Et  certe  imago 
et  similitudo  corporis  et  sanguinis  Christi  in  actione  mys- 
teriorum  celebrantur,  &e. 


Chap.  V. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


817 


indeed,  the  image  and  similitude  of  the  body  and 
blood  of  Christ  is  celebrated  in  the  mysterious  ac- 
tion. By  this,  therefore,  is  evidently  showed  us,  that 
we  are  to  beheve  the  same  thing  in  our  Lord  Christ, 
as  we  profess  and  celebrate  and  take  in  his  image  : 
that  as,  by  the  perfecting  virtue  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
the  elements  pass  into  a  Divine  substance,  whilst 
their  nature  still  remains  in  its  own  propriety ;  so 
in  that  principal  mystery,  (the  union  of  the  Divine 
and  human  nature,)  whose  efficacy  and  power  these 
represent,  there  remains  one  true  and  perfect  Christ, 
both  natures,  of  which  he  consists,  continuing  in 
their  properties  unchangeable.  He  must  be  blind 
that  cannot  see  how  the  force  of  this  argimient  sup- 
poses that  bread  and  wine  continue  in  their  proper 
nature  and  substance  in  the  eucharist,  notwithstand- 
ing the  sacramental  union  that  is  made  between 
them  and  the  body  of  Christ  by  the  sacred  use  of 
them.  Without  this  it  had  been  of  no  force  against 
the  Eutychians,  and  they  might,  with  a  very  obvious 
reply,  have  inverted  the  argument  upon  him,  by 
sapng,  that  as  the  bread  was  changed  from  its  own 
nature  into  the  very  substance  of  the  natural  body 
of  Christ,  and  remained  no  longer  bread;  so  the 
human  nature  was  really  changed  into  the  Divine 
nature,  and  continued  no  longer  in  its  own  substance 
after  its  assumption  into  the  Godhead.  Which  ar- 
gument, in  the  mouth  of  an  Eutychian,  had  been 
unanswerable  to  Gelasius,  had  he,  with  his  success- 
ors, given  in  to  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation. 

Some  time  after  Gelasius  lived  Facundus,  an  Afri- 
can bishop,  about  the  year  550.  He  wrote  to  excuse 
Theodorus  of  Mopsuestia,  for  saj'ing,  that  Christ 
received  the  adoption  of  sons ;  which  he  does  after 
this  manner :  Christ  vouchsafed  to  receive  the  sacra- 
ment of  adoption,  both  when  he  was  circumcised, 
and  when  he  was  baptized.  Now,  the  sacrament 
of  adoption  may  be  called  adoption,  as  we  call  the 
sacrament  of  his  body  and  blood,  which  is  in  the 
Iconsecrated  bread  and  cup,  his  body  and  blood,  not 
because  the  bread  is  properly  his  body,'"  or  the  cup 
his  blood,  but  because  they  contain  the  mystery  of 
his  body  and  blood.  Whence  our  Saviour,  when  he 
blessed  the  bread  and  cup,  and  gave  them  to  his 
disciples,  called  them  his  body  and  blood.  It  is 
plain,  according  to  Facundus,  that  the  bread  and 
wine  are  not  properly  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ, 
but  properly  bread  and  wine  still,  and  onlj^  called 
his  body  and  blood,  as  baptism  and  circumcision 
are  called  adoption,  because  they  are  the  sacraments 


of  adoption,  and  not  the  very  thing  which  (hey  re- 
present. 

To  these  I  only  add  the  testimony  of  Isidore,  lii- 
shop  of  Seville,  who  lived  in  the  beginning  of  the 
seventh  century,  anno  630.  He,  speaking  of  the 
rites  of  the  church,"  says.  The  bread,  because  it 
nourishes  and  strengthens  our  bodies,  is  therefore 
called  the  body  of  Christ;  and  tlie  wine,  because  it 
creates  blood  in  our  flesh,  is  called  the  blood  of 
Christ.  Now,  these  two  things  are  visible,  but  being 
sanctified  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  they  become  the  sa- 
crament of  the  Lord's  body.  Bertram  also"  quotes 
a  like  expression  out  of  Isidore's  Origines :  That  as 
the  visible  substance  of  bread  and  wine  nourish  the 
outward  man ;  so  the  word  of  Christ,  who  is  the 
bread  of  life,  refresheth  the  souls  of  the  faithful, 
being  received  by  faith.  But,  as  Bishop  Cosins  and 
Mr.  Aubertin  have  observed,  this  passage,  by  some 
pious  fraud,  is  not  to  be  found  in  its  proper  place. 
Now,  if  the  bread  be  such  bread  in  substance  as 
nourishes  the  body,  then  it  must  be  such  as  is  pro- 
perly bread  still,  and  not  the  incorruptible  body  of 
Christ,  which  cannot  be  said  to  be  cast  out  into  the 
di-aught,  which  yet  Origen  says  of  it,"  That  the 
material  part  of  the  sacrament,  the  typical  and 
symbolical  body  of  Christ,  which  goes  in  at  the 
mouth,  goes  into  the  belly;  but  the  real  body  of 
Christ  is  only  received  by  those  that  are  worthy,  and 
by  faith.  By  all  which  it  is  evident,  the  ancients 
did  not  know  any  thing  of  the  new  doctrine  of  tran- 
substantiation, but  believed  that  the  bread  and  wine 
still  remained  in  the  eucharist  in  their  proper  na- 
ture. He  that  would  see  more  of  this,  may  consult 
Bishop  Cosins's  History  of  Transubstantiation,  and 
Mr.  Aubertin's  elaborate  Book  of  the  Eucharist, 
where  he  may  find  all  the  other  arguments  against 
this  doctrine  proposed,  and  the  testimonies  of  every 
father  vindicated  against  the  sophistry  of  Perron 
and  Bellarmine,  and  all  other  Romish  waiters  upon 
this  subject ;  and  also  see  what  opposition  was  made 
to  the  new  hypothesis  of  Paschasius  Rathbertus, 
(which  was  rather  a  consubstantiation  than  a  tran- 
substantiation,) as  soon  as  it  appeared,  by  Rabanus 
Maurus,  Amalarius,  Walafridus  Sti'abo,  Heribaldus, 
Lupus,  Frudegardus,  Joannes  Erigena,  Prudentius 
Tricassin,  Christianus  Druthmarus,  Alfricus  and 
the  Saxon  homilies,  Fulbertus  Carnotensis,  Leu- 
thericus  Senonensis,  Berno  Augiensis,  and  others, 
to  the  time  of  Bercngarius ;  after  whom  it  met  with 
greater  opposition  from  Honorius  Augustodunensis, 


'2  Facund,  lib.  9.  cap.  5.  Potest  sacramentutn  adoptionis 

adoptio  uuncupari,  sicut  sacramentum  corporis  et  sanguinis 

p[  sjus,  quod  est  in  pane  et  poculo  consecrato,  corpus  ejus  et 

,,j  ianguinem  dicimus;  non  quod  propria  corpus  ejus  sit  panis 

.J  ;t  poculum  sanguis,  sed  quod  in  se  mysterium  corporis  san- 

,j.  juinisque  contineant.     Hinc  et  ipse  Doniiiius  benedictuni 

janem  et  calicem,  quern  discipulis  tradidit,  corpus  et  san- 

[uinem  suum  vocavit,  &c. 


'3  Isidor.  Hispal.  de  Eccles.  Offic.  lib.  Leap.  18.  Panis 
quia  confirmat  corpus,  ideo  Christi  corpus  nuncupatur ;  vi- 
num  autem,  quia  sanguinem  operatur  in  carne,  ideo  ail  sati- 
guinetn  Christi  refertur.   Hocc  autem  duo  sunt  visibilia,  &>•. 

"'  Bertram,  de  Corp.  et  Sang.  Dom.  ex  Isidor.  Orig.  lib. 
6.  cap.  19. 

"  Origen.  Com.  in  Matt.  xv.  t.  2.  p.  27. 


3    G 


818 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV.  I 


Amalricus,  Peter  and  Heniy  de  Bruis,  Guido  Gros- 
sus,  archbishop  of  Narbo,  Francus  Abbas,  the  Wal- 
denses  and  Albigenses,  the  Bohemians  and  followers 
of  John  Huss  and  Jerom  of  Prague,  the  Wickliff- 
ists  here  in  England,  among  whom  was  the  famous 
Reginald  Peacock,  and  many  other  learned  men,  to 
the  time  of  the  Reformation.  The  first  inventor  of 
the  name  transubstantiation,  was  Stephanus  Edu- 
ensis,"*  as  Aubertin  there  shows ;  and  he  lived  not 
long  before  the  council  of  Latcran,  which  first  dog- 
matically established  it,  anno  1215.  He  shows, 
that  before  this  they  rather  believed  an  impanation, 
or  concomitancy  of  the  body  with  the  bread  still 
remaining.  Bishop  Cosins  has  many  curious  re- 
marks of  the  same  nature,  and  particularly  he  ob- 
serves of  the  recantation  which  Pope  Nicholas  II. 
obhged  Berengarius  to  make,  that  it  was  so  crude 
and  absurd,  that  even  the  present  Romanists  can- 
not digest  it :  for  there  he  was  obhged  to  profess, 
that  the  very  body  and  blood  of  Christ  was  touched 
and  broken  by  the  hands  of  the  priests,  and  ground 
with  the  teeth  of  the  faithful,  not  sacramentally 
only,  but  in  truth  and  sensibly.  Which  the  glosser 
upon  Gratian,  John  Semeca,  marks  with  this  note," 
That  unless  you  imderstand  it  cautiously,  it  will  lead 
into  a  greater  heresy  than  that  of  Berengaiius  ;  for  it 
exceeds  truth,  and  is  spoken  hyperbolically.  So 
little  understanding  was  there  of  this  monstrous 
doctrine,  when  first  it  began  to  make  its  appearance 
in  the  w^orld. 

But  I  shall  pursue  this  matter  no  further,  having 
sufficiently  demonstrated  that  the  ancients  knew 
nothing  of  this  doctrine,  since  they  unanimously 
declared,  that  the  bread  and  wine  continued  in  their 
own  proper  substance  after  consecration.  Whence 
it  follows,  that  they  could  not  adore  the  eucharist 
with  Divine  adoration,  Avhich  they  did  not  believe 
to  be  any  otherwise  than  typically  and  symbolically 
the  body  of  Christ.  Indeed  they  did  not  so  much 
as  elevate  it  upon  any  account  for  many  ages,  much 
less  for  adoration.  Some  pretend  to  cite  St.  Basil's 
authority  for  lifting  it  up  to  show  it  to  the  people 
in  order  to  adoration.  So  Schelstrate'*  and  Bona" 
after  Bellarmine.  But  his  words  will  bear  no  such 
sense :  for  he  neither  speaks  of  adoration,  nor  yet 
of  elevation  to  show  it  to  the  people,  but  only  of 
consecration,  as  the  Greek  word,  avaSti^tg,  properly 
signifies  both  in  foreign  and  ecclesiastical  writers, 
as  Mr.  Aubertin  proves  by  various  examples.""     St. 


'8  Albertin.  de  Euchar.  lib.  3.  p.  969. 

"  Grat.  de  Consocr.  Dist.  2.  cap.  42. 

™  Schclstrat.  de  Cone.  Antioch.  p.  219. 

"  Bona,  Rcr.  Liturg.  lib,  2.  cap.  13.  n.  2.  Hcllarin.  de 
Euchar.  lib.  2.  cap.  If). 

'"  Albertin.  de  Euchar.  lib.  2.  p.  41G. 

"'  Basil,  de  Spir.  Sancto,  cap.  27. 

**-  Perron,  de  Euchar.  lib.  2.  Author.  15.  cap.  3.  ap.  Al- 
bertin. ibid. 


Basil's  words  are  these,  rd  Trjg  tTmcXi/o-twe  prjfiaTa  ini 
riJQ  dvaSti^eiiig  tov  aprs  Tijg  tvxapi'^iag,  rig  riov  ayiuv 
tyypd<p(xiQ  yixTv  /caraXtXciTrtv ;  **'  Which  Bellarmine,  fol- 
lowing a  corrupt  Latin  translation,  renders  thus ; 
Which  of  the  saints  has  left  us  in  writing  the 
words  in  which  the  people  invocate  the  eucharist, 
when  it  is  showed  to  them  ?  whereas  they  ought  to 
be  rendered  thus ;  Which  of  the  saints  has  left  us 
in  writing  the  words  of  the  invocation,  or  prayer, 
wherewith  the  eucharist  is  consecrated?  And  so 
Perron*'-  himself,  with  more  than  ordinary  ingenuity, 
confesses,  telling  us.  That  St.  Basil's  words  are  not 
to  be  understood  of  the  people's  praying  to  the  eu- 
charist, but  of  the  minister's  praying  to  God  in  a  'j 
solemn  form  of  invocation  to  consecrate  the  eucha- 
rist. Which,  as  I  have  showed  before,*"  was  not 
done  barely  by  pronouncing  those  w^ords,  "  This  is 
my  body,"  as  now  it  is  in  the  Roman  church ;  but 
by  a  formal  invocation  and  thanksgiving,  beseech- 
ing God  to  sanctify  the  gifts  :  which  form,  St.  Basil 
rightly  says,  was  not  by  any  of  the  evangelists  left 
in  writing.  Some,  again,  urge  the  testimony  of 
Germanus,  bishop  of  Constantinople,  as  one  who 
speaks  of  elevating  the  host  after  consecration. 
And  indeed  he  does  so  ;**  but  then  he  gives  another 
reason  for  it,  and  not  that  of  the  people's  adoration. 
He  says,  it  was  to  represent  our  Saviom-'s  elevation 
upon  the  cross,  and  his  dying  there,  together  with 
his  rising  from  the  dead.  Which  was  far  from  the 
modern  intent  of  elevation.  This  author  lived  about 
the  year  715,  and  he  is  the  first  that  mentions  this 
elevation  among  the  Greeks,  without  any  notice  of 
adoration.  And  for  the  Latin  church,  there  is  a 
perfect  silence  in  all  the  older  ritualists  about  it  till 
the  eleventh  century,  when  it  is  mentioned  by  Ivo*' 
Carnotensis  and  Hugo  de  Sancto  Victore,**^  though 
still  for  the  same  reason  given  by  Germanus,  and 
not  for  adoration.  The  first  writer  that  assigns 
the  reason  of  it  to  be  for  adoration,  as  Mr.  Daille" 
proves  at  large,  is  Gulielmus  Durantus,  who  wrote 
his  Rationale^'*  about  the  year  1386.  So  that  Iran- 
substantiation  and  adoration  of  the  eucharist,  as 
mother  and  daughter,  came  within  an  age  of  one 
another.  The  most  learned  now  in  the  Roman 
church  confess  the  main  of  this.  Bona:""  says  very 
frankly,  he  cannot  trace  the  original  of  elevating  ; 
the  sacrament  immediately  after  consecration  in  the 
Latin  church,  higher  than  Ivo,  and  Gulielmus 
Parisiensis,  and   Hildebert  of  Tours,   who   make 


S3  Book  XV.  chap.  3.  sect.  11. 

*"  German.  Theoria  Rer.  Divin.  Bibl.  Patr.  Gr.  Lat.  t. 
.p.  163.     ^ 

"^  Ivo,  Epist.  de  Sacram.  Missa. 

^'^  Hiigode  S.'Vict.  de  Missae  Observat.  lib.  2.  cap.  28. 
"'  Dallsc.  do  Objecto  Cultus,  lib.  2.  cap.  6. 
'*'*  Diirant.  Rational,  lib.  4.  de  6.  Parte  Canonis.  .^ 

>*'■'  Bona,  Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  2.  cap.  13.  n.  2.  '( 


Chap.  V. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


819 


mention  of  ringing  a  bell  at  this  elevation,  in  the 
twelfth  and  thirteenth  century,  when  they  lived: 
but  he  owns  the  old  Sacramentaria,  whether  printed 
or  manuscript,  and  the  old  ritualists,  Alcuin,  Ama- 
larius,  Strabo,  Micrologus,  and  the  rest,  have  not  a 
syllable  about  it.  And  whereas  Stephen  Durantus'" 
boasts  of  its  antiquity,  and  says  it  begun  with  the 
very  infancy  of  the  church,  he  corrects  his  mistake, 
as  relying  only  upon  the  Greek  writers,  who  prove 
nothing  of  the  customs  of  the  Latin  church.  So 
that  here  we  have  a  plain  acknowledgment  of  its 
novelty :  and  Daille"'  takes  the  same  confession 
under  the  hand  of  Morinus'^-  and  Goar,'^  two  other 
learned  writers  of  the  Roman  church,  as  Bishop 
Stillingfleet''  does  also  from  Menardus. 

But  it  may  be  said,  though  there 
No  adoration  of  was   uo  clevation  of  the   host,   nor 

the   host   bcf.iretlie        .         .  ,.  ,      „       ,      ,.  i    •         • 

twelfth  or  thirteentii  nugmg  of  a  bell,  bciore  this  time  in 

century.  . 

the  Latin  church,  yet  there  might  be 
Divine  adoration  for  all  that  paid  to  the  eucharist 
from  the  beginning.  Cardinal  Perron  was  so  con- 
fident of  this,  that  he  makes  sitting  a  posture  of  de- 
votion, on  purpose  to  prove  that  the  apostles  adored 
it  sitting.  The  vanity  of  which  pretence  has  been 
showed  before.  A  great  many  other  proofs  are  al- 
leged out  of  the  ancients  to  prove  this  adoration. 
But  they  prove  no  more,  but  either  that  a  venera- 
tion was  paid  to  the  sacrament,  as  to  the  books  of 
the  Gospel,  and  the  water  of  baptism,  and  the  Lord's 
table,  and  many  other  sacred  things,  which  no  one 
denies ;  or  else,  that  the  adoration  was  given  to 
Christ,  as  divinely  present  every  where,  or  as  sitting 
at  the  right  hand  of  God  in  heaven,  whither  they 
were  directed  by  the  admonition  of  Sursum  corda, 
to  lift  up  their  hearts,  and  to  elevate  their  own  souls, 
to  adore  him  there.  St.  Jerom  speaks  of  common 
and  ordinary  veneration,  when  he  says.  Men  were 
taught"'  by  the  Scriptures,  with  what  veneration 
they  ought  to  receive  holy  things,  and  serve  in  the 
ministry  of  Christ's  altar,  and  not  to  esteem  the 
holy  cups,  and  holy  veils,  and  other  things  pertain- 
ing to  the  service  of  the  Lord's  passion,  to  be  with- 
out holiness,  as  inanimate  things  and  void  of  sense, 
but  as  things  which,  for  their  relation  to  the  body 
and  blood  of  the  Lord,  w'ere  to  be  venerated  with 
the  same  majesty  and  reverence  as  his  body  and 
lined.     Such  reverence  as  this,  which  was  given  to 


'  Bona,  Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  2.  cap.  13.  n.  2. 

'  Dallae.  ubi  supra. 

■  Morin.  De  Ordinat.  par.  3.  Exercit.  8.  cap.  1. 

'  Goar.  Not.  in  Eucholog.  p.  146. 

'  Stilling.  Orig.  Brit.  p.  236.  e.x  Menardo,  Not.  in  Gregor. 
ram.  p.  374. 

'  Hieron.  Ep.  ad  Theophil.  Discant,  qui  ignorant,  eru- 
^..titestimoniisScripturarum,quadebeantvenerationesancta 
suscipere,  et  altaris  Christi  ministerio  deservire,  sacrosque 
calices,  et  sancta  velamina,  et  cetera  qua;  ad  cultum  perti- 
inut  Dominicae  passionis,  non  quasi  inanima  et  sensu  caren- 
tia  sanctimoniam  non  habere,  sed  ex  consortio  corporis  et 
3  G  2 


the  cups  and  other  utensils  of  the  altar,  no  doubt 
was  given  to  the  sacrament,  as  the  symbolical  body 
and  blood  of  Christ :  but  this  could  not  be  a  vener- 
ation of  Divine  worship  and  adoration,  unless  we 
can  think  that  they  gave  Divine  worship  to  the 
cups  and  utensils  of  the  altar,  which  he  says 
were  venerated  with  the  same  respect  as  the  body 
and  blood  of  Christ.  Mr.  Aubertin**  gives  a  great 
many  instances  of  this  kind  of  veneration  paid  to 
churches,  and  the  book  of  the  law,  and  baptism, 
which  can  signify  no  more  than  their  reverent  use 
of  them  as  sacred  and  venerable  things.  And  such 
a  veneration  they  paid  to  the  sacrament ;  never 
putting  consecrated  bread  to  any  profane  or  com- 
mon use  ;  much  less  violating  its  sacredness  by  any 
more  indecent  practice,  as  was  that  outrage  of  the 
Donatists,  when  they  threw  it  to  the  dogs ;  never 
touching  it  with  unwashen  hands  ;  being  extremely 
cautious  not  to  let  any  particle  of  it  fall  to  the 
ground :  which  is  a  particular  caution,  noted  by 
many  of  the  ancients,  TertuUian,"'  St.  Austin,'-*  Cy- 
ril of  Jerusalem,""  and  Origen,'""  who  styles  it  a  ve- 
neration in  express  terms.  Whence  Bellarmine  very 
wisely  concludes,  they  must  needs  believe  it  to  be 
Christ's  natural  body,  and  adore  it.  As  if  holy  things 
could  not  be  used  with  such  caution  and  reverence,  but 
presently  it  must  be  interpreted  an  act  of  adoration. 
But  the  ancients  sometimes  say,  they  worshipped 
Christ  in  the  eucharist.  Which  we  do  not  deny 
neither.  St.  Austin  says.  No  man  eats'"'  the  flesh 
of  Christ,  but  he  that  first  worships  it.  And  there 
are  like  expi-essions  in  Ambrose,  Chrysostom,  and 
some  other  ancient  writers.  But  then  they  suffi- 
ciently explain  their  own  meaning,  giving  us  to 
understand,  that  they  neither  speak  of  oral  mandu- 
cation,  nor  of  adoring  Christ  as  corporeally  present 
in  the  eucharist,  but  as  spiritually  present,  or  else 
as  corporeally  absent  in  heaven.  St.  Chrysostom  '°^ 
sa5''s.  They  fell  down  before  Christ  their  King  as  cap- 
tives in  baptism,  and  that  they  cast  themselves  down 
upon  their  knees  before  him.  And  yet  no  one  would 
conclude  therefore  that  they  worshipped  him  as 
corporeally  present  in  baptism,  although  baptism 
made  them  partakers  of  his  body  and  blood  also. 
He  says  further,'"^  That  the  king  himself  bowed  his 
body  because  of  God  speaking  in  the  holy  Gospels. 
But  it  would  be  ridiculous  hence  to  infer,  either 


sanguinis  Domini,  eadem  qua  corpus  ejus  et  sanguis  majes- 
tate  veneranda. 

^^  Albertiu.  de  Euchar.  p.  432. 

*"  Tertul.  de  Coron.  Mil.  cap.  3. 

>«  Aug.  Horn.  26.  et  50.        ^  Cyril.  Catech.  Myst.  n.  18. 

100  Orig.  Horn.  13.  in  Exod.  Cum  suscipitis  corpus  Do- 
mini, cum  omni  caiitcla  et  veneratione  servatis,  ue  e.x  eo 
parura  quid  decidat,  &c. 

""  Aug.  in  Psal.  xcviii. 

'"-  Chrys.  in  illud,  Simile  est  regnum  coelorum,  &c. 

'"*  In  illud,  Attendite  ne  eleemosynam  facialis,  ap.  Al- 
bertin.  de  Euchar.  p.  432. 


I 


820 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


that  they  worshipped  the  Gospels,  or  Christ  as  cor- 
poreally present  in  them.  Mr.  Aubertin""  has  de- 
monstrated out  of  St.  Austin's  works  these  several 
propositions,  which  are  all  point  blank  contrary  to 
the  adoration  of  Christ  as  corporeally  present  in 
the  eucharist.  1.  That  bread  and  wine  are  not 
properly  and  substantially  the  body  and  blood  of 
Christ,  but  only  sacramentally  and  figuratively.  2. 
That  Christ  is  not  substantially  and  corporeally 
present  in  the  eucharist,  but  corporeally  present 
only  in  heaven.  3.  That  true  bread  remains  and 
is  eaten  in  the  eucharist.  4.  That  the  mandu- 
cation  of  Christ  in  the  eucharist  is  not  oral,  but 
spiritual.  5.  That  the  wicked  do  not  eat  or  drink 
the  proper  body  and  blood  of  Christ  in  the  eucha- 
rist. 6.  That  the  same  body  cannot  be  in  different 
places  at  one  and  the  same  time ;  and  that  this  is 
particularly  asserted  of  the  body  of  Christ.  7-  That 
a  body  must  necessarily  occupy  some  place  and 
space,  and  be  extended  by  parts,  with  longitude, 
latitude,  and  profundity.  8.  That  accidents  cannot 
subsist  without  a  subject.  All  which  directly  over- 
throw the  corporeal  presence  of  Christ  in  the  eucha- 
ist,  and  consequently  show,  that  the  adoration 
which  was  given  to  Christ  in  the  eucharist,  was  not 
to  his  corporeal  presence,  but  his  spiritual  presence, 
or  to  his  body  as  absent  in  heaven. 

But  Durantus'"^  undertakes  to  prove,  that  the 
body  of  Christ  was  not  only  worshipped  as  cor- 
poreally present  in  the  eucharist  in  the  use  and  time 
of  celebration,  but  at  other  times  by  non-commu- 
nicants also.  For  this  he  alleges  Chrysostom,'"" 
who  says  that  the  energumens  at  that  time  were 
brought  by  the  deacon  and  made  to  bow  their  heads. 
Which  Durantus  interprets  of  bowing  to  the  eu- 
charist. But  Chrysostom  unluckily  spoils  his  ar- 
gument. For  at  that  time,  he  says,  the  eucharist 
was  not  consecrated,  but  only  about  to  be  conse- 
crated ;  and  these  energumens  were  not  allowed  to 
stay  to  hear  the  pi'ayers  of  consecration  with  the 
faithful,  but  were  dismissed  with  the  catechumens 
and  other  non-communicants  before  the  commu- 
nion service  began.  So  that  if  they  worshipped 
the  host,  it  must  be  an  unconsecrated  host,  which, 
according  to  Durantus  himself,  would  be  plain  idol- 
atry. So  unfortunate  are  these  gentlemen  in  the 
best  arguments  they  can  produce  for  host  worship 
among  the  ancients,  that  their  own  very  proofs 
manifestly  overthrow  it. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  most  certain  de- 
monstrations, that  there  could  be  no  such  thing  as 
host  worship  in  the  ancient  church,  not  only  taken 
from  their  not  believing  transubstanfiation  and  the 
corporeal  presence,  but  from  many  other  topics  so- 


lidly deduced  and  substantially  proved  by  two  learn- 
ed writers,  Mr.  Daille""  and  Dr.  Whitby ,"«  in  two 
excellent  discourses  upon  this  very  subject,  to  which 
I  will  commend  the  reader,  contenting  myself  to 
mention  the  heads  of  the  principal  arguments, 
which  they  have  more  fully  drawn  out  and  proved. 
Mr.  Daille  ranks  his  arguments  under  two  heads, 
some  general  ones  against  the  worship  of  the  eu- 
charist, saints,  relics,  images,  and  crosses ;  and  others 
more  particularly  levelled  against  the  worship  of 
the  eucharist.  Among  those  of  the  first  kind  he 
urges  this  as  very  remarkable,  that  in  all  the  an- 
cient relations  of  miracles,  there  is  never  any  men- 
tion made  of  miracles  being  wrought  by  the  eucha- 
rist, as  is  now  so  common  in  later  ages,  especially  in 
the  book  called  the  School  of  the  Eucharist,  which  is 
a  collection  of  legends  under  the  name  of  miracles 
wrought  by  the  host  upon  sundry  occasions.  2.  He 
urges  another  general  argument  from  the  silence  of 
all  such  writers  of  the  church  as  speak  of  tradi- 
tions, that  the  worship  of  the  eucharist  is  never  once 
named  among  them.  3.  That  among  the  heathen 
objections  and  calumnies  which  they  raised  against 
them,  such  as  their  worshipping  the  sun,  and  an 
ass's  head,  and  the  genitals  of  their  priests,  and  a 
crucified  and  dead  man,  they  never  objected  to  them 
the  worship  of  bread  and  wine,  which  yet  had  been 
very  obvious  and  natural,  and  invidious  enough  to 
have  accused  them  of,  had  there  then  been  any  such 
plausible  ground  for  an  accusation,  as  there  has 
been  in  later  ages.  4.  The  Christians  used  to  ob- 
ject to  the  heathens,  that  they  worshipped  things 
that  were  dumb  and  void  of  life ;  things  that  must 
be  carried  upon  men's  shoulders,  and  if  they  fell, 
could  not  rise  again ;  things  that  must  be  guarded 
by  men,  to  secure  them  from  thieves ;  things  that 
might  be  carried  captive,  and  were  not  able  to  pre- 
serve and  deliver  themselves ;  things  that  might  be 
laid  to  pawn,  as  the  eucharist  has  been  by  some 
princes  in  later  ages ;  things  that  are  exposed  to 
fire  and  weather,  and  rust,  and  moth,  and  corrup- 
tion, and  other  injuries  of  nature ;  things  that  might 
be  devoured  by  mice  and  other  animals,  and  might 
be  gnawed  and  dunged  upon  by  the  most  contempt- 
ible creatures.  All  which  objections  rnight  easily 
have  been  retorted  by  the  heathen  upon  the  Chris- 
tians, had  they  then  worshipped  the  eucharist,  or 
images,  or  relics,  or  crosses,  which  are  liable  to  all 
the  same  reproaches.  These  are  general  arguments 
against  host  worship,  together  with  the  rest  of  that 
idolatrous  worship  which  now  so  abounds  in  the 
church  of  Rome.  But  there  are  a  great  many  more 
special  arguments  urged  in  particular  against  the 
host  worship  by  that  learned  man.     As,  1.  From 


'»♦  Albeitin.  de  Euchar.  p.  602,  &c. 
"*^  Dniant.  de  llitibus,  lib.  2.  cap.  40.  n.  5. 
'""  Chrys.  Horn.  3  et  4.  de  Incomprohonsibili,  p.  3G5  ct 
374.  t.  1.' 


""  Dallffl.  de  Objecto  Cultus  Religiosi,  cont.  Latinos,  lib, 
1  et2. 

'"»  Whitbv,   Idolatry  of    Host  Worship.     Loud.  1G79.J 
8vo. 


Chap.  V. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


821 


the  silence  of  all  ancient  writere  about  it.  2.  From 
their  using  no  elevation  of  the  host  for  worship  for 
many  ages,  as  we  have  showed  at  large  out  of  Bona 
before.  3.  The  ancients  knew  nothing  of  ringing  a 
bell,  to  give  notice  of  the  time  of  adoration  to  the 
people.  4.  There  are  no  histories  of  beasts  miracu- 
lously worshipping  the  eucharist,  which  sort  of  fic- 
tions are  so  common  in  later  ages.  5.  The  ancients 
never  carried  the  eucharist  to  the  sick  or  absent  with 
any  pomp  or  signs  of  worship ;  never  exposed  it  to 
public  view  in  times  of  solemn  rejoicing  or  sorrow ; 
never  adored  or  invoked  its  assistance  in  distress,  or 
upon  any  great  undertaking :  which  are  now  such 
common  practices  in  the  Roman  church.  6.  The 
ancients  never  enjoined  persons  newly  baptized  and 
penitents  to  fall  dovra  before  the  eucharist  and  wor- 
ship it,  as  is  now  commonly  done  in  the  Roman 
church.  7-  The  ancients  never  allowed  non-com- 
municants to  stay  and  worship  the  eucharist,  as  the 
practice  now  is ;  which  yet  had  been  very  proper, 
had  they  believed  the  eucharist  to  be  their  God. 
But  they  used  it  only  for  communion,  not  for  ador- 
ation. 8.  The  ancients  never  used  to  carry  the 
eucharist  publicly  in  processions,  to  be  adored  by 
all  the  people ;  which  is  a  novel  practice  in  the 
judgment  of  Krantzius""  and  Cassander.  9.  The 
ancients  lighted  no  lamps  nor  candles  by  day  to  the 
eucharist,  nor  burned  incense  before  it,  as  is  now 
the  practice.  10.  They  made  no  little  images  of  the 
eucharist,  to  be  kissed  and  worshipped  as  the  images 
of  Christ.  11.  They  had  no  peculiar  festival  ap- 
propriated to  its  more  solemn  worship.  This  is  of 
no  longer  date  than  Pope  Urban  IV.,  who  first  in- 
stituted it,  anno  1264,  and  it  is  peculiar  only  to  the 
Roman  church.  12.  The  ancient  liturgies  have  no 
forms  of  prayers,  doxologies,  or  praises  to  the  eu- 
charist, as  are  in  the  Roman  Missal.  13.  The 
adoration  of  the  eucharist  was  never  objected  by 
the  heathens  to  the  primitive  Christians ;  nor  were 
they  reproached,  as  the  Romanists  have  been  since, 
as  eaters  of  their  God.  It  is  a  noted  saying  of 
Averroes,  Quando  quidem  comeditnt  Christiani  quod 
cohmf,  sit  anima  mea  cum  2)hilosop}iis,  Since  Chris- 
tians eat  what  they  worship,  let  my  soul  rather  have 
her  portion  among  the  philosophers.  This  learned 
philosopher  lived  about  the  year  1150,  when  the 
host  worship  began  to  be  practised,  which  gave  him 
this  prejudice  to  the  Christian  religion.  14.  The 
Christians  objected  such  things  to  the  heathens,  as 
they  never  would  have  objected,  had  they  them- 
selves worshipped  the  host ;  as  that  it  was  an  im- 
pious thing  to  eat  what  they  worshipped,  and  wor- 
ship what  they  eat  and  sacrificed.  Which  objections 
might  easily  have  been  retorted  upon  them.  15. 
The  Christians  were  accused  by  the  heathens  of 


eating  infimts'  blood  in  their  solemn  mysteries,  but 
never  any  mention  is  made  of  eating  the  blood  of 
Christ,  either  in  the  objection  or  answer  to  it.  The 
ground  of  the  story  arose  from  the  practice  of  the 
Carpocratians  and  other  heretics,  and  not  from  the 
Christians  eating  the  blood  of  Christ.  16.  Lastly, 
the  Christians  never  urged  the  adoration  of  the  eu- 
charist in  their  disputes  with  the  Ebionites  and 
Doceta;,  which  yet  would  have  been  very  proper  to 
confute  their  errors,  who  denied  the  reality  of  the 
flesh  of  Christ,  To  these  arguments  of  Mr.  Daille, 
Dr.  Whitby  has  added  these  further:  I.  That  the 
Scriptures  and  fathers  deride  the  heathen  deities, 
and  say,  that  we  may  know  they  are  no  gods,  be- 
cause they  have  no  use  of  their  outward  senses.  2. 
Because  they  are  made  gods  by  consecration,  and 
by  the  will  of  the  artificer,  part  of  that  matter  which 
is  consecrated  into  a  god  being  exposed  to  common 
uses.  3.  Because  they  were  imprisoned  in  their 
images,  or  shut  up  in  obscure  habitations.  4.  Be- 
cause they  clothed  their  gods  in  costly  raiments.  5. 
Because  they  might  be  metamorphosed  or  changed 
from  one  shape  to  another.  All  which  might  have 
been  retorted  upon  the  Christians,  had  they  wor- 
shipped the  eucharist,  \nthout  any  possibility  of 
evasion.  Soto  and  Paludanus  own,  that  the  whole 
eucharist,  substance  as  well  as  species,  may  be 
vomited  up  again,  or  voided  at  the  draught.  Which 
to  affirm  of  the  real  body  of  Christ,  the  ancients 
would  have  accounted  the  greatest  blasphemy.  For 
these  and  the  hke  reasons  we  may  safely  conclude, 
that  there  was  no  such  practice  among  the  ancients, 
as  giving  Divine  honour  to  the  host  upon  presump- 
tion of  its  being  the  real  body  of  Christ,  though  they 
treated  it,  as  the  sacred  symbol  and  antitype  of  his 
body,  with  all  imaginable  respect  and  veneration. 
To  deduce  these  arguments  at  their  full  length 
would  fill  a  volume,  and  therefore  it  is  sufficient 
here  to  have  hinted  the  heads  of  them  in  this  sum- 
mary account,  referring  the  reader  to  those  two 
learned  authors,  who  have  proved  every  thing  they 
say,  for  fuller  satisfaction.  I  now  go  on  with  the 
practice  of  the  ancient  church. 

In   distributing  the  elements   the 
people  were  allowed  to  receive  them     The pe«pk.aiio« - 

*■        ^  ed    to   receive    the 

into  their  own  hands.     Which  now,  eucharist  into  their 

'    own  hands. 

since  the  beUef  of  transubstantiation 
and  the  adoration  of  the  host  came  in,  is  severely 
prohibited  in  the  Roman  church.  And  this  is  at 
least  another  strong  presumption,  that  the  ancients 
had  very  different  sentiments  of  the  eucharist  from 
those  which  now  prevail  in  the  Roman  church.  As 
to  fact,  there  is  no  dispute  of  the  matter.  The  thing 
is  confessed  by  Baronius,""  and  Morinus,'"  and 
Garsias  Loaysa,"-  as   Daille'"  has  noted  out  of 


'"'  Krantz.  Metropol.  lib.  11.  cap,  39.     Cassander.  Con- 
siiltat.  sect,  de  Circiuncjestat. 
""  Baron,  an.  57.  n.  147. 


'"  Morin.  de  Ordinat,  par,  3.  Exercit.  12.  c.  3. 

"=  Loaysa  in  Cone.  Tolet.  1.  can.  II. 

"3  Dalla\  de  Objecto  Cult.  Kelig.  lib.  2.  cap.  20. 


822 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


them.  And  Bona'"  confesses  he  cannot  tell  when 
the  contraiy  custom  first  came  in,  but  he  thinks  it 
very  probable,  that  it  began  at  the  same  time  that 
they  first  brought  into  the  Western  church  the  use 
of  unleavened  bread,  and  wafer  hosts,  which,  as  he 
proves  before,  was  not  till  the  twelfth  or  thirteenth 
century.  But,  that  the  reader  may  not  wholly  de- 
pend upon  these  concessions,  I  will  note  a  few 
places  in  the  margin  out  of  TertulUan,"*  Clemens 
Alexandrinus,""  Cyprian,'"  Origen,"**  Dionysius 
Alexandrinus,""  Cyril  of  Jerusalem,'-"  Nazianzen,'"' 
Basil,'^  Ambrose,'^  Austin,'-*  Chrysostom,'^  and 
the  council  of  TruUo;'^  which  I  think  it  needless 
to  repeat  at  length  in  a  matter  so  plain  and  uncon- 
tested. The  very  custom  of  washing  the  hands 
before  communion,  in  order  to  receive  it,  the  fre- 
quent admonitions  to  beware  of  letting  it  fall,  the 
allowance  of  private  men  to  carry  it  home  with  them 
and  communicate  in  private,  the  sending  it  to  the 
sick  sometimes  by  private  men,  which  we  have 
spoken  of  before,  do  all  bear  testimony  to  the  same 
practice.  But  all  these  customs  are  perfectly  anti- 
quated and  abolished  in  the  Roman  church,  since 
the  practice  of  host  worship  came  in,  partly  by  for- 
bidding the  people  to  touch  the  bread  with  their  own 
hands,  but  suffer  it  to  be  dropped  into  their  mouths, 
and  partly  by  withdrawing  the  cup  wholly  from 
them.  Many  w'ise  and  pretty  reasons  are  used  to 
be  given  for  abolishing  this  ancient  custom,  as  that 
it  is  to  prevent  men's  negligence,  and  irreverence, 
and  other  abuses  ;  but  the  fathers  had  much  better 
reasons  for  allowing  it.  For  then  it  afforded  them 
a  noble  argument  to  keep  innocent  and  holy  hands, 
free  from  idolatry,  murder,  rapine,  and  extortion, 
and  other  the  like  vices,  when  they  must  with  those 
very  hands  receive  the  immaculate  body  and  blood 
of  their  Lord.  A  man  might  declaim,  says  Tertulli- 
an,'^'  all  the  day  long,  with  the  zeal  of  faith,  and  be- 
wail those  Christians,  who  work  with  their  hands  at 
the  trade  of  making  idols  for  the  heathen  gods,  and 
come  immediately  from  the  shop  of  the  adversary  to 
the  house  of  God,  to  lift  up  those  hands  to  God  the 
Father,  which  are  the  makers  or  mothers  of  idols, 
and  stretch  forth  those  hands  to  receive  the  body  of 
the  Lord,  that  were  instrumental  in  carving  bodies 
for  devils.  With  what  eloquence  does  St.  Chrysos- 
tom  inveigh  against  rapine,  and  bloodshed,  and 


strife,  and  contention,  upon  this  very  topic !  Con- 
sider, says  he,'-^  what  thou  takest  into  thy  hand,  and 
never  dare  to  smite  any  man ;  do  not  disgrace  those 
hands,  which  are  adorned  with  so  great  a  gift,  by 
the  crime  of  fighting  and  contention.  Consider 
what  thou  takest  into  thy  hands,  and  keep  them 
free  from  all  rapine  and  extortion.  Consider  that 
thou  not  only  takest  it  in  thy  hands,  but  puttest 
it  to  thy  mouth ;  therefore  keep  thy  tongue  pure 
from  all  filthy  and  contumelious  words,  from  blas- 
phemy, perjury,  and  all  such  kinds  of  evil  dis- 
course. So,  again,  reproving  those  who  in  time  of 
sickness  went  to  the  Jews  to  get  charms  and  amulets 
to  cure  their  distemper,  he  asks  them,  what  apology 
they  would'-'  make  to  Christ  for  thus  flying  to  his 
enemies  in  their  distress?  How  they  could  call 
upon  him  in  their  prayers  ?  With  what  conscience 
they  could  come  into  the  church  ?  With  what  eyes 
they  could  look  upon  the  priest  ?  With  what  hands 
they  could  touch  the  holy  table  ?  And  in  another 
place,  repressing  the  people's  fury  against  Eutropius, 
(who,  having  procured  a  law  to  be  made  against 
men's  taking  sanctuary  at  the  altar,  was  himself 
not  long  after,  by  falling  under  the  emperor's  dis- 
pleasure, forced  to  fly  thither  for  refuge ;  and  then 
some  of  the  people  clamoured  against  him  with 
revengeful  thoughts,  and  cried  out.  It  was  but  just 
that  he  should  suffer  the  effects  of  his  own  laM^,)  to 
suppress  the  people's  anger  in  this  case,  and  incline 
them  to  thoughts  of  mercy  and  pardon,  he  asks 
them.  How  otherwise  they  could  take  "°  the  sacra- 
ment into  their  hands,  when  sermon  was  done,  and 
say  that  prayer,  which  commands  them  to  beg  of 
God,  that  he  would  "  forgive  them  their  trespasses,  as 
they  forgave  them  that  trespassed  against  them,"  if 
they  persisted  to  call  for  justice  upon  their  enemy  ? 
These  are  handsome  turns  of  eloquence,  grounded 
upon  this  innocent  and  pious  custom  of  the  people's 
taking  the  sacrament  into  their  own  hands ;  and  they 
had  often  their  due  weight  and  force  even  upon  the 
greatest  minds,  as  may  appear  from  the  effect  of 
that  speech  which  St.  Ambrose  made  to  the  empe- 
ror Theodosius,  when  he  had  caused  seven  thousand! 
men  to  be  slaughtered  without  any  formal  trial  at: 
Thessalonica.  St.  Ambrose  met  him  a^  he  was  en- 
tering the  church,  and  thus  accosted  him:  With 
what  eyes  wilt  thou  behold  the  house  of  our  common 


'I'  Bona,  Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  2.  cap.  17.  n.  7.  Vid.  Vales. 
Not.  in  Euseb.  lib.  7.  c.  9. 

"*  Teitul.  de  Coron.  Mil.  cap.  3.  de  Idololatr.  cap.  7. 

'"^  Clem.  Alex.  Strom.  1.  p.  318. 

'"  Cypr.  de  Lapsis,  p.  132.  De  Patient,  p.  216.  Ep.  56. 
al.  58.  ad  Thibaritanos,  p.  125. 

118  Orig.  Horn.  13.  in  Exod. 

I's  Ap.  Euseb.  lib.  7.  cap.  9. 

I'M  Cyril.  Catech.  Myst.  5.  n.  18. 

1=1  Naz.  Carmen  de  Ornatu  Mulier.  t.  2.  p.  152. 

'-  Basil.  Ep.  289.  ad  Caesaream  Patriciam. 

■^  Ambr.  Oral,  ad  Theodos.  ap.  Theodoret,  lib.  5.  cap.  18. 


121  Aug.  cont.  Liter.  Petil.  lib.  2.  cap.  23.  Hom.  26.  ex  50. 

1-5  Chrys.  Hom.  21.  ad.  Pop.  Antioch.  t.  1.  p.  266.  Hom. 
22.  p.  285  et  290.  Hom.  24.  p.  316.  Hom.  6.  cont.  Juda;os, 
t.  ].p.  540.  Hom.  6.  in  Seraphim.  Hom.  3.  in  Ephes.  et 
passim. 

126  Cone.  Trull,  c.  101. 

1"  Tertul.  de  Idololat.  cap.  7.  Vid.  Tertul.  de  Spectac 
c.  25.   Cvpr.  Ep.  56.  al.  58.  ad  Pleb.  Thibarit.  p.  125. 

128  Chrys.  Hom.  21.  ad  Pop.  Antioch.  t.  1.  p.  266.  Vid 
Hom.  31.  de  Natali  Christi,  t.  5.  p.  479. 

■2"  Chvys.  Hom.  6.  cont.  Jud.  t.  1.  p.  539. 

™  Chrys.  Hom.  in  Eiitrop.  t.  4.  p.  554. 


Chap.  V. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


823 


Lord?  With  what  feet  wilt  thou  tread  his  holy 
pavement  ?  Wilt  thou  stretch  out  those  hands  yet 
dropping  with  the  blood  of  that  unjust  slaughter, 
and  with  them  lay  hold  "'  of  the  most  holy  body  of 
the  Lord  ?  Wilt  thou  put  the  cup  of  that  blood  to 
thy  mouth,  who  hast  shed  so  much  blood  by  the 
hasty  decree  of  an  angry  and  impetuous  mind  ?  This 
just  reproof  of  the  pious  bishop,  so  handsomely 
addressed  to  the  emperor,  made  such  a  deep  impres- 
sion on  his  mind,  that  it  melted  him  into  tears,  and 
made  him  refrain  from  church  as  a  penitent,  till,  by 
way  of  satisfaction,  among  other  things,  by  St.  Am- 
brose's direction,  he  made  this  good  law,  That  no 
sentence  of  death,  or  proscription,  for  the  future, 
should  be  executed  till  thirty  days  after  its  promul- 
gation, that  reason,  and  not  passion,  might  judge  of 
the  equity  and  reasonableness  of  it.  Such  brave 
speeches,  and  such  worthy  effects,  did  that  ancient 
pious  custom  minister  the  occasion  to  of  old,  which 
is  now  laid  aside  in  the  Roman  church,  and  changed 
into  another  custom,  that  has  neither  precedent  nor 
use ;  serving  only  to  feed  superstition,  and  keep 
men  under  the  monstrous  and  inveterate  prejudices 
of  transubstantiation,  which  this  innocent  rite  serv^ed 
in  some  measure  to  keep  out  of  the  minds  of  men 
in  the  primitive  church. 

It  is  further  observable,  that  in  this 
whttiier  the  same  case  no  distiuctiou  was  made  between 

custom  was  observed 

m  delivering  it  to  meu,  womcn,  and  children,  but  all  re- 
women  and  clmdren. 

ceived  into  their  own  hands  who  were 
capable  of  so  doing.  Only  in  the  latter  end  of  the 
sixth  century,  we  find  a  rule  made  about  women, 
that  they  should  not  receive  it  in  their  bare  hand, 
but  in  a  fair  linen  cloth.  Some  think  this  as  an- 
cient as  St.  Austin's  time,  because,  in  one  of  the 
sermons  De  Tempore,'^-  that  go  under  his  name, 
there  is  mention  made  of  it ;  for  there  it  is  said,  it 
was  customaiy  for  men  to  wash  their  hands  when 
they  communicated,  and  for  women  to  bring  their 
little  linen  cloths  to  receive  the  body  of  Christ. 
But,  as  many  of  these  sermons  are  spurious,  so  this 
in  particular  is  sometimes  ascribed  to  other  authors, 
and  therefore  no  weight  can  be  laid  upon  it.  How- 
ever, the  council  of  Auxerre  '^  in  France,  anno  590, 
made  a  rule,  That  no  woman  should  receive  the 
eucharist  in  her  bare  hand.  But  after  what  manner 
she  should  receive  it  in  her  hand,  is  not  said.  A 
great  many  learned  persons  think  that  another  canon 
in  that  council"'  orders  them  to  receive  it  in  a  linen 


cloth,  because  there  is  mention  made  of  women's 
wearing  a  dominicak  when  they  communicate;  which 
they  interpret,  a  linen  cloth  upon  their  hand.  So 
not  only  Baronius,  and  Binnius,  and  Sylvias,  but 
also  Bona,"^  and  Habertus,"*^  and  even  Mabillon,'^' 
and  Vossius,"'  understand  it.  But  Baluzius,  who  is 
often  more  sagacious  than  the  rest  in  telling  the 
meaning  of  hard  words,  says.  It  means  only  the 
women's  veil,  which  they  were  obliged  to  wear  upon 
their  heads  by  ancient  canons,  conformable  to  the 
rule  of  the  apostle.''"  And  for  this  he  quotes  an 
ancient  collection  of  canons,  where,  in  the  council 
of  Mascon,  the  dontinicale  is  expressly  styled  the 
veil  which  the  women  wore  upon  their  heads  at  the 
communion.  So  that,  whatever  covering  the  wo- 
men used  for  their  hands  when  they  received  the 
communion,  it  is  plain  it  was  a  different  thing  from 
the  doinimcale.  The  council  of  TruUo""  speaks  of 
some  in  the  Greek  church,  who  would  not  receive 
the  sacrament  in  their  hands,  but  in  some  little  in- 
strument of  gold  or  other  precious  material,  out  of 
a  pretended  reverence  to  it ;  but  they  condemn,  and 
forbid  it  as  a  superstitious  practice ;  ordering  all 
persons  to  receive  the  communion  in  their  own 
hands,  set  in  the  form  of  a  cross,  as  is  appointed  in 
Cyril's  Catechisms,'"  and  some  others  before  them  : 
and  for  those  that  pretended  to  bring  those  little 
trinkets  to  receive  the  communion  with,  they  order 
them  to  be  rejected,  as  persons  who  preferred  inani- 
mate matter  to  the  living  image  of  God.  And  withal 
they  threaten  suspension  to  any  priest  that  shall 
admit  any  communicants  to  receive  in  such  manner. 
By  which  it  is  plain  no  alteration  was  as  yet  allowed 
in  this  matter  in  the  Greek  church. 

The  next  thing  observable  is,  that 
the  priest  in  delivering  the  elements     Theeuciiaristusu- 

.         ^  -   ally  delivered  to  the 

to  the  people  used  a  certain  lorm  or  people  with  a  certain 

■*■        ■*-  form   of   words,    to 

words,  to  which  the  people  answered,  "•>'<:'»  they  answer- 

'  r       s.  '    ed,  Amen. 

Amen.  The  form  at  first  seems  to 
have  been  no  more  than  this  :  "  The  body  of  Christ ;" 
and,  "  The  blood  of  Christ;"  to  each  of  which  the 
people  subjoined,  Amen.  Tertullian  is  thought  to 
refer  to  this,  when  he  asks  a  Christian'"  who  was 
used  to  fi-equent  the  Roman  theatres,  how  he  could 
give  testimony  to  a  gladiator  with  that  mouth 
wherewith  he  was  wont  to  say  Amen  in  the  holy 
mysteries  ?  But  that  may  refer  as  well  to  the  Amen 
which  they  used  at  the  end  of  the  gi'eat  consecra- 
tion prayer,  as  to  this  form  at  the  delivery.     How- 


'3'  Ap.  Theodor.  Hist.  lib.  5.  cap.  18.' 

''-  Aug.  Ser.  252.  de  Temp.  Omues  viri,  quando  commu- 
nicare  desiderant,  lavant  manas :  et  omnes  mulieres  exhi- 
bent  liuteamina,  ubi  corpus  Christi  accipiant. 

"^  Cone.  Antissiodor.  can.  36.  Nou  licet  mulieri  nuda 
manu  eucharisliam  accipcre. 

"'  Ibid.  can.  42.  Unaquoeque  mulier,  quando  commuai- 
cat,  dominicalem  suum  habeat.  Quod  si  non  liabuerit,  usque 
in  alium  diem  Dominicum  non  communicet. 

"^  Bona,  Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  2.  cap.  17.  n.  3. 


'^  Habcrt.  Archieratic.  par.  10.  observ.  8.  p.  264. 

I"  Mabil.  de  Litiu-g.  Gallic,  lib.  1.  cap.  b.  n.  25. 

'**  Voss.  Thes.  Theol.  de  Symbolis  Coenae  Doiu.  p.  477. 

'3»  Baluz.  Not.  in  Gratian.  Caus.  33.  QuKst.  3.  cap.  19. 
Si  mulier  commuuicans  dominicale  suum  super  caput  suum 
nou  habuerit,  usque  ad  alium  diem  Dominicum  non  com- 
muuicet. 

'«  Cone.  Trull,  can.  101.     "'  Cyril.  Catech.  Myst.5.  n.  18. 

'«  Tertul.  de  Spectac.  cap.  25.  Quale  est— ex  ore  quo 
Amen  in  sanctum  protuleris,  gladiatori  testimonium  reddere  ? 


824 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


ever,  Cornelius,  bishop  of  Rome,  not  long  after 
speaks  expressly  of  it.     For  he  says,"'  Novatian 
was  used  to  make  the  people  of  his  party  swear  by 
the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  when  he  delivered 
the  eucharist  to  them,  that  they  would  not  forsake 
his  party  and  go  over  to  Cornelius.     So,  says  he, 
every  man,  instead  of  saying  Amen,  when  he  takes 
the  bread,  is  forced  to  say,  I  wall  not  return  to  Cor- 
nehus.     The  author  of  the  Constitutions  speaks  of 
the  form  in  this  manner : '"  Let  the  bishop  give  the 
oblation,  saying,  "  The  body  of  Christ;"  and  let 
the  receiver  answer.  Amen.     Let  the  deacon  hold 
the  cup,  and  when  he  gives  it  say,  "  The  blood  of 
Christ,  the  cup  of  life  ;"  and  let  him  that  drinks  it 
say,  Amen.     So  St.  Cyril'"  bids  his  communicant 
receive  the  body  of  Christ,  and  say.  Amen.     And 
St.  Ambrose,'"  The  priest  says  to  thee,  "  The  body 
of  Christ,"  and  thou  answerest.  Amen.     The  like, 
as  to  the  people's  answering  Amen,  is  noted  by  St. 
Austin'"  as    the  general  practice   of   the  whole 
world.     And  so  by  St.  Jerom,'^^  Leo  Magnus,'"  and 
many  others.     By  the  time  of  Gregory  the  Great, 
the  form  of  delivery  was  a  little  enlarged :  for  then 
they  said,  "  The  body'^°  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
preserve  thy  soul."   And  by  the  time  of  Alcuin  and 
Charles  the  Great,  it  was  augmented  into  this  form, 
"  The  body  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ'*'  preserve  thy 
soul  unto  everlasting  life ; "  which  is  much  the  same 
with  the  former  part  of  that  which  is  now  used  in 
our  liturgy.     The  Scotch  liturgy  also  orders  the 
people  to  answer,  Amen ;  which,  we  see,  is  conform- 
able to  ancient  practice.    The  Romanists  generally 
di-aw  this  answer  of  the  people  into  an  argument 
for  transubstantiation ;   because  saying  Amen  im- 
pUes  as  much  as  the  true  body  of  Christ.   But  they 
might  as  well  argue,  that  the  bread  is  transubstan- 
tiated into  the  bodies  of  the  people,  and  that  they 
too  are  but  one  proper,  substantial,  true,  numerical 
body  with  their  Lord;  because  St.  Austin  says  this 
is  one  meaning  of  the  body  of  Christ,  to  which, 
when  the  priest  spake  it,  they  answered.  Amen :  Ye 
answer  Amen,  says  he,'"  to  what  ye  are,  (that  is. 


the  body  of  Christ,)  and  by  your  answer  subscribe 
to  the  truth  of  it.  Thou  hearest  the  priest  say,  "  The 
body  of  Christ,"  and  thou  answerest.  Amen ;  be 
thou  a  member  of  the  body  of  Christ,  that  thy  Amen 
may  be  true.  In  another  place  he  says,  it  denoted 
their  belief  of  the  reality  of  Christ's  suffering  for 
them,  that  his  blood  was  truly  shed'*'  for  their 
sakes,  and  that  they  made  profession  of  this  by 
saying  Amen,  This  is  true.  And  again,'"  Christ 
shed  his  blood  upon  the  cross  for  our  sakes  :  and 
ye  who  are  communicants  know  what  testimony 
ye  bear  to  the  blood  which  ye  receive ;  for  ye  say 
Amen  to  it.  Ye  know  what  that  blood  is  "  which 
was  shed  for  many,  for  the  remission  of  sins." 
So  that  in  whatever  sense  we  take  it,  there  is  no 
necessity  of  making  it  to  signify  a  corporeal  and 
substantial  presence,  which  it  is  certain  St.  Austin 
never  thought  of. 

It  is  here  proper,  before  we  pass  on, 

•        ,  n       ,  •  xt-  Sect.  9. 

to  make  a  just  reflection  upon  the     how   Novatian 

and  others  abused 

horrible   abuses  of   the  communion  tiie  communion  to 

%vicked  purposes. 

committed  by  some  against  the  true 
end  and  design  of  it,  which  was  intended  by  Christ 
to  represent  our  union  with  himself  and  one  an- 
other, but  wicked  men  made  use  of  it  to  base  ends 
and  purposes.  We  have  already  heard  how  Nova- 
tian abused  it  to  strengthen  his  schism,  and  bind 
men  over  by  an  oath  upon  it,  that  they  would  not 
desert  his  interest  and  party.  And  it  was  a  like 
abuse  that  was  some  time  allowed  in  the  supersti- 
tious times  of  popery  under  the  general  notion  of 
many  other  superstitious  practices,  called  canonical 
purgations ;  which  was,  that  when  any  one  was 
suspected  of  a  crime,  he  was  to  purge  himself  by 
taking  the  sacrament  upon  it.  Gratian  cites  a  canon 
out  of  the  council  of  Worms '"  to  this  purpose : 
Whereas  it  often  happens,  that  thefts  are  committed 
in  monasteries,  and  they  that  commit  them  are  not 
known  :  we  therefore  order,  that  when  the  brethren 
are  to  purge  themselves  of  such  suspicions,  mass 
shall  be  celebrated  by  the  abbot,  or  some  other  ap- 
pointed by  him,  and  when  it  is  ended,  every  one  of 


i«  Ap.  Euseb.  lib.  6.  cap.  4.3.  p.  245. 

'"  Constit.  lib,  8.  cap.  13. 

'"  Cyril.  Catech.  Myst.  5.  n.  18. 

'*^  Ambros.  de  Sacram.  lib.  4.  cap.  5.  Dicit  tibi  sacerdos, 
Corpus  Christi:  et  tu  dicis,  Amen,  id  est,  Verum.  It.  de 
Initiatis,  cap.  9. 

'"  Aug.  cont.  Faust.  lib.  12.  cap.  10.  Habet  magnam 
vocem  Christi  sanguis  in  terra,  cum  eo  accepto  ab  omnibus 
gentibus  respondetur  Amen. 

•^8  Hicron.  Ep.  62.  ad  Theophil. 

'"•  Leo,  Ser.  6.  de  Jejunio  scptimi  Mensis. 

'■'■"  Joan.  Diacon.  Vit.  Gregor.  lib.  2. 

'^'  Alcuin.  de  Offic.  et  Hclgaldus,  Vita  Roberti  Regis 
Galliffi,  ap.  Bonam,  Liturgic.  lib.  2.  c.  17.  n.  3. 

'^-  Aug.  Serm.  ad  Infantes,  ap.  Fulgent,  de  Baptismo 
.^thiopis,  cap.  11.  Ad  id  quod  estis,  respondetis,  Amen,  et 
respondendo  subscribitis.  Audis  Corpus  Christi,  et  respon- 
des,  Amen.      Esto  membrum  corporis  Christi,  ut  sit  verum 


Amen  tuum. 

153  Aug.  Ser.  de  4.  Feria  sive  Cultura  Agni,  t.  9.  p.  319. 
Quid  dicit  omuis  homo,  quando  accipit  sanguinem  Christi  ? 
Amen  dicit.  Quid  est  amen  ?  Verum  est.  Quid  est  verum  ? 
Quia  fusus  est  sanguis  Christi. 

»J  Id.  Ser.  29.  de  Verbis  Apost.  t.  10.  p.  150.  In  cruce 
pro  nobis  sanguinem  fudit :  et  nostis  fideles  quale  testi- 
monium perhibeatis  sanguini  quem  accepistis.  Certe  enim 
dicitis  Amen.  Nostis  qui  sit  sanguis  qui  pro  multis  efFusiis 
est  in  remissionem  peccatorum. 

'^^  Cone.  Wormat.  can.  15.  ap.  Grat.  Caus.  2.  Quast.  5. 
cap.  23.  Sajpe  contingit,  ut  in  monasteriis  furta  perpe- 
trentur,  et  qui  ha>c  committant  ignorentur.  Idcirco  sta- 
tuimus,  ut  quando  ipsi  fratres  de  talibus  se  expurgare  de- 
buerint,  missa  ab  abbate  celebretur,  vel  ab  aliquo  cui  ipse 
abbas  praeceperit,  prsesentibus  fratribus :  et  sic  expleta 
missa,  omnes  communicent  in  haec  verba;  Corpus  Domini 
sit  mihi  ad  probationem  hodie. 


Chap.  V. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


825 


(liem  shall  communicate,  saying  these  words,  "  Let 
the  body  of  Christ  be  my  purgation  this  day."  But 
though  this  was  allowed  by  a  council,  it  is  justly 
iLckoned  a  great  abuse  by  all  sober  men.  Antonius 
Aiigustinus,  in  his  Emendations  upon  Gratian,'^" 
})a.sses  this  censure  upon  it,  that  it  is  to  be  ascribed 
to  the  great  corruption  and  filth  of  the  times  which 
allowed  it.  For  even,  as  the  old  glosser  upon  Gra- 
tiau  observes,'"  the  communion  was  not  to  be  given 
to  suspected  persons,  as  he  proves  from  other  laws, 
particularly  the  extravagant  de  Purgatione  Canonica, 
cap.  Cum  dilectis.  And  therefore,  he  says,  this  canon 
in  Gratian  was  of  no  force,  being  disannulled  in  law. 
So  that  we  need  not  scruple  to  call  this  a  great 
abuse  of  the  holy  communion,  though  it  had  synod- 
ical  authority  some  time  to  enjoin  the  practice  of 
it.  I  know  nothing  hardly  that  exceeds  it  under 
pretence  of  religion,  unless  it  be  that  more  horrible 
abuse  which  Baronius  '^'  himself  relates  out  of  the 
Greek  historians,  concerning  Pope  Theodore  and 
the  Roman  council,  anno  648,  who,  in  their  cen- 
sure of  Pyrrhus  and  Paulus,  the  Monothelite  here- 
tics, took  blood  out  of  the  cup,  and  mingled  it  with 
ink,  and  therewith  subscribed  their  condemnation. 
An  unparalleled  instance  of  intemperate  zeal,  for 
which  there  was  neither  law  nor  example  in  the 
Roman  church,  as  Baronius  confesses,  nor  any 
instance  like  it,  save  one  in  the  Greek  church, 
when  Ignatius,  in  the  council  of  Constantinople, 
anno  869,  made  use  of  the  blood  in  the  sacred  cup 
instead  of  ink  to  condemn  his  adversary  Photius, 
as  Baronius  also  tells  us'^^  out  of  Nicetas,  in  his  Life 
of  Ignatius.  But  I  pass  over  these  horrible  abuses, 
more  becoming  Draco,  and  his  sanguinary  laws, 
than  the  pens  and  practices  of  Christian  bishops, 
and  go  on  with  the  more  innocent  practices  of  the 
primitive  church. 

j^  During  the  time  of  communicating. 

Proper  psalms  for  ^r^iie  the  clcments  were  distributed 

the  occ;ision  usually 

pi"wer''e''commll^"i-  to  the  pcople,  it  was  usual  in  most 
'"^  '""■  places  for  the  singers  or  all  the  peo- 

ple to  sing  some  psalm  suitable  to  the  occasion.  The 
author  of  the  Constitutions  '*  prescribes  the  thirty- 
third  Psalm,  which  in  our  division  is  the  thirty- 
fourth,  for  this  purpose  :  "  I  will  bless  the  Lord  at 
all  times,  his  praise  shall  be  always  in  my  mouth." 
Which  was  chiefly  sung  upon  the  account  of  those 


words  relating  to  the  sacrament, "  O  taste  and  see 
that  the  Lord  is  gracious,"  &c.  For  so  St.  Cyril 
more  plainly  declares,  when  he  says,""  After  this 
you  hear  one  singing  with  a  Divine  melody,  and 
exhorting  you  to  partake  of  the  holy  mysteries, 
and  saying,  "  O  taste  and  see  that  the  Lord  is  gra- 
cious." St.  Jerom  also  seems  to  intimate,'""^  that 
they  sung  both  this  and  the  45th  Psalm,  when  he 
says.  They  received  the  eucharist  always  with  a  good 
conscience,  hearing  the  psalmist  sing,  "  O  taste  and 
see  that  the  Lord  is  gi-acious:"  and  singing  with 
him,  "  My  heart  is  inditing  of  a  good  matter,  I  speak 
of  the  things  which  I  have  made  unto  the  king." 
This  being  a  psalm  peculiarly  setting  forth  the 
praises  of  Christ,  and  the  affection  of  the  church 
toward  him  :  "  Hearken,  O  daughter,  and  consider, 
incline  thine  ear,  forget  also  thine  own  people  and 
thy  father's  house  :  so  shall  the  King  have  pleasure 
in  thy  beauty ;  for  he  is  thy  Lord  God,  and  wor- 
ship thou  him."  In  Africa  they  seem  to  have  de- 
lighted much  in  this  custom,  insomuch  that  when 
one  Hilarius  a  tribune  railed  against  it  and  all  other 
singing  of  psalms  at  the  altar,  St.  Austin  wTote  a 
book  particularly  in  vindication  of  it,  which  is  now 
lost,  but  he  mentions  it  in  his  Retractations.'"  And 
both  he  and  Tertullian  seem  to  intimate,  that  among 
other  psalms  they  sung  the  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
third  :  "Behold,  how  good  and  joyful  a  thing  it  is, 
brethren  to  dwell  together  in  unity ! "  For  Tertul- 
lian says,'"  They  were  used  to  sing  this  psalm 
when  they  supped  together:  by  which  most  probably 
he  means  the  Lord's  supper.  And  St.  Austin  says, 
it  was  a  psalm  so  noted  and  well  known, "^  by  its 
constant  use,  that  they  who  knew  nothing  of  the 
Psalter,  could  repeat  that  psalm,  as  having  often 
heard  it  sung,  probably  at  the  altar.  And  he  seems 
to  say,"^'^  that  they  sung  the  33rd  Psalm  upon 
the  same  occasion.  For  he  says  expressly  they 
sung  it  daily,  "  I  will  bless  the  Lord  at  all  times, 
his  praise  shall  ever  be  in  my  mouth."  Which  con- 
sidering how  many  writers  before  speak  of  it  as 
sung  at  the  distribution  of  the  elements,  it  is  pro- 
bable St.  Austin  meant  the  same,  that  it  was  sung 
daily  at  the  altar.  St.  Chrysostom  says  they  sung 
the  145th  Psalm  upon  this  occasion,  chiefly  upon 
the  account  of  those  words  in  it,  "  The  eyes  of  all 
wait  upon  thee,  and  thou  givest  them  their  meat  in 


'5«  Anton.  August,  de  Emend.  Grat.  lib.  1.  Dial.  15.  p.  172. 
Haec  omnia  sunt  illorum  temporum  sordibus  adscribenda. 

'"  Glossa  in  loc.  Gratiani.  Huic  capiti  est  derogatuui, 
quia  suspectis  non  est  danda  eucharislia. 

'^  Baron,  an.  648.  n.  15.  ex  Theophane. 

'^  Ibid.  an.  869.  t.  10.  p.  428.       »«>  Ck)nst.  lib.  8.  cap.  13. 

'"  Cyril.  Myst.  Catech.  5.  n.  17. 

""  Hieron.  Ep.  28.  ad  Lucin.  Boeticum. 

'®  Aug.  Retract,  lib.  2.  cap.  11.  Morem  qui  tunc  esse 
apud  Carthaginem  coeperat,  ut  hymni  ad  altare  dicerentur 
de  psalmorum  libro,  sive  ante  oblationem,  sive  cum  distri- 
bueietur  populo  quod  fuisset  oblatum,  maledica  reprehen- 


sioneubicunque  poterat  lacerabat,  &c.  Huic  respondi,  et 
vocatur  liber  contra  Hilarium. 

'^'  Tertul.  do  Jejiin.  cap.  13.  Vide  qnam  bonum  ct  quam 
jucunduin  habitare  fratresin  uiium.  Hoc  tu  psallere  non  fa- 
cile nosti,  nisi  quo  tempore  cum  compluribus  cccuas. 

iM  Aug.  in  Psal.  c.wxiii.  p.  629.  Psalmus  brevis  est,  sed 
valde  notus  et  nominatus.  Ecce  quam  bonum  et  quam  ju- 
cundum,  &c.  Ita  sonus  iste  dulcis  est,  ut  et  qui  psalterium 
nesciunt,  ipsum  versum  cantent. 

''^'  Ibid.  p.  630.  Impletum  est  in  eo  quod  quotiilie  canta- 
mus,  si  et  moribus  consonemus :  Benedicam  Dominum  in 
omni  tempore,  semper  laus  ejus  in  ore  meo. 


I 


826 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


due  season."  For  he  interprets  this  of  their  spiritual 
meat  at  the  Lord's  table.  This  psalm,  says  he,'" 
is  diligently  to  be  noted  :  for  this  is  the  psalm  which 
has  these  words,  which  they  that  are  initiated  in 
the  holy  mysteries  sing  continually  in  consort,  say- 
ing, "  The  eyes  of  all  wait  upon  thee,  and  thou  givest 
them  their  meat  in  due  season."  For  he  that  is 
made  a  son,  and  partaker  of  the  spiritual  table,  does 
justly  give  glory  to  his  Father.  Thou  art  a  son,  and 
partaker  of  the  spiritual  table ;  thou  feedest  upon 
that  flesh  and  blood  which  regenerated  thee  :  there- 
fore give  thanks  to  him  that  vouchsafes  thee  so 
gi'eat  a  blessing,  glorify  him  who  grants  thee  these 
favours :  when  thou  readest  the  words,  compose 
and  tune  thy  soul  to  what  is  said,  and  when  thou 
sayest,  "  I  will  exalt  thee,  my  God,  my  King,"  (which 
are  the  first  words  of  this  psalm,)  show  thy  great 
love  and  affection  to  him,  that  he  may  say  to  thee, 
as  he  said  to  Abraham,  "  I  am  thy  God."  In  the 
liturgy  which  goes  under  St.  Chrysostom's  name,"^ 
there  is  mention  made  of  the  people's  singing  at 
this  time,  but  no  psalm  specified,  as  here  in  his 
genuine  works.  In  the  liturgy  called  St.  James's"'" 
of  Jerusalem,  the  words  of  the  34th  Psalm,  "  O 
taste  and  see  that  the  Lord  is  gi-acious,"  are  ap- 
pointed to  be  sung  by  the  singers.  St.  Mark's 
liturgy  ""  appoints  the  42nd  Psalm,  "  As  the  hart 
desireth  the  water  brooks,  so  panteth  my  soul 
after  thee,  O  God."  And  Cotelerius'"  has  observed, 
that  in  some  ancient  rituals  at  the  end  of  Gregory's 
Sacramentarium the  I39th  Psalm  is  appointed:  "O 
Lord,  thou  hast  searched  me  out,  and  known  me," 
&c.  So  that  though  the  custom  of  singing  psalms 
in  this  part  of  the  service  was  universal,  the  parti- 
cular psalms  varied  according  to  the  wisdom  and 
choice  of  the  precentor,  or  the  different  rules  and 
usages  of  different  churches.  I  have  now  stated 
and  resolved  the  several  questions  and  cases  that 
may  be  put  concerning  the  manner  of  communicat- 
ing in  the  ancient  church  ;  and  there  remains  but 
one  thing  more  to  be  considered,  which  was  the 
solemn  thanksgiving  and  prayers  after  receiving, 
which  may  be  included  with  some  other  concomi- 
tant rites  in  the  general  name  of  their  post-com- 
munion service ;  of  which  we  will  discourse  in  the 
following  chapter. 


CHAPTER  VL 

OF    THEIR    POST-COMMUNION    SERVICE. 


Sect.  1.  When  all  the  people  had  communi- 

Bervice  closed  with  catcd,  and  the  deacons  had  removed 


the  remainder  of  the  elements  into  the  several  sorts  of 

,        .  ,  •     ,     J     /<         tlianksgiving.  First, 

pastophona,   or   place    appomtcd  tor  the  deacons  bidding 

,      .  .  .  1    <-  ^         •"'''>'^'  ""'1  thanks- 

their  reception ;  it  was  usual  first  for  8"ing. 
a  deacon  to  admonish  the  people  to  return  thanks 
for  the  benefits  which  they  had  received.  The 
form  of  this  exhortation  in  the  Constitutions '  runs 
thus :  "  Now  that  we  have  received  the  precious 
body  and  the  precious  blood  of  Christ,  let  us  give 
thanks  to  him  that  hath  vouchsafed  to  make  us 
partakers  of  his  holy  mysteries ;  and  let  us  beseech 
him  that  they  may  not  be  to  our  condemnation, 
but  salvation,  for  the  benefit  of  our  soul  and  body, 
for  the  preservation  of  us  in  piety,  for  the  remission 
of  our  sins,  and  obtaining  of  the  life  of  the  world  to 
come."  Then  he  bids  them  rise  up,  and  commend 
themselves  to  God  by  Christ.  Upon  which  the 
bishop  makes  a  prayer  of  thanksgiving  and  com- 
mendation of  the  people  to  God  in  the  following 
words : 

"  0  Lord  God  Almighty,  the  Father 
of  thy  Christ,  thy  blessed  Son;  who  TheWshop'sThani^s- 

-  *  _  ,  ,  ,  .     ,         giving  or  coniinen- 

hearest  those  that  with  an  upright  dation  of  the  people 

^     °  to  God. 

heart  call  upon  thee,  who  knowest 
the  supplications  of  those  that  in  silence  pray  unto 
thee  ;  we  give  thee  thanks  for  that  thou  hast  vouch- 
safed to  make  us  partakers  of  thy  holy  mysterie.s, 
which  thou  hast  given  us  for  the  confirmation  or 
full  assurance  of  those  things  which  we  stedfastly 
believe  and  know,  for  the  preservation  of  our  piety, 
for  the  remission  of  our  sins ;  because  the  name  of 
thy  Christ  is  called  upon  us,  and  we  are  united  unto 
thee.  Thou  that  hast  separated  us  from  the  com- 
munion of  the  ungodly,  unite  us  with  them  that  are 
sanctified  unto  thee ;  confirm  us  in  thy  truth  by  the 
coming  of  thy  Holy  Spirit  and  his  resting  upon  us  ; 
reveal  unto  us  what  things  we  are  ignorant  of,  sup- 
ply what  we  are  deficient  in,  and  strengthen  us  in 
what  we  know.  Preserve  thy  priests  unblamable 
in  thy  service,  keep  our  princes  in  peace,  our  go- 
vernors in  righteousness,  the  air  in  good  tempera- 
ture, the  fruits  of  the  earth  in  plenty,  and  the  whole 
world  by  thy  almighty  providence.  Pacify  the 
nations  that  are  inclined  to  war ;  convert  those  that 
go  astray;  sanctify  thy  people  ;  preserve  those  that 
are  in  virginity ;  keep  those  that  are  married  in  thy 
faith  ;  strengthen  those  that  are  in  chastity ;  bring 
infants  to  mature  age  ;  confirm  those  that  are  newly 
baptized ;  instruct  the  catechumens,  and  make  them 
fit  and  worthy  of  baptism  :  and  gather  us  all  into  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord, 
with  whom  unto  thee  and  the  Holy  Spirit  be  glory, 
honour,  and  adoration,  world  without  end.  Amen." 
After  this  the  deacon  bids  the  peo- 

.  Sect.  3. 

pie  bow  their  heads  to  God  in  Christ,    The  bishops  benc- 

^  diction. 

and  receive  the  benediction.     Then 


'"  Chrys.  in  Ps.  cxliv.  t.  3.  p.  59 1.    "»  lb.  Litur.  t.  4.  p.  618. 
'«»  Jacob.  Liturg.  Bibl.  Patr.  Gr.  Lat.  t.  2.  p.  20. 
'"»  Marci  Lituvg.  ibid.  p.  40. 


'■'  Coteler.  in  Constit.lib.  8.  cap.  13. 
'  Constit.  lib.  8.  cap.  14.  it  is  called  Trpo(r</)a)i'))o-ts  finct 
Tt/y  fjLhTuK^xlnv. 


ClIAl'.    VI. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


827 


the  bishop  pronounces  the  benediction  in  this  fol- 
lowing prayer :  "  Almighty  God,  and  true,  with 
whom  no  one  can  compare,  who  art  every  where, 
and  present  unto  all,  yet  not  in  them  as  things  of 
which  they  consist ;  who  art  circumscribed  by  no 
place,  not  grow^n  old  with  time, nor  bounded  by  ages; 
who  art  without  generation,  and  needest  no  pre- 
server ;  who  art  above  all  corruption,  uncapable  of 
change,  and  unalterable  by  nature ;  that  dwellest 
in  light  which  no  one  can  approach  unto,  and  art 
invisible  by  nature  ;  that  art  known  to  all  rational 
natures  that  seek  thee  with  an  upright  heart,  and 
art  apprehended  by  those  that  search  after  thee 
with  a  pure  mind ;  O  thou  God  of  Israel,  the  Israel 
that  truly  sees  thee,  and  the  people  that  believe  in 
Christ,  showf  thyself  propitious,  and  hear  me  for  thy 
name's  sake :  bless  this  people  that  bow  their  necks 
unto  thee,  and  grant  them  the  petitions  of  their 
heart  that  are  expedient  for  them,  and  suffer  none 
of  them  to  fall  from  thy  kingdom;  but  sanctify 
them,  keep  and  protect,  help  and  deliver  them  from 
the  adversary,  and  from  every  enemy ;  preserve 
their  houses,  and  defend  their  going  out  and  their 
coming  in :  for  to  thee  belongs  glory,  praise,  majesty, 
worship,  and  adoration  ;  and  to  thy  Son  Jesus,  thy 
Christ, our  Lord  and  God  and  King;  and  to  the  Holy 
Spirit,  now  and  for  ever,  world  without  end.  Amen." 
After  this  the  deacon  used  a  short 

Sect,  4. 

ot^d^mi^tn'^th^  fo'"'^^  of  words  iu  the  nature  of  a  prayer 
St''p^5-«,"''''Go  for  peace,  which  was  the  signal  where- 
in peace.  ^,.^j^  ^^  dismisscd  the  whole  assem- 
bly; intimating  that  the  whole  service  was  now 
finished,  and  therefore  praying  that  the  peace  of 
God  might  continue  with  them,  and  preserve 
them,  he  said,  ' A-n-oXviaOe  tv  tlprjvy,  "Depart  in 
peace."  This  was  the  usual  form  of  breaking  up 
all  religious  assemblies  in  the  Greek  church,  as  we 
have  noted  before  in  speaking-  of  the  daily  morn- 
ing service  out  of  this  author :  and  we  are  assured 
of  it  from  St.  Chrysostom,^  who,  speaking  of  the 
frequent  use  of  that  short  prayer  of  salutation, 
"  Peace  be  with  you,"  particularly  takes  notice  of 
the  deacon's  using  it  at  the  dismission  of  the  assem- 
bly :  The  deacon,  says  he,  when  he  dismisses  you 
from  this  meeting,  does  it  with  this  prayer,  noptv- 
taBi  iv  tlpijvy,  "  Go  in  peace."  Whence  we  may  learn, 
that  they  did  not  use  it  as  an  empty  form,  but  as  a 
short  solemn  prayer,  to  send  them  away  with  a  be- 
nediction, or  the  blessing  of  God  upon  them. 

Sect.  5.  -A^s  for  the  other  prayers   used  in 

haverfthPMprayere  tliis  part  of  thc  scrvicc,  we  have  no 

particular  account  of  them  in  other 

writers  ;  but  they  tell  us  in  general,  that  such  forms 

of  praise  and  thanksgiving  were  always  used  after 


the  communion.     St.  Austin  says,*  when  all  was 
ended,  and  every  one  had  received  the  communion, 
a  solemn  thanksgiving  concluded  the  whole  action. 
And  so  Cyril  of  Jerusalem'  bids  his  newly  baptized 
communicant  stay,  when  the  communion  was  done, 
to  give  thanks  to  God,  wdio  had  vouchsafed  to  make 
him  a  partaker  of  so  great  mysteries.     St.  Chry- 
sostom  has  a  long  invective °  against  those  who 
w'ould  not  stay  these  last  prayers,  but  as  soon  as 
they  had  communicated  themselves,  would  be  gone, 
and  leave  their   brethren  to   give  thanks  alone : 
whom  he  compares  to  Judas,  who  left  the  apos- 
tles after  supper  before  the  last  hymn  w-as  sung ; 
but  all  the  other  apostles  staid  to  sing  the  hymn 
with  their  Lord,  from  wdiose  example  the  church 
took  up  the  custom  of  making  these  last  prayers 
after  the  communion.     It  is  an  excellent  passage, 
and  therefore  I  w'ill  transcribe  it  at  length  in  his 
own  words :  "  Would  you  have  me  tell  you,  what  is 
the  cause  of  noise  and  tumult  in  the  church  ?  It  is 
because  we  shut  not  the  doors  upon  you  all  the  time 
of  Divine  service,  but  suffer  you  to  draw  off  and  go 
home  before  the  last  thanksgiving ;  which  is  a  great 
contempt  of  God's  ordinance.     What  meanest  thou, 
O  man,  in  so  doing  ?     Christ  is  present,  the  angels 
stand  by  him,  the  tremendous  table  is  spread,  thy 
brethren   are  yet  communicating,  and  dost  thou 
desert  them  and  fly  off?     If  thou  art  called  to  a 
common   entertainment,   thou  dost  not  presume, 
whilst  the  rest  are  sitting,  to  depart   before  thy 
friends,  though  thou  hast  filled  thyself  before  them : 
and  dost  thou  here  leave  all  and  depart,  whilst 
the  holy  mysteries  of  Christ  are  celebrating,  and 
the  sacred  offices  performing?    What  pardon  can 
be  expected,  what  apology  can  be  made  for  this  ? 
Shall  I  tell  you  plainly,  wdiose  work  they  are  a 
doing,  who  thus  depart  before  all  is  finished,  and 
wait  not  for  the  eucharistical  hymns  at  the  end  of 
the  supper?     It  may  perhaps  seem  a  hard  and 
odious  saying,  but  it  is  necessary  to  be  said,  to 
reprove   the   negligence   of   many.     When   Judas 
communicated  at  the  last  supper  in  that  last  night, 
whilst  all  the  rest  were  sitting  at  table,  he  stole  off 
and  went  out ;  and  they  imitate  him,  w'ho  go  aw'ay 
before  the  last  thanksgiving.     For  if  he  had  not 
gone  out,  he  had  not  been  made  the  traitor ;  if  he 
had  not  deserted  his  fellow  disciples,  he  had  not 
perished  ;  if  he  had  not  broken  away  from  the  flock, 
the  wolf  had  not  found  him  alone ;  if  he  had  not 
separated  himself  from  the  Shepherd,  he  had  not 
been  a  prey  to  the  wild  beast.     Upon  this  account 
we  find  him  among  the  Jews,  but  the  rest  stay  to 
sing  a  hymn,  and  go  forth  with  their  Lord.  Do  you 
not  now  see,  that  the  last  prayers  after  the  sacrifice 


^BookXIII.  chap.  10.  sect.  8. 

'  Chrjs.    Horn.  52.    in  eos  qui    Pascha  jejiinant,   t.  5. 
p.  713. 
*  Aug.  Ep.  59.  ad  Paiilin.  Quwst.  5.     Quibus  pcractis,  et 


participate  tanto  sacramento,  gratiariim  actio  cuncta  con- 
cliidit.  *  Cyril.  Catecli.  Myst.  5.  n.  19. 

!*  Chrvs.  Horn.  24.  de  Bapt.  Christi,  t.  1.  p.  317.  It.  Horn. 
82.  al.  83.  in  Mat.  n.  700. 


828 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


take  theii-  rise  from  that  example  ?"  Thus  far  St. 
Chrysostom,  who  seems  to  intimate  that  they  had 
not  only  prayers,  but  also  psalms  and  hymns  of 
thanksgiving,  in  imitation  of  our  Saviour's  singing 
a  hymn  after  his  last  supper  with  his  disciples. 
And  it  is  very  probable,  from  what  St.  Chrysostom 
tells  us  in  another  place,  that  the  church  had  such 
an  affection  for  David's  Psalms,  that  she  used  and 
interspersed  them  in  all  her  offices.  Primus  et 
ynecUus  et  novissimus  est  David,^  David  was  in  the 
beginning,  and  middle,  and  end  of  her  services.  It 
is  true,  the  author  of  the  Constitutions  takes  no 
notice  of  psalms  or  hymns  in  the  forementioned 
place ;  btit  in  another  place,*  where  he  has  also  a 
prayer,  fiiTci  Tt)v  ixiTa\r\^i.v,  after  participation,  be- 
sides the  thanksgiving,  there  is  order  to  sing,  Ma- 
ranatha,  that  is,  "  The  kingdom  of  God,"  or,  "  The 
Lord,  cometh  :"  and  also,  "  Hosanna  to  the  Son  of 
David.  Blessed  is  he  that  cometh  in  the  name  of 
the  Lord :  blessed  be  the  Lord  our  God,  who  was 
manifested  to  us  in  the  flesh."  Which  seems  to 
imply,  that  there  were  different  usages  in  different 
churches,  and  that  this  author  made  his  collections 
vary  sometimes  from  themselves,  by  interposing  the 
rites  of  different  churches.  In  the  old  Gothic 
Missal,  published  by  Mabillon,  there  is  nothing  ap- 
pointed after  the  communion  but  only  two  prayers, 
the  one  called,  post  commnnionem ;  and  the  other, 
collectio,  the  collect  or  concluding  prayer.  And  it 
is  much  after  the  same  manner  in  the  Mozarabic 
liturgy,  of  which  Mabillon  gives  a  specimen  or  two 
in  his  Appendix.  But  in  the  Greek  liturgies,  as 
that  under  the  name  of  St.  James,'  besides  the 
prayers,  there  are  several  short  hymns  and  praises 
collected  out  of  the  Psalms  and  other  Scriptures  ap- 
pointed to  be  said  after  the  communion :  as  that  of 
the  57th  Psalm,  "  Set  up  thyself,  O  God,  above  the 
heavens,  and  thy  glory  above  all  the  earth."  And, 
"  Blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Lord  from  this  time 
forth  for  evermore."  And,  "  Blessed  be  he  that 
cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord.  Save  thy  people, 
0  God,  and  bless  thine  heritage."  And,  "  O  let 
our  mouth  be  filled  with  thy  praise,  that  we  may 
sing  of  thy  glory  and  honour  all  the  day  long," 
Psal.  Ixxi.  /•  So  in  St.  Chrysostom's  Hturgy,'"  the 
people  are  appointed  to  sing  those  words  of  the 
113th  Psalm,  "Blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Lord 
from  this  time  forth  for  evermore."  And  the  whole 
34t.h  Psalm,  "  I  will  always  give  thanks  unto  the 
Lord,  his  praise  shall  ever  be  in  my  mouth." 

g^^j  g  And  it  is  observable,   that   in   all 

in^^waysmafe'In  the  ancicut  forms,  the  thanksgiving 
by%he'''whore"body  praycrs  are  always  in  the  plural  num- 
of    ec  lire  .         ^^^^  representing  the  whole  body  of 


the  communicants  as  returning  their  praises  to  God 
for  the  mercies  they  had  received.  Eor  then  there 
were  no  private  nor  solitary  masses,  where  the 
priest  says  the  office  alone  by  himself  without  any 
hearers,  or  communicates  alone  without  any  par- 
takers ;  but  they  all  assisted  and  communicated 
together:  and  so  long  it  was  very  rational  and 
proper  to  return  a  general  thanksgiving  for  the 
benefits  of  the  communion  which  they  had  all  re- 
ceived. But  since  private  and  solitary  masses  came 
in,  all  these  forms  are  very  improper  and  absurd, 
to  tell  God,  they  have  all  received '  the  sacrament, 
and  bless  him  for  it,  when  none  has  received  it  but 
one,  and  sometimes  none  has  so  much  as  heard  the 
office,  but  the  priest  alone  that  repeats  it.  Yet 
these  offices  now  stand  in  the  Roman  mass,  to  the 
eternal  reproach  of  those  that  abuse  them.  For 
they  still  say.  Quod  ore  sunipsimiis,  Szc,  "  That  which 
we"  have  received  with  our  mouths,  O  Lord,  grant 
that  we  may  receive  with  a  pure  mind ;  and  of  a 
temporal  gift,  make  it  unto  us  an  eternal  remedy." 
And  there  are  many  other  prayers  in  the  same 
tenor;  all  which  suppose  many  to  have  commu- 
nicated, when  yet  no  one  has  received  but  the  priest 
alone.  Bona'^  confesses  this  is  not  according  to 
the  pi'imitive  custom.  For  those  prayers  were  in- 
stituted at  first  for  communicants,  when  all  or  a 
great  part  of  the  church  communicated  together ; 
for  otherwise  the  very  name  of  communion  would 
here  be  improperly  used,  if  more  than  one  did  not 
partake  of  the  sacrifice.  And  all  he  has  to  say  for 
their  retaining  those  prayers  in  the  mass,  when  the 
use  of  them  by  private  mass  is  become  so  improjjer, 
is  only  this :  That  though  the  ancient  custom  of 
many  communicating  together  be  left  off,  yet  no 
change  is  made  in  the  prayers,  but  they  are  retained 
still,  to  show  us  what  was  done  anciently,  and  to 
excite  us  by  the  very  tenor  of  the  prayers  to  return 
to  the  primitive  fervour.  How  happy  would  it  be, 
if  the  Roman  church  would  in  all  things  observe 
this  rule,  and  return  to  the  laudable  practice  and 
simplicity  of  the  ancient  church ;  reforming  her 
offices  by  the  primitive  standard,  and  casting  away 
all  those  corruptions,  which  appear  from  the  whole 
series  of  this  history  to  be  manifest  innovations, 
either  privately  crept  in  by  connivance  and  negli- 
gence in  times  of  ignorance,  or  else  forcibly  im- 
posed by  tyranny  and  power,  contrary  to  the  usages 
of  the  ancient  church,  and  many  times  to  the  very 
design  of  Divine  service,  and  the  natural  intent  of 
holy  institutions  !  As  it  is  plain  in  the  case  of 
having  Divine  service  in  an  unknown  tongue,  and 
worshipping  saints  and  angels,  and  images  and 
crosses,  with  Divine  worship,  and  dividing  the  sa- 


'  Chrys.  Horn.  6.  de  Poenitentia,  in  Edit.  Latinis. 
8  Constit.  lib.  7.  cap.  2G. 

'  Liturg.  Jacob.  Bibl.  Patr.  Gr.  Lat.  t.  2.  p.  21. 
'»  Chrys.  Litur.  t.  4.  p.  G2J. 


"  Missal.  Roman,  p.  24.  de  Ritu  celebrandi  Missam,  et  in 
Canone  Missae,  p.  306. 

'2  Bona,  Rerum  Liturgic.  lib.  2.  cap.  20.  n.  1. 


Chap.  VII. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


829 


crament,  and  ministering  it  only  in  one  kind,  and 
many  other  things  of  the  like  nature ;  which,  as 
they  contradict  the  very  end  of  the  Divine  ordi- 
nances, and  the  natural  design  of  God's  institutions, 
so  they  run  counter  to  the  whole  practice  of  the 
ancient  church,  as  any  one  may  see  by  considering 
the  allegations  produced  in  these  collections,  in 
which  I  have  endeavoured  to  point  out  as  well  the 
rise  of  errors  and  the  original  of  corruptions  in 
latter  ages,  as  the  true  ancient  practice  of  the  pri- 
mitive church,  in  all  the  several  parts  of  Divine 
service  relating  to  the  ordinary  worship  of  God. 

And  here  I  should  have  put  an  end  to  this  ac- 
count, but  that  there  are  a  few  questions  more  that 
may  be  asked  concerning  some  appendages  and  cir- 
cumstances of  the  communion,  which  it  will  be 
proper  to  answer  in  this  place.  As,  I.  How  they 
were  used  to  dispose  of  the  remains  of  the  eucharist 
after  communicating  ?  2.  What  was  their  usage 
and  practice  in  regard  to  their  agape  or  feast  of  cha- 
rity, so  famous  in  ancient  history  ?  3.  What  pre- 
paration they  required  as  necessary  to  communi- 
cants, to  qualify  them  for  a  worthy  reception  ?  4. 
What  time  they  administered  the  Lord's  supper, 
and  how  often  they  exhorted  or  obliged  all  persons 
to  receive  it  ?  I  will  give  as  short  an  answer  as  I 
can  to  these  questions,  and  therewith  put  an  end 
to  tiiis  discourse. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

HOW  THE  REMAINS  OF  THE  EUCHARIST  WERE  DIS- 
POSED OF.  AND  OF  THEIR  COMMOX  ENTERTAIN- 
MENT, CALLED  AGAPE,  OR  FEAST  OF  CHARITY. 

We  have  observed  before,  in  several 
Some  part  of  the  placcs  of  this  Book,  that  some  part  of 

eucharist    anciently       i  i         . 

reserved  for  particu-  thc  cucharist  was  commouly  reserved 

lar  uses. 

for  several  particular  uses,  to  be  sent 
to  the  absent,  and  communicate  the  sick,  and  to 
testify  the  communion  of  distant  churches  one  with 
another.  And  this  was  one  way  of  disposing  of  the 
remains  of  the  consecrated  elements  when  the  com- 
munion was  ended :  to  which,  I  conceive,  the  au- 
thor of  the  Constitutions  had  regard,  when  he  orders 
the  deacon'  to  carry  what  remained  into  the  ^ws- 
tophoria  or  vestry,  which  M-as  the  repository  for  all 
holy  things  belonging  to  the  church. 

g^^j  2  If  ^^y  thing  remained  over  and 

amok's  the' commu'^-  above  what  was  necessary  for  these 
""^*°'*'  uses,  then  by  other  rules  it  was  to  be 


divided  among  the  communicants.  As  appears 
from  the  canons  of  Theophilus,  bishop  of  Alexan- 
dria, one  of  which  is  to  this  purpose  :^  Let  the  clergy 
and  the  faithful,  that  is,  the  communicants,  divide 
among  themselves  the  oblations  of  the  eucharist, 
after  all  have  participated,  and  let  not  a  catechu- 
men cat  or  drink  of  them. 

Some   learned   persons'  confound 
this  division  or  consumption  of  the     Thiii'diviV 


,..,  .v.,.,,v. rated  elo- 

consecrated  elements  with  that  other  men's   «  distinct 

tiling  from  tlie  di. 

division  of  the  oblations  among  the  »;«"" "''  "»>  other 

f'  oblations. 

clergy,  and  allege  the  author  of  the 
Constitutions  for  it,  as  if  he  intended  this  when  he 
says,*  Let  the  deacons  divide  what  remains  of  the 
mystical  euhgice,  by  the  orders  of  the  bishop  or 
presbyters,  among  the  clergy ;  to  the  bishop  four 
parts,  to  the  presbyter  three  parts,  to  the  deacon 
two  parts,  to  the  rest  of  the  clergy,  subdeacons, 
readers,  singers,  deaconesses,  one  part.  For  this 
is  acceptable  to  God,  that  every  man  should  be 
honoured  according  to  his  dignity.  It  is  plain,  he 
speaks  not  here  of  the  consecrated  elements,  but 
of  the  division  of  the  people's  oblations  among  the 
clergy,  as  Cotelerius  rightly  expounds  it.  For  this 
was  one  way  of  maintaining  the  clergy  in  those 
days,  as  has  been  more  fully  shown  ^  in  another 
place.  And  though  he  calls  these  by  the  name  of 
the  mystical  culogicB,  yet  that  does  not  determine  it 
to  the  consecrated  elements  ;  for,  as  has  been  noted 
before,  euhgice  is  a  common  name  that  signifies 
both.  And  Socrates*  takes  it  for  the  oblations  in 
this  very  case,  when,  speaking  of  Chrysanthus  the 
Novatian  bishop,  he  says,  he  never  received  any 
thing  of  the  church  save  two  loaves  of  the  eidogice 
on  the  Lord's  day.  Where  he  certainly  means  not 
two  loaves  of  the  eucharist,  but  of  tlie  other  obla- 
tions of  the  people,  which  it  was  customary  for  the 
clergy  to  have  their  proportioned  shares  in. 

Sometimes  what  remained  of  the 
eucharist  was  distributed  among  the     The  remains  of 

°  the  eucharist  sonie- 

innocent  children  of  the  church.  For,  times  given  to  inno- 
cent children. 

as  I  have  briefly  hinted  before,  whilst 
the  communion  of  infants  continued  in  the  church, 
nothing  was  more  usual,  in  many  places,  than  both 
to  give  children  the  communion  at  the  time  of  con- 
secration, and  also  to  reserve  what  remained  uncon- 
sumcd  for  them  to  partake  of  some  day  in  the  week 
following.  Thus  it  was  appointed  by  the  second 
council  of  Mascon,  in  France,  anno  588,'  That  if 
any  remains  of  the  sacrifice,  after  the  service  was 
ended,  were  laid  up  in  the  vestry,  he  who  had  the 
care  of  them  should,  on  Wednesday  or  Friday, 
bring  the  innocents  to  church  fasting,  and  then. 


'  Constit.  lib.  8.  cap.  13.  =  Theoph.  can.  7. 

'  L' Estrange,  Alliance  of  Div.  OfRc.  chap.  7.  p.  213. 

*  Constit.  lib.  8.  cap.  31. 

*  Book  V.  chap.  4.  sect.  1. 

*  Socrat.  lib.  7.  cap.  12. 


'  Cone.  Matiscon.  2.  can.  6.  Qua;cunque  reliquiae  sacrifi- 
ciortiin  post  peractain  missam  in  sacrario  siipcrsederint^ 
quarta  vel  sexta  feria  innocentes  ab  illo,  cujus  interest,  ad 
ecclesiam  adducantur,  et  indicto  eis  jejunio,  easdem  reliquias 
conspcrsas  vino  percipiant. 


830 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV 


sprinkling  the  remains  with  wine,  make  them  all 
partake  of  them.  And  Evagrius'  says  it  was  the 
custom  of  old  at  Constantinople  to  do  the  same ;  for 
when  they  had  much  remains  of  the  body  of  Christ 
left,  they  were  used  to  call  in  the  children  that  went 
to  school,  and  distribute  them  among  them.  And 
he  tells  this  remarkable  story  upon  it,  That  the  son 
of  a  certain  Jew  happening  one  day  to  be  among 
them,  and  acquainting  his  father  what  he  had  done, 
his  father  was  so  enraged  at  the  thing,  that  he  cast 
him  into  his  burning  furnace,  where  he  was  used  to 
make  glass.  But  the  boy  was  preserved  untouched 
for  some  days,  till  his  mother  found  him :  and  the 
matter  being  related  to  Justinian  the  emperor,  he 
ordered  the  mother  and  the  child  to  be  baptized; 
and  the  father,  because  he  refused  to  become  a 
Christian,  to  be  crucified  as  a  murderer  of  his  son. 
The  same  thing  is  related  by  Gregory  of  Tours,"  and 
Nicephorus  Callistus,'"  who  also  adds,  that  the  cus- 
tom continued  at  Constantinople  to  his  own  time, 
that  is,  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century ;  for  he 
says,  when  he  was  a  child,  he  was  often  called  to 
partake  of  the  remains  of  the  sacrament  after  this 
manner  among  other  children. 

In  some  places  they  observed  the 

Sect.  5. 

And  sometimes    rule  givcn  bv  God  for  disposing  of  the 

burnt  in  the  fire.  °  •'  % 

remainders  of  the  sacrifices  of  peace 
offerings  and  vows  under  the  old  law,  which  was  to 
burn  them  with  fire.  Lev.  vii.  17-  This  was  the 
custom  of  the  church  of  Jerusalem  in  the  fifth  cen- 
turj'',  when  Hesychius,  a  presbyter  of  that  church, 
wrote  his  Comment  upon  Leviticus,  where  he  speaks 
of  it  in  these  words :"  God  commanded  the  remain- 
der of  the  flesh  and  the  bread  to  be  burned  with  fire. 
And  we  now  see  with  our  own  eyes  the  same  thing 
done  in  the  church :  whatever  happens  to  remain  of 
the  eucharist  unconsumed,  we  immediately  burn 
with  fire,  and  that  not  after  one,  two,  or  many  days. 
From  hence  our  learned  writers ''  generally  observe 
two  things:  1.  That  it  was  not  the  custom  of  the 
church  of  Jerusalem  to  reserve  the  eucharist  so 
much  as  from  one  day  to  another,  though  they  did 
in  some  other  churches.  2.  That  they  certainly  did 
not  believe  it  to  be  the  natural  body  and  substance 
of  Christ,  but  only  his  typical  or  symbolical  body: 
for  what  a  llomble  and  sacrilegious  thing  must  the 
very  Jews  and  heathens  have  thought  it,  for  Chris- 
tians to  burn  the  living  and  glorified  body  of  their 
God!  And  how  must  it  have  scandalized  simple 
and  plain  Christians  themselves,  to  have  seen  the 


God  they  worshipped  burnt  in  the  fire !  And  with 
what  face  could  they  have  objected  this  to  the  hea- 
then, that  they  worshipped  such  things  as  might  be 
burnt,  (which  is  the  common  argument  used  by 
Arnobius,  Lactantius,  Athanasius,  and  most  others,) 
if  they  themselves  had  done  the  same  thing?  If 
there  were  no  other  argument  against  transubstanti- 
ation  and  host  worship,  this  one  thing  were  enough 
to  persuade  any  rational  man,  that  such  doctrines 
and  practices  were  never  countenanced  by  the  an- 
cient church. 

We  have  seen  how  they  disposed  of         sect.  e. 
the   consecrated  elements ;    and  are  tionspar'tiv"ispo!.td 

of  in   a    feast   of 

next  to  examine  what  they  did  with  charity ;  which  nu 

the  ancients  reckon 

their  other   oblations.     It  has  been  ^"  apostoucai  nte 

accompanymg  the 

already  observed,  that  some  part  of  co°">»"'"<>n- 
these  (by  what  distinction  made  is  not  very  easy  to 
tell)  went  toward  the  maintenance  of  the  clergy. 
Out  of  the  rest  a  common  entertainment  was  usually 
made,  which,  from  the  nature  and  circumstances  of 
it,  was  usually  called  ayape,  or  feast  of  charity  ;'^  be- 
cause it  was  a  liberal  collation  of  the  rich  to  feed 
the  poor.  St.  Chrysostom  gives  this  account  of  it, 
deriving  it  from  apostolical  practice :  he  says,"  The 
first  Christians  had  all  things  in  common,  as  we 
read  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles ;  and  when  that 
ceased,  as  it  did  in  the  apostles'  time,  this  came  in 
its  room,  as  an  efflux  or  imitation  of  it.  For  though 
the  rich  did  not  make  all  their  substance  common, 
yet,  upon  certain  days  appointed,  they  made  a  com- 
mon table,  and  when  their  service  was  ended,  and 
they  had  all  communicated  in  the  holy  mysteries, 
they  all  met  at  a  common  feast;  the  rich  bringing 
provisions ;  and  the  poor  and  those  who  had  nothing 
being  invited,  they  all  feasted  in  common  together. 
In  another  place,'^  he  repeats  the  same  thing,  say- 
ing. From  this  law  and  custom  (of  having  all  things 
common)  there  arose  then  another  admirable  cus- 
tom in  the  churches.  For  when  all  the  faithful  met 
together,  and  had  heard  the  sermon  and  prayers, 
and  received  the  communion,  they  did  not  imme- 
diately return  home  upon  the  breaking  up  of  the 
assembly,  but  the  rich  and  wealthy  bi'ought  meat 
and  food  from  their  own  houses,  and  called  the 
poor,  and  made  a  common  table,  a  common  dinner, 
a  common  banquet  in  the  church.  And  so  from 
this  fellowship  in  eating,  and  the  reverence  of  the 
place,  they  were  all  strictly  imited  in  charity  one 
with  another,  and  much  pleasure  and  profit  arose 
thence  to  them  all :  for  the  poor  were  comforted, 


^  Evagr.  lib.  4.  cap.  36. 

^  Gregor.  Turon.  de  Glor.  Martyr,  lib.  1.  cap.  10. 

"•  Niceph.  lib.  17.  cap.  2o. 

"  Hesych.  in  Levit.  lib.  '2.  Quod  reliquiim  est  de  canii- 
biit  et  panibiis,  in  igne  inceudi  prxccpit.  Quoil  nunc  videmus 
etiara  sensibiliter  in  ecclesia  fieri,  ignique  tradi  quiccunque 
remanere  contigerit  inconsumta,  non  omnino  ca  qiuB  una  die, 
vel  duabus  aut  multis  servata  sunt. 


'=  Vid.  Du  Moulin,  Novelty  of  Popery,  lib.  7.  Controv.  II. 
chap.  19.  Albertin.  de  Euchar.  p.  853.  Whitby,  Idolaii  y 
of  Host  Worship. 

'5  Ignat.  Ep.  ad  Smyrn.  n.  8.  ' AyaTn]v  irouli'.  Ep.  In- 
terpol, calls  it  ooxnv.  Constit.  lib.  2.  cap.  28.  Clem.  Ale;;. 
PfcdaiJ.  lib.  2.  cap.  1.  p.  165. 

"  Chrys.  Horn.  27.  in  1  Cor.  p.  559. 

''  Id.  Horn.  22.  Oportet  haereses  esse,  &c.  t.  5.  p.  310. 


Chap.  VII. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


831 


and  the  rich  reaped  the  fruits  of  their  benevolence 
both  from  those  whom  they  fed  and  from  God. 
The  same  account  is  given  by  the  author  under  the 
name  of  St.  Jerom,'"  who  says,  when  they  met  in 
the  church,  they  made  their  oblations  separately, 
and  after  the  communion,  whatever  remained  of 
those  sacrifices,  they  eat  and  consumed  in  a  com- 
mon supper  together.  The  like  is  said  by  Theodo- 
ret,"  (Ecumenius,  Theophylact,  and  others  upon 
that  place  of  the  apostle.  From  whence  it  appears, 
that  this  was  a  rite  always  accompanying  the  com- 
munion. And  it  is  a  singular  opinion  of  Albas- 
jiina^us,  when  he  asserts,'^  that  these  agapa;  and  the 
;  communion  were  never  celebrated  at  the  same  time, 
which  he  maintains  without  any  foundation  against 
the  concurrent  sense  both  of  ancient  and  modern 
writers. 

There  is  some  difference  indeed  be- 

whfther  this  feast  twccu  tlic  aucieut  and  modern  inter- 
was  before  oi-  after 

the  comm.inion  in  prctcrs  concemma:  one  circumstance 

apostles'  days.       ^  ^  ^  ^ 

of  these  love-feasts  in  point  of  time, 
as  practised  in  the  apostles'  days.  The  ancients,  as 
we  have  heard  already  out  of  St.  Chrysostom  and 
the  rest,  generally  say,  these  feasts  were  not  till 
after  the  communion,  when  the  whole  ceremony  of 
preaching,  praying,  and  participating  of  the  sacred 
elements  was  over,  and  the  remainders  of  the  obla- 
tions were  to  be  disposed  of.  But  many  of  the 
moderns  think  otherwise  :  Dr.  Cave  '^  says,  it  is 
probable  that  in  the  apostles'  time,  and  the  age  after 
them,  this  feast  was  before  the  communion,  in  imi- 
tation of  our  Saviour's  institution,  who  celebrated 
the  sacrament  after  supper  ;  and  St.  Paul,  taxing 
the  abuses  of  the  church  of  Corinth,  reproves  them, 
that  when  they  came  together  for  the  Lord's  sup- 
per, they  did  not  tarry  one  for  another,  but  every 
one  took  his  own  supper,  and  one  was  hungrj",  and 
another  was  drunken.  All  this,  he  says,  must  needs 
be  done  before  the  celebration  of  the  eucharist, 
which  was  never  administered  till  the  whole  church 
met  together.  In  this  opinion,  he  has  the  concur- 
rence of  Suiccrus,^  and  Daille,^'  and  Estius,^  who 
says  that  Pelagius,  Primasius,  Haimo,  Hervaeus, 
Aquinas,  Lyra,  Cajetan,  and  others  of  the  Latins, 
were  of  the  same  opinion.  That  which  seems  most 
probable  is,  that  they  observed  no  certain  rule  about 
this  matter,  but  had  their  feast  sometimes  before, 
sometimes  after  the  communion,  as  it  appears  to 
have  been  in  some  measure  in  the  following  ages. 


For  when  the  Christians  in  time  of 
persecution  were  obliged  to  meet  early     now  observed  in 
m  the  morning  before  day  to  celebrate  '"'^  euchari,i  rom- 

.  ,  monly  rcneivi-d  fast- 

the  eucharist  in  their  religious  assem-  'psr-^nA  before  thi. 

t5  feast,   except    upon 

blies,  then  their  feasting  before  com-  'a^on^"^""'*'  °°' 
munion  could  not  well  comport  with 
the  circumstances  and  occasion  of  their  meeting. 
And  therefore,  in  the  beginning  of  the  second  cen- 
tury, we  find  the  eucharist  was  received  before,  and 
the  feast  postponed.  For  so  Pliny  ^  represents  it 
in  the  account  which  he  had  from  the  Christians  in 
the  entrance  of  this  century :  for  having  said.  That 
they  met  on  the  Lord's  day  to  sing  hymns  to  Christ, 
and  bind  themselves  by  a  sacrament,  it  is  added, 
When  this  is  done,  our  custom  is  to  depart,  and  meet 
again  to  partake  of  an  entertainment,  but  that  a 
very  innocent  one,  and  common  to  all.  It  is  plain 
here,  the  communion  was  first,  and  the  agcqie  some 
time  after.  And  so  Tertuilian,  who  gives  the  most 
particular  account  of  it,  speaks  of  it  as  a  supper  a 
little  before  night :  Our  supper,  which  you  accuse  of 
luxury,  shows  its  reason  in  its  very  name :  for  it  is 
called  aydirt),  which  signifies  love  among  the  Greeks. 
Whatever  charge  we  are  at,  it  is  gain  to  be  at  ex- 
pense upon  the  account  of  piety.  For  we  therewith 
relieve  and  refresh  the  poor.  There  is  nothing  vile 
or  immodest  committed  in  it.  For  we  do  not  sit 
down  before  we  have  first  offered  up  prayer  to  God; 
we  eat  only  to  satisfy  hunger;  and  drink "^  only  so 
much  as  becomes  modest  persons.  We  fill  ourselves 
in  such  manner,  as  that  we  remember  still  that  we 
are  to  worship  God  by  night.  We  discourse  as  in 
the  presence  of  God,  knowing  that  he  hears  us. 
Then,  after  water  to  wash  our  hands,  and  lights 
brought  in,  every  one  is  moved  to  sing  some  hymn 
to  God,  either  out  of  Scripture,  or,  as  he  is  able,  of 
his  own  composing;  and  by  this  we  judge  whether 
lie  has  observed  the  rules  of  temperance  in  drink- 
ing. Praj^er  again  concludes  our  feast ;  and  thence 
we  depart,  not  to  fight  and  quarrel,  not  to  run  about 
and  abuse  all  we  meet,  not  to  give  ourselves  up  to 
lascivious  pastime ;  but  to  pursue  the  same  care  of 
modesty  and  chastity,  as  men  that  have  fed  at  a 
supper  of  philosophy  and  discipline,  rather  than  a 
corporeal  feast.  As  this  is  a  fine  description  of 
these  holy  banquets,  where  charity  is  the  founda- 
tion, and  prayer  begins  and  ends  the  feast,  and 
singing  of  hymns  and  religious  discourses  season 
the  entertainment,  and  modesty  and  temperance 


■*  Hieron.  in  1  Cor.  si.  20.  In  ecclesia  convenientes  ob- 
lationes  suas  separatim  offerebant,  et  post  communioncm 
quaecunque  eis  de  sacriiiciis  superfiiissent,  illic  in  ecclesia 
communem  coenam  coraedentes  paritcr  cnp.sumcbant. 

"  Theod.  in  1  Cor.  xi.  16.  MsTti  Tiju  fUKTTiKiiv  Xii-rnvp- 
yiai>  icTTLuaOaL,  k.t.X.  CEciiraen.  in  1  Cor.  xi.  t.  1.  p.  529. 
Theophylact.  in  1  Cor.  xi.  17. 

'*  Albasp.  Observat.  lib.  1.  cap.  18.  p.  57. 

"  Cave,  Prim.  Christ,  par.  1.  c.  11.  p.  314. 

™  Suicer.  Thesaur.  Eccles.  voce  'AyuTrt]. 


='  Dallffi.  de  Objecto  Cult.  Relig.  lib.  2.  cap.  19. 

-■-  Esfius  in  1  Cor.  xi.  20. 

-^  Plin.  lib.  10.  Ep.  97.  Quibns  poractis  moretn  sibi  dis- 
cedere,  rursusque  cociuidi  ad  capiendum  cibum,  promisciuini 
taiuen  et  iunoxium. 

-'  Tertul.  Apol.  cap.  39.  Ita  satiirantiir,  ut  qui  meniinc- 
rint  etiam  per  noctcm  adorandum  sibi  esse ;  ita  fiibulaiitur, 
ut  qui  sciunt  Dominum  audire.  Post  aquam  manualcui  et 
lamina,  ut  quisque  de  Scripturis  Sanctis,  vcl  dc  proprio  in- 
genio  potest,  provocatur  in  medium  Deo  canero,  &c. 


832 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


runs  through  the  whole :  so  the  particular  mention 
made   of  lights,  and  worshipping  God  by  night, 
shows  that  they  came  after  the  communion,  and 
not  before,  in  TertuUian's  time ;  when  they  were 
used  to  receive  the   communion  in  the  morning, 
and  always   fasting,  even  upon   those  days  when 
they  deferred  it  till  three  in  the  afternoon,  as  upon 
the  stationary  days,  or  till  six  at  night.     For  it 
was  a  rule  in  the  African  church,  to  receive  the 
eucharist  fasting  at  all  times,  except  one  day,  which 
was  the  Thursday  before  Easter,  commonly  called 
Coina  Domini,  because  it  was  the  day  on  which 
our  Saviour  celebrated  his  last  supper,  and  institut- 
ed the  eucharist  after  supper ;  in  imitation  of  which, 
it  was  the  custom  to  celebrate  the  eucharist  after 
supper  on  this  day,  in  the  African  churches,  but  on 
no  other  day  whatsoever,  as  we  learn  from  the  third 
council  of  Carthage  and  St.  Austin.     The  council 
of  Carthage  had  an  express  canon  to  this  purpose:"* 
That  the  sacrament  of  the  altar  be  never  celebrated 
by  any  but  such  as  are  fasting,  except  on  one  anni- 
versary day,  when  the  supper  of  the  Lord  is  solemn- 
ized.    And  pursuant  to  this  they  order,  That  if  any 
commendation  of  the  dead  was  to  be  made  in  the 
afternoon,  it  should  only  be  done  with  prayers,  and 
not  with  the  celebration  of  the  eucharist,  if  they 
that  assisted  at  the  funeral  office  had  dined  before. 
St.  Austin  was  a  member  of  this  council,  and  he 
assures  us,  that  this  decree  was  conformable  to  the 
practice  of  the  universal  church  in  his  age,  which 
he  thought  to  be  derived  from  the  appointment  of 
the  apostles.     For  though  it  be  very  apparent,  that 
when  the  disciples  first  received  the  body  and  blood 
of  the  Lord,  they  did  not  receive  fasting ;  yet  does 
any  one  now  accuse  the  universal  church  ^  because 
all  men  receive  fasting  ?  For  so  it  pleased  the  Holy 
Ghost,  that,  for  the  honour  of  so  great  a  sacrament, 
the  Lord's  body  should  enter  into  the  mouth  of  a 
Christian  before  any  other  food.     And  therefore 
this  custom  is  observed  by  the  whole  world.     For 
neither  because  the  Lord  gave  it  after  meat,  ought 
the  brethren  to  meet  after  dinner  or  supper  to  re- 
ceive it,  or  to  imitate  those  whom  the  apostle  re- 
proves and  corrects,   who   mingled  it  with  their 
tables.     Our  Saviour,  to  commend  the  greatness  of 
this  mysteiy,  was  minded  indeed  to  fix  it  in  the 
hearts  and  memory  of  his  disciples  as  the  last  thing, 
before  he  went  from  them  to  his  passion :  but  he 
did  not  therefore  order  in  what  manner  it  should  be 
received,  that  he  might  reserve  this  for  his  apostles 


to  do,  by  whom  he  intended  to  order  his  church. 
For  if  he  had  appointed,  that  men  should  receive  it 
after  meat,  I  suppose  no  one  would  have  altered 
that  custom.     But  when  the  apostle,  speaking  of 
this  sacrament,  says,  "  The  rest  will  I  set  in  order 
when  I  come,"  1  Cor.  xi.  34,  we  are  given  to  un- 
derstand, that  he  then  appointed  this  custom  of 
receiving   fasting,  which  now  the  whole  church 
over  all  the  world  observes  without  any  variation 
or  diversity.     But  adds,  that  some  upon  a  probable 
reason  were  delighted  to  offer  and  receive  the  body 
of  the  Lord  after  meat  on  one  certain  day  in  the 
year,  when  the  Lord  himself  gave  his  supper,  to 
make  the  commemoration  of  it  more  remarkable. 
And  because  some  on  that  day  chose  to  fast,  and 
others  not,  therefore  in  many  places  it  was  custom- 
ary to  offer  the  sacrifice  twice,  to  serve  the  ends  of 
both.  St.  Chrysostom  also  frequently  speaks  of  their 
receiving  the  communion  fasting."'     Thou  fastest, 
says  he,  before  thou  receivest  the  eucharist,  that 
thou  mayest  be  worthy.     And  in  one  or  two  places 
he   vindicates   himself   from  an  objection   which 
his  adversaries  brought  against  him,  as  if  he  was 
used  to  transgress  this  rule  both  in  administering 
baptism  and  the  eucharist.     They  say,  I  gave  "*  the 
communion  to  some  after  eating.     If  I  have  done 
this,  let  my  name  be  wiped  out  of  the  catalogue  of 
bishops,  and  not  be  written  in  the  book  of  the  or- 
thodox faith.     If  I  have  done  any  such  thing,  let 
Christ  cast  me  out  of  his  kingdom.     But  if  they 
still  go  on  to  object  this,  let  them  also  degrade  St. 
Paul,  who  baptized  a  whole  house   after  supper. 
Let  them  also  depose  the  Lord  himself,  who  gave 
the  communion   to  his   apostles  after  supper.     So 
again,'-'*  They  object  against  me.  Thou  didst  first  eat, 
and  then  administer  baptism.     If  I  did  so,  let  me 
be  anathema;  let  me  not  be  numbered  in  the  roll 
of  bishops ;  let  me  not  be  among  the  angels ;  let 
me  never  please  God.     But  if  I  had  done  so,  what 
absurdity  had  I  committed  ?  Let  them  depose  Paul, 
who  baptized  the  jailer  after  supper.     Yea,  I  will 
say  a  bolder  thing,  let  them  depose  Christ  himself, 
for  he  gave  the  communion  to  his  disciples  after 
supper.     This  shows  the  custom  of  the  church  was 
to  administer  both  sacraments  before  eating,  though 
at  the  same  time  it  intimates,  that  to  do  otherwise 
was  not  an  unpardonable  crime.     Gregory  Nazian- 
zen  hints  also  at  this  custom'"  when  he  says,  Every 
action  of  Christ  is  not  necessary  to  be  imitated  by 
us  :  for  he  celebrated  the  mystery  of  the  passover 


I 


"  Cone.  Carth.  3.  can.  29.  Ut  sacramenta  altaris  nou 
nisi  a  jejunis  hominibus  celebreutur,  excepto  iino  die  anni- 
versario,  quo  coena  Domini  celebratur.  Nam  si  aliquorum 
pomeridiano  tempore  defunctorum,  sive  episcoporuui  sive 
ceeterorum,  commendatio  facienda  est,  solis  orationibiis  fiat, 
si  illi  qui  faciunt,  jam  pransi  inveniantur. 

2"  Aug.  Ep.  118.  ad  Januar.  cap.  6.  Liquido  apparet, 
quando  primum  acceperunt  discipuli  corpus  et  sanguinem 
Domini,  eos  non  accepisse  jejuuos.     Nimquid  tamen  pmp- 


terea  calumniandum  est  universae  ecclesise  quod  a  jejunis 
semper  accipitur  ?  Et  hoc  enim  placuit  Spiritui  Sancto,  ut 
in  honorem  tanti  sacrameuti,  in  os  Christiani  prius  Domi- 
nicum  corpus  intraret,  quam  ca3teri  cibi.  Nam  ideo  per 
universum  orbem  mas  iste  servatur,  &c. 

"  Chrys.  Horn.  27.  in  1  Cor.  p.  567. 

"■^  Chrys.  Ep.  125.  ad  Cyriacum.t.  4.  p.  868. 

'^■'  Sermo  ante  quam  iret  in  Exilium,  t.  4.  p.  969. 

^"  Naz.  Orat.  40.  de  Baptismo. 


Chap.  VII. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


8.33 


with  his  disciples  in  an  upper  room,  and  after  supper, 
but  we  do  it  in  the  church,  and  before  supper.  The 
like  is  said  by  St.  BasiP'  and  many  other  of  the 
Greek  writers.  And  among  the  I^atins  there  are 
several  canons  of  the  councils  of  Braga,^  Mascon," 
Auxerre,'*  and  Toledo^*  to  this  purpose.  Some  of 
which  allow  the  African  custom  of  communicating 
after  eating  on  the  Thursday  in  Passion  Week,  but 
others  upon  the  account  of  the  Priscillianists  for- 
bid it.  And  therefore  Socrates  notes  it^°  as  a  sin- 
gular thing  in  the  churches  of  Egypt  and  Thebais, 
that  on  Saturdays  they  were  used  to  administer  the 
eucharist  after  eating  in  the  evening.  Wliich  is 
prohibited  by  the  council  of  Trullo,"  not  excepting 
the  Thursday  in  Passion  Week,  which  though  the 
African  fathers  for  probable  reasons  might  allow, 
yet  they  utterly  forbid  it.  By  all  which  it  appears, 
that  the  general  custom  of  the  church  was  to  cele- 
brate the  eucharist  fasting  :  and  consequently,  that 
these  love-feasts  we  are  speaking  of  must  be  held 
after  the  communion,  and  not  before  it.  Yet  it  is 
but  a  sorry  argument  in  Mabillon,  to  conclude 
hence''  that  the  ancients  must  needs  believe  tran- 
substantiation,  because  they  received  the  communion 
fasting.  For  he  might  as  reasonably  have  con- 
cluded fi'om  Chrysostom,  that  the  water  in  baptism 
was  transubstantiated,  because  we  have  heard  him 
say  before,  that  they  always  administered  baptism 
fasting.  And  some  learned  men"  are  of  opinion, 
that  for  the  three  first  ages,  though  they  generally 
received  the  eucharist  fasting  in  the  assemblies  be- 
fore day,  yet  sometimes  they  received  after  supper. 
For  Cyprian,  disputing  against  the  Aquarians,  who 
celebrated  in  the  morning  in  water  only,  and  in  the 
evening  in  wine  and  water  mixed  together,  does  not 
contend  with  them  about  celebrating  after  supper, 
but  only  because  they  did  not  at  both  times  mix 
wine  with  water,  after  Christ's  example.  He  would 
not  so  easily  have  passed  over  the  practice  of  the 
Aquarians  in  celebrating  in  the  evening,  had  there 
been  no  instances  of  the  like  practice  in  the  church : 
but  as  it  was  customary  in  Egj^pt  to  celebrate  the 
eucharist  on  Saturdays  after  dinner,  and  in  Africa 
one  day  in  a  year  after  supper ;  all  he  pleads  for 


upon  this  point,  is  only  this,*"  That  the  general  cus- 
tom of  the  church  to  celebrate  the  eucharist  iu  the 
morning  only,  was  not  against  the  rule  of  Christ, 
though  he  gave  it  in  the  evening  after  supper  ;  be- 
cause Christ  had  a  particular  reason  for  what  he 
did,  which  he  did  not  intend  should  oblige  the 
church:  Christ  offered  in  the  evening,  to  signify 
the  evening  or  end  of  the  world ;  but  we  offer  in  the 
morning,  to  celebrate  our  Saviour's  resurrection. 
And  he  gives  another  reason  why  they  did  not  cele- 
brate in  the  evening  generally  as  in  the  morning, 
because  the  people  could  not  so  well  all  come  to- 
gether in  the  evening  as  in  the  morning.  By  which 
it  is  plain,  in  Cypiian's  time  there  was  no  absolute 
rule  to  forbid  communicating  after  supper,  though 
the  practice  began  generally  to  be  disused,  and  the 
common  custom  was  to  receive  fasting  and  at  morn- 
ing service. 

There  is  one  thing  more  to  be  ob-         ^  ,  „ 

o  Sect  9. 

served  of  their  love-feasts,  that  as  they  aJhvTheu^'n'^he 
were  designed   for  the  promotion  of  ^^rd^forbidden^'by 

• ,  11         • ,  . -I  orders  of  councils. 

unity  and  charity,  they  were  com- 
monly held  in  the  church  for  the  three  first  centu- 
ries, as  learned  men""  conclude  fi-om  that  canon  of 
the  council  of  Gangra,*-  which  was  made  against 
the  Eustathians ;  If  any  one  despises  the  feasts  of 
charity  which  the  faithful  make,  who  for  the  honour 
of.the  Lord  call  their  brethren  to  them,  and  comes 
not  to  the  invitation,  because  he  contemns  them, 
let  him  be  anathema.  These  Eustathians  were  men 
who  held  their  meetings  in  private  houses,  and  de- 
spised the  church ;  which  is  the  reason  of  this  canon 
made  against  them.  However,  such  abuses  were 
sometimes  committed  in  these  feasts,  that  the  coun- 
cil of  Laodicea  not  long  after  made  a  law  against 
having  them  in  the  church,"  forbidding  any  to  eat 
or  spread  tables  in  the  house  of  God  or  the  church. 
And  a  like  decree  was  made  in  the  third  council  of 
Carthage,^*  forbidding  the  clergy  to  feast  in  the 
church,  unless  it  were  by  chance  in  a  journey  for 
want  of  other  entertainment :  and  orders  are  given 
to  restrain  the  people  as  much  as  might  be  from 
such  feasting  in  the  church.  But  the  custom  was 
too  inveterate  to  be  rooted  out  at  once ;  and  there- 


"  Basil.  Horn.  1.  de  Jejunio. 

^2  Cone.  Bracar.  1.  can.  16.  Bracar.  2.  can.  10. 

"  Cone.  Matiscon.  2.  can.  6. 

^*  Cone.  Antissiodor.  can.  19.       ^*  Cone.  Tolet.  7.  can.  2. 

36  Socrat.  lib.  5.  cap.  22.  s?  Conc.  Trull,  can.  29. 

^  Mabil.  de  Liturg.  Gallicana,  lib.  Leap.  G.  n.  7. 

39  Vid.  Dallas,  de  Objecto  Cult.  Relig.  lib.  2.  cap.  19.  p. 
297.  Fell.  Not.  in  Cypr.  Ep.  63.  p.  156. 

*"  Cypr.  Ep.  63.  ad  Coecilium,  p.  156.  The  objection  of 
the  Aquarians :  An  ilia  sibi  aliquis  contemplatione  blan- 
ditur,  quod  etsi  mane  aqua  sola  offerri  videtur,  tamen  cum 
ad  ccenandum  venimus,  mixtum  calicem  offerimus  ?  Cypri- 
an's answer;  Sed  cum  ca?namus,  ad  convivium  nostrum 
plebem  convocare  non  possumus,  ut  sacramenti  veritatem 
I  fraternitate  omni  praisente  celebremus.  The  Aquarians  ob- 
I  3  H 


ject:  At-enim  non  mane,  sed  post  cnenam  mixtum  calicem 
obtulit  Dominus.  Cyprian  answers:  Nunquid  ergo  Do- 
minicum  post  coenam  celebrare  debemus,  ut  sic  mixtum 
calicem  IVequentaudis  Dominicis  offeramus  ?  Christum 
offerre  oportebat  circa  vesperam  diei,  ut  hora  ipsa  sacrificii 

ostenderet  occasum  et  vesperam  mundi. Nos  autem  re- 

surrectionem  Domini  mane  celebramus. 

^'  Bevereg.  Not.  in  can.  74.  Trull.  Suicer.  Thesaur. 
Eccles.  t.  1.  p.  27. 

■*'-  Conc.  Gangren.  can.  11. 

"  Conc.  Laodic.  can.  28. 

**  Conc.  Carth.  3.  can.  .30.  Ut  nulli  episcopi  vel  cleriei 
in  ecclesia  conviventur,  nisi  forte  traiiseuutes  hospitiorum 
necessitate  illic  reficiant :  populi  etiam  ab  hujusmodi  con- 
viviis,  quantum  fieri  potest,  prohibeantur. 


834 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


fore  we  find  by  St.  Austin's"  answer  to  Faustus 
the  Manichee,  that  they  were  still  kept  in  the 
church  :  for  whereas  Faustus  objected  two  things 
against  thena ;  1.  That  they  were  but  the  spawn  of 
the  Gentile  banquets,  turned  into  Christian  feasts ; 
2.  That  the  cathohcs  were  used  to  make  themselves 
drunk  at  them  in  the  memorials  of  the  martyrs ; 
St.  Austin  rejects  the  first  charge  as  a  mere  calumny, 
telling  him,  that  the  end  of  their  agape  was  only 
to  feed  the  poor  with  flesh,  or  the  fruits  of  the 
earth  :  but  the  second  charge  he  owns  in  part  as 
true,  that  the  people  still  held  these  feasts  in  the 
church,  and  that  some  excess  was  committed  in 
them :  But  then,  says  he,  there  is  a  great  deal  of 
difference  between  tolerating  and  approving :  we  do 
not  approve  of  drunkenness  even  in  a  private  house, 
much  less  in  a  church :  it  is  one  thing  which  we 
ai'e  commanded  to  teach,  and  another  what  we  are 
forced  to  tolerate  and  endure,  till  we  can  correct 
and  amend  it.  St.  Austin  ^^  says  all  kind  of  feast- 
ing in  the  church  was  prohibited  by  St.  Ambrose 
at  Milan  with  good  success :  and  it  was  he  himself 
that  gave  the  advice  to  Aurelius,  bishop  of  Carthage, 
to  make  the  foresaid  canon  against  it,"  in  hopes  to 
extirpate  it,  after  the  example  of  St.  Ambrose.  In 
France  it  was  prohibited  by  the  second  council  of 
Orleans,"  anno  541.  Yet,  for  all  this,  there  were 
some  remains  of  it  in  the  seventh  century,  when 
the  council  of  Trullo "  was  obliged  to  re-enforce  the 
canon  of  Laodicea  against  feasting  in  the  church 
under  pain  of  excommunication.  So  difficult  a 
matter  was  it  to  extirpate  the  abuses  of  ancient 
custom,  without  destroying  the  custom  itself,  which 
was  innocent  in  its  original,  and  of  so  great  service 
to  the  Christian  church,  whilst  it  continued  free 
from  abuses,  that  it  was  the  envy  and  admiration 
of  the  heathen. 

Some  indeed  were  maliciously  dis- 
sect. 10.  •' 
How  the  Chris-  poscd  to  calumuiatc  and  traduce  the 

tians   were   at  first    1 

nS  by"'some"'"of  Christiaus  upou  tlic  accouut  of  this 
mfred  ami'mvkd'by  innoccut  custoui,  as  guilty  of  I  know 

olhers.uponarcoimt  .       i       .  i  i       i      i       •  i\    ■  so 

of  these  feasts  of      not  what  black  designs.   Origen  says, " 

Celsus  charged  them  with   holding 

clancular  and  seditious  cabals  upon  the  score  of 


these  a>/aj)es,  or  meetings  to  show  kindness  to  one 
another.  Which  is  also  noted  by  TertuUian  in  that 
chapter  of  his  Apology,  where  he  gives ^'  us  that 
fine  description  of  the  Christian  feasts  in  answer  to 
this  suggestion.  Others  charged  these  feasts  with 
the  practice  of  abominable  uncleanness  :  in  answer 
to  which  Minucius"  tells  them,  their  feasts  were 
not  only  chaste,  but  sober;  for  they  did  not  in- 
dulge either  gluttony  or  drunkenness ;  but  tempered 
their  mirth  with  gi-avity,  with  chaste  discourse,  and 
chaster  bodies.  Others  added  that  monstrous  fa- 
ble of  their  feeding  upon  human  flesh,  and  feasting 
upon  infants'  blood.  Which  is  mentioned  and 
refuted  by  all  the  apologists,  Athenagoras,^'  Theo- 
philus,^*  TertuUian,^*  Minucius,*"  Origen,"  Justin 
Martyr,^  and  many  others,  whom  the  reader  may 
find  at  large,  collected  by  the  learned  Kortholt^' 
in  his  book  De  Calumniis  Paganorum,  &c.  The 
reason  of  this  charge  is  by  many  of  the  ancients 
ascribed  to  the  vile  practices  of  the  Carpocra- 
tians,"  and  other  heretics,  at  least  tacitly  or  in- 
directly, whilst  they  accuse  them  of  this  crime 
which  the  heathens  turned  upon  the  Christians 
in  general.  And  so  it  is  said  upon  their  authority 
by  many  modern "'  authors.  QLcumenius  ascribes 
it  to  another  reason  i*^^  he  says.  In  the  persecu- 
tion of  the  Christians  at  Lyons,  under  Antoninus, 
the  heathens,  having  apprehended  some  servants 
of  certain  Christian  catechumens,  put  them  to  the 
rack,  to  make  them  confess  some  secret  of  the 
Christians;  and  they,  having  heard  their  masters 
say  that  the  holy  communion  was  the  body  and 
blood  of  Christ,  and  supposing  it  to  be  truly  flesh 
and  blood,  {ai/rol  vonit^ovng  r(,J  ovri  alfxa  Kai  cdpKa 
tlvai,)  to  gi'atify  the  inquisitors  they  told  them  what 
they  had  heard.  And  the  heathens,  understanding 
this  as  if  the  Christians  had  really  (avroxpijftct)  eat 
flesh  and  blood,  put  two  of  the  martyrs,  Sanctus 
and  Blandina,  to  the  rack,  to  make  them  confess  it ; 
to  whom  Blandina  smartly  replied.  How  should 
they  endure  to  do  this,  who,  for  exercise'  sake,  ab- 
stain from  such  flesh  as  they  might  lawfully  eat  ? 
If  this  were  true,  it  would  prove  that  the  heathens 
grounded  their  calumny  upon  a  false  apprehension 


■•^  Aug.  cont.  Faust,  lib.  20.  cap.  20.  Nee  sacrificia  eorum 
vertiraus  in  agapes. Agapcs  enim  nostrao  pauperes  pas- 
cunt  sive  frugibus,  sive  carnibus,  &c.  It.  cap.  21.  Qui 
autem  se  in  memoriis  martyrum  inebriant,  quomodo  a  nobis 
approbari  possunt,  cum  cos,  etiamsi  in  domibus  suis  id  faci- 
ant,  sana  doctrina  condemnet  ?  Sed  aliud  est  quod  doce- 
mus,  aliud  quod  sustinemus  :  aliud  quod  praecipere  jubemur, 
aliud  quod  emcndare  praecipimur,  et  donee  emendemus, 
tolerare  corapellimur. 

■'"  Aug.  Confess,  lib.  6.  cap.  2. 

*''  Aug.  Ep.  Gl.  ad  Aureliuui. 

^^  Cone.  Aurel.  2.  can.  12.  "Cone.  Trull,  can.  7-1. 

^"  Orig.  cont.  Cels.  lib.  1.  p.  4.  BovXtTcu  SiuftuXilv  ti> 
i^a\o\ifxivi]v  ayu.-jri]v,  k.t.\. 

^'  Tertul.  Apol.  c,  3a 


^^  Minuc.  p.  92.  Do  incesto  convivio  fabulam  grandem 
adversum  nos  daeinonum  coitio  meutita  est. — At  nos  con- 
vivia  non  tantum  pudica  colimus,  sed  et  sobria — casto  ser- 
mons, corpore  castiore. 

■''  Athcnag.  Legal,  p.  34. 

^'  Tbeoph.  ad  Autolyc.  lib.  3. 

"  Teitul.  Apol.  cap.  7  et  11.  ■■*"  Minuc.  Octav. 

"  Orig.  cont.  Cels.  lib.  6. 

=>*  Just.  Apol.  1  et  2.  ct  Dial,  cum  Tryph. 

'*"  Kortholt.  de  Calumn.  Pagan,  cap.  18.  p.  158,  &c. 

™  Epiphan.  Ha3r.  26.  Gnostic,  n.  5.  Euseb.  lib.  4.  cap.  7. 
Aug.  de  Haeres.  cap.  27. 

'■'  Dallae.  de  Objccto  Cidt.  Relig.  lib.  2.  cap.  28.  Baron. 
an.  120.  n.22.  et  179. n.  44. 

''"  QEcumen.  in  1  Pet.  iii.  IG. 


Chap.  VIII. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


835 


they  had  of  the  Christian  sacrament ;  but  it  would 
by  no  means  prove  what  Perron  and  many  of  the 
Romanists  would  have,  that  the  ground  of  the  ftible 
was  the  real  behef  of  Christians,  as  if  they  believed 
the  eucharist  to  be  the  real  proper  flesh  and  blood 
of  Christ;  for  this  is  expressly  said  to  be  only  a 
false  apprehension  of  the  heathens,  and  utterly  de- 
nied by  the  Christians,  according  as  (Ecumenius 
relates  the  story.  Which  yet  is  something  difierent 
from  the  genuine  Acts  in  Eusebius,*^  for  there  is  no 
mention  made  of  the  eucharist  in  the  story,  but  it 
is  only  said,  That  when  some  of  the  Christian  serv- 
ants, who  were  heathens,  were  apprehended,  they, 
fearing  to  be  tormented,  did,  by  the  motion  of  Satan, 
and  the  instigation  of  the  soldiers  promj^ting  them 
to  it,  falsely  accuse  the  Christians,  as  if  they  were 
used  to  feast  upon  man's  flesh,  and  commit  incest, 
and  other  the  like  things,  which  it  is  not  fit  either 
to  speak  or  think,  and  which  we  can  hardly  beheve 
were  ever  done  by  any  men  whatsoever.  So  that 
the  Christians'  belief  about  the  eucharist  could  not 
be  the  gi-ound  of  this  story,  but  it  either  sprung 
from  the  practices  of  the  Carpocratians,  or  else  (as 
the  learned  Kortholt,"  not  without  some  probable 
reasons,  inclines  to  believe)  it  took  its  rise  from  the 
pure  malice  and  fiction  of  the  heathens  themselves, 
some  of  whom  never  stuck  at  saying  any  thing  that 
would  render  the  Christians  odious.  However, 
though  there  were  many  who  thus  calumniated  these 
Christian  feasts  by  this  variety  of  charges,  yet  there 
were  some  also  who  could  discern  the  good  effects 
of  them,  and  the  great  influence  they  had  not  only 
on  their  own  members,  but  the  very  heathen,  who 
sometimes  would  cry  out  and  say,  See  how  these 
Christians  love  one  another,  as  Tertullian**  notes, 
in  speaking  of  their  collations  and  charity.  Nay, 
Julian  himself,  though  the  bitterest  enemy  the 
Christians  ever  had,  could  not  help  bearing  testi- 
mony to  the  usefulness  of  this  practice,  which  he 
looked  upon  with  an  envious  eye,  as  that  which  he 
imagined  chiefly  to  uphold  the  Christian  religion, 
and  undermine  the  religion  of  the  Gentiles.  For 
thus,  in  one  of  his  letters  to  his  Gentile  priest,  he 
provokes  them  to  the  exercise  of  charity  by  the  ex- 
ample of  the  Christians  and  their  feasts  of  charity : 
There  is  the  more  reason  to  be  careful  in  this  mat- 
ter, says  he,*°  because  it  is  manifestly  the  neglect  of 
this  humanity  in  the  priests,  which  has  given  occa- 
sion to  the  impious  Galileans  (so  he  commonly  styles 
bhe  Christians)  to  strengthen  their  party  by  the 
*\)ractice  of  that  humanity,  which  the  others  have 
neglected.  For  as  kidnappers  steal  away  children, 
whom  they  first  allure  with  a  cake ;  so  these  begin 
first  to  work  upon  honest-hearted  Gentiles,  with  their 
love-feasts,  and   entertainments,  and    ministering 


of  tables,  as  they  call  them,  till  at  last  they  pervert 
them  to  atheism  and  impiety  against  the  gods.  This 
is  a  full  vindication  of  them  from  all  those  asper- 
sions which  the  former  heathens  had  cast  upon 
them,  and  an  ample  testimony  of  their  usefulness 
from  the  mouth  of  an  adversary,  who  saw  and  en- 
vied the  progress  which  Christianity  made  in  the 
world  by  means  of  these  feasts  of  charity,  which  he 
was  minded  to  introduce  into  his  own  way  of  hea- 
then worship,  with  many  other  such  rites,  in  imita- 
tion of  the  Christian  institution.  Happy  had  it  been 
for  the  Christian  religion,  if  Christians  had  never 
had  occasion  to  object  more  against  their  own  feasts 
of  charity,  than  Julian,  their  bitterest  enemy,  could 
find  to  object  against  them !  They  might  then  have 
gone  on  with  innocence  and  glory,  and  have  con- 
tinued a  useful  and  laudable  rite  to  this  day. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

WHAT  PREPARATION  THE  ANCIENTS  REQUIRED  AS 
NECESSARY  IN  COMMUNICANTS,  TO  QUALIfY  THEM 
FOR    A   WORTHY  RECEPTION. 

I  CANNOT  better  answer  this  question         sect.  i. 

,    ,  1  *  .  ^  I  A  :;eneral  answer 

in  creneral  terms,  than  by  saving,  the  to  this  question,  by 

.  ...  ■        ^  referring  to  the  pro- 

preparation  which  thev  required  as  fessions  made  by 

*■       ^  '      ^        *■  every    Christian    in 

necessarv  in  everv  Christian,  was  the  bapt's™.  of  "-^f;"'- 

'  ante,  faith,  and  holy 

performance  of  the  conditions  and  "bcdience. 
obligations  which  every  man  laid  upon  himself 
in  baptism;  the  observation  of  which  put  a  man 
in  a  Christian  state  and  the  favour  of  God;  and 
was  a  continual  preparation  for  death  and  judg- 
ment ;  and,  consequently,  a  continual  and  habitual 
preparation  for  approaches  to  God  in  prayer  and 
holy  mysteries,  (between  which,  as  to  what  con- 
cerns preparation,  the  ancients  made  little  or  no 
distinction,)  since  it  was  a  preparation  that  qualified 
a  man  for  a  constant  daily  or  weekly  communion, 
which  was  proper  for  those  who  were  to  receive  the 
communion  in  a  manner  every  day,  according  to  the 
rules  and  practice  of  those  primitive  ages,  as  we 
shall  see  in  the  next  chapter.  Now,  the  obligation 
which  every  man  laid  upon  himself  in  baptism,  as 
we  have  showed  in  a  former  Book,  was  the  profes- 
sion and  actual  performance  of  these  three  things : 
1.  Repentance,  or  ar  renunciation  of  all  former  sin, 
together  with  the  author  of  it,  the  devil.  2.  Faith, 
or  belief  of  the  several  articles  of  the  Christian  in- 
stitution or  mystery  of  godhness.  3.  A  holy  and 
constant  obedience  paid  to  the  laws  of  this  holy  re- 
ligion.   In  the  performance  of  which,  sincerely  and 


"^  Euseb.  lib.  5.  cap.  1.  p.  156. 
"  Kortholt,  ubi  supra,  p.  163. 
3  H  2 


"  Tertul.  Apol.  cap.  39. 

^  Julian,  Fragment.  Epist.  p.  555. 


836 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


wiiiiout  dissimulation,  every  man  was  supposed  to 
be  truly  qualified  for  baptism  :  and  what  qualified 
him  for  baptism,  also  qualified  him  for  the  commu- 
nion ;  of  which  there  is  this  certain  evidence,  that 
as  soon  as  any  man  was  baptized,  he  was  imme- 
diately communicated :  which  could  not  regularly 
have  been  done,  but  upon  presumption,  that  he  that 
was  duly  qualified  for  baptism,  was  qualified  for  the 
communion  also.  So  that  he  that  continued  in  the 
strict  observance  of  all  the  particulars  of  his  bap- 
tismal covenant,  was  presumed  to  be  in  a  constant 
habitual  preparation  for  the  communion  every  day: 
and  this  was  that  happy  state  of  a  Christian  life, 
which  qualified  those  primitive  saints  for  such  fre- 
quent reception  ;  when  frequency  of  communion 
kept  up  a  flaming  piety  and  universal  holiness  in 
their  souls,  and  such  a  state  of  continual  holiness 
made  them  always  fit  for  and  desirous  of  frequent 
communion.  For  these  mutually  acted  in  a  holy 
combination,  and  reciprocally  assisted  each  other : 
an  habitual  holiness  was  a  constant  preparation  for 
the  communion  ;  and  frequent  communion  was  one 
of  the  best  helps  to  keep  them  in  a  continual  pre- 
paration for  it.  And  to  men  of  this  character  and 
behaviour  there  could  be  no  great  labour  needful, 
besides  the  constant  tenor  of  a  pious  life ;  nor  any 
long  time  necessary  to  prepare  for  the  Lord's  table, 
when  the  whole  business  of  their  lives  was  but  as  it 
were  one  continued  act  of  preparation  for  it.  They 
lived  as  men  that  always  expected  death,  yet  uncer- 
tain of  the  time,  and  therefore  were  in  a  continual 
preparation  for  it,  which  is  the  best  preparation  for 
the  communion.  Their  loins  were  girded  about, 
and  their  lamps  burning;  and  they  themselves  like 
unto  men  that  waited  for  their  Lord,  that  when  he 
came  and  knocked,  they  might  open  to  him  imme- 
diately. And  to  them  belonged  the  blessing  of 
Christ,  Luke  xii.  37,  "  Blessed  are  those  servants, 
whom  the  Lord  when  he  comcth  shall  find  watch- 
ing :"  it  was  true  of  them,  if  ever  of  any,  that  Christ 
came  and  found  them  watching:  and  he  girded 
himself,  and  made  them  sit  down  to  meat  in  the 
spiritual  feast,  and  came  forth  and  served  them. 

Sect.  2.  -^"^  '*'  "^'^y  ^s  ^^^^>  there  is  no  such 

coSen'f  witfrti.is  thing  possible  as  constant  preparation 

profession,    and    a       /•         -i  *  r  t 

^tate  of  grac..,  and  lor  thc  communiou ;  for  no  man  lives 

u  continual  prcpiir-  .    |  .  , 

ation  for  the  com-  witliout  siu  to  bc  repented  of.  "  In 
many  things  we  offend  all :"  and,  "If 
we  say  that  we  have  no  sin,  we  deceive  ourselves, 
and  the  truth  is  not  in  us."  But,  notwithstanding 
this  supposed  difficulty,  the  fathers  assure  us  there 
were  anciently  many  that  were  in  a  continual  pre- 
paration for  the  communion,  and  did  actually  com- 
municate every  day.     For  those  sins,  which  un- 


qualify men  absolutely  for  the  communion,  are  not 
those  lesser  sins  of  human  frailty  and  infirmity, 
which  are  called  sins  of  daily  incursion,  without 
which  no  man  lives  ;  but  habitual  and  reigning  sins, 
which  men  indulge,  or  such  single  acts  of  greater 
sins,  as  are  answerable  to  habits  of  sin,  and  require 
a  more  severe  repentance  ;  such  as  adultery,  murder, 
and  the  like,  which  wound  the  conscience  to  a  high 
degree,  and  are  not  ordinarily  cured  in  an  instant, 
but  by  a  longer  course  of  discipline,  exacting  both 
greater  severities  in  repentance,  and  a  longer  time 
of  probation.  But  those  sins  of  human  frailty, 
which  the  best  of  men  daily  commit  in  some  degree 
or  other,  are  not  of  this  nature,  but  are  such  as  are 
consistent  with  the  profession  of  a  good  Christian, 
and  a  state  of  grace,  and  a  continual  preparation 
for  the  communion ;  and  they  do  not  exclude  men 
from  God's  favour,  so  long  as  men  labour  and  strive 
against  them,  and  mourn  for  them,  as  for  infirmities, 
in  a  general  and  daily  repentance,  upon  which  God 
is  willing  to  pardon  them.  If  it  were  not  so,  there 
could  be  no  such  thing  as  preparation  for  the  com- 
munion at  all :  and  it  would  not  only  destroy  fre- 
quent and  daily  communion,  but  communion  in 
general ;  since  no  man  lives  without  such  infirm- 
ities ;  and  if  he  were  not  to  communicate  till  he  had 
perfectly  cured  them,  he  must  for  ever  abstain  from 
communicating,  and  never  come  at  the  Lord's  table : 
which  were  at  once  to  destroy  the  very  ordinance 
itself,  by  making  the  qualification  for  it  impracti- 
cable, and  rendering  it  impossible  for  any  man  to 
be  perfectly  and  truly  prepared  for  it.  And  it  is  to 
be  feared  that  some  in  these  later  ages,  by  over- 
straining the  point,  have  done  this  great  disservice 
to  religion,  by  obliging  men  to  such  a  preparation 
for  the  communion  as  is  impracticable  in  itself,  and 
frighting  tender  consciences  from  the  holy  ordinance 
under  pretence  of  greater  reverence  to  it.  By 
which  means  it  has  sometimes  happened,  that  they 
who  perhaps  have  been  the  best  prepared  to  receive 
it,  have  by  needless  scruples  or  terrors  been  kept  at 
the  greatest  distance  from  it.  But  the  ancients 
were  extremely  cautious  of  this  delusion,  and  care- 
fully taught  men  to  distinguish  between  such  sins 
as  lay  waste  the  conscience,  and  destroy  a  state  of 
grace,  and  unqualify  men  for  the  communion ;  and 
such  sins  of  infirmity  and  human  frailty,  as  are  con- 
sistent with  a  state  of  grace,  and  do  not  unqualify 
men  for  constant  communion;  being  such  as  are 
done  away  by  a  general  repentance  and  daily 
prayer  for  pardon  and  forgiveness.  This  doctrine 
and  distinction  of  sins  is  often  inculcated  by  St. 
Austin  and  others.  It  will  be  sufficient  to  hear 
their  sense  in  St.  Austin's  words  upon'  the  article 


I 


'  Aug.  de  Symbolo,  lib.  1.  cap.  7.  Cum  baptizati  fueritis, 
tenete  vitam  bonam  in  proeceptis  Dei :  ut  baplismuin  custo- 
(liutis  usque  in  finem.     Non  vobis  dico,  quia  sine  peccato 


hie  vivetis  i  sed  sunt  venialia,  sine  quibus  vita  ista  non  est. 
Propter  omnia  peccata  baptismus  inventus  est:  propter 
levia^  sine  quibus  esse  non  possumus,  oratio  inveuta,  ike. 


Chap.  VIII. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


837 


of  remission  of  sins  in  the  creed ;  where,  speak- 
ing to  the  catechumens,  he  tells  them,  when  tliey 
had  received  baptism,  they  should  be  careful  to 
preserve  a  good  life  in  the  commands  of  God,  that 
they  might  keep  their  baptism  to  the  end.  I  do 
not  say,  that  ye  should  live  here  without  sin  :  but 
there  are  some  venial  sins,  without  which  we  cannot 
live  in  this  life.  Baptism  is  appointed  for  all  sins, 
great  and  small ;  but  for  lesser  sins,  without  which 
we  cannot  live,  prayer  is  appointed.  What  says 
the  prayer  ?  "  Forgive  us  our  trespasses,  as  we  for- 
give them  that  trespass  against  us."  We  are  once 
cleansed  by  baptism,  we  are  every  day  cleansed  by 
prayer.  But  do  not  commit  those  things,  for  which 
it  will  be  necessary  for  you  to  be  separated  from  tlie 
body  of  Christ ;  which  God  forbid.  For  those 
whom  ye  see  doing  penance,  have  committed  great 
crimes,  either  adultery,  or  some  other  grievous  sins, 
for  which  they  do  penance.  For  if  their  transgres- 
sions had  been  light,  the  daily  prayer  had  been 
sufficient  to  blot  them  out.  By  this  we  may  judge, 
that  sins  of  infirmity,  to  which  all  men  are  liable, 
and  which  were  pardoned  by  their  daily  prayers, 
were  reckoned  no  formal  breaches  of  the  baptismal 
covenant,  nor  consequently  any  just  impediments 
to  debar  any  man  from  receiving  the  communion 
every  day;  (since  none,  except  the  Pelagians, 
thought  it  possible  for  men  to  live  in  such  angelical 
perfection,  as  to  be  above  all  manner  of  failings  in 
this  mortal  state  of  human  frailty  ;)  and  therefore 
they  did  not  require  of  men,  in  order  to  communi- 
cate, such  a  perfection  as  human  nature  was  not 
capable  of  attaining. 

Sect.  3.  Yet  forasmuch  as  lesser  sins,  even 

e^iil-ed  "for"'8uch  of  infirmity,  are  transgressions  of  the 
^  "'^^'  law,  and  the  remainders  of  corruption 

in  our  nature,  and  in  strictness  deserve  punishment, 
if  God  should  be  extreme  to  enter  into  judgment 
with  us  for  them ;  nay,  and  if  they  be  indulged  and 
neglected,  may  commence  greater  and  deadly  sins 
of  wilfulness  and  contempt;  therefore  upon  this 
account  they  advised,  that  men  should  not  only 
ask  pardon  daily  for  them,  and  confess  them  with 
humiliation,  and  deplore  them  with  sorrow,  but  also 
strive  and  labour  against  them  with  care,  and  dili- 
gence, and  a  perpetual  watchfulness,  and  pray 
against  them,  and  yield  no  consent  to  them,  but 


have  their  wills  continually  bent  against  them,  and 
hunger  and  thirst  after  the  perfection  of  righteous- 
ness, and  desire  to  be  filled  therewith  when  they 
came  to  the  Lord's  table.  For,  as  Gregory  the  Great 
expresses  it,-  none  are  filled  but  those  that  hunger ; 
who  fast  perfectly  from  sin,  and  receive  the  lioly 
sacrament  with  a  plenitude  of  virtue.  Therefore, 
seeing  the  best  of  men  cannot  be  wholly  without 
sin,  what  remains,  but  that  they  should  endeavour 
daily  to  evacuate  and  purge  themselves  from  those 
sins,  with  which  human  frailty  never  ceases  to  de- 
file them?  For  he  that  does  not  daily  draw  off  the 
dregs  of  sin,  though  they  be  but  little  sins  which 
he  amasses  together,  they  will,  by  degrees,  fill  his 
soul,  and  deprive  him  of  the  benefit  of  internal 
satisfaction.  In  like  manner  Gennadius^  persuades 
those  who  are  guilty  of  no  gross  sins,  but  only  of 
these  lesser  sins  of  infirmity,  to  communicate  every 
Lord's  day,  or  oftener  if  they  please,  only  with  this 
caution,  that  their  mind  be  free  from  all  affection 
and  love  to  such  sins.  For  he  that  still  retains  a 
willingness  to  commit  them,  will  find  himself  more 
oppressed  than  purified  by  receiving  the  eucharist. 
And  therefore  let  such  a  one,  when  he  is  smitten  or 
bitten  in  mind  for  his  sin,  cherish  no  will  or  incHna- 
tion  to  his  sin  for  the  future ;  and  before  he  com- 
municates, let  him  satisfy  with  prayers  and  tears ; 
and  so  confiding  in  the  mercy  of  the  Lord,  who  uses 
to  pardon  sins  upon  a  pious  confession,  let  him 
come  to  the  eucharist  in  security  and  without 
doubting.  But  this  I  speak  only  of  him  who  is 
not  pressed  with  capital  and  deadly  sins. 

But,  says  he,  if  any  man  is  pressed         ^ 
with  the  commission  of  mortal  sins     what  crimes  ....- 

qu:Llmed  men  abso- 

after  baptism,  I  advise  such  a  one  to  mumofra'n^d  '°)Zl 
make  satisfaction  or  amends  by  public  ^,Zl  ''le(^auTA'"\Z 
repentance,  and  to  be  reconciled  to 
communion  by  the  judgment  of  the  bishop  or  pi'iest, 
if  he  W'Ould  not  receive  the  eucharist  to  his  own 
judgment  and  condemnation.  This  he  speaks  of 
such  heinous  offences  as  were  direct  violations  of 
the  baptismal  covenant,  upon  the  account  of  which 
men  were  then  by  the  usual  discipline  of  the  chui-ch 
debarred  from  the  communion  and  prayers,  till 
they  had  for  a  long  time  gone  through  the  several 
stages  of  public  penance,  and  given  such  evident 
testimonies  of  their  abhorrence  of  sin,  and  sincere 


Vid.  Aug.  Eachirid.  ad  Laurent,  cap.  71.  et  Serm.  119.  de 
Tempore.  Ep.  108.  ad  Scloucianum.  Horn.  27.  ex  50.  cap. 
2.  Horn.  12.  in  Joan.  p.  47.  Hem.  .3.  in  Psal.  c.wiii.  Horn. 
26.  in  Joan.  p.  9-3.  But  especially  his  book  de  Fide  et 
Operibus,  cap.  2G.  where  he  distinguishes  three  sorts  of 
sins.  1.  Such  great  sins  for  which  men  did  public  penance. 
2.  Such  great  sins  as  deserved  to  be  corrected  and  punished 
with  severe  reproof,  though  tiiey  did  not  bring  men  nndcr 
public  penance;  such  as  anger,  and  evil-speaking.  3.  Sins 
of  human  frailty  and  daily  incursion,  for  which  the  daily 
prayer  was  the  daily  medicine.  This  triple  distinction  of 
sins  is  the  most  e.xact  of  any  other. 


-  Greg.  lib.  2.  in  Reg.  cap.  1.  t.  1.  p.  189.  Non  saturantur 
ergo  nisi  famelici :  qui  a  vitiis  perfccte  jiijunantes  Divina 
sacramcnta  percipiuiit  in  plenitudine  virtutis.  Et  quia 
sine  peccato  electi  etiani  viri  esse  non  possunt,  quid  resiat, 
nisi  ut  a  peccatis  quibus  eos  hnmana  fragilitas  maculare 
non  desinit,  evacuare  quotidie  conentur?  &c.  Vid.  Aug. 
Tract.  1.  in  1  Joan. 

^  Genuad.  dc  Eccles.  Dogm.  cap.  5.3.  Quotidie  eucharis- 
tiae  communioneni  nee  laudo  nee  reprehendo.  Omnibus 
tameu  Dominicis  diebus  conimunicaudum  siiadeo  et  hortor, 

si  tamen  mens  sine  affectu  peccandi  sit. Scd  hoc  de  illo 

dice  quern  capitalia  et  mortalia  peccata  nou  grttvant,  &c. 


838 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


conversion,  as  were  requisite  and  proper  to  satisfy 
the  church  that  they  were  real  and  hearty  peni- 
tents. In  which  state  of  probation  they  were  held 
a  year,  or  two,  or  three,  or  five,  or  ten,  or  twenty, 
according  to  the  nature  and  quality  of  their  offence; 
and  sometimes  all  their  lives,  if  their  crime  was 
extremely  great  and  scandalous,  when  they  were 
allowed  communion  only  at  the  hour  of  death. 
And  dm-ing  this  course  of  discipline,  they  were 
obliged  constantly  to  attend  the  church,  to  hear 
the  Scriptures  read,  and  the  sermon  preached  for 
their  instruction ;  and  to  exercise  themselves  in 
prayers,  and  confession,  and  tears,  and  watchings, 
and  fastings,  and  almsdeeds,  and  good  works,  and 
whatever  was  proper  to  demonstrate  that  they  were 
acting  a  sincere  part,  and  not  playing  the  hypocrite, 
in  the  business  of  repentance.  Then,  according  to 
their  zeal  and  earnestness  in  such  employments,  a 
judgment  was  made  upon  their  sincerity ;  and  the 
time  of  their  penance  was  lengthened  or  shortened 
according  to  the  measures  of  their  activity ;  and 
when  they  were  deemed  perfectly  to  have  amended 
their  lives  and  become  new  men,  answerable  to  the 
tenor  of  their  first  covenant,  then  they  were  re- 
conciled, and  absolved,  and  admitted  again  to  the 
privilege  of  the  communion.  This  was  the  stand- 
ing rule  of  the  church  with  respect  to  those  who 
had  committed  gross  and  scandalous  crimes,  for 
which  they  were  cut  off  from  the  body  as  putrified 
members,  and  kept  at  a  distance  from  the  prayers 
of  the  church,  and  the  communion  of  the  faithful 
at  the  Lord's  table. 

I  need  not  stand  here  to  enumerate 

Sect.  5. 

Scandalous  and  no.  ^H  the  particular  crimes,  that  were 

tonous   sinners  not  X  ' 

commimlc'^tewith-  dccmcd  brcachcs  of  the  baptismal 
toi^^'evwences"'^^^  covcuaut,  aiid  Unqualified  men  for  the 

their  repentance,  ■  ri  i_  i  i 

communion.  Some  account  has  been 
given  already  of  them,^  in  showing  what  persons 
might  or  might  not  make  their  oblations  at  the 
altar ;  for  they  who  might  not  offer,  might  much 
less  communicate ;  and  this  matter  will  come  to  be 
considered  more  exactly  in  the  next  volume,  when 
we  treat  of  the  discipline  of  the  church.  Here  I 
shall  only  observe  in  general,  that  the  rules  of  the 
church  laid  an  obligation  upon  all  ministers  of  the 
altar,  to  refuse  the  communion  to  all  such  notorious 
offenders,  as  were  declared  uncapable  and  unwor- 
thy of  it  by  the  standing  laws  of  communion  then 
well  known  to  all  in  the  church :  and  that  an  over- 
hasty  admittance  of  such  criminals,  without  suffi- 
cient time  of  probation  and  satisfactory  evidence 
of  their  sincere  conversion,  was  always  reckoned  a 
great  transgression  and  failure  in  the  exercise  of 


the  ministerial  function.  It  will  be  sufficient  at 
present  to  give  two  or  three  plain  evidences  of  this 
out  of  Chrysostom  and  some  others.  Let  no  cruel 
person,  says  Chrysostom,*  no  unmerciful,  no  impure 
soul,  come  near  this  table.  I  speak  this  as  well  to 
you  that  receive  the  eucharist,  as  to  you  that  minis- 
ter. For  it  is  necessary  to  say  this  to  you  that 
minister,  that  ye  may  distribute  the  gifts  with  great 
care.  There  is  no  small  punishment  hangs  over 
your  head,  if  ye  give  the  eucharist  knowingly  to 
any  flagitious  man.  His  blood  shall  be  required  at 
your  hands.  Though  it  be  a  general,  though  it  be 
a  consul,  though  it  be  him  that  wears  the  crown, 
if  he  comes  unworthily,  restrain  him :  thou  hast 
greater  power  than  he.  But  you  will  say.  How 
shall  I  know  what  such  or  such  a  one  is  ?  I  speak 
not  of  those  that  are  unknown,  but  of  those  that 
are  known.  I  will  say  a  fearful  word  :  it  is  not  so 
bad  to  admit  energumens,  or  persons  possessed  with 
a  devil,  to  this  holy  place,  as  those  men  who,  as 
St.  Paul  says,  "  tread  Christ  under  foot,  and  count 
the  blood  of  the  covenant  an  unholy  thing,  and  do 
despite  to  the  Spirit  of  grace."  Let  us  not  there- 
fore cast  out  demoniacs  only,  but  all  such  as  come 
unworthily  to  be  partakers  of  this  table.  It  is  a 
remarkable  saying  of  St.  Ambrose*  upon  this  occa- 
sion :  Some  men  desire  to  be  admitted  to  penance 
only  for  this  reason,  that  they  may  presently  re- 
ceive the  communion  again :  these  men  do  not  so 
much  desire  to  be  absolved  themselves,  as  to  bind 
the  priest ;  for  they  do  not  put  off  their  own  evil 
conscience.  Such  a  rash  act  in  a  priest,  in  re- 
ceiving a  notorious  criminal  without  any  clear  evi- 
dences and  fruits  of  repentance,  puts  him  in  the 
sinner's  condition,  and  makes  him  a  criminal  before 
God  for  the  abuse  of  the  authority  committed  to 
him.  Therefore,  as  the  Novatians  were  generally 
condemned  for  being  too  rigorous  in  denying  the 
communion  for  ever  to  all  such  as  fell  into  great 
sins  after  baptism ;  so,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
Audian  heretics  are  censured'  for  being  too  hasty, 
in  assuming  authority  to  pardon  sins  by  their  own 
power,  and  granting  remission  upon  a  bare  confes- 
sion, without  prescribing  a  time  for  repentance,  as 
the  laws  of  the  church  always  required.  Cyprian 
gives  as  severe  a  reproof  to  such  of  the  clergy,  as 
were  over-hasty  in  admitting  those  that  had  lapsed 
into  idolatry  in  time  of  persecution,  before  they  had 
gone  through  a  due  course  of  penance,  and  had 
taken  time  to  bewail  and  confess  their  sin,  and  give 
sufficient  evidences  of  their  repentance.  Whenas, 
says  he,"  sinners  for  much  lesser  crimes  take  a  just 
time  to  do  penance,  and  according  to  the  order  of 


*  Book  XV.  chap.  2.  sect.  2. 

5  Chrys.  Horn.  83.  in  Matt.  p.  705.  Vid.  Chrys.  in  Psal. 
xlix.  p.  303. 

^  Ambros.  de  Pcenit.  lib.  2.  cap.  9.  Nonnulli  ideo  pos- 
cunt  pu3nitcntiam,  ut  statiin  sibi  rcddi  comuuiiiionem  velint. 


Hi  non  tarn  se  solvere  cupiuiit,  qiiam  sacerdotem  ligare,  &c. 

'  Theodor.  de  Fabulis  Haeret.  lib.  4.  cap.  13. 

*  Cypr.  Ep.  10.  al.  16.  ad  Cler.  p.  37.  Cum  in  minoribiis 
peccatis  agant  peccatores  prenitentiam  justo  tempore,  et 
secundum  discipliiiae  ordinem  ad  exomologesin  veniaiit,  et 


CllAP.  VIII. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


839 


discipline  come  to  confession,  and  by  imposition  of 
hands  given  them  by  the  bishop  and  clorgj-  receive 
a  right  to  communicate :  now  they  are  very  hastily 
and  unseasonably  admitted  to  communion,  and 
their  name  is  offered ;  and  before  they  have  done 
penance,  before  they  have  made  their  confession, 
before  they  have  received  imposition  of  hands,  the 
eucharist  is  given  them,  although  it  be  said,  that 
"  Whosoever  cats  the  bread  and  drinks  the  cup  of 
the  Lord  unworthily,  is  guilty  of  the  body  and  blood 
of  the  Lord."  The  martyrs,  who  lay  in  prison,  were 
a  little  concerned  in  this  irregularity:  for  they  were 
iised  to  intercede  for  such  criminals,  to  gain  them 
admission  before  their  time :  and  therefore  he  wrote 
another'  letter  to  the  martyrs,  to  show  them  the 
danger  and  inconveniences  of  such  precipitated 
conununicating  of  sinners,  and  to  dissuade  them 
from  such  iniseasonable  interposing  in  their  behalf 
before  they  had  done  their  regular  penance.  And 
he  also  wrote  a  long  discourse  to  the  lapsers '"  them- 
selves, wherein  he  more  largely  sets  forth  the  fallacy 
that  was  put  upon  them  by  this  too  indulgent  facihty 
in  granting  them  such  a  prejX)sterous  peace,  which 
did  not  really  give  them  peace,  but  destroy  it ;  nor 
grant  them  true  communion,  but  hinder  their  sal- 
vation. By  all  which,  and  abundance  more  that 
might  be  added  upon  this  head,  it  is  evident  that 
to  reconcile  a  sinner  to  the  altar,  after  the  commis- 
sion of  any  heinous  and  public  crimes,  they  re- 
quired him  to  go  through  a  long  course  of  penance 
publicly  in  the  church,  in  order  to  give  clear  satis- 
faction and  demonstration  by  manifest  works  and 
fruits  of  repentance,  that  he  was  a  real  convert,  and 
worthy  of  the  commimion  which  he  desired :  and 
to  admit  him  before,  was  only  to  impose  upon  the 
sinner,  and  incur  the  displeasure  of  God,  by  prosti- 
tuting his  ordinance,  and  suffering  the  vile  to  tread 
under  foot  the  Son  of  God. 

But  beside  these  heinous  sins,  which  put  men 
under  the  public  censures  of  the  church,  there  were 
also  many  other  crimes  of  a  heinous  nature,  which 
unqualified  men  for  worthy  receiving,  though  they 
did  not  orchnarily  bring  them  to  a  state  of  public 
penance,  either  because  men  could  not  be  so  directly 
and  formally  convicted  of  them,  or  because  they 
did  not  seem  to  carry  so  great  malignity  and  con- 
tempt of  God  in  them  as  the  former.  Among  these 
St.  Austin"  reckons  anger  and  evil-speaking;  and 
others  add,  rash  swearing,  breach  of  promise,  lying, 
covetousness,  drunkenness,  and  sins  of  the  like  na- 
ture. Now,  though  these  did  not  ordinarily  subject 
men  to  public  penance,  yet  they  were  confessed  on 
all  hands  to  be  grievous  and  deadly  sins,  and  such 


as  men  should  not  presume  to  come  with,  uure- 
pented  of,  to  the  Lord's  table.  And  therefore,  though 
the  ancients  did  not  forcibly  repel  such  sinners 
from  communicating,  yet  they  never  failed  to  stave 
them  oil'  by  admonitions  and  reproofs,  declaiming 
sharply  against  all  such  vices,  and  showing  men 
the  danger  of  them  as  well  as  those  of  the  highest 
nature. 

This   was   their  constant  way  of 
proceeding  with    great   and   heinous     v/hMm  liicyre- 

....  ,        qtiirt'd  confession  of 

snmers,  when  their  crmies  were  pub-  priviitc  sins  it>  um 

priest  as  a  neressury 

lie,  notorious,  and  scandalous,  in  order  q"»iiricaii..n  for  niu 

communion. 

to  qualify  them  for  a  worthy  partici- 
pation of  the  eucharist  after  any  manifest  breach 
or  violation  of  their  baptismal  covenant.  As  to 
private  crimes,  they  laid  no  necessity  upon  the  con- 
science of  men  to  make  either  public  or  private 
confession  of  them  to  any  beside  God,  to  qualify 
them  for  the  communion.  They  sometimes  advised 
men  to  public  confession  for  private  crimes,  and 
many  times  men  voluntaril}^  confessed  their  pri- 
vate crimes,  and  submitted  to  do  public  penance 
for  them,  as  thinking  this  the  securest  way  to  ob- 
tain perfect  forgiveness  of  God :  and  in  some  places 
a  public  minister,  called  the  penitentiary,  was  ap- 
pointed to  hear  men's  confessions,  and  direct  them 
in  their  public  or  private  repentance.  But  as  yet 
no  indispensable  obligation  was  laid  upon  men  to 
make  confession  of  their  private  crimes  as  a  neces- 
sary condition  of  communion ;  much  less  did  they 
enjoin  men  auricular  confession  in  order  to  obtain 
private  absolution  of  a  priest,  and  do  penance  after- 
ward, without  giving  at  present  any  evident  demon- 
strations of  repentance.  Their  private  confessions 
were  all  voluntary,  and  these  chiefly  in  order  to 
public  penance  :  but  whether  for  public  or  j)rivate 
penance,  the  confession  of  private  sins  was  a  mat- 
ter of  advice,  and  prudence,  and  free  choice,  and  not 
forced  upon  men  by  any  laws  of  necessity  or  indis- 
pensable obligation.  I  shall  have  fuilher  occasion 
to  handle  this  matter  more  fully  in  the  next  Book, 
about  the  discipline  of  the  church ;  and  therefore  I 
will  only  mention  a  passage  or  two  here,  that  re- 
late to  men's  preparation  for  the  communion.  Chry- 
sostom,  explaining  those  words  of  the  apostle,  "  Let 
a  man  examine  himself,  and  so  let  him  eat  of  that 
bread,  and  drink  of  that  cup,"  says.  He  does  not  '- 
bid  one  man  examine  another,  but  ever)'  one  him- 
self; making  the  judgment  private,  and  the  trial 
without  witnesses.  And  again,"  expounding  the 
very  same  words,  The  apostle,  says  he,  does  not  re- 
veal or  lay  open  the  sore,  he  does  not  bring  the 
accusation  upon  the  open  stage,  he  does  not  set 


per  inanus  imposit.ionem  episcopi  ct  clcri  jus  communica- 
tionis  accipiant  ;  nunc  crudo  tempore — ad  communica- 
tionem  admittuntur,  et  offcrtur  nomea  eormn,  et  nonduin 
poenitentia  acta,  nondiun  exomologesi  facta,  nondum  manu 
eis  ab  episcopo  et  clero  imposita,  eucliaristia  illis  datiir,  &c. 


°  Cypr.  Ep.  II.  al.  15.  ad  Martyr. p.  31. 

">  Id.  dc  Lapsis,  p.  128,  &c. 

"  Aug.  de  Fide  et  Operibus,  cap.  2G. 

'-  Chrys.  Horn.  28.  in  1  Cor.  p.  5G9. 

1^  Ibid.  Horn.  8.  do  TaMUtcnt.  t.  1.  p.  700. 


840 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


^ritn  esses  of  thy  crimes  against  thee ;  but  bids  thee, 
within  thy  own  conscience,  none  being  present  but 
God  who  knows  all  things,  to  set  up  a  judgment 
and  search  after  thy  sins  ;  and  recounting  thy  whole 
life,  to  bring  thy  sins  to  the  bar  of  thy  own  mind ; 
to  reform  thy  excesses,  and  so  with  a  pure  con- 
science to  come  to  the  sacred  table,  and  partake  of 
the  holy  sacrifice.  And  it  is  remarkable,  that  under 
Nectarius,  St.  Chrysostom's  predecessor,  a  law  was 
made,  (upon  occasion  of  a  scandal  that  was  given 
by  the  .confession  of  a  gentlewoman,  defiled  by  a 
deacon  at  Constantinople,)  that  the  oflftce  of  the 
penitentiary  priest,  which  had  been  for  some  time 
in  that  chui'ch,  should  be  laid  aside ;  and  that  liber- 
ty should  be  given  to  every  one,  upon  the  private 
examination  of  his  own  conscience,  to  partake  of 
the  holy  mysteries.  Which  evidently  shows,  that 
they  did'  not  then  believe  there  was  any  Divine 
law  for  the  necessity  of  auricular  confession,  but 
that  it  was  a  matter  of  liberty  and  prudence  only. 
Socrates,  who  relates'*  the  whole  story,  says,  he  had 
it  from  the  mouth  of  Eudeemon  the  presbyter,  who 
gave  Nectarius  this  advice ;  and  Sozomen  '^  adds, 
that  the  bishops  of  most  other  churches  followed 
Nectarius's  example.  In  the  Latin  church,  it  ap- 
pears also  from  Gennadius,'*  that  the  general  rule 
for  great  crimes  of  a  public  nature  was,  to  do  pub- 
lic penance  in  the  church :  but  for  private  crimes 
no  other  was  necessarily  required  but  private  satis- 
faction, by  a  change  of  life  from  secular  to  religious, 
by  continual  mourning  to  implore  God's  mercy,  by 
doing  things  contrary  to  those  whereof  the  sinner 
repents,  and  by  receiving  the  eucharist  every  Lord's 
day  to  the  end  of  his  life.  And  Laurentius,  bishop 
of  Novaria,"  speaking  of  repentance,  says.  After 
baptism  God  hath  appointed  thee  a  remedy  within 
thyself,  he  hath  put  remission  in  thy  own  power, 
that  thou  needest  not  to  seek  a  priest  when  neces- 
sity requires ;  but  thou  thyself  now,  as  a  skilful 
master  always  at  hand,  mayest  correct  thy  own 
error  within  thyself,  and  wash  away  thy  sin  by  re- 
pentance. It  were  easy  to  add  abundance  more 
testimonies  both  out  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  writ- 
ers, but  these  are  sufficient  at  present  to  show  that 
they  did  not  require  private  confession,  as  any  ne- 
cessary part  of  that  preparation  which  men  were 
obliged  to  make  for  the  purging  of  private  sins  be- 
fore they  came  to  the  Lord's  table ;  but  their  direc- 
tion was  the  apostle's  rule,  "  Let  a  man  examine 
himself,  and  so  let  him  eat  of  that  bread  and  drink 
of  that  cup." 


Yet  they  did  not  hereby  discharge 
men  of  all  obligation  to  cleanse  them-     i"'"*'  preparation 

&  consists  not  in  uom- 

selves  from  sin,  but  carefully  pressed  L't'cer'tafn'hSywT. 
upon  the  conscience  the  necessity  of  TnT' purity Tt'^'ilu 
universal  purity  when  they  came  to 
feast  upon  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  at  his 
table.  "  Let  a  man  examine  himself :  for  he  that 
eateth  and  drinketh  unworthily,  is  guilty  of  the 
body  and  blood  of  the  Lord,  and  eateth  and  drink- 
eth damnation  to  himself,  not  discerning  the  Lord's 
body."  There  were  some  so  vain  as  to  think,  that 
a  formal  appearing  at  the  Lord's  table  at  some  cer- 
tain holy  and  solemn  seasons,  was  all  the  prepara- 
tion that  was  needful ;  as  if  the  circumstance  of 
time  added  any  real  qualification  to  their  souls. 
Against  these  men's  extravagance,  St.  Chrysostom 
inveighs  with  the  greatest  sharpness :  I  observe 
many,  says  he,  who  are  partakers "  of  the  Lord's 
body  inconsiderately  and  at  all  adventures,  more 
out  of  custom,  than  by  any  rule,  or  reason,  and 
understanding.  If  the  holy  time  of  Lent  comes,  or 
the  day  of  Christ's  epiphany,  or  nativity,  then  they 
partake  of  the  holy  mysteries,  whatever  condition 
they  are  in.  But  Epiphany  is  not  the  time  of  ap- 
proaching ;  neither  does  Lent  make  men  worthy  to 
come  ;  but  the  sincerity  and  purity  of  their  souls. 
With  this  come  at  all  times  ;  without  it  come  never. 
Consider  those  who  were  partakers  of  the  sacrifices 
under  the  old  law  :  what  abstinence  did  they  use  ! 
What  did  they  not  do  !  What  did  they  not  perform, 
to  purify  themselves  in  every  respect!  And  dost 
thou,  when  thou  comest  to  the  sacrifice,  at  which  the 
angels  are  even  amazed  and  tremble,  measure  the 
business  by  the  revolution  and  periods  of  certain 
times  and  seasons?  How  wilt  thou  stand  before  the 
tribunal  of  Christ,  who  darest  to  touch  his  body  with 
polluted  hands  and  lips  ?  Thou  wouldst  not  presume 
to  kiss  the  king  with  a  stinking  mouth :  and  dost 
thou  kiss  the  King  of  heaven  with  a  stinking  soul  ? 
That  is  the  highest  affi-ont  that  can  really  be  offered 
to  him.  Tell  me,  wouldst  thou  choose  to  come  to 
the  sacrifice  with  unwashen  hands  ?  I  suppose  not, 
but  wouldst  rather  not  come  at  all,  than  with  un- 
clean hands.  Since  therefore  thou  art  so  scrupulous 
and  religious  in  a  small  matter,  how  darest  thou  to 
come  and  touch  the  sacrifice  with  a  polluted  soul  ? 
whenas  thy  hands  only  hold  it  for  a  time,  but  thy 
soul  has  it  wholly  dissolved  into  it.  At  other  times 
ye  come  not  to  it,  though  ye  be  clean  ;  but  at  Easter 
ye  come,  although  ye  be  defiled  with  sin.  Oh  cus- 
tom !   Oh  prejudice !   Thus  St.  Chrysostom  reproves 


'^  Socrat.  lib.  5.  cap.  19. 

'^  Sozom.  lib.  7.  rap.  16. 

"5  Gennad.  do  Dogmat.  Eccles.  cap.  53.  .Sed  et  secreta 
satisfactione  solvi  mortalia  crimina  non  negamus,  sed  mu- 
tato  prius  seculari  habitu,  et  confesso  religiouis  studio  per 
vitae  correctionem,  et  jugi,  imo  perpetuo  luctu  miserante 
Deo,  ita  duntaxat,  ut  contraria  pro  iis  quae  pcenitet  agat,  et 
eucharistiam  omnibus  Dominicis  diebus  supplex  submis- 


susque  usque  ad  mortem  suscipiat. 

>'  Laurent.  Horn.  1.  de  Poenit.  Bibl.  Patr.  t.  2.  p.  129. 
Post  baptisma  remedium  tiium  in  teipso  statuit,  remissio- 
nem  in  arbitrio  tuo  posuit,  ut  non  quadras  sacerdotem,  cum 
necessitas  flagitaverit:  sed  ipse  jam,  ac  si  scitus  perspi- 
cuusque  magister,  errorem  tuum  intra  to  emendes,  et  pec- 
catum  tuum  pcenitudine  abluas. 

18  Chrys.  Horn.  3.  in  Ephes.  p.  1050. 


Chap.  VIII. 


ANTIQUITIES  OP  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


841 


those  who  contented  themselves  with  an  outside, 
formal  preparation,  to  comply  with  the  general  cus- 
tom of  receiving  at  some  of  the  holy  festivals; 
which  was  a  mere  corporeal  purification,  like  the 
Pharisaical  righteousness ;  for  "  they  made  clean  the 
outside  of  the  cup  and  platter,  whilst  their  inward 
part  was  full  of  corruption  and  all  uncleanness." 
In  another  place"  he  thus  opposes  this  fantastical 
preparation,  and  describes  the  true  preparation  of 
the  soul  by  the  purity  of  a  man's  conscience,  and  a 
sanctified  life.  Many  Christians  now-a-days,  says 
he,  are  sunk  into  so  great  stupidity  and  contempt, 
that  though  they  be  laden  with  sins,  and  take  no 
manner  of  care  of  themselves,  yet  they  come  to  the 
holy  table  at  the  solemn  festivals  hand  over  head, 
and  just  as  mere  chance  directs  them ;  not  con- 
sidering, that  what  makes  it  seasonable  to  com- 
municate, is  not  merely  a  festival,  or  the  time  of  a 
more  solemn  assembly,  but  a  pure  conscience,  and 
a  life  free  from  sin.  For  as  he  who  is  conscious 
to  himself  of  no  enormous  crime,  ought  to  come 
every  day ;  so,  on  the  other  hand,  he  who  is  fettered 
in  sins,  and  does  not  repent,  cannot  safely  come 
upon  a  festival.  For  it  is  not  our  coming  once  a 
year  that  discharges  us  of  our  sins,  if  we  come  un- 
worthily ;  but  this  very  thing  rather  increases  our 
condemnation,  that  though  we  come  but  once  a 
year,  yet  we  come  not  even  then  with  a  pure  con- 
science. Wherefore  I  exhort  you  all,  not  to  come 
to  the  holy  mj^steries  barely  upon  the  account  of  a 
festival,  but  whenever  ye  design  to  partake  of  this 
holy  sacrifice,  to  purge  yourselves  many  days  before 
by  repentance,  and  prayer,  and  alms,  and  attendance 
upon  spiritual  things  j  and  not  to  return  again  like 
the  dog  to  his  vomit.  Is  it  not  absurd  to  spend  so 
much  care  upon  corporeal  things,  as  that  when  a 
festival  approaches,  you  will  bring  forth  your  best 
clothes  out  of  your  wardrobe,  and  make  them  readv 
many  days  before,  and'  buy  you  shoes,  and  prepare 
a  more  splendid  table,  and  think  of  many  ways  to 
deck  and  adorn  yourself,  but  in  the  mean  time  have 
no  regard  to  your  soul,  which  lies  neglected  in  filth 
and  nastiness,  and  ready  to  perish  with  famine,  and 
overrun  with  impurity  ?  How  absurd  is  it  to  pre- 
sent the  body  here  finely  adorned,  but  your  soul 
naked  and  vilely  clothed !  When  yet  none  sees 
your  body  but  your  fellow  servants,  but  your  soul  is 
nicely  viewed  by  the  Lord,  who  will  also  severely 
punish  your  neglect  of  it.  Know  you  not,  that  this 
table  is  filled  with  spiritual  fire,  and  sends  forth 
secret  flames,  as  fountains  do  their  water  in  abund- 
ance ?  Bring  not  therefore  hither  wood,  hay, 
stubble,  lest  you  increase  the  flame,  and  burn  your 
soul  by  such  a  participation  ;  but  bring  hither  gold, 
silver,  precious  stones,  that  ye  may  make  those 
materials  still  more  pure,  and  go  hence  with  greater 


gain  and  advantage.  If  any  evil  remains  in  your 
soul,  chase  and  drive  it  thence.  Has  any  one  an 
enemy,  from  whom  lie  has  suffered  great  injuries 
and  injustice  ?  Let  him  dissolve  his  enmity,  and  re- 
strain his  flaming,  swelling  mind,  that  there  be  no 
tumult  or  perturbation  within.  For  thou  art  now 
about  to  receive  a  King  by  communion  ;  and  when 
a  King  enters  into  thy  soul  there  ought  to  be  a  per- 
fect calm,  tranquillity,  and  silence,  and  a  profound 
peace  in  thy  thoughts.  But  thou  hast  been  ex- 
ceedingly injured,  and  canst  not  bear  to  moderate 
thy  anger  against  him.  What  then  ?  Wilt  thou 
therefore  more  grievously  injure  thyself?  For  thy 
enemy,  whatever  he  does,  cannot  do  thee  so  much 
harm  as  thou  dost  to  thyself,  if  thou  art  not  recon- 
ciled to  him,  but  tramplest  on  the  laws  of  God.  He 
has  injured  and  affi'onted  thee,  and  wilt  thou  injure 
and  afh'ont  God?  For  not  to  receive  an^enemy  to 
pardon  and  favour,  is  not  so  much  to  take  revenge 
on  him,  as  to  afiront  God,  who  has  given  us  this 
law  of  reconciliation.  Therefore  look  not  to  thy 
fellow  servant,  nor  to  the  greatness  of  the  injuries 
that  he  hath  done  thee ;  but  look  unto  God,  and 
putting  his  fear  into  thy  mind,  consider  this,  that 
the  greater  violence  thou  ofTerest  to  thy  soul,  by 
compelling  it  to  be  reconciled  after  suffering  a 
thousand  indignities,  so  much  the  greater  honour 
shalt  thou  obtain  from  liim  who  prohibits  thee  re- 
venge. And  as  thou  receivest  God  with  great 
honour  here,  he  will  receive  thee  with  gi-eat  glory 
hereafter,  and  recompense  thee  a  thousandfold  for 
this  obedience.  Thus  did  this  holy  man  explain  in 
general  the  due  manner  and  method  of  preparing 
to  receive  the  eucharist,  and  with  the  strongest 
arguments  of  piety,  and  the  utmost  force  of  elo- 
quence and  reason,  endeavour  to  persuade  his  hear- 
ers to  the  practice  of  it. 

I  have  not  room  to  transcribe  all 
that  this  author-"  and  the  rest  have  q„^red' 
said  further  in  their  general  exhorta 
tions  to  make  a  due  preparation  for  the  communion : 
much  less  will  it  consist  with  the  design  of  this 
work,  to  descend  to  all  the  particular  cases  and 
questions  that  might  be  moved  about  it,  the  handling 
of  which  would  easily  swell  into  a  volume ;  and  the 
reader  may  find  it  already  done,  in  a  great  measure, 
by  our  learned  Bishop  Taylor,  in  his  Worthy  Com- 
municant, where  he  states  all  the  duties  required  in 
order  to  a  worthy  participation,  together  with  the 
cases  of  conscience  occurring  in  the  duty  of  him  that 
ministers,  and  in  the  duty  of  him  that  communi- 
cates, out  of  the  ancient  writers.  I  shall  content 
myself  to  suggest  a  few  things  relating  to  these  par- 
ticulars, which  are:  1.  Faith.  2.  Repentance  and 
obedience.  3.  Justice.  4.  Peace  and  unity.  5. 
Charity  and  beneficence.     6.  Pardoning  of  oficnces. 


Sect.  8. 
What  faitli  is  re- 
commu- 
nls. 


•9  Chrys.  Horn.  31.   de  Philogono,  t.    1.  p.  402. 
Horn.  52.  in  eos  qui  Pascha  jejuuant,  t.  1.  p.  710. 


Vid. 


-"  Vid.    Chrys.  in  Psal.  cxxxiii.   p.  488. 
1  Cor.  p.  536.    Horn.  17.  ad  Hebr.  p.  18Z2. 


Horn.  27.  ia 


842 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE.  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


7.  Lastly,  men's  behaviour  at  the  time  of  commu- 
nicating, and  afterwards,  wliich  I  shall  chiefly  re- 
present in  the  words  of  St.  Chrysostom,  who  has 
spoken  so  largely  upon  this  subject.  And,  1.  With 
respect  to  faith,  they  required  in  every  communicant, 
that  was  of  years  of  discretion,  not  only  an  ortho- 
dox profession  of  the  several  articles  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith  in  general,  but  also  a  particular  faith  with 
relation  to  the  mystical  eating  and  drinking  of 
Christ's  body  and  blood  in  the  holy  sacrament.  The 
former  is  evident  from  that  usual  form  of  words  in 
the  deacon's  admonition  to  all  that  had  not  a  right 
to  communicate,  to  withdraw ;  among  whom  all  hete- 
rodox or  heretical  persons  were  admonished  to  be 
gone:  Mq  ng  twv  irtpoSo^wv,  Let  no  heterodox  person 
be  present.  And,  in  regard  to  this,  St.  Chrysostom,^' 
or  whoever  was  the  author  of  the  sermon  of  Bind- 
ing and  Loosing  Sin,  speaking  of  men's  private  ex- 
amination of  themselves,  says,  God  hath  given  thee 
the  power  of  binding  and  loosing.  Thou  hast  bound 
thyself  with  the  chain  of  covetousness ;  loose  thy- 
self \vith  the  injunction  of  the  love  of  poverty. 
Thou  hast  bound  thyself  with  the  furious  desire  of 
pleasure  ;  loose  thyself  by  temperance.  Thou  hast 
bound  thyself  with  the  heterodox  belief  of  Euno- 
mius ;  loose  thyself  with  the  religious  embracing  of 
the  orthodox  faith.  But  they  did  not  only  require 
an  orthodox  faith  in  general,  but  a  particular  faith 
with  respect  to  the  sacrament  itself,  teaching  men, 
not  the  monstrous  doctrine  of  transubstantiation, 
but  that  under  the  visible  elements  of  bread  and 
wine,  sanctified  by  the  Spirit,  the  worthy  communi- 
cant by  faith  might  receive  the  spiritual  food  of 
Christ's  body  and  blood,  and  all  the  blessed  effects 
and  benefits  of  his  death  and  passion.  To  this  pur- 
pose, they  required  men  to  come  with  the  mouth  of 
faith,  spiritually  to  eat  Christ's  flesh  and  blood;  and 
to  see  him  sacrificed  with  the  eyes  of  their  mind, 
whilst  his  real  bloody  sacrifice  once  offered  was 
daily  represented  and  commemorated  in  the  visible 
images  and  symbols  of  bread  and  wine.  St.  Austin 
is  very  copious  in  setting  forth  this  necessary  doc- 
trine of  spiritual  manducation  by  faith,  as  that 
which  makes  both  sense  and  piety  of  so  many  ex- 
pressions in  the  Gospel,  which  otherwise  would  seem 
horrible  and  absurd.  Explaining  those  words  of  our 


-'  Chrys.  Horn,  ia  illud  Quodcunque  ligavcris,  t.  7.  Edit. 
Savil.  p.  2G8. 

--'  Aug.  de  Doctrina  Christ,  lib.  3.  cap.  16.  Facinus  vel 
flagitiuin  videtur  jubere.  Figura  ergo  est,  prsccipiens  pas- 
sioni  Domini  esse  communicaiiduin,  etsuaviter  atque  utiliter 
in  memoria  recondeudum,  quod  caro  ejus  pro  nobis  cruci- 
iixa  et  vulnerata  est. 

23  Auo-.  in  Psal.  xcviii.  t.  8.  p.  452.  Non  hoc  corpus  quod 
videtis,  nianducaturi  estis;  et  bibituri  iUum  sanguinem, 
quern  fusuri  sunt  qui  me  crucifigent.  Sacramentum  aliquod 
vobis  commendavi ;  spirifaliter  intellectum  vivificabit  vos. 
et  si  necesse  est  iUud  visibiliter  celebrari,  oportet  tamen  in- 
visibiliter  intelligi. 


Saviour,  "  Except  ye  eat  the  flesh  of  the  Son  of  man,  i 
and  drink  his  blood,  ye  have  no  life  in  you,"  he 
says,"  This  seems  to  command  a  crime.  Therefore 
it  is  a  figurative  speech,  commanding  us  to  commu- 
nicate in  the  passion  of  our  Lord,  and  with  plea- 
sure and  profit  to  lay  it  up  in  our  minds,  that  his 
flesh  was  crucified  and  wounded  for  our  transgres- 
sions. So  again,^  he  brings  in  our  Saviour  telling 
his  disciples,  "  Ye  are  not  to  eat  this  body  which  ye 
see,  and  drink  that  blood  which  my  crucifiers  shall 
shed.  But  I  have  commended  to  you  a  certain 
sacrament,  which,  being  spiritually  understood,  will 
quicken  you ;  and  though  it  be  celebrated  visibly, 
it  is  invisibly  or  spiritually  to  be  understood." 
Meaning  this  faith,  with  which  the  body  of  Christ 
was  to  be  received,  to  make  it  spiritually  and  really 
the  true  body,  and  life  to  the  receiver.  For  the  true 
body  of  Christ  could  no  other  ways  be  eaten  but 
spiritually  by  faith,"*  whilst  it  was  really  absent  in 
heaven.  The  hand  could  not  reach  that  body,  nor 
the  teeth  consume  it ;  but  faith''"  could  ascend  up  to 
heaven,  and  there  touch  the  body  of  Christ;  and 
with  the  heart  it  might  bo  eaten,  though  not  with 
the  teeth  and  oral  manducation.  This  is,  therefore, 
that  special  faith  which  the  ancients  so  often  require 
in  every  pious  communicant,  to  qualify  him  to  eat 
the  flesh  of  Christ  to  life  and  salvation ;  a  faith 
whereby  in  heart  he  ascends  to  heaven ;  (according 
to  the  usual  phrase  of  the  church  in  her  sacramental 
prayers,  Sursum  corda,  "  Lift  up  your  hearts ;  We 
lift  them  up  unto  the  Lord ;")  and  whereby  he  re- 
ceives the  real  body  of  Christ  by  spiritual  eating, 
which  no  wicked  man  can  receive,  though  he  receive 
the  sacrament  of  his  body  both  in  his  hand  and 
mouth  to  his  condemnation.  Therefore  St.  Austin 
bids  all  communicants  prepare^*  their  heart,  and 
not  their  mouths,  to  eat  "  the  bread  of  life,  which 
came  down  from  heaven."  And  St.  Chrysostom  " 
calls  upon  them  to  imitate  eagles,  and  fly  up  to 
heaven.  For  "  where  the  carcase  is,  there  will  the 
eagles  be  gathered  together,"  says  our  Saviour,  call- 
ing his  body  the  carcase  because  of  death.  For  if 
he  had  not  fallen,  we  had  not  risen.  But  he  calls 
us  eagles,  showing,  that  he  that  comes  to  this  body, 
ought  to  soar  aloft,  and  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
earth,  nor  move  downward  and  creep   upon   the 


-'  Aug.  Ser.2.  de  Verb.  Apost.  1. 10.  p.  91.  Manducavitam, 
bibe  vitam.  Tunc  autem  hoc  erit,  id  est,  vita  unicuique  erit 
corpus  et  sanguis,  si  quod  in  sacramento  visibiliter  sumitur, 
in  ipsa  veritate  spiritaliter  manducetur,  spiritaliter  bibatur. 
It.  Tract.  26.  in  Joan.  t.  9.  p.  94.  Qui  nianducat  intus,  non 
qui  manducat  foris;  qui  manducat  in  corde,  non  qui  premit 
dente. 

^*  Aug.  Tract.  1.  in  1  Joan.  p.  236.  Ipsum  jaxn  in  ccbIo  se- 
dontemmanucontrectare  non  possumus,  sed  tide  contingere. 

""  Aug.  Ser.  33.  de  Verb.  Dom.  p.  40.  Nolite  parare 
fauces,  sed  cor,  &c. 

"  Chrys.  Hom.  24.  in  1  Cor.  p.  536.  Vid.  Horn.  14.  in 
Ephes.  p.  1127. 


Chap.  VIII. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


843 


gi'ound,  but  always  to  fly  upward,  and  look  to  the 
"  Sun  of  righteousness,"  and  have  the  eyes  of  his 
mind  quick-sighted.  For  this  table  is  the  table  of 
eagles,  not  of  jackdaws.  And  they  who  thus  wor- 
thily receive  him,  may  expect  to  meet  him  when  he 
shall  come  down  again  from  heaven. 

2.  But  St.  Chrysostom^  observes, 
wimt^uriVv  of    that  to  come  unto  Christ  by  faith,  is 

soul    by  repentance  ,  ,       ^  .  i    •  •       ,i 

and  obedience.  How  not  barclv  to  reccive  hnn  in  the  out- 
far  fasting  useful  or  '  ii' 

necessary  to  this     ward  element,  but  to  touch  him  with 

purpose, 

a  pure  heart.  And  therefore  he  dis- 
courses excellently  upon  this  most  necessary  part 
of  preparation,  to  some  who  put  great  confidence  in 
their  observation  of  the  Lent  fust,  as  if  that  were  a 
just  preparation  for  the  communion.  Let  us  give 
up  ourselves,  says  he,  to  the  practice  of  virtue.  For 
at  this  end^  aims  all  our  fasting,  and  Lent,  and  re- 
ligious assemblies  so  many  days  together,  and  our 
hearing,  and  prayers,  and  preaching ;  that  by  these 
exercises  we  may  wash  away  the  guilt  and  stain  of 
whatever  sins  we  have  any  ways  contracted  during 
the  whole  year,  and  so  come  with  piety  and  spiritual 
assurance  to  partake  of  that  unbloody  sacrifice. 
But  if  we  do  not  thus  purify  ourselves,  all  that  other 
labour  is  in  vain  and  to  no  purpose,  we  reap  not  the 
least  advantage  from  it.  Let  every  one  therefore 
consider  with  himself,  and  examine  in  his  account, 
what  defect  he  has  amended,  what  virtue  he  has 
acquired,  what  vice  he  has  washed  away,  in  what 
part  he  is  grown  better :  and  if  he  finds  any  con- 
siderable advantage  of  this  kind  arise  from  his  fast- 
ing, and  that  many  of  his  wounds  have  been  cured 
by  it,  let  him  come  :  but  if  he  has  been  negligent, 
and  has  nothing  to  show  but  his  fasting,  without 
any  other  goodness  or  amendment,  let  him  keep  off 
and  abide  without,  and  then  come  when  he  has 
purged  himself  from  all  his  sins.  Let  no  man  place 
!  his  confidence  in  fasting  only,  who  adheres  to  his 
sins  without  amendment.  For  it  is  possible  a  man 
that  does  not  fast  may  obtain  pardon,  having  the 
excuse  of  bodily  infirmity ;  but  he  that  does  not 
correct  his  faults,  cannot  possibly  have  any  excuse. 
Thou  hast  omitted  to  fast  by  reason  of  the  infirmity 
of  thy  flesh :  but  why  hast  thou  not  been  reconciled 
to  thy  enemies  ?  Canst  thou  here  pretend  bodily  in- 
firmity also?  Thou  still  retainest  hatred  and  envy: 
what  excuse,  I  pray,  canst  thou  plead  for  these  ? 
There  is  no  flying  for  refuge  to  bodily  infirmity  in 
behalf  of  such  sins  as  these.  Thus  Chrysostom 
shows  the  necessity  of  correcting  every  evil  way,  in 
thought,  word,  and  deed,  in  order  to  prepare  men 
for  a  W'Orthy  reception  at  God's  table ;  and  that  no 
pretences  of  other  qualifications  without  holiness, 
nor  any  excuses  for  sin,  will  be  accepted,  while 
Christ  has  made  his  commandments  very  practi- 


cable, and  recommended  his  yoke  as  easy,  and  his 
burden  as  light. 

3.  And  because  there  are  some  great 

sins,  to  which  men  have  a  more  than     How  necessary 

justice  and   restitu- 

ordinarv  propensity  and  affection,  and  »'<>"  *»  »  worthy 

•'   *       ^  •'  '  communicant. 

are  ready  to  find  out  a  thousand  arts 
to  palliate  and  retain  them  with  a  semblance  of 
piety  and  pretended  devotion ;  the  same  author  is 
always  very  careful  to  particularize  about  these  in 
men's  preparation,  pulling  off  the  vizard  and  false 
colours  they  were  apt  to  lay  upon  them.  Thus  in 
the  case  of  injustice,  many  were  inclined  to  impose 
upon  themselves  by  that  old  Pharisaical  pretence  of 
giving  something  to  the  corban,  to  make  a  full 
atonement,  as  they  thought,  for  their  manifold  ra- 
pines and  oppression.  Whom  he  thus  reproves, 
and  lays  open  their  folly :  Let  no  Judas,  no  Simon 
Magus,  come  near  this  table  ;^"  for  they  both  perish- 
ed in  their  avarice  and  love  of  money.  Wherefore 
let  us  fly  from  this  pit,  and  not  imagine  it  sufficient 
for  our  salvation,  that,  when  we  have  spoiled  widows 
and  orphans,  we  offer  a  golden  cup  adorned  with 
jewels  to  this  table,  Wouldst  thou  honour  this 
sacrifice  ?  Offer  thy  soul,  for  which  Christ  was 
offered,  and  make  it  a  golden  soul.  But  if  thy  soul 
remain  worse  than  lead  or  earth,  what  wall  thy 
golden  vessels  profit  thee?  Let  us  not  therefore 
labour  to  offer  golden  vessels  only,  but  offer  what 
we  acquire  by  our  just  and  honest  labour.  For 
these  are  more  precious  than  gold,  which  are  not 
the  fruits  of  covetousness  and  injustice.  The  church 
is  not  the  work-house  of  silver  and  gold,  but  the 
congregation  of  angels.  Therefore  the  purity  of  our 
souls  is  required :  for  God  receives  these  things 
upon  the  account  of  our  souls.  Doubtless  that  table 
was  not  of  silver,  nor  that  cup  of  gold,  wherein 
Christ'gave  his  blood  to  his  disciples ;  yet  all  was 
precious  and  full  of  reverence,  because  they  were 
filled  -ftath  the  Spirit.  St.  Chrysostom  speaks  this 
to  men's  own  consciences  in  private,  who  knew 
their  own  extortions,  when  perhaps  the  church 
knew  nothing  of  them  ;  and  he  lays  upon  them  the 
necessity  of  justice  and  restitution  in  their  private 
accounts  wdth  God,  before  they  could  hope  to  gain 
his  favour,  or  be  accepted  at  his  altar.  For  as 
to  public  offences  of  this  kind,  we  have  noted  be- 
fore," that  when  they  were  such  as  the  church 
could  take  cognizance  of,  they  fell  under  her  public 
discipline ;  and  it  was  a  standing  law,  that  the  ob- 
lations of  known  oppressors  should  not  be  re- 
ceived, much  less  their  persons  to  the  communion 
of  the  altar. 

4.  Another  thing  they  much  insist- 

,  -1  11  Sect.  II. 

ed   on,  was   unity  and  a  peaceable    The  necessity  of 

,.1,  T  •    n      •  1        pf««  a"<i  "»i'y. 

spirit :  by  winch  they  chiefly  mtend- 


28  Chrys.  Horn.  51.  in  Mat.  p.  454. 
»  Ibid'  Horn.  22.  de  Simidtate,  t.  1 


»  Ibid.   Horn.  51.  in  Mat.  p.  455.     It.  Horn.  86.  p.  722. 
cited  before,  chap.  2.  sect.  2.      "  Book  XV.  chap.  2.  sect.  2. 


844 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


ed  that  sort  of  peaceableness,  which  preserves  the 
unity  of  the  church,  not  only  in  opposition  to 
formed  and  professed  schisms,  but  all  factions  and 
divisions  within  the  bosom  of  the  church.  As  to 
formal  and  professed  schismatics,  they  were  objects 
of  the  public  discipline,  and  not  to  be  admitted  to 
communion  without  public  recantation  and  formal 
renouncing  of  their  errors.  But  besides  these  there 
were  another  sort  of  turbulent  spirits,  who,  without 
breaking  forth  into  professed  separations,  were  often 
the  occasion  of  great  tumults  and  disquiet  in  the 
church.  Such  were  those  Corinthians,  whom  the 
apostle  so  often  rebukes  for  their  factious  zeal  and 
unnecessary  disputations  and  contentions  one  with 
another ;  which  proceeded  from  many  evil  causes, 
and  were  attended  with  as  bad  effects.  For  they 
sprung  from  the  bitter  roots  of  envy,  and  pride,  and 
ambition,  and  covetousness,  and  self-interest,  and 
self-love,  and  a  blind  or  else  crafty  and  designing 
admiration  of  one  teacher  above  another.  "  For  one 
said,  I  am  of  Paul ;  and  another,  I  of  ApoUos ;  I 
of  Cephas ;  and  I  of  Christ."  And  the  effects  were 
debates,  envyings,  wraths,  strifes,  backbitings, 
whisperings,  swellings,  tumults.  Insomuch  that, 
in  their  sidings  and  partyings,  they  came  to  express 
a  disdain  and  contempt  of  one  another  in  that 
which  should  have  taught  them  the  quite  contrary 
lesson,  the  celebration  of  the  Lord's  supper  and 
their  feasts  of  charity.  For  in  eating,  every  one 
took  before  others  his  own  supper;  and  one  was 
hungry,  and  another  was  drunken.  Upon  which 
the  apostle  gave  them  that  most  solemn  admoni- 
tion, 1  Cor.  xi.  28,  "  Let  a  man  examine  himself, 
and  so  let  him  eat  of  that  bread,  and  drink  of  that 
cup.  For  he  that  eateth  and  drinketh  unworthily, 
eateth  and  drinketh  damnation  to  himself,  not  dis- 
cerning the  Lord's  body."  It  was  not  long  after  St. 
Paul's  death,  that  Clemens,  bishop  of  Rome,  had 
occasion  to  write  a  long  epistle  to  these  Corinthians 
upon  the  very  same  subject  of  their  seditious  fac- 
tions and  divisions,  where,  among  many  other  argu- 
ments to  persuade  them  to  unity  and  peace,  he  bids 
them  beware,'"  that  the  manifold  blessings  of  God 
did  not  turn  to  their  condemnation,  if  they  walked 
unworthy  of  him,  and  neglected  to  do  what  was 
good  and  pleasing  in  his  sight  with  unanimity  and 
concord.  Therefore  he  bids  them  ^'  quickly  remove 
this  evil,  and  fall  down  before  the  Lord,  and  weep 
and  pray  to  him,  that  he  would  be  merciful  and 
reconciled  to  them,  and  reduce  and  restore  them  to 
the  pure  and  comely  way  of  brotherly  love.  For 
this  is  the  gate  of  righteousness  which  opens  unto 
life.  Charity  unites  us  unto  God;^*  charity  covers 
a  multitude  of  sins  ;  charity  bearcth  all  things ; 
charity  has  nothing  of  pride  or  baseness  in   it ; 


charity  has  no  schism ;  charity  raises  no  sedition ; 
charity  does  all  things  in  concord.  By  charity  all 
the  elect  of  God  are  made  perfect ;  without  charity 
nothing  is  acceptable  unto  God.  Therefore  he 
advises  the  ringleaders  of  the  sedition  and  the  heads 
of  faction  to  be  subject  to  their  rulers  and  repent, 
and  to  lay  aside  all  arrogant^^  and  proud  boasting 
of  the  tongue ;  since  it  was  better  to  be  found  little 
and  approved  in  the  fold  of  Christ,  than  to  be  high- 
minded  and  rejected  from  the  hope  of  his  kingdom. 
He  bids  them  sacrifice  their  own  interest  to  the 
peace  of  the  church.  Who  among  you  is  of  a  noble 
and  generous  temper?  Who'"  has  any  bowels  of 
compassion  ?  Who  is  filled  with  charity  ?  Let  him 
say.  If  upon  my  account  there  be  sedition,  and 
discord,  and  schi?m,  I  will  willingly  depart,  and 
go  away  whithersoever  you  please ;  I  will  do  what 
the  people  command  me  ;  only  let  the  fold  of  Christ 
be  in  peace  under  the  elders  that  are  set  over  them. 
He  that  does  this,  shall  purchase  to  himself  great 
honour  in  the  Lord,  and  every  place  will  receive 
him.  "  For  the  earth  is  the  Lord's,  and  the  ful- 
.  ness  thereof."  Thus  did  that  holy  man  exhort  the 
seditious  Corinthians  to  lay  aside  their  factious  and 
turbulent  spirit,  and  betake  themselves  to  the  ways 
of  unity  and  peace,  as  ever  they  hoped  to  find 
mercy  and  favour  at  the  hands  of  the  Lord.  And 
the  ancients  generally  use  this  argument  against 
uncharitable  strife  and  contention,  and  schism  and 
division,  that  they  are  crimes  of  that  magnitude, 
that  without  repentance  even  the  blood  of  martyr- 
dom will  not  wash  away  and  blot  out  the  stain  and 
guilt  of  them.  Which  is  a  noted  saying  of  Cypri- 
an's,'' repeated  and  approved  by  Chrysostom,'^  St. 
Austin,'"  Fulgentius,^"  and  many  others. 

5.  Another  thing  they  much  re- 
commended as  a  necessary  qualifica-  or  chanty  and  mer- 
cy to  the  poor. 

tion  in  a  w'orthy  communicant,  was 
the  exercise  of  beneficence  and  charity  to  the  in- 
digent, especially  to  the  poor  members  of  Christ* 
For  when  they  themselves  were  about  to  receive 
the  greatest  blessings  in  the  world,  they  thought  it 
but  reasonable  that  they  should  show  kindness,  ac- 
cording to  their  ability,  to  his  and  their  brethren. 
This  was  the  foundation  of  their  oblations  and 
love-feasts  mentioned  before  ;  and  the  neglect,  or 
abuse,  or  partiality  used  in  them,  was  always  re- 
puted a  capital  misdemeanour.  But  this  \vas  not 
all :  they  not  only  required  men  to  be  charitable  in 
the  act  of  communicating,  but  at  all  times  ;  and  al- 
lowed not  the  most  plausible  pretences  that  could 
be  offered  to  the  contrary.  Some  apologized  for 
their  uncharitableness,  as  they  did  for  their  in- 
justice; they  wiped  their  mouths,  and  cried  out, 
Corban,  It  is   a  gift  to  Christ,  whei'ewith    thou 


3-  Clem.  Rom.  Ep.  1.  ad  Cor.  n.  21. 

3'  Ibid.  n.  48.  '*  Ibid.  n.  19.  '^  Ibid.  n.  57. 

35  Ibid.  u.  51.  ''  Cypr.  de  Unit.  Eccles.  p.  113. 


M  Chiys.  Horn.  11.  in  Ephcs.  p.  1107. 

="  Aii^.  de  Bapt.  cont.  Doiiat.  lib.l.  cap.  17. 

*"  Fidgent.  de  Fide  ad  Petnim,  cap.  39. 


Chap.  VIII. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


845 


mightest  be  profited  by  me  :  and  so  they  thought 
themselves  discharged  by  commutation  ;  they  gave 
to  God's  use  some  gift  which  he  required  not,  and 
let  the  poor  perish,  whom  he  had  commanded  them 
to  sustain.  To  these  St.  Chrysostom"'  thus  ele- 
gantly discourses.  Would  you  honour  the  body  of 
Christ  ?  Do  not  then  despise  him  when  he  is  naked. 
Do  not  honour  him  here  in  the  church  with  vest- 
ments of  silk,  and  neglect  him  without-doors,  when 
ready  to  perisli  with  cold  and  nakedness.  For  he 
that  said,  "  This  is  my  body,"  and  confirmed  the 
thing  with  his  word,  said  also,  "  Ye  saw  me  an  hun- 
gred,  and  fed  me  not : "  and,  "  Forasmuch  as  ye  did 
it  not  to  one  of  the  least  of  these,  ye  did  it  not  unto 
me."  For  this  body  of  Christ  (the  eucharist)  needs 
no  clothing,  but  a  pure  mind :  but  that  other  body 
of  his  needs  much  of  our  care.     Therefore  let  us 

I  learn  to  be  wise,  and  honour  Christ  according  to 
his  own  will.  Give  him  that  honour  which  he  has 
commanded ;  distribute  your  riches  among  the  poor. 
God  has  no  need  of  golden  vessels,  but  of  golden 
souls.  I  say  not  this,  to  forbid  any  man  to  offer 
such  gifts  ;  but  because  I  judge  it  proper,  together 

i  with  these,  and  before  these,  to  do  works  of  charity. 
For  God  indeed  receives  these,  but  the  other  are 
much  more  acceptable  to  him.  Vessels  only  profit 
him  that  otfers  them,  but  works  of  charity  profit 
both  the  giver  and  the  receiver.  The  one  is  often 
an  occasion  of  ostentation,  but  the  other  is  all  hu- 
manity and  mercy.  What  profit  is  it  to  Christ, 
that  his  table  is  filled  with  golden  cups,  whilst  he 
himself  is  famished  by  want  ?  Therefore  first  feed 
him  when  he  is  hungry,  and  then  of  your  super- 
fluity and  abundance  adorn  his  table.  You  make 
him  a  golden  cup,  but  will  not  give  him  a  cup  of 
cold  water.  What  does  this  profit  him  ?  You  pre- 
pare coverings  for  his  table  embroidered  with  gold  ; 
but  he  himself  is  naked,  and  you  cover  him  not 
with  necessary  clothing.  What  advantage  is  there 
in  all  this  ?  Tell  me,  I  pray  :  suppose  you  should 
see  a  man  want  necessary  food,  and  you,  instead  of 
relieving  his  hunger,  should  only  adorn  his  table 
with  gold:  would  he  take  this  as  any  kindness, 
and  not  rather  look  upon  it  with  indignation  ?  Or, 
if  you  saw  a  man  clothed  in  rags,  and  frozen  with 
cold,  and  you,  instead  of  giving  him  raiment,  should 
erect  golden  pillars,  and  say  you  did  it  for  his 
honour  :  would  he  not  rather  say  you  mocked  him, 
and  think  you  put  the  greatest  aifront  imaginable 
upon  him  ?  You  may  apprehend  the  case  to  be 
the  very  same  with  Christ :  when  he  wanders  about 
as  a  stranger,  having  no  house  to  cover  his  head, 
then  thou  neglectest  to  take  him  in  ;  thou  contemn- 
est  his  person,  but  beautifiest  his  pavement  and  hi 
walls,  and  the  heads  of  his  pillars :  thou  makest  his 


lamps  to  hang  on  silver  chains,  but  wilt  not  vouch- 
safe to  visit  him  when  he  is  chained  in  prison.  I 
speak  not  this  to  prohibit  thee  from  doing  these 
things,  but  to  excite  thee  to  do  the  other  together 
with  them,  or  rather  before  them.  For  no  man 
was  ever  condemned  for  not  building  magnificent 
temples,  but  for  neglecting  the  poor  hell  is  threat- 
ened, and  the  fire*  that  shall  never  be  quenched, 
and  punishment  with  devils.  Whilst,  therefore,  you 
adorn  God's  house,  do  not  neglect  your  afflicted 
brother.  For  he  is  more  properly  the  temple  of 
God  than  the  other.  For  those  may  be  plundered 
of  all  their  treasure  by  infidel  kings,  and  tyrants, 
and  thieves  :  but  what  thou  dost  to  a  brother  that 
is  hungry,  or  a  stranger,  or  naked,  the  devil  him- 
self cannot  rob  thee  of,  but  it  is  laid  up  in  a  safe 
repository,  where  no  violence  can  make  a  prey  of 
it.  It  were  easy  to  give  the  reader  many  other 
such  affecting  passages  out  of  Chrysostom''^  and 
others,  but  this  one  is  sufficient  to  show  what  stress 
they  laid  upon  charity  or  beneficence  to  the  poor, 
in  order  to  qualify  men  for  a  worthy  reception  of 
the  holy  communion. 

6.  But  this  was  not  the  only  kind  j.^^^  jj 
of  charity  they  required  to  be  exer-  gi"^,e''e""mi'esjn'd 
cised  upon  this  occasion :  there  was  p^"^'"""''  •'»''''"=- 
another  more  difficult  to  be  practised,  and  yet 
no  less  necessary  to  be  performed  by  all  that 
would  lay  any  just  claim  to  the  mercy  of  God  in 
the  sacrifice  of  Christ's  body  and  blood ;  and  that 
was,  the  duty  of  pardoning  and  forgiving  enemies, 
without  which  it  was  absurd  and  impudent  to  pre- 
sume to  ask  God  pardon  at  the  holy  table.  There- 
fore St.  Chrysostom,'"  explaining  those  words  of 
our  Saviour,  Matt,  v.,  "  If  thou  bring  thy  gift  to 
the  altar,  and  there  rememberest  that  thy  brother 
hath  ought  against  thee  ;  leave  there  thy  gift  before 
the  altar,  and  go  thy  way,  first  be  reconciled  to  thy 
brother,  and  then  come  and  offer  thy  gift ;"  says.  By 
all  this  Christ  intended  to  signify,  that  the  holy 
table  would  not  receive  men  that  were  at  enmity 
with  one  another ;  no,  nor  yet  could  they  so  much 
as  ofl^er  their  prayers  acceptably  to  God.  Therefore 
hear  this,  says  he,  all  yc  that  are  initiated  in  the 
holy  mysteries,  and  come  not  in  enmity  to  the  com- 
munion of  the  altar.  Let  them  also  hear  it,  who 
are  not  yet  initiated.  For  they  have  a  common 
concern  in  these  words  also.  For  they  offbr  likewise 
their  gifts  and  their  sacrifice,  I  mean  their  prayers 
and  their  alms ;  which  the  psalmist  often  calls  sa- 
crifice :  "  The  sacrifice  of  praise  shall  honour  me :" 
and,  "  Offer  unto  God  the  sacrifice  of  praise :"  and, 
"  Let  the  lifting  up  of  my  hands  be  an  evening  sa- 
crifice." Whence  he  concludes.  That  if  a  man  come 
to  pray  with  such  a  mind,  he  had  better  leave  his 


"  Chrys.  Horn.  51.  in  Mat.  p.  155. 

«  Vid.' Chvys.  Horn.  1.  in  1  Tim.  p.  1G31.     Horn.  9.  de 


Pcenitent.  t.  i.  p.  701.    Horn.  25.  t.  5.  p.  3G9. 
"  Chi  vs.  Horn.  IG.  in  Mat.  p.  IGG. 


846. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


prayers,  and  go  first  and  be  reconciled  to  his  brother, 
and  then  come  and  offer  his  prayers.  It  is  usual 
with  Chrysostom  upon  this  account  to  tell  his  hear- 
ers, that  they"  who  are  unqualified  for  the  commu- 
nion, are  unqualified  for  their  prayers  likewise ;  be- 
cause they  in  effect  pray  to  God  to  curse  themselves, 
whilst  they  pray  for  forgiveness  of  sins  only  in  the 
same  manner  as  they  forgive  th(jir  enemies.  If  we 
have  designs  of  revenge  in  our  hearts,  says  he," 
when  we  pray,  we  pray  against  ourselves,  saying, 
"  Forgive  us  our  trespasses,  as  we  forgive  them  that 
trespass  against  us."  These  are  terrible  words,  and 
the  same  as  if  one  said  to  God :  "  Lord,  I  have  for- 
given my  enemy,  forgive  thou  me ;  I  have  loosed 
him,  loose  thou  me  ;  I  have  pardoned  my  enemy, 
pardon  me ;  if  I  have  retained  his  sins,  retain  thou 
mine ;  if  I  have  not  loosed  my  neighbour,  do  not 
thou  loose  my  offences ;  what  measure  I  have  meted 
to  him,  measure  thou  to  me  again."  It  was  with 
this  argument  that  he  induced  the  people  to  show 
mercy  to  their  great  enemy,  Euti'opius,  when  he 
was  fled  for  sanctuary  to  the  altar  :  How  will  you 
be  able  to  take  the  holy  sacrament  into  your  hands, 
and  use  the  words  of  that  prayer,  wherein  we  are 
commanded  to  say,  "  Forgive  us  our  trespasses,  as 
we  forgive  them  that  trespass  against  us,"  if  you 
exact  punishmentof  your  debtor?  In  another  place*® 
he  tells  them,  if  they  forgave  their  enemies,  they 
might  then  come  vidth  a  pure  conscience  to  the 
holy  and  tremendous  table,  and  boldly  say  the 
words  contained  in  that  prayer,  "  Forgive  us,  as  we 
forgive."  But  if  they  retained  anger  or  malice  in 
their  hearts,"  they  were  no  fitter  to  partake  of  that 
holy  table  than  fornicators,  or  adulterers,  or  blas- 
phemers. For  how  canst  thou  desire  God  to  be 
gracious  and  merciful  to  thee,  who  art  so  implaca- 
ble and  inexorable  to  thy  fellow  servant?  Admit 
he  has  injured  and  affi-onted  thee.  Hast  thou  not 
often  injured  and  affronted  God?  And  what  com- 
parison is  there  betwixt  the  Lord  and  a  servant  ? 
It  may  be  also  thy  fellow  servant  was  first  injured 
by  thee,  and  only  returned  the  compliment,  and 
paid  thee  in  thy  own  kind,  and  thou  art  incensed 
at  that:  but  thou,  without  any  injury  or  provoca- 
tion received  from  God,  treatest  him  contumeliously ; 
nay,  not  only  when  he  does  thee  no  harm,  but  when 
he  daily  loads  thee  with  blessings,  and  continually 
pours  forth  his  benefits  upon  thee.  He  adds,*' 
that  this  sin  of  malice  and  revenge  was  the  more 
dangerous  and  inexcusable,  because  it  had  none  of 
the  little  pleas  which  were  commonly  urged  in  the 
behalf  of  other  sins,  to  be  offered  in  its  favour.  If 
I  bid  you  fast,  you  plead  the  excuse  of  bodily  in- 
firmity ;  if  I  bid  you  give  to  the  poor,  you  plead 


poverty  yourself,  and  the  care  of  your  own  chil- 
dren ;  if  I  call  upon  you  to  attend  Divine  worship, 
you  pretend  the  avocations  of  worldly  care  and 
secular  business ;  if  I  bid  you  hear  sermons,  and 
consider  the  power  of  the  doctrine  contained  in 
them,  you  plead  disability  and  want  of  learning  to 
understand  them ;  if  I  advise  you  to  admonish  and 
correct  your  brother,  you  tell  me  he  will  not  hearken 
to  your  counsel ;  you  have  admonished  him,  and  he 
despises  you.  These  are  but  cold  excuses,  yet  they 
are  excuses  in  some  sort.  But  if  I  bid  you  lay 
aside  your  anger,  which  of  these  excuses  can  you 
make?  You  cannot  plead  bodily  infirmity,  nor 
poverty,  nor  want  of  understanding,  nor  want  of 
tjme  and  leisure  from  worldly  business,  nor  any 
other  such  excuse ;  therefore  this,  of  all  others,  is  a 
most  unpardonable  sin.  How  then  will  you  hold 
up  your  hands  to  heaven,  or  move  your  tongue,  or 
ask  pardon  of  your  sins,  when,  if  God  were  disposed 
to  pardon  them,  you  will  not  suffer  him  to  do  it, 
while  you  refuse  to  pardon  the  offence  of  your  fel- 
low servant  ?  Having  used  these  and  many  other 
excellent  arguments  to  show  men  the  necessity  of 
reconciliation  and  mutual  forgiveness,  when  they 
came  to  the  holy  communion,  which  is  the  covenant 
of  forgiveness  and  peace  with  God  and  man,  he 
takes  notice  of  two  evasions,  which  some  men  used 
in  this  case  to  palliate  and  foster  still  something  of 
an  ill-natured  temper,  and  make  it  seem  consistent 
with  their  duty.  Some  were,  indeed,  afraid  to  say 
those  words  of  the  Lord's  prayer,  "  Forgive  us  our 
trespasses,  as  we  forgive  them  that  trespass  against 
us  ;"  as  being  sensible  it  was  no  better  than  cursing 
themselves,  while  they  continued  in  such  an  evil 
disposition :  and  therefore  they  only  said  the  first 
clause,  "  Forgive  us  our  trespasses,"  and  dropped  the 
second,  which  contains  the  condition  of  their  for- 
giving others :  and  they  were  so  vain  as  to  think 
this  was  a  sufficient  salvo  to  their  consciences,  and 
a  security  against  the  menaces  that  were  threatened 
to  a  revengeful  temper.  To  whom  he  replies,*'  That 
this  was  but  a  vain  caution,  for  whether  they  said 
the  words  or  not,  God  would  deal  with  them  accord- 
ing to  their  actions  ;  Christ  having  told  them,  in  the 
very  next  words,  "  If  ye  forgive  not  men  their  tres- 
passes, neither  will  your  heavenly  Father  forgive 
you  your  trespasses."  Others  excused  themselves 
by  saying,  I  bear  no  hatred  or  malice  against  my 
enemy,  I  am  not  concerned  or  troubled  at  his 
enmity,  I  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  him.  But, 
says  Chrysostom,  this  is  not  enough,  that  thou  wilt 
give  him  no  trouble,  that  thou  wilt  do  him  no  harm, 
that  thou  wilt  bear  no  rancorous  mind  against  him ; 
but  thou  must  endeavour  to  restore  him  to  a  friendly 


**  Chrys.  Horn.  3.  in  Ephes.  p.  1061.  Horn.  22.  de  Ira,  t. 
1.  p.  256. 

«  Ibid.  Horn,  in  Eutrop.  t.  4.  p.  554.  Horn.  38.  de  Pee- 
nitent.  et  Euchar.  t  5.  p.  570. 


*8  Ibid.  Horn.  27.  in  Gen.  p.  358. 
*'  Ibid.  Horn.  22.  de  Ira,  t.  I.  p.  277. 
^8  Ibid.  p.  282. 
"  Ibid.  p.  289. 


Chaf.  VIII. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


847 


temper.  For  God  has  not  commanded  us  to  have 
nothing  to  do  with  our  enemy,  but  to  have  many 
ithings  to  do  with  him.  For  this  reason  he  is  our 
(brotlicr ;  and  for  this  reason  God  said  not,  Forgive 
thy  brother  what  thou  hast  against  him ;  but,  "  Go, 
;and  be  reconciled  to  him,  if  he  hath  ought  against 
Ithee ;"  and  cease  not,  till  thou  hast  brought  that 
ember  to  its  proper  harmony  and  concord.  He 
iias  also  there^  these  remarkable  words :  I  tell  you 
efore,  I  protest,  I  proclaim  it  aloud,  let  no  man 
hat  has  an  enemy  come  to  the  holy  table,  and  re- 
eive  the  body  of  the  Lord.  Let  no  man  come  that 
jlias  an  enemy.  Hast  thou  an  enemy  ?  come  not. 
jWouldst  thou  come  ?  Be  reconciled,  and  then  come 
find  receive  the  holy  body.  Thy  Lord,  to  reconcile 
thee  to  his  Father,  refused  not  to  be  slain,  and  shed 
Jiis  blood  for  thy  sake:  and  wilt  not  thou  speak  a  word, 
nor  go  to  make  the  first  offer,  to  reconcile  thy  fellow 
Servant?  This  he  says  to  those,  who  thought  it 
[jelow  them,  and  an  act  of  pusillanimity  and  disgrace, 
CO  seem  to  make  the  first  step  toward  reconciling 
|in  enemy,  by  being  first  in  the  offer  and  motion  of 
jeace.  But  he  assures  them  it  was  a  duty,  and  an 
honourable  duty,  thus  to  imitate  Christ  in  a  charit- 
jible  condescension  :  and  whatever  might  be  the 
ffect  of  it  here,  it  would  have  a  double  and  a  triple 
trown  hereafter.  Finallj',  he  tells  them,  with  a  so- 
cmn  protestation,"  in  the  close  of  all,  that  if  after 
brty  days'  warning  he  found  any  still  persist  irre- 
oncilable  to  one  another,  he  would  no  longer  use 
idmonitions,  but  proceed  to  severer  methods,  and 
irder  them  to  be  kept  back  from  the  holy  mysteries, 
ill  they  should  amend  their  fault,  and  come  to  the 
loly  table  with  a  pure  conscience,  which  was  the 
inly  proper  way  to  partake  of  the  communion. 

These  were  some  of  those  necessary 
qualifications  they  required  in  men 
before  they  came  to  the  holy  commu- 
iion.  And  at  the  time  of  celebration,  the  very 
flices  of  the  church  were  so  framed  as  to  elevate 
len's  souls  to  the  highest  pitch  of  reverence,  de- 
otion,  and  thankfulness  to  God  for  his  mercies  in 
he  sacrifice  of  Christ  his  only  Son.  To  which 
lurpose  the  reader  may  recollect  what  has  been  said 
f  the  great  thanksgiving  in  the  consecration  of  the 
ucharist ;  and  the  Sursian  conla,  or  call  to  lift  up 
lieir  hearts  to  the  Lord;  and  of  the  seraphical 
ymns  and  angelical  glorifications  intended  to  set 
)rth  the  praises  of  God  in  this  excellent  mystery. 
'o  which  may  be  added  that  advice  of  Origen,*^ 
'hat  men  should  approach  it  with  the  profoundest 
umility,  imitating  the  good  centurion,  and  saying, 
Lord,  I  am  not  worthy  that  thou  shouldst  come 
nder  my  roof."    That  they  should  then  quit  all 


Sect.  14. 
Of  their  liehavt 
I  tlu-  roiDiimni 
id  iiiterivards. 


thoughts  of  earthly  things,  and  consider  that  they 
were  then  in  the  midst  of  cherubims  and  seraphims, 
angels  and  archangels,  and  all  the  powers  above. 
For  this  mystery,"  in  Chrysostom's  phrase,  turns 
earth  into  heaven.  Open  the  gates  of  heaven,  and 
see ;  or  rather,  not  heaven,  but  the  heaven  of  hea- 
vens, and  then  you  shall  see  what  I  say.  For  that 
which  is  the  most  honourable  of  all  things  there, 
that  I  will  now  show  you  upon  the  earth ;  not  an- 
gels, or  archangels,  not  the  heavens,  or  the  heaven 
of  heavens,  but  the  Lord  of  them  all,  whom  you 
not  only  see,  but  touch,  and  eat,  and  carry  home 
with  you.  Therefore  upon  this  he  grounds  several 
excellent  exhortations.  Let  us  become  eagles^'  and 
fly  up  to  him  in  heaven ;  let  us  have  nothing  to  do 
with  the  earth,  but  look  upward  to  the  Sun  of  right- 
eousness ;  let  us  not  receive  him  with  polluted  hands, 
but  come  to  him  with  reverence  and  all  imaginable 
purity ;  saying,  By  this  body  I  am  no  longer  earth 
and  ashes ;  I  am  no  longer  a  captive,  but  free : 
for  this  I  hope  to  receive  heaven  and  all  the  good 
things  therein,  immortal  life,  the  condition  of  an- 
gels, the  society  of  Christ.  Cleanse,  therefore,  and 
wash  thy  soul,  prepare  thy  mind  for  the  reception 
of  these  mysteries.  If  the  son  of  a  king  in  all  his 
ornamental  robes,  his  purple  and  his  diadem,  were 
put  into  thy  hands  to  carry,  thou  wouldst  contemn 
all  earthly  things.  But  now  thou  receivest  not  the 
son  of  a  mortal  king,  but  the  only  begotten  Son  of 
God:  and  art  not  thou  afraid  still  to  retain  the 
love  of  worldly  things  ?  Why  is  not  this  ornament 
alone  sufficient  for  thee,  but  thou  must  yet  needs 
look  to  the  earth,  and  be  in  love  with  riches?  Know- 
est  thou  not  that  thy  Lord  has  an  aversion  to  all 
the  pomp  and  magnificence  of  this  life  ?  Was  he 
not  therefore  born  of  a  poor  mother,  and  at  his 
birth  laid  in  a  manger  ?  And  was  not  his  answer 
this,  to  the  man  who  thought  to  make  a  gain  of  his 
service,  "  The  Son  of  man  hath  not  where  to  lay 
his  head  ? "  Let  us  therefore  imitate  him  ;  and 
passing  by  the  beauty  of  pillars  and  marbles,  let  us 
seek  for  mansions  in  heaven  above  ;  and  trampling 
upon  all  worldly  pride,  and  the  love  of  riches,  let 
us  take  to  ourselves  lofty  souls,  and  mind  the 
things  that  are  on  high.  When  you  come  to  the 
holy  table  and  the  sacred  mysteries,  says  he,"  in 
another  place,  do  it  with  fear  and  reverence,  with 
a  pure  conscience,  with  fasting  and  prayer.  Con- 
sider what  a  sacrifice  you  partake  of,  what  a  table 
you  approach  unto.  Consider,  that  thou  who  art 
but  dust  and  ashes,  receivest  the  body  and  blood  of 
Christ.  God  calls  thee  to  his  own  table,  and  sets 
before  thee  his  Son ;  where  the  angelical  powers 
stand  about  with  fear  and  tremblinsf,  and  the  cheru- 


^  Chrys.  Horn.  22.  de  Ira,  t.  1.  p.  2-^5. 

='  Ibid.  p.  294. 

^■-  Orig.  Horn.  b.  de  Diversis,  t.  2.  p.  441. 


'^  Chrys.  Horn.  24.  in  1  Cor.  p.  o.'^"^. 

5<  Ibid.  p.  536  et  5.38. 

"  Chrjs.  Horn.  31.  de  Nativ.  Christi,  t.  5.  p.  479. 


848 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


bims  cover  their  faces,  and  the  seraphims  cry  with 
reverence,  "  Holy,  holy,  holy.  Lord  of  hosts."  Let 
us  therefore  come  with  the  greatest  reverence  also, 
and  give  thanks,  and  fall  down  and  confess  our 
sins,  and  with  tears  bewail  our  offences,  and  offer 
up  fervent  prayers  to  God.  And  so  purifying  our- 
selves in  quietness  and  decent  order,  let  us  come 
as  to  a  heavenly  King ;  and  receiving  the  holy  and 
immaculate  sacrifice,  let  us  kiss  and  embrace  it 
with  our  mouths  and  eyes,  and  therewith  warm  our 
souls  ;  that  we  come  not  together  to  judgment  and 
condemnation,  but  to  create  in  us  sobriety  of  mind, 
and  charity,  and  virtue,  and  reconcile  ourselves  to 
God,  and  obtain  a  lasting  peace,  and  whatever  other 
blessings  arise  from  thence ;  that  we  may  both 
sanctify  ourselves  and  edify  our  neighbours. 

And  as  they  thus  taught  men,  with  what  vener- 
ation and  serious  deportment  they  ought  to  behave 
themselves  at  the  Lord's  table  ;  so  they  endeavoured 
to  make  lasting  impressions  of  virtue  upon  men's 
minds  by  this  argument,  showing  them  what  ob- 
ligations of  holiness  and  purity  the  reception  of  the 
body  and  blood  of  Christ  laid  upon  every  member 
of  the  body,  and  every  faculty  of  the  soul.  It  was 
an  oblation  of  their  bodies  and  souls  to  God ;  it  was 
an  oath,  or  bond  and  covenant,  to  do  no  evil,  but 
to  exercise  themselves  in  all  manner  of  virtue,  as 
PHny^"  represents  it  from  the  mouths  of  some  Chris- 
tians. Therefore  Chrysostom  elegantly  represents 
it  as  an  obligation  laid  upon  every  member  of  the 
body,  the  hands,  the  eyes,  the  lips,  and  tongue,  the 
heart  and  soul  especially,  to  abstain  from  all  pol- 
lution and  impurity  of  sin.  Thou  fastest  before 
thou  dost  communicate,  that  thou  mayest  appear 
worthy:"  and  dost  thou  destroy  all  after  commu- 
nicating, when  thou  oughtest  to  be  more  temperate? 
I  do  not  enjoin  thee  to  fast,  but  to  abstain  from 
luxury  and  all  the  evil  effects  of  it,  immoderate 
laughter,  disorderly  words,  pernicious  jesting,  fool- 
ish and  vain  discourse,  and  whatever  a  Christian 
ought  not  to  speak,  who  has  been  entertained  at 
Christ's  table,  and  touched  his  flesh  with  his 
tongue.  Whoever  thou  art,  therefore,  purify  thy 
hands,  thy  lips,  and  thy  tongue,  which  have  been 
the  gates  at  which  Christ  entered  into  thee.  When 
thou  sittest  down  to  a  common  table,  remember 
that  spiritual  table,  and  call  to  mind  that  supper  of 
the  Lord.  Consider^*  what  words  thy  mouth  hath 
spoken,  words  worthy  of  such  a  table,  what  things 
thy  mouth  hath  touched  and  tasted,  what  meat  it 
has  fed  upon.  Dost  thou  think  it  no  harm  with 
that  mouth  to  speak  evil  of  and  revile  thy  brother  ? 
How  canst  thou  call  him  brother?  If  he  is  not  thy 
brother,  how  couldst  thou  say,  "Our  Father?" 
for  that  implies  more  persons  than  one.     Consider 


with  whom  thou  stoodest  in  the  time  of  the  holy 
mysteries  ;  with  cherubims,  with  seraphims.  But 
the  cherubims  use  no  reviling.  Their  mouth  is 
filled  with  one  ofHce,  glorifying  and  praising  God. 
How  then  canst  thou  say  with  them,  "  Holy,  holy, 
holy,"  who  usest  thy  mouth  to  reviling  ?  Tell  me, 
if  there  were  a  royal  vessel,  always  filled  with  royal 
dainties,  and  set  apart  only  for  this  use ;  and  one 
of  the  servants  should  use  it  to  put  dung  in ;  would 
he  dare  after  that  to  put  it  thus  filled  with  dung 
among  the  other  vessels  appointed  for  royal  use  ? 
No,  certainly.  Yet  this  is  the  very  case  of  raihng 
and  reviling.  You  say  at  the  holy  table,  "  Our  Fa- 
ther," and  then  immediately  add,  "  which  art  in 
heaven."  This  word  raises  you  up,  and  gives  wings 
to  your  soul,  and  shows  that  you  have  a  Father  in 
heaven.  Therefore  do  nothing,  speak  nothing  of 
earthly  things.  He  hath  placed  you  in  the  order  of 
spirits  above,  and  appointed  you  a  station  in  that 
quire.  Why  then  do  you  draw  yourself  down- 
ward ?  You  stand  by  the  royal  throne,  and  do 
you  revile  your  brother  ?  How  are  you  not  afraid, 
lest  the  King  should  take  it  as  an  affront  offered  to 
himself?  If  a  servant  beats  or  reviles  another  in 
our  presence,  who  are  but  his  fellow  servants,  though 
he  does  it  justly,  we  rebuke  him  for  it.  And  dare 
you  stand  before  the  royal  throne,  and  re\^le  your 
brother?  See  you  not  these  holy  vessels?  are  they 
not  always  appropriated  to  one  pecuUar  use  ?  dares 
any  one  put  them  to  any  other  ?  But  you  are  more 
holy  than  these  vessels,  yea,  much  more  holy.  Why 
then  do  you  pollute  and  defile  yourself  ?  You  stand 
in  heaven,  and  do  you  still  use  railing  ?  You  con- 
verse with  angels,  and  do  you  yet  revile  ?  You  are 
admitted  to  the  Lord's  holy  kiss,  and  do  you  yet  re- 
vile ?  God  hath  honoured  and  adorned  your  mouth 
so  many  ways,  by  angelical  hymns,  by  food,  not 
angelical,  but  super-angelical,  by  his  own  kisses, 
and  by  his  own  embraces ;  and  do  you  after  all  these 
revile  ?  Do  not,  I  beseech  you.  Let  that  which  is 
the  cause  of  so  many  evils  be  far  from  the  soul  of  a 
Christian.  With  what  force  and  eloquence  does 
this  holy  writer  here  show  us  the  obligation,  which 
the  reception  of  the  eucharist  lays  upon  men  to  ab- 
stain from  evil-speaking!  But  it  equally  lays  a  re- 
straint upon  all  the  other  members  of  the  body,  and 
operations  of  the  soul,  as  well  as  the  tongue.  Which 
Chrysostom  excellently  deduces  after  this  manner 
in  another  place :  Be  gi'ateful  to  thy  benefactor  by 
an  excellent  conversation ;  ^*  consider  the  greatness 
of  the  sacrifice,  and  let  that  engage  thee  to  adorn 
every  member  of  thy  body.  Consider  what  thou 
takest  in  thy  hand,  and  never  after  endure  to  strike 
any  man :  do  not  disgrace  that  hand  by  the  sin  of 
fighting  and  quarrelling,  which  has  been  honoured 


sspiin.lib.  10.  Ep.  97. 

"  Chi  vs.  Horn.  27.  in  1  Cor.  p.  567. 


58  Ibid.  Horn.  14.  in  Ephes.  p.  1127. 

59  Ibid.  Horn.  21.  ad  Pop.  Antioch.  t.  1.  p.  266. 


(HAP.    IX. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


849 


with  tlie  reception  of  so  great  a  gift.  Consider  what 
tliou  takest  in  thy  liand,  and  keep  thy  hand  free 
from  all  rapines  and  injustice.  Think  again,  how 
thou  not  only  reccivcst  it  in  thy  hand,  but  puttest 
it  to  thy  mouth,  and  keep  thy  tongue  pure  from  all 
filthy  and  contumelious  speech,  from  blasphemy 
and  perjur3%  and  all  words  of  the  like  nature.  For 
il  is  a  most  pernicious  thing,  that  the  tongue,  which 
ministers  in  such  tremendous  mysteries,  and  is  dyed 
with  the  purple  of  such  precious  blood,  and  made  a 
golden  sword,  should  be  put  to  the  vile  practice  of 
railing  and  reviling,  and  scurrilous  and  abusive  lan- 
guage. Regard  with  veneration  the  honour  where- 
with God  has  honoured  it ;  and  do  not  debase  it  to 
such  mean  offices  of  sin.  Consider  again,  that  after 
thy  hand  and  thy  tongue,  thy  heart  receives  that 
tremendous  mystery :  then  never  devise  any  fraud 
or  deceit  against  thy  neighbour,  but  keep  thy  mind 
pure  from  all  malicious  designs.  After  the  same 
manner  guard  thy  eyes  and  thy  ears.  For  is  it  not 
most  absurd,  after  that  mystical  hymn  that  was 
brought  from  heaven  by  the  cherubims,  to  defile 
thy  ears  with  the  songs  of  harlots  and  effeminate 
music  ?  And  what  punishment  can  be  too  great 
for  thee,  if  thou  sufferest  those  eyes,  which  have 
seen  the  unspeakable  and  venerable  mysteries,  to 
wander  gazing  after  harlots,  and  committest  adul- 
tery in  thy  mind  ?  Tertullian,  among  many  other 
arguments  which  he  uses  against  a  Christian's  go- 
ing to  be  a  spectator  at  the  Roman  games,  uses  this 
as  one,  taken  from  the  same  topic  :  What  an  absurd- 
ity is  it  •**  for  a  man  to  go  from  the  church  of  God 
into  the  church  of  the  devil!  Out  of  heaven,  as 
the  saying  is,  into  the  mire !  First  to  lift  up  his 
hands  in  prayer  to  the  Lord,  and  then  to  toss  those 
very  hands  to  weariness  in  the  praise  of  a  stage- 
player  !  To  make  that  month,  which  was  used  to 
say  Amen  at  the  holy  eucharist,  give  testimony  to 
a  gladiator !  To  cry  out,  "  world  without  end,"  to 
others  besides  Christ  his  God!  By  such  familiar 
arguments,  drawn  from  the  nature  of  the  sacrament, 
and  the  inconsistency  of  all  vicious  actions  with  the 
design,  and  circumstances,  and  whole  tendency  of 
it,  did  the  ancients  endeavour  to  possess  men's  minds 
with  the  sense  of  their  duty,  and  their  great  obliga- 
tion to  persevere  in  holiness,  and  glorify  God  both 
in  body  and  spirit  all  their  days.  Which,  as  it  was 
but  their  reasonable  service,  so  it  was  the  only  way 
to  make  this  holy  sacrament  effectual  to  their  sal- 
vation, and  useful  in  their  present  state,  by  keeping 
up  a  perpetual  and  flaming  love  for  Christ,  which 
qualified  them  for  a  frequent  reception,  and  almost 
daily  repetition  of  it ;  which  is  the  last  thing  to  be 
considered  in  this  whole  inquir)\ 


CHAPTER  IX. 

OF     FREQUENT     COMMUNION,    AND     THE    TIMES    OF 
CELEBRATING    IT    IN    THE   ANCIENT   CHURCH. 

It  has  been  showed  before,  in  speak- 
ing against  private  and  solitary  masses,     AU  persons,  ex- 

,  ,  .  .        ccptpcnilenis  under 

that    tllOUgh   it    be  now  the  custom  in    ccr.sure,  anciently 
°  obliged     to    receive 

the  church  of  Rome  for  the  priest  to  ""•■  TOmniunion 

■1  every  Lord  s  day,  by 

receive  the  eucharist  without  any  other  [hurch."""'  "'  "'* 
communicants,  either  clergy  or  laity, 
how  many  soever  be  present  at  the  action,  yet  there 
was  no  such  custom  ever  heard  of  in  the  ancient 
church.  And  though  in  most  other  churches  this 
corruption  be  reformed,  yet  there  remains  a  great 
defect  still  uncorrected,  which  is  the  want  or  neg- 
lect of  frequent  communion.  I  shall  make  no  fur- 
ther inquiry  into  the  causes  of  this  neglect,  whether 
it  proceed  from  a  general  decay  of  Christian  piety, 
or  from  a  want  of  strict  discipline  in  the  church,  but 
only  observe  that  it  is  a  great  declension  from  the 
zeal  and  fervour  of  the  primitive  ages.  For  then,  it 
is  certain,  it  was  both  the  rule  and  practice  for  all 
in  general,  both  clergy  and  laity,  to  receive  the  com- 
munion every  Lord's  day,  except  such  as  were  un- 
qualified for  it  either  as  catechumens  or  penitents, 
who  of  com-se,  for  want  of  a  due  preparation,  were 
obliged  to  abstain  from  it.  Among  the  Apostolical 
Canons  there  are  two  to  this  purpose.  The  first 
says.  If  any  bishop,  presbyter,  or  deacon,  or  any 
other  of  the  clergy,  does  not  communicate,  when  the 
oblation  is  offered,'  let  him  show  cause  why  he  does 
not,  that,  if  it  be  a  reasonable  cause,  he  may  be  ex- 
cused ;  but  if  he  show  no  cause,  let  him  be  excom- 
municated, as  giving  scandal  to  the  people,  and 
raising  suspicion  against  him  that  offers.  And  the 
next  canon  says.  If  any  of  the  faithful  come  to 
church  to  hear  the  Scriptures  read,  and  stay  not  to 
join  in  the  prayers  and  receive  the  communion,  let 
them  be  excommunicated,  as  the  authors  of  disorder 
in  the  church.  The  council  of  Antioch,  which  was 
held  in  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century,  repeats 
this  decree  :  Let  all  those  be  cast  out  of  the  church, 
who"  come  to  hear  the  Scriptures  read  in  the  church, 
but  do  not  communicate  with  the  people  in  prayer, 
or  disorderly  turn  away  from  the  participation  of 
the  eucharist,  till  by  confession  and  fruits  of  re- 
pentance and  intercession  they  have  obtained  par- 
don. These  canons  show,  that  as  often  as  they 
met  together  for  Divine  service  on  the  Lord's  day, 
they  were  obliged  to  receive  the  eucharist,  under 
pain  of  excommunication.     And  all  other  canons 


""Tertul.  de  Spectac.  cap.  25.  Quale  est  de  ecclesia  Dei 
indiaboliecclesiam  tendere  ?  de  ccclo,  ut  ainnt,  in  coenum? 
illas  tnanus  quas  ad  Dominum  extuleris,  postmodum  his- 
trionem  laudundo  fatigare  ?  Ex  ore  quo  Amen  in  sanctum 
3   1 


protuleris,  gladiatori  testimonium  reddere  ?  sis  alwvas  alii 
omniuo  dicere  nisi  Deo  Chiisto?  See  more  such  argu- 
ments in  Cyprian,  Ep.  3G.  al.  .38.  p.  I2n. 

'  Can.  Apost.  can.  9.  -  Cone.  Antioch.  can.  2. 


850 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


which  speak  of  the  order  of  Divine  service,  plainly 
show  that  the  celebration  of  the  eucharist  was 
always  one  inseparable  part  of  it.  The  council  of 
Laodicea,'  as  has  been  often  noted  before,  describes 
the  whole  in  this  order.  First,  after  the  sermon,  the 
prayers  of  the  catechnmens,  and  then  the  prayers 
of  the  penitents,  and  after  their  departure,  the 
prayers  of  the  faithful,  and  then  the  kiss  of  peace, 
and  last  of  all  the  oflPering  of  the  holy  oblation.  And 
all  such  canons  as  forbid  the  penitents  to  be  par- 
takers of  the  eucharist,^  do  plainly  suppose  all  the 
rest  of  the  people  to  be  partakers  of  it.  And  if  any 
man  did  not  partake  of  it,  it  was  an  intimation 
either  that  he  was  doing  penance,  or  at  least  was 
conscious  to  himself  of  some  great  crime,  for  which 
he  ought  to  do  penance ;  for  no  others  were  allowed 
to  abstain  from  the  constant  participation  of  the 
eucharist.  All  they  that  do  not  communicate,  says 
St.  Chrysostom,^  are  penitents ;  if  thou  art  of  the 
number  of  those  who  do  penance,  thou  mayest  not 
partake;  for  whoever  does  not  partake  is  one  of 
that  number.  Wliich  implies,  that  all  were  obliged 
constantly  to  communicate  who  were  not  doing 
penance  publicly  or  privately  for  their  offences. 
And  this  was  so  much  the  practice  of  those  days, 
that  the  council  of  Eliberis*^  orders,  that  they  who 
would  not  communicate  should  not  be  allowed  to 
make  their  oblations.  Which  was  a  sort  of  excom- 
munication of  them ;  for  the  oblations  and  the 
eucharist  commonly  went  together.  The  first  coun- 
cil of  Toledo'  orders  those  who  come  to  church,  but 
neglect  to  communicate,  to  be  admonished ;  and  if 
they  amend  not  upon  admonition,  then  to  be  re- 
duced to  the  state  of  formal  penance  for  their  crime. 
It  were  no  hard  matter  to  show  the  like  prescrip- 
tions in  many  other  councils,'  but  these  are  suf- 
ficient to  show  what  was  the  standing  rule  of  the 
first  ages  as  to  men's  obhgations  to  be  constant  in 
receiving  the  communion  once  a  week  in  their 
solemn  assembly  on  the  Lord's  day. 

And  if  we  run  over  the  whole  his- 
This  showed  to  be  tory  of  the  thrcc  first  ages,  we  shall 

the  constant   prac-  ^ 

tice  for  the  three  flnd  this  to  havc  becu  the  church's 

hrst  ages. 

constant  practice.  Ignatius  exhorts 
the  Ephesians'  to  be  diligent  in  assembling  fre- 
quently to  celebrate  the  eucharist  and  glorify  God. 
For  when  ye  often  meet  together  ye  demolish  the 
power  of  Satan,  and  the  harmony  of  your  faith 
destroys  the  destruction  which  he  meditates  against 


you.  This  frequency  of  communion  may  reasonably 
be  supposed  to  be  then,  according  to  the  known 
practice,  once  a  week,  on  every  Lord's  day.  For 
on  this  day  (as  Pliny,  who  was  contemporary  with 
Ignatius,  informs  us,'"  from  the  testimony  and  con- 
fessions of  some  Christians,  whom  he,  as  proconsul 
of  Bithynia,  examined)  they  were  used  to  meet  be- 
fore it  was  light  by  reason  of  the  persecutions,  and 
then  not  only  sing  hymns  to  Christ  their  God,  but 
also  to  bind  themselves  by  a  sacrament  against  the 
commission  of  all  manner  of  wickedness.  Justin 
Martyr  says"  more  expressly  in  his  Apology  to  the 
emperors,  that  on  the  day  called  Sunday  they  were 
all  used  to  meet  together  both  out  of  city  and 
country,  and  hold  a  religious  assembly  in  this  man- 
ner :  first  a  reader  read  the  writings  of  the  pro- 
phets and  apostles ;  then  the  president  of  the  as- 
sembly made  a  sermon  ;  after  which  they  all  rose  up 
to  common  prayers  ;  and  when  those  were  ended, 
bread  and  wine  were  brought  to  the  president,  who 
consecrated  them  with  prayer  and  thanksgiving,  to 
which  all  the  people  said.  Amen.  Then  all  the 
present  members  participated  of  the  eucharist,  and 
it  was  can-ied  to  the  absent  by  the  deacons.  The 
like  account  is  given  by  Clemens  of  Alexandria, 
when  he  says,'-  that  as  soon  as  the  bread  was 
broken  in  the  celebration  of  the  eucharist,  they 
permitted  every  one  of  the  people  to  take  his  share 
of  it.  And  we  shall  presently  see  more  of  this  cus- 
tom of  communicating  every  Lord's  day  in  the 
writings  of  TertuUian,  and  Cyprian,  and  Eusebius, 
and  many  others,  who  speak  of  other  days  as  well 
as  the  Lord's  day  appropriated  in  some  churches 
to  this  service  :  but  about  these  the  custom  varied; 
for  on  other  days  some  churches  celebrated  the  eu- 
charist, and  others  did  not ;  but  on  the  Lord's  day 
it  was  universally  celebrated  in  all  churches,  and 
never  omitted  by  any  assembly  of  Christians  what- 
soever. Insomuch  that  some"  have  observed  out 
of  Chrysostom,'*  that  Sunday  was  anciently,  among 
other  names,  called  dies  jM'iis,  the  day  of  bread, 
because  the  breaking  of  bread  was  so  general  a 
custom  in  the  church  on  that  day. 

As  to  other  days,  we  may  observe         ^^^^  ^ 
out  of  TertuUian,  that  in  his  time  they  iebTat'er'o*'n"othe; 
not  only  received  the   eucharist   on  Lord's  day  irmany 
Sundays  '*  in  their   morning   assem- 
blies before  day,  but  also  at  other  times  on  other 
days  ;   particularly  on  the  anniversary  festivals  of 


'  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  19  et  49. 

■•  Vid.  Cone.  Nicen.  can.  11  et  1.3.  Cone.  Ancyr.  can.  1, 
.'),  G.   ILoivuivi'iTOxraii  oi'j^a  irpoafjyopa^. 

*  Chrys.  Horn.  3.  in  Ephcs.  p.  1051. 

^  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  28.  Placuit  ah  his  qui  non  communi- 
cant, episcopos  munera  accipere  non  debere. 

'  Cone.  Tolet.  1.  can.  13.  De  his  qui  intrant  in  ecelesiam, 
ct  dcprehenduntur  nunquam  comraunicare,  admoneantur. 
Quod  si  non  communicant,  ad  poenitentiam  accedant. 

*  \'id.  Cone.  Matisc.  2.  can.  4.  Cone.  Antissiod.  can.  39. 


^  Ignat.  Ep.  ad  Ephes.  n.  1.3.  ^irovodX^tTt  irvuvoTipov 
(Tviitn-^Ecrdai  £1?  f.v-)(api(TTiav,  k.t.X. 

'»  Plin.  lib.  10.  Ep.  97. 

"  Justin.  Apol.  2.  p.  97  et  98. 

'-  Clem.  Strom.  1.  p.  318.  Vid.  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  49. 
Innocent.  Ep.  1.  ad  Decent.    Gaudent.  Ser.  2.  de  Pascha. 

'^  See  Bishop  Taylor's  Constant  Commun.  p.  4G2. 

'^  Chrys.  Horn.  5.  de  Resur.  in  edit.  Latinis. 

'^  Tertul.  de  Coron.  Mil.  cap.  3.  Antelucanis  coetibus  eu- 
charistiam  sumimus,  &e. 


Chap.  IX. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


851 


the  martyrs ;  and  the  fifty  days  between  Easter  and 
Pentecost,  which  were  but  one  continued  festival ; 
and  all  their  stationary  days,  that  is,  Wednesdays 
and  Fridays  in  every  week  throughout  the  year. 
These  things  are  not  commonly  observed  by  writers 
on  this  subject,  but  they  add  considerably  to  the 
argument  about  frequent  communion.  Tertullian 
says  expressly  of  these  stationary  days,  that  they 
were  always  observed  with  receiving  the  cucharist. 
For  he  tells  some,  who  objected  against  it  on  these 
days,  that  their  station  would  be  so  much  the  more 
solemn'*  for  their  standing  at  the  altar.  And 
whereas  they  scrupled  to  communicate  because 
they  were  afraid  that  receiving  the  eucharist  would 
be  a  breaking  of  their  fast,  (for  these  were  semi- 
jejunia,  half-fasts,  which  they  observed  till  three 
in  the  afternoon,)  he  takes  away'"  this  scruple  also, 
and  tells  them,  that  receiving  the  eucharist  would 
be  so  far  from  breaking  their  fast,  that  it  would 
the  more  recommend  it  to  God,  and  by  doing  this 
they  would  perfectly  perform  both  duties  together. 
St.  Basil'*  agrees  with  Tertullian  in  making  the 
stationary  days  not  only  fast  days,  but  days  of  com- 
munion. For  reckoning  four  daj^s  in  the  week  on 
which  they  received  the  communion,  he  counts 
Wednesdays  and  Fridays  with  Saturdays  and  Sun- 
days, to  complete  the  number.  And  Socrates" 
notes  it  as  a  peculiar  custom  in  the  church  of  Alex- 
andria, that  though  they  had  religious  assemblies 
on  these  days,  and  all  other  Divine  service  per- 
formed on  them,  yet  they  had  not  the  communion. 
Which  exception  implies,  that  to  receive  the  com- 
munion on  those  days  was  the  general  custom  of 
other  churches. 

Tertullian  as  plainly  intimates  that  they  received 
the  communion  upon  all  the  festivals  of  the  mar- 
tyrs.^ And  the  same  is  noted  by  Cyprian,^'  and 
Chrysostom,"  and  Sidonius  ApoUinaris.-*  The  pas- 
sages have  been  cited  at  large  in  another  place,^* 
and  therefore  I  need  not  here  repeat  them.  Ter- 
tullian says  further,-*  that  the  fifty  days  of  Pen- 
tecost, or  all  the  days  between  Easter  and  Pente- 
cost, were  one  continued  festival.  And  since  all 
festivals  were  communion  days,  we  may  conclude 


that  the  communion  was  celebrated  every  day  dur- 
ing this  interval. 

Saturday  also,  or  the  sabbath,  in  every  week  was 
observed  as  a  religious  festival  in  many  churches. 
And  therefore  on  this  day  likewise  they  generally 
received  the  communion.  This  is  expressly  said 
by  Socrates,^''  and  Cassian,"  and  St.  Basil,^  and 
Timothy  of  Alexandria,-"  and  St.  Austin,''"  and  the 
author  of  the  Apostolical  Constitutions,"  and  the 
council  of  Laodicea."  I  have  already"  produced 
the  several  testimonies  of  these  writers  at  large 
upon  another  occasion,  and  therefore  it  is  sufficient 
here  to  make  a  short  reference  to  them.  By  all 
this  it  appears  undeniably,  that  in  many  churches 
they  had  the  communion  four  times  every  week,  on 
Wednesdays,  Fridays,  Saturdays,  and  Sundays,  be- 
sides incidental  festivals,  which  were  very  frequent, 
for,  as  Chrysostom'*  tells  us,  there  was  scarce  a 
week  passed  in  the  year  but  they  had  one  or  two 
commemorations  of  martyrs. 

But  we  are  assured  further,  that  in 
some  places  they  received  the  com-  And  in  some'iiiaccs 

^  ^  .  every  day. 

munion  every  day.  St.  Austin  says,'^ 
in  some  places  only  on  the  Saturday  and  the  Lord's 
day,  and  in  other  places  only  on  the  Lord's  day. 
For  this  was  left  to  the  liberty  of  every  church; 
but  they  that  communicated  the  seldomest,  did  it 
at  least  every  Lord's  day.  So  again,'"  The  sacrament 
of  his  body,  the  church  and  its  unity,  is  in  some 
places  prepared  and  taken  every  day  at  the  Lord's 
table ;  in  other  places  only  on  certain  days,  with  an 
interval  of  time  between  them.  In  the  greater 
churches  probably  they  had  it  every  day,  in  the 
lesser  only  once  or  twice  a  week.  Carthage  seems  to 
have  been  one  of  those  churches  which  had  it  every 
day''  from  the  time  of  Cyprian.  For  Cyprian,  and 
Austin''  after  him,  speak  of  it  as  the  custom  of  that 
church  to  receive  it  daily,  unless  they  were  under 
some  such  grievous  sin  as  separated  them  from  the 
body  of  Christ,  and  kept  them  as  penitents  from 
communicating.  Therefore  Cyprian  gives  this  as 
one  sense  of  that  petition  in  the  Lord's  prayer, 
"Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread,"  as  if  it  might 
be  understood  in  the  spiritual  sense,  as  well  as  the 


'°  Tertul.  de  Orat.  cap.  14.     Nonne  solennior  erit  statio 
tua,  si  et  ad  aram  Dei  steteris  ? 

"  Ibid.  Ergo  devotum  Deo  obsequium  ciicharistia  resolvit, 
an  magis  Deo  obligat .' 

'9  Basil.  Ep.  289.  ad  Coesaream  Patriciam,  t.  3.  p.  278. 

'!•  Socrat.  lib.  5.  cap.  22.  -"  Tertul.  de  Coroa.  cap.  3. 

2>  Cypr.  Ep.  12.  al.  37.  Ep.  39.  al.  31. 

~  Chiys.  Horn.  59.  de  Martyr,  t.  5.  p.  779. 

23  Sidon.  lib.  5.  Ep.  17. 

"  Book  XIII.  chap.  9.  sect.  5. 

^  Tertul.  de  Coron.  cap.  3.     De  Idololat.  cap.  14. 

2*  Socrat.  lib.  5.  cap.  22.  lib.  G.  cap.  8. 

-'  Cassian.  Instit.  lib.  3.  cap.  2.  -»  Basil.  Ep.  289. 

^  Timoth.  can.  13.  ^  Aug.  Ep.  118. 

*'  Constit.  lib.  2.  cap.  59.  ^-  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  49. 

'^BookXIII.chap.g.  sect.  3. 
3  r  2 


3'  Horn.  40.  in  Juventin.  t.  1.  p.  54G.  Horn.  65.  de  Mar- 
tyr., &c. 

^  Aug.  Ep.  118.  ad  Janiiar.  cap.  2.  Alii  quotidie  com- 
municant corpori  et  sanguini  Dominico,  alii  certis  diebus 
accipiunt:  alibi  nullus  dies  intermittitur  quo  non  offerafur, 
alibi  sabbato  tantuni  et  Dominico:  alibi  tautum  Domi- 
nico, &c. 

'"  Id.  Tract.  26.  in  Joan.  p.  91.  Ilujusrei  sacvaracntum, 
id  est,  uuitatis  corporis  et  sanguinis  Christi  alicubi  quotidie, 
alicubi  certis  intervallis  dicrum  iu  Dominica  niensa  prae- 
paratur  etsumitur.  See  also  Aug.  Ser.  29.  de  Verb.  Dom. 
al.  5.  iu  Appendice.  It.  lib.  2.  de  Serm.  Dom.  in  Monte, 
cap.  7.  t.  4. 

"  Cypr.  de  Orat.  Dom.  p.  147.  Eucharistiam  quotidie 
ad  cibum  salutis  accipimus,  &c. 

^^  Aug.  de  Douo  Perseverautitc,  1.  2.  cap.  4. 


852 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


natural,  as  a  petition  to  be  daily  fed  with  the  flesh 
of  Christ  in  the  eucharist,  which  was  the  bread  of 
life.  In  another  place  '"•  he  exhorts  the  martyrs  to 
prepare  themselves  for  the  fight  of  persecution,  con- 
sidering that  they  therefore  drink  the  cup  of  Christ's 
blood  every  day,  that  they  may  be  able  to  shed 
their  blood  for  Christ.  Therefore,  says  he^  a  httle 
after,  let  us  arm  our  hand  with  that  spiritual  sword, 
that  it,  being  mindful  of  the  eucharist,  (the  Chris- 
tian sacrifice,)  may  valiantly  refuse  those  abominable 
and  deadly  sacrifices  of  the  heathen  ;  let  that  hand, 
which  has  received  the  body  of  the  Lord,  embrace 
the  Lord  himself,  being  afterward  to  receive  the 
reward  of  an  eternal  crown  from  the  Lord  in  heaven. 
To  which  may  be  added  what  he  says  in  another 
place,*'  That  the  priests  who  celebrated  the  daily 
sacrifices  of  God,  did  also  prepare  the  mailyrs  to 
offer  themselves  as  victims  and  oblations  unto  God. 
Where  by  the  daily  sacrifice  he  certainly  means  the 
eucharist,  which  is  often  called  the  daily  sacrifice ^- 
by  the  ancients,  for  the  same  reason  as  the  Lord's 
prayer  is  called  the  daily  prayer,  because  they  were 
both  daily  celebrated  at  the  altar.  St.  Jerom  as- 
sures us*'  it  was  the  custom  at  Rome  for  the  faith- 
ful to  receive  the  body  of  Christ  every  day.  Which 
he  neither  absolutely  commends,  nor  disallows,  but 
leaves  every  man  to  abound  in  his  own  sense,  only 
requiring  men  to  receive  it  with  due  preparation. 
In  another  place"  he  says,  it  was  not  only  the  cus- 
tom at  Rome,  but  of  the  Spanish  church,  to  com- 
municate every  day.  And  to  one  who  proposed  the 
question  to  him  as  a  case  of  conscience,  Whether 
he  ought  to  communicate  every  day  ?  he  gives  this 
answer,  That  the  customs  and  traditions  of  every 
church,  which  did  not  prejudice  the  faith,  were  to  be 
observed  in  such  manner  as  they  were  handed  down 
by  their  forefathers  ;  and  the  custom  of  one  church 
was  not  to  prescribe  to  or  overthrow  the  contrary 
custom  of  another.  And  he  wishes  that  all  men 
might  receive  the  eucharist  every  day,  provided 
they  might  do  it  without  condemnation  and  pricks 
of  conscience  for  imworthy  receiving.  Which  is 
the  same  resolution  as  St.  Austin  gave  in  the  ques- 
tion :  for  having  stated  the  arguments  on  both 
sides,  for  and  against  daily  receiving ;  the  one 
j)leading,  that  men  ought  to  abstain  for  a  few  days, 
that  they  might  prepare  to  receive  more  worthily 


when  they  came  to  it ;  and  the  other  arguing,  that 
unless  their  sins  were  such  as  deserved  excommu- 
nication, and  the  cure  of  a  more  solemn  repent- 
ance, they  ought  not  to  separate  themselves  from 
the  daily  medicine  of  Christ's  body ;  he  divides 
the  matter  between  them,  determining  that  each 
party  might  act  according  as  their  own  judgment 
and  faith  in  this  case  piously  directed  them.  For 
neither  of  them''^  intended  to  dishonour  the  body 
and  blood  of  the  Lord,  whilst  they  strove  earnestly 
who  should  do  the  greatest  honour  to  the  holy  sa- 
crament of  their  salvation.  In  like  manner  as  Zac- 
chseus  and  the  centurion  were  at  no  variance  be- 
tween themselves,  neither  did  the  one  prefer  himself 
before  the  other,  when  the  one  received  the  Lord 
into  his  house  rejoicing,  and  the  other  said,  "  Lord, 
I  am  not  worthy  that  thou  shouldst  come  under  my 
roof:"  for  they  both  really  honoured  their  Saviour, 
though  in  a  different,  and,  as  it  were,  in  a  contrary 
way,  being  both  miserable  in  their  sins,  and  both 
alike  obtaining  mercy.  So  it  is  with  pious  Chiis- 
tians  in  this  case  ;  the  one  out  of  honour  dares  not 
receive  the  sacrament  every  day,  and  the  other  out 
of  honour  dares  not  let  any  day  pass  without  receiv- 
ing it.  This  was  a  holy  strife  indeed,  and  we  see 
the  dispute  was  not,  whether  they  should  receive  it 
only  once  or  twice  a  year,  but  whether  they  should 
receive  it  once  or  twice  a  week,  or  rather,  every  day. 
We  have  heard  Gennadius  say  before,*"  that  he 
neither  praises  nor  dispraises  receiving  the  eucha- 
rist every  day,  but  he  persuades  and  exhorts  all  to 
receive  it  every  Lord's  day,  if  their  minds  be 
pure  from  affections  to  sin.  St.  Ambrose  was 
more  peremptory  in  his  advice  to  receive  it  every 
day.  If  it  be  our  daily  bread,"  says  he,  why  dost 
thou  receive  it  once  a  year  only,  as  the  Greeks 
are  used  to  do  in  the  East  ?  Receive  that  daily, 
which  is  for  thy  daily  advantage  ;  and  so  live,  that 
thou  mayest  deserve  daily  to  receive  it.  He  that 
docs  not  deserve  to  receive  it  every  day,  does  not 
deserve  to  receive  it  after  a  year.  Again,**  I  ought 
always  to  receive  that  which  is  shed  for  the  remis- 
sion of  sins,  that  my  sins  may  always  be  forgiven 
me  :  I  that  am  always  sinning,  ought  always  to  have 
my  medicine  at  hand,  as  he  that  has  a  wound  seeks 
without  delay  for  a  cure.  St.  Ambrose  here  is  very 
plain,  that  the  communion  was  administered  daily 


39  Cypr.  Ep.  30.  al.  38.  ad  Thibaritanos,  p.  120.  Con- 
sideraulps  idcircci  sp  qiioticlie  calicem  sanguinis  Christi  bi- 
bere.  \it  possint  et  ipsi  propter  Christum  sanguinem  fundere. 

■"'  Ibid.  p.  rZ").  Armemus  de.xteram  gladio  spiritali,  &c. 

*'  Cypr.  Ep.  .")4.  al.  57.  ad  Cornel,  p.  118.  Sacerdotes  qui 
sacrificia  Dei  quotidic  celebramus,  hostias  Deo  et  victimas 
prseparemus. 

*'-  So  Chrys.  Horn.  3.  in  Ephes.  p.  lO.'il.  QuaLa  xadii- 
yufptpi";,  Kccd'  iiidaTTii',  k.t.X. 

*^  Hieron.  Ep.  50. ad  Pammachium.  cont.  Jovin.  cap.  6. 
Scio  Roma;  banc  esse  consuetudinem,  ut  fideles  semper 
Christi  corpus  uccipiant :  quod  nee  repreheudo  nee  probo. 


Unusquisque  enim  in  suo  sensu  abuudat. 

""Ep.  28.  ad  Lucinium  Bocticum.  De  eucharistia  quod 
q\ioeris,  an  accipienda  quotidie,  quod  Romauee  ecclesia;  et 
Hispania;  observare  perhibentur,  &c. 

■"^  Aug.  Ep.  118.  ad  .lanuar.  cap.  3. 

■""'  Gennad.  de  Dogmat.  Eccles.  cap.  53.  See  the  last 
cliajjtcr,  sect.  3. 

*'  Ainbros.  de  Sacram.  lib.  5.  cap.  4.  Si  quotidianus  est 
panis,  cur  post  annum  ilium  sumis,  quemadmodum  Groeci 
m  Orieute  facerc  consueverunt  ?  &c. 

**  Id.  lib.  4.  c.  G.  Qui  semper  pecco,  semper  dobco  ha- 
bere mediciuaur,  &c.  f 


!   Chap.  IX. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


853 


in  the  Western  church,  but  he  seems  to  reflect  upon 
the  Greek  church,  as  if  they  had  left  oil'  that  cus- 
tom. But  he  is  to  be  interpreted  by  St.  Austin,^"* 
who  speaks  the  same  thing,  but  does  not  charge  the 
whole  Greek  church,  nor  any  part  of  it,  with  this  in- 
novation, but  only  some  particular  men  in  some 
parts,  who  did  not  think  themselves  under  any  obli- 
gation to  receive  it  daily.  And  indeed  it  appears 
from  St.  Chrysostom  and  others,  that  about  this 
time  many  began  scandalously  to  neglect  frequent 
communion,  and  contented  themselves  to  receive 
once  or  twice  a  year  upon  some  solemn  festival. 
But  the  church  was  far  from  encouraging  this  con- 
tempt :  for  she  kept  still  to  the  custom  of  daily  com- 
munion in  many  places,  and  in  all  places  to  the 
celebration  of  it  on  Saturday  and  the  Lord's  day, 
and  in  many  places  on  Wednesdays  and  Fridays 
also;  and  they  that  were  piously  disposed,  were 
constant  communicants  at  these  times ;  and  they 
that  were  negligent  and  profane,  were  earnestly  in- 
vited to  be  more  frequent  in  communicating,  and 
there  are  many  severe  invectives  against  their  re- 
missness. Eusebius^says  expressly,  that  they  cele- 
brated the  memorial  of  Christ's  body  and  blood, 
oarjtitpai,  every  day.  And  it  appears  from  the  council 
of  Laodicea,'*'  that  they  had  it  twice  in  the  week,  on 
Saturdays  and  Snndays,  in  Lent,  and  at  all  other 
times  of  the  year  more  frequently.  St.  BasiP^  speaks 
of  four  days  in  the  week  on  which  it  was  usual  to 
receive  the  communion,  besides  incidental  festivals 
of  martyrs.  And  he  commends  it  as  good  and  useful 
to  communicate  and  participate  of  the  holy  body  and 
blood  of  Christ  every  day,  koO'  iKa<jrt]v  j/juepav.  Palla- 
dius  tells  us^''  how  Macarius  advised  a  woman  that 
had  been  under  the  power  of  enchantment,  never  to 
omit  receiving  the  communion ;  telling  her,  that 
that  judgment  had  befallen  her  because  that  for  five 

1  weeks  she  had  neglected  to  partake  of  the  holy  mys- 
teries. But  none  is  more  express  in  this  matter,  nor 
more  vehement  against  the  neglect  of  frequent  com- 
munion, than  St.  Chrysostom.  He  tells  us  sometimes 
that  they  had  communions  every  day  for  those  that 
were  more  devoutly  disposed;  sometimes  on  the  three 
more  solemn  days  in  the  week,  Fridays,  Saturdays, 
and  Sundays,  on  which  days  the  whole  church  was 
expected ;  though  for  all  this  many  came  not  above 
once  a  year.  In  vain,  says  he,**  is  the  daily  sa- 
crifice, KaOtJuepivTj  Srvaia,  in  vain  do  we  stand  at  the 
altar;  there  is  none  to  participate.  He  speaks  this 
against  those  who  came  but  once  a  year,  out  of  mere 
custom,  at  some  solemn  festival,  whilst  in  the  mean 


lime  the  saci'itice  was  daily  oflered,  though  they  re- 
fused to  i)artake  of  it.  In  another  place,  discoursing 
of  the  difference  between  the  Jewish  and  Christian 
passover,"  he  says,  The  Jewish  passover  comes  but 
once  a  year,  but  the  Christian  passover  is  celebrated 
in  every  s>/>utxis  or  assembly.  And  a  little  after. 
Lent  comes  but  once  a  year,  but  the  passover  is 
celebrated  three  times  a  week,  and  sometimes  four, 
or  as  often  as  we  please.  Again,  This  is  what  de- 
stroys*^ all  religion,  that  men  measure  their  worthi- 
ness not  by  the  purity  of  their  souls,  but  by  the 
length  of  time,  and  take  this  for  piety  and  reverence, 
that  they  come  not  fre([uently  to  the  Lord's  table ; 
not  considering,  that  if  they  come  unworthily,  though 
it  be  but  once  a  year,  they  are  worthy  of  piniish- 
ment.  It  is  not  boldness  to  come  frequently,  but  to 
come  unworthily,  though  a  man  do  it  but  once  in 
all  his  life.  But  we  are  so  stupid  and  insensible  as 
to  think,  that  when  we  have  wallowed  in  sin  all  the 
year  without  any  care  to  repent,  it  is  sufficient  that 
we  have  not  daily  presumed  in  a  contumelious  man- 
ner to  touch  the  body  of  Christ;  not  considering, 
that  the  Jews,  who  crucified  Christ,  did  it  but  once. 
But  was  their  sin  ever  the  less  for  that  ?  And  Judas 
betrayed  him  but  once.  But  did  that  excuse  him  ? 
Why,  therefore,  do  we  measure  this  matter  by  time 
only  ?  Let  the  seasonable  time  of  our  coming  be- 
a  pure  conscience.  The  communion  is  the  same 
now  as  it  is  at  Easter,  there  is  the  same  grace  of  the 
Spirit,  it  is  the  passover  every  day.  The  same  sacri- 
fice is  offered  on  Fridays,  and  Saturdays,  and  Sun- 
days, and  the  festivals  of  the  martyrs.  It  is  plain, 
by  all  this,  that  the  communion  was  celebrated 
ordinarily  thi'ee  or  four  times  a  week,  if  not  every 
day ;  though  some  were  so  vain  as  to  think  they 
were  the  more  respectful  to  it,  in  not  coming  above 
once  a  year,  out  of  a  pretended  reverence  for  it; 
who  yet,  when  they  did  come,  came  only  to  eat  it  to 
their  condemnation,  for  want  of  a  mind  duly  pre- 
pared to  receive  it.  Whom  he  thus  reflects  upon  in 
another  place :  Many  partake  of  this  sacrifice  only 
once  a  year,  others  twice,  and  others  frequently. 
Which  of  these  are  the  most  acceptable  ?  They 
only  who  do  it  with  a  pure  conscience,  with  a  pure 
heart,  with  a  life  unblamable.  With  this  qualifica- 
tion come  always ;"  without  it  come  not  so  much  as 
once.  For  they  that  do  so,  take  only  judgment, 
condemnation,  and  punishment  to  themselves.  This 
he  repeats  over  and  over  again  in  his  homilies.  He 
that  is  conscious  to  himself  of  no  crime,  ought  to 
come  to  the  Lord's  table :  but  if  men  are  laden  with 


*'  Aug.  de  Sermone  Dom.  in  Monte,  lib.  2.  cap.  7.  t.  4. 
Pluiimi  in  Orientalibus  partibus  non  quotidie  ccriiuj  Domi- 
nicae  communicant,  cum  iste  pauis  quotidianus  dicuis  sit. 

*"  Euseb.  Demonstr.  Evangel,  lib.  1.  cap.  lU.  p.  37. 

^'  Cone.  Laodicen.  can.  40. 

*2  Basil.  Ep.  269.  ad  Ca;saream. 

s'Pallad.   Hist.  Lausiac.  cap.  19.  Bibl.  Patr.  Gr.  Lat.  t. 


2.  p.  d-o.  Sec  also  Cassian.  CoUat.  7.  cap.  30,  where  he 
speaks  of  daily  communion. 

^^  Chiys.  Horn.  3.  in  Eph.  p.  1051. 

"  Horn.  52.  in  cos  qui  Pascha  jejunaut,  t.  5.  p.  7(.'i> 
et  709. 

^"  Honi.  5.  in  1  Tim.  p.  1540. 

^'  Horn.  17.  iu  Hcbr.  p.  Ib72. 


854 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV. 


sin,  and  do  not  repent,^'  it  is  not  safe  for  them  to 
come  even  once  upon  a  festival.  The  Jews  have 
their  annual  memorials  of  God's  benefits  on  their 
festivals,  but  thou  who  art  a  Christian  hast  a  daily 
memorial,^'  as  I  may  say,  in  these  holy  mysteries. 
The  best  preserver  of  kindnesses  is  the  remem- 
brance of  them,  and  perpetual  thanksgiving  for 
them.  Therefore,  those  venerable  and  salutary  mys- 
teries, which  we  celebrate  every  day  in  our  assem- 
blies,'" are  called  the  eucharist,  or  thanksgiving ;  be- 
cause they  are  the  memorial  of  God's  kindness  to 
us.  It  were  easy  to  collect  abundance  more  such 
passages  out  of  this  ancient  writer,  but  I  will  only 
add  one  place  more,  where  he  thus  sharply  taxes 
the  people's  negligence  of  frequent  communion  :  I 
often  observe,  says  he,  a  great  multitude  flock  to- 
gether" to  hear  the  sermon,  but  when  the  time  of 
the  holy  mysteries  comes,  I  can  see  few  or  none  of 
them :  which  makes  me  sigh  from  the  bottom  of  my 
heart,  that  when  I,  your  fellow  servant,  am  dis- 
coursing to  you,  you  are  ready  to  tread  upon  one 
another  for  earnestness  to  hear,  and  continue  very 
attentive  to  the  end ;  but  when  Christ,  our  common 
Lord  and  Master,  is  ready  to  appear  in  the  holy 
mysteries,  the  church  is  in  a  manner  empty  and 
deserted.  What  pardon  or  excuse  can  be  allowed 
for  this  ?  By  this  neglect  you  lose  all  the  praise 
that  is  due  to  your  diligence  in  hearing.  If  you  had 
laid  up  in  your  hearts  what  I  preach  to  you,  it 
would  retain  you  in  the  church,  and  prompt  you  to 
receive  the  holy  mysteries  with  piety  and  venera- 
tion :  but  now,  as  if  you  were  hearing  one  play 
upon  an  instrument,  the  preacher  has  no  sooner 
done,  but  ye  are  all  gone  out  of  the  church.  This, 
I  confess,  proves  that  in  Chrysostom's  days  there 
was  a  great  abatement  of  the  primitive  zeal,  and  a 
great  declension  from  the  original  practice ;  but  still 
it  is  evident  that  frequent  and  daily  communions 
were  in  some  measure  kept  up  by  the  clergy  and 
devouter  sort  of  laity,  who  constantly  frequented 
them,  though  many  careless  Christians  had  no  other 
regard  to  them,  but  only  to  come  formally  once  or 
twice  a  year,  and  that  with  superstition  enough  in- 
stead of  religion,  at  some  of  the  solemn  festivals. 

Sects.  When  matters  were  come  to  this 

to^'^setfied 'to  three  degeneracy,  some  councils,  instead  of 
times  in  the  year,      j-gyiving  the  ancicnt  disciphne,  and 


quickening  men  by  just  censures  to  frequent  com- 
munion, contented  themselves  to  oblige  the  laity  to 
receive  three  times  a  year,  at  the  three  great  festi- 
vals, Christmas,  Easter,  and  Pentecost,  under  the 
penalty  of  not  being  reputed  catholic  Christians,  if 
they  neglected  to  communicate  at  those  three  noted 
seasons.  Thus  it  was  first  determined  in  the  council 
of  Agde  •*-  about  the  year  506.  And  so  things  con- 
tinued to  the  time  of  Charles  the  Great,  when  the 
third  council  of  Tours  ®  made  a  decree  to  the  like 
purpose,  anno  813 :  That  all  laymen,  who  were  not 
under  the  impediment  of  greater  sins,  should  re- 
ceive three  times  a  year  at  least,  if  not  more  fre- 
quently. And  yet  the  clergy  continued  to  commu- 
nicate frequently  with  some  of  the  devouter  laity 
every  Lord's  day,  as  appears  from  the  writers  of 
that  age,  particularly  Rabanus  Maurus,^*  and  Ber- 
tram," who  says  the  sacrament  was  administered 
not  only  at  the  Paschal  solemnity  every  year,  but  on 
every  day  throughout  the  year,  when  as  yet  the 
corruption  of  private  and  solitary  mass  did  not  pre- 
vail, W'hich  came  not  in  till  some  ages  after.  And 
it  is  remarkable,  that  even  in  this  age  the  council 
of  Aix  la  Chapelle  ^®  made  some  attempt  to  restore 
the  ancient  practice  to  its  primitive  lustre,  by  re- 
viving the  decree  of  the  council  of  Antioch,  which 
orders  all  such  as  come  to  church  to  hear  the  Scrip- 
tures, but  refuse  to  receive  the  holy  communion,  to 
be  cast  out  of  the  church,  till  they  should  amend 
their  fault  by  confession  and  repentance. 

But  the  disease  was  grown  too  epi-  g^^^  g 
demical  and  inveterate  to  be  easily  onl"'!  fearby^i.e 
corrected;  and  therefore  in  a  degene-  ^""""'"f'^-teVan. 
rate  age  the  corruption  went  on  and  increased, 
and  the  council  of  Lateran  under  Innocent  III. 
added  strength  and  confirmation  to  it ;  reducing  the 
obligation  to  communicate  still  within  narrower 
bounds.  For  whereas  before  all  men  were  obliged 
to  communicate  at  least  three  times  a  year,  this 
council  made  it  necessary  to  do  it  no  more  than 
once,  at  Easter,  when  every  man  and  woman  that 
was  come  to  years  of  discretion,  was  bound  to  make 
auricular  confession  of  all  his  sins  to  his  own  priest, 
and  receive  the  communion,"'  unless  the  priest  ad- 
vised that  for  some  reasonable  cause  he  should  ab- 
stain from  it.  This  rule  was  afterward  taken  into 
the  body  of  their  canon  law.**    And  here  we  may 


58  Chrys.  Horn.  31.  <le  Philogon.  t.  1.  p.  403. 

^'>  Horn.  51.  in  Mat.  p.  455. 

'■>'  Horn.  26.  in  Mat.  p.  259. 

"'  Horn.  3.  de  Incomprehensibili,  t.  1.  p.  .362. 

^  Cone.  Agathen.  can.  18.  Seculares,  qui  in  natali  Do- 
mini, Pascha,  et  Pentecoste,  non  communicaverint,  catho- 
lici  non  cretlantur,  nee  inter  catholicos  habeantur. 

•^  Cone.  Turon.  3.  can.  50.  Ut  si  non  frequentius,  vel 
ter  laici  homines  in  anno  communicent,  nisi  forte  quis  ma- 
joribus  criminibus  impcdiatur. 

"*  Raban.  de  Propriet.  Sermonis,  lib.  1.  cap.  10.  It.  de 
Instit.  Cleric,  lib.  I.  cap.  31. 


^  Bertram,  de  Corp.  et  Sanguine  Dom.  in  Prsefat.  Sacra- 

menta non  solum  per  omnes  Paschae  solennitates  cele- 

brantur  singulis  annis,  verum  singulis  in  anno  diebus. 

"•^  Cone.  Aquisgran.  cap.  70.  ex  Cone.  Antioch.  can.  2. 

•='  Cone.  Lateran.  4.  can.  21.  Omnis  utriusque  sexus 
fidelis,  postquam  ad  annos  discretionis  pervenerit,  omnia 
sua  solus  peccata  confiteatur  fideliter  saltem  semel  in  anno 
proprio  sacerdoti,  et  injunctam  sibi  poenitentiam  studeat  pro 
viribus  adimplere,  suscipiensreverenter  ad  minus  in  Pascha 
eucharistiffi  sacramentum,  &c. 

•»  Decretal.  Gregor.  lib.  5.  Tit.  38.  de  Pcenitent.  et  Re- 
mission, cap.  12. 


Chap.  IX. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


855 


date  the  utter  ruin  of  the  ancient  and  apostolical 
practice  of  frequent  and  general  communions.  For 
from  this  time  people  began  to  think  themselves 
discharged  of  the  duty  of  frequent  communicating, 
and  contented  themselves  with  receiving  once  a 
year  at  Easter,  leaving  their  priests  to  communicate 
alone ;  which  quickly  was  attended  with  another 
corruption,  of  private  and  solitary  masses,  which 
usurped  the  room  of  the  ancient  general  commu- 
nions of  the  whole  church  one  with  another,  and 
made  the  ancient  prayers  a  perfect  heap  and  mass 
of  absurdities,  whilst  they  prayed  and  gave  thanks 
to  God  for  the  whole  congregation  as  communicants, 
when  there  was  not  so  much  as  one  communicant 
properly  speaking  among  them,  but  all  mere  spec- 
tators of  the  priest  pretending  to  act  in  the  name  of 
the  whole  church,  and  communicate  in  pageantry 
without  any  real  communion.  This  was  the  ge- 
neral state  of  the  Romish  service  at  the  time  of  the 
Reformation,  except  in  some  few  collegiate  churches, 
where,  if  Bona^'  say  true,  the  clerg)'^  continued  to 
communicate  with  the  officiating  priest,  according 
to  ancient  custom,  without  which,  he  confesses,  it 
is  hard  to  make  intelligible  sense  of  many  of  their 
prayers  that  are  daily  used  in  their  service. 

Some  attempt  was  made  by  the  first 
formers  to  rectify  these  abuses,  and 
msat"ti,e  Tcstote  frcqucnt  aud  general  commu- 
nions  m  many  places.  And  they 
happily  carried  their  point  so  far,  as  to  abolish  pri- 
vate masses  in  all  places  :  but  the  restoring  the  an- 
cient way  of  the  whole  church's  communicating 
every  Lord's  day,  was  a  matter  not  so  easy  to  be 
effected;  partly  by  reason  of  the  prejudices  which 
men  had  imbibed  by  the  prevalency  and  long  dura- 
tion of  contrary  custom ;  and  partly  by  reason  of 
that  affection  which  men  retain  for  their  vices, 
which  will  not  suffer  them  to  comply  with  an  insti- 
tution, that  requires  a  constant  purity  of  soul,  and 
a  conscience  always  void  of  offence,  to  qualify  them 
for  a  W' orthy  reception  of  a  weekly  or  daily  commu- 
nion. Calvin  laboured  hard,  at  his  first  coming  to 
Geneva,  to  establish  a  monthly  or  a  weekly  commu- 
nion, as  most  agreeable  to  the  practice  of  the  apos- 
tles and  the  primitive  church  :  he  pleads  earnestly 
for  it  in  his  Institutions,'"  where  he  censures  the 
popish  custom  of  communicating  only  once  a  year, 
as  most  certainly  the  invention  of  the  devil :  yet, 
after  all,  he  could  not  prevail  to  have  so  much  as  a 
monthly  communion  settled  among  the  people,  but 
was  overborne  in  his  endeavours,  and  forced  to  yield 
to  a  rule,  which  requires  the  people  to  communicate 
only  four  times  a  year.  However,  he  says,  he  took 
care  to  have  it  entered"  upon  record,  that  this  was 


an  evil  custom,  to  the  intent  that  posterity  might 
with  more  ease  and  liberty  correct  it.  But  whether 
it  ever  was  corrected  to  this  day,  is  what  I  am 
ignorant  of:  most  probably  it  never  was,  since  I 
have  had  occasion  to  show  in  another  work,"  com- 
municating only  four  times  a  year  continued  to  be 
the  general,  standing  custom  in  the  French  church. 
Their  discipline  required  no  more,  though  they  en- 
couraged more  frequent  reception.  The  church  of 
England  Avas  a  little  happier  in  her  attempts  of  this 
kind.  For  though  her  rules  require  the  people  in 
general  to  receive  but  three  times  a  year,  as  of  neces- 
sary ecclesiastical  obligation ;  yet  in  our  cathedral 
churches  the  eucharist  is  ordinarily  celebrated  every 
Lord's  day ;  as  it  is  also  in  some  of  the  London  parish, 
churches ;  and  others,  both  in  city  and  country, 
have  monthly  communions.  Yet  there  remains  a 
great  deal  still  to  be  done,  to  bring  this  matter  to 
the  primitive  standard.  For  even  in  our  cathedrals 
the  communions  are  very  thin,  and  there  is  still 
room  for  those  complaints  of  St.  Chrysostom,In  vain 
do  we  stand  at  the  altar,  in  vain  is  the  daily  sacri- 
fice offered ;  there  are  none,  in  a  manner,  that  com- 
municate. The  churches  are  crowded  to  hear  the 
sermon,  but  when  the  time  of  the  holy  mysteries 
comes,  they  are  empty  and  deserted.  Men  are  earnest 
to  hear  their  fellow  servant  preach  an  eloquent 
discourse,  but  when  Christ,  the  common  Lord  and 
Master  of  all,  is  ready  to  appear  and  entertain  them, 
they  fly,  though  never  so  kindly  invited,  from  his 
table.  This  must  needs  grieve  the  hearts  of  all 
pious  servants  of  Christ  who  stand  there  to  minis- 
ter in  his  name,  whilst  few  hearken  to  their  admo- 
nitions, and  the  generality  excuse  themselves  from 
communicating  as  if  it  were  no  Christian  duty. 
And  in  country  parishes  the  matter  is  still  more 
deplorable,  where  the  despair  of  success  deters  the 
minister  from  attempting  it.  For  here  men  are 
generally  so  averse  to  a  weekly  communion,  that 
they  will  not  be  prevailed  upon,  with  all  the  serious 
exhortations  that  can  be  used,  to  comply  with  the 
standing  rules  of  the  church,  w'hich  oblige  them  ta 
communicate  three  times  a  year,  though  the  minis- 
ter himself  be  under  an  obligation  to  present  every 
such  non-communicant  as  a  notorious  delinquent. 
But  "  if  the  foundations  be  cast  down,  what  can  the 
righteous  do  ?  "  Experience  tells  us,  it  is  as  much 
labour  in  vain  to  present  a  negligent  people  for  not 
communicating  three  times  a  year,  as  it  is  gravely 
to  exhort  them  to  a  weekly  communion.  This  dis- 
couragement which  ministers  commonly  meet  with 
in  trying  to  bring  men  to  comply  with  the  stated 
rules  of  communicating  three  times  a  year  by  church 
censures,  which  are  wholly  neglected,  makes  them 


®  Bona,  Rer.  Litiirg.  lib.  2.  cap.  17.  n.  2.  Sine  quo  vix 
possunt  iutelligi,  quas  in  liturgicis,  oratiunibus  quotidie  re- 
citantur. 

™  Calvin.  Instit.  lib.  4.  cap.  17.  u.  4G. 


^'  Calvin.  Respons.  de  quibusdam  Eccles.  Ritibus,  p. 
20R. 

'-  Freneli  Church's  Apology  for  tlie  Chuich  of  England, 
book  3.  chap.  1 1. 


856 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV, 


Sect,  a 
■Whi 
still   deficient, 
wliat  seems  yet 
cessary  to  be  done  ir 
order  to  reduce  com' 
munion  to  the  pri- 
mitive standard. 


despair  of  going  any  higher  towards  the  perfection 
of  the  primitive  practice ;  since  they  who  cannot 
be  prevailed  upon  by  the  present  discipHne  to  com- 
municate three  times  a  year,  are  too  obstinate  and 
stubborn  to  hearken  to  any  the  most  serious  admo- 
nitions that  can  be  used  to  incline  them  to  a  weekly 
communion. 

What  effectual  remedy  can  be  ap- 
lt\nd  plied  to  this  inveterate  disease,  is  not 
very  easy  to  determine.  Yet  certainly 
the  regaining  of  that  which  was  so 
much  the  glory  of  the  primitive  church, 
and  the  great  support  of  Christian  innocence  and 
piety,  (as  frequent  weekly  communion  most  cer- 
tainly was,)  must  be  a  thing  worthy  the  most  serious 
thoughts  and  consideration  of  all  those,  into  whose 
hands  God  has  put  power  and  authority  by  a  supe- 
rior influence  to  redress  abuses,  when  they  can 
safely  do  it  to  edification,  and  not  to  destruction. 
If  I  were  worthy  to  give  any  advice  in  the  case,  it 
should  be  this,  first  to  restore  the  practice  of  the  true 
ancient  discipline,  and  after  that  the  way  would  lie 
open  to  revive  the  practice  of  the  true  primitive 
way  of  communicating  weekly,  every  Lord's  day. 
But  it  will  be  said,  there  lies  an  insuperable  difficulty 


against  the  restoration  of  the  ancient  discipline  in 
the  present  posture  of  affairs  ;  the  state  of  the  pre- 
sent times,  and  the  general  corruption  of  men's 
morals,  will  not  admit  of  it :  the  church  of  England 
has  for  two  hundred  years  wished  for  the  restoration 
of  this  discipline,  and  yet  it  is  but  an  ineffective 
wish;  for  nothing  is  done  towards  introducing  it, 
but  rather  things  are  gone  backward,  and  there  is 
less  discipline  for  this  last  sixty  years,  since  the 
times  of  the  unhappy  confusions,  than  there  was 
before.  To  which  it  may  be  answered,  that  the 
difficulty  is  certainly  great,  but  not  insuperable; 
for  disciphne  is  one  of  God's  ordinances  in  his 
church,  and  he  appoints  nothing  but  what  is  prac- 
ticable in  itself,  if  men  be  not  wanting  on  their 
part  to  contribute  toward  the  exercise  of  it.  But  to 
give  rules  in  this  case  is  a  nice  and  tender  point, 
and  I  had  rather  it  should  be  done  by  the  wisdom 
of  others  than  myself.  Something  has  already  been 
suggested  by  a  late  learned  writer"  on  this  subject, 
very  useful  for  obtaining  the  end  now  proposed; 
and,  therefore,  I  shall  content  myself  at  present  to 
refer  to  his  suggestions,  and  put  an  end  to  this 
discourse. 


"  Penitential  Discipline  of  the  Primitive  Church,  chap.       4.   London.  1711. 


'^: 


BOOK   XVI. 

OF  THE  UNITY  AND  DISCIPLINE  OF  THE  ANCIENT  CHUKCII. 


CHAPTER  I. 


OF    THE    UNION    AND    COMMTJNION    OBSERVED    IN    THE   ANCIENT    CHURCH. 


The  design  of  ecclesiastical  discipline 
oftiie  fuiidimen-  being  chiefly  to  preserve  the  unity  of 

tal  unitv  of  liiilh  and  O  J  1  J 

obedienVe  to  the      the  church  in  all  necessary  things, 

laws  ol  Clinst.  •'  "    ' 

and  keep  it  in  purity,  and  free  from 
corruption,  by  turning  out  unworthy  members  from 
her  society  and  communion,  and  denying  them  all 
the  privileges  that  belong  to  it;  nothing  will  be 
more  proper  to  usher  in  a  discourse  concerning  the 
discipline  of  the  ancient  church,  than  first  to  give 
a  preliminary  account  of  that  union  and  commu- 
nion, which  she  laboured  to  preserve  in  all  her 
members,  united  in  one  mystical  body,  under  Christ, 
her  universal  Head.  And  here,  first  of  all,  the  unity 
of  faith  was  principally  insisted  on,  as  the  founda- 
tion on  which  all  other  sorts  of  Christian  unity  were 
built :  and  next  to  this,  they  required  the  unity  of 
holiness  or  obedience,  that  the  church  might  be  one 
in  observing  all  the  laws  and  institutions  of  Christ. 
Some  reckon  the  first  sort  of  unity  fundamental 
and  essential '  to  the  very  being  of  the  church,  and 
all  others  only  necessary  to  the  well-being  of  it. 
But  I  conceive  the  ancients^  accounted  both  the 
unity  of  faith  and  obedience  necessary  as  funda- 
mentals to  the  very  being  of  the  church,  being  both 
joined  together  by  our  Saviour,  as  the  rock  on  which 
his  church  should  be  built.  For,  as  he  says  of  faith, 
"  Upon  this  rock  will  I  build  my  church,  and  the 
gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it,"  Matt.  xvi. 
18;  so  he  says  of  obedience  to  his  laws,  "Whoso- 
ever heareth  these  sayings  of  mine,  and  doeth  them, 
I  will  liken  him  to  a  wise  man,  which  built  his 
house  upon  a  rock :  and  the  rain  descended,  and  the 
floods  came,  and  the  winds  blew,  and  beat  upon 
that  house  ;  and  it  fell  not:  for  it  was  founded  upon 
a  rock.  But  every  one  that  heareth  these  sayings 
of  mine,  and  doeth  them  not,  shall  be  likened  unto 
a  foolish  man,  which  built  his  house  upon  the  sand : 


and  the  rain  descended,  and  the  floods  came,  and 
the  winds  blew,  and  beat  upon  that  house ;  and  it 
fell :  and  great  was  the  fall  of  it,"  Matt.  vii.  24 — "2!J. 
St.  Luke,  in  relating  the  same  passage,  words  it  thus : 
"  He  that  heareth,  and  doeth  not,  is  like  a  man  that 
without  a  foundation  built  a  house  upon  the  earth  ; 
against  which  the  stream  did  beat  vehemently,  and 
immediately  it  fell ;  and  the  ruin  of  that  house  was 
great,"  Luke  vi.  49.  So  that  obedience,  as  well  as 
faith,  is  part  of  that  foundation  upon  which  the 
church  of  Christ  is  built :  and  he  that  retains  not 
the  unity  of  obedience,  wants  an  essential  part  of 
its  foundation,  and  is  not  a  real,  living  member 
of  Christ's  mystical  body;  but  only  a  broken  or 
withered  branch  of  it.  In  regard  to  which,  our  Sa- 
viour says  in  another  place,  "  Whosoever  shall  break 
one  of  these  least  commandments,  and  shall  teach 
men  so,  he  shall  be  called  least  in  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,"  Matt.  v.  19. 

Upon  this  account,  when  he  sent  his  apostles  to 
teach  all  nations,  he  enjoined  them  two  things : 
First,  "  To  baptize  them  in  the  name,"  or  faith,  "  of 
the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost:" 
and  secondly,  "  To  teach  them  to  observe  all  things 
whatsoever  he  had  commanded  them,"  Matt,  xxviii. 
20.  And  for  the  same  reason  the  ancient  church 
never  admitted  any  persons  to  baptism  (whicli  was 
the  ordinary  door  of  admitting  proselytes,  and 
uniting  them  as  members  to  the  body  of  the  church) 
without  first  obliging  them  to  do  these  two  things : 
First,  To  make  profession  of  the  primary  articles  of 
the  Christian  faith ;  and  secondly.  To  promise,  or 
bind  themselves  by  a  strict  engagement  and  vow, 
to  hve  in  holy  obedience  to  the  laws  and  institutions 
of  Christ.  As  I  have  fully  showed  in  a  foi'mer 
Book,'  treating  of  the  necessary  conditions  required 
of  men  before  their  baptism.     Where  I  have  par- 


Claget  of  Church  Unity,  p.  196. 
'  Vide  Aug.  de  Uuit.  Eccles.  cap.  21. 


'  Book  XI.  chap.  7.  sect.  G. 


85S 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


ticularly  remarked  out  of  St.  Austin,  that  he  wrote 
that  excellent  book,  De  Fide  et  Opevibus,  to  show 
the  necessity  of  obedience  and  good  works,  as  well 
as  faith,  to  the  being  of  a  Christian  :  against  some 
who  pretended,  That  the  profession  of  faith  in 
Christ,  and  not  the  profession  of  obedience  to  his 
laws,  was  necessarily  to  be  required  of  men,  in 
order  to  unite  them  as  Christians  to  the  body  of 
the  church  by  baptism.  They  said,  ]\Icn  were  to 
be  baptized,  and  united  to  the  church,  so  long  as 
they  kept  the  foundation  of  faith  entire,  whatever 
wicked  works  they  built  thereupon  :  for  these  would 
be  purged  away  by  certain  punishments  of  fire,  and 
they  would  obtain  salvation  at  the  last  by  virtue 
of  the  foundation,  which  they  retained.  To  which 
St.  Austin  replies.  That  this  was  a  false  interpret- 
ation of  the  apostle's  meaning ;  and  that,  however 
these  men  were  so  impudent,  as  to  charge  the 
church's  practice  with  novelty ;  yet  it  was  always 
a  firm  custom  obtaining  in  the  church,  to  reject 
professed  workers  of  iniquity  from  baptism,  and 
constantly  refuse  them  the  communion  of  the 
church  :  and  this  was  grounded  upon  the  rules  of 
ancient  truth,  which  manifestly  declared, "  That  they 
which  do  such  things,  shall  not  inherit  the  king- 
dom of  God."  Since  therefore  both  faith  and  obe- 
dience were  reckoned  essentially  necessary  to  bap- 
tism, they  must  be  concluded  equally  necessary  to 
preserve  men  in  the  real  and  perfect  unity  of  the 
church ;  unless  we  could  suppose,  that  any  thing 
was  necessary  to  make  a  man  a  Christian,  that  was 
not  necessary  to  make  or  keep  him  a  member  of 
the  church. 

If  it  be  now  inquired,  What  articles  of  faith 
and  what  points  of  practice  were  reckoned  thus 
fundamental,  or  essential  to  the  very  being  of  a 
Christian,  and  the  union  of  many  Christians  into 
one  body  or  church  ?  the  ancients  are  very  plain 
in  resolving  this.  For  as  to  fundamental  articles 
of  faith,  the  church  had  them  always  collected  or 
summed  up  out  of  Scripture  in  her  creeds,  the  pro- 
fession of  which  were  ever  esteemed  both  necessary 
on  the  one  hand,  and  sufficient  on  the  other,  in 
order  to  the  admission  of  members  into  the  church 
by  baptism  ;  and,  consequently,  both  necessary  and 
sufficient  to  keep  men  in  the  unity  of  the  church, 
so  far  as  concerns  the  unity  of  faith  generally  re- 
quired of  all  Christians,  to  make  them  one  body 
and  one  church  of  believers.  Upon  this  account, 
as  I  have  had  occasion  to  show  in  a  former  Book,* 
the  creed  was  commonly  called  by  the  ancients  the 
Kavwv  and  regula  Jidei,  because  it  was  the  known 
standard  or  rule  of  faith,  by  which  orthodoxy  and 


heresy  were  judged  and  examined.  If  a  man  ad- 
hered to  this  rule,  he  was  deemed  an  orthodox 
Christian,  and  in  the  union  of  the  catholic  faitli : 
but  if  he  deviated  from  it  in  any  point,  he  was 
esteemed  as  one  that  had  cut  himself  off,  and  se- 
parated from  the  communion  of  the  church,  by  en- 
tertaining heretical  opinions,  and  deserting  the 
common  faith.  Thus  the  fathers  in  the  council  of 
Antioch  *  charge  Paulus  Samosatensis  with  depart- 
ing from  the  rule  or  canon,  meaning  the  creed,  the 
rule  of  faith,  because  he  denied  the  Divinity  of 
Christ.  Irenaeus®  calls  it  the  unalterable  canon 
or  rule  of  faith.  And  says,'  This  faith  was  the  same 
in  all  the  world  ;  men  professed  it  with  one  heart 
and  one  soul :  for  though  there  were  different  dia- 
lects in  the  world,  yet  the  power  of  the  faith  was 
one  and  the  same.  The  churches  in  Germany  had 
no  other  faith  or  tradition,  than  those  in  Spain,  or 
in  France,  or  in  the  East,  or  Egypt,  or  Libya.  Nor 
did  the  most  eloquent  ruler  of  the  church  say  any 
more  than  this ;  for  no  one  was  above  his  Master ; 
nor  the  weakest  diminish  any  thing  of  this  tra- 
dition. For  the  faith  being  one  and  the  same,  he 
that  said  most  of  it,  could  not  enlarge  it ;  nor  he 
that  said  least,  take  any  thing  from  it.  So  Ter- 
tullian  says,'  There  is  one  rule  of  faith  only,  which 
admits  of  no  change  or  alteration,  that  which 
teaches  us  "  to  believe  in  one  God  Almighty,  the 
Maker  of  the  world,  and  in  Jesus  Christ  his  Son," 
&c.  This  rule,  he  says,"  was  instituted  by  Christ 
himself,  and  there  were  no  disputes  in  the  church 
about  it,  but  such  as  heretics  brought  in,  or  such 
as  made  heretics.  To  know  nothing  beyond  this, 
was  to  know  all  things.  This  faith '"  Avas  the  rule 
of  believing  from  the  beginning  of  the  gospel ;  and 
the  antiquity  of  it  was  sufficiently  demonstrated  by 
the  novelty  of  heresies,  which  were  but  of  yester- 
day's standing  in  comparison  of  it.  Cyprian  says," 
it  was  the  law  which  the  whole  catholic  church 
held,  and  that  the  Novatians  themselves  baptized 
into  the  same  creed,  though  they  differed  abo;it  the 
sense  of  the  article  relating  to  the  church.  There- 
fore Novatian,  in  his  book  of  the  Trinity,'-  makes 
no  scruple  to  give  the  creed  the  same  name,  regula 
veritatis,  the  rule  of  truth.  And  St.  Jerom,"  after 
the  same  manner,  disputing  against  the  errors  of 
the  Montanists,  says.  The  first  thing  they  differed 
about,  was  the  rule  of  faith.  For  the  church  be- 
lieved the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost  to  be  each 
distinct  in  his  own  person,  though  united  in  sub- 
stance :  but  the  Montanists,  following  the  doctrine 
of  Sabellius,  contracted  the  Trinity  into  one  person. 
From  all  which  it  is  evident,  that  the  fundamental 


*  Book  X.  chap.  3.  sect.  2. 

^  Kpist.  Cone.  Ant.  ap.  Euseb.  lib.  2.  c.  30. 

^  Ircn.  lib.  1.  cap.  1.  p.  44. 

'  Ibid.  cap.  3. 

**  Tertul.  de  Veland.  Virgin,  cap.  1. 


"  Idem,  de  Pracscript.  advers.  Hajreticos,  cap.  13. 

'"  Idem,  cont.  Prax.  cap.  2. 

"  Cypr.  Ep.  G9.  al.  76.  ad  Magnum,  p.  183. 

'-  Novatian.  de  Trinit.  cap.  1  et  9. 

'^  Ilii-Ton.  Ep-  J^t.  ad  Marcellam. 


Chap.    I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH, 


859 


Articles  of  faith  were  those  which  the  primitive 
church  summed  up  in  her  creeds,  in  the  profession 
"if  which  she  admitted  men  as  memhers  into  the 
hnity  of  her  hody  by  baptism  ;  and  if  any  deserted 
br  corrupted  this  feith,  they  were  no  longer  re- 
puted Christians,  but  heretics,  who  brake  the  unity 
pf  the  church  by  breaking  the  unity  of  the  faith, 
iliough  they  had  otherwise  made  no  further  separ- 
ition  from  her  communion.  For,  as  Clemens  Alex- 
indrinus  "  says  out  of  Hermes  Pastor,  faith  is  the 
/irtue  that  binds  and  unites  the  church  together. 
Whence  Hegesippus,  the  ancient  historian,  giving 
iin  account  of  the  old  heretics,  says,"  They  divided 
he  unity  of  the  church  by  pernicious  speeches 
against  God  and  his  Christ;  that  is,  by  denying 
ome  of  the  prime,  fundamental  articles  of  faith.  He 
that  makes  a  breach  upon  any  one  of  these,  cannot 
hiaintain  the  unity  of  the  church,  nor  his  own 
pharacter  as  a  Christian,  We  ought  therefore,  says 
Cyprian,'*  in  all  things  to  hold  the  unity  of  the 
catholic  church,  and  not  to  yield  in  any  thing  to 
he  enemies  of  faith  and  truth.  For  he  cannot'* 
be  thought  a  Christian,  who  continues  not  in  the 
ruth  of  Christ's  gospel  and  faith.  If  men  be  here- 
ics,  says  Tertullian,"  they  cannot  be  Christians. 
The  like  is  said  by  Lactantius,  and  Jerom,  and 
A.thanasius,  and  Hilary,  and  many  others  of  the 
incients,  whose  sense  upon  this  matter  I  have 
'uUy  represented"  in  another  place.  As  therefore 
,here  was  a  unity  of  faith,  necessary  to  be  main- 
ained  in  certain  fundamental  articles  in  order  to 
nake  a  man  a  Christian :  so  these  articles  were 
Iways  to  be  found  in  the  church's  creeds ;  the 
profession  of  which  was  esteemed  keeping  the  unity 
jf  the  faith;  and  deviating  in  any  point  from 
them,  was  esteemed  a  breach  of  that  one  faith,  and 
1  virtual  departing  from  the  unity  of  the  church. 

As  to  the  other  points  of  obedience  to  the  laws 
md  institutions  of  Christ,  which  were  reckoned 
Fundamental  and  essential  to  the  being  of  a  Chris- 
tian and  the  unity  of  the  church,  they  were  gener- 
illy  summed  up  in  those  short  forms  of  renouncing 
the  devil,  and  his  service,  and  his  works,  and  co- 
venanting with  Christ  to  live  by  the  rules  of  his 
gospel.  By  which  they  understood  the  renouncing 
all  gross  sins,  such  as  idolatry,  witchcraft,  murder, 
injustice,  intemperance,  uncleanness,  and  whatever 


might  be  called  worldly  and  fleshly  lusts,  contrary 
to  the  general  tenor  of  the  gospel,  and  the  grace  of 
God  which  had  appeared  unto  all  men,  teaching  us, 
"  that  denying  ungodliness  and  worldly  lusts,  we 
should  live  soberly,  righteously,  and  godly  in  this 
present  world,"  They  that  walked  after  this  rule, 
and  squared  their  lives  by  these  general  measures 
and  lines  of  duty  ;  "  adding  to  their  faith  virtue, 
and  to  virtue  knowledge,  and  to  knowledge  temper- 
ance, and  to  temperance  patience,  and  to  patience 
godliness,  and  to  godliness  brotherly  kindness,  and 
to  brotherly  kindness  charity ; "  these  were  the 
true  Israel  of  God,  and  in  the  perfect  unity  of  his 
church :  as  long  as  they  did  these  things,  they  could 
never  fall ;  nothing  could  separate  them  from  his 
church,  or  from  the  love  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus ; 
"  for  so  an  entrance  was  ministered  to  them  abund- 
antly into  the  everlasting  kingdom  of  our  Lord  and 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ,"  But  if  men  went  contrary 
to  this  rule,  "  walking  in  the  works  of  the  flesh, 
and  not  of  the  Spirit ;  professing  to  know  God,  but 
in  works  denying  him ;"  though  they  might  be  cor- 
poreally and  externally  united  to  the  visible  body 
of  the  church,  yet  internally  and  spiritually  they 
were  divided  from  it.  St.  Austin  says  expressly,'" 
That  though  men  were  regenerated  by  baptism, 
yet  none  but  the  good  were  spiritually  built  up 
into  the  body  and  members  of  Christ :  the  good 
only  compose  that  church,  of  which  it  is  said,  "  As 
the  lily  among  thorns,  so  is  my  love  among  the 
daughters,"  Cant.  ii.  2.  That  church  consists  only 
of  those  who  build  upon  the  rock,  that  is,  who  hear 
the  words  of  Christ,  and  do  them.  They  therefore 
are  not  of  that  church,  who  build  upon  the  sand, 
that  is,  who  hear  the  words  of  Christ,  and  do  them 
not.  And  as  they  who,  by  the  ligaments  of  charity, 
are  incorporated  into  the  building  that  is  founded 
upon  the  rock,  and  into  the  lily  that  shines  among 
thorns,  "  shall  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God ; "  so 
they  who  build  upon  the  sand,  and  are  numbered 
among  the  thorns,  shall  as  certainly  not  "  inherit 
the  kingdom  of  God."  A  little  after,""  reciting  those 
words  of  the  apostle.  Gal.  v.,  "  The  works  of  the 
flesh  are  manifest,  which  are  these,  adultery,  forni- 
cation, uncleanness,  lasciviousness,  idolatry,  witch- 
craft, hatred,  variance,  emulations,  wrath,  strife,  se- 
ditions, heresies,  envyings,  murders,  drunkenness, 


"  Clem.  Strom,  lib.  2.  p.  454.    Edit.  Oxon.   'H  awtx"^'^ 

ijv  iKi<\i]c-iav  aptT)/,  v  irirt^  Itl.     Hermes  Pastor,  lib.  1. 

Vision.  3.  cap.  8.     Prima  earum,  quae  turrim,  (uempe  ec- 

clesiam,)   continet  mauu,   Fides  vocatur:    per  hanc  salvi 

fiunt  electi  Dei,  &c. 

"  Hegesip.  ap.  ;Eiiseb.  lib.  4.  cap.  22.  'E/xipicrav  t»(i/ 
£001(7(1/  TJ;9  £A.h:\))(7ias  ((tdopi/iaiois  \6yoi9  KaTit  too  Geou, 

K.T.X. 

'*  Cypr.  Ep.  71.  ad  Quintnm,  p.  194.  Per  omnia  debe- 
mus  ecclesioe  catholicse  unitatem  tenere,  nee  in  aliquo  lidei 
et  veritatis  hostibus  cedore. 

'*  Cypr.  dc  Unit.  Ecclcj.  ]).  11 1.     Nee  Christianiis  videri   | 


potest,  qui  non  permanet  in  evangelii  ejus  et  fidei  veritate, 
"  Tertul.    de    PvKScript.    cap.    37,       Si    hoeretici   sunt, 
Christiani  esse  non  possunt. 
'*'  IJook  I.  chap.  3.  sect.  4. 

'^  Aug.  de  Unit.  Eccles.  cap.  21.  Nee  regonerati  spiri- 
taliter  in  corpus  et  uiembra  Christi  coajdificcntur  nisi  buni : 
prolVcto  in  bonis  est  illu  ccclesia,  cui  dicitur,  Sicut  liliuni  in 
medio  spinaruni,  ita  pro.xima  mea  in  medio  fdiaruni.  hi  his 
est  enim  qui  acdificant  super  petrani,  id  est,  qui   audiunt 

verba  Christi,  et  faciunt Non  est  ergo  in  cis,  qui  a-dilicant 

super  arenam,  id  est,  qui  audiunt  verba  Christi,  et  non  fa- 
ciimt,  &c.  «>  Ibid.  cap.  22. 


860 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


revellings,  and  such  like  ;  of  the  which  I  tell  you 
before,  as  I  have  also  told  you  in  time  past,  that 
they  which  do  such  things  shall  not  inherit  the 
kingdom  of  God ;"  he  adds.  All  those  are  not  in  the 
lily,  nor  upon  the  rock,  and  heretics  are  in  that 
number.  Again,  speaking  of  the  grace  of  the 
Spirit,  which  sanctifies  good  men,  he  says,  Tliis  is 
wanting  in  all  the  wicked,  and  sons  of  hell,  al- 
though they  be  baptized"'  with  the  baptism  of 
Christ,  as  Simon  Magus  was  baptized.  There  are 
many  such"  who  communicate  in  the  sacraments 
with  the  church,  and  yet  they  are  not  now  in  the 
church.  Such  are  cut  off,  before  they  be  visibly 
excommunicated  :  and  if  they  be  visibly  excommu- 
nicated, and  visibly  restored  to  communion  ;  if  they 
come  with  a  feigned  mind,  and  a  heart  opposing 
the  truth  and  the  church,  they  are  not  reconciled, 
they  are  not  inserted  into  the  church,  although  the 
solemnity  of  reconciliation  be  performed  upon  them. 
In  another  place  he  says,^  The  wicked  multitude  of 
the  church  are  not  reckoned  to  be  in  the  church, 
save  only  so  far  as  they  have  the  same  sacraments 
in  common  with  the  saints,  because  they  have  only 
a  form  of  godliness,  but  deny  the  power  of  it.  He 
repeats  the  same  frequently  in  his  books  against 
Cresconius,^'  and  other  places,  which  it  is  needless 
here  to  repeat  at  length.  I  only  observe,  that  as 
charity  Avas  reckoned  one  essential  part  of  a  Chris- 
tian's virtue  ;  (our  Saviour  having  made  it  the  cha- 
racteristic note  of  his  disciples,  *'  By  this  shall  all 
men  know  that  ye  are  my  disciples,  if  ye  have  love 
one  for  another ;")  so  the  anci'^nts  laid  a  great  stress 
upon  this  one  virtue,  without  vvhich  they  never  re- 
puted any  man  to  be  truly  in  the  unity  of  the  church, 
whatever  claim  he  could  otherwise  lay  to  the  com- 
munion of  it. 

I   do  not  think  any  man,  says  St. 
Of  "the  'unity  of  Austlu,'"  SO  vain  and  foolish,  as  to  be- 

love  anil  cliarity,  as 

an  essential  part  of  lieve  sucli  a  oHc  to  appertain  to  the 

Christian  obedience.  -*■  ■'■ 

unity  of  the  church,  who  has  not 
charity.  For  St.  James,  speaking  against  those 
who  thought  it  sufficient  to  believe,  but  would  not 
do  good  works,  says,  "  Tliou  believcst  that  there  is 
one  God;  thou  docst  well:  the  devils  also  believe 
and  tremble."  Certainly  the  devils  are  not  in  the 
unity  of  the  church ;  and  yet  we  cannot  say  they 
believe  otherwise  of  Christ  than  the  church  believes, 
seeing  they  said  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  himself, 

^'  Aug.  de  Unit.  Eccles.  cap.  23.  Hoc  deest  omnibus  ina- 
lignis  et  Gehenna;  filiis,  etiamsi  Christi  baptismo  baptizen- 
tiir,  sicut  Simon  fuerat  baptizatus. 

■--  Ibid.  cap.  25.  Multi  tales  sunt  in  sacramentorum 
communione  cum  ecclesia,  et  tamen  jam  non  sunt  in  ec- 
clesia,  &c. 

-'Ibid.  cap.  13.  Sormn  divinus  redarguit  impias  tinbas 
ecclesice,  quae  nee  in  ecclesia  deputantur,  &c. 

-'  Aug.  cont.  Crescon.  lib.  I.  cap.  29.  lib.  2.  cap.  15,  21, 
33,  .31.  Qui  cum  sint  a  bonis  vita  moribusque  spiritaliter 
sepaiati,   corporalitcr  tamen  eis  in  ecclesia  vidcntur  esse 


"  What  have  we  to  do  with  thee,  thou  Son  of  God?" 
And  St.  Paul  says,  "  Though  I  have  all  faith,  so 
that  I  could  remove  mountains,  and  have  not  cha- 
rity, I  am  nothing."  They  that  are  enemies  to  this 
brotherly  charity,  says  St.  Austin  again,^"  whether 
tliey  are  openly  out  of  the  church,  or  seem  to  be 
within,  they  are  false  Christians,  and  antichrists. 
"When  they  seem  to  be  within,  they  are  separated 
from  that  invisible  union  or  bond  of  charity.  Whence 
St.  John  says  of  them,  "  They  went  out  from  us ; 
but  they  were  not  of  us."  He  does  not  say,  they 
were  made  aliens  by  going  out,  but  because  they 
were  aliens  before,  he  declares,  that  therefore  they 
went  out.  This  charity  was  necessary  to  incor- 
porate men  into  that  building,"  which  was  founded 
upon  the  rock  of  obedience,  without  which  it  could 
not  stand :  to  uphold  the  structure,  charity  was  re- 
quired as  a  principal  part  of  the  foundation,  where- 
upon the  whole  building  rested,  being  fitly  framed 
together,  and  united  by  charity  into  one,  as  members 
of  the  mystical  body  of  Christ. 

After    this    manner    the    ancients 
commonly  discoursed  of  these  sorts     other  soVts  of 

•^  unity,  necessary   to 

of  unity,  which  I  call  fundamental  to  thewcii-beingofthe 

•^  '  church. 

the  very  being  of  a  church  ;  being  so 
absolutely  necessary  and  essential,  as  that  the 
church  could  not  consist  without  them.  They 
were  necessary  to  every  individual,  and  necessary 
in  all  cases  and  circumstances  whatsoever :  there 
being  no  case  in  which  it  was  lawful  to  deny  the 
faith ;  nor  any  case  that  could  dispense  with  a  man's 
obligations  to  sobriety,  godliness,  righteousness, 
and  charity.  There  were  other  sorts  of  unity,  ne- 
cessary indeed  to  the  well-being  of  the  church,  but 
yet  not  so  absolutely  essential,  but  that  a  man  in 
some  extraordinary  cases  and  circumstances  might 
be  incapacitated  or  hindered  in  the  actual  perform- 
ance of  them,  without  incurring  the  censure  of 
breaking  the  unity  of  the  church,  or  being  wholly 
excluded  out  of  her  communion.  It  is  every  Chris- 
tian's duty  to  unite  himself  to  the  church  by  bap- 
tism, and  to  receive  it  from  the  hands  of  a  regular 
ministry ;  it  is  his  duty  to  join  in  communion  with 
the  church  where  he  lives,  and  assemble  with  them 
for  worship  and  prayers,  and  administration  of  the 
word  and  sacraments,  and  all  other  holy  offices ; 
it  is  his  duty  to  live  under  the  government  of  a 
regular  and  lawful  ministry,  and  submit  himself  to 


permi.xti  usque  in  diem  judicii. 

-''Ibid.  lib.  1.  cap.  29.  Non  autem  existimo  quenquam 
ita  desipere,  ut  crodat  ad  ecclesiae  pertinere  unitatem  eum, 
qui  non  habeat  charitatem,  &c. 

^•^  Aug.  de  Ba])t.  lib.  3.  cap.  19.  Hujus  autem  fraternae 
chavitatis  inimici,  sive  apevte  foris  sint,  sive  intusesse  vide- 
antur,  pseudo-Chvistiani  sunt  et  antichvisti.  — Cum  intus 
videntur,  ab  ilia  invisibili  chavitatis  compage  scparati 
sunt,  &c. 

-'  Vid.  Aug.  de  Unit.  cap.  21.  Compage  charitatis  in- 
corporati  sunt  a;dificio  super  pctram  constituto. 


('llAP.    I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


mi 


I  all  the  rules  of  the  church  in  worship  and  disci- 
jpline,  that  are  not  contrary  or  repugnant  to  the 
i  word  of  God :  but  then  it  may  happen,  that  a  man 
I  cannot  have  baptism,  though  he  be  never  so  de- 
jSirous  of  it;  sudden  death  may  prevent  him,  whilst 
he  is  seriously  preparing  for  it.  In  this  case,  the 
church  did  not  deny  him  her  communion,  though 
he  was  never  formally  entered  into  it,  but  accepted 
the  will  for  the  deed,  and  treated  him  after  death 
as  one  of  her  sons  dying  in  her  bosom  and  commu- 
nion. Which  was  the  case  of  many  martyrs,  and 
others  dying  without  baptism,  not  out  of  contempt, 
but  by  the  exigence  of  some  unforeseen  accident 
preventing  them.  So,  again,  it  might  happen,  that 
a  man  in  extremity,  when  he  was  desirous  of  bap- 
tism, could  not  have  it  but  from  the  hands  of  a 
heretic,  or  a  layman.  In  this  case,  the  church  was 
equally  favourable  to  the  party  so  baptized,  because 
he  was  united  in  heart  and  will  to  the  church,  and 
it  was  not  contempt  of  her  ministry,  but  necessity, 
that  drove  him  to  receive  baptism  from  a  heretic 
or  a  layman,  rather  than  die  without  it.  In  like 
manner,  a  man  that  was  very  desirous  to  join  with 
the  church  in  her  public  assemblies,  might  notwith- 
standing, by  some  great  exigence,  be  debarred  from 
this  privilege,  as  by  sickness,  or  imprisonment,  or 
banishment :  in  which  case  he  was  not  divided 
from  the  communion  of  the  church  in  worship  or 
prayers  ;  but  his  spirit  was  still  present  in  her  reli- 
gious assemblies,  though  necessity  obliged  him  in 
body  to  be  absent  fi'om  them.  Or  if  it  were  but 
the  care  of  the  indigent  that  required  his  help,  and 
kept  him  away  from  the  solemn  meeting  in  God's 
house,  his  reason  was  good,  and  such  an  act  was 
no  breach  of  Christian  unity,  because  God  himself 
allows  it ;  nay,  requires  it  by  his  own  rule,  "  I  will 
have  mercy,  and  not  sacrifice :"  which  in  such  cases, 
where  men  act  sincerely,  and  trifle  not  with  God, 
is  always  their  justification  both  before  God  and 
his  church.  It  was  further  required,  that  men 
should  comply  with  all  the  innocent  customs  and 
lawful  orders  of  the  church  ;  and  especially  submit 
to  her  discipline  in  case  of  any  scandalous  trans- 
gi-ession  or  immorality :  but  if  men  by  reason  of 
sickness,  or  infirmity,  or  old  age,  could  not  observe 
her  rules  about  fasting ;  or  by  reason  of  their  po- 
verty could  not  abstain  from  their  ordinary  labour 
to  attend  her  festivals ;  these  were  not  reckoned 
transgressions  of  her  rules  or  good  order,  because 
they  naturally  admitted  of  such  limitations  and  ex- 
ceptions ;  and  no  man  was  accused  as  a  divider  of 
the  church's  unity  for  going  against  her  customs  in 
such  cases.  So,  though  it  was  required  that  peni- 
tents under  discipline  should  be  reconciled  to  the 
church  by  imposition  of  hands  and  absolution  ;  yet 
if  any  real  penitent,  who  was  desirous  of  absolu- 


tion, happened  to  be  struck  dumb,  or  die  before  he 
could  receive  it,  this  was  reckoned  no  prejudice  to 
his  condition :  in  this  case,  his  good-will,  and  de- 
sire, and  intention  of  being  reconciled,  was  reputed 
sufficient  to  restore  him  to  the  peace  and  unity  of 
the  church,  though  he  wanted  the  formality  of  an 
external  absolution. 

This  was  the  great  difference  between  those  sorts 
of  unity  which  were  reckoned  fundamental,  and 
essential  to  the  very  being  of  a  church,  and  those 
which  were  recjuired  as  necessary  to  the  well-being 
of  it :  the  former  admitted  of  no  dispensations,  but 
the  latter  did  in  these  and  the  like  cases.  No  case 
could  dispense  with  a  man's  putting  away  a  good 
conscience,  or  making  shipwreck  of  faith :  no  ne- 
cessity could  be  so  gi-eat  as  to  justify  a  man  in  deny- 
ing an  essential  or  fundamental  truth,  or  in  living 
in  open  and  professed  violation  of  those  necessary 
rules  and  great  lines  of  duty,  which  require  the 
practice  of  universal  holiness  in  a  godly,  righteous, 
sober  life,  as  the  incUspensable  condition  of  salva- 
tion :  but  several  necessities  might  dispense  with 
men  in  the  non-observance  of  the  things  of  the  lat- 
ter kind ;  and  therefore  it  is  of  great  use  carefully 
to  distinguish  these  things  in  speaking  of  the  unity 
of  the  church.  As,  therefore,  I  have  spoken  par- 
ticularly of  the  former,  so  I  will  now  speak  a  little 
more  distinctly  of  these  latter,  and  show  how  far 
the  ancients  urged  the  necessity  of  them. 

And  here  first  of  all  they  required, 
that  men  should  unite  themselves  to 
the  church  by  baptism  ;  and  that  ad-  Z'^^^J  ordinarily 
ministered  but  once;  and  this  also  to  l°y  a^e^hrnttrl 
be  administered  ordinarily  by  the  '"'"""^  """"'"'> • 
hands  of  a  regular  ministry,  except  some  urgent 
necessity  obliged  them  to  do  otherwise.  The  ne- 
cessity of  baptism  they  urged  from  the  tenor  of  the 
commission  given  to  the  apostles,  "Go,  baptize  all 
nations ;"  and  from  those  words  of  our  Saviour, 
John  iii.  5,  "  Except  a  man  be  born  of  water  and 
the  Spirit,  he  cannot  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
God."  There  were  many  heretics,  who  contemn- 
ed the  use  of  water  baptism,  as  a  carnal  ordi- 
nance, and  wholly  denied  the  necessity  of  it  to 
salvation  in  any  case  whatsoever,  of  whom  I  have 
given  a  particular  account^  in  a  former  Book. 
Against  these  they  urged  the  necessity  of  baptism 
in  all  ordinary  cases,  to  make  men  members  of 
the  church  ;  and  strenuously  maintained,  that 
men  who  wilfully  neglected  or  despised  baptism, 
could  not  by  any  other  means  be  united  to  the 
churcli  of  Christ,  or  have  any  grounds  for  hope 
of  eternal  life ;  because  they  despised  that  ordi- 
nance of  Christ,  which  he  had  made  the  regu- 
lar and  ordinary  way  of  admitting  members  into 
his   church,  and  refused  to   enter   by   that   door, 

^  Book  XI.  chap.  2. 


Sect.  4. 

AmoiiK  lliese  tlipy 

reckonetf,     1st,   The 


S62 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


which  he  had  appointed  to  be  the  general  entrance 
to  eternal  life.  This  opinion  of  the  ancients  con- 
cerning the  necessity  of  baptism  in  all  ordinary 
cases,  maintained  against  those  several  heresies, 
the  reader  may  find  fully  discoursed  in  a  forego- 
ing part  of  this  work;^"  where  I  observed,  that 
though  they  strictly  urged  the  necessity  of  baptism 
in  order  to  make  men  members  of  the  church  and 
sons  of  God ;  expressing  themselves  severely  against 
all  that  either  carelessly  neglected  it,  or  profanely 
despised  it ;  yet  they  did  not  believe  it  to  be  so  sim- 
ply and  absolutely  necessary  as  the  unity  of  faith 
and  repentance :  because  they  always  maintained, 
that  the  bare  want  of  baptism,  where  there  was  no 
contempt,  might  be  supplied  by  martyrdom ;  where 
the  exhibiting  of  faith,  and  the  greatest  testimony 
of  obedience  that  could  be  given,  was  sufficient  to 
unite  them  to  Christ  and  his  church  in  that  case, 
and  grant  them  all  the  privileges  of  Christian  com- 
munion. And  the  like  was  determined  concerning 
the  faith  and  repentance  of  such  catechumens,  as 
were  piously  preparing  for  baptism,  but  were  snatch- 
ed away  by  sudden  death  before  they  had  any  op- 
portunity to  receive  it.  Which  shows,  that  they 
put  a  manifest  difference  between  the  xmity  of  faith 
and  obedience,  as  fundamental  and  essential  to  the 
very  being  of  a  church,  the  want  of  which  nothing 
could  supply  ;  and  the  unity  of  baptism,  which, 
though  ordinarily  necessary  to  the  well-being  of  the 
church,  yet  was  not  so  absolutely  necessary  and 
essential,  but  that  the  want  of  it  might  be  supplied 
in  some  cases  by  faith  and  obedience ;  and  by  these 
a  martyr  or  a  pious  catechumen  might  be  presumed 
to  die  in  the  unity  of  the  church  without  baptism, 
when  they  had  no  opportunity  to  receive  it. 

The  form  of  baptism  itself  indeed,  whenever  it 
was  administered,  was  a  little  more  necessary,  be- 
cause that  implied  a  profession  of  faith  in  the  holy 
Trinity,  and  universal  obedience  to  the  laws  of 
Christ ;  and  therefore  baptism  administered  in  any 
other  form  was  reputed  null  and  void  even  in  the 
church  itself,  and  was  of  necessity  to  be  repeated : 
but  then  this  necessity  did  not  arise  from  the  bare 
necessity  of  baptism,  (which  might,  as  we  have 
heard,  be  dispensed  with  in  some  cases,)  but  from 
the  necessity  of  faith  and  obedience,  presupposed  as 
antecedent  qualifications,  essential  to  the  very  being 
of  a  church  and  the  character  of  a  Christian  in  the 
largest  denomination.  So  that  what  made  this  so 
absolutely  necessary,  was  not  the  absolute  necessity 
of  baptism  itself,  which  might  be  dispensed  with  in 


some  extraordinary  cases,  where  those  qualifications 
were  really  in  the  hearts  of  men  before  baptism : 
but  it  was  the  want  of  those  qualifications,  or  at 
least  the  want  of  professing  them  in  due  form,  that 
made  the  baptism  void ;  because  there  was  a  strong 
presumption,  that  they  had  not  those  qualifications 
that  were  essential  to  the  very  being  of  a  Christian, 
since  no  profession  of  them  was  made  in  their  bap- 
tism. For  which  reason,  whether  it  was  given  in 
the  church  or  out  of  the  church,  it  was  always  to 
be  repeated,  as  a  thing  null  and  void,  for  want  of 
those  qualifications  of  faith  and  obedience,  which 
were  so  indispensably  required  to  make  a  man  a 
Christian. 

It  was  necessary  also  to  the  imity  of  the  church 
in  its  well-being,  that  baptism  should  ordinarily  be 
administered  only  by  the  hands  of  a  regular  minis- 
try :  and  therefore  for  either  laymen  without  a  com- 
mission in  the  church  to  usurp  this  authority,  or  for 
heretics  and  schismatics  without  the  church  to  as- 
sume this  power,  was  always  esteemed  a  great  breach 
of  the  church's  unity.  And  though  the  church  did 
not  always  annul  such  baptisms,  if  given  in  due 
form  of  words ;  yet  she  always  condemned  the  thing 
as  a  usurpation,  and  an  act  of  criminal  schism,  and 
manifest  prevarication  both  in  the  giver  and  volun- 
tary receiver.  Insomuch  that  one  of  the  ancient 
councils^"  orders,  That  if  any  cathohc  offered  his 
children  to  be  baptized  by  heretics,  his  oblation 
should  not  be  received  in  the  church.  This  was  in 
effect  to  punish  him  with  excommunication,  as  an 
encourager  of  heretics,  and  a  divider  of  the  unity  of 
the  church.  And  St.  Jerom  says''  to  the  same  pur- 
pose. If  a  man  who  is  orthodox  in  his  own  faith,  is 
wittingly  and  willingly  baptized  by  heretics,  he  de- 
serves no  pardon  for  his  crime.  But  then  it  might 
happen,  that  a  man  in  extremity  might  be  so  dis- 
tressed as  to  have  none  but  a  heretic  to  baptize 
him;  in  which  case,  to  receive  baptism  from  the 
hands  of  a  heretic  or  schismatic,  was  reckoned  no 
breach  of  catholic  unity,  because  the  man  in  heart 
and  mind  was  still  united  to  the  catholic  church. 
This  is  St.  Austin's'-  resolution  of  the  case.  If  a 
man,  says  he,  is  compelled  by  extreme  necessity, 
where  he  cannot  have  a  catholic  to  give  him  bap- 
tism, to  take  it  at  the  hands  of  one  who  is  not  in 
catholic  unity ;  in  that  case',  we  reckon  him  no 
other  than  a  catholic  still,  though  he  died  imme- 
diately, because  he  was  in  heart  and  mind  a  catho- 
lic, and  would  have  been  baptized  in  catholic  unity, 
if  there  had  been  any  opportunity  to  have  done  it. 


29  Book  X.  chap.  2.  sect.  19. 

^o  Cnnc.  Ilerdense,  can.  13.  Catholicus  qui  filios  siios  in 
haeresi  baptizandos  obtulerit,  oblatio  illius  in  ecclesia  nulla- 
tenus  recipiatur. 

"  Hieron.  Dial,  cum  Lucifer,  cap.  5.  Si  jam  ipse  bene 
credebat,  et  sciens  ab  heereticis  baptizatus  est,  erroris  ve- 
niam  non  meretur. 


3-  Aug.  de  Bapt.  lib.  1.  cap.  2.  Si  quem  forte  coegerit 
extrema  necessitas,  ubi  catholicum  per  quem  accipiat  non 
invenerit,  et  in  animo  pace  catholica  custodita,  per  aliquem 
extra  catholicam  unitatem  acceperit,  quod  erat  in  ipsa  ca- 
tholica unitate  accepturus,  si  statim  etiam  de  hac  vita  mi- 
graverit,  non  cum  nisi  catholicum  deputamus,  &c. 


I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


8(33 


uch  a  one  survives,  and  corporeally  joins  him- 
eU"  to  the  catholic  congi-egation,  from  which  in 
lieart  he  never  departed,  avc  not  only  not  disallow 
hat  he  has  done,  but  securely  and  truly  commend 
lim  for  it ;  because  he  believed  God  to  be  present 
n  his  heart,  where  he  preserved  unity,  and  would 
lot  depart  out  of  this  life  without  the  sacrament  of 
aptism,  which  he  knew  to  be  God's,  and  not  men's, 
vhcresoever  he  found  it.     But  if  any  one,  when  he 
night  receive  it  in  the  catholic  church,  by  some 
)erverscness  of  mind  chooses  rather  to  be  baptized 
n  schism,  though  he  afterward  design  to  return  to 
he  church,  because  he  is  certain  the  sacrament  will 
i)rofit  him  in  the  church,  but  not  elsewhere,  though 
e  may  receive  it  elsewhere ;  this  is  a  perverse  and 
vicked  man,  and  so  much  the  more  perniciously 
uch,  by  how  much  the  more  knowing  he  is.    In  an- 
ther place  he  proposes  the  same  question,  whether 
catholic,  without  breach  of  unity,  might  receive 
(aptism  from  a  schismatic  ?     And  he  answers^  it 
fter  the  same  manner.  That  he  may  safely  receive 
t  of  a  separatist,  if  he  himself  be  no  separatist 
jshen  he  receives  it;   for  so  it  often  happens  to 
aen  who  have  a  catholic  mind,  and  a  heart  no 
rays  alienated  from  the  unity  of  peace,  that  in  ex- 
reme  necessity  and  imminent  danger  of  death  they 
ght  upon  some  heretic,  and  receive  the  baptism  of 
hrist  at  his  hands,  but  not  with  the  perverseness 
ir  heretical  pravity   of  the    administrator.      For 
hether  they  die  or  live,  they  do  not  remain  among 
eretics,  to  whom  in  heart  they  never  went  over. 
0,  again,  distinguishing  baptized  persons  into  three 
orts;  first.  Such  as  are  baptized  in  the  house  of 
od,  and  are  truly  and  spiritually  of  the  house  of 
■od;  secondly.  Such  as  are  baptized  in  the  house  of 
•od,  but  are  spiritually  by  wicked  works  separated 
'om  it ;  thirdly.  Such  as  are  baptized  in  heresy  or 
chism,  who  are  corporeally  separated  from  the  house 
f  God,  and  worse  than  those  who  live  carnally 
dthin  it,  and  are  only  spiritually  divided  from  it ; 
e  adds'*  concerning  this  last  sort,  (who  are  rather 
3  be  said  to  be  of  the  house  of  God,  than  in  it, 
cing  farther  separated  by  corporeal  division  than 
tiose  who  are  only  spiritually  divided  from  it,)  that 
liey  neither  have  baptism  to  any  profit  themselves, 
.either  is  it  received  with  any  profit  from  them, 
xcept  where  the  necessity  of  receiving  it  forces  a 
lan  to  receive  it  from  them,  and  the  mind  of  the 
eceiver  does  no  ways  recede  from  the  bond  of  unity. 
ly  which  is  intimated,  that  to  receive  baptism  in 
ase  of  necessity  from  the  hands  of  a  heretic  or 
hismatic,  does  not  involve  a  man  in  the  guilt  of 


**  Aug.  de  Bapt.  lib.  6,  cap.  5.  Potest  salubriter  accipere 
separato,  si  ipse  non  separatus  accipiat:  sicut  plerisque 
ccidit,  lit  catholico  animo  et  corde  ab  unitate  pacis  non 
lienato,  aliqua  necessitate  mortis  urgentis  in  aliquem  hae- 
eticum  irruerent,  et  ab  eo  Chiisti  baptismum  sine  illius 
erversitate  acciperent.  &c. 


schism,  so  long  as  it  is  a  case  of  extreme  necessity, 
and  the  man  in  heart  and  mind  is  all  the  time  in 
the  unity  of  the  catholic  church. 

The  case  was  the  same  with  those  that  were 
baptized  by  laymen.  The  rules  of  the  church  re- 
(juircd,  that  none  should  baptize  in  ordinary  cases, 
but  the  regular  and  lawful  ministers  of  the  church ; 
and  to  do  otherwise,  was  always  a  note  of  criminal 
schism :  but  in  case  of  extremity,  she  granted  a  ge- 
neral commission  even  to  laymen  to  baptize,  rather 
than  any  person  in  such  an  exigence  should  die 
without  baptism ;  and  in  such  a  case,  to  receive 
baptism  from  a  layman,  was  neither  usurpation  nor 
schism  in  the  giver  or  receiver,  because  they  had 
the  church's  authority  for  the  action.  I  produce 
no  proofs  or  evidence  for  this  here,  because  I  have 
done  it  fully  in  a  separate  discourse  before,  treating 
historically  of  the  practice  of  the  church  in  refer- 
ence to  her  allowance  of  baptism  administered  by 
laymen,  in  cases  extraordinaiy,  when  men  were  in 
apparent  danger  of  death,  and  could  not  have  a 
minister  to  baptize  them. 

In  all  these  cases,  we  see,  nothing  but  extreme 
necessity  could  excuse  men  from  criminal  schism, 
in  dividing  themselves  from  the  church,  either  by 
the  neglect  of  baptism,  or  seeking  to  heretics,  or 
schismatics,  or  laymen,  for  the  administration  of  it. 
And  the  like  is  to  be  said  of  any  man's  sulfering 
himself  to  be  rebaptized,  after  he  had  once  received 
a  true  baptism,  whether  in  the  church  or  out  of  it. 
For  the  unity  of  baptism  was  such  that  it  was  never 
to  be  repeated.  The  gi-eatest  apostates  were  never 
rebaptized  by  the  catholic  church  upon  their  ad- 
mission again,  but  taken  in  by  imposition  of  hands 
and  absolution  upon  their  repentance.  Neither  did 
the  church  ever  rebaptize  those  that  were  baptized 
in  heresy  or  schism,  except  when  some  doubt  was 
made  whether  the  baptism  was  defective  in  some 
essential  part  of  it.  •  And  therefore,  because  many 
heretics  were  inclined  to  rebaptize  the  catholics, 
very  severe  laws  were  made,  both  in  church  and 
state,  to  repress  this  insolence ;  of  which  I  have 
given  a  particular  account  in  handling  the  subject ^^ 
of  baptism  heretofore,  and  need  only  now  observe, 
that  this  practice  of  rebaptizing  was  always  esteem- 
ed a  schismatical  act,  and  a  notorious  breach  of 
catholic  unity,  which  never  allowed  of  more  than 
one  baptism,  according  to  that  rule  of  the  apos- 
tle, "One  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism,"  in  the 
church,  as  many  of  the  ancients  expound  it,  or 
at  least,  because  by  the  Divine  will  it  was  so  ap- 
pointed. 


"  Id.  de  Bapt.  lib.  7.  cap.  52.  Qui  aiitem  separatiores 
non  magis  in  doino  quam  e.\  doino  sunt,  neque  omnino 
utiliter  habeut,  neque  ab  eis  utiliter  accipitur,  nisi  forte 
accipiendi  necessitas  urgeat,  et  accipientis  animus  ab  uni- 
tatis  vinculo  non  recedat. 

"  Book  XII.  chap.  5.  sect.  7. 


864 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


2.  Another  sort  of  unity,  requisite 
2diy,  The  unity  of  to  the  well-bciug  of  the  church,  was 

worship,  iti  joining       ,  .  _  ,    .  i  i  n 

with  the  .imnh  in  the   unitv   of   vvorshiD,  whereby   all 

prayers,  and  admin-  .      .  i  i-         i  •     •  ■    i 

istrationoftheword  Christians  wcrc  obiiffed  to  join  with 

and  sacraments.  ^ 

their  respective  churches  in  the  per- 
formance of  all  holy  offices  in  public ;  such  as  com- 
mon prayer,  and  the  administration  of  the  word  and 
sacraments.  Which  did  not  require  that  all  churches 
should  exactly  agree  in  the  same  form  of  words, 
■which  were  not  essential  to  these  things :  (for,  as 
we  shall  presently  see,  every  church  was  at  liberty 
to  make  choice  for  herself,  in  what  method  and  form 
of  words  she  would  perform  these  things ;  and  it 
was  no  breach  of  unity  for  different  churches  to 
have  different  modes,  and  circumstances,  and  cere- 
monies, in  performing  the  same  holy  offices,  so  long 
as  they  kept  to  the  substance  of  the  institution :) 
but  that  which  was  required  fo  keep  the  unity  of 
the  church  in  these  matters,  was,  that  every  par- 
ticular member  of  any  church  should  comply  with 
the  particular  customs  and  usages  of  his  own  church, 
(nothing  being  inserted  into  her  offices  that  was 
unlawful,)  and  meet  for  religious  worship,  and  hold 
constant  communion  with  her  in  the  performance 
of  all  Divine  service.  And  to  do  otherwise,  either 
by  neglecting  wholly  the  service  of  religious  assem- 
blies, or  setting  up  opposite  communions,  or  raising 
unnecessary  disputes  about  the  lawful  usages  and 
innocent  practices  of  the  church  whereof  a  man 
was  a  member,  was  always  esteemed  an  act  of  crimi- 
nal schism,  as  giving  scandal  and  offence  to  the 
church  and  his  brethren.  There  are  several  canons 
in  the  council  of  Gangra,  made  against  the  sepa- 
ratists called  Eustathians,  directly  to  this  purpose. 
The  fourth  canon  runs  thus :  "  If  any  one  separate 
from  a  married  presbyter,  upon  pretence  that  it  is 
unlawful  to  partake  of  the  oblation  when  he  per- 
forms the  liturgy,  or  celebrates  the  office  of  com- 
munion, let  him  be  anathema,  that  is,  declared  ex- 
communicate, or  cut  off  from  the  church."  The 
fifth  canon  is  to  the  same  effect :  "  If  any  one  teach, 
that  the  house  of  God,  and  the  assemblies  held 
therein,  are  to  be  despised,  let  him  be  anathema." 
The  sixth  forbids  all  private  and  irregular  assem- 
blies :  "  If  any  hold  other  assemblies  privately  out 
of  the  church,  and,  contemning  the  church,  will 
have  ecclesiastical  offices  performed  without  a  pres- 
byter licensed  by  the  bishop,  let  him  be  anathema." 
The  eleventh  censures  those  in  like  manner,  who 
despised  the  feasts  of  charity,  made  in  honour  of  the 
Lord,  refusing  to  partake  of  them.  The  eighteenth 
censures  such  as  fasted  on  the  Lord's  day,  under 
pretence  of  leading  an  ascetic  life ;  this  being  a 
thing  contrary  to  the  general  rule  and  custom  of  the 


church.  The  nineteenth,  on  the  other  hand,  cen- 
sures such  ascetics,  as  without  the  excuse  of  bodily 
infirmity,  out  of  mere  pride,  contemptuously  broke 
the  common  fasts  handed  down  by  tradition  to  be 
observed  in  the  church.  And  the  twentieth  canon 
anathematizes  those  who,  from  an  insolent  disposi- 
tion, contemned  the  assemblies  that  were  wont  to 
be  held  in  the  churches  of  the  martyrs,  and  the  ser- 
vice performed  there,  and  the  commemorations  of 
them.  Among  the  Apostolical  Canons  there  is  one 
to  the  same  purpose,  which  orders,'"  "  That  if  any 
presbyter,  despising  his  bishop,  gather  a  separate 
congregation,  and  erect  another  altar,  having  nothing 
to  object  against  his  bishop  in  point  of  godliness 
or  righteousness,  he  should  be  deposed,  as  a  lover 
of  pre-eminence,  and  arbitrary  power  or  tyranny  in 
the  church."  And  if  any  of  the  clergy  conspired 
with  him,  they  were  likewise  to  be  deposed,  and 
laymen  to  be  suspended  from  the  communion,  after 
a  third  admonition  given  them  from  the  bishop. 
These  were  some  of  the  ancient  rules  relating  to 
separatists  dividing  wholly  from  the  church,  and 
refusing  contemptuously  to  communicate  with  her 
in  Divine  service.  And  for  such  as  frequented  some 
part  of  the  service,  but  fell  off  from  the  rest,  she 
set  an  equal  mark  of  reproach  upon  them,  as  dis- 
obedient children  also.  One  of  the  Apostolical  Ca- 
nons'' orders  all  communicants,  who  came  to  church 
to  hear  the  Scriptures  read,  but  did  not  stay  to  join 
in  prayers  and  receiving  the  eucharist,  to  be  sus- 
pended, as  authors  of  confusion  and  disorder  in  the 
church.  And  the  council  of  Antioch'^  repeats  and 
re-enforces  this  canon.  The  council  of  Eliberis" 
forbids  the  bishop  to  receive  the  oblations  of  such 
as  did  not  communicate :  which  was,  in  effect,  to 
cut  them  off  from  communion  with  the  church,  for 
the  neglect  of  that  principal  part  of  Divine  service. 
The  same  council,  in  another  canon,''"  orders,  "  That 
if  any  one,  being  at  home  in  his  own  city,  did,  for 
three  Lord's  days  together,  absent  himself  from 
church,  he  should  be  suspended  from  the  commu- 
nion for  an  equal  term,  that  he  might  be  made 
sensible  of  his  crime  by  the  church's  censure."  The 
council  of  Sardica,  not  long  after,  made  a  decree  to 
the  same  purpose,  referring  to  some  former  canon 
that  had  been  made  upon  this  matter,  which,  though 
some  learned  men  are  at  a  loss  to  know  what  canon 
it  was,  seems  plainly  to  be  this  canon  of  the  council 
of  Eliberis.  For  Hosius,  bishop  of  Corduba,  was 
present  at  both  these  councils,  and  presided  in  that 
of  Sardica,  which  makes  it  probable,  that  he  re- 
ferred to  the  canon  of  Eliberis,  when  he  proposed  it 
to  the  fathers  at  Sardica,  for  their  consent  and  ap- 
probation.    For  the  council  of  Sardica"  repeats  a 


ss  Can.  Apost.  31.     ^7  ibid.  7.     =8  Cone.  Antioch.  can.  2. 
s»  Cone.  Eliber.  ean.  28.     Vifl.  Cone.  Tolet.  1.  can.  1.3. 
*"  Coac.  Eliber.  can.  21.     Si  quis  in  civitatc  posituS;  ties 


Dominicas  ecclesiam  non  accesseiit,  tanto  tempore  abstineat, 
lit  correptiis  esse  videatur. 
■"  Cone.  Sardic.  can.  II. 


Chap.  I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


865 


canon  made  in  some  former  council,  importing,  That 
a  layman  absenting  from  church  for  three  Lord's 
d.ays  together,  without  just  cause  or  impediment, 
was  to  be  excommunicated  for  his  transgression. 
And  the  same  is  repeated '-' in  the  council  of  TruUo. 
So  careful  was  the  church  to  preserve  her  mem- 
bers in  the  unity  of  Divine  worship,  and  discoun- 
tenance all  separatists,  whether  partial  or  total,  that 
an  occasional  communicant  was  liable  to  censure 
as  well  as  any  other. 

But  then  there  were  some  necessary  reasons, 
that  might  justly  excuse  a  man  from  this  duty  of 
constant  communion  with  his  own  church.  As 
if  a  man  was  in  a  journey,  the  very  nature  of  the 
thing  was  his  excuse  ;  for  he  could  not  communi- 
cate with  his  own  church  in  such  a  necessity,  and 
therefore  the  council  of  TruUo  delivers  the  rule 
with  that  limitation.  If  a  man  was  sick  and  in- 
firm, his  infirmity  was  such  an  impediment,  as  all 
laws,  both  human  and  Divine,  would  allow  of  as  a 
reasonable  cause  of  absenting.  And  the  same  rea- 
son would  excuse  his  non-observance  of  the  severe 
fasts  of  the  church,  which  were  imposed  upon  none 
but  those  that  were  able  to  bear  them,  as  appears 
from  the  forecited  canon"  of  the  council  of  Gangra. 
The  stationary  days  of  fasting  and  prayer  were 
chiefly  designed  for  the  exercise  of  religious  ascetics, 
those  who  had  both  strength  and  leisure  to  attend 
them  :  and  therefore  an  infirm  man,  or  a  poor  man, 
who  was  to  live  by  his  bodily  labour,  was  under  no 
obligation  to  spend  so  much  time  in  those  ordinary 
returns  of  fasting  and  prayer.  If  he  communicated 
with  the  church  religiously  on  the  Lord's  day,  his 
omissions  of  the  rest  were  not  imputed  to  him  as 
breaking  communion  with  the  church.  If  men 
were  in  prison  or  in  banishment,  the  necessity  of 
their  confinement  was  their  natural  excuse.  For 
how  should  they  join  bodily  in  communion  with  the 
church,  who  had  not  the  liberty  of  their  own  bodies, 
whilst  they  were  entirely  at  the  mercy  and  disposal 
of  others  ?  It  was  sufficient  for  them  in  such  a 
case  to  join  in  spirit,  when  they  could  not  in  bodily 
presence ;  and  to  say  with  David,  "  As  the  hart 
panteth  after  the  water-brooks,  so  panteth  my  soul 
after  thee,  O  God.  My  soul  thirsteth  for  God,  for 
the  living  God  :  when  shall  I  come  and  appear  be- 
fore God?"  Psal.  xlii.  I.  And,  "  Woe  is  me,  that  I  am 
constrained  to  dwell  with  Mesech,  and  to  have  my 
habitation  among  the  tents  of  Kedar,"  Psal.  cxx.  5. 
"  0  God,  my  soul  thirsteth  for  thee,  my  flesh  long- 
eth  after  thee,  in  a  dry  and  thirsty  land,  where  no 
water  is  ;  to  see  thy  power  and  glory,  so  as  I  have 
seen  thee  in  the  sanctuary,"  Psal.  Ixiii.  1.  It  was 
their  misfortune,  and  not  their  crime,  in  that  case, 
to  be  absent  from  the  house  of  God :   meanwhile 


the  whole  world  was  to  them  the  temple  of  God ; 
"  For  the  earth  is  the  Lord's,  and  the  fulness  there- 
of:" their  prison  was  their  oratory,  and  the  wilder- 
ness a  sanctuary  ;  their  own  hearts  a  sacrifice,  and 
their  own  bodies  an  altar.  When  Lucian  the  mar- 
tyr made  use  of  his  own  breast  in  chains  instead  of 
a  communion  table  to  oflfer  the  eucharist  on,  his 
sacrifice  was  as  acceptable  to  God,  as  if  it  had  been 
in  the  midst  of  the  church  upon  an  altar.  For,  as 
St.  Basil  words  it,"  in  such  a  case  it  is  not  the 
place,  but  the  mind  and  aflection  of  the  supplicant, 
that  God  regards.  Moses  was  heard  in  the  bottom 
of  the  sea,  Job  upon  a  dunghill,  Ezekias  in  his  bed, 
Jeremy  in  the  dungeon,  Jonas  in  the  whale's  belly, 
Daniel  in  the  lions'  den,  the  three  children  in  the 
burning  fiery  furnace,  the  penitent  thief  upon  the 
cross,  and  Peter  and  Paul  in  prison.  Every  place, 
says  Dionysius"  of  Alexandria,  is  instead  of  a  tem- 
ple in  time  of  persecution,  whether  it  be  a  field,  or 
a  wilderness,  or  a  ship,  or  an  inn,  or  a  prison. 
There  is  a  great  difference  to  be  made  between  ne- 
cessity and  contempt.  If  a  man  voluntarily  ab- 
sents himself  from  the  assemblies  of  the  church, 
when  he  may  enjoy  them,  he  is  a  divider  of  her 
unity,  by  contemning  her  service  ;  but  if  necessity 
obliges  him  to  be  absent,  when  he  is  desirous  to  be 
present, he  is  spiritually  present  with  her  even  whilst 
he  is  absent  in  body :  which  is  as  much  preserving 
her  unity,  as  his  case  will  allow,  or  the  church  can 
require  ;  seeing  this  sort  of  unity  is  not  simply  essen- 
tial to  the  being  of  a  church  in  all  states,  but  only 
necessary  to  her  well-being  in  peaceable  times  and 
ordinary  cases.  And  happy  would  it  be  for  the 
church,  if  men  would  never  deny  themselves  the 
benefit  of  her  communion  in  religious  assemblies, 
but  upon  such  reasons  of  necessity,  which  carry 
their  own  apology  at  first  sight  in  their  very  na- 
ture :  if  they  were  merely  passive,  and  not  active 
in  their  separation,  such  a  separation  would  not  in- 
volve them  in  the  guilt  of  schism,  being  so  ration- 
ally to  be  accounted  for  both  before  God  and  his 
church.  The  primitive  church  was  exceeding  happy 
in  these  tw^o  things  (which  relate  to  this  sort  of 
unity  in  communion,  the  want  of  which  is  so 
much  to  be  lamented  both  in  its  causes  and  effects 
in  this  unhappy  divided  state  of  the  church  in 
later  ages) :  1st,  That  no  church  then  ever  assumed 
to  herself  an  authority  of  imposing  upon  her  mem- 
bers any  things  unlawful,  or  contrary  to  the  word 
of  God,  either  in  faith  or  practice,  as  necessary 
terms  of  communion.  They  required  no  belief  of 
any  articles  of  faith,  as  necessary  to  salvation,  but 
such  as  were  contained  in  their  common  creeds, 
and  founded  upon  the  infallible  authority  of  Scrip- 
ture.  They  inserted  nothing  into  their  public  forms 


«  Cone.  Trull,  can.  80. 
*'  Cone.  Gangren.  ean.  19. 


"  Basil.  E.xhort.  acl  Baptism,  et  alii  ap.  Durant.  de  Riti- 
bus,  lib.  1.  eap.  2.  *'  A  p.  Euscb.  lib.  7.  cap.  '22. 


806 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


of  worship,  repugnant  to  the  word  of  God,  or 
intrenching  upon  any  Divine  rule  given  in  Scrip- 
ture about  the  object,  or  matter,  or  manner  of 
adoration,  as  any  one  may  perceive,  by  considering 
the  account  that  has  been  given  of  their  public 
worship  and  liturgy  in  the  three  last  Books,  where 
we  examined  every  particular  office  of  it.  Things 
being  thus  secured  for  the  substance  of  their  wor- 
ship, all  Christian  people  in  the  next  place  thought 
it  their  duty  to  submit  to  the  wisdom  and  prudence 
of  their  governors  in  estalilishing  things  external 
and  circumstantial,  relating  to  expedience,  edifica- 
tion, and  good  order.  And  this  was  the  second 
thing  to  be  admired  in  the  economy  of  the  ancient 
church,  that  the  people  never  had  any  dispute  with 
their  superiors  about  matters  of  this  kind,  but  left 
all  indifferent  things,  and  things  of  expedience, 
decency,  circumstance,  and  form,  to  the  judgment 
and  choice  of  their  governors,  or  persons  invested 
with  authority  to  determine  such  matters  ;  readily 
complying  with  the  innocent  customs  of  the  church, 
and  all  the  rules  of  public  order,  and  never  dividing 
into  sects  and  parties  upon  the  account  of  rites  and 
ceremonies,  though  differently  practised  in  different 
churches.  This  was  according  to  the  wise  and 
peaceable  rule  laid  down  by  St.  Austin  in  his  ad- 
vice to  Casulanus  :  In  those  things,''"  says  he,  con- 
cerning which  the  Holy  Scripture  has  given  no 
positive  direction,  the  custom  of  the  people  of  God, 
or  the  rules  of  our  ancestors  or  superiors,  are  to  be 
taken  for  a  law.  He  instances  in  the  custom  of  the 
church  never  to  fast  on  the  Lord's  day,  which  was 
become  so  much  a  rule,  that  whoever  should  pre- 
tend to  introduce  the  contrary  custom,  to  make  it 
a  fast,  should  be  thought  to  give  great  scandal  to 
the  church,  and  that  not  without  good  reason.  Nay, 
he  says,  it  would  be  to  offend  God,  so  to  scandalize 
the  universal  church  by  holding  a  fast  on  the 
Lord's  day ;  especially  since  it  was  become  the 
])ractice  of  (he  impious  Manichees  so  to  fast  in  op- 
position to  the  church.  The  Saturday  fast  was 
not  a  custom  of  so  general  observation ;  for  some 
churches  kept  it  a  fast,  and  some  a  festival ;  but 
his  advice  as  to  this  is  much  of  the  same  nature. 
That  a  man  should  observe "  the  custom  of  every 


church  where  he  happened  to  be,  if  he  was  minded 
neither  to  give  offence  to  them,  nor  take  offence 
from  them.  And  this  advice,  he  says,  he  had  in 
his  yomiger  days  from  the  mouth  of  St.  Ambrose. 
But  because,  in  such  a  matter  as  this  is,  it  might 
happen,  that  not  only  different  churches  might 
practise  differently,  but  also  the  members  of  the 
same  church  might  differ  in  their  practice  one  from 
another  without  breach  of  communion,  as  it  was  in 
some  of  the  African  churches,  where  in  one  and 
the  same  church  some  chose  to  fast,  others  to  dine 
upon  the  sabbath,  his  advice  to  Casulanus  as  a 
presbyter  was,''*  to  follow  the  custom  of  those  who 
had  the  care  and  government  of  the  churches 
committed  to  them :  Resist  not  your  bishop  in  such 
a  matter  as  this,  but  follow  what  he  does  without 
any  scruple  or  disputation. 

3.  And  this  leads  us  to  consider  an- 

1  „         .  ~  Sect.  6. 

other  sort  of  unity,  very  necessary  for     ^'^y.  The  unity  of 

•>  '  •>  •'  subjection  of  presby- 

the  well-being  of  the  church  ;  which  their '"bisi»°'''\nd 
was,  that  the  clergy  and  people  should  }|c'''orders°  of ''"he 
be  united  under  one  single  bishop  in  :n"?„diSeTent"na-' 
every  church,  paying  a  due  respect  to 
his  authority,  and  not  dividing  from  him,  either  by 
setting  up  anti-bishops  against  him,  or  withdrawing 
from  his  communion  or  government,  or  despising 
the  public  orders  of  his  church,  which  were  made 
for  expedience  and  edification  in  matters  of  an  in- 
different nature.  Cyprian  has  abundance  relating 
to  this  sort  of  unity,  considering  both  the  state  of 
his  own  and  other  churches.  The  church,  he  says, 
is  a  people  united  ^^  to  their  bishop,  and  a  flock  ad- 
hering to  their  pastor.  Whence  he  infers,  that  the 
bishop  is  in  the  church,  and  the  church  in  the  bi- 
shop ;  and  that  whoever  are  not  with  the  bishop, 
are  not  in  the  church  ;  that  is,  none  who  voluntarily 
withdraw  from  his  communion,  and  set  up  others 
in  opposition  to  it.  To  the  same  purpose  he  says 
again,'**'  That  the  ordination  of  bishops,  and  the  con- 
stitution of  the  church,  came  down  by  succession 
from  the  apostles,  so  as  that  the  church  stood  upon 
its  bishops,  and  every  act  of  the  church  was  regu- 
lated by  their  direction,  as  the  chief  governors  of  it. 
And  therefore,  when  some  lapsers  wrote  to  him, 
giving  themselves  the  name  of  the  church,  he  gave 


*^  Aug.  Ep.  86.  ad  Casulan.  In  liis  enitn  rebus,  de  quibus 
nihil  certi  statiiit  Scriplura  Divina,  inos  popiJi  Dei,  vel  iii- 
stitiita  majoriim  pro  lege  tenenda  sunt.— Quisquis  hiinc  diem 
jejimio  decernenduin  putaverit,  non  parvo  scandalo  erit 
ecclesise,  nee  immcrito.— Qiiis  non  Denni  offendet,  si  vel  it 
cum  scandalo  totius,  qua;  ubique  dilatata  est,  ecclesioe,  die 
Dominico  jejunare  ? 

■"  Ibid.  Adqnamcnnq\ie  ccclesiam  veneritis,  ejus  morem 
servate,  si  pati  scaiidalinn  non  vultis,  aut  faeere. 

"■^  Ibid.  Sed  quoniam  contingit  maxime  in  Africa,  ut  una 
ecclesia,  vel  unius  regionis  ecclesi;e,  alios  habeant  sabbato 
prandentes,  alios  jejunantes,  mos  eorum  mihi  sequendus 
videtur,  quibus  eorum  populorum  congregatio  regenda 
commissa  est Episcopo  tuo  in  hac  re  noli  vesistere,  ot 


quod  facit  ipse,  sine  ullo  scrupulo  vel  disceptatione  sectare. 

"  Cypr.  Ep.  69.  al.  66.  ad  Florentiura,  p.  168.  Ecclesise 
sunt  plebs  sacerdoti  adunata,  et  pastori  suo  grex  adhaerens. 
Undo  scire  debes  episcopum  in  ecclesia  esse,  et  ecclesiam 
in  episcopo;  et  si  qui  cum  episcopo  non  sint,  in  ecclesia 
non  esse. 

•''"  Cypr.  Ep.  27.  al.  .3-3.  ad  Lapsos,  p.  66.  Inde  per  tem- 
porum  et  successionum  vices,  episcoporum  ordinatio  et 
ecclesiae  ratio  decurrit,  ut  ecclesia  super  episcopos  consti- 
tuatur,  et  omnis  actus  ecclesiae  per  eosdem  praepositos  gu- 
bernetur.  Cum  hoc  itaque  Divina  lege  I'undatum  .sit,  miror 
quosdara  audaci  temeritate  sic  mihi  scribere  voluisse,  ut 
ecclesiae  nomine  literas  facerent;  quando  ecclesia  in  epis- 
copo et  clero  et  in  omnibus  stantibus  sit  constituta,  &c. 


Chap.  I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


snr 


them  a  ver\'  sharp  answer,  telling  them,  He  could 
not  but  wonder  at  their  temerity  and  boldness,  that 
they  should  style  themselves  the  church,  when  it 
was  so  plain  by  the  Divine  law,  that  a  church  con- 
sisted of  a  bishop  and  clergy  together  with  a  people 
standing  firm  without  lapsing  in  time  of  persecu- 
tion ;  whereas  no  nimiber  of  lapsers  could  be  called 
a  church,  since  "  God  was  not  the  God  of  the  dead, 
but  of  the  living."  In  another  place,  he  severely 
rebukes  the  presumption  of  those  presbyters,  who 
took  upon  them  by  their  own  authority  to  reconcile 
lapsers  without  consulting  him,  who  was  the  chief 
manager  and  director  of  the  discipline  of  the  church. 
This,  he  tells  them,  was  to  forget  both  the  rules  °' 
of  the  gospel,  and  their  own  station  ;  neither  think- 
ing of  the  future  judgment  of  the  Lord,  nor  the 
bishop  that  was  now  set  over  them ;  but  assuming 
to  themselves  the  whole  power  of  discipline,  both  to 
the  dishonour  and  contempt  of  their  bishop,  and  to 
the  detriment  of  their  brethren's  salvation.  It  was 
an  ancient  rule  in  the  church,  that  presbyters  should 
do  no  ministerial  act  but  by  the  authority  of  their 
bishop,  and  in  dependence  upon  and  subordination 
to  him.  This  I  have  had  occasion  to  show  at  large 
in  a  former  Book,  out  of  Ignatius,  Cyprian,  and  the 
ancient  councils,^  which  need  not  here  be  repeated. 
Therefore  it  was  always  reputed  a  tendency  toward 
schism,  for  presbyters  to  do  any  such  act  in  con- 
tempt of  their  bishop,  though  they  made  no  formal 
separation  from  him.  But  the  most  flagrant  act  of 
schism  was,  when,  in  despite  of  his  authority,  their 
factious  humour  and  pride  pushed  them  on  to  divide 
from  his  communion,  and  set  up  separate  assemblies 
in  opposition  to  him.  This,  says  St.  Cyprian,  is 
the  first  beginning  of  heretics,  the  first  rise  and  at- 
tempt of  schismatics,  men  of  evil  dispositions,  to 
please  themselves,  and  with  a  swelling  pride  con- 
temn the  bishop  that  is  set  over  them.  The  effect 
of  which  is  presently  to  forsake  the  church,  and  set 
up  another  profane  altar  without,  and  to  rebel 
against  the  peace  of  Christ,  and  the  ordination  and 
unity  of  God.^  Most  heresies  and  schisms  take 
their  birth  (says  he  again)  from  this  original,^*  that 
men  refuse  to  submit  to  the  bishop  appointed  by 
God,  and  consider  not  that  there  ought  to  be  but 


one  bishop  at  once  in  a  church,  and  but  one  judge 
in  the  room  of  Christ.  This  he  speaks  particularly 
against  those,  who  thought  to  justify  their  schism 
by  setting  up  an  anti-bishop  in  opposition  to  the 
true  one ;  which  did  not  diminish  the  schism,  but 
heighten  and  augment  it,  and  commonly  render  it 
more  inveterate  and  lasting.  As  it  was  in  the  case 
of  the  Meletians  in  Egypt,  and  the  Donatists  in 
Africa,  and  the  Novatians  at  Rome,  who  all  carried 
on  their  schisms  more  powerfully  by  the  help  of 
anti-bishops  to  strengthen  their  party,  and  uphold 
their  faction.  But  this  was  no  just  pretence  for 
schism ;  but  a  manifest  violation  of  the  standing 
rule  of  the  catholic  church,  which  was,  to  have  but 
one  bishop  in  a  church,  as  the  centre  of  unity  :  and 
to  set  up  another  in  opposition  to  him,  was  not  to 
make  another  true  bishop  or  pastor  of  the  flock,  to 
whom  the  people  were  obliged  to  join  themselves  as 
the  minister  of  God;  but  to  introduce  a  wolf,  an 
adulterer,  a  sacrilegious  usurper,  a  stranger  and  an 
alien,  from  whom  they  were  obliged  to  fly,  as  from 
one  who  had  no  title  to  their  obedience  by  any  Di- 
vine appointment  or  allowed  rule  of  ordination.  I 
have  more  than  once  fully  demonstrated  this  ^^  out 
of  the  writings  of  Cyprian,  and  others  of  the  an- 
cients, to  which  it  is  here  sufficient  to  refer  the 
reader.  I  only  note  one  thing  out  of  Cyprian, 
which  he  applies  particularly  to  the  case  of  the 
Novatian  schism.  That  to  set  up  such  an  anti- 
bishop  to  head  a  faction,''*  was  to  act  against  the 
settlement  of  the  church,  the  laws  of  the  gospel, 
and  the  unity  of  the  catholic  institution :  it  was 
to  make  another  church,  to  tear  the  members  of 
Christ,  and  disjoint  that  one  body  and  soul  of  the 
Lord's  flock  by  a  dividing  emulation.  And  there- 
fore he  tells  Maximus,  and  Nicostratus,  and  other 
confessors,  who  were  concerned  in  upholding  and 
abetting  the  Novatian  schism.  That  they  were  not 
asserting  the  gospel  of  Christ,  whilst  they  diNided 
themselves  from  the  flock  of  Christ,  and  were  not 
in  peace  and  concord  with  his  church.  It  is  usual 
with  him  upon  this  account  to  say.  He  has  not  God 
for  his  Father  who  has  not  the  church"  for  his 
mother.  Whoever  is  separated  from  the  church,  to 
be  joined  to  an  adulteress,  is  separated  from  the 


"  Cypr.  Ep.  10.  al.  16.  ad  Clerum,  p.  36.  Aliqui  de  pres- 
byteris,  nee  evangelii,  nee  loci  sui  memores,  sed  nequo 
futurum  Domini  judicium,  neque  nunc  sibi  pnepositum 
episcopum  cngitantes — cum  contumelia  et  contemptu  pra;- 
positi  totum  sibi  vendicant,  &c. 

^-  Book  II.  chap.  3.  sect.  2,  &c. 

^  Cypr.  Ep.  55.  al.  3.  ad  Rogatian.  p.  6.  Haec  sunt 
enim  initia  haereticorum,  et  ortus  atque  conatus  schismati- 
corum  male  cogitantium,  ut  sibi  placcant,  et  prsepositum  su- 
perbo  tumore  contemnant.  Sic  de  ecclesia  receditu'r,  sic 
altare  profanum  foris  cnllocatur,  sic  contra  pacem  Christi, 
et  ordinationem  atque  unitatem  Dei  rebellatur. 

^  Ep.  55.  al.  59.  ad  Cornel,  p.  129.  Neque  enim  aliunde 
haereses  obortae  sunt,  aut  nata  sunt  scandala,  quam  inde 
3  K  2 


quod  saccrdoti  Dei  non  obtemperatur,  nee  unus  in  ecclesia 
ad  teuipus  sacerdos,  et  ad  tempus  jude.x  vice  Christi  cogi- 
tatur. 

"  Book  II.  chap.  13.  sect.  1.  See  also  Scholast.  Hist,  of 
Lay  Baptism,  Part  II.  chap.  2. 

^  Cypr.  Ep.  44.  al.  46.  ad  Maxim,  et  Nicostrat.  Confes- 
sores.  Gravat  me — cum  vos  illic  comperissem  contra  cc- 
clesiasticam  dispositioneni,  contra  evangelicam  legem,  con- 
tra institutionis  catholic;c  unitatem,  alium  episcopum  fieri 
consensisse,  id  est,  quod  nt-c  fas  est,  nee  licet  fieri,  ccclesiam 
aliam  constitui ;  Christi  membra  discerpi,  Uominici  gregis 
animum  et  corpus  unum  discissa  nemulatione  lacerari,  &c. 

"  Cypr.  de  Unit.  Eccles.  p.  109.  Habere  jam  mm  potest 
Deum  Patrem,  qui  ecclesiam  non  habet  matrem,  &c. 


868 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


promises  of  the  church  :  he  cannot,  come  to  the  re- 
wards of  Christ  who  leaves  the  church  of  Christ; 
he  is  an  alien,  he  is  profane,  lie  is  an  enemy :  and 
that  martyrdom  itself,  which  was  accounted  in  many 
cases  equivalent  to  baptism,  would  not  expiate  this 
crime,  miless  the  offending  party  returned  to  the 
unity  of  the  church.  For  what  peace,  says  he,^*  can 
they  promise  themselves,  who  die  in  enmity  with 
their  brethren  ?  What  sort  of  sacrifices  do  they 
think  they  offer,  who  rival  the  priests  with  emula- 
tion ?  Do  they  imagine  Christ  is  with  them  when 
they  are  assembled,  who  assemble  out  of  the  church 
of  Christ  ?  Such  men,  though  they  be  slain  for  the 
confession  of  his  name,  do  not  wash  away  the  stain 
with  their  blood.  The  inexpiable  and  grievous 
crime  of  dissension  is  not  purged  away  by  their 
passion:  he  cannot  be  a  martyr  that  is  not  in  the 
church  ;  he  cannot  attain  to  the  kingdom  who 
deserts  the  church  which  is  to  have  the  kingdom. 
Christ  commended  peace  to  us ;  he  commanded  us 
to  be  unanimous,  and  united  together  in  concord ; 
he  enjoined  us  to  keep  the  bonds  of  love  and  charity 
firm  and  inviolable.  He  cannot  make  himself  a 
martyr  that  retains  not  brotherly  charity.  St. 
Paul  teaches  us  this,  and  testifies,  saying,  "  Though 
I  have  all  fiiith,  so  that  I  could  remove  mountains, 
and  haA'e  not  charity,  I  am  nothing.  And  though 
I  bestow  all  my  goods  to  feed  the  poor,  and  though 
I  give  my  body  to  be  burnt,  and  have  not  charity, 
it  profiteth  me  nothing.  Charity  suffereth  long 
and  is  kind :  charity  envieth  not ;  doth  not  behave 
itself  unseemly,  is  not  puffed  up,  is  not  easily  pro- 
voked, thinketh  no  evil,  loveth  all  things,  belicvelh 
all  things,  hopeth  all  things,  endureth  all  things. 
Charity  never  faileth ;"  it  will  always  be  in  posses- 
sion of  the  kingdom ;  it  will  endure  for  ever  in  the 
imity  of  that  fraternity  which  adheres  together. 
But  discord  cannot  attain  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven, 
nor  come  to  the  reward  of  Christ,  who  said,  "  This 
is  my  commandment,  that  ye  love  one  another,  as  I 
have  loved  you."  He  cannot  appertain  to  Christ, 
who  violates  the  love  of  Christ  by  perfidious  dis- 
sension. He  that  hath  not  love,  hath  not  God.  It 
is  the  voice  of  the  blessed  apostle  St.  John ;  "  God," 
says  he,  "is  love,  and  he  that  dwelleth  in  love, 
dwelleth  in  God,  and  God  in  him."  They  cannot 
dwell  with  God  who  would  not  abide  unanimously 
in  the  church  of  God :  though  they  burn  in  the 
flames,  though  they  be  cast  into  the  fire,  or  thrown 
to  wild  beasts,  and  so  lay  down  their  lives ;  that 
will  not  be  the  crown  of  their  faith,  hut  the  pun- 


ishment of  their  perfidiousness ;  nor  the  glorious 
exit  of  a  religious  virtue,  but  a  death  of  desperation. 
Such  a  one  may  be  slain,  but  he  cannot  be  crowned : 
Occidi  talis  potest,  coronari  nonjMtest.  Cyprian  often 
repeats  this  assertion  in  other  places  of  his  writings, 
(which  for  brevity's  sake  I  omit,)  and  particularly 
applies  it  to  the  schism  of  the  Novatians,  who 
brake  the  unity  of  the  church  by  setting  up  Nova- 
tian  their  leader,  as  anti-bishop  against  Cornehus, 
the  lawful  bishop  of  Rome ;  who  being  once  regu- 
larly chosen  and  invested  in  his  ofliice,  no  other 
could  intrude  himself  into  the  same  place  without 
dividing  the  unity  of  the  church.  Which  was  not 
the  singular  opinion  of  St.  Cyprian,  but  the  voice 
of  the  whole  catholic  church,  as  I  have  had  occasion 
to  demonstrate  more  fully'"  in  another  discourse, 
to  which  I  refer  the  reader  for  greater  satisfaction. 
Neither  was  it  any  private  opinion  of  Cyprian, 
that  a  schismatic,  continuing  a  schismatic  Avithout 
repentance,  could  not  be  a  martj-r ;  but  herein  he 
is  followed  by  the  greatest  lights  of  the  church,  St. 
Chrysostom,'"  St.  Austin,'^'  Fulgentius,''"^  and  others, 
who  cite  this  saying  of  his  with  approbation.  Which 
shows  what  weight  they  laid  upon  this  sort  of  unity, 
of  submission  and  obedience  to  every  lawful  bishop 
in  the  regular  management  of  the  affairs  of  his  own 
church. 

But  we  must  note,  that  this  obedience  was  only 
due  to  bishops,  when  they  could  make  out  a  just 
title  to  it  by  the  standing  rules  of  the  catholic 
church.  For,  1.  If  any  man  came  into  his  office 
by  a  simoniacal  ordination,  his  ordination,  by  the 
canons,  was  declared  null  and  void :  "^  and  then  no 
obedience  was  due  to  him,  nor  any  communion  to 
be  held  with  him,  as  a  bishop  of  the  church.  2.  If 
a  man  intruded  himself  into  a  full  see,  where  an- 
other bishop  was  regularly  ordained  before  him ;  it 
was  so  far  from  being  a  duty  to  pay  obedience  to 
him,  that  it  was  the  very  crime  of  schism  we  have 
now  been  speaking  of  in  the  Novatians  of  old,  to 
separate  from  the  true  bishop  by  joining  with  an 
invader  set  up  against  him.  3.  If  a  bishop  fell  into 
manifest  heresy  or  idolatry,  the  people  were  not 
only  at  liberty,  but  obhged  in  point  of  duty,  to 
separate  from  his  communion  as  an  intolerable  pre- 
varicator and  transgressor.  Thus  Cyprian  ^^  tells 
the  people  of  Leon  and  Astorga  in  Spain,  with  re- 
lation to  Martialis  and  Basilides,  two  bishops  that 
fell  into  idolatry.  That  it  was  their  duty,  in  obe- 
dience to  the  Divine  commands,  to  separate  them- 
selves from  such  apostatizing  bishops,  and  not  join 


'"^Cypr.  de  Unit.  Ecclcs.  p.  113. 

*'' Scholast.  Hist,  of  Lay  Baptism,  Part  II.  chap.  2. 
sect.  4. 

™  Chrys.  Horn.  11.  in  Ephes. 

«'  Aug.  Ep.  61  et  204.  It.  de  Bapt.  lib.  4.  cap.  17.  Cont. 
Literas  Petiliani,  lib.  2.  c.  2.3.  De  Gestis  cum  Emerito, 
p.  249. 


"'-'  Fulgent,  de  Fide  ad  Petrum,  c.  3  et  .39. 

63  Vid.  Can.  Apost.  29.  et  Cone.  Chalced.  can.  2. 

"  Cypr.  Ep.  68.  al.  67.  p.  171.  Plebs  obsequens  prae- 
ceplis  Dominicis,  et  Deum  metuens,  a  peccatore  praeposito 
separare  se  debet,  nee  se  ad  sacrilegi  sacerdotis  sacrificia 
miscere  ;  quando  ipsa  maxime  habeat  potestatcm  vel  eli- 
geudi  dignos  sacerdotes,  vel  indignos  recusandi. 


Chap.  I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


869 


i  n  their  sacrilegious  sacrifices  ;  forasmuch  as  it  was 
chiefly  in  their  power  cither  to  choose  worthy  bi- 
shops, or  refuse  the  unworthy.  And  the  same  ob- 
hg-ation  lay  upon  them  to  separate  from  the  com- 
munion of  au  heretical  bishop,  as  is  evident  from 
the  whole  practice  of  the  church.  4.  If  any  bishops 
were  legally  deposed  for  any  other  misdemeanors, 
it  was  equally  the  people's  duty  to  give  vigour  and 
effect  to  the  censures  of  the  church  by  deserting 
their  communion,  and  adhering  to  such  as  were  by 
just  authority  substituted  in  their  room.  5.  It  some- 
times happened  that  the  dispute  of  right  between 
two  contending  bishops  was  so  nice,  and  doubtful, 
and  hard  to  be  determined,  that  good  and  wise  men 
might  join  with  either,  till  the  matter  of  dispute 
w^as  fully  ended  by  a  competent  authority,  from 
which  there  lay  no  further  appeal.  This  was  like 
the  case  of  a  lite  pendente,  where  each  party  might 
be  presumed  to  have  a  right,  till  the  cause  was  fully 
heard  and  adjusted:  and  in  such  a  case  it  wovdd 
be  hard  to  condemn  innocent  men  who  joined  with 
either  side,  till  some  better  light  and  direction  could 
be  afforded  them,  which  might  give  a  final  deter- 
mination of  the  question  in  debate,  and  settle  more 
perfectly  the  rule  of  communion.  This  was  the 
case  between  Flavian  and  Evagrius,  bishops  of  An- 
tioch :  Flavian  was  generally  received  in  the  East- 
ern churches,  but  Evagrius  had  the  countenance 
of  the  bishops  of  Rome,  and  the  Western  churches ; 
and  during  this  contention,  it  was  no  great  crime 
in  men  of  honest  minds  to  join  with  either  party, 
since  the  matter  was  so  hard  to  be  determined  by 
the  greatest  authority  in  the  church.  6.  Sometimes 
a  bishop,  who  might  be  presumed  to  have  a  right 
in  a  church,  was  willing  to  resign  to  his  opposite, 
to  prevent  a  schism,  and  preserve  the  peace  of  the 
church :  and  in  that  case  there  could  be  no  harm 
in  submitting  to  the  opposite,  because  it  was  done 
by  consent  and  cession  of  the  true  bishop,  and  was 
confirmed  by  the  approbation  of  the  church.  7- 
Sometimes  a  bishop  was  willing  to  resign  for  the 
sake  of  peace,  but  a  superior  power  would  not  per- 
mit him  so  to  do:  thus  Flavian,  in  the  forementioned 
dispute  with  Evagrius,  being  summoned  by  the 
emperor  Theodosius  to  have  his  cause  heard  and 
decided  at  Rome,  generously  told  the  emperor,  that 
if  his  faith  was  accused  as  erroneous,  or  his  life  as 
immoral  and  unqualifying  liim  for  a  bishopric,  he 
would  freely  let  his  accusers  be  his  judges,  and 
stand  to  their  determination,  whatever  it  were :  But 
if  the  dispute  be  only  about  the  throne  and  govern- 
ment of  the  church,  said  he,  I  shall  not  stay  for 
judgment,  nor  contend  with  any  that  has  a  mind  to 
that,  but  freely  recede,  and  abdicate  the  throne  of 
my  own  accord ;  and  you,  great  sir,  may  commit  the 
see  of  Antioch  to  whom  you  please.  The  historian*^ 


Theoilor.  lib.  5.  cap.  23 


says,  The  emperor  was  so  much  affected  with  this 
generous  answer,  that  instead  of  sending  him  to 
Rome  for  judgment,  he  sent  him  back  to  take  care 
of  his  church, and  would  never  after  hearken  to  any 
solicitations  that  were  made  to  exjiel  him.  Now, 
in  this  case  it  were  unreasonable  to  think,  that  the 
people  which  followed  Flavian,  among  whom  was 
St.  Chrysostom,  were  in  any  fault,  though  the 
judgment  of  the  Western  bishops  was  against  him. 
8.  Lastly,  Sometimes  two  bishops  were  allowed  to 
sit  jointly  in  the  same  see,  as  some  suppose  Peter 
and  Paul  to  have  been  at  Rome,  the  one  the  bishop 
of  the  Jews,  and  the  other  of  the  Gentiles ;  or  when 
one  was  to  be  coadjutor  to  the  other;  or  when  it 
was  to  cure  an  inveterate  schism,  as  it  was  in  the 
proposal  made  by  the  catholic  bishops  to  the  Dona- 
tists  in  the  collation  of  Carthage  ;  of  all  which 
cases  the  reader  may  find  an  exact  account  given "^ 
in  a  former  part  of  this  work.  Now,  in  such  cases 
obedience  might  be  paid  to  either  bishop  without 
schism,  because  there  was  no  opposition  between 
them  :  and  though  it  was  not  according  to  the  com- 
mon rule  of  the  church,  to  have  two  bishops  ordi- 
narily sitting  together  in  one  see  at  the  same  time, 
yet  for  extraordinary  reasons  this  was  sometimes 
allowed  in  special  cases ;  and  then  there  was  no 
schism  or  other  evil  in  it,  no  breach  of  unity  or  en- 
croachment upon  any  man's  right,  because  it  was 
done  for  expedience  and  benefit  of  the  community, 
by  common  consent  of  all  parties,  and  the  general 
approbation  of  the  church.  I  have  interposed  these 
cautions,  that  it  might  be  more  particularly  under- 
stood, wherein  the  due  submission  to  every  bishop 
in  his  own  church  consisted,  and  under  what  limita- 
tions obedience  was  required  to  a  single  bishop,  regu- 
larly appointed,  to  preserve  the  unity  of  the  church. 

4.    To  preserve  the  imity  of  the 
church  in  its  well-being,  it  was  re-     4Uiiy,  The  unity 

-     ,  t  f         ^  ^      of  suhmission  to  the 

quired  that  every  member  oi  a  church  discipline  of  the 

church. 

should  submit  to  the  ordinary  rules  of 
discipline  appointed  for  the  punishment  of  delin- 
quents ;  and  neither  despise  the  lawful  censures  of 
his  own  church,  nor  seek  clandestinely  to  be  re- 
stored to  communion  in  any  other  church,  without 
giving  satisfaction  to  his  own  church,  whereof  he 
was  a  member ;  nor,  betaking  himself  to  the  con- 
venticles of  heretics  or  schismatics,  to  be  received 
by  them  as  a  communicant,  when  he  was  cast  out 
of  his  own  church  as  a  criminal.  For  all  these 
were  direct  violations  of  the  unity  of  discipline, 
which  ought  to  be  preserved  entire  in  every  church. 
The  eflect  of  a  legal  excommunication  and  the 
power  of  the  keys  was  always  reputed  such,  as  that 
if  a  man  was  justly  cast  out  of  the  communion  of 
his  own  church  for  his  offences,  he  was  supposed  to 
be  excluded  from  all  title  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 


«6BookU.  chap.  13. 


870 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


during  his  continuance  in  that  state,  by  virtue  of 
our  Saviour's  authority  delegated  to  the  church,  in 
those  words,  "  "Whose  soever  sins  ye  retain,  they  are 
retained;"  and,  "Whatsoever  ye  shall  bind  on 
earth,  shall  be  bound  in  heaven."  And  therefore, 
unless  men  submitted  to  the  ordinary  way  of  re- 
storing offenders,  and  sought  to  be  reconciled  to  the 
peace  of  the  church  by  the  proper  methods  of  pub- 
lic confession  and  repentance,  and  intercession  for 
pardon  and  absolution,  they  were  treated  as  despis- 
ers  of  the  church's  discipline ;  and  if  they  died  in 
that  state,  without  being  first  reconciled,  and  re- 
ceived into  communion  again,  they  were  looked  upon 
as  persons  in  a  deplorable  condition,  as  dying  in  a 
state  of  sin  and  rebellion  against  God,  and  out  of 
the  unity  of  the  church.  For  which  reason  no 
solemnity  was  ever  used  at  their  funeral,  as  was 
usual  for  those  who  died  in  the  peace  of  the  church ; 
nor  were  their  oblations  received,  or  any  offerings  or 
commemorations  made  for  them,  as  for  others,  in 
the  usual  service  of  the  church.  Only  in  one  case 
a  little  favour  was  showed  to  such  as  died  in  the 
bonds  of  excommunication  unrelaxed  by  any  formal 
absolution :  which  was,  when  such  penitents  as 
obediently  submitted  to  the  church's  discipline,  and 
gave  evident  tokens  of  their  sincere  repentance, 
happened  to  die  suddenly,  when  they  were  desirous 
of  reconciliation  and  absolution,  but  by  imavoidable 
necessity  could  not  have  it.  In  this  case  the  canons 
ordered,  that  their  oblations  should  be  received,  as  a 
testimony  of  their  submission,  and  being  united  in 
heart  and  mind  to  the  church,  though  they  could 
not  have  the  formality  of  an  external  absolution. 
In  the  fourth  council  of  Carthage  there  is  a  canon 
to  this  purpose  :  Such  penitents  as  are  intent  and 
diligent  in  observing  the  rules  of  penance,"  if  they 
chance  to  die  in  a  journey,  or  at  sea,  where  they  can 
have  no  help  or  remedy,  shall  notwithstanding  have 
their  memory  commended  both  in  the  prayers  and 
oblations  of  the  church.  The  second  council  of 
Vaison^  is  a  little  more  particular  in  declaring  how 
such  penitents  shall  be  admitted  to  all  the  privileges 
of  church  communion  after  death  :  If  any  of  those 
who  are  under  penance,  and  live  in  the  course  of  a 
good  life  with  satisfactory  compunction,  happen  to 
die  suddenly  and  unexpectedly  either  in  the  coun- 
try or  in  a  journey,  their  oblations  shall  be  received, 
and  their  funeral  obsequies  and  memorials  shall  be 
celebrated  in  the  usual  manner  and  affection  of  the 
church:  because  it  were  unjust,  that  their  comme- 
morations should  be  excluded  from  the  salutary 
mysteries,  who,  whilst  they  were  labouring  earnestly 
with  a  faithful  affection  after  those  holy  mysteries, 
were  intercepted  by  sudden  death  from  the  viaticum 


of  the  sacraments,  to  whom  the  priest  perhaps  would 
have  thought  fit  to  have  granted  the  most  absolute 
reconciliation.  There  are  a  great  many  canons*' 
in  the  second  council  of  Aries,  and  the  second 
of  Orleans,  and  the  second  of  Toledo,  and  the 
coimcil  of  Epone,  to  the  same  purpose.  By  all 
which  we  may  judge,  that  though  the  church 
was  severe  against  impenitent  apostates  and  con- 
temners of  her  discipline,  yet  she  showed  great  fa- 
vour and  tenderness  toward  such  as  really  honoured 
her  discipline,  and  gave  evident  tokens  of  repent- 
ance :  such  men  were  not  deemed  to  depart  out  of 
the  unity  and  communion  of  the  church,  though 
they  happened  to  die  without  the  formality  of  an  ex- 
ternal absolution ;  being  internally  reconciled  both 
to  God  and  the  church  by  the  testimonies  of  repent- 
ance, in  such  cases  of  extremity,  where  not  their 
own  will,  but  the  necessity  of  their  circumstances, 
precluded  them  from  a  more  formal  reconciliation. 

And  thus  far  we  have  considered         sect.  8. 
the  unity  of  every  church  with  rela-  cim°chefmainuin- 

..  ,       •  1  ^    ed  communion « it  h 

tion  to  Its  own  members :  we  are  next  one  another,  ut,  lu 

,  .  T  ^.  fa.th. 

to  examme,  what  communion  difier- 
ent  churches  held  with  one  another,  that  we  may 
discover  the  harmonious  unity  of  the  catholic 
church.  And  here  first  of  all  we  are  to  observe, 
that  as  there  was  one  common  faith,  consisting 
of  certain  fundamental  articles,  essential  to  the 
very  being  of  a  particular  church  and  its  imity, 
and  the  being  of  a  Christian ;  so  this  same  faith 
was  necessary  to  unite  the  different  parts  of  the  ca- 
tholic church,  and  make  them  one  body  of  Chris- 
tians. So  that  if  any  church  deserted  or  destroyed 
this  faith  in  whole  or  in  part,  they  were  looked  upon 
as  rebels  and  traitors  against  Christ,  and  enemies 
to  the  common  faith,  and  treated  as  a  conventicle  of 
heretics,  and  not  of  Christians.  Upon  this  account 
every  bishop  not  only  made  a  declaration  of  his 
faith  at  his  ordination,  before  the  provincial  synod 
that  ordained  him,  but  also  sent  his  circular  or  en- 
cyclical letters,  as  they  were  called,  to  foreign 
churches,  to  signify  that  he  was  in  communion 
with  them.  And  this  was  so  necessary  a  thing  in  a 
bishop  newly  ordained,  that  Liberatus'"  tells  us, 
the  omission  of  it  was  interpreted  a  sort  of  refusal 
to  hold  communion  with  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  a 
virtual  charge  of  heresy  upon  himself  or  them. 

2.  To  maintain  this  unity  of  faith 
entire,  every   church    was   ready   to     2ndiy,  lii  mutual 

,  ,  ,      .  ,  .  assistance    of   each 

give  each  other  their  mutual  assist-  ox^"  for  defence  of 

^  the  common  faith. 

ance,  to  ojipose  all  fundamental  errors, 
and  beat  down  heresy  at  its  first  appearance  among 
them.     The  whole  world  in  this  respect  was  but 
one   common  diocese,  the  episcopate  was   a  uni- 


®'  Cone.  Carthag.  4.  can.  79.  Poenitentes  qui  attente 
leges  popnitentiaj  e.xequuntur,  si  casu  in  itiiiere  vel  in  mari 
mortui  I'lierint,  ubi  eis  siibveniri  non  possit,  inemoria  eoniui 
et  orationibus  et  oblationibus  conunendetur. 


^  Cone.  Vasense  2.  ean.  2. 

•^^  Cone.  Arelat.  2.  can.  12.     Cone.  Aurelian.  2.  can.  14. 
Cone.  Tolet.  2.  can.  12.     Cone.  Epaunense,  can.  36. 
'"  Liberal.  Breviar.  cap.  17. 


Chap.  I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


871 


versal  thing,  and  every  bishop  had  liis  share  in  it 
in  such  a  manner,  as  to  have  an  equal  concern  in 
tlie  whole ;  as  I  have  more  fully  showed  in  another 
place,"  where  I  observed,  that  in  things  not  apper- 
taining to  the  faith,  bishops  were  not  to  meddle 
with  other  men's  dioceses,  but  only  to  mind  the 
business  of  their  own  :  but  when  the  faith  or  wel- 
fare of  the  church  lay  at  stake,  and  religion  was 
manifestly  invaded ;  then,  by  this  rule  of  there 
being  but  one  episcopacy,  every  other  bishopric  was 
as  much  their  diocese  as  their  own  ;  and  no  human 
laws  or  canons  could  tie  up  their  hands  from  per- 
forming such  acts  of  the  episcopal  office  in  any  part 
of  the  world,  as  they  thought  necessary  for  the 
preservation  of  faith  and  religion.  This  was  the 
ground  of  their  meeting  in  synods,  provincial,  na- 
tional, and  general,  and  sending  their  joint  opinions 
and  advice  from  one  church  to  another.  The 
greatest  part  of  church  history  is  made  up  of  such 
acts  as  these,  so  that  it  were  next  to  impertinent  to 
refer  to  any  particulars.  I  only  observe  one  thing 
further  upon  this  head,  that  the  intermeddling 
with  other  men's  concerns,  which  would  have  been 
accounted  a  real  breach  of  luiity  in  many  other 
cases,  was  in  this  case  thought  so  necessary,  that 
there  was  no  certain  way  to  preserve  the  unity  of 
the  catholic  church  and  faith  without  it.  And  as 
an  instance  of  this,  I  have  noted  in  the  forecited 
Book,  that  though  it  was  against  the  ordinary  rule 
of  the  chiux'h  for  any  bishop  to  ordain  in  another 
man's  diocese  ;  yet  in  case  a  bishop  turned  heretic, 
and  persecuted  the  orthodox,  and  would  ordain 
none  but  heretical  men  to  establish  heresy  in  his 
diocese  ;  in  that  case  any  orthodox  bishop  was  not 
only  authorized,  but  obliged,  as  opportunity  served, 
and  the  needs  of  the  church  required,  to  ordain 
catholic  teachers  in  such  a  diocese,  to  oppose  the 
malignant  designs  of  the  enemy,  and  stop  the 
growth  of  heresy,  which  might  otherwise  take  deep 
root,  and  spread  and  overrun  the  church.  Thus 
Athanasius  and  the  famoas  Eusebius  of  Samosata 
went  about  the  world  in  the  pre  valency  of  the 
Arian  heresy,  ordaining  in  every  church  where  they 
came,  such  clergy  as  were  necessary  to  support  the 
orthodox  cause  in  such  a  time  of  distress  and  deso- 
lation :  and  this  was  so  far  from  being  reckoned  a 
breach  of  the  church's  unity,  though  against  the 
letter  of  a  canon  in  ordinary  cases,  that  it  was  ne- 
cessary to  be  done,  in  such  a  state  of  affairs,  to 
maintain  the  unity  of  the  catholic  faith,  which 
every  bishop  was  obliged  to  defend,  not  only  in  his 
own  diocese,  but  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  by  virtue 
of  that  rule  which  obhges  bishops  in  weighty  af- 
fairs to  take  care  of  the  catholic  church,  and  re- 
quires all  churches  in  time  of  danger  to  give  mutual 
aid  and  assistance  to  one  another. 


3.  This  unity  of  the  catholic  church  s,a  lo 
was  further  maintained  by  the  readi-  ,„"!l'l';'.'"J"'"'"l.'," 
ness  of  each  church,  and  every  mem-  hoiyofficc^alwc.' 
ber  01  it,  to  jom  in  communion  witli 
all  other  churches  in  the  performance  of  Divine 
worship,  and  all  holy  offices,  as  (heir  occasions  re- 
quired. To  this  purpose  two  things  were  necessary  : 
I.  That  every  church  should  keep  her  liturgy  free 
from  all  superstitious  and  idolatrous  worsi)ip,  and 
not  render  her  assemblies  for  holy  duties  inaccessi- 
ble by  intrenching  upon  any  Divine  rule,  or  making 
any  unlawful  conditions  of  communion.  And  how 
careful  the  ancient  church  was  in  this  point,  may 
be  seen  by  any  one  that  will  peruse  the  account 
I  have  lately  given  of  the  liturgy  of  the  ancient 
churches  in  all  the  several  parts  of  it ;  where  none 
of  those  superstitious  and  idolatrous  practices  ap- 
pear, that  have  so  much  divided  the  church  in  later 
ages,  since  the  exorbitant  power  of  the  Romish 
church  imposed  so  much  upon  the  credulity  of  men 
in  points  of  faith,  and  loaded  their  consciences  so 
heavily  in  matters  of  unwarrantable  practice.  2. 
It  was  necessary  that  every  Christian,  when  he 
came  to  a  foreign  church,  should  readily  comply 
with  the  innocent  usages  and  customs  of  that  church 
where  he  happened  to  be,  though  they  might  chance 
in  some  circumstances  to  differ  from  his  own.  This 
was  a  necessary  rule  of  peace,  to  preserve  the  unity 
of  communion  and  worship  throughout  the  whole 
catholic  church.  For  it  was  impossible  that  every 
church  should  have  the  same  rites  and  ceremonies, 
the  same  customs  and  usages  in  all  respects,  or  even 
the  same  method  and  manner  of  worship  exactly 
agreeing  in  all  punctilios  with  one  another,  unless 
there  had  been  a  general  liturgy  for  the  whole 
church  expressly  enjoined  by  Divine  appointment. 
The  unity  of  the  catholic  church  did  not  require 
this,  (as  we  shall  see  more  plainly  by  and  by,)  and 
therefore  no  one  ever  insisted  upon  this  as  any 
necessary  part  of  its  unity  :  it  was  enough  that  all 
churches  agreed  in  the  substance  of  Divine  worship; 
and  for  circumstantials,  such  as  rites  and  ceremo- 
nies, method  and  order,  and  the  like,  every  church 
had  liberty  to  judge  and  choose  for  herself  by  the 
rules  of  expedience  and  convenience :  and  then,  as 
it  was  the  duty  of  every  member  of  any  particular 
church  to  comply  with  the  innocent  customs  of 
his  own  church,  in  order  to  hold  free  communion 
with  her;  so  it  was  tlie  duty  of  every  Christian  to 
comply  with  the  different  customs  of  all  other 
churches,  wherever  he  happened  to  travel,  in  order 
to  hold  commimion  with  the  catholic  church  in  all 
places  without  exception.  This  rule  is  often  incul- 
cated by  St.  Austin,  as  the  great  rule  of  peace  and 
unity  ^vith  regard  to  all  churches  :  and  he  tells  us, 
he  received  it  as  an  oracle  from  the  wise  and  mode-: 


Book  II.  chap,  5.  sect.  2. 


8/2 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


rate  discourses  of  St.  Ambrose,  whom  he  consulted 
upon  the  occasion  of  a  scruple  which  had  possessed 
the  heart  of  his  mother  Monicha,  and  for  some 
time  greatly  perplexed  her.  She  having  lived  a 
long  time  at  Rome,  was  used  to  fast  on  Saturday, 
or  the  sabbath,  according  to  the  custom  of  the 
church  of  Rome ;  but  when  she  came  to  Milan, 
she  found  the  contrary  custom  prevailing,  which 
was  to  keep  Saturday  a  festival ;  and  being  much 
disturbed  about  this,  her  son,  though  he  had  not 
much  concern  about  such  matters  at  that  time, 
for  her  ease  and  satisfaction,  consulted  St.  Ambrose 
upon  the  point,  to  take  his  advice  and  direction 
how  to  govern  herself  in  this  case,  so  as  to  be  in- 
offensive in  her  practice.  To  whom  St.  Ambrose 
answered,  that  he  could  give  no  better  advice  in 
the  case,  than  to  do  as  he  himself  was  wont  to  do : 
For,  said  he,  when  I  am  here,'^  I  do  not  fast  on  the 
sabbath ;  when  I  am  at  Rome,  I  fast  on  the  sabbath: 
and  so  you,  whatever  church  you  come  to,  observe 
the  custom  of  that  church,  if  you  would  neither 
take  offence  at  them,  nor  give  offence  to  them.  St. 
Austin"  says.  This  answer  satisfied  his  mother, 
and  he  always  looked  upon  it  as  an  oracle  sent 
from  heaven.  He  adds,  moreover.  That  he  had  often 
experienced  with  grief  and  sorrow  the  disturbance 
of  weak  minds,  occasioned  either  by  the  contentious 
obstinacy  of  certain  brethren,  or  by  their  own  su- 
perstitious fears,  who,  in  matters  of  this  nature, 
which  can  neither  be  certainly  determined  by  the 
authority  of  Holy  Scripture,  nor  by  the  tradition  of 
the  universal  church,  nor  by  any  advantage  in  the 
coiTcction  of  life,  raise  such  litigious  questions,  as 
to  think  nothing  right  but  what  themselves  do; 
only  because  they  were  used  to  do  so  in  their  own 
country,  or  because  a  little  shallow  reason  tells  them 
it  ought  to  be  so,  or  because  they  have  perhaps  seen 
some  such  thing  in  their  travels,  which  they  reckon 
the  more  learned,  the  more  remote  it  is  from  their 
own  country.  Thus  he  handsomely  and  elegantly 
reflects  upon  the  superstitious  folly,  and  contentious 
obstinacy,  of  such  as  disturbed  the  church's  peace 
for  such  things  as  every  church  had  liberty  to  use. 


and  every  good  Christian  was  obhged  to  comply 
with.  For,  as  he  says  in  the  same  place,  all  such 
customs  as  varied  in  the  practice  of  different  churches, 
as,  that  some  fasted  on  the  Saturday,  and  others  did 
not ;  some  received  the  eucharist  every  day,  others 
on  the  sabbath  and  Lord's  day,  and  others  on  the 
Lord's  day  only ;  and  whatever  else  there  was  of 
this  kind,  they  were  all  things  of  free  observation  :'* 
and  in  such  things  there  could  be  no  better  rule  for 
a  grave  and  prudent  Christian  to  walk  by,  than  to 
do  as  the  church  did,  wherever  he  happened  to 
come.  For  whatever  was  enjoined,  that  was  neither 
against  faith  nor  good  manners,  was  to  be  held  in- 
different, and  to  be  observed  according  to  the  cus- 
tom, and  for  the  convenience  of  the  society  among 
whom  we  live.  This  he  repeats  over  and  over 
again,"  as  the  most  safe  rule  of  practice  in  all  such 
things  wherein  the  customs  of  churches  varied. 
That  wherever  we  see  any  things  appointed,  or  know 
them  to  be  appointed,  that  are  neither  against  faith 
nor  good  manners,  and  have  any  tendency  to  edifi- 
cation, and  to  stir  men  up  to  a  good  life,  we  should 
not  only  abstain  from  finding  fault  with  them,  but 
follow  them  both  by  our  commendation  and  imita- 
tion. By  this  rule  all  wise  and  peaceable  men  al- 
ways governed  their  practice  in  holding  communion 
with  other  churches :  though  they  did  not  altoge- 
ther like  their  customs,  they  did  not  break  commu- 
nion with  them  upon  that  account.  Thus  Iremeus "° 
observes  to  Pope  Victor,  when  he  was  rashly  going 
to  excommunicate  the  Asiatic  churches  for  their 
different  way  of  observing  Easter,  That  his  prede- 
cessor, Anicetus,  was  far  from  this  uncharitable 
temper.  For  when  Polycarp  came  to  Rome,  though 
they  could  not  come  to  a  perfect  agreement  in  this 
point,  to  have  all  the  churches  observe  Easter  on 
the  same  day ;  yet  this  difference  made  no  conten- 
tion between  them.  For  they  gave  each  other  the 
kiss  of  peace,  and  communicated  together;  Anice- 
tus paying  Polycarp  the  customary  civility  and 
respect,  to  let  him  consecrate  the  eucharist  in  his 
church.  Irenaeus  observes  further.  That  though 
there  were  many  disputes  then  on  foot  concerning 


'2  Aug.  Ep.  86.  ad  Casulan.  Quando  hie  sum,  non  jeju- 
no  sabbato ;  quando  Romec  sum,  jejuno  sabbato :  et  ad 
quamcunque  ecclesiam  veneritis,  ejus  morem  servate,  si  pati 
scandalum  non  vultis,  aut  faccip. 

"  Aug.  Ep.  118.  ad  Januar.  line  cum  matri  renuneiassora, 
libenter  amplexa  est.  Ego  vero  de  hae  sententia  etiam 
utque  etiam  eogitans,  ita  semper  habui,  tanquam  earn  cce- 
lesti  oraculo  suseeperim.  Sensi  enim  saepe  dolens  et  gemens 
multas  iiilirmoinim  perturbatioues  fieri,  per  quorundam  fra- 
trum  cfintentiosam  obitiuationeni,  vel  supevstitiosam  timidi- 
tatein,  qui  in  rebus  hujusmodi,  qua;  neque  Seripturee  Sanctoe 
auctoritate,  neque  universalis  ecelesia;  traditions,  neque  vitae 
corrigendoe  utilitate  ad  certum  possunt  termiimm  pervenire 
(tantumquia  subest  qualiseunque  ratiocinatio  cogitantis,  aut 
quia  in  sua  patria  sic  ipse  consuevit,  aut  quia  ibi  vidit,  ubi 
peregrinationem  suam,  quo  remotiorem  a  suis,  eo  doctiorem 
factdm  putat)  tamlitigiosase.Kcitant  quwstiones,  ut  nisi  quod 


ipsi  faciunt,  nihil  rectum  existiment. 

'*  Ibid.  Totum  hoc  genus  rerum  liberas  habet  obser- 
vationes:  nee  diseiplina  ulla  est  in  his  melior,  gravi  pru- 
dentique  Christiano,  quam  ut  eo  modo  agat,  quo  agere  vi- 
derit  ecelesiam  ad  quamcunque  forte  devcnerit.  Quod  enim 
neque  contra  fidem,  neque  contra  bonos  mores  injungitur, 
indifi'erenter  est  habendum,  et  pro  eorum  inter  quos  vivitur 
soeietate  servandum  est. 

"  Aug.  Ep.  119.  ad  Januarium,  cap.  18.  De  iis  quoe 
varie  per  diversa  loca  observautur,  una  in  his  saluberrima 
reguhi  retincnda  est,  ut  quae  non  sunt  contra  fidem,  neque 
contra  bonos  mores,  et  habent  aliquid  ad  exhortationem  vitae 
melioris,  ubicunque  institui  videmus,  vel  instituta  cognosci- 
mus,  non  solum  non  improbemus,  sod  etiam  laudando  et 
imitando  sectemur,  si  aliquorum  infirmitas  non  ita  impedit, 
ut  majus  detrimcntum  sit. 

'"  Ap.  Euseb.  lib.  5.  cap.  24. 


Chap,  I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


873 


the  time,  and  Icnf^h,  and  manner  of  observing  (he 
ante-paschal  or  Lent  fast ;  yet  all  churches  agi'eed 
to  live  in  peace  and  union  with  one  another ;  and 
the  difference  for  their  fasts  served  only  to  commend 
the  unity  of  their  faith.  And  because  it  was  then 
a  customary  thing  for  churches  of  different  countries 
to  send  the  cucharist  mutually  to  each  other,  to 
testify  that  they  were  in  communion  with  one  an- 
other;  he  notes  it  likewise  as  a  peculiar  instance  of 
the  catholic  tempers  of  the  bishops  of  Rome,  Ani- 
cetus,  Pius,  Hyginus,  Telesphorus,  Xystus,  and  So- 
ter,  who  were  Victor's  predecessors  in  that  church, 
that  though  they  differed  from  the  Asiatic  churches 
about  Easter,  yet  they  lived  in  peace  with  them  ;  not 
only  receiving  the  members  of  those  churches  into 
communion,  when  they  came  to  Rome,  but  also 
sending  the  eucharist  from  Rome  to  those  churches. 
Which  being  so  common  a  way  of  testifying  their 
communion  with  distant  churches  in  those  days, 
it  was  a  very  just  complaint  which  Chrysostom 
made  against  Theophilus,  bishop  of  Alexandria, 
and  his  accomplices,  that  when  they  came  to  Con- 
stantinople, they  came  not  to  church,  according  to 
custom  and  ancient  law;  they  joined  not  them- 
selves to  him,  nor  communicated  with  him"  in  the 
word  or  prayer,  or  the  communion  of  the  eucharist ; 
but  as  soon  as  they  landed,  passing  by  the  church, 
they  took  their  lodging  in  an  inn,  when  the  bishop's 
house  was  ready  prepared  to  entertain  them.  This 
he  complains  of  as  a  singular  instance  of  their  en- 
mity, faction,  and  uncharitable  spirit,  in  refusing 
to  communicate  with  him,  before  any  formal  accusa- 
tion had  been  brought  against  him,  much  less  any 
legal  sentence  of  condemnation  pronounced  upon 
him.  By  this  account  of  things  it  is  easy  to  judge, 
what  stress  the  ancients  laid  upon  the  laws  of  commu- 
nion, obliging  every  church  to  communicate  with  her 
sister  churches  over  all  the  world  in  all  holy  offices, 
in  order  to  preserve  the  communion  of  worship  one 
entire  thing  throughout  the  whole  catholic  church, 
without  any  notorious  division  or  distraction. 

4.  The   communion  of  the  whole 
4tiihrin  mutual  catliolic  cliurcli  was  further  declared 

consent  to  ratify  all  -  . 

legal  acts  of  disci-  by  thc  obligatiou   of  such   laws,  as 

plme,  regularly  exer-        ■'.  °  ' 

cised  in  any  church  jald  a  ncccssarv  iujunction  upon  all 

whatsoever.  .  j  I 

chui'ches  to  ratify  all  such  legal  acts 
of  discipline,  as  were  regularly  exercised  in  any 
church  whatsoever.  Thus,  if  any  person  was  duly 
baptized,  and  thereby  admitted  to  be  a  member  of 
any  particular  church,  that  qualification  gave  him 
a  right  to  communicate  in  any  part  of  the  catholic 
church,  travelling  with  commendatory  letters  from 
the  bishop  of  his  own  church,  to  signify  that  he 
was  in  perfect  and  full  communion  with  her,  and 
not  cast  out  for  any  offence  against  the  rules  of  her 


communion.  This  is  wliat  Optatus  means,  when 
he  says,'*  That  the  whole  world  was  united  together 
in  one  common  society,  or  society  of  communion, 
by  the  mutual  commerce  of  those  canonical  or  com- 
municatory letters,  Avhich  they  called  formatcc ; 
because  these  testifying  that  he  was  in  the  com- 
munion of  his  own  church,  by  the  known  laws  and 
rules  of  discipline,  gave  him  a  title  to  communicate 
in  any  other  church  whatsoever,  only  observing 
the  rites  and  customs  of  that  church  whither  his 
occasions  happened  to  call  him.  So  again,  if  a 
man  was  legally  excommunicated  for  his  crimes  by 
his  own  church,  no  church  would  receive  him  to 
communion,  till  he  had  given  proper  satisfaction  to 
his  own  church,  which  liad  bound  him  by  her  cen- 
sures. Such  a  perfect  good  understanding  and  har- 
mony was  there  then  among  all  the  parts  of  the 
whole  catholic  church,  in  confirming  each  other's 
discipHne,  and  mutually  strengthening  their  au- 
thority against  all  enemies  of  faith  and  virtue,  whe- 
ther they  were  such  as  tried  by  open  violence  and 
terror,  or  by  secret  arts  and  clandestine  practices, 
to  get  admission,  in  opposition  to  tlie  church  whose 
censures  they  lay  under.  No  church  would  admit 
them  without  communicatory  letters  :  if  they  were 
rebels  to  their  own  church,  they  were  accounted 
rebels  to  the  whole.  Thus  Epiphanius  tells  us,™ 
when  Marcion  the  heretic  was  excommunicated  by 
his  own  father,  and  desired  to  be  received  into  com- 
munion at  Rome,  they  answered  him,  that  they 
could  not  do  it  without  the  permission  of  his  father. 
For  there  was  but  one  faith,  and  one  rule  of  con- 
cord; and  they  could  not  do  any  thing  in  oppo- 
sition to  their  good  fellow  servant,  and  his  father. 
This  repulse  was  highly  resented  by  Marcion,  and 
it  put  him  upon  those  wicked  designs  of  inventing 
a  new  heresy  to  disturb  the  church ;  for  he  told 
them  directly  in  revenge,  that  he  would  divide  their 
church,  and  bring  an  eternal  schism  into  it :  which , 
as  Ejiiphanius  rightly  observes,  was  not  so  much 
to  divide  the  church,  as  to  divide  himself  from  it. 
There  are  a  great  many  other  instances  of  the 
church's  steadiness  and  resolution  in  thus  proceed- 
ing against  delinquents,  to  maintain  the  unity  of 
discipline  entire  in  all  parts  of  the  ecclesiastical 
body,  and  abundance  of  canons  to  this  purpose ; 
which,  because  I  shall  have  occasion  to  speak  more 
of  hereafter,'"  I  willingly  omit  them  in  this  place, 
and  go  on  to  observe  another  instance  of  the 
churcli's  unity  in  point  of  practice  :  which  was, 

5.  That    all     churches     generally 
agreed  in  receiving  such  customs  as  ^^"  ^''''" 
were  handed  down  by  general  consent  '."rsai  rhmch,  ana 
from  apostolical  tradition,  or  other-  d"crTe""of  gcne^ni 
wise  settled  and  determined  by  the 


Sect.  12. 
•ereivinjj  i 
iniouslv    the 


Chrys.  Ep.  ad  Innocent,  t.  4.  p.  677. 

Optat.  lib.  2.  p.  48.  Totus  orbis  commcrcio  formatarum 


in  una  communionis  societafe  concordat. 
"■'  Epiph.  Htcr.  42.  Marcion.  n.  2.      ^  Chap.  2.  sect.  10. 


8/4 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


decrees  of  general  councils.  For  these  two  ways 
many  customs  became  in  a  manner  universal,  and 
almost  of  necessary  observance  in  the  church  over 
all  the  world :  and  then  for  any  private  man  or 
church  to  dispute  against  them,  was  to  give  scandal 
to  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  bring  disturbance  into 
the  church  by  an  unnecessary  and  unreasonable 
opposition  to  things  innocent  in  themselves,  and 
settled  by  general  consent  and  approbation.  St. 
Austin  takes  notice  of  this  double  source  and  original 
of  general  customs  in  the  church,  for  which,  though 
there  be  no  express  command  in  Scripture,  yet  a 
great  deference  ought  to  be  paid  to  the  general  sen- 
timents and  authority,  and  practice  and  observation 
of  the  whole  church.  Those  tilings,  says  he,  which 
we  keep,"  not  from  Scripture,  but  from  tradition, 
and  which  are  observed  over  all  the  world,  are  rea- 
sonably supposed  to  have  come  down  to  us  recom- 
mended and  appointed  either  by  the  apostles  them- 
selves, or  by  some  plenary  councils,  whose  authority 
is  of  great  use  in  the  church ;  such  as  the  celebrat- 
ing the  anniversary  memorial  of  our  Saviour's  pas- 
sion, and  resurrection,  and  ascension,  and  the  de- 
scent of  the  Holy  Ghost  from  heaven,  and  whatever 
else  of  the  like  nature  is  observed  by  the  universal 
church  in  all  parts,  wherever  it  spreads  itself  all  the 
world  over.  Concerning  which  sort  of  things,  he 
concludes.  That*-  for  any  man  to  dispute  against 
them,  was  most  insolent  madness,  seeing  they  were 
authorized  by  the  practice  of  the  universal  church. 
He  particularly  applies  this  rule  to  the  case  of  ob- 
serving the  Lord's  day  ^  not  as  a  fast,  but  as  a  fes- 
tival :  for  since  the  whole  church  observed  it  as  a 
festival,  no  one  could  turn  that  day  into  a  fast 
without  offending  God,  by  giving  scandal  to  the 
church  universal ;  there  being  both  general  custom 
and  canon**  against  it.  For  the  same  reason  it  was 
esteemed  a  crime  to  pray  kneeling  on  that  day,  be- 
cause the  practice  of  the  universal  church  was  to 
pray  standing,*^  in  memoiy  of  our  Saviour's  resur- 
rection ;  and  the  council  of  Nice  thought  it  a  thing 
worthy  of  a  decree  to  bring  all  men  to  a  uniform- 
ity in  that  practice.  As  she  did  also  in  the  matter 
of  observing  the  Easter  festival,  making  a  rule  that 


all  churches  should  celebrate  it  on  one  and  the  same 
day,  because  it  was  unlawful  that  in  a  business  of 
so  great  moment,  and  the  religious  observation  of 
such  a  festival,  there  should  be  any  dissension,  as 
Constantine  expresses  it  in  his  epistle,*"  which  he 
sent  to  all  the  churches  in  the  world  upon  this  oc- 
casion. So  that  though  several  churches  had  kept 
this  festival  on  different  days  before  this  decree  was 
made,  yet  when  it  was  once  past  there  was  no  more 
liberty  for  dissension. 

6.  The  like  may  be  observed  of  the  ^^^.^  „ 
decrees  of  national  councils,  when  ting'^to  thVdrc'rees 
once  the  Roman  empire  was  divided  of"-''"""'™--"- 
into  several  kingdoms.  A  great  many  things  were 
at  first  allowed  to  every  bishop  in  the  management 
of  his  own  diocese,  which  were  afterwards  restrained 
by  the  decrees  of  national  councils.  As,  to  instance 
only  in  one  particular,  every  bishop  anciently  had 
liberty  to  frame  his  own  liturgy  for  the  use  of  his 
own  church ;  but  in  process  of  time,  when  the  world 
was  divided  into  several  kingdoms,  rules  were  made 
that  all  the  churches  of  such  or  such  a  kingdom 
should  have  one  and  the  same  liturgy.  Thus  when 
Spain  and  Gallia  Narbonensis  became  one  distinct 
kingdom,  a  decree  was  made,  that  as  there  was  but 
one  faith,  so  there  should  be  but  one  liturgy  or  order 
of  Divine  service  throughout  the  whole  kingdom. 
The  fourth  council  of  Toledo,  under  the  reign  of 
King  Sisenandus,  made  an  express  canon "  to  this 
purpose  :  After  the  confession  of  the  true  faith, 
which  is  preached  in  the  holy  church  of  God,  it 
seemed  good,  that  all  we  bishops,  Avho  are  joined 
together  in  the  unity  of  the  catholic  faith,  should 
henceforth  use  no  diversity  or  disagreement  in  the 
administration  of  the  ecclesiastical  mysteries  ;  lest 
every  such  diversity  be  interpreted  a  schism  among 
us  by  carnal  men,  and  such  as  are  unknown  to  us, 
and  the  variety  of  customs  in  oiu*  churches  become 
a  scandal  to  many.  Let  one  order  therefore  of 
prayers  and  psalmody  be  observed  by  us  throughout 
all  Spain  and  Gaul ;  one  manner  of  celebrating 
mass,  or  the  communion  service ;  and  one  manner 
of  performing  vespers,  or  evening  service :  and  let 
there  henceforth  be  no  diversity  in  our  ecglesiastical 


^'  Aug.  Ep.  118.  ad  Jamiar.  Ilia  aiitein  quaj  non  scripta, 
sed  tradita  custudiinus,  quae  quidena  toto  teirarum  orbe  ob- 
servantur,  dantur  intelligi  vel  ab  ipsis  apostolis,  vel  plenariis 
conciliis,  quorum  in  ecelesia  saluberrima  authoritas,  com- 
mendata  atquc  statiita  retineri :  sicuti  quud  Domini  passio 
et  resurrectio  et  ascensio  in  ccEhim,  ct  adventus  de  coelo 
Spiritus  Sancti,  anniversaria  soleunitate  celebrantur,  et  si 
q\iid  aliud  tale  occurrerit,  quod  servatur  ab  universa,  qua- 
cunque  so  dirt'undit,  ecelesia. 

•"  Ibid.  Si  quid  horum  tota  per  orbem  fioquentat  ecele- 
sia, quin  ita  faciendum  sit,  disputare,  insolentissima;  insaniaj 
est. 

^  Aug.  Ep.  86.  ad  Casulan.  Quis  non  Deum  offeudct,  si 
velit  cuui  scandalo  totius,  quae  ubique  dilalata  est,  ecelesia;, 
die  Dominico  jcjunare  ? 

*'  Vide  Can.  Apost.  Gl.    Cone.  Gangren.  can.  18.    Cone. 


Carthag.  4.  can.  64.     Cone.  Bracar.  1.  can.  4. 

s*  Vid.  Tertul.  de  Covon.  Mil.  cap.  3.  et  Cone.  Nic.  can.  20. 

s^  Ap.  Euseb.  de  Vita  Const,  lib.  3.  cap.  18. 

*'  Cone.  Tolet.  4.  can.  2.  Post  rectee  fidei  confessionem, 
quae  in  sancta  Dei  ecelesia  praedicatur,  placuit,  omnes  sa- 
cerdutes,  qui  catholicae  fidei  unitate  complectimur,  nt  nihil 
idtra  diversum  aut  dissonum  in  ecclesiasticis  sacramentis 
agamus;  ne  quaelibet  nostra  diversitas  apud  ignotos  seu  car- 
nales  schismatis  errorem  videatur  ostendere,  et  multis  extet 
ill  scandalum  variefas  eccleslarum.  Unus  ergo  ordo  orandi 
atque  psallendi,  a  nobis  per  omnem  Hispaniam  atque  Gal- 
liciam  (leg.  Galliam)  conservetur  :  unus  modus  in  missarum 
solennitatibus,  unus  in  vespertinis  otficiis  :  nee  diversa  sit 
ultra  in  nobis  ecclesiastica  consuetudo,  quia  in  luia  fide 
continemur  et  regno.  Hoc  enim  et  antiqui  canones  de- 
creverunt,  &c. 


Chap.  I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


875 


li  customs,  seeing  we  all  live  in  one  faith  and  in  one 
;i  kingdom.     That  canon  also  refers  to  more  ancient 
I  canons,  requiring  uniformity   in   Divine   worship 
r,  throughout  provincial  churches.     And  it  is  most 
^  certain,  that  about  this  time,  that  is,  m  the  sixth 
t  and   seventh  centuries,   and   before,  decrees  were 
I:  made  in  several  councils,  requiring  the  churches  of 
r  each  respective  province  to  conform  their  usages  to 
I  the  rites  and  forms  of  the  metropolitical  or  principal 
'  church  among  them.    As  may  be  seen  in  the  canons 
of  the  councils  of  Agde,  anno  506,*'  and  Epone  and 
iGirone,  anno  517,^"  and  the  council  of  Vannes"" 
and  the  first  of  Braga,"  anno  465  and  563.     For 
I  though  by  the  most  ancient  rules  every  bishop  had 
;  liberty  to  prescribe  what  he  thought  proper  for  his 
j  own  church,  and  no  church  pretended  to  dictate 
I  magisterially  in  such  things  to  any  other ;  yet  when 
churches   became   subject   to   one  political  head, 
and  national  churches  arose  from  that  distinction  ; 
i  then  it  was  thought  convenient  by  all  the  bishops 
of  such  a  nation  to  unite  more  closely  in  rituals  and 
circimistantials  of  Divine  worship,  as  well  as  faith 
and  substantials ;  and  from  that  time  this  also  be- 
came a  necessary  part  of  the  union  of  national 
churches ;   in  which  all   the  bishops  voluntarily 
combining,  no  one  could  depart  from  that  unity 
without  incurring   the    guilt   of   an    unnecessary 
breach  of  that  union,  which  was  so  convenient  for 
cementing  the  several  members  of  a  national  church 
into  one  communion. 

j,^^(  ,^  Thus  we   have  seen  wherein  the 

viifbieheadtoVnite  ""ity  of  the   cathoUc  church,   con- 
ci\iK'fic''chirch'into  sidcrcd  in  its  utmost  latitude,  con- 

one  ( 


sisted.  And  hence  one  might  safely 
infer  these  two  things  negatively,  without  any 
further  evidence :  1st,  That  there  was  no  necessity 
of  a  visible  head,  as  now  is  pretended  in  the  church 
of  Rome,  to  unite  all  the  parts  of  the  catholic 
church  into  one  communion.  Nor,  2dly,  Any  ne- 
cessity that  the  whole  cathohc  church  should  agree 
in  all  rites,  and  ceremonies,  and  customs,  in  indif- 
ferent things,  which  might  be  various  in  difl'erent 
churches  without  any  breach  of  catholic  commu- 
nion. The  former  of  these  was  sufficiently  pro- 
vided for  by  the  agreement  of  all  churches  in  the 
same  faith,  and  the  obligation  that  lay  upon  the 
whole  college  of  bishops,  as  equal  sharers  in  one 
episcopacy,  to  give  mutual  assistance  to  each  other 
in  all  things  that  were  necessary  to  defend  the 
faith,  or  preserve  the  unity  of  the  church  entire  in 
all  respects  when  any  assault  was  made  upon  it.  It 
was  by  this  means,  and  not  by  any  necessary  re- 
course to  any  single,  visible,  standing  head,  that 
anciently  the  unity  of  the  church  was  preserved. 


Recourse  was  sometimes  had  to  the  bishop  of  Rome, 
as  an  eminent  bishop,  who  made  a  considerable 
figure  in  the  great  body  of  bishops,  and  one  who,  by 
his  station  in  the  imperial  city,  might  be  able  to 
succour  those  that  were  oppressed  in  times  of  great 
difficulty  and  distress  ;  but  his  judgment  or  opinion 
was  deemed  no  infallible  rule,  nor  his  decision  such 
as  was  to  conclude  the  rest  of  the  world,  so  as  to  tie 
them  down  in  no  case  without  the  charge  of  schism 
to  vary  from  him.  For  sometimes  the  bishop  of 
Rome  fell  into  manifest  heresy,  as  when  Liberius 
subscribed  the  Arian  blasphemy;  in  which  case 
any  other  bishop  was  not  only  at  liberty  to  dissent 
from  him,  but  was  obliged,  by  virtue  of  his  share  in 
the  common  episcopacy  of  the  church,  to  oppose 
him,  and,  if  occasion  required,  to  pronounce  anathe- 
ma against  him ;  as  St.  Hilary  did  against  Libcrius,'- 
when  he  subscribed  to  the  condemnation  of  Atha- 
nasius,  and  the  Arian  creed  made  at  Sirmium. 
Sometimes,  again,  the  bishops  of  Rome  took  upon 
them  to  exercise  a  jurisdiction  over  other  churches, 
in  whose  affairs  by  right  of  canon  they  had  no 
power ;  as,  when  Pope  Victor  set  himself  to  excom- 
municate the  Asiatic  churches  for  their  different 
way  of  observing  Easter,  he  was  opposed,  not  only 
by  the  Asiatic  bishops,  but  by  Irenjeus  and  the  rest 
of  the  world,  as  going  beyond  his  bounds,  and  en- 
gaging himself  in  a  rash  and  schismatical  under- 
taking. For  he  who,  by  an  undue  stretch  of  power 
not  belonging  to  him,  divides  others  from  his  com- 
munion, is  properly  the  schismatic,  by  making  an 
unnecessary  division  in  the  church,  and  not  they 
who,  by  necessity,  are  forced  to  divide  from  him. 
So,  again,  when  Pope  Zosimus  and  Celestine  took 
upon  them  to  receive  appellants  from  the  African 
churches,  and  absolve  those  whom  they  had  con- 
demned; St.  Austin,  and  all  the  African  churches, 
sharply  remonstrated  against  this  as  an  illegal 
practice,  violating  the  laws  of  unity,  and  the  settled 
rules  of  ecclesiastical  commerce,  which  required 
that  no  delinquent  excommunicated  in  one  church 
should  be  absolved  in  another,  without  giving  satis- 
faction to  his  own  church  that  censured  him :  and 
therefore,  to  put  a  stop  to  this  practice,  and  check 
the  exorbitant  power  which  the  Roman  bishops 
assumed  to  themselves,  they  first  made  a  law  in  the 
council  of  Milevis,*^  That  no  African  clerk  should 
appeal  to  any  church  beyond  sea,  under  pain  of 
being  excluded  from  communion  in  all  the  African 
churches  :  and  then,  afterward,  meeting  in  a  general 
synod,"^  they  despatched  letters  to  the  bishop  of 
Rome,  to  remind  him  how  contrary  this  practice 
was  to  the  canons  of  Nice,  which  ordered.  That  all 
controversies  should  be  ended  in  the  places  where 


^^  Cone.  Agathen.  can.  30. 

*'  Cone.  Epaunense,  eau.  27.    Cone.  Geruntl.  can.  1. 

""  Cone.  Veneticum,  can.  15. 

='  Cone.  Biacaron.  I.  can.  I'l  20,  21,  &c. 


"■-  Hilar.  Fragment,  p.  1S4.  Anathema  tibi  a  me  dictum, 
Liberi,  et  sociis  tuis.  Iterum  tibi  anathema,  et  tertia,  proe- 
vaiieator  Liberi.  ™  Cone.  Milevitan.  can.  22. 

"'  Coil.  Can.  Afric.  a  cap.  13>  ad  138. 


876 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


they  arose,  before  a  council  and  the  metropolitan. 
And  they  witlial  tell  him,  It  was  unreasonable  to 
think  that  God  should  enable  a  single  person  to 
examine  the  justice  of  a  cause,  and  deny  his  grace 
to  a  multitude  of  men  assembled  in  council.  This 
evidently  shows,  that  they  did  not  imagine  any 
single  person  to  be  the  centre  of  unity  to  the  whole 
church  ;  or  that  all  churches  were  obliged  to  be  in 
communion  with  the  bishop  of  Rome,  whether  he 
were  catholic  or  heretic  ;  or  that  any  church,  with- 
out the  limits  of  his  mctropolitical  power,  was  bound 
in  any  respect  to  submit  to  his  jurisdiction:  but  it 
manifestly  proves,  on  the  contrary,  that  there  was 
no  necessity  of  a  visible  head,  as  is  now  pretended 
in  the  church  of  Rome,  to  unite  all  the  parts  of  the 
catholic  church  into  one  communion ;  but  that,  in 
matters  of  faith,  every  bishop  was  as  much  a  guardian 
of  the  whole  church  as  the  bishop  of  Rome ;  and 
in  matters  of  discipline,  all  churches  were  at  liberty 
to  hear  and  determine  their  own  causes  in  a  synod 
of  bishops,  without  having  recourse  to  any  foreign 
jurisdiction,  as  has  been  more  fully  demonstrated 
in  other  parts  of  this  work,^^  to  which  I  refer  the 
reader  for  greater  satisfaction. 

^  J  Secondly,  It  is  equally  clear,  that 

that'thTwhoie'^*''''^  there  was  no  necessity,  in  order  to 
fnihe^amevHesfi^d  maintain  the  unity  of  the  catholic 
church,  that  all  churches  should  agree 
in  all  the  same  rites  and  ceremonies ; 
but  every  church  might  enjoy  her  own  usages  and 
customs,  having  liberty  to  prescribe  for  herself  in  all 
things  of  an  indifferent  nature,  except  where  either 
a  universal  tradition,  or  the  decree  of  some  general 
or  national  council,  (as  has  been  noted  before,)  inter- 
vened to  make  it  otherwise.  To  this  purpose  is  that 
famous  saying  of  Irenseus,'^  upon  occasion  of  the 
different  customs  of  several  churches  in  observing 
the  Lent  fast :  We  still  retain  peace  one  with  an- 
other ;  and  the  different  ways  of  keeping  the  fast 
only  the  more  commends  our  agreement  in  the  faith. 
St.  Jerom  likewise,  speaking  of  the  different  cus- 
toms of  churches  in  relation  to  the  Saturday  fast, 
and  the  reception  of  the  eucharist  every  day,  lays 
down  this  general  rule,"'  That  all  ecclesiastical  tra- 


ceremonies,  which 
were  things  of  a 
different  nature 


ditions,  which  did  no  ways  prejudice  the  faith,  were 
to  be  observed  in  such  manner  as  we  had  received 
them  from  our  forefathers ;  and  the  custom  of  one 
church  was  not  to  be  subverted  by  the  contrary 
custom  of  another ;  but  every  province  might  abound 
in  their  own  sense,  and  esteem  the  rules  of  their 
ancestors  as  laws  of  the  apostles.  After  the  same 
manner,  St.  Austin'*  says.  That  in  all  such  things, 
whereabout  the  Holy  Scripture  has  given  no  positive 
determination,  the  custom  of  the  people  of  God,  or 
the  rules  of  our  forefathers,  are  to  be  taken  for  laws. 
For  if  we  dispute  about  such  matters,  and  condemii 
the  custom  of  one  church  by  the  custom  of  another, 
that  will  be  an  eternal  occasion  of  strife  and  con- 
tention ;  which  will  always  be  diligent  enough  to 
find  out  plausible  reasonings,  when  there  are  no 
certain  arguments  to  show  the  truth.  Therefore 
great  caution  ought  to  be  used,  that  we  draw  not  a 
cloud  over  charity,  and  eclipse  its  brightness  in  the 
tempest  of  contention.  He  adds,  a  little  after,  Such 
contention  is  commonly  endless,  engendering  strifes, 
and  terminating  no  disputes.  Let  us,  therefore, 
maintain  one  faith  "^  throughout  the  whole  church, 
wherever  it  is  spread,  as  intrinsical  to  the  members 
of  the  body,  although  the  unity  of  faith  be  kept 
with  some  different  observations,  which  in  no  ways 
hinder  or  impair  the  truth  of  it.  For  all  the  beauty 
of  the  King's  daughter  is  within,  and  those  observa- 
tions which  are  differently  celebrated,  are  under- 
stood only  to  be  in  her  outward  clothing.  Whence 
she  is  said  to  be  clothed  in  golden  fringes,  wrought 
about  with  divers  colours.  But  let  that  clothing  be 
so  distinguished  by  diffei'ent  observations,  as  that 
she  herself  may  not  be  destroyed  by  oppositions  and 
contentions  about  them.  This  was  the  ancient  way 
of  preserving  peace  in  the  catholic  church,  to  let 
different  churches,  which  had  no  dependence  in  ex- 
ternals upon  one  another,  enjoy  their  own  liberty 
to  follow  their  own  customs  without  contradiction. 
For,  as  Gregory'""  the  Great  said  to  Leander,  a 
Spanish  bishop,  there  is  no  harm  done  to  the  church 
catholic  by  different  customs,  so  long  as  the  unity 
of  the  faith  is  preserved.  And  therefore,  though  the 
Spanish  churches  differed  in  some  customs  from  the 


'*  Book  II.  chap.  5,  and  Book  IX.  chap.  1.  sect.  II. 
"*  Ap.  Eiiseb.  lib.  5.  cap.  24.     Ildi/Tts  dpi]vtuo/uiev  Trpds 
aWt'iXoui'  ical  j';  dta({)wi>ia  Tf/s  vijo-Tttas  ti/k  bfiovoiav  tj'/s 

TTLCTlim  avVL(7T1]rTL. 

"'  Hieron.  Tip.  28.  ad  Lucinium  Boeticum.  Ego  illud  te 
breviter  admoucndiim  piito,  traditione-s  ecclesiasticas  (pra;- 
scitim  qu:c  fidei  nou  officiant)  ita  observandas,  ut  a  majori- 
bus  tradittc  sunt:  nee  aliorum  consueturlinem  alioruui  con- 

trario  more  subvert! Sed  unaquaeque  provincia  abundet  in 

suo  sensu,  et  praicepta  majorum  leges  apostolicas  arbitretur. 

'*"  Aug.  Ep.  86.  ad  Casulan.  In  his  rebus,  de  quibus  nihil 
certi  statuit  Scriptura  Uivina,  nios  populi  Dei  vel  instituta 
niajorum  pro  lege  tcnenda  sunt.  De  quibus  si  disputare 
voluerinius,  et  ex  aliorum  consuetudine  alios  improbare, 
orietur  interminata  luctatio,  qua;  labore  sermocinationis  cum 


certa  documenta  nulla  veritatis  insinuet;  utique  cavendum 
est,  ne  tempestate  conteutionis  serenitatem  charitatis  ob- 
nubilct. 

^'  Aug.  ibid.  Interminabilis  est  ista  contentio,  generans 
lites,  non  Aniens  quaestiones.  Sit  ergo  una  fides  universae, 
quas  ubique  dilatatur,  ecclesia?,  tanquam  intus  in  membris, 
etiam  si  ipsaunitas  fidei  quibusdam  diversis  observationibus 
cclebratur,  quibus  nullo  modo  quod  in  fide  venmi  est  impe- 
ditur.  Omnis  enim  pulchritudo  filia>  Regis  intriusecus;  illae 
autem  nbservationes,  qua;  varie  celebrantur,  in  ejus  veste  in- 
telliguntur.  Unde  ibi  dicitur,  In  fimbriis  aureis  circuma-  ' 
micta  varietate.  Sed  ea  quoque  vestis  ita  diversis  celebratio- 
nibus  varietur,  ut  non  adversis  contentiouibus  dissipetur. 

100  G,-eg.  Magn.  Ep.  41.  ad  Leandrum.     In  una  fide  ni- 
hil ofilcit  sancta;  ecclesiae  consuctudo  diversa. 


Chap,  I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


877 


Roman  church,  yet  he  did  not  pretend  to  oblige 
them  to  leave  their  own  customs  and  usages,  to  fol- 
low the  Roman.  He  gave  a  like  answer  to  Austin 
the  monk,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  when  he  asked 
•him,  what  form  of  Divine  service  he  should  settle 
in  Britain,  the  old  Galilean,  or  the  Roman  ?  And 
how  it  came  to  pass,  that  when  there  was  but  one 
faith,  there  were  different  customs  in  different 
churches ;  the  Roman  church  having  one  form  of 
service,  and  the  Galilean  churches  another  ?  To 
this  he  replied,'""  Whatever  3'ou  find  either  in  the 
Roman,  or  Galilean,  or  any  other  church,  which 
may  be  more  pleasing  to  Almighty  God,  I  think  it 
best  that  you  should  carefully  select  it,  and  settle 
it  in  the  use  of  the  English  church,  newly  converted 
to  the  faith.  For  we  are  not  to  love  things  for  the 
sake  of  the  place,  but  places  for  the  sake  of  the 
good  things  we  find  in  them.  Therefore  you  may 
collect  out  of  every  church  whatever  things  are 
pious,  religious,  and  right ;  and  putting  them  to- 
gether, instil  them  into  the  minds  of  the  English, 
and  accustom  them  to  the  observation  of  them.  And 
there  is  no  question  but  that  Austin  followed  this 
direction  in  his  new  plantation  of  the  English  church. 

Neither  was  this  liberty  granted  to  different 
churches  in  bare  rituals,  and  things  of  an  indiffer- 
ent nature,  but  sometimes  in  more  weight}'  points, 
such  as  the  receiving  or  not  receiving  those  that 
were  baptized  by  heretics  and  schismatics  without 
another  baptism.  This  was  a  question  long  debated 
between  the  African,  and  Roman,and  other  churches ; 
yet  without  breach  of  communion,  especially  on 
their  part  who  followed  the  moderate  counsels  of 
Cyprian,  who  still  pleaded  for  the  liberty  and  in- 
dependence of  different  churches  in  this  matter, 
leaving  all  churches  to  act  according  to  their  own 
judgment,  and  keeping  peace  and  unity  with  those 
that  differed  from  him,  as  has  been  more  fully 
showed  in  a  former  Book,'"-  where  we  discourse  of 
the  independence  of  bishops,  especially  in  the  Afri- 
can churches. 

The  reader  may  find  an  account  of  some  other 
questions  in  the  same  place,  as  candidly  and  mo- 
derately debated  among  them,  as  the  question  about 
clinic  baptism,  and  the  case  of  admitting  adulterers 
to  communion  again,  in  which  the  practice  of  the 
African  bishops  was  often  different  from  one  an- 


other ;  but  they  neither  censured  each  other's  prac- 
tice, nor  brake  communion  upon  it.  And  sometimes 
the  same  moderation  was  observed  in  doctrinal 
points  of  lesser  moment.  For,  as  our  learned  and 
judicious  writers  ""  have  observed  out  of  St.  Aus- 
tin,'" besides  the  necessary  articles  of  faith,  there 
are  other  things  about  which  the  most  learned  and 
exact  defenders  of  the  catholic  rule  do  not  agree, 
without  dissolving  the  bond  of  faith.  There  are 
some  questions  in  which,'"*  without  any  detriment 
to  the  faith  that  makes  us  Christians,  we  may  safely 
be  ignorant  of  the  truth,  or  suspend  our  opinion, 
or  conjecture  what  is  false  by  human' suspicion  and 
infirmity.  As  in  the  question  about  paradise,  what 
sort  of  place  it  is,  and  where  it  was  that  God  placed 
the  first  man  when  he  had  formed  him  ?  Where 
now  Enoch  and  Elias  are,  in  paradise,  or  some  other 
place  ?  How  many  heavens  there  are,  into  the  third 
of  which  St.  Paul  says  he  was  taken  ?  With  in- 
numerable questions  of  the  like  nature,  pertainino- 
either  to  the  secret  work  of  God,  or  the  hidden  parts 
of  Scripture,  concerning  which  he  concludes,  that 
a  man  may  be  ignorant  of  them  without  any  pre- 
judice to  the  Christian  faith,  or  err  about  them 
without  any  imputation  of  heresy.  This  considera- 
tion made  St.  Austin  profess  in  his  modestv,  that 
there  were  more  things  in  Scripture  ""*  which  he 
knew  not,  than  what  he  did  know.  And  if  men 
should  fiercely  dispute  about  such  things,  and  con- 
demn one  another  for  their  ignorance  or  error  con- 
cerning them,  there  would  be  no  end  of  schisms 
and  divisions  in  the  church.  Therefore  in  such 
questions  every  man  was  at  liberty  to  abound  in  his 
own  sense,  only  observing  this  rule  of  peace,  not  to 
impose  his  own  opinions  magisterially  upon  others, 
nor  urge  his  own  sentiments  as  necessary  doctrines 
or  articles  of  faith  in  such  points,  where  either  the 
Scripture  was  silent,  or  left  every  man  the  Uberty 
of  opining. 

Nay,  in  some  cases  a  little  allow- 
ance was  made  for  men  of  honest     wharaUo».ince 

-  ,  ,         ,  .  was   made  for  men 

minds,  wl\o    brake   communion   one  -"^o  out>  of  simple 

ignorance    brake 

With  another.     For  sometimes  it  hap-  communion  «ith 

■t        one  anotlier, 

pened,  that  good  catholics  were  di- 
vided among  themselves  out  of  ignorance,  and  brake 
communion  with  one  another  for  mere  words,  not 
understanding  each  other's  sentiments.     In  which 


'"'  Greg.  Respons.  ad  Quaest.  A\ig.  ap.  Bedam,  lib.  1.  cap. 
27.  et  Gratian.  Dist.  12.  cap.  10.  Mihi  placet,  ut  sive  in 
Romana,  sive  in  Galliaruin,  sen  in  qualibet  ecclesia  aliqnid 
inveuisti,  quod  plus  omnipotenti  Deo  placere  possit,  solli- 
cite  eligas ;  et  in  Anglonim  ecclesia,  qmc  adluic  ad  fidem 
nova  est,  institutione  praecipua,  qua:  de  niultis  ecclesiis  col- 
ligere  potuisti,  infundas.  Non  eiiim  pro  locis  res,  sed  pro 
bonis  rebus  loca  amanda  sunt.  Ex  singulis  ergo  quibusque 
ecclesiis,  quee  pia,  quoR  religiosa,  qute  recta  sunt  elige,  et 
ha;c  quasi  in  fascieulum  collecta,  apud  Anglorum  mcntes  in 
consuetudinem  depone.  '"-  Book  IF.  chap.  G. 

'»'  Barrow,  Of  the  Unity  of  the  Church,  p.  299.     Potter, 


Answer  to  Charity  mistaken,  sect.  3.  p.  cS8. 

""  Aug.  cont.  Julian.  Pelag.  Alia  sunt  de  quibus  inter 
sc  aliquando  doctissimi  atque  optinii  rcgulae  catliolica;  de- 
I'ensoies,  salva  fidei  compage,  non  consonant. 

105  Aug.  de  Peccat.  Orig.  cont.  Pelag.  et  Celest.  lib.  2. 
cap.  23.  Sunt  qua;stiones  in  quibus,  salva  fide  qua  Cln-is- 
tiani  sumus,  aut  ignoratur  quod  verum  sit,  et  sententia  de- 
finitiva  suspenditur;  aut  aliter  quam  est,  humana  etintirma 
suspicione  conjicitur.  Veluti  cum  quajritur,  qualis,  aulubi 
paradisus  sit,  &c.     Vid.  Enchirid.  cap.  59. 

'»'=  Aug.  Ep.  119.  ad  Januar.  cap.  21.  Etiam  in  ipsis 
Sanctis  Scripturis  multo  nesciam  plura  quam  sciam. 


878 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


case  all  wise  and  moderate  men  had  a  just  com- 
passion for  each  partj^,  and  laboured  to  compose 
and  unite  them,  without  severely  condemning  either. 
Nazianzen '"'  tells  us,  There  was  a  time  when  the 
ends  of  the  earth  were  well  nigh  divided  by  a  few 
syllables.  It  was  in  a  controversy  about  the  use  of 
the  words  rpia  Trpoawva,  and  rfiilg  {nroaraatig,  in  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  Each  party  was  orthodox, 
and  meant  the  same  thing  under  different  words  ; 
but  not  understanding  one  another's  sense,  they 
mutually  charged  each  other  with  heresy.  They 
who  were  for  calling  the  three  Divine  persons  three 
hypostases,  charged  their  adversaries  as  Sabellians  ; 
and  they  on  the  contrary  returned  the  charge  of 
Arianism  upon  them,  as  thinking  they  had  taken 
three  hypostases  in  the  Arian  sense,  for  three  es- 
sences or  substances  of  a  different  nature.  But  the 
great  and  good  Athanasius,  in  his  admirable  pru- 
dence and  candour,  seeing  into  the  false  foundation 
of  these  disputes,  quickly  put  an  end  to  them,  by 
bringing  them  to  a  right  understanding  of  each 
other's  sense,  and  allowing  them  to  use  their  own 
terms  without  any  difference  in  opinion.  And  this, 
says  our  author,  was  a  more  beneficial  act  of  cha- 
rity to  the  church,  than  all  his  other  daily  labours 
and  discourses :  it  was  more  honourable  than  all 
his  watchings  and  humicubations,  and  not  inferior 
to  his  flights  and  exiles.  And  therefore  he  tells  his 
readers,  in  ushering  in  the  discourse,  that  he  could 
not  omit  the  relation  without  injuring  them,  espe- 
cially at  a  time  when  contentions  and  divisions 
were  in  the  church  ;  for  this  action  of  his  would  be 
an  instruction  to  them  that  were  then  alive,  and  of 
great  advantage,  if  they  would  propound  it  to  their 
own  imitation ;  since  men  were  prone  to  divide  not 
only  from  the  impious,  but  from  the  orthodox  and 
pious,  and  that  not  only  about  little  and  contempti- 
ble opinions,  (which  ought  to  make  no  difference,) 
but  even  about  words  that  tended  to  the  same  sense, 
as  was  evident  in  the  case  before  them.  Such  was 
the  candour  and  prudence  of  wise  and  good  men  in 
labouring  to  compose  the  unnecessary  and  verbal 
disputes  of  the  orthodox,  when  they  unfortunately 
happened  to  clash  and  quarrel  without  grounds  one 
with  another. 

And  they  had  some  regard  likewise  to  men  of 
honest  minds,  who  through  mere  ignorance  or  in- 
firmity were  engaged  in  greater  errors.  For  they 
made  a  great  distinction  between  heresiarchs  and 
their  followers ;  between  the  guides  and  the  people  ; 
and  between  such  as  were  born  and  bred  in  the 


church,  and  afterward  apostatized  into  heresy,  and 
those  that  received  their  errors  from  the  trachtion 
and  seduction  of  their  parents.  St.  Austin,'"'  speak- 
ing of  this  latter  sort,  says,  That  they  who  defend 
not  a  false  and  perverse  opinion  with  any  pertina- 
cious animosity,  especially  if  they  did  not  by  any 
audacious  presumption  of  their  own  first  invent  it, 
but  received  it  from  the  seduction  of  their  erring 
parents,  and  were  careful  in  their  inquiries  after 
truth,  being  ready  to  embrace  it  when  they  found 
it ;  that  they  were  by  no  means  to  be  reckoned 
among  heretics.  That  is,  they  had  not  the  formality 
of  heresy,  which  is  pride  and  obstinacy  in  error; 
and  therefore  a  more  favom-able  opinion  might  be 
conceived  of  them  above  others,  who  first  founded 
heresies,  or  embraced  them  afterwards  out  of  some 
vicious  corruption  of  mind,  having  a  greater  regard 
to  their  own  lusts,  and  pleasures  of  unrighteous- 
ness, than  any  sincere  love  for  truth.  Though  such 
weak  and  injudicious  persons  could  not  be  wholly 
excused  from  error,  or  schism,  or  sin,  yet  in  com- 
parison of  others  their  case  was  thought  capable  of 
some  proper  allowances :  and  therefore  they  were 
neither  so  severely  punished  in  the  church  here,  nor 
reputed  so  great  objects  of  God's  displeasure  here- 
after. For,  as  Salvian""  words  it,  in  the  case  of 
some  who  embraced  the  Arian  heresy,  they  erred 
indeed,  but  they  erred  with  a  good  mind ;  not  out 
of  any  hatred  to  God,  but  with  affection  to  him, 
thinking  thereby  to  honour  and  love  the  Lord. 
Although  they  had  not  the  true  faith,  yet  they 
imagined  this  their  opinion  to  be  perfect  charity  to- 
w'ards  God.  And  how  they  shall  be  punished  for 
this  error  of  their  false  opinion  in  the  day  of  judg- 
ment, no  one  knows  but  the  Judge  alone. 

This  occasioned  a  little  distinction 
sometimes  to  be  made  between  here-     or  ^m-nlut  Ae- 
siarchs,  or  the  first  authors  of  heresy,  fiiL"  no"onl'  was 

esteemed    to    lie   in 

and  those  that  were  ignorantly  drawn  'he  perfect  unity  of 

'-^  ^  the  cniircn,  who  ivas 

into  error  by  their  seducement  and  ",|'„Vw,[h"i,e?'"""" 
delusions,  as  we  shall  see  more  in 
speaking  of  the  discipline  and  censures  of  the 
church.  In  the  mean  time,  I  observe,  that  because 
the  church  could  not  ordinarily  judge  of  men's 
hearts,  nor  always  know  the  means  and  motives  that 
engaged  them  in  error  or  schism,  she  was  forced  to 
proceed  commonly  by  another  rule,  and  judge  of 
their  unity  with  her  by  their  external  communion 
and  professions.  And  because  there  were  several 
sorts  and  degrees  of  unity,  as  we  have  seen  before, 
so  that  a  man  might  be  in  the  communion  of  the 


'»'  Naz.  Oral.  21.  de  Laud.  Athanas.  t.  1.  p.  396. 

'"^  Aug.  Ep.  162.  ad  Episc.  Donat.  p.  277.  Qui  senten- 
tiam  suam,  quamvis  I'alsam  atque  perversani,  nulla  pertiiiaci 
animositate  defendunt,  prwsertim  quain  non  aiidacia  pra;- 
sumptionis  suae  pepererunt,  sed  a  scductis  atque  in  errorem 
lapsis  parentibus  acceperunt,  quaerunt  autem  cauta  solici- 
tudine  vei-itatem,  corrigi  parati  cum  invencrint,  nequaquam 


sunt  inter  haereticos  deputandi. 

""  Salvian.  de  Guberuat.  Dei,  lib.  5.  p.  154.  Errant  ergo, 
sed  bono  animo  errant ;  non  odio,  sed  affectu  Dei,  hono- 
rare  se  Dominum,  atque  aniare  credentes.  Quamvis  non 
habeant  rectara  fidem,  illi  tamen  hoc  perfectam  Dei  opsti- 
mant  charitalem.  Qualiler  prohoc  ipso  falsa;  opinion  is  errore 
in  die  jiidicii  puniendi  sunt,  nullus  potest  scire  nisi  Judex. 


vHAP.     I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


879 


hurch  in  one  respect,  and  out  of  it  in  another ; 
hercfore  the  church  went  by  this  rule,  to  judge 
ione  to  be  in  her  perfect  unity,  but  such  as  were  in 
oil  communion  with  her.  Upon  which  account, 
hough  heretics,  and  schismatics,  and  excommuni- 
ate  persons,  and  profane  men  were  in  some  sense 
if  tlie  church,  as  having  received  baptism,  which 
hey  always  retained,  and  as  making  profession  of 
ome  part  of  the  Christian  faith;  yet  because  in 
ither  respects  they  were  broken  oft'  from  her,  they 
^■ere  not  esteemed  sound  and  perfect  members  of 
Ihe  body,  but  looked  upon  as  withered  and  decayed 
tranches,  for  want  of  such  unity  in  other  respects, 
s  is  necessarily  required  to  denominate  a  man  a 
eal  and  complete  Christian,  which  is  a  title  allow- 
d  to  none  but  such  as  are  in  full  communion  with 
Ihe  church  of  Christ.  This  distinction  between 
otal  and  partial  unity,  and  total  and  partial  schism 
nd  separation,  is  of  great  use  to  make  a  man  im- 
ierstand  all  those  sayings  of  the  ancients,  which 
peak  of  heretics,  and  schismatics,  and  excommuni- 
ate  persons,  and  profligate  sinners,  as  being  in  some 
aeasure  in  and  of  the  church,  at  the  same  time 
hat  they  were  reputed  really  and  truly  separated 
rom  her.  Thus  Optatus  tells  the  Donatists,"" 
That  they  were  divided  from  the  church  in  part, 
[lot  in  every  respect :  for  that  was  the  nature  of  a 
chism,  to  be  divided  in  part,  not  totally  cut  asunder, 
^nd  that  for  very  good  reason,  because  both  we 
nd  you  have  the  same  ecclesiastical  conversation  ; 
hough  the  minds  of  men  be  at  variance,  the  sacra- 
icnts  do  not  vary.  We  have  all  the  same  faith, 
^e  are  all  signed  with  the  same  seal :  w^e  are  no 
therwise  baptized  than  you  are,  nor  otherwise  or- 
ained  than  you  are.  We  all  read  the  same  Divine 
i'estament,  we  all  pray  to  the  same  God.  The 
ord's  prayer  is  the  same  with  us  as  it  is  with  you ; 
ut  there  being  a  rent  made  (as  was  said  before)  by 
he  parts  hanging  this  way  and  that  way,  a  union 
as  necessary  to  restore  the  whole  to  its  integrity. 
le  repeats  this  again  in  other  places  :'"  Both  you 
nd  we  have  the  same  ecclesiastical  conversation, 


the  same  common  lessons,  the  same  faith,  the  same 
sacraments  of  faith,  the  same  mysteries.  And  upon 
this  score  he  frecjuently  tells  them  they  were  tlieir 
brethren  still,  whether  they  would  or  not.  Though 
the  Uonatists  hate  us,  says  he,""  and  abhor  us,  and 
will  not  be  called  our  brethren,  yet  we  cannot  de- 
part from  the  fear  of  God :  they  are  without  doubt 
our  brethren,  though  not  good  brethren.  There- 
fore let  no  one  wonder  that  I  call  (hem  brethren, 
who  cannot  be  otherwise  than  our  brethren,  seeing 
both  they  and  we  have  one  and  the  same  spiritual 
nativity,  though  our  actions  are  different  from  one 
another.  Ye  cannot  but  be  our  brethren,  says  he 
again  to  them,"^  whom  one  mother  the  church  hath 
born  in  the  same  bowels  of  her  sacraments ;  whom 
one  God,  as  a  Father,  hath  received  after  one  and 
the  same  manner,  as  adopted  children.  We  all  pray, 
"Our  Father  which  art  in  heaven:"  whence  you 
may  perceive,  that  we  are  not  totally  separated  from 
one  another,  whilst  we  pray  for  you  willingly,  and 
you  pray  for  us,  though  against  your  will.  You 
may  hence  see.  Brother  Parmenian,  that  the  sacred 
bonds  of  brotherhood  between  us  and  you  cannot 
be  totally  broken  asunder.  St.  Austin  always  dis- 
courses after  the  same  manner  concerning  this 
union  in  part :  In  many  things  ye  are  one  with  us,"* 
in  baptism,  in  the  creed,  and  the  rest  of  God's  sa- 
craments. And  hence  "^  he  also  concludes,  that 
whether  they  would  or  no,  they  were  their  bre- 
thren, and  could  not  cease  to  be  so,  so  long  as  thev 
continued  to  say,  "  Our  Father,"  and  did  not  re- 
nounce their  creed  and  their  baptism.  For  there 
was  no  medium  between  Christians  and  pagans.  If 
they  retained  faith,  and  baptism,  and  the  common 
prayer  of  the  Lord,  which  teaches  all  men  to  style 
God  their  Father ;  so  far  they  were  Christians  : 
and  as  far  as  they  were  Christians,  so  far  they 
were  brethren,  though  turbulent  and  contentious, 
who  would  neither  keep  "  the  unity  of  the  Spirit 
in  the  bond  of  peace,"  nor  continue  to  be  united  in 
the  catholic  church  with  the  rest  of  their  brethren. 
By  all  this  it  is  evident,  I.  That  there  were  dif- 


Optat.  lib.  3.  p.  72.  In  parte  vestis  adhiic  unutn  su- 
ms, sed  in  diversa  pendemus.  Quod  euim  scissinn  est,  ex 
arte  divisum  est,  non  ex  toto  concisuni.  Et  merito,  quia 
obis  et  vobis  una  est  ecclesiastica  conversatio  :  et  si  homi- 
um  litigant  mentes,  non  litigant  sacramenta.  Denique 
ossumus  et  nos  dicere,  pares  credimus,  et  uno  sigillo  signati 
umus:  nee  aliter  baptizati  quam  vos :  nee  aliter  onlinati 
uam  vos.  Testainentum  divinuni  legimus  pariter  :  unum 
)euin  rogamus.  Oratio  Dominica  apud  nos  et  apud  vos  una 
st,  sed  scissura  (ut  supra  diximus)  (acta,  partibus  hinc  at- 
ue  inde  pendentibus,  sartura  necessaria. 

'"  Ibid.  lib.  5.  p.  84.  Denique  apud  vos  et  apud  nos  una 
st  ecclesiastica  conversatio,  communes  lectiones,  eadem 
ides,  ipsa  tidei  sacramenta,  eadem  mysteria. 

"*  Ibid.  lib.  1.  p.  34.  Quamvis  nos  odio  habent,  et  execrea- 
ur,  et  nolunt  se  dici  fratres  nostros  ;  tamen  nns  rocederc  a 
imore  Dei  non  possumus. — Simt  igitur  sine  dubio  fratres, 
[uatnvis  non  boni.     Quare  nemo  miretur,  eos  me  appellare 


fratres,  qui  non  possunt  non  esse  fratres.  Est  quidem  nobis 
et  illis  una  spiritualis  nativitas,  sed  diversi  sunt  actus,  &c. 
So  in  the  conference  of  Carthage,  die  3.  n.  233,  the  catholics 
say,  Propter  sacramenta  frater  est  sive  bonus  sive  malus. 

"'  Ibid.  lib.  4.  p.  77.  Non  enim  non  potestis  esse  fra- 
tres, quos  iisdem  sacramentorum  visceribus  una  mater  ec- 
clesia  genuit ;  quos  eodem  modo  adoptivos  filios  Dens  Pater 
exrepit. — Videtis  nos  non  in  totum  ab  invicem  esse  se- 
paratos,  dum  et  nos  pro  vobis  oramus  volentes ;  et  vos  pro 
nobis  oretis,  etsi  nolcntes.  Vides,  frater  Parmeniane,  sancta 
germanitatis  vincula  inter  nos  et  vos  in  totum  rmnpi  non 
posse. 

"*  Aug.  Ep.  48.  ad  Vincent,  p.  71.  In  multis  estis  no- 
biscum,  in  baptismo,  in  symbolo,  in  cajteris  Dominicis  sa- 
cramentis.  In  spiritu  autem  unifatis,  ct  vinculo  pacis,  in 
ipsa  denique  catholica  ecclesia  nobiscuni  non  estis. 

"^  Aug.  in  Psal.  xxxii.  Concion.  2,  p.  91.  Velint,  nolint, 
fratres  nostri  sunt,  &c. 


880 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


ferent  degi-ees  of  unity  and  schism,  according  to 
the  proportion  of  which,  a  man  was  said  to  be  more 
or  less  united  to  the  church,  or  divided  from  it.  2. 
That  they  who  retained  faith,  and  baptism,  and 
the  common  form  of  Christian  worship,  were  in 
those  respects  one  with  the  church ;  though  in 
other  respects,  wherein  their  schism  consisted,  they 
were  divided  from  her.  So  they  might  be  said  to 
be  brethren,  and  not  brethren ;  sons  of  God,  and 
not  sons  of  God ;  of  the  house  of  God,  and  not 
of  the  house  of  God;  according  to  the  dilTerent 
acceptation  of  these  terms,  and  the  different  pro- 
portion and  degrees  of  that  unity  or  schism,  where- 
by they  were  united  to  the  church,  or  separated 
from  her.  3.  That  to  give  a  man  the  deno- 
mination of  a  true  cathohc  Christian,  absolutely 
speaking,  it  was  necessary  that  he  should  in  all 
respects,  and  in  every  kind  of  unity,  be  in  perfect 
and  full  communion  with  the  church  ;  that  is,  in 
faith,  in  baptism,  in  holiness  of  life,  in  charity,  in 
worship  and  all  holy  offices,  and  in  all  the  necessary 
parts  of  government  and  discipline ;  but  to  deno- 
minate a  man  a  schismatic,  it  was  sufficient  to  break 
the  unity  of  the  church  in  any  one  respect;  though 
the  malignity  of  his  schism  was  to  be  interpreted 
more  or  less,  according  to  the  degrees  of  the  separ- 
ation that  he  made  from  her.  And  by  these  rules 
it  is  easy  for  any  one  to  understand,  what  the  an- 
cients meant  by  unity  and  schism,  and  how  the  dis- 
ciphne  of  the  church  was  exercised  and  maintained 
by  obliging  men  to  live  in  perfect  and  full  commu- 
nion with  her,  which  I  come  now  more  particularly 
to  explain  and  consider. 


CHAPTER  II. 

OF  THE  DISCIPLINE  OF  THE  CHURCH,  AND  THE 
VARIOUS  KINDS  OF  IT,  TOGETHER  WITH  THE 
VARIOUS  METHODS  OBSERVED  IN  THE  ADMINIS- 
TRATION  OF    IT. 

The  discipline  of  the  church  being 
Thut^^he'  disci-  intended,  as  was  observed  before,  only 

plineof  the  church  ,  .  t  ■  r 

did  not  consist  in  to  prescrvc  thc  uuitv  and  purity  or 

canceUing  or  disan.  ^  . 

nulling  any  man's  her  owu  mcmbcrs  in  one  communion, 

baptism. 

we  are  not  to  look  for  the  exercise  of 
it  upon  any  but  such  as  in  some  measure  made 
profession  of  being  joined  in  society  with  her ; 
which  were  either  baptized  persons,  or  at  least  can- 
didates of  baptism ;  for  she  pretended  not  to  exer- 
cise discipline  upon  any  other  which  were  without, 
but  such  only  as  were  within  the  pale,  in  the  largest 


sense,  by  some  act  of  their  own  profession.  And 
even  upon  these  she  never  pretended  to  exercise 
her  discipline  so  far,  as  to  cancel  or  disannul  their 
baptism,  so  as  to  oblige  them  to  take  a  second  bap-  : 
tism,  if  their  first  was  good,  in  order  to  be  admitted 
into  the  church  again,  when  for  any  crime  they 
were  cast  out  of  it.  For  even  heretics  and  apostates, , 
who  made  the  greatest  breach  of  Christian  unity,  '. 
were  never  so  far  divided  from  the  church,  but  that 
still  they  retained  some  distant  relation  to  her  by 
baptism,  whose  character  was  indelible,  even  in  the 
greatest  apostacy  that  can  be  imagined,  even  in  the 
total  abjuration  of  the  Christian  faith :  the  obliga- 
tion of  their  baptism  still  lay  upon  them,  and  with 
what  severity  soever  they  were  treated  in  their  re 
pentance,  if  ever  they  returned  to  the  church  again,' 
there  is  no  instance  of  receiving  them  by  a  second 
baptism,  which,  if  once  lawfully  given,  was  for 
ever  after  forbidden  to  be  repeated  upon  any  afr 
count  whatsoever.  I  will  not  stand  to  prove  this 
here,  because  I  have  had  occasion  once  or  twice' 
before  to  speak  largely  upon  it ;  but  only  observe, 
that  it  was  no  part  of  the  discipline  of  the  church 
to  deny  men  the  original  right  they  had  in  baptism; 
and  consequently,  that  the  most  formal  casting  them 
out  of  communion  was  never  intended  to  signify, 
that  they  were  mere  heathens  and  pagans,  and  that 
they  could  not  be  admitted  again  into  the  church 
without  a  repetition  of  their  baptism. 

But  the  discipline  of  the  church  g^^^  , 
consisted  in  a  power  to  deprive  men  mmVim^he  «™? 
of  all  the  benefits  and  privileges  of  "rKniegeTfo'L-"' 
baptism,  by  turning  them  out  of  the  ''"'"'  "  ""^ """' 
society  and  communion  of  the  church,  in  which 
these  privileges  were  only  to  be  enjoyed  ;  such  as 
joining  in  public  prayer,  and  receiving  the  eucha- 
rist,  and  other  acts  of  Divine  worship ;  and  some- 
times they  were  wholly  forbidden  to  enter  the 
church,  so  much  as  to  hear  the  Scriptures  read,  or 
hear  a  sermon  preached,  till  they  showed  some 
signs  of  relenting;  and  every  one  shunned  and 
avoided  them  in  common  conversation,  partly  to 
establish  the  church's  censures  and  proceedings 
against  them,  and  partly  to  make  them  ashamed, 
and  partly  to  secure  themselves  from  the  danger  of 
contagion  and  infection. 

Thus  far  the  church  went  in  her         ^  ,  , 

Sect,  3. 

censures  by  her  own  natural  right  an^^'anfereTp^iS' 
and  power,  but  no  further;   for  her  Pomecases'ihfsec'" 

.     .        n  •    •  i.       ^     lar  arm   was  called 

power  originally  was  a  mere  spiritual  i„  to  give  its  assist- 
power ;  her  sword  only  a  spiritual 
sword,  as  Cyprian"  terms  it,  to  affect  the  soul,  and 
not  the  body.  Over  the  bodies  of  men  she  pre- 
tended no  power ;  no,  nor  yet  over  their  estates,  ex- 
cept such  as  were  purely  ecclesiastical,  and  of  her 


>  Book  XII.  chap.  5.  and  Scholastical  History  of  Bap- 
tism, Part  II.  chap.  6. 


2  Cypr.  Ep.  62.  al.  4.  ad  Pompon,  p.  9.    Spiritual!  gladio 
superbi  et  contumaces  necantur,  dum  de  ecclesia  ejiciuntur* 


Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


881 


own  donation,  to  resume  what  was  her  own  property 
and  gift  from  such  as  were  contumacious  and  re- 
bellious against  her  censures.  In  which  case  she 
Sdinetimes  craved  assistance  from  the  secular  power, 
even  whilst  it  was  heathen,  and  more  frequently 
when  it  was  become  Christian.  Thus  when  the 
council  of  Antioch  had  deposed  Paulus  Samosa- 
teiisis,  and  substituted  Domnus  in  his  room,  but 
eiiiikl  not  remove  him  by  any  power  of  their  own 
IVmu  the  house  belonging  to  the  church,  which 
li(  still  kept  possession  of,  they  had  recourse  to 
A'.nelian,  the  heathen  emperor,  wlio  did  them 
justice  upon  appeal,  ordering  the  house  to  be  de- 
livered to  those  to  whom  the  bishops  of  Italy  and 
E(ime  should  write  with  approbation.  And  so, 
says  Eusebius,'  Paul  was  cast  out  of  the  church 
with  the  highest  disgrace  by  the  help  of  the  secu- 
lar power.  This  was  more  common  after  the  em- 
iierors  were  become  Christians  ;  for  then  they 
(  I'.ld  with  greater  liberty  and  confidence  appeal 
to  them,  and  beg  their  assistance  upon  such  oc- 
ca-^ions.  And  then  canons  were  made  to  authorize 
si'.eh  addresses,  that  the  censures  of  the  church 
r.ii^ht  have  their  efl'ect  and  force  upon  contu- 
macious and  obstinate  offenders.  Such  an  order 
...-  made  in  the  council  of  Antioch,  anno  341,  in 
the  reign  of  Constantius,  That  if  a  presbyter,  who 
set  uji  a  separate  meeting  against  his  bishop,  and 
was,  aft'T  admonition,  deposed  for  his  crime,  still 
continued  obstinately*  to  disturb  and  subvert  the 
chun.'h,  he  should  be  con'ccted  by  the  external 
power,  that  is,  the  ci\dl  magistrate,  as  a  seditious 
person.  Such  another  canon  was  made  in  the 
third  council  of  Carthage,*  in  the  case  of  one  Cres- 
conius,  an  African  bishop,  who,  having  left  his 
own  bishopric,  and  intruded  himself  into  another, 
where  he  staj^ed  in  spite  of  all  ecclesiastical  cen- 
sures, orders  were  given  to  petition  the  secular 
magistrate  by  his  authority  to  remove  him.  And 
this  canon  was  inserted  as  a  general  and  standing 
Tule  into  the  African"  Code.  Where  we  have  also 
a  like  constitution '  against  such  presbyters  as  set 
up  new  bishoprics  in  the  diocese  of  their  own 
bishop  without  his  consent ;  they  w^ere  to  be  de- 
prived and  removed  out  of  such  places,  as  rebels, 
apxovTiKy  SvvaaTii<f,  by  the  governing  power  of  the 
secular  magistrate.  And  in  another  canon*  men- 
tion is  made  of  letters  to  be  sent  from  the  synod  to 
the  magistrates  of  Africa,  to  petition  them  to  yield 


their  assistance  to  their  common  mother,  the  catho- 
lic church,  against  the  Donatists,  forasmuch  as  the 
authority  of  bishops  was  contemned  in  every  city. 
This  petition  is  more  particularly  explained  in  an- 
other canon,'  which  grants  a  commission  to  certain 
bishops  to  go  as  legates,  in  the  name  of  the  church, 
to  the  emperors  Arcadius  and  Honorius,  and  com- 
plain of  the  violences  offered  by  the  Donatists,  who 
had  invaded  many  of  their  churches,  and  kept  them 
by  force ;  against  which  tliey  desired  the  emperors 
to  grant  them  a  suitable  help  by  a  military  guard  ; 
it  being  no  unusual  thing,  nor  against  the  Scripture, 
to  be  protected,  as  St.  Paul  was,  by  a  band  of  soldiers 
against  the  conspiracy  of  insolent  and  factious  men. 
They  requested  also,  that  the  emperors  would  j)ut  in 
execution  the  law,  which  Theodosius  their  father,  of 
pious  memory,  had  enacted  against  heretics,  where- 
by every  one  that  ordained,  or  was  ordained  by  them, 
was  amerced  in  the  sum  of  ten  pounds  of  gold.  The 
law  they  refer  to,  is  still  extant  in  the  Theodosian 
Code,  running  in  these  terms,'"  "  If  proof  is  made 
against  any  who  are  engaged  in  heretical  errors, 
that  they  either  have  ordained  clerks,  or  received 
the  office  of  a  clerk,  a  mulct  of  ten  pounds  in  gold 
is  by  our  order  to  be  imposed  upon  them ;  and  the 
place  in  w'hich  any  of  these  unlawful  things  were 
attempted,  if  done  by  the  connivance  of  the  owner, 
shall  be  confiscated.  But  if  the  possessor  was  igno- 
rant of  the  matter,  then  he  that  rented  the  farm,  if  he 
be  a  freeman,  shall  forfeit  ten  pounds  of  gold  to  the 
exchequer ;  or  if  he  be  descended  of  a  servile  condi- 
tion, and  cannot  bear  the  penalty,  then  he  shall  be 
beaten  with  rods,  and  sent  into  banishment."  This 
was  that  famous  penal  law  of  Theodosius  against 
all  heretics  in  general,  so  often  mentioned  by  St. 
Austin ;  and  which  he,  with  the  rest  of  the  African 
fathers,  desired  Honorius  to  confirm,  so  as  it  might 
specify  and  affect  the  Donatists,  more  particularly 
such  of  them  as  by  open  or  secret  violence  made 
assaults  upon  the  catholic  church.  They  did  not 
desire  that  this  penalty  should  be  inflicted  indiffer- 
ently upon  all  the  Donatists,  but  only  such  as  the 
Circumcellions  and  others,  who,  in  their  mad  zeal 
and  fury,  committed  violent  outrages  against  the 
catholics :  but  Honorius  extended  the  penalty  to 
them  all,  and  enforced  the  old  law  of  Theodosius 
his  father  by  a  new  law  of  his  own,  wherein  the 
Donatists  were  particularly  named  as  heretics,"  who, 
upon  conviction,  or  confession,  were  to  be  fined  in 


^  Euseb.  lib.  7.  cap.  30.  MetA  t^s  £o-x«t»)s  alvx^vii^  vtto 
T^s  Kotr/xiKri's  «pxii«  E^tXoui/Exai  Tijs  E/vKXijcrias. 

*  Cone.  Antioch.  can.  5.  Ei  ok  irapafxivoi  ^opv^wv  Kal 
&va(TTaTwv  Ti/i/  LKKXrjaiau,  oia  t^s  i^wdiu  i^ov(Tia^  cos 
trraaiMOi]  aurov  iTrL<TTpi<pta^6ai. 

*  Cone.  Garth.  3.  can.  38.  Dignemini  dare  fiihieiam;  qua, 
necessitate  ipsa  eogcnte,  liberum  sit  ad  prasidem  regionis 
adversus  ilium  accedere,  secundum  constitutiones  CI.  ira- 

peratorum ut   secularis  magistratus  auctoritate   pi-ohi- 

beatur. 

3  L 


«  Cod.  Afric.  can.  19.  '  Ibid.  can.  51. 

8  Ibid.  can.  68.  "  Ibid.  can.  93.  al.  95. 

'»  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  16.  Tit.  5.  de  Haereticis,  Leg.  21.  In 
haereticis  eiroribus  qnoscunque  consliterit  vel  ordiuasse  c!o- 
ricos,  vel  suscepisse  officium  clericonim,  denis  libris  auri 
viritini  multandos  esse  ccnsemus,  &c. 

"  Ibid.  .39.  Donatistae  superstitionis  h.-crelicos,  quocun- 
que  loci,  vel  fatentcs,  vel  convictos,  legis  tenore  servatn, 
poenam  debilam  absque  dilatione  persolvere  decernimus. 


882 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


the  sum  of  ten  pounds  of  gold,  Jiccording  to  the 
tenor  of  the  former  law.  No  one  better  understood 
either  the  reasons  or  the  effects  of  this  law  than  St. 
Austin,  and  therefore  it  cannot  be  better  explained 
than  as  Gothofred  does  it,  '.n  his  words.  Now  he, 
writing  to  Count  Boniface,  an  African  magistrate, 
gives  this  account  of  it :  Before  those  laws,  says  he,'- 
were  sent  into  Africa,  which  compel  heretics  to  come 
in  to  the  church,  some  of  our  brethren,  among 
whom  I  was  one,  were  of  opinion,  that  although 
the  madness  of  the  Donatists  raged  every  where,  yet 
we  should  not  petition  the  emperors  to  forbid  any 
one  simply  to  be  of  that  heresy,  by  inflicting  punish- 
ment on  all  that  embraced  it ;  but  only  desire  them 
to  make  a  law  to  restrain  them  from  offering  violence 
to  any  that  either  preached  or  held  the  catholic 
faith.  Which  we  thought  might  in  some  measure 
be  done  after  this  manner:  If  the  law  of  Theodosius, 
of  pious  memory,  which  he  had  promulged  against 
all  heretics  in  general.  That  whoever  was  found  to 
be  a  bishop  or  clerk,  any  where  among  them,  should 
forfeit  ten  pounds  in  gold,  were  more  expressly  con- 
firmed against  the  Donatists  (who  denied  them- 
selves to  be  heretics)  in  such  a  manner,  as  that  the 
penalty  should  not  be  inflicted  upon  them  all,  but 
only  upon  such  in  whose  regions  the  catholic  church 
suffered  violence  from  their  clergy,  or  the  Circum- 
cellions,  or  their  people,  so  as  after  the  protestation 
of  the  catholics,  who  suffered  from  them,  the  magis- 
trates should  compel  their  bishops  or  ministers  to 
pay  the  fine.  For  so  we  thought  that  by  this  means 
they  might  be  terrified  from  daring  any  such  at- 
tempts, and  the  catholic  truth  might  be  taught  and 
held  freely,  so  as  no  one  should  be  compelled  to  it, 
but  every  one  that  would  might  embrace  it  without 
fear,  and  we  should  have  no  false  or  counterfeit 
catholics.  And  though  others  of  our  brethren  were 
of  a  different  opinion,  (who  by  their  age  had  greater 
experience,  and  could  plead  the  example  of  many 
cities  and  places  where  we  saw  the  catholic  church 
firmly  and  truly  settled,  Avhich  yet  was  there  settled 
by  such  kind  methods  of  Divine  Providence,  whilst 
men  were  compelled  by  the  laws  of  former  empe- 
rors to  come  in  to  the  catholic  communion,)  yet, 
notwithstanding  this,  we  prevailed,  that  our  petition 
should  be  presented  to  the  emperors  in  the  foresaid 
form.  And  thereupon  a  decree  was  drawn  up  in 
council,  and  our  legates  were  despatched  to  court. 
But  the  greater  mercy  of  God  (who  better  knew 
how  necessary  the  terror  of  such  laws  and  a  little 
medicinal  trouble  is,  for  the  wicked  or  cold  hearts 
of  many  men,  and  for  that  hardness  of  mind  which 
cannot  be  corrected  by  words,  but  may  by  a  little 


severity  of  discipline)  so  ordered  the  matter,  that 
our  legates  could  not  obtain  the  thing  they  had 
undertaken.  For  before  they  could  get  to  court  I 
to  present  our  petition,  several  grievous  complaints* 
had  been  made  by  the  bishops  of  other  places,  who 
had  suffered  extremely  from  the  Donatists,  and  were 
driven  from  their  sees  by  them :  especially  the  hor- 
rible and  incredible  murder  of  Maximian,  the  ca- 
tholic bishop  of  Vaga,  made  it  impossible  for  ouri 
embassy  to  succeed.  For  now  a  law  was  already, 
promulged  against  the  barbarous  Donatist  heresy, 
the  very  sparing  which  seemed  more  cruel  than  the 
cruelty  which  themselves  exercised,  that  not  only 
its  violence,  but  its  very  being  should  not  be  tole- 
rated, or  suffered  to  go  unpunished.  Yet,  to  ob- 
serve Christian  meekness,  even  toward  the  unwor- 
thy, the  penalty  proposed  was  not  death,  but  only, 
a  pecuniary  mulct,  and  banishment  for  the  bishops 
and  ministers.  Then  relating  particularly  the  bar- 
barous usage  of  Maximian,  and  their  unparalleled 
cruelty  towards  him,  he  adds.  That  the  emperor, 
being  well  apprized  of  these  facts,  in  his  great 
piety  and  concern  for  religion,  chose  rather  uni- 
versally to  correct  that  impious  error  by  whole- 
some laws,  and  reduce  those,  who  carried  the  badge 
of  Christ  against  Christ,  to  catholic  unity  by 
terror  and  punishment,  than  barely  to  take  from 
them  the  liberty  of  exercising  their  cruelty,  anc 
leave  them  at  liberty  to  err  and  perish.  He  ol 
serves  further,  That  as  soon  as  ever  these  laws  apJ 
peared  in  Africa,  they  wrought  wonderful  efiecta 
upon  the  minds  of  men ;  for  immediately  all  such 
as  waited  only  for  a  proper  occasion,  or  were  ke})t 
back  merely  by  the  dread  of  the  cruelty  of  those 
frantic  men,  or  were  afraid  to  offend  their  relations,} 
came  over  at  once  to  the  catholic  church.  Manj 
also  who  were  detained  in  schism  merely  by  the 
custom  they  had  been  trained  up  to  by  their  pa-j 
rents,  but  had  never  spent  a  thought  about  the 
grounds  and  reasons  of  their  error,  nor  would  con- 
sider or  make  any  inquiry  into  the  merits  of  . 
cause ;  when  once  they  began  to  consider  it,  and 
found  nothing  in  it  worth  suffering  so  great  loss, 
they  without  any  difficulty  became  catholic  Chris- 
tians. For  a  concern  for  their  own  safety  brought 
them  to  understanding,  who  before  were  grown 
negligent  by  security.  Many  also,  who  were  less 
capable  of  understanding  and  j  udging  by  themselves, 
what  was  the  difference  between  the  error  of  the 
Donatists  and  the  catholic  truth,  were  induced  to 
follow  the  authority  and  persuasion  of  so  many  ex- 
amples going  before  them.  So  the  true  mother  re- 
ceived great  multitudes  of  people  into  her  bosor 


'-  Aug.  Ep.  50.  ad  Bonifac.  p.  81.  Antequam  istoe  leges, 
qiiibus  ad  convivium  sanctum  coguntur  inlraie,  in  Africam 
mitterentur,  nonnuUis  fiatribus,  in  quibus  et  ego  eram, 
quamvis  Donatistamm  rabies  usquequaque  seeviret,  videba- 
tur  non  esse  petendum  ab  iraperatoribus,  tit  ipsam  hooresin 


jiiberent  omnino  non  esse,  poenam  constituendo  eis,  qui 
ilia  esse  voluissent,  sed  hoc  potius  constituerent,  ut  eorur 
fnriosas  violentias  non  paterentur,  qui  veritatem  ca.l-.olican 
vel  praidicarent  loqueado,  vel  legerent  constituendo,  &c. 


Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


S83 


again  rejoicing,  and  only  a  hardened  company  re- 
mained obstinate  by  their  unhappy  animosity  in 
that  pernicious  way.  And  many  of  these  also  com- 
municated with  the  church  by  a  sort  of  dissimula- 
tion ;  but  they  who  at  first  dissembled,  afterwards 
by  degrees  accustoming  themselves  to  the  way  of 
the  church,  and  hearing  the  preaching  of  truth, 
especially  after  the  conference  and  disputation  which 
was  held  between  their  bishops  and  us  at  Carthage, 
did  at  last  for  the  most  part  correct  their  errors  also. 
This  is  the  account  which  St.  Austin  gives  both 
of  the  reasons  and  effects  of  this  penal  law,  which 
he  frequently ''  mentions  in  other  places,  carefully 
collected  by  Gothofred,  but  needless  here  to  be  re- 
cited. I  only  observe  these  few  things  upon  the 
whole  matter.  1.  That  though  it  was  no  part  of 
the  church's  discipline  to  use  any  manner  of  force 
to  give  effect  to  her  censures ;  yet,  in  case  of  obsti- 
nate opposition  and  contempt,  she  did  not  think  it 
unlawful  to  take  the  assistance  of  the  secular  power. 

2.  That  in  case  of  violence  offered  to  the  church,  or 
any  of  her  ministers  or  her  members,  there  was  still 
more  reason  to  petition  for  defence  against  them. 

3.  That  it  was  generally  thought  useful  to  inflict 
some  moderate  temporal  punishments  upon  obsti- 
nate heretics,  and  schismatics,  and  other  offenders, 
(with  a  hberty  of  indulging,  and  remitting  the 
penalty,  as  prudence  directed,)  in  order  to  bring 
them  to  consider  and  examine  the  grounds  of  truth 
and  error,  and  humble  them  by  repentance,  and  re- 
store them  to  the  communion  of  the  church  from 
whence  they  were  fallen. 

But  then  it  is  also  to  be  considered, 
rtssist'ance     that    the    church    never  encouraged 

..vti  required  to  .  i     /•         i  » 

proceed  so  far,  as,  auy  magistrate  to  proceed  further  in 


for 


to 


take  away  hk,  or  her  bclialf  agalust  any  one  for  any 

8hed  blood.  O  J  J 

mere  error,  or  ecclesiastical  misde- 
meanor, than  to  punish  the  delinquent  with  a  pecu- 
niary mulct,  or  bodily  punishment  short  of  death, 
such  as  confiscation  or  banishment,  unless  it  were 
in  case  of  capital  crimes,  and  of  a  civil  nature, 
which  fell  directly  under  the  cognizance  of  the  civil 
magistrate,  as  treason  or  rebellion,  which  the  impe- 
rial laws  punished  with  death.  There  are  indeed 
some  laws  in  the  Theodosian  Code,  which  order 
heretics  to  be  prosecuted  with  capital  punishments. 
Theodosius "  made  a  decree  against  some  of  the 
Manichees,  which  went  by  the  name  of  Encratites, 


Saccophori,  and  Hydroparastatre,  that  they  should 
be  punished  with  death,  at  the  same  time  that  the 
Solitarii,  another  sect  among  them,  should  only  suf- 
fer confiscation.  And  Honorius  renewed  the  same 
law "  against  them.  And  in  two  other  laws  he 
ordered  the  Donatists'"  in  Africa  to  be  put  to  death, 
if  they  held  any  public  conventicles  to  the  prejudice 
of  the  catholic  faith,  revoking  all  tolerations  that 
had  been  granted  them  before.  But  as  these  laws 
were  very  rare,  so  they  may  be  supposed  to  be  made 
upon  some  particular  provocation  of  their  enormi- 
ties, such  as  the  Manichees  were  guilty  of;  or  their 
barbarous  outrages  committed  against  the  catholics, 
such  as  the  Circumcellions  among  the  Donatists 
every  where  stand  charged  with.  Then,  again,  it 
was  as  rare  to  find  these  laws  at  any  time  put  in 
execution  against  them ;  for  we  scarce  find  an  in- 
stance before  Priscillian  of  any  heretic  suffering 
death  barely  for  his  opinion.  Sozomen,  speaking 
of  this  law  of  Theodosius,  says.  It  was  made  more 
for  terror"  than  execution.  And  Chrysostom  at 
the  same  time  delivered  his  opinion  freely.  That  the 
tares  were  not  thus  to  be  rooted  out ;  for  if  here- 
tics "  were  to  be  put  to  death,  there  would  be  no- 
thing but  eternal  war  in  the  world.  Christ  does 
not  prohibit  us  to  restrain  heretics,  to  stop  their 
mouths,  to  cut  off  their  liberty,  and  their  meetings, 
and  their  conspiracies,  but  only  to  kill  and  slay 
them.  St.  Austin  seems  not  to  have  known  any 
thing  of  this  law  of  Theodosius ;  and  for  those  of 
Honorius,  they  were  not  yet  enacted  against  the 
Donatists,  when  he  wrote  against  them.  Therefore, 
writing  frequently  to  the  African  magistrates,  he 
tells  them.  The  law  gave  them  no  power  to  put  any 
Donatist  to  death.  Thus  in  his  letter"  to  Dulci- 
tius  the  tribune.  You,  says  he,  have  not  received 
the  power  of  the  sword  against  them  by  any  laws ; 
neither  by  any  imperial  injunctions,  which  you  are 
obliged  to  execute,  are  you  commanded  to  put  them 
to  death.  So  he  tells  Petilian,  the  Donatist  bishop, 
That  God  had  so  ordered  the  matter  in  his  provi- 
dence, having  the  hearts  of  kings  in  his  hand,  that 
though  the  emperor  had  made  many  laws  to  ad- 
monish and  correct""  them,  yet  there  was  no  im- 
perial law  which  commanded  them  to  be  put  to 
death.  The  judges  indeed  had  power  to  punish 
malefactors  with  death,  as  murderers,  and  the  like ; 
and  so  perhaps  some  of  the  Donatists  might  suffer ; 


"  Aug.  Ep.  68.  ad  Januar.  Donatist.  Ep.  166.  ad  Dona- 
tistas.  Ep.  173.  ad  Crispinum  Donatist.  Cont.  Crescon. 
lib.  3.  cap.  47.    Cont.  Liter.  Petilian.  lib.  2.  cap.  83. 

"  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  16.  Tit.  5.  de  Hcereticis.  Le^;.  9. 
Summo  supplicio  et  ine.Kpiabili  poena  jubemus  affligi. 

•»  Ibid.  Leg.  35. 

'*  Ibid.  Leg.  51.  Oraculo  penitus  remote,  quo  ad  ritus 
suoshaereticae  supevstitiones  obrepserant,  sciant  omnes  sanc- 
tae  legis  inimici  plectendos  se  poena  proscriptionis  et  san- 
guinis, si  ultra  convenire  per  publicum,  e.xecranda  sceleris 
«ui  temeritate  temptaverint.  An.  410.  Vid.  ibid.  Leg.  56. 
3  L  2 


"  Sozom.  lib.  7.  c.  12. 

'*Chr)-s.  Horn.  47.  in  Mat.  p.  '122.  Ou  yap  St2  auaipiiv 
aipe-riKov'  iTrtl  iroXe/uos  affTroi/oos  eIs  xt;i;  oikov p-ivnv 
ijjL^Wiv  iiarayicrdai,  k.t.X. 

"  Aug.  Ep.  61.  ad  Dulcitium.  Non  tu  in  eos  jus  gladii 
ullis  legibus  accepisti,  aut  imperialibus  constitutis,  quorum 
tibi  injuncta  est  executio,  hoc  proeccptum  est,  ut  necentur. 

™  Aug.  cont.  Literas  Petiliani,  lib.  2.  cag.  86.  Multas  ad 
vos  commoncndos  et  corripiendos  leges  ipse  constituit: 
nulla  tamen  lex  regia  vos  jiissit  occidi. 


884 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


but  that  was  not  for  their  opinion  barely.  And 
even  in  that  case,  when  it  was  the  cause  of  the 
church,  the  cathohc  bishops  commonly  interceded 
for  them,  that  the  deaths  of  their  martyrs  might  not 
be  revenged  with  blood.  For  no  good  men  in  the 
catholic  church,  says  St.  Austin,^'  are  pleased  to 
have  any  one,  although  he  be  a  heretic,  prosecuted 
unto  death.  Therefore,  writing  to  one  Donatus,  a 
proconsul  in  Africa,  he  tells  him.  They  desired" 
that  the  terror  of  judges  and  laws  might  correct 
them,  so  as  to  preserve  them  from  the  punishment 
of  eternal  judgment,  but  not  kill  them;  that  dis- 
cipline might  not  be  neglected  toward  them,  and 
yet  that  they  might  not  undergo  the  punishment 
which  they  really  deserved.  Therefore  punish  their 
crimes  in  such  manner,  as  that  the  authors  may 
continue  in  being,  to  repent  of  them.  We  beseech 
you,  when  any  cause  of  the  church  comes  before 
.you,  although  you  know  tlie  church  to  be  assaulted 
and  afflicted  by  their  injurious  villanies,  yet  then 
forget  that  you  have  the  power  of  killing,  and  do 
not  forget  our  petition.  Let  it  not  seem  vile  and 
contemptible  in  your  eyes,  that  we  who  pray  to  God 
to  correct  them,  intercede  with  you  not  to  kill  them. 
Let  your  prudence  also  consider  this,  that  no  one 
besides  ecclesiastics  is  concerned  to  bring  ecclesias- 
tical causes  before  you :  so  that  if  you  shoixld  re- 
solve to  put  such  criminals  to  death,  who  are  ac- 
cused of  acting  wickedly  against  the  church,  you 
will  deter  us  from  bringing  any  more  such  actions 
before  your  tribunal ;  and  that  will  make  them  more 
licentious  and  daringly  bold  to  assault  us,  and  work 
our  ruin,  when  they  know  we  are  under  such  a  ne- 
cessity, to  choose  rather  to  be  slain  by  them,  than 
bring  them  to  be  slain  before  your  tribunals.  He 
pleads  after  the  same  manner  in  another  letter  ^' 
to  Marcellinus  the  tribune,  in  behalf  of  some  Donat- 
ists,  who  confessed  themselves  guilty  of  murdering 
some  of  the  catholic  clergy.  I  beseech  you,  says  he, 
let  their  punishment  be  short  of  death,  though  their 
crimes  be  so  great,  both  for  our  conscience'  sake,  and 
to  commend  the  lenity  and  meekness  of  the  cathohc 
church.  A  little  after  he  entreats  him  to  intercede 
in  his  name  to  the  proconsul  for  them.  I  hear  it  is 
in  the  power  of  the  judge  to  mollify  the  rigour  of 
the  law  in  giving  sentence,  and  to  use  greater  mild- 
ness in  punisliing  than  the  laws  command.  But  if 
he  will  not  at  my  request  consent  to  this,  let  him, 
however,  grant  me  this  favour,  to  keep  them  in 


prison  till  I  can  send  to  the  emperor,  and  obtain  of 
his  clemency,"'  that  the  passions  or  martyrdoms  of 
the  servants  of  God,  which  ought  to  be  glorious  in 
the  church,  be  not  stained  and  defiled  with  the 
blood  of  their  enemies.  He  urges  the  same  argu- 
ment in  his  next  letter  to  this  Marcellinus  with 
gi'eater  earnestness,  conjuring  him,  by  all  that  is 
sacred,  not  to  proceed  to  the  utmost  extremity 
against  some  Circumcellions  and  Donatist  clergy, 
who  were  convicted  of  murdering  two  of  his  pres- 
byters belonging  to  the  church  of  Hippo,  after  hav- 
ing first  barbarously  struck  out  an  eye  and  cut  off 
the  finger  of  one  of  them.  I  am  under  the  greatest 
concern  imaginable,  says  he,  lest  your  Highness 
should  decree  their  punishment  by  the  utmost  se- 
verity of  the  law,  to  make  them  suffer  the  same'^ 
things  that  they  have  done.  Therefore  I  beseech 
you  in  these  letters,  by  the  faith  which  you  have  in 
Christ,  by  ttie  mercy  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  that  you 
neither  do  this,  nor  suffer  it  to  be  done.  For 
though  we  might  excuse  ourselves  from  their  death, 
forasmuch  as  it  was  not  by  any  accusation  of  ours, 
but  by  the  information  of  those  who  have  the  care 
of  preserving  the  public  peace,  that  they  were 
brought  in  question  ;  yet  we  would  not  have  the 
passions  of  the  servants  of  God  be  revenged  with 
the  like  punishments,  as  it  were  by  way  of  retalia- 
tion. Not  that  we  are  against  depriving  wicked 
men  of  the  liberty  of  committing  such  villanous 
actions,  but  because  we  rather  think  it  sufficient, 
without  either  killing  them,  or  maiming  them  in 
any  part  of  their  body,  to  bring  them  by  coercion 
of  the  laws  from  these  mad  and  turbulent  prac- 
tices, to  live  peaceably  and  soberly,  or  at  least, 
instead  of  these  wicked  works,  to  engage  them  in 
some  useful  employment.  He  yet  again  more  pa- 
thetically lu'ges  the  same  matter  to  one  Apringius, 
another  African  judge,-''  in  these  very  affectionate 
and  moving  terms,  pleading  for  mercy  toward  the 
same  Circumcellions  :  I  am  afraid  lest  they,  who 
have  committed  this  murder,  should  be  sentenced 
to  death  by  your  power.  That  this  may  not  be 
done,  I  that  am  a  Christian  beseech  you  the 
judge,  I  that  am  a  bishop  exhort  you  that  are  a 
Christian.  I  know  the  apostle  says,  "Ye  bear  not 
the  sword  in  vain,  but  are  ministers  of  God  to  exe- 
cute wrath  upon  them  that  do  evil."  But  the  cause 
of  the  state  is  one  thing,  and  the  cause  of  the  church 
another.     The  administration  of  that  (the  state)  is 


-'  Cont.  Crescon.  lib.  3.  cap.  50.  Nullis  tamen  bonis  in 
catholica  hoe  placet,  si  usque  ad  mortem  in  quenquam,  licet 
h:ereticum,  sajviatur. 

■"  Ep.  127.  ad  Donat.  Ex  occasione  terribilium  jiidi- 
ciun  ac  legum,  ne  in  a;terni  judicii  pcenas  incidant,  cor- 
ligi  eos  cupimus,  non  necari ;  nee  disciplinam  circa  ens 
negligi  volumiis,  nee  suppliciis  quibus  digui  sunt,  exer- 
ceri,  &c. 

^  Ibid.  158.  ad  Marcellin.  Poena  sane  illorum,  quamvis 
de  tantis  sceleribus  confessorum,  rogo  te  ut  prseter  suppli- 


cium  mortis  sit,  et  propter  conscientiain  nostram,  et  propter 
catholicam  mansuetudinem  commendandam. 

^'  Ibid.  Hoc  de  dementia  imperatoris  impetrare  ciira- 
bimus,  ne  passiones  servorum  Dei,  qua;  debcnt  esse  in  ec- 
desia  gloriosa;,  inimicorum  sanguine  dehonesteutur. 

"  Ibid.  159.  Sollicitudo  mihi  maxima  incussa  est,  ne 
forte  sublimitas  tua  censeat,  eostanta  legum  severitate  plec- 
tendos,  ut  qualia  feceruul,  talia  patiantur. — Nolumus  pas- 
siones  servorum  Dei  quasi  vice  talionis  paribus  suppliciis 
viudicari.  ^^  Ibid.  160.  ad  Apringium. 


Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


8S5 


to  be  carried  on  by  terror,  but  the  meekness  of  the 
church  is  to  be  commended  by  her  clemency.  Then, 
using  several  arguments,  he  adds  a  little  after,  If 
nothing  short  of  death  could  be  imposed  upon  them, 
for  our  part  we  had  rather  they  should  be  set  at  li- 
berty, than  that  the  passions  of  our  brethren  should 
be  revenged  by  shedding  the  blood  of  their  enemies. 
But  now,  since  there  is  room  both  to  show  the  gen- 
tleness of  the  church,  and  also  to  restrain  the  au- 
daciousness of  the  cruel,  why  should  you  not  incline 
to  the  more  provident  side  and  milder  sentence, 
which  judges  have  liberty  to  do  even  in  causes 
where  the  church  is  not  concerned  ?  Therefore 
stand  in  awe  with  us  of  the  judgment  of  God  the 
Father,  and  demonstrate  the  clemency  of  the  church 
your  mother.  For  what  you  do,  the  church  does, 
for  whose  sake  you  do  it,  and  whose  you  are  that 
do  it.  Therefore  contend  and  vie  goodness  with 
the  evil.  They,  by  monstrous  inhumanity  and 
wickedness,  tear  off  the  members  from  the  living 
body  :  do  you  in  mercy  cause  their  members,  which 
were  exercised  in  such  barbarous  works,  to  remain 
whole  and  untouched  in  them,  that  they  may 
henceforth  serve  to  work  at  some  useful  labour. 
They  spared  not  the  servants  of  God  preaching  re- 
formation to  them,  but  do  you  spare  them  that  have 
been  apprehended  in  their  crimes,  spare  them  that 
have  been  presented  to  your  examination,  spare 
them  that  have  been  convicted  before  you.  They 
with  the  sword  of  unrighteousness  shed  Christian 
blood :  do  you  withhold  even  the  lawful  sword  of 
judgment  from  being  imbrued  in  their  blood.  They 
slew  the  minister  of  the  church,  and  thereby  de- 
prived him  of  the  time  of  living :  do  you  let  the 
enemies  of  the  church  live,  and  thereby  grant  them 
a  time  of  repenting.  Thus  it  becomes  a  Christian 
judge  to  act  in  the  cause  of  the  church,  at  our  re- 
quest, at  our  admonition,  at  our  intercession.  Other 
men  are  wont  to  appeal  from  the  mildness  of  the 
sentence,  when  their  enemies  are  too  favourably 
dealt  with  upon  conviction ;  but  we  so  love  our 
enemies,  that  if  we  did  not  presume  upon  your 
Christian  obedience,  we  should  appeal  from  the 
severity  of  your  sentence. 

After  this  manner  St.  Austin  always  pleads  for 
favour  to  be  showed  to  the  Donatists,  that  they 
should  not  be  prosecuted  unto  blood,  in  the  cause 
of  the  church,  though  it  were  for  a  capital  crime, 
which  in  a  civil  case  would  infallibly  have  been 
punished  with  death  without  redemption.  And 
certainly  they,  who  were  so  tender  of  their  enemies' 
hves,  when  they  were  guilty  of  such  flagrant  crimes 
of  violent  outrages  against  the  church,  could  never 


think  it  lawful  to  sentence  them  to  death  for  mere 
error  in  opinion.  And  therefore,  though  Honorius 
made  some  such  laws  after  St.  Austin  had  written 
all  this,  yet  we  never  find  the  church  approved 
them,  or  desired  they  should  be  put  in  execution  : 
but,  on  the  contrary,  always  stood  firm  to  her  own 
character,  which  we  have  heard  before  in  the  words 
of  St.  Austin ;  that  is,  That  no  good  men  in  the 
catholic  church  were  pleased  with  having  heretics 
prosecuted  unto  death.  Lesser  punishments,  they 
thought,  might  have  their  use,  as  means  sometimes 
to  bring  them  to  consideration  and  repentance  ;  but 
to  take  away  their  lives  was  to  deprive  them  at 
once  of  all  means  and  opportunity  of  repenting. 
Besides  that  it  was  invidious  to  the  church,  and 
rather  a  confirmation  to  heresy ;  for  such  as  were 
slain,  were  always  reckoned  martyrs  by  their  party. 
Thus  the  Donatists  honoured  their  Circumcellions, 
which  were  slain  in  the  encounter  with  Macarius, 
whom  the  emperor  Constans  sent  into  Africa  in  a 
peaceable  manner,  to  scatter  his  gifts  among  them, 
and  try  to  reduce  them  to  unity  by  his  kindness  : 
they  were  the  aggressors,  and  forced  him  to  require 
aid  of  the  govemors  to  defend  himself  against  their 
assaults ;  and  yet  those  that  were  slain  in  so  neces- 
sary defence,  were  by  them  reputed  martyrs,  and 
the  catholics  were  nicknamed  Macarians,  and  these 
called  the  Macarian  days,  that  is,  in  their  language, 
days  of  persecution.  And  in  answer  to  this,  Optatus 
was  forced  to  tell  them,  first,  that  the  fact  was  false : 
No  violence  was  used  toward  them ;  there  was  no 
terror  in  the  first  design  ;  they  neither  felt  rod,  nor 
imprisonment ;  but  only  exhortations  "  to  peace. 
And,  secondly,  if  any  violence  was  offered  to  them, 
they  called  it  upon  themselves  by  their  own  inso- 
lence, obliging  the  emperor's  officer  or  almoner  to 
defend  himself  against  the  rude  insults  of  the  Cir- 
cumcellions. Meanwhile  whatever  happened  was 
neither  done  l)y  the  desire,  nor  the  counsel,  nor  the 
knowledge,  nor  the  concurrence  of  the  church.  A 
like  instance  happened  in  the  case  of  the  Priscilli- 
anists.  Priscillian  and  some  of  his  accomplices 
were,  by  Maximus  the  emperor,  at  the  instigation  of 
Ithacius,  a  fierce  and  sanguinary  bishop,  sentenced 
unto  death.  This  gave  occasion  to  the  followers  of 
Priscilhan  to  triumph  in  the  sufferings  of  their 
leader.  For,  as  Sulpicius  Severus  observes,®  his 
death  was  so  far  from  suppressing  the  heresy,  that 
it  gave  confirmation  to  it,  and  made  it  spread  fur- 
ther than  otherwise  it  would  have  done.  For  his 
followers,  who  before  honoured  him  as  a  saint,  after- 
wards began  to  reverence  him  as  a  martyr.  The 
thing  was  utterly  displeasing  to  all  good  men  who 


-'  Optat.  lib.  3.  p.  62.  Nullus  erat  primitus  terror.  Nemo 
viderat  virgam  ;  nemo  custodiam  :  sola  fuerant  hortameiUa, 
&c.  Et  tamen  horum  omnium  nihil  actum  est  cum  vote 
nostrn.  nihil  cum  consilio,  nihil  cum  conscientia,  nihil  cum 
operp. 


"*  Sever.  Hist.  lib.  2.  p.  120.  Priscilliano  occiso,  non 
solum  non  reprcssa  est  hacresis,  qua?  illo  authore  proruperat, 
sed  confirmata,  latins  propagata  est.  Namque  sectatores 
ejus,  qui  eum  prius  ut  sanctum  honoraveraut,  postea  ut 
martyiem  colerc  ca-perunt. 


886 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


were  interested  and  cattached  to  the  Ithacian  party. 
St.  Martin,  bishop  of  Tours,  not  only  rebuked  Itha- 
cius  for  his  over-zealous  prosecution,"^  but  interceded 
with  Maximus  the  emperor  to  abstain  from  shed- 
ding their  blood,  telling  him,  it  was  enough  to  expel 
heretics  from  their  churches,  after  they  were  once 
condemned  by  the  episcopal  judgment :  and  he  ob- 
tained a  promise  of  Maximus,  not  to  decree  any 
thing  against  their  lives.  From  which  when  he 
departed  by  the  persuasion  of  others,  and  condemn- 
ed them  to  death,  St.  Martin  would  never  after  be 
induced  to  communicate  with  those  sanguinary 
men,  save  once  in  a  small  matter,  of  which  he  also 
repented,  and  continued  his  aversion  to  them  all 
his  days,  as  the  same  historian  informs  us.^"  Now, 
from  all  this  it  is  plain,  that  whatever  favour  or  as- 
sistance the  ancient  church  required  of  the  civil 
magistrates,  to  back  her  discipline  with  against  he- 
retics or  other  delinquents,  she  never  desired  them 
to  unsheath  the  sword  in  her  cause,  or  punish 
them  with  death ;  but  always  interposed  in  their 
behalf,  that  they  might  have  the  favour  to  live  and 
repent,  if  ever  any  sanguinary  laws  (which  were 
very  rare,  and  no  w'ays  encouraged  or  approved  by 
the  church)  were  made  against  them.  The  dis- 
cipline of  fire  and  faggot,  and  inquisitions,  and  a 
thousand  other  tortures,  which,  under  pretence  of 
mercy,  has  spilt  so  much  Christian  blood,  are  in- 
ventions of  later  ages,  and  more  corrupt  and  de- 
generate times,  when  men  had  forgot  the  spirit  of 
Christianity,  and  the  character  of  our  blessed  Lord, 
who  came  not  to  destroy  men's  lives,  but  to  save  them. 
It  was  no  part  of  the  ancient  dis- 
The  ^discipline  of  cipUnc,  to  deprive  men  of  their  natural 
no^manofhis^namr-  or  clvll  rfghts.    A  mastcr  did  not  lose 

al  or  civil    rights;  i         ..  i   •      /»         -i 

much  less  the  ma-  his  natural  authority  over  his  lamilv, 

gistrate  of  his  pow-  "^ 

".or^egiancedue  ngr  a  parent  over  his  children,  by 
losing  the  privileges  of  Christian  com- 
munion. A  judge  did  not  lose  his  office  or  charge 
in  the  state,  by  being  cast  out  of  the  church.  For 
many  such  enjoyed  their  power  and  jurisdiction 
under  Constantius  and  other  heretical  princes,  not- 
withstanding the  church's  censures.  Though  now 
it  is  the  common  doctrine  of  the  Romish  church,  as 
Cardinal  Tolet^'  delivers  it  for  the  instruction  of 
priests,  that  an  excommunicated  person  cannot  ex- 
ercise any  act  of  jurisdiction  without  sin ;  nay,  and 
if  his  excommunication  be  made  public,  all  his  sen- 
tences are  null  and  of  no  effect.    This  rule  is  design- 


ed against  sovereign  powers,  to  weaken  the  hands  of 
princes  by  displacing  their  officers,  under  pretence  of 
excommunication.     But  the  church  of  Rome  goes 
further,  and  puts  it  in  the  power  of  the  pope  to  lay 
princes  under  the  highest  excommunication,  or  ana- 
thema, and  then  by  virtue  of  that  to  depose  them 
from  their  thrones,  and  absolve  subjects  from  their  al- 
legiance, and  dispose  of  their  kingdoms  to  whom  they 
think  fit.  Of  which  practice  there  is  not  the  least  foot- 
step in  all  the  disciphne  of  the  primitive  church  for 
many  ages,  nor  scarce  any  unquestionable  instance 
of  such  an  attempt  before  the  time  of  Pope  Hilde- 
brand,  or  Gregory  VII.,  (from  whom  this  doctrine  is 
called  the  Hildebrandin  doctrine,)  as  some  of  their 
own  historians  ingenuously  confess.     I  have  read 
over  and  over  again,  says  Otho  Frisingensis,^  a  noble 
German  bishop,  the  records  of  the  Roman  kings 
and  emperors,  and  I  no  where  find  that  any  of  them 
before  this  w'as  excommunicated,  or  deprived  of  his 
kingdom,  by  the  bishop  of  Rome ;  unless  any  one 
think  fit  to  call  that  anathematizing,  when  Phihp 
the  emperor  was  placed  among  the  penitents  for  a 
little  time  by  the  Roman  bishop ;  or  when  Theodo- 
sius,  for  his  cruel  slaughter  of  the  Thessalonians, 
was  debarred  from  entering  the  church  by  St.  Am- 
brose.    There  is  no  question  but  that  princes  an- 
ciently were  sometimes  denied  the  communion,  as 
St.  Ambrose  denied  Theodosius ;  but  as  that  was 
not  properly  putting  them  under  the  great  excom- 
munication, or  anathema,  so  much  less  was  it  de- 
priving them  of  their  legal  power  and  dominion. 
Constantius  was  a  heretic,  and  Julian  an  apostate ; 
Valens  and  Valentinian  the  younger  were  professed 
Arians  ;  Anastasius  and  many  others,  abettors  and 
propugners  of  several  heresies ;  yet  the  church  never 
pretended  to  withdraw  her  allegiance  from  them,  or 
depose  them :  neither  was  this  for  want  of  power, 
as  Bellarmine  and  others  commonly  pretend,  but  for 
want  of  just  authority  and  right;  for  the  church  in 
those  days  knew  nothing  either  of  a  direct  or  indi- 
rect power,  that  the  pope  or  any  other  bishop  had 
over  the  temporal  rights  of  princes,  but  professed 
obedience  to  them,  whether  they  were  heathens,  or 
heretics  ;  in  the  church,  or  out  of  the  church ;  per- 
secutors, or  friends ;  as  the  reader,  that  pleases,  may 
see  more  fully  demonstrated  in  the  elaborate  work 
of  our  learned  Bishop  Buckridge,  in   defence  of 
Barclay  against  Bellarmine,  concerning  the  pre- 
tended power  of  the  pope  in  temporals,  and  his 


^  Sever.  Hist.  lib.  2.  p.  119.  Non  desinebat  increpare 
Ithacium,  ut  ab  accusatione  desisteret:  Maximum  orare, 
lit  sanguine  infelicium  abstineret ;  satis  superque  sufficere, 
lit  episcopali  sententia  hceretici  judicati  ecclesiis  pelleren- 
tur,  &c. 

3»  Sever.  Dial.  3.  n.  15. 

^'  Tolet.  de  Instruct.  Sacerdot.  lib.  1.  cap.  3.  E.xcom- 
municatus  non  potest  exercere  actum  jurisdictionis  absque 
peccato  :  imo  si  publica  est  excommunicatio  facta,  sentcn- 
tipe  nulla;  sunt,  Vid.  Du  Moulin's  Buckler  of  Faith,  p.  370. 


Et  Decretal.  Gregor.  lib.  2.  Tit.  27.  De  Sententia  et  Re  Ju- 
dic.  cap.  24. 

32  Otho  Prising,  lib.  6.  cap.  35.  Lego  et  relego  Romanorum 
regum  et  imperatorum  gesta,  et  nusquam  invenio  quenquam 
eoi'um  ante  hunc  a  Romano  pontifice  excommunicatum,  vel 
regno  privatum,  nisi  quis  forte  pro  anathemate  habendum 
ducat,  quod  Philippus  ad  breve  tempus  a  Romano  episcopo 
inter  poenitentes  collocatus ;  et  Theodosius  a  beato  Ambrosio 
propter  cruentam  ceedem  a  liminibus  ecclesiae  sequestra- 


! 


Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


887 


usurpation  of  a  right  to  dethrone  princes.'*  Where, 
among  many  other  unanswerable  arguments,  he 
confirms  the  foremcntioned  observation  of  Otho 
Frisingensis,  that  Hildebrand  was  the  first  that 
put  this  wicked  doctrine  in  practice  against  the 
iinpcror  Henry  IV.,  from  the  concurrent  testimony 
(if  almost  twenty  writers  of  the  Roman  communion. 
I  shall  pursue  this  matter  no  further  here,  having 
said  what  is  sufficient  to  confirm  this  remark  about 
the  discipline  of  the  church,  that  it  deprived  no 
man  of  his  natural  or  civil  rights,  much  less  gave 
any  one  authority  to  dethrone  princes,  or  absolve 
subjects  from  their  allegiance,  or  dispose  of  their 
kingdoms  under  pretence  of  setting  up  the  spiritual 
sword  above  the  temporal. 

gp^j  g  But  the  discipline  of  the  church, 

in^ldmonitS'of  bciug  a  mcrc  spiritual  power,  was 
the  offender.  confined  to  thcsc  followiug  acts.  First, 

The  admonition  of  the  offender ;  which  was  so- 
lemnly repeated  once  or  twice  commonly,  before 
they  proceeded  to  greater  severities,  according  to 
that  of  the  apostle,  "  A  man  that  is  an  heretic, 
after  the  first  and  second  admonition  reject."  After 
this  manner  St.  Ambrose'^  represents  their  proceed- 
ings :  A  putrified  member  of  the  body  is  never  cut 
off  but  with  grief:  we  try  a  long  time,  whether  it 
cannot  be  healed  with  medicines ;  if  not,  then  a  good 
physician  cuts  it  off.  Such  is  the  affection  of  a 
good  bishop ;  he  is  very  desirous  first  to  heal  the 
infirm,  to  put  a  stop  to  growing  ulcers,  to  burn  and 
sear  a  little,  and  not  cut  off;  at  last  he  cuts  off 
with  grief  what  cannot  be  healed.  So  Prosper" 
says.  They  that,  being  long  endured,  and  often  kind- 
ly admonished,  will  not  be  corrected,  are  cut  off  as 
putrified  members  with  the  sword  of  excommuni- 
cation. 

And  thus  Synesius  represents  his  own  proceed- 
ings against  Andronicus,  the  tyrannical  governor  of 
Ptolemais,  Avho  made  use  of  his  power  only  to  op- 
press and  vex  the  people.  He  first  tried  whether  ad- 
monitions and  remonstrances  against  his  cruelty'" 
would  work  upon  him ;  but  when  they  proved  in- 
effectual, and  the  man  grew  more  outrageous  and 
incorrigible,  breaking  out  into  that  blasphemous 
expression.  That  in  vain  did  any  man  hope  for 
succour  from  the  church ;  and  that  no  man  should 
escape  his  hands,  although  he  laid  hold  of  the  foot 


of  Christ  himself:  after  this,  says  Synesius,"  he 
was  no  longer  to  be  admonished,  but  cut  off  as  an 
incurable  member,  for  fear  the  sound  parts  should 
be  corrupted  by  his  society  and  contagion.  And  so 
he  proceeded  to  pronounce  that  formal  excommuni- 
cation against  him,  which  we  shall  hear  more  of  by 
and  by. 

Some  call  this  the   irpoQiofiia,  the  ^.^^^  . 

warning,  or  time**  given  them  to  re-  si„',?'?;om"ii.'e"com- 
pent,  which  was  limited  sometimes  to  iTs"er°"icommuni' 
the  space  of  ten  days  :'"  after  which,  if  "''°"' 
they  continued  obstinate  and  refractory,  the  church 
proceeded  to  greater  severities,  to  deny  them  com- 
munion by  the  lesser  or  greater  excommunication. 
The  lesser  excommunication  was  commonly  called, 
dcpopifffibc,  separation  or  suspension  :  and  it  con- 
sisted in  excluding  men  from  the  participation  of 
the  eucharist,  and  prayers  of  the  faithful ;  but  did 
not  expel  them  the  church :  for  still  they  might 
stay  to  hear  the  psalmody,  and  reading  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  the  sermon,  and  the  prayers  of  the  cate- 
chumens and  the  penitents,  and  then  depart  with 
them,  when  that  first  service,  called  the  service  of 
the  catechumens,  was  ended.  Theodoret  expressly 
distinguishes  this  lesser  excommunication  from  the 
greater,  when,  speaking  of  some  who  had  lapsed 
into  sin  rather  by  infirmity  than  maliciousness,  he 
says.  They  should  be  *"  debarred  from  partaking  of 
the  holy  mysteries,  but  not  debarred  from  the  pray- 
ers or  service  of  the  catechumens.  And  thus  we 
are  to  understand  that  canon  of  Gregory  Thauma- 
turgus,^'  which  orders  such  to  be  excommunicated 
from  prayers,  as  detained  the  goods  of  their  bre- 
thren (which  they  had  lost  in  the  invasion  of  the 
barbarians)  under  pretence  of  having  found  them. 
Prayers,  there,  means  the  prayers  of  the  faithful  at 
the  altar,  or  the  communion  service,  from  which 
they  were  suspended,  and  not  the  prayers  of  the 
catechumens,  at  which  they  might  be  present  not- 
withstanding their  suspension  from  the  other.  So 
that  this  was  a  lower  degree  of  punishment,  ex- 
cluding them  in  part  only  from  the  society  of  the 
faithful,  that  is,  from  the  common  prayers  arid  the 
eucharist,  but  not  totally  expelling  them  the  church. 
And  it  was  commonly  inflicted  for  lesser  crimes  ;  or 
if  for  greater,  upon  such  sinners  only  as  showed 
immcchately  a  ready  disposition  to  submit  to  the 


^  Joan.  Roffensis,  de  Potestate  Papae  in  Rebus  Tempo- 
ralibus,  &c.    Lond.  11314.  Lib.  2.  cap.  10. 

'*  Ambros.  de  Offic.  lib.  2.  cap.  27.  Cum  dolore  amputa- 
tur  etiain  quae  putruit  pars  corporis,  el  din  tractatiir  si 
potest  sanari  medicanientis ;  si  non  potest,  tunc  a  medico 
bono  abscinditur.  Sic  episcopi  affectus  boni  est,  ut  oportct 
sanare  infirnios,  serpentia  auferre  ulcera,  adurere  aliqua, 
non  abscindcre  :  postvcmo  quod  sanari  non  potest,  cum  do- 
lore absciudere. 

^  Prosper,  de  Vit.  Cnntemplat.  lib.  2.  cap.  7.  Qui  diu 
portati  et  salubriter  objurgati,  corrigi  noluerint,  tanquam 
putres  corporis  partes  dcbent  i'erro  e.\commimicationis  ab- 


scindi. 

^  Synes.  Ep.  57. 

''  Synes.  Ep.  58.  p.  1D9.  OuNtn  i/ou6tTtos  6  auOpwiro^, 
aW  ttxTirtp  fxiXo'i  ai/taxcos  tX"''i  (iiroKOTTTtos,  k.t.X. 

*  Habert.  Archieratic.  p.  7-39.  e.K  Epist.  .loan.  Antioch. 
ad  Nestorium. 

''  Celcstin.  Ep.  ad  Nestor. 

*"  Theod.  Ep.  77.  ad  Eulalium,  t.  3.  p.  947.  KwXviaStw- 
aav  jxiv  t»;s  /u£T«\iji|/f  tos'  twv  upwv  /xvo'Tijpiwv,  /xi)  KioXv- 
iadwcrav  ?ik  xijs  xtuv  Ka-T>i)(oviiivu}V  tv)(t]i,  k.t.X. 

■"  Greg.  Thaiimaturg.  can.  5.  ODs  dt7  iKKiipv^ai  twv  tii- 
X''ii'.     Vid.  Cone.  Ilerdens.  can.  4. 


888 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


laws  of  repentance  ;  there  being  something  in  their 
forwardness  to  entitle  them  to  a  more  favourable 
sentence.  The  council  of  Eliberis*^  orders  this  sort 
of  abstention  from  the  eucharist  for  three  weeks  to 
be  inflicted  on  those,  who,  without  any  necessary 
avocation,  neglected  to  come  to  church  for  three 
Lord's  days  together.  And  in  another  canon"  sus- 
pends such  virgins  for  a  year,  as  were  guilty  of  anti- 
nuptial  fornication ;  ordering  them  to  be  received 
again  without  public  penance,  provided  they  were 
man'ied  to  the  persons  by  whom  they  were  defiled, 
living  chastely  with  them  for  the  future.  Albaspiny 
here  rightly  observes,  That  this  was  only  depriving 
them  of  the  eucharist,  for  they  were  neither  expelled 
the  church,  nor  obliged  to  go  through  any  of  the 
stages  of  public  penance,  but  might  pray  with  the 
catechumens,  and  with  the  faithful  also ;  only  they 
were  not  allowed  to  participate  of  the  holy  mysteries 
till  their  term  was  expired,  and  therein  their  pun- 
ishment consisted.  St.  Basil's  Canons"  speak  of 
the  same  punishment  for  trigamists,  or  persons 
that  were  married  a  third  time.  They  were  to  be 
under  penance  for  five  years ;  half  the  time  to  be 
hearers  only,  and  half  the  time  co-standers  ;  that  is, 
they  might  stay  to  hear  the  prayers  of  the  faithful, 
but  not  partake  of  the  communion  with  them.  So 
that  here  were  two  degrees  of  this  lesser  excommu- 
nication ;  the  one  excluding  them  only  from  the 
eucharist,  but  allowing  them  to  pray  with  the  faith- 
ful ;  and  the  other  excluding  them  from  the  prayers 
of  the  faithful,  and  only  allowing  them  to  pray  with 
the  catechumens ;  but  neither  of  them  expelling 
such  delinquents  totally  from  the  communion  of 
the  church. 

„  ,  „  The  greater  excommunication  was, 

Sect.  8.  "  ' 

from^ti!"  duirch""  whcu  mcu  Were  totally  expelled  the 
escomramnc?tion,    church,  and  Separated  from  all  com- 

totul   si'pa ration.  •  •  i      i  rp  -.lI         l 

anatiicma,  and  the  munion  lu  holy  oftices  With  her. 
Whence  in  the  ancient  canons  it  is 
distinguished  by  the  names  of  -n-avrtXriQ  atpopiaiioQ, 
the  total  separation,  and  anathema,  the  curse ;  it 
being  the  greatest  curse  that  could  be  laid  upon 
man.  It  is  frequently  also  signified  by  the  several 
terms  and  phrases  of,  awtipyta^ai  r^e  iKKXrjaiag,  cnro- 
KXiitaSrai  and  pinTic^ai  rrjg  iKKXrirriag,  iktoq  ilvai,  e/c- 
Ki)pvTTea9ai  rrje  avvoSov,  ctTrelp^ai  rfjg  aKpodaewg,  k.t.X. 
All  which  denote  men's  being  wholly  cast  out  of  the 
church,  by  the  most  formal  excommunication,  and 
debarred  not  only  from  the  eucharist,  but  from  the 
prayers,  and  hearing  the  Scriptures,  in  any  assembly 
of  the  church.  This  form  is  elegantly  expressed  by 
Synesius,  with  all  the  appendages  and  consequents 
of  it,  in  his  excommunication  of  Andronicus,  men- 
tioned before,  in  these  words :  "  Now  that  the  man 


is  no  longer  to  be  admonished,  but  cut  off  as  an  in- 
curable member,  the  church  of  Ptolemais  makes 
this  declaration"  or  injunction  to  all  her  sister 
churches  throughout  the  world :  Let  no  church  of 
God  be  open  to  Andronicus  and  his  accomplices ; 
to  Thoas  and  his  accomplices ;  but  let  every  sacred 
temple  and  sanctuary  be  shut  against  them.  The 
devil  has  no  part  in  paradise;  though  he  privily 
creep  in,  he  is  driven  out  again.  I  therefore  ad- 
monish both  private  men  and  magistrates,  neither 
to  receive  them  under  their  roof,  nor  to  their  table ; 
and  priests  more  especially,  that  they  neither  con- 
verse with  them  living,  nor  attend  their  funerals 
when  dead.  And  if  any  one  despise  this  church, 
as  being  only  a  small  city,  and  receive  those  that 
are  excommunicated  by  her,  as  if  there  was  no  ne- 
cessity of  observing  the  rules  of  a  poor  church ;  let 
them  know,  that  they  divide  the  church  by  schism, 
which  Christ  would  have  to  be  one.  And  whoever 
does  so,  whether  he  be  Levite,  presbyter,  or  bishop, 
shall  be  ranked  in  the  same  class  with  Andronicus  : 
we  will  neither  give  them  the  right  hand  of  fellow- 
ship, nor  eat  at  the  same  table  with  them  ;  and 
much  less  will  we  communicate  in  the  sacred  mys- 
teries with  them,  who  choose  to  have  part  with  An- 
dronicus and  Thoas."  I  have  recited  this  whole 
form,  not  only  because  it  is  curiously  drawn  up 
by  an  excellent  pen,  but  also  because  it  opens 
the  way  into  the  further  knowledge  of  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  church.  For  here  we  may  observe 
four  things,  as  concomitants,  or  immediate  conse- 
quents, of  this  greater  excommunication.  I.  That 
casting  out  of  the  church,  is  represented  under  the 
image  of  casting  out  of  paradise,  and  paralleled 
with  it,  in  the  form  of  excommunication.  2.  That 
as  soon  as  any  one  was  struck  out  of  the  list  of  his 
own  church,  notice  was  given  thereof  to  the  neigh- 
bouring churches,  and  sometimes  to  the  churches 
over  all  the  world,  that  all  churches  might  confirm 
and  ratify  this  act  of  discipline,  by  refusing  to  ad- 
mit such  a  one  to  their  communion.  Forasmuch  as 
that,  3.  He  that  was  legally  excommunicated  in  one 
church,  was,  by  the  laws  of  catholic  unity,  and  rules 
of  right  discipline,  to  be  held  excommunicate  in  all 
churches,  till  he  had  given  just  and  reasonable  satis- 
faction :  and  for  any  church  to  receive  such  a  one 
into  her  communion,  was  so  great  an  offence,  as  to 
be  thought  to  deserve  the  same  punishment  with  the 
ofTending  criminal.  4.  That  when  men  were  thus 
excommunicated,  they  were  not  only  excluded  from 
communion  in  sacred  things,  but  shunned  and 
avoided  in  civil  conversation  as  dangerous  and  in- 
fected persons.  All  these  things  are  evident  from 
this  single  passage  of  Synesius ;  but  because  the 


*2  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  21.  Si  quis  in  civitate  positus,  tres 
Doniinicas  ad  ecelesiam  non  accesserit,  taiito  tempore  ab- 
stineat,  ut  correptus  esse  videatur. 

^'  Ibid.  can.  14.     Virgines  quae  vi:ginitatem  suam  non 


custodierint,  si  eosdem  qui  eas  violaverint,  duxerint  et  tenu- 

erint ;  eo  quod  solas  miptias  violaverint,  post  annum  sine 

poenitentia  reconciliari  debebimt.     Vid.  Albaspin.  in  loc. 

■"  Basil,  can.  4.  «  Synes.  Ep.  68.  p.  190. 


Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


889 


knowledge  of  the  manner  of  exercising  ecclesiasti- 
cal discipline  depends  upon  the  truth  of  them,  it 
I  will  not  be  amiss  a  little  more  distinctly  to  explain 
j  and  confirm  them.  First,  then,  I  observe,  that  cast- 
ing out  of  the  church  is  here  represented  under  the 
j  image  of  paradise,  and  paralleled  with  it  in  the  form 
of  excommunication.  And  so  it  is  said  by  St.  Je- 
rom,*"  That  sinners  transgress  the  covenant  of  God 
in  the  church,  as  Adam  did  in  paradise ;  and  show 
themselves  followers  of  their  first  father,  that  they 
may  be  cast  out  of  the  church,  as  he  was  out  of 
paradise.  In  like  manner  St.  Austin,  speaking  of 
Adam's  expulsion  out  of  paradise,"  says,  It  was  a 
sort  of  excommunication :  as  now  in  our  paradise, 
that  is,  the  church,  men  by  ecclesiastical  discipline 
are  removed  from  the  visible  sacraments  of  the  altar. 
And  Epiphanius'^  notes  the  same  custom,  as  more 
nicely  observed  by  the  sect  of  the  Adamians :  for 
if  any  one  was  taken  in  a  crime,  they  would  not 
suffer  him  to  come  into  their  assembly,  but  called 
him  Adam,  the  eater  of  the  forbidden  fruit,  and  ad- 
judged hmi  to  be  expelled,  as  out  of  paradise,  that 
is,  their  church.  So  that  this  was  a  common  form 
or  phrase  both  in  the  discipUne  of  heretics  and  the 
church. 

Secondly,  I  observe,  that  as  soon  as 
any  one  was  in  this  manner  excom- 
municated by  any  church,  notice  there- 
of was  commonly  given  to  other 
churches,  and  sometimes  by  circular  letters  to  all 
eminent  churches  over  all  the  world,  that  all  churches 
might  confirm  and  ratify  this  act  of  discipline,  by 
refusing  to  admit  such  a  one  to  their  communion. 
To  this  purpose  we  find  a  canon  in  the  first  council 
of  Toledo,^''  That  if  any  powerful  man  oppress  and 
spoil  a  clerk,  or  a  poor  man,  or  one  of  a  religious 
life,  and  a  bishop  summon  him  before  him,  to  have 
a  trial,  and  he  refuse  to  obey  the  summons ;  in  that 
case  he  shall  give  notice  by  letter  to  all  the  bishops 
of  the  province,  and  to  as  many  as  possibly  he  can, 
that  such  a  one  be  held  excommunicate,  till  he 
obediently  submits,  and  makes  restitution.  This 
was  usually  most  punctually  observed  in  the  case  of 
heretics  and  their  condemnation.  For  so  the  his- 
torians °°  tell  us,  when  Alexander,  bishop  of  Alex- 
andria, had  deposed  and  anathematized  Arius,  he 
sent  his  circular  letters  to  all  churches,  giving  an 


Sect.  9. 

This  sort  of  ex- 

jnimunication  was 

jiiimiuily  notiflud 

toaUothtrclmrclits. 


account  of  his  proceedings  against  him.  And  this 
was  the  constant  practice  in  all  councils,  to  send 
about  their  synodical  letters,  to  signify  what  heretics 
they  condemned,  that  all  churches  might  be  ap- 
prized of  their  errors,  and  refuse  their  comnumion 
to  the  authors  of  them.  And  thus  every  bishop  was 
careful  to  inform  his  brethren  and  neighbouring 
churches,  whenever  he  had  occasion  to  use  this 
severe  punishment  against  any  offender.  Thus  St. 
Austin,  having  deposed  Victoriniis,  an  aged  subdea- 
con,  and  exiielled  him  the  church,  because  he  was 
found  hypocritically  in  private  to  have  propagated 
the  abominable  heresy  of  the  ^lanichees,  writes  to 
Deuterius,  one  of  his  fellow  bishops,  and  tells  him, 
he  did  not  think  it  sufliicient'"  to  have  used  this  con- 
gruous ecclesiastical  severity  against  him,  unless  he 
also  gave  intimation  of  what  he  had  done  against 
him,  that  every  one,  being  well  apprized,  might  know 
how  to  be  aware  of  him. 

Then,  thirdly.  Whoever  was  thus  ex- 
communicated in  one  church,  was  held    AOer »^iich  iietiiat 

,  .,      ,  ,  __.  was  excommunicat- 

excommunicate  in  all  churches,     ror  ed  in  om-  church, 

was  held  excom- 

such  was  the  perfect  harmony  and  ^."'^^iJ.'J' '°  '^' 
agreement  of  the  catholic  church,  that 
every  church  was  ready  to  ratify  and  confirm  all 
acts  of  discipline  exercised  upon  delinquents  in  any 
other  church :  so  that  he  who  was  legally  excom- 
municated in  one  church,  was  by  the  laws  of  ca- 
tholic unity  and  rules  of  right  discipline  held  ex- 
communicate in  all  churches  ;  and  no  church  could 
or  would  receive  him  into  communion,  before  he 
had  given  satisfaction  to  the  church  whereof  he  was 
a  member :  and  to  do  otherwise,  was  to  incur  the 
same  penalty  that  was  inflicted  upon  the  offending 
party.  I  have  given  some  evidence  of  this  before,^'" 
in  speaking  of  the  unity  of  the  church :  and  here  I 
shall  a  little  further  confirm  it,  to  show  the  exact- 
ness of  the  ancient  church  in  the  administration  of 
discipline,  both  from  her  laws  and  practice.  Her 
laws  are  altogether  uniform  upon  this  point,  and 
run  univei'sally  in  this  tenor,  That  no  person  ex- 
communicated in  one  church,  should  be  received  in 
another,  except  it  were  by  the  authority  of  a  legal 
synod,  to  which  there  lay  a  just  appeal,  and  which 
was  allowed  to  judge  in  the  case.  There  are  two 
canons  among  those  called  Apostolical  to  this  pur- 
pose :  If  any  presbyter  or  deacon  is  suspended  from 


**  Hieron.  Com.  in  Hoseam,  cap.  6.  Praevaricati  sunt 
pactum  Dei  in  ecclesia,  sicut  Adam  praevaricatus  est  in  pa- 
radiso  :  et  imitatores  se  antiqui  parentis  ostcndunt,  ut  quo- 
modo  ille  de  pavadiso,  sic  et  isti  ejieiantur  de  ecclesia. 

*'  Aug.  de  Genesi  ad  Literam,  lib.  11.  cap.  40.  t.  .3.  p. 
27.3.  Alienandus  erat,  tauquam  excommunicatus :  sicut  otiam 
in  hoc  paradise,  id  est,  ecclesia,  solent  a  sacramentis  altaris 
■yisibilibiis  homines  disciplina  ecclesiastica  removcri. 

*^  Epiphan.  Hmr.  52. 

*^  Cone.  Tolet.  1.  can.  11.  Siquis  de  potentibus  clericum, 
aut  qnemlibet  pauperem,  aut  religiosum  oxpoliaverit,  et 
jnaudaverit  eum  ad  se  veun-c  episcopus  ut  aiidiatur,  et  is  con- 


tempserit  ;  invicem  mox  scripta  percuiTant  per  omnos 
provincia;  episcopos,  et  quoscunque  adire  potuerint,  ut  ex- 
communicatus haboatur  ipse,  donee  obediat  et  reddat 
aliena. 

^^  Socrat.  lib.  I.  cap.  6.  Theod.  lib.  1.  cap.  4. 

*'  Aug.  Ep.  74.  ad  Deuterium.  Ejus  fictionem  subderici 
specie  vehementer  exhorrui,  einnque  cocrcitura  pellenduni 
de  civitate  curavi :  nee  mihi  hoc  satis  fuit,  nisi  et  tua;  sanc- 
titati  eum  meis  literis  iutimarem,  ut  a  tlericorum  gradu 
congrne  ecclesiastica  severitate  dejectus,  cavendus  omnibus 
iunotcscat. 

■^-'  Chap.  1.  sect.  11. 


890 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


communion  by  his  bisliop,"  he  shall  not  be  received 
by  any  other  but  the  bishop  that  suspended  him, 
except  in  case  the  bishop  chance  to  die  that  sus- 
pended him.  And  again,"  If  any  clergyman  or 
layman,  who  is  cast  out  of  the  church,  be  received 
in  another  city  without  commendatory  letters,  both 
he  that  received  him,  and  he  that  is  so  received, 
shall  be  cast  out  of  communion.  The  council  of 
Nice  is  supposed  to  refer  to  these  ancient  canons, 
when  it  says,'*^  The  rule  shall  stand  good  according 
to  the  canon,  which  says,  "  He  that  is  cast  out  by 
one  bishop,  shall  not  be  received  by  another  :  but 
synods  shall  be  held  twice  a  year,  to  examine  whe- 
ther any  one  person  was  excommunicated  unjustly, 
by  the  hasty  passion,  or  contention,  or  any  such 
irregular  commotion  of  his  bishop  ;  and  if  it  appear 
that  he  was  excommunicated  with  reason,  he  shall 
be  held  excommunicate  by  all  other  bishops,  till  the 
synod  think  fit  to  show  hmi  favour."  The  council 
of  Antioch^"  not  long  after  renewed  this  canon  :  "  If 
any  one  is  excommunicated  by  his  own  bishop,  he 
shall  not  be  received  by  any  other  but  the  bishop 
that  excommunicated  him,  unless  upon  appeal  to 
the  synod  he  give  satisfaction,  and  receive  another 
sentence  from  the  synod."  The  learned  reader  may 
find  many  other  canons  to  the  same  purpose  in  the 
councils  of  Eliberis,"  and  Sardica,'*'  and  Milevis,^" 
and  the  first  of  Aries,""  and  Turin,''  and  Saragossa,"- 
which  all  run  in  the  same  tenor,  and  need  not  here 
be  repeated.  It  was  by  this  rule  and  principle  that 
Cornelius  refused  to  admit  Felicissimus  to  com- 
munion at  Rome,*'  because  he  had  been  excom- 
municated by  Cyprian  at  Carthage.  And  for  the 
same  reason  Marcion,  as  has  been  noted  before, 
could  find  no  reception  among  the  Roman  clergy, 
because  he  was  excommunicated  by  his  own  father, 
and  had  given  no  satisfaction  to  him,  as  Epipha- 
nius*"  relates  the  story.  St.  Austin  likewise,  writ- 
ing to  one  Quintian,"^  who  lay  under  the  censure  of 
his  bishop,  tells  him,  that  if  he  came  to  him,  not 
communicating  with  his  own  bishop,  he  could  not 
be  received  to  communion  with  him.  Nay,  he  had 
such  a  regard  for  this  rule  of  discipline,  that  if  a 
Donatist,  that  was  under  censure  among  his  own 
bishops,  pretended  to  come  over  to  the  catholic 
church,'^  he  would  not  receive  him  without  first 


obliging  him  to  do  the  same  penance  that  he  should 
have  done,  had  he  stayed  among  them.  And  he 
greatly  complains  of  the  Donatist  bishops,  as  dis- 
solving all  the  bands  of  discipline,  whilst  they  en- 
couraged the  greatest  criminals,  who  were  under 
discipline  for  their  ill  lives  in  the  church,  to  come 
over  to  them,  where  they  might  escape  doing  pe- 
nance, under  pretence  of  receiving  a  new  baptism: 
and  then,  as  if  they  were  renewed  and  sanctified, 
(though  they  were  really  made  worse  under  pre- 
tence of  new  grace,)  they  could  insult  the  discipline 
of  the  church,  from  which  they  fled,  to  the  highest 
degree  of  sacrilegious  madness.  He  gives  an  in- 
stance in  one,  who,  being  used  to  beat  his  mother, 
and  threatening  to  kill  her,  was  in  danger  of  falling 
under  the  discipline  of  the  church  for  these  his  in- 
solent and  unnatural  cruelties  :  to  avoid  this  he  goes 
over  to  the  Donatists,  who,  without  any  more  ado," 
rebaptize  him  in  his  madness,  and  put  him  on  the 
white  garment  or  alb  of  baptism,  whilst  he  was  fum- 
ing and  thirsting  after  his  mother's  blood.  So  this 
man,  who  was  meditating  murder  against  his  own 
mother,  was  by  this  means  advanced  to  an  emi- 
nent and  conspicuous  place  within  the  chancel, 
and  set  as  a  sanctified  creature  before  the  eyes  of 
all,  who  could  not  look  upon  him  but  with  sigh- 
ing and  mourning.  The  truth  is,  this  was  a  very 
scandalous  practice  in  the  Donatists,  done  purely 
to  ctrengthen  their  party :  and  nothing  has  done 
more  mischief  to  the  church,  or  more  enervated 
the  power  of  ecclesiastical  discipline,  than  the 
receiving  of  scandalous  sinners,  who  fly  from  jus- 
tice and  the  censures  of  the  church,  into  other 
communions,  and  their  protecting  and  even  ca- 
ressing them  as  saints,  who  ought  to  have  been 
punished  as  the  greatest  criminals.  Upon  this 
account  the  church  went  as  far  as  possibly  she 
could,  in  making  severe  laws,  to  discourage  this 
practice ;  inflicting  the  same  penalty  upon  any 
one  that  received  an  excommunicate  person  into 
public  or  private  communion,  as  the  excommu- 
nicated person  himself  was  liable  to.  Thus  in  the 
council  of  Antioch""  one  canon  says,  "  If  any 
bishop,  presbyter,  or  deacon  communicate  with  an 
excomnmnicated  person,  he  himself  shall  be  ex- 
communicated, as  one  that  confounds  the  order  of 


^  Canon.  Apost.  32. 
■^'  Ibid.  can.  13. 
^  Cone.  Antioch.  can.  G. 
^^  Cone.  Sardic.  can.  13. 
^  Cone.  Arelat.  1.  can.  16. 


*^  Cone.  Nie.  can.  5. 
"  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  53. 

■•"  Cone.  Milevit.  can.  18. 
"'  Cone.  Turin,  can.  4  et  G. 


'-  Cone.  Cscsai-august.  can.  5. 

«3  Vid.  Cypr.  Ep.  55.  al.  59.  ad  Cornel,  p.  126. 

"'  Epiphan.  Haer.  42. 

"^  Aug.  Ep.  135.  Si  ad  nos  venires,  vcnerabili  cpiscopo 
non  communicans,  nee  apud  nos  posses  c:ommunicarc. 

*^  Aug.  Ep.  149.  ad  Euseb.  Ego  istuni  niodiiin  servo,  nt 
quisquis  apud  cos  propter  disciplinain  dcgradatus  ad  catho- 
licam  transire  voluerit,  in  humiliatione  pocnitentia;  recipi- 


atur,  quo  et  ipsi  eum  forsitan  cogerent,  si  apud  eos  manere 
voluisset.  Ab  eis  vero  eonsidera,  qua3so  te,  quam  execrabi- 
liter  fiat,  ut  quos  male  vivcntes  eeclesiastica  discipliua  cor- 
ripinius,  pcrsuadeatur  eis  ut  ad  alterum  lavaerura  veniant — 
deinde  quasi  renovati  et  quasi  sanctificati,  discipline,  quam 
f'erre  non  potuerunt,  deteriores  faeti  sub  specie  novae  gratiae, 
sacrilegio  novi  furoris  insultent. 

*'  Ibid.  Ep.  168.  ad  eundera.  Transit  ad  partem  Donati, 
rebaptizatur  furens,  et  in  maternum  sanguinem  fremens 
albis  vestibus  candidatur.  Constituitur  intra  caneellos  emi- 
nens  et  conspicuus,  et  omnium  gemcntium  oeulis  matricidii 
meditator  tanquam  renovatus  opponitur. 

""  Cone.  Antioch.  can.  2. 


I 


.Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


891 


the  church."  Another,*®  "If  any  bishop  receives  a 
presbyter  or  deacon,  deposed  for  contumacy  by  his 
lown  bishop,  he  shall  be  censured  by  a  synod,  as  one 
that  dissolves  the  laws  of  the  church."  And  a  third 
canon  says,""  "  If  any  bishop  deposed  by  a  synod,  or 
presbyter  or  deacon  deposed  by  their  own  bishop, 
presume  to  officiate  in  any  part  of  Divine  service ; 
they  shall  not  only  be  incapable  of  being  restored, 
but  all  that  communicate  with  them  shall  be  cast 
out  of  the  church  ;  especially  if  they  do  so  after 
they  know  that  sentence  was  pronounced  against 
them."  In  Hke  manner  the  first  council  of  Orange, 
If  any  bishop  presume  to  communicate"  with  one 
that  is  excommunicate,  knowing  him  to  be  so,  with- 
out his  being  reconciled  to  the  bishop  by  whom  he 
was  excommunicated,  he  shall  be  treated  as  a  guilty 
person.  The  second  council  of  Carthage"  says 
more  expressly.  That  a  bishop,  presbyter,  or  deacon, 
who  receives  those  into  communion,  who  were  de- 
servedly cast  out  of  the  church  for  their  crimes,  shall 
be  held  guilty  of  the  same  crimes  with  them.  The 
fourth  council  of  Carthage"  declares  universally, 
Whoever  he  be,  clergyman  or  layman,  that  commu- 
nicates with  an  excommunicate  person,  shall  him- 
self be  excommunicated.  St.  Basil's  words  are  very 
remarkable'*  to  an  offender  whom  he  threatened  to 
excommunicate.  Thou  shalt  be  anathema  to  all  the 
people,  and  whoever  receives  thee,  shall  be  excom- 
municate in  all  churches.  The  like  may  be  read  in 
the  Apostolical  Canons,"  to  which  the  ancient  coun- 
cils so  often  refer  as  the  standing  rule  of  discipline : 
If  any  clergj-man  or  layman,  who  is  cast  out  of  the 
church,  be  received  in  another  city  without  com- 
mendatory letters,  both  he  that  receives  him,  and 
he  that  is  so  received,  shall  be  cast  out  of  com- 
munion. Which  answers  an  objection  that  might 
be  raised  in  the  case,  viz.  What  if  a  bishop  knew 
not  by  any  formal  intimation  that  such  or  such  a 
person  was  excommunicate,  and  so  through  igno- 
rance received  him  ?  To  this  it  is  here  answered, 
that  this  did  not  excuse  him,  because  he  ought  by 
the  rule  of  catholic  commerce  to  receive  no  stranger 
jto  communion,  that  did  not  bring  commendatory 
letters,  or  testimonials,  from  his  own  bishop,  that 
he  was  in  the  communion  of  the  church.  If  any 
travelled  without  these,  he  was  to  be  suspected  as  an 
excommunicated  person,  and  accordingly  treated  as 
one  under  censure.  But  what  if  a  person  was  un- 
justly excommunicated  by  his  own  bishop  ?  Might 
not  another  bishop  do  him  justice,  by  relaxing  his 


unlawful  bonds,  and  admit  him  to  communion? 
I  answ'cr,  no:  for  in  this  case  the  church  pro- 
vided another  more  proper  remedy,  that  every 
man  should  have  liberty  to  appeal  from  the  sen- 
tence of  his  own  bishop  to  a  provincial  synod, 
which  was  by  the  canons  of  Nice'"  and  others 
appointed  to  be  held  twice  a  year  for  this  very  pur- 
pose, That  if  any  one  was  aggrieved  by  the  censure 
of  his  own  bishop,  he  might  have  his  cause  heard 
over  again  in  a  provincial  synod ;  from  which  there 
lay  no  further  appeal  to  any  single  bishop,  no,  not 
even  to  the  bishop  of  Rome,  who  most  pretended  to 
it ;  but  all  such  causes  were  to  be  heard  and  deter- 
mined in  the  province  where  they  arose,  to  obviate 
fraud  and  surreptitious  communion,  and  put  an  end 
to  all  strife  and  contention,  as  has  been  showed 
more  fully  in  the  foregoing  chapter,  sect.  14,  out  of 
the  debate  between  the  bishops  of  Rome  and  the 
African  churches.  These  were  the  rules  then 
generally  observed  throughout  the  whole  catholic 
chm-ch,  with  respect  to  the  rejection  of  excommu- 
nicate persons  from  the  communion  of  all  churches. 
And  by  these  rules  the  unity  of  the  catholic  church 
was  duly  maintained,  and  discipline  for  the  most 
part  kept  up  in  its  true  vigour  and  glory. 
But,  fourthly,  Synesius,  in  the  fore- 


not  only  speaks  of  denying  men  com-  and  outward  con- 

.       -^  .    ^  T      1   •  T  ■        vi-rsatioM :    and    al- 

munion  in  sacred  thmgs,  but  also  in  io«ed  no  memorial 

°   '  after  death. 

civil  commerce  and  external  conversa- 
tion :  no  one  w'as  to  receive  excommunicated  per- 
sons into  their  houses,  nor  eat  at  the  same  table 
with  them ;  they  were  not  to  converse  with  them 
familiarly,  whilst  living;  nor  j)erform  the  funeral 
obsequies  for  them,  when  dead,  after  the  solemn 
rites  and  manners  that  were  used  toward  other 
Christians.  These  directions  were  drawn  up  upon 
the  model  of  those  rules  of  the  apostles,  which  for- 
bade Christians  to  give  any  countenance  to  noto- 
rious offenders,  continuing  impenitent,  even  in  ordi- 
nary conversation.  As  that  of  St.  Paul,  I  Cor.  v. 
II,  "  I  have  written  unto  you  not  to  keep  company, 
if  any  man  that  is  called  a  brother  be  a  fornicator, 
or  covetous,  or  an  idolater,  or  a  railer,  or  a  drunkard, 
or  an  extortioner ;  with  such  an  one  no  not  to  eat." 
And  again,  Rom.  xvi.  17,  "  Mark  them  which  cause 
divisions  and  offences  contrary  to  the  doctrine 
which  ye  have  learned,  and  avoid  them."  And 
2  Thess.  iii.  14,  "  If  any  man  obey  not  our  word  by 
this  epistle,  note  that  man,  and  have  no  company 


^  Cone.  Antioch.  can.  4.    '°  Ibid.  can.  5.  See  also  can.  1. 

"  Cone.  Arausican.  can.  11.  Placuit  in  reatuin  venire 
episcopum,  qui  ailmonitus  de  excommunicatione  ciijus- 
quam,  sine  reeoneiliatione  ejus  qui  eum  excommunicavit, 
ei  conimuaicare  prsesumpserit. 

"  Cone.  Carth.  2.  can.  7.  Placuit  ut  qui  merito  faeino- 
rum  suoruni  ab  ecclesia  pulsi  sunt,  si  ab  aliquo  episcopo, 
vel  presbytero,  vel  clerieo  fuerint  in  eommunionem  suscepti, 
etiam  ipse  pari  cum  eis  crimine  tcneatur  obnoxius. 


'^  Ibid.  4.  can.  73.  Qui  communicaverit  vel  oraverit  cum 
excommunicato,  sive  clericus,  sive  laicus,  excomnnmicetiir. 

•'  Basil,  can.  89. 

"Canon.  Apost.  can.  13.  Vid.  Isidor.  Peliis.  lib.  3. 
Ep.  259. 

~^  Viil.Conc.  Nic.  can.  5.  Cone.  Antioch.  can.  6.  Sardic. 
e.  17.  Carthag.  2.  can.  8  et  10.  Cone.  Milevit.  can.  22. 
Carthag.  3.  can.  8.  Vasense,  c.  5.  Veueticum,  c.  9.  Aug. 
Ep.  13G,  &e. 


892 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


with  him,  that  he  may  he  ashamed."  And  that  of 
St.  John,  2  Epist.  10,  II,  "If  there  come  any  unto 
you,  and  hring  not  this  doctrine,  receive  him  not 
into  your  house,  neither  bid  him  God  speed :  for 
he  that  biddeth  him  God  speed  is  partaker  of  his 
evil  deeds."  In  conformity  to  these  rules,  and  the 
reasons  here  assigned  for  the  observation  of  them, 
the  ancients  made  strict  laws  to  forbid  all  familiar 
intercourse  with  excommunicated  persons  in  ordi- 
nary conversation,  unless  some  absolute  necessity, 
or  some  greater  and  more  obliging  moral  consider- 
ation, required  them  to  do  otherwise.  The  first 
council  of  Toledo  has  four  or  five  canons  to  this 
purpose."  It  will  be  sufficient  to  recite  the  first  of 
them,  which  is  in  these  words  :  "  If  any  layman  is 
excommunicated,  let  no  clerk  or  religious  person 
come  near  him  or  his  house.  In  like  manner,  if  a 
clergyman  is  excommunicated,  let  the  clergy  avoid 
him.  And  if  any  is  found  to  converse  or  eat  with 
him,  let  him  also  be  excommunicated."  The  second 
council  of  Aries'*  orders  a  suspended  bishop  to  be 
excluded,  not  only  from  the  conversation  and  table 
of  the  clerg}',  but  of  all  the  people  likewise.  And 
many  other  such  canons  occur  in  the  councils  of 
Vannes,™  and  the  first  of  Tours,^  and  the  first  of 
Orleans,*'  excluding  excommunicate  persons  fi-om 
all  entertainments  of  the  faithful.  The  Apostolical 
Canons*-  forbid  any  one  to  communicate  in  prayer, 
so  much  as  in  a  private  house,  with  excommunicate 
persons,  under  the  same  penalty  of  excommunica- 
tion. And  if  they  happened  to  die  in  professed  re- 
bellion and  contempt  of  penance,  then  they  were 
treated  as  all  other  contemners  and  despisers  of 
holy  ordinances  were,  by  being  denied  the  honour 
and  benefit  of  Christian  burial.  No  solemnity  of 
])salmody  or  prayers  was  used  at  their  funeral ;  nor 
were  they  ever  to  be  mentioned  among  the  faithful 
out  of  the  diptychs,  or  holy  books  of  the  church, 
according  to  custom  in  the  prayers  at  the  altar. 
This  is  evident,  not  only  from  what  is  said  by 
Synesius,  but  from  the  whole  tenor  of  ecclesiastical 
discipline,  which  excludes  all  that  die  in  professed 
rebellion  and  contempt  from  the  privilege  of  Chris- 
tian burial,  such  as  catechumens  dying  in  Avilful 
neglect  of  baptism,  and  those  that  laid  violent 
hands  upon  themselves,  and  such  like,  as  all  dying 
in  impenitency  and  a  desperate  condition.*^  And 
it  is  further  evident  from  that  very  exception,  which 


we  have  observed  before,"  to  be  made  in  favour  of 
such  humble  penitents,  as  modestly  submitted  to  the 
discipline  of  the  church,  and  were  labouring  earn- 
estly to  obtain  a  readmission,  but  were  snatched 
away  by  sudden  death,  before  they  could  obtain  the 
formality  of  an  absolution  :  in  this  case,  as  I  showed, 
the  canons*^  allowed  their  oblations  to  be  received, 
and  their  funeral  obsequies  to  be  celebrated  after 
the  usual  solemnity  and  manner  of  the  church : 
which  exception  supposes  that  all  the  rest,  who 
died  refractory  and  impenitent,  were  wholly  denied 
these  privileges,  as  a  just  consequence  of  their  cen- 
sures. Not  to  mention  now  the  custom  of  erasing 
the  names  of  excommunicate  persons  out  of  the 
diptychs,  or  sacred  registers  of  the  church,  which 
was  the  immediate  effect  of  excommunication,  and 
excluded  them  from  all  the  privileges  of  any  future 
memorial'"  or  commemoration,  till  they  were  re- 
stored again.  I  will  not  stand  now  to  dispute,  whe- 
ther this  custom  took  its  original  from  the  practice 
of  the  Jewish  synagogue ;  or  whether  our  Saviour 
alluded  to  that  practice,  as  some  learned  men  think ," 
when  he  said  to  his  disciples,  Luke  vi.  22,  "  Blessed 
are  ye,  when  they  shall  separate,"  or  excommuni- 
cate, "  you  out  of  the  synagogue,  and  cast  out,"  or 
expunge,  "  your  names  out  of  the  holy  books  :"  cer- 
tain it  is,  that  as  this  erasing  or  expunging  the 
names  of  excommunicate  persons  out  of  the  dip- 
tychs was  used  in  the  Christian  church,  it  always 
implied  the  denial  of  communion  to  them  even  after 
death  :  they  could  neither  have  a  Christian  burial, 
nor  a  Christian  commemoration  among  those  that 
were  departed  in  the  true  faith  and  unity  of  the 
church ;  but  were  excluded,  both  living  and  dying, 
from  all  society  both  sacred  and  civil,  as  the  im- 
mediate effect  and  consequence  either  of  a  volun- 
tary and  chosen,  or  a  judicial  and  penal  excommu- 
nication. 

For,  to  show  that  these  were  not  mere  empty  and 
ineffective  laws,  we  may  often  observe  them  in  a 
remarkable  manner  put  in  practice.  Irenceus**  tells 
us,  from  those  who  had  it  from  the  mouth  of  Poly- 
carp,  that  when  he  once  occasionally  accompanied 
St.  John  into  a  bath  at  Ephesus,  and  tiiey  there 
found  Cerinthus  the  heretic,  St.  Jolin  immediately 
cried  out  to  Polycarp,  Let  us  fly  hence,  lest  the  bath 
should  fall,  in  which  Cerinthus  the  enemy  of  truth 
is.     Eusebius  and  Theodoret*"  both  mention  the 


"  Cone.  Tolet.  1.  can.  15.  Si  quis  laicus  abstinetur,  ad 
hiinc  vel  ad  doinum  ejus,  clericonim  vel  religiosonim  nul- 
lus  accedat.  Similiter  et  clericus,  si  abstinetur,  a  cleiicis 
devitetur.  Si  quis  cum  illo  colloqui  ant  convivaii  f'uerit  dc- 
prehensus,  etiam  ipse  abstinoatur.  Vid.  can.  7,  16,  et  IS. 
ibid. 

'-■'  Cone.  Arelat.  2.  can.  .30.  Suspensum  episcopum  non 
.sobim  a  clericorum,  sed  etiam  a  totius  popnli  colloquio 
aique  convivio  placuit  e.xcludi. 

'"  Cone.  Venetieum,  can.  3.  A  conviviis  fideliuni  SLib- 
miivcndos.    Cone,  llciden.  can.  4. 


*"•  Cone.  Turon.  1.  can.  8.  A  convivio  fidelium  extraneus 
habeatur. 

"*'  Cone.  Aurel.  I.  can.  3,  5,  13.  Cone.  Carthag.  4.  can.  70. 

**■-  Canon.  Apost.  can.  11. 

'^  Vid.  Cone.  Bracar.  1.  can.  34  et  35. 

"'  Chap.  1.  sect.  7.  ^*  Vid.  Cone.  Vasense,  2.  can.  2. 

^^  Vid.  Evagrium,  lib.  .3.  cap.  24. 

*"  Dodwcl,  Dissert.  5.  in  Cyprian,  n.  18. 

^'^  Iren.  lib.  .3.  cap.  3. 

*'■'  Euseb.  lib.  4.  cap.  14.  Theod.  dc  Fabul.  Ha;ietic.  lib 
2.  cap.  -3. 


! 


Chap.   II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


S93 


same  stoiy  out  of  Irenrcus ;  and  Epiphaniiis  also'*' 
nlates  it  at  large,  only  with  this  difference,  that  it 
w  1-;  Ebion  the  heretic  to  whom,  by  the  guidance  of 

Spirit,  he  showed  this  aversion,  for  a  memorial 
-  I  example  to  future  ages.  Whence  Baronius  con- 
jritures"  both  those  heretics  might  be  present,  and 
that  the  saying  had  equal  relation  to  them  both. 
hi  iKPus,  in  the  same  place,  adds  this  further  con- 
I  1  iiing  Poly  carp,  that  happening  once  to  meet 
M  ircion  the  heretic,  and  Marcion  asking  him  whe- 
tlitr  he  did  not  know  him,  he  replied,  Yes,  I  know 
tlice  to  be  the  first-born  of  Satan.  So  cautious,  says 
licuffius,  were  the  apostles  and  their  disciples,  not 
to  communicate  so  much  as  in  word,  firj  /ifxP'  ^"yv 
tcon'cjvilv,  with  the  perverters  of  truth,  according  to 
that  of  St.  Paul,  "  A  man  that  is  an  heretic,  after 
tlu'  first  and  second  admonition  reject,  knowing  that 
such  an  one  is  subverted,  and  sinneth,  being  con- 
di'iuned  of  himself."  In  like  manner  St.  Ambrose 
!.:  ^.  rves  of  a  certain  Christian  judge,  in  the  time 
if  Julian,  that,  having  condemned  one  of  his  bre- 
tliron  for  demolishing  an  altar,  no  one  would  vouch- 
safe'- to  associate  with  him,  no  one  would  speak  to 
liiiu  or  salute  him.  And  St.  Basil,  writing  to  Atha- 
na<ius  concerning  a  certain  governor  of  Libya, 
(  \  horn  Athanasius  had  excommunicated  for  his  im- 

alities,  and,  according  to  custom,  had  given  no- 
i,^^  of  it  to  Basil,)^'  tells  him,  they  would  all  avoid 
him,  and  have  no  communion  with  him  in  fire, 
or  water,  or  house,  that  is,  in  the  common  ways  of 
ordinary  conversation.  A  great  many  other  in- 
stances of  the  like  kind  might  be  given,  but  I  shall 
only  add  that  of  Wonicha,  St.  Austin's  mother,  to- 
ward her  son,  w^hilst  he  continued  a  Manichee.  St. 
Austin  himself  tells  us,"  That  she  so  detested  the 
blasphemies  of  his  error,  and  had  such  an  aversion 
to  him  upon  the  account  of  them,  that  she  would 
not  admit  him  to  eat  with  her  at  the  same  table  in 
her  own  house.  This  was  according  to  the  discipline 
then  practised  in  the  church,  to  deny  sinners  not 
only  communion  in  sacred  things,  but  also  in  the 
civil  commerce  of  ordinary  conversation. 

j.^^,  j2  Now,  all  this  was  done  for  very  wise 

reZ^on/oTunlyrc".  ^^^^  ''^^^  Tcasons  of  Christian  pru- 
'"■'""  dence  and  charity.     1.  To  make  sin- 

ners ashamed,  and  by  that  shame  to  bring  them  to 
repentance.  This  is  the  reason  given  by  the  apos- 
tle, "  Note  that  man,  and  have  no  company  with 


him,  that  he  may  be  ashamed."  2.  To  terrify  others 
by  their  example.  Both  these  reasons  are  assigned 
by  the  canon  of  the  council  of  Tours,  which  orders 
relapsing  sinners  to  be  excluded  both  from  the  com- 
munion of  the  church"^  and  the  entertainments  of 
the  faithful,  that  the  shame  and  confusion  arising 
from  such  treatment  might  bring  them  to  com- 
jmnction,  and  terrify  others  by  their  example.  3. 
A  third  reason  was,  the  fear  of  partaking  in  other 
men's  sins.  If  by  their  society  they  seemed  to  show 
any  countenance  to  them,  it  would  be  a  harden- 
ing them  in  their  iniquity,  and  involve  such  as  con- 
tributed thereto  in  the  same  guilt  with  the  criminals 
themselves.  Therefore,  says  St.  Cyprian,®'  we  ought 
to  withdraw  from  sinners,  and  even  fiy  from  them, 
lest  if  a  man  join  himself  to  those  that  walk  disor- 
derly, and  go  in  the  paths  of  error  and  wickedness, 
he  himself  also  be  held  in  the  guilt  of  the  same 
crimes.  For  this  reason,  writing  to  the  people  of 
Leon  and  Astorga  in  Spain,  (where  two  bishops, 
Basilides  and  Martial,  had  been  deposed  for  lapsing 
into  idolatry,  who  afterwards  made  an  attempt  to 
draw  in  the  people  to  accept  them  again  for  their 
bishops,  after  others  had  regularly  by  the  discipline 
of  the  church  been  ordained  in  their  room,)  he  tells 
them,  they  should  not  flatter  themselves,  as  if  they 
were  free  "  from  partaking  in  sin,  if  they  communi- 
cated with  a  sinful  bishop,  and  gave  their  consent 
to  the  unlawful  and  unjust  establishment  of  him  in 
his  bishopric,  since  the  Divine  judgment  had  threat- 
ened and  said  by  the  prophet  Hosea,  "  Their  sacri- 
fices shall  be  unto  them  as  the  bread  of  mourners ; 
all  that  eat  thereof  shall  be  polluted:"  teaching 
and  showing  us,  that  all  men  are  bound  over  unto 
sin,  who  are  defiled  with  the  sacrifice  of  a  profane 
and  unjust  priest.  Which  we  find  also  to  be  de- 
clared in  the  book  of  Numbers,  when  Korah,  Da- 
than,  and  Abiram  assumed  to  themselves  the  power 
of  offering  sacrifice  in  opposition  to  Aaron  the 
priest.  There  the  Lord  commanded  the  people  by 
Moses  to  separate  themselves  from  them,  lest,  if 
they  were  joined  with  those  wicked  men,  they  should 
be  smitten  in  their  wickedness.  "  Depart,"  says  he, 
"from  the  tents  of  these  hardened  men,  and  touch 
nothing  of  theirs,  lest  ye  be  consumed  in  all  their 
sins."  4.  A  fourth  reason  was,  to  avoid  contagion 
and  infection.  For  conversing  with  profane  men 
is  endangering  a  man's  own  virtue.     Evil  commu- 


»  Epiph.  Haeres.  30.  Ebionit.  n.  24. 

"  Baron,  an.  74.  n.  9.  Suicer.  Thcsaiir.  Eccles.  voce 
AipETlKOS,  t.  1.  p.  ['IS. 

'-  Ambros.  Ep.  29.  ad  Tlieodos.  Kemo  ilium  congressu, 
nemo  ilium  umiuain  osculo  dignum  putavit. 

^  Basil.  Ep.  47. 

**  Aug.  Confess,  lib.  3.  cap.  11.  Nolle  habere  secuna  ean- 
deni  mensam  in  domo,  avcrsans  et  detcstans  blaspheinias 
erroris  mei.     Vid.  Ser.  215.  de  Tempore. 

'^  Cone.  Turon.  1.  can.  8.  A  communione  ccclesia;,  vel 
a  convivio  fidelium  e.xtraaeus  habeatnr,  qao  facilius  ot  ipse 


compunctionem  per  banc  confusionem  accipiat,  et  alii  ejus 
terreantur  exemplo. 

s*  Cypr.  lie  Unit.  Eccles.  p.  119.  Recedendum  est  a  de- 
linqueutibus,  vel  imo  fugiendum,  ne  dum  quis  male  ambu- 
lautibus  jungitnr,  et  per  itinera  erroris  et  criminis  gradiiur, 
pari  crimine  ct  ipse  teneatur. 

"'  Cypr.  Ep.  68.  al.  67.  ad  Plebem  Legionis  et  Asturicae, 
p.  171.  Nee  sibi  plebs  blaudiatur,  quasi  immunis  esse  a 
contagio  delicti  possit,  cum  sacerdote  peccatore  comniuni- 
cans,  et  ad  injustum  atque  illicituni  praepositi  sui  episcopa- 
tum  consensura  suum  commoduus,  &c. 


894 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


nications  corrupt  good  manners.  An  infected  mem- 
ber often  destroys  the  whole  body.  Therefore  as 
vile  and  notorious  sinners  were  for  this  reason  cut 
off  from  the  body  of  the  church  ;  so,  for  the  same 
reason,  all  men  were  afterwards  to  avoid  their  so- 
ciety, for  fear  the  poison  of  their  infamous  convers- 
ation should  infect  their  morals,  and  diffuse  itself 
into  their  minds  by  any  artful  conveyance  of  cun- 
ning craftiness,  or  the  natural  influence  of  bad  ex- 
ample. "  For  wicked  men  speak  with  their  feet, 
and  teach  with  their  fingers,"  as  the  wise  man  ele- 
gantly words  it :  their  actions,  as  well  as  their  dis- 
courses, are  of  a  malignant  influence,  and  are  apt 
to  leave  ill  tinctures  and  impressions  upon  the 
minds  of  others,  so  that  a  man  cannot  ordinarily 
converse  with  them  without  danger  of  infection. 
Therefore, says  Cyprian,  avoid  such  men,  and  drive"' 
away  their  pernicious  communications  both  from 
your  conversation  and  your  ears,  as  the  contagion 
of  death.  For  thus  it  is  written,  "  Hedge  about  thy 
cars  with  thorns,  and  hearken  not  to  an  evil  tongue." 
And  again,  "  Evil  communications  corrupt  good 
manners."  Our  Lord  teaches  and  admonishes  us  to 
withdraw  from  such,  saying,  "  They  are  blind  lead- 
ers of  the  blind :  and  if  the  blind  lead  the  blind, 
they  shall  both  fall  into  the  ditch."  But,  5.  Ad- 
mitting some  could  converse  with  such  without 
danger  to  themselves,  they  could  not  without  mani- 
fest danger  to  others,  who  are  weak,  and  apt  to  be 
imboldened  to  follow  the  example  of  the  strong,  to 
their  apparent  ruin  and  destruction.  For  these  and 
the  hke  reasons,  whenever  the  church  cast  any  no- 
torious offenders  wholly  out  of  her  communion,  she 
prohibited  all  others  from  conversing  with  them, 
both  in  kindness  to  the  sinners  and  to  the  righteous, 
lest  the  one  should  be  hardened  in  their  impeni- 
tency,  and  the  other  corrupted  by  the  spreading 
contagion  and  infection. 

g^^j  ,3  It  is  further  observable,  that  as  an 

teuonsTiimmi  "o  indication  of  the  church's  abhorrence 
ite^p".  of  excommunicate  persons,  she  allow- 
ed no  gifts  or  oblations  to  be  received 
from  them  ;  because  that  might  have  been  inter- 
preted retaining  them  still  in  some  measure  in  her 
communion,  and  involving  herself  in  the  guilt  of 
filthy  lucre.  Therefore  she  never  admitted  any  one 
to  make  oblations  but  such  as  were  in  full  commu- 
nion with  her,  and  might  lawfully  partake  of  the 


ved  fro, 
communic 
sons. 


sacrifice  of  the  altar,  as  I  have  had  occasion  to 
show  more  fully^  in  another  place.  Here  I  only 
note  it  again  as  a  thing  most  remarkable,  that  she 
had  such  an  aversion  to  any  thing  that  appertained 
to  them,  that  she  would  not  so  much  as  retain  those 
gifts,  which  any  such  persons  had  freely  offered 
whilst  they  were  in  communion  with  her.  This  we 
learn  from  Tertullian,  who,  speaking  of  the  expul- 
sion of  Valentinus  and  Marcion  for  their  heresies 
at  Rome,  says.  They  were  cast  out  once  and  again,'"" 
and  particularly  Marcion,  with  his  two  hundred 
scstertia,  which  he  had  brought  into  the  church. 

There  are  several  other  instances 
of  their  aversion  to  heretics  in  parti-     no  one 'to  marry, 
cular,  when  once  the  censures  of  the  cate  hentirs,  o 

ceive  thfir  eiitogite, 

church  were  passed  upon  them.  The  or  read  their  books ; 

^  ^  but  burn  them. 

council  of  Laodicea  not  only  forbids 
all  men  to  frequent  their  cemeteries  and'"'  meet- 
ings held  at  the  monuments  of  their  pretended 
martyrs,  or  any  where  to  pray  with  them ;  but  also 
to  receive  any  presents  under  the  name  of  eidogia 
from  them;'"-  because  this  was  in  some  sort  to 
communicate  with  them;  these  eulogm,  or  sancti'- 
fied  loaves,  being  one  way  of  testifying  men's  com- 
munion one  with  another.  The  same  council  also 
'forbids  all  members  of  the  church  to  enter  into  com- 
munion with  heretics'"'  by  giving  their  sons  or 
daughters  in  marriage  to  them;  neither  are  they 
allowed  to  take  the  sons  or  daughters  of  heretics  in 
marriage  to  themselves,  unless  they  promise  to  be- 
come Christians.'"*  Where  we  may  observe  also, 
that  they  did  not  allow  heretics,  after  they  had 
broken  the  faith  and  communion  of  the  church, 
absolutely  speaking,  so  much  as  the  name  of  Chris- 
tians. Other  laws  strictly  prohibit  men  to  read 
the  books  of  heretics,  as  imagining  that  the  poison 
of  their  errors  was  in  a  great  measure  dispersed 
and  conveyed  by  them.  Socrates  '"^  has  recorded  a 
letter  of  Constantine  the  Great,  wherein  he  orders 
the  Arians  to  be  branded  and  stigmatized  with  the 
name  of  Porphyrians,  and  their  books  to  be  burnt, 
and  makes  it  death  for  any  one  to  conceal  them 
and  save  them  from  the  flames.  And  there  are  two 
laws  now  extant  in  the  Theodosian  Code,  wherein 
the  very  same  things  are  enjoined  under  very  severe 
penalties.  The  first  is  a  law  made  by  Arcadius  and 
Honorius  against  the  Eunomians,  a  noted  branch 
of  the  Arian   heresy,   wherein   their   books '°°  are 


^  Cypr.  de  Unit.  Eccles.  p.  115.  Vitate,  quacso  vos,  ejus- 
modi  homines,  et  a  latere  atque  auribus  vestris  perniciosa 
colloquia,  velut  contagiiim  mortis  arcete,  &c. 

03  Book  XV.  chap.  9. 

""'  Tertul.  de  Pra3script.  adv.  Haeretic.  cap.  30.  Semel 
et  itorum  ojecti,  Marcion  quidem  cum  ducentis  sestortiis 
suis,  quae  ecclesiae  intulerat,  &c. 

i»i  Vid.  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  9,  .33,  et  34. 

'"-  Ibid.  can.  32.     Ob  ou  alpiTiKwv  ivXoyia^  XafiCdvnv, 

V.T.X. 

'"^  Ibid,  can.  10.    M?;  ofTc  Toi>9  tj/s  tK/cXjjcrias  aSiaijiopw's 


7r()ds  yufjLS  icoivmviav  crvvuTrTaiu  Ta  tavTwv  iraiSia  alptTi- 
A.oT9.  '"*  Ibid.  can.  31.     Vid.  Cone.  Eliberit.  can.  16. 

'"^  Socrat.  lib.  1.  cap.  9. 

'»«  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  16.  Tit.  5.  de  Haeretic.  Leg.  34.  Co- 
dices sane  eorum,  scelerum  omnium  doctrinam  ac  materiam 
continentes,  summa  sagacitate  mo.\  quseri,  ac  prodi  exerta 
auctoritate  mandamus,  sub  aspectibus  eorum  judicantum 
incendio  mox  cremandos.  Ex  quibus  si  quis  forte  aliquid 
qualibet  occasione  vel  fraude  occultasse,  nee  prodidisse 
convincitur,  sciat  se,  velut  noxiorum  codicum,  et  maleficii 
crimine  conscriptorum,  retentorem,  capiteesse  plectendum. 


iChap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


895 


iordcrcd  to  be  souglit  after  with  a  very  diligent 
search,  and  lo  be  burnt  in  the  sight  of  the  judges. 
And  if  any  one  was  convicted  of  fraudulent  hiding, 
and  not  discovering  them,  lie  should  be  punished 
with  death,  as  a  retainer  and  concealer  of  pernicious 
and  magical  books,  containing  the  institutions  of 
lall  manner  of  wickedness.  The  other  law  was  made 
by  Theodosius  junior  against  the  Nestorians,  where 
Ihe  refers  to  the  former  law  of  Constantine,  and 
[orders  the  followers  of  Nestorius  to  be  called  Si- 
nionians,  for  their  imitating  the  portentous  super- 
istitions  of  Simon  Magus,  as  Constantine  had  ap- 
pointed the  Arians  to  be  called  Porphyrians,  from 
iPorphyry  the  heathen.  Then  he  orders  their  books, 
iwritten  against  the  catholic  faith  and  the  council 
of  Ephesus,  to  be  publicly  burnt,""  forbidding  any 
ione  to  have,  read,  or  transcribe  them,  under  pain  of 
icontiscation.  This  custom  of  burning  heretical 
ibooks  is  confirmed  by  many  other  laws,  of  which 
pnore  hereafter,  when  we  come  to  speak  of  the 
punishment  of  heretics  in  particular.  Here  I  ob- 
serve, that  the  prohibition  of  reading  or  retaining 
(them  was  so  limited  by  the  church,  as  to  allow  bi- 
shops to  I'ead  them,  when  time  and  necessity'"*  so 
ircquired,  in  order  to  confute  them.  For  the  fourth 
[council  of  Carthage,  which  forbids  them  universally 
Ithe  reading  of  heathen  authors,  allows  the  reading 
of  heretical  books,  v^dth  this  limitation  and  restric- 
tion. And  therefore  the  retaining  them  in  this 
case,  was  not  to  be  interpreted  that  fraudulent  re- 
taining and  concealment,  which  the  imperial  laws 
ondemned  under  the  penalties  of  confiscation  and 
death.  Gothofred  observes  one  thing  further  upon 
the  usefulness  and  effect  of  these  laws,  which  is 
fit  to  be  remarked,'""  That  the  terror  of  them  made 
hereticsvery  cautious  howthey  dispersed  their  books, 
nd  others  as  cautious  how  they  retained  or  con- 
cealed them :  insomuch,  that  when  St.  Basil  was 
.bout  to  confute  the  first  book  of  Eunomius,  he  had 
,  hard  matter  to  compass  it,  as  Photius""  reports, 
the  Eunomians  were  so  industrious  in  concealing  it. 
And  when  Eunomius  had  written  his  latter  books 
in  answer  to  Basil,  he  durst  not  publish  them,  but 
only  among  his  confederates,  in  St.  Basil's  life-time, 
for  fear  of  Basil;  and  after  his  death,'"  durst  only 
trust  them  in  the  hands  of  his  friends,  for  fear  of  the 
penalties  which  the  laws  had  laid  upon  them,  though 
Philostorgius,"'^  the  Arian  historian,  makes  bold, 
after  his  manner,  to  give  a  different  relation  of  it. 
Sect  15  There  are  two  or  three  things  more, 

IdeRhigTnto  sa-  relating  to  the  manner,  and  form,  and 
effects    of    excommunication,    which 


have  something  of  difficulty  in  them,  and  therefore 
it  will  be  proper  to  give  them  a  little  explication 
here.  The  first  difiiculty  arises  from  the  apostle's 
order  given  to  the  Corinthians,  how  to  proceed 
against  the  incestuous  person,  who  had  married  his 
father's  wife,  1  Cor.  v.  5,  where  he  enjoins  them,  in 
the  name  and  with  the  power  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  to  "  deliver  such  an  one  unto  Satan,  for  the 
destruction  of  the  flesh,  that  the  spirit  may  be  saved 
in  the  day  of  the  Lord  Jesus."  So  again,  I  Tim.  i. 
20,  speaking  of  Hymena;us  and  Philetus,  he  says, 
"  Whom  I  have  delivered  unto  Satan,  that  they  may 
learn  not  to  blaspheme."  There  are  two  famous 
expositions  of  these  passages.  Bishop  Beveridge  "^ 
and  Estius,"^  after  Balsamon  and  Zonaras,"^  with 
many  other  modern  interpreters,  whom  Estius  men- 
tions, think  that  delivering  unto  Satan,  is  but  an- 
other expression  for  excommunication,  and  the 
spiritual  effects  consequent  to  it,  that  is,  the  punish- 
ment of  the  soul,  and  not  of  the  body.  For  when 
men  are  cast  out  of  the  society  of  the  faithful,  which 
is  the  church  of  Christ,  they  are  thereby  deprived 
of  all  the  benefits  that  are  proper  and  peculiar  to 
that  society  ;  as  the  common  prayers  of  the  church, 
the  public  use  of  the  word  or  doctrine,  the  partici- 
pation of  the  sacrament,  the  pastoral  care  of  those 
that  preside  over  them,  and  the  special  grace  of  Di- 
vine protection ;  and  so  remain  exposed  to  the 
tyranny  and  incursions  of  Satan,  whose  kingdom  is 
without  the  church.  And  thus  far  they  allow,  that 
every  excommunicated  person  was  delivered  unto 
Satan,  but  not  for  any  corporal  vexation  or  punish- 
ment to  be  inflicted  on  him.  Others  are  of  opinion, 
that  besides  this  spiritual  punishment  naturally  con- 
sequent to  excommunication,  there  was  in  the  apos- 
tles' days  another  consequent  of  it,  which  was  cor- 
poral power  and  possession,  or  the  infliction  of 
bodily  vexations  and  torments  by  the  ministry  of 
Satan  on  those  who  were  delivered  unto  him.  Dr. 
Hammond,  and  Grotius,  and  Lightfoot,  are  the  great 
supporters  of  this  opinion  among  the  moderns,  and 
they  have  almost  the  general  concurrence  of  the 
ancient  interpreters  on  their  side ;  which  Estius 
does  not  much  deny,  though  he  chose  to  follow 
Peter  Lombard  and  Aquinas,  and  the  ordinary  gloss 
against  them.  He  owns  St.  Chrysostom  and  the 
Greeks  were  wholly  of  this  opinion ;  and  among  the 
Latins,  St.  Ambrose  and  Pacian ;  and  St.  Austin 
also,  though  not  very  positive,  he  thinks,  in  his 
assertion.  But  he  is  mistaken;  for  St.  Austin  was 
clearly  of  this  opinion.  He  does  not  say,  indeed,  it 
was  death,  which  the  apostle  inflicted  upon  the 


"  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  16.  Tit.  5.  Leg.  GG.  et  in  Actis  Cone. 
Ephes.  par.  3.  cap.  46. 

""  Cone.  Carthag.  4.  can.  16.  Ut  episcopus  Gentilium 
libros  non  legal;  hoereticorum  autem  pro  necessitate  et 
tempore.  See  Book  VI.  chap.  3.  sect.  4,  where  this  ques- 
tion is  more  fidly  handled. 


'»"  Gothofred.  in  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  16.  Tit.  5.  Leg.  31. 

>i»  Phot.  Cod.  1.37. 

'"  Id.  Cod.  138.  "=  Philostorg.  lib.  8.  cap.  12. 

"3  Bevereg.  Not.  in  Can.  Apost.  10. 

"*  Estius  in  1  Cor.  v.  5. 

"^  Balsam,  et  Zonar.  in  Basil,  can.  7. 


896 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


Corinthian,  as  St.  Peter  did  upon  Ananias  and 
Sapphira;  but  he  says  expressly,  it  was  some  pun- 
ishment"" inflicted  on  him  by  the  ministry  of  Sa- 
tan. Which  he  distinguishes  from  a  common  ex- 
communication, by  the  name  oi  flagellum  Dommi, 
the  scourge  of  the  Lord ;  which,  he  says,  the  apostle 
used  upon  some  special  occasions,  when  there  was 
no  way  to  cure  an  epidemical  disease,  or  correct  a 
single  sinner,  buoyed  up  and  favoured  by  the  mul- 
titude,'" but  only  by  interceding  with  God  to  take 
the  matter  into  his  own  hand,  and  use  the  severe 
mercy  of  his  own  Divine  discipline  upon  them, 
when  the  contagion  of  sin  had  invaded  a  multitude ; 
in  which  case,  it  were  not  only  in  vain  to  advise 
men  to  separate  from  sinners,  but  pernicious  and 
sacrilegious  ;  because  such  counsels  in  such  a  state 
of  affairs  would  be  thought  impious  and  proud,  and 
more  tend  to  disturb  good  men  that  were  weak,  than 
correct  the  stubbornness  and  animosity  of  the  evil. 
In  this  sense,  he  there  also  in  like  manner  interprets 
two  other  passages  of  the  apostle:  2  Cor.  xii.  21, 
"  Lest,  when  I  come  again,  my  God  will  humble  me 
among  you,  and  I  shall  bewail  many  which  have 
sinned  already,  and  have  not  repented  of  the  un- 
cleanness  and  lasciviousness  and  fornication  which 
they  have  committed."  And  2  Cor,  xiii.  1,2,  "  This 
is  the  third  time  I  am  coming  to  you.  In  the  mouth 
of  two  or  three  witnesses  shall  every  word  be  estab- 
lished. I  foretold  you  before,  and  foretell  you,  as  if 
I  were  present,  the  second  time  ;  and  being  absent  I 
now  write  to  them  which  heretofore  have  sinned, 
and  to  all  other,  that,  if  I  come  again,  I  will  not 
spare ;  since  ye  seek  a  proof  of  Christ  speaking  in 
me."  Here,  he  says,  the  apostle  does  not  threaten 
them  with  that  punishment  which  should  make 
others  abstain  from  their  society,  but  by  his  pray- 
ers and  tears  to  turn  them  over'"  to  the  Divine 
scourge  to  correct  them ;  and  that  this  was  the 
power  of  Christ  speaking  in  him.  Where  nothing 
can  be  plainer,  than  that  St.  Austin  distinguishes 
this  as  an  extraordinary  power  from  the  ordinary 
power  of  excommunication,  which  the  apostle  had 
in  reserve  for  such  difficult  cases,  where  the  ordi- 
nary power  of  excommunication,  by  reason  of  the 


multitude  or  confederacy  of  sinners,  woidd  not  by 
its  own  bare  virtue  prove  effectual.  So  that,  accord- 
ing to  him,  this  power  of  delivering  unto  Satan,  was 
something  superior  to  that  ordinary  power  of  cast- 
ing men  out  of  the  church  and  the  society  of  the 
faithful.  St.  Ambrose  was  of  the  same  mind  with 
St.  Austin ;  for,  explaining  how  the  incestuous  man 
was  punished,  he  says.  As  the  Lord  gave  the  devil 
no  power  over  the  soul  of  holy  Job,  but  only  per- 
mitted him  to  afflict  his  body  ;  so  this  man"^  was 
delivered  to  Satan.  And  St.  Jerom  says,'^°  The 
apostle  commanded  him  to  be  put  under  penance, 
for  the  destruction  and  vexation  of  the  flesh  by 
fasting  and  sickness,  that  his  spirit  might  be  saved. 
And  so  Pacianus,'"'  by  the  destruction  of  the  flesh, 
understands  tribulation  and  infirmities  of  the  body. 
The  author  of  the  Short  Notes'^-  under  the  name 
of  St.  Jerom,  says  the  same.  So  likewise  Cassian,'^ 
to  whom  Estius  himself  adds  Primasius  and  Haimo. 
St.  Chrysostom,  among  the  Greeks,  gives  the  aame 
sense  of  the  apostle's  words.  He  says.  The  apostle 
delivered  the  Corinthian  offender  to  Satan,  as  to  a 
schoolmaster,  for  the  destruction  of  the  flesh.  As 
it  happened  to  holy  Job,  but  not  for  the  same  cause  : 
for  there  it  was  done  to  make  his  crown  of  glory 
more  illustrious  ;  but  here  the  man  only  gains  re- 
mission of  his  sins  :  that  Satan  might  torture  him 
with  some  cruel  ulcer,  or  other  disease.  And  he 
observes  how  the  apostle  says  elsewhere,  that  such 
diseases  were  sometimes  inflicted  on  sinners  imme- 
diately by  the  hand  of  God  ;  "  When  we  suffer  such 
things,  we  are  judged  of  the  Lord :"  but  here  he 
delivers  him  to  Satan,  the  more  sensibly  to  touch 
and  affect  him.'^*  He  gives  the  same  exposition  of 
the  apostle's  words  concerning  Hymenseus  and 
Philetus,  "  Whom  I  have  delivered  unto  Satan,  that 
they  may  learn  not  to  blaspheme."  As  execution- 
ers, says  he,  though  they  be  very  wicked  them- 
selves, are  made  instruments'"  of  chastising  others ; 
so  here  it  is  with  the  wicked  devils.  Job  was  thus 
delivered  to  Satan,  not  for  his  sins,  but  to  obtain  the 
greater  glory.  He  adds.  That  God  often  did  this 
immediately  by  his  own  power,  without  the  inter- 
vention of  any  human  ministry.     For  many  times 


"*  Aug.  de  Sennone  Dom.  in  Monte,  lib.  1.  cap.  20.  Etsi 
nolunt  hie  mortem  intelligere,  quod  fortasse  incertum  est, 
quamlibet  vindictam  per  Satanam  factam  ab  apostolu  fate- 
antur. 

'"  Aug.  Epist.  Parmen.  lib.  3.  cap.  2.  Quid  aliud  (licit 
hie,  Non  paream:  nisi  quod  supeiius  ait,  Et  lugeammultos : 
ut  luetus  ejus  impetraret  llagellum  a  Domiuo,  quo  illi  eor- 
riperentur,  q\ii  jam  propter  multitudinom  non  poterant  ita 
corripi,  ut  ab  eorum  conjunctione  se  cajteri  contincrent,  et 
eos  erubeseere  facerent  ? — Et  revera  si  contagio  peecandi 
multitudinem  invaserit,  Divinae  disciplinae  severa  misericor- 
dia  necessaria  est :  nam  consilia  soparationis  et  inauia  sunt 
et  perniciosa  atque  sacrilega ;  quia  et  iuipia  et  superba  fiunt, 
et  plus  perturbant  infirmos  bonos,  quam  corrigant  aniniosos 
malos. 

""  Ibid.    Per  luctum  suum  potius  eos  Uivino  (lagello  eo- 


ercendos  minans,  quam  per  illam  correptionem,  ut  caeteri 
ab  eorum  eonjinietione  se  contineant. 

""  Ambros.  de  Pcenit.  lib.  1.  cap.  12.  Sicut  Dominus  in 
animam  saneti  Job  potestatem  non  dedit,  sed  in  carnem 
ejus  permisit  lieentiam,  ita  et  hie  traditur  Satana;. 

'-"  Hieron.  Com.  in  Gal.  v.  Prajcepit  eum  tradi  poeni- 
tentiie,  in  interitum  et  vexationera  carnis,  per  jejunia  et 
ffigrotationes,  ut  spiritus  salvus  fiat. 

'■-'  Pacian.  Ep.  3.  ad  Sempronian.  Bibl.  Patr.  t.  3.  p.  66. 
Ad  solius  carnis  interitum,  tentationes  scilicet,  carnis  an- 
gustias,  detrimenta  membrorum. 

'"  Hieron.  Com.  in  1  Cor.  v.  5. 

■23  Cassian.  Collat.  7.  cap.  25—28. 

'-<  Chrys.  Horn.  15.  in  1  Cor.  p.  451. 

•25  Horn.  5.  in  1  Tim.  p.  1547. 


Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


897 


the  priests  know  not  who  arc  sinners,  or  who  are 
unworthy  partakers  of  the  holy  mysteries :  there- 
fore God  takes  the  judgment  into  his  own  hands, 
and  dehvers  them  unto  Satan.  For  when  diseases, 
or  misfortunes,  or  sorrows,  or  calamities,  or  any 
thing  of  the  like  kind  befalls  men,  it  is  for  this  rea- 
son, as  Paul  also  intimates,  saying,  "  For  this  cause 
many  are  sick  and  weak  among  you,  and  many 
^lecp."  Theodoret  follows  Chrysostom  in  his  ex- 
position :  for  speaking  of  Hymenajus  and  Alexan- 
der, he  says,  The  apostle  delivered  them  to  Satan, 
as  to  a  cruel  executioner ;'"''  for  being  separated 
fiom  the  body  of  the  church,  and  left  destitute  of 
Divine  grace,  they  were  cruelly  tormented  by  the 
adversary,  falling  into  diseases,  and  sufferings,  and 
other  evils  and  calamities,  which  the  devil  is  wont 
to  infiict  upon  men.  Now,  this  being  the  general 
sense  of  the  ancients,  both  Greek  and  Latin,  that 
this  was  an  extraordinary  apostolical  power,  dis- 
tinct from  the  ordinary  power  of  excommunication ; 
we  do  not  find  that  they  ordinarily  made  use  of 
this  phrase,  "delivering  unto  Satan,"  in  any  of 
their  forms  of  excommunication ;  as  being  sensi- 
ble, that  the  church,  after  the  power  of  miracles 
was  ceased,  had  no  pretence  to  the  power  of  inflict- 
iiig  bodily  diseases,  as  the  apostles  had,  upon  ex- 
iiiinmunicate  persons  by  the  ministry  of  Satan. 
C'assian'-'  indeed  tells  us.  That  he  knew  several 
holy  men,  that  were  corporally  delivered  to  Satan, 
and  to  great  infirmities,  for  small  olfences.  But 
that  was  by  the  immediate  hand  of  God,  and  his 
chastisements,  and  not  by  the  censures  of  the  church, 
which  did  not  excommunicate  holy  men,  nor  any 
others,  for  small  offences.  The  author  of  the  Life 
of  St.  Ambrose  '•*  says  also.  That  he,  having  to  deal 
with  a  very  flagitious  sinner,  said.  He  ought  to  be 
delivered  to  Satan  for  the  destruction  of  the  flesh, 
that  no  one  may  dare  to  commit  such  things  for  the 
future.  And  he  had  no  sooner  spoken  the  word, 
but  immediately,  the  very  same  moment,  an  unclean 
spirit  seized  the  man,  and  began  to  tear  him.  But 
this,  if  true,  was  a  singular  instance  of  apostolical 
and  miraculous  power  yet  remaining  in  St.  Ambrose, 
and  there  is  scarce  a  parallel  instance  to  be  met 
with  in  all  the  history  of  the  church.  The  canons 
of  old  very  rarely  used  this  phrase.  St.  Basil  men- 
tions it'-^  once,  and  Gratian  cites  an  epistle  of  Pope 
Pelagius,'™  where  it  is  said,  By  the  example  of  apos- 
tolical authority,  we   have  learned  to  deliver  unto 


Satan  erringspirits,  which  draw  others  into  error,  that 
they  may  learn  not  to  blaspheme.  But  in  these  places 
it  seems  to  mean  no  more  than  exconmmnication  or 
expulsion  out  of  the  church,  which  is  the  spiritual 
delivering  up  to  Satan,  without  any  regard  to  bodily 
torture.  For  all  men  are  sensible,  that  since  the 
apostles'  days  there  was  no  such  power  generally 
granted  to  the  ministers  of  the  church.  And  for 
this  reason,  Peter  du  Moulin  "'  tells  us,  the  reformed 
church  of  France,  in  their  national  synod  of  Alez, 
at  which  he  himself  assisted  as  moderator,  anno 
1620,  made  an  order.  That  in  excommunication,  no 
one  should  use  the  form  of  "delivering  unto  Satan." 
Neither  should  the  censure  of  anathema  maranatha 
be  pronounced  against  any  man  ;  forasmuch  as  no 
one  ought  to  use  that  form,  but  he  that  knows  the 
secrets  of  reprobation,  and  can  tell  by  the  revela- 
tion of  God's  Spirit,  whether  the  person  excommu- 
nicated has  sinned  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  or  the 
sin  unto  death,  that  is,  with  such  impenitency  as 
will  be  final,  and  continue  unto  death  ;  for  which, 
St.  John  says,  no  one  ought  to  pray.  The  prohibi- 
tion here  of  the  use  of  the  form  attatlieina  maranatha, 
leads  us  to  another  inquiry,  what  the  ancients  un- 
derstood by  it ;  and  whether  they  used  it  at  any 
time  as  a  form  of  excommunication  ? 
Anathema  is   a  word   that   occurs 

1      •         I  Sect.  16. 

frequently  m  the  ancient  canons,  and     '"'"''  ^ynathe- 

^  •'  '  ma  maranatha,  ikwiX 

the  condemnation  of  all  heretics.  The  ;'li^"'"f  ""^  *'"*' 

lomis  01  excuminii- 

council  of  Gangra  closes  every  one  of  rnTheTnd'cnt"  "'^ 
its  canons  with  the  words,  dvdOefta  '^"'"^  ' 
ioTw,  "  let  him  be  anathema,"  or  accursed,  that  is, 
separated  from  the  communion  of  the  church  and 
its  privileges,  and  from  the  favour  of  God,  without 
repentance,  that  goes  against  the  tenor  of  the 
thing  there  decreed.  And  this  is  the  style  of  most 
other  councils,  grounded  upon  that  form  of  St. 
Paul,  "  If  we,  or  an  angel  from  heaven,  preach  any 
other  gospel  unto  you,  than  that  which  we  have 
preached  unto  you,  let  him  be  anathema,"  or  ac- 
cursed. But  the  adding  of  maranatha  to  anathema 
is  not  so  common.  There  is  little  said  of  the  word 
itself  among  the  ancients,  and  "^  less  of  its  use  in 
any  form  of  excommunication.  St.  Chrysostom  '^' 
says  it  is  a  Hebrew  word,  signifying,  The  Lord  is 
come :  and  he  particularly  applies  it  to  the  con- 
fusion of  those  who  still  abused  the  privileges  of  the 
gospel,  notwithstanding  that  the  Lord  was  come 
among  them.     This  word,  says  he,  speaks  teiTor  to 


'=«  Theod.  in  I  Tim.  i.  20. 

'^'  Cassian.  Collat.  7.  cap.  lb.  Corporaliter  traditos  Sa- 
tanse,  vel  infirmitatibus  magnis,  etiam  viros  sanctos  novi- 
mus,  pro  levissiiiiis  quibusque  delictis,  &c. 

''^  Paulin.  Vit.  Ambros.  Cum  deprehendisset  aiictorem 
tanti  fiagitii,  ait,  Oportet  ilium  tradi  Satanae  in  iuteritum 
carnis,  ne  talia  aliquis  in  posterum  audeat  admittere.  Quern 
eodem  momento,  cum  adhuc  sermo  esset  in  ore  sacerdotis 
sancti,  spiritus  immundus  arreptum  discerpere  cocpit. 

'"Basil,  can.  7. 

3   M 


'™  Pelag.  ap.  Grat.  Cans.  24.  Qiucst.  3.  cap.  1.3.  Apos- 
tolicac  auctoritatis  exemplo,  errantiuni,  ct  in  crrorem  rait- 
tentium  spiritus  tradendos  esse  Satance,  ut  blasphemare 
dediscant. 

'3'  ]M()lina.'i  Vates,  seu  de  bonis  malisque  Prophetis,  lib. 
2.  cap.  11.  p.  114. 

^^  Gratian.  Cans.  23.  Qu2est.  4.  cap.  30,  mentions  it  as 
used  in  a  form  of  e.xcommunication  by  Pope  Sylverius. 

•33  Chrys.  Horn.  44.  in  1  Cor.  p.  718. 


81)S 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


those,  who  make  their  members  the  members  of  a 
harlot,  who  offend  their  brethren  by  eating  things 
offered  to  idols,  who  name  themselves  by  the  names 
of  men  who  deny  the  resurrection.  The  Lord  of 
all  is  come  down  among  us ;  and  yet  ye  continue 
the  same  men  ye  were  before,  and  persevere  in  your 
sins.  St.  Jerom  says,'^*  it  was  more  a  Syriac  than 
a  Hebrew  word,  though  it  had  something  in  it  of 
both  languages,  signifying.  Our  Lord  is  come.  But 
he  applies  it  against  the  perverseness  of  the  Jews, 
and  others  who  denied  the  coming  of  Christ :  mak- 
ing this  the  sense  of  the  apostle,  "If  any  man  love 
not  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  let  him  be  anathema," 
The  Lord  is  come ;  wherefore  it  is  superfluous  for 
any  to  contend  with  pertinacious  hatred  against 
him,  of  the  truth  of  whose  coming  there  is  such  ap- 
parent demonstration.  The  same  sense  is  given  by 
Hilary  the  deacon,  and  Pelagius,  who  wrote  under 
the  names  of  St.  Ambrose  '^^  and  St.  Jerom.""  And 
it  is  received  by  Estius  and  Dr.  Lightfoot  as  the 
truest  interpretation.  So  that,  according  to  this 
sense,  marcmatha  could  not  be  any  part  of  the  form 
of  excommunication,  but  only  a  reason  for  pro- 
nouncing anathema  against  those  who  expressed 
their  hatred  against  Christ,  by  denying  his  coming ; 
either  in  words,  as  the  Jews  did,  who  blasphemed 
Christ,  and  called  Jesus  anathema,  or  accursed ;  or 
else  by  wicked  works,  as  those  who  lived  profanely 
under  the  name  of  Christian. 

Yet  others  of  the  ancients  interpret  it  of  the  fu- 
ture coming  of  Christ ;  as  St.  Austin,  who  says 
maranatha  is  a  Syriac  word,  signifying  The  Lord 
will'"  come.  And  he  particularly  applies  it  against 
the  Arians,  who  could  not  be  said  to  love  the  Lord, 
because  they  denied  his  Divine  nature.  Dr.  Ham- 
mond and  many  other  modern  interpreters'^^  take 
maranatha  in  this  sense,  The  Lord  will  come  to 
judgment,  as  St.  Jude  says,  "  The  Lord  cometh 
with  ten  thousands  of  his  saints,  to  execute  judg- 
ment upon  all  the  ungodly."  And  they  suppose 
this  answered  to  the  third  and  highest  degree  of  ex- 
communication among  the  Jews,  called  shammatha. 
For  they  say,  the  Jews  had  these  three  degrees 
of  excommunication,  niddui,  chercm,  and  shamma- 
tha. Niddui  was  the  lowest  degree  of  excommu- 
nication, being  only  a  suspension  of  the  sinner 
from  the  synagogue  and  society  of  his  brethren  for 
thirty  days,  if  he  repented  ;  if  not,  the  time  was 
doubled  to  sixty  days ;  and  if  he  still  continued  ob- 


stinate, it  was  prolonged  to  ninety  days.  Then,  if 
he.  persisted  impenitent  still,  he  was  punished  with 
a  more  solemn  excommunication,  called  cherem,, 
which  answers  to  anathema,  or  cursing,  because 
the  sinner  was  cast  out,  with  solemn  execrations 
out  of  the  law  of  Moses.  The  third  species,  called 
shammatha,  was  the  most  severe,  when  a  sinner, 
after  all  human  means  had  in  vain  been  tried  upon 
him,  was  consigned  over  totally  and  finally  to  the 
Divine  judgment,  as  a  desperate  and  irrecoverable 
sinner.  The  word  shammatha  is,  upon  this  account, 
said  to  signify  either.  There  is  death;  or.  There 
shall  be  desolation ;  or.  The  Lord  cometh.  Which 
last  origination  of  the  word  answers  to  maranatha. 
Now,  from  this  analogy  and  similitude  of  the  name, 
these  learned  men  suppose  this  form  of  excommu- 
nication was  taken  into  the  Christian  church  under 
the  name  of  maranatha.  But  there  is  this  grand 
objection  against  the  thing,  that  Chrysostom,  and 
St.  Jerom,  and  the  rest  that  have  been  mentioned, 
did  not  so  understand  it.  Besides,  that  there  is  no 
such  word  as  maranatha  ever  occurs  in  any  ancient 
form  of  excommunication.  But  still  the  question 
may  be  put  further,  whether  they  had  any  such 
excommunication  (be  the  name  or  form  what  it 
would)  as  was  total,  final,  and  irrevocable,  so  as 
utterly  to  exclude  sinners  from  the  communion  of 
the  church  without  hopes  of  recovery ;  and  so  as 
to  make  the  church  wholly  cease  to  pray  for  them, 
or  rather  pray  that  God  would  take  them  out  of  the 
world,  and  thereby  deliver  his  church  from  the 
malice  of  their  attempts  and  power  of  their  seduc- 
tion ?  This  question  consists  of  several  parts,  and 
therefore,  as  it  is  proposed,  so  it  must  be  answered 
with  some  distinction.  For,  first,  There  is  nothing 
more  certain,  than  that  the  church  did  sometimes 
pronounce  a  total,  final,  and  irreversible  sentence  of 
excommunication  against  some  more  heinous  crimi- 
nals, keeping  them  under  penance  all  their  lives, 
and  denying  them  her  external  peace  and  commu- 
nion at  the  hour  of  death,  for  example  and  ter- 
ror; yet  not  precluding  them  the  mercy  of  God, 
nor  denying  them  the  benefit  of  her  prayers,  but 
encouraging  them  to  hope  for  favour  upon  their 
true  repentance  at  God's  final  and  unerring  judg- 
ment. In  this  sense,  I  say,  it  is  most  certain  the 
church  did  many  times  make  her  sentence  of  ex- 
communication irreversible,  as  will  be  showed"' 
more  fully  hereafter. 


'^'  Ilieron.  Ep.  137.  ad  Marcellam.  Maranatha  niagis 
Syrum  est  quam  Ilobroeum:  tamen  etii  ox  CDnlinio  utia- 
niuKine  linguarum  aliquid  et  Hebroeum  sonat,  ef.  iiiterprc- 
t.'itur,  Doniiiiii.s  noster  venit:  ut  sit  sensus,  si  qiiis  iion 
ainat  Dominum  Jesum,  anathema  sit:  et  illo  completo, 
deinceps  inferatiir,  Dominus  noster  venit:  quod  superfluum 
sit  adversus  eura  odiis  pertinacibus  velle  contendere,  quem 
venisse  jam  constet. 

'"  Ambros.  in  1  Cor.  xvi. 


'5"  Hieron.  in  1  Cor.  xvi.  interpretatur,  Dominiis  noster 
venit. 

'^'  Aug.  Ep.  178.  sive  Altercatio  cum  Pascentio.  Ana- 
thema Groeco  sevmone  dixit,  Condemnatus  :  Maranatha  de- 
finivit,  Donee  Dominus  redeat.  —  Non  ergo  recta  dicitur 
Dominum  amare,  qui  Domini  et  Dei  unius  audet  substan- 
tiam  separare,  &c. 

"s  Vid.  Pool,  Synopsis  Criticor.  in  1  Cor.  xvi.  22.  et 
Otho,  Lexicon  Rabbinic,  p.  180.  '='  Book  XVII. 


Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


899 


But,  secondly,  It  is  not  so  apparent, 
Whether  ei.com-  that  the  chuTch  was  used  to  join  ex- 

munication  was  ever  .  ,  i      t  ^ 

pronounced  with  ex-  ecratiCH  to  hcr  ccnsures,  and  devote 

ecration, or  devoting 

the  sinner  to  tem-  jyien  to  temporal  destruction,  by  ut- 

poral  destruction.  ■'■ 

terly  refusing  to  pray  for  them,  or 
rather  praying  against  them,  that  God  would  take 
them  out  of  the  world,  and  deliver  his  church  by 
that  means  from  their  malicious  power,  and  ma- 
chinations of  seducement.  Grotius'*"  thinks  this 
was  very  rarely  done,  but  yet  that  there  are  some 
examples  of  it.  For  when  Julian  added  to  his 
apostacy  devihsh  designs  of  rooting  out  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  the  church  used  this  weapon  of  ex- 
treme necessity,  and  God  heard  her  prayers.  He 
reckons  this  was  done  in  imitation  of  the  Jewish 
shammatha.  For  among  the  Jews,  he  says  a  little 
before,  if  any  fell  into  enormous  crimes,  and  drew 
many  after  them,  they  did  not  use  the  common 
anathema  against  them,  but  that  more  dreadful  and 
tremendous  one,  which  they  called  shammatha, 
and  the  apostle  after  them,  in  the  same  sense, 
maranatha.  For  maranafha  signifies,  The  Lord 
Cometh.  And  by  that  word'"  prayer  is  made  unto 
God,  that  he  would  speedily  take  away  the  male- 
factor and  seducer  out  of  the  world.  An  example 
of  which  sort  of  anathema,  he  thinks,  is  given  by 
the  apostle.  Gal.  v.  12,  when  he  says,  "  I  would 
that  they  were  even  cut  off  that  trouble  you."  The 
learned  Dr.  Hicks  in  this  matter  joins  entirely  with 
Grotius,  seeing  no  other  way  to  account  for  the 
many  prayers  made  by  the  ancient  Christians  for 
Julian's  destruction.  Some  indeed  fasted  and  prayed 
for  his  repentance  and  conversion,  as  supposing  he 
might  be  recovered  from  his  error.  Thus  he  tells 
us'"  out  of  Sozomen,  how  Didymus  of  Alexandria 
prayed  for  him.  But  others  absolutely  prayed  for 
his  destruction,  as  thinking  him  utterly  incapable 
of  repentance,  and  that  he  had  sinned  the  sin  unto 
death,  for  which  it  was  in  vain  to  pray.  Then  he 
goes  on  to  show  the  nature  of  his  apostacy,  his 
devotedness  to  the  devil,  and  his  spite  to  Christ  and 
the  Christians;  from  whence  he  concludes'"  it  was 
reasonable  for  the  Christians  to  look  upon  him  as 
irrecoverable  out  of  the  snare  of  the  devil,  and  upon 
that  supposition  to  pray  for  his  destruction.  He 
adds  several  other  arguments  to  show  the  reason- 
ableness of  their  presumption,  that  Julian  had  a 
diabolical  malice'^'  against  Christ,  and  that  he  was 
one  of  those  irrecoverable  apostates  who  had  trod- 
den under  foot  the  Son  of  God,  and  counted  the 


blood  of  the  covenant,  wherewith  he  was  sanctified, 
an  unholy  thing,  and  who  had  done  despite  to  the 
Spirit  of  grace.  He  had  hardened  his  heart  against 
Divine  miracles,  like  Pharaoh,  and  therefore  it  is  no 
wonder  if  some  of  them'"  called  for  the  plagues  of 
Egypt  upon  him.  He  reproached  the  living  God, 
like  Sennacherib,  and  that  made  some  of  them,  like 
Hezekiah,  to  beseech  God"*  to  bow  down  his  ear 
and  hear,  and  to  open  his  eyes  and  see,  liow  Julian 
reproached  the  Son  of  God ;  and  thereupon  to  say, 
"  0  Lord  our  God,  we  beseech  thee  to  save  us  out 
of  his  hand,  that  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth  may 
know  that  thou  art  the  Lord  God,  and  that  Jesus, 
whom  Julian  doth  so  reproach,  is  thy  Son  and 
Christ."  Gregory'"  says,  he  designed  worse  things 
against  the  Christians,  than  Diocletian,  Maximian, 
or  Maximinus,  ever  did;  that  he  was  Jeroboam, 
Pharaoh,  Ahab,  and  Nebuchadnezzar,  all  in  one ; 
Jeroboam  in  apostacy,  Pharaoh  in  hardness  of  heart, 
Ahab  in  cruelty,  and  Nebuchadnezzar  in  sacrilege : 
and  therefore  it  is  not  to  be  wondered,  that  the 
Christians,  who  had  such  good  reason  to  despair  of 
the  conversion  of  such  a  complicate  tyrant,  prayed 
for  his  destruction,  because  there  was  no  other  ap- 
parent way  of  delivering  the  church.  And  if  it 
should  please  God  for  our  sins  to  plague  the  church 
Avith  such  a  spiteful  enemy  of  Christ,  and  suffer  a 
popish  Julian  indeed  to  reign  over  us ;  I  here  de- 
clare, says  he,  that  I  should  believe  him  incapable 
of  repentance,  and  upon  that  supposition  should  be 
tempted  to  pray  for  his  destruction,  as  the  only 
means  of  delivering  the  church.  Thus  far  that 
learned  man,  in  his  account  of  the  practice  of  the 
primitive  Christians,  and  their  reasons,  in  praying 
for  the  destruction  of  Julian  the  apostate. 

To  this  may  be  added,  what  St.  Jerora  saj^s  '*'  upon 
the  death  of  Julian,  That  the  church  of  Christ  with 
exultation  sung  her  thanks  to  God  in  the  words  of 
the  prophet,  according  to  the  Septuagint,  "  Thou 
hast  even  to  our  astonishment  divided  the  heads  of 
the  powerful."  Which  is  also  noted  by  Theodoret, 
who  says.  The  people  of  Antioch,  as  soon  as  they 
heard  of  Julian's  death,  kept  public  feasts  and  holi- 
days for  joy,  and  not  only  in  their  churches,  but  in 
their  theatres,  proclaimed  the  victory  of  the  cross, 
exposing  the  heathen  prophecies  to  ridicule,""  par- 
ticularly those  of  one  Maximus,  a  magician  whom 
he  had  consulted:  O  foolish  Maximus,  where  are 
now  thy  prophecies  ?  God  and  his  Christ  have 
overcome.     So,  again,  he  tells  us '™  of  one  Julianus 


""  Grot,  in  Luc.  vi.  22.  Hiijus  sane  rarior  est  usus,  non 
tamen  nullus.  Nam  in  Julianum,  cum  defectioni  adderet 
machinationes  evertendi  Christianismi,  usa  est  ecclesia 
isto  extremee  necessitatis  telo,  et  a  Deo  est  exaudita. 

"'  Ibid.  Ea  voce  oratur  Dens,  ut  qiiamprimum  talem 
maleficum  et  seductorem  tollat  ex  hominum  numero.  Hu- 
jus  anathematis  exemplum  est,  Gal.  v.  12. 

'^'^  Hicks's  Answer  to  Julian,  chap.  6.  p.  140.  ex  Sozom. 

3    M    li 


lib.  6.  cap.  2, 

'«  Ibid.  p.  143.  "'  Ibid.  p.  151. 

>«  Naz.  Invectiv.  2.  p.  110.  ""  Ibid.  p.  123. 

"Mbid.  1.  p.  93,  110,  et  III. 

"'  Hiernn.  in  Habac.iii.  14.  Ecclesia  Christi  cum  exulta- 
tionc  cantavit,  Divisisti  in  stupore  capita  potentium. 

»3  Theod.  lib.  3.  cap.  27. 

iM  Ibid.  cap.  24. 


900 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


Saba,  who  had  it  revealed  to  him  in  his  prayers, 
that  Julian  was  slain;  upon  which  he  immediately 
changed  his  tears  into  joy,  and  put  on  a  cheerful 
countenance,  expressing  the  inward  satisfaction  of 
his  mind.  Which  the  by^standers  observing,  desired 
to  know  the  reason  of  his  sudden  change ;  and  he 
told  them.  That  the  wild  boar,  who  laid  waste  the 
vineyard  of  the  Lord,  had  now  suffered  punishment 
for  all  the  injuries  he  had  done  against  the  Lord; 
that  he  now  lay  dead,  and  they  needed  no  longer  to 
be  afraid  of  his  designs  against  them.  Upon  which 
they  all  leaped  for  joy,  and  sung  praises  to  God  for 
the  victory.  Now,  it  is  probable  that  they  who 
thought  it  their  duty  thus  to  give  God  thanks  for 
his  fall,  were  no  less  solicitous  beforehand  to  pray 
for  his  destruction.  Their  thanksgivings  were  a  de- 
claration what  sort  of  prayers  they  had  made,  and 
they  could  not  but  rejoice  when  they  were  heard 
and  answered.  It  is  some  confirmation  of  all  this, 
that  Socrates  says.  They  were  used  sometimes  to 
«ast  men  out  of  the  church  with  execration,  as  he 
notes  of  one  Hermogenes,  a  Novatian  bishop,"'  who, 
for  some  blasphemous  books  which  he  had  written, 
was  solemnly  excommunicated,  fiiTo.  Karapaq,  with 
cursing,  which  in  all  probability  denoted  something 
more  than  the  common  anathema  that  accompanied 
every  excommunication. 

It  is  also  noted  by  Socrates,  lib.  1.  cap.  37,  that 
Alexander,  bishop  of  Constantinople,  prayed  thus 
against  Anus :  "  If  the  doctrine  of  Arius  be  true, 
let  me  die  before  the  day  appointed  for  our  disputa- 
tion :  but  if  the  faith  which  I  hold  be  true,  and  the 
doctrine  of  Arius  false,  let  Arius  by  the  time  deter- 
mined suffer  the  punishment  which  his  impiety  de- 
serves." Which  was  accordingly  fulfilled ;  for  Arius 
the  next  day  voided  his  entrails  with  his  excrements, 
and  so  perished  by  a  most  ignominious  death.  The 
same  is  related  by  Athanasius,  in  his  epistle  to  Se- 
rapion,  tom.  I.  p.  671,  who  says  he  prayed  to  God 
in  these  words,  ~Apov  "Apuov,  Take  Arius  out  of  the 
world.  All  which  shows,  that  in  some  special 
cases  they  made  no  scruple  to  devote  very  malicious 
and  incorrigible  apostates  to  extermination  and  de- 
struction. 

Yet,  on  the  other  hand,  St.  Chrysostom  was  ut- 
terly against  this  practice.  For  he  has  a  whole 
homily  upon  this  point,  that  men  ought  not  to  ana- 
thematize either  the  living  or  the  dead ;  they  may 
anathematize  their  opinions  or  actions,  but  not  their 
persons.  Where,  as  Grotius'^-  rightly  observes,  he 
takes  anathema  in  the  strictest  sense,  for  praying  to 
God  for  the  destruction  of  the  sinner.  Against  this 
he  argues  from  these  several  topics.  1.  Because 
Christ  died  for  all  men,  for  his  enemies,  for  tyrants, 
for  magicians,  for  those  that  hated  and  crucified 


him.'^  2.  Because  the  church,  in  imitation  of  Christ, 
daily  prays  for  all  men.  3.  Because  the  Christian 
religion  rather  obliges  us  to  lay  down  our  own  lives 
for  our  neighbours,  than  take  away  theirs.  4.  It 
is  usurping  upon  the  prerogative  of  Christ.  For 
what  is  such  an  anathema,  but  saying.  Let  him  be 
given  to  the  devil,  let  him  have  no  place  of  salva- 
tion, let  him  be  separated  from  Christ  ?  Who  gave 
thee  this  authority  and  power  ?  Why  dost  thou  as- 
sume the  dignity  of  the  Son  of  God,  who  shall  sit 
in  "judgment,  and  set  the  sheep  on  his  right  hand, 
and  the  goats  on  his  left?"  5.  The  apostles  had  no 
such  practice  in  excommunication.  They  cast  he- 
retics out  of  the  church  in  such  manner,  as  one 
would  pluck  out  a  right  eye,  or  cut  off  a  limb,  with 
indications  of  compassion  and  sorrow.  They  care- 
fully rebuked  and  expelled  their  heresies,  but  did 
not  thus  anathematize  their  persons.  6.  It  is  an 
absurd  practice,  whether  it  be  used  toward  the 
living  or  the  dead.  If  toward  the  living,  thou  art 
cruel  in  so  cutting  off  one,  who  is  still  in  a  capacity 
of  turning  and  changing  his  life  from  evil  to  good : 
if  toward  the  dead,  thou  art  more  cruel ;  because 
now  to  his  own  Master  he  stands  or  falls,  and  is  not 
under  any  human  power.  From  all  this  he  con- 
cludes. That  we  ought  only  to  anathematize  the 
impious  and  heretical  opinions  of  men,  but  to  spare 
their  persons,  and  pray  for  their  salvation.  There 
are  some  who  make  a  question.  Whether  this  be 
one  of  St.  Chrysostom's  genuine  discourses;  but 
without  any  good  reason ;  because  the  ma,tter  and 
style,  as  Du  Pin  observes,  argue  it  to  be  his,  and 
there  are  other  arguments  to  prove  it  genuine. 
Sixtus  Senensis  '^*  and  Habertus  '^*  think,  he  speaks 
only  against  private  men's  using  the  anathema 
against  heretics  :  but  it  is  plain,  he  argues  against 
the  public  as  well  as  private  use  of  it,  in  the  sense 
wherein  he  takes  it,  that  doctrines,  and  not  men, 
are  to  be  anathematized ;  We  are  to  pray  for  the 
persons  of  heretics,  when  we  condemn  their  opinions ; 
and  desire  their  conversion  and  salvation,  not  their 
destruction.  The  only  thing  that  can  truly  be  in- 
ferred from  hence  is,  that  St.  Chrysostom  had  dif- 
ferent sentiments  about  this  matter  from  some 
others.  They  thought  there  were  some  cases,  in 
which  it  was  lawful  to  pray  for  the  destruction  of 
very  malicious  and  incorrigible  sinners,  such  as 
Julian,  when  they  were  past  all  hopes,  and  there 
was  no  other  visible  way  to  save  the  church  from 
their  hellish  designs  but  by  their  destruction :  he 
thought  there  was  no  such  case ;  but  that  every 
man  was  capable  of  pardon  so  long  as  he  lived  in 
this  world,  even  though  he  had  committed  what 
others  called  the  unpardonable  sin  against  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  the  sin  unto  death,  of  which  he  had  a  i 


'"  Socrat.  lib.  7.  cap.  12.  '^^  Grot,  in  Luc.  vi.  32. 

'=■3  Chrys.  Horn.  7G.  de  Anathemato,  t.  I.  p.  900. 


'5'  Sixt.  Senens.  Bibliothec.  lib.  6.  Aniiotat.  2G7. 
'5'  Hubert.  Archierat.  p.  748. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


901 


different  notion  from  what  some  others  liatl :  and 
therefore  that  we  were  to  pray  for  every  man's  con- 
version, and  not  his  destruction.  This,  as  far  as  I 
can  judge,  was  the  different  sense  which  the  an- 
cients had  upon  this  most  difficult  matter  :  and  if 
they  varied  upon  the  point  in  so  nice  a  case,  it  is 
not  much  to  be  wondered  at,  since  the  moderns  are 
not  agreed  upon  it,  but  some  churches,  as  I  showed 
before  out  of  Du  MouUn,  forbid  all  such  sort  of  ex- 
communications, as  unfit  to  be  used  without  a  par- 
ticular revelation.  I  have  stated  the  matter  fairly 
on  both  sides,  and  leave  the  determination  to  the 
liberty  and  discretion  of  every  judicious  reader. 


CHAPTER  III. 

OF  THE  OBJECTS  OF  ECCLESIASTICAL  CENSURES,  OR 
THE  PERSONS  ON  WHOM  THEY  MIGHT  BE  IN- 
FLICTED :  WITH  A  GENERAL  ACCOUNT  OF  THE 
CRIMES    FOR    WHICH    THEY    WERE    INFLICTED. 

Having  thus  far  explained  the  nature 

Sect.  I.  ^ 

Au  members  of  (jf   ecclcsiastical    ccnsurcs,  and    the 

the   ehurch,  falung  ' 

dl\o!rc°rim^,m^d'e  scvcral  kinds  of  them,  w'e  are  next  to 
ci"ensures;^^o'>i"t  coHsldcr  the  objects  or  persons  on 
exception.  wliom  they  might  be  inflicted,  and  the 

crimes  for  which  they  were  inflicted  on  them.  As 
to  the  persons  or  objects  of  ecclesiastical  censure, 
they  were  all  such  delinquents  as  fell  into  great 
and  scandalous  crimes  after  baptism,  whether  men 
or  women,  priests  or  people,  rich  or  poor,  princes  or 
subjects :  for  the  ecclesiastical  discipline  made  no 
distinction,  save  when  the  multitude  of  sinners, 
combining  together,  made  it  impossible  to  put 
church  censures  in  execution,  or  made  it  hazardous, 
for  fear  of  doing  more  harm  than  good  by  the 
strict  execution  of  them.  Infidels  and  unbelievers 
were  not  considered  in  this  matter,  as  being  no 
members  of  the  church  :  according  to  that  rule  of 
the  apostle,  I  Cor.  v.  12,  "What  have  I  to  do  to 
judge  them  also  that  are  without  ?  Do  not  ye  judge 
them  that  are  within  ?  But  them  that  are  without, 
God  judgeth.  Therefore  put  away  from  among 
yourselves  that  wicked  person."  Catechumens  were 
in  a  middle  state  between  heathens  and  Christians, 
only  candidates  of  baptism,  and  not  yet  admitted  to 
full  communion  by  the  laver  of  regeneration  and 
adoption  of  children :  and  therefore  neither  were 
they  the  proper  objects  of  church  discipline,  save 


only  as  they  were  capable  of  being  thrust  down  into 
a  lower  class  of  their  own  order,  if  they  committed 
any  crime  deserving  such  a  degradation,  of  which  I 
have  given  some  account  already'  in  speaking  of 
the  institution  of  the  catechumens.  Here  we  take 
discipline,  as  respecting  only  those  that  were  called 
the  TiXiwi,  perfect  communicants,  or  persons  in  full 
communion  with  the  church. 

In  censuring  these  the  church  made 
no  distinction  of  sex  or  quality  ;  for  women  as  weu  as 
women  were  subjected  to  discipline,  as 
well  as  men.  Valesius  -  says  they  were  very  rarely 
put  to  do  public  penance ;  and  Bona  says,^  never 
at  all  for  the  three  first  ages ;  but  they  wept,  and 
fasted,  and  did  other  works  of  repentance  in  private. 
And  some  take  that  canon^  of  St.  Basil  in  this  sense, 
where  he  says.  If  a  woman  was  convicted  of  adultery 
or  confessed  it  herself,  by  the  ancient  rules  she  was 
not  to  be  made  a  pubUc  example,  Srjuoauvnv  oi//c 
iKiXtvcfav  oj  Trareptc-  But  Cyprian,  and  Tertullian, 
and  the  ancient  canons  make  no  su(;h  distinction  : 
neither  is  it  probable,  that  when  multitudes  both  of 
men  and  women  fell  openly  into  idolatry  in  times 
of  persecution,  that  the  one  did  public  and  the  other 
private  penance  only.  For  Cyprian  never  speaks 
of  any  but  the  public  exomolor/esis,  or  confession, 
and  public  imposition  of  hands'  to  reconcile  peni- 
tents again  after  lapsing ;  and  yet  there  it  had  been 
proper  to  have  made  the  distinction  between  men 
and  women,  if  he  had  known  of  any  such  distinc- 
tion in  the  practice  of  the  church.  But  wliether 
their  penance  was  public  or  private,  the  case  is  still 
the  same  as  to  the  exercise  of  discipline  upon  them ; 
for  they  were  certainly  excluded  from  communion, 
and  that  sometimes  for  many  years,  and  in  some 
cases  even  to  the  hour  of  death,  as  appears  from 
many  canons  of  the  council  of  Eliberis,''"  Ancyra,' 
and  others.  And  this  is  a  sufficient  indication  of 
their  being  liable  to  ecclesiastical  censure,  as  well 
as  men.  Nay,  there  are  some  undeniable  instances 
of  women  doing  public  penance,  as  Bona  owns,  in 
the  time  of  St.  Jeroin  ;  for  he,  speaking  of  Fabiola,  a 
rich  Roman  lady,  who  had  divorced  herself  from 
her  first  husband  for  adultery,  and  married  a  second, 
says.  That  after  the  death  of  the  second  husband, 
when  she  came  to  consider  the  unlawfulness  of  the 
fact,  she  put  on  sackcloth,  and  made  public  con- 
fession* of  her  error  in  the  Lateran  church,  in  the 
sight  of  all  the  people  of  Rome ;  standing  in  the 
order  of  penitents  in  Lent,  and  in  a  penitent  garb, 
with  her  hair  dissolved,  and  her  cheeks  wan  with 


*  Book  X.  chap.  2.  sect.  17. 

*  Vales,  in  Socrat.  lib.  5.  cap.  19. 

'  Bona,  Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  1.  cap.  17.  n.  5. 

*  Basil,  can.  -SI. 

»  Cypr.  de  Lapsis,  p.  128.  Ep.  10.  al.  16.  p.  37. 
«  Cone.  Elib.  can.  5,  8,  10,  12,  13, 14,  63,  65. 
'  Cone.  Ancyran.  can.  21. 


*  Hieron.  Ep.  .30.  Epitaph.  Fabiola;.  Qiiis  crederet,  ut 
post  mortem  secundi  viri  in  semetipsam  reversa — saccum 
indiieret,  ut  errorem  publice  fateretur,  et  tola  urbe  spec- 
tante  Romana  ante  diem  Pascliaj  in  basilica  Laterani  sta- 
ret  in  ordine  poeuitentium,  episcopo,  presbyteris,  et  onini 
populo  collachrymantibus,  sparso  crino,  ora  lurida,  squali- 
das  manus,  sordida  colla  submitteret  ? 


902 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


tears,  submitting  her  neck  to  imposition  of  hands ; 
the  bishop,  and  presbyters,  and  all  the  people  weep- 
ing with  her.  This  seems  to  have  been  a  voluntary 
act  of  penance,  (as  there  were  many  such  in  those 
days,  when  men  chose  to  expiate  even  private  crimes 
by  public  penance,)  but  if  it  had  not  been  custom- 
ary at  all  for  women  to  do  public  penance,  St. 
Jerom  would  have  noted  the  singularity  of  it  in 
that  respect,  rather  than  any  other.  But  he  seems 
to  place  the  singularity  of  it  in  this,  that  she  con- 
descended of  her  own  accord  to  do  public  penance 
in  a  case  where  no  laws  of  the  church  could  have 
obUged  her  to  it.  For  whilst  her  husband  lived,  no 
constraint  could  be  laid  upon  her;  it  being  a  rule  not 
to  admit  married  persons  *  to  public  penance  with- 
out consent  of  both  parties ;  and  when  her  husband 
was  dead,  her  crime  perhaps  was  one  of  that  nature 
which  did  not  directly  bring  her  under  the  power 
of  ecclesiastical  censure,  but  by  her  own  consent. 
For,  as  we  shall  see  more  by  and  by,  there  were 
many  crimes  of  that  nature  which,  though  allowed 
to  be  sins  of  no  mean  size,  yet  could  not  bring  men 
against  their  wills  to  a  course  of  public  penance  by 
any  laws  of  the  church. 

But   where  the    crimes  were   fla- 
The'  rfch  «s  iveu  grant,  and  such  as  the  church  could 

AS    the    poor.       Xo 

comm.KaiioMorpe-  taKC  cognizancc  of,  there  she  usually 

nance    allowed,  nor  . 

fnendship,  nor  fii-  procccded  without  respect  of  persons. 
No  regard  was  had  to  the  rich  more 
than  the  poor,  but  all  criminals  were  considered 
alike,  in  the  business  of  repentance,  as  equally 
obliged  to  comply  with  the  stated  rules  of  discipline, 
in  order  to  gain  admission  into  the  church  after  an 
expulsion.  There  was  but  one  door  of  re-entry» 
which  is  so  often  called  jnsta  and  lefiitima 2)cenitentia, 
the  just  and  legal  penance,  by  Cyprian  '"  and  other 
writers;  and  no  commutation  was  thought  an 
equivalent,  where  this  was  w'anting.  Which  is 
evident  from  this,  that  they  would  not  accept  any 
gifts  or  oblations  from  excommunicate  persons,  or 
heretics,  or  schismatics,  or  any  that  were  not  in 
full  communion  with  the  church,"  lest  this  should 
look  like  communicating  with  them  before  their 
time,  and  receiving  their  money  in  lieu  of  repent- 
ance. Cyprian  indeed  once  intimates,  that  there 
were  some  who  for  filthy  lucre  '-  were  inclined  to 
accept  persons ;  and  who,  to  make  a  market  of  un- 


lawful gain,  would  gratify  the  rich  and  those  who 
could  give  large  gifts,  to  get  them  an  easier  way  of 
admittance  than  by  the  severe  and  tedious  way  of 
a  just  and  full  penance  ;  but  he  very  sharply  in- 
veighs against  these,  and  all  their  sinister  arts  of 
dissolving  discipline,  and  ruining  men's  souls,  under 
pretence  of  granting  them  a  fallacious  and  deceit- 
ful peace,  which  was  their  real  destruction. 

One  of  these  insidious  arts,  which 
they  managed  with  some  colour  and     '"'''"f .  p^'iege 

•^  o  some  claimed  upon 

dexterity,  was  to  get  the  martyrs  and  11;?  .iT^vrlTn  "ph- 
confessors  in  prison  to  intercede  with  ho"v'^°thL  ^was  *  n- 
bishops  for  such,  and  write  letters  in  ^""*  ^^  '^''"*"' 
their  favour.  For  we  must  know,  that  anciently 
the  martyrs  were  allowed  this  privilege,  when  any 
penitent  had  well  nigh  performed  his  legal  penance, 
and  was  near  upon  being  received  again,  to  write 
letters  to  the  bishop,  that  such  a  one  might  be 
admitted  to  communion,  though  his  full  term  of 
penance  was  not  quite  expired.  And  so  far  their 
petition  was  commonly  accepted.  But  these  crafty 
men,  for  a  little  under-hand  gain,  had  got  a  trick  to 
desire  the  martyrs  to  intercede  for  such  as  had  done 
little  or  no  penance :  nay,  they  abused  their  privi- 
lege so  far,  as  peremptorily  to  require  the  admission 
of  such,  without  any  previous  examination  of  their 
merits :  and  sometimes  they  required  the  bishop, 
not  only  to  admit  such  a  penitent,  but  all  that  be- 
longed to  him ;  which  was  a  very  uncertain  and 
blind  sort  of  petition,  and  created  great  envy  to  the 
bishop,  when  perhaps  twenty,''  or  thirty,  or  a  greater 
number  of  nameless  persons  were  included  in  one 
libel,  and  the  bishop  was  forced  to  do  a  very  un- 
grateful office,  and  deny  them  altogether.  Cyprian 
complains  much  of  these  abuses,  both  in  his  letter 
to  the  martyrs,  and  in  others  written  upon  the  same 
subject  to  his  clergy"  and  people.  But  chiefly  he 
complains  of  those  libels,  which  were  sent  to  him 
by  Lucian  the  martyr,  one  of  which  runs  in  this  '^ 
form :  "  All  the  confessors  to  Cyprian  the  bishop, 
greeting :  Know  that  we  have  granted  peace  to  all 
those,  of  whom  you  have  had  an  account  how  they 
have  behaved  themselves  since  the  commission  of 
their  crimes :  and  we  would  that  these  presents 
should  be  notified  by  you  to  the  rest  of  the  bishops. 
We  wish  you  to  maintain  peace  with  the  holy  mar- 
tyrs."    This  Lucian  had  written  many  such  letters 


"  Cone.  Arelat.  2.  can.  22.  Pcenitentiam  conjugatis  non 
nisi  ex  consensu  dandara. 

'»  Cypr.  Ep.  JO.  al.  16.  ad  Cler.  p.  .37.  Ep.  62.  al.  4.  p. 
9.     De  Lapsis,  p.  129.  Cone.     Eliber.  can.  14.  et  can.  3. 

"  See  before,  chap.  2.  sect.  13,  and  Book  XV.  chap.  2. 

'-  Cypr.  Ep.  11.  al.  l.'j.  ad  Martyr,  p.  .35.  Qui  personas 
accipientes,  in  beneficiis  vestris  aut  gratificantur,  aut  illicita 
negotiationis  nundinas  aucupantur. 

'■■'  Cypr.  Ep.  11.  al.  15.  ad  Martyr,  p.  .35.  Audio  quibiis- 
dam  sic  libellos  fieri, "ut  dicatur:  Coramunicet  ille  cumsuis. 
Quod  nunquam  omnino  a  rnartyribus  factum  est,  ut  incerta 
et  cosca  petitio  invidiam  nobis  postmodum  cumulet :  late 


enim  patet  quando  dicitur,  Ille  cum  suis ;  et  possunt  nobis 
viceni,  et  triceni,  et  amplius  offen-i;  qui  propinqui  et  affines, 
et  liberti  ac  domestici  esse  asseverentur  ejus,  qui  accipit 
libellum. 

»  Cypr.  Ep.  10.  al.  16.  ad  Cler.  Ep.  12.  al.  17.  ad  Plebem. 
Ep.  18.  al.  26.  ad  Cler. 

'^  Lucian.  Ep.  ad  Cypr.  17.  al.  23.  Scias  nos  universis, 
de  quibus  apud  te  ratio  constiterit,  quid  post  commissum 
egerint,  dedisse  pacem  :  et  hanc  formam  per  te  et  aliis 
episcopis  innotcscere  voluimus.  Optamus  te  curn  Sanctis 
rnartyribus  pacem  habere.  Vid.  Lucian.  Ep.  20.  al.  22.  ad 
Celerin.  p,  47. 


(    HU>.     III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


903 


IjL'forc  in  the  name  of  Paulus  the  Confessor,  whilst 
hi'  was  in  prison,  and  others  after  his  death,  saying 
he  had  his  command  so  to  do.  All  which  Cyprian 
c<  Mil  plains  of  in  a  letter  to  the  clergy  of  Rome,"*  as 
a  thing  chssolving  all  the  bands  of  faith,  and  the 
iVar  of  God,  and  the  commandments  of  the  Lord, 
ami  the  holiness  and  vigour  of  the  gospel;  and  as 
ncating  great  envy  to  the  bishops,  whilst  they  were 
rmced  to  deny  to  lapsers  what  they  boasted  to  have 
nliUiined  of  the  martyrs  and  confessors.  This  occa- 
sioned, he  says,  great  seditions  and  tumults  :  for  in 
many  cities  throughout  the  province  of  Carthage, 
(he  people  rose  up  in  multitudes  against  their 
bishops,  and  by  their  clamours  compelled  them  to 
grant  them  instantly  that  peace,  which,  they  all 
said,  the  martyrs  and  confessors  had  given  them : 
they  who  had  not  courage  enough  and  strength  of 
faith  to  resist  them,  were  by  this  means  terrified 
and  subdued  into  a  compliance  with  them.  And 
he  had  much  ado  himself  to  withstand  them  at  Car- 
tilage :  for  some  turbulent  men,  who  were  hardly 
governable  before,  and  thought  it  much  to  be  kept 
back  from  communion  till  he  returned  out  of  exile, 
when  they  had  gotten  these  letters  of  the  martyrs, 
were  all  in  a  flame  upon  the  strength  of  them,  and 
began  to  rage  immoderately,  and  in  an  extorting 
manner  demand  the  peace  which,  they  said,  the 
martyrs  had  granted  them. 

By  this  representation  of  Cyprian,  and  his  remon- 
strance upon  it,  it  is  easy  to  discern  what  mischief 
the  abusing  this  privilege  of  the  martyrs  did  to  the 
true  exercise  of  discipline ;  whilst  some  out  of  lucre, 
others  out  of  terror,  complied  with  the  lapsers'  un- 
reasonable demands,  and  let  the  rich  and  the  gi'eat 
escape  punishment,  and  intrude  themselves  into  the 
communion  of  the  church  again  without  any  suf- 
ficient evidences  of  repentance :  but  they  who,  like 
Cyprian,  had  integrity  and  firmness  enough  to  op- 
pose these  impious  practices,  kept  up  the  discipline 
of  the  church  in  its  true  vigour,  and  would  hearken 
to  no  pretences  or  conditions  of  this  kind,  which 
only  tended  to  impose  upon  them  with  false  shows 
of  a  deceitful  peace,  and  profane  the  mystery  of  the 
holy  sacrament,  by  giving  it  to  the  impenitent  and 
the  ungodly. 

g^^j  .  Neither  was  it  only  men  in  a  pri- 

priJcfi"sub|e'crto  vatc  condition  they  thus  treated,  but 
sOTestasweiiJany  also  thosc  of  tile  liighcst  rank  and 
dignity.  For  the  civil  magistrates  and 
princes  were  subject  to  ecclesiastical  censures,  as 


well  as  any  others.  In  the  times  of  persecution, 
the  very  taking  of  some  civil  oflices  made  Christians 
liable  to  exconnnunication.  Particularly  if  they 
took  upon  them  the  office  of  the  dunniciri,  or  the 
provincial  oflTice  of  the  Jiamincs,  or  saccrdofen  pro- 
vinciariim :  because,  as  Gothofred "  shows  out  of 
many  laws  of  the  Theodosian  Code,  these  offices 
obliged  them  to  exhibit  the  usual  games  or  shows 
to  the  people ;  which  in  time  of  heathenism  could 
not  be  done  without  involving  them  in  some  mea- 
sure in  the  guilt  of  idolatry,  to  which  those  games 
were  consecrated.  For  which  reason,  any  Christian 
undertaking  such  an  office,  was  reputed  an  eneou- 
rager  and  partaker  of  idolatry,  though  he  did  not 
actually  sacrifice  to  idols  in  his  office.  Upon  which 
account,  the  council  of  Ehberis,"  which  was  held 
in  time  of  persecution,  anno  305,  or  thereabouts, 
orders,  That  if  any  Christian  took  upon  him  the 
office  of  ajlamcii,  though  he  did  not  sacrifice,  but 
only  exhibit  the  idolatrous  shows  to  the  people,  he 
should  be  kept  under  strict  penance  all  his  life,  and 
only  be  admitted  to  communion  at  his  death  ;  and 
that  in  consideration  that  he  had  abstained  from 
offering  the  abominable  sacrifices  :  for  if  he  had 
offered  sacrifice,  then,  by  the  preceding  canon,'"  he 
was  denied  communion  to  the  very  last.  Nay,  though 
they  had  neither  sacrificed,  nor  exhibited  the  shows 
out  of  their  expense  to  the  people,  but  only  worn 
the  crown  in  their  office,  by  two  other  canons^"  of 
the  same  council,  they  were  to  be  denied  the  com- 
munion for  a  year  or  two.  So  that  the  being  in  a 
public  office,  was  so  far  from  exempting  a  magistrate 
from  the  censures  of  the  church,  that  in  many  cases 
it  was  the  very  reason  why  they  were  executed  with 
greater  severity  upon  him,  whilst  no  man  could  go 
through  such  an  office  without  the  guilt  and  stain 
of  idolatry  in  some  measure  sticking  to  him.  And 
when  these  offices  were  freed  from  idolatry  ;  yet  if 
a  magistrate  still  committed  other  crimes  worthy 
of  ecclesiastical  punishment,  the  censures  of  the 
church,  notwithstanding  his  office,  would  lay  hold 
of  him,  and  the  name  or  character  of  a  magistrate 
would  give  him  no  protection.  This  appears  plainly 
from  the  proceedings  of  Synesius-'  against  Andro- 
nicus,  the  governing  magistrate  of  Ptolemais,  whom 
he  formally  excommunicated,  with  all  his  accom- 
plices ;  and  from  what  has  been  observed  before,'^-  of 
the  judge  that  was  censured  in  the  time  of  Julian, 
mentioned  by  St.  Ambrose  ;^  and  Athanasius  ex- 
communicating the  governor  of  Libya  for  his  im- 


's  Cypr.  Ep.  23.  al.  27.  ad  Cler.  Rom.  p.  52. 

"  Gothofred.  Paratitlon.  ad  Cod.  Thcod.  lib.  15.  Tit.  5. 
de  Spectaculis. 

'*  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  3.  Flamines,  qui  non  imraolave- 
rint,  sed  muniis  tantum  dederint,  eo  quod  se  a  funestis  ab- 
stinuerimt  sacrificiis,  placuit  i^  fine  eis  praestari  conimu- 
nionem,  acta  tamen  legitima  poenitentia. 

•'  Ibid.  can.  2.     Flamines,  qui  post  fidem  lavacri  saerifi- 


caverunt,  placuit  nee  in  fine  cos  accipere  commtinioneni. 

^  Ibid.  can.  55.  Sacerdotcs,  qui  tantum  coronam  por- 
tant,  nee  sacrificant,  nee  de  suis  sumptibus  aliquid  ad  fdola 
praistant,  placuit  post  biennium  accipere  communionera.  It. 
can.  56.  Magistratum  vero,  qui  agit  duuniviratuni,  uno  anno 
prohibendura  placuit,  ut  se  ab  ecclesia  cohibeat. 

-'  Synes.  Ep.  58.  --  See  chap.  2.  sect.  11. 

^  Ambros.  Ep.  29.  ad  Tlieodos. 


904 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


moralities,  mentioned  by  St.  Basil,-*  which  need  not 
here  be  repeated.  To  these  I  add  that  general  rule 
of  the  first  council  of  Aries,  made  with  relation  to 
all  governors  of  provinces,  That  when  they  went  to 
the  government  of  any  province,"  they  should  take 
communicatory  letters  from  their  own  bishop  along 
with  them,  and  be  subject  to  the  care  of  the  bishop 
of  the  places  wherever  they  went;  so  as,  if  they 
committed  any  thing  contrary  to  the  pubhc  disci- 
pline, they  were  to  be  excluded  from  the  communion 
of  the  church.  This  was  no  rule  to  deprive  magis- 
trates of  their  office,  though  they  were  heretics  or 
schismatics,  as  Baronius""  would  have  it  understood: 
for,  as  Albaspiny,  in  his  notes  upon  the  place,  more 
ti'uly  observes  against  him,  there  is  not  a  word  about 
this  in  the  canon :  neither  is  it  likely  that  a  pro- 
vincial council  should  make  a  decree  about  that 
which  is  no  way  in  their  power,  but  in  the  power  of 
the  prince  only.  They  might  order,  and  that  with 
good  reason,  he  says.  That  no  heretic  or  schismatic, 
although  he  was  the  governor  of  a  province,"  should 
be  admitted  to  communicate  with  the  church ;  but 
that,  therefore,  he  should  be  removed  from  his  go- 
vernment, because  he  was  a  heretic,  was  at  the  will 
and  discretion  of  the  prince,  and  not  of  the  church : 
it  belongs  to  the  prince,  and  not  the  church,  to  take 
away  the  power  of  subordinate  magistrates  from 
them.  The  plain  drift,  therefore,  of  this  canon  is, 
not  to  deprive  inferior  magistrates  of  any  civil  power 
or  jurisdiction,  which  the  supreme  magistrate  com- 
mitted to  them ;  which  the  church  had  no  authority 
to  do :  but  only  to  deny  them  her  own  communion, 
if  unworthy  of  it ;  which  was  a  thing  then  uncon- 
tested, and  indisputably  within  the  limits  of  her 
power. 

Neither  need  we  wonder  at  this,  since  the  church 
laid  claim  to  a  higher  power,  even  of  excluding 
princes,  or  the  supreme  magistrates,  from  her  com- 
munion, when  guilty  of  notorious  violations  of  the 
laws  of  Christian  society ;  of  which  there  are  cer- 
tain evidences  both  in  the  doctrine  and  practice  of 
the  ancient  bishops  of  the  church.  The  story  which 
IS  related  by  Eusebius  concerning  the  emperor  Phi- 
lip, though  disputed  by  many  as  to  the  truth  of  the 
fact,  yet  is  a  sufficient  evidence  of  the  opinion  of 
Eusebius,  who  relates  it.  Now  he  tells  us,^  There 
was  a  tradition  that  he  was  a  Christian,  and  that  on 
the  vigil  of  the  passover  he  desired  to  communicate 
in  prayers  with  the  rest  of  the  people ;  but  that  the 
bishop,  who  then  presided,  would  not  suHer  him  to 
enter,  before  he  had  confessed  his  crimes,  and  joined 


himself  to  those  who  had  sinned,  and  stood  in  the 
place  or  order  of  the  penitents ;  for  otherwise  he 
could  not  be  received  by  him,  for  the  many  crimes 
which  he  had  committed.  Upon  which  the  emperor 
A\'illingly  obeyed,  demonstrating  his  sincere  and  re- 
ligious disposition  towards  the  fear  of  God  by  the 
tenor  of  his  actions.  Some  question  the  truth  of 
the  story,-'  and  think  that  it  is  a  mistake  of  Philip 
the  emperor,  for  one  Philip  the  prcefectus  aw/Ksta- 
lis  of  Egypt,  who  was  a  Christian :  others  defend  it 
as  a  true  relation,'"  only  they  think  it  was  a  trans- 
action in  private,  which  is  the  reason  we  have  no 
account  of  it  in  heathen  story.  But  whether  the 
fact  was  true  or  false,  the  reflection  made  upon  it 
by  Eusebius  is  of  great  moment  in  the  present  ques- 
tion. For  he,  supposing  him  to  have  been  a  Chris- 
tian, says,  Without  such  a  compliance  the  bishop 
would  never  have  admitted  him.  Which  remark  is 
sufficient  to  show  the  nature  of  the  church's  disci- 
pline in  general,  whatever  becomes  of  the  truth  of 
this  particular  story. 

Filesacus'"  and  Valesius^  confound  this  story 
with  the  relation  which  St.  Chrysostom  gives  of 
Babylas,  denying  entrance  into  the  church  to  oni 
of  the  Roman  emperors,  upon  the  account  of  a 
barbarous  murder  committed  by  him  upon  a  son  of 
some  confederate  prince,  who  was  intrusted  as  an 
hostage  with  him.  Chrysostom  names  neither  the 
emperor  nor  the  confederate  prince,  and  the  stories 
differ  in  the  whole  relation,  but  especially  in  this 
material  circumstance,  that  Philip  is  said  to  com- 
ply with  the  bishop's  admonition,  and  stand  in 
the  order  of  penitents ;  but  he  whom  Chrysostom 
speaks  of,  was  so  far  from  submitting  to  the  admo- 
nition of  Babylas,  that  he  remained  incorrigible, 
and  grew  enraged,  and  cast  him  into  prison,  and 
loaded  him  with  chains,  which  the  martyr  ordered 
to  be  buried  with  him,  when  the  tyrant  put  him 
to  death.  So  that  this  could  not  be  Philip,  but 
Decius,  the  persecuting  heathen,  under  whom  Ba- 
bylas suffered.  However,  Chrj'sostom  makes  some 
curious  remarks  upon  the  behaviour  of  Babylas,  j 
both  in  reference  to  his  courage  and  prudence, 
which  abundantly  shows  the  spirit  of  discipline 
then  prevaihng  in  the  church.  For,,  1.  He  re- 
marks. That  Babylas  acted  with  the  freedom  and 
boldness  of  Elias  and  St.  John  Baptist,^'  driving  ; 
out  of  the  church,  not  a  tetrarch  of  a  few  cities, 
nor  a  king  of  one  nation,  but  him  who  governed 
the  greatest  part  of  the  world,  a  murderer,  who 
had  many  nations,  many  cities,  and  a  prodigious  i 


«  Basil.  Ep.  47. 

"  Cone.  Arelat.  1.  can.  7.  De  praesidibus  placuit,  ut  cum 
promoti  fuerint,  literas  accipiant  ecclesiasticas  communica- 
torias  :  ita  tamen  ut  in  (juibusciinque  locis  gesserint,  ab  epis- 
copo  ejusdem  loci  cuia  de  illis  agatur ;  ut  cum  caeperint 
contra  disciplinam  publicam  agere,  tunc  demum  a  commu- 
nione  excludantur.  Similiter  et  de  his  fiat  qui  rempublicain 
a^ere  volunt.  ^^  Barou.  an.  314.  n.  57. 


^  Albaspin.  in  can.  7.  Cone.  Arelat. 
28  Euseb,  Hist.  lib.  6.  cap.  34. 
-'  Cave,  Prim.  Christ,  part  1.  cap.  3.  p.  46. 
'»  Pagi,  Critic,  in  Baron,  an.  244.  n.  4.  ex  Huet.    Ori- 
geniau.  lib.  1.  cap.  3.  n.  12. 
^'  Filesac.  Not.  in  Vincent.  Lirin.  cap.  23.  n.  125. 
'-  Vales.  Not.  in  Euseb.  lib.  6.  cap.  .34. 
'■'^  Chrys.  de  Babyla.  sive  cent.  Gentiles,  t.  1.  p.  740. 


f 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


905 


army  at  his  command;  one  that  was  in  all  re- 
spects terrible,  as  well  upon  the  account  of  his 
iiimiense  dominions,  as  the  fierceness  and  cruelty 
of  liis  temper :  him  he  expelled  as  a  vile  and 
worthless  slave,  with  as  much  intrepidity,  con- 
stancy, and  bravery  of  mind,  as  a  shepherd  would 
drive  away  from  his  flock  a  scabbed  and  infected 
sheep,  to  prevent  the  contagion  of  the  distemper 
from  spreading  to  the  rest  of  the  flock.  Here  he 
breaks  out  into  a  rapture,  admiring  his  undaunted 
mind,  his  lofty  soul,  his  heavenly  terror  of  spirit, 
and  angelical  constancy,  superior  to  all  this  visible 
world,  and  only  fixed  upon  God  the  supreme  King; 
acting  as  if  he  stood  before  the  great  Judge,  and 
heard  him  say.  Cast  out  the  wicked  and  infected 
sheep  from  the  holy  flock.  2.  Hence  he  observes, 
how  fearless  and  undaunted  Babylas  must  be  with 
respect  to  other  men,  who  gave  such  a  specimen  of 
his  power  over  the  emperor.  He  could  never  act 
or  speak  out  of  favour  or  hatred,  but  with  a  mind 
equally  fortified  against  fear  and  flattery,  and  all 
other  things  of  the  like  nature,  which  are  apt  to 
beset  men,  he  stood  firm,  and  did  not  in  the  least 
corrupt  right  judgment.  3.  He  remarks  further, 
how  he  tempered  his  courage  with  Christian  pru- 
dence, observing  a  decent  mien  in  his  behaviour. 
A  man  of  his  undaunted  spirit  might  have  gone 
much  further.  He  might  have  railed  at  the  empe- 
ror, and  reviled  him;  he  might  have  pulled  the 
crown  from  his  head,  and  have  beaten  him  on  the 
face  :  but  his  soul  was  seasoned  with  spiritual  salt, 
which  taught  him  to  observe  a  decorum  in  all  his 
management,  and  do  nothing  rashly  or  foolishly, 
but  by  the  rules  of  right  reason,  which  was  a  thing 
the  philosophers  in  their  reproofs  of  kings  seldom 
observed.  Hence  he  remarks,  4.  Of  how  great  ad- 
vantage this  example  was  to  all  men,  both  believers 
and  unbelievers.  The  unbelievers  were  astonished 
at  the  action,  and  admired  it ;  for  they,  seeing  the 
intrepidity  of  the  servants  of  Christ,  could  not  but 
deride  the  abject  servility  of  those  who  ruled  in  the 
heathen  temples,  when  they  observed  them  always 
more  disposed  to  worship  their  kings  than  their 
gods  or  idols.  Whereas  Babylas  punished  the  in- 
jurious king,  as  far  as  it  was  lawful  for  a  priest" 
to  do ;  he  pulled  down  the  high  spirit  of  the  prince  ; 
he  vindicated  the  Divine  laws  when  they  were  vio- 
lated ;  he  punished  the  king  for  his  murder  with  a 
punishment  that,  to  all  men  of  a  sound  mind,  is 
the  most  terrible  of  any  other.  He  did  not,  like 
Diogenes,  bid  him  stand  out  of  his  sunshine  ;  but 
when  he  thrust  himself  impudently  within  the  sa- 
cred boundaries  of  the  church,  and  confounded  all 


good  order,  he  drove  him  from  his  Master's  house, 
as  he  would  have  done  a  dog,  or  an  ofTcnding  slave. 
And  so  the  holy  man  took  down  the  confidence  of 
unbelievers,  who  were  then  the  greatest  part  of  the 
Roman  empire.  And  for  those  who  had  already 
embraced  the  faith  of  Christ,  he,  by  this  act,  made 
them  more  circumspect  and  religious ;  not  only  pri- 
vate men,  but  soldiers,  captains,  and  generals; 
shewing  them,  that  among  Christians  the  prince 
and  chief  of  all  are  but  names,  and  that  he  that 
wears  the  crown,  when  he  is  to  be  punished  and 
rebuked,  is  no  more  considered  than  one  of  the 
lowest  order.'^  Hence  he  concludes,  lastly,  That 
this  rare  example  of  virtue  was  matter  of  instruc- 
tion both  to  priests  and  princes,  to  teach  princes  to 
submit  to  the  rules  of  discipline,  and  priests  to  take 
courage  in  the  exercise  of  it ;  forasmuch  as  that  the 
care  of  the  world,  and  what  is  done  in  it,  is  as 
properly  committed  to  them,  as  to  him  that  wears 
the  purple ;  and  that  they  ought  rather  to  part 
with  their  lives,  than  part  with  or  diminish  that 
power  and  authority  which  God  from  above  has 
committed  to  them.  Any  one  may  perceive  by  this 
discourse  of  St.  Chrysostom,  what  opinion  he  had 
of  the  power  and  extent  of  ecclesiastical  discipline, 
even  over  sovereign  princes ;  not  to  pull  off  their 
crowns,  and  dethrone  them;  not  to  ravish  away 
their  temporal  power,  under  the  pretence  of  the 
spiritual  power  being  superior;  nor  yet  to  speak 
evil  of  dignities,  or  treat  them  unmannerly,  and  re- 
vile them;  but  only  to  debar  them  from  the  com- 
munion of  the  church,  when  by  notorious  wicked- 
ness they  rendered  themselves  altogether  unworthy, 
and  really  incapable  of  it.  Which  is  agreeable  to 
that  general  direction  he  gives  in  another  place  to 
the  clergy,  not  to  admit  any  one  of  notorious  impro- 
bity, cruelty,  or  impurity  to  the  Lord's  table :  Al- 
though it  be  a  commander,  says  he,'*  or  a  governor, 
or  even  he  that  wears  the  diadem,  that  conies  un- 
worthily, prohibit  him :  thou  hast  greater  power 
than  he.  He  adds  a  little  after.  If  thou  art  afraid 
to  do  this,  bring  him  unto  me.  I  will  not  suffer 
any  such  thing  to  be  done  ;  I  will  sooner  give  my 
own  life,  than  the  body  of  the  Lord  unworthily  ;  I 
will  shed  my  own  blood,  before  I  will  give  that 
most  holy  blood  to  an  unworthy  man. 

But  there  is  none  more  famous  than  St.  Ambrose 
for  his  remarkable  freedom  in  this  matter  with  the 
greatest  of  princes,  whether  in  admonishing  them, 
or  in  denying  them  the  communion  upon  the  com- 
mission of  some  great  offences.  Paulinus,  the  writer 
of  his  Life,  says,  he  separated  Maximus  from  the 
communion,^'  admonishing  him  to  repent  for  shed- 


^*  Chrys.  de  Babyla.  sive  cont.  Gentiles,  t.  1.  p.  747. 

^  Ibid.  p.  749. 

'*  Chrys.  Horn.  82.  sive  83.  in  Mat.  p.  705.  Kav  (rrpa- 
Tjjyos  xis  rj,  Kav  '\)Trap\oi,  Kav  auTos,  6  to  Staoi^ixa  irepi- 
Ktl/itvof,  Ava^iwi   01   Trpocn-iri,  KwXvaov,   /xtiX^ova   iKtipou 


"  Paulin.  Vit.  Ambros.  Ipsura  Maximum  a  cnmmunionis 
consortio  segregavit,  admonens,  ut  eft'usi  sanguinis  Domini 
sui  ageret  poeuitentiam,  si  sibi  apud  Deiim  velit  esse  con- 
sultum. 


906 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


ding  the  blood  of  Gratian  his  lord,  if  ever  he  hoped 
to  find  mercy  at  the  hands  of  God.  So  when  Valen- 
tinian  was  solicited  by  Symmachus,  the  heathen 
governor  of  Rome,  to  restore  the  Gentile  rites,  and 
suffer  the  altar  of  Victory  to  be  repaired  in  the 
capitol;  St.  Ambrose  wrote  to  him,  and  told  him, 
among  many  other  arguments,  That  if  he  thus 
gratified  the  heathen  in  restoring  idolatry,  the  bi- 
shops^* could  not  bear  or  dissemble  it  with  a  patient 
mind.  He  might,  if  he  pleased,  come  to  church, 
but  he  would  either  find  no  priest  there,  or  else 
only  one  to  resist  him,  and  deny  him  communion. 
And  what  will  you  answer,  says  he,  to  the  priest, 
when  he  tells  you.  The  church  desires  not  your  ob- 
lations, or  gifts,  because  you  have  adorned  the 
temples  of  the  Gentiles  with  your  gifts  ?  The  altar 
of  Christ  refuses  your  gifts,  because  you  have  erect- 
ed an  altar  to  the  idol  gods. 

But  the  most  remarkable  instance  of  his  freedom 
was  showed  in  his  treatment  of  Theodosius  the 
Great,  after  he  had  inhumanly  put  to  death  seven 
thousand  men  at  Thessalonica,  without  distinguish- 
ing the  innocent  from  the  guilty.  When  he  had 
committed  this  fact,  not  being  very  sensible  of  his 
crime,  he  came  to  Milan,  and,  according  to  cus- 
tom, was  going  to  church ;  but  St.  Ambrose  met 
him  at  the  gate,  and  accosted  him  in  this  manner, 
as  Theodoret^'  relates  the  story  :  You  seem  not  to 
understand,  sir,  the  greatness  of  the  murder  you 
have  committed.  Your  anger  not  being  yet  allayed, 
hinders  your  reason  from  considering  what  you 
have  done.  And  perhaps  the  greatness  of  your 
empire  will  not  suffer  you  to  acknowledge  your 
offence,  and  power  opposes  itself  to  reason.  But 
you  must  know,  that  our  nature  is  mortal  and  frail : 
our  original  is  dust,  whence  we  were  taken,  and  into 
which  we  must  return  again.  It  is  not  fit  you 
should  deceive  yourself  with  the  splendour  of  your 
purple,  and  forget  the  weakness  of  the  body  that  is 
covered  with  it.  Your  subjects,  sir,  are  of  the  same 
nature  with  yourself,  and  you  are  a  servant  as  well 
as  they:  for  we  have  one  common  Lord  and  King, 
the  Maker  of  this  universe.  Therefore  with  what 
eyes  will  you  look  upon  the  house  of  our  common 
Lord?  With  what  feet  will  you  tread  his  holy 
pavement  ?  Will  you  stretch  forth  those  hands 
still  dropping  with  the  blood  of  that  unjust  murder, 
and  therewith  take  the  holy  body  of  the  Lord  ? 
And  then  put  the  cup  of  that  precious  blood  to 
your  mouth,  who  have  shed  so  much  blood  by  the 
hasty  decree  of  an  angry  mind  ?  Depart,  I  beseech 
you,  and  do  not  aggravate  and  augment  your  former 
iniquity  by  the  addition  of  a  new  crime.     Refuse 


^  Ambros.  Ep.  30.  ad  Valentin.  Junior.  Certe  episcopi 
hoc  aequo  animo  pati  et  dissimulare  non  possunt.  Licebit 
tibi  ad  ecclesiain  convenire:  sed  illic  non  invenies  sacer- 
dotem,  aut  invenies  resistentem.     Quid  respondebis  sacer- 


not  those  bonds  which  the  Lord  of  all  confirms  from 
heaven  above.  It  is  but  a  small  thing  that  is  laid 
upon  you,  but  it  will  recover  you  to  perfect  health 
and  salvation.  The  emperor,  who  had  been  edu- 
cated in  the  holy  doctrine,  and  knew  what  were  the 
different  offices  of  priests  and  kings,  was  so  moved 
witli  these  words,  that  he  returned  to  his  palace 
with  groans  and  tears.  Eight  months  passed  be- 
tween this  and  the  festival  of  our  Saviour's  nativity, 
and  all  that  time  the  emperor  sat  lamenting  in  his 
own  palace,  and  shedding  rivers  of  tears.  Which 
Ruffin,  the  master  of  the  palace,  who,  for  his  fa- 
miliarity with  the  emperor,  could  take  a  great 
freedom  with  him,  observing,  he  came  to  him,  and 
desired  to  know  the  reason  of  his  tears.  To  whom 
the  emperor  replied.  You  make  a  jest  of  the  thing, 
Ruffin  ;  for  you  are  not  touched  with  the  sense  of 
my  misfortunes :  but  I  mourn  and  lament  in  con- 
sideration of  my  calamity,  that  whilst  the  temple  of 
God  is  open  to  the  very  slaves  and  beggars,  and 
they  can  go  in  freely,  and  supplicate  their  Lord,  it 
is  inaccessible  to  me ;  and  besides  all  this,  heaven  is 
shut  against  me ;  for  I  remember  the  words  of  our 
Lord,  which  plainly  say,  "  Whomsoever  ye  shall 
bind  on  earth,  he  shall  be  bound  in  heaven."  Then 
Ruffin  said,  I  will  go  therefore  to  the  bishop,  if  you 
please,  and  entreat  him  to  loose  your  bonds.  The 
emperor  replied.  He  will  not  be  persuaded.  For  I 
know  the  justice  of  the  sentence  which  St.  Ambrose 
has  given,  and  he  will  not,  out  of  any  reverence  to 
the  imperial  power,  transgress  the  Divine  law. 
But  Ruffin  insisted,  and  with  many  words  pro- 
mising to  appease  Ambrose  towards  him ;  he  bid 
him  go  quickly,  and  he  himself  followed  a  little 
after,  relying  upon  the  promises  of  Ruffui.  But 
St.  Ambrose  no  sooner  saw  Ruffin,  but  he  said  to 
him,  Ruffin,  thou  art  a  very  shameless  man.  For 
thou  wast  the  evil  counsellor  of  so  great  a  slaughter, 
and  now  thou  hardenest  thy  forehead,  and  hast  cast 
away  shame,  neither  blushing  nor  trembling  for 
so  great  a  ravagement  made  of  the  image  of  God. 
Ruffin  still  went  on  with  his  supplication,  and  told 
him  the  emperor  himself  was  a  coming.  At  which 
Ambrose,  kindled  with  a  Divine  fervour,  said,  I 
tell  thee  beforehand,  Ruffin,  I  will  not  admit  him 
within  the  Divine  gates :  but  and  if  he  will  turn 
his  empire  into  tyranny,  and  slay  me  also,  I  shall 
with  great  pleasure  take  my  death.  Ruffin,  hear- 
ing this,  sent  one  immediately  to  the  emperor,  to 
certify  him  of  the  bishop's  resolution,  and  to  de- 
sire him  to  stay  in  the  palace :  but  the  emperor, 
being  on  his  way  in  the  middle  of  the  forum  when 
he  received  the  message,  said,  I  will  go  and  bear 


doti  dicenti  tibi;   munera  tua  non   quacrit  ecclesia,  quia 
templa  Gentilium  inuneribus  adornasti.     Ara  Christi  dona 
tua  respuit,  quoniam  aram  simulaciis  fecisti. 
39  Theod.  lib.  5.  cap.  18. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


907 


his  just  reproofs.  When  he  came  to  the  holy  boun- 
daries, he  would  not  enter  into  the  church,  but 
going  to  the  bishop,  as  he  sat  in  the  saluting-house, 
he  begged  of  him  to  absolve  him  from  his  bonds. 
But  Ambrose  told  him,  This  his  coming  was  tyran- 
nical ;  and  that  he  now  began  to  rage  against  God, 
and  trample  upon  the  Divine  laws.  The  emperor 
said,  By  no  means :  I  do  not  offer  myself  against 
the  prescript  of  the  laws,  I  do  not  desire  to  enter 
tile  church  in  an  unlawful  manner;  but  I  entreat 
you  to  absolve  me  from  my  bonds,  and  to  remember 
the  clemency  of  our  common  Lord,  and  not  shut 
the  gate  against  me,  which  the  Lord  hath  opened 
to  all  those  that  turn  to  him  with  repentance. 
AVhat  repentance,  then  said  the  bishop,  have  you 
showed  since  the  commission  of  so  great  a  wicked- 
ness ?  With  what  medicine  have  you  cured  your 
grievous  wounds?  The  emperor  replied.  It  belongs 
to  your  office  to  prepare  the  medicine,  and  cure  those 
wounds,  and  my  part  is  to  use  what  you  prescribe. 
Then  said  Ambrose,  Forasmuch  as  you  have  suffered 
anger  and  fury,  and  not  reason,  to  sit  in  judgment 
and  give  sentence  in  matters  before  ;  now  make  a 
law  which  may  render  all  judgment  given  in  anger 
null  and  void :  when  any  sentence  of  death  or  con- 
fiscation is  pronounced,  let  there  be  thirty  days' 
time  between  that  and  the  execution,  to  wait  for  the 
judgment  of  reason.  When  this  term  is  expired, 
let  the  scribes  again  present  the  sentence  you  have 
given  before  you,  and  then  reason  without  anger 
will  be  able  to  examine  the  sentence  by  her  own 
judgment,  and  discern  whether  it  be  just  or  unjust. 
If  it  be  unjust,  cancel  and  reverse  it;  if  just,  cor- 
roborate and  confirm  it :  and  this  number  of  days 
will  be  no  prejudice  to  any  righteous  sentence.  The 
emperor  approved  of  the  proposal,  and  immediately 
ordered  such  a  law  to  be  written,  and  confirmed  it 
with  his  own  hand.  Then  St.  Ambrose  absolved 
him  from  his  bonds,  and  the  emperor  took  courage 
to  enter  into  the  church :  but  he  would  neither 
stand  nor  kneel,  while  he  made  supplication  to  the 
Lord,  but  fell  upon  his  face  to  the  earth,  using  those 
words  of  David,  "  My  soul  cleaveth  to  the  gi-ound, 
quicken  thou  me  according  to  thy  word ;"  and  tear- 
ing his  hair,  and  beating  his  forehead,  and  water- 
ing the  pavement  with  drops  of  tears,  with  these 
indications  of  sorrow  he  prayed  for  pardon.  And 
so,  when  the  time  of  the  oblation  came,  he  was  ad- 
mitted again  to  make  his  offering  at  the  holy  table. 
I  have  related  this  matter  at  full  length  in  Theo- 
doret's  words,  because,  as  he  there  observes,  it  is 
such  an  illustrious  instance  of  the  virtue  both  of 


the  bishop  and  the  emperor,  showing  the  freedom 
and  flaming  fervour  of  the  one,  and  a  great  conde- 
scension, obedience,  and  purity  of  faith  in  the  other. 
Theodoret  adds.  That  when  the  emperor  was  re- 
turned to  Constantinople,  he  was  pleased  to  say.  He 
had  now  learned  the  difference  between  an  emperor 
and  a  bishop  ;  he  had  now  at  last  found  a  guide  to 
show  him  what  was  truth :  for  Ambrose  alone  was 
worthy  the  name  of  a  bishop.  So  useful  an  im- 
pression, says  our  author,  docs  a  reproof  or  admoni- 
tion make,  when  given  by  a  man  of  shining  virtue. 
After  this  it  is  needless  to  relate  any  later  in- 
stances of  this  kind  of  discipline  exercised  upon 
princes  :  but  it  may  be  proper  to  remind  the  reader 
here  again  of  that  necessary  distinction  between  the 
greater  and  lesser  excommunication,  the  former  of 
which  separates  a  criminal  from  all  manner  of  so- 
ciety watli  the  faithful,  the  other  only  from  com- 
munion and  society  in  holy  things  in  the  church  ; 
and  to  observe,  with  many  learned  men,  that  these 
excommunications  of  princes  now  mentioned,  never 
went  further  than  to  a  prudent  admonition,  and 
suspension  of  them  from  the  sacrament  and  the 
holy  offices  of  the  church.  St.  Ambrose,  says 
Bishop  Buckeridge,^"  in  answer  to  Bellarmine,  did 
plainly  prohibit  Theodosius  from  entering  the 
church,  and  partaking  of  the  sacraments ;  but  he 
neither  delivered  him  to  Satan,  nor  reduced  him 
into  the  number  of  publicans  or  pagans,  nor  separ- 
ated him  from  all  society  and  communion  with  the 
faithful.  If  Bellarmine  spake  properly  of  the  greater 
excommunication,  the  proof  of  a  doubtful  matter 
lies  upon  him ;  if  only  of  the  lesser  excomminiica- 
tion,  or  suspension,  which  forbids  men  entrance 
into  the  church,  and  communion  in  the  sacraments, 
we  do  not  deny  but  that  Theodosius  was  so  excom- 
municated by  St.  Ambrose.  For  St.  Ambrose^'  told 
him,  He  durst  not  offer  the  sacrifice,  if  he  was  pre- 
sent. He  thought  he  saw  him  in  a  vision  come  to 
the  church,  and  then  he  durst  not  celebrate  because 
of  his  presence.  He  could  not  accept  his  oblation, 
till  he  had  power  to  offer,  and  till  his  offering  would 
be  acceptable  to  God.  He  suspended  him  therefore 
from  the  sacrament,  but  did  not  lay  upon  him  the 
anathema,  or  greater  excommunication.  Bishop 
Taylor"*-  takes  excommunication  in  this  sense,  when 
he  says,  "  If  we  consult  the  doctrine  and  practices 
of  the  fathers  in  the  primitive  and  ancient  churches, 
we  shall  find  that  they  never  durst  think  of  excom- 
municating kings.  The  first  supreme  prince  that 
ever  was  excommunicated  by  a  bishop,  was  Henry 
the  emperor,  by  Pope  Hildebrand."  He  adds,  "  That 


*"  Joan.  RofFens.  de  Potest.  Papa:  Temporali.  lib.  2.  cap. 
39.  p.  927.  In  his  aperte  prohibet  Ambrosius  Theodosium 
ab  ingressu  ecclesiac  et  communione  sacramentorum,  sed 
nee  Satanaj  tradit,  nee  in  numerum  publicanorum  et  ethni- 
corum  redigit,  nee  coetu  et  communione  fidelium  separat, 
&c.     See  Dr.  Barrow  of  the  Pope's  Supremacy,  p.  12. 


^'  Ambros.  Ep.  28.  ad  Theodos.  OfTerre  non  audeo  sacri- 
ficiiim,  si  volueris  assistere. — Venisse  visus  es  ad  ecclesiani, 
sed  mihi  sacrificium  offerre  non  licuit. — Tunc  offeres,  cum 
sacriticandi  acceperis  facultatem,  quando  hostia  tua  accepta 
sit  Deo. 

*-  Taylor,  Duct.  Dubitant.  lib.  3.  cap.  4.  p.  601. 


908 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


there  is  one  portion  of  excommunication  which  is 
a  denying  to  administer  the  holy  communion  to 
princes  of  a  scandalous  and  evil  life ;  and  concern- 
ing this  there  is  no  question  but  the  bishop  not  only 
may,  but  in  some  cases  must  do  it.  Christ  says, 
'  Give  not  that  which  is  holy  unto  dogs,  and  cast 
not  pearls  before  swine.'  Whatsoever  is  in  the  ec- 
clesiastical hand  by  Divine  right,  is  as  applicable  to 
him  that  sits  upon  the  throne,  as  to  him  that  sits 
upon  the  dunghill."  But  then  he  says  one  thing, 
which,  as  I  conceive,  contradicts  this :  viz.  "  That 
this  refusing  must  be  only  by  admonition  and  cau- 
tion, by  fears  and  denunciations  evangelical,  by  tell- 
ing him  his  unfitness  to  communicate,  and  his  dan- 
ger if  he  do:  but  if  after  this  separation"  by  way 
of  sentence  and  proper  ministry,  the  prince  will  be 
communicated,  the  bishop  has  nothing  else  to  do, 
but  to  pray  and  weep,  and  willingly  to  minister." 
This  not  only  contradicts  what  he  just  says  before, 
that  a  bishop  is  obliged  in  duty  to  deny  to  admin- 
ister the  communion  to  princes  of  a  scandalous  and 
evil  life,  but  is  directly  contrary  to  the  doctrine  and 
practice  of  St.  Chrysostom  and  St.  Ambrose,  who 
profess  they  would  rather  die  than  give  the  commu- 
nion to  a  prince  that  was  utterly  incapable  and 
unworthy  of  it. 

„  ,  .  Yet  as  to  what  concerns  the  greater 

Sect.  6.  o 

g/eatrr'excommuni^  Gxcommunication,  it  is  certain  that  in 
for'the"gTOd°of°the  somc  cascs  it  was  forborne,  not  only 
with  relation  to  princes,  but  the  peo- 
ple also.  For  prudence  directed  them  to  do  every 
thing  for  the  good  of  the  church,  and  to  use  this 
severe  weapon  only  to  edification,  and  not  to  de- 
struction. And,  therefore,  when  it  was  apparent, 
or  but  highly  probable,  that  the  intemperate  and 
indiscreet  use  of  it  might  do  more  harm  than  good 
to  the  church,  there  both  reason  and  charity  di- 
rected them  to  wave  the  use  of  it,  for  fear  of  root- 
ing up  the  wheat  with  the  tares  before  the  proper 
time  of  judgment.  As  to  princes.  Dr.  Barrow,  in 
a  few  words,  which  contain  a  great  deal  of  ancient 
history,  has  further  observed,"  "  That  though  there 
were  many  sovereign  princes  in  the  primitive  church, 
who  were  heretics  and  enemies  to  true  religion,  yet 
no  ancient  pope  seems  to  have  been  of  opinion  that 
they  might  excommunicate  them.  For,  if  they 
might,  why  did  not  Pope  Julius,  or  Pope  Liberius, 
excommunicate  Constantius,  the  great  favourer  of 
the  Arians?  How  did  Juhan  himself  escape  the 
censure  of  Liberius  ?    Why  did  not  Damasus  thun- 


der against  Valens,  that  fierce  persecutor  of  the  ca- 
tholics ?  Why  did  not  Damasus  censure  the  empress 
Justina,  the  patroness  of  Arianism?  Why  did  not 
Siricius  censure  Theodosius  for  that  bloody  fact, 
for  which  St.  Ambrose  denied  him  the  communion  ? 
How  was  it  that  Pope  Leo  (that  stout  and  high 
pope)  had  not  the  heart  to  correct  Theodosius  junior 
in  his  way,  who  was  the  supporter  of  his  adversary 
Dioscorus,  and  the  obstinate  protector  of  the  second 
Ephesine  council,  which  that  pope  so  much  detest- 
ed ?  Why  did  not  that  pope  rather  compel  that 
emperor  by  censures,  than  supplicate  him  by  tears  ? 
How  did  so  many  popes  connive  at  Theodoric,  and 
other  princes,  professing  Arianism  at  their  door? 
Why  did  not  Simplicius,  or  Felix,  thus  punish  the 
emperor  Zeno,  the  supplanter  of  the  council  of 
Chalcedon,  for  which  they  had  so  much  zeal  ?  Why 
did  neither  Felix,  nor  Gelasius,  nor  Symmachus, 
nor  Hormisdas,  excommunicate  the  emperor  Anas- 
tasius,  (yea,  did  not  so  much.  Pope  Gelasius  says, 
as  touch  his  name,)  for  countenancing  the  Oriental 
bishops  in  their  schism  and  refractory  non-com- 
pliance with  the  papal  authority  ?  Those  popes  did, 
indeed,  clash  with  their  emperor,  but  they  expressly 
deny  that  they  did  condemn  him,  with  others  whom 
he  did  favour.  We,  says  Pope  Symmachus,  did  not 
excommunicate  you,  O  emperor,"  but  Acacius.  If 
you  mingle  yourself,  you  are  not  excommunicated 
by  us,  but  by  yourself.  And,  says  Gelasius,'"'  if  the 
emperor  is  pleased  to  join  himself  with  those  that 
are  condemned,  that  cannot  be  imputed  to  us. 
Wherefore  Baronius  doth  ill,"  in  affirming  Pope 
Symmachus  to  have  anathematized  Anastasius ; 
whereas  that  pope  plainly  denied  it  even  in  those 
words  which  are  cited  to  prove  it,  being  rightly  read : 
for  they  are  corruptly**  written  in  Baronius  and 
Binius;  ego  (which  hath  no  sense,  or  one  contradic- 
tory to  his  former  assertion)  being  put  for  nega, 
which  is  good  sense,  and  agreeable  to  what  he  and 
the  other  popes  do  affirm  in  relation  to  that  mat- 
ter," that  they  did  not  pretend  to  anathematize 
the  emperor  with  other  heretics  whom  they  so 
condemned. 

Indeed  there  were  three  reasons  why  the  ancients 
forbare  to  anathematize  sovereign  princes.  One 
was  that  which  has  just  now  been  mentioned,  be- 
cause they  thought  they  had  no  power  to  excom- 
municate them  in  such  manner,  but  only  to  deny 
them  the  participation  of  the  eucharist.  Another 
reason  was,  that  heretical  princes  did  in  eifect  ex- 


"  Taylor,  Duct.  Dubitant.  lib.  3.  cap.  4.  p.  G05.  See  also 
his  Worthy  Communicant,  chap.  5.  sect.  6.  p.  487. 

^  Barrow  of  the  Pope's  Supremacy,  p.  12. 

*^  Symmach.  Ep.  6.  Nos  non  to  e.xcommunicavimus,  sed 
Acacium. — Si  te  misces,  non  a  nobis,  sed  a  teipso  excom- 
municatus  es. 

^*  Gelas.  Ep.  4.  Si  isti  placet  se  miscere  damnatis,  nobis 
non  potest  imputari. 


^'  Baron,  an.  503.  n.  17. 

■"'  Symmach.  Ep.  7.  Dicis  qund,  mecum  conspirante 
senatu,  excommunicaverim  te.  Ista  quidem  ego,  sed  ratio- 
nabiliter  factum  a  decessoribus  meis  sine  dubio  subsequor. 
So  Baronius  and  Binius  read  it,  Ista  quidem  ego;  but  the 
true  reading  is,  Ista  quidem  nego,  I  deny  that  I  excommu- 
nicated you.  And  yet  Labbe  retains  that  corrupt  reading 
without  any  remark  upon  it.    Cone.  t.  4.  p.  Yl'i^. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH, 


909 


communicate  themselves,  by  deserting  the  church, 
and  joining  with  heretics,  and  therefore  the  church 
had  no  reason  to  pronounce  anathema  against  them. 
A  third  reason  was,  that  the  doing  so  might  have 
done  more  harm  than  good  to  the  church,  by  irri- 
tating and  exasperating  the  minds  of  heretical 
princes  to  persecute  the  church  with  greater  malice, 
and  thereby  many  weak  members  of  the  church 
might  have  been  scandalized  and  offended.  There- 
fore Bishop  Buckeridge^"  says,  In  such  cases,  where 
princes  are  fierce  and  cruel,  and  impatient  of  re- 
proof and  indignity,  it  were  perhaps  better  to 
abstain  from  the  severity  of  the  lesser  excommuni- 
cation as  well  as  the  greater,  rather  than  for  a 
bishop  to  provoke  an  armed  fury  to  turn  itself  both 
upon  him  and  the  church ;  it  were  better  to  keep 
the  sword  in  the  sheath,  than  to  unsheath  it  to  the 
detriment  and  destruction  of  the  church  and  religion. 
Therefore,  admitting  that  of  right  kings  and  empe- 
rors might  be  excommunicated,  yet  the  expediency 
of  the  thing  is  a  very  different  question,  and  remains 
yet  not  perfectly  resolved,  whether  it  be  for  the 
advantage  of  the  church  to  use  such  severity  against 
her  patrons,  her  defenders,  and  her  advocates,  that 
is,  emperors  and  kings. 

And  this  consideration  of  expediency  made  St. 
Austin  and  others  determine,  not  only  in  the  case 
of  kings,  but  the  people  also.  That  when  the  whole 
multitude  were  involved  in  the  same  crime,  either 
by  actual  commission,  or  abetting,  or  applauding 
the  practice  of  it,  that  then  the  severity  of  excom- 
munication, especially  in  the  highest  degree,  could 
not  be  used  toward  them  with  any  sort  of  prudence, 
for  fear  it  should  have  either  no  effect,  or  a  very 
bad  one.  When  a  single  criminal  is  separated  by 
discipline  from  the  society  of  the  church,  the  being 
avoided  by  the  rest  is  a  proper  way  to  bring  him 
to  shame ;  but  when  the  whole  society,  or  a  con- 
siderable part  of  it,  is  involved  in  a  common  crime, 
there  is  no  possibility  of  putting  such  a  multitude 
of  criminals  out  of  countenance,  because  they  will 
encourage  and  bear  up  one  another  ;  and  therefore 
in  that  case  to  exercise  severity  of  discipline  upon 
them,  is  only  to  make  it  despised  by  them,  and  to 
throw  the  church  into  schisms  and  convulsions,  by 
the  opposition  of  the  turbulent  and  factious,  and  to 
scandalize  the  weak  and  injudicious,  who  will  be 
led  away  by  the  powerful  side,  and  perish  by  root- 
ing out  the  tares  before  the  time.  St.  Austin  argues 
this  matter  frequently  with  the  Donatists,  who  were 
for  having  a  church  without  spot  and  wrinkle  upon 


earth,  and  for  rootmg  out  the  tares  wherever  they 
found  them,  whatever  consequences  might  attend 
it.  Though  he  observes  they  did  not  keep  to  their 
own  rule;  for  they  tolerated  one  Optatus  Gildo- 
nianus,  a  most  infamous  man,  noted  for  his  villanies 
over  all  Africa,  and  did  not  excommunicate  him, 
for  fear  he  should  have  carried  off  a  multitude  with 
him,  and  have  broken  their  communion  by  new 
schisms  and  subdivisions  among  themselves.  St. 
Austin*"  does  not  blame  them  for  this,  but  only  ob- 
jects it  to  them  as  an  argument  ad  hommem,  to  show 
them  that  they  ought  not  to  blame  the  church  for 
doing  that  in  necessity,  which  they  themselves  were 
forced  to  do  upon  the  like  occasion.  As  to  the 
practice  of  the  church,  he  freely  owns  she  was 
forced  many  times  to  tolerate  the  tares  among  the 
wheat,  when  they  were  grown  numerous,  and  it 
was  dangerous  to  eradicate  them  by  the  rough 
means  of  severe  discipline,  for  fear  of  overturning 
the  church,  and  destroying  its  unity  and  peace 
by  dangerous  schisms,  and  scandalizing  more  weak 
souls  that  way  than  they  could  hope  to  gain  by  the 
other.  It  was  so  in  Cyprian's  time,  he  says,  and 
it  was  so  in  his  own.  He  often  repeats  and  urges 
upon  this  occasion  that  famous  passage  of  Cyprian 
in  his  book  De  Lapsis,  where,  speaking  of  the 
reasons  of  God's  visiting  the  church  with  that 
terrible  persecution,  he  plainly  intimates,  that  such 
numbers,  both  of  the  clergy  and  laity,  had  cor- 
rupted their  morals,  that  good  men  could  do  no- 
thing but  mourn,  and  keep  themselves  as  well  as 
they  could  from  partaking  in  their  sins :  but  that 
could  not  then  be  done  by  the  exercise  of  disci- 
pline, by  reason  of  the  numbers  of  all  orders  that 
were  to  be  subjects  of  it ;  many  of  those  who 
were  to  exercise  it,  being  themselves  the  most  ob- 
noxious ;  and  it  was  not  to  be  expected  that  they 
should  be  very  forward  to  put  it  in  execution. 
So  that  the  disease  being  grown  too  obstinate  and 
strong  to  be  cured  this  way,  there  remained  no  other 
remedy  but  the  severity  of  a  Divine  judgment,  to 
rectify  by  an  extraordinary  scourge,  what  human 
power  could  not  do  in  the  ordinary  way  at  such  a 
juncture.  The  Lord,  says  Cyprian,^'  was  therefore 
minded  himself  to  prove  his  family,  and  because  a 
long  peace  had  corrupted  the  discipline  that  was 
given  us  fi-om  heaven,  the  Divine  judgment  stepped 
in  to  raise  up  that  faith  which  was  fallen  and 
almost  laid  asleep.  All  men's  minds  were  set  upon 
augmenting  their  estates  ;  and  forgetting  what  the 
first  Christians  did  in  the  times  of  the  apostles,  and 


■"  Joan.  Roffens.  de  Potestate  Papac  in  Temporalibus, 
lib.  2.  cap.  39.  p.  931. 

*"  Aug.  Ep.  1G4.  ad  Emeritum  Donatistam.  Non  ergo 
reprehendimus,  si  eo  tempore,  ne  miiltos  sccum  excommu- 
nicatus  traheret,  et  communionem  vestram  schismatis  furore 
praecideret,  eum  excomnmnicare  noluistis.  Vid.  Aug.  Ep. 
170.  ad  Severinum.  Ep.  171.  ad  Donatistas.  Cont.  Epist. 


Parmenian.  lib.  2.  cap.  2.  Optatum  Gildonianum  decen- 
nalem  totius  Africae  gemitum,  tanquam  saccrdotcm  atque 
coUcgam  honorantes  in  communione  tenucrunt,  &c. 

*'  Cypr.  de  Lapsis,  p.  123.  Dominus  probari  familiam 
suam  voluit,  et  quia  traditum  nobis  divinitus  disciplinam 
pax  longa  c'lrrupcrat,  jacentem  fidem,  et  pene  dixerim  dor- 
mientem  censura  crelestis  erexit,  &c. 


910 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


what  they  ought  always  to  do,  they  by  an  insatiable 
ardour  of  covetousness  only  studied  to  increase  their 
fortunes.  There  was  no  true  religion  or  devotion 
in  the  priests,  no  sincere  faith  in  the  ministers,  no 
mercy  in  their  works,  no  discipHne  in  their  morals. 
Effeminacy  and  fraud  were  reigning  vices  both  in 
men  and  women.  Tliey  made  no  scruple  to  marry 
with  infidels,  and  prostitute  the  members  of  Christ 
to  the  heathen.  They  were  equally  given  both  to 
profane  swearing  and  perjury,  to  contemn  their 
governors  with  swelHng  pride,  to  curse  themselves 
with  venomous  tongues,  and  wath  inveterate  hatred 
and  animosities  to  quarrel  with  one  another.  Many 
bishops,  who  ought  to  have  been  both  monitors  and 
examples  to  the  rest,  forsook  their  Divine  calling, 
to  take  upon  them  the  management  of  secular  af- 
fairs; and  leaving  their  sees,  and  deserting  their 
people,  they  rambled  about  other  provinces,  seeking 
for  such  business  as  would  bring  them  in  gain  and 
advantage.  In  the  mean  time,  they  suffered  the 
poor  of  the  church  to  starve,  whilst  they  themselves 
minded  nothing  but  heaping  up  riches,  and  getting 
of  estates  by  fraud  and  violence,  by  usury  and  ex- 
tortion. What  did  we  not  deserve  to  suffer  for  such 
sins  as  these  ?  Our  crimes  required  that,  for  the 
correction  of  our  manners  and  the  trial  of  our  faith, 
God  should  bring  us  to  severer  remedies. 

Cyprian  here  plainly  intimates,  that  in  such  a 
corrupt  state  of  affairs  the  discipline  of  the  church 
could  not  be  maintained,  or  be  rightly  put  in  execu- 
tion. He  was  forced  to  endure  these  colleagues  of 
his,  who  were  covetous,  rapacious,  extortioners, 
usurers,  deserters,  fraudulent,  and  cruel.  It  was 
impossible  to  exercise  church  censures  ■ndth  any 
good  effect,  when  there  were  such  multitudes  both 
of  priests  and  people  ready  to  oppose  them,  and 
distract  the  church  into  a  thousand  schisms,  rather 
than  suffer  themselves  to  be  curbed  or  reformed  that 
way  :  and  therefore  when  no  other  practicable 
method  was  left,  the  Divine  censure  was  necessary, 
as  the  last  and  only  remedy. 

And  this  is  what  St.  Austin  so  often  tells  the 
Donatists,  that  the  church  followed  the  example  of 
Cyprian  in  this  matter.  When  we  are  not  permit- 
ted to  excommunicate  offenders*^  for  the  sake  of 
the  peace  and  tranquillity  of  the  church,  we  do  not 
therefore  neglect  the  church,  but  only  tolerate  what 
we  would  not,  to  obtain  what  we  would  have,  using 
the  caution  of  our  Lord's  command,  lest,  whilst  we 
gather  out  the  tares  before  the  time,  we  should  with 


them  root  up  the  wheat  also :  following  also  the 
example  and  precept  of  St.  Cyprian,  who  endured, 
with  a  view  and  regard  to  peace,  many  of  his  col- 
leagues, who  were  usurers,  defrauders,  rapacious, 
and  yet  he  was  not  infected  with  their  contagion. 
So  he  says  again,  The  evil  are  sometimes  to  be  en- 
dured for  the  sake  of  the  good;  as  the  prophets 
tolerated  those  against  whom  they  spake  so  many 
hard  things,  and  did  not  forsake  the  communion  of 
the  sacraments  used  by  that  people  because  of 
them ;  as  our  Lord  himself  tolerated  wicked  Judas 
to  the  last,  and  permitted  him  to  communicate  in 
the  same  holy  supper  with  his  innocent  disciples ; 
as  the  apostles  tolerated  those  who  preached  Christ 
out  of  envy,  which  is  the  devil's  sin ;  and  as  Cy- 
prian tolerated  the  covetousness  of  his  fellow  bi- 
shops, which  he  himself,  according  to  the  apostle, 
styles  idolatry.  St.  Austin  frequently  urges  this 
example  of  Cyprian"  in  other  places.  And  he 
argues  further  for  the  necessity  of  the  practice,  from 
the  reason  and  nature  of  the  thing  itself,  and  from 
the  precepts  of  the  gospel.  In  his  book  against 
Parmenian,  he  shows  at  large  when  excommunica- 
tion or  anathematizing  is  to  be  used,  and  when  not. 
It  may  be  used,  when  there  is  no  danger  of  rooting 
up  the  wheat  together  with  the  tares : "  that  is, 
when  a  man's  crime  is  so  notorious  to  all,  and  ap- 
pears so  execrable  to  all,  that  he  has  no  defenders, 
or  not  so  many  or  so  powerful  as  to  make  a  schism, 
then  the  severity  of  discipline  ought  not  to  sleep ; 
for  then  it  will  be  effectual  to  correct  his  wicked- 
ness, when  all  charitably  and  unanimously  join  to 
confirm  the  sentence.  And  then  it  is  that  there  is 
no  danger  hereby  of  prejudicing  peace  and  unity, 
or  of  doing  harm  to  the  wheat,  when  the  whole 
multitude  or  congregation  of  the  church  is  free 
from  the  crime  that  is  anathematized.  For  then 
they  will  be  ready  to  assist  the  bishop  in  his  cor- 
rection, and  not  the  criminal  in  his  resistance. 
Then  they  will  abstain  from  his  society  for  his 
good,  and  no  one  will  so  much  as  eat  with  him,  not 
out  of  enmity,  but  for  brotherly  coercion.  Then  he 
also  will  be  smitten  with  fear,  and  cured  by  shame, 
when  he  sees  himself  anathematized  by  the  whole 
church,  and  can  find  no  company  to  encourage  him 
to  rejoice  in  his  crime,  or  help  him  to  insult  the 
virtuous.  And  therefore,  he  says,  the  apostle  re- 
quires, that  such  a  one's  punishment  or  censure 
should  be  inflicted  of  many.  For  a  censure  is  of 
no  advantage,  except  when  such  a  one  is  corrected. 


*'  Aug.  lib.  ad  Donatistas  post  Collationem,  cap.  20.  Ubi 
hoc  facere  gratia  pacis  et  tranquillitatis  ecclesioB  non  per- 
mittimvir,  non  tamen  ideo  ecclesiam  negligimus,  sed  tolera- 
mus  quae  nolumus,  ut  perveniamus  quo  volumus,  utentes 
cautela  praecepti  Dominici,  ne  cum  voluerimus  ante  tempus 
coUigere  zizania,  simul  eradicemus  et  triticum :  utentes 
etiam  et  exemplo  et  proecepto  beati  Cypriani,  qui  collegas 
suos  fceneratorcs,   fraudatores,  raptores,  pacis  contempla- 


tione  pertulit  tales,  nee  eorum  contagione  factus  est  talis. 

^'  Aug.  Ep.  48.  ad  Vincent,  p.  66.  Non  propter  males 
boni  deserendi,  sed  propter  bonos  mali  tolerandi  sunt,  &c. 
Sicut  toleravit  Cyprianus  collegarum  avaritiam,  quam  se- 
cundum apostolum  appellat  idololatriam.  See  to  the  same 
purpose,  Aug.  de  Baptismo,  lib.  4.  cap.  8.  Cont.  Epist. 
Parmen.  lib.  3.  cap.  2. 

^^  Aug.  cont.  Epist.  Parmen.  lib.  3.  cap.  2.  p.  26. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


911 


as  has  not  a  multitude"  on  his  side  to  uphold  him. 
But  when  the  same  disease  has  seized  a  multitude, 
good  men  in  that  case  can  do  nothing  further  but 
grieve  and  mourn.  And  therefore  the  same  apostle, 
when  he  found  a  multitude  among  the  Corinthians, 
who  were  defiled  with  uncleanness  and  lascivious- 
ness  and  fornication,  writing  to  them  in  his  Second 
Epistle,  he  does  not  command  them,  "  with  such 
not  to  eat,"  as  he  had  done  before  :  for  they  were 
many,  and  he  could  not  now  say,  "  If  any  brother  be 
a  notorious  fornicator,  or  an  idolater,  or  covetous, 
or  the  like,  with  such  an  one  no  not  to  eat : "  but  he 
says,  "  Lest,  when  I  come  again,  my  God  will  hum- 
ble me  among  you,  and  I  shall  bewail  many  who 
have  sinned,  and  have  not  repented  of  the  unclean- 
ness and  lasciviousncss  and  fornication  which  they 
have  committed : "  threatening  them  by  his  be- 
wailing, that  they  should  be  punished  by  the  Divine 
scourge,  rather  than  that  punishment  which  con- 
sisted in  men's  withdrawing  from  their  society. 
His  mourning  would  obtain  of  the  Lord  a  scourge 
to  correct  them,  who  could  not  now  by  reason  of 
their  multitude  be  corrected  in  such  manner,  as  that 
others  should  abstain  from  their  society,  and  make 
them  ashamed,  as  it  may  be  done  in  the  case  of  a 
single  brother,  who  is  noted  for  a  crime  from  which 
all  the  rest  are  free.  And,  indeed,  when  the  con- 
tagion of  sin  has  invaded  a  whole  multitude,  it  is 
then  necessary  for  God  to  visit  them  out  of  mercy 
with  the  severity  of  his  own  Divine  censure :  for  in 
that  case  exhortations  to  avoid  the  company  of  sin- 
ners are  not  only  vain,  but  pernicious  and  sacrile- 
gious, because  impious  and  proud,  tending  more  to 
disturb  good  men  that  are  weak,  than  to  correct  the 
stubbornness  and  animosity  of  the  evil.  And  there- 
fore he  observes  that  St.  Paul  treated  the  single  in- 
cestuous Corinthian,  and  the  multitude  that  denied 
the  resurrection,"  in  a  different  way :  he  did  not 
command  the  Corinthians  to  make  a  corporal  separa- 
tion from  them,  for  they  were  many,  not  like  that 
one,  who  had  married  his  father's  wife,  whom  he 
judged  worthy  of  a  freer  censure  and  excommunica- 
tion. There  was  one  way  to  be  taken  with  a  single 
person,  another  to  cure  and  heal  a  multitude,  lest,  if 
the  people  were  divided  from  one  another  by  parties, 


the  wheat  also  should  be  rooted  up  by  tne  mischief 
of  schism.  And  therefore  the  apostle  does  not  en- 
join those  who  believed  the  resurrection,  to  separate 
corporally  from  those  who  did  not  believe  it  in  the 
same  people,  though  he  never  ceases  to  separate 
them  spiritually,  by  frequent  admonitions  to  beware 
of  joining  in  their  impious  opinions.  He  says  fur- 
ther. When  such  evil  men  are  tolerated  in  the 
church,  good  men,  who  are  displeased  with  them, 
and  know  not  how  to  mend  them,  neither  dare"  to 
root  out  the  tares  before  the  time  of  the  harvest,  for 
fear  they  should  root  up  the  wheat  also,  do  not 
communicate  with  their  wicked  deeds,  but  with  the 
altar  of  Christ :  so  that  they  are  not  only  not  pol- 
luted by  them,  but  deserve  Divine  praise,  because 
rather  than  the  name  of  Christ  should  be  blasphemed 
by  horrible  schisms,  they  tolerate  for  the  good  of 
unity  what  they  otherwise  hate  for  the  love  of  equity. 
This  he  shows  to  be  a  thing  praiseworthy  from  va- 
rious examples  both  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ment, and  the  practice  of  our  Saviour  and  his 
apostles,  which  are  too  numerous  and  long  to  be 
here  inserted.  He  says  more  briefly  in  another 
espistle,^'*  That  the  wicked  do  not  hurt  the  good  in 
the  church,  though  they  be  notoriously  evil,  if  either 
there  be  no  power  to  cast  them  out  of  communion, 
or  some  considerations  of  preserving  peace  hinder 
the  doing  of  it.  And  again,*'  Although  there  be 
some  whom  we  cannot  correct,  and  necessity  com- 
pels us  for  the  sake  of  others  to  allow  them  to  com- 
municate in  the  Divine  sacraments,  yet  we  do  not 
communicate  with  them  in  their  sins,  which  is 
never  done  but  by  favouring  and  consenting  to 
them.  For  we  only  tolerate  them  in  the  church 
as  tares  among  the  wheat,  and  as  chaff  mingled 
\vith  the  corn  in  this  floor  of  unity,  and  as  bad  fish 
among  the  good  enclosed  in  the  nets  of  the  word 
and  sacraments,  till  the  time  of  harvest,  or  win- 
nowing, or  drawing  to  shore  comes  ;  lest  with  them 
we  should  root  up  the  wheat ;  or  by  separating 
the  corn  in  the  floor  before  the  time,  rather  ex- 
pose it  to  the  fowls  of  the  air  to  devour  it,  than 
purge  it  to  be  laid  up  in  the  garner ;  or  should 
break  the  nets  by  schisms,  and  by  over-abundant 
caution  to  cast  out  the  bad  fish,  should  open  a 


*^  Neque  enim  potest  esse  salubris  a  multis  correptio,  nisi 
cum  ille  corripitur,  qui  non  habet  sociam  multitudinem. 
Cum  vero  idem  morbus  plurimos  occupaverit,  nihil  aliud 
bonis  restat  quam  dolor  et  gemitus. 

^•^  Aug.  lib.  ad  Donatistas  post  Collationem,  cap.  21.  Non 
eis  praeccpit  corporalem  separationem  :  multi  quippe  erant, 
non  sicut  ille  unus,  qui  uxorem  patris  sui  habuit,  quern  li- 
beriore  correptioue  et  excommunicatione  jiidicat  dignum. 
Longe  aliter  iste,  aliter  vitiosa  curanda  et  sananda  est  mul- 
titude, ne  forte  si  plebs  a  plebe  separetur,  per  schismatis 
nefas  etiam  triticuni  eradicetur.  Eos  ergo  qui  jam  crede- 
bant  resurrectionem  mortuorum,  ab  his  qui  earn  ia  eodem 
populo  non  credebant,  non  corporaliter  apostolus  separat, 
sed  tamen  spiritaliter  separare  non  cessat. 

"  Aug.  Ep.  162.  ad  Episc.  Donatistas,  p.  280.     Quibus 


displicent  mali,  et  eos  emendare  non  possunt,  neque  ante 
tempus  messis  audent  zizania  eradicarc,  ne  simul  eradicent 
et  triticum,  non  factis  eorimi,  sed  altari  Christi  communi- 
cant :  ita  ut  non  solum  non  ab  eis  maculentur,  sed  etiam 
Divinis  verbis  laudari  praedicarique  mereantur,  quoniam  ne 
nomen  Christi  per  horribilia  schismata  blasphemetur,  pro 
bono  unitatis  tolerant,  quod  pro  bono  oequitatis  oderunt. 

^*  Ibid.  Ep.  164.  ad  Eraeritum.  Cognitos  malos  bonis 
non  obesse  in  ecclesia,  si  eos  a  communione  prohibendi 
aut  potestas  desit,  aut  aliqua  ratio  conservandce  pacis  im- 
pediat. 

*'  Ep.  166.  Quos  corrigere  non  valcmus,  etiamsi  neccssitas 
cogit  pro  salute  ca;terorum  ut  Dei  sacramenta  nobiscum 
communicent,  peccatis  tamen  oorum  non  communicamus, 
quod  non  tit  nisi  consentiendo  et  favendo,  &c. 


91: 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


way  of  pernicious  liberty  for  the  rest  to  return 
into  the  sea  again.  For  this  reason  our  Lord  made 
use  of  these  and  the  hke  parables  to  confirm  the 
forbearance  of  his  servants,  lest,  if  the  good  should 
think  themselves  to  blame  for  mingling  with  the 
evil,  they  should  either  destroy  the  weak  by  human 
and  hasty  dissensions,  or  themselves  become  weak 
and  perish.  He  pursues  the  same  argument  at 
large  in  his  epistle  to  Macrobius,*^"  and  his  books 
against  Gaudentius,*'  and  many  other  places :  but 
what  I  have  already  produced,  abundantly  shows 
his  sense  of  this  matter,  and  not  only  his  sense,  but 
the  concurrent  opinion  and  practice  of  the  whole 
African  church,  both  in  the  time  of  Cyprian,  and 
the  collation  of  Carthage,  to  which  he  refers.  So 
that  upon  the  whole  matter  their  opinion  appears 
plainly  to  be  this,  That  when  a  multitude  of  sinners 
in  the  church  made  it  dangerous  to  exercise  disci- 
pline upon  them,  it  was  more  expedient  to  endure 
the  bad  among  the  good,  rather  than  by  trying  to 
purge  them  out  by  the  severity  of  censures,  to  en- 
danger breaking  of  the  nets,  and  involve  the  church 
in  terrible  schisms,  to  the  scandal  of  the  weak,  and 
no  benefit  to  the  church,  whilst  together  with  the 
tares  they  rooted  up  the  wheat  also.  And  this 
practice,  in  difficult  times,  is  generally  allowed  to  be 
expedient  by  modern  writers,  among  whom  the 
learned  reader  may  consult*'-  Richerius,  Estius  and 
Lyra,  Grotius,"  and  Bishop  Taylor,"*  and  Dr. 
Whitby ,'^  and  Rivet ;  *'  for  I  know  of  none  but 
Peter  Martyr,  who  maintains  the  contrary  opinion 
against  St.  Austin."  But  I  return  to  the  ancients 
and  their  practice. 

Where,  amonor  other  prudent  cau- 
sed. 7.  '  o  J. 
The  innocent  ne-  tions  obscrvcd  iu  this  matter,  we  may 

ver  involved  among  "^ 

slastf^arLnsur^f"  Tcmark  their  wisdom  and  piety  in 
no''^'eUJ'■o"fpopishfn-  managing  this  spiritual  sword,  so  as 
it  might  aifect  offenders  only,  and  not 
involve  the  innocent  and  guiltless  in  the  same  con- 
demnation. That  which  has  been  so  common  and 
so  tyrannical  a  practice  with  the  popes  of  later  ages, 
to  lay  whole  chm-ches  and  nations  under  interdict, 
and  forbid  them  the  use  of  all  sacraments,  for  the 
faults  of  a  single  criminal,  was  so  much  unknown 
to  the  ancients,  that  St.  Austin  was  amazed,  when 
he  heard  of  a  young  rash  African  bishop,  who,  in 
his  warm  zeal,  for  the  single  offence  of  one  Classi- 
cianus,  and  that  not  evidently  proved,  had  anathe- 
matized both  him  and  his  whole  family  together. 


Complaint  of  the  thing  being  made  to  St.  Austin,  he 
thus  writes  to  the  bishop,  to  expostulate  with  him 
upon  the  fact,  in  these  terms :  Being  in  great  con- 
cern ^  of  mind,  and  my  heart  fluctuating  as  in  a 
tempest  within  me,  I  could  not  but  write  to  your 
charity,  to  desire  you  to  inform  me,  (if  you  have 
any  certain  grounds  of  reason,  or  authority  of  Scrip- 
ture for  your  practice,)  how  a  son  can  rightly  be 
anathematized  for  his  father's  sin,  or  a  wife  for  her 
husband's,  or  a  servant  for  his  master's ;  or  why  a 
child,  that  is  yet  unborn,  if  he  happens  to  be  born 
in  the  family  while  it  lies  under  anathema,  may  not 
have  the  benefit  of  the  laver  of  regeneration  in  the 
article  of  death  ?  For  this  is  not  a  corporal  punish- 
ment, with  which  we  read  some  despisers  of  God 
were  slain  with  their  whole  families,  though  the 
families  were  not  partakers  in  their  crimes.     Then 
indeed  mortal  bodies,  which  must  otherwise  shortly 
have  died,  were  slain  for  to  strike  a  terror  into  the 
living.     But  spiritual  punishment,  of  w-hich  it  is 
said,  "  Whatsoever  thou  slialt  bind  on  earth,  shall 
be  bound  in  heaven,"  this  also  binds  souls,  of  whom 
it  is  written,  "  The  soul  of  the  father  is  mine,  and 
the  soul  of  the  son  is  mine :  the  soul  that  sinneth, 
it  shall  die."    For  my  part,  I  can  give  no  just  rea- 
son for  such  anathemas,  and  therefore  I  have  never 
dared  to  use  them,  even  when  I  have  been  most 
highly  provoked  by  the  clamorous  crime  of  some, 
committed  insolently  against  the  church.     If  God 
has  revealed  it  unto  you,  I  despise  not  your  youth, 
but  shall  be  ready  to  learn,  how  we  can  give  a  just 
reason  either  to  God  or  man,  for  inflicting  spiritual 
punishments  upon  irmocent  souls  for  the  sin  of 
another,  from  whom  they  derived  no  original  sin, 
as  they  do  from  Adam,  in  whom  all  have  sinned. 
But  if  you  can  give  no  good  reason  for  it,  why  do 
you  that  out  of  an  unadvised  and  precipitate  com- 
motion of  mind,  in  defence  of  which,  if  any  man 
asks  you  a  reason,  you  have  nothing  to  answer  ? 
From  this  decent  reproof  given  to  the  headstrong 
passion  of  this  yoimg  bishop,  and  his  intemperate 
zeal  in  anathematizing  a  whole  family  for  the  crime 
of  the  master  only,  we  may  conclude  there  was  no 
such  allowed  practice  in  the  church  in  St.  Austin's 
time,  as  excommunicating  the  innocent  with  the 
guilty,  though  the  innocent  might  have  some  neai 
relation  to,  or  unavoidable  dependence  on,  the  ofr 
fending  parties :  much  less  was  it  customary  then 
to  lay  whole  bodies,  churches  or  nations,  under  in- 


«» Aug.  Ep.  255. 

6'  Cont.  Gaudent.  lib.  3.  cap.  3,  5,  9,  &c.  It.  Ep.  69.  ad 
Restitutum.  et  Brevic.  Collationis,  die  3.  cap.  8.  Vid. 
Collat.  Cartli.  die  3.  n.  '258  et  '265.  et  Aug.  de  Fide  et 
Oper.  cap.  4  et  5. 

^^  Richer,  de  Potest.  Eccles.  in  Reb.  Temporal,  lib.  3.  c. 
4.  n.  7.  p.  294.  Estius  in  2  Cor.  x.  6.  Lyra,  Gloss,  in 
Matt.  xii.  29. 

°'  Grot,  in  2  Cor.  x.  6.  Neque  enim  duris  remediis  locus 
est,  ubi  tota  ecclesia  in  morbo  cubat. 


o*  Taylor,  Duct.  lib.  3.  cap.  4.  p.  610. 

65  Whitby,  Protest.  Recnncil.  part  '2.  p.  257. 

66  Rivet.  Synops.  Pur.  Theol.  Disp.  48.  n.  30. 

s'  Pet.  Mart.  Loc.  Com.  lib.  5.  cap.  5.  n.  12.  p.  784. 

6s  Aug.  Ep.  75.  ad  Auxilium.  Non  mediocriter  aestuans 
cogitationibus  magna  cordis  tempestate  fluctuantibus,  apud 
charitatem  tuam  tacere  non  potui :  ul  si  habes  de  hac  re 
sententiam,  certis  rationibus  vel  Scripturarum  testimoniis 
exploratam,  nos  quoque  docere  digneris  :  quomodo  recte 
anathematizetur  pro  patris  peccato  filius,  &c. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


i)l3 


terdict,  and  forbid  them  the  use  of  the  sacraments, 
merely  to  curb  or  restrain  the  contumacy  of  others, 
of  which  they  were  wholly  innocent,  and  no  ways 
partakers.  Which  was  a  monstrous  and  novel  abuse 
of  discipline,  peculiar  to  the  tyrannical  times  of  the 
papacy,  and  utterly  unknown  to  former  ages. 
Baronius""  indeed  brings  a  single  instance  of  it  out 
of  the  Annals  of  France,  where  it  is  said,  Tiiat 
Pope  Agapetus,  anno  535,  threatened  King  Clota- 
rius  to  put  his  kingdom  under  interdict,  unless  he 
made  satisfaction  for  a  barbarous  and  sacrilegious 
murder  committed  bj^  him  in  the  church  upon  one 
Gualter  de  Yvetot,  who  carried  the  pope's  letters 
of  recommendation  to  him.  But  as  this  story  is 
only  told  by  modern  writers,  such  as  Du  Haillan, 
whom  Baronius  quotes,  and  Gaguinus,  Gillius,  and 
Tillius,  added  by  Spondanus,  and  has  not  the  au- 
thority of  any  ancient  writers  ;  and  has  something 
also  in  the  narration  itself  which  destroys  its  credit 
with  judicious  men;  Spondanus  owns™  there  are 
many  learned  men  who  reject  it  as  a  fable,  prevail- 
ing only  by  the  credulity  of  the  French  nation  for 
many  ages.  And  therefore  it  is  not  worthy  to  be 
mentioned  as  a  piece  of  ancient  history  in  the  case 
before  us. 

Some  date  the  original  of  interdicts  from  the  time 
of  Alexander  III.  about  the  year  1 160.  And  in- 
deed about  this  time  they  began  to  be  very  fre- 
quent. Habertus"  says,  Morinus  carries  them  a 
little  higher,  to  the  time  of  Pope  Hildebrand  or  Gre- 
gory VII.,  who  is  most  likely  to  be  the  father  of 
them,'-  for  they  are  sometimes  mentioned  in  his 
epistles.  Habertus  himself  pretends  to  make  them 
as  ancient  as  St.  Basil.  But  the  place '^  out  of 
Basil's  epistles  says  no  more,  but  that  when  a 
whole  church  make  themselves  partakers  of  an- 
other man's  sins,  they  may  be  censured  all  together. 
Which  is  very  far  from  the  indiscriminating  cen- 
sure of  an  interdict,  which  condemns  a  whole  na- 
tion, and  that  commonly  for  no  crime,  but  rather 
their  duty,  for  adhering  conscientiously  to  their 
natural  allegiance  due  to  their  lawful  sovereigns, 
when  the  pope  is  pleased  to  excommunicate  and 
depose  them  under  pretence  of  the  plenitude  of  ec- 
clesiastical power,  as  any  one  that  would  write  the 
history  of  interdicts  might  easily  demonstrate. 
Whatever  St.  Basil  meant,  it  is  certain  he  had  not 


this  in  his  thoughts :  neither  was  it  the  usual  prac- 
tice of  the  church  to  anathematize  whole  bodies  of 
men,  though  guilty,  unless  it  was  for  terror's  sake, 
as  has  been  shown  in  the  foregoing  section. 

As  to  innocent  persons,  all  care  f.^^^  g 
imaginable  was  taken,  that  the  cen-  commuiSing^  in' 
sures  of  the  church  should  not  be  ""*'"  ''"'°""- 
abused  by  any  indiscreet  application  of  them  to 
the  condemnation  of  the  guiltless ;  in  which  case 
an  unjust  sentence  was  thought  to  recoil  upon  the 
head  of  him  that  executed  it.  Thus  Firmilian  '* 
told  Pope  Stephen,  that  in  cutting  off  others  who 
did  not  deserve  it,  he  cut  off  himself.  Be  not  de- 
ceived ;  for  he  is  the  true  schismatic,  who  makes 
himself  an  apostate  from  the  communion  of  the 
ecclesiastical  unity.  For  while  you  think  you  can 
excommunicate  all  others,  you  only  excommunicate 
yourself  from  them.  In  like  maimer  Polycratcs, 
bishop  of  Ephesus,  answered  Pope  Victor,  when  he 
threatened  to  excommunicate  him  and  all  the  Asi- 
atic churches  for  not  observing  Easter  in  the  same 
manner  as  they  did  at  Rome  :  he  was  not  afraid  of 
his  menaces,  he  told  him,"  for  he  had  learned  of 
those  that  were  greater  than  he,  to  obey  God  rather 
than  man.  And  Eusebius  adds,  That  when  Victor 
persisted  still  in  this  headstrong  resolution,  Irenajus 
and  several  other  bishops  wrote  very  sharply  to 
him,  TrXrjKTiKiorepov,  repro\nnghimfor  his  unwarrant- 
able abuse  of  the  church  censures.  It  is  a  noted 
saying  in  the  Index  to  the  Works  of  Pope  Gregory 
I.'°  upon  this  account,  If  any  one  excommunicate 
another  unjustly,  he  does  not  condemn  him,  but 
himself.  Though  the  Romanists  commonly  mag- 
nify another  saying  of  his,  transcribed  into  the  can- 
on law,"  That  the  sentence  of  the  shepherd  is  to  be 
dreaded,  whether  it  be  just  or  imjust;  which  can 
certainly  never  be  true,  but  in  a  very  doubtful  case. 
It  is  much  more  to  the  purpose,  what  Gratian  in 
the  same  question  alleges  from  St.  Austin,"  That  a 
man  had  need  be  very  careful  whom  he  binds  on 
earth  :  for  unjust  bonds  will  be  loosed  by  the  jus- 
tice of  Heaven ;  and  not  only  so,  but  turn  to  the 
condemnation  of  him  that  imposes  them :  for 
though  rash  judgment  often  hurts  not  him  who  is 
rashly  judged,'*  yet  the  rashness  of  him  that  judges 
rashly  will  turn  to  his  own  disadvantage.  In  the 
mean  time  it  is  no  detriment  to  a  man,  to  have  his 


^  Baron,  an.  S.^'j.  in  Appendice,  t.  7.  p.  9. 

'"  Spondan.  Epitom.  Baron,  an.  535.  n.  18. 

"  Habert.  Archiorat.  p.  746. 

'=  Greg.  7.  lib.  1.  Ep.  81.  lib.  2.  Ep.  5. 

'3  Basil.  Ep.  242. 

'^Firmil.  Ep.  75.  ap.  Cypr.  p.  228.  E.Kcidisti  teipsum. 
Noli  te  fallere.  Siquidem  ille  est  vers  schismaticus,  qui  se 
a  communione  ecclesiasticce  unitatis  apostatain  fecerit. 
Dura  enim  putas  omnes  a  te  abstineri  posse,  solum  te  ab 
omnibus  abstinuisti. 

'*  Polycrat.  Ep.  ad  Victor,  ap.  Eiiseb.  lib.  5.  c.  24.  Ou 
"TTupoiiai  iirl  toIs  (caTaTrXtjo-o-o/ufi/ois,  k.t.\.  Vide  Aug. 
3   N 


de  Vera  Religione,  cap.  6. 

"Greg.  lib.  2.  Ep.  26.  Si  quis  illieite  quonquani  c.\- 
communicat,  semetipsum,  non  ilium  condemnat. 

"  Greg-.  Hom.  26.  in  Evang.  ap.  Grat.  Decret.  Cans.  11. 
Quacst.  .3.  c.  1.  Scntontia  pastoris,  sivc  justa,  sive  injusta 
fuerit,  timenda  est. 

"  Aug.  Ser.  IG.  de  Verbis  Domini,  ap.  Grat.  ibid.  c.  48.  Ut 
juste  alliges,  vide.     Nam  injusta  vincula  dirumpit  justitia. 

"  Aug.  de  Serm.  Dom.  in  Monte,  lib.  2.  cap.  29.  ap.  Grat. 
ibid.  cap.  49.  Temerarimn  judicium  plerumque  nihil  uocet 
ei,  de  quo  temere  judicatur.  Ei  autcm,  qui  temere  judicat, 
ipsa  temeritas  nccesse  est,  ut  noccat. 


914 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


name  struck  out  of  the  diptychs  of  the  church  by 
human  ignorance,*"  if  an  evil  conscience  do  not  blot 
him  out  of  the  book  of  life.  Thus  far  St.  Austin, 
in  several  places  alleged  by  Gratian,  to  which  may 
be  added  what  he  cites  out  of  the  foresaid  place  of 
Gregory,"  That  he  deprives  himself  of  the  power  of 
binding  and  loosing,  who  exercises  it  according  to 
his  arbitrary  will,  and  not  according  to  the  deserts 
of  those  that  are  under  his  government.  He  means, 
that  an  excommunication  unjustly  pronounced,  is 
of  no  force  against  one  that  deserves  it  not ;  neither 
is  the  absolution  of  an  impenitent  sinner  any  better; 
because  they  are  both  done  clave  errante,  by  a  mis- 
application of  the  keys,  in  which  case,  as  the  Gloss 
upon  the  Law^*  words  it,  the  party  so  bound  is  not 
bound  before  God :  for  it  often  happens,  that  by 
this  means  a  man  is  excommunicated  out  of  the 
church  militant,  who,  notwithstanding,  is  in  the 
church  triumphant.  And  such  excommunications, 
says  Cardinal  Tolet,  bind  neither ^''  before  God  nor 
the  church. 

,   ,„  Now,  to  prevent  this  inconvenience, 

fcect.  9.  '         i^ 

comm°unicl°edwith.  t^^  aucient  church  prescribed  several 
£fS^ll.s;"k  useful  rules  to  be  observed  in  the 
lortumseir.  matter  of  cxcommunication.    For,  be- 

sides that  ordinarily  no  one  was  to  be  censured 
Avithout  a  previous  admonition,  as  has  been  noted 
before,"  it  was  likewise  ordered,  That  no  man  should 
be  condemned  in  his  absence,  without  being  allowed 
liberty  to  answer  for  himself,  unless  he  contuma- 
ciously refused  to  appear.  Let  ecclesiastical  judges 
beware,  says  the  council  of  Carthage,'*  that  they 
never  pronounce  sentence  against  any  one  that  is 
absent  when  his  cause  is  under  debate :  otherwise 
the  sentence  shall  be  void,  and  they  shall  give  an 
account  of  their  action  to  the  synod.  Upon  this 
ground  St.  Austin'®  refutes  the  censure  which  the 
Donatists  pretended  to  pass  upon  Cecilian,  bishop 
of  Carthage,  because  he  was  absent,  and  never  ex- 
amined by  them  before  they  proceeded  to  condemn 
him. 

Another  rule  observed  in  this  case 

Sect  10. 

Nor  witi.out  legal  \vas,  that  uo  OHc  should  be  excom- 


municate<l  unless  he  stood  legally  con-  conviction. euiierby 
victed  of  his  crime.    Which  might  be  iJr^^edi'bi'e" vilTince 

,1  1      "n      1   •  o        •  of  witiH^sses,  niiainst 

three  ways :  1.  By  his  own  coniession.  whom  tiiere  was  no 
2.  By  the  credible  evidence  of  such  notoriety  it  the  fact 

"^  as  made  a  man  liable 

witnesses  as  could  not  justly  be  ex-  toe.tcomnumication 

**  ''  ipso  fnrto,   without 

ceptcd  against,  or  suspected  of  bearing  ^[^^,^"""*'  denunci- 
false  testimony.  3.  By  such  notoriety 
of  the  fact,  as  made  a  man  liable  to  excommunica- 
tion ipso  facta,  without  any  further  process  or  formal 
denunciation ;  as  in  the  case  of  those  that  fell  by 
offering  sacrifice  in  time  of  persecution :  here  was 
no  need  in  this  case  either  of  their  own  confession, 
or  con\iciion  by  witnesses ;  for  their  crime  was  no- 
torious to  all  the  world,  and  it  needed  no  formal 
process  or  examination  of  witnesses  to  condemn 
them ;  neither  was  there  any  need  of  a  formal  sen- 
tence of  excommunication  to  be  pronounced  against 
them :  for  they  stood  excommunicated  ipso  facto, 
as  learned  men"  style  it;  the  fact  itself  being  evi- 
dent and  notorious  to  all,  was  sufficient  to  declare 
them  excommunicate,  as  having  forfeited  all  right 
to  the  privileges  of  Christian  communion.  In  other 
cases,  where  the  matter  was  not  so  clear,  they  re- 
quired either  the  confession  of  the  party  himself, 
or  the  legal  evidence  of  unexceptionable  witnesses. 
Thus  St.  Austin''  declares  :  We  cannot  exclude  any 
one  from  communion,  except  he  either  voluntarily 
confess  his  crime  himself,  or  be  noted  and  convicted 
in  some  secular  or  ecclesiastical  judgment.  For 
wiio  dare  to  assume  both  to  himself,  to  be  both  ac- 
cuser and  judge  ?  We  are  not  to  exclude  any  man, 
says  Pope  Innocent,"  upon  bare  suspicions.  Where 
the  crime  is  not  evident,  says  Origen,""  we  can  cast 
no  man  out  of  the  church,  lest,  while  we  root  out 
the  tares,  we  root  up  the  wheat  also.  And  the  same 
reason  is  given  by  St.  Austin,  in  the  place  now 
cited.  Justinian ''  confirmed  this  rule  of  the  church 
by  a  civil  sanction,  not  only  forbidding  all  bishops 
and  presbyters  to  segregate  any  man  from  the  com- 
munion before  his  crime  was  evidently  proved 
against  him,  but  ordering  such  a  one  immediately 
to  be  restored  to  communion,  and  the  minister  who 
suspended  him  to  be  suspended  himself  by  his  supe- 


'"  Aug.  Ep.  137.  Quid  obest  homini,  quod  ex  ilia  tabula 
lion  vult  cum  recitari  humana  ignorantia,  si  de  libro  vivorum 
non  eum  delet  iniqua  conscieiUia?  Ap.  Grat.  ibid.  cap.  50. 

"'  Greg.  Horn.  26.  in  Evaiig.  ap.  Grat.  c.  GO.  Ipse  ligandi 
atque  solvendi  potestate  se  privat,  qui  banc  pro  suis  volun- 
tatibus,  et  non  pro  .subjectorum  moribus  exercet.  Vid.  Ge- 
lasium,  ibid.  ap.  Grat.  c.  46. 

82  Gloss,  in  Extravagant.  Joan.  22.  Tit.  II.  cap.  5.  p.  160. 

83  Tolet.  Instruct.  Sacerdot.  lib.  I.  cap.  10. 

84  Chap.  2.  sect.  6. 

8^  Cone.  Garth.  4.  can.  .30.  Caveant  judices  ecclesiastici, 
ne  absente  eo,  cujus  causa  ventilatur,  sententiam  proferant, 
quia  irrita  erit,  et  causam  in  synodo  pro  facto  dabiint.  Vid. 
plura  ap.  Gratian.  Cans.  3.  Quaest.  9. 

^'^  Aug.  Ep.  162.  p.  279.  Si  nee  vitupcrari,  nee  corripi, 
nisi  interrogatum  Spiritus  Sanctusvoluit,  quanto  sceleratius 
non  vituperati  ant  correpti,  sed  oninino  damnati  sunt,  qui 


de  suis  criminibus  nihil  absentes  intevrogari  potuerunt?  If. 
Serm.  22.  de  Verbis  Apost.  Damnatus  est  Caecilianus,  ab- 
sens  priino,  deinde  a  traditoribus,  &c. 

"  Vid.  Cave,  Prim.  Christ,  part  3.  cap.  5.  p.  366. 

*s  Aug.  Horn.  50.  de  Pcenilent.  t.  10.  p.  207.  Nos  a  com- 
munione  prohibcre  quenquam  non  possumus,  nisi  autsponte 
confessum,  aut  in  aliquo  sive  seculari  sive  ecclesiastico  ju- 
dicio  nominatum  atque  convictum.  Quis  enini  sibi  utrunique 
audeat  assumere,  ut  cuiquam  ipse  sit  et  accusator  et  judex  ? 

"'  Innoc.  Ep.  3.  cap.  4.  Non  facile  quisquam  e.x  suspi- 
cionibus  abstinetuv.  Probatione  cessante,  vindictae  ratio 
conquiescit. 

^  Orig.  Horn.  21.  in  Josue,  t.  I.  p.  328. 

°'  Justin.  Novel.  123.  c.  11.  Omnibus  autem  episcopis 
et  presbyteris  intcrdicimus,  segregare  aliquem  a  sacra  com- 
munione,  antequam  causa  monstretur  propter  quam  sauctas 
rogulne  hoc  fieri  jubeut,  &c. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


915 


rior,  lit  quod  vijuste  fecit,  Juste  sustineat,  that  he  may 
justly  suffer  the  same  punishment  which  he  unjustly 
inflicted  on  the  other.  As  therefore  they  were  not  to 
excommunicate  a  whole  multitude,  though  their 
crimes  were  notorious ;  so  neither  were  they  to  ex- 
communicate a  single  criminal,  unless  his  crime  could 
be  made  evident  to  the  multitude,  that  they  might 
detest  and  abhor  it :  then  the  severity  of  discipline 
was  not  to  sleep,"'-  accorchng  to  St.  Austin's  rule  f^ 
If  the  criminal  was  accused  and  also  convicted  by 
evident  proofs  and  testimony  before  the  judge,  then 
the  judge  might  proceed  against  him  lawfully,  to 
punish,  correct,  excommunicate,  or  degrade  him. 
But  otherwise,  without  such  legal  conviction,  no 
bishop  could  suspend  a  clerk  from  communion,  un- 
less he  contumaciously  refused  to  appear  to  have 
his  cause  examined  before  him.  And  this,  St.  Aus- 
tin says,'^  was  determined  in  council  for  greater 
security  against  arbitrary  proceedings.  And  it  is 
observable  in  this  case,  that  the  canons  never  allow- 
ed'^ the  testimony  of  one  single  witness  as  sufficient 
evidence  to  convict  a  criminal ;  grounding  upon 
that  rule  in  the  Divine  law,  "  In  the  mouth  of  two 
or  three  witnesses  shall  every  word  be  established." 
Nay,  though  it  were  a  bishop  or  presbyter  that  ac- 
cused any  man,  barely  upon  his  own  knowledge, 
his  testimony  was  not  sufficient  ground  to  proceed 
against  him  to  excommunication.  For,  as  we  have 
heard  St.  Austin  say  but  just  now,  no  man  could 
be  both  accuser  and  judge.  And  therefore  it  was 
provided  by  the  council  of  Vaison,^"  That  though  a 
bishop  knew  a  man  to  be  a  criminal,  yet  if  he  alone 
was  privy  to  his  crime,  and  could  make  no  other 
proof  of  it,  he  should  not  so  much  as  publish  it,  but 
deal  privately  with  the  man  by  admonition  to  bring 
him  to  repentance.  But  if,  notwithstanding  his  ad- 
monition, he  would  persist  pertinacious,  and  offer 
himself  publicly  to  communicate,  the  bishop  should 
not  have  power  to  excommunicate  or  cast  him 
wholly  out  of  the  church,  but  only  enjoin  him  to 
recede  for  a  time  out  of  respect  to  the  bishop's  per- 


son, whilst  he  continued  in  the  communion  of  all 
those  who  knew  nothing  of  his  offences.  And  even 
this  was  a  greater  deference  paid  to  the  single  tes- 
timony of  a  bishop,  than  was  allowed  in  the  African 
churches.  For  there,  by  a  rule  of  the  seventh  coun- 
cil of  Carthage,  made  in  St,  Austin's  time,"'  if  a  man 
confessed  his  crime  to  a  bishop,  and  afterwards 
denied  it,  the  bishop  was  not  to  think  he  had  any 
injury  done  him,  if  his  single  evidence  was  not 
taken  by  his  fellow  bishops  to  the  man's  condemn- 
ation ;  and  if  in  such  a  case  the  bishop  presumed 
to  excommunicate  him,  upon  a  scruple  of  conscience 
that  he  could  not  communicate  v.ith  such  a  one, 
the  bishop  himself  was  not  to  communicate  with 
other  bishops,  that  he  might  learn  to  be  more  cau- 
tious in  saying  that  against  any  man,  which  he 
could  not  prove  by  any  other  evidence  but  his  own 
testimony:  so  tender  were  these  holy  bishops  of 
condemning  any  man  without  sufficient  and  legal 
evidence  to  convict  him.  St.  Austin,  who  was 
present  in  this  council,  tells  a  remarkable  story  of 
a  case  of  this  nature,"^  that  happened  between 
Boniface,  one  of  his  presbyters,  and  a  man  that  was 
accused  by  him.  Having  no  sufficient  evidence, 
but  only  their  single  testimony  on  either  side,  he 
would  not  determine  the  matter  between  them,  but 
ordered  them  both  to  go  to  the  sepulchre  of  Felix 
the  martyr,  in  hopes  that  the  cause  might  be  de- 
cided by  some  apparent  miracle  and  Divine  judg- 
ment, where  human  judgment  could  not  determine 
it,  as  he  says  he  had  known  it  done  in  a  case  of 
theft  at  Milan.  He  adds,  that  both  the  ecclesiastical 
and  civil  law  forbade  the  condemning  any  man 
upon  the  evidence  of  a  single  witness,  as  insufficient 
to  convict  him.  The  ecclesiastical  law  we  have 
already  heard ;  and  for  the  civil  law,  it  is  probable 
he  refers  to  a  decree  of  Constantine  now  extant  in 
the  Theodosian  Code,"*  which  precisely  enjoins  all 
judges  not  to  determine  any  cause  upon  the  evidence 
of  a  single  witness,  though  it  were  even  a  senator 
that  was  the  deponent.  Which  Gothofred  compares 


^  Aug.  cont.  Epist.  Parmen.  lib.  .3.  cap.  2.  Quando 
Ciijusque  crimen  notum  est  omnibus,  et  omnibus  execrabile 
apparet— nou  dormiat  severitas  disciplinae. 

"^  Aug.  Ser.  24.  de  Verbis  Apost.  ap.  Gratian.  Cans.  23. 
Quaest.  4.  cap.  11.  Si  judicandi  potestatem  accepisli,  ec- 
clesiastica  regula,  si  apud  te  accusatur,  si  veris  documentis 
testibusque  convincitur,  coerce,  corripe,  excommunica,  de- 
grada. 

°*  Aug.  Ep.  137.  In  episcoporum  concilio  constitutum 
est,  nullum  clericura,  qui  nondum  convictus  est,  suspendi  a 
communione  debere,  nisi  ad  causam  suam  examinandam  se 
non  praesentaverit. 

"'  Vi'L  Can.  Apost.  74.  Cone.  Ilerdense,  ap.  Crab,  ex 
Ivone,  lib.  5. 

"*  Cone.  Vasens.  I.  can.  8.  Si  tantum  episeopus  alieni 
sceleris  se  conscium  novit,  quamdiu  probare  non  potest, 
nihil  proferat,  sed  cum  ipso  ad  compunctionem  ejus  seeretis 
correptionibus  elaboret.  Quod  si  eorreptus  pertinacior  fuerit, 
et  se  communioni    publice  ingesserit,  etiam  si  episeopus  in 

3x2 


redarguendo  illo,  quem  reum  judicat,  probatione  deficiat, 
indemnatus  licet  ab  his  qui  nihil  sciunt,  secedere  ad  tcmpus 
pro  persona  niajoris  auctoritatis  jubeatur,  illo,  quamdiu  pro- 
bari  nihil  potest,  in  communione  omnium,  prueterquamejus 
qui  eum  reum  judicat,  permanente. 

"  Cone.  Carth.  7.  can.  5.  Placuit,  ut  si  quando  episeo- 
pus dieit,  aliquem  sibi  soli  proprium  crimen  I'uisse  eonfes- 
sum,  atque  ille  neget :  non  putel  ad  injuriam  suam  episeo- 
pus pertinere,  quod  ipsi  soli  non  ereditur:  et  si  scrupulo 
propriae  conscientiae  se  dieit  neganti  nolle  communieare, 
quamdiu  excommunicato  non  communicaverit  suus  episeo- 
pus, eidera  episcopo  ab  aliis  non  eommunicetur  episcopis, 
ut  magis  caveat  episeopus,  ne  dicat  in  queuquam  quod  aliis 
documentis  eonviucere  non  potest.  Viil.  Cod.  Afrie.  can. 
133  ct  131.  et  Aug.  Horn.  16.  de  Verbis  Dom. 

*  Aug.  Ep.  137. 

"=•  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  1 1 .  Tit.  29.  de  Fide  Testium,  Lpg.  3. 
Maqifeste  sancimus,  ut  unius  omnino  testis  responsin  non 
audiatnr,  etiam  si  praeclarae  curiae  honore  prsefulgeat. 


yi6 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


to  a  noted  saying  among  the  old  Romans,  related 
by  Plutarch,  That  it  was  not  right  to  give  credit  to 
one  \vitness,  though  it  were  Cato  himself  that  gave 
testimony.  Whence  Gothofred  also,  with  great 
reason,  concludes,'""  that  the  law  which  goes  under 
the  name  of  Constantine,  at  the  end  of  the  Theodo- 
sian  Code,  allowing  the  single  testimony  of  a  bishop 
to  be  good  evidence,  is  a  spurious  law,  (though  it  be 
inserted  into  the  Capitular""  of  Charles  the  Great, 
and  Gratian's  decree,)  because  it  contradicts  all  other 
laws,  both  ecclesiastical  and  civil,  upon  this  subject. 
It  is  worth  observing  further,  that  to  secure  the 
innocence  of  virtuous  men  from  being  unjustly 
traduced  and  censured,  there  were  many  laws  for- 
bidding the  testimony  of  heretics,  or  other  suspected 
and  infamous  persons,  to  be  accepted  in  judgment; 
of  which,  because  I  have  had  occasion  to  discourse  '°- 
elsewhere,  I  say  no  more  in  this  place.  But  from 
all  that  has  now  been  said,  it  sufficiently  appears, 
that  though  the  ancients  were  very  strict  and  severe 
in  their  discipline,  yet  they  were  equally  cautious, 
that  the  severity  of  it  should  not  affect  the  innocent ; 
and  every  man  was  presumed  to  be  innocent,  till  a 
just  and  legal  proof  could  be  made  against  him : 
nor  was  this  a  harm  to  the  church,  it  being  better 
that  some  vicious  men  should  escape,  than  that 
virtuous  men  should  be  exposed  to  the  greatest  of 
all  punishments  upon  bare  suspicion,  or  the  arbi- 
trary pleasure  of  any  one  man ;  for  which  reason 
also,  as  I  have  often  noted,  the  church  still  allowed 
an  appeal  from  the  unjust  sentence  of  any  bishop 
to  the  re-examination  of  a  provincial  council. 

Another  sort  of  persons  whom  the 
censures    of   the   church   seldom   or 

eo  upon  minors,  j.  i       t  •  i   •! 

children  unde^  ncvcr  touchcd,  wcrc  mmors,  or  chil- 
dren under  age ;  there  being  more 
proper  punishments  thought  fit  for  them,  such  as 
fatherly  rebukes  and  corporeal  correction ;  and  to 
inflict  the  highest  censures  upon  such,  was  rather 
thought  a  lessening  of  authority,  and  bringing  con- 
tempt upon  the  discipline  of  the  church.  Therefore 
Socrates  observes  of  Arsenius,  the  Egyptian  abbot, 
that  he  was  never  used  to  excommunicate  any 
junior  monks,  but  only  those  that  had  made  a  greater 
proficiency ;  for  a  young  man,'"^  when  he  is  excom- 


Sect.  11. 
Excnmmunicatio: 
not    ordinarily    in 
flicted  upon 


municated,  only  becomes  a  despiser.  Palladius 
observes  the  same  of  the  discipline  of  the  gi'eat 
church  of  Mount  Nitria,'"  that  they  had  three  whips 
hanged  up  in  the  church,  one  for  chastising  the 
offending  monks,  another  for  robbers,  and  a  third 
for  strangers  that  came  accidentally,  and  behaved 
themselves  disorderly  among  them.  So  in  the  Rule 
of  Isidore  of  Sevil,  one  article'"^  is,  That  they  who 
were  in  their  minority  should  not  be  punished  vidth 
excommunication,  but,  according  to  the  quality  of 
their  negligence  or  offence,  be  corrected  with  con- 
gruous stripes.  The  late  author  of  the  Historia 
Flagellantium '"*  cites  the  Rule  of  Macarius,'"  and 
that  of  St.  Benedict,'"'  and  AureHan,'""  and  Gregory 
the  Great,  to  the  same""  purpose.  And  Cyprian,  in 
the  Life  of  Caesarius  Arelatensis,  says.  That  bishop 
observed  this  method  both  with  slaves  and  freemen, 
that  when  they  were  to  be  scourged  for  their  faults, 
they  should  suffer  forty  stripes  save  one,  according 
as  the  law  appointed.  The  council  of  Agde'"  orders 
the  same  punishment,  not  only  for  junior  monks, 
but  also  for  the  inferior  clergy.  And  the  council 
of  Mascon"- particularly  insists  upon  the  number 
of  forty  stripes  save  one.  The  council  of  Vannes '" 
repeats  the  canon  of  Agde.  And  the  council  of 
Epone  speaks"*  of  stripes,  as  the  peculiar  punish- 
ment of  the  minor  clergy,  for  the  same  crimes  that 
were  punished  with  excommunication  for  a  whole 
year  in  the  superior  clergy.  Nor  is  this  to  be  won- 
dered at  in  these  councils,  since  St.  Austin  "*  assures 
us  this  kind  of  punishment  by  stripes  was  commonly 
used,  not  only  by  schoolmasters  and  parents,  but  by 
bishops  in  their  consistories  also.  And  the  plain 
reason  of  all  this  seems  to  be,  not  so  much  the  dis- 
tinction of  crimes,  as  the  distinction  of  age  and 
quality  in  the  persons. 

Another  inquiry  may  be  made  con- 
cerning   persons    deceased,  whether     how  persons  were 

*-*      ^  ^  ^  ^  sometimes    excom- 

ever  any  excommunication  was  in-  3'^^|'|^'=''''"' ^f'" 
flicted  on  men  after  death,  if  they 
died  in  the  peace  and  communion  of  the  church  ? 
It  has  already  been  observed,"^  that  when  men 
died  impenitent  under  the  bonds  of  excommunica- 
tion unrelaxed,  a  necessary  consequence  of  that 
was  the  denving  them  Christian  bm-ial,  and  all 


«»  Gothofred.  in  Cod.  Thend.  lib.  11.  Tit.  39.  Leg.  3.  et 
lib.  16.  Tit.  12.  Leg.  I.  p.3U6. 

'"'  Capitular,  lib.  6.  cap.  281.  Grat.  Cans.  11.  Qux-st.  1. 
cap.  3G. 

'"-  Book  V.  chap.  1.  sect.  5. 

'"^  Socrat.  lib.  4.  cap.  23.  Ntos  urpooKrdeU  KUTa<pf>ovt]Tiii 
yiittTai. 

">*  Pallad.  Hist.  Lausiaca,  cap.  6. 

'"^  Isidor.  Regiila,  cap.  17.  In  minori  aetatc  constituti 
non  sunt  coercendi  sententia  e.^communicationis,  sed  pro 
(jualitate  negligeutine  congruis  emeudandi  sunt  plagis. 

""*  Hist.  Flagellant,  cap.  5  et  6. 

""  Macar.  Regula,  cap.  15. 

'""  Benedict.  Reg.  cap.  70.  '"'•'  Ain-elian.  Hcg.  c.  41. 


""  Greg.  lib.  9.  Ep.  66. 

'"  Cone.  Agathen.  can.  38.  Si  verborum  increpatio  non 
emendaverit,  etiam  verberibus  statuimus  coerceri.  It. 
can.  41. 

"-  Cone.  Matiscon.  1.  can.  5.  Si  junior  fuerit,  uno  minus 
de  quadraginta  ictus  accipiat. 

"■■'  Cone.  Veneticuiu,  can.  6. 

"*  Cone.  Epaunens.  can.  15.    Minores  clerici  vapulabunt. 

"^  Aug.  Ep.  159.  ad  Marcellin.  Qui  modus  coercitionis 
et  a  magistris  artium  liberalium,  et  ab  ipsis  parentibus,  et 
stnpe  etiam  in  judiciis  sole!  ab  episcopis  adhiberi.  Vid. 
Aug.  Senn.  215.  de  Tempore.  Si  ad  vos  pertinent,  etiam 
flagellis  coedite,  &c. 

'"^Chap.  2.  sect.  11. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1)1  r 


future  memorial  in  the  prayers  and  oblations  of  llie 
church,  by  striking  their  names  out  of  the  diptychs, 
or  holy  books,  which  kept  the  memorial  of  such  as 
died  in  the  peace  and  communion  of  the  church. 
But  the  question  here  is  not  about  those  that  died 
so  excommunicate,  but  those  that  died  in  the  visi- 
ble communion  and  external  peace  of  the  church, 
and  under  no  ecclesiastical  censure ;  whether  upon 
any  new  discovery  of  their  errors  or  crimes  after 
death,  they  were  liable  to  be  excommunicated,  and 
after  what  manner  that  censure  was  passed  upon 
them.  Now,  the  resolution  of  this  question  in  part, 
will  easily  be  given  from  a  famous  case  in  Cyprian, 
concerning  one  Geminius  Victor,  who,  contrary  to 
the  rule  of  a  council,  had  made  Geminius  Faustinus 
a  guardian,  or  trustee,  by  his  last  will  and  testa- 
ment ;  for  which  transgression  Cyprian,  after  his 
death,  wrote  to  the  church  of  Furni,  where  he  had 
lived,  to  put  the  sentence  of  the  council  in  execution 
against  him,  telling  them.  That  since  Victor'"  had 
presxmied,  against  the  rule  made  in  council,  to  ap- 
point Geminius  Faustinus,  one  of  the  presbyters  of 
the  church,  his  trustee,  for  this  offence  no  oblation 
ought  to  be  made  for  his  death,  nor  any  prayer  to 
be  offered  in  his  name  in  the  church,  according  to 
the  custom  of  praying  then  for  all  that  Avere  de- 
parted in  the  faith.  This  was  a  plain  excommuni- 
cation of  him  after  death,  by  erasing  his  name  out 
of  the  diptychs  of  the  church.  Such  another  de- 
cree we  find  in  the  African  Code  against  any  bishop 
that  should  make  heretics  or  heathens  his  heirs, 
whether  they  were  of  his  own  kindred  or  not :  Let 
such  a  one  "*  be  anathematized  after  death,  and  let 
not  his  name  be  written  or  recited  among  the  priests 
of  God.  With  this  agrees  what  St.  Austin  says 
more  than  once  concerning  Cecilian,  bishop  of 
Carthage,  That  if  the  things  which  the  Donatists 
objected  against  him  were  true,  and  they  could 
evidently  prove  them,  the  catholics'"  were  ready  to 
anathematize  him  after  death.  And  there  want 
not  in  fact  several  instances  of  this  practice.  For 
thus  Origen,  as  Socrates  says,'-°  was  excommuni- 
cated two  hundred  years  after  his  death  by  The- 
ophilus,  bishop  of  Alexandria.  And  Theodorus  of 
Mopsuestia  was  so  anathematized  by  the  fifth  ge- 
neral council,''''  as  appears  from  Evagiius,  and  the 
letters  of  Justinian,  and  the  acts  of  the  council.  In 
like  manner,  the  sixth  general  council '"  anathema- 


tized Pope  Honorius  as  a  Monothelite  after  deatli, 
together  with  Cyrus,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  and 
Theodorus,  bishop  of  Pharan,  and  Sergius,  Pyrrhus, 
Petrus,  and  Paulus,  bishops  of  Constantinople,  all 
whose  names  were  erased  out  of  the  sacred  diptychs 
after  death  by  the  order  of  that  cotmcil.  It  is  a 
grand  dispute  indeed  among  the  gentlemen  of  the 
church  of  Rome,  whether  the  name  of  their  pope 
Honorius  ought  to  stand  in  that  black  list  ?  (13aro- 
nius''^  affirming,  That  the  acts  of  the  council, 
where  his  name  is  inserted,  are  corrupted ;  and 
Combefis,'^*  on  the  other  hand,  writing  a  whole 
volume  against  Baronius  to  prove  them  genuine:) 
but  however  that  matter  be,  there  is  no  dispute 
about  all  the  rest,  but  that  they  were  certainly 
anathematized  by  that  council  after  death.  Some- 
times men  were  unjustly  excommunicated  either 
living  or  dead ;  and  then  the  way  to  restore  them 
to  the  communion  of  the  church,  was  to  insert  their 
names  into  the  diptychs  whence  they  had  been 
expunged  before.  Thus  Thcodoret'"  says,  Atticus 
restored  the  name  of  Chrysostom,  after  it  had  for 
many  years  been  left  out.  And  John,  bishop  of 
Constantinople,  in  a  synod,  anno  518,  restored  the 
names  of  Pope  Leo,  and  Euphemius,  and  Macedo- 
nius,  and  the  council  of  Chalcedon,  which,  by  the 
fraud  of  Anastasius  the  emperor,  who  was  an 
Eutychian  heretic,  had  all  been  cast  out  of  the 
diptychs  of  the  church.'-*^  This  was  the  method, 
both  of  condemning  and  restoring  men  to  the 
communion  of  the  church  after  death.  To  deny 
them  Christian  burial,  or  not  to  receive  their  obla- 
tions, or  to  erase  their  names  out  of  the  diptychs, 
was  the  same  thing  as  to  declare  them  anathema- 
tized, and  cast  out  of  the  communion  of  the  faith- 
ful, with  whom  the  church  maintained  communion 
after  death.  And  so  far  we  have  considered  the 
persons  that  might  or  might  not  be  the  subjects  of 
ecclesiastical  censures,  whether  living  or  dead. 
The  next  inquiry  is  concerning  the 

,   ,    ,       -  ,     ,  Sect.  13. 

crimes  for  which  these  censures  might     The  rensun-s  nf 

the  church  not  lobe 

be   inflicted.     And  here  the  canons  inRi'-ted  for  smaii 

ofleiiceS. 

are  wont  to  make  a  very  exact  and 
nice  distinction  in  general  between  the  greater  and 
lesser  sins,  the  former  only  being  such  as  were  re- 
garded in  the  business  of  excommunication.  For 
this  being  the  severest  of  all  punishments,  was  not 
to  be  inflicted  for  every  trifle.     Therefore  bishops. 


'"Cypr.  Ep.  66.  al.  1.  ad  Cler.  Furnitan.  p.  3.  Ideo 
^  ictor,  cum  contra  formam  nuper  in  concilio  a  saccnlotibus 
datam,  <ieniinium  Faustinum  presbytcrum  ausus  sit  tutorem 
constitiiere,  noa  est  quod  pro  dormitione  ejus  apud  vos  fiat 
oblatio,  aut  deprecalio  aliqua  nomine  ejus  in  ecclesia  i're- 
quentetur. 

"*  Cod.  Afric.  can.  81.   Mtxa  ^avarov  avddt/xa  toiout<o 

\t\6lU1,    K.T.\. 

""  Aug.  Ep.  50.  ad  Bonifac.  Coniitem,  p.  80.  Si  vera 
essent  quae  ab  eis  objecta  sunt  Caeciliauo,  et  nobis  posscnt 
aliquando  monstrari,  ipsum  jam  mortuum  anathematizare- 


mus.  It.  Ep.  152.  quce  est  Epistola  Synodica  Concilii 
Cirtensis  ad  Donatistas.  Si  forte  malus  asset  inventus, 
ipsum  anathematizaremus. 

'-"  Socrat.  lib.  7.  cap.  45. 

'21  Evagr.  lib.  4.  cap.  38.  Justin.  Epist.  iu  Act.  1.  Cone. 
5.  General. 

'■"  Cone.  Constant.  6.  Gen.  Act.  13. 

1^  Baron,  an.  680.  n.  ai. 

'■-<  Combefis,  Hist.  Monotbelitar.  Tar.  1618. 

'"-'  Theod.  lib.  5.  cap.  34. 

'-■'*  Vid.  Acta  Cone.  Const,  in  Act.  5.  Cone,  sub  Mcnua. 


918 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


says  the  council  of  Agde,'"'  must  have  a  great  re- 
gard to  sacerdotal  moderation,  and  not  presume  to 
excommunicate  either  the  innocent,  or  those  that 
are  guilty  only  of  small  oifences.  Otherwise  they 
are  liable  to  be  admonished  by  the  neighbouring 
bishops  of  the  province ;  and  if  they  obey  not,  the 
bishops  of  the  province  are  to  refuse  them  their 
communion  till  the  next  synod.  Some  copies  read 
it,  They  shall  not  be  denied  communion  till  the 
next  synod  ;  and  then  it  refers  to  the  persons  ex- 
communicated, that  though  they  were  rashly  cast 
out  of  the  church  for  slight  causes  by  their  own 
bishops,  the  rest  of  the  bishops  should  not  deny 
them  communion,  till  their  cause  was  heard  in  a 
synod.  The  fifth  council  of  Orleans  has  a  like 
order.  That  no  bishop  shall '^  suspend  any  of  the 
faithful  from  the  communion  for  little  and  slight 
causes,  but  only  for  those  crimes  for  which  the  an- 
cient fathers  command  offenders  to  be  cast  out  of  the 
church.  And  this  is  repeated  in  the  council  of  Arvern 
or  Clermont,''^  held  about  the  same  time,  anno  549. 
But  it  may  be  asked,  what  the  an- 
whauheancients  cicut  fatlicrs  meant  by  slight  causes 
fences  in  this  mat-  and  Small  offcuccs  in  this  business  of 

ter,    and   tiow   tliey 

distinguished  them  ecclesiastical  censure  ?  and  how  they 

fi-om  tlie  greater.  *' 

distinguished  these  from  those  greater 
crimes,  which  made  men  liable  to  excommunica- 
tion, and  public  penance  in  the  church  ?  The  right 
understanding  of  these  things  will  be  of  great  use, 
not  only  to  give  us  a  clear  view  of  the  nature  of  ec- 
clesiastical discipline,  but  also  to  show  the  vanity 
of  a  late  distinction  between  mortal  and  venial  sin, 
as  used  by  the  Romanists,  to  bring  all  sins  that  are 
mortal  under  the  necessity  of  auricular  confession, 
and  private  absolution.  Now,  it  is  certain  the  an- 
cients did  not  believe  any  sins  to  be  venial,  as  that 
signifies  needing  no  pardon,  but  in  that  sense  all 
sins  to  be  mortal  in  their  own  nature,  and  such  as 
we  have  need  to  ask  pardon  for  at  the  hands  of 
God.  But  because  there  are  some  sins  of  human 
frailty  and  inadvertency  in  the  best  of  men,  and 
sins  of  daily  incursion,  without  which  no  man  lives ; 
these  they  usually  call  venial  sins,  as  needing  no 
other  repentance,  but  a  general  confession;  nor 
any  other  pardon,  but  what  is  daily  granted  by  God 
to  good  men,  upon  their  daily  prayers  and  acknow- 
ledgment of  their  offences.     Besides  these,  there 


are  other  sins  of  wilfulness,  and  of  a  more  niahg- 
nant  nature,  which  if  continued  in,  without  a  par- 
ticular repentance  and  reformation,  will  prove  mor- 
tal, and  exclude  men  from  the  kingdom  of  heaven ; 
and  yet  many  of  these  were  such,  as  did  not  ordi- 
narily bring  men  under  the  highest  censures  of  the 
church,  but  were  to  be  cured  only  by  general  re- 
proofs and  exhortations  to  repentance.  These  also 
in  like  manner,  with  respect  to  the  severity  of 
church  discipline,  which  did  not  reach  them,  were 
sometimes  termed  lesser  and  venial  sins,  in  op- 
position to  those  yet  more  heinous  sins,  which 
brought  men  under  excommunication  and  public 
penance  to  make  expiation  and  atonement  for  them. 
These  sins  were  mortal  in  their  own  nature,  and 
fatal  in  the  effect  to  the  sinner ;  but  yet  the  church 
for  many  reasons  was  obliged  sometimes  to  let  them 
pass,  without  any  other  censure  than  a  pastoral 
admonition.  But  there  was  a  third  sort  of  sins, 
both  of  a  malignant,  and  public,  and  flagrant  na- 
ture, of  which  sinners  might  easily  be  impleaded 
and  convicted ;  and  these  were  those  gi-eat  sins,  (as 
they  are  usually  termed  in  opposition  to  both  the 
forementioned  kinds,)  on  which  the  highest  severi- 
ties of  church  discipline  were  exercised,  unless 
where  the  multitude  of  sinners,  or  their  abettors,  or 
the  danger  of  schism,  (as  has  been  noted  before,) 
made  the  thing  impracticable  and  unfeasible.  This 
threefold  distinction  of  sins  is  accurately  noted  by 
St.  Austin  in  his  book  of  Faith  and  Works :  he 
says.  There  are  some  sins  so  great,  as  to  deserve  to 
be  punished  with  excommunication,'^"  according  to 
that  of  the  apostle,  "  To  deliver  such  an  one  unto 
Satan  for  the  destruction  of  the  flesh,  that  the  spirit 
may  be  saved  in  the  day  of  the  Lord."  Again, 
there  are  other  sins,  which  are  not  to  be  cured  by 
that  humiliation  of  penance,  which  is  imposed  upon 
those  who  are  properly  called  penitents  in  the 
church,  but  by  certain  medicines  of  reproof,  accord- 
ing to  that  of  our  Lord,  "  Tell  him  of  his  fault  be- 
tween him  and  thee  alone ;  if  he  hear  thee,  thou  i 
hast  gained  thy  brother."  Lastly,  there  are  other 
sins,  for  which  he  hath  left  us  a  daily  cure  in  that : 
prayer,  wherein  he  hath  taught  us  to  say,  "  Forgive ; 
us  our  trespasses,  as  we  forgive  them  that  trespass  i 
against  us."  By  this  it  is  plain,  that  all  great  and  I 
deadly  sins  did  not  bring  men  under  the  public  can-  \ 


'-'  Cone.  Afjathen.  cap.  3.  Episcopi,  si  sacerdotali  mo- 
deratione  postposita,  innoceiites,  aut  minimis  causis  culpa- 

biles,  e.xcommnnicare  pra^sumpserint, a  vicinis  episcopis 

ciijuslibet  provincia;  Uteris  moneantur.  Et  si  pareie  nolue- 
rint,  comiiiunio  iliis  usque  ad  tempus  syundi  a  reliquis  epis- 
copis deuegetur,  al.  noii  denegetur.  See  Giatian.  Cans.  11. 
Qua;st.  3.  cap.  8.  wiiere  this  canon  is  cited,  and  what  the 
Roman  correctors  observe  of  this  various  reading. 

'^  Cone.  Aurel.  5.  can.  2.  Nullus  sacerdotum  quenqiiam 
recta;  fidei  hominein  pro  parvis  et  levibus  causis  a  commu- 
nione  suspendat ;  propter  eas  culpas,  pro  quibus  antiqui 
patres  arceri  ab  ecclesia  jusserunt  comniittentes. 


'-"  Cone.  Arvernens.  2.  can.  2.  Cone.  t.  5.  p.  402. 

'*"  Aug.  de  Fide  et  Operibus,  cap.  26.  Nisi  essent  qu2e- 
dam  ita  gravia,  ut  etiam  excommunicatione  plectenda  sint, , 
non  diceret  apostolus  :  Congregatis  vobis  et  meo  spiritu, 
tradere  ejusmodi  homineni  Satana;,  &e.  Item  nisi  essent  I 
quKdam  nun  ea  humilitate  poenitentise  sananda,  qualis  im; 
ecclesia  datur  eis  qui  proprie  poenitentes  vocantur,  sed  qui- 
busdam  correptionum  medicamentis,  non  diceret  ipse  Do-* 
miuus,  Corripe  inter  te  et  ipsura  solum,  &c.  Postremo,  nisii 
essent  quncdam,  sine  quibus  haec  vita  non  agitur,  noa  quo- 
tidianam  medelam  poneret  in  oratione  quam  docuit,  uh 
dicamus,  Uimitte  nobis  debita.nostra,  &c. 


Chai'.  III. 


ANTrqUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


919 


sure  of  excominunic;vti(in,  but  only  those  of  the  first 
kind,  which  were  of  the  highest  nature.  In  other 
places  he  distinguishes  sins  only  into  two  kinds, 
greater  and  lesser ;  sins  that  obliged  men  to  do  pub- 
lic penance,  and  sins  that  were  pardoned  by  daily 
prayer,  weeping,  fasting,  giving,  and  forgiving,  with- 
out any  obligation  to  do  public  penance  for  them. 
The  former  he  calls  mortal  sins,  and  the  other 
venial ;  not  because  they  were  not  mortal  in  their 
own  nature,  but  because  they  were  pardoned  with- 
out the  solemnity  of  a  public  repentance.  So  many 
great  sins,  such  as  anger,  and  evil  thoughts,  and 
evil  speaking,  and  excess  in  the  use  of  lawful  things, 
are  reckoned  by  him  in  the  number  of  lesser  sins, 
in  comparison  of  such  great  and  deadly  sins,  as 
murder,  and  theft,  and  adultery.  He  that  is  free, 
says  he,"'  from  great  and  mortal  sins,  such  as  the 
crimes  of  murder,  theft,  and  adultery,  yet  being 
liable  to  many  lesser  sins  of  the  tongue  and 
thoughts,  and  immoderate  use  of  lawful  things,  he 
thereupon  exercises  himself  in  making  true  con- 
fession of  them,  and  comes  to  the  light  by  perform- 
ing good  works  ;  because  a  multitude  of  lesser  sins, 
if  they  be  neglected,  kill  the  soul.  ^lany  small 
drops  fill  a  river :  a  grain  of  sand  is  but  a  small 
thing,  but  many  grains  added  together  will  load 
and  oppress  us.  The  pump  of  a  ship,  if  it  be  neg- 
lected, will  do  the  same  thing  as  a  boisterous 
wave.  It  enters  by  little  and  little  at  the  pump, 
but  by  long  entering,  and  never  draining,  at  last  it 
sinks  the  ship.  And  what  is  it  to  drain  the  soul, 
but  by  good  works,  such  as  mourning,  and  fasting, 
and  giving,  and  forgiving,  to  take  care  that  such 
sins  do  not  overwhelm  the  soul  ?  The  lesser  sins, 
he  here  speaks  of,  were  not  only  sins  of  inadvert- 
ency and  common  human  frailty,  but  sins  of  a 
higher  nature  :  and  yet  he  calls  them  little  sins  in 
comparison  of  those  great  and  deadly  sins  of  adul- 
tery and  murder,  for  which  men  underwent  public 
penance,  which  they  did  not  for  these  other  sins, 
which  yet  would  prove  fatal,  unless  men  took  care 
by  confession,  and  godly  sorrow,  and  fasting,  and 


almsdeeds,  and  charity  to  their  enemie.*,  to  clear 
themselves  of  them.     In  another  place,'*'  he  speaks 
of  two  sorts  of  repentance  for  two  sorts  of  sins  com- 
mitted after  baptism,  which  he  thus  distinguishes  : 
There  is  one  sort  of  repentance  which  is  to  be  per- 
formed every  day.    And  whence  can  we  show  that? 
I  cannot  better  show  it  than  from  the  daily  prayer, 
where  our  Lord  hath  taught  us  to  pray,  and  showed 
us  what  we  are  to  say  unto  the  Father  in  these 
words,  "  Forgive  us  our  trespasses,  as  we  forgive 
them  that  trespass  against  us."     There  is  another 
more  weighty  and  mournful  sort  of  repentance,  from 
which  men  are  properly  called  penitents  in   the 
church  :  by  which  they  are  sequestered  from  par- 
taking of  the  sacrament  of  the  altar,  lest  they  should 
eat  and  drink  damnation  to  themselves.     This  is  a 
grievous  repentance  ;  the  wound  is  very  grievous,  per- 
haps adultery,  or  murder,  or  sacrilege  has  been  com- 
mitted.   This  is  a  gi-ievous  thing,  a  grievous  wound, 
mortal  and  deadly,  but  the  Physician  is  almighty. 
Here,  again,  is  a  plain  distinction  between  such 
great  sins  as  adultery,  sacrilege,  and  murder,  for 
which  men  were  to  do  a  long  and  public  penance 
in  the  church ;  and  such  sins  of  a  lower  rank,  as 
were  to  be  done  away  by  daily  prayer  and  daily 
repentance,  which  was   the  remedy  for  all  sins, 
great  and  small,  that  were  not  of  the  highest  na- 
ture.    Upon  this  account  he  calls  public  penance 
by  the  mame  of  poenitentia  major,  the  greater  re- 
pentance, for  great  and  deadly  sins,  in  opposition  to 
the  lesser  or  daily  repentance  for  sins  of  a  lower 
nature,  which  he  terms  venial  sins,  because  they 
were  more  easily  pardoned  by  that  ordinary  and 
daily  repentance.     Thus  in  his  instructions  to  the 
catechumens,  directing  them  how  to  lead  their  lives 
after  baptism,  he  tells  them,'^  He  did  not  prescribe 
them  an  impossible  rule,  to  live  here  altogether  free 
from  sin  ;  for  there  were  some  lesser  or  more  par- 
donable sins,  without  which  this  life  is  not  passed 
by  any.     Baptism  was  appointed  for  the  remission 
of  all  sins,  of  what  kind  soever ;  but  for  lesser  sins 
prayer  was  appointed.     And  what  says  the  prayer  ? 


"'  Aug.  Tract.  12.  in  Joan.  p.  47.  Liberatus  ab  illis  le- 
thalibus  et  granJibus  peccatis,  qualia  sunt  facinora,  homici- 
dia,  furta,  adulteria,  propter  ilia  quae  minuta  esse  peccata 
videntur  lingua;,  cogitationum,  aut  iramoderationis  in  rebus 
concessis,  farit  veritatem  confessionis,  et  venit  ad  lucem  in 
operibus  bonis  :  quoniam  minuta  plura  peccata,  si  negli- 
gantur,  occidunt,  &c. 

'«  Ibid.  Horn.  27.  ex  50.  t.  10.  p.  177.  Est  alia  pceni- 
tentia  quotidiana.  Et  ubi  illam  ostendimus  ?  nnn  habeo 
ubi  melius  ostendam,  quam  in  oratione  quotidiana,  ubi  Do- 
minus  orare  nos  docuit. — Est  et  pcenitentia  gravior  atque 
Inctuosior,  in  qua  propria  vocantin-  in  ecclesia  pcenitentes  : 
etiam  remoti  a  sacramento  altaris  paiticipandi,  no  aceipi- 
endo  indigne,  judicium  sibi  manducent  et  bibant.  Ilia  vero 
pffinitentia  luctuosa  est,  grave  vulnus  est :  adidterium  forte 
coraraissum  est,  forte  homicidium,  forte  sacrilegiuni.  Gravis 
res,  grave  vidnus,  lethale,  mortiferum,  sed  omnipotens  MeJi. 
cus,  &c.  Vid.  Horn.  50.  ibid.  cap.  .3. 


W3  Ibid,  de  Symbolo  ad  Catechumenos,  lib.  1.  cap.  7. 
t.  9.  Non  vobis  dice,  quia  sine  peccato  hie  vivctis:  sed 
sunt  venialia,  sine  quibus  vita  ista  non  est.  Propter  omnia 
peccata  baptismus  inventus  est :  propter  levia,  sine  quibus 
esse  non  possumus,  oratio  inventa.  Quid  habet  oratio  ? 
Dimitte  nobis  debita  nostra,  sicut  et  nos  dimittinius  debito- 
ribus  nostris.  Semel  abluiiuur  baptisuiate.  Quotidie  ab- 
luimur  oratione.  Sed  nolite  ilia  committerc,  pro  quibus 
necesse  est  ut  a  Christi  corpore  separemini ;  quod  absit  a 
vobis.  lUi  enim,  quos  videtis  agore  picnitentiam,  scelera 
comniiserunt,  aut  adulteria,  aut  aliqua  facta  imraania  :  inde 
agunt  poenitentiam.  Nam  si  levia  peccata  eorum  essent, 
ad  ha2c  quotidiana  oratio  delenda  sufnccret.  Ergo  tribus 
modis  dimittuntur  peccata  in  ecclesia,  in  baptisuiate,  in 
oratione,  in  humilitate  majoris  popnitentia?.  Vid.  Aug.  Horn. 
119.  de  Tempore,  cap.  8.  Ep.  80.  ad  Ililarium,  Quaest.  1. 
Ep.  108.  ad  Seleucianam. 


920 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XYI. 


"  Forgive  us  our  trespasses,  as  we  forgive  them  that 
trespass  against  us."  We  are  once  washed,  or  cleansed 
from  sin  Ly  baptism  ;  we  are  daily  cleansed  by  pray- 
er. Only  do  not  commit  such  things,  for  which  it 
will  be  necessary  to  separate  you  from  the  body  of 
Christ,  which  God  forbid.  For  they  whom  you 
see  doing  penance,  have  committed  great  crimes, 
either  adultery,  or  some  such  heinous  wickedness, 
upon  account  of  which  they  are  doing  penance. 
For  if  they  had  been  light  sins,  the  daily  prayer 
would  have  been  sufficient  to  blot  them  out.  There- 
fore there  are  three  ways  by  which  sins  are  for- 
given in  the  church,  by  baptism,  by  prayer,  and  by 
the  humihation  of  the  greater  repentance.  Where 
by  the  gi-eater  repentance,  it  is  evident,  he  means  the 
public  penance  done  in  the  church  for  crimes  only  of 
the  highest  nature :  and  therefore  the  lesser  re- 
pentance, accompanying  men's  daily  prayers,  was 
sufficient  to  blot  out  both  lesser  sins  of  daily  in- 
cursion, and  also  gi-eatcr  sins,  for  which  no  pubhc 
penance  was  required,  but  only  the  sincere  reform- 
ation of  the  sinner,  producing  good  works,  and 
especially  works  of  charity  and  mercy.  Thus  in  his 
Enchiridion,'^*  For  daily  short  and  Hght  sins,  with- 
out which  no  man  lives,  the  daily  prayer  of  the 
faithful  is  sufficient.  This  prayer  blots  out  all 
little  and  daily  sins.  It  blots  out  all  those  sins 
with  which  the  life  of  the  faithful  is  more  egregi- 
ously  defiled,  provided  they  change  it  into  better 
by  true  repentance ;  if  they  say  truly,  with  actions 
corresponding  to  their  words,  "  Forgive  us  our  tres- 
passes, as  we  forgive  them  that  trespass  against  us." 
He  often  distinguishes  "^  between  peccatmn  and 
crimen,  making  the  first  to  be  such  sins  as  are  for- 
given by  daily  prayer  and  daily  repentance ;  and 
the  second  such  flagrant  crimes  as  murder,  adultery, 
fornication,  theft,  fraud,  sacrilege,  and  such  like, 
for  which  men  were  obliged  to  undergo  public 
penance  in  the  church.  And  he  understands  the 
same  things,  when  he  so  often  distinguishes  '^"^  be- 
tween greater  and  lesser  sins,  mortal  sins  and  venial 
sins ;    prescribing  public  repentance   for  the  one. 


and  private  repentance  for  the  other.  By  all  which 
it  is  manifest,  that  neither  sins  of  human  frailty 
and  daily  incursion,  to  which  the  best  of  men  are 
liable;  nor  many  sins  of  a  more  malignant  nature, 
as  many  evil  words,  and  evil  thoughts,  and  excesses 
in  the  use  of  lawful  things,  and  hasty  anger,  and 
frequent  going  to  law  for  trifles,  were  reckoned 
into  the  number  of  those  flagrant  crimes,  for  which 
the  severities  of  church  discipline  were  inflicted  on 
delinquents  ;  but  all  such  sins,  being  of  an  inferior 
nature,  or  not  so  easy  to  be  proved  upon  men,  were 
only  matters  of  reproof,  and  left  to  their  own  con- 
sciences to  cure,  either  by  daily  prayer,  or  private 
repentance  and  reformation. 

And  that  this  was  so  from  the  beginning,  ap- 
pears from  what  the  learned  Du  Pin  has  discoursed 
upon  this  matter '"  against  Mr.  Arnaud  and  others 
of  his  own  communion.  He  observes,  that  all  the 
ancients  made  this  very  distinction  between  great 
and  little  sins,  and  reckoned  only  very  capital  and 
mortal  crimes  in  the  number  of  such  sins  as  were 
to  be  punished  with  excommunication.  Tertullian, 
even  when  he  disputes  against  the  church  upon 
the  point  of  absolution  and  readmission  of  excom- 
municated sinners  into  the  church  again,  owns  not- 
withstanding that  there  were  many  sins,  which  did 
not  bring  men  under  the  censure  of  excommuni- 
cation, because  they  were  sins  of  daily  incursion, 
to  which  all  men  were  more  or  less  exposed.  Among 
these '^  he  reckons  anger,  when  it  is  unjust  either 
in  its  cause  or  duration,  when  the  sun  goes  down 
upon  our  wrath ;  and  also  quarrelling  and  evil- 
speaking,  a  rash  or  vain  oath,  a  failure  in  our  pro- 
mise, a  lie  extorted  by  modesty  or  necessity,  and 
many  such  temptations  which  befall  men  in  their 
business  and  offices,  in  gain,  in  eating,  and  seeing, 
and  hearing.  On  the  contrary,  there  are  some  more 
grievous  and  deadly  sins,  which  are  incapable  of 
pardon,  (according  to  his  rigid  principles  of  Mon- 
tanism,)  such  as  murder,  idolatry,  fraud,  apostacy, 
blasphemy,  adultery,  and  fornication,  and  other 
such  defilements  of  the  temple  of  God.  In  his  book 


'3*  Aug.  Enchirid.  cap.  71.  De  quotiJianis,  brevibus 
levibusque  peccatis,  sine  quibus  hoec  vita  non  diicitur,  quo- 
tidiana  oratio  fideliuin  satisfacit. — Delet  omnino  heec  oratio 
minima  et  qiiotidiana  peccata.  Delet  et  ilia,  a  quibus  vita 
fideliuni  scelerate  etiam  gesta,  sed  pcEuitendo  in  melius  mu- 
tata  discedit,  &c. 

135  Aug.  Horn.  41.  ex  50.  Homo  baptizatus,  si  vitam, 
non  audeo  dicere  sine  peccato  (quis  eniin  sine  peccato  ?) 
sed  vitam  sine  crimine  duxerit,  et  alia  habet  peccata,  quae 
quotidie  dimittuntur  in  oratione  dicente,  Dimitte  nobis  debita 
nostra,  &c.  quando  diem  finierit,  vita  non  iinit,  sed  transit 
de  vita  in  vitam. 

It.  Tract.  41.  in  Joan.  t.  9.  p.  12G.  Apostolus  quando 
elegit  ordinandos — non  ait,  si  ([uis  sine  peccato  est;  hoc 
enim  si  diceret,  omnis  homo  rcprobaretur,  nuUus  ordinare- 
tur ;  sed  ait,  si  quis  sine  criniinc  est,  sicut  est  homicidium, 
adulterium,  aliqua  immuuditia  fornicationis,  furtum,  f'raus, 
sucrilegium,  et  cajtera  hujusmodi.     He  says  a  little  betbre, 


Crimen  est  peccatum  grave,  accusatione  etdamnatione  dig- 
nissimum. 

De  Civ.  Dei,  lib.  '21.  cap.  27.  Non  putare  nos  esse  sine 
peccatis,  etiamsi  a  criminibus  essemus  immunes. 

>3s  Aug.  Tract.  26.  in  Joan.  p.  93.  De  Symbolo,  lib.  1. 
cap.  7.     Cont.  Julian.  Pelagian,  lib.  2.  cap.  10. 

"'  Du  Pin,  Bibliotheque,  Cent.  4.  p.  218. 

13S  Tertul.  de  Pudicit.  cap.  19.  Sunt  qua;dam  delicta 
quotidianae  incursionis,  quibus  omnes  simus  objecti.  Cui 
enim  non  accidet  aut  irasci  inique,  et  ultra  solis  occasum, 
aut  et  manum  immittere,  aut  facile  maledicere,  aut  temere 
jurare,  aut  fidem  pacti  destruere,  aut  verecundia  aut  neces- 
sitate mentiri ;  in  negotiis,  in  officiis,  in  qua-stu,  in  victu, 
in  visu,  in  auditu  q\iauta  tentamur. — Sunt  aulem  et  contra- 
ria  istis,  ut  graviora  et  exitiosa,  quae  veniam  non  capiant, 
homicidium,  idololatria.  fraus,  negatio,  blasphemia,  utique 
et  mcechia  el  fornicatio,  et  si  qua  alia  violatio  templi 
Dei. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


921 


against  Marcion,  he  precisely  reckons  up  seven 
sins,  which  he  distinguishes  by  the  names  of  capital 
crimes,"^  idolatry,  blasphemy,  murder,  adultery, 
fornication,  false  witness,  and  fraud.  The  Roman 
clergy  observe  the  same  distinction  between  greater 
and  lesser  sins,  when  they,  in  their  epistle""  to 
Cyprian,  style  idolatry  the  great  sin,  and  the 
grand  sin  above  all  others.  And  Cyprian  '"  him- 
self calls  it  summum  delictum,  the  highest  of  all 
crimes,  the  blasphemy  against  the  Holy  Ghost, 
which  has  never  forgiveness,  but  makes  a  man 
guilty  of  eternal  sin ;  that  is,  a  sin  that  was  to  be 
punished  in  both  worlds,  without  repentance.  Which 
is  the  notion  that  most  of  the  ancients  had  of  the 
sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  (to  note  this  by  the 
way,)  not  that  it  was  absolutely  unpardonable,"- 
but  that  men  were  to  be  punished  for  it,  both  in 
this  world  and  the  next,  unless  they  truly  repented 
of  it.  Again,  Cyprian,  speaking  of  idolatry  in  those 
that  lapsed  in  persecution,  he'"  distinguishes  it  by 
the  title  of  the  most  heinous  and  extreme  offence. 
And  speaking  also  of  adultery,  fraud,  and  murder, 
he  calls  them'"  mortal  sins,  by  way  of  distinction 
from  those  of  a  lower  kind.  So  Origen  calls  some 
great  and  mortal  sins,  such  as  blasphemy,  for 
which  the  church '"  very  rarely  allowed  men  to  do 
penance  above  once ;  but  there  are  other  common 
sins  of  daily  incursion,  such  as  evil  words,  and 
other  corruptions  of  good  manners,  Avhich  admit  of 
frequent  repentance,  and  are  redeemed  continually 
without  intermission.  Where  he  plainly  shows, 
that  the  repentance  which  the  church  allowed  but 
once  for  great  sins,  means  public  penance  in  the 
church ;  but  lesser  and  common  offences  were 
atoned  for  another  way,  and  as  often  as  they  were 
committed,  by  a  daily  repentance.  In  another'^® 
place,  he  reckons  up  lesser  sins,  to  which  all  are 
more  or  less  subject,  such  as  detraction,  and  mutual 
defamation  of  one  another,  self-conceit,  banqueting, 
lying,  idle  words,  and  such  other  light  faults,  as  are 


frequently  found  in  men  who  have  made  a  good 
proficiency  in  the  church.  These,  therefore,  could 
not  be  the  sins  which  ordinarily  subjected  men  to 
excommunication,  unless  we  could  suppose  all  men 
liable  to  so  severe  a  censure.  But  there  were  other 
crimes,  which  he  calls  great  sins,  and  sins  unto 
death  ;  such  as  adultery,  murder,  effeminacy,  and 
defilement  with  mankind,  which  whoever  comniit- 
(cd,  he  was  to  be  treated  as  a  heathen  man  or  a 
publican.  St.  Ambrose  makes  the  same  distinction 
of  sins :  As  there  is  but  one  baptism,  so  there  is  but 
one  public '"  penance ;  for  we  are  to  do  penance 
for  the  sins  we  commit  every  day;  but  this  last 
penance  is  for  small  sins,  and  the  former  for  great 
ones.  And  so  Prosper,  or  Julianus  Pomerius  under 
his  name,"*  says.  There  are  some  sins  so  small,  that 
we  cannot  perfectly  avoid  them,  and  for  the  expia- 
tion of  these  we  cry  daily  to  God,  and  say,  "  For- 
give us  our  trespasses,  as  we  forgive  them  that  tres- 
pass against  us :"  but  there  are  other  sins  which 
ought  more  carefully  to  be  avoided,  because  when 
men  are  publicly  convicted  of  them,  they  make 
them  liable  to  be  punished  by  human  judgment; 
meaning,  that  such  capital  offences  were  the  crimes 
which  subjected  men  to  excommunication,  and  not 
those  lesser  faults,  which  were  only  matter  of 
daily  repentance.  Cassian  observes  seven  kinds 
of  human  failings,  which  he  distinguishes  from 
mortal  sins :  saying,'^'  It  is  one  thing  to  commit 
mortal  sin,  and  another  to  be  overtaken  with  an 
evil  thought,  or  to  offend  by  ignorance,  or  forget- 
fulness,  or  an  idle  word,  which  easily  slips  from 
us,  or  by  a  short  hesitation  in  some  point  of  faith, 
or  the  subtle  ticklings  of  vain-glory,  or  by  necessity 
of  nature  to  fall  short  of  perfection.  For  these 
seven  ways  a  holy  man  is  liable  to  fall ;  and  yet  he 
does  not  cease  to  be  righteous :  and  though  they 
seem  to  be  but  small  sins,  yet  they  are  enough  to 
prove  that  he  cannot  be  without  sin ;  for  he  has, 
upon  this  account,  need  of  a  daily  repentance,  and 


139  Tertul.  cont.  Marcion.  lib.  4.  cap.  9.  Septem  maculis 
capitalium  delictorutn,  idololatria,  blaspheinia,  homicidio, 
adulterio,  stupro,  falso  testimonio,  fiaude. 

"»  Ap.  Cypr.  Ep.  2G.  al.  31.  p.  63.  Grande  delictum. 
Ingens  et  supra  omnia  peccatum. 

'^'  Cypr.  Ep.  10.  al.  16.  p.  36.  Summum  delictum  esse 
quod  persecutio  committi  coegit,  sciunt  ipsi  etiam  qui  com- 
miserunt,  cum  dixerit  Dominus,  qui  blasphemaverit  Spiri- 
tum  Sanctum,  non  habebit  remissam,  sed  reus  est  aeterni 
peccati.  "-  See  chap.  7.  sect.  3. 

'■''  Cypr.  Ep.  11.  al.  15.  ad  Martyr,  p.  34.  Gravissimum 
atque  e.\tremum  delictum. 

'"  Cypr.  de  Patient,  p.  216.  Adultcrium,  fraus,  homici- 
dium,  mortale  crimen  est. 

'"  Orig.  Horn.  15.  iu  Levit.  t.  i.  p.  174.  Si  nos  aliqua 
culpa  moralis  invenerit,  qua;  non  in  crimine  mortali,  non  in 
blasphemia   fidei,   sed   vel  in    sermonibus,   vel   in   monim 

vitio hujusmodi  culpa  semper  reparari  potest.     In  gra- 

vioribus  enim  culpis  semel  tautum  vel  raro  po:nitentiae 
conceditur  locus :  ista  vero  communia,  quK  frequenter  in- 
currimus,  semper  pcenitentiam  recipiunt,  et  sine  intcrmis- 


sione  redimuntur. 

""  Ibid.  Tract.  6.  in  Mat.  p.  60.  Nee  enim  existinio  cito 
aliquem  inveniri  in  ecclesia,  qui  non  jam  ter  in  eadem 
culpa  argutus  sit,  utpute  in  detractione,  qua  invicem  ho- 
mines detrahunt  pro.\imis  suis,  aut  inilatione,  aut  in  epula- 
tione,  aut  in  verbo  mendacii  vel  ocioso,  aut  in  tali  aliqua 
culpa  levi,  quae  etiam  in  illis  qui  videntur  proiicere  in 
ecclesia,  frequenter  inveniuntur. 

'"  Ambr.  de  Poenit.  lib.  2.  cap.  10.  Sicut  unum  bap- 
tisma,  ita  una  poenitentia,  qua;  tamcn  publico  agitur.  Nam 
quotidiani  nos  debet  pcenitere  peccati:  sed  ha3c  delictorum 
leviorum,  ilia  graviorum. 

'^s  Prosper,  de  Vit.  Contemplat.  lib.  2.  cap.  7.  Exceptis 
peccatis,  quae  tam  parva  sunt  ut  caveri  non  possint,  pro 
quibus  expiandis  quotidie  clamamus  ad  Deum,  et  dicimus, 
Dimitte,  &c.,  ilia  crimina  caveantur,  qua;  publicata  sues 
autores  humano  faciunt  damnari  judicio. 

»"  Cassian.  Collat.  22.  cap.  13.  Aliud  est  admittere  mor- 
tale peccatum,  et  aliud  est  cogitatioue  quae  peccato  non 
caret  pra;veniri,  vol  iguorantiw  aut  oblivionis  errore,  aut 
fuciliiate  ociosi  sermonis  ofTendere,  &c. 


1)22 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


is  obliged  in  truth  without  any  dissimulation  to  ask 
pardon,  and  pray  continually  for  his  sins,  saying, 
"  Forgive  us  our  trespasses."  Gregory  Nyssen  has 
a  canonical  epistle  concerning  discipline,  wherein, 
as  Du  Pin  observes,  he  makes  an  exact  enumera- 
tion of  those  sins  which  subjected  men  to  public 
penance,  which  are  all  enormous  sins  and  consider- 
able crimes,  such  as  idolatry,  apostacy,  divination, 
murder,  adulter}',  theft,  and  sacrilege.  From  all 
which  it  is  very  evident,  that  by  the  ancient  rules 
no  crimes  were  to  be  punished  with  excommunica- 
tion, but  those  that  were  of  the  highest  nature, 
which  they  called  mortal  sins  ;  nor  yet  all  remote 
violations  of  the  moral  law,  but  only  the  more  im- 
mediate, direct,  and  professed  transgressions  of  it. 
Of  the  species  and  effects  of  anger,  as  Gregory 
Nyssen'^"  observes,  they  inflicted  canonical  and 
public  penance  upon  murder ;  but  not  upon  all  the 
inferior  degi-ees  of  it,  such  as  stripes,  and  evil-speak- 
ing, or  other  effects  of  anger,  which  are  prohibited 
in  Scripture,  and  bring  men  in  danger  of  eternal 
death.  So  of  all  the  degrees  of  covetousness,  which 
are  very  many  and  heinous,  they  punished  none 
with  excommunication  but  only  notorious  oppres- 
sion, and  theft,  and  robbing  of  graves,  and  sacrilege, 
and  the  like.  So  that  when  they  sometimes  call 
sins  of  this  middle  rank,  light  and  venial  sins,  in 
contradistinction  to  those  they  termed  mortal,  they 
do  not  mean  what  now  the  vulgar  casuists  of  the 
Romish  church  mean  by  venial  sins,  but  only  that 
they  were  not  of  the  number  of  those  capital  crimes, 
for  which  the  church  subjected  men  to  excommu- 
nication, and  enjoined  them  public  repentance. 
Which  the  learned  reader  may  find  not  only  accu- 
rately demonstrated  by  Mr.  Daille,'^'  but  ingenu- 
ously confessed  by  Du  Pin,'"  and  also  Petavius'*^ 
before  him.  Daille  transcribes  Petavius's  words, 
and  I  shall  here  transcribe  those  of  Du  Pin  :  "  I 
would  not  have  it  thought,"  says  he,  "  that  I  make 
these  remarks  to  authorize  licentiousness,  or  to  in- 
sinuate that  there  are  some  mortal  sins  that  may 
pass  for  venial :  God  forbid,  that  I  should  have  so 
detestable  a  design  !  On  the  contrary,  my  inten- 
tion is  to  create  a  horror  of  all  sins ;  first,  of  great 
crimes ;  secondly,  of  sins  which  may  be  mortal, 
though  they  appear  not  so  enormous  ;  and  thirdly, 
even  of  slighter  sins  also.  But  I  thought  myself 
obliged  to  observe  here,  for  explaining  a  passage  in 
St.  Ambrose,  that  none  but  the  sins  of  the  first 


class  did  subject  men  to  public  penance,  and  that 
it  is  of  these  only  the  fathers  speak,  and  which  they 
comprehend  under  the  name  of  enormous  sins  and 
crimes ;  though  there  be  others  which  may  be  also 
mortal,  and  which  a  Christian  ought  carefully  to 
shun ;  but  then  they  are  such  for  which  he  was 
never  subjected  to  the  humiliation  of  a  public  pe- 
nance, but  only  to  corrections  and  reprimands  given 
in  secret,  as  St.  Austin  informs  us."  These  obser- 
vations are  very  just :  for  it  is  certain,  the  fathers 
speak  against  all  sins,  even  those  of  the  lowest  rank, 
as  dangerous  and  mortal,  if  neglected  and  wilfully 
indulged,  and  not  carefully  opposed  by  striving 
against  them,  and  washing  away  the  guilt  by  daily 
repentance:  accoi-ding  to  what  we  have  heard  St. 
Austin  say  '**  before.  That  a  multitude  of  lesser  sins 
overwhelm  and  kill  the  soul,  if  they  be  neglected; 
as  a  small  leak  in  a  ship,  if  it  be  not  carefully  stop- 
ped or  drained,  will  sink  it,  as  well  as  a  bigger  wave : 
which  comparison  '^  he  uses  in  many  places.  And 
the  reader  that  pleases  may  find  the  same  caution 
given  against  lesser  sins,  as  mortal  in  their  own  na- 
ture, if  neglected  and  indulged,  by  Nazianzen,'''*' 
Basil,'"  Jerom,'^'  Gregory  the  Great,''^"  and  many 
others,  who  say.  There  is  no  sin  so  small,  but  that 
in  rigoiu"  of  justice  it  would  prove  mortal,  if  God 
would  enter  into  judgment  with  us,  and  be  extreme 
to  mark  what  is  done  amiss  against  his  law,  and 
especially  in  contempt  of  it.  But  to  return  to  the 
business  in  hand. 

As  it  was  a  general  rule,  not  to  use  ^ect.  15. 

excommunication  for  slight  offences  ;  nou.Sed'fof'"" 
so  we  may  observe,  it  was  no  rule  to  '""p""'  causes. 
use  this  weapon,  as  in  after  ages,  for  mere  pecuni- 
ary matters  and  temporal  causes.  It  has  frequently 
been  complained  of  by  learned  men,  both  of  the 
protestant  and  Roman  communion,  that  this  is  a 
great  abuse  '™  of  excommunication,  that  it  is  often 
issued  forth  for  the  discovery  of  theft,  or  the  mani- 
festation of  secret  actions.  Of  which  there  are  di- 
vers instances  in  the  Decretals ;  and  approbation 
is  given  to  them  by  the  council  of  Trent,"*"  only  re- 
serving such  cases  as  a  special  privilege  to  the  bi- 
shop ;  who  is  to  give  a  premonition  to  he  knows 
not  whom,  and  condemn  a  pretended  criminal  with- 
out hearing,  contrary  to  all  the  rules  aforesaid  in 
the  primitive  church,  which  allowed  no  excommu- 
nication in  a  slight  cause,  nor  in  any  cause  without 
sufficient  evidence,  and  allowing  the   criminal  to 


150  Nyssen.  Ep.  ad  Letoium. 

'^'  DallsD.  (le  Confess.  Auricular,  lib.  1.  cap.  20. 

>'2  Du  Pin,  Cent.  4.  p.  219. 

''••^  Petav.  Not.  in  Epiphau.  p.  238. 

'^■'  Aug.  Tract.  12.  in  Joan.  p.  47. 

'^5  Vid.  Aug.  Tract.  1.  in  1  Joan.  p.  237.  Serm.  3.  in 
Psal.  cxviii.  p.  545.  De  Civ.  Doi,  lib.  £i,  cap.  27.  Ep. 
108.     Horn.  ult.  ex  50. 

""  Naz.  Orat.  .31.  p.  504.  '"  Basil.  Regula,  13iev.  4. 

"'»  Hieron.  Ep.  14. 


1.59  Greg.  lib.  2.  in  cap.  1.  Reg.  lib.  1.  Horn.  2.  in  Ezek. 
Gennad.  de  Eccl.  Dogm.  cap.  53. 

'™  Taylor,  Duct.  Dubit.  lib.  3.  cap.  4.  p.  G17.  Du  Moulin, 
Buckler  of  Faith,  p.  3(J9.  Gentillet.  Examen  Cone.  Trid. 
p.  300.  Gerson.  in  Bishop  Taylor,  ibid. 

""  Cone.  Trid.  Sess.  25.  de  Reformat,  cap.  3.  Excom- 
raunicationcs  iliac,  quae  monitionibus  prsemissis,  ad  finem 
revelationis,  ut  aiunt,  aut  pro  deperditis  sen  subtractis 
rebus  forri  solent,  auemine  prorsus  prsterquani  ab  episcopo 
decernantur. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


923 


speak  for  himself.  So  again,  as  Du  Moulin  ob- 
serves'"'- out  of  Cardinal  Tolet,  in  the  Romish 
church  they  excommunicate  men  for  future  time, 
and  before  any  crime  is  committed,  and  that  for 
securing  only  the  stocks  or  trees  of  the  lord  of  a 
town  or  village  from  spoil,  although  no  man  has 
laid  hand  upon  them.  At  the  request  of  a  creditor 
they  excommunicate  a  debtor,  if  he  pay  not  within 
a  certain  term,  and  his  insufficiency  to  pay  is  the 
only  remedy  in  the  utmost  extremity  which  the  law 
of  the  Decretals"^  allows  him  from  so  severe  a  cen- 
sure. But  that  which  is  chiefly  complained  of  by 
their  own  learned  Gerson  in  this  matter,  is  the  abuse 
of  excommunication  in  the  pecuniary  concerns  of 
ecclesiastical  courts  themselves.  Bishop  Taylor 
lias  alleged  "'^  him  in  these  words :  "  Not  everj'  con- 
tumacy against  the  orders  of  courts  ecclesiastical  is 
to  be  punished  with  this  death.  If  it  be  in  matters 
of  faith  or  manners,  then  the  case  is  competent: 
but  when  it  is  a  question  of  money  and  fees,  besides 
that  the  case  is  full  of  envy  and  reproach,  apt  for 
scandal,  and  to  bring  contempt  upon  the  church, 
the  church  has  no  direct  power  in  it;  and  if  it  have 
by  the  aid  of  the  civil  power,  then  for  that  a  civil 
coercion  must  be  used.  It  is  certainly  unlawful  to 
excommunicate  any  man  for  not  paying  the  fees  of 
courts  ;  for  a  contumacy  there  is  an  offence  against 
the  civil  power,  and  he  hath  a  sword  of  his  own  to 
avenge  that.  But  excommunication  is  a  sword  to 
avenge  the  contumacy  of  them  who  stubbornly  of- 
fend against  the  discipline  of  the  church,  in  that 
wherein  Christ  hath  given  her  authority,  and  that 
is  in  the  matters  of  salvation  and  damnation  imme- 
diate, in  such  things  where  there  is  no  secular 
interest,  where  there  can  be  no  dispute,  where  the 
offender  does  not  sin  by  consequence  and  interpreta- 
tion, but  directly  and  without  excuse.  But  let  it  be 
considered  how  great  a  reproach  it  is  to  ecclesiasti- 
cal discipline,  if  it  be  made  to  minister  to  the  covet- 
ousness,  or  to  the  needs  of  proctors  and  advocates ; 
and  if  the  church  shall  punish  more  cruelly  than 
civil  courts  for  equal  offences,  and  because  she  hath 
but  one  thing  to  strike  withal,  if  she  upon  all  occa- 
sions smites  with  her  sword,  it  will  either  kill  too 
many,  or  hurt  and  affright  none  at  all."  Whatever 
force  there  is  in  these  arguments,  or  however  they 
may  affect  the  Romish  church  for  this  apparent 
corruption  of  discipline,  they  do  not  in  the  least 
affect  the  primitive  church,  which  was  conscious  of 
no  such  practice,  but  forbade  all  excommunication 


for  light  offences,  among  which  pecuniaiy  matters 
must  be  reckoned.  It  is  true,  bishops  sometimes 
sat  judges  in  civil  causes,  and  their  determinations 
in  such  cases  were  peremptory  and  final ;  but  then 
their  coercive  power  in  such  judicatures  was  not 
excommunication,  but  civil  punishments  borrowed 
from  the  state,  and  which  the  state  obliged  itself  to 
see  duly  put  in  execution ;  of  which  I  have  given 
an  ample  account '^^  heretofore,  and  showed  it  to  be 
a  very  different  thing  from  excommunication,  or  any 
kind  of  ecclesiastical  censure. 

I  observe  further,  as  very  remark- 
able in  this  matter,  that  no  bishop     No  bithopaiio«cd 

..J,  .  to   use  it  to  avpnge 

was  allowed  to  excommunicate  any  any  private  injury 

.  doue  to  himtielf. 

man  for  any  private  injury  done  to 
himself.  For  though  this  might  be  a  great  crime, 
yet  it  looked  like  avenging  himself,  and  therefore  it 
was  thought  unbecoming  his  character  to  right 
himself  by  excommunication,  but  either  he  was  to 
bear  the  injury  patiently,  or  commit  his  cause  to  the 
judgment  of  others.  Upon  this  account  Cyprian 
distinguishes  between  injuries  done  to  himself  in 
his  personal  and  private  capacity,  and  injuries  done 
to  the  detriment  of  the  brethren  or  whole  body  of 
the  church.  I  can  bear  and  pass  over  '*"  any  af- 
front that  is  put  upon  my  episcopal  character,  as  I 
have  always  done,  when  it  only  concerned  my  own 
person :  but  now  there  is  no  longer  room  for  forbear- 
ance, when  many  of  our  brethren  are  deceived  by 
some  of  you,  who,  whilst  they  would  more  plausibly 
recommend  themselves  to  the  lapsers  by  an  unreason- 
able and  hasty  restoring  them  to  the  peace  of  the 
church,  do  more  really  prejudice  their  salvation.  Here 
he  plainly  distinguishes  between  personal  injuries, 
which  he  could  bear  w'ithout  any  great  resentment 
or  thoughts  of  punishing :  but  those  that  were  of 
a  more  public  nature,  and  not  only  affronts  to  his 
authority,  but  prejudicial  to  the  people,  those  he 
threatens  to  animadvert  upon  according  to  their 
deserving.  We  find  a  like  distinction  made  by 
Gregory  the  Great,  who,  writing  to  a  certain  bishop 
who  had  excommunicated  a  man  for  a  private  in- 
jury done  to  himself,  he  thus  reproves  him  for  it : 
You  show""  that  you  think  nothing  of  heavenly 
things,  whilst  you  inflict  the  curse  of  anathema,  or 
excommunication,  for  the  avenging  a  private  injury 
done  to  yourself,  which  the  holy  canons  forbid. 
Therefore  be  circumspect  and  cautious  for  the 
future,  and  presume  not  to  do  anj'  such  thing  to 
any  man  in  defence  of  your  own  private  injuries. 


'^  Du  Moulin,  ibid,  ex  Tolet.  Instruct.  Sacerdot.  cap.  8. 

'«  Decretal.  Gregor.  lib.  .3.  Tit.  23.  de  Solution,  cap.  3. 

"^  Gerson.  de  Vita  Spiritual!,  Lect.  4.  Corol.  7. 

'"  Book  II.  chap.  7. 

"=«  Cypr.  Ep.  10.  al.  16.  ad  Cler.  p.  36.  Contumcliam 
episcopatiis  nostri  dissimulare  et  ferre  possum,  sicufdissimu- 
lavi  semper  ct  pertuli :  set!  dissimnlandi  nunc  locus  non  est, 
quando  decipiatur  fraternitas  nostra  a  quibusdam  vestrum, 
qui  dum  sine  ratione  restituendae  salutis  plausibiles   esse 


cupiunt,  magis  lapsis  obsunt. 

IS'  Gren;.  lib.  2.  Ep.  31.  Nihil  te  ostendis  de  coelestibus 
cogitare,  sed  terrenamte  conversationein  habere  signidcas; 
dum  pro  vindicta  propriae  injuriae  (quod  saeris  regulis  pro- 
hibetur)  maledictionem  anathematis  inve.xisti.  Unde  de 
cetero  omniuo  esto  circumspectus  atque  sollicitus,  et  talia 
cuiquam  pro  defensione  propriae  injuriae  tuae  int'erre  denun 
non  praesumas.  Nam  si  tale  aliqnid  f'eceris,  in  te  scias  post- 
ea  viudicandum.    Vid.  Gratian.  Caus.  23.  Quaest.  4.  cap.  27. 


924 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


Otherwise  you  may  expect  to  feel  the  censures  of 
the  church  for  your  presumption.  That  there  were 
ancient  canons  to  this  purpose  in  the  time  of  Gre- 
gory, cannot  be  doubted  from  his  testimony,  though 
I  know  of  none  at  present  that  speak  directly  to 
this  particular  case  :  only,  in  general,  the  council  of 
Sardica'^  forbids  bishops  to  excommunicate  any 
one  in  passion  or  hasty  anger,  and  allows  the  in- 
jured person  to  appeal  to  the  provincial  synod,  or 
the  neighbouring  bishops,  for  redress  in  all  such 
cases. 

It  is  also  worth  noting,  that  the 
No  man  to'be  ex-  cliurcli  iuflictcd  tlic  scvcrc  ccnsurcs  of 

communicated     for  .  .  i       r 

Bins  only  in  design  excommunication  upon  men  only  tor 

and  intention- 
overt  acts,  and  not  for  sins  in  bare 

design  and  intention  :  because,  though  these  might 
be  great  sins  before  God,  as  our  Saviour  says,  "  He 
that  looks  on  a  woman  to  lust  after  her,  hath  com- 
mitted adultery  with  her  already  in  his  heart ;"  yet 
the  church  was  no  proper  judge  of  the  heart,  and 
therefore  she  did  not  ordinarily  punish  such  sins, 
till  they  made  some  visible  appearance  in  the  out- 
ward action.  This  seems  to  be  the  meaning  of  that 
canon  of  the  council  of  Neocaesarea,'^^  which  says, 
"  If  a  man  purpose  in  his  heart  to  commit  fornica- 
tion with  a  woman,  but  his  lust  proceed  not  into 
action,  it  is  apparent  he  is  delivered  by  grace." 
That  is,  he  sins  before  God  for  his  wicked  design, 
but  the  church  inflicts  not  excommunication  upon 
him,  because  his  intention  proceeds  not  to  any  out- 
ward act  of  uncleanness.  So  Zonaras""  interprets 
it  among  the  ancients,  and  Osiander  among  the 
modern '"'  interpreters.  Though  some  think  that 
such  intentions,  if  discovered  by  any  overt  acts, 
might  bring  a  man  under  ecclesiastical  censure. 

The  case  is  more  clear  as  to  all 
Nor  for  forced  or  forccd  aud  involuntary  actions,  where 

involuntary  actions. 

the  will  was  no  way  consenting  to 
them.  For  as  they  were  free  from  sin,  so  they  were 
from  punishment.  There  were  some  indeed,  who, 
out  of  an  over-abundant  zeal  and  ignorant  pretence 
of  purity,  were  for  excluding  men  from  communion 
for  such  things,  which  were  more  to  be  reckoned 
their  misfortunes  than  their  crimes  :  but  the  council 
of  Ancyra  prudently  corrected  this  erroneous  zeal 
by  a  canon '"  to  this  purpose ;  That  communion 
should  not  be  denied  to  those  who  fled,  but  were 
apprehended  or  betrayed  by  their  servants,  and  suf- 
fered loss  of  their  estates,  or  torture,  or  imprison- 
ment, declaring  all  the  while  that  they  were  Chris- 
tians ;  though  they  were  held,  and  by  violence  the 


incense  was  put  into  their  hands,  and  they  were   ' 
forced  to  receive  meat  otFered  to  idols  into   their  ; 
mouths,  declaring  themselves  all  the  time  to  be 
Christians,   and  showing  by  their  behaviour  and 
habit,  and  humble  course  of  life,  that  they  were 
sorry  for  that  which  happened ;  these  being  without 
sin,  are  not  to  be  debarred  from  communion.    Or  if, 
by  the  superabundant  caution  or  ignorance  of  any, 
they  have  been  debarred,  let  them  forthwith  be  re-   ■ 
ceived  into  communion  again.     And  the  like  is  de-   '■ 
termined  in  the  case  of  women  that  sutfer  ravish-    , 
ment  against  their  wills,  by  Gregory  Thaumaturgus,'" 
and  St.  Basil.'"     And  so  by  Dionysius  of  Alexan-    ; 
dria,'"  and  Athanasius,'"'^  and  others,  for  any  in- 
voluntary defilement  whatsoever.     These  were  the 
general  measures  observed  by  the  ancients,  to  dis-   I 
tinguish  great  and  small  offences,  or  innocence  from    ; 
sin,  in  order  to  show  what  might  or  might  not  bring 
men  under  the  censure  of  excommunication.     But 
because  it  wall  contribute  much  toward  the  more 
exact  understanding  of  the  ancient  discipline,  to    : 
know  more  particularly  the  several  sorts  of  those   i 
greater  crimes  for  which  men  were  subjected  to  the   | 
highest  censures,  I  will  now  proceed  to  make  a 
more  distinct  inquiry  into  the  nature,  and  kinds, 
and  degrees  of  those  high  misdemeanors  in  the  fol- 
lowing chapters. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

A  PARTICULAR  ACCOUNT  OF  THOSE  CALLED  GREAT 
CRIMES,  THE  PRINCIPAL  OF  WHICH  WAS  IDOL- 
ATRY. OF  ITS  SEVERAL  SPECIES,  AND  TEGREES 
OF  PUNISHMENT  ALLOTTED  TO  THEM  ACCORDING 
TO  THE  PROPORTION  AND  QUALITY  OF  THE 
OFFENCES. 

Learned   men  are  not  well  agreed 

about  the  number  of  those  which  the      Tiie"  mistake  of 

.   ,  some  about  the  nnm- 

ancients  called  great  crimes,  with  re-  ber  of  great  crimes, 

°  in   confining   tiiem 

ference  to  the  ecclesiastical  punish-  to  idolatry,  adultery, 

■^  and  murder, 

ment,  nor  about  the  reason  and  found- 
ation of  that  title.  There  were  some  in  St.  Austin's 
time,  who  were  for  confining  great  crimes,  for  which 
excommunication  was  to  be  inflicted,  to  three  only, 
adultery,  idolatry,  and  murder  :  these  they  allowed 
to  be  mortal  sins,  and  made  no  doubt  but  that  they 
were  to  be   punished'  with  excommunication,  till 


'*■'  Cone.  Sardic.  can.  14.  in  Latin.  Edit.  17. 

"■'  Cone.  Neocncsar.  can.4.     '""  Zonar.  in  Can.  32.  Basil. 

'"  Osiand.  in  Can.  4.  Neocoes.  edit.  Witeberg.  1614. 
Hoc  videtur  velle  hie  canon,  eum  non  cadere  sub  poenani 
aliquam  discipliii.c  ecclesiasticae,  &c. 

'■2  Cone.  Ancyr.  can.  3.  '"  Greg.  Thaum.  can.  ]. 

"'  Basil,  can.  49.  '"  Dionvs.  can.  4. 


"■''  Athan.  Ep.  ad  Ammum.  ap.  Bevereg.  Pandect,  t.  2.    ' 
p.  36.  ; 

'  Aug.  de  Fide  et  Oper.  cap.  19.  Qui  autem  opinantur  et  } 
caetera  cleemosynis  facile  conipensari,  tria  tamen  mortifera  < 
esse  non  dubitent  excommunicatione  punienda,  donee  poe- 
nitentia  humiliore  sancntur,  impudicitiam,  idololatriam, 
homicidium. 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Ol*) 


they  were  cured  by  the  humiliation  of  public  pe- 
nance ;  but  for  all  others  they  said  compensation 
might  easily  be  made  by  giving  of  alms.  This  St. 
Austin  labours  to  confute,  not  only  in  the  place  al- 
leged, but  in  several  others,'  by  which  it  is  evident, 
that  these  were  not  the  only  great  crimes,  that  were 
punished  with  excommunication.  And,  therefore, 
those  modern  authors  make  a  wrong  representation 
of  the  ancient  discipline,  who  confine  it  to  those 
three  great  crimes,  or  to  such  as  may  be  reduced  to 
them :  since  it  is  apparent,  from  what  is  now  said, 
that  it  extended  much  further ;  and,  as  I  shall  pre- 
sently show,  included  all  the  great  crimes  against 
the  whole  decalogue,  or  transgressions  of  the  moral 
law  in  every  instance. 

And  it  is  very  observable,  that  even 

Sect.  2.  •  1  •     •!    1  1  1  • 

The  account  given  m  the  civil  law,  the  accouut  that  is 

of  great  crimes  in  the 

civil  h.weitended  given  of  great  crimes  extended  much 

much  turther.  °  " 

further.  For  when  the  emperors,  ac- 
cording to  custom,  at  the  Easter  festival,  granted  a 
general  release  and  indulgence  to  such  as  were  im- 
prisoned for  their  misdemeanors,  they  still  excepted 
several  other  heinous  crimes,  specified  in  their  laws, 
some  five,  some  six,  some  eight,  some  ten,  which 
cannot  be  reduced  to  the  three  crimes  of  idolatry, 
adultery,  and  murder.  The  laws  of  Valentinian 
and  Gratian^  except  seven  capital  crimes  from  any 
benefit  of  such  indulgence,  viz.  sacrilege,  treason, 
robbing  of  graves,  necromancy,  adultery,  ravish- 
ment, and  murder.  The  laws  of  Theodosius  the 
Great  except  eight  capital  crimes ;  treason,  parricide, 
murder,  adultery,  ravishment,  incest,  necromancy, 
and  counterfeiting  of  the  imperial  coin.*  And  those 
of  Valentinian  junior  except  ten;  sacrilege,  adul- 
tery,* incest,  ravishment,  robbing  of  graves,  charms, 
necromancy,  counterfeiting  the  coin,  murder,  and 
treason.  Now,  when  the  civil  law  excepted  so  many 
great  crimes,  under  the  name  of  atrocia  dclicta,  from 
the  benefit  of  these  indulgences,  it  is  not  probable 
(were  there  no  other  argument  to  persuade  it)  that 
the  ecclesiastical  law  would  let  any  of  those  heinous 
ofiences  go  unpunished,  or  wholly  escape  the  severity 
of  church  censure. 

^     ^  But  we  have  clearer  and  more  cer- 

vical "lawf  the'aci  tain  evidence  in  the  case.  For,  first, 
St.  Austin  says.  The  great  crimes, 
which  were  punished  with  public  pe- 
nance, were  such  as  were  against  the  whole  deca- 
logue, or  ten  commandments,®  of  which  the  apostle 
says,  "  They  which  do  such  things  shall  not  inherit 


astical 
count  ofijrcat 
exteiuled  to  th 
ivhole  decalogi 


the  kingdom  of  God."  Only,  as  Mr.  Daillc'  rightly 
observes,  we  must  interpret  this  of  capital  crimes 
directly  and  expressly  forbidden  in  the  law,  not  of 
all  remote  branches  or  lower  degrees  of  sin,  that 
may  any  way  whatsoever  be  reduced  to  the  princi- 
pal crime,  or  indirectly  come  under  the  prohibition. 
For  otherwise  it  would  not  be  true,  that  all  sins 
forbidden  in  the  decalogue  brought  men  under 
public  penance,  since  there  are  some  transgressions 
only  conceived  in  the  heart,  and  never  completed 
in  outward  action,*  which,  though  they  might  be 
great  breaches  of  the  law,  yet  they  could  not  come 
under  public  censure,  but  were  to  be  cured  by  pri- 
vate repentance. 

Supposing,    therefore,    that    there 
were  many  great  crimes  against  every     a  partJcnuV  enu- 

,       c  1.1  11  1   ■    1  ■     1    ,     meration  of  the  great 

precept  oi  the  moral  law,  which  might  cnmes  against  the 

,      .  .,  ,       .  .        ,  lirst  and  second  com- 

bring  men  under  ecclesiastical  censure  'nandn.ents.  or 

^  idolatry,  and  the  se- 

and  public  penance,  we  will  now  pro-  brlnciXof V"'' 
ceed,  in  the  order  of  the  decalogue,  to 
consider  the  nature,  and  kinds,  and  punishment  of 
them.  The  great  crimes  against  the  first  and  second 
commandments  (which  were  commonly  joined  to- 
gether) were  comprised  under  the  general  names  of 
apostacy  and  irreligion ;  which  comprehended  the 
several  species  of  idolatry ;  blaspheming  and  de- 
nying Christ  in  time  of  persecution ;  using  the 
wicked  arts  of  divination,  magic,  and  enchantments  ; 
and  dishonouring  God  by  sacrilege  and  simony,  by 
heresy  and  .schism,  and  other  such  profanations 
and  abuses,  corruptions  and  contempts  of  his  true 
religion  and  service.  All  these  were  justly  reputed 
gi'eat  crimes,  and  ordinarily  punished  with  the  se- 
verest ecclesiastical  censures. 

Of  idolaters  there  were  several  sorts : 
some  went  openly  to  the  temples,  and  ^^^  [J 
there  ofiered  incense  to  the  idols,  and  p'oiatrrb/okrinK 
were  partakers  of  the  sacrifices.  These  p"  rl"kL'g  oa'heTa- 
were  distinguished  by  the  name  of 
sacrificati  and  thurificati,  as  we  find  them  often 
styled  in  Cyprian,"  who  speaks  of  them  as  defiling 
both  their  hands  and  mouths  by  the  sacrilegious 
touch ;  meaning  their  hands  by  offering  incense, 
and  their  mouths  by  eating  of  the  sacrifices.  And 
of  these  also  there  were  several  degrees.  Some,  as 
soon  as  ever  a  persecution  was  set  on  foot,  before 
they  were  called  upon,  or  had  any  violence  offered 
to  them,  went  voluntarily  to  the  temples,  and  offered 
sacrifice  of  their  own  accord ;  whilst  others  held  out 
a  long  time  against  torture,  and   onlv  sacrificed 


Sect.  5. 

iUati 
and    thtirijitaii, 


■  Vid.  Aug.  Horn.  ult.exSO.  De  Civ.  Dei,  lib.  21.  cap.  27. 

'  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  .38.  De  Indiilgentiis  Criminum, 
Leg.  3.  Ob  diem  Paschae,  quern  intimo  corde  celebramus, 
omnibus  quos  reatus  adstringit,  career  inclusit,  claustra  dis- 
solvimus.  Attamen  sacrilegus,  in  majestate  reus,  in  mor- 
tuos,  veneficus  sive  maleficus,  adulter,  raptor,  hoinicida  com- 
munione  islius  muneris  separentur.     It.  Leg.  4.  ibid. 

*  Ibid.  Leg.  6.  *  Ibid.  Leg.  7  et  8. 

•^  Aug.  Horn.  ult.  ex  50.  cap.  3.  t.  10.  p.  205.  Terti'a  actio 


est  poenitentiae,  quae  pro  illis  peccatis  subeunda  est,  quae  legis 
decalogus  continet:  et  de  quibiis  apostolus  ait,  Qui  talia 
agiint,  regnum  Dei  non  possidebunt. 

'  Dallneus  de  Confess.  Auricidar.  lib.  4.  cap.  20.  p.  43L 
"  Vid.  Aug.  Horn.  44.  de  Verb.  Dom.  c.  5. 
"Cypr.  Ep.  15.  al.  20.  ad  Cler.  Horn.  p.  43.     Qui  sacri- 
legis  contactibus  manus  siias  atque  ora  maculassent.      It. 
Ep.  55.  al.  52.  ad  Antonian.  p.  108.     Placuit  sacrificatis  in 
exitu  subveniri,  quia  exomologesis  apud  inferos  non  est. 


926 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


when  the  utmost  necessity  compelled  them.  Cyprian 
makes  a  great  difference '"  between  these  two  sorts 
of  lapsers ;  as  he  does  also  between  those  who  went 
not  only  themselves,  but  compelled  their  wives,  and 
children,  and  servants,  and  friends,  to  go  and  sacri- 
fice W'ith  them,  and  those  who,  to  deliver  their 
families  and  friends  from  danger,  went  and  exposed 
themselves  alone ;  by  this  means  protecting  not 
only  their  own  families,  but  also  many  Christian 
brethren  and  strangers  that  were  banished,  and  had 
fled  to  take  shelter  in  their  houses,  who  were  as  so 
many  living  intercessors  to  God  for  them.  They 
who  did  thus,  he  thinks,  were  much  more  excusable 
than  those  who  both  went  voluntarily,  and  by  their 
counsel  and  authority  compelled  many  others  to  go 
along  with  them.  AVhose  crimes  he  therefore  ele- 
gantly describes  and  aggravates  after  this  manner," 
in  his  book  De  Lapsis :  They  did  not  stay  till  they 
were  apprehended,  to  go  to  the  capitol,  but  denied 
the  faith  before  any  question  was  asked  them  about 
it.  They  were  conquered  before  the  fight,  and  fell 
wdthout  any  engagement.  They  ran  to  the  forum 
of  their  own  accord,  and  made  haste  to  give  them- 
selves the  mortal  wound,  as  their  own  voluntary  act 
without  compulsion ;  as  if  they  had  desired  this 
long  before,  and  now  only  embraced  the  opportunity 
that  was  given  them,  which  they  always  wished  for. 
How  was  it,  that  when  they  went  so  readily  to  the 
capitol  to  do  this  wicked  act,  their  legs  did  not  sink 
under  them,  and  their  eyes  grow  dim,  and  their 
bowels  tremble,  and  their  arms  fall  down,  and 
their  senses  become  stupid,  and  their  tongue  falter 
or  cleave  to  the  roof  of  their  mouth,  and  their 
words  fail  them  ?  Could  the  servant  of  God  stand 
there,  and  speak,  and  renounce  Christ,  who  had 
before  renounced  the  devil  and  the  w^orld  ?  "Was 
not  that  altar,  whither  he  came  to  die,  more  like 
his  funeral  pile  ?  Ought  he  not  to  have  abhorred 
and  fled  from  the  altar  of  the  devil,  as  his  cofiin  or 
his  grave,  when  he  saw  it  smoke  and  fume  with  a 
stinking  smell  ?  To  what  purpose,  thou  miserable 
wretch,  didst  thou  bring  thy  oblation,  and  put  thy 
sacrifice  upon  the  altar?  Thou  thyself  wert  the 
victim,  thou  thyself  the  sacrifice  and  burnt  offer- 
ing. There  thou  didst  sacrifice  thy  salvation,  and 
burn  thy  faith  and  thy  hope  in  those  abominable 
fires.  But  many  were  not  content  with  their  own 
destruction ;  the  people  provoked  one  another  into 
ruin  by  mutual  calls  and  exhortations,  and  the 
cup  of  death  was  handed  round  by  every  man  to  his 
neighbour.     And  that  nothincr  might  be  wanting 


to   consummate   the   crime,  parents   carried   their 
children  in  their  arms,  or  led  them  after   them, 
that  their  little  ones  might  lose  what  they  had 
gained  in  their  first  birth.     Will  not  they  say,  when 
the  day  of  judgment  comes.  We  did  nothing  our- 
selves ;  we  did  not  leave  the  bread  and  cup  of  the 
Lord,  to  run  of  our  own  accord  to  those  profane 
contagions :    it  was  the  treachery  of  others   that 
destroyed  us,  our  parents  were  guilty  of  parricide 
toward  us.     They  deprived  us  of  the  privilege  of 
having  the  church  for  our  mother,  and  God  for  our 
Father ;  that  whilst  we  were  little,  and  unable  to 
care  for  ourselves,  and  ignorant  of  so  great  a  wick- 
edness, we  should  be  taken  and  betrayed  by  other 
men's  frauds,  being  by  them  made  partners  in  their 
offences.    Thi;s  far  Cyprian,  aggravating  the  crimes 
of  those  who  showed  such  a  forwardness  to  commit 
idolatry,  and  apostatize  with  gi-eediness  and  delight. 
Now,  as  these  were  some  of  the  highest  degrees 
of  idolatry,  so  the  church  put  a  remarkable  differ- 
ence between  them  and  others  in  her  punishments, 
setting  a  more  peculiar  mark  or  note  of  distinction 
upon   them  in  her  censures.     There  are  several 
canons  in  the  council  of  Ancyra,  which  plainly 
show  this  distinction.     The  fourth  canon  orders, 
"  That  they  who  were  compelled  to  go  to  an  idol 
temple,  if  they  went  with  a  pleasing  air,  and  in  a 
festival  habit,  and  took   share  of  the  feast  with 
unconcernedness,  that   they  should  do  six  years' 
penance,  one  as  hearers  only,  three  as  prostrators, 
and  two  as  co-standers  to  hear  the  prayers,  before 
they  were  admitted  to  full  communion  again.    But 
if  they  went  in  a  mourning  habit  to  the  temple, 
and  wept  all  the  time  they  eat  of  the  sacrifice,  then 
four  years'  penance  should  be  sufficient  to  restore  i 
them  to  perfection."      The   eighth  canon  orders, 
"  Those  who   repeated  their  crime  by  sacrificing 
twice  or  thrice,  to  do  a  longer  penance ;  for  seven 
years  is  appointed  to  be  their  term  of  discipline."  * 
And  by  the  ninth  canon,  "  If  any  not  only  sacrificed 
themselves,  but  also  compelled  their  brethren,  or  • 
were  the  occasion  of  compelling  them,  then  they  • 
were  to  do  ten  years'  penance,  as  guilty  of  a  more  ' 
heinous  wickedness,"  according  as  we  have  heard  ij 
Cyprian  represent  it.     But  if  any  did  neither  sacri-  -: 
fice,  nor  eat  things  offered  to  idols,  but  only  their  ■ 
own  meat  on  a  heathen  festival  in  an  idol  temple, , 
they  were  only  confined  to  two  years'  penance  by  • 
the  seventh  canon  of  the  same  council.     These  • 
canons  chiefly  respect  such  as  transgressed  after- 
some  violence  or  force  put  upon  them,  by  torture,  or 


'"  Cypr.  ibid.  p.  106.  Infer  ipsos  eliam  qui  saciifi- 
caverint,  et  conditio  frequenter  et  causa  diversa  est.  Ne- 
que  enim  CEquandi  sunt,  ille  qui  ad  sacrificium  nefandum 
statim  voluntate  prosiluit ;  et  qui  reluctatus  et  con^ressus 
diu  ad  hoc  funestura  opus  necessitate  pervenit;  ille  qui 
et  se  et  omnes  suos  prodidit;  et  qui  ipse  pro  cunctis  ad 
discrimen   accedens,  uxorenti  et  liberos,  et  domum  tutam 


periculi  sui  perfunctione  protexit,  ille  qui  inquilinos  vel  i 
amicos  suos  ad  facinus  compulit,  et  qui  inquilinis  et  colo- 
nis  pepercit,  fratres  ctiam  plurimos,  qui  extorres  et  pro- 
fugi  recedebant,  in  sua  tecta  et  hospitia  recepit,  ostendens ' 
el  offereus  Domino  multas  viventes  et  incolumes  animas, 
quae  pro  una  saucia  depreceatur.  Vid.  Petri  Alex.  can. 
1,  2,  3.  "  Cypr.  de  Lapsis,  p.  124. 


Chap.  IV, 


ANTIQUITIES  OP  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


927 


banishment,  or  imprisonment,  or  confiscation,  or 
the  hke  necessity  in  any  other  kind  of  tri;U ;  but  if 
any  vokuitarily  apostatized,  and  prevaricated  with- 
out compulsion,  a  severer  punishment  was  laid  upon 
them  ;  for,  by  the  rules  of  the  council  of  Nice,''^ 
they  were  to  undergo  twelve  years'  penance,  before 
they  were  perfectly  restored  again  to  full  conmiu- 
nion.  And  the  same  term  is  appointed  by  the 
second  council  of  Aries, '^  which  refers  to  the  Ni- 
cene  canon.  The  council  of  Valence  in  France" 
goes  a  little  further,  and  obliges  them  to  do  penance 
all  their  lives,  and  allows  them  absolution  only  at 
the  hour  of  death,  which  they  were  to  expect  more 
fully  from  the  hands  of  God  only,  who  alone  had 
the  absolute  power  of  it,  and  was  infinite  in  mercy 
that  no  one  should  despair.  Agreeable  to  which  is 
that  rule  of  Siricius,'^  that  apostates  should  do  pe- 
nance all  their  lives,  and  be  reconciled  only  at  the 
hour  of  death.  The  council  of  Eliberis  goes  be- 
yond this,  and  denies  such  apostates  communion  at 
the  very  last  extremity,'"  because  this  was  the  great 
and  principal  crime  above  all  others.  And  some- 
times adultery  and  murder  were  a  sort  of  accesso- 
ries or  concomitants  of  this  idolatry,  as  many  times 
it  was  in  the  heathenish  games  and  shows,  which 
were  made  up  of  idolatry,  adultery,  and  mur- 
der: upon  which  account  this  same  council  has 
another  canon,"  which  orders,  "  That  if  any  Chris- 
tian took  upon  him  the  office  of  ajkimoi  or  Roman 
priest,  and  therein  ofiered  sacrifice,  doubling  and 
trebling  his  crime  by  murder  and  adultery,  he  should 
not  be  received  to  communion  at  the  hour  of  death." 
Nor  need  we  wonder  at  this  severity,  since  Cyprian 
assures  us,  that  before  his  time ''  many  of  his  pre- 
decessors in  the  province  of  Africa  refused  to  grant 
communion  to  adulterers  to  the  very  last;  and 
yet  they  did  not  divide  communion  from  their  fel- 
low bishops  who  practised  otherwise.  And  he  says 
further,  concerning  voluntary  deserters  and  apos- 
tates,'^ who  continued  in  rebellion  all  their  lives, 
and  only   desired    penance  when  some   infirmity 


seized  them,  that  they  were  cut  off  from  all  hopes 
of  communion  and  peace ;  because  it  was  not  re- 
pentance for  their  fault,  but  the  fear  of  approach- 
ing death,  that  made  them  desire  a  reconciliation ; 
and  they  were  not  worthy  to  receive  that  comfort 
at  their  death,  who  would  not  consider  all  their 
life  before  that  they  were  liable  to  die.  The  first 
council  of  Aries  made  a  like  decree,-"  That  such 
as  voluntarily  apostatized,  and  never  after  sued  to 
the  church,  nor  desired  to  do  penance  all  their  lives 
till  some  infirmity  seized  them,  should  not  be  re- 
ceived to  communion,  unless  they  recovered,  and 
brought  forth  fruits  worthy  of  repentance.  These 
were  the  rules  by  which  the  ancient  discipline  was 
regulated  and  conducted  in  reference  to  such  idola- 
ters and  ajjostates,  as  actually  defiled  themselves  by 
offering  sacrifice  to  idols,  whether  it  were  by  force 
or  by  choice ;  whether  they  lapsed  singly,  or  drew 
others  into  the  same  crime  with  themselves ;  and 
whether  they  returned  immediately  and  became 
penitents,  or  continued  apostates  and  rebels  :  ac- 
cording to  the  difference  of  which  circumstances, 
different  degrees  of  punishment  were  laid  upon 
them. 

Another  sort  of  those  who  lapsed  ^^^^  ^ 
into  idolatry,  and  were  charged  with  ^Z[!-il^  [\u-ll"'iSU 
denying  their  rehgion,  were  called  ='">'^<'""^'"'- 
lihellutici,  from  certain  libels  or  writings,  which  they 
either  gave  to  the  heathen  magistrates  in  private, 
or  received  from  them,  to  be  excused  doing  sacrifice 
in  public.  Baronius"'  thinks  there  was  but  one 
sort  of  these  libeUatici,  and  that  they  all  expressly 
denied  Christ,  either  by  themselves  or  others ;  but 
being  ashamed  to  sacrifice  or  deny  him  in  pubUc, 
they  made  a  private  renunciation,  and  for  a  bribe 
got  a  libel  of  security  from  the  magistrate,  to  in- 
demnify and  secure  them  from  being  sought  after, 
or  called  upon  to  sacrifice  in  public.  But  other 
learned  men  ^  observe  some  distinction  among  them : 
and,  indeed,  there  seem  at  least  to  have  been  three 
sorts  of  them.     Some  expressly  gave  it  under  their 


'-  Cone.  Nic.  can.  II.  '^  Cone.  Arelat.  2.  can.  10. 

'^  Cone.  Valentin,  can.  3.  Acturi  pceniteutiam,  usque 
in  diom  mortis,  non  sine  spe  tamen  remissionis,  quam  ab  eo 
plcne  sperare  debebunt,  qui  ejus  largitatem  et  solus  obtinet, 
et  tam  dires  miscricordia  est,  ut  nemo  desperet. 

'^  Siric.  Ep.  1.  ad  Himerium,  cap.  3.  Apostatis,  quam- 
diu  vivunt,  agenda  pcenitentia  est,  et  in  ultimo  fine  suo  re- 
coneiliationis  gratia  tribuenda. 

"  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  1.  Plaeuit  inter  eos,  qui  post  fideni 
baptismi  salutaris,  adulta  aetate,  ad  templum  idololatratu- 
rus  accesserit,  et  fecerit,  quod  est  crimen  prineipale,  quia 
est  summum  seelus,  nee  in  fine  eum  communionem  acei- 
pere. 

'"  Ibid.  can.  2.  Flamines,  qui  post  fidem  lavacri  et  re- 
geuerationis  sacrificaverunt ;  eo  quod  geminaverint  scelera, 
accedente  homicidio,  vel  triplieaverint  facmus,  coba3rente 
mcechia,  plaeuit  eos  nee  in  fine  accipere  communionem. 

"  Cypr.  Ep.  52.  al.  bf>.  ad  Antonian.  p.  HO.  Et  qnidem 
apud  antecessores  nostros  quidam  de  episcopis  istic  in  pro- 


vincia  nostra  dandam  pacem  moechis  non  putaverunt,  et 
in  totum  pcenitentiae  locum  contra  adulteria  clauserunt, 
non  tamen  a  coepiscoporum  suorum  collegio  recesse- 
runt,  &c. 

•''  Cypr.  ibid.  p.  111.  Idcirco  pceuitentiam  non  agentcs, 
nee  dolorem  delictorum  suorum  toto  eorde  et  manifesta  la- 
mentationis  suae  professione  testantes,  prohibendos  oninino 
censuimus  a  spe  communicationis  et  pacis  ;  quia  rogare  illos 
non  delicti  poenitentia,  sed  mortis  urgentis  admonitio  com- 
pellit;  nee  dignus  est  in  morte  accipere  solatium,  qui  se 
non  cogitavit  esse  moriturum. 

^  Cone.  Arelat.  1.  can.  2.3.  De  his  qui  apostatant,  et 
nunquam  se  ad  ecclesiam  reprresentent,  nee  quidem  poeni- 
tentiamagere  quajrunt,  et  postea,  in  infiriuiiate  arrepti,  pc- 
tunt  communionem,  plaeuit  eis  non  dandam  communionem, 
nisi  revaluerint,  et  egerint  dignos  tructus  poenitentia;. 

2'  Baron,  an.  253.  n.  20. 

-  Vid.  Albaspin.  Observat.  lib.  1.  cap.  21.  Cave,  Prim. 
Cbrist.  lib.  3.  c.  5.  p.  381.     Suicer.  Thesaur.  t.  2.  p.  240. 


92  S 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI, 


hands  to  the  magistrate,  that  they  were  no  Chris- 
tians, denying  their  religion  in  word  or  writing,  as 
others  did  in  action ;  professing  they  were  ready  to 
sacrifice,  if  the  magistrate  should  call  them  to  it. 
Cyprian  often  speaks  of  these,  and  puts  them  in  the 
same  class  with  those  that  actually  sacrificed.  Let 
not  those  flatter  themselves,  says  he,^  as  if  they 
were  excused  from  doing  penance,  who,  although 
they  did  not  defile  their  hands  with  the  abominable 
sacrifices,  yet  defiled  their  consciences  by  a  libel.  A 
Christian  that  professes  he  denies  his  rehgion,  is 
witness  against  himself,  that  he  abjures  what  he 
was  before ;  he  owns  in  words  to  have  done  what- 
ever the  other  did  in  real  action.  Another  sort  did 
neither  abjure,  nor  sign  any  libel  of  abjuration 
themselves,  but  sent  either  a  heathen  f-iend  or  a 
servant  to  sacrifice  or  abjure  in  their  names,  and 
thereby  procure  them  a  libel  of  security  from  the 
magistrate,  as  if  they  had  done  what  the  others  did 
for  them.  And  indeed  the  church  so  interpreted  it, 
and  reckoned  tliese  no  less  criminals  than  the 
former.  The  Roman  clergy,  in  their  letter  to  Cy- 
prian, condemn  them  both  ahke,"*  saying.  That  this 
latter  sort,  though  they  were  not  present  at  the  fact 
of  delivering  the  libel  to  the  magistrate,  yet  they 
were  in  efTect  present  by  commanding  it  to  be  writ- 
ten and  presented.  For  he  that  commands  a  sin  to 
be  done,  cannot  discharge  himself  of  the  guilt  of  it; 
nor  can  he  be  innocent  of  the  crime,  by  whose  con- 
sent it  is  publicly  read  in  court  as  done,  though  he 
was  not  actually  the  doer  of  it.  Seeing  the  whole 
mystery  of  faith  is  summed  up  in  confessing  the 
name  of  Christ,  he  that  seeks  by  any  fallacious 
tricks  to  excuse  himself  from  such  profession,  does 
plainly  deny  it;  and  he  that,  when  edicts  and  laws 
are  published  against  the  gospel,  would  be  thought 
to  comply  with  and  observe  them,  does  in  that  very 
thing  obey  them,  in  that  he  would  have  the  world 
believe  that  he  does  obey  them.  The  Canons  of 
Peter,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  also  take  notice  of  this 
sort  of  libellers,  and  appoint  them  their  punish- 
ment, making  this  difference  between  a  master  who 
compelled  his  slave  to  go  and  sacrifice  for  him,  and 
the  slave  who  went  at  his  command :  the  slave 
was"  to  do  one  year's  penance,  but  the  master  is 
enjoined  three  years,  because  he  dissembled,  and 
because  he  compelled  his  fellow  servant  to  sacrifice : 
for  we  are  all  servants  of  the  Lord,  with  whom  is 


-'  Cypr.  de  Lapsis,  p.  133.  Nee  silii,  quo  miuus  agant 
pcEiiitentiam,  blandianlur,  qui  etsi  nefandis  sacrificiis  manus 
non  contaminaverunf,  libellis  tamen  conscientiam  pollue- 
runt.  Et  ilia  professio  denegantis  contestatio  est  Christiani, 
quod  fuerat  abauentis;  fecisse  sc  dixit,  quicquid  alius  faci- 
ondo  commisit.  So  in  the  Epistle  of  the  Itoman  clergy  to 
Cyprian.  Ep.  30.  al.  31.  p.  57.  Scipsos  infideles  illicita 
nefariorum  libellorum  ])rnfessione  prodiderant,  quando  non 
minus  quam  si  ad  nefarias  aras  accessissent,  hoc  ipso,  quod 
ipsutn  contestati  fuerant,  tenerentur. 

-*  Ibid.     Sententiam  tulimus  etiain  adver.sus  illos  qui  ac- 


no  respect  of  persons.  Besides  these,  there  was 
another  sort  of  libellers,  who,  finding  that  the  fury 
of  the  judge  was  to  be  taken  off  by  a  bribe,  they 
went  to  him,  and  told  him  plainly,  they  were 
Christians,  and  could  not  sacrifice,  and  therefore 
desired  him  to  give  them  a  lil^el  of  security,  for 
which  they  would  give  him  a  suitable  reward.  Cy- 
prian, speaking  of  this  sort  of  hbellers,  brings  them 
in  thus  apologizing  for  themselves :  I  had  before "° 
both  read  and  learnt  from  the  preaching  of  the 
bishop,  that  the  servant  of  God  ought  not  to  sacri- 
fice to  idols,  nor  to  worship  images ;  and  therefore, 
that  I  might  not  do  that  which  is  unlawful,  (when 
the  opportunity  of  getting  a  libel  offered  itself,  which 
yet  I  would  not  have  accepted,  had  not  the  occasion 
presented  itself,)  I  went  to  the  magistrate,  or  em- 
ployed another  to  go  in  my  name,  and  tell  him, 
that  I  was  a  Christian,  and  that  it  was  unlawful 
for  me  to  sacrifice,  or  come  near  the  altars  of  the 
devils  ;  that  therefore  I  would  give  him  a  reward  to 
excuse  me  from  doing  that  which  I  could  not  law- 
fully do.  Cyprian  does  not  wholly  excuse  these, 
but  adds,  That  though  their  hands  were  not  polluted 
with  sacrifice,  nor  their  mouths  with  eating  things 
offered  to  idols,  yet  their  conscience  was  defiled : 
but  forasmuch  as  they  seemed  rather  to  sin  out  of 
ignorance  than  maliciousness,  he  thinks  their  case 
a  little  more  favourable  than  those  that  sacrificed ; 
and  therefore,  since  some  difference  was  made  even 
among  those  that  sacrificed,  he  thinks  a  greater  al- 
lowance should  be  made  to  these,  though  he  does 
not  particularly  tell  us  what  term  of  penance  was 
imposed  upon  them. 

Not  much  unlike  this  sort  of  libel-  g^^^  , 

lers,    were    they  who    counterfeited  edTe^'seu'^et  ml3; 

T  •        ,.  /»  !_'  J.       to  avoid  sat-rificinff. 

madness  in  times  of  persecution,  to 
get  themselves  excused  by  this  means  from  being 
questioned,  or  called  upon  to  offer  sacrifice.  Some 
of  them  would  go  to  the  very  altars,  and  make  as  if 
they  intended  to  sacrifice,  or  subscribe  the  abjura- 
tion, but  then  they  evaded  the  thing  by  pretending 
to  fall  into  a  sort  of  epileptic  fit,  which  inclined  the 
magistrates  to  excuse  them,  and  let  them  escape, 
as  David,  by  such  an  artifice,  escaped  from  Achish, 
when  he  intended  to  kill  him.  Now,  this  was 
looked  upon  as  mere  dissimulation  and  collusion, 
and  only  a  more  artful  way  of  denying  their  re- 
ligion ;   and  therefore,  by  the  penitential  rules  of 


cepta  fecissent,  licet  preeseutes,  cum  fierent,  non  affuissent, 
cum  pvajsentiam  suam  utique  ut  sic  .scriberentur,  niandando 
fecissent.  Non  est  enim  immunis  a  scclere,  qui,  ut  fieret, 
imperavit;  nee  est  alienus  a  erimine,  cujus  consensu,  licet 
non  a  se  admissum  crimen,  tamen  publice  legitur,  &c. 

"  Petri  Can.  6  et  7. 

28  Cypr.  Ep.  b2.  al.  55.  ad  Antonian.  p.  107.  Vid.  Cele- 
rin.  Ep.  21.  ibid.  p.  46.  Etecusa  pro  se  dona  uuraeravit, 
ne  sacrificaret;  sed  tantum  adscendisse  videtur  usque  ad 
Tria  Fata,  et  inde  descendisse. 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


929 


Peter,  bishop  of  Alexantlria,"  such,  though  they 
neither  sacrificed  themselves,  nor  suborned  others 
to  sacrifice  for  them,  were  subjected  to  penance  for 
six  months,  because  they,  in  some  measure,  denied 
their  rehgion,  and  made  a  show  of  countenancing 
idolatry  both  by  their  cowardice  and  dissimulation. 
And  indeed  it  was  not  only  the 
Of  TOiuribuiors  to  barc  commission  of  idolatry  that  sub- 
t.ii««,  mumrnni,  jectcd  mcn  to  ecclcsiastical  censure, 

and  coroiiati.  What  ^ 

they  were  and  hoiv  \jut  bU  promotcrs,  encouragers,  and 

guiUy  of  idolatry.  »  '  " 

compilers  with  idolatrous  rites,  were 
reputed  guilty  of  idolatry  in  some  degree,  and  ac- 
cordingly proceeded  against  as  betrayers  of  their 
religion.  Thus  in  the  council  of  Eliberis,  there  is 
a  canon  against  such  Christians  as  took  upon  them 
the  office  of  a  Jlamcn,  or  heathen  priest ;  part  of 
whose  office  was  to  exhibit  the  ordinary  games  or 
shows  to  the  people :  and  if  they  did  this,  though 
they  abstained  from  sacrificing,  they  were  to  do 
penance  all  their  lives,  as  encouragers  of  idolatrous 
rites,  and  only  "^  be  admitted  to  communion  at  the 
hour  of  death,  after  sufficient  evidences  of  a  true 
repentance.  Some  learned  persons  mistake  the 
sense  of  this  canon,  understanding  the  words, 
niunus  dare,  as  if  they  meant  giving  money  to  the 
judge  to  excuse  them  from  sacrificing ;  which  would 
be  the  same  crime  as  the  Ubellers  were  guilty  of; 
whereas  this  canon  speaks  not  of  such  lapsers,  but 
of  those  who  took  upon  them  the  office  of  ^jiamen, 
whose  business,  among  other  things,  was  to  give, 
or  exhibit,  at  his  own,  or  else  at  a  public  expense, 
the  mitncra,  that  is,  the  ordinary  games,  or  shows 
and  pastimes,  to  the  people.  For  these  were  called 
munera^  as  appears  from  the  use  of  the  term  in 
the  civil  law ;  and  they  that  gave  them,  were  thence 
termed  munerarii,  the  masters  of  the  games,  or  the 
entertainers,  who  kept  beasts  and  men  to  fight  in 
the  amphitheatre  for  the  entertainment  of  the  peo- 
ple, as  may  be  seen  in  Tertullian,'"  and  Seneca,  and 
Suetonius,^'  and  others,  who  speak  according  to  the 
propriety  of  the  Latin  tongue.  Now,  because  these 
games  were  held  chiefly  on  the  heathen  festivals, 
and  in  honour  of  their  gods,  and  were  full  of  idola- 
trous rites,  as  well  as  cruelty  and  impurity,  a  Chris- 
tian could  not  exhibit  them  to  the  people,  without 
incurring  the  crime  of  idolatry,  at  least  indirectly, 
by  promoting  and  encouraging  the  practice  of  it. 
And  for  that  reason  this  canon  is  so  severe  against 


-'  Pet.  Ales.  can.  5. 

^  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  3.  Item  flamines,  qui  non  immo- 
laverint,  sed  muniis  tantiim  dederint,  eo  quod  se  a  fnnestis 
abstinuerunt  sacrificiis,  placuit  in  fine  eis  procstari  commu- 
nionem,  acta  tamen  legitima  poenitentia. 

-»  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  ]8.  Leg.  1.  Bestiis  prime 
quoque  munere  objiciatiir.  Vid.  Gothofred.  in  loo.  et 
^Martial,  de  Spectaculis,  Epigram.  6. 

^  Tertul.  Apol.  cap.  44.  De  vestris  semper  munerarii 
noxiorum  greges  pascunt. 

^'  Sueton.  Vit.  Domit.  cap.  10.  Threcem  mirmilloni  pa- 
3  () 


those  who  furnished  out  these  shows  at  their  own 
expenses.     A  lower  degree  of  this  crime  was,  when 
such  iijlamen  or   priest   neither  ofiered  sacrifices 
nor  exhibited  the  games  at  his  own  expense,  but 
only  wore  the  crown,''  which  was  usual  in  such 
solemnities ;  which  being  a  badge  of  idolatry,  for 
that  reason,  by  another  canon  of  that  council,  two 
years'  penance,  as  a  moderate  punishment  in  com- 
parison of  the  former,  is  imposed  upon  them  that 
were  so  far  concerned  in  it.     But  it  may  be  noted, 
that   TertuUian's    invective    against    the   soldier's 
crown  or  garland,  in  his  book  De  Corona  Militi.«, 
has  no  relation  to  this  matter ;  for  the  wearing  of 
such  a  crown  seems  to  have  had  no  concern  in  re- 
ligion, but  to  be  a  mere  civil  act  done  in  honour  of 
the  emperors   on  such  days   as    they   gave  their 
largesses  or  donations  to  the  soldiers.     The  laurel 
was  only  an  ensign  of  victory,  and  though  it  was 
dedicated  to  Apollo,  yet  that  did  not  make  the 
use  of  it  unlawful ;  otherwise  the  use  of  the  four 
elements,  and  many  other  trees,  and  plants,  and 
animals,  had  all  been   unlawful,  because,  as  St. 
Austin ''  shows,  they  were  dedicated  to  the  gods 
also.     Therefore  learned  men"  censure  Tertullian 
here  as  overstraining  his  argument  upon  this  point, 
upon  his  new  principles  of  Montanism,  by  which 
he  also  denied  it  to  be  lawful  for  a  Christian  to 
fly  in  time  of  persecution,  or  to  bear  arms  in  de- 
fence of  the  empire,^  contrary  to  his  former  judg- 
ment in  his  Apology,  where  he  tells  the  emperor 
that  his  army  was  full  of  the  disciples  of  Jesus,  and 
mentions  the  famous  undertaking  of  the  thunder- 
ing legion  with  a  great  eulogium  and  commendation. 
So  that  this  new  severity  of  his,  in  condemning  the 
Christian  soldiers  for  wearing  a  laurel  crown,  must 
be  reckoned  among  those  pecuharities  which  he 
imbibed  after  he  was  fled  over  from  the  church  to 
the  school  of  Montanus ;  since  we  no  where  find 
soldiers  condemned  for  this  in  the  catholic  church, 
much  less  brought  under  any  discipline  or  penance 
for  the  use  of  it. 

But  there  is  another  canon  in  the         gect.  9. 
council    of    Eliberis,  which    orders,  the  °Zmmira"  ° 

^~t      .      .  1  1  made  men  guilty  of 

"  That  all  Christians  who  took  upon  idolatry,  and  how  it 

was  punistied. 

them  the  city  magistracy  or   omce, 
called  the  duumvirate,  should  be  denied  communion 
for  the  whole  year  in  which  they  held  the  ofiin:',*'  as 
guilty  of  some  oflTence  against  religion."     No  crime 


rem,  munerario  imparem. 

2-  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  55.  Sacerdotes  qui  tantum  coronam 
portant,  nee  sacrificant,  nee  de  suis  sumptibiis  aliquid  ad 
idola  praestant,  placuit  post  biennium  aeeipere  comimmi- 
onem.  "  Aug.  Ep.  154.  ad  Publicolam. 

»*  Vid.  Baron,  an.  201.  n.  IG.  Du  Pin,  Biblioth.  vol.  1. 
p.  95.    Seller,  Life  of  Tertul.  p.  211. 

3^  TertiJ.  de  Coron.  Mil.  cap.  11. 

'"  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  56.  Magistratnm  vero  uno  anno, 
quo  agit  duumviratum,  prohibendum  placuit,  ut  se  ab  ec- 
clesia  cohibeat. 


930 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


is  mentioned,  but  idolatry  is  understood.  For  the 
grounds  and  reasons  of  this  canon  will  be  easily 
explained  and  understood  from  the  account  that  is 
given  of  this  office  in  the  civil  law.  Where  we 
learn,  that  the  duumviri  were  the  chief  city  magis- 
trates, otherwise  called,  pri mates  curice,  chosen  every 
year  (for  it  was  but  an  annual  office) ;  and  it  be- 
longed to  them  (as  it  did  to  the  Jlamines,  and  the 
jiontifices,  or  sacerdotcs  2»'oi'inciarum,  and  the  prce- 
tors,  and  the  governors  of  provinces,  or  ordinary 
judges)  to  exhibit  the  spedacida,  or  the  games  and 
shows  to  the  people,  as  Gothofred^'  shows  from  va- 
rious laws  of  the  Theodosian  Code.^^  And  Tertullian 
not  only  observes  the  same,  that  the  city  magis- 
trates were  the  editors  of  these  games ;  but  that  the 
shows  themselves  were  founded  in  idolatry,^"  and 
attended  with  many  idolatrous  ceremonies ;  which 
he  makes  use  of  as  one  argument  why  a  Christian 
should  not  frequent  them.  And  for  this  reason  the 
council  of  Eliberis  orders  all  Christians,  who  took 
upon  them  the  office  of  the  duumviri,  to  be  kept 
back  from  communion  during  the  year  they  went 
through  that  office ;  because  they  could  not  exhibit 
these  shows  to  the  people  without  encouraging  and 
partaking  in  that  idolatry  which  was  so  closely  an- 
nexed to  them.  Ludormn  celehrationes  deorumfesta 
sunt.     Lactant.  lib.  6.  c.  20. 

And  for  the  same  reason  all  actors 

Sect.  10. 

How  actors,  and    and  stage-ulavers,  and  they  who  drove 

stage-players,  and  o      jr      ./  '  j 

olhergl^esters,and  the  chariots  \\\  the  public  games,  and 
theYtre'ami  °Iirque,  gladiatoFS,  and  all  who  had  any  con- 

«ere    charged   with  .         -, 

idoiatry.and  punish-  cem  m  the  exercisc  or  management 
of  these  unlawful  sports,  and  all  fre- 
quenters of  them,  were  obliged  either  to  quit  these 
practices,  or  be  liable  to  excommunication  so  long 
as  they  continued  to  follow  them  ;  not  only  because 
a  great  deal  of  impurity  and  cruelty  was  committed 
in  them,  but  also  because  they  contributed  to  the 
maintenance  of  idolatry,  which  was  an  appendage 
of  them.  All  these  were  comprised  in  the  pomp 
and  service  of  the  devil,  which  every  Christian  had 
renounced  at  his  baptism ;  and  therefore  when  any 


one  returned  to  them,  he  was  charged  as  a  rc- 
nouncer  of  his  baptismal  covenant,  and  thereupon 
discarded,  as  an  apostate  and  relapser,  from  Chris- 
tian communion.  Thus  Cyprian,  being  consulted 
by  Eucratius,^"  whether  a  stage-player  might  com- 
municate, who  continued  to  follow  that  dishonour- 
able trade ;  he  answers.  That  it  was  neither  agree- 
able to  the  majesty  of  God,  nor  the  discipline  of  the 
gospel,  that  the  modesty  and  honour  of  the  church 
should  be  defiled  with  so  base  and  infamous  a  con- 
tagion. The  council  of  Eliberis*'  allows  stage- 
players  to  be  baptized  only  upon  condition  that  they 
renounced  their  arts,  and  entirely  bid  adieu  to  them : 
and  if  after  baptism  they  returned  to  them  again, 
they  were  to  be  cast  out  of  the  church.  The  first 
council  of  Aries"  has  a  like  decree,  That  all  public 
actors  belonging  to  the  theatre,  shall  be  denied  com- 
munion, so  long  as  they  continue  to  act.  And  the 
third  council  of  Carthage"  supposes  the  sentence  of 
excommunication  to  pass  upon  all  such,  when  it 
says.  That  actors  and  stage-players,  and  all  apostates 
of  that  kind,  shall  not  be  denied  pardon  and  recon- 
ciliation, if  they  return  unto  the  Lord.  This  im- 
plies, that  they  were  gone  astray  and  cast  out  of 
the  church  for  their  crimes,  since  they  needed  par- 
don and  reconciliation  to  take  off  their  censure  and 
restore  them.  The  first  council  of  Aries"  deter- 
mines the  same  in  the  case  of  those  who  drove  the 
chariots  in  the  pubUc  games,  that  so  long  as  they 
continued  in  that  employment  they  should  be  de- 
nied communion.  Tertullian  ^^  and  others  say  ex- 
pressly, that  these  arts  were  part  of  those  pomps  | 
and  worship  of  Satan  which  men  renounced  in  bap- 
tism. And  it  appears  from  a  rule  in  the  Constitu- 
tions,^" That  no  charioteer,  or  gladiator,  or  racer,  or 
curator  of  the  public  games,  or  practiser  in  the 
Olympic  games,  or  minstrel,  or  harper,  or  dancer, 
was  to  be  admitted  to  baptism,  unless  they  imme- 
diately quitted  these  unlawful  callings.  And  it  was  i 
no  less  a  ci"ime  to  frequent  the  theatre,  and  be  spec- 
tators of  these  idolatrous  practices,  as  is  noted  in 
the  same  rule  of  the  Constitutions.    Therefore  as  an 


3'  Gothofred.  Paratitlon.  ad  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  15.  Tit.  5.  de 
Spectac. 

3'  Vide  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  12.  Tit.  1.  de  Decurionibiis,  Leg. 
1G9.  lib.  15.  Tit.  5.  de  Spectaculis,  Leg.  1. 

^'  Tertul.  de  Spectac.  cap.  11.  Pioinde  Tituli,  Olympia 
Jovi,  quiE  sunt  Uoma;  capitolina.  Item  Herculi  Neraaia, 
Neptuno  Isthmia,  ceteri  mortuonim  varii  agones.  Quid 
ergo  niirum,  si  apparatus  agonum  idololatria  conspurcat  de 
coronis  profauis,  de  sacerdotalibus  prassidibus,  &c.  It.  cap. 
12.  Haec  muncris  origo.—Et  licet  trausierit  hoc  genus  edi- 
tionis  ab  honoribus  mortuorum  ad  honores  viveutiuin,  qua;s- 
turas  dico  et  magistratiis  et  flaminia  et  sacerdotia:  cum 
tamen  nominis  diguitas  idololatria;  crimine  censeatur,  ne- 
cesse  est,  quicquid  dignitatis  nomine  admiuistratur,  com- 
municet  etiam  maculas  ejus,  a  qua  habet  causas,  &c.  Viil. 
Apolog.  cap.  38.  ct  de  Idololatr.  cap.  13. 

^^  Cypr.  Ep.  Gl.  al.  2.  ad  Eucratium,  p.  3.  Puto  nee 
Hiajestati  Divina;,  nee  evangelicx  disciplinae  congruere,  ut 


pudor  et  honor  ecclesiae  tarn  turpi  et  infami  contagione 
foedetur. 

■"  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  62.  Si  pantomirai  credere  voluc- 
rint,  placuit,  ut  prius  artibus  suis  renuncient,  et  tunc  demnm 
suscipiantm-,  ita  ut  ulterius  non  revertantur.  Quod  si  fa- 
cere  contra  interdictumtentaverint,  projicianturab  ecclesia. 

"  Cone.  Arelat.  1.  can.  5.  De  theatricis,  et  ipsos  placuit, 
quamdiu  agunt,  a  commuuione  separari. 

"  Cone.  Carth.  3.  can.  35.  Ut  scenicis  atque  histrionibus, 
cajterisque  hujusmodi  personis,  vel  apostaticis,  conversis 
vel  reversis  ad  Dominura,  gratia  vel  reconciliatio  non 
negetur. 

"Cone.  Avelat.  1.  can.  4.  De  agitatoribus,  qui  iideles 
sunt,  placuit  eos,  quamdiu  agitant,  a  commuuione  separari. 

"  Tertul.  de  Spectac.  cap.  4.  De  Coron.  Mil.  cap.  13. 
Salvian.  de  Provid.  lib.  6.  p.  197.  Cyril.  Catech.  Myst. 
l.n.4. 

"  Constit.  lib.  8.  cap.  32. 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


931 


obstinate  adherence  to  these  things  debarred  cate- 
chumens from  baptism,  so  it  Hkewise  exchided 
baptized  persons  or  behevers  from  tlie  privilege  of 
communion. 

Sect  11  Another  way  of  contributing  to  the 

crimeTnd"puni's7i-  practicc  of  idolatr}',  was  the  art  or 
trade  of  making  idols  for  the  worship- 
pers of  them.  Many  Christians,  who  abhorred  the 
worship  of  idols  themselves,  made  no  scruple  to 
make  idols  for  others,  and  live  by  this  calling; 
which  was  reputed  a  very  scandalous  profession, 
tending  indirectly  and  consequentially  to  the  up- 
holding and  promoting  of  idolatry.  For  which  rea- 
son, no  man  professing  this  art  could  be  admitted  to 
baptism,  unless  he  promised  to  renounce  it,  as  we 
learn  from  the  author  of  the  Constitutions."  And 
what  denied  a  man  one  sacrament,  would  also  deny 
him  the  other.  TertuUian  calls  such,  proctors  and 
purveyors**  for  idolatry;  inveighing  against  this 
and  some  other  trades  of  the  like  nature.  When 
you  help,  says  he,  to  furnish  out  the  pomp,  the 
priesthood,  the  sacrifices  of  idols,  what  can  you  be 
called  but  procurers  for  idols  ?  All  heinous  sins, 
for  the  greatness  of  the  danger  attending  them,  ought 
to  make  us  extremely  cautious  to  keep  at  a  distance 
not  only  from  them,  but  from  all  things  that  minis- 
ter to  the  practice  of  them.  For  though  a  crime 
be  committed  by  others,  it  is  all  one,  if  I  am  instru- 
mental to  the  commission  of  it.  By  the  same  reason 
that  I  am  forbidden  to  do  it,  I  ought  to  take  care 
that  it  be  not  done  by  my  assistance.  I  must  not 
be  a  necessary  aid  to  another  in  doing  that,  which 
I  may  not  lawfully  do  myself.  Upon  these  grounds 
he  concludes  the  trade  of  making  idols  to  be  un- 
lawful, as  well  as  the  worship  of  them.  And  so  did 
Clemens  Alexandrinus,"  and  Justin  Martyr'"  be- 
fore him.  TertuUian  objects  it  as  a  great  crime  to 
Hermogenes,*'  that  he  followed  the  trade  of  paint- 
ing images.  But  that  which  is  most  material  to 
our  purpose  here,  is  his  observation  which  he  makes 
in  his  book  of  Idolatry  "  upon  the  punishment  due 
to  such  as  made  a  livelihood  of  this  unlawful  call- 
ing, That  any  one  who  followed  it  ought  not  to  have 
access  to  the  house  of  God ;  for  it  was  contrary  to 
the  faith  which  they  had  professed  in  baptism. 
How  have*'  we  renounced  the  devil  and  his  angels, 
if  we  still  continue  to  make  them  ?  What  divorce 
have  we  made  from  them,  with  whom  we  not  only 
continue  to  live,  but  live  upon  them  ?  What  dis- 
agreement is  there  between  us  and  them,  to  whom 
we  are  obliged  for  our  maintenance  and  livelihood  ? 
Can  you  deny  that  with  your  tongue,  which  you 


confess  with  your  hand  ?  Can  you  destroy  that  in 
words,  which  you  raise  up  in  your  actions  ?  preach 
one  God,  and  make  so  many  ?  preach  the  true 
God,  and  make  false  ones  ?  But  (say  you)  I  only 
make  them,  I  do  not  worship  them.  As  if  the  same 
reason  which  forbids  you  to  worship  them,  did  not 
also  forbid  you  to  make  them.  Yea,  you  worship 
them,  in  doing  that  which  causes  them  to  be  wor- 
shipped. And  you  worship  them  not  with  the  spirit 
of  any  vile  nidor,  or  smell  of  a  sacrifice,  but  with 
your  own  spirit :  not  with  the  life  of  a  sheep  be- 
stowed on  them,  but  with  your  own  soul.  To  them 
you  sacrifice  your  own  ingenuity,  to  them  you  offer 
your  labour,  to  them  you  burn  your  prudence  and 
understanding.  You  are  more  than  a  priest  to  them, 
since  by  your  means  it  is  that  they  have  a  priest. 
Your  diligence  is  their  deity.  Do  you  then  deny 
that  you  worship  that,  to  which  you  give  its  very 
being  and  existence  ?  But  they  themselves  do  not 
deny  it,  to  whom  you  offer  a  fatter,  and  more  costly, 
and  greater  sacrifice,  even  your  own  salvation. 
Thus  far  TertuUian,  who  notwithstanding  seems  to 
complain,  that  there  was  a  great  remissness  in  the 
exercise  of  discipline  upon  such  offenders.  For  he 
immediately  adds,  One  might  declaim  all  the  day 
long  with  a  zeal  of  faith  upon  this  point,  and  be- 
wail such  Christians'*  as  come  straight  from  their 
idols  into  the  church,  from  the  shop  of  the  adver- 
sary into  the  house  of  God,  and  there  lift  up  to 
God  the  Father  those  very  hands  which  are  the 
mothers  or  makers  of  idols;  adoring  God  in  the 
church  with  those  hands,  which  without-doors  are 
themselves  adored  in  the  idols  which  they  have 
made  against  God ;  and  taking  the  body  of  the 
Lord  into  those  hands,  wherewith  they  have  pre- 
pared and  given  bodies  to  the  devils.  Nor  is  this 
all.  It  were  but  a  small  thing  to  defile  that  body 
which  they  receive  from  the  hands  of  others,  but 
those  very  hands  deliver  it  to  others,  which  have 
first  defiled  it.  For  the  makers  of  idols  are  some- 
times chosen  into  the  holy  orders  of  the  church. 
O  monstrous  wickedness !  The  Jews  once  laid 
hands  upon  Christ,  but  these  every  day  treat  his 
body  despitefully.  O  hands  that  ought  to  be  cut 
off"!  If  TertuUian  here  does  not  make  too  severe 
an  invective,  and  calumniate  the  church,  it  must 
be  owned  there  was  some  neglect  in  the  exercise 
of  discipline,  to  suffer  such  oflTenders  not  only  to 
communicate,  but  take  orders  in  the  church,  who 
by  the  rules  of  discipline  ought  not  to  communi- 
cate in  the  Christian  body  in  any  quality  what- 
soever. 


"  Constit.  lib.  8.  cap.  32. 

"  Tertul.  de  Idol.  cap.  11.     Certe  cum  pnmpoR,  cum  sa- 

ceidotia,  cum  sacrificia  idolorum instruuntur,quid  aliud 

quam  procurator  idolorum  demonstraris  ?  &c. 

■"Clem.  Protreptic.  ad  Gentes,  p.  51.  edit.  Oxon. 

^  Justin.  Dial,  cum  Tryph.  p.  321. 


"  Tertul.  cont.  Ilermog.  cap.  1.  Pingit  licite,  nubit  as- 
sidue:  legem  Dei  in  libidinem  defendit,  in  artem  contem- 
nit ;  bis  falsarius,et  cauterio  et  stilo. 

'•>"-  De  Idololat.  cap.  5.  llujusmodi  artifices  nunquam  in 
domum  Dei  admitti  oportet,  si  quis  eam  disciplinam  norit. 

"  Ibid.  cap.  6.  '*  Ibid.  cap.  1. 


932 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


Tertullian  in  the  same  book  brings 
The"  idolatry  of     tile  chargc  of  idolatrv  against  all  other 

building  or  adorn-  °  ■/      a 

ing  heathen  altars     artificers,  wlio  Contributed  toward  the 

and  temples. 

worship  of  idols,  either  by  erecting  of 
altars,  or  building  of  temples,  or  making  of  shrines, 
or  beautifying  and  adorning  the  idols,  or  any  thing 
belonging  to  them ;  for  it  was  the  same  thing" 
whether  a  man  made  an  idol,  or  only  adorned  it. 
He  that  built  a  temple,  or  erected  an  altar,  to  an 
idol,  or  overlaid  it  with  gold,  did  rather  more  to- 
ward its  worship,  than  he  that  made  it ;  for  the  one 
only  gave  it  an  effigies,  the  other  gave  it  authority, 
l)rocuring  veneration  to  be  paid  to  it  as  a  god. 
Upon  this  score  all  who  thus  contributed  toward  the 
worship  of  idols,  though  they  did  not  actually  sacri- 
fice to  them,  were  ranked  in  the  same  class  with  idol- 
aters, and  accordingly  subjected  to  the  censures  of 
the  church.  Which  appears  from  that  famous  remon- 
strance, which  St.  Ambrose  made  to  the  emperor 
Valentinian,^^  when  he  was  solicited  by  Symmachus 
the  heathen  to  restore  the  altar  of  Victory  in  the 
capitol.  He  told  him  plainly.  That  if  he  did  this,  no 
bishop  would  receive  him  to  communion,  but  every 
one  courageously  repel  him,  and  be  ready  to  give 
him  a  good  reason  for  their  opposition:  the}"  will- 
tell  you,  says  he,  that  the  church  desires  not  your 
gifts,  because  you  have  adorned  the  temples  of  the 
heathen  vidth  your  gifts :  the  altar  of  Christ  re- 
fuses your  oblations,  because  you  have  erected  an 
altar  to  the  idol  gods.  The  case  of  Marcus  Are- 
thusius  is  famous  in  story,  who  chose  rather  to  suf- 
fer death  under  Julian,  than  rebuild  a  templ.e,  which 
he  had  demolished  by  law  in  the  time  of  Constan- 
tius,  as  is  related  at  large  by  Gregory  Nazianzen  *" 
and  Sozomen.  And  Theodoret  highly  commends 
Audas,^  a  Persian  bishop,  for  that  having  de- 
molished a  pyrcRum,  (a  temple  where  the  Persians 
worshipped  fire  as  a  god,)  though  he  did  this  with- 
out any  legal  authority,  yet  he  rather  chose  to  suffer 
death  than  rebuild  it ;  because  it  was  the  same  thing 
to  build  a  temple  to  the  idol,  as  to  worship  it.  And 
St.  Chrysostom  says,^^  it  was  a  very  common  thing 
in  the  time  of  Julian,  to  call  upon  all  those  who 
had  been  concerned  in  demolishing  temples  in  the 
preceding  reigns  of  Constantine  and  Constantius, 
and  prosecute  them  to  death,  because  they  refused 
to  rebuild  them. 


Among  other  promoters  and  encou- 
ragers  of  idolatry,  they  reckoned  all     of merchants seii- 

,  ,  ,,.  p  ,   .  .       ,1  ing  frankincense  to 

merchants  seliine  frankincense  to  the  theidoitempies.and 

°  the  buyere  and  sell- 

idol  temples,  and  all  who  made  a  trade  ^rs  of  the  public 

^         '  victims. 

of  buying  and  selling  the  public  vic- 
tims. Tertullian  styles  all  these  procuratores  idolo- 
latrice,  purveyors  for  idolatry.  And  he  expressly  says 
of  those  who  bought  and  sold  the  public  victims,™ 
That  no  church  would  receive  them  to  baptism,  with- 
out obliging  them  to  renounce  that  unlawful  posses- 
sion ;  nor  suffer  them  to  continue  in  her  communion, 
if  they  were  already  of  the  number  of  the  faithful. 
And  hence  he  argues  more  strongly  against  the  tliu- 
rarii,  as  he  terms  those  who  made  a  livelihood  of 
selling  frankincense  to  the  temples,  which  he  reck- 
ons the  worse  of  the  t  wo.  With  what  face  can  the 
Christian  seller  of  frankincense,*'  if  he  chance  to 
go  through  a  temple,  spit  at  the  smoking  altars,  and 
show  his  detestation  of  those  idols,  for  which  he 
himself  has  been  the  purveyor  ?  With  what  heart 
or  courage  can  he  pretend  to  exorcise  those  devils, 
to  whom  he  has  been  a  foster-father,  and  made  his 
house  a  shop  to  furnish  materials  for  their  service  ? 
Hence,  upon  the  whoI-3  matter,  he  concludes,  that 
no  art,  profession,  business,  or  trade  could  be  wholly 
free  from  the  imputation  of  idolatry,  which  was  in- 
strumental and  subservient  either  in  making  of 
idols,  or  furnishing  out  what  was  necessaiy  to  the 
support  of  their  worship  and  service. 

The  case  of  eating  things  offered  to  g^^j  j^ 
idols  is  resolved  by  the  apostle.  It  ofSfed'"to"1doi's'."^' 
was  never  lawful  to  do  it  in  an  idol  "ood^chaTserbi!;' 
temple,  because  that  was  to  partake  of  ""  '  °^^^^' 
the  sacrifice  as  a  sacrifice,  and  to  communicate  w  ith 
devils  ;  which  was  a  hardening  of  the  Gentiles,  and 
a  scandal  to  the  church  of  God.  The  Nicolaitanes 
are  condemned  for  this  in  Scripture,  and  the  prac- 
tice of  the  Basilidians  and  Valentinians'^-  by  writers 
of  the  following  ages.  The  Acts  of  Lucian  the 
martvi'*^  tell  us.  He  chose  rather  to  die  with  hunger, 
than  to  eat  things  oflTered  to  idols,  when  his  perse- 
cutors would  allow  him  no  other  sustenance  in 
prison.  And  Baronius  gives  another  such  instance" 
in  the  people  of  Constantinople,  who,  when  Julian 
had  ordered  all  the  meat  in  the  shambles  to  be  pol- 
luted with  idolatrous  lustrations,  they  freely  ab- 
stained from  it,  and  used  boiled  corn  instead  of 


*^  Tertul.  de  Idol.  cap.  8.  Nee  enim  difFert,  an  exstruas, 
vel  exornes  :  si  templuin,  si  aram,  si  aadiculam  ejus  in- 
struxeris,  si  bracteani  expresseris,  aut  insignia,  aut  etiam 
domutn  fabricaveris.  Major  est  cjusinodi  opera,  quae  non 
effigiera  confeit,  sed  auctoiitatcm. 

'^  Ambros.  Ep.  30.  ad  Valentin.  Junior.  Ava  Christi  dona 
tua  respuit,  quia  aram  simidacris  feeisti.  See  chap.  -3.  sect.  5. 

"  Naz.  Orat.  1.  in  Julian,  p.  90.  Sozom.  lib.  5.  cap.  10. 
Theod.  lib.  .3.  cap.  7. 

ss  Theod.  lib.  5.  cap.  38. 

^' Chrys.  Horn.  40.  in  Juvcntiniim  et  Maximiun,  t.  1. 
p.  548. 


^  Tertul.  de  Idol.  cap.  11.  Si  publicarum  victimarura  re- 
demptor  ad  fidem  accedat,  permittes  ei  in  eo  negotio  per- 
manere  ?  Aut  si  jam  fidelis  id  agere  susceperit,  rotinendum 
in  ecclesia  putabis  ?   Non  opinor. 

•'^  Ibid.  Quo  ore  Christianus  thurarius,  si  per  templa 
transibit,  quo  ore  fumantes  aras  despuet,  et  exsufflabit,  qui- 
bus  ipso  prospexit  ?  Qua  constantia  exorcizabit  alumnos 
suos,  quibus  domum  suam  cellariam  pr;estat  ? 

"-  Agrippa  Castor,  ap.  Euseb.  lib.  4.  cap.  7.  Irenna.  lib. 
1.  cap.  1. 

"'  Ap.  Baron,  an.  311.  n.  6. 

«'  Baron,  an.  362.  p.  24. 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OP  Tllli:  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


933 


bread,  so  clefe;i(iiig  the  tyrant's  malicious  intention. 
Not  that  it  had  been  any  idolatry  to  have  eat  such 
meats  in  such  a  case ;  for  the  apostle  allows  it, 
where  it  may  be  done  without  either  communicating 
with  the  idols,  or  giving  scandal  to  the  weak : 
"  Whatsoever  is  sold  in  the  shambles,  eat,  asking  no 
question  for  conscience  sake."  And  upon  this  war- 
rant of  the  apostle  Theodoret*^  justifies  the  people 
of  Antioch  in  another  such  case.  For  Julian  made 
use  of  the  same  devilish  stratagem  to  insnare  them, 
polluting  all  the  fountains  of  Antioch  and  Daphne, 
and  all  the  meat  in  the  shambles,  with  his  idolatrous 
rites,  and  all  the  bread  and  fruits  of  the  earth  and 
herbs,  that  the  Christians  might  have  nothing  to 
eat,  but  what  was  offered  in  sacrifice  to  idols.  Which 
is  also  noted  by  Chrysostoni""  and  others,  who  speak 
of  the  diabolical  wiles  of  Julian.  But  in  this  case 
the  Christians  made  no  scruple  of  eating  any  thing, 
notwithstanding  the  policy  of  their  adversary,  as 
knowing  that  the  good  creatures  of  God  could  not 
be  defiled  by  any  such  wicked  contrivances,  so  long 
as  they  did  not  consent  to  them,  or  communicate  in 
them  :  "  For  the  earth  is  the  Lord's,  and  the  fulness 
thereof,"  and  what  was  sanctified  to  them  by  the 
Avord  of  God  and  prayer,  could  not  be  unsanctified 
or  polluted  by  any  profane  abuses. 

But  where  there  was  any  real  cora- 
whether  a  Chris-  muuicatlon  with  idolatry,  or  any  just 

tiaii  out  of  curiosity  .     .  «    ,        , 

n-..i;iit  be  present  at  grouud  lor  a  suspicioii  01  it,  it  was  at 

an  idol  sacrifice,  not    ^  '■ 

i'™'"s  in  the  ser-  j^q  baud  allowable  to  give  the  least 
countenance  to  it,  or  any  umbrage  to 
surmise  an  approbation  of  it.  For  this  reason,  the 
council  of  Eliberis  forbids  any  Christian  to  go  to 
the  capitol,"'  or  idol  temple,  so  much  as  only  out  of 
curiosity  to  see  the  sacrifice  offered,  under  the  pe- 
nalty of  ten  years'  penance  imposed  upon  them. 
Albaspiny"*  rightly  observes.  That  though  there  be 
a  little  obscurity  in  the  original  wording  of  the 
canon,  yet  it  must  needs  intend  to  prohibit  the  go- 
ing to  see  the  sacrifice :  for  otherwise,  if  they  went 
to  sacrifice,  not  only  a  ten  years'  penance,  but  a 
penance  for  their  whole  lives  was  imposed  upon 
them  by  the  two  first  canons  of  this  council.  So 
that  the  plain  sense  of  the  canon  must  be,  that  if, 
as  a  heathen  went  to  sacrifice,  so  a  Christian  went 
only  to  see  the  sacrifice,  he  should  be  held  guilty  of 
the  same  crime,  and  do  ten  years'  penance  for  it. 
Yet  this  was  to  be  understood,  if  he  had  no  other 
call  but  curiosity  to  carry  him  thither:  for  if  by 
any  necessary  office  or  duty  of  his  station  he  went 
thither,  this  was  no  crime  ;  as  if  he  was  of  the 
prince's  guard,  and  only  went  to  attend  his  sove- 


"  Theod.  lib.  3.  cap.  15. 

"'  Chrys.  Horn.  4.  de  Laudibus  Panli,  t.  5.  p.  59.3. 

"  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  59.  Proliibendum  nc  qui§  Chrisli- 
aiius,  ut  Gentilis,  ad  idolnm  capitolii  causa  sacrificandi,  as- 
ccnilat  et  videat:  quod  si  i'ecerit,  pari  criniine  tcueatur.  Si 
fuerit  lidelis  post  decern  aiiuos,  acta  poeuitentia,  recipiatur. 


reign,  lie  was  guiltless,  because  he  went  not  to  see 
the  sacrifice,  but  to  do  his  duty.  Thus  Theodo- 
ret  "'•'  says,  Valentinian,  when  he  was  a  tribune  and 
captain  of  the  guard  to  Julian,  attended  his  master 
to  the  temple  of  Fortune  :  but  when  the  door- 
keepers, according  to  custom,  sprinkled  their  lustral 
or  holy  water  upon  those  that  went  in,  and  a 
drop  of  it  fell  upon  his  coat,  he  gave  the  man  a 
blow  upon  the  face,  telling  him,  he  did  not  think 
himself  purified,  but  profaned.  And  by  this  act, 
says  Theodoret,  he  merited  two  kingdoms,  both 
an  earthly  and  a  heavenly.  For  Julian  imme- 
diately banished  him  for  the  fact,  and  confined 
him  to  a  castle  in  the  desert ;  but  before  a  year  and 
a  few  months  were  past,  this  noble  confessor  was 
rewarded  with  the  imperial  crown  and  the  dignity 
of  the  Roman  empire.  By  this  it  appears,  they  put 
a  great  diflTerence  between  going  to  a  temple  out  of 
mere  impertinency  and  curiosity  to  see  the  idolatrous 
rites  and  sacrifices,  and  going  thither  only  upon  the 
necessary  obligations  of  their  duty  and  function. 
And  Tertullian,  who  is  as  severe  as  any  in  this  mat- 
ter, owns  the  reasonableness  of  this  distinction.  It 
were  to  be  wished,  says  he,  that  we  could  live'" 
without  seeing  those  things  which  we  cannot  law- 
fully practise ;  but  because  idolatry  has  so  filled  the 
world  with  evils,  a  man  may  be  present  in  some 
cases,  where  duty  binds  him  to  the  man,  and  not  to 
the  idol.  If  I  am  called  to  a  priesthood  or  to  a  sa- 
crifice, I  will  not  go ;  for  that  is  the  proper  office  or 
service  of  the  idol :  neither  will  I  contribute  by  my 
counsel,  or  my  expense,  or  my  labour,  to  any  such 
thing.  If  when  I  am  called  to  a  sacrifice,  I  go  and 
assist,  I  am  partaker  of  the  idolatry ;  but  if  any 
other  cause  joins  me  to  the  sacrifice!-,  I  am  only  a 
spectator  of  the  sacrifice.  He  applies  this  particu- 
larly to  slaves  waiting  on  their  heathen  masters,  and 
children  or  clients  on  their  patrons  or  parents,  and 
officers  on  governors  and  judges.  If  we  are  careful 
to  observe  this  rule,  neither  by  word  nor  deed  to 
give  any  assistance  to  the  idolatrous  service,  we 
may  attend  on  magistrates  and  powers,  after  the 
example  of  the  patriarchs,  and  others  of  our  ances- 
tors, who  waited  on  idolatrous  kings,  usque  adfincm 
idolohitrice,  as  far  as  the  confines  of  idolatry  would 
permit  them.  He  gives  the  same  resolution  in  some 
other  private  and  common  cases,  as  a  Christian's 
being  obliged  to  attend  the  solemnity  of  giving  a 
youth  the  toga  virilis,  the  habit  of  a  man,  the  so- 
lemnity of  espousals,  or  nuptials,  or  the  manumis- 
sion of  a  slave,''  or  giving  him  a  new  name.  For 
all  these  things  were  innocent  in  themselves ;  and 


'^  .-Mbasp.  in  loc. 

"^  Theod.  lib.  .3.  cap.  16.     Vid.  Sozomcn.  lib.  6.  cap.  6. 

""  Tertul.  de  Idol.  cap.  IG  et  17. 

"  Tertul.  ibid.  cap.  IG.  Circa  officia  vero  piivataruni  et 
commuuiuin  solennitatum,  ut  tog;c  pura-.  ut  sponsaliuiu,  ut 
nuptialium,  ut  nominalium,  nullum  puteni  periculuui  obser- 


934 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


though  idolatrous  rites  were  usually  mixed  with 
them,  yet  a  man  might  be  present  without  commu- 
nicating in  those  rites,  distinguishing  the  causes 
which  required  his  attendance.  They  were  pure 
and  clean  in  their  own  nature :  for  neither  does  the 
habit  of  ,a  man,  nor  the  ring  of  espousals,  nor  the 
joining  of  man  and  woman  in  marriage,  descend 
originally  from  any  honour  of  an  idol ;  for  all  these 
things  are  allowed  by  God;  and  though  sacrifices 
were  used  in  the  ceremony,  yet  a  man  whose  office 
and  business  was  not  in  the  sacrifice,  but  required 
upon  some  other  account,  might  lawfully  attend 
them  without  defilement.  This  was  the  resolution 
of  all  such  cases,  where  some  obhgation  of  office  or 
duty  required  a  man's  presence  at  some  idolatrous 
service ;  not  as  contributing  any  ways  his  assistance 
in  it,  or  communicating  either  directly  or  indirectly 
in  the  service ;  but  only  performing  what  properly 
belonged  to  him  by  virtue  of  his  lawful  employ- 
ment ;  and  being  ready,  like  Valentinian,  to  show 
his  aversion  to  all  superstitious  and  idolatrous  rites, 
when  any  more  peculiar  occasion  required  it.  The 
being  present  barely  to  perform  some  other  duty, 
was  not  interpreted  in  this  case  any  communicating 
with  idolatry,  because  the  very  tenor  of  his  obliga- 
tion and  duty  sufficiently  demonstrated  it  to  be 
otherwise. 

„  ,  ,,  But  where  a  man  had  no  such  ne- 

beet.  10. 

ea7h1fl?wn''mTafin  ccssary  Call  or  obligation  to  perform 
an  idol  temple.        ^^^  ^^^^  ^y^^^  rcqulrcd  his  preseiicc  in 

a  temple,  then  to  be  present  at  an  idolatrous  service, 
or  do  any  thing  that  might  look  with  a  suspicious 
aspect  towards  it,  was  a  sufficient  reason  to  bring 
him  under  ecclesiastical  censure.  Thus  no  one 
could  pretend  any  j  ust  reason  to  carry  his  own  meat 
and  eat  it  in  an  idol  temple,  but  this  must  needs 
imply  some  disposition  towards  idolatry :  and  there- 
fore the  council  of  Ancyra'-  made  a  decree.  That 
such  as  feasted  with  the  heathen  upon  any  idol 
festival  in  any  place  set  apart  for  that  service, 
though  they  carried  their  own  meat  and  eat  it  there, 
should  do  two  years'  penance  for  it.  The  canon 
does  not  expressly  call  the  place  an  idol  temple,  but 
TOTTov  d^wpianevov,  a  place  set  apart  for  the  service  ; 
which,  whether  we  take  it  for  a  temple,  or  any 
other  place  of  feasting,  is  all  one,  since  it  was  a 
place  appropriated  to  the  worship  of  the  idol  on  a 


festival  peculiarly  dedicated  to  the  honour  of  some 
heathen  god. 

And  this  sort  of  feasting  with  the  g^_,^  ,, 
heathens  on  their  proper  festivals,  he^ii^^'onoirirMoi 
whether  in  a  temple  or  out  of  a  tern-  '^'"'"'*'*- 
pie,  was  precisely  forbidden,  under  the  notion  of 
communicating  with  them  in  their  impiety ;  which 
are  the  express  words  of  the  council  of  Laodicea, 
prohibiting  this  practice  of  keeping  such  festivals 
with  the  Gentiles."  Among  the  Apostolical  Canons  '* 
there  is  also  one  that  forbids  Christians  to  carry  oil 
to  any  heathen  temple  or  Jewish  synagogue,  or  to 
set  up  lights  on  their  festivals,  under  the  penalty  of 
excommunication ;  which  shows  that  Christians 
were  sometimes  inclined  to  concur  with  the  heathens 
in  this  practice. 

And  this  seems  to  be  the  most  rational  sense  that 
can  be  given  of  those  two  canons  of  the  council  of 
Eliberis,  which  so  much  trouble  interpreters :  the 
one  of  which  forbids  the  lighting"  wax  candles  by 
day  in  the  cemeteries  or  burying-places  of  the 
martyrs,  for  fear  of  disquieting  the  spirits  of  the 
saints,  under  the  penalty  of  excommunication ;  and 
the  other  "  prohibits  the  setting  up  of  lamps  in  pub- 
lic, under  the  same  penalty  of  being  cast  out  of  the 
communion  of  the  church.  Albaspiny  thinks  these 
orders  were  made  upon  a  mistaken  notion,  that  the 
souls  of  the  martyrs  were  still  waiting  under  the 
altars ;  which,  he  says,  was  the  opinion  of  Cyprian" 
and  TertuUian.  But  it  is  more  probable,  that  the 
council  forbade  these  rites  upon  another  ground, 
because  they  were  superstitious  and  idolatrous  rites 
used  by  the  heathen  in  their  solemnities,  as  is  ex- 
pressly said  by  TertuUian "'  and  many  others  col- 
lected by  Baronius.'^  And  this  seems  to  be  the 
true  reason  why  the  council  forbade  them,  that 
Christians  might  not  symbolize  with  the  heathens 
in  such  superstitious  practices.  But  to  proceed, 
the  heathen  festivals  are  known  in  the  civil  law 
under  the  general  name  of  vota,  and  votorum  cele- 
britas,  solemn  days  of  prayer  and  worship  of  their 
gods.  And,  as  Gothofred^"  has  accurately  distin- 
guished them,  they  comprised,  1.  All  their  ludi, 
or  days  of  public  shows,  which  were  in  honour 
of  their  gods.  Among  which  the  maiuma  is  very 
famous,  there  being  a  title  m  the  Theodosian 
Code®'  concerning  the  permission  and  regulation 


vari  de  afflatu  idololatrioe,  quae  intervenit.  Causae  enim 
sunt  considcrandoe,  quibus  praistatur  officium.  Eas  mundas 
esse  opinor  per  semetipsas,  quia  neque  vestitus  virilis,  neque 
annulus,  autcoiijunctio  maritalisde  alicujus  idoli  honorede- 
scendit. 

'-  Cone.  Ancyr.  can.  7. 

"  Cone.  Laodic.  ean.  39.     Ov  otl  xoTs  'iQviai  (rwiopTo.- 

X^llV  Kai  KOlVU>Vt~LU  Ttj  aOtOTJITl  aVTMV. 

"  Canon.  A  post.  71. 

"  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  34.  Cereos  per  diem  placuit  in  eue- 
jneterio  noii  incendi.  Inquietandi  enim  sanctorum  spiritus 
uon  sunt.     Qui  hsec  non  observaverint,  arceantur  ab  eccle- 


siee  communione. 

"^  Ibid.  ean.  37.  Prohibendi  ctiam  ne  lucornas  publice 
accendant.  Si  facere  contra  interdictuni  voluerint,  absti- 
neant  a  communione. 

"  Cypr.  de  Lapsis.  De  Bono  Palientioe.  Tertul.  de 
Resur.  Carnis,  cap.  25.  De  Aniraa,  cap.  8.  Contra  Gnos- 
ticos,  cap.  11. 

's  TerUd.  Apol.  cap.  35  et  46.    De  Idololat.  cap.  ]5. 

"  Baron,  an.  58.  n.  72. 

w  Gothof.  in  Cod.  Tlieod.  lib.  16.  Tit.  10.  Dc  Paganis, 
Leg.  8. 

8'  Cod.  Theod.  De  Maiuma,  lib.  15.  Tit.  6. 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


935 


of  it  under  the  Christian  emperors,  till  at  last  it 
was  finally  put  down  by  Arc-adius.  2.  Their  other 
days  of  public  feasting.  3.  The  kalends  of  January, 
or  beginning  of  the  new  year.  Against  the  super- 
stitious observation  of  which  there  are  frequent 
invectives  in  the  writings  of  the  ancients,  particu- 
larly in  St.  Ambrose,*'-  Asterius  Amasenus,^  and 
Prudentius.***  4.  The  third  of  January,  which  was 
a  noted  festival,  or  day  of  heathen  devotion  for  the 
emperor's  safety.  Among  these  may  be  also  reck- 
oned their  bromialia,  forbidden  by  the  council  of 
Trullo  -^  and  the  neomenia,  or  new  moons,  against 
which  St.  Chrj'sostom  has  a  whole  discourse  to  dis- 
suade Christians  from  the  observation  of  them ; 
where  he  particularly  inveighs^"  against  the  impious 
superstition  that  was  still  reigning  in  men's  hearts 
as  the  relics  of  paganism.  For  they  were  super- 
stitiously  addicted  to  observation  of  times,  and 
made  divination  and  conjectures  upon  them;  as,  if 
they  spent  the  new  moon  of  such  a  month  in  mirth 
and  pleasure,  the  whole  year  following  would  be 
prosperous  and  lucky  to  them.  So  both  men  and 
women  gave  themselves  to  intemperance  and  excess 
on  these  days,  out  of  this  diabolical  persuasion,  as 
he  justly  terms  it,  that  the  good  or  bad  fortune  of 
the  rest  of  the  year  depended  upon  such  an  ominous 
beginning  of  it ;  which  was  the  devil's  invention, 
to  ruin  the  practice  of  all  virtue.  He  observes  fur- 
ther, That"  they  were  used,  in  the  celebration  of 
these  times,  to  set  up  lamps  in  the  market-place, 
and  crown  their  doors  with  garlands,  which  he 
condemns  together  with  their  superstition  and  in- 
temperance, as  a  mixture  of  diabolical  pomp  and 
childish  folly.  By  which  we  see  how  prone  men 
were  to  follow  the  heathen  in  such  practices,  even 
when  they  were  delivered  both  from  their  ignorance 
and  compulsion ;  and  much  more,  may  we  suppose, 
were  they  under  a  temptation  to  comply  with  them 
in  the  observation  of  their  festivals,  whilst  they  were 
under  the  terror  of  their  laws  and  violent  persecu- 
tions. Nay,  even  in  St.  Austin's  time  the  heathen 
were  so  insolent  in  Africa,  as  to  compel  the  Chris- 
tians to  observe  their  festivals ;  of  which  the  African 
fathers  in  the  fifth  council  of  Carthage*^  were  forced 
to  complain  to  the  emperor  Honorius,  and  petition 
him,  by  his  authority,  to  redress  the  grievance : 
they  represent  to  him,  how  the  pagans,  in  many 


places,  not  only  kept  their  superstitious  feasts  them- 
selves, but  forced  the  Christians  to  join  with  them; 
so  that  it  looked  like  a  secret  persecution  under 
Christian  emperors ;  wherefore  they  desired  him 
to  make  a  law  to  prohibit  them  both  in  city  and 
country,  and  restrain  them  by  some  suitable  pe- 
nalty inflicted  on  them.  Which,  at  first,  Honorius 
refused  to  grant,  but  afterward  he  compUed  with 
their  request  upon  more  mature  deliberation.  The 
law  is  still  extant  in  the  Theodosian  Code,*"  for- 
bidding all  holding  of  feasts  or  other  solemnities 
in  temples  in  honour  of  the  gods ;  and  enjoining 
all  bishops  and  judges  of  the  provinces  to  take  care 
of  the  execution  of  it.  Yet  this  did  not  so  root  out 
the  superstition,  but  that  many  heathens  still  con- 
tinued in  it ;  and  some  looser  Christians  were  ready 
enough  either  to  join  with  the  heathen  in  their 
practices,  or  at  least  to  imitate  the  luxury  and  vanity 
of  them  under  the  notion  of  Christian  observations. 
St.  Austin  makes  a  bitter  complaint  in  one  of  his 
epistles  ™  of  the  insolence  of  the  heathen  immedi- 
ately after  the  publishing  of  this  law ;  how,  upon 
one  of  their  festivals  on  the  kalends  of  June,  they 
came  dancing  in  a  petulant  manner  before  the  doors 
of  the  church :  which  when  the  clergy  endeavoured 
to  prohibit,  they  stoned  the  church ;  and  when  the 
bishop  complained  to  the  judges,  they  stoned  it 
again,  and  a  third  time,  setting  fire  to  the  houses 
belonging  to  the  church,  and  killing  some  of  the 
clergy,  and  causing  others  to  fly  for  their  lives.  An 
insolent  and  daring  attempt,  not  to  be  paralleled  by 
any  thing,  he  says,  that  was  done  in  the  time  of 
Julian  !  And  what  was  worse  than  all,  no  one  of 
the  magistrates  or  chief  men  of  the  place  either 
offered  to  quell  the  riot,  or  give  any  assistance  to 
the  suflferers,  except  a  stranger  of  some  authority, 
who  delivered  many  of  the  servants  of  God  out  of 
their  hands,  whilst  the  rest  only  looked  on  the  abuse 
with  pleasure,  and  some  of  them  were  strongly  sus- 
pected as  working  underhand  to  excite  this  tumult 
and  set  the  heathen  upon  them,  being  grieved  at 
this  new  law  which  laid  a  restraint  upon  these  fes- 
tivals, in  which  they  were  wont  to  take  so  much 
pleasure :  which  shows  how  deeply  the  love  of 
these  heathen  festivals  was  rooted  in  the  hearts  of 
many  carnal  and  libertine  Christians.  In  another 
epistle  he  makes  as  sad  a  complaint  to  Aurelius, 


*2  Ambros.  Serm.  17. 

*^  Aster.  Horn.  4.  De  Festo  Kalendanim. 

"*  Prudent,  cout.  Synimachuiu,  lib.  1. 

^  Cone.  Trull,  can.  62  et  65. 

*°  Chrys.  Horn.  23.  in  eos  qui  Novilunia  observant,  t.  I. 
p.  297. 

"  Chrj's.  ibid.  p.  300. 

^  Cone.  Carth.  5.  can.  5.  Illud  etiam  petendum,  ut  qno- 
niam  contra  praecepta  Diviua,  convivia  nuiltis  locis  exer- 
centur,  quaj  ab  errore  Gentili  attracta  sunt,  ita  ut  nunc  a 
paganis  Christiani  ad  haec  celebranda  cogantur,  e.\  qtia  re 
temporibus  Christianorum  imperatorum  pcrsccutio  altera 


fieri  occulte  videatur,  vetari  talia  jnbeant,  et  de  civitatibus, 
et  de  possessionibus  imposita  poena  prohibere,  &c.  Vid. 
Cod.  Afr.  can.  63. 

89  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  16.  Tit.  10.  De  Paganis,  Leg.  19. 
Non  liceat  omuino  in  honoreiu  sacrilegi  ritus  funcstioribus 
locis  exercere  convivia,  &c. 

™  Aug.  Ep.  202.  ad  Nectarium.  Contra  recent issinias 
leges  kalendis  Juniis  festo  paganorum  sacrilega  solennitas 
agitata  est,  nemine  prohibente,  tarn  insolenti  ausu,  ut  quod 
nee  Juliani  temporibus  factum  est,  petulanlissima  turba 
saltantium  in  eodem  prorsus  vico  ante  fores  trausiret  ec- 
clesioe,  &c. 


936 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


bishop  of  Carthage"  of  the  intemperance  and  de- 
bauchery which  many  such  Christians  were  wont  to 
commit  upon  the  festivals  of  their  own  martyrs, 
and  other  anniversary  commemorations  of  their 
deceased  friends ;  which  was  only  acting  all  the 
impurity  of  the  heathen  festivals  under  the  name 
of  Christian.  He  prays  him  therefore  to  take  some 
method,  to  drive  away  such  profane  and  sacrilegi- 
ous impurities  from  the  house  of  God."^  But  he 
thinks  this  could  not  be  done  by  any  rough  methods, 
or  in  any  imperious  way,  but  by  instruction  rather 
than  commanding;  and  by  admonition  rather  than 
threatening:  for  that  was  the  only  way '^  to  deal 
with  a  multitude ;  the  severity  of  discipline  was 
only  to  be  exercised  upon  sinners  when  their  num- 
bers were  small.  This  is  a  grievous  complaint  in- 
deed, and  he  often  repeats  it  in  other  places  :"*  which 
shows  how  close  the  superstition  and  pleasure  of 
the  heathen  festivals  stuck  to  the  hearts  of  many 
ignorant  and  carnal  men,  even  after  they  became 
Christian  :  and  their  multitudes  in  Africa  were  so 
great,  that  though  their  crimes  deserved  the  severity 
of  excommunication,  yet  St.  Austin  in  such  circum- 
stances could  not  think  that  the  pi'oper  remedy  to 
cure  the  distemper.  St.  Ambrose  and  other  Italian 
bishops,  he  says,  did  happily  root  out  this  evil  cus- 
tom, and  that  was  some  ground  to  hope  it  might  be 
efTected  in  Africa :  but  yet  long  after  this  w^e  find 
the  complaint  renewed  against  Christians  retaining 
the  relics  of  heathen  superstition  in  this  matter  of 
observing  festivals.  For  the  coimcil  of  TruUo  has 
a  canon  ^^  that  forbids  the  observation  of  the  kalends, 
and  the  hota,  and  the  hnimalia,  and  the  solemnity 
of  the  first  of  March,  or  May,  (as  different  copies 
read  it,)  and  the  public  dancings,  and  other  cere- 
monies used  by  men  and  women,  as  handed  down 
by  ancient  custom  under  the  names  of  the  heathen 
false  gods :  prohibiting  likewise  the  interchanging 
of  habits  in  men  and  women,  and  wearing  of  comi- 
cal and  tragical  masks,  and  satyrical  dresses,  and 
calling  upon  the  name  of  Bacchus  in  treading  the 


mne-press,  with  some  other  such  ridiculous  vani- 
ties, proceeding  from  the  imposture  of  the  devil. 
The  kalends  here  signify  the  first  of  January.  The 
hota  is  explained  by  Balzamon,  and  others  who  fol- 
low him,  the  feast  of  the  god  Pan,  because  /3ord 
signifies  sheep:  but  Gothofred*"  and  S  nicer  us  "more 
judiciously  render  it  vota,  it  being  only  the  Latin 
name  vota  turned  into  Greek,  and  denoting  the  hea- 
then festival  on  the  third  of  January  for  the  safety 
of  the  emperor.  The  hntmalia  is  by  Balzamon  un- 
derstood of  the  feast  of  Bacchus  :  but  it  may  be 
better  explained  from  Tertullian,  who  among  many 
other  heathen  festivals,  which  some  Christians  were 
very  much  inclined  to  observe,  reckons  the  hnimcc, 
ovlrumalia;  and  objects  if  by  way  of  reproach  to 
such  Christians,  That  they  were  not  so  true  to  their 
religion,  as  the  heathens  were  to  theirs ;  for  the 
heathens  would  never  observe  any  Christian  solem- 
nity, either  the  Lord's  day,  or  Pentecost,  or  any 
other  :  they  will  not  communicate  with  us  in  these 
things  ;  for  they  are  afraid  of  being  thought  Chris- 
tians ;  but  we  are  not  afraid  of  being  thought  hea- 
thens, whilst  we  celebrate  their  Saturnalia,  and  Jann- 
arice,  and  hrumcc,  and  matronnles,  and  mutually  send 
presents  and  new-year's  gifts,  and  observe  their 
sports  and  feasts.  Where,  by  the  hrumtr,  learned 
men""  understand,  not  the  feasts  of  Bacchus,  but 
the  festivals  of  the  winter  solstice,  properly  called 
hmma,  from  which  they  made  a  conjecture,  whether 
the  remainder  of  winter  would  prove  fortunate  to 
them  or  not.  This  superstition,  being  a  relic  of  old 
paganism,  continued  in  the  minds  of  many  Chris- 
tians to  the  time  of  the  council  of  Trullo,  anno  69'2. 
Which  was  the  reason  why  this  council  forbade  it, 
with  many  other  observations  of  the  like  nature, 
imder  the  penalty  of  excomrnunication ;  which,  as 
we  have  seen,  was  always  the  punishment  of  such 
crimes,  except  when  the  multitude  of  ofTenders 
(as  St.  Austin  says)  made  it  impossible  to  ex- 
ercise the  severity  of  ecclesiastical  discipline  upon 
them. 


*'  Aug.  Ep.  64.  ad  Aureliiim.  Comessationes  et  ebrietates 
itaconcessae  et  licitae  putantur,  ut  in  honorem  etiainbeatissi- 
iiiorum  niartyrum,  iion  solum  per  dies  solennes,  quod  ipsuni 
quis  noil  lugendum  videat,  qui  haec  non  cavnis  oculis  inspi- 

cit,  sed  etiam  quotidie  celebrentur. Istoe  in  coemeteriis 

ebrietates  et  luxuriosa  convivia,  non  solum  honoies  marty- 
rum  a  carnali  et  imperita  plebe  credi  sclent,  sed  etiam 
solatia  mortuorum. 

■'-  Ibid.  Saltern  de  sanctorum  corporum  sepulchris,  saltem 
de  locis  sacramentorum,  de  domibus  orationum  tantum 
dedecus  arceatur. 

'^  Ibid.  Non  aspere,  quantum  existimo,  non  duriter,  non 
modo  imperioso  ista  toUuntur,  magis  doeendo  quam  juben- 
do  ;  magis  mnnendo  quam  miuaudo.  Sic  enim  agendum 
est  cum  multitudine  ;  scveritas  autem  exercenda  est  in  pec- 
cat  a  paucorum. 

^*  Aug.  cont.  Faustum,  lib.  20.  cap.  21.  De  Civ.  Dei, 
lib.  8.  cap.  27. 

''^  Cone.  Trull,  can.  G2.     Tcis  Xtyo/uti/as  KnXuv&ifi,  kuI 


Tfi  XsyofiEva  Bot«,  kuI  to.  KaXou/iEva  Bpou/xaXia,  Kal  t);w 
Id  T7)  TrpcoTj;  tou  MapTiov  fxi]vd's  Lit LTiXov fiivi}v  iruvi,  /  VfiLi', 
KiSdira^  Ik  tiji  rwv  ■WKT'rihv  iroXntLa^  7rspiai.pf.6TiiiaL  jiov- 
\6fxida,  (v.T.X. 

"«  Gothofr.  in  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  16.  Tit.  10.  De  Paganis, 
Leg.  8.  p.  270. 

^'  Suicer.  Thesaur.  Ecclcs.  t.  I.  p.  706.  It.  Casaubon  et 
lleinesius,  ibidem. 

^  Tertul.  de  Idol.  cap.  14.  Saturnalia,  et  Januariaj,  et 
brumse,  et  matronales  frequenlantur,  munera  commeant, 
strena;  consonant,  lusus,  convivia  constrepunt.  O  melior 
fides  nationum  in  suam  sectam :  qua;  nuUam  solennitatem 
Christianorum  sibi  vindicat,  non  Dorainicum  diem,  non 
Pentecosten.  Etiamsi  nossent,  non  communicassent ;  ti- 
merent  enim  ne  Christiani  viderentur.  Nos,  ne  elhnici 
pronunciemur,  non  veremur.  It.  cap.  10.  Etiam  strenaj 
captandae  et  Septimontium  et  Brumce,  &c. 

■"  Vid.  Junium  in  loc.  et  Hospinian.  de  Festis  Etlinico- 
rum,  cap.  28.  p.  127. 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


93; 


I  take  no  notice  here  of  the  idol- 
of  The  idoiatnof  ati'V  that  micht  be  committed  in  the 

worshipping  angels,  J  n  ^ 

saints,  m.a.t>Ts,  woi'ship  of  ansTels,  or  saints  and  mar- 
images,  &c.  ^  ^      ' 

tyrs,  or  the  Virgin  Mary,  or  images,  or 
the  eucharist,  because  I  have  had  occasion  before 
to  speak  more  at  large  of  these  in  several  parts '""  of 
this  work.  And  it  will  be  siifHcient  here  only  to 
observe  in  general,  that  none  but  professed  heretics 
were  ever  accused  of  this  sort  of  idolatry  in  the 
primitive  ages,  such  as  the  anrfelici  for  worship- 
ping angels,  and  the  Simonians  and  Carpocratians 
for  worshipping  images,  and  the  CoUyridians  for 
worshipping  the  Virgin  Mary  :  and  these  being  he- 
retics by  profession,  there  is  no  question  but  that 
the  censures  of  the  church  were  inflicted  on  them, 
and  all  such  as  adhered  to  or  went  over  to  them ; 
whicli  is  sufficient  to  remark  here  for  explaining 
and  confirming  -the  exercise  of  discipline  in  the 
church. 

,  ,  ,„  There  is  but  one  thing  more  to  be 

Sect.  19.  o 

idohti'y™'and"?on^  notcd  concemiug  the  practice  of  idol- 
nivcisatit.  atry,  which  is,  that  all  favourers  and 

encouragers  of  idolatry  were  equally  reputed  guilty 
of  the  crime  with  idolaters  themselves,  as  partak- 
ing in  their  sin.  If  a  master  sent  his  servant  to 
sacrifice  for  him,  the  act  was  the  servant's,  but  the 
guilt  rebounded  on  the  master's  head,  as  the  prin- 
cipal author  of  it,  as  we  have  seen  before  in  the 
case  of  the  Jihellatici,  who  employed  their  servants 
to  sacrifice  for  them.  If  a  judge  who  was  obliged 
by  his  office  to  extirpate  idolatry,  when  the  laws 
gave  him  authority  and  power  to  do  it,  did  either 
publicly  neglect  his  duty,  or  secretly  connive  at 
the  practice  of  idolaters,  he  was  reputed  guilty 
of  the  crime  by  participation.  Thus  St.  Austin 
charges  the  magistrates  of  a  certain  city  as  cri- 
minals in  this  respect,""  That  when  the  laws  had 
empowered  them  to  root  out  all  the  remainders 
of  idolatry,  they  were  negligent  and  remiss  in 
putting  them  in  execution  :  though  the  laws  them- 
selves, to  which'"-  he  refers,  had  laid  a  penalty 
of  twenty  pounds  of  gold  upon  any  judge,  or  offi- 
cer belonging  to  him,  if  by  any  dissimulation  of 
theirs  the  force  of  the  law,  prohibiting  heathen 
festivals,  was  fi'audulently  evaded.  So  before  idol- 
atry was  forbidden  by  the  imperial  laws,  whilst. 


under  the  countenance  of  heathen  emperors,  it  rode 
triumphant,  Cln-istians  were  obliged  not  only  to  ab- 
stain from  sacrificing  themselves,  but  to  lend  no 
helping  hand  by  their  authority  to  the  sacrifices  ; 
not  to  make  a  trade  of  selling  victims ;  not  to  be  a 
guardian  or  curator  of  any  temple,  or  collector  of 
their  revenues;  not  to  exhibit  the  pubhc  games 
and  sliows,  either  at  his  own  expense  or  the  ex- 
pense of  the  public,  or  so  much  as  preside  in  them 
when  they  were  acted ;  not  to  use  any  of  their  so- 
lemn words  or  forms  peculiar  to  idolatrous  wor- 
ship, nor  to  swear  by  the  names  of  their  gods  : 
all  which  Tertullian  remarks,  and  puts  together  in 
one  place  ;"'^  giving  this  as  a  rea-on  wliy  a  Christian 
luider  a  heathen  government  could  not  safely  take 
upon  him  the  office  of  a  judge;  because  that  post 
would  oblige  him  to  countenance  idolatry,  either  by 
his  authority,  or  some  other  of  those  ways,  which 
he  could  not  do  without  injuring  his  conscience  and 
doing  violence  to  the  laws  of  his  own  religion, 
which  do  not  allow  a  man  to  help  forward  the  prac- 
tice of  idolatry  in  others.  And  for  this  reason  the 
council  of  Eliberis  '"^  made  an  order,  that  no  pos- 
sessors or  landlords  should  allow  of  any  thing  that 
was  brought  in  their  accounts  by  their  managers  or 
tenants,  as  given  to  an  idol,  under  the  penalty  of 
five  years'  suspension  from  the  communion.  And 
in  another  canon '°^  they  order  all  masters  to  pro- 
hibit their  servants  from  retaining  any  idols  in 
their  houses,  as  far  as  lay  in  their  power ;  or  if  they 
could  not  do  this  in  times  of  persecution,  for  fear 
their  servants  should  use  some  violence  toward 
them,  that  is,  inform  against  them  or  betray  them, 
they  should  at  least  keep  tliemselves  pure,  or  other- 
wise be  cast  out  of  the  church.  In  times  of  peace 
they  were  to  carry  their  power  a  little  further ;  for, 
by  a  rule  of  the  second  comicil  of  Aries,'"*  after 
laws  were  made  by  the  state  to  prohibit  and  root 
out  idolatry,  every  presbyter  within  his  own  terri- 
tory or  district,  was  to  prosecute  all  infidels  that 
still  continued  to  light  torches  to  idols,  or  worship 
trees,  or  fountains,  or  stones,  under  the  penalty  of 
being  himself  reputed  guilty  of  sacrilege,  if  he  neg- 
lected so  to  do.  And  every  lord  or  governor  of  the 
place,  who,  upon  admonition,  should  refuse  to  cor- 
rect such  errors  in  those  under  his  command,  was 


>"»  See  Book  VIII.  chap.  8.     Book  XIII.  chap.  3. 

""  Aurr.  Ep.  202. 

'"-Cod.  Theotl.  lib.  IG.  Tit.  10.  De  Paganis,  Leg.  19. 
Judices  autem  viginti  libraruin  aiiri  poena  coiLstringinms,  et 
pari  forma  ofBcia  eoriim,  si  hicc  eoruin  fucrint  dissimula- 
tione  neglecta. 

'"^  Tertul.  de  Idol.  cap.  17.  Neque  sacrificet,  neqiie  sa- 
criliciis  auctoritatem  suam  accommodet,  noii  hostias  locet, 
nun  curas  templorum  deloget,  nou  vectigalia  eorum  procu- 
ret,  noil  spectacula  edat  de  sue  aut  de  publico,  autedendis 
praesit:  nihil  solenne  pronunciet  vel  edicet,  ne  juret  quidem. 

'"  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  40.  Prohiberi  placuit,  iit  cum  ra- 
tiones  suas  accipiunt  possessores,  quicquid  ad  idolum  datum 


fuerit,  acceptuiu  non  referant ;  si  post  interdictum  fcceriiit, 
per  quinquennii  spacia  tcmporuui  a  commuuione  esse  ar- 
cendos. 

'"^  Ibid.  can.  41.  Adnioneri  ])lacuit  iidcles,  ut  in  quantum 
possint,  prohibeant,  ue  idola  in  doiuibus  suis  habcant:  si 
voro  vim  metuunt  servorum.  vel  seipsos  puros  conscrvent ; 
si  non  feceriut,  alieni  ab  ecclesia  habcautur. 

«>"  Cunc.  Arelat.  2.  can.  23.  Si  in  alicujus  prcsbyteri  ter- 
ritorio  intideles  aut  faculas  acccnderint,  aut  arbores,  fontcs 
vel  saxa  venereutur  :  si  hoec  eruerc  ncglcxerit,  sacrilegii  sc 
esse  reum  cognoscat.  Dominus  autem  vel  ordinator  rei 
ipsius,  si  admonitus  emendare  noluerit,  commuuione  pri- 
vet ur. 


938 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


to  be  deprived  of  the  communion.  By  another 
canon  of  the  council  of  EHberis,'"'  all  persons,  both 
men  and  women,  are  prohibited  to  lend  any  heathen 
their  clothes  and  apparel  to  set  off  the  secular  pomp, 
under  the  penalty  of  three  years'  suspension  from 
the  communion :  where,  by  the  secular  pomp,  it  is 
most  reasonable  to  understand  the  idolatrous  cere- 
monies of  the  heathen  on  their  public  festivals. 
But  there  is  one  case  peculiarly  guarded  against  in 
that  council,  because  many  well-meaning  Chris- 
tians, in  a  mistaken  zeal  against  idolatry,  were  apt 
to  run  in  a  contrary  extreme,  and  think  themselves 
obliged  to  break  and  deface  idols  wherever  they 
found  them:  to  correct  which  error  the  council'"* 
was  forced  to  make  another  decree  to  forbid  this 
unwarrantable  practice,  and  to  order.  That  if  any 
one  was  slain  in  such  a  fact,  he  should  not  be  en- 
rolled in  the  catalogue  of  martyrs :  because  the 
gospel  gives  no  such  command,  neither  do  we  find 
it  ever  practised  by  the  apostles.  This  observation 
of  the  council  concerning  the  practice  of  the  apos- 
tles seems  to  be  very  just.  For  whatever  zeal  they 
had  against  idolatry,  we  never  read  that  they  went 
in  a  tumultuous  way  into  the  heathen  temples  to 
demolish  their  idols ;  but  rather  the  contrary  cha- 
racter is  given  them  by  the  testimony  of  the  very 
heathen.  Of  which  we  have  an  illustrious  instance 
in  the  apology  which  the  town  clerk  of  Ephesus 
made  for  Paul  and  his  companions,  when  they  were 
accused  by  Demetrius  and  the  craftsmen  who  made 
silver  shrines  for  Diana,  as  if  they  had  done  vio- 
lence to  her  temple,  and  to  the  image  which  fell 
down  from  Jupiter  :  "  Ye  have  brought  hither  these 
men,"  says  he,  "  which  are  neither  robbers  of 
churches,  not  yet  blasphemers  of  your  goddess," 
Acts  xix.  37. 

It  is  true,  indeed,  Eulalia  the  martyr  had  done 
some  such  thing  not  long  before  in  Spain  :  but  the 
council  would  not  have  her  action,  which  might  be 
done  by  a  peculiar  impulse  of  the  Spirit,  drawn  into 
example ;  because  it  was  an  unnecessary  provoca- 
tion of  the  heathen,  and  prejudicial  to  the  church, 
without  any  warrant  from  Scripture;  which  bids 
men  confess  Christ  when  they  are  called  to  do  it, 
but  not  to  provoke  the  enemy  by  an  imprudent 
zeal,  when  there  is  no  just  reason  for  it.  And  this 
is  what  Cyprian  before  them  had  always  taught  his 
people  both  by  his  preaching  and  his  writing,  That 
they '""  should  raise  no  tumults,  nor  offer  themselves 
of  their  own  accord  to  the  Gentiles ;  but  when  they 
were  apprehended  and  delivered  up  to  the  magis- 
trate, then  to  speak  what  the  Lord  put  into  their 


licarts  in  that  hour,  who  would  have  us  to  confess 
him  when  called  to  do  it,  but  not  rashly  put  our- 
selves upon  it.  Thus  the  ancients,  in  this  matter  of 
idolatry,  the  great  crime  of  that  age,  steered  their 
discipline  with  an  even  course,  keeping  a  just  me- 
dium between  two  extremes ;  neither  allowing  any 
sinful  compliance  or  communication  with  it,  nor 
encouraging  any  indiscreet  and  over-zealous  oppo- 
sition to  it.  And  if  TertuUian  in  the  former  case 
has  stretched  the  matter  a  little  too  far ;  as  when 
he  determines  it  to  be  a  species  and  smatch  of  idol- 
atry for  a  schoolmaster  to  teach  the  names  of  the 
heathen  gods  to  his  scholars,  or  for  a  Christian  to 
bear  arms,  or  fly  in  time  of  persecution ;  it  is  easy 
to  account  for  these  singularities,  knowing  out  of 
what  school  they  came,  and  that  they  were  not  the 
dictates  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  but  the  spirit  of 
Montanus  :  and  it  is  a  sufficient  answer  to  any  such 
pretences,  that  we  meet  with  no  such  dogmatical 
assertions  in  purer  writers,  nor  any  such  rules  in 
ecclesiastical  discipline,  nor  any  such  over-bearing 
custom  in  the  church  of  God.  I  have  been  the 
more  curious  in  stating  the  sense  of  the  ancients 
upon  these  several  questions,  both  because  they  are 
useful  to  explain  the  discipline  of  the  church,  and 
also  because  they  may  have  their  use  when  applied 
to  other  cases ;  and  it  is  not  very  common  to  find 
the  subject  of  idolatry  treated  of  in  this  way  by 
modern  authors. 


CHAPTER  V. 

OF  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CURIOUS  AND  FORBIDDEN 
ARTS,  DIVINATION,  MAGIC,  AND  ENCHANTMENT  : 
AND  OF  THE  LAWS  OF  THE  CHURCH  MADE  FOR 
THE  PUNISHMENT  OF  THEM. 


Another  great  crime  against  religion 

was,  the  practice  of  curious  and  for-     or  the  several 

■'■  ,  sorts   of  divination. 

bidden  arts,  which  are  almost  innu-  r-aiiicuiariy  of  as- 

'  trology. 

merable,  from  the  gi'eat  and  various  , 
inclination  of  men  to  superstition.  I  shall  sum 
them  up  under  three  general  names,  divination, 
magic,  and  enchantment.  Divination  comprehends 
all  the  arts  and  ways  of  discovering  secrets,  or  fore- 
telling future  events,  not  knowable  by  any  rules  of 
nature;  magic,  all  the  arts  of  mischievous  opera- 
tions by  secret  and  unknown  means,  which  is  com- 
monly called  sorcery,  and,  by  the  Latins,  reneficium 


'"  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  57.  MatronoB  vel  earum  njariti  ves- 
timenta  sua  ad  ornantlam  seculariter  pompam  non  dent.  Et 
si  fecerint,  triennii  tempore  abstineant. 

ifs  Ibid.  can.  60.  Si  quis  idola  fregcrit,  ct  ibidem  fuerit 
occisus;  quoniam  in  evangelic  non  est  scriptum,  neque  in- 
venitur  ab  apostolis  unquam  factum ;  placuit  in  nunieruni 


eum  non  recipi  martyrum. 

""•  Cypr.  Ep.  81.  al.  83.  p.  239.  Secundum  quod  me  trac- 
taute  sDcpissime  didicistis,  quietcm  et  tranquillitatem  tenete: 
ne  quisquam  vestrum  aliquem  tumultum  de  fratiilnis  moveat, 
aut  ultro  se  Gentilibus  offerat,  &c.  Siquidem  Doniinus  nus 
tonfiteri  magis  voluit,  quam  (tcmere)  profiteri. 


Chap.  V. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


939 


and  malrjicium,  from  poisoning  and  doing  mischief; 
enchantment  chielly  reUites  to  a  pretended  skill  and 
power  of  doing  good,  as  of  curing  diseases  by  cer- 
tain charms,  and  words,  and  signs,  and  amulets, 
which  has  made  it  the  more  agreeable  to  weak  and 
superstitious  persons,  because  it  has  a  pretence  and 
show  of  being  useful  and  beneficial  to  mankind. 
Among  the  several  species  of  divination,  one  of  the 
most  noted  and  infamous  was  that  of  astrology,  or 
the  pretence  of  discovering  secrets  by  the  position 
and  motion  of  the  stars.  Men  who  professed  this 
art,  are  commonly  called  mathematici,  drawers  of 
schemes  and  calculations ;  under  which  name  they 
are  condemned  in  both  the  Codes."  And  they  were 
infamous,  not  only  under  the  Christian  administra- 
tion, but  also  under  the  old  Romans.  For  there  is 
a  law  of  Diocletian^  in  the  Justinian  Code,  which 
allows  the  art  of  geometry  as  a  useful  science,  but 
forbids  the  ars  mathematica,  the  astrologer's  art,  as  a 
damnable  practice.  And  Tacitus  ^  says,  There  were 
decrees  of  the  senate  made  in  the  reign  of  Tiberius, 
for  expelling  all  the  astrologers  and  magicians  out 
of  Italy:  but  he  likewise  observes,*  that  they  were 
a  sort  of  men,  which  were  always  forbidden,  and 
yet  always  retained ;  for  though  they  were  deceit- 
ful and  fallacious  to  great  men,  yet  they  still  had  an 
inclination  now  and  then  upon  occasion  to  consult 
them.  Their  expulsion  out  of  Italy  is  also  noted  by 
Suetonius,  as  done  twice*  in  the  reigns  of  Tiberius 
and  Vitellius.  Upon  which  Tertullian,"  in  a  smart 
and  elegant  way,  tells  some  Christians,  who  pleaded 
for  a  toleration  of  themselves  in  the  profession  of 
this  wicked  art,  That  astrologers  were  expelled  out 
of  Italy  and  Rome,  as  their  angels  were  out  of  hea- 
ven :  the  same  penalty  of  banishment  was  inflicted 
on  the  scholars,  as  had  been  on  their  masters  before 
them.  Now,  then,  the  laws  of  the  state,  both  hea- 
then and  Christian,  being  thus  severe  against  them, 
it  was  but  reasonable  that  the  censures  of  the  church 
should  be  as  sharp  upon  them,  because  they  were  a 
species  of  idolaters,  and  owed  the  original  of  their 


art  to  the  invention  of  wicked  angels.  For  this 
reason  the  Constitutions'  put  astrologers  into  the 
black  list  of  such  as  were  to  be  rejected  from  bap- 
tism, unless  they  would  promise  to  renounce  their 
profession.  The  first  council  of  Toledo"  condemns 
the  Priscillianists  with  anathema  for  the  practice 
of  it.  For  we  must  know,  that  the  Priscillianists 
ascribed  all  to  fate  and  the  necessary  influence  of 
the  stars,  as  St.  Austin  informs  us  :  They  asserted 
that  men  were  bound  to  fatal  stars,"  and  that  our 
bodies  were  compounded  according  to  the  order  of 
the  twelve  signs  of  the  zodiac,  as  they  who  are 
commonly  called  mathematici,  or  astrologers,  main- 
tain, appointing  Aries  for  the  head,  Taurus  for  the 
neck,  Gemini  for  the  sliouldors,  Cancer  for  the 
breast,  and  so  running  through  the  other  signs,  till 
they  came  to  the  feet,  which  they  attributed  to 
Pisces,  which  is  the  last  sign  in  the  astrologers' 
computation.  Leo,"  in  one  of  his  epistles,  gives 
the  same  account  of  them,  That  they  maintained 
that  the  bodies  and  souls  of  men  were  bound  to 
fatal  stars,  by  which  folly  men  were  embarrassed 
in  the  errors  of  the  pagans,  and  obliged  to  worship 
those  stars  that  were  favourable  to  them,  and  ap- 
pease those  that  were  against  them :  but  they  who 
followed  such  vanities  could  have  no  place  in  the 
catholic  church ;  for  he  that  gives  himself  to  such 
persuasions,  is  wholly  departed  from  the  body  of 
Christ.  Sozomen  says,"  Eusebius,  bishop  of  Emesa, 
was  accused  of  the  practice  of  this  art,  and  forced 
to  fly  from  his  bishopric  upon  it.  He  gives  it  in- 
deed another  name,  calling  it  apotelesmatical  as- 
tronomy ;  but  that '"  signifies  the  same  thing ;  for 
there  were  two  parts  of  astronomy,  the  one  teach- 
ing the  nature  and  course  of  the  stars,  which  was  a 
lawful  art;  and  the  other,  the  secret  effects  and 
powers  of  them  in  their  oppositions,  conjunctions, 
&c.,  which  effects  were  called  their  apotelesmata, 
and  the  art  itself  apotelesmatica,  and  the  practisers 
of  it  anciently  apotehs^natici,  as  afterwards  mathema- 
tici and  ChaMcei.     Some  think  also  these  apotcles- 


'  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  16.  De  Maleficis  et  Mathe- 
maticis. 

-  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  9.  Tit.  38.  De  Malefic,  et  Mathemat. 
Leg.  2.  Artem  geometria3  discere  atque  exercere  publics 
interest.  Ars  autem  mathematica  damnabilis  est  atque  in- 
terdicta  omnino. 

'  Tacit.  Annal.  lib.  2.  cap.  32.  Facta  et  de  mathematicis 
magisque  Italia  pellendis  senatus  consulta;  quorum  e  uu- 
mero  Pituanius  sa.Ko  dejectus  est. 

•*  Idem  in  Hist.  lib.  1.  cap.  22.  Mathematici,  genus  ho- 
minum  polentibus  infidum,  sperantibus  fallax,  quod  in  civi- 
tate  nostra  et  vctabitur  semper,  et  retinebitur. 

=  Sueton.  Vit.  Tiber,  cap.  3G.     Vit.  Vitel.  cap.  M. 

"  Tertul.  de  Idol.  cap.  9.  Urbs  et  Italia  interdicitnr  ma- 
thematicis, sicut  caelum  et  angelis  eorum,  eadera  poena  est 
exilii  discipulis  et  magistris. 

'  Constit.  lib.  8.  cap.  32. 

'  Cone.  Tolet.  1.  in  Regula  Fidei  cent.  Priscillianistas. 
Si  quis  astrologiae  vel  mathesi  e.xistimat  esse  credendum. 


anathema  sit. 

"  Aug.  de  H feres,  cap.  70.  Astruunt  fatalibus  stellis 
homines  coUigatos,  ipsumque  corpus  nostrum  secundum 
duodecim  signa  coeli  esse  compositum,  sicut  hi  qui  vulgo 
mathematici  appellantur;  constituentcs  in  capite  Arietem, 
Taurum  in  cervice,  Geminos  in  humcris,  Cancrum  in  pec- 
tore;  etcetera  nominatim  signa  percurrcntes,  ad  plantas 
usque  perveniunt,  quas  Piscibus  tribuunt,  quod  ultimum  sig- 
uum  ab  astrologis  nuncupatur. 

'»  Leo  Ep.  91.  al.  93.  ad  Turibium,  cap.  II.  Fatalibus 
stellis  et  auimas  hominum,  et  corpora  opinantur  astringi : 
per  quam  amentiam  necesse  est  ut  homines  paganorum  er- 
roribus  implicati,  et  faventia  sibi  (ut  putant)  sidera  colere, 
et  adversantia  studoant  mitigare.  Verum  ista  sectautibus 
nuUus  in  etdesia  catholica  locus  est;  qunniam  qui  se  tali- 
bus  persuasionihus  dedit,  a  Christi  corpore  totus  abscessit. 

"  Sozom.  lib.  3.  cap.  6. 

'2  Justin.  Respons.  ad  Orthodox.  24.  speaks  of  the  Teles- 
mata  of  ApoUonius, 


940 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTLVN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


mata  were  little  figures  and  images  of  wax,  made  by 
magical  art  to  receive  the  influence  of  the  stars, 
and  used  as  helps  in  divination."  So  that  the  apote- 
lesmatical  art  was  the  same  in  all  respects  with 
judicial  astrology.  And  therefore  Eusebius  Emis- 
senus  was  condemned  for  the  practice  of  it,  as  an 
unlawful  art,  utterly  unbecoming  the  character  of  a 
Christian  bishop.  For,  by  the  account  that  has 
been  given,  it  is  plain,  that  all  such  kind  of  divin- 
ation was  looked  upon  as  idolatry  and  paganism, 
as  owing  its  original  to  wicked  spirits,  and  as  in- 
troducing an  absolute  fate  and  necessity  upon 
human  actions,  and  so  taking  away  all  freedom 
from  human  will,  and  making  God  the  author  of 
sin;  which  blasphemies  are  commonly  charged 
upon  this  art  by  the  ancients,  St.  Austin,'^  Lactan- 
tius,"  TertuUian,'^  Eusebius,"  Origen,  and  Barde- 
sanes  Syrus,  who  wrote  particular  dissertations 
against  it,  mentioned  by  Eusebius,  who  gives  some 
extracts  out  of  them.  We  may  note  further  out  of 
St.  Austin,  that  these  astrologers  had  sometimes 
the  name  of  genethliaci,^^  from  pretending  to  calcu- 
late men's  nativities  by  erecting  schemes  and  horo- 
scopes, as  they  called  them,  to  know  what  position 
the  stars  were  in  at  their  birth,  and  thence  prognos- 
ticate their  good  or  bad  fortune,  or  any  accidents  of 
their  life,  by  the  conjunction  of  the  stars  they  were 
born  under.  And  because  some  of  these  pretended 
to  determine  positively  of  the  lives  and  deaths  of 
kings,  which  was  reputed  a  very  dangerous  piece 
of  treason ;  therefore  the  laws  of  the  state  were 
more  severe  against  them  even  under  the  heathen 
emperors,  as  Gothofred  shows  out  '^  of  the  ancient 
lawyers,  Ulpian  and  Paulus  :  and  that  was  another 
reason  why  the  church  thought  it  proper  to  ani- 
madvert upon  these  with  the  utmost  severity  of  ec- 
clesiastical censures ;  as  thinking  that  what  the 
heathen  laws  had  punished  as  a  capital  crime,  ought 
not  to  pass  unregarded  in  the  discipline  of  the 
Christian  church.  It  was  this  crime  that  expelled 
Aquila  from  the  church.  For  Epiphanius  says,"" 
He  was  once  a  Christian ;  but  being  incorrigibly 
bent  upon  the  practice  of  astrology,  the  church 
cast  him  out ;  and  then  he  became  a  Jew,  and  in 
revenge  set  upon  a  new  translation  of  the  Bible,  to 
corrupt  those  texts  which  had  any  relation  to  the 
coming  of  Christ.  St.  Austin^'  gives  a  famous  in- 
stance of  an  astrologer,  who,  being  excommunicated 


for  his  crimes,  afterwards  became  a  penitent,  and 
was  reconciled  to  the  chm-ch  by  his  ministerial  ab- 
solution. The  sum  of  his  crimes  was  this  :  he 
taught  the  fatal  influence  of  the  stars,  that  it  was 
Venus  that  made  a  man  commit  adultery,  and  not 
his  own  will ;  and  that  it  was  Mars,  and  not  his 
own  will,  that  made  him  commit  murder ;  and  that 
if  any  man  was  righteous,  it  was  not  from  God,  but 
from  the  influence  of  Jupiter,  a  star  so  called  in  the 
heavens.  And  by  this  art  he  had  defrauded  many 
people  of  their  money ;  but  at  last  he  became  a 
convert,  and  upon  his  confession  and  repentance, 
was  received  into  the  church  again,  to  lay  com- 
munion, but  for  ever  denied  all  promotion  among 
the  clerg)^  By  which  one  instance,  we  may  judge 
of  the  gi-eatness  of  the  crime,  and  the  proceedings 
of  the  church  against  such  oflfenders. 
Another  sort  of  divination  was,  that 
which  was  called  augury  and  sooth-  ofaugurya'ndsooth- 

saying. 

saymg.  Which  was  committed  several 
ways.  Sometimes  by  obser\ang  several  signs  and 
appearances  in  the  entrails  of  the  sacrifices,  which 
was  properly  called  aruspicina  and  hariisjncmm. 
Sometimes  by  observations  made  upon  the  motion, 
or  flying,  or  singing  of  birds,  which  was  called 
augury,  in  the  strictest  sense.  Sometimes  by  re- 
marks made  upon  the  voice  of  men,  or  their  sneezing, 
which  was  called  an  omen,  and  the  thing  reputed 
ominous.  Sometimes  by  observing  certain  signs 
in  the  figure  and  lineaments  of  the  body  ;  as  in  the 
hands,  which  was  called  chiromancy ;  or  in  the  face 
and  forehead,  which  was  called  utrwwoaKOTria,  or 
physiognomy ;  or  in  the  back,  called  vuoTonavTiia, 
with  many  other  observations  of  the  like  nature. 
The  old  Romans  were  much  given  to  these  super- 
stitions, insomuch  that  they  had  their  colleges  of 
augurs,  and  would  neither  fight,  nor  make  war  or 
peace,  or  do  any  thing  of  moment  without  consult-  ) 
ing  them.  The  squeaking  of  a  rat  was  sometimes 
the  occasion  of  dissolving  a  senate,  or  making  a 
consul  or  a  dictator"  lay  down  his  office,  as  begun. 
Avith  an  ill  omen.  Now,  though  Christianit}'  was  a 
professed  enemy  to  all  such  vanities,  yet  the  re- 
mains of  such  superstition  continued  in  the  hearts 
of  many  after  their  conversion.  So  that<the  church 
was  forced  to  make  severe  laws  to  restrain  them. 
The  council  of  Eliberis^  makes  the  renunciation  of 
this  art  a  condition  of  baptism,  if  an  augur  had  a 


"  Vid.  Selden.  de  Diis  Syris.  Syntagma  l.cap.  2.  p.  116- 
Spencer.  De  Uriin  et  Thummim,  lib.  3.  c.  3.  sect.  lU.  p.  3G9. 

'^  Aug.  de*  Civ.  Dei,  lib.  5.  cap.  1,  S:c.  De  Doclnuu 
Christ,  lib.  2.  cap.  21,  &c. 

'^  Lact.  lib.  2.  c.  15.  '"  Terlul.  de  Idol.  cap.  9. 

"  Euseb.  de  Praepar.  Evang.  lib.  6.  Orig.  ct  Bardcsan. 
ibid.  cap.  10  et  11.  Vid.  Nyssen.  de  Fato.  Ba*l.  Hum.  1 
et  G.  in  He.xamer. 

'"  Aug.  de  Doct.  Christ,  lib.  2.  cap.  21.  Genethliaci  prop- 
ter natalium  dierum  consideraliones  vocantur. 

i»  Gothofred.  in  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.   16.    De  Malof. 


et  Mathematic.  Leg.  2. 

-"  Epiphan.  de  Mcnsur.  ct  Ponder. 

-'  Aug.  de  Mathcmatico,  ad  calcem  Tractatus  in  Psal.  Ixi. 

--'  ^'aler.  ]Masim.  lib.  1.  cap.  1.  Occentus  soricis  auditus 
Fabio  Ma.\imo  dictaturam,  Caio  Flaniiuio  magisterium 
equitum  deponendi  causam  praebiut. 

-•'  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  62.  Si  augur  aut  pantomimi  cre- 
dere volucrint,  placuit,  ut  prius  artibus  suis  renuucient,  et 
tunc  demum  suscipiantur,  i(a  ut  ulterius  non  revertantur. 
Quod  si  facere  contra  interdictum  tentaverint,  projiciantur 
ab  ecclesia. 


ClIAI'.    V. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


941 


mind  to  be  baptized ;  and  if  .afterward  he  returned 
to  the  practice  of  it,  he  was  to  be  cast  out  of  the 
church.  Which  is  also  the  rule  in  the  Apostolical 
Constitutions,-^  and  the  councils  of  Agde,**  Vannes,-" 
Orleans,-'  and  several  others.  The  Constitutions 
not  onlj^  censure  astrologers,  magicians,  and  en- 
chanters, but  also  wandering  fortune-tellers,  augurs, 
and  soothsayers,  observers  of  signs  and  omens,  in- 
terpreters of  palpitations,  observers  of  accidents  in 
meeting  others,  and  making  divination  upon  them, 
as  upon  a  blemish  in  the  eye,  or  in  the  foot,  ob- 
servers of  the  motion  of  birds  or  weasels,  observers 
of  voices  and  symbolical  sounds. 

And  it  is  observable,  that  in  the 
ordiiiT.ation  by     Frcncli  councils  last  mentioned,  there 

IcitS. 

is  a  peculiar  sort  of  augury  condemned 
mider  the  name  of  sortes  sacrcB,  divination  by  holy- 
lots  ;  which  was  a  piece  of  new  superstition  grafted 
upon  an  old  stock,  and  introduced  with  a  more  spe- 
cious show  in  the  room  of  a  heathen  practice.  For 
the  heathens  were  used  to  divine  by  a  sort  of  lots, 
which  they  called  sortes  Virgiliance ;  which  was 
done  by  a  casual  opening  of  the  book  of  Virgil,  and 
then  the  first  verses  that  appeared  were  taken  and 
interpreted  into  an  oracle.  Thus  Spartian  says,^ 
Hadrian  had  the  empire  prognosticated  to  him  by 
drawing  his  lots  out  of  Virgil ;  for  the  first  words 
that  appeared,  Missus  in  imperiitin  magnum,  por- 
tended that  he  should  become  the  Roman  em- 
peror. And  so  Lampridius,-"  in  the  Life  of  Alex- 
ander Severus,  says.  That  emperor  also  understood 
by  this  sort  of  divining  lots  out  of  another  verse  of 
Virgil,  that  he  should  obtain  the  government  of 
the  Roman  empire.  Now,  many  superstitious 
Christians  were  of  opinion,  that  this  sort  of  divina- 
tion might  be  much  better  made  by  using  the  Holy 
Scriptures  after  the  same  manner,  and  to  the  same 
purpose ;  and  therefore,  as  the  heathen  used  Virgil, 
so  they  used  the  Bible,  to  learn  their  fortune  by 
sacred  lots,  as  they  called  them,  taking  the  first 
passage  that  presented  itself  to  make  their  divina- 
tion and  conjecture  upon  :  and  it  appears,  that 
some  of  the  inferior  clergy,  out  of  a  base  spirit,  and 
love  of  filthy  lucre,  encouraged  this  practice,  and 
made  a  trade  of  it  in  the  French  church ;  whence 
the  Gallican  councils  are  very  frequent  in  the  con- 
demnation of  it.  The  council  of  Agde^"  takes  no- 
tice. That  some  of  the  clergy  and  laity  followed 


after  soothsaying,  to  the  great  detriment  of  the 
catholic  religion ;  and,  under  the  name  of  feigned 
religion,  professed  the  art  of  divination,  by  what 
they  called  the  lots  of  the  saints,  making  use  of 
a  casual  inspection  of  the  Scriptures  to  divine  fu- 
turities by.  It  is  decreed  therefore,  "Tliat  whoever 
of  the  clergy  or  laity  should  be  detected  in  the  prac- 
tice of  this  art,  either  as  consulting  or  teaching  it, 
should  be  cast  out  of  the  communion  of  the  church." 
This  had  been  decreed  about  sixty  years  before  in 
the  council  of  Vanncs,  anno  465,  in  the  very  same 
words.  And  the  first  council  of  Orleans,"  about 
five  years  after  the  council  of  Agde,  repeats  the  de- 
cree with  a  very  little  variation.  But  the  practice 
continued  for  all  this  :  for  Gregory  of  Tours ^-  says, 
Kramnus,  the  son  of  King  Clotharius,  consulted  the 
clergy  of  Dijon  upon  some  points,  and  they  gave 
him  an  answer  by  this  sort  of  divination.  Some 
reckon  St.  Austin's  conversion  owing  to  such  a  sort 
of  consultation  :  but  the  thought  is  a  great  mistake, 
and  very  injurious  to  him  ;  for  his  conversion  was 
owing  to  a  providential  call,  like  that  of  St.  Paul 
from  heaven.  He  says,''  He  heard  a  voice  he  knew 
not  whence,  saying,  Tolle  lege,  Tolle  lege.  Take  up  the 
Bible  and  read  :  which  he  did,  and  the  first  words 
he  chanced  to  cast  his  eye  upon  were  those  of  St, 
Paul,  Rom.  xiii.  "  Let  us  walk  honestly  as  in  the 
day  ;  not  in  rioting  and  drunkenness,  not  in  cham- 
bering and  wantonness,  not  in  strife  and  envying  : 
but  put  ye  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  make  not 
provision  for  the  flesh,  to  fulfil  the  lusts  thereof." 
Which  words  being  apposite  to  his  case,  he  looked 
upon  them  as  spoken  directly  to  himself,  and  ac- 
cordingly applied  them  to  his  own  condition  :  and 
so  by  God's  providence  they  became  the  means  of 
fixing  him  in  that  piety,  purity,  and  sobriety,  for 
which  he  was  after  so  famous  in  the  world.  Here 
was  nothing  of  divination  in  all  this  ;  but  a  season- 
able application  of  a  proper  passage  to  himself,  as 
he  says  St.  Anthony  had  made  of  those  words  of  our 
Saviour,  "  Go,  sell  all  that  thou  hast,  and  give  to 
the  poor,  and  thou  shalt  have  treasure  in  heaven, 
and  come  follpw  me."  Which  he  took  as  an  oracle 
spoken  immediately  to  himself,  and  they  were  the 
occasion  of  his  turning  to  the  Lord.  As  to  any  other 
use  of  the  Scripture  for  divination,  St.  Austin  was 
an  enemy  to  it,  and  expresses  himself  against  it,  re- 
flecting on  some  who  used  it  to  that  purpose :  As  for 


2<  Constit.  lib.  8.  cap.  32.  ^s  Conc.  Agathen.  can.  42. 

2*  Conc.  Venctic.  can.  16. 

-'  Conc.  Aurel.  1.  can.  30. 

™  Spartian.  Vit.  Hadrian,  p.  5.  Cum  Virijilianas  sortos 
consuleret,  &c. 

-'  Lamprid.  Vit.  Alexaud.  p.  341.  Virt^ilii  sortibus  hu- 
jusmodi  illiistratus  est,  Tu  regere  imperio  populos  Romane 
memento,  &c.  -  . 

^  Conc.  Agathen.  can.  42.  Quod  maxiuie  fidem  cafho- 
licae  religionis  infestat,  aliquanti  clerici  sivc  laici  student 
auguriis,  et  sub  nomine  fictse  religionis,  per  eas  quas  sanc- 


torum sortes  vocant,  divinationis  scientiara  profitentur,  aut 
quarumcunque  Scripturarum  inspectione  futura  prouiittunt. 
Hoc  quicunque  clericus  vel  laicus  detectus  fuerit  vel  con- 
sulcre  vel  docerc,  ab  ecclosia  habeatur  extraneus. 

^'  Conc.  Venoticum,  can.  10.  Conc.  Aurel.  1.  can.  .30. 
Siquis  clericus,  monachus,  vel  socularis,  divinationcm  vel 
auguria  crcdiderit  observanda,  vel  sortes  (quas  mciitiuntur 
esse  sanctorum)  quibusctnique  putaverint  intimandas,  cum 
his  qui  eis  crediderint,  ab  ecclesia;  cinnmunione  pellantur. 

'-  Greg.  Turon.  Hist.  lib.  4.  cap.  16. 

''  Aug.  Confess,  lib.  8.  cap.  12. 


942 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


those,**  says  he,  who  divine  by  lots  out  of  the  Gos- 
pel, though  it  be  more  desirable  they  should  do  this, 
than  run  to  ask  counsel  of  devils ;  yet  I  am  dis- 
pleased at  this  custom,  which  turns  the  Divine  ora- 
cles, Avhich  speak  of  things  belonging  to  another 
life,  to  the  business  of  this  world,  and  the  vanities 
of  the  present  life.  By  which  it  is  plain,  he  looked 
upon  this  sort  of  divination  as  a  great  abuse  of  the 
gospel,  though  not  so  bad  as  going  directly  to  con- 
sult devils,  As  for  those  which  are  commonly  called 
divisorj''  lots,  there  is  no  harm  in  them,  when  ap- 
plied to  things  in  our  own  power;  as  to  dividing 
of  lands  by  lot,  or  determining  in  an  army  who  shall 
first  invade  the  enemy ;  or  in  time  of  a  plague  or 
persecution,  what  ministers  shall  stay  in  a  city  to 
take  care  of  the  church ;  which  is  a  case  particu- 
larly mentioned  by  St.  Austin,'^  and  allowed  as  law- 
ful. So  a  prince  may  distribute  his  punishments 
by  lot,  when  he  is  minded  to  spare  some  criminals 
and  punish  others.  And  when  thei'e  are  two  ob- 
jects of  charity  in  equal  circumstances,  and  we  can- 
not relieve  both,  St.  Austin**  thinks  there  is  no 
harm  in  casting  lots  to  determine  which  of  them 
shall  have  our  charity.  And  there  are  many  other 
indifferent  cases  of  the  like  nature,  in  which  lots 
may  be  used  without  any  prejudice  to  religion.  And 
therefore  the  church  never  made  any  laws  to  forbid 
or  censure  them,  save  only  in  disposing  of  ecclesi- 
astical offices,  and  the  lives  of  men,  which  are  too 
sacred  to  be  committed  to  mere  chance  or  lots  with- 
out some  special  Divine  direction,  as  in  the  case  of 
Matthias  and  Jonas,  which  St.  Jerom*'  says  are  not 
to  be  drawn  into  example ;  because  special  privi- 
leges cannot  make  a  common  or  general  law  for  all 
cases  :  and  it  is  plain,  that  without  such  special  di- 
rection, lots  of  that  kind  will  be  matter  of  mere 
chance,  or  else  pure  divination. 

g^^j  ^  There  were  some  other  ways  of  di- 

expre.^i'iTompact'''  viuatiou  far  more  abominable  than 
with  Satan.  ^^^  former,  because  they  were  done  by 

express  compact  with  the  devil,  and  always  im- 
plied his  concurrence  and  assistance.  Sometimes 
he  gave  answers  by  his  images  and.  idols,  which 
were  called  oracles.  Sometimes  by  speaking  in  his 
prophets,  whom  he  possessed,  who  were  called  ^jt/- 


thouici  and  pi/thoniss(S,  possessed  with  a  familiar,  or 
spirit  of  divination,  and  iyyavrpifiiOoi,  because  they 
spake  out  of  the  belly  by  the  navel.  Sometimes 
men  used  certain  ceremonies  in  sleeping,  in  such  a 
posture,  in  a  temple,  in  the  skins  of  the  sacrifices, 
«S:c.,  to  receive  his  impressions  and  answers  by  dreams, 
which  was  called  ovfipoiiavrtia.  Sometimes  he  gave 
answers  by  spectres  and  appearances  from  the  dead, 
as  he  did  to  Saul  by  the  witch  of  Endor.  This 
they  properly  called  necromancy,  that  is,  divination 
by  the  dead.  Sometimes  he  spake  by  the  skull  of 
a  dead  man,  called  (cpanojuavra'a.  Sometimes  he 
gave  answers  by  certain  signs  and  figures  made  in 
the  earth,  or  water,  or  air,  or  fire,  or  a  glass,  or  a 
riddle,  and  a  thousand  other  ways  of  imposture, 
either  by  real  appearances,  or  by  deluding  the  ima- 
gination. The  names  of  which  and  the  transac- 
tions may  be  seen  in  Delrio,**  or  Lessius,*'  or  Du 
Moulin,'"'  who  treat  more  particularly  of  them. 
That  which  is  to  our  present  purpose,  is  only  to  ob- 
serve, that  as  this  crime  had  in  it  a  mixture  of 
idolatry,  heresy,  infidelity,  apostacy,  sacrilege,  hy- 
pocrisy, curiosity,  and  ambition ;  each  one  of  which 
was  a  high  crime  in  itself;  so  the  church  was  al- 
ways careful  to  lay  the  heaviest  censure  of  excom- 
munication upon  it.  The  general  name,  under 
which  all  the  species  of  it  are  condemned,  is  fxavrtia, 
prophesying,  or  divining,  by  Satan's  inspiration. 
In  the  Constitutions,"  among  those  that  are  to  be 
denied  baptism,  the  fidvTui,  oracle-mongers,  are 
particularly  specified.  And  in  the  council  of  An- 
cyra,''-  those  that  follow  after  such  diviners,  oi  kutu- 
fiavTtvoixtvoi,  or  take  them  into  their  houses  to  ex- 
ercise their  wicked  arts,  are  to  be  excluded  from 
communion,  and  do  five  years'  penance.  By  a  law 
of  Constantius"  in  the  Theodosian  Code,  the  rates 
and  harioli  are  reckoned  among  others  who  prac- 
tise forbidden  arts,  such  as  soothsayers,  astrologers, 
augurs,  Chaldeans,  magicians  :  and  both  they  that 
use  such  curious  divinations,  and  they  that  consult 
them,  are  condemned  to  die,  as  guilty  of  a  capital 
crime  and  ofi'ence  against  religion.  Gothofred'" 
observes.  That  this  law  is  often  mentioned  with 
some  regret  by  the  heathen  writers  Ammianus 
Marcellinus,  Mamertinus,  and  Libanius,  who  give 


^  Aug.  Ep.  119.  ad  Januar.  cap.  20.     Hi  vero  qui  de  pa- 

ginis  evangelicis  sortes  legunt,  etsi  optandum  est,  iit  hoc 
potius  faciaat,  quam  ut  ad  diemonia  consulenda  concurrant, 
tamt'u  etiam  ista  mihi  displicet  consuetude,  ad  negotia  sac- 
cularia  et  ad  vita;  hujus  vanitatem,  propter  aliam  vitam  lo- 
quentia  oracula  Diviua  vcUe  convertere. 

^  Aug.  Ep.  180.  ad  Honorat.  Quse  disceptatio,  si  aliter 
non  potiierit  terminari,  quantuui  mihi  videtur,  qui  maneant 
et  qui  fagiant,  sorte  legeudi  sunt. 

3«  Aug.  de  Doct.  Christ,  lib.  1.  c.  28. 

^'  Hieron.  iu  Joan.  i.  Nee  statim  debemus  sub  hoc  ex- 
emplo  sortibus  credere,  vel  ilkid  de  Actilnis  Apostolorum 
huic  testimonio  copulare,  ubi  sorte  in  apostolatum  Mat- 
thias eligitur;  cum  privilegia  singulorum  non  possint  facere 


legem  communem.  ^  Delrio,  Disquisit.  Magicaj. 

^^  Lessius  de  Jure  et  Instit.  lib.  2.  cap.  43.  Dubit.  5. 

"  Molinaii  Yates,  lib.  3.  cap.  6,  &c. 

^1  Constit.  lib.  8.  cap.  32. 

■•-  Cone.  Ancyr.  can.  25.  Vid.  Basil,  can.  72. 

«  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  16.  de  Malefic,  et  Mathe- 
maticis,  Leg.  4.  Nemo  aruspicem  consulat  aut  mathemati- 
cum,  nemo  hariolum.  Augurum  et  vatum  prava  confessio 
conticescat.  Chaldsei  ac  magi,  et  ceteri,  quos  nialeficos  ob 
facinorum  maguitudinem  vulgus  appellat,  nee  ad  banc  par- 
tem aliqui  moliantur.  Sileat  omnibus  perpotuo  divinandi 
curiositas.  Etenim  supplicium  capitis  feret  gladio  ultore 
prostratus,  quicunque  jussis  obsequium  denegaverit. 

•■^  Gothofred.  in  loc. 


Chap.  V. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


9-i3 


some  instances  of  Constantius's  severity  in  putting 
it  in  execution.  Constantine  by  a  former  law  or 
two"  had  indulged  the  heathen  in  the  liberty  of 
consulting  their  augurs,  provided  they  did  it  in 
public,  and  never  put  any  questions  concerning  the 
state  of  the  commonwealth  or  the  life  of  the  prince; 
which  is  noted  also  by  Julius  Firmicus  Maternas," 
in  his  books  of  astrology  written  whilst  he  was  a 
heathen :  but  Constantius,  finding  great  abuses 
made  of  this  permission,  universally  prohibited  all 
such  consultations  under  the  forementioned  penalty 
of  death :  which  extended  not  only  to  magicians, 
but  to  the  harioli.  and  the  rates;  the  former  of 
which  waited  on  the  altars,  to  receive  their  inspira- 
tion from  the  fumes  of  the  sacrifices,  as  Tertullian" 
describes  them;  and  the  latter,  the  rates,  were  those 
who  pretended  to  prophesy  by  the  perpetual  mo- 
tion of  an  indwelling  demon  ;  whom  therefore  the 
Latins  called  fanatici,  and  the  Greeks,  enthusias- 
tics,  and  SitoXriiTToi,  and  Bio(popoviifvoi,  &c.,  as  may 
be  seen  in  Theodoret^*  and  Suidas,^'  and  many 
others.  Now,  because  no  Christian  could  practise 
this  art,  nor  consult  those  that  did,  without  direct 
communicating  with  devils,  therefore  the  civil  law 
made  it  a  capital  crime,  and  the  ecclesiastical  law 
punished  it  with  the  severest  censure  of  excommu- 
nication. 

Next  to  the  superstition  of  divina- 
tion was  that  of  magic  and  sorcery ; 
"'"■  which  because  it  commonly   tended 

to  work  mischief,  therefore  they  who  gave  them- 
selves to  it  were  usually  termed  venejici  and  malcjtd, 
because  either  by  poison  or  other  means  of  fascina- 
tion they  wrought  pernicious  eifects  upon  others. 
The  laws  of  the  Theodosian  Code^"  frequently  brand 
them  with  this  name  of  malefici.  Particularly  they 
are  charged  by  Constantine^'  as  making  attempts 
by  their  wicked  arts  upon  the  lives  of  innocent  men, 
and  drawing  others  by  magical  potions  (called  jl»/«7- 
tra  and  pharmaca)  to  commit  uncleanness.  All 
such,  when  they  are  detected,  are  appointed  to  be 
put  to  death.     Constantius*^  charges  them  further 


Sect  5. 

Of    mosical     en 

cliantment  and  sor 


with  disturbing  the  elements,  or  raising  of  tempests, 
and  practising  abominable  arts  in  the  evocation  of 
the  infernal  spirits  to  assist  men  in  destroying  their 
enemies :  whom  he  therefore  orders  to  be  executed, 
as  unnatural  monsters,  and  quite  divested  of  the 
principles  of  liumanity.  And  it  is  observable,  that 
in  all  those  laws  of  the  Christian  emperors,  which 
granted  indulgence  to  criminals  at  the  Easter  festi- 
val,'^ the  vvncjici  and  the  malcjici,  that  is,  magical 
practisers  against  the  lives  of  men,  are  always  ex- 
cepted, as  guilty  of  too  heinous  a  crime  to  be  com- 
prised within  the  general  pardon  granted  to  other 
offenders.  And  according  to  these  measures  the 
laws  of  the  church  were  strict  and  severe  against  all 
such,  under  whatever  character  or  denomination 
they  were  found  guilty.  The  council  of  Laodicea'' 
condemns  them  under  the  name  of  magicians  and 
enchanters,  together  with  those  called  mathematici 
and  astrologers,  ordering  all  such  to  be  cast  out  of 
the  church.  The  council  of  Ancyra  **  forbids  the 
art  under  the  name  of  pharmacy,  fapnaKua,  that  is, 
the  magical  art  of  inventing  and  preparing  medica- 
ments to  do  mischief;  and  five  years'  penance  is 
there  appointed  for  any  one  that  receives  a  magician 
into  his  house  for  that  purpose.  St.  Basil's  Canons'** 
condemn  it  under  the  same  character  of  pharmacy 
or  witchcraft,  and  lays  thirty  years'  penance  upon 
it.  And  the  fourth  council  of  Carthage  censures  it 
under  the  name  of  enchantment,*'  joining  it  ^^^th 
augury,  and  denying  communion  to  all  such  as  fol- 
low after  either:  not  to  mention  what  private  writers, 
Origen,*'  TertuUian,*"  Hermes  Pastor,***  and  many 
others,  have  said  against  it ;  Tertullian  particularly 
observing,  that  there  never  was  a  magician  or 
enchanter  allowed  to  escape  unpunished  in  the 
church. 

But  there  was  one  sort  of  enchant-         .  ,  . 

Sect.  G. 

ment,  which  many  ignorant  and  su-  cWmt,'"a'nd'spcii8 
perstitious  Christians,  out  of  the  re-  '" '="--^'^'^'»^'^- 
mains  of  heathen  error,  much  affected:  that  Avas 
the  use  of  charms,  and  amulets,  and  spells,  to  cure 
diseases,  or  avert  dangers  and  mischiefs,  botli  from 


"  Cod.  Theod.  ibid.  Leg.  1  et2. 

■"^  Finnic,  de  Mathesi  sive  Astronom.  lib.  2.  in  fine. 

■"  Tertul.  Apol.  cap.  23.  Qui  aris  inhalantes  numen  de 
nidore  coucipiunt. 

*•*  Theod.  Hist.  lib.  4.  cap.  10.  'Evduvcnaa-Tal  KaXouvTai 
Sui/jLOvo^  Tiyos  ii/ipynau  kKCt^OfXivoi,  k.t.X, 

■■'  Suidas,  voce  'Ei/Sous.  Harmenopulus  de  Sectis,  n.  18. 
de  Massalianis. 

=°  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  16.  de  Maleficiis,  Leg.  G.  Magus 
qui  maleficus  vulgi  consuetudine  nuncupatur.  It.  Leg.  9, 
10,  11.  ibid,  et  Tit.  38.  de  Indulgentiis  Criminum,  Leg.  1,  3, 
4,  6,  7,  8. 

^'  Ibid.  lib.  9.  Tit.  16.  Leg.  3.  Eorum  est  scientia  pii- 
nienda,  et  severissimis  merito  legibus  vindicanda,  qui  magicis 
adcincti  artibus,  aut  contra  hominum  moliti  salutsni,  aut 
pudicos  ad  libiJinem  defixisse  animos  detegentur. 

"  Ibid.  Leg.  5.  Multi  magicis  artibus  ausi  elementa  tur- 
bare,  vitas  insontium  labefactare  non  dubitant,  et  manibus 


accitis  audent  ventilare,  ut  quisque  suos  conficiat  malis  ar- 
tibus inimicos:  hos,  qiioniani  uaturau  peiegrini  sunt,  leialis 
pestis  absumat. 

53  Vid.  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  38.  de  Indulgentiis  Ciiiui- 
num,  Leg.  1,  3,  4,  6,  7,  8. 

5*  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  36.  Ou  oti  Iffja-ru.-oiis  ii  n\r\piKovi, 
/uuyous  I)  tTraoiSov^  t'lvai,  'i  /xadii/xaTiKoui  ?i  dtrTpoXJyovs, 

K.T.X. 

55  Cone.  Ancyr.  can.  25. 

5"  Basil,  can.  7  et  65. 

5'  Cone.  Carth.  4.  can.  89.  Auguviis  vel  incantationibus 
servientem,  a  conventu  ecclesiae  separandum. 

5s  Orig.  cont.  Cels.  lib.  7.  p.  378. 

5^  Tertul.  de  Idol.  cap.  9.  Post  evangelium  nusquam  in- 
venies  aut  sophistas,  aut  Chaldicos,  aut  incantatores,  aut 
conjcctores,  aut  niagos,  nisi  plane  punitos. 

™  Hermes  Past.  lib.  1.  Vision.  3.  n.  6.  Malefici  quidem 
venena  sua  in  pyxidibus  bajulant. 


944 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


themselves  and  the  fruits  of  the  earth.  For  Con- 
stantine  had  allowed  the  heathen,  in  the  beginning 
of  his  reformation,  for  some  time,  not  only  to  consult 
their  augurs  in  public,  but  also  to  use  charms  by 
way  of  remedy  "  for  bodily  distempers,  and  to  pre- 
vent storms  of  rain  and  hail  from  injuring  the  ripe 
fruits,  as  appears  from  that  very  law,  Avhere  he 
condemns  the  other  sort  of  magic,  that  tended  to  do 
mischief,  to  be  punished  with  death.  And  probably 
from  this  indulgence  granted  to  the  heathen,  many 
Christians,  who  brought  a  tincture  of  heathenism 
with  them  into  their  religion,  might  take  occasion 
to  think  there  was  no  great  harm  in  such  charms  or 
enchantments,  when  the  design  was  only  to  do  good, 
and  not  evil.  However  it  was,  this  is  certain  in  fact, 
that  many  Christians  were  much  inclined  to  this 
practice,  and  therefore  made  use  of  charms  and 
amulets,  which  they  called  periamniata  and  phyJac- 
teria,  pendants  and  preservatives  to  secure  them- 
selves from  danger,  and  drive  away  bodily  distem- 
pers. These  phylacteries,  as  they  called  them,  were 
a  sort  of  amulets  made  of  ribands,  wath  a  text  of 
Scripture  or  some  other  charm  of  words  written  in 
them,  which  they  imagined  without  any  natural 
means  to  be  effectual  remedies  or  preservatives 
against  diseases.  Therefore  the  church,  to  root  out 
this  superstition  out  of  men's  minds,  was  forced  to 
make  severe  laws  against  it.  The  council  of  Lao- 
dicea"-  condemns  clergymen  that  pretended  to  make 
such  phylacteries,  which  were  rather  to  be  called 
bonds  and  fetters  for  their  own  souls,  and  orders  all 
such  as  wore  them  to  be  cast  out  of  the  church.  St. 
Chrysostom  often  mentions  them  with  some  indig- 
nation :  upon  those  words  of  the  psalmist,  "  I  will 
rejoice  in  thy  salvation,'"^  he  says,  We  ought  not 
simply  to  desire  to  be  saved,  and  delivered  from  evil 
by  any  means  whatever,  but  only  by  God.  And 
this  I  say  upon  the  account  of  those  who  use  en- 
chantments in  diseases,  and  seek  to  relieve  their 
infirmities  by  other  impostures.  For  this  is  not 
salvation,  but  destruction.  In  another  place,  dis- 
suading Christians  from  running  to  the  Jews,  who 
pretended  to  cure  diseases  by  such  methods,  he  tells 
them,  That  Christians  are  to  obey  Christ,  and  not 
to  fly  to  his  enemies :  though  they  pretend  to 
make  cures,  and  promise  you  a  remedy  to  invite 
you  to  them,  choose  rather  to  discover  their  impos- 
tures," their  enchantments,  their  amulets,  their 
witchcraft ;  for  they  pretend  to  work  cures  no 
other  way ;  neither  indeed  do  they  work  them  truly 


at  all,  God  forbid.  But  I  will  say  one  thing  further, 
although  they  did  work  true  cures,  it  were  better 
to  die  than  to  go  to  the  enemies  of  Christ,  and  be 
cured  after  that  manner.  For  what  profit  is  it,  to 
have  the  body  cured  with  the  loss  of  our  soul  ? 
A\liat  advantage,  what  comfort  shall  we  get'there- 
])y,  when  we  must  shortly  be  sent  into  everlasting 
fire  ?  He  there  proposes  the  example  of  Job,  and 
Lazarus,  and  the  infirm  man  who  had  waited  at  the 
pool  of  Bethesda  thirty  and  eight  years,  who  never 
betook  themselves  to  any  diviner,  or  enchanter,  or 
juggler,  or  impostor ;  they  tied  no  amulets  nor  plates 
to  their  bodies,  but  expected  their  help  only  from 
the  Lord :  and  Lazarus  chose  rather  to  die  in  his 
sickness  and  sores,  than  betray  his  religion  in  any 
wise,  by  having  recourse  to  those  forbidden  arts  for 
cure.  This  he  reckons  a  sort  of  martyrdom,"^  when 
men  choose  rather  to  die,  or  suffer  their  children  to 
die,  than  make  use  of  amulets  and  charms:  for 
though  they  do  not  sacrifice  their  bodies  with  their 
own  hands,  as  Abraham  did  his  son,  yet  thej'^  offer 
a  mental  sacrifice  to  God.  On  the  contrary,  he  says, 
the  use  of  amulets  was  idolatry,  though  they  that 
made  a  gain  by  it  offered  a  thousand  philosophical 
arguments  to  defend  it,  saying.  We  only  pray  to 
God,  and  do  nothing  more ;  and,  the  old  woman 
that  made  them  was  a  Christian  and  a  believer ;  with 
other  such  like  excuses.  If  thou  art  a  believer, 
sign  thyself  with  the  sign  of  the  cross :  say,  This 
is  my  armour,  this  my  medicament;  beside  this  I 
know  no  other.  Suppose  a  physician  should  come, 
and,  instead  of  medicines  belonging  to  his  art, 
should  use  enchantment  only  ;  would  you  call  him 
a  physician  ?  No,  in  no  wise ;  because  we  see  not 
medicines  proper  to  his  calling :  so  neither  are  your 
medicines  proper  to  the  calling  of  a  Christian.  He 
adds,  That  some  women  put  the  names  of  rivers 
into  their  charms ;  and  others  ashes,  and  soot,  and 
salt,  crying  out.  That  the  child  was  taken  with  an 
evil  eye,  and  a  thousand  ridiculous  things  of  the 
like  nature,  which  exposed  Christians  to  the  scorn 
of  the  heathen,  many  of  whom  were  wiser  than  to 
hearken  to  any  such  fond  impostures.  Upon  the 
whole  matter  he  tells  them.  That  if  he  found  any 
henceforward  that  made  amulets  or  charms,  or  did 
any  other  thing  belonging  to  this  art,  he  would  no 
longer  spare  them :  meaning,  that  they  should  feel 
the  severity  of  ecclesiastical  censure  for  such  of- 
fences. In  other  places**  he  complains  of  women 
that  made  phylacteries  of  the  Gospels  to  hang  about 


«  Cod.  Theocl.  lib.  9.  Tit.  IG.  de  Malefic.  Log.  3.  Nullis 
vero  criminationibus  implicaiida  sunt  remedia  humanis 
quEcsita  corporibus,  aut  in  agrestibus  locis,  ne  maturis  vin- 
demiis  metuerentur  imbres,  aut  mentis  grandinis  lapida- 
tione  quatereutur,  adhibita  innocenter  suflragia,  quibus  nou 
ciij usque  salus  aut  existimatio  la;dcretur,  sed  quorum  pro- 
licerent  actus,  ne  divina  munera,  et  laborcs  hominuin 
sternerentui. 


''-  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  36. 

<a  Chrys.  in.  Psal.  i.K.  15.  t.  3.  p.  137. 

f"  Ibid.  Horn.  6.  cont.  Judaeos,  t.  1.  p.  56.  ' AvaKu- 
Xuijfov  aiiTutv  Tas  uayyavtia^,  Tas  iiroiSa^,  Ta  Tripiafx- 
fxa-ra,  Tas  c^tapixaKiia^,  k.t.X. 

"  Ibid.  Horn.  8.  in  Colos.  p.  1374.  'Ev6cri]aiv,  ovk 
tiroL-iycri.  irtpiaTTTa,  fxapTvpiov  aim]  Xoyic,? Tai. 

«"  Ibid.  Horn.  73.  in  Mat.  p.  627. 


Chap.  V. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


y-lf) 


ihcir  necks.  And  the  like  complaints  are  made  by 
St.  Basil,*'  and  Epiphanius.®  Which  shows  that 
this  piece  of  superstition,  of  trying  to  cure  diseases 
without  physic,  was  deeply  rooted  in  the  hearts  of 
many  Christians. 

The  church,  indeed,  often  cured  diseases  without 
physic,  but  then  it  was  in  the  same  way  that  she 
dispossessed  devils,  and  wrought  many  miracles  for 
the  good  of  the  world,  by  the  power  of  Christ,  and 
invocation  of  his  name.  She  did  nothing,  as  Ire- 
naeus*^  says,  by  invocation  of  angels,  or  enchant- 
ment, or  any  other  curiosity,  but  by  directing  her 
prayers,  pure  and  clean,  and  openly,  to  the  God  that 
made  all  things ;  and  by  invocating  the  name  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  she  wrought  miracles  for  the 
benefit  of  men,  and  not  for  their  seduction.  This 
was  the  difference  between  heretics  and  the  church : 
heretics  commonly  made  use  of  enchantment,  as  is 
noted  particularly  by  Irenceus  concerning  the  Ba- 
silidians,™  who  had  their  images,  wliich  they  used 
as  amulets,  having  the  name  of  abraxas  or  abraca- 
dabra, or,  as  Baronius"  thinks,  the  names  of  their 
three  hundred  and  sixty-five  heavens,  answering  to 
the  like  number  of  members  in  human  bodies,  writ- 
ten upon  them.  And  St.  Austin  complains  that 
some  of  Satan's  instruments,  who  professed  the 
exercise  of  these  arts,  were  used  to  set  the  name  of 
Christ'-  before  their  ligatures,  and  enchantments, 
and  other  devices,  to  seduce  Christians,  and  induce 
them  to  take  the  venomous  bait  under  the  covert  of 
a  sweet  and  honey  potion,  that  the  bitter  might  lie 
hid  under  the  sweet,  and  make  men  drink  it  with- 
out discerning,  to  their  destruction.  To  such  he 
gives  this  advice,  to  seek  Christ  only  in  the  way 
which  he  has  appointed.  When  we  are  afflicted 
with  pains  in  our  head,  let  us  not  run  to  enchanters 
and  fortune-tellers,  and  remedies  of  vanity.  I  mourn 
for  you,  my  brethren :  for  I  daily  find  these  things 
done.  And  what  shall  I  do  ?  I  cannot  yet  persuade 
Christians  to  put  their  trust  only  in  Christ.  With 
what  face  can  such  a  soul  go  unto  God,  that  has 
lost  the  sign  of  Christ,  and  taken  upon  him  the  sign 


of  the  devil?  In  another  place,  he  bids  them," 
when  they  are  sick,  to  receive  the  body  and  blood 
of  Christ,  and  anoint  themselves  with  that  unction, 
which  may  prove  beneficial  both  to  body  and  soul. 
For,  when  they  may  have  a  double  advantage  in 
the  church,  why  should  miserable  men  endeavour  to 
bring  upon  themselves  such  multiplicity  of  evils  by 
running  to  enchanters,  and  fountains,  and  trees,  and 
diabolical  phylacteries,  and  characters,  and  sooth- 
sayers, and  diviners,  and  fortune-tellers  ?  He  men- 
tions many  other  superstitions  of  the  like  nature, 
which  were  the  remains  of  heathenism,  such  as  the 
sacrilegious  custom  used  about  the  hind,  their  cry- 
ing out  when  the  moon  was  eclipsed  to  defend 
themselves  from  witchcraft,  their  keeping  Thursday 
holiday  in  honour  of  Jupiter ;  concerning  all  which 
he  concludes.  That  they  who  still  continued  to  fol- 
low such  vanities,  ought  to  be  reproved  '*  by  their 
fellow  Christians ;  and  if,  after  that,  they  did  not 
amend  their  ways,  they  should  thenceforward  banish 
them  from  all  society  both  in  eating  and  conversa- 
tion. Some  think  this  homily  rather  belongs  to 
Caesarius  Arelatensis  ;  and  if  so,  it  only  shows,  that 
this  crime  prevailed  among  some  in  France,  as  it 
did  for  many  ages  after :  which  appears  from  the 
Capitulars  of  Charles  the  Great,"  where  decrees 
were  made  against  calculators,  enchanters,  and 
tempestarians,  as  they  are  called,  that  is,  raisers  of 
storms  and  tempests,  and  obligators,  or  makers  of 
phylacteries  to  bind  about  the  neck.  Who  are  also 
noted  and  condemned  in  the  council  of  Rome'"  un- 
der Gregory  II.,  anno  721 ;  and  in  the  council  of 
TruUo,"  which  forbids  any  one  to  consult  diviners, 
or  those  called  centenarii,  or  any  such,  to  discover 
secrets,  under  the  penalty  of  six  years'  penance,  ac- 
cording to  the  rules  of  the  ancient  fathers.  And 
the  same  penalty  is  imposed  upon  those  who  carry 
about  she-bears,  Trpoc  iraiyviov,  to  the  delusion  and 
hurt  of  the  people ;  and  use  the  words,  fortune,  and 
fate,  and  genealogy,  and  such  like  names,  to  impose 
upon  the  simple.  Also  all  observers  of  the  clouds, 
and  jugglers,  and  makers  of  phylacteries,"  and  di- 


"  Basil,  in  Psal.  xlv.  p.  229. 

®  Epiphan.  Hcor.  15.  dc  Pharisaeis. 

^  Iren.  lib.  2.  cap.  57.  Nee  invocationibus  angelicis  facit, 
nee  incantationibus,  nee  aliqua  prava  curiositate,  sed  muude 
et  pure  et  manifeste  orationes  dirigens  ad  Dominum,  qui 
omnia  fecit ;  et  nomen  Domini  nostri  Jesu  Christi  invocans, 
virtutes  secundum  utilitates  hominum,  sed  non  ad  seduc- 
tionem  perficit. 

'"  Iren.  lib.  1.  cap.  23.  Uluntur  hi  magia  et  incantationibus 
et  invocationibus  et  reliqua  univcrsa  periergia,  &c. 

"  Baron,  an.  120.  n.  10. 

'-  Aug.  Tract.  7.  in  Joan.  t.  9.  p.  27.  Qui  scducunt  per 
ligaturas,  per  praecantationes,  per  machinamenta  inimici, 
miscent  prKcantationibus  suis  nomen  Christi:  quia  jam  non 
possunt  seducere  Christianos,  ut  dent  venenum,  addunt  mel- 
lis  aliquantum,  ut  per  id  quod  dulce  est,  lateat  quod  amarum 
est,  et  bibatur  ad  pernieiem. 

'^  Aug.  Serm.  215.  de  Tempore.  Cum  ergo  duplicia  bona 
3  p 


possint  in  eeclesia  inveniri,  quare  per  priecantatores,  per 
fontes,  et  arbores,  et  diabolica  phylacteria,  per  characleres 
et  aruspices  et  divinos  sortilegos  midtiplicia  sibi  mala 
miseri  homines  conantur  inferre  ?  Vid.  lib.  2.  de  Doet. 
Christ,  cap.  2(J,  in  the  last  section  of  this  chapter. 

'*  Ibid.  Quoscunque  tales  esse  eoguoveritis,  durissime 
castigate.  Et  si  emendare  noluerint,  nee  ad  colloquium, 
nee  ad  eonvivium  vestrum  eos  venire  permittite. 

"  Capitul.  Aquisgran.  lib.  1.  cap.  64.  Cone.  t.  7.  p.  0?<4. 
Calculatores,  incantatores,  tempestarii,  vel  obligalores  non 
fiant :  et  ubicunque  sunt,  vel  emendentur  vel  damnentur. 

'"  Cone.  Rom.  can.  12.  Si  quis  hariolns,  aruspices,  vol 
incantatores  observaverit,  aut  phylacteriis  usus  fuerit,  ana- 
thema sit.     Vid.  Capitul.  Martin.  Bracarcnsis,  cap.  72. 

"  Cone.  Tridl.  can.  61.  Ot  fxavTicriv  iavrov's  tKOtoovrf^, 
fi  Tois  XEyo/xivoiv  EKaTOVTupxai^,  k.t.\.  viro  tov  Kcivova 
TTLTTTtTtocrav  T;";s  l^aiTtdt. 

'"'  Ibid.    Tous  T£  \£-yo/uiVous  vi<pi\ociwKTn^,  •yoi|Tti>T«9, 


1)46 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


viners,  persisting  in  their  heathenish  and  pernicious 
practices,  are  ordered  to  be  cast  out  of  the  church. 
"  For  what  communion,"  says  the  apostle,  "  hath 
hght  with  darkness  ?  And  what  agi-eement  hath 
the  temple  of  God  with  idols  ?  and  what  part  hath 
he  that  believeth  with  an  infidel  ?  and  what  con- 
cord hath  Christ  w4th  Behal  ?  "  It  is  plain  from 
this,  there  were  still  some  remains  of  heathenish 
superstition  and  idolatry  among  Christians,  espe- 
cially in  the  use  of  phylacteries  and  divining,  and 
other  such  vain  observations.  But  it  is  hard  to 
guess,  what  are  meant  by  centurions,  who  are  here 
joined  with  di\nners,  and  forbidden  to  be  consulted. 
There  is  a  law  of  Honorius"  in  the  Theodosian 
Code,  which  Gothofred  thinks  may  give  a  little  light 
to  this  canon.  For  there  the  chiliarcha;  and  cente- 
iiarii,  captains  of  thousands  and  captains  of  hun- 
dreds, are  plainly  spoken  of  as  leaders  of  the  people, 
and  managers  in  ordering  the  idolatrous  pomps  of 
the  Gentiles ;  being  joined  with  the  frcdiani  and 
dendrojjJtori,  which  he  shows  to  be  those  officers  in 
the  pomp,  who  carried  the  images  of  the  gods  on 
their  shoulders  in  procession.  They  were  the  chief 
of  certain  corporations  or  companies,  who  are  men- 
tioned in  another  law  of  Honorius,  under  the  names 
of  collegiati  and  vituriarii  (or  Didionarii)  the  officers 
of  Apollo  Didumasus ;  and  Nemesiaci,  the  officers  of 
the  goddess  Nemesis,  good  fortune,  and  the  dis- 
penser of  fate ;  and  siyniferi  and  cantabrarii,  who 
carried  the  ensigns  and  banners  of  their  gods  in 
their  pomps,  and  games,  and  festivals.'"  And  these, 
as  Gothofred  shows  out  of  Commodianus,*'  a  Chris- 
tian poet,  pretended  to  divine  and  tell  fortunes,  as 
inspired  by  the  gods :  and  they  incorporated  others 
into  these  colleges,  as  principal  officers  in  these 
pomps ;  whence  they  were  called  chiliarcha  and 
hccatontarchce,  captains  of  thousands  and  captains 
of  hundreds.  All  which  agrees  with  the  canon  of 
the  council  of  TruUo,  which  joins  the  hccatontarchce 
with  the  rates,  or  diviners,  and  makes  them  fortune- 
tellers, talking  much  of  fortune  and  fate,  and  gene- 
alogies or  nativities,  to  deceive  the  people.  They 
who  carried  about  she-bears  or  other  animals,  Bal- 
zamon  says,  were  such  impostors  as  pretended,  that 
the  hairs  of  those  bears,  or  toys  tied  to  them,  were 
remedies  against  witchcraft.     And  so  the  council 


forbids  all  these  ways  of  making  and  using  charms 
and  amulets,  as  the  relics  of  heathen  superstition 
still  remaining  among  the  weaker  and  baser  sort  of 
Christians.  I  have  been  the  more  curious  in  search- 
ing into  the  true  meaning  of  this  canon,  because  it 
is  passed  over  in  silence  by  most  commentators,  and 
the  reader  with  me  must  own  himself  beholden  to 
the  learned  Gothofred  for  the  explication  of  it. 
There  is  another  sort  of  impostors 

,     .  ,  ,  Sect.  7. 

mentioned  m  the  same  canon,  under     of  the  prccstigm, 

or  false  miracles 

the  name  of  yonnvTai,  which  is  a  gene-  '"ought  by  tue 

'     '  '  ^  power  of  Satan. 

ral  name  for  all  that  use  tricks  and 
impostures ;  but  here  it  is  taken  in  a  more  restrained 
sense,  for  such  as  pretended  to  work  miracles  by 
the  power  of  magic,  such  as  Jannes  and  Jambres 
among  the  Egyptians,  and  Simon  Magus  among 
the  Jews,  and  ApoUonius  Tyaneeus  and  other  im- 
postors among  the  Gentiles.  They  are  otherwise 
called  SiavfiaTonowi  and  \pr](padis,^''  by  the  Greeks,  and 
2)rcestif/iatores  by  the  Latin  writers.  Their  tricks 
were  chiefly  showed  in  making  false  appearances  of 
things,  and  imposing  upon  men  by  the  delusion  of 
the  outward  senses.  The  ancient  author  of  the 
Recognitions  describes  their  art^  in  the  person  of 
Simon  Magus,  whom  he  brings  in  giving  himself 
this  vain-glorious  character :  I  can  make  myself  dis- 
appear to  those  that  would  apprehend  me,  and  again, 
I  can  appear  when  I  please ;  when  I  am  minded  to 
fly,  I  can  pass  through  mountains  and  stones,  as 
through  the  mire ;  when  I  cast  myself  headlong 
from  a  precipice,  I  am  carried  as  if  I  were  sailing 
to  the  earth  without  harm ;  when  I  am  bound,  I  can 
loose  myself,  and  bind  them  that  bound  me ;  when 
I  am  close  shut  up  in  prison,  I  can  cause  the  doors 
to  open  of  their  own  accord ;  I  can  give  life  to  sta- 
tues, and  make  them  appear  as  living  men ;  I  can 
make  trees  grow  suddenly  out  of  the  earth,  and 
raise  up  plants  in  a  moment ;  I  can  throw  myself 
into  the  fire,  and  not  be  burnt ;  I  can  change  my 
countenance,  so  as  not  to  be  known ;  yea,  I  can 
show  myself  with  two  faces  unto  men  :  I  can  make 
myself  a  slieep  or  a  goat ;  I  can  give  little  children 
a  beard ;  and  fly  in  the  air ;  I  can  show  much  gold, 
or  turn  lead  into  gold ;  I  can  set  up  kings,  and  de- 
throne them  at  pleasure.  Now,  Tertullian**  observes, 
That  Simon  Magus,  for  these  juggUng  practices, 


Kal  (ftuXaKTiipiou?,  Kal  fxavTei^ — iravTcnradiv  ('nropiirTitT- 
6ai  T»is  tKK\j)<rtas  bpiXftfitv. 

"  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  16.  Tit.  10.  de  Paganis,  Leg.  20. 
('hiliarchas  insuper  et  centenarios,  vel  qui  sibi  plebis  distri- 
biitioiiom  usurpare  dicnntur,  censuiinus  removendos. 

»»  Vid.  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  14.  Tit.  7.  du  CoUegiatis,  Leg.  2. 
et  Gothofred.  in  loc. 

*'  Coinmodian.  Instruct,  ad  calcem  Cypriani,  edit,  lligal- 
tii.  Mane  ebrio,  crudo,  perituro,  creditis  viro,  Qui  ex  arte 
ficte  loq\utur,  quod  illi  videtur.  Ipse  sibi  nescit  divinare, 
ca;teris  audet.  Vertitur  a  se  rotans  cum  lit,'iio  bil'urci,  ac  si 
pntes  ilium  afllatum  numine  ligni. 

^'^  Theod.  in  2  Thess.  ii.  9.    Ouic  «\)(6jj  baviiaTa  TroioDai 


OL  airo  TuJw  \j/i'i(pu)v  Ttis  ktrtovvfjila^  txovTEi.  Athanasius, 
Quaest.  124.  ad  Antioch.  Oi  Xtyo/UEVoi  ij/rjtpaoei,  Kal  iraXiv 
aiiTos  6  avTixC'CTos'  kf>xofJ-tvo^,  iv  <f>avTa<7uf  -TrXava  xous 
o</)6aX/ioi's  Taji/  avdpcoTTwv.  Suidas,  voce  ^jjc^oXo'yoi.  Ca- 
pitular. Aquisgran.  lib.  1.  cap.  64.  Calculatores,  incanta- 
tores,  tempestarii,  &c. 

"^  Recognit.  lib.  2.  n.  9.  ap.  Coteler.  p.  606. 

"'  Tertul.  de  Idol.  cap.  9.  Exinde  et  Simon  Magus  jam 
fidelis,  quouiam  aliquid  ailhuc  de  circulatoria  secta  cogitaret, 
ut  scilicet  inter  miracula  professionis  suae  etiam  Spiritum 
Sanctum  per  manuum  impositionem  enundinaret,  maledictus 

ab  apostolis  de  fide  ejectus  est. Et  post  evangeliiim  nus- 

quain  invenias  sophistas,  nisi  plane  punitos. 


Chap.  V. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


947 


and  miracles  belonging  to  his  profession,  was  ana- 
thematized by  the  apostles,  and  cast  off  as  an  alien 
from  the  faith.  And  all  such  sophisters,  as  he 
terms  them,  had  ever  the  same  fate  from  tlie  begin- 
ning of  the  gospel.  Which  observation  of  Tertul- 
lian's  is  most  certainly  true,  and  might  be  confirmed 
by  abundance  of  instances  in  ancient  story;  and 
especially  of  heresiarchs,  or  founders  of  new  here- 
sies, who  pretended  commonly  to  work  miracles  and 
wonders,  to  gain  a  reputation  to  their  novel  opinions. 
I  will  only  mention  one  or  two  that  were  famous  in 
this  kind.  The  heretic  Marcus,  the  father  of  the 
Marcosians,  is  thus  described  by  an  ancient  author, 
who  wrote  before  the  time  of  IreniEus"^  in  these 
words:  O  Marcus,  thou  idol-maker  and  wonder- 
worker, empiric  in  astrology  and  art  of  magic,  by 
which  thou  dost  propagate  thy  seducing  doctrines, 
making  a  show  of  signs  and  miracles  to  them  that 
are  led  into  error  by  thee,  which  are  the  works  of 
the  apostate  power,  Satan  thy  father  enables  thee 
to  do  by  the  angelical  power  of  Azazel,  using  thee 
as  the  forerunner  of  the  antichristian  deceit.  And 
Irenajus"*  himself  takes  notice  of  one  of  his  jug- 
gling tricks,  which  was,  That  when  he  pretended  to 
consecrate  the  eucharist  in  a  cup  of  wine  and  water, 
he  made  it  appear  of  a  purple  and  red  colour,  by  a 
long  prayer  of  invocation,  that  it  might  be  thought 
the  grace  from  above  distilled  the  blood  into  the 
cup  by  his  invocation.  Such  another  imposture  is 
mentioned  by  Firmilian,  in  his  letter  to  Cyprian, 
where  he  speaks  of  a  woman  who  pretended  to  be 
inspired  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  but  v/as  really  acted  by 
a  diabolical  spirit,"  by  which  she  counterfeited  ec- 
stasies, and  pretended  to  prophesy,  and  wrought 
many  wonderful  and  strange  things,  and  boasted 
that  she  would  cause  the  earth  to  move.  Not  that 
the  devil  has  so  great  power,  either  to  move  the 
earth  or  shake  the  element  by  his  command ;  but 
the  wicked  spirit,  foreseeing  and  understanding  that 
there  will  be  an  earthquake,  pretends  to  do  that 
which  he  foresees  will  shortly  come  to  pass.  And 
by  ttiese  lies  and  boastings,  the  devil  subdued  the 
minds  of  many  to  obey  him,  and  follow  him  where- 
soever he  was  pleased  to  command  or  lead  them. 
And  he  made  that  woman  walk  bare-foot  through 
the  snow  in  the  depth  of  winter,  and  feel  no  trouble 
or  harm  by  running  about  after  this  fashion.  But 
at  last,  after  having  played  many  such  pranks,  one 
of  the  exorcists  of  the  church  discovered  her  to  be 
a  cheat,  and  showed  that  it  was  a  wicked  spirit, 
which  before  was  thought  to  be  the  Holy  Ghost. 


*^  Iren.  lib.  1.  cap.  12.  '°  Ibid.  cap.  9. 

"  Firmil.  Ep.  75.  ad  Cypr.  p.  '222.    Emersit  subito  quae- 
dain  mulier,  quae  in  extasi  constituta,  propheten  se  prae/erret, 

et  quasi  Sancto  Spiritu  plena  sic  ageret. Mirabilia  quae- 

dam  ac  portentosa  perficiens,  et  facere  se  terram  moveri 
polliceretur.     Non  quod  daemon!  tanta  essot  potestas,  &c. 

*^  Vid.  Aug.  de  Hrt-res.  cap.  26.     Euseb.  lib.  5.  cap.  13. 
3  P  2 


There  are  many  other  sucli  instances  in  the  history 
of  the  Montanists'*  and  Pepuzians,  and  tiie  Apel- 
lians  and  Severians,*"  mentioned  by  St.  Austin  and 
other  writers  :  but  these  are  suflicient  to  show  what 
pretences  were  commonly  made  by  heretics  to  the 
power  of  working  miracles,  which  the  church,  ap- 
prehending them  to  be  wrought  by  the  power  of 
Satan,  and  not  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  rejected  as  im- 
postures, and  punished  the  pretenders  with  the  se- 
verest of  her  censures.  For  so  Eusebius,"*  out  of 
Apollinaris,  particularly  tells  us  of  the  Montanists, 
That  their  new  prophecies  being  judged  impious 
and  profane,  their  doctrine  was  condemned,  and  the 
authors  expelled  from  the  communion  of  the  church, 
as  enthusiasts  and  demoniacs,  who  were  always 
excluded  from  the  participation  of  the  holy  mys- 
teries, whilst  they  remained  under  the  power  and 
agitation  of  Satan.  St.  BasiP'  appoints  the  same 
penance  for  those  who  profess  conjuration,  yoi^Ttiav, 
as  for  those  who  are  guilty  of  murder,  that  is,  twenty 
years  in  several  stations  of  repentance. 

There  was  one  piece  of  superstition 
more,  which  the  ancients  frequently     of  "innervation  or 

'  1  -^      <lays  aiul  accidents, 

censure  as  a  breach  of  men's  bap-  e'lsJandomJiiT 
tismal  vow,  and  part  of  the  pomp  and  "''"" ''"'"'' 
service  of  Satan,  which  they  professed  to  renounce 
in  baptism.  This  was,  the  observation  of  days  and 
accidents,  as  lucky  or  unlucky,  and  making  pre- 
sages and  omens  upon  them.  St,  Chrysostom ''- 
has  a  large  invective  against  this  sort  of  supersti- 
tion. The  pomps  of  Satan,  says  he,  are  the  theatre 
and  the  games  of  the  cirque,  together  with  the  ob- 
servation of  days,  and  presages  and  omens.  And 
what  are  omens?  Why,  suppose  when  a  man  goes 
first  out  of  his  doors,  he  meets  a  man  that  has  but 
one  eye,  or  is  lame,  he  reckons  this  ominous,  or 
foreboding  some  ill  fortune  to  him ;  this  is  part  of 
the  pomps  of  Satan.  For  the  meeting  of  a  man 
does  not  make  the  day  evil,  but  the  spending  of  it 
in  sin.  Keep  from  sin,  and  the  devil  himself  can- 
not hurt  you :  but  if  you  make  presages  upon  meet- 
ing of  a  man,  you  discern  not  the  devil's  snare, 
who  makes  you  without  reason  an  enemy  to  one 
who  has  done  you  no  harm.  But  there  is  one  thing 
more  ridiculous  than  this,  which  I  am  asliamed  to 
speak,  and  yet  I  must  mention  for  your  salvation. 
If  a  man  meets  a  virgin,  he  cries  out  presently, 
This  will  be  a  fruitless  day  with  me :  but  if  he  meets 
a  harlot,  it  will  be  a  good  and  lucky  day,  and 
bring  him  in  gi-eat  gain  and  advantage.  See  how 
the  devil  here  hides  his  craft,  to  make  us  abhor  a 


'"  Aug.  ibid.  cap.  23.     Euseb.  lib.  5.  cap.  14  et  JG. 

*>  Euseb.  lib.  5.  cap.  16.  »'  Basil,  can.  &J. 

^  Chrys.  Horn.  21.  ad  Pop.  AntiDch.  t.  J.  p.  274.  IlJ/iTrij 
o-aTai/iKii  ia-Ti  ^lUToa  koI  iTnrodoo/xiai,  kul  Trrtpaxij/0))<rts 
fifxspuii/  Kal  kXijoJiies  kul  (ru/xfioXa.  See  also  Horn.  23.  do 
Noviluuiis,  cited  before,  chap.  4.  sect.  17.  and  Comment, 
in  Galat.  i.  p.  973. 


948 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


chaste  and  modest  woman,  and  love  an  impudent 
harlot.  But  what  shall  a  man  say  of  those  w  ho  use 
enchantments  and  ligatm-es,  binding  the  brasen 
medals  of  Alexander  the  Great  about  their  heads 
or  feet  ?  Are  these,  I  pray,  the  hopes  of  a  Chris- 
tian, that  after  the  cross  and  death  of  our  Lord,  we 
should  place  our  hopes  of  salvation  or  health  in  the 
image  of  a  heathen  king  ?  Know  you  not  what  great 
things  the  cross  has  done  ?  How  it  has  destroyed 
death,  abolished  sin,  taken  away  the  force  of  hell 
and  the  grave,  and  dissolved  the  power  of  death  ? 
And  canst  thou  not  trust  it  for  curing  thy  bodily 
distempers  ?  It  has  raised  the  whole  world  from 
the  dead,  and  canst  not  thou  confide  in  it  ?  But 
thou  dost  not  only  seek  after  such  ligatures,  but  en- 
chantments, entertaining  old  drunken  and  stagger- 
ing women  in  thy  house  for  this  purpose.  And  the 
apology  you  make  for  so  doing,  is  worse  than  the 
error  itself.  The  woman,  say  you,  who  makes  the 
charm,  is  a  Christian,  and  she  does  nothing  but 
make  use  of  the  name  of  God.  For  that  very  rea- 
son I  the  more  detest  and  abhor  her,  because  she 
uses  the  name  of  God  to  dishonour  and  reproach  it; 
because  she  is  called  a  Christian,  and  does  the 
works  of  a  heathen.  The  devils  confessed  the 
name  of  God,  yet  they  were  devils  for  all  that: 
they  said  to  Christ,  "  We  know  thee  who  thou  art, 
the  Holy  One  of  God,"  yet  notwithstanding  he  re- 
buked them  and  cast  them  out.  Wherefore  I  be- 
seech you,  keep  yourselves  pure  from  this  deceit,  and 
let  this  word  (I  renounce  thee,  Satan)  be  your  staff. 
As  you  would  not  go  into  the  market  without  your 
shoes  and  clothes,  so  never  go  forth  of  your  doors 
without  first  using  this  word,  I  renounce  thee,  Satan, 
and  thy  pomp  and  service,  and  I  make  a  covenant 
with  thee,  O  Christ.  Go  no  where  without  this 
word,  and  it  will  be  your  staff,  your  armour,  your 
impregnable  tower.  Join  with  this  word  the  sign 
of  the  cross  in  your  forehead,  and  so  not  only  the 
meeting  of  any  man,  but  the  devil  himself  cannot 
hurt  you.  St.  Austin  gives  a  like  caution  against 
this  sort  of  superstitious  observations.  To  this 
kind,"^  says  he,  belong  all  ligatures  and  remedies, 
which  the  school  of  physicians  reject  and  condemn, 
whether  in  enchantments,  or  in  certain  marks 
which  they  call  characters,  or  in  other  things  that 
are  to  be  hanged  and  bound  about  the  body,  and  kept 
in  a  dancing  posture,  not  for  any  temperament  of 
the  body,  but  for  certain  significations  either  occult 
or  manifest:  which  by  a  gentler  name  they  call 
physical,  that  they  may  not  seem  to  affright  men 
with  the  appearance  of  superstition,  but  do  good 


in  a  natural  way :  such  are  earrings  hanged  up- 
on the  tip  of  each  ear,  and  rings  made  of  an 
ostrich's  bones  for  the  fingers,  or  when  you  are 
told,  in  a  fit  of  the  convulsions  or  shortness  of 
breath,  to  hold  your  left  thumb  with  your  right 
hand.  To  which  may  be  added  a  thousand  vain 
observations,  as,  if  any  of  our  members  beat ;  if 
when  two  friends  are  walking  together,  a  stone,  or  a 
dog,  or  a  child  happens  to  come  between  them,  they 
tread  the  stone  to  pieces,  as  the  divider  of  their 
friendship ;  and  this  is  tolerable  in  comparison  of 
beating  an  innocent  child  that  comes  between  them. 
But  it  is  more  pleasant,  that  sometimes  the  chil- 
dren's quarrel  is  revenged  by  the  dogs ;  for  many 
times  they  are  so  superstitious,  as  to  dare  to  beat 
the  dog  that  comes  between  them,  who  turning 
again  upon  him  that  smites  him,  sends  him  from 
seeking  a  vain  remedy  to  seek  a  real  physician  in- 
deed. Hence  proceed  likewise  those  other  super- 
stitions :  for  a  man  to  tread  upon  his  threshold 
when  he  passes  by  his  own  house  :  to  return  back 
to  bed  again,  if  he  chance  to  sneeze  whilst  he  is 
putting  on  his  shoes  :  to  return  into  his  house,  if  he 
stumble  at  his  going  out :  if  the  rats  gnaw  his 
clothes,  to  be  more  terrified  with  the  suspicion  of 
some  future  evil,  than  concerned  for  his  present 
loss.  He  says,  Cato  gave  a  wise  and  smart  answer 
to  such  a  one,  who  came  in  some  consternation  to 
consult  him  about  the  rats  having  gnawed  his 
stockings :  That,  said  he,  is  no  great  wonder ;  but  it 
would  have  been  a  wonder  indeed,  if  the  stockings 
had  gnawed  the  rats.  St.  Austin  mentions  this 
witty  answer  of  a  wise  heathen,  to  convince  Chris- 
tians the  better  of  the  unreasonableness  and  vanity 
of  all  such  superstitious  observations.  And  he  con- 
cludes,'^ that  all  such  arts,  whether  of  trifling  or 
more  noxious  superstition,  are  to  be  rejected  and 
avoided  by  Christians,  as  proceeding  originally  from 
some  pernicious  society  between  men  and  devils, 
and  being  the  compacts  and  agreement  of  such  a 
treacherous  and  deceitful  friendship.  The  apostle 
forbids  us  to  have  fellowship  with  devils  :  and  that, . 
he  says,  respects  not  only  idols  and  things  offered  to 
idols,  but  all  imaginary  signs  pertaining  to  the  wor- 
ship of  idols,  and  also  all  remedies  and  other  ob- 
servations, which  are  not  appointed  publicly  by 
God  to  promote  the  love  of  God  and  our  neighbour,' 
but  proceed  from  the  private  fancies  of  men,  and 
tend  to  corrupt  the  hearts  of  poor  deluded  mortals. 
For  these  things  have  no  natural  virtue  in  them, 
but  owe  all  their  efficacy  to  a  presumptuous  con- 
federacy with  devils ;  and  they  are  full  of  pestifer- 


*''  Aug.  de  Doct.  Christ,  lib.  2.  cap.  20.  Ad  hoc  genus 
pertinent  etiani  omnes  ligatura;  atque  remedia,  qute  medi- 
corum  quoque  disciplina  condemnat,  &c.  It.  Enthirid.  c. 
79.  Rlagnum  peccatuin  dies  observare  et  menses  et  tcmpora 
et  annos,  &c. 

^*  Ibid.  cap.  23.     Omnes  igitur  artes  hajusmodi  vel  nu- 


gatorioe  vel  noxiae  superstitionis,  ex  quadam  pestifera  socie-, 
tate  hominum  et  daemonum,  quasi  pacta  infidelis  et  dolosae 
amicitiae  constituta,  penitus  sunt  repudianda  et  fugienda 
Christiano,  &c.  Vid.  plura  ap.  Gratian.  Caus.  26.  Qusest. 
7.  cap.  15  et  16.  Non  observetis  dies  qui  dicuntur  JEgyp- 
tiaci,  &c. 


ki 


Chap.  VI. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


940 


ous  curiosity,  tormenting  anxiety,  and  deadly  slavery. 
They  were  first  taken  up,  not  for  any  real  power  fo 
be  discerned  in  them,  but  gained  their  power  by 
men's  observing  them.  And  therefore  by  the  devil's 
art  they  happen  differently  to  different  men  accord- 
ing to  their  own  apprehensions  and  presumptions. 
For  the  great  deceiver  knows  how  to  procure  things 
agreeable  to  every  man's  temper,  and  iusnare  him 
by  his  own  suspicions  and  consent.  As  this  is  an 
excellent  account  of  these  superstitious  observations, 
.so  it  seems  to  intimate,  that  some  difference  was 
made  between  the  profossors  of  these  arts,  and 
those  who  through  ignorance  were  deluded  by  them: 
and  therefore  though  the  former  might  fall  under 
the  severest  discipline  of  the  church,  yet  the  latter 
seem  rather  to  have  been  chastised  by  admonitions 
and  rebukes,  as  here  by  St.  Austin  and  St.  Ciiry- 
sostom,  and  not  to  have  incurred  the  highest  cen- 
sure of  excommunication,  because  of  their  simpli- 
city, and  perhaps  because  of  the  numbers  of  those 
who  were  daily  inclined  to  mind  such  observations 
of  days  and  accidents,  Avithout  considering  either 
the  original  of  the  superstition,  or  the  mischief 
thereby  done  to  piety  and  religion.  I  have  insisted 
a  little  longer  upon  these  things,  because  it  is  to  be 
feared,  there  is  always  reason  for  a  serious  caution 
against  such  superstitions,  which  are  apt  to  creep 
upon  unwary  men  in  all  ages  of  the  church. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

0?    APOSTACY    INTO     JUDAISM    AND    PAGANISM,    OF 
HERESY  AND  SCHISM,  SACRILEGE  AND  SIMONY. 

Besides    the  forementioned    crimes 

Of  such  as  apos.  agaiust  the  first  and  second  command- 
raized  totally  troin      " 

Christianity  to  Ju-  ments,  there  were  a  great  many  others 
worth  our  observance,  as  bringing 
men  under  the  severest  censures  of  the  church. 
Among  these,  the  disposition  which  many  showed 
toward  the  antiquated  religion  and  ceremonies  of 
the  Jews,  is  often  taken  notice  of  by  the  ancients  in 
their  accounts  of  church  discipline.  And  of  these 
we  may  observe  three  sorts  or  degrees.  Some  en- 
tirely abandoned  the  Christian  religion,  and  went 
totally  over  to  the  Jews ;  others  mingled  the  Jewish 
ceremonies  and  some  of  their  doctrines  with  the 


'  Epiphan.  de  Pontier.  et  Mensur.  n.  15.  t.  2.  p.  171. 

^  Justin.  Apol.  '2.  p.  72. 

^  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  16.  Tit.  8.  De  Judseis,  Leg.  1.  Si  quis 
ex  populo  ad  eorum  nefariam  sectam  accesserit,  et  conci- 
liabulis  eorum  se  applicaverit,  cum  ipsis  poenas  meritas 
sustinebit. 

*  Ibiil.  Leg.  7.  Si  quis  e.x  Christiano  Jiida>us  cffectus 

fatultates  ejus  dominio  fisci  jussimus  vindicari. 


Christian  religion;  and  others  complied  so  far  with 
them  as  to  communicate  with  them  in  many  of  their 
unlawful  practices,  though  they  made  no  formal 
profession  of  their  religion.  Of  the  first  sort  was 
Aquila  the  translator  of  the  Bible,  who  at  first  was  a 
Christian,  as  Epiphanius'  informs  us,  till,  being  ex- 
pelled from  the  church  for  adhering  to  astrology,  he 
fied  over  to  the  Jews  and  took  sanctuary  among 
them,  setting  about  a  new  translation  of  the  Bible 
in  spite  to  the  Christians.  And  such  were  many 
in  the  days  of  Barchochab,  the  great  impostor,  who 
compelled  many  Christians  to  deny  and  curse 
Christ,  as  Justin  Martyr-  acquaints  us.  Now, 
though  the  imperial  laws  allowed  those  that  were 
originally  Jews  the  freedom  of  their  religion,  and 
many  privileges  for  a  long  time,  under  the  reigns  of 
Christian  emperors,  yet  they  severely  prohibited 
any  Christian  going  over  to  them,  and  laid  very 
great  penalties  upon  all  such  apostates.  Constan- 
tineMeft  it  to  the  discretion  of  the  judges  to  punish 
such  apostates  with  death,  or  any  other  condign 
punishment.  His  son  Constantius^  subjected  them 
to  confiscation  of  goods.  And  Valentinian  junior^ 
laid  upon  them  the  penalty  of  being  intestate,  deny- 
ing them  and  all  other  apostates  the  privilege  of 
disposing  of  their  estates  by  will.  And  in  com- 
pliance with  these  laws  of  the  state,  the  church, 
after  she  had  anathematized  such  apostates,  show- 
ed her  detestation  of  them  further  in  denying  them 
the  privilege  of  being  accepted  as  credible  witnesses 
in  any  of  her  courts  of  judicature.  For  he  cannot 
be  faithful  to  man,  says  the  fourth  council  of  To- 
ledo,* who  has  been  unfaithful  to  God.  Therefore 
those  Jews,  who  were  heretofore  Christians,  and 
now  prevaricate  from  the  faith  of  Christ,  ought  not 
to  be  admitted  to  give  testimony,  although  they 
call  themselves  Christians ;  because,  as  they  are 
suspected  in  the  faith  of  Christ,  so  their  credit 
ought  to  be  questioned  in  human  testimony.  There- 
fore their  evidence  is  of  no  force,  seeing  they  have 
falsified  in  the  faith ;  neither  is  any  credit  to  be 
given  to  them,  who  have  cast  off  the  word  qf  truth. 

Another  sort  there  were,  who  did 
not  wholly  cast  off  the  Christian  re-     or  such'a's  min- 

1  ■     •  1       ,  ^  ...  glfrt  the  Jcnisli  re- 

ligion, but  made  up  a  new  relignon  lisionandthechns- 

!•  1  1  ,  ■  ,.    ,        ,       '''"'  together. 

lor  themselves  by  a  mixture  of  both 
together.     Such  a  miscellany  was  the  heresy  of 
the  Nazarenes,  and  those  of  the  Ebionites,  and  Ce- 
rinthians,  and  Elcesaites,  and  Sampseans,  who  ob- 
served circumcision,  and  other  rituals  of  the  Jewish 


5  Ibid.  lib.  16.  Tit.  7.  De  Apostatis,  Leg.  3. 

^  Couc.  Tolet.  4.  can.  G3.  Non  potest  crga  homines  esse 
fidolis,  qui  Deo  extiterit  infidelis.  Jndaei  ergo,  qui  dudum 
Christiani  effecti  sunt,  et  nunc  Cbristi  fidem  pra;varicati 
sunt,  ad  testimonium  diccnduui  admitti  non  debeiit.  quamvis 
esse  se  Cliristiaiios  annuncient  :  quia  sicut  in  fide  Christi 
suspecti  sunt,  ita  in  tcstimonio  humauo  diibii  haben- 
tur,  ice. 


930 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


law,  together  with  so  much  as  they  retained  of  the 
Christian ;  as  may  be  seen  in  the  accounts  which 
.St.  Austin  '  and  other  ancient  writers  give  of  them. 
And  Gothofrcd  thinks  the  CaUcoke,  who  are  spe- 
cified and  condemned  in  two  or  three  laws  of  Ho- 
norius  in  the  Theodosian  Code,  were  a  mongrel 
sect  of  the  same  nature.  They  joined  circumcision 
and  baptism  together ;  agreeing  both  with  Jews 
and  Christians  in  rejecting  idols,  and  worshipping 
only  heaven,  that  is,  the  God  of  heaven,  whence 
they  had  the  title  of  CocUcolce  ;  but  in  this  they 
agi-eed  with  the  Jews  only,  that  they  rejected  the 
doctrine  of  a  Trinity  in  the  Godhead,  and  only  wor- 
shipped God  in  one  person.  In  which  respect  the 
Sabellians  also,  and  Paulianists,  and  Praxeans,  and 
Theodotians,  and  Arians,  and  Photinians,  who 
cither  denied  the  Divinity  of  Christ,  or  confounded 
the  three  Divine  persons  into  one,  are  commonly 
charged  by  the  ancients  as  flpng  back  to  Judaism 
in  this  point,  whilst  they  subverted  the  true  doc- 
trine of  the  Christian  Trinity  by  their  heterodox 
innovations.  It  is  particularly  remarked  by  learn- 
ed men  ^  concerning  Paulus  Samosatensis,  that  the 
true  reason  why  he  denied  the  Divinity  of  Christ, 
was  to  compliment  Queen  Zenobia,  who  was  a  Jew- 
ish proselyte :  for  he  thought,  that  by  reducing  Christ 
to  be  a  mere  man,  he  might  reconcile  both  reli- 
gions, and  take  away  the  partition-wall  that  divided 
the  Jews  and  Christians,  nothing  being  so  great 
an  offence  to  the  Jews,  as  that  Christ  was  owned  by 
his  disciples  to  be  God.  There  was  another  sect 
which  called  themselves  Hypsistarians,  that  is,  wor- 
shippers of  the  most  high  God,  whom  they  wor- 
shipped, as  the  Jews,  only  in  one  person  :  and  they 
observed  their  sabbaths,  and  used  distinction  of 
meats  clean  and  unclean,  though  they  did  not  re- 
gard circumcision,  as  Gregory  Nazianzen,"  whose 
father  was  once  one  of  this  sect,  gives  the  account 
of  them.  Now,  it  is  certain  the  church  never  al- 
lowed any  of  these  miscellaneous  doctrines,  or  mon- 
grel sects  ;  but  condemned  them  all  as  heretics,  and 
excluded  them  from  her  communion.  And  the 
laws  of  the  state  were  particularly  severe  against 
the  Ccelicolcs,  those  who  joined  circumcision  and 
baptism  together,  there  being  three  laws  of  Hono- 
rius  in  the  Theodosian  Code  directly  formed  against 


'  Aug.  de  Haeres.  cap.  8,  9,  10,  et  32. 

"  Maurice's  Answer  to  Baxter's  Church  History,  p.  287. 
Barnn.  an.  265.  n.  1. 

"  Naz.  Orat.  19.  in  Funere  Patris,  t.  1.  p.  209. 

'"  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  16.  Tit.  5.  de  Hoeret.  Leg.  43.  Ita  ut 
redificia  vel  horuni,  vel  Coelicolarum  etiain  (quae  nescio  cu- 
j\is  dogmatis  novi  conventus  habent)  ecclesiis  vindicentur. 

"  Ibid.  Leg.  44.  Donatistarum  haereticorum,  Judoeorum 
nova  atque  inusitata  dete.xit  audacia,  quod  catholicae  fidei 
velint  sacramenta  tuvbare,  &c. 

'-  Lib.  16.  Tit.  8.  De  Judneis,  Coclicolis  et  Samaritanis, 
Loo-.  19.  Ccelicolanim  nomen  inauditum  quodammodo  no- 
vum crimen  superstitionis  vindicavit.     Hi  nisi  infra  anni 


them.  In  the  first  of  which  he  ranks  them  with 
the  Donatists,  and  Manichees,  and  Priscillianists, 
and  heathens ;  ordering  all  general  penal  laws 
against  heretics  to  be  put  in  execution  against  them; 
and  particularly  appointing,  that  the  houses  of  the 
Coelicolce,  where  that  new  sect  held  their  conventi- 
cles, should  with  the  rest'"  be  forfeited  to  the 
church.  In  the  second,  he  calls  them"  the  new 
audacious  sect  of  the  Jews,  which  presumed  to  dis- 
turb the  sacraments  of  the  church,  because  they 
rebaptized  the  catholics,  as  the  Donatists  did.  In 
the  third,'-  he  styles  them  again,  the  new  sect  of 
the  CocUcolce,  who  brought  in  an  unheard  super- 
stition. And  he  threatens  them,  That  unless  within 
a  year  they  returned  to  the  service  of  God  and  the 
Christian  worship,  all  the  laws  made  against  here- 
tics should  lay  hold  of  them.  St.  Austin  also  in 
one  of  his  epistles "  mentions  this  sect  of  the  Cccli- 
col(s,  and  intimates,  that  they  joined  with  the  Do- 
natists in  rebaptizing  the  catholics.  And  that  he 
means  a  sect  which  apostatized  from  the  Christian 
to  the  Jewish  religion,  is  evident  from  the  title  of 
majores,  given  by  him  to  their  ministers ;  for  by 
this  title  the  Jewish  ministers  are  frequently'*  dis- 
tinguished in  the  Theodosian  Code.  So  that  it  is 
plain,  that  this  sect  of  the  Coelicolce  was  a  mixture 
of  the  Christian  and  Jewish  religion  together,  and 
as  such  were  both  punished  by  the  laws  of  the 
state,  and  rejected  from  communion  by  the  laws  of 
the  church. 
Besides  these,  there  were  someChris- 

'  Sect.  3. 

tians,  who  neither  went  over  wholly     "f.such  .i?  com- 

'  •'      municated  with  the 

to  the  Jews'  religion,  nor  in  any  main  f^r'rerand'p'rac- 
ponit  complied  with  them,  who  yet  in   ''"*' 
some  more  remote  rites  and  practices  refused  not  to 
communicate  with  them,  as  in  observing  their  festi- 
vals, and  feasting,  and  marrying  with  them,  and 
receiving    their  euhffice,   and   having  recourse  to  i 
them  for  phylacteries  and  charms  to  cure  diseases ;  ' 
all  which  therefore  are  condemned  under  the  penal- 
ty of  ecclesiastical  censure.     The  council  of  Lao- 
dicea  forbids  '^  Christians  to  Judaize  by  resting  on 
the  sabbath,  under  pain  of  anathema ;  likewise  it 
prohibits  keeping  Jewish  feasts,  and  accepting  fes- 
tival presents  sent  from  them ;  '*  as  also  receiving 
unleavened  bread  from  them,  which  is  accounted  a 


terminos  ad  Dei  cultum  venerationemque  Christianam  con- 
versi  fuerint,  his  legibus  quibus  prcecepimus  heereticos  ad- 
stringi,  se  quoque  noverint  adtinendos. 

"  Aug.  Ep.  163.  ad  Eleusium,  p.  284.  Jam  miseramus 
ad  majorem  Coelicolarum,  quem  audieramus  novi  apud  eos 
baptismi  institutorem  instituisse,  et  multos  illo  sacrilegio 
seduxisse. 

»  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  16.  Tit.  8.  De  Jud»is,  Coelicolis,  &c. 
Leg.  1.  Judeeis,  et  majoribus  eorura  et  patriarchis  volumus 
intimari,  &c.  It.  Leg.  23.  Annati  ct  Majoribus  Judaso- 
rum.    It.  lib.  16.  Tit.  9.  Leg.  3.  eadem  Inscriptio. 

'^  Cone.  Laod.  can.  29. 

'«  Ibid.  can.  37  et  38. 


Chap.  VI. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


95! 


partaking  with  them  in  their  impiety.  To  the  same 
purpose,  among  the  ApostoHcal  Canons  we  find  one 
forbidding  to  fast "  or  feast  with  the  Jews,  or  to 
receive  any  of  their  festival  presents,  or  unleavened 
bread,  under  the  penalty  of  deposition  to  a  clergy- 
man, and  excommunication  to  a  layman.  And  by 
another  of  the  same  Canons,"  to  carry  oil  to  a  Jew- 
ish synagogue,  or  set  up  lights  on  their  festivals,  is 
paralleled  with  the  crime  of  doing  the  like  for  a 
heathen  temple  or  festival,  and  both  of  them  equally 
punished  with  excommunication.  So  a  bishop, 
priest,  or  deacon,  who  celebrates  the  Easter  festival 
before  the  vernal  equinox  "  with  the  Jews,  is  to  be 
deposed.  Though  this  is  a  little  more  severe  than 
the  Constitution  that  was  made  about  it  in  the 
time  of  Irenaius,  and  afterward  was  confirmed  by 
Constantine^  and  the  council  of  Nice ;  for  they 
forbid  the  celebration  of  Easter  with  the  Jews,  but 
lay  not  the  penalty  of  deposition  or  excommunica- 
tion upon  those  that  followed  that  custom,  because 
they  had  some  pretence  of  apostolical  tradition  for 
their  practice.  The  council  of  Eliberis"'  forbids 
Christians  to  have  recourse  to  the  Jews  for  blessing 
the  fruits  of  the  earth,  and  that  under  the  penalty 
of  excommunication,  because  it  was  a  reproach  to 
the  manner  of  blessing  them  in  the  church,  as  if 
that  was  weak  and  ineffectual.  The  same  council" 
forbids  both  clergy  and  laity  to  eat  with  the  Jews, 
upon  pain  of  being  cast  out  of  the  communion  of 
the  church.  And  the  reason  of  this  is  assigned  by 
the  council  of  Agde ;  ^  because  they  use  not  the 
meats  that  are  commonly  used  among  Christians  : 
therefore  it  is  an  unworthy  and  sacrilegious  thing 
to  eat  with  them ;  forasmuch  as  they  reputed  those 
things  unclean,  which  the  apostle  allows  us  to  re- 
ceive ;  and  so  Christians  are  rendered  inferior  to  the 
Jews,  if  we  eat  of  such  things  as  they  set  before  vis, 
and  they  contemn  what  we  oiler  them.  Which  canon 
is  repeated  in  the  same  words  in  the  council  of 
Vannes,"  and  there  is  a  rule  in  the  council  of 
Epone-*  to  the  same  purpose.  It  appears  also  from 
the  fourth  council  of  Toledo,  that  the  Spanish 
churches  were  much  infested  with  this  sort  of  com- 
plying and  Judaizing  Christians ;  some  patronizing 
the  Jews  in  their  pei'fidiousness ;    others  turning 


downright  apostates,  and  submitting  to  circum- 
cision ;  and  others  indifferently  conversing  with 
them  to  the  manifest  danger  of  their  own  subver- 
sion. Against  which  last  sort  of  compilers  the 
sixty-first  canon  of  that  council  is  particularly  di- 
rected ;  and  there  are  six  or  seven  canons  more  in 
the  same  place  one  after  another  relating  to  cases 
of  the  like  nature,  which  need  not  here  be  related. 
The  council  of  Clermont^  makes  it  excommunica- 
tion for  a  Christian  to  marry  a  Jew.  And  the 
third  council  of  Orleans  prohibits  it  under  the  same 
penalty,^  together  with  sequestration  of  the  per- 
sons from  each  other.  St.  Chrysostom  inveighs 
against  those  who  went  out  of  curiosity  to  the  Jew- 
ish synagogues,  saying,™  it  was  the  same  thing  as 
going  to  an  idol  temple  :  If  any  one  sees  thee,  who 
hast  knowledge,  go  to  a  synagogue  to  see  the 
trimipets,  shall  not  the  conscience  of  him  that 
is  weak  be  imboldened  to  admire  the  Jewish  cere- 
monies ?  Although  there  be  no  idol  there,  yet  the 
devils  inhabit  the  place.  Which  I  say  not  only  of 
the  synagogue  which  is  here,  but  of  that  of  Daphne, 
that  more  impure  pit  of  hell,  which  they  call  Ma- 
trona.  I  hear  many  of  the  faithful  go  thither,  and 
sleep  in  the  place.  But  God  forbid  I  should  call 
them  the  faithful.  For  the  temple  of  Apollo  and 
Matrona  are  equally  profane.  Is  not  that  a  place 
of  impiety,  where  devils  dwell,  although  there  be 
no  image  there  ?  where  the  murderers  of  Christ 
assemble,  where  the  cross  is  cast  out,  where  God  is 
blasphemed,  where  the  Father  is  not  known,  where 
the  Son  is  reviled,  where  the  grace  of  the  Spirit  is 
rejected?  He  particularly  bewails  those,^  who 
went  either  to  see  or  join  with  them  in  the  celebra- 
tion of  their  fasts  and  festivals,  the  feast  of  trumpets, 
the  feast  of  tabernacles,  and  the  fast  of  the  great  day 
of  expiation,  which  came  all  in  the  month  Tisri,  or 
September,  when  he  preached  his  sermons  against 
the  Jews.  He  notes  also  the  wickedness  of  some* 
who  would  draw  others  by  force  to  go  and  take  an 
oath  in  a  Jewish  synagogue,  upon  a  most  unac- 
countable persuasion,  that  an  oath  given  there  was 
more  formidable  than  any  other  whatsoever.  For 
these,  and  many  other  reasons  which  he  there  large- 
ly pursues,*'  he  styles  all  such  only  half  Christians, 


"  Canou.  Apost.  70.  's  Ibid.  72. 

'"  Ibid.  can.  8.  Confer  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  16.  Tit.  5.  Leg. 
9.  el  Tit.  6.  Leg.  6.  de  Protopaschitis. 

■■"  Constant.  Ep.  ap.  Euseb.  de  Vit.  Const,  lib.  3.  cap. 
18  et  ly. 

-'  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  49.  Adraoneri  placuit  possessores, 
ut  non  patiantur  fructus  suos,  quos  a  Duo  percipiunt  cum 
gratiarum  actione,  a  Judaeis  benedici,  ne  nostram  irritam 
et  infirmam  faciant  benedictionem.  Si  quis  post  interdictuni 
facere  nsurpaveril,  penitus  ab  ecclesia  abjiciatur. 

^  Ibid.  can.  50.  Si  vero  aliquis  clericiis  vel  fidelis  fuerit, 
qui  cum  Judseis  cibum  sumpserit,  placuit  eimi  a  conimu- 
nJDue  abstinerc.  ut  debeat  emendari. 

'■^  Cone.  Agathen.  can.  40.     Omnes  deinceps  clcrici  sivc 


laici  Judeeorum  convivia  evitent ;  nee  eos  ad  conviviur.i 
quisquam  cxcipiat :  quia  cum  apud  Christianos  cibis  coni- 
munibus  non  utantur,  indignum  est  atquesacrilegum.  eoinm 
cibos  a  Christianis  sumi;  quura  ea  qua:  apostolo  perniit- 
tente,  nos  sumimus,  ab  illis  judicentur  immunda,  &c. 

"'  Cone.  Veneticum,  can.  12. 

^^  Cone.  Epaunense,  can.  15.  Vid.  Cone.  Matiscon.  1. 
can.  15.  Aurelian.  3.  can.  13. 

''"  Cone.  Arvernense,  can.  6. 

^  Cone.  Aurel.  3.  can.  13.  Vid.  Aug.  231.  Et  Ambros. 
de  Abrahamo,  lib.  1.  cap.  9. 

••»  Chrvs.  Horn.  1.  cent.  Jud.  t.  1.  p.  412  et  443. 

'■'  Ibid.  p.  433.  "  Ibid.  p.  437. 

'•  Ibid.  p.  440. 


9o2 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVL 


XptTtavot  i5  tinitTiiag.  He  has  two  other  *■  whole  ser- 
mons against  those  who  observed  the  Jewish  fasts, 
and  frec[uented  their  synagogues ;  in  the  latter  of 
which  he  addresses  himself  to  them  in  these  words : 
We  have  now  clearly  proved  that  the  places  where 
the  Jews  assemble  are  inhabited  by  devils.  How 
then  darest  thou,  after  being  in  the  chorus  of  devils, 
return  to  the  assembly  of  the  apostles  ?  How  is  it 
that  thou  art  not  afraid,  after  communicating  with 
those  who  shed  the  blood  of  Christ,  to  come  and 
communicate  at  the  holy  table,  and  partake  of  that 
precious  blood?  Does  not  horror  and  trembling 
seize  thee,  after  having  committed  so  great  wicked- 
ness? Dost  thou  not  reverence  the  holy  table? 
"  Wherefore  I  exhort  you,  admonish  and  edify  one 
another."  If  any  man  be  a  catechumen,  who  labours 
under  this  distemper,  let  him  be  driven  from  the 
doors  of  the  church ;  if  he  be  one  of  the  faithful, 
and  initiated  in  the  holy  mysteries,  let  him  be  driven 
from  the  holy  table.  All  sins  need  not  exhortation 
and  counsel ;  there  are  some  that  naturally  require 
a  more  quick  and  sharp  abscission.  I  therefore 
from  henceforth  shall  abstain  from  all  further  ad- 
monition, and  protest  and  proclaim,  "  If  any  man 
love  not  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  let  him  be  anathe- 
ma." And  what  greater  argument  can  there  be  of 
any  one's  not  loving  Christ,  than  his  communicat- 
ing with  those  in  their  festivals,  who  killed  Christ? 
It  is  not  I  that  anathematize  these,  but  Paul,  yea, 
Christ  that  speaks  by  Paul,  and  says,  "  Whoever  of 
you  are  justified  by  the  law,  ye  are  fallen  from 
grace."  In  his  comment  upon  those  words  of  St. 
Paul  to  Titus,^'  "  Rebuke  them  sharply,  that  they 
may  be  sound  in  the  faith,"  he  speaks  again  of  this 
matter :  If  they  who  make  a  distinction  of  meats 
are  not  sound,  but  weak,  what  shall  we  say  of  those 
who  fast  with  the  Je-ws,  and  observe  their  sabbaths 
with  them,  and  go  to  their  synagogues,  to  that  at 
Daphne,  called  the  cave  of  Matrona,  and  that  in  Ci- 
licia,  called  the  place  of  Cronus,  or  Saturn  ?  In  his 
sixth  homily  against  the  Jews,''  he  inveighs  vehe- 
mently against  those  who  went  to  the  synagogues  to 
get  charms  and  amulets  to  cure  diseases,  in  which  the 
Jews  pretended  to  a  peculiar  art  above  others,  and 
this  tempted  many  vain  Christians  to  have  recourse 
to  them ;  but  of  this  I  have  spoken  before  in  the  last 
chapter,  out  of  Chrysostom,  and  shall  only  here 
add,  that  the  Jews  boasted  much  of  this  art  as 


coming  to  them  from  some  apocryphal  writings  of 
King  Solomon,  such  as  his  Book  of  Prayers,  or  en- 
chantments to  cure  diseases,  and  his  Book  of  Ex- 
orcisms, or  conjurations  to  cast  out  devils,  both 
which  are  mentioned  by  Josephus,^^  who  magnifies 
the  art  as  still  remaining  among  them,  speaking  of 
one  Eleazar,  who,  according  to  the  rules  there  pre- 
scribed, pretended  to  cure  one  possessed  with  a 
devil  in  the  presence  of  Vespasian.  Origen  also '" 
mentions  these  books,  and  says,  Some  Christians 
adjured  devils  after  the  same  manner  by  forms  out 
of  apocryphal  and  Hebrew  books,  in  imitation  of 
those  of  Solomon ;  which  he  does  by  no  means 
allow,  but  says,  it  is  Judaical,  and  not  according  to 
the  power  given  by  Christ  to  his  disciples.  By  all 
which  it  appears,  that  as  the  Jews  pretended  much 
to  this  power,  so  many  Christians  were  so  vain  as 
to  have  secret  recourse  to  them,  (for  Chrysostom 
says,  they  were  ashamed  to  do  it  in  public,)  imagin- 
ing their  enchantments  to  be  of  more  efficacy  than 
any  others.  Which  was  a  double  crime,  first  to 
make  use  of  charms,  and  then  to  take  them  from 
the  enemies  of  Christ,  to  the  flagrant  scandal  of 
the  Christian  religion.  Whenever,  therefore,  any 
were  convicted  of  this  crime,  they  were  sure  to  feel 
the  utmost  severity  of  ecclesiastical  censure. 

Another  sort  of  apostates  were  such 
as  fell  away  voluntarily  into  heathen-  (J 
ism,  after  they  had  for  some  time 
made  profession  of  Christianity.  These  differed 
from  common  lapsers  into  idolatry  in  this,  that  the 
common  lapsers  fell  by  violence,  and  the  fear  and 
terror  of  persecution ;  but  these  fell  away  by  prin- 
ciple and  choice,  and  out  of  a  dislike  to  religion, 
and  love  of  Gentilism,  which  they  preferred  before 
the  religion  of  Christ,  when  they  might  without  any 
molestation  have  continued  in  it.  And  as  the  one 
usually  returned  as  soon  as  they  had  opportunity, 
so  the  other  commonly  continued  apostates  all  their 
days.  The  imperial  laws,  at  least  from  the  time  of 
Theodosius,  denied  such  the  common  privilege  of 
Roman  subjects,  depriving  them  of  the  power  of 
disposing  of  their  estates  by  will.  As  appears  from 
two  laws''  of  Theodosius  the  Great  in  the  Theodo- 
sian  Code,  which  the  other  succeeding^  emperors 
confirmed.  Particularly  Valentinian  junior  not 
only  denied  them  the  power  of  making  their  own 
wills,  but  of  receiving  any  benefit  '*  from  others  by 


Sect.  4. 
svich   as  apos- 
d    voluntarily 
into  heathenism. 


^2  Horn.  52.  in  eos  qui  Pascha  jejiinant,  et  Horn.  53.  in 
eos  qui  cum  Judreis  jejunant,  t.  5.  p.  721. 

^  Horn.  3.  iti  Tit.  p.  1709. 

3'  Horn.  6.  in  Judajos,  t.  ].  p.  53(5,  &c.  See  this  before, 
chap.  5.  sect.  6. 

^^  Joseph.  Antiq.  lib.  8.  cap.  2. 

36  Orig.  Tract.  .35.  in.  Matt.  p.  188.  Non  est  secundum 
potestatem  datam  a  salvalorc  adjurare  d;i;monia  :  Judaicum 
enim  est.  Hoc  etsi  aliquaudo  a  nostris  tale  aliquid  fiat, 
simile  fit  ei,  quod  a  Salninone  scriptis  adjurationibus  solent 
dicmones  adjurari.     Sed   ipsi    qui   utuntur   adjurationibus 


illis,  aliquoties  nee  idoneis  constitutis  libris  utuntur:  qui- 
busdam  autem  et  <ie  Hebroeo  acceptis  adjurant  dasmonia. 

■"  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  16.  Tit.  7.  de  Apostatis,  Leg.  1.  His 
qui  ex  Christianis  paganifacti  sunt,  eripiaturfacultasj usque 
tcstandi.  Orane  defuncti,  si  quod  est,  testamentum,  sub- 
mota  conditione,  rescindatur.  lb.  Leg.  2.  Ibid.  Leg.  3, 
4,  5,  6,  7. 

"^  Ibid.  Leg.  4.  Hi  qui  sanctam  fidem  prodiderint  et 
sanctum  baptisma  profanaverint,  a  consortio  omnium  segre- 
gati,  sint  a  testimoniis  alieni,  testamenti  non  habeant  facti- 
onem,  nulli  in  hijcreditate  succedant,  a  nemine  scribantur 


Chap.  VI. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


9.53 


will :  no  miin  might  make  tlicm  his  lieirs,  nor  could 
they  succeed  to  any  inheritance.  They  were  to 
have  no  commerce  or  society  with  others ;  their 
testimony  was  not  to  be  taken  in  law ;  they  were  to 
be  infamous  and  of  no  credit  among  men,  among 
whom  they  were  allowed  to  live  without  banishing, 
only  to  make  it  the  greater  punishment,  to  live 
among  men,  and  not  enjoy  the  common  privileges 
of  men.  Nay,  they  were  never  to  regain  their  an- 
cient state  :  though  they  repented  and  returned,  this 
should  be  no  benefit  to  them  in  this  respect ;  their 
repentance  should  never  obliterate  their  crime,  be- 
cause they  had  broken  their  faith  to  God.  This 
was  their  condition  in  temporals.  As  to  their  spi- 
ritual estate,  by  some  canons  of  the  church  they 
were  as  severely  treated.  The  council  of  Eliberis'" 
denies  communion  to  the  last  to  all  such  apostates, 
because  they  doubled  their  crime,  not  only  in  ab- 
senting from  the  chmx-h,  but  in  defiling  themselves 
with  idolatry  also.  "Whereas  such  lower  apostates 
as  only  absented  themselves  from  religious  assem- 
blies^" for  along  time,  and  did  not  commit  idolatry, 
if  afterward  they  returned  again  to  the  church,  they 
might  be  admitted  upon  ten  years'  penance  to  the 
communion.  Cyprian"  says.  Many  of  his  prede- 
cessors in  Africa  denied  communion  to  the  very  last 
to  all  such  as  were  guilty  of  the  three  great  crimes, 
apostacy,  adultery,  and  murder.  And  though  this 
rigour  was  a  little  abated  in  his  time,  yet  they  still 
held  idolatrous  apostates  to  penance  all  their  lives. 
Which  is  also  noted  by  *'  Siricius,  bishop  of  Rome, 
who  says.  Apostates  were  to  do  penance  as  long  as 
they  lived,  and  only  to  have  the  grace  of  reconcili- 
ation at  the  point  of  death.  And  this  favour  was 
allowed  them  only  upon  proviso  that  they  returned 
and  submitted  to  penance  voluntarily  in  their  life- 
time, before  any  necessity  or  sickness  drove  them  to 
it :  for  if  they  continued  apostates  to  the  last  ex- 
tremity, and  only  desired  to  be  reconciled  when  the 
fear  of  imminent  death  was  upon  them,  then,  Cy- 
prian *'  assures  us,  it  was  denied  them ;  because  it 
was  not  repentance,  but  the  fear  of  approaching 
death  only  that  made  them  desire  a  reconciliation. 
And  the  first  council  of  Aries"  made  a  like  decree, 
that  such  apostates  should  not  be  received  to  com- 


munion, unless  they  recovered,  and  brought  forth 
fruits  worthy  of  repentance.  The  true  reason  of 
which  severity  was  to  deter  men  from  depending 
too  much  on  a  death-bed  repentance.  For  except 
in  the  case  of  martyrdom,  (which  Cyprian"  allows,) 
such  apostates  had  no  time  to  demonstrate  by  their 
works  that  they  were  real  penitents  ;  and  therefore 
the  church  denied  them  absolution,  and  remitted 
them  wholly  to  God's  unerring  judgment. 

The  next  sort  of  delinquents  against  ^.^^^  ^ 

the  first  commandment  were  heretics  schfsmnt'ics'^'arfd"' 
and  schismatics,  the  one  of  which  both  I'rci^sS'S 
transgi'essed  against  the  doctrine  of 
faith  delivered  by  the  church,  and  the  other  against 
the  unity  of  the  worship  and  discipline,  which  com- 
pacted the  church  into  one  mystical  body  of  Christ. 
In  each  of  these  there  were  several  degrees  of  sin, 
which  were  accordingly  treated  with  diSerent  de- 
grees of  ecclesiastical  censure.  But  because  it  was 
impossible  for  lawgivers  to  know  the  particular 
motives  and  inducements  that  might  engage  men  in 
heresy  or  schism,  therefore  the  laws  were  made  in 
general  terms  against  them,  and  the  allowances 
that  were  proper  to  be  made  upon  any  occasion  for 
the  abatement  of  the  rigour  of  them  with  respect  to 
particular  persons,  were  left  to  the  discretion  of  the 
judges  that  were  to  put  them  in  execution.  I  shall 
first  give  a  short  account  of  the  civil  penalties  that 
were  inflicted  on  them  by  the  imperial  laws  of  the 
state,  and  then  consider  the  ecclesiastical  punish- 
ments that  were  inflicted  on  them  by  the  laws  of 
the  church. 

The  laws  of  the  state  made  against 
heretics  and  schismatics  by  the  Chris-     or  the  civii  pim- 

ishmeiite  inflicted 

tian  emperors  from  the  time  of  Con-  onthem  h)theu^Y8 

i  of  the  slate. 

stantine,  are  chiefly  comprised  under 
one  title,  de  Ilmreticis,  in  the  Theodosian  Code,  which 
are  too  many  and  long  to  be  here  recited :  therefore 
I  shall  only  give  a  short  abstract  of  them,  as  they 
are  collected  by  Gothofred,*^  in  his  premonition  to 
that  title.  There  he  observes  eleven  distinct  kinds 
of  punishment  inflicted  on  them  in  general,  besides 
the  particular  laws  that  were  made  against  their 
teachers,  their  bishops  and  clergy,  and  their  con- 
venticles, and  all  such  as  favoured  or  abetted  them. 


haeredes.  Quos  etiam  praecepissemus  procul  abjici,  ac  lon- 
gius  amandaii,  nisi  poena;  visum  fuisset  esse  majoris,  versari 
inter  homines,  et  hominiim  carere  suffragiis.  Sed  nee  un- 
quam  in  statum  pristinura  revertentur;  non  flagitiuin  mo- 
lum  oblileret.ur  pcenitentia,  &c. 

Ibid.  Leg.  5.  Si  quis  splendor  conlatiis  est  in  eos — per- 
dant,  ut  de  loco  suo  statuqvie  dejecti,  perpetua  urantur  in- 
famia,  &c.  Vid.  Legr.  6  et  7.  ibid,  et  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  11. 
Tit.  39.  de  Fide  Testium,  Leg.  11. 

^°  Cone.  Elibcr.  can.  1.  Placuit  inter  eos,  qui  post  fidem 
baptismi  salutaris  adulta  oetate  ad  templum  idololafraturus 
accesserit,  et  i'ecevit  quod  est  crimen  priticipale,  quia  est 
summum  scelus,  placuit  nee  in  fine  eiim  comnmnionem  ac- 
cipere. 

'"  Ibid.  can.  46.     Si  quis  fidelis  apostata  per  iniinita  tem- 


pora  ad  ecclesiam  non  accesserit;  si  tamen  aliquando  fiierit 
reversus,  nee  fuerit  idololatra,  post  decern  annos  placuit 
communionem  accipere. 

^'  Cypr.  Ep.  52.  al.  55.  ad  Antonian.  p.  110. 

*^  Siric.  Ep.  1.  ad  Himerium,  cap.  3.  Apostatis,  quamdiu 
vivunt,  agenda  pcenitentia  est,  &c.  See  before,  chap.  4. 
sect.  4. 

"  Cypr.  ibid.  p.  111.  Nee  dignus  est  in  morte  accipere 
solatium,  qui  non  cogitavit  se  esse  moriturum. 

*'  Cone.  Arelat.  1.  can.  23. 

«  Cypr.  de  Lapsis,  p.  127.  It.  Ep.  14.  al.  19.  et  Ep.  55. 
ad  Antonian.  p.  102. 

"  Gothofied.  Paratitlon.  ad  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  16.  Tit.  5. 
de  Hseretieis. 


954 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


The  first  of  these  is  the  general  note  of  infamy  I 
affixed  to  them  all  in  common :  the  laws  always 
styling  them  infamous  persons,  Leg.  7,  13,  54.  de 
Hcereticis.     Leg.  2.  (h  Fide  CathoUca. 

Secondly,  The  affixing  on  some  particular  sects 
special  names  of  infamy  and  reproach ;  as  when 
Constantine  ordered  the  Arians  to  be  called  Por- 
phyrians  ;  and  Theodosius  junior,  the  Nestorians  to 
be  branded  with  the  name  of  Simonians,  Leg.  66. 
de  Hcrrdicis. 

Thirdly,  All  commerce  forbidden  to  be  held  with 
them,  Leg.  17,  18,  36,  40,  48.  de  Hcsrcticis. 

Fourthly,  The  depriving  them  of  all  offices  of 
profit  and  dignity  in  the  militia  2>alatina,  or  civil 
administration.  Which  was  first  enacted  by  Theo- 
dosius, and  confirmed  by  the  succeeding  emperors, 
Leg.  9,  25,  29,  42,  48,  58,  61,  65.  Particularly 
Gothofred  commends  that  as  an  elegant  saying 
of  Honorius,  Leg.  42.  de  Harcticis.  KuUus  nobis  sit 
aliqua  ratione  conjiinctus,  qui  a  nobis  fide  et  religione 
discedat,  We  will  have  none  employed  about  us,  that 
differs  from  us  in  faith  and  religion.  Yet  he  ob- 
serves, that  all  burdensome  offices,  both  of  the  camp 
and  curia,  what  we  now  call  military  and  municipal 
offices,  were  imposed  upon  them.  Which  is  con- 
firmed by  one  of  Justinian's  Novels,"  which  the 
learned  reader  may  see  in  the  margin. 

Fifthly,  They  were  rendered  intestate,  that  is, 
they  were  unqualified  either  to  dispose  of  their 
estates  by  will,  or  receive  estates  from  any  others. 
Thus,  particularly,  the  Manichees  were  punished, 
Leg.  7,  9,  18,  65.  de  Hcereticis,  et  Leg.  3.  de  Apostatis. 
And  so  the  Eunomians,  Leg.  17,  25,  49,  50,  58.  de 
Hcereticis.  And  the  Donatists,  Leg.  54,  de  HcBreticis, 
et  Leg.  4.  ]Ve  scinctton  baptisma  iteretur.  Pursuant 
to  which  laws  all  the  goods  of  heretics,  or  whatever 
was  left  them,  were  liable  to  be  confiscated  either  to 
the  emperor's  exchequer,  or  to  the  people  of  Rome, 
Leg.  7,  9,  17,  18,  49.  de  Hcereticis. 

Sixthly,  The  right  of  giving  or  receiving  dona- 
tions was  denied  them.  Leg.  7,  9,  36,  40,  49,  50> 
58,  65.  de  Hcereticis,  et  Leg.  4.  Ne  sanctum  baptisma 
iteretur.  Only  by  one  law  some  few  persons  were 
excepted,  to  whom  they  might  give  donations,  Leg. 
65.  de  Hcereticis. 

Seventhly,  The  Manichees,  Cataphrygians,  Pris- 
cilHanists,  or  followers  of  Priscilla,  the  Montanists, 
Donatists,  and  all  that  were  rebaptized  by  them,  are 
deprived  of  the  right  of  contracting,  buying,  and 


selling.  Leg.  40,  48,  54.  de  Hcereticis,  et  Leg.  4.  Ne 
saiictvm  baptisma  iteretur. 

Eighthly,  Pecuniary  mulcts  and  fines  were  im- 
posed upon  them,  Leg.  39,  52,  54.  de  Hcereticis. 
And  these  are  often  mentioned  by  St.  Austin,"  who 
yet  intimates  that  they  were  seldom  executed  against 
them,  and  frequentl)^  begged  off  by  the  catholics 
interceding  for  them. 

Ninthly,  They  were  proscribed,  transported,  and 
banished.  Leg.  13,  14,  15,  16,  18,  20,  29,  40,  52,  53, 
57,  58.  de  Hcereticis.  Thus  Sozomen^"  says,  Con- 
stantine banished  Arius,  and  all  who  opposed  the 
decrees  of  the  council  of  Nice.  And  St.  Austin" 
says,  Constantine  banished  the  Donatists ;  and  all 
the  succeeding  emperors,  except  Julian  the  apostate, 
made  severe  laws  against  them.  And  Julian  only 
recalled  them  in  devilish  policy,  thinking  by  divi- 
sion of  Christians  into  several  sects,  to  destroy  them 
totally  out  of  the  world.  Honorius  banished  Jo- 
vinian  into  Boa,  an  island  of  Dalmatia,  as  is  said 
in  the  law  particularly  made  against  him  in  the 
Code.^'  And  Theodosius  junior  banished  Nestorius, 
as  the  historians  note,"  after  the  council  of  Ephesus 
had  deposed  him. 

Tenthly,  They  were  also  in  many  cases  subjected 
to  corporal  punishment,  scourging,  &c.,  before  they 
were  sent  into  banishment,  Leg.  21,  53,  54,  57.  de 
Hcereticis,  et  Leg.  4.  Ne  sanctum  baptisma  iteretur. 

Eleventhly,  Finally,  in  some  special  cases  they 
were  terrified  by  sanguinary  laws,  which  made  them 
liable  to  death,  though,  by  the  connivance  of  the 
princes,  or  the  intercession  of  the  church,  they  were 
rarely  put  in  execution  against  them.  Gothofred 
says,  the  first  law  of  this  kind  was  made  by  Theodo- 
sius, anno  382,  against  the  Encratites,  the  Sacco- 
phori,  the  Hydroparastatee,  and  the  Manichees, 
which  is  the  ninth  law  de  Hcereticis.  After  which 
example  many  other  such  laws  were  made  against 
the  heretical  priests,  who  pretended  to  exercise  their 
superstition  against  the  prohibition  of  the  law : 
and  against  such  possessors  as  allowed  them  a  con- 
venticle to  meet  in ;  and  against  such  as  retained 
and  concealed  their  pernicious  books.  Leg.  15,  16, 
34,  35,  36,  38,  43,  44,  51,  53,  54,  56,  63.  de  Hce- 
reticis. 

Besides  these  laws  and  punishments,  which  chief- 
ly affected  their  persons,  Gothofred  observes  several 
other  laws  which  tended  to  the  extirpation  of  heresy. 
Such  as,  first.  Those  which  forbid  heretical  teach- 


•"  Justin.  Novel.  45.     Sunto  decuriones,  quemadmodiim 
jam  cohortalibus  ante  legibus  expressum  est;  neque  ullus 

religionis  cultus  tali  eos  fortima  eximito. Indigui  tamen 

omni  curiali  existunto  honore.  Et  quia  rnulta  lei^es  de- 
curionibus  privilcgia  tribuunt,  turn  ne  ictus  fustium  illis  in- 

feratur,    &c.,   nullo   horum  perfruuntor. Implento  tam 

personalia  quam  patrimonialia  munera,  nequc  eos  lex  ab  his 
eximat:  honore  autem  nullo  perfruuntor,  sed  fortunara  sus- 
tinento  cum  infamia. 


^s  Auij.  Ep.  68.  ad  Januar.  p.  124.  Poena  decern  librarum 
auri,  quae  in  haereticos  ab  imperatoribus  fuerat  constituta, 
&c.  Vid.  Ep.  50.  ad  Bonifac.  Item  Ep.  166,  167,  173. 
Cent.  Crescon.  lib.  3.  cap.  47.  Cent.  Epist.  Parmen.  lib.  I. 
cap.  12. 

<»  Sozom.  lib.  1.  cap.  20. 

^"  Aug.  Ep.  152.  ad  Donatistas,  Ep.  166.  p.  289. 

■■'  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  16.  Tit.  5.  de  Hacreticis,  Leg.  5.3. 

■■■  Socrat.  lib.  7.  cap.  34.     Evagr.  lib.  1.  cap.  7. 


Chap.  VI. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  TIIK  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


955 


crs  to  propagate  their  doctrine  publicly  or  privately, 
Lcrj.  3,  5,  1 3,  24.  dc  Hare/ ids,  d  Lc(j.  2.  Ne  sanduin 
haptimna  iteretur. 

Secondly,  The  laws  which  forbid  heretics  to  hold 
public  disputations  by  gathering  companies  of 
people  together,  Leg.  46.  de  Ilccrdids,  ct  Leg.  1 ,  2, 
3.  de  his  qui  super  rdigione  contendunt. 

Thirdly,  Those  which  forbid  heretics  to  ordain 
bishops,  presbyters,  or  any  other  clergy,  Leg.  12, 
14,  21,  22,  24,  20,  2/,  5/,  58,  65.  de  Ilccreticis. 

Fourthly,  Such  as  deny  to  those  that  are  so  or- 
dained, the  names  and  privileges  of  bishops  and 
clergy.  Leg.  I,  24,  26,  28.  de  Hceretids.  Leg.  2 
ct  3.  de  Episcopis.  Leg.  1.  Ne  sanctum  baptismu 
iteretur. 

Fifthly,  Such  laws  as  prohibit  all  heretical  con- 
venticles and  assemblies.  Leg.  4,  5,  fi,  10,  II,  12, 
14,  15,  ly,  20,  21,  26,  30,  45,  52,  53,  .54,  56,  6.').  de 
Ilcrreticis,  et  Leg.  7.  Ne  sanctum  haptisma  iteretur. 

Sixthly,  Such  as  forbid  heretics  to  build  conven- 
ticles. Leg.  1,  2,  6,  7,  8,  12,  30,  65.  de  Ilceretids,  d 
Leg.  3.  de  Fide  Catholica.  And  forbid  any  one  to 
leave  any  legacy  to  them.  Leg.  65.  dc  Ilccreticis. 
And  ordering  both  the  conventicles,  and  whatever 
was  so  bequeathed  to  them,  either  to  be  confiscated 
to  the  public  exchequer,  Leg.  3,  4,  8,  12,  21,  30. 
de  II(Prcticis ;  or  else  to  be  given  to  the  use  of  the 
catholic  churches,  Leg.  43,  52,  54,  57,  65.  de  Hce- 
reticis,  et  Leg.  2.  Ne  sanctum  haptisma  iteretur.  Only 
excepting  the  Novatians,  to  whom  Constantine 
showed  a  little  favour,  because,  though  they  w-ere 
schismatical,  yet  they  held  to  the  catholic  faith. 
Leg.  2.  de  Hcsreticis.  Socrat.  lib.  2.  cap.  30.  lib.  5. 
cap.  10.    Sozomen.Iib.  8.  cap.  1. 

Seventhly,  Such  laws  as  allow  slaves  to  inform 
against  their  heretical  masters,  and  gain  their  free- 
dom by  coming  over  to  the  church.  Leg.  40.  de 
Hardicis,  et  Leg.  4.   Ne  sanctum  haptisma  iteretur. 

Eighthly,  Such  laws  as  deny  the  children  of 
heretical  parents  their  patrimony  and  inheritance, 
except  they  returned  to  the  catholic  church,  Leg. 
7,  9,  40.  de  Jleereticis,  et  Leg.  7-  Ne  sanctum  haptis- 
ma iteretur. 

Ninthly,  Such  laws  as  order  the  books  of  heretics 
to  be  burned.  Leg.  34  et  65.  de  Hcereticis. 

This  is  the  short  account  of  those  several  penal 
laws  which  the  emperors  made  against  heretics, 
from  the  time  of  Constantine  to  Theodosius  junior 
and  Valentinian  III.,  which  the  learned  reader 
may  find  at  length  under  their  respective  titles  in 
both  the  Thcodosian  and  Justinian  Code.  It  is 
sufficient  here  to  have  given  an  abstract  of  them, 
which  may  serve  to  give  some  light  to  the  laws  of 
the  church  that  were  made  against  them,  which  I 


^^  Cypr.  de  Unit.  Eccles.  p.  ]17. 

^'  V'ld.  Cypr.  ibid.  p.  109,  113,  114.  Ep.  55.  ad  Antonian. 
p.  108  ct  114.  Ep.  Ul  et  GO.  ad  Cornel.    Aug.  cout.  Literas 


now  proceed  to  give  a  more  particul.ar  account  of, 
as  more  properly  relating  to  the  discipline  of  the 
church. 

And  here  we  may  observe,  in  the 
first  place,  that   heresy  was  always     how  lieretics wore 

.  «     ,  ....  treated  by  the  disci- 

accounted  one  of  the  pnncipal  crimes  piinoonliechurcti. 

.  *  '  I.ThpywiTcanatlle- 

that  a  Christian  could  be  miiltv  of,  as  "i.itimi   and  cast 

~  ''  out  of  the  church. 

being   a   sort  of  apostacy  from  the 
faith,  and  a  voluntary  apostacy,  which  was  a  cir- 
cumstance that  added  much  to  the  heinousncss  of 
the   oflfence.     Therefore  Cyprian,   comparing  the 
crimes  of  heretics  and  schismatics  with  those  that 
lapsed  into  idolatry  by  the  violence  of  persecution, 
says,^  This  is  a  worse  crime  than  that  which  the 
lapsers  may  seem  to  have  committed,  who  yet  do  a 
severe  penance  for  their  crime,  and  implore  the 
mercy  of  God  by  a  long  and  plenary  satisfaction. 
The  one  seeks  to  the  church,  and  humbly  entreats 
her  favour ;  the  other  resists  the  church,  and  pro- 
claims open  war  against  her.     The  one  has  the  ex- 
cuse of  necessity ;  the  other  is  detained  in  his  crime 
by  his  own  will  only.     He  that  lapses,  hurts  him- 
self alone ;  but  he  that  endeavours  to  make  a  heresy 
or  schism,  draws  many  others  with  him  into  the 
same  delusion.     Here  is  only  the  loss  of  one  soul ; 
but  there  a  multitude  is  drawn  into  danger.     The 
lapser  is  sensible  that  he  has  committed  a  fault, 
and  therefore  he  mourns  and  laments  for  it ;  but 
the  other  grows  proud,  and  swells  in  his  crime,  and 
pleasing  himself  in  his  errors,  he  divides  the  chil- 
dren from   the  mother,   tempts   and    solicits    the 
sheep  from  the  shepherd,  and  disturbs  the  sacra- 
ments  of  God.     And  whereas  a  lapser  sins  but 
once,  he  sins  every  day.      Finally,  a  lapser  may 
afterward  become  a  martyr,  and  obtain  the  promises 
of  the  kingdom ;  but  the  other,  being  out  of  the 
church,  cannot  attain  to  the  rewards  of  the  church, 
although  he  be  slain  for  religion.     This  last  argu- 
ment is  often  insisted  on   by  Cyprian,'^   and  St. 
Austin,  and  Chrysostom,  and  others,  to  deter  men 
from  engaging  in  heresy  and  schism ;  and  it  implies 
that  heretics  did  voluntarily  cut  themselves  ol!"  from 
the  communion  of  the  church,  and  stood  condemn- 
ed of  themselves  (as  the  apostle  words  it,  and  some 
of  the  ancients  understand  it)  by  a  voluntary  ex- 
comminiication,  or  separation  of  themselves  from 
the  church.     Yet  this  did  not  hinder,  but  that,  not- 
withstanding any  such  separation  of  themselves, 
the  church  ordinarily  pronounced  a  more  formal 
anathema,  or  excommunication,  against  them.     As 
the  council  of  Nice  ends  her  creed  with  an  anathema 
against  all  those  who  opposed  the  doctrine  there 
delivered ;  and  the  council  of  Gangra  closes  every 
canon  with  anathema  against  the  Eustathian  here- 


Petilian.  lib.  2.  cap.  23.  de  Bapt.  lib.  4.  cap.  17.  Ep.  Gl.  ct 
204.     Chrys.  Horn.  II.  in  Ephes. 


956 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


tics;  and  there  are  innumerable  instances  of  this 
kind  in  the  tomes  of  the  councils,  which  it  would 
be  next  to  impertinent  here  only  to  refer  to,  they 
are  so  well  known  to  all  that  have  ever  looked  into 
them. 

g^^j  g  To  proceed,  then :  when  they  were 

from'^'enSng''the  ouce  formally  excommunicated,  so 
non^thoughnouly  loug  as  they  continucd  impenitent, 
they  were  by  some  rules  of  discipline 
debarred  from  the  very  lowest  privileges  of  church 
communion;  being  forbidden  to  enter  the  church, 
so  much  as  to  hear  the  sermon,  or  the  Scriptures 
read,  in  the  service  of  the  catechumens.  The  council 
of  Laodicea^^  has  a  canon  to  this  purpose,  "  That 
heretics,  so  long  as  they  continue  in  their  heresy, 
shall  not  be  permitted  to  enter  into  the  house  of 
God."  And  it  is  probable  this  rule  might  be  ob- 
served in  the  strict  discipline  of  some  churches. 
But  it  was  no  general  rule :  for  I  have  had  occasion 
to  show  before,*"  out  of  the  African  and  Spanish  coun- 
cils, and  several  passages  of  St.  Chrysostom's  homi- 
lies, that  liberty  was  granted  to  heretics,  together  with 
Jews  and  heathens,  to  come  into  the  church  and 
hear  the  sermon  preached  and  the  Scriptures  read, 
being  these  were  proper  for  their  instruction.  They 
thought  it  not  impossible  but  that  heretics  might 
be  converted  in  the  church,  as  Polemon,  a  debauch- 
ed young  man,  was  converted  in  the  school  of 
Xenocrates  ;  when,  coming  drunk  and  with  his  bac- 
chanal wreaths  about  his  head  to  hear  the  philoso- 
pher read  his  lecture,  (which  happened  to  be  about 
temperance  and  modesty,)  he  was  so  affected  there- 
with, that  he  not  only  became  his  scholar  and  his 
convert,  but  his  successor  also  in  the  school  of 
Plato."  The  historians  tell  us,  that  Chrysostom, 
by  this  means,  brought  over  many  to  acknowledge 
the  Divinity  of  Christ,  whilst  they  had  liberty  to 
come  to  hear  his  sermons.*"  And  the  fathers  of  the 
council  of  Valentia,  in  Spain,*"  give  this  as  the  rea- 
son why  they  allowed  heathens  and  heretics  to  come 
and  hear  the  bishops  preaching,  and  the  reading 
of  the  Scriptures,  because  they  had  found  by  ex- 
perience, that  many  by  this  means  had  been  con- 
verted to  the  faith.  So  that  the  church,  which 
always  studied  men's  edification,  and  not  their  de- 
struction, in  prudence  so  ordered  her  discipline,  as 
to  encourage  heretics  to  frequent  one  part  of  her 
service,  which  she  allowed  to  her  penitents  and 
catechumens.      And  if  heretics  were  at  any  time 


denied  it,  there  was  some  very  particular  and  ex- 
traordinary reason  for  it. 

But  there  was  not  the  same  reason         „  .  „ 

Sect.  9. 

for  allowing  catholics  to  frequent  the  encourage"  hTr^tics 
assemblies  or  conventicles  of  heretics  frequeuUngthdrM- 
and  schismatics  ;  because  this,  instead 
of  converting  them,  had  rather  been  to  have  con- 
firmed and  hardened  them  in  their  errors;  and 
therefore  the  prohibition  in  this  case  was  more  pe- 
remptory and  universal,  that  no  one  should  join 
with  heretics  in  any  religious  oflfices,  and  least  of 
all  in  their  conventicles,  under  pain  of  excommuni- 
cation. To  this  purpose  the  Apostolical  Canons, 
If  any  bishop,  presbyter,  or  deacon,  pray  with  here- 
tics, let  him  be  suspended :  but  if  he  suffer  them  to 
ofl[iciat,e  as  clergymen,*"  let  him  be  deposed.  And 
again,*'  If  any  clergyman  or  laymau  go  into  a  syna- 
gogue of  Jews  or  heretics  to  pray,  let  him  be  ex- 
communicated or  deposed.  In  like  manner  the 
council  of  Laodicea,*-  None  of  the  church  are  per- 
mitted to  go  to  the  cemeteries  or  martyries  of  heretics 
for  prayer  or  worship,  under  pain  of  excommuni- 
cation for  some  time,  till  they  repent  and  confess 
their  error.  And  again,*^  It  is  not  lawful  to  pray 
with  heretics  or  schismatics.  The  assembly  of  here- 
tics, says  the  council  of  Carthage,"^  is  not  a  church, 
but  a  conventicle.  Therefore,  with  heretics***  no 
one  shall  either  pray  or  sing  psalms.  If  a  catholic, 
says  the  council  of  Lerida,™  offer  his  children  to  be 
baptized  by  heretics,  his  oblation  shall  in  no  wise 
be  received  in  the  church.  But  then  this  was  to  be 
understood,  where  a  man  might  have  baptism  from 
a  catholic,  and  he  chose  rather  to  go  to  a  heretic  to 
receive  it,  without  any  necessity  to  compel  him  so 
to  do.  For  otherwise,  as  has  been  observed  before, 
out  of  several  places  of  St.  Austin,"  in  case  of  ex- 
treme necessity,  a  man  was  allowed  to  receive  bap- 
tim  from  a  heretic,  rather  than  die  without  it.  This 
was  not  esteemed  any  breach  of  catholic  unity, 
neither  was  it  the  case  which  the  discipline  of  the 
church  respected,  when  she  forbade  men  to  encou- 
rage heretics  by  a  voluntary  joining  with  them,  and 
receiving  baptism  from  them.  Cyril  of  Jerusalem, 
in  this  sense,'^  bids  his  catechumen  abhor  especially 
the  conventicles  of  impious  heretics,  and  have  no 
communication  with  them.  Chrysostom  compares 
heretics  to  those  ^  that  deface  the  king's  coin : 
Though  it  be  but  in  one  point,  they  subvert  the 
gospel  thereby,  and  therefore  catholics   ought  to 


■"  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  6.      *'^  Book  XIII.  chap.  1.  sect.  2. 

"  Vid.  Valcr.  Ma.ximum,  lib.  6.  cap.  9. 

^  Sozom.  lib.  8.  cap.  2.  *"  Cone.  Valentin,  can.  1. 

™  Canon.  Apo.st.  45.  »'  Ibid.  can.  65. 

"■^  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  9.  '^  Ibid.  can.  33. 

'''  Cone.  Carth.  4.  can.  71.  Hacretieoruni  coetus  non  ec- 
clesia,  sed  conciliabuluui  est. 

•^  Ibid.  can.  72.  Cum  hicrcticis  nee  oraudum  noc  psal- 
lenduni. 


*''  Cone.  Ilerdcnsc,  can.  13.  Catholicus,  qui  filios  sues  in 
hcPiesi  baptizandos  obtulerit,  oblatio  illius  in  ecclesia  nulla- 
tenus  recipiatnr.  Vid.  Hieron.  Dialog,  cum  Lucifer,  cap.  5. 
Sciens  ab  hacretieis  baptizatus,  erroris  veniam  non  meretur. 

"  Aug.  de  Bapt.  lib.  1.  cap.  2.  et  lib.  6.  cap.  5.  lib.  7.  cap, 
52.     See  these  cited  at  large  before,  chap.  1.  sect.  4. 

**  Cyril.  Catech.  4.  n.  23.  'EgaiptTcus  /xicrfi  irdvTa  tu 
(TuuaSfjLa  Twv  irapavofiwv  alplTiKwu. 

>>'■>  Chrys.  in  Galat.  i.  p.  972. 


Chap.  VI. 


ANTIQUITIE.S  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


957 


make  a  separation  from  them.  No  one,  he  says,'" 
ought  to  maintain  any  friendship  with  heretics. 
Since  they  maintain  cliflerent  doctrines,  men  ought 
not  to  mingle  or  join  in  their  asseinhlies  with  them. 
And  he  adds,  That  to  divide  the  church  by  schism, 
is  no  less  a  crime  than  to  fall  into  heresy,  because 
it  exposes  the  church  to  the  ridicule  of  the  Gentiles. 
There  he  also  urges"  that  famous  saying  of  Cy- 
prian, The  blood  of  martyrdom  cannot  blot  out  this 
crime.  For  why  art  thou  a  martyr?  Is  it  not  for 
the  glory  of  Christ  ?  If  therefore  thou  layest  down 
thy  life  for  Christ,  why  dost  thou  lay  waste  his 
church,  for  which  Christ  laid  down  his  own  life  ? 
Thus  the  ancients  dissuade  men  from  encouraging 
heretics  and  schismatics  by  resorting  to  their  as- 
semblies. 

Sect  10  There  were  many  other  marks  of 

eat'or  ranters°e"«ith  infamy  aud  disgTace  set  upon  heretics 


their'preseutsro"™  by  tlic  laws  of  the  churcli  joining 
or'm-.ke"^m"rta|/s  with  the  laws  of  the  state,  to  give 

with  them,  &c.  ,  ,  ,  p    ,  i 

men  a  greater  abhorrence  oi  them. 
No  one  was  so  much  as  to  eat  at  a  feast  or  converse 
familiarly  with  them ;  no  one  might  receive  their 
eulofficp,  or  festival  presents ;  nor  read  or  retain 
their  writings,  but  discover  and  burn  them  ;  no  one 
might  make  marriages  or  enter  into  any  affinity 
with  them,  except  they  would  promise  to  return 
into  the  catholic  church.  As  long  as  they  con- 
tinued in  heresy,  their  names  were  struck  out  of  the 
diptychs  of  the  church  ;  and  if  they  died  in  heresy, 
no  psalmody  or  other  solemnity  was  used  at  their 
funeral ;  no  oblations  were  offered  for  them,  nor 
any  memorial  ever  after  made  of  them  in  the  solemn 
service  of  the  church.  But  because  I  have  spoken 
of  these  things  fully  in  the  general  description  of 
the  church's  treatment  of  excommunicate  jiersons 
before,"  it  may  be  sufficient  only  to  have  hinted 
these  several  points  in  this  place,  because  these 
punishments  were  not  peculiar  to  heretics,  but  be- 
longed to  all  in  general  that  were  under  the  cen- 
sure of  excommunication. 

<.^^j  ,,  Yet  there  are  two  things  of  this 

aiio">i  "rbreTu  kind,  which  it  may  not  be  improper 
sfastfcarctuse''"''^'  to  Speak  a  little  more  particularly  of 
agains  a  ca  o  c.    j^^^.^^      y    That  by  the  laws  of  the 

church,  as  well  as  the  state,  heretics  were  rendered 
infamous,  and  their  testimony  was  not  to  be  taken 
as  evidence  in  any  ecclesiastical  cause  whatsoever. 


The  testimony  of  a  heretic  shall  not  be  taken 
against  a  bishop,  say  the  Apostolical  Canons."  In 
all  judgment,  says  the  council  of  Carthage,'*  ex- 
amination shall  be  made  into  the  conversation  and 
failh  both  of  the  accuser  and  defendant.  In  the 
African  Code  there  are  two  canons  to  this  ])in-pose, 
the  one  forbidding  all  excommunicate  persons" 
(under  which  heretics  are  comprehended)  to  be 
evidence  against  nny  man,  during  the  time  of  their 
suspension.  And  the  other  expressly  naming  here- 
tics '"  among  many  others  whose  testimony  was  not 
to  be  admitted  in  law  :  such  as  slaves  and  frcedmen 
against  their  own  masters  ;  all  mimics,  and  actors, 
and  such  other  infamous  persons ;  all  Jews  and 
heathens ;  and  all  such  whose  testimony  was  repro- 
bated by  the  laws  of  the  state ;  except  it  were  in 
some  matter  of  their  own  private  concerns,  in  which 
case  every  man  was  to  have  justice,  and  any  one 
allowed  to  accuse  another.  The  same  equitable 
distinction  is  made  by  a  general  council  of  Con- 
stantinople : "  A  man  might  have  a  private  cause  of 
complaint  against  a  bishop ;  as,  that  he  was  de- 
frauded in  his  property,  or  in  any  the  like  cases 
injured  by  him ;  in  which  case  his  accusation  was 
to  be  heard,  without  considering  at  all  the  quality 
of  the  person  or  his  religion.  For  a  bishop  was  to 
keep  a  good  conscience,  and  any  man  that  com- 
plained of  being  injured  by  him,  was  to  have  justice 
done  him,  whatever  religion  he  was  of.  But  if  the 
crime  was  purely  ecclesiastical  that  was  alleged 
against  him,  then  the  personal  qualities  of  the  ac- 
cusers were  to  be  examined;  and  in  the  first  place, 
heretics  are  not  allowed  to  accuse  orthodox  bishops 
in  causes  ecclesiastical ;  neither  any  excommunicated 
persons,  before  they  had  first  made  satisfaction  for 
their  own  crimes.  Gothofred  indeed  questions  whe- 
ther there  be  any  law  in  the  Theodosian  Code,  which 
thus  unqualifies  heretics  from  giving  evidence  ;  for 
though  there  be  a  law  of  Valentinian's  twice  repeat- 
ed in  two  distinct  titles,"  declaring  the  proper  quali- 
fications of  witnesses,  yet  he  thinks  in  both  places 
it  is  to  be  understood  of  apostates  only,  and  not  of 
heretics.  But  it  is  certain  in  Justinian's  Code"  this 
same  law  is  applied  to  heretics,  rendering  them  in- 
capable of  giving  evidence.  And  Justinian  made 
two  laws  of  his  own  to  confirm  this  sense  of  the 
ancient  law.  In  one  of  which""  he  says,  That 
whereas  the  judges  were  at  some  doubt,  whether 


'»  Chrys.  Horn.  11.  in  Eplies.  p.  1102  et  1108. 

"  Ibid.  p.  1107. 

"  Chap.  2.  sect.  11,  &c.  "  Canon.  Apost.  75. 

'^  Cone.  Cartliag.  4.  can.  96.         "  Coti.  African,  can.  129. 

'"  Ibid.  can.  130.  ^"  Cone.  Constant,  can.  6. 

"  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  11.  Tit.  39.  De  Fide  Tcstium,  Leg. 
11.  Hi  qui  sanctam  fidem  prodiderint,  et  sacrum  baptisma 
profanarint,  a  consortio  omnium  segregati,  sint  a  testimo- 
niis  alieni,  &c.  Idem  rcpetitur,  lib.  IG.  Tit.  7.  De  Apos- 
tatis,  Leg.  4. 

'•"Cod.  Justin,  lib.  1.  Tit.  7.   De  Apostatis,  Leg.  3.    Hi,  qui 


sanctam  fidem  prodiderunt,  et  sanctum  baptisma  h.icretica 
superstitione  profanarunt,  a  consortio  omnium  segregati,  a 
testimoniis  alieni  sint. 

^0  Ibid.  Tit.  5.  De  Htereticis,  lib.  1.  Leg.  21.  Quoniam 
mnlti  judites  in  dirimendis  litigiis  nos  interpellaverunt, 
nnstro  indigentes  oraculo,  ut  eis  referretur,  quid  de  testibus 
haereticis  statuendum  sit,  utrumne  accipiantnr  eorum  testi- 
monia,  an  respuantur:  sancimus.  contra  orthodoxos  quidem 
litigantes,  nemini  hseretico,  vel  his  etiam  qui  J\idaicam  su- 
perstitionem  colunt.  esse  in  lestimonio  communionem;  sive 
utra|ue  pars   orthodo.xa  sit,  sive  altera.      Inter  se  autem 


958 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


they  should  admit  the  testimony  of  heretics  in  de- 
termining causes,  he  thus  resolved  the  matter  for 
their  instruction :  That  where  a  catholic  was  con- 
cerned in  any  dispute,  neither  heretic  nor  Jew  should 
be  allowed  to  give  evidence,  whether  both  parties 
were  cathoHcs,  or  only  one :  but  in  such  causes  as 
Jews  or  heretics  had  between  themselves,  the  testi- 
mony of  either  might  indifferently  be  admitted,  as 
fit  witnesses  for  such  disputers  ;  yet  with  an  excep- 
tion to  all  those  who  were  of  the  mad  sect  of  the 
Manichees,  of  which  the  Borhoritce  were  a  part, 
and  all  who  still  followed  the  pagan  superstition  : 
also  all  Samaritans,  and  Montanists,  and  Tasco- 
drogitcc  and  Ophifce,  who  differed  not  much  from 
the  Samaritans  in  the  likeness  of  their  guilt;  all 
such  are  prohibited  universally  either  to  give  testi- 
mony, or  to  prosecute  any  action  at  law.  And  he 
mentions  and  confirms  this  decree  in  one  of  his 
Novels"  also.  But  whether  Justinian  was  the  first 
that  made  this  law  in  the  state  against  heretics,  as 
Gothofred  would  have  it,  or  not,  is  not  very  ma- 
terial :  it  is  certain  there  was  such  a  rule  in  the 
church  long  before.  For  St.  Austin  pleads  it  in  be- 
half of  one  of  his  own  presbyters,^'-  Secundinus  of 
Germanicia,  a  place  in  his  diocese  :  Against  a  ca- 
thohc  presbyter  we  neither  can  nor  ought  to  admit 
the  accusations  of  heretics.  And  so  he  says  again, 
in  the  case  of  Cecilian,  bishop  of  Carthage,  whom 
the  Donatists  accused  of  many  crimes :  Neither 
piety,  nor  charity,  nor  truth,**  will  allow  the  testi- 
mony of  those  men  against  him,  whom  we  see  to  be 
out  of  the  church.  And  long  before  him,  Athana- 
sius '*  pleaded  the  same  in  his  own  behalf:  when 
he  was  accused  for  suffering  Macarius,  one  of  his 
presbyters,  to  break  the  communion  cup,  he  urged, 
That  his  accusers  were  Meletians,  who  ought  not 
to  be  credited,  being  schismatics  and  enemies  both 
to  him  and  the  church.  A  great  many  such  rules 
are  collected  bj'  Gratian^^  out  of  the  epistles  of  the 
ancient  popes,  which,  though  they  be  spurious,  yet 
they  are  founded  upon  this  known  practice  of  the 
church,  that  the  testimony  of  a  heretic  was  not  to 
be  received  against  a  catholic  in  an  ecclesiastical 
cause,  which  we  have  seen  fully  evinced  in  the  pre- 
ceding allegations. 


The  other  thing  here  to  be  observed 
is,  that  bv  the  laws  of  the  church  all     Gti.iy,  Heretics  not 

,  .  allowetl    to   succeed 

men,   or   ecclesiastics    at  least,  were  '«  ■>">•  patenwi  m- 

'  .  '  licrita.ice. 

obliged  to  discourage  heresy  by  deny- 
ing obstinate  defenders  of  it  such  temporal  benefits 
and  privileges  as  it  was  in  their  power  to  deny  them. 
Thus,  for  instance,  the  council  of  Carthage'*^  forbids 
the  bishops  and  clergy  to  confer  any  donations  up- 
on heretics,  though  they  be  of  their  kindred,  either 
by  gift  or  will.  And  the  civil  lawgiive  force  to  this 
decree,  by  rendering  all  heretics  intestate,  that  is, 
incapable  either  of  disposing  of  their  own  estates, 
or  of  receiving  any  benefit  from  the  wills  of  others, 
as  we  have  seen  before,  (sect.  6,)  in  speaking  of  the 
civil  sanctions  made  against  them. 

Another  law  of  this  kind  was  that  g^^.^  jg 
which  forbade  the  ordination  of  such  to"uI''e  promouon 
as  were  either  baptized  in  heresy,  or  X°r"lis' return  "to 
fell  away  after  they  had  been  baptized 
in  catholic  unity  in  the  church.  They  were  allow- 
ed to  be  received  as  penitent  laymen,  but  not  to  be 
promoted  to  any  ecclesiastical  dignity  in  any  order 
of  the  clerical  function.  But  this  was  a  piece  of 
discipline  that  might  be  insisted  on,  or  dispensed 
with  and  waved,  according  as  church  governors  in 
prudence  thought  most  for  the  benefit  and  advan- 
tage of  the  church.  And  therefore,  though  the 
council  of  Eliberis"  and  some  others  insist  upon  this 
rule,  yet  the  council  of  Nice  dispensed  with  it  in 
the  case  of  the  Novatians,  and  the  African  fathers 
in  the  case  of  the  Donatists,  to  encourage  those 
schismatics  to  return  to  the  unity  of  the  church. 
But  I  only  just  mention  this  here,  because  I  have 
more  fully  stated  it  on  both  sides  upon  other  occa- 
sions in  the  preceding  parts  ^  of  this  work,  to  which 
the  reader  may  have  recourse. 

And  there  I  have  also  anoted  an- 

bect.  H. 

other  rule,  which  relates  to  the  matter  be^ore&in'^'d  who  '" 
now  in  hand ;  which  was,  that  no  one  J;,^  that'were  /ot 
should  be  ordained  bishop,  presbyter,  °"  "^ '^''•''°''*' '^*'"'- 
or  deacon,  who  had  not  first  made  all  the  members 
of  his  family  catholic  Christians.  This  is  a  rule 
we  find  in  the  third  council  of  Carthage,""  where  St. 
Austin  was  present :  and  there  is  no  question  but 
that  it  was  chiefly  designed  against  the  Donatists, 


haereticis  vel  Judaeis,  ubi  litigandum  existimaverint,  con- 
cedimus  foedus  permixtiim,  et  dignos  litigatoribus  testes  in- 
troducere:  exceptis  scilicet  his,  quos  vel  Manichaicus  furor, 
cujus  partem  et  Borboritas  esse  manii'estum  est,  vel  pagana 
stiperstitio  detinet :  Samaritis  nihilo  minus,  et  qui  iJlis  iion 
absimiles  sunt,  Montanistis,  et  Tascodrogitis,  et  Ophitis; 
quibus  pro  reatus  similitudine  omnis  legitimus  actus  inter- 
dictus  est,  &c. 

"  Novel.  45.  Haereticos  perhibere  testimonium  prohi- 
buimiis,  quando  orthodoxi  inter  alterutros  litigant,  &c. 

^-  Aug.  Ep.  212.  ad  Pancarium.  Ha;reticorum  accusa- 
tiones  contra  catholicum  presbyterum  admittere  nee  possu- 
mus  nee  debemus. 

'^^  Ep.  50.  ad  Bonifac.  Ipsa  pietas,  Veritas,  chariias,  non 
pormittit  contra   Caecilianum   eorum  homintnn   admittere 


testimonia,  quos  in  ecclesia  non  videmus. 

8'  Athan.  Apol.  ad  Constant,  t.  1.  p.  731. 

"^  Gratian.  Caus.  3.  Quaest.  4  et  5. 

^^  Cone.  Carth.  3.  can.  1.3.  Ut  episcopi  vel  clerici,  in  eos 
qui  catholici  Christiani  non  sunt,  eliamsi  consanguiuei  fue- 
rint,  nee  per  donationes,  nee  per  testamentum,  rerum  siiarum 
aliquid  conferant.  Vid.  Cod.  African,  can.  22.  Et  Cone. 
Af'ricanum  vulgo  dictum,  can.  48. 

8' Cone.  Eliber.  can.  51. 

ssfiook  IV.  chap.  .3.  sect.  12.  And  Scholast.  Hist,  of 
Bapt.  Part  II.  chap.  4. 

**°  Cone.  Carth.  3.  can.  18.  Ut  episcopi,  prosbyteri,  et 
diaconi  non  ordinentur,  priusquam  omnes,qui  sunt  in  dome 
eorum, Christianos  catholicos  fecerint. 


Chap.  VI. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


959 


though  it  equally  affects  all  heretics,  and  Jews  and 
pagans,  and  all  who  secretly  by  connivance  gave 
any  encouragement  to  them  :  it  being  thought  ab- 
surd to  promote  those  to  the  government  of  the 
church,  who  had  not  zeal  or  interest  enough  to 
si'cure  tlie  practice  of  true  religion  within  the  walls 
of  their  own  families.  And  the  rule  tending  di- 
rectly to  discourage  heresy,  I  therefore  mention  it 
here  as  a  branch  of  the  ancient  discipline  worthy 
(lur  observation. 

jj^^j  J.  Neither  can  I   pass  over  another 

i.^i'aureb^foreaf  Tule  of  the  fourth  council  of  Car- 
Ii" rfi'S^  o^f'fxcom-  thage,  which  forbids  catholics'"  to 
bring  any  cause,  whether  just  or  un- 
just, before  an  heretical  judge,  under  pain  of  ex- 
communication. This  does  not  indeed  deprive  here- 
tical judges  of  their  office,  or  render  their  decisions 
null,  when  the  state  thinks  fit  to  allow  them,  as  it 
sometimes  did  under  Constantius  and  Valens,  and 
other  heretical  emperors.  For  the  church  has  no 
power  in  this  case,  which  belongs  to  the  civil,  and 
not  the  ecclesiastical  power,  as  has  been*'  showed 
before.  But  the  church  had  power  to  lay  an  in- 
j  unction  upon  all  her  members,  not  to  bring  their 
causes  before  an  heretical  judge,  by  a  just  analogy 
to  that  rule  of  the  apostle,  not  to  go  to  law  before 
the  unbelievers.  And  this  was  one  way  to  discoun- 
tenance heresy  in  men  of  the  highest  station :  and 
for  this  reason  we  may  suppose  the  church  enjoined 
it,  to  give  a  check  to  heretics,  by  obliging  catholics 
to  end  their  controversies  among  themselves,  and 
have  no  communication  with  heretics  or  unbelievers. 
Sect. !$.  ^^G  have   hitherto  considered  the 

na!yc'e'imp^d'up''on  punishmcnts  laid  upon  heretics  con- 

relentin?  heretics.         ,•         •  *         .i      •  !_    j.'  t 

tniuing  m  their  obstinacy  and  per- 
verseness,  and  bidding  defiance  to  the  communion 
of  the  church.  We  are  now  to  view  the  church's 
discipHne  and  behaviour  toward  them,  when  they 
showed  any  disposition  to  relent  and  return  to  the 
unity  of  the  faith.  Now,  heresy  being  reckoned 
among  the  greatest  of  crimes,  a  proportionable 
term  of  penance  was  laid  upon  it.  The  council  of 
Eliberis^  appoints  ten  years'  penance  for  such  as 
went  over  from  the  catholic  church  to  any  heresy, 
if  ever  they  returned  and  made  confession  of  their 


crime,  before  they  should  be  admitted  to  commu- 
nion. Only  an  excejjtion  is  made  in  the  case  of  in- 
fants, because  their  fault  was  not  their  own,  but 
their  parents' :  therefore  they  are  ordered  to  be  re- 
ceived without  any  delay.  The  council  of  Rome 
under  Felix"  sets  a  more  particular  mark  upon  bi- 
shops, presbyters,  and  deacons,  who  suffered  them- 
selves to  be  rebaptized  by  heretics,  because  this  was 
in  effect  to  deny  their  Christianity,  and  own  that 
they  were  pagans.  Such  are  denied  communion 
even  among  the  catechumens  all  their  lives,  and 
only  allowed  lay  communion  at  the  hour  of  death. 
Others'"  are  enjoined  the  same  penance  as  the  coun- 
cil of  Nice  puts  upon  lapsers,  that  is,  twelve  years, 
in  the  several  stations  of  penitents,  unless  they  had 
the  plea  of  necessity,  or  fear,  or  danger  to  excuse 
them.  But  if  they  were  children,'^  their  ignorance 
and  immaturity  was  a  more  reasonable  plea  to 
shorten  their  penance,  and  restore  them  more  speed- 
ily to  communion.  The  council  of  Agde""  contracted 
this  term  of  penance  universally  for  all  such  lapsers 
into  heresy,  reducing  it  to  the  term  of  three  years 
only.  For  though  the  ancient  canons  imposed  a 
longer  penance,  yet  they  saw  good  reason  to  relax 
this  severity,  and  make  the  conditions  of  reconcilia- 
tion a  httle  easier.  The  council  of  Epone"  repeats 
and  confirms  this  decree,  with  a  little  various  read- 
ing of  one  clause,  which  reduces  the  term  of  penance 
to  two  years  only. 

It  appears  from  some  of  the  fore- 

"■  *  Sect.  17. 

mentioned  canons,  that  a  great  dif-  ac"o'Jdin"'to  the  a^ 
ference  was  made  in  the  term  of  drt^,,uf^e«rJsoru 
penance  imposed  upon  heretics,  with  °  *""'*''"• 
respect  to  the  age  of  the  offenders.  Children  were 
more  favourably  dealt  with,  by  reason  of  their  ig- 
norance and  want  of  mature  judgment,  than  adult 
persons.  And  we  may  observe  the  same  difference 
made  in  many  other  cases  of  the  like  nature.  They 
who  were  baptized  and  educated  in  the  catholic 
faith,  were  more  severely  treated,  if  after  that  they 
deserted  the  church,  and  fell  into  heresy,  and  espe- 
cially such  heresies  as  required  them  to  take  a  new 
baptism.  The  foresaid  canons  chiefly  respect  de- 
serters ;  and  particularly  that  of  Felix  in  the  Ro- 
man council,  such  as  were  rebaptized  in  heresy  : 


^  Cone.  Carth.  4.  can.  87.  Catholicus  qui  causam  suain, 
sive  justam  sive  injiustam,  ad  judicium  alterius  fidei  judicis 
provocat,  excommunicetur. 

="  Chap.  2.  sect.  5. 

^-  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  22.  Si  quis  de  eatholica  ecclesia  ad 
haeresiin  transitum  fecerit,  rursusque  ad  eeclesiam  recurrerit 
— decern  annis  agat  pcenitentiaiu,  cui  post  decern  annos 
pra;stari  communio  debet.  Si  vero  infantes  t'uerint  trans- 
ducti,  quia  non  suo  vitio  peccaverint,  incunctanter  recipi 
debent.  ' 

''  Cone.  Rom.  an.  487.  can.  2.  Ad  exitus  sui  diem  in  pre- 
nitentia  (si  resipiscunt)  jacere  convenict:  nee  orationi  non 
modo  fidelium,  sed  nee  catechumenorum  omniraodis  inter- 
esse,  quibus  communio  laica  tantum  in  morte  redtlenda  est. 


9'  Ibid.  can.  3. 

"^  Ibid.  can.  4.  Pueris  autem,  quibus  ignorantia  suffra- 
gatur  aetatis,  aliquandiu  sub  mauus  impositione  detentis, 
reddenda  communio  est:  nee  eorum  expectanda  poeniten- 
tia,  quos  excipit  a  coercitione  censura. 

'^Conc.  Agathen.  can.  GO.  Lapsis,  id  est,  qui  in  eatho- 
lica fide  baptizati  sunt,  si  prsevarieatione  damuabili  post  in 
hapresiui  transierint,  grandem  redeundi  difficultatem  sanxit 
antiquitas.  Quibus  nos,  annonuii  mtdtitudine  breviata, 
poenitentiambiennii  imponimus,  ut  praeseripto  bionnin,  ter- 
tio  sine  relaxatione  jejuuent,  et  eeclesiam  studeant  Ireqtien- 
tare,  &c. 

''  Cone.  Epaunen.  can.  29.  Proescripto  biennio  tertia  die 
sine  dilatione  jejuuent,  &c. 


I 


960 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


concerning  which  both  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
laws  speak  with  great  indignation  and  severity; 
the  one  confiscating  the  goods  of  all  rebaptizers, 
and  banishing  their  persons  ;  and  the  other  re- 
quiring the  rebaptized  to  go  through  a  long  course 
of  penance  in  order  to  their  readmission  to  tlie 
communion  of  the  church  again  ;  of  which  the 
reader  may  find  a  more  ample  account  in  a  former 
Book,'*  under  the  proper  title  of  rebaptization. 
Whereas  they  that  were  born  and  bred  and  baptized 
originally  among  heretics,  had  more  favourable  al- 
lowances made  them,  with  respect  to  their  diflicult 
circumstances,  and  great  prejudices  naturally  aris- 
ing thence.  This  is  expressly  said  by  St.  Austin,"' 
in  one  of  his  epistles  to  a  Donatist  bishop :  The 
church  has  one  way  of  treating  those  who  desert 
her,  if  ever  they  repent ;  and  another  way  of  treat- 
ing those  who  were  never  before  in  her  bosom,  till 
they  come  to  beg  her  peace :  she  humbles  the 
former  by  a  severer  discipline,  but  receives  the  latter 
more  gently,  loving  both,  and  ministering  to  the 
cure  of  both  with  the  charity  and  affection  of  a 
mother.  So  again,  in  his  book  of  One  Baptism,'"" 
against  Petilian,  We  observe  this  distinction,  to 
humble  those  who  were  once  in  the  catholic  church, 
and  afterward  desert  it,  with  a  severer  penance, 
than  those  who  were  never  in  it.  Neither  do  we 
admit  them  into  the  clergy,  whether  they  were  re- 
baptized  by  them,  or  run  over  to  them,  or  were 
clergymen  or  laymen  among  them.  This  distinc- 
tion was  particularly  observed  by  the  African  sy- 
nods with  relation  to  such  persons  as  were  baptized 
in  their  infancy  among  the  Donatists  :  in  the  coun- 
cil of  Carthage,  anno  397,  which  is  inserted  into 
the  African  Code,""  a  proposal  was  made.  That  such 
as  had  been  baptized  among  the  Donatists  in  their 
infancy,  by  their  parents'  fault,  without  their  own 
knowledge  and  consent,  should,  upon  their  return 
to  the  church,  be  allowed  the  privilege  of  ordination: 
and  in  the  next  council '"'  the  proposal  was  accepted, 
and  a  decree  passed  accordingly  in  favour  of  them. 
The  council  of  Nice '"'  granted  the  same  indulgence 
to  the  Novatian  clergy :  but  we  rarely  find  any  of 
those  who  deserted  the  church  in  which  they  had 
been   baptized,  allowed   this    privilege ;    the   laws 


Sect  18. 
Hcrpsiarchs  more 
verelv  U'l-ated  tliuu 
leir  loUowers. 


being  more  peremptory  against  them,  to  debar  them 
from  all  clerical  dignity,  and  only  receive  them  as 
private  Christians  to  lay  communion. 

Yet  considerations  of  prudence 
sometimes  obliged  the  church  to  dis- 
pense with  those  laws  also,  and  re- 
ceive even  deserters,  in  some  cases,  to  clerical  dig- 
nity again  ;  of  which  I  have  given  some  instances 
in  a  former  Book.'"*  But  then  she  always  set  a 
mark  of  infamy  upon  heresiarchs,  or  first  founders 
of  heresy,  making  a  distinction  between  them  and 
those  that  followed  them  ;  allowing  the-  one  some- 
times to  continue  in  the  clerical  function  upon  their 
repentance,  but  commonly  degrading  the  other 
without  hopes  of  restitution.  St.  Austin  takes  no- 
tice of  this  difference  in  the  case  of  the  Donatists  : 
he  says,'"^  The  church  of  Africa  observed  this  mo- 
deration from  the  beginning  toward  them,  accord- 
ing to  the  decree  made  by  those  in  the  Roman 
church,  who  were  appointed  to  judge  and  decide 
the  dispute  between  Cecilian  and  the  party  of  Do- 
natus :  they  condemned  only  Donatus,  who  was 
proved  to  be  the  author  of  the  schism  ;  but  ordered 
the  rest  to  be  received  in  their  clerical  honours  upon 
their  repentance,  although  they  were  ordained  out 
of  the  catholic  church. 

Another  distinction  was  made,  as         o  ,  ,„ 

'  Sf>ri     in 

A 

serl 

I"  "." J  ■■■- 

npiiedonly  out  of 

deserted  the  church   out  of  choice, 
and  those  who  complied  with  heretical  errors  only 
by  force  and  compulsion,  being  terrified  into  them 
by  the  violence  of  some  persecution.     In  this  latter 
case,  bishops  were  allowed  to  moderate  their  pe- 
nance, as  the  circumstances  of  the  matter  seemed ! 
to  require.     As  appears  from  the  direction  '"'^  given 
by  Pope  Leo  to  the  bishop  of  Aquileia,  concerning  ; 
the  penance  of  such  as  were  compelled  by  fear  and 
violence  offered  to  them  by  certain  heretics,  to  sub- 
mit to  a  second  baptism :  They  were  to  be  put  under 
penance,  he  says,  for  some  time,  but  a  moderation  i 
was  to  be  used  in  the  term  of  it,  according  to  the 
bishop's  discretion. 

Another  difference  was  made  be-         sc-ot.  20. 
tween  such  heretics  as  retauied  the  between  such  : 


™  Book  XII.  chap.  5.  sect.  7. 

^  Aug.  Ep.  48,  ad  Vincentiiim,  p.  73.  Aliter  tractat  illos, 
qui  earn  deserunt,  si  hoc  ipsum  poenitendo  corrigant ;  aliter 
illos,  qui  in  ca  nondum  fuerunt,  et  tunc  primum  ejus  pacem 
accipiunt:  illos  amplius  humiliando,  istos  lenius  suscipien- 
do,  utrosque  diligendo,  utrisque  sanandis  matenia  caritate 
serviendo. 

""'  Aug.  De  Unico  Bapt.  cap.  12.  Nee  illud  sine  distinc- 
tione  prx'terimus,  ut  h\unilio  leraagant  poenitentiam,  qui  jam 
fideles  ecclesiam  catholicam  deseruerunt,  quain  qui  in  ilia 
nondum  fuerunt.  Nee  ad  clericatum  admittuntur,  sive  ab 
haereticis  rebaptizati  sint,  sive  prius  suscepti  ad  illos  redie- 
rint,  sive  apud  illos  clerici  vel  laici  fuerint. 

"•'  Cod.  African,  can.  18.  '"^  Ibid.  can.  58. 


'M  Cone.  Nic.  can.  8.     '»'  Book  IV.  chap.  7.  sect.  7  and  8. 

'"^  Aug.  Ep.  .50.  ad  Bonifac.  p.  87.  Hoc  erga  istos  ab 
initio  servavit  Africa  catholica,  ex  episcoporum  sententia, 
qui  in  ecclesia  Romana  inter  Caecilianum  et  partem  Donati 
judicaverunt ;  damnatoque  uno  quodam  Donato,  qui  auctori 
schisniatis  fuisse  manifestatus  est,  ca3teros  correctos  etiamsi . 
extra  ecclesiam  ordinati  esseut,  in  suis  honoribus  suscipi- 
endos  esse  censuerunt. 

""*  Leo,  Ep.  79.  ad  Nicetam,  cap.  6.  Qui  ad  iterandumi 
baptismum  vel  metu  coacti  sunt,  vol  terrore  traducti,  his  eai 
custodienda  est  moderatio,  qua  in  societatem  nostram  nom 
nisi  per  poenitentioe  remedium,  et  per  impositionem  episco- 
palis  manus,  communionis  recipiant  unitatem  ;  temporis  poe- 
nitudinis  habita  moderatione,  tuo  constituenda  judicio,  &c. 


Chap.  VI. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


%I 


tics  IS  retained  tiie  (luc  foriii  of  baptisiTi,  and  those  who 

fomi  of  baptism,  *^ 

and  such  as  rejected  whollv  rciected  it,  OF  comipted  it  in 

or  corrupted  it.  j        J  »  r 

any  essential  part.  The  former  were 
to  be  received  only  by  imposition  of  hands,  confess- 
ing their  error,  as  having  received  a  true  baptism, 
though  out  of  the  church,  before ;  but  the  other  were 
to  be  received  only  as  heathens,  having  never  been 
truly  baptized,  and  therefore  were  obliged  to  receive 
a  new  baptism  to  make  them  members  of  the 
church.  Of  which,  because  I  have  given  a  full  ac- 
count '"'  elsewhere,  I  need  say  no  more  in  this  place. 
Finally,  they  made  some  distinction 
No  "onVto'bere-  bctwecn  such  hcrctics  as  contuma- 
tic,  before  he  con-  clously  Tcsisted  tile  admouitious  of  the 

tumaciouslv  resibted  ^ 

the  admonition  of  churcli,  and  such  as  never  had  any 

the  ctiurch.  ^ 

admonition  given  them,  or  amended 
quietly  upon  the  first  admonition.  Men  might  en- 
tertain very  dangerous  errors,  but  till  the  church 
had  given  them  a  first  and  second  admonition,  ac- 
cording to  the  apostle's  rule,  they  were  not  reputed 
formal  heretics,  nor  treated  as  such,  till  they  joined 
contumacy  to  their  error.  St.  Austin ""  puts  the 
case  thus  between  two  men,  who  are  equally  in- 
volved in  the  error  of  Photinianism,  denying  the 
Divinity  of  Christ ;  but  the  one  is  baptized  in  heresy 
out  of  the  communion  of  the  catholic  church ;  the 
other  is  baptized  in  the  catholic  church,  having  the 
same  error,  which  he  believes  to  be  the  catholic 
faith :  I  do  not  yet  call  this  man  a  heretic,  unless, 
when  the  doctrine  of  the  catholic  faith  is  declared 
to  him,  he  chooses  rather  to  resist  it,  and  hold  to 
his  former  opinion :  before  he  does  this,  he  that  is 
baptized  out  of  the  church  is  plainly  the  worse  of 
the  two.  But  that  man  is  worse  than  both  the 
former,  who,  knowing  this  opinion,  which  he  holds 
only  to  be  taught  among  heretics  divided  from  the 
church,  yet,  for  some  secular  end  and  advantage, 
chooses  to  be  baptized  in  the  church,  and  continue 
in  it  after  baptism :  this  man  is  not  only  to  be  ac- 
counted a  separatist,  but  so  much  the  more  wicked 
one  for  adding  heresy  to  his  error,  and  dissimulation 
and  hypocrisy  to  the  division  of  the  faith.  In  an- 
other place '"'  he  says,  They  are  properly  heretics, 
who,  when  they  are  reproved  for  their  unsound 
opinions,  contumaciously  resist ;  and  instead  of  cor- 
recting their  pernicious  and  damnable  doctrines, 
persist  in  the  defence  of  them,  and  leave  the  church, 
and  become  her  enemies.     But  they  who""  defend 


not  their  opinion,  though  false  and  perverse,  with 
any  pertinacious  animosity,  especially  if  they  were 
not  the  first  broachers  of  it,  but  received  it  from  the 
seduction  of  then-  parents,  and  were  careful  in  their 
inquiries  after  truth,  being  ready  to  embrace  it 
when  they  found  it ;  they  were  not  to  be  reckoned 
among  hcrctics.  And  with  much  stronger  reason, 
we  have  heard  him '"  say  before.  That  a  man  who 
in  extreme  necessity  received  baptism  from  heretics, 
when  he  could  not  have  a  catholic  to  administer  it 
to  him,  was  in  no  fault,  because  his  mind  and  will 
was  still  united  to  the  catholic  church.  From  all 
which  it  is  easy  to  discern,  how  great  a  difTerence 
they  made  in  the  degrees  of  heresy  and  its  guilt,  and 
how  the  discipline  of  the  church  was  managed  in  a 
great  measure  according  to  these  distinctions. 
I   have  already "-  showed,  that  a 

Sect.  22. 

like  discrimination  was  made  between  ,  ''''"'  '■''^  distinc- 
tions  observed   in 

schismatics  of    different  kinds,  and  iu?^fi,"^the"chu'rc"h 
that  the  censures  of  the  church  were  ac^'rdintirthed'iV- 

.     j3.     ,      1  ,1  1       •  ..  ferent    nature    and 

mflicted  on  them  only  in  proportion  Tarious  decrees  of 

.  - ,  n    1      '         m  1  their  schism. 

to  the  quality  of  their  offence,  observ- 
ing the  different  nature  and  various  degrees  of  their 
separation  or  schism.  Some  only  absented  from 
church  for  a  short  time,  suppose  two  or  three  Lord's 
days  successively,  without  any  justifiable  reasons  for 
it :  and  it  was  thought  sufficient  to  correct  such  by 
a  moderate  punishment  of  as  many  weeks'  suspen- 
sion. Others  attended  some  part  of  the  service, 
suppose  the  sermon,  and  the  psalmody,  and  the  first 
prayers  for  the  catechumens ;  but  then  withdrew, 
as  if  they  had  been  penitents,  when  the  service  of 
the  faithful  or  the  communion  office  came  on,  and 
the  eucharist  was  to  be  offered  and  received  by  all 
that  were  not  for  some  fault  excluded  from  it :  and 
these,  as  greater  criminals,  were  denied  the  privilege 
of  making  any  oblations,  and  excluded  for  some  time 
from  all  other  holy  offices  of  the  church.  A  third 
sort  of  separatists,  which  are  most  properly  called 
schismatics,  were  such  as  withdrew  totally  and 
universally  from  the  communion  of  the  church; 
pretending  that  her  communion  was  polluted  and 
profane  by  the  mixture  of  sinners ;  or  finding  out 
other  such  reasons  to  charge  her  with  sinful  terms 
of  communion,  and  justify  their  own  separation  by 
many  the  like  pretences,  of  which  the  history  of  the 
Novatians  and  Donatists  affords  many  instances. 
Now,  against  these  the  church  commonly  proceeded 


'»'  Book  XI.  chap.  2.  and  .3.  And  Scholast.  Hist,  of 
Bapt.  Part  I.  chap.  1.  sect.  20,  &c. 

103  Aug.  de  Bapt.  lib.  4.  cap.  16.  Constitnimus  duos 
aliquos  isto  modo,  unum  eorum,  verbi  gratia,  id  sentire  de 
Christo  quod  Photinus  opinatus  est,  et  in  ejus  hoeresi  bapti- 
zari  e.\tra  ecclesiee  catholicse  communionem  :  alium  vero 
hoc  idem  sentire,  sed  in  catholica  baptizari,  existimantem 
istam  esse  catholicam  fidem.  Istum  nondura  hc-preticiiiu 
dice,  nisi  manifestata  sibi  doctrina  catholica;  fidei  resistere 
maluerit,  et  iUud,  quod  teaebat,  clegerit;  quod  antequana 
fiat,  manifestum  est,  ilium,  qui  foris  baptizatus  est  esse  pe- 

3    Q 


jorem,  &c. 

'"'  De  Civ.  Dei,  lib.  18.  cap.  51.  Qui  in  ecclesia  Christi 
morbidum  aliquid  pravumque  sapiunt,  si  correpti,  ut  sanum 
rectumque  sapiant,  resistunt  contumaciter,  suaque  pcstifera 
et  mortifera  dogmata  emendare  nolunt,  sed  defensare  por- 
sistunt ;  haeretici  fiunt,  et  foras  exeuntes,  habentur  in  exer- 
centibus  inimicis. 

""  Ep.  162.  p.  277.    See  this  cited  before,  chap.  1.  sect.  16. 

'"  Aug.  de  Bapt.  lib.  1.  cap.  2.  lib.  6.  cap.  5.  lib.  7.  cap. 
52.     See  before,  chap.  1.  sect.  4. 

"2  Book  XVI.  chap.  1.  sect.  5. 


962 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


more  severely,  using  the  highest  censure  of  excom- 
munication or  anathema,  as  against  more  professed 
and  formal  schismatics,  and  destroj^ers  of  that  in- 
violable unity  and  peace  which  ought  to  be  most 
sacredly  preserved  in  the  body  of  Christ.  Of  all 
which  schismatics,  and  their  punishments,  because 
I  have  spoken  particularly  before  in  discoursing  of 
the  unity  of  the  church,  I  need  say  no  more  in  this 
place,  but  proceed  to  another  crime,  that  of  sacri- 
lege, which  comes  next  in  order  to  be  considered. 
The  Roman  casuists'"  are  wont 
Of  s"acriic<;e.  Par-  to  Call  mauy  thiugs  sacrilege,  which 

ticiUarly   of  divert-  .  ,  " 

inj  things  appro-  thc  ancicuts  recKoncd  no  crunes  at 

pnated     to    sacred 

uses,  to  other  pur-  all ;   as   the  laying  taxes  or   tribute 


po: 


upon  ecclesiastics  by  the  civil  power, 
without  the  consent  of  the  pope,  for  which  secular 
princes  are  excommunicated  by  the  famous  bull  in 
coena  Domini,  as  they  call  it  ;  and  the  bringing 
ecclesiastical  persons  for  any  crime  before  the  secu- 
lar tribunals.  Some  other  things  they  brand  with 
the  odious  name  of  sacrilege,  which  many  of  the 
ancients  reckoned  to  be  virtues,  and  instances  of 
zeal  and  piety  towards  God ;  as  the  removing  of 
images  out  of  all  places  of  Divine  worship;  for 
which  the  council  of  Eliberis,  and  Epiphanius,  and 
many  others,  were  so  remarkable  in  ancient  history, 
who  yet,  if  we  Avere  to  speak  in  the  style  and  lan- 
guage of  these  modern  casuists,  were  to  be  reckoned 
guilty  of  the  horrid  sin  of  sacrilege.  Since,  there- 
fore, the  matter  stood  thus,  we  are  not  to  expect  to 
find  any  punishments,  in  the  penitential  discipline 
of  the  ancient  church,  allotted  to  such  mere  pre- 
tended crimes  and  imaginary  vices.  But  against 
real  sacrilege  none  could  be  more  zealous  than  the 
ancients ;  particularly  against  diverting  any  thing 
to  private  use,  which  was  given  to  the  public  ser- 
vice of  the  church.  "  If  any  one,"  say  the  Apos- 
tolical Canons,'"  "  either  of  the  clergy  or  laity,  take 
wax  or  oil  out  of  the  church,  let  him  be  cast  out  of 
communion,  and  make  restitution  with  the  addition 
of  a  fifth  part."  And,  again,"^  "  Let  no  one  divert 
to  his  own  use  any  of  the  sacred  utensils  of  gold,  or 
silver,  or  linen,  for  it  is  a  flagitious  thing ;  and  if 
any  one  be  apprehended  so  doing,  let  him  be  ex- 
communicated." So  likewise  in  the  fourth  council 
of  Carthage,  "  Let  those  '"=  who  deny  the  church 
such  oblations  as  are  given  by  the  dead,  or  give 


them  not  without  difficulty,  be  excommunicated  as 
murderers  of  the  poor."  And  the  second"'  council 
of  Vaison,  "  They  who  detain  the  oblations,  and 
refuse  to  give  them  to  the  church,  are  to  be  cast 
out  of  the  church  as  infidels ;  for  such  a  provocation 
of  God,  is  a  denying  of  the  faith ;  both  the  faithful, 
who  are  gone  out  of  the  body,  are  defrauded  of  the 
plenitude  of  their  vows,  and  the  poor  also  of  the 
comfort  of  their  food  and  necessary  subsistence. 
Such  are  to  be  esteemed  murderers  of  the  poor,  and 
infidels,  with  respect  to  the  judgment  of  God." 
Whence  one  of  the  fathers  says,  To  take  from  a 
friend  is  theft ;  but  to  defraud  the  church  is  sacri- 
lege. This  is  cited  from  St.  Jerom.  And  St.  Am- 
brose"' goes  a  little  further,  and  says,  They  who 
give  their  own  estates  to  the  church,  and  then  in  a 
fickle  humour  retract,  and  revoke  them  again,  like 
Ananias  and  Sapphira,  lose  the  reward  both  of  their 
first  and  second  action;  the  first  act  is  void  of 
judgment,  and  the  second  is  downright  sacrilege. 
Therefore,  whether  a  man  retracted  what  he  him- 
self had  given  to  the  church,  or  detained  what  was 
given  by  others,  or  robbed  her  of  what  she  was  ac- 
tually possessed  of,  it  was  all  the  same  species  of 
sacrilege,  and  the  canons'"  equally  punish  them  all 
with  the  same  sentence  of  excommunication ;  re- 
ducing clergymen,  when  found  guilty  of  this  crime, 
to  the  communion  of  strangers,  which  was  a  pun- 
ishment peculiar  to  them,  of  which  more  hereafter. 
I  have  already  showed  in  a  former  Book,'-"  that  for 
this  reason  bishops,  who  were  intrusted  with  the 
goods  and  revenues  of  the  church,  were  not  allowed 
to  alienate  any  part  of  them,  except  it  were  in  great 
necessity,  to  relieve  the  poor,  or  redeem  captives ; 
in  which  case,  St.  Ambrose  himself,  and  many 
others,  disposed  of  the  plate  of  the  altar,  and  the 
vessels  and  utensils  belonging  to  the  church,  think- 
ing it  better  that  the  inanimate  temples  of  God 
should  want  their  ornaments,  than  that  his  living 
temples  should  perish  for  want  of  relief.  This  was 
not  sacrilege  in  the  eye  of  the  law,  either  ecclesias- 
tical or  civil,  but  an  act  of  mercy  allowed  by  both  : 
for  the  laws  against  sacrilege,  next  to  the  honour  of 
God,  had  always  a  view  to  the  necessities  of  the 
poor:  and,  therefore,  as  this  practice  tended  to 
relieve  them  in  great  exigences,  it  was  just  the  re- 
verse of  that  inhuman  sacrilege,  which  the  ancients 


"'  Vid.  Lessius  de  Jure,  lib.  2.  cap.  45.    Dubitat.  3  ot  4. 

'"  Canon.  Apnst.  72.  "'^  Ibid.  can.  73. 

""  Cone.  Carth.  4.  can.  95.  Qui  oblationes  defunctonim 
aut  negant  ecclesiis,  ant  cum  difficultate  reddunt,  tanquam 
egentium  necatoros,  e.xcommunicentur. 

"^  Couc.  Vasense  2.  can.  4.  Qui  oblationes  defunctorum 
rotinent,  et  ecclesiis  tradere  demorautur,  ut  infideles  sunt  ab 
ecclesia  abjiciendi:  quia  usque  ad  inanitionem  fidei  peive- 
nire  certum  est  banc  pietatis  Divinae  e.xacerbationem :  quia 
et  fideles  de  corpore  recedentes  fraudantur  votorum  suorum 
pleuitudine,  et  pa\iperes  consolatu  alimonia;  et  neccssaria 
substentatione  fraudantur.     Hi  cnim  talcs,  quasi  egentium 


necatores,  nee  credentes  judicium  Dei,habendi  sunt.  Unde 
et  quidam  patrum  ait,  Amico  quidpiam  rapere,  furtuni  est; 
ecclesiam  vero  fraudare,  sacrilegium.  Hieron.  Ep.  2.  ad 
Nepotian. 

"^  Ambros.  de  Pceuitent.  lib.  2.  cap.  9.  Sunt  q\ii  opes 
suas  tumultuario  mentis  impulsu,  non  judicio  perpetuo,  ubi 
ecclesiae  contulerimt,  postea  revocaudas  putaverunt:  qui- 
bus  nee  prima  nierces  rata  est,  nee  sectinda;  quia  nee 
prima  judicium  habuit,  et  secunda  habuit  sacrilegium. 

"°  Vid.  Cone.  Agathcnse,  can.  4,  5,  6.  Cone.  Turon.  2. 
can.  24.    Cone.  Arelat.  2.  can.  28. 

'-"  Book  V.  chap.  6.  sect.  6  and  7. 


Chap.  VI. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


9G3 


called  murdering  the  poor,  against  which  so  many 
severe  laws  were  made  to  abolish  and  correct  it. 

g^^j  24  Another  great  crime  of  near  akin 

mitterTn''rob'bi""  ^o  the  formcr,  which  was  sometimes 
of  graves.  condemncd  and  punished  under  the 

name  of  sacrilege,  was  robbing  of  graves,  or  de- 
facing and  spoiling  the  monuments  of  the  dead. 
These  were  always  esteemed  a  sort  of  sacred  repo- 
sitories, and  inviolable  sanctuaries,  even  by  the  very 
heathen,  as  appears  from  the  edict  of  Julian,'-'  and 
what  Gothofred '"  has  collected  at  large  out  of  the 
old  laws  and  heathen  writers  upon  the  subject.  And 
the  violation  of  them  was  always  esteemed  a  piacular 
crime,  and  sometimes  punished  with  death.  The 
imperial  laws  made  it  capital,  and  therefore,  when 
the  Christian  emperors  at  Easter  granted  their  in- 
dulgence or  pardon  to  criminals  in  prison,  they  still 
excepted  robbers  of  graves'^  among  those  other 
flagitious  criminals,  which  were  to  have  no  benefit 
from  their  indulgence ;  as  has  been  showed  before,'^ 
in  speaking  of  those  called  atrocia  crimina,  great 
and  capital  crimes.  That  which  tempted  men  to 
commit  this  wickedness  was,  that  often  riches  and 
jewels  were  buried  with  the  dead,  and  fine  marble 
pillars  and  statues,  ornaments  and  monuments,  were 
erected  over  their  graves ;  all  which  became  spoil 
and  plunder  to  such  as  were  impiously  and  sacrile- 
giously disposed  to  invade  them.  Now,  as  the  im- 
perial laws  prosecuted  such  criminals  vdth  suitable 
punishments,  fines,  tortures,  transportation,  and 
death ;  so  the  ecclesiastical  laws  pursued  them  with 
spiritual  penalties,  agreeable  to  her  spiritual  regi- 
men and  jurisdiction.  Gregory  Nyssen'-*  says.  The 
holy  fathers  teach  us  to  place  the  violation  of  burial- 
places  among  those  sins  which  are  to  be  expiated 
by  public  penance.  But  he  distinguishes  two  de- 
grees of  this  crime,  the  one  punishable  by  ecclesi- 
astical censure,  the  other  not  so.  For  if  any  one 
took  the  stones  or  materials,  which  are  usually  cast 
up  before  the  burial-places  of  the  dead,  and  applied 
them  to  some  other  useful  purpose,  without  exposing 
the  corpse  to  the  air  or  light,  or  ofTering  any  abuse 
or  injury  to  it;  though  this  was  not  commendable 
or  allowable,  (for,  indeed,  the  civil  laws  absolutely 
forbade  it,'-''  as  was  said  before,)  yet  custom,  how- 
ever, exempted  this  from  any  punishment  in  the 
church,  because  there  was  some  benefit  in  it  by  an 
application  of  the  materials  to  a  more  useful  pur- 


pose; and,  as  Gothofred'"  also  observes,  there  was 
something  of  seeming  zeal  in  it,  to  demolish  the 
heathen  altars  and  images,  which  were  often  erected 
at  the  graves  of  pagans.  But  then,  as  Gregory 
adds,  there  was  another  degree  of  this  crime,  which 
was  more  horrible,  when  men  raked  into  the  ashes 
of  the  dead,  and  disturbed  their  bones,  in  pursuit 
of  treasure,  clothes,  or  other  ornaments,  that  might 
be  buried  with  them  :  And  this,  he  says,  was  pun- 
ished with  the  same  term  of  penance  as  simple 
fornication,  that  is,  nine  years  in  the  several  stations 
of  repentance.  The  fourth  council  of  Toledo'** 
makes  it  a  double  punishment  for  any  clergyman  to 
be  guilty  of  this  crime :  "  If  any  clerk  is  appre- 
hended demolishing  sepulchres,  forasmuch  as  this 
is  a  crime  of  sacrilege  punishable  with  death  by 
the  public  laws,  he  ought  by  the  canons  to  be  de- 
posed from  his  orders,  and  after  that  do  three  years' 
penance  for  such  his  transgression."  The  reader 
that  pleases  may  see  elegant  invectives  against  this 
crime  in  Sidonius  Apollinaris '^'  and  St.  Chrysos- 
tom,'*'who  justly  represent  it  as  one  of  the  most 
unnatural  and  inhuman  barbarities  that  can  be 
ofTered  to  the  nature  of  man,  because  the  dead  are 
altogether  innocent  and  passive,  and  in  a  condition 
to  excite  pity  and  compassion  only ;  being  destitute 
and  without  ability  to  resist  or  right  themselves 
against  invaders. 

Another  sort  of  men,  who  were  an- 
ciently accused  and  condem.ned  as  sa-     The' "acriicge  of 

...  1  ,  theancienttraditors. 

crilegious  persons,  were  tliose  whom  who  delivered  up 

°  '■  their  Bibles  and  holy 

they  commonly  called  traditors,  for  "tensiis  to  the  hea- 

;         _  •'       ^  '  then  to  be  burnt. 

delivering  up  their  Bibles  and  other 
sacred  utensils  of  the  church  to  the  heathen  to  be 
burnt,  in  the  time  of  the  Diocletian  persecution. 
The  first  council  of  Aries, '^'  held  immediately  after 
the  persecution,  makes  it  deposition  from  his  or- 
der for  any  clergyman,  who  could  be  convicted  by 
the  public  acts  of  this  crime,  either  of  betraying  the 
Scriptures,  or  any  of  the  holy  vessels,  or  the  names 
of  his  brethren,  to  the  persecutors.  The  Donatists 
frequently,  but  falsely,  objected  this  crime  to  Ce- 
cilian,  bishop  of  Carthage,  and  those  that  ordained 
him,  that  they  were  traditors  :  upon  which  St.  Aus- 
tin"^ tells  them.  That  if  they  could  evidently  make 
good  the  charge,  the  catholics  would  not  scruple  to 
anathematize  them  after  death.  But  the  truth  of 
the  matter  was,  these  very  objectors  were  traditors 


'2'  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  17.  De  Sepulchris  Violatis, 
Leg.  5. 

•22  Gothofr.  in  Leg.  2.  ibid. 

'23  Cod.  Theod.  De  Indulgentiis  Criminum,  lib.  9.  Tit.  .38. 
Leg.  .3,  4,  7,  8.  Valentin.  Novel.  5.  De  Sepulchr. 

'■-'^  Chap.  4.  sect.  2. 

125  jjyss_  Ep  Canon,  ad  Letoium,  can.  6  et  7. 

'2«  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  17.  De  Sepulchr.  Violatis, 
Leg.  1,  2,3. 

'2'  Gothofr.  in  Leg.  5.  ibid.  p.  145. 

'2^  Cone.  Tolet.  4.  can.  45.  Si  quis  clericiis  in  demolien- 
3  Q  2 


dis  sepulchris  fuerit  deprehensus,  quia  facinus  hoc  prosacri- 
legiolegibus  publicis  sanguine  vindicatur;  oportetcanonibus 
in  tali  scclere  proditum,  a  clericatus  ordine  submoveri,  et 
panitentia;  trienuio  deputari. 

'2'  Sidon.  lib.  3.  Ep.  12. 

'3»  Chrys.  Horn.  .35.  in  1  Cor.  p.  G. 

'2'  Cone.  Arelat.  I.  can.  1-3.  De  his  qui  Scripturas  Sanctas 
tradidisse  diciuitur,  vol  vasa  Dominica,  vel  nomina  fratrinu 
siiorum,  placuit  nobis,  nt  quicuuque  eorum  in  actis  publicis 
fuerit  delectus,  non  verbis  nudis,  ab  ordine  cleri  amoveatur. 

'32  Aug.  Ep.  50.  ad  Bonifac.  Ep.  152.  ad  Donatistas. 


964 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


themselves,  though  they  had  the  impudence  to  ab- 
solve one  another,  while  they  threw  the  charge  up- 
on innocent  men,  as  Optatus'^'  and  St.  Austin'** 
show  out  of  the  acts  of  their  own  council  of  Cirta, 
where  they  acted  this  comedy,  which  stood  as  a 
witness  against  them. 

Neither  was  this  the  only  sacrilege 
prlfanin»7h'/,^a'cra-  ^^^^  Donatists  wcrc  guilty  of,  but  they 
Snd'aua"l'a'nd'fhe  and  their  accomplices  stand  charged 
oy  ciiptures,&c.  ^yj^j^  jy^^uy  othcrs.  Optatus  objccts '" 
to  them  their  breaking  and  burning  the  com- 
munion tables  which  they  found  in  the  catho- 
lic churches.  And  their  profaning  the  holy  sa- 
crament in  a  most  vile  manner,  of  which  he  gives 
a  most  remarkable  instance :  Some  of  the  Donatist 
bishops,  in  their  mad  zeal,  ordered  the  eucharist, 
which  they  found  in  the  catholic  churches,  to  be 
throwTi  to  the  dogs ;  but  not  without  an  immediate 
sign  of  Divine  vengeance  upon  them  ;  for  the  dogs, 
instead  of  devouring  the  elements,  fell  upon  their 
masters,  as  if  they  had  never  known  them,  and  tore 
them  to  pieces,  as  robbers,  and  profaners  of  the 
holy  body  of  Christ :  which  makes  Optatus  '^^  put 
them  in  mind  of  that  admonition  of  our  Saviour, 
"  Give  not  that  which  is  holy  unto  the  dogs,  neither 
cast  ye  yom*  pearls  before  swine,  lest  they  trample 
them  under  their  feet,  and  turn  again  and  rend  you." 
It  was  a  like  profanation  of  the  holy  eucharist, 
which  Cornelius  charges  upon  Novatian,"'  when 
he  obliged  his  partisans,  instead  of  saying  Amen, 
at  the  reception  of  it,  to  swear  by  the  body  and 
blood  of  Christ,  that  they  would  never  desert  his 
party,  nor  return  to  Cornelius.  It  was  also  reckoned 
a  piece  of  sacrilege  to  give  the  catholic  churches  to 
heretics,  in  which  St.  Ambrose  stoutly  opposed  the 
younger  Valentinian,  when  he  sent  him  an  order  to 
deliver  up  one  of  the  churches  of  Milan  to  the 
Arians:  he  returned  him  this  courageous  answer. 
Those  things "'  which  are  God's,  are  not  sub- 
ject to  the  emperor's  power.  If  my  patrimony  is 
demanded,  you  may  invade  it ;  if  my  body,  I  will 
offer  it  of  my  own  accord.  I  will  not  fly  to  the  altar, 
and  supplicate  for  life,  but  more  joyfully  sacrifice 
my  life  for  the  altar.  There  are  some  instances  of 
men  turning  churches  "''  into  stables :  but  as  these 
were  very  abominable,  so  there  were  but  few  that 
fell  into  such  prodigious  pi-ofanations.     We  may 


reckon  also  all  sorts  of  idolatry,  and  divination,  and 
magic,  and  the  abuse  of  Scriptures  for  lots  and 
charms  and  amulets,  among  the  species  of  sacrilege, 
as  some  of  the  ancient  councils  do :"°  but  I  have 
spoken  fully  of  these  under  former  heads,  and  there- 
fore there  is  no  occasion  here  to  repeat  them.  I 
only  add,  that  to  molest  or  hinder  a  clergyman  in 
the  performance  of  his  proper  office  by  avocation 
to  other  business,  and  laying  him  under  a  necessity 
of  following  other  employments  inconsistent  with 
the  duties  of  his  proper  station  and  function,  is,  in 
the  civil  law,  called  sacrilege.  Constantine  in  his 
first  settlement  of  religion  made  a  law,"'  That  they 
who  ministered  in  the  service  of  God,  should  be  ex- 
cused from  all  personal  duties  in  the  state ;  that  the 
sacrilegious  envy  of  some,  who  gave  them  disturb- 
ance, might  not  withdraw  them  from  the  service  of 
religion.  And,  agreeable  to  the  tenor  of  this  law, 
we  find  a  rule  of  the  church  as  ancient  as  St.  Cy- 
prian, That  no  one  should  employ  a  clergyman  in 
the  business  of  a  secular  trust,"'-  to  be  a  guardian  or 
curator  of  his  worldly  concerns  by  his  last  will  and 
testament,  under  the  penalty  of  excommunication, 
or  having  his  name  blotted  out  of  the  diptychs  of 
the  church  after  death. 

There  are  abundance  of  laws  in  the  Theodosian 
Code,  beside  that  of  Constantine,  settling  great  pri- 
vileges, exemptions,  and  immunities  upon  the  cler- 
gy, in  regard  to  their  office ;  as  also  upon  churches, 
in  regard  to  the  respect  and  veneration  that  is  due 
to  them,  as  the  houses  of  God  and  places  of  Divine 
worship:  upon  which  account  they  were  made 
sanctuaries  or  places  of  refuge  for  men  in  certain 
proper  cases,  whence  they  might  not  be  taken  by 
violence,  without  the  imputation  of  a  sort  of  sacri- 
lege fixed  on  the  invaders.  But  of  all  these  pri- 
vileges and  immunities,  I  have  had  occasion  to  dis- 
course at  large '"  before  in  speaking  of  churches  and 
the  clergy,  and  therefore  need  not  here  repeat  them ; 
but  only  mention  a  law  of  Honorius,'*'  which  ex- 
pressly charges  the  crime  of  sacrilege  upon  all  such 
as  offered  any  injury  or  affi-ont  to  ministers  officiat- 
ing in  the  church,  or  to  the  service  itself,  or  to 
the  place :  ordering  all  such  criminals^  to  be  no- 
tified by  public  officers  (not  waiting  for  the  bi- 
shop's accusation  of  them)  to  the  governor  of 
the  province,  who  was  to  proceed  against  them, 


"3  Optat.  lib.  1.  p.  39. 

"^  Aug.  cont.  Crescon.  lib.  3.  cap.  27,  &c. 

'^'  Optat.  lib.  6.  p.  94  et  95. 

'^«   Lib.  2.  p.  r)5. 

'^'  Cornel.  Ep.  ad  Fabium,  ap.  Euseb.  lib.  6.  cap.  43. 

"^  Ambros.  Ep.  33.  ail  MaicpUin.  de  tradendis  Basilicis. 

'^"  Vid.  BaiMii.  an.  072.  p.  575.  De  Chaiiberto  Rege. 

"»  Conc.Tolelan.  4.  can.  28. 

•^'  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  16.  Tit.  2.  De  Episc.  et  Cler.  Leg.  2. 
Qui  divino  cultui  ministeria  relicjioiiis  impendunt,  id  est,  hi 
qui  clerici  appellantur,  ab  omnibus  omnino  muneribus  ex- 
cusentur :  ne sacvilego  livore  quoiundam  a  Divinis  obsequiis 


avocentur.     Vid.  Leg.  7.  ibid. 

'^'-  Cypr.  Ep.  66.  al  1.  ad  Cler.  Furnitan.  p.  3. 

i«  Book  V.  chap.  3.  Book  VIH.  chap.  11. 

'"  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  16.  Tit.  2.  De  Episc.  Leg.  31.  Si 
quis  in  hoc  genus  sacrilegii  proruperit,  in  occlesias  catholicas 
irruens,  saceidotibus  et  ministris,  vel  ipsi   cultui,  locoque 

aliquid  inportet    injurisc Provincipe   moderator,  sacer- 

dotum  ct  catholicce  ecclesi*  rainistrorum,  loci  quoque  ip- 
sius,  et  Divini  cultus  injuriam,  capitali  in  convictos  sive 
confessos  reos  senteutia  noverit  vindicaiiduni.  Nee  e.xpec- 
tet  ut  episcopus  injurise  propria;  ullionem  deposcat,  cui  sanc- 
titas  ignoscendi  solum  gloriam  reliqnit,  &c. 


Chap.  VI. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


9(55 


and  condemn  (hem  with  tlie  punishment  of  capital 
offenders. 

There  is   one  species  of  sacrilege 

The' "sacrllree    of    morC,  wllich  tllC  CaSuistS  of  the   Rom- 
depriving  miT.  of  Hie    .   ,        ,  ,      n  ] 

useof  theSorii)(ure,  isli  churcli  lor  a  ffood  reason  never 

and     the    word     of  ° 

God,  and  the  sacra-  mcntlon  :  that  is,  the  grand  sacrilege 

ments,   particularly  "  ^ 

of  tiie  cup  in  the  ^f  their  own  church  in  depriving  men 


Lord's 


upper. 


of  the  use  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and 
the  cup  in  the  Lord's  supper,  both  which,  with  un- 
paralleled magisterial  authority,  are  sacrilegiously 
and  injuriously  taken  from  them.  That  the  an- 
cients reckoned  it  the  sin  of  sacrilege  to  divide  the 
communion  without  reason,  and  deny  men  the  use  of 
the  cup,  needs  no  other  proof  at  present  but  the  tes- 
timony of  Gelasius,  one  of  their  own  popes,  which 
is  still  extant  in  their  canon  law,'"  in  the  words  of 
the  following  decree :  "  We  understand  there  are 
some,  who  receive  only  a  portion  of  the  holy  body, 
and  abstain  from  the  cup  of  the  holy  blood.  Who, 
doubtless,  being  bound  by  some  vain  superstition, 
ought  either  to  receive  the  whole  sacrament,  or  to 
be  excluded  from  the  whole  ;  because  one  and  the 
same  mystery  cannot  without  grand  sacrilege  be 
divided."  Such  sacrilegious  dividers  of  the  com- 
munion are  also  condemned  by  Pope  Leo,'^^  and 
ordered  to  be  excommunicated.  And  they  who  take 
the  eucharist,  and  use  it  for  any  other  end  besides 
communicating,  are  censured  by  the  first  council  of 
Toledo,  can.  14,  and  that  of  Ceesaraugusta,  can.  3, 
as  sacrilegious  also,  deserving  to  be  banished  the 
church  with  anathema  or  excommunication.  But 
of  these  I  have  discoursed  more  at  large  in  a  former 
Book.  See  Book  XV.  chap.  4.  sect.  13,  and  chap. 
5.  sect.  1,  against  communicating  in  one  kind. 

There  were  many  heretics  in  the  ancient  church, 
who  were  guilty  of  sacrilege  in  relation  to  the  other 
sacrament  of  baptism.  Some  rejected  it  wholly, 
others  corrupted  it  in  the  material  part,  and  others 
in  the  form  of  words  necessary  to  the  administra- 
tion :  of  all  which  the  reader  may  find  a  large  ac- 
count in  a  former  Book,'"  which  particularly  handles 
the  subject  of  baptism.  But  there  were  none  that 
ever  presumed  sacrilegiously  to  deny  Christians 
their  proper  birthright,  which  is  to  read  the  Scrip- 
tures. Some  heretics  corrupted  them;  and  others 
rejected  such  parcels  of  them,  as  they  thought  most 
opposite  to  their  peculiar  notions ;  but  none,  who 
allowed  them  to  be  the  inspired  writings  and  ora- 
cles of  the  Holy  Ghost,  ever  denied  the  people 
liberty  to  search  and  examine  them  for  their  own 


"^  Gelas.  ap.  Gratian.  De  Consecrat.  Dist.  2.  cap.  12. 
Comperimus,  autem,  quod  quidam  sumpta  tantummodo  cor- 
poris sacri  portione,  a  calice  sacri  cnioris  abstineaut.  Qui 
procul  dubio  (quoniam  nescio  qua  superstitiono  docentur  ob- 
stringi)  aut  integra  sacramenta  percipiaat,  aut  abintegris 
arceantur :  quia  divisio  unius  cjusdemque  mysterii  sine 
grandi  sacrilegio  non  potest  provenire. 

'"■'  Leo,  Ser.  4.  De  Quadiagesiuia. 


instruction.  This  is  a  piece  of  sacrilege  peculiar 
to  these  later  ages,  which  the  ancients  knew  nothing 
of,  and  therefore  had  no  occasion  to  make  canons 
or  rules  of  discipline  to  correct  it.  There  are  many 
exhortations  to  read  the  Scriptures  ;  but  no  orders 
to  keep  them  locked  up  in  an  unknown  tongue,  or 
to  forbid  the  people  to  use  them  upon  any  occasion. 
And  the  only  reason  why  there  are  no  censures  an- 
ciently to  be  found  against  this  sort  of  sacrilege,  is, 
because  the  sin  itself  was  utterly  unknown  to  the 
primitive  ages. 

There  was  indeed  sometimes  a  neglect  in  ignorant 
or  careless  teachers  in  preaching  the  word  of  God  to 
the  people:  and  this  is  censmed  by  some  laws"* 
even  in  the  civil  code,  as  a  sacrilegious  withdrawing 
from  the  people  the  necessary  food  of  their  souls. 
But  of  this  I  need  say  no  more  in  this  place,  having 
fully  represented  the  laws  '*"  obliging  bishops  and 
presbyters  to  be  faithful  and  diligent  in  discharging 
this  part  of  their  duty,  while  we  were  discoursing  of 
preaching,  and  the  usages  relating  to  it,  in  the  an- 
cient church. 

There  are  some  other  things,  which  sometimes 
bear  the  name  of  sacrilege  ;  but  because  they  more 
properly  belong  to  other  species  of  sin,  as  breach  of 
vows,  to  perjury;  and  defilement  of  consecrated 
virgins,  to  fornication ;  we  will  consider  the  disci- 
pline and  treatment  of  these  and  the  like  offences 
under  their  proper  heads,  and  proceed  to  the  last 
sort  of  sin,  which  shows  irreverence  to  God  in  the 
use  of  sacred  things,  commonly  called  simony, 
which  is  also  a  sort  of  sacrilege,  because  it  sets 
spiritual  and  sacred  things  to  sale,  which  are  not 
the  subject  of  a  secular  contract. 

This  is  commonly  distinguished  by  g^^^  ,g 
the  ancients  into  three  sorts  :  1.  Buy-  bn"ingTn^  ieiiing 
ing  and  selling  of  spiritual  gifts.  2.  "'''■""^'  ^"'*'- 
Buying  and  seUing  of  spiritual  preferments.  3. 
Ambitious  usurpation,  and  sacrilegious  intrusion 
into  ecclesiastical  functions,  without  any  legal  elec- 
tion or  ordination.  The  first  sort  w^as  that  which 
most  properly  had  the  name  of  simony,  from  Simon 
Magus,  who  pretended  with  money  to  purchase  the 
gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  And  this  was  always 
thought  to  be  committed,  when  men  either  offered 
or  received  money  for  ordinations.  Which  was  a 
crime  of  a  very  high  nature,  and  always  punished 
with  the  severest  censures  of  the  chmch.  The 
Apostolical  Canons  '^  seem  to  lay  a  double  punish- 
ment, both  deposition  and  excommunication,  upon 


>"  Book  XI.  chap.  2  and  .3. 

"8  Cod.  Theod.  Lib.  16.  Tit.  2.  De  Episcopis,  Leg.  25. 
Theodosii  M.  Qui  Divinaa  legis  sanctitatem  aut  nesciendo 
confundunt,  aut  negligendo  violanl  et  offendunt,  sacrilegium 
committunt.  '"  Book  XIV.  chap.  4.  sect.  2. 

'^"  Can.  Apost.  29.     KaOatpiiadut  Knl  aiiTo^,  Kal  6  xn- 

pOTOVIKTU^,   Kid   iKKOTTTtardw  TTaVTaiTuaL  Kal  Tfj?  KOlVWDLWi, 

COS  '^ifiuiv  o  nayo'i  i'lr'  f/ivv  IliVfiou. 


966 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


such  of  the  clergy  as  were  found  guilty  of  this 
crime  :  "  If  any  bishop,  presbyter,  or  deacon,  obtain 
this  dignity  for  money,  both  he  that  is  ordained, 
and  the  ordainer,  shall  be  deposed,  and  also  cut  off 
from  all  communion,  as  Simon  Magus  was  by  Peter." 
The  general  council  of  Chalcedon  has  a  canon  to 
the  same  purpose,  '^' "  That  if  any  bishop  gave  an 
ordination,  or  any  ecclesiastical  office,  or  preferment 
of  any  kind,  for  money,  he  himself  should  lose  his 
office,  and  the  party  so  preferred  be  deposed."  The 
same  punishment  is  appointed  in  the  second  council 
of  Orleans,'"  the  second  of  Braga,'"  the  fourth  of 
Toledo,'^  the  eleventh  of  Toledo,'"  the  council  of 
Constantinople  under  Gennadius,'^^  the  decrees  of 
Gelasius,'"  Symmachus,'*'  Hormisdas,'^'  and  Gre- 
gory the  Great,"^  St.  Basil,'"  the  second  council  of 
Nice,'^  and  the  council  of  TruUo."*'  Particularly 
the  eighth  council  of  Toledo  '"*  makes  it  both  de- 
gradation and  excommunication  in  every  clerk  so 
ordained.  And  also  punishes  the  receivers  of  simo- 
niacal  gifts  with  equal  severity ;  if  clergymen,  with 
the  loss  of  their  honour ;  if  laymen,  with  perpetual 
excommunication  to  the  hour  of  death.  And  the 
civil  law  also  provided  "^^  in  this  case,  to  prevent 
simoniacal  ordinations.  That  both  persons  ordained, 
and  also  their  electors  and  ordainers,  should  all  take 
an  oath,  that  there  was  nothing  given  or  received, 
or  so  much  as  contracted  or  promised,  for  any  such 
election  or  ordination.  And  for  any  bishop  to  or- 
dain another  without  observing  this  rule,  is  deposi- 
tion by  the  same  law,  both  for  himself,  and  him 
that  is  so  ordained  by  him. 

The  ancients  also  reduce  to  this  sort  of  simony, 
the  exacting  of  any  reward  for  administering  bap- 
tism, or  the  eucharist,  or  confirmation,  or  burying, 
or  consecration  of  churches,  or  any  the  like  spiritual 
offices,  which  were  to  be  administered  freely  with- 
out demanding  any  reward.  The  council  of  TruUo '°° 
particularly  forbids  any  clergyman  to  require  any 
thing  for  administering  the  eucharist :  For  grace  is 
not  to  be  set  to  sale,  neither  do  we  impart  the  sanc- 
tification  of  the  Spirit  for  money,  but  give  it  with- 
out craft  to  all  that  are  worthy.     And  he  that  does 


otherwise,  shall  be  deposed  as  a  follower  of  the 
wicked  error  of  Simon  Magus.  The  eleventh  coun- 
cil of  Toledo  forbids  not  only  the  taking  of  money 
for  promotions  to  holy  orders,  but  also  for  adminis- 
tering baptism,  or  confirmation,'*"  or  chrism ;  and 
the  bishop  that  connives  at  any  of  his  clergy  so 
doing,  is  ordered  to  be  excommunicated  for  two 
months :  and  if  a  presbyter  without  his  knowledge 
commits  such  offence,  he  is  to  be  excommunicated 
four  months ;  a  deacon,  three  months ;  and  those  of 
the  inferior  orders,  excommunicated  at  discretion. 
There  are  several  other  ancient  canons  to  the  same 
purpose  in  the  councils  of  Eliberis,'^  and  Braga,'** 
and  the  decrees  of  Gelasius,""  which  have  been 
mentioned  on  another  occasion,'"  where  we  treated 
of  the  proper  methods  of  raising  funds  and  mainte- 
nance for  the  clergy,  and  need  not  here  be  repeated. 

But  they  did  not  only  call  that  g^^^  ^g 
simony,  which  consisted  in  trafficking  ch^sUi^'Tcci'esSl 
for  the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  but  ^^' p"^^""»'"^- " 
also  all  purchases  made  of  the  spiritual  preferments 
of  the  church,  and  all  promotions  made  without  just 
merit,  out  of  mere  favour  and  affection.  The  coun- 
cil of  Chalcedon '"  not  only  threatens  deposition  to 
any  bishop  that  sets  grace  to  sale,  and  ordains  a 
bishop,  or  chorepiscopus,  or  presbyter,  or  deacon,  or 
any  clerk,  for  money ;  but  also  if  he  promotes  an 
ceconomus  or  steward,  or  an  ecdicus,  that  is,  an  ad- 
vocate or  defensor,  or  a  paramonarius,  that  is,  a 
bailiff  or  stcAvard  of  the  lands,  for  his  own  filthy 
lucre.  And  both  the  clergy  so  ordained  are  to  be 
degraded ;  and  the  officers  so  promoted,  to  lose  their  j 
places :  and  if  any  one  be  instrumental  as  a  medi- 
ator in  such  dishonourable  and  unlawful  traffic ;  if 
he  be  a  clerk,  he  is  to  be  degraded ;  if  a  layman,  or 
a  monk,  to  be  anathematized.  By  the  laws  of  Jus- 
tinian,'" every  elector  was  to  depose  upon  oath,  that 
he  did  not  choose  the  party  elected  either  for  any 
gift,  or  promise,  or  friendship,  or  any  other  cause, 
but  only  because  he  knew  him  to  be  a  man  of  the 
true  catholic  faith,  and  unblamable  life,  and  good 
learning.  Gregory  the  Great  says,''^  there  were 
some  who  took  no  reward  of  money  for  ordination. 


J*'  Cone.  Chalced.  c.  2. 

'*2  Cone.  Aurelian.  2.  can.  3  et  4. 

'^  Cone.  Biacar.  2.  can.  3.       '^*  Cone.  Tolet.  4.  can.  18. 

'"  Conc.Tolet.il.  can.  8. 

i^s  Cone.  C.  P.  Epist.  Synod.  Cone.  t.  4.  p.  1025. 

'"  Gelas.  Decret.  Ep.  9.  ad  Epise.  Lucaniae,  cap.  24. 

'^^  Symmach.  Decret.  cap.  2. 

'^^  Hormisd.  Epist.  ad  Episc.  Hispan.  cap.  2. 

"»  Greg.  lib.  7.  Ep.  110. 

"''  Basil.  Ep.  76.  ad  Episcopos. 

'S2  Cone.  Nic.  2.  can.  5.  '«■  Cone.  Trid.  can.  22. 

"='  Cone.  Tolet.  8.  can.  3.  Quicunque  propter  accipien- 
dam  sacerdotii  dignitatem  quodlibet  praemium  fuerit  de- 
lectus obtulisse,  e.K  eodem  tempore  se  nuverit  anathematis 
opprobrio  condemnatum,  atque  a  participatione  Christi 
corporis  et  sanguinis  alienum. — Illi  vero  qui  hae  causa  mu- 
ncrum  acceptores   e,\titerint  ;    si   clerici    fuerint,    honoris 


amissione  muletentur ;  si  laici,  anathemate  perpetuo  con- 
demnentur. 

'<»  Vid.  Justin.  Novel.  123.  cap.  1.     Novel.  137.  cap.  2. 

>«  Cone.  Trul.  can.  23.  >"  Cone.  Tolet.  11.  can.  8. 

"»  Cone.  Elib.  can.  48. 

•^"  Cone.  Bracar.  2.  al.  3.  can.  7. 

""  Gelas.  Ep.  1.  al.  9.  ad  Epise.  Lucau.  cap.  10. 

'"'  Book  V.  chap.  4.  sect.  14.     '"  Cone.  Chalced.  can.  2. 

"'  Justin.  Novel.  123.  cap.  1. 

n<  Greg.  Horn.  2.  in  Evangel.  Sunt  nonnulli  qui  quidem 
nummorum  preemia  ex  ordinationc  non  aceipiunt,  et  tamea 
sacros  ordines  pro  hiimana  gratia  largiuntur,  atque  de  largi- 
tate  eadem  laudis  solummodo  retributionem  quaerunt.  Hi 
nimirum  quod  gratis  acceptum  est,  gratis  non  tribuunt,  quia 
de  inipenso  officio  sanctitatis  nummiun  expetunt  favoris. — 
Aliud  munus  est  ab  obsequio,  aliud  muuus  a  manu,  aliud 
miuuis  a  lingua.     Munus  quippe  ab  obsequio  est  subjectio 


Chap.  VI. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


%7 


and  yet  were  in  some  measure  guilty  of  simony,  be- 
cause they  gave  holy  orders  for  human  favour,  and 
thence  sought  the  reward  of  praise  and  favour 
among  men.  They  did  not  give  freely  what  they 
had  freely  received,  because  for  giving  a  holy  office 
they  required  the  gift  of  favour.  For  there  were 
three  sorts  of  bribes,  one  from  obsequiousness,  an- 
other from  the  hand,  and  another  from  the  tongue. 
That  from  obsequiousness  was  a  servile  subjection 
unduly  paid  ;  that  from  the  hand  was  money  ;  that 
from  the  tongue  was  favour.  But  whether  this 
sort  of  simony  made  men  liable  to  ecclesiastical 
censure,  he  does  not  say,  but  only  speaks  against  it 
as  a  great  corruption,  from  which  they  who  give 
holy  orders  ought  to  keep  themselves  free,  accord- 
ing to  that  of  the  prophet,  Isa.  xxxiii.  15,  "  He  that 
shaketh  his  hands  from  holding  of  binbes." 

The  last  sort  of  simony  was,  when 
Of  simoi. y'  in  iim-  mcn  by  ambitious   arts   and  undue 

bitious     usurpation  .•  t        ^t        /•  i  r 

of  holy  offices,  and  practiccs,  by  thc  lavour  and  power  oi 

intrusion  into  otlir-r    >■  •' 

men's  places  and  somc  great  or  Wealthy  person,  got 
themselves  invested  in  any  office  or 
preferment,  to  which  they  had  no  regular  call  or 
legal  title ;  or  when  they  intruded  themselves  into 
other  men's  places,  which  were  legally  filled  before. 
This  was  the  common  practice  of  schismatical  and 
other  ambitious  spirits,  who  would  either  thrust 
themselves  irregularly  into  a  vacant  see,  or  usurp 
upon  one  that  was  already  lawfully  possessed  and 
held  by  another.  Thus  Novatian  got  himself  clan- 
cularly  and  simoniacally  ordained  to  the  bishopric 
of  Rome,  to  which  CorneUus  had  been  legally  or- 
dained before  him,  as  Cyprian '"  and  others  often 
complain.  And  so  Majorinus  was  ordained  anti- 
bishop  of  Carthage  in  opposition  to  Cecilian  the 
legal  bishop,  by  the  help  of  Lucilla,  a  wealthy  wo- 
man, who  spirited  the  faction  that  was  the  first  be- 
ginning of  the  schism  of  the  Donatists,  as  Optatus  '"^ 
and  St.  Austin  at  large  inform  us.  Now,  all  such 
ordinations,  being  founded  on  ambition  and  usurpa- 
tion, and  generally  obtained  either  by  force,  or 
favour,  or  fraud,  or  bribery,  were  usually  vacated 
and  declared  null,  and  both  the  ordained  and  their 
ordainers  prosecuted  as  criminals  by  degradation 
and  reduction  to  the  state  and  communion  of  lay- 
men :  of  which,  because  I  have  given  a  full  account 
in  a  former  Book,'"  I  will  not  stand  to  make  any 
further  proof  in  his  place.  But  only  note,  that  it 
was  equally  a  simoniacal  crime  for  any  bishop  am- 
bitiously to  thrust  himself  irregularly  into  any  va- 
cant see,  or  remove  himself  by  any  sinister  arts 
from  a  lesser  see  to  a  greater,  in  contempt  and  de- 
spite of  the  rules  prescribed  by  the  church  in  that 


case  to  be  observed.  For,  as  I  have  noted  in  speak- 
ing formerly  upon  this  subject,'™  there  were  many 
severe  laws  made  against  bishops  arbitrarily  re- 
moving themselves  from  one  see  to  another.  Though 
the  translation  of  bishops  was  not  absolutely  and 
universally  forbidden,  (because  the  church  had 
sometimes  occasion  for  this  expedient,)  yet  care 
was  taken,  that  ambitious  spirits  should  not  move 
themselves  at  pleasure,  but  all  translations  were  re- 
gularly to  be  made  only  bj'  the  authority,  consent, 
and  approbation  of  a  provincial  council ;  and  to  do 
otherwise  was  esteemed  a  crime  of  simoniacal  am- 
bition of  the  highest  nature,  as  proceeding  from 
avarice  or  love  of  pre-eminence,  and  using  irregular 
methods,  bribery,  favour,  and  faction,  to  compass  an 
end  against  the  laws  of  the  church.  And  therefore 
the  ancient  canons  of  Nice '"and  Antioch,  and 
those  called  Apostolical,  not  only  barely  forbid  and 
disallow  this  practice  ;  but  the  council  of  Sardica,"' 
finding  by  experience  that  simple  prohibitions  were 
not  sufficient  to  repress  it,  and  restrain  asi)iring 
men  from  it,  backed  her  injunctions  with  the  high- 
est censures,  making  two  very  remarkable  canons, 
which  run  in  these  words :  "  That  evil  custom  and 
pernicious  corruption  is  by  all  means  to  be  rooted 
out,  that  no  bishop  have  liberty  to  remove  himself 
from  a  lesser  city  to  another.  For  the  reason  why 
he  does  this,  is  plain  ;  seeing  we  never  find  a  bishop 
labouring  to  remove  himself  from  a  greater  city  to 
a  less.  Whence  it  is  manifest,  that  all  such  are  in- 
flamed with  ardour  of  covetousness,  and  rather 
serve  their  ambition  and  vain-glory,  that  they  may 
seem  to  be  invested  with  greater  authority  and 
power.  Wherefore  this  sinister  practice  ought  to 
be  punished  more  severely."  And  in  my  opinion, 
says  Hosius,  the  president  of  the  council,  such  ought 
not  to  be  allowed  so  much  as  lay  communion.  The 
next  canon  adds,  "  That  if  any  one  be  so  vain  or 
presumptuous,  as  to  think  to  excuse  himself  in  this 
matter,  by  saying,  that  he  received  letters  of  invita- 
tion from  the  people ;  seeing  it  is  possible  some 
might  be  corrupted  by  bribes  and  rewards .  to  raise 
a  faction  in  the  church,  and  desire  to  have  him  for 
their  bishop;"  I  think,  says  Hosius  again,  these 
fraudulent  arts  and  underhand  practices  ought  to 
be  undoubtedly  punished,  so  as  that  such  a  one 
should  not  be  allowed  even  lay  communion  at  his 
last  hour.  And  to  this  the  council  readily  agreed : 
which  shows  what  apprehensions  tliey  had  of  this 
sort  of  simony,  as  most  dangerous  and  pernicious 
to  the  church.  And  it  is  worth  remarking  further, 
that  whereas  it  might  happen,  that  such  an  am- 
bitious bishop  might,  by  the  power  of  a  faction,  be 


indebite  impensa;  munus  a  manu  pecunia  est;  inumis  a 
lingua  I'avor. 

'"  Cypr.  Ep.  52.  al.  55.  ad  Antoiiian.  p.  1Q4.  Ep.  41  et 
42.  et  Epist.  Cornel,  ap.  Euseb.  lilj.  6.  cap.  43. 

'"^Optat.  lib.  1.  p.  41  et  42.     Aug.  cont.  Epist.  Pairncn. 


lib.  1.  cap.  3. 

'"  Scholast.  Hist,  of  Bapt.  Part  II.  chap.  2  and  4. 

"3  Book  VI.  chap.  4.  sect.  6. 

""Cone.  Nic.   can.  15.    Cone.  Antioch.  can.  21.    Can. 
Apost.  14.  **"  Cone.  Sardic.  can.  1  et  2. 


968 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


able  to  maintain  himself  in  his  usurpation,  in  spite 
of  all  ecclesiastical  censures  ;  therefore  in  this  case 
the  third  council  of  Carthage  gave  orders,'"  That 
recourse  should  he  had  to  the  secular  magistrate 
against  such  a  refractory  and  contumacious  bishop, 
who  would  not  submit  to  the  milder  sentence  of  an 
admonition ;  and  that  in  such  an  exigence  of  abso- 
lute necessity  the  ruler  of  the  province  should  be 
entreated,  according  to  the  directions  of  the  imperial 
laws,  to  use  his  judicial  authoi'ity  to  expel  him  out 
of  the  chm-ch,  which  he  kept  possession  of  by  force, 
without  giving  any  signs  of  acquiescing  or  amend- 
ment. Whether  there  were  any  imperial  laws 
made  with  a  direct  view  to  this  particular  case,  I 
cannot  say :  but  it  is  certain  there  were  general 
laws  made  by  Gratian  and  Honorius,'^  obliging  all 
bishops,  who  were  censured  and  deposed  by  any 
synod,  to  submit  to  the  sentence  of  the  synod,  and 
not  to  make  any  disturbance  by  endeavouring  to 
keep  or  regain  the  sees  out  of  which  they  were 
synodically  expelled,  under  the  penalty  of  being 
banished  a  hundred  miles  from  the  city  where  they 
pretended  to  raise  any  such  disturbance.  This  was 
the  law  of  Honorius,  which  refers  to  a  former  law 
made  by  Gratian  upon  the  same  subject,  which  is  also 
mentioned  by  Sulpicius  Severus  '^'  in  his  history,  as 
enacted  against  the  Priscillianists,  though  it  be  not 
now  extant  in  the  Theodosian  Code.  And  to  these 
laws  the  African  fathers  might  refer,  when  they  order 
all  such  contumacious  bishops  to  be  expelled  by 
the  authority  of  the  civil  magistrate,  according  to 
the  tenor  of  the  imperial  laws  made  in  this  behalf, 
to  which  they  refer  also  in  other  canons  relating 
to  the  same  purpose.'**  And  thus  much  of  the 
several  greater  crimes  against  the  first  and  second 
commandments,  which  made  men  liable  to  the 
penitential  discipline  and  censures  of  the  church. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

OF  SINS  AGAINST  THE  THIRD  COMMANDMENT, 
BLASPHEMY,  PROFANE  SWEARING,  PERJURY,  AND 
BREACH    OF   VOWS. 

The  greater   sins   against  the  third 
The  blasphemy  of    commandmeut,  which  chiefly  brousfht 

apostates.  ^  ^ 

men  under  public  ecclesiastical  cen- 


sure, were  blasphemy,  profane  swearing,  perjury, 
and  breach  of  vows  solemnly  made  to  God.  For 
all  these  reflected  a  particular  dishonom-  upon  his 
name.  Blasphemy  they  distinguished  into  three 
sorts  :  First,  The  blasphemy  of  apostates  and  laps- 
ers,  whom  the  heathen  persecutors  obliged  not 
only  to  deny,  but  curse  Christ.  Secondly,  The 
blasphemy  of  heretics  and  other  profane  Christians. 
Thirdly,  The  blasphemy  against  the  Holy  Ghost. 
The  first  sort  we  find  mentioned  in  Pliny,  who,  giv- 
ing Trajan  an  account  of  some  Christians  who 
apostatized  in  the  persecution  in  his  time,  tells  him, 
They  all  worshipped  his  image,  and  the  images  of 
the  gods,  and  also  cursed  Christ.'  And  that  this 
was  the  common  way  of  renouncing  their  religion, 
appears  from  the  demand  which  the  proconsul  made 
to  Polycarp,  and  Polycarp's  answer  to  it :  he  bid 
him  revile  Christ,  Aoi^opjjffov  tov  Xpi'^bv."  to  whom 
Polycarp  replied.  These  eighty-six  years  I  have 
served  him,  and  he  never  did  me  any  harm ;  how 
then  can  I  blaspheme  my  King  and  my  Saviour? 
In  the  epistles  of  Dionysius,  bishop  of  Alexandria, 
where  he  gives  an  account  of  the  persecution  that 
happened  there,  we  find,  this  was  the  usual  way 
whereby  the  heathen  required  the  Christians  to 
abjure  their  religion.  They  bid  Metras  the  mar- 
tyr say  the  atheistical  words,^  which  when  he  re- 
fused to  do,  they  stoned  him  to  death.  So,  again, 
they  bid  ApoUonia  say*  the  impious  words,  beating 
out  her  teeth,  and  threatening  to  burn  her  alive,  if 
she  refused  to  comply  with  them :  and  threatening 
all  others  with  the  same  punishment,  that  would 
not  say  the  blasphemous  words.  Now,  though  Va- 
lesius  thinks  it  diflacult  to  tell  what  these  impious, 
blasphemous,  and  atheistical  words  were,  yet  it 
seems  plain  enough  they  meant  blaspheming  Christ, 
which  was  the  thing  the  heathen  insisted  on,  as 
their  certain  indication  of  Christians  renouncing 
their  religion.  And  so  Justin  Martyr  says,^  when 
Barchocab,  the  ringleader  of  the  Jewish  rebellion 
under  Adrian,  persecuted  the  Chi'istians,  he  threat- 
ened to  inflict  terrible  punishments  upon  all  that 
would  not  deny  Christ  and  blaspheme  him.  This 
then  being  only  a  more  solemn  way  of  renouncing  re- 
Ugion,  by  adding  blasphemy  to  apostacy,  all  lapsers 
of  this  kind  were  deservedly  reckoned  among  apos- 
tates, and  accordingly  punished  with  their  punish- 
ment, to  the  highest  degree  of  ecclesiastical  censure. 


'*'  Cone.  Carth.  3.  can.  38.  Necessitate  ipsa  cogente  li- 
berum  sit  nobis,  rectorem  provinciae,  secundum  statuta  glo- 
riosissimorum  principum,  adversus  ilium  adire,  ut  qui  miti 
admonitioni  acquiescere  noluit,  et  emendare  illieituui,  au- 
thoritate  judiciaria  protinus  excludatur.  Vid.  can.  43.  ib.  et 
Cod.  Afric.  can.  48  et  53. 

's2Cod.  Theod.  lib.  IG.Tit.  2.  De  Episc.  Leg.  35.  Ho- 
norii.  Quicunque  residentibus  sacerdotibus  fuerit  episcopali 
loco  detrusus  et  nomine,  si  aliquid  vel  contra  custodiam,  vel 
contra  quietem  publicam  moliri  fuerit  deprehensus,  rursus- 
que  sacerdotium  petere,  a  quo  videtur  expulsus,  procul  ab 


ea  urbe  quam  infecit,  secundum  legem  divae  memoriae  Gra- 
tiani,  centum  milibus  vitam  agat,  &c. 

'S3  Sever.  Hist.  lib.  2.  p.  116.  ' 

'8<  Cod.  Afric.  can.  93.  al.  95. 

'  Plin.  lib.  10.  Ep.  97.  Omnes  et  imaginem  tuam,  deorum- 
que  simulachra  venerati  sunt,  iique  et  Christo  maledixerunt. 

2  Euseb.  lib.  4.  cap.  15. 

^  Ap.  Euseb.  lib.  6.  cap.  41.     K^XivcravTa^  iidia  Xiytiu 

pnflUTa,  K.T.K. 

*  Ibid.  Ta  Tiji  aaittiai  pnixwra  iKfpcov/jcrtiv.  Et  pauIo 
post,  r>t'>(r<t>f]n<i  pnfxdTa  avv/ni/ilv.       ^  Justin.  Apol.  2.  p.  72. 


Chap.  VII. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


%9 


Sect.  2.  Another  sort  of  blasphemers,  were 

heTe';fcs!mdprofi.?e'  such  as  madc  profcssioH  of  the  Chris- 
chrisUuMs.  ^-^j^  religion,  but  yet,  either  by  im- 

pious doctrines  or  profane  discourses,  uttered  blas- 
phemous words  against  God,  derogatory  to  his 
majesty  and  honour.  In  this  sense  heretics  are  com- 
monly charged  with  blasphemy,  and  more  especially 
those  whose  doctrines  more  immediately  detracted 
from  the  excellencies,  properties,  and  actions  of  the 
Divine  nature.  Thus  Chrysostom*  terms  those 
blasphemers,  who  introduced  fate  in  derogation  to 
the  providence  of  God;  and  Ircnanis,  those  likewise 
who  denied  God  to  be  the  Creator  of  the  world.' 
And  the  Arians  and  Nestorians  are  generally 
charged  with  blasphemy,  impiety,  and  sacrilege,* 
for  denying  the  Divinity  of  our  Saviour,  and  the  in- 
carnation of  the  Divine  nature.  So  that  the  same 
punishment  as  was  inflicted  upon  heretics  and  sa- 
crilegious persons,  was  consequently  the  lot  of  this 
sort  of  blasphemers.  St.  Chrysostom  joins  blas- 
phemers' and  fornicators  together,  as  persons  that 
were  to  be  expelled  from  the  Lord's  table.  He 
says  further,'"  Under  the  Mosaical  economy  the 
law  was,  "  Let  him  that  curseth  father  or  mother, 
die  the  death."  What  shall  we  then  say  of  those, 
who  in  the  time  of  gi-ace  and  truth,  and  such  ex- 
traordinary knowledge,  not  only  curse  father  and 
mother,  but  blaspheme  the  God  of  the  universe  ? 
All  the  punishments  of  this  world  and  the  next 
are  not  sufficient  to  chastise  a  soul  that  is  arrived 
to  this  prodigious  height  of  wickedness.  For  there 
is  no  sin  gi-eater  than  this,  none  equal  to  it.  It 
is  an  addition  to  all  other  crimes,  confounding 
all  religion,  and  drawing  inexpiable  punishment 
after  it. 

Neither  was  it  only  this  doctrinal  blasphemy  of 
heretics,  proceeding  from  corrupt  and  vicious  prin- 
ciples, that  they  thus  treated  both  with  their  cen- 
sures and  invectives ;  but  also  all  other  blasphemies 
of  profane  Christians,  whether  occasioned  by  ill 
opinions  fixed  in  the  mind,  or  other  sudden  emo- 
tions of  a  vicious  temper.  This  we  learn  from 
Synesius's  way  of  proceeding  against  Andronicus, 


the  oppressing  governor  of  Ptolemais.  He  admon- 
ished him  for  his  other  crimes  while  there  was  any 
hopes  of  making  a  just  impression  on  him;  but 
when  he  added  blasphemy  to  all  the  rest,  presuming 
to  say,  No  man  should  escape  his  hands,  though  he 
laid  hold  of  the  very  foot  of  Christ;  Synesius 
thought  he  was  no  longer  to  be  admonished,  but  to 
be  cut  ofl'as  a  putrified  member;  and  accordingly 
he  proceeded  to  pronounce  against  him  that  famous 
excommunication"  which  we  have  had  so  often 
occasion '-  to  mention,  as  the  most  formal  sentence 
that  occurs  in  ancient  story.  I  only  add,  that  the 
civil  laws  set  a  particular  mark  upon  this  crime. 
For,  by  the  laws  of  Justinian,'^  blasphemy  is  reck- 
oned a  capital  offence,  to  be  punished  with  death. 
And  by  the  former  laws,  since  heresy  was  reputed 
blasphemy  against  God,  all  the  penalties  inflicted 
on  heretics  (one  of  which  was  in  some  cases  death 
also)  must  be  supposed  to  be  punishments  awarded 
by  law  to  this  sort  of  blasi)hemers. 

Another    sort  of  blasphemy   was,  ^^^^  ^ 

the    blasphemy    against    the    Holy  ^Jl'^'^j  "^^^'nTiy 
Ghost,  of  which  I  must  be  a  little  ^on"the^'a„"cienu 

..       1  -I  ,1  f>    hftdofit;  and  what 

more  particular,  because  the  sense  oi  censures  tiicy  in- 

...  tticted  on  it. 

the  ancients  concerning  it  is  not  very 
commonly  understood.  Some  apply  it  to  the  gi-eat 
sin  of  lapsing  into  idolatry,  and  apostacy,  and  deny- 
ing Christ  in  time  of  persecution.  Thus  Cyprian 
understands  it,  when  he"  says.  They  who  commit 
idolatry  by  the  violence  of  persecution,  know  their 
offence  to  be  a  very  great  crime,  seeing  our  Lord 
and  Judge  has  said,  "  Whosoever  shall  confess  me 
before  men,  him  will  I  confess  before  my  Father 
which  is  in  heaven.  But  he  that  dcnieth  me,  him 
will  I  also  deny."  And  again,  "  All  sins  and  blas- 
phemies shall  be  forgiven  to  the  sons  of  men :  but 
he  that  blasphemeth  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  shall 
not  have  forgiveness,  but  is  guilty  of  eternal  sin." 
St.  Hilary  '^  gives  the  same  account  of  this  blas- 
phemy, making  it  to  consist  in  denying  Christ  to 
be  God.  And  therefore  he  also  charges  the  Arians, 
and  all  other  such  heretics,  with  this  blasphemy,'" 
because  their  doctrine  robbed  Christ  of  his  Divinitv. 


« Chrys.  Horn.  2.  de  Fato  et  Provid.  t.  1. 

'  IrenaB.  Proefat.  in  lib.  4.  Nunc  autem,  quoniam  novis- 
sima  sunt  tempora,  e.xtenditur  malum  in  homines,  non 
solum  apostatas  eos  faciens,  sed  et  blasphemes  in  plasmato- 
rem  instituit. 

8  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  16.  Tit.  5.  De  Heereticis,  Leg.  6.  Theo- 
dosii.  Aiiani  Sacrilegii  venenum,  &c.  It.  Leg.  8.  Sacri- 
legum  Dogma  Arianorum.  Hilarii  Fragment,  p.  144.  Arii 
Blasphemioe,  &c.  It.  de  Synodis,  p.  104.  Evagr.  lib.  i. 
cap.  2.  '  Chrys.'Hom.  22.  De  Ira,  t.  1.  p.  277. 

'»  Horn.  2.  De  Fato,  t.  I.  p.  811. 

"  Synes.  Ep.  58.  p.  198.  Vid.  C.  P.  sub  Mcnua,  Act.  1. 
al.  5. 

'-'  See  it  at  length,  chap.  2.  sect.  8.         '^  Just.  Novel.  77. 

"  Cypr.  Ep.  10.  al.  IG.  p.  36.  Summum  enim  delictum 
esse  quod  pcrsecutio  committi  cocgit;  cum  dixerit  Dominus 
et  Judex  uostcr,  Qui  me  confessus  t'ucrit  coram  hominibus, 


et  ilium  confUebor  coram  Patre  mco  qui  in  coelis.  Qui 
autem  me  negaverit,  et  ego  ilium  negabo.  Et  iterum 
dixerit,  Omnia  peccata  remilteutur  liliis  hominum  et  blas- 
phcmice :  qui  autem  blasphemavcrit  Spiritum  Sanctum, 
non  habebit  remissam,  sed  reus  est  ;pterni  peccati. 

'^  Hilar,  in  Mat.  Canon.  31.  p.  181.  Sciebat  exterrcndos, 
fugandos,  negaturos:  sed  quia  Spiritus  blasphemia  nee  hie 
nee  in  aeternum  remittitur,  metuebat  ne  se  Dcum  abnega- 
rent,  quern  coesum  et  consputum  et  crucifixum  essent  con- 
templaturi.  Quae  ratio  servata  in  Petro  est,  qui  cum  ne- 
gaturus  esset,  ita  negavit,  Non  novi  hominem. 

"^  Ibid.  can.  12.  p.  164.  Christo  aliqua  deferre,  negare 
qua;  maxima  sunt :  venerari  tanqtuun  Deum,  Dei  coni- 
munione  spoliare,  haec  blasphemia  Spiritus  est :  ut  cum  per 
admirationera  operura  tantorum  Dei  nomen  detrahcre  non 
audeas,  generositatem  ejus  quam  confitcri  es  coactus  in  un- 
mine,  abnegata  Paternsc  substantia;  communione  dcccrpas. 


9/0 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


and  denied  him  to  be  of  the  same  substance  with 
the  Father,  however  they  venerated  him  as  God, 
and  ascribed  the  name  of  God  to  him  upon  the  ac- 
count of  his  admirable  works  and  glorious  opera- 
tions. Athanasius,  and  the  author  of  the  Questions 
to  Antiochus  under  his  name,  are  of  the  same 
opinion.  Athanasius  has  a  particular  discourse 
upon  this  subject,  where  he  both  notes  the  errors 
of  Origen  and  Theognostus  upon  it,  and  delivers 
his  own  opinion  in  opposition  to  them.  They  said," 
That  all  they  who  had  received  the  gifts  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  in  baptism,  and  afterward  run  into  sin, 
committed  the  unpardonable  sin  against  the  Holy 
Ghost.  Which  he  refutes  both  from  the  practice  of 
St.  Paul,  who  received  the  incestuous  Corinthian 
and  other  great  sinners  to  pardon ;  and  also  from 
the  practice  of  the  church  in  opposition  to  the  No- 
vatians.  Why  then,  says  he,  are  we  angry  at  Novatus 
for  taking  away  repentance,  and  saying,  There  is 
no  pardon  for  those  that  sin  after  baptism  ?  His 
own  opinion  he  delivers  after  this  manner:'*  The 
Pharisees  in  our  Saviour's  time,  and  the  Arians  in 
our  days,  running  into  the  same  madness,  denied 
the  real  Word  to  be  incarnate,  and  ascribed  the 
works  of  the  Godhead  to  the  devil  and  his  angels, 
and  therefore  justly  undergo  the  punishment  which 
is  due  to  this  impiety,  without  remission.  For  they 
put  the  devil  in  the  place  of  God,  and  imagined  the 
works  of  the  living  and  true  God  to  be  nothing 
more  than  the  works  of  the  devils.  Which  was  the 
same  thing  as  if  they  had  said,  that  the  world  was 
made  by  Beelzebub,  that  the  sun  arose  at  his  com- 
mand, and  the  stars  in  heaven  moved  by  his  direc- 
tion. For  as  the  one  were  the  works  of  God,  so 
were  the  other ;  and  if  the  one  were  done  by  Beelze- 
bub, so  were  the  other  also.  For  this  reason  Christ 
declared  their  sin  unpardonable,  and  their  punish- 
ment inevitable  and  eternal.  In  another  place '^  he 
says,  They  who  spake  against  Christ,  considering 
him  only  as  the  Son  of  man,  were  pardonable,  be- 
cause in  the  beginning  of  the  gospel  the  world 
looked  upon  him  only  as  a  prophet,  not  as  God,  but 
as  the  Son  of  man :  but  they  who  blasphemed  his 
Divinity  after  his  works  had  demonstrated  him  to 
be  God,  had  no  forgiveness,  so  long  as  they  con- 
tinued in  this  blasphemy ;  but  if  they  repented,  they 
might  obtain  pardon  :  for  there  is  no  sin  unpardon- 
able with  God  to  them  who  truly  and  worthily  re- 
pent. And  the  same  is  said  by  the  author  of  the 
Questions  to  Antiochus,^  under  his  name.    St.  Am- 


brose also  defines  this  sin  to  be  denying  the  Divinity 
of  Christ  ;■'  Whoever  does  not  confess  God  in  Christ, 
and  Christ  to  be  of  God,  and  in  God,  deserves  no 
pardon. 

Some,  again,  make  it  to  consist  in  denying  the 
Divinity  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Thus  Epiphanius^ 
brings  the  charge  against  the  Pneumatomachi,  or 
Macedonian  heretics,  whose  error  consisted  parti- 
cularly in  opposing  the  Godhead  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  making  him  a  mere  creature.  He  says.  All 
heretics  blaspheme  and  deny  the  truth,  some  more, 
some  less ;  as  these  Pneumatomachi  did,  blasphem- 
ing the  Lord  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  having  par- 
don of  sins  neither  in  this  world,  nor  the  world  to 
come.  He  shows  how  they  were  not  pardoned  in 
this  world,  because  their  doctrine  was  condemned 
by  the  church  in  the  council  of  Nice,  and  their 
persons  anathematized  or  cast  out  of  the  communion 
of  the  church.  But  then,  as  they  might  be  admitted 
to  the  communion  again  upon  their  repentance,  so 
we  must  suppose  he  means,  their  sin  was  capable 
of  pardon  in  the  next  world  upon  the  same  condi- 
tion, and  only  unpardonable  upon  the  supposition 
of  obstinacy  and  continuance  in  it  without  repent- 
ance. St.  Ambrose^  also,  in  his  treatise  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  writing  against  the  same  heretics, 
charges  them  as  guilty  of  this  blasphemy  against 
the  Holy  Ghost,  for  denying  the  Divinity  of  his 
person.  And  the  same  charge  is  brought  against 
them  by  Philastrius,^*  when  he  says.  The  Lord  de- 
clared that  all  sins  should  be  forgiven  unto  men 
beside  the  blasphemy  against  the  heavenly  essence 
of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Concedi  omnia  peccata  Jiomini- 
husprcdter  hlasphemiam  de  Divini  et  adorandi  Spiritus 
essentia. 

Philastrius"  brings  the  charge  in  general  against 
all  heretics,  as  blasphemers  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
And  St.  Ambrose  does  the  same,""  but  then  he  does 
not  assert  the  sin  to  be  absolutely  unpardonable,  but 
exhorts  them  to  return  to  the  church,  with  hopes  of 
obtaining  mercy  and  forgiveness. 

Others  place  this  sin  in  a  perverse  and  malicious 
ascribing  the  works  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  the  power 
of  the  devil.  And  some  of  these  suppose  the  ma- 
lignity of  it  to  consist  in  doing  this  against  know- 
ledge and  manifest  convictions  of  conscience,  which 
renders  them  self-condemned,  and  their  sin  simply 
and  absolutely  unpardonable.  The  author  of  the 
Questions  upon  the  Old  and  New  Testament  under 
the  name  of  St.  Austin,-'  who  is  supposed  to  be  one 


''  Athan.  in  illud,  Quicimque  dixeiit  verbum,  t.  1.  p.  971. 

"*  Ibid.  p.  975. 

''■'  Ibid,  de  Communi  Essentia  triiim  Personar.  t.  1.  p.  237. 

-"  Qusest.  et  Respons.  ad  Antiocli.  qii.  71.  t,  2.  p.  358. 

-'  Ambros.  Com.  in  Luc.  lib.  7.  cap.  12.  t.  5.  p.  108. 
Quicunque  non  confitetur  in  Ghristo  Deum,  atque  ex  Deo 
el  in  Deo  Christum,  veniam  non  meretur. 

"-  Epiphan.  Haer.  74.  Pncumatom.  n.  14. 

-^  Ambios.  de  Spir.  Sancto,  lib.  I.  cap.  3. 


21  Philastr.  de  Ha>res.  cap.  20.  Bibl.  Patr.  t.  4.  p.  17. 

"^  Philastr.  Ha;r.  Rhetorii. 

'"^  Ambros.  de  Poenitent.  lib.  2.  cap.  4.  Eos  quoque  as- 
serit  diabolicouti  Spiritu,  qui  separarent  ecclesiam  Dei:  ut 
omnium  temporum  ha;reticos  et  schismatieos  coniprehende- 
ret,  quibus  indulj^entiam  negat.  Ibidem  paulo  post.  Re- 
vertimini  ad  ecclesiam,  si  qui  vos  separastis  impie:  omnibus 
cnim  conversis  pollicotur  veniam,  &c. 

-'  Aug.  Qua;st.  in  Vet.  et  Nov.  Test,  qu,  102. 1.  4.  p.  452. 


Chap.  VII. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


971 


Hilary,  a  Roman  deacon,  expressly  delivers  his 
opinion  after  this  manner :  The  Jews,  says  he,  did 
not  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost  out  of  ignorance, 
but  maliciousness.  For  they  knew  the  works  which 
our  Saviour  did  to  be  the  true  works  of  God :  but 
to  divert  the  people  from  believing  on  him,  they 
pretended  against  their  own  knowledge  and  con- 
science to  say,  "  That  they  were  the  works  of  the 
prince  of  devils  "  Upon  which  account  our  Lord 
said  to  them,  "  Ye  have  the  key  of  knowledge,  and 
ye  neither  enter  yourselves,  nor  suffer  others  to  en- 
ter." That  sentence,  then,  was  pronounced  against 
the  malignant,  for  whom  there  is  no  remedy  to  be 
found  to  bring  them  to  salvation.  For  this  is  the 
greatest  of  all  sins,  pretending  that  to  be  false 
which  men  know  to  be  true,  and  denying  the  won- 
derful works  of  God  against  their  own  knowledge 
and  conscience. 

But  in  two  things  this  author  is  singular.  1.  In 
saying  the  Jews  acted  against  knowledge  and  con- 
science. For  St.  Austin^  expressly  says.  They  did 
it  in  ignorance,  by  that  blindness  which  happened 
to  Israel  in  part,  till  the  fulness  of  the  Gentiles  be 
come  in.  And  it  seems  evident  from  those  words 
of  St.  Peter,  in  his  sermon  to  them.  Acts  iii.  17>  "  I 
wot,  brethren,  that  in  ignorance  ye  did  it,  as  did 
also  your  rulers."  2.  In  that  he  makes  their  sin 
simply  and  absolutely  unpardonable,  which  the 
ancients  generally  do  not,  save  only  when  it  is  ac- 
companied with  insuperable  obstinacy  and  final 
impenitency,  which  in  the  nature  of  the  thing  can 
have  no  pardon.  For  all  others  among  the  ancients 
suppose  it  possible  for  men  to  repent  of  this  sin, 
and  thereby  make  themselves  capable  of  pardon, 
though  with  great  difficulty ;  and  that  the  unpar- 
donableness  of  it  arises  from  men's  own  obstinacy 
and  impenitency  only,  which  makes  them  liable  to 
punishment  both  in  this  world  and  the  world  to 
come.  Thus  St.  Chrysostom  delivers  his  opinion 
in  his  Comment"*  upon  the  words  of  our  Saviour. 
Is  there  no  remission  for  those  who  repent  of  their 
blasphemy  against  the  Spirit  ?  How  can  this  be 
said  with  reason  ?  For  we  know  it  was  forgiven  to 
some  that  repented  of  it.  Many  of  those  Jews 
which  blasphemed  the  Holy  Ghost,  did  afterwards 
believe,  and  all  was  forgiven  them.  What  is  there- 
fore the  meaning  of  it  ?  That  it  is  a  sin  less  capa- 
ble of  pardon  than  all  others.  And  unless  they 
repented  of  it  (so  Anianus  translates  it)  they  should 


be  punished  in  both  worlds,  and  have  pardon  in 
neither.  Which  he  observes  to  be  the  difference 
between  this  kind  of  sinners  and  many  others. 
For  some  sinners  are  punished  both  in  this  world 
and  the  next ;  others,  only  in  this  world ;  others, 
only  in  the  next ;  and  others,  neither  in  this  world 
nor  the  next.  He  gives  examples  of  all  these. 
Some  are  punished  both  here  and  hereafter;  as 
these  blaspheming  Jews;  for  they  suffered  venge- 
ance here,  in  the  great  calamities  which  befell  them 
in  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem ;  and  hereafter  they 
must  undergo  intolerable  torments,  as  the  men  of 
Sodom,  and  many  others.  Some  suffer  only  in  the 
next  world,  as  the  rich  man,  who  is  tormented  in 
flames,  and  not  master  of  so  much  as  a  drop  of 
water  to  cool  his  tongue.  Some  suffer  only  in  this 
world,  as  he  that  committed  fornication  among  the 
Corinthians ;  and  others,  neither  in  this  Avorld  nor 
the  next,  as  the  apostles,  and  prophets,  and  holy 
Job,  and  such  like.  For  their  passions  were  not 
punishments  for  their  sins,  but  only  exercises  and 
combats  to  crown  them  with  victory.  Now,  he 
supposes  that  blasphemy  against  the  Holy  Ghost 
is  a  sin  of  the  first  kind,  that  is,  one  of  those  for 
which  men,  if  they  do  not  timely  repent  of  it, 
shall  suffer  both  here  and  hereafter,  as  the  men  of 
Sodom ;  in  which  respect  it  is  said  never  to  have 
forgiveness,  neither  in  this  world  nor  the  next,  be- 
cause it  is  punished  in  both.  Vid.  Clinjs.  Horn.  3. 
in  Lazarum,  t.  5.  p.  69,  where  he  uses  the  same  dis- 
tinction of  sins  punished  only  in  this  world,  or  only 
in  the  next,  or  else,  as  the  sins  of  Sodom,  punished 
in  both. 

Victor  of  Antioch,  who  was  contemporary  with 
St.  Chrysostom,  gives  the  same  account  of  the  un- 
pardonableness  of  this  sin.  He  says,'"  When  our 
Saviour  discourses  of  the  sin  of  blasphemy,  he 
neither  determines  blasphemy  against  the  Son  to 
be  absolutely  remissible,  nor  the  blasphemy  against 
the  Holy  Ghost  to  be  simply  irremissible ;  as  if 
there  was  no  place  of  repentance  left  for  such 
blasphemers,  when  they  were  disposed  to  return  to 
a  sober  mind ;  but  only,  by  drawing  a  comparison 
betwixt  the  one  and  the  other,  he  shows  that  the 
blasphemy  against  the  Son  ought  to  be  esteemed 
the  lesser  of  the  two,  because  it  seems  to  be  levelled 
against  him  only  as  man. 

Now,  from  what  has  hitherto  been  discoursed,  it 
is  easy  to  conceive  after  what  manner  the  discipline 


Non  enim  errore  peccaverunt  in  Spiritum  Sanctum,  sed 
malevolentia.  Scientes  enim  prudentesque  opera  quoe  vide- 
nmt  in  gestis  Salvatoris  Dei  esse,  ut  populum  a  fide  ejus 

averterent,  hsec  simulabant  esse  principis  daemoniorum. 

Haec  ergo  seutentia  contra  malevolos  prolata  est,  quibus 
remedium  inveniri  non  potest  ut  salventur.  Nihil  enim  hoc 
crimine  gravius  est;  fingit  enim  falsum  esse,  quod  scit  esse 
verum,  &c. 

"**  Aug.  Expos,  in  Rom.  t.  4.  p.  3G5. 

^  Chrj-s.  Horn.  42.  in  Matt.  xii.  p.  391. 


3"  Victor.  Com.  in  Marc.   iii.  Bibl.  Patr.  t.  1.    p.    411. 

Cum  de  blasphemiae  peccato  Salvator  noster  disserit,  neque 
convitiumin  Filium  absolute  remissibile,  neque  blasphemiam 
rursus  in  Spiritum  Sanctum  irremissibile  sinipliciter  defi- 
nire  vult:  quasi  nuUus  prorsus  cjusmodi  blasphcmis,  dum- 
modo  ad  sanam  mentem  redire  in  animum  induxerint, 
pcenitentia;  locus  relictus  sit;  verum  cumparatione  quadam 
inter  hanc  et  illam  facta,  indicat  eam  qua;  cadit  in  Filium, 
tanquam  quae  in  hominem  proxime  fcrri  videatur,  multo 
minorem  ccnscri. 


972 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV I. 


of  the  church  was  exercised  upon  such  sort  of 
blasphemers.  For,  first,  if  all  apostates,  and  idol- 
aters, and  such  as  denied  Christ,  or  blasphemed 
him,  or  denied  his  Divinity,  or  the  Divinity  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  such  as  fell  into  heresy  or  schism, 
were  reputed,  in  some  measure,  to  blaspheme  the 
Holy  Ghost ;  then  the  same  punishments  that  were 
inflicted  on  all  such  offenders  must,  consequently, 
be  reckoned  the  punishments  of  those  that  blas- 
phemed the  Holy  Ghost.  And  since  we  have  seen 
those  punishments  under  those  respective  heads 
before,  we  need  inquire  no  farther  after  them  in  this 
place ;  but  only  observe,  2dly,  That  the  ancients, 
as  many  at  least  as  went  upon  this  supposition. 
That  the  blasphemy  against  the  Holy  Ghost  was 
committed  in  these  several  crimes,  could  not  imagine 
it  to  be  a  sin  simply  and  absolutely  incapable  of 
pardon  :  because  they  did  not  shut  the  door  of  re- 
pentance to  any  such  offenders,  or  reckon  them  al- 
together reprobate  and  desperate,  but  invited  them 
to  repent,  and  prayed  for  their  conversion,  and  re- 
ceived them  again  to  peace  and  communion  upon 
their  humble  confession  and  evidences  of  a  true  re- 
pentance. "Which  argues,  that  they  did  not  believe 
the  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost  to  be  altogether  un- 
pardonable, but  only  to  the  impenitent ;  since  they 
granted  pardon  to  the  penitent  in  this  world,  and 
gave  them  hopes  of  obtaining  pardon  from  God  in 
the  world  to  come. 

It  is  true,  indeed,  St.  Austin,  and  several  others 
in  the  Latin  church,  seem  to  say,  that  this  sin  is 
altogether  unpardonable  both  in  this  world  and  the 
next.  But  if  we  rightly  take  their  meaning,  they 
differ  not  at  all  from  the  former.  For  they  sup- 
pose, that  no  man  perfectly  commits  the  sin  against 
the  Holy  Ghost,  but  he  that  finally  dies  obdurate, 
and  in  resistance  to  all  the  gracious  motions  and 
operations  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  the  end  of  his  days  : 
in  which  case,  it  is  but  natural  to  conclude  from 
the  nature  of  the  thing,  that  such  men  can  have  no 
pardon  for  their  sin,  neither  in  this  world  nor  the 
world  to  come :  not  because  any  thing  they  do  in 
their  life-time  makes  it  an  unpardonable  sin  in  it- 
self ;  but  because  they  wilfully  continue  impenitent 
to  the  last,  and  so  make  it  impossible  and  imprac- 
ticable, upon  the  principles  of  the  gospel,  to  obtain 
pardon  either  of  God  or  his  ciiurch,  in  this  world 
or  the  world  to  come  ;  since  the  covenant  of  grace 
and  pardon  only  respects  those  who  embrace  it  in 
this  life,  and  not  such  as  put  off",  repentance  to  an- 
other world,  where  they  will  repent  without  remedy. 


or,  in  the  apostle's  words,  "  find  no  room  for  re- 
pentance," or  change  of  God's  purposes,  "  though 
they  seek  it  carefully  with  tears." 

In  this  sense  Fulgentius  understands  our  Sa- 
viour's words,  as  menacing  punishment  to  those 
that  obstinately  continue  in  their  wickedness,  and 
let  judgment  overtake  them  in  their  sins.  He  says. 
Repentance  is  of  advantage  to  every  man  in  this  life, 
whatever  time  he  truly  turns  to  God,  quamlibet  ini- 
qitus,  quamlibet  annosus,  although  he  be  the  great- 
est of  sinners,  although  he  be  grown  old  in  sin  ; 
but  if  he  continue  obdurate  to  the  last,  there  is  no 
mercy  for  him.  For  as  mercy  will  receive  and  ab- 
solve those  that  are  converted,^'  so  justice  will  repel 
and  punish  the  obdurate.  For  they  are  those  who 
sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  shall  not  have  re- 
mission of  sins  either  in  this  world  or  the  world  to 
come.  The  author  of  the  book.  Of  True  and  False 
Repentance,^-  under  the  name  of  St.  Austin,  says 
the  same.  That  they  only  sin  against  the  Holy 
Ghost,  who  continue  impenitent  unto  death.  For 
the  Holy  Spirit  is  love,  who  gives  his  grace  to  us 
as  an  earnest.  He  therefore  that  sins,  and  desires 
not  to  recover  his  grace,  nor  ever  after  is  concerned 
to  be  loved  by  him,  nor  seeks  to  him  from  whom 
he  received  his  earnest,  sins  against  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  shall  never  obtain  pardon,  either  living,  or 
after  death :  but  no  one  sins  against  the  Holy 
Spirit,  that  flies  unto  him  for  mercy.  And  therefore 
he  says.  Our  Saviour's  words  to  the  Jews  were 
rather  an  admonition  to  them,  not  to  continue  in 
sin,  because  if  they  went  on  as  they  had  begun, 
their  blasphemy  would  lead  them  unto  death.  Bac- 
chiarius,^  an  African  writer  about  the  time  of  St. 
Austin,  explains  himself  after  the  same  manner. 
He  says.  This  sin  consists  in  such  a  despair  of  God's 
mercy,  as  makes  men  give  over  all  hopes  of  attain- 
ing by  the  power  of  God  to  that  state  and  condition 
from  which  they  are  fallen  ;  and  so  consequently  go 
on  in  sin  without  repentance  to  their  lives'  end. 

St.  Austin  speaks  often  of  this  crime,  and  he 
places  it  in  a  continual  resistance  of  the  motions 
and  graces  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  by  an  invincible 
hardness  of  heart,  and  final  impenitence  to  the  end 
of  a  man's  days.  Some,  says  he,^^  placed  it  in  the 
commission  of  mortal  sins  after  baptism,  and  after 
having  received  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  doing  despite 
to  so  great  a  gift  of  Christ,  by  falling  into  such 
sins  as  adultery,  murder,  apostacy,  or  separation 
from  the  catholic  church.  But  this,  he  thinks, 
cannot  be  the  meaning  of  it ;  because  the  church 


3'  Fulgent,  (le  Fide  ad  Pctrum,  cap.  3.  Sicut  enim  mise- 
ricordia  siiscipit,  absolvitque  converses,  ita  jnstitia  lepellet, 
punietqiie  obduratos.  li  sunt  qui  peccantes  in  Spiritum 
Sanctum,  neque  in  hoc  seeculo  neque  in  futuro  remissionem 
accipient  peccatonim. 

'-  Au<r.  De  Vera  et  Falsa  Poenitent.  cap.  4.  t.  4.  Soli 
prtc-ant  in  Spiritum  Sanctum,  qui  impocnitentes  existiint  us- 


que ad  mortem,  &c. 

^^  Bacchiar.  Epist.  De  Recipiendis  Lapsis,  Bibl.  Patr.  t. 
3.  p.  133.  Dico  hoc  ipsuni,  Desperare  do  Domino,  in  Spi- 
ritum esse  peccare,  quia  Dominus  est  Spiritus,  et  ideo  non 
remittitur  ei,  quia  non  crediderit  Dominum  reddere  sibi 
posse  quod  perdidit. 

^'  Aug.  Ser.  11.  de  Verbis  Domini,  cap.  4. 


Chap.  VI I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


i»73 


allows  room  for  repentance  for  all  sins,  and  corrects 
heretics  only  with  this  intent,  that  they  may  repent. 
He  says  further,**  That  it  consists  not  in  denying 
the  Divinity  or  person  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  or  be- 
lieving him  to  be  a  creature,  unless  men  persist  in 
these  errors  to  the  end  of  their  days.  For  many 
catholic  Christians  were  once  Jews,  or  pagans,  or 
heretics,  such  as  the  Arians,  Eunomians,  Macedo- 
nians, Sabellians,  Patripassians,  and  Photinians, 
who  all  deny  either  the  Divinity  or  the  personality 
of  the  Holy  Ghost.  And  if  all  these,  who  speak 
against  the  Holy  Ghost,  have  no  forgiveness,  in 
vain  do  we  promise  or  preach  to  men,  that  they 
should  tin-n  to  God,  and  obtain  peace  and  remission 
of  sins  by  baptism,  or  in  the  church.  For  it  is  not 
said,  with  any  exception,  This  sin  shall  not  be  for- 
given, save  only  in  baptism ;  but,  "It  shall  not  be 
forgiven,  neither  in  this  world,  nor  in  the  world  to 
come."  Hence  he  infers,  that  it  is  not  all  kind  of 
blasphemy  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  but  a  particular 
sort  of  blasphemy  that  is  thus  threatened.  And 
that  is  final  impenitency,  or  resisting  to  the  utter- 
most the  gracious  offers  of  remission  of  sins  made 
l)y  the  Holy  Ghost.  This  impenitency '°  is  the 
blasphemy  that  has  neither  remission  in  this  world, 
nor  in  the  world  to  come.  But  of  this  impenitency 
no  one  can  judge,  so  long  as  a  man  lives  in  this  life. 
We  are  to  despair  of  no  man,  so  long  as  the  patience 
of  God  leads  him  to  repentance,  and  does  not  snatch 
away  the  sinner  out  of  life,  who  "  would  not  the 
death  of  a  sinner,  but  rather  that  he  should  return 
and  live."  A  man  is  a  pagan  to-day  ;  but  how 
knowest  thou  but  that  he  may  become  a  Christian 
to-morrow  ?  To-day  he  is  an  unbelieving  Jew ;  but 
what  if  to-morrow  he  should  believe  in  Christ  ?  To- 
day he  is  a  heretic ;  but  what  if  to-morrow  he  should 
embrace  the  catholic  truth  ?  To-day  he  is  a  schism- 
atic ;  but  what  if  to-morrow  he  should  return  to  the 
peace  of  the  church?  What  if  they,  whom  you 
mark  as  immersed  in  any  kind  of  error,  and  damn 
as  desperate,  should  repent,  before  they  end  this 
life,  and  find  true  life  in  the  world  to  come  ?  "  Judge 
nothing,"  brethren,  "  before  the  time."  For  this  blas- 
phemy of  the  Spirit,  which  has  no  remission,  and 
which  we  have  showed  to  be  a  persevering  hardness 
of  an  impenitent  heart,  cannot  be  descried  in  any 


^^  Aug.  Scr.  II.  de  Verbis  Domini,  cap.  3. 

""  Ibid.  cap.  13.  ^'  Ibid.  cap.  24. 

^  De  Corrept.  et  Gratia,  cap.  12.  Ego  dico  iil  esse  pecca- 
tum  ad  mortem,  fidem  quaa  per  dilectionem  opcratur,  deserere 
usque  ad  mortem.  It.  Ep.  50.  p.  88.  Hoc  est  a\item  dii- 
ritia  cordis  usque  ad  finem  hujus  vitae,  qua  homo  recusal  in 
unitate  corporis  Christi,  quod  viviticat  Spiritus  Sanctus, 
remissionera  accipere  peccatorum.  Enchirid.  cap.  83.  Qui 
in  ecclesia  roniitti  pcccata  non  credens,  contemnit  tantam 
divini  munerislargitatcm,  et  in  hac  obstinatione  mentis  diem 
claudit  extremum,  reus  est  irremissibili  peccato  in  Spiritum 
Sanctum,  in  quo  Christus  peccata  dimittit. 

''  Aug.  de  Serm.  Dom.  in  Monte,  lib.  1.  cap.  22. 


man  whilst  he  continues  in  this  life.  At  last  he  con- 
cludes,'' There  is  but  one  way  to  avoid  the  con- 
demnation of  this  unpardonable  blasphemy,  Mhich 
is,  to  beware  of  an  impenitent  heart,  and  to  believe 
that  repentance  profits  not  but  only  in  the  catholic 
church,  where  remission  is  granted,  and  the  unity 
of  the  Spirit  is  preserved  in  the  bond  of  peace.  St. 
Austin  often  repeats^  this  notion,  and  he  gives  the 
same  account  of  what  the  apostle  calls  the  "  sin  unto 
death,"  for  which  he  forbids  men  to  pray.  He  says. 
It  means  that  hardness  and  impenitency  of  heart, 
whereby  men  obstinately  reject  faith,  and  charity, 
and  remission  of  sins  to  their  last  hour.  And 
whereas  he  had  seemed  to  say  in  one  place,''  That 
this  blasphemy  consisted  in  a  malicious  and  envious 
opposition  to  brotherly  charity,  after  a  man  had  re- 
ceived the  grace  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  he  explains 
this  in  his  Retractations,'*  saying,  There  ought  to  be 
added  this  condition,  if  he  ends  this  wicked  per- 
verseness  of  mind :  because  we  are  not  to  despair 
of  the  very  worst  man,  while  he  continues  in  this 
life ;  neither  is  there  any  imprudence  in  praying  for 
him,  of  whom  we  do  not  despair.  He  confirms  this 
notion  again  at  large  in  his  Commentary  upon  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans.  Where  he  first  gives  this 
description  of  it :""  That  man  sins  against  the  Holy 
Gliost,  who,  despairing,  or  deriding,  or  contemning 
the  preaching  of  grace,  by  which  sins  are  washed 
away,  and  the  preaching  of  peace,  by  which  we  are 
reconciled  to  God,  refuses  to  repent  of  his  sins,  and 
resolves  to  continue  hardening  himself  in  the  im- 
pious and  deadly  sweetness  of  them,  and  therein 
persists  to  his  last  end.  He  then  shows,  by  great 
variety  of  instances,  that  any  other  blasphemy 
against  the  Spirit  is  capable  of  pardon,  except  this, 
which  includes  obduration  to  the  last.  The  pagans 
daily  blaspheme  the  whole  Trinity,  and  the  whole 
system  of  the  Christian  religion ;  and  yet  the  church 
makes  no  scruple  to  receive  them  to  pardon  of  sins 
by  baptism  upon  their  conversion.  The  Jews  are 
charged  by  Stephen  for  resisting  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  yet  Paul,  who  was  then  one  of  the  nimiber  of 
those  whom  he  so  charged,  was  afterwards  filled 
with  the  same  Spirit,  which  he  had  resisted.  The 
Samaritans  opposed  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  yet  both 
Christ  and  his  apostles  attest  to  the  conversion  of 


■"•  Retract,  lib.  1.  cap.  19.  Sed  tamen  addendum  fuit,  si 
in  hac  tarn  scelerata  mentis  perversitate  finierit  banc  vitara: 
quoniam  de  quocunque  pessimo  in  hac  vita  constituto  non 
est  utique  desperandum,  nee  pro  illo  imprudenter  oratur,  de 
quo  non  desporatur. 

*'  Aug.  Expos,  in  Rom.  i.  t.  4.  p.  363.  Ille  peccat  in 
Spiritum  Sanctum,  qui  desperans  vel  irridens  atque  con- 
temnens  pra;dicationem  gratioc,  per  quam  peccata  diluuntur, 
et  pacis,  per  quam  reconciliamur  Deo,  detrectat  agere  poe- 
nitentiani  de  peccatis  suis,  etin  eorum  impia  atque  mortit'era 
quadam  suavitate  perduraudum  sibi  esse  decernit,  et  in  finem 
usque  perdurat. 


974 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


many  of  them.     Simon  Magus  had  conceived  very 
ill  opinions  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  so  as  to  think  his 
gifts  might  be  purchased  M'ith  money;  yet  St.  Peter 
did  not  despair  of  him,  so  as  to  leave  him  no  room 
for  pardon,  but  kindly  admonished  him  to  repent. 
Neither  does  the  cathohc  church  shut  the  gate  of 
pardon  to  any  heretics  or  schismatics,  or  leave  them 
without  hopes  of  appeasing  God,  upon  their  correc- 
tion and  anaendment :  though  some  of  them  deny 
the  very  being  and   person  of  the   Holy  Ghost; 
others  make  him  a  mere  creature,  and  deny  his 
Godhead ;  others  make  the  substance  of  the  whole 
Trinity  mutable  and  corruptible ;  others  deny  the 
mission  of  the  Holy  Ghost  upon  the  apostles,  and 
make  his  first  descent  to  be  upon  Montanus ;  and 
others  despise  his  sacraments,  and  rebaptize  those 
who   were  baptized  before  "  in  the  name  of  the 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost."     Nay,  he  thinks 
some  of  those  very  Jews,  to  whom  our  Saviour  gave 
a  caution  against  this  crime,  afterward  repented  of 
their  blasphemy,  though  proceeding  from  envy  and 
malice :  and  that  St.  Paul  may  be  reckoned  one  of 
that  number ;  being  a  blasphemer,  and  a  persecutor, 
and  injurious,  as  they  were,  in  ignorance  and  un- 
behef ;  and  putting  himself  in  the  number  of  those 
who  were  sometimes  foolish,  disobedient,  deceived, 
serving  divers  lusts  and  pleasures,  living  in  envy 
and  malice,  hateful,  and  hating  one  another.     If, 
therefore,  neither  pagans,  nor  Hebrews,  nor  here- 
tics, nor  schismatics,  yet  unbaptized,  are  precluded 
from  the  sacrament  of  baptism,  whatever   opposi- 
tion they  have  made  to  the   Holy  Ghost  before,  if 
they  sincerely  repent,  and  condemn  their  former 
life  ;  if  also  they  who  have  attained  to  the  know- 
ledge of  the  truth,  and  are  baptized,  may,  after  they 
have  fallen  into  sin  and  resisted  the  Holy  Ghost, 
be   restored  to  the  peace  of  God  by  repentance; 
finally,  if  they  to  whom  our  Saviour  objected  blas- 
phemy against  the  Holy  Ghost,  might  repent  and 
be  healed  by  flying  to  the  mercy  of  God  :  what  re- 
mains, but  that  by  the  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost, 
which,  our  Lord  says,  "  is  never  forgiven,  neither 
in  this  world  nor  the  world  to  come,"  we  should  un- 
derstand nothing  else^^  but  perseverance  in  malig- 
nity and  wickedness,  with  despair  of  the  indulgence 
and  mercy  of  God  ?     For  this  is  to  resist  the  grace 
and  peace  of  the  Spirit,  of  which  we  are  speaking. 
He  says  also,  that  our  Saviour,  in  the  same  place 
where  he  reproves  the  Jews  for  their  blasphemy,  in- 
timates, that  the  door  of  repentance  and  amend- 
ment was  not  yet  shut  against  them,  when  he  says, 
"  Either  make  the  tree  good,  and  its  fruit  good  ;  or 
else  make  the  tree  evil,  and  its  fruit  evil."     Which 
could  not  with  any  reason  have  been  said  to  them. 


if  now   for  that  blasphemy  they  could  not  have 
changed  their  mind  for  the  better,  and  have  brought 
forth  the  fruit  of  good  works,  or  should  in  vain 
have  brought  them  forth  without  remission  of  their 
sin.     He  therefore  concludes,  that  they  had  not  yet 
committed  fully  the  unpardonable  sin,  but  only  be- 
gun it,  in  saying,  that  he  "  cast  out  devils  by  Beel- 
zebub;" and  that  Christ  admonishes  them  not  to 
complete  it,  by  resisting  his  grace  and  peace,  either 
by  despairing  of  pardon,  or  presuming  on  their  own 
righteousness,  or  continuing  impenitent,  and  per- 
severing in  their  sins :  for  this  was  to  speak  the 
blasphemous   word   against  the   Holy   Ghost,  by 
which  Christ  wrought  those  miracles  to  bring  them 
to  his  grace  and  peace.     He  observes  here.  That 
to  speak  blasphemy  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  is  not 
put  to  denote  barely  the  uttering  it  with  the  tongue, 
but  the  conceiving  it  in  the  heart,  and  expressing 
it  in  actions.     For  as  they  are  not  properly  said  to 
confess  God,  who  do  it  only  with  the  sound  of  their 
lips,  and  not  with  their  good  works ;  so  he  who 
speaks  the  unpardonable  word  against  the   Holy 
Ghost,  is  not  presumed  to  say  it  perfectly,  unless 
he  do  as  well  as  say  it ;  that  is,  despair  of  the  grace 
and  peace  which  the  Spirit  gives,  and  resolve  to  per- 
severe in  his  sins.     That  as  the  other  deny  God  in 
their  works,  so  these  say  by  their  works,  that  they 
resolve  to  persevere  in  an  evil  life  and  corrupt  mo- 
rals, and  so  say,  and  so  do,  that  is,  continue  in  them 
to  the  end  of  their  days.     Which  if  they  do,  what 
needs  any  one  wonder  that  their  blasphemy  should 
be  unpardonable?     Or  who  is  it  now  that  cannot 
understand,  both  that  the  Lord  Jesus  by  that  com- 
mination  called  the  Jews  to  repentance,  that  he 
might  grant  them  grace  and  peace  by  their  believ- 
ing on  him  ;  and  also  how  it  becomes  impossible 
that  they  should  have  pardon  either  in  this  world 
or  the  world  to  come,  who  resist  this  grace  and 
peace,  and  after  this  manner  speak  the  word  of 
blasphemy  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  that  is,  by  a 
desperate  and  impious  obstinacy  of  mind  persevere 
in  their  sins,  and  proudly  resist  God  without  any 
humility  of  confession  or  repentance  ? 

This  was  St.  Austin's  constant  and  invariable 
sense  of  this  matter,  out  of  which  the  schoolmen, 
I  know  not  how,  have  raised  six  several  species  of 
blasphemy  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  viz.  despair, 
presumption,  final  impenitency,  obstinacy  in  sin, 
opposing  and  impugning  the  truth  which  a  man 
knows,  and  envious  malice  against  the  grace  of  the 
brethren :  whereas  nothing  can  be  plainer,  than  that 
St.  Austin  resolves  the  whole  matter  into  obstinacy 
in  opposing  the  methods  of  Divine  grace,  and  con- 
tinuing in  this  obduration  finally  without  repent- 


I 


*-  Aug.  Expos,  in  Rom.  i.  t.  4.  p.  366.  Quid  aliud  restat, 
nisi  ut  peccatum  in  Spiritum  Sanctum,  quod  neque  in  hoc 
seculo  neque  in  futuro  dimitti  Dominus  dicit,  nullum  iiitelli- 


gafur  nisi  perseverantia  in  nequitia  et  malignitate  cum  de- 
sperationc  indiilgentia3  Dei?  &c. 


VII. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


975 


ance.  Other  sins  may  lead  the  way  to  this  blas- 
phemy, in  word  or  action,  as  infidehty  or  reviHng 
tlic  Spirit,  in  Jews  or  heathens ;  or  heresy,  or  schism, 
or  an  immoral  life,  in  Christians  after  baptism  :  but 
;i!l  this  is  only  inchoative  blasphemy,  which  docs 
not  render  it  absolutely  unpardonable  ;  for  many 
of  nil  these  sorts  have  repcntedand  obtained  pardon  : 
liiil  wlicn  men  continue  obstinate  in  any  of  these 
sins,  and  finally  die  impenitent  in  them,  then  their 
sins  become  punishable  in  both  worlds,  and  pardon- 
al)li'  in  neither ;  not  for  want  of  mercy  in  God  or 
his  church,  but  for  want  of  repentance  and  capacity 
in  I  he  subject. 

And  by  this  account  it  is  easy  now  to  determine 
vihat  sort  of  punishments  and  ecclesiastical  cen- 
sHii's  were  inflicted  on  this  crime,  as  well  in  the 
111- 1  rise  and  beginning,  as  in  the  progress  andcon- 
smnmation  of  it.  The  same  punishment  that  was 
laid  upon  idolatry,  or  apostacy,  or  denying  the 
Divinity  of  Christ  or  the  Holy  Spirit,  or  lapsing 
iiito  any  great  immorality,  or  other  blasphemy  after 
baptism,  was  laid  upon  this  sin  of  blaspheming  the 
II  ily  Ghost;  because  it  usually  began  in  some  of 
t'v  se  notorious  misdemeanors;  of  which  if  men 
truly  repented,  the  door  of  mercy  was  still  open  to 
them,  and  the  church  was  ready  to  receive  them 
again  to  communion  :  but  if  they  continued  obdu- 
rate all  their  lives,  and  died  in  their  impenitency, 
as  this  was  esteemed  the  consummation  of  the  great 
sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  properly  the  sin 
unto  death ;  so  it  could  have  no  forgiveness  in  tliis 
world,  nor  the  world  to  come.  They  died  excom- 
municate, and  so  had  neither  the  solemnity  of  a 
Christian  burial,  nor  the  suffrages  of  the  church 
after  death ;  being  struck  out  of  her  diptychs,  and 
no  memorial  ever  after  made  of  them,  as  of  persons 
desperate,  and  entirely  out  of  God's  favour.  I  have 
been  the  longer  in  explaining  the  sense  of  the  an- 
cients upon  this  point,  not  only  because  it  is  not  veiy 
commonly  known,  but  also  because  it  may  be  of  use 
both  to  caution  ungodly  men  against  the  danger  of 
final  impenitency,  which  is  the  consummation  of  the 
blasphemy  against  the  Holy  Ghost ;  and  likewise 
serve  to  comfort  the  pious,  who  need  be  in  no  con- 
cern aboiit  the  commission  of  this  sin,  so  long  as 
they  truly  repent  of  all  sin,  and  desire  to  please  God 
in  the  constant  tenor  of  a  holy  life.  For  this  sin 
cannot  consist  with  a  true  repentance  :  and  though 
men  have  begun  in  any  degi-ee  to  commit  it,  yet,  ac- 
cording to  the  general  sense  of  the  ancients,  they 
are  still  capable  of  pardon,  if  they  do  not  render  it 


^'Vid.  Sixtiim  Senensem,  Bibliothec.  lib.  6.  Annot.  26. 
where  all  such  passajjes  are  collected. 

**  Cave,  Prim.  Christ,  part  3.  cap.  1.  p.  213. 

«  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  ].  de  Accusation.  Leg.  4:  Ita 
mihi  summa  Divinitas  semper  propitiasit,  et  me  incolumem 
praestet,  ut  cupio,  felicissima  et  fiorente  republica. 

<«  Ibid.  lib.  2.  Tit.  9.  de  Pactis,  Leg.  8.    Si  quis  adversus 


unpardonable  by  their  own  obstinacy  and  wilful  im- 
penitency to  the  hour  of  death,  after  which  it  can 
have  no  forgiveness  in  this  world  or  the  world  to 
come. 

The  next  transgression  of  the  third         ^^^^  ^ 
commandment,  which  they  punished  :,  "^  ■'I?/''"'',,"™"''; 

y  -'1  inif.     All   oaths  not 

with  ecclesiastical  censure,  was  pro-  ''''■^'"''''''"• 
fane  swearing,  or  reproaching  and  dishonouring  the 
name  of  God  by  oaths  and  execrations.  By  which 
they  did  not  mean  all  oaths  in  general,  nor  yet  any 
single  act  of  rash  and  hasty  swearing,  (unless  at- 
tended with  some  other  aggravating  crime  or  cir- 
cumstance of  apostacy,  idolatry,  perjury,  or  the 
hke,)  but  only  the  habit  and  custom  of  profane 
swearing.  Chrysostom  indeed,  and  some  others,  in 
their  sharp  invectives  against  common  swearing," 
seem  sometimes  to  carry  the  matter  so  far,  as  to  de- 
ny the  lawfulness  of  all  oaths  to  Christians  in  any 
case  whatsoever.  But  whatever  private  opinions 
some  few  might  have  of  this  matter,  (in  which  they 
were  not  constant  or  consistent  with  themselves,  as 
learned  men"  have  observed,)  it  is  certain  there 
never  was  any  public  rule  of  the  church  to  forbid 
this,  and  much  less  to  make  it  the  subject  of  ecclesi- 
astical censiu-e.  The  generality  of  Christians  always 
esteemed  the  taking  of  an  oath  in  necessary  cases 
for  confirmation  of  truth,  to  be  a  very  lawful  thing, 
as  appears  both  from  the  laws  themselves,  ecclesi- 
astical as  well  as  civil,  and  from  general  practice. 
One  of  Constantine's  laws  is  confirmed  with  a  so- 
lemn oath  in  the  very  body  of  it,  where  he  promises 
to  encourage  any  one  that  shall  give  just  informa- 
tion against  the  corrupt  practices  of  his  ministers," 
with  this  formal  asseveration.  As  the  most  high  God 
shall  be  merciful  to  me,  and  preserve  me  in  safety, 
according  to  my  desire,  in  the  flourishing  state  of 
the  commonAvcalth.  Nothing  was  more  usual  than 
the  taking  of  oaths  for  confirmation  of  contracts,  as 
is  evident  from  that  famous  law  of  Arcadius**  which 
inflicts  many  severe  penalties  upon  all  that  violate 
their  contracts  made  in  the  name,  and  confirmed 
by  the  authority  of  Almighty  God ;  and  also  on 
such  as  broke  their  contracts,  which  they  confirmed 
by  an  oath  taken  in  that  peculiar  form  of  swearing 
by  the  emperor's  safety.  Which  was  a  usual  form 
of  an  oath  among  Christians,  as  ancient  as  Tertnl- 
lian,  who  mentions  it  in  answer  to  an  objection 
made  by  the  heathen  against  them,  as  if  they  were 
enemies  to  the  government,  and  guilty  of  treason, 
because  they  refused  to  swear  by  the  emperor's  ge- 
nius.   To  this  he  replies.  That  though  they  did  not 


pacta  putaverit  esse  veniendum,  non  implendo  promissa  ea, 
qua3  invocato  nomine  Dei  Omnipotentis,  eo  auctore  solida- 
verit,  inuratur  infamia,  &c.  Eos  etiam  hujus  litis  vel  jac- 
tura  dignos  jubemus  esse  vel  munere,  qui  nomina  nostra 
placitis  inserentes,  salutcm  principum  confirmationem  ini- 
tarum  esse  juravcrint  pactionum. 


9/6 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


swear  by  the  emperor's  genius"  yet  they  made  no 
scruple  to  swear  by  the  emperor's  safety,  a  thing 
more  august  than  all  the  genii  in  the  world.  For 
the  genii  were  nothing  but  devils.  In  the  emperors 
they  acknowledged  God's  institution  and  authority, 
who  set  them  over  the  nations ;  and  therefore  they 
desired  their  safety  and  preservation,  as  God's  ap- 
pointment, and  made  a  great  and  solemn  oath  of 
that :  but  for  the  demons,  or  genii,  they  were  used 
to  abjure  them,  in  order  to  cast  them  out  of  the 
bodies  of  men ;  not  to  swear  by  them,  and  thereby 
confer  Divine  honour  upon  them.  Athanasius  men- 
tions the  same  form  as  used  in  his  time,  both  by  the 
catholics  and  by  Syrianus  the  prefect  of  Egypt, 
telling  Constantius^"  that  he  swore  by  his  safety. 
And  the  like  instances  are  given  by  Sozomen,^''  and 
Zosimus^"  the  heathen  historian.  In  the  colla- 
tion of  Carthage,  Marcellinus,  the  emperor's  com- 
missioner, who  was  appointed  to  hear  the  debate 
between  the  catholics  and  the  Donatists  in  the  time 
of  Honorius,  at  the  entrance  of  the  dispute  pro- 
mised both  sides  upon  oath  by  the  admirable  mys- 
tery of  the  Trinity,  and  the  sacrament  or  mystery 
of  the  Divine  incarnation,^'  and  the  safety  of  the 
emperors,  that  he  would  judge  truly  according  to 
the  allegations  of  the  parties.  And  the  same  form 
was  observed  in  the  military  oath  taken  by  the  sol- 
diers, when  they  entered  upon  the  muster-roll,  as 
we  learn  from  Vegetius,  who  lived  in  the  time  of 
the  younger  Valentinian :  he  says,^-  They  swore  by 
God,  by  Christ,  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  the  ma- 
jesty of  the  emperor,  which,  next  to  God,  is  to  be 
loved  and  honoured  by  mankind.  In  many  other 
cases  the  law  required  men  to  swear  upon  weighty 
concerns.  Constantine  ^^  required  every  witness  to 
take  an  oath  before  he  gave  his  testimony  in  any 
cause.  And  Justinian  "  not  only  confirmed  this  in 
his  Code,  but  added  several  other  cases,  in  which, 
not  only  witnesses,  but  also  both  the  plaintiff,  and 
defendant,  and  the  advocates  were  to  take  their 
several  oaths  upon  the  Gospels.  And  this  was  call- 
ed juramentum  de  calumnia,  the  oath  of  calumny," 
where  the  plaintiff  was  particularly  obliged,  before 


he  could  prosecute  his  action,  to  swear  that  he  did 
not  bring  his  action  against  his  adversary  with  any 
design  to  calumniate  him,  but  because  he  thought 
he  had  a  just  and  righteous  cause:  and  the  defend- 
ant was  to  take  a  like  oath  before  he  could  give  in 
his  answer.  They  were  likewise  obliged  by  an- 
other '"  law  to  swear.  That  they  had  given  no  bribe 
to  the  judges  or  any  other  person,  nor  promised  to 
give  any,  nor  would  hereafter  give  any.  And  it  has 
been  observed  before,"  that  to  prevent  simony  in 
elections  to  ecclesiastical  preferments,  the  electors 
were  obliged  by  the  same  laws  of  Justinian  **  to  de- 
pose upon  oath.  That  they  did  not  choose  the  party 
elected  either  for  gift,  promise,  or  friendship,  or  any 
other  reason,  but  because  they  knew  him  to  be  in 
every  respect  well  qualified  for  such  a  station.  And 
the  party  ordained  was  likewise  to  take  an  oath^' 
upon  the  holy  Gospels,  at  the  time  of  his  ordination. 
That  he  had  neither  given  by  himself,  or  other,  nor 
promised  to  give,  nor  would  hereafter  give,  to  his 
ordainer,  or  to  any  of  his  electors,  or  any  other  per- 
sons, any  thing  to  procure  him  an  ordination.  And 
for  any  bishop  to  ordain  another  bishop  without  ob- 
serving this  rule,  is  deposition  by  the  same  law  both 
for  the  ordained  and  his  ordainer.  Which  shows 
also,  that  the  injunction  of  taking  necessary  oaths 
did  not  only  bind  in  secular  and  civil  affairs,  but  in 
ecclesiastical  and  sacred  likewise.  And  here,  not 
to  insist  upon  all  that  is  said  in  private  writers  ;  as 
Athanasius  •*  requiring  of  Constantius,  that  his  ac- 
cusers might  be  put  to  their  oath ;  and  Evagrius, 
archdeacon  of  Constantinople,^'  swearing  upon  the 
holy  Gospels  ;  and  what  is  said  by  St.  Austin*-  and 
many  others  in  justification  of  this  practice  in  ne- 
cessary cases :  I  only  observe,  that  in  some  councils 
oaths  are  expressly  required  by  general  and  provin- 
cial councils  in  many  cases.  The  oath  of  fidelity 
to  kings  is  required,  by  the  fifth  council  of  Toledo,*' 
to  be  taken  by  all,  both  clergy  and  laity.  And  a 
reference  is  made  to  a  former  council  of  all  Spain, 
where  the  same  oath  was  established.  That  is  the 
fourth  council  of  Toledo,  where  a  complaint  is 
made**  of  many  nations  breaking  the  oath  of  fidelity 


■"  Tertul.  Apol.  cap.  32.  Sed  et  juramus,  sicut  non  per 
genios  Cajsarum,  ita  per  salutem  eorum,  quae  est  augustior 
omnibus  geniis,  &c. 

«  Athan.  Epist.  ad  Monachos,  t.  1.  p.  866.  Vide  Athan. 
Apol.  ad  Constant,  t.  1.  p.  689. 

«  Sozom.  lib.  9.  cap.  7.  '"^  Zosim.  Hist.  lib.  5. 

^'  CuUat.  Carth.  die  1.  cap.  5.  Per  admirabile  myste- 
rium  Trinitatis,  per  incarnationis  Dominica;  sacramentum, 
et  per  salutem  principiira,  quod  veri  invenerit  fides,  judica- 
turum  me  esse  promitto. 

'-  Veget.  de  Re  Militari,  lib.  2.  cap.  5. 

53  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  II.  Tit.  .39.  Leg.  3.  Jurisjurandi  re- 
ligione  testes,  priusquam  perhibeant  testimonium,  jamdu- 
dum  artari  praecipimus. 

"  Justin.  Cod.  lib.  4.  Tit.  20.  de  Testibus,  Leg.  9. 

55  Cod.  Justin.  Tit.  59.  de  Jurejurando  propter  Calum- 
niam.  Leg.  1  et  2. 


5«  Justin.  Novel.  124.  cap.  \.  "  chap.  6.  sect.  28. 

58  Justin.  Novel.  123.  cap.  I. 

55  Ibid.  1.37.  cap.  2. 

•*  Athan.  Apol.  ad  Constantium,  t.  1.  p.  678. 

^'  Sozomen.  lib.  6.  cap.  .30. 

"^  Aug.  Ep.  154.  ad  Publicolam.  Ser.  .30.  de  Verbis  Apos- 
toli.  Lib.  1.  de  Serm.  Dom.  cap.  30.  Greg.  Naz.  Ep.  219. 
ad  Theodorum.  Basil,  in  Psal.  xiv.  t.  1.  p.  1.33.  Hieron. 
in  Matt.  v. 

^  Cone.  Tolet.  5.  can.  2.  Hoc  quod  Divinis  sacramentis 
spospondiuuis.  &c. 

'^^  Cone.  Tolet.  4.  can.  74.  Qu.t;  in  hostibus  jurata  spon- 
sio  stabilis  permanebit,  qdando  nee  ipsis  propriis  regibus 
jiiratam  fidcm  conservant? — Sacrilegium  quippe  est,  si 
violetur  a  gentibus  regum  sunrum  promissa  fides  :  quia  non 
solum  in  eos  fit  pacti  transgressin,  sed  et  in  Deura,  in  cujus 
nomine  poUicetur  ipsa  promissio,  &c. 


Ch.ap.  VII. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


'i77 


taken  to  their  kings  ;  which,  they  rightly  observe, 
destroys  their  credit  with  all  nations  in  matters  of 
leagues  and  treaties  about  peace  and  war.  For 
what  enemy  can  depend  upon  their  promises,  though 
given  upon  oath,  who  do  not  preserve  the  faith 
which  they  swear  to  their  own  kings  ?  Such  viola- 
tion of  oaths  and  fidelity  to  their  kings,  is  sacrilege ; 
because  it  is  not  only  a  breach  of  compact  against 
them,  but  against  God,  in  whose  name  the  promise 
is  made.  The  same  council"  takes  notice  of  kings 
promising  upon  oath  to  pardon  criminals  in  some 
special  cases.  And  the  eighth  council  of  Toledo 
mentions  many  cases  in  which  it  was  usual  to  con- 
firm matters  with  a  solemn  oath ;  '^  as  the  making 
of  leagues ;  the  settling  of  lasting  and  inviolable 
friendship ;  the  taking  of  the  evidence  and  deposi- 
tions of  witnesses  in  law  ;  and  in  want  of  such  evi- 
dence, the  allowing  a  man  to  clear  his  own  inno- 
cence by  an  oath  of  purgation.  And  in  the  sixth 
general  council  held  at  Constantinople,  Georgius 
Chartophylax  is  appointed  several  times  to  take  his 
corporal  oath"  by  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  God 
that  speaks  in  them,  concerning  certain  things,  the 
truth  of  which  he  was  to  attest  before  the  council. 
From  all  which  it  is  evident,  that  the  ancient  Chris- 
tians thought  it  a  very  lawful  thing  to  ratify  and 
confirm  their  faith  by  the  formality  of  an  oath,  upon 
just  and  necessary  occasions;  and,  consequently, 
that  there  could  be  no  rule  to  prohibit  it,  much  less 
to  make  it  a  crime  worthy  of  ecclesiastical  censure. 
j-j.^,,  g  Neither  was  it  every  single  act  of 

iom''o7''"vIln  "Jfd  ^''-in    and    common    swearing    that 

common  swearinsr.      i  i,  t  itt-t 

brought  a  man  imder  public  disciphne. 
For  though  every  such  act  was  esteemed  a  crime, 
yet  it  was  not  like  the  single  act  of  apostacy,  or 
idolatry,  or  murder,  or  adultery,  but  it  must  be  a 
custom  or  habit  of  this  vice  that  made  a  man  liable 
to  the  severity  of  excommunication.  Tertullian®* 
says  expressly,  That  every  rash  and  vain  oath  did 
not  bring  a  man  under  the  discipline  of  j)ublic 
penance,  but  was  reckoned  among  the  sins  of  daily 
incursion,  for  which  private  repentance  was  ap- 
pointed. And  St.  Chrysostom,  who  is  most  vehe- 
ment and  severe  against  this  vice,  does  not  threaten 
men  with  excommunication  for  every  single  act  of 
it,  but  for  obstinate  continuance  in  the  custom  and 
practice  of  it  after  sufficient  admonition.     Having 


preached  a  whole  Lent  against  swearing  to  the 
people  of  Antioch,  he  thus  concludes  his  last  dis- 
course :  The  forty  days  of  Lent  are  already  past  f^ 
if  Easter  passes  likewise  without  reforming  this 
wicked  custom,  I  will  thenceforward  pardon  no 
man,  nor  use  any  longer  admonition,  but  command- 
ing authority,  and  sharpness  not  to  be  despised. 
It  is  no  just  apology  in  this  case  to  plead  custom. 
For  why  may  not  the  robber  as  well  ])lead  custom, 
and  thereby  excuse  himself  from  punishment  ? 
And  why  may  not  the  murderer  and  adulterer  do 
the  same  ?  Therefore  I  protest  and  denounce  be- 
forehand, that  if  I  apprehend  any  who  have  not 
corrected  this  vice,  I  will  inflict  punishment  upon 
them,  and  order  them  to  be  excluded  from  the  par- 
ticipation of  the  holy  mysteries.  So,  again,  in 
another  homily'"  to  the  people  of  Antioch :  For  this 
sin  we  mourn  and  lament ;  but  if  I  find  any  to  per- 
sist in  it,  I  will  exclude  them  from  entering  the 
doors  of  the  church,  and  partaking  of  the  heavenly 
mysteries.  Nor  let  any  one  think  to  insult  me  by 
the  help  of  his  riches  or  power.  Those  things  are 
no  more  to  me  than  a  mere  fable,  a  shadow,  or  a 
dream.  No  rich  man  will  be  able  to  be  my  advo- 
cate when  I  am  accused  before  God's  tribunal,  that 
I  did  not,  with  all  my  power  and  might,  assert  and 
vindicate  the  laws  of  God,  by  punishing  the  trans- 
gressors of  them. 

Another  transgression  of  this  com- 
mand was,  swearing  by  the  creatures.     And  swearing  ty 

mi        r  ^  -i        c   /-^        i  -i  llie  creatures. 

Ihe  fourth  council  or  Carthage''  or- 
ders a  clergyman  that  was  found  guilty  of  this 
crime,  to  be  first  sharply  reproved,  and  if  he  persist 
in  his  fault,  to  be  excommunicated.  St.  Jerom 
says"  our  Saviour  prohibited  it  in  those  words, 
"  Thou  shalt  not  swear  by  heaven,  nor  by  earth, 
nor  by  Jerusalem,  nor  by  thy  head."  And  there  goes 
a  decree  under  the  name  of  Pope  Pius  I.,"  which 
forbids  men  not  only  to  swear  by  the  hair  or  head 
of  God,  or  any  other  such  blasphemous  oaths,  but 
by  the  creature,  under  the  penalty  of  excommuni- 
cation. 

But  because  this  may  seem  to  contradict  what 
they  said  before,  that  a  man  might  lawfully  swear 
by  the  emperor's  safety  ;  we  are  to  consider,  that  in 
such  oaths  they  did  not  properly  swear  by  the 
creatures,  invoking  them  as  witnesses  of  the  truth  of 


^  Cone.  Tolet.  4.  can.  30.  Jurejurando  supplicii  indul- 
gentia  promiltitur. 

^  Cone.  Tolet.  8.  ean.  2.  Omne  quod  in  pacis  foedera 
venit,  tunc  solidius  subsistit,  cum  juramenti  hoc  interpositio 
roborat,  &c. 

«'  Cone.  G.  C.  P.  Act.  13.  p.  378.  Edit.  Crab.  Georsius 
Chartophyla.x  juravit  hoc  modo:  per  has  Sanctas  Scriptu- 
ras,  et  Deum  qui  per  cas  locutus  est,  &c.  It.  Act.  14. 
p.  382. 

•^  Tertul.  de  Pudicit.  cap.  19.  See  before,  chap.  3. 
sect.  14. 

■*  Chrys.  Horn.  22.  ad  Pop.  Antioch.  t.  I.  p.  291. 
o    I; 


■"  Ibid.  Horn.  17.  in  Mat.  p.  182. 

"  Cone.  Carth.  4.  can.  61.  Clericum  per  creaturas  juran- 
tem,  aeerrinie  objurgandum,  Si  perstiterit  in  vitio,  e.xconi- 
uumicandum. 

"-  Hieron.  in  IMat.  v.  Considera  quod  hie  Salvator  non 
per  Deum  jurare  prohibucrit,  sed  per  calum,  ct  tcrram,  et 
Hierosolymam,  et  per  caput  tmmi. 

'^  Ap.  Gratian.  Caus.  22.  Qusst.  I.  cap.  10.  Si  quis  per 
eapillum  Dei  vel  caput  juraverit,  vel  alio  modo  blasphemia 
contra  Deum  usus  fuerit ;  si  ecclesiastico  online  est,  depo- 
natur;  si  laicus,  anathematizetur,  et  si  quis  per  creaturam 
juraverit,  acerrime  castigetur,  &c. 


978 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


what  they  said,  but  only  naming  them  with  some 
relation  to  God,  by  whom  they  swore.  Which,  as 
learned'^  men  observe,  may  lawfully  be  done  two 
ways.  1.  In  execratory  oaths,  when  a  man  devotes 
any  creature,  in  which  he  himself  has  some  right 
and  property,  and  as  it  were  oppignorates  it  to  the 
severe  vengeance  of  God  the  Judge,  if  he  swear 
falsely.  Thus  a  man  may  in  a  serious  matter  devote 
his  head,  his  soul,  his  children,  or  any  other  thing 
belonging  to  him,  if  he  knowingly  forswear  him- 
self. Such  examples  of  oaths  we  have  in  Scrip- 
ture, which  respect  God  always  directly  as  Witness 
and  Judge ;  and  the  creature  only  as  some  thing 
dear  to  us,  which  we  are  willing  to  pawn,  to  certify 
our  neighbour  thereby,  that  we  intend  not  to  de- 
ceive him,  to  the  destruction  of  ourselves,  or  any 
things  that  are  highly  valued  by  us.  Thus  David 
swears,  Psal.  vii.  5,  "  If  I  have  done  any  such  thing, 
O  Lord  my  God,  or  if  there  be  any  wickedness  in 
my  hands,  then  let  my  enemy  persecute  my  soul." 
So  St.  Paul,  2  Cor.  i.  23,  "  I  call  God  for  a  record 
upon  my  soul."  And  thus  men  were  used  to  swear 
by  their  head,  devoting  it  to  a  curse,  if  they  wit- 
tingly falsified.  This  way  of  using  the  name  of  a 
creature  in  an  oath  is  reputed  lawful,  because  this  is 
not  properly  the  oath,  but  only  an  appendix  of  it. 
2.  The  other  way  of  mentioning  the  creatures  in  an 
oath,  without  swearing  by  them,  is,  when  by  a  testi- 
fication of  the  civil  respect  and  affection  they  have 
for  them,  they  likewise  signify  in  the  presence  of 
God  the  truth  of  what  they  say  to  men,  that  it  is  as 
certainly  true,  as  they  certainly  and  undoubtedly 
wish  the  wealth  and  prosperity  of  such  a  creature 
or  pei'son.  Thus  Joseph,  when  he  swore  by  God, 
mentioned  the  life  of  Pharaoh,  Gen.  xlii.  15,  which 
the  Vulgar  Latin  renders,  ^jer  salutem  Pharaonis, 
from  the  Septuagint,  vn  rrjv  vyiuav  4>apaw,  by  the 
safety  of  Pharaoh :  which  is  the  same  form  that, 
as  we  have  seen  before,  the  primitive  Christians 
used,  when  they  inserted  the  words,  j'jcr  salutem 
imperatoris,  into  their  ordinary  oaths  conceived  in 
the  name  of  God  only.  For  neither  of  these  in- 
tended, to  swear  by  the  creatures,  but  to  testify  in 
the  presence  of  God,  that  what  they  asserted  was  as 
certainly  true,  as  they  wished  the  safety  of  Pharaoh, 
or  the  emperor,  or  as  certainly  as  they  were  in 
health  and  in  being.  For  such  forms  may  be  taken 
either  by  way  of  prayer,  or  asseveration  and  pro- 
testation ;  where  the  protestation  is  plainly  express- 
ed, but  that  which  is  properly  the  oath  in  the  name 


of  God  is  covertly  understood.  And  in  this  sense, 
both  the  ancient  Christians  and  Joseph  are  to  be 
understood.  For,  as  St.  Basil "^  observes,  there  are 
some  modes  of  expression  which  seem  to  be  oaths, 
but  are  not  properly  oaths,  but  only  asseverations, 
to  confirm  the  truth  to  men :  he  instances  in  that 
of  Joseph,  who  sware,  vi)  Tt)v  vyiuav  ^apauj,  by  the 
safety  of  Pharaoh. 

But  the  case  was  otherwise  when  ^^^^^ 

men  swore  directly  by  any  creatures,  ^^^"X  %nhtl,  Ind 
as  judgers  and  revengers  of  their  «^""^  =""' ''"S'^'^- 
thoughts,  if  they  were  false  and  perfidious  in  their 
deposition.  Therefore,  though  the  Christians  ad- 
mitted the  naming  of  the  emperor's  safety  in  their 
oaths,  they  would  never  swear  by  the  emperor's 
genius,  because  this  was  idolatry,  and  in  efl^ect 
apostatizing  to  heathenism,  and  renouncing  the 
Christian  religion.  The  persecutors  required  no 
more  of  them  but  this,  as  a  testimony  of  their  re- 
nunciation. In  the  Passion  of  Polycarp,  recorded 
by  Eusebius,""'  the  proconsul  required  him  frequently 
to  swear  by  the  emperor's  genius  :  to  which  he  con- 
stantly replied.  That  he  was  a  Christian.  So  in  the 
Acts  of  the  Scillitan  martyrs"  in  Africa,  the  judge 
bids  them  only  swear  by  the  emperor's  genius,  and 
that  should  pass  for  an  acknowledgment  of  the 
Gentile  religion  :  but  they  answered,  We  know  no- 
thing of  the  emperor's  genius,  but  we  worship  and 
serve  the  God  of  heaven.  The  like  is  said  by  Ori- 
gen,'*  We  swear  not  by  the  emperor's  fortune  or 
genius  :  for  whether  fortune  be  only  a  casual  thing, 
as  some  repute  it,  we  swear  not  by  that  as  a  god, 
which  is  nothing  in  the  world,  lest  we  should  apply 
the  power  of  an  oath  to  that  which  we  ought  not ; 
or  whether  fortune  be  one  of  the  demons,  as  others 
say,  we  rather  choose  to  die,  than  swear  by  an  im- 
pious and  wicked  devil.  The  like  is  said  by  Minu- 
cius,"  That  it  was  pecuhar  to  the  heathens  to  swear 
by  the  emperor's  genius,  that  is,  his  demon ;  and 
that  it  was  safer  to  forswear  themselves  by  the  ge- 
nius of  Jupiter,  than  the  genius  of  the  emperor. 
TertuUian^  says.  Christians  absolutely  refused  to 
swear  by  this  form,  though  they  scrupled  not  to 
swear  by  the  emperor's  safety.  But  the  heathen 
rebels  were  used  to  swear*'  by  the  emperor's  genius, 
at  the  same  time  that  they  were  plotting  treason 
against  him ;  which  he  frequently  retorts  upon 
them,  because  they  were  used  to  charge  Christians"^ 
as  traitors,  because  they  would  not  swear  by  the 
emperor's  genius.     The  nature  of  this  crime  then, 


'*  Vid.  Rivet,  in  Decalog.  p.  126. 

"  Basil,  in  Psal.  xiv.  t.  1.  p.  133. 

"  Euseb.  lib.  4.  cap.  15.  p.  131.     "Ofxo(rov  ti'/w  Kai'o-apo? 

TUX';"- 

"  Acta  Mart.  Scyllitan.  ap.  Baron,  an.  202.  n.  2.  Pro- 
consul dixit :  Tantum  jura  per  genium  regis  nostri.  Spera- 
tus  dixit,  Ego  imperatoris  mundi  genium  nescio,  sed  ccelesti 
Deo  meo  servio. 

'8  Orig.  cent.  Ccls.  lib.  7.  p.  421. 


"'  Mimic,  p.  88.  Genium,  id  est,  daemonem  ejus  implo- 
rant ;  ct  est  eis  tutius  per  Jovis  genium  pejerare  quam 
regis. 

»»  Tertul.  Apol.  cap.  32. 

"  Ibid.  cap.  35.  Unde  Cassii,  et  Nigri,  et  Albini  ?  Omnes 
illi  sub  ipsa  usque  impietatis  eruptione  et  sacra  faciebant 
pro  salute  imperatoris,  et  genimn  ejus  dejerabant.  It.  lib. 
ad  Scapulam,  cap.  2. 

**-'  Tertul.  ad  Nationes,  lib.  1.  cap.  17. 


Chai>.  VII. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


979 


we  see,  was  plainly  idolatry,  and  apostacy,  in  giving 
Divine  honour  to  a  demon  instead  of  God,  and 
thereby  renouncing  at  once  the  Christian  religion. 
Whatever  penalties  therefore  were  imposed  on  idol- 
aters and  apostates,  the  same  we  may  conclude  to 
have  been  the  punishment  of  those  who  in  times  of 
persecution  complied  with  the  demands  of  the  hea- 
then, to  swear  by  the  emperor's  genius  or  demon, 
which  was  to  give  Divine  honour  to  creatures,  and 
the  worst  of  creatures,  the  apostate  angels,  who 
were  in  professed  rebellion  against  God. 

To  swear  by  good  angels,  or  saints,  or  the  Virgin 
Mary,  or  their  images  and  relics,  though  it  had  a 
more  specious  pretence,  was  not  much  short  of  the 
former  vice.  For  all  Divine  worship  being  appro- 
priated to  God  by  the  doctrine  of  the  ancients ;  and 
the  taking  of  an  oath  being  one  solemn  act  of  that 
worship ;  they  were  no  more  disposed  to  swear  by 
an  angel  or  a  saint  than  by  the  emperor's  genius,  or 
any  other  thing  that  might  reasonably  be  interpreted 
a  conferring  the  honour  of  God  upon  the  creature. 
Therefore  Optatus  objects  it  to  the  Donatists,  as  a 
great  piece  of  insolence  and  impiety,  that  whereas^ 
men  ought  to  swear  only  by  God  alone,  Donatus 
suffered  those  of  his  party  to  swear  by  himself  as  a 
god.  And  his  successors  as  greedily  embraced  this 
honour.  For  Optatus*^  charges  the  same  impiety 
upon  them  all  in  general :  The  people  swear  by  you, 
and  are  now  commonly  known  to  put  your  persons 
in  the  place  of  God.  Men  are  used  to  name  the 
name  of  God  in  oaths  to  confirm  their  faith  or 
veracity :  but  while  they  swear  by  you,  there  is  no 
mention  of  God  or  Christ  among  your  party.  If 
Divine  religion  be  transplanted  from  heaven  to  you, 
seeing  men  swear  by  your  name,  why  do  you  not 
assume  the  power  of  preventing  all  diseases  in  your- 
selves, and  those  of  your  party  ?  Let  no  one  die  : 
command  the  clouds  to  rain,  if  you  can  :  that  men 
may  swear  more  perfectly  by  your  name,  and  take 
no  notice  of  God.  O  sacrilegium  impietati  commix- 
tum  !  0  the  sacrilege  and  impiety  that  concurs  to- 
gether in  your  actions,  whilst  you  willingly  hear 
men  swear  by  your  names,  and  let  not  the  name  of 
God  be  once  mentioned  in  your  ears  !  He  says  fur- 
ther, That  they  were  *^  used  to  swear  by  their  pre- 
tended martyrs,  though  they  were  men  that  suffered 
for  their  crimes,  and  not  for  the  cause  of  religion. 
By  which  it  is  evident,  that  in  the  time  of  Optatus, 
to  swear  by  the  name  of  a  man,  whether  living  or 
dead,  was  reckoned  no  less  a  crime  than  sacrilege 


and  impiety,  as  transferring  the  honour  of  God 
upon  the  creature.  And,  consequently,  the  same 
punishment  that  was  due  to  sacrilege  and  impiety, 
must  be  supposed  to  be  the  punishment  of  this 
crime  in  all  those  that  were  guilty  of  it ;  though  we 
read  of  few  besides  these  heretics  in  those  days 
that  were  disposed  to  run  into  it,  till  the  worship  of 
saints,  and  angels,  and  the  Virgin  ]\Iary  began  to 
creep  into  the  church  ;  and  then,  together  with  that 
corruption,  came  in  this  other  of  joining  the  Virgin 
Mary,  and  the  archangels  Michael  and  Gabriel,  in 
the  same  oath  with  God.  The  form  of  which  sort 
of  oaths  we  have  in  one  of  Justinian's  Novels,*' 
which  obliges  every  governor  of  a  province  to  take 
an  oath  of  allegiance,  and  an  oath  against  bribery, 
or  corrupt  entrance  into  his  ofHce,  in  this  form : 
"  I  swear  by  God  Almighty,  and  his  only  begotten 
Son  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  the  most  holy  glorious  mother  of  God,  and 
ever  Virgin  Mary,  and  by  the  four  Gospels  which 
I  hold  in  my  hand,  and  by  the  holy  archangels 
Michael  and  Gabriel,  that  I  will  keep  a  pure  con- 
science, and  pay  faithful  and  true  allegiance  to 
their  most  sacred  Majesties,  Justinian  and  Theodora 
his  consort,  who  put  me  into  this  ofhce.  And  I 
swear  by  the  same  oath,  that  I  neither  gave,  nor 
will  give,  nor  promise  to  give,  any  thing  to  any  one 
whatsoever  for  his  patronage  or  assistance  in  pro- 
curing me  this  administration ;  but  as  I  received 
it  without  bribery,  so  I  will  execute  it  with  purity, 
being  content  with  the  public  salary  that  is  ap- 
pointed me."  The  matter  of  this  oath  is  exceeding 
good,  but,  it  must  be  confessed,  the  form  of  it  is  a 
deviation  from  the  purity  and  simplicity  of  former 
ages,  when  oaths  were  only  made  in  the  name  of 
God,  as  a  specialty  of  Divine  worship  peculiarly 
belonging  to  him.  This  is  the  first  instance  I  re- 
member of  any  oath  of  this  kind  allowed  in  the 
church  :  and  it  serves  to  show  in  how  short  a  time 
corruptions  may  gain  ground  by  authority ;  for  that 
which  was  reputed  sacrilege  and  impiety  in  the 
time  of  Optatus,  was  now  become  an  instance  of 
singular  devotion  to  the  archangels  and  the  Virgin 
Mary.  There  are  many  other  things  might  be 
noted  concerning  oaths  ;  but  here  I  only  speak  of 
such  things  as  relate  to  the  discipline  of  the  churcli. 
The  next  great  crime  that  mi^ht 

-,  .  ,  ,  Sect.  8. 

be  committed  against  the  name  and    ofperjury,  andits 

putiishmeitt. 

majesty  of  God,  was  perjury;  which 

might  be  committed  cither  at  the  time  of  taking 


'^  Optat.  lib.  3.  p.  G5.  Ciiin  per  solum  Deum  soleant 
homines  jurare,  passus  est  homines  per  sc  sic  jurare,  tau- 
quam  per  Deum. 

"  Ibid.  lib.  2.  p.  58.  Populus  vester  per  vos  jurant,  et 
personas  vestras  jam  pro  Deo  habere  noscuntur,  &c. 

"^  Ibid.  lib.  3.  p.  69.  Quos  vos  inter  martyres  ponitis,  per 
qnos,  tanquam  per  unicam  religionem,  vestroe  communiouis 
hmuines  jnrant. 

3  R  2 


^  Justin.  Novel.  9.  Jure  ego  per  Deum  Omnipotenfem, 
et  Filium  ejus  unigenitum  Dominum  nostrum  Jesum  Chris- 
tum, et  Spiritum  Sanctum,  ct  per  sanctam  gloriosam  Dei 
Geuetricem  et  semper  Virginem  Mariam,  et  per  quatuor 
Evangelia,  qua;  in  manibus  mcis  tenco,  et  persanctos  arch- 
angelos  Michaelem  et  Gabrielem,  puram  conscientiam  ger- 
manumque  servitium  me  servaturum  sacratissimis  nostris 
Dominis  Justiniuno  et  Theodoras  conjugi  ejus,  &c. 


1 


980 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


the  oath,  by  swearing  to  a  false  thing,  or  swearing 
to  do  some  wicked  and  unlawful  thing;  or  else 
afterward,  by  not  performing  what  a  man  lawfully 
might,  when  he  was  solemnly  engaged  upon  oath 
to  do  it.  He  that  swore  to  do  an  unlawful  thing, 
as  suppose  to  live  in  perpetual  enmity  with  another 
man,  and  never  be  reconciled  to  him,  was,  by  the 
council  of  Lerida,"  to  be  cast  out  of  communion  a 
whole  year  for  his  perjury,  and  obUged  to  repent  of 
his  unlawful  oath,  and  be  reconciled  to  his  brother. 
For  in  this  case,  as  the  fathers  and  canons  **  deter- 
mine, the  unlawful  oath  was  not  to  be  kept,  lest  it 
should  involve  him,  like  Herod,  in  a  double  or 
triple  sin  ;  but  he  was  to  rescind  his  oath,  and  re- 
pent of  his  perjury,  which  was  better  than  to  add 
one  sin  to  another  under  pretence  of  piety  and  re- 
ligion. In  this  case  the  penance  was  so  much  the 
shorter,  because  men  were  supposed  by  some  hasty 
passion  to  be  involved  rashly  in  this  guilt,  and  not 
by  any  settled  consideration. 

But  in  other  cases,  perjury  in  attesting  a  false 
thing,  or  not  performing  a  lawful  oath,  was  more 
severely  treated.  For  Chrysostom  reckons  perjury 
in  the  same  class  with  murder,  fornication,**"  and 
adultery.  And  St.  Basil""  imposes  eleven  years' 
penance  upon  those  that  were  guilty  of  it :  The  per- 
jured person  shall  be  a  mourner  two  years,  a  hearer 
three,  a  prostrator  four,  a  co-stander  one.  The 
first  council  of  Mascon"'  orders  those  that  drew 
others  into  false  witness  or  perjury,  to  be  cast  out 
of  communion  to  the  hour  of  death ;  and  those 
that  were  so  drawn  in,  to  be  for  ever  after  incapa- 
ble of  giving  testimony,  and  to  be  noted  as  in- 
famous persons  according  to  the  laws  ;  meaning, 
probably,  the  laws  of  the  state,  as  well  as  the  laws 
of  the  church.  For,  as  Gothofred  shows  at  large, 
the  civil  law  under  the  old  Romans  set  the  brand 
of  infamy  upon  all  such  perjured  persons  ;  and  Ho- 
norius  added  several  other  penalties"'  to  give  new 
vigour  to  the  ancient  laws,  and  make  them  more 
effectual.  I  cannot  here  omit  the  relation  which 
Eusebius  gives  of  the  Divine  vengeance  pursuing 
three  perjured  villains,  who  combined  together  to 
swear  to  a  false  accusation,  which  they  had  plotted 
beforehand  against  Narcissus,  bishop  of  Jerusalem; 
because  it  shows,  that  when  church  discipline  can- 
not take  effect  for  want  of  evidence  against  the 
criminal.  Providence  is  sometimes  pleased  to  inter- 
pose, and  revenge  this  crime  by  an  immediate  Di- 


vine judgment.  Three  men,  he  says,"^  who  were 
afraid  to  be  called  in  question  by  the  bishop,  and 
punished  for  their  wicked  lives,  resolved  to  be  be- 
forehand with  him,  by  contriving  and  bringing  a 
heavy  accusation  against  him.  And  to  gain  credit 
to  their  accusation  before  the  church,  they  each 
confirmed  it  with  a  solemn  oath.  One  of  them 
wished.  That,  if  he  swore  falsely,  he  might  perish  by 
fire ;  another.  That  his  body  might  be  consumed 
by  some  pestilential  disease ;  and  the  third,  That 
he  might  lose  his  eyes.  The  church  gave  no  credit 
to  their  oaths,  as  knowing  the  bishop  to  be  of  a 
clear  and  unblamable  life :  however,  he  being  not 
able  to  bear  the  calumny,  and  being  otherwise  of  a 
long  time  desirous  of  a  retired  life,  he  thereupon 
withdrew  into  the  wilderness,  leaving  his  church,  to 
live  the  life  of  a  hermit.  But  the  great  eye  of  jus- 
tice did  not  thus  suffer  the  matter  to  rest,  but  pre- 
sently revenged  the  miscreants  with  the  curses  they 
had  imprecated  upon  themselves.  For  the  first,  by 
a  little  spark  of  fire,  that  casually  happened  in  his 
house,  and  whereof  no  one  could  give  any  account, 
was  in  the  night,  himself,  family,  and  house,  uni- 
versally burnt  to  ashes ;  the  second  was  from  the 
sole  of  the  foot  to  the  crown  of  his  head  overrun 
and  consumed  by  the  same  pestilential  disease 
which  he  had  wished  upon  himself;  and  the  third, 
seeing  what  had  befallen  the  other  two,  and  fear- 
ing the  inevitable  vengeance  of  the  all-seeing  God, 
confessed  the  whole  plot  and  contrivance  of  the 
calumny  which  they  had  formed ;  and  he  testified 
his  repentance  with  so  deep  a  sorrow,  that  with  the 
multitude  of  his  tears  he  lost  his  sight.  Thus  these 
perjured  wretches  were  punished  by  the  hand  of 
God,  when  ecclesiastical  censure,  for  want  of  evi- 
dence, could  not  touch  them. 

The  last  transgression  of  this  com- 
mandment, that  was  punished  with 
ecclesiastical  censure,  was  breach  of  vows,  or  pro- 
mises solemnly  made  to  God.  And  this  was  both 
in  things  and  persons.  If  a  man  vowed  to  give 
his  estate,  or  any  part  of  it,  to  the  service  of  God, 
it  was  a  breach  of  vow,  including  sacrilege,  to  re- 
tract it.  Ananias  was  severely  censured  for  this, 
in  such  an  extraordinary  way,  by  the  apostolical  rod 
and  mouth  of  St.  Peter,  as,  in  St.  Basil's  judgment, 
left  him  no  room  for  repentance."'  The  church  in 
after  ages  could  not  punish  such  delinquents  in 
that  extraordinary  manner  ;    but   as   every   such 


"  Cone.  Ilerdcns.  can  7.  Qui  sacramento  se  obligaverit, 
ut  litigans  cum  quolibet,  ad  pacem  nuUo  modo  redeat,  pro 
perjurio  uno  anno  a  communione  sanguinis  et  corporis  Do- 
minici  segregatus,  reatum  suum  fletibus,  elsemosynis,  et 
qiiantis  potuerit  jejuniis  absolvat. 

'*''  Vid.  Cone.  Tolet.  8.  can.  2,  where  the  testimonies  of 
St.  Ambrose,  St.  Austin,  Gregory,  and  Isidore,  are  cited  at 
large  to  this  purpose.   As  also  in  Gratian.  Cans.  22.  QiiJEst.  1. 

'"Chrys.  Horn.  17.  in  Matt.  p.  182.  It.  Horn.  22.  de  Ira, 
t.  1.  p.  294. 


^  Basil,  can.  Gi. 

°'  Cone.  Matiscon.  ].  can.  17.  Si  quis  convictus  fuerit 
alios  ad  f'alsum  testimonium  vel  perjurium  attra.xisse,  ipse 
quidem  usque  ad  e.xitum  non  communicet :  hi  vero  qui  ei 
in  perjurio  consensisse  probantur,  post  ab  omni  sunt  testi- 
mouio  prohibendi,  et  secundum  legem  infamia  notabuntur. 

"■'-  Vid.  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  2.  Tit.  9.  de  Pactis,  Leg.  8.  Et 
Gothofred.  in  locum. 

s'  Euseb.  lib.  6.  cap.  9. 

''  Basil.  Honi.  de  Institut.  Monach. 


(HAP.    VIII. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


981 


breach  of  vow  was  a  piece  of  sacrilege,  as  well  as 
perfidiousncss  and  perjury,  we  may  be  sure,  the  com- 
mon penalties  that  were  inflicted  on  those  two  crimes 
singly,  were  no  less  carefully  imposed  on  this  crime, 
where  they  centred  both  in  combination.  There 
was  also  a  breach  of  vow,  which  concerned  the 
dedication  of  persons  to  God.  The  clergy  were 
supposed  to  be  more  peculiarly  God's  inheritance, 
dedicating  themselves  by  a  solemn  act  of  their  own 
voluntary  choice  to  the  ministry  of  his  church ; 
and  therefore  none  of  this  order  were  allowed  to 
desert  their  station,  and  turn  seculars  again,  upon 
the  severest  penalty  of  excommunication.  As  ap- 
pears from  the  rules  of  the  general  council  of  Chal- 
cedon,°*  and  the  council  of  Tours.™  Which  the 
laws  of  the  state  confirmed  by  proper  sanctions  ■'' 
of  a  civil  nature,  ordering  all  such  deserters  to  be 
delivered  up  to  the  curia  of  the  city,  to  serve  there 
all  their  lives ;  and  to  forfeit  all  such  estates  as 
they  were  possessed  of,  to  the  church  or  monastery 
to  which  they  belonged.  For  the  same  penalties 
■were  inflicted  on  monks  and  consecrated  virgins 
and  widows,  who  by  any  solemn  vow  had  bid  adieu 
to  the  world,  and  -had  betaken  themselves  to  the 
ascetic  life.  If  after  this  they  married  and  returned 
to  a  secular  life,  though  the  church  did  not  annul 
their  marriage,  under  the  notion  of  being  adulter- 
ous, (which  is  now  commonly  done  in  the  Romish 
communion,)  yet  she  imposed  a  certain  penance 
upon  them,  as  guilty  of  perfidiousncss  and  breach 
of  vow.  The  council  of  Chalcedon*^  orders  both 
monks  and  virgins  to  be  excommunicated,  if  they 
married  after  their  solemn  consecration  and  pro- 
fession. St.  Basil  says'"  they  were  to  do  the  penance 
of  fornicators  or  adulterers.  Not  that  he  reckoned 
their  marriage  fornication  or  adultery,  but  only  to 
assign  the  term  of  their  penance.  For,  as  we  have 
showed  elsewhere"""  out  of  St.  Austin,""  such  mar- 
riages were  never  reputed  adultery,  but  true  mar- 
riages, and  therefore  not  annulled  by  any  rule  of 
the  ancient  church  :  though  now,  by  the  authority 
of  the  council  of  Trent,  the  contrary  practice  pre- 
vails in  the  Romish  church,  where  all  such  mar- 
riages are  reversed,  and  the  parties  obliged  to  sepa- 
rate from  one  another. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

OF  SINS  AGAINST  THE  FOURTH  COMMANDMKNT,  OR 
VIOLATIONS  OF  THE  LAW  ENJOINING  THE  RELI- 
GIOUS OBSERVATION  OF  THE  LORD's   DAY. 

Something  has  already  been  noted  j,^_,j  , 
concerning  the  religious  observation  roii*'ou"a".femw'iI1 
of  the  Lord's  day  in  a  former  Book,'  r,mv"'mii»i"pd'b/tif« 
and  more  will  be  said  hereafter,  when  '-- """^ '^''"'-»'- 
we  come  to  speak  of  the  festivals,  of  which  this  was 
always  reckoned  the  principal  in  the  Christian 
church.  Here,  therefore,  our  present  subject  only 
requires  us  to  remark  such  violations  of  the  law 
enjoining  the  religious  observation  of  the  Lord's 
day,  as  made  men  liable  to  ecclesiastical  censure. 
And  first,  it  being  a  rule,  that  men  should  meet  to- 
gether to  celebrate  all  Divine  offices  in  public  on 
the  Lord's  day  ;  the  voluntary  absenting  from  this 
service,  either  in  whole  or  in  part,  was  ever  reputed 
a  crime  worthy  of  ecclesiastical  censure.  To  absent 
wholly,  as  heretics  and  schismatics  did,  by  a  chosen 
separation,  though  they  met  in  private  conventicles 
of  their  own,  was  esteemed  such  a  violation  of  the 
law,  as  the  church  thought  fit  to  punish  with  the 
severest  censure  of  anathema :  as  appears  from  se- 
veral canons  of  the  council  of  Gangra,^  which 
having  been  related  at  length  before,'  I  need  not 
here  repeat  them.  Secondly,  If  men,  who  were 
otherwise  orthodox,  neglected,  for  any  considerable 
time,  to  frequent  the  church  on  the  Lord's  day,  this 
was  a  misdemeanor  deserving  to  be  corrected  by  a 
judicial  suspension  from  the  communion.  This  may 
be  seen  in  the  canons  of  Eliberis,^  Sardica,^  and  the 
council  of  TruUo,^  which,  for  the  same  reason,  I 
forbear  to  recite. 

Thirdly,  To  frequent  some  part  of  g^^,  ^ 
Divine  service  on  the  Lord's  day,  and  some'^'parrof  ^the 
neglect  or  withdraw  from  the  rest,  aad'''negrtcu^°g"the 
was,  in  those  days,  a  crime  of  a  very  '  , 
high  nature,  and  punishable  with  excommunication. 
This  is  evident  from  those  called  the  Apostolical 
Canons,  one  of  which  orders,'  That  all  communi- 
cants, who  came  to  church  to  hear  the  sermon  and 
the  Scriptures  read,  but  did  not  sta}'^  to  join  in  the 
prayers,  and  receive  the  cucharist,  should  be  sus- 
pended, as  authors  of  confusion  and  disorder  in  the 
church.  The  same  is  decreed  in  the  council  of  An- 
tioch*  in  the  same  terms,  and  under  the  same  penalty. 


"^  Cone.  Chalced.  can.  7.  ""  Cone.  Turon.  can.  .'). 

»'  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  G.  Tit.  2.  de  Epise.  Leg.  39.  Cod. 
Justin,  lib.  1.  Tit.  3.  de  Epise.  Leg.  55.  Of  which  see  more, 
Book  VI.  chap.  4.  sect.  L 

^^  Cone.  Chalced.  can.  IG.  Vid.  Cone.  Tolct.  4.  can.  54. 
Leo,  Ep.  92.  ad  Rusticum,  c.  12.     Cone.  Ancyr.  can.  19. 

«>  Basil,  can.  GO.  ""  Book  VII.  chap.  3.  sect.  23. 


""  Aug.  de  Bono  Viduitatis,  cap.  10. 

'  Book  XIII.  chap.  9.  sect.  ]. 

-  Cone.  Gangrcns.  can.  5,  6,  7,  &c. 

3  Book  XVI.  chap.  I.  sect.  5. 

'  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  21. 

5  Cone.  Sardie.  can.  II.  ^  Cone.  Tndl.  can.  80. 

'  Cacon.  A  post.  c.  7.  *  Cone.  Anlioch.  can.  2. 


982 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XYI. 


The  council  of  Eliberis*  forbids  the  bishop  to  receive 
the  oblations  of  such  as  did  not  communicate; 
which  was,  in  effect,  to  exclude  them  from  the  com- 
munion of  the  church.  And  the  first  council  of 
Toledo'"  orders  such  as  come  to  church,  but  neglect 
to  frequent  the  communion,  to  be  admonished;  and 
if,  upon  admonition,  they  amend  not,  then  to  put 
them  under  public  penance,  as  great  offenders.  And 
another  canon"  of  the  same  council  adds,  That  if 
any  present  themselves  to  the  communion,  and  take 
the  eucharist  at  the  hands  of  the  priest,  and  yet 
forbear  to  eat  it,  they  shall  be  driven  out  of  the 
chm'ch  as  sacrilegious  persons.  All  these  canons 
suppose,  what  we  have  fully  evinced  in  a  former 
Book,'^  that  the  celebration  of  the  eucharist  was  a 
standing  part  of  Divine  service  every  Lord's  day ; 
and  that  every  Christian  communicant,  who  was 
not  under  penance,  was  obliged  to  partake  thereof, 
to  fulfil  the  duty  he  owed  to  God  upon  this  day : 
and,  therefore,  all  such  as  neglected  this  part  of  Di- 
vine worship,  were  to  be  censured  as  transgressors, 
for  contemning  one  principal  part  of  the  reUgious 
obsei-vation  of  the  Lord's  day.  I  cannot  write  this 
without  lamenting  the  hard  fate  of  many  pious  per- 
sons in  the  present  age,  whose  disposition  would 
inchne  them  to  be  constant  communicants  every 
Lord's  day,  but  they  want  opjwrtunity  in  the  pre- 
sent posture  of  affairs  to  execute  their  good  designs. 
Such  must  content  themselves  with  that  of  the 
apostle,  "  If  there  be  first  a  willing  mind,  it  is  ac- 
cepted according  to  that  a  man  hath,  and  not  ac- 
cording to  that  he  hath  not ;"  and  in  the  mean  time 
pray  to  God  to  find  out  a  method  in  his  good  provi- 
dence to  restore  the  ancient  discipline  and  primitive 
fervour.     But  I  proceed. 

It  was  an  ancient  and  general  cus- 
Fasting"  on  fhe  tom  iu  tlic  primitive  church,  to  keep 

Lord's  dav  prohibit-  '• 

pd  under  pain  of  ex-  the  Lord's  dav  as  a  festival,  and  day 

comamnication.  -'  •' 

of  rejoicing,  in  memory  of  our  Sa- 
viour's resurrection ;  and  never  to  fast  on  that  day, 
no,  not  even  in  the  time  of  Lent.  And,  therefore, 
to  fast  perversely  on  this  day  was  always  reputed  a 
crime  deserving  ecclesiastical  censure.    TertuUian" 


says.  They  counted  it  a  crime  to  fast  on  the  Lord's 
day.  And  he  remarks,  That  even  the  Montanists, 
who  were  the  most  rigid  in  observing  their  times 
of  fasting,  omitted"  both  Saturday  and  Sunday 
throughout  the  year.  For  though  they  observed 
three  Lents,  and  two  weeks  of  xerophagia,  or  dry 
meats,  besides,  yet  they  excepted  the  sabbath,  or 
Saturday,  and  the  Lord's  day  from  these  laws  of 
fasting.  St.  Ambrose  likewise  tells  us,'*  That  the 
catholics  were  used  to  except  these  two  days  in 
their  Lent  fasts.  They  never  fasted  on  the  Lord's 
day,  but  thought  they  had  reason  to  condemn  the 
Manichees  for  so  doing : '"  for  to  appoint  that  day 
to  be  a  fast-day,  was  in  effect  to  disbelieve  the  re- 
surrection of  Christ.  Several  other  heretics  beside 
the  Manichees,  were  condemned  for  this  practice 
by  the  first  council  of  Braga :"  they  particularly 
name  the  Cerdonians,  Marcionites,  and  Priscillian- 
ists,  whom  they  anathematize  upon  this  account, 
as  fasting  on  the  day  of  Christ's  nativity  and  the 
Lord's  day,  because  they  did  this  in  derogation  to 
the  truth  of  Christ's  human  nature.  Pope  Leo  notes 
the  Priscillianists "  upon  the  same  account.  And 
the  fourth  council  of  Carthage'*  censures  them  as 
no  catholics,  who  choose  to  fast  upon  this  day.  St. 
Austin'-"  not  only  says,  that  it  was  the  custom  of 
the  whole  catholic  church  to  abstain  from  fasting 
on  this  day,  but  that  no  one  could  do  otherwise 
without  giving  great  scandal  to  the  church,  because 
the  impious  Manichees  had  chosen  this  day  par- 
ticularly-' to  fast  upon  in  opposition  to  the  church. 
Upon  these  grounds  and  reasons  the  canons  are 
very  severe  in  their  censures  of  such  transgressors. 
If  any  one  fast  on  the  Lord's  day,  says  the  council 
of  Gangra,"  though  it  be  under  pretence  of  leading 
an  ascetic  life,  let  him  be  anathema.  In  like  man- 
ner the  Apostolical  Canons,^  If  any  clergyman  fast 
on  the  Lord's  day,  or  sabbath,  (one  only  excepted, 
viz.  the  sabbath  before  Easter,)  let  him  be  deposed. 
If  he  be  a  layman,  let  him  be  cast  out  of  the  com- 
munion of  the  church.  And  this  is  repeated  in  the 
council  of  Trullo,^^  and  other  rules  of  the  ancient 
church. 


"  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  28.  Episcopum,  placuit,  ab  eo  qui 
non  communicat,  munera  accipere  non  debere. 

'"  Cone.  Tolet.  1.  can.  13.  De  his  qui  intrant  in  ecclesiam, 
et  deprehenduntur  nunquam  coinmunicare,  admoneantur. 
Quod  si  non  comnaunicant,  ad  pa;nitentiam  accedant. 

"  Ibid.  can.  14.  Si  quis  autem  acceptam  a  sacerdote  eu- 
charisfiam  non  sumpserit,  velut  sacrilegus  propellatur. 

'-  Book  XV.  chap.  9. 

"  Tertul.  de  Coron.  Mil.  cap.  3.  Die  Dominico  jejunare 
no  fas  cbicimus. 

"  Id.  de  Jejun.  adversus  Psychicos,  cap.  15.  Duas  in 
anno  hebdomadas  xerophagiarum,  nee  tolas,  exceptis  scili- 
cet sabbatis  et  Dominicis,  Deo  offerimus. 

'^  Ambros.  de  Elia  et  Jejunio,  cap.  10.  Quadragesimee 
totis,  praeter  sabbatum  et  Dominicani,  jejunatur  diebus. 

'°  Ambr.  Ep.  83.  Dominica  jejunare  non  possumus,  quia 
Jlauicheeosetiam  ob  istiusdiei  jejunia  jure  damnamus.   Hoc 


enim  est  in  resurrectionem  Christi  non  credere,  si  quis  legem 
jejunii  die  resurrectionis  indicat. 

"  Cone.  Bracar.  1.  can.  4.  Si  quis  natale  Christi  secun- 
dum carnem  non  vere  honoret,  sed  honorare  se  simulat,  je- 
junans  in  eodem  die  etia  Dominico;  quia  Christum  in  vera 
homiuis  natura  non  credit,  sicut  Cerdon,  Marcion,  Mani- 
chuBUs,  et  Priscillianus,  anathema  sit. 

'*  Leo,  Ep.  93.  ad  Turibium,  cap.  4. 

''  Cone.  Carth.  4.  can.  64.  Qui  Dominico  die  studiose 
jejunal,  non  credatur  catholicus. 

"»  Aug.  Ep.  119.  ad  Januar.  cap.  15. 

-'  Ibid.  86.  ad  Casnlan. 

2-  Cone.  Gangren.  can.  18.     Et  tis  &ui  vofxi(fifLiv\)v  aa-- 

K1](JW  iu  TIJ  KVpLaKTJ  V1](TTiV0l,   dvddtfia  ICTTW. 

-3  Canon.  Apost.  64. 

•*  Cone.  Trull,  can.  55.     Vid.  Cone.  Cecsaraugust.  c.  2, 


Chap.  IX. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


983 


Sect.  4. 
Frequenting  th€ 

1 1. ■•litre    and    olhi 


There  were  many  other  rules  made 
by  the  ancients  for  the  decent  observ- 
tZl^r^l^'to'^  ation  of  the  Lord's  day:  as, that  men 
'"""'""'■  should  abstain  from  all  unnecessary 

bodily  labour;  that  all  law-suits  and  pleadings  and 
jirosecutions  should  cease  upon  this  day  ;  that  Di- 
vine service  should  be  performed  standing,  in  me- 
mory of  our  Saviour's  resurrection :  but  as  the 
transgressions  of  these  rules  are  not  xisually  men- 
tioned with  the  same  commination  of  ecclesiastical 
punishments,  the  consideration  of  them  belongs 
not  to  this  head,  but  shall  be  reserved  for  its  proper 
place,  under  the  title  of  festivals,  where  the  observ- 
ation of  the  Lord's  day  will  come  again  more  par- 
ticularly to  be  considered.  But  there  is  one  thing 
more  that  must  not  here  be  omitted ;  which  is,  that 
when  men  neglected  the  public  service  of  God,  to 
follow  vain  sports  and  pastimes  on  this  day,  this 
was  thought  a  crime  worthy  to  be  corrected  by  the 
severest  censures  of  the  church.  The  imperial  laws 
forbade  all  public  games  and  shows  on  this  day. 
Theodosius  the  Great"  speaks  of  two  laws  made 
by  himself  to  this  purpose.  And  Theodosius  junior 
made  another,^  wherein  he  not  only  forbids  the  ex- 
hibiting of  the  shows  on  the  Lord's  day,  but  on  the 
other  great  festivals,  the  Nativity,  Epiphany,  Easter, 
and  Pentecost.  But  no  penalties  being  annexed  to 
these  laws,  there  was  still  occasion  for  the  laws  of 
the  church  to  restrain  men  by  ecclesiastical  censures. 
And  therefore  the  canons  made  this  crime  to  be 
noted  as  a  heinous  offence,  and  punished  the  trans- 
gressors with  excommunication.  If  any  one  on  a 
solemn  day,  says  the  fourth  council  of  Carthage,"' 
leave  the  solemn  assembly-  of  the  church,  to  go  to 
the  shows,  let  him  be  excommunicated.  And  an- 
other canon  ^  excommunicates  those  who  leave  the 
church  whilst  the  bishop  is  preaching.  The  fifth 
council  of  Carthage,  as  it  is  related  in  the  African 
Code,^  petitioned  the  emperor  Honorius  to  forbid 
all  theatrical  shows  on  the  Lord's  day  and  all  the 
great  festivals.  St.  Chrysostom'"  calls  them  Sara- 
I'jK-d  (TvviSpia,  the  conventions  of  Satan,  and  tells  his 
auditory,  he  would  no  longer  use  gentle  remedies, 
but  styptics  and  caustics,  to  put  a  stop  to  the  raging 
distemper.      They  that   continued    in   this  crime 


after  this  formal  admonition,  should  be  no  longer 
endured,  but  feel  the  weight  of  the  ecclesiastical 
laws,  and  learn  thereby  not  to  contemn  the  Divine 
oracles.  By  which  it  is  evident,  that  though  the 
games  and  pastimes  of  the  circus  and  the  theatre 
were  still  allowed  under  the  Christian  emperors, 
yet  they  were  precisely  forbidden  on  the  Lord's  day ; 
and  to  frequent  them  at  that  time,  was  one  of  those 
great  transgressions  for  which  men  felt  the  heaviest 
censures  of  the  church. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

OF  GREAT  TRANSGIRESSIONS  AGAINST  THE  FIFTH 
COMMANDMENT,  DISOBEDIENCE  TO  PARENTS  AND 
MASTERS,  TREASON  AND  REBELLION  AGAINST 
PRINCES,  AND  CONTEMPT  OF  THE  LAWS  OF  THE 
CHURCH. 

Under  the  name  of  parents  is  com- 
monly understood  not  only  the  natural      rhiWn'n  'not  (o 
parents,  but  also  the  political  or  civil,  u'^der  pr'-'onc^"ir 

,  .  .  reli;^ion.    The    cen- 

that  IS,  magistrates  and  rulers :  as  also  ^'"■=   "f  ^'"-^  « 

.    .  '^  taught  othinvisc. 

spiritual  parents,  that  is,  the  govern- 
ors of  the  church ;  and  economical  parents,  that  is, 
masters  of  families ;  whose  authority  respectively 
over  their  children,  subjects,  people,  and  servants 
being  very  great,  it  was  thought  proper  to  secure  it 
not  only  by  the  laws  of  the  state,  but  also  by  the 
laws  and  spiritual  censures  of  the  church. 

Children,  by  the  old  Roman  law,  were  esteemed 
so  much  the  property  and  possession  of  their  pa- 
rents, that  they  had  power  of  life  and  death'  over 
them ;  and  also  might  sell  them  to  be  slaves  without 
redemption^  in  cases  of  extreme  necessity  for  their 
own  maintenance,  as  appears  from  several  laws  in 
both  the  Codes ;  and  the  complaints  made  by  the 
ancients  ^  of  this  hardship ;  and  the  allusion  which 
our  Saviour  makes  in  the  parable  to  the  like  cus- 
tom among  the  Jews,  Matt,  xviii.,  where  the  lord 
commands  his  debtor  to  be  sold,  and  his  wife  and 
children,  and  all  that  he  had,  and  payment  to  be 


25  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  15.  Tit.  5.  de  Spectaculis,  Leg.  2. 
Illiul  etiam  praemonemus,  ne  quis  in  legem  nostram,  quam 
dudiim  tulimus,  committat  :  nullus  solis  die  populo  specta- 
cidum  praebeat,  nee  Divinam  venerationcm  cont'ccta  solem- 
nitate  confundat. 

^^  Ibid.  Le^.  5.  Dominico,  qui  septimanae  tntius  primus 
est  dies,  et  Natale,  atque  Epiphanionim  Christi,  Paschae 
etiam  et  Qiiinquagesimce  diebus — omni  theatroruni  atque 
circensium  voluptate  populis  dene^ata,  totae  Christiannrum 
ac  fidelium  mentes  Dei  cultibus  occupantur,  &c.  Vid.  Cod. 
Justin,  lib.  .3.  Tit.  12.  de  Feriis,  Le^.  11.  Leonis  et  Anthemii. 

-'  Cone.  Carth.  4.  can.  88.  Qui  die  solenni  practermisso 
solenni  ecclesiae  conventu,  ad  spcctacula  vadit,  excommu- 
nicelur. 


^  Ibid.  can.  24.  Sacerdote  verbum  facicnte  in  ecclesia, 
qui  de  auditoiio  egressus  fucrit,  e.xcommuuicetur. 

"  Cod.  .\fric.  can.  Gl. 

'»  Chrys.  Horn.  G.  in  Gen.  t.  2.  p.  53. 

'  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  8.  Tit.  47.  de  Patria  Potestate,  Leg.  10. 
Patribus  jus  vitoc  in  liberos  necisque  polestas  olim  erat 
permissa. 

-  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  3.  Tit.  .3.  de  Patribus  qui  Filins  distrax- 
crunt,  Leg.  I.  et  Lib.  5.  Tit.  8.  de  his  qui  sanguinolentos 
emptos  acceperint.  Et  lib.  II.  Tit.  27.  de  Alimcntis  quae 
inopos  Parentes  de  Publico  petere  debent.  Leg.  1  et  2. 
It.  Valentin.  Novel.  II. 

»  Vid.  Basil.  Horn,  in  Psal.  xiv.  t.  1.  p.  I  II. 


I 


984 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


made.  And  though  the  laws  of  Christian  emperors 
a  little  restrained  this  exorbitant  power  of  parents; 
taking  from  them  the  power  of  life  and  death ;  and 
allowing  children  *  to  be  maintained  out  of  the  pub- 
lic revenue,  to  prevent  being  sold ;  or  to  be  redeem- 
ed again,  if  sold:  yet  still  they  left  a  considerable 
power  in  the  hands  of  parents  to  dispose  of  their 
children,  whilst  they  were  minors  or  under  age,  only 
excepting  the  cases  of  slavery  and  death.  For  till 
the  time  of  Justinian,  children  were  not  allowed  to 
betake  themselves  to  a  monastic  life  without  or 
against  the  consent  of  their  parents.  Which  is 
evident  from  the  Rule  of  St.  Basil,^  which  forbids 
children  to  be  received  into  monasteries,  unless  they 
were  offered  by  their  parents,  if  their  parents  were 
alive.  And  the  council  of  Gangra  lays  a  heavy 
penalty®  upon  them :  If  any  children  under  pretence 
of  religion  forsake  their  parents,  and  give  them  not 
the  honour  due  unto  them,  let  them  be  anathema. 
This  doctrine  was  taught  and  propagated  by  the 
Eustathian  heretics,  who  also  taught,  that  women 
might  leave  their  husbands,  and  parents  desert  their 
children,  and  take  no  further  care  of  them,  under 
the  same  pretence  of  betaking  themselves  to  a 
monastic  life.  Against  whom'  the  same  council 
made  several  other  canons,  imposing  the  like  penalty 
upon  them. 

Another  branch  of  paternal  power 

Sect.  2.  1  •    ,  1  •    1  1       -, 

Children  not  to  w'as  the  Tight  which  parents  had  to 

marry  without  con-        ^  ,  . 

sent  of  their  pa-  disDOSc  of  tliclr  childrcu  in  marriaere : 
which  right  was  so  carefully  guarded 
by  the  imperial  laws,  that  we  scarce  find  any  crime 
so  severely  revenged  as  the  violation  of  it,  when 
children  who  were  under  their  parents'  power,  mar- 
ried without  or  against  the  consent  of  their  parents, 
or  such  guardians  and  tutors  as  were  in  the  room 
of  them.  Witness  that  famous  law  of  Constantine 
in  the  Theodosian  Code,'  which  runs  in  these  terms  : 
If  any  one,  without  first  obtaining  the  consent  of 
parents,  steal  a  virgin  against  her  will,  or  carry 
her  off"  by  her  own  consent,  hoping  that  her  con- 
sent will  protect  him;  he  shall  have  no  benefit 
from  such  consent,  as  the  ancient  laws  have  deter- 
mined ;  but  the  virgin  herself  shall  be  held  guilty, 
as  partaker  in  the  crime.     If  any  nurse  be  instru- 


mental or  accessory  to  the  fact  by  her  persuasions, 
which  often  defeat  the  parents'  care,  her  detestable 
service  shall  be  revenged  by  pouring  molten  lead 
into  her  mouth,  that  ministered  to  such  wicked 
counsels.  If  the  virgin  be  detected  to  have  given 
her  consent,  she  shall  be  punished  with  the  same 
severity  as  the  raptor  himself :  seeing  she  that  is 
stolen  away  against  her  will,  is  not  suffered  to  go 
unpunished ;  because  she  might  have  kept  herself 
at  home  ;  or  if  she  was  taken  by  violence  out  of  her 
father's  house,  she  should  have  cried  out  for  help  to 
the  neighbourhood,  and  used  all  means  possible  to 
defend  herself.  But  on  such  we  impose  only  a 
lighter  punishment,  denying  them  the  right  of 
succeeding  to  their  father's  inheritance.  But  the 
raptor  himself,  being  clearly  convicted,  shall  have 
no  benefit  of  appeal.  If  parents,  who  are  chiefly 
concerned  to  prosecute  this  crime,  connive  at  it, 
they  shall  be  banished.  All  who  are  partners  or 
assistants  to  the  raptor,  shall  be  liable  to  the  same 
punishment,  without  distinction  of  sex.  And  if  any 
such  be  slaves,  they  shall  be  burnt  alive.  This  law 
of  Constantine's  is  confirmed  by  another  law  of 
his  son  Constans ;  only  with  this  difference,'  that 
whereas  Constantine's  law  ordered  the  criminals  to 
be  burnt  alive,  or  thrown  to  the  wild  beasts,  as 
Gothofred  interprets  it;  this  of  Constans  so  far 
moderated  the  punishment,  as  to  let  it  be  only  a 
common  death,  that  it  might  more  duly  be  put  in 
execution.  Yet  if  any  slaves  were  concerned  in 
aiding  the  raptors  in  such  attempts,  they  were  still 
to  be  burnt  alive,  according  to  the  tenor  of  the 
former  lav.'.  By  another  law  of  Valentinian '°  and 
Gratian,  widows  are  not  allowed  to  marry  a  second 
time  without  the  consent  of  their  parents,  if  they 
Avere  under  the  age  of  twenty-five  years,  although 
they  were  sui  Juris,  and  enjoyed  the  liberty  of  eman- 
cipation. And  there  are  many  other  laws  in  both 
the  Codes"  to  the  same  purpose.  The  ecclesiasti- 
cal laws  in  this  concur  with  the  civil  law.  St. 
Austin'^  says  expressly.  That  mothers  as  well  as 
fathers  have  this  right  in  their  children,  to  dispose 
of  them  in  marriage,  unless  they  be  of  that  age, 
which  gives  them  liberty  to  choose  for  themselves. 
TcrtuUian  says  the  same,'^  That  children  cannot 


*  Cotl.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  15.  de  his  qui  Parentes  vel  Li- 
beros  occiderunt,  Leg.  unica.  Et  lib.  11.  Tit.  27.  Leg. 
1  et  2. 

*  Basil.  Regul.  Major,  qu.  15. 

*  Cone.  Gangren.  can.  16.         '  Ibid.  can.  13,  14,  15. 

*  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  24.  de  Kaptii  Virginum  et  Vi- 
duar.  Leg.  I.     Si  quis  nihil  cum  paientibus  puellse  ante 

depectus,  invitam  cam  rapuerit,  vel  volcntem  abduxerit 

nihil  ei  secundum  jus   vetus  prosit   puelluc  responsio,  scd 
ipsa  puella  potius  societate  criminis  obligetur,  &c. 

^  Cod.  Theod.  ibid.  Leg.  2.  Quamvis  legis  prioris  extet 
auctoritas,  qua  inclitus  pater  noster  contra  raptores  atio- 
cissime  jusserat  vindicari,  tamen  nos  tantummodo  capitalem 
poenam  constituimus ;  videlicet,  ne  sub  specie  atrocioris 
judicii  aliqua  in  ulciscendo  criniine  dilatio  nasceretur.     In 


audaciam  vero  servilem  dispari  supplicio  mensura  legum 
impendenda  est,  ut  perurendi  subjiciantur  ignibus. 

'»  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  3.  Tit.  7.  de  Nuptiis,  Leg.  1.  Vidua; 
intra  25  annum  degentes,  etiamsi  emancipationis  libertate 
gaudeant,  tamen  in  secundas  nuptias  non  sine  patris  sen- 
tentia  conveniant. 

1'  Vid.  Cod.  Theod.  ibid.  Leg.  3.  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  5.  Tit. 
4.  de  Nuptiis,  Leg.  I,  2,  7,  20.  Justin.  Instit.  lib.  1.  Tit. 
10.  de  Nuptiis. 

'2  Aug.  Ep.  23.3.  ad  Benenatum.  l\Iatris  voluntatem  in 
tradenda  lilia  omnibus,  ut  arbitror,  natura  pra;ponit,  nisi 
eadem  puella  in  ea  jam  a;tate  fuerit,  ut  jure  licentiori  sibi 
ipsi  eligat  quid  velit. 

"  Tertul.  ad  Uxor.  lib.  2.  cap.  9.  Nam  ncc  in  terris  filii 
sine  consensu  patnun  rite  et  j\ue  nubent. 


Chap.  IX. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


985 


lawfully  marry  without  the  consent  of  their  earthly 
parents.  St.  Basil,"  in  one  of  his  canons,  gives 
directions,  that  they  who  stole  virgins  should  be 
trrated  as  fornicators,  that  is,  do  four  years'  penance ; 
and  when  the  virgins  were  restored  to  their  guard- 
ians, it  Avas  at  their  discretion  whether  they  would 
give  them  in  marriage  to  the  raptors  or  not.  In 
another  canon '^  he  says.  If  slaves  marry  without 
diL'  consent  of  their  masters,  or  children  without 
the  consent  of  their  parents,  it  is  not  matrimony, 
but  fornication,  till  they  ratify  it  by  their  consent. 
Again,'"  If  virgins  who  are  under  the  power  of  their 
jiarents,  marry  without  their  consent,  they  are  to  be 
treated  as  harlots.  If  their  parents  are  afterward 
ii  ronciled  to  them,  and  give  their  consent,  yet  they 
shall  do  three  years'  penance  for  their  first  trans- 
gtvssion.  And  again,"  If  a  slave  marry  without 
ihe  consent  of  her  master,  she  differs  nothing  from 
a  harlot.  For  contracts  made  without  the  consent 
of  those  under  whose  power  they  are,  have  no  va- 
lidity, but  are  null.  And  therefore,  though  the  master 
afterward  give  his  consent,  and  make  the  marriage 
good,  yet  the  first  fault  shall  be  punished  as  forni- 
cation. 

5p^,  3  It  appears  from  two  of  these  last- 

oi/tTh/'cOTsent'of  Hicntioned  canons,  that  slaves  were 
their  masters.  ^^^  mucli  uudcr  tlic  power  of  their 
masters  as  children  were  under  their  parents ;  and 
therefore  it  was  equally  a  crime  for  a  slave  to  many 
without  the  consent  of  the  master,  as  for  a  child  to 
do  it  without  consent  of  parents.  And  for  the  same 
reason  a  slave  was  not  allowed  either  to  enter  him- 
self into  a  monastery,  or  take  orders,  without  the 
consent  of  his  master,  as  has  been  showed'*  in  other 
places,  because  this  was  to  deprive  his  master  of  his 
legal  right  of  service,  which,  by  the  original  state 
and  condition  of  slaves,  was  his  due  ;  and  the  church 
would  not  be  accessory  to  such  frauds  and  injustice, 
but  rather  discourage  them  by  prohibitions  and 
suitable  penalties  laid  upon  them. 

g^j  ^  Another    sort    of  parents,    whose 

oMreason"an'd"drs->  houour  was  intcudcd  to  be  secured  by 
respect  to  princes.  •.•  ^.j^j^  commaud,  wcre  the  political  pa- 
rents, patres  patrice,  kings  and  emperors,  whose 
authority  and  majesty  was  reputed  sacred  and  su- 


preme next  under  God.  And  therefore  all  disloy- 
alty and  disrespect  showed  to  them,  either  in  word 
or  action,  was  always  severely  chastised  by  the  laws 
of  the  church.  I  need  not  here  suggest  what  civil 
penalties  were  inflicted  by  the  laws  of  the  state 
upon  transgressors  in  this  kind,  because  the  ancient 
civil  codes  are  full  of  them  under  several  titles, 
which  the  learned  reader  may  consult  at  his  own 
leisure,  such  as  speaking  evil  "  of  dignities ;  coun- 
terfeiting their'-"  letters  ;  corrupting  or  counterfeit- 
ing their  coin ;  -'  consulting  augurs  or  astrologers 
about  the  term  of  their  lifc,^  or  using  any  curious 
arts  to  know  who  should  be  their  successor ;  raising 
of  tumults-'  to  the  disturbance  of  the  public  disci- 
pline; conspiring  against  their  lives  or  government;'* 
bearing  arms"  without  their  authority  ;  and  the  like 
crimes,  which  come  under  the  general  names  of 
sedition,  treason,  conspiracy,  and  rebellion,  which 
were  always  excepted  in  those  general  indulgences-* 
that  the  emperors  were  wont  to  grant  at  Easter  to 
other  criminals.  1  need  not  say  further,  that  the 
contempt  of  the  imperial  laws  was  usually  reputed 
a  sort  of  sacrilege ''  by  the  laws  themselves,  and 
punished  under  that  title.  That  which  I  am  chiefly 
concerned  to  remark  here,  is  the  ecclesiastical  pun- 
ishment of  disloyalty  and  treason,  and  all  scandalous 
contempt  of  civil  government ;  against  which  sort 
of  crimes,  whether  in  word  or  deed,  the  ancients 
showed  great  resentment.  For  the  first  three  hun- 
dred years  they  gloried  greatly  over  the  heathens  in 
this,  that  though  the  emperors  were  heathens,  and 
some  of  them  furious  persecutors  of  the  Christians, 
yet  there  were  never  any  seditious  or  disloyal  per- 
sons to  be  found  among  the  persecuted  Christians. 
You  defame  us,  says  Tertullian,^  with  treason 
against  the  emperor,  and  yet  never  could  any  Al- 
binians,  Nigrians,  or  Cassians,  (persons  that  had 
taken  arms  against  the  emperors,)  be  found  among 
the  Christians.  Such  as  those,  are  they  that  swear 
by  the  emperor's  genii,  that  have  offered  sacrifice 
for  their  safety,  that  have  often  condemned  Chris- 
tians ;  these  are  the  men  that  are  found  enemies  to 
the  emperors.  A  Christian  is  no  man's  enemy,  much 
less  the  emperor's ;  knowing  him  to  be  the  ordinance 
of  God,  he  cannot  but  love,  revere,  and  honour  him. 


»  Basil,  can.  22.  '^  Ibid.  can.  42. 

'^  Ibid.  can.  38.  Et  ap.  MatthiEum.  Monach.  Respons. 
Matrimon.  in  Jure  Gr.  Koin.  Leunclavii,  p.  .5tX). 

>'  Basil,  can.  40. 

'*  Book  IV.  chap.  4.  sect.  3.    Book  VII.  chap.  3.  sect.  2. 

"  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  4.  Si  quis  imperatori  maledi.x- 
erit,  Leg.  1. 

2»  Ibid.  lib.  9.  Tit.  19.  ad  Legem  Corneliam  de  False, 
Leg.  3. 

21  Ibid.  Tit.  21.  de  Falsa  Moneta.  Tit.  22.  Si  quis  solidi 
circulum  inciderit,  vel  adulteratum  subjeceiit.  Tit.- 23.  Si 
quis  pecunias  conflaverit,  &c. 

«  Ibid.  lib.  9.  Tit.  IG.  de  Malefic,  et  Mathemat.  Leg.  8. 

^  Ibid.  lib.  9.  Tit.  33.  de  iis  qui  Plebem  aiident  contra 


Pnblicam  coUigere  Disciplinain. 

-*  Ibid.  lib.  9.  Tit.  5.  ad  Legem  Juliam  Majestatis. 
Tit.  6.  Ne  proeter  crimen  Majestatis  servus  Domiinim  ac- 
cuset.  Tit,  14.  ad  Legem  Corneliam  de  sicaviis.  Tit.  40.  de 
Pfflnis,  Leg.  15,  16,  17.  Lib.  15.  Tit.  14.  de  infirmandis  his 
quae  sub  Tyrannis  gesta  sunt. 

"  Ibid.  lib.  15.  Tit.  15.  Ut  armorum  usus  inscio  principe 
interdictus  sit. 

="  Ibiil.  lib.  9.  Tit.  38.  de  Indulgentiis  Criminum. 

-'  Ibid.  lib.  6.  Tit.  5.  Leg.  2.  Sit  plane  sacrilegii  reus 
qui  divina  prrecepta  neglexerit.  It.  Tit.  24.  de  Domesticis, 
Leg.  4.  Et  Tit.  35.  de  Privilegiis  Militum  Palatinor.  Leg. 
13.  et  passim  alibi. 

^  Tertul.  ad  Scapul.  cap.  2. 


986 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


and  desire  that  he  and  the  whole  Roman  empire 
may  be  in  safety  to  the  end  of  the  world.  We  wor- 
ship the  emperor  as  much  as  is  either  lawful  or  ex- 
pedient, as  one  that  is  next  to  God ;  we  sacrifice  for 
his  safety,  but  it  is  only  to  his  and  our  God ;  and  in 
such  manner  as  he  has  commanded,  only  by  holy 
prayer.  For  the  great  God  needs  no  blood  or  sweet 
perfumes :  these  are  the  banquets  and  repast  of 
devils,  whom  we  not  only  reject,  but  expel  at  every 
turn.  For  this  reason,  during  this  interval,  there 
was  no  need  of  ecclesiastical  punishments  to  cor- 
rect traitors  against  the  civil  government,  because 
there  were  no  such  among  Christians.  But  when 
the  whole  world  was  become  Christian,  there  was 
occasion  for  such  laws  to  be  made  against  sedition 
and  treason.  And  then  we  find  several  canons  to 
prevent  or  correct  it.  The  fourth  council  of  Car- 
thage™ forbids  the  ordination  of  any  seditious  per- 
sons, as  those  that  would  be  a  scandal  to  the  pro- 
fession. And  this  is  repeated  in  the  same  words  by 
the  council  of  Agde.*'  The  fourth  council  of  Tole- 
do" orders  all  clergymen  that  took  arms  in  any  se- 
dition, to  be  degraded  from  their  order,  and  to  be 
confined  to  a  monastery,  to  do  penance  there  all 
their  lives.  The  fifth  council  of  Toledo^  mentions 
an  oath  of  allegiance,  which,  in  a  former  general 
council  of  all  Spain,  was  appointed  to  be  taken  by 
all  the  subjects  to  the  king  and  his  heirs :  and  a 
most  severe  anathema  is  pronounced  against  all  that 
should  violate  any  part  of  it.  Particularly  they 
excommunicate  and  anathematize  all  that  should 
pretend  to  usurp  the  throne '^  without  the  consent 
of  the  nobihty  and  the  whole  Gothic  nation ;  all 
that  should  make  any  curious^*  and  unlawful  in- 
quiries about  the  fatal  period  of  the  hfe  of  the 
prince ;  all  that  should  speak  evil  of  him :  for  it  is 
written,  "  Thou  shalt  not  speak  evil  of  the  ruler  of 
thy  people."  If  railers  shall  not  inherit^  the  king- 
dom of  God,  how  much  rather  ought  such  con- 
temners of  the  Divine  law  to  be  cast  out  of  the 
church!  Finally,  they  made  an  order,*'  That  in 
every  council  held  in  Spain,  this  decree  concerning 
allegiance  due  to  princes  should  be  read,  when  all 
other  things  were  done,  to  the  end  that  no  one 


might  be  unmindful  of  his  duty  and  obligations  to 
the  sovereign  power.  And,  accordingly,  we  find  the 
same  decree  repeated  and  confirmed  in  several  other 
councils  of  that  nation." 

The  last  sort  of  parents  to  whom  g^^^  ^ 
honour  and  obedience  is  due,  are  the 
spiritual  parents,  or  governors  of  the 
church ;  the  contempt  of  whose  law-s  and  rules 
made  for  the  good  government,  order,  and  edifica- 
tion of  the  church,  was  always  thought  a  matter 
worthy  of  ecclesiastical  censure.  There  are  innu- 
merable instances  of  this  in  the  acts  and  canons  of 
the  ancient  councils :  I  shall  content  myself  with 
relating  two  or  three,  which  concern  matters  purely 
of  ecclesiastical  observation.  The  council  of  An- 
tioch*'  excommunicates  all  those  who  pertinaciously 
oppose  the  rule  made  about  Easter  in  the  council 
of  Nice.  The  first  council  of  Carthage  *"  more  ge- 
nerally censures  all  opposers  of  ecclesiastical  orders : 
If  any  one  viciously  transgress  or  contemn  the  de- 
crees of  the  church ;  if  he  be  a  layman,  let  him  be 
excommunicated ;  if  a  clergyman,  let  him  be  de- 
prived of  the  honour  of  his  order.  The  council  of 
Epone  in  like  manner '"'  concludes  her  decrees  with 
this  sanction  :  If  any  one  disorderly  transgress  the 
rules  and  observations,  which  the  holy  bishops  have 
made  in  this  present  council,  and  confirmed  with 
their  subscriptions,  let  him  know  that  he  shall  be 
liable  to  the  judgment  both  of  God  and  the  church. 
The  fourth  council  of  Toledo"  orders  such  as  reject 
the  use  of  the  hymns  and  prayers  appointed  by  the 
church,  to  be  punished  with  excommunication.  And 
King  Reccaredus,  in  the  third  council  of  Toledo,''- 
besides  excommunication,  orders  a  civil  penalty  of 
confiscation  and  banishment  to  be  inflicted  on  such 
as  proudly  contemned  the  rules  then  made  in  coun- 
cil, and  refused  to  yield  obedience  to  them.  And 
laws  of  the  same  import  occur  every  where  both  in 
the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  codes,  so  that  I  need  not 
trouble  the  learned  reader  with  any  more  of  them, 
having  suggested  these  few  as  a  specimen  of  that 
obedience  which  was  required  to  be  paid  to  the  laws 
and  authority  of  the  church  under  the  penalty  of 
excommunication. 


^  Cone.  Carth.  4.  can.  67.  Seditionarios  nunquam  ordi- 
nandos  clericos,  sicut  nee  usurarios,  nee  injuviarum  suarum 
ultores. 

^  Cone.  Agathen.  c.  69. 

*'  Cone.  Tolet.  4.  ean.  44.  Cleriei  qui  in  quacunque  sedi- 
tione  anna  volentes  sumpserint,  aut  suuipserunt,  reperti, 
amisso  ordinis  suigradu,  in  monasterium  contradantur  poeni- 
tentiae. 

^  Cone.  Tolet.  5.  can.  2.  Sit  anathema  in  Christianorum 
omnium  eoctu,  atqiie  superno  condemnetur  judieio  :  sit  ex- 
pvobrabilis  omnibus  catholieis,  ot  abominabilis  Sanctis  an- 
gelis  in  ministerio  Dei  eonstitutis  :  sit  in  hoc  saecuh)  pcrditus, 
et  in  futuro  eondeninatus,  qui  tarn  reetre  provision i  nohiit 
praebere  ennsensuni. 

33  Ibid.  can.  3.  »'  Ibid.  ean.  4. 

3*  Ibid.  can.  5.  '"  Ibid.  can.  7. 


3'  Cone.  Tolet.  6.  can.  17  et  18.  Tolet.  12.  ean.  1.  Tolet. 
10.  can.  2. 

3^  Cone.  Antioeh.  can.  1. 

^  Cone.  Carth.  1.  can.  14.  Si  quis  statuta  supergressus 
eoiruperit,  vel  pro  nihilo  habenda  putaverit,  si  laieus  est, 
communione,  si  clcricus  est,  honore  privetur. 

■"•  Cone.  Epaunens.  can.  40.  Si  quis  sanctorum  antisti- 
tuni  qui  statuta  praisentia  subseriptionibus  propriis  firraave- 
runt,  relieta  iategritate,  observationes  excesserit,  reum  se 
Divinitatis  pariter  et  fraternitatis  judieio  futurum  esse  cog- 
noscat. 

"  Cone.  Tolet.  4.  can.  12.  Sicut  orationes,  ita  et  hymnos 
in  laudem  Dei  compositos,  nuUus  nostrum  ulterius  improbet, 
sed  pari  modo  in  Gallieia  Hispaniaque  celcbrent,  excom- 
municalione  plcctendi,  qui  hymnos  rejicere  fuerint  ausi. 

*'■  Edict.  Reccaredi  ad  calcem  Cone.  3.  Toletani. 


Chap.  X. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


987 


CHAPTER  X. 

I  ;  GREAT  TRANSGRESSIONS  AGAINST  THE  SIXTH 
COMMANDMENT,  MURDER,  MANSLAUGHTER,  PAR- 
RICIDE, SELF-MURDER,  DISMEMBERING  THE  BODY, 
CAUSING    ABORTION,  ETC. 

Sect  1  ^^"^  ^^^  ^^^^^'  come  to  the  great  sin 

i"a"apitara'^^^d  of  murclcr,  wliich  the  civil  laws  always 
•i'i'c'iawsVf"t'iie  reckon  among  those  called  atrocia 
dclidci,  and  afrocissima  criinina,  those 
heinous  and  capital  crimes,  for  which  they  neither 
allowed  pardon  nor  appeal  after  clear  conviction. 
This  crime  was  always  excepted  in  those  indul- 
U'lices '  or  general  pardons  which  the  emperors 
-ranted  to  criminals  upon  the  account  of  their  chil- 
dren's hirth-days,  or  the  annual  returns  of  the  Easter 
ivstival,  or  any  the  like  occasion.  And  whereas 
many  other  criminals  were  allowed  the  benefit  of 
appealing,  this  was  wholly  denied*  to  murderers; 
nor  might  any  such  criminals  anciently  pretend 
to  shelter  themselves  by  taking  sanctuary  in  the 
church ;  which  is  expressly  provided  by  a  law  of 
Justinian,'  determining  who  may  or  may  not  take 
refuge  in  the  churcli ;  where,  among  those  to  whom 
this  privilege  is  denied,  murderers,  adulterers,  and 
ravishers  of  virgins  are  particularly  recounted. 

Sect  2  ^y  ^^  most  ancient  laws  of  some 

the'"ia;ls" of  "the''^  chuTchcs, murdcrers  seem  to  have  been 
subjected  to  a  perpetual  penance  all 
their  lives,  and  by  some  denied  communion  even  at 
the  hour  of  death.  Tertullian^  says  plainly,  that 
neither  idolaters  nor  murderers  were  admitted  to  the 
peace  of  the  church.  And  that  he  means  not  here, 
by  the  church,  his  own  sect  of  the  Montanists,  but 
the  catholic  churches,  is  concluded  by  learned^  men 
from  hence,  that  he  is  arguing  with  the  catholics, 
that  they  ought  to  deny  adulterers  the  peace  of  the 
church  by  the  same  reason  and  rule  that  they  de- 
nied it  to  idolaters  and  murderers.  Which  implies, 
at  least,  that  some  catholic  churches  in  Africa  re- 
fused to  admit  murderers  to  communion.  Which 
is  the  more  probable  from  what  Cyprian  says  of 
some  of  his  predecessors,  that  they  w^ere  used  to 


deny  fornicators  and  adulterers  *  the  peace  of  the 
church,  though  they  did  not  upon  this  break  com- 
munion with  others  that  admitted  them.  Now, 
murder  being  as  great  a  crime  as  adultery,  it  is 
likely  they  rejected  murderers  as  well  as  adulterers 
utterly  from  their  communion.  In  the  following 
ages  the  term  of  their  penance  was  a  little  mode- 
rated ;  for  the  council  of  Ancyra '  obliges  them 
only  to  do  penance  all  their  lives,  and  allows  them 
to  be  received  at  the  hour  of  death.  Other  canons 
reduce  their  penance  to  a  certain  term  of  years.  St. 
Basil  ^  appoints  the  wilful  murderer  twenty  years' 
penance  ;  four  years  as  a  mourner ;  five  years  as  a 
hearer ;  seven  years  as  a  prostrator  ;  four  years  as  a 
co-stander  only,  to  hear  the  prayers  without  re- 
ceiving the  communion. 

Yet  in  some  cases  the  discipline  con- 
tinued still  to  be  more  severe  against     The  'heinousncss 
murder,   when    it    hapijened    to    be  i^ineA  wilh  other 

crimes,  such  as  idol- 

complicated  with  other  great  crimes,  '^^n.  adiuierj-,  a»d 

^  ^  magical  practices. 

such  as  idolatry,  adultery,  and  the 
practice  of  magical  and  diabolical  arts  against  the 
lives  of  men  ;  because  these  were  great  aggravations 
to  inflame  the  account  of  murder.  Thus  in  the 
council  of  Eliberis,'  If  any  Christian  took  upon 
him  the  office  of  a  heathen  finmen,  and  therein 
sacrificed  and  committed  adultery  and  murder ; 
(which  might  be  done  either  directly,  by  a  personal 
commission  of  those  crimes  ;  or  indirectly,  by  ex- 
hibiting the  games  and  shows,  wherein  adultery  and 
murder  were  committed  by  their  authority  and  con- 
currence ;)  in  such  a  case  he  was  to  be  denied  com- 
munion even  at  the  hour  of  death,  because  he  had 
doubled  and  tripled  his  crime,  as  the  canon  words 
it.  So  again,  if  any  one  used  pharmacy  or  magical 
art '"  to  kill  another,  he  was  not  to  be  received  into 
communion  even  at  the  hour  of  death,  because  here 
was  a  conjunction  of  idolatry  with  murder.  In  like 
manner  another  canon  "  of  the  same  council  orders, 
That  if  a  woman  conceive  by  adultery  in  the  ab- 
sence of  her  husband,  and  after  that  murder  her 
child,  she  shall  be  rejected  to  the  very  last,  because 
she  has  doubled  her  crime.  But  the  council  of 
Ancyra  is  a  little  more  favourable  in  the  case  of 
simple  fornication  joined  with  murder.     For  it  is 


'  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  38.  de  Indulgentiis  Criminum, 
Leg.  1..3,  4,  6,  7,  8. 

^  Ibid.  lib.  11.  Tit.  36.  Quorum  Appellationes  nou  re- 
cipiendae.  Leg.  1.  Cum  homicidam,  vel  maleficum,  vel  ve- 
neficum  (quaB  atrocissima  crimina  sunt)  confessio  propria, 
&c.  dete.xerit,  provocationes  suscipi  non  oportet.  It.  Leg. 
7.  ibid. 

*  Justin.  Novel.  17.  cap.  7. 

*  Tertul.  de  Pudicit.  cap.  12.  Neque  idololatria;  neque 
sanguini  pax  ab  ecclesiis  redditur. 

*  Vid.  Albaspin.  Observat.  lib.  2.  c.  15.  p.  12-3. 

*  Cypr.  Ep.  52.  al.  55.  ad  Antonian.  p.  110.  Apud  ante- 
cessores  nostros  quidam  de  episcopis  istic  in  provincia  nos- 
tra dandam  pacem  mcechis  non  putaverunt,  et  in  totuui 


poenitentiae  locum  contra  adulteria  clauserunt,  &c. 

'  Cone.  Ancyr.  can.  22.     It  Cone.  Epaunens.  can.  31. 

'  Basil,  can.  56. 

'  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  2.  Flamines  qui  post  fidem  lavacri 
et  regenerationis  sacrificaverunt :  eo  quod  geminaverint 
scelera,  aceednute  hnmicidio,  vel  triplicaverint  facinus,  co- 
ha;rente  mopchia,  placuit  eos  nee  in  fine  accipere  commu- 
nioneui. 

'"  Ibid.  can.  6.  Si  quis  maleficio  inferficiat  alterum,  eo 
quod  sine  idololatria  perficere  scelus  non  potuit,  nee  in  fine 
impertiendam  esse  illi  eommunionem. 

"  Ibid.  can.  63.  Si  qua  per  adulterum,  absentc  maritn, 
cnnceperit,  idquc  post  facinus  occiderit,  placuit  neque  in  fine 
dandam  esse  eommunionem,  co  quod  gcminavcrit  scelus. 


9S8 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


there  observed,'^  That  if  a  woman  committed  forni- 
cation, and  murdered  her  infant,  or  caused  abortion, 
she  should  only  do  ten  years'  penance,  though  by 
former  canons  she  was  obliged  to  do  penance  all 
her  life.  The  council  of  Lerida  '^  appoints  seven 
years'  penance  for  common  murder ;  but  if  it  be  done 
by  sorcery,  then  it  was  penance  for  the  whole  life. 
And  here  we  may  observe,  that 
caustne 'of  abor-  causing  of  abortiou  was  esteemed  one 

tion  cipnclemned  and  .  „  ,  ,  T        l 

punished  as  miir-  spccics  01  murdcr,  and  accordmgly 
punished  as  such,  when  wilfully  pro- 
cured. So  it  is  determined  not  only  in  the  fore- 
mentioned  canon  of  Ancyra,  but  in  the  canons  of 
St.  Basil : "  Let  her  that  procures  abortion  undergo 
ten  years'  penance,  whether  the  embryo  be  perfectly 
formed  or  not.  So  again.  They  are  murderers  who 
take  medicines  to  procure  abortion.  And  so  the 
council  of  Trullo :  '^  They  who  give  medicines  to 
cause  abortion,  and  they  who  take  pernicious  phy- 
sic to  destroy  the  embryo  in  the  womb,  are  to  un- 
dergo the  penance  of  murderers.  The  council  of 
Lerida  puts  those  who  destroy  the  conception  in 
the  womb,  by  certain  potions,"*  into  the  same  class 
with  those  that  kill  infants  after  they  are  born ; 
and  appoints  a  course  of  seven  years'  penance  for 
both  sorts,  as  joining  murder  to  adultery.  The 
private  writers  among  the  ancients  with  one  con- 
sent declare  this  to  be  murder.  In  the  prohibition 
of  murder,  says  Tertullian,'"  We  are  forbidden  to 
destroy  the  conception  in  the  womb,  whilst  the 
blood  is  in  its  first  formation  of  a  human  body. 
To  hinder  that  which  might  be  born,  is  but  an  an- 
ticipation or  hastening  of  murder  ;  and  it  is  all  one, 
whether  a  man  destroy  that  life  which  is  already 
born,  or  disturb  that  which  is  preparing  to  be  born. 
He  is  a  man,  who  is  in  a  disposition  to  be  a  man, 
and  all  fruit  is  now  in  its  seed  or  principle  of  exist- 
ence. This  he  says  in  answer  to  the  heathen  ob- 
jection, who  charged  the  Christians  with  feasting 
upon  the  blood  of  an  infant  in  their  sa.cred  mys- 


teries. Minucius  ''  inverts  the  charge  upon  the 
heathen,  telling  them,  it  was  their  own  practice  by 
medicated  potions  to  destroy  man,  that  would  be, 
in  his  first  original,  and  for  mothers  to  commit 
parricide  before  they  brought  forth.  But  as  for 
Christians,  says  Athenagoras,  writing  in  their  be- 
half," how  should  they  be  guilty  of  murdering  men, 
who  declare,  that  mothers  who  use  medicines  to 
cause  abortion  are  murderers,  and  must  give  ac- 
count of  their  wickedness  unto  God.  St.  Jerom^ 
calls  this  crime  in  women,  drinking  of  barrenness, 
and  murdering  of  infants  before  they  were  born. 
And  it  was  a  crime  which  the  old  Roman  law"' 
punished  with  banishment,  and  sometimes  with 
death ;"  as  Tryphonius  the  lawyer  observes  out  of 
Tully ;  though  Tertullian  complains  that  these  laws 
were  very  much  neglected  and  contemned.  How- 
ever, we  see  in  the  Christian  church  this  sort  of 
murder  was  reckoned  a  very  heinous  crime  by  all 
writers,  and  punished  with  great  severity  by  the 
canons  against  wilful  murder  in  the  church. 
Indeed,  this  sort  of  murder  was  one 

Pecf    5 

species   of  parricide,  which  included     Tiie  punWhment 

or  parricide. 

not  only  the  murder  of  parents,  but  of 
children,  and  other  relations,  to  whom  men  were 
bound  by  natural  affection.  And  this  had  a  noted 
and  peculiar  punishment  among  the  old  Romans, 
which  was  to  tie  up  the  parricide  in  a  sack  with  a 
serpent,  an  ape,  a  cock,  and  a  dog,  and  throw  them 
all  alive  into  the  sea ;  of  which  Gothofred  will 
furnish  the  curious  reader  with  great  variety  of  in- 
stances out  of  the  old  Roman  laws  and  writers. 
The  Lex  Pompeia  changed  this  punishment  into 
that  of  the  sword,  or  burning,  or  throwing  to  wild 
beasts.  But  Constantine  introduced  the  ancient  pun- 
ishment ;  and  from  his  law,"'  which  I  shall  tran- 
scribe, we  may  take  the  account  and  description  of 
it.  "  If  any  one  hasten  the  fate  of  his  parent,  or 
son,  or  any  the  like  relation,  which  goes  under  the 
name  of  parricide,  whether  he  attempt  it  privately 


'-  Cone.  Ancyr.  can.  21. 

"  Cone.  Ilerden.  can.  2.  Ipsis  autem  veneficis  in  exitu 
tantum  communis  tribuatur. 

"  Basil,  can.  2  et  8.  '^  Conc.  Trull,  can.  91. 

"^  Conc.  Ilerden.  can.  2.  Hi  vero  qui  male  conceptos  e.\ 
adulterio  fojtus,  vel  editos  necaie  studuerint,  vel  in  uteris 
niatrum  pntionibus  aliquibus  colliserint,  in  utroque  sexu 
adultcris,  post  scptem  annorum  curricula  communio  tri- 
buatur. 

"  Tertul.  Apol.  cap.  9.  Nobis  homicidio  semel  interdicto, 
etiam  conceptura  utero,  diun  adhuc  sanguis  in  hominem  de- 
libatur,  dissolvere  unn  licet.  Homicidii  festinatio  est,  pro- 
hibere  nasci :  nee  refert  natam  quis  eripiat  animam,  an 
nascentemdisturbet :  homo  est,  et  qui  est  futurus,  et  fructus 
omnis  jam  in  semine  est. 

"  Minuc.  p.  91.  Sunt  quae  in  ipsis  visecribusuicdicamini- 
bus  epotis  originem  futuri  uomiuis  (le^t.  hominis)  extin},niaut, 
et  parricidium  faciant,  antequam  pariant.  Vid.  Cypr.  Ep. 
49.  al.  .'32.  ad  Cornel,  p.  97.  de  Parricidio  Novati. 

"  Athenag.  Legat.  p.  38. 

*"  Hieron.  Ep.  22.  ad  Eiistoch.  de  Virginit.  cap.  5.    Alia; 


praibibunt  sterilitatem,  et  necdum  sati  homicidium  fa- 
ciunt. 

"'  Digest,  lib.  48.  Tit.8.  ad  Legem  Corneliam  de  Sicariis, 
Leg.  8.  Si  mulierem  visceribus  suis  vim  intulisse,  quo  par- 
turn  abigeret,  constiterit:  earn  in  exilium  prajses  pvoviuciae 
exiget.  It.  lib.  47.  Tit.  11.  de  Extraordiuar.  Criminibus, 
Leg.  4. 

'■'-  Ibid.  Tit.  19.  Leg.  39.  Cicero  in  oratione  pro  Clu- 
entio  scripsit,  mulierem  quod  ab  heredibussecundis  accepta 
pecunia  partumsibi  medicamentisipsaabegisset,  rei  capita- 
ls esse  damuatam. 

2-'  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  15.  de  Parricidio,  Leg.  1.  Si 
quis  in  parentis,  aut  filii,  aut  onmino  afTectionis  ejus,  quaj 
nuncupatione  parricidii  continetur,  fata  properaverit,  sive 
clam  sive  palam  id  i'uerit  euisus,  neque  gladio,  neque  igni- 
bus,  neque  ulla  alia  pa?na  solemni  subjugetur,  sed  insntus 
culleu,  et  inter  ejus  ferales  angustias  comprehensus,  serpen- 
tum  contuberniis  misceatur:  et  ut  regiunis  qualitas  tulerit, 
vel  in  vicinum  mare,  vel  in  amnem  projiciatur;  ut  omni 
elementorum  usu  vivus  carere  incipiat ;  ut  ei  caelum  super- 
stiti,  terra  raortuo  auferatur.     Vid.  Gothofred.  in  loc. 


X. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  TIIF:  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


989 


or  publicly,  he  shall  not  be  punished  with  the  sword, 
or  with  fire,  or  with  any  other  common  death,  but 
ne  sowed  up  in  a  sack  with  serpents  and  other 
luasts,  and  be  cast  into  (he  sea  or  a  river,  as  the 
nature  of  the  place  will  admit :  that  he  may  be  de- 
jiiivcd  of  the  use  of  all  the  elements  as  long  as  he 
itinains  in  being;  that  he  may  have  neither  air  to 
breath  in  whilst  he  lives,  nor  earth  to  receive  him 
when  he  is  dead."  This  was  the  punishment  of  such 
as  slew  father  or  mother,  or  son  or  daughter,  or  any 
such  relation  in  the  direct  hue:  but  if  it  was  any 
other  relation,  then  only  the  common  death  of  mur- 
derers was  inflicted  on  them,  as  we  learn  from  Jus- 
tinian's Institutes-'  and  his  Code,  where  this  mat- 
ter is  determined.  Now,  the  church  having  no 
jower  of  the  sword,  could  make  no  such  distinc- 
tion; but  punished  both  sorts  in  the  same  way, 
\\  ith  the  spiritual  censure  of  excommunication. 
sp^,  g  And  so  she  treated  all  those  who 

ofseir.m.rJer.  i^^-^  violent  hauds  upon  themselves, 
who  were  known  by  the  common  name  of  hiathanati, 
or  self-murderers.  Because  this  was  a  crime  that 
could  have  no  penance  imposed  upon  it,  she  showed 
her  just  resentment  of  the  fact,  by  denying  the  cri- 
minals the  honour  and  solemnity  of  a  Christian 
burial,  and  letting  them  lie  excommunicate  and 
deprived  of  all  memorial  in  her  prayers  after 
death.  If  any  one,  says  the  first  council  of  Braga,^ 
bring  himself  to  a  violent  end,  either  by  sword,  or 
poison,  or  a  precipice,  or  a  halter,  or  any  other 
way,  no  commemoration  shall  be  made  of  him  in 
the  oblation,  nor  shall  his  body  be  carried  to  the 
grave  with  the  usual  psalmody.  And  they  who 
suffer  death  for  their  crimes,  shall  be  treated  after 
the  same  manner.  The  reason  of  treating  both 
these  sorts  of  men  in  this  manner,  was  because  they 
were  accessory  to  their  own  deaths ;  either  directly, 
by  offering  violence  to  their  own  lives ;  or  indirectly, 
by  committing  such  capital  crimes  as  brought  them 
in  the  course  of  justice  to  an  untimely  end.  Both 
the  Greeks  and  Latins  style  them  biothanati\  or 
hiathanati,  from  offering  violence  to  themselves,  or 
coming  to  a  violent  death.  And  Cassian  particu- 
larly notes  the  discipline  of  the  church,-''  then  used 
toward  such  after  death,  speaking  of  the  case  of  one 
Hero,  an  Egyptian  monk,  whom  Satan,  under  the 


='  Justin.  Institut.  lib.  4.  Tit.  18.  De  Publicis  Judiciis. 
Si  quis  autem  alias  cognatione  vel  adtinitate  personas  cou- 
junctas  necaverit,  poenam  legis  Corneliae  de  sicariis  s»s- 
tinebit.  Vid.  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  9.  Tit.  17.  De  his  qui  Pa- 
rentes  vol  Liberos  occiderunt,  Leg.  1. 

'■'=>  Cone.  Bracar.  1.  can.  34.  Placuit,  ut  hi  qui  aut  per 
fermm,  aut  per  venenum,  aut  per  praecipitinni,aut  suspendi- 
um,  aut  quolibetmodo  violentani  sibi  ipsis  inlerunt  mortem, 
nulla  pro  illis  in  oblatione  commenioratio  fiat,  ne.que  cum 
psalmis  ad  sopulturam  eorum  corpora deducantur. Simi- 
liter et  de  his  placuit  fieri,  qui  pro  suis  sceleribus  puniuntur. 

'-'^  Cassian.  Collat.  2.  cap.  5.  Yix  a  presbytero  abbate  Pa- 
funtio  potuit  obtincri,  ut  non  inter  biothanatos  veputatus, 


disguise  of  a  good  angel,  had  tempted  to  throw  him- 
self into  a  deep  well,  upon  presumption  that  no 
harm  could  befall  him  for  the  great  merit  of  his 
labours  and  virtues :  for  whicli  fact,  he  says,  Pa- 
funlius  the  abbot  could  hardly  be  prevailed  upon 
not  to  reckon  him  among  the  biothanati,  or  self- 
murderers,  and  deny  him  the  i)rivilege  of  being 
mentioned  in  the  oblation  for  those  that  were  at 
rest  in  the  Lord,  Which  is  sufficient  to  show  us 
the  manner  of  treating  such  in  the  ancient  disci- 
pline of  the  church. 

It  was  also  reckoned  a  species  or 
lower  degree  of  this  crime,  for  any  one     or  di^5m.-n,i,orins 

*       r    tt  1   •  ,       1        ,  ■  the  body. 

to  dishgure  his  own  body,  by  cutting 
off  any  member  or  part  thereof,  without  just  rea- 
son to  engage  him  so  to  do.  The  canons  forbade 
any  such  to  be  ordained,  as  men  who  were  in  eflect 
self-murderers-'  and  enemies  of  the  workmanship 
of  God,  as  has  been  showed  at  large'*  in  another 
place.  What  is  further  to  be  noted  here  is,  that 
this  disciphne  extended  to  laymen  as  well  as  clergy- 
men. For  one  of  the  Apostolical  Canons^'  orders, 
That  a  layman  who  dismembers  himself  shall  be 
debarred  the  communion  for  three  years,  because 
he  insidiously  makes  an  attempt  upon  his  own  life. 
But  if  men  were  either  born  with  a  natural  defect, 
or  the  barbarity  of  the  persecutors,  or  the  necessity 
of  a  disease,  deprived  them  of  any  member,  in  order 
to  effect  the  cure  of  the  body,  and  save  the  whole ; 
in  all  these  cases  there  was  no  crime,  because  the 
thing  was  involuntary ;  in  which  cases  the  law  it- 
self made  an  exception,  and  freed  men  from  incur- 
ring the  censures  of  the  church,  as  may  be  seen 
in  the  Nicene  canons,^"  which  particularly  mention 
these  as  excepted  cases.  I  only  observe  one  thing 
further  out  of  the  laws  of  Constantine,  that  he  had 
so  great  a  regard  to  the  face,  as  the  image  of  the 
Divine  majesty  in  all  human  bodies  whatsoever, 
that  he  would  not  suffer  any  mark  of  infamy  to  bo 
set  upon  it,  to  stigmatize  the  greatest  criminals. 
For  whereas  by  the  old  Roman  laws  notorious  cri- 
minals might  be  branded  in  the  forehead,  to  make 
their  offences  more  infamous  and  public  ;  Constan- 
tine, by  one  of  his  first  laws,  cancelled  and  revoked 
this  custom,"  ordering,  That  whatever  criminal 
was  condemned  either  to  fight  with  wild  beasts,  or 


etiammemoriaet oblatione  pausantiumjudicarctur  indignus. 

-'Vid.  Canon.  Apost.  c.  21.    Cone.  Nic.  can.  1. 

^  Book  IV.  chap.  3.  sect.  9. 

'■*  Canon.  Apost.  23.  al.  24.  Aat\os  iavrdv  aKpwrttpt- 
d(7Cf;,  d(f>Of)L^i(jdw  ETi/  Tpla'  tTri'/iouXos  yi'tp  ao'xii'Tvs  tavTu 
g(u?)9.  ^^  Cone.  Nicen.  can.  1. 

31  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  40.  De  Pccnis,  Leg.  2.  Si 
quis  in  ludum  fuerit,  vel  in  metallum,  pro  criminum  depre- 
hensorum  qualitate,  damnatus,  minime  in  ejus  facie  scri- 
batur:  dum  et  in  manibus  et  in  snris  possit  poena  damna- 
tionis  una  subscriptione  comprchendi :  quo  facies,  qute  ad 
similitudinem  pulchritu  linis  ca'lestis  est  tigurala,  minime 
macLiletur. 


990 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


to  dig  in  the  mines,  he  should  not  be  stigmatized  in 
the  face,  but  only  in  the  hands  or  legs  ;  that  the 
face,  which  was  formed  after  the  image  of  the  Di- 
vine majesty  and  beauty,  might  not  be  disfigured. 
Which  certainly  was  intended  piously  by  Constan- 
tine,  as  a  just  caution  to  restrain  men  from  offering 
violence  to  their  own  bodies,  which  were  created 
after  the  image  and  similitude  of  God  in  some  mea- 
sure, though  that  likeness  was  more  visibly  seen  in 
the  original  perfections  of  the  soul. 

All  these  cases  respect  such  actions 

Sert.  8.  »■ 

m»fder"bT"hance  ^^  Ivdve  some  tendency  toward  vo- 
or  manslaughter.  ]untary  murdcr.  Besides  which  the 
church  allotted  sometimes  a  proportionable  punish- 
ment to  accidental  and  involuntary  murder,  though 
the  civil  law  took  little  or  no  notice  of  it.  For  by 
the  old  Roman  and  Christian  laws,  a  master  was 
allowed  to  punish  and  correct  his  slave  with  great 
severity;  and  if  in  that  correction  the  slave  chanced 
to  die,  no  action  of  murder  could  be  brought^ 
against  the  master,  unless  it  appeared  that  he  used 
some  weapon  or  fraud  in  his  punishment,  that 
tended  directly  to  kill  him.  But  notwithstanding 
this,  the  ecclesiastical  law,  having  a  more  tender 
regard  even  to  the  life  of  slaves,  took  cognizance 
of  such  cruelties,  and  obliged  the  actors  to  a  certain 
term  of  penance,  though  the  murder  was  only  ca- 
sual, and  not  directly  intended.  To  this  purpose 
it  is  decreed  in  the  council  of  Eliberis,^'  That  if 
any  mistress  in  the  heat  of  her  anger  so  scourge 
her  slave,  that  the  slave  die  within  three  days  ; 
whereas  it  might  be  uncertain  whether  it  was  a 
voluntary,  or  a  chance  murder  ;  if  it  was  a  volun- 
tary murder,  she  was  to  do  penance  seven  years ; 
if  casual,  only  five  years :  and  all  the  favour  that 
was  allowed  in  this  case  was,  that  if  sickness 
seized  her,  she  might  be  admitted  to  communion 
sooner.  We  find  a  like  decree  in  the  discipline  of 
the  French  church,  made  by  the  council  of  Epone, 
anno  517,  That  if  any  one  put  his  slave  to  death'* 
without  a  legal  trial  before  the  judge,  he  should  ex- 
piate his  murder  by  excommunication  for  two  years. 
And  it  is  remarked  of  Cspsarius  Arelatensis  by  the 
author ^^  of  his  Life,  that  he  was  used  to  protest  to 
the  prefects  of  the  church,  who  had  then  power  to 


inflict  corporal  punishment.  That  if  they  scourged 
any  one  to  an  immoderate  degree,  so  as  that  he  died 
under  his  stripes,  they  should  be  held  guilty  of  mur- 
der. Nay,  so  tender  was  the  church  in  this  point 
of  shedding  man's  blood,  that  she  would  not  ordi- 
narily allow  any  soldier  to  be  ordained  to  any  sacred 
office  of  presbyter  or  deacon  ;  nor  suffer  her  bishops 
to  sit  as  judges  in  capital  causes,  where  they  might 
])e  concerned  to  give  sentence  in  cases  of  blood;  as 
I  have  had  occasion  to  show  more  at  large  in  their 
proper  places,^"  to  which  I  refer  the  reader.  Among 
the  Apostolical  Ca,nons  there  is  one  that  orders, 
That  if  any  clergj^man"  in  a  brawl  or  scuffle  smite 
another,  so  as  to  kill  him,  though  it  were  by  the 
first  blow,  he  shall  be  deposed;  if  a  layman,  he 
shall  be  cast  out  of  communion.  And  St.  Basil's 
canons^'  impose  eleven  years'  penance  upon  all 
voluntary  murderers  whatsoever. 

Neither  was  it  only  actual  murder 
which  they  thus   censured,   but   all 


Sect.  9. 
False    witness 
,  .  ,  .  c^ainst    any  man's 

actions  that  had  any  direct  or  imme-  life  reputed  mur- 


I 


der. 


diate  tendency  towards  it ;  as,  bear- 
ing false  witness  against  a  man's  hfe.  For,  as 
Lactantius  ^^  well  expresses  it,  there  is  no  difference 
between  killing  a  man  with  the  sword,  or  with  the 
tongue ;  it  is  murder  still  in  either  species,  and  a 
violation  of  God's  law  against  invading  the  life  of 
man,  which  admits  of  no  exception.  And  therefore 
the  civil*"  law  appointed  the  punishment  of  retalia- 
tion to  be  inflicted  on  every  false  accuser,  That  if 
any  one  called  another  man's  credit,  or  fortune,  or 
life,  or  blood,  into  question  in  judgment,  and  could 
not  make  out  the  crime  alleged  against  him,  he 
should  suffer  the  same  penalty  that  he  intended  to 
bring  upon  the  other.  And  no  one  could  formally 
implead  another  at  law,  till  he  had  bound  himself  to 
this  condition,  which  the  law*'  terms  vinculum  in- 
scriptionis,  the  bond  of  inscription.  Now,  though 
the  ecclesiastical  law  could  not  inflict  the  punish- 
ment of  retaliation  for  false  witness  against  any 
man's  life,  yet  all  false  testimony  being  a  crime 
punishable  with  excommunication,  (as  we  shall 
see  more  fully  under  the  punishment  of  sins  against 
the  ninth  commandment,)  we  may  be  sure,  such 
false  testimony  as  tended  directly  to  deprive  men  of 


32Vid.  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  12.  De  Emendatione 
Servorum,  Le<r.  1  et  2.  Constantini. 

'^  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  5.  Si  qua  domina  furore  zeli  ac- 
censa,  flagris  verberaverit  ancillam  suam,  ita  ut  intra  ter- 
tium  diem  animam  cum  cruciatueffundat;  eo  quodincertum 
sit,  voluntate,  an  casu  occiderit;  si  volunfate,  post  septem 
annos;  si  casu,  post  quinquennii  tempora,  acta  legitiraa 
pcenitentia,  ad  conimunioncm  placuit  adiiiitti,  &e. 

'^*  Cone.  Epaunen.  can.  34.  Si  quis  servum  proprium 
sine  conscientiajudicis  occiderit,  excommunicatione  biennii 
cfFusionem  sanguinis  expiabit. 

^*  Cypr.  Vit.  Caesar.  Arelat.  Contestabatur  ecclesiac  praj- 
fectos,  si  qiiis  juberet  qucmpiam  diutius  flagellari,  et  ilia 
voibera  illi  mortem  afferrent,  ut  is liomicidii  reum  se  sciret. 


5"  Book  IV.  chap.  4.  sect.  I.     Book  II.  chap.  7.  sect.  4. 

''  Canon.  Apost.  66.  ^  Basil,  can.  57. 

3'  Lact.  lib.  6.  cap.  20.  Nihil  distat,  utrum  ferro,  an  verbo 
potius  occidas,  quoniam  occisio  ipsa  prohibetur,  &c. 

*o  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  1.  De  Accnsationibus,  Leg.  II. 
Qui  alterius  famam,  fortunas,  caput  denique  et  sanguinem 
in  judicium  devocaverit,  sciat  sibi  impendere  congruam 
poenam,  si  quod  intenderit  non  probaverit.  It.  Leg.  19. 
ibid.  Nee  impunitam  lore  noverit  licontiam  mentiendi, 
cum  calumniantes  ad  vindictara  poscat  similitudo  supplicii. 

■"  Ibid.  Leg.  14.  Non  prius  cujuscunque  caput  accusa- 
tionc  pulsot,  quam  vinculo  legis  adstrictus,  pari  cceperit 
pffinEC  conditione  juvgarc,  &c.  Et  Leg.  19.  Vinculum  in- 
scriptionis  accipiat,  &c.     Vid.  Leonis,  Novel.  77. 


Chap.  X, 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


991 


th 

of  persecut 

ed  as  murderers. 


their  lives,  must  be  reputed  by  the  church  among 
the  highest  species  both  of  calumny  and  murder; 
and  consequently  bring  them  under  all  the  penal- 
ties that  were  due  to  tliose  crimes  in  any  degree 
whatsoever.      Vid.  Cone.  EUhcr.  can.  74. 

Yea,   a  bare   information,  or   dis- 
sect. 10.  /•    1       1        1 
Informers  airainst  covcry  of  tlic  iiamcs  01  the  brethren 

le  brethren  in  time  "^  .  «  , 

''•  to  the  heathen  magistrates,  forasmuch 
as  that  in  times  of  difficulty  and  per- 
secution might  endanger  their  lives,  was  justly  re- 
puted and  censured  as  murder  like\vise.  The  first 
council  of  Aries ^-  orders,  That  if  any  such  informers 
were  found  among  the  clergy,  and  convicted  from 
the  public  acts,  that  they  had  betrayed  either  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  or  the  sacred  utensils,  or  the  names 
of  their  brethren,  to  the  heathen,  they  should  be 
degraded  from  their  orders.  And  the  council  of 
Ehberis  goes"  a  little  further,  and  determines,  That 
if  any  Christian  informed  against  his  brethren,  so 
as  that  any  one  was  proscribed  or  slain  upon  his 
information,  he  should  not  be  received  into  commu- 
nion at  the  last,  or  not  till  his  last  hour,  as  different 
copies  read  it. 

5^,.^  J,  Another  sort  of  interpretative  mur- 

fanu''r''ep"?ed''mu?-  ^^''^  was,  tlic  exposiug  of  iufants, 
^"'  against  which  the  ancients  commonly 

declaim  with  great  vehemency  in  the  practice  of 
the  heathen.  You  accuse  us,  says  Tertullian,  of 
murdering  infants ;  but  let  me  turn  to  your  people, 
and  appeal  to  their  consciences,  and  then  how  many 
may  I  find  among  those  that  stand  about  us,  and 
thirst  after  Christian  blood ;  nay,  among  those  just 
and  severe  judges  that  condemn  us,  who  kill  their 
children  as  soon  as  they  are  born,  or  else  expose  " 
them  to  cold,  and  famine,  and  dogs  ?  You  expose 
your  children  to  the  mercy  of  strangers,  and  the 
next  comers  that  will  take  pity  on  them,  and  adopt 
them  more  kindly  for  their  own  children.  The 
same  charge  is  brought  against  them  by  Minucius 
Felix,"  that  they  exposed  their  children,  as  soon  as 
they  were  born,  to  wild  beasts  and  birds  of  prey. 
Athenagoras  says'""  expressly.  All  such  are  parri- 
cides or  murderers  of  their  children.  And  Lac- 
tantius"  a  Httle  more  largely  inveighs  against  them 
upon  the  same  foundation.  They  pretended,  he 
says,  by  a  sort  of  false  piety,  to  expose  them  only 
to  keep  them  from  starving,  because  they  were  poor 
and  not  able  to  maintain  them.     But  they  cannot 


be  deemed  innocent  who  cast  their  own  bowels  as 
a  prey  to  dogs,  and,  as  much  as  in  them  lies,  kill 
them  more  cruelly  than  if  they  strangled  them. 
Who  can  question  the  impiety  of  him,  who  leaves 
no  room  for  others  to  show  mercy?  But  admit 
that  he  attains  his  end  which  he  pretends,  that  his 
child  is  thereby  nourished  and  brought  up,  yet, 
doubtless,  he  condemns  his  own  blood  either  to 
slavery  or  the  stews ;  of  which  there  were  many 
examples  in  both  sexes.  Therefore  he  concludes, 
that  for  men  to  expose  their  children,  was  the  same 
base  and  villanous  action  as  to  kill  them.  And 
whereas  men  were  apt  to  complain  of  their  poverty, 
and  pretend  they  were  not  able  to  bring  up  many 
children  ;  he  not  only  answers  this  from  considera- 
tions of  Providence,  in  whose  power  the  fortunes 
and  possessions  of  all  men  are,  to  make  rich  men 
poor,  and  poor  men  rich ;  but  is  also  thought  by  his 
prudent  advice  to  have  induced  Constantine  to  en- 
act those  two  excellent  and  charitable  laws,  still 
extant  in  the  Theodosian^*  Code,  whereby  it  is  pro- 
vided by  his  great  munificence  in  several  parts  of 
the  empire,  that  poor  parents  who  had  numerous 
famihes,  which  they  could  not  maintain,  should 
have  relief  out  of  the  public  revenues  of  the  empire; 
that  they  might  be  under  no  temptation  cither  to 
expose,  or  kill,  or  sell,  or  oppignorate  and  enslave 
their  children ;  of  which  there  had  been  so  gi'cat 
complaints  under  the  former  reigns  of  heathenism. 
Constantine  ^^  and  Honorius  added  two  other  laws 
to  these,  in  favour  of  such  as  took  care  of  exposed 
children,  that  parents  should  have  no  right  to  claim 
them  again,  nor  accuse  those  of  theft  or  plagiary, 
who  showed  mercy  on  those  whom  they  exposed  to 
death,  and  by  their  neglect  sutTered  to  perish ;  pro- 
vided only  that  the  collectors  of  such  children  made 
e\adence  before  the  bishop,  that  they  were  really 
exposed  and  deserted.  And  in  this  case,  the  eccle- 
siastical laws  concurred  with  the  secular,  adding  the 
penalty  of  excommunication  to  be  inflicted  on  all 
parents,  who  thus  proved  themselves  guilty  of  mur- 
dering their  children.  For  so  the  canons  expressly 
word  it.  The  council  of  Yaison  first  prescribes  the 
method  of  ascertaining  such  children  to  the  right 
and  possession  of  those  who  became  their  foster- 
fathers,  according  to  the  tenor  of  the  imperial  laws ; 
and  then  pronounces  those  who  exposed  them  guilty 
of  murder  by  their  own  confession.   "  A  clamour,"  ^ 


"  Cone.  Arelat.  1.  can.  13.  De  his  qui  Scripturas^anctas 
tradidisse  dicuntur,  vel  vasa  Dominica,  vel  nomina  fratruin 
suorum,  phacuit  nobis,  iit  qiiicunque  eoriim  in  actis  publicis 
fuerit  detectus,  non  verbis  niidi,s,  ab  ordine  cleri  anioveatur. 

"  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  73.  Delator  si  quis  e.\titerit  fidelis, 
et  per  delationem  ejus  aliquis  fuerit  proscriptus  vel  intcr- 
fectns,  placr.it  eum  nee  in  fine  (al.  non  nisi  in  tine)  accipere 
communionem.  It.  can.  74.  Falsus  testis,  prout  crimen  est, 
abstinebit:  si  tamen  non  fuerit  mortis  quod  objccit,  &c. 

**  Tertul.  Apol.  cap.  9.  Aut  fri^ori,  ant  fami,  ant  canibus 
csponitis,  iic.     Vid.  Tertul.  ad  Nationcs,  lib.  1.  cap.  IG. 


*''•  Minuc.  p.  90.       "«  Athen.  Legat.  pro  Christian,  p.  38. 

■"  Lact.  lib.  6.  cap.  20. 

<«  Cod.  Th.  lib.  11.  Tit.  27.  de  Alimcntis,  &c.  Lepj.  1  ct  2. 

^^  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  5.  Tit.  7.  de  E.xpositis,  Leg.  I  et  2. 

^"  Cone.  Vasionen.  1.  can.  9.  De  e.xpositis  (quia  concla- 
matur  ab  omnibus)  querela  processit,  eos  non  misericordiaj 
jam,  sed  canibus  e.xponi,  quos  collij^ere  calumniatoruin 
metu,  quamvis  praeceptisniisericordioc  inflexa  mens  huniana 
detrectet :  id  servaudum  visum  est,  ut  secundum  statnta 
fidelissimorum  piissimorumqne  augustonun  et  priucipum, 
quisqiiis  e.xpositum  colligit,  ectlesiam  contestetur,  &c. 


992 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


says  the  council,  "  is  made  on  all  sides,  and  com- 
plaint brought  before  us,  concerning  exposed  chil- 
dren, that  they  are  now  no  longer  exposed  to  the 
mercy  of  Christians,  but  to  be  devoured  by  dogs, 
because  every  one  refuses  to  take  them  up,  for  fear 
of  prosecution  from  false  accusers :  we  therefore 
decree,  that,  according  to  the  laws  of  pious  emperors 
and  princes,  whoever  takes  up  an  exposed  child, 
shall  make  testimony  thereof  unto  the  church,  and 
the  minister  on  the  Lord's  day  shall  publish  it  at 
the  altar,  that  if  any  one  owns  it  within  ten  days, 
he  may  receive  it  again  ;  giving  a  recompence  to 
the  finder  for  his  charitable  care  for  that  term,  or 
letting  him  keep  it  for  ever  as  his  own  possession." 
But  the  next  canon  ^'  adds,  "  That  if  any  one,  after 
this  legal  form  of  proceeding  has  been  observed  in 
the  case,  pretend  to  claim  the  exposed  infant,  or 
accuse  the  finder  as  a  plagiary  or  man-stealer,  he 
himself  shall  be  punished  as  a  murderer  by  the 
censures  of  the  church."  All  which  manifestly 
proves,  that,  in  the  account  of  conscience  and  the 
ancient  discipline,  the  parent  who  deserts  his  in- 
fant, and  leaves  it  defenceless  to  the  injuries  of  for- 
tune, or  want,  or  the  weather,  or  wild  beasts,  is  a 
real  murderer,  as  doing  that  in  consequence  of  which 
murder  necessarily  ensues,  unless  some  favourable 
providence  interposes  to  prevent  it. 

For  the  same  reason,  some  canons 
If  a'^virgia  de-     appolutcd  all  accessarlcs  to  murder  to 

floured   kills   herself     -         ,  ,  , 

for  grief,  the  cor-  do  thc  Same  peuaucc  as  the  murderers 

riipter      IS    reputed  •  /»      a 

guilty  of  the  mur-  thcmsclves.  The  council  of  Ancyra 
puts  a  special  case  of  this  nature  :  A 
man  that  is  espoused  to  a  woman,  deflours  her  sis- 
ter, and  afterward  marries  the  other :  she  that  is  so 
defiled,  hangs  herself  for  grief :  the  man,  as  acces- 
sory to  the  murder,"  is  ordered  to  do  ten  years' 
penance  for  his  crime,  before  he  is  allowed  to  appear 
among  the  co-standers  at  the  communion. 

g^^^  ^3  The  case  of  the  lanistce,  or  masters 

feiTc'iug-maifeTs,  re-  of  fcnciug,  was  uiuch  of  the  same 
Z'rierand"'tt<i?  uaturc.    Tliclr  art  in  preparing  gladi- 

calling  rondemned.        ,  r  i-\         .^         ^  i 

ators  lor  the  theatre  was  always  re- 
])uted  a  scandalous  trade ;  being,  in  effect,  no  better 
than  teaching  men  to  murder  and  butcher  one  an- 
other. And  therefore  the  church  would  never  allow 
it  as  a  lawful  profession.  TertuUian '^^  says  ex- 
pressly. That  the  prohibition  of  murder  showed  that 


there  Avas  no  place  for  fencers  in  the  church ;  for 
they  were  impleaded  guilty  of  shedding  that  blood, 
which  they  taught  others  to  shed.  The  author  of 
the  Constitutions  puts  gladiators  in  the  number  of 
those  who  were  to  be  rejected  from^^  baptism.  And 
Constantine  prohibited  the  art  itself  as  unchris- 
tian," ordering  such  criminals  as  were  used  to  be 
condemned  to  fight  for  their  lives  upon  the  stage, 
rather  to  be  sent  to  the  mines,  that  they  might  suf- 
fer punishment  without  blood.  For  though,  in  the 
beginning  of  his  reign,  he  allowed  it  to  be  used  as  a 
punishment  for  some  crimes ;  (as  in  the  case  of 
plagiary,  or  man-stealing,  which  they  that  were 
guilty  of  were  condemned^*  to  fight  for  their  lives 
with  wild  beasts,  or  one  another ;)  yet  afterwards  he 
seems  to  have  revoked  this  also.  And  Valentinian 
absolutely  forbade  any  Christian,  or  any  Palatine 
soldier,  to  be  condemned"  to  this  punishment.  Nay, 
some  of  the  wiser  heathens  always  abhorred  and 
declared  against  it.  And  therefore  there  was  more 
reason  to  prohibit  the  whole  art  and  practice  of 
gladiators  under  the  Christian  institution,  which 
Honorius  the  emperor^'  quite  abolished  and  de- 
stroyed. 
But  the  Christian  laws  and  rules  of        „  ►  ,< 

Sect.  H. 

the  church  went  a  little  further.  They  ,^u?d'rs  «m«^it'tld 
not  only  condemned  the  murders  of 
the  stage,  but  forbade  any  one  to  be 
a  spectator  of  them,  under  the  penalty  of  being  re- 
puted accessory  to  the  murder.  Cyprian,  describing 
the  impiety  and  barbarity  of  these  inhuman  games, 
elegantly  styles^'  all  spectators  of  them,  ocuUs  par- 
ricidas,  men  guilty  of  murder  with  their  eyes :  inti- 
mating, that  no  one  could  entertain  himself  with 
the  pleasing  sight  of  them  without  partaking  in  the 
guilt,  and  defiling  his  soul  with  the  contagion  of  the 
murders  committed  in  them.  There  is  little  dif- 
ference,''"  says  Athenagoras,  between  seeing  such 
murders  and  committing  them ;  and  therefore  we 
wholly  abstain  from  the  sight  of  them,  lest  any  of 
their  wickedness  and  defilement  should  cleave  to 
us.  Lactantius,  in  his  elegant  and  fluent  way,  de- 
claims more  copiously  and  vehemently  against  them. 
He  that  accounts  it  a  pleasure,  says  he^^'  to  see  a 
man  killed  before  his  eyes,  though  it  be  a  criminal 
condemned  for  his  villanies,  pollutes  his  conscience, 
as  much  as  if  he  were  both  a  spectator  and  partaker 


on  the  stage   ac- 
counted  accessaries 
to  murder  also. 


^'  Cone.  Vasioneu.  ].  can.  10.  Si  quis  e.spositonim  hoc 
ordine  collectoniin  repetitor  vel  calumniator  e.xtiterit,  ut 
homicida  habendus  est,  et  ecclesiastica  districtione  damna- 
bitur.  Vid.  Cone.  Arelat.  2.  can.  32,  where  the  same  things 
are  repeated. 

"  Cone.  Ancyr.  can.  2G. 

^' Tertiil.  de  Idol.  cap.  11.  Sic  et  homicidii  interdietio 
ostendit  mihi  lanistam  quoqiie  ab  eeclesia  arceri  nee  per  se 
non  faciei,  quod  faciendum  aliis  subministrat. 

=1  Constit.  lib.  8.  cap.  32. 

5^  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  15.  Tit.  12.  de  Gladiatoribus,  Leg.  1. 
Cruenta  spcctaeida  in  otio  civili  et  domestica  quietc  non 


placent,  &c. 

^«  Ibid.  lib.  9.  Tit.  18.  ad  Legem  Fabiam  de  Plagariis, 
Leff.  1. 

"  Ibid.  lib.  9.  Tit.  40.  de  Poenis,  Leg.  8  et  11. 

s"  Vide  Pagi,  Crit.  in  Baron,  t.  2.  an.  4U4.  n.  5.  e.^  Pru- 
dentio  contra  Symmach.  lib.  2. 

^^  Cypr.  ad  Donat.  p.  5. 

i^"  Athen.  Legat.  pro  Christian,  p.  38. 

"'  Lact.  lib.  6.  cap.  20.  Qui  hominem,  quamvis  ob  merita 
daranatum,  in  conspeetu  suo  pro  vokiptate  jugulari  conipu- 
tat,  conscientiain  suam  poUuit,  tarn  scilicet  quani  si  homi- 
cidii, quod  fit  occulte,  spectator  et  pavticeps  fiat,  &c. 


CilAP.   X. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


993 


of  any  secret  murder.  And  yet  they  call  these 
things  only  games  and  diversions,  wherein  human 
1  uDod  is  shed.  So  far  are  men  forsaken  of  humanity, 
liiat  they  count  it  but  sport  to  destroy  men's  lives 

r  souls,  being  really  more  wicked  and  injurious 
than  tliose  very  criminals,  whose  blood  they  make 
their  diversion.  Upon  this  account,  in  the  eye  of 
the  church,  to  frequent  these  inhuman  games  was 
the  same  thing  as  to  commit  murder,  and  no  man 
( i)uld  associate  with  such  company,  and  follow  such 
(hversions,  but  he  was  reputed  to  bid  adieu  to  all 
humanity,  pietj^  and  justice,  and  to  make  himself 
jiartaker  in  all  the  guilt  of  those  public  murders. 

The  charge  of  murder  was    also 

laniishers  of  the  broujjht  ao'aiust  those  who  denied  the 

■  i.^nr    and    indigent  .    * 

murder  ""'"^  °'  1*°*^'*  ^^^^^^  ucccssary  maintenance,  and 
defrauded  their  indigent  parents  of 
their  proper  livelihood,  suffering  them  to  perish  by 
famine  or  want,  against  the  laws  of  piety  and  natu- 
ral affection.  The  fourth  council  of  Carthage*" 
upon  this  account  terms  those,  who  defrauded  the 
church  of  the  oblations  of  the  dead,  egentimn  neca- 
tores,  murderers  of  the  poor,  and,  as  such,  orders 
them  to  be  prosecuted  to  excommunication.  And 
Cyprian,  speaking  of  the  villanies  of  Novatus,  says, 
among  other  instances  of  his  being  guilty  of  par- 
ricide and  murder,  (such  as  causing  his  wife  to 
miscarry,  by  a  kick  on  the  belly,  when  she  was 
great  with  child,)  he  suffered  his  own  father  to 
starve,*^  and  perish  by  famine,  and  left  him  unburied 
after  death.  For  which  crimes  he  had  certainly 
been  expelled  not  only  from  the  presbytery,  but 
from  all  communion  with  the  church,  had  not  the 
difficult  times  of  approaching  persecution  prevented 
the  day  of  his  trial,  and  given  him  opportunity  to 
escape  the  condemnation  that  was  due  to  him  by 
the  just  discipline  and  censures  of  the  church.  All 
these  were  reckoned  guilty  of  murder,  indirectly  at 
least,  as  accessaries,  and  partakers  in  the  sin,  though 
their  hands  were  not  actually  and  directly  engaged 
in  shedding  of  blood. 

But  none  were  reputed  more  guilty 
And  all'  those  by  of  murdcF  tliau  they  by  whose  au- 

whose  authority  "^         *^ 

murder  was  com-     thority  it  was  Committed.     Though 

mitted.  •'  O 

the  inferior  instruments  were  not  ac- 
quitted, yet  the  crime  was  chiefly  laid  to  the  charge 
of  the  principal  authors.  Therefore,  as  David  was 
charged  by  Nathan  with  the  murder  of  Uriah, 
though  he  was  slain  through  the  treachery  of  Joab 
by  the  sword  of  the  children  of  Amnion  ;  so  Thco- 
dosius,  when,  by  his  orders  and  authority,  seven 
thousand  men  were  slaughtered  at  Thessalonica,  was 
charged  by  St.  Ambrose  as  the  principal  author  of 
the  murder,  and,  according  to  the  rules  of  discipline, 


denied  the  communion  of  the  church,  till  he  had 
made  a  suitable  and  reasonable  satisfaction.  For 
though,  as  Cyprian  complains**  to  his  friend  Do- 
natus,  under  the  heathen  emperors,  public  murder 
was  esteemed  a  virtue,  which  in  private  men  was 
punished  as  a  great  crime ;  yet  it  was  not  so  under 
the  Christian  institution,  but  there  was  a  power  to 
bring  even  emperors  and  princes  under  discipline 
for  such  public  offences,  as  appears  from  the  case  of 
Theodosius  now  mentioned.  And  the  case  of  the 
munerarii,  that  is,  such  Christian  magistrates  as  ex- 
hibited the  munera,  or  inhuman  games,  where  men 
murdered  one  another  upon  the  stage,  is  a  further 
evidence  of  this  power  and  practice.  For  the  canons 
of  the  church"  order  all  such  magistrates  to  be  ex- 
communicated, as  contributing  by  their  authority 
and  expenses  both  to  idolatry  and  murder.  So  that 
murder,  in  whatever  species  it  appeared,  or  by 
whatever  persons  it  was  committed,  was  always 
reputed  a  crime  of  the  first  magnitude,  exposing 
men  to  the  utmost  severity  of  ecclesiastical  censure. 

And  it  must  be  added,  that  all  open 
enmity  and  quarrelling,  strife,  envy.    Enmity, and' strife, 

,  .  /.IT  ^"^    contention, 

anger  and  contention,  professed  malice  pu-mhed  as  lower 

^  *■  degrees  of  murder. 

and  hatred,  were  punished  with  excom- 
munication, as  tendencies  toward  this  great  sin,  and 
lower  degrees  of  murder.  St.  John  says,  "  He  that 
hateth  his  brother  is  a  murderer,  and  no  murderer 
hath  eternal  life  abiding  in  him."  Our  Saviour 
also  declares,  "  That  he  that  is  angiy  with  his 
brother  without  a  cause,  shall  be  in  danger  of  the 
judgment;  and  whosoever  shall  say  to  his  brother, 
Raca,  shall  be  in  danger  of  the  council ;  but  who- 
soever shall  say,  Thou  fool,  shall  be  in  danger  of 
hell-fire."  Now,  agreeably  to  these  instructions, 
the  church,  to  prevent  or  correct  all  tendencies 
toward  the  great  sin  of  murder,  laid  proper  restraints 
and  penalties  upon  the  unruly  passions  of  men, 
whenever  they  discovered  themselves  in  any  visible 
acts  of  malice  or  hatred,  and  strife  and  contention. 
The  communion  was  the  great  symbol  of  love  and 
charity,  and  the  covenant  of  peace  and  unity,  and  the 
great  uniter  of  men's  hearts  and  affections.  There- 
fore all  who  visibly  wanted  these  necessary  qualifi- 
cations, were  thought  unworthy  of  that  venerable 
mystery,  and  accordingly  obliged,  by  the  discipline 
of  the  church,  (till  they  were  so  qualified,)  to  ab- 
stain from  it.  The  fourth  council  of  Carthage'^ 
made  an  order,  That  the  oblations  of  such  as  were 
at  enmity  or  open  variance  with  their  brethren, 
should  neither  be  received  into  the  treasury  of  the 
church,  nor  at  the  altar :  which  was  as  much  as  to 
say,  they  should  not  communicate  whilst  they  were 
in    that  condition.      And  the  second  council  of 


*-  Cone.  Carth.  4.  can.  95. 
®  Cypr.  Ep.  49.  al.  52.  ad  Cornel,  p.  97. 
"  Cypr.  ad  Donat.  p.  5.     Homicidium  cum  adraitUint 
singuli  crimen  est;  virtus  vocatur  cum  publico  geritur. 
3  s 


^  See  chap.  4.  sect.  8. 

^  Cone.    Carth.    4.    can.    93.     Oblationes   dissidentium 
fratrum,  neque  in  sacrario,  neque  in  gazophylacio  recipi- 

autur. 


904 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


Aries,"  removes  those  from  the  privilege  of  joining 
with  the  assemblies  of  the  church,  who  break  forth 
into  public  hatreds  and  animosities  one  against 
another,  until  they  are  reconciled,  and  return  to 
peace  again.  They  that  evil  intreat  their  servants 
or  slaves  with  stripes,  famine,  or  hard  bondage,  are 
ordered  to  be  refused  communion  by  the  rules®  of 
the  Constitutions.  And  Chrysostom  often  warns^^ 
the  clergy,  that  they  should  admit  no  cruel  or  un- 
merciful man  to  the  communion.  For  if  they  gave 
the  eucharist  wittingly  to  any  such  flagitious  man, 
his  blood  would  be  required  at  their  hands.  Though 
it  be  a  general,  though  it  be  a  consul,  though  it 
be  him  that  wears  the  crown,  restrain  him  if  he 
comes  unworthily;  thou  hast  greater  power  than 
he.  But  this  was  to  be  understood  of  great  and 
enormous  violations  of  charity,  expressing  them- 
selves in  open  and  professed  acts  of  cruelty;  not 
of  every  lower  degree  of  anger,  especially  rash  and 
sudden  anger,  which,  as  I  showed  before,™  was  to 
be  cured  by  other  methods,  and  not  by  the  highest 
remedies  of  severity  in  the  exercise  of  ecclesiastical 
censure.  These  were  the  rules  of  discipline  whereby 
the  church  proceeded  in  censuring  and  punishing 
the  great  sin  of  murder,  with  all  its  species  and 
appendages,  so  far  as  it  was  either  possible  or  proper 
to  take  notice  of  them ;  reserving  the  rest  for  the 
gentler  methods  of  admonition  and  verbal  correc- 
tion, which,  in  ordinary  cases  and  lighter  transgres- 
sions of  this  kind,  was  sufficient  for  the  amendment 
of  the  sinner. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

OF  GREAT  TRANSGRESSIONS  AGAINST  THE  SEVENTH 
COMMANDMENT  ;  FORNICATION,  ADULTERY,  IN- 
CEST, ETC. 

Another  sort  of  great  crimes,  which 

Sect.  1.  ,  ^  , .    ,  ,  , 

The  punishment  of  alwavs  made  men  liable  to  the  seve- 

fornication.  ^   ^     '^ 

rities  of  ecclesiastical  discipline,  were 
the  sins  of  uncleanness,  or  transgressions  of  the 


seventh  connnandraent ;  such  as  fornication,  adul- 
tery, ravishment,  incest,  polygamy,  and  all  sorts 
of  unnatural  defilement  with  beasts  or  mankind? 
and  all  things  leading  or  paving  the  way  to  such 
impurities,  as  rioting  and  intemperance,  writing 
or  reading  lascivious  books,  acting  or  frequenting 
obscene  stage-plays,  allowing  or  maintaining  har- 
lots, or  whatever  of  the  like  kind  may  be  called 
making  provision  for  the  flesh  to  fulfil  the  lusts 
thereof.  To  begin  with  simple  fornication :  the 
heathen  laws  were  so  far  from  laying  any  eflectual 
restraints,  that  they  not  only  allowed  it  with  im- 
punity, but  many  times  encouraged  it  in  the  very 
sacred  rites  and  mysteries  of  their  gods,  as  the 
ancient  apologists  often  object  it  against  their  re- 
ligion ;  whereas  the  Christian  religion  laid  great 
and  severe  penalties  upon  all  such  as,  under  the 
name  of  Christians,  were  found  guilty  of  it.  The 
Apostolical  Canons,'  and  those  of  Neocaesarea,^ 
forbid  such  ever  to  be  received  into  holy  orders,  or 
to  be  suspended,  if  unwittingly  ordained.  The 
council  of  Eliberis  ^  suspends  virgins,  who  keep  not 
their  virginity,  a  whole  year  from  the  communion ; 
obliging  them  to  marry  those  that  defiled  them  ; 
otherwise  they  are  to  undergo  five  years'  solemn  re- 
pentance, because  if  they  are  corrupted  by  others 
they  become  guilty  of  adultery,  which,  as  we  shall 
presently  see,  had  a  more  severe  punishment  than 
simple  fornication. 

For  whereas  St.  Basil's  canons  ap- 
point seven  years'  penance  for  forni- 
cation only,  they  prescribe  fifteen  for  adultery,''  and 
sometimes  double^  the  number.  The  council  of 
Ancyra^  imposes  seven  years  for  adultery,  but 
makes  no  express  mention  of  fornication.  The 
council  of  Ehberis  appoints  five  years'  penance  for 
a  single  act'  of  adultery ;  and  ten  years,*  if  repeated : 
but  if  any  continued  in  it  all  their  lives,  they  were 
not  to  have  the  communion  at  their  last  hour.  And 
in  some  of  the  African  churches  before  the  time  of 
St.  Cyprian,  this  was  the  common  punishment  for 
all  adultery.  For  he  says,'  some  of  his  predecess- 
ors refused  the  peace  of  the  church  to  all  adulter- 
ers, and  shut  the  door  of  repentance  wholly  against 


Sect.  2. 
Of  aduUerj. 


*'  Cone.  Arelat.  2.  can.  31.  Hi  qui  publicis  inter  se  odiis 
exardescnut,  ab  ecclesiasticis  conventibus  sunt  removendi, 
donee  ad  paeein  recurrant. 

•*  Constit.  lib.  4.  cap.  6. 

■is  Chrys.  Horn.  83.  in  Mat.  p.  705.     '">  Chap.  3.  sect.  14. 

'  Canon.  Apost.  53.  al.  GI. 

-  Cone.  Neocaesar.  can.  9. 

^  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  14.  Virgincs  quae  virginitatem  suam 
non  custodierint,  si  eosdem,  qui  eas  violaverunt,  duxerint 
et  tenuerint  maritos,  eo  quod  solas  uuptias  violaverint, 
(nempe  non  Deo  dedicatae,  ut  can.  13.)  post  annum  sine 
poenitentia  reconciliari  debebunt.  Vel  si  alios  coguove- 
rint  viros,  eo  quod  moechatae  sint,  placuit,  per  quinqueniiii 
tempora,  acta  legitima  poenitentia,  admitti  eas  ad  commu- 
uionem. 


*  Basil,  can.  58  et  59.  '  Ibid.  can.  7. 

*  Cone.  Ancyr.  can.  20. 

'  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  69.  Si  q>us  forte  habens  uxorem,  se- 
mel  fuerit  lapsus,  placuit  eum  quinquennium  agere  de  ea  re 
poenitentiam. 

*  Ibid.  can.  64.  Si  qua  raulier  usque  in  finem  mortis  suae 
cum  alieno  fuerit  viro  moechata,  placuit  nee  in  fine  dandam 
ei  esse  communionem.  Si  vero  eum  reliquerit,  post  decern 
annos  recipi  ad  communionem,  acta  legitima  poenitentia. 

"  Cypr.  Ep.  55.  al.  52.  ad  Antonian.  p.  109.  Mcechis  a 
nobis  poenitentia  conceditur,  et  pax  datur. — Et  quidem 
apud  anteeessoves  nostros  quidam  de  episcopis  in  provincia 
nostra  dandam  paeem  mcechis  non  putaverunt,  et  in  totum 
poenitentiae  locum  contra  adulteria  clauserunt ;  non  tamen 
a  coepiscoporum  suorum  collegio  recesseruut 


Chap.  XI. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


995 


them  ;  though  it  was  otherwise  in  his  time,  when 
adulterers  had  a  certain  term  of  penance  appointed 
them,  after  which  thej^  might  be  restored  to  the 
peace  of  the  church.  Whence  Bishop  Pearson '" 
rightly  reproves  Albaspina?us  for  asserting,  That 
adulterers  were  never  received  into  communion  be- 
fore the  time  of  Cyprian.  For  Cyprian  says  ex- 
pressly, They  were  received  to  repentance  in  most 
churches,  though  rejected  by  some.  And  it  ap- 
pears plainly  from  Tertullian,  who  lived  before 
Cyprian,  and  wrote  his  book  De  Pudicitia,  as  a 
Montanist,  against  the  catholics,  for  receiving 
adulterers  to  their  communion.  Yet  in  the  case  of 
the  clergy,  the  law  continued  still  a  little  more  se- 
vere. For  by  a  rule  of  the  council  of  Eliberis,"  If 
a  bishop,  presbyter,  or  deacon  was  convicted  of 
adultery,  he  was  to  be  denied  communion  to  the 
very  last,  as  well  for  the  greatness  of  the  crime,  as 
for  the  scandal  he  gave  to  the  church  thereby.  And 
by  another  canon  of  the  same  council,'-  Every 
clergyman  who  knew  his  wife  to  be  guilty  of  com- 
mitting adultery,  and  did  not  presently  put  her 
away,  was  also  to  be  denied  communion  to  the  very 
last ;  that  they  who  ought  to  be  examples  of  good 
conversation,  might  not  by  their  practice  seem  to 
show  others  the  way  to  sin.  And  the  council  of 
Neoceesarea"  has  a  decree  of  near  affinity  to  this. 
That  if  a  layman's  wife  be  convicted  of  adultery,  it 
shall  render  him  incapable  of  orders :  or  if  after 
his  ordination  she  commits  adultery,  he  must  dis- 
miss her ;  under  pain  of  degradation  from  his  minis- 
terial office,  if  he  retains  her.  The  civil  law,  both 
under  the  heathen  and  Christian  emperors,  made 
this  crime  capital,  as  Gothofred"  shows  by  various 
instances  both  out  of  the  Code  and  Pandects.  And 
Constans,  the  son  of  Constantine,  in  particular,  ap- 
pointed its  punishment  to  be  the  same  as  that  of 
parricide,  which  was  burning  alive,  or  drowning  in 
a  sack,  with  a  serpent,  an  ape,  a  cock,  and  a  dog 
tied  up  with  the  criminals.  When  adultery,'^  says 
he,  is  proved  by  manifest  evidence,  no  dilatory  ap- 
peal shall  be  allowed :  but  the  judge  is  obliged  to 


punish  those  who  are  guilty  of  the  sacrilegious  vio- 
lation of  marriage,  as  manifest  parricides,  either  by 
drowning  them  in  a  cuUcus,  or  sack,  or  burning 
them  alive.  And  this  was  one  of  those  crimes  to 
which  the  emperors  at  Easter  would  grant  no  in- 
dulgence,'" nor  allow  any  appeal  to  be  made  from 
the  judge  to  themselves  in  favour  of  the  criminals, 
as  appears  not  only  from  this  law  of  Constans,  but 
several  others."  It  may  not  be  amiss  also  to  ob- 
serve out  of  one  of  the  laws  "  of  Theodosius,  That 
for  a  Christian,  man  or  woman,  to  marry  a  Jew,  was 
reputed  the  same  thing  as  committing  adultery,  and 
made  the  offending  party  liable  to  the  same  punish- 
ment ;  because  it  was  at  least  a  spiritual  adultery, 
and  a  sacrilegious  prostitution  of  the  members  of 
Christ  to  the  insolence  and  power  of  his  gieatest 
enemies.  And  indeed  there  is  notliing  that  the  an- 
cients more  generally  "  condemn  than  this  of  Chris- 
tians joining  in  marriage  with  Jews,  or  heathens, 
or  heretics,  or  any  persons  of  a  different  religion ; 
not  because  it  was  strictly  and  properly  adultery, 
but  because  it  was  against  the  rule  of  the  apostle, 
(which  orders  women  "  to  marry  only  in  the  Lord,") 
and  therefore  dangerous  to  the  faith,  by  running 
themselves  into  temptation  of  changing  their  re- 
ligion, either  by  perverting  and  corrupting  the  faith, 
or  wholly  deserting  and  apostatizing  from  it. 

Another  sort  of  uncleanness  was  p^^,  3 
committed  by  incestuous  marriages,  wmcot. 
that  is,  when  persons  of  near  alliance,  either  by 
consanguinitj'  or  affinity,  made  marriages  one  with 
another,  within  the  degrees  prohibited  by  God  in 
Scripture  :  as  if  a  man  married  his  father's  wife, 
or  his  wife's  daughter,  or  his  brother's  wife,  or  his 
wife's  sister  ;  w'hich  are  cases  in  affinity,  particular- 
ly mentioned  in  the  council  of  Auxerre  ^*  as  pro- 
hibited cases.  St.  Basil  says,^'  Incest  with  a  sister 
was  to  be  punished  with  the  same  penance  as  mur- 
der; and  all  incestuous  conjunction,  as  adultery.^ 
He  that  committed  incest  with  a  half-sister,^  was 
to  do  eleven  years'  penance ;  and  he  who  committed 
incest  with  his  son's  wife,"*  was  to  do  the  same. 


'»  Pearson.  Vindic.  Ignat.  lib.  2.  cap.  8.  p.  378. 

"  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  18.  Episcopi,  presbyteri,  diacones 
si  in  ministerio  positi  detecti  fuerint,  quod  sint  jncechati, 
placuit  et  propter  scandalum,  et  propter  nefaudum  crimen, 
nee  in  fine  eos  communionem  accipeie  debere. 

'-  Ibid.  can.  65.  Si  ciijus  clerici  uxor  fuerit  mcechata,  et 
sciat  earn  maritus  suus  moechari,  et  earn  non  statiin  pro- 
jecerit,  nee  in  fine  accipiat  communionem  :  ne  ab  his,  qui 
exemplum  bonae  conversationis  esse  debent,  videantur  ma- 
gistei'ia  scelerum  procedere. 

"  Cone.  Neocaesar.  can.  8. 

•■•  Gothofr.  in  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  36.  Quorum  Appel- 
lationes,  &c.  Leg.  4. 

'^  Cod.  Theod.  ibid.  Manifestis  probationibus  adulterio 
probato  frustratoria  provocatio  minime  admittatur :  cum 
pari  similique  ratione  sacrilegos  nuptiarum,  tanquam  mani- 
festos pavricidas,  insuere  culleo  vivos,  vel  exurere,  judican- 
tem  oporteat. 

3  s  2 


'*  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  38.  De  Indulgentiis  Criminum, 
Leg.  3,  4,  6,  7,  8. 

'^  Ibid.  Tit.  36.  Quorum  Appellationes  non  recipiantur, 
Leg.  I,  4,  7. 

'^  Ibid.  Tit.  9.  ad  Legem  Juliam  de  Adulteriis,  Leg.  5- 
Ne  quis  Christianam  mulierem  in  matrimonium  .ludocus  ac- 
cipiat, neque  Judasae  Christianus  conjugium  sortiatur.  Nam 
si  quis  aliquid  hujusmodi  admiserit,  adulterii  vicem  com- 
missi hujus  crimen  obtinebit. 

''  Ambros.  de  Abrahamo,  lib.  1.  cap.  9.  Cave,  Christiane, 
Gentili  aut  Judaeo  filiam  tuam  tradere  :  cave,  inquam,  Gen- 
tilem  aut  Judajam,  atque  alienigenam,  hoc  est,  haereticam, 
et  omnem  alienam  a  fide  tua  uxorem  accersas  tibi.  Vid. 
Aug.  Ep.  234.  ad  Rusticum.  Cone.  Elibeiit.  can.  16.  Cone 
Laodic.  can.  10  et  31. 

2»  Cone.  Antissiodor.  can.  27,  28,  29,  30. 

2'  Basil,  can.  67.  =■-  Ibid.  can.  68. 

^  Ibid.  can.  75.  2'  Ibid.  can.  76. 


i)!JG 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book   XVI 


He  who  successively  married  two  sisters^  was  to 
do  the  penance  of  an  adulterer,  which  was  fifteen 
years.  And  about  all  cases  of  this  nature,  the  an- 
cients were  perfectly  agreed.  Herein  especially  the 
Christian  morals  exceeded  the  heathen.  Among 
the  Persians,  it  was  allowed  by  law  for  the  father 
to  many  his  own  daughter,  or  a  son  his  own 
mother  or  sister,  as  is  observed  by  Origen.^  Minu- 
cius  says "  the  same  of  the  Egyptians  and  Athe- 
nians ;  and  Theodosius,  speaking  particularly  of  the 
Persians  in  his  own  time,^  says,  It  was  then  a  mark 
of  honour  and  religion  for  their  princes  to  marry 
their  own  mothers,  or  sisters,  or  daughters.  And 
Gothofred  ^^  gives  many  instances  among  the  Ro- 
mans of  men  marrying  their  sisters'  daughters,  and 
their  brothers'  daughters,  the  latter  of  which  was 
never  forbidden  by  any  of  their  laws,  though  the 
former  had  sometimes  a  restraint  laid  upon  it.  But 
Constantius  ^"  made  it  a  capital  crime  for  any  one 
to  marry  his  brother's  or  sister's  daughter,  which 
was  abominable.  He  equally  condemned  the  mar- 
rying of  two  sisters,^'  or  a  brother's  wife,  (though 
the  Jewish  law  allowed  the  latter  in  a  certain  case,) 
under  the  penalty  of  having  their  children  illegiti- 
mate, and  accounted  spurious.  And  Theodosius 
junior'^  thought  it  proper  to  repeat  the  same  law, 
though  Honorius  himself  had  made  a  stretch  upon  it, 
l)y  marrjnng  two  sisters,  the  daughters  of  Stilicho, 
successively  the  one  after  the  other.  The  ecclesias- 
tical law  dissolved  all  such  marriages  as  incestuous, 
and  obliged  the  parties  to  do  penance  for  their  lewd- 
ness. The  council  of  Eliberis  requires  five  years' 
penance,'^  unless  some  intervening  danger  of  death 
require  the  time  to  be  shortened.  The  council  of 
Neocsesarea'*  orders  the  woman  that  is  married  to 
two  brothers,  to  remain  excommunicate  to  the  day 
of  her  death,  and  then  only  to  be  reconciled  by 


receiving  the  sacrament  in  extremity,  upon  con- 
dition that,  if  she  recovers,  she  shall  dissolve  the 
marriage,  and  submit  to  a  course  of  solemn  repent- 
ance. St.  Basil  argues  at  large^'  for  the  nullity  and 
dissolution  of  all  such  marriages,  in  an  epistle  to 
Diodorus  Tarsensis,  under  whose  name  there  went 
a  feigned  treatise  in  defence  of  them.  And  among 
the  Apostolical  Canons  ^*  there  is  one  that  orders, 
That  whoever  marries  two  sisters,  or-  his  brother's 
daughter,  shall  never  be  admitted  among  the  clergy. 

But  they  are  not  so  clear  and  unani- 
mous in  the  question  about  the  mar-     whether  the  mar- 

.  rr-ii      .1  riage  of  coiisin-ger- 

riac^e     Ot     COUSin-germanS.  1  ill     the    mans  was  reckoned 

"  °  _  incest. 

time  of  St.  Ambrose  and  Theodosius 
there  was  no  law  against  it,  but  Theodosius  by 
an  express  law  absolutely  forbade  it.  This  law 
is  not  extant  now  in  either  of  the  Codes,  but 
there  is  reference  made  to  it  by  many  ancient  writ- 
ers. Honorius,  in  one  of  his  laws,  makes  mention 
of  it,"  confirming  the  prohibition,  though  vmder  a 
different  penalty.  For  whereas  Theodosius  made 
the  penalty  to  be  confiscation  and  burning,  he 
moderated  the  punishment  into  confiscation  of  the 
parties'  goods,  and  illegitimation  of  their  children. 
And  Arcadius,  by  another  law,^'  took  off  confisca- 
tion also,  but  made  all  such  still  guilty  of  incestu- 
ous marriage,  and'  rendered  them  intestate,  and 
their  children  illegitimate,  and  incapable  of  suc- 
ceeding to  any  inheritance,  as  being  only  a  spurious 
offspring.  Gothofred^"  has  observed  likewise,  That 
there  is  mention  made  of  this  law  of  Theodosius  in 
the  writings  of  Libanius,*"  who  speaks  of  it  as  a 
new  law  made  by  him,  to  forbid  the  marriage  of 
avsipioi,  that  is,  cousin-germans.  The  like  is  said 
by  St.  Ambrose,^'  who  takes  notice  of  the  severe 
punishment  which  the  emperor  laid  upon  all  those 
that  married  in  contradiction  to  the  law.     And  it 


="  Basil,  can.  78. 

■•^s  Orig.  cont.  Cels.  lib.  5.  p.  248.  Aug.  de  Civ.  Dei,  lib. 
15.  cap.  16. 

^'  Minuc.  Octav.  p.  92.  Jus  est  apud  Persas  misceri  cum 
niatribus :  jEgyptiis  et  Athenis  cum  sororibus  legitiina  con- 
nubia. 

^  Theod.  Com.  in  Levit.  xviii.  8. 

■•^'  Gothofred.  in  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  3.  Tit.  12.  De  Incestis 
Nuptiis,  Leg.  1.  ex  Tacifo,  lib.  12.  Annal.  Sueton.  Vit. 
Claudii,  cap.  26.  Vit.  Domitiani,  cap.  22. 

™  Cod.  Theod.  ibid.  Si  quis  filiam  fratris,  sororisve,  fa- 
ciendara  crediderit  abominanter  uxnrem,  aut  in  ejus  ani- 
ple.xum,  nou  ut  patruus  aut  avimculus,  convolaverit,  capita- 
lis  sententias  poena  teneatiu'. 

3'  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  3.  Tit.  12.  de  Incestis  Nuptiis,  Leg.  2. 
Etsi  licitum  veteres  crediderunt,  nuptiis  fratris  solutis,  du- 
cere  fratrem  uxoris;  licitum  etiam  post  mortem  nudieris, 
vel  divortium  contrahere  cum  ejusdem  sorore  corijugium: 
abstineant  hujusmodi  nuptiis  universi,  nee  aestiment  posse 
legitimos  liberos  ex  hoc  consortio  procreari  :  nam  spurios 
esse  couvenit,  qui  nascentur. 

^'-  Ibid.  Leg.  4. 

^'  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  61.  Si  quis  post  obitum  uxoris  surr, 
iororem  ejus  duxerit,  quioquenaium  a  communione  placuit 


abstineri,  nisi  forte  dari  pacem  velocius  necessitas  coegerit 
infirmitatis.  ^*  Cone.  Neocajsar.  can.  2. 

^^  Basil.  Ep.  197.  ad  Diodor.  Tarsens. 

36  Can.  Apost.  19. 

3'  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  3.  Tit.  10.  Si  nuptiw  ex  rescripto 
petantur.  Leg.  1.  Exceptis  his,  quos  consobrinorum,  hoc 
est,  quarti  gradus  coujunctionem,  lex  trium|)haHs  memoriae 
patris  mistri  exeinplo  indiiltorum  supplicare  non  vetavit,  &c. 

S8  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  3.  Tit.  12.  de  Incestis  Nuptiis,  Leg.  3. 
Manente  circa  eos  sententia,  qui  post  factam  dudum  legem 
quoquo  modo  absoluti  sunt  aut  puniti,  si  quis  incestis  post- 
hac  cousobrinae  suae,  vel  sororis  aut  fratris  filiae,  uxorisve 

sese  nuptiis  funestarit,  designato  quidem  lege  supplicio, 

hoc  est,  ignium  et  proscriptionis,  careat,  proprias  etiam 
quamdiu  vixerit  teneat  facultates:  sed  neque  uxorem  ne- 
qiie  filios  ex  ea  editos  habere  credatuv,  ut  nihil  prorsus  prae- 
dictis,  ne  per  interpositam  quidem  personam,  vel  donet 
superstes,  vel  mortuus  derelinquat. 

3»  Gothofred.  in  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  3.  Tit.  10.  Leg.  1. 

■">  Liban.  Orat.  pro  Agvicolis  de  Angariis. 

■"  Ambros.  Ep.66.  ad  Paternum.  Theodosius  imperator 
etiam  patrueles  I'ratres  et  consobrinos  vetuit  inter  se  con- 
jugii  convenire  nomine,  et  severissimam  poenam  statuit  si 
quis  temerare  ausus  esset  fratrum  pia  pignora,  &c. 


Chap.  XI. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


007 


is  thought  that  St.  Ambrose  was  the  emperor's  ad- 
\  iscr  in  the  case,  being  of  opinion  himself  that  such 
marriages  were  incestuous  and  prohibited  in  Scrip- 
ture. St.  Austin  was  of  a  dillerent  judgment  from 
St.  Ambrose,  yet  he  mentions  the  emperor's  law, 
and  advises  men  to  refrain  from  such  marriages  ;^'- 
because  though  neither  the  Divine  law,  nor  any  hu- 
man law  before  that  of  Theodosius,  had  prohibited 
I  hem,  yet  most  men  were  scrupulous  about  them, 
and  such  marriages  were  very  rarel_y  made,  because 
men  thought  they  bordered  very  near  upon  unlaw- 
ful ;  whilst  the  marrying  a  cousin-german  was  al- 
most deemed  the  same  thing  as  marrying  a  sister, 
and  the  propinquity  of  blood  gave  men  a  sort  of 
natural  aversion  to  such  engagements  with  their 
near  kindred.  It  appears  from  this,  that  there  was 
no  human  law  before  that  of  Theodosius  to  prohibit 
this  sort  of  marriages ;  and  in  St.  Austin's  opinion 
there  was  nothing  to  hinder  them  in  the  law  of  God. 
Athanasius*'  was  of  the  same  judgment ;  for  he 
says  expressly.  That  by  the  rule  of  God's  commands 
the  conjunction  of  cousin-germans,  or  brothers'  and 
sisters'  children,  in  matrimony,  was  lawful  marriage. 
And  afterward  Arcadius  revoked  all  former  laws 
that  he  himself  or  others  had  made  in  derogation 
of  such  marriages,"  declaring  them  legal,  and  that 
no  action  or  accusation  should  lie  against  them ; 
but  that  if  cousin-germans  married  together,  whe- 
ther they  were  the  children  of  two  brothers,  or  two 
sisters,  or  a  sister  and  a  brother,  their  matrimony 
should  be  lawful,  and  their  children  legitimate. 
Justinian  made  this  the  standing  law  of  the  empire, 
not  only  by  inserting  it  into  his  Code,  but  by  de- 
claring the  same  thing"  in  his  Institutions.  Where 
Contius^''  rightly  observes.  That  though  some  copies 
and  some  ancient  writers,  as  Theophilus  and  others, 
read  it  negatively,  cotijum/i  non  possunt :  yet  the 
other  is  certainly  the  true  reading,  both  because  it 
is  agreeable  to  the  law  of  Arcadius  in  the  Code,  and 
because  Gregory  the  Great  so  alleges  it  in  his  an- 
swer to  Austin  the  monk"  upon  this  question,  say- 


ing, The  civil  law  of  the  Roman  empire  allows  the 
marriage  of  cousin-gernuuis,  l)ut  the  sacred  l;<w  for- 
bids it.  And  this  was  now  the  known  dilVercnce 
between  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  law.  For  though 
Zepper^'  alleges  the  council  of  Epone  and  the  se- 
cond of  Tours,  as  allowing  such  marriages,  yet  he 
plainly  mistakes  in  both.  For  the  council  of  Epone*" 
expressly  styles  them  incest  and  adultery,  ranking 
them  with  marriages  contracted  with  a  sister,  or 
the  relict  of  a  brother,  or  a  father's  wife.  And  the 
council  of  Tours*"  is  as  plain  in  the  matter,  quoting 
the  foresaid  canon  of  Epone,  and  another  of  the 
council  of  Arvern  or  Clermont  against  them.  Gre- 
gory II.  made  a  hke  decree*'  in  a  council  at  Rome, 
anno  721,  and  in  the  following  ages  the  prohibition 
extended  to  the  sixth  or  seventh"  generation.  The 
short  of  the  whole  matter  is  this :  before  the  time 
of  Theodosius  there  was  no  law,  ecclesiastical  or 
civil,  to  prohibit  tlie  marriage  of  cousin-germans : 
under  the  reign  of  Theodosius  they  were  forbidden, 
but  allowed  again  in  the  next  reign,  and  under  Jus- 
tinian, who  fixed  the  allowance  in  the  body  of  his 
laws.  But  still  the  canons  continued  the  prohibi- 
tion, and  extended  it  to  a  greater  degree.  But  as 
this  was  not  the  original  constitution,  nor  the  prac- 
tice of  the  church  for  some  ages,  to  bring  such  mar- 
riages imder  penitential  discipline,  as  incestuous  or 
simply  unlawful ;  so  I  have  not  here  laid  this  load 
upon  them,  but  given  the  fair  account  of  men's  sen- 
timents on  both  sides,  and  the  difierent  practices 
both  of  church  and  state  in  several  ages ;  acting 
the  part  of  an  historian,  but  not  inducing  the 
reader  to  condemn  what  was  once  allowed  by  the 
general  vote  of  the  catholic  church,  however  differ- 
ently represented  in  later  ages. 

The  next  question  may  be  about 
polygamy,  which  denotes  either  hav-    ofpohpamy.  ami 

concubinagL'. 

mg  many  wives  at  once,  or  many  suc- 
cessively one  after  another.     As  to  the  former,  So- 
crates*' tells  a  very  strange  story  of  the  emperor 
Valentinian,  that  by  the  advice  of  his  wife  Severa 


■•-  Aug.  (le  Civ.  Dei,  lib.  15.  cap.  16.  Experti  sumiis  in 
connuhiis  consobrinorum  etiam  nostris  temporibiis,  propter 
gradiun  propinquitatis  fraterno  gradui  proximum,  quam 
raro  per  mores  fiebat,  quod  fieri  per  leges  licebat,  quia  id 
iiec  Divina  prohibiiit,  et  nondum  prohibuerat  lex  huuiana : 
veruntamen  factum  etiam  licitum  propter  vicinitatem  hor- 
rebatur  illiciti,  et  quod  fiebat  cum  cousobriaa,  pene  cum 
sorore  fieri  videbatur,  &c. 

■"  Athan.  Synops.  Scriptur.  lib.  Numeror.  t.  2.  p.  70. 
No/ui/uoi/  tlvai  ydfjinv  Tijf  Trpos  <h'£t//i»s  (rv'^vyidi'. 

■"  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  5.  Tit.  4.  de  Nuptiis,  Lefr.  19.  Cele- 
brandis  inter  consobrinos  matrimoniis  licentia  legis  hujns 
salubritate  indulta  est;  ut  revocata  prisci  juris  auctoritate, 
restinctisque  calumniarum  fomentis,  matrimonium  inter 
consobrinos  habeatur  legitimum,  sive  ex  duobus  fratnbus, 
sive  ex  duabus  sororibus,  sive  ex  fratre  ct  sorore  nati  sunt,  &c. 

*^  Justin.  Instit.  lib.  1.  Tit.  10.  Duorum  I'ratrum  vel 
sororum  liberi,  vel  fratris  et  sororis  conjungi  possunt. 

*^  Coutius  in  locum. 


"  Greg.  lib.  12.  Ep.  31.  et  ap.  Bedam,  lib.  1.  cap.  27. 
Qusedam  terrenalex  in  Romana  republica  permittit,  utsive 
frater  et  soror  (leg.  fratris  ct  sororis)  sen  duorum  fratruni 
germanorum,  vel  duarum  sororum  filiusetfilia  misceaiitur. 
Sed  sacra  lex  proliibet,  &c. 

*"  Zepper.  Legum  Mosaicar.  Forensium  Explanat.  lib,  4. 
cap.  19.  p.  506. 

■"Cone.  Epaunen.  cau,  30.  Incestis  junctionil)US  nihil 
prorsus  venioc  reservamus,  nisi  cum  adulterium  separatione 

sanaverint ; si  quis   novercam  duxerit,   si   quis   conso- 

brinne  se  societ. 

^  Cone.  Turon.  2.  can.  22.  Quisqtiis  aut  sororem,  aiit 
filiam,  aut  certe  gradu  consobrinam,  aut  fratris  uxorem, 
sceleratis  sibi  nuptiis  junxcrit,  huic  pu-na;  subjaceat,  &c. 

^'  Cone.  Roman,  can.  8.  Si  quis  consobrinam  duxerit  in 
conjugium,  anathema  sit. 

"  Vid.  Gratian.  Cans.  35.  Qutcst.  5. 

^'  Socrat.  lib.  4.  cap.  31. 


998 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XV  I. 


he  married  a  second  mfe,  whilst  she  was  living ; 
and  upon  that  made  a  law  to  grant  liberty  to  all 
that  would,  to  have  two  wives  at  the  same  time. 
The  author  of  the  book,  called  Polygamia  Trium- 
phatrix,  makes  a  great  stir  with  this  pretended  law 
in  favour  of  polygamy ;  which  in  all  probability  is 
a  mere  fabulous  story,  which  Socrates  too  hastily 
took  up  from  the  relation  of  some  crafty  impostor ; 
for  there  is  no  footstep  of  any  such  law  in  either  of 
the  Codes,  but  much  to  the  contrary.  For  even 
the  heathen  law^*  forbade  it  to  the  old  Romans,  as 
is  evident  from  an  edict  of  Diocletian  in  the  Justinian 
Code,  where  he  says.  No  Roman  was  allowed  to 
have  two  wives  at  once,  but  was  liable  to  be  punish- 
ed before  a  competent  judge.  And  the  Christian 
law'^  forbade  the  Jews  also  to  have  two  wives  at 
once,  according  to  the  allowance  of  their  own  law. 
Sallust**  says  the  Romans  were  used  to  deride  po- 
lygamy in  the  barbarians.  And  though  Julius 
Ceesar  "  attempted  to  have  a  law  pass  in  favour  of 
it,  he  could  not  effect  it.  And  Plutarch  remarks,^* 
that  Mark  Antony  was  the  first  that  had  two  wives 
among  the  Romans.  But  that  which  is  most  de- 
cisive is,  that  neither  Zosimus,  nor  Ammianus 
Marcellinus,  the  heathen  historians,  object  any  such 
thing  to  Valentinian ;  which  they  would  not  have 
failed  to  have  done,  had  he  taken  or  granted  any 
such  liberty  contrary  to  the  laws  of  the  Romans 
before  him;  but  on  the  other  hand,  Ammianus 
Marcellinus  says  expressly  ^'  of  him,  That  he  w^as 
remarkable  for  his  chastity  both  at  home  and  abroad, 
and  had  no  contagion  of  obscenity  upon  his  con- 
science ;  by  which  means  he  was  able  to  bridle  the 
petulancy  of  the  imperial  court,  and  keep  it  in  good 
order.  And  Zosimus'*  rather  intimates,  that  he  did 
not  marry  his  second  wife  Justina,  till  Severa  his 
first  was  dead.  Whence  Baronius"  and  Valesius^- 
rightly  conclude,  that  this  story  in  Socrates  must 
needs  be  a  mere  groundless  fiction,  and  that  there 
never  was  any  law  to  authorize  polygamy  in  the 
Roman  empire.  As  to  the  laws  of  the  church,  St. 
Basil "^  observes.  That  the  fathers  said  little  or  no- 
thing of  polygamy,  as  being  a  brutish  vice,  to  which 
mankind  had  no  very  great  propensity.  But  he 
determines  it  to  be  a  greater  sin  than  fornication, 
and  consequently  it  ought  to  have  a  longer  course 
of  penance  assigned  it :  for  fornication  was  to  have 
seven  years'  punishment  by  St.  Basil's  Rules,  and 


yet  the  term  of  penance  for  polygamy  in  this  canon 
is  only  four  years  :  which  makes  learned  men  sus- 
pect, that  this  part  of  the  canon  is  corrupted  by  the 
negligence  of  transcribers,  and  that  St.  Basil  ori- 
ginally assigned  a  longer  term  of  penance  for  this 
sin,  than  appears  from  any  copies  now  extant, 
which  only  requires  one  year's  penance  in  the 
quality  of  mourners,  and  three  years  in  the  class  of 
co-standers,  without  any  mention  of  their  being 
hearers  or  prostrators,  which  are  usually  specified  in 
most  other  canons  of  this  author.  In  the  first  coun- 
cil of  Toledo"*  there  is  also  a  rule,  which  accounts 
it  the  same  thing  as  polygamy  for  a  man  to  have  a 
wife  and  a  concubine  together :  for  such  a  one 
may  not  communicate.  But  if  he  have  no  wife, 
but  only  a  concubine  instead  of  a  wife,  he  may  not 
be  repelled  from  the  communion,  provided  he  be 
content  to  be  joined  to  one  woman  only,  whether 
wife  or  concubine,  as  he  pleases.  The  difficulty 
which  seems  to  be  in  the  latter  part  of  this  canon  I 
have  been  at  some  pains  to  explain"  in  a  former 
Book,  where  I  show  that,  in  the  sense  of  the  eccle- 
siastical law,  a  concubine  differs  nothing  from  a 
wife;  though  the  civil  law  made  a  greater  dis- 
tinction between  them,  calling  her  only  a  con- 
cubine who  was  married  against  any  of  the  rules 
which  the  laws  of  the  state  prescribed,  and  deny- 
ing her  the  privileges,  rights,  and  honours  which 
belonged  to  a  legal  wife:  for  she  could  claim  no 
right  from  her  husband's  estate,  nor  her  children 
succeed  to  his  inheritance :  yet  she  was  not  reputed 
guilty  of  fornication,  nor  the  husband  accounted  an 
adulterer,  in  the  eye  of  the  church,  because  they 
kept  themselves  faithfully  and  enthely  to  each  other 
by  an  exact  performance  of  the  mutual  contract 
made  between  them.  Which  was  the  reason  why 
the  church  allowed  such  a  man  to  communicate, 
who  was  united  to  a  concubine  (in  the  foresaid  sense) 
instead  of  a  wife ;  but  reckoned  him  guilty  of  poly- 
gamy, who  kept  a  concubine  and  a  wife  together. 

Another  sort  of  polygamy  was,  the 
marrying  of  a  second  wife  after  the    of  mlrryins  after 

•'        °  unlawful  divorce. 

unlawful  divorcement  of  a  former ; 
for  this,  in  effect,  was  reputed  the  same  as  having 
two  wives  at  once.  There  were  some  cases  in 
which  a  man  might  lawfully  put  away  his  wife, 
without  any  transgression  against  the  rules  of 
church  or  state,  or  violation  of  any  law  human  or 


**  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  5.  Tit.  5.  de  Incestis  Nuptiis,  Leg.  2. 
Neminein,  qui  sub  ditione  sit  Romani  nomiuis,  binas  uxores 
habere  posse,  vulgo  patet,  &c. 

"  Ibid.  lib.  1.  Tit.  9.  de  Judaeis,  Leg.  7.  Nemo  Judaeonim 
morem  suuui  iu  conjunctionibus  retineat,  nee  juxta  leo-em 
suamnuptias  soitiatur,  nee  in  diversa  sub  uno  tempore  con- 
jiigia  conveniat. 

^°  Sallust.  de  Bello  Jugurth. 

^'  Sueton.  Vit.  Julii  Ca;s.  cap.  52. 

^  Plutarch.  Vit,  Anton. 

'^  Ammian,  Hist.  lib.  30.  p.  462,    Omni  pudicitiec  cultu 


domi  castas  et  foris,  nullo  conscientia;  contagio  violatus  ob- 
scenee  ;  haucque  ob  causam  tanquam  retinaculis  petulantiaia 
aulae  regalis  I'renarat,  quodcustodire  facile  potuit. 

•»  Zosim.  Hist.  lib.  4.        «'  Baron,  an.  370.  t.  4.  p.  272. 

M  Vales,  in  Socrat.  lib.  4.  c.  31.  «'  Basil,  can.  80. 

^*  Cone.  Tolet.  1.  can.  17.  Si  quis  habens  uxorem  fidelem, 
concubinam  habeat,  non  communicet.  Caeterum  is,  qui  non 
habet  uxorem,  et  pro  uxore  concubinam  habeat,  a  commu- 
nione  non  repellatur,  tantura  ut  unius  mulieris,  aut  uxoris 
concubinae,  ut  ei  placuerit,  sit  conjunctione  contentus. 

«^  Book  XI.  chap.  5  sect.  11. 


Chap.  XI. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


999 


divine.  The  civil  law  allowed  it  in  many  cases. 
Constantine  specifies °"  three  cases,  in  which  a  man 
was  at  liberty  to  put  away  his  wife,  or  a  woman  her 
husband.  A  woman  might  not  divorce  herself  from 
her  husband  at  pleasure  for  any  ordinary  cause,  as, 
because  he  was  a  drunkard,  or  a  gamester,  or  given 
to  women;  but  only  for  these  three  crimes,  if  he 
was  a  murderer,  or  a  poisoner,  or  a  robber  of  graves : 
if  otherwise,  she  was  to  forfeit  all  her  title  to  his 
substance,  and  be  sent  into  banishment.  In  like 
manner,  the  husband  was  not  to  put  away  his  wife, 
but  only  for  the  three  crimes  of  adultery,  poisoning, 
and  the  practice  of  baudery.  If  otherwise,  the 
woman  might  claim  her  own  portion,  and  the  man 
was  incapacitated  to  marry  again.  The  following 
emperors  "  allowed  many  other  causes  of  lawful  di- 
vorce, as,  if  a  husband  was  an  adulterer,  or  a  mur- 
derer, or  a  poisoner,  or  guilty  of  treason  against  his 
prince,  or  a  perjured  person,  or  a  plunderer  of 
graves,  or  robber  of  churches,  or  a  highwayman, 
or  harbourer  of  such,  a  stealer  of  cattle,  or  a  man- 
stealer,  or  one  frequenting  the  company  of  lewd 
women  (which  extremely  exasperates  a  chaste  wife) ; 
if  he  attempted  her  life  by  poison,  or  the  sword,  or 
any  the  like  means ;  if  he  beat  her  as  a  slave,  con- 
trary to  the  rules  of  using  free-born  women  :  in  any 
of  these  cases,  she  had  liberty  to  use  the  necessary 
help  of  a  divorce,  making  proof  of  the  cause  before 
a  competent  judge.  And  the  same  liberty  was  al- 
lowed the  man  against  his  wife  upon  these  and  the 
like  reasons.  But  the  ecclesiastical  laws  were  much 
stricter,  and  admitted  of  divorces  only  in  case  of 
adultery,  and  malicious  desertion.  In  the  case  of 
adultery,  women  as  well  as  men  were  allowed  to 
divorce  themselves  from  the  offending  party,  as  ap- 
pears from  the  case  related  by  Justin  Martyr,'*  and 
out  of  him  by  Eusebius,'^"  and  several  places  of  St. 
Austin.™  And  some  canons  oblige  the  clergy"  to 
dismiss  their  adulterous  wives,  under  pain  of  eccle- 


siastical censure;  whilst  St.  Austin  pleads  with  the 
laity,"  rather  to  be  reconciled  to  an  adulterous  wife 
upon  her  repentance,  than  dismiss  her  entirely,  be- 
cause of  many  great  inconveniences  that  might  at- 
tend it.     One  of  which  was,  (hat  he  thought  the 
Scripture  forbade  both  man  and  wonuin  to  marry 
again,  even  after  a  lawful  divorce,  till  one  of  the  par- 
ties was  dead.   But  he  docs  not  so  dogmatically  assert 
this,  as  to  make  marrying  after  such  a  lawful  divorce 
to  be  a  crime  worthy  of  excommunication.     For  in 
another  book,  where  he  treats  of  the  qualifications 
of  baptism,"  he  says,  A  man  who  puts  away  his  wife 
for  adultery,  and  marries  another,  is  not  to  be  rank- 
ed with  those  who  put  away  their  wives  without 
cause,  and  marry  again.    For  the  question  is  so  ob- 
scurely resolved  in  Scripture,  Whether  he  that,  put- 
ting away  his  wife  for  adultery,  marries  again,  be 
upon  that  score  an  adulterer,  that  a  man  may  be 
supposed  to  err  venially  in  the  matter.     Therefore 
those  crimes  of  uncleanness,  which  are  manifestly 
so,  ought  to  debar  a  man  from  baptism,  unless  he 
change  his  mind,  and  correct  his  crimes  by  repent- 
ance :  but  for  those  that  are  dubious,  all  that  is  to  be 
done,  is  to  endeavour  to  persuade  men  not  to  engage 
in  such  marriages.    For  what  need  is  there  for  men 
to  run  their  heads  into  such  dangerous  ambiguities  ? 
But  if  they  are  already  done,  I  am  not  sure  that 
they  who  do  them  ought  therefore  to  be  denied 
baptism.      By  this   it  appears,    that    though    St. 
Austin  in   his  own  opinion  was  persuaded,  that 
marrying  after  a  lawful  divorce  was  forbidden  in 
Scripture  ;  yet  it  was  not  so  clearly  forbidden,  as  to 
render  a  man  incapable  of  baptism ;    nor  conse- 
quently of  the  communion  ;  these  being  of  the  same 
account  in  Christianity,  and  a  man  that  is  inca- 
pable of  the  one  is  incapable  of  the  other.     The 
first  council  of  Aries  seems  to  have  acted  upon  the 
same   sentiments.      The   fathers   there  declare   it 
unlawful  for  men,  who  put  away  their  wives  for 


•^s  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  3.  Tit.  16.  de  Repudiis,  Leg.  1.  Pla- 
cet mulieii  non  licere  propter  suas  pravas  cupiditates  ina- 
rito  repudium  mittere,  e.xquisita  causa,  velut  ebrioso,  aut 
aleatori,  aut  raulierculario :  nee  vero  maiitis  per  quas- 
cunque  occasiones  u.xores  suas  dimittere.  Sed  in  repudio 
mittendo  a  fcemina  h;ioc  sola  ciiinina  inquiii.  si  humicidain 
vel  mcdicamentarium,  velsopulchrorum  dissolutorem,  mari- 
tum  suuni  esse  probaverit,  &c.  In  masculis  etiam,  si  re- 
pudium mittant,  hoec  tria  ciimina  inquiri  conveniet,  si 
mcecbam,  vel  medicamentariani,  vel  conciliatricem,  repu- 
diare  voluerit,  &c. 

"  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  5.  Tit.  17.  Leg.  8.  Theodosii  Junior. 
Si  qua  maritum  suuin  adulteruin,  aut  homicidain,  aut  vene- 
ficum,  vel  certe  contra  nostrum  imperium  aliquid  molien- 
tera,  vel  falsitatis  crimine  condemnalum  invenevit,  si  sepul- 
cbronun  dissolutorem,  si  sacris  a;dibus  aliquid  subtrahentem, 
si  latronem,  vel  latronum  susceptorem,  vel  abactorem,  aut 
plagiarium,  vel  ad  contemptum  sui  domusve  sua;,  ipsa  in- 
spiciente  cum  impudicis  mulicribvis,  (quod  maxima  etiam 
castas  exasperat)  caelum  ineuntem;  si  suae  vita;  veneno,  aut 
gladio,  aut  alio  simili  modo  iusidiantem;  si  se  verberibns 
(quaj  ingenuis  alicua  sunt)  afficientem  probaverit :  tunc  ve- 


pudii  auxilio  uti  necessario  ei  permittimus  libertatem,  et 
causas  dissidii  legibus  comprobare,  &c.  See  also  Justin. 
Novel.  22.  cap.  3.  Novel.  117.  cap.  8.  et  Cod.  de  licpudiis, 
LeiT.  10  et  II. 

"s  Justin.  Apol.  1.  p.  42.  ^^  Euscb.  lib.  4.  cap.  17. 

'"  Aug.  de  Adulterinis  Conjugiis,  lib.  7.  cap.  6,  &c.  It. 
de  Bono  Conjugali,  cap.  7.  "  Cone.  Neoca;sar.  can.  8. 

'-  Aug.  de  Adult.  Conjug.  lib.  2.  per  totum. 

'^  Aug.  de  Fide  ct  Oper.  cap.  19.  Quisquis  uxorem  in 
adulterio  depiehonsam  diniiserit,  ct  aliam  duxerit,  non  vi- 
detur  aequandus  eis,  qui  excepta  causa  adulterii  dimittunt 
et  ducunt.  Et  in  ipsis  Divinis  seutentiis  ita  obscurum  est, 
utrum  et  iste,  cui  quidom  sine  diibio  adulteram  licet  dimit- 
tere, adulter  tamen  habeatnr,  si  alteram  duxerit,  ut,  quantum 
existimo,  venialiter  ibi  quisque  fallalur.  Quamobrera,  quae 
manii'esta  sunt  impudicitise  crimina,  omnimodo  a  baptismo 
piohibenda  sunt,  nisi  mutatione  voluntatis  et  prenitentia 
corrigantuv :  qua;  autem  dubia,  omnimodo  conandum  est,  ne 
fiant  tales  conjunctiones.  Quid  enim  opus  est  in  tantum 
discrimen  ambiguitatis  caput  immittere  ?  Si  autem  factae 
fuerint,  nescio  utrum  ii  qui  feceiint,  similiter  ad  baptismum 
non  debere  videantur  admitti. 


1000 


ANTIQUITIES  OP  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


adultery,  to  marry  others  : "  but  they  do  not  order, 
that  the  great  censure  of  excommunication  shall 
be  inflicted  on  them,  but  only  that  they  shall  be 
dealt  with  and  advised  not  to  marry  a  second  wife, 
while  the  other,  who  was  divorced  for  adultery, 
was  living.  The  author  under  the  name  of  St.  Am- 
brose" makes  a  difference  between  the  man  and 
the  woman :  he  says,  The  man  was  allowed  to 
marry  a  second  \vik,  after  he  put  away  a  first  for 
fornication,  but  the  apostle  did  not  allow  the  same 
privilege  to  the  woman.  In  which  opinion  he 
seems  to  be  singular.  For  Epiphanius,  speaking 
of  the  same  matter,'*  says,  That  as  the  Scripture 
allows  men  to  marry  a  second  wife  after  the  death 
of  the  first ;  so  if  a  separation  is  made  upon  the 
account  of  fornication,  or  adultery,  or  any  such 
cause,  it  does  not  condemn  either  the  man  that 
marries  a  second  wife,  or  the  woman  that  marries 
a  second  husband,  nor  deny  them  the  privilege  of 
church  communion  or  eternal  life,  but  bears  with 
them  for  their  infirmity.  And  Origen,"  though 
he  himself  was  against  the  thing,  plainly  declares 
that  there  were  some  bishops  in  his  time,  who 
allowed  women  as  well  as  men  to  marry  after  such 
divorces,  whilst  the  separate  party  was  still  living  : 
which  he  reckons  indeed  to  be  against  those  rules 
of  the  apostle,  "  A  woman  is  bound  as  long  as  her 
husband  liveth  : "  and.  She  shall  be  called  an  adul- 
teress, if,  as  long  as  her  husband  liveth,  she  be  mar- 
ried to  another  man  :  yet  he  thinks  they  might  have 
reasons  for  permitting  it;  because  perhaps  they  had 
regard  to  the  infirmity  of  such  as  could  not  contain, 
and  only  permitted  an  evil  against  the  original  rule 
to  avoid  a  greater  sin.  Yet  some  councils''  forbade 
such  marriages  under  the  penalty  of  excommunica- 
tion to  those  that  were  of  the  number  of  the  faith- 
ful ;  only  making  some  allowance  to  those  that 
were  mere  catechumens."  To  this  purpose  there 
are  two  canons  in  the  council  of  Eliberis,  and  one 


in  the  council  of  Milevis^"  which  orders,  That  ac- 
cording to  the  evangelical  and  apostolical  discipline, 
neither  the  man  that  is  divorced  from  his  wife,  nor 
the  woman  divorced  from  her  husband,  shall  marry 
others,  but  either  abide  so,  or  be  reconciled ;  and 
they  that  contemn  this  order,  are  to  be  subjected  to 
public  penance ;  and  withal  a  petition  should  be 
presented  to  the  emperor  to  desire  him  to  confirm 
this  rule  by  an  imperial  sanction.  From  all  which  we 
may  easily  perceive,  that  this  was  always  reckoned 
a  difficult  question.  Whether  persons  after  a  lawful 
divorce  might  marry  again  in  the  life-time  of  the 
relinquished  party  ?  The  imperial  laws  allowed  it ; 
many  of  the  ancient  fathers  also  approved  it ;  some 
condemned  it,  but  suffei'ed  it  to  pass  without  any 
public  punishment ;  and  others  required  a  certain 
penance  to  be  done  for  it  in  the  church.  Of 
all  which  different  practices  the  learned  reader, 
that  is  more  curious,  may  find  an  ample  account 
in  Cotelerius's  Notes  upon  Hermes  Pastor.*'  But 
though  they  differed  upon  this  point,  there  was  no 
disagreement  upon  the  other,  That  to  marry  a 
second  wife  after  an  unlawful  divorce,  whilst  the 
former  was  living,  was  professed  adultery,  and  as 
such  to  be  punished  by  the  sharpest  censures  of 
the  church.  The  Apostolical  Canons'-  order  every 
one  to  be  excommunicated,  who  either  puts  away 
his  vnfe  and  marries  again,  or  marries  one  that  is 
put  away  by  another.  And  all  canons  generally 
agree  to  debar  such  from  entering  into  holy  orders, 
as  marry  a  wife  that  is  put  away  by  another  man. 
The  council  of  Eliberis  goes  further,''  and  orders 
such  women  as  forsake  their  husbands  without 
cause,  and  marry  others,  to  be  refused  communion 
even  at  their  last  hour.  And  such  as  marry  men 
who  have  put  away  their  wives  unjustly,'*  if  they 
do  it  knowingly,  are  not  to  be  received  till  the  last 
moment  of  their  days,  or,  as  other  copies  read  it,  no 
not  at  their  last  hour. 


'■*  Cone.  Arelat.  l.can.  10.  De  his,  qui  conjuges  suas  in 
adulterio  deprsehenJunt,  et  iiilem  sunt  adolescentes  fideles, 
et  proliibentur  nubere :  placuit,  ut  in  quantum  potest,  con- 
silium cis  detur,  ne  viventibus  uxoiibus  suis,  licet  adulteris, 
alias  accipiant. 

"  Ambros.  in  1  Cor.  vii.  11.  t.  5.  p.  2G2.  Non  permitti- 
tur  mulieri  ut  nubat,  si  virimi  suum  causa  fornicatiouis  di- 

miseiit. Viro  licet  ducere  uxorem,  si  uxorem  dimiserit 

peccantem. 

'°  Epiphan.  Heer.  59.  Catharor.  n.  4. 

"  Oiig.  Tract.  7.  in  Matt.  t.  2.  p.  G7.  Scio  enira  quos- 
dam,  qui  praesunt  ecclesiis,  extra  Scripturam  permisisseali- 
quam  nubere,  viro  priori  vivente  :  et  contra  Scripturam  qui- 
dem  fecerunt,  dicentem,  Mulier  ligata  est  quanto  tempore 
vivit  vir  ejus.  Item,  vivente  viro,  adultera  vocabitur,  si 
facta  fuerit  alteri  viro.  Non  tamen  omnino  sine  causa  hoc 
permiserunt ;  forsitan  enim  propter  hujusmodi  infirmitatem 
incontinentium  hominum,  pejorum  comparatione,  quae  mala 
sunt,  permiserunt  adversus  ea,  quce  ab  initio  fuerant  scripta. 

'"  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  9.  Fidelis  fcemina,  quoe  adulterum 
maritum  reliquerit  fidelem,  et  alterum  duxerit,  prohibcatur, 


ne  ducat.  Si  autem  duxerit,  non  prius  aceipiat  communi- 
onem,  quam  is,  quem  reliquit,  de  seculo  exierit,  nisi  necessi- 
tas  iufirmitatis  dare  compulerit. 

"  Ibid.  can.  10.  Si  ea,  quam  catechumenus  reliquerit, 
duxerit  maritum,  potest  ad  fontem  lavacri  admitti.  Hoe  et 
circa  foeminas  catechumenas  erit  observandum. 

*"  Cone.  Milevit.  can.  17.  Placuit  ut  secundum  evange- 
licam  et  apostolicam  disciplinam,  neque  dimissus  ab  uxore, 
neque  dimissa  a  marito,  alteri  eonjungantnr  :  sed  ita  mane- 
ant,  aut  sibi  reeoncilicntur.  Quod  si  contempserint,  ad  pce- 
nitentiam  redigantur.  In  qua  causa  legem  imperialem  pe- 
tendam  promulgari.     Vid.  Cod.  Afrie.  can.  105. 

81  Coteler.  Patres  Apostol.  t.  1.  p.  88. 

82  Canon.  Apost.  48.  Vid.  Basil,  can.  48. 

s'  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  8.  Fcemina;,  quae,  nulla  pra>cedente 
causa,  reliquerunt  viros  sues,  et  alteris  se  copulaverunt,  nee 
in  fine  accipiant  commuuionem. 

8*  Ibid.  can.  10.  Si  fuerit  fidelis,  quas  ducitur  ab  eo,  quj 
uxorem  inculpatam  reliquerit,  et  cum  scierit  ilium  habere 
uxorem,  quam  sine  causa  reliquit ;  placuit  hujusmodi  in 
fine  dari  communionem.  al.  nee  in  fine  dare  commuuionem- 


[  Chap.  XI. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1001 


g^^,  ,  Some  canons  also  press  hard  upon 

and' fourth 'aw-'''  sccond,  third,  and  fourth  marriages, 
mges.  ^^  which  they  seem  not   to  under- 

stand either  simultaneous  polygamy,  or  marrying 
after  divorce,  whilst  the  former  wife  was  living; 
but  marrying  two  or  three  wives  successively  after 
the  death  of  the  former.  For  though  they  did  not 
account  these  downright  adultery,  nor,  with  the 
Montanists  and  Novatians,  condemn  them  as  simply 
unlawful ;  yet  some  of  the  ancients  were  willing  to 
discourage  them,  and  therefore  they  imposed  a  cer- 
tain term  of  penance  upon  theih.  The  council  of 
Neoceesarea  in  one  canon  says,*^  "  They  that  marry 
often,  have  a  time  of  penance  allotted  them :"  and 
in  another,*''  "  No  presbyter  shall  be  present  at  the 
marriage-feast  of  those  that  marry  twice ;  for  a 
digamist  requires  penance.  How  then  shall  a  pres- 
byter, by  his  presence  at  such  feasts,  give  consent 
to  such  marriages  ? "  There  are  many  other  harsh 
expressions  in  Athenagoras,  Ireneeus,  Origen,  Gre- 
gory Nazianzen,  Chr3'sostom,  Jerora,  and  others 
concerning  second  and  third  marriages,  which  the 
learned  reader  may  find  collected  by  Cotelerius*'  in 
his  Notes  upon  Hermes  Pastor  and  the  Constitu- 
tions. The  latter  of  which  writers  declares  also 
against  second  and  third  marriages,  as  transgres- 
sions of  the  law,  and  brands  fourth  marriages  with 
the  hard  name  of  Trpocpavijg  iropvi'ia,  manifest  forni- 
cation. But  Hermes  Pastor  is  more  candid ;  for  in 
answer  to  the  question.  Whether  men  or  women 
may  marry  after  the  death  of  a  first  consort  ?  he 
says.  He  that  marries  sins  not;  ^  but  if  he  continues 
as  he  is,  he  shall  obtain  great  honour  of  the  Lord. 
He  neither  condemns  second  marriage,  nor  gives  it 
any  hard  name,  nor  lays  any  penalty  upon  it ;  but 
only  makes  it  matter  of  counsel  and  advice  to  re- 
frain under  the  prospect  of  a  great  reward.  And 
St.  Austin*'  answers  the  question  after  the  same 
manner.  That  he  dares  not  condemn  any  marriages 
for  the  number  of  them,  whether  they  be  second, 
or  third,  or  any  other.  I  dare  not  be  wise  above 
■what  is  written.  Who  am  I,  that  I  should  define 
what  the  apostle  has  not  defined  ?  "  The  woman 
is  bound,"  says  the  apostle,  "  as  long  as  her  hus- 
band liveth."  He  said  not,  the  first  husband,  or  the 
second,  or  the  third,  or  the  fourth ;  but,  "  The 
woman  is  bound  as  long  as  her  husband  liveth :  but 
if  her  husband  be  dead,  she  is  at  liberty  to  be  mar- 
ried to  whom  she  will ;  only  in  the  Lord.  But 
she  is  happier  if  she  so  abide."  I  see  not  what  can 
be  added  to  or  taken  from  this  sentence.  Our 
Lord  himself  did   not  condemn   the  woman  that 


had  had  seven  husbands.  And  therefore  I  dare  not, 
out  of  my  own  heart,  without  the  authority  of 
Scripture,  condemn  any  number  of  marriages  what- 
soever. But  what  I  say  to  the  widow  that  has 
been  the  wife  of  one  man,  the  same  I  say  to  every 
widow,  Thou  art  happier  if  thou  so  abidest.  Epi- 
phanius  had  occasion  to  dispute  the  matter  both 
against  the  Montanists  and  Novatians  ;  where  he 
says,*"  The  ISlontanists  were  of  the  number  of  those 
who  forbid  men  to  marry,  rejecting  all  such  as 
were  twice  married,  and  compelling  them  not  to 
take  a  second  wife;  whereas  the  church  imposed 
no  necessity  on  men,  but  only  counselled  and  ex- 
horted those  that  were  able,  laying  no  necessity 
upon  the  weak,  nor  rejecting  them  from  hopes  of 
eternal  life.  In  like  manner  he  blames  the  Nova- 
tians" for  making  the  rule  which  was  given  to  the 
clergy,  to  be  the  husband  of  one  wife,  extend  to  all ; 
whereas  it  was  lawful  for  the  people,  after  the  death 
of  a  first  wife,  to  marry  a  second.  For  though  he 
who  was  content  with  one  wife  was  had  in  more 
honour  and  esteem  by  the  church ;  yet  the  Scrip- 
ture did  not  condemn  him  who  married  a  second 
after  the  death  of  the  first,  or  after  a  divorce  made 
for  fornication,  or  adultery,  or  any  such  cause ; 
neither  did  it  reject  him  from  the  privilege  of  church 
communion,  or  eternal  life.  And  it  is  certain  the 
great  council  of  Nice*^  thus  determined  the  matter 
against  the  Novatians,  requiring  them,  upon  their 
return  to  the  church,  to  make  profession  in  writing, 
that  they  would  submit  to  the  decrees  of  the  catho- 
lic church,  particularly  in  this,  that  they  would 
tiyufioiQ  KoivMvCiv,  communicate  with  digamists,  or 
those  that  were  twice  married.  So  that  whatever 
private  opinions  some  might  entertain  in  this  mat- 
ter, or  whatever  private  rules  of  discipline  there 
might  be  in  some  particular  churches  in  relation 
to  digamists ;  it  is  evident  the  general  rule  and 
practice  of  the  church  was  not  to  bring  such  under 
discipline,  as  guilty  of  any  crime,  which  at  most 
was  only  an  imperfection  in  the  opinion  of  many  of 
those  who  passed  a  heavier  censure  on  it.  As  for 
such  as  plainly  condemned  second,  third,  or  fourth 
marriages,  as  fornication  or  adultery,  1  see  not  how 
they  can  be  justified,  or  reconciled  to  the  practice 
of  the  catholic  church ;  and,  therefore,  I  leave  them 
to  stand  or  fall  by  themselves,  and  go  on  with  the 
more  uncontested  discipline  of  the  church  against 
some  other  practices  of  uncleanness. 

Among  which  they  set  a  peculiar 
mark  upon  ravishment,  that  is,  using      or  RivSi.ncnt. 
force   and   violence    to    virgins    and 


*^  Cone.  Neocaesar.  can.  3.  '^  Ibid.  can.  7. 

s'  Coteler.  Not.  in  Herni.  Past.  Mandat.  4.  lib.  2.  et  in 
Constit.  lib.  3.  cap.  2. 

^*  Heviii.  Pastor,  lib.  2.  Mandat.  4.  n.  1  Si  vir  vel  mulic-v 
alicujus  decesseiit,  et  mipserit  aliqnis  eoriim,  immquid  pcc- 
cat  ?  Qui  nubit,  non  pcccat :  sed  si  perse  nianserit,  mag- 


num sibi  conquirit  honorem  apud  Dominum. 

s»  Aus-  de  Bono  Viduitatis,  cap.  12.  Nee  uUas  nuptias 
audeo  damnare,  nee  eis  verecundiam  numciositalis  aii- 
i'crre,  &e. 

"»  Ep.  H.xr.  48.  n.  9.  "'  Id.  Wxx.  59.  n.  4. 

°-  Cone.  Nicen.  can.  8 


1002 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


matrons  to  compel  them  to  commit  uncleanness. 
Constantine,  in  one  of  his  laws,''  condemns  all 
sorts  of  raptors  to  the  flames,  as  well  those  that 
ravished  virgins  against  their  wills,  as  those  that 
stole  them  with  their  own  consent  against  the  will 
of  their  parents.  And  though  Constantius  a  little 
moderated  the  punishment,  yet  he  still  made  it  a 
capital  crime,  to  be  punished  with  death  f*  and  in 
case  a  slave  was  concerned  in  it,  he  was  left  to 
the  severity  of  the  former  law,  to  be  burned  alive. 
Jovian  also  made  it  a  capital  crime"'  for  any  one, 
not  only  to  commit  a  rape  upon  a  consecrated  vir- 
gin, but  to  solicit  her  to  marry  either  willingly  or 
unwillingly  against  the  rules  of  her  profession. 
The  laws  of  the  church  could  inflict  no  such  pun- 
ishment, but  when  there  Avas  occasion,  they  drew 
the  spiritual  sword  against  them.  If  any  one  offers 
violence  to  a  virgin  not  espoused  to  him,  let  him  be 
excommunicated,  say  the  Apostolical  Canons ;'" 
neither  shall  he  take  any  other  wife,  but  her  whom 
he  has  so  detained,  although  she  be  poor.  St.  Basil 
condemns'"  those  who  are  guilty  of  committing 
rapes  upon  virgins,  to  four  years'  penance,  as  for- 
nicators. Where  by  a  rape  he  means  the  lowest 
degree  of  it,  that  is,  stealing  a  virgin  espoused  to 
another  man,  and  detaining  her  against  her  father's 
consent.  In  which  he  also  orders,^'  not  only  the 
raptor  to  be  excommunicated,  but  also  his  family, 
and  the  place  or  village  where  he  dwelt,  if  they 
W"ere  accomplices,  or  aiding  and  assisting  to  him  in 
his  usurpation.  From  whence  we  may  infer,  that 
if  stealing  and  detaining  a  virgin  with  her  own 
consent  was  thus  punishable ;  the  defiling  of  her 
by  violence  was  a  more  heinous  crime,  and  censured 
with  greater  severity  in  the  discipline  of  the  church. 

What  has  hitherto  been  said,  re- 
sect. 9. 
Of  uni.atinai  im-    latcs  to  the  vlolatJon  of  the  laws  of 

purities. 

chastity  in  the  ordinary  course  of  na- 
ture. Beyond  which  there  were  some  monstrous 
impurities,  consisting  in  the  several  species  of  un- 
natural uncleanness  ;  such  as  the  defilement  of  men 
with  brutes,  commonly  called  bestiality ;  and  the  de- 
filement of  men  with  men,  working  that  which  is  un- 
seemly, after  the  manner  of  Sodom ;  and  the  defilement 
of  men's  own  bodies  with  themselves  by  voluntary 
self-pollution.  TertuUian""  calls  all  these,  impious 
furies  of  lust,  which  make  men  change  the  natural 
use  of  the  sex  into  that  which  is  against  nature ; 


on  which  the  church  laid  an  uncommon  and  singu- 
lar punishment,  excluding  them  not  only  from  all 
parts  of  the  church,  but  from  the  very  first  entrance 
of  it ;  because  they  were  not  ordinary  crimes,  but 
monsters.  The  council  of  Ancyra  has  two  canons 
relating  to  these  crimes,  the  first  of  which  orders, 
That  they  who  are  guilty  of  bestial  lusts  before  they 
are  twenty  years  old,'""  be  prostrators  fifteen  years, 
and  after  that  communicate  in  prayers  only  for  five 
years ;  but  if  they  exceed  that  age,  and  be  married 
when  they  fall  into  this  sin,  they  are  to  be  prostra- 
tors twenty-five  years,  and  five  years  after  commu- 
nicate in  prayers  only  ;  if  they  are  above  fifty  years 
old,  and  be  married,  they  are  to  do  penance  all  their 
lives,  and  only  communicate  at  the  point  of  death. 
The  next  canon  orders,""  That  they  who  are  guilty 
of  bestial  lusts,  and  are  leprous,  (that  is,  infect 
others  by  tempting  and  teaching  them  to  commit 
the  same  sin,)  should  pray  tig  rovg  x"i"«2ojU£vouc,  in- 
ter hyemantes,  that  is,  either  among  the  demoniacs, 
or  those  that  were  exposed  to  the  weather  without 
the  walls  of  the  church.  Suicerus'"^  thinks  this 
canon  is  to  be  understood  of  those  that  were  infected 
with  the  corporal  disease  of  leprosy,  who,  by  the 
old  law,  were  removed  without  the  camp ;  but  it  is 
more  probable  it  means  the  spiritual  leprosy  of 
those  who  infected  others  with  the  contagion  of  the 
same  beastly  sins,  and  taught  or  tempted  them  to 
commit  the  same  uncleanness.  For,  otherwise,  le- 
prosy under  the  gospel  would  not  deserve  the  ex- 
tremity of  punishment,  but  commiseration  and 
mercy.  St.  Basil  imposes""  the  penance  of  adul- 
terers, that  is,  twenty  years'  penance,  both  upon 
those  that  abuse  themselves  with  beasts,  and  those 
that  abuse  themselves  with  mankind.  And  some- 
times he  lengthens '"'  the  term  to  thirty  years,  com- 
paring these  sins  with  murder,  idolatry,  witchcraft, 
and  adultery ;  which,  he  says,  all  deserve  the  same 
punishment.  The  council  of  Eliberis'"'  imposes  a 
severer  punishment  upon  those  that  so  abuse  boys 
to  satisfy  their  lusts.  For  such  are  denied  commu- 
nion even  at  their  last  hour.  The  laws  of  the  old 
Romans  had  provided  no  sufficient  remedy  for  these 
corruptions.  There  was  an  old  law,  called  the  lex 
scantinia,  mentioned  by  Juvenal '""  and  some  others : 
but  it  lay  dormant  for  many  ages,  till  the  Christian 
emperors  came  to  revive  it.  The  fi'cquent  com- 
plaints that  are  made  by  the  Christian  writers  of  the 


M  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit. '21.  de  Raptu  Virginum,  Leg.  1. 

91  Ibid.  Leg.  2. 

95  Ibid.  lib.  9.  Tit.  25.  de  Raptu  vel  Matrimonio  Sancti- 
monialium,  Leg.  2.  Si  quis,  non  dicam  rapere,  sed  vel  ad- 
teniptare,  matrimonii  jungeiidi  causa,  sacratas  virgines,  vel 
invitas,  ausus  fuerit,  capitali  sentcntia  ferietur.  See  also 
Justin.  Novel.  14.  de  Lenon. 

9S  Canon.  Apost.  67.    «'  Basil,  can.  22.    ^  Basil.  Ep.  211. 

"^  Tertul.  de  Pudicit.  cap.  4.  Reliquas  autem  libidinum 
furias  impias  et  in  corpora,  et  in  sexus  ultra  jura  naturae, 
non  modo  limine,  verum  omni  ecclesise  tecto  submoveraus, 


quia  non  sunt  delicta,  sed  monstra. 

'""  Cone.  Ancyr.  can.  IG. 

""  Ibid.  can.  17.  Tous  d\oyevarafxii/ov^  ical  Xnrpov?  ovTa^, 
VTOL  XiTTpwaavTas,  tovtovi  TrpoETa^ev  ?';  dyia  ffuvo8o9  £ts 

'"-  Suicer.  Thesaur.  Eccles.  voce  Aettjoos,  t.  2.  p.  226. 
'"3  Basil,  can.  62  et  63. 
""  Ibid.  can.  7.  Vid.  Greg.  Nyssen.  can.  4. 
"'"'  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  71.    Stupratoribus  puerorum  nee  in 
fine  dandam  esse  communionem. 
'°5  Juvenal.  Sat.  2.  ver.  44.  Valer.  Maxim.  Hist.  lib.  6.  c.  1 


jChap.  XI. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1003 


three  first  ages,  Clemens  Alexanclrinus,'"  Justin 
jMartyr,'"'  Tatian,'"''  Minucius  Felix,""  Tertullian,'" 
■Cyprian,"-  and  Lactantius,"'  sufficiently  show,  that 
these  vices  were  practised  with  impunity  among  the 
heathen.  The  law  made  against  them  was  only  a 
pecuniary  mulct  ;"^  and  that  was  very  rarely  put  in 
execution  against  them.  Suetonius""  says,  Domi- 
tian,  in  the  first  and  good  part  of  his  reign,  con- 
demned some  few  offenders  by  this  law:  but  the 
distemper  grew  so  raging  and  inveterate  afterwards, 
that  Alexander  Severus,  a  much  better  prince,  durst 
■not  effectually  set  about  the  cure  of  it,  as  Lampri- 
dius  '"*  testifies  in  his  Life.  After  him,  Phihp,  the 
emperor,  who  by  some  is  called  a  Christian,  made  a 
new  law  to  forbid  it ;  but  the  main  business  de- 
volved at  last  upon  those  that  were  more  undoubt- 
edly Christians.  Among  whom  Constantius,"'  by 
one  of  his  laws  extant  in  both  the  Codes,  made  it  a 
capital  crime,  and  ordered  it  to  be  punished  with 
death  by  the  sword.  Theodosius"^  added  to  the 
penalty  by  a  severer  sanction,  ordering.  That  such 
as  were  found  guilty  of  this  unnatural  vice,  should 
be  burnt  alive  in  the  presence  of  all  the  people. 
Thus  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  laws  combined  to- 
gether to  exterminate  all  sorts  of  uncleanness  ;  de- 
terring men  from  such  acts  of  impuritj",  as  were  a 
scandal  to  the  Christian  profession,  by  such  penal- 
ties, temporal  and  spiritual,  as  were  thought  most 
proper  to  be  inflicted  in  order  to  restrain  them. 

Neither  was  it  only  the  direct  and 
immediate  acts  of  uncleanness  they 
thus  censured  and  punished,  but  all 
other  acts  that  opened  and  prepared  the  way  to 
them.  Of  which  kind,  the  maintaining  or  encour- 
aging of  harlots,  publicly  or  privately,  was  always 
reckoned  a  most  infamous  practice.  Great  com- 
plaints have  been  made  by  writers  of  divers  kinds  "^ 
of  the  licentiousness   of  many  modern  popes  in 


Sect.  10. 

or  maintuitiing 

and  allovvingharlots. 


granting  tolerations  at  Rome  to  such  lewd  and 
wicked  practices,  and  receiving  annual  pensions 
for  the  toleration  of  them.  But  the  ancient  laws, 
both  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  were  far  from  such 
abuses.  Heathen  Rome  in  this  respect  was  more 
chaste  and  modest  than  the  modern  papacy.  For 
even  there  we  find  a  law  recorded  out  of  Papinian 
in  the  Pandects,'^  That  whoever  wittingly  let  his 
house  be  the  place  to  commit  fornication  or  adul- 
tery with  another  man's  wife,  or  any  defilement 
with  mankind,  or  made  any  gain  of  the  adultery  of 
his  own  wife,  should  be  punished  as  an  adulterer, 
of  whatever  condition  he  was.  And  it  is  remark- 
able in  the  laws  of  Constantine,'^'  that  a  man  was 
allowed  to  put  away  his  wife,  not  only  if  she  was 
an  adulteress  herself,  but  if  she  was  a  conciliatrix, 
a  pander  or  procurer  of  adultery  in  others.  By  the 
laws  of  Theodosius  junior,'"  If  any  parent  or  mas- 
ter prostituted  his  daughter  or  his  maid-slave,  they 
were  to  forfeit  all  right  of  dominion  over  them  ; 
the  parties  so  compelled  might  appeal  to  the  bishop 
of  the  place,  or  the  judge,  or  the  defensor,  and  re- 
quire their  assistance  or  protection ;  and  if  after 
that  their  superiors,  master  or  father,  would  go  on 
as  panders  still  to  compel  them,  their  goods  were 
to  be  confiscated,  and  their  persons  banished  and 
sent  to  the  mines.  Socrates  commends  Theodosius 
the  Great  for  another  good  law,"''  whereby  he  de- 
molished the  infamous  houses,  commonly  called 
scistra,  at  Rome.  For  till  this  time  a  very  evil 
custom  prevailed  there,  that  when  any  woman  was 
taken  in  adultery,  she  was  condemned  by  way  of 
punishment  to  be  a  common  prostitute  in  the  pub- 
lic stews  ;  which  kind  of  punishment,  as  Socrates 
truly  remarks,  did  no  ways  contribute  towards  her 
amendment,  but  only  compelled  her  to  add  sin  to 
sin.  Therefore  Theodosius,  in  his  zeal  for  the  piety 
and  purity  of  the  Christian  rehgion,  abolished  this 


'"'  Clem.  Alexandr.  Paedagng.  lib,  1.  c.  3. 

"»  Justin.  Apol.  2.  p.  5U  et  67. 

'"^  Tatian.  Oral,  ad  Graecos,  p.  1G5.  ad  calcem  Justini. 

""  Mimic.  Octav.  p.  68. 

"'  Tertid.  de  Mouogam.  cap.  12.  ad  Nation,  lib.  I.  c.  16. 

"■-  Cypr.  ad  Denat.  p.  6.  "^  Lactant.  lib.  5.  cap.  9. 

"*  Vid.  Quintilian.  Instit.  lib.  4.  cap.  2.  p.  187.  Decern 
millia,  quae  poena  stupratori  constituta  est,  &c. 

"^  Sueton.  Vit.  Domit.  cap.  8.  Quosdam  ex  utroque  or- 
dine  lege  Scantinia  condemnavit. 

™  Lamprid.  Vit.  Alex.  Severi,  p.  .350.  Habuit  in  anirao, 
ut  exoletos  vetaret,  quod  postea  Philippus  fecit;  sed  voiitus 
est,  ne  prohibens  publicum  dedecus  in  privatas  cupiditate.s 
converteret;  cum  homines  illicita  magis  poscant,  prohibita- 
que  furore  persequuntur. 

"'  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  7.  ad  Legem  Juliam  de  Adul- 

teris,  Leg.  .3.     Cum  vir  nubit  in  feminam ubi  Venus 

mutatur  in   alteram  fonnam jubemus  insurgere  leges, 

armari  jura  gladio  ultore,  ut  exquisitis  poenis  subdantur  in- 
fames. 

'"  Ibid.  Leg.  6.  Hujusmodi  scelus  expectante  populo 
flammis  vindicibus  expiabunt. 


"'  Vid.  Zepper.  Legum  Mosaicar.  Explanat.  lib.  4.  cap. 
18.  p.  457. 

Agrippa  de  Vanit.  Scientiar.  cap.  64. 

Mornaei  JNlyster.  Iniquit.  p.  1310. 

AVesselus  Gronigens.  de  ludulgentiis  Papalibus,  ap. 
Mornaj.  ibid. 

'■-"  Pandect,  lib.  48.  Tit.  5.  ad  Legem  Juliam  de  Adulte- 
ris,  Leg.  8.  Qui  domum  suam,  ut  stuprum  adulteriumve 
cum  alieiia  matre  familias,  vel  masculo  lieret,  scieus  prae- 
buerit,  vel  quaestum  ex  adulterio  uxoris  sute  fecerit,  cujus- 
cunque  sit  conditionis,  quasi  adulter  punitur. 

'■-'  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  3.  Tit.  16.  de  Kepudiis,  Leg.  1.  In 
masculis,  etiam,  si  repudium  mittant,  hx'c  tria  cnmina  m- 
quiri  coaveuiet,  si  mcecham,  vel  medicameutariam,  vel  cou- 
ciliatricem  repudiare  voluerit. 

'--  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  II.  Tit.  40.  de  Spectaculis  et  Scenicis 
et  Lrnonibus,  Leg.  6.  Lenones  patres  et  dominos,  qui 
suis  filiabus  vel  ancillis  peccandi  necessitatem  imponunt, 
nee  jure  frui  dominii,  nee  tanti  criminis  patimur  libertate 
gaudere,  &c.  Vid.  Cod.  Theod.  Tit.  8.  de  Leuouibus, 
Leg.  2. 

'^  Socrat.  lib.  5.  cap.  18. 


1004 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


impudent  and  scandalous  punishment ;  providing 
other  penalties  for  adulter}-,  and  destroying  these 
infamous  houses  out  of  Rome.  Theodosius  junior 
did  the  same  good  service  at  Constantinople,  by  a 
new  law,  ordering  all  panders,'-*  who  kept  infamous 
houses,  to  be  publicly  whipped  and  expelled  the 
city,  and  that  all  their  slaves,  whom  they  kept  for 
such  vile  purposes,  should  be  at  liberty.  And 
whereas  hitherto  these  wretches  had  kept  up  their 
trade  in  spite  of  former  laws,  under  pretence  of  pay- 
ing a  certain  annual  tax  to  the  government  out  of 
their  infamous  gain ;  Theodosius  abrogated  this 
tax ;  and  in  lieu  of  it  one  Florentius  a  noble- 
man, by  whose  pious  advice  the  emperor  did  this, 
gave  an  equivalent  out  of  his  own  estate  to  the 
exchequer,  that  there  might  be  no  deficiency  or 
damage  accruing  to  the  public  revenue,  which 
might  afterwards  be  used  as  a  plea  to  grant  these 
miscreants  a  new  toleration.  Thus  these  pious  em- 
perors laboured  to  extirpate  this  abominable  vice 
out  of  their  two  great  capitals.  And  when  some 
remainders  of  it  continued  notwithstanding  all  their 
endeavours,  Justinian  resumed  the  matter,  reviving 
and  confirming  all  the  preceding  laws  by  a  new-  edict 
of  his  own,'^  and  augmenting  the  punishments  spe- 
cified in  them,  to  root  out  this  abominable  way  of 
making  provision  for  lewdness  throughout  his  whole 
empire.  As  to  the  ecclesiastical  laws,  there  is  no 
crime  they  punished  more  severely  than  this ;  as 
may  be  easily  collected  from  the  canons  of  the 
council  of  Eliberis  ;  one  of  which  orders,'^  "  That 
if  a  father,  or  a  mother,  or  any  Christian  exercise 
the  trade  of  a  pander,  forasmuch  as  they  set  to  sale 
the  body  of  another,  or  rather  their  own,  they  shall 
not  be  received  to  communion,  no,  not  at  their  last 
hour."  And  another  decrees,"^'  "  That  if  a  woman 
commit  adultery  by  the  consent  of  her  husband, 
they  shall  be  rejected  even  to  the  last."  The  reason 
of  this  is  grounded  upon  what  Tertullian''^  observes 
of  the  law  prohibiting  fornication,  that  it  equally 
forbids  any  one  to  be  aiding  or  assisting,  or  con- 
scious to  another  in  the  practice  of  it.  For  what  I 
may  not  do  myself,  I  may  not  be  instrumental  to 
have  it  done  by  others.  And  therefore,  by  the  same 
reason  that  I  keep  my  own  body  from  the  common 
stews,  I  own  myself  obliged,  neither  to  promote 
that  infamous  trade,  nor  raise  any  gain  by  or  for 
others  by  such  vile  practices.  Albaspiny  rightly 
observes  from  the  forementioned  canons,  that  this 
crime  was  esteemed  gi-eater  than  fornication  and 


adultery  itself;  because  adulterers  were  received  to 
the  peace  of  the  church  after  a  certain  term  of  pe- 
nance, but  this  crime  was  denied  communion  to  the 
very  last. 

Another  way  of  promoting  unclean-  ^.^^^  ^^ 

ncss  was,  the  writing  or  reading  las-  ,.,.*i'ding  iaslfivwul 
civious  or  obscene  books  and  plays,  ^°°^''' 
than  which  there  is  no  greater  incentive  or  provo^ 
cation  to  impurity.  And  therefore,  as  the  ancients 
burned  and  abolished  all  sorts  of  heretical  books,' 
that  they  might  not  corrupt  the  faith  ;  so  they  equal- 
ly forbade  the  writing  or  reading  all  other  pcrni-i 
cious  books,  which  tended  to  debauch  the  morals 
of  Christians,  and  severely  censured  the  authors  of 
them,  if  any  such  were  composed  by  Christian 
writers.  Socrates  '^  says,  Heliodorus,  a  Thessalian 
bishop,  when  he  was  a  young  man,  wrote  a  lascivi- 
ous romance,  called  his  Ethiopics  ;  which,  others"? 
tell  us,  occasioned  a  censure  to  be  passed  upon  hims 
when  he  was  bishop,  and  he  was  deprived  of  his 
bishopric  because  he  would  not  recant  it.  For  the 
same  reason  they  utterly  discouraged  the  reading 
of  such  heathen  books  as  were  stufied  with  impuri 
ties ;  and  some  canons  were  made  to  prohibit  the 
clergy  especially  from  conversing  with  such  writ- 
ers, of  which  I  have  given  a  more  ample  account  '*' 
in  a  former  Book. 

They  are  enuallv  severe  in  their  in- 

.  ■  ,,    P  ,.     ,  Sect.  12. 

vectives  agramst  all  frequenters  ot  tlie    Frequenting  m  nie 

^  ^  tlieatre   and    st.i-,- 

theatre  and  public  stage-plays  upon  piays  foiimid,,:  u,,- 

r  O      I       J  1  oa  this  accouul. 

the  same  account ;  because  these  were 
the  great  nurseries  of  impurity,  where  incest  and 
adultery  were  represented  with  abominable  obscen- 
ity, and  in  a  manner  acted  over  again,  to  corrupt 
the  spectators  by  their  contagion  and  example. 
Here,  as  Cyprian  says,  adultery  was  learned  '^-  by 
seeing  it  acted  ;  provocations  to  vice  were  so  much 
the  stronger,  because  they  were  recommended  by 
the  authority  of  great  examples ;  the  matron  which 
perhaps  came  chaste  to  the  theatre,  returned  back 
with  a  contrary  disposition.  The  very  gestures  of 
the  actors  were  enough  to  corrupt  men's  morals, 
being  fomenters  of  vice,  and  purveyors  of  nutriment 
for  corrupt  distempers.  Venus  they  represented  in 
all  her  lewd  behaviour,  !Mars  as  an  adulterer;  and 
their  Jupiter  no  less  a  prince  in  his  vices  than  in 
his  kingdom,  burning  with  his  thunderbolts  in 
earthly  amours,  sometimes  shining  in  the  plumes 
of  a  swan,  sometimes  descending  in  a  golden  shower, 
and  sometimes  sending  out  his  eagles  to  fetch  him 


'-'  Theodos.  Novel.  18.  de  Lenonibus,  ad  calceiu  Cod. 
Theod. 

'■^  Justin.  Novel.  M. 

'-5  Couc.  Eliber.  can.  12.  Mater,  vel  parens,  vel  quadibet 
fidelis,  si  lenociniuin  exercuerit ;  eo  quod  alienum  vendi- 
derit  corpus,  vel  potiussuuin,  placuit  eas  nee  in  fine  accipere 
communionem. 

'-'  Il)id.  can.  70.  Si  conscio  marito  fuerit  mocchata  uxor, 
placuit  nee  in  fine  dandam  ei  esse  comuiunionera. 


'^  Tertul.  de  Idololat.  cap.  II.  Nam  quod  mihi  de  slu- 
pro  interdictum  sit,  aliis  ad  earn  rem  nihil  aut  operoc  aut  con- 
scientia;  e.xhibeo.  Nam  quod  ipsaiu  camera  meam  a  lu- 
panaribus  segregavi,  agnosco  me  neque  leuocinium,  neque 
id  genus  lucrum  alterius  causa  e.\ercere  posse. 

'-"  Socrat.  lib.  5.  cap.  22. 

»»  Nicephor.  Hist.  lib.  12.  cap,  31. 

"'  Book  VI.  chap.  3.  sect.  4. 

"2  Cypr.  ad  Uouat.  p.  6. 


Chap.  XL 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1005 


a  beautiful  Ganymede.  Consider  now  whether  a 
spectator  can  be  innocent  and  chaste  in  viewing 
such  sights  as  these.  Men  imitate  the  gods  which 
they  worship,  and  by  this  means  become  more 
wretched,  because  their  very  vices  are  consecrated 
into  reh'gion.  He  speaks  this  against  the  heathen 
spectators,  but  the  main  of  his  arguments  will 
equally  hold  against  the  Christian.  For  the  thea- 
tres, by  reason  of  their  impurities,  were  places  of  un- 
avoidable temptation  ;  the  devil's  own  ground,  his 
own  property  and  possession  ;  as  Tertullian"'  says 
the  devil  once  called  them,  when  being  asked  by  a 
Christian  exorcist,  in  the  case  of  a  woman  who  was 
seized  by  him  at  the  theatre,  how  he  durst  presume 
to  possess  a  Christian,  he  answered  confidently,  I 
had  a  right  to  do  it,  for  I  found  her  upon  my  own 
ground.  Tertullian '^*  says  further.  That  the  thea- 
tre is  properly  the  temple  of  Venus  upon  a  double 
account,  both  because  it  was  the  school  of  lascivi- 
ousness,  and  because,  Avhen  Pompey  built  his  fa- 
mous theati-e,  he  was  forced  to  set  the  temple  of 
Venus  upon  it,  for  fear  the  Roman  censors  should 
demohsh  it,  as  they  had  done  some  others,  in  their 
concern  for  the  morals  of  the  people,  which  they 
were  sensible  were  corrupted  by  the  poison  and  in- 
fection of  the  theatres,  M^hich  were  nothing  else 
(in  the  opinion  of  the  more  grave  and  sober  Ro- 
mans) but  the  citadel  and  fortress  of  all  impure  and 
lascivious  practices.  For  this  reason  therefore,  as 
well  as  because  they  were  accompanied  with  idol- 
atrous rites,  Tertullian  and  all  the  ancients  declaim 
against  them,  and  forbid  Christians  to  frequent 
them,  under  pain  of  being  deemed  guilty  of  all  the 
impurities  of  the  place,  and  partakers  of  all  the 
lewdness  committed  in  them.  As  this  was  one  part 
of  their  baptismal  remmciation,  w^here  the  impuri- 
ties of  the  stage  were  virtually  renounced  in  re- 
nouncing the  pomps  "^  of  Satan  ;  so  it  was  necessary 
for  a  Christian  to  abstain  from  them  as  a  spectator, 
for  fear  of  losing  his  title  to  Christian  communion, 
and  being  accounted  a  rencgado  to  his  first  profes- 
sion. It  is  certain  it  was  so  in  the  time  of  Tertul- 
lian, and  when  the  author  of  the  Constitutions"^ 
drew  up  his  Collections.  But  in  after  ages,  because 
the  civil  law  allowed  the  interludes  of  the  theatre 
for  the  diversion  of  the  people,  when  they  were 
purged  from  idolatry,  but  not  from  lewdness  ;  the 
fathers  contented   themselves  to  declaim  against 


them  with  sharp  invectives,  and  correct  that  reign- 
ing humour  by  serious  admonitions,  which  the  in- 
iquity of  the  times  would  not  suffer  them  to  do  by 
the  more  exact  and  primitive  discipline  of  the  church. 
Any  one  that  will  consult  St.  Chrysostom's'"  or  Cy- 
ril's Catechisms,'*  or  Salvian,'^"  may  find  this  ob- 
servation true,  that  though  the  canons  did  not  now 
make  it  peremptory  excommunication  for  a  man  to 
frequent  the  theatre,  yet  the  fathers  inveiglied  as 
sharply  as  ever  against  it,  for  the  impurity  and 
corruption  of  morals  that  were  the  natural  conse- 
quences of  it.  There  was  anciently  a  famous  sight 
or  play,  called  Maiuma,  a  considerable  part  of  which 
diversion  was,  to  see  infamous  strumpets  swim  na- 
ked in  the  water.  Whence,  learned  men  observe, 
it  had  its  name  ;  for  maiuma,  in  the  Syriac  tongue, 
signifies  water.  Gothofred '^''  observes,  and  Pagi'" 
after  him,  that  the  people  were  so  eagerly  bent  and 
inclined  to  this  obscene  diversion,  that  though  there 
were  good  reasons  for  abolishing  it,  yet  the  im- 
perial laws  from  Constantine  to  Arcadius  varied 
eight  times  about  it ;  sometimes  allowing,  and 
sometimes  restraining  it ;  till  at  last  Arcadius,  who 
had  at  first  permitted  it,  revoked  his  licence,  and 
finally  abolished  it ;  allowing  other  sports  for  the 
diversion  of  the  people,  but  denying  them  this,  as  a 
base  and  unseemly'^'  spectacle.  And  under  that 
character,  St.  Chrysostom'"  and  others,  with  their 
utmost  force  and  vehemence,  declaim  against  it. 

For  the  same  reason  they  made 
sharp  invectives  against  luxury,  and     Asals^aii'^oess 

^  °  •'  of  riot  .ind    inteni- 

not,  and  mtemperance,  not  only  as  pcranrefor  the  same 
they  were  crimes  in  themselves,  but 
as  they  were  the  avenues  and  inlets  to  the  greater 
sins  of  uncleanness.  And  therefore,  though  they 
did  not  punish  every  single  act  of  drunkenness  and 
excess  with  excommunication,  yet  they  thought  it 
proper  to  bring  habits  and  customs  of  such  sins 
under  public  discipline  and  censure.  It  is  an  ob- 
servation of  Tertullian,'"  and  a  very  true  one,  that 
drunkenness  and  lust  are  two  devils  combining  and 
conspiring  together.  Bacchus  and  Venus  arenearly 
allied,  and  too  well  agreed.  "  Drunkenness,"  says 
one  of  the  ancient  canons,'^^  "  is  the  fomenter  and 
nurse  of  all  vices."  And  therefore  it  was  ordered, 
That  if  any  clergyman  of  the  lowest  degree  was 
found  guilty  of  any  single  act  of  it,  he  should  either 
be  suspended   from  communion  for  thirty  days. 


133  Tejtjii  (}e  Spectac.  cap.  26. 

'3^  Ibid.  cap.  10. 

'35  See  Book  XI.  chap.  7.  sect.  2. 

"«  Yid.  Constit.  lib.  8.  cap.  32. 

'"  Chrys.  Horn.  6.  in  Mat.  Horn.  73.  de  S.  Barlaam,  t.  1. 
p.  893.    Horn.  15.  ad  Pop.  Antioch.  ibid.  p.  190. 

'=«  Cyril.  Cat.  Myst.  1.  n.  4. 

'5»  S'alvian.  de  Provid.  lib.  6.  p.  197. 

'^°  Gothofr.  Com.  in  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  15.  Tit.  6.  de 
Maiuma,  Leg.  2. 

'<'  Pagi,  Critic,  in  Baron,  vol.  2.  au.  .399.  n.  5. 


'«  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  15.  Tit.  6.  de  Maiuma,  Leg.  2.  Maiu- 
mam  feodum  atque  indecorum  spectaculum  deuegamus. 

>"  Chrys.  Horn.  7.  in  Mat.  p.  71. 

'*'  Tertul.  de  Spectac.  cap.  10.  Veneri  ct  libero  convenit. 
Duo  ista  dffimonia  conspirata  et  conjurata  inter  se  sunt, 
ebrietatis  et  libidinis. 

"^  Cone.  Venetic.  can.  1.3.     Ebrietas  omnium  vitiorum 

femes  ac  nutrix  est. Itaque  clericum,  qucm  ebrium  esse 

constiterit,  aut  triginta  dieium  spatio  a  communione  statui- 
mus  submovendum,  aut  corporal!  subdendumesse  supplicio. 
Vid.  Cone.  Agatben.  can.  41,  iisdcm  verbis. 


1006 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


or  be  subject  to  corporal  punishment  for  his  of- 
fence. This  we  find  decreed  in  the  councils  of  Agde 
and  Vannes,  as  a  standing  rule  in  the  French 
church.  And  there  goes  a  decree  under  the  name 
of  Pope  Eutychian,"'^  which  makes  the  habit  of 
drunkenness  matter  of  excommunication  to  a  lay- 
man also,  till  he  break  off  the  custom  by  reform- 
ation and  amendment.  But  it  must  be  owned,  this 
vice  was  sometimes  so  general  and  epidemical,  that 
the  numbers  of  transgressors  made  the  exactness  of 
discipline  impracticable.  St.  Austin'"  complains 
and  laments,  that  it  was  so  in  Africa  in  his  time. 
Though  the  apostle  had  condemned  three  great 
and  detestable  vices  in  one  place,  viz.  rioting  and 
drunkenness,  chambering  and  wantonness,  strife 
and  envying ;  yet  matters  were  come  to  that  pass 
with  men,  that  two  of  the  three,  drunkenness  and 
strife,  were  thought  tolerable  things,  whilst  wanton- 
ness only  was  esteemed  worthy  of  excommunica- 
tion; and  there  was  some  danger  that  in  a  little 
time  the  other  two  might  be  reputed  no  vices  at  all. 
For  rioting  and  drunkenness  was  esteemed  so  harm- 
less and  allowable  a  thing,  that  men  not  only  prac- 
tised it  in  their  own  houses  every  day,  but  in  the 
memorials  of  the  holy  martyrs  on  solemn  festivals, 
and  that  in  pretended  honour  to  the  martyrs  also ; 
which  was  a  thing  that  every  one  must  needs  la- 
ment, who  did  not  look  with  carnal  eyes  upon  it. 
It  is  plain,  St.  Austin  thought  an  habitual  course 
of  rioting  and  drunkenness  a  crime  deserving  ex- 
communication, as  well  as  fornication  and  adultery ; 
but  yet,  in  regard  to  the  great  numbers  that  were 
given  to  this  sin,  his  advice  to  Aurelius,  the  metro- 
politan of  Africa,  is,"'  that  it  should  be  cured  not 
with  asperity  and  roughness,  nor  in  the  imperious 
way,  but  by  teaching  rather  than  commanding, 
and  by  admonition  rather  than  commination.  For 
so  we  must  deal  with  a  multitude ;  but  the  severity 
of  discipline  is  only  to  be  exercised  upon  sins,  when 
the  number  of  sinners  is  not  very  great.  So  that 
we  may  conclude,  that  rioting  and  drunkenness 
was  one  of  those  great  crimes  for  which  men  were 
put  to  do  public  penance  in  the  church,  except 


when  the  multitude  and  combination  of  sinners 
made  it  not  feasible,  and  obliged  the  church  to  take 
other  measures  to  correct  it. 

It  must  also  be  noted  upon  this  g^^^  j^ 
head,  that  as  a  preservative  of  modesty  bafhmg''of  menTnd 
and  chastity,  both  the  canon  and  civil  «<""'^" '"S'^'her. 
law  prohibited  men  and  women  to  go  promis- 
cuously into  the  same  baths  together.  Let  not  a 
woman  go  to  wash  in  the  same  bath  with  men, 
says  the  author'"  of  the  Constitutions.  And  the 
council  of  Laodicea,'^"  Neither  clergyman,  nor 
ascetic,  nor  layman,  shall  wash  in  the  same  bath 
with  women ;  for  this  is  extremely  scandalous,  and 
culpable  even  among  the  Gentiles.  The  council 
of  TruUo'*'  repeats  this  canon  word  for  word, 
and  then  adds  in  the  close.  If  any  clergyman  be 
found  guilty  of  this  practice,  he  shall  be  deposed ; 
if  a  layman,  let  him  be  excommunicated.  The 
observation  made  in  these  canons,  that  this  was 
a  scandalous  crime  even  among  the  heathens,  is 
confirmed  out  of  the  old  Roman  laws  and  writers. 
Varro  says,"^  The  ancient  baths  were  divided  into 
two  distinct  buildings  or  apartments,  one  for  the 
men,  and  the  other  for  the  women,  to  wash  in.  And 
the  same  account  is  given  by  Vitruvius,'^  and  Cha- 
risius,  and  other  writers.  And  when  the  degeneracy 
of  the  following  ages  began  to  confound  this  dis- 
tinction, Spartian'"  says,  Adrian  made  a  law  against 
promiscuous  bathing.  And  Julius  Capitohnus  '^* 
says  the  same  of  Antoninus  Philosophus.  Nay,  the 
old  Romans  were  so  careful  to  preserve  modesty  in 
this  matter,  that  Tully  "^^  says,  they  did  not  allow  a 
son  to  bathe  with  his  father,  nor  a  son-in-law  with 
his  father-in-law ;  nature  itself  teaching  men,  that 
there  was  a  decency  to  be  observed  in  making  such 
distinctions.  And  the  same  thing  is  related  by 
Valerhis  Maximus,'"  and  much  commended  by  St. 
Ambrose.'^*  Now,  the  case  standing  thus  even 
among  the  heathens,  it  would  have  been  extremely 
scandalous  for  the  Christians  to  have  permitted 
promiscuous  bathing,  and,  therefore,  they  prohibited 
it  by  their  ecclesiastical  laws,  under  the  severe  pe- 
nalty of  excommunication.  And  the  imperial "'  laws 


'"  Eutychian.  Decret.  ap.  Crab.  t.  1.  p.  180.  Qui  ebrie- 
tatem  vitare  noluerit,  excommunicandum  esse  decrevimus 
usque  ad  congniam  emendationem.  Vid.  Can.  Apostol. 
42  et  43. 

'"  Aug.  Ep.  64.  ad  Aureliuni. 

'^'  Ibid.  Not!  ergo  aspere,  quantum  existimo,  non  duriter, 
non  mndo  imperioso  ista  tolluntur,  magis  docendo  quani 
jubendo,  magis  monendo  quam  miuando.  Sic  enim  agen- 
dum est  cum  multiUidine  :  severitas  autem  exercenda  est  in 
peccata  paucorura. 

'*"  Constit.  lib.  1.  cap.  9.  'Avopoyuvov  yuvi;  ttio-tjj  ixi] 
Xovicrdoo. 

™  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  30.  '■■'  Cone.  Trull,  can.  77. 

152  Varro  de  Lingua  Latin,  lib.  8.  p.  115.  Publice  bina 
conjuncta  aedificia  lavandi  causa ;  unum  ubi  viri,  alterum 
ubi  mulieres  lavarentur. 

153  Vitruvius   de  Architect,   lib.   5.   cap.    20.     Chahlius 


Grammat.  lib.  1.  ap.  Savaro.  Not.  in  Sidonium,  lib.  2.  Ep. 
2.  Et  Dempster  Paralipomena  ad  Rosini  Antiq.  Rom. 
lib.  1.  c.  14. 

'^*  Spartian.  Vit.  Adrian,  p.  25.  Lavacra  pro  sexibus 
separavit. 

'"  Capitol.  Vit.  Antonin.  p.  90.  Lavacra  mixta  submovit. 

'^^  Cicer.  de  Offic.  lib.  1.  n.  129.  Nostro  quidem  more 
cum  parentibus  puberes  filii,  cum  soceris  generi  non  lavan- 
tur.  Retiuenda  est  igitur  hujus  generis  verecmidia,  prfe- 
sertim  ipsa  natura  magistra  et  duce. 

'"  Valer.  Max.  lib.  2.  cap.  1.  n.  7. 

'^^  Ambros.  de  Offic.  lib.  1.  cap.  18. 

'5"  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  5.  Tit.  17.  de  Repudiis,  Leg.  II. 
Inter  culpas  viri  et  uxoris  constitutionibus  euumeratas,  et 
has  adjicimus,  si  forte  uxor  ita  luxuriosa  est,  ut  commune 
lavacrum  cum  viris  libidinis  causa  habere  audeat.  Vid. 
Novel.  22.  c.  16. 


Chap.  XI. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


lOo; 


of  Justinian  carried  the  matter  a  little  further ;  for, 
among  other  lawful  causes  of  divorce,  authorizing 
a  man  to  put  away  his  wife,  he  allows  this  to  be 
one,  If  a  woman  be  so  intemperate  and  luxurious 
as  to  go  into  a  common  bath  with  men.  Private 
iwriters  declaim  much  against  it.  Epiphanius  "" 
[Condemns  it  in  the  Jews;  and  Cyprian  not  only'" 
censures  this,  but  many  other  acts  of  immodesty  in 
virgins,  as  painting,  and  over-nice  dressing,  and 
appearing  unveiled,  (against  which  also  TertuUian  "° 
has  a  whole  discourse,)  with  some  other  indications 
of  a  loose  and  unguarded  mind,  which  need  not 
here  be  particularly  mentioned  or  further  pursued. 
I  purposely  also  pass  over  the  scandalous  practice 
of  some,  who'  entertained  their  a(japet(P,  or  love- 
sisters,  as  they  called  them,  with  professions  of  the 
strictest  innocence  and  virtue  ;  because  I  have 
formerly  had  occasion  to  show  with  what  severity 
the  ancient  rules'®  condemned  this  as  a  most  sus- 
picious and  intolerable  practice,  and  perfectly 
against  the  laws  of  the  gospel,  which  oblige  men 
not  only  to  regard  the  preservation  of  their  inno- 
cence, but  their  good  name  ;  "  To  mind  things  that 
are  honest,"  that  is,  becoming  and  honourable,  "  and 
of  good  report ;  to  pro%dde  for  honest  things,  not 
only  in  the  sight  of  God,  but  also  in  the  sight  of 
men ;  and  to  abstain  from  all  appearance  of  evil." 
In  regard  to  which  precepts,  the  ancient  rules  not 
only  censured  open  fornication  and  adultery,  but 
all  such  indecent  actions,  as  had  any  tendency  to- 
ward them,  or  were  justly  liable  to  suspicion,  and 
gave  occasion  to  the  adversary  to  speak  reproach- 
fully of  that  holy  rehgion,  the  honour  of  which 
Christians  were  obliged  to  maintain  in  all  purity, 
as  well  in  word  as  outward  conversation  ;  avoiding 
this,  that  no  one  should  blame  them,  and  managing 
their  whole  deportment  with  innocence  and  pru- 
dence, to  answer  those  great  precepts  of  the  gospel, 
"  Give  no  offence,  neither  to  the  Jew,  nor  to  the 
Gentile,  nor  to  the  church  of  God :"  and,  "  So  let 
your  light  shine  before  men,  that  they  may  see  your 
good  works,  and  glorify  your  Father  which  is  in 
heaven." 


For  the  same  reason,  they  prohibit- 


Secf,  15. 


ed  all    promiscuous    and    lascivious     And  pr«miJ<-,ion, 

,  .  and  lanivioim  ,Utic- 

dancing  of  men  and  women  together,  ^s.  wamoa  song., 
The  council  of  Laodicea '"  forbids  it 
under  the  name  of  /3aXAi^fiv,  which  some  interpret 
playing  on  cymbals  or  other  musical  instruments, 
but  more  commonly  it  is  understood  by  learned  "^ 
men  as  a  prohibition  of  wanton  dancing  at  marriage 
feasts,  against  which  there  are  several  other  canons 
of  the  ancient  councils,  and  severe  invectives  of  the 
fathers.  The  third  council  of  Toledo  '«*  forbids  it 
under  the  name  of  ballimathitT,  which  they  interpret 
wanton  dances,  joining  them  with  lascivious  songs, 
the  use  of  which  they  complain  of  as  an '"'  irreligious 
custom  prevailing  in  Spain  among  the  common 
people  on  the  solemn  festivals ;  which  they  order  to 
be  corrected  both  by  the  ecclesiastical  and  secular 
judges.  The  council  of  Agde  "*  forbids  the  clergy 
to  be  present  at  such  marriages,  where  obscene  love 
songs  were  sung,  or  obscene  motions  of  the  body 
were  used  in  dancing.  And  by  another  canon, "^'  If 
they  use  any  scurrility  or  filthy  jesting  themselves, 
they  are  to  be  removed  from  their  office.  The  like 
canons  occur  in  the  council  of  Lerida  ""  and  some 
others,  forbidding  to  sing  or  dance  at  marriages,  but 
feast  with  modesty  and  gravity,  as  becomes  Chris- 
tians. St.  Ambrose  excellently  describes  the  im- 
modesty of  this  sort  of  dancing  used  by  drunken 
women  : '"  They  lead  up  dances,  says  he,  in  the 
streets,  unbecoming  men,  in  the  sight  of  intemperate 
youths,  tossing  their  hair,  dragging  their  garments 
flying  open,  with  their  arms  uncovered,  clapping 
their  hands,  dancing  with  their  feet,  loud  and  cla- 
morous in  their  voices,  irritating  and  provoking 
youthful  lusts  by  their  theatrical  motions,  their 
petulant  eyes,  and  unseemly  antics  and  fooleries. 
Meanwhile  a  crowd  of  youth  stands  gazing  upon 
them,  and  so  it  is  a  miserable  spectacle  indeed, 

St.  Chrysostom'"  has  abundance  to  the  same 
purpose,  particularly  in  one  of  his  homihes,"*  he 
declaims  against  it  as  one  of  those  pomps  of  Satan 
which  men  renounced  in  their  baptism.  He.  says, 
The  devil  is  present  at  such  a  time,  being  called 


'«>  Epiph.  Haer.  30.  Hebionit.  n.  7. 

'"'  Cypr.  de  Habitu  Virginum,  p.  100,  &c. 

iiK  Xertul.  de  Veland.  Virgin. 

>«  Book  VI.  chap.  2.  sect.  13. 

'"  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  53. 

'^  Suicer.  Thesaur.  Ecclos.  voce  BaWiX^Eiv.  Rivet,  in 
Decalog.  p.  3.38.  Stuckius,  Antiquit.  Convival.  lib.  3.  cap.  21. 

'*^  Cone.  Tolet.  3.  in  Edicto  Regis  Reccaredi.  Quod 
ballimathi<£  et  turpia  cantica  prohibeuda  sunt  a  sanctorum 
solenniis. 

'*'  Ibid.  can.  2-3.  Irreligiosa  consuetude  est,  quam  vul- 
gus  per  sanctorum  solennitates  agere  consuevit.  Populi 
qui  debent  officia  divina  attendere,  saltatiouibus  turpibus 
invigilant :  cantica  non  solum  mala  canentes,  sed  et  re- 
Ijgiosorum  officiis  perstrepentes.  Hoc  etenim  ut  ab  omni 
Hispania  depellatur,  sacerdotum  et  judicum  a  concilio 
sancto  curae  committitur. 


'^  Cone.  Agathen.  can.  39.  Nee  his  csetibus  niisceantur, 
ubi  amatoria  cantanturet  turpia,  aut  obscceui  motus  corpo- 
ris choreis  et  saltatiouibus  efferuntur,  &c. 

"''  Ibid.  can.  70.  Clericum  scurrilem  et  verbis  turpibus 
joculatorem  ab  officio  retrahcndum. 

""  Cone.  Ilerdens.  ap.  Crab.  1. 1.  p.  1031.  Quod  non  opor- 
teat  Christianos  euntes  ad  nuptias,  plaudere  vel  saltare,  &c. 

'"'  Ambros.  de  Elia  et  Jejuniis,  cap.  18.  lUw  in  plateis 
inverecundos  viris  sub  conspectu  adolescentulorum  intcm- 
perantium  choros  ducunt,  jactantes  comam,  trahentes  tuni- 
cas, scissse  amictus,  nudic  lacertos,  plaudentes  manibus, 
saltantes  pedibus,  personantes  vocibus,  &c. 

'"-  Chrys.  Hom.  48.  in  Gen.  p.  G80.  Horn.  56.  in  Gen. 
p.  746.  Horn.  49.  in  Matt.  p.  436.  Hom.  12.  in  Colos.  p. 
I4U3,  &c.     Hom.  19.  de  Scortat.  t.  5.  p.  272. 

'•3  Chrys.  Hom.  47.  in  Julian.  Mart.  t.  1.  p.  G13.  Hom. 
23.  de  Noviluniis,  t.  1.  p.  261. 


1008 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH, 


Book  XVI. 


thither  by  the  songs  of  harlots,  and  obscene  words, 
and  diabolical  pomps  used  upon  such  occasions. 
And  in  another  homily,  speaking  of  the  dancing  of 
Herodias's  daughter,  he  says.  Christians  now  do 
not  deliver  up  half  a  kingdom,  nor  another  man's 
head,  but  their  own  souls  to  inevitable  destruction. 
By  which  it  appears,  that  these  dancings  were 
causes  of  great  corruption,  being  mixed  with  ribaldry 
and  lascivious  songs  and  Avanton  gestures,  which 
are  incentives  to  impurity,  and  wholly  unhinge  the 
frame  of  the  Christian  temper ;  for  which  reason 
the  ancients  are  so  frequent,  and  copious,  and  severe 
in  their  invectives  against  them. 

Some  canons  also  severely  condemn 

Sect.  16.  ,  .  (.  1      1  • 

Also  promiscuous    the  pi'omiscuous  usc  oi  liaDits,  or  men 

clothing.  *^  ^ 

and  women  interchanging  their  ap- 
parel peculiarly  appropriated  to  their  diiferent  sex. 
Eustathius  taught  his  she  disciples  to  wear  the  habit 
of  men  under  pretence  of  religion ;  and  cut  ofi  their 
hair  upon  the  like  superstitious  reason.  But  the 
council  of  Gangra  condemned  both  these  practices, 
as  great  in-egularities,  confounding  the  order  of  na- 
ture, and  laid  the  heavy  censure  of  anathema  upon 
them.  "  If  any  woman,"  says  one  canon,"^  "  under 
pretence  of  leading  an  ascetic  hfe,  change  her  ap- 
parel, and  instead  of  the  accustomed  habit  of  wo- 
men take  that  of  men,  let  her  be  anathema."  And 
another,'"  "  If  any  woman,  upon  the  account  of  an 
ascetic  life,  cut  off  her  hair,  which  God  has  given 
her  as  a  memorial  of  subjection,  let  her  be  ana- 
thema, as  one  that  annuls  the  decree  of  subjection." 
The  foundation  of  this  canon  was  the  order  given 
by  St.  Paul,  1  Cor.  xi.,  "That  a  woman  should  not 
be  shorn  or  shaven."  And  the  foundation  of  the 
former  canon  was  the  rule  given  by  God  to  the 
Jews,  Deut.  xxii.  5,  "  The  woman  shall  not  wear 
that  which  appertaineth  to  a  man,  neither  shall  a 
man  put  on  a  woman's  garment :  for  all  that  do  so 
are  abomination  to  the  Lord  thy  God."  Which  the 
ancient  writers,  Cyprian,""  Tertullian,'"  and  many 
others,"^  understand  simply  and  universally  of  men 
and  women  interchanging  habits,  as  was  usually 
done  in  stage-plays,  which  they  condemned  for  this 
reason,  as  for  many  others.  Some  modern  inter- 
preters,'" after  Lyra'*"  and  Maimonides,'*'  think 
there  was  a  further  design  in  this  precept,  to  pro- 
hibit the  idolatry  of  the  ancient  Zabii,  in  whose 
magical  books  it  was  commanded  that  men  should 
put  on  the  women's  painted  garments,  when  they 
stood  to  worship  before  the  star  of  Venus ;  and  that 
women  should  put  on  the  men's  warlike  habit  and 
instruments,  when  they  appeared  before  the  star  of 


Mars.  But  as  the  ancient  Christian  writers  were 
not  acquainted  with  this  interpretation,  we  have 
reason  to  believe  they  took  the  rule  in  the  common 
and  vulgar  sense,  as  a  universal  prohibition  of  men 
and  women  interchanging  habits  in  all  cases  what- 
soever ;  it  being  a  thing  against  the  light  of  nature 
and  the  laws  of  reason,  as  Diogenes  Laertius"*- 
words  it  in  the  Life  of  Plato,  for  any  one  to  walk 
naked  in  public,  or  for  a  man  to  wear  the  woman's 
clothing.  And  for  this  reason  the  ancients  pro- 
hibited it,  as  an  indecent  and  shameful  thing,  and 
as  ministering  occasion  to  uncleanness  even  when 
it  was  used  under  pretence  of  greater  strictness  in 
religion. 

And  for  the  same  reason  the  an-         „  .  ,. 

Sect.  li. 

cient  council  of  Eliberis  forbade  wo-  gifs"''or'%Mnoct"I 
men  to  keep  private  vigils,  or  night-  c'Crchl  mXr",r'" 

.    1  •      ^1        1  'j       •  1  1  tence  of  devotion. 

watches  in  the  dormitories  or  churches, 
because  often,  under  pretence  of  prayer  and  colour 
of  devotion,  secret  '*'  wickedness  had  been  committed 
by  them.  This  seems  to  be  the  most  rational  ac- 
count that  can  be  given  of  the  meaning  and  reason 
of  this  canon,  that  it  was  intended  to  cut  off  the 
occasion  of  lewdness  and  uncleanness,  however, 
artfully  disguised  under  the  mask  of  greater  strict- 
ness in  religion;  there  being  nothing  that  could 
reflect  more  dishonour  on  the  Christian  name,  than 
the  allowing  such  opportunities  of  sin  under  the 
feigned  pretence  of  piety  and  devotion  in  their 
churches. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


I 


OF  GREAT  TRANSGRESSIONS  OF  THE  EIGHTH  COM- 
MANDMENT, THEFT,  OPPRESSION,  USURY,  PER- 
VERTING OF  JUSTICE,  FRAUD  AND  DECEIT  IN  TRUST'| 
AND   TRAFFIC,  ETC. 

The  design  of  the  eighth  command-         ^^^^  , 
ment  is,  to  secure  men  in  the  quiet  taught  the  d'oArinea 

i.     .1      •  •     1,  A„ .1     of  renunciation,  otA 

possession  oi   their  own  rights  ana  having  au  tinngsjj 

-  .  .  common. 

properties,  or  whatever  they  have  a 
just  title  to  by  the  laws  of  God  and  the  commu-  ^ 
nity  where  they  dweU.     And  therefore,  as  manjaT 
ways  as  these  rights  may  be  invaded  or  impairedjl 
so  many  ways  there  are  of  committing  robbery  and 
transgressing  this  command.     There  were  in  the 
ancient  church  some  heretics,  who,  under  pretence 
of  greater  heights  in  religion,  would  allow  no  men 
to  possess  any  thing  as  their  own  right  and  pro- 


'"*  Cone.  Gangren.  can.  13.  '"  Ibid.  can.  17. 

""  Cypr.  Ep.  62.  al.  2.  ad  Eiicratium. 
"'  Tertiil.  de  Spectac.  cap.  23. 
'"  Vid.  Prin.  Histriomasti.x. 
'"  Spencer,  de  Legib.  Hebr.  lib.  2.  cap.  17.  n.  1.. 
,  ISO  Lyra,  in  Dent.  xxii. 


'^'  Maimon.  More  Nevoch.  part  3.  cap.  37. 

•82  Diogen.  Laert.  lib.  3.  Vita  Platen,  p.  131. 

'8'  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  35.  Placuit  prohiberi,  ne  foemiiiae 
in  ccemeterio  pervigilent :  eo  quod  saepe  sub  obtentu  ora 
tiouis  latenter  scelcra  committant. 


Chap.  XII. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1009 


ptity  in  this  world ;  but  obliged  all  men  to  renounce 
t  heir  title  to  every  thing,  and  to  have  all  things  in  com- 
mon ;  pronouncing  a  peremptory  sentence  against 
all  rich  men,  that  unless  they  gave  up  their  posses- 
sions, and  forsook  all  that  they  enjoyed,  they  could 
not  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  These  men 
called  themselves  apotactici,  from  renouncing  the 
world ;  and  apostolici,  from  their  pretended  imitation 
of  the  apostles ;  and  ericratitce,  from  their  ostenta- 
tion of  temperance  and  abstinence  above  other  men. 
St.  Austin  says,'  They  would  receive  none  into 
their  communion  that  lived  in  the  conjugal  state, 
or  that  possessed  any  thing  as  their  property  in  this 
world :  they  separated  from  the  church  upon  this 
account,  and  would  allow  no  man  to  have  any  hope 
of  salvation,  that  did  not  practise  as  they  did  ;  and 
therefore  the  church  condemned  them  as  heretics 
for  laying  such  a  doctrinal  necessity  upon  these 
things,  which  were  left  to  every  man's  liberty  in 
practice.  The  Eustathians  maintained  the  same 
doctrine,  but  the  council  of  Gangra^  condemned  it 
as  heretical,  and  anathematized  the  authors  and  de- 
fenders of  it.  So  that  this  was  a  general  sort  of 
invasion  of  the  rights  and  properties  of  mankind, 
robbing  them  of  every  thing  in  an  unusual  and  ex- 
traordinary wax,  not  by  any  open  violence  or  secret 
stealth,  but  by  turning  religion  into  an  art,  and  in- 
ducing men  to  rob  themselves  of  ev^ery  thing  under 
pretence  of  piety  and  greater  heights  of  devotion. 
The  factors  and  agents  in  this  cause  seem  not  to  have 
had  any  design  to  enrich  themselves,  but  to  make 
all  men  poor,  and  bring  them  to  a  level,  and  lay  all 
things  common  :  which  was  such  a  scandalous  re- 
presentation of  the  Christian  religion  in  the  eyes  of 
the  heathen,  that  the  fathers  thought  they  could 
not  be  too  severe  upon  it,  however  it  was  coloured 
over  -with  the  varnish  and  disguise  of  holiness,  pre- 
tending a  great  contempt  of  the  world,  and  a  Divine 
and  heavenly  temper.  As  therefore  they  condemn- 
ed the  doctrine  for  heretical,  so  they  never  failed  to 
pursue  the  abettors  of  it  with  the  utmost  severity 
of  ecclesiastical  censures.  And  the  imperial  laws 
concurred  with  them,'  subjecting  these  apotactites, 
or  renouncers,  to  all  the  civil  penalties  that  were 
imposed  upon  heretics  in  all  other  cases,  except 
that  of  confiscation  of  goods,  which  signified  no- 
thing to  those,  whose  very  crime  consisted  in  a  per- 
verse way  of  renunciation  of  all  things,  which  left 
them  nothing  to  forfeit. 


Next  to  this  general  sort  of  rob- 
bery, the  laws  set  a  particular  mark  or  i.ui..»ry  o^  man- 

Htealing. 

upon  that  which  is  commonly  called 
plagiary,  or  man-stealing.  The  old  Roman  law 
condemned  such  as  were  guilty  of  it,  either  in  a 
pecuniary  mulct,  or  sent  them  to  the  mines.  But 
Constantine  thought  this  was  not  a  sufficient  pun- 
ishment for  the  crime,  and  therefore  he  added  to  it, 
and  made  it  capital,''  ordering  every  such  criminal 
to  be  thrown  to  the  wild  beasts  in  the  theatre,  and 
if  they  were  likely  to  escape  with  their  lives  thence, 
to  be  put  to  death  with  the  sword.  The  ecclesias- 
tical laws  appoint  no  particular  punishment  for  this 
crime  ;  but  it  being  of  the  same  nature  with  murder 
in  the  law  of  God,  it  may  be  supposed  that  the  pe- 
nance of  murderers  was  inflicted  on  those  that  were 
found  guilty  of  it. 

I  take  no  notice  here  of  sacrilege, 
because  though  that  be  a  species  of  or  m.iiiiio„s  in- 
theft,  yet  the  punishment  of  that  has 
been  considered  under*  another  title.  The  remain- 
ing sorts  of  injustice  may  be  summed  up  under 
these  four  heads  :  1.  Malicious  injustice.  2.  Simple 
theft.  3.  Open  violence  and  oppression.  4.  Fraud 
and  deceit.  Malicious  injustice  is  doing  hurt  and 
prejudice  to  our  neighbour  in  his  goods  out  of  pure 
hatred  and  ill-will,  when  we  can  do  ourselves  no 
benefit  or  kindness  by  it ;  as  when  men  set  houses 
or  stacks  of  corn  on  fire  out  of  malice  and  revenge 
to  their  neighbours,  or  poison  or  kill  their  cattle,  or 
do  them  any  the  like  injury  in  their  goods,  without 
reaping  any  advantage  from  it,  but  only  gratifying 
a  spiteful  and  revengeful  temper.  The  old  Roman 
law  adjudges  all  such  to  be  guilty  of  capital  crimes, 
and  particularly  those  whom  they  term  incendi- 
aries," who  set  towns  on  fire,  either  out  of  enmity,  or 
to  make  plunder  and  prey  of  them ;  which  sort  of 
criminals  were  by  way  of  just  retaliation  often  sen- 
tenced to  be  burnt  alive.  The  ecclesiastical  code 
of  the  ancient  church  has  no  particular  laws  against 
such  ;'  but  as  their  crimes  were  often  a  complica- 
tion of  many  gi-eat  sins ;  enmity  and  malice,  and 
theft  and  murder,  commonly  concurring  in  incen- 
diaries ;  so  it  may  be  presumed  the  punishment  and 
penance  was  assigned  according  to  the  nature  and 
quality  of  the  several  offences  which  made  up  this 
compound  vice,  than  which  few  ^an  be  conceived 
more  heinous,  because  it  has  in  it  so  much  of  the 
pure  malicious  and  diabolical  temper. 


'  Aug.  de  Haer.  cap.  40.  Apostolici,  qui  se  isto  nomine 
arrogantissime  voeaverunt,  eo  quod  in  suam  communionem 
Don  reciperent  utentes  conjugibus,  et  res  proprias  possi- 
dentes. — Sed  ideo  isti  hoeretici  sunt,  quoniam  se  ab  ec- 
clesia  separantes,  nuUam  spem  putant  cos  habere  qui  utun- 
tur  his  rebus,  quibus  ipsi  carent.  Encratitis  isti  similes 
sunt,  nam  et  Apotactitae  appellantur.  Vid.  Epiphan.  Hoer. 
61.  Apostolicor.  n.  4. 

^  Cone.  Gangren.  in  Prajfat. 

5  Vid.  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  16.  Tit.  5.  de  Ha;ret.  Leg.  7  et  II. 
3  T 


<  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  18.  ad  Legem  Fabiam  de  Pla- 
giariis,  Leg.  1.  Bestiis  primo  quoque  munere  objiciatiir,  &c. 

^  Chap.  6.  sect.  22,  &c. 

8  Digest,  lib.  48.  Tit.  19.  de  Pcenis,  Leg.  29.  Incendiarii 
capite  puniuntur,  qui  ob  inimicitias,  vel  praedae  causa,  incen. 
derunt  intra  oppidum,  et  plerumque  vivi  exunmtur. 

'  The  first  ecclesiastical  laws  against  incendiaries  I  have 
met  with,  are  the  decrees  of  Eugenius  II.  an.  824.  cap.  9.  t. 
7.  p.  l.o42.  And  Pope  Gregory's  Uecietals,  lib.  5.  Tit.  17. 
de  Raptoribus  et  Incendiariis. 


lOIO 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI.      i 


s^j.(  J  Simple  theft  was  reckoned  among 

Of  simple  tiiefi.  ^^iQ  great  crimes  which  brought  men 
under  public  penance,  and  therefore  there  is  the 
more  reason  to  conclude  it  of  those  complicated 
crimes.  St.  Austin  frequently,  in  distinguishing  be- 
tween great  and  small  sins,  puts  theft  into  the  first 
class  of  heinous  crimes,'  for  which  men  were  to 
do  a  more  formal  penance  in  the  church.  And 
timong  St,  Basil's  canons '  there  is  one  that  par- 
ticularly specifies  the  time  of  penance  :  The  thief, 
if  he  discover  himself,  shall  do  one  year's  penance  ; 
if  he  be  discovered  by  others,  two :  half  the  time 
lie  shall  be  a  prostrator,  the  other  half  a  co-stander. 
Only  St.  Austin  intimates,'"  There  were  some  cir- 
cumstances in  which  they  were  forced  to  bear  with 
this  as  well  as  other  sins :  he  means,  when  some 
insuperable  difficulties  or  danger  made  it  either  im- 
possible, or  un advisable,  to  put  the  discipline  of 
the  church  strictly  in  execution  against  them. 

Sect.  5.  Under  this  head  they  reckoned  such 

gooL'^from  t'hl  t °ue  as  detained  any  lost  goods,  which 
"'^""'  they  found,  from  the  true  proprietor, 

when  he  could  lay  a  just  claim  to  them.  St.  Austin 
expressly  condemns  this  as  manifest  robbery.  If 
thou  hast  found  any  thing,"  and  not  restored  it, 
thou  art  guilty  of  robbing  the  true  owner.  He  that 
denies  what  he  finds  of  another  man's,  would  take 
it  from  him  if  he  could.  In  this  case  God  examines 
the  heart,  and  not  the  hands.  Origen  says  the 
same,'^  That  not  to  restore  what  a  man  finds,  is 
equal  to  robbery  ;  however  some  had  the  vanity  to 
think  there  was  no  sin  in  it,  and  were  ready  to  ask. 
To  whom  should  I  restore  it,  seeing  God  has  put  it 
into  my  hands  ?  The  old  Roman  laws  were  much 
more  equitable  than  the  conscience  of  such;  for 
they  reckon  it  theft  to  detain  what  a  man  finds, 
even  when  they  know  not  who  is  the  true  owner  of 
it.  In  which  case  they  direct  him  to  put  up  a  libel 
of  inquiry  after  the  proprietor,''  and  when  he  is 
found  to  take  of  him  what  they  call  evpsrpa,  and 
[iTjvvTpa,  and  <Tfai<rpa,  a  reward  for  finding  and  saving 
what  was  lost :  though  this  they  rather  account  a 
dishonourable  and  scandalous  demand,  if  precisely 
exacted.  St.  Austin  gives  a  very  remarkable  in- 
stance of  this  sort  of  generosity,  in  refusing  the  re- 
ward of  finding  lost  goods,  in  one  who  was  a  poor 


Christian  usher  to  a  heathen  schoolmaster  at  Milan. 
He  found  a  bag  of  money  about  the  value  of  two 
hundred  shillings,  and  not  knowing  who  was  the 
owner,  according  to  law,  he  put  up  a  libel  "  publicly 
to  inquire  after  him.  For  he  was  sensible  he  ought 
to  return  it,  though  he  knew  not  as  yet  to  whom. 
The  man  who  had  lost  the  money,  upon  notice 
given  in  the  libel,  comes  to  him,  and  tells  the 
marks,  the  condition  of  the  bag,  the  seal,  and  the 
sum,  and  receives  his  own  again ;  and  with  great 
joy,  thankfulness,  and  gratitude,  offers  him  the 
tithe,  twenty  shillings,  as  his  requital  and  reward ; 
but  he  would  not  accept  it.  He  offers  him  ten ; 
but  he  would  not  accept  it.  He  entreats  him, 
however,  at  least  to  take  five ;  but  he  refused. 
Upon  which,  the  man  in  anger  cast  down  his 
bag,  and  said,  I  have  lost  nothing:  if  thou  wilt 
receive  nothing  of  me,  I  have  lost  nothing.  What  ( 
a  brave  contention,  says  St.  Austin,  what  '^  a  prize, 
what  a  strife  and  noble  conflict  was  this,  where 
the  whole  world  was  the  theatre,  and  God  the 
spectator!  At  last  the  man  is  subdued  by  mere 
importunity,  and  prevailed  upon  to  accept  what  was 
offered  him ;  but  he  immediately  gave  it  all  to  the 
poor,  and  would  not  carry  one  shilling  of  it  home 
with  him  to  lay  up  for  his  own  private  use.  By 
this  relation  we  may  judge  how  gi'eat  a  crime  it  was 
reckoned  to  conceal  or  detain  what  was  lost  from 
the  right  owner,  since  even  the  exacting  any  reward 
for  finding  it  was  reputed  dishonourable  and  scan- 
dalous, and  some  ancient  canons  set  a  particular 
mark  of  infamy  upon  it,  as  a  species  of  filthy  lucre. 
Men  ought  not,  says  Gregory  Thaumaturgus,"*  to 
exact  a  reward  for  saving,  or  discovering,  or  find- 
ing any  thing  that  was  lost,  but  to  live  without 
filthy  lucre. 

They  put  into  the  same  class  all 
such  as  refused  to  pay  their  iust  debts,    of  refusing  to  pay 

'^     -^  •'  just  debts. 

especially  such  as  used  any  base  and 
sinister  arts  to  excuse  themselves  from  the  payment 
of  them.  It  was  usual  with  many  Jews  to  pretend 
to  become  converts  to  Christianity,  only  to  shelter 
themselves  from  their  creditors,  and  the  justice  of 
the  law  in  many  criminal  cases  also,  by  claiming 
the  privilege  of  sanctuary  in  the  church.  To  cor- 
rect which  abuse,  Arcadius  made  a  law,"  That  no 


«  Aug,  Tract.  12.  in  Joan.  p.  47.  Horn.  27.  ex  50.  t.  10. 
p.  177.     Tract.  41.  in  Joan.  p.  126. 

•'  Basil,  can.  61. 

'»  Aug.  Ep.  54.  ad  Macedon .  p.  95.  Aliquando  etiam,  si 
res  magis  curaiida  non  impedit,  sancli  altaris  communione 
privauius. 

"  Aug.  Horn.  19.  de  Verbis  Apost.  t.  10.  p.  1.38.  Quod 
inveuisti,  et  non  reddidisti,  rapuisti.  Quantum  potuisti,  fe- 
cisti :    quia  plus  non  potuisti,  ideo  plus  nan  fecisti.     Qui 

alienum  negat,  si  posset,  et  toUeret. Deus  cor  interrogat, 

non  manuin. 

'^  Orig.  Horn.  4.  in  Levit.  p.  119.  Peccalum  hoc  esse 
simile  rapinae,  si  quis  invputa  non  reddat,  &c. 


13  Digest,  lib.  47.  Tit.  2.  de  Furtis,  Leg.  43.  n.  9.  e.x  UI- 
piano.  Quid  ergo  si  svp^Tpa,  quae  dicunt,  petat  ?  NonJiic 
videtur  furtum  facere,  etsi  non  probe  petat  aliquid. 

'^  Aug.  de  Verbis  Apost.  Serm.  19.  p.  138.  Memor  legis 
proposuit  pittacium  publice.  Reddendum  enim  sciebat,  sed 
cui  redderet,  ignorabat,  &c. 

'^  Ibid.  Quale  certamen,  fratres  mei,  quale  certamen, 
qualis  pugna,  qnalis  conflict\is  !  theatrum  mundus,  specta- 
tor Deus. 

"i  Greg.  Thaum.  can.  10.  ap.  Bevereg.  Pandect,  t.  2.  p. 
34.   MijTf  fjirivvToa,  fi  KTwTpa,  n  BvptTpa  aTruLTOuvrai,  k.t.X- 

"  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  45,  de  his,  qui  ad  Ecclesias  con- 
fugiunt,  Leg.  2.  Judgei,  qui  reatu  aliquovol  debitis,  fatigati, 


('map.   XII. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1011 


to    by 
obligation 

:id  conti 


such  practice  should  be  allowed;  but  that  they 
sliould  be  repelled  from  the  church,  and  not  be  re- 
ceived till  they  had  faithfully  discharged  all  their 
(khts,  and  demonstrated  their  innocence  in  other 
nspects,  as  a  necessary  qualification  for  their  ad- 
mission. In  some  cases,  indeed,  when  men  were 
unable  to  pay  their  debts,  the  church  in  charity  was 
inclined  to  protect  them:  but  then,  in  that  case, 
slic  was  also  obhged  to  pay  their  debts,  as  appears 
fioni  several  laws"  made  in  that  behalf;  and  from 
the  instance  which  St.  Austin'"  gives  of  his  own 
church  paying  the  debts  of  one  Fastius,  who  fled 
from  his  creditors  io  her  protection :  and  this  case 
of  necessity  was  very  different  from  that  fraudulent 
and  criminal  refusal  of  paying  debts  when  men  lay 
under  no  such  straits  and  difTiculties.  As,  therefore, 
the  one  was  matter  of  commiseration,  and  made 
j  men  objects  of  pity  and  compassion ;  so  the  other 
I  made  them  odious  and  abominable,  as  deceitful  vil- 
lains, and  rendered  them  fit  objects  of  legal  severity 
and  ecclesiastical  censure. 

Among  just  debts  they  always  reck- 
And  what  men  are  oued  tliosc  whicli  men  Contracted  by 

'     '"    bv     the  .  .  .  -^ 

of  pro-  the  obligation  of  promise  and  mutual 

mtract.  °  '■ 

engagements  to  each  other :  and  there- 
fore all  breach  of  faith  in  such  cases  came  under 
the  denomination  of  theft,  and  was,  accordingly, 
punished  as  a  species  of  that  transgression.  The 
council  of  Eliberis-"  applies  this  particularly  to  such 
parents  as  break  the  espousals,  or  ante-nuptial  con- 
tracts, to  which  they  have  agreed  in  behalf  of  their 
children :  for  which  offence  they  are  obliged  to  ab- 
stain three  years  from  the  communion.  This,  in 
effect,  was  a  robbery  committed  both  upon  persons 
and  things,  depriving  the  man  of  his  wife,  and  the 
woman  of  her  husband,  and  each  of  them  of  all 
those  rights  and  benefits  that  might  have  accrued  to 
them  by  such  matrimonial  contracts.  For  which 
reason  it  was  ranked  among  those  more  heinous 
thefts  and  perfidious  injuries  offered  to  men's  rights, 
which  were  thought  to  deserve  a  public  censure. 

And  among  these,  the  removing  or 
defacing  ancient  bounds  and  land- 
marks was  accounted  no  small  crime. 
Even  among  the  old  Romans  it  was  punished  as  a 
capital  offence.  Numa  Pompilius  divided  the  Ro- 
man fields  by  certain  marks  erected  of  stone,  which 
they  called  lapides  sacri,  because  they  were  conse- 
crated to  Jupiter;  and  the  covering  or  transferring 


Sect  8. 
Of  removing; 
bounds  and  land- 
marks. 


these  was  reckoned  such  an  ofience,  that  any  one 
who  was  taken  in  it  might  lawfully  be  slain,*'  as  a 
sacrilegious  person.  The  law  of  God  lays  a  curse 
upon  it,  Dent,  xxvii.  17,  "Cursed  be  he  that  re- 
moveth  his  neighbour's  landmark."  Constantine 
reckons  it  among  those  criminal  actions  which  were 
to  be  punished  in  an  extraordinary  way,^-  as  Pithaeus 
and  Gothofred  have  observed  from  an  old  remark 
made  upon  the  sentences  of  the  famous  lawyer 
Paulus,  which  says.  In  euin  qui  per  vim  terminos  ile- 
jecerit,  vel  amorcrit,  extra  ordinem  animadccrtitnr  : 
upon  which  the  annotator  says.  That  the  same 
thing  was  determined  by  Constantine  in  the  Thco- 
dosian  Code.  Which  makes  Gothofred  conclude, 
That  either  that  law  is  wanting  now  in  the  Theo- 
dosian  Code,  or  else  that  it  refers  to  Constantine's 
first  law  under  that  title,  which  says,  Invasor  ille 
pance  tencatur  addicfiis,  Such  an  invader  shall  be 
liable  to  punishment,  though  the  particular  manner 
of  punishment  be  not  expressed.  However,  it  was 
a  crime  of  that  nature,  as  to  require  a  peremptory 
punishment  without  appeal,  as  appears  from  an- 
other law  of  Constantine's^  in  the  same  Code.  The 
ecclesiastical  law  always  condemned  this  as  a  cursed 
crime  from  the  law  of  God  :  "  Cursed  be  he  that  re- 
moveth  his  neighbour's  landmark."  And,  "  Remove 
not  the  ancient  landmark,  which  thy  fathers  have 
set."  Under  this  title  they  also  censured  all  such 
ambitious  bishops  as,  not  content  with  the  limits  of 
their  own  dioceses,  invaded  the  territory  of  others, 
and  endeavoured  to  bring  places  out  of  their  dis- 
trict under  their  jurisdiction.  Pope  Innocent,"' 
writing  to  a  bishop  upon  such  an  occasion,  reminds, 
him  of  what  the  Scripture  has  so  often  said,  that 
we  ought  not  to  remove  the  bounds  which  our 
fathers  have  set ;  and  therefore  admonishes  him  to 
quit  his  pretensions,  unless  he  was  minded  to  feel 
the  severity  of  ecclesiastical  censure. 

This  sort  of  robbery  may  also  be  sect.  9. 
reckoned  under  another  species  of  ofopp--'""- 
theft,  which  the  law  calls  compound  theft,  because 
it  joins  something  of  violence  or  oppression  to  the 
robbery.  Such  as  hostile  invasion,  robbing  with 
arms  upon  the  highway,  breaking  houses  in  the 
night,  piracy  at  sea,  cruel  exactions  of  judges  and 
other  public  officers  above  what  the  law  allows, 
perverting  of  justice  by  bribery  or  rigorous  inter- 
pretations of  the  law,  together  with  extortion  and 
unjust  usiuy.     All  which  the  law  condemns  under 


simulant  se  Christianae  legi  velle  cdiijuiigi,  iit  ad  ecclesias 
confugientes  vitare  possint  criniina,  vei  poiidcra  debitorum, 
arceantur :  nee  ante  suscipiantur,  quam  debita  universa  red- 
diderint,  vel  fuerint  innocentia  demonstrata  purgati. 

"  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  45.  Leg.  1.  Publicos  debitores, 
si  confiigiendum  ad  ecclesias  crediderint,  aut  illico  e.xtrahi 
de  latebris  oportebit,  aut  pro  his  ipsos,  qui  eos  occultare  pro- 
bantur,  episcopos  exigi.     Vid.  Leg.  3.  ibid. 

»  Aug.  Ep.  215. 

™  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  54.  Si  qui  parentes  fidem  frege- 
3  T  2 


rint  sponsaliorum,  triennii  tempore  abstineant  se  a  commn- 
nione,  &c. 

2'  Vide  Calvin.  Le.Kieon.  Jurid.  voce  Fines. 

"2  Pitha!us  Annot.  in  CuUat.  Legum  Mosaicar.  et  Roman. 
Tit.  13.  Gothofred.  Paratit.  in  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  2.  do  Finibus 
Regundis,  Tit.  26. 

23  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  1.  de  Accusation,  lib.  1.  Qui 
fines  aliquos  invaserit,  publicis  Icgibus  subjugelur,  ueque 
super  ejus  nomine  ad  scientiam  nostram  rei'cratur. 

-'  Innoc.  Ep.  8.  ad  Florentium. 


1012 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


the  general  name  of  oppression,  and  the  ancient 
canons  make  it  matter  of  excommunication.  The 
fourth  council  of  Carthage^  has  one  canon  forbid- 
ding the  priests  to  receive  any  oblations  from  those 
that  oppress  the  poor;  and  another,^  appointing 
such  as  denied  to  the  church  the  oblations  of  the 
dead,  or  refused  to  pay  them  without  difficulty  and 
trouble,  to  be  excommunicated,  as  murderers  of  the 
poor.  Agreeable  to  which  is  that  of  St.  Chrysos- 
tom,"  directing  his  clergy  not  to  admit  any  cruel  or 
unmerciful  man  to  the  Lord's  table :  Although  it  be 
a  general,  although  it  be  a  governor  or  consul, 
although  it  be  he  that  wears  the  crown,  prohibit 
him;  thou,  in  this  case,  hast  greater  power  than 
he.  And  again,  inveighing  against  oppressors, 
who  offel-ed  alms  out  of  what  they  had  violently 
taken  from  others,  he  says,^  elegantly.  That  God 
will  not  have  his  altar  covered  with  tears ;  Christ 
will  not  be  fed  with  robbery,  such  sort  of  sustenance 
is  most  ungrateful  to  him ;  it  is  an  affront  to  the 
Lord  to  offer  unclean  things  to  him,  he  had  rather 
be  neglected,  and  perish  by  famine,  (in  his  poor 
members,)  than  live  by  such  oblations.  The  one  is 
cruelty,  but  the  other  is  both  cruelty  and  an  affront 
likewise.  It  is  better  to  give  nothing,  than  to  give 
that  which  of  right  belongs  to  other  men.  After 
the  same  manner  St.  Austin  answers  the  plausible 
apologies  of  spoilers  and  oppressors.  Their  plea 
was,  I  make-"  feasts  of  charity,  I  send  meat  to  them 
that  are  bound  in  prison,  I  clothe  the  naked,  I  en- 
tertain strangers.  Do  you  imagine  this  is  properly 
giving?  Do  not  take  from  others,  and  then  you 
may  be  said  to  give.  He  to  whom  you  give,  rejoices ; 
but  he  from  whom  you  take,  laments ;  which  of 
the  two  will  God  hear  ?  You  say  to  him  to  whom 
you  give,  Give  thanks,  because  you  have  received. 
But  he,  on  the  other  hand,  from  whom  you  have 
taken  it  says,  I  mourn :  you  keep  almost  the  whole, 
and  give  a  small  portion  to  the  other.  If,  therefore, 
you  give  to  the  poor  what  you  take  from  others, 
God  is  not  pleased  with  such  works.  God  says  to 
thee.  Thou  fool,  I  commanded  thee  to  give,  but  not 
that  which  is  another  man's.  If  thou  hast  ought, 
give  of  that  which  is  thine  own  :  if  thou  hast  not 
of  thine  own  to  give,  it  is  better  thou  shouldst  not 
give,  than  spoil  some  to  give  to  others.  He  says 
in  another  place,'"  Some  were  so  vain  as  to  think. 


that  a  little  alms  before  they  died  would  effectually 
expiate  all  their  sins,  however  wicked  or  rapacious 
they  had  been  all  their  lives  before ;  against  whom 
he  disputes  accurately  and  sharply  in  several  books,'' 
which  it  would  be  needless  here  to  cite  at  large.  I 
only  add,  that,  agreeable  to  these  rules,  the  author 
of  the  Constitutions  under  the  name  of  the  Apos- 
tles, giving  directions  to  bishops  about  the  persons 
from  whom  they  were  to  receive  oblations  at  the 
altar,  or  refuse  them,  among  many  other  criminals, 
orders  them  to  reject  those  who  afflict  the  widow 
and  oppress  ^'  the  fatherless  by  their  power,  and  fill 
the  prisons  with  innocent  persons,  and  evil  intreat 
their  servants  with  stripes,  famine,  or  hard  bond- 
age ;  and  lay  waste  whole  cities ;  all  lawyers  that 
plead  for  injustice  or  unrighteous  causes ;  all  un- 
righteous judges ;  all  wicked  publicans,  and  usurers, 
and  soldiers  that  are  false  accusers,  and  not  content 
with  their  wages,  but  oppress  the  poor. 

And  that  this  was  agreeable  to  the         ^^^^  ,j, 
common  disciphne  of  the  church,  will  anT  bribe"' of'"'" 
appear  by  examining  the  particulars.  J"''^^*- 
To  begin  with  that  which  was  the  most  flagitious 
and  intolerable,  the  oppression  committed  by  judges 
in  their  office,  partly  by  cruel  exactions,  partly  by 
feigned  accusations,  and  partly  by  perversion  ofJ 
justice  for  the  sake  of  bribery  and  filthy  lucre  i 
which  sorts  of  oppression  the  law  commonly  terms,' 
Crimen   rejwtundarum   ct  peeiilattis.      For   though 
peculatits  often  signifies  robbing  the  public  by  pri-  i 
vate  stealth,  yet  it  sometimes  also  denotes  the  op- 
pressions and  injuries  done  by  magistrates  to  the 
subject.     In  which  case,  the  censures  of  the  church 
were  often  inflicted  upon  oppressing  governors.    As 
we  have  a  fj\mous  instance  of  Synesius ''  excommu- 
nicating Andronicus,  the  governor  of  Ptolemais,  for 
his  violent  oppression  of  the  people.     The  imperial 
laws  were  also  very  numerous  and  very  severe  in 
this  case,  to  secure  the  rights  and  properties  of  the  ] 
people  from  such  violent  invasion.     They  did  not, ' 
indeed,  allow  the  subject,  for  some  time,  to  accuse 
the  magistrate  during  the  year  of  his  administration : 
but  Theodosius  '^  took  off  even  that  restraint,  and 
not  only  gave  men  liberty,  but  invited  and  encour- 
aged men  of  all  orders  to  bring  informations  against 
corrupt  judges,  if  they  had  either  suffered  any  vio- 
lence from  them  themselves,  or  knew  them  to  be 


"  Cone.  Carth.  4.  can.  &4.  Eorum,  qui  pauperes  oppri- 
munt,  dona  a  sacerclotibus  refntanda. 

2s  Ibid.  can.  95.  Qui  oblationes  defimctorum  aut  negant 
ecclesiis,  aut  cum  difficultate  reddunt,  tanquain  egentium 
necatores  excommunicentur. 

"  Chrys.  Horn.  82.  al.  83.  in  Matt.  p.  7U5. 

28  Ibid.  Horn.  8G.  al.  87.  in  MaU.  p.  722. 

29  Aug.  Horn.  19.  ex  50.  t.  10.  p.  137.  Agapes  facio, 
vinctis  in  carcere  victum  mitto,  nudos  vestio,  peregrinos 
suscipio.     Dare  te  putas  ?  &c. 

3"  Aug.  de  Civ.  Dei,  lib.  21.  cap.  22. 

•■"  Ibid.  lib.  21.  cap.  27.    Et  in  Enchirid.  cap.  75  et  7G. 


Serm.  35.  de  Verbis  Domini.     Cont.  Julian.  Pelag.  lib.  5, 
cap.  10.     Vid.  plura  ap.  Gratian.  Caus.  14.  Quaest.  5  et  6. 
=-•  Constit.  lib.  4.  cap.  6.  ^  Synes.  Ep.  57.  p.  172.    , 

"  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  27.  ad  Legem  Juliam  Repetun- 
darum,  Leg.  6.  Jubemus,  hortamur,  ut  si  quis  a  judice  fu- 
erit  aliqua  ratione  concussus  ;  si  quis  scit  venalem  de  jure 
fuisse  sententiam ;  si  quis  pcBnam  vel  pretio  remissam,  vel 
vitio  cupiditatis  ingestam  ;  si  quis  postrcrao  quacunque  de 
causa  improbum  judicem  potuerit  adprobare;  is  vel  ad- 
ministrante  eo,  vel  post  administrationem  depositam,  in 
publicum  prodeat,  crimen  deferal,  delatum  adprobet :  cum 
probaverit,  et  victoriam  reportatiirus  ct  gloriam. 


Chap.  XII. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1013 


guilty  of  bribery,  or  setting  justice  to  sale,  or  any 
the  like  improbity :  and  that  as  well  in  the  time  of 
their  administration  as  afterward ;  promising  a  re- 
ward to  any  that  should  make  good  such  charges 
against  them.  The  like  encouragement  was  given 
by  Constantine,^  and  Valentinian  junior,*"  as  ap- 
pears by  their  laws  now  extant  in  the  Thcodosian 
Code.  And  whereas  the  punishment  of  such  cor- 
ruption in  the  magistrate  was  only  a  pecuniary 
mulct  before,  Theodosius  ^  by  a  new  law  made  it 
death,  as  thinking  no  punishment  too  great  for  such 
an  offence.  At  Carthage  they  had  a  peculiar  good 
custom,  which  tended  much  to  discourage  all  such 
rapacious  practices  in  their  magistrates.  For  Pros- 
per^ tells  us,  That  every  year  the  new  proconsul 
was  used  upon  a  certain  day,  which  they  called  (dbi 
citatio,  to  read  over  a  list  of  the  governors  that  had 
been  before  him :  and  then  they  that  htid  been  just 
in  their  administration,  and  gone  through  their  office 
without  covetousness,  or  rapaciousness,  or  any  such 
flagrant  crimes,  were  honoured  in  their  absence  by 
the  applauses  of  the  people  ;  but  on  the  other  hand, 
they  whom  covetousness  had  driven  into  scandalous 
measures  of  robbery  and  violence,  were  noted  with 
marks  of  infamy  by  general  hissings  and  reproaches. 
The  laws  were  equally  severe  against 
Of  the  exactions  all  super-exactors,  as  they  are  called, 

of    puWicans,  and  .    .  , .  _>l, 

coiur^ore  of  the     of  the  pubuc  rcveuues.     1  he  common 

pnt)lic     revenues. 

and  other  officers  of  burdcn  of  tributc  and  taxes  was  ee- 

tlie  Roman  empire.  '-' 

nerally  hard  enough,  even  as  settled 
by  law  in  the  Roman  ^^  government ;  but  the  illegal 
exactions  of  the  publicans  and  collectors  made  it  a 
much  more  intolerable  burden.  Therefore  the  laws 
were  forced  to  restrain  and  chastise  their  oppressions 
with  great  severity.  Constantine  made  several  laws 
to  this  purpose,**  condemning  this  crime  as  a  capital 
oflTence,  according  to  Gothofred's  interpretation  of 


severe  punishment.  Valentinian  and  Valens " 
obliged  the  exactor  to  make  restitution  fourfold  to 
the  injured  party,  and  condemned  the  judge  in  the 
same  quadruple  sum,  if  he  refused  upon  complaint 
to  do  him  justice.  But  Arcadius,  finding  that  this 
law  of  Valentinian  did  not  effectually  put  a  stop  to 
these  exorbitant  demands,  made  it  death  for  any 
exactor  to  go^'-'  beyond  his  bounds.  And  Honorius 
some  years  after  joined  both  punishments  together, 
ordering  the  exactor"  to  be  put  to  death,  and  qua- 
druple restitution  to  be  made  out  of  hii  estate  to  the 
injured  person ;  laying  a  fine  withal  of  thirty  pounds 
of  gold  upon  any  judge  that  neglected  to  put  the 
law  in  execution.  Now,  what  the  civil  law  so  se- 
verely condemned,  there  is  no  question  but  that  the 
ecclesiastical  law  punished  in  the  spiritual  way 
with  equal  severity,  under  the  general  name  of  op- 
pression. 

There  was   another  cruel   way  of 
oppression  under  colour  of  law,  much     of  the  exactions 

*  ^  of     advocates,    and 

practised  by  advocates  and  lawyers,  f^t7re  of  ud' e^'''"'' 
commonly  called,  sdiolastici  and  de- 
fensores,  and  the  apparitors  and  officers  of  the  civil 
courts,  and  attendants  of  judges.  Their  exactions, 
and  extortions  upon  men's  necessities,  are  frequently 
complained  of,  and  provided  against  by  several  laws. 
The  law  allowed  them  certain  stated  wages,  or  ca- 
nonical pensions,  as  the  term  is,  for  pleading  and 
managing  causes ;  but  beyond  these  they  often 
made  no  scruple  to  exact  maintenance  for  them- 
selves and  their  horses,  wherever  they  came,  in  the 
city,  or  in  mansions,  without  any  pay;  which  super- 
exactions  are  particularly  noted  in  advocates  and 
officers  by  Constantius,"  as  instances  of  insatiable 
covetousness :  and  therefore  he  gives  orders  to  judges 
to  defend  the  people  from  such  extortions,  and  not 
suffer  their  injuries  and  encroachments  to  go  un- 


^  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  1.  de  Accusationibus,  Leg.  4. 

'"  Ibid.  lib.  9.  Tit.  27.  ad  Legem  Jiiliam  Repetuudarum, 
Leg.  7. 

3'  Ibid.  lib.  9.  Tit.  28.  de  Crimine  Peculatus,  Leg.  I. 
Pridem  fiierat  constitutum,  ut  hi  judices,  qui  peculatu  pro- 
vincias  quassavissent,  miiltae  dispendio  subjacerent  ;  sed 
quoniam  nee  condigna  crimiai  ultio  est,  nee  par  pccna  pec- 

cato,  plaeiiit Capitals  hoc  esse,  atque  animadversione 

severissima  coerceri. 

'"  Prosper,  de  Promissionibus  Dei,  sive  Gloria  Sanctor. 
in  Peroratione.  In  calciilis  eburneis  nomina  proconsiilum 
conscripta,  Carthagine  in  foro  coram  popido  a  praesenti  jn- 
dice  sub  certis  vocabulis  cifabantur,  et  erat  solennis  dies, 
albi  citatio.  Hi  qui  avaritiam  superantes,  rempub.  fideli- 
ter  egerant  absque  flagitiis  facinoribusque,  etiam  absentes 
honorabantur :  eos  vero,  quos  rapacitas  vicerat,  populus 
convidiis  sibilisque  notabat. 

^  Vid.  Lipsium  de  Magnitudine  Romana,  lib.  2.  cap.  J, 
2,  &c. 

■"•  Cod.  Thcod.  lib.  8.  Tit.  10.  de  Concussionibus  Advoca- 
torum,  Leg.  I.  Item,  lib.  11.  Tit.  ].  de  Annona  et  Tribufis, 
Leg.  ?,.  et  lib.  11.  Tit.  7.  de  Esactionibus,  Leg.  I.  et  lib.  1. 
Tit.  12.  de  Vectigalibiis,  Leg.  1. 

"  Ibid.  lib.  11.  Tit.  16.  de  Extraordinariis,  Leg.  11.    Ob- 


ncKius  quadrupli  repetitione  teneatur,  &c. 

*-  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  11.  Tit.  8.  de  Superexaetionibus,  Leg. 
1.  Si  quis  exactorum  superexactionis  crimen  fiierit  con- 
futatus,  eandem  poenam  subeat,  qii;e  divi  Valentiniani  sanc- 
tione  dudum  fuerat  detinita ;  capitis  namque  periculo  post- 
hac  cupiditas  amovenda  est,  quaj  prohibita  totiens  in  iisdem 
sceleribus  perseverat. 

"  Ibid.  Tit.  7.  de  Exactionibus,  Leg.  20.  Si  in  concus- 
sione  possessorum  exactores  fuerint  deprehensi,  illico  et 
capitali  periculo  subjaceant,  et  direptorum  quadrupli  poena 
e.x  eorum  patrimonio  eruetur,  &c.  Vid.  ibid.  Tit.  S.  de 
Superexaetionibus,  Leg.  2  et  3.  ejusdem  Honorii.  It.  lil\  11. 
Tit.  26.  de  Discussoribus,  Leg.  1,  &c.  Lib.  13.  Tit.  11.  de 
Censitoribus,  Leg.  7  et  10.  Et  Valentiniani  III.  Novel.  7. 
de  Indulgentiis  reliquorum. 

"  Ibid.  lib.  8.  Tit.  10.  de  Concussionibus  .\dvocatonim  ct 
Apparitorum,  Leg.  2.  Praeter  solennes  et  canonicas  pen- 
sitationes,  niulta  a  provincialibus  Afris  indiguissime  postu- 
lantur  ab  officialibus  et  scholastici.s  non  modo  in  civitatibus 
singulis,  sed  et  mansionibus  :  dum  ipsiset  animalibus  eorun- 
dem  alimoniae  sine  pretio  ministrantur,  &c.  Provinciates 
itaque  cuncti  judices  tueantur,  nee  injurias  inultas  traiisire 
permittant. 


1014 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI, 


punished.  Constantine  reflects  "  upon  the  like  ex- 
tortion of  advocates  in  making  wicked  bargains 
with  their  clients,  to  make  over  to  them  the  best  of 
their  lands,  their  cattle,  and  their  slaves ;  which 
he  calls  spoiling  and  pillaging  those  that  stood  in 
need  of  their  patronage ;  and  orders,  that  such  ra- 
pacious vultures,  as  Gothofred  terms  them,  should 
be  expelled  the  court,  and  never  after  be  allowed 
the  liberty  of  pleading.  Another  way,  whereby 
wicked  advocates  were  wont  to  oppress  the  poor, 
was,  by  encdliraging  their  clients  to  draw  their  ad- 
versaries in  a  civil  cause  from  the  cognizance  of  the 
ordinary  judges  to  a  military  tribunal,  where  they 
had  more  liberty  by  bribery,  and  other  corrupt 
practices,  to  oppress  them.  Great  complaints  are 
made  by  Ammianus "  Marcellinus  of  this  sort  of 
depredation  made  upon  the  poor  in  the  time  of  Va- 
lens,  who,  he  says,  opened  the  doors  to  robbery, 
which  gained  strength  every  day  by  the  pravity  of 
the  judges  and  advocates,  who  sold  the  causes  of 
poor  men  to  the  rulers  in  the  army,  or  such  as  bore 
sway  in  the  palace,  by  which  means  they  increased 
their  wealth,  or  brought  themselves  to  preferment. 
To  correct  this  abuse,  Arcadius  made  a  law,"  That 
whoever  transferred  a  civil  cause  from  the  ordinary 
judges  to  a  military  court,  should  be  hable  to  ban- 
ishment, besides  other  penalties  inflicted  by  former 
laws  ;  and  the  advocate  concerned  in  such  a  cause, 
should  forfeit  ten  pounds  of  gold,  except  they  had  a 
special  licence  from  the  emperor  for  such  a  removal. 
Valentinian  III.  added  to  this,  That  the  advocate 
should  lose  his  office,"  and  the  counsellor  be  ban- 
ished also.  And  there  were  many  other  laws  made 
by  Theodosius,  Valentinian  junior,  and  Marcian,  to 
the  same  purpose,  which  the  curious  reader  may 
find  in  Gothofred  upon  the  forementioned  law  of 
Arcadius.  It  is  true,  the  ecclesiastical  law  does  not 
particularly  specify  these  things  ;  but  we  may  sup- 
pose, they,  being  great  crimes,  were  included  in  the 
general  notion  of  illegal  oppression,  which  was 
thought  to  deserve  ecclesiastical  censure. 

But  there  is  one  sort  of  oppression. 
Of  grip'ing  u'sury    which  the  laws  of  the  church  more 

and  extortion. 

particularly  take  notice  of,  and  con- 


«Cod.  Theod.lib.2.  Tit.  10.  de  Postulando,  Leg.  1.  Advo- 
catos,  qui  consceleratis  depectionibus  suaeopisegentes  spoli- 
antatquedeuudant,  iion.jure  causoe,  sed  f'undorum,  pecorum 
et  maUL'ipioruin  qiialitate  rationequc  tractata,  diim  eorum 
praecipua  poscunt  coacta  sibi  pactione  trauscribi,  ab  hones- 
torumcoetti,  judiciorumque  conspectiisegregari  prrecipimus. 
Vid.  Cod.  .Justin,  lib.  '2.  Tit.  6.  de  Postulando,  Leg.  5. 

■'"  Ammian.  lib.  3U.  p.  448.  Laxavitrapinarum  fores,  qua; 
roborantur  indies  judicum  advocatoruinque  pravitate,  qui 
tenuiorum  negotia  militaris  rei  rectoribus,  vel  intra  palatium 
validis  venditantes,  aut  opes,aut  bonorcsqua^sivere  prajclaros. 

■"  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  2.  Tit.  I.  de  Jurisdictione,  Leg.  9.  Si 
quis,  neglectis  judicibus  onlinariis,  sine  ccelesti  oraculo,  cau- 
sam  civilem  ad  militare  judicium  c-rodiderit  deferendaui, 
prreter  poBnas  ante  promulgatas,  intelligat  se  deportationis 
sortem  excepturum.    Nihiloniinus  et  advocatum  ejus  decern 


Sect.  14. 
Of  forgery. 


demn  both  in  the  clergy  and  laity,  that  is,  griping 
usury  or  extortion  upon  the  poor.  The  nature  of 
usury,  and  the  several  degrees  of  it,  I  have  had  oc- 
casion already  to  explain '"'  in  a  former  Book  :  all 
therefore  I  shall  here  take  notice  of  is,  the  censures 
of  the  church  passed  upon  all  that  were  guilty  of 
what  they  reckoned  cruel  and  criminal  in  it.  The 
council  of  Eliberis  not  only  orders  the  clergy  to  be 
degraded,  who  were  found  guilty  of  taking  usury, 
but  threatens  ^  excommunication  to  every  layman, 
that  after  admonition  persisted  in  the  practice  of  it. 
And  the  first  council  of  ^'  Carthage  gives  this  rea- 
son why  clergymen  should  not  practise  it,  because 
it  was  a  thing  that  was  culpable  in  laymen.  And 
the  reason  why  it  was  so  generally  condemned  by 
the  ancients  even  in  laymen,  was,  because  it  was 
generally  a  great  oppression  of  the  poor,  to  whom 
the  charity  of  lending  without  usury  was  due ;  and 
many  times  it  was  attended  with  extortion,  as  in  the 
centesimal  interest,  which  was  twelve  in  the  hun- 
dred; and  what  they  called  herniolia,  which  was 
receiving  half  as  much  more  as  the  principal  by 
way  of  interest,  both  which  were  condemned  by  the 
laws  of  the  state  as  illegal  exactions  and  downright 
extortion.  Upon  which  bottom  all  the  arguments 
and  invectives  of  the  ancients  are  founded.  So  that 
usury  in  this  sense  was  reckoned  a  plain  robbery  of 
the  poor,  and  a  cruel  oppression  of  those  to  whom 
mercy  and  charity  ought  to  be  showed  upon  all 
occasions.  And  to  this  we  may  join  all  extortion 
made  by  force  or  fear,  which  the  civil  law  condemns 
and  annuls,"  though  a  covenant  or  promise  had 
been  obtained  of  the  injured  party. 

The  last  sort  of  robbery  was  that 
which  was  committed  by  fraud  and 
deceit,  which  the  law  calls  dolus  malus,  and  stellio- 
natus,  from  stcllio,  that  little  animal  with  shining 
spots  like  stars,  the  lizard,  or  tarantula,  of  which 
naturalists*'  observe.  That  there  is  no  animal 
which  more  fraudulently  envies  man  than  this :  for 
changing  his  skin  every  year,  which  was  reckoned 
a  sovereign  remedy  against  the  falling-sickness,  he 
devours  it  himself,  lest  men  should  have  the  benefit 
of  it :  whence  the  lawyers  call  all  imposture  and 


libris  auri  condemnatione  feriendum. 

*^  Valentin.  Novel,  de  Episcopali  Judicio,  Tit.  12.  Cau- 
sidicum  officii  amissio,  jurisconsultum  existimationis  et 
interdictae  civitatis  damna  percellant. 

«  Book  VL  chap.  2.  sect.  6. 

^  Couc.  Eliber.  can.  20.  Si  quis  etiam  laicus  accepisse 
probatur  usuras,  si  in  ea  iniquitate  duraverit,  ab  ecclesia 
sciat  se  esse  projiciendum. 

^'  Cone.  Carth.  1.  can.  13.  Quod  in  laicis  reprehenditur, 
id  multo  magis  in  clericis  oportet  praedanmari. 

52  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  2.  Tit.  9.  de  Pactis,  Leg.  4.  Pacta, 
quidem,  per  vim  et  metuni  apud  omnes  satis  constat  cassata 
viribus  respuenda. 

^^  Plin.  lib.  30.  cap.  10.  Nullum  animal  IVaudulentius 
invidere  hnmini  tradunt :  inde  stellionum  noraen  aiunt  in 
maledictum  translatum,  &c. 


Chap.  XII. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


lOl.-i 


fraud,  which  has  no  special  title  in  law,  by  the 
name  of  stellionatus,^  as  Ulpian  explains  it :  thus 
if  a  man  mortgage  or  pawn  that  which  is  already 
engaged,  fraudulently  dissembling  the  former  obli- 
gation ;  or  pass  it  away  in  exchange,  or  pretend  to 
pay  debts  with  it,  when  it  is  under  a  pre-engage- 
ment ;  all  such  frauds  are  called  sfcUionatus.  So  if 
a  man  change  the  wares  winch  he  has  sold,  or  cor- 
rupt them,  or  direct  them  to  another  use  after  he 
has  pawned  them ;  or  if  he  used  any  collusion  or 
imposture  to  compass  the  death  of  any  man ;  this 
was  reckoned  a  fraud  of  the  same  nature.  If,  in 
giv'ing  a  pawn,  he  substituted  brass  in  the  room  of 
gold  ;  if  he  sold  a  freeman  under  the  notion  of  a 
slave ;  if  he  received  a  sum  of  money  as  a  debt,  that 
was  really  paid  him  before ;  he  was  liable  to  be 
punished  upon  an  action  of  fraud  upon  the  same  ^^ 
title :  and  for  his  crime,  if  he  was  a  plebeian,  he 
might  be  condemned  to  the  mines ;  if  a  person  of 
quality,  he  might  be  sent  into  banishment,  or  be  de- 
graded. The  instances  of  such  frauds  and  collu- 
sions are  too  many  and  intricate  to  be  here  particu- 
larly recounted,  but  the  chief  of  them  may  be  sum- 
med up  under  these  five  titles,  forgery,  calumny, 
flattery,  deceitfulness  in  trust,  and  deceitfulness  in 
traffic. 

Forgery  may  be  committed  either  in  counterfeit- 
ing coin,  to  impose  upon  the  unskilful  and  unwary ; 
or  else  in  counterfeiting  deeds  and  instruments,  to 
lay  claim  to  other  men's  estates,  as  is  done  by  those 
who  make  a  title  upon  false  wills  or  bonds,  or  conceal 
or  corrupt  the  true  ones.  The  counterfeiting  of  the 
coin  was  not  only  an  injury  to  private  men  in  com- 
merce, but  also  an  act  of  treason  against  the  supreme 
powers  ;  and  therefore  punished  as  a  capital  offence, 
with  confiscation,  banishment,  or  death,  and  that 
sometimes  of  the  cruellest  sort,  burning  alive,  as 
appears  from  several  laws  in  the  Theodosian  Code^° 
made  upon  this  occasion.  Particularly  Constantine" 
in  one  of  his  laws  ordei's  such  to  be  put  to  the 
sword,  or  burnt  alive,  or  to  be  punished  with  some 
such  violent  death,  whether  they  were  guilty  of 
clipping  the  coin  and  diminishing  its  quantity,  or 


adulterating  its  quality,  and  vending  it  as  good  by 
manifest  fraud  and  imposture.  And  what  the  law 
punished  thus  severely  in  the  state,  there  is  no 
question  but  that  it  was  with  equal  severity  in  the 
spiritual  way  censured,  and  condemned  as  a  fraud 
and  robbery  by  the  church.  The  counterfeiting  of 
false  deeds,  and  especially  false  wills,  was  esteemed 
a  heinous  crime  even  by  the  old  Roman  laws,  of 
which  there  is  a  whole  title  ^  in  the  Pandects  ;  one 
of  which,  related  by  the  famous  lawyer  Julius 
Paulus,  says,*"  Whoever  conceals  a  will,  or  conveys 
it  away,  or  destroys  it,  or  puts  another  in  its  room, 
or  cancels  it ;  or  whoever  writes,  or  signs,  or  frau- 
dulently produces  a  false  will,  is  liable  to  be  pun- 
ished upon  an  action  of  forgery  by  the  Cornehan 
law.  And  that  punishment  is  either  banishment, 
or*  confiscation,  or  death,  according  to  the  quality 
of  the  offender.  And  by  the  laws  of  Constantine  *' 
the  same  punishments  of  banishment  and  death 
were  awarded  to  this  sort  of  forgery.  And  though 
the  ecclesiastical  laws  do  not  particularly  specify 
the  punishment  of  this  crime,  yet  they  must  be  sup- 
posed to  comprehend  it  under  the  general  title  of 
theft  and  robbery,  which  made  men  liable  to  ec- 
clesiastical censure. 

Another  sort  of  fraud  that  might 
be  committed  against  men,  in  order     or  v■lnmu^  »iii. 
to  rob  them  of  their  estates  and  for-  esfHtts  laSun". 

tunes ;    and   its  re- 

tunes,  was  mipeachmg  them  of  feign-  ^"*''.  ">«  fra"!!  "f 
ed  crimes  by  false  accusation  and 
calumny.  This  sometimes  affected  men's  lives,  and 
then  it  was  a  species  of  murder,  and  punished  un- 
der that  denomination,  as  has  been  showed  before. 
Sometimes  it  affected  their  fame  and  reputation, 
and  as  such  it  will  be  considered  hereafter.  In  this 
place  we  take  it  only  as  affecting  men's  estates  and 
fortunes,  and  as  an  intention  by  fraud  to  rob  them 
of  their  property  and  possessions.  In  which  sense 
the  law  sometimes  takes  calumny  and  false  accusa- 
tion as  a  species  of  theft  and  robbery,  and  pro- 
scribes it  under  that  title.  As  appears  from  tliat 
law  of  Valentinian  and  Gratian  in  the  Theodosian 
Code,*^  which  joins  these  three  sorts  of  calumny  to- 


^*  Digest,  lib.  47.  Tit.  20.  Stellionatus,  Leg.  3.  Ubicun- 
que  tituliis  criminis  deficit,  illic  stellionatus  objiciemiis. 
Maxime  autem  in  his  locum  habet,  si  quis  forte  rem  alii  obli- 
gatam,  dissimulata  obligatioiie,  per  calliditatem  alii  dis- 
traxerit,  vel  permutaverit,  vel  in  solutum  dederit,  &c. 

"  Vid.  Calvin.  Lexicon  Juridicum,  voce  Stellionatus. 

5«  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  21.  de  Falsa  Moneta,  Leg. 
1,  2,  3,  5,  6. 

"  Ibid.  Tit.  22.  Si  quis  solidi  circulum  inciderit,  vel 
adulteratum  in  vendendo  subjecerit,  Leg.  1.  Aut  capita 
puniri  debet,  aut  flammis  tradi,  vel  alia  pceua  mortifera. 
Quod  ille  etiam  patictur,  qui  meusuram  circuli  extcrioris 
adraserit,  ut  ponderis  minuat  quantitaleui :  vel  figuratum 
soliiium  adultera  iinitatione  in  vendendo  subjecerit.'  Vid. 
Digest,  lib.  J3.  Tit.  7.  de  Pignoratitia  Actione,  Leg.  I  et  16. 

"^  Digest,  lib.  48.  Tit.  10.  de  Lege  Cornelia  de  Falsis. 

^  Paulus,  ibid.  Leg.  2.     Qui  testanientum  amoverit,  ce- 


laverit,  eripuerit,  deleverit,  interleverit,  subjecerit,  resigna- 
verit:  quive  testamentum  falsum  scvipserit,  signaverit,  reci- 
taverit  dolo  malo,  cujnsve  dolo  malo  id  factum  fuerit,  legis 
Coraelise  poena  damnatur. 

*"  Ibid.  Leg.  1.  n.  13.  Posna  falsi,  vel  quasi  falsi,  depor- 
tatioest,  et  omnium  bonoruni  publicatio :  et  si  servus  eorum 
aliquid  admiserit,  ultimo  supplicio  adtici  jtibetur. 

«'  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  19.  ad  Legem  Corneliam  de 
Falso,  Leg.  1  et  2.  Capital!  post  probationeni  supplicio  (si 
id  exigat  magnitudo  commissi)  vel  deportatione  ei,  qui  fal- 
sum commiserit,  ininiinente.  Vid.  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  10.  Tit. 
13.  de  his  qui  se  del'eruut,  Leg.  1.  Occultator  gestorum  in 
insulam  deportetur,  &c. 

''■-  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  1.  de  Accusationibus,  Leg.  IL 
Qui  alterius  famam,  fortunas,  caput  denique  et  sanguinem 
in  judicium  devocaverit,  sciat,  sibi  impendcre  congruain 
poeuam,  si  quod  intcndcrit,  non  probavcrit. 


1016 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


gether,  viz.  against  men's  fame  and  reputation, 
against  their  fortunes,  and  against  their  Hves ;  or- 
dering, that  whoever  impleaded  another  upon  any 
of  these  three  heads,  should  undergo  the  same 
penalty  as  he  intended  to  bring  upon  the  party 
he  impeached,  if  he  proved  to  be  a  false  accuser, 
and  did  not  fairly  make  out  his  action.  Against 
such  calumniators,  fraudulent  informers,  and  false 
accusers,  (whose  chief  aim  was  in  a  plausible  way, 
and  under  pretence  of  legal  process,  to  come  at 
other  men's  estates,)  there  are  two  ^  or  three  whole 
titles  more  in  the  Theodosian  Code,  where  such  ac- 
cusers and  impeachers  are  called  the  bane  of  human 
life,  and  the  common  pest  of  mankind ;  and  they 
are  ordered  to  be  prosecuted  to  the  last  degree  with 
confiscation  and  death.  The  ecclesiastical  law  also 
enjoins  them  a  severe  penance.  By  a  canon  of  the 
council  of  Eliberis,"'  "  He  that  bears  false  witness 
against  another  to  the  loss  of  his  life  or  liberty,  is 
not  to  be  received  to  communion  even  at  his  last 
hour."  And  if  it  was  in  a  lighter  cause,  as  in  a 
pecuniary  matter  or  the  like,  he  was  to  do  penance 
for  five  years,  before  he  was  reconciled  and  perfectly 
restored  to  the  peace  of  the  church.  St.  Austin*' 
also  reckons  this  sort  of  calumny  among  the  species 
of  robbery  and  oppression.  And  the  author  of  the 
Constitutions,'^''  giving  directions  to  the  bishop  what 
sort  of  persons  he  should  reject  from  the  commu- 
nion, among  others  mentions  soldiers  who  are  false 
accusers,  and  not  content  with  their  wages,  but  op- 
press the  poor. 

Adulation  and  flattery  is  the  reverse  of  calumny, 
and  yet  by  this  means  some  made  a  shift  by  frau- 
dulent arts  to  get  themselves  made  heirs  to  dying 
persons,  to  the  prejudice  of  those  who  had  a  more 
just  and  real  title.  To  prevent  which  sort  of  fraud, 
Valentinian  made  a  law,®'  That  no  ecclesiastical 
person  or  ascetic  (for  the  fraud  was  chiefly  com- 
mitted by  them)  should  clancularly  resort  to  the 
houses  of  dying  widows  or  orphans,  to  get  their 
estates  or  any  legacies  to  be  settled  upon  them; 


which  if  they  did,  they  were  liable  to  be  prosecuted 
at  law  by  the  deceased  parties'  next  relations  :  they 
were  to  enjoy  nothing  that  they  had  so  fraudulently 
obtained,  under  pretence  of  religion,  from  any  such 
persons,  either  by  way  of  donation  and  gift,  or  last 
will  and  testament ;  but  the  legal  heirs  might  make 
their  claim,  and  set  aside  all  such  legacies ;  or  other- 
wise they  were  to  be  confiscated  to  the  public. 
There  are  two  laws  of  Theodosius^  also  much  to 
the  same  purpose.  And  the  fathers  are  so  far  from 
complaining  of  the  seeming  hardship  of  these  laws, 
that  they  rather  complain  of  the  fraud,  and  avarice, 
and  rapaciousness  of  those  who  gave  occasion  to 
these  pious  emperors  to  make  such  laws  against 
them.  St.  Ambrose*  says,  Such  men  were  guilty 
of  violence,  and  invasion  of  the  rights  of  others ; 
they  made  a  greater  prey  of  widows  by  their  bland- 
ishments and  flatteries,  than  others  did  by  tor- 
ments :  but  it  was  all  one  before  God,  whether  a 
man  seized  the  substance  of  others  by  force,  or  by 
circumvention,  so  long  as  he  detained  what  of  right 
belonged  to  other  men.  In  like  manner  St.  Jerom : 
I  am  ashamed  to  say,'"  that  the  idol-priests,  and 
stage-players,  and  horse-racers,  and  harlots,  may  be 
left  heirs,  whilst  clerks  and  monks  only  are  pro- 
hibited by  this  law ;  and  that  not  by  persecuting 
tyrants,  but  Christian  princes.  Neither  do  I  com- 
plain of  the  law,  but  it  grieves  me  to  think  we 
should  deserve  such  a  law.  The  caution  of  the  law 
is  provident  and  severe,  and  yet  our  covetousness  is 
not  restrained  thereby.  We  evade  the  laws  by  feoflf- 
ments  in  trust ;  and,  as  if  the  edicts  of  emperors 
were  greater  than  those  of  Christ,  we  are  afraid  of 
their  laws,  whilst  we  contemn  the  gospel's.  It  is 
evident,  by  these  complaints  made  by  these  holy 
fathers,  that  this  fraudulent  way  of  catching  at  the 
estates  of  widows  by  fawning  arts  and  assentation, 
(whence  these  flattering  hypocrites  were  commonly 
called  liceredipetce,  and  captatores,)  was  esteemed  no 
less  a  theft  than  that  which  was  committed  by  open 
violence  and  oppression.     This  was  a  scandalous 


63  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  39.  de  Calumniatoribus.  It. 
lib.  10.  Tit.  10.  de  Petitionibus  et  Delatoribus,  Leg.  1,  2, 
3,  10,  33,  &c.  Et  Tit.  12.  si  vagum  petatur  mancipium. 

•^i  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  73.  Delator  si  quis  e.xtiterit  fidelis, 
ct  per  delationem  ejus  aliquis  fuerit  proscriptus  vel  inter- 
fectus,  placuit  eum  nee  iu  fine  accipere  communionem.  Si 
levior  causa  fuerit,  intra  quinquennium  accipere  poterit  com- 
munionem. 

"^  Aug.  Ep.  54.  ad  Macedon. 

•">  Const,  lib.  4.  cap.  G. 

«'  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  16.  Tit.  2.  de  Episc.  et  Clericis,  Leg. 
20.  Ecclesiastici,  aut  ex  ecclesiastici.s,  vel  qui  continentiiim 
se  volunt  nomine  nuncupari,  viduarum  ac  pupillarum  domos 
non  adeant:  sed  publicis  externiinentur  judiciis,  si  posthac 
eos  affines  earum  vel  propinqui  putaverint  deferendos.  Ccn- 
seraus  etiam,  ut  memorati  nihil  de  ejus  mulieris,  qui  se 
privatim  sub  praetextu  religionis  adjunxerint,  liberalitate 
quacunque,  vel  extremo  judicio  possint  adipisci,  &c.  Vid. 
Le-'.  21.  ibid. 


^  Ibid.  Leg.  27  et  28. 

"9  Ambros.  Ser.  7.  de  Clericis,  p.  232.  Nemo  nos  inva- 
sionis  arguit,  violentioe  nullus  accusal  ?  Quasi  non  interdum 
majorem  praedam  a  viduis  blandimenta  eliciant,  quam  tor- 
menta :  non  interest  apud  Deum,  utrum  vi  an  circumven. 
tione  quis  res  alienas  occupet,  dummodo  quoquo  pacto  tenet 
alienum.     Vid.  Librum  cont.  Symmachum. 

'°  Hieron.  Ep.  2.  ad  Nepotianum.  Pudet  dicere,  sacer- 
dutes  idolorum,  mimi,  et  aurigae,  et  scorta  hosreditates  ca- 
piunt;  solis  clericis  ac  monachis  hac  lege  prohibetur:  et 
non  prohibetur  a  persecutoribus,  sed  a  principibus  Christia- 
nis.    Nee  de  lege  conqueror,  sed  doleo  cur  meruerimus  banc 

legem. Provida  severaque  legis  cautio:  et  tamen  nee  sic 

retVaenatur  avaritia.  Per  fidei  commissa  legibus  illudimus: 
et  quasi  majora  sint  imperatorum  scita,  quani  Christi,  leges 
timemus,  et  evangelia  contemniraus.  Vid.  Ep.  3.  ad  Ne- 
potian.  et  Ep.  22.  ad  Eustoch.  It.  Leo  et  Majorian.  Novel. 
8.  Insidiosa  munuscula  diriguntur,  subornantur  medici,  qui 
prava  pcrsuadeant,  &c. 


Chap.  XII. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1017 


sort  of  theft  even  among  the  heathens;  Juvenal" 
often  spends  his  satirical  wit  upon  it ;  and  so  docs 
Martial,  and  Seneca,  and  Pliny,  and  Lucian,"  and 
many  others.  Which  makes  it  less  wonder,  that 
the  Christian  laws  should  proscribe  it,  and  the  fa- 
thers so  sharply  inveigh  against  it,  even  when  it 
looked  like  a  means  of  augmenting  the  revenues  of 
the  church.  But  that  shows  the  purity  of  the  an- 
cient discipline,  that  they  would  not  spare  a  crime 
that  could  appear  with  so  fine  an  aspect ;  being  utter 
enemies  to  all  scandalous  and  disreputable  ways  of 
increasing  the  clerical  maintenance,  as  I  have  had 
occasion  to  show  in  several  instances,  in  speaking 
more  particularly  of  the  revenues  of  the  church. 

Another  sort  of  fraud  is  committed 

Sect.  16.  .  .  ,  - 

ofdeceitfuinessin    m  matters  01  trust,  as  when  a  steward 

trust. 

or  servant  embezzles  his  master  s  goods, 
or  makes  fraudulent  and  injurious  bargains  for  him ; 
or  when  a  guardian  or  tutor,  who  is  intrusted  with 
the  execution  of  a  dead  man's  will,  acts  an  unfaith- 
ful part,  and  enriches  himself  out  of  what  was  de- 
signed for  the  maintenance  of  others ;  or  when  a 
man  denies,  or  conceals,  or  refuses  to  restore  any 
thing  that  was  deposited  with  him,  and  committed 
to  his  trust.  The  ancients  were  extremely  con- 
scientious in  this  last  instance  of  things  committed 
to  their  trust ;  insomuch  as  that  Pliny  himself  can 
inform  us.  That  it  was  one  part  of  their  solemn 
business  every  Lord's  day  to  bind  themselves  with 
a  sacrament,  or  an  oath,  not  to  commit  any  wicked- 
ness, theft,"  robbery,  adultery  ;  not  to  falsify  their 
word ;  not  to  deny  any  thing  wherewith  thej^  wei'e 
intrusted,  when  they  were  required  to  deliver  it  up 
again.  And  therefore  we  may  reasonably  conclude, 
that  no  one  was  thought  qualified  for  communion 
in  such  a  society  who  was  guilty  of  breach  of 
faith  in  any  such  trust,  which  was  both  against  the 
laws  of  common  justice,  and  his  own  solemn  en- 
gagement. Some  trusts  were  of  a  more  sacred  na- 
ture, being  designed  for  the  service  of  God  and  the 
poor;  and  unfaithfulness  in  such  trusts  was  therefore 
reckoned  a  double  and  a  triple  crime,  because  it 
added,  as  it  were,  murder  and  sacrilege  to  the 
injustice.  Upon  this  account  the  fourth  council 
of  Carthage'^  calls  those  who  endeavour  to  de- 
fraud the  church  of  such  legacies  or  oblations  as 
were  left  her  by  the  dead,  murderers  of  the  poor ; 
because  their  robbing  the  church  of  that  which 
was  given  for  the  maintenance  of  the  poor,  was. 


"  Juvenal.  Sat.  5.  ver.  98.    Sat.  6.  ver.  40.    Sat.  10.  202. 

'^  Vid.  Calvin.  Lexicon  .Iin-idicum,  voce  Captare. 

'^  Plui.  lib.  10.  Ep.  97.  Seque  sacramento  non  in  sceliis 
aliquod  obstringere,  sed  ne  furta,  ne  latrocinia,  nc  adidteria 
committerent,  ne  fidem  fallerent,  ne  depositum  appellati 
abnegarent. 

'■*  Cone.  Carth.  4.  can.  95.  Qui  oblationes  defun-ctorum 
ant  negant  eccle.siis,  aut  cum  difficultate  reddunt,  tanqnam 
egentium  necatores,  excommunicentur. 

"  Ap.  Cypr.  Ep.  48.  al.  50. 


in  efTect,  to  starve  and  famish  the  poor :  and  for 
such  fraud  and  cruelty  they  are  subjected  to  the 
censure  of  excommunication.  Among  the  epistles 
of  Cyprian  there  is  a  letter  of  Cornelius,  bishop 
of  Rome,"  to  Cyprian,  giving  him  an  account 
of  one  Nicostratus,  a  deacon,  wliom  he  charges 
with  this  sort  of  fraud ;  for  he  had  not  only  cheated 
his  temporal  patroness,  whose  aflairs  he  managed, 
but  had  carried  away  a  great  part  of  the  revenues 
of  the  church,  which  was  intrusted  with  him  as 
archdeacon  for  the  maintenance  of  poor  widows 
and  orphans,  for  which  crime  he  was  forced  to 
fly  from  Rome  for  fear  of  being  called  to  give  an 
account  of  his  rapine  and  sacrilege.  And  Cyprian 
himself,  in  another  epistle,'"  giving  an  account  to 
Cornelius  of  the  wickedness  of  Novatus,  says,  he 
had  defrauded  the  widows  and  orphans,  and  denied 
the  church's  revenues  which  were  intrusted  with 
him ;  for  which,  and  many  other  crimes,  as  starving 
his  own  father,  and  causing  his  wife  by  a  sudden 
blow  to  miscarry,  he  had  certainly  been  removed 
not  only  from  his  seat  in  the  presbytery,  but  from 
all  communion  with  the  church,  had  not  the  ap- 
proach of  a  fierce  persecution  put  a  stop  to  his  trial 
and  condemnation.  By  which  it  appears,  that 
there  was  no  crime  more  heinously  resented  than 
this  of  unfaithfulness  in  trust,  nor  any  more  se- 
verely pursued  and  punished  by  the  censures  of 
the  church. 

The  last  sort  of  fraud  is  that  which 
is  committed  in  traffic  and  commerce    or  deceit  r.iinUs  in 

truffle. 

between  buyer  and  seller.  The  buyer 
may  be  guilty  cither  in  taking  advantage  of  the 
ignorance  of  the  seller,  when  he  knows  not  the 
true  value  of  his  own  goods  ;  or  in  taking  advantage 
of  his  necessity,  when  his  poverty  compels  him  to 
sell  at  an  under-rate ;  or  in  paying  him  in  false  and 
corrupt  coin,  which  is  the  same  thing  as  defrauding 
him  in  the  original  contract.  This  last  sort  of 
fraud  was  severely  punished  by  the  Roman  laws, 
both  heathen  and  Christian.  For  the  vender,  as 
well  as  the  forger  of  false  coin,  is  condemned  in  all 
the  penalties  of  fraud  recounted  in  the  Pandects." 
And  Constantine  made  it  a  capital  crime,'*  not  only 
for  any  one  to  adulterate,  or  cHp,  or  diminish  the 
coin,  but  also  to  pass  any  such  away,  knowingly, 
in  payment  to  others,  to  put  a  wilful  che.it  upon 
them.  And  though  this  be  not  expressly  and  par- 
ticularly specified   in   the  ecclesiastical   law,  yet, 


«  Cypr.  Ep.  49.  al.  52.  ad  Cornel,  p.  97. 

"  Digest,  lib.  13.  Tit.  7.  de  Pignoratitia  Actione,  Leg. 
1  et  16.  Lib.  48.  Tit.  10.  ad  Legem  Corneliam  de  Falso, 
Leg.  9. 

'»  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  22.  Si  quis  solidi  circulum  in- 
cident, vel  adulteratum  in  vendendo  subjecerit.  Lp};.  1. 
Capitc  puniri  debet,  aut  flammis  tradi,  vel  alia  prena 
mortil'era,  si  quis  mcnsuram  circuli  exterioris  adraseril, 
vel  figuratum  solidum  adultera  iinitatione  in  vendendo  siib- 
jecevit. 


1018 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


being  a  principal  fraud,  it  must  be  comprehended 
under  the  general  title  of  frauds,  which  came  under 
the  cognizance  of  the  spiritual  jurisdiction.  For 
fraud  was  always  reckoned  a  crime  of  the  first 
magnitude;  St.  Austin"  puts  it  in  the  same  class 
with  murder,  adultery,  fornication,  theft,  and  sacri- 
lege;  and  TertuUian  joins  it*"  with  the  great  sins 
of  blasphemy,  idolatry,  apostacy,  murder,  and  adul- 
tery, which  defile  the  temple  of  God,  and  unqualify 
men  for  Christian  communion.  As  to  the  buyer's 
overreaching  the  seller  by  taking  advantage  of  his 
ignorance  or  unskilfidness  in  the  just  value  of  his 
commodit)-,  this  being  a  thing  not  easy  to  be  dis- 
covered or  proved,  it  may  be  supposed  to  be  a  fraud 
rather  left  to  his  own  conscience,  than  ordinarily 
brought  under  public  discipline.  Yet,  certain  it  is, 
a  conscientious  man  will  not  load  his  soul  even 
with  this  guilt.  St.  Austin''  gives  a  rare  instance 
of  singular  justice  in  this  case.  He  says,  he  knew 
a  man,  who,  having  a  book  offered  him  to  be  sold 
at  an  under-rate,  by  one  who  understood  not  the 
true  value  of  it,  gave  him  the  just  price  of  it,  sur- 
prising him  by  an  uncommon  generosity  and  equity, 
which  allows  no  man  to  take  advantage  of  another's 
ignorance,  though  it  be  against  the  general  maxim 
of  the  world,  which  loves  to  buy  cheap  and  sell 
dear,  (as  the  mimic  said,  when  he  undertook  to 
divine  and  tell  all  men  their  wishes,)  whatever  evil 
consequences  may  attend  it. 

On  the  other  hand,  fraud  may  be  committed  also 
by  the  seller,  and  that  several  ways ;  either  by  over- 
rating the  commodity  to  the  ignorant  and  necessi- 
tous buyer,  which  is  also  extortion  and  oppression ; 
or  by  vending  corrupt  wares,  which  are  not  really 
and  truly  what  they  are  said  or  appear  to  be,  which 
is  a  fraud  in  the  quality  ;  or  by  using  ftilse  weights 
and  measures,  which  is  a  fraud  in  the  quantity  of 
the  thing  contracted  for,  and  which  is  commonly 
branded  with  this  note  in  Scripture,  That  it  "  is  an 
abomination  to  the  Lord."  The  old  Roman'-  laws 
were  exceeding  careful  about  this  matter  of  just 
weights  and  measures.  The  ediles  were  obhged 
to  examine  them ;  the  standards  of  both  were  re- 
ligiously kept  in  the  capitol ;  and  thence,  afterward 
in  Christian  times,  they  were  removed  and  placed 
under  the  custody  of  bishops  in  the  churches,  as 
appears  from  Justinian's  Prcigmatic  Sanction,"  and 


one  of  his  Novels  to  this  purpose."  Every  city,  and 
mansion,  or  place  of  custom,  had  likewise  their 
public  standards,  as  well  to  prevent  the  frauds  of  the 
exactors  of  tribute,  as  those  of  others  in  private  con- 
tracts one  with  another.  To  which  purpose  there 
are  several  laws  of  Theodosius,'^  and  Honorius,** 
and  Valentinian  1 1 1.,"' and  Majorian,***  in  the  Theo- 
dosian  Code.  And  very  severe  and  capital  punish- 
ments are  there  appointed  for  all  such  as  were  found 
guilty  of  fraud  in  altering  or  corrupting  the  public 
standard.  The  church  has  not  many  particular 
laws  about  this  in  her  discipline ;  but  it  being  a 
flagrant  crime  in  the  eye  of  the  state,  we  may  pre- 
sume she  punished  offenders  in  this  kind  by  the 
general  laws  against  fraud,  without  specifying  all 
particular  cases.  The  author  of  the  Constitutions'* 
gives  a  general  rule  about  this  matter,  when  he  or- 
ders the  bishop  to  reject  the  oblations  of  all  such 
as  were  noted  by  the  common  name  of  paSispyol, 
fraudulent  dealers  ;  and  he  more  particularly  marks 
the  coXofifTpai,  those  that  used  fraud  in  measures, 
and  the  ^vyoKpov'^ai,  that  is,  such  as,  though  they  did 
not  use  false  weights  and  balances  of  deceit,  yet 
used  a  more  sly  art  and  fraud,  in  giving  a  turn  to 
the  scale  with  their  fingers,  to  gain  that  by  artifice 
and  sleight  of  hand  in  weighing,  which  they  durst 
not  venture  to  do  by  false  weights.  Constantine 
also  takes  notice  of  this  fraud  in  one  of  his  laws,'" 
where  he  forbids  the  receivers  of  tribute  to  use  any 
art  with  their  fingers  to  press  down  the  scale,  but 
to  be  exact  in  poising  the  libration,  that  no  one 
might  complain  of  any  injustice  done  him.  And  it 
is  observable,  that  Julian,"  to  prevent  such  frauds 
in  weighing,  appointed  a  standing  officer  in  every 
city,  (whom  he  calls  by  a  Greek  name,  zygostutes, 
that  is,  the  public  weigher,  or  supervisor  of  the 
scale,)  who  was  to  determine  all  controversies  aris- 
ing about  weight  between  buyer  and  seller,  and  put 
an  end  to  them,  by  examining  what  was  suspected 
by  the  public  standard.  And  the  care  of  a  heathen 
emperor  to  correct  frauds  and  abuses  of  this  nature, 
made  it  more  reasonable  for  the  church  to  look  into 
them,  and  bring  delinquents  of  this  kind  under 
penance  by  the  power  of  ecclesiastical  censure.- 

The  author  of  the  Constitutions  likewise  takes 
notice  of  the  other  sort  of  fraud,  which  may  be 
committed  in  traffic  by  dissembling  the  ill  qualities 


'»  Aug.  Tract.  41.  in  Joan.  t.  9.  p.  126. 

80  Tertul.  de  Puilicit.  cap.  19.  Cont.  Marc.  lib.  4.  cap.  9. 

*'  Aug.  de  Trinit.  lib.  ]3.  cap.  3. 

8-  Vid.  Digest,  lib.  48.  Tit.  10.  ad  Legem  Corneliam  de 
Falso,  Leg.  32. 

"^  .(uslin.  Praginat.  .Sanct.  cap.  19. 

«'  Justin.  Novel.  128.  cap.  15. 

^'^  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  12.  Tit.  6.  de  Susceptorib\is,  Leg.  19. 
In  singulis  stationibus  et  uiensurae  et  pondera  publice  con- 
locentur,  ut  fraudare  cupientibus  fraudandi  adiiiiant  potes- 
tatem.     It.  Leg.  21. 

'^  Ibid.  lib.  II.  Tit.  8.  do  Superexactionibiis,  Leg.  3. 


»'  Ibid.  lib.  12.  Tit.  6.  de  Susceptor.  Leg.  32.  It.  Novel. 
Valentin,  et  Theodos.  25.  de  Pretio  Solidi. 

*  Majorian.  Novel.  1.  Vid.  Sidon.  Apollinar.  lib.  5.  Ep. 
7.  et  Cassiodcjr.  lib.  5.  Ep.  39.  lib.  11.  Ep.  16. 

*"■'  Constit.  lib.  4,  c.  6. 

"''  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  12.  Tit.  7.  de  Ponderatoribus,  Leg.  1. 
Aurum  quod  iufeitur,  ajqua  lance  et  libranientis paribus  sus- 
cipiatur:  nee  pondera  deprimant,  &c. 

'•"  Ibid.  Leg.  2.  Placet,  quern  serino  Graccus  appellat, 
per  singulas  civitates,  tonstitui  zygostaten,  ut  ad  ejus  arbi- 
trium  atque  ad  ejus  lidera,  si  qua  inter  vendeulein  empto- 
renique  in  solidis  e.xorta  fuorit  contenlio,  diriniu.tur. 


ClIAP.    XI  I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1019 


of  things,  and  vending  corrupt  wares  under  the  no- 
tion and  appearance  of  that  which  is  perfect  and 
good.  As  when  a  man  puts  off  brass  for  gold,  or  a 
mixture  of  water  or  other  liquor  for  pure  wine. 
Therefore  in  his  directions  to  the  bishop,  whose  ob- 
lations he  shall  receive  and  whose  refuse  at  the 
altar,  he  says.  In  the  first  place  he  shall  reject  those 
whom  the  Greeks  call  ica7rj;\oi,  and  the  Latins, 
ctiiipofics ;  by  which  he  does  not  mean  victuallers 
strictly,  or  merchants  or  tradesmen  in  general, 
though  the  words  be  so  sometimes  taken  ;  but  frau- 
dulent hucksters,  who  corrupt  and  adulterate  their 
wares,  to  make  the  greater  gain  and  advantage  of 
them.  As  appears  from  that  passage,  which,  ac- 
cording to  the  Septuagint,  he  quotes  out  of  Isaiah, 
i.  22,  Oi  »ca7r?/\ot  aov  fiiayovai  rbv  olvov  ri^  hSari,  "  Thy 
hucksters  mingle  wine  with  water."  Lactantius  "■- 
argues  this  point  acutely  against  Carneades,  the 
lieathen  philosopher,  who  taught,  that  if  a  man  has 
a  fugitive  slave,  or  an  infected  and  pestilential 
house,  which  he  sets  to  sale,  he  is  bound  in  pru- 
dence not  to  discover  their  faults ;  because  if  he 
does,  he  shall  either  sell  them  for  little,  or  not  at 
all.  Which  he  calls  poisonous  doctrine,  and  shows 
it  at  large  to  be  both  against  the  rules  of  Christian 
justice  and  prudence  also.  For  nothing  can  be  more 
valuable  to  a  man  than  keeping  innocence  and  a 
good  conscience.  Upon  this  account  St.  Hilary 
says,'^  Whoever  either  designs  or  commits  fornica- 
tion, or  murder,  or  theft,  or  fraud,  or  rapine,  makes 
his  body  a  den  of  thieves.  Some  of  the  ancients 
indeed"  are  a  little  more  severe  against  negociating 
in  any  trade,  except  a  manual  art,  for  gain,  because 
of  the  danger  of  fraud,  that  sticks  so  close  be- 
tween buying  and  selling :  but  Pope  Leo"^  more 
favourably  distinguishes  between  honest  and  filthy 
gain,  and  says.  The  quality  of  the  gain  either  ex- 
cuses or  condemns  the  tradesman.  So  that  it  was 
not  all  trade  and  merchandise  that  they  condemned 
as  simply  unlawful  in  itself,  but  only  when  it  was 
accompanied  with  such  fraudulent  practices,  as 
made  it  an  unconscionable  gain,  and  no  better  than 
a  plausible  theft,  and  more  artificial  way  of  robbery. 
The  last  sort  of  fraud  in  the  seller  is  committed 
by  overrating  his  commodity ;  which  is  done  either 
by  monopolizers,  when  a  single  man,  or  a  body  of 
men,  get  the  sole  power  and  propriety  of  any  com- 
modity into  their  own  hands,  and  set  what  arbitrary 
price  they  please  upon  it ;  or  when  the  seller  takes 
the  advantage  of  the  ignorance  or  necessity  of  the 


buyer  to  enhance  his  price,  and  make  a  gain  of  his 
weakness,  his  poverty,  or  his  indiscretion.  Against 
the  fraud  of  monopolizers,  there  is  a  famous  law  of 
the  emperor  Zeno'"  in  the  Justinian  Code,  where 
he  first  forbids  any  single  man  to  monopolize  any 
wares,  under  the  penalty  of  confiscation  of  all  his 
goods,  and  perpetual  banisliment  of  his  person  ;  and 
then  proceeds  to  inhibit  any  body  of  men  to  com- 
bine in  any  unlawful  contract  not  to  sell  their  goods 
but  at  a  certain  rate,  under  the  penalty  of  forfeiting 
forty  pounds  of  gold :  he  hkewise  prohibits  all  arti- 
ficers and  workmen  from  combining  among  them- 
selves. That  if  any  one  undertook  a  work  for  an- 
other man,  and  left  it  unfinished,  no  one  of  the 
same  occupation  should  meddle  with  it  to  finisli  it 
without  the  consent  of  the  first  undertaker :  which 
was  an  art  of  raising  their  labour  to  what  arbitrary- 
price  they  were  pleased  to  set  upon  it.  To  obviate 
which  fraud,  and  the  difficulty  which  honest  men 
thereby  lay  under,  he  dissolved  all  such  unlawful 
contracts  and  combinations,  and  left  men  at  perfect 
liberty,  when  they  were  deserted  by  one  workman, 
to  employ  another,  without  any  fear  or  molestation 
arising  from  the  pretence  of  any  pre-engagement. 

The  other  way  of  enhancing  the  price,  by  the 
seller's  taking  advantage  of  the  buyer's  ignorance 
or  indiscretion,  is  what  no  laws  could  well  provide 
against  in  all  cases :  and  therefore  it  was  rather  left 
to  the  equity  and  conscience  of  men,  to  be  examined 
and  judged  by  the  Divine  law,  than  brought  under 
any  certain  rules  of  human  judgment.  However, 
being  a  species  of  fraud,  and  extortion,  and  oppres- 
sion, it  is  probable  the  governors  of  the  church  took 
occasion  in  many  notorious  cases  to  condemn  it 
under  the  general  title  of  paSiovpyla,  that  base  craft, 
and  gain  that  is  gotten  by  imposture  in  any  kind,  for 
which  the  bishop  in  the  Constitutions  "  is  required 
to  debar  men  from  making  their  oblations  at  the  altar. 

And  to  this  head  may  be  reduced  the  selling  of 
that  to  which  the  seller  himself  has  no  just  title ;  as 
the  selling  of  fugitive  slaves  belonging  to  another 
master,  which  the  law  forbids,"'*  both  because  it  is  a 
sort  of  plagiary  in  the  seller,  and  an  imposition  upon 
the  buyer,  and  an  encouragement  to  the  slaves  to 
rob  and  pillage,  and  desert  their  proper  masters. 
Such  is  also  the  selling  things  of  no  real  worth  but 
a  mere  fraud  and  imposture ;  as,  the  taking  money 
for  calculating  nativities,  and  telHng  of  fortunes, 
and  divining  for  things  lost,  and  many  the  like  vain 
practices,  which  the  canons  condemn,"'  not  only  as 


92  Lact.  lib.  5.  cap.  17  et  18. 

*'  Hilar,  ill  Psal.  cxviii.  139.  p.  278.  Corpora,  cum  cogi- 
tamus  aut  agimus  stupra,  cycles,  furta,  falsitates,  rapinas, 
speluncam  latronum  constituimus. 

9*  Vid.  Tertul.  de  Idol.  cap.  11.  Epiphan.  Expos,  fid.  n. 
24.     Auctor  operis  imperl'ecti  in  Mat.  xxi.  12. 

'■'5  Leo,  Ep.  'J2.  ad  Rustic,  cap.  9.  Qiialitas  liicri  nego- 
cianlem  aut  excusat,  aut  ai-guit :  quia  est  honestus  qua;stus 


aut  turpis. 

"«  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  4.  Tit.  59.  de  I\Ionopoliis,  Leg.  1.  Si 
quis  monopuliuui  ausns  fiierit  exorcere,  bonis  propriisexspo- 
liatus,  pevpetuitate  damnctur  exilii,  &c. 

9'  Constit.  lib.  4.  cap.  6. 

=»  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  9.  Tit.  20.  ad  Legem  Fabiam  de  Pla- 
giar.  Leg.  G. 

»9  Cone.  Trul.  can.  61. 


1020 


ANTIQUITIES  OP  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


curious  and  superstitious  arts,  but  as  fraudulent 
and  cheating  tricks,  imposing  upon  men  by  cozen- 
age and  imposture.  All  which,  and  a  thousand 
other  ways  of  pillaging,  oppressing,  and  defrauding, 
the  church  in  her  discipline  censured  as  direct  me- 
thods of  committing  theft  and  robbery. 

But  besides  the  direct  ways  of  com- 

Sect  18.  .      .  ,   .  .  ,1  , 

Of  abettinsr  and  mittiug  tliis  siu,  there  wcre  several 

concealing  robbers ;  °  i     t       ii  ii 

and  buying  stolen  otlicr  basc  and  disallowable  practices, 

goods,  &c.  _  ^ 

which  virtually  and  by  just  construc- 
tion might  be  interpreted  theft :  as  the  harbouring, 
abetting,  and  conceahng  robbers  ;  buying  of  stolen 
goods  ;  leading  an  idle  life  without  any  lawful  voca- 
tion ;  spending  in  prodigality  or  unlawful  gaming 
that  which  was  designed  for  the  maintenance  of 
others.  All  which  either  the  laws  of  church  or 
state  censured,  as  so  many  indirect  ways  of  encour- 
aging or  committing  robbery.  The  laws  of  the 
state  laid  a  severe  penalty  upon  all  that  sheltered 
any  criminals  in  any  kind  whatsoever.  Valentinian 
in  one  law  condemns  them  as  associates  """  with  the 
criminals,  and  makes  them  liable  to  the  same  pun- 
ishment. In  another""  law,  he  particularly  con- 
demns such  as  harbour  robbers  and  screen  them 
from  public  justice ;  making  them  liable  either  to 
corporal  punishment,  or  confiscation  of  all  their 
goods,  according  to  the  quality  of  their  persons. 
And  if  any  agent  or  steward  sheltered  them  without 
his  lord's  knowledge,  he  was  to  be  burnt  alive. 
There  is  another  law  of  Marcian  to  the  same  effect 
in  the  Justinian  '°-  Code,  showing  how  men  are  to 
be  treated  who  entertain  robbers,  and  use  force  to 
protect  and  defend  them. 

They  who  bought  stolen  goods,  knowing  them  to 
be  such,  were  also  deemed  guilty  of  partaking  in 
the  theft,  because  this  was  an  encouragement  to 
robbers,  and  a  sort  of  approbation  of  them.  St. 
Austin '"'  and  St.  Chrysostom  '"*  make  this  remark 
upon  those  words  of  the  psalmist,  "  When  thou 
sawest  a  thief,  thou  consentedst  unto  him,"  That  to 
show  a  liking  to  the  thief,  is  the  same  thing  as  com- 
mitting the  robbery.  And  certainly  none  can  show 
a  greater  liking  to  him,  than  he  who  for  a  little 
filthy  lucre  gives  encouragement  to  him  by  traffick- 
ing and  negociating  with  him,  as  some  critics  ob- 
serve the  Arabic  translation  literally  renders  the 
phrase  of  the  psalmist.  There  is  but  one  case  in 
which  the  casuists  allow  men  to  buy  of  a  known 


Sect.  19. 
leness  censured 
the    mother    of 


thief,  and  that  is,  when  he  can  do  it  for  a  small 
matter  with  an  intent  to  restore  what  is  stolen  to 
the  true  owner.  For  in  that  case  he  intends  not 
the  encouragement  of  the  thief,  but  the  interest  and 
advantage  of  the  just  proprietor.  And  for  this  they 
allege  '"*  the  known  rules  of  the  civil  law.  But  in 
all  other  cases  to  negociate  with  thieves  is  to  par- 
take in  their  sin,  and  to  encourage  and  strengthen 
them  in  their  subsequent  villanies.  Therefore  this 
and  all  other  ways  of  partaking  and  co-operating 
with  thieves,  (of  which  there  are  various  methods 
noted  and  summed  up  by  the  doctors'"*  in  the 
schools,'"')  were  anciently  computed  in  the  general 
account  of  theft  and  fraud,  and  accordingly  punish- 
ed with  ecclesiastical  censure. 

Neither  was  it  only  the  associating 
and  partaking  with  robbers  which 
they  thus  condemned,  but  all  such  ^"^^"J- 
unlawful  vocations,  or  rather  want  of  vocation,  as 
put  men  in  a  manner  upon  the  necessity  of  steal- 
ing, and  having  recourse  to  fraud  and  violence,  as 
the  only  support  of  a  dissolute  life.  Idleness  they 
esteemed  the  mother  and  nurse  of  theft,  and  a  life 
without  employment  as  no  better  than  that  of  a 
common  robber :  because  men  of  that  character 
were  only  fni/jes  cottsutnere  nati,  born  to  devour 
that  which  of  right  belonged  to  others.  Therefore 
the  laws  both  of  church  and  state  are  very  severe 
against  all  such.  There  is  a  law  of  Valentinian 
junior  in  the  Theodosian  Code'"'  against  young, 
stout,  lusty  beggars,  who  being  slaves  or  freedmen 
able  to  work,  yet  fled  from  their  masters  to  Rome, 
to  skulk  in  corners,  and  live  as  drones  upon  false 
charity :  whom  he  orders  to  be  examined,  and  if 
they  were  found  able  to  work,  they  should  either 
become  the  possession  of  the  informer  who  dis- 
covered them,  or  be  returned  to  their  original  mas- 
ters, who  had  a  good  action  in  law  against  any  who 
either  harboured  such  fugitives,  or  by  their  coun- 
sels instigated  them  to  desertion.  Justinian  inserted 
this  law  into  his  Code '"'  likewise,  and  set  forth  a 
new  edict  of  his  own  to  the  same  purpose.  The 
church  also  was  very  careful  in  this  matter,  not  to 
suffer  stout,  idle,  wandering  beggars  to  devour  the 
revenues  of  those  that  were  really  infirm  ^nd  poor. 
Upon  this  account  she  forbade  any  of  her  clergy  to 
rove  about  the  world,  or  wander  from  one  diocese 
to  another  without  letters  dimissory,  as  some  did 


'"»  C(xi.  Th.  lib.  9.  Tit.  29.  Leg.  1.  Eos  qui  secum  alieni 
criminis  reos  occulcndo  sncianint,  paratque  ipsos  reos  poena 
expectet. 

""  Ibid.  Leg.  2.  Latrones  quisquis  sciens  susceperit, 
vel  nfferre  jiidiciis  supersederit,  supplicio  corporal!  aiit  dis- 
pendio  faciiltatuiii,  pro  qualitate  personoe  ex  jiidicis  sesfima- 
tione,  plectatur.  Si  vero  actor,  sive  procurator,  domino  ig- 
norant?, occultaverit,  et  jiidici  offerre  neglcxerit,  flammis 
ultricibus  concremetur. 

'"-  Vid.  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  9.  Tit.  39.  de  his,  qui  latrones 
occiiltaverint,  Leg.  2. 


""  Aug.  in  Psal.  xlix.  t.  8.  p.  194. 

'»<  Chrys.  in  loc.  t.  3.  p.  301. 

""*  Vid.  Lessiumde  Jure  et  Justit.  lib.  2.  cap.  11.  p.  17L 

""'  Aquin.  2».  2»».  Quacst.  62.  Art.  7. 

""  Jussio,  consilium,  consensus,  palpo,  recursus,  partici- 
pans,  mutus,  non  obstans,  non  manifestans. 

'"*  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  14.  Tit.  18.  de  Mendicantibus  non  In- 
validis,  Lej^.  1. 

'"'  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  11.  Tit.  25.  de  Mendicantibus  Validis, 
Leg.  1. 


Chap.  XII. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1021 


under  the  scandalous  name  of  jSaKuvTifioi,  men  out 
of  business,  as  I  have  had  occasion  to  show  ""  more 
fully  in  another  place.  She  obliged  all  her  monks 
and  men  of  the  ascetic  life  to  live  upon  their  own 
labour.  Insomuch  that  a  monk,  who  did  not  work, 
was  looked  upon  as  a  thief  and  a  defrauder,  as  So- 
crates'"  tells  us  the  Egyptian  fathers  were  used  to 
express  themselves  concerning  such  as  eat  other 
men's  bread  for  nought.  St.  Austin  "-  wrote  a  whole 
book  to  prove  this  to  be  the  proper  duty  of  a  monk, 
to  live  upon  his  own  labour,  where  he  answers  all 
objections  that  can  be  made  to  the  contrary.  And 
there  are  innumerable  passages  in  other  ancient 
writers  upon  the  same  topic,  to  which  I  have  re- 
ferred the  reader  in  discoursing  upon  the  rules  of 
the  monastic  life  "^  in  a  former  Book.  Here  I  shall 
only  add  one  noted  passage  of  St.  Ambrose,  where 
he  gives  rules  and  directions  for  dispensing  charity 
with  prudence  only  to  such  as  really  want  it.  There 
ought  to  be,  says  he,"*  a  due  measure  observed  in 
liberality,  that  our  charity  be  not  useless  :  and  this 
moderation  is  chiefly  to  be  regarded  by  bishops  and 
priests,  that  they  do  not  dispense  (the  church's 
treasure)  to  importunate  beggars,  but  as  the  justice 
and  necessity  of  the  case  requires :  for  none  are 
commonly  more  greedy  in  their  petitions  than  such 
as  those.  Many  come  a  begging,  who  are  lusty 
and  strong;  many  come,  who  have  no  other  reason 
but  an  idle,  vagrant  humour ;  who  would  evacuate 
the  subsidies  of  the  poor,  or  empty  their  chests,  and 
consume  what  is  laid  up  for  their  maintenance : 
neither  are  they  content  with  a  little,  but  require 
gi'eat  largesses ;  they  appear  as  gentlemen  in  their 
dress,  and  make  that  a  means  to  promote  their  peti- 
tion ;  and  pretending  to  be  men  of  good  birth,  they 
make  use  of  that  as  an  argument  to  gain  a  greater 
contribution.  If  any  one  is  too  easy  in  giving 
credit  to  such  as  these,  he  will  quickly  defeat  those 
useful  methods  which  are  taken  for  the  maintenance 
of  the  poor.  Therefore  a  moderation  is  to  be  ob- 
served in  giving  ;  that  neither  such  may  be  sent 
away  empty,  if  really  in  want ;  nor  the  livelihood 
of  the  poor  be  turned  into  another  channel,  to  be- 
come a  spoil  and  prey  to  the  frauds  of  the  crafty. 
It  is  plain  from  such  accounts  as  these,  that  they 
looked  upon  an  idle  life  as  no  better  than  living 
upon  the  spoils  of  the  poor,  and  a  robbery  of  the 
worst  sort ;  because  it  often  joined  fraud  and  cruelty 
to  the  theft,  making  use  of  false  pretences  to  divert 
the  current  of  men's  charity  from  the  widow  and 
the  fatherless,  and  turn  it  to  themselves  ;  who  had 
no  necessity  but  what  they  voluntarily  made  to  them- 
selves, either  by  their  idleness,  or  luxurious  and  pro- 


Scrt.  20. 

Andi;amiiig,a9an 

occasion    of   fraud. 

and    rtiin   of  muny 

poor   fjimilifS,    who 

were 


digal  way  of  living :  the  supporting  of  which  was 
an  arrant  theft  and  robbing  of  the  poor,  which  is 
the  height  and  extremity  of  cruelty  and  oppression. 
And  therefore  as  the  laws  of  the  state  made  idle- 
ness in  vagrants  an  actionable  crime,  apyiag  SUr) 
tlie  law  itself  terms  it ;  so  the  rules  of  tlie  church 
brand  it  as  an  infamous  way  of  living,  and  worthy 
of  ecclesiastical  censure. 

To  this  they  added  gaming,  as  an- 
other way  of  cheating  and  defraud- 
ing ;  and  that  in  a  double  respect,  be- 
cause men  thereby  were  inclined  to  rcdncI'dToThTgrel" 
cozenage  and  deceit,  and  often  ruined  "''  '''"^'"'"■'■ 
their  families,  who  by  this  means  were  reduced  to 
the  greatest  poverty  and  want  by  the  dissoluteness 
and  folly  of  a  wicked  parent.  There  might  be 
many  other  reasons  for  declaiming  against  this  vice, 
as  that  it  is  a  reproachful  way  of  dissolute  living, 
and  spending  men's  time  in  luxury,  condemned  by 
many  wise  and  sober  heathens  ;  that  the  old  Roman 
laws  punished  gamesters  with  banishment,  and 
many  other  severe"*  penalties;  that  gaming  in- 
clines men  to  many  great  and  horrible  vices,  as 
covetousness,  perjury,  lying,  cursing  and  swearing, 
anger  and  passion,  quarrelling  and  murder,  and  riot- 
ing and  intemperance  of  all  sorts  :  but  I  consider  it 
here  only  as  attended  with  the  evil  effects  of  fraud 
and  consumption  of  men's  estates,  which  involves 
many  poor  families  in  ruin ;  in  which  notion  it  is  a 
downright  theft  and  robbery.  And  as  such  it  was 
anciently  prohibited  by  the  rules  of  the  church,  not 
only  to  the  clergy,  but  the  laity  also.  "  If  any  bishop, 
presbyter,  or  deacon,"  says  one  of  the  Apostolical 
Canons,"**  "  spend  his  time  at  dice  or  in  drinking,  let 
him  either  refrain,  or  be  deposed."  And  the  next 
canon  adds,  "  If  any  subdeacon,  reader,  or  singer  do 
the  like,  let  him  be  excommunicated,  and  laymen 
also."  And  so  the  council  of  Eliberis  separates  all 
gamesters  in  general  from  the  communion.  "If 
any  Christian"' play  at  dice  or  tables,  let  him  be 
restrained  from  communicating :  but  if  he  leaves  off" 
and  amends,  after  a  year's  penance  he  may  be  re- 
conciled." Albaspinajus  thinks  the  reason  of  the 
prohibition  was,""  because  the  dice  had  the  images 
of  the  heathen  gods,  as  Venus,  &c.,  imprinted  on 
them  instead  of  numbers,  and  that  men  in  their  play 
called  upon  them  for  good  fortune :  but  if  so,  I 
conceive,  a  greater  penalty  would  have  been  imposed 
upon  them,  as  upon  idolaters,  by  this  council. 
Therefore  it  is  more  reasonable  to  suppose,  that  the 
council  considered  gaming  as  a  mispending  of  men's 
useful  time,  and  consumer  of  their  fortunes,  and 
destruction  of  their  families,  and  an  inlet  to  fraud 


"»  Book  VI.  chap.  4.  sect.  5.       '"  Socrat.  lib.  4.  cap.  23. 

"'  Aug.  de  Opere  Mouachorura,  cap.  17,  &c. 

"3  Book  VII.  chap.  3.  sect.  10. 

"*  Ambros.  de  Offic.  lib.  2.  cap.  IG. 

"^  See  Bishop  Taylor,  Duct.  Dubit.book4.chap.  1.  p.77G. 


"«  Can.  Apost.  41.  al.  35.  Labbe,  vol.  1.  p.  36. 

'"  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  79.  Si  quis  fidebs  alea,  id  est, 
tabula,  luserit,  placuit  eum  abstinere  :  et  si  einendatus  ces- 
saverit,  post  annum  poterit  reconciliari. 

"^  Albaspin.  in  b.c. 


1022 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI. 


and  covetousness,  and  all  the  forementioncd  vices  ; 
and  under  that  notion,  condemned  such  as  made  a 
trade  and  business  of  it,  and  not  a  diversion.  Upon 
this  account  St.  Ambrose  pronounces'"  the  gain  that 
is  got  by  dice  and  gaming  to  be  no  better  than 
theft,  or  unmerciful  and  griping  usury;  and  that  the 
man  who  gives  himself  to  it,  leads  the  life  of  a  sav- 
age wild  beast.  And  Justinian  made  a  law,'-"  That 
no  one  should  be  obliged  to  pay  what  he  lost  at 
dice  ;  or  if  he  had  paid  it,  he  or  his  heirs  might 
recover  it  at  law  of  the  winner  or  his  heirs  for 
thirty  years  after  and  longer.  Or  if  he  did  not  re- 
claim it,  any  one  else  might  do  it,  or  the  chief  ma- 
gistrate of  the  city,  the  defensor,  might  exact  it,  and 
lay  it  out  upon  some  public  work  or  building  for  the 
use  of  the  city.  And  in  such  games  as  were'"'  per- 
mitted, he  allowed  the  richest  to  play  for  no  more 
than  one  shilling,  and  others  only  in  proportion  to 
their  substance.  And  this  was  a  very  wise  law, 
considering  the  complaint  which  St.  Jerom  makes, 
That  whilst  men  play  for  vast  sums,  and  stake'" 
their  whole  estates  at  once,  the  poor  stand  naked 
and  hungry  before  their  doors,  and  Christ  perishes 
and  is  starved  to  death  in  his  poor  members  for 
want  of  their  relief.  Na}',  many  times  their  own 
flesh  and  blood,  their  families  and  relations,  are 
ruined  by  their  folly  in  one  night.  And  what  cha- 
racter or  punishment  could  be  thought  too  bad  for 
such  ?  He  that  provides  not  for  his  own,  and  espe- 
cially those  of  his  own  house,  has  denied  the  faith, 
and  is  worse  than  an  infidel.  And  for  this  reason 
both  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  laws  were  so  severe 
against  dice  and  gaming,  because  of  such  evil  con- 
sequences so  commonly  attending  them,  when  they 
are  undertaken  for  undue  ends,  and  pursued  by 
false  measures,  only  to  serve  men's  fraud  and  filthy 
lucre.  Otherwise,  to  play  ytpovriKwe,  as  old  men 
used  to  play,  for  diversion,  and  not  for  lucre,  is  what 
wise  and  good  men  have  always  innocently  done'^ 
without  any  reproach  or  censure.  And  so  I  have 
done  with  the  several  sorts  of  theft  and  robbery, 
which  are  great  transgressions  of  the  eighth  com- 
mandment; by  which  we  may  judge  of  the  mistake 
of  those  who  confine  the  discipline  of  the  church  to 
the  punishment  of  three  capital  crimes,  idolatry, 
adultery,  and  murder ;  for  it  will  be  hard  to  bring 
theft  under  any  of  those  denominations,  unless 
we  say  all  theft  is  covetousness,  and  covetous- 
ness is  idolatry.  But  in  that  large  sense  of  idol- 
atry,  which   is   serving  our  own   affections  more 


than  God,  not  only  covetousness,  but  adultery 
and  murder  will  be  idolatry  also.  And  then  all 
crimes  might  be  resolved  into  one,  and  the  church 
had  nothing  to  do  but  to  punish  one  crime 
under  different  species  of  idolatry  ;  which  does  by 
no  means  rightly  explain  her  discipline,  which 
makes  idolatry  a  distinct  crime  against  a  command 
in  the  first  table  of  the  decalogue,  as  disobedience 
to  parents,  adultery,  murder,  and  theft  arc  against 
the  second  table;  and  according  to  this  order  I  have 
hitherto  considered  them  in  this  discourse. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

OF  GREAT  CRIMES  AGAINST  THE  NINTH  COMMAND- 
MENT, FALSE  ACCUSATION,  LIBELLING,  INFORM- 
ING, CALUMNY  AND  SLANDER,  RAILING  AND  RE- 
VILING, ETC. 

The  intent  of  the  ninth  command-  ^^^f  j 
ment  is  to  secure  our  neighbour's  or  raise  witness. 
credit  from  injury,  by  spreading  false  reports  con- 
cerning him  to  the  prejudice  of  his  good  name  and 
reputation.  This  is  sometimes  done  in  a  public 
manner,  by  bearing  false  witness  against  him :  and 
then  it  is  adding  perjury  to  the  calumny,  and  some- 
times theft  and  murder  also ;  for  it  may  atfect  not 
only  his  credit,  but  his  fortune,  and  his  life  too ;  as 
it  did  in  the  case  of  Naboth,  who  was  stoned  to 
death  upon  a  false  accusation,  "Naboth  did  blas- 
pheme God  and  the  king."  And  so  our  Saviour,  and 
many  of  his  disciples  after  him,  sufiered  by  the  ma- 
licious and  false  imputations  of  their  enemies,  the 
Jews  and  heathens.  The  greatness  of  the  crime  in 
these  respects  has  been  already  showed  under  the 
sever.al  titles  of  perjury,  theft,  and  murder:  here  I 
only  consider  it  as  an  injury  to  men's  reputation, 
which  being  a  thing  dear  and  valuable  to  all  men, 
the  laws  were  very  careful  to  secure  men  in  the 
quiet  enjoyment  of  it,  and  punish  all  base  attempts 
to  ruin  and  destroy  it.  Aulus  Gellius  tells  us,'  The 
punishment  of  false  witness  among  the  old  Romans, 
by  the  law  of  the  twelve  tables,  was  to  cast  the 
criminal  headlong  from  the  top  of  the  Tarpeian 
rock  :  and  he  thinks,  if  this  punishment  had  con- 
tinued, it  might  have  been  of  great  service  to  the 
Roman  commonwealth,  in  deterring  men  from  the 
commission  of  this  crime  by  its  just  severity.  After- 


"*  Ambros.  deTobia.  cap.  11. 

™Cod.  Justin,  lib.  3.  Tit.  43.  de  Aleatoribus,  Leg.  1. 
Victum  in  aleao  lusu  non  posse  conveniri  :  et  si  solverit,  ha- 
bere repetitionem,  tani  ipsum,  quam  hicredes,  ei  adversus 
victorem  et  ejus  ha^redes,  idque  perpctuo  et  etiam  post  tri- 
ginta  annos,  &c. 

'2'  Vid.  ibid.  Leg.  2. 

'"  Hieron.  Ep.  12.  ad  Gaudeiitium.  Posita  dum  lnditur 
area,  stat  pauper  nudus  atque  esurieiis  ante  fores,  Chris- 


tusque  in  paupere  moritur. 

'-■'  See  Bishop  Taylor,  Duct.  Dubit.  book  4.  chap.  1. 
p.  776. 

'  Gell.  Noct.  Attic,  lib.  20.  cap.  1.  An  putas,  Favorine, 
si  non  ilia  etiam  ex  diiodecim  tabulis  de  testimoniis  falsis 
poena  abolevisset ;  et  si  nunc  quoque,  ut  antoa,  qui  falsum 
testimonium  dixisse  convictus  esset,  e  sa.xo  Tarpeio  dejice- 
retur,  mentituros  f\usse  pro  testimonio  tani  multos  quam 
videmus  ? 


Chap.  XIII. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1023 


ward,  by  a  law,  called  the  lexJRemmia,-  false  witnesses 
were  burnt  in  the  face,  and  stigmatized  with  the 
letter  K,  denoting  them  to  be  calumniators  or  false 
accusers.  In  opposition  to  whom  the  law^  calls 
honest  men,  homines  hitcr/ne  frontis,  men  without 
any  such  mark  set  upon  them.  This  law  and  pun- 
ishment is  often  mentioned  by  the  Roman  writers, 
Tiilly,''  Pliny,*  and  others.*  And  though  the  Chris- 
tian law  abolished  it,  as  it  did  that  of  the  cross  and 
some  others,  yet  still  false  accusation  and  calumny 
were  corrected  with  suitable  punishments,  such  as 
infamy,  banishment,  and  sulfering  the  same  evil,  by 
the  law  of  I'etaliation,  which  the  false  accuser  in- 
tended to  draw  upon  others  ;  as  appears  from  several 
laws'  in  the  imperial  codes,  and  particularly  those 
\\  hich  bind  the  accusing  party  to  undergo  the  same 
punishment,  which  his  false  accusation  tended  to 
Ijiing  upon  the  supposed  criminal,  if  he  did  not 
make  good  his  charge  against  him.  "We  have  al- 
ready' seen  a  law  of  Valentinian  and  Gratian,  or- 
dering, That  whoever  impleaded  another  either  in 
regard  to  his  fame  and  reputation,  or  his  fortune, 
or  his  life,  should  undergo  the  same  penalty  he  in- 
tended to  bring  upon  the  party  so  impeached,  if  he 
proved  a  calumniator,  and  did  not  fairly  make  out 
his  action.  And  every  accuser  was  tied  in  bonds, 
which  the  law"  calls  vinculum  inscriptionis,  to  suffer 
a  retaliation,  or  similitude  of  punishment,  upon 
failure  of  evincing  his  charge  against  another.  Such 
care  was  taken  by  the  secular  laws  to  discourage  de- 
lators or  false  informers,  and  preserve  the  fame  and 
reputation  of  innocent  men  against  the  vile  at- 
tempts of  such  dangerous  aggressors.  Nor  were 
the  ecclesiastical  laws  less  severe  in  their  way 
against  such  transgressors.  The  false  witness  in 
any  case  was  to  do  penance  five  years  for  his  crime, 
by  a  canon  of  the  council '"  of  Eliberis.  And  this, 
provided  it  was  not  in  the  case  of  death.  For  in  that 
case,  being  the  crime  of  murder,  the  criminal  was 
to  be  debarred  from  communion  to  the  very  last,  as 
has  been  showed  before  "  in  speaking  of  murder. 


Sect,  2. 
Of  libelling. 


The  councils  of  Agde'-  and  Vannes  impose  a  gene- 
ral penance  upon  such  offenders,  without  naming 
the  term  or  duration  of  their  penance,  which  was 
left  to  the  discretion  of  the  bishop,  who  was  to  judge 
of  the  sincerity  of  their  repentance.  But  the  first 
council  of  Aries'^  obliges  them  to  do  penance  all 
their  lives;  and  the  second"  only  moderates  their 
punislmient  so  far  as  to  leave  it  to  the  bishop  to 
determine  of  their  repentance  and  satisfaction. 

Another  way  of  injuring  men's 
credit  and  reputation  was,  by  spread- 
ing false  reports  in  a  covert  and  clandestine  man- 
ner, which  the  law  calls  libelling.  This  was  done 
when  a  man  was  accused  by  a  bill  of  indictment,  to 
which  the  author  was  afraid  to  set  his  name.  And 
such  accusations  were  of  no  force  in  law,  but  were 
appointed  to  be  torn  in  pieces  or  burnt ;  and  no 
man  might  read,  or  retain,  or  divulge  them,  without 
being  reputed  the  infamous  author  of  them.  The 
Christian  emperors  were  extremely  careful  in  dis- 
couraging all  such  base  attempts  upon  men's  credit 
and  reputation,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  several  laws 
of  Constantine,  Constantius,  Valentinian  and  Va- 
lens,  Theodosius  and  Arcadius,  in  the  Theodosian 
Code,  under  the  title,  defamosis  LihelUs.  It  will  be 
sufficient  to  repeat  one  of  them  made  by  Valen- 
tinian '*  in  this  tenor :  The  very  name  of  scandalous 
libels  is  infamous.  Therefore  whoever  collects,  or 
reads  them,  and  does  not  immediately  commit  them 
to  the  flames,  shall  be  liable  to  be  condemned  to  a 
capital  punishment.  By  which  it  is  easy  to  judge 
how  infamous  the  authors  of  such  libels  were,  since 
none  were  allowed  so  much  as  to  read  and  retain 
them  with  impunity,  but  were  in  danger  of  being 
proceeded  against  as  the  suspected  authors  of  them. 
The  ecclesiastical  law  made  the  authors  and  pub- 
lishers of  all  such  pasquils,  when  detected,  liable  to 
excommunication.  For  so  the  council  of  Eliberis 
words  it'"  in  one  of  her  canons :  "  If  any  are  found 
to  have  scattered  or  dispersed  infamous  libels  in  the 
church,  let  them  be  anathematized." 


*  Digest,  lib.  48.  Tit.  16.  ad  Senatus-consultum  Turpilia- 
num,  Leg.  I.  Calumniatoribus  poena  lege  Reinmia  irrogatur. 

'  Digest,  lib.  22.  Tit.  5.  de  Testibus,  Leg.  13.  Testimonii 
fides,  quod  integrae  t'roatis  bomo  di.xerit,  &c. 

*  Cicero,  Oral.  2.  pro  Roscio,  n.  55  et  57. 
5  Plin.  Panegyric,  p.  JU6. 

^  Vid.  Demster.  Addit.  ad  Rosin,  lib.  9.  cap.  16.  p.  1517. 

^  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  39.  de  Calumniatoribus,  Leg.  I, 
2,  3,  lib.  16.  Tit.  2.  de  Episc.  et  Cler.  Leg.  21.  Cod.  Justin. 
lib.  9.  Tit.  46.  de  Calumniatoribus,  Leg.  7,  el  8,  9,  10. 

*  Chap.  12.  sect.  15. 

^  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  ].  de  Accusatiouibus  et  Inscrip- 
tlonibus,  Leg.  9,  11,  14,  19. 

"•  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  74.  Falsus  testis,  prout  crimen  est, 
abstiuebit ;  si  tamen  non  fuerit  mortis  quod  objecit.  Et  si 
probaverit  quod  diu  tacuerit,  biennii  tempore  abstinebit. 
Si  autem  non  probaverit  in  conventu  clcricorum.  placuit 
per  quinquennium  abstinere. 

"  Chap.  10.  sect.  9  and  10. 


'2  Cone.  Agathen.  can.  37.  Censemus  homicidas  et  falsos 
testes  a  communione  ecclesiastica  submovendos,  nisi  pumi- 
tentiae  satislactione  criuiina  admissa  dilucrint.  Vid.  Cunc. 
Veneticum,  can.  1,  in  the  same  words.  And  Cone.  Carthag. 
4.  can.  55. 

'^  Cone.  Arelat.  1.  can.  14.  De  his  qui  falso  aceusant 
fratres  suos,  placuit,  eos  usque  ad  e.xitum  nou  comnuini- 
care,  &c. 

"  Ibid.  2.  can.  24.  Eos  qui  falsa  fratribus  capitula  ob- 
jecisse  convicti  i'uerint,  placuit,  usque  ad  exitum  non  coni- 
raunicare  (sicut  magna  synodiis  ante  constituit)  nisi  digna 
satisfactione  poenituerint. 

'^  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  34.  de  Famosis  Libellis.  Leg. 
7.  Famosorum  infame  est  nomen  libellonun.  Ac  si  quis 
vel  colligendos,  vel  legendos  putaverit,  ac  non  statim  char- 
tas  igni  consumpserit,  sciat  se  capitali  scntentia  subju- 
gandum. 

'"Cone.  Eliber.  can.  52.  Si  qui  inventi  furrint  libellos 
lamosos  in  ecclrsia  poncre,  auathenializontur. 


1024 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


^ 


Book  XVI. 


Sect  3  Another  sort  of  secret  defamation, 

whifpe'tingT" "nd    ^^^  t^^^  which  was  committed  by  the 
backbiting.  detraction  of  the  kirking  whisperer 

and  backbiter:  against  whose  venomous  tongues 
St.  Austin  is  said  to  have  endeavoured  to  guard  his 
own  family  and  conversation,  by  causing  these  two 
verses  to  be  written  upon  his  table : 

Quisquis  amat  dictis  absentum  rodere  vitam, 
Hanc  mensain  indignam  noverit  esse  sibi. 

He  that  takes  delight  in  lessening  the  characters  of 
the  absent,  is  no  welcome  or  worthy  guest  at  this 
table.  This  he  did  to  admonish  every  one  that 
came  there,  to  abstain  from  defamatory  discourse 
and  detraction.  And  Possidius"  says,  He  was  so 
strict  and  punctual  in  the  observation  of  this  rule, 
that  he  would  sometimes  sharply  reprove  his  most 
familiar  acquaintance  and  fellow  bishops  for  forget- 
ting and  transgressing  it;  telling  them,  that  either 
those  verses  must  be  erased  from  his  table,  or  he 
must  withdraw  and  retire  to  his  private  apartment. 
This  was  a  sort  of  private  discipline,  (like  that  of 
St.  Austin's  mother  denying  him  the  privilege  of 
sitting  at  her  own  table  whilst  he  was  a  Manichee,) 
and  it  was  a  very  proper  way  of  discouraging  all 
evil  speaking  and  detraction ;  but  I  do  not  find  that 
this  crime  was  brought  under  public  discipline  by 
any  general  rule  of  the  church.  And  the  reason 
might  be,  what  St.  Jerom  observes.  That  the  sin 
was  too  general  and  epidemical  to  be  publicly  cor- 
rected. For  there  "  are  very  few  that  have  wholly 
renounced  this  vice,  and  it  is  a  rare  thing  to  find 
any  so  careful  to  make  their  own  life  unblamable, 
not  to  be  willing  to  find  fault  with  others.  Yea,  so 
great  a  propensity  is  there  in  men's  minds  toward 
this  evil,  that  they  who  are  far  removed  from  other 
vices  fall  into  this  as  the  last  snare  of  the  devil. 

Sect.  4.  -^^t  when  this  detraction  broke  out 

vihng^oT"S:nnt\Zl  i^to  opcn  skudcr  and  calumny,  and 
g^age,"  ^d  "of  re-  especially  when  it  was  attended  with 

vealing  secrets.  z  v  i  • 

contumelious,  bitter,  and  reproachful 
words,  with  railing  and  reviling,  and  scurrilous 
and  abusive  language;  then,  as  it  was  matter  of 
public  scandal,  so  it  became  the  subject  of  a  public 
censure.  For  St.  Paul  puts  railers  and  revilers 
into  the  number  of  those  who  are  neither  fit  for 
the   society  of   men   nor  the    kingdom   of   God. 


"  Possid.  Vit.  Aug.  cap.  22. 

'»  Ilieron.  Ep.  14.  ad  Celantiam.  Pauci  admodum  sunt, 
qui  h\iic  vitio  rennncient;  raroque  invenies,  qui  ita  vitam 
suani  irreprehensibilem  exhibere  velint,  ut  non  libenter 
reprehendant  alicnam.  Tantaqiie  hujus  niali  libido  mentes 
hominum  invasit,  ut  etiam  qui  piocul  ab  aliis  viliis  re- 
cesserunt,  iu  istud  tanquam  in  e.xtrenium  diaboli  laqueuai 
incidant. 

'"  Couc.  Agathen.  can.  70.  Clericum  scurrilem  et  verbis 
turpibus  joculatorem  ab  officio  retrahemhun. 

'-""  Cone.  Garth.  4.  can.  60. 

■-'  Ibid.  can.  57.    Clerieus  maledicus,  ma.^iine  in  sacerdo- 


1  Cor.  V.  II,  "  I  have  written  unto  you  not  to  keep 
company,  if  any  man  that  is  called  a  brother  be  a 
fornicator,  or  covetous,  or  an  idolater,  or  a  railer,  or 
a  drunkard,  or  an  extortioner  ;  with  such  an  one  no 
not  to  eat."  And  again,  I  Cor.  vi.  9,  10,  "  Be  not 
deceived :  neither  fornicators,  nor  idolaters,  nor 
adulterers,  nor  effeminate,  nor  abusers  of  themselves 
with  mankind,  nor  thieves,  nor  covetous,  nor  drunk- 
ards, nor  revilers,  nor  extortioners,  shall  inherit  the 
kingdom  of  God."  And  therefore  the  church,  fol- 
lowing this  rule,  reckoned  slanderous  railing  and 
scurrility  among  the  crimes  that  deserved  ecclesi- 
astical censure.  Insomuch  that  a  clergyman,  who 
was  noted  for  scurrilous  and  scoffing  language,  is 
ordered  by  the  council  of  Agde  '*  to  be  degraded. 
And  the  same  canon  occurs  in  the  fourth  council  of 
Carthage,""  with  some  others  of  the  like  nature ;  as, 
if  he  be  given  to  railing,-'  or  revealing  of  secrets  to 
the  infamy  and  disgrace  of  others.  Upon  this  latter 
case,  of  defaming  men  by  divulging  unnecessarily 
their  secret  crimes,  St.  Austin^  has  a  whole  dis- 
course, where  he  particularly  says.  That  he  that  re- 
bukes a  man  publicly  before  all,  when  his  crime  is 
known  to  none  but  himself  alone,  is  not  a  reprover, 
but  a  betrayer.  He  reminds  such  of  the  example 
of  Joseph,  who,  finding  the  holy  Virgin  to  be  with 
child,  and  suspecting  her  to  be  guilty  of  fornication, 
yet,  being  a  just  and  good  man,  he  was  minded  to 
put  her  away  privily,  and  not  make  her  a  public 
example.  And  he  adds.  That  bishops  were  wont 
thus"^  to  proceed  with  private  criminals  in  the 
church.  A  bishop  knows  a  man  to  be  guilty  of 
murder,  and  the  thing  is  known  to  none  besides 
himself.  If  in  this  case  I  should  reprove  him  pub- 
licly, some  other  would  take  the  law  upon  him. 
Therefore  I  neither  betray  him,  nor  neglect  him :  I 
reprove  him  in  secret,  I  set  before  his  eyes  the  judg- 
ment of  God,  I  terrify  his  guilty  conscience,  I  per- 
suade him  to  repentance.  So  again,  says  he,  there 
are  some  men  that  are  adulterers  in  their  own 
houses,  they  sin  sometimes  in  private,  and  they  are 
discovered  to  us  by  their  own  wives,  sometimes  in 
zeal  and  fury,  sometimes  in  mercy,  desiring  the  sal- 
vation of  their  souls.  Now,  in  this  case  we  do  not 
betray  them  openly,  but  rebuke  them  in  secret. 
Where  the  evil  is  committed,  there  it  dies :  yet  we 
do  not  neglect  that  wound,  but  before  all  things 


tibus,  cogatur  ad  postulandam  veniam.  Si  noluerit,  degra- 
detur.  It.  can.  56.  Clerieus  qui  adulationibus  et  proditio- 
nibus  vacare  deprehenditur,  ab  officio  degradetur. 

"  Aug.  Serm.  16.  de  Verbis  Domini,  t.  10.  p.  29.  Si  so- 
lus nosti,  quia  peccavit  in  te,  et  eum  vis  coram  cuuibus 
arguere,  non  es  correptor,  sed  proditor. 

^■^  Ibid.  Novit  enim  nescio  quem  homicldam  episcopus, 
et  alius  ilium  nemo  novit.  Ego  ilium  volo  publice  corri- 
pere,  at  tu  quaeris  inscribere.  Prorsus  nee  prodo,  iiec 
negligo  :  corripio  in  seereto :  pono  ante  oculos  Dei  ju- 
dicium, terreo  cruentam  conscientiam,  persuadeo  poeni- 
tentiam. 


Chap.  XIIT. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1025 


show  the  man  that  has  committed  such  a  sin,  and 
wounded  his  conscience  thereby,  that  his  wound  is 
mortal.  By  this  discourse  of  St.  Austin,  it  seems 
clear,  that  the  church  brought  no  private  crimes 
inider  public  penance,  except  when  the  guilty  per- 
son consented  to  it  and  required  it :  and  to  do  other- 
wise, was  a  high  crime  in  the  minister,  who  was 
charged,  for  any  such  attempt,  as  a  divulger  of 
secrets,  and  betrayer  of  his  trust,  and  one  that 
brought  an  imnecessary  defamation  and  scandal 
upon  his  brethren. 

Thus  far  the  discipline  of  the  church 
Of  lyiiig.  How     proceeded  against  all  defamatory  and 

far  it  broiiaht  men    ^  .    .  ^. 

uiiHer  the  .Tiscipiine  pemicious  Ivinff.    But  thcrc  are  somc 

of  the  chiircli.  '  ■        . 

other  sorts  of  lies,  as  the  ludicrous  lie, 
and  the  officious  lie,  which,  though  culpable  and 
sinful  in  themselves,  were  not  so  severely  pursued 
by  ecclesiastical  censures.  Tertullian,^*  reckoning 
up  those  lesser  sins  which  were  not  publicly  pun- 
ished by  penance  in  the  church,  puts  lying  out  of 
modesty,  or  necessity,  among  them.  And  Origen^ 
makes  lying  one  of  those  sins,  which  were  incident 
to  those  who  had  made  the  greatest  proficiency  in 
the  church.  Some  indeed  pleaded  for  officious  lies, 
as  not  only  innocent  and  lawful,  but  in  some  cases 
useful  and  necessary ;  as,  if  it  were  to  save  the  life 
of  an  innocent  person,  a  man  ought  in  that  case 
rather  to  tell  a  lie,  than  to  betray  him  to  death.  But 
St.  Austin  disputes  against  this  sort  of  officious  lies 
also,  and  shows  them  to  be  culpable  and  sinful ; 
arguing.  That  a  man  ought  neither  to  betray  an  in- 
nocent person,  nor  tell  a  lie  to  save  him,  but  to 
venture  his  own  life,  by  professing  roundly,  that 
he  will  neither  lie  for  him,  nor  discover  him.  And 
he  gives  a  rare  instance  of  this  sort  of  fortitude  in 
one  Firmus,  bishop  of  Tagasta,  who,  according  to 
what  the  Greeks  call  pheronymy,  (psptowfiia,  carried 
firmness  in  his  name,^°  and  firmness  in  his  resolu- 
tion. For  when  one  of  the  heathen  emperors  had 
sent  his  apparitors  to  search  for  a  certain  person 
whom  he  had  hidden,  he  told  them  plainly,  he 
could  neither  tell  a  lie,  nor  betray  the  man ;  and 
though  they  put  him  to  the  rack,  and  tortured  him 
to  make  him  confess,  yet  he  persisted  in  his  resolu- 
tion not  to  discover  the  man  that  was  fled  to  him 
for  safety  and  protection.  Whereupon  he  was  car- 
ried before  the  emperor  himself,  where  he  gave  such 
admirable  and  fresh  proofs  of  his  firmness,  that  the 
emperor  without  any  great  difficulty  was  prevailed 
upon  to  pardon  the  man,  whom  he  kept  in  private 


imder  his  protection.  This  was  a  singular  instance 
of  heroic  gallantry,  rather  to  run  the  hazard  of  his 
own  life,  than  tell  a  lie  to  save  another  from  de- 
struction. But  the  discipline  of  the  church  did  not 
run  thus  high,  to  oblige  all  men  to  come  up  to  this 
degree  of  veracity  imder  pain  of  excommunication. 
It  was  sufficient  to  encourage  truth  ;uid  ingenuity 
in  all  cases,  and  punish  falseness  and  perfidiousness 
in  all  notorious  instances  of  mischievous  evil :  but 
in  other  cases,  it  was  no  blemish  to  the  discipline  of 
the  church,  to  suffer  some  sort  of  more  pardonable 
lying  to  pass  ^\^thout  the  animadversion  of  the 
highest  censure,  so  long  as  they  gave  no  encourage- 
ment to  it,  but  condemned  it  universally  as  a  lesser 
instance  of  transgression.  To  this  purpose  St.  Aus- 
tin says,  in  another  place,"  There  are  two  sorts  of 
lies  in  which  there  is  no  gi-eat  fault,  and  yet  they 
are  not  wholly  without  fault,  that  is,  when  we  lie  in 
jest,  and  when  we  lie  for  the  advantage  of  our 
neighbour.  In  this  latter  case,  he  thinks,  a  man 
may  honestly  conceal  the  truth  by  silence,  but  he 
must  not  upon  any  account  speak  false,  or  tell  a  lie ; 
for  that  will  not  consist  with  the  perfection  of  a 
Christian.  Therefore  if  he  would  not  betray  a  man 
to  death,  he  must  prepare  himself  to  conceal  the 
truth,  but  not  to  speak  false  f^  so  as  that  he  may 
neither  betray  the  man,  nor  tell  a  lie ;  lest  he  destroy 
his  own  soul  to  preserve  the  life  of  another.  As 
this  shows  the  perfection  of  the  Christian  morals, 
so  it  equally  declares  the  abatement  that  was  made 
in  the  discipline  of  the  church,  in  reference  to  such 
officious  lies  as  were  extorted  from  men  upon  some 
extraordinary  charity;  which,  though  it  did  not 
wholly  excuse  the  sin,  yet  it  made  it  so  far  tolerable, 
as  not  to  incur  the  severity  of  public  discipline,  but 
come  within  the  number  of  those  lesser  sins,  which 
did  not  ordinarily  fall  under  the  greater  censures  of 
the  church. 

In  all  other  cases,  where  lying  was  attended  with 
mischievous  and  pernicious  effects,  it  was  punished 
according  to  the  proportion  of  those  crimes  that 
accompanied  it.  As  we  have  already  seen  in  the 
case  of  false  witness,  libelling,  slandering,  railing, 
and  reviling.  And  when  it  implied  any  fraud, 
or  equivocation,  or  double  dealing  in  matters  of  re- 
ligion, it  was  punished  as  apostacy  or  perjury,  as 
we  have  seen  in  the  case  of  the  LiheUatici,^  who 
either  denied  their  religion  in  writing,  or  purchased 
libels  of  security  from  the  magistrate,  to  excuse 
them  from  sacrificing ;  and  those  who  feigned  ihem- 


"'  Tertul.  de  Pudicit.  cap.  19. 

-^  Orig.  Tract.  6.  in  Mat.  p.  60.  See  before,  cliap.  3. 
sect.  14. 

^^  Aug.  de  Mendacio  ad  Consentiiim,  cap.  13.  Firmus 
nomine,  firmior  volunlate — respondit  quKreutibiis,  se  nee 
mentiri  pnsse,  nee  hominem  prodere  ;  passusque  multa  tor- 
menta  corporis  permansit  in  sententia,  &c. 

^'  Aug.  in  Psal.  v.  p.  11.  Duo  sinit  omnino  genera  men- 
daciorum,  in  quibus  non  est  mai^na  culpa:  sed  tanien  non 

3  u 


sunt  sine  culpa,  cum  autjocamur,  aiit,  ut  pro.\iuiis  prosimiis, 
mentimur. 

-■*  Ibid.  Aliud  est  mentiri.  aliud  verum  est  occultare  :  ut  si 
quis  forte  vel  ad  istam  visibilem  mortem  non  vult  hominem 
prodere,  paratus  esse  debet  verum  occultare.  nou  falsum 
dicere;  ut  neque  prodat,  nequc  mentiatur,  no  occidat  ani- 
mam  suara  pro  corpore  alterius.  \n\.  Cone.  Tolet.  8.  can. 
2.  et  Gratian.  Caus.  22.  Qu;cst. 

'^  Chap.  4.  sect.  G  and  7. 


1 


1026 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVL 


selves  mad  to  avoid  a  prosecution :  both  which  sorts 
of  men  the  chm-ch  condemned  as  idolaters,  and  as 
guilty,  by  their  dissimulation  and  cowardice,  of  be- 
traying their  holy  religion.  The  Priscillianists  were 
likewise  infamous  for  this  character,  and  abominable 
practice  of  equivocation.  For  they  taught  their 
disciples  this  base  art  of  dissembhng,  and  conceal- 
ing their  vile  practices^"  by  lies  and  perjury ;  giving 
them  this  direction,  as  one  of  their  rules  and  in- 
structions in  cases  of  danger :  Swear,  and  forswear, 
and  never  discover  your  secrets.  How  much  more 
laudable  and  commendable  is  the  rule  given  in  this 
case  even  by  the  heathen  satirist,^'  which  deserves 
to  be  written  in  letters  of  gold!  If  ever  you  are 
called  to  be  a  witness  in  a  doubtful  matter,  though 
Phalaris  himself  should  command  you  to  speak 
false,  and  threaten  to  burn  you  in  his  brazen  bull, 
unless  you  will  forswear  yourself;  in  that  case  reckon 
it  the  greatest  villany  to  prefer  life  before  truth  and 
honesty,  and  for  the  sake  of  living  to  forego  those 
things  which  are  the  only  true  reasons  of  living, 
that  is,  probity,  integrity,  and  a  good  conscience, 
for  which  end  men  are  born  and  sent  into  the  world 
by  the  providence  of  God.  This  rule  is  often  incul- 
cated by  the  heathen  moralists,  Marcus  Antoninus, 
Epictetus,  Seneca,  and  Plutarch :  which  made  it 
the  more  reasonable  for  the  Christians  to  insist  upon 
it,  and  punish  the  crimes  of  perjury  and  falseness 
with  the  severest  of  ecclesiastical  censures,  when- 
ever they  could  plainly  convict  any  one  of  being 
guilty  of  them :  and  when  they  could  not,  the  pro- 
vidence of  God  commonly  interposed,  and  discover- 
ed and  punished  them  by  some  remarkable  Divine 
judgment.  Of  which,  beside  the  case  of  Ananias 
and  Sai)phira  in  Scripture,  we  have  a  memorable  in- 
stance in  Eusebius*^  of  three  men  who  combined 
together  in  a  false  accusation  of  Narcissus,  bishop 
of  Jerusalem,  imprecating  upon  themselves  very 
direful  judgments,  which  the  providence  of  God 
justly  brought  upon  them;  of  which,  because  I 
have  given  a  full  relation  before,'^  I  need  say  no 
more  in  this  place. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


OF    GRKAT    TRANSGRESSIONS    AGAINST   THE    TENTH 
COMMANDMENT,  ENVY,  COVETOCSNESS,  ETC. 

Sect.  1.         There  is  but  little  to  be  observed  in 

Whother  envy  ,  '        ±     j'       •     f  n      ^  i  -. 

l.rouKht  men  uml.r    ttlC    aUClCnt    (llSCiphnC    of  tllC    cllUrch 
the  diflcipUne  of  the  .  - 

church.  concerning  the  transgressions  against 


""  Aug.  de  H acres,  cap.  70.  Propter  occiiltandas  autem 
contaminationes  ct  tnrpitudines  suas,  habent  in  suis  dogma- 
tibus  et  hsee  verba,  Jura,  perjura,  secretum  prodcre  noli. 

^'  Juvenal.  Sal.  8.  ver.  80.  Ambigua;  si  quaudo  citabore 
testis  incert;rque  rei,  Phalaris  licet  imporct,  ut  sis  f'ulsus,  et 


this  commandment ;  because,  though  some  of  them 
were  great  crimes,  yet  they  were  such  as  chiefly 
consisted  in  the  internal  corruptions  of  the  mind; 
and  the  church  could  take  no  notice  of  them, 
till  they  first  discovered  themselves  in  some  out- 
ward actions.  Envy  was  a  crime  of  that  nature : 
it  was  always  reckoned  a  diabolical  sin,  and  one  of 
the  first  magnitude ;  but  yet,  before  it  could  bring 
a  man  under  public  discipline,  the  inward  rancour 
of  the  heart  must  betray  itself  in  some  outward, 
apparent,  and  visible  action.  In  this  sense  we  are 
to  understand  St.  Chrysostom,'  when  he  says.  The 
envious  man  ought  to  be  cast  out  of  the  church  as 
well  as  the  fornicator,  to  preserve  others  from  the 
contagion  and  poison  of  his  example.  That  is, 
when  envy  shows  itself  in  any  of  those  mischievous 
effects,  which  naturally  arise  from  it,  and  turn  to 
the  apparent  detriment  of  men  or  religion.  For,  as 
Cyprian  observes,^  envy  is  a  very  prolific  vice,  mul- 
tiplying itself  into  various  shapes  and  figures  :  it  is 
the  root  of  all  evils,  the  fountain  of  destruction,  the 
seminary  of  sins,  and  the  matter  of  all  offences. 
Hence  proceeds  hatred,  hence  animosity  arises. 
Envy  inflames  covetousness,  making  a  man  not  to 
be  content  with  his  own,  whilst  he  sees  another 
richer  than  himself.  Envy  excites  ambition,  whilst 
a  man  sees  another  in  greater  honour  than  himself : 
envy  blinds  our  senses,  and  reduces  the  interior 
faculties  of  the  soul  under  its  power  and  dominion. 
Then  the  fear  of  God  is  slighted,  the  precepts  of 
Christ  are  neglected,  the  day  of  judgment  is  not 
thought  of.  It  puffs  us  up  with  pride,  it  imbitters 
us  with  cruelty,  makes  us  prevaricate  with  perfidi- 
ousness,  shocks  us  with  impatience,  enrages  us  with 
discord,  inflames  us  with  anger ;  and  a  man  cannot 
contain  or  govern  himself,  who  is  now  under  the 
power  of  another.  By  this  means  the  bond  of  Di- 
vine peace  is  broken,  brotherly  charity  is  violated, 
truth  adulterated,  unity  divided,  and  heresies  and 
schisms  take  their  original ;  whilst  men  disparage 
the  priests,  and  envy  the  bishops,  and  every  one 
complains  that  he  himself  w^as  not  ordained,  or 
takes  it  in  dudgeon  that  another  was  preferred 
before  him.  When  envy  was  attended  with  any 
such  effects  as  these,  then  it  fell  under  the  cogni- 
zance of  public  discipline  ;  not  as  it  was  an  inward 
corruption  of  the  mind,  but  as  it  discovered  itself  in 
some  outward  and  vicious  action,  as  open  dissension, 
or  heresy,  or  schism,  or  the  breach  of  unity  and 
peace,  ecclesiastical  or  civil ;  which  crimes  being 
the  subject  of  church  censure,  so  far  as  envy  was 
concerned  in  any  of  them,  so  far  it  might  be  said  to 
be  punished  by  the  public  discipline  of  the  church, 


admotodictet  perjuria  tauro  ;  summumcrede  nefas,  aniraam 
pracfevre  pudori,  et  pro])ter  vitain  vivendi  perdere  caiisas. 

•■'-  Euseb.  lib.  G.  cap.  9.  "  chap.  7.  sect.  8. 

'  Chrys.  Horn.  41.  in  Mat.  p.  3a3. 

"  f'ypi'-  i^'c  Zclo  ct  Livore,  p.  223. 


Chap.  XIV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1027 


l)ut  no  otherwise,  for  want  of  sufficient  ground  to 
liioceed  in  a  legal  way  of  evidence  against  it.  But 
wt  this  bitter  root  gave  but  too  many  occasions  to 
tlie  church  to  punish  it  in  other  species  ;  being  one 
I  if  those  sins  that  could  not  contain  itself  or  long 
lie  hid,  having  a  train  of  other  vices  commonly  at- 
Nnding  it,  according  to  the  observation  made  by 
\  prian,  and  long  before  by  St.  James ;  "  For  where 
iivying  and  strife  is,  there  is  confusion  and  every 
I  vil  work." 

The  like  is  to  be  observed  of  pride. 

Sect.  2.  '■ 

or   pride,  ambi-  ambitiou,  and  vain-jjlory.  These  were 

tion,  and  vain-glory.  _  . 

great  sins  in  their  own  nature;  but 
being  internal  and  spiritual  sins  in  their  kind,  the 
discipline  of  the  church  could  take  no  notice  of 
them,  till  they  discovered  themselves  in  some  enor- 
mous, outward  vicious  actions.  As  when  pride 
drew  men  into  blasphemy  against  God,  or  oppres- 
sion of  men ;  when  ambition  or  vain-glory  made 
men  factious  and  turbulent  in  the  church,  and 
pushed  them  forward  into  open  heresy  or  schism ; 
then  was  the  proper  time  for  the  church  to  take  her 
spiritual  sword  into  her  hand,  and  make  use  of  her 
censures  for  their  correction.  Thus  we  have  seen 
the  pride  of  Andronicus  corrected  by  Synesius,  bi- 
shop of  Ptolemais,'  when  it  brake  forth  into  open 
blasphemy  against  Christ ;  and  thus  all  along  here- 
tics and  schismatics  found  their  punishment,  when 
their  ambition  and  restless  spirit  proceeded  so  far, 
as  to  make  some  open  breach  upon  the  faith  or 
unity  of  the  church.  But  in  these  cases,  pride  was 
rather  punished  in  other  species  of  sin,  blasphemy, 
heresy,  or  schism ;  for  the  censure  of  which  the 
reader  must  look  back  into  the  former  parts  of  this 
Book. 

Sect  3.  The  same  observation  is  to  be  car- 

orcovetousness.     ^.j^^^  further,  and  made  upon  covet- 

ousness,  which  is  another  of  those  three  great 
lusts  that  reign  in  the  world,  the  lust  of  the  heart, 
the  lust  of  the  eye,  and  the  pride  of  life.  Covetous- 
ness,  which  is  the  lust  of  the  eye,  is  always  a  very 
great  sin  before  God ;  being,  as  the  apostle  terms 
it,  "idolatry,  and  the  root  of  all  evil;"  and  even 
when  it  is  only  conceived  in  the  mind,  it  makes  a 
man  odious  to  his  Maker.  But  because  God  sees 
not  as  man  sees  ;  for  God  looks  upon  the  heart ; 
therefore,  before  covetousness  can  render  a  man  a 
proper  object  of  the  church's  discipline,  it  must  dis- 
cover itself  in  some  visible  act  of  injustice,  as 
theft,  oppression,  or  fraud,  under  which  appear- 


ances, but  not  otherwise,  it  was  liable  to  the 
church's  judgment  and  censure.  And  this  is  what 
Gregory  Nyssen  observes,*  That  among  all  the 
species  of  covetousness  none  were  expiated  by  so- 
lemn penance,  but  such  as  theft  and  violation  of 
graves,  that  is,  such  instances  of  covetousness  as 
manifested  themselves  in  some  outward  and  ap- 
parent evil  action. 

And  the  like  is  to  be  said  of  the  lust  sect  4 
of  the  heart,  or  carnal  lusts,  and  sins  of '''^"»' i"^"- 
of  uncleanness.  Though  the  evil  thoughts  and  in- 
tentions of  the  heart  are  sinful  before  God  in  gene- 
ral ;  "  For  if  I  regard  iniquity  in  my  heart,  the  Lord 
will  not  hear  me  ; "  and  though,  in  particular,  "  he 
that  looks  on  a  woman  to  lust  after  her,  hath 
committed  adultery  with  her  already  in  his  heart ;" 
yet  this  was  not  punishable  in  the  discipline  of  the 
church :  because  the  church  is  no  judge  of  the 
secret  intentions,  but  only  of  the  outward  and  visi- 
ble actions,  that  carry  scandal  as  well  as  sin  in  them. 
Therefore  we  have  observed  before,*  out  of  the 
council  of  Neocaesarea,*  That  no  one  was  to  be  ex- 
communicated for  sins  only  in  design  and  intention. 
If  a  man  purpose  in  his  heart  to  commit  fornication 
with  a  woman,  but  his  lust  proceed  not  into  action, 
it  is  apparent  he  is  delivered  by  grace,  says  the 
canon.  And  therefore,  though  he  was  culpable  be- 
fore God,  yet  the  church  inflicted  not  the  censure 
of  excommunication  on  him,  because  her  discipline 
extended  not  to  men's  private  thoughts,  but  only  to 
their  outward  actions.  And  this  was  the  case  of  all 
transgressions  that  were  purely  against  this  com- 
mand :  they  might  be  punished  under  other  species 
of  sin,  but  not  as  they  were  only  sins  of  the  heart, 
because,  as  such,  human  judicature  could  take  no 
cognizance  of  them. 

We  have  now  gone  through  the  several  branches 
of  duty  and  transgression,  and  therein  taken  a  full 
view  of  the  extent  of  the  discipline  of  the  church : 
whereby  it  appears,  that  the  objects  of  ecclesiastical 
discipline  were  not  only  the  three  great  sins  of  idol- 
atry, adultery,  and  murder,  but  all  other  crimes  that 
come  under  the  denomination  of  scandalous  and 
great  transgressions.  And  thus  far  the  discipline 
of  the  church  related  to  all  persons  in  general,  but 
there  were  some  punishments  peculiar  to  delinquent 
clergymen,  which,  because  they  are  matter  of  par- 
ticular inquiry,  I  shall  make  them  the  subject  of 
the  foUowingr  Book. 


»  Synes.  Ep.  58.     See  Book  XVI.  chap.  '2.  sect.  G  and  & 
■*  Nyssen.  Ep.  aJ  Letoium.  I 


5  Chap.  3.  sect.  17. 

*  Cone.  Neocajsar.  can.  4. 


3  u  2 


BOOK   XVII. 

OF  THE  EXERCISE  OF  DISCIPLINE  AMONG  THE  CLERGY  IN  THE  ANCIENT  CHURCH. 


CHAPTER  I. 


OF    THE    DIFFERENCE   BETWEEN   ECCLESIASTICAE    CENSURES    INFLICTED    ON    CLERGYMEN    AND 

LAYMEN. 


Sect.  1. 
The  peculiar  no- 
tion of  comniunio 
fcctesifjstica,  and  cr- 
commtmicalio  eccU- 
siastica,  as  applied 
to  the  clergj'. 


We  have  hitherto  taken  a  general 
view  of  the  disciphne  of  the  church, 
as  it  respected  all  the  members  of  the 
community  falling  into  the  several 
crimes  deserving  excommunication. 
But  to  have  a  complete  notion  and  full  comprehen- 
sion of  the  church's  discipline,  we  are  to  consider, 
there  were  some  punishments  peculiar  to  the  clergy, 
and  some  censures  so  particularly  respecting  their 
office  and  function,  that  they  could  only  be  inflicted 
on  them,  and  not  upon  laymen.  In  regard  to  which, 
clerical  communion  and  lay  communion  were  always 
considered  as  distinct  things ;  and  a  man  might  be  de- 
prived of  the  former,  whilst  he  was  allowed  to  enjoy 
the  benefit  and  privilege  of  the  latter ;  and  even  that 
which  was  many  times  a  very  great  punishment  in  a 
clergyman,  or  ecclesiastical  person,  was  no  punish- 
ment at  all  in  a  secular  person  or  layman.  For 
there  was  no  suspension  from  office  or  benefit,  no 
degradation  or  deposition,  no  reduction  to  lay  com- 
munion, that  could  affect  a  layman,  as  they  were 
punishments :  but  all  these  were  great  punishments 
as  inflicted  on  the  clergy,  because  they  deprived 
them  of  those  special  honours  and  advantageous 
privileges,  that  were  peculiar  to  their  function.  In 
reference  to  which  things  we  sometimes  find  the 
terms  communio  ccclesutstica,  and  excommunicatio  ec- 
clesiastica,  ecclesiastical  communion,  and  ecclesias- 
tical excommunication,  used  in  a  peculiar  and 
restrained  sense,  not  for  communion  or  excommu- 
nication in  general,  but  for  admission  to  or  expul- 
sion from  these  particular  honours  and  advantages, 
which  were  peculiarly  appropriated  to  ecclesiastical 
persons,  or  such  as  were  of  the  clerical  order  and 
function.  Therefore,  though  some  canons  take 
suspension  from  ecclesiastical  communion'  for  sus- 


pension of  laymen  from  the  communion  of  the  eu- 
charist  or  the  prayers  of  the  church ;  yet  other 
canons,  speaking  of  the  clergy  and  their  punishment, 
take  ecclesiastical  communion  in  a  more  restrained 
sense,  for  communicating  in  the  offices  of  the  cleri- 
cal function.  So  that  a  clergyman  was  said  to  be 
excommunicated,  when  he  was  deprived  of  the  power 
of  exercising  the  offices  of  his  function ;  and  such 
an  excommunication  does  not  always  imply  that  he 
was  wholly  cast  out  of  all  communion  with  the 
church,  but  only  communion  as  specified  with  this 
limitation  and  restriction.  This  distinction  is  noted 
by  Balsamon,-  and  Zonaras,^  and  many  other  learn- 
ed men^  after  them  :  and  it  is  necessary  to  be  ol)- 
served,  for  the  right  understanding  of  many  ancient 
canons,*  where  the  words  aKoivuvtjTog,  a^opiafioq, 
iKKt}pvTTi(T6ai,  which  signify  excommunication,  can 
have  no  other  meaning,  as  applied  to  the  clergy,  but 
only  to  denote  their  degradation  or  suspension. 
This  may  be  confirmed  from  an  ob- 

•'  Sect.  2. 

servation  that  has  been  made  once  ,,'El"'"'lffl"'"'^'' 

ly  punished  bv  a  re- 

before  in  a  former  Book,^  That  some  rerbu™Tot"'-^wat 
ancient  canons  expressly  forbid  the  penance'?  'as'^men 

1  ,1  •    1       T  1        . 1  T  wholly  cast   out  of 

clergy  to  be  punished  by  trie  ordinary  the  communion  of 

_  .         .  ,   ,    ,       .  the  church. 

way  oi  excommunication,  which  im- 
plies a  total  removal  from  the  communion  of  the 
church  ;  but  thought  it  sufficient  to  punish  them  by  a 
removal  from  their  office  ;  and  that,  because  it  was 
not  proper  to  punish  men  doubly  for  the  same  of- 
fence. If  a  bishop,  presbyter,  or  deacon,  says  one 
of  the  Apostolical  Canons,'  be  taken  in  fornication, 
peijury,  or  theft,  he  shall  be  deposed,  but  not  ex- 
communicated :  for  the  Scripture  says,  "  Thou  shalt 
not  punish  twice  for  the  same  crime."  And  the  like 
rule  is  prescribed  in  the  canons  of  Peter,"  bishop  of 
Alexandria,  and  those  of  St.  Basil.' 


*  Vid.  Cone.  Agathen.  can.  37.    Cone.  Aurel.  1.  can.  19. 
Ibid.  5.  can.  17. 

*  Balsam,  in  can.  IG.  Cone.  Nie.         '  Zonar.  in  eiindem. 

*  Albaspin.  Observ.  lib.  1.  cap.  2.    Habert.  Arehicrat.  p. 


746.  Suicer.  Thcsaur.  Eccles.  voce  'Acpopta-fio'; 
^  Via.  Can.  Apost.  6,  41  45,  56,  57,  58,  59,  72. 
^  Book  V  1.  chap.  2.  sect.  2.  '  Canon.  Apost.  e.  24. 

s  Pet.  Ales.  can.  10.  »  Basil,  can.  3,  32,  51. 


i!Al'.     I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


102{> 


Sect  3  ^^^  ^^^  some  more  flagrant  crimes 

:' casVbo.h'p^  both  penalties  were  inllicted,  as  ap- 
■  «  "'flicted.       ^^^.^j.g  ^j.^j^^  J j^^  g.^j^^^  Apostolical '"  Ca- 

ons,  which  order,  that  if  any  clergyman  was  found 

i^niilty  of  simony,  or  any  such  heinous  offence,  he 

hould  not  only  be  deposed  from  his  office,  but  be 

I  :ist  out  of  the  church.     And  a  gi-eat  many  learned 
1.  n"  are  of  opinion,  that  this  was  the  constant 

:ictice  of  the  church  even  in  the  three  first  ages, 
\'.  hen  the  Apostolical  Canons  were  most  in  force. 

I I  is  certain  it  was  so  in  the  time  of  Cyprian :  for 
( .  speaking  of  Novatus,  who  was  guilty  of  mur- 

II  lit.  r,  in  causing  his  own  wife  by  a  blow  to  miscarry, 
says,  That  for  this  crime  he  was  not  only  to  be  de- 
graded, or  expelled  the  presbytery,  but  to  be  de- 
prived '-  of  the  communion  of  the  church  also.  And 
in  the  following  ages  there  are  innumerable  exam- 
ples of  this  practice,  as  the  learned  reader  may 
satisfy  himself  by  consulting  the  passages  "  referred 
to  in  the  margin. 

Now,  that  which  we  are  concerned 
at  present  to  inquire  after,  are  those 
punishments  which  particularly  affect- 
ed the  clergy  :  and  these  were  of  three  sorts ;  such 
as  respected  their  maintenance,  such  as  respected 
their  office,  and  such  as  respected  their  persons  in 
corporal  chastisement  and  correction.  Sometimes 
they  were  punished  in  their  maintenance,  by  with- 
drawing the  usual  portion  of  the  church's  revenues, 
which  was  allotted  to  them  out  of  the  public  stock 
for  their  maintenance  and  subsistence.  The  re- 
venues of  the  church,  as  has  been  observed  in  a 
former  Book,"  were  usually  divided  among  the  cler- 
gy once  a  month,  whence  it  had  the  name  of  dirisio 
menswna,  the  monthly  division :  and  when  there 
was  occasion  to  punish  a  delinquent  clergyman  for 
some  less  offence,  it  was  done  by  withdrawing  this 


usual  portion  of  the  monthly  division  from  him.  As 
appears  from  that  of  Cyprian,'*  who,  speaking  of 
some  of  the  inferior  clergy  that  had  offended,  says, 
"  They  should  be  withheld  or  suspended  from  their 
monthly  division,  but  not  be  deprived  of  their 
ministerial  office  in  the  church." 

Sometimes    they  were    suspended 
not  only  from   their    revenues,   but      of  Biispin.;ion 

.  .  from  their  office. 

h-om  then-  office  and  function.  And 
this  was  either  temporary  and  limited,  or  perpetual 
and  without  restriction.  The  temporary  suspen- 
sion was  only  a  depriving  them  of  the  execution  of 
their  office  for  a  certain  term ;  and  when  that  term 
was  over,  they  had  liberty  to  resume  their  place, 
and  return  to  the  execution  of  their  office  in  all  the 
parts  and  duties  of  their  function :  but  the  per- 
petual suspension  was  a  total  deprivation  of  them 
from  all  power  and  dignity  belonging  to  the  clerical 
office,  and  a  reduction  of  them  to  the  state  and  con- 
dition of  laymen,  without  any  ordinary  hopes  or 
prospect  of  ever  recovering  their  ancient  station. 
The  former  of  these  is  commonly  called  by  the  an- 
cients abstention  and  suspension  from  communion, 
meaning  clerical  communion  only ;  and  the  latter 
vulgarly  known  by  the  name  of  degradation,  de-or- 
dination, or  deposition  from  the  office  and  order  of 
the  clerical  function.  Thus  Cyprian,  writing  to 
Rogatian,  an  African  bishop,  concerning  a  contu- 
macious deacon  who  rebelled  against  him,  bids  him 
to  depose  him  from  his  office,  or  at  least  suspend '" 
him.  The  penalty  of  suspension  \\as  for  less  crimes, 
as  in  the  instance  given  in  the  council  of  Epone," 
If  a  bishop,  presbyter,  or  deacon  be  detected  to  keep 
dogs  for  hunting,  or  hawks  for  fowling,  the  bishop 
is  to  be  suspended  for  three  months,  the  presbyter 
for  two,  and  the  deacon  for  one.  So  by  a  canon  of 
the  council  of  Lerida,'^  If  any  clergyman  in  a  siege 


'"  Canon.  Apost.  29,  30,  et  51. 

"  Pagi,  Critic,  in  Baron,  an.  67.  n.  15.  Quesnel.  Not.  in 
Leo.  Ep.  ad  Rustic.  Narbon.  Moriu.  tie  Pceuit.  lib.  4.  cap. 
12.  Fell,  Not.  in  Cypr.  Ep.  4.  ad  Pompon,  p.  4. 

'-Cypr.  Ep.  49.  al.  52.  ad  Cornel,  p.  97.  Propter  hoc  se 
non  de  piesbyterio  tantum,  sed  et  communicatione  prohi- 
beri  pro  certo  tenebat,  &c. 

"  Cone.  Ncoca3sar.  can.  1.  TlptaliuTtpoi  iai/  yvfi\i,  t?}s 
Tu^tois  auToj/ ^ETaTiOttrOaf  kav  ot  iropvevaj],  v  fxotx^'Jo'n, 
i^codtlcrdaL  avTov  TtXiov,  Kai  ayEtrBat  aiiTov  t'fs  fXiTcivoiav. 
If  a  presbyter  marries,  he  shall  be  removed  from  his  order; 
but  if  he  commits  fornication  or  adultery,  he  shall  be  wholly 
expelled  the  church,  and  reduced  to  the  discipline  of  re- 
pentance. Vid.  Cone.  Agathen.  can.  8  et  42.  Cone. 
Ilerdense,  can.  1,  5,  et  16.  Cone.  Valentin.  Hispan.  can.  3. 
Cone.  Veneticum,  can.  16.  Cone.  Aurelian.  1.  can.  II. 
Aurelian.  3.  can.  4,  7,  et  8.  Cone.  Turon.  1.  can.  3,  5. 
Cone.  Toletan.  2.  can.  .3.  Cone.  Tolet.  11.  can.  5  et  6. 
Vigilii  Decret.  cap.  6.  Felix  HI.  Ep.  ad  Acaciura,  writes 
thus  to  him  :  Sacerdotali  honore,  et  comnumione  catholica, 
nee  non  etiam  a  fidelium  numcro  segregatus,  sublatiun  tibi 
nomen  et  munus  ministerii  sacerdotalis  agnosce.  Vid.  et 
Cone.  Asiaticum.  Ep.  ad  Joan.  C.  P.  in  Synodo  sub  IMenna. 
Act.  1.  ap.  Crab.  t.  2.  p.  36.  et  Cone.  Constant,  sub  Flaviano, 


in  Act.  1.  Cone,  Chalcedon.  ap.  Crab.  p.  780.  where  Eu- 
tyches  is  punished  both  with  deposition  and  e.xcommunica- 
tion,  as  all  heretics  commonly  were. 

'^  Book  V.  chap.  4.  sect.  1. 

'^  Cypr.  Ep.  28.  al.34.  ad  Cler.  Interim  se  adivisione 
mensurna  tantum  contiueaut,  non  quasi  a  minisferio  ec- 
clesiastico  privati  esse  videantur.  Vid.  Cone.  Carth.  4. 
can.  49.     Justin.  Novel.  123.  c.  42. 

"*  Cypr.  Ep.3.  ad  llogat.  p.  6.  Fungeris  circa  eum  po- 
testate  honoris  tui,  ut  eum  vel  deponas  vel  abstineas. 

"  Cone.  Epaunen.  can.  3.  Episcopis,  presbyteris,  atque 
diaconibus  canes  ad  venandum,  et  accipitres  ad  aucupan- 
dum,  habere  non  liceat.  Quod  si  quis  talium  personarum  in 
hac  fuerit  voluntate  delectus,  si  episcopus  est,  tribus  men- 
sibus  se  a  communione  suspendat ;  duobus  presbyter  ab- 
stineat;  uno  diaconus  ab  omni  officio  et  communione 
cessabit. 

'^Conc.  Ilerden.  can.  1.  De  his  clericis,  qui  in  obses- 
sionis  necessitate  positi  fuerint,  id  statutum  est,  ut  ab  omni 
humano  sanguine,  etiam  hnstili,  se  abstineant.  Quod  si  in 
hoc  incideriut,  duobus  annis,  tam  officio  quam  communione 

corporis  Domini,  priventur Et  ita  demum  officio  vel 

communioni  reddantur,  ea  tamen  ratione,  ne  ulterius  ad 
officia  potiora  provebantur.     See  other  instances  of  sus- 


1030 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVII. 


bore  arms,  and  killed  a  man,  though  it  were  one  of 
the  enemies,  he  was  to  be  suspended  from  his  office 
two  years,  and  be  rendered  incapable  of  any  fur- 
ther promotion  ;  because  the  canons  in  all  cases 
whatsoever  peremptorily  forbade  a  clergyman  to  be 
concerned  in  blood. 

The  other  sort  of  suspension,  com- 
of  deposition  or     monlv  callcd  Kadaiptfftc,  deposition  or 

degradation.  .,  " ,      .  ,  -  , 

degradation,  was  a  total  and  perpetual 
suspension  of  the  power  and  authority  committed  to 
a  clergyman  in  his  ordination.  For  as  the  church 
had  power  to  grant  this  authority  and  commission 
at  first,  so  she  had  power  to  resume  and  withdraw  it 
again  upon  great  misdemeanors  and  just  provoca- 
tion. And  then  a  clergyman,  whatever  character 
he  sustained  before,  was  totally  divested  both  of  the 
name  and  dignity,  and  power  and  authority  belong- 
ing to  his  former  order  and  function.  By  some 
canons  "  therefore  he  is  said  to  be  degraded,  depriv- 
ed, and  turned  out  of  office  ;  by  others,-"  to  be  to- 
tally deposed,  TravreXHg  KaOaipuaOai ;  totally  to  fall 
from  his  order  or  degree,-'  irav-ikwQ  diToir'nrTiiv 
(iaBiiov ;  to  be  de-ordained,"  or  un-ordained ;  to  be 
removed  out  of  the  order  "^  of  the  clergy ;  to  cease 
to  be  of  the  number  of  the"'  clergy;  and  to  be  reduced 
to  lay  communion,  that  is,  to  the  state  and  quality 
and  condition  of  laymen.  All  these  expressions, 
except  the  last,  are  commonly  well  understood  by 
modern  writers  :  but  some,  to  serve  a  peculiar  hypo- 
thesis, have  invented  very  odd  and  strange  notions 
of  it.  Therefore,  to  set  the  matter  in  a  right  light, 
and  give  a  just  account  of  the  discipline  of  the  church, 
it  will  not  be  amiss  to  be  a  little  more  particular 
upon  this  point,  and  show  distinctly  what  the  an- 
cients meant  by  this  part  of  their  discipline,  which 
they  call  reducing  a  clergyman  to  the  state  and 
communion  of  laymen,  which  I  shall  make  the  sub- 
ject of  the  following  chapter. 


CHAPTER  II. 

OF  REDUCING  THE  CLERGY  TO  THE  STATE  AND  COM- 
MUNION OF  LAYMEN,  AS  A  PUNISHMENT  FOR 
GREAT  OFFENCES. 

Sect.  1.         Lay  communion  in  a  layman  was  no 

Lay    communion  .   -,  -  .     .1 

not  the  same  as  punisiiment,  Dut  a  privilege,  and  one 

communion  in  one       «    ,  x^  o    ' 

kind  only.  ot  thc  gTcatcst  privileges  that  belong- 


pension  in  Basil,  can.  69.  Cone.  Bracar.  3.  can.  1  et  5. 
Cone.  Aurel.  3.  can.  2,  16,  25.     Ibid.  5.  can.  5  et  18. 

"Cone.  Carth.  4.  can.  48, 49, 50.  Cone.  Tarraeon.  can.  10. 

^  Cone.  Autioch.  can.  5.  -'  Cone.  Ephes.  can.  G. 

--  Acta  Servatii  Tungrensis,  ap.  Crab.  Cone.  t.  1.  p.  318. 
Nulla  mora  Eiiphratas  deordinetur. 

'-'^  Cone.  Arelat.  1.  can.  13.     Ab  ordinc  cleri  amoveatiir. 

-'  Cone.  Nicaen.  can.  2.     HiTraua-du)  tou  KX/jpov. 

'  Bellaim.  do  Euchar.  lib.  4.  cap.  24.  p.  G78. 


ed  to  him  as  a  Christian ;  for  it  was  entitling 
him  to  all  the  benefits  and  advantages  of  Chris- 
tian communion.  But  in  a  clergyman  it  was 
one  of  the  greatest  of  punishments,  reducing  him 
from  the  highest  dignity  and  station  in  the  church 
to  the  level  and  standard  of  every  ordinary  Chris- 
tian. But  now  the  question  is,  wherein  the  nature 
of  this  punishment  consisted.  Bellarmine '  and  some 
other  writers  of  the  Romish  church,  taking  the  word 
in  a  new  and  modern  sense,  expound  it  of  commu- 
nion in  one  kind,  and  bring  it  as  an  argument  to  , 
prove  that  the  primitive  church  denied  the  people  j 
the  use  of  the  cup  in  the  Lord's  supper,  and  ad- 
ministered the  communion  to  them  only  in  one  kind, 
because  the  word  lay  communion  bears  that  signi- 
fication in  the  present  church  of  Rome.  But  this 
is  only  begging  a  principle,  and  supposing  a  prac- 
tice, of  which  there  is  not  the  least  footstep  to  be 
met  with  in  the  ancient  church,  as  I  have  fully  de- 
monstrated in  a  former"  Book.  And  it  is  such  a 
piece  of  ignorance  and  misrepresentation  of  the  an- 
cient discipline,  as  other  learned  men  in  the  Rom- 
ish church  are  commonly  ashamed  of.  The  notion 
is  entirely  rejected  and  confuted  by  Lindanus,' 
Albaspinasus,''  Peter  de  Marca,^  Rigaltius,''  Duran- 
tus,'  and  Cardinal  Bona,'  who  tacitly  reflects  upon 
Bellarmine  and  his  followers  for  their  childish  ex- 
plication of  this  ancient  term  to  make  it  comply 
with  the  modern  practice.  They  no  sooner  hear, 
says  he,  of  the  name,  lay  communion,  but  overlook- 
ing the  ancient  notion,  they  presently  take  it  only 
in  the  sense  which  it  now  bears,  and  interpret  it 
communion  in  one  kind ;  the  falseness  of  which 
we  may  learn  from  hence,  that  we  often  read  of 
clergymen  being  thrust  down  to  lay  communion  at 
that  time,  when  laymen  communicated  in  both  kinds. 

Lindanus  had  long  before  used  the         ^^^^  , 
very  same  argument,  and  advanced  a  siJJ,'ifv''c'"„^manl 
more  probable  exphcation,  that  lay  menrntStLrSs 

.    T    .      T  .  1  of  the  chancel. 

communion  might  denote  a  clergy- 
man's being  thrust  down  to  communicate  among 
laymen  without  the  rails  of  the  chancel :  which  has 
so  much  of  plausibility  in  it,  that  the  learned  Dr. 
Forbes,'  and  Vossius,'"  give  in  to  this  opinion.  But 
though  this  has  something  of  truth  in  it,  yet  it  does 
not  express  the  full  meaning  of  lay  communion. 
For  a  man  might  be  admitted  to  lay  communion  not 
only  in  the  church,  but  in  a  private  house,  or  upon 
his  death-bed,  where  there  could  be  no  such  dis- 
tinction. 


"  Book  XV.  chap.  5.        '  Lindan.  Panoplia,  lib.  4.  c.  58. 
*  Albasp.  Observ.  lib.  1.  cap.  4. 

^  Marca,  Tract,  in  Cap.  Clericus,  ad  calcem  Baluzii  de 
Emendat.  Gratiani,  p.  585. 
"  lligalt.  iu  Cypr.  Ep.  52.  ad  Anton. 
'  Durant.  de  liitibus  Eccles.  lib.  2.  cap.  55.  n.  6. 
*•  Bona  de  Uebus  Lituvg.  lib.  2.  c.  19.  n.  3. 
"  Forbes,  Iieuic.  lib.  2.  cap.  11.  p.  221. 
'»  Voss.  Thcs.  Theol.  Disp.  23.     Thes.  5.  p.  514. 


Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1031 


Therefore  Ihe  full  import  of  the 
Hut  I  tnt'ni  lie-  phrase,  and  the  adequate  notion  of 

cradation  or  depri-  ,        .  ,  , 

v.ition  of  orders,  iind  reducmc:  a  Clergyman  to  lay  commu- 

redmtion  to  the  °  .  . 

state  and  condition  nion,  is  totally  degradinorand  deprivins: 

of  laymen.  . 

him  of  his  orders,  that  is,  the  power 
and  authority  of  his  clerical  office  and  function,  and 
reducing  him  to  the  state  and  quality  and  simple 
condition  of  a  layman.  Thus  Chamier  rightly  ex- 
plains it"  against  Bellarmine,  when  he  observes,  that 
it  was  called  lay  communion  neither  from  the  place 
of  communicating,  nor  from  communicating  in  one 
species,  nor  from  the  time  and  order  of  communi- 
cating the  laity  after  the  clergy,  but  from  the  con- 
dition and  quality  of  the  person  communicating ; 
namely,  because  he  that  before  was  a  clergyman, 
or  in  the  roll  and  nomenclature  of  the  clergy,  is 
now  become  a  layman,  and  reckoned  as  one  in  the 
order  of  laymen  only.  This  supposes  a  power  in 
the  church,  not  only  of  conferring  clerical  orders  at 
first  to  men,  and  promoting  them  from  laymen  to 
be  bishops,  or  presbyters,  or  deacons,  but  also  a 
power  of  recalling  these  offices,  and  divesting  them 
of  all  power  and  authority  belonging  to  them,  by 
degrading  clergymen  upon  just  reasons,  and  re- 
ducing them  to  the  state  and  quality  of  laymen 
again.  This  is  undoubtedly  the  true  meaning  of 
all  those  ancient  canons  and  writers,  which  speak 
so  often  of  degrading  clergymen  for  their  offences, 
and  allowing  them  only  to  communicate  in  the 
quality  of  laymen.  Hereby  they  were  deprived  of 
their  order  and  office,  and  power  and  authority, 
and  even  the  name  and  title  of  clergymen;  and 
reputed  and  treated  as  private  Christians,  wholly 
divested  of  all  their  former  dignity,  and  clerical 
powers  and  privileges,  and  reduced  entirely  to  the 
state  and  condition  of  laymen.  Of  which,  be- 
cause I  have  had  occasion  to  discourse  at  large  in 
another  work,'-  I  shall  not  need  to  say  much  in  this 
place,  but  only  add  a  few  testimonies  that  were 
then  omitted.  In  the  third  coimcil  of  Orleans  there 
is  a  canon,''  which  orders.  That  if  a  clergyman, 
either  by  his  own  confession  or  conviction,  was 
proved  guilty  of  adultery,  he  should  be  deposed  from 
his  office,  and  be  confined  to  lay  communion  in  a 


monastery  all  his  days.  Ami  another  canon"  ap- 
points. That  if  any  clergyman  was  convicted  of  theft 
or  fraud,  because  those  were  capital  crimes,  he 
should  be  degraded  from  his  order,  and  only  be 
allowed  lay  commimion.  So  in  the  collection  of 
Martin  Bracarensis,'^  made  out  of  the  Greek  canons 
for  the  use  of  the  Spanish  church,  it  is  ordered, 
That  if  any  one  is  surreptitiously  ordained,  who, 
after  baptism,  has  been  guilty  of  murder,  either  by 
immediate  commission  of  the  fact,  or  by  command, 
or  counsel,  or  defence,  he  shall  be  deposed,  and  only 
be  admitted  to  lay  communion  all  his  days.  Gela- 
sius '"  has  a  like  decree,  made  in  the  case  of  a  pres- 
byter, who,  in  a  quarrel,  struck  out  the  eye  of  an- 
other; he  orders  him  to  be  deposed  from  his  office, 
and  to  be  cloistered  in  a  monastery,  there  to  repent 
of  the  fact,  and  only  to  have  lay  communion  for  his 
whole  life.  And  Gratian"  cites  an  order  of  the 
council  of  Lerida  to  the  same  purpose,  That  if  cler- 
gymen, who  are  once  corrected  for  their  ofience, 
shall  relapse,  and  return  to  their  vomit  again,  they 
shall  not  only  be  deprived  of  the  dignity  of  their 
office,  but  continue  all  their  lives  incapable  of  re- 
ceiving the  communion  even  as  laymen,  which  shall 
only  be  granted  them  at  their  last  hour. 

The  plain  result  of  this  discourse  ^  .  , 
is,  that  reducing  a  clergyman  to  the  ,..d";,;;i=;TeUom"ar 
communion  of  laymen  w'as  a  total 
deprivation,  and  divesting  him  of  his 
office  and  orders.  So  that  if  he  now  pretended  to 
act  as  a  minister,  his  actions  were  reputed  null  and 
void,  and  as  no  other  than  the  actions  of  a  layman. 
The  learned  Dr.  Forbes  has  rightly  observed  this'" 
in  the  ancient  discipline,  and  I  cannot  better  ex- 
press it  than  in  his  words :  "  He  that  is  deposed 
with  a  plenary  and  perfect  deposition,  cannot  now 
validly  exercise  the  offices  that  belong  to  his  order, 
because  he  wants  his  order  and  the  power  of  his 
order.  He  is  now  nothing  but  a  mere  layman,  and 
in  so  much  a  worse  condition  than  other  laymen, 
because  the  restitution  of  such  a  one  to  his  office 
is  a  much  more  difficult  thing  than  the  promotion 
of  other  laymen."  Indeed  there  are  very  few  in- 
stances of  recalling  such  to  the  clerical  office  again, 


>'  Chamier.  tie  Euchar.  lib.  9.  cap.  .3.  a.  33.  t.  4.  p.  487. 
Appellatam  fuisse  laicam  communionem,  non  a  loco,  nou  a 
speciebus,  non  a  tempore,  sed  a  persona:  nimirum  quotl 
qui  ante  fiierit  clericus,  sive  in  clericorum  nomeuclatura, 
nunc  sit  laicus,  et  in  laicorum  online. 

'-  Scholast.  Hist,  of  Lay  Baptism,  Part  II.  chap.  4. 

'■'  Cone.  Aurel.  3.  can.  7.  Si  quis  adulterasse,  aut  confessus 
fiierit  vel  convictus,  depositus  ob  afficio,  coinmunione  con- 
cessa,  in  monasterio  toto  vita;  suce  tempore  trudatur. 

'*  Ibid.  can.  8.  Si  quis  clericus  fuvtum  aut  falsitatem  ad- 
niiserit,  quia  capitalia  etiam  ipsa  sunt  crimina,  comniu- 
nione  concessa,  ab  ordine  degradotur. 

'^  Martin.  Bracar.  Collect.  Canon,  c.  2G.  Si  q^uis  homi- 
cidii,  aut  facto,  aut  prtecepto,  aut  consilio,  aut  defeusione, 
pust  baptismuin  conscius  fuerit,  et  per  aliquam  subreptio- 
iiem  ad  clericatum  venerit,  dejiciatur,  et  in  finem  vita;  sure 


laicam  communionem  tantummodo  recipiat. 

"^  Gelas.  Ep.  ad  IluiBn.  ap.  Gratian.  Dist.  55.  cap.  13. 
Bene  fraternitas  tua  fecit  ab  ofHcio  eum  presbytcrii  remo- 
veri.  Hoc  tameu  solicitutliuis  tuoe  sit,  ut  locum  ei  panii- 
tentia;  eonstituas,  et  in  aliquo  eum  monasterio  retrudas, 
laica  tantummodo  sibi  communione  concessa. 

"  Cone.  Ilerden.  can.  5.  ap.  Grat.  Dist.  50.  cap.  52.  Si 
iterato  vehit  canes  ad  vomitum  reversi  fuerint,  non  solum 
djfcnitate  ofticii  careant,  sed  etiam  sauctam  communionem, 
nisi  in  exitu,  non  percipiant. 

'"  Forbes,  Irenic.  lib.  2.  cap.  11.  p.  222.  Depositus  dc- 
positione  plena  et  peifocta  nou  valide  cxercct  ea,  qua  sunt 
ordiuis,  quia  ipso  caret  ordine  et  potestate  ordinis.  Et  jam 
non  nisi  laicus  est,  et  tanto  detcriore  conditione  qnam  alii 
laici,  quod  louge  ditRcilior  sit  ejus  restitutio,  quam  aliorum 
laicorum  promotio. 


1032 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVII. 


which  was  never  done  but  upon  some  great  neces- 
sity, or  verj'  pressing  reason;  as  in  the  case  of 
Maximus  the  confessor,  when  he  returned  from  the 
Novatian  schism,  and  brought  over  a  great  multi- 
tude of  the  people  with  him ;  Cornelius,  bishop  of 
Rome,  in  regard  to  him  as  a  confessor,  and  as  one 
that  had  done  good  service  to  the  church  by  the 
influence  of  his  example,  dispensed  with  the  general 
rule  for  his  sake,  and  received  him'"  to  his  place  in 
the  presbytery  again  ;  and  the  council  of  Nice 
allowed  the  same  favour  to  the  Novatians,  and  the 
African  fathers  to  the  Donatists,  with  a  charitable 
view,  to  put  an  end  to  those  great  and  inveterate 
schisms.  But  these  were  only  exceptions  to  the 
common  rule,  and  dispensations  with  the  general 
orders  and  standing  discipline  of  the  church. 

It  may  perhaps  be  said,  there  was 
Notwiihstinding  Still  an  inherent  power  and  authority 

the  pretence  of  the  ^  ,      . 

indelible  character  in  such  dcposcd  clcrks,  and  that  their 

of  ordination.  ^  ' 

deposition  did  not  totally  annul  their 
ordinations  :  for  they  still  retained  the  indelible  cha- 
racter of  their  respective  orders ;  and  therefore  they 
might  be  ministers  still,  and  their  ministerial  actions 
stand  good  and  authentic,  notwithstanding  any 
power  and  authority  in  the  church  to  depose  and 
degi'ade  them.  But  as  this  is  next  to  a  contradiction 
in  itself,  that  a  man  should  be  deposed  from  his  or- 
der, and  yet  retain  his  order  still,  with  all  the  spi- 
ritual power  belonging  to  it ;  so  it  implies  such  a 
notion  of  that  which  is  commonly  called,  the  in- 
delible character  of  ordination,  as  no  ancient  writer 
ever  thought  of.  For  the  notion  that  the  ancients 
had  of  the  indelible  character  of  ordination,  was  no 
more  than  they  had  of  the  indelible  character  of 
baptism ;  that  as  the  outward  form  of  baptism, 
washing  or  immersion  in  water,  though  but  a  tran- 
sient act,  served  for  ever  to  distinguish  a  Christian 
from  a  mere  heathen  or  Jew ;  so  as  that,  though  he 
apostatized  from  the  Christian  faith  into  Judaism, 
or  GentiHsm,  he  should  still  retain  so  much  of  the 
Christian  character,  as  upon  his  conversion  and 
return  to  the  faith  not  to  need  a  second  baptism : 
in  like  manner  the  outward  form  of  ordination,  which 
is  imposition  of  hands  designing  a  man  to  any  cleri- 
cal office,  though  it  be  but  a  transient  act,  was 
sufficient  to  distinguish  such  a  one  from  a  mere 
layman,  who  never  had  any  such  ceremony  of  or- 
dination ;  so  that  by  this  mark  or  character  of  his 
office  once  received,  though  he  should  afterward  for- 
feit his  office,  and  all  the  power  and  honour  belong- 
ing to  it,  he  would  always  remain  distinguished,  in 


some  measure,  from  those  who  never  had  such  an 
office ;  and  though  he  should  be  wholly  divested  of  | 
his  office  and  power,  and  reduced  to  the  simple 
capacity  and  condition  of  a  layman,  yet  so  much  of 
the  marks  and  footsteps  of  his  former  office  would 
remain  upon  him,  as  that  if  he  should  be  recalled 
again  to  his  office,  though  he  might  need  a  new 
com.mission,  he  would  not  need  this  outward  cha- 
racter or  ceremony  of  a  new  ordination.  There  is 
no  one  has  explained  or  illustrated  the  sense  of  the  J 
ancients  upon  this  point  with  more  accuracy  than 
the  learned  Dr.  Forbes ;  and  therefore,  for  further 
confirmation,  I  shall  here  transcribe  his  words : 
"  There  remains,"^  says  he,  "  some  distinguishing 
character  in  a  man  that  is  deposed,  by  which  he  is 
distinguished  from  other  laymen  :  but  to  make  this 
distinction,  it  is  not  necessary  there  should  be  any 
form  impressed,  but  a  transient  act  that  is  long  ago 
past  is  sufficient,  viz.  that  he  was  once  a  person  or- 
dained. The  character  that  remains  in  a  deposed 
person,  is  not  the  character  of  any  present  office  or 
power,  but  only  some  footstep  or  mark  of  an  honour 
that  is  past,  and  of  a  power  that  he  once  had ;  by 
which  footstep  he  is  distinguished  from  other  lay- 
men, who  never  were  ordained ;  and  may,  after  a 
sufficient  penance  performed,  if  he  be  found  fit,  and 
the  advantage  of  the  church  so  require,  be  restored 
again  without  a  new  ordination."  As  if  a  prince 
should  imprint  upon  his  nobles  the  marks  and  cha- 
racters of  the  offices  which  they  bear  imder  him ; 
making  the  impress  or  figure  of  a  key  upon  the  arm 
of  his  chamberlain  with  a  hot  iron,  and  the  image 
of  a  horse  upon  the  arm  of  the  master  of  his  horse, 
and  the  image  of  a  cup  upon  the  arm  of  his  butler : 
and  after  this  it  should  happen,  that  the  prince, 
being  justly  offended  at  them,  should  depose  them 
from  their  offices,  and  put  others  in  their  room,  sign- 
ing them  with  the  characters  of  their  offices  like- 
wise ;  those  marks  which,  in  the  officers  who  were 
not  deposed,  were  characters  of  their  present  power, 
would,  in  those  that  were  deposed,  be  only  footsteps 
of  their  by-past  power;  and  whatever  thing  they 
who  were  deposed  should  do  relating  to  those  offices, 
would  have  no  more  validity,  than  if  it  was  done 
by  any  private  man,  who  never  bare  any  such  office. 
Yet  in  this  there  would  be  a  difference,  that  if  the 
prince  pleased  to  restore  those  whom  he  had  deposed, 
there  would  be  no  need  to  set  a  new  mark  upon 
them  ;  but  that  footstep  or  remains  of  their  ancient 
power  would  now  become  again  the  character  of 
their  present  power.     By  this  illustration,  which 


'9  Cornel.  Ep.  46.  al.  49.  ad  Cypr.  p.  9.3.  Maximum 
piesbyterum  locum  suum  agnoscere  jussimus. 

■^  Forbes,  Irenic.  lib.  2.  cap.  11.  p.  224.  Manet, quidem 
in  deposito  aliquid  distinctivum,  quo  ab  aliis  laieis  distin- 
guitur  :  ad  distinctionem  autem  non  est  necessaria  aliqua 
iinpressa  forma,  sed  sufficit  actus  transiens  in  prijeteritum, 
nempe  quod  sit  aliquando  ordinatus.     Manet  in  deposito 


non  character  praesentis  aliciijus  officii  aut  potcstatis,  sed 
vestigium  quoddaui  prseteriti  honoris  ot  aliquando  habitas 
potestatis  :  per  quod  vestigium  ab  aliis  laieis,  nuuquam  or- 
ilinatis,  distinguitur :  et  peracta  sutBcienti  pop.nitentia,  si 
idoneus  inveniatur,  et  utilitas  ecclesiaj  postulet,  restitui 
poterit  absque  nova  ordinatione,  &c. 


(HAP.     II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


10.33 


justly  represents  the  sense  of  the  ancients,  it  is  easy 
fur  any  one  to  apprehend,  how  far  the  discipUne  of 
llie  church  in  deposing  clergymen  extended  :  name- 
ly, that  it  not  only  suspended  them  from  the  execu- 
tion of  their  ofhcc,  hut  deprived  them  of  their  office, 
and  took  away  their  orders  from  them;  that  they 
were  thenceforth  no  more  than  laymen,  only  with 
I  his  distinction,  that  they  had  the  external  charac- 
lir  of  a  hy-past  office,  which  other  laymen  wanted ; 
that  now  the}'  had  neither  the  office  of  clergymen, 
nor  the  power  of  it;  nor  were  their  actions  of  any 
(itlier  account  in  the  church  than  as  the  actions  of 
i  livate  men  and  laymen.  Thus  far  the  church  pro- 
creded  in  her  censures  of  clergymen  that  submitted 
.o  her  discipline,  and  were  not  refractory  and  con- 
I  iiinacioQS :  she  allowed  them  the  benefit  of  lay 
communion,  which  was  a  moderation  of  their  pun- 
ishment in  regard  to  their  submitting  quietly  to  her 
discipline  and  censures. 

g^.^j  g  But  if  they  continued  contumacious 

excomm'lmfrau-d!  '^"'1  stubbom,  opposlug  her  first  cen- 
an<i"denicd  thrcom-  surcs,  and  acting  as  clergymen  in  con- 
aymen.  ^^^^^^  q£  them ;  she  then  proceeded 
one  degree  further  with  them,  adding  to  their  depo- 
sition a  formal  excommunication,  and  denying  them 
even  the  communion  of  laymen.  Thus  Arius,  and 
many  other  first  founders  of  heresies,  were  anathe- 
matized and  excommunicated,  as  well  as  degraded. 
And  there  are  abundance  of  instances  of  the  like 
proceeding  in  Cyprian,"'  and  the  Apostolical  Ca- 
nons," and  the  council  of  Sardica,^  and  the  council 
of  Colen,^'  and  the  council  of  Eliberis,"^  and  the 
council  of  Rome""  under  Felix  III.  All  which,  be- 
cause I  have  produced  at  large  upon  another"'  oc- 
casion, I  think  it  needless  to  repeat  them  in  this 
place. 

^  ,  .  We  ai'e  likewise  to  observe,  that  in 

Sect.  /.  ' 

movril'mi'correttea  casc  of  coutumaclous  contempt  of  her 
and'authority'of  the  ccusurcs,  tlic  cliurcli  somctimcs  had 
ar  power.  recoursc  to  tlic  sccular  powers ;  crav- 
ing their  aid  and  assistance,  either  to  remove  a  stub- 
born clerk  from  his  station  and  honourable  post  in 
the  church,  which  he  obstinately  detained  after  de- 
position, or  else  to  inflict  some  other  punishment 
upon  him  for  his  chastisement  and  correction.  We 
have  seen  several  instances  of  this  before  in  the  ge- 
neral account  of  the  exercise  of  discipline^  upon  all 
church  members,  related  from  Eusebius  and  the 
council  of  Antioch,  and  the  third  council  of  Car- 
thage, and  the  African  Code,  where  addresses  are 
made,  or  appointed  to  be  made,  to  the  secular 
powers,  some  heathen,  and  some  Christian,  implor- 


liveriiiK  up  to 
cular  court. 


ing  their  assistance  to  remove  some  obstinate  and 
contumacious  bishops  cand  presbyters  from  their 
l)laces,  when  they  would  not  obey  the  decrees  of 
the  church,  but  retain  their  offices  and  preferments 
in  spite  of  her  censures.  And  of  these  I  need  not 
be  more  particular  in  this  place ;  as  neither  of  those 
other  various  temporal  penalties  which  the  wisdom 
of  the  state  thought  fit  to  inflict  upon  heretics  in 
general,  laymen  as  well  as  clergymen,  to  discounte- 
nance heterodoxy,  and  give  more  efl'ectual  force  and 
vigour  to  the  censures  of  the  church  ;  for  of  these  I 
have  given  a  sufficient  account  in  discoursing  of  the 
punishments  of  heresy  in  the  former  Book. 

But  there  was  one  particular  civil  j.^^^  ^ 
punishment  peculiar  to  delinquent  th^  pm,iXn"nt  ""^ 
clergymen,  which  must  be  taken  no-  or"d 
tice  of  in  this  place.  The  ancient 
law  comprises  it  under  the  name  of  cnrici;  tnuU, 
delivering  up  to  the  secular  court :  which,  as  Gotho- 
fred  observes,""  has  a  different  meaning  in  the  an- 
cient law  from  that  which  the  modern  use  and 
practice  has  put  upon  it.  For  among  the  modem 
canonists,  it  signifies  delivering  a  clergyman  up  to 
the  secular  judge  after  degradation,  to  be  punished 
for  some  great  crime  with  death,  or  such  capital 
punishment  as  the  church  had  no  j)ower  to  inflict 
upon  him :  but  in  the  old  law,  the  curia  has  a  larger 
sen.se,  not  only  to  denote  a  judge's  court,  but  the 
corporation  of  any  city,  the  members  of  which  were 
commonly  called,  decuriones  et  curiales.  In  this 
there  were  some  honourable,  and  some  servile  offices. 
And  therefore  when  a  clergyman  was  degraded  for 
any  offence,  and  reduced  to  the  qualify  of  a  lay- 
man ;  then,  besides  that  he  lost  all  the  privileges 
and  exemptions  that  by  law  and  imperial  favour 
belonged  to  the  clergy,  he  was  obliged  to  serve  the 
curia,  or  secular  corporation  of  his  city,  and  that 
many  times  only  in  some  mean  office  and  servile 
condition,  by  way  of  additional  civil  punishment  for 
having  transgressed  the  laws  of  the  church,  and  the 
rules  of  his  sacred  profession  and  venerable  func- 
tion. And  this  was  a  certain  way  of  precluding 
him  from  all  hopes  ever  after  of  regaining  his  cle- 
rical dignity  again.  For  as  the  laws  absolutely 
prohibited'"  any  of  the  curiales  to  be  ordained  at 
first,  because  they  were  tied  to  certain  municipal 
and  civil  offices  inconsistent  with  the  spiritual ;  so 
if  any  of  the  clergy  were  once  degraded  and  taken 
into  the  power  of  the  secular  curia,  or  corporation, 
there  was  no  possibility  of  their  returning  to  the 
ecclesiastical  state  again.  And  therefore  Honorius 
made  this  a  law,  that  the  curia  should  immediately 


='  Cypr.  Ep.  49.  al.  52.  ad  Cornel,  p.  9G. 

--  Canon.  Apnst.  29  et  30. 

"'  Cone.  Sardie.  can.  1  et  2. 

"'  Cone.  Agrippin.  ap.  Crab.  t.  ].  p.  317. 

"*  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  18  et  76. 

^^  Cone.  Rom.  3.  sub  Felice  III.  Cone.  t.  4.  p.  I07G.  can. 


"  Scholast.  Hist,  of  Bapt.  Part  H.  ciiap.  5. 

-8  Book  XVI.  chap.  2.  sect.  .3. 

29  Gothofred.  in  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  IG.  Tit.  2.  dc  Episc. 
Leg.  39. 

3«  See  Book  IV.  chap.  4.  sect.  4.  and  Bonk  V.  chap.  .3. 
sect  15  and  IG. 


1034 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVII. 


lay  hold  of  such  delinquents,  to  render  their  punish- 
ment irreversible  and  perpetual.  If  a  bishop,  says 
the  law,"  shall  condemn  any  clergyman  as  unwor- 
thy of  his  office,  and  separate  him  from  the  ministry 
of  the  church,  or  if  any  one  voluntarily  desert  his 
sacred  profession,  let  the  curia  immediately  lay 
claim  to  him,  that  he  may  no  longer  be  at  liberty  to 
return  to  the  church  again ;  and  according  to  the 
quality  of  the  man,  or  the  quantity  of  his  estate,  let 
him  either  be  taken  into  the  curia,  or  some  collegiate 
company  of  the  city,  and  be  obliged  to  undergo 
those  public  burdens  or  necessities  which  he  shall 
be  found  quahfied  for,  and  this  without  any  collu- 
sion, under  the  penalty  of  a  forfeiture  of  a  consider- 
able sum  of  gold,  to  be  levied  upon  the  decenymmi, 
the  ten  principal  men  of  the  curia,  if  they  connived 
at  any  such  collusion :  and  the  offending  clerk  so 
degraded  is  further  tied  up  by  a  negative  punish- 
ment, never  to  hold  any  office  or  place  imder  any 
of  the  secular  judges.  Justinian  renewed  and  con- 
firmed this  law  in  one  of  his  Novels,^  and  by  an- 
other imposed  a  like  punishment  upon  any  monk 
that  should  desert  his  monastery,  to  betake  himself 
to  any  secular  employment :  such  a  one  was  to 
serve  ^  all  his  life  in  some  mean  and  servile  office 
under  the  judge  of  the  province;  and  only  have 
this  fruit  of  his  change,  that  for  despising  his  sacred 
ministry  he  should  be  tied  to  the  slavish  attend- 
ance upon  an  earthly  tribunal. 

But  besides  this  there  was  another  way  of  de- 
livering over  delinquent  clergymen  to  the  secular 
courts  and  civil  judges;  which  was,  when  they 
committed  such  crimes  as  were  properly  of  civil 
cognizance,  and  might  be  heard  and  punished  as 
crimes  against  the  state  and  commonwealth.  For 
clergymen  were  considered  in  a  double  capacity,  as 
ministers  of  the  church,  and  as  members  of  the 
commonwealth.  Whatever  crimes  they  committed 
in  the  first  capacity,  they  were  indeed  liable  pri- 
marily to  be  judged  by  the  bishops  of  the  church, 
as  the  proper  judges  of  ecclesiastical  causes  :  yet  if 
their  crimes  were  very  flagrant,  such  as  heresy,  or 
simony,  though  these  were  properly  ecclesiastical 
causes,  yet  the  criminals  might  be  turned  over  to 
the  secular  judges,  after  the  ecclesiastical  sentence 
was  passed  upon  them  :  for  such  crimes  were  pun- 
ished both  by  church  and  state  with  their  respective 
censures.  If  their  crimes  were  such  as  more  nearly 
and  directly  aflc'cted  the  peace  and  tranquillity  of 
the  commonwealth;  such  as  treason,  and  sedition, 
and  murder,  and  robbery,  and  the  practice  of  ma- 


gical and  pernicious  arts  ;  in  that  case  bishops  not 
only  might,  but  were  obUged,  ex  officio,  to  turn  over 
a  degraded  clerk  to  the  secular  court  and  a  com- 
petent judge,  to  be  punished  according  to  the  quality 
of  his  offences.  There  is  a  famous  instance  re- 
lating to  this  matter  in  the  history  of  the  acts  of 
the  council  of  Chalcedon,  reported  out  of  the  acts  of 
the  council  of  Tyre,  where  Ibas,  bishop  of  Edessa, 
was  accused  for  intending  to  promote  one  Abra- 
amius,  a  deacon,  to  a  bishopric,  when  he  had  con- 
fessed himself  guilty  of  magical  practices  before 
the  bishop  and  all  the  clergy :  and  it  is  added  by 
way  of  aggravation  of  the  bishop's  fault,^'  that  he 
kept  the  paper  of  his  magical  enchantments  by 
him,  when  he  ought  to  have  presented  the  execrable 
criminal  to  the  judge  of  the  province,  according  as 
the  laws  directed.  By  which  one  instance  it  is  easy 
to  apprehend,  that  there  were  some  crimes  both  of 
ecclesiastical  and  civil  cognizance  ;  and  when  any 
such  a  clergyman  was  deposed  in  an  ecclesiastical 
court,  the  bishop  was  obliged  to  remit  him  to  a 
secular  judge,  to  be  punished  with  civil  punish- 
ments, as  a  layman,  according  to  the  nature  and 
quality  of  his  offences.  And  in  this  case  I  conceive 
they  treated  him  as  an  excommunicate  person,  not 
barely  reduced  to  lay  communion,  but  one  degree 
lower,  being  thrust  down  to  the  lowest  rank  of  no- 
torious criminals,  and  denied  the  common  benefit 
and  privilege  of  those  who  were  allowed  to  partake 
of  the  communion  of  laymen.  Of  which  kind  of 
censure  there  are  several  instances  in  the  Apostoli- 
cal Canons,  and  the  councils  of  Eliberis,  Colen,  and 
Sardica ;  which,  because  I  have  produced  them  at 
large  upon  another  occasion,^  I  forbear  to  relate 
them  in  this  place,  and  proceed  to  another  inquiry, 
concerning  the  punishment  which  was  commonly 
called  commimio  peregrina,  or  reducing  clergymen 
to  the  communion  of  strangers. 


CHAPTER  III. 

OF  THE  PUNISHMENT  CALLED  PEREGRINA  COMMU- 
NIO,  OR  REDUCING  CLERGYMEN  TO  THE  COMMU- 
NION   OF    STRANGERS. 

There  is  no  one  question  in  all  the  ^^.^.j  j 

ancient  discipline  that  has  more  ex-  ^^Zl'ri^n\h\^fnmJ^t 
ercised  the  pens  of  learned  men  than  ">™' ^^ '-"'■°-'^- 
this  about  the  punishment  called  peregrina  com- 


3'  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  16.  Tit.  2.  de  Episcopis,  Leg.  39. 
Qiicincunq\ie  clericiim  indignum  officio  sue  episcopus  judi- 
cavcrit,  et  ab  c(.'tlesi;c  ministurio  segregavcrit :  aitt  si  qui  pro- 
fcssiim  sacrce  religionis  spoiito  dereliquerit,  continuo  sibi  eiuii 
cuiia  vindicet :  ut  liber  illi  ultra  ad  ecclcsiam  recursus  esse 
111)11  possit :  et  pro  hominmn  qualitate,  ct  quantitate  patrimo- 
nii, vel  ordini  siio,  vel  collcgio  civitatis  adjungatur ;  inodo,  ut 


quibuscunque  apti  erunt  publicis  necessitatibus  obligentur,&c. 

^'-  Justin.  Novel.  123.  cap.  14. 

^^  Ibid.  5.  cap.  6.  Hunc  habebit  mutationis  fructum,  ut 
qui  sacrum  ministerium  despexerit,  tribunalis  terreni  obser- 
vet  servitium. 

^'  Cone.  Chalced.  Act.  10.  Cone.  t.  4.  p.  648. 

^'  Scholast.  Hist,  of  Baptism,  Part  II.  chap.  5. 


IIAP.    III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1035 


'  (nio,  the  communion  of  strangers.  It  plainly  ap- 
,  .ars  from  all  the  canons  wherein  any  mention  is 
made  of  it,  that  some  punishment  is  intended  to  be 
jiiculiarly  inflicted  on  the  clergy  for  some  special 

il'ences ;  but  it  is  not  so  easy  to  discover  what  sort 
uf  punishment  it  was.  I  will  first  set  down  the  ca- 
nons that  mention  it,  and  then  the  different  senti- 
ments of  learned  men  concerning  it,  pointing  out 
that  which  seems  to  be  the  most  rational  account 
of  it,  with  some  confirmation  out  of  ancient  histor}^ 
The  first  council  that  mentions  it  is  the  council  of 
Riez,'  anno  439,  where  it  is  determined  in  the  case 
of  a  schismatical  bishop  returning  to  the  catholic 
church,  that  he  shall  only  be  allowed  to  be  a  chor- 
episcopus  in  some  country  church  under  another 
bishop,  or  else  be  content  with  the  communion  of 
strangers.  The  next  council  that  mentions  it  is 
the  council  of  Agde,-  anno  506,  where,  in  one  canon, 
it  is  determined.  That  if  any  clergyman  be  found 
guilty  of  robbing  the  church,  he  shall  be  reduced 
to  the  communion  of  strangers.  And  in  another,^ 
If  any  contumacious  clerk  despises  the  communion, 
or  neglects  to  frequent  the  church,  or  fulfil  his 
ofiice,  he  shall  be  reduced  to  the  communion  of 
strangers,  so  as  that,  when  he  repents  and  reforms, 
he  may  have  his  name  written  again  in  the  matri- 
cula,  or  roll  of  the  clergy,  and  obtain  his  degree 
and  dignity  as  before  among  them.  After  this,  in 
the  council  of  Lerida,  anno  539,  w^e  find  a  like 
decree,''  That  in  case  any  clergyman,  upon  the  death 
of  the  bishop,  pillage  his  house,  or  suppress  any 
thing  by  fraud  to  the  detriment  of  his  successor,  he 
shall  be  reputed  guilty  of  sacrilege,  and  condemned 
with  the  greater  excommunication,  and  at  the  ut- 
most only  be  allowed  the  communion  of  strangers. 
These  are  the  canons  wherein  this  punishment,  or 
moderation  of  punishment,  (call  it  which  you 
please,)  is  mentioned ;  but  so  httle  light  can  be  had 
from  the  canons  themselves,  as  to  the  natiu-e  of  the 
punishment,  that  it  is  no  great  wonder  that  learned 
men  have  run  into  various  opinions  about  it. 

Some  confound  it  altogether  with 

lay    communion,   as    Binius   in   his 

asiaycommu-  Notcs  upou  the  couucil  of  Lcrida,' 

and   Hospinian,"  and  the  old  Gloss 

upon  Gratian.'     But  it  is  no  ways  probable  that 

the  ancient  church  would  use  tw^o  such  different 

names  for  the  same  thing,  when  lay  communion 


Sect,.  2. 
Tlie    comm 
of  strangers  not  the 


was  a  word  so  commonly  known  among  them. 
Besides  that  these  two  things  were  evidently  dif- 
ferent from  one  another;  for  clergymen  reduced  to 
lay  communion  were  totally  and  perpetually  de- 
graded from  their  orders,  and  could  not  ordinarily 
be  restored  to  their  office  again,  but  ever  after 
continued  in  the  state  of  laymen,  as  has  been  evi- 
dently demonstrated  in  the  foregoing  chapter; 
whereas  clergymen  reduced  to  the  communion  of 
strangers,  were  still  capable  of  being  restored  to 
their  office  again  after  the  performance  of  a  certain 
penance,  as  is  expressly  said  in  the  forementioned 
canon  of  the  council  of  Agde,  can.  2. 
Bellarmine'  and  others  not  only 
take  it  for  lay  communion,  but  boldly  Nor  communion  in 

,  •'  one  kind. 

assert,  that  that  lay  communion  was 
communion  only  in  one  kind ;  so  that  when  a  cler- 
gyman is  said  to  be  reduced  to  lay  communion,  it 
is  the  same  thing,  according  to  them,  as  being  put 
down  to  receive  the  communion  among  laymen 
only  in  one  kind.  But  this  is  only  multiplying  of 
obscurities,  and  confounding  a  reader  by  adding  one 
error  to  another.  For  as  the  ancients  speak  of  lay 
communion  and  the  communion  of  strangers  as 
different  things,  so  they  had  no  such  notion  of  lay 
communion  as  these  writers  pretend ;  for  all  public 
communion,  both  of  clergy  and  laity,  in  the  primi- 
tive church,  was  in  both  kinds,  as  has  been  evi- 
dently demonstrated  in  a  former  Book,"  and  is  now 
ingenuously  confessed  by  the  most  learned  and  ac- 
curate WTiters  in  the  Romish  church.  So  that 
this  opinion,  which  confounds  the  communion  of 
strangers  with  communion  in  one  kind,  is  without 
all  shadow  of  truth,  and  has  not  the  least  founda- 
tion in  antiquity  to  support  it. 

The  author  of  the  Gloss  upon  Gra- 
tian  has  another  pleasant  interpreta-  Nor  commm.ion  at 

^  ^  the  huur  of  death. 

tion  ;  for  he  fancies  it  may  signify 
communion  at  the  hour  of  death,  when  a  man 
leaves  the  world,  and  departs  out  of  this  life  to  take 
a  pilgrimage  into  the  next  life  and  world  to  come.'* 
But  this  is  only  fit  to  make  an  intelligent  reader 
smile.  For  it  is  very  improper  to  call  death  a  pil- 
grimage, which,  more  strictly  speaking,  according 
to  Scripture  language,  is  rather  a  translating  of 
men  to  their  native  country,  their  heaven  and 
their  home.  Men  are  said  to  be  strangers  and  pil- 
grims upon  earth,  because  they  are  absent  from 


'  Cone.  Rhegien.  can.  3.  Liceat  ei  in  unam  parochiaruni 
suarum  ecclesiam  cedere,  iu  qua  ant  chorepiscopi  nomine, 
aut  peregrina,  lit  aiunt,  commimione  foveatur. 

-  Cone.  Agathen.  can.  5.  Si  quis  clericus  furtum  ecclesias 
fecerit,  peref^rina  ei  communio  tribnatur. 

^  Ibid.  can.  2.  Contumacos  ciorici  ab  episcopis  corripi- 
antur  :  et  si  qui  prioris  gradus  clati  superbia,  communionom 
fortasse  contempserint,  aut  eeclesiam  frequentare,  -vel  offi- 
cium  suum  implere  neglexerint,  peregrina  eis  communio 
tribuatur,  ita  ut  cum  cos  pcenitentia  eorre.xerit,  rescripti  in 
niatricula,  gradum  suum  dignitatemque  suscipiant. 


*  Cone.  Ilerden.  can.  15.  Si  quisquam  clericus  quacunque 
oecasione  quidpiam  probatus  fuerit  abstulisse,  vol  forsitan 
dolo  aliquo  suppressisse,  reus  sacriiegii,  pn>li.\iori  anathe- 
mate  condcmnctur,  et  vix  quoqiic  peregrina  ci  conimunio 
concedatur.  ^  Binius,  Not.  in  Cone.  Ilerden.  can.  15. 

8  Hospin.  Histor.  Sacramentar.  lib.  2.  cap.  1.  p.  24. 

'  Gloss,  in  Gratian.  Cans.  13.  Quaest.  2.  cap.  11. 

s  Bellarm.  de  Eueliar.  lib.  4.  cap.  21.  p.  679. 

3  Book  XV.  chap.  5.  sect.  1,  &c. 

'»  Gloss,  in  Grat.  ubi  supra.  Peregrina  communio,  id  est, 
cum  recedit  vel  peregrinatur  de  hoc  uiundo. 


1036 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVII. 


heaven,  the  city  and  country  to  which  they  belong; 
therefore  leaving  this  world  cannot  be  said  to  be 
entering  upon  a  pilgrimage,  but,  in  propriety,  rather 
ending  and  finishing  a  pilgrimage,  to  go  to  their 
everlasting  home.  Therefore  if  the  ancients  spake 
properly,  as  no  doubt  they  did,  they  could  not  mean 
by  the  communion  of  strangers,  the  communion  of 
dying  persons,  or  such  as  were  taking  a  pilgrimage 
out  of  this  world.  Besides  that  the  very  canon  of 
the  council  of  Agde,  which  the  glosser  pretends  to 
explain,  makes  the  communion  of  strangers  not  to 
be  the  communion  of  dying  persons,  but  such  as 
are  living,  and  in  a  capacity  to  return  to  officiate  as 
clergymen  (after  a  sufficient  correction)  in  their 
former  station. 

Cardinal  Bona  mentions"  and  ex- 

Nor  the'co'mmu-  poscs  anothcr  more  fanciful  opinion 

enjoined  to  go  on  of  onc  Gabriel  Henao,  who,  he  says, 

pilsrimasreon  earth  .  *  . 

by  way  of  penance.  wrOtC  H  lOUg  disSCrtatlOU  UpOU  tlllS 
a  piece  of  ihsnpline  ~  *■ 

"unu"" '"  ""^'"''  subject,'-  wherein  he  at  last  concludes, 
That  the  communion  of  strangers 
was  that  which  was  given  to  such  clergymen  as 
were  enjoined  to  go  on  pilgiimage,  either  temporary 
or  perpetual,  by  way  of  penance  for  their  offences. 
But  he  no  way  explains  what  kind  of  communion 
this  was  ;  and,  as  Bona  observes,  he  ought  to  have 
demonstrated,  that  when  the  canons  about  the  com- 
munion of  strangers  were  made,  there  was  any  such 
punishment  as  pilgrimages  enjoined  the  clergy  for 
the  expiation  of  their  offences :  for  there  is  a  pro- 
found silence  in  antiquity  as  to  what  concerns  any 
such  injunction. 

Sect.  6.  Cassander  "    and    Vossius,  '*  after 

an^^pecULroMa-  some  of  the  schoolmcn  and  canonists, 

tion  for  stransers.       a1  •  „  i       xi  •  c       i 

°  think  the  communion  ot  strangers 
means  the  oblation  of  the  eucharist  made  after  some 
peculiar  rite  and  on  some  particular  days  for  the 
use  of  strangers ;  and  that  it  was  put  upon  delin- 
quent clergymen  as  a  punishment  to  communicate 
with  these.  But  there  was  no  such  custom  as  this 
of  making  any  particular  oblation  of  the  eucharist 
for  strangers  in  the  ancient  church  :  for  all  travel- 
lers and  strangers,  when  they  came  to  a  foreign 
church,  if  they  brought  communicatory  or  commen- 
datory letters  with  them,  were  admitted  to  commu- 
nicate with  the  church  wherever  they  happened 
to  sojourn  ;  and  if  they  did  not  bring  communica- 
tory letters,  they  were  denied  communion  till  they 
should  procure  them.  Meanwhile  they  were  al- 
lowed to  communicate  in  external  good  things,  or 
partake  of  the  charity  of  the  church,  if  they  were 


in  necessity,  though  they  were  debarred  from  all 
religious  communion  as  suspected  persons.  And 
by  this  distinction  we  shall  be  able  to  come  at  the 
true  meaning  of  the  communion  of  strangers. 

For  we  are  to  observe,  that  com- 
munion in  the  ancient  church  signi-  .  But  communicat- 

o  ins  only  as  strangers 

fies  not  only  partaking  of  the  euchar-  ^'^men'datoTy 'Tt'- 
ist,  or  communion  of  the  altar;  but  t,nkeonh™ilur?h's 
also  partaking  of  the  charity  of  the  tiiTcnmm"un?o°n  or 
church.  And  such  travellers  as  came 
to  any  foreign  church  without  communicatory  let- 
ters to  testify  their  orthodoxy  and  pious  conversa- 
tion, were  presumed  to  be  under  some  censure,  and 
not  in  actual  communion  with  their  own  church  : 
till,  therefore,  they  could  clear  themselves  of  this 
suspicion,  by  the  rules  of  catholic  unity  and  com- 
munion of  all  churches  mutually  with  one  another, 
they  were  to  be  refused  communion  in  a  foreign 
church,  and  only  to  be  allowed  common  charity  as 
strangers.  And  according  to  these  measures,  cler- 
gymen who  were  delinquents  were  for  some  time 
treated  much  after  the  same  manner,  and  thereupon 
said  to  be  reduced  to  the  communion  of  strangers  : 
that  is,  they  might  neither  officiate  as  clergymen 
in  celebrating  the  eucharist,  nor  any  other  part  of 
their  office ;  nor  in  some  cases  participate  of  the 
eucharist  for  some  time,  till  they  had  made  satisfac- 
tion ;  but  only  be  allowed  a  charitable  subsistence 
out  of  the  revenues  of  the  church,  without  any  legal 
claim  to  a  full  proportion,  till  by  a  just  penance 
they  could  regain  their  former  office  and  station. 
This  is  the  most  probable  account  that  can  be  given 
of  a  difficult  and  doubtful  matter,  and  learned  men 
now  generally  concur  in  the  substance  of  this  ex- 
plication ;  as  the  reader  that  is  curious  may  see  in 
the  writings  of  Albaspinaeus  "*  and  Bona,"'  Schel- 
strate,"  Priorius,'^  Petavius,"  Dominicy,""  and  Sir- 
mond ;-'  not  to  mention  the  hints  and  strictures 
occasionally  made  about  it  byLindanus,^^  Baronius,-^ 
and  Peter  de  Marca,*''  all  writers  of  the  Romish 
communion ;  whom  I  the  rather  name  upon  this 
account,  to  expose  more  fully  the  vanity  of  Bellar- 
mine  and  his  adlierents,  who  with  a  great  deal  of 
confidence  would  persuade  the  world,  that  they  had 
discovered  the  lay  communion  of  their  church  under 
one  species,  as  they  call  it,  in  this  ancient  commu- 
nion of  strangers,  when  yet  they  differ  as  much  al- 
most as  any  two  things  from  one  another.  Among 
protestant  writers  the  true  notion  is  well  expressed 
by  Dr.  Sherlock,^  when  he  observes,  "That  the 
ancient   discipline   was   very  severe  in  admitting 


"  Bona  de  Rebus  Liturg.  lib.  2.  cap.  19.  n.  5. 

'-  Ilenao  de  Sacrific.  Missae,  part.  3.  Disput.  28.  n.  49. 

"  Cassand.  do  Coraiminione  sub  utraque  specie,  p.  1029. 

"  Voss.  Thes.Theol.  p.  516. 

'^  Albasp.  Observat.  lib.  1.  cap.  3. 

'"  Bonade  Rebus  Litiirg^.  lib.  2.  cap.  19.  n.  6. 

"  Schelstrat.  Not.  in  Cone.  Antioch.  p.  397. 

"  Priorius  de  Literis  Canonicis,  Titul.  11.  p.  38. 


'"  Petav.  Not.  in  Synesii,  Epist.  07.  p.  78. 
''■''  M.  Anton.  Dominicy,  deCommun.  Percgrina. 
-'  Sirmond.  Hist.  Pcenitentipc,  cap.  ult. 
"  Lindan.  Panoplia,  lib.  4.  cap.  58. 
23  Baron,  an,  400.  p.  119. 

-^  Marca,  Dissert,  in  Cap.  Clericus,  ad  calcem  Baluzii  do 
Emendat.  Gratiani,  p.  583. 
25  Sherlock  of  Church  Unity,  in  Defence  of  Stilliugflp.G02. 


III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1037 


-'rangers,  who  were  unknown  to  them,  to  the  com- 
iiiunion;  lest  they  should  admit  heretics,  or  schis- 
matics, or  excommunicated  persons  :  and  therefore 
if  any  such  came,  who  could  not  produce  their  re- 
commendatory letters,  but  pretended  to  have  lost 
them  by  the  way,  they  were  neither  admitted  to 
communion,  nor  wholly  refused,  but,  if  occasion 
were,  maintained  by  tlie  church,  till  such  letters 
could  be  procured  from  the  church  from  whence  they 
came,  which  was  called  the  communio  pereijrina" 

This  notion  seems  the  more  agree- 
1  iiis'  notion  con-  ablc,  bccausc  it  comes  recommended 

iiiiiied  from  several 

nts  of  ancient  his-  and  Confirmed  by  several  facts  in  an- 
cient history.  Synesius,  writing  to 
Theophilus,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  concerning  one 

vlexander,  bishop  of  Basinopolis  in  Bithynia,  who 
lay  under  some  suspicion  at  Ptolemais,  tells  him, 
he  neither  received  him  in  the  church,  nor  com- 
municated -*  with  him  at  the  holy  table,  but  in  his 
own  house  he  treated  him  as  an  innocent  person. 
And  thus  the  historians  tell  us  -'  Chrysostom  treat- 
ed the  Egyptian  monks,  who,  being  prosecuted  by 
Theophilus,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  fled  to  Constan- 
tinople, to  have  a  fair  hearing  of  their  cause  before 
the  emperor :  he  entertained  them  hospitably,  and 
allowed  them  to  join  in  the  common  prayers  with 
the  church,  but  would  not  admit  them  to  participate 
of  the  eucharist  whilst  their  cause  was  depending 
and  undetermined.  From  which  it  is  evident,  that 
strangers  travelling  without  recommendatory  let- 
ters might  be  allowed  some  common  offices  of 
Christian  charity,  but  could  not  be  admitted  to 
Christian  communion.  And  so  it  was  determined 
expressly  in  the  Apostolical  Canons,^  That  if  any 
strange  bishops,  presbyters,  or  deacons,  travelled 
without  commendatory  letters,  they  should  neither 
be  allowed  to  preach,  nor  be  received  to  commu- 
nion, but  only  have  to.  irpoc  tclq  xp«''«C)  what  was 
necessary  to  answer  their  present  wants,  that  is,  a 
charitable  subsistence.  In  the  first  council  of  Car- 
thage likewise  a  rule  was  made,^  That  neither  cler- 
gyman nor  layman  should  communicate  in  a  strange 
church  without  the  letters  of  their  bishop,  for  fear 
of  surreptitious  communion.  And  in  every  coun- 
cil almost  there  is  a  canon  to  the  same  purpose. 
So  that  according  to  the  treatment  of  strangers, 
whether  clergj-men  or  laymen,  in  a  strange  church. 


such  was  the  discipline  exercised  upon  delinquent 
clergymen  in  their  own  church  :  they  were  sus- 
pended from  their  office  and  communion,  but  al- 
lowed a  necessary  subsistence,  which  was  properly 
the  communio  pcregrina,  or  reducing  them  to  the 
communion  of  strangers. 

Tiiere   remains  but  one   difficulty 
now  to  be  accounted  for  in  this  mat-     wha?™'rt'or  ^ 

+  „.,       ,    1,  •    1       *  1       i  ,         /%  nance  Wat*  neceRsary 

ter ;  wnich  is,  what  sort  of  iienance  •»  r«<inre  mrh  de- 

.1       .  1    •    1     .1  1  1  .        ■,       ^    lin<|iient  eliTSvmen 

tnat  was  which  the  cluirch  reriuired  of  '"  "'••''  "«•;<.•  »"J 

,       -    , .  '  station  again, 

such  dchuquent  clergymen,  in  order 
to  restore  them  to  their  office  and  station  again. 
That  they  might  be  restored  by  penance,  is  evident 
from  the  forementioned  canon  of  the  council  of 
Agde,'"  which  allows  it;  and  in  this  the  communion 
of  strangers  chiefly  differed  from  the  communion  of 
laymen,  that  the  one  allowed  a  delinquent  clergy- 
man to  be  restored  to  his  office,  and  the  other  ordi- 
narily did  not:  but  then  there  arises  a  difficulty 
from  other  canons,  which  both  forbid"  any  one  to 
be  ordained  who  had  done  public  penance  whilst 
he  was  a  layman  ;  and  also  prohibit  clergymen,  who 
were  reduced  to  public  penance,  ever  to  recover  their 
ancient'-  dignity  and  station  again.  Concerning 
both  which  points  of  discipline,  besides  the  canons, 
St.  Austin  is  an  irrefragable  witness  in  reference 
to  practice;  for  he  testifies,'*  that  this  was  the 
order  of  the  church,  that  no  one  who  had  done  pe- 
nance for  any  crime  should  be  admitted  to  any  cleri- 
cal degree,  or  return  to  it  after  correction,  or  con- 
tinue in  it :  which  was  done,  not  to  make  any  one 
despair  of  pardon,  but  only  to  comply  with  the 
strict  discipline  of  the  church.  How  then  can  it  be 
said,  that  the  communion  of  strangers  allowed  cler- 
gymen to  recover  their  oflUce  and  dignity  by  doing 
penance,  when  these  canons  for  doing  penance  so 
plainly  took  it  from  them  ?  To  this  it  is  easily  an- 
swered by  distinguishing  between  public  and  pri- 
vate penance :  the  canons  which  forbid  clergymen 
to  be  restored  to  their  ofl[ice  after  having  done  pe- 
nance, speak  of  public  penance  done  solemnly  in 
the  church ;  but  the  other  canons,  which  allow 
them  to  be  restored,  speak  of  jirivate  penance  only. 
And  that  this  is  no  arbitrary  distinction,  but  of  the 
church's  own  making,  is  evident  from  the  canons 
themselves.  For  the  council  of  Girone  allows" 
such  as  have  done  private  penance  in  time  of  sick- 


^  Synes.  Ep.  66.  ad  Theotimum,  leg.  Theophiluin. 

"  Socrat.  lib.  6.  cap.  9.     Sozomen.  lib.  8.  cap.  ].3. 

*  Canon.  Apost.  33. 

"^  Cone.  Cart  hag.  1.  can.  7.  Clericus  vel  laicns  non  com- 
miinicet  in  aliena  plobe  sine  Uteris  episcopi  sui.  Nisi  hoc 
observatum  fuerit,  conimuuio  fiet  passiva.  Vid.  Cone. 
Antioch.  can.  7.  Laodicen.  can.  41.  Milevitan.  can.  20. 
Agathen.  can.  52.     Epaiinen.  can.  6. 

'"  Cone.  Agathen.  can.  2. 

"  Cone.  Nie.  can.  10.  Carthag.  4.  can.  5Get68.  Tolet.  1. 
can.  2.     Agathen.  can.  43.     Epaun.  can.  3. 

^-  Cone.  Carth.  5.  can.  11.     Leo,  Ep.  90.  ad  Rustic,  c.  2. 


^  Ang.  Ep.  50.  ad  Bonifac.  p.  87.  Ut  constitueretur  in 
eeclesia,  ne  quisquam  post  alieujus  criminis  pocnitentiam 
clcrieatum  accipiat,  vel  ad  clcricatum  redeat,  vel  in  clcri- 
catu  maneat,  non  desperatione  indulgentiae,  sod  rigore  fac- 
tum est  disciplinne. 

■^  Cone.  Gerunden.  can.  10.  Qui  a-gritudinis  languore 
depressus,  pa»nitentia>  benedictionem  (quam  viaticum  dcpii- 
tamus)  per  communionem  acccperit,  et  postmodum  rccon- 
valescens  caput  prcnitcntia;  in  eeclesia  publice  non  sub- 
diderit;  si  prohibitis  vitiisnoii  detincturobnoxius,  .admittatur 
ad  clerum. 


1038 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVII. 


ness,  and  received  absolution  upon  it,  afterwards  to 
be  ordained,  provided  they  never  were  brought  to 
do  public  penance  in  the  church,  and  there  was  no 
other  objection  of  immorality  to  be  made  against 
them.  In  like  manner  Gennadi  us,  recounting  the 
several  things  that  hindered  a  man  from  being  or- 
dained, reckons  his  having  done  public  penance'*  a 
sufficient  objection  against  him ;  but  as  for  private 
penance,  he  takes  no  notice  of  it.  Therefore  by 
this  rule  we  are  to  interpret  all  the  canons  which 
forbid  penitents  to  be  ordained  at  first,  or  deny  cler- 
gymen after  penance  the  liberty  of  regaining  their 
ancient  station  ;  they  are  to  be  understood  of  pub- 
lic penance,  and  not  of  private.  And  so  this  seem- 
ing difficulty  and  contradiction  of  the  canons  is 
easily  adjusted,  whilst  the  council  of  Agde,  which 
allows  clergymen,  reduced  to  the  communion  of 
strangers,  liberty  of  resuming  their  office  again  after 
penance,  must  necessarily  be  interpreted  of  private 
penance,  and  not  of  public.  And  this  makes  it 
evident,  that  this  reducing  of  clergymen  to  the  com- 
munion of  strangers  was  only  a  temporary  suspen- 
sion of  them  from  their  office,  and  not  a  total  de- 
gradation, or  reduction  of  them  to  the  state  and 
quality  of  laymen. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

OF    SOME  OTHER    SPECIAL  AND    PECULIAR   WAYS   OF 
INFLICTING  PUiNISHMENT  ON  THE  CLERGY. 

Besides  these  more  general  and  usual 

Sometimes  the  cier-  ways  of  puuishing  the  offending  cler- 
gy perpetually  sus-  1,1 

pended  from  their  gy    thd'c  wcrc  also  somc  less  noted 

office,  yet  allowed  to    "•' ' 

retain  their  titieand  and  uncommou  ways  of  censuring 
them,  which  it  will  not  be  amiss  to 
observe,  whilst  we  are  upon  this  subject.  Among 
these  we  may  reckon  that  sort  of  suspension  which 
deprived  them  entirely  of  the  exercise  of  their  office, 
and  yet  allowed  them  to  retain  their  title  and  dignity. 
This  was  a  sort  of  middle  way  between  a  temporary 
suspension  and  a  perpetual  degradation :  for  they 
were  still  allowed  to  communicate  among  the  clergy, 
and  not  entirely  reduced  to  the  communion  of  lay- 
men. Thus  in  the  council  of  Ancyra,'  those  pres- 
byters who  had  sacrificed  to  idols,  but  afterwards 
returned,  and  became  confessors,  were  allowed  to 


keep  their  dignity  and  title  of  presbyters,  and  sit 
among  the  rest  in  the  presbytery  ;  but  not  to  preach, 
or  offer  the  eucharist,  or  perform  any  other  office  of 
the  sacred  function.  The  same  is  decreed^  con- 
cerning deacons  lapsing  into  idolatry,  that  they 
might  retain  their  honour,  but  cease  from  all  ad- 
ministration of  the  sacred  office,  neither  distribute 
the  bread  nor  the  cup,  nor  minister  as  the  common 
prsecos  or  criers  of  the  church,  unless  the  bishop, 
in  consideration  of  their  great  pains,  humility,  or 
meekness,  thought  fit  to  allow  them  more  or  less  of 
their  office,  which  was  left  entirely  to  his  discretion. 
The  council  of  Nice  made  a  like  decree'  concerning 
the  Novatian  bishops,  whom  they  degraded  to  the 
order  of  presbyters,  but  yet  permitted  them  to  retain 
the  title  of  bishops,  if  the  bishop  of  the  place 
thought  fit  to  allow  it.  And  the  same  was  determined 
in  the  case  of  Meletius,  by  the  same  synod,''  that 
he  might  retain  the  bare  name  and  honour  of  a 
bishop,  but  never  after  officiate  in  his  own  church, 
or  any  other.  So  in  the  canons  of  St.  Basil,*  a  de- 
linquent presbyter  is  allowed  to  sit  among  the  rest, 
but  obliged  to  abstain  from  all  offices  belonging  to 
his  order.  And  an  offending  deacon °  is  suspended 
from  his  ministry,  but  yet  allowed  to  partake  of  the 
holy  elements  among  the  other  deacons.  The  coun- 
cil of  Agde'  has  a  like  decree  about  presbyters  and 
deacons,  who  were  digamists,  or  had  married  the 
relict  of  some  other  man ;  that  though  some  former 
rules  of  the  fathers  had  ordered  them  to  be  more 
severely  handled,  yet  such  respect  and  tenderness 
should  be  showed  to  those  who  were  already  ordain- 
ed, that  they  might  retain  the  name  of  presbyters 
and  deacons  :  but  the  presbyters  should  neither 
presume  to  consecrate,  nor  the  deacons  to  minister 
in  the  church.  A  like  determination  was  made  by 
the  general  council  of  Ephesus,*  in  the  case  of  one 
Eustathius,  metropolitan  of  Pamphylia,  who,  for 
the  love  of  a  private  life,  and  some  troubles  that  he 
met  with  in  his  office,  voluntarily  relinquished  and 
deserted  his  bishopric  against  canon,  but  afterward 
petitioned  the  council  that  he  might  enjoy  the  name 
and  honour  of  a  bishop  still :  in  which  request  the 
council  gratified  him,  out  of  regard  to  his  age  and 
quiet  temper ;  allowing  him  both  to  have  the  name 
and  honour  and  communion  of  a  bishop,  but  with 
this  condition,  that  he  should  neither  ordain,  nor 
take  any  church  to  officiate  in  as  a  priest  by  his  own 
authority,  unless  he  was  admitted  as  a  coadjutor,  or 
expressly  allowed  by  the  bishop  of  the  place. 


^■'  Gennad.  cic  Eccles.  Dogin.  cap.  72.  Clericiim  non 
ordinandum,  qui  publica  ptBiiitontia  mortalia  crimina  dellet. 
Vid.  Cone.  T<ilet.  1.  can.  2.  Poeniteiitemdicimus,  qui  pub- 
licam  poenitentiam  gerens,  sub  cilicio,  divino  fuerit  recon- 
ciliatus  altario. 

'  Cone.  Ancyr.  can.  1.  -  Ibid.  can.  2. 

'  Cone.  Nic.  can.  8. 

*  Cone.  Nic.  Epist.  Synod,  ap.  Tliood.  lib.  1.  cap.  9. 
Socrat.  lib.  1.  cap.  9.    Sozomen.  lib.  1.  c.  24. 


^  Basil,  can.  27.  ^  Ibid.  can.  70. 

"  Cone.  Agathen.  can.  1.  Placuit  de  digamis,  aut  inter- 
nuptarum  maritis,  quanquam  aliud  patruni  statuta  decreve- 
rint,  ut  qui  hucusque  ordinati  sunt,  habita  miseratioue, 
presbyteri  vel  diaconi  nomen  tantum  obtineant :  officium 
vero  presbyteri  consecrandi,  vel  ministrandi  hujusinodi  dia- 
cones  non  praesunaant. 

"  Cone.  Ephes.  Ep.  Synod,  ad  Synodum  Pamphyl.  Cone. 
t.  3.  p.  808. 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1039 


It  appears  from  one  of  the  forc- 

Scct   2  . 

som.'ii,.iisdejrad.  mentionccl    canons,^  that   there   was 

etl,   nol   totally,   but 

rariiaiiy.  from  one  such  a  puiiishnient  also  as  a  partial 

order  to  another.  *  * 

degradation  ;  which  was  when  the 
clergy  were  not  totally  deprived  of  all  clerical  dcgi-ee 
and  office,  but  only  thrust  down  from  a  higher 
order  to  a  lower  by  way  of  discipline  and  correction. 
Thus  the  council  of  Nice  treated  the  Novatian 
schismatics,  admitting  those  who  had  passed  for 
bishops  among  them,  to  officiate  only  as  presbyters 
in  the  catholic  church,  unless  any  bishops  would 
promote  them  to  the  office  of  a  chorepiscopus  under 
their  jurisdiction.  And  so  the  council  of  Ncocje- 
sarea '"  orders  deacons  that  sin  to  be  thrust  down 
and  degraded  to  the  order  of  subdeacons.  And  by 
this  rule  it  was,  as  Valesius"  observes  out  of  St. 
Jcrom's  Chronicon,  that  Cyril  of  Jerusalem  de- 
graded Heraclius  from  the  order  of  a  bishop  to  that 
of  presbyter.  But  the  council  of  Chalcedon  seems 
not  to  have  approved  of  this  rule :  for  in  one  of  her 
canons  it  is  said  to  be  sacrilege'^  to  bring  down  a 
bishop  to  the  degree  of  a  presbyter ;  and  that, 
therefore,  if  there  be  any  just  cause  to  remove  a 
bishop  from  the  exercise  of  his  episcopal  function, 
he  ought  not  to  hold  the  place  of  a  presbyter  nei- 
ther. By  which  we  may  conclude,  that  this  point 
of  discipline  varied  according  to  the  different  appre- 
hensions and  sentiments  of  men  in  different  ages. 

g^^j  3  Sometimes,   again,  they  were  de- 

rru""? "ofT V^rt  of  prived  of  their  office  as  to  some  par- 
i'nv;,d'"?o''iLerc^e  tlcular  act  of  it,  but  allowed  to  exer- 
cise the  rest.  Thus  the  council  of 
Neocaesarea  orders.  That  if  any  presbyter  confessed 
that  he  had  been  guilty  of  any  corporal  uncleanness 
before  his  ordination,  he  should  not"  consecrate 
the  eucharist,  but  might  continue  in  the  exercise  of 
all  other  parts  of  his  office,  if  he  was  a  man  diligent 
in  his  function.  And  in  the  fourth  council  of 
Carthage  it  was  decreed.  That  if  a  bishop  ordained'^ 
any  one  wittingly  who  had  done  public  penance, 
(the  ordination  of  which  was  prohibited  by  the 
canons,)  he  should  for  his  transgression  be  deprived 
of  his  episcopal  power,  as  to  what  concerned  the 
particular  act  of  ordaining  only;  which  implies, 
that  he  was  still  allowed  to  exercise  all  other  parts 
of  his  office  and  function. 

gp^t^  In  Africa  we   sometimes  find  bi- 

pri°eToVZ-1r power  shops,   for   thcir    mal-administration 

over  a  part  of  their  j     •      j*  ^  j        i  •         i 

floik,  but  allowed  it  auQ  ludiscrcet  government,  deprived 
of  their  power  over  some  part  of  their 


flock,  and  yet  allowed  still  to  govern  the  rest. 
This  may  be  collected  from  St.  Austin's  account 
of  their  proceeding  with  one  Antonius,  a  young 
bishop,  who  had  oppressed  some  of  his  people  at 
Fussala  by  unreasonable  exactions ;  for  wliich  it 
was  thought  fit  to  punish  him  with  this  gentle 
correction,  that  he  should  no  longer  rule  over  '*  that 
part  of  his  people  whom  he  had  so  oppressed,  lest 
their  grief  and  impatience  should  break  out  into 
some  violent  attempts  that  might  be  dangerous  lo 
both  parties.  Antonius  indeed  complained  of  this 
as  an  infringement  of  his  just  rights  and  powers; 
for  he  pleaded,  that  a  bishop  ought  either  to  be 
deposed,  or  to  be  left  in  the  full  exercise  of  his 
jurisdiction  and  power.  But  St.  Austin  shows, 
that  this  was  no  new  thing  in  Africa,  nor  unreason- 
able in  itself;  for  a  bishop  may  be  guilty  of  many 
misdemeanors,  for  which  it  will  neither  be  proper 
to  let  him  go  wholly  unpunished,  nor  yet  to  use 
such  severity  as  to  deprive  him  universally  of  his 
episcopal  honour  and  power.  In  such  cases  the 
middle  way  proves  the  most  useful  correction ;  nei- 
ther to  use  too  great  severity  above  the  nature  of 
the  offence,  nor  too  much  lenity  and  mildness,  to 
let  it  pass  entirely  without  any  censure  or  correc- 
tion. And  he  shows  that  this  was  a  method  often 
taken  in  Africa  for  less  faults  in  other  instances  of 
punishment. 

Particularly  in  Africa,  (where  the 

'    ^  Sett.  5. 

primacy  of  metropolitans  always  went  pS°5',,'Vpriv* 
by  seniority  of  ordination,  so  that  the  JeLrll^and  liRht 
oldest  bishop  always  regularly  sue-  primac"'^o?^m°tr^ 
ceeded  to  the  primacy  of  course,  what-  '"'  ""  '^^"' 
ever  diocese  he  was  possessed  of,)  it  was  customary 
to  punish  an  offending  bishop  with  the  loss  of  his 
seniority  and  right  to  the  primacy,  by  rendering 
him  incapable  of  ever  attaining  it.  This  Ave  learn 
from  St.  Austin  in  the  same  epistle,"^  where  he 
gives  an  instance  in  one  Priscus,  of  the  province  of 
Mauritania  Caesariensis,  who  was  thus  censured; 
and  if  Antonius's  argument  had  been  good,  Priscus 
might  have  pleaded  the  same,  that  he  ought  either 
to  have  been  allowed  his  right  of  succeeding  to  the 
primacy,  or  to  have  been  deprived  of  his  bishopric ; 
but  the  African  discipline  took  the  middle  way,  for 
certain  crimes  neither  to  deprive  bishops  of  their 
episcopal  power,  nor  to  let  them  go  wholly  un- 
punished. 

Another  instance  of  this  discipline         g^^i  g 
was  to  confine  an  offending  bishop  to  th*ll^to^'i?"''co^'l? 


"  Cone.  Nic.  can.  8. 

'"  Cone.  Neocaesar.  can.  10.    Vid.  Cone.  Tolet.  1.  can.  1. 
Cone.  Trull,  can.  20. 

"  Vales.  Not.  in  Sozomen.  lib.  4.  c.  30. 

'-  Cone.  Chalced.  can.  29. 

"  Cone.  Neocicsar.  can.  9.     Mi)  ■7rpo<T(ji^piTijo,  fxivwu  kv 

ToTs  XotTToIs,   OLO.  T))!/  OtWjl!/  CTTTOl/^liw. 

"  Cone.  Carthag.  4.  can.  68.    Si  sciens  episcopus  ortlina- 


verit  talem,  etiam  ipse  ab  episcopatiis  sui,  ordinanili  diin- 
taxat,  potestate  privetur.     Vid.  Cone.  Taurin.  c.  2. 

'*  Aug.  Ep.  261.  Honorem  intecrrum  servavimiis  juveiii 
corrigendo,  sed  corripiendo  minuimus  potestatem,  ne  scili- 
cet eis  prajesset  ulterius,  cum  quibus  sic  cgerat,  &c. 

'^  Ibid.  Clamet  Priscus  provincire  Caesariensis  episcopus  : 
aut  ad  primatum  locus  sicut  cKteris  et  inihi  paterc  debuit, 
aul  episcopatus  mihi  reinanerc  non  debuit. 


1040 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVII. 


mnnionofiheirown  the  commuiiion  of  liis  owH  churcli, 

church.  ' 

and  prohibit  all  other  bishops  from  ad- 
mitting him  to  communion  in  any  of  their  churches. 
St.  Austin  mentions  one  Victor"  who  was  thus 
censured,  and  he  might  have  pleaded  after  the  same 
manner ;  Either  I  ought  to  communicate  in  all 
churches,  or  not  communicate  in  my  oM^n.  But  this 
was  thought  a  reasonable  way  of  discountenancing 
an  offending  bishop  for  some  smaller  faults,  when 
they  did  not  think  them  worthy  of  the  highest  cen- 
sure ;  as  in  case  a  bishop  neglected  to  come  to  the 
provincial  synod  at  the  primate's  call,  or  ordained 
another  man's  clerk  without  his  licence  or  appro- 
bation, which  are  some  of  the  offences  specified  in 
the  African  synods,'^  for  which  a  bishop  might  in- 
cur this  censure. 

g^^j  ^  St.  Austin  gives  a  third  instance  of 

fromTsrerter'd^^  this  discipline  in  the  African  church  ; 
which  was  the  removing  of  a  negli- 
gent bishop  from  a  greater  diocese  to  a  less,  Avhich 
was  a  kind  of  tacit  reproach  and  dishonour  to  him, 
and  the  disgrace  was  his  punishment.  For  as  it 
was  an  honour  for  a  bishop  to  be  translated  from 
a  less  diocese  to  a  greater  by  the  approbation  and 
judgment  of  a  venerable  synod,  (without  which 
they  might  not  move,)  so  it  was  a  dishonour  and 
reproach  to  him  to  be  thrust  down  by  a  synodical 
decree,  though  not  to  a  lower  order,  yet  to  a  lower 
station.  The  one  was  an  argument  of  merit  and 
great  worth,  and  the  other  an  argument  of  some  de- 
merit and  misdemeanor ;  and  therefore  the  one  was 
used  by  way  of  reward,  to  promote  a  bishop  for  his 
abilities  and  good  service ;  and  the  other  by  way  of 
punishment,  to  give  a  negligent  bishop  a  little  gentle 
admonition  and  moderate  correction.  And  thus  St. 
Austin  tells  us,  one  Laurentius,  a  bishop,  was  pun- 
ished by  the  discipline '"  of  the  African  church. 

Sect. 8  ^^  ^''^^    ^    moderate    punishment, 

nera'i^punf^fed'bfa  Hiuch  of  the  samc  naturc  which  the 
i°ramon'g"thos""'of  council  of  Trullo  ™  mcutions  as  com- 

tlie  same  order.  ,         n  t  /.    .  i  i 

mon  to  all  orders  of  the  clergy  m  ge- 
neral; which  was,  to  deprive  them  of  their  seniority, 
and  sink  them  down  to  the  lowest  seat  or  degree 
among  those  of  the  same  order.  This  was  com- 
monly the  punishment  of  persons  of  an  ambitious 
and  assuming  temper.  The  council  instances  in 
such  deacons,  as  because  they  had  some  more  hon- 
ourable ecclesiastical  office,  would  presume  to  take 
place  of  the  presbyters,  and  sit  before  them ;  against 


whom  they  allege  the  parable  of  our  Saviour, 
"  When  thou  art  bidden  to  a  wedding,  sit  not  down 
in  the  most  honourable  place,  &c. :  for  he  that  ex- 
alteth  himself,  shall  be  abased ;  and  he  that  hum- 
bleth  himself,  shall  be  exalted."  The  author  of  the 
Apostolical  Constitutions  takes  notice  of  the  same 
punishment,  as  used  in  his  time,  even  among  the 
laity  also.  For  if  an  honourable  person  came  into 
the  assembly,  being  a  stranger,  and  any  one  refused 
upon  the  deacon's  admonition  to  give  him  place  to 
sit  down ;  he  that  so  refused  was  to  be  removed  by 
compulsion "'  beneath  the  lowest  rank  of  hearers  in 
the  church.  Cotelerius  notes  the  same  order  as  ob- 
served among  the  monks  in  the  Rules  of  Pachomius 
and  St.  Benedict  for  smaller  offences.  And  in  the 
second  council  of  Nice  a  like  rule  was  made  for  the 
correction  of  the  clergy,  that  if  any  one  through 
haughtiness  insulted  another,  he  should  for  his  of- 
fence "  be  thrust  down  to  the  lowest  degree  of  his 
own  order,  to  teach  him  humility  and  submission 
in  his  station.  . 

They  had  also  a  negative  punish- 
ment of  the  same  nature  for  all  the     And  remiJrmg 

.      n      .  T  CI  1  1-1       them    inciipable    of 

interior  orders  of  the  clergv,  which  ^^''^?.  promoted  to 

'-'^  '  any  higher  order. 

was,  to  deny  them  all  further  promo- 
tion, and  incapacitate  them  from  attaining  to  any 
higher  order  in  the  church.  The  first  council  of 
Toledo  has  several  canons  to  this  purpose.  The 
first  canon  orders,"^  That  deacons  who  lived  inconti- 
nently with  their  wives,  should  never  arrive  to  the 
honour  of  presbytery,  nor  presbyters  to  episcopacy. 
This  was  one  of  the  first  steps  made  toward  settling 
the  celibacy  of  the  clergy,  which  at  first  was  intro- 
duced, not  by  disannulling  the  orders  of  the  married 
clergy,  but  by  debarring  them  from  being  advanced 
to  any  higher  order.  Another  canon  ^  appoints, 
That  if  a  reader  marries  a  widow,  he  shall  never  be 
promoted  to  any  higher  degree,  but  always  continue 
a  reader,  or  at  most  a  subdeacon.  And  a  third 
canon  of  the  same  council"^  decrees.  That  if  any  one 
after  baptism  had  followed  the  soldier's  life,  though 
he  had  never  happened  to  shed  blood,  if  he  were 
ordained  to  any  of  the  inferior  orders,  he  should 
never  arrive  to  the  dignity  of  a  deacon  in  the 
church.  A  like  decree  was  made  in  the  fcouncil  of 
Lerida,  That  if  any  clergyman,  who  ministered  at 
the  altar,  shed  human  blood,  though  it  were  the 
blood  of  an  enemy  in  the  straitness  of  a  siege,  he 
should  not  only  be  suspended  from  his  office  and 


"  Aug.  Ep.  261.  Claraet  alius  ejusdem  provinciae  Victor 
episcopus,  cui  relicto  in  eadem  pcsna,  in  qua  et  Priscus 
fiiit,  nusquam  nisi  in  dioDcesi  ejus  ab  alio  communicatur 
episcopo  :  clamet,  imiiiam,  aut  ubique  communicare  debui, 
aut  etiam  in  meis  locis  communicare  non  debui. 

's  Vid.  Cone.  Carthag.  5.  can.  10  et  13.  et  Cod.  Afric. 
can.  77  et  81. 

'9  Aug.  Ep.  261.  20  Cow  Triill.  can.  7. 

2'  Constit.  lib.  2.  cap.  58.  ^  Cone.  Nic.  2.  can.  5. 

^  Cone.  Tolet.  1.  c.  1.    Placuit,  ut  diaconi,  qui  incontinen- 


ter  cum  uxoribus  vi.\erint,  presbyterii  honore  non  cumulen- 
tur.  Si  quis  vero  ex  presbyteris  ante  interdictum  filios  suns 
susceperit,  de  presbyterio  ad  episcopatum  non  admittatur. 

-*  Ibid.  can.  .3.  Lector,  si  viduam  alterius  uxorem  acce- 
perit,  amplius  nihil  sit,  sed  semper  lector  habeatur,  aut  forte 
subdiaconus. 

-^  Ibid.  can.  8.  Si  quis  post  baptism\im  milifaverit.  ot 
chlamydcm  sumpserit,  aut  cingulum  ad  necandos  lideles, 
etiamsi  gravia  non  admiserit,  si  ad  clerum  admissus  fuerit, 
diaconii  non  accipiet  dignitatem. 


Chap.   IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1041 


communion  for  two  years,  but,  after  he  was  restored 
to  his  office  and  communion  again,-"  should  remain 
incapable  of  being  advanced  to  any  higher  office  in 
the  church.  And  there  is  another  canon  in  the 
same  council,  which  orders  such  clergymen  as  fall 
by  the  frailty  of  the  flesh,  after  penance,  to  be  re- 
ceived again  ;  yet  so  as  not  to  expect  any  "  further 
promotion  in  the  church.  The  first  council  of 
Orange  and  council  of  Turin  "^  have  canons  to  the 
same  purpose :  and  Pope  Leo  delivers  it  as  a  rule, 
founded  upon  the  general  practice  of  the  church,  in 
the  case  of  heretical  clergymen  returning  to  the 
unity  of  the  faith,  that  they  were  to  take  it  as  a  fa- 
vour, if  they  were  allowed  to  continue  in  the  order 
they  were  in  before,  deprived  of  all""  hopes  of  fur- 
ther advancement.  Among  the  Greeks,  St.  Basil'" 
has  a  like  rule  concerning  readers,  who  were  guilty 
of  ante-nuptial  fornication,  that  every  such  delin- 
quent should  be  suspended  a  year  from  his  office, 
nkvwv  dnpoKOTTog,  remaining,  moreover,  for  ever  in- 
capable of  attaining  to  any  higher  station  or  prefer- 
ment in  the  church.  And  Justinian,  in  one  of  his 
Novels,^'  made  a  parallel  decree  concerning  readers, 
that  if  any  of  them  married  a  second  wife,  or  a 
widow,  or  one  divorced  from  a  former  husband,  or 
otherwise  forbidden  by  the  laws  or  sacred  canons ; 
that  he  should  never  be  advanced  to  any  other  ec- 
clesiastical order :  or  if  by  any  means  he  happened 
to  be  unwarily  so  advanced,  he  should  be  put  down 
again,  and  reduced  to  his  former  order.  This  was 
one  of  those  negative  punishments,  W'hich  may  be 
proper  to  discourage  and  correct  offences  of  a  lesser 
kind ;  and  so  far  as  it  was  serviceable  to  that  end, 
it  may  be  reckoned  a  useful  part  of  the  discipline 
of  the  church. 

^  ,  ,„  St.  Basil  mentions'^  another  piece 

Sect.  10.  ^ 

tiJ^s^  punfi^edTy  ^^  discipUue,  which  was  pretty  pecu- 
pu'hiic"°exerc'ise  "Jff  li^r ;  for  I  remember  no  other  writer 
t!I!■y^ve^auo^ved''to  at  prcscnt  that  mentions  it  beside  him- 
o  iLia  c  m  pma  e.    ^^^^_  ^^^^  ^^^  ^^  deny  au  offending 

clergyman  the  liberty  of  exercising  his  office  in 
public,  whilst  he  was  allowed  to  officiate  in  private. 
This  was  a  rule  made  by  St.  Basil,  in  the  case  of 
Bianor  and  some  other  presbyters  of  Antioch  in 
Pisidia,  who,  upon  some  injury  done  them,  had 
rashly  sworn  they  would  never  execute  the  office  of 
presbyters  any  more ;  but  afterward  repenting  of 


^^  Cone.  Ilerden.  can.  1.  Ita  clemutn  oflBcio  vel  commu- 
nioni  reddantur,  ea  tamen  ratione,  ne  ulterius  ad  officia 
potiora  promoveantur. 

-'  Ibid.  can.  5.  Ita  tamen,  utsic  officiorum  suorum  loca 
recipiant,  ne  possint  ad  altiora  officia  ulterius  promoveri. 

^  Cone.  Aiausican.  1.  can.  21.     Taurinen.  can.  8. 

^  Leo.  Ep.  3.  ad  Julianum,  al.  Januarium.  Circa  quos 
etiam  earn  canonum  constitutionem  prsecipimus  custodiri,  ut 
in  magno  habeant  beneficio,  si  adempta  sibi  omni  spe  pro- 
motionis,  in  quo  inveniuntur  ordine,  stabilitate  perpetua 
nianeant,  si  tamen  iterata  tinctione  non  fucrint  maculati. 

■">  Basil,  can.  69. 

3  X 


their  rash  oath,  were  willing  to  be  admitted  to  the 
exercise  of  their  office  again.  St.  Basil,  being  con- 
sulted in  the  case,  determined,  that  they  ought  to  be 
restrained  from  the  public  exercise  of  their  function, 
because  of  the  scandal  and  offence  that  might  be 
given  to  many  thereby ;  but  still  they  might  be  al- 
lowed to  officiate  in  private,  where  no  such  offence 
could  be  taken.  These  are  the  specialities  of  those 
punishments,  which  the  discipline  of  the  church 
commonly  inflicted  on  clergymen  for  lesser  offences; 
which  I  have  the  rather  mentioned,  because  they 
are  seldom  to  be  met  with  in  the  accounts  of  church 
discipline  given  by  modern  writers. 

To  all  these  we  may  add,  that  in  the 
fourth  and  fifth  ages,  when  monaste-     or  inrruBionoror- 

1     1     •  1  IT       fi'nclcrs  into  a  mo- 

nes  began  to  be  settled  in  the  world,  "^i^y  to  do  pe- 

^  nuiice  in  private. 

nothing  was  more  common  than  to 
confine  an  offending  clerk  to  some  monastery,  either 
for  a  certain  term,  or  during  his  whole  life,  as  the 
nature  of  his  temporary  suspension  or  his  perpetual 
deprivation  required;  there  to  exercise  himself  in 
acts  of  private  repentance  for  his  offences.  This 
was  a  convenience  rather  than  a  punishment,  ginng 
them  an  opportunity  of  qualifying  themselves  the 
better  either  for  a  restoration  to  their  office,  or  for 
their  reception  into  lay  communion ;  and  therefore 
it  was  indifferently  used  both  in  cases  of  depriva- 
tion and  suspension.  Many  who  were  only  sus- 
pended from  the  exercise  of  their  office  for  a  certain 
time,  were  yet  confined  to  a  monastery  during  that 
term;  as  appears  from  one  of  Justinian's  Novels, 
where  it  is  ordered,  That  if  a  presbyter  or  a  deacon 
was  convicted  of  giving  false  evidence  in  a  pecu- 
niary cause,  they  should  be  suspended  from  their 
ministry  for  three  years,  and  be  confined '^  to  a  mo- 
nastery during  the  time  of  their  suspension.  And 
this  was  in  lieu  of  scourging,  which  was  inflicted 
for  this  crime  upon  other  offenders.  The  second 
council  of  Seville  decrees  the  same'*  in  the  case  of  a 
clergyman  who  deserts  his  own  church  without  his 
bishop's  leave,  and  makes  his  residence  in  any  other : 
he  is  to  lose  the  badge  of  his  honour  and  ordination 
for  some  time,  and  be  bound  to  a  monastery,  till  it 
be  proper  to  recall  him  to  the  ministry  of  his  ecclesi- 
astical order  again.  But  in  case  the  punishment 
amounted  to  a  total  and  perpetual  deprivation,  then 
they  were  frequently  sent  to  a  monastery  for  their 


5'  Justin.  Novel.  123.  cap.  14.  Si  lector  secundam  ducat 
uxorem,  ant  primam  quidem  viduam,  aut  separatam  a  viro, 
aut  legibus  vel  sacris  canonibus  intcrdictam,  nequaquam  ad 
alium  ccclesiasticum  ordinem  provehatur:  sed  etsi  atl  ina- 
jorcm  ordinem  perducatur,  expellatur  eo,  et  priori  rcstitu- 
atur.  ^  Basil,  can.  17. 

^  Justin.  Novel.  123.  cap.  20.  Sufficiat  pro  vcrbcribus 
tribus  annis  separari  a  sacro  minislerio,  et  monastcriis  tradi. 

5*  Cone.  Hispalen.  can.  3.  Dcsertorem  clcricum,  cingulo 
honoris  at  que  ordinationis  suae  e.\utum,  aliquo  tempore  mo- 
nasterio  relegari,  al.  religari,  convenit:  sicque  postea  in 
ministerio  ccclesiastici  ordinis  revocari. 


,/ 


1042 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVII. 


whole  lives,  and  there  they  spent  the  remainder  of 
their  days  only  in  lay  communion.  Of  which  the 
canons  of  Agde  and  Epone*^  are  full  proof,  to  which 
I  refer  the  learned  reader  in  the  margin. 

Sect  i"  ^^^  ™^y  observe  further,  that  in  the 

isifmcnl^^Hmrfar  ^amc  agcs,  whcii  it  was  the  custom  to 
div'ipiine''up'o"the  shut  delinquents  up  in  a  monastery, 
inftrior  clergy.  gQuje  corporal  punisliment  and  con- 
finement in  prison  also  was  used,  as  a  piece  of 
church  discipline,  to  correct  the  inferior  orders.  I 
have  had  occasion  to  show  before,^"  that  the  larger 
churches  had  commonly  their  decanica,  or  prisons, 
for  this  purpose ;  which  were  not  any  one  distinct 
building,  but  some  of  the  catechumcnia,  or  diaconica, 
or  secretaria,  belonging  to  the  church,  and  made  use 
of  for  this  end,  to  put  offending  clerks  to  a  more 
decent  confinement  in  them.  It  has  also  been 
noted  in  another  place,"  that  all  monasteries  had 
the  discipline  of  the  whip  or  scourge  among  them, 
to  punish  the  junior  monks  and  unruly  offenders. 
And  it  is  as  certain  it  was  also  used  for  the  correc- 
tion of  the  inferior  orders  among  the  clergy.  The 
council  of  Agde  mentions  it  twice;  first  as  the 
punishment*  of  those  who  wandered  about  from 
one  church  to  another  without  the  recommendatory 
letters  of  their  bishop ;  whom  the  canon  orders  first 
to  be  corrected  by  words,  and  then  by  stripes,  if  they 
remained  incorrigible  upon  admonition.  Another 
canon  appoints^'*  the  same  discipline  for  drunken- 
ness ;  A  clerk  who  is  convicted  of  being  drunken,  is 
either  to  be  suspended  thirty  days  from  communion, 
or  else  to  be  chastised  by  corporal  punishment.  The 
council  of  Epone"  expressly  distinguishes  between 
the  superior  and  inferior  clergy  in  the  case ;  If  one 
of  the  superior  clergy  feast  with  a  heretic,  he  is  to 
be  suspended  for  a  year ;  but  one  of  the  inferior  for 
the  same  crime  is  to  be  beaten.  The  first  council 
of  Mascon"  orders.  That  if  a  clergyman  be  found 
wearing  an  indecent  habit,  or  carrying  arms,  he 
shall  be  imprisoned  thirty  days,  and  fed  only  with 
bread  and  water.  This  imprisonment  was  the  pun- 
ishment of  the  superior  clergy  ;  for  in  another  canon 
the  distinction  is  expressly  made  ^Mn  the  case  of 


one  clergyman  accusing  another  before  a  secular 
magistrate  ;  if  he  was  one  of  the  superior  clergy,  he 
wi^^"  to  be  imprisoned  thirty  days ;  if  one  of  the  in- 
fenca*,  to  receive  forty  stripes,  save  one.  And  this 
was  done  .in  conformity  to  the  rule  in  the  law  of 
Moses,  that  they  should  not  exceed  forty  stripes ; 
onl}^,  in  case  the  crime  was  great,  they  might  repeat 
them  after  some  days;  which  is  observed  out  of  the 
Life  of  Ca^sarius  Arelatensis  by  the  late  French 
author  of  the  Historia  Flagellantium,^^  who  cites 
many  other  writers,  which  need  not  here  be  men- 
tioned. I  only  add  that  of  St.  Austin,"  who  says, 
this  way  of  coercion  was  used  in  bishops'  courts  in 
his  time  ;  but  whether  he  means  towards  the  clergy, 
or  the  laity,  is  not  absolutely  certain.  It  might  be 
towards  both  perhaps  in  lesser  criminal  causes,  that 
were  of  an  ecclesiastical  nature ;  for  as  to  those 
criminal  causes  which  were  of  a  civil  nature,  bi- 
shops had  no  power,  especially  in  cases  of  blood ; 
in  which  sort  of  judgments  a  bishop  could  not  be 
concerned,  without  incurring  himself  the  highest 
censures  of  the  church ;  but  they  might  have  liberty 
to  chastise  the  inferior  clergy  with  corporal  correc- 
tion. The  law  indeed  in  many  cases  exempted  the  I 
superior  clergy  from  corporal  punishment ;  as  if  a 
presbyter  or  a  deacon  gave  false  testimony  in  a  pe- 
cuniary cause,  they  might  be  suspended,  and  sent 
to  a  monastery  for  a  time,  but  not  be  corporally 
punished  as  other  men.  In  criminal  causes  it  was 
otherwise ;  false  testimony  in  such  a  case  deprived 
them  of  their  orders,  and  reduced  them  to  the  state 
of  laymen ;  and  then,  as  other  laymen,  they  were 
liable  to  corporal  punishment,  according  as  the 
laws  required.  But  whether  it  were  a  pecuniary 
cause,  or  a  criminal  cause,  if  one  of  the  inferior 
orders  gave  false  testimony,  in  either  case  he  was 
liable  to  suffer  corporal  punishment:  and  in  this 
consisted  the  difference  between  the  superior  and 
inferior  clergy  in  this  part  of  discipline,  as  is  noted 
in  one  of  Justinian's  Novels,""^  which  helps  to  ex- 
plain the  practice  of  the  church.  And  this  is  what 
I  had  to  observe  concerning  those  punishments, 
which  by  the  rules  of  the  ancient  discipline  were 


^^  Gone.  Agathen.  can,  50.  Si  episcopus,  presbyter,  vel 
diaconus  capitale  crimen  commiserit,  aut  chartam  falsaverit, 
aut  testimonium  falsum  di.xerit,  ab  officii  lionore  depositus, 
in  monasterium  retrudatur:  et  ibi,  quamdiu  vixerit,  laicam 
tantimimodo  communionem  accipiat.  Cone.  Epaimen.  can. 
22.  Si  diaconus  aut  presbyter  crimen  capitale  commiserit, 
ab  officii  bonore  depositus,  in  monasterium  retrudatur,  ibi 
tantummodo,  quanuliu  vixerit,  communionem  sumendo. 

^  Book  VIII.  chap.  7.  sect.  9. 

3'  Book  VII.  chap.  3.  sect.  12. 

^  Cone.  Agathen.  can.  38.     Clericis,  sine  commendatitiis 

epistolis  episcopi  sui,  licentia  non  pateat  evagandi. Quos 

si  verborum  increpatio  non  emendaverit,  etiam  verbcribus 
.statuimus  coerceri. 

^'  Ibid.  can.  41.  Clericum  quem  ebrium  fuisse  constiterit, 
aut  triginta  dieruni  spatio  acommunione  statuimus  submov- 
cndum,  aut  corporali  subdendum  supplicio. 


'"'  Cone.  Epaunen.  can.  15.  Si  superioris  loci  clericus 
haeretici  cujuscunque  convivio  interfuerit,  anni  spatio  paeem 
ecclesiae  non  habebit:  quod  si  minores  clerici  pra;sumpserint, 
vapulabunt. 

■"  Cone.  Matiscon.  Lean. 3.  Clericus,  si  cum  indecent!  veste 
aut  cum  armis  inventus  fuerit,  a  seniore  ita  eoerceatur,  ut 
triginta  dierum  inclusione  detentus,  aqua  tantuni  et  modico 
pane  diebus  singulis  sustentetur. 

■■-  Ibid.  can.  5.  Si  junior  fuerit,  uno  minus  de  quadra- 
ginta  ictus  accipiat ;  si  certe  honoratior,  triginta  dierum 
conclusione  mulctetui'. 

^3  Historia  Flagellantium,  cap.  5  et  6.  Paris,  1700.  8vo. 

■•*  Aug.  Ep.  159.  ad  Mareellin.  Qui  modus  coercitionis 
(per  virgarum  verbera)  saope  etiam  in  judiciis  solet  ab 
episcopis  adhiberi. 

^5  Justin.  Novel.  123.  cap.  20. 


Chap.  V. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1043 


l)e'culiarly  inflicted  on  the  clergy  for  the  correction 
of  their  offences. 


CHAPTER  V. 

A  PARTICULAR  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  CRIMES  FOR 
WHICH  CLERGYMEN  WERE  LIABLE  TO  BE  PUN- 
ISHED WITH  ANY  OF  THE  FOREMENTIONED  KINDS 
OF    CENSURE. 

g^  ^  J  It  remains  that  we  now  give  a  par- 

Au  crimes  that  ticular  account  of  those  crimes   for 

were  punished  with 

F,f rirymin'pun-  which  clergymen  might  be  pimished. 
s^dl",  orTieposTtXi'n  And  hcre  we  must  observe,  that  their 

tlic  clergy.  .  «  .  ,  , 

crimes  were  of  two  sorts,  such  as  were 
common  to  them  with  laymen,  and  such  as  they 
might  be  guilty  of  in  transgressing  the  rules  parti- 
cularly relating  to  their  office  and  function.  Of  the 
former  sort  I  need  not  discourse  particularly  here, 
because  I  have  done  it  largely  in  the  last  Book, 
where  I  examined  the  nature  of  the  several  great 
crimes  for  which  a  layman  might  incur  the  censure 
of  excommunication ;  there  being  only  this  general 
difference  to  be  observed  between  the  crimes  of  a 
laic  and  an  ecclesiastic,  that  what  was  commonly 
punished  wdth  excommunication  in  a  layman,  was 
ordinarily  punished  with  suspension  or  deposition 
in  a  clergyman ;  or,  if  the  crime  was  very  scandal- 
ous and  flagrant,  with  excommunication  also.  For 
this  reason  I  here  pass  over  the  great  crimes  of 
idolatry,  divination,  magic,  sorcery  and  enchant- 
ment, apostacy,  heresy,  schism,  sacrilege,  and  simony, 
which  are  crimes  against  the  first  and  second  com- 
mandment in  the  decalogue ;  as  also  blasphemy, 
profane  swearing,  perjury,  and  breach  of  vows, 
against  the  third  commandment ;  all  violations  of 
the  law  enjoining  the  rehgious  observation  of  the 
Lord's  day,  against  the  fourth  commandment;  all 
disobedience  and  disrespect  to  parents,  and  treason 
and  rebellion  against  princes,  and  general  contempt 
of  the  laws  of  the  church,  infringing  the  obligations 
of  the  fifth  commandment ;  all  the  species  of  murder, 
against  the  sixth  commandment ;  and  all  species  of 
uncleanness  and  intemperance,  against  the  seventh ; 
all  kinds  of  theft,  fraud,  oppression,  and  injustice, 
against  the  eighth ;  and  all  kinds  of  false  testimony, 
libelling,  informing,  calumny,  and  slander,  against 
the  ninth  commandment ;  because  I  have  already 
spoken  of  all  these  in  particular,  and  showed,  that 
as  they  were  punished  with  excommunication  in 
the  laity,  so  they  were  commonly  punished  with 
suspension  or  deprivation,  and  sometimes  with  ex- 


communication, in  the  clergy  also.  But  besides 
these  crimes,  common  both  to  laity  and  clergy,  there 
were  many  transgressions  and  offences  that  might 
be  committed  by  the  clergy  against  the  particular 
rules  of  their  function  and  profession  :  and  of  these 
we  are  here  to  make  a  more  special  inquiry.  Some 
of  these  respected  their  entrance  upon  their  office ; 
others,  their  behaviour  in  it.  We  will  now  speak 
particularly,  but  briefly  and  succinctly,  of  both. 
Some  qualifications  were  originally  s«t.  i. 
required  in  the  clergy  as  necessary  at  doriTaVordin'atum 
their  entrance  upon  the  clerical  life  fo"S/the  dJI^y 

,    _  .  -11/.  .        "'•'■■"^  immcdiutely  li- 

ana  function ;   and  therefore  certam  »i>>e  '<>  '«-•  <icgrad«i 

from  their  very  ttni 

rules  were  prescribed  for  a  due  ex-  wdination.  a^  fir»t, 

'■  for  Ignorance  or  lie- 

amination  and  inquiry  into  these  be-  '«'■<>>•»»>'"  «"g'»n- 
fore  their  ordination  :  and  a  defect  in  any  of  these 
quaUfications,  or  a  transgression  against  any  of 
these  rules,  was  enough  to  render  an  ordination  null 
and  void  ab  origine  ;  so  that  the  clergy  thus  ordain- 
ed were  liable  to  be  degraded  or  deposed  immedi- 
ately from  their  very  first  ordination.  Of  these 
qualifications,  (as  I  have  had  occasion  to  show 
more  at  large  in  a  former  Book,')  some  respected 
their  faith  and  knowledge,  others  their  former  life 
and  morals,  and  others  their  outward  quality  and 
condition  in  the  world :  and  a  defect  in  any  of  these 
qualificati(ms,  or  a  transgression  of  any  of  the  rules 
prescribed,  was  in  the  common  course  of  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  church  a  sufficient  reason  to  depose 
a  clergyman  as  soon  as  he  was  ordained.  The  first 
and  principal  qualification  so  necessarily  required, 
was  an  orthodox  faith,  and  a  competent  knowledge 
in  the  Scriptures  and  all  things  relating  to  the  ex- 
ercise of  his  function :  and  if  either  a  bishop  was 
ordained  without  such  an  examination,  or  without 
such  qualifications,  both  the  ordainer  and  the  or- 
dained were  immediately  to  be  deposed.  The  words 
of  Justinian's  law  ^  are  very  express  in  this  business : 
If  any  bishop  is  ordained  contrary  to  the  foremen- 
tioned  observation,  we  command,  that  both  he  who 
is  so  ordained  be  deposed,  and  also  the  bishop  Mho 
so  illegally  ordained  him. 

Another  strict  inquiry  was  to  be  g^,.,  3 
made  into  men's  morals  ;  and  if  in  any  mf^itT'and^'ra™- 
notorious  instance  they  had  formerly  lno"n^raiao'(old'. 
been  culpable  and  scandalous,  their 
ordination  was  forbidden ;  or  if  by  ignorance  or 
surreption  they  were  ordained,  they  were  immedi- 
ately upon  discovery  and  conviction  to  be  suspend- 
ed, if  not  deposed.  Thus  in  the  council  of  Neocse- 
sarea '  we  find  a  rule.  That  if  a  presbyter  confessed, 
that  before  his  ordination  he  had  been  guilty  of 
corporal  uncleanness,  he  was  no  longer  to  be  al- 
lowed to  offer  the  sacrifice  of  the  altar.     This  sin 


>  Book  IV.  chap.  .3. 

'^  Justin.  Novel.  137.  cap.  2.  Si  quis  autcm  praetcr  me- 
moratam  observationem  episcopus  nrdinet\ir,  nibemus  et 
ipsuin  omnibus  modis  episcopatu  dejici,  ct  cum,  qui  contra 
3x2 


talem  observationem  eum  ordinare  ausus  fuerit. 

'  Cone.  Neocoesar.  can.  9.     Vid.  Cone.  Nic.  can.  9  ct  10. 
Cone   Elibcrin.  can.  7G. 


1044 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVII. 


iihvays  made  a  man  irregular,  though  some  were 
of  opinion,  as  the  canon  intimates,  that  other  sins 
were  done  away  by  ordin^ation.  The  canons  further 
required,  that  a  man  should  be  no  digamist,  or 
twice  married,  nor  married  to  a  widow,  nor  to  any 
that  had  been  divorced  from  another  man ;  and  if 
any  such  were  ordained,  by  the  same  rule  of  Jus- 
tinian they  were  immediately  liable  to  be  deposed. 
It  was  forbidden  likewise  to  ordain  any  man  airo- 
XiXvjjiiviog,  that  is,  without  fixing  him  to  some  par- 
ticular diocese  or  church :  and  the  ordination  of 
any  one  contrary  to  this  rule,  is  by  Pope  Leo"  pro- 
nounced vain ;  and  by  the  great  council  of  Chal- 
cedon,*  null  and  void.  It  was  another  rule  of  this 
kind,  for  the  preservation  of  good  order  in  the 
church,  that  no  bishop  should  ordain  another  man's 
clerk  without  his  consent :  and  if  any  one  did  so, 
the  great  council  of  Nice,''  and  the  council  of  Sar- 
dica,"  and  the  second  of  Aries,*  peremptorily  pro- 
nounce all  such  ordinations  null  and  void.  It  was 
required  in  the  election  and  ordination  of  a  bishop, 
that  there  should  be  the  general  consent  of  these 
four  parties,  the  clergy,  the  people,  the  provincial 
bishoj)S,  and  the  metropolitan :  and  ordinations  per- 
formed in  derogation  to  any  part  of  this  rule,  are 
by  abundance  of  canons  declared  absolutely  void, 
and  bishops  so  promoted  are  appointed  to  be  de- 
posed. The  council  of  Antioch  is  express  in  re- 
quiring the  presence  or  consent  of  the  provincial 
bishops "  and  metropolitan  ;  decreeing,  that  an  or- 
dination performed  contrary  to  this  rule  shall  be  of 
no  force,  /xriStv  laxvHv.  The  council  of  Riez  '"  for 
this  reason  actually  degraded  Armentarius,  bishop 
of  Ambrun,  because  he  had  neither  the  general 
consent  of  the  provincial  bishops,  nor  the  metro- 
politan, but  was  clancularly  ordained  by  two  bi- 
shops without  the  knowledge  of  the  other  parties 
chiefly  concerned.  The  canons,  in  the  Latin  church 
especially,  are  altogether  as  peremptory  and  plain 
in  disannulling  all  ordinations  of  bishops  to  any 
place  against  the  general  consent  of  the  people.  Let 


no  bishop,  says  one  of  the  councils  of  Orleans,"  be 
imposed  upon  a  people  against  their  wills.  Nor  let 
the  clergy  and  people  be  constrained  to  give  their 
consent  by  the  oppression  of  any  potent  persons. 
If  any  such  thing  is  done,  the  bishop  who  is  so  or- 
dained, rather  by  violence  than  any  legal  decree, 
shall  be  deposed  for  ever  from  the  honour  of  his 
priesthood.  In  like  manner  the  council  of  Cha- 
lons,'- A  bishop  shall  not  be  chosen  to  any  city  any 
other  way,  but  by  the  consent  of  the  provincial  bi- 
shops, the  clergy  and  the  people  :  if  otherwise,  tlie 
ordination  shall  be  null  and  void.  To  this  agrees 
the  resolution  of  Pope  Leo  in  answer  to  the  queries 
of  a  French  bishop,  That  reason  "  will  not  allow 
those  to  be  received  as  bishops,  who  were  neither 
chosen  by  the  clergy,  nor  desired  by  the  people, 
nor  consecrated  by  the  provincial  bishops,  with 
the  judgment  of  the  metropolitan.  And  that  re- 
script of  Honorius  concerning  the  election  of  the 
bishop  of  Rome,'"  That  if  two  bishops  were  ordained 
by  two  contending  parties,  neither  of  them  should 
be  bishop,  but  one  who  was  chosen  out  of  the  cler- 
gy by  the  judgment  of  the  provincial  bishops  and 
the  consent  of  all  the  people.  So  that  if  any  bishop 
was  ordained  against  these  rules,  his  ordination  was 
void,  and  he  was  liable  to  be  deposed  as  soon  as  he 
was  ordained.  So  if  any  bishop  was  ordained,  who 
was  before  under  the  sentence  of  deposition,  his  or- 
dination was  null,  as  was  declared  in  the  case  of 
Timotheus  ^lurus  by  several  provincial  councils 
related  in  the  acts  of  the  council  of  Chalcedon.'^  If 
a  bishop  was  ordained  into  a  full  see,  where  an- 
other was  regularly  ordained  before  him,  his  ordin- 
ation was  of  no  effect :  he  was  to  be  reputed  as  no 
bishop,  but  to  be  rejected  as  an  adulterer,  an  in- 
truder, an  invader  of  other  men's  rights,  and  a  wolf 
only  in  sheep's  clothing:  which  was  the  answer 
that  Cyprian  '*  gave  in  the  case  of  Novatian ;  and 
the  council  of  Sardica  '^  in  Hilary's  collection  ;  and 
the  oriental  bishops  and  synods  '*  in  the  foremen- 
tioned  case  of  Timotheus  ^lurus,  mentioned  both 


*  Leo,  Ep.  92.  ad  Rusticum,  cap.  1. 

*  Cone.  Chalced.  can.  G.  See  more  of  this,  Book  IV. 
chap.  6.  sect.  2. 

''  Cone.  Nic.  can.  16.  '  Cone.  Sardic.  can.  15. 

^  Cone.  Arelat.  2.  can.  13.       '  Cone.  Antioch.  can.  19. 

'"  Cone,  llhegiense,  can.  2.  Ordinationem,  quam  ca- 
nones  irritam  definiunl,  nos  quoque  vacuandam  esse  censui- 
mus,  iu  qua,  pra;termissa  trium  praisentia,  nee  expetitis 
coniprovincialium  literis,  metropolitaui  quoque  voluntate 
neglccta,  prorsus  nihil,  quod  episcopuni  faeeret,  ostensum 
est.  Vid.  Cone.  Arelat.  2.  can.  G.  Cone.  Aurelian.  .5. 
can.  10. 

"  Cone.  Aurelian.  5.  can.  11.  Nulliis  invitis  detur  epis- 
copus,  &c.  Quod  si  factum  fuerit,  ipse  episcopiis,  qui 
magis  per  violentiam  quara  per  dccretum  Icgitimum  ordi- 
natur,  ab  indepto  pontificatiis  honore  in  perpetuum  de- 
ponatur. 

'■-  Cone.  Cabillon.  1.  can.  10.  Si  quia  episcopus  de  qua- 
<;iuique  civitate  fuerit  defunctus,  non  ab  alio  nisi  a  compro- 


vincialibus,  clero  et  civibus  suis  alterius  habeatur  electio  : 
sin  alitor,  hujus  ordinatio  irrita  habeatur. 

'8  Leo,  Ep.  92.  ad  Rusticum  Narbon.  cap.  J.  Nulla  ratio 
sinit,  ut  inter  episcopos  habeantur,  qui  nee  a  clericis  sunt 
electi,  nee  a  plebibus  expetiti,  nee  a  provincialibus  epis- 
copis  cum  metropolitani  judicio  conseerati. 

'^  Honorii  Rescript,  ad  Bonifac.  ap.  Crab.  t.  i.  p.  491. 
Si  duo  contra  fas  temeritate  certantes,  fuerint  ordinati,  nul- 
lum e.x  his  futiirum  penitus  sacerdotem ;  sed  ilium  solum  in 
sede  apostolica  permansurum,  qnem  ex  numero  elericorum, 
nova  ordinatione  divinum  judicium  et  universitatis  consen- 
sus elegerit. 

'5  Synod.  Cappadociae,  in  Act.  Cone.  I.  Chalced.  par.  3. 
can.  51.  Synod.  Galatiae,  ibid.  cap.  57.  Synod.  Paphlagon. 
c.  54.  Synod.  Corinth,  e.  56. 

'"  Cypr.  Ep.  55.  ad  Antonian.  p.  104. 

"  Hilar,  de  Synodis,  p.  128. 

'"  Liberat.  Breviar.  cap.  15.  Acta  Cone.  Chalced.  par. 
3.  Epist.  38,  39,  41. 


Chap.  V. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


I04r) 


by  Liberatus,  and  their  own  acts  in  the  end  of  the 
council  of  Chalcedon.  In  hke  manner  it  was  a  rule 
in  the  church,  that  no  energumen,  or  person  pos- 
sessed with  an  evil  spirit,  should  be  ordained :  or  if 
any  such  by  any  chance  or  mistake  were  ordained, 
he  was  immediately  to  be  deposed.  This  is  very 
expressly  decreed  in  the  first  council '"  of  Orange  : 
Energumens  are  not  only  not  to  be  taken  into  any 
order  of  the  clergy,  but  those  who  are  already  or- 
dained shall  be  removed  from  their  office  also. 
There  is  a  necessity  of  removing  such  demoniacs, 
says  Gelasius,**  lest  such  ministers  should  scandal- 
ize the  weak,  for  whom  Christ  died.  It  was  another 
rule  of  the  church,  that  no  one  who  had  voluntarily 
disfigured  or  dismembered  his  own  body  should 
ever  be  admitted  to  any  sacred"'  order:  and  there- 
fore, if  any  such  were  actually  ordained,  by  the  or- 
der of  the  great  council  of  Nice,"  they  were  to  cease 
from  officiating;  to  be  secluded  from  the  clerical 
function  as  soon  as  discovered,  according  to  the 
decree  of  Gelasius  ;^  or,  as  the  Roman  council  un- 
der Hilary-^  words  it,  if  any  such  crept  into  orders, 
the  bishop  who  consecrated  them  was  obliged  to 
nullify  and  dissolve  his  own  act,  as  soon  as  the  fraud 
was  discovered.  Another  rule  was,  that  no  person 
who  w'as  unbaptized,  or  irregularly  baptized  with- 
out the  due  form  of  baptism,  should  be  admitted  to 
holy  orders :  and  for  this  reason  the  coimcil  of 
Nice  ^  ordered  all  such  as  were  ordained  by  the 
Paulianists,  to  be  both  rebaptized  and  reordained, 
if  they  were  otherwise  found  qualified  for  their 
function.  A  like  order  was  made  concerning  all 
such  as  were  baptized  among  heretics,  or  rebap- 
tized by  them ;  that  no  such  should  be  ordained ; 
and  if  any  of  either  kind  were  surreptitiously  admit- 
ted to  orders,  they  were  to  be  deposed,  under  pe- 
nalty of  deposition  to  the  bishop  himself,  who  should 
presume^  either  to  ordain  any  such,  or  not  remove 
them  when  fraudulently  ordained  by  others.  If 
any  one  made  use  of  the  secular  powers  to  gain  a 
promotion  in  the  church,  "by  a  rule  "  of  the  Apos- 
tolical Canons  he  was  to  be  deposed ;  and  all  that 
communicated  with  him  were  to  be  suspended  from 
Christian  communion.  If  a  bishop  ordained  any  of 
his  unworthy  kindred  for  mere  favour,  by  a  rule  of  the 
same  Apostolical  Canons^  the  ordination  was  null, 


and  the  bishop  himself  was  to  be  suspended.  And 
to  this  agrees  the  order  made  in  the  tenth  council  of 
Toledo-'  to  the  same  purpose.  If  a  bishop  ordained 
his  own  successor,  by  a  rule  of  the  council  of  An- 
tioch,'"  his  ordination  was  null,  because  it  was  clan- 
destinely done  without  the  consent  of  a  provincial 
synod.  Or  if  a  bishop  was  ordained  only  by  two 
bishops,  for  the  same  reason  he  was  liable  to  be  de- 
posed, because  it  was  done  against  the  rule  which 
required  the  concurrence  of  the  metropolitan  and 
the  provincial  synod.  Therefore  the  first  council 
of  Orange"  ordered  in  such  a  case.  That  if  two 
bishops  presumed  to  ordain  a  bishop  by  themselves, 
both  the  ordaining  bishops  were  to  be  deposed;  and 
if  the  bishop  was  ordained  against  his  will,  he  should 
be  put  into  the  place  of  one  of  the  deposed  bishops  ; 
but  if  he  was  ordained  by  his  own  consent,  then  he 
also  was  to  be  deposed,  that  the  rule  prescribed  by 
the  ancient  canons  might  be  more  cautiously  ob- 
served. And  the  council  of  Riez'^  actually  deposed 
Armentarius,  bishop  of  Ambrun,  for  this  very  rea- 
son, because  he  had  not  three  bishops  to  ordain  him. 
All  these  were  transgressions  against  the  known 
rules  of  ordination,  and  imputed  to  men  as  immo- 
ralities, because  they  were  violations  of  those  good 
rules  and  orders,  which  were  made  with  great  wis- 
dom for  the  regular  government  and  benefit  of  (he 
church.  And  therefore  if  in  any  of  these  cases  a 
crime  was  committed,  the  ordination  was  liable  to 
be  declared  void  originally  by  the  discipline  of  the 
church ;  and  the  clergy  so  ordained  might  be  de- 
posed, as  soon  as  they  were  ordained,  for  the  offences 
committed  in  their  ordination.  It  is  true,  indeed, 
the  church  did  not  always  actually  depose  such  : 
but  then  she  dispensed  with  her  own  rules,  and 
such  dispensations  were  only  matters  of  favour  and 
indulgence,  in  some  special  cases,  when  the  church 
for  prudential  reasons  thought  fit  to  relax  her  dis- 
cipline, and  gi'ant  men  such  allowances,  as  in  strict- 
ness of  law  they  could  not  challenge  :  the  general 
rules  of  discipline  were  still  in  force,  though  the 
church  did  not  always  think  it  proper  to  put  them 
strictly  in  execution. 

Neither  was  it  any  remedy  in  this         sect.  4. 
case,  that  men  made  a  solemn  atone-  pd'^in'iww.wTj 
raent    for    their    crimes    before    the  nallclforoffen^w. 


"  Cone.  Arausican.  1.  can.  16.  Energunieni  non  solum 
non  assumendi  sunt  ad  ullum  ordincni  clericatus,  sed  et  illi 
qui  ordinati  jam  sunt,  ab  imposito  officio  sunt  repcUendi. 

^  Gelas.  Ep.  9.  ad  Episc.  Lucaniaj,  cap.  21.  Necessaiio 
removendi  sunt,  ne  quibuslibct,  pro  quihus  Christus  est 
mortuus,  scandalum  geneietur  infirrais. 

-'  Vid.  Canon,  Apost.  21.     Cone.  Arelat.  2.  can.  7. 

"Cone.  Nic.  can.  1.  ^  Gelas.  Ep.  9.  cap.  19. 

-'  Cone.  Rom.  can.  3.  ^  Cone.  Nic.  can.  19. 

-"  Felic.  III.  E p.  1.  c.  5.  Quiinqualibet  wtatc,  alibi  quam 
in  ecclesia  catholica,  aut  baptizati  aut  rebaptizati  sunt,  ad 

ecclesiasticammilitiam  prorsus  non  admitf antur. Quo- 

niam  de  suo  ordine  et  conimunioue  videbitur  ferre  judicium, 


quisquis  hoc  violaverit  institutum,  vol  qui  nou  removerit 
eum,  qucm  e.\  eis  ad  ministerium  clericale  obrepsisse  cog- 
uoverit. 

^'  Canon.  Apostol.  can.  .30.  '■*  Ibid.  can.  7G. 

-'  Cone.  Tolet.  10.  can.  .3.  **  Cone.  Aniioch.  can.  2-3. 

"  Cone.  Arausic.  1.  can.  21.  Duo  si  pra'suuipscrint  or- 
dinare  episcopum,  placuit  de  pra;sumptoribus,  ut,  sicubi 
contigerit,  duos  episcopos  invitum  episcopum  facere,  auc- 
toribus  damnatis,  unius  eorum  ecclesioc,  ipse,  qui  vim  passus 
est,  substituatur  :  si  volunlarium  duo  feccrint,  et  ipse  dam- 
nabitur,  quo  cautius  ea,  quae  sunt  antiquitus  luslituta,  ser- 
ventur. 

'^  Couc.  Rhcgicns.  can.  2. 


1046 


ANTIQUITIES  OP  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVII. 


church,  by  doing  public  penance  for  them.  For 
this  was  so  far  from  opening  their  way  to  a 
regular  ordination,  that  it  was  one  of  those  things 
that  rendered  them  incapable  of  it ;  or  if  by 
any  secret  methods  they  had  attained  it,  this  was 
thought  a  sufficient  reason  to  withdraw  their  orders, 
and  degrade  them.  No  one  that  has  done  public 
penance,  says  the  fourth  council  of  Carthage,^  shall 
be  ordained  a  clerk,  though  he  be  otherwise  a  good 
man  :  or  if  by  concealment  from  the  bishop's  know- 
ledge this  happen  to  be  done,  the  clerk  shall  be 
deposed,  because  he  confessed  not  at  the  time  of  his 
ordination  that  he  had  done  penance  in  the  church. 
After  the  same  manner  the  Roman  council  under 
Pope  Hilarius  makes  the  doing  of  public  penance  '* 
as  much  a  bar  to  a  man's  ordination,  as  the  pro- 
foundest  ignorance,  or  mangling  his  own  body ;  and 
declares,  that  whatever  bishop  consecrates  any 
such,  he  shall  be  obliged  to  reverse  and  cancel  his 
own  act ;  that  is,  immediately  deprive  them  of  their 
orders,  and  degrade  them.  The  like  was  deter- 
mined by  Pope  Innocent  in  the  case  of  one  Mo- 
destus,  who,  after  he  had  done  penance  for  many 
crimes,  not  only  was  ordained  a  clergyman,  which 
was  against  law,  but  also  aimed  at  a  bishopric.  His 
determination  upon  the  point  is  this  :  That  he  ought 
not  only  to  be  defeated  in  his  expectation  ^  of  a  bi- 
shopric, but,  accoi'ding  to  the  canons  of  Nice,"^  be 
removed  from  all  office  among  the  clergy.  The 
third  council  of  Orleans  enacted  the  same :  No  one 
shall  be  promoted  to  holy  orders,  who  has  either 
been  married  to  two  wives,  or  married  a  widow,  or 
done  public  penance,  &c.  And  if  any  bishop  wit- 
tingly act  against  these  rules,  he  that  is  ordained 
shall  be  deprived  of  his  office,  and  the  bishop  him- 
self ''  for  six  months  sequestered  or  suspended  from 
his  ministration.  The  council  of  Agde  ^  a  little 
moderates  the  punishment,  allowing  such  presby- 
ters and  deacons,  who  had  done  penance,  to  retain 
the  name  and  honour  of  their  orders,  but  forbidding 
deacons  to  minister  the  cup,  or  presbyters  to  con- 
secrate the  oblation  of  the  altar.  And  the  first 
council  of  Toledo  '^  degrades  them,  not  totally,  but 
allows  deacons  thus  ordained  out  of  penitents,  to 
take  place  among  the  subdeacons,  that  is,  in  the 
next  inferior  order.  Thus,  one  way  or  other,  every 
clergyman,  who  had  done  penance  whilst  he  was 
a  layman,  was  corrected  and  punished  for  not  de- 
claring, when  he  was  ordained,  that  he  was  in  such 


a  state,  as  by  the  rules  of  the  church  was  made  a 
just  impediment  to  his  ordination ;  and  it  was 
always  thought  scandalous  and  offensive,  to  allow 
any  man  to  officiate  as  a  public  minister,  who  had 
before  been  a  public  penitent  in  the  church.  The 
church  could  admit  them  to  pardon  and  reconcilia- 
tion after  penance,  but  M'ould  not  allow  them  to 
aspire  to  any  dignity,  or  continue  them  in  any  sa- 
cred office  of  the  clerical  function. 

There  was  another  sort  of  impedi-  ^^^^  ^ 

ments  of  ordination,  which,  as  I  ob-  of orfinrtion''iris5i- 
served,  arose  not  from  any  criminal  stut^  ^,™'condiuo'n 
action  in  men,  but  barely  from  their  someUmes'oJcrston 

T  ,  , .    .  ...         of  their  deprivation. 

outward  state  and  condition  in  the 
world,  because  it  happened  to  be  incompatible  and 
inconsistent  with  the  duties  of  the  sacred  order; 
and  therefore  many  strict  rules  were  made  to  pro- 
hibit the  ordination  of  men  in  such  a  capacity,  and 
to  remove  them  back  again  from  the  clerical  to  a 
secular  state,  if  they  happened  to  be  unwarily  or- 
dained against  any  such  prohibitions.  Thus,  to 
instance  in  a  few  particulars  :  the  military  calling, 
(under  which,  as  I  have  showed  in  another  place,'" 
were  comprehended  not  only  the  armed  soldiery  of 
the  camp,  but  also  all  officers  of  the  emperor's  palace, 
and  all  apparitors  and  officials  of  judges  or  governors 
of  provinces,)  I  say,  the  military  calhng  in  this  com- 
prehensive sense  was  reckoned  inconsistent  with 
the  duties  of  the  clerical  life,  because  the  men  of 
this  vocation  were  tied  by  the  laws  to  the  service  of 
the  empire ;  and  therefore  the  laws,  both  of  church 
and  state,  forbade  the  admission  of  them  into  any 
order  of  the  church ;  and  if  they  were  admitted  by 
any  fraud  or  mistake,  they  were  liable  to  be  deposed, 
and  returned  back  to  their  ancient  service.  The 
church  had  another  reason  also  for  refusing  the 
soldiers  of  the  camp,  because  probably  they  had 
imbrued  their  hands  in  blood,  and  no  such  were 
capable  of  ordination.  Therefore  when  some  such 
were  got  into  orders  in  the  Spanish  churches,  Pope 
Innocent  wrote  a  sharp  letter  to  the  synod  of  Tole- 
do, telling  them,  that  by  reason  of  the  numbers  of 
those  who  had  been  so  ordained,  it  was  proper  to 
suffer  them  to  continue,  for  fear  of  giving  disturb- 
ance to  the  church,  and  to  leave  them  to  the  judg- 
ment of  God ;  but  for  the  future,  if  any  such  were 
ordained,  both  the  ordainers*"  and  the  ordained 
should  be  deposed.  And  the  council  of  Toledo  ■*"  so 
far  complied  with  his  admonition,  as  to  decree.  That 


^  Couc.  Carth.  4.  can.  68.  Ex  pcenitentibus,  quamvis  sit 
bonus,  clericus  non  ordinetur.  Si  per  ignorantiam  epis- 
copi  factum  fuerit,  deponatur  a  clero,  quia  se  ordinationis 
tempore  non  prodidit  fuisse  pcenitentem. 

^'  Cone.  Rom.  can.  3.  Inscii  quoque  literarum,  necnon 
et  aliqua  membrorum  damna  perpessi,  et  hi  qui  ex  pceni- 
tentibus sunt,  ad  sacros  ordines  adspirare  non  audeaut. 
Quisquis  talium  consecrator  exstiterit,  factum  suum  ipse 
dissolvet. 

'^Innocent.   Ep.  6.  ad  Episcopos  Apuliac.     Non  soliun 


ab  episcopatus  ambitione,  sed  etiam  a  clericatus  removea- 
tur  officio. 

="*  Cone.  Nic.  can.  9  et  10.      ^"  Cone.  Aurelian.  3.  can.  G. 

3"*  Cone.  Agathen.  can.  43.  ^'  Cone.  Tolet.  1.  can.  2. 

■<»  Book  IV.  chap.  4.  sect.  1. 

^'  Innocent.  Ep.  23.  ad  Synod.  Toletan.  cap.  2.  Quicunque 
tales  ordinati  fuerint,  cum  ordinatoribus  suis  deponantur. 

*-  Cone.  Tolet.  1.  can.  8.  Si  quis  post  baptismum  mili- 
taverit etiamsi  gravia  non  admiserit,  si  ad  clerum  ad- 
missus  fuerit,  diaconii  non  accipiet  dignitatem. 


Chap.  V. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1047 


if  any  soldiers  had  been  admitted  to  any  of  the 
inferior  orders,  they  should  never  rise  higher  to  the 
dignity  of  deacons  in  the  church.  The  ordination 
of  slaves  and  vassals  was  prohibited  upon  the  same 
account,  because  they  were  tied  by  the  law  to  the 
service  of  their  temporal  masters ;  so  likewise  all 
members  of  any  civil  company,  or  society  of  trades- 
men, because  they  were  tied  to  the  service  of  the 
commonwealth;  and  all  those  who  went  by  the 
name  of  curiales,  or  decuriones,  in  the  Roman 
government ;  being  members  of  the  curia,  that  is, 
the  court  or  common  council  of  any  citj%  to  whose 
service  they  were  tied  by  virtue  of  their  estates  and 
possessions.  The  ordination  of  all  these  sorts  of 
men  was  generally  forbidden  both  by  the  laws  of 
church  and  state  ;  and  if  any  such  were  irregularly 
ordained,  masters  had  liberty  to  reclaim  their  slaves ; 
and  the  state,  her  soldiers ;  and  any  corporation  or 
curia,  their  deserting  members;  and  the  church, 
except  in  some  special  cases,  was  bound  to  depose 
them,  and  readily  consented  to  restore  them  to  their 
ancient  secular  station  and  employment  again.  Of 
all  which  I  have  given  a  large  account"  in  a  former 
Book,  and  here  only  hint  them  to  explain  the  dis- 
ciphne  of  the  church. 

We  have  hitherto  considered  the 

causes  and   occasions   of  men's  de- 

fZ^^n  privation,  arising  from  some  irregu- 

the  performance   of    i       •■•  •,  ,     j     >         ,i      ■  , 

theiroffice.  1.  cier-  laritics  committcd  in  their  entrance 
fu^d"for°contempt  uDon  thc  clerical  ofRce  ;  we  are  next 

of  the  ranons.  -^      . 

to  View  what  crimes  might  occasion 
their  deprivation,  or  make  them  liable  to  other 
censures,  in  the  performance  of  it.  And  here,  in 
the  first  place,  it  may  be  noted  in  general,  that  a 
clergyman  was  ever  liable  to  be  censured  for  any 
contempt  of  the  canons.  Concerning  which  there 
are  directions  given  in  the  first  council  of  Carthage," 
and  Turin,  and  Braga,  and  several  others ;  but  as 
these  equally  affect  both  clergy  and  laity,  I  need 
not  be  more  particular  in  relating  them  at  length, 
having  done  it  once  before  in  the  general  account 
of  discipline"  in  the  former  Book. 

2.  They  were  more  especially  liable 
2.  For  negiiscnce    to  ceusure    for  negUgcnce  in   their 

in  their  duly.  °     ° 

office,  or  any  great  irregularity  com- 
mittcd in  the  execution  of  it.  If  a  bishop  or  a 
presbyter  be  negligent  toward  the  other  clergy  or 
people,  not  instructing  them  in  the  ways  of  godli- 
ness, he  shall  be  suspended,  say  the  Apostolical 


Sect.  6. 
What  crimes 
occasion  thedepri 
ation  of  tl: 
or  other  censu 


Canons  ;*®  and  if  he  continues  in  his  neglect  and 
slothfulness,  he  shall  be  deposed.  This  neglect  is 
termed  sacrilege  in  the  civil  law,"  and  accordingly 
to  be  punished  under  that  denomination. 

3.  If  the  clergy  neglected  to  use  the 

public  liturgy,  or  any  part  of  it,  the     a.  foJ  nesiecung 

i.  „  *■"    ,  ^      \  ,  '.  to  use  the  puhhc  ll' 

Liorcl  s  prayer,  the  stated  and  received  *-"'"j-  '•""!'•  p™y- 
hymns,  t^rc,  they  were  liable  to  cen- 
sure and  condemnation.  The  fourth  council  of 
Toledo  has  several  canons  to  this  purpose.  If  any 
priest  or  inferior  clerk,  says  one  canon,**  neglect  to 
use  the  Lord's  prayer  daily,  either  in  public  or  in 
private,  let  him  be  condemned  for  his  pride,  and  be 
deprived  of  the  honour  of  his  order.  Another** 
establishes  the  use  of  the  common  prayers,  and  the 
doxolog}%  Glorj'  be  to  the  Father, &c.,  and  the  hymns 
of  St.  Hilary  and  St.  Ambrose,  composed  in  hon- 
our of  the  apostles  and  martyrs,  under  the  penalty 
of  excommunication  to  any  priest  in  Spain  or  Gal- 
licia,  that  should  presume  to  reject  them.  Another 
confirms  the  use  of  the  Hymn  of  the  Three  Children 
under  the  same  penalty.^  A  fourth  canon  ^'  orders 
after  what  manner  and  form  the  Gloria  Patri  shall 
be  sung  by  all  ecclesiastics:  and  a  fifth"  appoints 
the  reading  of  the  Apocalypse  at  a  certain  season 
of  the  year,  between  Easter  and  Pentecost,  de- 
nouncing the  same  sentence  and  punishment  of  ex- 
communication to  any  who  should  either  reject  the 
book  as  uncanonical,  or  neglect  to  use  it  in  Dinne 
service  according  to  appointment. 

4.  If  a  minister  made  anv  material  „   .  „ 

Sect.  9. 

alteration  in  the  manner  of  adrainis-  aUerario™''iH"ui*"' 
tering  the  sacraments,  he  was  liable  °""  °  ''"?''»'"• 
to  be  deposed  for  his  presumption ;  as  if  he  either 
changed  the  general  form  of  words  used  in  baptism, 
or  the  trine  immersion  received  by  universal  custom 
in  all  churches.  If  any  bishop  or  presbyter,  says 
one  of  the  Apostolical  Canons,^  baptize  not  accord- 
ing to  the  commandment  of  the  Lord,  in  the  name 
of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost ;  but  in  three 
unoriginated  Beings,  t^Ciq  'Avdpxovg,  or  three  Sons, 
or  three  Paracletes,  let  him  be  deposed.  And  the 
next  canon  says.  If  a  bishop  or  presbyter  use  not 
three  immersions  in  the  mystery  of  baptism,  but 
only  one  immersion  into  the  death  of  Christ,  let  him 
be  deposed.  For  the  Lord  said  not,  Baptize  into 
my  death,  but,  "Go,  teach  all  nations,  baptizing 
them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son, 
and  of  the  Holv  Ghost." 


*"  Book  IV.  chap.  4.  sect.  2,  &c. 

'^  Cone.  Carth.  1.  can.  14.  Cone.  Taurin.  can.  2.  Cone. 
Biacaren.  1.  can.  40. 

«  Book  XVI.  chap.  9.  sect.  5.  '«  Canon.  Apost.  58. 

"  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  16.  Tit.  2.  de  Episcopis,  Leg.  25. 

^'  Cone.  Tolet.  4.  can.  9.  Quisquis  saccrdotiiin  vel  siib- 
jacentimn  clericonim,  ovationem  Dominicani  qiiotidie  aut 
in  publico  aut  in  privato  officio  prieterierit,  propter  stiper- 
Wam  judicatus,  ordinis  stii  honore  privetur. 


"  Ibid.  can.  12.  Sicut  orationes,  ita  et  hymnos  in  laudein 
Dei  compositos,  uuUus  nostrum  ulterius  improbct,  sed  pari 
mode  inGallicia  Ilispaniaque  celebieiit,  exeoniniiuiicatione 
plectendi,  qui  hynnios  rejicere  fuerint  ausi. 

^o  Ibiii.  can.  13.  Conimunionem  amissuri,  qui  antiquam 
hujus  hyniui  consuotudinera,  nostramque  deliuitionem  ex- 
cesserint. 

^'  Ibid.  can.  14.  '^-  Ibid.  can.  16 

"  Cauun.  Apost.  19. 


1048 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVII. 


5.  If  any  clergyman  neglected  to 


q  uenting  Divine  ser- 
vice daily. 


vice  daily,  even  when  he  did  not  offi- 
ciate or  celebrate  himself,  he  was  liable  to  be  de- 
posed, if  after  admonition  he  persisted  obstinately 
in  his  contempt.  To  this  purpose  it  is  decreed  by 
the  first  council  of  Toledo,^*  That  if  any  presbyter, 
deacon,  or  subdeacon,  or  other  clerk  deputed  to  the 
service  of  the  church,  being  in  any  city  or  place 
where  there  is  a  church,  or  castle,  or  village,  or 
hamlet,  shall  neglect  to  come  to  church  and  the 
daily  sacrifice,  he  shall  be  no  longer  accounted  a 
clerk,  unless  upon  admonition  from  the  bishop  he 
make  satisfaction,  and  obtain  pardon  for  his  offences. 
The  council  of  Agde  reduces^'  such  to  the  commu- 
nion of  strangers,  that  is,  suspends  them  from  their 
office ;  and  the  law  of  Justinian ^^  orders  them  to  be 
degraded,  because  of  the  scandal  they  give  to  the  laity 
by  such  neglect  or  contempts  of  Divine  service. 

6.  If  any  clergyman  entangled  and 
6.  For  riddling  «ith  cmbarrassed  himself  in  secular  offices, 

secular  oifices. 

because  this  was  an  unnecessary  avo- 
cation from  his  own  employment,  and  hinderance 
to  the  proper  business  of  his  calling,  he  was  liable 
to  be  deposed.  No  bishop  or  presbyter,  says  one  of 
the  Apostolical  Canons,"  shall  thrust  himself  tig 
St]fioaiag  StoiKrjacig,  into  any  public  administrations  or 
employments,  but  keep  himself  always  in  a  readi- 
ness for  the  service  of  the  church.  Let  him,  there- 
fore, either  incline  his  mind  not  to  do  this,  or  let 
him  be  deposed.  For  no  man  can  serve  two  mas- 
ters, according  to  what  the  Lord  appointed.  And 
another  canon  says,^**  A  bishop,  presbyter,  or  deacon, 
that  employs  himself  in  a  military  life,  and  would 
retain  both  a  Roman  office  and  an  ecclesiastical 
function  together,  shall  be  deposed.  For  we  must 
"render  to  Caesar  the  things  that  are  Csesar's,  and  to 
God  the  things  that  are  God's."  The  first  council  of 
Carthage  ^°  forbids  clergymen  to  take  upon  them  the 
administration  or  stewardship  of  any  houses,  be- 
cause the  apostle  says,  "  No  man  that  warreth  in 
God's  service,  entangleth  himself  in  the  affairs  of 
this  life."  Therefore  clergymen  must  either  quit 
their  stewardships,  or  stewards  their  clerical  office. 
But  because  necessity  or  charity  might  seem  to 
require  clergymen  to  engage  a  little  in  secular  affairs 
in  some  special  cases,  the  council  of  Chalcedon'^" 
delivers  the  rule  with  some  distinction :  Whereas 
we  are  informed  that  some  of  the  clergy,  for  filthy 
lucre's  sake,  hire  other  men's  possessions,  and  exer- 
cise themselves  in  worldly  affairs,  neglecting  the 


service  of  God,  living  in  the  houses  of  secular  men, 
and  taking  upon  them  the  management  of  their 
estates  out  of  covetousness  and  the  love  of  money  ; 
the  holy  synod  decrees,  that  henceforth  no  bishop, 
clergyman,  or  monk  shall  either  hire  any  possessions 
or  put  himself  into  any  secular  administrations,  un- 
less by  the  law  he  be  called  to  the  unavoidable  care 
or  guardianship  of  orphans,  or  the  bishop  of  the 
place  permit  him  to  be  the  procurator  of  the  church 
revenues,  or  to  take  the  care  of  widows  and  orphans 
and  sucii  other  helpless  persons  as  need  the  assist- 
ance of  the  church,  which  may  be  done  in  the  fear 
of  the  Lord.  If  any  one  henceforward  transgress 
these  rules,  he  shall  be  liable  to  ecclesiastical  cen- 
sure. There  are  many  other  laws  forbidding  them 
to  be  sureties,  or  pleaders  at  the  bar  for  themselves 
or  others  in  any  civil  contest,  or  to  follow  any  secu- 
lar trade  or  merchandise ;  but  these  with  some 
limitations  and  exceptions :  of  all  which,  because  I 
have  had  occasion  to  discourse  more  fully  in  a 
former  Book,^'  I  need  say  no  more  in  this  place. 

7.  It  Avas  another  crime  of  the  like 

nature,  for  a  clergyman  to  desert  and     ?.  fo?  de'seriing 

*.  ....  ,  ,  1   >    1       their    own    churcn 

rennquish  his  own  church,  to  which  without  licence  to 

^  .     .  _  go  to  another. 

he  was  originally  fixed  and  appoint- 
ed by  his  ordination,  without  licence  from  the  bi- 
shop to  whose  jurisdiction  he  belonged.  For  though 
this  was  not  properly  an  absolute  and  universal  re- 
nunciation and  desertion  of  the  church's  service ; 
yet  it  was  a  manifest  breach  of  good  order,  and  a 
transgression  of  a  useful  rule  established  by  often 
repeated  injunctions  over  the  church  universal, 
That  no  clerk  should  leave  his  own  bishop's  church 
or  diocese  without  his  consent,  nor  find  reception 
in  any  other,  to  the  prejudice  of  the  bishop  who 
first  ordained  him.  If  any  presbyter,  deacon,  or 
other  clerk,  say  the  Apostolical  Canons,'^-  forsake  his 
own  diocese  to  go  to  another,  and  there  continue 
without  the  consent  of  his  own  bishop ;  we  decree, 
that  such  a  one  shall  no  longer  continue  to  minis- 
ter as  a  clerk,  (especia,lly  if  after  admonition  he  re- 
fuse to  return,)  but  only  be  admitted  to  communi- 
cate as  a  layman.  And  if  the  bishop,  to  whom  they 
repair,  shall  entertain  them  in  the  quality  of  clergy- 
men, he  shall  be  excommunicated,  as  a"  master  of 
disorder.  The  same  rule  is  frequently  repeated  in 
the  ancient  canons,  to  which  I  have  referred  the 
reader  in  another  place."^^ 

8.  If  any  clergyman  pretended  to         g^^^  ,, 
officiate  after  he  was  censured  and  affer bcomiemi"? 
condemned  by  a  synod,  before  he  was    '"^  °  '^  ^^"^ 


^*  Cone.  Tolet.  1.  can.  5.  Presbyter,  vel  diaconiis,  vel 
subdiaconus,  vel  quilibet  ecclesiie  deputatus  clericus,  si  intra 
civitateni  fiierit,  vel  in  loco  in  quo  ecclesia  est.  aut  castella, 
aut  vici  sunt  aut  villa;,  si  ad  ecclesiani  aut  ad  sacrificium 
quotidianuin  non  venerit,  clericus  non  habeatur,  si  castiga- 
tus,  per  satisfactionem  veniam  ab  episcopo  noluit  promereri. 

^  Cone.  Agathen.  can.  2. 


=''  Cod.  Just.  lib.  1.  Tit.  3.  de  Episcopis,  Leg.  42.  n.  10. 
"  Canon.  Apost.  81. 

^  Ibid.  can.  83.    Vid.  can.  7.  ibid.     KoafxiKu^  (j^povTida^ 
fjLi)  avaXafjifiuviTM'  ti  ok  ju)/,  KaOai^tiarOu). 

^»  Cone.  Carth.  1.  can.  G.  '■'''  Cone.  Chaleed.  can.  3. 

"  Book  VI.  chap.  4.  sect.  9,  10,  II,  &e. 

e=  Canon.  Apost.  15  et  16.     <"  Book  VI.  chap.  4.  sect.  4. 


Chap.  V. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


I0-J9 


absolved  by  that  or  another  synod,  he  was  to  be 
deposed  for  his  contempt,  without  hopes  of  restitu- 
tion. This  was  first  decreed  in  the  ApostoUcal  Ca- 
nons: If  any  bishop,"  presbyter,  or  deacon,  who  is 
justly  deposed  for  his  crimes,  presume  to  meddle  with 
the  service  belonging  to  his  order,  let  him  be  wholly 
cut  off  from  the  communion  of  the  church.  The 
council  of  Antioch"^  repeats  this  rule  a  little  more 
explicitly  :  If  any  bishop,  who  is  deposed  by  a 
synod,  or  presbyter  or  deacon,  who  is  deposed  by 
his  own  bishop,  presume  to  officiate  in  their  minis- 
try, they  shall  have  no  hopes  of  being  restored  even 
by  another  synod,  nor  any  room  left  for  satisfac- 
tion :  and  all  that  communicate  with  them  shall  be 
cast  out  of  the  church,  especially  if  they  do  it  after 
they  are  apprized  of  the  sentence  pronounced  against 
them.  This  canon  is  repeated  and  confirmed  by 
the  great  council  of  Chalcedon,'''^  as  a  standing  rule 
then  inserted  into  the  code  of  the  universal  church. 
9.  In  this  case  the  church  allowed 
9.  For  appealing  of  appcals,  that  if  any  one  was  injured 

from  the  censure  of 

a  provinci^  synod  or  opprcssed  bv  anv  rash  or  violent 

to  foreign  churches,  ^^  j  ^ 

proceeding,  he  might  have  justice 
done  him  in  a  provincial  synod.  But  then  this 
liberty  of  appeals  was  limited  to  the  place  or  pro- 
vince where  the  party  lived,  and  he  might  not  fly 
to  another  coimtry  under  pretence  of  more  impar- 
tial justice.  The  bishops  of  Rome  indeed  some- 
times laid  claim  to  a  peculiar  prerogative  in  this 
matter,  as  if  they  had  power  to  receive  appellants 
from  other  churches,  and  hear  and  determine  the 
causes  arising  in  foreign  countries  at  the  greatest 
distance  and  under  different  jurisdictions :  but  St. 
Austin  and  the  African  fathers  stoutly  opposed  en- 
croachments, and  withal  made  a  decree.  That  if  any 
African  clerk  appealed  from  the  sentence  of  his 
own  bishop,  or  a  synod  of  select  judges,  he  should 
appeal  to  none  but  African  synods,  or  the  primates 
of  the  provinces.  And  if  any  presumed  to  appeal 
beyond  seas,  meaning  to  Rome,  he  should  be  ex- 
cluded from  all  communion  in  the  African  churches. 
This  decree  was  first  made  in  the  council  of  Mile- 
vis,"  and  afterward  confirmed  by  several  acts  of 
their  general  synods,  made  upon  the  famous  case 
and  appeal  of  Apiarius,  an  African  presbyter,  whom 
Pope  Zosimus  pretended  to  restore  to  communion 
after  he  had  been  deposed  by  an  African  council. 
What  opposition  the  African  fathers  made  to  this 
presumption,  during  the  lives  of  three  popes  succes- 
sively, Zosimus,  Boniface,  and  Celestine,  and  what 


arguments  they  went  upon,  I  have  formerly " 
showed  out  of  the  canons  of  the  African  code:"' 
and  I  only  note  it  here  with  all  brevity,  to  explain 
the  ancient  discipline  in  this  point  from  the  current 
tenor  and  practice  of  the  church. 

10.  Another  thing  which  subjected         j,^^,  ^^ 


ing  to  fiid   ronlm- 
ver»ie8  tjefnre   bi- 
shops, ,in<l  flying  to 
a  secular  tribunal. 


was  refusing  to  end  their  controver- 
sies before  bishops,  and  choosing 
rather  to  fly  to  the  secular  tribunals.  The  laws  of 
the  state  permitted,  and  the  laws  of  the  church 
obliged  them  to  bring  all  their  disputes  with  one 
another  under  the  cognizance  of  an  ecclesiastical 
tribunal.  I  have  had  occasion  once  before"  to 
speak  of  this  as  a  privilege  and  immunity  granted 
to  the  clergy  by  the  imperial  laws,  and  all  I  sliall 
remark  further  concerning  it  here,  is  onlv  what  re- 
lates to  the  discipline  of  the  church  :  in  reference 
to  which  the  council  of  Chalcedon"  decreed.  That 
if  any  clergyman  had  a  controversy  with  another, 
he  should  not  leave  his  own  bishop,  and  betake 
himself  to  a  secular  court ;  but  first  have  a  hearing 
before  his  own  bishop,  or  such  arbitrators  as  the 
parties  should  choose,  with  the  bishop's  approba- 
tion. Otherwise  he  should  be  liable  to  canonical 
censure:  which  censure  in  the  African  church  was 
the  loss  of  his  place,  whether  he  were  bishop,  pres- 
byter, or  deacon,  or  any  other  inferior  clerk,  that 
declined  the  sentence  of  an  ecclesiastical  court,  in  a 
criminal  cause,  and  betook  himself  to  a  secular 
court  for  justice  :  or  if  it  was  a  civil  cause,  he  must 
lose  whatever  advantage  he  gained  by  the  action, 
as  the  third  council  of  Carthage  determined'-  in  the 
case,  because  he  despised  the  whole  church,  in  that 
he  could  not  confide  in  any  ecclesiastical  persons  to 
be  his  judges.  The  council  of  Milevis  added  to 
this,''  that  no  clergyman  should  so  much  as  petition 
the  emperor  to  assign  him  secular  judges  in  any 
case,  but  only  ecclesiastical,  under  pain  of  depriva- 
tion. And  this  seems  to  be  the  true  meaning  of 
those  two  famous  canons  of  the  council  of  Antioch, 
which  have  been  so  generally  mistaken  by  modern 
authors,  as  if  they  had  been  made  only  by  a  cabal 
of  Arians  against  the  person  of  Athanasius,  when 
indeed  they  contain  nothing  but  an  ancient  rule 
of  discipline  universally  observed  throughout  the 
church.  The  words  of  the  canons  arc  these :  If 
any  bishop,  or  presbyter,  or  any  one  "  within  the 
canon  or  roll  of  the  clergy  belonging  to  the  church, 
shall  presume  to  address  the  emperor  without  the 


"  Canon.  Apost.  28,  ^^  Cone.  Antioch,  can,  4. 

^  Cone.  Chalced,  Act.  4.  Cone,  t.  4,  p.  538. 

''^  Cone,  Milevit.  can,  22,  Quod  si  et  ab  eis  appellandum 
p\itaverint,  non  provocent  nisi  ad  Africana  concilia,  vol  ad 
primates  provinciarura  suarum.  Ad  transmarinaautem  qui 
putaverit  appellandum,  a  nullo  intra  Africam  in  commu- 
nione  suscipiatur, 

«*  Book  IX.  chap.  1.  sect.  11, 


<»  Cod.  Afric.  a  cap.  135.  ad  cap.  138. 

'"  Book  V.  chap.  I.  sect,  4. 

"  Cone.  Chalced.  can,  9.    Vid,  Cone,  Vcneticura.  can,  9, 

'-  Cone.  Carth,  3.  can.  9. 

"  Cone.  Milevit.  can,  19,  Quicunque  ab  imperatore  cog- 
nitionem  judiciorum  publicorum  peiierit,  honors  prnprio 
privetur.  Si  autem  episcopale  judicium  ab  imperatore  pos- 
tulaverit,  nihil  ei  obsit.  "  Cone.  Antioch,  can.  11. 


1050 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVII. 


consent  and  letters  of  the  provincial  bishops,  and 
especially  of  the  metropolitan,  he  shall  be  rejected 
and  expelled,  not  only  from  communion,  but  from 
whatever  honour  and  dignity  he  enjoys,  as  one  that 
fills  the  prince's  ears  with  troublesome  complaints, 
against  the  law  of  the  church.  But  if  any  neces- 
sary cause  call  him  to  address  the  prince,  he  shall 
do  it  by  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  metropolitan 
and  the  rest  of  the  provincial  bishops,  who  in  that 
case  shall  assist  him  with  their  recommendatory 
letters  also.  The  other  canon  "  says.  If  any  pres- 
byter or  deacon  is  deposed  by  his  bishop,  or  any 
bishop  by  a  synod,  he  shall  not  presume  to  trouble 
the  emperor  with  complaints,  but  have  recourse  to 
a  greater  synod  of  bishops,  and  lay  the  justice  of  his 
cause  before  them,  and  wait  for  their  discussion  and 
determination.  But  if,  in  contempt  of  this  method, 
he  trouble  the  prince,  he  shall  have  no  pardon,  nor 
room  for  defence,  nor  any  hopes  of  restitution.  The 
generality  of  modern  writers,  following  the  censure 
passed  upon  this  canon  by  the  famous  Antonius 
Augustinus,"*  and  Baronius,"  commonly  reckon  it  a 
canon  made  by  the  Arian  faction  against  Athana- 
sius ;  and  say,  it  is  the  same  canon  that  was  alleged 
against  Chrysostom  by  his  adversaries,  and  rejected 
by  him  and  his  advocates,  as  an  Arian  canon,  in 
the  following  ages.  But  the  learned  Schelstrate, 
who  has  particularly  vindicated  the  authority  of  the 
council  of  Antioch,"  shows  this  to  be  a  vulgar  error ; 
demonstrating,  that  the  Arian  canon  was  very  dif- 
ferent from  this,  and  that  this  canon  of  Antioch  was 
conformable  to  the  received  discipline  of  the  ancient 
church.  For,  as  such,  it  was  inserted  into  the  code 
of  the  universal  church,  and  acknowledged  by  the 
council  of  Chalcedon,  and  all  the  collectors  of  the 
canons,  Ferrandus  Diaconus,  Martin  Bracarensis, 
and  the  Capitulars  of  Charles  the  Gi'eat.  Besides 
that  the  council  of  Vannes"  has  a  canon  to  the 
same  purpose :  If  a  clerk  suspects  the  judgment  of 
his  own  bishop,  or  has  any  controversy  with  him 
concerning  any  property,  he  shall  require  a  hearing 
before  other  bishops,  and  not  before  the  secular 
powers :  otherwise,  he  shall  be  cast  out  of  commu- 
nion. From  all  which  it  is  plain,  nothing  more 
was  intended  by  the  council  of  Antioch,  but  only  to 
oblige  clergymen  to  end  all  their  controversies  be- 
fore a  synod  of  bishops,  which  is  agreeable  to  the 
general  rule  and  discipline  of  the  church. 

Sect.  16.  '^-  The  laws  of  the  church  were 

bHpteed"'  or'"?eorl  furthcr   scvcrc   against  all  reordina- 

tions  in  the  clergy,  and  against  all  re- 


bap  tizati  on  s  both  in  clergymen  and  laymen  :  and 
therefore  any  clergyman  who  submitted  either 
actively  or  passively  to  either  of  these,  rendered 
himself  obnoxious  to  the  highest  censure.  If  any 
bishop,  presbyter,  or  deacon,  say  the  Apostolical 
Canons,'"  receive  a  second  ordination,  both  the  or- 
dainer  and  the  ordained  shall  be  deposed ;  except 
it  appear  that  his  first  ordination  w^as  given  him 
by  heretics :  for  they  that  are  baptized  or  ordained 
by  heretics,  are  neither  to  be  accounted  clergymen 
nor  faithful  laymen.  Optatus  says,*'  That  among 
other  reasons  why  Donatus  was  condemned  and 
deposed  by  the  council  of  Rome  under  Melchiades, 
this  was  one,  that  he  had  given  imposition  of  hands 
to  such  bishops  as  had  lapsed  in  time  of  persecu- 
tion, which  was  contrary  to  the  custom  of  the  ca- 
tholic church.  If  imposition  of  hands  there  signify 
ordination,  then  his  crime  was  that  he  had  reor- 
dained  them  :  but  if,  as  Albaspina^us  thinks  both 
in  his  notes  and  observations,  it  only  means  im- 
position of  hands  in  penance,  then  we  are  to  lay  no 
stress  upon  it,  because  it  relates  to  a  different  sub- 
ject. As  to  rebaptization,  the  case  was  the  same  • 
the  Apostolical  Canons'^  appointed.  That  if  any 
bishop  or  presbyter  presumed  to  give  a  second  bap- 
tism after  a  true  one  once  received,  he  should  be 
degraded.  And  the  council  of  Rome  under  Felix 
III.  decreed,  That  if  a  bishop,  presbyter,  or  deacon 
suffered  himself  to  be  so  rebaptized,*'  he  should  be 
degraded,  and  do  penance  all  his  life,  without  be- 
ing suffered  to  communicate  either  in  the  prayers 
of  the  faithful,  or  the  prayers  of  the  catechumens, 
and  only  be  admitted  to  lay  communion  at  the 
hour  of  death ;  because  such  had  not  only  denied 
their  orders,  but  their  Christianity,  and  openly  pro- 
fessed themselves  pagans,  by  being  rebaptized.  The 
civil  law  confirmed  these  censures  of  the  church, 
and  added  some  temporal  penalties,  to  give  them 
greater  force ;  of  which  the  reader  may  find  a  more 
particular  account  in  a  former  Book.'^* 

12.  It  was  a  crime  of  the  like  na-         „  ,  „ 

Sect.  17. 

ture  for  any  clergyman  to  deny  his  u^ernlewJirT. 
order  in  word".,  or  dissemble  his  pro-  "'"SJ""'"- 
fession  before  a  Jew  or  a  heathen ;  because  this  was 
but  one  degree  below  the  renunciation  of  his  reli- 
gion. If  any  clergyman,  says  one  of  the  Apostoli- 
cal Canons,'^  through  human  fear  of  a  Jew,  or  a 
heathen,  or  a  heretic,  deny  the  name  of  Christ,  let 
him  be  cast  out  of  the  church  :  if  he  deny  the 
name  of  a  clergyman,  let  him  be  deposed  ;  but  up- 
on his  repentance  let  him  be  received  as  a  layman. 


"  Cone.  Antioch.  can.  12. 

"*  Anton.  August,  de  Emendationc  Gratiani,  lib.  I.  dial. 
11.  p.  123. 

"  Baron,  an.  341.  n.  28. 

"  Schelstrat.  de  Coacilio  Antioch.  p.  541. 

"  Couc.  Veneticum,  can.  9.  Clericus,  si  fortasse  episcopi 
fcui  judicium  coeperit  habere  suspcctum,  aut  ipsi  de  piopric- 


tate  aliqua  adversus  ipsum  episcopum  fucrit  nala  contentio, 
alioinim  episcoporuin  audientiam,  non  seculariuin  potesta- 
tum,  debebit  ambire.  Aliter  a  coramunione  habebitur  ali- 
enus. 

«»  Canon.  A  post.  68.  »'  Optat.  lib.  1.  p.  44. 

"-  Canon.  Apnst.  47.  *'  Vid.  Felic.  Ep.  1.  cap.  2. 

*"  Book  XII.  chap.  5.  sett.  7.  ^^  Canon.  Apost.  62. 


CllAP.    V. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1051 


13.  If  any  clergyman  was  convict 
1    1  or  mibii'shing    of  publishing  any  apocryphal  books, 
or  books  written  by  impious  men  un- 
der false  titles,  as  sacred  and  pious  writings,  to  the 
(•(irruption  and  seducement  both  of  laity  and  clergy; 
by  another  of  the  Apostolical  Canons*'  he  was  to  be 
(Irposed.     TertuUian  gives  an  instance  of  the  exer- 
cise of  discipline  in  this  case*'  upon  an  Asiatic  pres- 
livter,  who  wrote  the  book  called  The  Acts  of  Paul 
and  Thecla,  under  the  feigned  name  of  the  apostle. 
He  pleaded  in  his  own  behalf,  that  he  did  it  out  of  love 
to  St.  Paul ;  but  this  would  not  satisfy  the  church ; 
for,  upon  conviction  and  confession  of  the  fact,  she 
obliged  the  man  to  quit  his  office  for  his  transgression. 
<,^^j  ,j,  14.  Clergymen  were  likewise  liable 

t.,is^aSlnX?rom  to  bc  dcposcd  for  any  superstitious 
tsh,  «ine,  &c.  abstinence  from  flesh,  wine,  marriage, 
or  any  the  like  innocent  and  lawful  things  ;  when 
they  refrained  from  them,  not  for  exercise'  sake,  but 
out  of  a  false  and  heretical  opinion,  that  they  were 
polluted  and  unclean.  There  was  always  a  grand 
dispute  about  meats  and  marriage  between  the 
church  and  several  sects,  that  opposed  her  continu- 
ally upon  this  point.  Many  heretics,  such  as  the 
Manichecs,  Priscillianists,  and  others,  pretended  to 
be  more  spiritual  and  refined,  because  they  abstain- 
ed from  wine  and  flesh  as  things  unlawful  and  un- 
clean ;  and  upon  this  score  censured  the  church  as 
impure  and  carnal,  for  allowing  men  in  the  just  and 
moderate  use  of  them.  If  any  clergyman  therefore 
so  far  complied  with  heretics,  as  either  in  their 
judgment  to  approve  their  errors,  or  in  their  prac- 
tice by  a  universal  abstinence  to  give  suspicion  of 
their  siding  with  them ;  they  made  themselves  ob- 
noxious to  the  highest  censures.  The  Apostolical 
Canons  order,  That  if  any  bishop,  presbyter,  or  dea- 
con,^ or  any  other  clerk,  abstain  from  marriage, 
flesh,  or  wine,  not  for  exercise,  but  abhorrence ;  for- 
getting, that  God  made  all  things  very  good,  and 
created  man  male  and  female,  and  speaking  evil  of 
the  workmanship  of  God ;  unless  he  correct  his 
error,  he  shall  be  deposed,  and  cast  out  of  the 
church.  Another  canon  *'  gives  the  reason  of  this 
censure,  because  such  a  one  has  a  seared  conscience, 
and  is  the  cause  of  scandal  to  the  people.  The 
council  of  Ancyra""  condemns  the  same  error,  and 
inflicts  the  like  penalty  of  degradation  upon  any 
clergymen  that  should  be  found  guilty  of  it.  And 
in  the  first  council  of  Braga  an  order  was  made,  that 
all  clergymen  who  abstained  from  flesh,  should 
sometimes  eat  herbs  boiled  with  flesh,  to  avoid  the 
suspicion  of  the  Priscillian  heresy.  And  if  they  re- 
fused to  do  this,  they  should  be  excommunicated. 


and  removed"'  from  their  office,  according  to  the  di- 
rection of  the  ancient  canons,  as  men  suspected  of  that 
heresy,  which  then  reigned  in  the  Spanish  churciies. 

15.  But,  on   the   other  hand,   be- 
cause it  was  the  custom  of  the  catholic     lo.  ior  :-«u„g  of 
church,  almost  till   the  time  of  St. 

Austin,  to  abstain  from  eating  of  blood,  in  compli- 
ance with  the  rule  given  by  the  apostles  to  the 
Gentile  converts;  therefore,  by  the  most  ancient  laws 
of  the  church,  all  clergymen  were  obliged  to  abstain 
from  it  under  pain  of  degradation.  This  is  evident 
from  the  Apostolical  Canons,"^  and  those  of  Gangra,*" 
and  the  second  council  of  Orleans,"'  and  the  coun- 
cil of  Trullo."'  But  as  this  was  looked  upon  by 
some  only  as  a  temporary  injunction,  so  it  appears 
from  St.  Austin,""  that  in  his  time  it  was  of  no  force 
in  the  African  church.  For  he  says,  in  his  time 
few  men  thought  themselves  under  any  obligation 
to  observe  it,  or  made  any  scruple  of  eating  blood. 
So  that  this  rule  of  discipline  is  to  be  taken  with 
this  limitation  and  restriction,  as  to  what  concerns 
the  practice  of  the  ancient  church.  He  that  would 
see  more  about  it,  may  consult  Curcella^us,"  who  has 
written  a  large  dissertation  upon  the  subject. 

16.  The  custom  of  the  ancient  sect  21 
church  was,  with  a  great  deal  of  strict-  ing^(hcfLf"and"r,"'. 
ness  to  observe  many  stated  fasts  and  '"■''*°''"»''-'"'«''- 
festivals;  as  the  annual  fast  of  Lent,  and  the  weekly 
fasts  of  the  stationary  days,  that  is,  Wednesday  and 
Friday  in  every  week,  and  the  anniversary  returns 
or  commemorations  of  the  great  actions  of  our  Savi- 
our's life,  and  his  apostles  and  martyrs  :  and  there- 
fore some  canons  lay  great  penalties  especially  upon 
clergymen,  who  showed  any  disrespect  to  these  by 
a  wilful  contempt  or  neglect  of  them.  If  any  bi- 
shop, or  presbyter,  or  deacon,  or  reader,  or  singer, 
(says  one  of  the  Apostolical  Canons,"")  observe  not 
the  Lent  fast,  or  the  fast  of  the  fourth  and  sixth 
days  of  the  week,  he  shall  be  deposed,  unless  he  be 
hindered  by  bodily  weakness  and  infirmity.  The 
council  of  Gangra ""  goes  a  little  further,  and  de- 
nounces anathema  to  all  the  ascetics  of  the  church, 
who  without  any  plea  of  bodily  necessity,  but  mere 
pride  and  haughtiness,  neglect  and  despise  the  fasts 
commonly  received  in  the  church,  and  observed  by 
ancient  tradition.  And  another  canon  "^  denounces 
anathema  likewise  against  all,  who  accuse  the  as- 
semblies made  at  the  monuments  of  the  martyrs, 
or  abhor  the  service  that  is  performed  there,  or  de- 
spise the  memorials  or  annual  commemorations 
that  were  made  in  honour  of  ihem.  A  like  canon 
was  made  in  the  first  council  of  Carthage,  That  if 
any  one   reproachfully  said  or  did  any  thing  to  the 


^'^  Canon.  Apost.  60.         ^"  Tertul.  de  Baptismo,  cap.  17. 
•**  Canon.  Apnst.  51.  ^°  Ibid.  can.  53. 

""  Cone.  Ancyr.  can.  14.    Vid.  Cone.  Gangren.  can.  2. 
"'  Cone.  Bracaren.  1.  can.  32. 
"'-  Canon.  Apost.  03.  '■'•'  Cone.  Gangren.  can.  2. 


>"  Cone.  Aurel.  2.  can.  2C).  ^  Cone.  Trull,  can.  67. 

o«  Aug.  cent.  Faust,  lib.  32.  cap.  13. 

°'  Curcel.  (Ic  csu  Sanguinis,  cap.  13. 

"^  Canon.  Apost.  69.  "'■'  Cone.  Gangren.  can.  10. 

"""  Ibid.  can.  20. 


1052 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVII. 


dishonour  of  the  martyrs  ;'"'  if  he  was  a  layman,  he 
should  be  put  under  penance  ;  but  if  he  was  a  cler- 
gyman, after  admonition  and  conviction  he  should 
be  deprived  of  his  honour  and  dignity.  And  some 
other  canons  were  made  by  the  council  of  Lao- 
dicea  '"-  to  the  same  purpose. 

o  .  „„  17.  Some   canons  also  make  it  a 

Set-t.  22. 

5enineThe"?uie''a-  o^^^^   transgrcssiou,  not   to   observe 

bout  Easter.  jj^^      ^.^^j^      ^^^^^      ^,^g      ^^^^^^^     ^^     ^^^ 

church  in  the  council  of  Nice,  for  fixing  the  time  of 
keeping  the  paschal  festival.  For  though  a  great 
liberty  was  allowed  before  in  this  matter,  by  reason 
of  the  disputes  that  were  between  the  Roman  and 
Asiatic  churches  about  it :  yet  when  once  the  great 
council  of  Nice  had  interposed  her  authority  to  end 
the  controversy,  it  was  no  longer  esteemed  a  matter 
of  indifferency ;  but  all  churches  were  obliged  to 
comply  wath  her  determination.  Therefore  the 
council  of  Antioch  not  long  after  made  a  very  pe- 
remptory decree,'"^  That  whoever  pertinaciously  op- 
posed the  rule  agreed  upon  in  the  Nicene  council, 
should  be  excommunicated  and  expelled  the  church, 
if  he  were  a  layman.  And  if  either  bishop,  presby- 
ter, or  deacon  should  subvert  the  people,  and  dis- 
turb the  church  by  keeping  Easter,  in  a  different 
manner,  with  the  Jews,  they  should  be  removed 
from  their  ministry,  and  be  cast  out  of  the  church : 
and  whoever  communicated  with  them  after  such 
censure,  should  be  liable  to  the  same  condemna- 
tion. There  was  also  another  way  of  celebrating 
Easter  with  the  Jews,  by  a  false  calculation  mak- 
ing it  to  fall  before  the  vernal  equinox,  and  so  many 
times  bringing  two  E asters  into  the  same  year. 
Which  practice  is  condemned  as  Judaical  by  the 
author  of  the  Constitutions,'"^  and  any  clergyman 
complying  with  it,  by  the  Apostolical  Canons  '"^  is 
made  liable  to  deprivation  also. 

18.  If  any  clergyman  wore  an  in- 
sect, a.  .,  ,    ,  .  ,  .       ,  . 
IS,  For  wearins     dcccut  habit,  unbecommjj  his  order 

ail  indecent  liabit.  .  '  O 

and  station  in  the  church,  he  made 
himself  liable  to  canonical  censure.  The  first  coun- 
cil of  Mascon  ""^  forbids  clergymen  to  wear  arms,  or 
a  soldier's  coat,  or  any  garments  or  shoes  not  be- 
coming their  profession,  after  the  manner  of  secu- 
lars or  laymen.  And  whoever  offended  in  this  kind, 
was  to  be  confined  for  thirty  days  in  prison,  and 
fed  only  with  bread  and  water,  for  his  transgression. 


But  this  was  a  rule  only  for  common  and  ordinary 
cases,  not  for  cases  of  great  exigency,  or  times  of 
persecution.  Therefore  when  the  famous  Euse- 
bius  of  Samosata  went  about  the  world  in  a  soldier's 
habit,""  as  the  historians  relate,  to  ordain  presby- 
ters and  deacons  in  the  heat  of  the  Arian  persecu- 
tion ;  though  this  was  against  the  letter  of  another 
law,  which  forbade  any  bishop  to  ordain  in  another 
man's  diocese ;  yet  he  was  never  accused  by  any 
good  catholic  for  transgressing  either  law,  because 
the  necessity  of  the  thing  justified  the  fact ;  and 
these  rules,  made  for  common  order  and  decency, 
were  in  this  case  superseded  by  a  rule  of  superior  | 
obligation.  For  the  preservation  of  the  faith  and 
ministry  was  of  much  more  weight  and  concern  to 
the  church  at  such  a  juncture,  than  the  wearing  of 
a  habit;  and  it  was  no  fault  in  him  to  wear  a 
soldier's  coat  in  such  an  exigency,  to  preserve  the 
church,  and  pass  undiscerned,  though  it  would  have 
been  a  great  violation  of  the  rules  of  order  and  de- 
cency in  other  cases.  But  this  only  by  the  way : 
I  now  pass  on  to  the  remaining  laws  of  discijiline 
which  concerned  the  clergy. 

19.  The  same  rules  of  the  church 

1-1  1  T         T         1  •  ^  Sect.  21. 

which    obliged   clergymen   to    avoid     is.  For  keeping 

°  "•'  hawks    or    hounds, 

secular  employments,  may  with  good  •'"'?  following  anj 

i-       'J  T  J  o  unlawiul  diversions. 

reason  be  construed  also  a  prohibition 
of  secular  diversions,  such  as  hunting,  and  hawk- 
ing, and  horse-racing,  and  gaming  at  dice,  and  act- 
ing of  plays  and  farces,  and  frequenting  the  games 
and  sights  of  the  cirque  and  theatre.  All  these  may 
be  comprehended  in  the  general  prohibition  of  secu- 
lar things  :  but  there  are  some  canons  which  more 
expressly  forbid  them  to  the  clergy  under  jiain  of 
canonical  censure.  Bishops,  presbyters,  or  deacons 
shall  not  keep  dogs  or  hawks  for  hunting,  says  the 
council  of  Agde.'"*  And  if  any  one  is  detected  in 
this  intention,  if  he  be  a  bishop,  he  shall  be  sus- 
pended three  months  from  communion ;  if  a  pres- 
byter, two  months  ;  if  a  deacon,  he  shall  wholly 
cease  from  his  office  and  communion.  The  coun- 
cil of  Eliberis  has  a  general  canon'™  forbidding  lay- 
men to  play  at  dice  or  tables,  under  the  penalty  of 
suspension  from  communion  for  a  whole  year.  And 
that  must  be  supposed  with  greater  forcie  to  affect 
the  clergy.  Other  canons ""  under  Charles  the 
Great  expressly  name  the  clergy,  and  refer  to  the 


'"'  Cone.  Carth.  1.  can.  2.  Si  qnis  ad  injuriam  martyrum, 
tlaritati  eonuu  adjungat  infaniiam,  placet  eos,  si  laici  sint, 
ad  pocnitentiam  redigi :  si  anteni  sunt  clerici,  post  commo- 
nitionem  et  post  cognitionem,  honorc  privari. 

'°-  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  31  et  35. 

""  Cone.  Antioch.  can.  1. 

i"i  Constit.  lib.  5.  cap.  17.  '"■'  Canon.  Apnst.  5.  al.  8. 

'""Cone.  Matiseon.  1.  can.  5.  Ut  nulltis  elericus  sagum 
ant  vestimenta  aut  calceamenta  secularia,  nisi  quoti  reli- 
gionem  deeeat,  induerc  prnesumat.  Quod  si  post  hane  dc- 
finitionem  elericus  aut  cum  indecenti  vcste,  aut  cum  arniis 
inventus  fiicrit,  asenioic  ita  cociceatur,  ut.3Udioium  iiiciu- 


sionc  detentus,  aqua  tantum  et  modieo  pane  diebus  singulis 
sustentctur. 

'»'  Vid.  Theodorit.  lib.  4.  cap.  13. 

'"'*  Cone.  Agathen.  can.  55.  Episcopis,  presbyteris,  dia- 
conibus  canes  ad  venandum,  aut  accipities  habere  nun  liccat. 
Quod  si  quis  talium  personarum  in  hae  voluntate  deteelus 
fuerit,  si  episcopus  est,  tribus  mensibus  sesuspendat  a  eom- 
munione;  presbyter  duobus  mensibus  se  abstineat;  diaco- 
nus  voro  ab  omni  officio  vel  eommunione  cessabit.  Vid. 
Cone.  Matiseon.  '2.  can.  13.     Cone.  Moguut.  cap.  14. 

""'  Couc.  Eliber.  can.  79. 

""  Cone.  Mogunt.  cap.  14.    Canon.  Apost.  42. 


ClIAP.    V. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1053 


ancient  rule  of  the  church  for  the  |)rohibition.  And 
the  council  of  Trullo  '"  forbids  dice  both  to  the  cler- 
gy and  laity,  under  the  penalty  of  deprivation  to  the 
one,  and  excommunication  to  the  other.  The  same 
council  "■■'  forbids  clergymen  to  act  farces  as  mimics 
in  the  theatre,  or  to  bait  or  hunt  wild  beasts  with 
dogs,  or  to  dance  upon  the  stage,  imder  the  like 
penalty  of  deprivation.  The  council  of  Laodicea  "' 
forbids  theni  to  be  present  as  spectators  at  any  stage- 
plays.  And  the  council  of  Carthage  gives  a  good 
reason,"^  why  neither  they  nor  their  children  ought 
either  to  exhibit  or  frequent  such  plays ;  because 
they  were  prohibited  to  laymen  for  the  blasphemy 
of  those  wicked  wretches  that  were  concerned  in 
them.  They  thought  it  intolerable,  that  any  of  the 
clergy  should  encourage  those  things  by  their  pre- 
sence, which  a  layman  could  not  see  with  inno- 
cence, nor  be  a  spectator  without  a  censure. 

s^.pt  25  20.  The  most  ancient  laws  of  the 

cnhahiu'tinirwir™  churcli  did  not  absolutely  impose  ce- 
s  ..ui„c  «o..Kii.  liijacy  upon  the  clergy,  nor  universally 
restrain  them  from  the  conjugal  state  and  married 
life,  as  has  been  showed  more  at  large  in  a  former  "^ 
Book.  But  there  were  two  things  in  the  conversa- 
tion of  the  clerg}-,  respecting  women,  which  they 
very  much  disallowed  and  censured.  One  was  the 
suspicious  and  scandalous  cohabitation  of  some 
vain  and  indiscreet  men  with  strange  women,  who 
were  none  of  their  kindred.  The  freedom  which 
these  used,  obhged  the  church  not  only  to  forbid 
the  clergy  to  cohabit  with  such,  as  they  then  termed 
foreigners  and  strangers,  ffweiauKTot,  in  opposition 
to  a  mother,  a  sister,  or  an  aunt,  of  whom  for  the 
nearness  of  blood  there  could  be  no  reasonable  sus- 
picion ;  but  also  induced  her  to  enforce  this  rule 
with  the  utmost  severity  of  discipline  upon  delin- 
quents. Cyprian  '"^  commends  Pomponius  for  ex- 
communicating a  deacon,  who  had  been  found  guilty 
in  this  kind.  And  among  other  reasons  alleged  by 
the  council  of  Antioch  for  deposing  Paulus  Samo- 
satensis  from  his  bishopric,  this  is  one,  that  he  had 
always  some  of  these  awsiffaKroi,  or  strange  women, 
to  attend  him,  and  allowed  his  presbyters  and  dea- 
cons to  have  the  like,'"  that  they  might  not  accuse 
him.  The  second  council  of  Aries""  excommuni- 
cates every  clergyman  above  the  order  of  deacons, 
that  retains  any  woman  as  a  companion,  except  it 


be  a  grandmother,  or  mother,  or  sister,  or  daugiiler, 
or  niece,  or  a  wife  after  her  conversion.  And  the 
council  of  Lerida"°  orders  them  to  be  suspended 
from  their  office  till  they  amend  their  fault,  after  a 
first  or  second  admonition. 

21.  The  other  thing  that  was  gene- 
rally disliked,  was  the  clerijy's  marry-    21.  i-or  maming 
lug  a  second  tune,  after  ordniation. 

They  did  not,  as  I  said,  reject  married  men  from 
orders,  nor  oblige  them  to  live  separate  from  their 
wives  after  ordination ;  nay,  if  a  deacon  protested 
before  ordination,  that  he  could  not  continue  in  an 
unmarried  state,  he  might  marry  afterwards,'^''  and 
not  forfeit  his  office,  by  a  decree  of  the  council  of 
Ancyra.  But  other  canons  forbid  ])resbyters  and 
bishops  to  marry  after  ordination,  whether  they  were 
married  or  unmarried  before,  and  this  under  pain  of 
deprivation.  If  a  presbyter  marries  a  wife,  (that 
is,  after  he  is  ordained  presbyter,  for  it  regards  not 
his  being  married  before,)  let  him  be  removed  from 
his  order,  says  the  council  of  Neocaisarea.'^'  The 
council  of  Eliberis,'--  and  some  others  in  the  Latin 
church,  were  more  rigorous  toward  the  married 
clergy,  and  began  not  only  to  forbid  them  to  marry 
after  ordination,  but  to  oblige  them  to  relinquish 
those  wives  they  had  married  before.  But  as  this 
was  an  encroachment  upon  the  primitive  rule,  and 
never  received  in  the  Greek  church,  it  is  not  to  be 
reckoned  among  the  standing  rules  of  discipline 
that  concerned  the  whole  church. 

22.  Yet  there  was  one  case,  in  which 

the  clergy  were  obliged  to  put  away  22.  f.t  retaii.inc  an 
their  wives,  whicii  was  the  case  of 
adultery.  If  the  wife  of  a  layman,  says  the  council 
of  Neoccesarea,'"^  is  convicted  of  adultery,  such  a 
one  shall  never  attain  to  the  ministry  of  the  clergy. 
If  she  commits  adultery  after  his  ordination,  he 
must  put  her  away,  or  quit  his  ministry  if  he  retains 
her.  The  council  of  Eliberis'-'  goes  a  little  further, 
and  says.  If  a  clergyman's  wife  commits  adultery, 
and  the  husband  knows  it,  and  does  not  immediately 
put  her  away,  he  shall  not  be  admitted  to  commu- 
nion even  at  his  last  hour;  lest  they  who  should  be 
an  example  of  good  conversation,  should  seem  to 
teach  others  the  way  to  sin. 

23.  There  were  some  laws  also  re-         sect.  28. 
lating  to  the  residence  of  the  clergy,     ' '    dt-n""'^^'" 


'"  Cone.  Trull,  can.  50.  "2  Ibid.  can.  51. 

"'  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  54. 

'"  Cone.  Carth.  3.  can.  11.  Ut  filii  sacerdotutn  vel  clc- 
ricoruni  spectaeula  secnlaria  non  e.xhibeant,  sed  nee  spee- 
tent,  quoniam  a  spectaciilo  et  omnps  laici  prohibeantur. 
Semper  enim  Christianis  omnibus  hoc  interdicluiu  est,  ut 
ubi  blasphemi  sunt,  non  acccdant. 

"^  Book  IV.  chap.  5.  sect.  5,  &e. 

""  Cypr.  Ep.  62.  al.  4.  ad  Pompon. 

'"  Euscb.  lib.  7.  cap.  .30. 

""  Cone.  Arelat.  2.  can.  3.  Si  qnis  de  clericis  a  gradu 
diaconatus,  in  solatiosuo  miilierem,  preetcr  aviaui,  niatrem, 


sororem,  filiam,  neptem,  vel  nxorein  secum  conversam,  ha- 
bere prajsumpserit,  alicnus  a  communione  habcatur. 

""  Cone.  Ilerden.  can.  15.  '-"  Cone.  Aneyr.  can.  10. 

'-'  Cone.  Neoeaesar.  can.  1. 

'-"-  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  33.  Vid.  Cone.  Agathcn.  can.  9. 
Arausicau.  1.  can.  23.  Carthag.  5.  can.  3.  Maliscnn.  1. 
can.  11.  '■^  Cone.  Neocicsar.  can.  8. 

'-■*  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  G5.  Si  cujus  elerici  u.xor  fuerit  moc- 
chata,  et  seiateam  maritus  suns  moeehari,  et  earn  non  statim 
projecerit,  nee  in  tine  accipiat  conimunionem :  ne  ab  his, 
qui  exemplum  bonaj  couversationis  esse  debent,  vidcantur 
magisteria  scelerum  procedere. 


lOM 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVIl. 


which  was  strictly  enjoined,  with  a  denunciation 
of  canonical  censure  to  the  transgressors.  The 
several  laws  requiring  residence  have  been  noted 
in  another  place  :'"  here  I  shall  only  mention 
such  of  them  as  specify  the  punishments  that  were 
to  be  inflicted  on  offenders  in  this  kind.  Among 
these,  that  canon  of  the  council  of  Agde'-°  is 
most  remarkable,  which  decrees,  That  a  presbyter 
or  deacon,  who  was  absent  from  his  church  three 
weeks,  should  be  three  years  suspended  from  the 
communion.  And  by  the  laws  of  Justinian,'-'  every 
bishop,  absenting  from  his  church  beyond  a  certain 
term,  and  that  upon  very  weighty  affairs  and  great 
necessity,  or  the  will  of  his  prince,  is  ordered  to  be 
removed  from  the  college  of  bishops,  as  a  man  un- 
worthy of  his  station.  And  the  better  to  guard 
against  this  offence,  as  no  clergyman  was  allowed  to 
travel  without  the  licence  and  commendatory  letters 
of  his  bishop ;  so  neither  might  any  bishop  travel 
or  appear  at  court  without  the  licence  and  approba- 
tion of  his  metropolitan.  This  was  expressly  pro- 
vided by  the  same  laws  of  Justinian,'^  and  before 
him  by  the  third  council  of  Carthage,  which  orders. 
That  no  bishop  shall  go  beyond  sea  '^'  without  con- 
sulting his  primate,  or  chief  bishop  of  the  province, 
and  taking  his  fonnat(e,  or  letters  of  commendation. 
And  before  this  the  council  of  Antioch'^  made  an 
order.  That  no  bishop  or  presbyter,  or  any  other  be- 
longing to  the  church,  should  go  to  court  upon  any 
occasion  to  address  the  prince,  without  the  consent 
and  letters  of  the  provincial  bishops,  and  especially 
the  metropolitan,  under  the  penalty  of  being  cast 
out  of  communion,  and  losing  his  honour  and  dig- 
nity in  the  church.  And  to  this  agree  the  rules  and 
decrees  of  Pope  Hilary"'  and  Gregory  the  Great,'^- 
made  in  conformity  to  the  ancient  rules  of  discipline 
in  the  church. 

Sect.  29.  24.  The  clergy  were  further  obliged 

ing^to^hoid'prTfir-  to  confine  themselves  to  one  church : 
that  is,  as  I  have  formerly  had  occa- 
sion to  explain  it,  one  diocese,  or  diocesan  church, 
under  the  jurisdiction  of  one  bishop;  and  not  to 
seek  or  attempt  to  hold  preferment  under  two  bi- 
shops in  two  distinct  churches,  or  different  jurisdic- 
tions. In  this  sense  pluralities  were  forbidden  under 
the  penalty  of  deprivation.  The  council  of  Chal- 
cedon"^  is  very  express  to  this  purpose :  It  shall  not 
be  lawful  for  any  clergyman  to  have  his  name  in 
the  church  roll  or  catalogue  of  two  cities  at  the 
same  time,  that  is,  in  the  churcli  where  he  was  first 
ordained,  and  any  other  to  which  he  flies  out  of 
ambition  as  to  a  greater  church,  but  all  such  shall 


Sect.  30. 
For   needless 
uentin^  of  pub- 


be  returned  to  their  own  church,  where  they  were 
first  ordained,  and  only  minister  there.  But  if  any 
is  regularly  removed  from  one  church  to  another, 
he  shall  not  partake  of  the  revenues  of  the  former 
church,  or  of  any  oratory,  hospital,  or  alms-house 
belonging  to  it.  And  such  as  shall  presume,  after 
this  definition  of  this  great  and  oecumenical  council, 
to  transgress  in  this  matter,  are  condemned  to  be 
degraded  by  the  holy  synod. 

25.  The  canons  had  also  a  great  re- 
spect to  the  external  and  public  be-  f^e'q^ 
haviour  of  the  clergy ;  obliging  them  ''^i°"^»"<"-"°»- 
to  walk  circumspectly,  and  abstain  from  things  of 
ill  fame,  though  otherwise  innocent  and  indifferent 
in  themselves,  that  they  might  cut  off  all  occasions 
of  obloquy,  by  avoiding  all  suspicious  actions  and 
all  appearances  of  evil.  In  regard  to  which  they 
not  only  censured  them  for  rioting  and  drunken- 
ness, (which  were  vices  not  to  be  tolerated  even  in 
laymen,)  but  forbade  them  so  much  as  to  eat  or 
appear  in  a  public  inn  or  tavern,  except  they  were 
upon  a  journey,  or  some  such  necessary  occasion 
required  them  to  do  it,  under  pain  of  ecclesiastical 
censure.  The  council  of  Laodicea,'"  and  the  third 
council  of  Carthage,'^*  forbid  it  universally  to  all 
orders  of  the  clergy ;  and  the  Apostolical  Canons  "' 
more  expressly,  with  a  denunciation  of  censure, 
viz.  an  a^opiffjuoc,  excommunication  or  suspension 
from  their  oflice,  to  any  that  should  be  found  in  a 
tavern,  except  they  were  upon  a  journey,  and  the 
necessity  of  their  affairs  required  it. 

26.  For  the  same  reason  the  canons 
prohibited  them  conversing  familiarly 
with  Jews,  heretics,  and  heathens, 
especially  Gentile  philosophers,  be- 
cause of  the  scandal  attending  such  communica- 
tion. The  laws  forbidding  all  communication  with 
Jews  and  heretics  have  been  mentioned  upon  an- 
other occasion;'^'  I  shall  here  only  add  that  re- 
markable story  which  Sozomen  '^  tells  of  Theodotus, 
bishop  of  Laodicea  in  Syria,  how  he  excommuni- 
cated the  two  ApoUinarii,  father  and  son,  because 
they  went  to  hear  Epiphanius  the  sophist  speak 
his  hymn  in  the  praise  of  Bacchus,  which  was  a 
thing  so  disagreeable  to  their  charactef,  the  one 
being  a  presbyter,  the  other  a  deacon,  in  the  Chris- 
tian church. 

27.  As  clergymen  were  obliged  to         sect  32 
show  a  just  severity  to  impenitent  riiorouJseventy'to- 
sinners,  by  putting  the  laws  of  disci-  -""^^i^p^"^- 
pline  duly  in  execution  against  them ;  so,  on  the 
other  hand,  an  over-rigorous  severity  and  stiffness 


Sect.  31. 

26.  For  conversing 

familiarly  with  Jews, 

heretics,  or  Gentile 

philosophers. 


I 


I 


'25  Book  VI.  chap.  4.  sect.  7.      '■"  Cone.  Agathen.  can.  Gl. 

'='  Justin.  Novel.  6.  cap.  2.  '^s  Ibid.  cap.  3. 

'-'"  Cone.  Carth.  3.  can.  28.  Ut  episcopi  trans  mare  non 
proficiscantur,  nisi  consulto  primae  sedis  episcopo,  sive  cu- 
juscuuque  provincioe  primate,  ut  ab  epi.scopo  praecipue  pos- 
sint  sumere  formatam  sive  commendationem. 


""  Cone.  Antioch.  can.  11. 
'^'  Hilar.  Ep.  8.  ad  Episcopos  Gallinc. 
"-  Gregor.  lib.  7.  Ep.  8.  '^^  Cone.  Chalced.  can.  10. 

'3*  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  24.        '^^  Cone.  Carth.  3.  can.  27. 
"•^  Canon.  Apost.  53.  al.  54.  "'  Book  XVI.  chap. 

6.  sect.  3  and  10.  '''  Sozom.  lib.  G.  cap.  25. 


LiiAP,  V. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1055 


in  refusing  to  receive  and  reconcile  penitent  lapsers, 
after  they  had  made  canonical  satisfaction,  was  a 
great  offence,  and  such  a  manifest  abuse  of  the 
ministerial  power,  as  the  church  thought  fit  to  cor- 
rect with  some  sharpness  in  her  clergy.  If  any 
bishop,  presbyter,  or  deacon,  say  the  Apostolical 
Canons,"*  receives  not  one  that  turns  from  sin,  but 
casts  him  out,  let  him  be  deposed  ;  because  he 
grieves  Christ,  who  said,  "  There  is  joy  in  heaven 
over  one  sinner  that  repenteth."  This  was  not  the 
true  exercise  of  discipline,  but  imperiousness  and 
humour,  and  a  mere  domineering  over  God's  herit- 
age, by  an  exorbitant  stretch  of  the  ministerial 
power.  It  was  the  very  thing  which  the  Novatian 
heretics  contended  for,  and  what  the  church  always 
opposed  and  condemned  in  theui ;  and  therefore 
when  any  of  her  own  clergy  assumed  to  themselves 
this  extravagant  power,  she  justly  esteemed  them  in- 
fected with  this  Novatian  principle  of  cruelty,  and  as 
such  made  them  liable  to  the  sentence  of  deprivation. 
Sect  33.  2^'  There  was  another  sort  of  cru- 

chfritf  to  indigent  ^Ity  wliich  the  church  also  much  re- 
"^'"'"*'  sented  in  any  of  her  clergy ;  which 

was,  want  of  charity  to  any  that  were  indigent  and 
distressed  in  their  own  order.  As  charity  obliges 
men  to  do  good  to  all  as  they  have  opportunity, 
but  more  especially  to  those  who  are  of  the  house- 
hold of  faith ;  so  clergymen  were  more  especially 
obliged  to  assist  those  who  were  joined  with  them 
in  the  same  ministry,  and  united  more  closely  by  a 
stricter  bond  of  fraternity  in  the  same  occupation 
and  employment.  Therefore  the  Apostolical'"  Ca- 
nons censure  this  as  a  great  transgression  in  these 
very  sharp  terms  :  If  any  bishop  or  presbyter  refuse 
to  give  necessaries  to  any  clergyman  that  is  in  want, 
let  him  be  cast  out  of  communion ;  and  if  he  persist, 
let  him  be  deposed,  as  a  murderer  of  his  brother. 

29.  It  was  thought  also  some  sort 

Sect.  34.  PI  1 

39.  f-orjiKisincin  of  cruclty,  at  Icast  a  very  miproper 
and  unbecoming  thing,  for  any  clergy- 
man to  be  concerned  in  judging  or  giving  sentence 
in  cases  of  blood.  The  laws  allowed  them  to  be 
chosen  arbitrators  of  men's  differences  in  civil 
causes ;  but  they  had  no  power  at  all  in  criminal 
causes,  except  such  as  were  purely  ecclesiastical ; 
and  least  of  all  in  such  criminal  causes  where  hfe 
and  death  was  concerned.  Therefore  there  are 
many  canons  forbidding  this  under  the  penalty  of 
the  highest  censure  of  deprivation.  The  council  of 
Tarragone   universally  forbids    the    clergy  to   sit 


judges'"  in  any  civil  criminal  causes.  The  council 
of  Auxerre"-  more  particularly  enjoins  presbyters 
not  to  sit  in  judgment,  when  any  man  is  to  be  con- 
demned to  die.  And  in  another  canon'"  forbids 
both  presbyters  and  deacons  to  stand  at  the  trcpa- 
lium,  where  criminals  were  put  to  the  rack  and  ex- 
amined by  torture.  The  fourth  council  of  Toledo'" 
allows  not  priests  to  sit  judges  in  cases  of  treason, 
even  at  the  command  of  the  prince,  except  tlie 
prince  promised  beforehand  upon  oath,  tliat  he 
would  pardon  the  offence,  and  remit  the  punish- 
ment. If  they  did  otherwise,  they  were  to  be  held 
guilty  of  bloodshed  before  Christ,  and  to  lose  their 
order  and  degree  in  the  church.  The  eleventh  coun- 
cil of  Toledo  goes  a  little  further,'"  not  only  excluding 
such  from  the  honour  of  their  order  and  station,  but 
from  all  communion  during  their  whole  lives,  which 
they  are  only  to  be  allowed  at  the  point  of  death. 

These  were  the  chief  of  those  rules  s  ■  t  r 

of  ancient  disciijline  which  concerned  „  "i*'''!''^ '""''','  ''* 
the  clergy  in  general :  beside  which,  fJdf,l;ati!!',^8®'co"? 
there  were  some  which  had  a  more  i-/'"  "-'-'»"«• 
peculiar  respect  to  the  persons  of  each  particular 
order.  Bishops  might  be  suspended  or  degraded 
for  several  offences  committed  against  the  rules  of 
their  office  and  duty  pecuhar  to  their  function.  As, 
first,  for  wilful  transgression  of  the  known  laws  of 
ordination.  If  any  bishops  pretended  to  ordain  a 
man  into  a  full  see,  where  another  was  regularly 
ordained  before  him ;  or  if  two  or  three  bishops  or- 
dained a  bishop  clancularly  without  the  consent  of 
the  rest  of  the  provincial  bishops  and  the  metro- 
politan ;  not  only  the  bishop  so  ordained  was  to 
be  deposed,  but  the  bishops  who  presumed  to  give 
him  such  an  ordination  :  '^"  which  was  the  case  of 
Trophimus,  and  those  two  other  obscure  bishops 
who  ordained  Novatian ;  for  which  offence,  as  Cy- 
prian and  Cornelius  often  tell  us,  they  were  de- 
graded, and  reduced  to  lay  communion.  If  any 
bishop  ordained  those  that  were  baptized  by  here- 
tics, or  rebaptized  by  them,  he  was  liable  to  be  de- 
posed'" for  his  transgression.  If  a  bishop  for  fa- 
vour ordained  any  of  his  own  unworthy  kindred,  by 
a  rule  of  the  Apostolical  Canons,''"  he  was  liable  to 
be  suspended.  If  a  bishop  ordained  any  in  another 
man's  diocese,  by  a  rule  of  the  same  Apostolical 
Canons,  he  was  liable  "'  to  be  deposed,  as  well  as 
the  persons  so  ordained  by  him.  All  these  things 
have  been  more  fully  showed  in  the  third  section  of 
this  chapter,  to  which  the  reader  may  have  recourse. 


"»  Canon.  Apost.  52.  "»  Ibid.  59. 

'*'  Cone.  Tarracon.  can.  4.  Habcant  liccntiam  jndicandi, 
exceptis  criminalibiis  negotiis. 

'■■^  Cone.  Antissiodor.  can.  31.  Non  licet  prcsbytero  in  illo 
judicio  sedere,  unde  homo  ad  mortem  tradatur. 

'"  Ibid.  can.  33.  Non  licet  presbytero,  nee  diacono,  ad 
trepalinm,  ubi  rei  torquentnr,  stare. 

"■*  Cone.  Tolet.  4.  can.  31.  Ibi  consentiant  regibiis  fieri 
judices,  ubi  jurejurando,  supplicii  indulgcntia  promittitur  ; 


non  ubi  discriminis  (al.  sanguinis)  sententia  praeparatur. 
Si  quis  ergo  sacerdotum  discussor  in  alienis  pericidis  e.xtite- 
rit,  sit  reus  effusi  sanguinis  apud  Christum,  et  apiid  eccle- 
siam  perdat  proprium  gradum. 

'«  Cone.  Tolet.  H.  can.  G.  His,  a  quibus  Domini  sacia- 
menta  tractanda  sunt,  judicium  sanguinis  agitare  non  licet, 
&c.  "°  Vid.  Cone.  Arausican.  I.  can.  '21. 

"'  Vid.  Felic.  HI.  Ep.  1.  c.  5. 

"s  Canon.  Apost.  7G.  '"  Ibid.  .3G. 


1056 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVII. 


To  which  I  only  add,  that  if  a  bishop  ordained  a  man 
who  had  done  public  i>enance  in  the  church,  he  him- 
self was  to  be  deprived  '^°  of  tlie  power  of  ordination. 

2.  If  bishops  neglected  to  put  the 
Also  for  n^-giect-  laws  of  disciplinc  in  execution,  which 

ing  to  put  t\w  laws  /  . 

of  discipline  in  exc-  -ft-as  a  peculiar  act  belonwnicr  to  tlieir 

c-utioii.  i  . 

office,  they  were  liable  to  be  deposed 
for  such  neglect  and  contempt  of  discipline,  as  well 
as  those  whom  they  ought  to  have  punished  with 
ecclesiastical  censure.  This  is  evident  from  the 
case  put  by  Pope  Felix,'^'  of  some  who  had  been 
baptized  or  rebaptized  by  heretics,  and  were  after- 
ward irregularly  ordained  in  the  church  :  not  only 
they  who  ordained  them  were  liable  to  be  deposed, 
but  also  those  bishops  who  knew  them  to  be  so  or- 
dained, and  did  not  remove  them  from  their  office, 
by  putting  the  laws  of  discipline  in  execution  against 
them.  So  again,  if  a  presbyter  or  deacon  assumed 
to  themselves  any  office  without  the  authority  of 
the  bishop  not  belonging  to  them,  and  the  bishop 
connived  at  their  usurpation,  he  himself  was  liable '^- 
to  canonical  censure  for  his  tameness  in  not  cor- 
recting them  for  their  pi-esumption. 

3.  Bishops  rendered  themselves  ob- 

Sect.  37.  ^ 

For  dividing  their  j^Qxious  to  cauonical  censure,  if  thev 

diocese,   and   erect-  '  •' 

wlhout"  leareT'or  Hiade  auy  attempts  to  alter  the  bound- 
cfaim  tirdher^men's  arics  or  distrlcts  of  tile  cliurch,  settled 

rights  bevond   their    ,  •        i     i  i  j  '^i  ^ 

own  limits  and  ju-  by  aucicnt  law  and  custom,  without 

risdiclions.  .  „  .        .    , 

tile  advice  and  consent  ot  a  provincial 
synod.  Dioceses  might  be  divided  upon  just  rea- 
sons, and  new  ones  be  erected  out  of  them ;  either 
when  they  were  too  large  for  one  bishop's  care ; 
which  made  St.  Austin  divide  the  diocese  of  Hippo, 
and  take  the  new  bishopric  of  Fussala  out  of  it :  or 
else,  when  the  prince  thought  fit  to  advance  some 
eminent  town  or  village  into  a  city;  then  that  city 
might  be  made  a  new  bishopric  by  the  consent  of  a 
provincial  council.  But  if  any  one  ambitiously  got 
himself  ordained  bishop  of  a  village,  where  there 
never  had  been  any  bishop  before ;  or  as  ambitiously 
solicited  the  prince  to  turn  a  village  into  a  city,  that 
he  might  be  made  the  bishop  of  it :  in  such  cases, 
the  church  thought  fit  to  correct  the  lofty  thoughts 
of  aspiring  men,  and  defeat  their  attempts,  by  de- 
nying them  those  honours  they  had  taken  such  in- 
direct methods  to  obtain,  and  putting  them  under 
the  censure  of  a  deprivation.  There  are  many  ca- 
nons and  rules  of  disciplinc,  which  forbid  this  prac- 


tice ;  but  the  rule  made  in  one  of  the  councils  of 
Toledo  is  most  remarkable,  being  an  inference  made 
upon  a  special  case  from  all  the  ancient  canons 
(forbidding  bishops  to  be  ordained  in  villages)  which 
are  there  recited.  King  Wamba  by  an  imperious 
mandate  had  enjoined  some  bishops  to  ordain  other 
bishops  in  several  villages  and  monasteries,  lying  in 
the  suburbs  of  Toledo  and  other  places ;  against 
which  innovating  attempt  and  usurpation  the  coun- 
cil first  cites  the  ancient  canons,  and  then  concludes 
with  a  new  decree  in  these  words  :  If  any  one  shall 
offer  to  go  against  the  prescription  of  these  canons,'^' 
in  procuring  himself  to  be  made  a  bishop  in  those 
places  where  there  never  was  any  bishop  before,  let 
him  be  anathema  in  the  sight  of  God  Almighty. 
And  let  moreover  both  the  ordainer  and  the  ordain- 
ed lose  the  degree  of  their  order,  because  they  at- 
tempt not  only  to  infringe  the  decrees  of  the  ancient 
fathers,  but  the  institutions  of  the  apostles.  The 
council  of  Chalcedon  made  a  like  decree '"  against 
any  that  should  presume  to  address  the  higher 
powers  to  get  a  province  divided  into  two,  in  order 
to  erect  a  new  metropolis  in  it.  This,  they  say, 
was  against  the  rule  of  the  church,  and  therefore 
they  denounce  deprivation  against  any  one  that 
should  attempt  it. 

4.  Bishops  were  obliged  to  attend 
provincial  councils  ;  and  if  they  re-     For  no't  attending 

-,  ,  ,  -  T  1   •  •   1  provincial  councils. 

fused  or  neglected  to  do  this  without 
a  reasonable  cause,  they  were  liable  to  suspension. 
To  this  purpose  there  is  a  decree  in  the  second 
council  of  Aries.  If  any  one  neglects  to  be  pre- 
sent,"^'^  or  leaves  the  assembly  of  his  brethren  be- 
fore the  council  be  ended,  he  shall  be  excluded 
from  the  communion  of  his  brethren,  and  not  be 
received  again,  till  he  is  absolved  by  the  following 
s}mod.  The  same  decree  is  repeated  by  the  council 
of  Tarragone,'^''  and  said  to  be  conformable  to  the 
rules  of  the  fathers,  that  if  any  bishop  contemptu- 
ously omit  to  come  to  synod,  when  he  is  called  by 
his  metropolitan,  unless  he  be  under  some  great 
bodily  infirmity,  he  shall  be  deprived  of  the  com- 
munion of  all  the  bishops  to  the  sitting  of  the  next 
council ;  which  the  African  synods  call,'"  being 
content  with  the  communion  of  his  own  church  only. 

5.  If  any  bishop  oppressed  his  peo-         g^^.^  gj, 
pie,  or  any  part  of  them,  with  hard  pe^p!'e'"'Slnfjns? 
usage,  unjust  demands,  or  unreason-  ^'''"^^"'"^• 


'5»  Vid.  Cone.  Carthasr.  4.  can.  68. 

'^'  Fclic.  III.  Ep.  1.  c.  5. 

'^-  Vid.  Gelasii  I'^pist.  9.  ad  Episc.  Lucaniac,  cap.  7. 

'^^  Cinic.  Tolet.  I'i.  can.  4.  Si  quis  contra  Ikjbc  canonum 
interdicta  venire  conatus  fuciit,  nt  in  locis  illis  se  episcopmn 
elij^at  fieri,  ubi  episcopiis  niinquam  fiiit,  anathema  sit  in 
conspectn  Dei  Omnipi)tcntis.  Et  insupor  tain  ordinator, 
quam  oniiuatus,  gradiim  sui  ordinis  perdat:  quia  non  solum 
antiquorum  patrum  decrcta,  sed  et  apostolica  ausus  est 
convellere  institiita. 

'■'■^  Cone.  Chalced.  can.  12. 


'^^  Cone,  Arelat.  2.  can.  19.  Si'quis  autem  adesse  neglexe- 
rit,  aut  coetiim  I'ratnini,  antequam  dissolvatur  concilium,  cre- 
diderit  deserendum,  alienum  se  a  fratrum  communione  cog- 
noscat,  nee  sum  recipi  liceat,  nisi  in  sequenti  synodo  fuerit 
absolutus. 

'^"  Cone.  Tarracon.  can.  6.  Si  quis  episcopnnim  commo- 
nitus  amctropolitano,  ad  syuodum,  nulla  gvavi  intercedente 
necessitate  corporali,  venire  contcmpserit,  sicut  stafuta  pa- 
trum censuenint,  usque  ad  futuruin  concilium  cunctorum 
episcoporum  charitatis  communione  privetur. 

'"Cone.  Carthag.  5.  can.  10.  et  Cod.  Afric.  can.  77. 


Chap.  V. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1057 


able  exactions  ;  it  was  peculiarly  provided  in  this 
case  by  the  laws  of  the  African  church,  that  he 
should  be  amerced  or  punished  with  the  loss  of 
that  part  of  his  diocese  or  people,  who  had  reason 
to  complain  of  such  oppression.  I  have  already 
noted  this  in  the  last  chapter,  sect.  4,  out  of  one  of 
St.  Austin's  epistles,'^  where  he  neatly  defends  this 
way  of  proceeding  with  bishops,  when  their  offences 
were  neither  so  great,  as  to  deserve  deprivation ;  nor 
so  small,  as  to  be  perfectly  overlooked,  or  let  wholly 
pass  without  a  censure. 

6.  Finally,  whereas  it  was  provided 
For'  "iikrhmiring  by  tlic  cauous,  that  HO  bishop  should 

siu-li    as   fled    from    ,  *  i       i      rt     • 

anoiiicr  dioiese       harbour  or  encourage  any  clerk  flyinjj 

without  leave.  .  .  •>       o 

from  his  own  diocese,  nor  any  monk 
deserting  his  own  monastery ;  some  councils  took 
care  to  prevent  this  abuse,  not  only  by  degrading 
the  deserting  clerk,  but  by  inflicting  canonical  pun- 
ishment upon  the  bishop  that  so  countenanced  or 
received  him.  The  council  of  Antioch'^'  leaves  it 
in  general  to  the  synod,  to  punish  such  an  offending 
bishop.  The  Apostolical  Canons'""  are  more  parti- 
cular, that  he  shall  be  suspended  from  his  office,  as 
a  master  of  disorder.  But  in  Africa  they  had  a 
more  peculiar  sort  of  punishment  for  such  a  bishop, 
which  was,  that  he  should  communicate  with  no 
other  bishop  of  the  province,  but  be  content  with 
the  communion  of  his  own  church  :  "^'  which,  as  has 
been  observed,  was  a  moderate  punishment  for  of- 
fences of  a  lower  rate,  which  neither  deserved  to 
be  punished  with  deprivation,  nor  yet  escape  wholly 
unpunished  as  no  offences. 

Next  to  the  bishop  there  w^re  a 
oiorepisrnpi        sort  of  ccclesiastical  persons,  whom 

..light   he  censured  .  i  ii     i       t 

for  actins  beyond  thc  aucicut  churcli  Called  chorcptscojii, 

their  commission. 

or  country  bishops,  because  they  of- 
ficiated in  certain  episcopal  duties  under  the  city 
bishop  in  country  districts.  These  acted  by  a 
limited  and  dependent  power,  but  many  times  were 
inclined  to  assume  a  power  to  themselves  beyond 
their  commission.  Therefore  the  church  was  obliged 
to  make  certain  laws  and  rules  to  restrain  and  cor- 
rect their  usurpations.  These  might  ordain  the  in- 
ferior clergy,  subdeacons,  readers,  and  exorcists,  by  a 
general  commission,  but  not  presbyters  or  deacons 
without  a  special  licence ;  yet  sometimes  they  would 
take  upon  them  to  do  that  also  without  consulting 
the  city  bishop ;  for  which  offence  they  were  liable 
by  the  canons  '"^  to  lose  their  office  and  be  degraded. 
Sect  «  '^^^'^  ^^^^  "^^y  ^^  observed  of  pres- 

iisnr"p1nr"upon\he  bytcrs,  who  wcrc  assistauts  to  bishops 
episcopal  office.       -^^  performing  their  office,  but  with 


certain  limitations,  that  they  should  not  meddle 
with  such  parts  of  it  as  they  reserved  absolutely 
to  themselves  ;  such  as  ordination  and  consecration 
of  clmsm,  for  the  use  of  confirming,  and  the  conse- 
cration of  churches  and  altars.  And  if  presbyters 
at  any  time  exceeded  the  limits  of  their  commission 
and  order,  by  assuming  the  exercise  and  powetof 
these  things  to  themselves,  by  the  laws  of  the 
church  they  were  liable  to  be  divested  of  their  ordi- 
nary power,  which  otherwise  they  might  have  en- 
joyed, and  made  subject  to  the  penalty  of  a  total 
deprivation.  Thus  when  Eutychianus  and  Mu- 
sa3us,  who  were  no  bishops,  had  ordained  several 
clerks,  the  council  of  Sardica  ordered, '"•''  that  for  this 
presumption  they  should  be  deprived  of  their  orders, 
and  entirely  reduced  to  the  communion  of  laymen. 
And  in  the  first  council  of  Braga '"  a  decree  was 
made,  prohibiting  presbyters  either  to  consecrate 
the  chrism,  or  churches,  or  altars,  under  pain  of  de- 
position from  their  office ;  because  the  ancient 
canons  always  forbid  it. 

Deacons  likewise  were  confined  to        c  ►  4, 

Sect.  43. 

certain  offices  and  stations  appropri-  ass*mii,g''offic"i^an(j 
ated  to  their  order;  above  which  if  fheifo*rder 'i'l'.d" sia- 
they  presumed  ambitiously  to  aspire, 
and  thrust  themselves  into  the  presbyter's  duty,  or 
any  ways  insult  them,  they  also  incurred  the  high- 
est censures.  The  council  of  Nice  ""  takes  notice 
of  some  such  usurpations  and  abuses  committed  by 
deacons  ;  that  in  some  places  the  deacons  took  upon 
them  to  distribute  the  sacrament  to  presbyters  ;  and 
to  receive  it  before  bishops  themselves  ;  and  to  sit 
in  the  midst  of  the  presbyters :  which  being  con- 
trary both  to  rule  and  custom,  it  is  ordered  that 
such  assuming  deacons  should  be  suspended,  or 
cease  from  their  ministry,  as  the  words  imraiaOuj 
Tije  SiaKoviag  seem  rather  to  signify.  The  second 
council  of  Aries  has  a  canon  to  the  same  purpose,"* 
that  deacons  shall  not  sit  in  the  secretarium  or  vestry 
among  the  presbyters ;  nor  presmne  to  deliver  the 
body  of  Christ,  when  a  presbyter  is  present.  If 
they  do,  they  shall  cease  to  officiate  any  longer  as 
deacons. 

Thus  every  order  among  the  clergy  had  their 
particular  offices  assigned  them  ;  and  not  only  neg- 
lects and  omissions  of  their  duty,  but  intermeddling 
with  offices  that  did  not  belong  to  them,  and  as- 
suming powers  that  were  foreign  to  their  order,  was 
a  sufficient  cause  of  suspension  or  deprivation.  And 
so  I  have  done  with  what  relates  more  peculiarly 
to  the  discipline  of  the  clergy. 


^  Aug.  Ep.  261.  '*'  Cone.  Antioch.  can.  3. 

'™  Canon.  Apost.  16. 

""  Cone.  Carth.  5.  can.  1.3.  Episcopus  qui  hoc  fecerit,  a 
caeterorum  communione  scjunctus,  suae  tautum  plebis  coin- 
miniione  contentus  sit. 

'""  V id. Cone.  Antioch.  can.  10.      '"'  Cone.  Savdic.  can.  20. 

"''  Cone.  Biacaren.  1.  can.  .37.  Si  quis  piesbvler  post 
3  V 


hoc  intenlictum  ausns  fueiit  chrisma  bencdiccie,  aut  eccle- 
siam  aut  altare  conseerare,  a  siio  ollicio  dcponatur.  Nam  et 
antiqui  eanones  hoc  vetucruut.  '"  Cone.  Nic.  can.  IS. 

'«"  Cone.  Arelaten.  2.  can.  15.  In  secretario  diaconos 
inter  piesbyteros  sedcre  non  lieeat ;  vel  corpus  Christi,  pra;- 
scnte  presbytero,  tradcre  non  proesuinant.  Quod  si  fcceriut, 
ab  ollicio  iliaconatus  absceJant. 


BOOK   XVIII. 

OF   THE    SEVERAL    ORDERS    OF   PENITENTS,  AND  THE    METHOD  OF  DOING  PUBLIC  PE- 
NANCE IN  THE  CHURCH  BY  GOING  THROUGH  THE  SEVERAL  STAGES  OF  REPENTANCE. 


CHAPTER  I. 


OF    THE    SEVERAL    OKDEES    OF    PENITENTS    IN    THE    CHURCH. 


„  ,  ,  We  have  hitherto  considered  the  dis- 

sect 1. 

inKul"o,dlrs''or  ciplinc  of  the  church,  as  exercised 
"'"*'""  upon  obstinate  and  notorious  crimi- 

nals, in  order  to  bring  them  to  repentance :  we 
are  now  to  examine  it  again  in  its  progress,  as 
exercised  upon  penitents,  who  submitted  to  the 
rules  of  discipline,  and  see  how  they  were  treated 
in  the  performance  of  their  penance,  from  the  time 
of  their  excommunication  to  the  time  of  their  ad- 
mission into  the  church  again.  The  performance 
of  penance  anciently  was  a  matter  of  considerable 
length  and  time,  to  examine  men's  behaviour  and 
sincerity,  and  make  them  give  just  testimony  and 
evidence  of  real  sorrow  and  hearty  abhoiTence  of 
their  sins,  to  satisfy  the  church  that  they  were  sin- 
cere converts,  by  submitting  to  go  through  a  long 
course  of  penance,  according  as  the  wisdom  of  the 
church  thought  fit  to  impose  it  upon  them.  And 
upon  this  account  the  church  was  used  to  divide  her 
penitents  into  four  distinct  ranks  or  classes  of  dif- 
ferent degrees,  called  by  the  Greeks,  TrpocrKXaiovng, 
aKOoop/ifvoi,  vTTOTriirrovrtg,  and  ffvviffrdfitvot ;  and  by 
the  Latins,  Jlentes,  audientes,  substrati,  and  consis- 
tentes ;  that  is,  the  mourners  or  weepers,  the  hearers, 
the  substrators,  and  the  co-standers ;  the  meaning 
of  which  names  and  distinctions  shall  be  explained 
by  and  by.  Some  add  to  these  a  fifth  order,  but 
without  any  just  ground  or  reason  for  it.  Bellar- 
mine'  says,  there  was  a  fifth  place,  of  such  penitents 
as  had  fully  completed  their  penance,  and  only 
waited  for  the  time  of  reconciliation.  And  the  place 
of  these  penitents,  he  says,  was  called  fikarbxnQ,  or 
the  completion.  Our  learned  Dr.  Cave  also"  shdes 
unwarily  into  the  same  mistake,  making  five  orders 
of  penitents,  whereof  the  fifth  and  last,  he  says, 
were  called  communicantes,  and  were  admitted  to 


the  participation  of  the  holy  sacrament.  But  it  is 
most  certain,  there  never  was  any  such  order  of 
penitents,  under  the  name  of  communicants,  or  par- 
takers of  the  holy  sacrament,  acknowledged  in  the 
church.  For  communicants,  absolutely  so  called,  as 
denoting  partakers  of  the  eucharist,  are  every  where 
distinguished  from  the  penitents,  and  go  by  other 
names,  ttiotoi,  tsXuoi,  &c.,  the  faithful,  and  perfect ; 
that  is,  persons  not  under  discipline  and  public 
penance,  which  is  an  imperfect  state  of  communion, 
but  in  the  perfect,  peaceable,  and  full  communion  of 
the  church :  none  of  which  ever  go  by  the  name  of 
penitents,  in  any  ancient  writer.  Some  penitents, 
indeed,  are  said  to  communicate  imperfectly  with  the 
church  in  some  one  particular  thing ;  as  the  fourth 
order  of  penitents,  called  co-standers,  are  said  often 
to  communicate  in  prayers  without  the  oblation  or 
eucharist :  but  these,  as  they  did  not  partake  of  the 
eucharist,  so  neither  were  they  ever  reputed  perfect 
communicants  in  the  church,  till  they  were  restored 
to  the  TO  TsXiwv,  the  complete  communion  of  the 
faithful  at  the  altar.  So  that  there  is  no  manner  of 
ground  for  this  fifth  order  of  penitents,  the  invention 
of  which  is  entirely  owing  to  a  mistake,  and  implies 
a  contradiction. 

As  to  the  other  four  orders  of  peni- 

,,  ,  ■     Sect.  2. 

tents,  it  IS  generallv  agrreed  among  The  firet  original  of 

'  °  ,  1  ,  1        this  distinction. 

learned  men,  that  the  church  observed 
such  a  distinction ;  but  how  early,  is  not  indisputably 
certain.  Cardinal  Bona  thinks'  the  distinction  of 
penitential  classes  was  first  made  about  the  time  of 
the  Novatian  schism,  that  is,  about  the  middle  of 
the  third  century.  And  Suicerus,''  speaking  of  the 
order  of  penitents  called  hearers,  says,  There  is  no 
mention  made  of  it  before  the  time  of  Novatus ; 
though,  otherwise,  a  place  for  hearing  the  Scriptures 


'  Bellarm.  de  Preniten.  lib.  1.  cap.  22.  t.  3.  p.  959. 

^  Cave,  Prim.  Clirist.  lib.  1.  cap.  8. 

'  Bona  de  Rebus  Liturgic.  lib.  1.  cap.  17.  n.  .3. 


*  Suicer.  Thesaur.  Eccles.  i.  I.  p.  171.  voce  'A/cpo'ao-is, 
Vid.  Constitut.  Apost.  lib.  2.  cap.  16. 


Chap.  I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1059 


and  sermon  was  allowed  in  the  church  for  heathens, 
Jews,  heretics,  schismatics,  and  the  second  rank  of 
the  catechumens,  who,  upon  that  account,  were 
commonly  termed  hearers,  long  before  the  name  was 
given  to  any  sort  of  penitents  as  a  distinct  order. 

But  in  the  third  and  fourth  century 
Of  th//.'.iV«,  or  we  commonly  find  the  penitents  dis- 
tinguished into  four  orders  ;  the  first 
of  which  were  the  Jlentes,  or  mourners,  who  were 
rather  candidates  of  penance,  than  penitents  strictly 
speaking.  Their  station  was  in  the  church  porch, 
where  they  lay  prostrate,  begging  the  prayers  of 
the  faithful  as  they  went  in,  and  desiring  to  be  ad- 
mitted to  do  public  penance  in  the  church.  This 
is  what  TertuUian  means,  when  he  says,^  they  were 
used  to  fall  down  at  the  presbyters'  feet,  and  kneel 
to  the  friends  of  God,  and  enti'eat  all  the  brethren 
to  recommend  their  petition,  and  intercede  with 
Heaven  for  them.  And  so  the  historian  represents 
the  practice  "^  of  Ecebolius  the  sophist,  who  having 
apostatized  under  Julian,  desired  to  make  his  recant- 
ation, and  do  penance,  under  Jovian  :  the  first  step 
toward  which  was,  that  he  cast  himself  prostrate  to 
the  earth  before  the  gate  of  the  church,  crying  out, 
Calcate  me  insipidum  salem,  Tread  me  under  foot  as 
salt  without  savour.  Some  canons'  pass  over  this 
act  as  only  a  preliminary  to  repentance  ;  but  Gre- 
gory Thaumaturgus  and  St.  Basil  expressly  mention 
it  in  their  canons.  Gregory'  says,  The  place  of  the 
mourners  is  without  the  gate  of  the  church,  where 
the  sinner  must  stand,  and  beg  the  praj-ers  of  the 
faithful,  as  they  enter  in.  And  St.  Basil  thus  de- 
scribes the  four  stations  of  penitents  :  The  first  year" 
they  are  to  weep  before  the  gate  of  the  church ;  the 
second  year,  to  be  admitted  to  hearing;  the  third 
year,  to  genuflexion,  or  repentance  properly  so 
called ;  and  the  fourth  year,  to  stand  with  the  faith- 
ful at  prayers  without  partaking  of  the  oblation. 
And  in  this  sense  we  may  understand  that  passage 
in  St.  Ambrose,'"  whei"e,  speaking  to  one  that  had 
coiTupted  a  virgin,  he  tells  him,  his  only  method 
now  was  to  implore  the  help  of  the  saints,  (mean- 
ing, not  saints  in  heaven,  but  saints  on  earth  in  the 
church,)  and  to  cast  himself  at  the  feet  of  the  elect: 
which  seems  plainly  to  allude  to  this  custom.  In 
like  manner  Eusebius,"  describing  the  behaviour  of 
Natalis  the  confessor,  upon  his  return  to  the  church 
from  the  Theodotian  heretics,  (who  had  allured  him 
by  great  rewai'ds  to  become  bishop  of  their  party,) 
says,  he  came  in  sackcloth  and  ashes,  and  with 
tears  cast  himself  at  the  feet  of  Zephyrinus,  then 


bishop  of  Rome ;  and  not  only  laid  himself  under 
the  feet  of  the  clergy,  but  the  laity  also ;  endeavour- 
ing to  move  the  merciful  church  of  the  merciful 
Christ  to  compassion  with  his  tears,  and  by  sliow- 
ing  tliem  the  marks  of  the  stripes  which  he  had  en- 
dured for  the  confession  of  (  hrist.  Where  falling 
at  the  feet  of  the  laity,  as  well  as  the  clergj-,  can 
hardly  refer  to  any  thing  else  beside  this  prepara- 
tory introduction  to  penance,  which  the  mourners 
used  in  the  church  porch,  when  they  cast  themselves 
before  the  people,  to  beg  their  prayers,  and  obtain 
admission  into  the  first  apartment  of  the  church. 

When  their  petition  was  thus  ac- 
cepted, they  were  said  to  be  admitted  onh^  nuiiimtcs,  ot 
to  penance,  that  is,  to  have  liberty  to 
pass  through  the  several  stages  of  discipline,  which 
the  church  appointed  for  the  probation  and  trial  of 
such  as  pretended  real  sorrow  for  any  notorious  of- 
fence, and  the  scandal  given  to  the  church  by  the 
commission  of  it.  This  is  the  true  meaning  of 
those  common  phrases,  which  so  often  occur  in  the 
writings  of  the  ancients,  pcxDiitentiam  dare,  and 
]ioenitentiam  accipere,  giving  and  receiving  penance, 
that  is,  granting  or  accepting  the  conditions  of  pub- 
lic penance  in  the  church.  Now,  when  men  were 
admitted  to  this  state,  they  were  termed  audientes, 
or  hearers,  wliich  was  the  second  order  of  penitents; 
or,  if  we  please,  the  first  of  those  that  had  any  pri- 
vilege to  enter  the  church.  These  were  allowed 
to  stay  and  hear  the  Scriptures  read,  and  the  ser- 
mon preached ;  but  were  obliged  to  depart  before 
any  of  the  common  prayers  began,  with  the  rest  of 
those,  catechumens  and  others,  who  went  by  the 
general  name  of  hearers  only.  There  is  frequent 
mention  made  of  these  in  the  ancient  canons,'-  pre- 
scribing how  long  penitents  were  to  continue  in 
this  station,  a  year,  or  two,  or  three,  according  as 
their  offence  required.  Gregory  Thaumaturgus 
particularly  assigns  them  their  station  in  the  nar- 
thex,^^  or  lowest  part  of  the  church,  where  they 
stood  to  hear  with  the  catechumens  of  the  first  or 
second  order,  called  hearers,  and  were  dismissed 
with  them  as  soon  as  the  sermon  was  ended,  before 
any  prayers  begun.  St.  Basil '^  says  expressly,  they 
were  hearers  only,  and  not  allowed  to  be  present  at 
any  prayers  whatsoever.  Which  agrees  exactly 
with  the  order  in  the  Constitutions,'^  where  the 
deacon  is  appointed  to  make  proclamation,  as  soon 
as  the  sermon  was  ended,  Xe  qin's  audlentium,  ne 
qia's  infidcJhim  :  Let  none  of  the  hearers,  let  none  of 
the  unbelievers  be  present. 


*  Tertul.  de  Poenitent.  cap.  9.  Presbyteris  advolvi,  charis 
Dei  adgeniculari,  "mnibusi'ratribus  legationes  deprecatiouis 
suae  injungere.     Vid.  lib.  de  Pudicit.  cap.  13. 

"  Sdcrat.  lib.  3.  cap.  13. 

'  Cone.  Nic.  can.  11  et  12.     Cone.  Ancyr.  can.  4,  G,  9. 

*  Greg.  Thaiimaturg.  can.  ]]. 

=  Basil,  can.  22.  Vid.  can.  56,  57,  58,  59,  &},  06,  75.  ibid. 
3  Y  2 


'"  Ambros.  ad  Virgin,  lapsam,  cap.  f<.     Sauctoriini  pclas 
au.xilium,  jaceas  sub  pedibus  electoruni. 
"  Euseb.  lib.  5.  cap.  28. 

'-  Cone.  Nie.  can.  11  el  12.    Cone.  Aney.-.  can.  J,  C,  9. 
'^  Greg.  Thauin.  can.  11. 
'^  Basil,  can.  75.     Vid.  Greg.  Nysson.  can.  3. 
'^  Constit.  lib.  8.  cap.  5. 


1030 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVIII. 


And  in  this  they  were  distinguished 
or  the  kneeiirs,  or    from  thc  pcnitcnts  of  the  third  order, 

prostrators. 

who  were  called  yovvicXivovreg  and 
inromTTTovrfQ  by  the  Greeks,  and  genujlectentes  or 
suhstrati  by  the  Latins ;  that  is,  kneelers  or  pros- 
trators,  because  they  were  allowed  to  stay  and  join 
in  certain  prayers  particularly  made  for  them,  whilst 
they  were  kneeling  upon  their  knees.  Bellarmine 
commits  a  strange  mistake,  and  betrays  a  great  deal 
of  ignorance  in  the  Greek  tongue,  whilst  he  ex- 
plains the  name  vtroiriirTwmQ  to  be  the  station  of 
those  '*  who  were  occupied  in  the  contemplation  of 
heavenly  things ;  taking  the  word  to  come  from 
oTTTOfiai,  video,  to  see  or  contemplate  ;  whereas  every 
one  knows  it  comes  from  vzo-kl-ittw,  to  kneel,  or  fall 
down  and  lie  prostrate  on  the  ground,  whence  they 
were  properly  denominated  kneelers  or  prostrators. 
These  were  allowed  to  stay  in  the  church  after  the 
hearers  were  dismissed,  and  hear  the  prayers  that 
were  offered  up  particularly  for  them  by  aU  the 
people,  and  receive  imposition  of  hands  from  the 
bishop,  who  also  made  a  particular  prayer  for  them, 
Avhich  was  styled,  the  imposition  of  hands  upon  the 
penitents,  and  the  bishop's  benediction.  The  council 
of  Laodicea  "  speaks  of  these  prayers  under  this  very 
title,  calling  them  the  prayers  of  those  that  w'ere 
under  penance  and  imposition  of  hands.  St.  Chry- 
sostom  also  mentions  them  more  than  once,''  styling 
them  the  prayers  for  the  penitents,  and  the  prayers 
full  of  mercy,  because  in  them  intercession  was 
made  to  God  for  the  penitents  by  the  common  voice 
both  of  the  minister  and  people.  The  author  of  the 
Constitutions'^  has  the  forms  of  these  prayers, 
which  I  omit  here,  because  they  have  been  recited 
at  length  in  a  more  proper  place,^  where  we  give 
an  account  of  the  ancient  liturgy,  or  service  of  the 
church.  The  station  of  this  sort  of  penitents  was 
within  the  nave  or  body  of  the  church,-'  near  unto 
the  ambon,  or  reading  desk,  where  they  received 
the  bishop's  imposition  of  hands  and  benediction. 
Some  canons  "  style  this  order  simply  the  pe7iitents, 
by  way  of  emphasis,  without  any  other  distinction, 
because  they  were  the  most  noted,  and  the  greatest 
part  of  penitential  acts  belonged  to  them,  whilst 
they  were  in  this  station,  of  which  I  shall  give  a 
more  particular  accoimt  in  the  following  chapters. 
Sect.  6.  The  last  order  of  penitents  were 

Of  the  conshirn-    .1,  ^  ,  •   ,       , 

«<•»,  or  tostanders.      tUC     (JWirTTUflU'OI,     COyiSlStctltcS,     Or     CO- 


•"  Bellar.  de  Poenit.  lib.  1.  cap.  22.  t.  3.  p.  959. 
"  Cone.  Laotlic.  can.  19. 

'^  Chrys.  Horn.  18.  in  2  Cor.  p.  873.    Horn.  72.  in  Matt 
p.  624. 
"  Constit.  lib.  8.  cap.  8  ct  9. 
20  Book  XIV.  chap.  5.  sect.  10. 
2'  Gregor.  ThaumaUirg.  can.  II. 
"  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  19. 


standers,  so  called  from  their  having  liberty  (after 
the  other  penitents,  energumens,  and  catechumens 
were  dismissed)  to  stand  with  the  faithful  at  the 
altar,  and  join  in  the  common  prayers,  and  see 
the  oblation  offered;  but  yet  they  might  neither 
make  their  own  oblations,  nor  partake  of  the 
eucharist  with  them.  This  the  council  of  Nice^ 
calls  communicating  with  the  people  in  prayers 
only,  without  the  oblation ;  which,  for  the  crime  of 
idolatry,  was  to  last  for  two  years,  after  they  had 
been  three  years  hearers  and  seven  years  prostra- 
tors before.  The  council  of  Ancyra^*  often  uses  the 
same  phrase  of  communicating  in  prayers  only,  and 
communicating  without  the  oblation ;  and  in  one 
canon '-^  expressly  styles  this  order  of  penitents  the 
avviarcmivoi,  co-standers ;  by  which  name  they  are 
also  distinguished  in  the  canons  of  Gregory  Thau- 
maturgus,^*^  and  frequently  in  the  canons  of  St.  Ba- 
sil.-' In  all  which  we  may  observe,  that  the  word 
communicating  does  not  always  signify  partaking 
of  the  eucharist,  but  communicating  in  prayers  only 
without  the  oblation,  which  was  but  an  imperfect 
sort  of  communion  ;  in  opposition  to  which,  when 
they  were  admitted  again  to  the  eucharist,  they 
were  said  iKQiiv  inl  to  rsXtiov,^  to  attain  to  perfection  ; 
the  participation  of  the  eucharist  being  the  highest 
state,  or  consummation  and  perfection  of  a  Christian. 
This  is  the  short  account  of  these  several  orders  of 
penitents,  and  their  stations  in  the  church :  but  to 
have  a  complete  view  of  the  ancient  manner  of  per- 
forming penance,  it  will  be  necessary  to  consider, 
both  the  ceremony  of  admission  to  this  state,  and 
the  several  acts  of  penance  which  they  performed 
during  their  progress  or  passage  through  the  seve- 
ral stages  of  it ;  as  also  the  length  of  time,  or  the 
duration  and  continuance  of  this  exercise ;  which 
was  often  for  a  course  of  many  years,  and  some- 
times to  the  hour  of  death,  without  any  remission 
or  relaxation.  The  considering  all  which  will  give 
us  an  exact  and  clear  idea  of  the  ancient  discipline, 
and  show  us  at  once  both  the  severity,  and  prudence, 
and  purity  of  the  church,  in  proceeding  with  sharp- 
ness against  great  delinquents,  as  well  to  examine 
the  sincerity  of  their  repentance,  as  to  take  off  the 
scandal  cast  upon  religion,  and  prevent  their  back- 
sliding and  relapses  for  the  future.  Of  these  things 
therefore  in  the  following  chapters. 


^  Cone.  Nic.  can.  11.  Ado  t-r?j  ywpl^  Trpocrcpopa^  Koti/w- 
I'va-ovrri  Tio  \a(f  Tcoi/  'rrpo(Ttv')(!hv.     Vid.  can.  12.  ibid. 

'-'  Cone.  Ancyr.  can.  4.  Eu)();s  fiovi]^  KOLvwvi^craL.  Can. 
5.    Koii/tovijO-rtTtucray  )(aipls  'Trpua-<j>opa^.     It.  can.  8,  16,  25. 

■^  Ibid.  can.  25. 

-'■  Greg.  Thaumat.  can.  11. 

^  Basil,  can.  22,  5G,  57,  58,  59,  61,  66,  75. 

^  Cone.  Ancyr.  can.  4,  5,  6. 


CllAP.    II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


lOfil 


CHAPTER  II. 

OF  THE  CEREMONIES  USED  IN  ADMITTING  PENI- 
TENTS TO  DO  PITHLIC  PENANCE,  AND  THE  MAN- 
NER   OF    PERFORMING    IT    IN    THE    CHURCH. 

j,^^,  ,  When   a  penitent  desired  to  be  ad- 

niUhd'toplMiauoe^by  Hiitted  to  do  publjc  pcnance,  and  his 
i,„,,os>tionofi>an<is.  ^^^^^^^^  ^^g  acceptcd,  thc  first  cere- 
mony that  was  used  was  to  grant  him  penance,  as 
the  phrase  was,  by  imposition  of  hands.  For  this 
was  a  ceremony  used  ahnost  in  all  religious  actions, 
when  any  person  was  solemnly  to  be  recommended 
to  God  in  prayer.  There  were  many  other  imposi- 
tions of  hands  given  them  daily,  when  they  came 
into  the  third  order  of  penitents ;  but  this  was  pre- 
vious to  their  admission,  or  rather  the  form  and 
ceremony  of  it,  when  they  were  first  taken  in  to  be 
hearers  in  the  church.  For  this  we  have  the  plain 
testimony  of  the  council  of  Agde,"  which  orders, 
that  penitents,  at  the  time  when  they  desire  to  be 
admitted  to  do  penance,  shall  receive  imposition  of 
hands  from  the  bishop,  and  sackcloth  to  cover  their 
heads. 

In  which  canon  we  may  observe 
And'  niiiiiJed  to  another  rite  and  custom  of  common 

appear  in  s;ickclotll  ...  ,    •     i  i 

ami  ashes  upon  tiieir  USB  lu  this  matter;  which  was,  that 

head. 

penitents  were  obliged  to  appear  in 
sackcloth,  as  an  indication  and  token  of  their  great 
sorrow  and  indignation  against  themselves.  Other 
writers  join  sackcloth  and  ashes  together:  for  so 
Eusebius,  describing  the  penitential  mien  of  Natalis 
the  confessor,  upon  his  return  from  the  Theodotian 
heretics  to  the  church,  says,"  he  came  clothed  in 
sackcloth  and  sprinkled  with  ashes.  And  St.  Am- 
brose, writing  to  a  virgin  that  had  lapsed,  plainly  al- 
ludes to  both  customs,  when  he  tells  her^  she  must 
macerate  her  whole  body,  sprinkling  it  with  ashes, 
and  covering  it  with  sackcloth.  In  like  manner 
Tertullian,*  discoursing  of  public  penance,  says,  it 
obliges  the  sinner  to  change  both  his  diet  and  his 
liabit,  to  defile  his  body,  and  lie  in  sackcloth  and 
ashes.  Neither  were  the  greatest  personages  ex- 
empted from  this  ceremony.  For  St.  Jerom,^  de- 
scribing the  penance  of  Fabiola,  one  of  the  gi-eatest 
ladies  in  Rome,  says,  she  stood  in  sackcloth  in 
the  order  of  penitents  in  the  Latcran  church,  to 
make  public  confession  of  her  fault  in  the  sight  of 


all  the  people  of  Rome.  And  they  continued  tlie 
use  of  it  during  their  passage  through  all  thc  stages 
of  repentance.  For  even  at  last  they  appeared  in 
sa(;kcloth,  when  the  course  of  their  whole  penance 
was  ended,  and  in  this  garb  (as  the  council  of  To- 
ledo" words  it)  were  absolved,  and  reconciled  totlic 
altar  of  God.  And  this  is  always  the  meaning  of 
those  expressions,  which  speak  of  penitents  chang- 
ing their  garb,  and  taking  the  mournful  habit  of  re- 
pentance. Some  think  this  was  always  done  pre- 
cisely on  Ash  Wednesday,  or  the  beginning  of  Lent, 
which  from  thence  was  called  lUcs  ciiiprum,  the  day 
of  sprinkling  ashes,  and  caput  jcJitnH,  the  head  or 
beginning  of  the  fast.  But  this,  for  ought  I  can 
find,  is  founded  upon  very  uncertain  tradition,  and 
the  authority  of  modern  authors;  there  being  a  per- 
fect silence  in  the  more  ancient  writers  about  it. 
Bellarmine  cites  the  authority  of  the  council  of 
Agde^  for  it ;  but  this  is  only  to  be  found  in  Gra- 
tian,*  for  there  is  no  such  canon  in  the  tomes  of  the 
councils.  And  the  Roman  correctors  of  Gratian 
own  as  much,  referring  us  to  the  Roman  Penitenti- 
ale,  and  Pontifical,  and  the  Ordo  Romanus,  for  the 
substance  of  it.  And  so  Baluzius®  says,  Burchardus 
has  it  out  of  the  Roman  Penitentiale,  which  is  of  ci 
much  later  date  :  neither  does  the  canon,  as  cited 
by  Gratian,  prove  the  thing  in  question,  but  only 
describe  the  ceremony  that  was  used  toward  peni- 
tents in  the  beginning  of  Lent,  Avhethcr  they  were 
then  first  admitted  to  penance,  or  had  been  admit- 
ted before:  which  very  thing  supposes,  that  pe- 
nance might  be  imposed  at  other  times,  as  well  as 
the  first  day  of  Lent,  as  the  old  gloss  upon  Gratian 
rightly  observes.  The  ceremony,  as  it  is  described 
by  Gratian,  seems  only  to  be  an  account  of  the  dis- 
cipline used  towards  penitents  in  Lent,  difi'erent 
from  their  treatment  at  other  seasons  of  the  year. 
For  in  capite  quadragesima,  on  Ash  Wednesday,  or 
the  first  day  of  Lent,  all  penitents,  who  either  then 
were  admitted  to  penance,  or  had  been  admitted  be- 
fore, were  presented  to  the  bishop  before  the  doors 
of  the  church,  clothed  in  sackcloth,  bare-footed,  and 
with  countenances  dejected  to  the  earth,  confessing 
themselves  guilty  both  by  their  habit  and  their 
looks.  They  were  to  be  attended  by  the  deans  or 
arch-presbyters  of  the  parishes,  and  the  penitential 
presbyters,  whose  office  was  to  inspect  their  con- 
versation, and  enjoin  them  penance  according  to 
the  measure  of  their  faults  by  the  dcgi'ces  of  pe- 


'  Cone.  Agatben.  can.  15.  Pcenitentes  tempore  quo  pa-- 
niteutiain  petunt,  impositioncm  manuum  et  cilicium  super 
caput  a  sacertlote  consequantur. 

-  Euseb.  lib.  5.  cap.  28.     See  Cone.  Tolct.  3.  can.  12. 

^  Anibros.  ad  Virg.  lapsam,  cap.  8.  Totum  corpus  in- 
curia  maceretur,  cinere  aspersura  et  opertuni  cilicio.  Vid. 
Cvpr.  de  La()sis,  p.  135. 

**  Tertul.  de  Pcenit.  cap.  9.  De  ipso  qtioque  babitu  atque 
victu  niaudat,  sacco  et  cineri  incubare,  corpus  sordibus  ob- 
scurare. 


^  Hieron.  Ep.  30.  Epitaph.  Fabiolae.  Quis  hoc  crederet, 
ut  saccuui  indueret,  ut  errorem  publire  tateretur,  et  tola 
tube  spectanic  llomana,  ante  diem  Faschac,  in  basilica 
Laterani starct  in  ordine  pocnitentium  ? 

*  Cone.  Tolet.  1.  can.  2.  Qui  sub  cilicio  divino  rccon- 
ciliatus  est  altario. 

'  Bellarm.  de  roeniteut.  lib.  1.  cap.  22. 

8  Grat.  Dist.  50.  cap.  GJ. 

'  Baluz.  Not.  ad  (iratian.  p.  461. 


1062 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVIII. 


nance  that  were  appointed.  After  this  they  bring 
them  into  the  church,  and  then  the  bishop  with  all 
the  clergy,  falling  prostrate  on  the  ground,  sing  the 
seven  penitential  psalms  v.ith  tears  for  their  abso- 
lution. After  this  the  bishop,  rising  from  prayer, 
gives  them  imposition  of  hands,  sprinkles  them  with 
holy  water,  puts  ashes  upon  their  heads,  and  then 
covers  their  heads  with  sackcloth,  declaring  with 
sighs  and  groans,  that  as  Adam  was  cast  out  of 
paradise,  so  they  for  their  sins  are  cast  out  of  the 
church :  then  he  commands  the  inferior  ministers 
to  expel  them  out  of  the  doors  of  the  church ;  and 
the  clergy  follow  them,  using  this  responsory,  "  In 
the  sweat  of  thy  face  shalt  thou  eat  thy  bread :  for 
dust  thou  art,  and  unto  dust  thou  shalt  return."  In 
the  end  of  Lent,  on  the  Thursday  before  Easter, 
called  ccena  Domini,  the  deans  and  presbyters  are 
to  present  them  before  the  gates  of  the  church  again. 
Thus  far  Gratian's  account,  which  is  manifestly 
not  a  determining  the  time  of  imposing  penance  to 
be  the  first  day  of  Lent,  but  a  description  of  the 
manner  of  treating  all  penitents  in  Lent,  whatever 
time  their  penance  was  imposed  upon  them.  And 
as  there  are  some  things  in  it  conformable  to  the 
ancient  discipline,  so  there  are  many  things  in  it 
that  plainly  discover  it  to  have  relation  to  a  more 
modern  practice.  For  there  was  no  use  of  holy 
water  in  the  ancient  discipline ;  nor  seven  peniten- 
tial psalms  in  the  ancient  service,  but  only  one  pe- 
nitential psalm,  that  is,  the  fifty-first,  commonly 
distinguished  by  the  name  of  ^wfl/»??/s  exomologcseos, 
the  penitential  psalm,  or  psalm  of  confession.  Nei- 
ther was  Ash  Wednesday  anciently  the  first  day 
of  Lent,  till  Gregory  the  Great  first  added  it  to 
Lent,  to  make  the  number  of  fasting  days  com- 
pletely forty,  which  before  were  but  thirty-six. 
Neither  does  it  appear,  that  anciently  the  time  of 
imposing  penance  was  confined  to  the  beginning  of 
Lent,  but  penance  was  granted  at  all  times,  when- 
ever the  bishop  thought  the  sinner  qualified  for  it : 
as  St.  Ambrose  admitted  Theodosius  to  penance  at 
Christmas;  and  there  are  many  examples  of  the 
like  nature.  The  circumstance,  therefore,  of  time 
must  be  passed  over  as  unlimited  and  uncertain. 
Only  whenever  penance  was  imposed,  the  sinner 
was  obliged  to  change  his  habit,  and  appear  in  a 
mournful  dress,  agreeable  to  a  state  of  repentance : 
which  is  all  that  can  be  concluded  from  any  of  the 


ancient  canons,  which  speak  of  the  circumstances 
of  repentance. 

At  the  same  time  that  they  changed  ^  ^ 

their  habit,  some  canons  obliged  peni-  thei^.^irV-ovdu 
tents  to  cut  off  their  hair,  or  shave  of'roV.'oi'and'"'^'" 
their  heads,  if  they  were  men,  as  an-  """"'"s- 
other  indication  of  sorrow  and  mourning.  And 
women  were  enjoined  to  wear  a  penitential  veil, 
and  either  to  cut  off"  their  hair,  or  appear  with  it 
dishevelled,  and  hanging  loose  about  their  shoulders ; 
which  was  another  token  of  deep  sorrow  and  afflic- 
tion. The  council  of  Agde'"  made  a  peremptory 
order.  That  if  any  who  desired  to  be  admitted  to  pe- 
nance refused  to  cut  off  their  hair,  they  should  be 
rejected.  And  the  third  council  of  Toledo"  has  a 
like  order,  That  when  any  one  desires  penance  of  the 
bishop,  he  shall  first  poll  him,  and  make  him  change 
his  habit  for  sackcloth  and  ashes,  and  so  admit  him 
to  do  penance.  Optatus  alludes  to  this  custom, 
when  speaking  of  the  rudeness  of  the  Donatists  in 
bringing  some  catholic  bishops  to  do  penance,'^  that, 
contrary  to  all  rules,  they  had  shaved  the  heads  of 
the  priests  :  they  who  ought  to  prepare  ears  to  hear 
their  instructions,  had  prepared  razors  to  sin  against 
them ;  that  is,  they  had  made  them  do  public  pe- 
nance in  order  to  retain  their  clerical  office,  which 
ought  not  to  be  done :  for  if  a  clergyman  was  to  do 
public  penance,  he  ought  first  to  be  degraded  for 
his  offence,  and  do  penance  only  as  a  layman.  As 
to  women,  the  custom  was  to  put  them  on  a  peni- 
tential veil,  which  is  expressly  required  by  the  third 
council  of  Toledo,"  appointing,  That  no  woman 
should  be  admitted  to  do  penance,  except  she  was 
first  veiled,  and  had  changed  her  habit.  Whence 
Optatus  calls  such  veils,  the  veils  of  repentance ; 
objecting'*  it  to  the  Donatists,  that  they  had  forced 
the  catholic  virgins,  who  were  innocent,  to  submit 
to  their  imposition  of  hands,  and  wear  upon  their 
heads  the  veils  of  repentance.  St,  Ambrose  seems 
to  intimate,  that  they  also  had  their  heads  some- 
times shorn  or  shaven.  For  Avriting  to  a  virgin 
who  had  committed  fornication,  he  bids  her  cut  off'* 
her  hair,  which  through  vain-glory  had  given  her 
occasion  to  sin.  But  this  was  no  general  custom ; 
for  St.  Jerom,'*  describing  the  penance  of'Fabiola, 
says,  she  did  it  sparso  ci-ine,  v/iih  her  hair  dishevelled, 
the  bishop  and  presbyters  and  all  the  peo})le  weep- 
ing with  her.     Whence  we  may  observe  also,  with 


'"Cone.  Agathen.  can.  15.  Si  autem comas  non  deposue- 
rint,  aut  vestimenta  non  mutaveriut,  abjiciantnr. 

"  Cone.  Tolet.  3.  can.  12.  Quicunque  ab  episcopo  preni- 
tcntiam  postulat,  prius  eum  tondcat,  aut  in  cinere  et  cilicio 
habitum  mutare  faciat,  et  sic  pffiiiitontiam  ei  tradat.  Si  vero 
mulier  fuerit,  non  accipiat  pcenitentiara,  nisi  prius  aut  velata 
fuerit,  aut  mutaverit  habitum. 

'-  Optat.  lib.  2.  p.  58.     Ubi  vobis  mandatum  est  radere 

capita  sacerdotum  ? Qui  parare  dcbebas  aures  ad  au- 

diendum,  paristi  novaculam  ad  delinquendum,  Vid.  Cypr. 
de  Lapsis,  p.  135. 


"  Cone.  Tolet.  3.  can.  12.  Si  mulier  fuerit,  non  accipiat  poj- 
nitentiam,  nisi  prius  aut  velata  fuerit,  aut  mutaverit  habitum. 

'*  Optat.  lib.  2.  p.  59.  E.xtcndistis  manum,  et  super  omne 
caput  mortifera  velamina  prajtendistis.  Et  p.  GI.  Cum 
super  earum  capita  velamina  po^nitentio;  tenditis. 

'^  Ambros.  ad  Virg.  lapsam,  cap.  8.  Amputontur  crines, 
qui  per  vanam  gloriam  occasionem  luxurioe  prasstiterunt. 

'^  Hieron.  Ep.  30.  Ut  staret  in  ordine  pcenitentium, 
episcopo,  presbyteris,  et  omni  populo  eollacrymantibus, 
sparso  crine,  ora  lurida,  et  squalidas  maims,  sordida  colla 
submitteret. 


ClIAP.    II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1063 


what  seriousness,  gravity,  and  concern  this  whole 
matter  was  transacted.  For  not  only  the  party 
under  penance  took  shame  to  himself,  and  by  these 
ceremonies  expressed  his  sorrow  with  tears  ;  but  the 
whole  church,  with  a  compassionate  fellow  feehng, 
took  share  in  his  grief,  suffering  with  a  suffering 
member,  and  weeping  and  mourning  together  with 
him.  After  this  manner  Socrates"  represents  the 
practice  of  the  Roman  church  in  this  exercise,  tell- 
ing us,  that  not  only  the  penitents  prostrated  them- 
selves upon  the  ground  with  lamentation  and  wail- 
ing, but  that  the  bishop,  meeting  them  in  their 
proper  station,  fell  to  the  earth  likewise  with  tears, 
whilst  all  the  congregation  wept  with  them.  Then 
the  bishop  rose  up,  and  raised  the  penitents  like- 
wise, and  made  the  usual  prayers  for  them  before 
the  mystical  service  began,  and  so  dismissed  them 
from  the  church.  This  was  a  very  solemn  way  of 
performing  penance,  that  made  a  just  impression 
upon  the  whole  church,  whilst  every  man  was 
touched  with  a  sense  of  his  brethren's  folly,  and 
made  their  sins  not  matter  of  sport  or  ridicule,  but 
an  occasion  of  expressing  his  pity  and  compassion 
toward  them,  as  members  of  the  same  body ;  weep- 
ing with  those  that  wept,  and  joining  his  prayers 
and  tears  with  theirs,  to  besiege  heaven  with  united 
force,  and  obtain  of  God  mercy  and  pardon  for  them. 
Socrates  takes  notice  in  the  same 
[  place,  that  penitents  were  used  to  ab- 
s  stain  from  bathing  and  other  innocent 
diversions  of  life.  For  he  says,  they 
exercised  themselves  wdllingly  in  private,  ^  vti'^eiate, 
f;  aXovaiai^,  fi  iSeafidriov  diroxy,  with  fastings,  and 
neglect  of  bathing,  and  abstinence  from  meats,  as 
long  as  the  bishop  thought  fit  to  enjoin  them. 
Which  is  also  intimated  by  Pacian,  when  he  brings 
in  the  penitent "  declaring,  that  if  any  one  called 
him  to  the  bath,  he  refused  such  delights ;  if  any 
one  called  him  to  a  feast,  his  answer  was,  Those 
things  belong  to  the  happy ;  but  as  for  me,  I  have 
sinned  against  the  Lord,  and  am  in  danger  of  eter- 
nal destruction. 

j,^^^  g  And  as  they  thus  exercised  them- 

pubi'io°''fIs"s''  of  the  selves  in  private  abstinence,  mortifi- 
'*'""'''■  cation,  and  fasting ;  so  they  were  more 

especially  obliged  to  obsei've  all  the  public  fasts  of 
the  church.  There  might  be  some  reasons  to  ex- 
cuse others,  and  dispense  with  the  rigour  and  se- 


Sect.  4. 
Penitents  to  ab 
stain  from  bathiiii: 
and  other  innocen 
diversions  of  life,  a 
feastin?,  &c. 


'^  Sozom.  lib.  7.  cap.  16. 

"  Pacian.  Paraenesis  ad  Pcruitent.  Bibl.  Patr.  t.  ^.  p.  73. 
Si  quis  ad  balneum  vocet,  recusare  delicias  ;  si  quis  ad  con- 
viviiim  vocet,  dicere,  Ista  felicibiis !  ego  deliqui  in  Domi- 
nuiu,  et  periclitor  in  a;ternum  perire.  Vid.  Tertul.  de 
Poeniteut.  cap.  9.  Plernmqiie  vero  jejuniis  preces  alere, 
&c.     Cypr.  dc  Lapsis,  p.  135. 

"  Cone.  Carth.  4.  can.  80.  Omni  tempore  jcjunii  manus 
pcenitentibns  a  sacerdotibus  imponatm-. 

■^  Hieron.  in  Joel.  cap.  2.  In  tempore  jcjunii  non  ser- 
viat  sponsus  et  sponsa  operi  nuptiali. — Qui  iu  castigatione 


verity  of  this  exercise  in  some  cases  and  circum- 
stances, requiring  a  little  abatement  in  the  laws  of 
fasting :  but  penitents  were  tied  up  to  the  strictest 
observance  of  them.  And  therefore  the  fourth 
council  of  Carthage '"  made  a  decree.  That  penitents 
should  present  themselves  at  church  on  all  times  of 
fasting,  and  receive  imposition  of  hands  from  the 
priests. 

Some  directions  are  also  given,  at  ^^^.^  ^ 

least  by  private  writers,  that  penitents  «oiTlL"n  ni"  ^^"I't 
should  abstain  from  the  use  of  the  »»=  ™"i"«^  "*"• 
marriage-bed,  during  their  continuance  in  the  state 
of  public  penance.  This  is  a  rule  laid  down  by  St. 
Jerom,""  That  in  the  time  of  fasting,  the  bride- 
groom and  the  bride  should  sequester  themselves 
from  one  another.  For  he  that  says,  he  does  pe- 
nance by  abstinence  from  meat,  and  fasting,  and 
alms,  in  vain  uses  this  speech,  except  he  go  out  of 
his  chamber,  and  make  his  fast  holy  and  pure  by 
adding  continence  to  his  repentance.  And  so  St. 
Ambrose  reckons  this  a  necessary  part  of  self-denial 
upon  such  an  occasion.  Does  any  one"'  think  that 
to  be  repentance,  where  a  man  is  engaged  in  an 
ambitious  pursuit  of  honour,  and  indulges  himself 
in  the  use  of  wine  and  the  marriage-bed?  Men 
must  renounce  the  world,  abridge  themselves  of 
sleep  which  nature  requires,  entreat  the  favour  of 
God  with  sighing  and  mourning  and  earnest  pray- 
ers, and  live  so  as  to  die  to  the  use  of  this  life,  and 
deny  themselves,  and  become  wholly  new  men. 

I  cannot  be  positive,  and  therefore 
will  not  venture  to  affirm  it  absolutelv.     For  «hich  reason 

.  ,     ,  ,"        no  married  pirvjns 

that  this  was  imposed  by  any  public  *««■  admitted  tn 

^  ./  ./    X  penance,    hut    by 

rule  of  the  church,  because  I  remem-  consent  of  both 

'  parties. 

ber  no  canon  at  present  that  precisely 
enjoins  it.  The  only  thing  that  may  incline  a  man 
to  think  there  was  such  a  rule,  is,  that  there  is  an- 
other rule  of  near  relation  to  it,  and  which  seems  to 
be  grounded  upon  the  presumption  of  such  a  prac- 
tice ;  that  is  an  order  we  find  in  the  second  council 
of  Aries,"  That  penance  should  not  be  granted  to 
any  married  people,  man  or  woman,  without  the 
desire  and  consent  of  both  parties :  this  seems  to  be 
grounded  upon  a  supposition,  that  penitents  were 
under  obligation  to  contain  during  the  time  of  their 
penance ;  and  if  the  innocent  party  would  not  con- 
sent, no  force  or  compulsion  could  be  laid  upon 
them.     For  the  laws  of  matrimony  are  prior  to  any 


victtis,  et  jejiinio,etcleiMnosynis  dicit  se  agcre  pccnitentiam, 
frustra  hoc  scnuoue  promittit,  nisi  cjiroiliatur  de  ciiliili  suo, 
et  sanctiuu  puniniqiic  jejuniiim  pudica  c.xpleat  pociiitentia. 

■-'  Ambros.  de  Pcenitcnt.  lib.  2.  caji.  10.  An  quisqnam 
illam  poenitentiain  piitat,  ubi  acquircndro  ambitio  dignitatis, 
ubi  vini  cffusio,  ubi  ipsiiis  copukc  conjii^jalis  usus?  Ileuun- 
ciandum  seculo  est,  somno  ipsi  minus  indulgendum — seipsiun 
sibi  homo  abneget,  &c. 

"  Cone.  Arelat.  2.  can.  22.  Pcenitentiam  conjugatis  non 
nisi  e.\.  consensu  dandaui. 


10G4 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVIII. 


I 


rules  that  could  be  made  about  the  exercise  of  pub- 
lic discipline  by  the  church. 

It  is  another  rule  of  the  same  coun- 
Penitents  not  ai-  cil,  Tirocccdiug  upon  the  like  reason 

lowed    to  many   in  .    .  n  c      i.  x- 

the  time  of  their  and  supposition  oi  pericct  continency 

penance.  -*■  ^  ■*■ 

in  public  penitents,  that  no  penitent, 
man  or  woman,  should  have  liberty  to  marry,  whilst 
they  were  doing  penance  :^  and  if  they  did,  they 
should  be  rejected,  and  debarred  even  from  entering 
under  the  roof  of  the  church.  Or  if  they  held  any 
suspicious  conversation,  or  unlawful  familiarity  with 
strangers  in  this  state,  they  were  liable  to  the  same 
censure.  For  all  this  was  thought  improper  in  their 
circumstances,  and  inconsistent  with  the  profession 
of  a  solemn  and  deep  repentance. 

And  whereas  all  others  might  pray 
Penitel^ts  obliged  Standing  on  all  festivals,  on  the  Lord's 

tn  pray  kneeling  on 

all  festivals  and  days  (Jav,  and  tiic  commcmorations  ot  mar- 

of  relaxation.  * 

tyrs,  and  the  whole  fifty  days  between 
Easter  and  Pentecost ;  which  were  called  days  of 
relaxation,  and  the  standing  posture  was  appointed 
to  be  used  on  them  by  the  laws  of  the  church ;  peni- 
tents are  particularly  .excepted  from  this  privilege, 
and  obliged  to  pray  kneeling  at  these  times  as  w^ell 
as  any  other.  For  this  posture  was  most  agreeable 
to  their  state,  whose  devotions  consisted  only  in  the 
expression  of  a  deep  humility  and  sorrow  for  sin, 
for  which  kneeling  was  thought  the  most  decent 
posture.  Therefore,  as  others  were  obliged  to  pray 
kneeling  on  their  stationary  days,  and  days  of  fast- 
ing, because  those  were  times  of  more  solemn  hu- 
miliation ;  so  the  penitents  were  obliged*'  to  kneel 
every  day,  even  on  the  days  of  remission,  because 
every  day  was  a  day  of  humiliation  to  them,  and 
their  business  in  the  church  was  only  to  sue  for 
mercy,  and  to  prostrate  themselves  to  receive  the 
solemn  imposition  of  hands  and  benediction. 

Sect  10  ^^^  because  mercy  and  liberality 

to^hmvTheiruS  to  the  poor  was  a  great  argument  and 
itytot  epoor.  evidence  of  repentance,  this  was  al- 
ways in  an  eminent  degree  exacted  of  them.  Cy- 
prian ^^  puts  this  among  the  other  indications  of  re- 
pentance. "  Can  we  think,"  says  he,  "  that  that  man 
laments  with  his  whole  heart,  and  deprecates  the 
Lord  with  fasting,  weeping,  and  mourning,  who, 
from  the  very  moment  of  his  sinning,  daily  frequents 
the  baths,  who  feeds  himself  with  luxurious  feasting, 
and  fills  his  belly  to  an  extraordinary  pitch,  only 
to  belch  forth  his  crudities  the  day  after ;  who  im- 
parts not  his  meat  and  drink  to  the  necessities  of 
the  poor?  How  does  he  bewail  his  own  death,  who 
w^alks  about  with  a  merry  and  cheerful  countenance ; 
who  trims  his  beard  and  attires  his  face  ?     Does  he 


think  to  please  men,  who  displeases  God?  Does 
that  woman  lament  and  mourn,  who  is  at  leisure  to 
put  on  her  costly  clothing,  and  never  thinks  of  the 
garment  of  Christ,  which  she  has  lost?"  In  such 
a  case  he  thinks  charity  to  the  poor  would  be  a 
more  becoming  ornament,  than  all  their  silks  and 
jewels  and  gold ;  therefore  he  advises  them  to  put 
on  the  ornament  of  Christ,  that  they  might  not 
appear  naked  before  him. 

Finally,  in  some  churches  the  peni- 

,  ,.         ,  ,  ,  Sect.  II. 

tents  were  obliged  to  take  upon  them     Penitents  obUged 

^  ^  to  minister  and  serve 

the  office   and  care  of  burying  the  the  chmch  i^n  bury- 

•^        ^  ing  the  dead. 

dead :  and  this  by  way  of  discipline, 
and  exercise  of  humility  and  charity,  which  were 
so  becoming  their  station.  In  many  churches,  espe- 
cially those  of  greater  note,  this  business  devolved 
upon  a  certain  order  of  men,  called  ^paraSoZawj,  whose 
office  was  particularly  to  attend  the  sick,  and  take 
care  to  bury  the  dead  i^"  but  probably  there  was  no 
such  standing  office  in  many  churches,  and  there- 
fore this  employment  was  put  upon  the  penitents,  as 
a  proper  exercise  for  men  in  their  condition.  It  is 
certain  it  was  so  in  the  African  churches ;  for  the 
fourth  council  of  Carthage^'  gives  a  particular  di- 
rection in  the  case.  That  the  penitents  should  bear 
out  the  dead  to  the  church,  and  take  care  of  their 
burial.  These  were  some  of  those  wholesome  and 
salutary  exercises,  with  which  the  ancient  church 
disciplined  her  penitents,  especially  those  of  the 
third  order,  who  were  more  emphatically  called 
penitents,  as  being  in  the  state  of  prostrators,  which 
was  the  most  noted  order  of  penitents  in  the  church. 
But  there  is  one  eminent  act  of  penance,  belonging 
to  this  order,  yet  behind ;  that  is,  the  exonolor/esis, 
or  confession :  which,  because  it  has  been  turned 
into  a  new  thing  by  the  church  of  Rome,  and  occa- 
sioned some  great  disputes,  I  have  purposely  re- 
served for  a  distinct  handling,  and  shall  make  it  the 
subject  of  a  particular  dissertation  in  the  following 
chapter. 


CHAPTER  III. 

A  PARTICULAR  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  EXOMOLOGESIS,  OR 
CONFESSION'  USED  IN  THE  DISCIPLINE  OF  THE 
ANCIENT  CHURCH;  SHOWING  IT  TO  BE  A  DIF- 
FERENT THING  FROM  THE  PRIVATE  OR  AURICU- 
LAR CONFESSION  INTRODUCED  BY  THE  CHURCH 
OF  ROME. 

There    is    nothing    more    common         .sect.  i. 

°  The  gross  mistake 

among  the  polemical  writers  of  the  of  those  who  make 


-'  Cone.  Arelat.  2.  can.  21.  Pcenitentes,  quae,  defuncto 
viro,  aliis  nubere  praesumpserint,  vel  suspecta  vel  interdicta 
familiaritate  se  cum  e.xtraneo  jmi.xerint,  cum  eodem  ab  ec- 
clesia;  liminibus  arceantur.  Hoc  etiam  de  viro  in  pceni- 
tentia  posito  placuit  observari. 


2'  Cone.  Carth.  4.  can.  82.  Panitentes  etiam  diebus  le- 
missionis  genua  flectent. 

"  Cypr.  de  Lapsis,  p.  135.  ^  Book  III.  chap.  9. 

"  Cone.  Carth.  4.  can.  81.  Mortuos  pcenitentes  ecclesiae 
afferant  et  sepeliant. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


ion5 


\he  eznnmioffesis  of  Romish  chuvcli,  than  wlicrevcr  flicv 

llie  ancient  churi-li  _  '  -' 

tu  sisniiy  auricuur  nacct  With  the  woi'il  cxomolof/cfis  in 
any  of  the  ancient  writers,  to  inter- 
pret it  private  or  auricular  confession,  such  as  is 
now  practised  in  the  communion  of  that  church, 
and  imposed  upon  men  as  absolutely  necessary  to 
salvation.  But  they  who  with  greater  judgment 
and  ingenuity  among  themselves  have  more  narrow- 
ly considered  the  matter,  make  no  scruple  to  con- 
fess, that  the  cxomoh(jesis  of  the  ancients  signifies 
a  quite  ditTerent  thing,  viz.  the  whole  exercise  of 
public  penance,  of  which  public  confession  was  a 
noted  part.  The  learned  AlbaspintBus  very  stre- 
nuously sets  himself  to  refute  this  error  in  the 
writers  of  his  own  party.  Cardinal  Bellarmine,  says 
he,'  and  Baronius,  and  Maldonat  in  his  controver- 
sies, and  Pamelius  in  his  commentaries  upon  Ter- 
tuUian  and  Cyprian,  lay  it  down  as  a  certain  truth, 
that  the  fathers  generally  take  the  word  exomolor/c- 
sis  for  private  and  auricular  confession  :  but  having 
long  and  accurately  considered  all  the  places  where 
it  is  mentioned,  I  cannot  come  in  to  their  opinion. 
The  fathers,  adds  he,  always  use  this  word,  when 
they  would  describe  the  external  rites  of  penance, 
viz.  weeping,  and  mourning,  and  self-accusation, 
and  other  the  like  things,  which  penitents  usually 
practised  in  the  course  of  public  penance.  For  no 
one  can  be  ignorant,  that  in  those  first  ages  peni- 
tents performed  a  long  and  laborious  penance, 
wherein  they  mortified  themselves  with  continual 
weeping,  and  stood  before  the  gates  of  the  church 
to  give  public  testimony  of  their  sorrow  for  the  sin 
they  had  committed :  moreover  that  they  cast  them- 
selves on  the  ground  at  the  bishop's  feet,  and  fell 
down  at  the  knees  of  the  martyrs,  and  besought  all 
the  rest  of  the  faithful,  that  they  Avould  become  in- 
tercessors to  God  for  them,  being  clothed  in  sack- 
cloth, and  covered  with  filthiness  and  horror ;  and 
that  when  they  had  gone  thus  far  in  their  penance 
the  bishop  was  used  to  bring  them  from  the  doors 
into  the  church,  and  set  them  before  the  presbyters, 
the  deacons,  the  widows,  and  all  the  people ;  where 
again  they  were  used  to  prostrate  themselves  on  the 
ground,  detesting  their  sins,  and  commending  them- 
selves to  the  prayers  of  all,  and  solemnly  protesting 
that  they  would  never  relapse  or  return  to  their 
former  condition  again.  And  upon  this  account, 
says  he,  we  often  find  this  last  rite  called  exomolo- 
c/esis  by  the  fathers,  because  it  contained  many  acts 
in  it  expressing  sorrow  for  the  crimes  they  had  com- 
mitted, in  like  manner  as  the  Avhole  action  and 
tenor  of  a  penitent's  life,  whilst  he  is  doing  penance, 
is  sometimes  called  exomohr/esis  by  the  fathers.  This 
he  proves  and  confirms  from  many  irrefragable  tes- 


timonies out  of  Tertullian,  Cyprian,  and  other  an- 
cient writers,  which  I  shall  not  here  relate,  but  only 
allege  one  passage  of  Tertullian,  which  comes  home 
to  the  present  purpose.  The  exomolof/esis,  savs  he,^ 
is  the  discipline  of  a  man's  prostrating  and  humbling 
himself,  enjoining  him  a  conversation  that  moves 
God  to  mercy  and  compassion.  It  obliges  a  man  to 
change  his  habit  and  his  diet,  to  lie  in  sackcloth  and 
ashes,  to  defile  his  body  by  a  neglect  of  dress  and 
ornament,  to  afllict  his  soul  with  sorrow,  and  to 
change  his  former  sinful  conversation  by  a  quite 
contrary  practice ;  to  use  meat  and  drink,  not  to 
please  his  appetite,  but  only  for  preservation  of  life ; 
to  quicken  his  prayers  and  devotions  by  frequent 
fastings ;  to  groan  and  weep,  and  cry  unto  the  Lord 
God  both  day  and  night ;  to  prostrate  himself  be- 
fore the  presbyters  of  the  church,  to  kneel  before 
the  friends  of  God,  and  beg  of  all  the  brethren 
that  they  would  become  intercessors  for  his  pardon : 
all  this  the  cxomoloyesis  requires  to  recommend  a 
true  repentance  ;  here  is  not  a  syllable  of  private  or 
auricular  confession,  but  all  relates  to  the  public 
confession  before  the  church  ;  and  that  not  so  much 
in  words  as  in  actions,  expressing  their  repentance 
in  public  demonstrations  of  their  sorrow,  and  the 
uniform  tenor  of  a  penitent  behaviour  ;  which  was 
of  far  greater  moment  to  signify  and  evidence  their 
conversion,  than  the  most  pathetical  words  of  any 
mere  verbal  or  private  confession. 

And  this  is  one  argument  to  prove 
that  the  doctrine  of  the  necessity  of     No  nw'essity  of 

,  f         •  1       11  auricular  confession 

auricular  confession  was  wholh'  un-  «>"  »'s<^  ''y  "« 

ancient  churcli. 

known  to  the  ancient  church.  For 
when  public  discipline  was  in  general  use,  and  all 
men  were  disposed  to  submit  to  it,  there  could  be  lit- 
tle occasion  for  private  confession,  the  reason  and 
ground  of  which  was  much  better  answered  by  the 
public.  But  besides  this,  there  is  most  plain  and 
direct  evidence  from  the  testimonies  of  the  ancients, 
that  no  necessity  was  laid  upon  any  man  to  make 
private  confession  of  all  or  any  of  his  secret  sins  to 
a  priest,  as  a  matter  of  indispensable  obligation, 
either  to  qualify  him  for  the  reception  of  tlie  eu- 
charist,  or  to  give  him  a  title  to  the  communion  of 
the  church  and  eternal  life.  I  have  already  showed 
this,  with  a  particular  respect  to  the  reception  of 
the  eucharist,  out  of  some  very  plain  ])a.ssagcs  of 
Chrysostom,  Gennadius,  Laurentius  Novariensis,' 
and  other  ancient  writers  ;  to  which  I  shall  here 
add  such  other  testimonies,  as  evidently  show  they 
required  no  private  confession  to  be  made  to  man, 
except  in  some  very  particular  cases.  St.  Ciirysos- 
tom,*  exhorting  men  to  repentance,  says,  "  I  bid 
thee  not  to  bring  thyself  upon  the  stage,  nor  to  ac- 


'  Albaspin.  Observat.  lib.  2.  cap.  26.  p.  153. 

-  Tertul.  lie  Prenitent.  cap.  9.  Exomologesis  prosternen- 
(li  et  humiliticandi  hominis  disciplina  est,  convcrsationem  in- 
juiigens  misericoiiliae  illicem.      De  ipso  qiioq\ie  habitii  et 


victii  mandat,  sacco  et  cineri  inciibaro,  corpus  sordibus  ob- 
sciirare,  animuin  moeroribus  dejicere,  S:c. 

^  Book  XV.  chap.  8.  sect.  G. 

'  Chrys.  Horn.  31.  iii  Ilebr.  p.  1956. 


10(56 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVIII. 


cuse  thyself  unto  others  ;  but  I  advise  thee  to  ob- 
serve the  prophet's  direction,  reveal  thy  way  unto 
the  Lord,  confess  thy  sins  before  God,  confess  them 
before  the  Judge  ;  praying,  if  not  with  thy  tongue, 
yet  at  least  with  thy  memory ;  and  so  look  to  ob- 
tain mercy.  It  is  better  to  be  tormented  with  the 
memory  of  thy  sins  now,  than  w'ith  the  torment 
that  shall  be  hereafter.  If  you  remember  them 
now,  and  continually  ofTer  them  to  God,  and  pray 
for  them,  you  shall  quickly  blot  them  out :  but  if 
you  forget  them  now,  you  will  then  remember  them 
against  your  will,  when  they  shall  be  brought  forth 
before  the  whole  world,  and  be  publicly  exposed 
upon  the  stage  before  all,  friends,  enemies,  and  an- 
gels." In  another  place,'*  "  It  is  not  necessary  that 
thou  shouldest  confess  in  the  presence  of  witnesses  ; 
let  the  inquiry  after  thy  sins  be  made  in  thy  own 
thoughts ;  let  this  judgment  be  without  any  wit- 
ness ;  let  God  only  see  thee  confessing."  Again," 
"  I  beseech  you,  make  your  confession  continually 
to  God.  For  I  do  not  bring  thee  into  the  theatre 
of  thy  fellow  servants,  neither  do  I  constrain  thee 
by  any  necessity  to  discover  thy  sins  unto  men ; 
unfold  thy  conscience  before  God,  and  show  him 
thy  wounds,  and  ask  the  cure  of  him.  Show  them 
to  him,  who  will  not  reproach  thee,  but  only  heal 
thee.  For  although  thou  confess  not,  he  knows 
all.  Confess,  therefore,  that  thou  mayest  be  a 
gainer.  Confess,  that  thou  mayest  put  off  thy  sins 
in  this  world,  and  go  pure  into  the  next,  and  avoid 
that  intolerable  publication  that  will  otherwise  be 
made  hereafter.  Why  art  thou  ashamed  and  blush- 
€st,"  says  he,  in  another  place,'  "  to  confess  thy  sins  ? 
Dost  thou  discover  them  to  a  man,  that  he  should 
reproach  thee  ?  Dost  thou  confess  them  to  thy 
fellow  servant,  that  he  should  bring  thee  upon  the 
open  stage  ?  Thou  only  showcst  thy  wound  to  him, 
who  is  thy  Lord,  thy  Curator,  thy  Physician,  and 
thy  Friend.  And  he  says  to  thee,  I  do  not  compel 
thee  to  go  into  the  public  theatre,  and  take  many 
witnesses.  Confess  thy  sin  in  private  to  me  alone, 
that  I  may  heal  thy  wound,  and  deliver  thee  from 
thy  grief."  There  are  almost  twenty  passages^  in 
the  same  author,  very  full  and  pregnant  to  the 
same  purpose,  which  the  learned  reader  may  con- 
sult in  their  proper  places,  or  view  them  at  once 
collected  together  by  Mr.  Daille  in  his  excellent 


book"  of  auricular  confession,  where  he  not  only 
vindicates  these  passages  of  Chrysostom  from  the 
sophistical  glosses  and  evasions  of  the  Romanists, 
but  also  has  unanswerably  proved,  by  no  less  than 
thirty  arguments,  and  a  cloud  of  other  ancient  wit- 
nesses, that  there  could  be  no  such  thing  as  private, 
auricular,  sacramental  confession  enjoined,  as  of 
necessity  to  pardon  of  sin,  in  the  primitive  church. 
Chrysostom  is  not  the  only  person  that  maintains 
this  assertion.  St.  Basil  says  the  same  thing  be- 
fore him :  "  I  do  not  make  confession  with  my  lips,'" 
to  appear  to  the  world ;  but  inwardly  in  my  heart, 
where  no  eye  sees ;  I  declare  my  groanings  unto 
thee  alone,  who  seest  in  secret,  I  roar  within  my- 
self :  for  I  need  not  many  words  to  make  confes- 
sion ;  the  groanings  of  my  heart  are  sufficient  for 
confession,  and  the  lamentations  which  are  sent  up 
to  thee,  my  God,  from  the  bottom  of  my  soul."  In 
like  manner  St.  Hilary"  makes  confession  neces- 
sary to  be  made  to  God  only :  for,  commenting  on 
the  fifty-second  Psalm,  he  tells  us  David  teaches 
us  that  confession  is  necessary  to  be  made  to  none 
but  God,  who  hath  made  the  olive  fruitful  with 
the  hope  of  mercy  for  ever  and  ever.  And  St.  Am- 
brose as  plainly  says,''  that  tears  poured  out  before 
God  are  sufficient  to  obtain  pardon  of  sin,  without 
confession  made  to  man.  His  words  are,  "  Tears 
wash  away  sin,  which  men  are  ashamed  to  confess 
with  their  voice.  Weeping  provides  at  once  both 
for  pardon  and  bashfulness  :  tears  speak  our  faults 
without  horror ;  tears  confess  our  crimes  without 
any  offence  to  modesty  or  shamefacedness."  So 
again,'^  speaking  of  St.  Peter's  tears,  he  says,  "  I 
find  not  what  Peter  said,  but  I  find  that  he  wept :  I 
read  of  his  tears,  but  I  read  not  of  his  satisfaction ; " 
meaning,  that  verbal  confession  wa.s  not  simply  ne- 
cessary to  obtain  pardon.  And  in  this  sense  St.  Aus- 
tin, expounding  those  words  of  the  psalmist,  "  I  said 
I  will "  pronounce  or  "  declare  my  own  wickedness 
against  myself  unto  the  Lord,  and  so  thou  forgavest 
the  iniquity  of  my  heart,"  says.  He  had  not  yet  pro- 
nounced it,"  but  only  promised  that  he  would  pro- 
nounce it,  and  yet  God  forgave  him.  He  had  not  yet 
pronounced  it,  but  only  in  his  heart ;  his  confession 
was  not  yet  come  to  his  mouth,  yet  God  heard  the 
voice  of  his  heart :  his  voice  was  not  yet  in  his  mouth, 
but  the  ear  of  God  was  in  his  heart :  which  implies. 


5  Chrys.  Horn,  de  P(jeiii(ent.  t.  5.  Edit.  Latin. 

■^  Mom.  30.  sivc  5.  do  inconiprehensibili  Dei  Natura,  t.  1. 
p.  3'J2. 

'  Iloin.  4.  de  Lazaro,  t.  5.  p.  87. 

'  Horn.  f)?.  Quiid  poccata  non  sint  eviil<randa,  t.  5.  p.  754. 
Horn.  58.  Noil  esse  ad  gratiam  concionandnm,  t.  5.  p.  772. 
Horn.  G8.  de  Poenitentia  Ahah,  t.  5.  p.  1003.  Horn.  21.  ad 
Pop.  Antioch.  t.  1.  p.  270.  Horn.  8.  de  Pcenitent.  t.  1.  p. 
700.  Horn.  9.  de  Pcenitent.  ibid.  p.  708.  Horn.  72.  de  Pa- 
ralytico,  t.  5.  p.  927.  Horn.  20.  in  Gen.  t.  2.  p.  222.  Horn. 
2.  in  Psal.  1. 1.  -3.  p.  1004  et  1005.  lloni.  20.  in  Matt.  p.  200. 
Horn.  28.  in  1  Cor.  p.  569. 


9  Daill.  de  Confess.  Auricular,  lib.  4.  cap.  25. 

'"  Basil,  in  Psal.  x.xxvii.  8. 

"  Hilar,  in  Psal.  li.  p.  208.  Nulli  alii  docens  confitendum, 
quam  qui  fecit  olivam  fructiferani  spe  inisericordiae  in  secu- 
lum  seculi. 

'-  Anibros.  lib.  10.  in  Luc.  xxli.  Lavantlacrymae  delictum, 
quod  pudor  est  voce  confiteri.  Et  venise  fletus  consulunt  et 
veiecundia),  &c. 

'^  Ibid.  p.  157.  Non  invenio  quid  dixerit  Petrus  ;  invenio 
quod  lieveiit.  Lacryuias  ejus  lego  ;  satisl'actionem  ejus  noa 
lefTO. 

"  Aug.  Ser.  2.  in  Psal.  xxxi. 


ClIAP.    III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


10(7 


that  God  accepts  and  pardons  the  penitent  and  con- 
trite heart,  even  before  any  formal  dechiration  is  made 
liy  vocal  confession  either  to  God  or  man.  In  an- 
other place  '^  he  speaks  of  confession  as  no  ways  ne- 
cessary to  be  made  to  man.  What  have  I  to  do  with 
men,  that  they  should  hear  my  confessions,  as  though 
they  could  heal  all  my  diseases  ?  He  also  frequently 
tells  us,'"  with  all  the  rest  of  the  ancients  writers,  that 
a  great  many  of  those  which  the  Romanists  now  call 
mortal  sins,  were  daily  pardoned  upon  no  other  con- 
fession but  the  fervent  and  devout  use  of  that  of 
the  Lord's  prayer,  "  Forgive  us  our  trespasses,  as 
we  forgive  them  that  trespass  against  us."  Which 
evidently  shows,  that  he  did  not  believe  auricular 
confession  necessary  for  expiating  all  manner  of 
mortal  sins.  ]\Iaximus  Taurinensis"  delivers  his 
opinion  almost  in  the  same  words  as  St.  Ambi'ose 
does :  "  Tears  wash  away  sin,  which  the  voice  is 
ashamed  to  confess.  Therefore  tears  provide  at 
once  both  for  men's  modesty  and  salvation  ;  they 
neither  make  men  blush  in  their  petitions,  nor  dis- 
appoint them  of  pardon  in  asking."  He  adds,  that 
"  tears  are  a  sort  of  silent  prayers ;  they  ask  not  par- 
don in  words,  and  yet  deserve  it  (that  is,  in  his 
style,  procure  it) ;  they  declare  not  the  cause,  and  yet 
obtain  mercy.  Nay,  the  prayers  of  tears  are  many 
times  of  more  advantage  than  those  of  words,  be- 
cause words  often  prove  deceitful  in  prayer,  but 
tears  never  deceive.  For  words  sometimes  declare 
but  half  the  business  ;  but  tears  always  express  the 
whole  affection."  Prosper,  who  was  St.  Austin's 
scholar,  follows  his  doctrine ;  for,  speaking  of  private 
sins  committed  by  the  clergy,  he  says,  "  They  shall 
more  easily  appease  God,"  who,  being  not  convict 
by  human  judgment,  do  of  their  own  accord  ac- 
knoAvledge  their  offence ;  who  either  do  discover  it 
by  their  own  confessions,  or  else,  others  not  knowing 
what  they  are  in  secret,  do  voluntarily  inflict  the 
sentence  of  excommunication  upon  themselves  ; 
and  being  separated  (not  in  mind  but  in  office) 
from  the  altar  to  which  they  did  minister,  do  lament 
their  life  as  dead ;  assuring  themselves,  that  God 
being  reconciled  unto  them  by  the  fruits  of  effectual 
repentance,  they  shall  not  only  receive  what  they 
have  lost,  but  also,  being  made  citizens  of  that 
city  which  is  above,  they  shall  come  to  everlasting 
joys."  Cassian  also  assures  us,  that  this  was  the 
doctrine  of  the  Egyptian  fathers.  For  he  says, 
Pinuphius,  the  Egyptian  abbot,  gave  this  advice  to 


the  monks  that  were  under  him  :  "  Who  is  it  that 
cannot  humbly  say,  *  I  made  my  sin  known  imto 
thee,  and  my  iniquity  have  I  not  hid  ;'  that  by  this 
confession  he  may  confidently  adjoin  that  which 
follows,  '  and  so  thou  forgavest  the  impiety  of  my 
heart.'  But  if  shamefacedness  "  so  draw  thee  back, 
that  thou  blushest  to  reveal  them  before  men ;  cease 
not  by  continual  supplication  to  confess  them  unto 
Him  from  whom  they  cannot  be  hid,  and  to  say, '  I 
know  my  iniquity,  and  my  sin  is  against  me  alway  :' 
to  thee  only  have  I  sinned,  and  done  evil  before 
thee,  whose  custom  is  both  to  cure  without  publish- 
ing our  shame,  and  to  pardon  sins  without  accusing 
or  upbraiding."  These  are  plain  testimonies,  evi- 
dently showing  that  the  ancients  did  not  believe 
the  necessity  of  auricular  confession,  or  urge  it  as 
a  thing  absolutely  necessary  to  absolution  and 
salvation. 

But  besides  this,  the  practice  of  the         g^^  3 
ancients  in  one  particular  case  does  thyr'fronV°ure''p[uc- 
most  irrefragably  show,  that  they  did  in  d°nyi.'ig"uirinan- 

,    ,      , .  . ,  . .  „  ."      ,  ner  of  al)>nliitinn  to 

not  believe  the  necessity  or  auricular  some  niapMn?  »n. 

.  iiers.     Milhout     ex- 

confession.     For  they  allowed  no  se-  rjudins  them  from 

*'  the  mercy  and  par- 

cond  public  penance  to  many  relapsing  fo"fe^'o,^*^  "^^ 
sinners,  nor  ever  gave  them  any  man-  '^""*' 
ner  of  sacerdotal  absolution  to  their  lives'  end; 
which  shall  be  evidently  demonstrated  in  the  next 
chapter.  Now,  the  plain  consequence  of  this  is, 
that  no  penitential  confession,  either  pubhc  or 
private,  was  taken  from  such,  as  made  to  man,  in 
order  to  obtain  sacerdotal  absolution ;  yet  still  they 
exhorted  them  to  repent  in  private,  and  make  pri- 
vate confession  of  their  sins  to  God,  in  hopes  of 
obtaining  mercy  and  pardon  from  him  at  the  great 
day  of  retribution.  It  is  confessed  on  all  hands, 
that  such  relapsers  never  had  the  privilege  to  make 
their  public  confession  in  the  church,  in  order  to 
obtain  public  absolution  ;  and  it  is  as  certain  they 
were  not  admitted  to  compound  by  any  private 
sacerdotal  confession,  to  obtain  private  sacerdotal 
absolution.  For  though  Cardinal  Perron  had  a 
strong  fancy  to  solve  the  difficulty  of  this  argu- 
ment by  feigning  a  sort  of  private  confession  for 
them  when  they  were  denied  the  public  ;  yet  Peta- 
vius'"  himself  refutes  this  pretence  as  a  mere  dream, 
without  any  foundation  in  ancient  histoiy,  and 
gives  a  solid  reason  to  the  contrary.  For,  as  he 
argues,  if  private  confession  had  been  allowed  to 
such  relapsers,  their  condition  had  been  happier, 


'*  Aug.  Confess,  lib.  10.  cap.  3.  Quid  mihi  ergo  est  cum 
hominibiis,  ut  auJiant  confessiones  meas,  quasi  ipsi  sauaturi 
sini:  omnes  lan^uores  raeos  ? 

"^  See  this  fully  proved,  Book  XVI.  chap.  .3.  sect.  II. 

"  Max.  Taurin.  Horn.  3.  de  Poenit.  Petri.  Lavat  lacryma 
delictum,  quod  voce  pudor  est  confiteri.  Lacrymas  ergo 
vereeuudiae  consulunt  pariter  et  saluti;  nee  erubescunt  in 

petendo,    et  impetrant    in    rogando. Lacrymne    tacitse 

quodammodo  preces  sunt ;  veniam  non  postulant,  et  meren- 
tur;  causam  non  dicunt,  et  misericordiam  conse^uuntur; 


uisi  quod  utiliores  lacrymarum  preces  sunt,  quam  scrmo- 
nura;  quia  sermo  in  precando  forte  t'allit,  lacryma  omnino 
nou  t'allit.  Sermo  enim  interdum  non  totum  profert  nego- 
tium;  lacryma  semper  totum  prodit  afl'ectum. 

"*  Prosper,  de  Vita  Contemplut.  lib.  2.  cap.  7.  Ueum 
facilius  placabuut,  qui  non  humauo  convict!  judicio,  &c. 

'"  Cassian.  Collat.  20.  cap.  8.  Quod  si  verecundia  retra- 
hente,  revelare  ea  coram  hominibus  erubescis,  illi  quem 
latere  non  possunt,  confiteri  eajugi  supplicatione  non  de- 
sinas,  &c.  ^  Pelav.  Not.  in  Eiiiphan.  p.  238. 


10G8 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVIII. 


and  their  penance  easier,  than  those  who  fell  but 
once ;  which  is  a  thing  that  will  hardly  enter  into 
any  man's  imagination,  that  considers  things  Avith 
any  manner  of  judgment  and  reason.  Supposing 
then  the  truth  of  this  fact,  that  the  ancients  allowed 
such  relapsers  neither  the  benefit  of  public  nor 
private  absolution  upon  any  confession  whatsoever ; 
it  evidently  follows  that  they  did  not  believe  any 
absolute  necessity  of  auricular  confession,  since 
they  encouraged  such  sinners,  notwithstanding,  to 
hope  for  mercy  and  pardon  upon  private  repentance 
and  confession  made  to  God  only.  For  the  pi'oof  of 
which,  one  passage  of  St.  Austin  will  be  sufficient, 
where  he  speaks  the  general  practice  of  the  church, 
and  the  sense  of  all  his  brethren.  The  iniquity  of 
men,  says  he,  sometimes  proceeds  so  far,  that  after 
they  have  done  public  penance,  after  they  have  been 
reconciled  to  the  altar,  they  commit  the  same  or 
gi'eater  sins ;  and  yet  God  makes  his  sun  to  rise  even 
upon  such,  and  bestows  upon  them,  no  less  than  be- 
fore, the  greatest  gifts  of  life  and  salvation.  And 
though  there  be  no  place  allowed"'  to  such  in  the 
church,  to  perform  that  humble  sort  of  penance 
again,  yet  God  does  not  forget  his  patience  toward 
them.  But  if  any  of  these  should  say  to  us.  Either 
grant  me  the  same  place  of  repentance  again,  or  else 
suffer  me  to  go  on  desperately,  to  live  as  I  list,  to 
do  whatever  my  riches  will  enable  me  to  do,  and  no 
human  laws  will  forbid  me,  to  live  in  whoredom  and 
all  manner  of  luxury,  which,  though  damnable  be- 
fore the  Lord,  is  even  laudable  in  the  eyes  of  many 
men  :  or  if  ye  recall  me  from  this  wickedness,  tell 
me  whether  it  will  profit  me  any  thing  towards 
eternal  life,  if  in  this  life  I  contemn  the  blandish- 
ments of  enticing  pleasure,  if  I  bridle  the  excite- 
ments of  lust,  if  for  the  chastisement  of  my  body  I 
deny  myself  many  things  that  are  lawful  and  allow- 
ed, if  I  torment  myself  more  vehemently  in  repent- 
ance than  I  did  before,  if  I  groan  more  miserably 
and  weep  more  abundantly,  if  I  live  better,  if  I  more 
liberally  sustain  the  poor,  if  I  more  ardently  flame 
in  charity  which  covers  a  multitude  of  sins :  which 
of  us  is  so  foolish  as  to  say  to  this  man.  All  this  will 
profit  thee  nothing  hereafter,  go  and  enjoy  the  plea- 
sures of  this  life  ?  God  forbid  we  should  be  guilty 
of  so  monstrous  and  sacrilegious  madness.  There- 
fore, though  it  be  a  cautious  and  salutary  rule  and 
provision  in  the  ecclesiastical  law,  that  this  place  of 
the  humblest  penance  shall  not  be  granted  above 
once  in  the  church,  lest  by  making  the  medicine  too 
vile  and  cheap,  it  should  become  less  useful  to  those 
that  are  sick,  being  so  much  the  more  beneficial  by 
how  much  it  is  less  contemptible ;  yet  who  dares  to 
say  to  God,  Why  dost  thou  spare  this  man,  who, 
after  his  first  penance,  binds  himself  again  in  the 


-'  Aug.  Ep.  54.  ad  Macedon.  p.  92.     Qiiamvis  cis  in  ec- 
clesia  locus  humillima!  poenitentias  non   concedati.ir,  Deiis 


bonds  of  iniquity  ?  Who  dares  say,  that  God  deals 
not  with  them  according  to  that  saying  of  the  apos- 
tle, "  Knowest  thou  not  that  the  long-suffering  of 
God  leadeth  thee  to  repentance?"  or  that  they  are 
excepted  from  that  general  declaration,  "  Blessed 
are  all  they  that  put  their  trust  in  him?"  or  that 
it  belongs  not  to  them,  when  it  is  said,  "  Be  strong, 
and  establish  your  heart,  all  ye  that  put  j^our  trust 
in  the  Lord?"  If  St.  Austin  here  rightly  repre- 
sents the  practice  of  the  church,  in  this  one  case, 
there  was  no  use  made  either  of  public  or  private 
confession  to  men,  to  obtain  the  remission  of  the 
greatest  sins  ;  but  men  were  directed  to  another 
method,  to  seek  pardon  from  God  by  the  exercise  of 
a  private  repentance.  Consequently  there  could  be 
no  absolute  necessity  of  auricular  confession,  which 
in  this  case  had  been  most  likely  to  have  been  pre- 
scribed in  want  of  the  other,  had  any  such  necessity 
been  taught  or  laid  upon  it,  as  is  now  by  the  impe- 
rious and  dictating  authority  of  the  church  of  Rome. 

The  learned  Mr.  Daille  has  lu'ged  g^^,  ^ 

many  other  considerations  of  great  othe"'l:m7sideratToul 
weight,  which  I  cannot  here  insist  "  '^  '« nature. 
upon,  but  only  mention  the  heads  of  them  for  the 
sake  of  the  unlearned  readers,  or  such  of  the  learned 
as  have  not  that  excellent  and  elaborate  work  of  his 
by  them.  1.  He  argues  from  the  practice"  of  all 
other  churches  in  the  world  beside  the  Roman  :  The 
doctrine  of  the  necessity  of  auricular  confession,  is 
taught  by  no  other  denomination  of  Christians,  not 
the  Ethiopians,  nor  the  Indians  of  St.  Thomas,  nor 
the  Babylonians  or  Chaldeeans,  nor  the  Armenians, 
nor  the  Jacobites,  nor  the  Greeks,  in  the  manner  of 
the  Romans.  2.  He  shows,  that  whereas  the  priests 
in  the  Roman  church  are  nicely  instructed  in  the 
business  of  auricular  confession,  and  teach  and 
minister  it  daily  to  the  people,  as  the  noblest  act  of 
their  office  ;  there  is  nothing  of  all  this  to  be  found 
in  the  genuine  writings  of  the  ancient  Christians. 
3.  Whereas  auricular  confession  is  continually  men- 
tioned by  the  Roman  writers  among  the  rehgious 
acts  of  all  sorts  of  men,  clergy,  monks,  laity,  princes, 
private  men,  noblemen,  plebeians,  men,  women,  &c., 
there  is  nothing  of  this  among  the  ancient  Chris- 
tians. 4.  In  the  ancient  church,  Christians  were 
bound  by  no  law,  as  now  they  are  in  the  Roman,  to 
confess  their  sins  to  a  priest  before  they  came  to  the 
Lord's  table  to  receive  the  eucharist.  Which  he 
demonstrates  by  eight  reasons,  and  the  testimony 
of  Chrysostom,  Pelagius,  Austin,  Dorotheus,  the 
council  of  Chalon,and  Hincmar.  5.  In  the  Roman 
church,  it  is  usual  for  every  one  to  make  his  auricu- 
lar confession  at  the  point  of  death ;  of  which  there 
are  no  footsteps  among  the  ancients.  6.  The  Rom- 
ish writers  are  very  full  of  auricular  confession  in 


tamen  super  eos  suic  patientioe  non  obliviscitur,  &c. 
-'-  Daill.  de  Confess.  Auricular,  lib.  4.  cap.  1,  &c. 


Chap.  [II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


iu(;9 


describing  any  of  the  sicknesses,  or  calamities,  or 
wars,  or  shipwrecks,  or  journeys,  or  other  hazardous 
undertakings  of  their  people :  but  there  was  no  such 
practice  among  the  ancients.  T.  The  ancients,  in 
describing  the  persecutions  of  the  church,  or  the 
conflicts,  and  trials,  and  last  agonies  of  their  con- 
fessors and  martyrs,  never  mention  auricular  con- 
fession, which  yet  abounds  every  where  in  the 
Romish  writers,  when  they  make  any  such  relations 
of  the  lives  or  deaths  of  their  martyrs.  8.  The  an- 
cients had  no  solemn  times  appointed  for  auricular 
confession,  as  Easter,  Christmas,  Lent,  the  greater 
festivals,  and  the  Friday  and  Saturday  fasts,  which 
arc  now  every  where  spoken  of  in  the  Romish 
writers,  as  solemn  times  of  confession.  9.  The  an- 
cients say  nothing  of  miracles  done  in  or  by  con- 
fession, which  the  Romanists  continually  boast  of. 

10.  The  ancient  pagans  never  objected  auricular 
confession  to  the  primitive  Christians,  as  the  mo- 
dern pagans  do  to  those  of  the  Roman  communion. 

11.  The  ancient  church  knew  nothing  of  heretics 
opposing  auricular  confession,  because  there  was  no 
such  thing  enjoined;  but  since  it  was  appointed  by 
the  council  of  Lateran,  anno  1215,  many  have  been 
condemned  as  heretics  for  opposing  it.  12.  The 
primitive  bishops  often  declare,  that  they  were  ig- 
norant of  the  sins  of  their  people  ;  particularly  this 
is  said  by  Chrysostom,  Austin,  Innocent  and  Leo, 
bishops  of  Rome :  which  is  an  argument,  that  they 
were  not  revealed  to  them  by  sacramental  confession. 
13.  The  first  man  that  instituted  any  private  con- 
fession was  St.  Anthony,  who  appointed  his  monks 
to  write  down  their  thoughts,  and  communicate 
them  one  to  another :  but  this  was  nothing  to  sa- 
cerdotal confession,  for  these  monks  were  only  lay- 
men. 14.  The  ancient  writers  have  none  of  those 
intricate  questions  and  disputations  about  auricular 
confession,  which  so  much  stuflf  the  books  of  the 
modern  causuists  in  the  church  of  Rome.  15.  The 
fathers  never  interpret  those  passages  of  Scripture, 
which  the  Romanists  produce  for  auricular  con- 
fession, in  their  sense,  but  most  of  them  to  a  con- 
trary meaning.  16.  The  fathers,  in  those  books 
which  they  wrote  professedly  of  repentance,  never 
urge  auricular  confession  as  a  necessary  part  of 
repentance.  17-  The  fathers  acknowledge  only 
three  sorts  of  repentance ;  the  ante-baptismal,  for 
all  manner  of  sins ;  the  quotidian  or  daily  repent- 
ance, for  lesser  sins  of  daily  incursion  ;  and  the  pub- 
lic penance  of  lapsers,  falling  into  more  heinous 
sins:  but  auricular  confession  appertains  to  none 
of  these.  18.  Gregory  Nyssen''^  says  expressly, 
there  were  some  sins,  such  as  covetousness,  which 
the  fathers  before  him  endeavoured  to  cure,  not  by 


any  canonical  punishments,  but  only  by  the  public 
exhortations  of  the  word  and  doctrine :  which  will 
not  consist  with  the  doctrine  of  auricular  confession. 
19.  Nectarius  wliolly  abrogated  tlie  office  of  the 
penitentiary  priest ;  which  argues,  that  there  was 
no  necessity  of  aiu-icular  confession :  ])ut  of  this 
office  we  must  speak  a  little  more  particularly  here- 
after. 20.  His  next  argument  is  drawn  from  those 
passages  of  Chrysostom,  Hilary,  Basil,  Ambrose, 
Maximus  Taurinensis,  and  St.  Austin,  (which  have 
been  already  mentioned,)  asserting,  that  remission 
of  sins  may  be  obtained  of  God  by  contrition  only, 
without  any  oral  confession.  21.  The  fathers  al- 
low salvation  to  be  attainable  even  by  those  re- 
lapsers,  who  fell  again  into  sin  after  their  first  public 
penance,  though  they  had  no  liberty  either  to  make 
confession  or  receive  absolution.  Which  argument 
has  been  particularly  explained  already.  His  22nd, 
23rd,  and  24th  arguments  are  drawn  from  the  testi- 
monies of  Cassian,  and  Julianus  Pomcrius  or  Pros- 
per, and  Laurentius  Novariensis,  which  have  been 
related  before.  25.  To  these  he  adds  two  consider- 
able testimonies  of  Bede.  26.  And  the  concessions 
of  Erasmus,  Beatus  Rhenanus,  and  Rigaltius,  who 
freely  own,  that  the  Romish  auricular  confession 
was  not  in  use  in  the  primitive  church.  2/.  He 
shows  that  there  was  a  change  made  of  the  ancient 
discipline  in  the  ninth  age,  when  private  penance 
enjoined  by  the  priest  began  to  be  pretty  frequent 
and  common.  28.  And  yet  this  differed  vastly  in 
many  particulars  from  the  confession  established 
afterwards  in  the  council  of  Lateran ;  for  still  it 
was  believed,  that  confession  made  to  God  only  was 
sufficient  to  salvation.  29.  In  the  following  ages 
also  Goffi'idus  Vindocinensis,  Peter  Lombard,  and 
Gratian  "*  say  there  were  many  who  still  held  that 
confession  to  God  alone  was  sufficient,  without  con- 
fessing to  the  priest.  And  Gratian  particularly, 
having  cited  the  authorities  on  both  sides  of  tlie 
question,  leaves  it  to  the  judgment  of  the  reader  to 
take  which  opinion  he  pleases ;  because  each  opin- 
ion had  wise  and  religious  men  to  authorize  and  de- 
fend it.  Which  argues,  that  in  Gratian's  time  the 
question  about  the  necessity  of  auricular  confession 
was  not  so  determined  as  it  was  afterwards  in  the 
council  of  Lateran,  and  the  council  of  Trent.  This 
is  also  acknowledged  by  Aquinas,  Bonaventure,  and 
Antonine,  who  say  that  in  the  time  of  Gratian  and 
Lombard  the  question  about  the  necessity  of  such 
confession  was  only  problematical,  and  what  miglit 
safely  be  disputed  both  ways,  and  that  it  was  no 
heresy  to  deny  it :  but  after  the  determination  of 
the  church  made  under  Innocent  III.  in  the  Late- 
ran council,  it  was  to  be  reputed  heresy  for  any 


^  Nysspn.  Ep.  ad  Letoium. 

-'  Goffiid.  lib.  5.  Ep.  16.     Lombard.  Distinct,  lib.  4.  sect. 
17.    Gratian.  de  Pcenit.  Dist.  '2.  cap.  89.    Cui  harum  potius 


adhacrendum  sit,  lectoris  judicio  reservafur.     Utraque  enim 
fauloies  habet  sapientes  et  religiosos  viros. 


1070 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVIII. 


man  to  assert,  that  it  was  sufficient  to  confess  a 
man's  sins  to  God  without  making  confession  to  a 
priest  also.  30.  Thus  the  doctrine  of  auricular 
confession  was  established  in  the  thirteenth  cen- 
turj',  and  not  before :  and  even  after  that  there 
wanted  not  witnesses,  such  as  Wickliif,  and  Huss, 
and  Seraeca,  and  Michael  of  Bononia,  and  Pctrus 
Oxoniensis,  to  bear  testimony  against  its  novelty, 
to  the  time  of  the  Reformation.  This  is  the  short 
account  of  those  thirty  arguments,  which  the  learn- 
ed Mr.  Daille  uses  to  show  the  novelty  of  the 
Romish  doctrine  concerning  auricular  confession, 
W'hich  the  curious  reader  who  desires  to  see  them 
more  fully  deduced  and  confirmed,  may  consult  in 
our  author's  elaborate  work  for  his  further  satis- 
faction. 

Sect.  5.  But  in  all  that  is  said  by  this  or 

feKion'SmvId  Tr?d  any  other  protestant  writer,  there  is 

encouraged  in  some  •     .        i.     .         i  i.1      j.  •        i. 

cases.  As,  1.  lor  no  mtcnt  to  deny,  that  pnvate  con- 
advised  to  confess  fession  was  allowed  and  encouraged 

mutually  to  one  an-  ^ 

other,  to  have  their  ]jy  i\-^q  anclcuts  in  some   cascs  and 

prayers  and  assist-        •' 

"""•  upon  some  special  occasions.     For 

first  they  advised  all  men,  in  case  of  lesser  sins,  to 
make  confession  mutually  to  one  another,  that  they 
might  have  each  other's  prayers  and  assistance. 
This  is  the  advice  of  St.  James,  v.  16,  "  Confess  your 
faults  one  to  another,  and  pray  one  for  another, 
that  ye  may  be  healed.  The  effectual  fervent  prayer 
of  a  righteous  man  availeth  much."  Which  though 
it  be  a  place  commonly  produced  by  the  Romanists 
for  their  auricular  confession  to  a  priest,  yet  it  was 
anciently  thought  no  more  than  a  direction  to 
Christians  in  general  to  confess  their  sins  mutually 
one  to  another.  Thus,  it  is  certain,  St.  Austin  un- 
derstood it ;  for  writing  upon  those  words  of  our 
Saviour  in  St.  John,  "  If  I  your  Lord  and  Master 
have  washed  your  feet,  ye  ought  also  to  wash  one 
another's  feet ;"  he  thus  expounds  them  and  the 
words  of  St.  James  together :  "  Can  we  say,^  that 
one  brother  may  cleanse  another  from  the  conta- 
gion of  sin  ?  Yes,  we  are  taught  to  do  it  by  the  mysti- 
cal meaning  of  this  work  of  our  Lord,  that  we  should 
confess  our  sins  one  to  another,  and  pray  one  for 
another,  as  Christ  intercedes  for  us.  Let  us  hear 
St.  James  the  apostle  evidently  commanding  this 
very  thing,  and  saying,  "  Confess  your  faults  one  to 
another,  and  pray  one  for  another,"  because  in  this 
our  Lord  hath  set  us  an  example.  For  if  he,  who 
neither  has,  nor  ever  had,  nor  ever  will  have  any 
sin,  prays  for  our  sins ;  how  much  rather  ought  we 
to  pray  for  the  sins  of  one  another !     And  if  he  for- 


give us,  who  has  nothing  to  be  forgiven  by  us;  how 
much  more  ought  we  to  forgive  one  another,  who 
cannot  live  here  without  sin  !  Let  us  therefore  for- 
give one  another,  and  pray  for  each  other's  sins, 
that  so  we  may  in  some  measure  wash  one  another's 
feet."  In  like  manner  Eradius,  or  St.  Austin  him- 
self in  another -°  place,  says,  "  We  are  admonished 
throughout  the  whole  Scripture  to  confess  our  sins 
continually  and  humbly,  not  only  to  God,  but  to 
holy  men  and  those  that  fear  God.  For  so  the  Holy 
Ghost  teaches  us  by  James  the  apostle,  saying, 
"  Confess  your  faults  one  to  another,  and  pray  one 
for  another,  that  ye  may  be  healed."  Hincmar,  a 
learned  French  bishop  of  the  ninth  age,  gives  the 
same  interpretation :  "  Our  light  and  daily  sins, 
says  he,  according  to  the  exhortation  of  St.  James,^' 
are  daily  to  be  confessed  to  those  that  are  our  equals : 
and  such  sins,  we  may  believe,  will  be  cleansed  by 
their  daily  prayers,  and  our  own  acts  of  piety,  if 
with  a  charitable  mind  we  truly  say  in  the  Lord's 
prayer,  '  Forgive  us  our  trespasses,  as  we  forgive 
them  that  trespass  against  us.' "  And  Maldonat  "^ 
says  this  was  the  sense  of  all  the  ancients,  alleging 
not  only  St.  Austin,  but  Hesychius,  and  Gregory 
the  Great,  and  Bede,  and  the  author  of  the  Inter- 
lineary  Gloss.  To  which  others-"  add  Scotus,  and 
Biel,  and  Dionysius  Carthusian  us,  and  Cajetan,  and 
Gagnajus,  and  Godellus,  a  late  bishop  in  the  French 
church ;  however  Bellarmine  came  to  fix  upon  this 
passage  of  St.  Jam^es,  as  a  plain  proof  of  auricular 
confession  to  a  priest,  which  in  the  case  mentioned, 
according  to  the  opinion  of  so  many  ancients  and 
moderns,  directs  to  no  other  confession,  but  what 
may  be  made  to  any  pious  Christian. 

2.  In  case  of  private  injuries  done  ^^^^  ^ 
to  any  private  person,  there  was  no  !„ries'"io'i"e''tCVri- 
question  ever  made,  but  that  the  of-  ^re  olfh-erto  m™ 
fending  party  might  make  a  private  d™'  oTtiie^^hijmTd 
confession  of  his  fault  to  the  offended  ^'^'  ^' 
party,  and  give  him  private  satisfaction.  For  so 
Christ  had  appointed.  Matt.  v.  23,  "If  thou  bring 
thy  gift  to  the  altar,  and  there  rememberest  that 
thy  brother  hath  ought  against  thee ;  leave  there 
thy  gift  before  the  altar,  and  go  thy  May,  first  be 
reconciled  to  thy  brother,  and  then  conle  and  offer 
thy  gift."  Upon  which  St.  Austin^"  says,  "  A  man 
may  with  an  unfeigned  heart  endeavour  to  pacify 
and  appease  him,  by  asking  him  pardon,  if  he  does 
this  before  God.  Nay,  it  is  his  only  remedy  in  this 
case,  to  ask  pardon  ;  which  whoever  does  not,  he  is 
puffed  up  with  the  spirit  of  vain-glory." 


25  Aug.  Tract.  58.  in  Joan.  t.  9.  p.  IGl. 

2"  Aug.  Horn.  1'2.  ex  50.  t.  10.  p.  161. 

•-'  Hincmar.  Epist.  ad  Hildeboldum,  t.  2.  n.  40.  p.  688. 
Quotidiana  autein,  Icviaque  peccata,  secundum  Jacobi 
apostoli  hortamentum,  alterutrum  coa3qualibus  confitenda 
sunt,  &c. 

'•^  Maldonat.  Controver.  t.  2.  do  Confessione,  cap.  2.  p.  36. 


=»  Vid.  Dall.  de  Confess,  lib.  1.  cap.  12. 

^"  Aug.  de  Sermone  Doin.  in  Monte,  lib.  ].  cap.  10.  Po- 
feris  eum  non  stimnlato  animo  lenire,  atque  in  gratiam  le- 
vocare,  veniam  postnlando,  si  hoc  prius  coram  Deo  feccris 

Quod  est  unum  remedium,  supplici  animo  veniam 

deprccetur :  quod  quisquis  non  fecerit  inanis  jactantiaj 
spiritu  inftatur. 


III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


ion 


3.  When  men  were  under  any  per- 

:\  ^Vlien  they  were    plcxiticS  of  miud,  01"    trOUblcS   of  COn- 

.    r  .nscieiuM",  they  science,  from  the  pressure  and  load  of 

.    advised   to  '  ^ 

I .  private  con-  gin  ;  that  Avas  another  case  in  which 

•  n  to  a  minister,  ' 

ilreciion"""^*^'  they  were  always  directed  to  have 
recourse  to  some  wise  and  prudent 
jastor,  to  take  his  counsel  and  advice,  and  his  as- 
^i>iance,  and  his  prayers,  as  a  sort  of  mediator  and 
intercessor  under  Christ  for  them.  The  Romish 
A\  riters  are  apt  to  allege  many  passages  out  of  the 
ancients,  which  upon  examination  and  strict  in- 
((uiry  amount  to  no  more  than  this.  Thus  Clemens 
Ivomanus,  or  the  author  under  his  name,  bids  every 
one,  into  whose  heart  either  envy  or  infidelity,  or  any 
such  crime,  has  slily  crept,  not  be  ashamed  (if  he 
li.is  any  care  of  his  soul)  to  confess  his  sin  to  the 
hishop  or  minister  presiding  over  him,''  that  by  the 
word  of  God  and  his  saving  counsel  he  may  be 
luuled.  And  so  Maldonat  owns,'-  this  has  no  rela- 
tion to  sacramental  confession.  The  same  advice 
is  given  by  Origen,  Gregory  Nyssen,''  and  St.  Basil,'* 
upon  the  like  occasion,  to  confess  their  sins  to  the 
priest,  who,  by  his  compassion  and  skilfulness,  was 
able  to  help  their  infirmities,  and  at  once  take  care 
both  of  their  credit  and  cure. 

gp^j  g  4.  Origen  gives  another  reason  for 

TiMl°4'whethe?1t  confessing  private  sins  to  the  priest, 
pubh'r;™.ance  (or  hccciusii  hc  was  bcst  ablc  to  judge, 

private  offences.  l      j_l  -^  r  i        • 

whether  it  were  proper  tor  such  sins 
to  admit  men  to  do  public  penance  in  the  church, 
which  in  those  days  was  no  unusual  practice. 
"  Consider,"  says  he,'*  "  what  the  Holy  Scripture 
teaches  us,  that  we  ought  not  to  conceal  our  sin 
within  our  own  breast.  For,  perhaps,  as  they  who 
are  inwardly  oppressed  with  the  humour  or  phlegm 
of  indigested  meat,  which  hes  heavy  upon  the 
stomach,  if  they  vomit  it  up,  are  relieved ;  so  they 
who  have  sinned,  if  they  hide  and  conceal  their  sin 
within  themselves,  are  inwardly  oppressed,  and 
almost  suffocated  with  the  phlegm  and  humour  of 
sin :  but  if  any  one  become  his  own  accuser,  and 
confess  his  sin,  in  so  doing  he,  as  it  were,  vomits 
up  his  sin,  and  digests  and  removes  the  cause  of  his 
distemper.  Only  be  circumspect  in  the  choice  of 
him  to  whom  it  will  be  fit  to  confess  thy  sin.  Try 
first  the  physician  to  whom  thou  art  to  reveal  the 
cause  of  thy  distemper,  and  see  that  he  be  one  who 


knows  how  to  be  weak  with  him  that  is  weak,  and 
to  weep  with  him  that  weeps ;  one  who  understands 
the  discipline  of  condoling  and  compassionating ; 
that  so,  at  length,  if  he  shall  say  any  tiling,  wlio 
hath  first  showed  himself  to  be  both  a  skilful  and  a 
nuTcifid  physician,  and  give  tlice  any  counsel,  tlioii 
maycst  observe  and  follow  it.     If  he  discerns  and 
foresees  thy  distemper  to  be  such,  as  will  need  to 
be  declared  and  cured  in  the  full  assembly  of  the 
church,  whereby  others  perhaps  may  be  edified,  and 
thou  thyself  healed,  this  is  to  be  done  with  great 
deliberation,  and  the  prudent  advice  of  sucli  a  phy- 
sician."    It  is  very  plain,  that  in  this  case  this  sort 
of  private  confession  was  made  in  order  to  take  the 
minister's  advice  concerning  doing  public  penance 
for  any  private  sin ;  and  that  men  had  recourse  to 
him  in  private,  as  to  one  who  was  best  able  to  judge 
whether  their  sin  were  of  such  a  nature  as  would 
require  a  public  humiliation  and  repentance.     For 
this,  as  I  said  before,  was  no  unusual  thing  in  those 
days,  for  men  sometimes  to  desire  to  do   public 
penance  for  private  ollences  ;  yea,  even  for  the  very 
intention  and  design  of  some  grosser  sins,  though 
they  never  proceeded  so  far  as  the  outward  action. 
Cyprian  speaks  of  some  such  offenders,  who  reckon- 
ed themselves  guilty  of  idolatry ,'°  not  because  they 
had  either  actually  sacrificed  to  idols,  or  procured 
any  libel  to  signify  their  so  doing,  but  only  because 
they  had  designed  in  their  hearts  to  do  it:  who, 
therefore,  confessed  their  wicked  intention  to  the 
priests,  in  order  to  do  public  penance  for  it,  (though 
it  was  but  a  small  sin  in  comparison,)  as  knowing 
that  it  was  written,  "  God  is  not  mocked."     These 
private  sins  after  secret  confession  were  sometimes 
publicly  declared  and  read  out  of  a  libel  in  the  con- 
gregation :  but  all  bishops"  did  not  approve  of  this 
practice ;  and  therefore,  when  Pope  Leo  understood 
that  several  bishops  in  the  provinces  of  Campania, 
Samnium,  and  Picenum,  took  this  method,  he  wrote 
a  sharp  letter  to  them,  complaining  of  it  as  an  un- 
lawful usurpation  and  irregular  practice,  to  put  those 
who  made  secret  confession  to  the  priests,  upon  a 
public  rehearsal  of  their  crimes  afterwards  in  the 
face  of  the  congregation ;  which  custom  ought  by 
all  means  to  be  abrogated  and  laid  aside.  For  though 
it  may  seem  a  very  laudable  plenitude  of  faith,  that 
for  the  fear  of  God  makes  men  not  afraid  to  take 


''  Clem.  Ep.  1.  ad  Jacob.  Non  cnibescat,  qui  animiiesuaj 
curaui  gerit,  hajc  confitevi  ei  qtii  pricest,  ut  ab  ipso  per  ver- 
btim  Dei  et  consilium  salubre  curetur. 

3-  Maldonat.  t.  2.  de  Confess,  cap.  2.  p.  10.  t.  2. 

2'  Nyssen.  de  Poeuitent.  t.  3.  p.  176. 

3*  Basil.  Regiil.  Brev.  Resp.  229. 

^'  Orig.  Horn.  2.  in  Psal.  sx.wii.  t.  1.  p.  471. 

^^  Cypr.  de  Lapsis,  p.  134.  Quamvis  nullo  sacrificii  aut 
libelli  facinore  constricti,  qiioniam  tameii  do  hoc  v6l  cogi- 
tavenint,  hoc  ipsuui  apud  sacerdotes  Dei  dolenter  etsimpli- 
citer  confitentes,  exomologesin  conscientiae  I'aciunt,  aniiui 
sui   pondus  exponunt,  salutavem  raedclam   pavvis  licet  et 


modicis  vulneribus  exquirunt ;  scientes  scriptum  esse,  Deus 
non  deridetur. 

"  Leo,  Ep.  SO.  al.  78.  ad  Episc.  Canipan.  Illam  ctiam 
contra  apostolicam  regulain  prxsumptioncin,  quam  nuper 
agnovi  a  quibusdam  illicita  usurpationc  comniitti,  modis 
omnibus  constituo  submovcri ;  ne  dc  singulornm  peccatonim 
genere  libellis  scripta  prol'essio  publico  rocitetur  :  cum  reatus 
conscientianim  sufticiat  solis  sacerdutibus  iudicari  confes- 
sione  secreta,  S:c.  Vid.  Basil,  can.  61  et  G3.  Paulin.  Vit. 
Ambros.  p.  10.  Ambros.  de  Poenit.  lib.  1.  c.  16.  Gennad. 
de  Dogm.  Eccles.  cap.  53. 


1072 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVIII. 


shame  before  men;  yet  because  all  men's  sins,  which 
come  under  penance,  are  not  such  as  they  are  not 
afraid  to  have  made  public,  this  unreasonable  cus- 
tom ought  to  be  altered,  lest  many  should  be  driven 
from  the  remedy  of  repentance,  whilst  either  they 
are  ashamed  or  afraid  to  have  their  actions  laid 
open  before  their  enemies,  who  perhaps  might  take 
occasion  from  thence  to  bring  them  into  danger  of 
the  civil  laws,  and  the  penalties  imposed  by  them 
upon  such  offences.  \Vhi(;h  last  words  of  Leo  sug- 
gest a  further  reason,  why  the  ancients  in  some 
cases  allowed  of  private  confession,  even  when  the 
penance  itself  in  its  exercise  was  to  be  public.  For 
we  may  observe, 

j,^^^  g  5.  That  when  there  was  any  appa- 

any  danger  of  deaTh  ^ent  danger  to  mcu's  llvcs,  or  other- 
orthlItat^*a|ainIt  wlsc,  aHslng  from  the  penalties  of  the 
certain  ofFftice..  ^.^j^  laws,  inflictiug  Capital  punish- 
ments on  certain  offences ;  in  that  case  the  church 
was  content  to  take  a  private  confession  of  sinners, 
and  excuse  them  from  a  dangerous  publication.  It 
is  of  this  case  St.  Austin  speaks,  when  he  says,^  We 
ought  to  correct  secret  sins  in  secret,  lest,  if  we 
publicly  reprove  them,  we  betray  the  man.  We 
would  reprove  and  correct  him ;  but  what  if  an 
enemy  lies  upon  the  catch,  to  hear  something  for 
which  he  may  punish  him?  A  bishop,  put  the 
case,  perhaps  knows  a  man  to  be  a  murderer,  and 
besides  himself  no  one  else  knows  it :  I  would  pub- 
licly rebuke  the  man,  but  then  you  would  seek  to 
take  the  law  upon  him.  In  this  case  I  neither  be- 
tray the  man  nor  neglect  him ;  I  reprove  him  in 
secret;  I  set  before  his  eyes  the  judgment  of  God  ; 
I  terrify  his  bloody  conscience,  and  persuade  him 
to  repentance.  It  happened  also  that  sometimes 
persons  confessed  such  secret  sins,  as,  though  they 
would  not  endanger  their  lives  by  a  regular  course 
of  law,  yet  might  provoke  an  injured  party,  if  he 
knew  them,  in  a  sudden  fit  of  zeal  and  passion  to 
destroy  them.  In  this  case  it  was  thought  more 
proper  to  let  the  confession  and  penance  be  both 
in  private,  lest  any  such  inconvenience  might  fol- 
low upon  the  publication.  St.  BasiP'  instances  in 
the  case  of  a  woman  that  confesses  herself  guilty 
of  adultery :  the  law  allowed  not  the  husband  to 
kill  her,  except  he  took  her  in  the  very  act ;  but  it 
might  happen,  that  in  his  zeal  and  fury  he  might 
be  tempted  even  against  law  to  kill  her,  if  by  any 
means  he  came  to  understand  that  she  had  been 
guilty  of  such  a  transgression :  therefore,  to  avoid 
the  occasion  of  any  such  temptation,  it  was  ordered 
that  no  minister  should  cruiomtvuv,  publish  the 
crime  of  women  under  penance  of  adultery  upon 


their  own  confession,  lest  it  should  occasion  their 
death ;  that  is,  expose  them  to  the  fury  of  their 
husbands,  who  might  be  inclined  in  the  height  of 
passion  to  exceed  all  bounds,  and  do  what  by  law 
they  could  not  answer. 

6.  I  remember  but  one  case  more  in  ^^^^  ,p 
which  any  thing  like  private  confes-  fes^ion''re'quired°"n 
sion  was  required,  and  that  was,  when  monition  "for  of-  " 
any  man  was  rebuked  for  a  crime  by 
his  spiritual  guide,  of  which  he  was  either  noto- 
riously guilty,  or  violently  suspected :  in  that  case 
it  was  his  duty  to  give  glory  to  God,  and  take  shame 
to  himself,  by  an  ingenuous  confession  and  acknow- 
ledgment of  his  fault,  to  answer  the  true  end  of  pri- 
vate admonition.  It  is  of  this  sort  of  confession 
St.  Ambrose^"  speaks  in  the  person  of  David,  when 
he  says,  that  being  rebuked  by  a  private  man  for 
his  great  offence,  he  did  not  fret  and  fume  with  in- 
dignation, but  ingenuously  confess  his  fault,  and 
mourn  with  sorrow  for  it. 

All  these  sorts  of  private  confession 
were  anciently  allowed  of,  as  consist-     The  office  of  the 

.   ,         ,  ,.  ,  ,.  penitentiary     priest 

ent  with  the  standing  and  ordinary  set  up    in  many 

.  churclies,  to  receive 

discipline   of  public  confession   and  an<i  regulate  such 

^  ^  private  confessions, 

penance  in  the  church.  And  the  bet- 
ter to  regulate  them,  and  direct  men  what  to  do  in 
such  cases,  there  was  a  particular  officer  appointed 
in  many  churches,  under  the  name  of  the  peniten- 
tiary priest ;  whose  office  was  not  to  receive  private 
confessions  in  prejudice  to  the  public  discipline, 
much  less  to  grant  absolution  privately  upon  bare 
confession  before  any  penance  was  performed, 
which  was  a  practice  altogether  unknown  to  the 
ancient  church,  as  we  shall  see  more  hereafter :  but 
it  was  to  facilitate  and  promote  the  exercise  of  pub- 
lic discipline,  by  acquainting  men  what  sins  the 
laws  of  the  church  required  to  be  expiated  by  pub- 
lic penance,  and  how  they  were  to  behave  them- 
selves in  the  performance  of  it ;  and  only  to  appoint 
private  penance  for  such  private  crimes  as  were  not 
proper  to  be  brought  upon  the  public  stage,  either 
for  fear  of  doing  harm  to  the  penitent  himself,  or 
giving  scandal  to  the  church. 

The  whole  history  of  the  first  ^.^^^  j, 
original  and  institution  of  this  office  ,,.™' abfog'atfdr' 
in  the  time  of  the  Decian  persecution,  "."eiyTft  T^helr 
and  the  abrogation  of  it  by  Nectarius,  conceded  "private 
bishop  of  Constantinople,  in  the  time 
of  Theodosius,  is  entirely  owing  to  the  relation  of 
Socrates  and  Sozomen,  two  historians,  who  lived  in 
the  same  age  that  the  office  was  abolished ;  and  there- 
fore it  will  be  proper  to  relate  it  in  their  words  first, 
and  then  make  a  few  remarks  upon  it.     Socrates," 


'^  Aug.  Ser.  16.  de  Verb.  Dom.  cap.  8.  In  secreto  debe- 
miis  corripere,  in  secreto  arguere  :  ne  volentes  publice 
avguere,  pvodamus  hominem.  Nos  vohimiis  corripere  et 
corriirere  :  quid  si  ininiicus  quoerit  audire  quod  puniat  ?  &c. 

^^  Basil,  can.  34. 


•"•  Ambros.  de  Apolog.  David,  cap.  2.  Cum  a  private 
homine  corriperetur,  quod  graviter  deliquisset,  non  indig- 
natus  infreinuit,  sed  confessus  ingemuit  culpae  dolore. 

•"  Socrat.  lib.  5.  cap.  19. 


I 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1073 


speaking  of  the  reign  of  Thcodosius,  says,  "  About 
this  time  it  was  thought  proper  to  remove  the 
penitentiary  presbyters,  rovg  enl  r^c  (itTavoiag  irpta- 
ftvTsiiovQ,  out  of  the  churches  upon  this  occasion. 
From  the  time  that  the  Novatians  made  their 
separation  from  the  church,  refusing  to  commu- 
nicate -with  those  that  lapsed  in  the  Decian  per- 
secution, tlie  bishops  added  to  the  ecclesiastical  roll 
(r(;7  tKK\7]GiatTTiK(p  Kat'oi't)  a  penitential  presbyter; 
that  they  who  fell  into  any  sins  after  baptism, 
might  make  confession  of  them  before  the  presby- 
ter thereto  appointed.  And  this  order  continues 
still  among  other  sects  ;  only  they  who  receive  the 
consubstantial  doctrine,  and  the  Novatians  who 
agree  v.ith  them  in  the  same  faith,  are  equally  now 
agreed  to  reject  the  penitential  presbyter.  The 
Novatians  indeed  never  admitted  this  additional 
office  from  the  beginning ;  and  the  present  go- 
vernors of  the  churches,  though  they  allowed  it  for 
a  long  time,  yet  now,  under  Nectarius,  laid  it  aside, 
upon  a  certain  accident  that  happened  in  the  church. 
For  a  certain  gentlewoman  coming  to  the  peniten- 
tiary presbyter,  made  particular  confession  of  her 
sins  that  she  had  committed  after  baptism.  And 
the  presbyter  enjoined  her  to  fast  and  pray  con- 
tinually, that  together  with  her  confession  she  might 
show  forth  works  worthy  of  repentance.  But  the 
woman,  proceeding  in  the  course  of  her  penance, 
accused  herself  of  another  sin  ;  for  she  confessed, 
that  one  of  the  deacons  of  the  church  had  defiled 
her.  Which  occasioned  the  deacon  to  be  cast  out 
of  the  church  ;  and  there  was  no  small  stir  among 
the  people,  who  were  incensed  not  barely  for  the 
fact,  but  because  it  brought  great  scandal  and  re- 
proach upon  the  church.  And  the  clergy  being 
chiefly  reviled  upon  this  occasion,  one  Eudeemon,  a 
presbyter  of  the  church,  born  at  Alexandria,  gave 
counsel  to  Nectarius  to  take  away  the  penitentiary 
presbyter,  and  leave  it  to  every  man's  liberty  to 
partake  of  the  holy  mysteries  according  to  the  di- 
rection of  his  own  conscience :  for  this  was  the 
only  way  to  free  the  church  from  reproach."  This, 
he  says,  he  the  more  confidently  inserted  into  his 
history,  because  he  had  it  from  the  mouth  of  Eu- 
dcemon  himself;  though  he  told  Eudsemon,  he 
doubted  whether  his  counsel  was  for  the  advantage 
of  the  church,  since  it  would  occasion  the  neglect 
of  mutual  reproof,  and  the  transgression  of  that  rule 
of  the  apostle,  "  Have  no  fellowship  with  the  un- 
fruitful works  of  darkness,  but  rather  reprove  them." 
Sozomen,"  in  relating  the  same  story,  observes,  that 
the  chief  offices  of  this  penitentiary  presbyter  were, 


*-  Sozomen,  lib.  7.  cap.  16. 


partly  to  direct  such  as  had  need  of  public  penance 
how  to  go  about  it  and  perform  it,  and  partly  to 
impose  private  exercises  of  repentance  upon  those 
that  needed  not  to  undergo  the  public  :  and  there- 
fore that  he  was  to  be  both  a  prudent  man,  to  direct 
the  one ;  and  i xf/''^^'"'i  ^  "i'*^'^  that  could  keep  se- 
crets without  disclosing  them,  for  the  sake  of  the 
other.  He  observes  further,  that  when  Nectarius 
had  abolished  this  office  at  Constantinople,  his  ex- 
ample was  followed  by  almost  all  the  bishops  of  the 
East ;  but  that  it  continued  in  use  in  the  Western 
churches,  and  chiefly  at  Rome,  to  prepare  men  for 
the  public  penance  of  the  church,  which  he  there 
takes  occasion  to  describe  in  the  whole  course  and 
process  of  it. 

Now,  from  hence  it  is  obvious  to  observe,  1.  That 
this  office  was  not  set  up  to  encourage  auricular 
confession  in  prejudice  to  the  public  discipline,  but 
chiefly  to  promote  the  exercise  of  public  penance 
in  the  church.  2.  That  it  was  not  of  Divine,  but 
only  ecclesiastical  institution.  And  therefore,  3. 
As  it  was  instituted  by  the  wisdom  of  the  church 
for  good  ends  ;  so  when  those  ends  could  not  be 
served,  and  perhaps  better  might,  it  was  at  the 
church's  liberty  by  the  same  wisdom  to  abolish  it, 
and  put  it  down  again,  as  Nectarius  did  in  the 
East.  4.  That  the  abolishing  of  it  did  not  neces- 
sarily imply  the  abolishing  of  public  discipline ; 
which  still  continued  in  force  in  the  Eastern  church, 
notwithstanding  the  abrogation  of  this  office ; 
though  perhaps  something  weakened  in  respect  of 
private  offenders  ;  partly  because  they  were  not  so 
much  inclined  to  confess  ;  and  partly  because  the 
business  of  discipline  now  devolving  wholly  upon 
the  bishops,  as  it  was  before,  they  had  not  leisure  to 
attend  it.  5.  It  is  very  plain  from  hence,  that  there 
was  no  necessity  laid  upon  men  to  confess  all  their 
secret  mortal  sins  before  they  came  to  the  commu- 
nion ;  but  it  was  enough,  as  Valesius  ingenuously 
confesses,"  for  men  to  search  their  own  consciences, 
whereby  they  thought  they  satisfied  that  precept  of 
the  apostle,  "  Let  a  man  examine  him,  and  so  let 
him  eat  of  that  bread,  and  drink  of  that  cup."  And 
so  we  have  taken  a  full  view  of  confession,  both  pub- 
lic and  private,  so  far  as  it  was  in  use  and  practice 
in  the  ancient  church,  beyond  which  it  is  none  of 
my  province  to  extend  the  inquiry,  and  search  after 
the  de%'iations  and  corruptions  of  modern  ages, 
which  the  reader  may  find  in  any  of  our  polemical 
writers  against  the  church  of  Rome,  or  discern  them 
by  the  account  that  has  here  been  given,  reducing 
every  thing  to  the  primitive  standard. 

*'  Vales,  in  Sozom.  lib.  G.  cap.  28. 


3  z 


10/4 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVIII. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

OF  THE  GREAT  RIGOUR,  STRICTXESS,  AND  SEVERITY 
OF  THE  DISCIPLINE  AND  PENANCE  OF  THE  AN- 
CIENT  CHURCH. 

There  remains  now  but  one  thing 
PiibfirpJiance     more  to  be  considered  in  the  exercise 

ordinarily  allowed  ,  •        l  \  t  j 

i.ut  oiue  to  any  sort  oi  the  ancicnt  puolic  pcnaiice,  and 

of  sinners,  .  , 

that  IS  the  great  strictness,  rigour, 
and  severity  of  it,  expressed  against  all  sins  that 
fell  under  public  discipline,  and  more  especially 
those  that  were  of  a  more  heinous  and  malignant 
nature.  One  instance  of  the  severity  of  their  peni- 
tential rules  was,  that  they  ordinarily  admitted  men 
but  once  to  the  privilege  of  public  penance,  and 
allowed  no  second  penance  to  be  performed  in  the 
church  by  any  sort  of  relapsers.  I  have  already 
hinted  this  in  the  last  chapter,  and  shall  here  give 
more  evident  proof  of  it,  so  far  as  concerns  the 
general  practice  of  the  church  in  the  four  first  ages  ; 
showing  withal  what  exceptions  it  admitted  of,  by 
the  power  that  was  lodged  in  every  bishop's  hands 
to  moderate  the  exercise  of  discipline,  as  occasion 
might  require,  according  to  his  own  judgment  and 
discretion.  We  do  not  indeed  find  any  general  rule 
or  canon  for  this  peremptory  denial  of  a  second  pe- 
nance to  relapsers ;  but  if  we  consider  the  practice 
of  the  church,  we  shall  find  it  almost  universal. 
Hermes  Pastor,  who  wrote  in  the  beginning  of  the 
second  century,  plainly  asserts  this,'  that  the  serv- 
ants of  God  allowed  but  of  once  doing  penance. 
And  therefore  he  advises  the  husband  who  has  an 
adulterous  wife,  to  receive  her  once  upon  her  re- 
pentance, but  not  oftener.  Clemens  Alexandrinus^ 
treads  in  the  same  steps,  allowing  but  one  repent- 
ance after  baptism,  and  citing  the  authority  of 
Hermes  Pastor  for  it.  Tertullian,  whilst  he  was  a 
catholic,  allowed  with  the  catholics  one  penance 
after  baptism,  which  he  calls  the  second,  making 
the  repentance  of  baptism  to  be  the  first,  and  this  the 
last.  "  God,"  says  he,'  "  has  placed  in  the  porch,  or 
entrance  to  the  church,  a  second  repentance,  which 
opens  to  those  that  knock :  but  now  only  once,  be- 


cause now  a  second  time ;  never  more,  because  the 
last  was  vain  and  to  no  purpose."  Then  describing 
the  whole  course  of  this  public  penance,  he  says 
again,''  "  It  is  a  second  penance,  and  but  one ;  which 
requires  so  much  the  more  laborious  exercise  and 
trial,  because  it  is  a  thing  allowed  us  in  om-  greatest 
exigency  and  distress."  In  like  manner  Origen,* 
speaking  of  the  diflference  between  greater  and  lesser 
sins,  says,  "  The  former  had  no  place  of  repentance 
allowed  them  but  only  once,  or  very  seldom ;  where- 
as those  common  sins  we  fall  into  almost  every  day, 
always  admit  of  repentance,  and  are  redeemed  im- 
mediately without  intermission."  There  are  several 
canons  in  the  council  of  Eliberis  to  the  same  pur- 
pose, that  relapsers  should  not  be  admitted  to  com- 
munion by  the  benefit  of  a  second  repentance.  One 
canon''  says.  That  if  any  men  commit  adultery  after 
they  have  done  penance  for  idolatry,  they  shall  no 
more  be  admitted  to  communion,  that  they  may  not 
seem  to  make  a  jest  of  the  Lord's  communion. 
Another  orders,'  That  if  any  of  the  faithful,  who 
is  under  penance  for  adultery,  commit  fornication 
in  the  time  of  his  penance,  he  shall  not  have  the 
communion  even  at  his  last  hour.  And  a  third  ca- 
non^ orders.  That  if  a  man  who  has  been  under 
penance  for  adulteiy,  and  is  admitted  to  communion 
in  sickness,  or  danger  of  imminent  death,  shall, 
after  his  recovery,  commit  adultery  again,  he  shall 
no  more  make  a  jest  of  the  communion  of  peace ; 
that  is,  not  have  the  privilege  of  a  second  penance, 
to  obtain  a  second  reconciliation  or  absolution. 

Neither  was  this  only  the  discipline  of  the  three 
first  ages,  but  it  continued  to  be  the  practice  for  an 
age  or  two  after:  for  St.  Ambrose  and  St.  Austin 
speak  of  it  as  still  in  use  in  their  time.  "  They  who 
think  of  doing  penance  often,"  says  St.  Ambrose,'' 
"  are  deservedly  reproved,  because  they  grow  wanton 
against  Christ :  for  if  they  did  penance  truly,  they 
would  not  think  it  was  to  be  repeated ;  because  as 
there  is  but  one  baptism,  so  there  is  but  one  penance, 
that  is  performed  in  public.  There  is,  indeed,  a 
daily  repentance  for  sin,  but  that  is  for  lesser  sins, 
and  the  other  for  greater."  In  like  manner  St. 
Austin'"  says,  "  It  was  wisely  and  usefully  ordered, 
that  there  should  be  no  room  for  that  pbblic  and 


'  Hermes  Past.  lib.  2.  Mandat.  4.  n.  I.  Debet  recipere 
peccatricem  qu.-c  pcenitentiam  egit,  sed  iion  saepe.  Servis 
enim  Dei  pceuitentia  una  est. 

-  Clem.  Alex.  Strom.  2.  cap.  13.  p.  159.  Edit.  O.xou. 

'  Tertul.  de  Poenit.  cap.  7.  Dens  collocavit  in  vestibulo 
poenitentiam  seciindam,  qua;  pulsantibtis  patefaciat :  sod 
jam  semel,  quia  jam  secundo;  scd  amplius  niinqiiam,  quia 
proxime  frustra. 

•■  Ibid.  cap.  9.  Hujus  igituv  poenitentia;  secundo  et  unius, 
quanto  in  arto  negotium  est,  tanto  operosior  probatio  est. 

5  Orig.  Horn.  15.  in  Levit.  t.  1.  p.  174.  In  gravioribiis 
criminibus,  semel  tantum  vel  raro  pcenitenfia;  conceditur 
locus:  ista  vero  communia,  quaj  frequenter  incurrimus,  sem- 
per poenitentiam  recipiunt,  et  sine  intermissionc  redimuntur. 

6  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  .3.     Si  post  poenitentiam  fuerint  moe- 


chati,  placuit  ulterius  non  eis  dandam  esse  communionem, 
ne  lusisse  de  Dominica  communione  videantur. 

'  Ibid.  can.  7.  Si  quis  forte  fidelis  post  lapsum  moechia;, 
post  tempora  constituta,  accepta  poenitentia,  deimo  fnerit 
furnicatus,  placuit  nee  iu  fine  cum  habere  communionem. 

**  Ibid.  can.  47.  Si  resuscitalus  rursus  fuerit  moechatus, 
placuit  euin  ulterius  non  ludere  de  communione  pacis. 

"  Ambros.  de  Poenitent.  lib.  2.  cap.  10.  Merito  reprehen- 
duntur,  qui  soepius  agendam  poenitentiam  putant,  quia  luxuri- 
antur  in  Christo.  Nam  si  vere  agerent  poenitentiam,  iteran- 
dara  esse  non  putarent:  quia  sicut  unum  baptisma,  ita  una 
poenitentia,  quoe  tamen  publice  agitur.  Nam  quotidiani  n.is 
debet  pcenitere  pcccati ;  scd  hajc  delictoium  leviorum,  ilia 
graviorum. 

'»  Aug.  Ep.  51.  ad  Macedon.     Caute  saliibriterque  pro- 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


107.") 


humblest  sort  of  penance  in  the  church;  lest  it 
sliould  make  the  remedy  of  sin  contemptible,  and  so 
less  useful  to  the  sinner.  This  was  the  practice  of 
the  Roman  church  also  in  the  time  of  Siricius ;  and 
Innocent  and  Leo,  who  commonly  follow  his  pre- 
scriptions. The  decree  of  Siricius  about  this  matter 
1  uns  in  these  terms :  "  Forasmuch  as  that  they  who 
after  penance  return  like  dogs  to  their  vomit,  or 
swine  to  their  wallowing  in  the  mire,  cannot  have" 
(he  benefit  of  a  second  penance,  we  decree,  that 
they  shall  communicate  with  the  faithful  in  prayer 
I  inly,  and  be  present  at  the  celebration  of  the  eu- 
charist,  but  not  partake  of  the  Lord's  feast  at  his 
table ;  that  by  this  punishment  they  may  learn  to 
chastise  their  errors  privately  in  themselves,  and 
also  set  others  an  example  how  to  abstain  from  the 
lusts  of  uncleanness.  Yet,  forasmuch  as  they  fall 
by  the  frailty  of  the  flesh,  we  would  have  them  to 
be  allowed  their  viaticum  at  the  last,  and  be  assisted 
with  the  grace  of  communion,  when  they  are  going 
to  the  Lord."  It  appears  also  from  the  canons  of 
several  councils  in  the  same  age,  that  such  relapsers 
Avcre  either  wholly  cast  out  of  the  church,  or  at 
least  kept  back  from  the  communion  all  their  days, 
without  being  admitted  to  the  benefit  of  any  formal 
penance  to  restore  them :  as  may  be  seen  in  the 
second  council  of  Arles,'^  the  council  of  Vannes," 
the  first  of  Tours,'*  and  the  first  of  Orleans,'^  but 
more  especially  the  third  of  Toledo,  where  notice 
is  taken  of  the  contrary  custom  beginning  to  creep 
into  some  of  the  Spanish  churches,  and  a  strict  or- 
der is  made  to  correct  it  by  reviving  the  ancient 
discipline  of  the  church.  "  We  hear,"  say  they,'* 
"  that  in  some  of  the  Spanish  churches  penance  is 
not  done  according  to  canon,  but  after  a  very  base 
fashion,  that  as  often  as  men  are  pleased  to  sin,  so 
often  they  require  of  the  presbyters  to  be  reconciled 
or  absolved :  to  restrain  which  execrable  presump- 
tion, the  holy  synod  appoints,  that  penance  shall 
be  granted  only  according  to  the  form  of  the  an- 
cient canons  :  and  if  any,  either  during  the  time  of 
their  penance,  or  after  their  reconciliation,  relapse 


into  tiieir  old  vices,  they  shall  be  condonnu'd  ac- 
cording to  the  severity  of  former  canons."  That 
is,  they  shall  not  have  liberty  of  repeating  public 
YiCTiKncc  toties  qiioties  in  the  church.  They  did  not 
deny  men  private  penance,  either  for  lesser  sins  of 
daily  incursion,  or  for  relapses  into  greater  sins ; 
but  exhorted  men  to  repent  in  l)oth  cases,  in  hopes 
of  obtaining  mercy  and  pardon  from  God  by  a  sin- 
cere contrition  and  the  diligent  exercise  of  a  private 
repentance.  No  confession  was  taken  by  the  priest 
in  either  of  these  cases  ;  for  the  first  did  not  need 
it,  and  the  second  was  not  allowed  it;  only  at  their 
last  hour  relapsers  were  admitted  to  the  communion 
and  peace  of  the  church,  if  they  had  exercised  (hem- 
selves  diligently  in  all  the  proper  acts  of  private  re- 
pentance. 
2.  And  this  leads  us  to  consider 

Sect.  2. 

another  instance  of  the  ereat  strict-     S'-mt-Binnorshcid 

o  under  a   strict    pe- 

ness  and  severity  of  the  ancient  dis-  ".""ht  v"r^''i^'urTf 
cipline,  which  was,  that  for  some  cer-  '''■''"'■ 
tain  sins  men  were  kept  under  the  exercise  of  pub- 
lic penance  all  their  hves,  and  only  absolved  and 
reconciled  at  the  point  of  death.  The  ordinary 
course  of  penance  often  held  men  for  ten,  fifteen, 
or  twenty  years  in  going  through  the  several  stages 
of  repentance:  but  for  some  more  heinous  and 
enormous  crimes  no  certain  term  of  years  was 
limited,  but  their  lives ;  and  perfect  reconciliation 
and  absolution  was  only  granted  them  at  their  last 
hour,  when  imminent  danger  of  death  was  upon 
them.  Thus  the  council  of  EHberis  "  orders.  That 
if  any  one  took  upon  him  the  office  of  njl<imen,  or 
Gentile  priest,  though  he  did  not  offer  sacrifice,  but 
only  exhibit  the  usual  games  or  shows  to  the  peo- 
ple, he  should  do  a  severe  and  canonical  penance 
all  his  life,  and  only  be  admitted  to  communion  at 
the  point  of  death.  The  like  order  is  given  '"  about 
consecrated  virgins,  that  if  any  of  them  committed 
fornication,  they  should  do  penance  all  the  time  of 
their  hfe,  and  only  have  the  communion  at  the  hour 
of  death.  The  council  of  Neocaesarea"  appoints 
the  same  for  a  woman  that  marries  two  brothers, 


visum,  lit  locus  illiushumilllmae  pcEnitentiac  semelin  ecclesia 
concedatur,  ne  medicina  vilis  minus  utilis  esset  aegrotis,  &c. 

"  Siric.  Ep.  1.  ad  Himerium,  cap.  5.  De  his,  qui,  acta 
pcBnitentia,  tanquam  canes  ac  sues,  ad  vomitus  pristiuos  at 
ad  volutabra  redeunt — quia  jam  suffugium  nou  liabent  poe- 
nitendi,  id  dusimus  decernendum,  ut  sola  inter  ecclesiam 
fidelibus  oratinne  jungantur;  sacris  mysteriorum  celebritati- 
bus,  quamvis  non  mereantur,  intersint :  a  Dominica;  autem 
mensa;  convivio  segregentur,  ut  hac  saltern  distiuctionecor- 
repti,  et  ipsi  iu  se  sua  errata  castigent,  et  aliis  exemplum 
tribuant,  qualenus  ab  obscccnis  cupiditalibus  retrahantur. 
Quibus  tamen,  (quia  carnali  fragilitate  ceciderunt,)  vialico 
munere,  cum  ad  Dominum  cccperint  proficisci,  per  comniu- 
niouis  gratiam  volumus  subveniri. 

'^  Cone.  Arelat.  2.  can.  21.  "  Cone.  Venetic.  can.  3. 

"  Cone.  Turon.  1.  can.  8. 

'*  Cone.  Aurelian.  1.  can.  11.   Ilerdense,  can.  5. 

'"Cone.  Tolet.  3.  can.  11.  Quoniam  comperimus  per 
3   z   1 


quasdam  Hispaniae  ecclesias,  non  secundum  canonem,  sed 
foedissirae  pro  suis  peccatis  homines  agere  pcenitentiam, 
ut  quoties  peccare  libuerit,  toties  a  presbyteris  se  recon- 
ciliari  expostulent :  et  ideo  pro  coercenda  taui  execrabili 
praesumptione  id  a  sancto  concilio  jubelur,  ut  secundum  for- 

mam  canouum  antiquorum  detur  poenitentia. Hi  vero, 

qui  ad  propria  vitia,  vel  infra  prcnitentiae  tempus,  vel  post 
reconciliationem,  relabuntur,  sectmdum  priorum  canouum 
severitatem  damnentur. 

"Cone.  Eliber.  can.  .3.  Item  flamines,  qui  non  imnio- 
laverint,  sed  munus  tantum  dederint,  eo  quod  se  a  funcstis 
abslinuerunt  sacriliciis,  placuit  eis  iu  fine  praestari  couimu- 
nionem,  acta  tamen  Icgitima  poenitentia. 

"  Ibid.  can.  13.  Si  omni  tempore  vitae  suaj  hnjusmudi 
fcemiuK  egerint  poeuitentiam,  placuit  eas  in  fine  accipere 
debere  communionem. 

'"Cone.  Neocoesar.  can.  2.    Twij  iau  ytifitirai  Svo  tiStX- 

(f>ol^,  s^wOtludto  lit\pl  ^aVUTOV,  K.T.X. 


107G 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVIII. 


that  she  shall  be  cast  out  of  communion  unto  death ; 
but  at  her  last  hour,  to  show  clemency  toward  her, 
if  she  promise  upon  her  recovery  to  dissolve  the 
marriage,  she  shall  have  the  benefit  of  repentance. 
The  first  council  of  Aries  ■"  inflicts  the  same  pun- 
ishment upon-  those  that  falsely  accuse  their  bre- 
thren, that  they  shall  not  communicate  to  the  hour 
of  death.  The  council  of  Ancyra"'  decrees  the  like 
for  such  married  men  as  are  guilty  of  bestiality 
after  they  are  fifty  years  old,  that  they  shall  not  be 
received  into  communion  till  the  end  of  their  life. 
The  council  of  Valence  "^  in  France  laid  the  same 
penalty  upon  some  that  fell  into  idolatry,  that  they 
should  do  penance  to  the  hour  of  death,  yet  not 
without  hopes  of  remission,  which  they  were  to  ex- 
pect more  fully  from  God,  who  was  the  donor  of  it. 
The  council  of  Lerida  -'  allows  the  inferior  clergy 
to  do  penance  for  a  first  offence,  and  regain  their 
office  upon  it :  but  if  they  return  like  dogs  to  their 
vomit,  and  as  swine  to  their  wallowing  in  the 
mire,  they  are  not  only  to  be  deprived  of  their  of- 
fice, but  of  the  communion  to  their  last  hour.  And 
so  Felix  III.,^^  bishop  of  Rome,  determined  in 
the  case  of  those  African  bishops,  presbyters  and 
deacons,  who  suffered  themselves  to  be  rebaptized 
by  the  Arians  in  the  Vandalic  persecution :  That 
they  continue  under  penance  to  the  day  of  their 
death ;  and  neither  be  present  at  the  prayers  of  the 
faithful,  nor  the  catechumens,  and  only  be  admit- 
ted to  lay  communion  at  the  point  of  death. 

3.  Another  instance  of  the  strict- 

such^aswere  ab-  ncss  and  Severity  of  the  ancient  dis- 
solved upon  a  death-      .    T        .       .  .   1     . 
bed,  were  obliged  to  ciplmc  IS  visiblc  lu  the  treatment  of 

perlorm  their   ordi-         ■*■ 

the'' rera" ered'  "  ^"^^'^^^  peuiteuts  as  wcrc  rcconciled 
upon  a  death-bed.  Though  they  were 
admitted  to  the  peace  and  communion  of  the 
church,  when  they  were  in  extreme  necessity,  and 
imminent  danger  of  death,  that  they  might  have 
their  viaticum  when  they  were  about  to  leave  the 
world;  yet  if  they  chanced  to  recover,  they  were 
obliged  to  perform  the  whole  penance,  more  or  less, 
whatever  it  was  which  they  should  have  done,  had 
not  such  an  exigency  procured  them  an  absolution. 
And  this  is  the  only  case,  in  which  the  ancient 


church  ever  allowed  any  absolution  to  be  granted 
before  the  penance  was  duly  and  regularly  per- 
formed. Which  being  an  extraordinary  case,  it  is 
nothing  to  those  who  think  to  justify  the  same  prac- 
tice now  in  ordinary  cases  :  but  of  this  more  here- 
after. As  to  the  present  observation,  that  penitents 
absolved  upon  a  death-bed  were,  upon  their  re- 
covery, reduced  to  the  same  state  of  penance, 
which  they  were  to  have  been  under  had  not  the 
necessity  of  sickness  required  their  absolution,  is 
evident  from  the  plain  testimony  of  several  coun- 
cils. The  council  of  Nice"^  orders  such  upon  their 
recovery  to  be  placed  among  those  that  communi- 
cated in  prayers  only ;  that  is,  in  the  fourth  rank 
of  penitents,  called  co-standers,  where  they  might 
stay  to  hear  the  prayers  of  the  faithful,  but  not  par- 
take of  the  oblation.  The  fourth  council  of  Car- 
thage has  two  canons  relating  to  them.  The  first 
says,^**  If  such  a  penitent  recover,  he  shall  be  sub- 
jected to  the  ordinary  laws  of  penance,  as  long  as 
the  priest  who  admitted  him  to  penance  shall  judge 
convenient.  The  other,^'  That  penitents,  who  in 
time  of  sickness  receive  the  inaticum  of  the  euchar- 
ist,  shall  not  think  themselves  absolved,  unless  they 
undergo  imposition  of  hands,  if  they  chance  to  re- 
cover :  that  is,  the  imposition  of  hands  which  was 
given  to  penitents  of  the  third  order,  called  pros- 
trators,  who  were  obhged  to  present  themselves 
every  day  at  church,  and  kneel  down  before  the 
bishop,  to  receive  the  solemn  imposition  of  hands, 
with  the  usual  penitential  prayers  and  benediction. 
The  first  council  of  Orange^  more  particularly  ex- 
plains the  whole  matter  in  this  form :  They  who  are 
about  to  leave  the  body,  when  they  are  doing  pe- 
nance, may  communicate  without  the  reconciliatory 
imposition  of  hands,  which  sort  of  communion  is 
sufficient  for  the  consolation  of  a  dying  person,  ac- 
cording to  the  decrees  of  the  fathers,  who  call  this 
kind  of  communion  their  viaticum.  But  if  they 
survive,  they  shall  stand  in  the  order  of  penitents, 
that  they  may  first  show  forth  the  necessary  fruits 
of  repentance,  and  then  be  received  to  communion 
in  the  ordinary  and  regular  way,  by  the  reconcili- 
atory imposition  of  hands.   The  council  of  Epone  '^ 


^^Conc.  Arelat.  1.  can.  14.  De  his  qui  falso  accusant 
fratres  suos,  placuit  eos  usque  ad  exitum  nnn  coinmunicare. 

^'  Cone.  Ancyr.  can.  16.  'Etti  t^  L^oom  tov  ftiov  -ruy- 
■)^avtTu>iTav  TJ}s  Koivioviai. 

^  Cone.  Valentin,  an.  374.  can.  .3.  Usque  in  diem  mortis 
acturi  pcEnileutiani,  non  sine  spe  tamen  remissionis,  &c. 

2^  Cone.  Ilerdens.  can.  5.  Si  iterate,  velut  canes  ad  vomi- 
tum,  reversi  fuerint,  &c.,  non  solum  diguitate  officii  careant, 
sod  etiam  sanetam  communionem,  nisi  in  exitu,  non  per- 
cipiant. 

-^  Felic.  III.  in  Cone.  Rom.  cap.  2.  Usque  ad  exitiis  sui 
diem  in  pcenitentia  jacere  conveniet;  nee  orationi  niodo 
iiflelium,  sed  nee  catechumenorum  omnimodis  interesse 
quibus  commiinio  laica  tantum  in  morte  reddenda  est. 

"-'  Cone.  Nic.  can.  13. 

-'•  Cone.  Carth.  4.  can.  7G.    Si  supervixerit,  subdatiir  sta- 


tutis  poenitentia;  legibus,  quamdiu  sacerdos,  qui  poenitentiam 
dederit,  probaverit. 

-'  Ibid.  can.  78.  Pcenitentes,  qui  in  infirmitate  viaticum 
eucharistia;  aeceperint,  non  se  credant  absolutes  sine  manus 
impositione,  si  supervixerint. 

"•*  Cone.  Arausican.  1.  can.  3.  Qui  recedunt  de  corpora, 
poenitentia  aceepta,  placuit  sine  reconciliatoria  manus  im- 
positione eos  coinmunicare,  quod  morientis  suffieit  consola- 
tioni  secundum  definitiones  patrum,  qui  hujusmodi  com- 
munionem congrucnter  viaticum  nominaverunt.  Quod  si 
supervixerint,  stent  in  ordine  poenitentium,  ut  ostensis  ne- 
cessariis  pcEnitentia;  fructibus,  legitimam  communionem 
cum  reconciliatoria  manus  impositione  reeipiant. 

2"  Cone.  Epaunens.  can.  36.  Ne  ullus  sine  remedio  aut 
spe  venia;  ab  ecelcsia  repellatnr ;  neve  ulli,  si  aut  poenitue- 
rit,  aut  sc  correxcrit,  ad  vcniam  redeuudi  aditus  obstruatur: 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1077 


speaks  much  after  the  same  manner  :  That  no  one 
should  be  repelled  from  or  by  the  church  without 
remedy,  or  hopes  of  pardon,  nor  the  door  of  return- 
ing to  pardon  be  shut  against  one  that  repents  and 
corrects  his  errors  :  and  if  any  one  be  in  imminent 
danger  of  death,  the  time  prescribed  for  his  con- 
demnation or  penance  shall  be  relaxed.  Hut  if  it 
happens,  that  the  sick  man  recovers  after  he  has 
received  his  viaticum,  he  must  observe  and  fulfil 
the  time  of  penance  that  was  appointed  him.  Gre- 
gory Nyssen's  canon'"  is  much  to  the  same  pur- 
pose :  If  any  one  be  in  imminent  danger  of  death, 
who  has  not  gone  through  the  whole  time  appoint- 
ed for  his  penance  ;  the  clemency  of  the  fathers  in 
that  case  has  decreed,  that  he  shall  not  take  his 
long  journey  (out  of  the  world)  without  his  viati- 
cum or  provision  for  it,  nor  without  partaking  of 
the  holy  mysteries.  But  if  after  participation  he 
recover  from  his  sickness,  he  must  then  continue 
the  time  appointed  in  that  order  or  station  of  peni- 
tents, in  which  he  was  when  this  necessity  and  dan- 
ger came  upon  him.  To  all  these  may  be  added 
the  decree  of  the  Roman  council  under  Felix  III., 
anno  487,  which  renews"  the  determination  of  the 
Nicene  fathers.  That  if  any  of  those  who  had  been 
admitted  to  communion  before  the  fixed  time  of 
their  penance  was  completed,  because  their  life  was 
despaired  of  by  the  physicians,  and  evident  signs 
of  death  were  upon  them,  should  happen  afterwards 
to  recover,  they  should  at  least  continue  in  the 
fourth  rank  of  penitents,  among  those  that  commu- 
nicated only  in  prayers  without  the  oblation,  till 
the  full  term  of  their  penance  was  ended. 

sp(,,  ^  But  some  sinners  were  yet  more 

n\"iTomm^^^onli  scvcrcly  handled;  for  they  were  de- 

their  last  hour.  •     -\  •  x       xT  1x1 

nied  communion  to  the  very  last,  and 
suffered  to  go  out  of  the  world  without  any  manner 
of  reconciliation.  This  discipline  was  generally 
used  at  first  toward  the  three  great  sins  of  idolatry, 
adultery,  and  murder,  which,  as  learned  men  agree,'- 


continued  almost  to  the  time  of  Cyprian.  Cyprian 
himself  assures  us,^'  that  many  of  his  predecessors 
absolutely  refused  to  admit  adulterers  to  communion 
at  their  very  last  hour.  And  though  this  rigour 
was  abated  by  general  agreement  toward  penitents 
in  his  time,  yet  they  still  continued  to  deny  commu- 
nion to  the  very  last  to  such  apostates,  as  persisted 
obstinate  and  impenitent  all  their  lives,  and  only 
desired  reconciliation  when  the  pangs  of  death  were 
upon  them.  They,  says  he,"  who  do  no  penance, 
nor  ever  testify  any  sorrow  for  their  sin  from  their 
heart  by  manifest  professions  of  lamentation,  though 
they  begin  to  deprecate  and  sue  for  pardon  when 
infirmity  and  the  danger  of  death  is  upon  them,  sucli 
we  think  fit  absolutely  to  debar  from  all  hopes  of 
communion  and  peace :  because  it  is  not  repentance 
for  their  sins,  but  only  the  apprehension  and  terror 
of  approaching  death,  that  compels  them  to  ask  par- 
don ;  and  he  is  not  worthy  to  receive  consolation 
at  his  death,  who  would  not  beforehand  consider 
that  he  must  shortly  die.  We  find  this  rule  con- 
cerning apostates  some  time  after  renewed  by  the 
first  council  of  Aries,  where  a  decree  was  passed, 
That  such  apostates^  as  never  presented  themselves 
to  the  chm'ch,  nor  sought  to  do  any  manner  of  pe- 
nance, but  at  last,  when  they  were  seized  with  an 
infirmity,  desired  to  have  the  communion,  should 
in  that  case  be  debarred  from  it,  unless  they  re- 
covered, and  brought  forth  fruits  worthy  of  repent- 
ance. And  Innocent,  bishop  of  Rome,'''  plainly  says, 
this  was  the  primitive  custom  for  the  three  first  ages 
of  persecution:  If  any  one  after  baptism  spent  his 
whole  life  in  intemperance  and  pleasure,  and  in  the 
end  of  his  days  desired  penance  and  the  reconcilia- 
tion of  communion,  they  only  admitted  him  to  pe- 
nance, but  absolutely  denied  him  communion.  For 
in  those  days,  persecutions  being  very  frequent,  lest 
the  easiness  of  obtaining  communion  should  make 
men  secure  of  reconciliation,  and  retard  their  re- 
turning  from   sin,  communion  was  justly  denied 


et  si  cuiquam  forsitan  discrimen  mortis  immineat,  damna- 
tionis  constituta3  tempora  relaxentiir.  Quod  si  aegrotiim, 
accepto  viatico,  revalescere  fortasse  contingit,  statuti  tem- 
poris  spatia  observare  conveniet. 

**  Nyssen.  Ep.  ad  Letoiura,  can.  5. 

"  Cone.  Rom.  can.  4.  Quod  si  ante  proefinitum  poeni- 
tentiae  tempus  desperatus  a  medicis,  aut  evidentibus  mortis 
pressus  indiciis,  recepta  quisquam  communionis  gratia  con- 
valescal ;  servemus  in  eo  quod  Niceni  canones  ordinave- 
runt,  ut  habeatur  inter  eos  qui  in  oratione  sola  communicant, 
donee  impleatur  spatium  teniporis  eidem  prxstitutum. 

^■-  Vid.  Albaspin.  Observat.  lib.  '2.  cap.  7  ad  20.  Bona, 
Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  1.  cap.  17.  n.  ].  Fell.  Not.  in  Cypr.  Ep. 
8.  p.  17. 

'•''  Cypr.  Ep.  55.  ad  Antonian.  p.  110.  Et  quidem  apud 
antecpssores  nostros  quidam  de  episcopis  istic  in  provincia 
nostra  dandam  pacem  mcechis  non  putaverunt,  et  in  totum 
pamitentia;  locum  contra  adulteria  clauserunt. 

•■"  Ibid.  p.  111.  Pcenitentiam  non  ajientes,  nee  dolorem 
delictorum  suorum  toto  corde  et  manil'esta  lamentationis 


suae  professione  testantes,  prohibendos  omnino  censuimus  a 
spe  communicationis  et  pacis,  si  in  infirmitate  ct  periculo 
coeperint  dcprecari :  quia  rogare  illos  non  delicti  pcenitentia, 
sed  mortis  urgentis  admonitio  compellit :  nee  dignus  est  in 
morte  aecipere  solatium,  qui  se  non  cogitavit  esse  moriturum. 

^  Cone.  Arelat.  1.  can.  23.  De  his  qui  apostatant,  et 
nunquam  se  ad  ecclesiam  repra;sentant,  nee  quidem  pceni- 
tentiam agere  quccrunt,  et  postea  in  infirmitate  arrepti  pe- 
tunt  eommunioncm,  plaeuit,  eis  non  dandam  communionem, 
nisi  revaluerint,  et  egerint  dignos  frnctus  poenitentia;. 

'"  Innoc.  Ep.  3.  ad  Exuperium,  cap.  2.  Et  hoc  qua!situm 
est,  quid  de  his  observari  debeat,  qui  post  baptismum  omni 
tempore  intemperantinc  et  voluptatibus  dediti,  in  e.xtrenio 
fine  vita;  suae  pcenitentiam  simul  ct  reeoneiliationem  com- 
munionis exposeunt.  De  his  observatio  prior,  durior;  pos- 
terior, interveniente  misericordia,  inclinatior  est.  Nam 
consuctudo  prior  tenuit,  >it  concedoretur  eis  poenitcntia,  sed 
communioncjj;aretur. — Sed  poslquam  Dominusnoster  pacem 
ecclesiis  suis  reddidit,  jam  dcpidso  torrore,  communiunem 
dari  abeuntibus  plaeuit,  &c. 


1078 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVIII. 


(hem,  and  only  penance  allowed  them,  that  they 
might  not  be  deprived  of  the  whole  :  the  considera- 
tion of  the  times  made  their  remission  or  reconcili- 
ation more  difficult  to  be  obtained ;  but  after  the 
Lord  had  granted  peace  to  his  church,  and  the  terror 
of  persecution  was  over,  then  it  seemed  good  to  the 
church  to  receive  all  such  to  communion  when  they 
were  going  out  of  the  world,  and  for  the  mercy  of 
the  Lord  to  grant  it  to  them  as  their  viaticum  or 
provision  for  their  journey,  lest  we  should  seem  to 
follow  the  asperity  and  hardness  of  Novatian  the 
heretic,  who  denied  men  pardon  for  greater  sins 
committed  after  baptism.  The  canons  of  the  coun- 
cil of  Ehberis  do  abundantly  confirm  this  observation 
made  by  Pope  Innocent  upon  the  preceding  ages  of 
persecution;  for  there  are  at  least  twenty  canons 
in  that  council,  which  deny  communion  to  the  very 
last  to  several  sorts  of  sinners,  whose  crimes  were 
either  doubled  and  tripled,  or  single  crimes  of  a  more 
flagrant  scandal  and  heinous  provocation.  Thus 
the  first  canon  determines^"  in  the  case  of  voluntary 
idolaters  and  apostates,  who,  without  any  compul- 
sion, went  of  their  own  accord  to  the  temple,  and 
offered  sacrifice :  this  being  a  more  heinous  and 
capital  offence,  than  bare  sacrificing  by  the  violence 
and  force  of  torture,  it  is  ordered,  that  such  apos- 
tates shall  not  have  the  communion  even  at  their 
last  hour.  The  next  canon'*  inflicts  the  same 
punishment  upon  such  idolaters  as  are  guilty  of  a 
complication  of  crimes  ;  as  when  a  Christian  takes 
upon  him  the  office  of  a  Jlamen,  or  heathen  high 
priest,  and  therein  adds  to  his  idolatry  eithei"  adul- 
tery or  murder.  So  if  a  man  kills  another  by  sor- 
cery, because  there  is  idolatry  joined  with  murder, 
he  is  not  to  have  the  communion '^  even  at  the  hour 
of  death.  If  a  man,  whilst  he  is  doing  penance  for 
idolatry  or  adultery,  relapses  into  the  same,'"'  or  any 
other  great  crime,  this  repetition  of  his  crime  in 
such  a  case  debars  him  from  communion  at  his  last 
hour.  Another  canon"  orders  the  Uke  severity  to 
be  used  towards  women,  who,  without  cause,  for- 
sake their  own  husbands,  and  are  married  to  other 


5'  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  1.  Placuit,  ut  qnicunque  post  fideni 
baptismi  salutaris,  adulta  eetate,  ad  templum  idololatraturiis 
accesserit,  et  i'ecoiit,  qnod  est  crimen  capitale,  nee  in  fine 
eum  communionem  accipere. 

^  Ibid.  can.  2.  Flamines  qui  post  fidem  lavacri  et  re- 
generationissacrificaverunt:  eo  quod  geminaverint  scelera, 
accedente  homieidio,  vel  triplicaverint  facinus,  cohajrente 
moechia,  placuit  eos  nee  in  fine  accipere  communionem. 

^'  Ibid.  can.  6.  Si  quis  maleficio  interficiat  alterum,  eo 
quod  sine  idololatria  perficore  scelus  non  potuit,  nee  in 
line  impeitiondam  esse  illi  communionem. 

'"  Ibid.  can.  .S.  sect.  7.    See  these  canons  before,  sect.  1. 

"  Ibid.  can.  8.  Foemium,  quoc,  nulla  pra^cedente  causa, 
reliqueriut  viros  suos,  et  se  copulaverint  alteris,  nee  in  fine 
accipiant  communionem. 

'-  Ibid.  can.  10.  Si  liicrit  fidelis,  qux'  ducitur  ab  eo  qui 
uxoreni  inculpatam  reliquit,  et  cum  scierit  ilium  habere 
uxorem  quam  sine  causa  reliquit,  placuit,  huic  ncc  in  fine 


men.  And  the  same  is  determined  in  case  a  woman" 
is  married  to  a  man,  whom  she  knows  to  have  un- 
lawfully divorced  himself  from  a  former  wife  :  both 
these  sorts  are  denied  communion  to  the  very  last. 
Another  canon"  subjects  all  panders  and  promoters 
of  uncleanness  to  the  same  penalty,  whether  it  be  a 
father,  or  mother,  or  any  other  Christian,  that  ex- 
ercises this  abominable  trade :  because  they  sell  the 
bodies  of  others,  or  rather  their  own,  they  are  not 
to  have  communion  even  at  their  last  hour.  The 
same  is  determined"  in  the  case  of  a  virgin  dedi- 
cated to  God ;  if  she  commits  fornication,  and  con- 
tinues in  her  uncleanness  without  reflecting  upon 
what  she  has  done,  there  is  no  absolution  for  her 
in  her  last  minutes.  As  neither  for  the  man  "  that 
marries  his  daughter  to  any  idol-priest.  Nor  for 
any  bishop,  presbyter,  or  deacon,  that  commits 
adultery^''  whilst  he  is  actually  in  the  ministry,  both 
because  of  the  scandal,  and  also  the  wickedness 
and  profaneness  of  the  crime  itself.  So  if  a  woman 
commits  adultery  in  her  husband's  absence,  and 
murders  her  infant,"  she  is  not  to  have  communion 
at  the  very  last,  because  she  doubles  her  crime.  In 
like  manner  a  woman  is  to  be  treated,^*  that  lives 
in  adultery  all  her  life  v.ith  another  man.  And  also 
any  clergyman,^"  that  knows  his  wife  to  be  guilty  of 
adultery,  and  does  not  immediately  put  her  away  ; 
lest  they,  who  ought  to  be  examples  of  good  con- 
versation to  others,  should  seem  to  teach  others  the 
way  to  sin.  The  same  punishment*"  is  awarded 
to  any  one  that  commits  incest,  by  marrying  his 
wife's  daughter  by  a  former  husband.  And  to 
such  as  are  conscious^'  and  consenting  to  their 
wife's  adulte^J^  And  to  all  that  commit  sodomy  " 
with  boys;  and  to  women  who  commit  adultery 
with  any  man,  and  afterwards  marry*'  another 
husband,  and  not  the  man  who  defiled  them.  If 
any  one  turn  informer  against  his  brethren,  so  that 
they  suflfer*^  banishment,  confiscation,  or  death,  by 
his  information,  he  is  not  to  have  communion  at  his 
last  hour.  If  any  one  accuse  a  bishop,  presbyter, 
or  deacon,  of  false  crimes,"  and  do  not  make  out 


dandam  esse  communionem. 

"  Ibid.  can.  12.  Mater,  vel  parens,  vel  quaelibef  fidelis,  si 
lenociniume.\ercuerit,eoquod  alienumvendiderit corpus,  vel 
potius  suum,  placuit,  eas  nee  in  fine  accipere  communionem. 

■"  Ibid.  can.  13.  Virgines,  quae  se  Deo  dicaverint,  si 
pactum  perdiderint  virgiuitatis,  atque  eidem  libidini  ser- 
vierint,  non  intelligentes  quod  amiserint,  placuit,  nee  in 
fine  eis  dandam  esse  communionem. 

*'^  Ibid.  can.  17.  Si  qui  forte  sacerdotibus  idolorum  filias 
suas  junxerint,  placuit,  nee  in  fine  eis  dandam  esse  com- 
numionem. 

■"^  Ibid.  can.  18.  Episcopi,  presbyteri,  diaconi,  si  in 
ministerio  positi,  detecti  fuerint  quod  sint  moechati,  placuit, 
et  propter  scandalum,  et  propter  profanuni  crimen,  nee  in 
fine  eos  counnunionem  accipere  dcbere. 

"  Ibid.  can.  63.  <«  Can.  64.  ■"•  Can.  65. 

■'"Can.  60.  •"  Can.  70.  "  Can.  71. 

^^  Can.  72.  ■"'  Can.  73.  "  Can.  lb. 


ClIAl'.     IV. 


ANTIQU1TII-:S  OF  TllK  CHRISTIAN  CIII'UCH. 


1079 


w  hat  he  alleges  against  them,  he  also  is  to  be  denied 
I'onimunion  to  the  very  last.  I  have  represented  these 
things  at  large,  both  to  evidence  the  thing  now  as- 
serted, and  also  to  show  what  sort  of  heinous  crimes 
those  were,  for  which  this  great  severity  of  discipHne 
was  used  toward  men  at  their  last  hour.  Some 
learned  persons  are  offended  at  this  council  for  its 
extreme  severity  and  rigour.  Auxilius*^  heretofore 
brought  the  charge  of  Novatianism  against  Hosius 
and  the  council  together.  And  Suicerus"  asserts, 
that  the  orthodox  church  always  taught,  that  lapsers 
were  to  be  received  into  communion  upon  their  re- 
pentance. Which,  in  effect,  is  to  bring  the  charge 
of  Novatianism  against  this  council,  and  to  make 
it  no  part  of  the  orthodox  church.  But  then  the 
difficulty  will  be,  how  to  clear  Cyprian  and  the 
council  of  Aries  from  the  same  charge  of  Nova- 
tianism ;  for  it  is  plain  they  were  in  the  same 
sentiments  as  to  what  concerned  apostates,  who 
neglected  penance  to  the  hour  of  death:  and  not 
only  they,  but  the  great  council  of  Sardica,  which 
restored  Athanasius,  will  be  involved  in  the  same 
condemnation ;  for  there  is  a  canon  in  that  coun- 
cil which  is  as  peremptory  in  this  matter  as  any  in 
the  council  of  Eliberis.  The  canon '^  orders,  That 
if  any  bishop,  out  of  ambition  or  covetousness,  pro- 
cure himself  to  be  removed  from  a  lesser  city  to  a 
greater,  without  the  approbation  of  a  synod,  he 
shall  not  be  admitted  even  to  lay  communion  at  his 
last  hour.  So  that  if  this  were  Novatianism,  there 
is  no  apology  to  be  made  for  this  council,  no  more 
than  for  that  of  Eliberis ;  the  decrees  of  both  coun- 
cils being  the  very  same,  and  of  equal  severity 
toward  extraordinary  offenders.  The  Novatians 
indeed  sometimes  laid  hold  of  this  practice  in  the 
church,  as  a  handle  to  justify  their  own  unwarrant- 
able proceedings  against  all  great  sins  committed 
after  baptism ;  they  said,  they  only  treated  the 
laity  as  the  catholics  did  the  clergy,  whom  for  se- 
veral crimes  they  debarred  from  all  communion  to 
the  very  last :  for  so  Socrates  tells  us,'*''  Asclepiades, 
the  Novatian  bishop,  argued  with  Atticus,  bishop  of 
Constantinople :  when  Atticus  acknowledged,  that 
communion  might  reasonably  be  denied  even  at  the 
point  of  death  to  such  as  sacrificed  to  idols,  and 
that  he  himself  had  sometimes  done  so;  Asclepiades 
replied,  There  are  many  other  sins  unto  death,  as 
the  Scripture  calls  them,  besides  sacrificing  to  idols, 
for  which  ye  shut  the  clergy  out  of  the  chm'ch,  and 
we  the  laity,  remitting  them  over  to  God  alone  for 
their  pardon. 

But  this  was  only  a  sophistical  ar- 


Sect.  5. 
w  thii 
vindicated 
cleared   fr< 
charge  of  Novatian 


imposed  upon  many  learned  men,  and 


driven  tliem  to  strange  dilhcullies  in  explaining 
many  of  the  ancient  canons,  and  obliged  them  to 
put  a  forced  and  unnatural  sense  upon  plain  words, 
for  fear  they  should  seem  to  enceurage  the  same 
error  as  Novatian  held;  yet  the  fallacy  will  easily 
be  discerned  by  a  right  stating  the  matter,  and  set- 
ting things  in  a  i)roper  light  before  the  reader.  The 
question  between  the  church  and  the  Novatians 
was  not,  whether  communion  at  the  hour  of  death 
might  be  denied  to  some  sort  of  sinners  ;  for  in  this 
they  both  agreed,  and  the  practice  of  the  church  in 
many  cases  was  no  less  severe  toward  some  great 
and  flagrant  crimes,  or  a  complication  of  crimes, 
than  was  that  of  the  Novatians,  as  evidently  ap- 
pears from  what  has  been  already  discoursed.  But 
the  question  was  about  the  ministerial  power  of  ab- 
solution, or  admitting  penitent  sinners  to  the  peace 
and  communion  of  the  church  again,  after  they  had 
lapsed  or  fallen  into  any  great  sin  after  baptism. 
The  Novatians  stiffly  maintained,  that  the  church 
had  no  such  ministerial  power  of  the  keys  commit- 
ted to  her ;  but  that  all  such  sinners  were  for  ever 
to  be  excluded  and  kept  out  of  her  communion ; 
and  that  if  she  admitted  any  of  them  ag.ain,  her 
communion  was  polluted  and  profaned  by  their 
contagion  :  and  upon  this  principle  they  made  a 
separation  from  the  church,  as  infected  by  the  com- 
munion of  sinners.  The  church,  on  the  other  hand, 
asserted  her  own  just  right  and  power,  that,  by  the 
commission  of  the  keys  from  Christ,  she  had  power 
to  loose  as  well  as  bind ;  to  receive  penitents  into 
the  church  upon  their  reformation,  as  well  as  cast 
out  flagitious  men  for  their  notorious  transgres- 
sions :  and  though  in  some  extraordinary  cases, 
either  where  the  crimes  were  very  heinous  and  nu- 
merous, or  where  for  want  of  time  she  could  not 
have  sufficient  evidence  of  men's  repentance,  when 
they  continued  in  their  apostacy  and  impenitency 
till  they  were  threatened  by  death,  she  sometimes 
suffered  such  men  to  go  out  of  the  world  without 
reconciliation  and  communion ;  yet  she  did  not  this 
for  want  of  power  to  receive  sinners  into  her  com- 
munion, but  because  she  judged  it  more  proper  to 
let  her  censures  continue  upon  such  to  the  very 
last,  to  be  an  example  and  terror  to  others.  So  that 
though  the  practice  of  the  church  and  the  Nova- 
tians was  in  some  cases  the  same,  yet  their  princi- 
ples were  very  different,  and  vastly  wide  of  one 
another.  The  Novatians  wholly  denied  this  power 
to  the  church,  and  made  a  schism  upon  it ;  the 
church  maintained  her  own  just  power,  and  used  it 
with  discretion,  sometimes  one  way,  and  sometimes 
another,  as  she  judged  most  expedient  in  her  own 
wisdom  for  the  benefit  and  edification  of  sinners, 
without  dividing  communion  upon  this  point  among 


^'^  Auxil.  do  Ordinat.  Formosi,  lib.  1.  cap.   12  ct  14.  lib. 
2.  cap.  23. 
^~  Suicer.  Thesaur.  Eccles.  voce  M£t«i/oi«,  p.  357. 


^  Cone.  Sardic.  can.  2.    Mf)5e  ii>  tiS  t/Xji  XaiVt/e  yoOi> 
a^iovcrdai  Koiuwvia^. 
s»  Socrat.  lib.  7.  cap.  25. 


1030 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVII  I. 


the  governors  of  the  church,  whatever  way  they 
thought  fit  to  practise.  This  is  what  Cyprian  ob- 
serves chiefly  against  Novatian™  in  the  case  of  ad- 
mitting and  not  admitting  adulterers  to  communion. 
Some  of  our  predecessors,  says  he,  in  this  province 
were  of  opinion,  that  peace  was  not  to  be  granted 
to  adulterers,  and  therefore  they  wholly  shut  the 
door  of  repentance  against  adultery ;  yet  they  did 
not  depart  from  the  college  of  their  fellow  bishops 
upon  this  account,  or  break  the  unity  of  the  catho- 
lic church  by  any  obstinate  stiffness  in  their  cen- 
sure; so  as  that  because  peace  was  granted  by 
others  to  adulterers,  therefore  they  who  would  not 
grant  it  should  make  a  separation  from  the  church. 
But  the  bond  of  concord  remaining  entire,  and  the 
mystical  unity  of  the  catholic  church  continuing 
undivided,  every  bishop  managed  and  directed  his 
own  acts  of  discipline  as  he  thought  proper,  being 
to  give  an  account  of  his  resolutions  and  manage- 
ment to  the  Lord.  It  appears  from  hence,  that  the 
dispute  between  the  church  and  the  Novatians  was 
not  barely  about  practice,  but  about  principles  and 
the  power  of  the  church,  in  the  use  and  management 
of  the  keys  of  discipline ;  and  therefore,  though  the 
church  sometimes  did  the  same  thing  that  the  No- 
vatians did,  in  refusing  communion  to  some  sin- 
ners even  at  the  point  of  death,  yet  she  was  no  ways 
chargeable  with  Novatianism,  because  she  acted 
upon  different  views  and  principles,  and  only  made 
use  of  her  just  power  in  a  discretionary  way,  to  ex- 
tend or  contract  her  censures,  as  she  judged  most 
expedient  for  the  benefit  and  edification  of  the 
whole  community,  or  any  particular  member  of  it. 
And  thus,  I  find,  many  learned  men,  such  as  Albas- 
pinffius,"'  Bishop  Beveridge,"-  and  Cardinal  Bona,*^ 
have  accounted  for  this  seeming  difficulty  in  the 
church's  practice,  which  has  so  tortured  the  wits 
of  other  men,  for  want  of  understanding  wherein 
the  true  nature  of  the  Novatian  heresy  consisted  : 
some  fancying,  that  the  fathers  in  and  before  the 
council  of  Eliberis  were  downright  Novatians ; 
others,  that  they  allowed  men  reconciliation,  and 
peace,  and  absolution,  but  only  denied  them  the 
communion  of  the  eucharist  at  their  last  hour ; 
whereas  nothing  can  be  plainer,  than  that  they  de- 
nied them  not  only  the  communion,  as  it  denotes 


Sect.  6. 
This  rigour  abated 
in  after  ages  without 
any  reflection  on 
tile  preceding  prac- 
tice. 


the  eucharist,  but  all  manner  of  ministerial  recon- 
ciliation, pardon,  absolution,  and  readmission  into 
the  society  of  the  faithful. 

This  rigour,  indeed,  was  abated  in 
the  practice  of  the  following  ages,  but 
without  the  least  reflection  on  those 
that  went  before  them  :  because  they 
were  sensible  it  was  at  the  church's  liberty  to  order 
this  part  of  discipline  according  to  her  own  pru- 
dence, and  act  as  the  circumstances  of  times  and 
the  state  of  affairs  required;  judging  the  times  of 
peace  to  be  different  from  times  of  persecution,  and 
that  some  abatement  was  to  be  made  in  this  matter, 
when  all  the  world  was  become  Christian.  The 
later  councils,  therefore,  are  not  so  stiff  in  requiring 
the  execution  of  the  ancient  canons  in  this  particu- 
lar, but  allow  every  penitent  communion  at  their 
last  hour,  though  they  would  not  undertake  to 
assure  them  what  effect  an  absolution  in  such  ex- 
tremity should  have  before  God.  The  canons  are 
very  numerous  upon  this  head :  it  will  be  sufficient 
to  mention  one  or  two  as  a  specimen  of  all  the  rest. 
The  council  of  Agde  "*  speaks  in  general  terms  with- 
out exception :  No  penitents  are  to  be  denied  their 
viaticum,  or  provision  for  their  jom-ney,  at  the  point 
of  death.  The  first  council  of  Orange  as  univer- 
sally, making  no  distinction  :  Whoever''*  accept  of 
penance,  when  they  depart  from  the  body,  let  them 
be  received  to  communion  ;  but  without  the  solemn 
imposition  of  hands,  which  is  only  to  be  given  them, 
if  they  recover,  upon  performing  their  just  penance 
in  the  church.  The  fourth  cou«cil  of  Carthage^* 
orders.  That  they  shall  have  both  the  solemn  impo- 
sition of  hands,  and  the  eucharist  also,  even  though 
they  had  lost  their  senses  or  were  struck  dumb  with 
their  disease,  if  any  about  them  could  testify  that 
they  desired  penance  in  their  sickness.  And  this 
was  agreeable  to  the  rule  made  in  the  great  council 
of  Nice,"  That  no  one  at  the  point  of  death  should 
be  deprived  of  his  final  and  most  necessary  viaticum, 
the  eucharist  or  oblation,  as  it  is  explained  in  the 
close  of  the  canon,  where  the  bishop  is  made  judge 
of  his  repentance.  Upon  this  ground  Synesius^ 
says,  he  never  let  any  one  go  out  of  the  world 
bound  with  the  bonds  of  anathema,  if  they  desired 
absolution;  only,  if  they  recovered,  he  reserved  them 


""  Cypr.  Ep.  55.  ad  Antonian.  p.  110.  Et  quidem  apud 
antecessores  nostros  quidam  de  episcopis  istic  in  provincia 
nostra  daiidam  pacem  mcechis  noii  putaverunt,  et  in  totum 
pcenitentia;  locum  contra  atlulteria  clauserunt ;  nontamen  a 
coepiscoporum  suonim  collegio  recesseruut,  aut  eatholica; 
ccclesia;  unitatem  vel  duritisc  vel  censura;  sua;  obstinatione 
ruperunt,  &c. 

•^i  Albaspin.  Observat.  lib.  2.  cap.  21. 

"'^  Bevereg.  Not.  ad  can.  8.  Cone.  Nic.  p.  G8. 

"^  Bona,  lier.  Liturg.  lib.  2.  can.  17.  n.  3. 

'^'  Cone.  Agathen.  can.  15.  Viaticum  omnibus  in  mortc 
positis  non  est  negandum. 

^  Cone.  Arausic.  1.   can.  3.     Qui  recodunt  dc   corpora, 


pcenitentia  accepta,  placuit,  sine  reconciliatoria  manus  im- 
positione  communicare,  quod  morientis  sufficit  consola- 
tioni,  &c. 

""  Cone.  Carth.  4.  can.  76.  Qui  poenitentiara  in  infirmitate 
petit,  si  casuduin  ad  eumsacerdos  invitatus  venit,  oppressus 
infirmitate  obniutuerit,  vel  in  plirenesin  versus  fuerit,  dent 
testimonium  qui  eum  audierunt,  et  aceipiat  pcenitentiam ;  et 
si  continuo  creditur  moriturus,  reconcilietiir  per  manus  ini- 
pnsitionem,  et  ori  ejus  infundatur  eucharistia. 

''"  Cone.  Nicoen.  can.  13.  El'  tis  t^oot uot,  xoD  TtKtvTuiov 
KUL  avayKaioTdnrov  l({)oSiov  /xt)  uTroaTiptlia-OaL. 

'•^  Synes.  Ep.  G7.  ad  Theopliilum,  p.  252.  Mii^tis  yuo 
dTrui}duoi  ot&i/Jitvo^  ijxoi. 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1081 


to  the  disposition  of  his  metropoHtan  of  Alexandria. 
And  this  confirms  the  remark  made  in  general  by 
Pope  Innocent'*  upon  the  different  practices  of  the 
church  in  times  of  persecution  and  times  of  peace. 
The  former  obsers-ation  was  more  severe,  the  latter 
more  indulgent.  In  ancient  times  many  sinners 
were  denied  communion  at  the  hour  of  death :  but 
in  his  time  they  granted  penance  to  all,  and  admitted 
them  to  communion  upon  a  death-bed  repentance. 
Only  they  did  not  think  this  so  safe  as  the  per- 
formance of  a  regular  penance  in  their  life-time ; 
and  therefore  they  would  not  pronounce  any  thing 
confidently  of  their  condition.  There  goes  an  an- 
cient homily  under  the  name  of  St.  Austin,  and  it 
is  also  attributed  to  St.  Ambrose,  where  this  matter 
is  thus  delivered:  If  a  man  repents  at  his  last  hour, 
and  is  reconciled,  and  so  dies,  I  am  not'"  secure  that 
this  man  goes  hence  securely :  I  can  admit  him  to 
penance,  but  I  can  give  him  no  security.  Do  I  say 
he  shall  be  damned  ?  I  do  not  say  it ;  but  neither 
do  I  say  he  shall  be  saved.  What  then  do  I  say  ? 
I  know  not,  I  presume  not,  I  promise  not.  For  I 
know  not  the  will  of  God.  Would  you  free  your- 
self from  all  doubt,  and  avoid  that  which  is  uncer- 
tain ?  Repent  whilst  you  are  in  health,  and  you 
will  be  secure  when  your  last  day  finds  you ;  be- 
cause you  repent  in  a  time  when  you  had  power  to 
sin :  but  if  you  then  only  begin  to  repent,  when  you 
can  sin  no  longer,  it  is  not  so  much  you  that  forsake 
your  sins,  as  your  sins  forsake  you.  By  all  this  it 
plainly  appears,  that  the  church  used  a  liberty  of 
discretion  in  treating  sinners  of  the  first  rank,  either 
with  severity  or  tenderness,  as  she  judged  expedient 
for  the  ends  of  discipline,  or  the  benefit  and  edifi- 
cation of  the  sinner. 

Indeed  we  may  observe,  that  a  great 
wha Miberiy  was  latitude  and  liberty  was  allowed  to 

allowed  to  bishops  in    ,  .    -  ,  ,  .  .     , 

imposing  pename,  bishoDS,  who  Were  the  prime  mmisters 

and  exacting  proper  ^  *■ 

satisfaction  of  sin-  gf  discipHue,  to  rcudcr  it  more  rigorous 

iiers.    Some  sinners  r  '  o 

ftZfJL^°  ^^'  or  easy,  as  they  thought  fit  to  regulate 
the  exercise  of  it  in  their  own  discre- 
tion. For  though  it  was  necessary  in  general  for 
sinners  to  demonstrate  their  repentance  to  the 
church,  in  order  to  give  her  satisfaction,  and  gain 
themselves  readmission ;  yet  the  method  of  doing 
this  was  not  so  precisely  prescribed,  but  that  bishops 
had  power  to  add  to  or  abate  something  in  the 
measures  of  it.  Therefore,  though  the  general  cus- 
tom was  to  allow  sinners  to  do  public  penance  but 
once  in  the  church,  yet  there  are  some  instances,  in 


the  most  strict  and  j)rimitive  ages,  of  sinners  being 
admitted  twice  to  this  privilege.  For  IrenEDus" 
says,  Cerdon  the  heretic  more  than  once  made  con- 
fession of  his  heresy.  Which  we  are  to  understand 
of  his  doing  penance  twice  for  his  errors  by  making 
a  public  recantation  of  them.  Tertullian  says  the 
same  of  Valentinus  and  Marcion,  that  they  were" 
once  and  again  cast  out  of  the  church  for  their  tur- 
bulent curiosity  in  corrupting  the  brethren,  before 
they  broke  out  into  their  last  dissension,  when  they 
scattered  the  poison  of  their  doctrines  among  the 
people.  And  yet  after  that  Marcion  did  penance, 
and  was  to  have  been  received  into  the  communion 
of  the  church  again,  ujion  condition  that  he  should 
bring  back  those  whom  he  had  led  into  perdition  ; 
which  he  intended  to  do,  but  death  prevented  him. 
It  is  noted  also  by  Socrates"  concerning  St.  Chry- 
sostom,  that  though  a  synod  of  bishops  had  decreed, 
that  lapsers  should  only  be  admitted  once  to  do 
public  penance,  yet  in  his  homilies  he  was  used  to 
tell  men,  they  should  do  it  a  thousand  times,  if  oc- 
casion required,  and  be  received  to  communion. 
Which  bold  doctrine  displeased  many  of  his  friends, 
and  Sisinnius,  the  Novatian  bishop,  wrote  a  book 
against  it.  After  this,  a  council  was  held  at  Con- 
stantinople, anno  426,  or  427,  under  another  Sisin- 
nius, the  catholic  bishop,  one  of  St.  Chrysostom's 
successors,  against  the  Massalian  heretics,  wherein 
it  was  decreed,  that,  because  they  had  often  relapsed 
after  doing  penance,  they  should  be  admitted  to  do 
penance  no  more,  though  they  made  never  so  many 
solemn  professions  of  repenting.  The  synodical 
epistle  is  recorded  in  Photius,"  from  whence  we 
learn,  that  relapsers  at  this  time  were  allowed  to  do 
penance  again,  though  the  council  thought  fit  to 
deny  the  Massalian  heretics  the  privilege  any  longer, 
because  they  had  so  often  abused  it. 

Another  instance  of  the  power  of 
bishops  in  this  matter,  was  the  libertv     nishops  "had  aiso 

.  -  ,  '       power   to  moderate 

which  the  canons  themselves  granted  the  term  of  penance 

"^  upuujust  Occasion. 

them  to  moderate  the  term  of  penance, 
and  shorten  it,  if  they  observed  any  extraordinary 
degree  of  zeal  and  sedulity  in  any  penitents,  that 
might  deserve  their  indulgence  and  commiseration. 
The  council  of  Nice,  determining  the  term  of  pe- 
nance for  such  as  fell  into  idolatry,"  says,  they  shall 
be  three  years  hearers,  and  ten  years  prostrators, 
before  they  were  admitted  to  communicate  in  pray- 
ers with  the  people :  but  if  any  were  more  than 
ordinarily  diligent  in  expressing  their  concern  and 


•"■^  Innoc.  Ep.  3.  ad  Exuperium,  cap.  2.  De  his  observatiu 
prior  durior:  posterior,  intervenieate  misericordia,  inclina- 
tior  est,  &c. 

'"  Aug.  Hem.  41.  ex  50.  t.  10.  p.  191.  A<;ens  pceniten- 
tiain  ad  uhinium  et  reconciliatus,  si  securus  hinc  e.-vit.  ego 

non  sum  spcunis. Poenitentiam  dare  possum,  seciiritatem 

dare  non  possum,  &c.   Vid.  Ambros.  Exliortat.  ad  Poeuitenf. 

"'  Iron.  lib.  .3.  cap.  4. 

'-  Tertul.  de  Proescript.  cap.  30.     Ob  inquietam  semper 


eorum  curiositatem,  qua  fratres  quoq\ie  vitiabant,  semel  et 
iterum  ejccti — novissime  in  pcrpetuum  discidiuni  relegali, 
venena  doctrinanmi  suarimi  disseminaverunt.  Postnindiim 
Marcion  pcenitentiam  confessus,  cum  couditioni  daioB  sibi 
occurrit,  ita  paccm  rccepturus,  si  caeteros  quoque,  quos  pcr- 
difioni  erudisset,  ecclcsioe  restilueret,  morte  prxventus  est. 

■='  Socrat.  lib.  6.  cap.  21. 

'•  Phot.  Biblioth.  cod.  52. 

"  Cone.  Nic.  can.  12. 


1082 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XVI II. 


tears,  and  bringing  forth  good  works,  the  true  fruits 
of  repentance,  it  should  be  in  the  bisliop's  power  to 
deal  more  gently  and  mildly  with  them,  dvOpwirorepov 
Ti  TTfpi  avrCJv  (iovXevcaaGai,  and  bring  them  to  com- 
municate in  prayers  sooner.  The  like  order  is  given 
by  the  council  of  Ancyra,'"  That  bishops  shall  have 
power,  upoiT  examination  and  trial  of  the  penitents' 
manner  of  behaviour  and  conversion,  either  to  show 
them  favour  by  shortening  the  time  of  penance,  or 
otherwise  to  add  to  it  at  his  discretion,  ?;  (pi\av9poj- 
■TTtvtaQai,  J]  TrXnova  ■KponTiQ'tvai  xpovov.  So  St.  Basil" 
says,  He  that  has  the  power  of  binding  and  loosing, 
may  lessen  the  time  of  penance  to  a  penitent  that 
shows  great  contrition.  And  Chrysostom,  in  an- 
swer to  some  who  complained  of  the  length  of  pe- 
nance, that  it  continued  a  year,  or  two,  or  three, 
says,  I  require  not  the  continuance  of  time,™  but  the 
correction  of  the  soul.  Demonstrate  your  contri- 
tion, demonstrate  your  reformation,  and  all  is  done. 
The  council  of  Lerida  very  expressly:  Let  it  re- 
main "^  in  the  power  of  the  bishop  either  to  shorten 
the  suspension  of  the  truly  contrite,  or  to  segregate 
the  negligent  a  longer  time  from  the  body  of  the 
church.  And  the  great  council  of  Chalcedon^" 
leaves  it  entirely  in  the  hands  of  every  bishop  in 
his  respective  church,  to  show  favour  to  such  peni- 
tents at  his  own  discretion. 

Sect.  9.  -^""^  ^hi^  ^*  what  some  of  the  an- 

fnte"ande!.rnotion  cicuts  Call  an  indulgence ;  which  was 
gence.  ^^^  heretofore  any  pretended  power  of 
delivering  souls  from  the  pains  of  purgatory,  by 
virtue  of  a  stock  of  merits,  or  works  of  supereroga- 
tion, which  they  of  the  church  of  Rome  call  now 
the  church's  treasure,  of  which  the  pope  is  become 
the  sole  dispenser :  but  anciently  an  indulgence  was 
no  more  than  this  power,  which  every  bishop  had, 
of  moderating  the  canonical  punishments,  which  in 
a  course  of  penance  were  inflicted  upon  sinners ;  so 
that  if  the  bishop  saw  any  one  to  be  a  zealous  and 
earnest  penitent,  he  had  liberty  to  shorten  the  time 
of  his  penance,  that  is,  grant  him  a  relaxation  of 
some  of  his  penitential  exercises,  and  admit  him 
sooner  than  others  to  communion.  This  was  the 
true  ancient  notion  of  an  indulgence.  And  that  it 
was  so,  we  may  learn  from  one  of  the  epistles  of 
Pope  Vigilius,  who,  writing  to  a  certain  bishop  con- 
cerning some  persons  who  were  under  penance  for 


•«  Cone.  Ancyr.  can.  5.  '?  Basil,  can.  74. 

'8  Chrjs.  Horn.  14.  in  2  Cor.  p.  816. 

"  Cone.  Ilerden.  can.  5.  Mancat  in  potestatc  pontificis, 
vel  veraciter  afflietos  non  din  suspendere,  vel  desidiosos 
prolixiore  tempore  ab  ecclcsioe  corpore  segregare. 

""  Cone.  Chalced.  can.  16.  'iloiaufxtv  Si  ix^iv  t);v  au- 
Gbutiuu  tt/s  £7r'  aiixols  ((>iKavdnw7rLai  tov  kutcl  tottov 
i-TricrKmrou.  See  Martin.  Bracaren.s.  Capitula  Graec.  Can. 
cap.  81.  Conversatio  et  fides  pocnitentis  compendiat  tempn.s. 

*•'  Vi<ril.  Ep.  2.  ad  Eleutherium,  cap.  3.  In  ajstimationc 
I'ralcrnitatis  tua;,  aliorumque  pontilicnni  per  snas  dioeceses, 
reliuquatur,  ut  si  qualilas  et  pocnitentis  devotio  fucrit  appro- 
bata,  indiilgentiae  (pioque  reniedio  sit  vicina. 


Sect.  10. 
Which  was  some- 
'iines  granted  at  the 
titercessioii  of  the 
n:lrtyrs,  or  the  in- 
ilance  of  the  civil 
iiagistrate. 


suffering  themselves  to  be  rebaptized  by  the  Arians, 
he  tells  liim,*'  that  it  was  left  to  his  own  judgment, 
and  the  judgment  of  other  bishops  in  their  respect- 
ive dioceses,  if  they  approved  the  quality  and  devo- 
tion of  any  penitents,  to  grant  them  the  benefit  of 
an  indulgence,  that  is,  a  relaxation  of  their  peniten- 
tial exercises,  or  a  speedier  admission  to  communion. 

And  this  was  sometimes  granted 
at  the  intercession  of  the  martyrs  in 
prison,  of  which  there  are  several  ex- 
amples in  Cyprian  ;  and  sometimes  at 
the  instance  of  the  civil  magistrate. 
For  St.  Austin  tells  us,**^  that  as  bishops  were  used 
to  intercede  for  criminals  in  the  civil  courts,  so  the 
magistrates  sometimes  interceded  for  penitents  in 
the  ecclesiastical.  And  he  uses  this  as  an  argu- 
ment to  a  certain  magistrate  to  induce  him  to  show 
mercy  to  an  offender:  If  you  have  liberty  to  inter- 
cede with  us  for  the  mitigation  of  an  ecclesiastical 
censure,  why  may  not  the  bishop  intercede  against 
your  sword,  when  our  sword  is  only  drawn  to  make 
the  man  live  better,  but  yours  that  he  may  not  live 
at  all  ?  This  sort  of  indulgences  therefore  had  no 
respect  to  the  punishments  of  the  next  world,  but 
only  to  the  mitigation  of  ecclesiastical  punishment 
in  this ;  Avhich  is  ingenuously  acknowledged  by 
Cassander,**^  and  several  other  learned  Romanists, 
some  of  which  have  undergone  the  censures  of  the 
Roman  inquisitors  for  their  over-liberal  concessions. 
Particularly  Polydore  Virgil  is  put  into  the  Index 
Expurgatorius  **  for  saying,  that  the  use  of  in- 
dulgences is  no  older  than  the  time  of  Gregory  the 
Great ;  and  Franciscus  Polygranus,*^  for  asserting, 
that  every  bishop  of  Divine  right  has  power  to  grant 
indulgences,  with  some  assertions  of  the  like  na- 
ture, which  agree  very  well  with  the  true  ancient 
notion  of  an  indulgence,  as  it  has  been  now  ex- 
plained, but  will  not  comport  with  the  pope's  sole 
claim  and  pretence  to  this  power,  or  any  other  inno- 
vations in  the  modern  practice.  But  this  only  by 
the  way ;   I  now  return  to  the  ancient  church. 

Where  we  may  observe  further,  that 
bishops  had  power  to  grant  induler-     r.isiiops  had  ako 

^  ,  °.  °      power   to  alter  the 

ence,  not  only  by  contracting  the  term  nature  of  the  pe- 

,  naltyiin  some  mea- 

of  penance,  but  also,  in  some  measure,  ^^'_.'^  of  ir""  "^  "'" 

by  altering  or  lessening  the  nature 

and  quality  of  the  punishment  itself.     Of  which  we 


'-  Aug.  Ep.  54.  ad  Macedoninin,  p.  93.  Si  vobis  fas  est 
ecclcsiastieam  correptionem  intercedendo  mitigare,  quo- 
niodo  episeopns  vcstro  gladio  non  debet  intercedere,  cum 
ilia  eseratur,  nt  in  quern  e.xeritur  bene  vivat,  iste  ne  vivat  ? 

^^  Cassand.  Consultat.  Art.  1'2.  p.  103.  Joan.  Roffonsis, 
cont.  Luther.  Art.  18.  Polydor.  Virgil,  de  Inventor.  Kerum, 
lib.  8.  cap.  1.  Alplions,  a  Castro,  udvers.  Ha;res.  lib.  8. 
p.  572. 

>*'  Inde.K  Libror.  Prohib.  et  E.xpurg.  p.  853.  Madrit.  1667. 

*^  Index  Expurg.  p.  97.  Salmur.  1601.  Ex  Fr.  Polygrani 
asscrtionibus  quorundam  ecclesise  dogmatum.  Fol.  68.  de- 
Icatur  glossa  marginalis,  qua;  ait,  de  jure  divino  quilibet 
saccrdos  posset  dare  indulgentias. 


ClIAP.     IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


10^3 


liave  ;i  })lain  evidence  in  the  council  of  Ancyra,'"' 
\\  here,  in  the  case  of  deacons  who  lapsed  into  idola- 
try, and  afterwards  recovering,  stood  firm  in  a 
second  engagement,  it  is  ordered,  that  they  may 
n  lain  the  honour  of  deacons,  but  not  any  part  of 
ilieir  sacred  service,  either  in  ministering  the  bread 
(ir  the  cup,  or  in  performing  the  office  of  the  public 
directors  in  the  church ;  yet  the  bishops  should  have 
power,  if  they  found  them  very  dihgent,  humble, 
;uul  meek,  to  grant  them  more  or  less  of  their  office, 
;:s  they  judged  convenient.  Which  shows,  that  a 
i;itat  deal  in  this  whole  matter  was  left  to  the 
Ij-shop's  discretion,  to  make  the  exercise  of  penance 
more  or  less  severe,  as  well  in  the  degrees  of  pun- 
ishment, as  in  point  of  time,  according  to  the  dis- 
jiosition  and  behaviour  of  the  repenting  sinner. 

And  this  explains  to  us  a  term  or 

Sect.  i2. 

What  the  an-  phrase,   which   often  occurs   in   the 

cui.ls  moan  by  the    ^      .    .  .  •    i,       • 

i.rrii  injuima  pa:-  wntmjjs  01  the  ancicuts,  especially  m 
Cyprian,^'  and  the  council  of  Elibc- 
ris,***  and  where  they  require  that  penitents  should 
YiCY^orxn.  pccuitentiam  ler/itunan},  plenam,  et  Jusfain,  a 
legal,  full,  and  just  penance.  Some  understand  by 
this,  that  they  should  fulfil  the  whole  term  or  time 
of  penance  prescribed  by  the  canons ;  others,  that 
they  should  not  only  fulfil  the  time,  but  regularly 
go  through  all  the  several  degrees  of  penance,  as 
mourners,  hearers,  prostrators,  and  co-standers,  be- 
fore they  were  received  to  communion.  But  neither 
of  these  hit  the  true  meaning  of  this  ancient  phrase, 
which  respects  neither  the  time  of  penance,  nor  tlie 
orders  of  penitents,  but  the  muid  and  qualifications 
of  men  acting  sincerely  and  bona  jide  in  their  re- 
pentance ;  and  expressing  their  hearty  sorrow  for 
sin  by  weeping,  and  mourning,  and  fasting,  and 
ahnsdeeds,  and  charity,  and  an  entire  reformation ; 
which  are  proper  indications  of  a  penitent  mind, 
and  such  as  might  incline  the  bishop  to  show  them 
some  favour  and  indulgence,  by  shortening  the  time 
of  their  penance,  notwithstanding  which  it  might 
be  called  a  just  and  full  repentance,  as  Albaspi- 
neeus**"  rightly  explains  it. 

Sect  13  There  is  one  phrase  more  occur- 

x'^'v-^n^tnierh].  ring  in  some  of  the  ancient  canons, 
emanies  orme.  vN'liich  may  nccd  a  little  explication 
in  this  place,  because  it  relates  to  the  severity  of 
the  ancient  discipline,  which  we  are  now  consider- 
ing.  The  council  of  Ancyra,  speaking  of  those  who 


commit  nncleanncss  with  beasts,""  or  draw  others 
into  the  same  sin,  (being  spiritual  lepers,  and  in- 
fecting others  with  their  contagion,)  savs.  They 
shall  pray  with  the  x«i/in?o^evo«,  or  hyomantcs :  which 
denotes  some  extraordinary  punishment,  but  of 
what  sort  is  not  veiy  easy  to  determine,  because 
learned  men  are  not  well  agreed  what  the  word 
Xfifin^ofiivot  properly  means.  The  old  translators 
of  the  Greek  canons  commonly  understand  it  of 
encrgumcns  or  demoniacs,  such  as  were  vexed  with 
unclean  spirits,  and  as  it  were  tossed  by  them  in  a 
tempest.  Dionysius  Exiguus  renders  it.  Qui  spiritu 
pcn'clitantur  immumh,  vexed  v:\th  an  unclean  spirit: 
the  other  translation  of  Isidorus  Mercator  has  it, 
Qui  tempcstate  jadantur,  qui  a  nobis  enenjumcni  in- 
tcllicfuntur,  those  that  are  tossed  in  a  tempest,  by 
whom  we  understand  encrgumcns.  And  Martin 
Bracarensis,  in  his  collection  of  the  Greek  canons,*' 
renders  it  dcemoniosos,  demoniacs.  And  that  whicli 
gives  some  probability  to  this  interpretation  is,  that 
the  word  xfffia^ofiivoi  is  so  used  and  expounded  by 
many  Greek  wTiters.  In  the  prayer  for  the  whole 
state  of  the  church,  and  all  orders  in  it,  related  bj' 
the  author  of  the  Constitutions,''-  there  is  one  pe- 
tition,  lITTtp    TWV    XHfiaZ,Oll'iVlilV    VTTO    TOV    uWoTploV,  foT 

those  who  are  tossed  by  the  enemy,  that  is,  energn- 
mens  vexed  with  the  evil  spirit.  And  so  Cyril*"  of 
Alexandria  uses  the  same  phrase  for  those  that 
Avere  possessed  with  a  wicked  spirit.  As  also  the 
ancient  commentators,  Maximus"'  upon  Dionysius, 
and  Alexius  Aristinus  upon  the  canons,"*  and  the 
modern  Greeks  in  their  Euchologium,"^  where  there 
is  a  prayer  for  the  ^^et^a^oftfrot  iitto  irvivfiaruiv  aKu- 
Qaprwj',  for  those  that  are  tossed  or  tormented  with 
unclean  spirits.  Upon  the  credit  of  W'hich  autho- 
rities Bishop  Beveridge  concludes,"'  that  praying 
among  the  xf'M«s'3f'f»'oi,  or  hycnutntes,  in  the  council 
of  Ancyra,  denotes  the  penitents  praying  among  the 
energumens,  or  those  that  were  vexed  with  un- 
clean spirits.  And  so  Osiander,  in  his  notes  upon 
the  council  of  Ancyra,"*  and  Mr.  Dodwel,""  in  his 
observations  upon  Cyprian,  who  thinks  the  word 
clidntneni,  in  one  of  Cyprian's  epistles,  is  biit  a  cor- 
ruption from  chjdouizomeiii,  KXvtMvil^ofiivot,  which 
is  of  the  same  import  and  signification  with  x**/*"" 
Zontvoi,  denoting  what  the  Latins  call  jnaniaci  and 
Ii/mjdtatici,  persons  possessed  by  an  evil  spirit,  as 
he  shows  out  of  some  passages  of  Amphilochius  "" 


""  Cone.  Ancyr.  can.  2. 

"  Cypr.  Ep.  54.  al.  57.  ad  Cornel,  p.  116.  Ep.  5.5.  ad 
Antonian.  p.  108. 

"s  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  3,  5,  14,  72,  76. 

w  Albasp.  Observat.  lib.  2.  cap.  30.  It.  Not.  in  Can.  3- 
Cone.  Eliber. 

^  Cone.  Ancyr.  can.  17.  Tous  a\oy£v<raniiioui  kcu 
Xfirpoi/s  ovTa^,  i)Tot  XfTT/oaxrayTas,  toutous  TrpocrtTa^fi/ 
V  ayia  trvvooo'S  th  Toiis  \ti/xa'(,oiiii/ovi  tv)(^ta'6ai. 

"'  Martin.  Bracar.  Collect.  Canonum,  cap.  8l'.  Oportct 
talcs  inter  dueinoniosos  orare,  al.  ordinare. 


92  Constit.  lib.  8.  cap.  12. 

"  Cyril,  in  Esai.  xlii.  p.  544.  Xtiiia^n/imoi  utto  irvft'iia- 
T01  Troi/ijpoD. 

"  Ma.xim.  in  Dionys.  Hierarch.  Eccles.  cap.  6. 

"*  Alex.  Aristin.  in  Can.  17.  Cone,  .\ncyr. 

""  Eucholog.  Goar,  p.  721. 

9'  Bevereg.  Not.  in  Can.  11.  Cone.  Nic.  n.  I.  p.  72. 

*•  Collect.  Canonum.  Witebergae.  1614.  4lo. 

^  Dodwel.  Dissert.  1.  in  Cyprian,  p.  4. 

'""  Amphiloch.  Horn,  de  Pcenit.  ap.  Combefi*,  p.  07. 
Chrvs.  Oral.  1.  ad  Stagvrium. 


1084 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XYIII. 


and  St.  Chrysostom,  which  support  his  conjecture. 
Other  learned  men  think  the  ;i^«t;ua$oju£i'ot,  or  hye- 
mantes,  were  such  penitents  as,  for  the  monstrous 
greatness  of  their  crimes,  were  not  only  expelled  out 
of  the  communion  of  the  church,  but  cast  out  of 
the  very  atrium  or  courts  and  porch  of  the  church, 
and  put  to  do  penance  in  the  open  air,  where  they 
stood  exposed  to  the  inclemency  of  all  weathers 
whatsoever.  This  opinion  is  embraced  and  de- 
fended by  Albaspinaeus,'"'  Cardinal  Bona,'""  and 
Suicerus.'"^  And  there  is  a  passage  in  Tertullian, 
which  makes  this  explication  look  very  natural. 
For  speaking  of  the  ancient  discipline,  and  distin- 
guishing the  degrees  and  malignity  of  heinous  of- 
fences, he  says.  There  were  some  impious'"'  furies  of 
lust,  so  far  transgressing  all  the  laws  of  nature,  both 
wth  respect  to  bodies  and  sex,  that  they  did  not 
only  expel  them  from  the  doors  of  the  church,  but 
from  any  covered  place  belonging  to  it,  as  being 
monsters  rather  than  common  vices.  Either  of 
these  opinions,  as  having  each  their  reasons  and 
probability  to  support  them,  may  be  admitted.   But 


the  opinion  of  Balzamon  here  is  little  worth,  who 
makes  the  hyemantes  to  be  no  more  than  the  second 
class  of  penitents,  called  hearers :  this  does  by  no 
means  show  any  special  severity  against  such  enor- 
mous sins,  assigning  them  only  a  common  punish- 
ment with  the  rest.  But  if  we  suppose  those  who 
were  guilty  of  them,  either  to  be  ranked  among  de- 
moniacs, or  wholly  to  be  kept  out  of  the  church, 
we  have  some  proper  idea  of  the  church's  severity 
against  them ;  for  which  reason  I  have  purposely 
mentioned  it  in  this  place,  where  we  have  been  dis- 
coursing of  the  strictness  and  severity  of  the  an- 
cient discipline,  which  is  the  last  thing  considerable 
in  the  exercise  of  it,  whilst  men  were  under  the 
bonds  and  fetters  of  excommunication.  The  next 
thing  is  to  see  how  they  were  loosed  from  these 
bonds,  when  their  penance  was  completed.  And 
this  brings  us  to  the  business  of  absolution,  or  the 
method  of  readmitting  penitents  into  the  commu- 
nion of  the  church  again ;  which  must  be  the  sub- 
ject of  the  next  Book. 


'<"  Albasp.  Observ.  in  Can.  17.  Cone.  Ancyr. 

'"-Bona,  Her.  Liturg.  lib.  1.  cap.  17.  n.  5. 

""  Suicer.  Thesaur.  Eccles.  voce  ILEifxaX^oix^voi. 

104  Tertul.  de  Pudicit.  cap.  4.    Reliquas  autem  furias  im- 


pias  et,  in  corpora  et  in  sexus  ultra  jura  naturaj,  non  modo 
limine,  varum  omni  ecclesia3  tecto  submovemus,  quia  uon 
sunt  delicta,  sad  monstra. 


BOOK    XIX. 

OF  ABSOLUTION,  OR  THE  MANNER  OF  READMITTING  PENITENTS  INTO  THE  COMMUNION 

OF  THE  CHURCH  AGAIN. 


CHAPTER  I. 

OF    THE    NATURE    OF    ABSOLUTIOX,    AND    THE    SEVERAL    SORTS    OF    IT  ;     MORE    PARTICULARLY    OF 
SUCH    AS    RELATE    TO    THE    PENITENTIAL    DISCIPLINE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 


,,  ,  ,  Having  hitherto  seen  the  exercise  of 

Sect.  1. 

iMiraimliTminiSe'-  pcniteiitial  discipUne  in  all  the  seve- 
nai,  not  akoiute.      ^.^^  ^^^^.^^  ^f  j^^  ^^  -^  related  to  slnners 

under  the  bonds  of  excommunication,  we  are  now 
to  consider  it  under  another  view,  as  it  denotes  their 
absolution  from  those  bonds  by  the  power  of  the 
keys,  and  the  method  of  restoring  or  readmitting 
penitents,  when  their  penance  was  completed,  to 
the  communion  of  the  church  again.  And  here 
first  of  all  we  are  to  observe,  that  the  ancients  chal- 
lenged no  power  in  this  matter  but  that  which  was 
purely  ministerial ;  leaving  the  absolute,  sovereign, 
independent,  and  irreversible  power  only  to  God. 
Of  which  I  need  give  no  other  proof  at  present  but 
only  this,  that  they  constantly  made  it  an  argu- 
ment for  oui  Saviour's  Divinity,  that  he  had  the 
sovereign  power  of  forgiving  sins  ;  wliich  argument 
could  have  signified  nothing,  had  men  been  equal 
sharers  in  this  power  with  him.  Thus  Irenaeus 
argues  against  some  of  the  heretics  in  his  own  time : 
"Our  Saviour,"  says  he,' "  in  forgiving  sins  both  cured 
the  man,  and  manifestly  declared  who  he  himself 
was.  For  if  none  can  forgive  sins  but  God  alone, 
and  our  Lord  did  forgive  them,  and  cure  men  ;  it 
is  manifest,  that  he  was  the  Word  of  God,  made  the 
Son  of  man  :  and  as  he  was  man,  he  suflered  with 
us  and  for  us  ;  as  he  is  God,  he  shows  mercy  to  us, 
and  forgives  us  our  debts,  which  we  owe  to  God 
our  Maker."  The  same  argument  is  urged  by  Ter- 
tullian  in  his  books  against  Marcion  ;^  and  by  No- 
vatian    against   the    Ebionites ;  ^    and   Athanasius 


against  the  Arians.*  St.  Basil  ^  also  uses  it,  as  one 
of  his  strongest  weapons  against  Eunomius;  and 
the  like  is  done  by  St.  Hilary,"  and  St.  Chrysostom,' 
and  St.  Jerom,^  and  Victor  of  Antioch,'  and  Cyril 
of  Alexandria,'"  who  all  argue  for  our  Saviour's  Di- 
vinity from  this  topic,  that  he  had  sovereign  and 
absolute  power  upon  earth  to  forgive  sins.  And  St. 
Ambrose  uses  the  same  argument  against  the  Ma- 
cedonians, to  prove  the  Divinity  of  the  Holy  Ghost." 
I  produce  none  of  these  testimonies  at  large  here, 
both  because  they  all  speak  the  same  thing,  and  are 
already  produced  in  an  excellent  book  of  Bishop 
Usher's,'-  which  is  common  in  every  reader's  hands  : 
where  he  also  shows  further  the  general  agreement 
of  the  ancients  in  this  assertion.  That  none  can  for- 
give sins  but  God  only,  that  is,  with  an  absolute  and 
sovereign  power ;  and  therefore  the  power  of  abso- 
lution in  the  church  is  purely  ministerial,  and  con- 
sists in  the  due  exercise  and  application  of  those 
means,  in  the  ordinary  use  of  which  God  is  pleased 
to  remit  sins ;  using  the  ministry  of  his  servants,  as 
stewards  of  his  mysteries,  in  the  external  dispensa- 
tion of  them ;  but  himself  conferring  the  internal 
grace  or  gift  of  remission  by  the  operation  of  his 
Spirit  only  upon  the  worthy  receivers.  These  mys- 
teries or  means  of  grace,  in  the  external  dispensa- 
tion of  which  the  church  is  concerned,  and  in  the 
ordinary  use  of  them  remission  of  sins  is  conveyed, 
are  usually  by  the  ancients  reckoned  up  under  these 
five  heads  :  I.  The  absolution  or  great  indulgence 
of  baptism.     2.   The  absolution  of  the  cucharist. 


'  lien.  lib.  5.  cap.  17.  Peccata  igitur  remittens,  hominem 
quidem  curavit,  semetipsum  autem  manifeste  ostendit,  quis 
esset.  Si  enim  nemo  potest  remittere  peccata  nisi  solus 
Dens ;  remittebat  antem  ha5c  Diiminus,  et  cuvabat  homines  : 
manifestuin  est,  quoniani  ipse  erat  Verbnm  Dei,  Filius  ho- 

minis  factus Et  quoraodo  homo  compassus  est  nobis, 

tanquam  Deus  misercatnr  nosiri,  &c. 

-  Tertul.  cont.  Marcion.  lib.  4.  cap.  10. 

'  Novat.  de  Trinit.  cap.  13. 

*  Athan.  Orat.  3.  cont.  Arianos.     Orat.  4.  cont.  Ar.     It. 


Epist.  de  Synodis. 

'  Basil,  cont.  Eunom.  lib.  b. 

"  Hilar.  Com.  in  Mat.  viii. 

'  Chrys.  Horn.  29.  in  Mat.       '  Hicron.  Com.  in  Mat.  ix. 

"  Victor,  in  Marc.  ii. 

'»  Cyril.  Thesaur.  lib.  12.  cap.  4.  Item  de  recta  tide  ad 
reginas. 

"  Ambros.  de  Spir.  Sancto,  lib.  3.  cap.  19.  Vid.  Aug. 
Horn.  23.  ex  50.  c.  7. 

'-  Usher,  Answer  to  the  Jesuit's  Challenge,  p.  79,  &c. 


10% 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIX. 


3.  The  absolution  of  the  word  and  doctrine.  4. 
The  absolution  of  imposition  of  hands  and  prayer. 
5.  The  absolution  of  reconcilement  to  the  church 
and  her  communion  by  a  relaxation  of  her  censures. 
The  two  first  may  be  called  sacramental  absolution  ; 
the  third,  declaratory  absolution  ;  the  fourth,  preca- 
torj"  absolution  ;  the  fifth,  judicial  absolution ;  and  all 
of  them  authoritative,  so  far  as  they  are  done  by  the 
ministerial  authority  and  commission  which  Christ 
has  given  to  his  chm-ch,  to  reconcile  men  to  God  by 
the  exercise  of  such  acts  and  means,  as  conduce  to 
that  end  in  a  subordinate  and  ministerial  way,  ac- 
cording to  his  appointment. 

But  then  all  these  sorts  of  absolu- 
of  theVrand  ab-  tioH  wcrc  uot  rcckoued  of  equal  con- 

Fiolution  of  baptism.  .  ,  .,,,.,.  ,-. 

That  this  «as  of  no  ccm  in   penitential  discipline.     Jbor 

use    in    penitential 

discipline  to  pen,ons  tliough  baptism  was  always  esteemed 

unce  baptized.  o  ir  ^ 

the  most  universal  absolution,  and 
gi-and  indulgence  in  the  ministry  of  the  church  ;  as 
conveying  a  general  pardon  of  sins  to  every  true 
member  of  Christ,  when  he  first  entered  into  his 
mystical  body  by  the  laver  of  regeneration ;  yet 
this  had  no  place  in  the  exercise  of  penitential  dis- 
cipline. For  no  penitent  was  ever  reconciled  to 
the  communion  of  the  church  (after  any  lapse,  or 
censure,  or  penance  done  for  it)  by  a  second  bap- 
tism. And  yet  the  stewards  of  Christ's  mysteries 
were  always  supposed  to  have  the  ministerial  power 
of  conveying  remission  of  sins  to  ■  men  by  the  ad- 
ministration of  baptism:  and  so  far  as  they  were 
intrusted  with  the  administration  of  it,  so  far  they 
had  power  to  bind  or  loose ;  to  admit  the  worthy 
into  the  church,  or  keep  the  unworthy  out  of  it ; 
that  is,  in  the  ministerial  way,  to  remit  men's  sins 
by  admitting  them  to  baptism,  or  retain  their  sins 
by  keeping  them  from  it,  according  to  the  rules  of 
Christ's  institution  and  appointment.  The  ancients 
upon  this  account  commonly  give  baptism  the  name 
of  indulgence,  or  remission  of  sins,  or  the  sacra- 
ment of  remission,  as  I  have  had  occasion  to  show 
out  of  the  council  of  Carthage  "  under  Cyprian,  and 
one  of  the  Roman  councils  mentioned  by  Cotele- 
rius,'^  and  St.  Austin,'*  in  a  former  Book,'"  where 
we  treat  more  expressly  of  baptism.  It  is  also  ob- 
servable, that  the  ancients  commonly  deduce  this 
ministerial  power  of  remitting  sins  in  baptism  from 


"  Conc.Carth.  ap.  Cypr.  n.  10.  p.  231. 

'*  Cone.  Rom.  ap.  Coteler.  in  Constitut.  Apost.  lib.  3. 
cap.  9.  '^  Aug.  de  Bapt.  lib.  5.  cap.  21. 

'«  Book  XI.  chap.  1.  sect.  2. 

"  Cypr.  Ep.  76.  al.  09.  ad  Magnum,  p.  185.  Cum  in 
baptismo  unicuique  peccata  sua  remittuntur,  probat  et  dc- 
clarat  in  suo  evangelio  Dominus,  pereos  solos  posse  peccata 
dimitti,  qui  habeant  Spiritum  Sanctum.  Post  resurrec- 
tionem  enim  discipulos  suos  mittens,  loquitur  ad  eos  et 
dicit,  Sicut  misit  me  Pater,  et  ego  mitto  vos.  Hoc  cum 
dixisset,  iusofflavit  et  ait  illis,  Accipite  Spiritum  Sanctum. 
Si  cujus  remiseritis  peccata,  remittentiir  illi :  si  cujus  te- 
nueritis,  tenebiintur.    Quo  in  locoostendit,  eum  solum  posse 


the  same  text  upon  whicli  the  power  of  all  other 
absolutions  is  founded,  viz.  John  xx.  23,  "  Whose 
soever  sins  ye  remit,  they  are  remitted  unto  them ; 
and  whose  soever  sins  3'e  retain,  they  are  retained." 
They  say,  this  commission  is  executed  by  the  min- 
isters of  Christ,  as  well  in  conferring  baptism,  as  in 
reconciling  of  penitents,  or  any  other  way  of  minis- 
terial absolution.  Cyprian  argues  upon  this  foot 
against  the  baptism  of  heretics  and  schismatics, 
that  baptism  given  by  them  is  of  no  benefit  to  the 
receiver,  because  they  are  not  of  the  number  of 
those  to  whom  Christ  gave  commission  to  remit 
sins,  as  not  being  endued  with  the  Holy  Spirit. 
"  Seeing,"  says  he,"  "  that  remission  of  sins  is  granted 
to  every  man  in  baptism,  the  Lord  in  his  gospel  de- 
clares and  proves,  that  sins  can  only  be  remitted 
by  them  who  have  the  Holy  Spirit.  For  after  his 
resurrection,  when  he  sent  forth  his  disciples,  he 
said  unto  them,  '  As  my  Father  sent  me,  so  send  I 
you.  And  when  he  had  said  this,  he  breathed  on 
them,  saying.  Receive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost.  Whose 
soever  sins  ye  remit,  they  are  remitted  unto  them  ; 
and  whose  soever  sins  ye  retain,  they  are  retained.' 
In  w^hich  place  he  shows,  that  they  only  can  baptize, 
and  grant  remission  of  sins,  who  have  the  Holy  G  host." 
So  again  in  another  epistle  :'^  "  It  is  manifest  both 
where  and  by  whom  that  remission  of  sins  is  grant- 
ed, whicli  is  granted  in  baptism.  For  the  Lord  first 
gave  that  power  to  Peter,  that  whatsoever  he  loosed 
on  earth,  should  be  loosed  in  heaven.  And  after 
his  resurrection  he  said  to  his  disciples,  '  Whose  so- 
ever sins  ye  remit,  they  are  remitted  unto  them ;  and 
whose  soever  sins  ye  retain,  they  are  retained.' 
Whence  we  understand,  that  no  other  have  power 
to  baptize,  and  grant  remission  of  sins,  but  they  who 
are  made  rulers  in  the  church  by  the  evangelical 
law  and  ordinance  of  the  Lord."  Firmilian  also 
follows  Cyprian '"  in  the  same  argument,  proving 
from  the  same  texts,  that  heretics  have  no  power 
to  remit  sins  in  baptism,  because  they  are  not  in 
the  church,  nor  of  the  number  of  those  to  whom 
Christ  gave  that  commission.  Neither  was  it  only 
Cyprian  and  Firmilian  that  thus  asserted  the  power 
of  remitting  sins  in  baptism  to  belong  to  the  minis- 
ters of  Christ,  but  generally  all  other  interpreters. 
Cyril  of  Alexandria,^"  expounding  those  words  of 


baptizare,  et  remissionem  peccatorum  dare,  qui  habeat 
Spiritum  Sanctum. 

'^  Id.  Ep.  73.  ad  Jubaian.  p.  201.  Manifostum  est  autem, 
ubi  et  per  quos  remissa  peccatorum  dari  possit,  qua;  in  bap- 
tismo  scilicet  datur.     Nam  Petro   primum  Dominus 

potestatem  islam  dedit,  ut  id  solveretur  in  coelis,  quod  ille 
solvisset  in  terris.  Et  post  resurrectionem  quoque  ad  apos- 
tolos  loquitur,  dicens,  Sicut  misit  me  Pater,  &c.  Unde  in- 
telligimus,  non  nisi  in  ecclesia  prsepositis,  et  in  evangelica 
lege  et  Dominica  oidinatione  fundatis,  licei'e  baptizare,  et 
remissam  peccatorum  dare. 

'»  Firmil.  Ep.  7.5.  ap.  Cypr.  p.  225. 

2"  Cyril,  lib.  12.  in  Joan.  .\.x.  23.  t.  4.  p.  1101. 


C'lIAP.    I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


los; 


cur  Saviour,  "Whose  soever  sins  ye  remit,"  <S:c.,  says, 
••  Spiritual  men  remit  or  retain  sins,  as  I  conceive, 
two  ways.  For  either  they  call  those  to  baptism, 
who  are  worthy  of  it  upon  the  account  of  a  good 
life  and  approved  faith,  or  else  they  forbid  and  re- 
licl  those  from  the  Divine  gift,  who  arc  unworthy 
(if  it.  This  is  one  way  of  remitting  or  retaining 
sin.  Another  way  is,  when  they  punish  and  cor- 
net the  children  of  the  church  oflending,  and  par- 
ildu  them  again  upon  their  repentance  :  as  Paul 
delivered  the  Corinthian  over  to  the  destruction  of 
I  he  llesh,  that  the  spirit  might  be  saved;  and  after- 
ward received  him,  that  he  might  not  be  swallowed 
up  of  over-much  sorrow."  St.  Ambrose  in  like 
manner  ascribes  the  power  of  remitting  sins  to  the 
administration  of  baptism,  as  well  as  penance  :  and 
niion  this  ground -' he  asks  the  Novatians,  "Why 
do  ye  baptize,  if  sins  cannot  be  remitted  by  the  min- 
istry of  man  ?  V7hat  is  the  difference,  whether 
priests  assume  this  power  as  given  to  them  in  the 
exercise  of  penance,  or  the  administration  of  bap- 
tism ?  "  Gaudentius"  says,  "  It  is  this  key  of  the 
sacraments  that  opens  the  gate  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven."  Consequently  he  must  mean  also,  that 
so  far  as  ministers  are  instrumental  in  conferring 
the  sacrament  of  baptism,  so  far  they  are  instru- 
mental in  procuring  men  that  remission  of  sins 
which  attends  it.  And  for  this  reason  Chrysostom 
magnifies  the  sacerdotal  office  upon  a  double  ac- 
count, because  the  priests  '^  have  power  to  remit 
sins,  both  when  they  regenerate  us,  and  afterwards ; 
that  is,  both  by  baptism  and  penance,  when  they 
first  admit  men  into  the  church,  and  readmit  or  re- 
concile them  after  any  great  transgression.  But  I 
mention  this,  not  so  much  to  explain  the  peniten- 
tial discipline  of  the  church,  (in  which  baptismal 
absolution  has  no  concern,)  as  to  remark  a  few  other 
necessary  things.  As,  first,  that  sacerdotal  absolu- 
tion in  general  extends  much  further  than  is  com- 
monly apprehended ;  for  it  includes  the  whole 
transaction  of  baptism,  whereby  remission  of  sins  is 
ministerially  gi-anted  to  every  true  member  of  Christ, 
when  he  is  first  admitted  into  his  church.  Whence 
it  follows,  secondly,  that  sacerdotal  absolution  does 
not  necessarily  require  any  particular  or  auricular 
confession  of  private  sins  ;  forasmuch  as  that  the 
grand  absolution  of  baptism  was  commonly  given 
without  any  particular  confession.  And  therefore 
the  Romanists  vainly  found  the  necessity  of  auricu- 
lar confession  upon  those  words  of  our  Saviour, 


"  Whose  soever  sins  ye  remit,  they  are  remitted  unto 
them  :"  as  if  there  could  be  no  absolution  witliout 
particular  confession  ;  when  it  is  so  plain,  that  the 
great  absolution  of  baptism  (the  power  of  which  is 
founded  by  the  ancients  upon  this  very  j)larc)  re- 
(juired  no  such  particular  confession.  Thirdly,  We 
may  hence  infer,  that  the  power  of  any  sacerdotal 
absolution  is  only  ministerial ;  because  the  adminis- 
tration of  baptism,  (which  is  the  most  universal  ab- 
solution,) so  far  as  man  is  concerned  in  it,  is  no 
more  than  ministerial.  All  the  office  and  power  of 
man  in  it  is  only  to  minister  the  external  form,  but 
the  internal  power  and  grace  of  remission  of  sins  is 
properly  God's:  and  so  it  is  in  all  other  sorts  of 
absolution.  Therefore,  though  baptismal  absolution 
be  no  part  of  penitential  discipline,  yet,  by  observing 
these  things  in  it,  we  shall  more  easily  discern  the 
true  nature  of  those  other  absolutions,  which  have 
some  relation  to  the  penitential  discipline  of  the 
church. 

The  first  of  these  (though  we  may  ^.^^^  ^ 
call  it  the  second  in  the  general  con-  g,^'i,I5''bj'Th""u" 
sideration  of  absolutions)  was  the  "'"""*'■ 
absolution  that  was  given  by  the  ministry  of  the 
cucharist.  This  had  some  relation  to  peniten- 
tial discipline,  but  did  not  solely  belong  to  it.  For 
it  was  given  to  all  baptized  persons,  who  never  fell 
under  penitential  discipline,  as  well  as  those  who 
lapsed,  and  were  restored  to  communion  again.  And 
in  both  respects  it  was  called  the  to  Tt\tioi>,  the  per- 
fection or  consummation  of  a  Christian  ;  there  being 
no  higher  mystery  that  an  ordinary  Christian  could 
partake  of.  To  those  who  never  fell  into  such  great 
sins  as  required  a  public  penance,  it  was  an  absolu- 
tion from  lesser  sins,  which  were  called  venial,  and 
sins  of  daily  incursion  ;  and  to  penitents,  who  had 
lapsed,  it  was  an  absolution  from  those  greater  sins, 
for  which  they  were  fallen  under  censure.  That  it 
was  esteemed  such  a  general  absolution  in  both 
cases,  we  learn  from  the  characters  which  the  an- 
cients give  of  it,  both  at  large,  and  with  a  particular 
respect  to  its  loosing  the  bonds  of  excomniunica- 
tion.  Cyprian"'  says,  in  general,  "That  when  we 
drink  the  blood  of  the  Lord,  and  the  cup  of  salva- 
tion, we  put  off  the  remembrance  of  the  old  man, 
and  forget  our  former  secular  conversation ;  and  our 
sorrowful  and  heavy  heart,  which  before  was  press- 
ed with  the  anguish  of  our  sins,  is  now  absolved  or 
set  at  liberty  by  the  joyfulncss  of  the  Divine  in- 
dulgence or  pardon."    And  more  particularly,  that 


-'  Ambros.  de  Pcenitent.  lib.  1.  cap.  7.  t.  1.  p.  157.  Cur 
baptizatis,  si  per  hominem  peccata  diuiitli  noii  licet?  Quid 
interest,  utruin  per  poeiiiteiitiam,  an  per  lavacrum  hoc  jus 
sibi  datum  sacerdotes  vcndicent  ? 

"  Gaudent.  Tract.  16.  Die  Ordinat.  Suae,  Bibl.  Pair.  t.  2. 
p.  59.  Janua  quippe  regni  coilorura  non  nisi  hoc  sacra- 
mentorum  spirituali  clave  reseratur. 

-^  Chrys.  de  Sacerdot.  lib.  3.  cap.  G.     Ov  yap  vt'  dv  j;yuds 


auicyfuvihai  fiovov,  dXXa   Kai    Tu   fXiTa  tuvtu   aui'X«>(iitv 
i.\vv(Tiv  l^oiKTiav  ifxaoTri/xuTa. 

-'  Cypr.  Ep.  63.  ad  Capcilium,  p.  153.  Epoto  san;riiiiic 
Domini,  et  poculo  saliilari,  exponitur  mcmoria  veteris  ho- 
minis,  et  fit  oblivio  convcrsationis  pristinae  saecularis;  ct 
mcestum  pectus  ac  triste,  quod  prius  pcccatis  angcntilius 
prcmcbatur,  divinw  induigeutice  laetitia  resolvitur. 


1088 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book   XIX. 


it  was  esteemed  an  absolution,  as  it  resolved  the 
bonds  of  excommunication,  without  any  other  for- 
mality or  ceremony  of  receiving  the  penitent  into 
the  communion  of  the  church,  we  learn  from  that 
order  made  in  the  first  council  of  Orange,^  That 
such  penitents  as  are  ready  to  leave  the  body,  shall 
have  the  communion  without  the  reconcihatory  im- 
position of  hands  (which,  as  we  shall  see  by  and 
by,  was  the  usual  and  ordinary  ceremony  in  recon- 
ciling penitents  pubhcly  at  the  altar,  and  what  these 
were  to  have  afterwards,  if  they  happened  to  sur- 
vive). In  the  mean  time  this  sort  of  communion, 
the  eucharist  taken  without  imposition  of  hands, 
was  sufficient  for  the  consolation  or  reconciliation 
of  a  dying  person,  according  to  the  decrees  of  the 
fathers,  who  congruously  call  this  sort  of  commu- 
nion their  viaticum,  or  provision  for  their  journey. 
The  fourth  council  of  Carthage  has  two  canons 
implying  the  same  thing.  The  first  says,*"  If  a  peni- 
tent is  struck  dumb  in  his  sickness,  and  is  thought 
to  be  at  the  point  of  death,  he  shall  be  reconciled 
both  by  imposition  of  hands,  and  by  the  eucharist 
put  into  his  mouth.  And  the  other-'  grants  the 
eucharist  as  an  absolution  by  itself  to  penitents  in 
sickness,  if  they  chance  to  die  ;  only  providing,  that 
in  case  they  recover,  they  shall  not  hold  themselves 
absolved  without  imposition  of  hands  also :  because 
in  case  they  survived,  they  were  obliged  to  perform 
the  residue  of  their  penance,  which  they  should  have 
done  before,  and  then  be  reconciled  by  imposition 
of  hands  publicly  at  the  altar ;  but  if  they  died,  the 
eucharist  alone  was  a  sufficient  absolution  for  them. 
And  this  is  confirmed  by  that  memorable  story  re- 
lated by  Eusebius,^  out  of  an  epistle  of  Dionysius, 
bishop  of  Alexandria,  concerning  one  Serapion,  an 
aged  man,  who  had  led  a  virtuous  life,  but  happened 
at  last  to  lapse  into  idolatry  in  time  of  persecution. 
He  had  often  sued  for  pardon,  but  no  one  would 
hearken  to  him,  because  he  had  sacrificed  to  idols. 
Afterward  falling  sick,  he  sent  for  one  of  the  pres- 
byters to  come  and  absolve  him  in  the  night.  The 
presbyter  himself  was  sick,  and  could  not  go  to  him  : 
but  because  the  bishop  had  given  in  charge,  that 
absolution  should  be  granted  to  all  that  were  at  the 
point  of  death,  if  they  desired  it,  and  especially  if 
they  had  earnestly  desired  it  before,  that  they  might 
have  hope  and  consolation  in  their  last  minutes, 
when  they  were  about  to  leave  the  world ;  the  pres- 
byter sent  him  a  little  portion  of  the  eucharist  by 
the  boy  that  came  for  him,  bidding  him  to  dip  it  in 


liquor,  and  put  it  into  his  mouth.  Which  he  did, 
and  presently  the  man  expired.  Upon  which  Diony- 
sius himself  makes  this  remark :  That  it  was  appa- 
rent, that  God  preserved  him,  and  continued  him 
so  long  in  life,  till  he  might  be  absolved,  and  have 
liis  sins  blotted  out,  and  be  owned  by  Christ  for  the 
many  good  deeds  he  had  done.  I  need  make  no 
other  reflection  upon  the  story,  since  Dionysius  tells 
us  so  plainly,  that  to  minister  the  eucharist  to  men 
was  to  grant  them  absolution,  and  remission  of  sins, 
and  peace  and  favour  with  Christ,  when  it  was 
given  in  his  name  to  worthy  receivers.  And  thus 
it  was,  that  the  ministers  of  Christ,  as  his  ambassa- 
dors, were  always  supposed  to  have  the  ministerial 
power  to  remit  sins,  and  reconcile  penitents  to 
Christ,  by  this  sacramental  absolution. 

The  third  sort  of  absolution  is  that         .  ,  , 

Sect.  4. 

of  the  word  and  doctrine,  which  is  ciarLoryt''<'™fi^c-' 
partly  declarative,  and  partly  opera-  mwI  'drni'lTwS'i^d 
tive  and  effective ;  and  is  of  use  both 
in  penitential  discipline,  and  out  of  it.  For  the 
ministers  of  Christ,  as  his  ambassadors,  have  com- 
mission and  authority  to  make  a  general  and  public 
declaration  of  the  terms  of  reconciliation  and  salva- 
tion to  men.  And  this  is  also  ministerially  opera- 
tive in  working  faith  and  repentance  in  men's  souls, 
which  are  the  terms  of  salvation,  whereby  they 
obtain  remission  of  sins.  For  faith  comes  by  hear- 
ing, and  hearing  by  the  word  of  God.  They  have 
also  power  to  declare  to  men  in  particular,  that  they 
are  in  a  salvable  state,  when,  upon  the  best  human 
judgment  that  they  can  make,  they  apprehend  and 
discern  in  them  the  necessary  conditions  of  salva- 
tion. This  is  that  key  of  knowledge,  whereby  they 
open  to  men  the  gate  of  heaven,  and  the  way  to 
eternal  life,  procuring  for  them  the  remission  of  sins, 
and  all  the  benefits  of  the  gospel  covenant.  It  is 
this  that  introduces  men  at  first  into  God's  favour, 
and  ascertains  them  of  it ;  and  when  they  are  fallen 
from  that  state  by  wilful  sin,  it  is  a  means,  as  a  part 
of  the  church's  penitential  discipline,  to  reduce  them 
back  again  to  their  forfeited  estate  and  primitive 
condition.  Upon  which  account  hearing  of  the  word 
of  God,  as  we  have  seen  before,  was  always  one 
station  of  penitents  in  the  church,  and  was  an 
initiatory  sort  of  reconcilement  of  them  to  God, 
introductory  to  the  great  and  last  reconcilement  at 
the  altar.  And  in  this  sense,  the  ancients  say,  Christ 
gave  his  disciples  power  to  remit  sins.  "  Every 
man,"  says  St.  Jerom,^"  "  is  bound  in  the  cords  of  his 


"  Cone.  Arausican.  can.  3.  Qui  receduntde  corpore,  ae- 
cepta  poenitentia,  placuit,  sine  reconciliatoria  manus  impo- 
sitioneeos  communicare,  quod  morientis  sufficit  consolationi, 
al.  reconciliationi,  secundum  definitiones  patrura,  qui  hujiis- 
modi  communionem  congruentor  viaticum  nominaverunt. 

•"  Cone.  Carth.  4.  can.  76.  Si  continuo  creditur  moriturus, 
recnncilietur  per  manus  impositionem,  et  infundatur  ori  ejus 
eucliaristia. 


2'  Ibid.  can.  78.  Poenitentes,  qui  in  infirmitate  viaticum 
eucharistise  acceperint,  non  se  credunt  absolutos  sine  manus 
impositione,  si  supervixerint. 

2*  Euseb.  lib.  6.  cap.  44. 

'^  Hieron.  in  Esai.  xiv.  17.  Funibus  peccatorum  suorum 
unusquisque  constringitur  :  quos  funes  atque  vincula  solvere 
possimt  et  apostoli,  imitantes  magistrum  suum,  qui  eis  dix- 
erat,  Quaecunque  solveritis  super  terrara,  erunt  soluta  et  in 


Chap.  I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1089 


own  sins :  which  cords  and  bonds  the  apostles  have 
power  to  loose,  imitating  their  Master,  who  said 
unto  them,  *  Whatsoever  ye  loose  upon  earth,  shall 
be  loosed  in  heaven.'  Now,  the  apostles  loose  them 
by  the  word  of  God,  and  testimonies  of  Scripture, 
and  exhortation  unto  virtues."  In  like  manner  St. 
Ambrose^"  says,  Sins  are  remitted  by  the  word  of 
(iod,  whereof  the  Levite  is  the  interpreter,  and  a 
sort  of  executor :  and  in  this  respect  the  Levite  is 
the  minister  of  remission.  It  is  this  key  of  the 
word,  says  Maximus  Taurinensis,^'  which  opens 
the  conscience  to  confession  of  sins,  and  includes 
1  herein  the  grace  of  the  mystery  of  salvation  unto 
eternity.  Thus  ministers  are  said  to  be  instrumental 
in  reconciling  men  to  God,  and  procuring  them  re- 
mission of  sins,  because  to  them  is  committed  the 
word  of  reconciliation. 

The  fourth  sort  of  absolution  was 
Of  the  precatory  that  of  intcrccssion  and  prayer,  which 

absolution  given  by  ,  .  « 

imposition  of  hajids  was  used  as  a  concomitant  of  most 

and  prayer.  ^ 

other  absolutions.  For  baptism  and 
the  eucharist  were  either  administered  in  a  pre- 
catory form,  or  at  least  prayers  and  intercessions 
for  pardon  of  sins  always  attended  them ;  and  so 
they  did  also  the  great  and  solemn  reconciliation  of 
penitents  at  the  altar.  And  to  prayer  they  com- 
monly joined  imposition  of  hands,  a  rite  and  cere- 
mony of  benediction  that  was  used  in  all  offices  of 
religion.  By  this,  persons  were  at  first  admitted  to 
the  state  of  catechumens,  and  by  this  trained  up  in 
their  preparation  for  baptism.  By  this,  persons 
were  confirmed  in  the  close  of  baptism.  By  this, 
ordinations  were  given  to  the  clergy,  and  benedic- 
tions to  all  the  people.  And  Albaspineeus^  has 
observed,  that  in  the  course  of  public  penance  this 
ceremony  was  at  least  four  times  used  towards 
all  that  went  through  it,  before  they  were  com- 
pletely reconciled  and  admitted  to  full  communion. 
1.  They  were  admitted  to  penance  by  imposition  of 
hands.  2.  They  had  frequent  imposition  of  hands 
whilst  they  were  penitents  in  the  order  of  kneelers 
or  prostrators.  3.  They  were  admitted  to  the  lower 
degree  of  communion  in  prayers  only  without  the 
oblation  by  the  same  rite.  4.  And,  lastly,  imposi- 
tion of  hands  was  one  of  the  solemn  rites  of  admit- 


ting them  to  the  more  perfect  degree  of  reconciUa- 
tion  at  the  altar.  Now,  though  prayer  and  imposi- 
tion of  hands  was  not  esteemed  an  absolution  in  all 
these  cases,  yet  in  many  of  them  it  certainly  was. 
For  Chrysostom,  speaking  of  the  several  powers  of 
the  sacerdotal  odice,  and  the  methods  of  expiating 
sin,  says,  "  The  priests  do  it  not  only  by  their  doc- 
trine and  admonition,  but  also  by  the  assistance^' 
of  their  prayers ;  they  have  power  of  remitting  sins, 
not  only  when  they  regenerate  us  in  baptism,  but 
afterwards.  For  St.  James  says,  'Is  any  sick 
among  you?  Let  him  call  for  the  elders  of  the 
church,  and  let  them  pray  over  him,  anointing  him 
with  oil  in  the  name  of  the  Lord :  and  the  prayer 
of  faith  shall  save  the  sick,  and  the  Lord  shall  raise 
him  up;  and  if  he  have  committed  sins,  they  shall 
be  forgiven  him.' "  Pope  Leo,  after  the  same  man- 
ner, makes  sacerdotal  absolution  to  consist  in  prayer. 
"  The  assistances  of  Divine  goodness,"  says  he,'* "  are 
so  ordained,  that  the  Divine  indulgence  is  not  to  be 
obtained  but  by  the  supplications  of  the  priests. 
And  it  is  very  useful  and  necessary  that  the  guilt 
of  sin  should  be  loosed  by  the  supplications  of  the 
priests  before  the  last  day."  Here  remission  of  sins 
is  plainly  ascribed  to  the  efficacy  of  intercession 
and  prayer.  St.  Austin*^  says  the  prayers  of  holy 
men  in  the  church  procure  remission  of  sins  both 
in  baptism  and  penance;  for  he  argues  thus:  If 
the  prayers  of  holy  men  in  the  church  procure  re- 
mission of  sins  for  those  who  are  baptized  not  by 
the  dove,  but  by  the  hawk,  (that  is,  not  by  good, 
but  wicked  men,)  if  they  come  to  that  sacrament  in 
the  peace  of  catholic  unity;  why  should  not  the 
prayers  of  the  same  men  loose  the  sins  of  those  who 
return  from  heresy  or  schism  to  catholic  unity?  He 
adds,"'  a  little  after,  that  the  prayers  of  the  saints 
(that  is,  the  mournings  of  the  dove)  grant  remission 
of  sins  to  those  that  are  baptized  in  the  peace  of 
the  church,  whatever  the  person  be  that  adminis- 
ters baptism,  whether  he  be  a  covetous  man  or  an 
extortioner,  because  he  only  acts  in  the  person  of 
the  church,  by  whose  prayers  remission  of  sins  is 
obtained.  Therefore  he  exhorts  the  Donatists  in 
another"  place,  to  return  to  the  peace  of  the  church, 
where,  by  the  joint  prayers  of  two  people  united, 


coelo.     Solvunt  autem  eos  apostoli  sermone  Dei,  et  testi- 
moniis  Scripturarum,  et  exhortutione  virtutiim. 

'"  Ambros.  de  Abel  et  Cain,  lib.  2.  cap.  4.  Rcinittuutur 
peccata  per  Dei  verbum,  ciijus  Levites  interprcs,  et  quidam 
executor. Levites  igitur  minister  remissiouis  est. 

^'  Maxim.  Taurin.  Horn.  5.  de  Natali  Petri  et  Pauli,  p. 
231.  Clavis  quae  et  conscientiam  ad  confessionem  peccati 
aporit,  et  gratiam  ad  a;ternitatem  mysterii  salutaris  includit. 

'-  Albasp.  Observ.  lib.  2.  cap.  31. 

^'  Chrys.  de  Sacerdnt.  lib.  3.  cap.  6.  t.  4.  p.  35. 

'*  Leo,  Ep.  89.  al.  91.  ad  Theodor.  Sic  divinoe  bonitatis 
prsesidiis  ordiiiatis,  iit  indulgeutia  Dei,  nisi  supplicationibus 
sacerdotum,  neqiieat  obtineri.— — Item,  multum  utile  ac 
necessarium  est,  ut  peccatorum  reatus  ante  iiltimum  diem 
sacerdotali  supplicatione  solvatur. 
4   A 


'^  Aug.  de  Bapt.  lib.  3.  cap.  17.  An  forte  per  orationes 
sanctorum  spiritalium,  &c.,  eorum  etiam  peccata  solvantur, 
qui  non  per  columbam,  sed  per  accipitrem  baptizautur, 
si  ad  illud  sacramentum  cum  pace  catholicic  unitatis  acce- 
dunt  ?  Quod  si  ita  est,  cur  non  ergo  per  eorum  orationes, 
cum  quisque  ab  haeresi  aut  schismate  ad  paceni  catholicam 
venit,  ejus  peccata  solvuntur? 

•'"'  Ibid.  cap.  18.  Remissam  tamen  peccatorum  non  da- 
bant,  (raptores  et  avari,)  quae  per  orationes  sanctorum,  id 
est,  per  columbic  geniitus  datur,  qiiicunquc  baptizet,  si  ad 
ejus  pacem  pertinent  illi  quibus  datur. 

3'  Ibid.  lib.  2.  cap.  13.  Multum  valet  ad  propitiandum 
Deiun  fraterna  concurdia.  Si  duobus  ex  vobis,  ait  Domi- 
nus,  convenerit  in  terra,  quicquid  petieretis,  liet  vobis.  Si 
duobus  hominibus,  quanto  magis  duobus  populis  ?     Simul 


I  OHO 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIX.  i 


they  might  obtain  remission  of  sins.  For  the  Lord 
had  said,  "  If  two  of  you  shall  agi-ee  on  earth  as 
touching  any  thing  that  they  shall  ask,  it  shall  be 
done  for  them  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven." 
If  for  two  men,  how  much  more  for  two  people ! 
Therefore  let  us  jointly  fall  down  to  supplicate  the 
Lord :  do  you  partake  with  us  in  unity,  and  let  us 
partake  with  you  in  sorrow,  that  charity  may  cover 
the  multitude  of  sins.  Here,  again,  we  see,  remis- 
sion of  sins  is  ascribed  to  prayer.  And  so  Cyprian 
understood  it,  when  he  thus  addressed  himself  to 
those  that  had  lapsed  into  idolatry:'^  "We  pray 
you  to  repent,  that  we  may  be  able  to  pray  to  God 
for  you :  we  first  turn  our  prayers  to  you,  that  we 
may  turn  the  same  to  God,  and  beseech  him  to 
have  compassion  on  you."  Eusebius,'°  after  Clemens 
Alexandrinus,  notes  this  to  have  been  the  method 
whereby  St.  John  obtained  pardon  of  Christ  for  the 
young  man,  who,  after  a  pious  education  in  the 
church,  was  become  a  most  notorious  robber  upon 
the  mountains :  he  interceded  with  Christ  by  fre- 
quent prayers  and  fastings,  and  thereby  restored 
him,  a  great  example  of  repentance,  to  the  church. 
And  thus  TertuUian,*"  whilst  he  was  a  catholic,  re- 
presents Christ  as  joining  his  intercession  with  the 
tears  of  the  church,  and  thereby  obtaining  pardon 
for  the  penitent  sinner.  The  first  council  of  Orange  *' 
appoints  this  to  be  the  way  of  reconciling  heretics, 
who  desire  to  become  catholics  at  the  point  of 
death :  If  the  bishop  was  not  at  hand,  the  presby- 
ters were  to  consign  them  with  chrism,  and  the  be- 
nediction :  which  benediction  was  the  same  as  im- 
position of  hands  and  prayer.  For  as  imposition  of 
hands  by  a  figure  always  implies  prayer,  with  im- 
position of  hands,  as  an  outward  sign  or  ceremony 
accompanying  prayer;  so  both  these  together  are 
what  the  ancients  always  mean  by  a  benediction. 
So  that  when  the  council  bids  those  who  are  bap- 
tized in  heresy,  to  be  reconciled  to  the  church,  or 
absolved  by  a  benediction,  it  is  plain,  that  prayer  is 
\mderstood  as  the  proper  means  of  their  absolution. 
And  it  is  the  same  thing  as  is  ordered  in  other 
canons,"  that  heretics  so  baptized  should  be  re- 
ceived into  communion  by  chrism  and  imposition 
of  hands,  that  is,  unction  to  consign  or  confirm  them 
with  the  Spirit,  (which  was  wanting  in  their  here- 
tical baptism,)  and  prayer  with  imposition  of  hands, 


to  give  them  the  peace  and  communion  of  the 
chm-ch.  Of  which  way  of  reconciling  and  absolv- 
ing penitent  heretics,  who  were  baptized  out  of  the 
church,  we  shall  have  occasion  to  discourse  a  little 
more  distinctly  hereafter.  Here  I  only  add  further 
the  testimony  of  St.  Ambrose,"  who  says.  The  priests 
execute  that  commission  which  is  given  by  Christ, 
John  XX.  23,  for  remitting  of  sins,  as  intercessors  by 
their  prayers.  They  make  request,  but  God  be- 
stows the  gift :  the  service  is  human,  but  the 
bounty  (of  forgiveness)  is  from  the  power  above. 
So  that  if  this  be  not  the  only  way,  whereby  the 
ministers  of  Christ  are  empowered  to  remit  sins,  as 
some  of  the  schoolmen  themselves  have  determined; 
yet  it  was  certainly  one  way,  and  that  of  general 
use  in  the  primitive  church,  as  is  clearly  evident 
from  the  present  allegations,  and  will  be  made  more 
apparent  in  the  sequel  of  this  discourse. 

For  prayer  had  a  considerable  share  ^^^^  ^ 

in  the  great  and  final  absolution  of  ab?oi..tion  i"''!,™!- 
penitents,  when,  after  they  had  per-  H^l^'  ^L\irlo"h% 
formed  their  canonical  penance,  they  munton'of^thr""' 
were  solemnly  reconciled  and  received 
to  the  peace  and  perfect  communion  of  the  church 
at  the  altar.  This  was  that  famous  way  of  remit- 
ting sins,  and  absolving  sinners,  of  which  we  read 
so  much  in  the  monuments  of  the  fathers  and  coun- 
cils, where  they  speak  of  penitential  discipline  and 
absolution  of  sinners.  This  is  what  is  generally 
meant  by  those  ancient  phrases,  granting  them 
peace,  restoring  them  to  communion,  reconciling 
them  to  the  church,  loosing  their  bonds,  granting 
them  pardon  and  indulgence,  and  remitting  their 
sins,  which  are  but  so  many  different  ways  of  ex- 
pressing this  one  thing,  viz.  the  solemn  manner  of 
absolving  public  penitents  and  admitting  them  to 
full  communion,  when  their  canonical  penance  was 
regularly  performed.  And  this  comprehended  all 
the  other  ways  of  absolution,  except  that  of  bap- 
tismal absolution.  For,  as  I  noted  before,  no  peni- 
tent that  had  once  been  regularly  baptized,  was  ever 
admitted  to  communion  by  a  second  baptism ;  but 
they  had  the  absolution  of  prayer  and  imposition  of 
hands,  and  the  absolution  of  the  eucharist,  and  the 
declaratory  absolution  of  the  word  and  doctrine: 
for  solemn  prayer  was  made  to  God  for  them,  to 
procure  their  absolution  from  him ;  and  the  solemn 


nos  Domino  prosternamus,  participamini  nobiscum  unita- 
lem,  participemnr  vobiscum  dolovem,  et  oharitas  cooperiat 
miiltitudinem  peccatorum. 

'■'^  Cypr.  de  Lapsis,  p.  136.  Rogamus  vos,  ut  pro  vobis 
Doum  rogare  possimus.  Preces  ipsas  ad  vos  prius  vertimus, 
qiiibns  Deum  pro  vobis,  ut  misereatur,  orainus. 

'"  Eiiseb.  lib.  3.  cap.  2.3.  Aaxf/iXiat  fiiv  tv)(cu';  i^aiTou- 
/j.ivo's,  K.T.X.    Ex  Clem.  Alex.  Tract.  Quis  Dives  salvetur  ? 

*"  Tertul.  de  Poenit.  cap.  10.  .<Eque  illi  cum  super  te 
lacrymas  agunt,  Christus  patitur,  Christus  Patrem  deprcca- 
tur.     Facile  impetratur  semper,  quod  Filius  postulat. 

"  Cone.  Arausican.cau.2.  Haereticos  iu  mortis  discrimiue 


positos,  sicatholici  esse  desiderent,  si  desit  episcopus,  a  pres- 
byteris  cum  chrismate  et  benedictione  consignari  placet. 

'2  Cone.  Arelat.  2.  can.  17.  Bonosiacos,  quos  baptizari  in 
Trinitate  manifestum  est — cum  chrismate  et  manus  imposi- 
tione  recipi  sufficit.  Leo,  Ep.  92.  ad  Rusticum,  cap.  16. 
Per  manus  impositionem,  invocata  virtute  Spiritus  Sancti, 
quam  ab  heereticis  accipere  non  potuerunt,  catholicis  copu- 
landi  sunt.  Vid.  Siricium,  Ep.  1.  ad  Himerium,  cap.  1. 
Innocent.  Ep.  2.  ad  Victricium,  cap.  8.  Ep.  18.  ad  Alex- 
andr.  cap.  3.  Ep.  22.  cap.  4. 

'^  Ambros.  de  Spir.  Sancto,  lib.  3.  cap.  19.  Isti  rogant, 
divinitas  donat,  &c. 


Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OP  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1091 


imposition  of  hands  was  given  them  to  signify  their 
reconcihation ;  and  the  eucharist  was  immediately 
given  them,  to  restore  them  to  the  communion  of 
the  altar ;  and  by  the  whole  a  declaration  was  made, 
that  they  were  now  again  in  the  society  and  peace 
of  the  chm-ch,  and  in  favour  with  God,  as  far  as 
human  understanding  could  make  any  judgment  of 
them.  And  upon  this  account,  some  ancient  writers 
acknowledge  no  other  sorts  of  absolution  but  only 
two ;  the  baptismal  absolution,  which  is  antecedent 
to  all  penitential  discipline ;  and  this  of  reconciUng 
public  penitents  to  the  communion  of  the  altar; 
because  this  latter  comprehends  all  the  other  ways 
of  absolution  in  the  several  acts  and  ceremonies  that 
were  used  in  the  conferring  of  it.  Thus  we  have 
heard  before  Cyril  of  Alexandria"  expounding  those 
words  of  the  commission,  John  xx.  23,  "  Whose  so- 
ever sins  ye  remit,  they  are  remitted  unto  them." 
Spiritual  men  remit  or  retain  sins  two  ways :  for 
either  they  call  those  to  baptism,  who  are  worthy  of 
it  upon  the  account  of  a  good  life  and  approved  . 
faith ;  or  else  they  forbid  and  repel  those  from  the 
Divine  gift,  who  are  unworthy  of  it.  This  is  one 
way  of  remitting  or  retaining  sins  :  the  other  way 
is,  when  they  correct  and  punish  the  children  of  the 
church  offending,  and  pardon  them  again  upon 
their  repentance.  Now,  because  the  ministers  of 
Christ  are  in  a  great  measure  the  proper  judges  of 
men's  qualifications  both  for  baptism  and  the  eu- 
charist, therefore  a  great  power  and  authority  was 
allowed  them  in  both  these  cases  to  examine  into 
men's  behaviour  and  faith,  and  to  judge  who  were 
fit  and  who  were  not  fit  for  the  reception  of  them ; 
and  accordingly  to  minister  or  not  minister  to  them 
those  mysteries,  which  were  the  means  of  conveying 
remission  of  sins  to  the  worthy  receiver ;  and  so 
they  were  invested  with  a  sort  of  absolute  judicial 
authority  in  the  external  administration  of  these 
things  with  respect  to  the  outward  communion  of 
the  church,  though  not  vidth  an  absolute  authority 
over  the  conscience  in  respect  to  God,  who  alone 
can  properly  remit  sin  and  absolve  the  sinner.  So 
they  acted  in  a  double  capacity  in  these  matters  ; 
as  judges  in  respect  of  men's  visible  qualifications 
for  the  sacraments,  and  the  proper  time  and  season 
of  admitting  them  to  the  participation  of  them ; 
having  power  to  shorten  or  prolong  the  time,  as 
they  judged  of  the  negligence  or  proficiency  of  the 
petitioning  parties :  but  they  acted  only  as  inter- 
cessors to  God  for  them,  as  to  any  thing  pertaining 
directly  and  properly  to  the  purification  of  the  con- 
science from  sin,  which  is  not  in  man's  power,  but 
only  in  a  ministerial  way,  to  do  those  things  which, 
as  means  of  grace,  may  contribute  towards  obtain- 
ing a  proper  absolution  and  remission  of  sins  from 
God,  in  whose  power  only  is  the  absolute  power  of 


forgiving  sins.  This  is  the  true  state  of  the  matter, 
as  to  what  concerns  the  several  sorts  of  absolution 
in  use  in  the  ancient  church,  and  particularly  that 
absolution  which  was  given  to  public  penitents 
upon  their  restoration  to  communion ;  the  manner 
and  ceremonies  of  which,  with  other  incident  cir- 
cumstances, I  shall  now  go  on  a  little  further  to 
explain. 


CHAPTER  II. 


OF  THE  CUSTOMS,  RITES,  AND  CIRCUMSTANCES  AN- 
CIENTLY OBSERVED  IN  THE  PUBLIC  ABSOLUTION 
OF    SINNERS. 

When  sinners  had  performed  their 

regular  penance,  and  carefully  gone     no  sfmure  an- 

,°  ,         ,  ,  <.      T         cienUy  absolved,  till 

through   the   several   stages   or    dis-  they  had  perform- 

^    ^  ^  ^  ed  their  regular  pe- 

cipline  appointed  for  the  distinct  or-  nance,  except  in  case 

r  1-  1-  of  imminent  death. 

ders  of  penitents  in  the  church,  they 
were  then  admitted  to  complete  and  perfect  com- 
munion by  the  great  and  last  reconciliatory  absolu- 
tion. But  this  was  anciently  granted  to  none  be- 
fore they  had  orderly  completed  the  full  term  of 
their  penance,  unless  it  was  in  case  of  imminent 
death,  when  their  desperate  case  made  it  reason- 
able to  treat  them  a  little  more  favourably,  and 
grant  them  an  indulgence,  which  no  consideration 
but  that  extraordinary  exigence  could  procure  them. 
Indulgences  were  not  then  bought  and  sold,  as  they 
were  most  shamefully  in  after  ages :  much  less  was 
bare  confession  sufficient  to  gain  a  man  absolution, 
before  he  had  done  a  formal  and  serious  penance 
to  the  satisfaction  of  the  church.  The  Audian  he- 
retics indeed  were  very  faulty  in  this  matter,  as 
Theodoret  informs  us ; '  for  they  not  only  assumed  to 
themselves  a  despotic  authority,  like  the  Donatists, 
to  pardon  sins  by  their  own  power ;  but  also  hastily 
granted  remission  upon  a  bare  confession,  without 
staying  for  any  fruits  of  repentance,  or  prescribing 
any  time  for  the  public  manifestation  of  them,  as 
the  laws  of  the  church  always  required.  And  there 
w^ere  some  presbyters  of  the  church  in  Cyprian's 
time,  who,  for  favour  or  filthy  lucre,  were  much  in- 
clined to  admit  lapsers,  without  any  just  penance 
done,  in  a  very  hasty  and  preposterous  manner,  to 
communion.  And  the  martyrs,  by  their  artifices 
and  frauds,  were  many  times  induced  to  intercede 
to  the  bishops  for  such  sinners,  and  almost  de- 
mand of  them  an  immediate  readmission  of  the  of- 
fenders. But  Cyprian  very  sharply  remonstrates 
against  this  usurpation  and  abuse,  in  several  letters 
written  both  to  the  clergj',  and  the  martyrs,  and 


"  Cyril,  lib  12.  in  Joan.  xx.  23.     See  before,  sect.  2. 
4  A  2 


'  Theod.  de  Fabulis  Hasret.  lib.  4.  cap.  13. 


1092 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIX, 


the  people  themselves,'-'  wherein  he  sets  forth  both 
the  irregularity  and  the  danger  of  the  practice ;  tell- 
ing the  people  particularly,  that  this  indulgent  fa- 
cility in  the  clergy  to  grant  them  such  a  preposterous 
peace,  did  not  really  give  them  peace,  but  destroy 
it ;  nor  gi-ant  them  true  communion,  but  only  hinder 
their  salvation.  And  St.  Ambrose'  makes  a  like 
reflection  on  the  vanity  of  those  who  seek  for  such 
a  sudden  restoration  :  Some  men,  says  he,  desire  to 
be  admitted  to  penance  only  for  this  reason,  that 
they  may  presently  receive  the  communion  again. 
These  men  do  not  so  much  desire  to  be  absolved 
themselves,  as  to  bind  the  priest :  for  they  retain 
their  evil  conscience ;  and  therefore  the  priest  sins 
greatly  in  admitting  men,  who  give  no  signs  of  re- 
pentance, to  communion  against  the  laws  of  the 
church.  There  was  one  case,  indeed,  in  w^hich  men 
might  be  reconciled  privately,  when  they  had  not 
perfectly  gone  through  their  whole  course  of  pe- 
nance ;  which  was,  when  they  lay  sick  and  despaired 
of  upon  a  death-bed  :  but  that  was  an  extraordinary 
case,  and  the  only  exception  that  the  general  rule 
admitted  of;  and  was  only  a  private,  and  not  a 
solemn  and  public  reconciliation  :  and  even  in  that 
case,  as  I  have  showed  before,^  the  canons  provided, 
that,  if  the  sick  man  recovered,  he  should  perform 
the  residue  of  his  penance  in  the  regular  course  ap- 
pointed for  public  penitents,  before  he  was  solemnly 
reconciled  at  the  altar.  So  that  the  custom  of  ab- 
solving sinners  in  health  before  any  penance  is 
done  must  be  determined  to  be  not  only  a  novelty, 
but  a  great  abuse  and  corruption  of  the  ancient 
discipline,  wholly  owing  to  the  degeneracy  of  latter 
ages. 

^  ,  „  As  to  the  manner  of  the  ancient  re- 

sect. 2. 

rPMn'cn"d^n"S  couciliation,  it  was  usually  thus  per- 

cioth  at  the  aitir.     fornic(j_     Whcu   a  sinner  had  gone 

through  the  course  of  his  penance,  he  was  brought 
to  the  altar  in  the  same  habit  that  he  had  performed 
his  penance,  that  is,  in  sackcloth,  and  there  with 
solemn  prayers,  and  tears,  and  imposition  of  hands 
received  to  full  communion.  The  circumstance  of 
sackcloth  is  mentioned  by  the  first  council  of  To- 
ledo ;*  and  the  place  of  reconciliation  said  to  be  the 
altar,  not  only  by  that  council,  but  by  Optatus,** 
who,  speaking  to  the  Donatists,  and  of  their  way  of 
reconciling  penitents,  (which  was  the  same  as  was 
used  in  the  catholic  church,)  he  tells  them,  that  at 


the  same  time  that  they  laid  hands  on  sinners,  and 
remitted  their  sins,  they  turned  to  the  altar,  and! 
said  the  Lord's  prayer.  And  so  St.  Jerom'  says,, 
The  bishop  enjoins  the  people  common  prayer,  when  i 
he  reconciles  any  one,  who  had  been  delivered  over 
unto  Satan,  to  or  at  the  altar. 

Yet  in  some  cases,  when  the  crime 
was  very  public,  and  more  than  ordi- 


Sect.  3. 

Sometimes    more 

,)ul»liclv   before  the 

narily  notorious  and  scandalous  to  all  "/«'»  'or  reading- 


desk. 


the  people,  the  criminal,  for  example's 
sake,  received  his  absolution  in  a  more  public  place, 
before  the  ajjsis  or  reading-desk,  in  the  open  body 
of  the  church,  and  in  the  view  of  all  the  people. 
This  we  learn  from  a  canon  of  the  third  council  of 
Carthage'  inserted  into  the  African  Code,  which 
says.  That  if  any  penitent's  crime  be  public,  or  vul- 
garly known  to  all,  so  as  to  have  given  scandal  to 
the  whole  church,  he  shall  receive  imposition  of 
hands,  that  is,  his  absolution,  before  the  apsis. 
Learned  men  indeed  are  not  exactly  agreed  about 
the  sense  of  this  canon :  Du  Fresne,''  after  Balsa- 
mon  and  Zonaras,  takes  the  ajjsis  for  the  church 
porch ;  and  Zonaras  says,  the  imposition  of  hands 
means  the  first  imposition  that  admitted  them  to 
penance.  Albaspineeus '"  thinks  the  apsis  means  the 
same  as  the  ambo  or  reading-desk ;  where  the  peni- 
tents of  the  third  class,  called  the  substrators,  kneel- 
ed down  daily  to  receive  imposition  of  hands  ;  and 
to  this  he  thinks  the  imposition  of  hands  mention- 
ed in  the  foresaid  canon  chiefly  relates,  but  with 
this  difference,  that  whereas  ordinary  ]>enitcnts  re- 
ceived their  imposition  of  hands  a  little  more  pri- 
vately behind  the  desk,  these  more  notorious  and 
scandalous  criminals,  which  the  canon  speaks  of, 
received  it  publicly  before  the  desk,  in  the  face  and 
view  of  all  the  people.  He  also  is  of  opinion,  that 
their  final  absolution  was  given  them  in  the  same 
place;  and  that  I  take  to  be  the  true  meaning  of  the 
imposition  of  hands  in  the  canon  now  before  us. 

However,  it  is  certain,  whatever  the         ^.^^^  ^ 
sense  of  that  canon  be,  that  the  great  aittr'aiwl^"  given 
and  final  absolution  of  public  peni-  form%y'impost(i'Jn 

t  f  T    '  of  hands  and  prayer. 

tents  was  always  perrormed  m  a  sup- 
plicatory form,  by  imposition  of  hands  and  prayer. 
This  is  evident  from  the  forementioned  testimonies 
of  Optatus  and  St.  Jerom.  Cyprian  speaks  often  of 
it,  as  used  both  in  public  and  private  reconciliation. 
In  one  place  he  says.  All  penitents "  continued  a 


2  Cypr.  Ep.  10.  al.  16.  ad  Cler.  p.  37.  Ep.  II.  al.  15.  ad 
Martyr,  p.  34.  It.  de  Lapsis,  p.  128. 

^  Ambros.  de  Poenit.  lib.  2.  cap.  9.  NonnuUi  ideo  posc\int 
poenitentiam,  nt  statim  sibi  reddi  cnmnuuiionein  vnlint. 
Hi  non  tarn  se  solvere  ciipiunt,  quam  sacerdotem  ligare,  &c. 

"  Book  XVIII.  chap.  4.  sect.  2. 

^  Cone.  Tolet.  1.  can.  2.  Publicam  pcenitentiam  gerens 
sub  cilicio,  divine  reconciliatus  altaiio. 

•^  Optat.  lib.  2.  p.  57.  Inter  vicina  momenta,  dum  mantis 
imponitis,  et  delicta  donatis,  mox  ad  altare  conversi,  Do- 
minicam  orationeni  prxtermitteie  non  potestis.   - 


'  Hieron.  Dial.  cont.  Lucif.  cap.2.    Saccrdos indicia 

in  populum  oratione,  altario  reconciliat. 

•*  Cone.  Carth.  3.  can.  32.  Ciijuscunque  preiiitentis  pub- 
licum et  vulgatissimum  crimen  est,  quod  universam  eccle- 
siam  commoverit,  ante  apsidemmanus  ei  imponatur.  Vid. 
Cod.  Afric.  can.  43. 

°  Du  Fresne,  Commentar.  in  Paulum  Silent iarium,  p.  536. 

'"  Albaspin.  Not.  in  Cone.  Carth.  3.  can.  .32. 

"  Cypr.  Ep.  12.  al.  17.  ad  Plebein,  p.  39.  Pcenitentia 
agitur  justo  tempore,  et  e.xomologesis  fit,  iuspecta  vita  ejus 
qui  agit  pcenitentiam  ;  nee    ad  communicationem   venire 


Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


in03 


just  time  in  the  exercise  of  pt-n.-ince;  they  made 
their  confession,  and  their  hfe  was  examined,  and 
then  they  were  received  to  communion  by  imposi- 
tion of  hands  given  tliem  by  the  bishop  and  clergy ; 
and  there  was  no  other  way  of  being  reconciled  but 
this.  He  repeats  this  again  in  other  places,'-  and 
both  there  and  elsewhere  complains  of  some  of  his 
presbyters  "  who  transgressed  this  rule,  and  admit- 
ted penitents  to  the  eucharist  before  this  ceremony 
of  admission  was  regularly  performed  toward  them. 
He  also  shows  that  private  reconciliation  of  peni- 
tents upon  a  death-bed  was  performed  after  the 
same  manner :  They  made  their  confession  before  a 
presbyter  or  deacon,"  and  if  they  were  in  danger 
of  death,  imposition  of  hands  was  given  them,  that 
they  might  depart  hence  in  peace  unto  the  Lord. 
Which  shows,  that  he  speaks  not  only  of  the  inter- 
mediate imposition  of  hands,  which  was  given  daily 
to  the  third  order  of  penitents,  called  prostrators, 
whilst  they  were  doing  their  penance,  but  also  of 
the  last  imposition  of  hands,  which  was  given  to  pe- 
nitents at  their  final  reconciliation  to  the  commu- 
nion of  the  church.  This  some  canons  therefore 
call  the  reconciliatory  imposition  of  hands,  to  dis- 
tinguish it  from  all  other  kinds,  whether  in  penance 
or  out  of  penance.  The  custom  continued  in  Africa 
to  give  dying  penitents  reconciliation  in  this  man- 
ner by  imposition  of  hands  in  the  time  of  St.  Aus- 
tin and  the  fourth  council  of  Carthage ;  for  so  that 
council  appointed :  If  a  man  in  sickness  desires  " 
penance,  let  him  receive  it ;  and  if  the  signs  of 
death  be  upon  him,  let  him  be  reconciled  by  im- 
position of  hands,  and  let  the  eucharist  be  put  into 
his  mouth.  But  in  other  places  the  eucharist  alone 
was  given  to  dying  penitents,  as  their  viaticum, 
when  they  had  not  performed  their  whole  penance 
in  health;  and  if  they  happened  to  recover,  then 
they  were  to  finish  their  penance  in  the  ordinary 
•  course ;  and  when  they  had  given  evidence  of  a 
true  repentance  by  the  proper  fruits  of  it,  they  were 
then  to  be  received  publicly  to  communion  by  the 
reconciliatory  imposition  of  hands,  as  in  this  case 
the  first  council  of  Orange '°  appointed.  Now, 
though  there  be  no  mention  made  of  prayer  in  this 
way  of  reconciliation,  yet  it  always  is  to  be  under- 
stood, according  to  that  of  St.  Austin,"  who  says, 


that  imposition  of  hands  is  nothing  else  but  prayer, 
that  is,'  a  ceremony  attending  all  prayers  of  bene- 
diction :  which  therefore  both  he  "*  and  other  writ- 
ers sometimes  more  expressly  call  orationcm  manus 
tmpositionis,  the  prayer  of  imposition  of  hands : 
some  forms  of  which,  both  for  penance  and  other 
benedictions,  may  be  seen  in  the  author  of  the 
Apostolical '"  Constitutions ;  and  particularly  for 
reconciling  of  jienitents  there  is  an  order,  that  the 
bishop^"  shall  receive  them  to  communion  with  im- 
position of  hands,  and  the  prayer  of  the  whole 
church  for  them.  The  form  of  this  prayer  is  in  the 
end  of  St.  James's  liturgj-,  under  the  title  of  fi>x>)  tov 
iXaffitov,  the  prayer  of  propitiation,  which  is  directed 
to  Christ  in  these  words  :  "  0  Lord  Jesus  Christ,'" 
Son  of  the  living  God,  thou  Shepherd  and  Lamb, 
that  takest  away  the  sins  of  the  world,  that  for- 
gavest  the  debt  to  the  two  debtors,  and  grantedst 
remission  of  sins  to  the  sinful  woman,  and  gavest 
to  the  sick  of  the  palsy  both  a  cure  and  pardon  of 
sins ;  remit,  blot  out,  and  pardon  our  sins,  both  vo- 
luntary and  involuntary,  whatever  we  have  done 
wittingly  or  unwittingly,  by  transgression  and  dis- 
obedience, which  thy  Spirit  knoweth  better  than 
we  our  selves.  And  whereinsoever  thy  servants 
have  erred  from  thy  commandments  in  word  or 
deed,  as  men  carrying  flesh  about  them,  and  living 
in  the  world,  or  seduced  by  the  instigations  of  Sa- 
tan ;  or  whatever  curse  or  peculiar  anathema  they 
are  fallen  under,  I  pray  and  beseech  thy  ineffable 
goodness  to  absolve  them  with  thy  word,  and  remit 
their  curse  and  anathema  according  to  thy  mercj'. 
O  Lord  and  Master,  hear  my  prayer  for  thy  ser- 
vants ;  thou  that  forgettest  injuries,  overlook  all 
their  failings,  pardon  their  offences  both  voluntary 
and  involuntary,  and  deliver  them  from  eternal  pun- 
ishment. For  thou  art  he  that  hast  commanded 
us,  saying,  '  Whatsoever  ye  shall  bind  on  earth, 
shall  be  bound  in  heaven  ;  and  whatsoever  ye  shall 
loose  on  earth,  shall  be  loosed  in  heaven  :'  because 
thou  art  our  God,  the  God  that  canst  have  mercy 
and  save  and  forgive  sins ;  and  to  thee,  with  the 
eternal  Father,  and  the  quickening  Spirit,  belongs 
glory  now  and  for  ever,  world  without  end.  Amen." 
The  like  forms  of  absolution  by  prayer  are  still 
in  use  in  the  Greek  church,  as  may  be  seen  iu  Goar's 


quispossit,  nisi  prius  illi  ab  episcopo  et  clero  mauus  fuerit 
imposita. 

'-Cypr.  Ep.  10.  al.  IG.  p.  37.  Per  manus  impositionem 
episcnpi  et  cleri  jus  communicationis  accipiant,  &c. 

'^  Vid.  Cypr.  de  Lapsis,  p.  136.  Ep.  12.  al.  17.  p.  39.  Ep. 
11.  al.  15.  ad  Martyres.  p.  34. 

'*  Cypr.  Ep.  13.  al.  18.  p.  40.  Si  presbyter  repertus  non 
fuerit,  et  urpjere  exitus  cceperit,  apud  diaconum  exomologe- 
sin  facere  delicti  s\ii  possiiit;  ut  manu  eis  in  pcenitentia 
imposita,  veniant  ad  Dominum  cum  pace.  It.  Ep.  14.  al. 
19.  p.  41.  Ep.  15.  al.  20.  p.  43. 

'^  Cone.  Carth.  4.  can.  76.  Accipiat  po3nitentiam ;  et  si 
continuo  creditur  mnriturus,  reconcilietur  per  manus  impo- 
sitionem, et  ori  ejus  infimdatur  eucharistia. 


'"  Cone.  Arausican.  1.  can.  3.  Quod  si  supervi,\crint, 
stent  in  ordine  pceuitentium,  nt  ostensis  necessariis  poeni- 
tentiai  fructibus,  legitimam  comm\uiionem  cum  reconcili- 
atoria  manus  impositionc  recipiant.  See  in  Book  XVI 11. 
chap.  4.  sect.  .3,  this  canon  more  I'ully  recited. 

"  Aug.  de  Bapt.  lib.  3.  cap.  16.  Quidcnini  aliud  est  im- 
positio  manus,  nisi  oratio  super  homiuem? 

"  Aug.  de  Peccator.  Meritis,  lib.  2.  cap.  26.  Cone. 
Milevitan.  2.  can.  12.  Clem.  Alex.  Prcdagog.  lib.  3.  cap.  11. 
Euseb.  Hist.  lib.  1.  cap.  13.  lib.  7.  cap.  2.  Constit.  Apost. 
lib.  8.  cap.  9.     Xtipoth<Tia  kkl  f^X''- 

'"  Constit.  lib.  8.  cap.  9  et  39. 

2»  Ibid.  lib.  2.  cap.  18. 

="  Liturg.  .Jacobi  in  Bibl.  Patr.  Gr.  Lat.  t.  2.  p.  23. 


1094 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIX. 


Euchologium^-  and  Dr.  Smith's  Account  of  the  pre- 
sent State^  of  that  Church.  Bishop  Usher  shows 
further  out  of  Alcuin,-*  and  the  old  Ordo  Romanus, 
and  some  of  the  Roman  ceremonials  and  pontificals, 
that  the  same  form  was  used  for  many  ages  in  the 
Latin  church  also.  And  this  is  confirmed  by  the 
old  Latin  Missal  published  by  Illyricus  and  Cardi- 
nal Bona,"  where  the  absolution,  under  the  title  of 
Indulffcntia,  runs  in  this  form :  "  He  that  forgave  the 
sinful  woman  all  her  sins  for  which  she  shed  tears, 
and  opened  the  gate  of  paradise  to  the  thief  upon  a 
single  confession,  make  you  partakers  of  his  re- 
demption, and  absolve  you  from  all  the  bond  of 
your  sins,  and  heal  those  infirm  members  by  the 
medicine  of  his  mercy,  and  restore  them  to  the  body 
of  his  holy  church  by  his  grace,  and  keep  them 
whole  and  sound  for  ever." 

Other  forms  of  absolution  by  prayer  might  be 
added,  but  these  are  abundantly  sufficient  to  show, 
that  anciently  the  great  and  formal  absolution  of 
public  penitents  at  the  altar  was  usually  performed 
by  imposition  of  hands  and  prayer ;  the  one  as  the 
means  procuring,  and  the  other  as  the  rite  declaring 
their  reconcihation  to  God  and  his  church. 

If  it  be  inquired,  when  the  use  of 
Absolution  in  the  ^}^g  indlcativc  form  of  absolution  first 

indicative  form,  £(;o 

tmlhftwem  cen^  began  to  be  used  in  the  church,  that 
'"^'  is,  the  form,  I  absolve  thee,  instead  of 

the  deprecatory  form,  Christ  absolve  thee ;  Morinus^'' 
has  fully  proved,  that  there  was  no  use  of  it  till  the 
twelfth  or  thirteenth  century,  not  long  before  the 
time  of  Thomas  Aquinas,  who  was  one  of  the  first 
that  wrote  in  defence  of  it.  And  our  learned  Bishop 
Usher  ^'  has  clearly  proved  the  novelty  of  it  from 
Aquinas  himself.  For  he  says,^  There  was  a  learn- 
ed man  in  his  time,  who  found  fault  with  the  indi- 
cative form  of  absolution  then  used  by  the  priest, 
I  absolve  thee  from  all  thy  sins ;  and  would  have  it 
to  be  delivered  only  by  way  of  deprecation ;  alleging, 
that  this  was  not  only  the  opinion  of  Gulielmus 
Altissiodorensis,  Gulielmus  Parisiensis,  and  Hugo 
Cardinalis ;  but  also  that  thirty  years  were  scarce 
passed,  since  all  did  use  this  form  only,  Absohrtio- 
nem  et  remissionem  tribuat  tihi  Omnipotens  Deus, 


Almighty  God  give  thee  remission  and  forgiveness. 
This  points  out  the  time  of  the  change  so  precisely, 
that  learned  men,'^"  who  allow  the  form  in  some 
sense  proper  to  be  used,  make  no  scruple  to  declare 
their  opinion  of  the  novelty  of  it  upon  the  strength 
of  the  foregoing  considerations. 

If  it  be  asked  further,  in  what  sense  g^^^  g 

the  indicative  form  of  absolution  may  foJliVmajtrfuow- 
be  allowed?  it  is  answered,  that  it  "^' 
may  be  allowed  several  ways.  1.  As  an  act  of  juris- 
diction, by  those  who  are  intrusted  with  the  power) 
of  receiving  public  penitents  into  communion,  and 
loosing  the  bonds  of  excommunication,  wherewith 
they  were  judicially  and  formally  tied  by  the  cen- 
sure of  the  church  before.  In  this  sense  it  is  no 
impropriety  for  him  who  has  the  key  of  jurisdiction, 
and  power  of  relaxing,  as  well  as  inflicting  church' 
censures,  to  use  the  indicative  form,  I  absolve  thee. 
For  this  is  only  an  external  act  of  ecclesiastical 
power,  that  respects  only  the  outward  and  visible 
communion,  but  does  not  directly  or  immediately 
affect  the  conscience.  Therefore  some  learned  per 
sons  not  only  allow  the  use  of  it  in  this  sense,  but 
think  it  was  actually  so  used  by  some  in  the  primi 
tive  church.^"  As  by  Zephyrinus,  bishop  of  Rome, 
whom  Tertulhan  (after  he  was  become  a  Montanist) 
upbraids,^'  as  saying,  I  forgive  the  sins  of  fornica 
tion  and  adultery  to  those  that  do  penance  for  them 
meaning,  that  he  admitted  them  again  to  the  peace 
and  communion  of  the  church,  which  the  Mon- 
tanists,  and  the  Novatians  after  them,  would  by  nc 
means  allow  of.  2.  This  indicative  form,  I  absolve 
thee,  may  be  interpreted  to  mean  no  more  than  the 
declaration  of  God's  will  to  a  penitent  sinner,  that 
upon  the  best  judgment  the  priest  can  make  of  his 
repentance,  he  esteems  him  absolved  before  God 
and,  accordingly,  pronounces  and  declares  him  abJ 
solved :  as  St.  Jerom'"  observes,  the  priests  undei 
the  old  law  were  said  to  cleanse  a  leper  or  pollute 
him ;  not  that  they  were  the  authors  of  his  pollu- 
tion, but  that  they  declared  him  to  be  polluted,  whc 
before  seemed  to  many  to  have  been  clean.  Anc 
in  another  place'*  he  makes  a  more  close  remarl 
concerning  this   matter,  whilst  he  reflects  upoi 


22  Goar,  Eucholog.  p.  G66.        *'  Smith's  Account,  p.  181. 

-*  Usher,  Answer  to  the  Challenge,  p.  88. 

"  Bona,  Rer.  Liturg.  in  Appendice,  p.  763.  Qui  mulieri 
peccatrici  omnia  peccata  dimisit  lacrymanti,  et  latroni  ad 
unani  confessionem  claustra  apevuit  paradisi,  ipse  vos  re- 
demptionis  sure  participes  ab  omni  vinculo  peccatorum 
absolvat,  et  membra  aliquatenus  debilitata  medicina  mise- 
ricordiae  sanata,  corpori  sanctae  ecclesiae  redeunte  gratia 
restituat,  atque  in  perpetuum  solidata  custodiat.  Qui  vivit 
et  regnat,  &c. 

=«  Morin.  de  Prenitent.  lib.  8.  cap.  8,  9,  &c. 

2'  Usher,  Answer  to  the  Jesuit's  Challenge,  p.  89. 

2"  Aquin.  Opusc.  22.  de  Forma  Absolution,  cap.  5. 

29  See  Bishop  Fell's  Not.  in  Cypr.  de  Lapsis,  p.  136. 
Discourse  of  the  Penitential  Discipline  of  the  Primitive 
Church,  chap.  3.  sect.  4.     Lond.  161 1. 


»  Fell,  in  Cypr.  ibid. 

3'  Tertul.  de  Pudicit.  cap.  1.  Pontifex  scilicet  Maximus 
episcopus  episcoporum,  dicit,  Ego  et  mcechiae  et  fornicationi. 
delicta  poenitentia  functis  dimitto. 

32  Hieron.  lib.  7.  in  Esai.  xxiii.  De  sacerdotibus  in  Le 
vitico  legimus,  contaminatione  contaminabit  eum  sacerdos 
non  quod  contaminationis  autor  sit,  sed  quod  ostendat  em: 
contaminalum,  qui  prius  niundus  plurimis  videbatur. 

33  Hieron.  in  Mat.  xvi.  t.  9.  p.  49.  Istum  locum  episcop 
et  presbyteri  non  intelligentes,  aliquid  sibi  de  Pharisocorun 
supercilio  assumunt,  ut  vel  damnent  innocentes,  vel  solver 
se  noxios  arbitrentur :  cum  apud  Deum  non  sententia  sa 
cerdotum,  sed  reorum  vita  quKratur.  Legimus  in  Levitic 
de  leprosis,  ubi  jubentur,  ut  ostendant  se  sacerdotibus,  et  i 
lepram  habuerint,  tunc  a  sacerdote  immundi  fiant:  no 
quod   saccrdotcs   leprosos  faciant  et  immundos,  sed    quo 


Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1095 


some  bishops  and  presbyters  in  liis  own  time,  who, 
not  understanding  the  true  meaning  of  the  com- 
mission to  remit  sins,  assumed  to  themselves  some- 
thing of  a  Pharisaical  pride  and  loftiness,  so  as  to 
imagine  they  had  power  either  to  condemn  the  in- 
nocent, or  absolve  the  guilty ;  when  yet,  before  God, 
it  is  not  the  sentence  of  the  priests,  but  the  life  of 
the  criminals  that  is  inquired  into.  We  read  in 
LeNaticus  concerning  the  lepers,  where  they  are 
conmianded  to  show  themselves  to  the  priests,  and  if 
they  had  the  leprosy,  they  were  then  to  be  polluted 
or  made  unclean  by  the  priest ;  not  that  the  priests 
made  them  leprous  or  unclean,  but  because  they  had 
the  power  of  judging  who  were  leprous  or  not  le- 
prous, and  might  discern  who  were  clean  or  unclean. 
As,  therefore,  the  priest  makes  the  leper  clean  or 
unclean,  so  the  bishop  or  presbyter  here  binds  or 
looses,  not  properly  making  the  guilty  or  the  guilt- 
less ;  but  according  to  the  tenor  of  his  office,  when 
he  hears  the  distinction  of  sins,  he  knows  who  is  to 
be  bound,  and  who  to  be  loosed.  Upon  this  also  the 
Master  of  the  Sentences  (following  St.  Jerom)  ob- 
serves, that  the  priests  of  the  gospel  have  that  right 
and  office,  which  the  legal"  priests  had  of  old  under 
the  law  in  curing  the  lepers.  These,  therefore,  for- 
give sins  or  retain  them,  whilst  they  show  and  de- 
clare that  they  are  forgiven  or  retained  by  God.  For 
the  priests  put  the  name  of  the  Lord  upon  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel,  but  it  was  he  himself  that  blessed 
them,  as  it  is  read  in  Numb.  vi.  27.  3.  The  indica- 
tive form,  I  absolve  thee,  may  be  used  in  the  per- 
formance of  any  external  act  of  the  ministry,  which 
is  used  as  a  means  to  obtain  remission  of  sins  of 
God;  as  in  the  administration  of  baptism,  or  the 
eucharist.  The  priest  may  as  well  say,  I  absolve 
thee,  as,  I  baptize  thee ;  for  baptism  is  an  absolu- 
tion, as  we  have  seen  before  :  but  then  the  priest's 
part  in  it  is  only  to  administer  the  external  form  ; 
but  it  is  God  that  gives  the  internal  grace,  and 
spiritually  baptizes  with  remission  of  sins.  Yet, 
forasmuch  as  the  priest  has  power  to  minister  the 
external  form,  he  may  say,  I  baptize  thee,  or  I  wash 
thee  with  water;  which  washing  is  the  outward 
means  appointed  by  God  to  convey  to  us  remission 
of  sins,  and  the  internal  washing  of  our  souls  in 
the  blood  of  Christ  by  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  So  likewise  in  the  administration  of  the 
eucharist,  a  priest  might  say,  I  give  thee  the  body 
of  Christ,  or,  I  absolve  thee  by  the  body  of  Christ ; 
meaning,  that  he  ministered  to  him  the  outward 
element  of  bread,  which  is  the  sacramental  body  of 
Christ,  appointed  to  be  used  as  a  means  to  convey 
the  real  body  of  Christ  and  all  his  benefits,  whereof 


absolution  or  remission  of  sins  is  one,  to  the  worthy 
receiver.  Our  church  has  not  appointed  the  in- 
dicative form  of  absolution  to  be  used  in  all  these 
senses,  but  only  once  in  the  office  of  the  sick,  and 
that  may  reasonably  be  interpreted  (according  to 
the  account  given  out  of  St.  Jerom)  a  declaration  of 
the  sinner's  pardon,  upon  the  apparent  evidences  of 
a  sincere  repentance,  and  the  best  judgment  the 
minister  can  make  of  his  condition  ;  beyond  which 
none  can  go  but  the  Searcher  of  hearts,  to  whom 
alone  belongs  the  infallible  and  irreversible  sen- 
tence of  absolution.  But  of  this  only  by  the 
way ;  I  now  return  to  the  practice  of  the  primitive 
church. 

Where  we   may  observe,  that  be- 
sides the  common  way  of  reconciling     whf '"'chrism  or 
ordinary  penitents  to  the  church,  there  times  added  to  >m- 

position  of  hands  in 

was  something  often  very  peculiar  in  t^e  reconciliation  or 

^  •     *  certain  heretics  and 

the  reconciliation  of  heretics  and  "hurch?'"''*  '°  '*"' 
schismatics.  For  they  were  considered 
under  a  threefold  denomination  or  distinction  : 
either  they  were  such  as  had  been  baptized  in  the 
church,  and  afterward  fell  away  from  it ;  or,  second- 
ly, they  were  such  as  were  baptized  in  heresy  or 
schism,  but  with  the  usual  form  of  baptism;  or, 
thirdly,  they  w^ere  such  as  had  been  baptized  by 
heretics  or  schismatics  by  such  a  corrupted  form, 
as  destroj'^d  the  true  nature  and  essence  of  the 
thing  itself,  and  made  it  altogether  a  null  and  void 
baptism.  The  first  sort  were  reconciled  much  after 
the  same  manner  as  other  penitents,  only  making 
a  confession  and  abjuration  of  their  errors.  But 
the  second  sort,  because  they  wanted  the  true  effect 
of  baptism,  that  is,  the  grace  or  unction  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  which  they  could  not  have  out  of  the 
church  in  heresy  or  schism,  were  therefore  recon- 
ciled, not  only  with  imposition  of  hands,  but  with 
the  holy  imction  or  chrism  added  to  it,  to  give  them 
confirmation,  and  denote  their  reception  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  of  peace  upon  their  returning  to  the 
peace  and  unity  of  the  church.  And  the  third  sort, 
because  they  wanted  true  baptism,  were  received 
after  the  manner  of  heathens,  with  a  new  baptism 
because  their  first  pretended  baptism  was  altogether 
null  and  void.  This  was  the  distinction  made  be- 
tween those  several  sorts  of  heretics,  and  the  true 
grounds  and  reasons  of  the  different  observations 
in  the  church's  discipline  in  their  reconciliation 
and  reception.  The  two  latter  sorts  of  heretics 
were  scarce  looked  upon  as  properly  penitents  in 
the  church,  but  were  rather  received  sub  i?na(/itie 
2)ceniteHtke,  under  the  image  and  resemblance  of  the 
penance  that  was  usually  performed  by  those  who 


habeant  notitiam  leprosi  et  non  leprosi,  et  possint  discer- 
nere  qui  mundus  quive  immundus  sit.  Quomodo  ergo  ibi 
leprosum  sacerdos  miindum  vel  immiindum  facit,  sic  et  hie 
alligat  vel  solvit  episcopus  et  presbyter,  non  eos,  qui  insontes 
sunt  vel  noxii  [Jaciens:]  sed  pro  officio  suo,  cum  peccato- 


rum  audierit  varietates,  scit  qui  ligandus  sit,  quive  solven- 
dus.     I  have  supplied  the  word  faciens,  which  the  sense 
seems  plainly  to  require. 
'•  Lombard.  Sontent.  lib.  4.  dist.  IS.  p.  3:il. 


1096 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIX' 


had  once  been  members  of  the  church,  as  Pope  In- 
nocent informs  us  in  one  of  his  epistles ;  where, 
speaking  of  some  who  had  been  baptized  by  the 
Arians  and  other  sects,  who  retained  the  due  form 
of  baptism,  he  says,^  "  They  received  them  under 
the  image  of  penance  with  imposition  of  hands  and 
sanctification  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  to  perfect  their 
baptism,  which,  though  given  in  the  name  of  the 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  yet  wanted  the  grace 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  they  could  not  have  but 
upon  their  return  to  the  peace  and  unity  of  the 
catholic   church.      Therefore  then   they  received 
them  with  imposition  of  hands,  and  the  unction  of 
chrism,  if  they  had  not  been  anointed  before."  This 
he  repeats  in  several  other  places.^"    And  the  same 
is  confirmed  by  the  testimonies  of  Siricius,"  and 
Leo,'*  and  St.  Jerom,^  and  Gennadius,^"  and  the 
author  under  the  name  of  Justin  Martyr,"  and  the 
councils  of  Orange  ^'-  and  Epone :  '^  all  which,  be- 
cause I   have  had  occasion  more  fully  to  represent 
them  in  another  work,^'  I  only  just  mention  in  this 
place,  with  this  single  remark,  that   the  council  of 
Orange,  and  that  of  Epone,  and  the  author  under 
the  name  of  Justin,  expressly  mention  the  ceremony 
of  chrism,  or  anointing  with  the  holy  oil ;  which  is 
also  appointed  by  the  council  of  Laodicea,''^  and  the 
general  council  of  Constantinople,"*^  and  the  second 
council  of  Aries,"  and  the  council  of  Trullo,^*  to  be 
used  with  imposition  of  hands  in  the  reconciliation 
of  such  heretics  as  had  been  baptized  in  any  heresy 
or  schism  with  the  true  form  of  baptism,  in  the 
name  of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost :  such 
are  required  only  to  renounce  their  errors,  and  learn 
the  true  faith,  and  make  profession  of  it ;  and  then 
they  were  to  be  reconciled  with  imposition  of  hands 
and  chrism,  which  was  pecuhar  to  this  sort  of  peni- 
tents, who  had  never  before  been  united  truly  to 
the  catholic  church.     They  seem  not  to  have  gone 
through  all  the  stages  of  penance,  as  other  peni- 
tents did  in  the  church ;  but  to  have  been  recon- 
ciled in  a  more  compendious  way,  more  suitable  to 
their  state  and  condition,  as  strangers  and  foreign- 
ers now  just  entering  within  the  pale  of  the  church. 
For  which  reason  Pope  Innocent  styles  their  short 
penance  only  an  image  or  faint  resemblance  of  that 
penance,  which  held  other  penitents  often  very  long 
under  the  discipline  of  the  church. 


As  to  others,  who  had  been  ban- 

'  ^  Sect.  8. 

tized  by  such  heretics  as  had  either  ,.  '^^^y  some  here 

•^  tics  could  be  reconi' 

wholly  rejected,  or  greatly  corrupted  buf  byVne"  bk^p 
the  true  form  of  baptism,  there  was  ''""' 
a  very  different  way  of  receiving  and  reconciling 
them  to  the  communion  of  the  church.  For  they 
could  be  admitted  no  other  way,  but  as  heathens 
by  the  door  of  baptism ;  seeing  their  former  pre- 
tended baptism  was  not  only  defective  in  some  re- 
moter circumstances,  but  in  the  very  form  and 
essence  of  it,  and  therefore  reputed  absolutely  null' 
and  void,  and  necessary  to  be  repeated,  in  order  tc 
make  them  members  of  the  church.  Upon  this 
account  the  council  of  Nice  ^^  ordered  the  Samosate- 
nians  or  Paulianists,  upon  their  return  to  the  catho- 
lic church,  to  be  baptized.  The  council  of  Laodi-i 
cea  ^^  made  a  like  order  for  the  reconciliation  of  the 
Montanists  or  Cataphrygians.  The  first  council  ol 
Constantinople^'  decreed  the  same  for  the  Montan 
ists,  Eunomians,  and  Sabellians.  The  second  coun-< 
cil  of  Aries  adds  the  Photinians  ;'-  and  the  council 
of  TruUo^'  the  Manichees,  Valentinians,  Marcion- 
ites,  and  all  others  of  the  like  nature ;  that  is,  all 
such  as  had  not  been  truly  baptized  with  due  form 
of  baptism.  There  was  no  other  way  of  reconciling 
such  to  the  catholic  church,  but  by  instructing  and 
training  them  up  to  the  knowledge  of  the  true  faith, 
first  as  catechumens,  and  then  giving  them  the  ab- 
solution of  baptism,  which  in  this  case  was  allowed 
to  them,  as  having  never  received  any  true  baptism) 
before.  These  were  the  several  ways  of  reconciling) 
penitent  heretics,  according  to  the  variety  of  their 
circumstances,  and  thfe  different  state  and  condition: 
they  were  in,  when  they  desired  to  be  reunited  to^ 
the  body  of  the  church. 

As  for  those  who  were  baptized  in 
the  church,  and  afterward  fell  aAvay     what'"' conditions 

.     ,  ,  ,   .  /•      t  were  required  in  the. 

into  any  heresy  or  schism,  we  find  no  reconciliation  of 

those  who  fell  from 

other  way  of  reconciling  them  but  the  the  church  into  he- 

*'  ^  resy  or  schism. 

common  and  ordinary  way  of  recon- 
ciling all  other  penitents,  by  imposition  of  hands 
and  prayer.  For,  as  I  have  noted  before,  if  the 
first  baptism  was  valid,  a  second  baptism  was  never 
allowed  to  be  given  to  any  penitent  by  way  of  ab- 
solution. Yet  some  greater  hardships"  and  severer 
conditions  were  often  imposed  upon  such  apostates 
and  deserters,  before  they  could  be  admitted  to  the 


^  Innoc.  Ep.  18.  ad  Alexandrum,  cap.  3.  Eorum  laicos 
converses  ad  Dominum,  sub  imagine  poenitentiae  ac  Sancti 
Spiritus  sanctilicatione  per  manus  impositionem  suscipi- 
mus,  &c. 

^  Innoc.  Ep.  2.  ad  Victriciiim,  cap.  8.  Ep.  22.  ad  Epis- 
copos  Macedon.  cap.  1  et  5. 

"'  Siric.  Ep.  1.  ad  Ilimerium  Tarracon.  cap.  1. 

^  Leo,  Ep.  37.  ad  Leonem  Raven,  cap.  2.  Ep.  92.  ad 
Rusticiun  Narbon.  cap.  IG. 

"  Hieron.  Dial.  cont.  Lucifer,  cap.  8. 

*"  Gennad.  de  Eccles.  Dogm.  cap.  52.  It.  de  Scriptor. 
Eccles.  cap.  27. 


"  Justin.  Qusest.  14.  ad  Orthodox. 

■■-  Cone.  Arausic.  1.  can.  2.  Hacreticos  in  mortis  dis- 
crimine cum  chrismate  et  benedictione  consignari  placet. 

■"  Cone.  Epaunen.  can.  16.  Haereticis  in  lecto  decura- 
bentibus,  presbytero  chrismate  subvenire  permittimus. 

*'  Scholast.  Hist,  of  Bapt.  Part  I.  chap.  1.  sect.  20,  21. 

■•^  Ccmc.  Laodic.  can.  7. 

■"*  Cone.  Constant.  1.  can.  7. 

"  Cone.  Arelat.  2  can.  17.  '"'  Cone.  Trull,  can.  95. 

'"  Cone.  Nic.  can.  19.  ^^  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  8. 

^'  Cone.  Constant,  can.  7.        ^'  Cone.  Arelat-  2.  can.  16. 

^^  Cone.  Trull,  can.  96. 


Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1097 


peace  of  tlie  church  again.  If  they  were  ring- 
leaders and  broachers  of  the  heresy,  who  drew 
others  into  their  error  and  faction  ;  it  was  common- 
ly required,  that  they  should  bring  back  the  multi- 
tude whom  they  had  deceived,  before  they  obtained 
a  perfect  absolution.  Thus  Tertullian^^  observes  of 
Marcion,  that  he  was  promised  to  be  absolved  only 
upon  this  condition,  that  he  should  reduce  those 
back  again  to  the  church,  whom  he  had  led  away 
by  his  doctrine  into  perdition  :  and  he  undertook  to 
do  this,  but  death  prevented  him.  Cyprian  makes 
a  like  remark  in  the  case  of  Trophimus,  one  of  the 
three  bishops  that  were  concerned  in  giving  Nova- 
tian  an  unlawful  ordination,  whereby  they  set  him 
up  as  anti-bishop  against  Cornelius,  and  raised  a 
flaming  schism  in  Rome  :  he  says,  his  supplication 
for  readmission  was  accepted,^^  because  by  his  hu- 
mility and  satisfaction  he  brought  back  the  people, 
whom  he  had  drawn  into  the  schism  ;  and  it  was 
not  so  much  Trophimus  that  was  admitted  again 
into  the  church,  as  a  great  number  of  the  brethren, 
who  had  gone  aside  with  him,  and  would  not  have 
returned  without  their  leader.  And  yet  he  was  not 
allowed  to  retain  his  espiscopal  office,  but  only  to 
communicate  in  the  quality  of  a  layman.  Some- 
times it  was  required  of  them,  as  a  condition  of 
their  absolution,  that  they  should  make  discovery 
of  the  remainders  of  their  faction.  St.  Austin 
gives  us  an  instance  of  this  in  his  own  treatment  of 
one  Yictorinus,  a  subdeacon,  who  fled  over  to  the 
sect  of  the  Manichees :  when  he  returned  again, 
and  desired  to  And  a  place  for  repentance,  St.  Aus- 
tin refused  to  admit  him,  unless  he  would  give  in- 
formation of  the  rest  of  his  party.  Sometimes  they 
were  required  to  anathematize  their  eiTors,  and  ab- 
jure them  in  writing.  The  council  of  Nice  exacted 
this  condition  ^°  of  the  Novatians  ;  and  the  council 
of  Gangra,"  of  the  Eustathians ;  and  the  second 
council  of  Arles,^*  of  the  Novatians  ;  and  the  Afri- 
can councils,^'  of  the  Donatists.  The  council  of 
Laodicea^  insists  upon  the  same  from  the  Nova- 
tians, Photinians,  and  Quartadecimans.  And  the 
general  council^'  of  Constantinople  exacts  it  of  the 
Macedonians,  Sabbatians,  Arians,  Novatians,  Quar- 
tadecimans.    And  sometimes  they  were  required 


not  only  to  anathematize  error,  and  subscribe  the 
truth,  but  to  take  an  oath  for  greater  confirma- 
tion ;  as  Socrates  says'"  Constantine  obliged  Arius 
to  do,  though  he  did  it  fraudulently  and  like  an  im- 
postor. This  was  the  precaution  which  the  church 
used  particularly  in  the  case  of  heretical  apostates, 
to  be  ascertained  of  their  sincerity  in  making  re- 
cantations, before  she  would  receive  them  into  her 
communion  again,  or  grant  them  absolution. 
There  is  one  circumstance  more  to 

be  noted  under  this  head,  which  is  the  or  ti.e  timr  of  abso- 
lution.       » 
ordmary   time   of  absolution.     This 

seems  to  have  been  fixed,  in  the  ordinary  course  of 
discipline,  to  the  day  of  our  Savioui-'s  passion,  or 
rather  the  day  on  which  he  was  betrayed.  For  so 
St.  Ambrose  says  expressly,  that  on  the  day  that 
our  Lord  gave  himself  for  us,*^  it  was  usual  in  the 
church  to  relax  men's  penance,  or  grant  them  ab- 
solution. In  the  Roman  church,  in  the  time  of 
Pope  Innocent,"^  the  custom  was  the  same,  to  ab- 
solve penitents  only  upon  the  Thursday  before 
Easter,  except  some  sickness  intervened,  and  the 
penitent's  life  was  despaired  of ;  for  then  he  might 
be  reconciled  at  any  time,  when  necessity  required, 
rather  than  leave  the  world  without  the  benefit  of 
communion.  It  was  at  or  about  this  time  also,  that 
the  emperors  (perhaps  in  imitation  of  this  custom 
of  the  church)  were  wont  to  send  forth  their  civil 
absolutions  or  indulgences,  as  they  called  them, 
whereby  at  the  Paschal  festival  they  granted  pardon 
to  all  criminals,  who  lay  bound  in  prison  for  their 
faults,  except  some  that  were  of  a  more  malignant 
and  unpardonable  nature.  This  practice  was  first 
begun  by  Valentinian,  and  continued  by  Theodo- 
sius  and  the  succeeding  emperors  ;  of  which  there 
is  a  whole  title  in  the  Theodosian  Code,*^'  to  men- 
tion no  other  writers  at  present  that  speak  of  it. 
The  monks  who  petitioned  in  behalf  of  Eutyches 
in  the  second  council  of  Ephesus,'^"  plainly  refer  to 
both  customs,  the  sacred  and  the  civil.  For  upon 
this  day,  say  they,  meaning  the  Paschal  solemnity, 
the  holy  fathers  relax  the  punishment  of  many  of- 
fenders ;  and  the  emperors  loose  the  bonds  of  those 
that  are  in  chains  for  their  transgressions.  So  that 
this  was  the  chief  time  of  discharging  both  civil 


^'  Tertul.  de  Praescript.  cap.  30.  Ita  pacem  recepturus, 
si  cacteros  quoque,  quos  perditioui  erudisset,  ecclesiae  resti- 
tueret,  morte  prajventus  est. 

^^  Cypr.  Ep.  52.  al.  55.  ad  Antonian.  p.  105.  Fraternita- 
teru,  quam  nuper  abstraxerat,  cum  plena  humilitate  et  sa- 
tisfactione  revocante  Trophimo,  auditoe  sunt  ejus  preccs ; 
et  in  ecdesiam  Domini  non  tarn  Trupliimus,  quam  maxi- 
mus  fratrum  numerus,  qui  cum  Trophimo  fuerat,  admissus 
est ;  qui  omnes  regressuii  ad  ecclesiara  non  esseut,  nisi  cum 
Trophimo  comitante  venisseut— r  Sic  tamen  admissus  est 
Trophimus,  ut  laicus  communicet,  non  quasi  locum  sacer- 
dotis  usurpet. 

^  Cone.  Nic.  can.  8.        "  Cone.  Gangren.  in  Pronem. 

^  Cunc.  Arelat.  2.  can.  9.  ^'  Cod.  Afric.  can.  57. 


^  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  7.  ^'  Cone.  Const.  1.  can.  7. 

«  Socraf.  lib.  1.  cap.  .38. 

^  Ambros.  Ep.  33.  ad  Marcellin.  sororem.  Erat  dies  quo 
Dominus  sese  pro  nobis  tradidit,  quo  in  ecclesia  poDuitentia 
relaxatur. 

"  Innoc.  Ep.  1.  ad  Decent,  cap.  7.  Prenitentibus  si  nulla 
interveniat  a;gritudo,  quinta  feria  ante  Pascha  remitteu- 
dum  Roman.-B  ecclesire  consuetudo  demonstrat,  &c.  V'id. 
Hieron.  Epitaph.  Fabiolae. 

•^  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  38.  de  Indulgentiis  Criminum, 
Leg.  3,  4,  &c. 

^  Acta  Synod.  Ephes.  in  Act.  1.  Cone.  Chalcedon.  Con. 
t.  4.  p.  277.  Vid.  Action.  10.  ibid.  p.  G41.  Another  such 
instance  out  of  the  council  of  Beiytus. 


1098 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIX, 


and  ecclesiastical  criminals,  and  in  regard  to  each 
of  them  the  discharge  was  styled  (according  to  the 
nature  of  the  thing,  either  in  a  civil  or  ecclesiasti- 
cal sense)  an  absolution  or  indulgence. 

^  ,  ,,  We  have  hitherto  considered   the 

Sect.  II. 

a"oived'somc''p"»u  Hianuer  and  circumstances  of  absolu- 
thcm  in"to  commu-  tion,  as  givcu  to  all  sorts  of  penitents 
nion,  a  ter  de:ith.      -^yj^jig);  {.j-iey  v\-ere  Uvlng.     But  besides 

this  we  are  to  take  notice  of  another  way  of  ab- 
solving penitents,  and  receiving  men  into  commu- 
nion, even  after  death.  For  it  sometimes  happened, 
that  true  penitents,  and  very  good  men,  by  accident 
died  under  the  censure  of  excommunication  unre- 
laxed,  and  so  out  of  the  external  visible  commu- 
nion of  the  church.  Which  might  happen  in  two 
cases:  1.  When  penitents  chanced  to  die  suddenly, 
whilst  they  were  diligently  performing  their  pe- 
nance; or  were  in  a  journey,  or  at  sea,  where  they 
had  no  minister  to  give  them  a  formal  reconcilia- 
tion or  absolution.  2.  When  innocent  men  were 
overborne  by  some  great  and  prevalent  faction,  and 
unjustly  excommunicated,  and  never  received  into 
the  external  communion  of  the  church  by  reason 
of  the  power  that  prevailed  against  them.  For  both 
these  cases  the  church  provided  a  remedy,  by  using 
some  ceremony  to  admit  them  into  communion,  or 
rather  to  acknowledge  them  to  be  in  communion, 
after  death.  For  penitents  who  died  suddenly, 
W'hilst  they  were  carefully  doing  their  penance,  it 
was  provided,  that  notwithstanding  this  accident, 
they  should  be  treated  as  persons  dying  in  the  com- 
munion of  the  church,  though  they  wanted  a  formal 
reconciliation.  To  this  purpose,  the  fourth  council 
of  Carthage  made  a  decree,"  That  if  any  penitents, 
who  were  diligently  observing  the  rules  of  penance, 
happened  to  die  by  any  sudden  accident,  whilst  they 
were  in  a  journey,  or  at  sea,  where  no  assistance 
could  be  given  them,  their  memorials  notwithstand- 
ing should  be  recommended  both  in  the  prayers  and 
the  oblations  of  the  church.  And  the  second  coun- 
cil of  Vaison*  ha.s  an  order  of  the  same  nature, 
which  is  a  little  more  particular :  If  any  of  those 
who  have  submitted  to  the  laws  of  penance,  and  in 
pursuance  thereof  lead  a  good  life  in  all  satisfactory 
compunction,  shall  happen  to  be  prevented  by  sud- 
den death  in  the  country,  or  in  a  journey,  their  ob- 
lations shall  be  received,  and  their  funeral  obsequies 


and  memorials  be  performed  after  the  manner  and 
custom  of  the  church :  because  it  were  unreasonable 
to  exclude  the  commemorations  of  those  out  of  the 
sacred  service,  to  which  service  they  were  labouring 
with  all  diligence  and  fidehty  to  attain  ;  and  to 
whom  the  bishop  (though  they  chanced  to  be  in-i 
tercepted  from  receiving  the  viaticum  of  the  euchar- 
ist)  would  perhaps  not  have  thought  it  improper  to 
have  granted  the  most  perfect  reconciliation.  The 
practice  of  the  Roman  church  indeed  was  otherwise 
in  the  time  of  Pope  Leo,  as  appears  from  some  of 
his  epistles  : "'  but  their  practice  was  almost  singu- 
lar ;  for  the  general  current  was  against  them,  in- 
clining to  the  more  favourable  side  in  behalf  of  such 
penitents  as  died  suddenly  without  reconciliation. 
Which  is  observed  by  the  fathers  in  the  eleventh 
council  of  Toledo,  who  thereupon  determine,™  that 
though  there  were  different  rules  about  this  matter, 
yet  it  was  more  proper  to  follow  the  majority,  which 
decreed  on  the  favourable  side  in  behalf  of  such 
penitents,  that  their  memorial  should  be  recom- 
mended in  the  church,  and  that  the  presbyters 
should  receive  their  oblations.  As  to  the  other  sort 
of  persons,  who  were  unjustly  excommunicated  by 
the  power  of  some  prevailing  faction,  the  way  of 
restoring  them  to  the  external  communion  of  the 
church  after  death,  was  by  inserting  their  names 
into  the  diptychs  of  the  church,  (as  Theodoret"  tells  • 
us  it  was  done  by  Atticus  in  the  case  of  Chrysos- 
tom,)  which  was  enough  to  restore  them  after  death 
to  the  communion  and  fellowship  of  the  faithful. 
And  so  I  have  done  with  the  circumstances  and  1 
ceremonies  observed  in  the  ancient  manner  of  ab- 
solution. 


CHAPTER  III. 

OF  THE  MINISTER  OF  ECCLESIASTICAL  DISCIPLINE, 
AND  PARTICULARLY  OF  THE  MINISTER  OF  ABSO- 
LUTION. 

There  remains  but  one  thing  more 

to  be  examined  in  this  matter,  relating    -k\\  \iie  power  of 

discipline  primarily 


practice  of  the  church;  and  that  is. 


of  the  bishop. 


"  Cone.  Garth.  4.  can.  79.  Poenitentes,  qui  attente  leges 
pcenitentiue  e.\equuntur,si  casu  in  itinere  vel  in  mari  mortui 
fuerint,  ubi  cis  subveniri  uon  possit,  memoria  eoium  et  ora- 
tionibus  et  oblationibus  commendetur. 

"'*  Cone.  Vasensc  2.  ean.  2.  Horum,  qui  poeiiitentia  ac- 
cepta,  in  bonas  vitac  cursii  satisfactoria  compunctione  vi- 
ventes,  sine  communione  inopinato  nonniuiquam  transitu  in 
agris  aut  itinoribns  praiveniantur,  oblationein  recipiendam, 
et  eorum  funera  ac  deinceps  memoriam  ecclesiastico  affcctu 
prosequcndani :  quia  nefas  est  eoriini  commemorationes  e.\- 
eludi  a  saliitaribiis  sacris,  qui  ad  eadeni  sacra  fidcli  affectn 
contendenlei— absque  sacramentorum   vialico  intercipiun- 


tur,  quibus  fortasse  nee  sacerdos  absolutissimam  reconcilia- 
tionem  denegandam  putasset. 

"^J  Leo,  Ep.  90.  al.  92.  ad  Rustic,  cap.  G.   Ep.  89.  ad  Tlieod. 

™  Cone.  Tolet.  11.  can.  12.  De  his  autem  qui  acccpta 
pcenitentia,  antequam  reeoneiliarentur,  ab  hac  vita  reces- 
serint,  quanquam  diversitas  preeceptoruin  de  hoc  capitulo 
habeatur :  illorum  tamen  nobis  sententia  placuit,  qui  mul- 
tiplici  numero  de  hujusmodi  huinanius  decreverunt,  ut  et 
memoria  talium  in  ecclesiis  commendetur,  et  oblatio  pro 
eorum  delicto  a  presbyteris  recipiatur. 

"  Theod.  lib.  5.  cap.  34.  Vid.  Cone.  C.  Pol.  sub  Menna, 
Act.  5.  in  the  case  of  Leo,  Euphemius,  and  others. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1099 


1)V  what  hands  it  was  managed  ?  who  ordinarily 
had  the  power  of  the  spiritual  sword?  and  who 
particularly  was  the  proper  minister  of  absolution  ? 
That  all  the  power  of  discipline  was  primarily 
lodged  in  the  hands  of  the  bishop,  as  all  other  offices 
of  the  church,  is  a  matter  uncontested,  and  evident 
from  the  whole  foregoing  history  and  account  of  the 
practice  of  the  church.  For  the  canons  always 
speak  of  the  bishop,  at  least  in  conjunction  with 
his  ecclesiastical  senate,  his  presbytery,  as  cutting 
oft' offenders  from  the  chuixh,  and  imposing  penance 
upon  them ;  and  then  again  examining  their  pro- 
ficiency, and  either  lengthening  their  penance,  or 
moderating  it  by  his  indulgence ;  and  finally  admit- 
ting them  to  the  communion  of  the  church  by  ab- 
solution. 

g^^j  2  '^'^^  this,  so  far  as  the  bishop  could 

caJe'rccmn^uel  to  mauage  it,  might  be  retained  solely  to 
a  genera'ror''pr'(icu-  hlmsclf,  aud  cxerciscd  at  hls  own  dis- 

lar  commission.  ..  -r»     ^    i  ^.1  'i- 

cretion.  Eut,  because  the  necessities 
of  the  church  required,  in  many  cases,  that  part  of 
this  burden  should  devolve  upon  others,  and  the 
bishop  was  not  able  personally  to  discharge  the 
whole  of  it  to  all  that  needed ;  therefore  presbyters, 
as  his  proper  assistants,  were  taken  in  to  be  sharers 
and  fellow  labourers  with  him.  They  had  a  gene- 
ral commission  to  gi'ant  the  great  indulgence  or  ab- 
solution of  baptism,  and  that  of  the  eucharist,  and 
the  word  and  doctrine,  to  all  that  needed  :  and 
though  they  were  more  restrained  in  the  exercise  of 
public  discipline,  and  the  final  reconciliation  of 
public  penitents  by  imposition  of  hands  and  prayer; 
yet  the  intermediate  imposition  of  hands  upon  the 
penitents  in  their  daily  exercise  was  often  commit- 
ted to  them  ;  and  by  the  bishop's  leave  they  might 
give  the  final  reconciliation  to  public  penitents, 
either  openly  in  the  church,  or  privately  on  a  sick 
bed,  when  necessity  and  the  fear  of  imminent  death 
required  a  speedier  absolution.  This  is  evident 
from  the  very  canons,  which  restrain  the  power  of 
presbyters  in  reconciling  public  penitents,  and  re- 
serve it  solely  to  the  bishop :  they  still  admit  of 
these  limitations  and  exceptions.  The  second  coun- 
cil of  Carthage  has  two  canons,  which  thus  divide 
the  matter  between  them.     The  first '  says,  A  pres- 


byter shall  not  reconcile  any  penitent  in  the  public 
service.  But  the  other  immediately  adds,-  That  if 
any  one  be  in  danger  of  death,  and  desires  to  be  re- 
conciled to  the  altar,  if  the  bishop  be  absent,  the 
presbyter  shall  consult  the  bishop,  and  so  reconcile 
him  at  his  command.  And  so  the  third  council  of 
Carthage  determined,'  That  a  presbyter  should  not 
reconcile  a  penitent  without  consulting  the  bishop, 
unless  the  bishop  was  absent  and  necessity  com- 
pelled him.  The  council  of  Orange  made  a  like 
decree^  about  reconciling  such  penitents  as  had 
been  baptized  by  heretics,  that  in  case  they  were 
in  danger  of  death,  and  desired  to  be  made  catho- 
lics, if  the  bishop  was  absent,  a  presbyter  should 
consign  them  with  chrism  and  the  benediction. 
And  the  council  of  Epone^  has  a  like  order.  That  if 
any  heretics,  who  lay  desperately  sick  upon  their 
beds,  desired  suddenly  to  be  converted,  in  that  case, 
for  the  salvation  of  their  souls,  which  was  heartily 
desired,  a  presbyter  should  be  permitted  to  give 
them  the  consolation  of  chrism,  that  is,  both  con- 
firmation and  reconciliation,  which  those  that  were 
in  health  were  only  to  desire  of  the  bishop.  And 
that  this  was  the  ancient  rule  of  the  churcli,  appears 
from  the  letters  of  Dionysius,  bishop  of  Alexan- 
dria," in  Eusebius,  where  he  says  he  had  given  or- 
ders to  his  presbyters  to  grant  absolution  to  all  that 
were  at  the  point  of  death,  if  they  desired  it ;  and 
especially  if  they  had  desired  it  before,  that  they 
might  have  hope  and  consolation  in  their  last 
minutes,  when  they  were  about  to  leave  the  world. 

Neither  was  this  commission  and 
licence   granted  only  to   presbyters.     And  to  deacons 

1  p  1  also. 

but  to  deacons  also  ;  for  as  they  were 
allowed  to  give  men  the  absolution  of  baptism,  in 
cases  of  extreme  necessity,  so  they  were  authorized 
to  grant  penitents  the  reconciliatory  absolution  in 
the  same  circumstances  likewise.  For  so  the  coun- 
cil of  Eliberis '  seems  to  determine,  that  though 
presbyters  ordinarily  had  not  power  to  admit  any 
one  to  penance,  but  only  the  bishop ;  yet  in  case  of 
infirmity  both  presbyters  and  deacons  ought  to  re- 
ceive penitents  to  the  communion,  having  the  bi- 
shop's command  to  do  it.  This  is  more  plainly  de- 
livered by  Cyprian,  who  says,"  If  penitents  were 


'  Cone.  Carth.  2.  can.  3.  Reconciliare  quenquam  in  pub- 
lioa  missa,  presbytero  non  licere,  hoc  omnibus  placet. 

'■^  Ibid.  can.  4.  Si  quisquam  in  periculo  fiierit  constitutus, 
et  se  reconciliari  divinis  altaribus  pctierit,  si  episcnpus  ab- 
sens  fuerit,  debet  utique  presbyter  consulere  episcopum,  et 
sic  periclitanfem  ejus  prnecepto  reconciliare. 

'  Ibid.  3.  can.  32.  Ut  presbyter  inconsulto  episcopo  non 
reconciliet  poenitentem,  nisi  absente  episcopo,  et  necessi- 
tate cogente. 

'  Cone.  Arausican.  1.  can.  2.  Haereticos  in  mortis  discri- 
mip.e  positos,  si  catholiciessedesiderent,  si  desitepiscopus.  a 
presbyteris  cum  chiismate  et  benedictione  consigliari  placet. 

^  Cone.  Epaunen.  can.  16.  Presbytero,  propter  salutem 
animarum,  quam  in  cunctis  optamus  desporatis,  et  in  lecto 
decumbentibus  haereticis,  si  conversionem  subitara  petaut, 


chrismate  subvenire  permittimus.  Quod  etiam  onuies  con- 
versuri,  si  sani  sunt,  ab  episcopo  noverint  e.xpetenduui. 

"  Ap.  Euseb.  lib.  G.  cap.  44. 

'  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  32.  Apud  presbyterum,  si  quis  gravi 
lapsu  in  ruinam  mortis  inciderit,  placuit  agere  ptEuitcntiam 
non  debere,  sed  potius  apud  episcopum  :  cogente  tamen  in- 
firm itate,  necesse  est  presbyterum  communionera  praestare 
debere,  et  diaconum,  si  ei  jusserit  sacerdos. 

'*  Cypr.  Ep.  13.  al.  18.  p.  40.  Si  incommodo  aliquo  et  in- 
firraitatis  periculo  occupati  fucrinl,  non  e.xpcctata  prasentia 
nostra,  apud  presbyterum  quemcunque  pra-sentem,  vel  si 
presbyter  rcpcrtus  non  fuerit,  eturgere  exitus  cneperit,  apud 
diaconum  quoque  exomologc.sin  facerc  delicti  sui  possint ; 
nt  manu  eis  in  poenitentia  iniposita,  veniant  ad  Dominum 
cum  pace.     Vid.  Ep.  14.  al.  19.  p.  41. 


1100 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XIX, 


Sect.  4. 
TIow  far,  and 

what  sense,  absol 


seized  with  any  calamity,  and  were  in  apparent 
danger  of  death,  in  the  absence  of  the  bishop,  they 
might  make  their  confession  before  any  presbyter 
that  was  present;  or  if  a  presbyter  could  not  be 
found,  before  a  deacon,  and  receive  imposition  of 
hands,  that  they  might  go  to  the  Lord  in  peace. 
It  is  plain,  also,  that  the  clergy  had  some  share  with 
the  bishop  in  the  more  public  and  solemn  absolu- 
tions :  because  Cyprian '  often  complains  of  some 
forward  men,  who  were  desirous  to  have  the  eu- 
charist  granted  them,  before  they  had  received  the 
solemn  imposition  of  hands  from  the  bishop  and 
the  clergy  to  reconcile  them  to  the  altar. 

But  as  presbyters  and  deacons  did 

nothing  alone  in  this  matter  without 
(o°be^mi  i^ab'j-  tlic  blsliop,  but  cithcr  in  conjunction 

with  him,  or  by  his  authority  and  per- 
mission ;  so  much  less  was  this  power  intrusted  in 
the  hands  of  any  layman.  Only  in  case  of  extreme 
necessity  some  canons  allowed  a  layman  to  give 
baptism  to  a  catechumen  (which  was  reputed,  as 
we  have  heard  before,  one  sort  of  absolution)  rather 
than  he  should  die  unbaptized.  This  is  evident 
from  the  decree  made  in  the  council  of  EHberis,"' 
that  in  a  voyage  at  sea,  or  in  any  place  where  there 
was  no  church  near  at  hand,  if  a  catechumen  hap- 
pened to  be  extremely  sick,  and  at  the  point  of 
death,  any  Christian,  who  had  his  own  baptism  en- 
tire, and  was  no  bigamist,  might  baptize  him.  And 
the  sentiments  of  Tertullian,  St.  Jerom,  and  St. 
Austin,  with  several  others  that  have  been  can- 
vassed "  in  another  book,  show  that  this  was  not 
the  singular  opinion  of  that  council.  As  to  the 
other  sacrament,  we  no  where  find,  that  either  dea- 
cons or  laymen  were  allowed  to  consecrate  it ;  that 
being  the  office  of  presbyters  only.  Neither  were 
laymen  allowed  to  minister  publicly  either  the 
bread  or  the  cup,  when  consecrated,  to  the  people  ; 
for  that  was  the  standing  office  of  deacons.  Yet  a 
layman  in  case  of  absolute  necessity  might  carry 
and  minister  the  consecrated  bread  and  W'ine  in 
private  to  a  dying  person,  and  so  far  be  instrumental 
in  his  absolution.  As  appears  from  that  famous 
case  related  by  Eusebius  ''  out  of  Dionysius  of  Alex- 
andria, concerning  Serapion,  who  had  the  euchar- 
ist  sent  him  by  the  priest,  and  given  him  by  the 
hands  of  his  servant.  But  the  remark  which  Bishop 
Fell"  makes  upon  this  is  very  just.  That  whatever 
necessity  compels  men  to  do,  it  defends  but  only  so 
far  and  so  long  as  the  necessity  lasts.  It  is  a  known 
story  in  Eusebius,  of  the  eucharist being  transmitted 


to  Serapion  by  a  boy  ;  yet  no  one  may  thence  infer, 
that  therefore  children  may  dispense  those  holy 
mysteries.  He  thinks  the  same  reason  holds  for 
deacons  reconciling  penitents  in  case  of  extreme 
necessity  :  that  it  was  an  extraordinary  case ;  and 
no  consequence  is  to  be  drawn  from  necessity  and 
extraordinary  cases,  to  prejudice  the  ordinary  rules 
and  standing  measures  of  the  church.  If  men  ex- 
ceed their  commission,  and  excommunicate  or  ab- 
solve without  power,  they  are  themselves  liable  to 
censure  for  their  usurpation,  and  the  church  may 
reverse  all  such  irregular  acts  by  her  own  just  au- 
thority at  pleasure.  Therefore  when  the  council  of 
Ephesus  had  deposed  Nestorius  and  Coelestius  for 
their  heresy,  and  reduced  them  to  the  state  of  lay- 
men, she  declared,  that  she  took  from  them  all  the 
power  of  the  priesthood,  which  enabled  them  to  do 
good"  or  harm  to  others,  that  is,  either  to  excom- 
municate or  absolve.  And  whereas  Nestorius  after 
this  pretended  to  depose  some  clerks  from  their 
priestly  office  for  their  orthodoxy,  the  synod  de- 
clared his  act  a  nullity,  and  that  the  priests  so  de- 
posed '^  should  be  restored  to  their  station  again. 
And  on  the  other  hand,  whereas  Nestorius  and  his 
accomplices  had  attempted  to  restore  those  to  com- 
munion, or  their  order,  whom  the  synod  had  con- 
demned, the  synod '"  declared,  this  should  not  profit 
them ;  they  should  remain  excommunicate  or  de- 
posed notwithstanding.  This  shows,  that  neither 
laymen,  nor  clerks  reduced  to  the  state  of  laymen, 
had  any  power  of  binding  or  loosing  by  the  ordinary 
rules  of  discipline  in  the  church.  And  so  Theodo- 
ret"  says  a  certain  bishop  told  Thcodosius  junior, 
when  he  was  under  some  concern  for  being  rashly 
excommunicated  by  a  monk.  The  good  emperor 
was  uneasy  even  under  an  unjust  excommunication 
by  an  incompetent  authority  pronounced  against 
him,  and  would  not  sit  down  to  meat  till  he  was 
absolved.  For  which  purpose  he  sent  to  the  bi- 
shop, to  desire  him  to  engage  the  person  who  had 
bound  him,  to  come  and  absolve  him.  The  bishop 
told  him,  it  did  not  belong  to  every  one  to  excom- 
municate, and  therefore  he  was  absolved  already : 
yet  this  did  not  satisfy  the  emperor,  till  the  man  was 
found  out,  to  come  himself,  and  restore  him  to  the 
communion  of  the  church.  The  bishop's  answer  in 
this  case  was  certainly  very  just;  but  the  emperor, 
being  a  man  of  a  tender  conscience,  could  not  en- 
tirely rest  upon  it.  Perhaps  he  was  sensible  he  had 
done  the  monk  some  personal  injury,  in  which  case 
personal  satisfaction  was  to  be  made,  and  private 


'  Cypr.  Ep.  10.  al.  IG.  p.  37.  Nondum  manu  eis  ab  cpis- 
copo  et  clero  imposita,  eiicharistia  illis  datur,  &c.  Ep.  11. 
al.l5.  p.  34.  Ante  manum  ab  episcnpo  et  clero  in  prcni- 
tentiam  impositam,  &c.     Ep.  12.  al.  17.  p.  39. 

'»  Cone.  Eliber.  can.38. 

"  Scholast.  Hist,  of  Lay  Baptism,  Part  I.  chap.  1,  sect. 
8,  &c. 


'- Euseb.  lib.  6.  cap.  44.     See  before,  chap.  I.  sect.  3, 
where  the  whole  story  is  more  fully  related. 
"  Not.  in  Cypr.  Ep.  18.  p.  40. 

'*  Cone.  Ephes.  in  Epist.  Encydica,  Cone.  t.  3.  p.  804. 
'^  Cone.  Ephes.  can.  3. 
"'  Ibid.  can.  5. 
'"  Theodor.  lib.  5.  cap.  32. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1101 


pardon  to  be  asked,  according  to  that  rnle  of  our 
Saviour,  "  If  thou  bring  thy  gift  to  the  altar,  and 
there  remcmberest  that  thy  brother  hath  ought 
against  thee ;  leave  there  thy  gift  before  the  altar, 
and  go  thy  way ;  first  be  reconciled  to  thy  brother, 
and  tlicn  come  and  offer  thy  gift."  In  this  case  cveiy 
man  has  power  to  pardon  the  sins  of  his  brother, 
and  also  to  admonish  him,  and  instruct  him,  and 
pray  for  him,  whicli  are  private  and  remote  ways  of 
reconcihng  liim  to  the  altar.  It  is  of  these  St.  Aus- 
tin '**  speaks,  in  conformity  to  that  precept  of  the 
apostle.  Col.  iii.  13,  "  Forgiving  one  another,  if  any 
man  have  a  quarrel  against  any;  even  as  Christ  for- 
gave you,  so  also  do  ye."  "  Let  us  forgive  one  an- 
other's sins,"  says  he,  "  and  pray  for  the  sins  of  each 
other,  and  so  in  some  measure  wash  one  another's 
feet.  It  is  our  part,  by  the  gift  of  God,  to  use  the 
ministry  of  charity  and  humility  ;  but  it  belongs  to 
God  to  hear  our  prayers,  and  cleanse  us  from  all 
pollution  of  sins  by  Christ  and  in  Christ,  that  what 
we  forgive  unto  others,  that  is  to  say,  what  we  loose 
upon  eartli,  may  be  loosed  in  heaven."  This  is  so 
necessary  a  part  of  Christian  duty,  that  no  one  may 
forego  this  way  of  loosing  his  brother,  under  pain 
of  having  his  own  sins  retained  by  God.  For  if  we 
forgive  men  their  trespasses,  our  heavenly  Father 
will  also  forgive  us  :  but  if  we  forgive  not  men  their 
trespasses,  neither  will  our  Father  forgive  our  tres- 
passes. Upon  which  one  of  the  ancients '"  observes, 
that  we  bind  ourselves  the  faster  in  our  own  sins,  if 
we  refuse  to  loose  the  bonds  of  othei's.  And  no- 
thing is  more  common  among  the  fathers  than  to 
say.  Men  bind  themselves,  or  are  bound  by  others, 
when  they  trespass  against  them,  and  never  ask 
forgiveness  :  and  that  they  loose  themselves  or 
others  from  sin,  either  by  almsdeeds,  or  charity,  or 
converting  of  sinners,  or  praying  for  tliem,  or  re- 
mitting their  trespasses  committed  against  them. 
With  respect  to  binding,^"  St.  Austin  says.  When  any 
brother  sins  against  another,  and  he  thereupon  be- 
gins to  esteem  him  as  a  publican,  he  binds  him  on 
earth ;  but  he  must  take  care  that  he  bind  him 
justly,  for  unjust  bonds  are  broken  by  the  justice  of 
God.  And  for  loosing,  Origen  reckons  up  seven 
ways,  whereby  Christians  may  obtain  remission  of 
sins,  whereof  five  are  apparently  private  actions  of 


private  men.  The  first  is  baptism,  wliereby  men 
are  bapti/x'd  for  the  remission  of  sins.'-'  The  second 
is  the  suffering  of  martyrdom.  The  third  is  alms- 
deeds  ;  for  our  Saviour  says.  Give  alms,  and  behold 
all  things  are  clean  unto  you.  The  fourth  is,  for- 
giving the  sins  of  our  brethren ;  for  our  Lord  and 
Saviour  says,  "  If  ye  from  your  heart  forgive  your 
brethren  tlieir  trespasses,  your  Father  will  forgive 
your  trespasses."  The  fifth  is,  when  one  converts 
a  sinner  from  the  error  of  his  ways.  The  sixth  is, 
the  abundance  of  charity,  as  our  Lord  says,  "  Her 
sins,  which  are  many,  are  forgiven,  because  she 
loved  much."  The  seventh  is,  the  hard  and  labori- 
ous way  by  penance,  when  a  man  waters  his  couch 
with  his  tears,  and  his  tears  are  his  bread  day  and 
night,  and  he  is  not  ashamed  to  declare  his  sin  to 
the  priest  of  the  Lord,  and  seek  a  cure.  The  first 
and  last  of  these,  viz.  baptism  and  penance,  are  pub- 
lic acts,  in  which  the  ministry  of  the  priest  is  con- 
cerned ;  but  all  the  rest,  martyrdom,  almsdeeds,  for- 
giving injuries,  converting  sinners,  and  exceeding 
love  of  God,  are  private  actions  of  private  men,  and 
may  be  performed  by  any  good  Christian.  And 
therefore  the  remission  of  sins  that  is  ascribed  to 
them,  is  no  peculiar  act  of  the  ministrj^,  but  may  be 
the  act  of  any  private  Christian.  Consequentlj^  so 
far  laymen  may  be  concerned  in  the  remission  of 
sins  without  any  intrenchment  upon  the  ministry ; 
but  these,  being  only  private  acts,  are  of  no  further 
consideration  in  the  present  discourse,  which  only 
relates  to  ministerial  absolution,  and  the  public  dis- 
cipline of  the  church. 

I  have  now  gone  over  all  that  relates  to  the  exer- 
cise of  penitential  discipline,  so  far  as  concerns  the 
practice  of  the  ancient  church.  As  for  doctrinal 
points,  such  as  the  question,  whether  penance  be 
properly  a  sacrament  ?  and  whether  sacerdotal  ab- 
solution be  necessary  to  salvation  ?  these  come  not 
directly  within  the  design  of  the  present  under- 
taking, which  only  considers  the  practice  of  the 
church.  But  because  I  have  had  occasion  to  write 
some  little  tracts  upon  the  latter  question,  and  it 
will  not  be  unacceptable  to  some  readers  to  see  tliem 
made  public,  I  shall  here  subjoin  them  b}'  way  of 
Appendix  to  the  present  discourse. 


"*  Aug.  Tract.  58.  in  Joan.  t.  9.  p.  1G4.  Invicem  nobis 
(lulicta  donemus,  et  pro  nostris  delictis  invicem  oremus, 
alque  ita  quodammodo  invicem  pedes  nostros  lavemus,  &c. 
Ut  quod  aliis  etiam  dimittimus,  hoc  est,  in  terra  solvimus, 
solvatur  et  in  ccelo. 

'9  Sedulius  Carm.  Paschal,  lib.  2.  Bibl.  Patr.  t.  8.  p.  6G5. 


Graviusque  soluti  ncctimur,  alterius  si  solvere  vincula  ne- 
gamus. 

-"  Aug.  de  Verbis  Dom.  Serni.  16.  cap.  4.  Co-pisti  habere 
fratrem  tuum  tanciuam  publicauuui :  ligas  ilhun  in  terra.  Sed 
ut  juste  allij^es,  vide  :  nam  injusta  vincula  dirunipit  justitia. 

-'  Orig.  Mom.  2.  in  Levit.  t.  1.  p.  HI. 


APPENDIX ! 


CONTAINING 


TWO    SERMONS, 


TWO  LETTERS  TO  THE  BISHOP  OF  WINCHESTER, 

CONCERNING 

THE  NATURE  AND  NECESSITY  OF  THE  SEVERAL  SORTS  OF  ABSOLUTION ;  SHOWING 
HOW  FAR  THAT  NECESSITY  EXTENDS,  AND  WHERE  IT  CEASES.' 


SERMON  I. 


WHOSE    SOEVER    SINS    YE    REMIT,    THEY   ARE    REMITTED    UNTO   THEM;    AND   WHOSE    SOEVER    SINS    YE 
RETAIN,    THEY    ARE    RETAINED. JOHN    XX.    23. 


"  Though  the  doctrine  of  ministerial  absolution, 
or  remission  of  sins,  be  a  doctrine  of  great  use  in 
Christianity,  as  a  matter  wherein  our  practice  is 
much  concerned;  yet  I  know  not  by  what  hard 
fate  it  has  happened,  that  there  are  few  doctrines 
which  have  been  more  abused  or  less  understood. 
The  extravagancies  of  some  on  the  one  hand,  who 
would  have  it  almost  to  do  every  thing  in  Christi- 
anity, have  made  others  think  it  could  do  nothing ; 
as  violent  disputes  usually  beget  great  oppositions, 
and  great  oppositions  commonly  end  in  different  ex- 
tremes. It  will  not  be  amiss  therefore  to  set  this 
useful  and  necessary  doctrine  in  its  proper  light, 
by  discoursing  of  it  in  a  practical  way  without  any 
dispute,  beginning  with  its  original  or  first  insti- 
tution. 

"  When  our  Saviour  was  about  to  leave  the  world, 
he  gave  commission  to  his  disciples  to  act  in  his 
name,  as  his  ministers  and  vicegerents,  in  all 
things  relating  to  the  kingdom  of  God.  This  king- 
dom was  founded  chiefly  upon  the  promise  and 
prospect  of  pardon  or  remission  of  sins ;  and  this 
pardon  was  to  be  dispensed,  and  ascertained  to  men, 
by  the  intervention  of  those  whom  he  had  appointed 
and  commissioned  for  this  very  purpose.     For  this 


was  part  of  their  commission,  to  remit  or  to  retain 
sins,  as  they  should  judge  proper,  acting  by  the 
rules  which  he  gave  them,  with  a  promise,  that  what 
they  did  regularly  in  his  church  on  earth  should  be 
ratified  and  confirmed  by  himself  in  heaven. 

"  In  general,  therefore,  it  is  evident  beyond  dis- 
pute, that  Christ  left  a  power  in  the  hands  of  his 
ministers  to  retain,  or  to  forgive  men's  sins;  but 
yet,  to  have  a  more  particular  account  and  right 
apprehension  of  this,  three  inquiries  will  be  neces- 
sary to  be  made  further. 

"  I.  Into  the  nature  of  this  power,  as  it  belongs 
to  man ;  for,  notwithstanding  the  commission  and 
authority  granted  to  man,  there  is  still  a  vast  differ- 
ence to  be  made  between  the  power  of  forgiving 
sins,  as  exercised  by  God,  and  as  exercised  by 
man. 

"  II.  We  must  inquire  into  the  several  acts  or 
ways  in  which  the  ministers  of  Christ  are  commis- 
sioned and  authorized  to  exemplify  this  power. 

"III.  How  far  all  men  are  bound  to  submit  to 
the  lawful  exercise  of  it, 

"  From  the  resolution  of  which  points  we  shall 
be  able  to  reduce  this  consideration  to  practice,  and 
easily  discern  what  are  the  proper  uses  to  be  made 


■  Note,  That  the  two  sermons  were  first  preached  in  the 
cathedral  church  of  Winchester,  and  afterward  a  part  of 
both  at  a  visitation  at  Waltham,  Sept.  21,  1716.  That 
part  which   was  delivered  as  a  visitation  sermon,  is  thus 


marked  out  ["]  for  distinction's  sake,  to  gratify  the  cu- 
riosity of  such  as  were  hearers  of  that  part  only,  which 
was  the  former  part  of  the  first  and  the  latter  part  of  the 
second. 


Serm.  I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


II 03 


of  this  doctrine  of  absolution,  both  as  it  relates  to 
(he  ministers  of  Christ  and  his  pcoi)le. 

"  I.  I  begin  with  the  first  inquiry,  into  the  nature 
of  this  power,  as  it  belongs  to  man.  Where  I  ob- 
serve, that  notwithstanding  the  commission  granted 
to  man,  there  is  still  a  vast  difference  to  be  made 
between  the  power  of  forgiving  sins,  as  exercised  by 
God,  and  as  exercised  by  man.  For  the  j)ower  of 
God  is  absolute  and  sovereign  in  pardoning  sins; 
liis  judgment  unerring  and  infallible  about  the  sub- 
jects who  are  capable  of  pardon  ;  and,  consequently, 
his  sentence  always  exact,  and  irreversible  by  any 
other  power  whatsoever.  Whereas  the  power  of 
man  to  forgive  sins  is  not  absolute,  but  only  minis- 
terial ;  his  commission  and  authority  is  not  only 
derivative,  but  tied  up  and  bounded  by  certain  rules, 
which  are  to  be  the  measures  of  his  proceedings  in 
this  grand  affair  with  his  fellow  creatures.  Con- 
sequently, his  judgment  is  neither  infallible,  nor  his 
sentence  irreversible,  but  only  so  far  as  he  ob- 
serves the  rules  prescribed  by  his  sovereign  Lord, 
who  still  reserves  to  himself  the  privilege  of  re- 
viewing the  determinations  of  his  vicegerents  and 
judges  upon  earth,  and  of  judging  over  again  their 
sentence  by  his  final  and  unerring  judgment.  If 
the  ministers  of  Christ  indeed  observe  exactly  the 
rules  which  he  has  prescribed,  in  judging  sinners 
and  pardoning  sin ;  if  they,  neither  through  haste 
or  partiality,  or  ignorance  and  error,  condemn  the 
guiltless,  or  absolve  the  guilty,  then  their  sentence, 
whether  it  be  of  remitting  or  retaining  Sins,  will 
be  confirmed  and  ratified  in  heaven ;  because  they 
act  according  to  the  tenor  of  their  commission, 
and  only  as  faithful  stewards  conforming  to  the 
measures  and  rules  which  their  sovereign  Lord 
has  appointed  them.  But  if  they  chance  to  deviate 
from  those  rules,  either  by  ignorance  of  men's  case, 
or  the  sly  pretences  of  hypocritical  sinners  ;"  or  by 
any  neglect,  or  weakness,  or  assuming  tyranny,  or 
fond  indulgence,  or  any  other  passion  incident  to 
human  nature  ;  in  all  such  cases  Christ,  the  supreme 
Lord,  will  judge  things  over  again,  and  reverse  their 
sentence,  whether  it  be  too  rigorous  or  too  indul- 
gent; because  they  exceed  their  commission,  and 
judge  by  other  rules  than  what  he  has  appointed 
them.     This  is  that  noted  difference  between  the 


power  of  God  and  man  in  forgiving  sins  ;  the  one 
does  it  by  an  absolute  and  independent  authority, 
the  other  only  by  a  subordinate  and  restrained  com- 
mission, which  is  rather  a  declaration  of  God's  will, 
than  any  sovereign  power  invested  in  him.  For  no 
man  can  say  to  his  brother,  with  the  same  authority 
and  infallible  assurance  as  Christ  did  to  the  thief 
upon  the  cross,  '  To  day  thou  slialt  be  with  me  in 
paradise.'  This  is  the  prerogative  of  God  alone, 
to  pardon  sins  with  an  absolute  and  uncontrollable 
power.  And  in  this  sense  it  is  properly  said  in 
Scripture,  that  'none  can  forgive  sins  but  God.' 
And  upon  this  foundation  Athanasius,  and  the  ge- 
nerality of  the  ancient  writers,'  always  argued  for 
the  Divinity  of  our  Saviour  against  Arias,  from  this 
topic,  that  he  took  upon  him  to  forgive  sins  with  an 
absolute  authority,  which  was  the  peculiar  privilege 
of  God  alone. 

"  Yet  this  does  not  hinder  but  that  man  may  have 
a  ministerial  part  in  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  in  such 
acts  as  are  by  commission  intrusted  with  him  ;  and 
what  those  acts  of  his  ministry  are  I  come  now  in 
the  next  place  to  consider,  by  proceeding  in  order 
'  to  the  second  inquiry,  which  was 

"II.  What  those  special  acts  or  ways  are,  in 
which  the  ministers  of  Christ  are  commissioned  or 
authorized  to  exemplify  this  their  power  of  retaining 
or  remitting  sins. 

"  Now  these,  upon  an  exact  inquiry,  appear  to 
be  these  four  acts  of  the  ministry,  whereby  the 
benefit  of  absolution  is  ordinarily  dispensed  unto 
men. 

"  1.  The  power  of  administering  the  two  sacra- 
ments of  baptism  and  the  Lord's  supper  to  all  such 
as  are  qualified  to  receive  them ;  whicli  is,  therefore, 
called  sacramental  absolution. 

"  2.  The  power  of  declaring  or  publishing  the 
terms,  or  conditions,  upon  which  the  gospel  pro- 
mises pardon  and  remission  of  sins  ;  which  is  call- 
ed the  declaratory  absolution  of  the  word  and 
doctrine. 

"  3.  The  power  of  interceding  with  God  for  par- 
don of  sins  through  the  merits  of  Christ ;  which  is 
the  absolution  of  prayer. 

"  4.  The  power  of  executing  church  discipline 
and  censures  upon  delinquents ;  which  consists  in 


-  Cyprian  to  this  purpose  says,  Neque  enim  pracjudicamus 
Domino  jiidicaturo,  quo  minus  si  poenitentiam  pleuam  et 
justara  peccatoris  invenerit,  tunc  ratum  faciat  quod  a  nobis 
fuerit  hie  statutum.  Si  vero  nos  aliquis  poenitentiae  simula- 
tione  dehiserit;  Deus  qui  non  deridetur,  et  qui  cor  hominis 
intuetur,  de  his  quae  nos  minus  perspeximus  judicet,  et  ser- 
vorum  sententiam  eraendet.  Cypr.  Ep.  52.  al.  55.  ad  An- 
tonian.  p.  108.  "We  do  not  prejudge  or  forestall  the  Lord, 
who  is  to  judge;  but  that  if  he  find  the  repentance  of  the 
sinner  to  be  full  and  just,  he  may  then  ratify  that  which  was 
here  ordained  by  us :  but  if  any  one  do  deceive  us  by  a  false 
appearance  of  repentance,  God  (who  is  not  mocked,  and 
who  beholdeth  the  heart  of  man)  may  judge  of  those  things, 


which  we  did  not  well  discern,  and  the  Lord  may  amend  the 
sentence  of  his  servants."  In  like  manner  Pacian.  Ep.  L 
ad  Sempronian.  Bibl.  Patr.  t.  3.  p.  53.  Rcddct  quideiu  ille 
rationem,  si  quid  perperam  fecerit,  vel  si  corrupte  et  impie 
judicarit.  Nee  procjudicatur  Deo,  quo  minus  mali  aedifica- 
toris  opera  rescindat:  iuterea  si  pia  ilia  administratio  est, 
adjutor  Dei  operum  perseverat.  "The  minister  shall  give 
an  account,  if  he  has  done  any  thing  amiss,  or  if  he  has 
judged  corruptly  and  wickedly  :  neither  is  God  forestalled, 
that  he  may  not  undo  the  works  of  this  evil  builder.  But  in 
the  mean  time,  if  that  administration  of  his  be  godly,  he 
continues  a  helper  of  the  works  of  God. 
3  See  this  fully  proved,  Book  XIX.  chap.  1.  sect.  1. 


1104 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Appendix. 


excluding  flagitious  and  scandalous  sinners  from  the 
communion  of  the  church,  and  receiving  penitents 
again  into  her  communion,  when  they  have  given 
just  e\ndences  of  a  sincere  repentance.  In  these 
four  acts,  regularly  exercised,  consists  the  minis- 
terial power  of  retaining  or  remitting  sins,  so  far 
as  the  delegated  authority  of  man  can  be  concerned 
in  it. 

"1.  In  the  power  of  administering  the  two  sacra- 
ments of  baptism  and  the  Lord's  supper  to  all  such 
as  are  qualified  to  receive  them.  Baptism  is  the 
grand  absolution^  of  the  Christian  church;  for  by 
it  all  men,  who  are  admitted  as  living  members  of 
Christ's  mystical  body,  the  church,  receive  certain 
and  universal  remission  of  sins.  Whence  it  had 
anciently  the  names*  of  indulgence,  and  salvation, 
and  remission  of  sins,  because  these  were  the  un- 
doubted eflfects  to  all  worthy  receivers.  Therefore, 
so  far  as  the  ministers  of  Christ  are  authorized  to 
admit  proselytes  and  converts  into  the  church  by 
the  sacrament  of  baptism,  so  far  they  are  empower- 
ed to  grant  remission  of  sins ;  because  they  admin- 
ister that,  whose  proper  effect  is  the  remission  of 
sins,  as  it  is  the  seal  of  God's  covenant,  and  means 
of  conveying  all  the  spiritual  blessings  of  Christ's 
death  and  passion  to  all  those  who  come  in  the  sin- 
cerity of  their  hearts  with  due  qualifications  to  re- 
ceive it. 

"  Now,  it  is  certain  the  ministers  of  Christ  are  in- 
vested with  a  power,  not  only  to  administer  this 
sacrament  unto  men,  but  also  to  judge  by  certain 
rules  of  probation,  who  are  capable  and  proper  sub- 
jects of  it ;  and  according  as  they  find  them  quali- 
fied, or  unqualified,  by  bringing  them  to  the  test  of 
those  rules,  correspondently  either  to  receive  them, 
or  reject  them,  from  the  privilege  of  baptism  ;  which 
is  in  effect  to  grant  them,  or  not  grant  them,  remis- 
sion of  sins,  because  it  is  to  grant  them,  or  not 
grant  them,  that  ordinary  means,  which  is  made  by 
Christ  the  seal  of  remission  of  sins.  The  ancients 
commonly  found  this  power  of  remitting  or  retain- 
ing sins  in  baptism  upon  these  very  words  of  the 
text,  and  those  other  woi'ds  of  our  Saviour  to  Peter, 
'  Whatsoever  thou  shalt  bind  on  earth,  shall  be 
bound  in  heaven ;  and  whatsoever  thou  shalt  loose 
on  earth,  shall  be  loosed  in  heaven.'  St.  Cyril  of 
Alexandria,  expounding  the  words  of  the  text, 
says,  Spiritual  men  remit  or  retain  sins*  two  ways : 
1.  When  they  call  those  to  baptism  who  are  worthy 
of  it  upon  the  account  of  a  good  life  and  approved 
faith  ;  or  forbid  and  repel  those  from  the  Divine  gift 
who  are  unworthy  of  it.  2.  When  they  punish  and 
correct  the  children  of  the  church  for  offending, 


and  pardon  them  again  upon  their  repentance.  St. 
Cyprian  and  St.  Ambi'ose,  having  to  deal  with  the 
Novatians,  who  denied  the  church  all  manner  of 
power  to  pardon  sins  after  baptism,  argue  with  them 
upon  this  common  principle,  acknowledged  on  both 
sides,  that  Christ  gave  his  ministers  power  to  remit 
sins  by  baptism.  For  the  Novatians  did  not  deny 
this;  therefore  St.  Ambrose®  reduces  them  to  an 
absurdity,  with  great  acuteness,  putting  this  ques- 
tion to  them.  Why  do  ye  baptize,  if  sins  cannot  be 
remitted  by  the  ministry  of  man  ?  What  is  the  dif- 
ference, whether  priests  assume  this  power,  as  given 
to  them  in  the  exercise  of  penance,  or  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  baptism  ?  Plainly  implying,  that 
the  administration  of  baptism  was  one  way  of  re- 
mitting sins.  And  it  may  be  said  with  truth,  that 
the  ancients  were  generally  in  these  sentiments,' 
and,  perhaps,  to  a  man  concurring  in  this  opinion, 
that  the  ministers  of  Christ  are  instrumental  in  re- 
mitting of  sins  by  the  administration  of  baptism. 

"  It  is  true,  indeed,  this  power  of  giving  or  re- 
fusing baptism  to  men,  is  not  a  mere  arbitrary, 
absolute,  or  despotic  power,  authorizing  the  minis- 
ters of  Christ  to  give  or  refuse  it  at  their  own  mere 
pleasure  ;  but,  as  was  said,  it  is  a  ministerial  power, 
tying  them  to  certain  rules,  whereby  they  are  to 
judge,  whether  men  be  duly  qualified  for  baptism 
or  not,  and,  accordingly,  obliging  them  to  admit  or 
reject  them.  They  are  to  examine,  whether  men  sin- 
cerely perform  the  ordinary  conditions  required  of 
all  men  that  come  to  Christ's  holy  baptism ;  that  is, 
whether  they  make  profession  of  believing  such  ne- 
cessary articles  of  the  Christian  faith,  as  the  church 
has  commonly  summed  up  in  her  creed ;  and  whe- 
ther they  promise  to  renounce  Satan  and  all  his 
works;  and  whether  they  actually  forsake  his  service 
by  a  manifest  and  plain  conversion  and  turning  unto 
God,  engaging  themselves  by  covenant  to  hve  in 
constant  and  perpetual  obedience  to  all  the  laws  of 
Christ.  They  who  take  upon  them  these  profes- 
sions, and  actually  perform  these  conditions,  have  a 
right  to  demand  baptism  ;  and  the  ministers  of 
Christ  are  empowered  and  obliged  to  minister  it  to 
them,  that  is,  to  seal  unto  them  the  remission  of 
their  sins.  But  if  they  contumaciously  refuse  any 
one  of  these  conditions ;  if  they  either  will  not  make 
profession  of  the  several  articles  of  the  Christian 
faith ;  or  not  renounce  their  old  master,  and  promise 
universal  obedience  unto  Christ ;  or  continue  in  the 
open  and  avowed  practice  of  any  notorious  vice, 
and  scandalous  profession  of  life ;  then  the  minis- 
ters of  Christ  are  equally  empowered'  to  reject  such 
men  from  baptism ;  that  is,  to  retain  their  sins,  by 


*  See  the  sense  of  the  ancients  upon  this  point,  Book 
XIX.  chap.  1.  sect.  2. 
'  Cyril,  lib.  12.  in  Joan.  xx.  23.  t.  4.  p.  1101. 
"  Ambros.  de  Poenitent.  lib.  1.  cap.  7. 
'  See  this  proved,  Book  XIX.  chap.  1.  sect.  2. 


^  The  practice  of  the  primitive  church,  in  rejecting  all 
such  from  baptism  who  refused  any  of  these  necessary  con- 
ditions, is  largely  set  forth  by  St.  Austin  de  Fide  et  Operi- 
bus,  cap.  15,  17,  18,  &c.,  and  both  out  of  him  and  others,  in 
Book  XI.  chap.  5.  sect.  6.  and  chap.  7.  sect.  6  and  8. 


Serm.  I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1105 


denying  them  the  ordinary  means  of  remission  and 
forgiveness. 

"  Thus  far  it  is  plain,  even  to  a  demonstration, 
that  the  ministers  of  Christ  are  invested  with  a 
power  of  retaining  or  remitting  sins,  as  they  are 
appointed  by  Christ  to  be  the  administrators  of 
baptism,  and  subordinate  judges  of  the  fitness  and 
qualifications  of  such  persons  as  are  to  be  admitted 
to  it.  For  they  who  are  intrusted  with  the  ordinary 
administration  of  such  a  mystery,  as  conveys  or 
seals  remission  of  sins  to  men,  must  be  allowed  to 
be  the  proper  instruments  of  binding  and  loosing, 
of  retaining  and  remitting  men's  sins,  whilst  they 
are  authorized  to  admit  the  worthy,  and  reject  the 
unworthy  from  the  participation  of  such  a  mystery. 
"  The  case  is  the  very  same  with  respect  to  their 
power  in  administering  the  other  sacrament,  of  the 
Lord's  supper ;  for  that  also  is  a  means  of  convey- 
ing and  sealing  to  men  the  remission  of  sins ;  it 
only  differs  from  baptism  in  this,  that  baptism  is 
the  first  grant  of  such  a  blessing,  and  the  Lord's  sup- 
per is  a  further  confirmation,  or  continuance  and  re- 
petition of  it.  So  that  as  ministers  are  empowered, 
by  virtue  of  being  stewards  of  Christ's  mysteries, 
to  admit  the  worthy  to  a  participation  of  the  eu- 
charist,  and  debar  the  unworthy,  or  scandalous  and 
profane  livers,  from  the  benefit  of  such  communion ; 
so  far  they  are  invested  with  power  of  remitting  or 
retaining  men's  sins,  as  being  proper  judges  of  men's 
qualifications  for  the  reception  or  not  reception  of 
such  a  mystery,  upon  which,  in  the  ordinarj'  method 
and  dispensation  of  God's  grace,  remission  of  sins 
is  made  to  depend. 

"  And  herein  consists  the  first  act  of  the  minis- 
ter's power  in  remitting  or  retaining  sins,  by  apply- 
ing to  men  the  sacraments  of  the  church,  in  the 
use  of  which  remission  of  sins  is  granted  to  all 
worthy  receivers. 

"  2.  The  second  act  of  this  power  is,  the  declara- 
tory absolution  of  the  word  and  doctrine,  which 
consists  in  publishing  the  terms  and  conditions 
upon  which  the  gospel  promises  pardon  and  re- 
mission of  sins.  This  is  either  general  or  particu- 
lar :  the  general  absolution  is  such  as  our  church 
appoints  every  minister  to  pronounce  after  the  ge- 
neral confession  of  sins  in  her  daily  service  ;  where 
it  is  said,  that  God  hath  given  power  and  com- 
mandment to  his  ministers,  to  declare  and  pro- 
nounce to  his  people,  being  penitent,  the  absolution 
and  remission  of  their  sins  ;  by  virtue  of  which 
power  they  declare,  that  God  pardoneth  and  ab- 
solveth  all  them  that  truly  repent  and  unfeignedly 
believe  his  holy  gospel.  This  in  effect  is  done, 
whenever  a  minister  publishes  or  preaches  the  terms 
of  the  gospel  to  men,  declaring  in  God's  name  upon 
what  conditions  remission  of  sins  may  be  obtained ; 


and  the  design  of  it  is  to  excite  and  encourage  all 
sinners  to  repent  and  turn  to  God  in  hopes  of 
mercy,  and  to  give  consolation  and  comfort  to  all 
such  as  do  actually  and  sincerely  turn  to  him.  For 
which  reason  the  church  has  thought  fit  to  insert 
this  into  her  public  offices,  and  give  it  a  jilace  in 
her  daily  liturgy ;  which  is  a  peculiar  excellency 
and  commendation  of  her  service,  the  want  whereof 
is  lamented  in  some  other  churches;  for  Calvin* 
declares,  he  was  very  desirous  to  have  had  such  a 
general  declaratory  absolution  inserted  into  the 
Geneva  liturgy,  but  could  not  prevail  with  his  as- 
sociates to  introduce  it. 

"  But  besides  this  general  declaratory  absolution 
retained  in  our  service,  there  is  a  more  particular  ab- 
solution appointed  to  be  given  to  single  persons  in 
some  special  cases  ;  that  is,  when  men  labour  un- 
der troubles  of  mind  and  disquiet  of  conscience  for 
any  particular  sins,  which  they  make  confession  of 
to  a  minister,  with  proper  signs  of  a  genuine  re- 
pentance. In  that  case  the  minister  is  authorized, 
not  only  to  give  them  ghostly  counsel  and  advice, 
but  also  the  benefit  of  absolution  ;  that  is,  if,  upon 
a  just  examination  of  their  case,  he  judges  them  to 
be  real  penitents  before  God,  then  he  may  not  only 
declare  to  them  the  general  promises  of  pardon,  but 
assure  them  in  particular,  that  as  far  as  he  can 
judge  of  their  case  by  the  visible  tokens  and  indi- 
cations of  their  repentance,  he  esteems  them  ab- 
solved before  God,  and  accordingly  declares  and 
pronounces  to  them  their  absolution.  This  is  no 
infallible  judgment  indeed,  because  one  man  may 
deceive  another  by  specious  pretences  of  repentance, 
which  are  not  always  real ;  but  yet  it  is  as  great  an 
assurance,  as  a  prudent,  sagacious,  and  pious  min- 
ister of  Christ  can  give  to  his  fellow  creature  for 
his  satisfaction,  without  particular  inspiration. 

"  And  it  must  needs  be  of  considerable  weight 
and  moment  towards  the  satisfaction  and  comfort 
of  an  afflicted,  or  a  doubtful  and  desponding  soul, 
to  have  the  declaration  of  a  skilful  physician  to  rely 
upon  ;  to  have  one,  who  by  his  office  is  qualified  to 
be  a  proper  judge  in  such  crises,  to  pronounce  Ixis 
absolution. 

"  Therefore  our  church,  for  the  comfort  of  such 
penitent  sinners,  has  appointed  the  minister  in  two 
of  her  offices  (the  Exhortation  to  the  Communion, 
and  the  Visitation  of  the  Sick)  to  grant  such  a  par- 
ticular absolution,  saying  in  one  of  them,  '  By  the 
authority  of  Jesus  Christ  committed  unto  me,  I  ab- 
solve thee  from  all  thy  offences.'  Which  though  it 
be  not  an  absolute  authority,  yet  it  is  such  a  declar- 
ation of  God's  will,  as  one  man  can  make  to  an- 
other upon  the  nicest  inquiry  into  his  state  and 
maturest  consideration.  It  is  like  the  priest's  de- 
claration under  the  old  law  concerning  the  leper 


4  B 


'  Calvin.  Epist.  de  quibusdain  Ecclesiae  Ritibus,  p.  206. 


HOG 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Appendix. 


whether  he  was  clean  or  unclean  :  his  declaration 
or  judgment  concerning  such  a  one  is  said  to  be 
the  cleansing  or  polluting  him,  the  making  him 
clean  or  unclean ;  though,  strictly  speaking,  the 
priest  did  neither  make  him  leprous  nor  not  le- 
prous, but  only  declare,  upon  a  just  examination 
and  view,  whether  he  was  so  or  not.  In  hke  man- 
ner St.  Jerom,  and  the  Master  of  the  Sentences,  and 
many  others  after  them,  have  observed,'"  that  the 
ministers  of  the  gospel  have  that  right  and  office, 
in  remitting  or  retaining  sins,  which  the  legal 
priests  had  of  old  under  the  law  in  curing  of  the 
lepers ;  they  forgive  sins  or  retain  them,  whilst  they 
show  and  declare  that  they  are  forgiven  or  retained 
by  God.  And  such  a  declaration,  proceeding  from 
the  mouth  of  those  who  are  constituted  ministerial 
judges  of  particular  men's  repentance,  is  justly  con- 
strued an  evangelical  absolution,  sufficient  to  minis- 
ter satisfaction  and  comfort  to  the  penitent  sinner. 
"  3.  The  third  act  of  this  ministerial  power  is,  in- 
tercession with  God  for  pardon  of  sins  through  the 
merits  of  Christ ;  which  is  what  the  church  has  al- 
ways called  the  absolution  of  prayer,  joined  to  the 
absolution  of  the  word  and  sacraments.  This  al- 
ways either  implicitly  or  expressly  accompanies  the 
other  acts  of  absolution,"  as  a  chief  part  of  the 
minister's  office,  which  is  to  intercede  and  pray  to 
God  for  the  sins  of  the  people.  The  sacraments 
are  sometimes  administered  in  a  precator)'  form,  as 
is  that  of  the  eucharist  in  our  liturgy :  '  The  body 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  preserve  thy  body  and 
soul  unto  everlasting  life.'  And  so'-  some  tell  us, 
that  ba2:>tism  now  in  the  Greek  church  is  adminis- 
tered in  the  like  manner  and  form,  Baptizetur  ser- 
vus  Christi  in  nomine  Patris,  Szc.  Let  the  servant 
of  Christ  be  baptized  in  the  name  of  the  Father, 
Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  by  way  of  prayer.  And 
though  our  present  form,  I  baptize  thee,  differ 
a  little  from  this ;  yet  it  is  always  accompanied 
with  prayers,  that  God  would  release  the  party 
baptized  of  his  sins,  and  grant  him  all  the  bene- 
fits of  regeneration.  So  it  is  observable,  that  im- 
m.ediately  after  the  general  declaratory  absolution 
in  our  liturgy,  the  church  appoints  the  Lord's 
prayer  to  be  used,  as  that  whereby  we  obtain  a 
general  discharge  or  remission  of  sins  of  daily  in- 
cursion. And  some  of  our  church's  forms  of  abso- 
lution are  plain  and  direct  prayers  for  pardon  and 
forgiveness  :  as  that  in  the  communion  office  after 
the  general  confession,  where  the  rubric  says, 
'  Then  shall  the  priest,  or  the  bishop,  being  present, 
stand  up,  and  turning  himself  to  the  people,  pro- 
nounce this  absolution :  Almighty  God  our  heavenly 
Father,  who  of  his  great  mercy  hath  promised  for^ 


giveness  of  sins  to  all  them  that  with  hearty  repent- 
ance and  true  faith  turn  unto  him,  have  mercy 
upon  you,  pardon  and  dehver  you  from  all  your 
sins,  confirm  and  strengthen  you  in  all  goodness, 
and  bring  you  to  everlasting  life,  through  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord.'  Here  the  declaratory  absolution 
and  the  precatory  are  evidently  joined  together  in 
the  same  prayer ;  for  the  prayer  consists  partly  of 
a  declaration  of  God's  promises  to  pardon  true 
penitent  sinners,  and  partly  of  an  intercession  with 
God  for  actual  pardon  for  those  particular  sinners, 
for  whom  the  minister  then  makes  his  application 
and  address  to  the  throne  of  grace.  And  there  are 
many  other  such  forms  of  absolution  throughout 
the  liturgy  of  our  chui'ch  ;  nay,  all  the  absolutions 
of  the  ancient  church,  when  penitents,  after  excom- 
munication and  a  long  course  of  discipline,  were 
received  into  grace  and  favour  again,  were  accom- 
panied with  imposition  of  hands  and  prayer,"  to 
denote  that  the  ministerial  benediction  and  inter- 
cession with  God  for  sinners,  was  a  principal, 
though  not  the  only  act  of  sacerdotal  power  in  the 
business  of  evangelical  absolution.  And  this  was 
conformable  to  the  rule  of  benediction  given  by 
Moses  to  the  priests  of  the  old  law.  Numb.  vi.  27, 
'  They  shall  put  my  name  upon  the  children  of 
Israel,  and  I  will  bless  them.'  It  is  God,  properly 
speaking,  that  blesses  and  pardons ;  and  yet  when 
the  priests  intercede  with  God  for  these  things, 
they  are  also  said  in  their  way  to  give  blessing  and 
absolution.  All  which  fully  evinces  intercession 
and  prayer  to  be  one  sort  of  ministerial  absolution, 
as  it  is  a  means  in  the  hand  of  man,  whereby  God 
is  pleased  to  derive  and  shower  down  the  blessing 
of  his  absolution  upon  his  people. 

"  There  is  yet  a  fourth  instance  of  this  power  of 
remitting  and  retaining  sins,  which  is  the  power  of 
executing  church  discipline  and  censures  upon  de- 
linquents. This  consists  in  excluding  flagitious 
and  scandalous  sinners  from  the  commimion  of  the 
church,  and  receiving  penitents  into  communion 
again  upon  their  submission  and  repentance.  This 
is  properly  a  judicial  act;  for  as  the  ministers  of 
Christ  are  judges  of  men's  qualifications  for  their 
first  admission  into  the  church  by  baptism,  so  are 
they  judges  of  their  quahfications  for  their  continu- 
ance in  the  same ;  and  as  stewards  of  the  mysteries 
of  God,  they  are  obliged  to  separate  the  precious 
from  the  vile,  and  distinguish  the  worthy  receivers 
of  those  mysteries  from  the  profaners  and  con- 
temners of  them.  '  Holy  things  are  not  to  be  given 
unto  dogs,  neither  are  pearls  to  be  cast  before 
swine ;'  and  therefore  when  men  debase  themselves 
to  those  infamous  and  brutish  characters,  they  have 


'"  .See  the  testimonies  of  St.  Jerom  and  Peter  Lombard 
related  at  length,  Book  XIX.  chap.  2.  sect.  6. 

"  Compare  Book  XIX.  chap.   1.  sect.  5.  and  chap.  2. 


sect.  4. 

'-  Decrotum  Eugenii  ad  calcem  Cone.  Florent. 

"  See  this  fully  proved,  Book  XIX.  chap.  2.  sect.  4. 


Serm.  I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


II07 


no  longer  a  right  to  the  privileges  of  Christian  com- 
munion, but  are  to  be  lopped  ofFas  unsound  branches, 
partly  to  avoid  contagion  and  infection  of  the  sound 
members,  and  partly  to  make  the  sinners  themselves 
ashamed,  and  thereby  bring  them  to  reformation 
and  amendment. 

"  It  is  true,  indeed,  this  power  is  not  arbitrary  in 
the  ministers  of  Christ ;  they  are  not  to  use  this 
severest  of  punishments  for  every  jealousy  and  sus- 
picion of  evil ;  nor  yet  for  every  light  and  trivial 
offence,  which  may  be  cured  by  other  remedies ;  nor 
for  greater  and  more  heinous  crimes,  without  pre- 
vious admonition,  and  trial  of  other  methods,  which 
Christ  has  appointed  to  be  used  for  the  reformation 
of  sinners ;  nor  yet  upon  whole  bodies  of  men,'^ 
where  there  is  danger  of  rooting  up  the  wheat  with 
the  tares,  and  of  doing  more  harm  than  good  to  the 
church,  by  involving  the  innocent  with  the  guilty, 
or  laying  whole  churches  under  interdict,  or  occa- 
sioning great  and  dangerous  schisms,  to  the  church's 
manifest  peril  and  destruction.  For  the  design  of 
this  power  and  discipline  is  for  edification,  and  not 
for  destruction ;  to  cleanse  and  purify  the  church, 
but  not  to  shock  its  very  constitution,  and  raze  and 
overturn  its  foundations  by  an  indiscreet  and  intem- 
perate zeal  for  the  preservation  of  it.  And  therefore 
here,  if  ever,  the  ministerial  power  is  to  be  exercised 
with  the  greatest  wisdom  and  prudence,  as  well  as 
charity  and  concern  for  the  souls  of  men,  and  the 
good  of  the  whole  community.  Of  all  which  the 
ministers  of  Christ  are  constituted  discretionary 
judges,  invested  with  power  to  examine  both  men's 
faith  and  morals,  and  to  exclude  the  scandalous 
and  profane,  and  to  readmit  the  truly  penitent  upon 
their  giving  evident  tokens  of  a  real  conversion,  and 
bringing  forth  fruits  meet  for  repentance.  They 
are  Christ's  substitutes  and  vicegerents  in  his 
church,  binding  and  loosing,  opening  and  shutting 
with  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven ;  which  so 
long  as  they  use  according  to  the  rules  prescribed 
them  by  Christ,  their  sentence,  though  only  minis- 
terial, is  of  gi'eat  effect  in  the  external  communion 
of  the  church  at  present,  and  will  be  found  to  be  of 
force,  as  a  prejudging  forerunner  of  the  sentence  of 
the  last  day.  For  under  these  limitations,  and 
reserving  a  due  prerogative  to  the  infallible  sove- 
reignty of  Christ,  it  cannot  be  doubted,  but  that 
whose  soever  sins  they  retain,  they  are  retained  ; 
and  whose  soever  sins  they  remit,  they  are  remitted 
unto  them." 

I  should  now  have  proceeded  to  the  third  in- 
quiry, how  far  it  is  necessary  for  all  men  to  submit 
to  the  ministerial  exercise  of  this  power  in  all  the 
four  several  branches  of  it  thus  explained?  and 
also  have  reduced  this  whole  consideration  to  prac- 


tice ;  but  because  the  just  examination  of  these 
things  would  exceed  the  Hmits  of  the  present  dis- 
course, I  shall  only  say  these  two  things  by  way  of 
general  remark  in  the  close  of  it : 

1.  That  the  necessity  of  absolution  in  any  kind, 
is  the  same  as  the  necessity  of  the  thing  by  which 
it  is  wrought  and  ministered  to  us.  So  that  if  there 
be  any  necessity  of  receiving  the  two  sacraments  of 
baptism  and  the  Lord's  supper,  there  is  the  same 
necessity  of  receiving  the  sacramental  absolution, 
that  is  conveyed  to  us  by  and  in  the  use  of  those 
holy  mysteries.  If  there  be  any  necessity  of  having 
the  conditions  of  the  gospel,  and  God's  general  pro- 
mises of  pardon,  declared  to  us,  and  applied  to  our 
souls  ;  then  there  is  an  equal  necessity  of  a  general 
declaratory  absolution,  to  excite  our  hopes,  and  in- 
vigorate our  faith,  and  engage  us  to  a  true  repent- 
ance and  holy  obedience.  If  there  be  any  necessity 
for  an  afflicted  soul,  that  labours  under  insuper- 
able doubts  and  troubles  of  mind,  to  be  relieved 
of  her  burden,  and  to  be  quietly  settled  in  a  state  of 
comfort  and  satisfaction  ;  then  there  is  a  like  neces- 
sity of  a  particular  declaratory  absolution.  If  there 
be  any  necessity  of  the  public  prayers  of  the  church, 
to  implore  God's  mercy  for  the  remission  of  sins  to 
public  penitents ;  then  there  is  the  same  necessity 
of  a  precatory  absolution.  And  finally,  if  there  be 
any  necessity  for  scandalous  sinners,  who  are  cast 
out  of  the  church,  to  be  restored  to  the  peace  and 
communion  of  the  church  again,  in  order  to  make 
their  peace  with  God ;  then  there  is  a  necessity  of 
a  judicial  absolution.  So  far  as  any  of  these  offices 
and  ministries  are  necessary  in  the  church,  so  far 
the  several  sorts  of  absolution,  that  depend  upon 
them,  must  be  concluded  to  be  necessary  likewise. 
And  so  far  a  respect  is  due  to  them,  as  the  ordi- 
nances of  God ;  insomuch  as  that,  where  they  may 
be  ordinarily  had,  they  are  not  ordinarily  to  be 
omitted,  much  less  to  be  despised  or  neglected; 
because  that,  in  other  words,  is  the  same  thing  as 
contemning  the  sacraments  of  Christ,  and  public 
prayer,  and  preaching,  and  the  discipline  and  cen- 
sures of  the  church,  which  are  ordinances  of  God's 
own  appointing. 

2.  The  other  thing  I  am  to  remark  in  the  close 
of  this  discourse  is,  That  whatever  necessity  there 
be  of  an  external  absolution,  yet  there  is  still  a 
greater  necessity  of  the  internal  qualifications  of 
men's  own  minds  in  order  to  receive  it.  These 
qualifications  are,  a  true  faith,  a  true  repentance, 
and  new  obedience  of  life ;  which  are  the  gospel 
conditions,  required  to  make  any  human  absolu- 
tion effectual  to  our  pardon.  God  may,  and  some- 
times does,  (where  there  is  no  contempt,)  dispense 
with  the  want  of  the  former,  but  he  never  dispenses 
with  the  latter ;  for  "without  holiness  no  man  shall 


"  See  the  practice  of  the  primitive  church  illustrated  in  all  I    these  cases,  Book  XVI.  chap.  3.  sect.  6,  &c. 
4  B  2 


1108 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Appendix. 


see  the  Lord."  It  is  neither  confession  nor  attri- 
tion, nor  an  external  absolution  of  any  kind,  but 
only  a  sincere  conversion,  that  will  qualify  us  for 
his  pardon.  And  therefore,  as  ever  we  expect  to 
be  absolved  in  heaven,  we  must  prepare  ourselves 
with  those  qualifications,  which  alone  can  give  us 


security  at  the  day  of  judgment.  God  of  his  mercy 
inspire  us  all  with  these  most  necessary  qualifica- 
tions, through  the  intercession  and  merits  of  the 
great  High  Priest  of  our  profession,  Jesus  Christ 
our  blessed  Lord  and  Saviour.     To  whom,  &c. 


SERMON    II. 

WHOSE  SOEVER  SINS  YE  REMIT,  THEY  ARE   REMITTED  UNTO  THEM  ;    AND  WHOSE  SOEVER  SINS    YE  RETAIN, 

THEY  ARE  RETAINED.  — JOHN  XX.  23. 


In  the  former  discourse  upon  these  words,  I  pro- 
posed three  inquiries  to  be  made  concerning  the 
doctrine  and  exercise  of  ministerial  absolution : 

I.  To  examine  into  the  nature  of  this  power  in 
general,  as  it  belongs  to  man ;  because,  notwith- 
standing the  commission  and  authority  granted  to 
man,  there  is  still  a  vast  difference  to  be  made  be- 
tween the  power  of  forgiving  sins,  as  exercised  bj' 
God,  and  as  exercised  by  man. 

II.  To  examine  more  particularly  into  the  na- 
ture of  the  several  sorts  of  absolution,  as  exercised 
by  man. 

III.  To  inquire  how  far  all  men  are  concerned  to 
submit  to  the  exercise  of  this  power  in  the  several 
branches  of  it. 

I  have  already  discoursed  of  the  two  first,  and 
now  proceed  to  the  third  inquiry.  In  resolving  of 
which  it  will  be  proper  to  consider  the  question 
distinctly  with  respect  to  the  four  several  branches 
of  ministerial  absolution  :  the  absolution  of  the  two 
sacraments  ;  the  declaratory  absolution  of  the  word 
and  doctrine;  the  precatory  absolution  ;  and  the  ju- 
dicial absolution  of  public  discipline.  Concerning 
all  which  it  has  already  been  observed  In  general, 
that  so  far  as  either  the  sacraments,  or  preaching  of 
the  word,  or  public  prayer,  or  public  discipline,  are 
of  any  use  or  force  in  the  Christian  church ;  so 
far  the  absolutions  are  to  be  embraced,  that  attend 
any  of  these  Divine  institutions.  I  shall  now  make 
a  more  particular  inquiry  into  the  necessity  of  each 
of  them. 

1.  I  begin  with  the  necessity  of  sacramental  ab- 
solution. Concerning  which  it  must  be  asserted, 
that  whatever  necessity  there  is  of  receiving  the 
sacrament  of  baptism,  or  the  Lord's  supper,  ap- 
pointed for  all  who  have  opportunity  to  receive 
them;  there  is  the  same  necessity  of  receiving  the 
sacramental  absolution  that  depends  upon  them : 
because  they  are  so  intimately  united  and  linked 


together,  that  they  cannot  be  separated  from  each 
other ;  neither  does  God  dispense  with  the  want  of 
sacramental  absolution  in  any  case,  but  where  he 
dispenses  with  the  want  of  the  sacraments  them- 
selves. God  can  indeed,  and  often  does,  dispense 
with  the  want  of  the  sacraments,  and  supply  them 
by  his  extraordinary  grace,  where,  either  by  the  fro- 
wardness  of  his  ministers,  or  their  neglect,  or  some 
unforeseen  accident  or  natural  incapacity,  there  is 
no  possibility '  of  receiving  them ;  but  men's  own 
neglect  or  contempt  of  his  ordinances  will  doubtless 
be  imputed  to  them  as  a  crime,  for  which  they  must 
expect  to  give  account  to  the  sovereign  Author  of 
these  institutions  at  his  great  tribunal.  So  in  the 
like  cases,  if  men  through  any  unavoidable  neces- 
sity want  the  absolution  which  is  exhibited  in  these 
two  sacraments,  God  can  supply  this  defect,  and  by 
his  extraordinary  grace  grant  them  absolution  in 
some  other  way :  but  if  men  are  justly  debarred  by 
the  ministers  of  God  from  the  sacramental  absolu- 
tion, or  pardon  of  sins  belonging  to  these  sacraments, 
not  by  any  necessity,  but  only  for  their  own  con- 
tumacy, in  refusing  to  qualify  themselves  by  the 
performance  of  such  conditions  as  are  required  of 
worthy  receivers ;  in  this  case  the  minister's  act,  in 
retaining  their  sins,  and  refusing  them  this  sacra- 
mental absolution,  because  he  judges  them  appar- 
ently unqualified  for  it,  and  unworthy  of  it,  will 
doubtless  be  ratified  and  confirmed  by  Christ,  as  the 
supreme  Judge,  and  asserter  of  his  own  authority 
given  unto  men  to  retain  sins,  and  deny  absolution 
to  those  who  are  professed  despisers  and  contemners 
of  the  conditions  upon  which  he  has  offered  it.  And 
this  plainly  shows  what  necessity  there  is  of  abso- 
lution, as  that  signifies  in  the  first  place  the  abso- 
lution of  the  two  sacraments,  which  is  to  be  granted 
to  the  worthy,  and  (as  far  as  human  judgment  can 
go)  to  no  other  but  those  that  are  worthy  of  it. 
Therefore  men  are  to  prepare  for  this  absolution,  for 


•  Sec  the   sense  of  the  ancients  iipun  this   point,  Book       X.  chap.  2.  sect.  20,  21,  &c. 


Serm.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1109 


tlie  same  reasons  that  tlicy  are  to  prepare  for  the 
reception  of  either  of  the  sacraments,  which,  in  the 
ordinary  methods  and  ways  of  dispensing  God's 
grace,  are  made  necessary  means  of  salvation. 

2.  In  the  next  place,  for  the  declaratory  absolu- 
tion of  the  word  and  doctrine.  Whatever  necessity 
there  is  of  having  the  truth  of  God's  promises  oper- 
atively  and  effectively  applied  to  men's  souls,  in 
order  to  work  in  them  faith  and  hope,  repentance 
and  new  obedience  ;  that  very  necessity  there  is  of 
this  general  declaratory  absolution,  either  at  first 
to  create  and  excite,  or  afterwards  to  foment  and 
cherish,  these  good  qualities,  upon  which  the  pardon 
of  sins  depends.  "  Faith,"  wc  are  told,  "  comes  by 
hearing,  and  hearing  by  the  word  of  God."  And 
men  do  not  ordinarily  "  hear  without  a  preacher," 
nor  ordinarily  "  preach,  except  they  be  sent." 
Therefore,  as  it  is  necessarj'  that  men  should  "  be- 
lieve and  repent,  and  obey  the  gospel ;"  so  it  is  ne- 
cessary they  should  hear  the  general  declarations  of 
pardon,  which  God  has  made  in  his  gospel  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  declarations  of  wrath  revealed 
from  heaven,  on  the  other  hand,  in  order  to  engage 
them  to  comply  with  those  terms,  upon  which  the 
gospel  makes  the  remission  of  sins  to  depend.  And 
as  the  heralds  of  the  gospel  are  obliged  to  preach 
and  declare  the  mind  of  God  toward  repenting  and 
unrepenting  sinners  ;  so  every  man  is  concerned  to 
"  hear,  and  fear,  and  do  no  more  presumptuously," 
as  he  expects  to  find  favom-  and  mercy  of  God  at  the 
day  of  judgment.  This  is  the  necessity  and  use 
of  declaratory  absolutions,  both  to  beget  and  to 
support  that  faith,  which  is  the  first  spring  and 
foundation  of  a  Christian  life.  It  is  the  word  of 
God,  whereby  "  we  are  begotten  to  a  Hvely  hope 
through  the  gospel."  And  we  may  reasonably  sup- 
pose, that  faith  will  last  no  longer  than  the  preach- 
ing of  the  gospel  does  in  the  world.  When  anti- 
christ is  come  to  his  full  height,  and  seated  in  the 
meridian  of  his  kingdom ;  when,  instead  of  gospel 
truth,  he  shall  fill  men  with  error  by  "  signs  and 
lying  wonders,  and  all  deceivableness  of  unright- 
eousness ;"  then  will  be  verified  what  our  Saviour 
has  predicted,  "  When  tlie  Son  of  man  cometh,  shall 
he  find  faith  on  earth  ?"  It  will  be  impossible  to 
maintain  faith  generally  among  men,  without  the 
constant  declarations  of  the  gospel  to  support  it. 
And  that,  if  any  thing,  may  convince  us  of  the  ne- 
cessary use  of  a  true  gospel  ministry,  or  such  an 
order  of  men  as  have  authority  and  commission  to 
declare  the  will  of  God,  to  keep  the  very  faith  itself 
from  dwindling  into  nothing. 

But  I  told  you,  that  besides  the  general  declara- 
tions of  the  gospel,  there  was  sometimes  a  more 
particular  declaratory  absolution  necessary  to  relieve 
a  distressed  and  wounded  conscience,  and  extricate 
a  desponding  and  doubtful  sinner  out  of  the  fears 
and  perplexing  labyrinths  of  sin  :  and  the  very  ne- 


cessity of  comfort  to  the  feeble-minded,  in  such  a 
case,  is  a  sufficient  argument  of  the  necessity  of 
such  an  absolution.  For  whither  should  an  anxious 
and  afflicted  soul  betake  herself,  but  to  those  whom 
God  has  appointed  as  proper  helps  and  judges  in 
the  case  ?  whose  office  invests  them  with  some- 
thing of  authority,  and  whose  studies  and  experi- 
ence qualify  them  to  search  and  examine  into  the 
nature  of  spiritual  diseases,  and  then  judge  of  pro- 
per methods  of  cure,  and  apply  suitable  remedies  to 
them.  Should  such  a  soul  fly  immediately  and 
solely  to  God  ?  That  indeed  would  be  very  well, 
had  she  sufficient  faith,  and  courage,  and  confidence 
to  approach  him.  But  he  is  the  Person  wliom  she 
has  offended,  and  now  she  thinks  of  nothing  but  his 
wrath  and  indignation.  Should  she  betake  herself 
to  the  Son  of  God,  the  great  Intercessor  and  Medi- 
ator between  God  and  man  ?  All  would  be  right  in 
this  case  too,  could  she  come  with  full  assurance  of 
faith  to  him,  as  to  a  merciful  and  faithful  High 
Priest,  who  is  both  able  and  willing  to  save  to  the 
uttermost  all  that  truly  turn  to  him.  But  that  is 
her  great  misfortune,  and  her  very  disease,  that  she 
dares  not  come  now  so  boldly  to  the  throne  of  grace, 
to  find  help  in  time  of  need :  or  if  she  does  come 
even  with  prayers  and  tears  to  Christ,  she  is  afraid 
they  will  not  be  accepted ;  because  she  can  now 
hardly  look  upon  him  as  her  Saviour,  but  as  her 
offended  Judge.  She  is  overwhelmed  and  con- 
founded with  her  own  ingratitude,  to  think,  that 
she  was  once  like  an  angel  of  light,  pure  and  im- 
maculate in  the  blood  of  Christ ;  but  now  she  has 
deserted  her  station,  and  is  fallen  from  grace.  She 
was  once  enlightened,  and  had  tasted  of  the  hea- 
venly gift,  and  was  made  partaker  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  tasted  the  good  word  of  God,  and  the 
powers  of  the  world  to  come  ;  but  now  she  is  fallen 
away,  and  has  crucified  to  herself  the  Son  of  God 
afresh,  and  put  him  to  an  open  shame.  She  has 
trodden  under  foot  the  Son  of  God,  and  counted  the 
blood  of  the  covenant,  wherewith  she  was  sanctified, 
an  unholy  thing,  and  has  done  despite  to  the  Spirit 
of  grace.  And  how  shall  she  make  her  addresses 
to  Christ,  whom  she  has  thus  shamefully  abused  ? 
What  then  ?  Shall  she  call  in  the  assistance  and 
counsel  of  the  holy  angels  ?  They  are  ministering 
spirits  indeed,  sent  forth  to  minister  to  those  who 
are  heirs  of  salvation ;  but  their  ministry  is  wholly 
spiritual  and  undiscernible  ;  they  maintain  now  no 
visible  intercourse  with  men.  But  she  has  need  of 
some  visible  comforter,  to  whom  she  may  lay  open 
her  grief,  and  take  his  advice  in  the  midst  of  all  her 
sorrows ;  and  this  must  be  some  of  her  visible  fel- 
low creatures :  and  who  so  proper  among  these,  as 
those  whom  God  himself  has  appointed  for  this  pur- 
pose? Private  men  may  show  their  charity  to  such 
a  languishing  soul,  as  far  as  their  knowledge  and 
their  abilities  will  direct  them ;  but  yet,  after  all, 


1110 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Appendix. 


there  may  be  a  necessity  of  some  farther  assistance. 
And  whence  may  that  more  reasonably  be  expected, 
than  from  the  mouths  of  those,  whose  lips  should 
preserve  knowledge;  whose  studies  are  the  Holy 
Scriptures;  whose  business  is  to  explain  them  to 
men ;  to  solve  their  doubts,  and  take  off  their  scru- 
ples ;  to  examine  their  repentance,  and  compare  it 
for  them  with  the  rule  of  God's  word ;  and  chiefly 
to  guard  them  against  the  wiles  of  Satan,  and  teach 
them  not  to  wrest  the  Scriptm-e  to  their  own  de- 
struction ?  For  this  is  commonly  the  most  difficult 
part  in  this  whole  affair  with  such  distressed  souls, 
to  fortify  them  against  the  subtleties  of  Satan,  who 
transforms  himself  into  an  angel  of  light,  and 
teaches  them  to  plead  Scripture  against  themselves; 
making  that  which  was  designed  for  their  health 
and  strength,  become  to  them  an  occasion  of  fall- 
ing ;  and  robbing  them  of  their  peace  by  that  very 
instrument,  which  was  intended  to  raise  their  hopes 
and  fix  their  consolation.  Indeed,  this  is  Satan's 
master-piece  of  temptation,  to  accost  and  tempt  us 
in  Scripture  dialect,  and  with  the  tongue  of  an  an- 
gel ;  and  he  never  speaks  more  like  himself,  that  is, 
more  artfully  subtle  and  diabolical,  than  when  he 
speaks  to  us  the  language  of  heaven.  Thus  he 
tempted  our  Saviour  himself,  by  quoting  Scripture ; 
by  saying.  Thus  and  thus  it  is  written.  And  what 
wonder,  then,  that  he  should  use  the  same  weapon 
against  other  men,  who  are  less  able  to  resist  him  ? 
But  the  weaker  men  are,  and  the  more  they  are 
liable  to  temptation,  the  greater  necessity  there  is  in 
that  case,  that  they  should  have  recourse  to  some 
abler  hand,  who  can  give  them  both  succour  and 
direction ;  who  can  rightly  apply  the  word  of  God 
to  their  souls,  and  give  them  a  right  apprehension 
both  of  God  and  themselves;  who  can  set  every 
text  of  Scripture,  which  Satan  abuses,  in  its  proper 
light ;  and  so  bafiie  all  his  arguments,  and  counter- 
mine all  his  plots,  by  the  same  instrument  that  he 
abuses  with  a  design  to  beguile  men  and  overthrow 
them. 

It  would  be  well,  indeed,  if  all  men  could  so  dex- 
terously use  the  sword  of  the  Spirit,  which  is  the 
word  of  God,  as  that  they  might  be  able  of  them- 
selves (Uke  our  Saviour  in  his  temptation)  to  an- 
swer and  repel  all  Satan's  sophistry  and  false  glosses 
upon  the  holy  text,  by  j  aster  comments  and  more 
pertinent  allegations.  But  if  this  cannot  be  expect- 
ed from  the  weaker  sort,  it  is  necessary  they  should 
in  such  cases  betake  themselves  for  help  to  those 
that  are  more  experienced,  and  have  their  senses 
more  exercised  to  discern  between  good  and  evil. 

Common  reason  and  interest  direct  men  what  to 
do,  when  they  are  under  any  doubts  or  difficulties 
in  all  other  concerns.  He  who  doubts  his  title  to  a 
temporal  estate,  thinks  himself  obliged  to  consult  an 
able  lawyer,  and  take  his  advice  and  counsel ;  and 
in  case  of  a  bodily  distemper,  every  man  as  readily 


betakes  himself  to  a  skilful  and  experienced  phy- 
sician ;  and  there  is  the  same  reason  in  spiritual 
distempers  to  engage  a  man  to  consult  a  spiritual 
guide,  who  may  be  presumed  to  be  as  learned  and 
skilful  in  his  profession  as  either  of  the  former :  his 
office  obliges  him  to  a  more  general  and  exact  study 
of  the  Scriptures ;  to  be  more  expert  and  accurate 
in  resolving  cases  of  conscience,  and  more  ready 
and  prepared  to  answer  all  the  objections,  doubts, 
and  scruples,  that  either  the  natural  weakness  of 
men's  own  fancies,  or  the  subtlety  of  Satan,  throws 
in  upon  their  minds.  His  business  and  employment 
is  to  understand  the  nature  of  God,  and  his  rehgion, 
and  his  laws,  and  the  extent  of  his  mercy,  and  the 
terms  of  reconciliation  to  penitent  sinners.  He  can, 
therefore,  examine  men's  transgressions,  and  judge 
of  their  repentance  and  condition  better  than  them- 
selves. Besides  all  this,  he  is  constituted  by  God  to 
be  his  minister  here  upon  earth,  for  these  very  pur- 
poses ;  not  only  in  Christ's  stead  to  beseech  them  to 
be  reconciled  to  God,  and  to  show  them  the  method 
of  reconciliation,  and  to  pray  for  them ;  but  also, 
upon  an  impartial  view  of  their  condition,  if  he  finds 
them  real  penitents,  to  declare  them  absolved  by 
God,  and  in  his  favour ;  his  commission  is  to  assure 
them,  that  in  spite  of  all  that  Satan  can  suggest  to 
the  contrary,  there  are  no  sins  so  great  that  God 
cannot  pardon,  provided  they  bring  the  condition  of 
pardon,  which  is  a  true  repentance:  and  he  can 
judge,  though  not  with  an  infalhble  judgment,  yet 
with  a  moral  certainty,  whether  their  repentance  be 
sincere  and  perfect;  and  give  them  directions  to 
supply  it  where  it  is  defective ;  and  free  them  from 
all  unreasonable  scruples,  which  are  apt  to  discom- 
pose and  trouble  their  souls :  all  which  must  needs 
be  of  extraordinary  and  sovereign  use  to  persons  in 
such  a  condition,  and  afford  them  the  surest  relief, 
and  the  most  solid  comfort  and  satisfaction,  that  can 
be  expected,  without  a  particular  revelation,  on  this 
side  heaven. 

So  that  the  use  and  advantage  of  spiritual  guides 
in  such  a  case  sufficiently  discovers  the  reasonable- 
ness and  necessity  of  making  application  to  them, 
in  order  to  obtain  the  benefit  and  comfort  of  a  par- 
ticular declaratory  absolution. 

And  upon  this  account  our  church,  though  she 
lays  no  necessary  injunction  upon  men  to  make  a 
particular  confession  of  their  sins  to  her  ministers 
in  all  cases,  yet  wisely  requires  them  in  this  one 
special  case  of  exigency  to  do  it  for  their  own  benefit 
and  satisfaction :  "  If  there  be  any  of  you,  who  by 
this  means  cannot  quiet  his  own  conscience,  (viz.  by 
confession  to  God  alone,)  but  requireth  further  com- 
fort and  counsel,  let  him  go  to  some  discreet  and 
learned  minister  of  God's  word,  and  open  his  grief; 
that  by  the  ministry  of  God's  holy  word  he  may 
receive  the  benefit  of  absolution,  together  with 
ghostly  counsel  and  advice,  to  the  quieting  of  his 


Serm.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1111 


conscience,  and  avoiding  of  all  scruple  and  doubt- 
fulness." This  I  take  to  be  the  true  state  of  the 
case,  as  to  what  concerns  the  necessity  of  a  parti- 
cular confession  and  a  particular  declaratory  ab- 
solution. It  is  not  simply  necessary  for  all  men, 
but  only  for  those  whose  condition  is  such,  that 
they  cannot  have  peace  and  satisfaction  without  it. 
And  therefore  the  church  of  Rome  is  highly  to 
blame,  which  imposes  the  absolute  necessity  of  a 
particular  confession,  and  a  particular  absolution, 
universally  upon  all  men,  in  all  cases  of  mortal  sin, 
under  pain  of  damnation.  Our  church  keeps  closer 
to  the  rule  of  Scripture  and  the  practice^  of  the  an- 
cient church,  in  making  particular  absolution  only 
necessary  to  those,  to  whom  the  necessity  of  the 
case  itself  makes  it  so.  And  so  much  for  the  ne- 
cessary use  of  a  general  or  particular  declaratory 
absolution. 

3.  The  next  part  of  our  inquiry  is  concerning  the 
necessity  of  a  precatory  absolution :  and  of  this  there 
is  the  same  necessity  that  there  is  of  the  prayers  of 
the  church  for  pardon  of  sins.  We  have  observed 
before,  that  prayer  usually  accompanies  all  other 
sorts  of  absolution,  and  is  an  ingredient,  and,  as  it 
were,  the  form  of  some  of  them.  The  sacraments 
are  ordinaril}'^  administered  with  prayer ;  and  prayer 
always  immediately  follows  the  declaration  of  God's 
will  and  intention  to  pardon  penitent  sinners  in  our 
public  liturgy ;  and  prayer  is  the  means  commonly 
used  to  reconcile  a  scandalous  offender,  who,  for  his 
crimes,  has  been  judicially  cast  out  of  the  church, 
and  is  now  to  be  received  again  to  peace  and  favour. 
So  that  as  necessary  as  any  of  those  absolutions  are, 
so  necessary  is  the  absolution  of  prayer,  that  always 
so  necessarily  attends  them.  If  it  be  necessary  at 
first  for  a  man  to  be  released  of  his  sins  by  the 
sacrament  of  baptism,  it  must  be  equally  necessary 
for  him  to  be  admitted  a  member  of  Christ  by  the 
prayer,  which  the  administration  of  that  sacrament 
either  includes  or  supposes  :  if  he  would  have  ab- 
solution by  the  eucharist,  he  must  receive  it  with 
that  usual  form  of  prayer  which  the  church  has 
appointed  to  be  used  in  the  distribution  of  it.  If  he 
would  have  the  general  or  particular  declaration  of 
God's  will  to  pardon  sinners,  made  effectual  to  his 
own  absolution,  he  must  join  with  the  minister  in  in- 
terceding with  God  for  the  pardon  of  his  offences. 
And  if,  after  any  excommunication  for  any  scandal- 
ous offence,  he  would  be  admitted  formally  into  the 
communion  of  the  church  again,  he  must  implore 
God's  mercy  by  the  public  ministry  and  prayer  of 
his  priests,  because  that  is  the  rite  and  ceremony ' 
of  such  an  admission. 

4.  And  hence  it  follows,  in  the  last  place,  that 
when  men  are  formally  and  judicially  cast  out  of  the 


church,  by  the  power  of  the  keys,  for  any  scandalous 
offences;  there  is  a  necessity  they  should  have  as 
formal  and  judicial  an  absolution,  by  an  authentic 
relaxation  of  their  bonds  and  censures,  to  restore 
them  again  to  the  peace  and  privileges  of  church 
communion.  For  if  the  excommunication  be  just, 
and  according  to  the  rules  of  Christ's  gospel,  they 
must  either  sue  for  an  absolution  in  the  way  that 
he  has  appointed,  or  else  the  bonds  that  are  laid 
upon  them  will  stand  in  full  force  against  them ; 
and  their  excommunication  and  expulsion  from  the 
church  on  earth  will  exclude  them  from  the  king- 
dom of  heaven.  I  say,  if  their  excommunication 
be  just,  and  legally  founded ;  for  it  is  one  thing, 
when  men  are  unjustly  cast  out  of  the  church,  and 
excommunicated  without  reason,  by  the  rash  exer- 
cise of  a  mere  tyrannical  and  arbitrary  power ;  and 
quite  another  thing,  when  they  are  legally  censured 
for  their  impenitency,  and  obstinate  persisting  in 
flagrant  and  notorious  crimes,  to  the  scandal  of  the 
church,  and  reproach  of  Christ's  holy  religion.  In 
the  former  case  there  is  no  danger  to  be  feared  from 
excommunication,  because  it  is  unjust  ;  but  in  the 
latter  case  it  is  the  most  dreadful  sentence  that  can 
be  passed  upon  earth  against  man ;  because  what 
is  done  upon  earth,  will  be  ratified  in  heaven,  and 
pursue  a  man  unto  the  day  of  judgment,  unless  a 
timely  and  sincere  repentance  and  reconciliation 
intervene  to  retract  the  sentence.  Which  abund- 
antly shows  the  necessity  of  this  sort  of  absolution, 
and  of  all  such  things  as  are  previous  and  necessary 
to  obtain  it.  Men  must  truly  repent  of  the  crimes 
which  have  given  the  scandal;  make  humble  and 
public  confession  of  their  sins  before  the  church ; 
modestly  submit  to  her  discipline,  and  give  evident 
tokens  of  their  hearty  sorrow  for  having  offended 
God  and  man ;  and  then,  after  such  satisfaction 
made,  to  convince  the  church  of  their  true  repent- 
ance by  bringing  forth  fruits  meet  for  it,  they  must 
sue  to  the  same  hands  to  admit  them  to  communion, 
which  were  the  instruments  under  Christ  of  taking 
it  from  them ;  and  they,  by  the  same  authority 
wherewith  they  cast  them  out  of  the  church,  will 
receive  them  again ;  making  prayer  and  interces- 
sion to  God  for  them ;  and  declaring  them  absolved 
from  the  bonds  they  were  under,  and  now  fully 
restored  to  all  the  privileges  of  Christian  commu- 
nion. But  without  such  a  proper  satisfaction  as 
this,  if  men  continue  obstinate  in  their  sins,  in  a 
careless  impenitency,  or  contumacious  neglect  or 
contempt  of  the  church's  censures  ;  they  may  be 
assured,  that  an  account  of  these  misdemeanors, 
added  to  all  their  other  sins,  will  be  required  of  them 
another  day ;  when  Christ  will  vindicate  the  author- 
ity of  his  ministers  in  all  their  just  proceedings, 


^   See  the  practice  of  the  primitive  church  in  relation  to 
auricular  confession,  Book  XVIII.  chap.  .3.  sect.  I,  &c. 


See  Book  XIX.  chap.  2.  sect.  I. 


1112 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Appendix, 


and  confirm  their  sentence  by  bis  unalterable  ap- 
probation. 

What  allowances  God  will  make  for  some  men's 
weakness  or  ignorance  in  this  affair,  belongs  not 
to  us  to  determine.  Neither  would  it  be  charitable 
in  us,  positively  to  condemn  every  man  that  dies 
excommunicate  in  foro  externo,  without  an  actual 
relaxation  of  his  bonds,  when  he  was  truly  penitent, 
and  desirous  to  be  reconciled  to  the  church,  but 
only  some  unforeseen  accident  and  unavoidable 
exigency  prevented  the  execution  of  his  good  in- 
tention. In  this  case  the  church  has  generally  ac- 
cepted the  will  for  the  deed,  and  declared  such  to 
be  virtually  in  her  communion  after  death :  "*  in 
like  manner  as  they  who  die  without  baptism  or 
the  eucharist,  not  by  any  contempt,  but  by  some 
pressing  necessity,  are  charitably  supposed  to  die  in 
God's  favour  by  virtue  of  their  faith  and  repentance, 
because  they  do  not  despise  God's  ordinances,  but 
heartily  desire  them.  But  the  case  is  otherwise 
with  men  that  live  and  die  in  contempt  of  the 
church's  discipline  and  censures :  if  such  men 
perish,  they  may  thank  themselves  for  it;  the 
church  has  no  power  to  absolve  those  who  will  not 
be  absolved ;  if  they  suffer  their  sins  to  be  retained 
on  earth,  they  will  be  retained  in  heaven,  and  follow 
them  to  the  day  of  judgment. 

And  so  I  have  done  with  the  third  inquiry,  how 
far  all  men  are  bound  to  submit  to  the  lawful  exer- 
cise of  the  ministerial  power  of  retaining  and  re- 
mitting sin  ?  or  what  necessity  there  is  of  absolu- 
tion in  the  several  cases  now  before  us  ? 

"  It  now  only  remains,  that  we  reduce  this  whole 
consideration  to  practice,  and  show  what  are  the 
proper  uses  of  this  doctrine,  both  as  it  relates  to  the 
ministers  of  Christ,  and  his  people. 

"  As  to  the  ministers  of  Christ,  there  is  no  doc- 
trine in  the  whole  body  of  Christianity  more  forci- 
ble than  this,  to  engage  them  either,  first,  to  purity 
and  holiness  of  life ;  or,  secondly,  to  diligence  in 
their  studies  and  labours  ;  or,  thirdly,  to  fidelity  in 
dispensing  the  mysteries  of  Christ,  and  care  in  their 
proceedings  with  penitent  and  impenitent  sinners. 

"  I.  In  the  first  place,  the  commission  of  power 
to  ministers  to  retain  and  remit  other  men's  sins,  in 
whatever  sense  we  take  it,  is  a  great  engagement  on 
them  to  lead  holy  and  pure  lives  themselves.  For 
it  looks  like  an  absurdity  in  practice,  and  is  too 
often  really  thought  so,  that  men  should  be  quali- 
fied to  forgive  other  men's  sins,  who  are  loaded  with 
guilt  and  impin-ity  themselves.  There  is  nothing 
so  natural  and  obvious  as, '  Physician,  heal  thyself;' 
and  therefore,  if  it  be  not  a  real  objection  against 
their  office,  yet  it  is  an  unanswerable  one  against 
their  persons.  If  it  do  not  destroy  the  tenor  of  their 
commission  in  the  nature  of  the  thing,  yet  it  cer- 


<  See  Book  XIX.  chap.  2.  sect.  II. 


tainly  diminishes  their  authority  and  reputation  in 
the  opinion  of  men ;  when  every  profligate  sinner 
can  retort  upon  them,  and  say, '  Thou  that  teachest 
another,   teachest  thou   not   thyself  .^     Thou   that 
preachest  a  man  should  not  steal,  dost  thou  steal  ? 
Thou  that  sayest  a  man  should  not  commit  adul- 
tery, dost  thou  commit  adultery  ?  Thou  that  makest 
thy  boast  of  the  law,  through  breaking  the  law 
dishonourest  thou  God?'     It  must  needs  take  off' 
very  much  from  the  veneration  of  the  sacrament  of 
baptism,  to  have  a  man  pretend  to  wash  away  the 
sins  of  others,  who  is  himself  polluted  and  profane  ;^ 
and  equally  diminish  the  reverence  which  is  due  to 
the  tremendous  mystery  of  the  eucharist,  to  have  it 
ministered  with  unholy  hands.     It  cannot  relish 
well  with  men,  to  hear  an  unsanctified  mouth  give 
blessing  to  others,  who,  in  effect,  is  cursing  himself; 
praying,  that  the  blood  of  Christ  may  preserve 
others  to  eternal  life,  whilst  he  himself  is  eating 
and  drinking  his  own  damnation,  not  discerning 
the  Lord's  body.    But  above  all,  such  a  man  cannot 
with  any  tolerable  decency  or  freedom  discharge 
the  office  of  punishing  and  correcting  others,  who 
is  himself  more  justly  liable  to  rebuke  and  censure. 
With  what  face  can  he  debar  others  from  baptism 
or  the  eucharist,  who  is  himself  unqualified  to  re- 
ceive either?   or  exclude  others  from  the  church, 
who  is  himself  unworthy  to  enter  into  it  ?  Nothing, 
therefore,  can  be  a  greater  engagement  upon  minis- 
ters to  lead  holy  and  pure  lives,  than  the  consider- 
ation of  the  commission  which  Christ  has  given 
them  to  retain  or  remit  other  men's  sins,  whether 
in  a  sacramental  way,  or  a  declaratory  way,  or  a 
precatory  way,  or  a  judicial  way;  because,  without 
purity  they  can  by  no  means  answer   the  end  of 
this  office,  and  the  nature  of  their  trust,  but  their 
mal-administration  will  rise  up  in  judgment  against 
them  and  condemn  them, 

"  2.  A  second  thing,  which  this  office  of  retaining 
and  remitting  sins  requires  of  ministers,  is  great 
diligence  in  their  studies  and  labours,  without  which 
they  can  never  be  able  suflficiently  to  discharge  it. 
The  church,  indeed,  has  made  some  part  of  this 
work  tolerably  easy,  by  a  prudent  provision  of  many 
proper  general  forms  of  absolution;  such  as  the 
forms  of  administering  the  absolution  of  the  two  > 
sacraments,  and  many  general  forms  of  declaratory 
and  precatory  absolution  ;  to  which  in  her  wisdom 
she  may  add  proper  forms  of  excommunication  and 
judicial  absolution.  But  when  this  is  done,  there 
still  remains  a  great  deal  more  belonging  to  the  full 
discharge  of  this  oflRce,  for  which  the  church  can 
make  no  particular  provision,  and  therefore  that 
must  be  left  to  the  industry  and  diligence  of  minis- 
ters in  their  particular  studies  and  labours.  And 
this  requires  both  a  difflised  knowledge  and  great 


Si:rm.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


III3 


application,  to  be  able  to  understand  the  nature  of 
all  God's  laws,  and  the  bounds  and  distinctions  be- 
twixt every  virtue  and  vice ;  to  be  able  to  resolve 
all  ordinary  cases  of  conscience,  and  answer  such 
\  doubts  and  scruples  as  are  apt  to  arise  in  men's 
minds;  to  know  the  qualifications  of  particular 
men,  and  the  nature,  and  degrees,  and  sincerity  of 
their  repentance,  in  order  to  give  them  a  satisfac- 
tory answer  to  their  demands,  and  grant  or  refuse 
them  the  several  sorts  of  absolution,  as  they  shall 
think  proper  upon  an  impartial  view  of  their  state 
and  condition.  He  that  thinks  all  this  may  be 
done  without  any  gi-eat  labour  and  study,  and  a 
diligent  search  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  the  rule  and 
record  of  God's  will,  seems  neither  to  understand 
the  nature  of  his  office,  nor  the  needs  of  men ;  nor 
what  it  is  to  stand  in  the  place  of  Christ,  and  judge 
for  him  between  God  and  man.  '  The  priest's  lips 
should  preserve  knowledge;'  and  a  man  that  con- 
siders the  large  extent  of  that  knowledge,  together 
with  the  great  variety  of  cases  and  persons,  to 
which  he  may  have  occasion  to  apply  it,  would 
rather  be  tempted  to  cry  out  with  the  apostle, 
'Who  is  sufficient  for  these  things?'  And  if  this 
be  not  an  argument  to  engage  a  man  to  industry  in 
the  office  of  a  spiritual  physician,  it  is  hard  to  say 
what  is  so. 

"  3.  But  as  this  consideration  is  an  argument  for 
purity  and  industry,  so  it  is  no  less  an  engagement 
to  fidelity  also.  '  It  is  required  in  stewards,'  the 
apostle  tells  us,  '  that  a  man  be  found  faithful ;' 
and  more  especially  in  those  who  are  stewards  of 
the  mysteries  of  God,  because  that  is  the  greatest 
concern  of  any  other.  It  w-as  Moses's  argument  to 
temporal  judges.  Dent.  i.  IJ,  'Ye  shall  not  respect 
persons  in  judgment,  for  the  judgment  is  God's  : ' 
and  the  argument  will  hold  much  stronger  in  spi- 
ritual judgment,  because  the  consequence  of  the  de- 
cision is  of  greater  importance.  Here,  then,  a  just 
medium  is  always  to  be  observed  between  flattery 
and  an  imperious  stiffness  and  moroseness  ;  between 
too  great  indulgence  on  the  one  hand,  and  too  great 
severity  on  the  other.  The  judgment  is  God's;  and 
therefore  men  are  neither  to  be  absolved  nor  con- 
demned at  the  mere  arbitrary  will  of  the  minister, 
but  by  the  rules  prescribed  by  the  sovereign  Lord. 
If  men  are  either  to  be  received  into  the  church,  or 
to  be  cast  out  of  it,  the  only  thing  here  to  be  re- 
garded, is  their  performance  or  not  performance  of 
the  conditions  which  the  gospel  requires.  No  true 
penitent  is  to  be  denied  absolution  in  any  kind :  no 
impenitent  person  for  any  favour  or  respect  to  have 
the  benefit  of  it.  If  men  are  qualified  for  baptism  or 
the  eucharist,  it  is  not  in  the  minister's  power,  pro- 
perly speaking,  to  deny  them  the  privilege  of  either : 
if  they  are  utterly  unqualified,  it  is  not  in  his  power 


to  admit  them  to  either,  if  he  will  be  just  to  his 
commission,  and  faithful  to  his  trust.  So  neither 
can  he,  with  an  equitable  judgment,  declare  the 
impenitent  to  be  absolved,  nor  retain  the  sins  of  the 
penitent :  for  this  is  slaying  the  souls  that  should 
not  die,  and  saving  the  souls  alive  that  should  not 
live :  it  is  making  the  heart  of  the  righteous  sad, 
whom  God  has  not  made  sad;  and  strengthening 
the  hands  of  the  wicked,  that  he  should  not  return 
from  his  wicked  way,  by  promising  him  life ;  as 
God  complains  of  the  false  prophets  by  the  prophet 
Ezekiel,  chap.  xiii.  IS),  22.  All  this  is  a  manifest 
abuse  of  the  ministerial  power,  tending  directly  to 
discourage  virtue  and  encourage  vice ;  and  all  such 
judgments  God  himself  will  reverse,  and  punish  the 
mal-administration  of  his  unfaithful  stewards.  For 
as  in  all  cases,  so  especially  in  this,  he  that  justifieth 
the  wicked,  and  he  that  condemneth  the  just,  even 
they  both  are  abomination  to  the  Lord.  Nothing, 
therefore,  is  more  necessary  in  the  stewards  of  the 
mysteries  of  God,  than  that  they  be  found  faithful ; 
giving  to  every  man  his  proper  portion,  peace  to  the 
righteous,  and  terror  to  the  wicked:  otherwise  they 
are  threatened  to  have  their  portion  with  the  hypo- 
crites, where  shall  be  weeping,  and  v/ailing,  and 
gnashing  of  teeth.  It  is  a  Pharisaical  arrogance, 
St.  Jerom^  says,  for  a  bishop  or  a  priest,  under 
pretence  of  having  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,  to  assume  to  himself  the  power  of  con- 
demning the  innocent,  or  of  absolving  the  guilty. 
He  that  does  so,  abuses  his  commission,  and  must 
expect  to  give  account  to  God  of  his  illegal  ad- 
ministration. 

"  Thus  we  see  w^hat  tics  and  obligations  this 
doctrine  lays  upon  the  stewards  of  God,  to  be,  first, 
holy  ;  secondly,  dihgent ;  thirdly,  faithful  in  their 
service.  Let  us  now  see  what  influence  the  same 
doctrine  ought  to  have  upon  all  God's  people. 

"  And  here  I  shall  not  insist  upon  any  personal 
respect,  that  is  due  from  them  to  ministers,  as  the 
messengers  of  God  and  ambassadors  of  Christ,  but 
only  as  a  religious  regard  is  to  be  had  to  the  several 
parts  of  the  office  with  which  they  are  intrusted. 
If  God  has  made  them  the  instruments  of  remission 
of  sins  by  those  four  several  ways  of  absolution, 
then,  at  least,  it  becomes  every  one  to  be  careful, 
that  he  do  not  by  any  w'ilful  neglect  or  contempt 
deprive  himself  of  any  one  of  those  methods  of  ex- 
piation. 

"If  baptism  be  an  ordinary  means  of  remission 
of  sins,  and  so  necessary  by  Divine  command,  that 
unless  a  man,  who  has  opportunity,  be  born  again 
of  water  and  of  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  God;  it  highly  concerns  all  men,  who 
are  unbaptized,  to  present  themselves  and  their 
children  to  Christ's  holy  ordinance,  that  they  may 


*  Hieron.  Com.  in  Mat.  xvi.  t.  9.  p.  -49.     See  the  place   I   at  length,  Book  XIX.  chap.  2.  sect.  6. 


1114 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Appendix. 


receive  the  promised  remission  of  sins,  and  spiritual 
regeneration.  For  though  zealous  martyrs  and 
pious  catechumens  be  saved  in  an  extraordinary 
way,  yet  that  is  not  the  condition  of  despisers. 

"  Again,  if  the  eucharist  be  another  means  of  ab- 
solution, then  it  equally  concerns  men  not  to  live 
in  the  manifest  neglect  or  contempt  of  that  holy 
ordinance,  but  to  be  as  frequent  as  they  can  in  the 
reception  of  it,  lest  they  deprive  themselves  of  the 
grace  and  pardon  exhibited  and  sealed  in  that  sa- 
cred institution. 

"If  the  prayers  of  the  church  be  likewise  a  fur- 
ther means  of  deriving  God's  blessing  upon  his  peo- 
ple, that  must  be  allowed  to  be  an  argument  to  en- 
gage men  constantly  to  attend  them;  and  every 
man  should  be  glad  to  say,  '  We  wait  for  thy  loving- 
kindness,  0  Lord,  in  the  midst  of  thy  temple.' 

"  If  the  declaratory  absolution  be  of  any  use  and 
comfort  to  true  penitents,  that  should  make  men 
strive  to  be  among  the  first  and  foremost  in  God's 
service,  and  rather  wait  at  the  posts  of  his  doors 
before  the  service  begins,  than  come  dropping  in 
afterwards,  as  if  they  were  haled  into  God's  pre- 
sence, when  they  have  lost  both  the  benefit  of  their 
own  confession  and  his  absolution. 

"  If  a  particular  declaratory  absolution  be  of  any 
use  and  service  to  an  afflicted  conscience  and  a 
doubtful  mind,  that  should  engage  those  who  can- 
not quiet  their  own  conscience,  but  require  further 
comfort  or  counsel,  to  have  recourse  to  some  dis- 
creet and  learned  minister  of  God's  word,  and  open 
their  grief;  that  by  the  ministry  of  God's  holy  word 
they  may  receive  the  benefit  of  absolution,  together 
with  ghostly  counsel  and  advice,  to  the  quieting  of 
their  conscience,  and  avoiding  all  scruple  and  doubt- 
fulness. 

"  Lastly,  If  it  be  necessary,  that  when  men  are 
excommunicated  and  cast  out  of  the  church  for  any 
scandalous  crimes,  they  should  endeavour  to  recon- 
cile themselves  again  to  God  and  his  church,  by 
obtaining  a  judicial  absolution;  that  shows  what 
reverence  is  due  to  church  discipline  and  censures, 
that  are  justly  passed  upon  them ;  and  that  a  wilful 
neglect  and  contempt  of  reconciliation  in  such  a 
case  may  prove  more  fatal  to  them  than  they  are 
apt  to  imagine;  and  in  the  just  judgment  of  Christ, 
confirming  the  sentence  of  his  ministers,  finally  ex- 
clude them  from  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

"  But  when  they  have  paid  the  greatest  outward 
reverence  imaginable  to  these  ordinances,  there  is 
one  thing  still  behind  to  make  them  effectual ;  which 
if  it  be  wanting,  all  the  absolutions  in  the  world 
will  avail  them  nothing :  and  that  is  the  internal 
qualifications  of  their  own  hearts  and  souls  by  an 
unfeigned  repentance  and  sincere  obedience  ;  with- 
out which  all  the  rest  are  but  mere  forms,  that  can- 


not completely  operate,  whilst  men  put  in  bars  and 
impediments  against  them.  For  all  absolutions 
are  conditional,  and  suppose  repentance  and  obedi- 
ence, before  they  confer  any  real  benefit  on  the 
sinner.  The  minister  can  only  lend  his  mouth  or 
his  hand  toward  the  external  act  of  an  absolution  ; 
but  he  cannot  absolve  internally,  much  less  the  un- 
qualified sinner.  Christ  himself  has  assured  us, 
that  unless  men  repent  they  must  inevitably  perish ; 
and  that  unless  they  forgive  men  their  trespasses, 
their  heavenly  Father  Avill  not  forgive  them  their 
trespasses.  Now,  it  would  be  absurd  to  think,  after 
this,  that  a  sinner  who  performs  neither  of  these 
conditions,  should,  notwithstanding,  be  pardoned  by 
God,  continuing  impenitent  still ;  and  only  because 
he  chances  surreptitiously  to  be  loosed  on  earth  by 
some  error  or  fraud,  that  therefore  he  should  be 
also  most  certainly  loosed  in  heaven.  This  were 
to  imagine  one  of  the  vainest  things  in  the  world, 
that  Christ,  to  make  his  priest's  words  true,  would 
make  his  own  words  false ;  as  they  must  needs  be, 
if  any  outward  absolution,  given  by  a  fallible  and 
mistaken  man,  could  translate  an  impenitent  sinner 
into  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

"  I  say  not  this  to  lessen  the  reverence  that  is 
due  to  any  of  the  forementioned  sorts  of  absolution, 
but  that  the  ordinances  of  God  may  have  their  pro- 
per effect  upon  us,  whilst  the  outward  and  inward 
acts  go  together,  to  make  up  the  perfect  work  of  an 
absolution ;  and  that  Christ  may  not  say  to  us  at 
the  last  day,  '  These  things  ought  ye  to  have  done, 
and  not  to  have  left  the  other  imdone.'  He  that 
despises  an  absolution  of  any  kind,  which  God  has 
appointed,  despises  indeed  the  ordinance  of  God : 
but  he  that  receives  it  without  repentance  and  obe- 
dience, despises  the  weightier  things  of  the  law,  and 
only  strains  at  a  gnat  to  swallow  a  camel.  Let  not 
such  a  man  think  he  shall  receive  any  absolution 
from  the  Lord,  who  thus  mangles  his  institution  ; 
who  puts  asunder  what  God  has  joined  together, 
and  dares  to  promise  himself  security  where  God 
threatens  only  ruin  and  destruction.  If  we  would 
be  secure,  we  must  use  God's  ordinances  as  he  has 
appointed  them ;  join  the  outward  and  the  inward 
act  together ;  let  the  repentance  and  obedience  of 
our  souls  prepare  the  way  for  the  ministry  of  his 
priests :  and  then,  what  sins  they  remit  upon  earth 
shall  be  remitted  in  heaven  ;  when  Christ  shall 
confirm  the  w^ord  of  his  servants  by  his  irreversible 
sentence  of  absolution,  saying,  '  Come,  ye  blessed  of 
my  Father,  inherit  the  kingdom  prepared  for  you 
from  the  foundation  of  the  world.'  Which  God 
grant  unto  us  all,  through  the  merits  of  the  same 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord :  to  whom,  with  the  Father 
and  the  Holy  Ghost,  be  ascribed  all  honour  and 
glory,  world  without  end.     Amen." 


Letter   I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1115 


A  LETTER 


RIGHT  REVEREND  THE  LORD  BISHOP  OF  WINCHESTER, 

CONCERNING 


THE    NECESSITY    OF 


ABSOLUTION  ;     SHOWING    IIOW     FAK. 
AND   WHEIIE   IT   CEASES. 


THAT     NECESSITY    EXTENDS, 


My  Lord, 

Having  read  your  question  about  the  indispensable 
necessity  of  absolution  in  all  cases  whatsoever,  I 
could  not  but  return  this  speedy  answer  to  it,  (so  far 
as  the  time  would  permit,)  from  what  occurred  to 
my  thoughts  without  any  tedious  inquiry  ;  reserving 
the  further  improvement  and  confirmation  of  the 
things  here  suggested  to  a  little  more  diligent  search 
and  consideration. 

The  question  about  absolution  may  respect  either, 
I.  That  absolution  which  is  given  upon  private  or 
auricular  confession ;  or,  II.  The  general  absolu- 
tion, that  is  given  upon  a  general  confession,  as  it 
is  in  our  daily  service;  or,  III.  That  absolution 
which  is  dispensed  in  the  administration  of  the  sa- 
craments, which  are  indulgences '  in  the  true  sense, 
and  God's  ordinances  for  obtaining  absolution  and 
remission  of  sins ;  or,  IV.  The  absolution  that  is 
given  by  the  relaxation  of  church  censures.  Now, 
the  absolute  and  indispensable  necessity  of  these 
several  sorts  of  absolution  in  all  cases  whatsoever, 
is  what,  I  conceive,  neither  our  church  nor  the 
primitive  church  ever  asserted ;  though  some  of 
them  are  of  much  greater  necessity  than  others. 

For,  I.  As  to  the  absolution  that  is  given  upon 
private  or  auricular  confession ;  that  cannot  be 
more  necessary  than  the  confession  itself,  which 
(except  in  some  particular  cases)  is  only  matter  of 
advice,  rather  than  strict  duty  imposed  upon  all 
men  under  pain  of  damnation  ;  as  our  church  with 
the  primitive  church  defends,  against  the  Roman 
imposition  and  yoke  laid  upon  men's  consciences  in 
this  particular.  I  shall  not  trouble  your  Lordship 
with  any  ancient  testimonies  upon  this  point,  unless 
you  please  to  require  me  to  transcribe  some,  wliich 
may  easily  be  done  out  of  Chrysostom  and  many 
others.- 

II.  As  to  a  general  absolution  upon  a  general 
confession,  which  is  retained  in  our  liturgy,  and  is 


a  defect  in  Calvin's ;  though  it  must  be  owned  to 
be  a  very  useful  and  edifying  part  and  form  of  Di- 
vine service,  (which  Calvin  wished'  to  have  inserted 
into  his  liturgy,  but  could  not  obtain  it,)  yet  we  can- 
not say,  it  is  so  necessary  a  part  of  Divine  service, 
as  that  no  church  can  have  absolution  or  remission 
of  sins  without  such  a  form  of  absolution  in  her 
liturgy.  For  this  would  be  an  unwarrantable  con- 
demnation of  all  churches  that  want  that  particular 
form,  though  they  otherwise  supply  it  by  preach- 
ing, which  is  the  declaratory  application  of  God's 
promises  of  pardon  to  his  church. 

III.  The  necessity  of  the  absolution  which  is 
dispensed  in  the  administration  of  the  sacraments^ 
is  indeed  the  same  as  the  necessity  of  the  sacra- 
ments themselves.  So  far,  therefore,  as  the  one  is 
necessary,  so  far  the  other  is  necessary  likewise. 
But  the  necessity  of  the  sacraments  is  not  so  ab- 
solute and  indispensable,  as  that  God  cannot  in 
many  cases  (where  there  is  no  contempt  of  his  or- 
dinances) save  men  without  the  external  application 
of  them  by  the  hand  of  his  ministers.  For  in  the 
case  of  extreme  necessity,  where  men  desire  bap- 
tism, but  cannot  possibly  have  it,  God  supplies  in- 
visibly by  his  Holy  Spirit  what  is  wanting  in  the 
outward  administration.  I  believe  thei"e  is  not 
one  ancient  writer,  that  has  spoken  upon  this 
head,  but  has  allowed  of  some  exceptions  in  refer- 
ence to  the  absolute  necessity  of  baptism ;  particu- 
larly in  two  cases:  1.  In  the  case  of  martyrdom, 
which  they  call  second  baptism,  and  baptism  in 
men's  own  blood.  2.  In  case  of  a  true  faith  and 
conversion  without  martyrdom,  when  a  catechumen 
was  preparing  for  baptism,  and  desirous  of  it,  but 
by  some  sudden  accident  was  taken  away  before  he 
had  any  opportunity  to  receive  it.  In  these  two 
cases  they  always  maintained,  that  the  baptism  of 
the  Spirit  might  be  had  without  the  external  wash- 
ing of  water,     Tertullian,  speaking  of  martyrdom,^ 


'  See  the  sacraments  proved  to  be  true  indulgences  and 
absolutions,  Book  XIX.  chap.  1.  sect.  2  and  3. 

-  See  the  testimonies  against  the  necessity  of  auricular 
confession,  collected,  Book  XVIII.  chap.  3.  sect.  I  and 
2,  &c. 

^  Calvin.  Epist.  de  quibusdam  Eccles.  Ritibus,  p.  206. 


*  Tertul.  de  Baptismo,  cap.  JG.  p.  2G3.  Edit.  Uigall.  Par. 
1&41.  Est  quidem  nobis  etiam  secundum  lavacrum,  unum 
et  ipsuin,  sanguinis  scilicet:  de  quo  Dorainus,  Ilabeo,  in- 
quit,  baptismo  tingi,  quum  jam  tinctus  fuisset. Hie  est 

baptismus,  qui  lavacrum  et  non  acceptum  reprassentat,  et 
perditum  reddit. 


1116 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Appendix. 


calls  it  the  Christian's  second  baptism,  and  the  bap- 
tism of  blood,  of  which  our  Lord  spake,  when  he 
said,  I  have  a  baptism  to  be  baptized  with,  when 
he  had  been  baptized  before  in  water.  And  he 
adds,  This  is  that  baptism,  which  both  compensates 
for  the  want  of  baptism,  and  restores  it,  when  men 
have  lost  the  former  benefit  of  it.  Cyprian'  has  the 
like  observation  upon  the  catechumens,  who  were 
called  to  shed  their  blood  for  Christ  before  they 
could  be  baptized  in  water :  "  We  are  not  to  ima- 
gine," says  he,  "  that  these  men  were  deprived  of  the 
sacrament  of  baptism  ;  for  they  were  baptized  with 
the  most  glorious  and  honourable  baptism  of  their 
own  blood,  of  which  our  Lord  himself  said,  '  I  have 
another  baptism  to  be  baptized  with.'"  And  he 
proves,  that  they  who  were  thus  baptized  in  blood, 
are  also  sanctified  and  perfected  by  their  sufferings, 
and  made  partakers  of  the  promises  of  God,  from 
the  declaration  made  by  our  Saviour  in  his  gospel, 
when  he  said  to  the  thief  upon  the  cross,  who  be- 
lieved in  him  and  confessed  him,  "  To-day  thou 
shalt  be  with  me  in  paradise." 

St.  Austin  often  mentions  this  argument  of  Cy- 
prian, and  improves  it,  to  show,  that  not  only  mar- 
tyrdom may  sometimes  supply  the  room  of  baptism, 
but  also  a  true  faith  and  conversion,'^  in  case  of  ab- 
solute necessity,  when  a  man  has  no  opportunity 
to  receive  baptism.  That  martyrdom,  says  he,  may 
sometimes  supply  the  place  of  baptism,  is  well  ar- 
gued by  Cyprian  from  the  example  of  the  thief,  to 
whom,  though  he  was  not  baptized,  it  was  said, "  To- 
day thou  shalt  be  with  me  in  paradise."  Which 
argument  I  considering  over  and  over  again,  do  find, 
that  not  only  martyrdom  for  the  name  of  Christ 
may  supply  what  is  wanting  in  baptism,  but  also 
faith  and  a  true  conversion  of  heart,  if  through 
straitness  of  time  there  be  no  opportunity  to  cele- 
brate the  mystery  of  baptism.  For  neither  was  that 
thief  crucified  for  the  name  of  Christ,  but  for  the 
deserts  of  his  own  crimes ;  neither  did  he  suffer  be- 
cause he  believed,  but  only  believed  whilst  he  was 
suffering.  Therefore  his  case  declares  how  far  that 
saying  of  the  apostle  avails  without  the  visible  sa- 
crament of  baptism,  "  With  the  heart  man  believeth 

=  Cypr.  Ep.  73.  ad  Jubaianum,  p.  208.  Edit.  Oxon.  Dc- 
indo  iipc  privari  baptismi  sacramento,  ntpotc  qui  baptizen- 
tnr  gloriosissimo  et  maximo  sanguinis  baptismo,  de  quo  et 
Dnminus  dicebat,  habere  se  alio  baptismo  baptizavi. 

•*  Aug-,  de  Bapt.  lib.  4.  cap.  22.  t.  7.  p.  56.  Edit.  Paris. 
1635.  Baptismi  sane  viccm  aliquando  implore  passionem, 
de  latrone  illo,  cui  non  baptizato  dictum  est,  Ilodie  mocuui 
cris  in  paradiso,  non  leve  documontum  B.  Cyprianus  assu- 
mit :  quod  etiam  atque  ctiam  considerans,  invenio  non  tan- 
tum  passionem  pro  nomine  Christi  id  quod  ex  baptisnu) 
deerat  posse  supplere,  scd  etiam  fidem  conversionemque 
cordis,  si  forte  ad  celebrandum  mysterium  baptismi  in  an- 
sjustiis  temporum  succurri  non  iiotcst.  Neque  cnim  latro 
ille  pro  nomine  Christi  crucifixus  est,  sed  pro  meritis  faci- 
norum  suorum ;  nee  quia  credidit,  passiis  est,  sed  dum  pa- 
titur  credidit.     Quantum  igitur  valeat  sine  visibili  sacra- 


unto  righteousness,  and  with  the  mouth  confessior 
is  made  unto  salvation."  But  then  only  this  invisi- 
ble operation  is  performed,  when  baptism  is  ex- 
cluded purely  by  the  article  of  necessity,  and  not  by 
any  contempt  of  religion.  He  argues  in  another 
place  from  the  same  example  of  the  thief,'  that 
many  are  sanctified  by  the  invisible  grace  without, 
the  visible  sacraments :  but  yet  the  visible  sacra- 
ment is  not  therefore  to  be  contemned ;  because  the 
contemner  of  it  cannot  by  any  means  be  sanctified 
by  the  invisible  grace  thereof. 

Hence  it  is  evident,  that,  according  to  St.  Austin's 
doctrine,  it  is  not  the  bare  want  of  an  external 
ordinance,  to  wit,  sacramental  absolution,  in  the 
article  of  necessity,  when  it  cannot  be  had,  but  the 
contempt  of  it  when  it  may  be  had,  that  is  pernicious 
and  destructive  of  salvation.  For  God  is  able  ta 
supply  the  invisible  grace  without  the  visible  means 
in  such  cases  to  true  believers. 

And  upon  this  ground  St.  Ambrose  comforts  the; 
surviving  friends  of  the  younger  Valentinian,  who 
was  only  a  catechumen  preparing  for  baptism,  but 
suddenly  slain  by  the  treachery  of  Arbogastes,  be- 
fore he  could  come  to  St.  Ambrose  to  receive  it.  If 
any  one,  says  he,'  be  troubled,  that  the  mysteries  of 
baptism  were  not  solemnized  upon  him,  he  may  as 
well  conclude,  that  the  martyrs  are  not  crowned,  if 
they  die  whilst  they  are  only  catechumens.  But  if 
they  be  washed  in  their  own  blood,  then  this  man 
also  was  washed  by  his  piety  and  desire  of  bap- 
tism. 

So  that  in  such  cases  of  necessity,  baptism  in  voto 
is  equivalent  to  actual  baptism.  God  accepts  the 
will  for  the  deed,  when  men  do  what  they  can  do, 
and  where  it  is  not  contempt  of  the  sacrament,  but  I 
some  unavoidable  exigency,  that  hinders  their  re- 
ception of  it.  Now  then,  if  in  such  cases  the  exter- 
nal ministry  of  baptism  be  not  absolutely  necessary, 
the  external  ministry  of  absolution  cannot  be  neces- 
sary neither ;  for  they  are  the  very  same  act  in  this 
particular;  and  if  God  can  save  martyrs  and  be- 
lievers without  visible  and  external  baptism,  he 
can  absolve  them  without  visible  and  external  ab- 
solution. 


mento  baptismi  quod  ait  apostolus,  Corde  creditur  ad 
justitiam,  ore  autem  cont'essio  fit  ad  salutem,  in  illo  latrone 
declaratum  est:  Sed  tunc  impletnr  invisibiliter,  cum  minis- 
teriiim  baptismi  non  contemptus  religionis,  sed  articulus 
necessitatis  excludit. 

'  Aug.  Quaest.  84.  in  Levit.  t.  4.  Proinde  coUigitur,  in- 
visibilem  sanctilicationem  quibusdam  atl'uisse  atque  profu- 
isse  sine  visibilibus  sacramentis. — Nee  tamen  ideo  sacra- 
meutum  visibile  contemncndum  ;  nam  contemptor  ejus 
sanctificari  nullo  modo  potest. 

»  Ambros.  Oral,  de  Obitu  Valentin,  t.  3.  p.  10.  Edit. 
Basil.  1567.  Si  quiasolennitcr  non  sunt  cclebrata  mysteria, 
hoc  movet  :  ergo  nee  martyres,  si  catechumeni  fuerint,  cn- 
ronantiir.  Quod  si  suo  abluuntur  sanguine,  et  hunc  sua 
pietas  abluit  et  voluntas. 


Letter  I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


iiir 


Abundance  of  authorities '  might  be  added  more, 
if  tlicre  were  occasion,  in  favour  of  this  assertion. 

IV.  For  the  absolution  which  is  dispensed  by  the 
relaxation  of  the  church  censures :  though  it  be 
necessary  to  be  sought  after  by  true  penitents  in  all 
ordinary  cases  ;  yet  there  are  several  exceptions  in 
cases  extraorcUnary,  in  which  pardon  may  be  had 
without  a  formal  absolution.  For  what  if  a  bishop, 
for  unjust  ends,  or  unworthy  designs,  refuse  to  ab- 
solve a  true  penitent,  when  he  both  gives  true  signs 
of  repentance,  and  humbly  desires  absolution  ?  Will 
there  be  no  pardon  in  heaven  for  him,  who  is  so 
unjustly  and  imperiously  denied  it  on  earth  by  men, 
who  exceed  their  power,  which  is  only  given  to 
edification,  and  not  to  destruction  ?  Bellarmine  in- 
deed says  so,  Kcgatnr  remissio  illis,  quibus  jwluerint 
sacerdotes  remittere.  Bellarm.  cle  Pcenit.  lib.  3.  caj). 
2.  t  2.  p.  1287.  Ed.  Ltigd.  1587-  Forgiveness  is 
denied  to  them,  whom  the  priests  will  not  forgive. 
But  this  is  carrying  the  priest's  authority  to  an  ab- 
solute sovereignty  and  arbitrary  power,  which  has 
no  foundation  in  Scripture  or  the  ancient  canons  of 
the  church.  For  even  Pope  Gregory  the  Great 
could  tell  these  men,  that  the  bishop,  in  binding  and 
loosing  those  under  his  charge,  doth  often '"  follow 
the  motions  of  his  own  will,  and  not  the  merits  of 
the  cause :  in  which  case,  he  deprives  himself  of 
this  power  of  binding  and  loosing,  who  exercises 
the  same  according  to  his  own  will,  and  not  accord- 
ing to  the  deserts  of  those  that  are  subject  to  him ; 
that  is,  his  unrighteous  judgment  is  of  no  value ;  it 
is  reversed  and  cancelled  in  the  court  of  heaven. 

The  case  here  is  the  same  as  refusing  baptism  to 
those  who  are  qualified  for  it,  and  very  desirous  to 
receive  it :  the  minister's  unjust  refusal  in  that  case 
is  a  very  great  crime ;  but  it  will  not  prejudice  the 
person,  that  by  such  default  is  forced  against  his 
will,  or  the  will  of  his  parents,  to  die  without  it.  As 
Hincmar,"  archbishop  of  Rheims,  long  ago  ob- 
served, for  the  consolation  of  those  in  France,  whose 
children  died  without  baptism,  through  the  perverse 
obstinacy  of  Hincmar,  bishop  of  Laon,  who  refused 
them  baptism,  when  their  parents  and  godfathers 
earnestly  desired  it.  "  As  the  benignity  of  the  Al- 
mighty," says  he,  "  perfected  in  the  thief  upon  the 
cross  what  was  wanting  in  the  sacrament  of  bap- 
tism, and  the  communion  of  the  body  and  blood  of 
Christ,  because  it  was  wanting  not  through  pride  or 


°  See  more  authorities  of  this  kiad,  Book  X.  chap.  2. 
sect.  20  and  21. 

'"  Greg.  Horn.  26.  in  Evangel,  t.  3.  p.  83.  Edit.  Antw. 
1615.  Saepe  in  ligandis  et  solvendis  subditis,  suae  voluntatis 
motus,  non  autem  causarum  merita  sequitur.  Unde  fit,  ut 
hac  ipsa  ligamli  et  solvendi  potestate  se  privet,  qui  hanc  pro 
suis  voluntatibus,  et  non  pro  subjectoruui  moribus  exercet. 

"  Hiucmar.  Opusc.  50.  Capitulor.  cap.  48.  t.  2.  p.  572. 
Edit.  Paris.  16t5.  Sicut  in  illo  latrone,  quod  ex  baptismi 
Sacramento  et  communicatione  corporis  ct  sanguinis  Christi 
defuerat,  complevit  Omnipotentis  benignitas,  quia  non  su- 


contempt,  but  by  necessity;  and  as  the  faith  of 
others,  that  is,  of  godfathers  or  sureties,  answering 
for  little  children  in  baptism,  is  sufficient  for  the 
salvation  of  those  who  are  born  obnoxious  to  origin- 
al, that  is,  other  men's  sin ;  so  the  faith  and  earnest 
desire  of  parents  or  godfiithers,  who  believe  with 
the  heart,  and  with  the  mouth  desire  baptism  for 
their  infants,  who  could  not  obtain  it,  because  you 
ordered  it  to  be  denied  them,  shall  be  of  advantage 
to  those  infants,  by  the  gift  of  him,  whose  Spirit  is 
the  author  of  regeneration,  and  who  blows  where 
he  listeth."  Whence  he  concludes  in  the  case  of 
church  censures,  that  if  a  penitent  dies  without  ab- 
solution, only  because  the  bishop  for  his  own  will, 
or  any  unjust  cause,  refuses  to  absolve  him;  the 
bishop's  unjust  judgment  and  obstinate  refusal  can- 
not prejudice  the  true  penitent,  as  to  what  concerns 
his  salvation  and  absolution  in  the  kingdom  of 
heaven. 

2.  But  it  may  happen,  that  a  man  may  not  only 
desire  absolution,  but  the  minister  also  may  be  dis- 
posed and  ready  to  grant  it  him ;  and  yet  by  some 
unavoidable  accident  the  man  may  die  without  it : 
in  this  case  the  canons  have  determined,  that  the 
want  of  absolution  is  no  prejudice  to  his  salvation ; 
nor  was  he  to  be  treated  as  an  excommunicate  per- 
son, but  to  be  received  into  the  communion  of  the 
church,  and  to  be  commemorated  among  the  faith- 
ful in  the  service  of  the  church,  though  he  died 
without  absolution.  The  fourth  council  of  Car- 
thage,'-  and  the  second  of  Yaison,  are  plain  to  this 
purpose. 

These  allegations  plainly  show  what  sort  of  ne- 
cessity there  is  of  absolution  :  that  it  is  not  the  bare 
want  of  it,  but  the  proud  neglect  or  contempt  of  it, 
when  men  are  under  church  censures,  that  makes  it 
hurtful.  But  where  there  is  no  contempt  or  neglect 
salvation  may  be  had  without  it.  And  therefore  a 
true  penitent,  who  submits  to  the  church's  discipline, 
can  be  in  no  danger;  because,  though  he  may  chance 
to  die  without  absolution,  either  through  necessity 
or  the  obstinate  will  of  his  superiors,  yet  he  dies  in 
no  neglect  or  contempt  of  the  church ;  and,  conse- 
quently, has  no  reason  to  doubt  of  God's  absolution 
in  heaven. 

Your  Lordship's  observation  concerning  the  form, 
Absolvo  te,  is  very  just :  it  is  but  of  a  late  date,  a  little 
before  the  time  of  Thomas  Aquinas.     The  ancient 


perbia,  vel  contemptu,  sed  necessitate  defuerat ;  et  sicut 
parvulis  naturali,  id  est,  alieno  peccato,  obnoxiis,  aliorum, 
id  est,  patronorum  fides  pro  eis  respondentiura  in  baptismate 
tit  ad  salutera ;  ita  parvulis,  quibus  baptismum  denegari 
jussisti,  parentumvel  patronorum  corde  credentium,  et  pro 
parvulis  suis  fideli  verbo  baptisma  expetentinm,  sed  non 
impetrantium,  tides  et  fidelis  postulatio  prodesse  potuerif, 
dono  ejus,  cujus  Spiritus  quo  regeneratio  tit,  ubi  vult, 
spirat. 

1-  Cone.  Carth.  4.  can.  79.     Cone.  Vasens.  can.  2.     See 
more  of  this,  Book  XIX.  chap.  2.  sect.  H. 


1118 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Appe.vui: 


forms  were  all  either  deprecatory,  or  declaratory,  or 
else  consisted  in  the  application  of  the  sacraments 
of  the  church.  And  the  Ahsolvo  te  is  to  be  reduced 
to  some  of  the  other  forms,  as  the  elder  schoolmen 
commonly  reduce  it :  of  all  which  I  will  endeavour 
to  give  your  Lordship  a  more  full  account  in  my 


next,  taking  it  for  an  honour  that  you  are  please 
to  command  any  service  of  this  kind  from, 
My  Lord, 
Your  most  dutiful  and  obedient  Servant, 

JOSEPH  BINGHAM. 

Winton,  Feb.  17,  1712-13. 


A  SECOND  LETTER 

TO  THE 

EIGHT  REVEREND  THE  LORD  BISHOP  OF  WINCHESTER, 


CONCERNING 


THE   NECESSITY    OF   ABSOLTJTION,    ETC. 


My  Lord, 
In  addition  to  my  last,  upon  the  fourth  sort  of  ab- 
solution, which  is  the  relaxation  of  church  censures, 
I  have  observed  the  opinion  of  Cyprian  to  be  con- 
formable to  what  I  wrote  before,  that  if  penitents 
died  in  the  time  of  their  penance,  before  they  could 
have  the  bishop's  absolution,  their  salvation  was  not 
to  be  despaired  of.  For  "  the  Divine  mercy,"  says 
he,'  "  is  able  to  heal  them :  yet  we  ought  not  to  be 
too  hasty,  nor  do  any  thing  inconsiderately  or  rash- 
ly ;  lest  if  we  over-hastily  give  them  the  peace  of 
the  church,  (that  is,  restore  them  to  communion 
before  their  penance  was  completed,)  we  thereby 
more  grievously  offend  and  provoke  the  Divine  in- 
dignation." The  case  was  this  :  Cyprian  was  now 
in  exile,  and  some  that  had  lapsed  were  very  impa- 
tient to  be  restored  to  communion  before  his  return ; 
which  he  would  not  consent  to,  but  ordered  them  to 
stay  till  he  should  return  in  peace,  and  then  their 
cause  should  be  examined  before  all  the  church.  If 
in  the  mean  time  they  died,  whilst  they  were  doing 
their  penance,  God's  mercy  was  able  to  save  them 
without  a  formal  absolution,  or  reception  into  the 
external  communion  of  the  church.  The  learned 
Bishop  Fell  gives  the  same  exposition  upon  the 
place  :  Recte  auctor  noster  hoc  suffiamen  opponit  lap- 
sis,  qui  ad  pacem  festinarent,  quodnon  de  eorum  salute 
cotichmatum  sit,  qtiibus  ante  pooiitenticB  decursujn 
mori  contimjeret.  Our  author,  says  he,  rightly  op- 
poses the  lapscrs,  who  were  so  hasty  to  be  restored, 
and  stops  their    mouths  with  this  consideration, 


'Cypr.  Ep.  12.  al.  17.  Edit.  Oxon.  p.  39.  Potens  est 
Divina  misericordia  medelam  dare :  propcrandum  taincu 
non  puto,  nee  incautc  aliquid  et  festinanter  gerendum,  ne, 
dum  teniere  pax  usurpatur,  Uivinaj  indignationis  ofleiisa 
gravius  provocetur. 

2  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  1,  2,  3,  G,  7,  8,  10,  12,  1.3,  17,  18,  6.3, 
Gi,  G.5,  66,  70,  71,  72,  73,  75.  See  these  canons  produced 
at  large,  Book  XVIII.  chap.  4.  sect.  4. 


that  their  salvation  was  not  to  be  despaired  ol 
though  they  chanced  to  die  before  their  course  o 
penance  was  ended. 

2.  It  may  be  observed  further,  that,  according  t 
the  discipline  sometimes  used  in  the  ancient  church 
some  very  gross  and  scandalous  criminals  were  de 
nied  the  communion  and  peace  of  the  church,  evei 
at  the  point  of  death ;  the  design  of  which  was  no 
absolutely  to  exclude  them  from  heaven,  for  the; 
still  exhorted  such  to  repent  and  cast  themselves  oi 
God's  mercy,  though  they  thought  fit  to  exercist 
such  severity  and  rigour  toward  them  in  debarring 
them  wholly  from  the  communion  of  the  chiu'ch,  td 
be  an  example  and  terror  to  others.  There  are  nt 
less  than  twenty  canons  in  the  council  of  Eliberis 
to  this  purpose,  that  if  men  were  guilty  of  such  o; 
such  crimes  there  specified,  they  should  not  be  re 
stored  to  commimion,  no,  not  at  their  last  hour 
The  great  council  of  Sardica  has  a  canon  of  th< 
like  import,  to  repress  some  exorbitant  usurpations 
of  ambitious  men ;  Such  a  one,  say  they,^  shall  no 
be  admitted  to  lay  communion  even  at  his  last  hour 
Yet  they  exhorted  all  such  to  repent,  and  accord 
ingly  admitted  them  to  a  state  of  public  and  per 
petual  penance  in  the  church,  at  the  same  time 
that  they  denied  them  communion  to  the  last ;  as 
we  find  in  the  letters  of  Pope  Innocent  I.,  whc 
says,^  The  ancient  custom  was  to  admit  such  tc 
penance,  but  to  refuse  them  communion.  And  sc 
St.  Ambrose,*  writing  to  a  consecrated  virgin  whc 
had  sinned,  bids  her  to  continue  in  doing  penance 


^  Cone.  Sardic.  can.  2.  Cone.  t.  2.  p.  628.  Toiovtov  fii^Si 
iu  T(u  TaXf  t  XrtiKj/s  yovv  a^iovcrQai  Koivoifia^. 

''  Innoc.  Epist.  .3.  ad  Exuperium,  cap.  2.  Coac.  t.  2.  p, 
1255.  Consiietiido  prior  tenuit,  ut  concedeietur  poenitentia 
sed  communio  negaretiir. 

^  Arabros.  ad  Virg.  lapsatn,  cap.  8.  t.  1.  p.  137.  Edit 
Antwerp.  1567.  Inhoere  pccnitentise  usque  ad  extremum 
vitse,  nee  tibi  pra;sumas  ab  humano  die  posse  veniam  dari: 


Letter  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1119 


nil  her  life,  and  not  expect  to  be  pardoned  by  human 
judgment;  for  she  that  had  sinned  immediately 
against  the  Lord,  was  to  expect  absolution  from 
him  alone  in  the  day  of  judgment. 

St.  Austin^  makes  the  same  observation  upon 
such  as  relapsed  into  great  crimes  after  they  had 
once  done  public  penance  in  the  church,  that  a 
second  penance  was  not  allowed  them  in  the  church  ; 
yet  if  they  turned  to  God,  he  would  not  forget  his 
mercy  and  patience  toward  them.  In  all  these  cases, 
therefore,  they  thought  pardon  might  be  had  from 
God,  though  no  absolution  was  granted  them  in  the 
church. 

Nor  were  even  the  Novatians  so  rigorous  in  this 
matter  as  to  assert,  that  God  could  not  pardon  those 
sinners,  whom  they  refused  to  receive  into  commu- 
nion, when  they  had  once  lapsed  after  baptism ; 
for  they  encouraged  them  to  repent,  and  hope  for 
mercy  from  God,  though  they  denied  that  the  church 
had  any  power  to  receive  them.  This  appears  from 
what  Asclepiades,  the  Novatian  bishop,  said  in  his 
discourse  with  Atticus,  bishop  of  Constantinople, 
as  Socrates'  relates  it,  that  they  dealt  with  their 
laity  only  as  the  catholics  sometimes  did  with  their 
clergy,  excluding  them  from  communion  unto  death, 
and  leaving  their  pardon  only  to  God.  This  ac- 
count is  given  of  the  Novatians  by  Bishop  Fell,* 
Bishop  Beveridge,®  Cardinal  Bona,'"  Albaspinseus," 
and  others. 

Whence  it  is  evident,  that  though  men  might  be 
denied  absolution  on  earth,  either  for  discipline's 
sake,  as  it  was  sometimes  in  the  church ;  or  out  of 
an  erroneous  opinion,  that  the  church  had  no  power 
to  receive  sinners  lapsing  after  baptism,  as  it  was 
among  the  Novatians ;  yet  if  they  truly  repented, 
they  might,  notwithstanding,  by  God's  mercy  be 
received  to  pardon  and  absolution  in  heaven.  All 
these  cases  do  evidently  show  it,  according  to  the 
sense  of  the  ancient  church. 

As  to  the  foi-m,  Absolvo  te,  it  is  agreed  by  learned 
men,  that  it  was  not  known  in  the  practice  of  the 
church  till  a  little  before  the  time  of  Thomas 
Aquinas,  who  was  one  of  the  first  that  wrote  in  de- 
fence of  it,  about  the  year  1250,  against  another 
doctor,  Avho  maintained,  that  the  ancient  form  of 
absolution  in  the  church  was  not  this  indicative 
form,  but  an  impetratory  form,  by  way  of  prayer, 
deprecation,  or  benediction  ;  viz.  Ahsolutionem  et  re- 
jnissionem  trihuat  tibi  Omnipotcns  Dens,  Almighty 
God  grant  thee  absolution  and  forgiveness.     This 


doctor  alleged  the  authority  of  Gulielnuis  Altis- 
siodorensis,  Gulielmus  Parisiensis,  and  Hugo  Car- 
dinalis,  and  said,  it  was  not  then  above  thirty  years 
since  this  new  form  began  to  be  used.  Thus  much 
is  collected  out  of  Aquinas  22.  Opusculum  de  Forma 
Absolutionis,  cap.  5.  But  we  have  not  that  book 
of  Thomas  in  our  library  here,  and  therefore  I  only 
send  you  what  Moriuus,  among  the  papists,  (not  to 
mention  Bishop  Usher,'-  or  any  other  protestant 
writers,)  has  observed  out  of  him  concerning  the 
original  of  this  form,  Absolvo  te.  Morinus  "  proves  at 
large  out  of  all  the  ancient  rituals  and  fathers,  that 
the  old  forms  of  absolution  were  all  by  way  of 
prayer.  And  it  is  evident  from  the  ceremony  of 
imposition  of  hands,  which  was  always  accompanied 
with  prayer. 

But  our  quarrel  is  not  with  the  newness  of  this 
form,  but  with  the  abuses  the  Romish  church  has 
affixed  to  it.  For  otherwise  it  may  be  lawfully 
used,  as  our  church  appoints  in  the  office  of  Visita- 
tion of  the  Sick.  But  then  this  power  of  absolution 
is  only  ministerial,  not  authoritative  properly,  di- 
rectly, and  absolutely,  as  our  writers  commonly 
word  it.  It  does  not  empower  a  priest  to  open  and 
shut  heaven  at  his  pleasure ;  to  absolve  without  a 
true  contrition,  by  a  sacramental  act  conferring 
gi-ace  ex  opere  operoto,  actively,  immediately,  and 
instrumentally  effecting  the  grace  of  justification, 
as  Bellarmine  would  have  it ;  who  makes  it  also  so 
necessary,  that  a  man  is  denied  forgiveness,  if  the 
priest  will  not  forgive  him.  It  may  be  authorita- 
tive and  judicial  in  a  ministerial  way,  as  all  acts  of 
the  ministry  are  under  God.  A  declarative  absolu- 
tion is  so,  and  an  impetratory  absolution  is  so,  and 
an  applicatory  absolution  by  the  sacraments  is  so, 
and  a  relaxation  of  church  censures  is  the  same 
likewise.  For  all  these  are  done  by  virtue  of  power 
and  authority,  communicated  by  God  to  his  am- 
bassadors, as  the  ministers  of  reconciliation  under 
him.  Only  in  all  these  absolutions  they  must  observe 
certain  rules,  which  if  they  do  not  observe,  their 
absolution  avails  nothing  in  the  court  of  heaven. 

Now  this  form,  Absolvo  to,  is  understood  to  be  no 
other  than  the  declaratory  absolution  upon  a  special 
and  particular  case  ;  when  a  man  having  confessed 
his  sins,  and  given  signs  and  indications  of  a  true 
repentance,  the  minister  declares  to  him,  that  as 
far  as  he  can  judge  by  the  rule  of  God's  word,  his 
repentance  is  true;  and  therefore  by  virtue  thereof 
he  declares  him  absolved  by  God :  but  if  there  be 


quia  decipit  te,  qui  hoc  tibi  polliceri  vnluerit.  Quae  eniin 
proprie  in  Dominum  peccasti,  ab  illo  solo  te  convenit  in 
die  judicii  cxpectare  remedium. 

*  Aug.  Ep.  41.  ad  Macedon.  t.  2.  p.  92.  Quamvis  eis  in 
ecclesia  locus  humillimre  pcenitentiro  nou  concedatiir  ;  Deus 
tameii  super  eos  suaj  patienliaj  nou  obliviscitur.  See  more 
of  this.  Book  XVIII.  chap.  4.  sect.  1. 

'  Socrat.  lib.  7.  cap.  25.  p,  367.  Edit.  Paris.  1668.     Quo 


fxovio  Ti]v  irvyywpi]<Tiv  avrwv  fjriTfynrovTi^. 
«  Fell,  Not.  in  Cypr.  Ep.  17.  p.  39. 
"  Bevereg.  Not.  in  Can.  8.  Cone.  Nic.  t.  2.  p.  68. 
'»  Bona,  Rer.  Litiirgic.  lib.  1.  cap.  17.  n.  3. 
"  Albaspin.  Observat.  lib.  2.  cap.  21. 
'-  Usher's  Answer  to  the  Challenge,  p.  8'J.    Lend.  1686. 
"  Morin.  de  Pcenitent.  lib.  8.  cap.  9,  10,  &c. 


1120 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Appendix. 


any  illusion  or  deceit  in  the  man's  heart,  which  no 
mortal  can  judge  of,  then,  notwithstanding  this  fa- 
vourable sentence  and  judgment  of  the  priest,  God 
Avill  judge  him  over  again,  and  rectify  the  error  of 
tlie  keys  by  his  unerring  judgment. 

Peter  Lombard,  among  the  schoolmen,  (following 
St.  Jerom  among  the  ancients,)  gives  this  as  the  most 
probable  sense  of  that  kind  of  absolution.  "  We  can 
affirm  with  truth,"  says  he,"  "  and  believe,  that  God 
alone  remits  and  retains  sins  :  and  yet  he  has  given 
the  power  of  binding  and  loosing  to  the  church ; 
but  he  binds  and  looses  after  one  manner,  and  the 
church  after  another.  For  he  remits  sin  by  him- 
self alone,  who  cleanses  the  soul  from  inward  pol- 
lution, and  looses  from  the  debt  of  eternal  death. 
But  he  has  not  given  this  power  to  the  priests,  to 
whom  yet  he  has  given  the  power  of  binding  and 
loosing,  that  is,  of  showing  who  are  bound  or  loosed. 
Upon  which  account  the  Lord,  having  first  cured  the 
leper  by  himself,  afterwards  sent  him  to  the  priests, 
by  whose  judgment  he  was  to  be  declared  clean. 
And  having  first  raised  Lazarus  to  life,  he  then 
presented  him  to  his  disciples,  that  they  should 
loose  him.  For  though  a  man  be  loosed  before  God, 
yet  he  is  not  accounted  loosed  in  the  face  of  the 
church,  but  by  the  judgment  of  the  priest.  There- 
fore the  evangelical  priest,  in  loosing  and  retaining 
sins,  acts  and  judges  after  the  same  manner,  as  the 
legal  priest  did  heretofore  in  the  case  of  those  who 
were  defiled  with  leprosy,  which  is  the  emblem  of 
sin.  Whence  St.  Jerom,  commenting  upon  those 
words  of  our  Lord  to  Peter,  '  To  thee  will  I  give  the 
keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven ;  and  whatsoever 
thou  shalt  bind  on  earth,  shall  be  bound  in  heaven  ; 
and  whatsoever  thou  shalt  loose  on  earth,  shall  be 
loosed  in  heaven;'  says.  Some,  not  understanding 
this  place,  assume  to  themselves  something  of  the 


supercilious  pride  of  the  Pharisees,  so  as  to  imagine 
they  have  power  to  damn  the  innocent  and  save  the 
guilty ;  whereas  before  God  the  only  thing  that  is 
inquired  into,  is  the  life  of  the  criminals,  and  not 
the  sentence  of  the  priests.  In  Leviticus  the  lepers 
are  commanded  to  show  themselves  to  the  priests, 
whom  they  do  not  make  leprous  or  clean,  but  only 
show  who  are  clean  or  unclean.  So  here  it  is  plainly 
declared,  that  God  does  not  always  follow  the  judg- 
ment of  the  church,  which  sometimes  judges  by 
surreption  and  ignorance,  but  God  always  judges 
according  to  truth.  And  in  remitting  or  retaining 
sins  the  evangelical  priests  have  the  same  right  and 
office,  as  the  legal  priests  had  of  old  under  the  law 
in  curing  the  lepers.  These,  therefore,  remit  or  re- 
tain sins,  whilst  they  judge  and  declare  them  to  be 
remitted  or  retained  by  God,  For  the  priests  put 
the  name  of  the  Lord  upon  the  children  of  Israel, 
but  he  himself  blessed  them,  as  it  is  read  in  Num- 
bers vi." 

The  Master  of  the  Sentences  here  cites  St.  Jerom 
but  imperfectly,  and  therefore  I  shall  recite  his 
testimony  more  exactly  in  his  own  words  :  "  Some 
bishops  and  priests,"  says  he,''  "  not  understanding 
that  place,  (where  our  Lord  says  to  Peter,  '  What- 
soever thou  shalt  bind  on  earth,'  &c.,)  assume  to 
themselves  something  of  the  supercilious  pride  of 
the  Pharisees,  so  as  to  imagine  they  have  power  to 
damn  the  innocent  or  absolve  the  guilty  ;  whereas 
before  God  the  only  thing  that  is  inquired  into,  is 
the  life  of  the  criminals,  and  not  the  sentence  of  the 
priests.  We  read  in  Leviticus  concerning  the  lepers, 
where  they  are  commanded  to  show  themselves  to 
the  priests,  and  if  they  have  the  leprosy,  they  are 
then  made  unclean  by  the  priest :  not  that  the 
priests  make  them  leprous  and  unclean,  but  because 
they  had  the  power  of  judging  who  were  leprous  or 


"  Lombard.  Sentent.  lib.  4.  dist.  18.  p.  334.  Ludg.  1594. 
Hoc  sane  dicere  et  sentire  possiimiis,  quod  solus  Deus  dimit- 
tit  peccata  et  retinet:  el  tamen  ecclesiae  contulit  postesta- 
tem  ligandi  et  solveadi ;  sed  aliter  ipse  solvit  vel  ligat, 
aliter  ecclesia.  Ipse  enim  per  se  tantum  dimittit  peccatum, 
qui  etanimam  mundat  ab  interiori  macula,  etadebitoaeter- 
na;  mortis  solvit.  Non  autem  hoc  sacerdotibus  concessit, 
quibus  tamen  tribuit  potcstatcm  solvendi  et  ligandi,  id  est, 
osteiulendi  homines  ligatos  vol  solutos.  Unde  Dominus 
leprosum  sanitati  prius  per  serestituit,  deinde  ad  sacerdotes 
misit,  quorum  judicio  ostendtM-etur  mundatns.  Ita  etiam 
Lazarum  jam  vivificatum  obtulit  discipulis  solvendum. 
Quia  etsi  aliquis  apud  Deum  sit  solutus,  non  tamen  in  facie 
ecclesiaj  solutus  habetur  nisi  per  judicium  sacerdotis.  In 
solvendis  ergo  culpis  vel  retinendis  ita  operatur  sacerdos 
evangelicus  et  judicat,  sicut  olim  legalis  in  illis  qui  contami- 
nati  erant  lepra,  qua;  peccatum  signal.  Unde  Hieronynius 
super  Mat.  xvi.  ubi  Dominus  ait  Petro,  Tibi  dabo  claves, 
&c.  Hunc,  inquit,  locum  quidam  non  intelligentes,  aliquid 
sumunt  de  supercilio  Pharisaiorum,  ut  damnare  se  innoxios, 
vel  salvare  se  putent  noxios ;  cum  apud  Deum  non  senten- 
tia  sacerdotum,  sed  reorum  vita  quoeratur.  In  Levitico  se 
ostendere  sacerdotibus  jubentur  leprosi,  quos  illi  non  faciunt 
leprosos  vel  mundos,  sed  disccrnunt  qui  mundi  vel  immundi 


sunt.  Ita  et  hie  aperte  ostenditur,  quod  non  semper  Deus 
sequitur  ecclesiae  judicium,  quae  per  surreptionem  ei  igno- 
rantiam  iuterdum  judicat:  Deus  autem  semper  judicat 
secundum  vcritatem.  Et  in  remittendis  vel  retinendis  cul- 
pis id  juris  et  officii  habent  evangelici  sacerdotes,  quod  olim 
habebant  legates  sub  lege  in  curandis  lepro'sis.  Hi  erfjo 
peccata  dimittunt  vel  retinent,  dum  dimissa  a  Deo  vel  re- 
tenta  judicant  et  ostendunt.  Ponunt  enim  sacerdotes  no- 
men  Domini  super  filios  Israel,  sed  ipse  benedixit,  ut  legi- 
tur  in  Numeris. 

'^  Hieron.  in  Mat.  xvi.  t.  9.  p.  49.  Istum  locum  episcopi 
et  presbyteri  non  intelligentes,  aliquid  sibi  de  Pharisaeorum 
assumunt  supercilio,  ut  vel  damnent  innocentes,  vel  solvere 
se  noxios  arbitrentur:  cum  apud  Deum  non  sentenlia  sa- 
cerdotum, sed  reorum  vita  quaeratur.  Legimus  in  Levitico 
de  leprosis,  ubi  jubentur,  ut  ostendant  se  sacerdotibus,  et  si 
lepram  habuerint,  tunc  asacerdote  immundi  fiant :  non  quo 
sacerdotes  leprosos  faciant  et  immundos,  sed  quo  habeant 
notitiam  leprosi  et  non  leprosi,  et  possint  discernere  qui 
mundus,  quive  iramundus  sit.  Quomodo  ergo  ibi  leprosum 
sacerdos  mundum  velimmundum  facit,  sic  ethic  alligat  vel 
solvit  episcopus  et  presbyter,  non  eos  qui  insontes  sunt  vel 
noxii;  sed  pro  officio  suo,  cum  peccatorum  audierit  vario- 
lates, scit  qui  ligandus  sit,  quive  solvendus. 


Letter  H. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


I12I 


not  leprous,  and  might  discern  who  were   clean  or 

unclean.  As  therefore  there  the  priest  makes  the 
leper  clean  or  unclean,  so  here  the  bishop  and  pres- 
byter binds  or  looses  ;  not  [making]  them  innocent 
or  guilty ;  but,  according  to  the  tenor  of  his  office, 
when  he  hears  the  distinction  of  sins  or  sinners,  he 
knows  who  is  to  be  bound,  or  who  to  be  loosed." 

There  seems  to  be  something  wanting  in  the 
grammar  of  those  words,  non  eos  qui  msontes  sunt 
vel  noxii ;  and  to  make  it  coherent  with  what  goes 
before,  the  word  faciens,  or  the  like,  seems  needful 
to  be  supplied.  But  all  the  rest  is  very  plain,  that 
as  the  priests  of  old  did  not  properly  make  a  man 
leprous  or  clean,  but  only  declare  whether  he  were 
so  or  not ;  so  the  priests  of  the  New  Testament 
bind  or  loose  men  from  their  sins,  by  declaring  who 
are  to  be  bound  or  loosed. 

Bishop  Fell  indeed  has  a  more  singular  notion 
of  the  form,  Ahsolvo  te  :  he  supposes,'"  that  in  every 
crime  there  are  two  things  to  be  considered,  viz. 
the  offence  against  God,  and  the  offence  against 
the  church ;  the  former  of  which  is  forgiven  by 
God  alone  upon  men's  prayers  and  repentance ;  but 
the  latter  by  this  authoritative  form,  I  absolve  thee. 

But  this  (though  it  may  be  true  with  respect  to 
crimes  that  fall  under  public  discipline)  cannot  well 
be  the  meaning  of  the  form  as  it  is  used  in  our 


liturgy,  in  the  office  of  the  Visitation  of  the  Sick, 
which  is  the  only  place,  as  I  remember,  where  our 
church  appoints  it  to  be  used.  For  in  private  sins 
there  is  no  offence  given  to  the  church,  and  yet  it 
is  private  sins,  confessed  privately  to  a  minister,  for 
which  that  rubric  orders  absolution  to  be  given  in 
this  form,  Ahsolvo  te.  So  that  though  his  interpret- 
ation may  be  good  in  reference  to  the  church's 
public  absolution  "  for  public  and  scandalous  crimes, 
which  give  offence  to  the  church ;  yet  I  think  it 
cannot  hold  with  respect  to  private  crimes,  because 
there  no  offence  is  given.  Therefore  it  seems  better 
to  resolve  it,  as  St.  Jerom  and  Peter  Lombard  do, 
into  a  declarative  form,  and  explain  it  by  the  ex- 
ample of  the  legal  priests  cleansing  the  leper,  by 
declaring  him  to  be  clean. 

I  have  now  sent  your  Lordship  all  that  I  have  ob- 
served material  in  this  dispute  :  but  if  there  be  any 
thing  omitted  or  deficient,  that  you  desire  should 
be  further  considered,  your  Lordship  cannot  more 
readily  command,  than  I  shall  be  ready  to  obey 
with  the  gi'eatest  pleasure,  who  am. 
My  Lord, 
Your  most  dutiful  and  obedient  Servant, 

JOSEPH  BINGHAM. 

Winton,  Feb.  24,  1712-13. 


'0  Fell,  Not.  in  Cypr.  de  Lapsis,  p.  1.36. 


>'  Vid.  Book  XIX.  chap.  2.  sect  6 


4  c 


BOOK   XX. 


OF  THE  FESTIVALS  OBSERVED  IN  THE  PRIMITIVE  CHURCH. 


CHAPTER  I. 


OF    THE    DISTINCTION    TO    BE    MADE    BETWEEN    CITIL    AND    ECCLESIASTICAL    FESTIVALS. 


Having  hitherto  taken  a  distinct 
What  meant" by  the  vicw  of  the  great  serviccs  of  the  an- 

civil  festivals.  _  n  n      .  i  i  c 

cient  church  in  the  several  parts  or 
her  liturgy,  and  the  administration  of  her  sacra- 
ments, and  the  exercise  of  discipline  ;  I  come  now 
to  give  an  account  of  the  lesser  kind  of  observations 
relating  to  her  festivals,  and  days  of  fasting,  and 
marriage  rites,  and  funeral  rites,  all  which  may  in 
some  measure  be  comprised  under  the  general  name 
of  the  service  of  the  church. 

In  speaking  of  the  festivals,  it  will  be  necessary 
first  of  all  to  distinguish  the  ecclesiastical  festivals 
from  the  civil;  for  some  were  purely  ecclesiasti- 
cal, others  purely  civil,  and  others  (as  festivals  of 
greater  account)  were  both  ecclesiastical  and  civil. 
All  Sundays  throughout  the  year,  and  the  fifteen 
days  of  the  Paschal  solemnity,  were  festivals  both 
in  the  ecclesiastical  and  civil  account ;  for  they 
were  not  only  days  of  more  solemn  rehgious  observ- 
ation, but  also  days  of  vacation  from  law-suits  and 
prosecution  of  secular  business.  Other  festivals 
were  purely  of  ecclesiastical  account ;  for  they 
were  days  of  religious  assembly,  but  not  entirely 
days  of  vacation.  Others  were  purely  civil  festi- 
vals, that  is,  days  of  vacation  from  law-suits  and 
secular  affairs,  but  not  distinguished  by  any  pecu- 
liar character  of  religious  observation.  Of  this  sort 
were  the  feriee  <ssticce,  or  the  thirty  days  of  harvest ; 
and  the  feriee  autumnales,  or  the  thirty  days  of  vint- 
age ;  and  three  days  under  the  common  name  of  the 
calends  of  January  ;  one  day  called  the  natalis  tirbis 
Rom(s,  the  foundation  of  Rome ;  and  another  the 


Sect.  3. 
Of  the  feria  cesti" 
va,  or  thirty  days  of 
vacation  in'tiie  liar- 
vest  month,  and  the 
ferics  autumnales. 


natalis,  or  foundation  of  Constantinople  ;  and  four 
days  called  the  iiatales  imperatorum,  including  bothi 
their  natural  birthdays,  and  their  civil  birthdays, 
that  is,  their  inauguration  to  the  empire.  Of  all 
which,  because  there  is  frequent  mention  made  of 
them  in  the  ancient  writers,  and  laws,  and  canons, 
it  will  not  be  amiss  to  speak  a  little  more  particu- 
larly in  the  entrance  of  this  discourse. 
All  these  are  comprehended  in  one 
law  of  Theodosius  and  Valentinian 
junior,  under  the  general  name  of 
fericeforenses,  days  of  vacation  or  rest 
from  pleadings  in  the  civil  courts  of  judicature 
Where  all  days  in  the  year  are  appointed  toi 
be  juridical,'  except  the  two  months  of  harvest 
and  vintage,  and  the  calends  of  January,  and 
the  natales  of  the  two  great  cities,  Rome  andi 
Constantinople,  and  the  birthdays  of  the  emperors, 
and  their  inauguration  to  the  empire,  and  the  fif- 
teen days  of  Easter,  which  were  festival  both  in  the 
ecclesiastical  and  civil  account,  as  also  all  Sundays 
throughout  the  year.  Where  it  is  rightly  observed 
by  Gothofred,  that  the  other  ecclesiastical  festivals  of 
Christmas,  Epiphany,  and  Pentecost  were  not  as 
yet  made  festivals  in  the  civil  account.  For  at  this 
time  many  of  the  judges  were  still  heathens,  and 
therefore  juridical  pleadings  were  allc^'ed  on  these 
days,  notwithstanding  that  they  were  kept  with 
great  solemnity  and  religious  veneration  among  the 
Christians.  But  afterward,  when  Justinian  repeat- 
ed this  law^  in  his  Code,  the  prohibition  of  plead- 
ings upon  these  days,  and  upon  the  passions  of  the 


'  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  2.  Tit.  8.  de  Feriis,  Leg.  2.  Omnes 
dies  jubemus  esse  jiiridicos.  lUos  tantum  manere  feriarum 
dies  fas  erit,  quos  geminis  mensibus  ad  requiem  labovis  in- 
dulgentior  annus  accepit,  restivis  fervoiibus  mitigandis,  et 
autumnis  i'oelibus  (leceipendis.  Kalendarum  quoque  Janu- 
arium  consuetos  dies  otio  sancimus.  His  adjicimus  nata- 
litios  dies  urbium  iBaximarum  Roma;  at  que  Constantino- 
polis,  quibus  dobcnt  jura  deferre,  quia  et  ab  ipsis  quoque 


nata  sunt.  Sanctos  quoque  Paschee  dies,  qui  septeno  vel 
praecedunt  numero,  vel  sequuntur,  in  eadem  observatione 
numeramus.  Nee  non  et  dies  solis,  qui  repetito  iu  se  cal- 
culo  revolvuntur.  Parem  necesse  est  habeii  reverenliam 
nostris  etiam  diebus,  qui  vel  lucis  auspicia,  vel  ortus  im- 
perii protulerunt. 
"'  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  3.  Tit.  12.  de  Feriis,  Leg.  7. 


Chap.  1. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1123 


apostles,  was  inserted,  together  with  a  prohibition 
of  all  the  public  shows  and  games  npon  any  of 
these  solemnities,  of  which  more  hereafter. 

As  to  those  festivals  which  were  purely  civil,  we 
are  to  observe,  that  some  of  them  were  of  long 
standing  in  the  Roman  empire,  and  no  new  insti- 
tution of  Christians,  but  only  reformed  and  re- 
gulated by  them  in  some  particulars,  to  cut  off  the 
idolatrous  rites  and  other  corruptions  that  some- 
times attended  them.  The  multitude  of  them  was 
complained  of  by  Tully,'  and  therefore  Augustus 
cut  off  thirty  of  them  at  once,  turning  those  days 
which  were  deputed  for  honorary  games,  into  days 
of  pleading,  for  the  better  prosecution  of  criminals, 
and  greater  expedition  of  justice,  as  Suetonius  re- 
ports^ in  his  Life.  And  a  like  reduction  was  made 
by  Antoninus  Philosophus,  who  is  said^  to  have 
added  several  judiciary  days  to  the  calendar,  striking 
out  many  festivals,  and  appointing  two  hundred 
and  thirty  days  in  the  year  for  hearing  of  causes, 
and  despatching  business  of  the  law.  The  Christian 
emperors  reduced  the  number  of  these  festivals  to  a 
much  shorter  compass.  For  they  cast  away  all 
festivals  that  were  held  in  honour  of  the  heathen 
gods ;  and  though  they  brought  in  all  Sundays  in 
the  year  into  the  computation  of  civil  festivals,  and 
also  the  fifteen  days  of  the  Paschal  solemnity,  yet 
the  whole  number  did  not  amount  to  above  a  hun- 
dred and  twenty-five  ;  so  that  there  remained  two 
hundi'ed  and  forty  days  still  for  public  business  of 
the  law.  And  of  those  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
days  that  were  exempt,  sixty  days,  or  two  months, 
were  onl}'-  set  apart  as  days  of  vacation  from  the 
law  for  the  convenience  of  gathering  in  the  harvest 
and  the  vintage.  The  one  were  called /e/-««?  (sstivcp, 
and  the  other  f erics  autumnales.  And  these  were 
ancient  Roman  festivals,  mentioned  by  Statius,*  and 
Aulus  Gellius,'  and  Pliny,*  and  after  them  by 
Ulpian,'  the  famous  lawyer,  who  shows  at  large  for 
what  end  they  were  appointed,  that  counhymen 
might  not  be  molested  in  gathering  their  fruits  at 
their  proper  seasons,  except  it  were  in  some  extra- 
ordinary cases,  which  required  a  more  speedy  de- 
cision before  the  pretor.  The  schools  of  rhetoric 
had  also  their  vacations  at  these  seasons,  as  we 
learn  both  from  Aulus  GelHus  and  St.  Austin.'" 
And  because  this  sort  oiferia  had  nothing  of  harm, 
but  only  convenience  in  them,  they  were  continued 


'  Cicero  cont.  Verrem. 

*  Sueton.  Vit.  Aug.  cap.  32.  Ne  quod  maleficium  nego- 
tiumve  impunitate  vel  mora  elaberetur,  triginta  ampliiis 
dies,  qui  honorariis  ludis  occupabantur,  actui  rerum  accom- 
modavit. 

*  Capitolin.  Vit.  Antonini  Philosophi,  p.  74.  Judiciariae 
rei  singularem  dilio;eutiam  adhibuit ;  fastis  dies  judiciarios 
addidit,  ita  iit  ducentos  triginta  dies  annuos  rebus  agendis, 
litibusque  disceptandis  constitueret. 

°  Stat.  Sylvar.  lib.  4. 
'  Gellius  Noct.  Attic,  lib.  9.  cap.  15. 
4  c  2 


without  scruple  by  the  Christian  emperors,  and 
established  by  their  laws,  as  we  have  seen,  upon 
consideration  of  the  usefulness  and  necessity  of 
them  ;  leaving  it  to  the  judges  of  the  several  pro- 
vinces of  the  world  to  determine  precisely  what 
time  they  should  commence :  for  they  did  not  be- 
gin the  harvest  month,  or  the  vintage  month,  every 
where  on  the  same  day,  but  some  countries  sooner 
and  some  later,  according  to  the  different  state  and 
condition  of  every  climate.  And  so  the  observa- 
tion of  these  two  months  continued,  as  Gothofrcd 
notes,"  to  the  time  of  the  emperor  Otho,  who  first 
abrogated  them  in  the  laws  of  the  Lombards. 

The  next  civil  ferice  were  the  ca- 
lends of  January :  which,  as  Gothofred  or  th/caitnds  or 
thinks,  comprised  three  days,  the  day 
before  the  calends,  the  calends,  and  the  third  of 
the  nones,  or,  as  others  say,'^  the  day  before  the 
nones,  that  is,  the  fourth  of  January,  commonly 
called  bota  and  vota,  because  it  was  the  day  of  sa- 
crificing for  the  emperor's  safety.  These  were  con- 
tinued by  the  Christian  emperors  without  any  idol- 
atrous rites,  but  still  were  days  of  great  liberty  and 
extravagance.  Upon  which  account  the  ancient 
fathers  and  councils  commonly  declaim  with  great 
invectives  against  the  observation  of  them.  For 
not  only  Tertullian  speaks  against  them,'^  whilst 
they  were  accompanied  with  idolatrous  and  super- 
stitious rites  in  the  time  of  heathenism,  but  in  after 
ages  the  fathers  in  their  popular  discourses  are  often 
very  severe  and  copious  in  their  dissuasives  from 
the  observation  of  them,  both  upon  the  account  of 
the  relics  of  superstition  remaining  in  the  hearts 
of  many  Christians,  and  also  because  they  were 
occasions  of  great  looseness  and  debauchery  among 
the  people.  St.  Chrysostom"  says.  Many  were 
superstitiously  addicted  to  the  observation  of  times, 
and  made  divination  and  conjectures  upon  them ; 
as,  if  they  spent  the  new  moon  in  mirth  and  plea- 
sure, the  whole  year  would  be  prosperous  and  lucky 
to  them.  So  both  men  and  women  gave  themselves 
to  intemperance  on  these  days,  out  of  this  diabolical 
persuasion,  that  the  good  or  bad  fortune  of  the  rest 
of  the  year  depended  upon  such  an  ominous  begin- 
ning of  it :  which  was  the  devil's  invention  to  ruin 
the  practice  of  all  virtue.  He  observes  further,'* 
that  they  were  used  in  the  celebration  of  these  times 
to  set  up  lamps  in  the  market-place,  and  crown 


*  Plin.  lib.  8.  Ep.  19.  Julio  mouse,  quo  maxime  lites  in- 
terquiescunt. 

9  Digest.  lib.  2.  Tit.  12.  de  Feriis,  Leg.  ],  2,  3. 

'"  Aug.  Confess,  lib.  9.  cap.  2. 

"  Gothofred.  in  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  2.  Tit.  8.  de  Feriis,  Leg.  2. 

'-  Vide  Dempster.  Paralipomena  ad  Rosini  Aniiquit.  lib. 
4.  c.  4.  p.  .^43. 

"  Tertul.  de  Idololat.  cap.  14. 

"  Chrvs.  Horn.  23.  in  eos  qui  Novilunia  observant,  t.  1. 
p.  297. 

'■>  Ibid.  p.  300. 


1124 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXJ 


their  doors  with  garlands,  whicli  he  condemns  to- 
gether with  their  superstition  and  intemperance,  as 
a  mixture  of  diabolical  pomp  and  childish  folly. 
The  like  complaints  are  made  by  St.  Austin,'^  Chry- 
sologus,"  Prudentius,'^  Asterius  Amasenus,"  and  St. 
Ambrose.'"  So  that  though  these  festivals  of  the 
calends  were  allowed  by  the  imperial  laws,  yet  they 
were  generally  condemned  by  the  ancient  writers, 
because  of  the  vanities,  and  excesses,  and  abuses 
that  were  usually  committed  in  them.  And  par- 
ticularly the  council  of  TruUo^'  forbids  the  dancings 
and  other  ceremonies  that  were  used  both  by  men 
and  women,  on  the  calends  and  the  bota,  under  the 
penalty  of  excommunication ;  as  I  have  had  occa- 
sion to  show  more  fully  in  speaking-  of  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  church.  And  the  council  of  Auxerre 
takes  notice  ^  of  the  remains  of  some  heathen  su- 
perstition in  France,  in  offering  a  hind  or  a  calf, 
which  they  call  a  diabolical  observation. 

The  next  civil  festivals  were  the 

Sect,  4. 

Of  the  emperors'    empcrors'   birtlidavs,  which  were  of 

birthdays.  ^ 

two  sorts ;  the  one  was  called  natahs 
genuhms,  their  natural  birthday  ;  and  the  other, 
natalis  imperii,  their  inauguration ;  as  they  are  dis- 
tinguished in  several  laws^*  of  the  Theodosian  Code, 
and  other  ancient  writers,  which  are  collected  by 
Gothofred**  in  great  abundance.  Who  also  ob- 
serves, That  when  it  is  said  by  ancient  writers,  that 
Constantine  was  born  in  Britain,  it  is  to  be  under- 
stood according  to  this  distinction,  to  mean  his  im- 
perial birthday,  and  not  his  natural.  For  his  na- 
tural birth  was  at  Naisus  in  Dacia,  as  Pagi^'^  shows 
from  many  express  testimonies  of  Julius  Firmicus, 
and  Stephanus  de  Urbibus,  and  other  ancient  writ- 
ers ;  but  his  imperial  birth,  or  inauguration  to  the 
empire,  was  in  Britain.  Which  Baronius,  and  many 
other  learned  writers,  mistaking  for  his  natural  birth, 
have  thence  concluded  that  he  was  born  in  Britain. 
But  this  only  by  the  way.  These  birthdays  of  the 
emperors,  whether  natural  or  political,  were  always 
of  great  esteem  and  veneration.  The  law  of  Theo- 
dosius  orders  them  to  be  observed  with  the  same 
reverence  and  ceremony  as  all  other  civil  festivals. 


that  is,  to  be  days  of  vacation  from  public  pleadings 
at  the  law  :  and  on  these  days,  it  was  usual  for  great 
men  to  entertain  the  people  with  the  public  games 
and  shows,  which  was  partly  to  honour  the  days,; 
and  partly  to  give  some  diversion  to  the  people. 
The  pre  tor  of  Rome  was  obliged  by  his  office  to  do 
this,  as  appears  by  several  laws  "  of  Arcadius  in  thei 
Theodosian  Code.  And  the  judges  might  be  pre- 
sent at  them*  once  a  day,  in  the  morning,  when 
they  distributed  money,  some  silver,  some  gold,  ac- 
cording to  their  quality,  among  the  people.  And 
on  these  days,  the  emperor's  statues  or  images  w^erei 
produced  "^  for  the  people  to  pay  their  civil  respect 
and  veneration  to  them  ;  reserving  Divine  worshipi 
and  religious  adoration,  exceeding  the  dignity  of 
man,  to  the  celestial  Majesty  alone,  as  the  laws  ele- 
gantly word  it.  But  if  it  happened  that  any  of  these 
days  fell  upon  a  Sunday,  then,  by  a  law  of  Theodo 
sius,'"  the  public  games  were  omitted,  and  came  not 
into  the  solemnity  of  the  day.  And  Theodosius 
junior  excepted  also  the  other  great  festivals  of 
Christ's  Nativity,  and  Epiphany,  and  Easter,  and 
Pentecost,  or  the  whole  fifty  days  between  Easter 
and  Whitsuntide,  on  any  of  which  days  it  was  un^ 
lawful  to  exhibit  the  usual  games  to  the  people  : 
and  that  no  one  should  fear  lest  it  should  be  inter- 
preted a  disrespect  to  the  imperial  majesty,  if  he  did 
not  according  to  custom  exhibit  the  games  on  the 
emperor's  birthday,  (happening  to  fall  on  any  ol 
these  festivals,)  he  inserted^'  a  particular  clause, de- 
claring. That  such  an  omission  should  be  no  offence, 
but  most  agreeable  to  have  the  service  of  the  Din 
vine  Majesty  preferred  before  that  usual  ceremony 
of  the  games  and  shows  in  the  celebration  of  his 
birthday.  And  in  this  chiefly  consisted  the  differ-i 
ence  between  an  ecclesiastical  and  civil  festival, 
that  the  one  was  a  day  of  mere  pleasure  and  diver- 
sion, and  the  other  a  solemn  time  of  devotion  and 
religion,  to  which  the  former  must  give  place,  when- 
ever  they  happened  by  any  such  coincidence  to  fall 
together. 

The  last  sort  of  civil  festivals  were 
the  natales  urhium,  or  the  two  annual  j. 


Sect.  5. 
Of  the  natales  ur-, 
uui,   or    the    two 


'*  Aug.  Ser.  5.  de  Kalendis  Januaiii,  t.  10.  p.  621. 

'•  Chrysol.  Ser.  155. 

'*  Prudent,  lib.  1.  cont.  Symmachum. 

"  Aster.  Horn.  4.  de  Festo  Kalendarum,  ap.  Combefis. 
Auct.  Nov.  p.  63. 

^  Ambros.  Ser.  17.  -'  Cone.  Trull,  can.  62. 

22  Book  XVI.  chap.  4.  sect.  17. 

2S  Cone.  Antissiodor.  can.  1.  Non  licet  kalendis  Januarii 
vecolo  aut  cervolo  facere,  vel  strenas  diabolicas  observaie. 
Sirmond  and  Labbe,  instead  of  vecolo,  read  it  vetula,  prisco 
more  pro  vitula. 

2*  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  2.  Tit.  8.  de  Feriis,  Leg.  2.  Parem 
necesse  est  haberi  reverentiam  nostris  etiam  diebus,  qui  vel 
lucis  auspicia,  vel  ortus  imperii  protulerunt.  It.  lib.  6.  Tit. 
26.  de  Proximis.  Gcnuinus  natalis  nostri  dies,  &c.  Et  Leg. 
17.  ibid.  Genuino  die  natalis  mex  Clementiae,  &c. 

■^  Gothofred.  iu  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  2.  Tit.  8.  Leg.  2.  p.  12.3. 


2«  Pajji,  Critic,  in  Baron,  an.  306.  n.  8. 

"  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  6.  Tit.  4.  de  Pnetoribus,  Leg.  29.  Pras 
tores  Romanus  et  laureatus  natalibus  nostri  numinis  scac- 
nicas  populo  prabeant  voluptates.     Vid.  Leg.  30.  ibidem. 

••»  Ibid.  lib.  15.  Tit.  5.  de  Spectaculis,  Leg.  2. 

^  Ibid.  Tit.  4.  de  Imaginibus,  Leg.  1. 

™  Ibid.  lib.  15.  de  Spectaculis,  Leg.  2.  Nidlus  soli 
die  populo  spectacula  prrebeat,  nee  Divinam  venerationenc 
coiifecta  solemnitate  conl'uiidat. 

''  Ibid.  Leg.  5.  Ac  ne  quis  existimet,  in  honorem  numi- 
nis nostri,  veluti  majore  quadam  imperialis  ofHcii  necessi 
tatc  compelli,  et  nisi  Divina  religione  coutempta,  spectaculii 
operam  prccstat,  subeundam  forsitan  sibi  nostroe  serenitatii 
offensam,  si  minus  circa  nos  devotionis  ostenderit,  quair 
solebat,  Nemo  ambigat,  quod  tunc  maxime  mansuetudin 
nostr.-c  ab  humano  genere  defertur,  cum  virtulibus  Dei  om 
nipotcntis  ac  meritis  universi  obsequium  orbis  iinpenditur. 


Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


II '25 


f,niein  mi-tnory  of  daVS  kept     ill  IllCIllorV   of    tllC    foUIldcV- 

the    found;.!  ion    of  .    "^              ' 

Rome  and  Cunstan-  tlOll  OI  tllC  tWO  irrCHt  ClUCS,  Rome  and 

tinople.  _                 ^ 

Constantinople.  The  former  was  an 
ancient  Roman  festival,  observed  on  the  eleventh 
of  the  calends  of  May,  or  the  twenty-first  of  April, 
under  the  name  of  palilla ;  of  which  the  reader 
may  find  a  large  account*^  in  any  of  the  common 
writers  of  Roman  antiquities.  That  which  is  only 
to  be  noted  here  is,  that  it  continued  a  festival 
under  the  Christian  emperors :  which  we  learn 
not  only  from  the  forementioned  law  of  Theodosius, 
but  also  from  Sozomen,'^  who  says,  that  the  ytvkQXia, 
or  nativities  of  the  emperors,  and  the  royal  cities, 
and  the  calends,  were  the  usual  times  of  distribut- 
ing the  emperors'  donations  or  largesses  among  the 
soldiers.  And  Cassiodore^*  speaks  of  the  games  of 
the  circus  as  a  usual  part  of  the  people's  entertain- 
ment on  these  festivals  of  pleasure.  The  encccnia, 
or  dedication  of  Constantinople,  was  annually  cele- 
brated on  the  fifth  of  the  ides  of  Ma}',  that  is,  the 
eleventh  of  May,  as  is  noted  by  Gothofred  out  of 
Marcellinus  Comes,  Cassiodore,  Cedrenus,  the 
Chronicon  Alexandrinum,  and  Zonaras.  And  as 
in  all  things  both  the  ancient  laws  and  canons'^ 
gave  Constantinople  the  same  royal  and  honour- 
able privileges  that  were  allowed  to  old  Rome ;  so 
in  this  they  were  equalled,  that  the  annual  days  of 
their  dedication  were  celebrated  with  the  same 
solemnities  among  the  ferice  or  civil  festivals,  and 
days  of  vacation  and  joyfulness  throughout  the  Ro- 
man empire.  And  the  reason  of  this  is  given  in  the 
aforesaid  law  of  Theodosius  ^'^  so  often  mentioned, 
because  these  two  great  cities,  Rome  and  Constan- 
tinople, were  the  fountains  and  springs  from  whence 
the  laws  were  originally  derived ;  and  therefore  it 
was  proper  that  the  feasts  of  their  dedication  should 
be  observed  by  a  vacation  from  law-suits  on  the  an- 
nual days  of  their  foundation.  This  is  the  short 
account  of  the  c\\\\  ferice,  or  festivals,  so  far  as  con- 
cerns their  observation  under  the  government  and 
allowance  of  Christian  emperors.  I  now  proceed 
to  the  other  sort  of  festivals,  which  were  of  sacred 
or  ecclesiastical  observation. 


'-  Vid.  Dempster.  Paralipom.  ad  liosin.  Antiq.  lib.  1.  c. 
I.  p.  8. 

^  Sozom.  lib.  5.  cap.  16. 

'*  Cassiodor.  Chronic,  in  Philip.  Imper. 

'^  Vid.  Cone.  Constantinop.  1.  can.  3.  Cone.  Chalced. 
can.  28.  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  10.  de  Kpiseopis,  Tit.  2.  Leg.  46. 
Romse  veteris  prccrogativa  Iretatur,  &c.  It.  Cod.  Theod. 
lib.  14.  Tit.  13.  de  Jure  Ilalico  Urbis  Constantinopol. 


CHAPTER  II. 

OF    THE    ORIGINAL    AND    OBSERVATION    OK    THE 
lord's    DAY   AMONG    CHRISTIANS. 


Soct.  1. 
The  Ixird'8  day  of 
continued  obwrvu- 
tie  church 
from  tiiedaysof  the 
apostles,  under  the 
names  of  Sunday, 
tlie  Lord's  day,  the 
first  day  of  the  week, 
and  the  day  of 
breaking  bread,  &c. 


The  principal  and  most  noted  among 
the  sacred  and  ecclesiastical  festivals 
was  always  that  of  the  Lord's  day,  t' 
which  was  observed  with  great  vener- 
ation in  the  ancient  church  from  the 
very  time  of  the  apostles.  The  apos- 
tles themselves  are  often  said  to  meet 
on  this  day  for  Divine  service,  being  the  day  of 
the  Lord's  resurrection.  Acts  xx.  7,  "  On  the  first 
day  of  the  week,  when  the  disciples  came  together 
to  break  bread,  Paul  preached  unto  them,  ready  to 
depart  on  the  morrow ;  and  continued  his  speech 
until  midnight."  So  again,  1  Cor.  xvi.  2,  "  Upon 
the  first  day  of  the  week  let  every  one  of  you  lay 
by  him  in  store,  as  God  hath  prospered  him,  that 
there  be  no  gatherings  when  I  come."  And  St. 
John  expressly  styles  it  the  Lord's  day,  Rev.  i.  10, 
"I  was  in  the  Spirit  on  the  Lord's  day:"  which 
cannot  mean  the  Jewish  sabbath;  for  then  he 
would  have  called  it  so :  nor  any  other  day  of  the 
week ;  for  that  had  been  ambiguous :  but  the  day 
on  which  Christ  arose  from  the  dead,  on  which  the 
apostles  were  used  to  meet  to  celebrate  Divine  ser- 
vice, on  which  Paul  had  ordered  collections  to  be 
made,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  primitive 
church.  Seeing,  therefore,  he  speaks  of  this  as  a 
day  well  known  and  used  in  the  church,  it  cannot 
be  doubted,  but  that  it  was  distinguished  by  this 
name  from  the  received  use  and  custom  of  the 
church.  For,  otherwise,  how  could  Christians  have 
understood  what  St.  John  intended  to  signify  by  this 
name,  if  he  had  designed  to  denote  any  other  day 
by  it  ?  as  Mr.  Turretin '  argues  well  upon  the  re- 
solution of  this  question. 

The  matter  thus  founded  in  apostolical  practice, 
may  be  further  illustrated  and  confirmed  from  the 
general  usage  of  the  church  in  the  following  ages- 
Pliny,  who  was  a  heathen  magistrate  in  the  reign 
of  Trajan,  not  long  after  St.  John's  death,  took  the 
account  of  the  Christian  assemblies  from  the  mouths 
of  some  apostatizing  Christians,  and  they  told  him, 
their  custom  was"  to  meet  together  early  in  the 
morning  before  it  was  light,  on  a  certain  fixed  day 
and  sing  hymns  to  Christ  as  their  God,  and  bind 


3''  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  2.  Tit.  8.  de  Feriis,  Leg.  2. 

'  Turretin.  Theol.  par.  2.  Loc.  11.  De  Lege  Dei,  Quoest. 
14.  p.  103. 

-  Plin.  lib.  10.  Ep.  97.  Quod  essent  soliti  stato  die  ante 
lucem  convenire,  carmenque  Christo,  quasi  Deo,  dicere 
secum  invicem  :  seque  sacramcnto  non  in  scelus  aliquod  ob- 
stringerc,  &c. 


1126 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XX» 


themselves  with  a  sacrament  to  do  no  evil,  and  after- 
wards to  partake  of  a  common  feast.  Which  is  a 
plain  description  of  the  service  of  the  Lord's  day, 
and  particularly  of  the  agape,  or  feast  of  charity, 
which  was  usually  an  attendant  of  the  communion 
in  the  primitive  church  every  Lord's  day.  Ignatius, 
who  lived  about  the  same  time,  makes  as  plain  a 
reference  to  the  observation  of  the  Lord's  day,  when 
he  bids  the  Magnesians'  not  to  sabbatize  with  the 
Jews,  but  to  lead  a  life  agreeable  to  the  Lord's  day, 
on  which  our  life  was  raised  from  the  dead,  by  him 
(that  is,  by  the  Lord  Christ)  and  by  his  death. 
Clemens  Alexandrinus,''  as  Cotelerius  observes,  well 
illustrates  and  explains  this  passage  of  Ignatius, 
showing  what  it  is  to  lead  a  hfe  conformable  to  the 
Lord's  day,  when  he  says,  He  that  observes  the 
precept  of  the  gospel,  makes  it  to  be  the  Lord's  day, 
whilst  he  casts  away  every  evil  thought,  and  takes 
to  him  the  true  Gnostic  thoughts  of  wisdom  and 
knowledge,  thereby  glorifying  the  resurrection  of 
the  Lord. 

Hence  we  learn,  that  Kwpiaic?)  was  the  common 
name  of  the  Lord's  day,  and  that  KvptoK^v  S^v  is  to 
lead  a  life  conformable  to  the  Lord's  day,  in  memory 
of  our  Saviour's  resurrection.  Yet  sometimes  the 
ancients,  when  they  write  to  the  Gentiles,  scruple 
not  to  call  it  Sunday,  to  distinguish  it  by  the  name 
best  known  to  them.  As  Justin  Martyr,  writing  his 
Apology  to  the  Heathen,*  says,  We  all  meet  together 
on  Sunday,  on  which  God,  having  changed  darkness 
and  matter,  created  the  world,  and  on  this  day 
Jesus  Christ  our  Saviour  arose  from  the  dead.  In 
like  manner  TertuUian,"  answering  the  objection 
made  by  the  heathens,  that  the  Christians  worship- 
ped the  sun,  says,  indeed,  they  made  Sunday  a  day 
of  joy,  but  for  other  reasons  than  to  worship  the 
sun,  which  was  no  part  of  their  religion.  At  other 
times,  when  he  writes  only  to  Christians,  he  com- 
monly uses  the  name'  of  the  Lord's  day,  and  espe- 
cially when  he  would  distinguish  it  from  the  Jewish 
sabbath.*  And  the  like  may  be  observed  in  the 
laws  of  the  first  Christian  emperors.  Constantine" 
uses  the  name  Sunday,  when  he  forbids  all  law- 
suits on  this  day.  Valentinian '"  uses  the  same  name 
upon  the  same  occasion.     So  does  also  Valentinian 


junior,"  and  Theodosius  senior,  and  Theodosius 
junior,  in  settling  the  observation  of  this  day.  Bub' 
they  use  the  name  indifferently,  styling  it  sometimes  I 
the  Lord's  day,  which  was  more  proper  among 
Christians,  as  is  particularly  noted  in  one  of  the  laws 
of  the  younger  Valentinian,  which  runs  thus,  Solis 
die,  quem  Dominiciim  rite  clixere  majores,  &c.  On 
Sunday,  which  our  forefathers''  have  rightly  and  cus- 
tomarily called  the  Lord's  day.  His  reference  to  an- 
cient custom  is  confirmed  not  only  from  what  has  been 
alleged  out  of  Ignatius,  and  Clemens  Alexandrinus, 
and  TertuUian,  but  from  the  use  of  the  word  Kupiao) 
in  the  epistle  of  Dionysius,  bishop  of  Corinth,  to 
Pope  Soter,  recorded  by  Eusebius,"  where  he  says, 
To-day  we  observed  the  Lord's  holy  day,  rrjv  Kvpia-\ 
K7)v  ayiav  i)fikfjav  Sij]yciyofi(v.  And  from  what  Euse 
bius'^  says  of  Melito,  bishop  of  Sardis,  that  he: 
wrote  a  book  inpl  KvpiaKijc,  concerning  the  Lord's 
day.  In  like  manner  Irenaeus,  in  his  epistle'*  to 
Pope  Victor,  says,  The  mystery  of  the  Lord's  resur- 
rection, or  the  Paschal  festival,  ought  to  be  kept 
only  on  the  Lord's  day,  ry  rijc  KvpioKrie  r'lfiip^.  And! 
Origen,'*  to  distinguish  it  from  the  Jewish  sabbath, 
says,  That  manna  was  first  rained  down  from  heaven 
on  the  Lord's  day,  and  not  on  the  sabbath,  to  show, 
the  Jews  that  even  then  the  Lord's  day  was  pre- 
ferred before  it.  This  evidences  not  only  the  an- 
tiquity of  the  name,  but  that  the  observation  of  the 
day  in  memory  of  our  Lord's  resurrection  was  the 
universal  practice  of  the  church  from  the  time  oi 
the  apostles.  And  from  one  solemn  act  of  breaking 
bread  in  the  constant  celebration  of  the  eucharisl 
on  this  day,  I  have  once  before"  observed  out  o) 
Chrysostom,  that  it  is  sometimes  called,  dies  pants 
the  day  of  bread,  because  it  was  the  general  custom 
in  the  primitive  church  to  meet  for  breaking  ot 
bread,  and  receiving  of  the  communion,  on  every 
Lord's  day  throughout  the  year.  And  I  shall  not| 
need  here  to  be  more  particular  concerning  this,  oi|i! 
any  other  part  of  the  public  service  performed  or 
the  Lord's  day,  such  as,  psalmody,  reading  of  the 
Scriptures,  preaching,  and  praying,  and  exercising 
discipline  upon  penitents,  and  absolving  them  (be- 
cause I  have  treated  largely  of  these  in  their  order 
in  several  Books  before) :  but  now  only  take  notice 


'  Ignat.  Ep.  ad  Magnes.  n.  9.  MrjKrt-ri  (TaPJiaTiX,ovri^, 
aXk(i  Kara.  K-vpiaxiju  X,u}i)U  ^JoyTES,  k.t.X. 

■'  Clem.  Alex.  Strom.  7.  'EvroXiiv  Ka-ra  to  EuayyiXLou 
oiairpa^dfxivo^,  KvpiaKi]i>  i/ȣi!/i;u  t7]v  Vfxipav  TToiti,  k.t.X. 
p.  877.  Ed.  Oxon. 

^Justin.  Apol.  2.  p.  90. 

*  Tertul.  Apol.  cap.  Ifj.  .^que  si  diem  solis  laetitiae  in- 
dulgemus,  alia  longe  ratione  qiiam  religinne  solis,  &c.  It.  lib. 
1.  ad  Nation,  cap.  13.  Alii  solem  Christianum  Deum  a;sti- 
mant,  quod  innotuerit  ad  Orientis  partem  facere  nos  preca- 
tlonem,  vel  die  solis  laetitiam  curare. 

'  Tertul.  de  Coron.  Mil.  cap.  3.  Die  Dominico  jejunium 
nefas  ducimus,  vel  de  geniculis  adorare. 

^  Tertul.  de  Jejun.  cap.  15.     Exceptis  scilicet  sabbatis  et 


Dominicis. 

3  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  2.  Tit.  8.  de  Feriis,  Leg.  1. 

'"  Ibid.  Leg.  2. 

"  Ibid.  lib.  8.  de  Executoribus,  Leg.  I  et  3.  lib.  II.  Tit, 
7.  de  Exactionibus,  Leg.  10  et  13.  lib.  15.  Tit.  5.  de  Specta 
culis,  Leg.  2. 

'2  Ibid.  lib.  11.  Tit.  5.  de  Exactionibus,  Leg.  13. 

"  Euseb.  lib.  4.  cap.  23. 

»  Ibid.  cap.  26. 

'5  Ap.  Euseb.  lib.  5.  cap.  24. 

'6  Orig.  Horn.  7.  in  Exod.  xv.  t.  I.  p.  82.  See  also  Hip. 
polytus  Canon  Paschalis,  cited  by  Gothofred.  in  Cod 
Theod.  lib.  8.  Tit.  8.  Leg.  3. 

'■  Book  XV.  chap.  9.  sect.  2. 


Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH, 


1127 


of  some  special  laws  and  customs  that  were  ob- 
served, to  show  a  more  peculiar  reverence,  honour, 
and  respect  to  the  supcreminent  dignity  of  this  day. 
Among  these  we  may  reckon,  in 
AU  proceedings  at  the  first  place,  thosc  imperial  laws 
suspended  on  this  which  suspendcd  all  actions  and  pro- 

dav,  e\cep(  such  as  '  .         -^ 

TrereofahsnUitene-  cccdinffs    at   the    law   on    this    day, 

cessity  or  great  cha-  ^  _  .       * 

sion'of dave"*"'"*"  wliethcr  arrests,  pleadings,  exactions, 
sentences  of  judges,  or  executions, 
except  only  such  as  were  of  absolute  necessity,  or 
some  eminent  charity,  as  the  manumission  of  slaves, 
or  granting  them  their  freedom,  which  was  not  for- 
bidden, because  it  was  an  act  of  considerable  charity 
and  great  mercy.  This  was  the  same  respect  as 
the  old  Roman  laws  had  paid  to  their  fericp,  or 
festivals,  in  times  of  idolatry  and  superstition.  But 
as  then  the  Lord's  day  was  of  no  account  among 
the  heathen,  so  no  exemption  was  made  in  its 
favour,  but  this  was  juridical  as  well  as  any  other, 
till  Constantine  made  the  first  law  to  exempt  it. 
And  now  also  the  Christian  laws  concerning  the 
observation  of  the  Lord's  day,  which  exempted  it 
from  being  juridical,  still  admitted  of  some  ex- 
ceptions, as  the  heathen  laws  in  relation  to  their 
ferue  had  done  before  them.  The  exceptions  made 
by  the  heathen  laws  are  particularly  specified  by 
Ulpian,''  out  of  the  edicts  of  Trajan  and  Marcus 
Antoninus,  where  the  hearing  of  all  causes  of  abso- 
lute necessity  and  great  charity,  and  about  all 
military  afiairs,  are  allowed  on  their  festivals ;  as 
the  appointing  of  curators  and  guardians  to  orphans, 
and  causes  relating  to  matters  of  preservation  and 
damage,  and  legacies  and  trusts,  and  exhibiting 
of  wills,  and  maintenance  of  children,  parents,  and 
patrons :  and  all  causes  wherein  a  man  might  suflfer 
great  damage,  either  by  delay  or  by  death  ;  as  in 
case  of  theft,  or  great  injuries  and  losses  by  fire,  or 
shipwreck,  or  piracies,  or  any  cases  of  the  like  na- 
ture. Now,  as  the  old  Roman  laws  exempted  the 
festivals  of  the  heathen  from  all  juridical  business, 
and  suspended  all  processes  and  pleadings,  except 
in  the  forementioned  cases ;  so  Constantine  ordered 
that  the  same  honour  and  respect  should  be  paid  to 
the  Lord's  day,  that  it  should  be  a  day  of  perfect 


vacation  from  all  prosecutions,  and  pleadings,  and 
business  of  the  law,  except  where  <iny  case  of  great 
necessity  or  charity  required  a  juridical  process  and 
public  transaction  ;  for  such  cases  were  always 
thought  to  be  consistent  with  the  design  of  the  rest 
both  of  the  sabbath  and  the  Lord's  day,  as  our 
Lord  himself  had  interpreted  the  law  of  the  sab- 
bath in  many  cases  of  beneficence  and  doing  good, 
both  by  his  doctrine  and  his  example.  Therefore 
Constantine'"  peremptorily  forbade  all  his  judges  to 
hear  any  causes,  either  criminal  or  civil,  on  this  day, 
except  such  as  could  not  be  deferred  without  in- 
trenching upon  the  rules  of  charity ;  which  sort  of 
actions  and  causes  the  law  calls  rotica,  good  offices, 
such  as  the  emancipation  or  manumission  of  slaves, 
which  he  allows  any  one  to  perform,  in  a  legal 
manner,  on  this  day,  and  there  should  lie  no  pro- 
hibition against  them.  Honorius  in  like  manner 
excepts  the  causes  that  were  commenced  against 
the""  navicular  a,  or  masters  of  vessels  transporting 
the  public  corn  from  Africa  to  Rome  :  if  any  fraud 
was  suspected  in  them,  they  were  to  be  examined 
by  torture  upon  any  festivals  or  days  of  devotion 
without  delay  or  molestation  :  because  the  preserv- 
ation of  the  public  corn  was  a  matter  of  great  con- 
cern to  the  public  welfare  of  Rome  (bread  being  the 
staflf  of  life) ;  and  therefore  inqiiisition  into  such 
frauds  was  proper  to  be  made  upon  any  day  whatso- 
ever, without  exception.  For  the  same  reason  Ho- 
norius and  Theodosius  junior,  by  another  law,'" 
ordered  prosecution  to  be  made  against  the  Isaurian 
pirates  on  any  day,  not  excepting  Lent  or  Easter 
day :  lest  the  discovery  of  wicked  designs  should  be 
delayed,  which  was  to  be  efiected  only  by  ])utting 
the  robbers  to  the  rack  in  their  examination  ;  which 
it  was  to  be  hoped  the  great  God  would  readily  par- 
don, seeing  the  preservation  and  safety  of  many 
innocent  men  was  procured  thereby.  So  that  in 
such  cases,  where  mercy  and  charity  or  the  necessi- 
ties of  the  public  good  were  concerned,  all  days  were 
juridical,  and  actions  at  law  might  be  prosecuted  on 
the  Lord's  day  as  well  as  any  other.  But  excepting 
these  particular  cases,  the  prosecution  of  law-suits 
on   this   day  was  universally  forbidden.     Valen- 


"  Digest,  lib.  2.  Tit.  12.  tie  Feriis,  Leg.  2.  Divus  Mar- 
cus eflfecit,  de  aliis  spcciebus  practorem  adiri  etiam  diebiis 

feriaticis :  utputa  ut  tutores  aut  curatores  dentur vel  rei 

servanda;  causa,  vel  legatorum,  fideive  commissorum,  vel 
damni  infecti :  item  de  testamentis  exhibendis  :  ut  ciirator 
detur  bniiorum  ejus,  qui  an  heeres  e.xtaturus  sit  incertum 
est:  aut  de  alendis  liberis,  parentibus,  patronis:  aut  de 
adeunda  suspecta  h.-creditate,  &c.  Ibid.  Leg.  3.  Solet 
etiam  messis  vindemiarumque  tempore  jus  dici  de  rebus 
quae  tempore  vel  morte  peritur«  sunt.  Morte,  veluti  furti, 
damni,  injuriae,  iujuriarum  atrocium,  qui  de  incendio,  ruina, 
naufragio,  rate,  nave  expugnata  rapuisse  dicuntur,  et  si 
qua;  similes  sunt.  Ibid.  Leg.  9.  Qua;  ad  discipliriam  mili- 
tarem  pertinent,  etiam  feriatis  diebus  peragenda,  &c. 

'"  Cod.  Thcod.  lib.  2.  Tit.  8.  de  Feriis,  Leg.  1.  Sicut  in- 
dignissiuuun  videbatur,  diem   solis,    veneratione  sui   cele- 


brem,  altercautibus  jurgiis  et  noxiis  partium  coutentionibus 
occupari,  ita  gratum  ac  juciindum  est,  eo  die  qua:  sunt 
maxime  votiva  compleri:  atque  ideo  emancipandi  et  ma- 
nuniittendi  die  festo  cuncti  licentiam  habeant,  et  super  his 
rebus  actus  non  prohibcantur.  Vid.  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  .3. 
Tit.  12.  de  Feriis,  Leg.  2. 

2"  Ibid.  lib.  13.  Tit.  5.  de  Naviculariis,  Leg.  .38.  llujus- 
modi  inquisitio  etiam  diebus  feriatis  et  devotionum  absque 
ulla  observatione  peragenda  est. 

2"  Ibid.  lib.  9.  Tit.  35.  de  Quaestionibus,  Leg.  7.  Pro- 
vinciarum  judices  raoneantur,  \\i  in  Isaurorum  latronum 
quffistionibus  nullum  Quadragesima-,  nee  venerabileni  Pas- 
charum  diem  existiment  excipiendum  :  ne  differafnr  scele- 
ratorum  proditio  consiliorum,  qua;  per  latrimum  tormenta 
quncrcndaest :  cum  facillirae  in  hocsununi  numinissperatur 
veuia,  per  quod  multoruiii  salus  ct  incolumitas  procuratur. 


1128 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XX. 


tinian  senior'"  prohibited  all  arrests  of  men  for  debt, 
whether  public  or  private,  on  this  day.  For  no  man 
might  be  convened  even  by  the  exactors  of  the  pub- 
lic revenues,  under  pain  of  incurring  the  emperor's 
highest  displeasure  for  the  breach  of  his  law.  Va- 
lentinian  junior  ^  speaks  a  little  more  expressly  : 
On  Sunday,  which  our  forefathers  rightly  called 
the  Lord's  day,  let  all  prosecution  of  causes,  con- 
troversial business,  and  disputes  be  wholly  laid  aside ; 
let  no  one  demand  either  a  public  or  a  private  debt; 
let  there  be  no  hearing  of  causes,  either  before  ar- 
bitrators appointed  by  law,  or  voluntarily  chosen. 
And  let  him  be  accounted  not  only  infamous,  but 
sacrilegious  also,  whoever  departs  from  the  rule  and 
custom  of  our  holy  religion.  And  the  same  Valen- 
tinian,  together  with  Theodosius  the  Great,  has  an- 
other law,"*  wherein  he  appoints  all  Sundays  in  the 
year  to  be  days  of  vacation  from  all  business  of  the 
law  whatsoever,  according  to  the  observation  of 
other  festivals. 

Neither  was  it  only  business  of  the 
All  secular'  busi-  law,  but  all  Other  secular  and  servile 

ness  forbidden,  ex-    ^  ^  _  j         it      j 

cept  such  as  neces-  labour  and  employments,  that  were 

sify  or  charitv  com-  i   •        t 

peiied  men  'to  as  supcrscded  ou  lliis  day,  except  only 

gathenng    of   their  i  J  '  f  J 

fruits  in  harvest,  by  guch  as  mcu  v/erc  called  to  by  neces- 

some  laws.  .' 

sity  or  some  great  charity  ;  as  earing 
and  harvest,  which  at  first  were  allowed  on  this 
day,  that  men  might  not  be  disappointed  of  their  sea- 
sons ;  and  the  visiting  of  prisoners  by  the  bishops 
and  judges,  which  was  so  far  from  inti'enching  upon 
the  sacred  rest  of  this  day,  that  it  was  a  necessary 
office  of  mercy  and  charity  which  the  laws  enjoined 
them.  Eusebius,  in  the  Life  of  Constantine,"^  takes 
notice  of  two  laws  made  by  him  in  relation  to  his 
army,  whom  he  obliged  to  rest  from  all  military 
exercise  on  this  day.  And  whereas  some  of  them 
were  heathens,  and  some  Christians,  by  the  first 
law  he  obliged  that  part  of  his  army  which  were 
Christians,  to  repair  with  all  diligence  to  the  church 
of  God ;  and  that  they  might  have  more  liberty  and 
leisure  to  attend  their  prayers  there,  he  discharged 
them  from  all  other  business  and  employment  on 


that  day.  As  to  the  other  part  of  the  army,  which 
were  still  heathens,  he  obliged  them  by  a  second 
law  to  repair  into  the  open  fields,  and  there,  having 
laid  aside  their  arms,  with  one  consent,  upon  a  sig- 
nal given,  with  hands  and  minds  lift  up  to  heaven, 
to  address  their  supplications  to  God  the  supreme 
King  of  all.  And  for  this  end  he  gave  them  a  form 
of  prayer  of  his  own  composing;  not  willing,  says 
the  historian,  that  they  should  confide  in  their  spears 
or  armour,  or  in  the  strength  of  their  bodies,  but  i 
acknowledge  the  supreme  God,  who  is  the  Author 
of  all  good  things,  and  that  they  should  think  it ' 
their  duty  to  make  solemn  supplication  unto  him. 
Sozomen  ^*  takes  notice  of  the  same  thing,  when  he 
relates  how  Constantine  appointed,  that  the  Lord's 
day,  (which  the  Hebrews  call  the  first  day  of  the 
week,  and  the  Greeks  dedicate  to  the  sun,)  and  also 
the  day  befoi-e  the  sabbath,  should  be  days  of  vaca- 
tion from  law-suits  and  all  other  secular  business, 
and  that  men  should  worship  God  on  these  days 
with  supplication  and  prayer  :  and  this  honour  he 
showed  to  the  Lord's  day,  because  it  was  the  day  of 
our  Lord's  resurrection ;  and  to  the  other,  because 
it  was  the  day  of  his  crucifixion.  Valesius "'  thinks 
that  Sozomen  was  mistaken  in  saying,  that  Con- 
stantine made  Friday  a  day  of  vacation  from  juri- 
dical business,  and  that  he  spake  rather  according 
to  the  usage  of  his  own  times,  when  the  practice 
might  be  so  :  but  as  to  the  Lord's  day,  there  is  no 
dispute  ;  for  not  only  Eusebius,  but  the  law  itself, 
still  extant  in  the  Theodosian  Code,  makes  it  a  day 
of  vacation  from  all  juridical  actions  :  and  there  is 
another  law  in  the  Justinian  Code,  which  not  only 
forbids  pleadings  at  law,  and  j  udges  keeping  courts 
on  this  day,  but  all  other  "^  secular  business  in  the 
city,  and  all  working  at  any  art  or  trade :  only  al- 
lowing husbandmen  in  the  country  to  work  at  their 
agriculture,  because  it  often  happens  that  no  time 
is  more  seasonable  for  sowing  corn,  or  planting 
vines ;  and  he  thought  it  not  reasonable  to  let  the 
commodious  moment  slip,  which  the  providence  of 
God  put  into  their  hands.     By  a  law  of  Honorius^* 


«  Cod.  Theod.lib.  8.  Tit.  8.  de  Executoribus,  Leg.  1.  Die 
soils,  qui  duduin  faustus  habetur,  neminem  Christianum  ab 
e.xactoribus  volumus  convcniri ;  contra  eos,  qui  id  faccre  ausi 
sint,  hoc  nostri  statuti  interdicto  periculum  sancientes. 
This  is  repeated,  lib.  11.  Tit.  7.  de  Exaetionibus,  Leg.  10. 

"^  Ibid.  lib.  8.  Tit.  8.  de  Executor.  Leg.  3.  Solis  die,  quern 
Doiniuicumrite  dixeremaj ores, omnium  omninolitium, nego- 
tiorum,  conventionum  quiescat  intentio  :  debitum  publicum 
privatumve  nullus  efflagitet ;  iie  apud  ipsos  quidemarbitros, 
vel  in  judiciis  flagitatos,  vel  sponte  delettos,  ulla  sit  agnitio 
jurgiorum.  Et  non  modo  notabilis,  verum  etiam  sacrilegns 
judicetur,  quia  sanctne  religionis  instituto  rituve  deflexerit. 
This  law  is  also  repeated,  lib.  11.  Tit.  7.  de  Exaetionibus, 
Leg.  13. 

24  Ibid.  lib.  2.  Tit.  8.  de  Perils,  Leg.  2.  Nee  non  et  dies 
solis,  qui  repetito  in  se  calculo  revolvuntur,  in  eadem  ob- 
servatione  numeranuis.  See  also  to  the  same  purpose  Ihe 
law  of  Leo  and  Anthemius.     Cod.  Justin,   lib.  3.  cap.  12. 


de  Feriis,  Leg.  11. 

=5  Euseb.  Vit.  Constant,  lib.  4.  cap.  18,  19,  20. 

""  Sozom.  lib.  1.  cap.  8. 

-"  Vales,  in  Euseb.  de  Vita  Constant,  lib.  4.  cap.  18. 

^  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  3.  Tit.  12.  de  Feriis,  Leg.  3.  Omnes 
judices,  urbaneeque  plebes,  et  cunctarum  artium  officia 
venerabili  die  solis  quiescant.  Ruri  taraen  positi  agrorum 
cultursB  libere  licenterque  inserviant :  quoniam  frequenter 
evenit,  ut  non  aptius  alio  die  frumenta  sulcis,  aut  vineae 
scrobibus  mandentur  :  ne  occasione  momenti  pereat  com- 
moditas  ccslesti  provisione  concessa. 

=»Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  3.  de  Custodia  Reorum,  Leg.  7. 
Judices  omnibus  Dominicis  diebus  productos  reos  e  cus- 
todia carcerali  videant,  interrogent,  nehis  humanitas  clausis 
per  corruptos  carcerum  custodes  denegctur  :  victualem  sub- 
stantiam  non  habentibus  faciant  ministrari,  libellis  duobus 
aut  tribus  diurnis,  vel  quod  wstimavcrint,  comnientariensi 
decretis,  quorum  suniptibus  proficiant  alimonia  pauperum. 


Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1129 


the  judges  also  were  not  only  allowed,  but  enjoined 
to  visit  the  prisons  every  Lord's  day,  and  have  the 
prisoners  brought  before  them,  to  examine  whether 
the  keepers  of  the  prison  denied  them  any  office  of 
humanity  which  the  law  allowed  them :  and  they 
were  to  grant  necessary  subsistence  to  those  that 
wanted  it,  allowing  the  jailer  two  or  three  sesterces 
or  dcniers  a  day,  to  provide  food  for  the  poor ;  and 
they  were  also  to  give  orders  that  the  prisoners 
should  be  carried  out  of  prison  under  a  sufficient 
guard  to  bathe  or  wash  themselves  on  this  day. 
And  if  any  judges,  or  their  officers  under  them,  act- 
ed in  contempt  of  these  rules,  they  were  to  be  fined 
twenty  pounds  of  gold,  and  the  city  magistrates 
three  pounds.  And  the  bishop  of  the  place  was  also 
to  contribute  his  laudable  care,  to  put  the  judges 
in  mind  of  their  duty  in  this  particular.  We  find 
a  like  rule  made  in  France  by  the  fifth  council '"  of 
Orleans,  under  King  Childebert,  anno  549,  where 
it  is  ordered.  That  the  archdeacon,  or  provost  of 
the  church,  should  every  Lord's  day  visit  the 
prisoners,  for  whatever  crimes  they  were  put  in 
durance,  that  the  necessities  of  those  that  lay  bound 
in  prison  might  mercifully  be  relieved,  according  to 
the  command  of  God :  and  the  bishop  was  to  ap- 
point some  faithful  and  diligent  person  to  provide 
them  necessaries,  and  to  see  that  they  had  a  com- 
petent sustenance  out  of  the  church.  This  was  an 
act  of  great  mercy,  and  therefore  justly  excepted 
from  the  common  works  and  employments  that 
were  foroidden  on  the  Lord's  day.  However,  in 
the  Justinian  Code''  this  work  is  transferred  from 
the  Lord's  day  to  Wednesdays  and  Fridays,  which 
were  days  also  of  church  assemblies,  but  not  so 
strictly  observed  as  the  Lord's  day.  And  by  other 
laws,'-  that  liberty  which  Constantine  granted  to 
countrymen  to  follow  their  works  of  husbandry  on 
the  Lord's  day,  was  in  a  great  measure  restrained. 
Private  writers  and  the  canons  of  the  church  also 
run  against  it.  Ireneeus,  expounding  the  law  of  the 
sabbath,  thus  expresses  his  sense  of  it :  Though  the 


law  did  not  forbid  those  that  were  Imngry,  to  take 
meat,  and  eat  of  such  things  as  were  next  at 
hand;  yet  metere  et  coUigcre  in  horreum  vctahat^ 
it  did  forbid  men  to  reap,  and  carry  into  barns. 
Exod.  xxxiv.  21,  "  Six  days  thou  shalt  work,  but 
on  the  seventh  day  thou  shalt  rest:  in  earing- 
time  and  harvest  thou  shalt  rest."  TertuUian  in 
like  manner  says.  The  law  of  the  sabbath  forbids 
all  human  works,  but  not  Divine.  Consequently 
it  forbids"  all  those  works  which  are  enjoined  on 
the  six  days,  namely,  their  own  works,  that  is,  hu- 
man works,  or  works  of  their  daily  vocation.  But 
such  a  work  as  the  Levites  carrying  about  the  ark 
on  the  sabbath,  was  no  human  or  common  work, 
but  sacred  and  Divine  by  God's  express  command. 
St.  Austin,  or  whoever  was  the  author  of  the  Ser- 
mons de  Tempore,'*  says.  The  apostles  transferred 
the  observation  of  the  sabbath  to  the  Lord's  day, 
and  therefore,  from  the  evening  of  the  sabbath  to 
the  evening  of  the  Lord's  day,  men  ought  to  abstain 
from  all  country  work  and  secular  business,  and 
only  attend  Divine  service.  Some  think  this  homily 
is  one  of  Ccesarius  Arelatensis,  a  French  bishop, 
which  is  very  probable ;  for  the  French  councils, 
about  his  time,  are  very  express  in  forbidding  works 
of  husbandry  on  the  Lord's  day.  The  third  council 
of  Orleans  distinguishes  between  the  Jewish  and 
Christian  way  of  observing  the  Lord's  day:  for 
whereas  some  people  were  persuaded  that  it  was 
unlawful  to  travel  on  the  Lord's  day,"^  either  with 
horses,  or  oxen,  or  chariots,  or  to  dress  any  victuals, 
or  do  any  thing  pertaining  to  cleanliness  of  house 
or  man;  which  came  nearer  the  Jewish  than  the 
Christian  observation  ;  they  therefore  decreed.  That 
all  tilings  might  lawfully  be  done  that  were  used  to 
be  done  before.  But,  however,  men  ought  to  ab- 
stain from  all  country  work,  as  husbandry,  dressing 
of  vineyards,  reaping,  and  mowing,  and  thrashing, 
that  they  may  have  more  liberty  to  come  to  church, 
and  offer  up  their  prayers  to  God.  So  likewise  the 
council  of  Auxerre :"  It  is  not  lawful  on  the  Lord's 


qiios  ad  lavacrum  sub  fida  custodia  duel  oportet :  multa  ju- 
dicibus  viginti  librarum  auri,  et  officiis  eorum  ejiisdem  poii- 
deris  constituta ;  ordinibus  quoque  trium  librarum  auri 
multa  proposita,  si  saluberrime  statuta  contempserint.  Nee 
deerit  antistitum  Christianie  religionis  cura  laudabilis,  quaj 
ad  observationem  constituti  judicis  banc  iugerat  moni- 
tionem. 

^  Cone.  Aurelian.  5.  can.  20.  Qui  pro  quibuscunque 
culpis  in  carceribus  deputantur,  ah  archidiaeono  seu  a 
praeposito  ecclesia;  diebus  singulis  Dominicisrequirantur,  ut 
necessitas  vinctorum  secundum  proceeptum  divinum  miseri- 
corditer  sublevetur :  atque  a  pontifiee,  instituta  fideli  ct 
diligent!  persona,  qui  nccessaria  provideat,  competens  vic- 
tus  de  duno  eeclcsiae  tribuatur. 

31  Cod.  Just.  lib.  9.  Tit.  4.  de  Custodia  Reorum,  Leg.  6. 

^-  Leo.  Novel.  54.  Neque  agricoloc,  neque  quiq'uam  alii 
in  illo  die  illicitum  opus  aggreJiautur. 

''  Ireu.  lib.  4.  eap.  "20. 

*^  Tertul.  cont.  Marcion.  lib.  2.  cap.  21.    Consequens  est, 


ut  ea  opera  sabbato  auferret,  quaj  sex  diebus  supra  indi.xerat, 
tua  scilicet,  id  est,  humana  et  quotidiaua.  Arcam  vero 
circumferre,  neque  quotidianum  videri  potest,  nee  huma- 
nura,  &c. 

'^  Aug.  Horn.  251.  de  Tempore,  t.  10.  p.  .307.  A  vespera 
diei  sabbati  usque  ad  vcsperam  diei  Dominici  sequestrati  a 
rurali  opere  et  ab  onini  negotio,  soli  Divino  eultui  vacemus. 

^•^  Cone.  Aurel.  3.  can.  27.  Quia  persuasum  est  populis, 
die  Dominico  cum  caballis  et  bobus  et  vehiculis  itincrarc 
non  debere,  ueque  uUam  rem  ad  victura  praeparare,  vel  ad 
nitorem  domus  vel  hominis  pertinentem  nullatenus  exer- 
ccre  :  qusc  res  quia  atl  J  udaeain  magis,  quam  ad  observantiam 
Christianam  pertinere  probatur;  id  statuinuis,  die  Domini- 
co, quod  ante  fieri  licuit,  lieere.  De  opere  tanien  rurali,  id 
est,  agricultura,  vel  vinea,  vel  sectione,  vel  messione,  vel 
excussione,  vel  e.xecta  sepe  censuiraus  abstinendum,  quo 
facilius  ad  eeclesiam  venientes,  oratiouis  gratia  vacent. 

^'  Cone.  Antissiodor.  can.  IG.  Non  licet  die  Dominico 
boves  jungere,  vel  alia  opera  exercerc. 


1130 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XX. 


day  to  yoke  oxen,  or  do  any  works  of  tlie  like  na- 
ture. And  the  second  council  of  Mascon  f  Let  no 
one  on  this  day  prosecute  a  law-suit,  no  lawyer 
plead  any  causes,  no  one  put  himself  under  the 
necessity  of  yoking  his  oxen.  But  be  ye  all  intent 
and  ready,  both  in  body  and  mind,  to  sing  hymns 
and  praises  to  God.  If  any  one  contemn  this  ad- 
monition, he  shall  be  punished  according  to  the 
quality  of  his  offence.  If  he  be  a  lawyer,  he  shall 
lose  his  privilege  of  pleading ;  if  he  be  a  country- 
man, or  slave,  he  shall  be  severely  beaten  with  rods; 
if  a  clergyman,  or  monk,  he  shall  be  six  months 
suspended  from  the  communion  of  his  brethren. 
There  are^'  a  great  many  other  French  and  Spanish 
councils  to  the  time  of  Charles  the  Great,  that  have 
canons  prohibiting  the  same  thing;  which  show, 
that  the  liberty  indulged  by  Constantine  of  working 
at  husbandry  on  the  Lord's  day,  was  never  well  ap- 
proved by  the  church :  but  it  was  no  easy  matter 
to  restrain  men  from  the  use  of  that  first  liberty 
which  the  law  had  granted  them,  and  therefore  they 
continued  to  enjoy  the  indulgence,  which  had  so 
plausible  a  pretence ;  and  in  many  places  the  evil 
increased  ;  for  some  kept  courts,  and  pleaded  causes, 
and  kept  fairs  and  markets,  and  traded  on  this  day 
as  well  as  any  other,  as  appears  from  the  several 
complaints  made  against  these  things  in  the  time  of 
Charles  the  Great,  who  endeavoured  among  other 
things  to  correct  these  abuses  in  his  reformation. 

But  the  church  did  not  only  oppose  the  profaners 
of  the  Lord's  day,  but  all  such  as  with  a  Pharisaical 
superstition,  on  the  other  hand,  pretended  to  carry 
the  observation  of  it  to  an  unreasonable  rigour 
and  strictness,  in  abstaining  from  all  bodily  labour. 
The  Dositheans,  among  the  Jews,  are  noted  by 
Origen  *"  as  putting  a  ridiculous  sense  upon  the  law 
of  Moses,  which  said,  "  Abide  ye  every  man  in  his 
place,  let  no  man  go  out  of  his  place  on  the  seventh 
day."  This  they  interpreted  so  literally  and  rigor- 
ously, as  that  whatever  habit,  place,  or  posture,  a 
man  was  found  in  on  the  sabbath  day,  he  was  to 
continue  in  it  till  the  evening ;  that  is,  if  he  was 
found  sitting,  he  must  sit  still  all  the  day ;  or  if  lying 
down,  he  must  lie  all  the  day.  The  Jewish  rabbins 
were  as  ridiculous  in  their  confutation  of  this  dream 


^  Cone.  Matiscon.  2.  can.  1.  NuUus  vestrum  litium 
fomitibus  vacet :  nullus  caiisanim  actiones  exerceat :  nemo 
sibi  talein  nefessitateiu  exliibcat,  qiiue  juguni  cervicibus 
jmiicntoi'um  imponcre  cogat,  &c. 

^"  Vid.  Cone.  Tolet.  11.  can.  8.  et  Procceptuni  Guntranni 
Regis,  adcak-em  Concilii.  Cone.  Arelaten.  6.  can.  16.  Cone. 
Cabilonen.  '2.  can.  18.  Cone.  Moguntin.  sub  Carolo  M.  can. 
.37.  Cone.  Turoneu.  sub  eodeui,  can.  K).  Cone.  Rhemens. 
can.  35. 

*"  Orig.  irspl  apx<^v,  lib.  4.  cap.  2.  p.  743.     Alii,  ex  qui- 

bus  Dosithcus  Samaritanus ridieulosiusaliquid  statuunt, 

quia  miusquisque  quo  habitu,  quo  loco,  qua  positioue  in  die 
sabbati  fuerit  inventus,  ita  usque  ad  vcspeiuin  dcbeat  pi-r- 
niauere,  id  est,  vel  si  sedens,  ut  seJeat  lota  die  :  vol  si  jaceus, 


of  Dositheus ;  for  they  pretended  to  say,  out  of 
some  fabulous  and  frivolous  traditions,  that  every 
man's  place  was  the  space  of  two  thousand  cubits 
round  him ;  and  therefore  he  that  travelled  no  far- 
ther, was  not  reputed  to  move  out  of  liis  place." 
They  were  no  less  ridiculous  in  interpreting  those 
other  laws  against  working  and  bearing  burdens  on 
the  sabbath  day.  They  said,^-  If  a  man  had  nails 
in  his  shoes,  it  was  reputed  a  burden  ;  but  if  he 
had  no  nails,  it  was  no  burden.  If  he  carried  any 
thing  upon  one  shoulder,  it  was  a  burden  ;  but  if 
upon  both  shoulders,  it  was  none.  And  some  of 
them  were  so  superstitious,  as,  if  their  lives  lay  at 
stake,  they  would  not  move  a  finger  to  help  them- 
selves, for  fear  they  should  be  thought  to  break  the 
sabbath  by  working.  Synesius'*'  gives  a  famous  in- 
stance of  this  in  a  certain  Jewish  pilot,  who  was 
steering  a  ship  in  a  violent  tempest :  he  laboured 
hard  till  the  sabbath  came  on,  but  then  he  let  go 
the  helm,  and  left  the  ship  to  the  mercy  of  the 
winds  and  sea;  and  though  a  soldier  threatened 
him  with  present  death,  unless  he  would  resume 
his  labour,  yet  he  refused,  and,  like  a  true  Maccabee, 
was  ready  to  sacrifice  his  life  to  his  superstition. 
But  afterwards,  upon  second  thoughts,  about  mid- 
night he  betook  himself  to  his  post,  saying,  Now 
the  law  allows  it,  because  we  run  the  hazard  of  our 
lives.  Synesius  elegantly  calls  him  a  Maccabee 
for  his  first  resolution  ;  because  a  thousand  of  the 
Maccabees  suffered  themselves  to  be  cut  in  pieces 
by  their  enemies,  rather  than  they  would  take  the 
sword  in  hand  to  fight,  or  do  any  thing  to  defend 
themselves,  on  the  sabbath  day.  Which  made  Mat- 
tathias  and  his  friends  decree,  That  whoever  should 
come  to  make  battle  ^vith  them  on  the  sabbath  day, 
they  would  fight  against  him,  and  not  die  all,  as 
their  "  brethren  that  were  murdered  in  the  secret 
places,"  1  Mac.  ii.  4L  And  the  Jewish  pilot  wisely 
bethought  himself  in  time  of  this  example,  and  so 
saved  the  ship  at  last  by  working  on  the  sabbath. 
Josephus"  says,  this  decree  of  ^lattathias  was  ob- 
served by  the  Jews  in  part ;  for  if  they  were  in  pre- 
sent danger  of  their  lives,  they  would  fight  on  the 
sabbath ;  but  if  the  enemy  only  made  preparation 
for  an  assault  the  next  day,  and  did  not  actually 


ut  tota  die  jaceat.  This  is  repeated  in  Origen's  Philocalia, 
cap.  1.  p.  14. 

■"  Orig.  ibid.  Fabulas  autem  inanes  et  frivolas  commen- 
tantur,  ex  nescio  quibus  traditionibus  proferentes  de  sab- 
bato,  dicentes,  Uuicuique  locum  suum  reputari  intra  duo 
millia  ulnarum. 

*-  Ong.  ibid.  Ad  fabulas  devoluti  sunt  ,Iuda!orum  doc- 
tores,  dicentes,  Non  reputari  onus,  si  calceameuta  quis  ha- 
beatsine  clavis;  onus  vero  esse,  si  quis  ealigulas  cum  clavis 
habuerit.  Et  si  quidem  super  unum  humerum  aliquid  por- 
taverit,  onus  judicant:  si  vero  supra  utrumque,  negabunt 
esse  onus. 

■■^  Syncs.  Ep.  4.  ad  Euoptium. 

<"  Joseph.  Antiq.  lib.  11.  c.  8. 


Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1131 


assault  them  on  the  sabbath,  they  would  do  nothing 
to  oppose  them  on  that  day.  And  this  gave  occa- 
sion to  Pompey  I.,  and  to  Titus  afterward,  to  over- 
come them.  The  Essenes  were  yet  more  rigorous ; 
for  they  would  not  kindle  a  fire,  nor  move  a  vessel 
out  of  its  place,  on  the  sabbath  day.  And  the  Do- 
sithcans  exceeded  all  the  rest,  as  we  have  heard  be- 
fore, in  superstitious  madness.  The  Christians 
therefore,  in  opposition  to  these  furies,  were  careful 
to  observe  a  just  medium  in  the  celebration  of  the 
Lord's  day,  neither  to  indulge  themselves  the  liberty 
of  unnecessary  works  on  this  day,  nor  wholly  to 
abstain  from  working,  if  a  great  occasion  required 
it.  The  council  of  Laodicea  thus  determines"  the 
matter,  in  settling  the  observation  both  of  the  sab- 
bath and  the  Lord's  day,  between  which  they  put 
this  difference.  That  Christians  should  not  Judaize, 
or  rest  from  bodily  labour  on  the  sabbath,  but  work 
on  that  day  (that  is,  so  far  as  Divine  service  would 
permit) :  but  they  were  to  give  preference  in  this 
respect  to  the  Lord's  day,  and  to  rest,  if  possible, 
and  abstain  from  working.  But  if  any  were  found 
to  Judaize,  they  were  to  be  anathematized  as  great 
transgressors.  Balzamon  and  Zonaras  upon  this 
canon  very  well  observe,  that  the  words  ti'yt  SivaivTo, 
if  possible,  suppose  some  special  cases  that  may  dis- 
pense with  men's  working  on  the  Lord's  day,  as  ex- 
treme poverty  and  want,  to  which  may  be  added  all 
other  cases  of  necessity,  as  fighting  to  preserve 
men's  lives  against  an  enemy,  toiling  at  the  helm 
and  oar  to  escape  the  violence  of  a  tempest,  travel- 
ling to  church  for  the  service  of  God,  dressing  of 
food  for  the  life  of  man,  labouring  to  deliver  a  man 
or  beast  in  manifest  danger  of  death,  and  any  the 
like  cases,  which  are  all  so  reasonable,  that  the 
greatest  adversaries  of  our  Saviour,  when  he  pro- 
posed some  such  cases,  could  not  but  own  the  just- 
ness of  his  proceedings  :  and  from  his  example  the 
Christian  church  took  her  measures,  in  stating  the 
exceptions  that  were  proper  to  be  made  to  the  law 
about  working  on  the  Lord's  day,  in  contradistinction 
to  the  perverse  way  of  observing  the  Jewish  sabbath. 
Another  thing  which  the  Christian 

Sect  4. 

No  public  sames,  laws  took  care  of,  to  secure  the  honour 

or   shi)ws,   or    hidi-  it         .  n    i         t 

crous  recreations  ai-  and  dignity  of  the  Lord's  dav»  was, 

lowed  on  this  day.  n         J  j  ■•  i 

that  no  ludicrous  sports,  or  games,  or 
recreations,  however  allowable  at  other  times,  should 
be  followed  or  frequented  on  this  day.  There  are  two 
famous  laws  of  Theodosius  senior,  and  his  grandson. 


Thoodosius  junior,  to  this  purpose  in  the  Theodosian 
Code.  The  first  peremptorily  forbids  any  one,  who, 
either  by  his  office  or  otherwise,  had  any  concern 
in  exhibiting  the  public  games  to  the  people,  to 
gratify  them  with  any  thing  of  this  kind  on  the 
Lord's  day,^"  whether  it  were  a  gymnastical  exercise 
of  gladiators  in  the  theatre,  or  a  stage-play  or  a  horse- 
race in  the  cirque,  or  a  hunting  and  fighting  of  wild 
beasts  ;  lest  the  worship  of  God  should  be  disturbed 
and  confounded  with  any  such  entertainments  as 
these.  And  the  other  "  extends  the  prohibition  of 
these  pleasures  as  well  to  the  festival  of  Christ's  Na- 
tivity, and  Epiphany,  and  Easter,  and  Pentecost,  as 
to  the  Lord's  day ;  and  equally  enjoins  both  Jews 
and  Gentiles  over  all  the  world  so  far  to  show  a  re- 
spect to  these  days,  as  to  know  how  to  make  a  dis- 
tinction between  times  of  supplication  and  times  of 
pleasure.  Nor  should  it  be  any  excuse  for  any  one 
to  plead,  he  exhibited  such  diversions  to  the  people 
in  honour  of  the  emperor's  birthday,  which  might 
happen  to  fall  in  with  some  of  these  seasons ;  for 
they  were  given  to  understand,  that  no  greater 
honour  could  be  paid  to  his  imperial  majesty  on 
earth,  than  to  have  a  just  respect  and  veneration 
showed  to  the  majesty  of  Almighty  God  in  heaven. 
A  like  order  was  made  by  Leo  and  Anthemius,  that 
no  stage-play,  nor  games  of  the  cirque,  nor  hunting 
of  wild  beasts,  should^"  be  performed  on  this  day. 
And  if  it  so  happened  that  any  of  the  emperors' 
birthdays  fell  upon  the  Lord's  day,  the  observation 
of  their  birthday  should  be  put  off  to  another  day. 
And  whoever  transgressed  this  order,  either  by  ex- 
hibiting these  games,  or  by  being  present  at  them 
as  a  spectator  only,  if  he  were  a  military  man,  he 
should  forfeit  his  office ;  if  a  private  man,  be  liable 
to  confiscation  of  all  his  goods.  And  the  same 
penalty  is  imposed  on  all  judges,  advocates,  and 
apparitors,  that  pretended  to  prosecute  any  business 
of  the  law  upon  this  day.  The  church  was  no  less 
careful  to  guard  the  service  of  this  day  from  the 
encroachment  of  all  vain  pastimes  and  needless 
recreations.  The  Jews,  though  they  would  not 
work  on  their  sabbath,  yet  made  no  scruple  to 
spend  it  in  idleness,  or  worse  exercises  than  any 
innocent  bodily  labour,  as  dancing,  and  revelling, 
and  other  unlawful  pleasures.  Against  wliich  the 
ancients  often  inveigh,  and  endeavour  to  dissuade 
their  people  from  following  so  bad  an  example. 
The  Jews  in  our  time,  says  St.  Austin,^"  celebrate 


"  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  29.  "Oti  o\i  Sti  Xpitmavovi  iovSat- 
^fiv,  Kai  iif  TM  (Td€SaT(a  <r\o\d'^^ii>,  aWa  ipydZ^i.cdai  av- 
Tous  iv  Tj;  avTij  j'/^uEjirt'  t?')!/  ot  KupinKt'iv  TrpOTintovTa^^  fi'ys 
^(ivctivTo,  cT')(o\d'^tiv  (is  XpiCTTiavoi'  ft  Of  tv^^tiititv  'IvvOai- 
trrai,  imuxrav  avddijxa  irapa  Xoktto). 

^8  Cod.  Thcod.  lib.  15.  de  Spectaculis,  Tit.  5.  Leg.  2. 
Niillus  solis  die  poptilo  spectaciila  pricbeat,  nee  Divinam 
venerationem  cont'ecta  solemnitate  confiindat. 

"  Ibid.  Leg.  5.  Dominico  (qui  Septimanie  tofiiis  primus 
est  dies)  et  Natale,  atque  Epiphauioruni  Christi,  Paschac 


etiam  et  Quinquagesimae  diebus— omui  theatromm  atque 
circensium  volupfate  per  miiversas  urbes  earundem  popiilis 
dencgata,  tot;c  Chiistianorum  raentes  Dei  cultibus  occu- 
pantur,  &c. 

«  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  3.  Tit.  12.  de  Feriis,  Leg.  II.  Nihil 
eodcm  die  vindicet  sibi  scena  theatralis,  aut  circense  cer- 
tamen,  aut  ferarum  lachryiuosa  spectaciila.  Et  si  in  nos- 
trum ortuin  aut  natalem  cclebranda  solennitas  inciderit, 
(lifferatur,  &c. 

'"  Aug.  in  Psal.  .\ci.  t.  8.  p.  417.     Sabbatum  in  pra;senti 


1132 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XX. 


their  sabbath  in  a  sort  of  rest,  which  is  nothing  but 
a  corporal  laziness,  languid,  vain,  and  luxurious. 
For  they  rest  only  for  trifling  vanities ;  and  when 
God  commands  them  to  observe  the  sabbath,  they 
exercise  the  sabbath  in  those  things  which  God 
forbids.  Our  rest  is  from  evil  works,  their  rest  is 
from  good  works  ;  for  it  is  better  to  go  to  ploughing, 
than,  as  they  do,  to  dancing.  They  rest  from  good 
works,  but  rest  not  from  works  of  vanity  and  trifling. 
So,  in  another*"  place,  A  Jew  would  do  better  to  work 
in  his  field  at  some  useful  labour,  than  spend  his 
time  at  the  theatre  in  a  seditious  manner.  And 
their  women  had  much  better  spin  on  the  sabbath, 
than  spend  the  whole  day  on  their  new  moons  in 
immodest  dancing.  Therefore  God  commands  thee 
to  observe  the  sabbath  spiritually,  not,  as  the  Jews 
do,  in  carnal  rest,  to  satisfy  their  vanity  and  luxury. 
Prudentius*'  brings  the  same  charge  against  the 
Jews,  objecting  to  them  their  misemploying  the 
sabbath  in  lascivious  dancing.  And  Rufiin,''^  on 
those  words  of  Hosea  ii.  11,  "I  will  cause  all  her 
mirth  to  cease,  her  feast  days,  her  new  moons,  and 
her  sabbaths,  and  all  her  solemn  feasts,"  says.  These 
were  the  feasts  in  which  the  whole  nation  spent 
their  time  in  dancing,  singing,  and  lascivious  ban- 
quetings.  St.  Chrysostom*'  also  objects  it  to  them. 
That  M'hen  they  were  delivered  from  secular  cares, 
they  had  no  regard  to  spiritual  things,  sobriety, 
modesty,  and  hearing  of  the  word  of  God ;  but  did 
all  things  contrary,  serving  their  belly,  indulging 
drunkenness,  stufl[lng  themselves  with  meat  and 
delicacies,  and  spending  their  time  in  banquetings 
and  pleasures.  This  was  their  way  of  keeping  the 
sabbaths,  which  St.  Chrysostom,  following  the 
Scptuagint,  Amos  vi.  3,  calls  aajSPara  ^'f-vSr/,  false 
sabbaths,  when  they  lay  upon  beds  of  ivory,  and 
stretched  themselves  upon  their  couches,  and  eat 
the  lambs  out  of  the  flock  and  the  calves  out  of  the 
midst  of  the  stall;  chanting  to  the  sound  of  the 
viol,  and  inventing  to  themselves  instruments  of 
music,  like  David  ;  drinking  wine  in  bowls,  and 
anointing  themselves  with  the  chief  ointment;  but 
were  not  grieved  for  the  affliction  of  Joseph.  Which 
agrees  with  the  character  which  another  prophet 
gives  of  them :  "  The  harp,  and  the  viol,  the  tabret, 
and  pipe,  and  wine  are  in  their  feasts ;  but  they  re- 


gard not  the  work  of  the  Lord,  nor  consider  the 
operation  of  his  hands,"  Isa.  v.  12.  Theodoret,"  in 
like  manner,  reflects  upon  their  abuse  of  the  sab- 
batical rest  in  lascivious  dancing.  And  again,**  on 
the  efleminacy  and  luxury,  wherein  they  indulged 
themselves  on  this  day.  Upon  which  account 
both  he*'^  and  Cyril  of  Alexandria"  apply  to  them 
the  forementioned  words  of  Amos,  and  charge  them 
with  keeping  false  sabbaths.  Their  luxury  and 
banqueting  on  this  day  was  become  so  extravagant 
and  infamous,  that  it  was  noted  even  to  a  proverb. 
Cotelerius*"  thinks  the  phrase,  luxiis  sahhatariiis,  in 
Sidonius  Apollinarius^'has  reference  to  this;  though 
Savaro  interprets  it  as  spoken  of  Theodoric  and  his 
Arian  Goths  keeping  Saturday  as  a  feast,  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  Roman  church,  who  made  it  a  weekly 
fast,  as  we  shall  see  more  in  the  next  chapter.  The 
heathens  indeed  had  a  quite  contrary  notion  of  the 
Jews ;  for  they  thought  they  fasted  on  their  sab- 
bath :  which  was  a  vulgar  mistake  in  them,  arising 
merely  from  a  misapprehension  of  their  laws  and 
practice  ;  for  because  they  kindled  no  fires  nor 
dressed  any  meat  on  the  sabbath,  they  wrongfully 
concluded  that  they  spent  the"  day  in  fasting  : 
whereas  the  Christian  writers,  who  better  under- 
stood their  practice,  charge  them  every  where  with 
making  it  a  day  of  rioting,  and  drunkenness,  and 
excess  of  unlawful  pleasures ;  and,  as  such,  they 
earnestly  caution  those  of  their  own  religion  against 
imitating  the  Jews  in  such  perverse  and  abominable 
corruptions  of  the  law,  by  turning  a  day  of  spiritual 
rest  into  a  day  of  carnal  pleasure. 

But  beside  the  example  of  the  Jews,  Christians 
were  under  another  temptation  from  the  practice  of 
the  Gentiles.  Therefore  the  fourth  council  of  Car- 
thage made  a  decree.  That  if  any  one  forsook  the 
solemn  assembly  of  the  church  on  the  Lord's  day, 
to  go  to  a  public  ^  show,  he  should  be  excommuni- 
cated. St.  Chrysostom'^'  threatens  the  same  pun- 
ishment, copiously  declaiming  against  the  public 
games,  as  the  conventions  of  Satan.  The  African 
fathers,  in  one  of  their  general  synods,'^'-  petitioned 
the  emperor  Honorius,  that  the  spectacles  both  of 
the  theatre  and  other  games  might  be  wholly  omit- 
ted on  the  Lord's  day,  and  all  other  noted  festivals 
of  the  Christian  religion,  because  they  had  found 


tempore   otio   quodam   corporaliter   languido  et   fluxo    et 

luxurioso  celebrant  Judaji.     Vacant  enitn   ad    migas 

vacatio  nostra  a  malis  operibus,  vacatio  illoruin  a  bonis 
operibus  est.     Melius  est  enim  arare,  qiiam  saltare,  &c. 

*"  Ibid,  de  Decern  Churdis,  cap.  3.  t.  9.  p.  2G9. 

"  Prudent.  Apotheosis,  vers.  421.    Lascivire  choris,  &c. 

^'-  Ruffin.  in  Hos.  ii.  11.  Posuit  noinina  feriarum,  in 
quibus  plurimuni  laetabatur,  cum  tota  regie  chorcis,  can- 
ticis,  epulisque  lasciviret. 

^'^  Chiys.  Horn.  1.  de  Lazaro,  t.  5.  \i.  32. 

5'  Theod.  Qugest.  32.  in  Levit.         '•">  Ibid,  in  Phil.  iii.  19. 

^  Ibid,  in  Amos  vi.  3.  "  Cyril,  in  Amos  vi.  3. 

^^  Cotcler.  in  Pseudolgiiat,  Ep.  ad  Magnes.  n.  9. 


s^  Sidon.  lib.  1.  Ep.  2. 

•*  Cone.  Carth.  4.  can.  88.  Qui  die  solcnni,  pra^termisso 
solenni  ecclesioe  conventu,  ad  spectacula  vadit,  e.xcommu- 
nicetur. 

•i'  Chrys.  Horn.  G.  in  Gen.  t.  2.  p.  53. 

"-  Cod.  Can.  Afr.  c.  61.  et  Cone,  vulgo  dictum  Af'ricanum, 
can.  28.  Nee  non  et  illud  petendum,  ut  spectacula  thea- 
trorum  caiterorumque  ludorum,  die  Dominica  vol  cteteris 
religionis  Christianic  diebus  celebcrrimis  amoveantur  :  max- 
ime,  quia  sancti  Paschae  octavarum  die  populi  ad  circum 
magi.s,  quam  ad  ccclesiam  cnnveniunt ;  ct  dcbcre  transferri 
(levotionis  eorum  dies,  si  quando  occurrerint ;  nee  oportere 
etiaui  quonquaui  Christianorum  cogi  ad  ha;c  spectacula. 


Chai'.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


iL-^a 


by  sad  experience,  that  even  upon  the  Sunday 
called  the  octaves  of  Easter,  the  people  met  more 
at  the  horse  races  in  the  circus  than  at  church : 
and  therefore  they  thought,  if  any  such  days  as 
were  devoted  to  these  pleasures,  as  the  emperors' 
birthdays,  or  the  like,  happened  to  fall  upon  a  Sun- 
day, it  ought  to  be  transferred  to  some  other  day  : 
and  no  heathen  should  have  power  to  compel  a 
Christian  to  be  a  spectator  of  them  upon  any  occa- 
sion. For  by  the  ecclesiastical  law,  these  sorts  of 
diversions  were  universally  forbidden  to  all  Chris- 
tians,"^ for  the  extravagances  and  blasphemies  that 
were  committed  in  them.  What  care  was  taken  by 
Honorius  to  satisfy  these  demands,  and  remedy  the 
abuses  here  complained  of,  appears  not  from  any 
law  of  his  in  either  of  the  Codes,  but  rather  that  he 
refused  to  comply  with  their  request  to  prohibit  the 
games  and  shows  upon  any  other  festivals  beside 
the  Lord's  day,  which  had  been  prohibited  before. 
For  by  one  of  his  laws,"'  anno  399,  he  granted 
licence  to  the  people  to  solemnize  and  frequent  their 
usual  games  and  diversions  on  any  public  days  of 
rejoicing,  only  forbidding  sacrifice  and  other  super- 
stitious rites  of  the  heathen.  But  not  long  after, 
Theodosius  junior  published  that  famous  law,  called 
Dominicof"  wherein  he  not  only  restrained  the  people 
from  celebrating  their  games  on  the  Lord's  day,  but 
on  all  other  solemn  festivals,  Christmas,  Epiphany, 
Easter,  and  Pentecost,  and  obliged  both  Jews  and 
Gentiles  over  all  the  world  to  show  a  respect  to 
these  days,  by  putting  a  distinction  between  days  of 
supplication  and  days  of  pleasure.  And  this  be- 
came the  standing  law  of  the  Roman  empire. 

But  we  are  here  to  note,  that  such 
All  f^stiti^'  pro-  recreations  and  relaxations  or  refresh- 

hibiterl  on  tin-i  day, 

Lent '"  "'" ' '""^  "^  ments,  as  contributed  only  to  the  pre- 
servation or  convenience  of  the  life  of 
man,  or  had  any  tendency  to  promote  the  perform- 
ance of  Divine  worship  with  greater  decency  or 
perfection,  were  no  ways  comprehended  in  this  pro- 
hibition of  recreations  and  diversions  on  the  Lord's 
day.  Therefore,  though  the  ancient  church  was 
very  strict  in  observing  her  stated  and  solemn  fasts, 
yet  she  never  allowed  any  fast  to  be  held  on  the 
Lord's  day,  no,  not  even  in  Lent,  out  of  which  the 
sabbath  and  Lord's  day  were  generally  excepted, 


and  made  days  of  common  recreation  and  refresh- 
ment. Tertullian '"  says  in  general,  that  they 
counted  it  a  crime  to  fast  on  the  Lord's  day.  And 
he  remarks  in  particular  concerning  the  Montan- 
ists,*'  that  though  tliey  were  more  rigid  than  others 
in  observing  their  fasts,  yet  they  omitted  every 
Saturday  and  Lord's  day  throughout  the  year.  St. 
Ambrose  says,™  they  fasted  not  even  in  Lent  either 
on  the  sabbath  or  the  Lord's  day ;  but  condemned 
the  Manichees  particularly  for  fasting  on  the  Lord's 
day,  as  in  effect  denying  the  Lord's  resurrection  :"" 
which  is  also  noted  by  St.  Austin  •,'"  and  Pope  Leo 
condemns  the  PrisciUianists  for  the  same  practice." 
The  fourth  council  of  Carthage  reckons  him  no 
catholic'-  that  fasts  upon  this  day.  The  first 
council  of  Braga  particularly''  anathematizes  the 
Cerdonians,  Marcionites,  PrisciUianists,  and  Mani- 
chees for  their  perverseness  in  this  particular.  And 
there  are  more  general  anathemas  in  the  Apostoli- 
cal Canons,'^  and  the  council  of  Gangra,'^  and  the 
council  of  Saragossa  and  Agde,'"  and  the  council  of 
TruUo,"  against  all  that  under  any  pretence  what- 
ever presumed  to  make  the  Lord's  day  a  fasting 
day ;  which  was  not  allowed  to  those  who  led  an 
ascetic  life,  without  suspicion  of  some  perverse  and 
heterodox  opinion.  Whence  Epi})hanius  observes," 
That  the  true  ascetics  of  the  church  never  fasted 
on  the  Lord's  day,  no,  not  in  Lent,  because  it  was 
against  the  custom  of  the  catholic  church.  And 
the  like  observation  is  made  by  Cassian  of  all  the 
monks  in  the  East,"  that  they  fasted  five  days  in 
the  week,  but  on  the  hehdomas  and  ogdoas,  that  is, 
the  seventh  and  the  eighth  day,  (so  he  terms  the 
sabb^ith  and  the  Lord's  day,)  they  always  abstained 
from  fasting  and  kept  them  festival.  Nor  would 
the  council  of  Gangra  allow  the  Eustathians  to 
fast  on  the  Lord's  day,  as  ascetics,  under  pain  of 
anathema. 

The  reason  of  this  observation,  the  same  Cassian 
tells  us,**  was  the  respect  they  had  to  our  Saviour's 
resurrection  from  the  dead  on  this  day,  which  they 
always  commemorated  with  joyfulness,  and  there- 
fore neither  fasted  on  this  day,  nor  the  whole  fifty 
days  between  Easter  and  Pentecost,  which  were  all 
kept  festival  in  memory  of  our  Saviour's  resurrec- 
tion.    The  same  is  said  by  the  author  of  the  Con- 


^  Cone.  Carth.  3.  can.  II. 

<'^  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  16.  Tit.  10.  de  Paganis,  Leg.  17.  Ut 
profanos  ritiis  jam  salubri  lege  submovimus,  ita  festus  con- 
veiitus  civium,  et  communein  omnium  la-titiam  non  patimur 
submoveri.  Unde  absque  uUa  superstitionc  damnabili,  ex- 
hibeve  populo  voluptates,  secundum  veterem  consuctudinem : 
iuiie  etiam  festa  convivia,  si  quando  exigunt  pul)lica  vota, 
dcceinimus. 

'^^  Ibid.  lib.  15.  Tit.  15.  de  Spectacul.  Leg.  5.  cited  before 
in  this  section. 

'"  Tertul.  de  Coron.  Mil.  cap.  .3.       "  Id.  de  .lejun.  cap.  15. 

""  Ambros.  de  Elia  et  Jejun.  cap.  10. 

'■'  Id.  Ep.  8.3.  '»  Aug.  Ep.  8G.  ad  Casulan. 


"  Leo,  Ep.  9.3.  ad  Turribiura,  cap.  4. 

'-'  Cone.  Carth.  4.  can.  61.        ''  Cone.  Bracaren.  1.  can.  4. 

"  Canon.  Apost.  c.  64.  "  Cone.  Gangren.  can.  18. 

'^  Cone.  Caesaraugust.  can.  2.  Agathens.  can.  12. 

"  Cone.  Trull,  c.  55. 

"  Epiph.  Expos.  Fid.  n.  22.  Vid.  Ilicron.  Ep.  28.  ad  Lu- 
ciniiuu. 

'"  Cassian.  Institut.  lib.  3.  cap.  9. 

*"  Cassian.  CoUat.  21.  cap.  20.  Per  omnia  eandem  in 
illis  (50  diebus)  solennitatem,  quara  die  Dominica  custodi- 
mus,  in  qua  majores  nnstri  nee  jejunium  agendum,  nee 
genu  esse  ttcctenduni,  ob  revcrcntiam  rcsurrectionis  Domi- 
niese  tradidorunt. 


1134 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XX. 


stitutions  :  Every  sabbath  except  one,'*'  (viz.  the 
great  sabbath  before  Easter,)  and  everj^  Lord's  day, 
ye  shall  keep  festival.  For  he  is  guilty  of  sin, 
that  fasts  on  the  Lord's  day,  as  being  the  day  of 
his  resurrection  ;  or  whoever  makes  Pentecost  or 
the  Lord's  day  a  day  of  sorrow.  For  in  these  days 
we  ought  to  rejoice,  and  not  to  mourn.  So  again,*'' 
Keep  the  sabbath  and  the  Lord's  day  festival ;  be- 
cause the  one  is  the  commemoration  of  the  creation, 
and  the  other  of  the  resurrection.  In  like  manner 
Peter,  bishop  of  Alexandria,*^  We  keep  the  Lord's 
day  as  a  day  of  joy,  because  of  him  who  rose  upon 
it.  And  Cotelerius"  cites  a  fragment  of  Theophilus, 
bishop  of  Alexandria,  to  the  same  purpose:  Both 
custom  and  decency  requires  us  to  keep  the  Lord's 
day  a  festival,  and  to  give  honour  to  it,  because  on 
this  day  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  procured  for  us  the 
resurrection  from  the  dead.  Yet  this  rule  was  not 
so  strictly  binding,  but  that,  when  a  necessary  oc- 
casion required,  and  there  was  no  suspicion  of 
heretical  perverseness  or  contempt,  men  might  fast 
upon  this  day ;  as  St.  Jerom  observes,'^  That  the 
apostle  Paul  sometimes  did ;  and  that  famous 
monk,  who  for  the  space  of  forty  years  never  eat 
till  the  sun  was  set.  And  Celerinus,  the  confessor 
in  Cyprian,  speaking  of  his  sister's  lapsing  into 
idolatry  in  time  of  persecution,*'  says.  For  this  fact 
I  wept  day  and  night  in  the  midst  of  the  joyful  fes- 
tival of  Easter,  and  spent  many  days  sorrowing  in 
sackcloth  and  ashes.  But  such  exceptions  as  these 
were  no  derogation  to  the  general  practice,  which 
prevailed  universally  over  the  whole  church,  and 
was  observed  with  great  exactness. 

Another  custom,  as  generally,  pre- 
And  "au  prayers  vaiHug,  was  always  to  pray  standing, 

offered  in  the  stand-  i        t  i,      i 

ing  posture  on  the  aud  ncvcr  kneclmg,  on  the  Lord  s  day. 

Lord's  day,  in  me-  ^ 

mory  of  our  savi-  jn  mcmorv  also  of  our  Saviour's  re- 

our's  resurrection.  * 

surrection.  And  we  scarce  meet  with 
any  exception  to  this,  except  it  were  in  the  case  of 
penitents  under  public  discipline,  whom  the  canons 
oblige  to  pray  kneeling  even  upon  the  days  of  re- 
laxation.*' But  setting  aside  this  case,  which  only 
respected  the  penitents  in  their  own  particular 
prayers,  the  general  custom  was  for  all  the  faithful 
or  communicants  to  pray  standing.  For  which  we 
have  the  concurrent  testimony  of  Irenseus,  Tertul- 
lian,  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  Cyprian,  the  council 
of  Nice,  Hilary,  Basil,  Epiphanius,  St.  Jerom,  St. 
Austin,  Cassian,  the  author  of  the  Questions  under 
the  name  of  Justin  Martyr,  Martin  Bracarensis, 
the  council  of  Trullo,  and  the  covmcil  of  Tours  in 


the  time  of  Charles  the  Great.  All  which  testimo- 
nies I  have  had  occasion  to  recite  at  large  once  be- 
fore,** and  therefore  spare  the  repetition  of  them  in 
this  })lace ;  only  observing  from  the  two  last  of 
them,  that  this  custom  was  not  only  general,  but 
of  long  continuance  in  the  church ;  and  when  or 
how  it  came  to  be  altered  or  laid  aside,  I  think  is 
not  very  easy  to  determine. 

The  last  thing  to  be  noted  in  this 

,  °  .,  Sect.  7. 

matter  is,  the  great  care  and  concern     The  gi-eat  care 

and  concern  of  the 


of  the  primitive  Christians  for  the  re-  P"m>tive  ciiristians 

■T  in  tlie  rehgious  ob- 

ligious  observation  of  the  Lord's  day ;  i"vd.s°"day.°'^  This 
of  which  they  have  left  us  several  de-  pTr^Thek  consi^'t 

^^.  /•,•        .1,.!  •^     attendance  upon  all 

monstrations  :  first,  m  that  they  paid  the  solemnities  of 

public  worsliip, 

a  ready  and  constant  attendance  upon 
all  the  offices  and  solemnities  of  public  Divine 
worship.  They  did  not  only  rest  from  bodily  labour 
and  secular  business,  but  spent  the  day  in  such  em- 
ployments as  were  proper  to  set  forth  the  glory 
of  the  Lord,  to  whose  honour  the  day  was  devoted  ; 
that  is,  in  holding  religious  assemblies  for  the  cele- 
bration of  the  several  parts  of  Divine  service, 
psalmody,  reading  of  the  Scriptures,  preaching, 
praying,  and  receiving  the  communion,  all  which 
were  the  constant  service  of  this  day;  and  such 
was  the  flaming  zeal  of  those  pious  votaries,  that 
nothing  but  sickness,  or  a  great  necessity,  or  im- 
prisonment, or  banishment,  could  detain  them  from 
it ;  and  then  also  care  was  taken,  that  the  chief 
part  of  it,  the  communion,  was  administered  to  them 
by  the  hands  of  the  deacons,  who  carried  it  to  those 
that  were  sick  or  in  prison,  that,  as  far  as  was  pos- 
sible, they  might  communicate  still  with  the  public 
congregation.  This  is  plain  from  the  account  which 
Justin  Martyr  gives  of  their  worship  :  ^^  On  the  day 
called  Sunday,  all  that  live  in  city  or  country  meet 
together,  and  the  writings  of  the  apostles  and  pro- 
phets are  read  to  them  ;  after  which  the  bishop  or 
president  of  the  assembly  makes  a  discourse  to  the 
people,  exhorting  them  to  follow  the  good  things 
they  have  heard :  then  we  all  rise,  and  make  com- 
mon prayer ;  and  when  prayers  are  ended,  bread 
and  wine  and  water  are  brought  to  the  president, 
who  prays  and  gives  thanks  with  all  possible  fer- 
vency over  them,  the  people  answering.  Amen. 
After  which,  distribution  of  the  elements  is  made 
to  all  that  are  present,  and  they  are  sent  to  the  ab- 
sent by  the  hands  of  the  deacons.  By  this  account 
it  appears,  that  Christians  joined,  as  far  as  was  pos- 
sible, in  the  public  service  of  the  Lord's  day,  and 
particularly  in  receiving  the  communion,  from  which 


81  Constit.  lib.  5.  cap.  20.  "^  ibjj   ij]^  7  p^p.  23. 

"^  Pet.  Alexand.  caa.  15. 

8'  Coteler.  Not.  in  Constitut.  lib.  5.  cap.  20.  p.  328. 

"^  Hieron.  Ep.  28.  ad  Luciniiim  Baeticum.  Utinam  omni 
tempore  jejimare  possimus,  quod  in  Actibus  Apostolorum, 
diebus  Pentecostes  et  die  Dominico  apostolum  Paulum  et 
cum  CO  credentes  fecisse  legimus. 


8^  Celerin.  Ep.  21.  ad  Lucian.  ap.  Cypr.  p.  45.  Pro  cujus 
factis  ego  in  Icetitia  Paschee  flens  die  et  nocte,  in  cilicio  et 
cinere  lachrvmabundus  dies  exegi. 

"'  Cone.  Carthag.  4.  can.  82.  Pcenitentes  etiam  diebus 
remissionis  genua  flectant. 

"8  Book  XIII.  chap.  8.  sect.  3. 

s!"  Justin.  Apol.  2.  p.  98. 


Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


113.) 


the  absent  were  not  exempt,  if  there  was  any  pos- 
sibihty  of  their  receiving  it. 

Neither  was  it  any  pretence  of  dan- 
2miiy,  From  their  prg^  j^  timcs  of  difRcultv  and  pcrsccu- 

iei\!  in  frequenting    o  ./  i 

Tven  intimiTf  per!  tiott,  that  couM  abatc  their  zeal  for 
serntion.  ^j^^  pubHo  worship  on  the  Lord's  day  ; 

for  when  they  conld  not  meet  by  day  to  serve  God 
without  hazard  of  their  hvcs,  they  kept  their  noc- 
turnal convocations,  or  morning  assemblies,  for  this 
purpose.  Which  is  evident  from  the  account  which 
Pliny  gives  of  them,""  that  they  were  used  to  meet 
before  it  was  light  on  this  solemn  day,  and  sing 
their  morning  hymns  to  Christ.  So  Tertullian,  in 
answer  to  one  asking,"'  How  they  should  celebrate 
the  Lord's  day  solemnities  for  fear  of  the  soldiers 
coming  in  to  discover  them  ?  replies,  first.  That  they 
should  do  it  as  the  apostles  did,  by  faith,  and  not 
by  bribing  them.  For  if  faith  could  remove  moun- 
tains, it  could  much  more  easily  remove  a  soldier 
out  of  the  way.  But  if  they  could  not  meet  by  day, 
they  had  the  night  sufficiently  clear  with  the  light 
of  Christ  to  protect  them.  The  same  author"-  tells 
the  heathen,  Vv'ho  maliciously  objected  to  them  the 
murdering  of  an  infant  in  their  assemblies,  that 
they  were  often  beset,  they  were  often  betrayed, 
they  were  daily  seized  in  their  meetings  and  con- 
gregations ;  but  no  one  ever  found  them  acting 
such  a  tragedy,  no  one  ever  made  evidence  of  their 
being  such  bloody  Cyclops  and  Sirens  before  a 
judge.  Nay,  they  were  sometimes  barbarously 
murdered  in  their  assemblies,  whilst  the  laws  for- 
bade their  meetings  under  the  name  of  hetcerice,  and 
denied  them  their  arece,  or  places  of  worship,  as  un- 
lawful cabals,  where  they  met  only  to  plot  treason 
and  rebellion  against  the  government.  Under  which 
pretence,  Lactantius"^  and  Eusebius"*  tell  us,  one 
of  the  heathen  judges  burnt  a  whole  city  of  people 
in  Phrygia,  together  with  their  church,  where  they 
were  met  together  to  worship  God.  And  the  laws  "^ 
forbidding  their  assemblies  are  mentioned  both  by 
Phny  and  the  Christian  writers.  So  that  in  these 
times  of  difficulty  the  Christians  could  not  meet  for 
Divine  worship  but  at  the  hazard  of  their  lives ; 
and  yet  they  did  not  think  this  a  sufficient  excuse 
to  forsake  the  assembling  of  themselves  together, 
bui  met  continually  to  solemnize  the  Lord's  day 
in  spite  of  all  the  danger  and  opposition  to  the 
contrary. 


'"  Plin.  lib.  10.  Ep.  97. 

"'  Tertul.  de  Fuga,  cap.  14.  Quoraodo  Dominica  solemnia 
celebrabimus  ?  Utique  quomodo  et  apostoli,  fide,  non  pe- 
cunia  tuti.     Quae  fides  si  montem  transferre  potest,  multo 

magis  militeni. Postremo   si  colligere  interdiu  non 

potes,  habes  noctem  luce  Christi  luminosi  adversus  earn. 

"-  Tertul.  Apol.  cap.  7.  Quotidie  obsideraur,  quotidie 
prodimur,  in  ipsis  plurimura  coetibus  et  congregationibus 
nostris  opprimimur.  Quis  iinquam  taliter  vagicnti  infanti 
supervenit  ?  Quis  cruenta,  ut  invenerat,  Cyclopum  et  Sire- 
num  ora  judici  reseravit? 


A  further  instance  of  their  zeal  was 
showed  in  the  studious  observation  of     ardiy/prom  ihoir 

,  .     ,,  _  stiidioutiOhservatioil 

the  lone  vienis,  or  nocturnal  assem-  or  the  vign,,  omw- 

°  °        '  tiirnal   iii,MniMie« 

blies  preceding  the  Lord's  day.  For  preceding i he  Loni-s 
though  these  were  first  begun  in  times 
of  persecution,  yet  they  continued  them  its  a  use- 
ful exercise  of  piety,  when  the  persecutions  were 
over :  and  the  greatest  personages  did  not  refuse  to 
frequent  and  encourage  them,  as  Sidonins  Apolli- 
narius  °*  particularly  notes  of  Theodoric,  king  of  the 
Goths,  that  he  usually  came  with  a  small  guard  to 
the  morning  or  antelucan  assemblies  of  his  party 
(for  he  was  by  sect  an  Arian) ;  which  he  did  to 
promote  the  cause  of  the  Arians,  who  commonly 
vied  zeal  with  the  catholics  in  this  service.  And 
this  made  the  catholics,  both  clergy  and  laity, 
princes  and  people,  express  a  more  earnest  concern 
for  this  particular  way  of  introducing  the  great  ser- 
vice of  the  Lord's  day,  as  I  have  had  occasion  more 
fully  to  demonstrate"'  in  a  former  Book.  All  that 
I  shall  remark  further  here  is,  that  though  this 
morning  service  was  very  long,  (for  it  commonly 
continued  in  psalmody,  hymns,  and  prayers  from 
midnight  till  break  of  day,)  yet  it  was  generally  at- 
tended with  great  alacrity  and  assiduity  by  men  of 
all  ranks,  who  voluntarily  resorted  to  it  without  any 
necessity  or  compulsion  laid  upon  them.  And  this 
was  another  instance  of  their  great  zeal  in  the  re- 
ligious observation  of  the  Lord's  day. 

4.  It  is  worth  our  remarking  also, 

=>  '  Sect.  10. 

that  in  many  places,  especially  in  attenlun^r^pon'' 
cities  and  churches  of  greater  note,  puces'uiceonThia 
they  had  usually  sermons  twice  on  ■"'' 
this  day,  and  men  resorted  with  diligence  to  the 
evening  as  well  the  morning  sermon.  St.  Chrysos- 
tom  sometimes""  commends  the  people  of  Antioch 
for  their  zeal  in  this  matter.  And  there  are  several 
passages  in  St.  Austin,  St.  Basil,  Theodoret,  and 
Gaudentius,  which  plainly  refer  to  the  same  prac- 
tice, of  which  1  need  say  no  more  hei'e,  because  I 
have  more  fully  represented  them  in  discoursing  of 
the  ancient  manner  of  preaching""  in  another  place. 

5.  In  such  churches  as  had  no  cven- 

Sect.  II. 

ing  sermon,  there  was  still  the  com-    .?"''?'•  ^"""  ">"'■■ 

C5  '  atteiid.ince  oneven- 

mon  service  of  evening  prayer ;   and  {h?re'"waT'no''^r! 
men    generally   thought    themselves  '"°"' 
obliged  to  attend  this,  as  a  necessary  part  of  tlie 
public  worship  and  solemnity  of  the  Lord's  day. 


^  Lact.  lib.  5.  cap.  11.  Aliqiii  ad  occidendum  praecipites 
extiterunt,  siciit  unus  in  Phrygia,  qui  universum  popidum 
cum  ipso  pariter  conventiciilo  concremavit. 

»<Eiiseb.  lib.  8.  cap.  II. 

"5  Plin.  Ep.  97.  lib.  10.  Tertul.  ad  Scapul.cap.  3.  Euseb. 
lib.  10.  cap.  2. 

""  Sidon.  lib.  1.  Ep.  2. 

^'  Book  XIII.  chap.  9.  sect.  4.  and  chap.  10.  sect.  12,  &c. 

^'  Chrys.  Horn.  10.  ad  Pop.  Antioch.  t.  1.  p.  132. 

»»  Book  XIV.  chap.  4.  sect.  8. 


1136 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


r 


Book  XX. 


Some,  indeed,  in  these  primitive  ages  had  their  ob- 
jections against  this,  which  St.  Chrysostom'""  in 
one  of  his  homilies  mentions,  and  smartly  answers. 
Why  should  we  go  to  church,  said  they,  if  we  can- 
not hear  a  preacher  ?  This  one  thing,  says  Chry- 
sostom  in  his  reply,  has  ruined  and  destroyed  all 
religion.  For  what  need  is  there  of  a  preacher,  ex- 
cept when  that  necessity  arises  from  our  sloth  and 
negligence?  What  need  is  there  of  a  homily,  when 
all  things  necessary  are  plainly  revealed  in  Scrip- 
ture .''  .  Such  hearers  as  desire  to  have  something 
new  every  day,  only  study  to  delight  their  ears  and 
fancy.  Tell  me,  what  pompous  train  of  words  did 
St.  Paul  use  ?  And  yet  he  converted  the  world. 
What  eloquent  harangues  did  the  illiterate  Peter 
make  ?  But  the  Scriptures  arc  dark  and  hard  to  be 
understood  (without  a  sermon  to  explain  them). 
How  so?  Are  they  read  in  Hebrew,  or  Latin,  or 
any  other  strange  language?  Are  they  not  read  in 
Greek,  to  you  that  understand  Greek  ?  What  diffi- 
culties do  the  histories  contain  ?  You  may  under- 
stand the  plain  places,  and  take  some  pains  about 
the  rest.  Oh,  but  we  have  the  same  things  read  to 
us  out  of  Scripture.  And  do  you  not  hear  the  same 
things  every  day  in  the  theatre  ?  Have  you  not  the 
same  sight  at  the  horse  race  ?  Are  not  all  things 
the  same  ?  Does  not  the  same  sun  rise  every  morn- 
ing ?  Do  you  not  eat  the  same  meat  every  day  ? 
Hence  he  concludes,  That  all  these  were  but  pre- 
tences for  idleness,  or  mere  indications  of  a  scepti- 
cal temper.  So  again,  when  some  would  have  ex- 
cused themselves  from  these  prayers  of  the  church, 
by  this  frivolous  plea,  that  they  could  pray  at  home, 
but  they  could  not  hear  a  sermon  in  their  own 
houses  ;  and  therefore  they  would  come  to  sermon, 
but  not  to  prayers  ;  he  makes  this  handsome  reply : 
You  deceive '"'  yourself,  O  man ;  for  though  you 
may  pray  at  home,  yet  you  cannot  pray  there  in 
the  same  manner  as  you  may  in  the  church,  where 
there  are  so  many  fathers  together,  and  where  the 
cry  of  your  prayers  is  sent  up  to  God  with  one  con- 
sent. You  are  not  heard  so  well,  when  you  pray 
to  God  by  yourself  alone,  as  when  you  pray  with 
your  brethren.  For  there  is  something  more  here, 
consent  of  mind,  and  consent  of  voice,  and  the  bond 
of  charity,  and  the  prayers  of  the  priests  together. 
For  the  priests  for  this  very  reason  preside  in  the 
church,  that  the  people's  prayers,  which  are  weaker 
of  themselves,  laying  hold  on  those  that  are  stronger, 
may  together  with  them  mount  up  to  heaven.  In 
another  place,  answering  the  same  vulgar  plea.  That 
men  could  pray  at  home,  he  tells  them,'"''  You  may 


pray  at  home  indeed,  but  your  prayers  are  not  of 
that  efficacy  and  power,  as  when  the  whole  body  of 
the  church,  with  one  mind  and  one  voice,  send  up 
their  prayers  together ;  the  priests  assisting,  and 
offering  up  the  prayers  of  the  whole  multitude  in 
common.  This  was  the  sense  which  that  holy  man 
had  of  public  prayer  on  the  Lord's  day,  though 
there  was  no  sermon  ;  and  the  method  he  took  to 
show  men  their  obligation  to  frequent  the  church 
for  public  prayer,  which,  when  men  had  opportunity 
to  frequent  it,  was  always  to  be  preferred  before 
private  devotion.  They  might  both  very  well  con- 
sist together,  and  both  be  performed  as  proper  ex- 
ercises for  the  Lord's  day  ;  but  the  one  was  not  to 
jostle  out  the  other,  or  to  be  pleaded  as  a  rational 
excuse  for  absenting  from  the  public  service.  He 
that  would  see  this  matter  more  fully  stated,  may 
look  back  to  the  discourse  of  church  unity,""  where 
men's  obligation  to  preserve  the  unity  of  worship,  in 
joining  with  the  church  in  prayers,  and  adminis- 
tration of  the  word  and  sacraments,  has  been  amply 
considered. 

6.  I  shall  but  mention  one  instance 

Sect.  12. 

more  of  their  CTeat  zeal  and  concern     ^'^'y-  .''™"!  i'"' 

o  censures  inflicted  oil 

for  the  religious  observation  of  the  ae'L"'ionce°rning 
Lord's  day,  and  that  is,  the  church's  Lion  of'°he°Lords 
care  in  making  many  good  laws  of  ' 
discipline,  for  the  censure  and  punishment  of  those 
who,  in  any  considerable  degree,  violated  the  just 
observation  of  it.  If  any  one  absented  for  three 
Lord's  days  from  the  public  assembly  of  the  church, 
without  any  just  reason  or  necessity  to  compel 
him,  this  was  an  offence  thought  worthy  of  ex- 
communication, as  may  be  seen  in  the  canons  of  the 
council  of  Eliberis,'"''  and  Sardica,  and  Trullo.  If 
any  one  went  to  the  public  games  in  the  theatre  or 
the  circus  on  this  day,  he  was  liable  to  excommuni- 
cation also  for  a  single  offence  after  a  first  admoni- 
tion, as  appears  from  the  councils  of  Carthage'"' 
and  the  denunciations  of  St.  Chrysostom.  If  any 
one  left  the  church  whilst  the  bishop  was  preach- 
ing, by  a  rule  of  the  fourth  council  of  Carthage '"" 
he  was  liable  to  the  same  condemnation  and  cen- 
sure. If  any  one  came  to  church  to  hear  the  Scrip- 
tures read  and  the  sermon  preached,  but  refused  to 
join  in  prayers  or  the  reception  of  the  communion, 
(which  in  those  times  was  administered  to  all  in 
general  every  Lord's  day,)  he  was  to  be  excommu- 
nicated for  his  offence,  and  reduced  to  the  state  of 
a  penitent,  as  one  who  brought  confusion  and  dis- 
order into  the  church.  This  we  learn  from  the 
Apostolical  Canons,'"'  and  the  councils  of  Antioch, 


'«■  Chrys.  Horn.  3.  in  2  Thess.  p.  1502. 
""  Horn.  3.  de  Incomprehcnsibili,  t.  1.  p.  363. 
'<>-  Horn.  2.  de  Obsciirit.  Prophet,  t.  .3.  p.  916. 
'»'  Book  XVI.  chap.  1.  sect.  5. 

""  Cone.  Elib.  can.  21.     Cone.  Sardic.  can.  11.     Cone. 
Trull,  can.  80. 


'"^  Cone.  Carthag.  4.  can.  88.  Chrys.  Horn.  6.  in  Gen. 
t.  2.  p.  53. 

""=  Cone.  Carthag.  4.  can.  24. 

""  Canon.  Apost.  e.  7.  Cone.  Antioch.  can.  2.  Cone. 
Eliber.  can.  27.     Cone.  Tolet.  1.  can.  13  et  14. 


CllAI'.    III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1137 


Elibcris,  and  Toledo.  If  any  one  held  a  separate 
assembly,  or  frequented  or  encouraged  any  such, 
he  was  to  be  treated  as  a  heretic  or  schismatic, 
for  despising  the  service  of  the  Lord's  day.  Tlie 
Apostolical  Canons  ""  excommunicate  all  such,  and 
the  council  of  Gangra'°'Iays  the  heaviest  censure 
of  anathema  upon  them.  If  any  one  perversely 
choose  to  make  the  Lord's  day  a  day  of  fasting,  l)e- 
cause  this  was  contrary  to  the  general  rule  and 
practice  of  the  church,  and  gave  suspicion  of  some 
heresy  denying  the  resurrection  of  the  Lord,  the 
Apostohcal  Canons,""  and  the  council  of  Gangra,'" 
and  the  fourth  council  of  Carthage,"^  and  the  first 
of  Braga,"'  peremptorily  denounce  such  an  one  ex- 
communicate, and  anathema,  and  no  catholic,  as 
herding  with  the  impious  Manichees,  ISIarcionites, 
Priscillianists,  and  such  other  heretics,  as  purposely 
choose  to  fast  on  the  Lord's  day,  to  show  despite  to 
the  doctrine  of  our  Saviour's  humanity  and  resur- 
rection. I  have  discoursed  these  things  at  large 
in  giving  an  account  of  the  unity  and  discipline  of 
the  church  in  a  former  Book,'"  and  therefore  only 
just  touch  them  here,  to  show  with  what  zeal  and 
concern  the  ancients  laboured  to  establish  the  ob- 
servation of  the  Lord's  day,  which  they  esteemed 
the  queen  and  empress  of  all  days,  in  which  our  life 
was  raised  again,  and  death  conquered  by  our  Lord 
and  Saviour :  as  the  author  of  the  epistle  to  the 
Magnesians  under  the  name  of  Ignatius '"  words  it, 
who  in  this  speaks  the  language  of  the  ancients, 
who  often  style  this  day,  the  queen  of  days,"*  as 
Buxtorf  observes"'  the  rabbins  were  used  to  term 
the  Jewish  sabbath,  llalchah,  that  is.  The  queen 
of  days;  from  whom  the  Christians  took  the  name, 
and  transferred  it  to  the  Lord's  day,  which  is  the 
proper  Christian  sabbath. 


CHAPTER  III. 

OF  THE  OBSERVATIOX    OF  THE   SABBATH,  OR   SATUR- 
DAY, AS    A    WEEKLY    FESTIVAL. 


Sect.  1.  Next  to  the  Lord  s  day  the  ancient 

The  Saturdav,  or  .  ,.    i      •  i 

sabbath,  aiwajs  Ob-  Lhristians  wcrc  very  careiul  ni  the 


observation  of  Saturday,  or  the  seventh  «meiiin  the  F.i>»f- 

-  '         .  T         •   1      "^'"  church  aa  a  fi-s- 

day,  which  was  the  ancient  Jewish  ^"'^■ 
sabbath.  Some  observed  it  as  a  fast,  others  as  a 
festival ;  but  all  unanimously  agreed  in  keeping  it 
as  a  more  solemn  day  of  religious  worship  and 
adoration.  In  the  Eastern  church  it  was  ever  ob- 
served as  a  festival,  one  only  sabbath  excepted, 
which  was  called  the  Great  Sabbath,  between  Good 
Friday  and  Easter-day,  when  our  Saviour  lay  buried 
in  the  grave,  upon  which  account  it  was  kept  as  a 
fast  throughout  the  whole  church.  But  setting 
aside  that  one  sabbath,  all  the  rest  were  kept  as  fes- 
tivals in  the  Oriental  church.  St.  Austin,  though 
he  liyed  in  a  country  where  it  was  kept  a  fast,  yet 
testifies  for  the  contrary  practice'  of  the  Eastern 
church.  For  writing  to  St.  Jerom,  he  asks  him, 
Whether  he  thought  an  Oriental  Christian,  when 
he  came  to  Rome,  might  not  without  any  dissimu- 
lation fast  on  eyery  sabbath,  as  well  as  that  one 
sabbath  called  the  Paschal  vigil?  If  we  say  it  is  a 
sin,  (to  fast  on  the  sabbath,)  we  shall  condemn  not 
only  the  Roman  church,  but  many  neighbouring 
churches,  and  some  at  a  greater  distance,  where 
that  custom  is  kept  and  retained.  But  if  we  think 
it  is  a  sin  not  to  fast  on  the  sabbath,  we  shall  rashly 
condemn  all  the  Oriental  churches,  and  the  greatect 
part  of  the  Christian  world.  We  should,  therefore, 
rather  say,  it  is  a  thing  indiSerent  in  itself,  w'hich 
a  good  man  may  perform  cither  way  without  dis- 
simulation, complying  with  the  society  and  observ- 
ation of  the  church  where  he  happens  to  be.  From 
hence  it  is  plain,  that  all  the  Oriental  churches,  and 
the  greatest  part  of  the  world,  observed  the  sabbath 
as  a  festival.  And  the  Greek  writers  are  unanimous 
in  their  testimony.  The  author  of  the  Constitutions, 
who  describes  the  customs  chiefly  of  the  Oriental 
church,  frequently  speaks  of  it.  On  the  sabbath  - 
and  the  Lord's  day,  on  which  Christ  rose  from  the 
dead,  ye  shall  more  carefully  meet  together,  to 
praise  God,  w^ho  created  all  things  by  Jesus,  to 
hear  the  Prophets  and  the  Gospels  read,  to  offer  the 
oblation,  and  partake  of  the  holy  supper.  In  an- 
other place '  he  says,  Christ  commanded  them  to 
fast  on  the  sabbath  before  Easter ;  not  that  they 
were  to  fast  on  the  sabbath,  on  which  God  rested 
from  the  creation,  but  only  on  that  one  sabbath, 
when  the  Creator  of  the  world  lay  under  the  earth. 


'"8  Can.  Apost.  c.  32.     ""  Cone.  Gangren.  can.  5, 6,  7,  &c. 

""  Canon.  Apost.  64.  '"  Cone.  Gangren.  can.  18. 

"-  Cone.  Caith.  4.  can.  G4.       "'  Cone.  Bracar.  1.  can.  4. 

"^  Book  XVI.  chap.  1.  sect.  5.  and  chap.  8.  sect.  2. 

"■'  Pseudo-Ignat.  Ep.  ad  Magnes.  n.  9. 

"°  Naz.  Orat.  43.  in  Dominicam  Novam,  p.  703.  'H  /3a- 
(7lXi(7<ra  Tuii/  tlipwv  Ty  fSaciXiSi  Ttof  v/xfpitiv  iroixirtvii. 
Rei^ina  temporiim  regina;  dierum  pompam  pcragit. 

"' Btistorf.  Synagog.  Judaic,  cap.  10.  p.  246.     Rabbini 

sabbatum  Malchah  sive  reginam  nominarunt.     .lam  si  quis 

vestes  regales,  ante   reginam  illam  comparitnnis,  non  in- 

dueret  ;  quales  alias  causa  regnm  honorandonim  quilibet  in- 

4   D 


iluere  soleret ;  per  id  regina  talis  dedecore  inagno  afficoretur. 

'  Aug.  Ep.  19.  ad  Hieronym.  p.  29.  Vellem  me  doceret 
benigna  sinceritas  tua,  utrnm  simulate  qiiisquani  sanctus 
Orientalis,  cum  iRomam  vencrit,  jejunet  sabliato,  e.xcepto 
illo  die  Paschalis  Vigilia;  ?  Quod  si  malum  esse  di.xerimus, 
non  soliun  Romanam  ccclesiam,  sod  cliam  niulta  ei  vicina, 
et  aliquanto  remotiora  condcmnabimus,  ulii  mos  idem  teuo- 
tur  et  manet.  Si  autem  non  jejunare  sabhato  malum  puta- 
verimus,  tot  ecclesias  Oricntis.  midto  majorcm  orbis  Chris- 
tiani  partem  qua  temeritate  criminabimur  ?  Placetne  tibi, 
ut  medium  quiddara  esse  dicamus,  &c. 

2  Constit.  lib.  2.  cap.  59.  '  Ibid.  lib.  5.  cap.  15. 


1138 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XX. 


And  again/  On  every  sabbath,  except  one,  and  the 
Lord's  day,  ye  shall  hold  festival  assemblies.  The  sab- 
bath^ and  the  Lord's  day  ye  shall  observe  as  festivals, 
because  the  one  is  the  remembrance  of  the  creation, 
and  the  other  of  the  resurrection.  But  one  sabbath 
in  the  year,  viz.  that  on  which  oiu-  Lord  lay  buried 
in  the  grave,  ye  shall  keep  as  a  fast,  and  not  a  fes- 
tival. For  whilst  the  Creator  lay  under  the  earth, 
mom'ning  was  more  becoming  upon  his  account, 
than  joy  for  the  creation  ;  because  the  Creator  in 
nature  and  dignity  is  more  honourable  than  all  his 
creatures.  Finally,  he  represents  it  as*^  the  order 
of  the  apostles  Peter  and  Paul,  that  servants  should 
work  five  days  in  the  week,  but  on  the  sabbath  and 
the  Lord's  day  they  should  rest,  that  they  might 
have  liberty  to  go  to  church  for  instruction  in  piety ; 
on  the  sabbath,  in  regard  to  the  creation ;  on  the 
Lord's  day,  in  regard  to  the  resurrection.  Athana- 
sius  likewise  tells  us,"  that  they  held  religious  as- 
semblies on  the  sabbath,  not  because  they  were 
infected  with  Judaism,  but  to  worship  Jesus  the 
Lord  of  the  sabbath.  Epiphanius  says  the  same,* 
That  it  was  a  day  of  public  assembly  in  many 
churches,  meaning  the  Oriental  churches,  where  it 
was  kept  a  festival. 

Other  authors  are  more  particular 
Observed  with  the  iu  descrlbiucr  tlic  relijjious  service  of 

same    religious   so-  _  ="  =■ 

L^^d's  dl  '^  "'^  ^^^'^  ^^y  >  ^'^'^  ^'^  ^^^'  ^^  concerns  pub- 
lic worship,  they  make  it  in  all  things 
conformable  to  that  of  the  Lord's  day ;  which  is  a 
further  evidence  of  its  being  a  festival.  They  tell 
us.  They  had  not  only  the  Scriptures  read,  as  on 
the  Lord's  day,  and  sermons  preached,  but  the  com- 
munion administered  also.  Which  is  expressly  said 
by  Socrates,'  and  Cassian,"  and  St.  Basil,"  and 
Timothy  of  Alexandria,'-  and  St.  Austin,"  and  the 
council  of  Laodicea ;"  which  council  particularly 
forbids  the  offering  of  the  eucharistical  oblation,  or 
solemnizing  any  memorials  of  martyrs,  on  any  other 
days  in  Lent,  beside  the  sabbath  and  the  Lord's  day, 
because  all  other  days  were  days  of  fasting,  but 
these,  even  in  Lent,  were  kept  as  festivals  and  days 
of  relaxation.  I  have  once  before'^  had  occasion 
to  produce  the  testimonies  of  these  several  writers 
at  large,  and  therefore  it  is  sufficient  here  to  make  a 
short  reference  to  them,  to  show  the  ancient  man- 
ner of  keeping  the  sabbath  festival  in  the  Oriental 
church. 

Only  here  we  are  to  observe,  that 

Sect.  3.  ,  , 

Butin  some  other  though  the  substancc  of  tlic  scrvicc 

respects  the  prefer- 

ence  w^  Kiven  to  for  the  Sabbath  and  the  Lord's  day 

the  Lord's  day.  J 

was  the  same,  yet  in  rites  and  cere- 


monies a  difference  was  made,  and  in  some  other 
respects  the  preference  was  given  to  the  Lord's  day 
above  the  sabbath.  For,  first,  we  find  no  ecclesi- 
astical laws  obliging  men  to  pray  standing  on  the 
sabbath  ;  for  that  was  a  ceremony  peculiar  to  the 
Lord's  day,  in  memory  of  our  Saviour's  resurrection. 
Nor,  secondly,  are  there  any  imperial  laws  forbidding 
law-suits  and  pleadings  on  this  day.  Nor,  thirdly, 
any  laws  prohibiting  the  public  shows  and  games, 
as  on  the  Lord's  day.  Nor,  fourthly,  any  laws 
obliging  men  to  abstain  wholly  from  bodily  labour. 
But,  on  the  contrary,  the  council  of  Laodicea'"  has 
a  canon  forbidding  Christians  to  Judaize,  or  rest  on 
the  sabbath,  any  further  than  was  necessary  for 
public  worship  ;  but  they  were  to  honour  the  Lord's 
day,  and  rest  on  it  as  Christians.  And  if  any  were 
found  to  Judaize,  an  anathema  is  pronounced  against 
them.  The  like  direction  is  given  by  the  author  of 
the  epistle  to  the  INIagnesians,"  in  conformity  to 
this  rule :  Let  us  not  keep  the  sabbath  after  the 
Jewish  manner,  rejoicing  in  idleness  :  "  For  he  that 
will  not  work,  neither  let  him  eat;"  and,  "In  the 
sweat  of  thy  face  shalt  thou  eat  thy  bread,"  say  the 
Divine  oracles :  but  let  every  one  of  you  keep  the 
sabbath  spiritually,  rejoicing  in  the  meditation  of 
the  law,  not  in  the  rest  of  the  body ;  admiring  the 
workmanship  of  God,  not  eating  things  dressed  the 
day  before,  nor  drinking  lukewarm  drink,  nor  walk- 
ing within  a  certain  space,  (the  Hmits  of  a  sabbath 
day's  journey,)  nor  taking  pleasure  in  dancing  and 
shouting,  which  things  have  no  sense  or  reason  in 
them.  Here  are  several  superstitions  and  vanities 
in  the  Jewish  observation  of  the  sabbath  reflected 
on  by  this  author,  but  I  only  note  the  opposition 
he  makes  between  the  Christian  and  Jewish  way  of 
observing  the  sabbath  in  point  of  working.  Tiie 
Jews  abstained  wholly  from  working  on  the  sab- 
bath ;  the  Christians  only  so  far  as  was  necessary 
for  their  attendance  upon  Divine  service  in  the 
church.  And  in  this  sense,  I  think,  we  are  to  un- 
derstand the  author  of  the  Constitutions,''  when  he 
says,  Let  servants  work  five  days  in  the  week,  but 
on  the  sabbath  and  the  Lord's  day  let  them  rest  in 
the  church  for  their  instruction  in  piety.  But  if 
any  think,  with  Cotelerius,  that  he  extends  the  rest 
of  the  sabbath  as  far  as  that  of  the  Lord's  day, 
because  he  joins  them  both  together;  I  will  not 
contend  about  it,  but  only  say,  he  then  contradict,-^ 
-the  Laodicean  fathers,  who  plainly  forbid  a  total 
rest  upon  the  sabbath,  to  give  some  preference  in 
this  respect  to  the  Lord's  day,  which  was  of  greater 
esteem  in  the  Christian  church. 


*  Constit.  lib.  5.  cap.  20.  p.  327.  "•  Lib.  7.  cap.  23, 

0  Lib.  8.  cap.  33. 

'  Athan.  Horn,  dc  Sementc,  t.  I.  p.  lOGO. 

8  Epiphan.  Exposit.  Fid.  t.  1.  p.  1107. 

"  Socrat.  lib.  5.  cap.  22.  lib.  6.  cap.  8. 

'«  Cassian.  Institut.  lib.  3.  cap.  2.  "  Basil.  Ep.  289. 


'2  Timoth.  can.  13.  ''  Aug.  Ep.  118. 

"  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  49  et  lOL  See  also  Cassian.  Institut, 
lib.  3.  cap.  20.  et  Asterlus  Amasen.  Horn.  5.  ap.  Combefis, 
Auctar.  t.  1.  p.  78. 

'^  Book  XIII.  chap.- 9.  sect.  3.     '"  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  29. 

"  Pseudo-Ignat.  adMagnes. n.  9.    '"Constit.  lib.  8.  cap.  33. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


11.39 


Sect.  4. 
Why  the  aiK 
continueil 


If  it  be  inquired,  why  the  ancient 

■t  church  continued  the  observation  of 

th<.  ohscnatinn  of  the  Jcwish  Sabbath,  when  they  took  it 

the  Jewish  sabbiith,  '  •' 

to   be   only  a  temporary   institution 
given  to  the  Jews  only,  as  circumcision  and  other 
typical  rites  of  the  law;  (which  is  expressly  said  by 
many  of  the  ancient  writers,  particularly  by  Justin 
Martyr,'"  Irenasus,^  TertuUian,''"  Euscbius,"  to  name 
no  more ;)  it  is  answered  by  learned  men,^  that  it 
was  to  comply  with  the  Jewish  converts,  as  they 
did  in  the  use  of  many  other  indiilerent  things,  so 
long  as  no  doctrinal  necessity  was  laid  upon  them. 
"  For  the  Jews  being  generally  the  first  converts  to 
the  Christian  faith,  they  still  retained  a  mighty  re- 
verence for  the  Mosaic  institutions,  and  especially 
for  the  sabbath,  as  that  which  had  been  appointed 
by  God  himself,  as  the  memorial  of  his  rest  from 
the  work  of  creation,  settled  by  their  great  master, 
Moses,  and  celebrated  by  their  ancestors  for  so  many 
ages,  as  the  solemn  day  of  their  public  worship, 
and  were  therefore  very  loth  it  should  be  wholly 
antiquated  and    laid   aside.     For   this   reason,  it 
seemed  good  to  the  prudence  of  those  times,  (as  in 
other  of  the  Jewish  rites,  so  in  this,)  to  indulge  the 
humour  of  that  people,  and  to  keep  the  sabbath  as 
a  day  for  religious  offices,  viz.  public  prayers,  read- 
ing of  the  Scriptures,  preaching,  celebration  of  the 
sacraments,  and  such  like  duties."     But  when  any 
one  pretended  to  carry  the  observation  of  it  further, 
either  by  introducing  a  doctrinal  necessity,  or  press- 
ing the  observation  of  it  precisely  after  the  Jewish 
manner,  they  resolutely  opposed  it,  as  introducing 
Judaism  into  the  Christian  religion.     For  this  rea- 
son, the  Ebionites  were  condemned  for  joining  the 
observation  of  the  sabbath "  according  to  the  law 
of  the  Jews,  with  the  observation  of  the  Lord's  day 
after  the  manner  of  Christians.     Against  such  the 
council  of  Laodicea^  pronounces  anathema,  that 
is,  such  as  taught  the  necessity  of  keeping  the  sab- 
bath a  perfect  rest  with  the  Jews.     And  in  this 
sense  we  are  to  understand  what  Gregory  the  Great"" 
says.  That  antichrist  will  renew  the  observation  of 
the  sabbath.     He  must  needs  mean  the  observation 
of  it  after  the  Jewish  manner :  since  in  the  Chris- 
tian way  it  was  observed  as  well  by  the  Latin 
church   as  the  Greek ;    only  with  this  difference, 
that  the  Latins  kept  it  a  fast,  and  the  Greeks  a 
festival. 

<;p^j  J  If  it  be  inquired,  what  was  the  oc- 

.^r'feii'ivnn''the  casiou  of    thls   difference,   why   the 
Greek  church  observed  it  as  a  festival, 


Oriental  church. 


and  the  Latin  as  a  fast  ?  I  answer,  the  Greek 
church  received  it  as  they  found  it  delivered  to  them 
by  the  Jews,  among  whom  it  was  always  a  festival. 
But  besides  this,  there  was  another  reason  inclining 
them  to  do  it.  For  Marcion  the  heretic  made  it  a 
part  of  his  heresy  to  fast  on  the  sabbath,  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  God  of  the  Jews,  pretending  that  there 
was  another  God  to  be  worshipped  beside  the  Cre- 
ator of  the  world,  who  was  the  God  of  the  Jews ; 
and  therefore  he  appointed  the  sabbath  to  be  kept  a 
fast,  that  he  might  not  seem  to  comply  with  the 
rites  of  the  God  of  (he  Jews,  who  rested  from  his 
work  of  creation  on  the  sabbath  or  seventh  day. 
This  is  expressly  said  by  Epiphanius  :  ^'  Marcion 
for  this  reason  fasted  on  the  sabbath.  For,  said 
he,  since  that  day  is  the  rest  of  the  God  of  the  Jews, 
who  made  the  world  and  rested  on  the  sabbath  day, 
we  therefore  fast  on  that  day,  that  we  may  not  do 
any  thing  in  compliance  with  the  God  of  the  Jews. 
Now,  this  made  the  catholics  more  zealous  to  keep 
the  sabbath  a  festival,  that  they  might  not  seem  to 
give  any  countenance  to  the  wicked  blasphemy  and 
impiety  of  Marcion,  or  any  ways  reflect  upon  the 
God  of  the  Old  Testament,  whom  they  owned  and 
honoured  as  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
which  Marcion  did  not :  since  he  in  spite  to  the 
true  God  made  the  sabbath  a  fast,  they  thought  it 
proper  to  keep  it  a  festival,  as  it  had  always  been 
from  its  first  institution.  And  in  ojipositiou  to  his 
heresy,  soon  after  it  began  to  spread,  a  canon  was 
made  in  the  church,  which  now  we  have  among 
those  called  the  Apostolical  Canons,''^  That  if  any 
clergyman  was  found  to  fast  on  the  Lord's  day,  or 
on  the  sabbath,  one  only  excepted,  he  should  be 
deposed ;  or  if  he  was  a  layman,  be  cast  out  of  the 
communion  of  the  church.  After  Marcion  there 
arose  many  other  sects,  who  followed  him  in  this 
particular  singularity  of  keeping  the  sabbath  as  a 
fast,  though  they  did  not  all  agree  in  the  same  rea- 
sons for  doing  it.  The  Eustathians  did  it  for  the 
exercise  of  an  ascetic  life ;  and  the  Massalians,  or 
Euchites,  on  the  same  pretence  :  yet  the  church 
would  not  allow  them  in  their  practice.  The  Mar- 
cianists  (who  were  a  distinct  sect  from  the  Marcion- 
ites,  for  they  were  so  called  from  one  Marcianus 
Trapezita  in  the  time  of  Justinian)  kept  the  sabbath 
also  a  fast.  So  did  also  the  Sabbatians,  Lampe- 
tians,  Choreuta?,  and  Adclphians,  who  are  con- 
demned by  Maximus,"'  and  Anastasius,^"  and  Timo- 
theus  of  Constantinople,"  and  Nicephorus  Patri- 
archa,'"  whose  testimonies,  collected  and  corrected 


"  Justin.  Dial,  cum  Tryph. 

="  Iren.  lib.  4.  cap.  30. 

^'  Tertul.  cont.  Jud.  cap.  4. 

«  Euseb.  Hist.  lib.  1.  cap.  4. 

»  Cave,  Prim.  Christ,  lib.  1.  cap.  7.  p.  174. 

2*  Theocl.  de  Fabul.  Haeret.  lib.  2.  cap.  1. 

^  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  29. 

4  D  2 


^^  Greg.  lib.  11.  Ep.  3.     Antichristum  renovaturum  sab- 
bati  observantiam. 
-"  Epiphan.  Hccr.  42.  n.  3.       ®  Canon.  Apost.  (>l.  .al.  6G. 
^  Maxim,  in  Dionys.  de  Eccles.  Hierarch.  cap.  6. 
^o  Anastas.  Quacst.  64. 

"  Timoth.  De  iis  qui  ad  Fidem  Catholicam  accediint. 
'-  Niceph.  Antirrhctic. 


U40 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XX. 


out  of  manuscripts,  the  curious  reader  may  find  at 
large  in  Cotelerius'^  and  Combefis.^*  I  only  ob- 
serve, that  the  council  of  Trullo,  which  was  held 
anno  692,  or  707,  censures  the  Roman  church  itself 
for  fasting  on  this  day,  and  orders  them  to  correct 
their  practice.  The  words  of  the  canon ^'  are  remark- 
able :  Forasmuch  as  we  understand,  that  in  the  city 
of  Rome  the  sabbath  in  Lent  is  kept  as  a  fast,  con- 
trary to  the  rule  and  custom  of  the  church ;  it 
seemed  good  to  the  holy  synod,  that  in  the  Roman 
church  also  the  ancient  canon  should  be  revived 
and  enforced,  which  says,  If  any  clergyman  be 
found  to  fast  on  the  Lord's  day,  or  on  the  sabbath, 
one  only  excepted,  let  him  be  deposed ;  if  a  layman, 
let  him  be  excommunicated.  From  whence  we 
may  observe,  that  this  custom  of  celebrating  the 
sabbath  as  a  festival,  was  constantly  and  inviolably 
maintained  in  the  Greek  church  without  any  va- 
riation. 

And  there  are  some  learned  men  of 
And  why  a  fast  thc  Roman  communion,  who  think  it 

in  the  Roman,  and 

some  other  of  the  yvas  SO  oricrinallv  in  the  Latin  church 

I.atni  churches.  ^  "^ 

also.  Albaspinaeus  ^°  is  so  clearly  of 
this  opinion,  that  he  thinks  the  church  of  Rome 
herself  at  first  observed  the  Siibbath  as  a  festival. 
And  it  appears  plainly  from  Tertullian,  who,  writing 
against  the  orthodox  in  favour  of  the  Montanists, 
says  expressly.  That  both  the  catholics  and  the 
Montanists  excepted  the  sabbath  out  of  their  fasts. 
The  catholics,  he  says,  kept  no  sabbath  a  fast,"  e"^-- 
cept  the  great  sabbath  before  Easter.  And  the 
Montanists,  who  observed  twice  in  the  year  two 
weeks  of  xerojihaffia;,  or  fasts  upon  dry  meats  only, 
yet  never  ^^  fasted  in  them  either  on  the  sabbath  or 
the  Lord's  day.  So  that  it  is  next  to  impossible, 
that  the  sabbath  should  have  been  a  fast  in  the 
Roman  church  at  this  time,  and  yet  not  have 
been  discerned  by  so  acute  a  man  as  Tertullian, 
when  it  was  so  much  for  his  cause  in  this  dispute 
to  have  taken  notice  of  it.  However,  it  is  certain, 
that  not  long  after  in  the  Roman,  and  some  other 
of  the  Latin  churches,  a  change  was  made ;  but 
then  the  very  manner  of  the  change  sufficiently 
discovers  the  novelty  of  it.  The  council  of  Eliberis,^" 
which  first  introduced  the  Saturday  fast  into  Spain, 
plainly  intimates  that  it  was  not  observed  there 
before,  till  they  first  introduced  it,  and  that  most 
probably  from  the  example  of  the  Roman  church. 


where  it  had  been  settled  a  little  before.  St.  Austin*" 
long  after  this  observes.  That  only  the  Roman 
and  some  of  the  Western  churches,  not  all  of  them, 
kept  the  sabbath  a  fast ;  and  he  notes  more  particu- 
larly in  Africa  how  they  were  divided"  in  their 
practice ;  for  in  the  churches  of  the  same  province, 
and  sometimes  among  the  people  of  the  same  church, 
it  was  very  common  for  some  to  dine,  and  some  to 
fast  on  the  sabbath.  But  at  Milan,  which  was  a 
much  nearer  neighbour  to  Rome,  the  ancient  cus- 
tom still  continued  of  keeping  Saturday  always  a 
festival.  So  that  even  in  Lent,  as  St.  Ambrose 
himself  assures  us,"  not  only  the  Lord's  day,  but 
every  sabbath,  except  the  great  sabbath  before 
Easter,  were  observed  as  festivals,  and  days  of  re- 
laxation. And  for  this  reason,  as  the  author  of  his 
Life  tells  us,  he  was  used  to  dine  upon  Saturday 
as  well  as  the  Lord's  day.  Which  is  often  noted 
also  by  St.  Austin"  in  answering  a  scruple,  which 
perplexed  his  mother,  Monicha,  and  some  others, 
concerning  the  observation  of  this  day,  when  they 
could  not  well  account  for  the  different  practices  of 
different  churches,  some  of  which  kept  it  as  a  fast, 
and  others  as  a  festival.  To  satisfy  their  doubts, 
he  told  them.  That  in  all  things  of  this  nature, 
where  the  Scripture  had  determined  nothing  posi- 
tively one  way  or  other,  the  custom  of  the  people 
of  God,  and  the  rules  of  our  forefathers,  were  to  be 
taken  for  a  law  ;  and  to  dispute  about  such  things, 
and  condemn  the  practice  of  one  church  from  the 
contrary  custom  of  another,  was  to  raise  endless  de- 
bates, and  lose  charity  in  the  heat  of  contention.  He 
added.  That  for  the  sake  of  his  mother,  Monicha, 
he  once  went  to  consult  St.  Ambrose  upon  this 
particular  question,  who  told  him,  he  could  give 
no  better  advice  in  the  case,  than  to  do  as  he 
himself  did ;  For  when  I  go  to  Rome,  said  he,  I 
fast  on  the  Saturday,  as  they  do  at  Rome;  when 
I  am  here,  I  do  not  fast.  So  likewise  you,  what- 
ever church  you  come  to,  observe  the  custom  of 
the  place,  if  you  would  neither  give  offence  to 
others,  nor  take  offence  from  them.  With  this 
answer,  he  says,  he  satisfied  his  mother,  and  ever 
after  looked  upon  it  as  an  oracle  sent  from  hea- 
ven. Nothing  can  be  plainer  now,  than  that  the 
Saturday  fast  was  not  received  in  all  the  churches 
of  the  West,  since  even  at  Milan  it  always  con- 
tinued to  be  a  festival.     And  even  those  churches, 


"  Coteler.  in  Constitut.  lib.  5.  cap.  15. 

^'  Combefis,  Histor.  Moiiothelit.  p.  401. 

^*  Cone.  Trull,  can.  55.  al.  5G. 

'"  Albasp.  Obscrvat.  lib.  1.  cap.  13. 

''  Tertvil.  de  Jejiin.  cap.  11.  Quanquara  vos  etiam  sab- 
batum,  si  quando  coutinuatis,  uunquain  nisi  in  Paschajoju- 
nandiun,  secundum  rationem  alibi  icdditam. 

^*  Ibid.  cap.  15.  Duas  in  annn  hobdomadas  xerophagi- 
arum,  nee  tolas,  e.xceptis  scilicet  sabbatis  et  Dominicis, 
offorimus  Deo. 

^'  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  2G.    Errorem  placuit  coriigi,  ut  onuii 


sabbati  die  jejuniorum  superpositionem  celebrcnius.  .Al- 
basp. in  loc.  Superpositiones,  id  est,  imponere  jejuiiia,  qua; 
solita  non  essent  observari.    Vid.  Cone.  Agatheiise,  can.  12. 

'"'  Aug.  Ep.  8G.  ad  Casulanum.  Alii  propter  huniilitatem 
mortis  Domini  jejunare  mallent,  sicut  Romaua  et  nou- 
nuUa;  Occidentis  ecclcsiae. 

•"  Ibid.  p.  119.  Coutingit  niaxime  in  Africa,  >it  una 
ecclcsia,  vel  nnius  regionis  ecclesia:,  alios  haheant  sabbato 
prandeutes,  alios  jejunantes. 

■*■-  Ambvos.  de  Elia  et  Jejunio,  cap.  10. 

"  Aug.  Ep.  8G.  ad  Casnlan.  Ep.  118.  ad  Januar. 


Chap.  IV 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


lUI 


which  turned  it  into  a  fast,  coultl  not  agree  about 
the  reason  and  original  of  it.  Some  said  it  was 
instituted  by  St.  Peter  at  Rome  upon  a  particular 
occasion  ;  for  when  he  was  to  contend^'  with 
Simon  !Magus  on  the  Lord's  day,  for  the  danger 
of  the  great  temptation  he  held  a  fast  w'ith  the 
church  at  Rome  the  day  before,  and  having  ob- 
tained a  prosperous  and  glorious  success  thereby, 
he  continued  the  same  custom,  and  some  of  the 
Western  churches  followed  his  example.  But  many 
among  the  Romans  themselves  rejected  this  as  a 
mere  fiction,  even  in  St.  Austin's  time,  though 
others  continued  still  in  the  belief  of  it,  as  appears 
from  what  is  said  in  Cassian,"  and  some  later 
writers,  about  this  fast  in  the  Roman  church.  Pope 
Innocent^"  gives  another  reason  for  it,  because  on 
this  day  our  Saviour  lay  buried  in  the  grave,  and 
the  apostles  were  in  deep  sorrow  for  their  Master, 
and  hid  themselves  for  fear  of  the  Jews.  Which 
is  the  usual  reason  now  assigned  by  the  learned 
writers  of  the  present  Roman  church,  Baronins," 
Bellarmine,  Combefis,**  and  others.  Yet  this  was 
only  a  conjecture  of  Pope  Innocent,  which  may 
serve  for  a  reason  why  the  Roman  church  might 
turn  the  Saturday  into  a  fast  before  his  time,  but 
does  not  prove  that  to  have  been  the  original 
practice.  Socrates"  makes  the  Roman  church  to 
vary  once  more  in  this  matter ;  for  he  says,  in  his 
time  they  did  not  fast  on  Saturdays  at  Rome  even 
in  Lent,  but  only  five  days  in  the  week :  and  Ya- 
lesius^"  and  Menardus  go  further,  and  assert  that 
in  the  time  of  Pope  Leo  they  kept  but  three  days 
in  the  week  fasting  in  Lent  at  Rome  ;  for  which 
they  allege  the  words  of  Pope  Leo  himself  in  one 
of  his  Lent  sermons :  On  the  second  and  fourth  and 
sixth  day  "  of  the  week,  that  is,  Monday,  Wednesday, 
and  Friday,  let  us  fast ;  and  on  the  sabbath  cele- 
brate our  vigil  at  St.  Peter's  church.  But  since 
Mr.  QuesneP-  and  Pagi*'  have  showed  this  passage 
to  be  foisted  into  Leo's  sermon  by  some  later  hand, 
from  the  authority  of  several  manuscripts  that 
want  it ;  and  since  it  is  possible  Socrates,  being  a 
Greek  writer,  might  sometimes  mistake  the  Roman 
customs  ;  we  will  charge  the  Romans  with  no  more 
alterations  in  this  matter,  because  the  council  of 


Trullo*'  and  all  the  modern  Greeks  rather  accuse 
them  for  keeping  Saturday  a  fast,  when  all  other 
churches  kept  it  a  festival.  It  is  sufficient  to  have 
showed,  that  both  the  Greek  and  Latin  church 
originally  agreed  in  the  same  practice,  observing 
the  sabbath  together  with  the  Lord's  day  as  weekly 
festivals,  and  that  even  in  Lent,  the  great  sabbath 
before  Easter  only  excepted. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


OF    THE    FESTIVAL    OF    CIIRIST'S    NATIVITY    AND 
EPIPHANY. 

Hitherto  we  have   considered  the 

weekU'  festivals  of  the  ancient  church.     The  nativitr  of 

Christ  ancit^iitfy  by 

and  now  we  are  to  sneak  of  those  *■""=  sa'-i '»  be  ia 

^  May. 

that  were  annual,  or  only  celebrated 
once  a  year,  such  as  the  festivals  of  our  Saviour's 
Nativity  and  Epiphany,  and  Easter,  and  Pentecost, 
and  Ascension,  and  the  anniversary  commemora- 
tions of  the  apostles  and  martyrs.  The  nativity  of 
our  Sa%nour  was  not  anciently  fixed  to  the  same 
day  by  all  churches,  though  Baronius'  and  other 
writers  commonly  assert.  That  both  in  the  Greek 
and  Latin  churches  it  was  always  observed  on  the 
twenty-fifth  of  December.  Which  is  a  very  great 
mistake  in  learned  men.  For,  not  to  mention  what 
Clemens  Alexandrinus"  says  of  the  Basilidian  he- 
retics, that  they  asserted  that  Christ  was  born  on 
the  twenty-fourth  or  twenty-fifth  of  the  month 
which  the  Egyptians  call  PJianmdhi,  that  is, 
April ;  he  says  a  more  remarkable  thing  of  some 
others,  who  were  more  curious  about  the  year  and 
the  day  of  Christ's  nativity,  which  they  said'  was 
in  the  twenty-eighth  year  of  Auii;-ustus  Caisar,  and 
the  twenty-fifth  day  of  the  month  Pachon ;  which 
though  Pamelius  artfully'*  calls  December,  to  serve 
the  common  hypothesis,  and  impose  upon  his 
reader,  yet  nothing  is  more  certain  than  that  it  sig- 
nifies the  month  of  May,  as  Mr.  Basnage*  has  at 
large  demonstrated  out  of  Epiphanius  and  Theo- 


**  Aug.  Ep.  86.  ad  Casulan.  p.  146.  Est  quiJeui  et  haec 
opinio  pluiimorum,  quamvis  earn  esse  falsam  perhibeaut 
plerique  Romani,  quod  apostolus  Petrus  cum  Siaione  Mago 
die  Dominico  certaturus,  propter  ipsum  magnse  tentatiouis 
periculum,  pridie  cum  ejusdein  urbis  ecclcsia  jcjunaverit, 
et  consequuto  tarn  prospero  gloriosoque  successu,  euudem 
morern  tenuerit,  eunique  imitatae  sunt  nonnulla:  Occitientis 
ecclesiae. 

"  Cassian.  Institut.  lib.  3.  cap.  10.  Anonymus  de  Francis 
et  reliquis  Latinis,  ap.  Combclls,  Hist.  Monothelit.  p.  129. 

*^  Innoc.  Ep.  I.  ad  Decentium,  cap.  4.  Si  se.xta  feria 
propter  passionem  Domini  jejunamus,  sabbatuni  praiter- 
mittere  non  debemus,  quod  inter  tristitiam  atque  laetitiam 
temporis  istius  (Paschatis)  videtur  inclusum.  Nam  utique 
constat,    apostolos  biduo  isto  in  mairore  fuisse,  et  propter 


metum  Judaeorum  se  occuluisse. 

"  Baron,  an.  57.  n.  207.  Bellarmiii.  lib.  2.  de  Bonis 
Oper.  cap.  18.  t.  4. 

^^  Combefis,  ubi  supra.  "  Socrat.  lib.  5.  cap.  22. 

^  Vales,  in  loc.  Menard,  in  Sacramcntar.  Grcgorii,  cited 
by  Pagi. 

^'  Leo,  Serm.  4.  de  Quadragesima.  Secunda  igitur  et 
quarta  et  se.xta  leria  jejunemus:  sabbato  autem  apud  B. 
Petruni  apostolum  vigilias  cclcbremus. 

^-  Quesncl.  Dissert.  6.  de  Jejuuio  Sabbati,  &c. 

*'  Pagi,  Critic,  in  Baron,  an.  57.  n.  2. 

^'  Cone.  Trull,  can.  55.  '  Barou.  .\pparat.  n.  121. 

2  Clem.  Strom.  1.  p.  408.  ^  Ibid.  p.  407. 

*  Pamel.  Not.  in  Tertull.  contra  Juda;os,  cap.  8.  n.  78. 

*  Basnag.  Critic,  in  Baron,  p.  216. 


1142 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XX. 


])hilus  Alexandrinus,  who  usually  follow  tlie  Egyp- 
tian calendar,  where  Pachon  answers  to  our  May, 
as  everyone  knows,  who  has  any. understanding  in 
the  several  styles  by  which  the  ancient  writers  made 
their  chronological  computations. 

^  ,  „  But  what  is  more  considerable  in 

Sect.  2. 

thfL^'of  Ep'phtn?  this  matter  is,  that  the  greatest  part 
or  sixtl.  of  January.  ^^  ^j^^  Eastcm  church,  for  three  or 

four  of  the  first  ages,  kept  the  feast  of  Christ's  na- 
tivity on  the  same  day  which  is  now  called  Epi- 
phany, or  the  sixth  of  January,  which  denotes 
Christ's  manifestation  to  the  woi'ld  in  four  several 
respects,  which  at  first  were  all  commemorated  upon 
this  day :  viz.  1.  By  his  nativity  or  incarnation, 
which  was  the  appearance  of  God  manifested  in 
the  flesh.  2.  By  the  appearance  of  the  star,  which 
guided  the  wise  men  unto  Christ  at  his  birth,  and 
was  the  Epiphany  or  manifestation  of  him  to  the 
Gentiles.  3.  By  the  glorious  appearance  that  was 
made  at  his  baptism,  when  the  heavens  were  open- 
ed, and  the  Holy  Ghost  descended  in  a  bodily  shape 
like  a  dove,  and  lighted  upon  him,  and  a  voice 
came  from  heaven,  saying,  "This  is  my  beloved 
Son,  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased."  4.  By  the  ap- 
pearance or  manifestation  of  his  Divinity,  when  by 
his  first  miracle  he  turned  the  water  into  wine  at 
the  marriage  in  Cana  of  Galilee.  That  this  day 
was  kept  as  our  Saviour's  birthday  for  several  ages 
by  the  churches  of  Egypt,  Jerusalem,  Antioch,  Cy- 
prus, and  other  churches  of  the  East,  is  so  evident 
from  good  authorities,  that  among  learned  men  ^  it 
is  now  a  thing  beyond  all  dispute.  Cassian'  says 
expressly.  That  in  his  time  all  the  Egyptian  pro- 
vinces, under  the  general  name  of  Epiphany,  under- 
stood as  well  the  nativity  of  Christ  as  his  baptism  ; 
and  therefore  they  did  not  commemorate  those  two 
mysteries  upon  two  distinct  days,  as  was  usual  in 
the  Western  provinces,  but  celebrated  both  of  them 
together  upon  that  one  day's  festival.  And  Gen- 
nadi us*  mentions  one  Timothy,  a  bishop,  who  com- 
posed a  book  concerning  the  nativity  of  the  Lord, 
which  he  supposed  to  be  on  the  day  of  Epiphany. 
Cotelerius"  not  improbably  conjectures,  that  this 
was  no  other  than  Timothy,  bishop  of  Alexandria, 
though  Dr.  Cave'"  speaks  of  him  as  a  later  writer. 
But  before  the  time  of  the  council  of  Ephesus,  anno 


431,  the  Egyptians  had  altered  the  day  of  Christ's 
nativity,  and  fixed  it  to  the  twenty-ninth  day  of 
their  month  Chceac,  which  is  the  twenty-fifth  of 
December ;  as  appears  from  the  homily  of  Paulus 
Emiscnus"  spoken  before  Cyril  of  Alexandria,  and 
related  in  the  Acts  of  that  council.  It  was  not  long 
before  this,  that  the  churches  of  Antioch  and  Syria 
came  into  the  Western  observation.  For  Chrysos- 
tom,'-  in  one  of  his  homilies  to  the  people  of  Anti- 
och, tells  them,  that  ten  years  were  not  yet  past, 
since  they  came  to  the  true  knowledge  of  the  day 
of  Christ's  birth,  which  they  kept  before  on  Epipha- 
ny, till  the  Western  church  gave  them  better  in- 
formation. And  from  that  time  the  Nativity  and 
Epiphany  were  distinct  festivals,  as  appears  from 
other  homilies  "  of  this  writer,  where  he  speaks  dis- 
tinctly of  them  as  two  days,  which  had  been  thought 
one  and  the  same  before.  Epiphanius,  who  was 
bishop  of  Salamis  or  Constantia,  the  metropolis  of 
Cyprus,  often  speaks  of  Christ's  nativity,  and  always 
follows  the  Eastei'n  calculation,  fixing  it  to  the  same 
day  with  Epiphany  in  the  month  of  January.  In 
one  place  '^  he  says.  It  is  not  lawful  to  fast  on  the 
day  of  Epiphany,  on  which  day  the  Lord  was  bora 
in  the  flesh.  In  another,'*  he  takes  a  great  deal  of 
pains  to  make  his  reader  imderstand  that  Christ 
was  born  in  January,  that  is,  says  he,  on  the  eighth 
of  the  ides  of  January,  which  is  the  fifth  of  Janu- 
ary according  to  the  Romans,'"  and  the  eleventh 
of  Ti/bi  according  to  the  Egyptians,  and  the  sixth 
of  Aiidinaius  according  to  the  Syro-Macedonians, 
and  the  fifth  of  the  fifth  month  according  to  the 
Cypriots  or  Salaminians,  and  the  fourteenth  oiJuhis 
according  to  the  Paphians,  and  the  twenty-first  of 
Aleon  according  to  the  Arabians,  and  the  thirteenth 
of  Atarta  according  to  the  Cappadocians,  and  the 
thirteenth  of  Tihcth  according  to  the  Hebrews,  and 
the  sixth  of  3Ie7nacterion  according  to  the  Atheni- 
ans. Nothing  could  be  more  particular  in  fixing 
the  day  of  Christ's  nativity  to  that  of  Epiphany,  or 
Epiphany  to  the  fifth  or  sixth  of  January,  than  this 
so  minute  account  of  Epiphanius.  Which  is  con- 
firmed by  St.  Jerom,  who,  though  he  differed  from 
Epiphanius  as  to  the  day  of  Christ's  nativity,  yet 
he  intimates,"  there  were  some  who  still  believed 
that  Christ's   nativity  was   upon   the    Epiphany, 


^  Vide  Coteler.  in  Constit.  Apost,  lib.  5.  cap.  13. 

'  Cassian.  Collat.  10.  cap.  2.  Epiphaniorum  diem  pro- 
vincia3  illius  sacerdotes,  vel  Dominici  baptismi,  vel  secun- 
dum carnem  nativitatis  esse  definiunt;  et  idcirco  utriusque 
sacramenti  solennitatcm  non  bifario,  ut  in  Occiduis  pro- 
vinciis,  sed  sub  una  diei  hujus  festivitate  concelebrant. 

"  Gennad.  de  Scriptor.  cap.  58.  Timotheus  episcopus 
eomposuit  librum  de  nativitate  Domini  secundum  carnem, 
quani  credit  in  Theophauia  faetam. 

"Coteler.  Not.  in  Constitut.  lib.  5.  cap.  13. 

'»  Cave,  Hist.  Liter,  t.  1.  p. 304. 

"  Paul.  Emisen.  Homil.  in  Actis  Cone.  Ephes.  part.  3. 
cap.  31.  Gone.  t.  3.  p.  1096. 


•2  Chrys.  Horn.  31.  de  Natali  Christi,  t.  5.  p.  466. 

'3  Chrys.  Horn.  24.  de  Bapt.  Christi,  t.  1.  p.  311. 

'*  Epiphan.  Expos.  Fid.  22. 

"^  Ibid.  Hoer.  51.  Alogor.  n.  24.    Vid.  n.  16. 

"^  Some  think  this  should  be  written  the  sixth  of  January, 
because  the  eighth  of  the  ides  of  January  is  the  sixth  of 
January  in  the  Roman  calendar:  but  St.  Jerom  also 
places  Epiphany  upon  the  fifth  of  January,  Com.  in  Ezek. 
i.  p.  459.  And  the  Asiatics  did  so  likewise.  Vid.  Usser.  de 
Anno  siilari  Macedonum  et  Asianorum,  lib.  2. 

"  Hieron.  Com.  in  Ezek.  i.  p.  459.  Apud  Orientales  Octo- 
ber erat  primus  mensis,  et  Januarius  quartus.  Quintam  au- 
tera  diem  mensisadjungit,  ut  significet  baptisma,  in  quo  aperti 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


114.3 


which  was  the  fifth  of  Jimuary,  which  the  prophet 
Ezekiel  callevl  the  fifth  day  of  the  fourth  month, 
reckoning  the  first  month  from  October,  when  the 
tithes  were  carried  to  the  temple  after  the  harvest 
and  vintage  were  gathered  in,  according  to  the  cus- 
tom of  the  Oriental  nations.  The  author  of  the 
homily  upon  the  Epiphany,  among  the  works  of 
Origen,''  says  the  same,  that  there  were  different 
opinions  and  traditions  in  the  world  about  it ;  some 
said  he  was  born  upon  that  day;  others  said  it  w-as 
only  the  day  of  his  baptism.  Pagi'"  adds  Clemens 
Alexandrinus  and  Eusebius  to  the  number  of  those 
who  believed  tlie  nativity  of  Christ  to  be  on  the 
Epiphany,  or  sixth  of  January;  and,  considering 
where  and  when  they  lived,  it  is  very  probable  they 
did  so,  though  he  cites  no  authority  out  of  them ; 
for  not  only  the  Alexandrians,  but  the  churches  of 
Jerusalem  and  Palestine,  where  Eusebius  lived,  ob- 
served the  nativity  of  Christ  on  the  same  day  with 
Epiphany  for  several  ages,  and  pretended  the  au- 
thority of  an  epistle  of  St.  James  for  their  prac- 
tice, till  Juvenal,  bishop  of  Jerusalem,  upon  better 
information,  reduced  it  to  the  twenty-fifth  of  De- 
cember, as  Cotelerius  shows  at  large  out  of  Basilius 
Cilix,  Joannes  Nicsenus,  and  a  homily  under  the 
name  of  St.  Chrysostom,  and  other  writers.-" 

Thus  stood  the  case  in  the  Eastern 
inihJ^Lat'mchurch  cliurch  for  Several  ages;  in  those  of 

always  obsened   on  .  hit 

ti,e  .;5th  of  Decern-  the  West  it  was  generally  observed, 
as  now  it  is,  a  distinct  festival  from 
Epiphany,  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  December.  For 
so,  St.  Austin  says,-'  the  current  tradition  was,  that 
Christ  was  born  on  the  eighth  of  the  calends  of 
January,  that  is,  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  December. 
And  both  Cassian-  and  St.  Jerom-'  say,  the  Na- 
tivity and  Epiphany  were  kept  on  different  days  in 
all  the  Western  churches.  And  both  these  were 
indifferently  called  Theophania,  et  Epiphania,  ct 
^n-'una  et  secunda  nativitas,  the  Epiphany,  or  mani- 
festation of  God,  and  his  first  and  second  nativity : 
that  being  the  first,  whereon  he  was  born  in  the 
flesh ;  and  that  his  second  nativity,  or  Epiphany, 
whereon  he  was  baptized,  and  manifested  by  a  star 
to  the  Gentiles,  as  the  reader  may  find  largely  de- 
monstrated by  Cotelerius'-'  and  Suicerus,"  out  of 
Gregory  Nazianzen,  Ambrose,  Basil,  Theodorus  Stu- 
dita,  and  several  other  writers. 


Now,  the  original  of  this  festival  is         „  .  , 

'  "  Sect.  4. 

by  many  learned  men  carried  as  high  „,7Ac,t"v^' de"IiT°d 
as  the  age  of  the  apostles.  Dr.  Cave'-^"  iTh^t^^^l^i^^l 
says,  the  first  footsteps  he  can  find  of 
it  are  in  the  second  century,  though  he  doubts  not 
but  that  it  might  be  celebrated  before.  His  au- 
thority is  Theophilus,  bishop  of  Ca?sarea,  who  lived 
about  the  reign  of  the  emperor  Commodus,  anno 
192.  But  he  quotes  no  book  of  Theophilus,  there- 
fore we  are  left  to  conjecture  that  he  meant  his 
Paschal  epistle,  mentioned  by  Eusebius  and  St. 
Jerom,  out  of  which  Hospinian^  before  had  alleged 
these  words,  importing,  that  the  French  observed 
the  nativity  of  Christ  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  Decem- 
ber :  For  they,  says  Hospinian,  argued  thus  for  the 
observation  of  the  Paschal  festival :  Siciit  Domini 
natalem,  quocimque  die  8.  Kalend.  Januarii  venerit, 
ita  et  8.  Kalend.  Aprilis,  quando  resurrectio  accidit, 
Cliristi  debcmiis  Pascha  celehrare :  As  we  celebrate 
the  nati\^ty  of  Christ  on  the  eighth  of  the  calends 
of  January,  (that  is,  the  twenty-fifth  of  December,) 
whatever  day  of  the  week  that  happens  to  fall  upon ; 
so  we  ought  to  keep  the  Paschal  feast  on  the  eighth 
of  the  calends  of  April,  (that  is,  the  twenty-fifth 
of  March,)  because  the  resurrection  of  Christ  hap- 
pened upon  this  day.  But  still  I  am  at  a  loss  to 
find  these  words  in  Theophilus.  For  Bede,  who 
relates  the  letter,  has  no  more  than  these  words  in 
his  synodical  epistle  :^  Galli  quacnnqne  die  octava 
calendarum  Aprilium  fnisset,  quando  Christi  resur- 
rectio tradehatur,  semper  Pascha  celebrahant.  But 
there  is  no  mention  made  at  all  of  the  nativity  of 
Christ  throughout  the  whole  epistle,  which  seems 
to  be  spurious  also,  and  of  no  credit ;  certain  enough 
it  is  not  that  which  is  mentioned  by  Eusebius  and 
St.  Jerom :  so  that  I  lay  no  stress  upon  this  au- 
thority, as  being  neither  full  to  the  point,  nor  au- 
thentic. Hospinian  and  Dr.  Cave  allege  further, 
for  its  antiquity,  that  sad  story,  which  is  related  by 
Nicephorus"'  and  Baronius,'"  out  of  the  ancient 
Martyrologies,  where  it  is  said.  That  when  the  per- 
secution raged  under  Diocletian  at  Nicomedia, 
among  other  acts  of  his  barbarous  cruelty,  he,  find- 
ing multitudes  of  Christians,  young  and  old,  met 
together  in  the  church  upon  the  day  of  Christ's 
nativity,  to  celebrate  that  festival,  commanded  the 
church  doors  to  be  shut  up,  and  fire  to  be  put  to  it. 


sunt  Christo  cceli,  et  Epiphaniorum  dies  hucusque  venerabilis 
est;  non,  ut  qiiidam  piifant,  natalis  in  came.  Tunc  enim 
absconditus  est,  et  non  apparuit:  quod  huic  tempori  cuu- 
gruit,  quando  dictum  est,  Hie  est  Filius  meus  dilectus,  in  quo 
niihi  complacui. 

"*  Orig.  Horn.  8.  de  Diversis,  t.  2.  p.  446.  Sive  hodic 
iialus  est  Dominus  .Jesus,  sive  hodie  baptizatus,  diversa 
qnippe  opinio  f'ertur  in  mundo. 

'"  Pagi,  Apparat.  Chronol.  ad  Baron,  n.  95. 

2"  Coteler.  Not.  in  Constitut.  lib.  h.  cap.  1.3. 

^'  Aug.  de  Trin.  lib.  4.  cap.  .').  Natus  antem  traditur  oc- 
tavo kalendas  Januarias.  ^  Cassian.  Collat.  JO.  cap.  2. 


^  Hieron.  in  Ezek.  cap.  i.  See  also  Constit.  Apost.  lib. 
5.  cap.  13.  lib.  8.  cap.  .3.3.  Opus  Imperfect,  sub  nomine 
Chrysost.  ad  Matt.  xxiv.  22.  -*  Coteler.  ubi  supra. 

^  Suicer.  Thesaur.  Eccl.  voce  ''Eiricftuima. 

-"  Cave,  Prim.  Christ,  part  1.  chap.  7.  p.  194. 

"  Hospin.  de  Festis  Christian,  p.  110. 

"^  De  Ordinatione  Fcriarum  Paschalium  per  Theophilum 
Ca>sariensem  ac  reliquorum  Episcopor\nn  Synodum,  ap. 
Bedam  de  /Equinnctio  Vernali,  t.  3.  p.  232.  Habetnr  etiam 
ap.  Bucheriura  Com.  in  Canon.  Paschal.  Victorii,  et  ap. 
Labbe,  Cone.  t.  1.  p.  .596. 

2'  Niceph.  lib.  7.  cap.  6.  **  Baron,  an.  301.  p.  41. 


1144 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XX. 


Avhich  in  a  short  time  reduced  them  and  the  church 
to  ashes.  This  is  probable  enough,  because  we  have 
the  like  instances  of  barbarity  committed  upon  them 
in  other  places  on  the  Lord's  day,  as  has  been  re- 
lated before  out  of  Lactantius^'  and  Eusebius.  But 
it  is  more  material,  that  Chrysostom  says'^  this  day 
was  of  great  antiquity  and  of  long  continuance, 
being  famous  and  renowned  in  the  church  from 
the  beginning,  far  and  wide,  from  Thrace  as  far 
as  Gades  in  Spain.  It  is  certain  it  was  observed 
religiously  in  the  time  of  Gregory  Nazianzen  and 
St.  Basil;  for  they  have  both  sermons  upon  the  oc- 
casion: and  Ammianus  Marcellinus'^  says,  Julian, 
in  the  time  of  Constantius,  pretending  to  be  a 
Christian,  when  in  his  heart  he  was  a  heathen, 
and  had  secretly  revolted,  to  conceal  his  apostacy, 
(which  was  known  only  to  a  few  of  his  confidants,) 
went  with  the  Christians  to  church,  and  performed 
the  solemn  worship  of  God  with  them,  on  the  fes- 
tival which  they  call  Epiphany,  and  celebrate  in 
the  month  of  January.  Zonaras,  in  telling  the  same 
story,  says  it  was  on  the  nativity  of  Christ :  which 
makes  some  conclude,  that  the  Nativity  and  Epi- 
phany were  still  in  France  the  same  festival :  but 
considering  that  France  was  one  of  the  Western 
provinces,  where  these  festivals  were  always  kept 
apart,  it  is  more  probable  that  Zonaras  was  mis- 
taken in  the  day :  however,  vi^e  may  safely  conclude, 
that  at  this  time  both  the  Nativity  and  the  Epi- 
phany were  kept  as  festivals  in  France ;  and  that  is 
enough,  so  far  as  we  are  concerned,  to  ascertain  the 
antiquity  of  their  observation. 

As  to  the  manner  of  keeping  this 

Sect  5.  .  . 

This  festival  ob-  festival,  wc  may  observe,  they  did  it 

served  with  the  same         .  ■,         ■,  •  -r-i 

religious  veneratioa  With  thc  greatest  vcueration.      For 

as  llie  Lord's  day.  ° 

they  always  speak  of  it  in  the  highest 
terms,  as  the  principal  festival  of  Christians,  from 
which  all  others  took  their  original.  Chrysostom'^ 
styles  it  the  most  venerable  and  tremendous  of  all 
festivals,  and  the  metropolis  or  mother  of  all  festi- 
vals :  adding,  that  from  this  both  the  Theophania, 
(so  he  styles  Epiphany,)  and  the  holy  Paschal  feast, 
and  the  Assumption  or  Ascension,  and  Pentecost, 
took  their  original.  For  if  Christ  had  not  been 
born  according  to  the  flesh,  he  had  not  been  bap- 
tized, which  is  the  Theophania  or  Epiphany ;  nei- 
ther had  he  been  crucified,  which  is  the  Paschal 
festival ;  neither  had  he  sent  the  Holy  Ghost,  which 
is  our  Pentecost.  But  we  do  not  give  this  festival 
the  preference  merely  upon  this  account,  but  be- 
cause the  thing  that  was  done  upon  this  day,  was 


more  tremendous  than  all  others.  For  that  Christ 
should  die,  when  he  was  a  man,  was  a  thing  of  na- 
tural consequence :  but  that,  when  he  was  God,  he 
should  be  willing  to  be  made  man,  and  condescend 
to  humble  himself  beyond  all  imagination  and  con- 
ception, this  is  indeed  wonderful  and  astonishing 
in  the  highest  degree.  In  admiration  of  this  St. 
Paul,  as  it  were  in  a  rapture,  says,  "  Without  con- 
troversy great  is  the  mystery  of  godliness :  God  was 
manifested  in  the  flesh."  For  this  reason  chiefly  I 
love  and  embrace  this  day,  and  propound  it  to  you, 
that  I  may  make  you  partakers  of  the  same  induce- 
ment to  love.  I  therefore  pray  and  beseech  you, 
come  with  all  diligence  and  alacrity,  every  man  first 
purging  his  own  house,  to  see  our  Lord  wrapped  in 
swaddling-clothes  and  lying  in  a  manger.  A  tre- 
mendous and  wonderful  sight  indeed !  Thus  the 
holy  father  invites  his  auditory,  five  days  before- 
hand, to  celebrate  the  nativity  of  Christ.  And  we 
may  observe,  that  the  day  was  kept  with  the  same 
veneration  and  rehgious  solemnity  as  the  Lord's  day. 
For  they  had  always  sermons  on  this  day,  of  which 
there  are  many  instances  in  Chrysostom,  Nazianzen, 
Basil,  Ambrose,  Austin,  Leo,  Chrysologus,  and  many 
others.  Neither  did  they  let  this  day  ever  pass 
without  a  solemn  communion.  For  Chrysostom  in 
this  very  place  invites  his  people  to  the  holy  table, 
telling  them,  that  if  they  came  with  faith,  they 
might  see  Christ  lying  in  the  manger :  for  the  holy 
table  supplied  the  place  of  the  manger ;  the  body 
of  the  Lord  was  laid  upon  the  holy  table,  not,  as 
before,  wrapped  in  swaddling-clothes,  but  invested 
on  every  side  with  the  Holy  Spirit.  And  that 
the  solemnity  might  be  more  universally  observed, 
liberty  was  granted  on  this  day  to  servants  to  rest 
from  their  ordinary  labours,  as  on  the  sabbath  and 
the  Lord's  day.  This  is  particularly  mentioned^ 
by  the  author  of  the  Apostolical  Constitutions :  Let 
servants  rest  from  their  labour  on  the  da}^  of  Christ's 
nativity,  because  on  this  day  an  unexpected  blessing 
was  given  unto  men,  in  that  the  Word  of  God,  Jesus 
Christ,  was  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary  for  the  salva- 
tion of  the  world.  And  all  fasting  was  as  strictly 
prohibited  on  this  festival  as  on  the  Lord's  day : 
and  no  one,  without  suspicion  of  some  impious  he- 
resy, could  go  against  this  rule,  as  appears  from 
what  Pope  Leo'''  says  of  the  Priscillianists,  that 
they  dishonoured  the  day  of  Christ's  nativity  and 
the  Lord's  day  by  fasting,  which  they  pretended 
they  did  only  for  the  exercise  of  devotion  in  an  as- 
cetic life,  but  in  reality  it  was  to  afl^ront  the  days  of 


s'  Lact.  lib.5.  cap.  II.  Euseb.  lib.  8.  cap.  11.  See  chap. 
2.  sect.  8. 

3-  Chrys.  Horn.  31.  de  Bapt.  Christi,  t.  5.  p.  467. 

^^  Animian.  lib.  21.  p.  195.  Ut  h.xc  interim  celarentur, 
feriarum  die,  quern  celebrantes  mense  Januario  Christiani 
Epiphaiiiadictitant,  progressus  in  eoruui  ecclesiam  solenni- 
ter  numine  orato  discessit. 


3<  Chrys.  Horn.  31.  de  Philogonio,  t.  1.  p.  399. 

«  Constit.  lib.  8.  cap.  33. 

3^  Leo,  Ep.  93.  ad  Turribium,  cap.  4.     Natalem  Christi 
nnn  vcre  isti  honorant,  scd  honorarese  simulant,  jejunautes      ( 
eodcm  die,  sicut  die  Dominico,  &c.     Vid.  Cone.  Bracaren, 
1.  can.  4. 


CllAI'.   IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1145 


his  nativity  and  resurrection,  because  with  Ccrdon 
and  filarcion,  and  the  IManichces,  they  neither  be- 
heved  the  truth  of  our  Saviour's  incarnation,  nor 
his  resurrection.  Therefore,  in  opposition  to  these 
and  such  hke  heresies,  the  church  was  always  very 
jealous  of  any  who  pretended  to  make  a  fast  of  the 
Nativity  of  Christ. 

Finally,  to  show  all  possible  honour  to  this  day, 
the  church  obliged  all  persons  to  frequent  religious 
assemblies  in  the  city  churches,  and  not  go  to  any 
of  the  lesser  churches  in  the  country,  except  some 
necessity  of  sickness  or  infirmity  compelled  them  so 
to  do."  And  the  laws  of  the  state  prohibited  all 
public  games  and  shows  on  this  day,  as  on  the 
Lord's  day.  For  though  at  first  the  prohibition 
only  extended  to  the  Lord's  day,  yet  Theodosius 
junior^  by  a  new  law  restrained  them  on  the  Lord's 
day,  and  Epiphany,  and  the  Paschal  festival,  and 
tlie  fifty  days  of  Pentecost,  because  at  these  times 
tile  minds  of  Christians  ought  to  be  wholly  em- 
ployed in  the  v.'orship  and  service  of  God.  Some 
also  think ^'  the  very  design  of  appointing  the  feast 
of  Christ's  Nativity  and  Epiphany  at  this  season  of 
the  year,  was  chiefly  to  oppose  the  vanities  and  ex- 
cesses which  the  heathen  indulged  themselves  in, 
upon  their  Saturnalia  and  calends  of  January  at 
this  very  time  of  the  year.  Nazianzen's  exhorta- 
tion^" to  his  people  on  the  Nativity  of  Christ  seems 
directly  intended  against  them,  when  he  thus  en- 
deavours to  guard  his  auditory  from  running  into 
tlie  same  abuses :  Let  us  celebrate  this  festival,  not 
after  the  way  of  the  world,  but  in  a  divine  and 
celestial  manner ;  not  minding  our  own  things,  but 
the  things  of  the  Lord  ;  not  the  things  that  tend  to 
make  us  sick  and  infirm,  but  those  things  which 
will  heal  and  cure  us.  Let  us  not  crown  our  doors 
with  garlands,  nor  exercise  ourselves  in  dances ; 
let  us  not  adorn  our  streets,  nor  feed  our  eyes,  nor 
gratify  our  ears  with  music,  nor  any  of  our  senses, 
touching,  tasting,  smelling,  with  any  of  those  things 
that  lead  the  way  to  vice,  and  are  the  inlets  of  sin. 
Let  us  not  effeminately  adorn  ourselves  with  soft 
clothing,  nor  jewels,  nor  gold,  nor  artificial  colours 
invented  to  destroy  the  Divine  image  in  us:  let  us 
not  indulge  rioting  and  drunkenness,  which  are 
frequently  attended  with  chambering  and  wanton- 


ness :  let  us  not  set  up  our  lofty  canopies  or  tables, 
providing  delicacies  for  the  belly  ;  nor  be  enamour- 
ed with  the  fragrancy  of  wines,  or  niceties  of  cook- 
ery, and  precious  ointments  :  let  not  sea  and  land 
present  us  with  their  precious  dung,  (for  that  is 
the  best  name  I  can  give  their  delights,)  nor  let  any 
of  us  strive  to  outdo  one  another  in  luxury  and  in- 
temperance. But  let  us  leave  these  things  to  the 
heathen,  and  to  their  heathenish  pomps  and  festivals, 
who  give  the  name  of  gods  to  those  who  delight  in 
the  smell  of  sacrifices,  and  agi'ceably  worship  their 
deities  with  the  belly,  being  wicked  makers  of 
wicked  devils,  and  as  wicked  priests  and  worship- 
pers of  them.  But  let  us  who  worship  the  Word  of 
God,  place  our  delights  in  the  Divine  law,  and  such 
discourses  as  are  proper  and  agreeable  to  the  pre- 
sent festival. 

As  to  Epiphany,  they  who  observed 
it  as  a  distinct  festival  from  the  Na-    or  Epfp'^iMiiy  as  a 

.     .  T  1    •        ^    '    r\  1  distinct  f(.'8tival. 

tivity,  did  it  chiefly  upon  the  account 
of  our  Saviour's  baptism,  and  the  appearing  of  the 
star  which  conducted  the  wise  men  of  the  East  to 
come  and  worship  our  Saviour.  To  which  some 
added  two  other  reasons,  that  of  our  Saviour's  first 
miracle  wrought  at  Cana  in  Galilee,  when  he  turned 
the  water  into  wine  ;  and  that  other  miracle  of  his 
feeding  five  thousand  men  with  five  loaves.  All 
which  are  put  together  in  one  of  the  sermons  which 
go  under  the  name  of  St.  Austin  upon  this  day. 
On  this  day,  says  he,^'  we  celebrate  the  mystery  of 
God's  manifesting  himself  by  his  miracles  in  hu- 
man nature;  either  because  on  this  day  the  star  in 
heaven  gave  notice  of  his  birth ;  or  because  he 
turned  water  into  wine  at  the  marriage  feast  at 
Cana  in  Galilee ;  or  because  he  consecrated  water 
for  the  reparation  of  mankind  by  his  baptism  in 
the  river  Jordan ;  or  because  with  the  five  loaves 
he  fed  five  thousand  men.  For  each  of  these  con- 
tain the  mysteries  and  joys  of  our  salvation.  Petrus 
Chrysologus*^  and  Eucherius  Lugduncnsis"  men- 
tion the  three  first  reasons,  but  not  the  last.  Pope 
Leo"  has  eight  sermons  upon  this  festival,  in  which 
he  insists  upon  no  other  reason  but  the  manifesta- 
tion of  Christ's  birth  to  the  wise  men  by  the  appear- 
ance of  the  star.  St.  Jerom,  on  the  other  hand," 
makes  it  to  be  celebrated  chiefly  in  commemoration 


^^  Cone.  Aurelian.  1.  can.  27.  Ut  nulli  civiura  Paschae, 
Natalis,  velQuadragesimajsoIennia  in  villa  liccat  celebrare, 
nisi  quem  inlirinitas  probabitiir  tenuisse. 

*^  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  15.  Tit.  5.  de  Spectaculis,  Leg.  5. 
Dominico,  ct  Natali,  atque  Epiphanionira  Christi,  Paschsc 

etiam  et  QainquagesimtB  diebus omni  t heat loriiin  atque 

circensiiim  voliiptate  peruuiversas  tirbes,  carundem  populis 
denegata,  totae  Christiauonim  ac  (idelium  meutcs  Dei  cul- 
tibiis  oecupentur,  &c. 

^"  Hospin.  de  Fcstis  Christian,  p.  111. 

'"  Naz.  Orat.  38.  p.  614.  in  Theophaniam  sive  Natalein 
Christi. 

^'  Aug.  Serm.  29.  de  Tempore.  Hodie  illud  sacramentum 


colimus,  quo  se  in  homine  Dens  virtutibus  declaravit ;  pro 
eo  quod  in  hac  die  sive  quod  in  ca-lo  stella  ortus  sui  nun- 
ciinn  pr;t!buit;  sive  quod  in  Cana  Galilse;c  in  convivio  niip- 
tiali  aquaiu  in  vinum  convertit ;  sive  quod  in  Jordanis  undis 
aquas  ad  reparationem  humani  generis  suo  baptismo  cou- 
sccravit;  sive  quod  de  q\iinque  panibus  quinque  millia 
hominum  satiavit.  In  quolibcl  horuni  salutis  nostra;  mys- 
tcria  continentur  et  gaudia. 

'•-  Chrysolocr.  Serin.  ].i7.  de  Epiphania  et  Magis. 

■"  Eucher.  Horn,  in  Vi^il.  S.  Andrea;. 

"  Leo,  Serm.  in  Epiphan.  p.  25,  &c. 

"  Hieron.  in  Ezek.  i.  p.  459. 


1146 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XX. 


of  our  Saviour's  baptism,  and  the  manifestation  of 
him  to  the  world  by  the  voice  that  came  from  hea- 
ven, saying,  "  Thou  art  my  beloved  Son,  in  whom 
I  am  well  pleased."  And  the  Greek  writers  com- 
monly insist  upon  this  reason.  Why,  says  Chry- 
sostom,^"  is  not  the  day  on  which  Christ  was  born 
called  Epiphany,  but  the  day  on  which  he  was  bap- 
tized ?  Because  he  was  not  manifested  to  all  when 
he  was  born,  but  when  he  was  baptized.  For  to 
the  day  of  his  baptism  he  was  generally  unknown ; 
as  appears  from  those  words  of  John  the  Baptist, 
"  There  standeth  one  among  j'ou,  whom  ye  know 
not."  And  M-hat  wonder  that  others  should  not 
know  him,  when  the  Baptist  himself  knew  him  not 
before  that  day  ?  "  For  I  knew  him  not,"  says  he, 
"  but  he  that  sent  me  to  baptize  with  water,  the 
same  said  unto  me.  Upon  whom  thou  shalt  see  the 
Spirit  descending  and  remaining  on  him,  the  same 
is  he  that  baptizeth  with  the  Holy  Ghost."  Gre- 
gory Nazianzen"  assigns  the  same  reason  for  the 
observation  of  this  festival :  This  holy  day  of  lights, 
to  which  we  are  come,  and  which  we  this  day  cele- 
brate as  a  festival,  had  its  original  from  the  baptism 
of  Christ,  the  true  Light,  "  that  lighteth  every  man 
that  Cometh  into  the  world."  In  like  manner  Gre- 
gory Nyssen  ""*  entitles  his  sermon  on  the  baptism  of 
Christ,  tig  TTiv  rjfi'ipav  tuii'  ^wrw)',  K.r.X.,  a  discourse  on 
the  day  of  lights,  on  which  our  Lord  was  baptized. 
And  Asterius  Amasenus,  speaking  of  the  chief  Chris- 
tian festivals,"  says,  We  celebrate  the  Nativity,  be- 
cause at  this  time  God  manifested  his  Divinity  to 
us  in  the  flesh.  We  celebrate  the  feast  of  light, 
((puira  iravfiyvptv,)  because  by  the  remission  of  our 
sins  (in  baptism)  we  are  brought  as  it  were  out  of 
the  dark  prison  of  our  former  life,  to  a  life  of  light 
and  virtue. 

^  For  baptism  being  generally  called 

cau^d^by'lome  thl  1>^'^  ^^^  (pwrifffxa,  light  and  illumina- 
an'd"rftM  ^umhmm,  tiou,  from  thc  great  and  admirable  ef- 
uy  o  ig  Its.  fQQif-  consequent  to  it ;  this  day,  be- 
ing the  supposed  day  of  our  Saviour's  baptism,  was 
thereupon  styled  r'uxtpa  (pwriov,  or  uyia  tpSjra,  the  day 
of  lights,  or  illumination,  or  baptism.  As  appears 
not  only  from  the  forementioned  passages  of  Gre- 
gory Nazianzen  and  Nyssen,  but  several  other 
Greek  writers  noted  by  Suicerus,'^"  who  justly  re- 
proves Xylander  and  Pamelius  for  interpreting  this 
day  of  lights,  Candlcmas-day,  because  now  it  is 
usual  in  the  church  of  Rome  to  consecrate  their 
wax  candles  on  this  day,  which  is  otherwise  called 
the  Purification  of  the  Virgin  Mary ;  whereas  there 


was  no  such  festival  in  use  in  the  church  in  the 
time  of  Gregory  Nazianzen  and  Nyssen,  nor  many 
years  after  them,  till  the  reign  of  Justinian,  when 
it  was  first  instituted  by  the  Greek  church  under 
the  name  of  Ilxjpaiyante.  And  therefore  when  Na- 
zianzen'^' in  another  place  brings  in  some  giving 
this  reason  why  they  deferred  their  baptism ;  one 
saying,  ^levw  rk  tpwra,  I  stay  till  the  feast  of  lights 
come  ;  another,  he  had  a  greater  respect  for  Easter ; 
and  a  third,  that  he  waited  till  the  time  of  Pen- 
tecost :  it  is  plain,  the  feast  of  lights  cannot  signify 
the  Purification  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  (which  was  no 
solemn  time  of  baptism,)  but  Epiphany,  on  which 
the  Greek  church  allowed  persons  to  be  baptized, 
as  one  of  the  three  solemn  times  of  baptism,  and 
that  in  regard  to  our  Saviour's  baptism,  (which  they 
called  his  second  Nativity,*"  or  second  Epiphany,) 
when  his  Divinity  was  more  clearly  manifested  by 
the  voice  which  came  from  heaven,  saying,  "  Thou 
art  my  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased." 

So  that  we  may  observe,  that  in  the 
Greek  church  in  one  respect  it  was     ceiebrlted  as  aii 

J     1  ^ .  p    .  1  1         other  great  festivals, 

more  taken  notice  or  than  even  the  and  in  one  respect 

...  ,  more  noted,  as  being 

Nativity  itself;  being  allowed  as  one  in  the  Greek  chmch 

''  '  ^  one  of  the  three  &o- 

of  the  three  solemn  times  of  baptism,  'j'j^^"  '""''^  "''  ^"p- 
which  the  Nativity  was  not.  In  the 
Latin  church  indeed  it  wanted  this  privilege.  For, 
as  I  have  showed  elsewhere,*'  the  Roman,  French, 
and  Spanish  churches  for  many  ages  would  allow 
of  no  other  solemn  times  of  baptism  but  only 
Easter  and  Pentecost,  except  in  case  of  sickness 
and  extremity.  But  the  Greek  and  African  churches 
made  Epiphany  also  a  day  of  baptism,  as  appears 
not  only  out  of  the  forementioned  place  of  Nazian- 
zen, but  Victor  Uticensis,"  and  Joannes  Moschus,** 
and  the  ancient  ritual,  called  Typicum  Saba?.  To 
which  we  may  add  what  Chrysostom  says,*"  That  in 
this  solemnity,  in  memory  of  our  Saviour's  baptism, 
by  which  he  sanctified  the  nature  of  water,  they 
were  used  at  midnight  to  carry  home  water  from 
the  church,  and  lay  it  up,  where  it  would  remain 
as  fresh  and  uncorrupt  for  one,  two,  or  three  years, 
as  if  it  were  immediately  drawn  out  of  any  fountain. 
And  Fronto  Ducaeus"  observes  the  like  custom 
in  the  Syriac  calendar,  published  by  Genebrard, 
upon  this  very  day.  Which  argues  it  to  be  a  pecu- 
liar rite  of  the  Eastern  church.  As  to  other  things, 
the  observation  of  this  day  was  after  the  same  man- 
ner as  that  of  the  Nativity  and  other  great  festivals. 
For  they  had  sermons  and  the  communion  on  this 
day,  and  servants  had  liberty  to  rest  from  their 


■"=  Chrys.  Horn.  24.  de  Bapt.  Christi,  t.  ] .  p.  .31 1. 
"  Naz.  Orat.  39.  t.  ].  p.  621. 
■»*  Nyssen.  Orat.  do  Bapt.  Ghrisfi,  t.  3.  p.  3GG. 
*^  Aster.  Horn.   4.   in  Festuin  Kalendar.  ap.  Combefis, 
Auctar.  t.  1.  p.  67. 
"•  Siiicer.  Thesaur.  Eccles.  t.  2.  p.  1487. 
"  Naz.  40.  de  Bapt.  p.  654. 


5-  Vid.  Coteler.  Not.  in  Constit,  Apost.  lib.  5.  cap.  13. 
So  Riiffin  entitles  Nazianzcn's  39lh  Oration,  Do  Secundis 
Epiphaniis.  *■'  Book  XI.  chap.  6.  sect.  7. 

^*  Victor,  de  Persecut.  Vandal,  lib.  2. 

'^^  Mosch.  I'ratiim  Spirit,  cup.  214. 

"■'-'  Chrys.  Horn.  24.  .le  Bapt.  Christi,  t.  1.  p.  311, 

^'  Fr(jnto,  Not.  in  loc.  p.  65. 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1147 


bodily  labour  to  attend  the  religious  service  of  the 
day.  In  regard  to  which  usage  the  author  of  the 
Constitutions'^''  gives  this  direction  :  Let  servants 
rest  from  their  labour  on  Epiphany,  because  on 
that  day  the  Divinity  of  Christ  was  declared,  when 
the  Father  gave  testimony  to  him  at  his  baptism, 
and  the  Holy  Ghost  in  the  shape  of  a  dove  showed 
him  to  those  that  stood  by,  and  heard  the  testimony 
that  was  given  him.  And  though  at  first  this  day 
was  not  exempt  from  juridical  acts  and  prosecutions 
at  law  ;  nor  were  the  public  games  and  shows  for- 
bidden for  some  time  to  be  exhibited  thereon  ;  yet 
at  length  Theodosius  junior'' gave  it  an  honour- 
able place  among  those  days,  on  which  the  public 
games  should  not  be  allowed ;  forasmuch  as  men 
ought  to  put  a  distinction  between  days  of  suppli- 
cation and  days  of  pleasure.  And  Justinian,  re- 
citing one  of  the  laws  of  Theodosius  the  Great,*" 
makes  both  the  Nativitj'  and  Epiphany  days  of  va- 
cation from  all  pleadings  at  law,  as  well  as  from 
popular  pleasures.  And  so  it  is  in  the  laws  of  the 
Visigoths,'^'  published  out  of  the  body  of  the  Ro- 
man laws  by  Reciswindus  and  other  Gothic  kings, 
and  the  old  Gothic  interpreter  ^  of  the  laws  in  the 
Theodosian  Code.  From  whence  we  may  con- 
clude, that  this  was  become  the  standing  rule  and 
custom  throughout  both  the  Roman  and  the  Visi- 
goth dominions,  to  keep  this  festival  of  Epiphany 
with  great  veneration ;  neither  allowing  the  courts 
to  be  open  on  this  day  for  law,  nor  the  theatre  for 
pleasure. 

g^^j  g  I  have  but  one  thing  more  to  note, 

si^en 'on  Kpiphany  '^s  it  Were  by  the  way,  concerning  this 
of'SI'r'm  toe  en-  day :  that  they  to  whom  the  care  of 
smug  year.  ^^^^  Paschal  cyclc,  or  rule  for  finding 

out  Easter,  was  committed,  were  obliged  on  or  about 
the  time  of  Epiphany  to  give  notice  what  time 
Easter,  and  Lent,  and  all  the  movable  solemnities, 
were  to  be  kept  the  ensuing  year.  The  letters  sent 
from  the  metropolitan  to  the  provincial  bishops 
upon  this  occasion,  are  commonly  called  epistoke 
Faschales  and  IIcortastic<p,  Paschal  and  festival 
epistles,  which  are  usually  a  short  discourse  upon 
some  useful  and  important  subject,  closed  with  an 
intimation  or  notice  of  the  day  when  Lent  should 


begin,  and  of  Easter-day  and  Whit  Sunday.  As 
those  three  Paschal  epistles  ot  Theophilus,  bishop 
of  Alexandria,  which  were  translated  by  St.  Jcrom, 
and  are  now  among  St.  Jerom's  works,  and  in  the 
Ribliotheca  Patrum.*^  Concerning  which,  and  the 
rest  of  the  same  kind,  Cassian  says.  It  was  an  an- 
cient" custom  in  Egypt  for  the  bishop  of  Alexan- 
dria, as  soon  as  Epiphany  was  past,  to  send  his 
circular  letters  to  all  the  churches  and  monasteries 
of  Egypt,  to  signify  to  them  the  beginning  of  Lent 
and  Easter-day.  And  there  are  some  such  of  Dio- 
nysius,  Athanasius,  and  Cyril,  and  Pope  Innocent,*" 
and  Leo  ;™  and  some  orders  of  councils,"  that  the 
primates  of  provinces  should  send  their  circular  let- 
ters to  give  timely  notice  of  these  things  to  the 
several  churches  under  their  jurisdiction.  Particu- 
larly the  fourth  council  of  Orleans,  speaking  of  the 
time  of  keeping  Easter  uniformly  by  the  Paschal 
latercuhis,  or  table,  made  by  Victorius,  (Victor  they 
call  him,)  say.  The  bishops  of  France  shall  every 
j^ear  on  the  day  ^  of  Epiphany  give  notice  of  the 
time  when  the  festival  is  to  be  kept  in  their  churches. 
And  if  any  doubt  arise  about  the  time,  they  shall 
have  recourse  to  their  metropolitan,  and  he  to  the 
apostolical  see  for  resolution.  And  this  leads  us 
to  the  consideration  of  the  next  great  festival,  which 
was  that  of  Easter. 


CHAPTER  V. 

OF    EASTER,    OR    THE    PASCHAL    FESTIVAL. 

In  speakinsr  of  the  Paschal  solcmn- 

^  =>  Seel.  1. 

it}',  I  shall  here  only  consider  that  lemnfty'ancil-llti"*' 
part  of  it  which  was  properly  festival.  ^,yt°"ti?e  ^Xow 
For  we  are  to  know,  the  ancients  rhe'»wk°'rtVr'ii'as- 
commonly  included  fifteen  days  in  the  '  ""  "'' 
whole  solemnity  of  the  Pascli,  that  is,  the  week  be- 
fore Easter  Sunday,  and  the  week  following  it :  the 
one  of  which  was  called  Pascha  aravpu)ainov,  the 
Pasch  of  the  cross,  and  the  other  Pascha  dvaaraat- 


58  Cmistit.  lib.  8.  cap.  3.3.  Vid.  lib.  5.  cap.  13. 

5"  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  15.  Tit.  5.  de  Spectac.  Log.  5. 

6»  did.  Just.  lib.  3.  Tit.  12.  de  Feriis,  Leg.  G. 

«'  Leges  Visigoth,  lib.  2.  Tit.  1.  Leg.  11. 

^-  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  2.  Tit.  8.  de  Feriis,  in  Inlerpretat.  Le- 
gis  2.  Nee  non  et  dies  Natalis  Domini  nostri,  vel  Epi- 
phaniae,  sine  forensi  strepitu  volumiis  celebrari. 

■«  Bibl.  Patr.  t.  3.  p.  79. 

^'  Cassian.  Collat.  10.  cap.  2.  Intra  ^Egypti  regionem 
mos  iste  antiqiia  traditione  servatiir,  ut  pcracto  Epiphani- 
oriim  die — Epistola;  pontificis  Alexandrini  per  universas 
dirigantur  ecclesias,  quibus  initium  Quadragesimae  et  dies 
Paschae  non  solum  per  civitates,  sed  etiam  per  universa 
monasteria  significentur.     Vid.  Sozomen.  lib.  8.  cap.  11. 

"^  Innoc.  Ep.   11.    Dionys.  ap.  Euseb.  lib.  7.  cap.   20. 


Athanas.  Epist.  Heortastic.    Cyril.  Serm.  .30. 

•"^  Leo,  Ep.  93.  al.  95.  ad  Episcop.  Gallos.  See  Cod. 
Afric.  can.  13G. 

*'  Cone.  Arelat.  1.  can.  1.  Cone.  Carthag.  3.  can.  1  et 
41.  Cone.  Carthag.  5.  can.  7. 

®  Cone.  Aurelian.  4.  can.  1.  Placuit  ut  sanctum  Pascha 
secundum  laterculum  Victoris  ab  omnibus  sacerdotibus  uno 
tempore  celebretur.  Quaj  fcstivitas  annis  singulis  ab  opis- 
copo  Epiphaniarum  die  in  ecclesiis  denuncietur.  De  qua 
solennitate  quoties  aliquid  dubitatur,  inquisita  vel  aguila  per 
metropolitanos  a  sede  apostolica  sacra  constitutio  tencatur^ 
It.  Cone.  Antissiodor.  can.  2.  Ut  omnes  presbytori  ante 
Epiphaniam  misses  suos  dirigant,  qui  eis  de  principio 
Quadragesima;  nuncient,  et  in  ipsa  Epiphania  ad  populuiu 
indicent. 


1148 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XX. 


/lor,  the  Pasch  of  the  resurrection.  Suicerus  '  will 
furnish  the  learned  reader  with  examples  of  both. 
The  general  name  Pascha  (which  is  of  Hebrew  ex- 
tract from  Pcsach,  which  signifies  the  passover) 
will  comprise  both.  For  the  Christian  passover  in- 
cludes as  well  the  passion  as  the  resurrection  of  our 
Saviour,  who  is  the  true  Paschal  Lamb,  or  Passover, 
that  was  sacrificed  for  us.  And  therefore,  though 
our  English  word,  Easter,  be  generally  used  only  to 
signify  the  resurrection,  yet  the  ancient  word,  Pas- 
cha, was  taken  in  a  larger  sense,  to  denote  as  well 
the  Pasch  of  the  crucifixion,  as  the  Pasch  of  the  re- 
surrection. And  for  this  reason,  the  ancients  com- 
monly speak  of  the  Pasch  as  containing  fifteen  days 
in  its  solemnity,  including  the  passion  week,  toge- 
ther with  that  of  the  resurrection.  Thus  in  one  of 
the  laws  of  Theodosius,^  where  he  decrees  what 
days  shall  be  days  of  vacation  from  all  business  of 
the  law,  he  reckons  into  the  number  of  them  the 
holy  days  of  the  Pasch,  seven  going  before,  and 
seven  following  after.  And  Gothofred,  in  his  learned 
commentary  upon  the  place,  says,  Both  Papianus  in 
his  body  of  laws'  collected  by  him  out  of  the 
Roman  for  the  use  of  the  Burgundians,  and  Ani- 
anus  in  his  collection  for  the  use  of  the  Visigoths,'' 
keep  to  the  same  phrase  of  fifteen  Paschal  days. 
To  which  we  find  also  a  plain  reference  made  by 
St.  Austin,^  in  a  sermon  preached  by  him  on  the 
Doyninica  in  albis,  or  Sunday  following  Easter-day, 
wherein  he  thus  addresses  himself  to  his  audience : 
The  days  of  vacation  are  now  over,  and  those  of 
convening,  exactions,  and  law-suits  succeed  in  their 
room :  take  care,  my  brethren,  how  ye  spend  these 
days :  from  the  vacation  of  the  foregoing  days,  ye 
ought  to  learn  meekness,  not  to  meditate  subtle  de- 
vices ;  for  some  men  rest  on  those  days,  only  to  plot 
wickedness,  which  they  may  practise  when  the  fes- 
tival days  are  over.  We  desire  you  may  so  live,  as 
they  that  are  to  give  account  to  God,  not  only  of 
those  fifteen  days,  but  of  their  whole  life.  And 
Scaliger^  mentions  a  law  of  Constantine,  wherein 
the  Paschal  weeks,  the  one  before,  the  other  after 
the  Pasch,  are  ordered  to  be  days  of  vacation  from 
all  proceedings  at  law.  But  because  the  former  of 
these  Paschal  weeks  belongs  to  the  Lent  fast,  we 
will  consider  it  under  that  head,  and  here  only 
speak  of  the  Paschal  solemnity  as  it  was  properly 
festival. 


Now,  concerning  this  there  were 
anciently  very  great  disputes  in  the     Gr«i't^disp7ites  \n 

,  ,  I  in  1    •        ji  1         the  L'luirch  concern- 

church:  thou™  all  agreed  in  the  ob-  ing  tus  festival. 

^      .  ^  Some    observing    it 

servation  of  it  in  general,  yet  they  on  a  Axed  day  every 
difiered  very  much  as  to  the  particular 
time  when  it  was  to  be  observed ;  some  keeping  it 
precisely  on  the  same  stated  day  every  year ;  others 
on  the  fourteenth  day  of  the  first  moon  in  the  new 
year,  whatever  day  of  the  week  that  happened  to 
fall  upon:  others  deferring  it  to  the  first  Sunday 
after  the  first  full  moon  ;  and  those  often  differing 
in  the  Sunday  on  which  they  celebrated  it,  by  the 
difference  and  variety  of  their  calculations.  Epi- 
phanius  says,'  Some  of  the  Quartadecimans  in  Cap- 
padocia  always  kept  their  Pasch  on  the  eighth  of 
the  calends  of  April,  that  is,  the  twenty-fifth  of 
March,  pretending  certain  information  from  the 
Acts  of  Pilate,  that  that  was  the  day  of  our  Saviour's 
Passion ;  yet  other  copies  of  those  Acts  said  the 
sixteenth  of  the  calends  of  April,  that  is,  the  seven- 
teenth of  March.  The  Christians  of  Gaul  also, 
till  the  time  of  Pope  Victor,  if  Bede  may  be  credit- 
ed,' kept  their  Pasch  always  on  the  eighth  of  the 
calends  of  April,  that  is,  the  twenty-fifth  of  March, 
taking  that  to  have  been  the  day  of  our  Saviour's 
resurrection.  Bede  cites  the  authority  of  Theophi- 
lus,  bishop  of  Caesarea,  and  the  synod  held  under 
him,  for  this :  but  considering  that  Irenseus,  bishop 
of  Lyons,  who  lived  in  the  time  of  Pope  Victor, 
says  no  such  thing  of  the  French  churches,  but  the 
contrary,  that  they  fixed  their  Easter  to  no  certain 
day,  but  kept  it  as  other  Western  churches  did,  on 
the  Sunday  following  the  fourteenth  'day  of  the 
moon,  it  is  more  likely  that  Bede  was  imposed  upon 
by  some  spurious  epistle  of  Theophilus,  and  false  act 
of  his  synod,  which  charged  the  Galilean  churches 
with  what  they  were  not  really  guilty  of. 
However,  we  are  sure  that  in  the 


secondcentury  there  happened  a  great  jj  ?"'"''  "''"'"' 


Sect.  3. 

lers   obsi 

with  the  Jp 

dispute  between  the  Asiatic  churches  S^lI'e'moon,'lha7 

1    .,  ,       o   A^  11  ■     —    ever  dav  of  the  week 

and  the  rest  of  the  world,  concermng  that  hippcned  up- 
this  day.  Pope  Pius,  who  lived  about 
the  year  147,  had  made  a  decree.  That  the  annual 
solemnity  of  the  Pasch  should  be  kept  only  on  the 
Lord's  day;  and  in  confirmation  of  this  he  pre- 
tended, that  Hermes,  his  brother,  who  was  then 
an  eminent  teacher  among  them,  had  received  in- 
struction from  an  angel,^  who  commanded,  that  all 


'  S nicer.  Thesaur.  Eccles.  t.  1.  p.  3()4.  et  t.  2.  p.  1014. 

2  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  2.  Tit.  8.  de  Feriis,  Leg.  2.  Sanctos 
qunque  Pascha;  dies,  qui  septcuo  vcl  praicedunt  nuinero,  vel 
seqiuintur,  in  eadem  observatione  numeramus. 

^  Papian.  lib.  Rcsponsor.  Tit.  12.  I'ascbalibus  ctiarn 
quindecim  diebus. 

'  Leg.  Visigoth,  lib.  2.  Tit.  1.  Leg.  11. 

^  Aug.  Ser.  19.  e.\  editis  a  Siimondo,  t.  10.  p.  811.  Por- 
acti  sunt  dies' feriati;  succedent  jam  illi  conventionum,  ex- 
actionum,  litigiorum,  &c.  Pctimus  vos,  lit  ita  vivatis,  tan- 
quam  qui  Deo  ratiouem  reddituros  vos  sciatis  de  tola  vita, 


non  de  solis  istis  quindecim  diebus. 

°  Scaliger.  de  Enicndat.  Temp.  p.  77G.  Tcis  TTrtiryfiXiws 
duo  ifSSofiuSai  uTTouKTOvi  teA.eIi''  tIiv  T£  ttoo  tou  n«crxa 

Kul  Tljl'  fXtT    aVTO. 

'  Epiphan.  Ha>i-.  50.  Quartadeciman.  n.  11. 

^  Bod.  de  Ratione  Tempoiura,  cap.  45.  It.  de  ^I''qiii- 
noctio  Vernali,  t.  2.  p.  '232. 

^  Pii  Ep.  1.  Ilevmse  augelus  Domini  in  hiibitu  pastoiis 
apparuit,  et  prajcepit  ei,  ut  Pascha  die  Dominico  ab  (mini- 
bus celebraretur. 


Chai'.  V. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


149 


men  should  keep  the  Pasch  on  the  Lord's  day.  Yet, 
notwithstanding  this,  the  Asiatics  kept  to  their  an- 
cient custom,  and  Polycarp,  bishop  of  Smyrna,  came 
to  Rome  to  confer  with  Anicetus  upon  it.  They 
could  come  to  no  agreement  upon  the  time ;  for 
Anicetus  could  not  persuade  Polycarp '"  to  alter  a 
custom,  which  he  had  observed  with  St.  John  the 
apostle,  and  the  rest  of  the  apostles  of  the  Lord, 
with  whom  he  had  lived  and  familiarly  conversed. 
Neither  could  Polycarp  persuade  Anicetus  to  recede 
from  a  custom  which  he  had  received  from  the 
elders  that  were  before  him.  Yet  they  continued 
to  communicate  with  each  other,  and  Anicetus  did 
Polycarp  the  honour  to  let  him  consecrate  the  eu- 
charist  in  his  church :  and  so  they  parted  from  each 
other  in  peace ;  all  churches,  as  well  those  that  ob- 
served it  on  the  Lord's  day,  as  those  that  did  not, 
still  agreeing  to  preserve  Christian  peace  and  com- 
munion one  with  another. 

Not  long  after  the  death  of  Polycarp,  the  con- 
troversy was  revived  again  at  Laodicea,  upon  which 
Melito,  bishop  of  Sardis,  wrote  his  two  books  De 
Paschate,  wherein  he  defended  the  opinion  of  the 
Asiatics,  as  is  evident  fronr  the  testimony  and  cha- 
racter which,  not  long  after,  Polycrates,  bishop  of 
Ephesus,  gives  of  him.  For  when  the  dispute  was 
set  on  foot  again  by  the  fierceness  of  Pope  Victor, 
Polycrates"  wrote  to  him,  and  told  him.  They  ob- 
served the  Pasch  on  the  fourteenth  day  of  the  moon, 
as  it  had  been  kept,  and  handed  down  to  them  by 
St.  Philip  the  apostle,  who  died  at  Hierapolis,  and 
St.  John  the  apostle,  who  died  at  Ephesus,  by  Po- 
lycarp, bishop  of  .Smyrna,  by  Thraseas  the  martyr, 
bishop  of  Eumenia,  by  Sagaris  the  martyr,  bishop 
of  Laodicea,  by  Papirius,  and  Melito,  bishop  of 
Sardis,  and  many  others,  whose  custom  was  to  cele- 
brate the  Pasch  on  the  same  day  that  the  Jews  were 
wont  to  put  away  their  leaven.  This  did  not  satisfy 
Pope  Victor,  but  he,  in  a  great  paroxysm  of  intem- 
perate zeal,  immediately  excommunicated  all  the 
Asiatic  churches,  and  sent  his  circular  letters  to 
all  churches  that  were  of  his  opinion,  that  they 
should  hold  no  communion  with  them.  But  this  rash 
and  bold  act  of  his  was  ill  resented  by  all  wise  and 
sober  men  of  his  own  party,  several  of  which  wrote 
sharply  to  him,  advising  him  rather  to  take  such 
measures  and  resolutions  as  were  proper  to  preserve 
charity,  unity,  and  peace  among  the  churches.  Par- 
ticularly Irensens  (whose  nature,  by  what  the  Greeks 
call  pheronymy,  corresponded  to  his  name,  being  of 
an  irenical  or  pacific  temper)  wrote  to  him  in  the 
name  of  the  church  of  Gaul,  and  in  a  decent  man- 
ner admonished  him  not  to  excommunicate  whole 


'"  Irenae.  Ep.  ad  Victor,  ap.  Euseb.  lib.  5.  cap.  21. 
"  Polycrates,  Epist.  ap.  Euseb.  ibid. 
'=  Athan.  Epist.  ad  Africanos,  Tit.  J.  p.  1)33.    It.  de  Sy- 
nodis  Ariinin.  et  Seleuc.  p.  872. 
'^  Usser.  de  Epistolis  Ignat.  cap.  9 


churches  of  God  for  observing  an  ancient  custom, 
which  they  had  received  by  tradition  from  their  an- 
cestors :  forasmuch  as  that  there  had  been  disputes 
of  old  in  the  church,  not  only  about  the  day,  but 
about  the  manner  of  the  fast  preceding  it ;  some 
fasting  one,  some  two,  some  more  days;  yet  all  these 
kept  peace  one  with  another,  as  we  now  do,  and  the 
difference  in  the  manner  of  fasting  only  commended 
their  unanimity  in  the  faith.    He  added,  that  Poly- 
carp and  Anicetus,  though  they  could  not  agree 
upon  the  point,  yet  parted  friends,  and  continued  to 
communicate  with  each  other,  notwithstanding  this 
difference,  as  has  been  related  before.    Athanasius  '" 
also  tells  us  further,  that  the  churches  of  Cilicia, 
Mesopotamia,  and  Syria,  were  in  the  same  senti- 
ments with    the    Asiatic    churches   in    his   time : 
though  it  is  a  dispute  between  Bishop  Usher'' and 
Valesius,'*  whether  they  were   so  originally  ;   for 
Valesius  will  not  allow  that  they  were  so  in  the 
time  of  Pope  Victor.     However,  we  see  there  were 
many  great  and  famous  churches,  which  kept  their 
Pasch  on  the  fourteenth  day  of  the  moon,  with  the 
Jews,  and  that  as  a  custom  received  by  tradition 
from  St.  Philip  and  St.  John,  the  apostles.     Nei- 
ther were   they  induced  by  the  menaces  of  Pope 
Victor  to  alter  their  custom,  but  continued  it  to  the 
time  of  the  council  of  Nice,  anno  324.     About 
which  time  Constantine,  being  very  desirous  to  com- 
pose this  difference  in  the  church,  sent  Osius,  bishop 
of  Corduba,  first  into  the  East,  as  Sozomen'^  re- 
lates, to  try  if  he  could  bring  the  dissenting  party 
to    a  unanimity  with  the    rest  of  their  brethren. 
But  failing  of  his  design,  he  afterwards  proposed 
the  matter  to  the  council  of  Nice,  where  a  decree 
was  made,  that  the  holy  feast  of  the  Pasch  should 
be  kept  on  one  and  the  same  day  by  all ;   as  ap- 
pears  from  one  of  Constantine's  epistles  to   the 
bishops  who  came  not  to  the  synod,  \\\\\c\\  is  re- 
corded by  all  the  historians.'^     Not  long  after  this 
the  council  of  Antioch,  anno  341,  made  a  more  pe- 
remptory decree,  that  all  who  presumed  to  disannul 
the  determination"  made  by  the  holy  and  great 
council  of  Nice  concerning  the  Paschal  festival, 
should  be  excommunicated  and  cast  out  of  the 
church,  if  they  persisted  contentiously  to  oppose 
what  was  there  decreed.    The  like  canons  had  been 
made  several  times  before  ;  but  none  so  peremptory 
as  this.     Eusebius  mentions  abundance  of  synods  '* 
in  the  time  of  Pope  Victor,  which  determined  with 
him  that  the  resurrection  Pasch  ought  only  to  be 
kept  on  the  Lord's  day  :  but  they  did  not  excommu- 
nicate any  that  opposed  them  ;  but  rather,  as  Sozo- 
men   relates,  mutually  tolerated    one   another  in 


'^  Vales,  in  Euseb.  lib.  5.  cap.  23. 
'^  Sozom.  lib.  1.  cap.  16. 

IS  Thend.  lib.  1.  cap.  10.    Socrat.  lib.  1.  cap.  9.    Sozom. 
lib.  1.  cap.  21.    Euseb.  de  Vita  Coustant.lib..3.  cap.  14. 
"  Cone.  Antioch.  can.  1.  "  Euseb.  lib.  5.  cap.  23. 


1150 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH, 


EooK  XX. 


their  difTerent  observations.'"  The  first  council  of 
Arles^  Hkcwise,  before  the  council  of  Nice,  anno 
314,  had  given  in  charge,  that  the  Pasch  of  the 
Lord's  resurrection  should  be  observed  uno  die  et 
tempore  per  omnem  orhem,  at  one  time  and  on  one 
and  the  same  day  throughout  all  the  world.  But 
they  added  no  such  penalty  of  excommunication  to 
be  inflicted  on  those  that  observed  the  contrary  cus- 
tom. The  only  rule  which  pressed  the  observation 
with  severity,  was  one  of  the  Apostolical  Canons,'^' 
supposed  to  be  made  by  some  Eastern  council  about 
the  time  of  Pope  Victor,  which  says,  If  any  bishop, 
presbyter,  or  deacon,  keep  the  day  of  the  holy  Pasch 
before  the  vernal  equinox  with  the  Jews,  let  him 
be  deposed.  But  this,  at  most,  only  affected  the 
clergy.  But  when  the  great  council  of  Nice  had 
once  undertaken  to  determine  this  matter,  such  a 
deference  was  thought  proper  to  be  paid  to  her  de- 
cree, as  that  it  was  reputed  a  schismatical  act,  and 
worthy  of  ecclesiastical  censure,  for  any  one  to  op- 
pose it.  And  therefore  from  this  time  the  opposers 
of  the  decree  are  commonly  censured  either  as 
heretics  or  schismatics,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  ca- 
nons of  Laodicea,"  and  the  first  council  of  Constan- 
tinoijle^  and  the  accounts  which  St.  Austin^^  and 
Epiphanius  give  of  the  ancient  heretics,  where  they 
are  condemned  under  the  names  of  Quartadecimani, 
and  TessarcsccedecatifcB,  and  Audianl,  with  a  par- 
ticular reason  given  for  their  condemnation.  For 
St.  Austin  notes  out  of  Epiphanius,  That  the  Au- 
dians  were  condemned  not  so  much  for  their  opinion 
in  this  point,  as  for  their  pervicaciousness  in  mak- 
ing a  disturbance  and  schism  in  the  church  upon  it. 
For  they  would  not  hold  any  communion  with  their 
own  bishops,^  nor  with  any  that  did  not  keep  the 
Pasch  at  the  same  time  that  the  Jews  did.  Epipha- 
nius gives  a  large  account  of  them,  and  says.  They 
railed  at  the  council  of  Nice  for  introducing  a  new 
custom  in  compliance  with  Constantine's  humour,"'' 
and  made  a  separation  in  the  church  ;  upon  which 
Constantine  banished  Audius  their  leader  into 
Gothia  or  Scythia,  because  he  drew  many  awaj' 


from  the  church  into  a  separate  communion.  The 
case  was  now  very  different  from  what  it  was  in  the 
time  of  Pope  Anicetus  and  Tictor,  when  Polycarp 
and  Polycrates  kept  their  Pasch  at  a  different  time 
from  the  rest  of  the  world,  but  still  made  no  divi- 
sion in  the  church,  but  lived  in  peace  and  commu- 
nion with  those  that  diflered  from  them.  And  this, 
no  doubt,  was  the  reason  why  the  Audians  or  new 
Quartadecimans  were  treated  with  such  severity 
by  both  the  church  and  state  above  the  old  ones, 
because  they  pervicaciously  carried  their  dissent 
into  a  schism,  and  made  a  formal  rupture  in  the 
communion  of  the  church.  And  for  this  reason 
the  imperial  laws  were  often  very  severe  upon  them. 
Theodosius  the  Great,^'  in  one  of  his  laws,  ranks 
them  with  the  Manichees,  forbidding  their  conven- 
ticles, confiscating  their  goods,  rendering  them  in- 
testate, and  liable  also  to  capital  punishment.  In 
like  manner,  Theodosius  junior  ranks  the  Sabba- 
tians  and  Profopaschiffs  (which  were  new  denomi- 
nations of  the  Quartadecimans,  taken  Tip  in  his 
time)  among  the  Manichees,  Cataphrvgians  or 
Montanists,  Arians,  Macedonians,-'  Eunomians, 
Novatians,  and  makes  them  all  liable  to  the  same 
general  punishments  inflicted  by  the  laws :  and 
more  particularly  in  two  other  laws,'®  he  styles  them 
execrable  men,  who  being  a  spawn  of  the  Novatians, 
were  not  content  to  be  in  tlie  common  herd,  but  set 
up  a  new  sect,  called  Protopaschites  (because  they 
kept  the  Pasch  before  other  Christians,  and  pre- 
tended that  their  way  was  the  trne  primitive  and 
original  institution).  These  he  condemns  to  be 
both  confiscated  and  banished,  and  says,  they  de- 
served a  more  severe  punishment,  because  they  ex- 
ceeded other  heretics  in  madness,  worshipping  in  a 
manner  another  Christ  by  keeping  the  Pasch  at 
another  time,  and  after  a  different  manner,  than  all 
orthodox  Christians.  I  remember  no  other  place 
at  present  that  mentions  the  Protopaschites  by 
name  but  only  this  law ;  but  it  is  plain  they  were 
one  of  the  worst  sort  of  Quartadecimans,  who  had 
made  a  new  separation  from  the  Novatian  schis- 


^Conc.  Laodic.  can.  7. 


"  Sozom.  lib.  7.  cap.  19. 

'"  Cone.  Arelat.  1.  can.  1. 

^'  Canon.  A  post.  8. 

^  Cone.  Constant.  1.  can.  7. 

^*  Aug.  Haer.  29  et  50.  Epiphan.  Haer.  50.  Quartadeci- 
man.  et  Haer.  70.  Audianor. 

^  Aug.  de  Haer.  cap.  50.  Eos  autem  separasse  se,  dicit 
Epiphanius,  a  comraunione  nostra,  culpaudo  episcopos  di- 
vites,  et  Paschacum  Judaeis  celebrando. 

-•^  Epiphan.  Haer.  70.  n.  9.  Vid.  Chrys.  Horn.  52.  in 
eos  qui  Paschajejunant,  t.  5.  p.  706. 

"  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  IG.  Tit.  5.  de  Hicret.  Leg.  9.  Qui- 
cunque  in  unu,m  Paschae  diem  non  obsequenti  religione  con- 
venerint,  tales  indubitanter,  quale^  hac  lege  damnavimus, 
habeantur. 

^Ihid.  Leg.  59.' 

29  Cod.  Theod.  lib.'  16.  Tit.  6.  Ne  Sanctum  Baptisma 
iteretur,  Leg.  6.    Illud  etiam  quod  a  retro  principibus  dissi- 


mulatum,  et  in  injuriam  sacrae  legis  ab  execrandis  hominibus 
agitatur,  et  ab  iis  potissimum  qui  Novatianorum  collegio  de- 
sertores  et  refugao,  auctores  se  qiiani  potiores  (al.  portiones) 
memorata;  sectae  haberi  contendunt,  quibus  e.x  crimine  no- 
men  est,  cum  se  Protopaschitas  appellari  desiderent,  inultum 
esse  non  patimur.  Scd  si  alio  die  Novatiani,  quam  quo  or- 
thodoxorum  antistites  praedicandum  ac  memorabilem  in 
Sfficulis  diem  Paschae  duxerint  celebrandum.  auctores  illius 
conventionis  d^portatio  pariter  ac  proscriptio  subsequatur : 
contra  quos  etiam  acrior  pcena  fuerat  promulganda  :  si  qui- 
dem  hoc  delictum  etiam  haereticorum  vesaniam  superet,  qui 
alio  tempore  quam  quo  orthndoxi,  Paschaa  festivitatem  ob- 
servantes,  alium  pene  Dei  Filium,  non  quern  colimus,  vene- 
rantur.  It.  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  16.  Tit.  10.  de  Paganis,  Leg. 
24.  Eos  qui  omnibus  haereticis  hac  una  sunt  persuasione 
pejores,  quod  in  venerabili  die  Paschae  ab  omnibus  dissen- 
tiunt,  si  in  eadem  amentia  perseverant,  eadem  poena  multa- 
mus,  bonorum  proscriptione  atque  exilio. 


Chap.  V. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


II.'-)  1 


niatics  upon  this  question  about  the  Paschal  festi- 
val. For  some  of  the  Novatians  in  one  of  their 
synods  at  Pazus  in  Plirygia  had  made  a  decree,  men- 
tioned by  Socrates,''"  tliat  Ea>ster  ought  to  be  kept 
with  the  Jews.  Which  occasioning  a  new  dispute 
among  them,  (for  the  old  Novatians  at  Rome  and 
Constantinople  were  of  a  different  opinion,)  Marci- 
anus,  the  Novatian  bishop  of  Constantinople,  called 
another  synod  at  Angarus  in  Bithynia,  where,  to 
end  the  controversy  and  lay  it  asleep,  they  made  a 
new  canon,  called  the  'Aoid^opov,  which  was.  That 
the  matter  should  be  indifferent,  and  that  both  par- 
ties might  keep  the  feast  their  own  way,  and  not 
break  commimion  upon  it.  But  Sabbatius,  a  fierce 
man  among  them,  would  not  }ield  to  this,  but  said 
the  decree  of  the  synod  of  Pazus  ought  to  be  ob- 
served, and  that  the  Pasch^'  ought  to  be  observed 
after  the  manner  of  the  Jews.  And  upon  this  he 
made  a  new  separation  among  the  Novatians,  and 
headed  the  Protopaschites,  who  from  him  were 
called  Sabbatians.  It  appears  also  from  Chrysos- 
tom,^-  that  these  Protopaschites  were  gone  further 
into  the  Jewish  notions  about  the  Pasch  than  the 
rest  of  the  Quartadecinians  ;  for  they  asserted. 
That  it  was  necessary  to  observe  the  Jewish  Azt/ma, 
and  keep  the  fast  as  the  Jews  did,  when  the  Poich 
was  over.  For  Sabbatius  himself  was  originally  a 
Jew,  and  retained  a  tincture  of  Judaism  when  he 
professed  the  Christian  religion,  as  Socrates  notes 
in  the  forementioned  place.  So  they  kept  a  feast 
with  the  Jews,  when  the  Christians  fasted  on  the 
Passion-day,  (as  Chrysostom  charges ^^  them,)  and 
fasted  on  Easter-day,  when  the  Christians  kept 
their  festival  in  memory  of  the  resurrection.  This, 
as  far  as  I  can  collect,  is  the  true  history  of  the  pro- 
gress which  the  new  Quartadeciman  schism  made 
after  the  council  of  Nice,  and  the  reason  why  the 
laws  both  imperial  and  ecclesiastical  proceeded 
with  greater  severity  against  them,  above  the  old 
Quartadeciraans,  who  never  broke  communion  with 
their  brethren,  however  they  differed  from  them  in 
their  practice.  They  thought  the  peace  and  unity 
of  the  church  of  greater  value,  than  the  observ- 
ation of  times  and  seasons :  and  if  they  could 
not  comply  with  their  brethren  in  the  precise 
time  of  keeping  Easter,  yet  they  were  careful  for 
all  that  to  keep  the  unity  of  the  spirit  in  the  bond 
of  peace. 

j.^^^  ^  Besides  this  difference  about  keep- 

c„''?h"  lo°rd^s''day  i»g  ^astcr  on  the  Lord's  day,  there 

did  not  alv,ajs  agree    ^^^^^^    aUOthcr,    wllich,    thoUgh    of  leSS 


^  Socrat.  lib.  4.  cap.  28.  "  Ibid.  lib.  5.  cap.  21. 

^  Chrys.  Horn. 52.  in  eos  qui  Pascha  jfjunaut,  t.  b.  p.  713. 

»Chiys.  ibid.  p.  714. 

3«  Ambros.  Ep.  83, 

■'^  Stillingtieet's  Answer  to  Crcssy,  p.  32.3t 

'*  Bucher.  Comment,  in  Ilippolyt.  Can.  Paschal,  p.  264. 

^'  Leo,  Ep.  Gl.  ad  Rlarciau.  Ep.  65.  ad  Eudo.xiani.  Ep. 


moment,  yet  sometimes  very  much  toflvitonii,c»an,c 
embarr;issed  and  troubled  the  church.  lolT'or 'ihlir''diuvr- 
That  was  a  dispute  among  those  who  '"  <:•'':"  "t.uns. 
agreed  to  observe  the  festival  on  no  other  but  the 
Lord's  day.  For  though  they  all  unanimously 
combined  in  this,  yet  it  was  not  so  easy  to  deter- 
mine on  what  Lord's  day  it  was  to  be  held,  because 
it  was  a  movable  feast ;  and,  therefore,  sometimes 
it  happened,  that  the  churches  of  one  country  kept 
it  a  week  or  a  month  sooner  than  others,  by  ix'ason 
of  their  different  calculations.  It  appears  from  an 
ejjistle  of  St.  Ambrose,'^  that  in  the  year  387,  Easter 
was  kept  at  three  several  times ;  some  observing  it 
March  21 ,  others  April  18,  and  others  25.  So  it  hap- 
pened again,  anno  577 ;  the  churches  of  Gaul  kept 
it  on  March  21,  the  churches  of  Italy  on  Aj)ril  18, 
and  the  churches  of  Egypt  on  April  25,  as  Bishop 
Stillingfleet^^  shows  out  of  Gregory  of  Tours  and 
Labbe's  Chronologicon  Technicum,  anno  387  and 
577-  Where  he  shows  further  out  of  the  ancient 
Laterculus  Paschalis,  published  by  Bucherius,"'  that 
the  Easter  of  the  Latins  was  three  times  a  month 
sooner  than  that  of  the  Alexandrians  within  the 
compass  of  a  hundred  years,  viz.  anno  322,  341),  406. 
It  appears  also  from  Leo's  epistles,^'  that  in  the  year 
455,  there  were  eight  days*  difference  between  the 
Easter  at  Rome  and  at  Alexandria.  Cyril  of  Alex- 
andria,^ in  one  of  his  Paschal  epistles,  complains, 
that  there  was  great  confusion  in  the  account  of 
Easter  both  in  the  church,  the  camp,  and  the  palace. 
And  Anatolius,  in  his  preface  to  his  Paschal  canon, 
complains,^'  that  there  were  very  different  and  con- 
trary cycles  in  use  in  his  time,  (anno  270,)  some 
following  Hippolytus's  cycle  of  sixteen ;  others  the 
Jewish  cycle  of  eighty-four ;  others  a  cycle  of  twen- 
ty-five ;  others  a  cycle  of  thirty.  And  he  tells  us, 
that  Isidore,  Hieroni,  Clemens,  and  Origen,  all  his 
countrymen,  Egyptians,  had  laboured  in  this  matter 
before  him.  But  notwithstanding  any  endeavours 
that  could  be  used  then,  or  afterwards,  there  re- 
mained great  differences  in  the  church  about  it  for 
many  ages.  For  the  churches  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  did  not  accord  with  the  Roman  church  in 
keeping  Easter  on  the  same  Siniday,*"  till  about 
the  year  800.  Nor  was  tlie  Roman  way  fully  re- 
ceived in  France,  till  it  was  settled  there  by  the  au- 
thority of  Charles  the  Great,  as  has  lately  been  show- 
ed by  two  learned  writers.  Bishop  Stillingficet  and 
Dr.  Prideaux,  who  give  a  full  account  of  the  contro- 
versy between  the  Britons  and  Romans,  which  I 
shall  not  here  repeat,  but  only  acquaint  the  reader 


95.  ad  Episc.  Gallos. 

^*  Cyril.  Ep.  Paschal,  ap,  Bucher.  de  Doctrina  Temp. 
Append,  p.  482. 

'"  Anatol.  Canon.  Paschal,  ap.  Bncherium. 

'"'  Sec  Bishop  Stillingfleet's  Answer  to  Cressy,  p.  322. 
And  Dr.  Prideau.x's  Conne.Kioii  of  Hist.  &c.  Pan  If. 
book  4.  p.  273. 


1152 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XX. 


how  these   differences  happened   at  first  in    the 
church  by  using  different  ways  of  calculation. 

It  is  agreed  on  all  hands,  that  the  first  Chris- 
tians of  Jerusalem  had  no  other  way  of  finding  out 
Easter,  but  by  the  Jewish  cycle  of  eighty-four  years, 
which  the  Jews  had  used  some  time  before  to  settle 
the  anniversary  returns  of  their  passover;  which 
cycle,  though  it  was  a  little  faulty,  continued  to  be 
used  by  the  Christians  for  near  two  hundred  years. 
Not  that  they  kept  their  Easter  on  the  fourteenth 
day  with  the  Jews,  as  Scaliger"  and  some  others 
have  erroneously  hence  concluded ;  for  which  they 
are  corrected  by  Bishop  Usher"  and  Bishop  Be- 
veridge,""  who  show,  that  those  first  Christians  of 
Jerusalem,  though  they  followed  the  Jewish  com- 
putation, did  not  keep  Easter  with  the  Jews  on 
what  day  of  the  week  soever  it  fell,  but  on  the  Sun- 
day following,  in  honour  of  our  Saviour's  resurrec- 
tion :  however,  they  continued  to  use  the  Jewish 
cycle,  till  the  fifteen  bishops  of  Jerusalem  who 
were  of  the  circumcision  were  succeeded  by  others 
who  were  not  of  the  circumcision,  and  then  they 
began  to  reckon  their  Easter  by  other  computa- 
tions. Epiphanius"  says  expressly,  That  they 
kept  Easter  at  first  by  the  old  Jewish  cycle ;  and  he 
quotes  an  order  out  of  the  Apostolical  Constitutions, 
(different  from  those  which  we  have  now,)  appoint- 
ing them  not  to  trouble  themselves  about  calcula- 
tions, but  to  keep  the  feast  at  the  same  time  with  the 
brethren  that  came  out  of  the  circumcision,  and  not 
be  concerned  though  they  were  mistaken  in  their 
calculations.  But  when  that  succession  of  Jewish 
bishops  was  ended,  with  the  destruction  of  Jerusa- 
lem, in  the  time  of  Hadrian,  some  Christians  began 
to  inquire  into  the  defects  of  the  Jewish  cycle, 
Avhich  was  found  to  make  Easter  sometimes  antici- 
pate the  vernal  equinox,  and  so  bring  two  Easters 
into  one  year.  To  remedy  which  inconvenience, 
they  began  to  invent  other  cycles.  About  the  year 
220,  Hippolytus,  bishop  of  Portus  or  Adana  in 
Arabia,  published  a  new  cycle  in  his  Paschal  canon, 
which,  Eusebius  says,  was  called"  the  iKKaiStKcurtjplg, 
or  the  cycle  of  sixteen  years.  Not  long  after  this 
Dionysius,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  about  the  year  250, 
set  forth  another  canon,  called  the  dKTaiTrjpiQ,  or 
cycle  of  eight  years,  in  which,  as  Eusebius  tells  us,'"' 
he  particularly  remarked,  that  the  Paschal  festival 
ought  never  to  be  kept  till  after  the  vernal  equinox. 
Not  long  after,  Anatolius,  who  was  also  an  Alexan- 
drian, about  the  year  2/0,  published  another  cycle, 
which  Eusebius  says  was  called  the  IvvtaStKatTTjplg" 
the  cycle  of  nineteen ;  in  vihich  he  showed  from 
several  ancient  Jewish  writers  themselves,  that  the 


■"  Scaliger.  de  Emend.  Tomp.  lib.  2.  p.  150. 

''-  Usser.  Prolegom.  ad  Ignat.  cap.  9. 

■"  Bevereg.  ad  Canon.  A  post.  7. 

■'■'  Epipl;an.  Uxr.  70.  Audianor.  n.  10. 

^■^  Eiiseb.  lib.  G.  cap.  22. 


Pasch  ought  never  to  be  before  the  vernal  equinox, 
and  therefore  there  was  a  necessity  of  correcting 
their  cycle.  Hence  about  this  time  Bishop  Usher" 
reckons  the  seventh  of  those  called  the  Apostolical 
Canons,  and  the  interpolation  of  the  old  Constitu- 
tions, took  their  original.  The  former  of  which  ■" 
says.  If  any  bishop,  presbyter,  or  deacon,  keep  the 
Paschal  feast  before  the  vernal  equinox,  with  the 
Jews,  let  him  be  deposed.  And  the  other,^  Ye,  bre- 
thren, who  are  redeemed  with  the  precious  blood  of 
Christ,  ought  to  keep  the  Pasch  with  all  diligence 
and  exactness  after  the  equinox,  that  ye  may  not 
twice  in  one  year  commemorate  the  passion  of  him 
who  died  but  once,  and  be  careful  that  ye  observe 
not  the  Pasch  with  the  Jews.  For  we  have  now  no 
communion  with  them.  For  they  are  deceived  in 
their  very  calculation,  which  they  imagine  to  be 
exact.  So  that  they  err  in  all  respects,  and  are 
found  to  deviate  from  the  truth.  We  see,  at  this 
time  the  Jewish  calculation  was  generally  rejected 
by  the  Eastern  church,  and  yet  no  certain  one 
agreed  upon  in  its  room,  to  fix  unalterably  the  pre- 
cise Lord's  day  on  which  they  were  to  celebrate 
this  festival.  Therefore,  this  matter  remaining  still 
uncertain,  the  council  of  Nice,  which  determined 
that  it  should  be  kept  only  upon  the  Lord's  day,  is 
said  ^'  also  to  have  committed  the  care  of  the  cycle 
to  the  bishops  of  Alexandria,  that  they  might  in- 
form the  rest  of  the  world  on  what  Lord's  day  every 
year  it  was  to  be  observed.  Some  think  upon 
this  Eusebius  was  employed  to  draw  up  the  cycle 
of  nineteen,  which  was  afterwards  perfected  by 
Theophilus,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  in  the  time  of 
Theodosius,  into  a  calculation  for  a  hundred  years. 
And  yet  after  this  it  was  that  Cyril  still  complained 
of  great  confusion  in  the  account  of  Easter  in  the 
church,  in  the  camp,  and  in  the  palace ;  and  that 
the  Roman  and  Alexandrian  accounts  sometimes 
varied  a  week  or  a  month  from  each  other,  (as  we 
have  seen  before,)  which  was  owing  purely  to  their 
different  ways  of  calculation  ;  because  the  Roman 
church  still  proceeded  by  the  old  Jewish  cycle  of 
eighty-four,  and  not  by  the  new  Alexandrian  cycle 
of  nineteen.  To  remedy  this  confusion,  one  Victo- 
rius,  a  Frenchman,  was  employed  by  Hilarius,  arch- 
deacon of  Rome,  to  make  a  new  Paschal  canon  ;  but 
neither  did  his  attempt  succeed ;  for  though  he  took 
in  the  Alexandrian  cycle  of  nineteen,  yet  still  he 
retained  so  much  of  the  Roman,  as  made  the  varia- 
tion of  Easter  Sunday  sometimes  a  week,  and  some- 
times a  month  between  them.  And  no  effectual 
cure  was  found  for  this,  till  Dionysius  Exiguus, 
anno  525,  brought  the  Alexandrian  canon  entire 


"  Ibid.  cap.  32. 


^s  Euseb.  lib.  7.  cap.  20. 

■"^  Usser.  Prolegom.  in  Ignat.  cap.  9. 

*"  Can.  Apost.  5.  al.  8.  ^  Constit.  lib.  5.  cap.  IG. 

^'  Leo,  Ep.  63.  ad  Marcian.  Imperator. 


ClIAP.    V. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Iir)3 


into  the  use  of  the  Roman  chiux-h.  Meanwhile  the 
churches  of  France  and  Britain  kept  to  the  old  Ro- 
man canon,  and  it  was  two  or  three  ages  after  be- 
fore the  new  Roman,  that  is,  the  Alexandrian  canon 
was,  not  without  some  struggle  and  difficulty,  en- 
tirely settled  among  them.  This  is  the  short  of  the 
history  of  the  long  dispute  that  happened  in  the 
church  among  those  that  were  otherwise  agreed  to 
keep  Easter  only  on  the  Lord's  day,  which  was 
owing  purely,  as  we  have  seen,  to  the  great  variety 
of  their  cycles  and  calculations.  Meanwhile  par- 
ticular members  of  particular  churches  had  no  con- 
cern in  this  dispute,  but  were  obliged  for  peace  sake 
to  follow  the  rule  of  their  own  church,  though  there 
might  be  some  error  in  her  calculation.  For,  as 
Chrysostom"  says  well  upon  the  dispute  with  the 
Protopaschites,  men  were  not  bound  to  be  over-cri- 
tical about  days  and  times  and  years,  but  carefully 
in  such  matters  to  follow  the  church,  and  prefer 
peace  and  charity  before  all  other  things.  For 
though  the  church  were  in  an  error,  yet  there  was 
no  such  advantage  or  commendation  to  be  gained 
by  the  exact  knowledge  of  times,  as  there  might  be 
disadvantage  and  dispraise  arising  from  division 
and  schism  about  it.  And  with  this  consideration 
men  were  generally  inclined  to  keep  Easter  in 
peace,  and  sometimes  comply  with  what  they 
thought  a  wrong  calculation,  rather  than  make  a 
disturbance  in  the  church  upon  it.  As  Pope  Leo 
tells  the  French  and  Spanish  bishops,  he  complied 
with  the  AJexandrian  cycle  in  the  year  4.55,  when 
there  was  a  week's  difference  in  their  computation ; 
the  Roman  cycle  placing  Easter  on  the  seventeenth 
of  April,  and  the  Alexandrian  on  the  twenty-fourth. 
But  he  acquiesced,  he  says,  in  their  determination 
for  the  sake  of  peace  and  unity,**  and  desired  the 
Western  bishops  so  to  do  likewise,  and  to  give 
notice  of  the  time  to  their  brethren  ;  that  they  who 
were  united  in  the  same  faith,  might  not  be  divided 
about  the  solemnity  of  the  festival.  This  was  an 
excellent  rule  of  peace,  though  there  were  some 
fierce  and  intractable  spirits,  that  would  not  always 
be  content  to  be  governed  by  it. 

Having  thus  far  accounted  for  the 

But  "they  all       differences  that  were  in  the  church 

milt  respccY  and    about  tlic  time  of  tliis  festival,  I  come 

honour  tu  it,  as   to  i  •  i 

the  day  of  our  Lords  now  to  show  whcrcin  thcv  ail  agreed 

resurrection,  "^  ° 

to  pay  a  peculiar  respect  and  honour 


to  it.  Gregory  Na/.ianzen,^*  after  liis  manner,  styles 
it  the  queen  of  days,  and  the  festival  of  festivals, 
which  excels  all  others,  not  only  human,  but  even 
those  that  are  instituted  to  the  honour  of  Christ,  a.s 
far  as  the  sun  goes  beyond  the  other  stars.  It  was 
a  day  of  extraordinary  rejoicing  upon  the  account 
of  our  Lord's  resurrection;  being,  as  Chrysostom" 
styles  it,  the  desirable  festival  of  our  salvation,  the 
day  of  our  Lord's  resurrection,  the  foundation  of 
our  peace,  the  occasion  of  our  reconciliation,  the 
end  of  our  contentions  and  enmity  with  God,  the 
destruction  of  death,  and  our  victory  over  the  devil. 
Hence,  in  some  ancient  writers  it  is  distinguished 
from  all  other  Lord's  days  in  the  year  by  the  pecu- 
liar name  of  Dominica  f/auclii,  the  Lord's  day  of  joy, 
as  Papebrochius  and  Pagi'*"  have  observed  upon  the 
Life  of  Pachomius  and  Theodore,  the  latter  of  which 
saints  is  said  to  have  ended  his  life  Dominica  gamlii, 
which  those  learned  men  think  can  be  understood 
of  no  other  but  Easter  Sunday.  And  that  implies* 
that  this  was  then  a  known  and  noted  appellation. 

One  great  instance  of  this  public 
joy  was  given  by  the  emperors,  who     „,,  ^,™'  ^;    ,^^ 
were  used  to  grant  a  general  release  g™S™r?ieas!^'to'' 
to  the  prisons  on  this  day,  and  by  an  *pard<lncd"l."i  "r'Jmi- 
act  of  grace,  called  their  indulgence,  f^v^thnt  were  gulliy 

.       ,  of  crimes  of  a  mure 

set  all  criminals  tree,  except  some  few  "npardonabic  na- 

^  ture, 

that  had  committed  crimes  of  a  more 
unpardonable  nature.  This  custom  was  first  begun 
by  Valentinian,  anno  367,  who  has  two  laws  in  the 
Theodosian  Code  to  this  purpose.  The  former  of 
which  runs  in  these  terms : "  In  honour  of  the  Pas- 
chal festival,  which  we  celebrate  from  the  bottom  of 
our  heart,  we  open  the  prisons  to  all  criminals  that 
lie  bound  in  chains,  only  excepting  such  as  are 
guilty  of  sacrilege,  treason,  robbing  of  graves,  poi- 
soning, magic,  adultery,  stealing  or  ravishing  of 
virgins,  and  murder,  from  the  benefit  of  this  indul- 
gence. Valentinian  junior  and  Theodosius,  anno 
381,  made  a  like  act  of  grace,  only  excepting  the 
same  crimes,  under  which  they  more  expressly  com- 
prised parricide,  incest,  and  counterfeiting^  the 
public  coin,  as  species  of  murder,  adultery,  and 
treason,  which  for  their  infamous  character  ought 
to  have  a  more  notorious  mark  set  upon  them.  They 
also  excepted  such  as  relapsed  into  their  former 
crimes,  because  they  abused  the  indulgence  of  their 
prince,  by  making  that  an  incitement  to  sin,  which 


52  Chrys.Hom.  52.  t.  5.  p.  714. 

^'  Leo,  Ep.  115.  Quia  studio  uTiitatis  et  pacismaluiOrien. 
talium  dcfinitioni  acquiescere,  quam  iu  tantse  festivitatis 
observantia  dissidero,  noverit  fraternitas  vestra,  die  octava 
Kalendas  Maias  ab  omnibus  resurrectinnem  Dominican! 
celebrandam :  et  hoc  ipsum  per  vos  aliis  tVatribus  esse  in- 
timandum,  ut  Divinae  pacis  consortio,  sicut  una  fide  jun- 
gimur,  ita  una  solennitate  feriemur.  Vid.  Prosper.  Chronic, 
an.  455. 

^  Naz.  Orat.  19.  in  Fun.  Patris,  t.  1.  p.  301.  et  Orat,  42. 
de  Pasch,  p.  676. 

4   K 


"  Chrys.  Horn.  85.  de  Paschate,  t.  5.  p.  587.  Edit.  Savil. 

^  Papebroc.  Vita  Pachomii,  14.  Maii.  Pagi,  Critic,  in 
Baron,  an.  .370.  n.  4. 

"  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  38.  de  Indulgentiis  Criminum, 
Leg.  3.  Ob  diem  Paschre,  quern  intimocorde  celebramus, 
omnibus  quos  reatus  astringit,  career  inculsit,  claustra  dis- 
solvimus:  adtamcn  sacrilegus,  in  majestate  reus,  in  mor- 
tuos,  veneficns,  sive  maleticus,  adulter,  raptor,  homicida, 
communione  istius  muneris  separentur.  Vid.  Leg.  4.  ejus- 
dem,  Imper.  ibid. 

M  Ibid.  Leg.  6  et  7. 


1154 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XX. 


was  intended  only  as  a  means  to  correct  evil  habits, 
and  bring  them  to  a  reformation.  The  same  empe- 
ror, anno  385,  made  another  decree.  That  whereas 
it  might  happen,  that  by  the  negligence  or  remiss- 
ness of  messengers,  or  any  other  accident,  their  let- 
ters of  grace  might  come  too  late,  the  judges  of  pro- 
vinces should  be  empowered,  as  soon  as  Easter 
day*"  was  come,  to  dispense  the  accustomed  indul- 
gence, causing  the  prisons  to  be  opened,  the  chains 
to  be  knocked  off,  and  the  persons  to  be  set  at 
liberty ;  such  only  excepted,  as  it  would  be  a  scan- 
dal to  pardon,  because  their  actions  were  a  reproach 
to  the  purity  of  that  holy  and  joyful  season.  For 
who  (say  they  with  great  elegancy)  would  gi-ant  an 
indulgence  to  a  sacrilegious  villain  at  a  holy  sea- 
son ?  Who  would  pardon  an  adulterer,  or  an  in- 
cestuous person,  at  a  time  which  calls  for  perfect 
chastity  ?  Who  woidd  not  pursue  a  ravisher  of 
virgins  in  the  profoundest  peace  and  public  joy  ? 
Let  him  have  no  rest  nor  respite  from  his  bonds, 
whose  barbarous  cruelty  would  not  suffer  the  dead 
to  rest  quietly  in  their  gi'aves :  let  the  poisoner,  and 
the  sorcerer,  and  the  falsifier  of  the  coin  still  suffer 
torment :  let  the  murderer  expect  the  same  that  he 
has  done  to  others ;  and  the  rebel  despair  of  pardon 
from  his  prince,  against  whom  he  has  plotted  trea- 
son. But  excepting  these  criminals,  all  others  had 
the  benefit  of  these  imperial  indulgences  at  this  holy 
season.  Justinian  takes  no  notice  of  the  former 
laws,  but  inserts  this  last  into  his  Code,''"  which 
shows  that  it  became  the  standing  law  of  the  Roman 
empire.  And  the  Goths  adopted  it  also  into  their 
law,  as  appears  from  one  of  Cassiodore's  epistles,*^' 
which  Gothofred  commends  as  written  with  a  great 
deal  of  elegancy  upon  this  subject.  The  ancient 
fathers  not  only  mentioned  these  Paschal  indul- 
gences, but  frequently  speak  of  them  with  great 
commendations.  St.  Chrysostom  more  than  once*^^ 
tells  us,  That  when  Flavian,  bishop  of  Antioch,  went 
to  intercede  with  Theodosius  the  emperor  for  that 
city,  which  by  the  seditious  practices  of  some  had 
highly  incurred  his  displeasure,  among  other  argu- 
ments to  mitigate  his  anger  against  them,  he  made 
use  of  this,  taken  from  his  own  practice,  that  in 
honour  of  the  Paschal  festival,  he  was  used  to  send 
letters  round  the  world,  to  cause  all  prisons  to  be 
opened,  and  all  that  were  in  bonds  to  be  set  at 
liberty :  Therefore  take  an  example,  said  he,  from 
yourself,  and  call  to  mind  your  own  humanity; 
when  in  one  of  your  letters,  as  if  it  had  not  been 
enough  to  discharge  the  prisoners,  you  were  pleased 
to  add,  I  wish  I  were  able  to  recall  those  that  are 


='  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  38.  de  Indulg.  Crim.  Leg.  8. 
«"  Cod.  Just.  lib.  1.  Tit.  4.  de  Episcopali  Audientia,  Le<;.  3. 
"'  Cassiodor.  lib.  11.  Ep.  ultima. 

«2  Chrys.  Horn.  G.  ad  Pop.  Aulioch.  p.  Of),  t.  1.  Horn.  20. 
ibid.  p.  '25G. 
"^  Ambros.  Ep.  3.'5.     Sanctis  dicbiis  liebdomadis  MlUin.T, 


already  executed,  and  restore  them  to  life  again. 
St.  Ambrose"^  made  use  of  the  same  argument  to 
aggravate  the  offence  of  the  younger  Valentinian, 
when  by  the  persuasion  of  his  mother  Justina,  the 
Arian  empress,  he  had  sent  some  of  the  catholic  bi- 
shops to  prison  at  the  holy  feast  of  Easter,  when  it 
was  customary  to  loose  the  bonds  of  those  that  were 
already  in  prison,  and  which  he  himself  before  was 
used  to  do,  as  appears  from  his  laws  already  men- 
tioned. The  same  custom  is  mentioned  by  Gregory 
Nyssen,^  who,speaking  of  the  resurrection  of  Christ, 
says,  There  is  no  one  so  miserable  as  not  to  find  a 
release  by  the  magnificence  of  this  great  festival. 
For  at  this  time  the  prisoner  is  loosed,  the  debtor 
is  set  at  liberty,  and  the  slave  has  his  manumission 
or  freedom  granted  him  by  the  kind  declaration  of 
the  church.  In  like  manner,  the  petition  presented 
by  the  Eutychian  monks  to  the  second  council  of 
Ephesus,  recorded  in  the  Acts  of  the  Council  of 
Chalcedon,"^  takes  notice,  That  as  the  church  was 
wont  to  absolve  sinners  at  Easter  from  the  bonds 
of  excommunication,  so  the  emperors  used  to  loose 
the  bonds  of  those  that  were  in  prison  for  their  of- 
fences. 

Chrysostom  further""  acquaints  us  Avith  the  rea- 
son or  ground  of  this  practice,  telling  us.  That  the 
emperors  set  prisoners  at  liberty,  that  they  might 
imitate,  as  far  as  in  them  lay,  the  example  of  their 
Lord  and  Master.  For  as  he  delivered  us  from  the 
grievous  prison  of  our  sins,  and  made  us  capable  of 
enjoying  innumerable  blessings ;  so  ought  we  in 
like  manner,  as  far  as  was  possible,  to  imitate  the 
mercy  and  kindness  of  our  Lord.  So  again,  in  his 
homily  upon  Psalm  cxlv.  (which  was  spoken  in  the 
Passion-week,  and  therefore  goes  under  both  titles) : 
The  imperial  letters,  says  he,"'  are  sent  forth,  com- 
manding all  prisoners  to  be  loosed  from  their  bonds. 
For  as  our  Lord,  when  he  was  h  llSov,  in  hell,  or  the 
state  and  place  of  the  dead,  set  at  liberty  all  that 
were  under  the  power  of  death ;  so  his  servants, 
contributing  what  they  are  able  in  imitation  of  the 
mercy  of  their  Lord,  loose  men  from  these  visible 
bonds,  having  no  power  to  loose  them  from  those 
which  are  spiritual  and  invisible.  Whence  we  may 
observe,  that  these  indulgences  of  the  princes  were 
not  designed  to  make  men  believe  they  were  cleared 
either  of  the  guilt  or  infamy  of  their  crimes,  but 
only  freed  from  the  punishment  that  was  due  to 
them.  Both  the  guilt  and  scandal  still  remained 
npon  them,  and  the  very  indulgence  itself  was  a 
note  of  infamy,  implying,  that  they  had  done  some- 
thing that  needed  such  a  pardon.     And  for  this 


quibus  solebant  debitorum  lasari  vincula,  &c. 

«'  Nyssen.  Horn.  3.  de  Rcsur,  Christi,  t.  3.  p.  420. 

'^■'  Cone.  Chalced.  Act  1.  Cone.  t.  4.  p.  278. 

"=  Chrys.  Horn.  30.  in  Gen.  t.  2.  p.  427. 

'''  Ibid,  in  Psal.  cxlv.  t.  3.  p.  823.  qure  est  Horn.  78.  ia 
Ilcbdoniadam  Magnain,  t.  5.  Edit.  Savil,  p.  .041. 


Chap.  V. 


ANTIQUITIES  OP  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1 155 


reason  these  indulgences  were  never  granted  pro- 
miscuously to  whole  bodies  of  men,  because  that 
would  have  been  to  have  set  a  mark  of  infamj'  and 
condemnation  upon  the  innocent  as  well  as  the 
guilty,  as  Valentinian  once'*  told  the  senate,  when 
they  petitioned  for  a  general  act  of  grace  to  be 
granted  to  their  whole  body  for  the  sake  of  a  few 
offenders  in  it.  He  assured  them,  he  was  ready  to 
pardon  any  particular  members  among  them ;  but 
to  grant  a  general  indulgence  to  the  senate,  was  to 
defame  the  senate  without  reason  :  since  every  in- 
dulgence set  a  mark  upon  those  whom  it  freed ;  and 
did  not  erase  the  infamy  of  the  crime,  but  only  re- 
lax the  punishment.  For  as  one  of  the  old  poets 
said  well,  Pcena  potest  demi,  culpa  perennis  erit,  The 
punishment  may  be  remitted,  but  the  crime,  both 
in  its  guilt  and  scandal,  will  remain  upon  men  for 
ever,  notwithstanding  any  such  human  act  of  grace, 
unless  they  take  some  proper  methods  to  sue  out  a 
Divine  pardon.  However,  the  emperors  were  will- 
ing to  grant  what  indulgence  they  could  to  men's 
bodies  at  this  holy  festival,  that  criminals  might 
partake  of  their  clemency  showed  in  imitation  of 
their  Lord,  and  use  the  opportunity  to  do  some- 
thing more  for  themselves,  by  having  recourse  to 
heaven  as  penitents,  and  applying  to  the  throne  of 
grace  for  a  more  effectual  pardon. 

g^^j  ^  We  may  observe  further  out  of  the 

At  this  time  also  foremcntloned  place  of  Gregory  Nys- 

it  was   usual   more  ^  n       J  J 

men  to'lhS^theiJ  SBu,  that  it  was  usual  at  this  time  not 
g!^a7?t'ing"'them?heir  ouly  to  rclease  Criminals  out  of  prison 
by  a  public  act  of  state,  but  for  private 
men  also  to  show  their  charity  to  their  felloAV  crea- 
tures, by  granting  slaves  their  manumission  or 
freedom,  as  a  proper  expression  of  mercy  becoming 
this  holy  festival,  which  brought  a  general  redemp- 
tion from  slavery,  and  universal  liberty  to  mankind 
by  our  Saviour's  resurrection.  And  that  there 
might  be  no  clog  or  impediment  to  this  good  dispo- 
sition cast  in  men's  way  to  hinder  this  kind  of  cha- 
rity, the  law  provided,  that  though  all  other  kinds 
of  legal  processes  should  cease  for  the  whole  week 
following  this  festival,  yet  whatever  was  necessary 
to  be  done  by  way  of  charity  for  the  manumission  of 
slaves,  should  be  allowed  of,  as  comporting  v\dth  the 
true  intent  and  design  of  this  holy  solemnity.  This 
we  learn  from  a  law  of  Thcodosius  "^  in  the  Justinian 
Code,  which  says.  Let  all  actions  at  law,  whether 
public  or  private,  cease  in  the  fifteen  Paschal  days 
(that  is,  in  the  week  before  and  the  week  after 
Easter  Sunday).     Yet  all  men  have  liberty  at  this 


time  to  grant  freedom  to  tiieir  slaves,  and  wliatever 
acts  are  necessary  to  be  done  in  law  to  i)romote  this 
end  are  not  prohibited.  This  is  the  same  excep- 
tion that  Constantine  had  made'"  before  with  re- 
spect to  the  Lord's  day,  on  which  all  proceedings  at 
law  were  prohibited,  except  such  as  were  matters 
of  absolute  necessity  or  great  charity,  among  which 
he  reckons  the  manumission  of  slaves,  which  there- 
fore was  allowed  at  any  time,  as  has  been  showed 
before  in  speaking  of  the  Lord's  day. 
But  this  was  not  the  only  instance 
of  their  charity  at  this  holy  season.     And  to  the  poor 

_,  '  by  liberal  doimtionx. 

b  or  they  were  ambitious  at  this  time 
especially  to  show  their  liberality  to  the  poor ;  no- 
thing being  thought  more  congruous  and  suitable 
to  the  occasion,  than  for  men  to  make  the  hearts  of 
the  poor  rejoice,  at  a  time  when  they  remembered 
the  common  fountain  of  their  mercies,  as  Com- 
modian"  words  it  in  his  instructions.  Upon  this 
account,  Eusebius  tells  us,"  Constantine  was  used, 
as  soon  as  the  morning  of  Easter-day  appeared,  to 
open  his  hand  in  liberality  to  all  nations,  provinces, 
and  people ;  bestowing  rich  gifts  upon  them,  in  imi- 
tation of  the  beneficence  of  the  common  Saviour 
of  mankind. 

Neither  did  they  confine  their  acts 
of  piety  and  devotion  to  Easter-day,     The  whole  week 
but  kept  the  whole  w'eek  following  in  lehrate'd"  "ith^^er- 

^  .  mons,  communions, 

the  strictest  manner,  as  part  of  the  ^<=-  '^^  p"'  "f  «>« 

*  same  festival. 

same  festival ;  holding  religious  as- 
semblies every  day  not  only  for  prayer,  but  for 
preaching  and  receiving  the  communion  also.  This 
is  evident  in  part  from  what  has  been  observed  in 
the  beginning  of  this  chapter,  sect.  1.  that  the 
Paschal  solemnity  in  its  full  extent  included  fifteen 
days,  or  two  whole  weeks,  the  one  before,  and  the 
other  after  Easter-day.  Concerning  that  which  fol- 
lowed after  (and  of  that  we  are  only  speaking  here) 
Chrysostom  says  plainly,"  that  they  had  sermons 
every  day  throughout  the  whole  week :  For  seven 
days  together  we  hold  religious  assemblies,  and  pre- 
pare a  spiritual  table  for  you,  making  you  partakers 
of  the  Divine  oracles,  and  every  day  anointing  you, 
he  means,  with  the  spiritual  unction  of  instruction, 
and  arming  you  against  the  devil.  A  little  after  he 
says  again.  Seven  days  together  ye  have  preaching, 
that  ye  may  learn  perfectly  to  wrestle  with  your 
enemy.  And  he  calls  the  whole  solemnity  a  spi- 
ritual marriage,  which,  after  the  manner  of  other 
marriage  solemnities,  lasted  seven  days.  Upon  this 
account  the  author  of  the  Constitutions  requires 


"«  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  3S.  de  Indulgent.  Criminum, 
Leg.  5.  Indulgentia,  patres  conscripti,  qiios  liberal,  notat; 
nee  infamiain  criminis  tollit,  sed  pcenae  gratiam  facit.  In 
uno  hoc,  aut  in  duobus  reis  ratum  sit;  qui  indulgentiara 
senatui  dat,  damnat  scnatum. 

•»  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  .3.  Tit.  12.  de  Foviis,  Leg.  8.  Actus 
omnes  sen  publici  sunt  sen  privaii,  diebiis  quindecim  I'as- 
4  E  2 


chalibus  conquiescant.  In  his  tamen  et  cmancipandi  ot 
manumittendi  cuncti  licentiam  habeant :  et  super  his  acta 
non  prohibeantur. 

™  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  2.  Tit.  8.  de  Feriis,  Leg,  1. 

"  Comniod.  Instruct,  cap.  75. 

«  Euseb.  Vit.  Const,  lib.  4.  cap.  22. 

"  Chrys.  •ll.  de  Hesur.  Christi,  t.  5.  p.  531  et  5.32. 


H56 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XX. 


servants  to  rest  from  their  labour  this  whole  week," 
that  they  might  attend  sermons  and  other  offices  of 
Divine  service.  The  same  is  required  in  the  second 
council  of  Mascon :  On  those  six  most  holy  "  days 
let  no  one  presume  to  do  any  servile  labour,  but  let 
all  with  one  consent  attend  the  service  of  the  Pas- 
chal festival,  and  persevere  in  offering  up  their 
daily  sacrifices,  praising  him  who  created  and  re- 
deemed us,  both  evening  and  morning  and  at  noon- 
day. And  to  the  same  purpose  the  council  of  Trul- 
lo :'"  From  the  holy  day  of  the  resurrection  of  Christ 
our  God  to  New  Sunday,  /«£XC'  '"'JC  Kaivrjc  KvpiaKij^, 
all  the  faithful  ought  to  spend  their  time  at  church, 
and  exercise  themselves  incessantly  the  whole  week 
in  psalms  and  hymns  and  spiritual  songs,  rejoicing 
in  Christ,  and  celebrating  the  festival  by  attendance 
on  the  reading  of  the  holy  mysteries.  For  so  we 
shall  rise  with  Christ,  and  be  exalted  with  him. 
Therefore  let  neither  horse-racing,  nor  any  other 
public  games  or  shows,  be  performed  on  these  days. 
Sect  10.  What  this  council  here  forbids  un- 

prohihrted'dnfing"  der  the  name  of  public  games,  is 
th,s,vhoie  season'     j^gj-^g^^g   jq   f^^^^j.   imperial    laws, 

which  prohibited  them  not  only  on  Easter-day, 
as  being  one  of  the  Lord's  days,  but  extended 
the  prohibition  to  the  whole  week  after.  For 
so  Theodosius  junior  had  expressly  determined," 
that  at  Easter  and  Pentecost  all  public  games  and 
pleasures  both  of  the  theatre  and  cirque  should  uni- 
versally be  denied  to  the  people,  during  the  whole 
time  that  the  newly-baptized  wore  their  white  and 
shining  garments  representing  the  light  of  their 
heavenly  washing :  (that  is,  till  the  Sunday  follow- 
ing, which,  as  we  shall  see  by  and  by,  was  the  con- 
clusion of  this  festival :)  and  the  reason  of  this  pro- 
hibition is  there  given ;  because  during  this  season 
the  minds  of  Christians  ought  wholly  to  be  employ- 
ed in  the  worship  of  God.  And  the  prohibition  ex- 
tends also  to  Jews  and  Gentiles,  who  are  so  far  ob- 
liged to  pay  a  respect  to  this  holy  time,  as  to  know 
how  to  make  a  distinction  between  days  of  suppli- 
cation and  days  of  pleasure. 

And  for  the  same  reason  all  pro- 

Sect.  11.  1    -1  •       T  1   • 

And  au  proceed-  ceccungs  at  law  wcrc  prohibited  at  this 

jngs  at  law,  except 

in  some  special  and  scason,  cxccpt  in  somc  spccial  and  ex- 

extraordinary  cases.  '  ^  ^ 

traordinary  cases.      As   the  case   of 
manumission  of  slaves,  which  being  a  case  of  great 


charity,  was  allowed  at  all  seasons ;   as  has  been 
noted  before,"*  out  of  Gregory  Nyssen,  and  a  law  of 
Theodosius,  which  allows  and  confirms  all  acts  of 
law  that  were  necessary  to  be  done  in  order  to  set 
slaves  at  liberty  and  give  them  their  freedom.    And 
a  like  exception  was  made  by  Theodosius  junior 
and  Honorius,'"  in  the  case  of  trying  pirates,  be- 
cause this  was  necessary  to  be  done  immediately, 
for  the  sake  of  the  public  safety ;  and  therefore  the 
examination  of  such  criminals  was  allowed  in  Lent, 
and  on  the  Easter  festival.     But  excepting  such 
cases  of  necessity  and  charity,  all  other  actions  at 
law  were  entirely  superseded  at  this  time  in  honour 
of  the  Paschal  festival.     There  are  laws  of  Theo-  j 
dosius  in  both  the  Codes^"  to  this  purpose.  That  the  | 
whole  fifteen  days  of  the  Paschal  solemnity,  that  ! 
is,  the  week  before  Easter  day,  called  the  great  i 
week  in  Lent,  and  the  week  following,  should  be  ; 
times  of  perfect  vacation  from  all  actions  and  busi-  i 
ness  of  the  law ;  the  forementioned  cases  only  ex- 
cepted.   And  they  are  often  mentioned  and  referred  | 
to  by  St.  Austin,*'  Chrysostom,  and  others,  who  ' 
need  not  here  be  repeated,  because  they  have  been  ; 
alleged  before  upon  other  occasions  in  this  chapter,  i 
sect.  1  and  6.  j 

Neither  need  I  remark  here,  that         sect.  12. 
Easter  was  the  most  noted  and  solemn  Ea5teT,*"'commoniy 

•        1  1  ■,      1  called  Dntnvtica 

time  of  baptism  in  the  church,  because  »"<•«,  and  Dnmmi- 

^  .CO  m  albis,  observed 

of  this  the  reader  has  had  a  particu-  "ithgr..at  solemnity 

^  as  the  conclusion  of 

lar  account  before  in  treating  of  bap-  ""•'  ''asciiai  fesUviu. 
tism :  but  I  only  observe,  that  the  Sunday  after 
Easter,  which  was  the  conclusion  of  the  Paschal 
feast,  was  usually  observed  with  great  solemnity. 
For  on  this  day  the  neophytes,  or  persons  newly 
baptized,  were  wont  to  lay  aside  their  white  gar- 
ments, and  commit  them  to  the  repository  of  the 
church.  Whence,  as  it  was  sometimes  called  the 
octaves  of  Easter,  as  being  the  conclusion  of  the 
Paschal  festival ;  so  more  commonly  it  was  known 
by  the  name  of  Dominica  in  albis,  the  Sunday  of 
albes,  or  white  garments.  Under  which  denomina- 
tions we  meet  with  it  several  times  in  St.  Austin,  in 
his  sermons  upon  this  day ;  some  of  which  are  said 
to  be  preached""  Dominica  in  octavis  Paschre,  and 
others,  Dominica  in  albis  ;*'  if  any  stress  is  to  be  laid 
upon  the  titles,  which,  perhaps,  may  be  added  by 
other  writers  about  the  time  of  Charles  the  Great, 


'*  Coustit.  lib.  8.  cap.  33. 

"  Cone.  Matiscon.  2.  can.  2.  Sanctissimis  illis  sex  die- 
bus  nemo  servile  opus  audeat  facere,  sed  omnes  siuuil  coadu- 
nati,  hyinnis  Paschalibus  indulgentcs,  perseverationis  nostroe 
prajsentiam  quotidian  is  sacrificiis  ostendamus,  laudantes 
creatorem  ac  regeneratorem  nostrum  vespere  et  mane  et 
meridie. 

"■■  Cone.  Trull,  can.  G6. 

"  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  15.  Tit.  5.  de  Spectac.  Leg.  b. 

"*  See  before,  sect.  6  and  7,  of  this  chapter. 

"  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  3.').  de  Qusp.stionibus,  Leg.  7. 
Provinciarum  judices  nioneantur,  ut  in  Isauroriiin  latronum 


quasstionibus,  nullum  Quadragesimae,  nee  venerabilem  Pas- 
charum  diem  existiment  excipiendum,  ue  diflPeratiir  scelera- 
torum  proditio  consiliorum,  &c.  Vid.  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  13. 
Tit.  5.  de  Naviculariis,  Leg.  38. 

""  Ibid.  lib.  2.  Tit.  8.  de  Feriis,  Leg.  2.  Sanctos  quoque 
Paschaj  dies,  qui  septeno  vel  praecedunt  numero  vel  sequun- 
tur,  in  eadem  observations  numeramus.  Vid,  Cod.  Justin, 
de  Feriis,  Leg.  2,  7,  8. 

^'  Aug.  Serin.  19.  inter  editos  a  Sirmoudo.  Chrys.  Horn. 
30.  in  Gen.  ct  in  Psal.  cxlv. 

«=  Aug.  Serm.  de  Temp.  ICO,  162,  163,  164. 

*'  Id.  Serm.  19.  ex  editis  a  Sirmondo. 


Chap.  VI. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


11. -.7 


in  whose  days  these  were  the  common  appellations 
among  all  the  ritualists  of  the  Latin  church.*'  But 
the  Greek  writers  give  it  another  name,  viz.  Kaivi) 
KvpiaKt],  or  i^iaicaivrjffifiec,  the  New  Sundaj'.  Under 
which  title  Nazianzen**^  and  Chrysostom  have  ser- 
mons upon  it,  and  the  council  of  Trullo"*"  mentions 
it  under  the  same  denomination,  saying,  From  the 
day  of  the  Lord's  resurrection  to  the  New  Lord's 
day,  men  shall  attend  at  church  to  singing,  reading 
the  Scriptures,  and  participating  of  the  holy  myste- 
ries. It  was  so  called  from  the  renovation  of  men 
by  the  new  birth  of  baptism  ;  being  the  close  of  the 
great  festival  of  Easter,  at  which  they  were  bap- 
tized, and  born  anew  of  water  and  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  then  clothed  in  new  and  white  garments,  em- 
blems of  their  new  light  and  birth;  which  being 
laid  aside  again  the  Sunday  following,  the  day  was 
called  the  New  Lord's  day,  from  the  whole  action 
that  went  befoi'e  it :  as  the  six  days  of  the  week 
preceding  it  were  called  dies  neophytorum,  the  days 
of  the  neophj'tcs,  or  newly-baptized,  for  the  same 
reason ;  as  we  find  in  St.  Austin,^  who,  speaking 
of  the  time  from  Easter  Sunday  to  the  Sunday  fol- 
lowing inclusively,  styles  it  octo  dies  neophytorum, 
the  eight  days  of  neophytes,  taking  both  Sundays 
into  the  number. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

OF    PENTECOST,    OR    WHITSUNTIDE. 

„  .  ,  The  next  great  festival  was  that  of 

Sect.  X.  " 

in  ^a"do™bie  t^Z  Peutccost,  which  is  taken  in  a  double 
F™?'For"the''fiffy  scnse  auiong  the  ancients.  For  some- 
and%vhitsuntfdt;'"  timcs  it  siguifics  the  whole  space  of 
the'  single  Ikj  of  fifty  days  between  Easter  and  Whit- 

Peiitecust.  1*1 

suntide,  which  was  one  continued  fes- 
tival ;  and  sometimes  it  was  taken  in  a  more  re- 
strained sense,  for  that  particular  time  which  was 
set  aside  for  the  commemoration  of  the  descent  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  upon  the  apostles.  In  the  former 
acceptation  TertuUian'  speaks  of  it,  when  he  tells 
the  Christians  by  way  of  triumph  over  the  heathens, 


That  the  heathen  festivals  were  but  a  single  day  in 
the  return  of  every  year;  but  the  Christians  had  a 
festival  every  eighth  day,  meaning  the  Lord's  day ; 
and  besides  that,  they  had  one  continued  festival  of 
fifty  days,  which  was  more  than  all  the  festivals  the 
heathen  could  pretend  to  reckon  up  in  a  whole 
year.  So,  again,  he  says  in  another  placc,'^  That 
Pentecost  was  a  large  space  of  time  appointed  by 
the  church  for  administering  of  baptism,  during 
which  season  the  resurrection  of  the  Lord  was  fre- 
quently demonstrated  to  the  disciples,  and  the  grace 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  w  as  first  poured  out  upon  them. 
Where  it  is  plain,  he  takes  Pentecost  not  barely 
for  the  day  on  which  the  Holy  Ghost  descended  on 
the  apostles,  but  for  the  whole  time  that  our  Saviour 
conversed  amongst  his  disciples  to  give  them  proof 
of  his  resurrection.  Therefore  though  Vicecomes' 
reprehends  Ludovicus  Vives  for  asserting  this,  yet 
Habertus*  defends  him  out  of  these  places  of  Ter- 
tuUian ;  and  Dr.  Cave,*  and  other  learned  men,  are 
of  the  same  opinion.  Particularly  Gothofred  takes 
a  great  deal  of  pains  to  prove  this  to  be  the  mean- 
ing of  Quinquayesima,  which  is  the  Latin  name  for 
Pentecost,  in  that  famous  law  of  Theodosius  junior, 
where"  he  prohibits  all  public  games  and  sports  dur- 
ing the  solemnities  of  Easter  and  Pentecost,  which 
solemnities  are  there  described  by  these  two  cir- 
cumstances or  characters ;  first.  That  the  neophytes 
then  laid  aside  their  white  and  bright  garments,  re- 
presenting the  new  light  and  brightness  of  their  holy 
and  heavenly  washing ;  and,  secondly.  That  at  this 
season  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  called  the  Apos- 
tolical Passions,  were  read  in  commemoration  and 
confirmation  of  the  great  doctrine  of  Christianity, 
our  Lord's  resurrection. 

The  latter  of  these  circumstances 

Sect.  2. 

is  a  peculiar  characteristic,  not  of  any  ti°'''^hurch''ch'i'jH'' 
single  day,  but  of  the  whole  time  be-  "^ZyZ^ ^nrit'u- 
twcen  Easter  and  Whitsuntide ;  dm--  J,f;rrpos'ies ',1s 

1   •    1       ..  ..  .  .        the   great   coiifirin- 

mg  which  time  it  was  customary  in  ation  of  our  lom-s 

111  1       1  A  /•     1         resurrection. 

the  church  to  read  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,  as  we  learn  from  several  passages  in 
Chrysostom,  which  plainly  show,  that  he  takes 
Pentecost  for  the  whole  fifty  days  between  Easter- 
day  and  Whit  Sunday.  One  of  his  homilies  is 
chiefly  spent  in  giving  an  answer  to  this  question. 


^*  Vid.  Vicccomes  de  Ritib.  Bapt.  lib.  5.  cap.  12. 

**  Naz.  Oral.  43.  in  Dominicam  Novaui.  Chrys.  Horn. 
106.  in  Dom.  Nov.  t.  7.  Edit.  Savil.  p.  575. 

^  Cone.  Trull,  can.  66. 

"  Aug.  Ep.  119.  ad  Januar.  cap.  17. 

'  Tertul.  de  Idololat.  cap.  14.  Ethnicis  semel  anniius 
dies  quisque  t'estus  est:  tibi  octavo  quoque  die.  Excerpe 
singulas  solennitatcs  uationum,  et  in  ordiuem  texe,  Pente- 
costen  itnplero  nou  poterunt. 

^Tertul.  de  Bapt.  cap.  19.  Exinde  Pentecoste  ordinan- 
dis  lavacris  latissimum  spacium  est,  quo  et  Domini  resur- 
rectio  inter  discipulos  frcquentata  est,  et  srratia  Spiritus 
Sancti  dedicata,  &c.     Vid.  Can.  Apostol.  37.  et  can.  20. 


Cone.  Antioch.  where  mention  is  made  of  the  fourth  week 
in  Pentecost. 

'  Vicecom.  de  Ritib.  Bapt.  lib.  1,  cap.  '25. 

••  Habert.  Archicratic.  par.  8.  Observ.  4.  p.  134. 

'  Cave,  Prim.  Christ,  p.  307. 

« Cod.  Theod.  lib.  15.  Tit.  5.  de  Spcctaculi.s,  Leg.  5. 
Pascha;  etiam  et  Quinquagesimae  diebus  (quaradiu  coelestis 
lumen  lavarri,  imitantia  novam  sancti  baptismatis  lucem 
vestimenta  tcstantur:  quo  tempore  et  commemoratio  apos- 
tolica;  passiouis,  potius  Christianitatis  magistrre,  a  cunctis 
jure  celebratur)  omni  theatrorum  atque  circensium  volup- 
tatc  populis  denegata,  &c. 


115S 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  TUP:  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XX. 


A\  hy  tlio  A(!ts  of  the  Apostles  arc  read  in  Pentecost  ? ' 
The  sermon  itself  bears  this  title ;  and  in  answer  to 
the  question,  he  says,  That  on  every  festival  such 
portions  of  Scripture  were  read,  as  particularly  re- 
lated to  that  festival.  Thus,  on  the  day  of  our 
Saviour's  passion  all  such  Scriptures  were  read  as 
had  any  relation  to  the  cross ;  on  the  great  sabbath, 
or  Saturday  before  Easter,  they  read  all  such  por- 
tions of  Scripture  as  contained  the  history  of  his 
being  betrayed,  crucified,  dead,  and  buried ;  on 
Easter-day  they  read  such  passages  as  gave  an 
account  of  his  resurrection.  But  then  it  seemed 
a  difficulty,  why  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  which 
contain  the  history  of  their  miracles  done  after 
Pentecost,  should  be  read  in  this  interval,  before 
Pentecost  was  fully  ended.  To  this  he  answers. 
That  the  miracles  of  the  apostles,  contained  in  that 
book,  were  the  great  demonstration  of  our  Saviour's 
resurrection ;  and  therefore  the  church  appointed 
that  book  to  be  read  always  immediately  after  our 
Saviour's  resurrection,  to  give  men  the  evidences 
and  proofs  of  that  holy  mystery,  which  was  the 
completion  of  their  redemption.  And  hence  it  be- 
came a  standing  rule  over  the  whole  church  to 
read  the  Acts  in  these  fifty  days  of  Pentecost,  as 
appears  from  many  other  places  of  Chrysostom," 
Austin,*  Cassian,'"  and  the  fourth  council  of  To- 
ledo," which,  because  I  have  had  occasion  to  recite 
at  large  in  a  former  Book,'^  I  forbear  to  repeat 
them  in  this  place. 

^  ,  ,  During  this  season  likewise  they 

Sect.  3.  ~  *> 

kne1'"n"at"praym  generally  prohibited  all  fasting,  and 
seal'onflfs  on  'the  kneeling  at  prayers,  as  on  the  Lord's 
Lord  s  day.  ^^^^^  bccausc  at  this  time  they  more 

especially  celebrated  with  joy  the  memorial  of  our 
Saviour's  resurrection.  This  is  plain  from  those 
words  of  TertulHan,"  We  count  it  unlawful  to  fast, 
or  to  worship  kneeling,  on  the  Lord's  day ;  and  we 
enjoy  the  same  immunity  from  Easter  to  Pentecost. 
Epiphanius"  says  the  same,  That  though  the 
ascetics  of  the  church  fasted  on  the  stationary  days, 
that  is,  Wednesdays  and  Fridays,  or  other  times,  yet 
they  neither  fasted  nor  kneeled  on  the  Lord's  day, 
or  the  whole  fifty  days  of  Pentecost.  And  this  cus- 
tom about  kneeling  was  made  a  standing  rule  by 


the  council  of  Nice  :  For  whereas,  say  they,'^  there 
are  some  who  kneel  on  the  Lord's  day,  and  the  fifty 
days  of  Pentecost ;  that  a  uniform  way  of  worship 
may  be  observed  in  all  churches,  it  seems  good  to 
the  holy  synod,  that  prayer  be  made  to  God  stand- 
ing. Yet  all  churches  did  not  exactly  conform  to 
this  rule,  nor  observe  these  customs  so  precisely  in 
Pentecost,  as  they  did  on  the  Lord's  day.  For  St. 
Austin  says,'"  He  was  not  certain  that  these  things 
were  in  use  in  all  churches  either  in  Pentecost  or 
the  Lord's  day.  And  Cassian ''  says  more  expressly, 
That  in  the  monasteries  of  Syria  they  had  no  great 
regard  to  this  rule,  w^hich  forbade  kneeling  at  pray- 
ers, or  fasting  in  Pentecost,  though  their  neighbours 
the  Egyptians  were  very  precise  and  punctual  in 
the  observation  of  both  those  customs :  which  made 
him  more  curious  to  inquire  into  the  ground  and 
reason  of  these  observations  :  and  their  answer  was, 
That'*  this  festival  being  kept  in  honour  and  me- 
mory of  our  Saviour's  resurrection,  it  was  a  time  of 
more  than  ordinary  joy ;  and  fasting  and  kneeling 
were  incongruous  at  such  a  season,  because  they 
were  indications  of  deep  mourning,  and  a  more  than 
ordinary  repentance :  therefore  they  neither  fasted 
nor  prayed  kneeling  on  these  days,  or  the  Lord's 
day,  but  sung  praises  and  hallelujahs  to  God  in 
honour  and  thankfulness  for  our  Saviour's  resur- 
rection. This  custom  of  singing  hallelujah,  in 
many  churches,  was  peculiar  to  this  season ;  but  in 
some  chm-ches  it  was  used  upon  other  occasions.  Of 
which  the  reader  may  find  a  full  account  in  a  former 
Book,'°  where  we  treat  of  the  psalmody  of  the  church. 

To  proceed  with  the  present  fes- 
tival, we  may  observe  further,  that     And'^aV  pubuc 

.,  games  and  stage- 

it  was  of  so  great  esteem  and  vener-  piays ;  but   not 

^  ,  .  .  pleading    at    law 

ation,  that  Theodosius  junior,  a  pious  forbidden,  or  boduy 
prince,  thought  it  proper  to  forbid  all 
public  games  and  diversions,  as  well  of  the  theatre 
as  the  cirque,  during  this  whole  season ;  because 
this  was  a  time  of  more  solemn  worship,  when  the 
minds  of  Christians  ought  to  be  wholly  employed 
in  the  service  of  God,  and  commemorating  of  those 
wonderful  miracles  that  were  wrought  in  confirm- 
ation of  the  gospel  by  the  hand  of  the  apostles,  as 
he  words  it  in  his  law""  made  for  this  purpose. 


'  Chrys.  Horn.  63.  Cur  in  Pentccoste  Acta  legantur,  t. 
5.  p.  919. 

«  Ibid.  Horn.  33.  in  Gen.  p.  478.  Horn.  17.  f.  5.  p.  6,17. 
Horn.  48.  in  Inscript.  Altaris,  t.  5.  p.  G50. 

"  Aug.  Tract.  6.  in  .loan.  t.  9.  p.  21.  Horn.  a3.  de  Di- 
versis. 

'"  Cassian.  Institut.  lib.  2.  cap.  6. 

"  Cone.  Tolet.  4.  can.  16. 

'-  Book  XIV.  chap.  .3.  sect.  3. 

"  Tertul.  de  Coron.  Mil.  cap.  3.  Die  Dominico  jejiinium 
nefas  ilucinius,  vel  de  geniculis  adorare.  Eadem  inununi- 
tate  a  die  Pascha;  in  Pentecosten  usque  gaudemus. 

"  Epiphan.  E.xpos.  Fid.  n.  22.        '*  Cone.  Nic.  can.  20. 

""'  Aug.  Ep.  119.  ad  .lanuar.  cap.  17.  Ul  auleni  stantcs  jn 


illis  diebus,  et  omnibus  Dominicis  oremus,  utrum  ubique 
servetur  ignoro. 

"  Cassian.  Collat.  21.  cap.  II.  Cajpimus  diligentius  per- 
contari,  cur  apud  iEgyptios  tanta  obscrvantia  caveretur, 
ne  quis  penitus  totis  Quinquagesinire  diebus  vel  genua  in 
oratione  curvaret,  vel  usque  ad  horam  nonani  jejtmare  prae- 
sumeret :  eoquc  id  diligentius  perscrutabamur,  quod  ne- 
quaquam  hoc  tanta  cautione  servari  in  Syria;  monasteriis 
videramus. 

"*  Ibid.  cap.  20.  Ideo  in  ipsis  diebus  nee  genua  in  oratione 
eurvantur,  quia  inflexio  gcnuum  velut  poenitentiee  ac  luc- 
lus  indicium. 

''•Book  XIV.  chap.  2.  sect.  1. 

™  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  15.  Til.  .''>.  do  Spcclaculis,  Leg.  5. 


Chap.  VI. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1159 


But  business  of  law  and  administration  of  justice 
was  a  more  necessary  thing  than  sports  and  pastimes ; 
and  therefore  there  was  no  cessation  of  (hose  en- 
joined at  this  season,  but  only  in  the  first  week 
after  Easter,  which  was  reckoned  into  the  Paschal 
festival.  As  soon  as  this  was  over,  the  law  was 
open  again,  and  all  actions  commenced  afresh,  as 
at  other  times,  which  is  evident  from  that  discourse 
of  St.  Austin,  which  he  preached  on  the  octaves  of 
Easter,  or  Doininica  in  albis,  where  he  says,"'  The 
days  of  vacation  are  now  past,  and  those  of  con- 
vening, exactions,  and  law-suits  succeed  in  their 
room.  So  that  in  this  respect  the  remainder  of 
these  fifty  days  was  inferior  to  the  other  great  fes- 
tivals :  but  this  was  the  only  thing  in  which  there 
appears  to  be  any  distinction  or  diflerence  in  law 
made  between  them.  And  in  regard  to  ecclesiasti- 
cal afiairs,  they  were  observed  with  almost  the  same 
religious  solemnity  as  the  other  festivals,  as  appears 
from  what  has  now  been  said  upon  them  :  only 
some  learned  men  make  a  just  remark,  that  the  ob- 
servation of  this  solemnity  did  not  oblige  men, 
especially  those  of  the  poorer  sort,  to  a  strict  ab- 
stinence from  bodily  labour.  For  this  was  a  rule 
only  for  the  Lord's  day,  and  some  of  the  greater 
festivals  ;  as  appears  from  the  author  of  the  Consti- 
tutions, who,  speaking  ^  of  the  days  on  which  serv- 
ants were  to  rest  from  their  labour,  mentions  the 
Lord's  day,  and  the  sabbath,  and  the  Nativity  of 
Christ,  and  Epiphany,  and  the  great  week  in  Lent, 
and  Easter-week,  and  Ascension-day,  and  Pentecost, 
as  it  signifies  the  particular  day  of  the  descent  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  upon  the  apostles,  but  says  no- 
thing of  Pentecost  in  the  larger  acceptation,  as  it 
signifies  the  whole  fifty  days  between  Easter  and 
Whitsuntide.  The  council  of  Eliberis^'  has  a  pretty 
severe  canon  against  some  who  kept  Pentecost  at  a 
wrong  season,  not  fifty,  but  forty  days  after  Easter: 
but  it  does  not  clearly  appear,  that  they  intended 
the  whole  fifty  days  should  be  observed,  but  only 
the  particular  day  of  Pentecost  at  its  proper  season. 
Or  if  they  intended  more,  yet  Albaspineeus  "*  thinks 
they  made  no  rule  about  keeping  these  days  as 
days  of  perfect  vacation  from  bodily  labour,  but  only 
days  of  relaxation  from  fasting  and  kneeling,  and 
days  of  public  joy  and  thanksgiving,  and  holding 
religious  assemblies  for  prayer  and  receiving  the 
eucharist,  which  probably  was  administered  every 


day  during  this  whole  season.  And  in  these  things 
consisted  tlie  observation  of  Pentecost  in  this  larger 
acceptation. 

In  the  course  of  this  long-continued  j.^.^^  ^ 
festival  of  Pentecost,  we  are  to  take  it^'^Vtiaira'l'a- 
more  special  notice  oi  one  particular 
day,  before  we  come  to  Whit  Sunday :  that  is,  of  the 
feast  of  our  Saviour's  ascension  or  assumption  into 
heaven.  The  observation  of  this  festival  was  so 
ancient,  that  St.  Austin  could  derive  its  original 
from  no  other  fountain,  but  either  apostolical  insti- 
tution, or  the  general  agreement  of  the  church  in 
some  plenary  council :  For  those  things,  says  he," 
which  are  received  and  observed  over  all  the  world, 
not  as  written  in  Scripture,  but  as  handed  down  to 
us  by  tradition,  we  conceive  to  be  either  instituted 
by  the  apostles  themselves,  or  some  numerous 
councils,  whose  authority  is  of  very  great  use  in  the 
church.  Such  are  the  anniversary  solemnities  of 
our  Saviours  passion,  and  resurrection,  and  ascen- 
sion into  heaven,  and  the  coming  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
from  heaven.  It  is  certain,  therefore,  the  feast  of 
Ascension  was  generally  observed  all  over  the  church 
long  before  St.  Austin's  time.  Chrysostom  often 
speaks  of  it  under  the  name  of  'Avd\t]\pic,  or  our 
Lord's  assumption  into  heaven.  For  not  to  men- 
tion those  two  sermons  in  Sir  H.  Savil's  edition "" 
upon  the  Ascension,  which  are  reckoned  spurious 
he  has  one  upon  the  Assumption,^'  the  credit  of 
which  was  never  called  in  question,  wherein  he 
styles  this  festival  the  illustrious  and  refulgent  day 
of  our  Lord's  assumption  into  heaven.  And  in  an- 
other homily^  upon  Whit  Sunday,  recounting  (he 
great  solemnities  that  had  just  gone  before,  he  says. 
We  have  lately  celebrated  our  Saviour's  passion,  his 
resurrection,  and  then  his  dvoSov  ilg  oipavbv,  his  re- 
turn into  heaven,  that  is,  the  feast  of  his  Ascension. 
In  like  manner,  the  Author  of  the  Constitutions  '^ 
puts  Ascension-day  into  the  number  of  the  great 
Christian  festivals,  because  on  this  day  our  Sa- 
viour's economy  on  earth  was  comj)leted.  Among 
the  Cappadocians,  the  day  was  called  Episozomene  ; 
for  so  Leo  AUatius  ^^  tells  us  he  found  it  noted  in 
a  manuscript  of  Gregory  Nyssen's  works.  And  one 
of  Chrysostom's  homilies ''  is  said  to  be  preached 
YivmaKij  (rcoZofifvtiQ,  or  sTrtffwco^fv'jCj  which  the  cura- 
tors of  Sir.  H.  Savil's  edition  take  to  be  Dominica 
in  albis,  or  the  Sunday  after  Easter;  but  Suicerus'- 


^'  Aug.  Senn.  19.  ex  editis  a  Sirmondo,  t.  10.  p.  811. 

"  Constitiit.  lib.  8.  cap.  33. 

-'  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  43.  Pravam  institutionein  eincndari 
placuit,  juxta  auctnritatem  Scripturarum,  nt  ciincti  diem 
Pciitecostes  post  Pascha  celehremus,  non  Qiiadraf^esimam, 
.sed  Quinquagcsimam.  Qui  non  fecerit,  novam  hajresim  in- 
duxisse  notetur. 

-'  .\lbasp.  in  loc. 

■'  Aiifj.  Ep.  118.  ad  Januarinm.  Ilia  quaj  non  scripta, 
sed  tradita  custodimus,  qu;ic  quidom  toto  terrarum  orbc  ob- 
servautur.  datur  intclligi,  vel  at)  ipsis  apostolis.  vol  plona- 


riis  cnneiliis,  quorum  in  ecclesia  saluberrima  auctoritas, 
commendata  atquc  statuta  retincri.  Sicut  quod  Domini 
passio,  et  resurrectio,  et  ascensio  in  coclum.  pt  advcntus  de 
coelo  Spiritus  Sancti,  annivorsaria  snlennitate  celebrantur. 

2"  Chrys.  Horn.  63.  et  f>l.  t.  7.  Edit.  Savil. 
■    -■  Ibid.  Horn.  35.  in  Assumpt.  t.  5.  p.  537.  Ed.  Paris. 

"  Ibid.  Hnm.  37.  in  Pentecost,  p.  5G0. 

2"  Constit.  lib.  8.  cap.  33. 

^^  AUat.  dc  Dominicis  et  Heljdomad.  Grajcor.  n.  28. 

^'  Chrvs.  Horn.  19.  ad  Fop.  Antioch. 

■''-'  Siiicer.  Tkesaur.  Ecclcs.  voce  'V.-mn(i'X,nn!v<]. 


1160 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XX. 


and  AUatius  understand  it  of  the  Sunday  after  As- 
cension-day, which  from  thence  took  its  denomina- 
tion. "Why  Ascension-day  was  so  called,  is  not 
very  easy  to  conjecture.  Perhaps  it  might  be,  be- 
cause by  our  Saviour's  assumption  into  heaven 
again,  the  whole  economy  of  his  incarnation  and 
the  world's  redemption  was  now  completed,  as  the 
author  of  the  Constitutions  words  it.  And  Chry- 
sostom,^'  much  after  the  same  manner,  says.  On  this 
day  God  and  man  were  reconciled  together ;  on  this 
day  that  ancient  enmity  was  destroyed,  and  that 
long  war  ended ;  on  this  day  an  admirable  and  un- 
expected peace  was  restored  to  us.  After  God  in 
his  anger  had  destroyed  man  and  beast  from  off  the 
earth  by  a  universal  deluge,  we  that  were  unwor- 
thy of  the  earth,  were  this  day  exalted  to  heaven  ; 
we  that  were  not  worthy  to  reign  below,  were  ad- 
vanced to  a  kingdom  above :  we  ascended  above  the 
heavens,  and  took  possession  of  a  royal  throne ;  and 
that  nature  of  ours,  against  which  the  cherubims 
were  set  to  guard  paradise,  was  this  day  set  above 
the  cherubims.  He  means,  that  Christ,  as  the  first- 
fruits  of  our  nature  in  perfection,  was  exalted  unto 
heaven ;  and  all  his  members  in  some  measure  now 
partake  of  that  glory,  and  hope  in  due  time  to  meet 
him  in  the  clouds,  and  to  be  translated  to  the  same 
])lace  whither  their  forerunner  is  gone  before  them. 
This  is  the  best  account  I  can  give  at  present  of  the 
name  Episozomene,  and  the  application  of  it  to  the 
celebrated  festival  of  our  Saviour's  ascension  or  as- 
sumption into  heaven.  I  need  not  stand  now  to 
inquire  into  the  manner  of  its  observation.  For 
being  in  the  midst  of  Pentecost,  it  certainly  had  all 
the  solemnity  that  belonged  to  that  festival,  and 
never  passed  without  a  proper  discourse,  to  excite 
men  to  elevate  their  souls,  and  ascend  with  Christ 
in  heart  and  mind  to  heaven,  in  hopes  of  obtaining 
it  as  their  proper  mansion  both  for  body  and  soul 
hereafter  to  all  eternity.  But  as  for  any  such 
ridiculous  pageantry,  as  has  been  used  in  some 
places  to  represent  Christ's  ascension  in  the  church, 
by  drawing  up  an  image  of  Christ  to  the  roof  of  the 
church,  and  then  casting  down  the  image  of  Satan 
in  flames,  to  represent  his  falling  as  lightning  from 
heaven,  with  abundance  more  of  the  same  kind, 
(which  the  curious  reader  may  find  described  by 
Ilospinian^*  out  of  Naogeorgus,)  the  ancient  church 
was  wholly  a  stranger  to  it :  this  being  the  inven- 
tion of  later  ages,  when  superstitious  ceremonies 
had  debased  religion  into  sport  and  ridicule,  and 
made  the  great  things  of  God's  law  look  more  like 


ludicrous  pomp  and  comedy,  than  venerable  myste- 
ries of  the  Christian  faith.  But  I  return  to  the  an- 
cient church. 

The  conclusion  of  this  great  festi- 
val season  was  Pentecost,  taken  in     of  ivnieiost  in 

.  ,-1  -1  thestric-tersiTise,  as 

the  stricter  sense  for  that  particular  denutins  the  fen- 

^  Viilof  tlieilesrent  of 

day  commonly  called  Whit  Sunday,  or  [{j^  ^"]^^^^^^°''^  "P' 
Pentecost,  when  they  commemorated 
the  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost  upon  the  apostles, 
which,  happening  upon  the  day  which  the  Jews 
called  Pentecost,  or  the  fiftieth  day  after  the  pass- 
over,  (a  day  of  great  note  among  the  Jews,  both  for 
the  memorial  of  the  law  delivered  at  Mount  Sinai, 
and  also  for  the  gathering  and  bringing  in  of  their 
harvest,)  it  retained  the  same  name  of  Pentecost 
among  the  Christians,  though  they  kept  it  not  as  a 
Jewish  feast,  but  only  as  a  commemoration  of  the 
glorious  eff"usion  of  the  Spirit  in  the  gift  of  tongues 
and  other  miraculous  powers,  made  at  this  time 
upon  the  disciples.  Hence  it  had  also  the  name  of 
j'/juspa  llvtvuoTOQ,  the  day  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  we 
find  in  Nazianzen''^  and  others.  And  some  learned 
men^**  think  it  was  hence  called  Whit  Sunday,  partly 
because  of  those  vast  diffusions  of  light  and  know- 
ledge which  upon  this  day  were  shed  upon  the 
apostles,  in  order  to  the  enlightening  of  the  world, 
but  principally  because,  this  being  one  of  the  stated 
times  of  baptism  in  the  ancient  church,  they  who 
were  baptized  put  on  white  garments,  in  token  of 
that  pure  and  innocent  course  of  life  they  had 
now  engaged  in.  The  original  of  this  feast  is  by 
some  carried  as  high  as  the  apostles.  Epiphanius'" 
was  of  opinion  that  St.  Paul  meant  it  in  those 
words,  when  he  said,  "  he  hastened  to  be  at  Jeru- 
salem on  the  day  of  Pentecost,"  Acts  xx.  16.  But 
because  interpreters  generally  take  that  in  another 
sense,  we  will  lay  no  stress  upon  it.  However,  it  is 
certain  this  feast  was  observed  in  the  time  of  Origen, 
for  bespeaks  of  it  in  his  books'*  against  Celsus; 
as  does  also  TertuUian'"  before  him,  and  Irenreus 
before  them  both,  in  his  book  concerning  Easter,  as 
the  author  of  the  Questions  under  the  name  of 
Justin  Martyr  informs  us,  where,  speaking  of  the 
custom  of  standing  at  prayers  on  the  Lord's  day 
and  Pentecost,  he  says,"  This  custom  obtained  from 
the  days  of  the  apostles,  as  Irenseus,  bishop  of  Lyons 
and  Martyr,  testifies  in  his  book  of  Easter,  where  he 
also  makes  mention  of  Pentecost,  in  which  we  kneel 
not,  because  it  is  equivalent  to  the  Lord's  day,  being 
a  symbol  of  the  Lord's  resurrection.  St.  Austin'" 
says,  The  law  was  written  by  the  finger  of  God, 


33  Chrys.  Horn.  35.  in  Asceus.  t.  5.  p.  535  et  536. 

^*  Hospin.  de  Festis  Christian,  p.  72. 

«  Naz.  Oral.  44.  tie  Pentecost,  t.  ].  p.  712. 

^^  Cave,  Piim.  Christ,  par.  1.  cap.  7.  p.  192. 

•"  Epiph.  Haer.  75.  Aerian.  n.  G. 

3"  Orig.  cont.  Cels.  lih.  8.  p.  392.      ^^  Tert.  dc  Idol.  c.  14. 

*"  Justin.  Quaest.  et  Kespons.  ad  Orthodo.K.  qu.  115. 


^'  Aug.  cont.  Faust,  lib.  32.  cap.  12.  Pentecoslcn,  id  est, 
a  passione  et  resurrections  quinquagesimnm  diem  celebra- 
mus,  quo  nobis  Sanctum  Spirituin  Paracletum,  quem  pro- 
miserat,  misit:  quod  futunnn  etiam  per  Judseorum  Pascha 
significatmn  est,  cum  quinquajjesimo  die  post  celebrationem 
ovis  occisa;,  Moyses  dij;ito  Dei  scriptarn  lej^em  accepit  in 
monte.  &c. 


CilAP.    VII. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


IKil 


and  given  to  Moses  on  this  day ;  and  that  was  a 
type  of  tlie  Holy  Ghost,  called  the  finger  of  God 
ill  the  gospel,  which  Christ  promised  to  his  disciples 
as  a  Comforter,  and  sent  to  them  on  the  fiftieth  day 
aflcr  his  passion  and  resm-rection.  And  all  such 
eminent  facts  as  were  done  upon  certain  days,  were 
annually  celebrated  in  the  church,  that  the  anni- 
versary feast  might  preserve  the  useful  and  neces- 
sary memorial  of  them.  This  festival  of  Pentecost 
in  particular  was  observed  the  whole  week  after  till 
the  octaves,  or  Sunday  following,  without  fasting  or 
kneeling,  and  then  the  church  returned  to  her  usual 
stationary  fasts  on  Wednesdays  and  Fridays ;  and 
in  some  places  a  strict  fast  all  the  week  succeeded 
this  festival,  as  we  learn  from  the  second  synod  of 
Tours -.''^  but  this  was  a  new  institution,  as  was 
also  the  Rogation  fast  for  three  days  in  Ascension- 
week;  of  which  more  hereafter  in  their  proper 
place. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Ol''  THE  FESTIVALS  OF  THE  APOSTLES  AND  MARTYRS. 

„  .  ,  We  have  hitherto  considered  those 

Sect.  1. 

ti.*-^'«tiv'iafo7mar-  fsstivals  which  peculiarly  related  to 
'^"''  our   Lord's   economy  on  earth,  and 

Avere  observed  over  the  whole  church  as  memorials 
of  the  great  acts  of  his  life  and  death :  but  besides 
these  there  were  another  sort  of  festivals  instituted 
by  the  church  in  honour  of  the  apostles  and  martyrs, 
by  whose  actions  and  sufferings  Christianity  was 
chiefly  propagated  and  maintained  in  the  world. 
The  first  original  of  these  festivals  is  not  certainly 
known,  but  learned  men'  commonly  carry  it  as  high 
as  the  second  century.  And  there  is  plain  evidence 
for  this ;  for  they  are  not  only  frequently  spoken  of 
in  Cyprian  and  TertuUian,  but  long  before  in  the 
epistle  of  the  church  of  Smyrna  to  the  church  of 
Philomelium,  recorded  by  Eusebius,^  where,  speak- 
ing of  the  martyrdom  of  Polycarp  their  bishop,  who 
suffered  about  the  year  168,  they  tell  their  brethren, 
that  they  intended,  by  God's  permission,  to  meet  at 
his  tomb,  and  celebrate  his  birthday,  meaning  the 
day  of  his  martyrdom,  with  joy  and  gladness,  as 


well  for  the  memory  of  the  sufferer,  as  for  example 
to  posterity. 

Where  we  may  observe  their  pecu-  j,^^,  ^ 
liar  phrase  in  styling  the  day  of  his  ,,^12^^;:^ 
martyrdom  his  birthday  :  which  was  ''''^" 
according  to  the  usual  style  of  the  church  in  this 
affair;  for  so  TertuUian"  and  others  use  the  words 
nntalitia  and  nntales,  meaning  not  their  natural 
birth,  but  their  nativity  to  a  glorious  crown  in  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.  I  have  noted  before,*  in  speak- 
ing of  the  civil  festivals,  that  the  natales  or  birthdays 
of  the  emperors  often  signifies  not  their  natural, 
but  political  birthday,  or  the  day  of  their  inaugura- 
tion to  the  imperial  crown  :  and  so  it  was  with  the 
church ;  whenever  she  spake  of  the  nativities  of  her 
martyrs,  she  meant  not  the  day  of  their  natural 
birth,  but  the  day  wherein  by  suffering  death  they 
were  born  again  to  a  new  life,  and  solemnly  inaugur- 
ated to  a  celestial  kingdom  and  a  crown  of  endless 
glory.  To  this  purpose,  Peter  Chrysologus  bids  his 
auditors,  when  they  hear  of  the  birthday  of  a  saint, 
not  to  imagine  that  it  means  the  day  of  his  carnal 
birth  on  earth,*  but  the  day  on  which  he  was  born 
from  earth  to  heaven,  from  labour  to  rest,  from 
torments  to  delight  and  pleasure.  In  this  sense, 
TertuUian*  says,  St.  Paul  was  born  again  by  a  new 
nativity  at  Rome,  because  he  suffered  martyrdom 
tliere.  In  like  manner  Prudentius'  says,  A  martyr's 
birthday  is  the  day  of  his  passion.  And  Chrysos- 
tom*  gives  the  reason  of  this,  because  the  death  of 
a  martyr  is  not  properly  a  death,  but  an  endless 
life ;  for  the  sake  of  which,  all  things  were  to  be 
endured,  and  death  itself  to  be  despised.  Upon 
this  account  the  ancient  author  under  the  name  of 
Origen"  says.  When  they  celebrated  the  memorials 
of  those  holy  men,  they  kept  not  their  first  nativity, 
as  being  the  inlet  to  sorrow  and  temptation;  but 
the  day  of  their  death,  as  the  period  of  their  mise- 
ries, and  that  which  sets  them  beyond  the  reach 
of  temptations.  We  celebrate  the  day  of  their 
death,  because  they  die  not,  even  when  they  seem 
to  die. 

Now,  these  solemnities  were  usually 

Sect.  3. 

celebrated  at  the  graves  or  monuments     These  festivals 

"  usually  keiit  at  the 

of  the  martyrs,  which,  accorchng  to  sni'<;s  of  the  mar- 
the  custom  of  burying  in  those  times, 
were  commonly  without  the  cities  in  large  cn/ptcc 
under-ground ;  where,  in  times  of  persecution,  the 


■*-  Cone.  Turon.  2.  can.  18.  De  Pasclia  usque  Quinqua- 
gesimam,  exceptis  Rogationibus,  omni  die  prauiliiim  pra;- 
paretur.  Post  Quinquagosiraam  tola  hebdomada  e.xacte 
jejunetur. 

'  Hospin.  de  Festis  Christian,  cap.  4.  p.  14.  Cave,  Prim. 
Christ,  par.  1.  cap.  7.  p.  198. 

-  Euseb.  lib.  4.  cap.  15. 

'  Tertull.  de  Cor.  Mil.  cap.  3.  Oblationes  \n-n  dcl'iinctis, 
pro  natalitiis,  annua  die  facimus.  Cone.  Laod.  can.  51. 
Map-Ti'pwv  y^vil^Xia.  Ainbros.  Hom.  70.  Deposifionisdies 
natalis  iliiitur,  &c. 


*  Chap.  1.  sect.  4. 

^  Chrysol.  Serm.  129.  Natalem  sanctorum  cum  auditis, 
carissimi,  nolite  putare  ilium  dici,  quo  nascuntur  in  terram 
de  came,  sed  de  terra  in  ccelura,  de  labore  ad  requiem,  de 
cruciatibus  ad  delicias,  &c. 

"  Tertul.  Scorpiac.  cont.  Gnosticos,  cap.  15. 

'Prudent.  Hyma.  11.  de  Ilippolylo.  Natalcmque  diem 
passio  festa  refert. 

^  Chrys.  Ilom.  4.3.  de  Romano  Martyre,  t.  1.  p.  577. 

^  OriJ-.  in  Job,  lib.  3.  t.  1.  p.  437.  Vid.  Euseb.  Emisen. 
Scrm.  dc  Natali  S.  Genesii. 


1162 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XX. 


Christians  wei-e  often  used  to  meet  for  safety,  when 
they  could  not  enjoy  their  churches.  And  in  after 
ages  churches  were  built  over  these  graves,  which 
were  therefore  called  marti/ria,  arece,  ccemeteria, 
mensce  et  memorice  martyrum,  as  I  have  showed  at 
large  in  a  former  Book.'"  To  these  places  they  re- 
sorted, whenever  they  celebrated  the  memorial  of 
any  particular  martyr.  Which  is  the  reason  why, 
in  the  ancient  panegyrics  of  the  fathers  upon  par- 
ticular martyrs,  we  sometimes  hear  them  speaking 
of  leaving  the  city  churches  upon  the  anniversaries 
of  the  martyrs,  and  going  out  into  the  country  to 
the  monuments  or  memorials  of  the  martyrs,  to 
hold  assemblies  there,  where  the  martyrs  lay  buried. 
Thus  Chrysostom,  in  one  of  his  homilies  upon  the 
martyrs,  says,"  As  before,  when  the  festival  of  the 
Maccabees  was  celebrated,  all  the  country  came 
thronging  into  the  city ;  so  now,  when  the  feast  of 
the  martyrs,  who  lie  buried  in  the  country,  is  cele- 
brated, it  was  fit  the  whole  city  should  be  trans- 
ferred thither.  And  in  another  homily  upon  St. 
Drosis,'^  he  says.  Though  they  had  spiritual  enter- 
tainments in  the  city,  yet  their  going  out  to  the 
saints  afforded  them  both  great  profit  and  plea- 
sure. 

Whence  we  may  observe,  that  those 
And  mostly  con-  fcstlvals  at  first  wcre  not  general  fes- 

fined  to  those  parti-       .itii  n  Tii 

cuiar  churches        tivals,  liKC  tliosc  01  our  Lord,  obscrvcd 

where   the    martyrs 

suffered  and  lay       Qvcr  the  whole  church,  but  chiefly 

buried.  '  '^ 

celebrated  in  those  particular  churches 
where  the  martyrs  suffered  and  lay  buried ;  as 
the  festival  of  Polycarp  was  chiefly  celebrated  at 
Smyrna,  and  that  of  Cyprian  at  Carthage,  at  the 
places  where  they  were  bishops,  and  suffered  mar- 
tyrdom :  this  being  most  for  the  edification  of  the 
people,  to  have  the  examples  of  their  own  martyrs, 
who  lived  and  died  among  them,  proposed  to  their 
imitation.  And  this  is  confirmed  by  a  peculiar  re- 
mark made  by  Sozomen"  upon  the  two  churches  of 
Gaza  and  Constantia,  in  Palestine,  that  though  they 
were  not  above  twenty  furlongs  distant  from  one 
another,  yet  they  had  each  of  them  their  own  bi- 
shop and  clergy,  and  distinct  festivals  of  their  own 
particular  martyrs,  idlai  iravriyvpHQ  fiapripiov.  To 
this  purpose  it  was  customary  for  every  church  to 
have  her  own  fasti  or  calendar  of  martyrs,  and  pub- 
lic notaries  to  take  the  account  of  what  was  said 
and  done  to  or  by  the  martyrs  at  their  passions ; 
out  of  which,  general  martyrologies  were  made  by 
men  in  after  ages,  collecting  all  these  particular 


accounts  into  one  body,  which  Valesius"  and  Pagi" 
own  to  be  the  first  original  of  the  Roman  and  all 
other  martyrologies,  which  are  not  so  ancient  as  the 
calendars.  For  such  calendars  and  public  acts  were 
originally  kept  in  every  church,  to  preserve  the 
memorial  of  their  martyrs.  As  is  evident  from  Ter- 
tullian,'"  who  speaks  of  the  church's  having  her 
census  and  fasti,  that  is,  as  Rigaltius  and  others  well 
explain  it,  her  rolls  or  accounts  both  of  her  expenses 
on  the  poor,  and  the  acts  or  passions  of  her  martyrs. 
To  which  Cyprian  also  plainly  refers,''  when  being 
in  exile  he  sent  to  his  clergy  to  be  careful  in  setting 
down  the  days  on  which  the  martyrs  suflfered,  that 
there  might  be  an  anniversary  commemoration 
made  of  them. 

These  acts  or  passions  of  the  mar- 
tyrs, when  they  were  carefully  taken     usui'^'to  read  the 

.  .   ,  acts   or  passions   of 

and  preserved  genuine  without  cor-  the  martyrs  on  their 

^  ^  ^  proper  festivals. 

ruption,  were  commonly  read  in  the 
church  upon  the  anniversary  commemoration  and 
proper  festival  of  the  martyr.  The  third  council  of 
Carthage,  which  forbids  all  other  books  to  be  read  in 
the  church  besides  the  canonical  Scripture,  excepts 
the  passions  of  the  martyrs,'^  as  books  that  might 
be  read  on  their  anniversary  days  of  commemora- 
tion. St.  Austin,  and  Pope  Leo,  and  Gelasius 
often  mention  the  reading  of  such  histories  in  the 
African  and  Roman  churches.  Csesarius  Arelaten- 
sis,  and  Alcimus  Avitus,  and  Ferreolus  speak  of 
the  same  in  the  French  churches.  And  some  think, 
not  improbably,  that  such  sort  of  histories  and  pas- 
sions of  the  martyrs  had  particularly  the  name  of 
lef/enda,  legends,  upon  this  account,  because  they 
were  used  to  be  read  in  the  church  on  the  festivals 
of  martyrs :  but  the  fabulous  writers  of  lives,  such 
as  the  author  of  the  Golden  Legend,  and  other 
monkish  impostors,  have  since  written  the  lives  of 
saints  and  martyrs  in  such  a  scandalous  manner, 
as  to  alter  the  signification  of  the  good  old  word, 
and  make  a  legend  pass  for  a  romantic  fiction,  and 
mere  imposture.  Of  which,  learned  men,  even  in 
the  Romish  church,  such  as  Ludovicus  Vives,  and 
Melchior  Canus,  and  Papebrochius,'*  and  Pagi,^" 
have  made  frequent  and  just  complaints^  confess- 
ing, that  even  their  Breviaries  and  Passionals  are 
often  filled  with  such  monstrous  fables,  as  would 
make  a  wise  man  blush  to  hear  or  read  them  in 
the  public  offices  of  the  church ;  and  which  they 
desire  heartily  to  see  perfectly  reformed.  Particu- 
larly Pagi  exposes  the  fiction  of  Ursula^'  and  her 


'"Book  VIII.  chap.  1.  sect.  9. 
"  Chrys.  Horn.  G5.  de  Martyribus,  t.  5.  p.  972. 
'2  Horn.  67.  in  Drosid.  t.  5.  p.  989. 
'•'  Sozom.  lib.  5.  cap.  .3. 

"  Vales,  de  Martyrologio  Romano,  ad  calcem  Eusebii. 
'^  Pagi,  Critic,  in  Earon.  an.  G4.  n.  (\. 
'"  Tertid.  de  Coron.   Mil.  cap.  13.     Habcs  liios  census, 
tuos  fastos,  &c. 


"  Cypr.  Ep.  .37.  al.  12.  ad  Cler.  p.  27.  Denique  et  dies 
eorum,  quibus  excedunt,  annotate,  ut  celebrentur  hie  a  nobis 
oblationes  et  sacrificia  ob  cominemorationes  eorum. 

'^  Cone.  Carth.  3.  can.  47.  Liceat  legi  passiones  mar- 
tyrum, cum  anniversarii  eorum  dies  celebrantur. 

"  Papcbroch.  Conat.  Histor.  Chronol.  p.  43. 

="  I'agi,  Critic,  in  Baron,  an.  .302.  n.  18  et  19. 

"'  Ibid.  an.  3s3.  u.  3. 


Chap.  VII. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1163 


eleven  thousand  companions,  all  virgins,  said  to  be 
martyred  at  Cologne  at  one  time  under  Cyricius,  a 
pope  that  never  was  in  being ;  and  he  tells  us  the 
Roman  Martyrology  and  Breviary  have  dropped 
the  number  as  an  incredible  fiction ;  as  also  did  the 
Cologne  editors,  and  the  school  of  the  Sorbon,  retain- 
ing the  name  of  Ursula,  but  being  ashamed  of  her 
eleven  thousand  companions,  notwithstanding  that 
Hermannus  Crombak  wrote  a  large  volume,  called 
Ursula  Vindicata,  to  defend  this  monstrous  fable. 
It  were  easy  to  give  many  other  such  instances, 
but  this  one  is  sufficient  to  show  the  difference  be- 
tween the  modern  Passionals,  and  the  simplicity  of 
those  of  the  ancient  church,  the  reading  of  which 
was  one  part  of  their  solemn  exercise  upon  these 
festivals. 

Sect  6  To  these  they  commonly  added  a 

ue*yfic!u  "orations  pauegyrical  oration  or  sermon  of  their 
upon  lem.  Qwu  composing,  in  commendation  of 

the  virtues  of  the  martyr,  to  excite  their  audience, 
which  was  usually  very  great  upon  such  occasions, 
to  the  imitation  of  them.  We  have  a  gi"eat  many 
instances  of  such  orations  in  Chrysostom,  Basil, 
Nazianzen,  Nyssen,  Austin,  Ambrose,  Leo,  Chry- 
sologus,  and  others ;  where  the  whole  design  of 
the  orator  is  so  to  extol  the  excellencies  of  the 
saint,  as  to  inflame  his  auditory  with  the  love  of  his 
admirable  virtues.  This  was  the  great  end  and  de- 
sign of  keeping  these  festivals,  and  of  their  meeting 
together  upon  such  occasions,  partly  to  pay  a  due 
respect  and  honour  to  the  memory  of  the  dead,  and 
partly  to  engage  themselves  to  imitate  such  great 
and  brave  examples.  It  is  thus  the  church  of 
Smyrna,  in  their  epistle  to  the  church  of  Philome- 
lium,"  tell  their  brethren,  they  intended  annually 
to  meet  at  Polycarp's  tomb,  and  celebrate  his  birth- 
day with  joy  and  gladness,  as  well  for  the  memory 
of  the  sufferer,  as  for  example  to  posterity  ;  but  as 
for  any  other  honour  of  religious  worship,  (which 
their  enemies  the  Jews  suggested  they  would  be  in- 
clined to  give  him,)  they  declared  they  had  no  such 
intention  ;  for  they  could  never  be  induced  either 
to  forsake  Christ,  who  suffered  for  the  salvation  of 
the  whole  world,  or  to  worship  any  other.  Hira, 
as  being  the  Son  of  God,  we  worship  and  adore ; 
but  the  martyrs,  as  the  disciples  and  followers  of 
the  Lord,  we  love  with  a  deserved  affection,  for 
their  exceeding  great  love  toward  their  own  King 
and  Master  ;  desiring  to  be  made  partners  and  fel- 
low disciples  with  them.  In  like  manner  St.  Austin 
says,  Our  religion  consists  not  in  the  worship  of 
dead  men ;  because  if  they  lived  piously,  they  are 
not  esteemed  such  as  would  desire  that  kind  of 
honour ;  but  would  have  him  to  be  worshipped  by 
us,  through  whose  illumination  they  rejoice,  to  have 


us  partners  with  them  in  their  merit.  They  are  there- 
fore to  be  honoured '"  for  their  imitable  and  worthy 
examples,  not  to  be  worshipped  for  religion.  So 
again,  in  answer  to  the  calumny  of  the  Manichees,"* 
who  made  no  conscience  of  falsely  accusing  the  ca- 
tholics of  giving  them  Divine  honour  and  adoration, 
he  says.  We  celebrate  the  memories  of  the  martyrs 
with  religious  solemnity,  to  excite  ourselves  to  their 
imitation,  and  to  become  partners  in  their  merits, 
and  to  have  the  benefit  of  their  prayers :  yet  so,  as 
that  we  never  offer  any  sacrifice  to  a  martyr,  but 
only  to  the  God  of  the  martyrs.  For  what  priest, 
standing  at  the  altar  in  the  places  where  the  holy 
bodies  lie,  ever  said.  We  ofl'er  unto  thee,  Peter,  or 
Paul,  or  Cyprian  ?  But  whatever  is  offered,  is  offer- 
ed unto  God  that  crowned  the  martyrs,  at  the  me- 
morials or  graves  of  those  whom  he  crowned,  that 
the  very  places  may  admonish  us  of  our  duty,  and 
raise  our  affection,  and  quicken  our  love  both  to- 
ward them,  whom  we  may  imitate,  and  toward  Him 
who  enables  us  to  imitate  them.  Imitation,  we  see, 
was  the  great  thing  designed  by  these  festivals,  and 
all  the  eloquent  discourses  that  were  made  upon  the 
martyrs:  they  were  not  so  much  intended  to  be 
panegyrics  and  praises  of  the  martyrs,  who  were 
above  them  and  needed  them  not,  as  to  be  flaming 
and  warm  engagements  upon  the  audience,  to  in- 
duce them  to  imitate  the  glorious  actions  and  vir- 
tues of  the  martyrs.  Thus  Chrysostom  expressly 
tells  his  auditory,  beginning  one  of  these  panegyrics 
with  these  "  words  :  Blessed  Barlaam  hath  called  us 
together  to  this  holy  festival  and  great  solemnity  ; 
not  to  praise  him,  but  to  imitate  him ;  not  to  be 
hearers  of  his  encomium,  but  to  be  followers  of  his 
worthy  actions.  For  then  the  martjTs  are  chiefly 
sensible  of  honour  done  to  themselves,  when  they 
see  their  fellow  servants  made  partakers  of  their 
own  goodness.  Therefore  if  any  one  would  praise 
the  martyrs,  let  him  imitate  the  martjTS :  if  any  one 
would  give  the  champions  of  religion  their  just 
encomium,  let  him  emulate  their  labours.  This 
will  bring  no  less  pleasure  to  the  martyrs  than  their 
own  virtues.  And  he  closes  the  same  discourse 
with  this  exhortation :  Thou  art  a  soldier  of  Christ, 
beloved,  put  on  thy  armour,  and  mind  not  thy  dress : 
thou  art  a  generous  combatant,  quit  thyself  like  a 
man,  and  regard  not  external  comeliness.  So  shall 
we  imitate  these  holy  men :  so  shall  we  honour 
these  valiant  warriors,  these  crowned  champions, 
these  friends  of  God.  It  were  easy  to  cite  hundreds 
of  passages  out  of  Chrysostom  and  other  ancient 
writers  to  the  same  purpose.  For  this  was  the 
great  drift  of  all  their  panegyrics  and  discourses 
upon  these  festivals,  to  assure  men,  that  to  copy 
after  the  example  of  the  martyrs  was  the  greatest 


^  Ap.  Eiiscb.  lib.  4.  cap.  15. 

^' Aug.  de  Vera  Rcliir.  cap.   55.     Ildnoiandi  .sunt  crj^o 
propter  iniitationem,  non  adorandi  prriptcr  reli^ioncni. 


^'  Aug.  cont.  Faust,  lib.  20.  cap.  21. 

"  Clirys.  Horn.  73.  dc  Barlaam  Martyr,  t.  1.  p.  880. 


1164 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XX. 


honour  they  could  show  to  these  renowned  cham- 
pions of  the  Christian  faith.  And  it  always  had 
its  proper  effects  upon  men's  minds.  For  as,  in  times 
of  persecution,  Tertullian  -*  told  the  heathen,  That 
the  blood  of  the  martyrs  was  the  seed  of  the  church; 
and  the  more  they  were  cut  down,  the  more  they 
grew ;  the  exquisite  cruelty  that  was  used  to  de- 
stroy them,  did  only  allure  greater  numbers  to  come 
over  to  their  party.  So  Chrysostom"'  afterwards 
assures  us,  That  the  very  memory  of  the  martyrs 
wrought  wonderful  effects  upon  the  minds  of  men  : 
it  confirmed  them  against  the  assaults  of  wicked 
spirits,  it  delivered  them  from  impure  and  absurd 
thoughts,  and  set  their  minds  in  great  tranquillity. 
The  death  of  the  martyrs  ^  was  still  an  exhortation 
to  Christians,  the  support  of  the  church,  the  con- 
firmation of  Christianity,  the  destruction  of  death, 
the  demonstration  of  the  resurrection,  the  reproach 
of  devils,  the  condemnation  of  Satan,  the  doctrine 
of  philosophy,  an  exhortation  to  despise  the  things 
of  this  world,  and  the  way  to  lead  men  to  the  desire 
of  a  better ;  a  comfort  to  men  in  affliction,  a  motive 
to  patience,  an  engagement  to  fortitude,  and,  in  a 
word,  the  root  and  fountain  and  mother  of  all  that 
is  good.  When  you  see  the  martyrs^  despise  life, 
though  you  be  the  most  stupid  and  negligent  of  all 
creatures,  you  cannot  but  entertain  sublime  and  ex- 
alted thoughts,  contemning  pleasures,  despising 
riches,  and  desiring  to  have  your  conversation  in 
heaven.  If  you  languish  under  a  disease,  the  pas- 
sions of  the  martyrs  will  afford  you  one  of  the 
strongest  arguments  to  engage  you  to  patience ;  if 
you  are  oppressed  with  poverty,  or  any  other  evils, 
cast  but  your  eye  to  the  bitterness  of  the  torments 
which  they  endured,  and  you  have  a  present  conso- 
lation and  remedy  for  all  the  troubles  that  can  be- 
fall you.  For  this  reason  I  love  above  all  things 
the  commemorations  of  the  martyrs ;  I  love  and 
embrace  them  all,  but  especially  those  wherein  we 
commemorate  the  martyrdom  of  women  (such  as 
Drosis,  about  whom  he  was  now  speaking) :  be- 
cause, by  how  much  they  are  the  weaker  vessel,  by 
so  much  greater  is  their  grace,  their  trophy  more 
illustrious,  their  victory  more  glorious,  not  only  for 
the  weakness  of  their  sex,  but  because  the  enemy 
of  human  nature  is  overcome  by  that,  by  which  it 
was  first  vanquished.  For  by  a  virgin  the  devil 
first  slew  Adam,  and  by  a  virgin  afterwards  Christ 
overcame  the  devil ;  and  that  very  sword,  which 
was  sharpened  against  us,  cut  off  the  head  of  the 
dragon.  He  often  repeats  this  famed  aphorism, 
That  the  honour  of  the  martyrs^"  is  to  imitate  their 


^  Tertul.  Apol.  cap.  50.  Nee  quicquam  tamen  proficit 
exqiiisitior  quaeque  crudelitas  vestra :  illccebra  est  magis 
sectae  :  phires  efKcimur,  quotics  metimur  a  vobis ;  semen 
est  sanguis  Christianoruin.  It.  ad  Scapiil.  cap.  5.  Hanc 
gectam  tunc  magis  aedificari  scias,  cum  cicdi  videtur. 

"  Cfirys.  Horn.  20.  t.  5.  p.  290. 

^  Horn.  67.  de  S.  Drosidc,  t.  5.  p.  991. 


fortitude  and  virtue ;  and  as  frequently  inculcates 
Tertullian's  observation.  That  the  blood  of  the  mar- 
tyrs waters  the  beautiful^'  plants  of  the  church. 
For  as  plants  grow  the  more  for  being  watered,  so 
the  faith  flourishes  the  more^*  for  being  opposed; 
and  the  more  it  is  persecuted,  the  more  it  grows : 
nor  does  water  make  a  garden  more  fertile,  than  the 
blood  of  the  martyrs  does  the  church.  For  this 
reason  the  ancients  strained  all  their  eloquence  to 
set  off  the  constancy  and  gallantry  of  the  martyrs 
on  their  proper  festivals,  that  hereby  they  might 
induce  their  hearers  to  copy  after  such  great  and 
brave  examples. 

And  because,  as  Chrvsostom  ^  ob-         „  ,  , 

'  -  Sect.  7. 

serves,  the  blood  of  Christ,  which  he  aiL^!LaZiniste'red 
first  shed  for  the  martyrs  themselves,  "p™  '^'^'^  '^''^'• 
was  the  great  thing  that  animated  so  many  thou- 
sands to  lay  down  their  lives  with  joy  and  alacrity 
for  his  sake,  that  they  might  communicate  in  his 
sufferings,  and  be  made  conformable  to  his  death  : 
therefore  these  festivals  of  the  martyrs  never  passed 
without  a  general  communion  of  the  whole  church, 
partaking  of  the  blessed  symbols  of  Christ's  body 
and  blood,  the  oblation  of  which  was  always  cele- 
brated upon  these  occasions.  This  we  learn  from 
the  same  St.  Chrysostom,  who  dissuading  his  peo- 
ple from  intemperance  upon  one  of  these  solemni- 
ties, bids  them  consider  "  how  absurd  it  was  after 
such  a  meeting,  after  a  whole  night's  vigil,  after 
hearing  the  Holy  Scriptures,  after  participating  of 
the  Divine  mysteries,  after  such  a  spiritual  repast, 
for  a  man  or  woman  to  be  found  spending  whole 
days  in  a  tavern.  The  foundation  of  his  argument 
is  laid  upon  this  supposition,  that  they  had  received 
the  eucharist  in  the  church  before,  in  celebrating 
the  memorial  of  the  martyrs.  And  so  Sidonius 
Apollinaris  represents  the  matter,  when,  speaking 
of  the  festival  of  St.  Justus,  one  of  their  proper 
martyrs  at  Lyons,  he  says,'^  That  after  they  had 
kept  his  vigil  the  night  preceding,  they  assembled 
again  by  day  at  nine  in  the  morning,  when  the 
priests  did  re7ri  dirinamfacere,  offer  the  oblation,  or 
consecrate  the  eucharist,  as  Savaro  rightly  ex- 
pounds it. 

And  at  this  time  particularly  they 
made  a  more  solemn  commemoration 
of  the  martyrs  in  the  oblation  of  the 
eucharist;  which  being  a  sacrifice  of 
praise  and  ttianl<sgivmg  to  bod  tor  fonhem, anHpn, 
the  example  of  their  noble  courage 
and  sufferings  on  the  behalf  of  reli- 
gion, it  was  therefore  commonly  styled  the  oblation 


Sect.  8. 
And  herein  a  par- 
ticular commemor- 
ation of  the  marlTrs 
was  made,  called 
the  oWation  or  sa- 
•  of  prai5 


happy 


->'  Ibid.  p.  991. 

="  Horn.  47.  in  Julian.  Martyr,  t.  1.  p.  Gil. 

3'  Horn.  74.  de  Martyrib.  t.  I.  p.  898. 

*-  Horn.  40.  in  Juvcntin.  et  Maximum,  t.  I.  p.  547. 

^^  Hom.  74.  de  Martyr,  t.  ] .  p.  899. 

^*  Hom.  59.  do  Martyr,  t.  5.  p.  779. 

3^  Sidon.  lib.  5.  Ep.  17 


Chap.  YII. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Il(i5 


or  sacrifice  made  for  the  nativities  of  the  martyrs. 
Thus  we  find  it  in  Tertullian,'*  We  make  oblations 
for  the  dead,  for  their  birthdays,  or  new  birth  unto 
heaven  and  happiness,  on  their  anniversary  com- 
memorations. In  hke  manner  Cyprian  bids  his 
clergy^'  register  the  days  on  which  any  of  the  con- 
fessors suffered  death,  that  commemoration  might 
be  made  of  them  among  the  memorials  of  the  mar- 
tyrs, and  that  oblations  and  sacrifices  might  be 
made  for  them  on  the  solemn  days  of  their  comme- 
moration. So  again  in  another  epistle,^  Ye  remem- 
ber how  we  are  used  to  offer  sacrifices  for  them,  as 
often  as  we  celebrate  the  passions  and  days  of  the 
martyrs  by  an  anniversary  commemoration.  There 
is  some  little  dispute  indeed  among  some  of  the  an- 
cients, what  was  to  be  understood  by  these  sacri- 
fices or  oblations  for  the  martyrs.  St.  Austin  was 
of  opinion,  that  they  could  only  mean  the  sacrifice 
of  praise  and  thanksgiving  to  God  for  their  glorious 
deaths  and  brave  examples.  And  this  no  doubt 
was  one  part  of  the  sacrifice  they  speak  of:  but 
when  he  says,'"  That  he  who  prays  for  a  martyr 
does  an  injury  to  the  martyr,  because  martyrs  have 
attained  to  a  sort  of  perfection  in  this  life,  and  have 
no  need  of  the  prayers  of  the  church  ;  this  is  not  so 
consistent  with  the  general  practice  of  the  church, 
which  was  used  to  pray  for  patriarchs,  prophets, 
apostles,  and  martyrs,  as  considering  them  in  a 
state  of  imperfection  still,  so  long  as  their  bodies 
continued  in  the  grave  ;  which  the  apostle  himself 
allows,  when  he  says,  "  God  having  provided  some 
better  thing  for  us,  that  they  without  us  should  not 
be  made  perfect : "  therefore  the  church  may  be  sup- 
posed, by  her  sacrifices  and  oblations  for  martyrs, 
to  understand  prayers,  as  well  as  praises  and  thanks- 
givings, that  they  and  all  the  faithful  might  obtain 
a  perfect  consummation  in  bliss  by  the  means  of  a 
happy  resurrection.  And  that  the  church  did  some- 
times thus  offer  the  sacrifice  of  prayer  even  for  mar- 
tyrs themselves,  I  have  fally  evinced  in  a  former 
Book,*"  and  therefore  need  say  no  more  of  it  in 
this  place. 

But  we  must  observe,  that  for  the 
The ii^ghtpreceii-  solcmniziug  of  thcsc  fcstivals  of  the 

ing  any  of  tliese  fes-  -,  ,       _  •     •^ 

tivais commonly  Ob-  martyrs,  they  commonly  kept  a  vigil 

served    as    a   Vigil,  .  .  ^  ^ 

Aviih  psalmody  and  thc  uight  prcccdiug,  which  they  spent, 
as  they  did  those  before  the  Lord's 
day  and  other  great  festivals,  in  psalmody,  hymns, 
and  prayers  till  the  morning  light.  This  is  plain 
from  Chrysostom's  exhortation  to  the  people  upon 


one  of  these  festivals:  Ye  have  turned*'  tiie  night 
into  day,  did  tCjv  iravvvxiSutp  rdv  Up{oi>,  by  keeping 
your  holy  stations  all  the  night :  do  not  now  turn 
the  day  into  night  again,  by  drunkenness  and  intem- 
perance, and  wanton  and  lascivious  songs.  In  like 
manner  Sidonius  Apollinaris,'^  describing  the  man- 
ner of  their  solemnizing  the  festival  of  St.  Justus, 
bishop  of  Lyons,  takes  notice  not  only  of  the  ob- 
servation of  the  day,  but  of  the  preceding  vigil :  We 
met,  says  he,  at  the  grave  of  St.  Justus ;  it  was  a 
morning  procession  before  day ;  it  was  an  anniver- 
sary solemnity ;  the  confiuence  of  people  of  both 
sexes  was  so  gi'eat,  that  the  church,  though  very 
capacious  and  surrounded  with  cloisters,  would  not 
contain  them.  When  the  service  of  the  vigil  was 
ended,  which  the  monks  and  clerical  singers  per- 
formed with  alternate  melody,  we  separated  for  some 
time,  but  went  not  far  away,  as  being  to  meet  again 
at  three  o'clock,  that  is,  nine  in  the  morning,  when 
the  priests  were  to  perform  Divine  service,  that 
is,  the  service  of  the  communion,  as  on  a  festival. 
Thus  the  festivals  of  the  martyrs  were  always  intro- 
duced with  a  vigil,  according  to  the  manner  of  the 
Lord's  day. 

It  was  usual  also  upon  these  days, 
for  the  rich  to  make  feasts  of  charity,  ,  common    enfer- 

•^       taiiiments  made  by 

or  common  entertainments  for  the  use  '^(^(l^^  'p^lKpon 
of  the  poor  at  the  graves  of  the  mar-  ^res'''of";he  m«! 
tyrs.     Some  learned  men  *^  think  this  canied  ihemTo  be 

,  •  n    .1  *       laid  aside. 

may  be  one  meaning  ot  triose  sacri- 
fices and  oblations  which  are  said  to  be  made  at  the 
monuments  of  the  martyrs ;  and  others  there  arc,** 
who  think  this  was  the  only  meaning  of  them ;  be- 
cause the  word  nataUtia,  in  propriety,  signifies  the 
donations  or  largesses  which  men  were  used  to 
make  upon  their  birthdays,  rather  than  the  birth- 
days themselves.  But  not  to  dispute  this  matter 
by  way  of  criticism  with  any,  it  is  certain  they  had 
their  avfnroaia,  or  feasts  of  charity,  and  common 
banquets,  on  these  days  at  the  graves  of  the  mar- 
tyrs. The  ancient  writer  under  the  name  of  Origen 
says,"  On  these  solemnities  they  met  together,  both 
clergy  and  people,  inviting  the  poor  and  needy,  and 
refreshing  the  widows  and  the  orphans ;  that  so 
their  festival  might  not  only  be  a  memorial  of  the 
happy  state  of  the  deceased,  but  in  respect  of  them- 
selves also  an  odour  of  a  sweet  smell  in  the  sight  of 
God.  In  like  manner,  Constantine  says,*"  Sober 
feasts  were  made  by  many  for  the  relief  of  the  poor, 
and  such  as  stood  in  need  of  their  assistance.     So 


^^  Tertul.  de  Coron.  Mil.  cap.  3.  Oblationes  pro  de- 
functis,  pro  natalitiis,  annua  die  facimus. 

''  Cypv.  Ep.  37.  al.  12.  p.  27.  Deniquc  et  dies  eorum 
quibiis  excedunt  annotate,  nt  commemorationeseonim  inter 

meraorias  martyrum   celebrare    possimus. Et  cele- 

Lrentur  hie  a  nobis  oblationes  et  sacrificia  ob  commemo- 
rationes  eorum. 

^^  Ep.  34.  al.  .39.  p.  77.  Sacrificia  pro  eis  semper,  ut 
memini  stis,  offerimus,  quoties  martyrum  passiones  et  dies 


anniversaria  commcmorationc  celebramus. 

'"  Aug.  Ser.  17.  de  Verbis  Apostoli,  t.  10.  p.  1.32. 

■•»  Book  XV.  chap.  3.  sect.  IG. 

<•  Chrys.  Horn.  59.  de  Martyr,  t.  5.  p.  779. 

*■-  Sidon.  lib.  5.  Ep.  17. 

"  Cave,  Prim.  Christ,  part  1.  chap.  1.  p.  201. 

^'  Hospin.  de  Festis,  cap.  3.  p.  10.  .Junius,  Not.  in  Tertul. 
de  Coron.  Mil.  cap.  3.  "  Orig.  in  Job,  lib.  3.  p.  437. 

■•"  Const.  Orat.  ad  Sanctos,  cap.  12. 


1166 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XX. 


Chrysostom,"  cl:ssua(ling  his  people  from  running 
to  the  diaboHcal  entertainments  that  were  used  to 
be  made  at  Daphne,  one  of  the  suburbs  of  Antioch, 
tells  them,  If  they  desired  a  corporeal  as  well  as  a 
spiritual  table  upon  any  of  these  festivals,  they 
might,  as  soon  as  the  assembly  was  done,  recreate 
and  feast  their  bodies  under  a  vine  or  fig  tree  near 
the  monument  of  the  martyr,  and  thereby  secure 
their  conscience  from  condemnation.  For  the  very 
sight  of  the  martyr,  being  near  them,  and  as  it  were 
standing  by  their  table,  would  not  suffer  their  plea- 
sure to  run  out  into  excess  and  degenerate  into  sin  ; 
but  as  a  good  father  or  a  master,  being  looked  upon 
with  the  eye  of  faith,  would  restrain  all  ridiculous 
mirth,  and  cut  off  all  indecent  pleasures,  and  take 
away  all  lascivious  motions  of  the  flesh,  which  could 
not  be  avoided  if  they  went  to  the  vain  pomps  of 
Daphne,  where  the  devil  reigned  in  the  midst  of 
them.  It  appears  from  this,  that  these  feasts  were 
then  managed  with  great  sobriety  and  gravity,  and 
chiefly  used,  as  they  were  originally  designed,  for 
the  use  and  benefit  of  the  poor.  And  as  such,  they 
are  recommended  by  Nazianzen,^'  Theodoret,'"'  Pau- 
hnus,*  and  others,  being  indeed  nothing  more  than 
those  common  feasts  of  charity,  called  agapce,  and 
derived  from  apostolical  practice,  only  now  applied 
to  the  festivals  of  the  martyrs.  But  as  the  best 
things  by  the  corruptions  of  men  often  degenerate 
into  abuses,  so  it  fared  with  this  laudable  practice. 
Some  made  use  of  it  only  as  an  opportunity  of 
gratifying  their  covetousness  and  desires  of  filthy 
lucre  ;  others  hence  took  occasion  to  indulge  them- 
selves in  revellings  and  dancings ;  and  some  were 
so  vain  as  to  think,  that  even  rioting  and  drunken- 
ness at  such  times  was  for  the  honour  of  the  martyr. 
The  last  of  these  abuses  was  so  notorious,  that  the 
Manichees  hence  took  occasion  to  rail  at  the  church, 
and  calumniate  her  as  encouraging  such  abominable 
practices  in  her  people ;  which,  though  it  was  a 
malicious  slander  in  respect  of  the  church,  which 
did  all  she  could  to  discourage  such  excesses,  yet, 
in  respect  of  the  people,  the  fact  was  too  true,  and 
the  charge  too  well  grounded  to  be  denied  of  them 
all  in  general.  Therefore  St.  Austin,  in  answer  to 
the  objection,  is  forced  to  own  the  charge  in  part  as 
true  :  I  know,  says  he,  ^'  there  are  many  who  super- 
stitiously  worship  graves  and  pictures ;  I  know 
many  that  drink  luxuriously  and  excessively  over 


the  dead,  and  when  they  make  a  feast  for  the  de- 
ceased, bury  themselves  over  those  that  lie  buried 
in  the  graves,  and  after  all  place  their  gluttony  and 
drunkenness  to  the  account  of  religion.  But  I 
advise  you  to  leave  off  railing  at  the  catholic  church 
for  this ;  for  in  speaking  against  the  morals  of  such 
men,  you  only  condemn  those  whom  the  church 
herself  condemns,  and  daily  labours  to  correct  them 
as  wicked  children.  They  who  make  themselves 
drunk  in  the  memorials  of  the  martyrs,"  says  he 
again  in  another  place,  in  answer  to  the  same  ob- 
jection, are  so  far  from  having  the  approbation  of 
the  church,  that  she  condemns  them  for  being 
guilty  of  that  vice  in  their  OM^n  private  houses  :  it 
is  one  thing  that  we  are  commanded  to  teach,  and 
another  thing  that  we  are  commanded  to  correct, 
and  forced  to  tolerate  and  endure,  till  we  can 
amend  it.  St.  Ambrose  happily  corrected  this  in- 
temperance at  Milan,"  by  prohibiting  all  such  feasts 
in  the  church:  and  St.  Austin  made  use  of  his 
example  to  persuade  Aurelius,  the  primate  of  Car- 
thage," to  use  his  authority  to  do  the  same  in  the 
African  churches.  Upon  which  Aurelius  got  a 
canon  made  in  the  third  council  of  Carthage,** 
obliging  the  clergy  to  refrain  from  all  such  feasting 
in  the  church,  and  as  much  as  in  them  lay  to  re- 
strain the  people  from  the  same  practice.  This  had 
been  prohibited  before  by  the  council  of  Laodicea,*® 
forbidding  all  feasts  of  charity,  and  all  eating  and 
spreading  of  tables  in  the  church :  and  it  was  pro- 
hibited afterwards  by  the  second  council  of  Or- 
leans," in  France,  where  a  general  canon  was  made, 
That  no  one  should  pretend  to  pay  any  vow  in  the 
church  by  singing,  or  drinking,  or  any  loose  beha- 
viour whatsoever;  because  God  was  rather  provoked 
than  appeased  by  such  vows  as  these.  There  was 
another  evil  custom  prevailing  in  France  in  the 
time  of  King  Clodoveus  II.,  about  the  year  650, 
when  the  first  council  of  Chalons  was  held,  which 
endeavoured*^  by  a  canon  to  correct  it,  viz.  That  on 
the  festivals  of  martyrs  and  dedications  of  churches, 
companies  of  women  were  used  to  come  before  the 
church,  singing  filthy  and  obscene  songs,  whilst 
they  should  have  been  at  Divine  service:  whom 
they,  therefore,  order  to  be  repelled,  and  if  they 
persisted  obstinate  in  their  wickedness,  to  be  prose- 
cuted with  the  severest  censui-es  of  the  church.  St- 
Basil*'  mentions  another  abuse  of  these  festivals, 


"  Chrys.  Horn.  47.  in  Sanct.  Jvilian.  t.  1.  p.  613. 

**  Naz.  10.  Carm.  de  diversis  Vita;  generibus,  t.  2.  p.  80. 

■•8  Theod.  Therapeutic.  Serm.  8. 

^  Paulin.  Natal.  Felicis. 

5'  Aug.  de  Moribus  Eccles.  Cathol.  can.  ?A.  t.  I.  p.  331. 
Novi  multos  esse  sepulchroriun,  et  pict\irarum  adoratores: 
novi  multos  esse  qui  luxuriosissime  super  mortuos  bibant, 
et  epulas  cadaveribus  e.Khibentes,  super  sepultos  seipsns 
sepeliant,  et  voracitates  ebrietatcsquo  suas  dcputent  reli- 
gioni. 

^^  Aug.  cont.  Faust,  lib.  20.  cap.  21.  Vid.  Ambros.  de 
Eliaet  Jejunio,  cap.  17.   Cypr.  de  Duplici  Martyrio,  p.  12. 


-^  Vid.  Aug.  Confes.  lib.  6.  cap.  2. 

•^'  Aug.  Ep.  61.  ad  Aurel.  "  Cone.  Carth.  3.  can.  30. 

^'^  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  28. 

"  Cone.  Aurel.  2.  can.  12.  Ne  quis  in  ecclesia  votum 
suum  cantando,  bibendo,  vellasciviendo  exsolvat:  quiaDeus 
talibus  votis  irritatur  potius  quam  placatur. 

^'  Cone.  Cabillon.  1.  can.  19.  Noscitur  valdc  esse  inde- 
corum, quod  per  dedicationes  basilicarum,  vel  festivitates 
martyrum,  ad  ipsa  solennia  confluentcs  chorus  fcemincus 
turpia  quidem  et  obsccena  cantica  <lecantare  videntur,  dum 
aut  orare  debeant,  aut  clericos  psalleutes  audire,  &c. 

="  Basil.  Regul.  Major,  qu.  40. 


Chap.  Vlf. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


I(i7 


which  was  men's  keeping  markets  at  these  times 
and  places,  under  colour  of  making  better  provision 
for  these  feasts :  but  he  smartly  rebukes  this  as  a 
great  encroachment  upon  piety,  wholly  unbecoming 
such  solemnities,  which  were  designed  purely  for 
prayer,  and  the  commemoration  of  the  virtues  of 
holy  men,  for  our  encouragement  and  imitation ; 
and  he  tells  such  men.  They  ought  to  remember  the 
severity  of  our  Saviour,  who  whipped  the  buyers 
and  sellers  out  of  the  temple,  when,  by  their  mar- 
ketings and  merchandise,  they  had  turned  the  house 
of  prayer  into  a  den  of  thieves.  There  are  many 
other  abuses  and  corruptions  which  crept  into  the 
church  at  this  door  in  after  ages,  such  as  the  invo- 
cation of  saints  and  martyrs,  the  worshipping  of 
relics,  pilgrimages,  and  visitings  of  shrines,  and  the 
like  superstitious  practices,  which,  as  they  were  ut- 
terly unknown  or  disallowed  in  the  purer  ages  of 
the  church,  so  it  is  none  of  my  business  here  further 
to  pursue. 

j.^^,  J,  But  it   may  be  inquired,  whether 

otemx'd^n  memory  ^W  particular  days  were  set  apart  in 
o  tieapos  es.  mcmory  of  the  apostles  and  first  dis- 
ciples of  Christ  ?  To  which  I  answer,  that  as  many 
of  them  as  were  martyrs,  and  the  time  and  place  of 
their  passion  was  known,  there  is  no  reason  to 
question,  but  that  they  had  anniversary  commemor- 
ations among  the  rest  of  the  martyrs,  at  least  from 
the  time  that  the  festivals  of  martyrs  began  to  be 
observed  in  the  church.  Thus  the  martyrdom  of 
St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  was  observed  at  Rome,  either 
upon  the  twenty-ninth  of  June,  or  the  twenty-second 
of  February :  for  the  day  is  disputed  between  Bi- 
shop Pearson""  and  Pagi,"'  and  I  will  not  pretend  to 
decide  the  controversy  between  them.  But  it  is 
generally  agreed,  both  by  the  ancients  and  moderns?, 
that  they  both  suffered  martyrdom  at  the  same  time 
in  the  persecution  under  Nero,  at  Rome.  This 
Eusebius""  shows  out  of  Caius  Romanus,  TertuUian, 
Origen,  and  Dionysius  of  Corinth;  who  say,  that 
the  one  was  crucified  and  the  other  beheaded ;  and 
that  their  trophies  or  monuments  were  the  one  in 
the  Via  Ostiensis,  and  the  other  in  the  Vatican,  till 
Pope  Xystus  removed  them  into  the  catacombs,  or 
subterraneous  vaults,  as  the  old  Indiculus  Deposi- 
tionis  Martyrum  calls  them,  for  greater  security  in 
the  heat  of  persecution.  And  here  it  was,  that  St. 
Jerom"'  says.  When  he  was  a  school-boy  at  Rome, 
he  often  went  with  others  of  his  companions  into 
the  crypto;,  or  cemeteries,  under -ground,  to  see  their 
sepulchres  among  the  rest  of  the  martyrs.     So  that 


it  being  unquestionable,  that  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul 
were  crowned  with  martyrdom  at  Rome,  there  is  no 
doubt  to  be  made,  but  that  their  festivals  were  an- 
cientlj'  observed  there,  and  elsewhere,  as  other 
festivals  of  the  martyrs.  And  the  like  may  be 
concluded  of  all  the  other  apostles  who  sufl'ered 
martyrdom  in  the  several  countries  where  they 
preached  the  gospel. 

Besides  these,  the  ancient  church 

Sect.  12. 

kept  a  festival  in  memory  of  the  holv    The  rcuvai  or  the 

.      ^  •'  -  Holy  Irinocerits. 

innocents  that  were  slain  at  our  Sa- 
viour's birth.  The  ancient  writers  never  speak  of 
them  but  under  the  title  of  Christian  martyrs. 
Cyprian"  says.  The  nativity  of  Christ  begun  a 
marti/riis  infantium,  immediately  with  the  martyr- 
dom of  those  infants,  that  from  two  years  old  and 
under  were  slain  for  his  name.  That  tender  age, 
which  was  not  yet  able  to  fight,  was  fit  to  receive  a 
crown.  The  innocent  infants  were  slain  for  his 
name,  that  it  might  appear,  that  they  are  innocent 
who  are  slain  for  the  sake  of  Christ :  and  hereby  it 
was  showed,  that  no  one  is  free  from  the  danger  of 
persecution,  seeing  even  such  as  these  were  mar- 
tyred for  his  sake.  To  the  same  purpose  St.  Hilary** 
says,  Bethlehem  flowed  with  the  blood  of  the  mar- 
tyrs, and  that  they  were  advanced  to  eternity  by  the 
glory  of  martyrdom.  So  St.  Austin,""  These  infants 
died  for  Christ,  not  knowing  it :  their  parents  be- 
wailed them,  dying  martyrs  :  they  could  not  yet 
speak,  and  yet  for  all  that  they  confessed  Christ : 
Christ  granted  them  the  honour  to  die  for  his  name: 
Christ  vouchsafed  them  the  benefit  of  being  washed 
from  original  sin  in  their  own  blood.  In  like  man- 
ner Prudentius,  in  his  poetical  way,"^  thus  sets  forth 
their  praises  :  Hail,  ye  flowers  of  the  martyrs,  whom 
the  enemies  of  Christ  cut  off  in  your  first  entrance 
upon  the  light,  as  men  do  roses  when  they  first  ap- 
pear !  Ye  proto-victims  of  Christ,  ye  tender  flock 
of  sacrifices,  play  innocently  with  your  crowns  and 
garlands  before  the  very  altar.  St.  Chrysostom  * 
was  of  the  same  mind,  when  he  said,  These  infants 
received  no  harm  by  their  death  :  it  only  translated 
them  so  much  the  sooner  to  the  port  and  haven  of 
rest  and  tranquillity.  And  so  the  author  of  the 
Opus  Imperfectum,  under  the  name  of  Chrysostom,"* 
speaking  of  Herod's  cruelty,  says.  He  gave  all  the 
infants  eternal  life  for  the  sake  of  one  :  meaning, 
that  he  made  them  all  martyrs  for  the  sake  of  Christ, 
whom  he  thought  to  have  slain  among  them.  Be- 
fore all  these,  Irenauis  says,  Christ,  when  he  was 
an  infant,  made  infants  martyrs  for  himself,  and 


•*  Pearson,  Annal.  Cyprian,  an.  258.  p.  63. 
"'  Pagi,  Critic,  in  Baron,  an.  '258.  n.  3. 
"2  Euseb.  lib.  2.  cap.  25.    lib.  3.  cap.  1. 
^  Hieron.  Com.  in  Ezek.  cap.  40.  p.  G.36. 
"^  Cypr.  Ep.  56.  al  58.  ad  Thibaritanos,  p.  123. 
"^  Hilar,  in  Mat.  can.  1. 

""  Aug.  (le  Synibolo,  lib.  .3.  cap.  4,  t.  9.  p.  303.     It.  Ep. 
28.  ad  Hieron.    It.  de  Liboro  Arbitrio,  lib.  3.  cap.  23. 


"  Prudent.  Cathemerin.  Hymn,  de  Epiphania.  Salvete 
{lores  martyrum,  Quos  lucis  ipso  in  limine,  Christi  insecutor 
sustulit,  Ceu  turba  nascentes  rosas.  V'os  prima  Christi  vie- 
tima,  Grex  immolatorum  tener,  Aram  ante  ipsam  simplices 
Palmis  et  coronis  hulitis. 

«*  Chrys.  Hom.  0.  in  Mat.  p.  23. 

""  Opus  Imperfect,  in  Mat.  ii.  p.  780.  Omnibus  vitani 
.Tternam  prx-stitit  projiter  unum. 


1168 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XX. 


sent  them  before  him  into  his  kingdom.'"  Pope  Leo" 
and  Fulgentius  speak  of  them  in  the  same  style,  as 
infant  martyrs  and  co-partners  in  the  passion  of 
Christ,  who  suffered  martyrdom  for  him  without 
knowledge  or  grief. 

But  Origen  goes  a  little  further,  and  not  only 
calls  them  the  firstfruits  of  the  martyrs,  but  says  " 
their  memorial  was  always  celebrated  in  the  churches 
after  the  manner  or  order  of  the  saints,  as  being  the 
first  martyrs  that  were  slain  for  Christ.  And  St. 
Austin  says  more  than  once,"  that  the  church  re- 
ceived them  to  the  honour  of  her  martyrs.  Which 
seems  to  imply,  that  some  peculiar  festival  was  ap- 
pointed for  their  commemoration.  But  whether 
this  at  first  was  a  distinct  festival  from  the  Epiphany, 
or  rather  kept  on  the  same  day,  is  a  matter  that 
may  bear  some  dispute  ;  because  Prudentius,  Ful- 
gentius, and  Leo  speak  of  the  innocents  only  upon 
this  day,  and  not  upon  any  other  occasion. 

But  we  are  further  to  observe,  that 
The  festival  of  the  anciently  they  celebrated  not  only  the 
festivals  of  the  Christian  martyrs,  but 
also  some  of  the  more  eminent  martyrs  of  the  Old 
Testament :  such  as  the  seven  Maccabees,  whose  cou- 
rage in  opposing  the  tyrant  A  ntiochus  Epiphanes,  and 
dying  for  the  defence  of  the  Jewish  law,  seems  to  have 
been  generally  had  in  remembrance  over  the  whole 
Christian  church  in  the  fourth  century,  about  which 
time  we  find  abundance  of  panegyrics  made  upon 
them.  Chrysostom'*  has  three  homilies  upon  this 
occasion,  wherein  he  speaks  of  their  festival  being 
celebrated  at  Antioch  with  more  than  ordinary  con- 
courses of  people.  St.  Austin  says  "  the  Christians 
had  a  church  there  called  by  the  name  of  the  Mac- 
cabees :  and  he  himself  has  two  sermons  upon  their 
festival,  in  which  he  shows,  that  they  were  esteemed 
in  reality  Christian  martyrs.  And  hence  it  ap- 
pears, that  their  feast  was  solemnly  observed  in  the 
African  churches;  for  he  begins  his  first  homily 
with  these  words,  Istum  diem  nobis  solennem  fecit 
gloria  Maccabceormn ,  This  day  is  made  a  festival  to 
us  by  the  glory  of  the  Maccabees.  Gregory  Nazi- 
anzen  has  a  sermon'*  upon  the  same  occasion, 
wherein  he  says.  This  present  festival  is  kept  in 
memory  of  the  Maccabees,  who,  though  they  are 
not  had  in  so  great  honour  by  some,  because  they 
strove  not  for  mastery  by  the  grace  of  Christ,  yet 
they  are  worthy  of  all  due  respect  and  veneration, 


because  they  contended  valiantly  for  the  laws  of 
their  fathers,  and  the  truth  of  religion,  as  then  re- 
vealed to  them.  We  find  the  like  discourses  among 
those  of  Gaudentius,  bishop  of  Brixia,"  and  Euse- 
bius  Emissenus,'*  and  Leo,'^  bishop  of  Rome.  Which 
manifestly  shows,  that  this  was  a  festival  of  great 
note  throughout  the  whole  church.  And  the  reason 
is  given  by  Gregory  Nazianzen :  Because  they  were 
really  admirable  in  their  actions,  yea,  more  admir- 
able in  one  respect  than  the  martyrs  that  came  after 
Christ.  For,  says  he,  if  they  suffered  martyrdom 
so  bravely  before  Christ's  coming,  what  would  they 
not  have  done,  had  they  lived  after  him,  and  had 
the  death  of  Christ  for  their  example !  For  this 
reason,  this  festival  was  particularly  celebrated  all 
over  the  Christian  church,  but  upon  what  day  I  am 
not  yet  able  to  inform  the  reader,  save  only  that 
the  Roman  martyrology  places  it  upon  the  first  of 
August. 

But  I  must  acquaint  him  with  g^^^  ,^ 
one  thing  more  concerning  these  fes-  fesViraV'or^ali'tte 
tivals  of  the  martyrs  :  that  because  '"'"''J''^- 
the  number  of  them  was  exceeding  great,  and 
every  particular  church  could  not  observe  them  all, 
therefore  they  chose  to  have  one  solemn  day  for  the 
general  commemoration  of  all  the  martyrs.  This 
was  on  a  certain  day  not  long  after  Pentecost  or 
Whit  Sunday,  as  we  learn  from  one  of  Chrysostom's 
homilies*"  upon  this  occasion,  where  he  says,  There 
are  not  yet  seven  days  past,  since  we  celebrated  the 
great  and  holy  solemnity  of  Pentecost,  and  now 
again  a  quire,  or  rather  a  camp  and  army  of  mar- 
tyrs overtakes  us,  an  army  like  the  camp  of  angels 
which  appeared  to  Jacob.  This  seems  therefore  to 
have  been  either  what  we  now  call  Trinity  Sunday, 
or  some  day  very  near  it.  For  the  Greeks  called 
this  KvpiaK))  Twv  ayiwv,  The  Sunday  of  all  the  mar- 
tyrs, as  Leo  Allatius*'  shows  out  of  Callistus's  Sy- 
naxarion  and  Leo  Sapiens,  who  has  an  oration  upon 
this  day,  entitled.  Upon  all  the  Holy  Martyrs.  The 
name  Trinity  Sunday  is  but  of  modern  use :  the 
ancients  had  no  such  festival,  because  every  Lord's 
day  was  esteemed  the  feast  of  the  Holy  Trinity. 
Durandus'-  says,  Gregory  IV.,  about  the  year  834, 
first  instituted  the  festival  of  the  Holy  Trinity  and 
that  of  the  angels  together.  But  Potho  Prumiensis 
will  not  allow  it  to  be  so  ancient,  for  he  says^  it 
began  to  be  used  in  the  monasteries  not  long  before 


™  Iren.  lib.  3.  cap.  18.  Ipse  infans  cum  esset,  infantes 
hominutn  martyres  parans,  &c. 

"  Leo,  Serm.  7.  in  Epiphan.  p.  33.  Fulgent.  Horn.  4. 
de  Epiphan.  et  Innocentibus,  p.  511. 

"  Orig.  Horn.  3.  de  Diversis,  t.  2.  p.  4.3G.  Horum  me- 
moria  semper  ut  dignum  in  ecclesiis  celebratur,  secundum 
integrum  ordinem  sanctorum,  ut  primorum  martyrum  pro 
Domino  occisorum. 

"  Aug.  de  Libero  Arbitrio,  lib.  3.  cap.  23.  t.  1.  p.  29.  In 
honorem  martyrum  receptos  commendat  ecclesia.  It.  Ep. 
28.  ad  Hieronymum.         "  Chiys.  Horn.  44,  49,  et  50.  t.  ]. 


"  Aug.  Horn.  109  et  110.  de  Diversis,  t.  10.  p.  585. 

'"^  Naz.  Orat.  22.  de  Maccaboeis,  t.  1.  p.  397. 

"  Gaudent.  Serm.  15.  de  Maccabaeis. 

'*  Euseb.  Emissen.  Hom.  de  iisdem. 

"  Leo,  Serm.  82.  de  Septcm  Maccabteis,  p.  81.  Vale- 
rian. Hom.  18.  de  Maccabais,  ibid.  p.  749. 

s»  Chrys.  Hom.  74.  de  Martyribus  totius  Orbis,  t.  1.  p.  895. 

"'  Allat.  de  Hebdoni.  et  Domiuicis  Graecui-.  n.  31. 

^-  Durand.  Rational,  lib.  7.  cap.  34. 

'^^  Potho  de  Statu  Domus  Dei,  lib.  3.  ap.  Hospin.  de 
Festis,  p.  73. 


Chap.  VII. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Il(i9 


his  time,  which  was  about  the  year  1150.  And  it 
appears  from  a  decree  of  Alexander  III.,  that  it 
■was  not  ohscrved  at  Rome  in  his  time,  anno  1 179. 
For  he  says,*"  The  feast  of  the  Holy  Trinity  is  di- 
versely observed  according  to  the  custom  of  differ- 
ent countries ;  some  keeping  it  on  the  octaves  of 
Pentecost,  and  others  on  the  first  Sunday  before 
Advent:  but  in  the  Roman  church  it  is  not  used 
to  be  celebrated  as  any  particular  festival ;  for  we 
say  every  day,  "  Glory  be  to  the  Father,  and  to  the 
Son,  and  to  the  Holy  Ghost,"  and  such  other  things 
as  appertain  to  the  praise  of  the  Trinity.  So  that 
Trinity  Sunday  being  wholly  unknown  to  the  an- 
cients under  that  particular  name,  it  is  most  pro- 
bal)le  this  was  the  day  on  which  a  general  com- 
memoration was  made  of  all  the  martyrs  in  the 
world,  as  St.  Chrysostom's  homily  bears  it  in  the 
title.  For  the  multitude  of  martyrs  being  vastly 
gi'eat,  it  was  impossible  that  particular  days  should 
be  assigned  to  each  of  them  :  and  therefore  every 
church  chiefly  celebrated  the  days  of  her  own  mar- 
tyrs, (which  often  came  once  or  twice**^  in  a  week,) 
and  added  one  solemn  day  for  the  commemoration 
of  them  all  in  general :  of  which  I  have  nothing 
more  particularly  to  remark,  but  that  the  ancients  on 
this  day  commonly  exerted  themselves,  and  showed 
the  utmost  of  their  skill  in  the  art  of  oratory,  (of 
which  many  of  them  were  great  masters,)  in  de- 
scribing the  passions,  and  setting  forth  the  glory  of 
those  victories  and  trophies  that  were  so  frequently 
and  so  surprisingly  acquired  by  the  martyrs.  It  is 
a  beautiful  stroke  of  Chr3'sostom's  pen  in  his  homily 
upon  this  occasion,**  with  which  I  will  end  this 
chapter  upon  these  festivals  of  the  martyrs.  The 
devil,  says  he,  introduced  death  into  the  world,  but 
the  wisdom  of  God  turned  it  to  our  honour  and 
glory  ;  for  hereby  he  opened  the  way  to  martyrdom, 
and  made  our  destruction  become  the  occasion  of  a 
crown.  The  devil  designed  to  ruin  us  by  death, 
but  Christ  inverted  his  design,  and  makes  use  of 
death  to  introduce  us  into  heaven  by  martyrdom. 
Here,  as  in  all  other  battles,  there  were  armies  en- 
gaged on  both  sides,  the  martyrs  on  the  one  side, 
and  tyrants  on  the  other.  The  tyrants  were  armed, 
and  the  martyre  naked  ;  yet  they  that  were  naked 
got  the  victory,  and  they  that  carried  arms  were 
vanquished.  What  an  astonishing  engagement  was 
this !  He  that  is  beaten,  proves  victor  over  him 
that  beats  him  :  he  that  is  bound,  overcomes  him 
that  is  at  liberty :  he  that  is  burnt,  tames  him  that 
burns  him  ;  and  he  that  dies,  vanquishes  him  that 


puts  him  to  death.  These  are  astonishing  things  : 
but  it  is  grace  that  works  these  miracles ;  they  are 
above  the  strength  of  nature.  Thus  the  ancients 
extolled  their  martyrs,  those  heroes  of  Christianity, 
by  just  praises  and  commendations,  and  endeavour- 
ed to  provoke  others  to  piety  and  virtue  by  their 
example ;  which  was  the  great  end  and  design  of 
these  holy  solemnities  and  frequent  meetings  at  the 
memorials  of  the  martyrs. 


CHAPTER  YIII. 

OF    SOME   OTHER    FESTIVALS  OF  A    LATER  DATE  AND 
LESSER    OBSERVATION. 

Beside   these  festivals,  which  were  ,.  .  , 

'  Srcr.  I. 

of  greater  antiquity  in  the  church,  fe^u'^fdeSuons 
there  were  some  others  added  in  the  "' '='"'"='"'^- 
fourth  and  fifth  centuries,  which  either  for  their 
novelty,  or  their  more  limited  observation,  were  far 
inferior  to  the  former,  and  of  less  esteem  in  the 
church.  Among  these  we  may  reckon  the  encamin, 
or  anniversary  feasts  kept  in  memory  of  the  dedi- 
cation of  churches.  The  first  dedication  or  conse- 
cration of  churches  (which  began  in  the  time  of 
Constantine  after  the  demolishing  of  them  in  the 
Diocletian  persecution,  and  rebuilding  of  them  in 
the  peaceable  times  that  succeeded  afterwards)  has 
been  largely  spoken  of  under  another '  head ;  here 
I  only  take  notice  of  one  particular,  which  properly 
concerns  this  place,  that  is,  the  anniversary  festival, 
which  was  sometimes  observed  in  memory  of  the 
first  dedication  of  churches.  Sozomen*  gives  a 
famous  instance  of  this  in  the  church  of  Jerusalem ; 
For,  he  says,  in  memory  of  the  dedication  of  their 
church  which  Constantine  built  to  the  honour  of 
our  Saviour,  they  were  used  to  keep  an  anniversary 
festival,  which  lasted  for  eight  days  together,  during 
which  time  both  they  of  the  church,  and  all  stran- 
gers, which  flocked  thither  in  abundance,  held 
ecclesiastical  assemblies,  and  met  together  for 
Divine  service.  And  from  this  example  the  cus- 
tom was  received  and  propagated  in  other  churches. 
For  Bede^  says,  Gregory  the  Great,  in  his  letters  to 
Austin  and  Mellitus,  the  first  Saxon  bishops  here 
in  England,  ordered  them  to  allow  the  people  liberty 
on  their  annual  feasts  of  the  dedications  of  their 
churches  to  build  themselves  booths  round  about 
the  church,  and  there  feast  and  entertain  themselves 


**  Decretal.  Gregor.  lib.  2.  Tit.  9.  tie  Feriis,  cap.  2.  Fes- 
tivitas  S.  Trinifatis,  secundum  consuctu'linein  diversarum 
regionum  a  quibusdam  coiisuevit  in  octavis  Pentecostes,  ab 
aliis  in  Dominica  prima  ante  Adventum  Domini  celebrari. 
Ecclesia  siquidom  Romana  in  usu  non  habot,  quod  in  aliquo 
tempore  h\ijusniodi  celebret  spirilv.aliter  festivitatcm,  cum 
singulis  diebus,  Gloria  Patri,  et  Filio.  et  Spintui  Sancto,  et 
similia  dicantur  ad  laudem  pertinentia  Trinilatis.  See  also 
4   F 


Microlog.  de  Observ.  Eccles.  cap.  60. 

''^  See  Chrys.  Honi.  40.  in  Juventinum,  t.  1.  p.  546.  Horn. 
65.  de  Martyr,  t.  5.  p.  971.  Theodor.  Serm.  8.  de  Martyr 
t.  4.  p.  G05. 

*"=  Chrys.  Horn.  74.  de  Martyr,  totius  Orbis,  t.  1.  p.  89G. 

'  P.uok  VIII.  chap.  9.  sect.  I,  &c. 

-  Sozom.  lib.  2.  cap.  26. 

3  Bcdc,  Hist.  lib.  1.  cap.  30. 


1170 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XX. 


with  eating  and  drinking,  in  lieu  of  their  ancient 
sacrifices  while  they  were  heathens.  Hospinian* 
says,  In  the  German  tongue,  these  feasts  were  called 
hyrchu-eiches,  that  is,  church  feasts ;  whence  comes 
our  English  name,  church  wakes,  which  is  of  the 
same  importance. 

^  .  „  Another  sort  of  festivals,  much  of 

Sect.  2.  ' 

fc^iviisr/iiSps'  t^c  same  nature  with  the  former,  were 
ordinations.  ^j^p  anniversary  solemnities  which  bi- 

shops held  in  their  own  churches  in  memory  of  their 
ordination.  These  are  sometimes  called  natales 
episcopi  vel  episcojmtiis,  bishops'  birthdays,  which  de- 
note not  the  days  of  their  natural  birth,  nor  yet  the 
days  of  their  death,  as  in  the  former  case  of  martyrs, 
but  the  days  of  their  ordination,  or  nativity  to  the 
episcopal  office  or  throne  of  the  church;  in  like 
manner,  as  we  have  showed  before,^  the  natales 
imperatorum  often  denotes,  not  their  natural  birth- 
days, but  the  days  of  their  inauguration  or  advance- 
ment to  the  throne  of  the  empire.  That  such  days 
were  observed  as  anniversary  festivals,  I  have  had 
occasion  once  before  °  to  show  out  of  several  homilies 
of  St.  Austin  and  Pope  Leo,  which  were  preached 
by  them  upon  these  occasions.  To  which  I  shall 
here  add  what  St.  Austin '  says  also  of  the  Donatists, 
that  they  agreed  with  the  church  in  this  practice. 
For  though  Optatus  Gildonianus,  one  of  their  bi- 
shops, was  a  very  base  man,  yet  they  made  no  scru- 
ple to  celebrate  his  natalitia,  the  anniversary  of  his 
ordination,  with  great  solemnity,  honouring  him 
with  the  kiss  of  peace  in  the  midst  of  the  holy  mys- 
teries, and  mutually  giving  and  receiving  the  eu- 
charist  from  him;  which  circumstances  plainly 
show,  that  by  his  nataUtials,  nothing  else  can  be 
meant  but  the  anniversary  of  his  ordination,  when 
it  was  usual  for  the  bishop  to  invite  his  neighbour- 
ing bishops  to  join  in  the  solemnity  with  him, 
which  was  observed  with  reading,  psalmody,  preach- 
ing, praying,  and  receiving  the  eucharist,  as  other 
solemn  festivals.  Paulinus  likewise*  takes  notice 
of  this  particular  circumstance,  that  they  were  used 
to  invite  their  fellow  bishops  to  come  and  celebrate 
these  their  spiritual  nativities  with  them ;  for  so, 
he  says,  he  himself  was  invited  by  Anastasius, 
bishop  of  Rome,  to  celebrate  his  birthday.  The 
like  we  find  in  the  epistles'  of  St.  Ambrose,  Pope 
Hilary,  and  several  others. 

Now,  the  design  of  these  anniversaries  was  very 
excellent,  to  put  bishops  in  mind  of  the  great  and 
weighty  burden  that  was  laid  upon  them,  and  to 
be  a  fresh  occasion  of  recollecting  with  themselves 


how  faithfully,  and  conscientiously,  and  carefully 
they  had  discharged  the  trust  committed  to  them. 
Thus  St.  Austin  represents  the  matter'"  in  one  of 
his  sermons  upon  this  occasion.  A  bishop,  says 
he,  ought  to  consider  every  day,  and  every  hour, 
and  with  a  continual  care,  what  a  weighty  dis- 
pensation is  committed  to  him,  and  what  an  ac- 
count thereof  he  is  to  make  to  his  Lord.  But  when 
the  anniversary  day  of  our  ordination  returns,  then 
the  honour  of  this  office  is  chiefly  reflected  on,  as  if 
it  were  then  first  imposed  upon  us.  But  there  is 
this  difference,  that  on  the  day  when  we  first  re- 
ceived the  office,  we  had  only  to  consider  how  we 
ought  to  behave  ourselves  in  it ;  but  every  day  after, 
and  especially  on  that  day  when  the  solemnity  re- 
turns, we  not  only  look  forward,  and  with  great 
caution  and  foresight  consider  what  we  ought  to  do 
for  the  time  to  come ;  but  also  look  back  to  what  is 
past,  and  carefully  recollect  what  we  have  already 
done ;  that  we  may  go  on  to  imitate  ourselves,  if 
we  have  done  any  thing  well ;  or  if  otherwise  we 
have  done  things  that  are  blameworthy,  be  careful 
not  to  repeat  them  again  in  time  to  come.  There- 
fore, on  this  solemnity  of  my  ordination,  I  say  to 
those  who  are  my  debtors  by  trespassing  against 
me :  If  any  man  becomes  my  enemy,  because  I  tell 
him  the  truth ;  if  I  seem  troublesome  to  any,  be- 
cause I  give  him  good  advice ;  if  I  am  forced  to 
offend  any  man's  will,  whilst  I  seek  his  profit ;  to 
these  I  say,  "  Be  ye  not  like  to  horse  and  mule, 
which  have  no  understanding."  For  these  creatures 
chiefly  kick  and  bite  those  who  take  care  of  them, 
and  only  touch  them  gently  to  cure  their  wounds. 
So  you  and  I  are  at  strife  one  with  the  other ;  but 
the  cause  makes  a  distinction.  Thou  art  an  enemy 
to  thy  physician,  I  only  an  enemy  to  thy  disease : 
thou  art  an  enemj'  to  my  diligence,  I  only  to  thy 
pestilential  distemper.  "  They  rewarded  me  evil 
for  good,"  says  the  psalmist,  "but  I  give  myself 
unto  prayer."  What  did  he  pray  ?  "  Father,  for- 
give them,  for  they  know  not  what  they  do."  "  Re- 
joice, and  be  exceeding  glad,"  says  Christ,  "  when 
men  revile  you,  and  say  all  manner  of  evil  against 
you  for  righteousness'  sake :  for  great  is  your  reward 
in  heaven."  But  we  would  have  you  coirect  your 
perverseness,  and  acknowledge  our  charity,  and 
render  love  for  love :  we  would  not  have  our  reward 
augmented  by  your  destruction.  Next,  I  must  speak 
to  those  to  whom  I  am  a  debtor.  For  I  am  not  so 
vain  as  to  think  that  I  have  injm-ed  no  man  since 
I  first  took  the  burden  of  this  office  upon  me.     I 


*  Hospin.  de  Festis,  in  Appendice  de  Encaeniis,  p.  113. 

*  Book  XX.  chap.  I.  "  Book  IV.  cfjap.  G.  sect.  15. 

'  Aug.  cont.  Literas  Pctil.  lib.  2.  cap.  23.  Cujus  nata- 
litia tanta  cclcbratione  freqiientabatis,  cui  pacis  osculum 
inter  sacramenta  copiilabatis,  in  cujus manibus  eucLaristiam 
poucbatis,  &c. 

"  Paulin.  E.p.  IG.  ad  Delphinum.  Nos  ip.sos  ad  natalem 
suum  invitarc  difrnatus  est. 


^  Ambros.  Ep.  5.  ad  Felic.  Episc.  Comensem.  Turn  ego 
uostris  fabulis  intexui  diem  uatalis  tui.  Natalem  tuum 
proseqiiemiir  nostris  orationibus,  &c.  Hilar.  Ep.  2.  ad 
Tarraconens.  Lectis  in  convcntu  fratnim,  quos  natalis  mei 
fcstivitas  congregarat,  literis  vestris,  ("one,  t.  4.  p.  1036. 
Sixtus,  Ep.  ad  Joan.  Antiocii.  Cone.  t.  3.  p.  12G1.  Anastas. 
Vit.  Adrian.  1. 

'»  Aug.  Horn.  21.  ex  50.  t.  10.  p.  1 11. 


Chap.  VIIT. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURPH. 


iin 


know  my  infirmity,  and  pray  to  the  Lord  my  God 
day  and  night,  and  beg  the  assistance  of  your 
prayers  for  the  cure  of  it.  If,  then,  in  the  hurry 
and  difficulty  of  various  cares,  I  have  at  any  time 
been  so  distracted,  as  not  to  liear  the  petition  of 
him  that  made  suit  to  me ;  if  I  have  looked  upon 
any  with  a  sourer  countenance  than  there  was  oc- 
casion for ;  if  I  have  given  any  one  sharper  words 
than  I  ought  to  have  done ;  if  I  have  troubled  any 
one  that  was  in  anguish  of  spirit,  and  needed  my 
help,  by  an  improper  answer ;  if  I  have  overlooked 
any  poor  man  importuning  me,  when  I  was  intent 
upon  some  other  business,  or  put  him  off  to  another 
time,  or  grieved  his  soul  by  any  sharp  sign  or  in- 
timation ;  if  I  have  been  above  measure  angry  at 
any  one  for  entertaining  any  false  suspicion  of  me, 
as  one  man  is  apt  to  be  jealous  of  another;  or  if  I 
have  humanly  suspected  any  one  as  guilty  of  a 
crime,  from  which  his  own  conscience  could  clear 
him :  I  beseech  all  you,  to  whom  I  confess  myself 
a  debtor  for  these  and  the  like  offences,  to  believe 
me  to  be  your  debtor.  For  the  tender  mother,  when 
she  is  in  great  straits,  sometimes  treads,  though  not 
with  her  whole  weight,  upon  her  young  whom  she 
cherishes,  and  yet  ceases  not  to  be  a  mother.  For- 
give me,  that  ye  may  be  forgiven :  and  commend 
my  care  for  you  to  the  Lord,  that  he  may  mercifully 
jiardon  my  past  offences,  and  guide  my  way  under 
this  burden  for  the  future,  so  as  may  be  pleasing  in 
his  eyes,  and  profitable  for  you;  that  ye  may  be 
found  my  joy  and  crown,  and  not  my  confusion  and 
punishment,  at  his  appearance. 

These  are  pious  thoughts  and  excellent  contem- 
plations, flowing  with  expressions  of  great  humility 
and  charity :  and  they  serve  to  show  us,  both  what 
a  deep  sense  the  ancients  had  of  the  weight  and 
burden  of  the  episcopal  office,  and  also  after  what 
manner  they  entertained  their  auditories  with  useful 
discourses  upon  these  anniversary  festivals  of  their 
own  ordination. 

Another  sort  of  festivals  was  ob- 

of  festivals  kept  scrvcd  as    annual   thanksgivings    to 

grea;  deliverances  or  God  for  auy  great  favours  and  bless- 

signal  mercies  .  ?        i        /-i 

voiirhsafed  by  God  ings  vouchsafcd  by  God  to  his  church. 

to  his  clmrcli.  "  •' 

Thus  Sozomen"  says.  The  church  of 
Alexandria  kept  an  anniversary  thanksgiving  upon 
the  twelfth  of  the  calends  of  August,  that  is,  the 
twenty-first  of  July,  for  their  deliverance  from  a 
terrible  earthquake  and  inundation  of  the  sea,  in 
the  reign  of  Julian,  which  was  so  great  that  boats 
were  found  upon  the  tops  of  houses.  In  memory 
of  this  they  kept  a  festival,  which  they  called  yiviata 


"  Sozom.  lib.  6.  cap.  2.    Vid.  Ammian.  Marcellin.  lib. 
26.  in  fine. 

'-  Marcel.  Chron.  Cos.  Basilio. 

"  Euseb.  Hist.  lib.  10.  cap.  9.  et  de  Yit.  Constant,  lib.  2. 
cap.  19. 

"  Vid.  Euseb.  de  Vit.  Const,  lib.  4.  cap.  23. 
4  F  2 


aei(T^iov,  the  memorial  of  the  earthquake,  which  was 
observed  in  the  time  of  Sozomen  with  great  so- 
lemnity, the  people  offering  eucharistical  prayers  to 
God,  and  .setting  up  lights  all  over  the  city  for  joy. 
The  Constantinopolitans  kept  such  another  festival 
on  the  twenty-fourth  of  September,  in  memory  of 
their  deliverance  from  an  earthquake,  which  is  men-, 
tioned  by  Marcellinus  Comes,'^  in  his  Chronicon, 
as  lasting  with  great  violence  for  eleven  days  to- 
gether. Among  these  we  may  also  reckon  their 
thanksgiving  after  any  signal  victories ;  such  as  that 
of  Constantinc  over  the  tyrant  Licinius,  whereby 
the  Christians  were  delivered  from  the  oppression 
of  all  their  persecutors,  and  gave  God  solemn  thanks 
and  praise  both  in  city  and  country  for  the  glorious 
success  of  Constantine's  arms,  and  their  own  de- 
liverance by  his  victories,  as  Eusebius  "  more  than 
once  declares,  in  setting  forth  the  great  achieve- 
ments of  Constantine  for  the  Christian  church.  So 
he  that  had  ordered  all  possible  honour  to  be  done 
to  the  martyrs,"  had  himself  a  share  in  the  pane- 
gyrics that  were  made  upon  them,  and  next  under 
God  was  celebrated  as  the  great  supporter  of  the 
Christian  faith.  But  these  seem  not  to  have  been 
festivals  of  long  continuance,  but  to  have  ended 
their  period  with  the  life  of  the  emperor,  on  whose 
account  they  were  observed  in  the  church. 

But  from  this  time  festivals  grew 
and  multiplied  in  the  church.     Hos-    ofthefeaUofthe 

-   .  1        /.  ft  Annunciation. 

pinian'^  thmks  the  feast  of  the  An- 
nunciation was  as  old  as  Athanasius,  because  there 
is  mention  made  of  it  in  a  sermon  that  goes  under 
his  name.'"  Others  carry  it  higher,  to  the  time  of 
Gregory  Thaumaturgus,  because  there  is  a  sermon 
also  attributed  to  him  upon  the  same  subject.  But 
the  best  critics,  Dr.  Cave,"  Du  Pin,'*  Hammond 
L'Estrange,"  and  Rivet,-"  reject  both  these  as  spu- 
rious writings ;  and  even  Bellarmine  and  Labbe 
reckon  them  dubious.  They  were  written  by  Max- 
imus,  or  some  author  after  the  time  that  the  Mo- 
nothelite  heresy  appeared  in  the  world,  which  was 
in  the  seventh  century.  So  the  antiquity  of  this 
festival  cannot  be  deduced  from  them.  Neither 
could  it  be  a  festival  in  those  times,  by  the  ancient 
rules  of  the  church,  which  forbade  the  celebration  of 
all  festivals  in  Lent,  except  the  sabbath  and  the 
Lord's  day,  as  appears  from  the  council  of  Laodi- 
cea."'  But  before  the  time  of  the  council  of  Trullo 
it  was  come  into  use.  For  that  council,'^  renewing 
the  foresaid  prohibition  of  Laodicea,  makes  a  fur- 
ther exception  in  behalf  of  the  Annunciation  ;  for- 
bidding all  festivals  to  be  kept  in  Lent,  except  the 


'5  Hospin.  de  Festis.         "^  Athan.  Serm.  de  S.  Deipara. 

"  Cave,  Hist.  Literar.  I.  1.  p.  HG. 

'8  Du  Pin,  Biblii.thec.  t.  2. 

"  Ham.  L'Estrange,  Alliance  of  Div.  OfEc.  cap.  .0.  p.  148. 

^  Rivet.  Critic.  Sacr.  lib.  3.  cap.  5. 

-'  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  51.  '■^-Conc.  Trull,  can.  52. 


1172 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XX. 


sabbath,  and  the  Lord's  day,  and  the  holy  Annun- 
ciation ;  which  shows  that  by  this  time  it  was  be- 
come a  noted  festival :  and  therefore  we  may  date 
its  original  from  the  seventh  century,  when  we  find 
sermons  began  to  be  made  upon  it. 

Another  festival  of  later  date  was 
Hvpail^ife,  that  which  is  commonly  called  the 


Sect.  5. 
or  the  festival 
called 
aftern 
tioii     and     Candle' 
mas-day. 


Candlemas-day.  This,  at  first,  among 
the  Greeks  went  by  the  name  of  Hypapante,  'Yira- 
TTavrri,  which  denotes  the  meeting  of  the  Lord  by 
Simeon  in  the  temple,  in  commemoration  of  which 
occurrence  it  was  first  made  a  festival  in  the  church ; 
some  say  in  the  time  of  Justin  the  emperor ;  others, 
in  time  of  his  successor  Justinian,  anno  542.  There 
is  indeed  a  homily  among  St.  Chrysostom's  works,^ 
which,  if  it  were  genuine,  would  carry  tliis  feast  a 
hundred  yeai"s  higher ;  for  it  is  upon  this  festival 
under  this  very  name  of  Hijpapante.  But  all  learn- 
ed men  are  agreed  that  it  is  none  of  his.  And  par- 
ticularly Leo  Allatius  ^*  cites  a  passage  out  of  Geor- 
gius  Hamartolus's  Chronicon,  which  shows  that 
there  was  no  such  festival  in  Chrysostom's  time, 
but  that  it  was  first  instituted  in  the  reign  of  Jus- 
tinian. At  this  time  began  the  Hypapante  to  be 
celebrated,  says  he,  which  before  was  not  numbered 
among  the  festivals  of  our  Lord.  For  Chrysostom 
says,  the  festivals  of  Christ's  economy  here  upon 
earth  were  proportioned  to  the  number  of  the  days 
of  the  creation  of  the  world.  The  first  is  his  na- 
tivity in  the  flesh;  the  second,  Epiphany ;  the  third, 
the  day  of  his  passion  ;  the  fourth,  the  day  of  his 
glorious  resurrection  ;  the  fifth,  his  assumption  into 
heaven ;  the  sixth,  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost ; 
the  seventh,  the  great  day  of  the  general  resurrec- 
tion, which  has  no  succession  nor  end.  For  that 
is  an  eternal  festival,  (or  perpetual  sabbath  and 
rest  for  the  people  of  God,)  to  be  celebrated  with 
much  joy  and  gladness  by  those  that  shall  be  heirs 
of  such  things  "  as  eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard, 
neither  have  entered  into  the  heart  of  man  to  con- 
ceive the  things  that  God  hath  prepared  for  them 
that  love  him."  Thus  far  Georgius  Hamartolus  out 
of  Chrysostom.  And  all  the  historians  that  come 
after  him  agree  in  the  same  thing,  that  this  was  no 
festival  in  the  church  till  the  time  of  Justin,  or 
Justinian.  Cedrenus^  fixes  its  original  to  the  last 
year  of  Justin.  But  Landulphus  Sagax,'*  Siffridus 
Presbyter,"  Martin  Polonus,^  Nicephorus,"^  Sige- 


bert,**  and  Paulus  Diaconus,"  cited  by  Xylander  ^^ 
and  Suicerus,^*  deduce  it  only  from  the  reign  of 
Justinian.  And  Baronius  himself"  does  not  deny 
it,  only  he  would  have  it  first  instituted  in  honour 
of  the  Virgin  Mary,  which  the  very  name  of  Hypa- 
pante confutes,  which  signifies  the  coming  of  Simeon 
to  meet  the  Lord  in  his  temple,  according  to  the 
revelation  made  to  him,  that  he  should  not  see 
death  till  he  had  seen  the  Lord's  Christ :  and  the 
Greeks  always  reckoned  it  among  those  festivals 
which  they  called  festa  Dominica,  festivals  ap- 
pointed in  honour  of  our  Lord,  as  Leo  Allatius  him- 
self informs  us. 

He  that  would  see  more  of  the  in- 
crease and  progress  of  festivals,  mav     The"  original  <>f 

.     .  *      festivals  in    honour 

consult  Hospinian,'*  who  has  noted  of  confessors  and 

'■  _  _  other  holy  men. 

the  original  of  every  distinct  festival 
successively  as  they  were  instituted  in  the  following 
ages  of  the  church.  I  only  note,  that  he  allows 
confessors  and  other  holy  men  to  have  had  their 
memorials  something  earlier  than  Cardinal  Bona 
himself  will  allow.  For  Bona  ^^  thinks  this  honour 
was  only  paid  to  martyrs  properly  so  called,  and 
not  to  confessors,  or  any  other  saints,  for  the  four 
first  ages ;  and  he  says,  that  in  Fronto's  calendar, 
written  about  nine  hundred  years  ago,  there  are  not 
above  four  saints,  that  were  not  martyrs,  named 
throughout  the  whole  year,  viz.  Pope  Sylvester, 
Pope  Leo,  Martin  of  Tours,  and  Gregory  the  Great. 
But  Hospinian's  observation  is  more  exact;  for 
Sozomen"  says  expressly,  that  it  was  customary 
in  Palestine  long  before  to  celebrate  the  anniversary 
days  of  such  men  as  had  been  emuient  among  them 
for  piety  and  virtue,  such  as  Hilarion  of  Gaza, 
Abrilius  of  Anthedon,  Alexion  of  Bethagathon,  and 
Alaphion  of  Asalea,  who  were  no  martyrs,  but  only 
men  of  renown  for  their  piety,  by  whose  virtues  the 
Christian  religion  had  made  a  considerable  progress 
in  many  heathen  cities  in  the  reign  of  Constantius, 
for  which  reason  their  memory  was  celebrated  in 
those  places  with  the  anniversary  festivals.  And 
so  Baronius''  observes  out  of  St.  Jerom,^'  that 
Hilarion  himself  kept  a  vigil  preceding  the  day  of 
Antonius's  death  in  commemoration  of  him.  There- 
fore whatever  might  be  the  custom  of  the  Western 
church,  it  is  plain  in  the  eastern  parts  the  anniver- 
sary commemoration  of  confessors  and  other  emi- 
nent saints  was  introduced  a  little  sooner. 


^  Chrys.  t.  6.  Horn.  22.  de  Occursu  et  Simeone. 
^  Hamartol.  Chron.  in  Vita  Justin,  ap.  Allat.  de  Heb- 
domad. Grajcor.  n.  1.  p.  1403. 

-*  Cedren.  Conipend.  p.  SOU.         ="  Landidph.  Vit.  Justin. 

'-'  Siffi'id.  Epitom.  Hist.  lib.  1.  -'*  Poloni  Chronic. 

■■i"  Niceph.  lib.  17.  cap.  28.  «>  Sigebcrt.  an.  M2. 

31  Paul.  Diac.  lib.  16. 

'"-  Xyland.  Not.  in  Cedren.  p.  (J88. 

^'  Siiicer.  Thesaur.  Eccles.  t.  2.  p.  l.>74. 

"Baion.  an.  511.  t.  7.  p.  350. 


'^  Hospin.  de  Festis,  cap.  4. 

3"  Bona,  Rer.  Liturg.  lib.  1.  cap.  15.  n.  2.  Confessorum 
I'estivitates  serius  recepta;  sunt  in  ecclesia,  et  in  Frontonis' 
calondario  ante  nongentos  annos  scripto  non  nisi  quatuor 
ascripti  sunt,  Gregorius  Magnus,  Leo  Papa,  Martiniis  Tu- 
ronensis,  et  Sylvester. 

3'  Sozom.  lib.  3.  cap.  14.  '«  Baron,  an.  .358.  n.  23. 

^^  Hierou.  Vit.  Hilarion.  cap.  26.  Confessus  est  fratribus 
instare  diem  dorniitionis  beati  Antonii,  et  pervigileni  noc- 
lem  ill  ipso  quo  dcl'iinctus  fuerat  loco,  a  se  debere  celebrari- 


BOOK   XXI. 

OF  THE  FASTS  IN  USE  IN  THE  ANCIENT  CHURCH. 


CHAPTER  I. 


OF    THE    QUADRAGESIMAL    OR    LENT    FAST. 


„  ,  ,  Next  to  the  festivals  observed  in  the 

orSnaiiv''fort^da?s  Hiicient  chuvch,  wc  Hvc  to  take  a  view  of 

or  Forty  hours.  ^j^^-^.  ^^l^^^  ^^^^   ^^^^^^  tjjj^ps  ^f  f^g^. 

ing.  These,  hke  the  festivals,  were  some  of  them 
weekly,  and  some  annual,  that  is,  such  as  returned 
at  a  certain  season  only  once  a  year.  Among  those 
that  came  only  once  a  year,  the  Quadragesimal,  or 
Lent  fast,  was  the  most  famous.  The  Greeks  called 
it  TeffffapaKoarrj,  and  the  Latins  Quadragesima,  both 
which  words  denote  the  number  forty,  whence  this 
fast  for  some  reason  was  called  Quadragesimal,  but 
whether  for  its  being  a  fast  of  forty  days,  or  only 
foi'ty  hours,  is  variously  disputed  among  learned 
men.  They  of  the  Romish  church  generally  main- 
tain, that  it  was  always  a  fast  of  forty  days,  and 
that,  as  such,  it  was  of  apostolical  institution.  And 
there  are  some  of  the  protestant  communion  who 
are  of  the  same  opinion.  Others  think  it  was  only 
of  ecclesiastical  institution,  and  therefore,  as  it  was 
variable  and  alterable  by  the  church's  power,  so  it 
was  variously  observed  in  different  churches,  and 
grew  by  degrees  from  a  fast  of  forty  hours  to  a  fast 
of  forty  days,  still  retaining  the  name  of  the  Quad- 
ragesimal fast  under  all  its  variations.  This  is  what 
Bishop  Morton,'  and  Bishop  Taylor,^  and  Peter  du 
Moulin,^  and  Daille,^  and  Chamier,*  have  largely 
disputed  against  the  Romanists.  And  even  among 
the  papists,  some  writers  of  no  mean  rank,  such  as 
Melchior  Canus''  and  Cajetan,"  say  it  was  only 
such  an  apostolical  rule  or  custom  as  left  the  church 
at  liberty  to  alter  it,  as  she  did  some  other  things. 


upon  just  and  proper  occasions,  and  to  abrogate  it 
by  introducing  a  contrary  practice.  But  this  is  a 
question  I  shall  not  here  debate,  but  only  inquire 
into  matter  of  fact,  by  whom  this  fast  was  first  in- 
stituted, and  of  what  duration  and  length  it  was 
when  it  first  began  to  be  observed  in  the  church. 
Dr.  Cave,  in  his  Primitive  Christianity,  p.  182,  says, 
This  fast  was  very  ancient,  but  far  from  being  an 
apostolical  canon.  And  he  cites  Mr.  Thorndike  of 
Rehgious  Assemblies,  together  with  Bishop  Taylor, 
for  the  same  opinion. 

Now,  the  reasons  persuading  learn- 

■,     ^■  ,  •  .  Sect.  2. 

ed  men  to  beheve  that  it  was  not  in-  ,^some  probability 

Inat  at  first  it  was 

stituted  by  the  apostles,  at  least  not  "^^l^^  ^\^l  '"^Jj 
as   any   necessary  rule   obliging   all  t^fto t^e resur^c"- 
mcn  to  fast  forty  days,  are  these  that  '""'' 
follow. 

I.  Because  there  is  some  probability  that  at  first 
it  was  only  a  fast  of  forty  hours,  or  the  time  that 
our  Saviour  lay  in  the  grave,  that  is,  the  Friday 
and  Saturday  before  Easter,  the  time  that  Christ 
the  Bridegroom  was  taken  from  his  disciples  be- 
tween his  passion  and  his  resurrection.  TertuUian, 
when  he  was  a  Montanist,  disputing  against  the 
catholics,  says,^  They  thought  themselves  obliged 
only  to  observe  those  two  days  in  which  the  Bride- 
groom was  taken  away  from  them.  This  he  else- 
where calls ^  the  Paschal  fast,  which  all  observed  in 
common  as  a  public  fast  with  great  religion.  And 
again,"  objecting  to  the  catholics  their  observation 
of  other  fasts  besides  the  two  days  in  which  Christ 


'  Morton,  Catholic  Appeal,  lib.  2.  cap.  24.  p.  301. 
-  Taylor,  Duct.  Uubitant.  book  3.  cap.  4.  p.  631,  &c. 
'  Moulin,  Novelty  of  Popery,  lib.  7.  Controv.  5.  cap.  7. 
p.  51G. 

*  Dalloe.  (le  Jejun.  et  Quadrages.  lib.  3.  cap.  9. 
^  Chamier,  Panstrat.  t.  3.  lib.  19.  cap.  7. 

"  Caniis,  Loc.  Thcol.  lib.  3.  cap.  5. 

'  Cajetan  was  censured  by  Catharin  for  this.     Viil.  lUyri- 
cura  fie  Sectis  Papisticis,  p.  143. 

*  Tertul.  de  Jejun.  cap.  2.     Certe  in  evangolio  illos  liics 


jejunio  determinatos  putant,  in  quibus  ablatusest  Sponsus  ; 
et  hos  esse  jam  solos  legitimes  jejuniorum  Christianorum. 

'  Tertul.  lie  Orat.  cap.  14.  Sic  et  die  Paschas,  quo  com- 
munis ot  quasi  publica  jcjunii  religio  est,  merito  deponimus 
oscidum. 

'"  Tertul.  de  Jejun.  cap.  13.  Convenio  vos  et  praeter 
I'asciia  jejunantes  citra  illos  dies  quibus  ablatus  est  Spon- 
sus; et  statiouum  semijejiuiiaintcrponentes,  et  vos  interdum 
pane  et  aqua  victitantcs,  ut  cuique  visum  est :  denique  re- 
spondetis  hacc  c^  arbitrio  agenda,  non  ex  imperio. 


1174 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXI. 


was  taken  away  from  them,  such  as  the  half-fasts 
of  their  stationary  days,  and  their  other  fasts  upon 
bread  and  water ;  he  makes  them  answer,  that  those 
other  fasts  were  kept  at  every  man's  liberty  and 
will,  and  not  by  any  express  command.  So  that 
they  thought  themselves  obhged  only  to  observe 
those  two  days  on  which  the  Bridegroom  was  taken 
away  from  them.  This  Irenceus  calls  the  fast  of 
forty  hours  before  Easter,  if  we  retain  the  vulgar 
and  comm.on  reading.  For  writing  to  Pope  Victor 
about  the  difference  between  the  Eastern  and  West- 
ern churches  concerning  the  time  of  Easter,  he  tells 
him,"  there  had  been  differences  not  only  about  the 
time  of  Easter,  but  about  the  manner  of  fasting. 
For  some  thought  they  ought  to  fast  one  day,  others 
two,  others  more ;  and  others  measured  their  day 
(or  their  fast,  as  Valesius  observes  it  ought  to  be 
read)  by  the  computation  of  forty  hours,  joining 
day  and  night  together.  And  this  variety  among 
those  that  observe  the  fast  did  not  begin  in  our  age, 
but  long  before  us  among  our  ancestors,  many  of 
whom,  probably,  not  being  very  curious  and  exact 
in  their  observation,  handed  down  to  posterity  the 
custom  as  it  had  been  through  simplicity  or  private 
fancy  introduced  among  them.  And  yet,  neverthe- 
less, all  these  lived  peaceably  one  with  another,  and 
we  also  keep  peace  together.  For  the  difference  in 
observing  the  fast  does  only  so  much  the  more  com- 
mend the  common  unity  of  faith  in  which  all  are 
agreed.  I  must  not  here  conceal  from  the  reader, 
that  there  are  several  learned  men,  who  think  one 
clause  in  this  passage  ought  to  be  read  a  little  other- 
wise :  they  say,  Ruffin's  old  translation  and  Sir  H. 
Savil's  copy  read  it  thus :  Some  fast  one  day,  some 
two,  some  more,  some  forty  days.  Hence  they  also 
argue,  that  a  Lent  of  forty  days  was  observed  in 
the  time  of  Irenseus.  So  Bishop  Beveridge,'^  Bi- 
shop Patrick,"  Bishop  Hooper,"  and  others,  who 
have  written  peculiar  dissertations  on  this  subject. 
On  the  other  hand,  all  the  manuscripts  used  by 
Stephens  and  "Valesius  in  their  accurate  editions, 
are  so  pointed,  as  to  make  the  word  forty  refer  not 
to  days,  but  hours  only.  It  is  no  easy  matter  to 
determine  a  point  of  such  a  critical  nature  between 
so  many  learned  men  :  but  if  I  may  be  allowed  to 
conjecture  in  so  obscure  a  case,  I  should  incline  to 
compromise  the  dispute,  and  as  it  were  divide  the 
matter  between  them  ;  by  saying,  first.  That  in  the 
time  of  Irenffius  and  TertuUian,  the  catholics  al- 
lowed the  fast  of  forty  hours  between  our  Saviom-'s 
death  and  resurrection,  call  it  a  fast  of  one  or  two 
days,  as  we  please,  to  have  the  nature  of  an  evan- 
gelical command,  partly  from  the  example  and  prac- 
tice of  the  apostles,  and  partly  from  those  words  of 


our  Saviour,  "  The  days  will  come  that  the  Bride- 
gi-oom  shall  be  taken  from  them,  and  then  shall  > 
they  fast ;"  which,  as  we  have  seen,  they  understood 
of  the  time  of  about  forty  hours  that  our  Saviour 
lay  in  the  grave :  from  whence  it  is  not  improbable, 
that  the  first  notion  and  name  of  the  most  strict 
Quadragesimal  fast  might  take  its  original.  Which 
is  enough  to  prove  the  perpetuity  of  a  Quadi'agesi- 
mal  fast  before  Easter,  as  of  constant  use  in  the 
chiu-ch.  Secondly,  That  at  the  same  time  that 
Ireneeus  and  TertuUian  wrote,  there  were  other 
additional  days  of  fasting  superadded  to  these  by 
several  churches,  but  with  a  great  deal  of  variety  in 
their  number  and  observation,  being  at  every 
church's  liberty  to  appoint  what  number  of  these 
additional  days  she  thought  fit :  which,  though 
they  were  in  some  churches  more,  and  in  some 
fewer,  and  none  of  them  full  forty  days,  till  after 
the  time  of  Gregory  the  Great,  yet  they  all  went  by 
the  name  of  the  Quadragesimal  fast,  either  because 
they  came  near  the  number  of  forty  days,  or  because 
they  were  an  appendix  to  the  Paschal  fast,  which 
was  most  ancient,  and  originally  called  Quadragesi- 
mal. When  first  these  additional  days  came  in,'* 
is  not  very  easy  to  determine :  but  that  they  were 
taken  up  by  some  churches  in  the  time  of  Irenseus 
and  TertuUian,  is  beyond  dispute,  from  what  has 
been  alleged  out  of  each  of  them ;  for  they  both 
speak  of  more  days  than  two  as  observed  in  many 
churches ;  only  with  this  difference,  that  the  one 
were  observed  as  more  necessary,  being  founded 
upon  the  words  of  Christ  himself;  and  the  other 
were  at  the  church's  free  liberty  and  choice,  as 
being  purely  of  ecclesiastical  institution,  and  there- 
fore varying  in  their  number  in  different  churches, 
according  to  the  wisdom  and  discretion  of  those 
that  appointed  them.  And  this  opens  the  way  to 
a  second  argument  or  reason,  inducing  many  learned 
men  to  believe,  that  the  Lent  fast,  as  comprising 
the  precise  number  of  forty  days,  was  neither  of 
apostolical  institution  nor  practice. 
Because  if  there  had  been  any  such 

•"  Sect.  3. 

apostolical  order  or  example,  it  is  pofnuaimeobsei^- 
scarce  accountable  how  such  great  ^^^l  o" 'fhis'^fastTn 
variety  in  point  of  time  should  im-  >"^"> 'lurches. 
mediately  happen  in  the  observation  of  this  fast,  as 
we  are  sure  in  fact  did  happen  in  many  churches  ; 
some  keeping  it  only  three  weeks,  some  six,  some 
seven,  and  yet  none  of  them  hitting  upon  the  pre- 
cise number  of  forty  days  of  fasting.  Socrates '° 
gives  this  account  of  it  in  describing  the  difference 
of  rites  and  ceremonies  in  divers  churches.  One 
may  observe,  says  he,  how  the  Ante-Paschal  fast  is 
differently  observed  by  men  of  different  churches. 


"  Irenae.  ap.  Euseb.  lib.  5.  cap.  21. 
'-  Bevereg.  Cod.  Can.  Vindic.  lib.  3.  cap.  7. 
"  Patrick,  of  Fasting  in  Lent,  chap.  16.  p.  143. 
"  Discourse  of  Lent,  part  1.  chap.  3. 


»^  Bishop  Gunning,  Lent  Fast,  p.  114,  thinks  there  is 
mention  made  of  a  ten  days'  fast  in  Liician's  Philopatiis. 
'«  Socrat.  lib.  5.  cap.  22. 


Chap.  I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1175 


The  Romans  fast  three  weeks"  before  Easter,  only 
the  sabbaths  and  Lord's  days  excepted.  The  lUy- 
rians,  and  all  Greece,  and  the  Alexandrians,  fast  six 
weeks,  and  call  that  the  Quadragesimal  fast.  Others 
(meaning  the  Constantinopolitans)  begin  their  fast 
-even  weeks  before  Easter,  but  only  fast  fifteen  days 
1iy  intervals,  and  yet  they  also  call  this  the  Qua- 
dragesimal fast.  And  it  is  wonderful,  that  when 
I  hey  differ  so  much  about  the  number  of  days,  they 
should  all  call  it  Quadragesimal,  and  assign  differ- 
ent reasons  for  this  appellation.  But  we  may  ob- 
serve not  only  a  difference  in  the  number  of  days, 
but  in  the  manner  of  their  abstinence.  For  some 
abstain  from  all  living  creatures ;  others,  of  all  liv- 
ing creatures  only  eat  fish  ;  some  eat  fowls  together 
with  fish,  because,  according  to  Moses,  they  say, 
they  come  of  water.  Others  abstain  from  seeds  (or 
berries)  and  eggs ;  others  eat  dry  bread  only,  and 
some  not  so  much  as  that.  There  are  some  that 
fast  till  nine  o'clock,  that  is,  three  in  the  afternoon, 
and  then  eat  any  kind  of  meat.  Other  nations  ob- 
serve other  customs  in  their  fasts,  and  that  for  vari- 
ous reasons.  And  since  no  one  can  show  any  \\Tit.- 
ten  rule  about  this,  it  is  plain,  the  apostles  left  this 
matter  free  to  every  one's  liberty  and  choice,  that 
no  one  should  be  compelled  to  do  a  good  thing  out 
of  necessity  or  fear.  Sozomen'^  gives  the  like  ac- 
count of  these  variations  :  The  Quadragesimal  fast 
before  Easter,  says  he,  some  observe  six  weeks,  as 
the  Illyrians  and  Western  churches,  and  all  Libya, 
Egypt,  and  Palestine ;  others  make  it  seven  weeks, 
as  the  Constantinopolitans  and  neighbouring  na- 
tions as  far  as  Phoenicia  ;  others  fast  three  only  of 
those  six  or  seven  weeks  by  intervals;  others,  the 
three  weeks  next  immediately  before  Easter;  and 
others  fast  only  two  weeks,  as  the  Montanists. 

Sect.  4.  Cassian  has  something  of  the  same 

or\Tove"?hir^y-"fx  obscrvation  :  For,  he  says,  some 
c'hurcl  tlluhe\rme  cliurclies  kept  their  Lent  six  weeks, 

of  Gresorythe  Great,  ,  t  #» 

becauSe  au  Sundays  and  some  scvcu ;    aud   yct   noue  of 

were  universally  ex- 
cepted out  of  the  them  made  their  fast  above  thirty-six 

fast,  and  all  Satur-  •' 

ai'uhe"Elstem"'  ^  ^^Y^  ^^  the  wholc.  For  though  six 
ihurches.  ^ggj^g  ^g  forty-two  days,  yet  all  Sun- 

days were  excepted  out  of  the  fast,  and  then  six 
days  being  subducted,  there  remained  but  thirty-six 
days  of  fasting.  In  like  manner  those  churches 
which  kept  seven  weeks,  that  is,  forty-nine  days,  to 
their  Lent,  excepted  not  only  the  Lord's  days,  but 
all  Satui'days  save  one,  out  of  the  number  of  fasting 
days ;  and  therefore  thirteen  days  upon  that  ac- 
count being  subducted,  the  remainder  "  was  still  but 
thirty-six.     And  this  was  the  whole  of  Lent  till  the 


time  of  Gregory  the  Great,  who  speaks  of  forty-two 
days'-"  as  the  appointment  of  Lent,  but  taking  away 
the  Sundays,  the  remainder  is  only  thirty-six.  Now, 
that  this  was  so,  is  evident  from  what  has  been  dis- 
coursed before  of  the  Lord's  day"'  and  the  sabbath, 
where  I  have  fully  showed,  that  the  Lord's  day  was 
never  allowed  to  be  kept  a  fast,  but  always  observed 
as  a  festival,  even  in  Lent,  in  all  churches  of  the 
world ;  and  in  the  Oriental  churches  the  Satur- 
day or  sabbath  was  excepted  out  of  the  number  of 
fast  days  also.  To  what  I  have  said  before,  I  shall 
only  add  here  one  passage  of  Chrysostom,  where 
he  gives  the  reason  why  this  exception  of  these  two 
days  was  made  in  the  Lent  fast :  As  there  are  sta- 
tions, says  he,"  and  inns  in  the  public  roads  for 
weary  travellers  to  refresh  themselves,  and  rest 
from  their  labours,  that  they  may  more  cheerfully 
go  on  again  in  their  journey ;  and  as  in  the  sea 
there  are  shores  and  havens  for  seamen  to  betake 
themselves  to  when  they  are  in  a  storm,  and  refresh 
themselves  from  the  violence  of  the  winds,  and 
then  begin  sailing  again ;  so  the  Lord  hath  ap- 
pointed these  two  days  in  the  week,  as  stations,  and 
inns,  and  shores,  and  havens,  for  those  to  rest  in 
who  have  taken  upon  them  the  course  of  fasting 
in  this  holy  time  of  Lent,  that  they  may  refresh 
their  bodies  a  little  from  the  labour  of  fasting,  and 
recreate  their  minds,  and  after  these  two  days  are 
past,  to  go  on  again  with  cheerfulness  in  the  journey 
which  they  have  begun.  From  hence  it  is  apparent, 
that  in  some  of  the  Eastern  churches,  where  the 
whole  time  of  Lent  was  but  six  weeks  or  forty-two 
days,  when  the  Saturdays  and  Sundays  were  de- 
ducted, the  remainder  of  fasting  days  were  not  above 
one  and  thirty;  and  where  they  were  most,  not 
above  thirty-six.  See  Bishop  Gunning,  Lent  Fast, 
p.  156. 

Who  first  added  Ash  Wednesday 
and  the  other   three  days  to  the  be-     who  firit' added 

«T  •         1        T-»  1  1         Ash  Weduesdavand 

ginning  of  Lent  in  the  Roman  church,  the  other threedays 

o  O  '    ,n   ^l,e  Roman 

to  make   them   completelv  forty,  is  '='.'"'■?•'  '" '^e  be 

1^  -  ■' '  ginning  of  Lent. 

not  agreed  among  their  own  writers. 
Some  say  it  was  the  work  of  Gregory  the  Great, 
but  others  ascribe  it  to  Gregory  II.,  who  lived 
above  a  hundred  years  after,  in  the  beginning 
of  the  eighth  century.  But,  as  Azorius^  says.  It 
is  not  very  material  whether  of  the  two  was  the 
author  of  the  addition,  since  it  is  confessed  to  be 
an  addition  to  Lent,  after  it  had  continued  six 
hundi-ed  years  without  it.  And  this  is  a  plain 
demonstration,  that  Lent,  in  this  notion  at  least,  as 
taken  for  the  precise  number  of  a  forty  days'  fast, 


"  Some  think  this  is  only  to  be  iinderstoocl  of  the  Nova- 
tiaiis  at  Rome.    Sec  Bishop  Hooper  of  Lent,  p.  84  and  139. 

"*  Sozom.  lib.  7.  cap.  19. 

'»  Cassian.  Collat.  21.  cap.  21,  &c.  Vid.  Basil.  Horn.  2. 
de  Jejunio.  t.  1.  p.  228.  Horn.  14.  cout.  Ebriet.  p.  419. 

2"  Greg.  Horn.  IG.  in  Evaugelia,  t.  3.   p.  42.     Se.x  dies 


Dominici  subtrahiintur,  non  plus  in  abstinentia  quam  tri- 
ginta  et  sex  dies  remanent. 

2'  Book  XX.  chap.  2.  sect.  5,  and  chap.  3.  sect.  5. 

^  Chrys.  Horn.  11.  in  Gen.  t.  2.  p.  106. 

-^  Azof.  Institiit.  Moral,  lib.  7.  cap.  12.  par.  I. 


11/6 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH, 


Book  XXI. 


could  not  he  of  apostolical  institution,  whatever  it 
might  be  in  any  otlier  form  or  duration. 

But  many  of  the  ancients  do  not 
Whether  the  an-  allow  it  m  any  form  to  be  an  apostol- 

cicnls  reputed  T.ent    _  "^  ^ 

to  he  an  apostoUeai  ical  institutiou,  but  ouly  a  useful  order 

institution.  '' 

and  appointment  of  the  church.  So 
Cassian  says  expressly,^*  that  as  long  as  the  perfec- 
tion of  the  primitive  church  remained  inviolable, 
there  was  no  observation  of  Lent ;  but  when  men 
began  to  decline  from  the  apostolical  fervour  of  de- 
votion, and  give  themselves  over-much  to  worldly 
affairs,  then  the  priests  in  general  agi'eed  to  recall 
them  from  secular  cares  by  a  canonical  indiction  of 
fasting,  and  setting  aside  a  tenth  of  their  time  for 
God.  For  so  he  reckons,  that  the  thirty-six  days, 
which  was  then  the  fixed  term  of  Lent,  were  by 
computation^  the  tenth  of  the  whole  year.  Cassian 
was  a  disciple  of  St.  Chrysostom's,  and  he  seems  to 
have  had  his  notion  and  sentiments  about  the  ori- 
ginal of  Lent  from  him ;  for  Chrysostom  gives  much 
the  same  account  of  it :  Why  do  we  fast  these  forty 
days  ?  Many  heretofore  were  used  to  come  to  the 
communion  indevoutly  and  inconsidei'ately,  espe- 
cially at  this  time,  when  Christ  first  gave  it  to  his 
disciples  :  therefore  our  forefathers,""  considering 
the  mischief  arising  from  such  careless  approaches, 
meeting  together,  appointed  forty  days  for  fasting 
and  prayer,  and  hearing  of  sermons,  and  holy  as- 
semblies, that  all  men  in  these  days,  being  carefully 
purified  by  prayer,  and  almsdeeds,  and  fasting,  and 
watching,  and  tears,  and  confession  of  sins,  and 
other  the  like  exercises,  might  come  according  to 
their  capacity  with  a  pure  conscience  to  the  holy 
table.  St.  Austin  sometimes  delivers  himself  after 
the  same  manner,  though  at  other  times  he  seems  to 
derive  the  original  of  Lent  from  the  authority  of  the 
gospel.  In  one  place  he  says,"  Though  fasting  in 
general  be  prescribed  in  the  New  Testament,  yet 
what  days  men  ought  to  fast,  or  what  not,  he  finds 
not  defined  by  any  precept  of  Christ  or  his  apostles. 
In  another  place,^  specifying  more  particularly  the 
several  solemnities  observed  by  Christians,  he  says. 
There  was  some  foundation  and  authority  for  them 
in  Scripture  :  for  we  know  out  of  the  gospel  what 


day  our  Lord  suffered,  and  was  buried,  and  rose 
again  from  the  dead ;  and  therefore  the  observation 
of  these  days  was  added  by  the  councils  of  the  fa- 
thers, and  the  whole  world  was  persuaded  to  cele- 
brate the  Pasch  after  that  manner.  The  forty  days' 
fast  has  authority  both  in  the  Old  Testament  from 
the  fast  of  Moses  and  Elias,  and  also  from  the  gos- 
pel, because  our  Lord  fasted  so  many  days.  He 
adds  a  little  after,™  That  the  supputation  of  Easter 
and  fifty  days  of  Pentecost  are  firmly  collected  out 
of  Scripture.  For  as  the  custom  of  the  church  has 
confirmed  the  observation  of  those  forty  days  before 
Easter,  so  has  it  also  confirmed  the  distinction  that 
is  made  between  the  eight  days  of  neophytes  (or 
the  time  of  the  newly-baptized  wearing  their  white 
garments)  from  the  rest,  that  the  eighth  day  might 
accord  with  the  first.  Here  are  two  things  very 
observable  in  St.  Austin's  words.  1.  That  the  au- 
thority and  foundation  which  the  Lent  fast  has  out 
of  the  gospel,  is  the  same  that  it  has  out  of  the  Old 
Testament,  which  was  not  any  precept,  but  the  ex- 
ample of  Moses  and  EUas.  2.  That  the  Lent  fast 
is  owing  to  the  councils  of  the  fathers  and  the  cus- 
tom of  the  church,  in  like  manner  as  the  eight  days 
of  the  neophytes,  and  the  fifty  days  of  Pentecost, 
owe  their  observation  to  the  same  original ;  con- 
cerning which  no  one  doubts,  but  that  though  there 
may  be  remotely  some  foundation  for  them  in  Scrip- 
ture, yet  there  is  no  express  command,  but  that  they 
owe  their  original  purely  to  the  councils  of  the  fa- 
thers and  the  custom  of  the  church. 

Now,  by  this  we  understand  what 
others  of  the  ancients  mean,  when     in  ^vhat  sense 

6ome  of  them  say  it 

they  say,  the  forty  days'  fast  is  a  Di-  j^^^°"'"«  'istuu- 
vine  institution,  and  derived  from  the 
authority  of  Scripture.  As  St.  Jerom'"  says,  Moses 
and  Ehas,  fasting  forty  days,  were  filled  with  the 
conversation  of  God ;  and  our  Lord  himself  fasted 
so  many  days  in  the  wilderness,  that  he  might  leave 
to  us  the  solemn  days  of  fasting.  And  again,^'  Our 
Lord,  the  true  Jonas,  being  sent  to  preach  in  the 
world,  fasted  forty  days,  and  leaving  us  the  inherit- 
ance of  fasting  under  this  number,  he  prepares  our 
souls  for  the  eating  of  his  body.     There  are  many 


^*  Cassian.  CoUat.  21.  cap.  30.  Sciendum  igitur  sane, 
hanc  observantiam  Quadragesimai,  quanidiu  ecclesiae  illius 
priraitiva;  perfectio  inviolata  permansit,  penitus  non  fuisse. 
— Verum  cum  ab  ilia  apostolica  devotione  desciscens,  quo- 
tidie  credontium  multitude  suis  opibus  incubaret,  &c.  Id 
tunc  uuiversis  sacerdotibus  placuit,  ut  homines  curis  secu- 
laribus  illigatos,  et  pane  continentia?  vel  compunctionis  ig- 
naros,  ad  opus  sanctum  canonica  jpjuniorum  indictione 
revocarent,  et  velut  legalium  decimarum  necessitate  com- 
peilerent. 

2^  Vid.  Cassian.  ibid.  cap.  25. 

^  Chrys.  Horn.  52.  in  eos  qui  piimo  Pascha  jejunant,  t. 
5.  p.  709. 

'"  Aug.  Ep.  87.  ad  Casulan.  p.  147.  Ego  in  evangelicis 
et  apostolicis  literis  —  video  prseceptum  esse  jejunium  : 
quibus  aulem  diebus  non  oporteat  jejunare,  et  quibus  opor- 


teat,  praecepto  Domini  vel  apostolorum  non  invenio  de- 
finitum. 

^  Ep.  119.  ad  Januar.  cap.  15.  Ex  evangelio  quia  jam 
manifestum  est  quo  etiam  die  Dominus  crucitixus  est,  et  in 
sepultura  fiierit,  et  resurrexerit,  adjuncta  est  ctiam  ipsorum 
dierum  observatio  per  patrum  concilia,  et  orbi  universo 
Christiano  persuasum  est  eo  modo  Pascha  celebrari  opor- 
tere.  Quadragesima  sane  jejuaiorum  habet  authoritatem 
et  in  veteribus  libris  ex  jejunio  Moysi  et  Eliac,  et  ex  evan- 
gelio, quia  totidem  diebus  Dominus  jejunavit. 

2'  Ibid.  cap.  17.  Hajc  de  Scripturis  firmissime  tenentur, 
id  est,  Pascha  et  Pentecoste.  Nam  ut  quadraginta  illi  dies 
ante  Pascha  obscrventur,  ecclesia;  consuetudo  roboravit,  sic 
etiam  ut  octo  dies  neophytorum  distinguantur  a  Cieteris,  id 
est,  ut  octavus  primo  concinat. 

^^  Hieron.  in  Isai.  Iviii.  p.  262.     ^'  Idem,  in  cap.  -3.  Juuic. 


Chap.  I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1177 


the  like  expressions  occur  in  the  writings  of  St. 
Basil,^-  Thcopliilus,"  and  CyriP^  of  Alexandria,  Pe- 
trus  Chrysologus,'*  and  several  others,  which  Bishop 
Beveridge  has  put  together  upon  this  occasion.  But 
none  of  these  intended  to  say,  that  there  is  any  di- 
rect and  express  Divine  command  for  it,  but  only 
some  precedent  or  example  in  the  extraordinary 
practice  of  the  forty  days'  fast  of  our  Saviour,  or 
those  of  Moses  and  Elias  :  which  is  not  enough  to 
ground  a  precept  upon,  because  such  extraordinary 
examples  are  not  imitable,  neither  can  they  be  re- 
duced to  practice  but  in  a  much  lower  way,  which 
may  warrant  the  church  to  appoint  a  fast  of  forty 
days,  but  not  to  impose  it  as  a  matter  of  Divine 
command.  Chrysostom,  among  the  ancients,  saw 
this  very  clearly,  and  therefore  he  says,^"  Christ  did 
not  say  to  his  disciples,  I  have  fasted,  although  he 
might  have  spoken  of  those  forty  days  ;  but,  "  Learn 
of  me,  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  in  heart:"  and 
when  he  sent  them  to  preach  the  gospel,  he  did 
not  tell  them  they  should  fast,  but  eat  such  things 
as  were  set  before  them.  This  I  speak  not,  says 
lie,  to  depreciate  fasting,  God  forbid,  but  to  give 
it  extraordinary  commendations.  Only  I  am  sorry 
ye  should  think  this,  which  is  in  the  lowest  rank  of 
virtues,  sufficient  to  salvation,  whilst  other  things 
of  greater  value,  charity,  humility,  mercy,  which 
exceed  even  virginity  itself,  are  wholly  neglected. 
By  this  it  is  plain,  they  did  not  think  the  example 
of  Christ  sufficient  to  authorize  the  imposition  of  a 
forty  days'  fast  as  a  matter  of  Divine  injunction, 
e  »  „  But  it  must  be  owned,  some  of  them 


be  a  tradition  or 
lion  apostolical. 


cal.  St.  Jerom^'  says,  "We  observe 
one  Lent  in  the  year  according  to  the  tradition  of 
the  apostles.  Pope  Leo^  calls  it  the  apostolical 
institution  of  a  forty  days'  fast,  which  the  apostles 
instituted  by  the  direction  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  But 
it  is  no  small  diminution  to  the  judgment  of  Pope 
Leo,  that  Mr.  Pagi^'  and  Quesnel  observe  of  him, 
that  he  was  used  to  call  every  thing  an  Apostolical 
law,  which  he  found  either  in  the  practice  of  his 
own  church,  or  decreed  in  the  archives  of  his  pre- 
decessors Damasus  and  Siricius.  And  for  St.  Je- 
rom,  he  himself  tells  us,  he  sometimes  calls  parti- 
cular customs  of  churches  by  the  name  of  apostolical 
traditions :  for  writing  about  the  sabbath,  which 
some  churches  kept  a  fast,  and  others  a  festival,  he 
says,^"  Every  country  may  abound  in  their  own 
sense,  and  take  the  precepts  of  their  ancestors  for 
apostolical  laws.  And  if  St.  Jerom  did  so  here, 
we  may  easily  apprehend  his  meaning :    if  he  did 


otherwise,  he  was  certainly  mistaken :  since  it  ap- 
pears from  the  premises,  that  the  apostolical  Lent 
was  much  short  of  the  Lent  St.  Jerom  speaks  of, 
and  increased  to  the  number  of  forty  days  by  va- 
rious steps  and  gradations.  The  apostolical  Lent 
was  only  a  fast  of  a  few  days  before  Easter  :  by  the 
time  of  Dionysius  of  Alexandria  it  was  come  to  be 
a  whole  week,  and  perhaps  somewhat  more,  anno 
250.  At  Rome,  about  the  same  time,  (as  a  very 
learned  person^'  thinks,  who  has  written  very  ac- 
curately upon  this  subject,)  it  was  three  weeks,  in 
the  time  when  Cornelius  and  Novatian  were  con- 
tending about  the  bishopric  of  Rome  :  which  made 
the  followers  of  Novatian  stick  to  that  term  in  the 
time  of  Socrates,  when  Lent  was  improved  to  six 
weeks  in  Rome.  From  three  weeks,  that  learned 
person  thinks,  it  was  first  advanced  to  six,  either 
by  the  council  of  Nice  in  its  fifth  canon,  or  not  long 
before  it.  And  then  it  began  commonly  to  be  called 
Q/iadrof/csinid,  or  the  forty  days'  fast,  because, 
though  in  strictness  the  fasting  days  were  but  thirty- 
six,  or  thirty-one,  yet  the  first  of  them  was  at  least 
forty  days  before  Easter,  and  that  gave  denomina- 
tion to  the  whole.  And  thus  it  was  in  the  time  of 
St.  Jerom  :  but  it  is  a  wrong  conclusion  in  him,  that 
because  there  was  an  apostolical  fast  of  some  few 
days  before  Easter,  which  afterwards  improved  by 
various  degrees  into  a  fast  of  forty  days,  therefore 
the  fast  of  forty  days  must  needs  be  of  apostolical 
institution :  and  it  is  more  insufferable  in  those, 
who,  after  four  other  days  were  added  to  thirty- 
six  to  make  them  precisely  forty  days  of  fasting, 
still  pretend  it  is  the  very  same  Lent  that  was 
originally  settled  in  the  church  by  the  apostles. 
The  matter  in  itself  is  not  great,  but  the  prejudice 
and  confidence  of  men  in  managing  a  dispute  is 
M^onderfulf  when  they  will  maintain  a  paradox,  that 
may  with  such  glaring  evidence  be  so  easily  con- 
futed. For  as  Bishop  Taylor*^  says  very  well  upon 
the  point.  If  any  man  should  say,  that  kings  were 
all  created  as  Adam  was,  in  full  stature  and  man- 
hood by  God  himself  immediately,  he  could  best  be 
confuted  by  the  midvvives  and  the  nurses,  the 
schoolmasters  and  the  servants  of  the  family,  and 
by  all  the  neighbourhood,  who  saw  them  born  in- 
fants, who  took  them  from  their  mothers'  knees,  who 
gave  them  suck,  who  carried  them  in  their  arms, 
who  made  them  coats,  and  taught  them  their  letters, 
who  observed  their  growth,  and  changed  their  min- 
isteries  about  tlieir  persons.  The  same  is  the  case 
of  the  present  article.  He  that  says  our  Lent,  or 
forty  days'  fast  before  Easter,  was  established  by 


3-  Basil.  Horn.  2.  de  Jejun.         ^  Theoph.  Paschal.  Ep. 

^^  Cyril.  Homil.  Paschal,  passim. 

^  Chrysol.  Scr.  1 1  et  146. 

38  Chrys.  Horn.  47.  in  Mat.  p.  425. 

^'  Hieron.  Ep.  54.  ad  Marcellam. 

^^  Leo,  Serm.  6  et  9.  de  Quadragesima. 


^  Pagi,  Critic,  in  Baron,  an.  67.  n.  15.  Quesnel.  ibid. 

''"  Hieron.  Ep.  28.  ad  Lucin.  Unaqu;cque  provircia  abun- 
det  in  sensu  suo,  et  praicepta  majorum  leges  apostolicas 
aibitretiir. 

■"  Bishop  Hooper  of  Lent,  p.  139  and  84. 

*-  Taylor,  Duct.  Dub.  book  3.  cap.  4.  p.  G32. 


1178 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXI. 


the  apostles  in  that  full  growth  and  state  we  now 
see  it,  is  perfectly  confuted  by  the  testimony  of 
those  ages  that  saw  its  infancy  and  childhood,  and 
helped  to  nurse  it  up  to  its  present  bulk.  And  with 
this  I  shall  end  the  present  inquiry  about  the  original 
and  progress  of  Lent  in  the  first  ages  of  the  church. 

^  The  next  inquiry  may  be  into  the 

cnmcs'or  rri-imis  causes  and  Tcasons  of  its  institution. 
ESst"'%t."The  And  here,  first  of  all,  if  we  respect 
ti^r'ioss^''or'the'iJ  the  original  institution,  the  reason  is 
given  by  Tertullian,  who  makes  the 
catholics  say,  as  we  have  heard  before,  that  the 
reason  of  the  apostles  fasting  at  this  time  was,  be- 
cause the  Bridegroom  was  taken  away  from  them. 
In  compliance  with  which  practice  the  ancients 
generally  observed  those  two  days,  in  which  our 
Saviour  lay  in  the  grave,  with  the  greatest  strict- 
ness, as  we  shall  see  more  hereafter.  Though  the 
Montanists,  who  pretended  to  the  spirit  of  pro- 
phecy, understood  the  taking  away  of  the  Bride- 
groom in  another  sense,  for  our  Saviour's  ascension 
or  assumption  into  heaven  ;  and  therefore  they  kept 
one  of  their  Lents  or  fasts  (for  they  had  three  in 
the  3"ear)  after  our  Lord's  ascension,  in  opposition 
to  the  church,  which  celebrated  the  whole  time  of 
Pentecost  as  a  solemn  festival.  This  we  learn  from 
St.  Jerom,  who  not  only  says*'  the  Montanists  kept 
three  Lents  in  the  year,  but  also  that  they  kept 
one  of  them  after  Ascension,"  pretending  to  know 
by  their  new  inspiration,  that  that  was  the  time 
which  our  Saviour  meant  when  he  said,  "  The 
Bridegroom  shall  be  taken  from  them,  and  then 
shall  they  fast."  So  both  the  catholics  and  the 
Montanists  agreed  upon  the  reason  of  a  fast,  though 
they  applied  it  to  a  different  time  according  to  their 
different  apprehensions. 

j,^^^  ,„  Cassian   gives  another  reason  for 

mon'^^ci^isHrn  thc  institutiou  of  Lent :  he  says,'''  At 
and^pStiTO  fer-  fii'st  thcrc  was  uo  observatiou  of  Lent, 
as  long  as  the  perfection  of  the  primi- 
tive church  remained  inviolable ;  for  they  who 
fasted  as  it  were  all  the  year  round,  were  not  tied 
up  by  the  necessity  of  this  precept,  nor  confined 
within  the  strait  bounds  of  such  a  fast,  as  by  a  legal 
sanction :  but  when  the  multitude  of  believers  be- 
gan to  depart  from  that  apostolical  devotion,  and 
brood  continually  upon  their  riches  ;  when,  in- 
stead of  imparting  them  to  the  common  use  of  all, 
they  laboured  only  to  lay  them  up  and  augment 
them  for  their  own  private  expenses,  not  content 
to  follow  the  example  of  Ananias  and  Sapphira ; 
then  it  seemed  good  to  all  the  bishops  by  a  canoni- 
cal indiction  of  fasts  to  recall  men  to  holy  works, 
who  were  bound  with  secular  cares,  and  had  almost 


forgotten  what  continency  and  compunction  meant, 
and  to  compel  them,  by  the  necessity  of  a  law,  to 
dedicate  the  tenth  of  their  time  to  God.  To  the 
same  purpose  Pope  Lco*^  says.  Whilst  men  are  dis- 
tracted about  the  various  cares  of  this  life,  their  re- 
ligious hearts  must  needs  be  defiled  with  the  dust 
of  this  world ;  and  therefore  it  is  provided  by  the 
great  benefit  of  this  Divine  institution,  that  the 
purity  of  our  minds  might  be  repaired  by  the  exer- 
cise of  these  forty  days,  in  which  we  may  redeem 
the  failings  of  other  times,  and  do  good  works,  and 
exercise  ourselves  in  religious  fasting. 
A  third  reason  was.  That  men 
might  prepare  their  souls  for  a  worthy     3ciiy,'^Timt  men 

...  PI  •  .     "light  prep;ire 

participation   oi   the  communion   at  themselves  for  a 

■^  *■  worthy  participa- 

Easter.    For  though  men  at  first  were  ''<>'>  "f  the  ,om- 

^  munion  at  Easter. 

used  to  communicate  every  Lord's  day, 
and  to  keep  themselves  continually  in  a  constant 
habitual  preparation  for  that  holy  mystery  ;  yet,  as 
the  primitive  spirit  of  Christianity  declined,  men 
came,  by  degrees,  to  communicate  chiefly  at  Easter, 
and  some  at  no  other  time  but  that  only.  For  the 
sake  of  these  men,  therefore,  the  observation  of  the 
preceding  fast  was  much  urged,  that,  by  proper  and 
spiritual  exercises,  they  might  be  duly  prepared  to 
receive  the  communion  at  Easter,  who  could  not 
be  prevailed  upon  to  frequent  it  at  other  seasons. 
This  is  what  we  have  heard  St.  Chrysostom"  say 
before,  That  because  men  were  used  to  come  inde- 
voutly  and  inconsiderately  to  the  communion,  espe- 
cially at  Easter,  when  Christ  first  instituted  the 
holy  supper,  therefore  the  fathers,  considering  the 
mischiefs  arising  from  such  careless  approaches, 
met  together,  and  appointed  forty  days  of  fasting, 
that  in  these  days  men,  being  carefully  purified  by 
prayer,  and  almsdeeds,  and  fasting,  and  watching, 
and  tears,  and  confession  of  sins,  and  other  the  like 
exercises,  might  come  with  a  pure  conscience  to 
the  holy  table.  To  the  same  purpose  in  another 
place,"*  As  they  that  take  great  pains  to  run  in  a 
race,  reap  no  advantage  if  they  fail  of  the  prize ;  so 
we  have  no  benefit  from  all  the  labour  and  pains 
we  bestow  upon  fasting,  unless  we  can  come  with 
a  pure  conscience  to  partake  of  the  holy  table.  For 
this  end  we  use  fasting  and  Lent,  and  assemblies 
for  so  many  days  together,  and  hearing,  and  praying, 
and  preaching,  that  by  our  diligence  in  the  use  of 
these  means,  and  regard  to  the  Divine  commands, 
we  may  wipe  off  the  sins  of  the  whole  year  that 
stick  to  us,  and  so  with  spiritual  boldness  and  re- 
verence partake  of  the  unbloody  sacrifice.  The  like 
is  said  by  St.  Jerom,*"  That  our  Lord  fasting  forty 
days,  and  leaving  us  the  inheritance  of  fasting  under 
this  number,  prepares  our  souls  for  the  eating  of 


*^  Hieron.  Ep.  54.  ad  Marcellam.     Illi  tres  in  anno  faci- 
unl  Quadragesimas,  quasi  tres  passi  siut  salvatores. 
"  Ibid.  Com.  in  Mat.  ix.         "  Cassian.  Collat.  21.  cap.  30. 
^i"  Leo,  Serm.  4.  de  Quadragesima. 


■"  Chiys.  Hoin.  52.  in  cos  qui  piimo  Pascha  jejunant,  t. 
5.  p.  709. 

«  Horn.  22.  do  Ira,  t.  I.  p.  276. 
■'"  Hieron.  in  Jon.  cap.  3. 


Chap.  I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1179 


his  body.  And  this  I  take  to  have  been  the  princi- 
pal cause  of  the  church's  enlarging  her  Lent  to  the 
length  of  forty  days,  as  occasion  required,  from 
such  small  beginnings  as  it  seems  to  have  had  in 
its  first  original. 

Besides  these  general  reasons  for 
4ihiyrThHt  rate-  the  observation  of  Lent,  there  were 

diumt-nsmiijht  pre- 

p:ue  themseWes  for  t^yo  particular  Tcasons  morc  peculiarly 
respecting  two  orders  of  men  in  the 
church,  viz.  the  catechumens  who  were  preparing 
for  baptism,  and  the  penitents  who  were  proi)aring 
for  absolution.  It  has  been  noted  elsewhere,'"  that 
Easter  was  the  fixed  and  solemn  time  both  for  ad- 
mitting catechumens  to  baptism,  and  readmitting 
penitents  after  lapsing,  and  performing  a  solemn 
penance,  into  the  communion  of  the  church  again. 
And  solemn  fasting  was  preparatory  to  each  of 
these.  Justin  Martyr*'  speaks  of  a  general  fast  of 
the  whole  church,  together  with  the  catechumens 
who  presented  themselves  to  baptism :  As  many, 
says  he,  as  are  persuaded,  and  do  believe  that  the 
things  taught  and  said  by  us  are  true,  and  promise 
to  live  accordingly,  they  are  instructed  to  pray,  and 
with  fasting  to  beg  of  God  remission  of  sins,  we 
praying  and  fasting  together  with  them.  Then 
they  are  brought  to  the  place  where  water  is,  and 
are  regenerated  after  the  same  manner  of  regenera- 
tion as  we  were  regenerated  before  them.  This  is 
a  plain  account  of  a  public  fast  before  baptism. 
Afterward,  when  the  time  of  baptism  was  settled 
to  Easter,  it  is  certain  the  Lent  fast  was  ob- 
served by  the  catechumens,  as  preparatory  to  their 
baptism.  For  Cyril  of  Jerusalem  thus  addresses 
himself  to  the  catechumens  :  The  present  season  is 
a  season  of  confession : "  all  worldly  cares  are  to  be 
laid  aside  ;  for  you  strive  for  your  souls.  You  that 
have  been  busy  about  the  things  of  the  world,  and 
troubled  in  vain  so  many  years,  will  ye  not  bestow 
forty  days  in  prayer  for  the  salvation  of  your  souls  ? 
So  again,*^  There  is  a  large  time  given  you ;  you 
have  the  penance  before  you  of  forty  days,  sufficient 
space  and  opportunity  to  put  off  the  old  garments, 
and  put  on  the  new.  Upon  this  account  all  candi- 
dates of  baptism  were  obliged  to  give  in  their  names 
forty  days  before  baptism,  which  Cyril"  calls  6vo- 
fiaroypa^in,  the  entering  of  their  names,  in  the  same 
place.  This  is  intimated  by  the  fourth  council  of 
Carthage,  which  orders,"  That  they  who  are  to  re- 
ceive baptism,  shall  give  in  their  names,  and  con- 
tinue a  lonsj  time  under  abstinence  from  wine  and 


flesh,  and  use  imposition  of  hands,  and  frequent 
examination.  The  time  of  forty  days  is  not  par- 
ticularly specified  here,  but  it  is  plainly  expressed 
in  one  of  the  canons  of  Siricius,  which  speaks  of 
giving  baptism  at  Easter'"  only  to  such  as  gave  in 
their  names  forty  days  before,  and  continued  under 
the  daily  discipline  of  exorcism,  prayer,  and  fasting. 
Which  shows  that  this  fast  of  forty  days  was  then  a 
time  more  peculiarly  observed  by  such  catechumens 
as  were  preparing  for  baptism  at  Easter  following. 

The  like  discipline   was  observed 
toward    penitents,    who,   after    their     And  peAiti-nts  for 

^  absolution  at  Ea!»ter. 

canonical  penance  was  completed, 
were  generally  absolved  about  the  time  of  the  Pas- 
chal festival ;  and  therefore  it  is  reasonable  to  sup- 
pose, that  the  preceding  time  of  Lent  was  always 
more  strictly  observed  by  them,  as  a  decent  prepar- 
ation for  the  absolution  they  then  expected.  Not 
that  this  was  the  only  time  of  penance,  especially 
for  great  and  scandalous  criminals  ;  for  many  of 
these  were  kept  under  penance  for  many  years  suc- 
cessively, as  has  been  showed  in  a  former  Book : 
but  the  ordinary  time  of  absolving  them  was  Easter ; 
as  we  learn  not  only  from  the  testimony  of  St.  Am- 
brose" and  others,  alleged  heretofore  in  the  dis- 
course of  absolution,*^  but  from  Gregory  Nyssen,** 
who  says.  The  anniversary  solemnity  of  Easter 
was  not  only  the  time  of  regenerating  catechu- 
mens, but  of  begetting  those  again  to  a  lively 
hope,  who  had  forfeited  it  by  their  sin,  but  were 
desirous  to  regain  it  by  repentance  and  conver- 
sion from  dead  works,  to  walk  again  in  the  paths 
of  life.  The  same  is  intimated  in  the  canons  of 
Ancyra,*  and  those  of  Peter  of  Alexandria,  and  the 
epistles  of  Cyprian,  all  which  speak  of  Easter  as 
the  great  and  solemn  time  of  admitting  penitents, 
as  a  learned  prelate  of  our  church "'  has  with  great 
judgment  andacuteness  observed  out  of  them.  And 
thence  we  may  infer,  that  penitents,  who  were 
bound  to  strict  rules  of  penance  all  the  year  round, 
and  many  times  year  after  year  under  a  long  course 
of  discipline,  were  more  exactly  careful  in  the  ob- 
servation of  this  season,  in  hopes  of  obtaining  their 
absolution  in  the  close  of  it.  Whence  St.  Jerom 
observes,'^  That  forty  was  a  number  proper  for  peni- 
tents, and  fasting,  and  sackcloth,  and  tears,  and 
perseverance  in  deprecating  God's  anger.  For  which 
reason  Moses  also  fasted  forty  days  in  Mount  Sinai: 
and  Elias,  flying  from  Jezebel,  and  the  wrath  of 
God  impending  upon  Israel,  is  described  as  fasting 


^  Book  XI.  chap.  6.  sect.  7.        ='  Justin.  Apol.  2.  p.  93. 

^-  Cyril.  Catech.  1.  n.  5.  "  Id.  in  Praefat.  n.  3. 

=^'  Ibid.  n.  1  et  3. 

^*  Cone.  Cartha^.  4.  can.  85.  Baptizandi  nomen  suiim 
dent,  et  diu  sub  abstinentia  vini  et  carnium,  ac  manus  im- 
positioue,  crebra  e.xaminatione  baptismum  percipiant. 

^''  Siric.  Ep.  1.  ad  Himerium,  cap.  2.  Generalia  baptis- 
matis  tradi  convenit  sacramenta  his  dunta.xat  electis,  qui 
ante  quadraginta  vel  eo  amplius  dies  nomen  dedcrint,  et 


e.xorcismis,  quotidianisijucorationibusatque  jcjuniis  fucrint 
expiati. 

"  Ainbros.  Ep.  33.  *»  Book  XIX.  chap.  2.  sect.  10. 

*"  Nyssen.  Ep.  Canon,  ad  Letnium,  in   I'ra;iat. 

™  Cone.  Ancyr.  can.  6.  Petri  Alex.  can.  1.  Cypr.  r)G 
Ep.  Edit.  O.xon. 

"'  Bishop  Hooper  of  Lent,  cap.  6.  p.  93. 

•"  Hieron.  Com.  in  Jon.  iii. 


1180 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXI. 


Sect.  U. 
Lent    genersU 
observed   bv  all 


forty  days.  Our  Lord  also  himself,  the  true  Jonas, 
who  was  sent  to  preach  to  the  world,  fasted  forty 
days ;  and  leaving  us  the  inheritance  of  his  fasting, 
he  still  prepares  our  souls  for  the  eating  of  his 
body  by  the  same  number. 

Thus  we  see,  catechumens  and  pub- 
lic penitents  were  strictly  obliged  to 
witht'gre'at'iibl'fty  the  observation  of  Lent,  as  part  of 
?o"men'fii!fi°mife,  their  discipllue  and  preparation  for 
me"fure"u^ftfo'their  baptism  and  absolution.  Nor  was 
the  great  body  of  the  church  back- 
ward at  this  season  to  concur  in  fasting  and  prayer 
with  them.  For  Chrysostom °'  says,  Though  at  other 
times  when  we  preachers  cry  up  and  preach  the 
duty  of  fasting  never  so  much  all  the  year,  scarce 
any  one  hearkens  to  what  we  say ;  yet,  when  the 
season  of  forty  days  is  come,  though  none  exhort  or 
advise  them,  the  most  negligent  set  themselves  to 
it,  taking  admonition  and  advice  from  the  very 
season.  Lent,  it  seems,  was  then  generally  reputed 
a  proper  time  to  fast,  and  repent,  and  mourn  for  sin, 
that  such  as  were  negligent  at  other  times,  might 
take  this  opportunity  to  recollect  and  humble  them- 
selves, and  come  duly  prepared  to  the  communion 
at  the  Easter  festival.  Therefore  he  adds  imme- 
diately, If  a  Jew  or  a  heathen  ask  you,  why  you 
fast?  do  not  tell  him,  it  is  for  our  Saviour's  pas- 
sion, or  the  cross  :  for  so  you  will  give  him  a  handle 
to  accuse  you ;  for  we  do  not  fast  for  the  passion, 
or  the  cross,  but  for  our  sins,  because  we  are  to 
come  to  the  holy  mysteries.  The  passion  is  not  the 
occasion  of  fasting  or  mourning,  but  of  joy  and  ex- 
ultation :  we  mourn  not  for  that,  but  for  our  sins, 
and  therefore  we  fast.  But  then  this  fast  was  ob- 
served with  a  great  deal  of  liberty.  For  he  says  in 
the  same  place.  If  a  man  come  with  a  pure  con- 
science, he  keeps  the  Pasch,  whether  he  partakes  of 
the  communion  to-day,  or  to-morrow,  or  at  any 
other  time.  And  therefore  he  says  in  another 
place,"*  It  was  usual  in  Lent  for  the  people  to  ask 
one  another,  how  many  weeks  they  had  fasted ;  and 
one  would  answer,  he  had  fasted  two  weeks,  another 
three,  another  all.  And  what  advantage  is  it,  if  we 
have  kept  the  fast  without  mending  our  morals  ?  If 
another  says,  I  have  fasted  the  whole  Lent;  say 
thou,  I  had  an  enemy,  and  I  am  reconciled  to  him; 
I  had  a  custom  of  reviling,  and  I  hav&  left  it  off;  I 
was  used  to  swearing,  and  I  have  broken  the  evil 
habit.  It  is  of  no  advantage  to  fast,  if  our  fasting 
do  not  produce  such  fruits  as  these.  In  other 
places  he  intimates,  that  a  great  liberty  was  allowed 
men  in  regard  to  their  infirmities,  and  that  they 
were  left  in  a  great  measure  to  fast  at  their  own 
discretion.  Let  no  one,  says  he,*^  place  his  con- 
fidence in  fasting  only,  if  he  continues  in  his  sins 


^  Chrys.  Horn.  52.  in  eos  qui  Pascha  jejunant,  t.  5.  p  709. 
"'  Ibid.  Horn.  16.  ad  Pop.  Antioch.  t.  1.  p.  '211. 


without  reforming.  For  it  may  be  one  that  fasts 
not  at  all  may  obtain  pardon,  if  he  has  the  excuse  ' 
of  bodily  infirmity :  but  he  that  does  not  correct  his 
sins  can  have  no  excuse.  Thou  hast  not  fasted  hy 
reason  of  the  weakness  of  thy  body :  but  why  art 
thou  not  reconciled  to  thy  enemies  ?  Canst  thon 
pretend  bodily  infirmity  here?  If  thou  retaincsl, 
hatred  and  envy,  what  apology  canst  thou  make  ? 
In  such  crimes  as  these,  thou  canst  not  fly  to  the 
refuge  of  bodily  weakness.  So  again,  more  co- 
piously prosecuting  this  matter  in  another  place  :  ^ 
If  thou  canst  not  pass  all  the  day  fasting  by  reason 
of  bodily  weakness,  no  wise  man  can  condemn  thee 
for  this.  For  we  have  a  kind  and  merciful  Lord, 
who  requires  nothing  of  us  above  our  strength.  He 
neither  requires  abstinence  from  meat  nor  fasting 
simply  of  us,  nor  that  for  this  end  we  should  con- 
tinue without  eating  only ;  but  that,  sequestering 
ourselves  from  worldly  affairs,  we  should  spend  all 
our  leisure  time  in  spiritual  things.  For  if  we 
would  order  our  lives  soberly,  and  lay  out  our  spare 
hours  upon  spiritual  things,  and  eat  only  so  much 
as  we  had  need  of  and  nature  required,  and  spend 
our  whole  lives  in  good  works,  we  should  not  need 
the  help  of  fasting.  But  because  human  nature  is 
negligent,  and  gives  itself  rather  to  ease  and  plea- 
sure ;  therefore  our  kind  Lord,  as  a  compassionate 
Father,  hath  found  out  this  medicine  of  fasting  for 
us,  that  we  should  abridge  ourselves  in  our  plea- 
sures, and  transfer  our  care  of  secular  things  to 
works  of  a  spiritual  nature.  If  therefore  there  be 
any  here  present  who  are  hindered  by  bodily  in- 
firmity, and  cannot  continue  all  the  day  fasting,.  I 
exhort  them  to  have  regard  to  the  weakness  of  their 
bodies,  and  not  upon  that  account  deprive  them- 
selves of  this  spiritual  instruction,  but  for  that  very 
reason  to  pay  more  diligent  attendance  on  it.  For 
there  are  many  ways  besides  abstinence  from  meat, 
which  will  open  to  us  the  door  of  confidence  towards 
God.  He  therefore  that  eats,  ana  cannot  fast,  let 
him  give  the  more  plentiful  alms,  let  him  be  more 
fervent  in  his  prayers,  let  him  show  the  greater 
alacrity  and  readiness  in  hearing  the  Divine  oracles ; 
for  the  weakness  of  the  body  is  no  impediment  in 
such  oflElces  as  these  :  let  him  be  reconciled  to  his 
enemies,  and  forget  injuries,  and  cast  all  thoughts 
of  revenge  out  of  his  mind.  He  that  does  these 
things,  will  show  forth  the  true  fasting  which  the 
Lord  chiefly  requires.  Therefore  I  exhort  you  who 
are  able  to  fast,  to  go  on  with  all  possible  alacrity 
in  this  good  and  laudable  work.  For  by  how  much 
more  our  outward  man  perishes,  so  much  more  our 
inward  man  is  renewed.  For  fasting  restrains  the 
body,  and  checks  and  bridles  its  inordinate  sallies ; 
but  makes  the  soul  much  brighter,  and  gives  it 


•'-'-  Ibid.  Horn.  2-2.  de  Ira,  t.  1.  p.  277. 
'>»  Ibid.  Horn.  10.  in  Gen,  t.  2.  p.  91, 


i 


Chap.  I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1181 


wings  to  mount  up  and  soar  on  high.  Do  you  also 
exhort  your  brethren,  that  are  not  able  to  fast  for 
the  weakness  of  their  bodies,  that  they  should  not 
upon  that  account  absent  themselves  from  this 
spiritual  food;  but  teach  them  and  inform  them 
what  you  have  learned  of  us,  that  he  that  eats  and 
drinks  with  moderation,  is  not  unworthy  of  this 
auditory,  but  only  he  that  is  negligent  and  disso- 
lute. Tell  them  what  the  apostle  says,  "  Both  he 
that  eateth,  eateth  to  the  Lord ;  and  he  that  eateth 
not,  to  the  Lord  he  eateth  not,  and  giveth  God 
thanks :"  therefore  he  that  fasteth  giveth  God 
thanks,  who  has  enabled  him  to  bear  the  labour  of 
fasting;  and  he  that  eateth  gives  God  thanks  like- 
wise, that  this  is  no  prejudice  to  the  salvation  of  his 
soul,  if  he  be  otherwise  willing  and  obedient.  I  have 
recited  these  passages  at  large  out  of  Chrysostom, 
to  show  what  notion  he  had  of  the  obligation  men 
were  under  to  observe  the  Lent  fast.  If  men  were 
in  health  and  able  to  bear  it,  the  rule  and  custom 
was  for  them  to  observe  it,  and  they  generally  did 
so  without  any  further  admonition  ;  but  if  they  did 
not  comply,  their  non-compliance  did  not  debar 
them  from  the  communion  at  Easter,  or  lay  them 
under  any  ecclesiastical  censure  as  great  delinquents. 
On  the  other  hand,  if  they  pleaded  bodily  infirmity 
and  weakness,  that  was  always  accepted  as  a  just 
apology,  provided  they  made  it  appear  by  their 
other  good  works,  that  they  Avere  sincere  and  zeal- 
ous, and  not  merely  acting  a  part  in  the  business  of 
religion. 

And  some  footsteps  of  this  liberty,  in  leaving 
men  to  a  discretionary  observation  of  Lent,  are  de- 
scribed by  learned  men  in  several  other  writers. 
Bishop  Hooper"  observes  out  of  Tertullian,'''*  That 
except  Friday  and  Saturday  before  Easter,  the 
catholics  in  his  time  kept  no  other  days  of  fasting 
in  Lent,  but  only  at  discretion ;  and  that  their  fast 
Avas  for  the  most  part  private,  and  not  distinguished 
by  any  public  action.  And  Bishop  Taylor "''  asserts 
the  same,  not  only  out  of  TertuUian,  but  Socrates, 
Prudentius,  Victor  Antiochenus,  Prosper,  and  St. 
Austin :  For  the  fasts  of  the  church  were  arbitrary 
and  chosen,  without  necessity  and  imposition  from 
any  authority.  He  means  not  only  the  imposition 
of  apostolical  or  Divine  authority  upon  the  church 
in  general,  but  the  imposition  of  them  by  any  au- 
thority of  the  church  upon  her  own  members,  as 
laying  any  necessary  obligation  on  them.  And  this 
is  true  of  the  three  or  four  first  ages  of  the  church, 


but  more  questionable  of  those  that  followed  after. 
For  the  fourth  council  of  Orleans'"  orders,  That  all 
who  refused  to  fast  on  Saturday  in  Lent,  should  be 
made  liable  to  ecclesiastical  censure.  And  among 
those  called  the  Apostolical  Canons"  there  is  one 
that  orders.  That  every  clergyman  who,  not  being 
infirm,  refuses  to  fast  in  Lent,  shall  be  deposed ;  and 
laymen  to  be  suspended  from  communion  for  the 
same  transgression.  But  this  is  one  of  those  canons 
which  are  known  to  be  of  later  date,  and  therefore 
cannot  be  concluded  to  be  according  to  the  ancient 
rule  of  the  church. 

From  this  it  will  be  easv  to  ac- 

Sert.  15. 

count  for  the  difierence  which  hap-     "°":,'i."  V",""'- 

1        nisU  differed  from 

pened  between  the  church  and  the  {[;"  ^m'p^uon'"'of 
Montanists  about  the  imposition  of  '^""' 
fasts.  Montanus  is  condemned  by  the  writers  of 
that  age  for  making  new  laws  about  fasting.  In 
the  fragment  of  Apollonius  mentioned  by  Euse- 
bius,'-  it  is  laid  to  his  charge,  that  he  was  the  first 
6  vijardoQ  vonoGerrjaaQ,  who  imposed  fastings  by  his 
laws.  Which  some  understand,  as  if  he  was  the 
first  that  ever  brought  fasting  under  any  rule  or 
law.  Which  cannot  be  true  ;  foi-,  as  we  have  seen 
before,  the  church  also  thought  she  had  a  rule  for 
fasting  two  days  before  Easter ;  and  Tcrtullian 
also,  in  vindication  of  Montanus,  tells  the  catholics 
(which  they  themselves  did  not  deny)  that  their 
bishops  were  used  to  appoint  fasts'^  upon  necessary 
occasions  of  the  church.  Therefore  this  could  not 
be  the  dispute  then,  whether  fasting  might  be  im- 
posed by  a  law;  but  the  Montanists  said,  beside 
the  fast  of  Lent  observed  by  the  catholics,  there 
were  other  fasts  imposed  by  the  Spirit  under  the 
ministry  and  revelation  of  the  will  of  God  made  to 
Montanus.  For  the  Montanists  kept  three  Lents'* 
in  the  year,  each  of  these  two  weeks ;  and  that 
upon  dry  meats  in  perfect  abstinence  from  flesh ; 
and  these  also  as  necessary  to  be  observed,  as  in- 
junctions of  the  Spirit  by  the  new  revelation  made 
to  Montanus,  which  they  preferred  before  the  writ- 
ings of  the  apostles,  and  said  these  laws  were  to  be 
observed  for  ever.  Which  is  the  reason  why  the 
Montanists  in  the  time  of  Sozomen  kept  their  Ante- 
paschal  fast  still  confined  to  two  weeks,  when  the 
catholics  fasted  a  much  longer  space.  For,  as  a 
learned  person'^  observes,  those  great  fasters  would 
hardly  have  been  left  behind,  had  not  those  two 
weeks  been  the  space  determined  them  by  their 
prophet,  and  they  obliged  to  keep  punctually  to  all 


"  Disc,  of  Lent,  p.  64. 

^  Tertul.  de  Jejun.  cap.  2  et  13. 

«3  Taylor,  Duct.  Dub.  p.  G29. 

'"  Cone.  Aiirel.  4.  an.  541.  can.  2.  Set!  neque  per  sab- 
bata  absque  infirmitate  quisquam  solvat  Quaclra;,'esimale 

jejunium. Si   qnis    banc    re^'ulam    irruperit,   tanquam 

transgressor  discipline  a  sacerdotibus  censeatur. 

"  Can.  Apost.  G9.     See  also  Cone.  Toletan.  8.  can.  9. 


'=  Euseb.  lib.  5.  cap.  18. 

"  Tertul.  de  Jejnniis,  cap.  13.  Bene  autem,  qnod  et  epis- 
copi  universa;  plebi  mandaie  jejunia  assolent,  nun  dico  de 
industria  stipium  conl'eicndarum,  ut  restrae  capturoe  est,  sed 
interdum  et  ex  aliqua  snllicitudinis  ecclesiasticoe  causa. 

"  Hicrou.  Ep.  54.  ad  Marcellam.  It.  Com.  in  Hag. 
cap.  1.    Tertul.  de  Jejun.  cap.  15. 

"  Bishop  Hooper  of  Lent,  p.  C5. 


1 1 82 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXI. 


his  institutions.  This,  then,  was  the  great  dispute 
between  the  catholics  and  the  Montanists,  whether 
the  Spirit  had  appointed  these  fasts  ?  "Which  the 
Montanists  asserted,  and  the  cathohcs  denied.  And 
therefore,  though  tlie  cliurch  augmented  her  fast 
from  two  days  to  forty,  yet  still  she  did  it  with  a 
great  deal  of  liberty  reserved  to  every  particular 
church,  and  every  particular  church  in  a  great 
measure  left  all  her  members  to  judge  of  their  own 
abilities  by  Christian  prudence  and  discretion  ;  ex- 
horting men  to  fast,  but  imposing  rigidly  upon  none 
more  than  they  were  able  and  willing  to  bear,  nor 
enforcing  it  under  pain  of  ecclesiastical  censure. 

The    manner   of   observing   Lent 

Sect.  16.  ° 

withlp^fecTLbsti-  among  those  that  were  piously  dis- 
cveT/dTtm'even'?  Posed  to  observc  it,  was  to  abstain 
'""■  from  all  food  till  evening.     For  an- 

ciently a  change  of  diet  was  not  reckoned  a  fast ; 
but  it  consisted  in  a  perfect  abstinence  from  all 
sustenance  for  the  whole  day  till  evening.  And  in 
this  the  Lent  fast  differed  from  the  semijcjunia,  or 
half-fasts  of  the  ordinary  stationary  days,  as  we 
shall  see  hereafter.  St.  Ambrose,  speaking  of  the 
Lent  fast,  says.  It  was  a  total'^  abstinence  every  day 
throughout  the  whole  season,  except  on  the  sabbath 
and  the  Lord's  day.  And  in  another  place,  exhort- 
ing men"  to  observe  the  Lent  fast,  he  bids  them 
defer  eating  a  little,  the  end  of  the  day  is  not  far 
off.  So  Chrysostom  frequently  in  his  Lent  sermons 
speaks  of  the  same  circumstance :  Let  us  set  a 
guard '^  upon  our  ears,  our  tongues,  and  minds,  and 
not  think  that  bare  fasting  till  the  evening  is  suffi- 
cient for»our  salvation.  What  profit"  is  it  to  fast, 
and  eat  nothing  all  the  day,  if  you  give  youi'self  to 
playing  at  dice,  and  other  vain  pastimes,  and  spend 
the  whole  day  many  times  in  perjuries  and  blasphe- 
mies ?  The  true  fast  is  abstinence  from  vices.**  For 
abstinence  from  meat  was  appointed  upon  this  oc- 
casion, that  we  should  curb  the  tone  of  our  flesh, 
and  make  the  horse  obedient  to  his  rider.  He  that 
fasts  ought,  above  all  things,  to  bridle  his  anger,  to 
learn  meekness  and  clemency,  to  have  a  contrite 
heart,  to  banish  the  thoughts  of  all  inordinate 
desires,  to  set  the  watchful  eye  of  God  before  his 
eyes  and  his  uncorrupted  judgment;  to  set  himself 
above  riches,  and  exercise  great  liberality  in  giving 
of  alms,  and  to  expel  every  evil  thought  against  his 
neighbour  out  of  his  soul.  This  is  the  true  fast. 
Therefore  let  this  be  our  care :  and  let  us  not 
imagine,  as  many  do,  that  we  have  fasted  rightly, 
when  we  have  abstained  from  eating  until  evening. 
This  is  not  the  thing  required  of  us ;  but  that,  to- 
gether with  our  abstinence  from  meat,  we  should 


abstain  from  those  things  that  hurt  the  soul,  and 
dihgently  exercise  ourselves  in  things  of  a  spiritual 
nature.  Bellarmine*'  himself  shows  the  same  out 
of  St.  Basil,'*"  and  other  ancient  writers,  who  speak 
always  of  the  Lent  fast  as  a  perfect  abstinence 
from  all  food  till  evening.  And  it  is  very  remark- 
able, by  what  he  cites  out  of  Micrologus,  Gratian, 
and  St.  Bernard,  that  this  custom  continued  till  the 
twelfth  century  even  in  the  practice  of  the  Romish 
church. 

Whence  it  were  easy  to  conclude,         ,,  ,  ,„ 

•'  '  Sect.  17. 

that  the  pretence  of  keeping  Lent  accou"tei"-i''pro"er 
only  by  change  of  diet  from  flesh  to  out  'perfec"t''ats"i: 

i»    1  T    T    •  r       -\         1   •    ^      nence  till  evening. 

nsh,  or  a  more  delicious  food,  which 
allows  men  the  use  of  wine  and  other  delicacies,  is 
but  a  mock  fast,  and  a  mere  innovation,  utterly  un- 
known to  the  ancients,  whose  Lent  fast  was  a  strict 
and  rigorous  abstinence  from  all  food  till  the  even- 
ing. Their  refreshment  was  only  a  supper,  and  not 
a  dinner  of  any  kind :  and  then  it  was  indifferent 
whether  it  was  flesh  or  any  other  food,  provided  it 
was  used,  as  became  the  refreshment  of  a  fast,  with 
sobriety  and  moderation.  They  generally,  indeed, 
abstained  from  flesh,  and  wine,  and  fish,  and  all 
other  delicacies  at  this  season :  but  yet  there  was 
no  such  universal  rule  or  custom  in  this  matter,  but 
that  when  men  had  fasted  all  the  day,  they  were 
allowed  to  refresh  themselves  with  a  moderate  sup- 
per upon  flesh  or  any  other  food  without  distinction. 
This  appears  from  the  observation  which  Socrates 
makes  upon  the  different  manner  of  fasting  in  Lent : 
Some,  says  he,*'  abstain  from  all  kind  of  living  crea- 
tures ;  others  abstain  from  all  but  fish  ;  others  cat 
fowls  as  well  as  fish,  saying,  that,  according  to  Mo- 
ses, they  come  of  the  water ;  others  abstain  from 
fruits  and  eggs ;  others  eat  only  dry  bread ;  and 
others  even  not  so  much  as  that.  Yet  the  greatest 
ascetics  made  no  scruple  to  eat  flesh  in  Lent,  when 
a  just  occasion  required  it.  Sozomen  tells  a  re- 
markable story'*  of  Spiridion,  bishop  of  Trimithus 
in  Cyprus,  That  a  stranger  once  happening  to  call 
upon  him  in  his  travels  in  Lent,  he  having  nothing 
in  his  house  but  a  piece  of  pork,  ordered  that  to  be 
dressed  and  set  before  him:  but  the  stranger  re- 
fusing to  eat  flesh,  saying  he  was  a  Christian; 
Spiridion  replied,  For  that  very  reason  thou  ought- 
est  not  so  refuse  it ;  for  the  word  of  God  has  pro- 
nounced all  things  clean  to  them  that  are  clean. 
Eusebius"*  tells  a  like  story  of  one  Alcibiades,  a 
martyr,  who,  being  a  great  ascetic,  had  used  to  ab- 
stain from  flesh  all  his  life,  and  live  only  upon  bread 
and  water ;  which  course  of  life  he  continued  even 
in  prison :  but  it  was  revealed  to  Attains,  one  of  his 


'^  Ambros.  de  Elia  et  Jejun.  cap.  10.  Quadragesima  totis 
preetur  sabbatum  et  Dominicara  jejiinatur  diebus. 

"  Id.  Ser.  8.  in  Psal.  cxviii.  Differ  aliquantulum,  noa 
longe  finis  est  diei. 

'8  Chrys.  Horn.  4.  in  Gen.  t.  2.  p.  37. 


"  Horn.  6.  in  Gen.  p.  60.  'o  Horn.  8.  in  Gen.  p.  79. 

«'  Bellarin.  t.  4.  de  Bonis  Oper.  lib.  2.  cap.  2. 

"2  Basil.  Horn.  1.  de  Jejun. 

»■'  Socrat.  lib.  5.  cap.  22. 

•*'  Sozom.  lib.  1.  cap.  11.  ^  Euseb.  lib.  5.  cup.  3. 


Chap.  I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1183 


fellow  prisoners,  that  Alcibiades  did  not  well  to 
refuse  using  the  creatures  of  God,  and  thereby 
give  scandal  to  others.  Upon  which  admonition, 
Alcibiades  changed  his  manner  of  living,  and  be- 
gan to  use  all  meats  indifferently  with  thanksgiv- 
ing. By  this  it  ai)pears,  that  the  eating  or  not  eat- 
ing of  flesh,  was  a  thing  indifferent  to  them  at  all 
times,  and  that  they  made  no  scruple  to  eat  flesh 
even  in  Lent,  upon  a  necessary  occasion,  without 
any  prejudice  to  their  rules  of  fasting.  But  the 
thing  they  chiefly  guarded  against,  was  luxury,  and 
pampering  the  body,  under  pretence  of  fasting.  St. 
Austin '"  makes  a  smart  reflection  in  one  of  his  ser- 
mons upon  such  pretenders  as  these  :  There  are 
some  observers  of  Lent,  says  he,  that  study  de- 
liciousness  more  than  religion,  and  seek  out  new 
pleasures  for  the  belly,  more  than  how  to  chastise 
the  concupiscence  of  the  old  man  ;  who  by  costly 
and  plentiful  provisions,  strive  to  outdo  the  varie- 
ties and  tastes  of  the  several  fruits  of  the  earth. 
They  are  afraid  of  any  vessels  in  which  flesh  has 
been  boiled,  as  if  they  were  unclean ;  and  yet  in 
their  own  flesh  fear  not  the  luxury  of  the  throat 
and  the  belly.  These  men  fast,  not  to  diminish 
their  wonted  voracity  by  temperance,  but  by  defer- 
ring a  meal  to  increase  their  immoderate  greediness. 
For  when  the  time  of  refreshment  comes,  they  rush 
to  their  plentiful  tables,  as  beasts  to  their  mangers, 
and  stuff  their  bellies  with  great  variety  of  artificial 
and  strange  sauces,  taking  in  more  by  devouring, 
than  they  are  able  to  digest  again  by  fasting.  There 
are  some  likewise  who  drink  no  wine,  that  they  may 
provide  themselves  other  more  agreeable  liquors,  to 
gratify  their  taste,  rather  than  set  forward  their  sal- 
vation ;  as  if  Lent  were  intended,  not  for  the  ob- 
servation of  a  pious  humiliation,  but  as  an  occasion 
of  seeking  out  new  pleasures.  They  did  not  think 
commutation  of  diet  a  proper  fast,  if  the  abstinence 
of  the  day  was  spoiled  by  any  immoderate  indul- 
gence of  an  evening  banquet ;  much  less  did  they 
esteem  it  a  fast  to  dine  upon  delicacies,  and  use  a 
mere  abstinence  from  flesh  without  deferring  the 
time  of  their  ordinary  meal  till  evening ;  but  they 
abstained  all  the  day  from  food  of  any  kind,  and 
then  contented  themselves  with  a  sober  and  plain 
refreshment  in  the  close  of  it,  without  any  scrupu- 
lous nicety  about  the  kind  of  their  food,  so  long  as 
they  used  it  only  with  temperance  and  moderation. 

j,^^^  ,g  And  what  they  thus  spared  from 

inT'dinner!  not'^'"''  thclr  owu  bodlcs  iu  abridging  them  of 
luxli'ry.butbestm'v"^  a  meal,  thcy  that  were  piously  dis- 

epoor.  posed  bcstowed  upon  the  bellies  of 

the  poor.  This  we  learn  from  one  of  the  homilies 
of  Ccesarius  Arelatensis,  or  whoever  was  the  author 


of  it,  under  the  name  of  St.  Austin  :  "  Before  all 
things,  says  he,  on  our  fasting  days,  what  we  were 
used  to  spend  upon  a  dinner,  let  us  bestow  upon  the 
poor,  that  no  one  concern  himself  about  providing 
a  siunptuous  supper,  or  an  exquisite  and  delicious 
feast,  and  seem  rather  to  have  changed  the  diet  of 
his  body,  than  diminished  any  thing  in  the  quan- 
tity of  it.  There  is  no  profit  in  keeping  a  long  fast 
all  the  day,  if  afterward  a  man  overwhelm  his  soul, 
either  with  the  delicacy  of  his  meat,  or  the  abund- 
ance of  it.  That  which  is  gained  by  the  fast  at 
dinner,  ought  not  to  be  turned  into  a  feast  at  sup- 
per, but  be  expended  on  the  bellies  of  the  poor. 
Proficiat  elccmosj/nis,  quod  non  crpcmUtur  7nensis, 
says  Leo,"'  That  which  is  not  expended  upon  our 
tables  should  be  laid  out  in  alms,  and  (hen  it  will 
bring  us  in  great  gain.  Origen  says,*'  he  found  it  in 
some  book  as  a  noted  saying  of  the  apostles,  "  Bless- 
ed is  he  who  fasts  for  this  end,  that  he  may  feed  the 
poor;  this  man's  fast  is  acceptable  unto  God." 
Mercy  and  piety,  as  Chrysologus  words  it,™  are  the 
wings  of  fasting,  by  which  it  mounts  uj)  to  heaven, 
without  which  it  lies  dead  upon  the  earth.  There- 
fore, when  we  fast,  let  us  lay  up  our  dinner  in  the 
hands  of  the  poor,  that  the  hands  of  the  poor  may 
preserve  for  us  what  our  bellies  would  destroy.  The 
hands  of  the  poor  is  the  treasury  of  Christ :  fasting 
without  mercy  is  but  an  image  of  famine ;  fasting 
without  works  of  piety  is  only  an  occasion  of  covet- 
ousness ;  because,  by  such  sparing,  what  is  taken 
from  the  body  only  swells  in  the  purse. 
Therefore  Lent  was   thought    the 

n  •    •  Sect.  19. 

proper  season  tor  exercismg  more  AUcorporeni  pun- 
abundantly  all  sorts  of  charity.  Let  by  the  imperial  laws 
US  spend  those  vacant  hours,  says 
Cffisarius  or  St.  Austin,''  which  we  were  used  to 
lavish  away  without  any  benefit  to  our  souls,  now 
in  visiting  the  sick,  in  searching  the  prisons,  in  en- 
tertaining strangers,  in  reconciling  those  that  are  at 
variance  with  one  another.  This  was  required  of 
those  more  especially,  who  pretended  bodily  infirm- 
ity that  they  could  not  fast,  as  we  have  heard  before 
out  of  St.  Chrysostom.  Thou  canst  not  fast  by 
reason  of  the  weakness  of  thy  body ;  but  why  art 
thou  not  reconciled  ^  to  thy  enemy  ?  Canst  thou 
pretend  bodily  infirmity  here?  If  thou  retainest 
hatred  and  envy,  what  apology  canst  thou  make  ? 
In  such  crimes  as  these  thou  canst  not  take  sanctuary 
in  bodily  weakness.  He  that  cannot  fast,  let  hira 
give  the  more  plentiful  alms,  let  him  be  reconciled 
to  his  enemies,  let  him  forget  injuries,  and  cast  all 
thoughts  of  revenge  out  of  his  mind.  This  was  a 
time  when  men  expected  mercy  and  pardon  from 
God,  and  therefore  it  was  the  more  reasonable  they 


s''  Aug.  Scrm.  74.  de  Diversis,  t.  10.  p.  550. 
8'  Ibid.  66.  de  Tempore,  1. 10.  p.  252. 
^'  Leo,  Ser.  3.  de  Jcjun.  Pentecost. 
*'  Oriiien.  Horn.  10.  in  Levit. 


=0  Chrysol.  Serm.  8.  de  Jejuii. 
='  Aug.  Horn.  56.  de  Temp.  t.  10.  p.  252. 
s^Chrys.  Horn.  22.  de  Ira,  t.  1.  p.  277.  et  Horn.   10.  in 
Gen.  t.  2.  p.  91.     See  before,  sect.  11. 


1184 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXI. 


should  be  more  eminent  in  the  exercise  of  mercy 
toward  their  brethren.  Upon  this  account  the  im- 
perial laws  forbade  all  prosecution  of  men  in  criminal 
actions,  which  might  bring  them  to  corporal  pun- 
ishment and  torture,  during  the  whole  season. 
Theodosius  the  Great  made  two  laws  to  this  pur- 
pose :  In  the  forty  days,  which  by  the  laws  of  re- 
ligion"^ are  solemnly  observed  before  Easter,  let 
the  examination  and  hearing  of  all  criminal  ques- 
tions be  superseded:  and  in  the  holy  days  of  Lent, 
let  there  be*^  no  punishments  of  the  body,  when  we 
expect  the  absolution  of  our  souls.  St.  Ambrose  ^^ 
mentions  a  like  answer  given  by  the  younger  Va- 
lentinian,  in  the  case  of  some  rich  noblemen,  who 
were  prosecuted  in  a  criminal  cause  before  the  pro- 
vost of  the  city,  who  inclined  to  give  a  speedy  sen- 
tence against  them  :  but  the  emperor  sent  him  an 
inhibition,  forbidding  any  sentence  of  blood  to  be 
pronounced  during  the  holy  season.  Nor  was  there 
any  exception  made  to  this  rule,  but  only  in  the 
case  of  the  Isaurian  robbers,  whose  practices  were 
so  very  dangerous  to  the  common  safety,  that  Theo- 
dosius junior  thought  it  proper  to  allow  their  ex- 
amination by  scourging  and  the  rack  at  any  time, 
not  excepting  any  day  in  Lent'^  or  the  Easter  fes- 
tival, because  it  was  greater  charity  to  discover  their 
wicked  counsels  and  conspiracies,  to  preserve  the 
life  and  safety  of  other  innocent  men,  than  to  grant 
any  reprieve  or  respite  to  such  criminals  upon  the 
account  of  the  holy  season.  So  that  mercy  and 
charity  was  still  the  thing  in  view,  as  most  proper 
to  be  showed  to  the  bodies  of  men  at  such  a  season, 
when  all  expected  by  their  fasting  and  repentance 
to  obtain  absolution  of  their  souls  from  the  hands 
of  God,  as  one  of  the  forementioned  laws  elegantly 
words  it. 

Sect  20  Lent  was  a  time  of  more  than  or- 

bii^l"and%em™s  dluary  strictness  and  devotion,  and 
every  day  in  Lent,  t^gj-efore  lu  mauy  ofthc  great  churchcs 
they  had  religious  assemblies  for  prayer  and  preach- 
ing every  day  throughout  the  whole  season.  I  can- 
not affirm  that  it  was  so  in  every  parochial  church 
and  country  village ;  but  that  it  was  so  in  the  great- 
er or  cathedral  churches,  is  evident  from  undeniable 
proofs  and  matter  of  fact.  Chrysostom's  homilies 
on  Genesis,  and  those  famous  ones  of  the  statues, 
called  ' AvS^)iavTtQ,  to  the  people  of  Antioch,  were 
sermons  preached  after  this  manner  day  after  day 
in  the  Lent  season ;  as  any  one  may  be  satisfied 
that  looks  but  into  them.  I  will  only  relate  one 
single  passage  in  one  of  these  homilies,''  which 


will  give  any  reader  satisfaction.  This  is  not,  says 
he,  the  only  thing  that  is  required,  that  we  should 
meet  here  every  day,  and  hear  sermons  continually, 
and  fast  the  whole  Lent.  For  if  we  gain  nothing 
by  these  continual  meetings  and  exhortations  and 
season  of  fasting  to  the  advantage  of  our  souls,  they 
will  not  only  do  us  no  good,  but  be  the  occasion  of 
a  severer  condemnation.  If,  after  so  much  care  and 
pains  bestowed  upon  us,  we  continue  the  same ;  if 
the  angry  taan  does  not  become  meek,  and  the  pas- 
sionate mild  and  gentle  ;  if  the  envious  does  not  re- 
duce himself  to  a  friendly  temper,  nor  the  covetous 
man  depart  from  his  madness  and  fury  in  the  pur- 
suit of  riches,  and  give  himself  to  almsdeeds  and 
feeding  the  poor ;  if  the  intemperate  man  does  not 
become  chaste  and  sober,  and  the  vain-glorious  learn 
to  despise  false  honour,  and  seek  for  that  which  is 
true ;  if  he  that  is  negligent  of  charity  to  his  neigh- 
bour, does  not  stir  up  himself,  and  endeavour  not 
only  not  to  come  behind  the  publicans,  (who  love 
those  that  love  them,)  but  also  to  look  friendly  upon 
his  enemies,  and  exercise  all  acts  of  charity  toward 
them ;  if  we  do  not  conquer  these  affections  and  all 
others  that  spring  up  from  our  natural  corruption ; 
though  we  assemble  here  every  day,  and  enjoy  con- 
tinual preaching  and  teaching,  and  have  the  assist- 
ance of  fasting ;  what  pardon  can  we  expect,  what 
apology  shall  we  make  for  ourselves  ?  By  this  it 
is  plain,  no  day  passed  in  Lent  without  a  sermon 
to  put  men  in  mind  of  the  great  duties  of  Christi- 
anity, and  reformation  and  repentance,  which  were 
more  peculiar  to  the  design  of  that  holy  season. 
Thev  had   also   frequent   commu- 

,   .  .  ,  j_  Pect.  21. 

nions  at  this  time,  at  least  on  every     And  frequent  com- 

mtuiions,  especially 

sabbath  and  Lord's  day.    For  though  on  the  s,-ibbath  and 

•'  "         the  Lord's  day. 

the  festivals  of  martyrs  were  not  or- 
dinarily to  be  celebrated  in  this  time  of  humiliation, 
yet  the  sabbath  and  the  Lord's  day  were  kept  as 
standing  festivals  even  in  Lent,  as  has  been  showed 
before ;  and  therefore  on  these  days  they  offered 
the  oblation  of  bread  and  wine  in  the  eucharist,  as 
at  other  seasons.  But  by  a  canon  of  the  council  of 
Laodicea'*  this  oblation  seems  confined  to  those 
two  days  ;  for  it  is  prohibited  to  offer  it  upon  any 
other:  and  that  may  seem  to  imply,  thaf  there  M^as 
no  communion  on  any  other  days  in  Lent.  But 
then  it  may  be  considered,  that  in  the  time  of  the 
council  of  Trullo '"  there  was  a  custom  of  commu- 
nicating on  other  days  in  Lent  upon  the  presancti- 
fied  elements,  that  is,  such  as  had  been  consecrated 
the  Lord's  day  before :  and  if  we  can  suppose  this 


M  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  35.  de  Qiiocstionibus,  Leg.  4. 
Quadraginta  diebus,  qui,  auspicio  caerimoniarum,  Paschale 
tempus  anticipant,  omnis  cognitio  inhibeatiir  criminalium 
qiiaestionum. 

^  Ibid.  Leg.  5.  Sacratis  QuadragesinicC  diebus  nulla  sup- 
plicia  siiit  corporis,  quibus  absolutio  expectatur  animarum. 

°^  Ambros.  de  Obitu  Valentin.  Ut  nihil  cruentuin  Sanctis 


prsesertiin  diebus  statueretur. 

s«  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  35.  de  Queestionibus,  Leg.  7. 
Provinciarum  judices  moneantur,  ut  in  Isaurorum  latronuiu 
quKstionibus  nullum  Quadragesima,  ncc  venerabilem  Pas- 
charum  diem  existiment  excipiendum,  &c. 

=■  Chrys.  Horn.  11.  in  Gen.  t.  2.  p.  107. 

s8  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  49.  ^  Cone.  Trull,  can.  52. 


Chap.  I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


11S5 


custom  to  have  been  anciently  in  the  church,  then 
nothing  hinders  but  that  they  might  have  a  daily 
communion  in  Lent,  as  well  as  a  daily  sermon ; 
which  seems  most  agreeable  to  the  fervent  piety  of 
those  primitive  ages:  but  in  a  doubtful  matter  I 
will  not  be  positive,  seeing  there  is  otherwise  evi- 
dence enough  for  frequent  communion  in  Lent,  by 
supposing  it  only  to  be  administered  on  ever}-  sab- 
bath and  Lord's  day. 

For  the  further    advancement  of 
All  p'^^biic'games  piety  and  encouragement  of  religious 

and  stase-plavs  pro- 

hibited  at  tiiis  sea-  assemuucs  at  this  season,  ail  public 
games  and  stage-plays  were  utterly 
forbidden  by  the  laws  of  the  church.  Gothofred'"" 
thinks  the  whole  time  of  Lent  is  included  in  that 
famous  law  of  Theodosius  junior,  which  prohibits 
all  public  games  and  shows  on  days  of  supplication, 
when  the  minds  of  Christians  ought  wholly  to  be 
employed  in  the  worship  of  God.  For  though  Lent 
be  not  expressl}'  named  in  that  law,  yet  it  is  com- 
prised in  the  general  name  of  the  days  of  supplica- 
tion. And  it  is  certain  the  church  was  very  solicit- 
ous to  restrain  men  from  these  pleasures  and  diver- 
sions at  this  holy  season.  Gregory  Nazianzen'"' 
has  a  very  sharp  epistle  written  to  one  of  the  judges 
upon  this  occasion,  wherein  he  thus  rebukes  him : 
You  that  are  a  judge  transgress  the  laws  in  not  ob- 
serving the  fast:  and  how  will  you  observe  the 
laws  of  man,  who  transgress  and  despise  the  laws 
of  God  ?  Purge  the  judgment-seat,  lest  one  of  these 
two  things  befall  you,  either  to  be  really  wicked,  or 
to  be  thought  so.  To  exhibit  profane  shows  is  to 
make  yourself  a  spectacle.  In  a  word,  stand  cor- 
rected, 0  judge,  and  you  wall  sin  less  for  the  future. 
St.  Chrysostom,  in  his  Lent  sermons,  with  equal 
zeal  sets  himself  to  chastise  and  correct  this  grand 
abuse  of  the  holy  season.  He  prefaces  one  of  these 
homilies  with  this  sharp  invective  against  those 
that  frequented  the  horse-racings  of  the  cirque  at 
this  time :  When  I  consider,  says  he,'"-  how  at  one 
blast  of  the  devil  ye  have  forgotten  all  my  daily 
admonitions  and  continued  discourses,  and  run  to 
that  pomp  of  Satan,  the  horse-race  in  the  cirque ; 
with  what  heart  can  I  think  of  preaching  to  you 
again,  who  have  so  soon  let  slip  all  that  I  said  be- 
fore ?  This  is  what  chiefly  raises  my  grief,  yea,  my 
anger  and  indignation,  that  together  with  my  ad- 
monition ye  have  cast  the  reverence  of  this  holy  ■ 
season  of  Lent  out  of  j'our  souls,  and  thrown  your- 
selves into  the  nets  of  the  devil.  What  profit  is 
there  in  your  fasting  ?  What  advantage  in  your 
meeting  together  so  often  in  this  place  ?  He  pur- 
sues the  same  argument  in  the  next  discourse,'"' 
dissuading  them  in  a  very  pathetical  way  to  wave 
this  unseasonable  practice  :  Subdue,  I  beseech  you. 


this  wicked  and  pernicious  custom  ;  and  consider, 
that  they  who  run  to  the  cirque,  not  only  do  much 
harm  to  themselves,  but  are  the  occasion  of  great 
scandal  to  others.  For  when  the  Jews  and  Gentiles 
see  you,  who  are  every  day  at  church  to  hear  a  ser- 
mon, come  notwithstanding  to  the  horse-race,  and 
join  with  them  in  the  cirque;  will  they  not  reckon 
our  religion  a  cheat,  and  entertain  the  same  sus- 
picion of  us  all  ?  They  will  sharpen  their  tongues 
against  us  all,  and  for  the  offence  of  a  few  condemn 
the  whole  body  of  Christians.  Neither  will  they 
stop  here,  but  rail  at  our  Head,  and  for  the  servants' 
fault  blaspheme  our  common  Lord,  and  think  that 
a  sufficient  apology  and  excuse  for  their  own  errors, 
that  they  have  something  to  object  to  the  life  and 
conversation  of  others.  By  this  it  appears,  there 
was  no  pardon  for  those  who  were  so  eager  after  the 
public  diversions,  as  to  follow  them  in  Lent,  when 
men's  public  professions  of  repentance,  humiliation, 
and  sorrow  made  it  utterly  unseasonable  and  absurd 
to  pursue  the  vain  recreations  and  pleasures  of  the 
world,  which  at  such  a  juncture  could  become  none 
but  those  who  lived  in  darkness  and  heathenish 
superstition. 

For  the  same  reason  they  forbade 
the  celebration  of  all  festivals  of  mar-     as  Jso'  the  ceu- 

.   ,  ,  bration  of  all  festi- 

tyrs  at  this  season,  except  it  were  upon  vais,  birthdays,  and 

*■  -^  marriages,    as   un- 

the  sabbath  or  the  Lord's  day  :  be-  suitable  to  the  pre- 

•^  Bent  occasion. 

cause  all  festivals  were  days  of  rejoic- 
ing, which  were  not  consistent  with  deep  humilia- 
tion and  mourning  belonging  to  a  strict  and  severe 
fast :  but  the  sabbath  and  the  Lord's  day  were  ex- 
cepted from  fasting  even  in  Lent,  as  has  been  noted 
before ;  and  therefore  on  these  days  the  festivals 
of  martyrs  might  be  celebrated,  but  on  no  other 
during  the  whole  time  of  Lent,  as  appears  from  an 
express  canon  of  the  council  of  Laodicea""  made  in 
this  behalf.  And  by  another  canon  of  the  same 
council '"'  all  celebration  of  marriages  and  birthdays 
are  absolutely  forbidden  in  Lent :  where  by  birth- 
days, called  yivtOXia  in  the  canon,  we  are  to  under- 
stand private  men's  natural  birthdays,  which  being 
celebrated  with  gi-eat  tokens  and  solemnities  of  joy, 
with  feasting  and  other  ceremonies  of  pleasure  and 
delight,  were  not  proper  to  be  kept  in  the  time  of 
fasting,  as  being  things  inconsistent  and  incom- 
patible with  one  another  ;  and  the  rather  to  be  for- 
borne, because  at  this  time  the  church  did  not  allow 
the  solemnizing  of  the  nativities  or  birthdays  of  her 
martyrs,  which  otherwise  were  of  great  esteem  in 
the  church. 

These  were  the  common  rules  ob-         ^.^^^  ^ 
served  in  keeping  the  Lent  fast,  when  ^^J^^l  Kr"^"^ 
it  was  come  to  the  length  of  forty  days.  Mr7c'nfss"'and"'so- 
But  there  was  one  week,  called  the    """'  ■' 


'"»  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  15.  Tit.  5.  de  Spectaculis,  Leg.  5.  et 
Gothofred.  ia  loc. 

""  Naz.  Ep.  71.  al.  74.  ad  Celeusium. 
4  G 


'"2  Chrj's.  Horn.  6.  in  Gen.  t.  2.  p.  19. 
'"3  Horn.  7.  ibid.  p.  61. 


""   Cunc.  Laodic.  can.  51. 


Can.  52.  ibid. 


1186 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXI. 


hehdomas  maf/na,  or  the  great  week  before  Easter, 
which  they  observed  with  greater  strictness  and  so- 
lemnity above  all  the  rest.  No  one  can  better  de- 
scribe it  to  us  than  St.  Chrysostom,'""  who  tells  us, 
it  was  called  the  great  week,  not  because  it  con- 
sisted of  longer  days  or  more  in  number  than  other 
weeks,  but  because  at  this  time  great  things  were 
^v•rought  for  us  by  our  Lord.  For  in  this  week  the 
ancient  tyranny  of  the  devil  was  dissolved,  death 
was  extinct,  the  strong  man  was  bound,  his  goods 
were  spoiled,  sin  was  abolished,  the  curse  was  de- 
stroyed, paradise  was  opened,  heaven  became  ac- 
cessible, men  and  angels  were  joined  together,  the 
middle  wall  of  partition  was  broken  down,  the  bar- 
riers were  taken  out  of  the  way,  the  God  of  peace 
made  peace  between  things  in  heaven  and  things 
on  earth ;  therefore  it  is  called  the  great  week :  and 
as  this  is  the  head  of  all  other  weeks,  so  the  great 
sabbath  is  the  head  of  this  week,  being  the  same 
thing  in  this  week  as  the  head  is  in  the  body. 
Therefore  in  this  week  many  increase  their  labours; 
some  adding  to  their  fastings,  others  to  their  watch- 
ings ;  others  give  more  liberal  alms,  testifying  the 
greatness  of  the  Divine  goodness  by  their  care  of 
good  works,  and  more  intense  piety  and  holy  living. 
As  the  Jews  went  forth  to  meet  Christ,  when  he 
had  raised  Lazarus  from  the  dead ;  so  now,  not  one 
city,  but  all  the  world  go  forth  to  meet  him,  not 
with  palm-branches  in  their  hands,  but  with  alms- 
deeds,  humanity,  virtue,  fasting,  tears,  prayers,  fast- 
ings, watchings,  and  all  kinds  of  piety,  which  they 
offer  to  Christ  their  Lord.  And  not  only  we,  but 
the  emperors  of  the  world  honour  this  week,  making 
it  a  time  of  vacation  from  all  civil  business,  that  the 
magistrates,  being  at  liberty  from  business  of  the 
law,  may  spend  all  these  days  in  spiritual  service. 
Let  the  doors  of  the  courts,  say  they,  now  be  shut 
up ;  let  all  disputes,  and  all  kinds  of  contention  and 
punishment,  cease ;  let  the  executioner's  hands  rest 
a  little :  common  blessings  are  wrought  for  us  all  by 
our  common  Lord,  let  some  good  be  done  by  us  his 
servants.  Nor  is  this  the  only  honour  they  show 
to  this  week,  but  they  do  one  thing  more  no  less 
considerable.  The  imperial  letters  are  sent  abroad 
at  this  time,  commanding  all  prisoners  to  be  set  at 
liberty  from  their  chains.  For  as  our  Lord,  when 
he  descended  into  hell,  set  free  those  that  were  de- 
tained by  death ;  so  the  servants,  according  to  their 
power  imitating  the  kindness  of  their  Lord,  loose 
men  from  their  corporal  bonds,  when  they  have  no 
power  to  relax  the  spiritual.  All  this  is  repeated 
by  Chrysostom  in  another  of  his  Lent  sermons,"" 
much  in  the  same  words,  which  therefore  it  is  need- 


'""'  Chrys.  Horn,  in  Psal.  cxlv.  sivede  Hcbdomade  Magna, 
t.  3.  p.  821. 

""  Chrys.  Horn.  30.  ia  Gen.  t.  2.  p.  426. 

""*  Dionys.  Epist.  Canon,  can.  1.  ap.  Bevereg.  Pandect, 
t.  2.  p,  3. 


less  to  recite  at  length  in  this  place ;  but  it  will  not 
be  improper  to  review  the  particulars,  and  confirm 
them  by  parallel  passages  of  other  writers.  It  is 
evident,  the  strict  observation  of  this  week  was  in 
use  in  the  time  of  Dionysius,  bishop  of  Alexandria, 
who  was  scholar  to  Origen,  though  with  some  differ- 
ence, according  to  men's  ability  or  zeal  in  observing 
it ;  for  he  thus  speaks  of  it  in  his  canonical  epis- 
tle :  '"*'  Some  make  a  superposition  of  the  whole  six 
days,  continuing  all  the  time  without  eating ;  some 
add  two  days  together,  some  three,  some  four,  and 
some  not  one.  Now,  to  those  who  have  borne  such 
superpositions,  continuing  without  sustenance,  and 
grow  unable  to  hold  out,  and  are  ready  to  faint,  to 
them  leave  is  to  be  given  for  an  earlier  refreshment. 
But  if  there  be  any,  who  have  been  so  far  from 
superponing  the  preceding  days,  that  they  have  not 
so  much  as  kept  a  common  fast,  but,  it  may  be, 
have  feasted  on  them,  and  then  coming  to  the  two 
last  days,  Friday  and  the  Saturday,  have  kept  a 
fast  of  superposition  on  them,  and  think  they  do  a 
great  thing  if  they  hold  out  till  break  of  day;  I 
cannot  think  these  have  striven  equally  with  those 
who  have  been  engaged  in  the  exercise  more  days 
before. 

It  is  plain  from  hence,  that  in  this 


Sect.  25. 
lat.    meiinl 
the    fasts,   called 
vTrepOiaeK,  an 
superiwsitiones, 


the  common  way  of  fasting.  For 
whereas  in  the  foregoing  part  of  Lent  dmSl-StsTn  tuil 
they  took  some  refreshment  every 
evening,  and  never  fasted  on  the  sabbath ;  now  they 
not  only  fasted  on  the  sabbath  in  this  week,  but 
added  to  it,  some  one  day,  some  two,  some  three, 
some  four,  some  five  days,  which  they  passed  in 
perfect  abstinence,  eating  nothing  all  this  week  till 
the  morning  of  the  resurrection.  This  kind  of  fast- 
ing the  Greeks  call  vTnpQirjug,  and  the  Latins  su- 
petyositioncs,  superpository  or  additional  fasts.  Di- 
onysius, in  the  place  last  mentioned,  uses  the  name 
virt^TiQ'fjxtvoi,  for  those  that  passed  the  whole  six 
days  fasting.  And  Epiphanius,  speaking '"'  of  the 
manner  of  observing  the  same  six  days,  says,  All 
the  people  kept  them  iv  ^.Tipofayig.,  living  on  dry 
meats,  namely,  bread  and  salt  and  water,  which 
they  only  used  at  evening :  and  they  that  were  more 
zealous,  superadded  two,  three,  and  four  days,  and 
some  the  whole  week,  till  cock-crowing  on  Sunday 
morning.  Where  we  may  observe  two  sorts  of  ad- 
ditions made  to  the  common  fast  in  this  week  above 
others ;  first,  that  they  confined  themselves  to  the 
use  of  dry  meats  only,  which  they  did  not  generally 
in  the  former  part  of  Lent ;  and,  secondly,  that  they 
continued  their  fast  for  several  days  together  with- 


"'°  Epiphan.  Expnsit.  Fid.  n.  23.  Ot  St.  c-trov&aioL  SiirKa.'s 
K(u  TpiTrXn:?  kul  TiTpairXa^  virtpTidivTai,  Kai  bXrjv  t^v 
ipSo/iuoa  Tiyis  axpt  aXsKTpuovoou  KXayyijs,  T»;s  KvpiaKrjs 
t7ri(pto(TKo6(Tr]i.     Vid.  Constit.  Apost,  lib.  5.  cap.  18. 


I 


Chap.  I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


\[H7 


out  any  sustenance,  some  passing  over  the  whole 
six  days  in  this  rigorous  way  without  any  abate- 
ment. And  so  Epiphanius  represents  it  in  another 
place,""  where  he  speaks  of  (he  manner  of  observing 
the  holy  week  of  the  Pasch :  Some  continued  the 
whole  week  virfpTiQkiuvoi,  making  one  continued  fast 
of  the  whole  ;  others  eat  after  two  days,  and  others 
every  evening.  This  was  otherwise  called  iinavv- 
d-iTTtiv,  and  jcjunia  conjunr/ere  et  contimtare,  as  we 
find  in  Sozomen  and  TertuUian.  For  Sozomen,'" 
speaking  of  Spiridion's  way  of  observing  the  great 
Paschal  week,  says.  At  that  time  he  was  used  with 
his  whole  family  linavvdtrTtiv  H^v  vijOTeiav,  to  join 
one  day  of  fasting  to  another,  and  only  eat  at  a 
certain  day,  continuing  without  any  food  all  the 
days  between.  And  this  in  TertuUian's  phrase  is 
jcjunia  conjunfjere,  to  join  one  day  of  fasting  to  an- 
other ;"■  and  sahhatmn  confiiutare  cunijcjuniis  Para- 
sceues,^"  to  make  Friday  and  Saturday  in  the  Passion 
week  one  continued  fast.  This  was  an  exercise 
which  many  of  those  who  followed  the  ascetic  life 
used  at  other  times :  for  Evagrius,  speaking  of  the 
monks  of  Palestine,  says,'"  they  observed  rdc  Ka- 
Xovfisvag  vTrfpOiaifiovc,  those  called  superpository 
fasts,  continuing  them  for  two  or  three  days,  and 
some  for  five  days  together.  This  in  the  Latin 
writers  is  called  superpositio  jejunii :  as  in  the  frag- 
ment of  Victorinus  Petavionensis,  published  by  Dr. 
Cave,"*  where  he  speaks  of  the  several  sorts  of  fasts 
observed  among  Christians,  some  of  which  were 
only  till  the  ninth  hour,  some  till  evening,  and 
some  with  a  superposition  or  addition  of  one  fast- 
ing day  to  another.  Though  we  must  note,  that 
the  superposition  of  a  fast  is  not  always  taken  in 
this  sense,  but  sometimes  denotes  a  new-appointed 
fast  of  any  kind,  though  it  had  nothing  extraordi- 
nary but  only  the  newness  of  the  imposition  in  it, 
as  we  find  in  the  council  of  Eliberis,"®  of  which 
more  hereafter  in  its  proper  place. 

The   next  addition  mentioned  by 
chnstians  ■  more  Chrysostom,  as  made  in  the  spiritual 

lilieral  in  thpir  alms  . 

and  charity  this  week  excrcisc  and  obscrvatiou  of  this  week, 

above  others.  ^  ^  ' 

is  their  more  liberal  distribution  of 
alms  to  the  poor,  and  exercise  of  all  kinds  of  charity 
to  those  that  stood  in  need  of  it.  For  the  nearer 
they  approached  to  the  passion  and  resurrection  of 
Christ,  by  which  all  the  blessings  in  the  world  were 
poured  forth  upon  men,  the  more  they  thought 
themselves  obliged  to  show  all  manner  of  acts  of 
mercy  and  kindness  toward  their  brethren. 


Particularly  this  week  before  Eas-  j,^^  ,. 
ter,  and  the  following  week,  was  a  or^Va^^d  iiTerty 
time  of  rest  and  liberty  to  servants.  f»^"™"»- 
Many  in  great  charity  had  their  freedom  granted 
them,  in  imitation  of  the  spiritual  liberty  which 
Christ  at  this  time  had  procured  for  all  mankind. 
This  is  clear  from  what  has  been  showed  before  '" 
out  of  Gregory  Nyssen,  and  the  laws  of  Theodosius, 
which  allow  all  juridical  acts  done  in  favour  of  slaves 
in  the  fifteen  days  of  the  Paschal  solemnity,  in 
which  both  the  Pasch  of  the  cross  and  the  Pasch 
of  the  resurrection  are  equally  included.  Both  these 
weeks  likewise  were  equally  set  apart  for  Divine 
service  :  and  for  that  reason  all  servants  had  a  va- 
cation from  their  ordinary  bodily  labour,  that  they 
might  have  more  leisure  and  opportunity  to  attend 
the  worship  of  God  and  concerns  of  their  souls. 
The  author  of  the  Constitutions,"*  in  conformity 
to  this  custom,  which  he  found  in  the  practice  of 
the  church,  gives  this  direction :  In  the  whole  great 
week  (before  Easter)  and  the  week  following,  let 
servants  rest  from  their  labour ;  because  the  one 
is  the  time  of  our  Lord's  passion,  and  the  other  of 
his  resurrection  ;  and  servants  have  need  to  be  in- 
structed in  the  knowledge  of  those  mysteries. 

That    pai'ticular    sort    of    charity 
which    Chrysostom    speaks    of,    as     a  ^m^'rAe^ 
showed  by  the  emperors  to  all  prison-  S'the  emperore"to 

,,  .       .        1  -    ,  ,         all    prisoners,    both 

ers,  as  well  criminals  as  debtors,  in  debtors  and  crimi- 

,  nals,  some  particular 

granting  them  a  general  release  out  ™?"  °^  erimimos 

^  ^  o  only  excepted. 

of  prison  at  this  season,  is  demon- 
strated from  the  imperial  laws  still  in  being :  for 
they  are  said  to  grant  this  indulgence  with  a  par- 
ticular respect  to  the  Paschal  solemnity,  which  in- 
cludes as  well  the  great  week  before,  as  the  week 
following  Easter-day.'"  And  so  not  only  Chrysos- 
tom, but  St.  Ambrose '■"  understood  it,  when  he  said. 
The  holy  days  of  the  last  week  in  Lent  was  the 
time  when  the  bonds  of  debtors  used  to  be  loosed. 
Wherefore  whatever  has  been  said  before  of  this  in- 
dulgence as  belonging  to  the  Easter  festival,  is  so 
to  be  understood  as  belonging  to  this  holy  and  great 
week  of  our  Saviour's  passion,  when  these  indul- 
gences first  commenced,  and  continued  in  force  till 
the  whole  festival  was  ended. 

What  Chrysostom  says  further  of         sect.  29 
the  emperor's  commanding  all  suits  la^^as^v^u^fvn  as 
and  processes  at  law  to  cease  in  this  toifSe'^eTbe"? 
great  week,  and  the  tribunal  doors  to  "^"^  ^**'*'^' 
be  shut  up,  is  taken  from  the  express  words  of  the 


""  Epiphan.  Hser.  29.  Nazaraeor. 

'"  Sozom.  lib.  1.  cap.  11. 

"-  Tertul.  de  Patient,  cap,  13. 

"'  Ibid,  de  Jejun.  cap.  14.  Vid.  Constitut.  Apostol.  lib. 
5.  cap.  18. 

"<  Evagr.  lib.  1.  cap.  21. 

"^  Victorin.  de  Fabrica  Mundi,  ap.  Cave,  Hist.  Literar. 
vol.  1.  p.  103.  Ratio  ostenditur,  quare  usque  ad  horam  no- 
4  G  2 


nam  jejiinaniiis,  usque  ad  vesperam,  ant  superpositio  usque 
in  altorum  diem  fiat. 

""  Cone.  Eliberit.  can.  23  et  26. 

"•  Book  XX.  chap.  5.  sect.  6  and  7. 

"«  Constif.  lib.  8.  cap.  33. 

"»Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  38.  de  Indulgent.  Criminum, 
Leg.  3  et  4. 

•-•"  Ambros.  Ep.  33. 


1188 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXI. 


law  of  Theodosius,  still  extant  in  both  the  Codes. 
For  these  appointing  what  days  shall  be  exempted 
from  juridical  actions,  expressly  mention'^'  the 
fifteen  days  of  the  Paschal  solemnity,  the  week 
preceding  and  the  week  following  Easter.  St. 
Austin'--  speaks  of  the  same;  and  Scaliger'^'  men- 
tions a  law  of  Constantine,  wherein  he  had  made  a 
like  decree,  that  the  two  Paschal  weeks,  the  one 
immediately  before,  and  the  other  following  Easter, 
should  be  exempted  from  all  business  of  the  law. 
The  design  of  which  was,  that  nothing  of  animosity, 
or  contention,  or  cruelty,  or  punishment,  or  blood- 
shed, should  appear  at  this  holy  season,  when  all 
men  were  labouring  to  obtain  mercy  and  pardon  by 
the  blood  of  Christ;  and  that  men,  sequestering 
themselves  from  all  civil  and  worldly  business, 
might  with  greater  assiduity  attend  the  exercises 
of  piety  which  were  peculiar  to  the  solemn  occasion. 
Sect  30  '^'^^  Thursday  in  this  week,  which 

tiiirweik^hotrob"  was  the  day  on  which  Christ  was  be- 
*^"'"^'  trayed,  and  instituted  the  communion 

at  his  last  supper,  was  observed  with  some  peculiar 
customs.  For  on  this  day,  in  some  of  the  Latin 
churches,  the  communion  was  administered  in  the 
evening  after  supper,  in  imitation  of  the  communion 
of  the  apostles  at  our  Lord's  last  supper;  as  we 
find  by  a  provision  made  in  one  of  the  canons  of 
the  third  council  of  Carthage,'-*  That  the  sacrament 
of  the  altar  should  always  be  received  by  men  fast- 
ing, except  on  one  anniversary  day,  when  the  Lord's 
last  supper  was  solemnly  commemorated.  St.  Aus- 
tin'-^ takes  notice  of  the  same  custom,  and  withal 
observes.  That  the  communion  in  some  places  was 
administered  twice  on  this  day ;  in  the  morning  for 
the  sake  of  such  as  could  not  keep  the  day  a  fast, 
and  in  the  evening  for  those  that  fasted  till  evening, 
when  they  ended  their  fast,  and  received  the  com- 
munion after  supper.  He  likewise  tells  us,  There 
was  a  particular  reason  why  many  could  not  fast 
upon  this  day,  and  therefore  they  received  the  com- 
munion in  the  morning ;  for  it  was  customary  with 
many,  who  had  kept  Lent,  to  bathe  and  wash  their 
bodies  on  this  day,  as  the  catechumens  did,  in  order 
to  appear  decently,  pure  and  clean  from  the  filth 
which  their  bodies  might  have  contracted  by  the 
austerities  of  Lent,  when  they  came  to  be  baptized 
on  the  vigil,  or  night  between  the  great  sabbath 
and  Easter-day  :  they  could  not  bear  both  bathing 
and  fasting,  and  therefore  they  fasted  not  on  this 


day,  but  received  the  communion  m  the  morning, 
and  eat  their  dinner  as  at  other  times ;  whilst  others 
fasted  all  the  day,  and  received  the  communion 
after  supper. 

On  this  day  the  competentes,  or  candidates  of 
baptism,  publicly  rehearsed  the  creed  before  the 
bishop  or  presbyters  in  the  church,  as  we  learn 
from  the  council  of  Laodicea,'-"  which  fixes  this  re- 
hearsal to  the  fifth  day  of  the  great  week ;  and  from 
Theodorus  Lector,'-'  who  says,  Timotheus,  bishop 
of  Constantinople,  was  the  first  that  ordered  the 
creed  to  be  recited  in  every  chinxh  assembly,  which 
before  was  used  to  be  repeated  only  once  a  year  by 
the  catechumens  on  the  Parasceue,  or  preparation  to 
our  Saviour's  passion,  when  the  bishop  was  wont 
to  catechise  them. 

On  this  day  it  was  customary  for  servants  to  receive 
the  communion,  as  we  find  in  Joannes  Moschus,'^ 
who  tells  us  a  remarkable  story  of  one  who  laid  up 
the  eucharist  in  his  chest,  which  he  had  brought 
home  from  church  with  him  ry  ay/^  Kal  fiiydXy 
TTEfiTTTy,  on  this  great  and  holy  fifth  day  of  the  Pas- 
sion week  ;  under  which  name  we  find  it  also  in  the 
title  of  one  of  Chrysostom's  sermons  upon  this  day,''^ 
r7~i  ay'iq.  Kal  niydXy  irivrah.  The  modern  ritualists  call 
it  Maundy  Thursday,  Dies  31andaU,  because  on  this 
day  our  Saviour  washed  his  disciples'  feet,  and  gave 
them  commandment  to  follow ''°  his  example;  or 
because  he  instituted  the  sacrament  of  his  supper 
upon  this  day,  commanding  his  disciples  to  do  the 
same  in  remembrance  of  him,  as  others '"  expound 
it.  But  the  pope's  custom  of  excommunicating  all 
people  and  princes,  that  are  enemies  to  the  Roman 
church,  on  this  day ;  and  among  the  rest  the  king 
of"-  Spain,  for  invading  the  rights  of  the  church 
(whom  he  absolves  again  without  asking  any  par- 
don on  Good  Friday) ;  as  it  is  a  grand  ridicule  and 
mock  of  church  discipline,  so  it  is  without  all 
foimdation  in  the  practice  of  the  ancient  church. 

Some,  with  greater  probability,  sup- 
pose, that  such  public   penitents  as      or  ihe  Passion 

'^  ■^.  '^  dav,  or  the  Pnsrfi  of 

had  completed  their  penance  for  one,  ""■■  Lmd-s  cruci- 
two,  three  years,  or  more,  the  Lent 
preceding,  (for  the  years  of  penance  were?  usually 
reckoned  from  Easter  to  Easter,)  were  absolved  on 
this  day.  At  least  it  is  certain  they  were  recon- 
ciled either  this  or  the  day  following.  For  St. 
Ambrose  '^'  says  very  expressly,  that  the  day  of  re- 
laxation of  penance  in  the  church,  was  the  day  on 


•='  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  2.  Tit.  8.  dc  Feriis,  Leg.  2.  Sanctos 
quoqiie  Paschae  dies,  qui  septeno  vol  pr.Tcedunt  numero, 
vel  sequuntur,  in  eadem  observatioiie  numcramus. 

'--  Aug.  Serm.  19.  ex  editis  a  Siimondo. 

'-^  Scaliger.  de  Emendat.  Tempor.  lib.  7.  p.  776. 

'-'  Couc.  Carth.  3.  can.  23.  Ut  sacramenta  altaris  non 
nisi  a  jejunis  hominibis  celebrentur,  excepto  uno  die  anni- 
versario,  quo  coena  Domini  celebratur. 

'-■*  Aug.  Ep.  118.  ad  Januar.  cap.  7. 

'-"  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  46. 


12'  Theodor.  lib.  2.  p.  563. 

'"s  Mosch.  Prat.  Spir.  cap.  79. 

'-^  Chrys.  Horn.  3U.  de  Proditione  Juda?,  t.  5.  p.  453. 

'™  See  Bishop  Sparrow's  Rationale  on  the  Common 
Prayer,  p.  135. 

'S'  See  L'Estrauge,  Alliance  of  Div.  Offic.  p.  142. 

"-  Bull,  in  Coena  Domini.    Moulin,  Buckler  of  Faith. 

'^^  Ambros.  Ep.  33.  ad  Sororem.  Erat  dies  quo  sese  Do- 
minus  pro  nobis  tradidit,  quo  in  ecclesia  poenitentia  re- 
laxatur. 


Chap.  I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


USD 


which  our  Lord  gave  himself  for  us.  Which  must 
mean  either  the  day  on  which  he  was  betrayed  by 
Judas ;  or  the  day  of  his  passion,  when  he  ufTcrcd 
himself  a  sacrifice  for  the  sins  of  mankind;  that  is 
the  Piirascctie,  or  Good  Fridaj',  or  the  Pasch,  as  it 
is  often  called,  meaning  the  Pasch  of  the  cross, 
Yldaxa  aravpojai/iov,  in  opposition  to  the  ndaxa  ava- 
cTciffifiov,  or  Pasch  of  the  resurrection.  Nor  was  it 
only  particular  absolutions  that  were  granted  to 
public  penitents  on  this  day  of  the  passion,  but  a 
general  absolution  or  indulgence  was  proclaimed  to 
all  the  people  observing  the  day  with  fasting, 
prayers,  and  true  contrition  or  compunction.  As 
we  find  in  the  fourth  council  of  Toledo,  which 
makes  a  complaint,  that  in  some  of  the  Spanish 
churches  the  day  of  the  Lord's  passion  was  not  re- 
gularly observed;  for  the  church  doors  were  shut 
up,  and  no  Divine  service  performed :  wherefore 
they  order,'^^  that  the  mystery  of  the  cross  should 
be  preached  on  this  day,  and  that  all  the  people 
should  wait  for  the  indulgence  or  absolution,  that, 
being  cleansed  by  the  compunction  of  repentance 
and  remission  of  sins,  they  might  worthily  celebrate 
the  venerable  feast  of  the  Lord's  resurrection,  and 
come  pure  and  clean  to  partake  of  the  sacrament  of 
his  body  and  blood.  They  fiu'ther  condemn '"  such 
as  ended  their  fast  on  this  day  at  the  ninth  hour, 
and  order,  that  all,  except  little  children,  old  men, 
and  the  sick,  should  spend  the  whole  day  in  absti- 
nence and  mourning,  and  not  give  over  their  fast, 
ante  peractas  indidt/entice  preces,  before  the  prayers 
of  absolution  were  ended.  Whence  it  may  be  in- 
ferred, that  this  absolution  was  the  close  of  the 
public  service  of  this  day,  which  whoever  did  not 
attend,  was  to  be  denied  the  communion  on  Easter- 
day,  because,  as  the  canon  words  it,  he  paid  not  a 
due  respect  by  abstinence  to  the  passion  of  his  Lord. 
Indeed  this  day,  as  we  have  seen  before,  was  one  of 
those  two  great  days  which  all  Christians  in  general 
thought  themselves  obliged  strictly  to  observe:  even 
they  who  kept  no  other  Lent,  religiously  observed 
these,  as  the  days  on  which  the  Bridegroom  was 
taken  from  them  :  and  that  seems  to  be  the  reason 
why  this  canon  treats  those  with  a  little  more 
severity  who  neglected  the  day  of  our  Saviour's 
passion,  because  they  contemned  the  general  custom 
and  observation  of  Christians. 

g^^j  32  The  Saturday  or  sabbath  in  this 

or°sreat  ^s\'bba'S  wcek  was  commouly  known   by  the 

before  Easter.  ^^^^    ^f  ^j^^    ^^^^   Sabbath  ;'='=    aS  WC 


find  it  termed  in  Chrysostom  and  others.  It  had 
many  peculiarities  belonging  to  it.  For  this  was 
the  only  sabbath  throughout  the  year  that  (he  Greek 
churches  and  some  of  the  Western  kept  as  a  fast. 
All  other  sabbaths,  even  in  Lent,  were  observed  as 
festivals  together  with  the  Lord's  day,  as  has  been 
showed  several  times  before :  but  this  great  sabbath 
was  observed  as  a  most  solemn  fast,  which  some 
joined  with  the  fast  of  the  preceding  daj-,  and  made 
them  both  but  one  continued  fast  of  superposition  ; 
and  they  who  could  not  thus  join  both  days  together 
without  some  refreshment,  yet  observed  the  Satur- 
day with  gi-cat  strictness,  holding  out  their  fast  till 
after  midnight,  or  cock-crowing  in  the  morning. 
Thus  we  find  it  ordered  in  the  Constitutions,'"  con- 
formable to  the  practice  of  the  church :  Let  as  many 
as  are  able  fast  the  Friday  and  the  sabbath  through- 
out, eating  nothing  till  cock-crowing  in  the  morn- 
ing :  but  if  any  cannot  tAq  dvo  avvct-n-rtiv  ofiov,  join 
both  days  together  in  one  continued  fast,  let  him, 
however,  keep  the  sabbath  a  fast;  for  the  Lord, 
speaking  of  himself,  said,  "  When  the  Bridegroom 
shall  be  taken  away  from  them,  in  those  days  shall 
they  fast."  So  this  day  was  kept  a  universal  fast 
over  the  whole  church ;  and  they  continued  it  not 
only  till  evening,  but  till  cock-crowing  in  the  morn- 
ing, which  was  the  supposed  time  of  our  Saviour's 
resurrection.  The  preceding  time  of  the  night  was 
spent  in  a  vigil  or  pernoctation,  when  they  assem- 
bled together  to  perform  all  parts  of  Divine  service, 
psalmody,  and  reading  the  Scripture,  the  law,  the 
prophets,  and  the  gospel,  praying,  and  preaching, 
and  Ijaptizing  such  of  their  catechumens  as  present- 
ed themselves  to  baptism:  all  which  acts  are  particu- 
larly mentioned  by  the  author  of  the  Constitutions,'^ 
in  his  description  of  the  Paschal  vigil.  The  ac- 
count of  the  several  vigils  observed  in  the  church 
has  been  given  in  a  former  Book  :"^  here  I  only  take 
notice  of  this  one,  which  was  the  most  famous  of 
all  others,  between  the  great  sabbath  and  Easter- 
day.  Of  which  there  is  frequent  mention  made  in 
the  ancient  writers,  Chrysostom,'^"  Epiphanius,'" 
Palladius,'*-  Gregory  Nyssen,'"  and  many  others. 
Particularly  Lactantius  and  St.  Jerom  tell  us,  they 
observed  it  upon  a  double  account.  This  is  the 
night,  says  Lactantius,'"  which  we  observe  with  a 
pernoctation  or  watching  all  the  night  for  the  ad- 
vent of  our  King  and  God ;  of  which  night  there 
is  a  twofold  reason  to  be  given,  because  in  this 
nis:ht  our  Lord  was  raised  to  life  again  after  his 


'^'  Cone.  Tolctan.  4.  can.  6.  Oportet  eodem  die  mysterium 
crucis  praedicari,  atque  indulgtentiam  criminum  clara  voce 
omnem  populum  preestolari,  &c. 

"5  Ibid.  can.  7. 

'^  Chrys.  Ep.  1.  ad  Innocent,  t.  4.  p.  680. 

'"  Constit.  lib.  5.  cap.  18.  '^  Ibid.  cap.  19. 

'™  Book  XIII.  chap.  9.  sect.  4. 

""  Chrys.  Horn.  30.  in  Gen   p.  426.    Ep.  1.  ad  Innocent. 


t.  4.  p.  680. 

»|  Epiphan.  Expos.  Fid.  n.  22. 

"-  Pallad.  Vit.  Chrysost.  cap.  9. 

'"  Nyssen.  Oral,  in  Resur.  Douiin. 

'"  Lact.  lib.  7.  cap.  19.  Haec  est  no.x  qua;  nobis  propter 
adventum  regis  ac  Dei  nostri  pervigilio  celebratur:  cujns 
noctis  duplex  ratio  est,  quod  et  in  ea  vitain  turn  recepit,  cum 
passus  est;  et  postea  orbis  tcrrse  regnum  recepturus  est. 


1190 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH, 


Book  XXI. 


passion ;  and  in  the  same  he  is  expected  to  return 
to  receive  the  kingdom  of  the  world,  that  is,  to 
come  to  judgment.  St.  Jerom'"  says.  It  was  a 
tradition  among  the  Jews,  that  Christ  would  come 
at  midnight,  as  he  did  upon  the  Egyptians  at  the 
time  of  the  passover:  and  tlience,  he  thinks,  the 
apostolical  custom  came,  not  to  dismiss  the  people 
on  the  Paschal  vigil  before  midnight,  expecting  the 
coming  of  Christ ;  after  which  time,  presuming  upon 
security,  they  keep  the  day  a  festival.  Eusebius  '*'^ 
says.  In  the  time  of  Constantine  this  vigil  was  kept 
with  great  pomp  ;  for  he  set  up  lofty  pillars  of  wax 
to  burn  as  torches  all  over  the  city,  and  lamps  bm-n- 
ing  in  all  places,  so  that  the  night  seemed  to  outshine 
the  sun  at  noon-day.  Nazianzen  also '"  speaks  of 
this  custom  of  setting  up  lamps  and  torches  both  in 
the  churches  and  their  own  private  houses :  which, 
he  says,  they  did  as  a  jn-odroinus  or  forerunner  of 
that  great  Light  the  Sun  of  righteousness  arising  on 
the  world  on  Easter-day.  TertuUian  intimates,  that 
this  vigil  was  solemnly  kept  in  his  time  by  all  sorts 
of  people,  by  women  as  well  as  men :  for  writing 
against  the  marriage  of  Christian  women  with  hea- 
thens, among  other  arguments  he  puts  this  ques- 
tion "^  to  them,  to  dissuade  them  from  such  danger- 
ous engagements  :  What  unbelieving  husband  will 
be  content  to  let  his  wife  be  absent  from  him  all 
night  at  the  celebration  of  the  Paschal  vigil  ?  And 
it  is  plain  from  Socrates,  that  the  sectaries  as  well 
as  the  catholics  had  this  night  in  great  veneration  : 
for  it  was  upon  one  of  these  Paschal  vigils,""  that 
the  Sabbatians,  who  were  a  subdivision  of  the  No- 
vatian  schismatics,  were  seized  with  such  a  panic 
terror  in  the  night,  that  flying  in  a  strange  confusion 
through  a  strait  passage  from  the  place  where 
they  were  met,  they  pressed  so  hard  upon  one  an- 
other, that  threescore  and  ten  of  them  were  trodden 
to  death. 

This  night  was  famous  above  all  others  for  bap- 
tizing of  catechumens ;  as  we  learn  not  only  from 
the  general  account  given  of  the  ancient  time  of 
baptizing,  as  fixed  chiefly  to  the  Paschal  solemnity; 
but  more  particularly  from  those  sad  relations  made 
by  Chrysostom  '^  and  Palladius  '*'  of  the  barbarous 
invasion  of  Chrysostom's  church,  and  the  assaults 
made  upon  him  and  his  clergy  and  people,  as  they 
were  assembled  together  this  night  to  keep  the 
Paschal  vigil,  and  baptize  the  catechumens.  Where, 
among  other  grievous  acts  of  hostiUty,  they  take 
notice   of  this  one   unparalleled  instance   of   in- 


decent cruelty,  that  the  enemy  forced  the  women 
catechumens,  who  were  divested  in  order  to  baptism, 
to  fly  away  naked,  and  slew  many  of  them  in  the 
very  baptisteries,  making  the  holy  fonts  swim  with 
blood.  And  yet  in  this  one  night,  notwithstanding 
the  tumult,  three  thousand  persons  were  baptized, 
as  is  particularly  noted  by  Palladius  ;  from  whence 
it  is  easy  to  conclude,  that  this  night  was  a  cele- 
brated time  of  baptism  ;  and  that  as  the  penitents 
were  restored  the  day  before  to  the  communion, 
which  they  had  lost,  so  on  this  day  the  catechumens 
were  made  complete  Christians,  and  admitted  to 
the  communion,  which  they  never  had  before,  and 
both  in  order  to  participate  of  the  holy  eucharist 
on  Easter-day.  So  we  have  seen  the  whole  prac- 
tice of  the  church  from  first  to  last  in  relation  to 
the  observation  of  Lent,  or  the  first  great  anniver- 
sary fast  of  forty  days. 


CHAPTER  II. 


OF  THE  FASTS  OF  THE  FOUR  SEASONS  ;  OF  MONTHLY 
FASTS,  AND  THE  ORIGINAL  OF  EMBER  WEEKS  AND 
ROGATION  DAYS. 

The  next  anniversary  fasting  days 

were  those  which  were  called  Jejtcnia    The  raft  if  March, 

or  tlie  first  month, 

quatuor  tempo)-um,  the  fasts  of  the  four  the  same  Hith  the 
seasons  of  the  year.  These  were  called 
the  fasts  of  the  first,  fourth,  seventh,  and  tenth 
months,  or  the  fasts  of  the  spring,  summer,  autumn, 
and  winter,  observed  in  March,  June,  September, 
and  December,  which  were  accounted  the  begin- 
ning of  the  four  several  seasons  of  the  year.  These 
were  at  first  designed,  not  to  be  the  seasons  of  or- 
dination, but  to  beg  a  blessing  of  God  upon  the 
several  seasons  of  the  year,  or  to  return  thanks  for 
the  benefits  received  in  each  of  them,  or  to  exercise 
and  puriiy  both  body  and  soul  in  a  more  particular 
manner  at  the  return  of  these  certain  terms  of 
stricter  discipline  and  more  extraordinary  devotion. 
One  of  the  first  that  speaks  formally  of  these  fasts 
under  the  name  and  number  of  the  four  seasons  is 
Pope  Leo,  in  his  sermons  about  the  year  450,  in  one 
of  which  he  thus  recounts  them  :  The  ecclesiastical 
fasts  are  so  distributed  through  the  whole  year,  that 
there  is  a  law  of  abstinence  affixed  to  all  the  four' 


'"  Hierom.  in  Mat.  xxv.  6.  Traditio  Jiuloeorum  est, 
Christum  meilia  nocte  venturuni,  in  similitudinem  ^gyptii 
temporis,  quando  Pascha  celebratum  est,  et  exterminator  ve- 
nit,  et  Dominus  super  tabernacula  transiit,  et  sanguine  agni 
postes  nostrarum  frontium  consecrata;  sunt.  Unde  reor  et 
traditionem  apostolicam  permansisse,  ut  in  die  vigiliarum 
Paschae,  ante  noctis  diraidiimi  populos  dimittere  non  liceat 
expectantcs  adventimi  Christi,  iVc. 


""  Euseb.  Vit.  Const,  lib.  4.  cap.  22  et  57. 
'"  Naz.  Orat.  42.  de  Pasch.  p.  676. 

'^^  Tertul.  ad  Uxor.  lib.  2.  cap.  4.  Quis  denique  solennibus 
Pascha;  abnoctantem  securus  sustinebit  ? 
'■'^  Socrat.  lib.  7.  cap.  5. 
'^  Chrys.  Ep.  1.  ad  Innocent,  t.  4.  p.  680. 
'"'  Pallad.  Vit.  Chrysost.  cap.  9. 
■'  Leo,  Serm.  8.  de  Jejun.  10.  Mensis.    Ita  per  totius  anui 


Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


IIMI 


seasons ;  for  we  keep  the  spring  fast  in  Lent,  the 
summer  fast  in  Pentecost,  the  autumnal  fast  in  the 
seventh  month,  and  the  winter  fast  in  the  tenth 
month.  In  another  place'^  he  says.  These  fasts  are 
incessantly  renewed  with  the  course  of  days  and 
times,  that  the  medicinal  power  of  them  may  put 
us  in  mind  of  our  infirmities.  Philastrius'  also 
speaks  of  four  noted  annual  fasts  kept  by  the 
church  in  the  course  of  the  year ;  but  instead  of 
the  fast  of  September  he  puts  the  fast  of  Epiphany, 
reckoning  them  in  this  order:  The  church  celebrates 
four  fasts  in  the  year;  the  first  before  the  Nativity, 
the  second  before  the  Pasch,  the  third  before  Epi- 
phany, and  the  fourth  in  Pentecost.  So  that  these 
four  fasts  were  not  exactly  the  same  in  the  time  of 
Philastrius  that  they  were  in  the  time  of  Pope  Leo. 
The  spring  fast,  or  the  fast  before  Easter,  is  evi- 
dently the  Lent  fast,  of  which  we  have  spoken  be- 
fore ;  for  as  yet  there  was  no  particular  week  in 
Lent  set  aside  for  ordinations,  to  make  a  distinct 
fast  of  it,  as  we  shall  see  hereafter. 

The  fast  of  Pentecost,  which  Leo 

Sect.  2. 

The  fast  oi  Pen-    calls  the  summcr  fast,  is  mentioned 

tecost. 

also  by  Athanasius :  for  in  his  apology 
to  Constantius*  he  says,  The  people  in  the  week 
after  the  holy  Pentecost,  having  finished  their  fast, 
went  to  pray  in  the  cemeteiy  or  church-yard.  The 
council  of  Girone  in  Spain^  fixes  this  to  the  week 
after  Pentecost,  so  that  after  the  solemnity  of  that 
festival  was  over,  a  three  days'  fast  was  to  be  kept 
on  Thursday,  Friday,  and  Saturday  in  the  week 
immediately  following.  The  second  council  of 
Tours'*  appoints  the  whole  week  after  Pentecost  to 
be  kept  an  exact  fast  by  those  of  the  monastic  life. 
But  whether  this  was  in  the  week  following  Whit 
Sunday,  or  the  week  after  that,  appears  not  from 
those  canons.  Neither  were  these  fasts  of  the  four 
seasons  so  fixed  to  any  certain  week,  but  that  they 
sometimes  varied  a  week  or  more  in  their  observa- 
tion, as  appears  from  the  council  of  Salegunstade,' 
which  gives  particular  directions  how  to  order  and 


accommodate  these  variations.  And  in  one  of  our 
English  councils  held  at  Oxford'  under  Stephen 
Langlon,  anno  1222,  which  settles  the  fasts  of  the 
four  seasons,  it  is  intimated,  That  the  fast  of  Pente- 
cost was  diflerently  observed  by  many ;  for  some 
kept  it  in  the  week  after  the  Litanies,  or  Rogation 
days,  and  others  in  the  week  of  Pentecost.  Which 
shows,  that  there  was  no  universal  rule  or  tradi- 
tion about  this  fast  in  the  church. 

The  fast  of  the  seventh  month,  or  g^^^  3 
the  autumnal  fast,  is  not  so  much  as  ,o7on^h'mL°h  "« 
mentioned  by  Philastrius,  nor  any  "- -'""'"'^ '"'• 
other  writer  that  I  know  of,  before  Pope  Leo.  But 
after  him  Gelasius"  speaks  of  it  as  one  of  the  four 
solemn  times  of  ordination,  which  were  always  ac- 
companied with  fasting  from  the  time  that  they  were 
first  introduced  into  the  church  :  but  this  was  not 
till  after  the  time  of  Pope  Leo;'"  for  though  he  often 
speaks  of  the  fast  of  September,  or  the  seventh 
month,  yet  he  never  so  much  as  intimates,  that  it 
was  a  stated  time  of  ordination,  but  assigns  other 
reasons  for  it,  because  it  was  fit  men  should  purge 
themselves  from  sin  at  the  return  of  every  various 
season  of  the  year. 

The  fast  of  December,  or  the  tenth 
month,  by  some  called  the  Advent  or    ThcAdve'ntorNa- 

•KT     ,•     ■.       p  ■  ■  T  I        T->i   •!  tivily  fast,  called  the 

Natmty  last,  is  mentioned  bv  Philas-  fast  of  nccemiwr, 

*  or  the  tenth  month. 

trius,  as  one  of  the  four  solemn  fasts 
of  the  church.  This  fast  anciently  was  kept  from 
the  festival  of  St.  Martin  till  Christmas-day,  three 
days  in  the  week,  Mondays,  Wednesdays,  and  Fri- 
days, as  we  find  in  the  first  council  of  Mascon, 
which  orders,  That  it  should  be  observed  after  the 
manner  of  Lent,  that  is,  that  the  oblation  should 
not  be  celebrated  on"  those  days,  and  that  the  ca- 
nons should  be  read  at  this  time,  that  no  one  might 
pretend  ignorance  for  the  non-observance  of  them. 
The  second  qouncil  of  Tours  '-  appoints  the  monks 
to  fast  every  day  during  this  season.  But  in  the 
councils  of  Salegunstade  '^  and  Oxford  '^  this  fast  is 
reduced  to  the  week  immediately  before  Christmas. 


circulum  distributa  sunt,  ut  lex  abstincntiae  omnibus  sit 
ascripta  temporibus:  si  quidem  jejunium  vernum  in  Quad- 
ragesima, aestivum  in  Pentecoste,  autumnale  in  mense  sep- 
timo,  hyemale  autem  in  hoc,  qui  est  dccimus,  celebramus. 

-  Serui.  7.  de  Jejun.  Decimi  Mensis.  Et  Scrra.  9.  de 
Jejun.  Septimi  Mensis. 

3  Philastr.  Haer.  97.  Bibl.  Patr.  t.  4.  p.  48.  Per  annum 
quatuor  jejunia  in  ecclesia  celcbrantur  :  in  natali  primuni, 
deinde  in  Pascha,  tertium  in  Epiphania,  quartum  in  Pen- 
tecoste.  Ab   Ascensione    inde   usque    ad    Pentecosten 

diebus  decern. 

^  Athan.  Apol.  de  Fuga,  t.  1.  p.  704. 

^  Cone.  Gerundens.  can.  2.  Ut  expleta  solcnnitate  Pen- 
tecostes,  in  sequenti  septimana,  a  quinta  feria  in  sabbatum, 
per  hoc  triduum  abstinentia  celebretur. 

''  Cone.  Turon.  2.  can.  17.  Post  Quinquagesimam  tota 
hebdomada  exacte  jejunent. 

'  Cone.  Salegunstad.  an.  1022.  can.  2. 

■'Cone.   Oxon.  can.  8.  Cone.  t.  11.  p.  275.     In  Martio 


prim  ahebdomada  jejunandum  est  feria  quarta  et  sexta  et 
sabbato.  In  .luuio  in  sccunda,  quod  dupliciter  observatur 
a  plmibus,  in  prima  hebdomada  post  Litanias,  aut  in  heb- 
domada Pentecostes.  In  Septembri  per  tres  dies.  In  prox- 
ima  septimana  integra  ante  natalem  Domini. 

'  Gelas.  Ep.  9.  ad  Episcopos  Lucani.x,  cap.  11. 

"•  Leo,  Serm.  9.  de  Jejun.  7.  Mensis,  p.  88. 

"  Cone.  Matiscon.  1.  can.  9.  Ut  a  feria  Sancti  Martini 
usque  ad  natalem  Domini  secunda,  quarta  et  secta  sabbati 
jpjuuetur,  et  sacrificia  Quadragesimali  ordine  celebrentur. 
In  quibus  diebus  canones  logendos  esse  sancimus,  ut  nuUus 
fateatur  se  per  ignorantiam  deliquisse. 

'-  Cone.  Turon.  2.  can.  18.  De  Deeembri  usque  ad  na- 
talem Domini  omni  die  jejunent. 

"  Cone.  Salegunstad.  can.  2.  In  Deeembri  illiid  obser- 
vanduni  erit,  ut  proximo  sabbato  ante  vigiliam  natalis 
Domini  celebretur  jejunium. 

"  Cone.  Oxon.  can.  8.  ut  supra.  In  proxima  scptinjana 
integra  ante  natalem  Domini  jejunandum. 


1192 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXI. 


Sect.  5. 
The  fast  at  Epi- 
phany, 


Besides  these  fasts  at  the  four  sea- 
sons, Philastrius  mentions  a  fast  be- 
fore Epiphany,  or  rather,  as  has  been 
observed  before,  put  it  in  the  room  of  the  fast  of 
September.  The  second  council  of  Tours  '^  takes 
notice  of  this,  and  tells  us.  It  was  a  fast  of  three 
days,  and  that  it  was  appointed  particularly  at  that 
time  in  opposition  to  the  heathen  festivals,  which 
they  were  used  to  observe  with  a  great  deal  of  cor- 
ruption, and  licentious  re  veilings  for  three  days  to- 
gether :  which  three  days  therefore  the  fathers 
rather  chose  to  make  days  of  abstinence  and  private 
Litanies,  to  restrain  the  people  from  running  into 
the  extravagant  riots  and  excesses  of  the  heathen. 
So  that  New-year's  daj',  or  Circumcision,  was  rather 
kept  as  a  fast  than  a  festival,  for  several  ages  in 
the  church.  For  it  appears  from  the  foresaid  coun- 
cil, that  the  calends  of  January  was  included  in  the 
three  days  which  was  called  the  Epiphany  fast. 

se^t  6  In    some    places    they    had    also 

Of  monthly  fasts,  n^gnthly  fasts  throughout  the  year, 
except  in  the  two  months  of  July  and  August. 
Thus  it  was  in  Spain,  by  an  order  of  the  council 
of  Eliberis,  which  orders,'"  That  extraordinary  fasts 
should  be  celebrated  every  month,  except  those 
two,  because  of  the  sickliness  of  the  season.  That 
these  were  something  more  than  the  ordinary  fasts 
of  Wednesday  and  Friday,  seems  evident  from  the 
name  that  is  given  them  of  fasts  of  superposition, 
which  in  this  place  denotes  not  the  length  of  the 
fast,  but  the  newness  of  the  imposition,  as  Albaspi- 
naeus  observes  upon  the  place  ;  though  what  sort 
of  fasts  they  were  is  not  very  easy  to  determine. 
If  I  may  be  allowed  to  conjecture  in  an  obscure 
matter,  I  should  conclude  this  superposition  of 
fasts  was  the  addition  of  Monday  to  Wednesday 
and  Friday,  because  we  find  it  so  in  one  of  the 
French"  councils,  which,  ordering  the  manner  of 
fasting  in  several  months  of  the  year  for  those  of 
the  ascetic  life,  appoints  them  to  fast  three  times  a 
week,  viz.  on  Monday,  Wednesday,  and  Friday, 
from  Pentecost  till  August ;  and  so  again  for  the 
months  of  September,  October,  and  November.  But 
August  is  excepted,  because  in  this  month  every 
day  almost  was  celebrated  as  the  festival  of  some 


martyr,'^  with  the  manication,  or  morning-service 
proper  to  a  festival.  Besides  that  the  council  of 
Eliberis  itself,  in  another  canon'' introducing  the 
Saturday  fast  into  Spain,  which  before  was  used  to 
be  a  festival,  for  that  reason  calls  it  a  fast  of  super- 
position, because  it  was  newly  taken  into  use  in 
Spain,  after  the  example  of  the  church  of  Rome.  But 
if  this  conjecture  about  monthly  and  superpository 
fasts  be  not  satisfactory,  every  reader  is  at  liberty  to 
judge  for  himself  upon  better  light  and  information. 

Some  think  the  Ember  weeks,  or 
ordination  fasts,  were  the  same  with     The  oHginai  of 

the     four  Ember 

tile   lasts  oi  the   tour  seasons,  and  ^'^eks,  or  ordina- 
tion fasts. 

therefore  commonly  take  it  for  grant- 
ed, that  what  proves  the  one  proves  the  other  also. 
But  I  have  formerly  had  occasion  to  show,""  that 
for  several  ages  there  were  no  certain  times  of  or- 
dination settled  by  the  church,  but  that  she  ordain- 
ed persons  to  all  offices  and  degrees  at  any  time,  as 
the  necessity  of  affairs  required.  And  when  the 
fasts  of  the  four  seasons  were  first  instituted,  they 
were  appointed  for  other  ends,  and  not  upon  the 
account  of  ordinations  :  because  the  ordinations  in 
the  church  of  Rome  were  still  performed  in  De- 
cember only,  after  the  fasts  of  the  four  seasons 
were  in  use,  till  Simplicius,  about  the  year  467, 
added  February  to  December.  This  is  noted  by 
Amalarius  Fortunatus,^'  as  I  have  showed  before : 
and  Mr.  Wharton  tells  us,^''  he  found  the  same  re- 
mark made  by  Ivo  Carnotensis  in  a  manuscript 
book  of  his  ecclesiastical  offices.  The  council  of 
Ments,  in  the  time  of  Charles  the  Great,  mentions 
the  fasts  of  the  four  seasons,^  and  fixes  them  to  the 
first  week  in  March,  the  second  week  in  June,  the 
third  week  in  September,  and  the  week  in  Decem- 
ber that  comes  immediately  before  Christmas-day ; 
but  yet  says  nothing  of  their  being  Ember  weeks, 
or  the  fasts  of  ordination.  And  some  think  Gre- 
gory VII.  was  the  first  that  ordered  the  ordination 
fasts,  and  the  fasts  of  the  four  seasons,  to  concur  ex- 
actly together  ;  before  which  time,  as  the  seasons  of 
ordination  were  arbitrary  and  movable,  so  were  the 
fasts  that  depended  on  them,  which  were  always  of 
use  in  the  church,  though  not  always  fixed  to  four 
certain  seasons. 


'^  Cone.  Turon.  2.  can.  18.  Inter  natalem  Domini  et 
Epiphaniam  omni  die  festivitates  sunt.  E.xcipitur  tri- 
dimui  illiid,  quo  ad  calcandam  Gentilium  consuetudinem, 
patres  nostri  statueruat  privatas  in  kaleudis  Januarii  fieri 
Litanias,  See. 

'*  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  23.  Jcjuniorum  supcrpositiones  per 
singulos  menses  plaeuit  celebrari,  exceptis  diebus  duorum 
mensium  Julii  et  August!,  ob  eorundem  inlirmitatem. 

"  Cone.  Turon.  2.  can.  18.  Post  Quinquagcsimam  tota 
hebdomada  exacte  jejunont.  Postea  usque  ad  kalendas 
Augusti  ter  in  septimana  jejunent,  seeunda,  quarta,  et  sexta 
die,  exceptis  his  qui  aliqua  iufirraitate  constricti  sunt.  In 
Augusto,  quia  quotidie  niissae  sanctorum  sunt,  prandium  ha- 
beant.     In  Septembri  toto  et  Octobri   et   Novembri,  sieut 


prius  dictum  est,  ter  in  septimana. 

"*  Ibid.  can.  19.  Toto  Augusto  manicationes  fiant,  quia 
festivitates  sunt  et  missae. 

'"  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  26.  Errorem  plaeuit  corrig^i,  ut  omni 
sabbati  die  jejuniorum  superpositionem  celebremus. 

-"  Book  IV.  chap.  6.  sect.  6. 

='  Amalar.  de  Offic.  Eecles.  lib.  2.  cap.  1. 

-'-  Wharton.  Auctar.  ad  Usser,  Hist.  Dogmal.  de  Serip- 
tur.  etSacris  Vernaculis,  p.  363.  Omnes  apostolieos  a  beato 
Petro  usque  ad  Simplicium  papam  ordinationes  tantum  in 
jejunio  Decembris  celebrasse,  adnotavit  Ivo  Carnotensis  in 
libro  de  eeelesiasticis  officiis  MS. 

-'  Cone.  Mogunt.  can.  34.  de  Quatuor  Temporibus  ob- 
servandis. 


Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1193 


\  About  the  middle  of  the  fifth  cen- 

The  origin'ai'of  the  turv  there  WRS  a  new  fast  begun  in 

Kogation  fast.  i  •    i  /»  it* 

France  by  Mamercus,  bishop  ot  Vi- 
enna, under  the  name  of  the  Litany  or  Rogation 
days,  which  were  the  three  days  immediately  before 
Ascension  day  in  the  middle  of  Pentecost.  The 
affixing  of  a  fast  to  these  days  was  altogether  new, 
because  heretofore  the  whole  fifty  days  of  Pentecost 
were  one  entire  festival,  and  all  fasting  and  kneel- 
ing were  prohibited  at  this  time,  as  has  been  show- 
ed^* in  the  last  Book.  Supplications  or  litanies 
were  in  use  before  on  extraordinary  occasions,  but 
Mamercus  was  the  first  that  fixed  them  to  these 
days ;  and  many  churches  in  the  West  followed  his 
example,  as  Sidonius  ApoUinaris^  informs  us.  But 
the  Spanish  churches  chose  rather  to  stick  by  the 
old  custom  of  keeping  Pentecost  an  entire  festival ; 
and  therefore  the  council  of  Girone""  ordered  that 
this  fast  of  the  Rogation  days  should  rather  be 
kept  in  the  week  after  Pentecost;  and  appointed 
another  such  Litany  or  Rogation  fast  to  be  kept  on 
the  calends,  or  first  day  of  November,  which  is 
now  become  the  festival  of  All  Saints,  transferred 
from  Trinity  Sunday.  The  fifth  and  sixth  councils 
of  Toledo"  appointed  another  Litany  fast  to  be 
kept  on  the  ulcs  or  thirteenth  day  of  December. 
And  the  seventeenth  council  of  Toledo,  anno  694, 
made  a  more  general  decree,^  that  such  Litanies 
or  Rogations  should  be  used  in  every  month 
throughout  the  year.  And  under  this  head  of 
monthly  fasts,  we  may  conclude  that  the  Roga- 
tion fast  of  Pentecost,  though  not  received  at  first, 
might  perhaps  come  at  last  to  be  admitted  in  the 
Spanish  churches ;  which  yet  is  not  indisputably 
certain,  because  Walafridus  Strabo,  who  lived  a 
whole  age  after  this  council,  observes  of  them,^^  that 
they  refused  to  keep  any  fast  in  Pentecost,  but  put 
it  off  till  afterward,  because  it  is  written,  "  The 
children  of  the  bridcchamber  cannot  fast,  so  long 
as  the  bridegroom  is  with  them."  But  whether  he 
made  this  observation  of  the  Spanish  church  as  it 
was  in  his  own  time,  or  as  it  was  in  former  times, 
when  the  council  of  Girone  forbade  all  fasting  in 
Pentecost,  is  a  little  doubtful ;  and  therefore  I  con- 
tent myself  with  bare  hinting  the  thing^°  here,  and 
leave  it  as  a  matter  under  dispute,  that  may  admit 
of  further  inquiry.  For  the  Greek  church,  the  thing 
seems  more  uncontested,  that  they  never  had  any 
Rogation  fast  in  the  time  of  Pentecost.  For  besides 
the  silence  of  all  the  ancient  Greek  writers  about  it. 


Leo  Allatius,  who  was  originally  a  Greek,  assures 
us,"  that  the  present  Greek  church  knows  nothing 
of  the  three  Rogation  days  before  Ascension;  nei- 
ther have  they  any  stated  fasts  between  Easter 
and  Pentecost,  no,  not  so  much  as  tiie  half-fasts  of 
Wednesdays  and  Fridays,  which  were  observed  as 
stationary  days  in  all  other  parts  of  the  year.  And 
both  he  and  Gretser^^  reprove  those,  who  ascribe 
the  observation  of  the  Rogation  fast  to  them,  upon 
a  mistaken  ground,  as  if  the  word  SiaKnivi]ntfioQ, 
which  signifies  the  week  after  Easter,  or  the  week 
of  renovation,  was  to  be  read,  SiaKtviatfiog,  the 
week  of  maceration  or  fasting,  supposing  it  to  be 
the  week  of  the  Rogation  fast,  when  indeed  there 
never  was  any  such  fast  in  use  among  them.  So 
that  as  this  fast  was  of  no  long  standing  in  the 
Western  church,  nor  universally  received  there ;  so 
it  is  plain,  the  Eastern  church  knew  nothing  of  it, 
but  always  kept  Pentecost  an  entire  festival,  ac- 
cording to  the  ancient  and  general  rule  of  the  church. 


CHAPTER  in. 


OF  THE  WEEKLY  FASTS  OF  WEDNESDAYS  AND  FRI- 
DAYS, OR  THE  STATIONARY  DAYS  OF  THE  AN- 
CIENT   CHURCH. 

Thus    far  we    have   considered   the 

annual  fasts  of  the  ancient   church,     Thp'origin-a  of 

lhesef:ists. 

which  were  kept  at  their  stated  times 
in  the  revolution  of  every  year.  Beside  these  they 
had  their  weekly  fasts  on  Wednesdays  and  Fridays, 
called  the  stationary  days,  and  half-fasts,  and  fasts 
of  the  fourth  and  sixth  days  of  the  week,  by  the 
Latins  feria  quarta  et  scxta,  and  by  the  Greeks 
TtTpuQ  and  -irapaaKtvr).  These  are  certainly  as  an- 
cient as  the  time  of  Clemens  Alexandrinus  and 
Tertullian.  For  Clemens,'  describing  his  Gnostic, 
or  perfect  Christian,  says.  He  understands  the  mys- 
tery of  the  fasts  of  the  fourth  and  sixth  days,  which 
are  called  by  the  names  of  Mercury  and  Venus 
among  the  Gentiles.  He  therefore  fasts  all  his  life 
from  covetousness  and  lust;  meaning,  that  those 
were  the  peculiar  vices  of  Mercury  and  "Venus 
among  the  heathen.  Not  long  after,  TertuUian,- 
disputing  against  some  Avho  were  against  all  re- 
ligious observation  of  times  and  seasons,  because  of 


2'  Book  XX.  chap.  6. 

«  Sidon.  lib.  5.  Ep.  14.  Lb.  7.  Ep.  1. 

-^  Cone.  Gerundens.  can.  2  et  3. 

-'  Cone.  Tolet.  5.  can.  1.  Ibid.  6.  can.  2. 

2s  Ibid.  17.  can.  6.       '-9  Strabo,  de  Offic.  Eccles.  cap.  28. 

^''  See  more  of  this  Rogation  fast,  Book  XIII.  chap.  I. 
sect.  10. 

■*'  Allat.  de  Dominicis  Hebdomad.  Groecor.  p.  145G. 
Eogatioues   triduance  ante    Ascensionem    Domini  Grajcis 


ignotoe  sunt,  nee  ulla  habent  stata  jejunia  inter  Pascha  et 
Pentecosten.  ^  Gretser.  in  Codinum,  lib.  3.  cap.  9. 

'  Clem.  Ale.K.  Strom.  7.  p.  877.  Edit.  0.\on. 

^  Tertul.  de  Jejun.  cap.  14.  Si  omncm  in  totum  devo- 
tionem  tcmpornm  et  dierum  et  mcnsinm  ct  annorum  erasit 
apostolus,  cur  Pascha  celebramus  in  annuo  circulo,  in 
mense  primo?  cur  quinquaginta  exinde  diebus  in  omni 
e.\uItatioue  dceurrimus  ?  cur  stationibus  quartam  et  se.xtain 
sabbati  dicumus  ?    Et  jejuniis  Parasccven  ? 


1194 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXI. 


those  words  of  the  apostle,  Gal.  iv.  10,  "  Ye  observe 
days  and  months,  and  times  and  years ;"  he  thus 
refutes  them  from  the  practice  and  observation  of 
the  whole  church :  If  the  apostle  has  wholly  can- 
celled aU  obsei-vation  of  times  and  days,  and  months 
and  years,  why  do  we  celebrate  the  Pasch  in  its  an- 
nual return  and  revolution  ?  Why  do  we  spend  the 
fifty  days  after  in  perpetual  joy  ?  Why  do  we  set 
apart  the  fourth  and  sixth  days  of  the  week  for  our 
stations,  and  the  Parasceue,  or  Friday,  for  our  fasts? 
In  like  manner  Origen,  W^e  have  the  forty  days  of 
Lent'  consecrated  to  fasting:  we  have  the  fourth 
and  sixth  days  of  the  week,  on  which  we  observe 
our  solemn  fasts.  And  Victorinus  ■*  the  martyr,  who 
lived  in  the  latter  end  of  the  third  century,  speaks 
of  both  these  days'  as  religiously  observed  with  fast- 
ing, either  till  nine  o'clock,  that  is,  three  in  the 
afternoon,  or  till  evening,  or  by  a  superposition  (as 
they  called  it)  to  the  next  day.  And  he  particularly 
tells  us,  they  observed  Friday  as  a  stationary  day, 
because  it  was  the  passion  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
Which  is  also  noted  by  Peter,  bishop  of  Alexandria, 
who  lived  in  the  same  age,  and  died  a  martyr  a  little 
after  in  the  Diocletian  persecution.  For  thus  he 
speaks  ^  in  one  of  his  canons  :  Let  no  one  blame  us 
for  observing  the  fourth  day  of  the  week,  and  the 
Parasceue,  or  day  of  preparation,  viz.  Friday  or  the 
sixth  day,  on  which  days  we  have  a  rational  ap- 
pointment to  fast,  from  ancient  tradition  :  on  the 
fourth  day,  because  the  Jews  conspired  to  betray 
our  Lord ;  and  on  the  preparation,  or  sixth  day,  be- 
cause then  our  Lord  suffered  for  us. 

Many  other  such  testimonies  occur 
The  reasons  of     in  the  writcrs  of  the  fourth  and  fol- 

tlieir  institution.  ri  t  i  n  T 

lowing  ages,  St.  Basil,  St.  Jerom, 
St.  Austin,*  Epiphanius,"  and  the  authors  of  the 
Apostolical  Canons '"  and  Constitutions  :  but  those 
already  alleged  are  most  pertinent  to  show  the  an- 
tiquity of  the  observation.  Some  derive  the  original 
of  these  fasts  from  apostolical  institution.  So  Epi- 
phanius  and  the  author  of  the  Constitutions.  Which, 
as  a  learned  person  rightly  observes,"  is  a  good 
argument  of  their  antiquity,  seeing  those  authors 
could  derive  them  from  no  other  fountain  but  apos- 
tolical institution.  However,  St.  Austin  does  not 
carry  the  matter  so  high,  but  rather  accounts  them 


an  appointment  of  the  church  upon  reasons  taken 
out  of  the  gospel.  This  reason,  says  he,'^  may  be 
given  why  the  church  fasts  chiefly  on  the  fouith 
and  sixth  days  of  the  week,  because  it  appears,  upon 
considering  the  gospel,  that  on  the  fourth  day, 
which  we  commonly  crW  fc>-ia  qaarta,  the  Jews  took 
counsel  to  kill  our  Lord ;  and  on  the  sixth  day  our 
Lord  suffered ;  for  which  reason,  the  sixth  day  is 
rightly  appointed  a  fast.  Peter,  bishop  of  Alexan- 
dria," assigns  the  same  reason  for  the  observation 
of  these  fasts,  and  so  does  the  author  of  the  Apos- 
tolical Constitutions,  and  Victorinus  Martyr,  in  the 
passages  already  cited.  So  that  whatever  original 
these  fasts  had  in  point  of  time,  the  ancients  seem 
generally  to  agree  in  the  reason  of  their  institution, 
that  they  were  made  fasts  in  regard  to  our  Saviour's 
being  betrayed  and  crucified  on  these  days,  which 
the  churches  thought  proper  to  be  kept  in  perpetual 
remembrance  by  the  return  of  a  weekly  observation. 

But  we  are  to  note,  that  these  fasts 
being  of  continual   use   every  week     iiow they'tiiffircd 

°  "^  .  from  the  Lent  fast 

throughout  the  year,  except  in  the  ""!>  a"  "'hers  in 

O  J  '  f  poi,it  of  duration. 

fifty  days  between  Easter  and  Pente- 
cost, were  not  kept  with  that  rigour  and  strictness 
which  was  observed  in  the  time  of  Lent.  For  the 
Lent  fast,  as  has  been  showed  before,  commonly 
held  till  evening,  every  day  that  it  was  observed ; 
but  these  weekly  fasts  ordinarily  held  no  longer 
than  nine  o'clock,  that  is,  three  in  the  afternoon, 
unless  any  chose  voluntarily  to  protract  them  till 
the  evening,  or  by  a  superposition  (as  Victorinus 
Martyr  phrases  it)  extended  them  to  the  morning 
of  the  next  day.  And  for  this  reason  they  are 
commonly  spoken  of  by  the  distinguishing  names 
of  stationes  et  semijejunia,  stations  and  half-fasts  ; 
because  on  these  days  they  continued  the  church 
assemblies  till  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and  no 
longer;  whereas  a  perfect  and  complete  fast  was 
never  reckoned  to  end  before  evening.  Tertullian 
often  speaks  of  them  under  these  covert  appella- 
tions, in  many  places  besides  that  already  cited.  In 
one  place  "  he  styles  them  stationum  semijejunia,  the 
half-fasts  of  the  stations.  In  other  places  he  distin- 
guishes three  sorts  of  abstinence,'*  under  the  names 
ofjejunationes,  xcrophagice,  and  stationes.  Where  by 
jejunationes  he  understands  the  complete  fasts,  which 


^  Orig.  Horn.  10.  in  Levit.  t.  1.  p.  159.  Habemus  Quad- 
ragcsiiriie  (lies  jejiiniis  consecratos.  Habemus  quavtain  et 
sextain  septiinan;c  dins,  quibus  solenniter  jejunauuis. 

*  Victoria,  de  Fabi-ica  Muudi,  ap.  Cave,  Histor.  Liteiar. 
t.  1.  p.  103.  Nunc  ratio  veritatis  ostRnditur,  quare  dies 
quartus  tetras  nuncupatur ;  quare  usque  ad  horaua  nonam 
jejunamus,  usque  ad  vesperam,  aut  supcrpositio  usque  in 
alterum  diem  fiat — Sextus  dies  Parasceue  appellatur:  hoc 
quoque  die  ob  passionem  Domini  Jesu  Christi,  aut  sta- 
tionem  Deo,  aut  jejunium  facimus. 

^  Petr.  Ale.x.  can.  15.  «  Basil.  Ep.  289. 

'  Hicron.  in  Galat.  cap.  4. 

*  Aug.  Ep.  Su.  ad  Casulan. 


9  Epiphan.  Hoeres.  75.  n.  6.     It.  Expos.  Fidei,  n.  22. 

■"  Can.  Apost.  G9.  Constitut.  Apost.  lib.  5.  c.  15.  lib.  7. 
c.  23. 

"  Bevereg.  Cod.  Canon.  Vindic.  lib.  3.  cap.  10.  n.  2. 

'-  Aug.  Ep.  86.  ad  Casulan.  Cur  autcm  quarta  et  sexta 
niaxime  jejunet  ecclesia,  ilia  ratio  reddi  videtur,  quoii  con- 
siderato  evangelio,  ipsa  quarta  sabbati,  quam  vulgo  quartain 
ieriam  vocant,  consilium  rcperiuntur  ad  occidendum  Domi- 
num  fecisse  Judwi.  Intermisso  autem  uno  die— passus  est 
Dominus  (quod  nemo  ambigit)  sexta  sabbati:  quapropter 
et  ipsa  sexta  recte  jejunio  deputatur, 

'■'  Pet.  Alex.  can.  15. 

"  Tertul.  dc  Jejiui.  cap.  13.  ''  Ibid,  cap,  1  et  II. 


Chap.   III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


II 'J  J 


held  till  evening;  by  xerojihayice,  the  abstaining 
from  flesh,  and  living  upon  dry  meats ;  and  by  sta- 
tiones,  the  fasts  till  nine  o'clock.  Which  he  therefore 
calls  officia  recusafi  vel  recisi  vel  rctardati  jHthtili,^"  the 
offices  of  wholly  refusing  meat  till  evening ;  or  re- 
trenching it  to  live  upon  dry  meats,  bread  and  wa- 
ter; or  retarding  the  meal  till  nine  o'clock.  And 
again,"  the  bridling  of  the  appetite,  pe7-  niillas  in- 
terdum,  vel  seras,  vel  aridas  escas,  either  by  wholly 
abstaining  from  meat  till  evening,  or  by  deferring 
the  meal  to  a  late  hour,  that  is,  three  in  the  after- 
noon, or  by  abstaining  from  flesh,  and  feeding  only 
upon  dry  meats,  bread  and  water.  In  all  which 
distinctions  any  one  may  plainly  discern,  that  the 
stations  and  half-fasts  are  put  to  denote  the  weekly 
fasts  of  Wednesday  and  Friday,  which  among  the  ca- 
tholics held  only  till  nine  o'clock,  though  TertuUian 
and  the  Montanists  pleaded  stiffly  for  having  them 
protracted  till  the  evening,  urging  a  new  revelation 
and  authority  from  the  Holy  Ghost  for  such  impo- 
sition. But  the  church  kept  constant  to  her  ancient 
practice,  continuing  these  fasts  to  nine  o'clock  and 
no  longer,  as  appears  from  the  account  which 
Epiphanius  gives  of  them  in  his  own  time,  speaking 
of  the  customs  of  the  catholic  church  :  On  the  fourth 
and  sixth  days  of  the  week,'*  says  he,  we  continue 
fasting  to  the  ninth  hour.  And  again.  On  the  fourth 
and  sixth  days  throughout  the  whole  year,  except 
in  the  fifty  days  of  Pentecost,  a  fast  is  kept  in  the 
holy  catholic  church  to  the  ninth  hour.  And  there- 
fore Prudentius,  describing  the  passion  of  Fructuo- 
sus,  a  Spanish  bishop  and  martyr,  brings  him  in  thus 
answering  for  himself,'"  We  keep  fast  to-day,  I  can 
not  drink ;  the  ninth  hour  is  not  yet  come.  ^Vhere 
he  plainly  refers  to  the  hour  of  the  day  to  which 
these  stationary  fasts  continued.  And  in  another 
place,^  It  is  now  near  the  ninth  hour,  and  the  sun 
begins  to  decline ;  three  parts  of  the  day  are  scarce 
ended,  and  the  fourth  remains.  We  now  oflTer  up 
our  prayers  and  receive  the  eucharist,  and  then  we 
break  oflf  our  festival  and  go  to  our  ordinary  re- 
freshment. In  which  words  the  festival  denotes 
one  of  these  stationary  days,  on  which  they  held 
religious  assemblies  in  the  church,  offered  up  their 
devotions,  received  the  eucharist,  and  then  at  nine 
o'clock  broke  up  the  assembly,  and  went  to  their 
ordinary  meal. 

And  hence  we  learn,  that  these  sta- 
tionary days  were  not  only  observed 
with  fasting,  but  with  religious  assem- 


Scrt.  4. 

With  what  solem. 

nity  they  were  ob 


blies,  and  solemn  devotions  in  the  church,  with  receiv- 
ing the  eucharist,  and  the  usual  service  of  the  Lord's 
day  in  all  particulars,  save  that  the  sermon  perhaps 
was  omitted,  which  was  never  omitted  on  the  Lord's 
day.  St.  Ambrose,  exhorting  his  hearers  to  observe 
the  usual  fasts  of  the  church,  gives  a  like  account  of 
the  service  of  these  stationary  days.  For  the  fast  of 
Lent,  he  exhorts  them  to  put  off  their  meal  to  the  end 
of  the  day,"'  because  that  was  the  regular  way  of  ob- 
serving Lent ;  but  there  were  many  other  days  on 
which  they  were  to  come  to  church  presently  after 
noon,  and  sing  their  hymns,  and  celebrate  the  obla- 
tion or  eucharist,  and  then  their  fast  was  ended.  In 
which  words,  as  he  plainly  intimates  that  the  fast  of 
the  stationary  days  was  shorter  than  that  of  Lent,  so 
he  expressly  affirms.  That  on  those  days  they  held 
reUgious  assemblies  at  church  in  the  afternoon,  and 
there  exercised  themselves  in  singing  of  hymns  and 
receiving  the  eucharist.  Which  is  the  same  account 
as  is  given  by  TertuUian,  St.  Basil,  and  Socrates,  (as 
I  have  had  occasion  to^-  note  elsewhere,)  only  with 
this  diflerence,  that  Socrates  says,  At  Alexandria 
they  had  sermons  on  these  days,  and  all  the  other 
service  of  the  church,  but  not  the  communion  ;  in 
which  that  church  was  singular,  and  differing  from 
the  practice  of  all  other  churches. 
However,   this   difference   in    this 

,  ,  Serf.  5. 

matter,  nor  in  any  other  customs  and     how  uk-  caihoiiM 

.  and  Montanists  dis- 

usages  of  the  like  nature,  raised  no  p"'eti  about  the  ob- 

*-*  siTvatioti  of  them. 

dispute  in  the  catholic  church,  be- 
cause the  things  were  indifferent  in  themselves,  and 
the  church  always  practised  them  with  a  just  re- 
gard to  Christian  liberty,  having  no  express  com- 
mand for  them  in  the  word  of  God.  The  church 
never  tied  them  upon  men's  consciences  as  Divine 
injunctions,  but  only  as  laudable,  ecclesiastical  in- 
stitutions, or  at  most,  as  customs  descending  from 
ancient  tradition,  and  (in  the  opinion  of  some)  from 
apostolical  practice.  Therefore  though  the  greatest 
persons  readily  observed  them  (as  Socrates  ob- 
serves^ of  Theodosius  junior,  that  he  fasted  often, 
especially  upon  Wednesdays  and  Fridays,  which  he 
did  with  an  earnest  desire  ^icpwc  Xpiffrtavi^eei/,  to 
live  up  to  the  height  of  Christian  perfection) ;  yet 
if  men's  infirmities  or  employments  would  not  suffer 
them  to  go  so  far  as  others  in  the  observation  of 
these  days,  a  just  allowance  was  made,  and  no 
severity  of  ecclesiastical  censure,  further  than  ad- 
monition, passed  upon  them.  The  clergy,  indeed, 
bishops,  presbyters,  and  deacons,  and  all  inferior 


"^  Tertul.  de  Jejun.  cap.  11.  '"  Ibid.  cap.  1. 

's  Epiphan.  Expos.  Fid.  n.  23. 

"  Prudent.  Peristeph.  Hymn.  6.    Jejunamus,  ait,  recuso 
potum  :  Nondum  nona  diem  resignat  hora. 
2"  Id.  Cathemerin.  Hymn.  8. 

Nona  submissum  rotat  hora  solem. 
Partibus  vixdum  tribus  evolutis, 
Quarta  deve.xo  superest  in  axe 
Portio  lucis. 


Nos  brevis  voti  dape  vindicata, 
Solvimus  festum,  fniimurque  mensis 
Affatim  pleuis,  quibiis  imbuatur 
Plena  vohiptas. 
2'  Ambros.  Horn.  8.  in  Psal.  cxviii.  62.     Differ  aliquan- 
tulum,  non  longe  est  finis  diei.    Imo  plerique  sunt  ejusmodi 
dies,  ut  statim  meridianis  horis  advenicndum  sit  iu  ecclesiam, 
cancndi  hymni,  celebranda  oblatio. 
2-  Book" XIII.  chap.  9.  sect.  2.        ^  Socrat.  lib.  7.  c.  22. 


1196 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXI. 


orders  belonging  to  the  church,  are  by  some  canons" 
obliged  to  observe  these  and  other  fasts  under  pain 
of  deposition  and  degradation ;  and  this  was  thought 
not  unreasonable,  because  they  had  ordinarily  no 
other  employment  but  assidously  to  attend  the  ser- 
vice of  the  church.  But  even  this  would  not  satisfy 
the  wild  and  enthusiastic  rigour  of  the  Montanists ; 
for  they  extended  these  fasts  from  morning  till 
evening,  and  would  oblige  all  men  to  observe  them 
in  that  extent,  not  as  ordinary  usages  and  customs 
of  the  church,  but  as  necessary  and  indispensable 
Divine  injunctions,  lately  given  to  the  world  by  the 
new  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Ghost  speaking  in  their 
great  prophet  Montanus,  who,  as  they  pretended, 
had  authority  from  God  to  give  more  perfect  laws 
and  rules  of  Uving  to  the  church,  than  any  that 
were  delivered  by  the  apostles.  This  was  the  dis- 
pute between  them  and  the  church,  as  appears  from 
TertuUian's  book  De  Jejuniis  adversus  Psychicos, 
Of  Fasting,  against  the  Carnal,  as  he  slanderously 
and  contumeliously  terms  the  catholics,  whilst  he 
wrote  against  the  church  in  defence  of  the  new 
hypothesis  of  the  Montanists.  The  dispute  was 
not,  whether  the  church  had  an  ordinary  power  to 
appoint  days  of  fasting  proper  for  her  own  edifica- 
tion ;  for  this  she  always  claimed  and  practised, 
as  appears  from  this  whole  account  that  has  been 
given  of  her  fasts ;  and  also  from  what  TertuUian 
says  concerning  them ;  That  the  bishops  of  the 
church,^  besides  the  stated  and  ordinary  annual 
and  weekly  fasts,  were  wont  sometimes  to  enjoin 
their  respective  charges  to  observe  certain  occasion- 
al fasts  upon  emergent  necessities  of  the  church. 
But  the  Montanists  pretended  to  impose  their  new 
fasts  as  Divine  laws,  by  special  direction  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.  And  therefore  it  was  that  Apollonius, 
an  ancient  ecclesiastical  writer  mentioned  by  Euse- 
bius,""  charged  Montanus  as  setting  up  for  a  law- 
giver in  imposing  fasts.  Which  imposing  fasts  by 
a  law  must  import  his  presuming  to  command  fasts 
as  of  necessary  obligation  by  Divine  precept,  and 
as  peculiar  dictates  from  the  new  pretended  inspir- 
ations of  the  Holy  Ghost.  For  otherwise,  the 
bishops  of  the  church  would  have  been  chargeable 


with  the  same  crime ;  because  it  is  certain  they  ap- 
pointed fasts,  both  occasional  and  constant,  yet 
with  just  liberties  of  human  laws,  for  the  benefit 
and  edification  of  the  church.  And  herein,  I  con- 
ceive, consisted  the  true  difference  between  them. 
The  one  had  a  just  authority  to  make  proper  rules 
about  fasting  for  order  and  edification,  and  used 
their  authority  only  for  that  end,  keeping  within 
their  proper  bounds ;  but  the  other  had  no  authority 
at  all,  being  no  governors  or  rulers  of  the  church, 
and  yet  pretended  to  a  Divine  authority  to  impose 
necessary  and  universal  laws  of  fasting  upon  the 
church,  as  by  the  peculiar  impulse  and  direction  of 
the  Holy  Ghost.  And  upon  this  they  made  a 
schism,  and  set  up  a  new  communion  and  conven- 
ticles in  opposition  to  the  church,  because  she 
would  not  comply  with  their  pretended  oracles  and 
inspirations,  which  she  knew  proceeded  only  from 
the  spirit  of  imposture. 

I  have  but  one  thingr  more  to  ob-         ^  ,  „ 

o  Sect.  6. 

serve  concerning  these  weekly  fasts,  dayfesi'camJ'to  te 
which  is,  the  change  that  was  made  dayT theVestern 
of  one  of  them  from  Wednesday  to  '""'""• 
Saturday  in  the  Western  churches.  In  the  Eastern 
church  Saturday  or  the  sabbath  was  always  observed 
as  a  festival ;  and  so  some  learned  men  think  it  was 
originally  in  the  Western  church  also,  as  has  been 
showed"  before  in  the  last  Book.  However,  it  is 
certain,  that  about  the  time  of  the  council  of 
Eliberis  Saturday  was  made  a  fast  in  some  of  the 
Western  churches  ;  for  that  council  orders  it  to 
be  observed  as  a  fast^  in  the  Spanish  churches. 
And  St.  Austin'-"  acquaints  us,  that  it  was  kept  as  a 
fast  in  his  time  at  Rome,  and  some  other  of  the 
Western  and  African  churches.  So  that  in  all  these 
places  for  some  time  they  kept  three  fasts  in  the 
week,  by  the  superposition  of  Saturday  to  the  other 
two.  But  in  process  of  time  the  Saturday  fast 
grew  more  into  repute  than  the  Wednesday,  which 
by  degrees  came  to  be  neglected  or  omitted,  till  at 
last,  as  a  learned  person  has  observed,^"  in  all 
churches  which  embraced  the  Saturday  fast,  Wed- 
nesday was  wholly  laid  aside. 


21  Canon.  Apost.  69. 

-*  Tertiil.  de  Jejun.  cap.  ]3.  Episcopi  universae  plebi 
mandarc  jejunia  assolcnt  iuteiduin  ex  aliqua  sollicitudinis 
ecclesiasticac  causa. 

-''  A  p.  Euscb.  lib.  5,  cap.  18.  Outos  eo-tii/  o  vi]amia^ 
vo/xodtTt'iC!a<;. 


2'  Book  XX.  chap.  3.  sect.  6. 

^  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  26.    Ervorem  placuit  corrigi,  ut  omni 
sabbati  die  jejunionnn  superpositionem  celcbrcuuis. 
2»  Aug.  Ep.  86.  ad  Casulan. 
'"  Albaspin.  Observat.  lib.  1.  c.  13. 


BOOK   XXII. 

OF  THE  MARRIAGE  RITES  OBSERVED  IN  THE  ANCIENT  CHURCH. 


CHAPTER  I. 

A  SHORT  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  HERETICS  AVHO  CONDEMNED  OR  VILIFIED  MARRIAGE  ANCIENTLY, 
UNDER  PRETENCE  OF  GREATER  PURITY  AND  PERFECTION  ;  AND  OF  SUCH  ALSO  AS  GAVE 
LICENCE    TO    COMMUNITY    OF   "WIVES    AND    FORNICATION. 


f.^^^  ,  Before  I  enter  upon  the  history  of 

«S^rm""t7ug\!t  the  church's  practice  in  relation  to 
y  Simon  agus.  the  hol)' officc  of  matrimony,  and  the 
several  rites  and  usages  observed  in  the  celebration 
thereof,  it  will  not  be  amiss  to  give  a  short  account 
of  those  heretics,  who,  immediately  upon  the  first 
plantation  of  the  gospel,  set  themselves  to  vilify  and 
contemn  marriage,  either  by  openly  condemning  it 
as  a  thing  unlawful  under  the  gospel,  upon  pretence 
that  the  gospel  required  greater  purity  and  perfec- 
tion ;  or  by  granting  licence  for  community  of  wives 
and  promiscuous  fornication.  Though  God  had 
instituted  marriage  as  an  honourable  state  in  man's 
innocency ;  and  our  Saviour  had  allowed  it  as  such, 
reducing  it  to  its  primitive  institution  ;  and  the 
apostle  had  said,  that  "  marriage  was  honourable 
in  all,  and  the  bed  undefiled :"  yet,  according  to  the 
Spirit's  prediction,  there  presently  arose  some  who 
departed  from  the  faith,  giving  heed  to  seducing 
spirits  and  doctrines  of  devils,  forbidding  to  marry  ; 
and  others,  who  taught  men  to  commit  fornication 
with  licence  and  impunity.  This  latter  doctrine 
was  immediately  broached  by  Simon  Magus,  the 
arch-heretic  against  the  faith ;  for,  as  St.  Austin ' 
informs  us,  he  taught  the  detestable  impurity  of  the 
promiscuous  use  of  women.  Which  is  also  signified 
by  Epiphanius  ^  and  Irenajus,  when  they  say.  That 
Simon  corrupted  venerable  marriage  by  his  filthi- 
ness  in  following  his  own  lusts  with  Helena  his 
strumpet.  Theodoret'  gives  a  more  particular  ac- 
count of  his  impiety,  telling  us  the  ground  of  his 
doctrine,  how  he  taught,  That  the  old  prophets  were 
only  the  servants  of  the  angels  who  made  the  world: 


upon  which  account,  he  encouraged  his  followers 
not  to  regard  them,  nor  dread  the  threatenings  of 
the  law,  but,  as  free,  to  do  whatever  they  listed ;  be- 
cause they  were  to  be  saved  not  by  good  works,  but 
by  grace.  And  upon  the  strength  of  this  principle, 
they  who  were  of  his  sect  gave  themselves  up  boldly 
without  restraint  to  all  manner  of  lusts  and  intem- 
perance, often  practising  magical  enchantments  and 
sorcery,  as  Divine  mysteries,  to  bring  about  their 
amorous  designs.  All  which  agrees  very  well  with 
that  short  account  which  is  given  by  Damascen,* 
and  the  author  of  the  Predestinarian  heresy,  pub- 
lished by  Sirmondus,^  who  say,  That  Simon  taught 
the  promiscuous  use  of  women  without  distinction  ; 
and  that  God  regarded  not  chastity,  forasmuch  as 
the  world  was  not  made  by  him,  but  by  angels. 

One  of  the  chief  of  Simon's  scholars 
was  Saturnilus,  or  Saturninus,  a  S}'-     Afterward  "by  sa- 

l  „  J  ^.  ,     .  .  ttirniliis,  and   the 

nan,  who  confirmed  oimon  s  unpunty,  Nicoiauai.s,  and 

_^  .  many  otheis. 

as  St.  Austin  says,"  and  that  upon  the 
very  same  foundation,  viz.  that  God  did  not  regard 
the  world,  because  it  was  made  by  certain  angels 
without  his  knowledge,  or  against  his  will.  Others 
say,  he  condemned  matrimony  and  procreation  of 
children  universally,  and  that  he  was  the  first  that 
asserted  openly  that  marriage  was  a  doctrine  and 
work  of  the  devil.  So  Irentcus,'  Epiphanius,"  The- 
odoret,'  and  others  after  them.  Perhaps  he  might 
maintain  both  opinions,  equally  injurious  to  lawful 
matrimony.  For  it  has  been  no  unusual  thing  with 
men  that  have  stiffly  opposed  matrimony,  to  be 
more  favourable  to  real  impurity  and  fornication. 
The  Nicolaitans  are  said  by  all  WTiters  to  have 


'   Auu;.  <le  Ha?res.  cap.  1.     Docebat  autem  detestandam 
tmpitudinem  indifferenter  utendi  fcsminis. 

2  Epiphan.  Hccr.  1.  Simon,  al.  21.  n.  2.  Iren.  lib.  I.  cap.  20. 

3  Theod.  Fabul.  H«ret.  lib.  1.  cap.  1.  t.  3.  p.  103. 

*  Damascen.  de  Ha;res.  p.  57G.    Conciibitum  passim  sine 
delectu  corporum  docebat. 
^  Prcedestinat.   lib.   1.   cap.    1.     Dicebat   castitatem   ad 


Deiim  noil  pertinere,  Deum  mundum  non  fecisse. 

'  Auf^.  de  Hseres.  cap.  3.  Saturninus  turpitudinem  Si- 
monianam  in  Syria  confirmasse  perhibetur  :  qui  etiam 
mundum  solos  ansjelos  septem  pr.xter  conscicntiam  Dei 
Patris  fecisse  <licebat. 

'  Iren.  lib.  1.  c.  22.  "  Epiphan.  Haer.  23. 

9  Theod.  Hasret.  Fab.  lib.  1.  c.  3. 


1J98 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXII. 


trod  in  the  steps  of  Simon  Magus  in  teaching  the 
liberty  of  fornication.  And  this  is  supposed  to  be 
the  doctrine  and  deeds  of  the  Nicolaitans  condemn- 
ed in  the  Revelation.  For  it  is  certain  there  were 
some  at  that  time  who  taught  men  to  commit  forni- 
cation, as  appears  from  the  reproof  given  to  the 
angel  of  the  church  of  Thj'atira,  Rev.  ii.  20,  "  Thou 
suflerest  that  woman  Jezebel,  who  calleth  herself  a 
prophetess,  to  teach  and  to  seduce  my  servants  to 
commit  fornication."  Which  makes  some  learned 
men  think  that  the  doctrine  of  Jezebel  was  the  same 
with  that  of  the  Nicolaitans,  and  that  they  are  but 
different  names  of  the  same  persons.  For  all  ec- 
clesiastical writers  agree,  that  the  Nicolaitans  held 
this  doctrine.  Irenceus,'"  Tertullian,"  and  Epipha- 
nius,'-  make  Nicolaus,  one  of  the  seven  deacons,  to 
be  the  author  of  it.  But  others  excuse  him,  and 
say  it  was  a  doctrine  taken  up  by  those  who  pre- 
tended to  be  his  followers,  grounded  upon  some 
mistaken  words  of  his,  which  had  no  such  meaning. 
So  Clemens  Alexandrinus "  more  than  once  apolo- 
gizes for  him :  and  in  like  manner  Eusebius,'^  Theo- 
doret,'^  and  St.  Austin.'"  But  it  is  agreed  on  all 
hands,  that  either  he  or  his  disciples  brought  in 
such  a  doctrine,  which  is  condemned  as  the  doctrine 
and  deeds  of  the  Nicolaitans  in  the  Revelation. 
Afterwards  it  was  propagated  by  Prodicus,  the  au- 
thor of  the  impure  sect  of  the  Adamites,  and  by  the 
Carpocratians  and  Gnostics,  of  whose  impurities  I 
need  not  stand  to  make  a  particular  narration. 

Sect.  3.  I  o"ly  observe,  that  from  these  vile 

calumny  of'theGe.f-  practiccs  of  the  sccts  uudcr  the  name 

tiles     against      the        ^     ^-^.      .      -  ,i       j 

Christians  in  gene-  01    Christians,   arose    that    common 

ral,  that  they  prac-  /•      i  i  i  •  i 

tised  impurity  in  chaTcfe  of  tile  hcsthens  against  the 

their    rehgious    as-  °  ° 

sembiies.  Chrlstlaus  in  general,  that  they  prac- 

tised impurities  in  their  rehgious  assemblies.  For 
some  of  these  sects  not  only  made  a  common  prac- 
tice of  fornication  and  uncleanness,  but  adopted 
them  into  the  mysteries  of  their  religion.  Clemens 
Alexandrinus"  particularly  charges  it  upon  the 
Carpocratians ;  and  Theodoret"  upon  the  Adamites, 
the  followers  of  Prodicus,  who  was  a  disciple  of 
Carpocrates.  Epiphanius'®  and  St.  Austin  add  to 
these  the  Gnostics.  Concerning  whom  St.  Austin 
remarks,  That  as  they  went  by  diflferent  names  in 
different  parts  of  the  world,  some  called  them  Bor- 
horita>,  wallowers  in  the  mire,-"  because  of  their  ex- 
treme impurity,  which  they  were  said  to  exercise  in 
their  mysteries.  And  of  Carpocrates,  the  father  of 
the  Carpocratians,  he  remarks^'  how  he  taught  all 


manner  of  filthiness  and  invention  of  evil,  saying, 
That  this  was  the  only  way  to  escape  and  pass  safe 
by  the  principalities  and  powers  of  the  air,  who 
were  pleased  therewith,  that  so  men  might  come  to 
the  highest  heaven.  Now,  these  were  doctrines  of 
devils  indeed,  scarce  heard  of  among  the  Gentiles, 
that  a  man  should  commit  lewdness  with  his  father's 
wife,  and  that  men  should  do  evil  that  good  might 
come ;  and  that  the  best  way  to  escape  the  devils' 
power,  was  to  become  slaves  to  them,  and  do  the 
things  that  pleased  them.  Wherefore  the  heathens, 
knowing  that  such  things  were  taught  and  practised 
among  heretics,  who  went  under  the  name  of  Chris- 
tian, made  no  distinction,  but  threw  the  charge 
upon  all  Christians  in  general ;  and  so,  by  reason 
of  "  their  pernicious  ways,"  (or,  as  some  copies  read 
it,  2  Pet.  ii.  2,  "  their  lascivious  ways,")  "  the  way 
of  truth  was  evil  spoken  of." 

And  this  was  done  so  much  the  more 
plausibly  and  with  a  better  grace,  be-      Thesf  doctrines 

,  being   fetched  from 

cause  there  were  but  few  among  the  the  very  dregs  of 

^  Gentilism,  and  scan- 

heathen  themselves  that  allowed  such  daiousintheeyesof 

sober  heathens. 

practices.  The  doctrines  were  fetch- 
ed by  heretics  from  the  very  dregs  of  Gentilism, 
and  they  were  scandalous  in  the  eyes  of  all  wise 
and  sober  heathens.  Some  of  the  more  barbarous 
nations,  indeed,  allowed  of  community  of  wives, 
and  practised  promiscuous  adultery.  Solinus  Po- 
lyhistor-^  affirms  it  of  the  Ethiopians,  called  Gara- 
mantes ;  and  Julius  Ceesar''^  gives  the  same  account 
of  the  Britons :  but  in  all  the  civilized  part  of  the 
world,  throughout  the  whole  Roman  empire,  we 
meet  with  but  one  instance  of  it,  in  the  Heliopoli- 
tans  of  Phoenicia,  among  whom,  by  the  law  of  their 
country,  Socrates^'  says,  All  women  were  common; 
so  that  no  child  knew  his  own  father,  because  no 
distinction  was  made  between  parents  and  children. 
They  also  gave  their  virgins  to  be  defiled  by  all 
strangers  that  came  among  them.  And  this  iniquity, 
estabhshed  by  a  law,  continued  among  them  till 
Constantine  abrogated  it  by  a  contrary  law,  and 
builded  them  churches,  and  settled  a  bishop  and 
clergy  among  them,  by  which  means  they  were  con- 
verted to  Christianity,  and  brought  to  the  orderly 
course  of  the  rest  of  mankind  in  this  particular, 
which  was  always  reckoned  scandalous  among  the 
very  Gentiles.  For  Solinus,  describing  the  lascivi- 
ousness  of  the  Oaramantes,  which  made  that  no 
child  could  know  his  own  father,  nor  have  any 
reverence  for  him,  says,-*  Upon  this  account  the 


'"  Iren.  lib.  1.  c.  27.  "  Tertul.  de  Prccscrip.  cap.  46. 

'-  Epiph.  Haer.  25. 

•3  Clem.  Alex.  Strom.  2.  p.  491.    Strom.  -3.  p.  523.  Ed. 
Oxon. 

'^  Euseb.  lib.  3.  c.  29.        '*  Theod.  \\x\:  Fab.  lib.  3.  c.  1. 

'"  Aug.  de  Hoer.  c.  5. 

"  Clem.  Strom.  3.  p.  511.    Vid.  Philastr.  Hoer.  57. 

«  Theod.  Heer.  Fab.  lib.  I.  cap.  6.        '»  Epiph.  Heer.  2o. 

2"  Aug.de  Hseres.  cap.  G.  Nonaulli  eos  etiaiu  Borboritas 


vocant,  quasi  coennsos,  propter  nimiam  turpitudinem,  quam 
in  suis  mystcriis  exerccre  dicuntur. 

21  Ibid.  cap.  7.  Carpocrates  docebat  omnem  turpem 
operationem,  omncmque  adinventionem  peccati :  nee  aliter 
ovadi  atquc  transiri  principatus  et  potestates,  qiiibiis  hsec 
placent,  ut  possit  ad  coelum  superius  perveniri. 

22  Solin.  cap.  43.  23  Csesar.  de  Bello  Gallic,  lib.  5. 
2>  Socrat.  lib.  1.  c.  18. 

2-'  Solin.  cap.  30.     Eapropter  Garamantici  iEthiopes  in- 


Chap.  I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


iiyy 


Garamantcs  were  reckoned  a  degenerate  people 
among  all  nations ;  and  that  not  without  reason, 
because  they  had  destroyed  the  discipline  of  chas- 
tity, and  by  that  wicked  custom  lost  all  knowledge 
of  succession  among  them.  It  is  true,  indeed,  Plato 
is  generally  accused  by  the  ancient  writers  of  the 
church  for  saying,  that  a  community  of  wives  ought 
to  be  established  in  his  commonwealth.  The  charge 
is  brought  against  him  by  Theophilus,  bishop  of 
Antioch,  first  of  all  r"  then  by  St.  Jerom,-'  Chrysos- 
tom,-"  and  Theodoret.-"  But  if  what  Clemens  Alex- 
andrinus  pleads  in  his  behalf  be  true,  there  must  be 
some  mistake  in  the  accusation.  For  he  says,^"  Plato 
did  not  teach  the  community  of  wives  after  they 
married,  but  only  that  the  world  was  like  a  theatre, 
which  is  common  to  all  spectators :  so  women,  be- 
fore they  were  married,  were  any  man's  right  that 
could  obtain  them;  but  after  they  wei'c  married, 
they  were  every  man's  property,  and  no  longer  com- 
mon. But  be  this  matter  as  it  will,  it  is  certain  the 
main  current  of  the  heathen  laws  were  against  such 
practices ;  and  therefore  it  was  the  more  abominable 
for  heretics  to  introduce  them  into  the  purest  of  all 
religions,  which  was  so  much  a  friend  to  lawful 
marriage,  and  so  great  an  enemy  to  all  unclcanness. 
But  these  were  not  the  only  herc- 
Mai^iage'  con-      tics  that  infcsted  the  Christian  church 

denitieil  as  unlawful  ^ 

hy  Tatian  and  the    upOn   tllls    Doiut.       ThcrC  WCrC    OtllCrS 

LncratitfS.  ^  ^ 

who  railed  at  marriage  as  simply  un- 
lawful under  the  gospel,  and  would  have  all  men 
abstain  from  it  as  a  matter  of  necessity,  without 
which  they  could  not  be  saved.  This  doctrine  was 
first  taught  by  Saturnilus  and  Marcion,  as  Iren;cus" 
informs  us,  but  afterwards  better  known  among  the 
Encratites,  a  sect  begun  by  Tatian,  the  scholar  of 
Justin  Martyr,  who,  after  his  master's  death,  divided 
from  the  church  upon  this  and  some  other  points, 
asserting,  that  marriage  was  no  better  than  fornica- 
tion, and  therefore  all  men  ought  to  abstain  from 
it:  thereby,  says  our  author,  annulling  the  primi- 
tive work  of  God,  and  tacitly  accusing  him  who 
created  man  male  and  female  for  the  propagation 
of  mankind.  Epiphanius,*^  speaking  of  these  En- 
cratites, says,  they  taught  openly  that  marriage  was 
the  work  of  the  devil.     Theodoret^  says  the  same, 


That  they  observed  celibacy,  terming  marriage  for- 
nication, and  the  lawful  joining  of  man  and  woman 
together  the  work  of  the  devil.  Which  is  also  con- 
firmed by  St.  Austin,^'  who  adds,  Tiiat  upon  this 
account  they  would  admit  no  married  person  into 
their  society,  whether  male  or  female. 
Not  unlike  these  was   that  other 

Srct.  6 

sect,  who  called  themselves  Anostolici,     aiso  i.y  ti,e  /i;,o«- 

.  ^  tolici  or  Ajwtattici. 

from  a  vain  pretence  of  being  the  only 
men  who  lead  their  lives  according  to  the  example 
of  the  apostles  ;  and  Aputactici,  from  a  show  of  re- 
nouncing the  world  more  than  other  men.  St.  Aus- 
tin says,  They  arrogantly"  assumed  these  names, 
because  they  would  not  receive  into  their  commu- 
nion any  who  were  married,  or  kept  the  possession 
of  any  thing  in  property  to  themselves  ;  and  that 
they  allowed  no  hope  of  salvation  to  such  as  used 
either  of  those  things  which  they  renounced. 

St.  Austin  brings  the  same  charge  ^^^^  ^ 

against  the  Manichees:  he  says.  They  sevjil'/and'Tr"-'' 
condemned  marriage,^'^  and  prohibited  '''""'""'• 
it  as  far  as  they  could,  forbidding  men  to  beget  chil- 
dren, for  which  marriage  was  ordained.  The  Seve- 
rians  and  Archontics  said.  That  woman  was  the  work 
of  the  devil,  and  therefore  they  that  married  ful- 
filled the  work  of  the  devil,  as  Epiphanius^'  reports 
of. them.  And  Clemens  Alcxandrinus,'"  speaking 
of  the  same  heretics,  or  some  others  like  them,  says, 
They  taught,  that  marriage  was  downright  fornica- 
tion, and  that  it  was  delivered  by  the  devil. 

After  these  arose  up  one  Hierax, 
whose  disciples  are  called  Hieracians,    By  the  Hi^rarians, 

and  Eubtatliians. 

who  taught  with  a  little  more  mo- 
desty, but  no  less  erroneously,  that  marriage  was  a 
thing  belonging  only  to  the  Old  Testament,  and 
since  the  coming  of  Christ  it  was  no  longer  to  have 
place;  neither  could  any  one  in  the  married  state 
obtain  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  So  Epiphanius  re- 
presents their  doctrine.^"  And  upon  this  account 
St.  Austin  ■"'  says.  They  admitted  none  but  monks 
and  nuns,  and  such  as  were  unmarried,  into  their 
communion.  The  same  tenets  were  stifRy  main- 
tained by  one  Eustathius,  whom  Socrates"  and  So- 
zomcn*-  call  bishop  of  Sebastia,  and  Valesius"  de- 
fends them  in  so  saying,  though  Baronius  "  labours 


ter  omnes  populos  degeneres  habentur :  nee  immerito,  quia 
aflBicta  casfitatis  disciplina,  successionis  notitiam  ritu  im- 
probo  perdiderunt. 

26  Theoph.  ad  Autolyc.  lib.  3.  p.  207. 

2'  Hieron.  Ep.  ad  Ocean,  lib.  2.  advers.  Jovin. 

^  Cbrys.  Horn.  5.  in  Titum,  p.  1725.  Horn.  4.  in  Act. 

^  Theod.  de  Ciirand.  GroRcor.  Affect.  Serm.  9. 

=">  Clera.  Strom.  3.  cap.  2.  p.  514.  Ed.  Oxnn. 

s'  Ircn.  lib.  1.  cap.  30.  et  ap.  Euseb.  lib.  4.  c.  29. 

'-  Epiph.  Hfcr.  47. 

ss  Tbeod.  HxY.  Fab.  lib.  1.  c.  20. 

^'  Aug.  de  Hajr.  cap.  25.  Encralitae  nuptias  damnant, 
alque  omnino  pares  eas  fornicationibus  aliisque  corruptioni- 
bus  faciunt:  nee  recipiunt  in  eorum  numcrum  coujugio 
uientem,  sive  marem  sive  fccminam. 


5^  Aug.  de  Haeres.  cap.  40.  Apostolici,  qui  se  isto nomine 
arrngantissime  vocaverunt,  eo  quod  in  suam  comraunionem 
non  recipercnt  utcntes  conjugibus,   et  res  proprias  possi- 

dentes. NuUam  spem  putant  eos  habere  qui  ufuntur  his 

rebus,  quibus  ipsi  carent. 

'^  Ibid.  cap.  40.  Nuptias  sine  dubitatione  condcmnant, 
et  quantmn  in  ipsis  est  prohibent,  quando  generare  pro- 
hibent,  propter  quod  conjugia  copulanda  sunt. 

''  Epiph.  Hnar.  45.  n.  2. 

'^  Clem.  Strom.  3.  cap.  9.  p.  540. 

3' Epiph.  HcTr.  67.  n.  1. 

*"  Aug.  de  Haer.  cap.  47.  Monachos  tantum  et  monachas 
et  coujugia  non  habentes  in  communionem  recipiunt. 

^'  Socrat.  lib.  2.  cap.  43.  *-  Sozom.  lib.  4.  cap.  21. 

*^  Vales,  in  Socrat.  lib.  2.  c.  43.     *'  Baron,  an.  3G1.  n.  45. 


1200 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXII. 


to  prove  him  to  be  another  man.  However,  it  is 
agreed  on  all  hands,  that  there  was  one  of  this 
name,  who  was  so  great  an  admirer  of  the  monastic 
life,  that,  for  the  sake  of  it,  he  condemned  all  mar- 
riage in  general,  and  tanght,  that  no  one  that  lived 
in  a  married  state  could  have  any  hope  in  God. 
Upon  which,  many  women  forsook  their  husbands, 
and  husbands  their  wives  :  many  servants  deserted 
their  masters,  to  join  with  him  in  this  new  way  of 
living ;  and  many  withdrew  from  public  assemblies 
of  the  church,  and  held  private  conventicles,  upon 
pretence,  that  they  could  not  communicate  with  the 
ministers  of  the  church,  because  they  were  married 
persons:  as  the  fathers  of  the  council  of  Gangra 
largely  set  forth  his  errors  in  their  declaration 
against  them.^^ 

And   to  give  some   check   to   his 

Sect.  9.  " 

Who  ^ere  con-  gn'ors,  thcy  used  their  authority  in 

demned  in  tnecoun-  t  J  •/ 

thos"/  ^mSX^^  making  several  canons  against  them, 
Apostolical  Canons,  having  first  dcposcd  the  author.  In 
the  first  canon  they  say,  If  any  accuses  marriage, 
or  blames  or  abhors  a  woman,  who  is  otherwise 
faithful  and  pious,  for  sleeping  with  her  husband, 
as  if  upon  that  account  she  could  not  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  God,  let  him  be  anathema.  The  fourth 
canon  is  to  the  same  purpose.  If  any  one  condemn 
or  separate  from  a  married  presbyter,  under  pre- 
tence that  it  is  unlawful  to  partake  of  the  oblation 
when  such  a  one  ministers,  let  him  be  anathema. 
The  ninth  in  like  manner.  If  any  one  retire  from 
the  world,  and  live  a  virgin,  or  contain,  as  abominat- 
ing marriage,  and  not  for  the  excellency  and  holi- 
ness of  a  virgin  life,  let  him  be  anathema.  The 
fourteenth.  If  any  woman  forsake  her  husband, 
minding  to  turn  recluse  out  of  an  abhorrence  of 
marriage,  let  her  be  anathema.  They  add  in  the 
close  of  all.  We  write  not  these  things  to  cut  off  any 
from  the  church  of  God,  who  are  minded  to  give 
themselves  to  an  ascetic  life  according  to  the  Scrip- 
tures, but  only  those  who  make  such  a  life  an  oc- 
casion of  pride,  to  lift  themselves  up  above  those 
who  live  in  a  more  plain  and  simple  manner,  intro- 
ducing novelties  against  the  Scriptures  and  the 
rules  of  the  church.  We  admire  virginity,  when 
accompanied  with  humility  :  and  applaud  conti- 
nency,  when  attended  with  gravity  and  piety ;  and 
allow  of  a  retirement  from  worldly  affairs,  when  it 
is  done  with  humility :  but  we  also  honour  cohabit- 
ation in  chaste  marriage ;  and,  in  a  word,  desire 
that  all  things  may  be  done  in  the  church  accord- 
ing to  the  traditions  delivered  to  us  in  Scripture, 


and  rules  of  the  apostles.  By  the  traditions  of  the 
apostles,  these  fathers  might  mean,  either  the  rules 
about  marriage  delivered  by  the  apostles  in  Scrip- 
ture, or  the  rules  given  in  those  which  are  called 
the  Apostolical  Canons,  which  were  at  that  time  of 
common  use  in  the  church.  One  of  which  runs  in 
these  terms :"  If  any  bishop,  presbyter,  or  deacon, 
or  any  other  of  the  sacred  roll,  abstain  from  mar- 
riage, or  flesh,  or  wine,  not  for  exercise  of  an  ascetic 
life,  but  out  of  abhorrence,  thereby  blaspheming 
and  calumniating  the  workmanship  of  God,  and  for- 
getting that  God  created  all  things  very  good,  and 
made  man  male  and  female ;  let  him  amend,  or  else 
be  deposed  and  cast  out  of  the  church.  And  so  let 
a  layman  be  treated  likewise. 

By  all  this  it  is  evident,  that  the  church  had  a 
mighty  struggle  with  those  ancient  heretics,  who 
inveighed  bitterly  against  marriage  under  the  gos- 
pel state,  and  wrought  upon  many  weak  minds  to 
commit  great  disorders,  under  pretence  of  a  more 
refined  way  of  living  and  fanciful  perfection,  which 
the  gospel  had  no  where  enjoined  as  of  necessity 
to  mankind ;  but  only  they  who  were  able  to  re- 
ceive it,  might  receive  it  at  their  own  liberty  and 
discretion,  provided  they  made  their  own  liberty  no 
snare  to  other  men's  consciences,  nor  imposed'  a 
matter  of  free  choice  as  a  necessary  obligation 
upon  the  rest  of  mankind. 

The  church  had  also  another  con- 
test with  the  Montanists  about  se 
cond  marriages.  Theodoret"  says,  :i!ldSrthTN™itbris 
Montanus  made  laws  to  dissolve  mar- 
riage. And  the  same  was  objected  to  him  by  Apol- 
lonius,  an  ancient  writer  in  Eusebius,"  who  opposed 
the  new  spirit  of  Montanus,  when  he  first  began  to 
appear  in  the  world  :  This  is  the  man  that  teaches 
the  dissolution  of  marriages,  says  he  in  his  charge 
against  him  :  which  some  later  writers  by  mistake 
understand  of  his  prohibiting  marriage  in  general,  as 
the  heretics  of  whom  we  have  just  been  speaking. 
Whereas  Montanus  did  not  deny  the  lawfulness  of 
marriage,  but  only  second  marriages,  as  is  evident 
from  Tertullian,  who  was  the  chief  advocate  of  that 
heretic  against  the  church.  His  books  De  Mono- 
gamia,  and  Exhortatio  Castitatis,  were  written  pur- 
posely on  this  subject :  in  both  which  he  declaims 
very  heartily  indeed  against  second  marriages,  as  no 
better  than  adultery ;  but  he  never  gives  the  least 
intimation,  that  he  or  any  other  Montanist  had  the 
same  opinion  of  the  first.  Nay,  he  begins  his  book 
of  Monogamy  with  these  remarkable  M'ords,""  Here- 


Sect.  10. 
The  error  of  the 
Montanists   about 


*^  Cone.  Gangren.  in  Precfat.  '"'  Canon.  Apost.  51. 

■"  Theod.  Hasr.  Fab.  lib.  3.  cap.  2.     Toy  yu.fj.ov  diaXvBtu 

ll>0/Xo6lTt](T^. 

"  Euseb.  lib.  5.  cap.  IS.  Oi'itos  1(ttlv  6  oioa^as  Xva-ei^ 
yufioiu. 

•■^  Tertul.  de  Monogam.  cap.  1.  Haeretici  nuptias  aiife- 
runt,  Psychici  ingerunt. — Verum  neque  continentia  ejus- 


modi  latidanda,  quia  hseretica  est ;  neque  licentia  defen- 
denda,  quia  Psychica  est.  Ilia  blasphemat,  ista  luxuriat. 
Ilia  destruit  nuptiarum  Deum,  ista  confundit.  Penes  nos 
autem,  quos  spiiitales  merito  dici  facit  agnitio  spiritalium 
charismatum,  tain  continentia  religiosa  est,  quam  licentia 
verecunda,  quandoquidem  ambaj  cum  Creatoie  sunt. —  Unum 
matrimonium  novimus,  sicut  unum  Deum. 


I 


Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1201 


tics  take  away  marriage,  and  the  Psychici,  or  carnal 
men,  by  whom  he  means  the  catholics,  repeat  it : 
tlie  one  marry  not  so  much  as  once,  the  other  marry 
more  than  once.  But  neither  is  such  continency 
to  be  praised,  because  it  is  heretical ;  nor  such 
liberty  to  be  defended,  because  it  is  carnal.  The 
one  destroys  the  God  of  marriage,  the  other  con- 
founds him.  The  one  blasphemes  him,  the  other 
is  luxurious  against  him.  But  among  us,  who  are 
deservedly  called  spiritual,  from  the  acknowledg- 
ment of  spiritual  gifts,  continency  is  religious,  and 
our  liberty  observed  with  modesty  and  moderation, 
because  they  both  stand  with  the  Creator.  We  ac- 
knowledge one  matrimony,  as  we  do  one  God.  So 
that  it  is  plain,  the  Montanists  ought  not  to  be 
charged  with  denying  the  lawfulness  of  marriage 
in  general,  which  they  defended  against  other  here- 
tics, but  only  the  liberty  of  second  and  third  mar- 
riages, which  they  rejected  upon  the  pretence  of 
receiving  some  new  revelations  from  the  Holy 
Ghost.  And  therefore  when  the  ancients  say.  They 
taught  men  to  dissolve  marriage,  or  forbid  men  to 
marry,  they  are  always  to  be  understood  as  speak- 
ing of  second  marriages,  and  not  of  the  first,  as 
Epiphanius^"  well  explains  himself,  when  he  writes 
against  them. 

The  Novatians  were  in  the  same  sentiments  with 
the  Montanists,  rejecting  all  from  communion  who 
were  twice  married.  Which  we  learn  not  only  from 
Epiphanius  ^'  and  other  private  writers  against 
them,  but  also  from  the  rule  made  in  the  great 
council  of  Nice  concerning  them,^"  That  when  any 
of  the  Novatians  returned  to  the  catholic  church, 
they  should  be  obliged  to  make  profession  in  writing, 
that  they  would  submit  to  the  decrees  of  the  ca- 
tholic church,  particularly  in  this,  that  they  would 
hydyLoiQ  Koivwvtlv,  communicate  with  digamists,  or 
those  that  were  married  a  second  time.  Which 
shows  us  both  what  was  the  opinion  of  the  Nova- 
tians upon  this  point,  and  what  was  the  general 
sense  of  the  catholic  church  in  opposition  to  it. 
And  if  any  private  writers  have  spoken  any  thing 
harshly  or  indecently  of  second  marriages,  their 
opinion  is  not  either  to  be  defended  or  urged  as  the 
sentiment  of  the  church,  as  I  have  had  occasion 
to  show  in  a  former^'  Book  concerning  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  church,  where  this  matter  is  more 
fully  discussed. 


CHAPTER  II. 

OF  THE  JUST  IMPEDIMENTS  OF  MARRIAGE  IN  PAR- 
TICULAR CASES,  SHOWING,  WHAT  PERSONS  MIGHT 
OR  MIGHT  NOT  BE  LAWFULLY  JOINED  TOGETHER  ; 
AND  OF  THE  TIMES  AND  SEASONS  WHEN  THE  CE- 
LEBRATION OF  MARRIAGE  WAS  FORBIDDEN. 

Having   thus   given   an   account  of         „  .  , 

f  Sect.  1. 

the  several  opinions  and  practices  of  m?rry'wi?h'iirfljti° 
heretics,  derogatory  either  to  marriage  „?  ^ny'of'a  d'rHVri.'nt 
in  general,  or  to  the  repetition  of  it  "''S'""- 
after  the  decease  of  a  former  consort,  I  now  come 
to  show  what  restraints  the  church  herself  laid  upon 
some  particular  sorts  of  persons,  by  her  rules  pro- 
hibiting them  to  marry,  either  for  some  time,  or  at 
least  not  in  such  circumstances  as  were  thought 
just  impediments  of  marriage  in  certain  particular 
cases.  Of  this  nature  was  the  rule  forbidding 
Christians  to  marry  with  infidels  or  heathens,  be- 
cause of  the  danger  and  scandal  that  would  attend 
the  being  joined  so  unequally  with  unbelievers. 
The  apostle  leaves  the  woman,  whose  husband  is 
dead,  at  liberty  to  marry  to  whom  she  will,  only 
with  this  proviso,  that  it  be  "  in  the  Lord,"  I  Cor. 
\ii.  39.  Which  the  ancients  generally  so  under- 
stood, as  to  take  it  for  a  command,  that  Christians 
should  marry  only  Christians,  and  not  infidels,  or 
persons  of  a  different  religion.  Cyprian,'  in  his 
book  of  Testimonies  out  of  Scripture,  brings  this 
text  and  two  others  out  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles,  to 
prove  that  Christians  ought  not  to  join  in  matri- 
mony with  the  Gentiles.  His  other  proofs  are,  1  Cor. 
vi.  15,  "  Know  ye  not  that  your  bodies  are  the  mem- 
bers of  Cihrist  ?  Shall  I  then  take  the  members  of 
Christ  and  make  them  members  of  a  harlot?  God 
forbid."  And  2  Cor.  vi.  14,  "  Be  ye  not  unequally 
yoked  with  unbelievers."  And  in  his  book  De  Lap- 
sis"  he  complains,  that  among  other  causes  why  God 
sent  that  terrible  persecution  upon  Christians,  one 
reason  was,  that  many  of  them  had  joined  them- 
selves in  matrimony  with  infidels,  and  prostituted 
the  members  of  Christ  to  the  infidels.  In  like  man- 
ner, TertuUian^  before  him  gives  the  same  sense  of 
the  words  of  the  apostle.  For  certainly,  says  he,  in 
prescribing  that  the  woman  should  only  marry  in 
the  Lord,  lest  any  believer  should  contract  matri- 
mony with  a  heathen,  he  defends  the  law  of  tlie 
Creator,  which  every  where  forbids  marrying  with 
those  of  another  nation,  or  heathens  of  another  re- 
ligion.    So,  again,*  she  that  was  to  marry,  was  only 


^  Epiph.  Haer.  48.  n.  9.  *'  Ibid.  Haer.  59.  n.  4. 

5-  Cone.  Nic.  can.  8.        "  Book  XVI.  chap.  11.  sect.  7. 

'  Cypr.  Testimon.  ad  Quirin.  lib.  3.  cap.  62.     Matrimo- 
nium  cum  Gentilibus  non  jiiugenduui. 

^   Ibid,  de  Lapsis,  p.  123.    Jungere  cum  infidelibus  vin- 
culum matrimonii,  prostituerc  Gentilibus  membra  Christi. 
4   11 


^  Tertul.  cent.  Marcion,  lib.  5.  cap.  7.  Certe  praescribens, 
tantum  in  Domino  esse  nubendum,  ne  qnis  fidelis  efhniciim 
raatrimonium  contrahat,  legem  tuetur  Crealoris,  allophy- 
lorum  nuptias  ubique  prohibcntis. 

*  Ibid,  de  Mono^iam.  cap.  7.  Et  ilia  nupturain  Dduiino 
habet  nuberc,  id  est,  non  etlinico.  sod  fratri:  quia  ot  votus 


1202 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXII. 


to  marry  in  the  Lord,  that  is,  not  to  a  heathen,  but 
to  a  brother ;  because  the  old  law  also  forbade  the 
marrying  with  strangers.  He  pursues  this  argu- 
ment at  large  in  his  second  book  to  his  own  wife, 
where,  urging  first  the  same  text  of  the  apostle,  he 
concludes,*  that  it  is  fornication  and  adultery  for 
Christians  to  join  in  marriage  with  heathens,  and 
that  they  who  do  so  ought  to  be  cast  out  of  the 
communion  of  the  church.  And  in  another  place 
he  says.  Christians  did  not  marry"  with  heathens, 
for  fear  they  should  draw  them  into  idolatry,  which 
was  the  first  rite  that  was  used  in  celebrating  their 
marriages.  St.  Jerom'  urges  the  same  authorities 
of  the  apostle  against  such  marriages :  When  the 
apostle,  says  he,  adds,  "  only  in  the  Lord,"  he  there- 
by cuts  off  all  making  marriages  with  the  heathen. 
Concerning  which  sort  of  marriages  he  says  in 
another  place,  "  Be  ye  not  imequally  yoked  with 
unbelievers  :  for  what  fellowship  hath  righteousness 
with  unrighteousness  ?  and  what  communion  hath 
light  with  darkness  ?  and  what  concord  hath  Christ 
with  Belial  ?  or  what  part  hath  he  that  believeth 
with  an  infidel?"  St.  Jerom,  indeed,  in  another 
place  laments  the  transgression  of  these  rules,  and 
sharply  reproves  the  transgressors.*  Now,  many 
women,  says  he,  despising  the  command  of  the 
apostle,  are  married  to  heathens,  not  considering 
that  they  become  part  of  that  body,  whose  ribs  they 
are.  The  apostle  pardons  those  who  were  married 
to  heathens  before  they  believed  in  Christ,  but  not 
those  who,  being  Christians,  afterward  were  mar- 
ried to  Gentiles ;  to  whom  he  thus  speaks  in  another 
place,  "  Be  not  imequally  yoked  with  unbelievers," 
&c.  I  am  sensible,  says  St.  Jerom,  I  shall  anger 
and  enrage  many  matrons,  who,  as  they  have  de- 
spised their  Lord,  (in  being  married  to  heathens,) 
so  they  will  rant  at  me,  who  am  but  a  flea  and  the 
meanest  of  all  Christians.  Yet  I  will  speak  what  I 
think,  and  say  what  the  apostle  has  taught  me ;  that 
they  are  not  on  the  side  of  righteousness,  but  un- 
righteousness ;  not  of  light,  but  of  darkness  ;  not  of 
Christ,  but  of  Belial ;  not  temples  of  the  living  God, 
but  temples  and  idols  of  dead  men.  Would  you 
have  me  speak  more  plainly,  that  a  Christian 
woman  ought  not  to  be  married  to  a  heathen  ? 
Hear  the  same  apostle :  "  The  woman  is  bound," 
says  he,  "  as  long  as  her  husband  liveth  :  but  if  her 
husband  be  dead,  she  is  at  liberty  to  be  married  to 
whom  she  will,  only  in  the  Lord;"  that  is,  to  a 


Christian.  He  that  allows  second  and  third  mar- 
riages in  the  Lord,  forbids  even  a  first  marriage 
with  a  heathen.  I  say  this,  that  they  who  compare 
marriage  to  virginity,  may  yet  at  least  understand 
that  digamy  and  trigamy,  second  and  third  mar- 
riages, are  far  above  such  marriages  with  heathens. 
St.  Ambrose  is  no  less  earnest  in  dissuading  all. 
Christians  from  engaging  in  such  unequal  marriages, 
not  only  with  heathens,  but  heretics;  pathetically 
exhorting  parents,  who  had  the  chief  hand  and 
authority  in  disposing  of  their  children,  to  beware 
of  such  dangerous  matches.  Beware,  says  he,"  O 
Christian,  that  thou  give  not  thy  daughter  to  a 
Gentile  or  a  Jew  ;  beware,  I  say,  that  thou  take  not 
a  wife  to  thee  who  is  a  Gentile,  or  a  Jew,  or  an  alien, 
that  is,  a  heretic,  or  any  one  that  is  a  stranger  to 
the  faith.  And  again,  writing  to  one  Vigilius'" 
some  instructions  about  the  execution  of  the  minis- 
terial office,  he  bids  him  teach  the  people  carefully 
this  one  thing,  Not  to  join  in  matrimony  with 
strangers,  but  with  Christian  families.  For  though 
we  read  of  many  people  destroyed  with  a  heavy 
destruction  for  violating  the  laws  of  hospitality ; 
and  of  dreadful  wars  commenced  upon  unclean- 
ness ;  yet  there  is  scarce  any  thing  more  grievous 
than  marrying  with  strange  women,  which  is  both 
an  incentive  to  lust  and  discord,  and  the  forge  of 
sacrilege.  For  when  marriage  ought  to  be  sancti- 
fied with  the  sacerdotal  veil  and  benediction,  how 
can  that  be  called  a  marriage,  where  there  is  no 
agreement  in  faith?  When  their  prayers  ought 
to  be  in  common,  how  can  there  be  any  mutual 
conjugal  love,  where  there  is  such  disparity  in 
their  devotion  ?  Many  men  by  this  means  have 
frequently  betrayed  their  faith,  as  the  Israelites 
did  in  the  wilderness,  when,  by  the  seducement 
of  the  Midianitish  women,  they  joined  themselves 
to  Baal-peor.  The  author  also  of  the  Short  Notes 
upon  the  Epistles,  under  the  name  of  St.  Am- 
brose," gives  the  same  interpretation  of  St.  Paul's 
words :  Let  the  woman  marry  only  in  the  Lord ; 
let  her  marry  without  suspicion  of  uncleanness, 
and  let  her  marry  to  a  man  of  her  own  religion. 
This  is  to  marry  in  the  Lord.  In  like  manner 
Sedulius  '-  and  Theodoret "  upon  the  same  place ; 
Let  her  marry  to  one  of  the  same  faith,  to  a 
godly  man,  in  sobriety,  and  according  to  the  law. 
Upon  this  account  St.  Austin,  being  solicited  by 
one  Rusticus,  a  heathen,  to  give  his  consent  that 


lex  adimit  conjugium  allophylorum.  It.  cap.  11.  Prop- 
terea  adjecerit,  tantum  in  Domino,  ne  scilicet  post,  fidem 
ethnico  se  nubere  posse  praesiimeret. 

^  Tertul.  ad  Uxor.  lib.  2.  cap.  3.  Haec  cum  ifa  sint,  fideles 
Gentilium  matrimonia  subeuntes  stiipri  reos  esse  constat,  et 
arcendos  ab  omni  communicatione  fraternilatis,  &c. 

"  Ibid,  de  Coron.  Mil.  cap.  13. 

"  Hievon.  Ep.  11.  ad  Geiontiam  de  Monogamia.  Quod 
addit,  tantum  in  Domino,  amputat  ethnicoi-ura  conjugia,  &c. 

"  Ibid.  cont.  Jovin.  lib.  1.  cap.  5.     Nunc  plerocque  con- 


temnentes  apostoli  jussionem,  junguntur  Gentilibus,  &c. 

"  Ambros.  de  Abrahamo,  lib.  1.  cap.  9. 

'"  Ibid.  Ep.  70.  ad  Vigil. 

"  Pseudo-Ambros.  in  I  Cor.  vii.  39.  Tantum  in  Domino: 
hoc  est,  sine  suspicione  turpitndinis  nubat,  et  religionis 
sua;  viro  nubat.     Hoc  est  in  Domino  nubere. 

'■-  Sedul.  in  1  Cor.  vii.  .39.  Cui  voluerit  nubat,  tantum- 
modo  Christiano,  non  Gentili. 

'^  Theod.  in  1  Cor.  vii.  39.     Movod  iv  Kunuo,  -tovticttiv. 


Chai'.  11. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


i2<);3 


his  son  might  marry  a  certain  w?oman  that  was  a 
Christian,  tells  him,'^  That  though  it  was  absolutely 
in  his  power  to  give  any  virgin  in  marriage,  yet  he 
could  not  give  a  Christian  to  any  but  a  Christian. 
This  St.  Austin  spake  according  to  the  known  rules 
and  practice  of  the  church.  For  though  he  him- 
self, in  his  own  private  opinion,  did  not  think  sucli 
marriages  so  clearly  and  expressly  forbidden  in  the 
New  Testament,  as  others  did ;  yet  he  thought  there 
were  probable  reasons  to  make  it  a  very  doubtful 
case :  and  that  was  enough  to  deter  any  one  from 
venturing  on  it,  and  also  sufficient  to  oblige  the 
ministers  of  the  church  not  to  give  any  encourage- 
ment to  it,  either  by  consenting  to  such  marriages, 
or  authorizing  them  in  their  ministration.  Yet,  if 
the  question  were,  Whether  such  persons,  so  offend- 
ing against  the  rules  of  the  church,  were  to  be  de- 
nied either  baptism  or  communion,  he  reckons  this 
to  be  a  matter  of  some  doubt,  not  so  clearly  to  be 
resolved  as  the  question  about  manifest  fornicators 
and  adulterers.  The  manifest  crimes  of  unclean- 
ness,  says  he,'^  do  absolutely  debar  men  from  bap- 
tism, unless  they  be  corrected  by  a  change  of  will 
and  repentance  :  and  in  doubtful  cases,  as  marrying 
with  heathens,  we  are  by  all  means  to  endeavour 
that  such  marriages  be  not  contracted.  For  what 
need  have  any  persons  to  run  their  heads  into  so 
great  danger  in  doubtful  matters  ?  But  if  such 
marriages  be  made,  I  am  not  sure  that  the  parties 
concerned  ought  to  be  denied  baptism  in  this  case 
as  in  the  former.  Indeed  the  punishment  of  such 
contracts  was  not  always  and  every  where  the  same 
in  the  church,  though  it  was  agreed  on  all  hands  to 
prohibit  and  discourage  them,  as  dangerous  and 
dubious,  or  manifestly  sinful.  Some  canons  barely 
forbid  the  thing,  wdthout  assigning  any  ecclesiasti- 
cal punishment  to  the  commission  of  it.  So  in  the 
council  of  Laodicea,  one  canon'*  says,  That  they 
who  are  of  the  church  ought  not  to  give  their  chil- 
dren in  marriage  promiscuously  to  heretics.     And 


another.  That  they  ought  not"  to  marry  with  all 
heretics  indifferently,  nor  give  their  sons  or  daugh- 
ters to  them,  unless  they  will  promise  to  become 
Christians,  The  prohibition  in  the  third  council  of 
Carthage  extends  only  to  the  sons  and  daughters  of 
bishops  and  the  clergy,"  that  they  should  not  marry 
with  Gentiles,  heretics,  or  schismatics,  but  particu- 
larly mentions  no  others.  The  council  of  Agde '" 
runs  in  the  same  words  with  the  council  of  Laodi- 
cea, That  none  shall  marry  with  heretics,  unless 
they  will  promise  to  become  catholic  Christians. 
And  so  the  council  of  Chalcedon''"  forbids  the 
readers  and  singers  among  the  inferior  clergy  to 
marry  either  Jew,  Gentile,  or  heretic,  unless  they 
would  promise  to  embrace  the  orthodox  faith :  and 
this  is  enjoined  the  clergy,  under  pain  of  canonical 
censure.  But  the  first  council  of  Aries"'  goes  a 
little  further  with  respect  to  the  whole  body  of 
Christians,  and  orders.  That  if  any  virgins  who  are 
believers  be  married  to  Gentiles,  they  shall,  for  some 
time,  be  separated  from  communion.  The  council 
of  Eliberis  not  only  forbids  such  marriages"  in  one 
canon,  for  fear  of  spiritual  adultery,  that  is,  apos- 
tacy  from  the  faith ;  though  there  was  a  pretence, 
that  young  women  were  so  numerous,  that  they 
could  not  find  Christian  husbands  enough  for  them ; 
but  also  in  another  canon ■^  orders  such  parents  as 
gave  their  daughters  in  marriage  to  Jews  or  heretics, 
to  be  five  years  cas-t  out  of  the  communion  of  the 
church.  And  a  third  canon  orders,''*  That  if  any 
parents  married  their  daughters  to  idol-priests,  they 
should  not  be  received  into  communion  even  at 
their  last  hour.  The  second  council  of  Orleans" 
forbids  all  Christians  to  marry  Jews,  because  all 
such  marriages  were  deemed  unlawful ;  and  if  any. 
Upon  admonition,  rcfnsed  to  dissolve  such  mar- 
riages, they  were  to  be  denied  all  benefit  of  com- 
munion. Thus  stood  the  discipline  of  the  church 
at  that  time  in  reference  to  all  such  marriages. 
Nor  was   the   civil   law  wantina:  to  confirm   the 


"  Aug.  Ep.  234.  adRusticum.  Certissime  noveris,  etiamsi 
nostrae  absolutae  sit  potestatis  quamlibet  puellainin  conjugio 
tradere,  tradi  a  nobis  Christiauam  nisi  Chiistiano  non  posse. 

'^  Aug.  de  Fide  et  Oper.  cap.  19.  Quae  manife.sta  sunt 
impudicitiae  crimina,  omnimodo  a  baplismo  prohibenda 
sunt,  nisi  mtitationc  voluntatis  et  poenitentia  corrigantur: 
quae  autem  dubia,  omnimodo  conandum  est,  ne  fiant  tales 
conjunctiones.  Quid  enini  opus  est  in  tantum  discrimen 
ambiguitatis  caput  immittere  ?  si  autem  factai  fuerint,  nescio 
utrum  ii  qui  t'ecerint,  similiter  ad  baptismum  non  debere  vi- 
deanturadmitti.  Vid.  Aug.  de  Adulterin.  Nupt.  lib.  1.  c.  25. 

'^  Cone.  Laodic.  can.  10.  "  Ibid.  can.  31. 

'^  Cone.  Carth.  3.  can.  12.  Ut  filii  vol  filiae  episcoporum, 
vel  quorumlibet  clericorum,  Geutilibus  vel  haereticis  vel 
scbismaticis  matrimonio  non  jungautur. 

'"  Uonc.  Agathen.  can.  67.  Non  opoiiet  cum  omnibus 
haercticis  miscere  connubia,  et  vel  filios  vel  filias  dare,  sed 
potiusaccipere,  si  tamen  profitentur  Ciiristianosfuturos  esse 
se  et  catholicos. 

^•Coiic.  Chalced.  can.  II. 

4  H  2 


2'  Cone.  Arelat.  ].  can.  II.  De  puellis  fidelibus  qua: 
Gentilibus  jungunlur,  placuit  ut  aliquanto  tempore  a  coni- 
inunione  separentur. 

^  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  15.  Propter  copiam  pucllarum 
Gentilibus  ininime  in  matrimonium  dandao  sunt  virgiiies 
Christianec;  ne  ajtas  in  flore  tumens  in  adulterio  anima>  re- 
solvatur. 

^  Ibid.  can.  IG.  Catholicas  puellas  nequc  Judaeis  neqiie 
hocreticis  dare  placuit :  eo  quod  nulla  esse  possit  socictas 
fideli  cum  infideli.  Si  contra  interdictum  fecerint  pareutes, 
abstineri  per  quinquennium  placet. 

-*  Ibid.  can.  17.  Si  qui  forte  sacerdotibus  idolorum  iilias 
suas  junxerint,  placuit,  nee  in  line  eis  dandani  esse  cominu- 
nionem. 

"  Cone.  Ain-elian.  2.  can.  '8.  Placuit  nt  nullus  Chris- 
tianur  JudiEam,  neque  Judocus  Christiauam  in  matrimonio 
ducat  uxorem :  quia  inter  hujusmodi  personas  illicitas  niip- 
tias  esse  ccnseraus.  Quod  si  commoniti,  a  consortio  hoc 
se  separare  distulerint,  a  communiouis  gratia  sunt  sine  dubio 
snbmovendi. 


1204 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXII. 


ecclesiastical  with  its  sanction.  For  by  an  edict 
published  by  Valentinian  and  Theodosius,  which 
is  twice  repeated  in  the  Theodosian  Code,"''  and 
stands  still  as  law  in  the  Justinian  Code,  If  any 
Jew  presume  to  marry  a  Christian  woman,  or  a 
Christian  takes  to  wife  a  Jewish  woman,  their 
crime  is  put  into  the  same  class  with  adultery,  that 
is,  made  a  capital  crime,  and  not  only  relations,  but 
any  one,  has  liberty  to  accuse  and  prosecute  them 
upon  such  transgression.  Constantius  before  this 
had  made  it  a  capital  crime  for  a  Jew"  to  marry  a 
Christian  woman,  but  laid  no  penalty  upon  the 
Christian  marrying  a  Jew.  But  this  being  thought 
a  defect  by  Theodosius,  he  supplied  it  by  that  new 
law,  which  more  expressly  made  it  capital  for  them 
both.  And  so  all  possible  restraint  was  laid  upon 
such  marriages  that  the  civil  power  could  think  of. 
seit.  2.  And  to  prevent  the  inconveniencies 

All  Christians  ob- 
liged to  acquaintthe  attendinsj  such  unequal  marriages,  all 

rnurch    with    their  ^  ^  o       ^ 

designs  of  marriage  Chrlstiaus  wcrc  obhged  to  acquaint 

before     they    com-  o  u 

'''^'^'^  ''•  the  bishop  of  the  church  beforehand 

with  their  design  of  marrying,  that  if  any  such  ob- 
stacle appeared,  they  might  be  dissuaded  and  di- 
verted from  it.  Thus  Ignatius,  in  his  epistle  to 
Poly  carp  r^  It  becomes  those  that  marry,  and  those 
that  are  given  in  marriage,  to  take  upon  them  this 
yoke  with  the  consent  or  direction  of  the  bishop, 
that  their  marriage  may  be  according  to  the  will  of 
God,  and  not  their  own  lusts.  And  this  is  evident 
from  several  passages  in  Tertullian,  who  often 
speaks  of  taking  advice  and  counsel  beforehand 
about  this  matter  from  the  church.  For,  speaking 
of  some  women  who  were  married  to  heathens,  he 
says.  He  could  not"^  but  wonder  either  at  their  own 
petulancy,  or  the  prevarication  and  unfaithfulness 
of  their  counsellors.  Intimating,  that  in  this  case 
they  had  taken  counsel  of  others,  and  not  of  the 
church,  who  would  not  have  given  them  counsel 
and  consent  to  have  married  heathens.  In  another 
place,'"  says  he.  How  shall  I  sufficiently  set  forth 
the  happiness  of  that  marriage,  which  the  church 
brings  about  by  her  procurement,  and  the  oblation 
confirms,  and  the  angels  report  it  when  done,  and 


the  Father  ratifies  it  ?  Here,  not  to  dispute  at  pre- 
sent the  meaning  of  any  words,  the  church's  bring- 
ing about  the  marriage  must  at  least  signify  its 
being  done  by  her  advice  and  counsel,  if  not  her 
ministry  and  benediction  ;  which  some  are  unwill- 
ing to  allow ;  but  of  this  more  by  and  by.  To  pro- 
ceed :  Tertullian,  when  he  was  turned  Montanist, 
dissuaded  all  widows  from  marrying  a  second  time, 
and  among  other  arguments,  he  urges  them  with 
this  :''  With  what  face  canst  thou  request  such  a 
second  marriage  of  those  who  are  not  allowed  them- 
selves to  have  what  thou  askest  of  them ;  viz.  of 
the  bishop,  who  is  but  once  married ;  and  of  the 
presbyters  and  deacons,  who  are  in  the  same  state  ; 
and  of  the  widows,  whose  society  thou  hast  refused? 
Here  he  plainly  says,  that  the  whole  church  was 
acquainted  with  any  person's  intention  to  marry, 
who  as  it  were  asked  leave  of  every  order  of  the 
church,  even  the  widows  as  well  as  the  clergy,  that 
if  any  one  had  any  just  objection  against  them,  as, 
that  they  were  about  to  marry  a  heathen,  or  Jew, 
or  heretic,  or  one  too  nearly  related,  or  without 
consent  of  parents,  or  any  thing  of  the  like  nature, 
a  timely  intimation  might  be  given  of  it,  and  such 
marriage  be  prevented,  or  at  least  not  be  authorized 
and  ratified  by  the  consent  of  the  church.  This  is 
plainly  the  meaning  of  petitioning  the  church  in 
the  case  of  marriage :  not  that  the  church  assumed 
any  arbitrary  power  of  granting  or  refusing  mar- 
riage to  any  persons,  but  only  of  disallowing  those 
against  whom  there  lay  some  just  objection,  as  this, 
in  the  first  place,  of  any  one's  being  about  to  join 
in  matrimony  with  a  heathen ;  which,  though  it 
might  be  effected  in  those  times  by  other  means,  yet 
it  was  never  to  be  done  by  the  agnizing,  or  con- 
sent, or  ministration  of  the  church ;  as  appears 
from  the  whole  account  that  has  here  been  given  of 
the  church's  practice  in  relation  to  such  marriages 
with  heathens. 

Another  rule  of  the  church  pro-         sect.  3. 

1   .1  '.•  ,     •  n  ...  Not  to  marry  with 

hibiting  certain  persons  from  joinmg  persons  of  near  aiii- 

^ ,  1^1  ,  ance,  either  by  con- 

together,  was,  when   they  were  too  sanguinity  or  am- 

.  nity,  to  avoid   sus- 

nearly  related  to  each  other,  either  pioon  of  incest. 


2«  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  3.  Tit.  7.  de  Nuptiis,  Leg.  2.  Nequis 
Christianam  mulierem  in  matrimoniuin  Judaeus  accipiat, 
neque  Judx'ain  Christianus  conjugio  sortiatur:  nam  si  quis 
aliquid  hujusmodi  admiserit,  adulterii  viceni  commissi  livijiis 
crimen  obtinet :  Iibertate  in  accusandum  publicis  qiioque 
vocibus  rela.xata.  Vid.  Cod.  Tfieod.  fib.  9.  Tit.  7.  ad  Legem 
.Jufiam  de  Adidteriis,  Leg.  5.  Et  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  1.  Tit. 
9.  de  Judaeis,  Leg.  G. 

-'  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  16.  Tit.  8.  de  Judaeis,  Leg.  6.  Quod 
ad  mulieres  pertinent,  quas  Judaei  in  turpitudinis  suae  dux- 
ere  consortium,  in  gynecio  nosfro  ante  versatas,  placet 
easdem  restitui  in  gynecio :  idque  in  reliquum  observari, 
ne  Christianas  mulieres  suis  jungant  flagitiis :  vel,  si  fioc 
fecerint,  capitali  periculo  subjugentur. 

-^  Ignat.  Ep.  ad  Pofycarp.  n.  5.     TIpiTrei  -rols  yajuouo-t, 

KUL    T«IS     yuiXOVIxiviXl^,     /UET(X    yVUl/XI^^  TOO     tiriaKOTTOV    Ttjy 

'ivmcTiv  TTOiflndai'  'iva  6  yitfjiO<;  tJ  kcitu   Qiot',  Kai   /iy  kut 


tTTLVVfXiaV. 

-^  Tertuf.  ad  Uxor.  fib.  2.  cap.  2.  Cum  quscdam  istis  die- 
bus  nuptias  suas  de  ecclesia  toUeret,  id  est,  Gentili  conjun- 
geretuv;  idque  ab  aliis  retro  factum  recordarer,  mirattis 
aut  ipsaruni  petulantiam,  aut  consiliariorum  pracvarica- 
tionem,  &c. 

'"  Ibid.  cap.  9.  Unde  sufficiam  ad  enarrandam  feficita- 
tem  ejus  matrimonii,  quod  ecclesia  conciliat,  et  confii-mat 
obfatio,  et  obsignatum  angeli  renuuciant,  et  Pater  ratum 
habet  ? 

^'  Id.  de  Monogam.  cap.  11.  Qualis  es  id  matrimonium 
postulans,  quod  eis  a  quibus  postufas,  non  licet  habere  ;  ab 
episcopo  monogamo,  a  presbyteris  et  diaconis  ejusdem  sa- 
cramenti ;  a  viduis,  quarum  sectam  in  te  recusasti  ?  Et  illi 
plane  sic  dabunt  viros  et  uxores,  quomodo  buccelfas  :  hoc 
enim  est  apud  illos,  omni  petenti  te  dabis  :  et  conjungent 
vos  in  ecclesia  virgine,  unius  Christi  unica  sponsa. 


Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1205 


by  consanguinity  or  affinity,  which  would  have 
made  the  marriage  incestuous,  by  coming  within 
the  degrees  prohibited  by  God  in  Scripture.  How 
far  the  Christian  morals  exceeded  the  heathen 
in  this  particular  (notwithstanding  the  false  charge 
of  the  heathens  against  them  for  committing  incest 
in  their  religious  assemblies)  I  have  fully  showed 
in  another'^  place,  where  I  have  also  noted  the 
penalties,  both  ecclesiastical  and  civil,  that,  accord- 
ing to  the  discipline  of  those  times,  were  put  upon 
all  incestuous  persons.  Here  I  shall  only  add  a 
little  more  particular  account  of  such  degrees  as 
made  marriage  to  be  deemed  incestuous,  and  a  per- 
fect nullity,  whenever  it  was  so  contracted.  The 
council  of  Agde  gives  this  account  of  them :  Con- 
cerning incestuous  conjunctions,  say  they,^'  we  al- 
low them  no  pardon,  unless  the  offending  parties 
cure  the  adultery  by  separation  from  each  other. 
We  reckon  incestuous  persons  unworthy  of  any 
name  of  marriage,  and  dreadful  to  be  mentioned. 
For  they  are  such  as  these :  if  any  one  pollutes  his 
brother's  relict,  who  was  almost  his  own  sister,  by 
carnal  knowledge :  if  any  one  takes  to  wife  his  own 
sister :  if  any  one  marries  his  step-mother,  or  father's 
wife  :  if  any  one  joins  himself  to  his  cousin-gcrman  : 
if  a  man  marries  any  one  nearly  allied  to  him  by 
consanguinity,  or  one  whom  his  near  kinsman  had 
married  befoi'e :  if  any  one  marries  the  relict  or 
daughter  of  his  uncle  by  the  mother's  side,  or  the 
daughter  of  his  uncle  by  his  father's  side,  or  his 
daughter-in-law,  that  is,  his  wife's  daughter  by  a 
former  husband.  All  which  both  heretofore,  and 
now  under  this  constitution,  we  doubt  not  to  be  in- 
cestuous :  and  we  enjoin  them  to  abide  and  pray 
with  the  catechumens,  till  they  make  lawful  satis- 
faction. But  we  prohibit  these  things  in  such  man- 
ner for  the  present  time,  as  not  to  dissolve  or  cancel 
any  thing  that  has  been  done  before.  And  they 
who  are  forbidden  such  unlawful  conjunctions,  shall 
have  liberty  to  marry  more  agreeably  to  the  law. 
This  canon  is  repeated  almost  word  for  word  in  the 
council  of  Epone,^^  only  the  last  clause  is  read  ne- 
gatively, they  shall  not  have  liberty  to  marry  again, 
which  is  plainly  a  corruption  crept  into  the  text  by 
the  negligence  of  some  unskilful  transcriber.  For, 
in  the  second  council  of  Tours'*  this  very  canon  of 


Epone  is  cited  and  read  in  the  same  manner  as  it  is 
in  the  council  of  Agde  :  and  the  Roman  correctors 
upon  Gratian'"  observe,  that  it  is  so  read  in  the  Re- 
gister of  Gregory  and  the  Capitulars  of  Charles  the 
Great.  I  only  observe  further,  that  whereas  the 
marriage  of  cousin-gcrmans  is  reckoned  incestuous 
in  these  canons,  it  was  not  so  in  the  ancient  laws 
of  the  church,  till  Theodosius  first  made  it  so  by 
the  advice  of  St.  Ambrose:  which  inhibition  did 
not  last  long;  for  Arcadius  revoked  it,  and  Justi- 
ninian  revived  the  old  law  by  inserting  it  into  his 
Code.  Of  all  which  I  have  given  a  more  ample  ac- 
count in  a  former*'  Book.  What  is  necessary  to  be 
added  in  this  place,  is  only  this  further  remark :  that 
whatever  the  church  at  any  time  reckoned  to  be 
incest,  that  was  always  esteemed  a  just  impediment 
of  marriage,  and  accordingly  urged  as  a  lawful 
cause,  why  persons  so  nearly  allied  should  not  come 
together  in  marriage  ;  or  if  they  did,  it  was  a  just 
reason  to  inflict  the  censures  of  the  church  upon 
them,  till  they  dissolved  such  pretended  marriage 
by  separating  from  each  other. 

Another  reason  of  inhibition  in  this 
affair  was,  when  children  under  age     children'  muier 

_  '11  ^^^    "ot    to    marry 

went  about  to  marry  without  the  con-  wiihout  the  consent 

.  of  their  parents,  or 

sent  of  their  parents,  or  guardians,  or  ?uar<iians,  or  nest 

i  .  relations. 

next  relations,  who,  in  case  the  parents 
were  dead,  had  the  paternal  power  and  care  of  them. 
The  civil  law  was  extremely  severe  in  this  case,  not 
only  against  the  raptors  themselves,  who  stole  young 
virgins  against  their  parents'  consent ;  and  all  that 
aided  and  assisted  them  therein,  who  were  cither  to 
be  banished  or  burned  alive ;  but  also  against  the 
virgins  themselves,  who  conspired  in  such  matches 
against  the  parents'  will :  as  I  have  had  occasion 
to  show  heretofore  from  several  laws  of  Constantine, 
Constantius,  Valentinian,  and  Gratian,  mentioned 
in  both  the  Codes.**  Now,  this  being  the  case  of  the 
imperial  laws,  the  church  was  exceeding  cautious 
not  to  transgress  or  incur  any  blame  upon  this 
score.  Tertullian  seems  to  testify  for  his  own  time, 
when  he  says,*^  That  children  could  not  rightly  and 
lawfully  marry  without  the  consent  of  their  earthly 
parents,  as  well  as  the  approbation  of  their  Father 
in  heaven.  And  that  the  church  allowed  no  clan- 
destine marriages :  for  all  such,  that  were  not*"  pub- 


*-  Book  XVI.  chap.  ]  1.  sect.  3. 

'*  Cone.  AgHthen.  can.  61.  De  incestis  conjiinctionibus 
nihil  prorsiis  veniae  reservatrms,  uisi  quum  adulteriuni  sepa- 
ratione  sanaverint.  Incestos  vero  nullo  conjugii  nomine 
(leputandos,  qiios  etiam  designarc  fiinestum  est.  Hos  enim 
rensemus  esse :  si  quis  relictam  fratris,  qiuB  pene  prius  so- 
vor  extiterat,  carnali  eonjunctione  pollucrit:  si  quis  f'rater 
gcrmanam  uxorem  duxerit:  si  quis  noveicam  duxerit:  si 
quis  consobrina?  suae  se  sociaverit :  si  quis  relicta;  vel  filiae 
avunculi  misceatur,  aut  patvui  fllia;,  vel  privignfc  suas  :  aut 
qui  ex  propria  consanguinitate  aliquain,  aut  quani  con- 
sanguineus  habuit,  concubitu  polluat,  aut  duxerit  u.xoreni. 
Quos  omnes  ct  olim,  et  sub  hac  constitutione  Tncestas  esse 


non  dubitamus,  et  inter  catechunieuos  manere  et  orare 
praecipimus.  Quod  ita  pra;senti  tempore  prohibeinus,  ut  ea 
quae  sunt  hactenus  instituta  non  dissolvanius.  Sane  quibus 
conjunctio  illicita  interdicitur,  habebunt  ineundi  melioris 
conjugii  libertatera. 

^'  Cone.  Epauncn.  can.  30.       ^  Cone.  Turon.  2.  can.  22. 

*''  Gratian.  Cans.  .'55.  Quoest.  2.  cap.  8.  dc  Incestis. 

=■  Book  XVI.  chap.  11.  sect.  4. 

**  See  Book  XVI.  chap.  9.  sect.  2. 

*"  Tertul.  ad  Uxor.  lib.  2.  cap.  9.  Nam  i;ec  in  terris  fihi 
sine  consensu  patrum  rite  et  jure  nubent. 

"  Id.  de  I'udicit.  cap.  4.  Idco  penes  nos  occultse  quoque 
coujimctioiips,  id  est,  non   pruis  apud  ecclesiiim  prolessa;, 


120(i 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXII. 


licly  beforehand  professed  or  notified  before  the 
churcli,  were  in  danger  of  being  judged  fornication 
and  adultery :  and  they  could  not  be  excused  from 
guilt  under  pretence  of  being  real  matrimony.  St, 
Austin  in  like  manner  asserts  the  power  of  parents 
in  this  case  ;  for  speaking  of  a  young  virgin,  who 
was  a  minor,  under  the  protection  of  his  church,  to 
keep  her  safe  from  all  attempts  of  making  her  a 
prey  to  any  raptor,  he  says,"  her  age  would  not  yet 
permit  him  to  give,  or  so  much  as  promise  her  to 
any  one,  though  by  her  own  consent ;  because  she 
had  an  aunt,  without  conferring  with  whom  he 
neither  could  nor  ought  to  do  any  thing  in  the  mat- 
ter. Besides,  though  her  mother  did  not  then  ap- 
pear, yet  perhaps  hereafter  she  might  appear,  and 
then  nature  gave  her  will  the  preference  before  all 
others  in  disposing  of  her  daughter,  unless  she  were 
arrived  to  that  age  which  gives  her  a  free  liberty 
and  right  to  dispose  of  herself.  St.  Basil  often 
speaks  "  of  such  minors  stolen  and  married  clandes- 
tinely without  the  parents'  consent:  but  he  says 
such  pretended  marriages  were  not  matrimony,  but 
fornication  ;  and  of  no  validity,  but  null,  unless  the 
parents  thought  fit  to  ratify  them  afterwards  by 
their  consent :  meanwhile  the  transgressors  were  to 
do  the  penance  of  harlots  and  fornicators  in  the 
church.  And  there  was  the  more  reason  both  for 
this  caution  antecedent,  and  subsequent  severity, 
because  not  only  the  ci\'il  law  under  Christian  em- 
perors, but  the  old  Roman  law  under  heathens,  was 
very  precise  and  strict  in  this  matter  of  the  neces- 
sity of  consent  of  parents  to  a  lawful  marriage  ; 
without  which  it  was  reckoned  illegitimate,  and  the 
children  spurious.  Justinian  has  inserted  some  of 
the  laws  of  the  heathen  emperors,"  Severus  and 
Antoninus  Caracalla,  relating  to  this  matter,  into 
his  Code.  And  it  otherwise  appears  from  Apuleius, 
who,  alluding  to  several  particulars  which  render  a 
marriage  nidi,  as  being  against  law,  thus  brings  in 
Venus  insulting  Psyche  for  pretending  to  be  mar- 
ried to  her  son  Cupid :  A  marriage  with  so  great 
disparity,  huddled  up  privately  in  a  village  without 
witnesses,  the  father*^  not  consenting,  cannot  be 
thought  a  lawful  marriage  ;  and  therefore  thy  son 


will  be  spurious  or  a  bastard.  What,  therefore,  was 
thought  so  necessary  to  legitimate  a  marriage  among 
the  heathens,  was  certainly  much  more  so  among 
the  Christians.  And  there  is  no  example,  that  I 
know  of,  to  be  found  of  the  church's  allowing  or 
approving  any  marriage  to  be  lawful,  where  the 
consent  of  the  parents,  disposing  of  their  children 
when  under  age,  was  not  had  first  or  last  to  the 
ratification  of  it. 

The  same  power  and  right  which 
parents  had  over  their  children,  mas-     slaves  not  to 

^  marry  without  con- 

ters  had  over  their  slaves  :  and  for  ft  "f  ">eir  mas- 
ters. 

this  reason  no  slave  could  marry 
without  the  consent  of  his  master ;  or  if  any  did,  it 
was  in  the  master's  power  whether  he  would  ratify 
or  rescind  the  marriage.  If  slaves,  says  St.  Basil,^'* 
marry  without  the  consent  of  their  masters,  or  chil- 
dren without  the  consent  of  their  parents,  it  is  not 
matrimony,  but  fornication,  till  they  ratify  it  by 
their  consent.  And  again,"**  If  a  slave  marry  with- 
out the  consent  of  her  master,  she  differs  nothing 
from  a  harlot ;  for  contracts  made  without  the 
consent  of  those  under  whose  power  they  are,  have 
no  validity,  but  are  null. 

Another  thing  required  to  a  lawful  ^^^^  ^ 

marriage  was,  that  there  should  be  rio^'^rlTk  not'"r' 
some  parity  of  condition  between  the  '"""^  '''^''"' 
contracting  parties.  Persons  of  a  superior  rank 
might  not  debase  themselves  to  marry  slaves.  The 
civil  law  requires  that  they  should  be  pares  genere 
et  morihiis,"  of  equal  rank  and  condition.  By  which 
the  law  did  not  mean,  that  they  should  be  equal  in 
fortune,  but  that  there  should  be  no  such  disparity 
in  their  condition  as  between  a  freeman  and  a 
slave ;  nor  any  such  disparity  in  their  morals,  as 
between  an  actress  and  a  senator,  or  any  one  of  a 
liberal  and  ingenuous  education :  as  the  matter  is 
accurately  explained  in  one  of  the  laws  of  Valen- 
tinian  and  Marcian  "  upon  this  head.  We  do  not 
intend  her  to  be  judged  of  a  low  and  abject  con- 
dition, who,  though  she  be  poor,  yet  is  born  of  liberal 
and  ingenuous  parents.  And,  therefore,  we  de- 
clare it  lawful  for  senators,  or  any  others  of  the 
highest  dignity,  to  marry  women  that  are  born  of 


jiixta  moechiam  et  fornicationem  jiidicari  periclitantur. 
Ncc  inde  consertac  obtentu  matrimonii  crimen  eludaut. 

"  Aug.  Ep.  233.  In  ea  vero  eetate  est,  ut  si  voluntatem 
ntibeudi  haberet,  nulli  adhuc  dari  vel  promitti  deberet — 
Habet  materteram,  &c.  Fortassis  qua;  nunc  non  apparet, 
apparcbit  et  mater,  cujus  voluntatem  in  tradeuda  filia  om- 
nibus, ut  arbitror,  natura  pra-ponit :  nisi  eadeui  puella  in  ea 
jam  aitate  fuerit,  ut  jure  licentiori  sibi  eligat  ipsa  quod  velit. 

■•2  Basil,  can.  22,  38,  42. 

"  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  5.  Tit.  -1.  de  Nuptiis,  Leg.  1  et  2. 

■"  Apulei.  de  Asino  aureo,  lib.  6.  p.  1U4.  Impares  nup- 
tia;,  et  praeterea  in  villa  sine  testibus,  et  patre  non  consen- 
tiente  factae,  legitimae  non  possuut  videri ;  ac  per  hoc  spurius 
ille  nascetur. 

''^  Basil,  can.  42.  "  Id.  can.  38. 

"  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  3.  Tit.  7.  de  Nuptiis,  Leg.  1. 


••^  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  5.  Tit.  5.  de  Incesfis  et  Inutilibus 
Nuptiis,  Leg.  7.  Ilumilem  vel  abjectam  t'oeniinam  minime 
earn  judicamus  intelligi,  qua;  licet  pauper,  ab  ingenuis  ta- 
men  parentibus  nata  sit:  iinde  licere  statuiiuus  senatoribus, 
et  quibuscunque  araplissimis  dignitatibus  pra;ditis,  ex  in- 
genuis parentibus  natas,  quamvis  pauperes,  in  matrimoniuni 
sibi  accipere,  nuUamque  inter  ingenuas  et  opulentinres  ex 
divitiis  et  opulentiore  fortuna  esse  distantiam.  Humiles 
vero  abjectasque  personas  eas  tantummndo  mulieres  esse 
censemus  ;  ancillam,  ancilloe  filiam  ;  libertam,  libertae  fili- 
am ;  scenicam,  scenicae  filiam ;  tabernariain,  tabernarii 
vel  lenonis  vel  arenarii  tiliam;  aut  eam  quae  mercimoniis 
publico  praefuit.  Ideoque  hujusmodi  inhibuisse  nuptias 
senatoribus  harum  foeminarum,  quas  modo  enumeravimus, 
a;quum  est. 


C'llAP.    II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1207 


ingenuous  parents,  although  they  be  poor,  and  that 
there  shall  be  no  distinction  in  this  case  between 
ingenuous  women  and  those  that  are  rich  by  a  great 
and  opulent  fortune.  But  we  account  these  women 
only  vile  and  abject  persons,  viz.  a  slave,  or  the 
daughter  of  a  slave ;  a  freed  woman,  or  the  daugh- 
ter of  a  freed  woman;  an  actress,  or  (he  daughter 
of  an  actress  ;  an  innkeeper,  or  the  daughter  of  an 
innkeeper,  or  of  a  pander,  or  of  a  gladiator,  that  is, 
one  that  was  used  to  fight  with  men  or  wild  beasts 
upon  the  stage  ;  or  any  who  was  wont  to  sell  small- 
wares  publicly  in  the  market.  With  such  women 
as  these  it  is  just  to  forbid  senators  to  join  in  mar- 
riage. Constantiue'*'  had  made  a  law  before  to  for- 
bid all  senators,  and  governors  of  provinces,  and 
city  magistrates,  and  high  priests  of  provinces,  to 
marry  slaves,  or  freed  women,  or  actresses,  &c.,  un- 
der pain  of  infamy  and  outlawry,  and  of  having 
their  children  illegitimate,  and  incapable  of  suc- 
ceeding to  any  part  of  their  fathers'  substance  or 
possessions.  And  the  better  to  secure  women  of 
noble  extract  from  the  base  attempts  of  vile  and 
abject  men,  and  those  of  infamous  character,  the 
law  provided  with  great  caution,  that  no  one  of  an 
inferior  condition  should  solicit  a  woman  of  any 
noble  family,  or  try  to  gain  her  by  corrupting  those 
that  were  about  her  by  any  clandestine  arts,  but 
that  her  relations^'  should  be  consulted,  and  all 
things  be  transacted  publicly  in  the  presence  of  the 
nobles,  who  were  not  to  be  supposed  inclinable  to 
give  way  to  any  such  fraud  in  bringing  about  any 
such  unequal  contract.  Nay,  the  curiales  or  com- 
mon-council men  of  any  city  were  expressly  for- 
bidden by  a  law  of  Constantine  to  marry  a  woman 
that  was  a  slave,  under  pain  of  the  woman's  being 
condemned'^'  to  the  mines,  and  the  man  himself  to 
perpetual  banishment,  with  confiscation  of  all  his 
movable  goods  and  city  slaves  to  the  public,  and 
all  his  lands  and  country  slaves  to  the  city  of  which 
he  was  a  member.  And  there  is  no  doubt,  but  that 
what  was  so  severely  punished  in  the  civil  state, 
was  as  duly  regarded  in  the  ecclesiastical,  that  they 
might  not  be  accessory  or  aiding  to  any  such  illegal 
practices,  which  would  have  reflected  great  dis- 
honour and  scandal  on  the  church  :  though  I  re- 


■^  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  5.  Tit.  25.  de  Naturalibus  Liberis,  Leg. 

1.  Senatores,  sen  preefectos,  vel  quos  in  civilatibiis  duuni- 
viralitas,  vel  sacerdotii,  id  est,  PhoeuiciarchiiB  vel  Syriar- 
chi;e  oniamenta  condecorant ;  placet  niaculain  subire  in- 
famise, et  alienos  a  llomanis  legibus  fieri ;  si  e.\  ancilla,  vel 
ancillaj  filia  ;  vel  liberta,  vel  libertae  filia  ;  vel  scenica,  vel 
scenicoe  filia;  vel  humili  vel  abjecta  persona,  vel  lenonis 
aut  arenarii  filia,  vel  ((uee  mercimoniis  publice  prajfuit,  sus- 
ceptos  filios  in  numero  logitimoruni  habere  volucrint,  &c. 

^  Ibid.  Nuptias  nobiles  nemo  redimat,  nemo  soUicitet, 
sed  publice  consulatur  afiSnitas,  adhibeatur  frequent ia  pro- 
ceruni. 

5'  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  12.  Tit.  1.  de  Decurionibus,  Leg.  6. 
Si  decurio  fuerit  aliena;  scrva;  conjunctus,  et  muliorein  in 


member  no  ecclesicustical   canons   expressly   made 
against  them. 

There  were  also  some  reasons  of 
state,  why  a  judge  of  a  province  should     judg."  of'  pro- 

„      ,  viiicc'8  not  to  marrv 

not  marry  any  woman  ol   that  ])ro-  any  provincial  »n- 

■'  ■'  '■  miin,      ilurnig      tlie 

vnice  durinjr  the  year  of  his  adminis-  year  of  thdr  admin- 

^  •'  istration. 

(ration.  Not  because  it  was  below 
his  dignity,  but  because  he  might  reasonably  be 
supposed,  by  virtue  of  his  power  and  superior  in- 
Uuence  over  all  about  him,  to  overawe  and  terrify 
a  woman  into  a  compliance  of  marriage  against  her 
real  inclinalions,  and  not  leave  her  parents  or 
guardians  at  free  liberty  to  dispose  of  her  at  their 
own  discretion.  To  prevent  wiiich  inconvenience 
and  oppression,  Theodosius  made  a  law,*-  That  if 
any  judge  of  a  province,  who  might  be  a  terror  to 
parents  or  tutors  and  guardians,  or  to  women  that 
might  contract  marriage,  should  betroth  a  woman 
during  the  time  of  his  administration  ;  if  afterward 
either  the  parent  or  the  woman  herself  should 
change  their  mind,  they  should  be  free  from  the 
snare  and  punishment  of  the  law,  which  appoints 
in  that  case  a  quadruple  restitution  to  be  made  for 
breach  of  contract.  And  this  order  extends  not 
only  to  the  judge  himself,  but  to  his  children,  grand- 
children, kinsmen,  counsellors,  and  all  his  domes- 
tics, who  might  be  supposed  to  terrify  women  into 
marriage  contracts  by  virtue  of  the  judge's  power. 
Yet  if  any  woman,  that  was  so  betrothed,  was 
minded  to  fulfil  the  contract  and  make  good  her 
espousals  after  his  administration  was  ended,  she 
might  lawfully  do  it.  By  which  it  is  plain,  that 
this  was  only  a  restraint  laid  upon  certain  persons 
for  a  season,  viz.  upon  provincial  judges,  not  to 
marry  any  woman  of  their  own  province  during  the 
year  of  their  administration.  They  were  not  de- 
barred from  marrying  any  others,  but  only  those  of 
their  own  province,  for  the  prudent  reasons  which 
the  law  assigns. 

The  case  was  much  the  same  with  ^.  .  „ 

Sect.  8. 

widows  :    they   were    not    restrained  ma^i^'^°T-a?n'  m 
from  marrying  a  second  time,  but  yet  tiTelr  jilJiband^"""' 
they  were  tied  up  and  limited  by  law 
not  to  do  this  till  a  year  after  the  death  of  (heir 
former  husband.     This  was  the  law  of  the  old  Ro- 


metallum  trudi  sententia  judicis  jubemus,  et  ipsum  dccu- 

rionem  in  insulam  deportari,  &c.    Vid.  Apulei.  lib.  (J.     Im- 
pares  nuptia;  non  sunt  legitima:. 

^-  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  3.  Tit.  6.  Leg.  I.  Si  quis  in  potestate 
publica  positus,  atque  honore  provinciaruni  administran- 
darum,  qui  parentibus,  aut  tutoribus,  aut  curatoribus,  aut 
ipsis  quic  matrinionium  contractura;  siuit,  potest  esse  ter- 
ribilis,  sponsalia  iloderit;  jiibcnius,  ut  deinceps  sive  paren- 
tes,  sive  eicdem  mutavcnnt  voluutatem,  non  modo  juris 
laqueis  liberentur,  poenceque  expertcs  siut,  qua;  quadrupluiii 
statuit,  sed  e.\trinsecus  data  pignora  lucrativa  habeaut,  si 
ea  non  putent  esse  reddenda,  &c.  See  also  Cod.  Theod_ 
lib.  .3.  Tit.  11.  Si  quiciinquc  pr?editus  potestate  nuptias 
petat  invitiC. 


I20S 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXII. 


mans,  even  from  the  time  of  their  first  founder, 
Romulus.  But  the  Roman  year  being  then  but  ten 
months,  the  time  of  a  widow's  mourning  was  no 
longer  at  first :  nor  was  it  enlarged  for  many  ages 
after,  though  the  year  itself  was  quickly  enlarged 
by  Numa  to  twelve  months;  yet  still  the  widow's 
year  was  only  according  to  the  old  computation. 
So  that  whenever  we  read  of  a  widow's  mourning  a 
year  after  her  husband's  death,  it  is  to  be  under- 
stood of  the  Romulean  year  of  ten  months  only. 
And  so  the  matter  stood  till  the  time  of  Theodosius, 
who  added  two  months  to  the  former  term  by  an 
express  law,  which  runs  in  these  words :''  If  any 
woman,  after  the  loss  of  her  husband,  make  haste 
to  be  married  to  another  within  the  space  of  a  year, 
(for  we  have  added  a  little  time  to  the  ten  months, 
though  we  think  it  but  a  small  term,)  let  her  be 
branded  with  the  marks  of  infamy,  and  deprived  of 
the  honour  and  privilege  of  a  genteel  and  noble 
person  ;  and  let  her  forfeit  whatever  goods  she  is 
possessed  of,  either  by  the  right  of  espousals,  or  by 
the  last  will  and  testament  of  her  deceased  husband. 
g^^j  g  If    any    M^oman's    husband    went 

marryTnTherbsence  abroad,  and  contluued  absent  from 
her,  there  was  no  time  limited  for  her 
marrying  again,  but  she  must  wait 
till  she  was  certified  of  his  death.  Otherwise  she 
was  reputed  guilty  of  adultery.  So  St.  Basil  :^*  She 
whose  husband  is  absent  from  home,  if  she  cohabit 
with  another  man  before  she  is  satisfied  of  his 
death,  commits  adultery.  This  was  the  case  of  a 
soldier's  wife,  (marrying  after  the  long  absence  of 
her  husband,  yet  before  she  was  certified  of  his 
death,)  as  he  determines"  in  another  canon:  but  he 
reckons  her  more  pardonable  than  another  woman, 
because  it  was  more  probable  that  he  might  be 
dead.  In  these  cases,  if  the  first  husband  appeared 
again,  he  might  claim  his  wife,  and  the  second 
marriage  was  null  and  of  no  effect,  as  is  determined 
in  the  council  of  Trullo,*"  where  these  canons  of  St. 
Basil  are  repeated.  But  the  civil  law  allowed  a  sol- 
dier's wife  to  marry"  after  four  years'  expectation. 

Sect  10  ^y  *^^^  ^^^  Roman  law  a  guardian 

m^l'^'^orphans'  \n  "light  uot  marry  a  woman  to  whom 
tiieir  'siardmnship  he  was  guardlau ;  neither  might  he 

^vas  ended.  ■  u         •  •  i   • 

give  tier  m  marriage  to  his  own  son. 


There  are  several  laws  of  Severus,  Philip,  and  Va- 
lerian,''  in  the  Justinian  Code,  to  this  purpose. 
The  only  exception  then  was,  when  the  guardian 
did  it  by  the  prince's  licence  and  particular  rescript. 
But  Constantine  determined  this  matter  with  an- 
other distinction ;  which  was,  That  the  guardian^^ 
should  not  marry  the  orphan  whilst  she  was  a 
minor,  and  under  his  care ;  but  when  she  was  of 
age  he  might  marry  her,  first  proving  that  he  had 
not  defiled  her  in  her  minority.  But  if  he  had 
offered  any  injury  to  her  before,  he  was  not  only 
debarred  from  marrying  her,  but  was  also  to  be 
banished,  and  all  his  goods  to  be  confiscated  to  the 
public. 

By  some  rules,  though  not  of  the         g^^.^  j, 
first  and  prime  antiquity,  certain  de-  prSuoif'of  sp^i- 
grees  of  spiritual  relations  were  pro-  ry'ing  one"w?uiTn- 

t   *t  *,      T      r  1   •  •  .    other  came  in. 

nibited  trom  making  marriages  one 
with  another.  The  thing  was  first  thought  of  by 
Justinian,  who  made  a  law,*"  forbidding  any  man 
to  marry  a  woman  for  whom  he  had  been  godfather 
in  baptism;  because  nothing  induces  a  more  pater- 
nal affection,  or  juster  prohibition  of  marriage,  than 
this  tie,  by  which  their  souls  are  in  a  Divine  man- 
ner united  together.  The  council  of  TruUo  im- 
proves this  matter  a  little  further,"'  and  forbids  the 
godfather  not  only  to  marry  the  infant,  but  the 
mother  of  the  infant  for  whom  he  was  surety ;  or- 
dering such  as  have  done  so,  first  to  be  separated, 
and  then  to  do  the  penance  of  fornicators.  The 
canon  law  afterward  extended  this  relation  to  the 
baptizer  and  the  baptized,  and  to  the  catechist  and 
catechumen,"^  and  I  know  not  what  other  degrees 
of  spiritual  kindred ;  and  the  popes  with  the  same 
reason  might  have  used  their  authority  to  have 
prohibited  all  Christians  from  marrying  one  with 
another ;  because  by  baptism  and  many  other  ties 
they  are  more  undoubtedly  spiritual  brethren.  But 
Estius"'  owns  this  is  too  absurd  to  be  maintained, 
because  it  would  oblige  all  Christians  either  to  ab- 
stain from  marriage,  or  else  to  marry  infidels ;  and 
yet  he  gravely  defends  all  the  other  extravagant  pro- 
hibitions upon  the  infallible  authority  of  the  church. 

But  to  return  to  the  ancient  church.  ^^^^  j. 

Many  of  the  primitive  writers  were  of  ^'*"'"i"  *  •"»" 
opinion,  that  the  bond  of  matrimony 


*^  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  3.  Tit.  8.  de  Seciindis  Nuptiis,  Leg.  1. 
Si  qua  e.x  fa'iuinis  perdito  marito,  intra  anni  spacium  alteri 
t'estinarit  innubcie  (parum  cnim  teinporis  post  decern  men- 
ses servandum  adjicimus,  tametsi  idipsiim  exiguum  pute- 
mus)  probrosis  inusta  notis,  honestioris  nobilisque  persona; 
et  decors  et  jure  privetur;  atque  omnia,  quae  de  prioris 
mariti  bonis,  vel  jure  sponsaliorum,  vol  judicio  defuncti 
conjugis  consecuta  fuerat,  amittat. 

^'  Basil,  can.  31.       "  Id.  can.  36.       ■■*'■  Cotic.  Trull,  c.  93. 

■"  Cod.  .lustin.  lib.  5.  Tit.  17.  Leg.  7. 

■''''  Cod.  Just.  lib.  5.  Tit.  6.  de  interdicto  Matriraonio  in- 
ter Pupillam  et  Tutorem  seu  Curatorem,  eorumque  Filios, 
Leg.  1,  4,  G,  7. 


5»  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  8.  Leg.  I.  Ubi  puella  ad  an- 
nos  adultse  aetatis  accesserit,  et  aspirare  ad  nuptias  cceperit, 
tutores  necesse  habent  comprobare,  quod  puellse  sit  interae- 
rala  virgiuitas,  cujus  conjunctio  postulatur.  Quod  ne  latins 
porrigatur,  hie  solus  debet  tutorem  nexus  adstringere,  ut 
seipsiim  probet  ab  injuria  laesi  pudoris  immuneni :  quod 
ubi  constiterit,  oinni  metu  liber,  optata  conjunctione  frui 
debobit. 

**»  Cod.  Just.  lib.  5.  Tit.  4.  de  Nuptiis,  Leg.  26. 

"'  Cone.  Trull,  can.  53. 

"■-'  Sext.  Decretal,  lib.  4.  Tit.  3.  de  Cognat.  Spirituali, 
cap.  3. 

^  Estius  in  Sent.  lib.  4.  Dist.  42.  n.  J. 


Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1209 


was  not  dissolvcible  by  any  thing  but  death.  And 
therefore  they  not  only  condemned  polygamy,  or  mar- 
rying a  second  wife  while  the  first  was  living ;  and 
marrying  after  an  unlawful  divorce,  which  was  much 
the  same  thing  with  polygamy  in  real  estimation  ; 
but  they  reckoned  it  unlawful  also  to  marry  after  a 
\  lawful  divorce  ;  because,  though  there  might  be  rea- 
son for  a  separation,  yet  they  thought  there  was  no 
dissolution  of  the  marriage  so  long  as  both  the  par- 
ties were  living.  I  shall  say  nothing  further  here 
of  the  unlawfulness  of  polygamy,  or  of  marrying 
again  after  an  unlawful  divorce ;  because  I  have 
had  occasion  heretofore  "  to  speak  fully  of  the  laws 
and  discipline  of  the  church  against  both  these  ; 
but  the  prohibition  of  marrying  again  after  a  law- 
ful divorce  is  what  deserves  a  little  further  con- 
sideration. 

And  here  I  observe,  that  the  ancients  were  di- 
vided in  their  sentiments  upon  the  point.  Origen 
was  against  marrying  after  such  a  divorce,  yet  he 
says,^  There  were  some  bishops  in  his  time,  who 
permitted  a  woman  to  marry  whilst  her  former 
husband  was  living.  Which  was  indeed  against 
Scripture,  which  says,  "  The  woman  is  bound  so 
long  as  her  husband  liveth:"  and,  "  She  shall  be 
called  an  adulteress,  if,  whilst  her  husband  liveth, 
she  be  married  to  another  man."  Yet  they  did  not 
permit  this  altogether  without  reason  ;  for,  perhaps 
for  the  infirmity  of  such  as  could  not  contain,  they 
tolerated  that  which  was  evil,  to  avoid  that  which 
is  worse,  though  contrary  to  that  which  was  written 
from  the  beginning.  Here  it  is  reasonable  to  sup- 
pose, that  those  bishops  who  allowed  men  and  wo- 
men to  marry  after  divorce,  did  not  think  it  simply 
evil,  though  it  was  so  in  Orif^cn's  opinion.  And 
the  same  is  to  be  said  of  Constantine,  who  made  a 
law,'''^  That  a  man  for  three  crimes,  adultery,  sor- 
cery, and  pandery,  might  lawfully  put  away  his 
wife,  and  marry  another.  For,  as  Gothofred  rightly 
observes,  in  saying,  that  unless  she  was  guilty  of 
one  of  those  three  crimes,  he  might  not  marry  an- 
other, it  is  plainly  implied,  that  if  he  proved  her 
guilty  of  any  of  the  three,  he  had  liberty  to  put  her 
away,  and  marry  another.     The  author  under  the 


name  of  St.  Ambrose  was  of  the  same  opinion  ;  for, 
expounding  those  words  of  the  apostle,  "  A  brother  or 
a  sister  in  such  a  case  is  not  under  bondage,"  he  says, 
If  Esdras"'  cast  out  the  infidels,  and  allowed  the 
faithful  to  marry  other  wives  ;  how  much  rather,  if 
an  infidel  departs  of  his  own  accord,  shall  the  be- 
lieving woman  have  liberty,  if  she  pleases,  to  be 
married  to  a  man  of  her  own  religion !  And  he 
gives  this  reason  for  it;  because  an  indignity  ofl!ered 
to  the  Creator  dissolves  the  obhgation  of  matrimony 
with  respect  to  him  who  is  deserted,  so  that  he  is 
excused  though  he  be  joined  to  another ;  forasmuch 
as  an  infidel  is  injurious  both  to  God  and  to  matri- 
mony itself  by  desertion.  Ei)iphanius  speaks  not 
only  his  own  sense,  but  the  sense  of  the  church  in 
his  time ;  and  he  says  plainly,  That  though  the 
clergy  were  prohibited  from  marrying  a  second  wife 
after  the  death  of  the  first ;  yet  the  people  were  not 
only  allowed  to  marry  again  in  such  a  case,  but  also 
in  case  of  divorce,*^  if  a  separation  was  made  upon 
the  account  of  fornication,  or  adultery,  or  any  such 
criminal  evil,  and  a  man  thereupon  was  joined  to 
a  second  wife,  or  a  woman  to  a  second  husband, 
the  word  of  God  did  not  condemn  them,  nor  ex- 
clude them  from  the  church  nor  eternal  life,  but 
tolerate  them  because  of  their  infirmity ;  not  that 
a  man  should  have  two  wives  at  'the  same  time, 
but  that,  being  divorced  or  separated  from  the  first, 
he  might  lawfully  be  joined  to  a  second.  Pctavius 
freely  owns*^'  that  this  is  a  full  proof  in  fact  of 
the  church's  sentiments  at  that  time  ;  only  he 
says,  the  matter  was  not  then  fully  determined, 
nor  settled  by  any  general  council.  Which  is  not 
very  material  to  the  present  inquiry ;  which  is  not 
about  the  determinations  of  the  councils  of  Flo- 
rence or  Trent,  but  about  the  sense  and  practice 
of  the  ancient  church.  Now,  what  Epiphanius 
observes  concerning  the  toleration  of  such  mar- 
riages in  the  church  without  any  check  of  eccle- 
siastical censure,  is  further  confirmed  even  from 
the  council  of  Aries  and  St.  Austin,  though  they 
were  of  a  different  opinion  from  Epiphanius  as  to  the 
sense  of  Scripture.  They  thought  men  were  for- 
bidden to  marry  again  after  divorce  whilst  the  first 


"  Book  XVI.  chap.  11.  sect.  5  et  6. 

"^  Orig.  Horn.  7.  in  Mat.  t.  2.  p.  67.  Scio  quosdam,  qui 
praesunt  ecclesiis,  extra  Scripturam  permisisse  aliquam 
niibere,  vivo  priori  viveute  ;  et  contra  Scripturam  I'ecerunt 
quidera.  dicentem,  Mulier  ligata  est  quanto  tempore  vivit  vir 
ejus:  Item,  Vivente  viro  adultera  vocabitur,  si  facta  fuerit 
alteri  viro.  Non  tamen  omninosine  causa  hoc  permiserunt: 
t'orsitan  enim  propter  hujusmodi  intiniiitateni  incontiuen- 
lium  hominum,  pejnrum  cnraparationc  quuB  mala  sunt  per- 
miserunt, adversus  ea  quae  ab  initio  erant  scripta. 

«"  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  .3.  Tit.  16.  de  Kepudiis,  Leg.  ].  In 
masculis  etiam,  si  repudium  mittant,  hx'c  tria  crimina  in. 
quiri  conveniet,  si  moecham,  vel  medicamoutariam,  vel 
conciliatricem  repudiare  voluerit  :  nam  si  ab  his  criminibus 
liberani  ejecerit,  oninem  dotem  restituere  debet,  et  aliain 


non  ducere. 

"  Ambros.  in  1  Cor.  vii.  15.  Si  Esdras  dimitti  fecit  u.xores 
aut  viros  intideles,  ut  propitius  fieret  Dcus,  nee  iralus  esset, 
si  alias  e.\  genere  suoacciperenl :  (non  enim  ita  prajceptuui 
his  est,  ut  remissis  istis  alias  minime  duccrunt:)  quanto 
magis,  si  infidelis  discesserit,  liberum  habebit  arl)itriuni,  si 

voluerit,  iiubere  legis  sua;  viro? Non  est  peccatum  ei 

qui  dimittitur  propter  Deum,  si  alii  se  jun.xcrit,  contiime- 
lia  cuim  Crcatoris  solvit  jus  matrimonii,  &c. 

'"'*  Epiphan.  H*r.  59.  n.  4.    "EutKiv  tii/os  Trporpaaiw^, 

(7Uva<f>6tiiTa  SfVTtprt   yuvaiKi  oitK   n'nia-rai  6  .^ttos  \oyos, 
ouct  (CTTO  t;~(S  tK/cXijcrirts-  Kal  Tijs  ^a)»}s  (iiroKfinuTTfi,  k.t. X. 
■*"  Petav.  in  loc.  p.  255.     Illis  temporibus  uiindum  ca  res 
ab  ecclcsia  dednita  prorsus  fuerit,  ^-c. 


1210 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXII. 


wife  was  living ;  but  they  did  not  think  this  so 
clearly  revealed,  as  to  make  it  a  high  crime  and  just 
matter  of  excommunication,  like  other  plain  cases 
of  adultery.  The  councir"  orders,  That  such  men 
shall  be  dealt  with  and  advised,  as  much  as  might  be, 
not  to  marry  a  second  wife,  while  the  former,  that 
was  divorced  for  adultery,  was  living ;  but  they  say 
not  a  word  of  any  ecclesiastical  censure  to  be  passed 
upon  them,  if  they  did  otherwise.  And  St.  Austin 
confesses,"  There  was  a  very  great  difference  to  be 
made  between  such  as  put  away  their  wives  for 
adultery  and  married  again,  and  such  as  did  so 
upon  other  reasons ;  for  this  question,  whether  he 
who  without  doubt  has  liberty  to  put  away  his  wife 
for  adultery,  be  to  be  reckoned  an  adulterer  if  he 
marries  again,  is  a  matter  so  obscurely  resolved  in 
Scripture,  that  a  man  may  be  supposed  to  err  veni- 
ally  about  it.  And  therefore  he  concludes.  That  all 
that  the  ministry  has  to  do  in  this  case,  is  only  to 
persuade  men  not  to  engage  in  such  marriages  ;  but 
if  they  will  marr)',  notwithstanding  the  contrary 
advice  that  is  given  them,  he  will  not  venture  to 
say,  that  such  men  ought  therefore  to  be  kept  out 
of  the  church.  St.  Austin  was  fully  persuaded  in 
his  own  mind,  that  such  marriages  after  divorce 
were  unlawful.  For  he  often"  repeats  it  in  his 
works,  and  uses  what  arguments  he  could  to  dis- 
suade men  from  them ;  not  scrupling  to  declare  his 
opinion  of  them,  as  suspicious  and  doubtful  mar- 
riages, that  might  stand  charged  with  adultery. 
But  then,  he  no  where  intimates,  that  the  church 
either  did  or  ought  to  treat  persons  so  marrying  as 
she  did  other  adulterers,  (whose  adultery  was  more 
indisputable,)  either  by  dissolving  the  marriage,  or 
bringing  the  persons  under  excommunication  and 
public  penance  in  the  church ;  but  rather  declares 
the  error  of  such  persons  to  be  venial,  because  it 
was  not  so  expressly  condemned  in  Scripture.  And 
thus  much  Estius"  owns,  only  he  says.  It  was  not 
then  condemned  by  any  general  council.  There  is 
one  instance  indeed,  given  by  St.  Jerom,'*  of  a 
woman  doing  public   penance  in  the  church  for 


marrying  a  second  husband  after  she  had  divorced 
herself  from  the  first,  upon  the  account  of  his  adul- 
tery, and  his  other  intolerable  practices.  But  this 
was  a  voluntary  act  of  her  own,  and  not  done  till 
after  the  death  of  her  second  husband :  the  church 
did  not  impose  this  penance  on  her,  whilst  her  hus- 
band was  living,  nor  yet  when  he  was  dead ;  but 
she  chose  it  of  her  own  accord,  and  submitted  to  it 
without  any  compulsion.  Had  there  been  any 
general  law  then  in  the  church,  either  to  dissolve 
such  marriages,  or  bring  the  parties  to  pubhc  pe- 
nance, no  doubt  the  bishop  of  Rome  would  have 
called  upon  them  both,  whilst  the  husband  was 
living,  to  have  complied  with  the  rule  and  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  church :  but  this  not  being  done, 
seems  to  be  an  argument,  that  then  it  was  not  the 
custom  of  the  Roman  church  to  inflict  any  public 
censures  upon  such  as  married  again  after  a  lawful 
divorce,  but  only  to  use  what  arguments  she  could 
to  dissuade  men  and  women  from  such  marriages 
till  the  former  husband  or  wife  were  dead :  or  else, 
if  they  did  engage  in  them,  to  exhort  them  to  re- 
pent of  such  engagements,  as  crimes  prohibited  by 
the  apostle.  Which  St.  Jerom  himself"  does  with 
no  small  vehemence,  according  to  his  manner,  tell- 
ing a  woman  who  had  so  married  a  second  husband, 
that  she  was  an  adulteress  for  so  doing,  and  that 
she  ought  not  to  receive  the  communion  till  she 
repented  of  her  crime.  By  which  I  suppose  he 
means  her  obligations  to  private  repentance,  and 
not  any  solemn  penance  imposed  by  the  public  dis- 
cipline of  the  church.  Yet  in  the  Spanish  church 
before  this  time  there  seems  to  have  been  some- 
thing of  public  discipline  exercised  against  such 
persons,  especially  women,  joining  in  second  mar- 
riages whilst  the  first  husband  was  living.  For  in 
the  council  of  Eliberis''''  there  is  a  canon  which 
orders.  That  if  a  woman  who  is  a  believer  put 
away  an  adulterous  husband,  who  is  also  a  believer, 
and  go  about  to  marry  another,  she  shall  first  be 
dissuaded  from  it :  but  if  notwithstanding  that  she 
does  marry,  she  shall  not  receive  the  communion 


'"  Cone.  Arelat.  1.  can.  10.  Placuit,  ut  in  quantum  po- 
test, consilium  eis  detur,  ne  viventibus  uxoribus  suis,  licet 
adultcris,  alias  accipiant. 

Note,  that  Petavius  reads  this  canon  differently  from  all 
the  printed  editions:  for  whereas  they  read  the  beginning 
of  it  thus,  De  his  qui  conjuges  suas  in  adulterio  deprehen- 
dunt,  et  iidem  sunt  adolescentes  fideles,  et  prohibentur  nu- 
bore;  he  contends  that  it  ought  certainly  to  be  read,  Non 
prohibentur  nubere :  and  then,  as  he  says,  it  is  another 
evident  proof,  that  innocent  persons  after  a  lawful  divorce 
were  not  prohibited  to  marry  in  those  days.  Petav.  Ani- 
madvers.  in  Epiphan.  Hser.  59.  p.  255.  See  also  St.  Basil, 
can.  9.  to  the  same  purpose. 

"  Aug.  de  Fide  et  Oper.  cap.  J9.  Quisquis  uxorem  adul- 
terio deprehensam  dimiserit  et  aliam  duxerit,  non  videtur 
aequandus  eis,  qui  excepta  causa  adulterii  dimittunt  et 
ducunt.  Et  in  ipsis  Divinis  sententiis  ita  obscurum  est, 
utriun  ct  iste,  cui  quidem  sine  dubio  udidteram  licet  dimit- 


tere,  adulter  tamen  habeatur,  si  alteram  duxerit,  ut  quan- 
tum existimo  venialiter  ibi  quisque  fallatur. 

'- Vid.  Aug.  de  Adulterinis  Conjugiis,  lib.  1.  cap.  1.  et 
24.  De  Nuptiis  et  Concup.  lib.  1.  cap.  10.  De  Bono 
Conjugal!,  cap.  7.  De  Sermone  Dom.  in  Monte,  lib.  1. 
c.  14. 

"  Estius,  in  Sent.  lib.  4.  Dist.  .35.  n.  11. 

'^  Hieron.  Epitaph.  Fabiolae,  Ep.  .30.  ad  Oceanum.  Quis 
hoc  crederet,  ut  post  mortem  secundi  viri  in  semetipsam 
reversa,  saccum  indueret,  ut  errorem  publico  fateretur,  et 
tota  urbe  spectante  Roniana,  ante  diem  Paschcc,  basilica 
quondam  Laterani  staret  in  ordine  poenitentium  ?  &c. 

"  Hieron.  Ep.  147.  ad  Amandum. 

"^  Cone.  Elibnr.  can.  9.  Foemina  fidelis,  quae  adulterum 
maritum  reliquerit  fidelem,  et  alterum  ducit,  prohibeatur 
ne  ducat ;  si  duxerit,  noa  prius  accipiat  communionem,  nisi 
quern  reliquerit  prius  de  sseculo  exierit,  nisi  forte  neccs- 
sitas  uifirmitalis  dare  compulerit. 


Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


I2II 


till  her  first  husband  be  dead,  unless  the  necessity 
of  sickness  require  it  to  be  given  her.  But  as  this 
I  was  but  a  canon  of  a  private  council,  so  here  are 
;  several  exceptions  and  abatements  in  it.  First,  it 
only  respects  women,  and  not  men.  Then,  again,  it 
only  relates  to  women  that  were  believers,  and  not 
catechumens,  who  by  the  next  canon  are  allowed 
notwithstanding  to  be  admitted  to  baptism,  as  St. 
Austin  also  determined.  Thirdly,  the  husband 
also  that  was  deserted,  must  be  a  believer ;  for  the 
case  is  otherwise  if  he  was  a  heathen.  Lastly,  she 
is  allowed  the  communion  at  the  point  of  death, 
though  she  never  relinquished  the  second  liusband. 
So  that  as  yet  the  prohibition  was  not  universal 
upon  many  accounts.  Afterwards  we  find  in  one 
of  the  laws  of  Honorius,  That  if  a  woman"  could 
prove  her  reason  weighty  and  sufficient  for  a  di- 
vorce, she  might  not  only  retain  her  dowry  and  the 
donations  of  her  espousals,  but  also  within  five 
years  have  liberty  to  marry  again.  And  a  man,  if 
he  could  prove  his  reasons  for  divorce  weighty 
against  his  wife,  might  not  only  retain  her  dowry 
and  gifts  of  espousal,  but  have  liberty  to  marry  an- 
other wife  whenever  he  pleased.  Or  if  they  were 
only  light  faults,  and  not  high  crimes,  that  he  had 
to  allege  against  his  wife,  he  was  to  leave  her  her 
dowry,  but  might  reclaim  any  espousal  gifts,  and 
have  liberty  to  marry  another  wife  after  two  years. 
But  if  a  man  put  away  his  wife  for  no  reasons  at 
all,  but  only  his  own  moroseness,  he  was  condemned 
to  live  in  perpetual  celibacy  for  his  insolent  divorce, 
and  the  woman  had  liber tj'  within  a  year  to  be  mar- 
ried to  another  man.  And  there  are  several  laws  of 
Thcodosius  junior,  and  Valentian  III.,  and  Anasta- 
sius  in  the  Justinian  Code,"  which  grant  the  same 
liberty  of  marrying  after  lawful  divorces.  But  these 
laws  are  not  altogether  approved  by  the  writers  of 
the  church  in  those  times.  For  as  we  have  heard 
St.  Austin  and  St.  Jerom  express  their  dislike  be- 
fore, so  we  may  find  the  same  in  Chrysostom,"  and 
Ambrose,^"  and  Pope  Innocent,*'  and  other  writers  of 
that  age,  who  reckon  the  laws  of  the  state  too  loose 
and  favourable  to  such  as  married  after  divorce. 
Which  serves  only  to  confirm  the  observation  which 
I  made  at  first,  that  the  ancients  were  divided  upon 
this  point,  and  treated  it  only  as  a  problematical 
question,  though   the  council  of  Trent  has  since 


turned  it  into  an  article  of  faith,'-  and  damned  all 
those  that  come  not  into  her  sentiments  about  it- 
And  in  her  sentence,  to  note  this  by  the  by,  she  has 
also  condemned  some  of  her  own  popes  and  councils 
of  later  ages,  which  Gratian  has  recorded.  Pope 
Zachary'^  allows  a  woman,  whose  husband  had 
committed  incest  with  her  sister,  to  put  him  away, 
and  marry  to  whom  she  would  in  the  Lord.  And 
Gregory  III.  allows  a  man  to  put  away  his  wife  for 
infirmity'^  and  marry  another.  The  council  of  Tri- 
bur*"'  says,  If  a  son  commits  incest  with  his  mother- 
in-law,  the  father  may  put  her  away  and  marry  an- 
other, if  he  pleases.  And  the  council  of  Vermerise 
(which  in  some  copies  of  Gratian  is  falsely  called 
the  council  of  Eliberis)  says,'°  If  a  woman  take 
counsel  with  others  to  compass  the  death  of  her 
husband,  he  may  dismiss  her  for  the  attempt,  and 
marry  another,  if  he  pleases.  So  that  the  new  le- 
gislators at  Trent  were  as  much  at  variance  with 
their  own  canon  law,  as  they  were  with  the  ancient 
fathers  upon  this  subject. 

Nor  are  the  Roman  casuists  better 
agreed  with  the  ancients  upon  another     whether  an'ad.ii- 

,       .  ,         .  - .  tcrer  might    marry 

question  relating  to  the  impediments  an  adulteress. whom 

^  .  *  '■  lie  had  defiled,  after 

of  marnage.  Viz.  Whether  an  adulterer  [^^  '•'■•'''>>  of  her 

^  husband  ? 

may  marry  another  man's  wife  after 
the  death  of  her  husband,  having  been  guilty  of 
adultery  with  her  whilst  her  former  husband  was 
living?  The  modern  canonists  commonly  resolve  this 
in  the  negative.  The  council  of  Tribur  in  Germany, 
which  was  held  in  the  year  895,  under  Pope  For- 
niosus,  proposes  a  famous  case  of  a  man  who  defiled 
another  man's  wife,  and  swore  he  would  marry  her 
after  her  husband's  death :  the  council  peremp- 
torily *'  determines  this  to  be  unlawful :  We  anathe- 
matize such  a  marriage,  and  forbid  it  to  all  Chris- 
tians. It  is  not  lawful  therefore,  nor  agreeable  to 
the  Christian  religion,  that  any  one  should  use  her 
in  matrimony,  whom  he  had  before  defiled  by  adul- 
tery. Peter  Lombard  **  and  Gratian  *"  cite  other  au- 
thorities of  Pope  Leo  and  the  council  of  Altha'um 
to  this  purpose :  and  the  modern  canonists  com- 
monly stand  to  their  determination,""  only  making 
some  nice  distinctions  to  reconcile  these  canons  to 
better  authorities  of  the  ancients ;  for  the  ancients 
in  this  matter  were  of  another  opinion.  St.  Aus- 
tin resolves  the  question  in  the  affirmative,  uni- 


"  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  .3.  Tit.  16.  de  Repudiis,  Leg.  2.  Si 
graves  caiisas  probaverit,  quae  recedit,  dotis  suae  compos, 
sponsalem  quoque  obtineat  largitatem,  atque  a  repudii  die 
post  quinquennium  nubendi  recipiat  potestatem,  &c. 

's  Cod.  Just.  lib.  5.  Tit.  17.  de  Repudiis,  Leg.  8  et  9. 

""  Chrys.  Horn.  17.  in  Mat. 

""  Ambms.  de  Abraham.  lib.  I.  c.  4. 

*"  Innoc.  Ep.  .3.  ad  Exuper.  c.  6. 

"-  Cone.  Trident.  Sess.  24.  can.  7. 

'•^  Ap.  Gratian.  Caus.  32.  Queest.  7.  cap.  23.  Nubat  in 
Domino  cui  vult.  "'  Ibid.  Caus.  32.  qu.  7.  c.  18. 

^^  Ibid.  cap.  21.    Si  quis  cum  noverca  sua  donnicrit,  neu- 


ter ad  conjugium  potest  pervenire  :  sed  vir  ejus  potest,  si 
vult,  aliam  accipere,  si  se  continere  non  potest. 

*^  Cone.  Verraer.  ap.  Gratian.  Caus.  31.  qu.  1.  cap.  6.  Si 
qua  mulier  in  mortem  mariti  sui  cum  aliis  consiliata  sit,  ipse 
vir  potest  u.xorem  dimittere,  et  si  voluerit,  aliam  ducore. 

*'  Cone.  Tribur.  can.  40.  Tale  connubium  anathema- 
tizamus,  et  Christianis  omnibus  obseramus.  Non  licet  ergo, 
nee  Christiana;  religioni  oportet,  ut  ullus  ea  ntatur  iu  matri- 
monio,  cum  qua  prius  pollutus  erat  adulterio. 

»•  Lombard.  Sent.  Dist.  .35.  lib.  4. 

"'■'  Gratian.  Caus.  .31.  qu.  1. 

^  Vid.  Esiium  in  Sent,  lib,  4.  Dist.  35.  n.  1.3. 


1212 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXII. 


versally  and  without  distinction,"  That  when  a 
woman's  husband  was  dead,  to  whom  she  was  truly 
married,  she  might  become  the  true  and  lawful  wife 
of  another,  with  whom  before  she  had  committed 
adultery.  And  again,'"  It  is  manifest,  that  they 
who  at  first  join  wickedly  together  in  concubinage, 
may  afterward  by  changing  their  wills  make  a  just 
and  honest  marriage  together.  And  therefore  the 
council  of  Eliberis  determined,"  That  though  a 
Avoman,  who  left  her  husband,  and  lived  adulter- 
ously  with  another,  should  not  communicate  so  long 
as  her  husband  was  living  ;  yet  she  might  after  his 
death,  because  then  she  became  the  lawful  wife  of 
him,  with  whom  before  she  had  only  lived  in  adul- 
tery. Albaspiny,'*  in  his  notes  upon  this  canon, 
makes  this  candid  remark :  In  those  times  you  may 
observe,  that  matrimony  might  stand  firm  and 
valid  between  adulterers,  who  had  to  do  with  one 
another  whilst  the  true  and  lawful  husband  was 
living ;  which  now  is  so  prohibited,  that  a  woman, 
even  after  the  death  of  her  husband,  cannot  make  a 
true  and  lawful  marriage  with  her  adulterer,  but 
only  by  the  dispensation  of  the  pope.  Which  is  a 
plain  and  ingenuous  confession  of  the  difference  be- 
tween the  ancient  and  modern  way  of  resolving  this 
question  ;  and  perhaps  tacitly  intimates  the  true 
reason  of  inventing  so  many  new  impediments  in 
the  business  of  matrimony,  that  the  pope  might 
have  it  in  his  power  to  grant  frequent  dispensations. 
All  that  the  ancient  canons  required  in  this  par- 
ticular case,  was  only  that  the  criminals  should 
perform  a  just  and  satisfactory  penance  for  their 
former  adultery,  but  they  never  forbade  them  to 
marry,  nor  dissolved  the  marriage,  if  it  was  con- 
tracted regularly  after  the  death  of  the  former  hus- 
band, without  any  other  impediment  to  hinder  or 
disannul  it.  As  appears  from  another  canon  of  the 
council  of  Eliberis,  which  orders,"^  That  if  a  widow 
commit  adultery  with  a  man,  and  afterward  take 
him  for  her  husband,  she  shall  do  five  years'  penance, 
and  then  be  reconciled  to  the  communion,  or  by  the 
communion  :  but  if  she  leaves  him,  and  marries  any 
other,  she  shall  not  have  the  communion  even  at 
her  last  hour.  Where  it  is  observable,  that  the 
council  is  so  far  from  prohibiting  or  disannulling 


Sect.  14. 
The  celebration  of 
arriage  forbidden 
.  Lent. 


the  marriage  of  an  adulteress  with  her  adulterer, 
that  they  oblige  her  to  keep  him  for  her  husband, 
and  take  no  other,  under  pain  of  being  refused  the 
communion  even  at  the  hour  of  death.  Which  is 
abundantly  sufficient  to  show  us  the  sense  of  tlie 
ancients  upon  this  point,  that  they  never  reckoned 
it  needed  a  dispensation  to  bring  adulterers  into  a 
lawful  marriage,  though  this  has  been  the  current 
practice  of  the  Roman  court  now  for  many  ages. 

I  have  but  one  thing  more  to  ob- 
serve concerning  the  ancient  prohibi- 
tions of  marriage  ;  and  that  relates  to 
the  time  or  season  in  which  it  might  or  might  not 
be  regularly  celebrated.  The  most  ancient  prohi- 
bition that  we  meet  with  of  this  kind,  is  that  of 
the  council  of  Laodicea,  which  forbids °^  all  mar- 
riages as  well  as  birthdays  to  be  celebrated  in  Lent. 
And  this  is  the  only  prohibition  in  point  of  time 
that  we  meet  with  in  any  of  the  genuine  records  of 
those  early  ages.  Peter  Lombard"  and  Gratian"" 
cite  a  canon  out  of  the  council  of  Lerida,  anno 
524,  which  forbids  marriages  not  only  in  Lent,  but 
three  weeks  before  the  festival  of  St.  John  Baptist, 
and  from  the  beginning  of  Advent  to  Epiphany  ; 
ordering  likewise  all  marriages  that  are  made  in 
these  intervals  to  be  annulled.  But  there  is  no  such 
canon  now  extant  in  the  tomes  of  the  councils, 
which  makes  it  suspicious,  that  it  is  some  canon  of 
a  much  later  date  than  the  council  that  is  pretended. 
Martin  Bracarensis  lived  some  time  after  the  coun- 
cil of  Lerida,  and  in  his  collection  of  canons  which 
he  published  anno  572,  in  the  council  of  Lugo,  he 
takes  notice  of  the  prohibition  made  at  Laodicea, 
but  not  of  the  pretended  one  at  Lerida,'"  nor  of  any 
other.  AVhich  is  a  further  argument,  that  as  yet 
there  was  no  prohibition  of  marrying  but  only  in 
Lent  known  in  Spain,  when  the  bishop  of  Braga 
made  his  collection  of  canons  for  the  use  of  the 
Spanish  church.  Pope  Nicholas  I.  lived  about  the 
year  8G0 ;  and  he  also '°°  takes  notice  of  the  prohibi- 
tion of  marriage  in  Lent,  but  mentions  no  other 
season.  Yet  Mr.  Selden ""  says.  The  council  of 
Aquisgi-anum,  or  Aix  la  Chapelle,  held  anno  836, 
under  the  emperor  Lewis  I.,  forbids  marriages  to 
be  celebrated  on  the  Lord's  day,  by  a  new  injunc- 


^'  Aug.  De  Nuptiis  et  Concup.  lib.  1.  cap.  10.  Mnrtuo 
viro  cum  quo  verum  connubium  fuit,  fieri  verum  connubiiim 
potest  cum  quo  prius  adulterinm  fuit. 

^  Id.  de  Bono  Conjugali,  cap.  14.  Posse  sane  fieri  nup- 
tias  ex  male  conjunctis,  honesto  postea  placito  consequente, 
manifeslum. 

"'  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  9.  Fcemina  qiise  maritum  relique- 
rit,  et  alterum  duxerit,  non  prius  accipiat  communionem, 
nisi  qucm  reliquerit,  prius  de  sicculo  exierit. 

^  Albaspin.  in  loc.  lUis  teniporibns,  ut  vides,  niatri- 
monium  poterat  stare  et  validum  esse  inter  adulteros,  qui 
vivenfe  vero  et  legitimo  marito  reui  simul  habucrant :  quod 
hodie  ita  prohibitum  est,  ut  ne  quideni  post  mortem  mariti 
mulier  possit  cum  adultero  nuptias  firmas  et  legitiraas  i'acere, 


nisi  summo  dispensante  pontifice. 

"=  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  72.  Si  qua  vidua  fuerit  moBchata, 
et  eundem  postea  habuerit  maritum,  post  quinquennii  tem- 
pus,  acta  legitima  poenitentia,  placuit  earn  conimunione  re- 
couciliari.  Si  alium  duxerit,  rclicto  illo,  nee  in  fine  dandam 
esse  ei  communionem. 

""  Cone.  Laodie.  can.  52.  "Oti  uu  otl  iv  -rtrrcrapa.KorrTi'i 
ydnovi  h  yivLQXia  tTiTt\f~i.v- 

■•'"  Lombard.  Sent.  lib.  4.  Dist.  .32. 

=*  Gratian.  Cans.  33.  Quacst.  4.  cap.  10. 

"^  Martin.  Braear.  Collect.  Canon,  c.  48. 

I""  Nicol.  Kespons.  ad  Consulta  Bulgaror. 

""  Selden.  Uxor.  Hebraic,  lib.  2.  cap.  30.  p.  313.  ex 
Synodo  Aquisgran    par  2.  can.  17. 


Chap.  HI. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THK  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1213 


tion  :  which  I  do  not  find  in  the  place  by  him  quot- 
ed. However,  the  council  of  Saleg-unstade,  anno 
1022,  under  Benedict  VIII.  and  the  emperor  Henry 
II.,  made  an  order,'"'-  That  no  Christians  should 
marry  from  Advent  to  the  octaves  of  Epiphany,  nor 
between  Septuagesima  Sunday  and  the  octaves  of 
Easter,  nor  in  fourteen  days  before  the  festival  of 
St.  John  Baptist,  nor  upon  fast  days,  nor  the  vigils 
of  the  solemn  festivals.  And  from  that  time,  as 
Mr.  Selden  shows  at  large,  these  were  prohibited 
times  of  marriage  in  most  churches.  The  learned 
reader,  who  would  see  further  into  this  matter,  to- 
gether with  the  practice  of  the  French  and  English 
churches  in  the  following  ages,  may  consult  the 
elaborate  discourse  of  that  curious  writer;  for  I 
must  return  to  the  ancient  church. 


CHAPTER  III. 

OF  THE  MANNER  OF  MAKING  ESPOUSALS  PRECEDING 
MARRIAGE   IN  THE  ANCIENT  CHURCH. 

j^^  ^  J  When  persons,  against  whom  there 

or"spVuMiTditfered  '^Y  "'^  lawful  impediment,  were  dis- 
frum  marriage.  posed  to  joIn  in  matrimouy  with  each 
other,  they  were  obliged  to  go  through  certain  pre- 
liminaries appointed  by  custom  or  law,  before  they 
could  ordinarily  complete  the  marriage,  or  regu- 
larly come  together.  These  went  by  the  general 
name  of  sjionsalia,  espousals  or  betrothing.  This 
differed  from  marriage,  as  an  obligation  or  contract 
antecedent  to  a  future  marriage,  may  be  supposed 
to  differ  from  marriage  actually  solemnized  and  com- 
pleted. And  there  were  several  distinct  ceremonies 
proper  and  peculiar  to  each.  For  which  reason 
(though  they  be  by  some  writers  confounded)  I 
choose  to  speak  separately  of  them  here ;  as  the 
ancient  law,  which  either  appointed  or  confirmed 
them,  always  does,  giving  them  distinct  titles  in  both 
the  Codes.  For  there  we  find  one  title,  De  Sponsa- 
lihus  et  Do7iationibns  ante  JVuptias,  Of  Espousals  and 
Gifts  before '  Marriage :  and  another,  De  Nuptiis,^ 
Of  Marriage  itself.  To  give  a  summary  account  of 
the  ceremonies  observed  in  each  of  these  :  we  may 


observe,  first,  of  the  espousals,  tliat  they  consisted 
chiefly  in  a  mutual  contract  or  agreement  between 
the  parties  concerning  their  future  marriage,  to  be 
performed  within  a  certain  limited  time ;  which 
contract  was  confirmed  by  certain  gifts  or  dona- 
tions, called  arree  et  arrahones,  the  earnest  of  mar- 
riage; as  also  by  a  ring,  a  kiss,  a  dowry,  a  writing 
or  instrument  of  dowry,  with  a  sufficient  number  of 
witnesses  to  attest  it.  After  which  there  was  no 
receding  from  the  contract,  or  refusal  to  be  made  of 
marriage,  witliout  great  penalties  and  forfeitures  in 
law,  and  incurriug  many  times  the  highest  censures 
of  the  church.  These  were  the  preparatory  cere- 
monies, or  harbingers  and  forerunners  of  the  future 
marriage,  which  were  generally  observed  by  obliga- 
tion of  the  Roman  laws,  though  not  all  of  equal 
necessity  to  all  manner  of  persons ;  for  the  law  made 
some  distinctions,  and  allowed  of  dispensations  in 
some  of  these  points  to  certain  orders  of  men  in 
some  particular  cases.  As  to  the  marriage  itself, 
custom  generally  prevailed  to  have  it  solemnized  by 
the  ministers  of  the  church  ;  though,  as  the  state  of 
the  Roman  empire  then  stood,  this  was  not  abso- 
lutely necessary  by  any  law ;  nor  were  those  mar- 
riages annulled  that  were  performed  otherwise.  But 
when  it  was  done  by  the  ministers,  it  was  performed 
with  a  solemn  benediction,  together  with  the  cere- 
monies of  a  veil  and  a  coronet  and  some  other  rites ; 
of  which  more  in  their  proper  place. 

I  begin  with  the   ceremonies  ob-         ^.^c^.i. 
served  in  espousals.     Where,  first  of  partfes  n°^^2ri  \n 

,,       ,  ft  ,     espousals. 

all,  there  was  necessary  a  tree  consent 
of  the  parties  contracting.  This  was  the  old  Roman 
law,  called  lex  Papia  et  Julia,  confirmed  by  Dio- 
cletian, and  inserted  by  Justinian  into  his  Code.* 
The  discipline  of  the  laws  does  not  permit,  that  a 
son  should  be  compelled  to  marry  a  wife  against 
his  will.  And  therefore,  though  parents  had  a  right 
to  dispose  of  their  children  in  marriage,  and  chil- 
dren could  not  legally  marry  without  their  consent, 
as  is  expressed  in  the  same  law,  as  has  been  fully 
showed*  before;  yet  children  had  an  equal  right  to 
dispose  of  themselves,  and  ought  not  to  be  com- 
pelled by  their  parents  to  make  any  contract  abso- 
lutely against  their  own  inclinations.  If  a  virgin 
was  betrothed  by  the  consent  of  a  father,'  or  a 
mother,  or  a  guardian  before  she  was  ten  years  old, 


'"-  Cone.  Salegunstad.  can.  3. 

'  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  3.  Tit.  5.  Cod.  .Justin,  lib.  h.  Tit.  1  et3. 

"'  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  3.  Tit.  7.  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  5.  Tit.  4. 

5  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  5.  Tit.  4.  de  Nuptiis,  Leg.  12.  Nee 
filium  quidem  farailias  invitum  ad  uxorem  ducendam  cogi, 
legum  disciplina  pennittit.  Igitur  sicut  desideras,  obser- 
vatis  juris  praeceptis,  sociare  conjugio  quam  volueris  non 
impedieiis  :  ita  tamen  ut  contrahendis  nuptiis  patris  tui 
consensus  accedat. 

*  Chap.  2.  sect.  4. 

*  Lex  Theodosii  in  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  .3.  Tit.  5.  de  Spon- 
salibus.  Leg.  6.    Patri,  matri,  tiitori,  vel  cuilibet,  ante  deci- 


luurn  puella;  annum  datis  sponsalibus,  quadrupli  poenam 
remittimus,  etsi  nuptiae  non  sequautur.  Quod  si  decinio 
anno  vel  ultra,  pater  quisve  alius,  ad  quern  puella;  ratio 
pertinet,  ante  duodecim  annos,  id  est,  usque  in  undecimi 
metas,  suscepta  crediderit  pignoia  esse  retinenda,  deinccps 
adventante  tempore  nuptiarum  a  fide  absistens,  quadrupli 

fiat  obnoxius. Duodecimo  autem  anno  impleto,  quisquis 

de  nuptiis  paciscitur,  si  quidem  pater,  semetipsum  obliget ; 
si  mater,  curatorve,  aut  alii  parentes,  puella  fiat  obnoxia. 
Cui  quidem  contra  matrem,  tutorem,  curatorem,  emnve 
parentem,  actio  ex  bono  et  ex  a-quo  infegra  reservatur  eo- 
rum  pignorum,  quce  ex  propriis  juxta  poenam  juris  facultati- 


1214 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXI  [. 


in  that  case  she  might  still  refuse  to  complete  the 
7iiarriage  without  any  quadruple  forfeiture,  (which 
the  law  required  for  breach  of  contract  in  other 
cases,)  either  to  be  exacted  of  her  or  her  parents  : 
because  she  was  not  yet  of  age  to  give  any  consent 
to  an  espousal ;  as  Gothofred  shows  out  of  Dio  and 
the  ancient  laws.  If  she  was  above  ten,  and  not 
yet  full  twelve  years  old,  when  she  was  betrothed 
by  her  parents,  and  afterward  refused  to  complete 
the  marriage,  her  parents  might  be  amerced,  but 
not  the  virgin  ;  because  she  was  not  yet  of  age  and 
ripeness  of  judgment  to  give  her  free  consent  to 
such  a  contract.  If  she  vi^as  above  twelve  years 
old  when  she  made  the  contract,  she  was  liable  to 
be  amerced  quadruple  by  law  for  not  completing 
the  marriage  according  to  the  espousal  contract. 
But  then  she  had  a  just  action  of  recovery  of  what- 
ever she  forfeited,  against  a  mother,  or  a  tutor,  or  a 
guardian,  if  she  could  prove  that  she  was  compelled 
by  force  to  give  her  assent  to  the  acceptance  of  the 
arrce,  or  donations  made  to  her  upon  the  espousal. 
And  for  the  same  reason,  as  I  have  showed*  before, 
any  woman  who  entered  into  an  espousal  contract 
with  a  governor  of  a  province  during  the  year  of 
his  administration,  was  at  perfect  liberty,  when  the 
year  was  ended,  whether  she  would  fulfil  the  con- 
tracts, and  marry  him,  or  not :  because  it  was  pre- 
sumed, that  he  being  in  supereminent  authority  and 
power,  might  overawe  a  woman,  and  terrify  her 
into  an  espousal  against  her  will  and  real  inclina- 
tion. Such  provident  care  did  the  ancient  law  take 
to  secure  the  hberty  of  such  as  entered  into  espous- 
al contracts,  that  nothing  of  this  kind  should 
stand  firm,  but  what  was  voluntarily  agreed  upon 
by  the  free  consent  of  each  contracting  party,  with- 
out any  force  or  violence  of  any  kind  intervening 
to  compel  them. 

Sect.  3.  When  the  contract  was  thus  made. 

The    contract    of    »,  i    c        i^  t        t        , 

espousals  usually     it  was  usual  lor  thc  man  to  bestow 

testified    by    {^ilts,  .  ,  „  ,  - 

called  ana,  or  do-  ccrtaiu  gitts  ou  the  wouian,  as  tokens 
tia,  which  were      and   pledges   of  the   espousal :    and 

eometimes  mutually  x:  o  r 

boll."  by^jiT'inan  sometlmcs,  but  not  so  commonly,  the 
a-id  woman.  womau  made  presents   to   the  man 

upon  the  same  account.  These  are  sometimes  call- 
ed sponsalia,  espousals,  and  sometimes  spoiisalitice 
ihnationes,  espousal  gifts,  and  arra  ct  pif/nora,  earn- 
ests and  pledges  of  future  marriage ;  because  the 
giving  and  receiving  them  was  a  confirmation  of 


the  contract,  and  an  obligation  on  the  parties  to 
take  each  other  for  man  and  wife,  unless  some 
legal  reason  gave  them  liberty  to  do  otherwise. 
These  were  commonly  given  by  the  men,  as  I  said, 
and  sometimes  by  the  women,  though  but  rarely,  as 
is  noted  in  one  of  the  laws  of  Constantine,  which 
orders,'  That  if  the  woman  give  any  thing  to  the 
man  upon  the  title  of  espousal,  (which  is  a  thing 
that  seldom  happens,)  in  case  either  the  man  or 
the  woman  chanced  to  die  before  the  marriage  was 
completed,  the  whole  dominion  and  property  of 
whatever  she  gave  should  return  to  her,  if  she  sur- 
vived, or  else  to  her  heirs  and  successors.  And  the 
case  was  much  the  same  with  the  donations  made 
by  the  man  to  the  woman,  upon  the  death  of  either 
party  before  marriage  :  only  with  this  difference, 
that  if  the  man  confirmed  his  donation  by  the  in- 
tervention of  the  solemn  kiss,  (of  which  ceremony 
more  by  and  by,)  then,  in  case  of  death,  the  dona- 
tion was  to  be  divided  between  the  survivor  and 
the  heirs  of  the  deceased  party ;  but  if  the  ceremony 
of  the  kiss  was  not  superadded,  the  whole  donation 
was  to  be  restored,  in  case  either  party  died,  either 
to  the  donor  himself  surviving,  or  to  his  heirs  and 
successors.  Though  by  a  former  law  of  Constan- 
tine,* the  donations  both  of  the  man  and  woman 
were  exactly  upon  the  same  foot,  and  both  to  be  re- 
stored in  case  of  death  without  any  distinction. 

To  make  these  donations  more  firm 
and  sure,  it  was  required  that  they     ThekJ''  donations 

to    be    entered   into 

should  be  entered  mto  public  acts,  and  i'"''"^  acts,  and  i>et 

^  upon  record. 

set  upon  record,  as  well  to  ascertain 
them  against  the  accidents  of  death,  as  against  the 
falseness  and  perfidiousness  of  either  party.  This 
is  expressly  provided  in  one  of  the  laws  of  Con- 
stantine," That  no  donation  between  man  and  wo- 
man in  the  business  of  espousals  should  be  of  any 
force,  unless  it  was  testified  by  a  public  act.  But 
this  afterward  received  some  limitations.  For  Con- 
stantine himself,  by  another  law,'"  made  an  excep- 
tion in  the  case  of  minors.  That  if  any  espousal 
gifts  were  given  to  women  that  contracted  and  mar- 
ried under  age,  they  should  not  be  revoked  upon 
pretence  that  they  were  not  entered  into  public 
acts.  And  this  was  confirmed  by  another  law  of 
Theodosius  junior,"  referring  to  it;  who  also  added 
another  exception,  That  if  the  donation  did  not 
exceed  the  sum  of  two  hundred   shillings,  there 


bus  reddiderit,  si  ad  consensum  accipieiidarum  arraruin  ab 
his  se  oslenderit  fuisse  compulsam. 

"^  Chap.  2.  sect.  7. 

'  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  3.  Tit.  5.  de  Sponsalibus,  Leg.  5.  Si 
sponsa  sponsaliorum  litiilo  (quod  raro  accidit)  fuerit  aliquid 
sponso  largita,  et  ante  nuptias  hunc  vel  illam  niori  conti- 
gerit,  omni  donatione  iufirniata,  ad  donatricem  sponsam,  sive 
ejus  successores  donataruni  lerum  doniiniuiu  transferatur. 

8  Ibid.  Leg.  2. 

^  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  3.  Tit.  5.  de  Sponsalibus,  Leg.  I.  Inter 
sponsos  quoque  ac  sponsas,  omnesque  personas,  earn  solam 


donationem,  ex  promulgatae  legis  tempore,  valere  sancimus, 
quam  tpstificatio  actorum  secuta  est. 

'"  Ibid.  Leg.  3.  Si  futuris  conjugibus,  tempore  nuptiarum 
intra  setatem  constitutis,  res  fuerint  donataj  et  traditae;  noti 
idee  posse  eas  revocari,  quia  actis  consignare  donationem 
quondam  maritus  noluit. 

"  Ibid.  Leg.  8.  Ilia  manente  lege,  quae  minoribns  setate 
fceminis,  etiam  act.onim  testificatione  omissa,  si  patris  auxilio 
destitutai  sint,  juste  consulit,  &c. Item,  in  ilia  dona- 
tione, quae  in  omnibus  intra  ducentorum  solidorum  est 
qiiantitateui,  nee  actorum  confectio  quaerenda  est. 


Chap.  HI. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1215 


should  be  no  necessity  to  have  it  recorded  to  make 
it  firm.  Justinian"'  extended  this  exception  furtlicr 
to  the  sum  of  three  hundred  shillings,  and  at  last  to 
five  hundred,'^  to  be  ascertained  to  the  woman,  if 
given  to  her  upon  espousal,  without  any  further  in- 
sinuation, as  the  law  terms  it,  or  entering  into  pub- 
lic acts  and  monuments,  to  make  it  secure  in  law 
from  all  reclaiming. 

Together  with  these  espousal  gifts, 

Sect  5 

The  con'trart  fur-  Or  as  a  part  of  them,  it  was  usual  for 

ther  testified  by  giv-  ^ 

ing  and  receiving  of  thc  uiau  to  givc  tlic  womau  a  Hug,  as 

a  ring.  "  ° 

a  further  token  and  testimony  of  the 
contract.  This  was  an  innocent  ceremony  used  by 
the  Romans  before  the  times  of  Christianity,'*  and 
in  some  measure  admitted  by  the  Jews ;  whence  it 
was  adopted  among  the  Christian  rites  of  espousal 
without  any  opposition  or  contradiction :  I  say,  the 
rites  of  espousal ;  for  that  it  was  used  in  the  so- 
lemnity of  marriage  itself  originally,  does  not  so 
evidently  appear;  though  some,  who  confound  the 
rites  of  espousal  with  those  of  marriage,  bring  the 
evidences  of  the  foi'mer  as  proofs  of  the  latter  cus- 
tom. That  the  ring  was  used  in  espousals,  and  not 
in  thc  solemnity  of  marriage  itself,  in  the  time  of 
Pope  Nicholas,  anno  860,  seems  pretty  evident,  from 
the  distinct  account  which  he  gives  of  the  ceremo- 
nies used  in  the  Roman  church,  first  in  espousals, 
and  then  in  the  solemnity  of  marriage,  which  he 
plainly  speaks  of  as  distinct  things.  With  us,'^says 
he,  after  the  espousals,  which  are  a  promise  of 
future  marriage,  the  marriage  covenants  are  cele- 
brated, with  the  consent  of  those  who  have  con- 
tracted, and  of  those  in  whose  power  they  are. 
Then  he  describes  distinctly  the  ceremonies  peculiar 
to  each.  In  the  espousals  the  man  first  presents 
the  woman,  whom  he  betroths,  with  the  arree  or 
espousal  gifts  ;  and  among  these  he  puts  a  ring 
upon  her  finger  ;  then  he  delivers  the  dowry,  agreed 
upon  by  both  parties,  in  writing  before  witnesses, 
invited  on  both  sides  to  attest  the  agreement.  Thus 
far  the  espousals.  After  this,  either  presently,  or 
in  some  convenient  time  following,  that  nothing 


might  be  done  before  the  time  appointed  by  law, 
they  are  both  brought  to  the  nuptial  solemnity. 
Where,  first  of  all,  they  are  placed  in  the  church,  to 
offer  their  oblations  by  the  hands  of  the  priest;  and 
then  they  receive  the  benediction  and  the  celestial 
veil ;  and  after  this,  going  out  of  the  church,  they 
wear  crowns  or  garlands  upon  their  heads,  which 
are  kept  in  the  church  for  that  purpose.  Here 
we  have  the  ceremonies  of  espousals  and  the 
ceremonies  of  marriage  distinctly  described ;  and 
among  the  ceremonies  of  espousals  we  find  the 
ring,  but  not  mentioned  again  in  the  ceremonies 
of  marriage ;  which  makes  it  probable  that  it  was 
then  only  a  ceremony  of  the  former,  and  not  of 
the  latter.  And  thus  it  was  used  among  the  an- 
cient Christians  in  their  espousals,  as  an  arrfs,  or 
earnest,  of  their  future  marriage,  but  not  in  the 
solemnity  of  marriage  itself,  as  far  as  we  can  learn 
from  any  accounts  that  are  given  of  it.  St.  Am- 
brose speaks  of  it,  but  only  amongst  the  rites  of 
espousal,  and  not  of  marriage.  For,  describing  the 
behaviour  of  St.  Agnes  the  virgin,  when  the  go- 
vernor of  Rome,  courting  her,  offered  her  the  espous- 
al gifts,  he  brings  her  in'*  thus  replying,  Depart 
from  me,  thou  solicitor  to  sin;  for  I  am  already 
prevented  by  another  lover,  who  has  bestowed 
upon  me  much  better  ornaments,  and  betrothed  me 
with  the  ring  of  his  faith,  being  far  more  noble  both 
in  birth  and  dignity ;  meaning  Christ,  to  whom  she 
was  espoused  spiritually  by  the  profession  of  vir- 
ginity. And  before  him  TertuUian"  speaks  of  the 
annulus  promdus,  or  ring  of  espousals  before  mar- 
riage :  inveighing  against  the  heathens  for  having 
degenerated  from  the  institutions  of  their  ancestors, 
which  taught  women  modesty  and  sobriety,  when 
they  knew  no  other  use  of  gold  but  upon  one  of 
their  fingers,  which  their  spouse  adorned  with  the 
ring  of  espousals.  He  does  not  expressly  say  that 
the  ring  was  used  by  Christians,  but  he  speaks  of 
it  as  a  laudable  ceremony,  that  might  be  used  by 
any,  and  was  actually  used  by  the  heathens  in  their 
espousals.     And  in  another  place''  he  says,  It  was 


'-  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  8.  Tit.  54.  de  Donationibus,  Leg.  31. 
Sancimus  omnem  donatiouetn  ante  niiptias  factam,  usque 
ad  trecentos  solidos  cumulatam,  non  indigere  monumen- 
tis,  &c. 

"  Ibid.  Leg.  3G. 

»  Vid.  Selden.  Uxor.  Hebr.  lib.  2.  cap.  14  et25.  p.  253. 

'^  Nicol.  Respons.  ad  Considta  Bulgavorum.  Cone.  t.  8. 
p.  517.  et  ap.  Gratian.  Cans.  30.  Qua;st.  5.  cap.  3.  Apiid 
nostrates  post  sponsalia,  qnis  futurarum  nuptiarumsunt  pro- 
missio,  foedera  quaique  consensu  eorum  qui  haec  contrahunt, 
et  eorum  in  qtiorum  potestate  sunt,  celebranlur.  Postquam 
arris  sponsam  sibi  sponsus  per  digituni  tidei  annulo  insigni- 
tum  desponderit ;  dotemque  utrique  placitam  sponsus,  ejus 
scripto  pactum  hoc  contiuente,  coram  invitatis  ab  iitraque 
parte  tradiderit ;  aut  mox,  aut  apto  tempore  (ne  videlicet 
ante  lemp\is  lege  definitum  tale  quid  facere  proesumaut) 
ambo  ad  nuptiaiia  frodera  pcrducuntur.  Et  prinnini  in  ec- 
clesiam  Domini  cum  oblationibus,  quas  oft'crre  debent  Deo 


per  sacerdotis  manum,  statuuntur:  sicque  demum  benedic- 

tionem  et  velamen  celeste  suscipiunt. Post  ha;c  autem  de 

ecclosia  egressi  coronas  in  capitibus  gestant,  qtuc  semper  in 
ecclesia  ipsa  sunt  solita;  reservari. 

'"  Ambros.  Ep.  34.  Discede  a  me  fomes  peccati quia 

jam  ab  alio  amatore  pra;venta  smn,  qui  mihi  satis  meliora 
obtulit  ornamenta,  et  annulo  fidei  sure  subarravit  me,  longe 
te  nobilior  et  genere  et  dignitate. 

"  Tertul,  Apol.  cap.  6.  Circa  foeminas  quidem  etiam  ilia 
majorum  instituta  ceciderunt.  quae  modestiic,  qnre  sobrietati 
patrocinabautur;  cum  aurum  nulla  norat  pra-ter  unico 
digito,  quem  sponsus  oppignerasset  annulo  pronubo. 

'"  Ibid,  de  Idololatr.  cap.  16.  Circa  otKcia  privatarum 
et  communium  solemnilatum,  ut  toga;  pura;,  ut  sponsalium, 
ut  nuptiarura,  ut  nominaliura,  nullum  pntem  periculinu 
observari  de  flatu  idololatriaj  quai  intervenit.  Causae  enim 
stmt  consiileranda;,  quibus  praisfatur  nfficium.  Eas  miindas 
esse  opinor   per  semctipsas :    quia   ncquc    vestitus   virilis, 


1216 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXII. 


innocently  used  in  their  espousals  ;  and  therefore  a 
Christian  might  lawfully  be  present  either  at  the 
espousals  or  the  marriages  of  the  heathens,  as  at 
any  other  private  and  common  solemnity,  of  giving 
a  youth  the  torja  vir'dis,  the  habit  of  a  man,  or  giving 
a  slave  a  new  name  at  his  manumission ;  for  all 
these  things  were  pure  and  clean  of  their  own  na- 
ture ;  and  neither  the  ring  in  espousals,  nor  the 
joining  of  a  man  and  woman  in  marriage,  descended 
originally  from  any  honour  of  an  idol.  Clemens 
Alexandrinus  is  cited  by  Mr.  Selden  himself,'"  as  an 
evidence  of  the  antiquity  of  the  use  of  the  ring  in 
espousals  among  Christians.  He  says  the  ring  is 
given  her,  not  as  an  ornament,  but  as  a  seal,  to  sig- 
nifj'  the  woman's  duty  in  preserving  the  goods  of 
her  husband,  because  the  care  of  the  house  belongs 
to  her. 

gpi,j  g  Another  ceremony  used  in  espousals 

kissrandjoinrng""  sometimcs,  was  the  solemn  kiss,  which 
''*"''^'  the  man  gave  to  the  woman  in  con- 

firmation of  the  contract.  This  was  a  known  rite 
used  among  Christians  in  their  sacred  and  religious 
offices,  to  testify  their  cordial  love,  and  union,  and 
friendship  one  with  another,  of  which  I  have  spoken 
in  another  place.""  Therefore  Constantine,  in  one 
of  his  laws,"'  made  it  a  ceremony  of  espousals,  being 
as  proper  for  this  act  as  any  other.  And  he  laid 
some  stress  upon  it.  For  if  a  man  betrothed  a 
woman  by  the  intervention  of  the  kiss,  then  if 
either  party  died  before  marriage  the  heirs  of  the 
deceased  party  were  entitled  to  half  the  donations, 
and  the  survivor  to  the  other  half;  but  if  the  con- 
tract was  made  without  the  intervention  of  the 
solemn  kiss,  then  upon  the  death  of  either  party 
before  marriage  the  whole  of  the  espousal  gifts 
was  to  be  restored  to  the  donor,  or  his  heirs  at  law. 
And  this  was  made  a  standing  law  by  Justinian,-^ 
who  inserted  it  into  his  Code.  This  ceremony  was 
an  ancient  rite  used  by  the  heathens,  together  with 
joining  of  hands,  in  their  espousals :  as  we  learn 
from  Tertullian,  who  says,^  Virgins  came  veiled  to 
the  men,  when  they  made  their  espousals  by  a  kiss 
and  joining  of  their  right  hands  together;  which 
was  the  first  resignation  of  their  virgin  bashfulness, 
when  they  joined  both  in  body  and  spirit  with  a 


man.  Now,  these  ceremonies,  being  innocent  in 
themselves,  seem  to  have  been  adopted  by  Chris- 
tians, with  other  such  customs,  into  their  espousals, 
who  never  scrupled  any  innocent  rites  because  they, 
had  been  used  by  heathens,  except  such  as  natur- 
ally tended  to  defile  them  with  some  unavoidable ; 
stain  of  idolatry  and  superstition. 

Another  part  of  the  espousals  was, 
the  husband's  settling  a  dowry  upon    And  by  settling  of 

^  .'1.  a  doMTy  in  writing. 

the  woman,  to  which  she  should  be 
entitled  after  his  death.  There  are  several  laws  in  i 
both  the  Codes  relating  to  this  matter,^^  and  con- 
taining abundance  of  law  cases,  which  are  not  pro- 
per to  be  inserted  in  this  discourse.  I  only  observe 
two  things :  first.  That  the  stipulation  or  promise 
of  a  dowry  was  so  usual,  that  one  of  the  councils 
of  Aries,  mentioned  by  Gratian,"^  has  a  canon  that 
orders.  That  no  marriage  should  be  made  without  a 
dowry,  but  that  there  should  be  sometJiing  more  or 
less  promised  according  to  men's  ability.  Secondly, 
This  stipulation  was  commonly  made  in  writing  or 
public  instruments  under  hand  and  seal :  whence 
the  civil  law  so  often  speaks  of  the  instnimenta 
dotnlia,  the  instruments  of  dowry,  thcat  were  ordi- 
narily required  in  marriage  contracts.  And  in  al- 
lusion to  these,  Asterius  Amasenus,^^  dissuading 
men  from  divorce,  asks  them.  How  they  would 
rescind  and  cancel  their  covenants  of  marriage  ? 
What  covenants  do  you  think  I  mean  ?  Those 
wherein  the  dowry  is  written,  signed  with  your  own 
hand,  and  sealed  with  your  own  seal  ?  These  are 
strong  and  firm  enough,  indeed :  but  I  carry  my 
meaning  a  little  higher,  to  the  words  of  Adam : 
"  This  is  flesh  of  my  flesh,  and  bone  of  my  bone : 
she  shall  be  called  woman."  This  is  a  plain  allu- 
sion to  the  then  known  custom  of  making  instru- 
ments of  dowry  before  marriage,  and  confirming 
them  with  their  hand  and  seal,  to  give  them  legal 
strength  and  obligation. 

To   make   the   whole    business   of 
esiiousals  not  only  the  more  solemn,      And' by 'iiknsact- 

,  inn  tbe  wbole  affair 

but  also  the  more  firm  and  sure,  it  was  t"'f<"-f  "  compeient 

number  ol  witnesses. 

usual  to  transact  the  whole  affair  pub- 
licly before  a  competent  number  of  cjiosen  wit- 
nesses, that  is,  in  the  presence  of  the  friends  of  each 


neque  annulus,  ant  conjunctio  maritalis  de  alicujus  idoli 
lionure  descendit. 

'»  Selden.  Uxor.  Hebr.  lib.  2.  cap.  25.  p.  252.  Clem. 
Paedai^og.  lib.  3.  cap.  II.  p.  287. 

■'"  Book  XV.  chap.  3.  sect.  3. 

■-'  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  .3.  Tit.  5.  de  Sponsalibus,  Leg.  5.  Si 
ab  sponso  rebus  sponsae  donatis,  interveniente  osculo,  ante 
nuptias  hiinc  vcl  illam  mori  contigerit,  dimidiam  partem 
rerum   donataruni  ad   superstitem    pertinere    prajcipimtis, 

dimidiam   ad   defuncti    vel   defunctoe   hseredes. Oscido 

vero  non  interveniente,  sive  sponsus  sive  sponsa  obierit, 
totam  infirmari  donationem,  et  donatori  sponso  sive  haere- 
dibiis  ejus  restitui. 

-'-'  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  5.  Tit.  3.  de  Donation,  ante  Nuplias, 


Leg.  16. 

^  Tertul.  de  Veland.  Virgin,  cap.  H.  Apud  ethuicos 
velatee  ad  virum  ducuntur :  ad  desponsationem  velantur, 
quia  et  corpore  et  spiritu  masculo  mixtoe  sunt,  per  oscu- 
lum  et  dexteras,  per  qua?  primum  resignarunt  pudorem, 
&c. 

='  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  3.  Tit.  13.  de  Dotibus,  lib.  2.  Tit.  21. 
de  Inofliciosis  Dotibus.  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  5.  Tit.  II,  12,  13, 
14,  15. 

^  Cone.  Arelat.  can.  6.  ap.  Gratiau.  Cans.  30.  qu.  5. 
cap.  6.  Nullum  sine  dote  fiat  conjugium  :  juxta  possibili- 
tatem  fiat  dos. 

■'^  Aster.  Horn,  in  Mat.  xis.  3.  ap.  Combefis.  Auctarium 
Novum,  p.  82. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


I2i; 


party,  to  avoid  chiefly  clandestine  contracts.  I 
know  not  whether  the  law  specified  any  certain 
number,  otherwise  than  calling  it  frcqiicntia  etjidcs 
amicoritmj'^  the  presence  and  testimony  of  friends  : 
but  custom  seems  to  have  determined  it  to  the  num- 
ber of  ten ;  as  appears  from  a  noted  passage  in  St. 
Ambrose,^  where,  speaking  to  a  virgin  that  had 
fallen  from  her  virgin  state,  he  thus  argues  with 
her:  If  any  woman,  who  before  ten  witnesses  has 
made  espousals,  and  is  joined  in  marriage  with  a 
mortal  man,  cannot,  without  great  danger,  commit 
adultery ;  how  do  you  think  will  it  be,  when  a 
spiritual  marriage,  that  is  made  before  innumerable 
witnesses  of  the  chui'ch,  and  before  the  angels,  the 
heavenly  host,  is  broken  by  adultery  ?  This  gives 
us  evidently  to  understand,  that  then  the  common 
practice  was  to  celebrate  both  espousals  and  mar- 
riage at  least  before  ten  witnesses  to  attest  them. 

g^^j  g  Now,  when  the  contract  of  future 

g  "ion  0/  es^Ssil;  marriage  was  thus  settled  by  espousals, 
extended.  -j.  ^^^^  ^^j.  jg^^yfy^  f^j.  either  party  to 

join  in  marriage  with  any  other,  under  very  severe 
penalties,  (which  both  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
law  inflicted,)  unless  the  time  of  marriage  was 
fraudulently  protracted  beyond  two  years,  which 
was  the  time  limited  for  the  duration  of  espousals. 
Augustus  Cajsar,  by  those  famous  laws,  called  the 
Julian  and  Papian  laws,  had  so  restrained  the  time 
of  espousals,  as  that  if  a  man  did  not  consummate 
the  marriage  within  two  years,  he  could  reap  no 
benefit  from  his  espousals.  But  whereas  soldiers, 
who  were  absent  upon  public  affairs,  might  seem 
to  require  a  longer  time,  Constantine,  by  one  of  his 
laws,  limited  them  to  two  years  also.  So  that  if  a 
woman,  who  was  espoused  to  a  soldier,  had  waited 
two  years,  and  the  marriage  was  not  completed,^' 
she  was  then  at  liberty  to  marry  to  any  other,  be- 
cause then  it  was  not  her  fault,  but  the  man's,  wlio 
protracted  the  marriage  beyond  the  time  which  the 
law  appointed.  But  if  a  father,  or  a  mother,  or  a 
tutor,  or  a  guardian,  or  any  other  relation,  who  had 
betrothed  a  virgin  to  a  soldier,  should  afterward, 
before  the  two  years  were  expired,  give  her  in  mar- 
riage to  any  other,  he  should  be  liable  to  be  ban- 


s' Cod.  Theod.  lib.  3.  Tif.  7.  de  Niiptiis,  Leg.  1  et  3. 

^  Ambros.  ad  Virginem  Lapsam,  cap.  G.  Si  inter  decern 
testes  confectis  sponsaliis,  niiptiis  consummatis,  quacvis  viro 
fcemina  conjuncta  mortali,  non  sine  ma^no  periculo  perpe- 
trat  adulterium  :  quid  putas  fore,  si  inter  innumerabiles 
testes  ecclesiae,  coram  angelis,  exercitibus  coeli,  facta  copula 
spiritalis  per  adulterium  solvitur  ? 

-»  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  3.  Tit.  5.  de  Sponsalibus,  Leg.  4.  Patri 
aut  matri  puellae,  aut  tutori,  vel  curatori,  aut  cuilibct  ejus 
affini  non  liceat,  cum  prius  militi  puellam  desponderit,  ean- 
dem  alii  in  matrimonium  tradere.  Quod  si  intra  biennium, 
ut  perfidiae  reus  in  insulam  relegetur.  Quod  si  pactis  nuptiis 
transcurso  biennio,  qui  puellam  desponderit,  altcri  eandem 
sociaverit,  in  culpam  sponsi  potius  quam  puellcc  refcratur, 
nee  quicquam  noceat  ei,  qui  post  biennium  puellam  marito 
alteri  tradiderit.  Vid.  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  5.  Tit.  5.  de  Spon- 
4  I 


ished,  as  guilty  of  a  perfidious  breach  of  contract. 
By  another  law'"  he  also  appointed,  That  if  a  man 
who  had  espoused  a  w^oman  should  afterward  re- 
fuse to  marry  her  upon  any  frivolous  pretence  that 
he  did  not  like  her  morals,  or  her  pedigree,  or  started 
any  other  such  trifling  objection,  the  woman  might 
retain  whatever  gifts  he  had  made  her  upon  espousal, 
and  recover  of  him  whatever  more  he  had  promised 
her  upon  the  same  score,  though  it  was  yet  actu- 
ally remaining  in  his  own  possession.     And  on  the 
other  hand.  If  the  woman  who  was  espoused  at  full 
age,  that  is,  when  she  was  twelve  years   old,  re- 
fused to  make  good  her  contract,  or  her  parents  or 
guardians  would  not  permit  her  to  do  it;  or  if  a 
widow,  who  was  of  age  to  make  her  own  espousal 
contract,  afterward  fled  from  it;  then  they  were  not 
only  to  forfeit  all  their  espousal  gifts,  but  also  to  be 
amerced  quadruple  for  their  falseness  and  breach 
of  contract.     As  appears    from   several   laws^'   of 
Theodosius  and  Honoiius,  which  intimate  also,  that 
this  was  the   old  Julian   and  Papian   law  of  the 
Roman  empire  from  the  time  of  Augustus.     And 
though  Leo  and  Anthemius  a  little  moderated  this 
penalty,  yet  they  did  not  quite  take  it  away,  but 
only  reduced  it  from  quadruple  to  double,  and  so 
Justinian^-  left  it  as  the  standing  law  of  the  empire 
in  his  Code.     The  ecclesiastical  law  was  no  less 
severe  against  all  such  perfidiousness  in  espousal 
contracts.      For  the  council  of   Eliberis  orders," 
That  if  any  parents  broke  the  faith  of  espousals, 
they  should  for  their  crime  be  kept  back  three  years 
from  the  communion.     And  if  either  the  man  or 
the  woman  who  were  espoused  were  guilty  of  the 
same  crime,  they  should  undergo  the  same  punish- 
ment.    It  was  further  appointed  by  the  council  of 
Ancyra,'*  That  if  any  one  stole  a  woman  that  was 
espoused  to  another,  she  should  be  taken  from  him, 
and  restored  to  the  former  who  had  before  espoused 
her,  although  the  raptor  had  committed  a  rape  and 
done  violence  to  her.     And  the  council  of  Truho*'' 
determines  it  to  be  downright  adultery  for  a  man 
to  marry  a  woman  that  was  betrothed  to'  another, 
during  the  life  of  him  who  had  espoused  her. 
Siricius'"  savs,  It  was  a  sacrilegious  act  for  a  man 


salibus,  Leg.  2. 

3"  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  .3.  Tit.  5.  de  Sponsalibus,  Leg.  2. 
Siquidem  sponte  vir  sortiri  noluerit  uxorem,  id  quod  ab  eo 
donatum  fuerat,  nee  repetatur  traditum,  et  siquid  apud 
donatovem  resedit,  ad  sponsam  submotis  ambagibus  trans- 
feratur,  &c. 

3'  Ibid.  Leg.  6  et  7.    It.  Tit.  6.  Leg.  I.  et  Tit.  10.  Leg.  1. 

^-  Cod.  Just.  lib.  5.  Tit.  1 .  de  Sponsalibus,  Leg.  5. 

^  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  .')4.  Si  qui  parentes  fidem  fregerint 
sponsaliorum,  Iriennii  tempore  abstiueant  sea  communione. 
Si  sponsus  vel  sponsa  in  illo  gravi  crimine  fuerint  depre- 
hensi Superior  sententia  servetur. 

3»  Cone.  Ancyr.  can.  IL  '*  Cone.  Trull,  can.  98. 

^  Siric.  Ep.  L  ad  Hiraerium,  cap.  4.  De  conjugali 
autem  violatione  requisisti,  si  desponsafam  alii  puellam 
alter  in  matrimonium  possit  accipere.     Hoc  ne  fiat  omni- 


1218 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXII. 


to  marry  a  woman  that  was  before  espoused  to  an- 
other ;  because  it  was  a  violating  the  benediction 
which  the  priest  had  given  to  the  woman  espoused 
in  order  to  her  future  marriage.  By  which  we  are 
given  further  to  understand,  that  a  ministerial  bene- 
diction was  sometimes  used  in  espousals,  as  well  as 
marriage,  though  they  were  then  separate  acts  from 
one  another.  But  the  obligation  of  espousals  is 
not  to  be  extended  further  than  the  law  required, 
W'hich  in  several  cases  admitted  of  just  limitations 
and  exceptions  ;  as  in  case  a  parent  disposed  of  a 
child  in  espousals  before  she  was  ten  years  old,  or 
at  any  other  age  against  her  own  free  choice  and 
consent;  or  in  case  a  judge  of  a  province  made 
espousals  with  a  provincial  woman  during  the  year 
of  his  administration  ;  or  any  other  man  protracted 
the  time  of  marriage  beyond  the  two  years  which 
was  limited  by  law  for  the  duration  of  espousals. 
In  all  these  cases,  espousals  became  void,  and  it 
was  no  crime  not  to  fulfil  them,  because  the  laws 
themselves  only  made  them  obligatory  with  such 
provisions  and  restrictions. 

g^^j  ^^  There  remains  one  question  more 

simpry""and'Vbso!  ^^  ^6  resolvcd  conccming  espousals, 
p"e';!^de"aTu?t'^and  that  is,  whcthcr  lu  wholc  or  in  part 
fga  marriage  ^^^^  ccremony  of  cspousals  was  simply 
and  absolutely  necessary  to  go  before  a  marriage,  to 
make  it  just  and  legal?  These  are  two  very  differ- 
ent questions,  whether  it  be  necessary  to  observe 
an  espousal  contract  ?  and,  whether  it  be  neces- 
sary to  make  such  a  contract  at  all  before  marriage, 
in  order  to  make  the  marriage  legal  ?  And  as,  in  the 
first  question,  the  law  made  the  obligation  precisely 
necessary,  except  in  cases  otherwise  by  law  deter- 
mined ;  so,  in  the  second  question,  it  laid  no  general 
obligation  upon  men  at  all  to  make  formal  espousals 
before  marriage,  but  only  upon  some  certain  orders 
of  men,  for  the  dignity  and  conveniency  of  their 
order.  This  appears  plainly  from  a  law  of  Theodo- 
sius  junior,  wherein  he  allows  the  legality  of  mar- 
riage without  any  of  the  ceremonies  of  espousal 
preceding.  If  the  instruments  of  donation  or  the 
instruments"  of  dowry  be  wanting,  or  the  nuptial 
pomp  or  other  celebrities  of  marriage,  let  no  one 
reckon  upon  that  account,  that  the  marriage  is  not 
good,  which  is  otherwise  rightly  made  ;  or  that  the 
children  born  in  such  a  marriage  are  not  to  be  es- 


teemed legitimate  ;  if  the  marriage  be  celebrated 
between  persons  of  equal  rank,  without  any  legal 
impediment,  with  the  consent  of  both  parties,  and 
the  testimony  and  approbation  of  friends.  Here,  as 
Gothofred  observes,  four  things  are  precisely  re- 
quired to  a  legal  marriage.  1.  Equality  of  con- 
dition :  a  person  of  liberal  fortune  was  not  to  marry 
a  slave,  or  one  of  vile  and  infamous  character.  2. 
No  legal  impediment  must  prohibit  their  uniting : 
a  Christian  must  not  marry  an  infidel  or  Jew,  nor 
one  of  his  near  kindred,  nor  a  provincial  judge  a 
woman  of  his  own  province  in  the  time  of  his  ad- 
ministration ;  because  these  were  things  prohibited 
by  the  law.  3.  There  must  be  free  consent  of  both 
parties,  without  which  no  marriage  was  valid  or 
firm.  4.  There  must  be  consent  of  parents  and  a 
sufficient  number  of  friends  to  attest  the  fact  and 
prevent  clandestine  marriage.  These  things  being 
observed,  there  was  no  necessity  of  a  preceding 
espousal,  or  any  of  the  ceremonies  and  formalities  of 
it,  to  make  the  marriage  good  in  law  ;  all  necessaries 
being  thus  provided  in  the  act  of  marriage  itself,  as 
it  is  now  with  us  this  day,  among  whom  the  for- 
mality of  espousals  is  in  great  measure  laid  aside. 
And  thus  the  matter  continued  from  the  time  of 
Theodosius  to  Justinian,  who  thought  it  reasonable 
to  make  a  little  exception  to  the  former  law ;  for 
in  one  of  his  Novels  (made  after  his  Code,  which 
has  the  former  laAV  of  Theodosius  in  the  same  terms) 
he  afterward  made  a  distinction^'  betwixt  the  nobles 
and  those  of  inferior  order.  The  greater  dignities, 
and  senators,  and  men  in  high  stations,  were  not  to 
marry  without  first  settling  the  dowry  and  antenup- 
tial donation,  and  all  other  ceremonies  which  be- 
came great  names.  But  the  better  sort  of  military 
men,  and  tradesmen,  and  men  of  honourable  pro- 
fession, might,  if  they  pleased,  marry  wathout  in- 
struments of  donation  and  dowry;  yet  not  altogether 
without  stipulation  of  dowry  and  evidence  of  their 
marriage.  For  they  were  to  go  to  a  church,  and 
there  before  the  defensor  of  the  chiu'ch  make  public 
profession  of  their  marriage  ;  and  he,  taking  three 
or  four  of  the  most  reverend  of  the  clergy  of  the 
church,  shall  draw  a  public  attestation,  showing, 
That  in  such  an  indiction,  and  in  such  a  month,  on 
such  a  day  of  the  month,  in  such  a  year  of  our 
reign,  when  such  a  one  was  consul,  such  a  man 


bus  modis  inhihemus :  quia  ilia  benedictio,  quam  nuptura; 
sacerdos  imponit,  apiid  fideles  fujnsdaiii  sacrilegii  iustar 
est,  si  ulla  transgressione  violetur. 

3'  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  3.  Tit.  7.  de  Nuptiis,  Leg.  3.  Si  do- 
natioaum  ante  niiptias,  vel  dotis  instrumenta  defuerint, 
pompa  etiam  aliaque  niiptiarutn  cclebritas  omiUatiir,  nullus 
PL'.stimet  ob  id  deesse  recte  alias  inito  matrirnonio  firmita- 
tem  ;  vel  ex  eo  natis  liberis  jura  posse  legilimorum  aufcni ; 
si  inter  pares  honestate  personas,  nulla  lege  impediente  fiat 
cofiSortium,  quod  ipsorum  consensu  atquo  amicorum  fide 
fiimatur. 

^  Justin.  Novel.  74.  cap.  4.     In   niajoribus  dignitatibus 


et  quaecunque  usque  ad  nos,  et  senatores,  et  magnificentis- 
simos  illustres,  neque  fieri  haec  omnino  patiinur:  sed  sit 
onmino  et  dos  et  antenuptialis  donatio,  et  omnia  quae  hones- 
tiora  decent  nomina.  Quantum  viro  in  militiis  honestiori- 
bus,  et  negociis,  et  omnibus  professionibus  dignioribus  est, 
si  voluerint  legitime  uxori  copulari,  et  non  facere  nuptialia 
documenta  :  non  sic  quomodocunque,  etsine  cautione  effuse, 
et  sine  probatione  hoc  agant  :  sed  veniant  ad  quandam 
orationis  domiim,  et  fateantur  sanctissiniae  illius  ecclesia) 
defensor!.  Ille  autem  adhibens  tres  aut  quatuor  exinde 
leverendissimorum  clericoruin,  attestationem  conficiat,  &c. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1219 


and  such  a  woman  came  before  him  in  that  church, 
and  were  joined  together  in  matrimony.  And  if 
both  of  them,  or  either  of  them,  are  minded  to  carry 
away  with  them  a  copy  of  such  attestation,  the 
defensor  of  the  church  and  the  other  three  shall 
make  one  for  them  and  subscribe  it.  And  however 
that  be,  the  defensor  shall  lay  up  the  original  attest- 
ation in  the  archives  of  the  church,  that  it  may 
be  a  muniment  to  all ;  and  they  shall  not  be  reputed 
to  have  come  together  with  nuptial  affection,  unless 
this  be  done,  and  the  matter  be  so  witnessed  with 
letters  testimonial.  When  this  is  so  done,  both  the 
marriage  and  the  offspring  shall  be  reputed  legiti- 
mate. This  is  the  order  to  be  observed,  where  there 
is  no  instrument  of  dowry  or  of  antenuptial  dona- 
tion ;  for  the  testimony  of  bare  witnesses  without 
writing  is  suspicious.  This  was  the  order  for  per- 
sons of  a  middle  rank  and  condition,  to  avoid  clan- 
destine marriages.  Then  the  law  goes  on  for  per- 
sons of  the  lowest  rank  and  poorer  condition,  that 
is,  husbandmen  and  common  soldiers,  who  were 
occupied  in  tilling  the  land  and  war,  and  were  sup- 
posed to  be  ignorant  of  civil  causes  or  the  law ; 
their  marriage  is  declared  legitimate,  though  they 
came  together  only  before  witnesses,  without  any 
instrument  in  writing  at  all.  Yea,  if  such  a  one 
took  a  woman  for  his  wife  upon  oath,^'  touching 
the  holy  Gospels,  whether  in  the  church  or  out  of 
the  church,  the  marriage  was  legitimate,  if  the 
woman  could  make  legal  proof  that  she  was  so  mar- 
ried to  him  ;  and  she  might  claim  a  fourth  part  of 
his  substance,  though  she  had  no  instrument  of 
dowry  to  show  for  it.  I  have  transcribed  this  long 
passage  of  Justinian,  both  because  it  shows  in  ge- 
neral the  different  ways  of  marrying  that  were  then 
allowed  by  the  civil  law,  and  also  in  particular,  that 
there  was  no  absolute  necessity  of  the  preceding 
formalit)'  of  antenuptial  instruments  of  dowry  or 
donation  to  make  a  marriage  firm  and  valid  in  all 
cases.  And  by  this  we  may  fairly  understand 
and  interpret  that  difficult  canon  of  the  first  coun- 
cil of  Toledo,''"  which  orders.  That  a  man  who  has 
not  a  wife,  but  only  a  concubine  instead  of  a  wife, 
shall  not  be  rejected  from  the  communion,  pro- 
vided he  be  content  to  be  joined  to  one  woman 
only,  whether  concubine  or  wife,  as  he  pleases. 
For  before  the  matter  was  fully  settled  by  these 
laws  of  Theodosius  and  Justinian,  a  woman  that 
was  married  to  a  man  without  the  antenuptial  in- 
struments of  dowry  and  donation,  and  other  formal- 
ities of  the  law,  was  not  called  a  wife,  but  only  a 
concubine,  in  the  language  of  the  law :  but  in  the 
ecclesiastical  sense  she  was  reputed  a  true  wife,  be- 
cause she  bound  herself  by  marriage  contract  to  be 


just  and  true  to  one  man,  though  they  joined  toge- 
ther without  the  preceding  formalities  of  antenuptial 
espousal,  which  the  law  then  required  :  and  there- 
fore the  fathers  at  Toledo  made  no  distinction  be- 
tween a  wife  and  a  concubine,  as  to  what  concerned 
the  discipline  of  the  church;  provided  the  woman, 
whom  the  law  called  a  concubine,  was  in  reality  a 
wife  by  marriage  contract ;  though  she  wanted  the 
formality  of  espousal,  which  was  then  required  in 
the  civil  law,  but  afterwards  relaxed  in  some  cases 
by  the  edicts  of  Theodosius  and  Justinian,  as  I  have 
here  showed,  after  the  time  of  the  council  of  Toledo. 
And  thus  much  for  the  laws  and  rules  concerning 
espousals  before  marriage :  I  now  come  to  the  rites 
and  ceremonies  of  marriage  itself. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

OF  THE  MANNER  OF  CELEBRATING  MARRIAGE  IN 
THE  ANCIENT  CHURCH. 

Here  the  first  questions  will  be.  By 

whom  the  ceremonies  and  solemnities     The  solemnities  or 

mirnage    between 

of  marriage  were  anciently  perform-  ^,!u.'i'rat"d  hTiul^ 
ed  ?  And  whether  the  benediction  of  "h"'rch  from  iili'L- 
a  minister  was  necessary,  as  in  after 
ages,  to  make  a  marriage  firm  and  good  according 
to  the  laws  of  church  and  state  ?  To  answer  these 
questions  aright,  we  must  premise  some  necessary 
distinctions:  1.  Between  marriages  made  among 
Christians  one  with  another,  and  marriages  made 
between  Christians  and  infidels,  Jews,  heathens, 
and  heretics.  2.  Between  marriages  made  accord- 
ing to  the  tenor  and  direction  of  the  laws,  and  mar- 
riages made  against  them.  3.  Between  disapproving 
of  the  undue  manner  of  a  marriage,  and  declaring  it 
absolutely  no  marriage,  or  utterly  null  and  void. 
Now,  if  the  question  be  first  concerning  Christians 
marrying  one  with  another,  by  whom  the  solemnity 
of  marriage  was  performed  ?  by  a  minister  of  the 
church,  or  by  any  other?  I  answer,  that  it' is  most 
probable,  that  in  fact,  for  the  first  three  hundred 
years,  the  solemnities  of  marriage  were  usually  per- 
formed by  the  ministers  of  the  church.  But,  second- 
ly, if  Christians  happened  to  marry  with  Jews,  or 
heathens,  or  heretics,  (as  they  sometimes  did,)  then, 
as  the  church  did  altogether  discourage  such  mar- 
riages, so  it  is  probable  that  the  ministers  of  the 
church  never  had  any  hand  or  concern  in  solem- 
nizing them.  But,  thirdly,  whilst  the  Roman  laws 
allowed  such  marriages,  it  was  not  in  the  power  of 
the  church  to  reverse  or  annul  them,  but  only  to 
punish  the  delinquents  by  her  censures.     Only  in 


^^  Justin.  Novel.  74.  cap.  5.  et  Novel.  117.  cap.  4. 
^"  Cone.  Tolet.  1.  can.  17.     Is  qui  non  habet  uxorem,  et 
pri)  uxore  concubinara  habeat,  a  i-omiiiunione  non  repella- 
4   I   2 


tur,  tantnm  ut  unius  mulieris,  ant  uxoris,  aut  concubina? 
ei  placuerit,  sit  conjunctione  contentus. 


1220 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXII. 


such  cases  as  the  laws  prohibited,  as  all  incestuous 
marriages,  and  children's  marrying  against  the 
consent  of  their  parents,  which  the  Roman  laws 
not  only  prohibited,  but  many  times  annulled ;  I 
say,  in  such  cases  the  church  could  go  a  little  fur- 
ther, being  warranted  by  the  laws  of  the  state,  as 
well  as  the  laws  of  God,  to  declare  such  marriages 
void.  4.  Though  the  church  disapproved  of  any 
undue  manner  of  marriage  that  the  state  forbade, 
as  marrying  without  espousals  and  instruments  of 
dowry,  whilst  the  civil  law  was  against  it ;  yet  she 
did  not  proceed  so  far,  as  to  declare  such  marriages 
absolutely  no  marriages,  or  utterly  null  and  void. 
Concerning  the  three  last  points,  there  are  no  dis- 
putes worth  mentioning  among  learned  men.  But 
concerning  the  first  point,  a  great  dispute  is  raised 
by  Mr.  Selden  :  for  he  will  by  no  means  allow,' 
that  it  was  the  general  practice  among  Christians, 
when  they  made  marriages  one  with  another,  to 
have  the  marriage  solemnized  by  a  minister  of  the 
church.  He  owns  it  was  sometimes  so  done,  by 
the  choice  of  the  contracting  parties,  or  their  pa- 
rents inclining  to  it ;  but  he  asserts,  they  were  under 
no  obUgation  of  law  so  to  do,  nor  did  any  general 
custom  prevail  to  give  it  so  much  as  the  title  of  a 
general  practice.  But  Mr.  Selden  in  this  is  contra- 
dicted by  eminent  men  of  his  own  profession.  He 
himself  owns  that  Dionysius  Gothofred^  and  Hoto- 
man  are  against  him  in  point  of  law  ;  and  Jacobus 
Gothofred,  the  famous  commentator  upon  the  The- 
odosian  Code,  is  against  him  in  point  of  practice. 
The  former  Gothofred  ^  and  Hotoman  ■*  arc  of  opinion , 
that  the  words  vota  nuptiarum  in  one  of  Justinian's 
laws,  means  the  celebration  of  marriage  by  the 
clergy :  the  other  Gothofred  thinks  the  passage 
hardly  express  enough  to  be  a  full  proof  of  the 
matter ;  but  then  he  is  clear  against  Mr.  Selden  in 
point  of  practice.  For  he  says  the  ancient  church 
in  general,  and  the  African  church  in  particular, 
were  ever  wont  to  celebrate  marriages  by  the 
solemn  benediction  of  the  clergy.  And  he  gives 
very  good  proofs  *  of  his  assertion.     His  first  evi- 


dences are  from  Tertullian,  who,  in  one  place," 
has  these  remarkable  words  :  How  can  I  suf- 
ficiently set  forth  the  happiness  of  that  marriage 
which  the  church  makes  or  conciliates,  and  the 
oblation  confirms,  and  the  benediction  seals,  and 
the  angels  report,  and  the  Father  ratifies !  In  which 
words,  Gothofred'  says,  the  church  is  said  to  con- 
ciliate the  marriage,  because  in  those  times  men 
commonly  asked  wives  of  the  ecclesiastics,  and  con- 
sulted them  about  their  marriage,  and  the  profes- 
sion of  marriage  was  made  before  them,  and  finally 
the  ecclesiastics  gave  wives  by  their  benediction. 
He  adds.  That  Tertullian  in  this  place  alludes  to 
the  five  rites  of  the  Gentiles  used  in  their  marriages : 
1.  The  proxenetce,  or  conciliators  of  marriage.  2. 
The  offering  of  the  kiss  and  espousal  donations.  3. 
The  obsignation  of  the  instruments.  4.  The  testi- 
mony and  presence  of  witnesses  and  friends.  5. 
And  lastly.  The  consent  of  parents  in  the  marriage 
of  their  children.  To  which  Tertullian  opposes  as 
many  things  intervening  in  a  Christian  marriage, 
viz.  1 .  The  conciliation  of  the  church  or  the  ecclesi- 
astics. 2.  The  oblation  of  prayers  (I  add,  perhaps 
also  the  oblation  of  the  eucharist,  which  commonly 
went  together).  3.  The  obligation  made  by  the  be- 
nediction of  the  ecclesiastics.  4.  The  renunciation, 
faith,  and  testimony  of  the  angels.  And,  5.  The 
ratihabition  or  confirmation  of  our  Father  who  is 
in  heaven.  A  second  passage  alleged  by  Gothofred 
out  of  Tertullian  is  where  he  speaks  of  clandestine 
marriages,  saying,'  Among  us  secret  marriages, 
that  is,  such  as  are  not  publicly  professed  before 
the  church,  are  in  danger  of  being  condemned  as 
fornication  and  adultery.  And  in  another  place, 
speaking  of  second  marriages,  and  dissuading  all 
persons  from  them,  he  says,"  How  canst  thou  ask 
such  a  marriage  of  those,  who  cannot  themselves 
have  what  thou  askest  of  them  ?  For  the  bishop, 
the  presbyters,  and  the  deacons,  and  the  widows  of 
the  church,  whose  society  thou  rejectest,  are  all 
monogamists,  or  but  once  married.  Yet  they  will 
give  husbands  and  wives  as  they  do  morsels,  that 


'  Selden.  Uxor.  Haebr.  lib.  2.  cap.  29.  p.  305. 

"-  Ibid.  p.  306. 

'  Dionys.  Gothofred.  Not.  in  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  5.  Tit.  4. 
de  Nuptiis,  Leg.  21. 

■*  Hotomaji.  Quaest.  Illustr.  qu.  25. 

^  Gothofred.  in  Cod.  Th.  lib.  .3.  Tit.  7.  de  Nuptiis,  Leg.  3. 

*  Tertul.  ad  Uxor.  lib.  2.  cap.  9.  Unde  sufficiam  ad 
enarrandam  tantam  felicitatem  matrimonii,  quod  ecclesia 
conciliat,  et  confirmat  oblatio,  et  obsignat  benedictio,  angeli 
renunciant,  Pater  ratum  habet. 

'  Gothofred.  ibid.  Quo  quidem  loco  ecclesia  matrimo- 
nium  conciliare  dicitur,  quia  ab  ecclesiasticis  ferme  con- 
juges  postulabantur,  superque  matrimonio  hi  consulebantur, 
apud  hos  matrimonii  professio  fiebat  :  benedictione  de- 
iiique  ecclesiastiei  conjuges  dabant :  et  in  summam  illo  loco 
'I'ertullianus  alludit  ad  quinque  ritus  Gentilitios,  qui  in 
n\iptiis  interveniebant :  conciliatores  scilicet  seu  proxenetas 
nuptiarum;  oblationem  osculi  et  arrarum;  obsignationem 


tabularum  ;  amicorum  testiumque  fidem  et  praesentiam; 
parentis  denique  consensum,  si  de  liberorum  nuptiis  agere- 
tur:  quibus  Tertullianus  totidem  quas  in  matrimonio  Chris- 
tiano  interveniebant,  opponit:  conciliationem  ecclesiae  seu 
ecclesiasticorum  ;  oblationem  precum :  obsignationem  quae 
lit  benedictione  ecclesiasticorum ;  renuntiationem,  fidem, 
testimonium  angelorum  ;  ratihabitionem  Patris  nostri  ccb- 
lestis. 

^  Tertul.  de  Pudicitia,  cap.  4.  Ideo  penes  nos  occultae  quo- 
que  coDJunctiones,  id  est,  non  priusapudecclesiam  professae, 
juxta  moechiam  et  fornicationem  judicari  periclitantur,  &c. 

'  Id.  de  Monogamia,  cap.  11.  Qualis  es  id  matrimonium 
postulans,  quod  eis,  a  quibus  postulas,  non  licet  habere? 
Ab  episcopo  monogamo,  a  presbyteris  et  diaconis  ejusdera 
sacramenti,  a  viduis  quarum  sectam  in  te  recusasti :  et 
illi  plane  sic  dabunt  viros  et  uxores  quomodo  buccellas; 
hoc  enim  est  apud  illos,  omni  petenti  te  dabis,  et  coujun- 
gent  vos  in  ecclesia  virgine,  unius  Christi  unica  sponsa. 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1221 


is,  to  every  one  that  asks,  and  join  you  together  in 
the  virgin  church,  the  only  spouse  of  one  Christ. 
Mr.  Selden  excepts  against  this  passage,  as  making 
the  widows  have  the  same  concern  in  the  marriage 
as  the  ministers :  but  that  is  a  plain  mistake  ;  for 
the  widows  might  be  concerned  in  giving  their  con- 
sent and  approbation,  which  Tertullian  calls  the 
conciliation  of  marriage ;  but  the  ministers  were 
concerned  further  in  giving  the  benediction  also. 
This  benediction  is  spoken  of  likewise  by  St.  Am- 
brose, as  the  custom  of  the  Italic  churches  in  his 
time:  For,  says  he,'"  when  marriage  ought  to  be 
sanctified  by  the  sacerdotal  veil  and  benediction, 
how  can  that  be  called  a  marriage,  where  there  is 
no  agreement  in  the  faith  ?  Gothofred  thinks  also 
that  the  same  custom  may  be  deduced  out  of  those 
words  of  Ignatius,"  It  becomes  both  men  and  wo- 
men when  they  marry,  to  make  the  union  ju«rd  yvw- 
fttjg  rov  tTTiaKoirov,  with  the  will  and  direction  of  the 
bishop,  that  the  marriage  may  be  according  to  the 
Lord,  and  not  merely  according  to  the  instigation 
of  their  own  lusts.  And  further,  from  what  Gre- 
gory Nazianzen  says '"  of  the  marriage  of  Olympias, 
That  a  great  number  of  bishops  were  present  at  the 
solemnity,  and  that  he  himself  was  present  in 
heart  and  will,  celebrating  the  festival,  and  joining 
the  right  hands  of  the  young  couple  together,  and 
both  of  them  to  the  hand  of  God.  Where  join- 
ing of  them  to  the  hand  of  God  is  plainly  but 
another  expression  for  the  benediction.  This  is 
further  evident"  from  the  fourth  council  of  Car- 
thage, which  orders.  That  both  the  man  and  the 
woman  that  are  to  be  blessed  by  the  priest,  should 
be  presented  by  their  parents,  or  by  their  para- 
nyinphi,  bridemen,  who  stood  in  the  stead  of  their 
parents.  Thus  far  the  evidences  produced  by  Go- 
thofred. To  which  we  may  add  that  of  St.  Austin, 
who  lived  at  the  time  of  the  council  of  Carthage, 
where  he  tells  us.  It  was  in  the  bishop's  power  ab- 
soljjtely  to  give  "  women  in  marriage,  but  they  could 
not  give  them  to  men  that  were  heathens.  The 
benediction  is  not  here  expressly  mentioned,  but 
considering  the  whole  affair  was  in  the  bishop's 
power,  the  benediction  may  easily  be  inferred  from 


it.  And  Possidius,  in  his  Life,  makes  express  men- 
tion of  it;  for  he  says.  It  was  St.  Austin's  opinion, 
which  he  learned  from  the  Institutes  of  St.  Am- 
brose, That  a  priest  indeed  ought  not  to  be  a  so- 
licitor of  marriage,  in  making  matches  between  men 
and  women ;  but  when  they  themselves"  had  agreed 
upon  the  matter,  then  at  their  joint  request  he 
ought  to  be  present,  either  to  confirm  their  agree- 
ment, or  give  it  the  benediction.  In  like  manner 
St.  Chrysostom ;  inveighing  against  the  lascivious 
and  diabolical  pomps  which  some  used  at  their  mar- 
riages, he  says,'"  they  ought  rather  to  teach  the 
virgin  modesty  in  the  entrance  upon  marriage,  and 
to  call  for  the  priest,  and  by  prayer  and  benedic- 
tion tie  the  knot  of  unity  in  marriage ;  that  the 
husband's  love  might  increase,  and  the  wife's  chastity 
might  be  improved  ;  that  the  works  of  virtue  might 
enter  into  the  house  by  all  that  was  then  done,  and 
the  wiles  and  works  of  the  devil  be  cast  out.  This 
is  a  plain  account  of  what  that  father  desired,  and 
what  was  practised  by  the  better  sort  of  Christians 
in  such  solemnities.  Siricius,  bishop  of  Rome,  lived 
about  the  same  time  with  St.  Chrj'sostom  and  St. 
Austin,  and  he  particularly  mentions  the  benedic- 
tion of  the  priest  as  used  in  marriage,  giving  it  as  a 
reason,"  why  a  woman  that  is  espoused  to  a  man 
ought  not  to  be  married  to  any  other,  because, 
among  Christians,  it  was  reckoned  a  sort  of  sacri- 
lege to  violate  the  benediction  which  was  given  by 
the  priest  to  a  woman  upon  her  espousal.  And 
after  him  Pope  Hormisdas,  who  lived  about  the 
year  520,  a  little  before  the  time  of  Justinian,  made 
a  decree,"  That  no  one  should  make  a  clandestine 
marriage,  but,  receiving  the  benediction  of  the  priest, 
should  marry  publicly  in  the  Lord.  These  evidences 
are  abundantly  sufficient  to  show  what  was  the 
general  practice  of  Christians  in  this  matter  from  the 
very  first  ages. 

And  as  to  any  exceptions  that  may         ^^^^  , 
be  alleged  against  such  a  universal  m'-hrhappeuTo  be 
practice,   they  are  of  little  moment.  """=™"'*- 
Some   marriages   indeed,  notwithstanding  all  the 
care  and  advice  of  the  church,  were  made  between 
Christians  and   heathens :   and  in   that  case,  the 


'"  Ambros.  Ep.  70.  Cum  ipsum  conjugium  velamine  sa- 
cerdotali  et  beuedictione  sanctificari  oporteat,  quumodo 
potest  conjui^ium  dici  iibi  nou  est  fidei  concordia? 

"  Ignat.  Ep.  ad  Pnlycarp.  '-  Naz.  Ep.  57. 

"  Cone.  Carth.  4.  can.  1.3.  Sponsvis  et  sponsa,  cum  be- 
nedicendi  sunt  a  sacerdote,  a  parentibus  suis  vel  para- 
nymphis  offerautuv,  &c. 

"  Aug.  Ep.  2.34.  ad  Rusticum.  Etiamsi  nostroe  abso- 
lutae  sit  potestatis  quamlibet  puellam  in  conjugium  traders, 
tradi  a  nobis  Christianam  nisi  Chrisliano  non  posse. 

'^  Possid.  Vit.  .\ug.  cap.  27.  Sed  plane  ad  hoc  sibi  jam 
illis  consentientibus,  petitum  interesse  debore  aflirmabat  sa- 
cerdotem,  ut  vel  eorum  jam  pacta  et  placita  fii'marentuv, 
vel  bencdicerentur. 

'*  Chrj-s.  Hom.  48.  in  Gen.  t.  2.  p.  681.     Aiov Upius 


KoKilv,  Kal  01  iv)(^uiv  tiiXoyilhi/ tiju  bfxovoiav  -rov  crvvoiKtciuv 
(Tvatpiyytiv,  k.tX.  Agreeably  to  this  St.  Basil  calls  mar- 
riage, the  bond  or  yoke  that  men  take  upon  them  by  bene- 
diction, 'O  5t<i  T7)s  iv\oyia<s  ^uytis.  Basil.  Hom.  7.  in 
Hexamcr.  t.  l.p.  81. 

''  Siric.  Ep.  1.  ad  Himcrium,  cap.  4.  Et  ap.  Gratian. 
Cans.  27.  Quaest.  2.  cap.  50.  De  conjugali  violatione  re- 
quisisti,  si  desponsatam  alii  puellam  alter  in  niatrimonium 
possit  accipere  ?  Hoc  ne  fiat  omnibus  modis  inhibemus; 
quia  ilia  benedictin,  qnam  nnpturse  sacerdns  impnnit,  apud 
fideles  cujusdam  sacrilegii  instar  est,  si  ulla  tiansgressione 
violetur. 

"*  Hormis(l?e  Decret.  cap.  6.  Nidlus  fidelis,  cujns- 
cunque  cnnditiimis  sit,  ncculte  nuptias  facial,  sed  hcnedic- 
tione  accepta  a  sacerdote  publice  nubat  in  Doiuino. 


1222 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXII. 


ministers  of  the  church  could  have  no  hand  in  the 
marriage,  nor  give  any  henediction  to  it,  because  it 
was  directly  contrary  to  the  rules  of  the  church, 
that  any  Christian  should  marry  a  heathen. 
Again,  some  canons  discouraged,  though  they  did 
not  absolutely  forbid,  second  and  third  marriages 
after  the  death  of  a  first  wife  or  husband,  and  for- 
bid any  presbyter  to  be  present  at  them.  The  coun- 
cil of  NeocEesarea '"  has  a  canon  to  this  purpose  : 
No  presbyter  shall  be  present  at  the  marriage  feast 
of  those  that  marry  twice ;  for  a  digamist  requires 
penance.  How  then  shall  a  presbyter  by  his  pre- 
sence at  such  feasts  give  consent  to  such  marriages? 
And  if  he  might  give  no  consent  to  them  by  his 
presence,  much  less  might  he  authorize  them  by 
his  solemn  benediction.  Peter  Martyr^  and  the 
Gloss  upon  Gratian-'  understand  this  canon  as  for- 
bidding the  clergy  to  have  any  concern  in  the  mar- 
riage of  proper  polygamists,  or  such  as  married  a 
second  wife  whilst  the  first  was  living :  which  is 
no  more  than  all  the  clergy  are  prohibited  at  this 
day  ;  for  polygamy  may  not  now  be  authorized  by 
sacerdotal  benediction.  But  if  we  take  the  canon 
in  the  common  sense  of  marrying  a  second  wife 
after  the  first  was  dead,  and  suppose  the  clergy  for- 
bidden to  give  the  benediction  to  such  marriages  ; 
yet  this  was  but  a  canon  of  a  particular  council, 
which  never  much  prevailed.  For  we  are  sure  in 
fact,  that  second  marriages  had  generally  sacerdotal 
benediction,  as  well  as  the  first;  and  therefore 
Avhatever  might  happen  upon  the  strength  of  that 
canon,  could  be  no  gi-eat  exception  to  the  general 
practice.  But  that  which  gave  the  greatest  liberty 
to  marry  without  sacerdotal  benediction,  was  the 
allowance  which  the  laws  of  the  empire  granted  to 
other  ways  of  marrying  besides  that  of  solemnizing 
marriage  by  the  benediction  of  the  clergy.  For 
though  this  had  no  great  efTect  for  the  first  three 
hundred  years,  whilst  the  laws  continued  heathen ; 
(for  then  the  generality  of  Christians  were  no  more 
disposed  to  marry  without  the  benediction  of  the 
bishop  or  some  of  the  clergy,  than  they  were  in- 
clined to  end  their  civil  controversies  any  other 
ways  than  by  the  bishop's  arbitration  and  decision ;) 
yet  afterwards,  when  the  laws  became  Christian, 
and  no  immediate  provision  was  made  to  oblige 
men  universally  to  solemnize  marriage  by  the  be- 
nediction of  the  clergy,  but  other  ways  Avere  still 
allowed  as  sufficient  to  make  a  marriage  good  in 
law  without  it,  men  began  to  fall  off  from  the  an- 
cient practice,  some  for  one  reason  and  some  for  an- 


other, till  by  degrees  the  primitive  way  of  marrying 
among  Christians  came  to  be  much  dishonoured 
and  neglected. 

This  made  some  of  the  more  zeal- 
ous emperors,  who  about  the  eighth     ho%v  the  primitive 

.  practice  was  revived, 

and  ninth  centuries  were  a  little  m-  ■"hen  it  came  to  be 

neglected. 

clined  to  coiTect  and  reform  some 
abuses,  which  the  corruption  of  the  times  had 
brought  in  upon  the  discipline  of  the  church,  to 
look  upon  this  neglect  of  marrjdng  without  sacer- 
dotal benediction  as  an  abuse  among  the  rest,  and 
a  deviation  from  the  more  ancient  laudable  prac- 
tice. Hereupon  they  set  themselves  to  revive  the 
primitive  custom,  and  make  some  more  effectual 
provision  than  had  hitherto  been  done,  by  more 
express  and  general  laws  to  establish  and  confirm 
it.  Charles  the  Great  enacted  a  law  in  the  West 
about  the  year  780,  wherein  he  ordered,  that  no  mar- 
riage ^-  should  be  celebrated  any  other  ways  but  by 
blessing  with  sacerdotal  pravcrs  and  oblations ; 
and  whatever  marriages  were  performed  otherwise, 
should  not  be  accounted  true  marriages,  but  adul- 
tery, concubinage,  or  fornication.  And  about  the 
year  900,-'  Leo  Sapiens,  in  the  Eastern  empire,  re- 
vived the  same  ancient  practice,  which  ever  since 
continued  to  be  the  practice  of  the  church.  Mr. 
Selden^'  and  Gothofred^^  both  agree  in  this,  that 
now  the  necessity  of  sacerdotal  benediction  was 
established  by  law :  but  they  differ  in  one  point, 
that  Mr.  Selden  supposes  this  was  the  first  begin- 
ning of  the  general  practice  of  making  marriages  by 
sacerdotal  benediction ;  whereas  Gothofred  thinks 
it  was  only  a  reviving  of  a  former  ancient  general 
practice,  which  for  some  ages  had  been  much  neg- 
lected. And  that  the  truth  lies  on  Gothofred's  side, 
the  reader,  from  what  has  been  said,  will  be  able 
very  easily  to  deteiTnine. 

Having  thus    resolved    the    main 
question  concerning  sacerdotal  bene-     other  ceremonies 

■111  "^^(1  in  marriage,  as 

diction,  I    now  go    on  with    the    lesser    joining  of  hands  and 
^  veiling. 

ceremonies  used  in  marriage.  Among 
which  we  find  the  ancient  rite  of  joining  the  right 
hands  of  the  espousing  parties  together.  For  so 
we  have  heard  Gregory  Nazianzen"^  already  repre- 
senting the  marriage  of  Olympias,  that  it  was  done 
by  joining  the  right  hands  of  the  young  couple  to- 
gether, and  both  their  hands  to  the  hand  of  God. 
St.  Ambrose-'  also  takes  notice  of  the  custom  of 
veiling,  as  a  ceremony  used  in  marriage,  when  he 
says,  the  Christian  marriage  ought  to  be  sanctified 
with  the  sacerdotal  veil  and  benediction.     Tertul- 


I 


'"  Cone.  Neoceesar.  can.  7. 

■-»  Pet.  Mart.  Loc.  Com.  lib.  2.  cap.  10.  p.  277. 

"'  Gratian'.  Caus.  31.  Quwst.  1.  cap.  8. 

-'^  Carol.  Capitular,  lib.  7.  cap.  363.  Aliter  legitinium 
lion  fit  conjugium — nisi  sponsa  suo  tempore  sacerdotaliter 
cum  precibus  et  oblationibus  a  sacerdote  bcneilicatur,  &c. 

-■*  Leo,  Novel.  89.      Jlfpl  tov  -rn    avvoiKima   livtv   t)]<s 


lipa^  EiiXoyios  /iij  kppwadai. 

2<  Selden.  Uxor.  Hebraica,  lib.  2.  cap.  29.  p.  309. 

•-5  Gothofr.  in  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  3.  Tit.  7.  de  Nuptiis.  Lp-;. 
3.  p.  281. 

-■'  Naz.  Ep.  57. 

-'  Ambros.  Ep.  70.  Cum  ipsmn  conjugium  vclamino  ,-a- 
cenlotali  ct  beuedictiune  sanctidcari  oporteat,  &c. 


I 


Chap.   IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OV  TIIF.  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1223 


Sect.  i. 

Untying  the  w 

man's  hair. 


lian  also  mentions'-^  the  custom  of  veiling  as  used 
by  the  heathens,  which  he  commends,  together  with 
the  ceremony  of  the  solemn  kiss  and  joining  of 
hands.  But  these  he  speaks  of  rather  as  ceremo- 
nies used  in  espousals  before  marriage  :  though  we 
may  suppose  them  to  be  used  in  both,  since  the 
Latin  name  of  marriage,  nuptice,  is  observed  by  llie 
Roman  antiquaries-"^  to  have  its  name  from  ohtuthcrc, 
which  signifies  to  veil  or  cover. 

Optatus  seems  to  allude  to  another 
ceremony,  which  I  have  not  yet  found 
expressly  mentioned  in  tiny  other  au- 
thor ;  that  is,  the  woman's  loosing  or  untying  her 
hair  in  the  solemnity  of  marriage.  For  writing 
against  the  Donatists,  who  had  reconsecrated  the 
catholic  virgins  who  before  had  espoused  them- 
selves to  Christ,  he  says.  Those  virgins,  to  show 
that  they  had  renounced  all  secular  marriage,  had 
untied'"  their  hair  to  a  spiritual  Husband,  they  had 
already  celebrated  a  celestial  marriage.  Why,  there- 
fore, did  ye  compel  them  to  untie  the  hair  again  ? 
This  seems  to  allude  to  some  such  custom  in  secu- 
lar marriage  ;  because  he  adds,  that  when  women 
married  a  second  time  in  the  world,  this  was  not 
used  :^'  which  implies,  that  it  was  used  the  first 
time,  though  omitted  in  second  marriages,  as  many 
other  ceremonies  of  temporal  festivity  were,  viz. 
gay  dressing,  and  crowning,  and  what  naturally 
followed  them,  the  great  concourse  and  acclama- 
tions of  the  people.  But  if  any  one  thinks  this  was 
not  an  allusion  to  any  ceremony  used  in  secular 
marriages,  but  rather  a  ceremony  actually  used  in 
spiritual  marriages  of  virgins  to  Christ;  because 
St.  Jerom^  speaks  of  their  cutting  off  their  hair  in 
some  places,  when  they  renounced  the  world,  and 
devoted  themselves  to  Christ ;  I  will  not  stand  to 
contend  about  a  matter  both  small  and  obscure,  but 
go  on  to  that  which  is  more  certain  in  secular  mar- 
riages, which  is  our  present  subject. 

gp^j  g  When  the  sacred  office  of  benedic- 

ni'arrred'raupilw'iru  tion  was  ovcr,  and  the  married  per- 
cro>™s  or  garlands.   ^^^^^  wcre  ready  to  depart,  it  was  usual 

to  crown  the  bridegroom  and  bride  with  crowns, 
or  garlands,  the  symbols  of  victory.  For  now  it 
was  supposed  they  had  hitherto  striven  virtuously 
against  all  manner  of  uncleanness,  and  therefore 


wei-e  crowned  as  conquerors  in  their  marriage.  S(. 
Chrysostom"  mentions  the  ceremony,  and  gives  this 
account  of  it :  Crown.s  are  therefore  put  upon  their 
heads,  as  symbols  of  victory,  because,  being  in- 
vincible, they  entered  the  bride-chamber  without 
ever  having  been  subdued  by  any  unlawful  plea- 
sure. So  that  this  ceremony  was  used  as  a  mark  of 
honour  and  note  of  distinction,  to  reward  their 
virtue,  and  put  a  dilTerence  between  them  and  such 
as  had  before  addicted  themselves  to  fornication  and 
uncleanness.  For  to  what  purpose,  says  Chrysos- 
tom  again,  should  he  wear  a  crown  upon  his  head, 
who  had  given  himself  up  to  harlots,  and  been  sub- 
dued by  pleasure  ?  Which  seems  to  imply,  that 
fornicators  were  denied  this  honour  Avhen  they 
came  to  marry ;  that  being  a  part  of  their  punish- 
ment, among  other  acts  of  discipline  in  the  church. 
And  upon  the  same  account  this  ceremony  was 
seldom  or  never  used  in  second  and  third  mar- 
riages, because  though  they  were  not  absolutely 
condemned  as  unlawful,  yet  they  were  not  reckoned 
so  honourable  as  the  first.  As  to  the  ceremony  in 
general,  Mr.  Selden'*  says,  it  is  mentioned  by  Gre- 
gory Nyssen,  and  Basil  of  Seleucia,  and  Palladius. 
And  it  is  more  than  once  noted  by  Sidonius  Apol- 
linaris,  who,  speaking  of  the  marriage  of  Ricimer, 
and  describing  the  pomp  of  it,  says.  Now  the  virgin 
was  delivered  into  his  hands,  now  the  bridegroom" 
was  honoured  with  his  crown.  And  again,  in  his 
panegyric  to  Anthemius  the  emperor,  speaking  of 
the  same  marriage  of  Ricimer,  who  married  the 
emperor's  daughter,  he  says  to  Ricimer,  in  the 
poetical  strain,^®  This  marriage  was  procured  by 
your  valour,  and  the  laurel  crown  gave  you  the 
crown  of  myrtle  :  alluding  to  the  different  customs 
of  crowning  warriors  with  laurel  and  bridegrooms 
with  m3'rtle.  This  was,  indeed,  an  old  ceremony 
used  in  heathen  marriages ;  as  we  learn  from  Ter- 
tuUian,''  who  reckons  it  an  idolatrous  rite  as  used  by 
them,  and  therefore  says,  Christians  did  not  marry 
with  heathens,  lest  they  should  draw  them  to  idola- 
try, from  which  their  marriages  took  their  begin- 
ning. But  the  ceremony  was  innocent  in  its  own 
nature,  and  therefore  the  Christians  never  made 
any  scruple  to  adopt  it  into  the  rites  of  marriage 
which  they  made  among  themselves,  because  it  was 


"■*  Tertul.  de  Velaiid.  Virgin,  cap.  II.  Atquin  etiam  apud 
ethnicos  velatae  ad  vinini  duotintiir.  Si  autem  ad  despon- 
sationem  velantur,  quia  et  corpore  et  spiritu  niasciilo  mixtae 
sunt  per  osculum  et  dexteras,  &c. 

-'  Rosin.  Antiquit.  Rom.  lib.  5.  cap.  37.  p.  9.")9. 

'"  Oplat.  lilj.  6.  p.  97.  Ut  saecularibiis  nuptiis  se  reiiun- 
ciasse  monstrarent,  spiritali  sponso  solverant  crinem,  jam 
ccelestes  celebraveraiit  niiptias.  Quid  est  quod  eas  iterum 
crines  solvere  coegistis  ? 

^'  Ibid.  Ut  crines  iterum  solverent  imperastis.  Hoc  nee 
mulieres  patiuntur,  quae  carnabter  nubunt :  e.\  quibus  si 
ab'cui  maritum  mutare  contigciit,  nou  rcpetitiir  ilia  tempo- 
ralis fcstivitas:  non  inaltu\n  tollitur:  non  populi  freq'.ieutia 


procuratur. 

'-  Hieron.  Ep.  48.  cont.  Sabinianum. 

s-'*  Chrys.  Horn.  9.  in  I  Tun.  p.  1567. 

5'  Selden.  U.Kor.  Hebr.  lib.  2.  cap.  '24.  p.  245.  et  Sherlo- 
gus  in  Cantic.  Vestigat.  27.  n.  16. 

^^  Sidon.  lib.  1.  Ep.  5.  p.  29.  Jam  quidem  virgo  Iradita 
est,  jam  corona  sponsus  bonoratur. 

"^  Id.  Carm.  2.  ad  Anthem,  ver.  503.  Hos  thalamos, 
Ricimer,  virtus  tibi  pronuba  poscit,  Atque  Dionoeam  tiat 
Martia  laurea  niyrtum. 

'"  Tertul.  de  Coron.  Mil.  cap.  13.  Coronant  et  nuptiw 
sponsos :  et  ideo  non  nubimus  ethnicis,  ne  nos  ad  idolola- 
triam  usque  dedueant,  a  qua  apud  illos  nuplia;  incipiunt. 


1224 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXII. 


a  significant  ceremony,  declaring  the  innocency  of 
the  parties  joined  together.  For  which  it  is  still 
retained  among  the  Greeks,  as  we  learn  from  Ni- 
cetas,  bishop  of  Heraclea,'*  a  modern  Greek  writer, 
and  Metrophanes  Critopulus,*''  and  Dr.  Smith,^°  in 
his  Account  of  the  Greek  Church.  It  is  also  spoken 
of  with  approbation  by  Peter  Martyr,'"  and  other 
protestant  writers,  who  commend  it  as  a  laudable 
ceremony,  for  the  reason  given  by  St.  Chrysostom. 
And  it  is  still  retained  among  the  Helvetians,  as  Mr. 
Werndly  informs  us"  in  his  Notes  ujaon  the  Tigurine 
Liturgy.     But  I  return  to  the  ancient  church. 

„  .  .  There  was  one  custom  more,  which 

Sect.  J.  ' 

ho^rto"fh^''bS  ^^  ^°t  to  be  reckoned  so  much  among 
Sr^necet^Trylnsoml  the  Teligious  ccrcmonies,  as  to  be  put 
cases  o  aw.  .^^^^  ^^^^  accouut  of  the  pomp  that  at- 

tended marriage ;  and  I  should  not  have  mentioned 
it  in  this  place,  but  that  it  was  required  as  necessary 
in  some  cases  of  law.  That  is,  the  custom  of  the 
woman's  being  carried  by  the  husband  home  to  his 
own  house ;  whence  the  phrase  duccre  iixorem  is  so 
commonly  used  on  the  man's  part  for  marrying  a 
wife ;  as  nuhere  is  proper  on  the  woman's  part  for 
being  married,  on  account  of  the  veiling  used  in 
marriage,  as  has  been  noted  before.  But  I  mention 
it  not  barely  upon  this  account,  but  because  in  some 
cases  it  was  a  condition  precisely  required  in  law, 
before  a  man  could  lay  claim  to  some  privileges  be- 
longing to  marriage.  As  appears  from  one  of  the 
laws  of  the  emperor  Valens"  concerning  the  tyrones, 
or  soldiers  newly  listed  into  military  service.  To 
encourage  the  speedier  recruiting  of  the  army,  Va- 
lens  made  a  law,  that  every  new  soldier,  from  the 
time  of  his  listing,  or  taking  the  military  oath,  should 
be  free  from  the  capitation  tax ;  and  not  only  so, 
but  if  he  served  faithfully  five  years,  his  wife  also 
should  be  free  from  the  same  tax,  provided  that, 
after  he  had  married  her,  he  brought  her  to  his  own 
house,  and  did  not  leave  her  in  her  former  habita- 
tion ;  for  if  he  did  so  she  could  not  be  proved  to  be 
his  wife,  and  therefore  should  be  kept  with  the 
burden  of  the  tax  upon  her.  Justinian"  made  a 
law  of  the  same  nature  for  other  cases ;  That  if 
any  one  made  a  bargain  to  give  or  to  do  any  thing 
upon  marriage,  whether  he  called  it  the  time  of 
marriage,  or  named  it  marriage  itself,  the  condition 
should  not  be  interpreted  to  be  fulfilled,  till  the  fes- 


tivity of  marriage  (which  comprehended  this  cere- 
mony of  carrying  the  wife  to  the  house  of  the  hus- 
band) was  completed.  So  that  it  was  necessary  in 
these  cases  for  certain  ends  and  purposes,  though 
otherwise  the  mamage  was  sufficiently  perfected 
without  it.  Yet  it  being  an  ancient  custom,  the 
pomp  of  the  marriage  was  deemed  imperfect  till 
this  ceremony  was  used ;  as  we  may  gather  from 
that  of  Sidonius,"  where  he  says.  The  pomp  of  the 
marriage  was  not  yet  fully  completed,  because  the 
new  bride  was  not  yet  removed  to  the  house  of  her 
husband. 

This  was  an  innocent  part  of  mar-  ^^^^  ^ 

riage  pomp,  which  was  often  attended  ria"e"pomp  waTlj- 
with  the  concourse  and  acclamations  ^hy'^^r^nllfnTl^- 
of  the  people.  Neither  was  it  reckon- 
ed any  harm  to  have  a  decent  epithalamium,  or 
modest  nuptial  song,  or  a  feast  of  joy  suitable  to 
the  occasion.  But  the  fescennina,  or  immodest 
ribaldry,  that  was  sometimes  used  under  the  notion 
of  the  marriage  pomp,  and  the  scurrility  and  ob- 
scenity of  actors  and  mimics  fetched  from  the 
stage,  together  with  the  excessive  revellings  and 
dancings,  that  some  called  innocent  nuptial  mirth 
and  diversion,  were  looked  upon  as  great  abuses, 
and,  accordingly,  proscribed  and  condemned  by 
some  canons,  and  severely  inveighed  against  by  the 
fathers,  as  things  utterly  unbecoming  the  modesty 
and  gravity  of  Christian  marriages.  The  council 
of  Laodicea  says,"*^  Christians  ought  not  at  marriages 
(3a\\il^(iv  1]  opxiloQai,  to  use  wanton  balls  or  dancings, 
but  dine  or  sup  gravely,  as  becomes  Christians. 
Some  by  the  word  fSaWii^tiv  understand  playing  on 
cymbals  and  dancing  to  them.  So  Suidas"  and 
Zonaras  ^^  interpret  it.  But  the  word  denotes  some- 
thing more,  viz.  tossing  the  hands  in  a  wanton  and 
lascivious  manner :  and  in  that  sense  there  might 
be  good  reason  to  forbid  it ;  whereas,  bare  music 
and  dancing,  without  any  immodest  or  antic  tricks, 
seems  hardly  a  crime  worthy  a  canon  to  forbid  it. 
And  if  we  may  judge  by  Chrysostom's  sharp  invec- 
tive against  this  and  other  extravagancies  commit- 
ted at  marriage  feasts,  there  must  be  something 
more  extraordinary  in  them.  For,  speaking*'  of 
Isaac's  marriage  with  Rebekah,  Consider  here,  says 
he,  how  there  M-as  no  Satanical  pomp,  no  cymbals, 
and  piping,  and  dancing,  no  Satanical  feasting,  no 


^  Nicet.  Respous.  ap.  Lennclaviiim.  Jur.  Grzec.  Rom. 
t.  1.  p.  310. 

^'  Critop.  Confess.  Fidei,  cap.  12. 

"  Smith,  Account,  &c.,  p.  Ib9. 

'I  Pet.  Mart.  Loc.  Com.  lib.  2.  cap.  10.  n.  22. 

'■'  Werndly,  p.  152. 

"  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  7.  Tit.  13.  de  Tyronibus,  Leg.  6.  Si 
quinqueiinii  tenipiis  fide  obsequii  devotidne  compleverit, 
u.xoriam  quoque  capitationem  nierito  laborum  prasstet  im- 
nmnem  :  ea  scilicet  servanda  ratione,  ut  quam  sibi  u.xorein 
copulaverit  aflfectu,  et  in  priore  lare  dorelictain  memorarit, 
inprobata  (leg.  inprobatam)  census  sarcina  sustineat. 


**  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  5.  Tit.  4.  de  Nuptiis,  Leg.  21.  Sanci- 
mus,  si  quis  nuptiarum  fecerit  mentiouem  in  qualicunque 
pacto  quod  ad  dandum  vel  ad  faciendum  concipitur,  et  sive 
nuptiarum  tempus  dixerit,  sive  nuptias  nominaveril:  mm 
alitcr  conditionem  intelligi  esse  adimplendani,  nisi  ipsa 
nuptiarum  accedat  festivitas,  &c. 

"  Sidon.  lib.  1.  Ep.  5.  Nondum  tamen  cuncta  thalamo- 
rum  pompa  dcfremuit,  quia  necdura  ad  mariti  domum  nova 
nupta  mij^ravit. 

"  Couc.  Laodic.  can.  53.  *'  Suidas.  voce  BaWiX^ai/. 

'^  Zonar.  in  can.  53.  Laodic. 

*'■'  Clirys.  Horn.  48.  in  Genes,  p.  G8U. 


Chap.  V 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1225 


scurrilous  buffoonery  or  filthy  discourse,  but  all  was 
gravity,  wisdom,  and  modesty.  Let  husbands  and 
wives  now  imitate  these.  For  why  should  a  hus- 
band from  the  very  first  suffer  the  ears  of  his  young 
spouse  to  be  filled  with  filth  from  lascivious  and 
obscene  songs,  and  such  unseasonable  pomp  ? 
Know  you  not  that  youth  of  itself  is  inclined  to 
evil  ?  Why  do  you  bring  the  mysteries  of  venerable 
marriage  upon  the  open  stage  ?  You  ought  to  drive 
away  all  this  sort,  and  teach  the  young  bride 
modesty  from  the  beginning.  So,  again,^"  discours- 
ing of  the  marriage  of  Jacob  and  Leah,  You  see, 
says  he,  with  what  gra\'ity  marriages  were  anciently 
celebrated.  Hear  this,  all  ye  that  admire  Satanical 
pomps,  and  disgrace  the  honour  of  marriage  from 
the  very  beginning.  Was  there  here  any  Satanical 
dancings  ?  Why  do  you  bring  such  a  plague  into 
\  your  house  from  the  very  first  moment  ?  Why  do 
you  call  the  actors  from  the  stage,  and  with  unsea- 
sonable expense  wound  the  virgin's  chastity  ?  It 
is  difficult  enough  without  such  fomentors  to  mode- 
rate the  torrent  of  youthful  affections ;  but  when 
these  things  are  added,  both  by  seeing  and  hearing, 
to  raise  a  greater  flame,  and  make  the  furnace  of 
the  affections  rage  more  violently,  how  is  it  possible 
that  the  youthful  soul  should  not  be  destroyed? 
From  all  this  it  is  plain,  that  it  was  not  a  sober  en- 
tertainment at  a  marriage  feast,  nor  bare  music  and 
dancing,  nor  a  modest  nuptial  song,  that  the  fathers 
so  vehemently  declaimed  against  as  Satanical  pomps ; 
but  it  was  the  obscene  and  filthy  songs,  the  ribaldry 
and  lascivious  actions  of  mimics  and  buffoons 
brought  from  the  stage,  joined  with  their  immodest 
dancings,  and  other  the  like  vanities,  tending  to 
corrupt  youthful  minds  both  by  seeing  and  hearing, 
which  they  justly  inveighed  against,  as  unbecoming 
the  modesty  and  sobriety  of  Christians.  Any  other 
innocent  pomp  or  mirth  they  freely  allowed,  de- 
nying only  such  as  savoured  of  lightness,  or  lewd- 
ness, or  intemperance,  which  naturally  tended,  like 
evil  communications,  to  corrupt  good  manners. 
And  so  I  have  done  with  the  rites  and  ceremonies 
observed  in  the  contracting  and  celebrating  of  mar- 
riage among  the  ancient  Christians.  There  remains 
only  one  thing  behind  relating  to  marriage,  and 
that  is,  to  show  how  the  bond  of  matrimony  might 
in  some  measure  be  broken  and  dissolved  by  di- 
vorce, and  what  were  reputed  j  ust  and  legal  causes 
of  divorce ;  of  which,  because  it  is  a  matter  of 
some  moment,  I  will  treat  distinctly  in  a  particular 
chapter. 


CHAPTER  V. 

OF    DIVORCES  :    HOW  FAR    THEY    WERE    ALLOWED  OR 
DISALLOWED    BY   THE    ANCIENT    CHRISTIANS. 

THEancients  were  not  perfectly  agreed 

upon  this  question.     The  writers  of     The' ancient*  a. 

the  church  were  divided  among  them-  sense  of  fornication. 

^  ^olne  taking  it  only 

selves,  and  the  laws  of  the  state  chf-  <■<"■  •^""'•'i  f°""'^''.- 

'  tion,  anil  maknig  it 

fered  from  both.  Gur  business  there-  o/Xorci""  '""'"' 
fore  must  be  to  explain  the  differences 
of  these  opinions,  and  the  several  practices  that 
were  founded  upon  each  of  them.  The  ecclesiastical 
writers,  for  the  most  part,  agreed  in  one  thing,  that 
there  was  no  just  cause  of  divorce  allowed  by  Christ 
but  only  fornication  ;  but  then  they  differed  about 
the  notion  of  fornication.  Some  took  it  in  the  ob- 
vious and  vulgar  sense,  for  carnal  fornication  only  ; 
whilst  others  extended  its  signification  to  include 
spiritual  fornication,  or  idolatry  and  apostacy  from 
God,  which  they  thought  a  lawful  cause  of  divorce 
as  well  as  the  other.  And  some  few  thought  all 
other  sins  that  are  equal  to  fornication  were  in- 
cluded in  this  notion  of  fornication,  and  so  made 
them  to  be  just  causes  of  divorce  also.  They 
who  thought  fornication  or  adultery  was  to  be 
taken  in  the  proper  and  literal  sense,  confined 
the  business  of  lawful  divorce  to  this  cause  only. 
Clemens  Alexandrinus  speaks  in  general  against 
divorces,'  as  they  were  allowed  and  commonly  prac- 
tised in  his  time  by  the  authority  of  the  Roman 
laws,  which  made  it  necessary  in  case  of  adultery, 
and  warrantable  at  least  in  many  other  caces.  But 
Tertullian  is  more  express,  saying,  That  the  Creator 
allows  no  marriage  to  be  dissolved"  but  only  for 
adultery.  So  Chrysostom  in  many  places  :  Christ* 
has  left  but  one  cause  of  divorce,  that  is,  adultery. 
Again,  Christ  has  taught  us,*  that  all  crimes  are  to 
be  borne  with  in  the  wife  besides  adultery.  The 
apostles,  he  says  further,*  thought  it  hard  and  bur- 
densome that  a  man  should  retain  a  woman  full  of 
all  wickedness,  and  bear  with  a  furious  wild  beast  in 
his  house  :  and  yet  He  gave  theui  this  precept.  Matt, 
xix.,  "  Whosoever  shall  put  away  his  wife,  except  it 
be  for  fornication,  committeth  adultery."  And  this 
he  repeats  in  other  places.*  Lactantius '  seems  to 
have  been  of  the  same  mind  ;  for  he  says,  God 
commanded  that  the  wife  should  never  be  put  away, 
but  when  she  was  overtaken  in  adultery  ;  and  the 
bond  of  the  conjugal  covenant  can  never  be  loosed, 


I 


^  Chrys.  Horn.  56.  in  Gen.  p.  743. 

•  Clem.  Strom.  2.  cap.  23.  p.  504. 

-  TerUil.  cont.  Marc.  lib.  4.  cap.  34.  I'ricter  ex  causa 
adulterii  nee  Creator  disjungil,  quod  scilicet  ipse  c^onjunx- 
it,  &c. 

^  Chrys.  Horn.  17.  in  Mat.  p.  177. 

'  Id.  Horn.  1.  de  decern  milliuni  Deljit'irc,  t.  5.  p.  8. 


^  Id.  Horn.  63.  in  Mat.  p.  552. 

«  De  Vir<];initate,  cap.  28.  t.  4.  p.  .339.  Horn.  53.  in  eos 
qui  Pascha  jejunant,  t.  5.  p.  720. 

'  Lact.  Epitome  Divin.  Instit.  cap.  8.  Pra-cepit  non 
dimitti  uxorem,  nisi  criuiine  adulterii  devictam;  et  nun- 
quam  conjugalis  foederis  vinculum,  nisiruperit,  rcsolvatur. 


1226 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXII. 


except  it  be  when  she  breaks  it ;  meaning  by  false- 
ness to  the  man'iage  contract.  St.  Basil  says  the 
same,'  That  our  Lord  forbids  divorce  equally  both 
to  man  and  woman,  save  only  in  the  case  of  forni- 
cation. In  like  manner  Astcrius  Amasenus  : "  "  What 
God  hath  joined  together,  let  not  man  put  asmider." 
Hear  this,  ye  hucksters,  who  change  3'our  wives  as 
ye  do  your  clothes  ;  who  build  new  bride-chambers 
as  often  and  easily  as  ye  do  shops  at  fairs ;  who 
marry  the  portion  and  the  goods,  and  make  wives 
a  mere  gain  and  merchandise ;  who  for  any  little 
offence  presently  write  a  bill  of  divorce  ;  who  leave 
many  widows  alive  at  once  :  know  of  a  stu'ety,  that 
marriage  cannot  be  dissolved  by  any  other  cause 
but  death  onl}^  or  adultery.  St.  Jerom  understands 
the  precept  of  Christ  after  the  same  manner ; '"  that 
the  wife  is  not  to  be  dismissed  but  only  for  fornica- 
tion. And  this  was  also  the  opinion  of  St.  Ambrose. 
.,  .  „  But  St.  Austin  and   some  others 


imply  spiritual   for- 
niration,   that 
idolatry   and    a 
tacy  from  God.  and 


adulter}',  which  our  Saviour  makes  to 
other  crimes°of  "the  be  tile  ouly  just  causc  of  divorce,  was 

to  be  understood  in  a  little  more  ex- 
tensive sense,  so  as  to  make  it  include  not  only  car- 
nal fornication,  but  spiritual  fornication  also,  that 
is,  idolatry  and  apostacy  from  God,  and  all  crimes 
of  the  like  nature.  The  fathers  of  the  fourth  coun- 
cil of  Toledo  were  certainly  of  this  opinion.  For 
they  order,"  That  if  any  Jews  were  married  to 
Christian  women,  they  shall  be  admonished  by  the 
bishop  of  the  place,  that  if  they  desire  to  continue 
with  them,  they  should  become  Christians.  But  if 
upon  such  admonition  they  refused,  they  should  be 
separated ;  because  an  infidel  cannot  continue  in 
matrimonial  conjunction  with  one  that  was  a  Chris- 
tian. And  St.  Austin  for  som.e  time  was  clear  in 
this  opinion.  For  in  his  Exposition  of  the  Sermon 
upon  the  Moimt,'^  he  says,  Idolatry,  which  the  in- 
fidels follow,  and  all  other  noxious  superstition,  is 
fornication :  and  the  Lord  permitted  the  wife  to  be 


*  Basil,  can.  9.  et  Horn.  7.  in  Hexaemeron. 

"  Aster.  Horn.  5.  ap.  Combefis.  Biblioth.  Pair.  Auctar. 
Nov.  t.  1.  p.  82. 

"•  Hiernn.  Ep.  30.  in  Epitaph.  Fabiolae.  Et  Comment,  in 
Mat.  xix. 

"  Cone.  Tolet.  4.  can.  62.  Judasi  qui  Christianas  mu- 
lieres  in  conjugio  habent,  admoneantur  ab  episcopo  civita- 
tis  ipsius,  ut  si  cum  cis  permanere  cupiimt,  Christiani  effi- 
ciantur.  Quod  si  admoniti  noliierint,  separentur:  quia  non 
potest  infidelis  in  ejus  conjunctione  permanere,  quae  jam  in 
Christian  am  translata  est  fidem. 

'2  Aug.  de  Serm.  Dom.  in  Monte,  lib.  1.  cap.  IG.  Idolo- 
latria,  quam  sequuntur  infidcles,  et  qua;libet  noxia  snper- 
stitio  fornicatio  est.  Dominus  autem  permisit  causa  forni- 
cationis  uxorem  dimitti. — Si  intidclitas  fornicatio  est,  et 
idololatria  infidelitas,  et  avaritia  idololatria,  non  est  dubi- 
tandum  et  avaritiam  fornicati(jncm  esse.  Quis  erijo  jam 
quamlibet  illicitam  concupiscentiam  potest  recte  a  fornic^- 
tionis  geneie  separare,  si  avaritia  fornicatio  est  ?  Ex  quo 
intelligilur,  quod  propter  illicitas  concupiscentias,  non  tan- 


put  away  for  the  cause  of  fornication.  Whence  he 
argues  farther,  That  if  infidelity  be  fornication,  and 
idolatry  be  infidelity,  and  covetousness  be  idolatry, 
there  is  no  doubt  to  be  made  but  that  covetousness 
is  also  fornication.  Whence  he  likewise  concludes, 
That  for  unlawful  lusts,  not  only  such  as  are  com- 
mitted by  carnal  uncleanness  with  other  men  or 
women,  but  also  for  any  other  lusts,  which  make 
the  soul  by  the  ill  use  of  the  body  go  astray  from 
the  law  of  God,  and  perniciously  and  abominably 
corrupt  it,  a  man  may  without  crime  put  away  his 
wife,  and  a  wife  her  husband,  because  the  Lord  ex- 
cepted the  cause  of  fornication ;  which  fornication 
we  are  compelled  to  take  in  the  most  general  and 
universal  sense.  St.  Austin  advances  the  same  no- 
tion in  many  other  places  : "  yet  in  his  Retracta- 
tions "  he  speaks  a  little  more  doubtfully  of  this 
matter,  and  says.  It  is  a  very  dark  and  dubious 
question,  whether  a  man  may  put  away  his  wife  for 
this  sort  of  spiritual  fornication ;  but  for  carnal  for- 
nication, that  he  may  put  her  away,  is  beyond  all 
question.  Hence  it  appears,  that  this  was  no  very 
current  doctrine  in  the  church :  and  yet  there  appear 
some  footsteps  of  it  before  St.  Austin.  For  Hermes 
Pastor  '*  has  the  same  notion  of  fornication :  Adul- 
tery, says  he,  is  not  only  in  those  who  defile  their 
own  flesh  ;  but  every  one  commits  adultery,  that 
makes  an  idol.  Therefore  if  a  woman  so  commits 
adultery,  and  perseveres  therein  without  repent- 
ance, depart  from  her,  and  live  no  longer  with  her: 
for  otherwise  thou  wilt  be  partaker  of  her  sin.  And 
Origen  '"  is  generall)'^  reckoned  by  learned  men  "  as 
an  asserter  of  this  opinion.  That  if  a  woman  was 
guilty  of  other  crimes  equal  to  or  greater  than  for- 
nication ;  as,  if  she  was  a  sorceress,  or  a  murderer 
of  her  children,  or  the  like ;  that  for  such  crimes 
she  might  be  lawfully  divorced.  But  these  authoi'i- 
ties  are  not  suflficient  to  counterbalance  the  former, 
and  therefore  I  reckon  this  but  a  private  opinion  in 
the  church  for  the  three  first  ages. 


tiiin  qua;  in  stupris  cum  alienis  viris  aut  fceminis  commit- 
tuntur,  sed  omnino  quaslibet,  qua;  aniinam  corpore  male 
utentem  a  lege  Dei  aberrare  faciunt,  et  peruiciose  turpi- 
terque  corrumpunt,  possit  sine  crimine  et  vir  uxorem  dimit- 
tere,  et  uxor  viriim,  quia  exceptam  facit  Dominus  causara 
fornicationis;  quam  fornicatiouem  generalem  et  univer- 
salem  intelligere  cogimur. 

"  Aug.  de  Adulturinis  Conjugiis,  lib.  1.  cap.  18.  t.  6.  De 
Fide  et  Oper.  cap.  16.  Epist.  89.  ad  Hilariiun,  in  Uespous. 
ad  Quaast.  4. 

"  Aug.  Retractat.  lib.  1.  cap.  19. 

'5  Henn.  Pastor,  lib.  2.  Mandat.  4.  Non  solum  moecha- 
tio  est  illis,  qui  carnem  suam  coinquinant :  sed  et  is  qui 
simulacrum  facit,  mcechatur.  Quod  si  in  his  factis  perse- 
verat,  et  poenitentiam  non  agit,  recede  ab  ilia,  et  noli  con- 
vivere  cum  ilia;  alioquiu  et  tu  particeps  eris  peccati  ej-.is. 

I'i  Qrir,  Honi.  7.  in  Mat. 

"  Vid.  Grotius,  in  Mat.  v.  32.'  Et  Selden.  Uxor.  Hcbr. 
lib.  3.  cap.  31.  p.  602. 


Chap.  V, 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1227 


„  .  ,  But  when  Consfnntine  came  to  the 

Sect.  i. 

fr<™''ttre"X"of  imperial  throne,  the  laws  of  the  state 
c™"n!cnanced"",y''    ^11  tumed  this  wav,  and  were  made  in 

the  laws  of  the  state,     n  i»     t  il_ 

1st,  By  coi.st.i.itme  lavour  of  divorcc  upon  other  causes 
besides  that  of  carnal  fornication. 
Women  indeed  had  not  immediately  in  all  respects 
the  same  privilege  as  men  ;  but  j'et  for  three  crimes, 
specified  in  one  of  Constantine's  laws,'"  each  sort 
were  at  liberty  to  make  divorces.  The  man  was  at 
liberty  to  give  a  bill  of  divorce  to  his  \\4fe,  if  she 
was  either  an  adulteress,  or  a  sorceress,  or  a  bawd : 
and  the  woman  on  the  other  hand  might  give  a  bill 
of  divorce  to  her  husband,  if  he  was  a  murderer,  or 
a  sorcerer,  or  a  robber  of  graves ;  but  for  being  a 
drunkard,  or  a  gamester,  or  a  fornicator,  she  had  no 
power  against  him.  And  here  was  the  great  in- 
equality between  the  man  and  the  woman,  that  the 
man  had  liberty  by  this  law  to  put  away  his  wife 
for  adultery ;  but  the  woman  had  not  the  same  pri- 
vilege against  an  adulterous  husband.  And  this  is 
a  thing  frequently  complained  of  by  the  ancient 
writers,  who  thought  the  man  and  the  woman  were 
upon  the  same  foot  and  right  by  the  law  of  God, 
and  that  a  woman  ought  to  have  as  much  power  to 
put  awaj'  a  fornicating  husband,  as  a  husband  to 
})ut  away  a  lewd  wife.  And,  as  Gothofred "  ob- 
serves, there  were  some  old  Roman  laws  which 
made  the  privilege  equal ;  as  the  rescript  of  Anto- 
iiinc,  mentioned  by  St.  Austin,""  and  the  judgment 
of  Ulpian  in  the  Pandects.-'  But,  notAvithstanding 
these  laws,  custom  prevailed  on  the  men's  side,  to 
give  them  licence  to  dismiss  their  wives  for  fornica- 
tion, or  even  any  slight  cause,  without  allowing  the 
same  privilege  to  the  woman.  As  Gothofred  there 
evinces  from  the  complaints  made  by  Lactantius," 
Gregory  Nazianzen,^  Asterius  Amasenus,"^  Chrysos- 
tom,"  Jerom,-"  and  several  others.  And  Constan- 
tine  was  much  inclined  to  correct  these  abuses  and 
inequality  of  privileges  in  the  matter  of  divorce  be- 
tween men  and  women  ;  but  in  the  first  beginnings 
of  reformation  he  could  not  do  every  thing  as  he 
piously  intended  ;  and  therefore  was  in  a  manner 
constrained  to  make  this  law  with  some  inequality 
to  women,  who  might  be  put  away  for  fornication, 
though  the}'  might  not  for  the  same  crime  put 
away  their  husbands.  But  as  he  in  some  measure 
restrained  the  great  liberty  of  divorcing  upon  any 
occasion,  which  the  heathen  laws  before  had  allow- 
ed men  ;  so  he  granted  men  liberty  in  more  cases 


to  put  away  their  wives,  tlian  had  been  generally 
thought  consistent  before  with  (he  strict  interpreta- 
tion of  the  law  of  Christ.  For  that,  as  I  showed 
before,  takes  the  exception  of  fornication  or  adul- 
tery in  the  strictest  sense  ;  but  Constantine  allowed 
divorce  in  cases  that  cannot  be  called  fornication 
in  the  strict  sense,  but  require  a  much  larger  inter- 
pretation. And  whether  he  consulted  the  Chris- 
tian bishops  at  that  time  before  he  made  his  law  ; 
or  whether  the  bishops  then  had  (hat  extensive  no- 
tion of  fornication  including  other  great  crimes, 
such  as  murder,  sorcery,  sacrilege,  and  the  like,  as 
Mr.  Selden  supposes  they  had ;  is  what  I  will  not 
venture  to  assert,  because  many  in  those  times 
were  of  a  different  opinion. 

However,  it  is  certain,  that  the  fol-  s^^.t. 
lowing  emperors  trod  in  the  same  Then  by  Hononue. 
steps,  still  adding  more  causes  of  divorce  to  the 
first  three  which  Constantine  had  allowed.  For 
Honorius  not  only  allowed  of  divorces  both  in  men 
and  women  for  great  crimes,  but  also  gave  way  to 
divorces  for  lesser  faults,  only  imposing  a  slight 
penalty  upon  them.  For  by  one  of  his  laws,'^'  a 
man  for  great  crimes  might  put  away  his  wife,  and 
recover  both  his  espousal  gifts  and  dowry,  and 
marry  again  as  soon  as  he  pleased ;  and  for  lesser 
faults  he  might  put  her  away  without  any  other 
punishment  than  loss  of  the  dowry,  and  confine- 
ment not  to  marry  within  two  years.  So  that  here 
was  plainly  permitted  a  greater  liberty  of  divorce 
than  had  been  allowed  by  the  law  of  Constantine 
before.  Which  made  Asterius  Amasenus^  com- 
plain, as  we  have  heard  before,  that  husbands  were 
mere  hucksters  in  marriage;  changing  their  wives 
as  they  did  their  clothes ;  building  new  bride-cham- 
bers as  often  and  as  easily  as  they  did  their  shops 
at  fairs  ;  marrying  the  portion  and  the  goods,  and 
making  wives  a  mere  gain  and  merchandise ;  for 
any  little  offence  presently  writing  a  bill  of  divorce, 
and  leaving  many  widows  alive  at  once.  And  Go- 
thofred himself  complains  *"  that  this  was  the  great 
blemish  of  this  age  ;  for  it  had  been  more  agree- 
able to  the  Divine  law,  not  to  have  suffered  such 
divorces  at  all,  rather  than  to  have  allowed  them 
only  with  such  slight  penalties  put  upon  them. 

But  Theodosius  junior  went  yet  a 

Sert.  5. 

little  further  in  the  former  part  of  his     And  Thodisins 

junior. 

reign ;  for  he  abrogated  the  two  pre- 
ceding laws  of  Constantine  and  Honorius,  and  rc- 


gali 

21 

Leo 


Cod.  Theod.  lib.  3.  Tit.  16.  de  Repudiis,  Leg.  I. 

'  Gothofred.  in  locum. 

'  Aug.  lie  Adulterin.  Conjug.  lib.  2.  et  de  Bono  Conju- 

Pandect.  lib.  48.  Tit.  5.  ad  Legem  Jul.  do  Adulter. 

.  13.  n.  5. 

Lactant.  lib.  6.  cap.  23. 

Naz.  Oiat.  31.  -*  Aster.  Horn.  5. 

Chrys.  Horn.  19.  in  1  Cor.  Horn.  5.  in  1  Thes. 

Hieron,  Epitaph.  Fabiola?,  Ep.  30. 


"  Cod.  Theod.  Lib.  3.  Tit.  16.  de  Repudii-s,  Leg.  2.  Si 
divortium  maritus  objecerit,  ac  mulieri  grave  crimen  intule- 
rit,  persequatur  legibiis  accusatam,  inipetrataque  vindicta 
et  dote  potiatur  ct  suam  recipiat  largitatem,  etduccudi  mox 
alteram  liberum  sortiatur  arbitritnii.  Si  vero  morum  est 
culpa,  non  criminum,  dunatinuem  recipiat,  et  dotem  relin- 
quat,  aliam  post  biennimn  ductunis  u.xorcin. 

^  Aster.  Horn.  5.  ap.  Combelis.  Auctar.  Nov.  t.  J. 
p.  82. 

■-■'  Gothofred.  in  did.  Lej;.  Houorii. 


1228 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXII. 


duced  back  again  into  use  the  old  Roman  laws 
about  divorces,  by  a  Novel,  anno  439,  which  runs^° 
in  these  terms :  We  command  that  marriages  be 
contracted  by  mutual  consent ;  but  when  they  are 
contracted,  they  shall  not  be  dissolved  otherwise 
than  by  giving  a  bill  of  divorce.  But  in  giving  a 
bill  of  divorce,  and  making  inqnirv  into  the  causes 
or  faults  proper  to  be  alleged  for  divorce,  we  think 
it  hard  to  exceed  the  rules  of  the  ancient  laws. 
Therefore  now  abrogating  those  constitutions, 
which  command  heavy  penalties  to  be  laid  upon 
husbands  or  wives  dissolving  marriage,  we  by  this 
constitution  appoint,  that  divorces,  and  faults  alleged 
as  reasons  for  divorce,  and  the  punishments  of  such 
faults,  be  reduced  to  the  ancient  laws  and  the  an- 
swers of  the  prudent.  But  this  abrogation  of  those 
two  former  laws,  as  Mr.  Selden"  observes,  was 
doubtless  displeasing  to  very  many,  as  seeming  to 
introduce  again  the  licentiousness  of  old  paganism 
in  the  matter  of  divorces,  and  to  permit  them  to  be 
made  for  any  fault  or  crime  whatsoever.  There- 
fore within  a  few  years  Theodosius  himself  revoked 
this  constitution,  making  another  law,  anno  449, 
wherein  he  specified  more  particularly  the  causes 
for  which  either  man  or  woman  might  lawfully  give 
a  bill  of  divorce.'^  If  any  woman  found  her  hus- 
band to  be  an  adulterer,  or  a  murderer,  or  a  sorcerer, 
or  attempting  any  thing  against  the  government,  or 
guilty  of  perjury;  or  could  prove  him  a  robber  of 
graves,  or  a  robber  of  churches,  or  guilty  of  rob- 
bery upon  the  highway,  or  a  receiver  or  encou- 
rager  of  robbers,  or  guilty  of  plagiary  or  man- 
stealing  ;  or  that  he  associated  openly  in  her  sight 
with  lewd  women ;  or  that  he  insidiously  made 
attempt  upon  her  life  by  poison,  or  sword,  or  any 
other  way ;  or  that  he  beat  her  with  stripes  con- 
trary to  the  dignity  of  free-born  women :  in  all 
these  cases  she  had  liberty  to  right  herself  by  a  bill 
of  divorce,  and  make  her  separation  good  against 
him  at  the  law.  In  like  manner  if  the  husband 
could  prove  his  wife  to  be  an  adulteress,  or  a  sor- 
ceress, or  a  murderer,  or  a  plagiary,  or  a  robber  of 
graves,  or  a  robber  of  churches,  or  a  harbourer  of 
robbers ;  or  that  she  feasted  with  strangers  against 
his  knowledge  or  his  will ;  or  that  she  lodged  out  all 
night  without  any  just  and  probable  cause,  against 
his  consent ;  or  that  she  frequented  the  games  of 
the  cirque,  or  the  theatre,  or  the  place  where  the 


gladiators  or  fencers  used  to  fight,  against  his  pro- 
hibition ;  or  that  she  made  attempts  upon  his  life 
by  poison,  or  sword,  or  any  other  way ;  or  was  par- 
taker with  any  that  conspired  against  the  govern- 
ment; or  guilty  of  any  false  witness  or  perjury  ;  or 
laid  bold  hands  upon  her  husband :  in  all  these 
cases  the  man  had  equal  liberty  to  give  his  wife  a 
bill  of  divorce,  and  make  his  action  good  against 
her  at  the  law.  But  if  the  woman  divorced  herself 
without  any  of  the  foresaid  reasons,  she  was  to  for- 
feit her  dowry  and  espousal  gifts,  and  to  remain 
five  years  without  marrying  again.  And  if  she  pre- 
tended to  marry  within  that  time,  she  was  to  be  re- 
puted infamous,  and  her  marriage  to  be  reckoned  as 
nothing.  But  if  she  rightly  proved  her  cause,  she 
was  to  recover  her  dowry  and  antenuptial  gifts,  and 
had  liberty  to  marry  again  within  a  year.  And  if 
the  man  made  good  his  action  against  the  woman, 
he  might  retain  the  dowry  and  espousal  gifts,  and 
marry  again  as  soon  as  he  pleased. 

Not   long    after  Valentinian    III. 
published  a  Novel,  wherein  abolish-    And  Vaientininn 
ing  the  old  Roman  practice  of  making 
divorces  without  any  other  cause  but  mere  consent 
of  both  parties,  (which,  though  forbidden  by  Con- 
stantine,  was  crept  into  use  again,)  he  reflects  upon 
the  first  Novel  of  Theodosius,  which  also  permitted 
such  divorces  by  mutual  consent ;  and  ordered,  that 
the  decrees^  of  Constantius  (or  rather  Constantine, 
for  so  it  should  be  read)  concerning  the  dissolution 
of  marriage  should  be  observed,  permitting  none  to 
dissolve  their  marriage  barely  by  mutual  consent. 

Yet  notwithstanding  this,  Anasta-  sect  7. 
sius,  about  the  year  497,  brought  in  '^""^  Anastasius. 
that  antiquated  practice  again.  For  though  he 
commended  the  last  constitution  of  Theodosius 
junior,  as  an  excellent  law,  yet  he  relaxed  the  force 
of  it  in  this  one  point;  ordering*^  that  if  a  divorce 
was  made  by  mutual  consent  of  the  man  and  woman, 
without  alleging  any  of  those  causes  against  each 
other  that  are  mentioned  in  Theodosius's  law, 
the  divorce  should  be  allowed ;  and  the  woman 
should  not  be  obliged  to  wait  five  years  before  she 
married,  (as  some  former  laws  directed,)  but  after 
one  year  was  expired,  she  should  have  free  liberty 
to  marry  as  she  pleased  a  second  time. 

Thus   stood    the    business   of    di-         gj.pj^  g 
vorces  in  the  civil  law  to  the  time      ^ndjustmian. 


3"  Thendos.  Novel.  17.  ad  calcem  Cod.  Theod.  Consensu 
licita  matrimonia  posse  eontrahi,  contracta  non  nisi  misso 

repudio  dissolvi  praecipiraus. Sed  in   repudio  culpaque 

divortii  perquirenda,  durum  est  legum  veterum  moderamen 
excedere.  Ideo  constitutionibus  abrogatis,  quae  nunc  mari- 
tum  nunc  mulierem  matrimonio  solute  praacipiunt  pcenis 
gravissimis  coerceri,  hac  constitutione  repudia,  culpas, 
culparumque  coherctiones  ad  vetercs  leges  responsaqne 
prudeutum  revocari  censemus. 

^'  Seldcn.  Uxor.  Hcbr.  p.  507. 

'-■  Cod.  Just.  lib.  5.  Tit.  17.  de  Repudiis,  Leg.  8. 


^^  Valentin.  Novel.  12.  de  Episcopali  Judicio,  cap.  7. 
In  ipsorum  matrimouiorum  reverentia  et  vinculo,  ne  passim 
et  temere  deserantur,  antiquata  novella  lege,  quae  solvi  con- 
jugia  sola  contraria  voluntate  permiserat,  ea  quae  a  divo 
patre  nostro  Constantio  decreta  sunt,  intemerata  serventur. 

^'  Cod.  .lustin.  lib.  5.  Tit.  17.  de  Repudiis,  Leg.  9.  Si 
constante  matrimonio,  commuui  consensu  tarn  viri  quain 
mulieris  repudium  sit  missum,  quo  nulla  causa  coutinetur, 
quae  consultissimfe  coiistitutioni  divae  memoriae  Theodosii  et 
Valentiniaui  inserta  est,  licebit  mulieri  non  quiuqueniiiiuu 
expectare,  sed  post  annum  ad  secundas  nuptias  convolare. 


Chap.  V. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1229 


of  Justinian,  anno  52-i,  when  by  a  new  decree"  of 
his  own  he  not  only  confirmed  all  the  causes  of 
divorce  that  had  been  declared  legal  by  the  long 
constitution  of  Theodosius,  but  added  one  more  to 
them,  whicli  had  never  been  mentioned  before ;  viz. 
the  case  of  imbecility  in  the  man  ;  whom  the  wife, 
after  two  years,  for  this  reason  might  put  away  by  a 
bill  of  divorce.  And  this  he  again  repeats  in  one 
of  his  Novels,^"  only  with  this  difference,  that  in- 
stead of  two  years,  there  should  be  allowed  three. 
In  another  law''  he  adds  to  all  the  former  causes 
of  divorce  these  that  follow,  viz.  If  the  wife  indus- 
triously use  means  to  cause  abortion ;  or  be  so  lewd 
and  luxurious,  as  to  go  into  a  common  bath  with 
men  ;  or  endeavour,  when  she  is  in  matrimony,  to 
be  married  to  another  man.  But  he  hereby  can- 
celled and  abolished  all  such  ancient  laws  as  allow- 
ed of  divorce  for  light  and  trivial  causes.  He  re- 
peats the  same  causes  of  divorce  in  other  Novels, 
and  adds  to  them  some  other  cases ;  as,  if  a  man 


or  woman  was  minded  to  betake  themselves  to  a 
monastic  life,  they  might  then  give  a  bill  of  divorce, 
without  alleging  any  other  cause  of  separation:** 
which  was  a  new  law  of  Justinian's  ;  for  this  was 
never  allowed  as  a  just  cause  of  divorce  before.  He 
allowed  also  that  a  bill  of  divorce  might  be  given 
in  case  either  party  was  a  long  time  detained  in 
captivity.  Which  sort  of  divorces  were  said  to  be 
made  cum  bono  gratia^  not  for  any  crime,  but,  as  it 
is  called,  for  other  reasonable  causes.  Thus  stood 
the  matter  of  divorces  in  the  time  of  Justinian, 
when  the  civil  law  was  fullv  revived  and  settled  in 
the  Roman  empire.  What  new  laws  or  alterations 
were  afterward  made  by  the  other  princes  either  in 
the  East  or  West  to  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  the 
reader  that  pleases  may  see  in  Mr.  Selden,^"  who 
carries  the  history  down  to  the  last  ages ;  but  this 
is  beyond  the  limits  of  the  present  discourse,  which 
is  designed  only  to  account  for  the  practice  of 
church  or  state  in  the  primitive  ages. 


^  Cod.  Justin.  ibiLl.  Leg.  10. 

^  Justin.  Novel.  '22.  cap.  G.       ^'  Cod.  Just.  ibid.  Leg.  II. 

^  Just.  Novel.  117.  cap.  12.     It.  Cod.  lib.  1.  Tit.  3.  de 


Episc.  et  Clcr.  Leg.  53.     See  also  Novel.  131.  cap.  II. 
»"  Novel.  22. 
'0  Selden.  U.\or.  Hebr.  lib.  3.  cap.  29,  30,  &c. 


BOOK   XXIII. 


OF  FUNERAL  RITES,  OR  THE  CUSTOM  AND  MANNER  OF  BURYING  THE  DEAD,  OBSERVED 

IN  THE  ANCIENT  CHURCH. 


CHAPTER  I. 

OF    CEMETERIES,    OK    BUKYING-FLA-CES,    WITH    AN     INQUIRY,    HOAV    AND    WHEN    THE    CUSTOM    OF 
BURYING    IN    CHURCHES    FIRST    CAME    IN. 


Sect.  1. 

A   cemetery  a 

common    name  for 


Before  we  say  any  thing  of  the  sa- 
cred rites  and  customs  observed  in 
a  chSch'' How  thu  turying  the  dead,  it  will  be  necessary 
came  o  pass.  ^^  ^j^^  soHie  account  of  the  places 
where  they  were  buried.  That  the  Christians  had 
anciently  some  places  peculiar  to  themselves  for 
burying  their  dead,  is  evident  from  hence,  that 
they  often  met  in  times  of  persecution  to  celebrate 
Divine  service  at  the  graves  and  monuments  of 
their  martyrs ;  which  had  not  been  proper  places 
for  such  meetings,  had  they  been  common  to  them 
with  the  heathens.  These  were  called  by  a  general 
name,  Koi/iriTripia,  ccenieteria,  dormitories  or  sleeping- 
places,  because  they  esteemed  death  but  a  sleep, 
and  the  bodies  there  deposed  not  properly  dead, 
but  only  laid  to  sleep  till  the  resurrection  should 
awaken  them.  These  were  otherwise  called  areee 
sepulturarwm,^  and  cryptce^  because  they  were  vaults 
often  made  under-ground,  where  the  Christians 
could  meet  with  greater  safety  to  hold  religious 
assemblies  in  time  of  persecution.  Upon  which 
account,  as  I  have  noted  elsewhere,'  all  these  were 
common  names  both  of  burying-places  and  places 
of  religious  assemblies.  Whence  the  heathens  often, 
when  they  would  forbid  Christians  to  hold  any 
assemblies  for  Divine  service,  forbid  them  their 
arecB  ;  as  in  that  place  of  TertuUian,  ArecB  non  sint^ 
Let  the  Christians  have  none  of  their  arecs  to  meet 
in  ;*  and  the  like  prohibitions  we  find  in  other  places. 
So  in  like  manner  ^mylian  the  Roman  prefect  tells 
Dionysius,  bishop  of  Alexandria,*  that  they  should 
not  have  liberty  to  go  into  their  cemeteries,  as  they 
called  them,  and  there  hold  their  assemblies  for 
Divine  worship.     In  all  which  places  it  is  evident 


the  words  are  taken  promiscuously  both  for  bury- 
ing-places and  places  of  assembling  for  religious 
worship.  Which  would  incline  a  man  almost  to 
think,  were  there  not  otherwise  insuperable  argu- 
ments against  it,  that  it  was  the  ancient  custom  of 
the  most  primitive  Christians  to  bury  in  churches. 

But  upon  a  nicer  inquiry  and  more  ex- 
act view,  we  are  sure  there  neither  was     no  b.nvins  pUices 

.  .         ,  ,  in  cities  or  clmrclics 

nor  could  be  any  burying  in  churches,  f™  the  first  ttnee 

»:  */       '^  ■'    hundred  years. 

properly  speaking,  for  the  first  three 
hundred  years.  Necessity  sometimes  forced  the 
Christians,  during  this  interval,  to  hold  their  as- 
semblies in  the  burying-places  of  the  martyrs,  and 
so  make  a  sort  of  extraordinary  and  temporary 
churches  of  them  ;  as  they  mig-ht  do  of  any  cave  or 
place  of  retirement  in  such  circumstances  :  for,  as 
Dionysius  of  Alexandria*^  well  words  it,  Every  place 
is  instead  of  a  temple  in  time  of  persecution,  whe- 
ther it  be  a  field,  or  a  wilderness,  or  a  ship,  or  an 
inn,  or  a  prison.  But  this  occasional  use  in  an  ex- 
traordinary case  and  extreme  necessity,  does  not 
properly  make  them  churches,  that  is,  places  set 
apart  only  for  Divine  service.  And  therefore  the 
occasional  meetings  of  the  primitive  Christians  in 
their  cemeteries,  or  at  the  graves  and  monuments  of 
the  martyrs,  did  not  as  yet  turn  them  into  churches  : 
neither  can  it  be  said  with  any  propriety  upon  this 
account,  that  they  then  buried  in  churches,  but  only 
that  they  made  a  sort  of  extraordinary  churches, 
or  places  of  occasional  assembly,  at  the  graves 
or  bui-ying-places  of  the  dead.  Their  churches, 
which  were  their  standing  and  proper  churches, 
were  chiefly  then  in  cities,  and  in  most  places  it 
may  be  in  cities  only :    and  the  Roman  laws  all 


'  Tertul.  ad  Scapul.  cap.  3. 
^  Hieron.  Com.  in  Ezek.  cap.  40. 
3  Book  VIII.  chap.  1.  sect.  9. 

*  Vid.  TertuL  ad   Scapul.  c.  3.     Et,  Gesta  Purgationis 
Caecilian.  ad  calccm  Optati,  p.  272  et  277.     Item  Passio 


Cypriani,  p.  12. 

*  Ap.  Euseb.  lib.  7.  cap.  11.  OvSafiw^  i^icrTai  vfu]>,  ?) 
(Tui/ooous  TTOiEicrOat,  ';  eIs  tcc  Ka\ou/HEva  KoifjLijTi'ipia  i'ktl- 
ivai. 

'■  Ap.  Eiiscb.  lib.  7.  cap.  22. 


Chap.  I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


11231 


that  time  forbade  all  burying  in  cities  to  persons  of 
every  rank  and  (juality  whatsoever.  Consequently, 
the  Christians,  who  lived  in  a  due  obedience  and 
subjection  to  the  Roman  laws  in  all  things  of  an 
innocent  and  indiderent  nature,  no  ways  interfering 
with  the  necessarj'  rules  of  their  religion,  were  as 
ready  to  comply  with  this  innocent  law  or  custom 
as  any  others :  and  that  is  an  undoubted  argument, 
that  the  Christians  neither  did  nor  could  then  bury 
in  churches.  The  heathens,  indeed,  themselves 
sometimes  brake  through  the  laws,  and  in  spite  of 
prohibition  and  restraint  would  presume  to  bury  in 
cities:  but  we  no  where  find  this  accusation  of 
transgressing  the  laws  in  this  particular  brought 
against  the  Christians ;  but  rather  the  Christians 
objected  the  transgression  of  it  to  the  heathens;  as 
Savaro,  in  liis  learned  notes  upon  Sidonius  Apolli- 
naris,'  shows  out  of  several  passages  of  Clemens 
Alexandrinus,  Arnobius,  Lactantius,  Julius  Firmi- 
cus,  Prudentius,  and  others.  It  was  one  of  the 
original  laws  of  the  Twelve  Tables,  In  urhe  ne  se- 
pelito,  neve  urito^  Let  no  one  bury  or  burn  in  the 
city.  This  was  afterward  confirmed,  upon  some 
transgression,  by  a  decree  of  the  senate  when  Duel- 
lius  was  consul,  as  Savaro  shows  further  out  of 
Servius's  Observations  upon  Virgil.  And  then,  for 
some  time,  the  practice  was  to  bury  only  in  the 
suburbs,  and  not  in  the  city,  as  the  same  author 
shows  out  of  Tully,  Livy,  and  Ovid.  Afterward, 
upon  some  invasion  made  again  upon  the  law,  (for 
the  heathens  were  still  ambitious  of  burying  in  the 
temples,)  Hadrian  published  a  new  edict  to  forbid 
it,*  laying  a  penalty  of  forty  pieces  of  gold  upon 
any  one  that  should  presume  to  bury  in  the  city, 
and  as  much  upon  the  judges  that  permitted  it;  or- 
dering the  place  to  be  confiscated,  and  the  body  to 
be  removed.  And  no  municipal  or  private  laws  in 
this  case,  Ulpian  says,  were  to  be  regarded  against 
the  general  law  of  the  prince.  Antoninus  Pius, 
successor  to  Hadrian,  revived  the  same  law,  for- 
bidding any  to  bury  the  dead  within  the  cities,  as 
Julius  Capitolinus,'"  the  writer  of  his  Life,  informs 
us.  And  Gothofred"  cites  Paulus,  the  eminent 
lawyer,  as  concurring  in  the  same  judgment,  and 


giving  a  good  reason  for  it:  It  is  not  lawful  for  any 
corpse  to  be  buried  in  the  city,  that  the  sacred  places 
of  the  city  be  not  defiled.  Finally,  Diocletian'* 
mentions  and  confirms  these  preceding  laws  by  a 
law  of  his  own,  wherein  he  gives  the  same  reason 
against  burying  in  cities  as  Paulus  did  before. 
Hence  it  was,  that  graves  and  monuments  were 
commonly  erected  by  the  highways'  side  without 
the  cities,  as  Varro,  an  ancient  Roman  writer,"  ob- 
serves, giving  a  further  reason  for  it.  That  passen- 
gers might  be  admonished  that  they  themselves 
were  mortal,  as  well  as  those  that  lay  buried  there. 
Augustus  and  Tiberius  were  buried  in  the  Via  Ap- 
pia,"  and  Domitian  in  the  Via  Latina.'*  And,  ac- 
cordingly, Juvenal'^  speaks  of  the  dead  in  general, 
as  those  that  lay  buried  in  the  Via  Flaminia  and 
Latina."  St.  Peter,  upon  this  account,  was  buried 
in  the  Via  Triumphalis,  beyond  the  Tiber,  as  St. 
Jerom''  informs  us;  and  St.  Paul  in  the  Via  Os- 
tiensis,  three  miles  without  the  gate  of  the  city," 
as  the  same  author,  and  all  others  that  speak  of 
their  deaths,  assure  us.  Nay,  Sidonius  Apollinaris 
assures  us  further,  that  the  place  where  St.  Peter 
was  buried,  though  there  was  then  a  church  built 
over  it,  was  still  in  his  time,  anno  4/0,  without  the 
pomosria,  or  space  before  the  walls  of  Rome.  For, 
speaking  of  his  journey  to  Rome,  he  says,  Before 
ever  he  came  at  the  pomonria  of  the  city,  he  went 
and  saluted  the  church  of  the  apostles,  which  stood 
in  the  Via  Triumphalis,  Sidon.  lib.  1.  Ep.  5,  Prius- 
quam  vel  pommria  contingereyn,  triumphalibus  apos- 
tolorum  liminihus  affusus,  8fc.  Which  implies,  that 
his  monument  and  church  was  still  without  the 
walls.  And  so  generally  the  graves  and  monuments 
of  the  martyrs  are  spoken  of  as  being  without  the 
cities:  as  St.  Cyprian's^  in  the  Via  Mappaliensi; 
and  Sixtus's  in  the  cemetery  of  Calixtus,  in  the  Via 
Appia;-'  and  his  six  deacons'  in  the  cemetery  of  Prae- 
textatus.  Via  Appia;  and  St.  Laurence's  in  the  cryp- 
ta,  Via  Tiburtina.  And  upon  this  account,  in  after 
ages,  when  they  held  assemblies  at  the  monuments 
of  the  martyrs,  we  always  find  them  speaking  of 
going  out  of  the  cities  into  the  country,  where  the 
martyrs  lay  buried.     Thus  Chrysostom,  in  one  of 


'  Savai-o  in  Sidon.  lib.  3.  Ep.  12.  p.  201.  Et  Dallajus  de 
Objecto  Cultus  Relifjinsi,  lib.  4.  cap.  7.  p.  620. 

'  Cicero  de  Legibus,  lib.  2.  n.  58. 

'  Ulpian.  in  Digest,  lib.  47.  Tit.  13.  de  Sepulchro  violate. 
Leg,  3.  Divus  Hadrianus  rescripto  poenam  statiiit  quad- 
raginta  ain-eorum  in  eos,  qui  in  civitate  sepcliuut;  et  in 
magistratus  eadem  qui  passi  sunt:  et  locum  publicari  jussit, 
et  corpus  tiansferri,  &c. 

'"  Capitolin.  Vit.  Autonini  Pii,  p.  GO.  Intra  urbes  sepeliri 
mortuos  vetuit. 

"  Paulus  Sentent.  lib.  1.  cap.  ult.  Corpus  in  civitatem 
infciri  non  licet,  ne  funestentur  sacra  civitatis :  et  qui  contra 
ea  fecerit,  e.xtra  ordinem  punitur.  Ap.  Gothofred.  in  Cod. 
Thend.  lib.  9.  Tit.  17.  de  Sepulchris  Violatis,  Leg.  G. 

'-  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  3.  Tit.  44.  de  Keligiosis  et  Suniptibus 
Funei'uui,  Leg.  12.     Mortuorum  reliquias,  ne  sanctum  niu- 


nicipiorum  jus  poUuatur,  intra  civitatem  condi  jam  pridem 
vetitum  est. 

"  Varro  de  Lingua  Latina,  lib.  5.  cited  by  Gothofred. 
Sepulchra  ideo  secundum  viam  sunt,  quo  pra;tercuntes  ad- 
moneant,  et  se  fuisse,  et  illos  esse  mortales.  Vid.  Tcrtul. 
de  Testimonio  Anima;,  cap.  4. 

'*  Seneca,  Apocolocynth.  Claud.  Appioe  Via!  curator  est., 
qua  scis  et  Divum  Augustum  et  Tiberium  CKsarem  ad 
Deos  isse. 

'^  Sueton.  Vit.  Domitiani,  cap.  17. 

'"  Juvenal,  Sat.  1.  in  fine.  Quorum  Flaminia  fogitur  cinis 
atque  Latina. 

"  Vid.  plura  ap.  Dempster,  in  Rosini  Antiq.  Kom.  lib.  5. 
cap.  ult.  p.  1006. 

"  Hieron.  de  Scriptor.  cap.  1.  '^  Ibid.  cap.  15. 

-"  Passio  Cypriani,  p.  11,  -'  Pontifical.  Vit.  Sixti. 


1232 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  TFIE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXIII. 


Lis  homilies  upon  the  martyrs,  says,^  As  before, 
when  the  festival  of  the  Maccabees  was  celebrated, 
all  the  country  came  thronging  into  the  city ;  so 
now,  when  the  festival  of  the  martyrs,  who  lie 
buried  in  the  country,  is  celebrated,  it  was  fit  the 
whole  city  should  remove  thither.  In  like  manner, 
speaking  of  the  festival  of  Drosis  "^  the  martyr,  he 
says,  Though  they  had  spiritual  entertainment  in 
the  city,  yet  their  going  out  to  the  saints  in  the 
country  aflforded  them  both  great  profit  and  plea- 
sure. From  all  which  it  is  evident  to  a  demonstra- 
tion, that  for  the  three  first  centuries  the  Christians 
neither  did  nor  could  bury  in  the  cities  or  city 
churches,  because  the  Roman  laws,  with  which  they 
readily  complied,  were  absolutely  against  it.  If 
afterwards  at  any  time  we  meet  with  martyrs  lying 
in  churches,  that  is  only  to  be  understood  of  the 
relics  of  martyrs  translated  into  the  city  churches, 
or  of  churches  newly  built  in  the  country  over  the 
graves  and  monuments  of  the  martyrs  :  neither  of 
which  has  any  relation  at  all  to  burying  in  churches ; 
because  the  one  was  only  the  translation  of  their 
ashes  in  an  urn  some  ages  after,  and  the  other 
rather  an  erecting  of  new  churches  in  the  places 
where  the  martyrs  lay  buried  some  ages  before, 
than  any  proper  burial  of  the  martyrs  in  churches. 
Though  this  gave  the  first  occasion  in  future  times 
to  the  innovation  that  was  made  in  this  matter  of 
burying  in  churches,  as  we  shall  see  more  hereafter. 
Meanwhile  let  it  be  observed,  that 
But^luher'in       the  common  way  of  burying,  for  this 

monuments  erected     .  i        n      i  i  t        i 

by  the  public,  or  in  mtcrval  ot  three  hundred  years,  was 

vaults    and    cata- 

ribs  in  the  fields  eitlicr  lu  gravcs  with  monuments  set 

ler-2Tound.  o 

over  them  in  the  public  roads,  or  else 
in  vaults  and  catacombs  for  greater  safety  made  in 
the  fields  and  under-ground.  For  that  they  had  such 
vaults  for  this  purpose,  called  cryptcB  and  arenaria, 
from  their  being  digged  privately  in  the  sand  under- 
ground, is  evident  both  from  the  ancient  and  modern 
accounts  of  them.  Baronius "'  tells  us  there  were 
about  forty- three  such  in  the  suburbs  of  Rome ; 
and  Onuphrius  -'  gives  us  a  particular  account  of 
their  names  (taken  from  the  names  of  their  found- 
ers, or  such  charitable  persons  as  were  at  the  pains 
or  charge  to  build  or  repair  them)  :  and  what  is 
chiefly  remarkable,  he  tells  us  the  places  where 
they  were,  viz.  not  in  the  city,  but  in  the  ways  or 
roads  without  the  walls,  leading  from  Rome  to  other 
places,  as  the  Via  Appia,  Aurelia,  Ostiensis,  No- 
mentana,  Tiburtina,  Latina,  Salaria,  Flaminia,  Por- 


under-: 


tuensis,  Ardeatina,  Lavicana,  &c. ;  which  are  the 
known  roads  leading  to  the  neighbouring  cities 
about  Rome.  And  by  this  we  may  understand 
what  St.  Jerom  means,  when  he  says,**  It  was  his 
custom,  when  he  was  a  boy  at  school  in  Rome,  on 
Sundays  to  go  about  and  visit  the  sepulchres  of  the 
apostles  and  martyrs,  and  often  to  enter  into  the 
vaults,  which  were  digged  deep  into  the  ground, 
and  on  each  side  as  one  went  in,  had  .along  by  the 
walls  the  bodies  of  such  as  lay  buried ;  and  were  so 
dark,  that  to  enter  in  them  was,  in  the  psalmist's 
language,  "  almost  like  going  down  alive  into  hell :" 
the  light  from  above  peeped  in  but  here  and  there,  a 
little  to  take  off  the  horror  of  darkness,  not  so  much 
by  windows,  as  little  holes  and  crannies,  which  still 
left  a  dark  night  within,  and  terrified  the  minds  of 
such  as  had  the  curiosity  to  visit  them,  with  silence 
and  horror.  This  is  to  be  understood,  not  of  any 
places  within  the  city,  but  of  those  vaults  which  lay 
by  the  several  ways  round  about  Rome.  And  the 
description  agrees  very  well  with  the  account  which 
Baronius'^'  gives  of  one  of  them,  called  the  cemetery 
of  Priscilla,  discovered  in  his  time,  anno  1578,  in 
the  Via  Salaria,  about  three  miles  from  Rome.  He 
says.  At  the  entrance  of  it  there  was  one  principal 
way,  which  on  either  side  opened  into  divers  other 
ways,  and  those  again  divided  into  other  lesser  ways, 
like  lanes  in  a  city  :  there  were  also  some  void  open 
places  fitted  for  their  holding  of  religious  assem- 
blies, which  had  in  them  the  effigies  and  represent- 
ations of  martyrs ;  and  likewise,  there  were  holes 
at  the  top  of  it  to  let  in  light,  but  these  were  long 
ago  stopped  up.  These  catacombs  of  Rome  have 
made  the  greatest  noise  in  the  world,  but  there  were 
such  belonging  to  many  other  cities.  Bishop  Bur- 
net^' describes  those  of  Naples,  which  he  says  are 
without  the  city,  and  much  more  noble  and  spacious 
than  those  of  Rome.  He  supposes  them  to  be  made 
by  the  heathens,  and  not  by  the  Christians  :  which 
is  not  a  dispute  material  in  our  present  inquiry; 
because,  whether  they  were  made  by  the  one  or  the 
other,  (probably  some  were  made  ^  by  each,)  they 
were  still  without  the  walls  of  the  cities,  which  is 
enough  to  our  present  purpose.  And  to  this  agrees 
the  testimony  of  that  ancient  writer  under  the  name 
of  St.  Chrysostom,  who  says  in  general,  that  every 
city,  nay,  every  village'"  had  their  graves  or  burying- 
places  before  the  entrances  into  them,  that  they 
Avho  went  in  might  first  consider  what  they  them- 
selves were,  before  they  set  a  foot  into  the  cities 


2^  Chrys.  Horn.  65.  de  Martyribiis,  t.  5.  p.  972. 

'"  Chrys.  Horn.  67.  in  Drosidem,  t.  5.  p.  989. 

2*  Baron,  an.  226.  n.  9. 

^  Onuphr.  de  Coemiteriis,  cap.  12. 

-^  Hieron.  in  Ezek.  cap.  40.  p.  636.  Dum  essem  Romse 
puer — Solebam  diebus  Doniinicis  sepulchia  apostolorum  et 
martyrum  circuire,  crebroque  cryptas  ingredi,  quae  in  ter- 
rarum  profunda  defossae,  ex  utraque  parte  ingredientium  per 
parietes  habent  corpora  sepultonun,  &c. 


-'  Baron,  an.  130.  n.  2. 

28  Burnet's  Travels,  Letter  4.  p.  201. 

"^  Christian  catacombs  are  mentioned  in  a  very  ancient 
book,  called  Depositio  Martyrum,  cited  by  Bp.  Pearson, 
Annal.  Cyprian,  an.  2^S.  p.  62. 

'"  Chrys.  Horn.  17.  de  Fide  et  Lege  Naturae,  t.  6.  p.  184. 
ITacra  -TroXts,  -rracra  Kto/iy}  7rp6  Tail'  ilcroOiDV  TiKpovi  £X"> 
K.T.X.     Vid.  Tertul.  de  Testimon.  Anima?,  cap.  4. 


I 


Chap.  1. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1233 


flourishing  with  riches,  dignity,  and  power.  There 
are  graves  before  cities,  and  graves  before  fields  : 
every  where  the  school  of  humility  lies  before  our 
eyes.  Now  I  think,  upon  the  whole,  we  can  hardly 
have  better  proof  of  any  thing  than  we  have  of  this, 
whether  we  consider  law  or  fact,  that  for  the  first 
three  hundred  years,  under  the  heathen  emperors, 
the  general  rule  and  custom  was  to  bury  without 
the  walls  of  the  cities,  and  consequently  neither  in 
cities  nor  city  churches,  unless  by  some  connivance 
or  transgression. 

riegesippus,  indeed,  and  Eusebius,  (lib.  2.  cap. 
23,)  and  St.  Jerom  after  them,  say,  that  St.  James, 
bishop  of  Jerusalem,  was  buried  in  the  city  near 
the  temple,  where  he  was  slain  ;  but  St.  Jerom  owns 
there  were  some  who  thought  he  was  buried  upon 
Mount  Olivet,  which  is  much  more  probable ;  be- 
cause it  is  certain  from  the  Gospel,  that  it  was  the 
custom  of  the  Jews  to  bury  without  the  city.  Matt. 
xxvii.  60;  Luke  vii.  12;  John  xi.  30.  And  Euse- 
bius, speaking  of  the  mausoleum  or  monument  of 
Helena,  queen  of  Adiabene,  says  expressly  it  was 
iv  irpoaaruoig,  in  the  subiirbs  of  Jerusalem,  Euseh. 
lib.  2.  cap.  12.  So  that,  for  any  thing  that  appears 
to  the  contrary,  it  may  be  concluded  to  have  been 
the  general  custom  both  of  Christians,  Jews,  and 
Romans,  to  bury  all  their  dead  without  the  cities 
for  the  first  three  hundred  years. 

g^^j  ^  Let  us  next  examine  how  this  mat- 

and""h?mi'es''pro!  tcr  stood  iu  the  ncxt  period  of  time, 
empmrs^foVsevei^tj  wlicn  the  cmpcrors  and  laws  were 
age=,.i  er.  botli  becomc  Christian.     Now,  here 

we  find  that  the  laws  stood  for  many  ages  just  as 
they  were  before,  forbidding  all  burying  in  cities ; 
and  some  new  laws  were  made,  particularly  pro- 
hibiting and  restraining  men  from  burying  in 
churches.  For,  when  some  persons  in  Constanti- 
nople began  to  make  an  invasion  upon  the  laws, 
under  pretence  that  there  was  no  express  prohibi- 
tion of  burying  in  churches  made  in  them ;  Theo- 
dosius,  by  a  new  law,"  equally  forbade  both  burying 
in  cities  and  burying  in  churches  ;  and  this,  whether 
it  was  only  the  ashes  or  relics  of  any  bodies  kept 
above-ground  in  urns,  or  whole  bodies  laid  in  cof- 
fins ;  they  were  all  to  be  carried  and  reposited  with- 
out the  city,  for  the  same  reasons  that  the  old  laws 
had  assigned ;  viz.  that  they  might  be  examples 


and  memorials  of  mortality,  and  the  condition  of 
human  nature,  to  all  passengers ;  and  also  that  they 
might  not  defile  the  habitation  of  the  living,  but 
leave  it  pure  and  clean  to  them.  And  if  any  pre- 
sumed to  transgress  henceforward  the  inhibition  of 
this  law,  he  was  to  forfeit  the  third  part  of  his 
patrimony ;  and  whatever  officer  was  assisting  iu 
such  a  funeral  was  to  be  amerced  in  a  fine  of  forty 
pounds  of  gold.  And  that  no  little  quirk  or  subtilly 
should  elude  the  intention  of  this  law,  and  leave 
men  at  liberty  to  think  that  this  general  prohibition 
of  burying  in  the  city  did  not  exclude  men  from 
burying  in  the  places  where  the  ashes  of  the  apos- 
tles and  martyrs  were  reposited,  it  was  expressly 
provided,  that  they  should  be  secluded  from  these 
repositories,  as  well  as  any  other  places  within  the 
city.  St.  Chrysostom  takes  notice  of  this  law, 
arguing  thus  with  sinners,  whom  he  reckons  no 
better  than  mere  graves  and  sepulchres,  when  dead 
in  trespasses  and  sins  :'  Consider,  says  he,"-  that  no 
grave  is  allowed  to  be  made  in  the  city ;  therefore 
neither  canst  thou  appear  in  the  city  that  is  above. 
For  if  this  be  forbidden  in  an  earthly  city,  how 
much  more  in  that  which  is  heavenly !  In  like 
manner  in  another  place  ;^  If  we  bury  dead  bodies 
^athout  the  city,  much  more  ought  we  to  expel 
those  who  speak  dead  words,  ofi'ensive  to  others, 
and  utter  things  they  ought  to  conceal ;  for  such 
mouths  are  the  common  pest  and  plague  of  the  city. 
The  author  under  the  name  of  St.  Chrysostom,'* 
probably  Severianus  of  Gabala,  one  of  his  con- 
temporaries, had  his  eye  upon  this  law,  and  those 
that  went  before,  when  he  said.  Every  city  and  vil- 
lage had  their  burying-placcs  before  their  entrance 
into  them.  This  is  not  only  an  evidence  of  what 
went  before,  but  also  of  the  practice  of  his  own 
times,  pursuant  to  the  law,  about  the  year  400, 
Sidonius  ApoUinaris,  a  French  bishop,  lived  almost 
a  whole  century  after  this,  and  he  plainly  intimates, 
that  it  was  still  the  custom  in  France  to  bury 
without  the  walls  of  the  city  in  the  open  field. 
For,  speaking  of  the  gi'ave  of  his  grandfather,  he 
says.  It  was  a  field  where  he  lay  buried,**  filled 
with  funeral  ashes,  and  the  bodies  of  the  dead, 
in  the  road  and  suburbs  of  the  city  Arverne.  And 
after  this  the  council  of  Braga,  anno  563,  speaks 
of  it  again,'"  as  a  privilege  even  then  firmly  re- 


3'  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  17.  de  Sepiilchris  Violatis,  Le-. 
6.  Omnia,  quse  supra  terram  urnis  clausa,  vel  sarcophagis 
corpora  detinentiir,  extra  urbein  delata  ponantiir,  ut  ct 
humanitatis  instar  exhibeant,  et  relinquaiit  iucolarum  do- 
micilio  sanctitatem.  Quisquis  aiitem  hnjus  pra-cepti  ncgli- 
gens  fiierit,  atqiie  aliquid  tale  ab  hnjus  intenninatione 
pra;cepti  ausus  fuerit  moliri,  tcrtia  in  futunim  patrimonii 
parte  multetur:  officium  quoque  quod  sibi  paret,  quin- 
quaginta  librarum  auri  affectum  dispoliatione  merebitur. 
Ac  ne  alicujus  fallax  et  arguta  sollertia  ab  hujus  se  pr.c- 
cepti  intentione  subducat,  atque  apostolorum  vel  martjrum 
sedem  humandis  corporibus  a;stimet  esse  couccssani,  ab  his 
4    K 


quoque,  ita  ut  a  reliquo  civitatis,  noverint  se  atque  intelli- 
gaut  esse  submotos. 

■''-  Chrys.  Horn.  37.  al.  74.  in  Mat.  p.  634.  'V.vv6}]<tov  oti 
oiiStl'i  TUfpo'S  iu  TToXti  KaTafTKivaX^fTat,  k.t.X. 

''  Ibid.  Expos.  Psalm,  v.  t.  3.  p.  50.  Ei  tu  viK(>a  aw- 
fia-ra  i^u>  tj/s  Tro'XfMS  Ka-raduTTTOnev,  k.t.X. 

3'  Ibid.  Hom.  17.  de  Fide,  t.  6.  p.  184.  Vid.  Macarium, 
Horn.  30. 

■■'5  Sidon.  lib.  3  Ep.  12.  Campus  ipse  dudiim  refertus  tarn 
bustualibus  favillis,  quam  cadaveribus,  nullam  jamdiu  scro- 
bem  recipiebat,  &c. 

'"Cone.  Bracarens.  1.  can.  30.     Firmissimmn  hoc  privi- 


1234 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXIII. 


tainecl  in  the  cities  of  France,  that  no  corpse  what- 
soever was  buried  within  the  walls  of  any  of 
their  cities ;  and  they  make  use  of  this  as  an 
argument,  why  no  one  should  be  bm-ied  in  any 
church  in  Spain.  Of  which  more  by  and  by. 
In  the  mean  while,  if  we  look  into  Africa,  in  the 
time  of  St.  Austin,  anno  401,  we  find  by  an  order 
made  in  the  fifth  council  of  Carthage  against  the 
Donatists,  that  it  was  then  the  custom  to  bury  still 
in  the  fields  and  highways.  For  the  Donatists  so 
buried  the  Circumcellions,  their  pretended  martyrs, 
erecting  them  tombs  in  the  fashion  of  altars  to  be 
their  memorials.  Upon  which  account  that  council 
ordered,*'  That  such  altars  that  were  so  erected  by 
the  roads  or  in  the  fields,  as  monuments  of  martyrs, 
in  which  it  could  not  be  proved  that  the  bodies  or 
relics  of  true  martyrs  were  reposed,  should  be  de- 
mohshed,  if  it  were  possible,  by  the  bishops  of  the 
respective  sees  in  whose  dioceses  they  were  found. 
Which  was  not  so  ordered  because  they  were  buried 
in  the  fields  or  highways,  (for  that  was  agreeable 
to  the  law  made  by  Theodosius  not  long  before,) 
but  because  it  was  doubtful  whether  they  were 
true  martj-rs  or  not.  For  neither  the  catholics  nor 
Donatists  did  then  generally  pretend  to  bury  either 
in  cities  or  in  churches ;  but  only  some  few  of  the 
Circumcellions,  who  were  the  fiercer  and  hotter 
part  of  them,  in  spite  of  all  laws,  buried  some  of 
their  pretended  martyrs  in  the  churches :  but  even 
these,  as  Optatus**  tells  us,  were  taken  up  again 
and  cast  out,  because  it  was  not  lawful  to  bury  any 
corpse  in  the  house  of  God.  This  is  the  first  in- 
stance of  any,  that  I  remember,  being  buried  in 
churches ;  and  then  it  was  contradicted  by  the 
bishop  of  the  place,  by  whose  order  they  were  cast 
out.  No  alteration  as  yet  was  made  in  the  law 
against  burying  in  churches.  For  Justinian,  who 
cut  off  the  former  part  of  Theodosius's  law  against 
burying  in  cities,  retained  still  the  latter  part,  against 
burying  in  churches,  inserting  it  into  his  Code  :'^  Let 
no  one  think  that  the  places  of  the  apostles  and 
martyi's  are  allowed  to  bury  human  bodies  in.  And 
long  after  this  the  prohibition  continued  to  the 
time  of  Charles  the  Great,  though  with  some  ex- 
ceptions in  favour  of  some  eminent  persons,  as 
we  shall  see  in  the  sequel  of  the  story,  examining 


by   what  steps   and  degrees  the  contrary  custom 
came  into  the  church. 

The  first  thing  that  gave  occasion         „  ,  . 

o  o  Sect.  5. 

to  any  to  think  of  burying  in  churches  ,,'^iaM't^'^Pn"^;^ 
was,  the  particular  honour  that  was  bu'adingofchurches 

T  ,  ,  •       ii        i»         ii  A  over   the   graves  of 

done  to  martyrs  m  the  lourtn  century,  the  martyre  in  the 

^  ,  .  country  ,or  elsetrans- 

when  the  graves  or  monuments  where  lating  their  reucsin- 

"  1/^1'^**  ^^^  *''*y  churches, 

they  lay  buried,  and  where  the  Chris- 
tians had  used  to  assemble  in  times  of  persecution 
formerly  for  the  worship  of  God,  had  now  churches, 
erected  over  them  in  the  country :  or  else  their 
ashes  and  remains  were  translated  into  the  city,  and 
deposited  in  churches;  and  many  times  new  churches 
were  erected  in  the  places  where  they  were  laid, 
thence  called  martyria,  propheteia,  apostol^a,  from 
the  martyrs,  prophets,  or  apostles,  whose  remains 
were  translated  into  them.  This  was  so  much  the 
known  practice  of  the  fourth  century,  that  I  need 
not  stand  to  give  any  particular  instances  of  it,  but 
only  remark  in  general,  that  it  had  so  much  the 
approbation  of  the  church  in  that  age,  as  that  no 
such  kind  of  martyria  or  chui'ches  were  to  be  build- 
ed,  unless  the  remains  of  some  approved  martyrs 
were  reposited  in  them.  Which  appears  from  a 
canon  of  the  fifth  council  of  Carthage,*"  forbidding 
any  memorials  of  martyrs  to  be  accepted  as  such, 
unless  either  the  body  or  the  relics  of  a  martyr  were 
certainly  known  to  be  deposited  there.  But  then 
this  was  nothing  to  burying  in  churches,  but  only 
an  honour  paid  to  the  ashes  of  the  martyrs,  who 
had  been  dead  and  buried,  it  may  be,  some  hun- 
dreds of  years  before ;  and  cannot  so  properly  be 
called  a  burying  in  churches,  as  a  building  of 
churches,  and  new  erecting  them,  in  the  ancient 
burying-places  of  the  dead.  But  whatever  it  Mas, 
it  was  a  peculiar  privilege  of  the  martyrs  to  have 
their  remains  thus  reposited  in  the  body  of  the 
church  :  the  laws  forbade  it  still  to  all  others,  and 
the  greatest  persons  had  not  this  honour  and  favour 
allowed  them,  to  be  interred  in  the  same  place  where 
the  remains  of  the  martyrs  were  reposed. 

But  kings   and  emperors   had  in         ^^^  ^ 
this  age  a  peculiar  privilege  above  the  ioJ,ng""ingrami 
rest  of  men,  to  be  buried  in  the  atri-  l^r\nt\^° atrium, 
tim,  or  church  porch,  or  some  other  l\,n 
of  the  outer  buildings  of  the  church. 


porch  and 
"  "■  „     of  the 
church. 


legiura  usque  nunc  retinent  Gallix  civitates,  ut  nullo  modo 
intra  ambitum  murorum  civitatum  cujuslibet  dcfuncti  cor- 
pus sit  hiimatum,  &c. 

3"  Cone.  Carth.  5.  can.  14.  Placuit,  ut  altaria,  quas  pas- 
sim per  agros  aut  vias,  tanquam  memoriae  martyrum  con- 
stituuntur,  in  quibus  nullmu  corpus  aut  reliquiae  martyrum 
conditce  probantur,  ab  episcopis  qui  eisdem  locis  procsunt, 
si  fieri  potest,  evertantur. 

^  Optat.  lib.  3.  p.  68.  In  loco  Octavensi  occisi  suntplu- 
rimi,  detnuicati  sunt  multi;  quorum  corpora  usque  in  ho- 
diernum  per  dcalbatas  aras  et  mensas  poterunt  numerari. 
Ex  qunnmi  numero  cum  aliqui  in  basilicis  sepelire  coepis- 
sent,  Clarius  presbyter  in  loco  subbulcnsi  ab  episcopo  suo 


coactus  est  ut  insepultam  faccret  sepulluram.  Unde  pro- 
ditum  est  mandatum  fiiisse  fieri  quod  factum  est,  quando 
nee  sepultura  in  domo  Dei  e.xhiberi  concessa  est. 

39  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  1.  Tit.  2.  de  Ecclcsiis,  Leg.  2.  Nemo 
apostolorum  vel  martyrum  sedem  humanis  (leg.  humandis) 
corporibus  existimet  esse  concessam. 

■"•Cone.  Carth.  5.  can.  14.  Omnino  nulla  memoria  mar- 
tyrum probabiliter  acceptctur,  nisi  aut  ibi  corpus,  aut  aliqure 
certe  reliquiae  sint,  &c.  Note,  These  relics  were  buried 
under  the  altar,  not  kept  above-ground  upon  the  altar  :  for 
Mabillon  says,  No  relics  were  set  upon  the  altar  till  the  tenth 
century.     Mabil.  de  Liturg.  Gallicana,  lib.  1.  cap.  9.  n.  4. 


Chap.   I. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1235 


Eusebius  says,"  Constantine  had  desired  to  be 
buried  near  the  apostles,  whose  memorial  he  had 
honoured  by  building  a  church  called  by  their 
names.  But  this  was  not  understood  to  be  a 
desire  to  be  buried  in  the  church  itself,  but  only 
in  the  porch  before  the  church.  And  so  far 
Constantius  his  son  fulfilled  his  will,  as  Chrysos- 
tom  more  than  once  informs  us.  His  son,"  says  he, 
thought  he  did  his  father  Constantine  a  very  great 
honour,  to  bury  him  in  the  fisherman's  porch.  And 
what  porters  are  to  the  emperors  in  their  own  pa- 
laces, the  same  are  the  emperors  to  the  fishermen 
in  their  graves.  The  apostles,  as  masters  of  the 
place,  have  their  residence  within ;  but  the  empe- 
rors' ambition  proceeds  no  further,  than,  as  neigh- 
bours and  attendants,  to  take  possession  of  the 
porch  before  the  church.  Again,  in  another  place, 
speaking  of  the  same  matter,"'  At  Constantinople, 
they  that  wear  the  diadem  take  it  for  a  favour  to  be 
buried,  not  close  by  the  apostles,  but  in  the  porch 
without  the  church,  and  kings  are  the  fishermen's 
door-keepers.  Thus  also  Theodosius  senior,  and 
Arcadius,  and  Theodosius  junior,  are  said  by  some 
historians"  to  be  buried.  Which  is  probable  enough, 
though  the  ancient  historians,  Socrates,  Sozomen, 
and  Theodoret,  say  nothing  of  it.  Hitherto  then,  for 
five  hundred  years,  we  see,  the  generality  of  Chris- 
tians were  still  buried  without  the  city,  and  only 
kings  and  emperors  allowed  to  be  buried  within 
the  city ;  and  yet  this  not  in  the  church,  but  only 
in  the  atrium,  or  church-yard,  or  in  the  porch,  or 
other  outer  buildings  of  the  church. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  sixth  cen- 
Tiien^^the  \eop\e  tury  the  pcoplc  also  seem   to   have 

in  the  sixth  century  n       •  i  i  •     .i 

besan  tu  be  admit-  bccu  admitted  to  the  same  privilege 

led  into  the  church-  .  .  . 

yards  but  not  into  of  being  buricd  in    the   atrium,   or 

the  church.  O  ' 

church-yard  before  the  church  ;  but 
still  they  were  forbidden,  by  laws  both  ecclesiastical 
and  civil,  to  bury  in  the  church.  For  Justinian,  in 
his  new  Code,  dropping  the  former  part  of  Theo- 
dosius's  law,  which  obliged  all  people  to  bury  with- 
out the  city,  still  retains  the  latter  clause,"  which 
forbids  men  to  be  buried  in  the  seats  of  the  mar- 
tyrs and  apostles.  And  about  the  year  563,  the 
first  council  of  Braga  in  Spain  allows*"  men  to  be 


buried,  if  need  require,  in  the  church-yard  under 
the  walls  of  the  church,  but  utterly  forbids  any  to 
be  buried  within  ;  giving  this  reason  for  it,  That 
the  cities  of  France  still  retained  the  ancient  privi- 
lege firm,  to  suffer  no  dead  body  to  be  buried  with 
in  the  walls  of  the  city;  and  therefore  it  was  much 
more  reasonable  that  this  respect  should  be  paid  to 
the  venerable  martyrs.  We  may  conclude  hence, 
as  we  have  done  before,  that  at  this  time  in  France 
they  were  so  far  from  allowing  burials  in  the  church, 
that  as  yet  they  did  not  suffer  any  corpse  to  be 
buried  in  the  church-yard,  no,  nor  any  where  within 
the  walls  of  the  city.  But  some  time  after,  about 
the  year  658,  or  695,  when  the  council  of  Nantes 
was  held,  (chronologers  are  not  exactly  agreed 
about  the  time,)  the  people  of  France  were  also  per- 
mitted to  bury  in  the  church-yard,"  or  in  the  porch, 
or  in  the  exedrcn  or  outer  buildings  of  the  church, 
but  not  within  the  church  itself,  and  near  the  altar 
where  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  is  consecrated. 
This  rule  is  again  repeated  in  the  council  of  Aries'"* 
and  the  council  of  Mentz,"  held  anno  813,  in  the 
time  of  Charles  the  Great,  out  of  which  that  empe- 
ror made  a  rule  in  his  Capitulars"  to  the  same  pur- 
pose. Not  to  insist  upon  the  uncertain  canon  of 
the  Concilium  Varense,  as  it  is  called  in  Gratian,^' 
which  is  a  repetition  of  the  canon  of  Nantes ;  we 
may  add  to  these  the  rule  made  in  the  council  of 
Tribur,"  another  synod  in  the  time  of  Charles  the 
Great :  Let  no  layman  for  the  futui'e  be  buried  in 
the  church ;  yet  such  bodies  as  are  already  buried 
there  may  not  be  cast  out,  but  the  pavement  shall 
be  so  made  over  the  graves,  that  no  footstep  of  a 
grave  shall  appear.  And  if  this  cannot  without 
great  difficulty  be  done  for  the  multitude  of  corpses 
lately  buried  there,  let  the  place  be  turned  into  a 
polyandrium  or  cemetery,  and  let  the  altar  be  re- 
moved thence,  and  set  in  some  other  place,  where 
the  sacrifice  may  be  religiously  offered  to  God. 
While  these  laws  were  thus  made  in  the  West,  giv- 
ing men  liberty  to  bury  in  cities  and  church-yards, 
but  still  restraining  them  in  a  great  measure  from 
burying  in  churches ;  Leo  Sapiens  in  the  East,  about 
the  year  900,  abrogated  all  the  old  laws  against 
burying  in  cities,  and  left  men  at  perfect  liberty  to 


■"  Eiiseb.  Vit.  Constant,  lib.  4.  cap.  71. 

^2  Chrys.  Horn.  2G.  in  2  Cor.  p.  929. 

■"  Id.  lib.  Quo<l  Christus  sit  Deus,  cap.  8.  t.  5.  p.  839. 

^'  Nicepli.  lib.  14.  cap.  58. 

■■*  Cod.  Just.  lib.  I.  Tit.  2.  de  Ecclesiis,  Leg.  2.  Nemo 
apostolonim  vel  martjrum  scdem  humandis  corporibiis  e.x- 
istimet  esse  concessam. 

■"^Conc.  Bracar.  1.  can.  36.  Corpora  defunctorum  nullo 
modo  intra  basilicam  sanctorum  sepeliantur,  sed,  si  ne- 
cesse  est,  deforis  circa  murum  basilicaj  usque  adeo  non  ab- 
horret.  Nam  si  firmissimum  hoc  privilcgium  usque  nunc 
retinent  civitates  Galliae,  ut  nullo  modo  intra  ambitum  mu- 
rorum  cujuslibetdefuncti  corpus  sit  humatum,  quanto  magis 
hoc  vencrabilium  martyrum  debet  reverentia  obtinere  ? 

■"  Cone.  Namnetens.  can.  6.  Prohibendum  est  etiam 
4   K  2 


secundum  majorum  instituta,  ut  in  ecclesia  nuUatenus  sepe- 
liantur, sed  in  atrio  aut  in  porficu,  aut  in  exhedris  ecclesia;. 
Intra  ecclesiam  vero  et  prope  altare,  ubi  corpus  et  sanguis 
Domini  conficitur,  nidlatenus  sepeliantur. 

""  Cone.  Arelat.  3.  can.  21.  De  sepeliendis  mortuis  in 
basilicis  ilia  constitutio  scrvetur,  qua>  ab'antiquis  patribus 
constituta  est. 

■*"  Cone.  Mogimtiac.  can.  52.  Nullus  mortuus  infra  ec- 
clesiam sepcliatur,  &c. 

^  Carol.  Capitular,  lib.  1.  cap.  159.  ap.  Lindenbrog.  Leg. 
Antiq.    Nullus  deinceps  in  ecclesia  mortuum  sepeliat. 

^'  Gratian.  Caus.  1.3.  Quast.  2.  cap.  15. 

^2  Cone.  Tribur.  can.  17.  Pr.xcipimus  ut  deinceps  nul- 
lus laicusin  ecclesia  sepeliatur,  &c.  Corpora  autiquitus  in 
ecclesia  sepulta  iicquaquam  projiciantur,  &c. 


1236 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXIII, 


bury  within  the  walls  or  without  the  walls  of  any 
city  f^  but  still  says  nothing  of  any  licence  to  bury 
in  churches.  So  that  it  is  evident  beyond  all  con- 
tradiction, that  hitherto  there  was  no  general  licence 
granted  by  any  laws,  in  any  part  of  the  world,  au- 
thorizing all  sorts  of  persons  to  bury  in  churches 
without  distinction,  but  many  of  the  laws  in  this 
interval  run  peremptorily  and  universally  against  it. 
Yet  some  laws  within  this  period 

•  An/fn'tifis  peri-  of  time  wcrc  made  with  some  limit- 
mi  of  time,  Vinos.  i-  •       xi  c 

bishops,  founders  of  atioHsaud  exceptions  in  the  case  or 

fiiurelies,  and  otlier 

eminent  pereoiis      great  aud  cmineut  persons,  such  as 

were  by  some  laws    o  r  ' 

fnThul-hes" "''"'"'  Jii^gs,  and  bishops,  and  founders  of 
churches,  and  presbyters,  and  such  of 
the  laity  as  were  singularly  conspicuous  and  hon- 
ourable for  their  exemplary  sanctity  and  virtue. 
The  council  of  Mentz,  mentioned  before,  qualifies 
the  general  prohibition  with  this  exception  ;  saying. 
None  shall  be  buried  in  the  church,  except  bishops, 
and  abbots,  and  worthy  presbyters,^'  and  faithful 
laymen.  And  the  council  of  Tribur,^^  only  forbid- 
ding laymen  to  be  buried  in  the  church,  may  be 
supposed  to  allow  it  to  the  clergy.  And  this  honour 
was  paid  to  bishops  and  emperors  for  some  time  be- 
fore. For  Socrates  says,^°  Proclus  removed  the  body 
of  St,  Chrysostom  from  Comanae  to  Constantino- 
ple, and  laid  it  in  the  church  of  the  apostles.  And 
Evagrius  speaks "  of  it  as  customary  to  bury  the 
emperors  and  clergy  in  the  church  of  the  apostles 
built  by  Justinian  at  Constantinople.  This  honour 
likewise  was  paid  to  founders  of  churches  :  they 
were  allowed  to  be  interred  in  their  own  structures  ; 
as  Sozomen*'  says  the  wife  of  one  Caesarius  was 
buried  in  the  church  near  the  ambon  or  reading- 
desk,  because  her  husband  had  been  the  founder  of 
it.  And  Valesius  thinks  that  Constantine  was 
therefore  buried  in  the  church  of  the  apostles,  be- 
cause it  was  built  by  him.  So  he  had  a  double  title 
to  this  privilege,  both  as  emperor  and  founder.  But 
we  may  observe  a  difference  between  Constantine's 
age  and  this.  In  Constantine's  time  an  emperor 
and  a  founder  was  buried  only  in  the  porch ;  but 
in  the  time  of  Sozomen  any  ordinary  founder  might 
be  buried  in  the  middle  of  the  church. 

Thus  the  thing  went  on  from  one 
The  matter' at  last  dcgrcc  to  auothcr,  taking  various  steps 

left  to  the  discretion  . 

of  bishops  and  pres-  and   motious,   partly  by  permission 


and  relaxation  of  the  laws,  and  partly  ^J'^, 

by  transgression  of  the  laws  and  con-  Hm'dit'aV'  sepui- 

j  1  1        1       ;i    ..1  chres  not  yet  allow- 

nivance  in  those  who  had  the  execu-  ed  in  the  ninth cen- 

f,i  AT,i  1.  ii,     tury,  put  brought  in 

tion  01  them.  And  the  matter  at  last  by  the  pope'sdetre- 
was  left  in  a  great  measure  to  the  dis- 
cretion of  bishops  and  presbyters,  to  determine  who 
should  or  should  not  be  buried  in  churches,  accord- 
ing to  the  merit  and  desert  of  the  persons  who  de- 
sired it.  In  the  ninth  century,  in  France,  some 
families  began  to  set  up  a  claim  to  hereditary  sepul- 
chres in  the  church.  But  this  was  opposed,  and 
the  council  of  Meaux,  anno  845,  made  an  order, 
That  no  one  should  pretend  to  bury  any  corpse  in 
the  church  upon  hereditary  right,^'  but  the  bishops 
and  presbyters  should  judge  who  were  .worthy  of 
this  favour,  according  to  the  quality  of  their  life 
and  conversation.  And  after  this  we  find  some  laws 
made  in  general  against  burying  in  churches.  As 
that  of  the  council  of  Winchester,'^  under  Lanfranc, 
archbishop  of  Canterbury,  anno  1076 :  Let  no 
bodies  of  the  dead  be  buried  in  churches.  But  so 
many  exceptions  had  been  made  to  the  old  laws, 
that  it  was  ho  hard  matter  for  any  one  who  had 
ambition,  or  superstition  enough  to  think  that  he 
should  be  much  benefited  in  his  death  by  being  buried 
in  the  church,  to  obtain  this  privilege.  And  these 
two  reasons  opened  the  way  to  greater  liberties  by 
far  than  the  ancient  canons  had  allowed ;  for  an 
opinion  that  it  was  of  great  service  to  men's  souls 
to  be  buried  in  the  church,  made  men  more  eager 
than  ever  to  obtain  this  privilege  at  their  death. 
And  Pope  Leo  III.  had  made  a  decree,  which  Gre- 
gory IX.  inserted  into  his  Decretals,*'  giving  a  sort 
of  hereditary  right  to  all  persons  to  be  buried  in 
the  sepulchres  of  their  ancestors,  according  to  the 
example,  as  it  is  said,  of  the  ancient  patriarchs. 
This  was  about  the  year  1230.  Not  long  after 
which  Boniface  VIII.''-  speaks  of  it  as  a  customary 
thing  for  men  to  be  buried  in  the  church  in  the 
sepulchres  of  their  ancestors.  So  that  from  these 
Decretals,  I  think,  may  be  dated  the  ruin  of  the  old 
laws;  for  they  took  away  that  little  power  that 
was  left  in  the  hands  of  bishops  to  let  people  bury 
in  the  church,  or  not  bury,  as  they  should  judge 
proper  in  their  discretion,  and  put  the  right  and 
possession  of  burying-places  in  the  church  into  the 
hands  of  private  families.     And  others,  who  had 


*'  Leo,  Novel.  53.  Ne  igitur  ullo  mode  inter  civiles  leges 
haec  le.x  recenseatur,  sancimus  ;  quui  potiiis,  ut  a  consue- 
tudine  recte  contemnitiir,  sic  etiam  decreto  nostro  prorsus 
reprobatur.  Quicunque  autem  sive  extra  niuros,  sive  intra 
civitatem  sepelire  mortiios  volet,  pcrficieudie  voluntatis 
facultatem  habeto. 

*■*  Cone.  Mogiintiac.  can.  52.  Nulliis  mortuus  intra  gc- 
clesiam  sepeliatur,  nisi  episcopi,  ant  abbates,  ant  digni 
presbyteri,  aut  fideles  laici. 

"  Cone.  Tribnr.  can.  17.  ut  supra. 

=*'  Socrat.  lib.  7.  cap.  45.  "  Evagr.  lib.  14.  cap.  31. 

^'  Sozom.  lib.  9.  cap.  2. 


*'  Cone.  Meldens.  can.  72.  Ut  nemo  quenilibet  mortumn 
in  ecclesia,  quasi  hereditario  jure,  nisi  quern  episcopus  ct 
presbyter  pro  qualitate  conversationis  et  vit;c  digniun  dii.x- 
erit,  sepelire  praesumat. 

***  Cone.  Winton.  an.  107G.  can.  9.  Cone.  t.  10.  p.  352. 
In  ecclesiis  corpora  defiinctoriim  non  sepeliantiir. 

«'  Gregor.  Decretal,  lib.  3.  Tit.  28.  de  Sepnlturis,  cap. 
1.  Statuimus  uniimquemque  in  majoruin  suorinn  sepidchris 
jacere,  ut  patriarchanim  exitus  docet. 

"'-  Sext.  Decretal,  lib.  3.  Tit.  12.  de  Sepulturis,  cap.  2. 
Cmn  quis  cnjiis  niajores  sunt  soliti  in  aliqua  ecclesia  sepe- 
liri  ab  antiquo,  &c. 


Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH- 


12;?; 


no  such  light,  being  led  by  their  ambition  or  super- 
stition, could  then  easily  purchase  a  right  to  be 
buried  in  the  church,  which  was  a  thing  that  em- 
perors themselves  did  not  pretend  to  ask  in  former 
ages.  I  have  been  the  more  curious  in  deducing 
the  history  of  this  matter  from  first  to  last,  because 
the  innovation  has  been  thought  a  grievance  to  some 
very  learned  and  judicious  men,  and  what  they 
could  have  wished  to  have  seen  rectified  at  or  since 
the  Reformation.  This  custom,  says  the  learned 
Rivet,*^  which  covetousness  and  superstition  first 
brought  in,  I  wish  it  were  abolished  with  other 
relics  of  superstition  among  us ;  and  that  the  an- 
cient custom  was  revived,  to  have  public  burying- 
places  in  the  free  and  open  fields  without  the  gates 
of  cities.  This  would  be  more  convenient  for  civil 
uses  also ;  because  in  close  places  the  air  cannot 
but  be  affected  with  the  nauseous  smell  of  dead 
bodies :  there  is  no  good  done  by  it  to  the  dead, 
and  the  living  are  in  manifest  danger  by  it,  espe- 
cially in  the  time  of  contagious  distempers,  when  in- 
fected bodies  are  promiscuously  buried  in  churches, 
wherein  men  daily  meet  and  assemble  together  :  A 
thing,  says  he,  which,  not  without  reason,  has  ever 
appeared  horrible  to  me  and  many  others.  The 
like  complaint  is  made  by  some  among  the  Ro- 
manists, particularly  by  Durantus,"  who  was  an 
eminent  lawyer,  and  president  of  the  parliament  of 
Tholouse.  He  commends  the  piety  of  the  ancients 
for  not  allowing  the  dead  to  be  buried  in  the  church, 
and  Charles  the  Great  for  reviving  and  restoring 
the  primitive  institution,  when  it  had  been  in  some 
measure  neglected  ;  and,  withal,  speaks  it  with 
great  regret,  that  whereas  heretofore  emperors  were 
buried  only  in  the  church-porch,  now  the  custom  is 
to  let  the  meanest  of  the  people  commonly  be  buried 
in  the  church  itself,  against  the  laws  and  institu- 
tions of  the  ancient  Christians  :  to  which,  after 
this  digression,  I  must  now  return  again. 


CHAPTER  11. 

SOME     OTHER      OBSERVATIONS      CONCERNING      THE 
PLACE,    AND    MANNER,    AND    TIME    OF    BURYING. 

Having  thus  far  considered  in  general  j,^.,  , 
the  place  of  burying,  I  now  proceed  „.meri*'i^"  °'r, 
to  some  more  particular  observations  "'"'"'"'• 
concerning  the  place,  and  manner,  and  time  of 
burying  among  Christians.  And  here  the  first 
question  may  be,  whether  they  used  any  formal 
consecration  of  their  cemeteries,  as  they  did  of  their 
churches?  Now,  concerning  this,  in  the  first  ages 
there  is  a  perfect  silence.  No  writer  before  Gregory 
of  Tours,  who  lived  about  the  year  570,  makes  any 
mention  of  it.  But  he  says,'  The  burying-places  in 
his  time  were  used  to  be  consecrated  by  sacerdotal 
benediction.  Durantus"can  trace  the  custom  no 
higher,  and  therefore  we  may  conclude,  that  about 
this  time,  and  not  before,  it  became  the  practice  of 
the  church  ;  for  the  sacredness  of  sepulchres,  that 
we  so  often  read  of  before  this,  was  from  another 
reason,  and  not  from  their  formal  consecration. 
For  the  heathens  themselves  were  g^^^  , 
used  to  reckon  these  places  sacred,  thlm^  ^sTn''g  Tom 
and  the  violation  of  them  a  sort  of  not "fr"i^th(rr  for'^ 

..  i*ii-  n       ^•     •  A        mal  con&ecration. 

sacn[ege  and  violation  01  religion.  As 
appears  from  the  edicts  of  two  heathen  emperors, 
Gordian  and  Julian,  which  are  still  retained  among 
the  Christian  laws.  Gordian'  calls  them  things 
destined  for  religion,  and  things  made  a  part  of  re- 
ligion, and  therefore  orders,  that  all  robbers  of 
graves  should  be  prosecuted  as  criminals  guilty  of 
an  injury  done  to  religion.  In  like  manner  Julian* 
says,  The  graves  of  the  dead  are  consecrated  hills, 
and  to  move  a  stone  hence,  or  disturb  the  ground, 
or  break  a  turf,  has  always  been  accounted  next  to 
sacrilege  by  our  forefathers :  to  steal  away  the  or- 
naments from  the  tables  or  porticos  of  graves,  is  a 
piacular  crime  and  violation  of  religion,  to  be  pun- 
ished as  doing  injury  to  the  dead.  Justinian,  in  re- 
peating this  law  of  Julian  in  his  Code,^  instead  of 
posna  manium,  reads  it  poena  sacrilegii  cohibentes, 
inflicting  both  the  name  and  punishment  of  sacri- 
lege expressly  upon  this  crime.  And  so  the  ancient 
poet  does  in  that  distich  : 


^  Rivet,  in  Gen.  xlvii.  Exercit.  172.  p.  812.  Huncniorem, 
quern  invesit  avaritia  et  siiperstitio,  valde  vellein  apud  nos 
cum  aliis  superstitionis  reliquiis  esse  abnlitimi,  S:c.  Gro- 
tius,  ill  Luc.  vii.  12,  makes  a  like  complaint.  Quod  in  me- 
moriam  martyium  dim  inductum,  uescio  an  satis  sapicnter 
retineatur. 

"  Durant.  de  Ritibns  Ecclos.  lib.  I.  cap.  23. 

•  Greg.  Turon.  de  Gloria  Confessor,  cap.  106. 

2  Durant.  de  Ritibus,  lib.  1.  cap.  23.  n.  9. 

3  Cod.  Justin,  lib.  9.  Tit.  19.  de  Sepulchro  Violatn,  Leg. 
1.  Resreligioni  destinatas,  quiniraojam  religionis  cffcctas, 
scientes  qui  contigerint,  et  emerc  et  distraherc  non  dnbi- 


taverint,  Iscsa:  religionis  inciderunt  in  crimen. 

*  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  J7.  de  Sepulchris  Violatis,  Leg. 
5.  Pergit  audacia  ad  busta  diem  functorum  ct  aggeres 
consccratos:  cum  et  lapidem  hinc  movere,  terram  sollici- 
tare,  et  cespitem  vellere,  proximum  sacrilcgio  majores 
semper  habuerint:  sed  ornamenta  quidam  tricliniis  aut 
porticibus  auferunt  de  sepulchris.  Quibus  primis  consu- 
lentes,  ue  in  piaculum  incidant,  contaminata  religione 
Lustorum,  hoc  fieri  prohibemus,  poena  manium  vindice  co- 
hibentes. 

*  Cod.  Just,  ubi  supra,  Leg.  5. 


1238 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXIII 


Res  ea  sacra,  miser,  noli  mea  tangere  fata  : 
Sacrilegae  bustis  abstiuuere  manus. 

Touch  not  my  monument,  thou  wretch,  it  is  a  sacred 
thing:  even  sacrilegious  hands  commonly  abstain 
from  offering  violence  to  the  habitations  of  the  dead. 
All  which  shows,  that  graves  and  burying-places 
were  reckoned  sacred  things,  both  by  heathens  and 
Christians,  without  any  formal  consecration:  and  the 
Romans  accounted  it  a  piece  of  impiety  in  any  case 
to  disturb  or  violate  the  ashes  of  the  dead,  except 
it  were  those  of  their  public  enemies,  whose  graves 
were  not  reckoned  sacred,  as  Paulus"  the  great 
lawyer  determined ;  and  therefore  it  was  lawful  for 
any  one  to  take  the  stones  of  such  graves  and  turn 
them  to  any  other  use,  and  no  action  of  violating 
sepulchres  could  be  brought  against  them. 

But  in  all  other  cases,  the  graves  of 
The  "way  of  adorn-  the  dead  wcrc  places  of  great  sacred- 

ing  graves,  different  x  o 

aUd'cMsttins"*  ness,  and,  consequently,  places  of 
great  security;  insomuch,  that  they 
were  reckoned  safe  repositories,  not  only  for  the 
dead,  to  secure  them  from  violence,  but  also  for  any 
ornaments  that  were  set  about  them,  or  riches,  that, 
together  with  the  dead,  were  often  buried  with 
them.  For  the  Romans  often  adorned  their  monu- 
ments with  rich  pillars  of  marble,  and  fine  statues 
and  images  set  about  them.  As  appears  from 
several  laws  in  the  Theodosian  Code,'  which  are 
made  to  restrain  the  pillagers  of  them;  and  also 
from  gi'eat  variety  of  Roman  writers,  which  Gotho- 
fred^  mentions  and  alleges  in  his  comment  upon 
one  of  those  laws,  as  Pliny,  Cicero,  Aggenus,  Pro- 
pertius,  Servius,  and  Eutropius,  who  gives  a  parti- 
cular account  of  Trajan's  pillar,  which  was  one 
hundred  and  forty  feet  high.  The  two  Antonines, 
indeed,  laid  some  restraint  upon  the  excessive  vanity 
and  profuseness  of  the  Romans  in  this  matter, 
making  severe  laws  against  extravagance  in  bury- 
ing, and  building  of  sepulchres,  as  Julius  Capitoli- 
nus"  informs  us :  but  this  did  not  hinder  men  from 
adorning  their  monuments  with  marble  statues  and 
pillars,  and  such  like  common  ornaments,  as  we 
afterwards  find  allowed  in  one  of  the  laws  of  Gor- 
dian,  in  the  Justinian  Code.'"  So  that  these  monu- 
ments of  the  heathen  were  often  very  pompous  and 
magnificent,  both  in  building  and  ornament,  which 


frequently  made  them  become  a  prey  and  spoil  to 
rapacious  invaders.  But  we  can  hardly  suppose 
this  of  any  Christian  sepulchres  for  the  first  three 
hundred  years.  Caius,  an  ancient  v/iiter  and  pres- 
byter of  the  church  of  Rome  about  the  year  210, 
speaks  of  the  trophies  and  monuments  "  of  St.  Peter 
and  St.  Paul,  which  were  then  to  be  seen,  the  one 
in  the  Vatican  in  the  Via  Triumphalis,  and  the 
other  in  the  Via  Ostiensis  :  but  these  trophies  were 
not  so  magnificent,  whatsoever  they  were,  but  that 
afterwards,  about  the  year  258,  they  were  translated 
by  Pope  Xystus'-  into  the  catacombs,  for  fear  of 
some  indignity  that  might  be  offered  to  them  in  the 
heat  of  persecution.  The  most  that  we  can  sup- 
pose is,  that  they  were  grave-stones,  with  an  inscrip- 
tion, declaring  their  names  and  character,  and  the 
time  and  manner  of  their  death.  And  some  of 
them,  we  are  sure,  were  not  so  much  as  this.  For 
sometimes  great  multitudes  of  martyrs  were  buried 
in  one  common  grave,  and  then  the  inscription 
contained  only  the  number,  and  not  the  names,  or 
any  particular  account  of  them.  Prudentius  "  says. 
He  had  observed  one  such  grave  wherein  sixty 
martyrs  were  buried  together.  St.  James's  monu- 
ment, at  Jerusalem,  was  no  more  than  a  pillar,"  or 
grave-stone,  with  an  inscription.  And  in  after  ages 
the  Chi'istians  were  not  very  fond  of  erecting  stately 
monuments  before  they  came  to  bury  in  churches  ; 
for  they  had  observed  what  spoil  and  ravagement 
had  been  made  of  the  heathen  monuments,  and 
how  many  laws  the  emperors  were  forced  to  make 
against  the  violation  of  sepulchres :  which  made 
many  pious  Christians  think  how  much  better  and 
safer  it  was  to  build  themselves  monuments  in  their 
lifetime  by  liberahty  to  the  poor,  than  to  build 
stately  and  costly  monuments  for  thieves  and  rob- 
bers to  plunder  at  their  pleasure.  Thus  St.  Jerora 
says  of  Paula,  That  she  gave  all  her  substance  to 
the  poor,  and  wished  not  to  have  any  thing  at  her 
death,  but  that  she  might  be  beholden  for  a  wind- 
ing-sheet to  the  charity  of  others.  And  Ephrem 
Syrus  left  it  upon  his  will.  That  nothing  should 
be  expended  upon  his  funeral ;  but  whatever  should 
be  appointed  for  that,  should  be  given  to  the  poor ; 
as  Gregory  Nyssen"  reports  in  the  Life  of  that 
great  saint  and  luminary  of  the  Eastern  church. 


«  Digest,  lib.  47.  Tit.  12.  de  Sepulchro  Violate,  Leg.  4. 
Sepulchra  hostium  nobis  religiosa  non  sunt ;  ideoque  la- 
pides  inde  sublatos  in  qnemlibet  usum  convertere  possii- 
mus  :  non  sepidchri  violati  actio  conipetit. 

'  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  0.  Tit.  19.  de  Sepulchris  Violatis,  Leg. 
2et4. 

*  Gothofred.  in  Leg.  2.  ibid. 

"  Capitolin.  Vit.  Marci  Antonini,  p.  78.  Tunc  Antoniiii 
leges  sepelicndi,  sepulchroruinque  asperrimas  sanxerunt : 
quaudoquidem  caverunt,  ne  uti  quis  vollet  fabricaret  sepul- 
chrum :   quod  hodieque  servatur. 

'"Cod.  Justin,  lib.  3.  Tit.  44.  de  Religiosis  et  Sumptibus 
Funerum,  Leg.  7.     Statnas   sepulchro   superimponere,  vel 


monumento  ornamenta  superaddere  non  prohiberis :  cum 
jure  suoeorum  qua;  minus  prohibita  sunt,  unicuique  facultas 
libera  non  denegetur. 

"  Ap.  Euseb.  lib.  2.  cap.  25. 

'-  Depositio  Martyrum,  ap.  Pearson.  Annal.  Cyprian,  p. 
62.  Tertio  kalendas  Julii,  Petri  in  catacumbas,  et  Pauli 
Ostiense,  Tusco  et  Basso  Coss. 

"  Prudent.  Peri  Stephan.  Hymn.  4.  de  Hippolyto. 
Quorum  solus  habet  comperta  vocabula  Christus. 

"  Euseb.  lib.  2.  cap.  23.  calls  it  c-rjiXi;;  and  St.  Jerom, 
titulus,  de  Script.  Eccles.  cap.  2. 

'•'^  Nyssen.  Vit.  Ephrem.  t.  3.  p.  613 


Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1239 


And  St.  Basil  exhorts  rich  men  in  general'"  rather 
to  expend  their  superfluities  in  works  of  piety,  than 
to  build  themselves  costly  sepulchres.  For  what 
need  have  you  of  a  sumptuous  monument,  or  a 
costly  entombing?  "What  advantage  is  there  in  a 
fruitless  expense  ?  Prepare  your  own  funeral  whilst 
you  live,  ^^'orks  of  charity  and  mercy  are  the  fu- 
neral obsequies  you  can  bestow  upon  yourself 

Sect.  4.  Another  difference    between    hea- 

in^the ''.^aan'lr'''o'f  tliens  and  Christians  was  in  the  man- 
tS'lommoniy"""  ucr  of  burviug.    For  the  heathen  for 

burning    the     b'odv,  '        ".  t  n    ^ 

and  putting  the  "    tlic  uiost  part  bumcd  the  bodies  of  the 

bones  and    ashes  m  ^ 

."iI?,Vu''"'^'TS''"r  dead  in  funeral  piles,  and  then  rather- 

tians  bunen the  body  x  '  o 

rb'hmrins"ihe''h«l''  ^^  up  the  boncs  aud  ashes  and  put 
thencusfon..      '    jj^^^  ^^  ^^  ^^.^  above-grouud :    but 

the  Christians  abhorred  this  way  of  burying ;  and 
therefore  never  used  it,  but  put  the  body  whole  into 
the  ground ;  or  if  there  was  occasion  for  any  other 
way  of  burying,  they  embalmed  the  body,  to  lay  it 
in  a  catacomb,  that  it  might  not  be  offensive  to 
them  in  such  places,  where  they  were  sometimes 
forced  to  hold  their  religious  assemblies.  That  the 
Christians  used  the  plain  and  simple  way  of  in- 
humation, and  not  burning,  is  evident  from  the 
objection  of  the  heathen  in  Minucius  :"  They  abhor 
funeral  piles,  and  condemn  burning  by  fire,  for  fear 
it  should  hinder  their  resurrection.  To  which  the 
Christian  answers :  We  do  not,"*  as  ye  suppose,  fear 
any  detriment  from  burjnng  (by  fire),  but  we  retain 
the  ancient  custom  of  inhumation  as  more  ehgible 
and  commodious.  The  same  is  evident  from  Tertul- 
lian,  who  says.  Some  of  the  heathen  abstained  from 
burning  upon  a  superstitious'" notion,  that  the  soul 
hovered  over  the  body  after  death ;  and  therefore 
they  would  not  burn  the  body,  out  of  a  needless 
compassion  to  the  soul.  But,  says  he,  our  reason 
is  piety  and  humanity  to  the  body,  not  flattering  it 
as  the  rehcs  of  the  soul,  but  abhorring  cruelty  in 
respect  to  the  body  itself,  forasmuch  as  no  man 
deserves  to  be  destroyed  by  a  penal  death.  In  an- 
other place'"  he  derides  the  heathens  for  their  con- 
tradictory customs,  first  in  burning  the  body  with 
great  barbarity,  and  then  making  feasts  and  sacri- 
fices at  their  graves  by  way  of  parentation,  as  they 
called  it :  which  was  to  make  the  same  fires  both 
oblige  them  and  offend  them ;  to  show  themselves 
cruel  under  the  pretence  of  piety,  and  insult  them 
by  making  feasts  in  behalf  of  those  whom  they  had 


burnt  before.  The  critics  are  not  agreed  when  or 
by  what  means  this  custom  of  burning  was  laid 
aside  by  the  Romans.  Some  think  it  was  forbidden 
by  the  two  Antonines  in  their  severe  laws  about 
funerals,  mentioned  before :  but  Gothofrcd  and 
others,  not  without  reason,  think  this  a  mistake ; 
because  not  only  Tertullian  derides  it  as  still  cus- 
tomary among  the  heathen,  but  also  because  there 
is  some  intimation  given  in  one  of  Theodosius's 
laws,  that  there  were  some  remains  of  it  even  in 
his  time :  for  he  speaks  of  both  customs,  that  is, 
of  burying  not  only  whole  bodies  in  coffins  under- 
ground, but  also"'  of  burying  in  urns  above-ground ; 
which  supposes  the  body  to  be  burnt  before,  and 
the  remains  only,  the  bones  and  the  ashes,  to  be 
put  in  an  urn  and  kept  above-ground.  However,  it 
is  certain,  that  this  custom  was  quite  worn  out 
even  among  the  heathen  within  the  space  of  forty 
years  after.  For  Maerobius,  who  lived  in  the  time 
of  the  younger  Theodosius,  about  the  year  420,  says 
expressly,"  That  the  use  or  custom  of  burning  the 
bodies  of  the  dead  was  quite  left  off  in  that  age, 
and  all  that  he  knew  of  it  was  only  from  ancient 
reading.  It  is  most  probable,  that  the  heathen 
custom  altered  by  degrees  from  the  time  of  Corn- 
modus  the  emperor ;  for  Commodus  himself  and 
many  of  his  friends  were  buried  by  inhumation, 
and  not  by  burning,  as  a  learned  person^  observes 
out  of  Xiphilin :  and  from  that  time  the  custom  of 
burning  might  decrease,  till  at  last,  under  the  Chris- 
tian emperors,  though  without  any  law  to  forbid  it, 
the  contrary  custom  entirely  prevailed,  and  this 
quite  dwindled  into  nothing.  But  the  Christians 
were  always  very  tenacious  of  the  plain  way  of 
burying  by  inhumation,  and  never  would  consent 
to  use  any  other ;  reckoning  it  a  great  piece  of  bar- 
barity in  their  persecutors,  whenever  they  denied 
them  this  decent  interment  after  death,  as  they 
sometimes  did,  either  by  exposing  their  bodies  to 
the  fury  of  wild  beasts  and  birds  of  prey,  or  burn- 
ing them  in  scorn  and  derision  of  their  doctrine  of 
a  future  resurrection.  Thus,  Eusebius"'  says,  out 
of  the  epistle  of  the  church  of  Smyrna,  they  treated 
Polycarp  at  the  instigation  of  the  Jews,  burning 
his  body,  according  to  their  own  custom,  after 
which  the  Christians  were  content  to  gather  up  his 
bones  and  bury  them.  And  so  they  treated  the 
martyrs  of  Lyons  and  Vienna  in  France,  to  the 


'*  Basil.  Horn,  in  Divites,  t.  1. 

"  Mimic,  p.  32.  Inde  videlicet  et  execrantur  rogos,  et 
damnant  igiiium  sepulttiras. 

'^  Ibid.  p.  10].  Nee  ut  creditis,  iiUum  damnum  sepultiiroc 
timemiis,  sed  veterem  et  meliorem  consuetudinem  humandi 
^eqiientamus. 

'"  Tertul.  de  Anima,  cap.  51.  Et  hoc  cnim  in  opininne 
quorundam  est :  proptcrea  nee  ignibus  fmierandmu  aiinit, 
pavcentes  superfluo  animsc.  Alia  est  autcm  ratio  piefatis 
istius,  non  reliquiis  anima;  adulatrix,  sed  crudelitatis  ctiam 
corporis  nomine  aversatrix,  quod  et  ipsum  tiomo  n^n  utique 


mereatur  pcenali  exitu  impendi. 

-"  Id.  de  Ilesiu-.  cap.  I.  Ego  magis  ridebo  vulgus,  tunc 
qiioque  quiun  ipsos  defunctos  atrocissime  exiirit,  qiios  post- 
modum  gulosissime  nutrit,  iisdem  ignibus  et  promerens  et 
offeudens.     O  pietatem  de  crudelitate  ludcntem  ! 

2'  Cod.  Tfieod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  17.  de  Sepulchris  Violatis,  Leg. 
6.  Omnia  qua;  supra  tcrrani  urui  sclausa,  vel  sarcophai^'is  cor- 
pora detinentur,  extra  urbcm  delata  ponantiir,  &c. 
,  "  Macrob.  Saturnal.  lib.  7.  cap.  7.     Licet  urendi  corpora 
defunctorum  usus  nostro  sccido  nullus  sit,  &c. 

«  Burnet,  Travels,  Let.  4.  p.  210.     "'  Euseb.  lib.  4.  cap.  15 


1240 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXIII. 


great  grief  of  the  Christians,  whom  they  would  not 
allow  to  bury  them,  but  for  six  days  together  kept 
them  above-ground,  and  then  burned  their  bodies, 
and  cast  their  ashes  into  the  river  Rosne,  in  despite 
to  their  belief  of  a  resurrection ;  crying  out,  Now 
let  us  see  whether  they  will  rise  again,  and  whether 
th^  God  is  able  to  deliver  them  out  of  our  hands': 
as  the  same  Eusebius^*  relates  the  story  out  of  The 
Acts  and  Monuments  of  their  Passion.  Thus  Max- 
imusthe  president  threatened  Tharacus  the  martyr,-" 
That  though  he  raised  himself  upon  the  confidence 
that  his  body  after  death  should  be  embalmed  and 
buried,  he  would  defeat  l^is  hopes  by  causing  his 
body  to  be  burnt,  and  sprinkling  his  ashes  before 
the  wind.  And  it  were  easy  to  give  other  examples 
of  the  like  usage  of  them  upon  such  occasions,  some 
of  which  are  related  by  the  heathen  historian  "  him- 
self, not  without  some  resentment  and  reflection 
upon  the  unnatural  cruelty  and  inhumanity  of  such 
proceedings. 

j5^,^(  5  From  the  last  instance  of  the  pre- 

bodk.^''''mu"i;  u/ed  si  dent's  threatening  the  martyr  Tha- 
«^y  mor"'by'  them  racus,  that  hc  sliould  not  be  embalm- 

tban  Uie  heattuns.  ■■      .  ^  •     /*  ^  -i      ,      ,  i 

ed,  it  were  easy  to  inter,  that  the 
custom  of  Christians  was  to  bestow  the  honour  and 
charge  of  embalming  commonly  upon  their  martyrs 
at  least,  if  not  upon  others.  But  the  custom  seems 
to  have  been  more  general;  for  the  heathen  in 
Minucius^  makes  it  a  matter  of  reproach  to  Chris- 
tians universally.  That  they  would  make  use  of  no 
odours  for  their  bodies  whilst  they  lived,  but  reserved 
all  costly  ointments  for  their  funerals.  And  Ter- 
tuUian  seems  to  intimate,-"  that  the  preparation  of 
the  body  for  its  funeral  with  odoriferous  spices  was 
the  general  practice  of  Christians.  It  is  true,  says 
he,  we  buy  no  frankincense ;  but  if  Arabia  com- 
plains of  this,  let  the  Sabeans  know,  that  more  of 
their  costly  wares  is  spent  in  burying  of  Christians, 
than  the  heathens  spend  in  their  temples  in  offer- 
ing incense  to  their  gods.  One  of  the  chief  ingre- 
dients in  this  unction  of  the  body  or  embalming  was 
myrrh  :  whence  Prudentius,  alluding  to  the  cus- 
tom,™ says,  The  Sabean  myrrh  anointing  the  body, 
by  its  medicinal  virtue  preserves  it  from  corruption! 
This  was  the  particular  use  and  virtue  of  myrrh,  as 
Grotius ''  observes  out  of  Pliny.  And  therefore  he 
tells  us  further  out  of  Herodotus'''  also,  that  the 
Eastern  nations  were  wont  to  make  use  of  myrrh 
to  embalm  the  bodies  of  the  dead.  And  that  the 
Jews  used  an  unction  as  a  preparation  for  burial,  is 


^  Euseb.  lib.  5.  cap.  ]. 

^^  Acta  Tharaci,  ap.  Baron,  an.  290.  n.  21. 

-■  Amtiiiau.  Marcellin.  lib.  22.  p.  241.     Vid.  Socrat.  lib. 
3.  cap.  1.    Euseb.  lib.  8.  cap.  6. 

'^  Mimic,  p.  .35.    Non  corpus  odoribiis  honestatis  :  reser- 
vatis  unguenta  funeribiis. 

-^  Tertul.  Apol.  cap.  42.     Thiira  plane  non  emimus.     Si    I 
Arabia  queruntur,  sciant  Saba;i  pluris  et  carioris  suas  mer-    | 


infallibly  certain  in  general  both  from  the  testimony 
of  our  Saviour  given  to  the  woman  who  anointed 
his  body  to  the  burial,  and  also  from  what  St.  John 
says  in  particular  of  Joseph  of  Arimathea,  and  Ni- 
codemus,  that  they  "brought  a  mixture  of  myrrh  and 
aloes,  about  a  hundred  pound  weight,  and  took  the 
body  of  Jesus,  and  wound  it  in  the  linen  clothes 
with  the  spices,  as  the  manner  of  the  Jews  is  to 
bury,"  John  xix.  39.  From  hence  most  probably  the 
Christians  took  their  intimation  of  paying  the  same 
respect  to  the  bodies  of  the  dead.  The  ancients 
also  were  of  opinion,  that  there  was  something  mys- 
tically denoted  in  the  presents  made  by  the  wise 
men  to  our  Saviour  at  his  liirth,  when  they  pre- 
sented him  with  gifts,  gold,  frankincense,  and 
myrrh :  gold,  as  to  a  king ;  frankincense,  as  to 
God  ;  and  myrrh,  as  to  a  man  that  must  die  and  be 
buried.  For  though  they  might  intend  none  of 
these  things,  yet  the  Holy  Gliost  might  direct  these 
presents  to  be  such  as  might  signify  all  these  things 
without  their  knowledge  ;  as  he  directed  Mary's 
anointing  of  Christ  to  his  burial ;  for  so  our  Lord 
himself  was  pleased  to  interpret  and  accept  it, 
though  perhaps  that  was  not  particularly  in  her 
intention.  It  is  certain  this  was  the  general  notion 
of  the  ancients  concerning  the  myrrh  presented  to 
our  Saviour ;  as  Maldonat,^'  from  Irenoeus,  Cy- 
prian, Origen,  Basil,  Gregory  Nyssen,  Chrysos- 
tom,  Ambrose,  Austin,  Jerom,  -Juvencus,  and  Se- 
dulius.  And  the  opinion  seems  to  have  taken  its 
original  from  the  practice  of  the  Eastern  coun- 
tries in  using  myrrh  in  the  preparation  of  dead 
bodies  for  their  burial.  And  this  concurring  ex- 
actly with  the  Jewish  custom  and  our  Saviour's 
manner  of  burial,  might  probably  the  more  incline 
the  ancients  to  be  curious  in  using  the  same  prepar- 
ation of  dead  bodies  for  their  funeral.  But  they  had 
also  a  further  reason  for  it :  for  they  were  often 
obliged  to  bury  their  dead  in  those  places  where 
they  were  to  assemble  for  Divine  service ;  and  in 
that  case  it  was  necessary  that  they  sliould  use  em- 
balming, to  preserve  the  bodies  from  corruption,  and 
make  those  places  to  be  the  less  offensive  :  as  I  find 
a  late  ingenious  writer  is  also  inclined  to  think''  in 
his  reflections  on  this  subject.  Now,  the'heathens 
having  generally  another  way  of  burying,  this  cus- 
tom was  of  no  use  among  them ;  for  it  was  incon- 
gruous to  use  methods  to  preserve  the  body  from 
corruption,  which  they  intended  immediately  to  de- 
stroy by  fire  and  reduce  to  ashes  in  a  funeral  pile. 


ces  Christianis  sepeliendis  profligari,  quam  diis  fiimigandis. 
Vid.  do  Idololatria,  cap.  11.  Et  Acta  Euplii,  ap.  Barouium, 
an.  3U.3.  n.  149. 

^''  Prudent.  Cathemerin.  Hymn.de  E.xequiis  defunctorum. 
Aspersaque  myrrha  Saboeo  corpus  medicamine  servat. 

31  Grot,  in  Matt.  ii.  Jl.  ^-  Herodot.  lib.  2. 

•*'  Maldon.  in  Matt.  ii.  11. 

"  h'eevc's  Apolog.  Not.  on  Minucius,  p.  76. 


I 


Chap.  II. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1241 


Sect.  6. 

Tlie    Christians 

usiiHlty  bun.'d  hy 

dav.  the  iiealhens 

by'iiigl.t. 


These  things  were  plainly  contradictory  to  one 
another ;  and  therefore,  as  the  Roman  heathens 
made  no  use  of  embalming,  so  we  may  reckon  this 
another  difference  between  the  Christian  funerals 
and  those  of  the  heathens. 

There  was  one  difference  more  in 
point  of  time.  For  the  heathens  com- 
monly performed  their  funeral  obse- 
quies by  night ;  but  the  Christians, 
when  they  had  liberty,  and  could  do  it  with  safety, 
always  chose  the  day.  In  times  of  persecution, 
indeed,  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose,  they  might  often 
be  forced  to  celebrate  their  funeral  offices,  as  they 
did  others,  in  the  security  and  silence  of  the  night, 
to  avoid  the  rage  of  their  enemies.  As  we  find  an 
example  in  the  passion  of  Cyprian,^  whose  body, 
because  of  the  curiosity  of  the  Gentiles,  is  said  to  be 
buried  secretly  in  the  night  with  lamps  and  torches. 
And  yet  even  this  was  not  always  the  case  in  those 
difficult  times:  for  the  judges  were  often  better  na- 
lured,  than  to  deny  them  the  common  right  and 
civility  of  burying,  which  they  themselves  thought 
was  a  debt  due  to  human  nature  in  general ;  and 
therefore,  whatever  other  cruelties  they  exercised 
toward  Christians,  they  ordinarily  gratified  them  in 
suffering  them  to  bury  the  martyrs  whom  they  had 
slain ;  as  is  evident  from  several  of  their  acts  or 
histories  of  their  passions  :^'^  in  which  case  there 
was  no  need  to  fly  to  the  favour  and  security  of  the 
night,  but  they  might  bury,  as  they  often  did,  in 
the  open  day.  Thus,  when  Polycarp  was  burnt,  the 
disciples  afterward  were  permitted  quietly''  to  gather 
up  his  bones  and  relics,  and  bury  them  as  they 
pleased.  And  Asturius,  a  Roman  senator,  is  famed'' 
for  carrjdng  Marinus  on  his  own  shoulders  from 
the  place  of  his  martyrdom  to  his  grave. 

But  however  this  matter  stood  in  times  of  perse- 
cution, it  is  certain,  that  as  soon  as  Constantine 
came  to  the-  throne.  Christians  chose  to  perform 
their  funeral  rites  openly  in  the  day :  which  they 
did  all  the  time  of  Constantine  and  Constantius ; 
at  which  Julian  the  apostate  was  so  highly  offended, 
that  he  set  forth  an  edict  on  purpose  to  forbid  it, 
which  is  a  certain  evidence  in  the  case.  We  under- 
stand, says  he,  that  the  bodies  of  the  dead'"  are 
carried  to  their  graves  with  great  concourse  of  peo- 
ple, and  multitudes  to  attend  them :  which  is  an 
ominous  sight,  and  a  defilement  to  the  eyes  of  men. 
For  how  can  the  day  be  auspicious  that  sees  a  fune- 


ral ?  Or  how  can  men  go  thence  to  the  gods  and 
to  the  temples  ?  Therefore,  because  grief  in  funeral 
obsequies  rather  chooses  secrecy,  and  it  is  all  one  to 
the  dead  whether  they  be  carried  forth  by  night  or 
by  day,  it  is  fit  that  such  spectacles  should  not  fall 
under  the  view  of  all  the  people,  that  true  grief,  and 
not  the  pomp  and  ostentation  of  obsequies,  should 
appear  in  funerals.  This  is  a  plain  reflection  on 
the  practice  of  the  Christians  in  the  two  foregoing 
reigns.  It  grieved  Julian  to  see  the  Christians  cele- 
brate their  funerals  so  openly  by  day,  and  with  in- 
dications of  joy  rather  than  grief;  especially  in  their 
translations  of  martyrs,  vyhich  was  of  the  same  na- 
ture with  funerals,  and  was  performed  with  great 
magnificence  and  expressions  of  joy,  with  psalmody 
and  hymns  to  God,  in  a  general  assembly  and  con- 
course of  the  people.  As  it  was  particularly  in  the 
translation  of  Babylas  from  Daphne  to  Antioch, 
which  happened  in  his  time,  and  was  one  of  the 
great  grievances  in  his  reign.  For,  as  the  histori- 
an^" tells  us,  all  the  Christians  of  Antioch,  men  and 
women,  young  men  and  virgins,  old  men  and  chil- 
dren, accompanied  the  coffin  all  the  way,  having 
their  precentors  to  sing  psalms,  at  the  end  of  every 
one  of  which  the  whole  multitude  joined  by  way  of 
antiphonal  response,  with  this  versicle,  "  Confound- 
ed be  all  they  that  worship  carved  images,  and  that 
boast  themselves  in  idols  or  vain  gods."  This  they 
did  for  the  space  of  six  thousand  paces  or  forty  fur- 
longs, even  in  the  hearing  of  Julian  himself;  which 
so  enraged  him,  that  the  next  day  he  put  many  of 
them  into  prison,  and  some  to  extreme  torture  and 
death.  And  this,  no  doubt,  was  the  secret  reason 
of  his  enacting  that  law  against  the  manner  of  cele- 
brating Christian  funerals ;  though  the  law  itself 
pretends  other  reasons,  taken  from  the  superstitious 
principles  of  his  profound  philosophy  and  religion. 
His  first  reason  is.  That  the  very  sight  of  a  funeral 
by  day,  and  much  more  their  attendance  upon  it, 
pollutes  men  so,  that  they  are  not  fit  all  that  day  to 
attend  upon  the  service  of  the  gods.  And  therefore 
a  priest  or  a  magistrate,  by  the  rules  of  the.  Roman 
superstition,  Avas  not  allowed  to  attend  upon  any 
funeral  by  day,  but  only  by  night ;  as  Gothofred,'" 
out  of  the  best  Roman  writers,  Servius  and  Donatus, 
Aulus  Gellius,  Seneca,  Tacitus,  and  Dio,  shows  at 
large  in  his  exposition  of  that  law.  This  is  a  reason 
taken  from  the  principles  of  his  own  superstition 
in  religion.     Another  is  taken  from  the  principles 


^^  Passio  Cypr.  p.  14.  Ejus  corpus  propter  Gcntilium 
curiositatem  in  proximo  positum  est  cum  cereis  et  scola- 
cibus. 

'"  Passio  Maximilian),  ad  calcem  Lact.  de  Mort.  Persec. 
p.  46.  Ponipeiaua  matrona  corpus  ejus  de  judice  meruit 
et  imposuit  dormitorio  sue,  &c. 

s'  Euseb.  lib.  4.  cap.  15.  »  ibid.  lib.  7.  cap.lG. 

39  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  17.  de  Violandis  Scpukhris, 
Leg.  5.  Efferri  cognovimus  cadavera  mortuorum  per  con- 
fertam  populi  frequentiam,  et  per  maximam  insistentium 


densitatem :  quod  quidcm  oculos  hominum  infaustis  infes- 
tat  aspectibus.  Qui  enim  dies  est  bene  auspicatus  a  funere  ? 
aut  quomodo  ad  deos  et  teuipla  venietur  ?  Ideoque  quo- 
niam  et  dolor  in  exsequiis  secretum  aniat,  et  diem  functis 
nihil  interest,  ulrum  per  nodes  an  per  dies  effciautur, 
liberaii  convenit  populi  totius  aspectus,  ut  dolor  esse  in 
f'uneribus,  non  pouipa  exsequiarum,  ncc  ostentatio  videatur. 

'"'  Socrat.  lib.  3.  cap.  18.  Sozomen.  lib.  5.  cap.  19. 
Ruflin.  lib.  1.  cap.  3.^.     Theodor.  lib.  3.  cap.  10. 

^'  Gothofred.  in  diet.  Leir.  Juliani. 


1242 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXIII. 


of  his  philosophy,  of  which  he  pretended  to  be  a 
great  master ;  namely  this,  That  the  secrecy  and 
silence  of  the  night  was  fitter  for  sorrow,  than  the 
pomp  and  ostentation  of  the  day,  as  he  called  it. 
A  third  reason  was.  That  it  was  all  one  to  the  dead, 
whether  they  were  buried  by  night  or  by  day ;  and 
therefore  it  was  more  commodious  to  bury  by  night 
for  the  sake  of  the  living,  who  by  nocturnal  funerals 
could  not  be  polluted  or  offended.  But  the  Chris- 
tians despised  these  reasons,  both  as  unphilosophi- 
cal,  and  ridiculous  and  irreligious.  As  to  the  iirst, 
they  knew  no  pollution  arising  from  the  attendance 
on  a  dead  body  or  a  funeral.  The  bodies  of  Chris- 
tians were  the  members  of  Christ,  both  alive  and 
dead ;  and  they  owned  no  defilement  in  accompany- 
ing such  to  their  graves,  who  were  there  only  laid 
asleep  and  at  rest,  as  candidates  of  the  resurrection. 
Whatever  the  Gentile  theology  might  teach,  they 
were  fully  persuaded  that  the  dead  were  in  the  com- 
munion of  saints  still,  and  as  such  might  be  com- 
municated with  and  attended  without  any  moral 
defilement  or  pollution.  And  for  his  second  reason 
from  philosophy.  That  the  night  is  more  conveni- 
ent for  sorrow,  while  the  day  only  serves  for  pomp 
and  ostentation ;  this  was  no  argument  to  them, 
who  were  taught  not  to  give  way  to  excessive  sor- 
row for  the  dead,  nor  to  sorrow  as  others  without 
hope  for  them  that  were  only  fallen  asleep :  for 
Christian  mournings  had  also  a  mixture  of  joy  and 
comfort  in  them :  their  funeral  pomp  was  chiefly 
psalmody  and  praises,  with  which  they  conducted 
the  deceased  party  to  the  grave  ;  and  such  a  pomp 
as  that  had  nothing  of  ostentation  in  it ;  it  served 
only  to  provoke  the  living  to  holiness  and  virtue,  to 
be  mindful  of  death,  and  to  make  a  good  prepara- 
tion for  it ;  and  therefore  was  proper  to  be  exhibited 
in  open  view,  in  the  eyes  of  all  the  people,  in  the 
most  public  manner,  among  crowds  of  spectators 
and  a  general  concourse.  For  all  which  the  day 
was  far  more  convenient  than  the  night,  the  design 
of  their  funerals  being  to  be  seen  of  all  the  people. 
And  therefore,  since  it  was  an  indifferent  thing  to 
the  dead  whether  they  were  buried  by  day  or  by 
night,  (which  was  his  third  reason,)  the  Christians 
chose  the  day  for  such  solemnities,  as  being  much 
more  proper  for  the  living,  whose  advantage  herein 
was  chiefly  regarded. 

And  upon  these  reasons  the  Christians  continued 
to  perform  their  funeral  obsequies  by  day,  notwith- 
standing Julian's  inhibition  or  reasons  to  the  con- 
trary.    Gothofred  thinks,  that  from  this  time  there 


is  no  instance  of  their  burying  by  night :  against 
which,  he  says,  there  is  nothing  to  be  alleged  but  one 
passage  in  St.  Ambrose,  which  seems  to  speak*" 
still  of  funerals  by  night ;  for  writing  to  widows,  he 
bids  them  consider,  whether  marrying  again,  and 
being  conducted  home  with  torches  in  the  night, 
would  not  look  as  much  like  a  funeral  as  a  mar- 
riage ?  But  Gothofred  says,  this  is  not  any  ac- 
count of  fact,  or  what  was  then  practised,  but  only 
an  allusion  to  the  ancient  custom  of  using  torches 
both  at  marriages  and  funerals,  according  to  that 
of  the  poet,  Vivitefelices  inter  utramquefacem,  which 
was  the  common  acclamation  of  the  people  to  the 
new-married  couple,  Live  happy  all  your  lives  be- 
tween your  marriage  torch  and  your  funeral  torch. 
But  I  am  not  sure  that  this  is  a  good  answer,  be- 
cause there  are  other  undeniable  evidences,  in  fact, 
of  Christians  burying  with  lamps  and  torches  at- 
tending the  funeral.  And,  therefore,  some  other 
account  seems  necessaiy  to  be  given  of  it ;  and  it 
may  be  this ;  that  the  Christians,  even  when  they 
buried  by  day,  used  sometimes  to  carry  lighted 
torches  in  the  procession  of  the  funeral,  as  a  demon- 
stration of  joy  ;  which  they  also  did  upon  some 
other  occasions.  For  St.  Jerom  says,''^  In  all  the 
churches  of  the  East,  when  the  gospel  was  to  be 
read,  they  lighted  candles  in  the  day-time,  not  to 
drive  away  the  darkness,  but  to  give  a  demonstra- 
tion and  testimony  of  their  joy  for  the  good  news 
which  the  gospel  brought,  and  by  a  corporeal  sym- 
bol to  represent  that  light  of  which  the  psalmist 
speaks,  "  Thy  word  is  a  lamp  to  my  feet,  and  a  light 
unto  my  paths."  And  therefore  it  is  not  impro- 
bable but  that  they  might  use  the  same  ceremony 
in  their  funerals  by  day,  and  for  the  same  reason, 
to  demonstrate  their  joy,  rather  than  sorrow  like 
the  heathens.  In  fact  it  is  evident  beyond  dispute, 
that  they  did  use  lighted  torches  at  their  funerals ; 
and  yet  no  intimation  is  given  that  their  funerals 
were  by  night.  Nazianzen,  speakingof  the  obsequies 
of  his  brother  Csesarius,"  says  expressly.  That  his 
mother  carried  a  torch  in  her  hand  before  his  body  at 
his  funeral.  St.  Jerom  says  the  bishops  "  of  Palestine 
did  the  like  at  the  funeral  of  the  famous  Lady  Paula ; 
Some  of  them,  in  honour  to  her,  carried  her  body  to  the 
grave,  and  others  went  before  the  corpse  with  lamps 
and  torches  in  their  hands.  Gregory  Nyssen  gives 
the  same  account  of  the  funeral  of  his  sister  Ma- 
crina,'"'  that  the  clergy  went  before  the  corpse,  car- 
rying lighted  torches  in  their  hands.  And  Theodo- 
ret,"  speaking  of  the  translation  of  Chrysostom's 


*2  Ambros.  de  Viduis.  Cum  accensis  funalibus  nox  dii- 
citur,  nonne  pompae  fiineris  exequias  iiiagis  piitat  quam 
thalamum  prseparari  ? 

^'  Hieron.  conl.  Vigilant,  cap.  3.  Per  totas  Orientis  cc- 
clesias,  quum  lej^endum  est  evangelium,  accendiinUir  lumi- 
naria  jam  sole  rutilantc,  non  utique  ad  fiigandas  tenebras, 
sad  ad  signum  laititiai  demonstrandum,  &c. 


**  Naz.  Orat.  10.  in  Cacsarium,  t.  1.  p.  1G9. 

"  Hieron.  Ep.  27.  ad  Eustoch.  in  Epitaph.  Paulas.  Trans- 
lata  episcoporum  manibus,  et  cervicem  feretro  subjicienti- 
bus,  cum  alii  pontifices  lampadas  cereosquc  praeferreut 

^^  Nyssen.  Vit.  Macrina?,  t.  2.  p.  201. 

•"  Theod.  lib.  5.  cap.  36. 


ClIAP.    III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1243 


body  from  Comanae  to  Constantinople,  says,  There 
was  such  a  multitude  of  people  met  him  in  ships  in 
his  passage  over  the  Bosphorus,  that  the  sea  was 
even  covered  with  lamps.    St.  Chrysostom""*  himself 
speaks  also  of  the  use  of  lamps  in  their  funerals. 
And  in  one  of  Justinian's  Novels  '*  the  acolythists 
are  forbidden  to  exact  any  thing  for  their  torches, 
because  at  Constantinople  they  were  allowed  for 
funerals  out  of  the  public  fund,  which  was  there 
provided  for  the  interment  of  the  dead.     These  are 
not  bare  allusions  to  an  ancient  custom,  but  plain 
accounts  of  fact,  which  either  prove  that  Christians 
celebrated  some  of  their  funerals  by  night,  or  else 
that  they  used  lighted  torches  by  day ;  as  some  of 
the  testimonies  seem  to  intimate:  for  Chrysostom 
says,  they  used  their  lights  before  the  dead  to  sig- 
nify that  they  were  champions  or  conquerors,  and, 
as  such,  conducted  in  triumph  to  their  graves.  And 
thus  far  Gothofred's  opinion  may  be  admitted,  that 
the  Christians  generally  celebrated  their  funerals 
by  day  ;  but  then  this  must  be  added  to  it,  that  they 
used  lamps  and  torches  lighted  in  the  day,  to  ex- 
press their  joy,  and  signify  their  respect  and  hon- 
our to  the  deceased  as  a  victorious  combatant,  who 
had  conquered  this  world  here  below,  and  was  now 
gone  to  take  possession  of  a  better  world  above.    If 
any  weight  could  be  laid  upon  the  uncertain  au- 
thority of  the  writer  of  the  Life  of  St.  German,  bi- 
shop of  Auxerre  in  Surius,  it  would  put  the  matter 
out  of  dispute  ;  for  he  says  ^^  the  multitude  of  lights 
used  at  his  funeral  seemed  to  outdo  the  sun,  and 
beat  back  its  rays  at  noon-day.     But  without  this 
uncertain  testimony,  enough  has  been  said  to  show 
the  difference  between  the  custom  of  the  heathens 
burying  by  night  and  the  Christians  burying  by 
day,  which  is  the  principal  thing  I  intended  in  this 
part  of  my  discourse.    I  only  add  one  thing  by  way 
of  confirmation,  that  the   Christians  in  this   age 
generally  celebrated  the  eucharist  at  their  funerals, 
which  is  a  service  belonging  to  the  day,  and  not 
the  night ;  and  to  the  moi-ning  part  of  the  day,  and 
not  the  afternoon.     Whence  in  one  of  the  councils 
of  Carthage  we  find  an  order,  that  if  any  commend- 
ation of  the  dead  was  to  be  made  in  the  afternoon, 
it  should  be  performed  only  with  prayers,  and  not 
the  celebration  of  the  eucharist ;  which  is  a  certain 
argument,  that  their  funerals  were  then  generally 
by  day,  since  the  funeral  office  was  in  a  manner  ap- 
propriated to  the  eucharistical  or  morning  service  : 
but  of  this  more  hereafter  in  its  proper  place. 


CHAPTER  III. 

HOW  THEY  PREPARED  THE  BODY  FOR  THE  FUNE- 
RAL, AND  WITH  WHAT  RELIGIOUS  CEREMONIES 
AND    SOLEMNITIES    THEY    INTERRED    IT. 

Come  we  now  to  the  ceremonies  used 

Spcf.  1. 

in  T)reparing  the  body  for  tlie  funeral,     christians  uiways 

•■        i-  o  J  raicful   to  burr  the 

and  the  solemnity  of  interring  it.  No  dead  even  with  the 

•'  o  hazard  of  their  liveB. 

act  of  charity  is  more  magnified  by  the 
ancients  than  (his  of  burying  the  dead;  and  there- 
fore they  many  times  ventured  upon  it  even  with 
the  hazard  of  their  lives.     In  times  of  persecution, 
and  in  times  of  pestilential  diseases,  this  could  not 
be  done  without  great  danger  ;  and  yet  they  never 
scrupled  it  in  either  case.  Asturius,  a  Roman  sena- 
tor," took  the  body  of  Marinus  the  martyr  from  the 
place  of  execution,  and  carried  it  on  his  own  shoul- 
ders to  the  grave.     And  Eutychianus  is  celebrated 
in  the  Roman  Martyrology  and  the  Pontifical  for 
having  buried  three  -  hundred  and  forty-two  martyrs 
in  several  places  with  his  own  hands.     Sometimes 
they  ventured  to  steal  away  the  bodies  of  the  mar- 
tyrs in  the  night,  when  they  could  not  otherwise 
either  by  money  or  entreaties  get  liberty  to  bury 
them.     As  we  learn  from  the  epistle  of  the  church 
of  Lyons  and  Vienna  in  Eusebius,^  where  the  bre- 
thren express  their  profoundest  sorrow  and  grief 
because  their  enemies  would  not  suffer  them  to  bury 
the  bodies  of  their  martyrs.     For  they  kept  such  a 
strict  guard  upon  them,  that  they  could  not  come  at 
them  by  night  to  take  them  away;  neither  would 
money  prevail,  nor  any  solicitations  move  the  keep- 
ers to  deliver  the  bodies  up  to  be  buried,  but  they 
kept  them  six  days  exposed  in  the  open  air,  and 
then  burned  them,  and  scattered  their  ashes  in  the 
river,  that  there  might  be  no  relics  of  them  remain- 
ing upon  the  earth.     The  brethren  here  ventured 
their  lives  by  night,  to  have  got  the  bodies,  if  it  had 
been  possible,  to  have  given  them  a  decent  funeral. 
And  there  want  not  instances  in  the  ancient  Mar- 
tyrologies  of  some  who  became  martyrs  themselves 
upon  this  account,  for  their  excessive  charity  to 
their  brethren.     The  other  difficult  case  in  which 
they  expressed  an  equal  charity  and  concern,  was 
the  time  when  pestilential  diseases  raged  in  the 
world.     Even  in  this  case  they  would  never  desert 
their  brethren  Avhile  alive,  nor  leave  them  unburied 
after  death.    Uionysius,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  gives 
us  a  remarkable  instance  of  this  care*  in  that  terri- 
ble plague  that  happened  in  Egypt  in  his  time. 
He  says.  The  Christians  not  only  attended  their 
brethren  when  they  were  sick,  but  also  took  care  of 


*s  Chrys.  Horn.  4.  in  Hebr.  p.  1784. 

*"  Justin.  Novel.  59.  cap.  5. 

«•  Surius.  30.  Jul.  ap.  Durant.  de  Ritib.  lib.  1.  cap.  23.  n.  14. 


'  Eusob.  lib.  7.  cap.  10. 

^  Euseb.  lib.  5.  cap.  1. 

*  Ap.  Euseb.  lib.  7.  cap.  22 


-  Pontifical.  Vit.  Eutvchiani. 


1244 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXIII. 


them  when  they  were  dead,  closing  their  eyes  and 
mouths,  laying  them  forth,  watching  with  them, 
washing  their  bodies,  dressing  them  and  clothing 
them  in  garments  proper  for  their  burial,  and  then 
carrying  them  out  on  their  own  shoulders  to  their 
graves :  in  doing  which  they  often  ventured  so  far, 
that  in  a  short  time  it  was  their  own  lot  to  have  the 
same  good  offices  done  to  themselves  by  others. 

^  This  passage  of  Dionysius  shows  us 

t  "Tod''''fo?'bSriHf  *^^*  ^"V  the  great  charity  of  the  an- 
fyrs''and'm'oifth :' a  cicnt  Christians  in  burying  the  dead, 
stance,  obsmed  by  but  also  some  of  the  lesser  circum- 

ftll  nations.  .,  .  ■,  , , 

stances  and  ceremonies  then  usually 
observed  in  preparing  and  decently  composing  the 
body  for  its  burial.  First,  he  says,  they  were  used 
to  close  its  eyes  and  mouth  as  soon  as  it  was  dead. 
Which  was  a  custom  of  decency  observed  by  all 
nations,  and  taught  them  as  a  comely  thing  by  na- 
ture itself.  Only  the  Romans  added  another  cere- 
mony to  it,  which  had  nothing  of  nature,  but 
superstition,  in  it;  which  was,  as  Pliny*  describes 
it,  to  open  their  eyes  again  at  the  funeral  pile,  and 
show  them  to  heaven  :  which,  according  to  the  Ro- 
man superstition,  was  as  necessary  to  be  done,  as  it 
was  necessary  at  first  to  close  their  eyes  against 
the  sight  of  men.  The  ground  of  this  superstition 
I  will  not  stand  to  inquire  into,  but  only  observe, 
that  as  the  Christians  rejected  this  ceremony  be- 
cause it  was  a  mere  superstition,  so  they  retained 
the  other,  as  agreeable  to  that  decency  which  is 
taught  by  nature. 

The  next  circumstance  mentioned 
Then  washing  the    by  Dionysius,  was  laying  the  body 

body  in  water.  .  . 

out,  and  washing  it  with  water.  This 
was  a  ceremony  used  not  only  by  the  Greeks  and 
Romans,  but  by  the  Hebrews  also ;  from  whom  it 
was  taken  and  continued  by  the  Christians,  as  it  is 
now  by  the  Jews,  though  for  more  sujjerstitious 
reasons  than  formerlj^,  as  Buxtorf  acquaints  us,"  at 
this  day.  That  it  was  a  very  early  rite  derived  from 
the  Jews  to  the  Christians,  we  learn  from  the  ac- 
count which  is  given  of  Tabitha,  Acts  ix.  37,  where 
it  is  said,  that  when  she  was  dead,  they  washed 
her,  and  "  laid  her  in  an  upper  chamber."  And  some 
will  have'  this  to  be  the  meaning  of  the  apostle, 
1  Cor.  XV.  29,  where  he  speaks  of  being  baptized 
or  washed  for  the  dead :  which  is  not  so  certain. 
However,  the  custom  is  mentioned  as  usual  among 
Christians,  not  only  by  Dionysius,  but  TertuUian,^ 
who  says,  The  Christians  used  bathing  as  well  as 


Sect.  4. 
Dressing  it  in  fu- 
neral   robes ;     and 
tliese  sometimes 
rich  arid  splendid. 


the  heathens,  at  proper  times,  for  health,  to  preserve 
their  vital  heat  and  blood ;  for  it  was  time  enough 
to  grow  pale  and  cold  when  they  came  to  be  wash- 
ed after  death.  This  was  also  an  innocent  and 
decent  ceremony,  and  therefore  the  Christians  re- 
tained it,  not  for  any  mystical  signification,  that 
any  of  them  mention,  but  as  a  civil  rite,  and  comely 
preparation  of  the  body  for  its  burial.  How  long 
it  continued  in  practice  I  know  not  exactly ;  but 
Durantus"  gives  later  instances  of  its  use  out  of 
Gregory  the  Great,  and  Gregory  of  Tours,  and 
Bede's  Life  of  St.  Cuthbert,  and  Eginhardus's  Life 
of  Charles  the  Great. 

The  next  circumstance  noted  by 
Dionysius,  is  dressing  and  adorning 
the  body  in  robes  proper  for  its  fune- 
ral. He  takes  no  notice  of  anointing 
the  body  with  precious  ointment,  nor  of  the  use  of 
any  embalming,  (which  was  proper  to  be  mention- 
ed between  washing  and  clothing,)  because  this 
was  not  so  generally  used,  as  being  a  more  charge- 
able thing,  and  not  so  proper,  therefore,  to  the  de- 
plorable case  he  was  speaking  of.  But  we  have 
had  occasion  to  speak  enough  of  this  before.  The 
present  circumstance  of  dressing  and  adorning  the 
body  in  some  robes  or  vestments  proper  for  its 
burial,  is  mentioned  by  several  other  writers,  who 
speak  of  these  robes  as  diflfering  much,  either  ac- 
cording to  the  dignity  and  quality  of  the  deceased, 
or  the  quality  of  those  who  prepared  them.  Euse- 
bius'°  says,  Asturius,  being  a  rich  and  noble  Roman 
senator,  wound  up  the  body  of  Marinus  the  martyr, 
tv  [laXa  T:\ovaiwQ,  in  a  very  rich  garment,  and  so 
carried  him  to  his  grave.  And  Constantine,  ac- 
cording to  the  dignity  of  an  emperor,  was  buried  in 
a  purple  robe,  with  other  magnificence  proper  to 
the  dignity  of  his  person,  as  the  same  Eusebius" 
informs  us.  And  St.  Jerom  signifies  this  to  have 
been  the  custom  of  the  rich,'-  though,  according  to 
his  usual  manner,  he  somewhat  satirically  inveighs 
against  it :  Spare,  I  pray,  yourselves  ;  spare  at  least 
your  riches,  which  ye  love.  Why  do  you  wind  up 
your  dead  in  clothes  of  gold  ?  Why  does  not  your 
ambition  cease  in  the  midst  of  mourning  an,d  tears  ? 
Cannot  the  bodies  of  the  rich  find  a  way  to  rot  any 
otherwise  than  in  silk  ?  Thus  he  at  once  gives  us 
the  custom,  and  his  own  tart  reflection  on  it,  show- 
ing himself  a  friend  rather  to  the  plain  and  common 
way  of  dressing  the  dead  for  their  funeral ;  which 
was,  to  wrap  them  up  in  clean  linen  clothes,  after 


\ 


^  Plin.  Nat.  Hist.  lib.  11.  cap.  .37.  p.  204.  Morientibus 
oculos  operire,  rursusqiie  in  rogo  patefacere,  Qniritium  mag- 
no  ritu  sacrum  est.  Ita  more  condito,  ut  neque  ab  hoinine 
supremuin  ens  spectari  fas  sit,  et  coelo  non  ostendi  nefas. 

^  Buxtorf.  Synagog.  Judaic,  cap.  35.  p.  501. 

'  Vid.  Beza,  in  Act.  ix.  37. 

*  Tertul.  Apol.  cap.  42.  Lavor  honesta  hora  et  salubri, 
qua;  niihi  et  calorem  et  sanguinem  servet:  rigere  et  pallere 
post  lavacrum  mortuus  possum. 


9  Durant.  de  Ritib.  lib.  1.  cap.  23.  n.  14. 

'"  Euseb.  lib.  7.  cap.  16. 

"  Euseb.  de  Vit.  Const,  lib.  4.  cap.  06. 

'^  Hieron.  Vit.  Pauli.  Parcite,  quseso,  vobis.  parcite  sal- 
tern divitiis  quas  amatis.  Cur  et  mortuos  vestros  auratis 
obvolvitis  vestibus  ?  Cur  ambitio  inter  luctus  lachrymasque 
non  cessat  ?  An  cadavera  divitum  nisi  in  serico  putrescere 
nesciunt  ? 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


12^5 


the  example  of  Christ's  body,  as  the  manner  of  the 
Jews  was  to  bury.  So  St.  Jerom  says  in  another 
place,"  speaking  of  the  woman  that  was  seven  times 
smitten ;  The  clergy,  whose  office  it  was,  wound  up 
her  bloody  body  in  linen  clothes.  And  so  Pru- 
dentius,  in  his  Hymn  upon  the  Obsequies  of  the 
Dead,  represents  it  as  the  most  usual  funeral'^  dress. 
And  Athanasius'*  says,  It  was  the  custom  of  the 
Egyptians  to  use  linen,  not  only  for  the  meaner  sort 
of  people,  but  for  the  nobles  albo,  and  the  martyrs. 
However,  some  adorning  or  other  was  always  used ; 
and  therefore  Sidonius  Apollinaris  represents  it '" 
as  a  thing  contrary  to  the  common  way  of  burying 
in  the  Goths,  that  being  forced  to  inter  their  slain 
in  a  tumultuous  manner,  they  could  neither  wash 
them,  nor  clothe  them  for  the  grave,  but  threw 
whole  loads  of  them  naked  and  dropping  with  blood 
into  the  earth ;  which  is  usual  enough  in  burying 
the  slain  of  an  army  in  the  field,  but  no  way  agree- 
able to  the  manner  of  burying  in  time  of  peace. 
He  that  would  see  more  of  this  custom,  may  con- 
sult the  learned  Savaro's  Notes  upon  Sidonius,  who 
gives  other  instances  out  of  Arnobius,  and  Lactan- 
tius,  and  Corippus,  and  Gregory  of  Tours,  and  Con- 
stantius's  Life  of  Germanus,  which  I  will  not  stand 
to  repeat  in  this  place.  I  only  add  that  of  St. 
Jerom,"  where  he  commends  the  Lady  Paula  for 
her  great  charity  to  the  poor,  in  that  she  never  suf- 
fered any  of  their  bodies  to  go  without  a  funeral 
garment  to  their  graves ;  and  out  of  her  immense 
propensity  to  the  practice  of  this  virtue,  wished, 
that  she  herself  might  die  poor,  and  be  beholden  to 
the  charity  of  some  other  to  give  her  a  piece  of  linen 
to  wrap  up  her  body  for  its  funeral :  and  to  this 
subjoin  that  passage  of  St.  Chrysostom,'^  where  he 
makes  this  funeral  clothing  to  have  something  of 
signification  in  it,  saying,  We  clothe  the  dead  in 
new  garments,  to  signify  or  represent  beforehand 
their  putting  on  the  new  clothing  of  incorruption. 
The  next  circumstance  mentioned 
Watching  and  at-  in  the  sliort  account  of  Dionysius,  is 

t.onding  it  in  its  cof- 
fin till'  the  time  of  the  dcccnt  composing  them  in  their 

the  funeral.  ■*■  ^ 

coffin,  and  watching  and  attending 
them  till  the  time  of  their  funeral.  It  was  the 
custom  of  all  nations  to  let  the  dead  corpse  lie  some 
time  unburied,  lest  there  should  chance  to  be  some 
vital  spirit  or  remains  of  life  in  them,  that  might 
be  quite  destroyed  by  too  hasty  a  funeral.  For  this 
I'eason  the  Romans  let  their  body  lie  seven  days ; 
meanwhile  using  their  ablution  in  warm  water,  and 


their  several  conclamations,  as  they  called  them,  to 
try  if  there  was  any  spirit  left  in  them,  which  might 
be  awaked  and  recovered  to  life  again.  If  after  the 
last  conclamation  no  sign  of  life  appeared,  then 
Convlamatum  eat,  there  was  no  remedy,  after  this 
cry  they  carried  them  forth  to  their  funeral  pile. 
The  Roman  antiquaries  note  further,  that  the  rich 
were  commonly  laid  in  beds,  and  the  poorer  sort  in 
coffins,  in  the  porch  or  entrance  of  their  houses 
close  by  their  gate.  The  Christians'  ceremonies 
were  in  some  things  the  same,  and  in  some  things 
a  little  refinement  upon  these.  The  common  sort 
of  people  were  laid  in  coffins  of  plain  wood,  as  St. 
Ambrose  and  othei's  inform  us."  For  in  this  the 
Christians  chose  rather  to  follow  the  heathens  than 
the  Jews  ;  the  Jews  using  no  coffins,  but  only 
grave-clothes  to  wrap  up  the  body,  and  biers  to 
carry  it  to  the  grave.  Others  had  their  coffins 
adorned  with  more  costly  materials.  Constantine 
was  put  in  a  coffin  overlaid  with  gold,  iv  xpvay 
XapvuKi,  as  both  Eusebius""  and  Socrates  word  it, 
and  that  was  covered  also  with  a  purple  pall.  St. 
Jerom''  says  likewise,  that  Blesilla,  the  daughter  of 
Paula,  a  rich  lady  in  Rome,  had  her  coffin  covered 
with  a  cloth  of  gold ;  but  St.  Jerom  himself  did  not 
like  it,  for  he  says  immediately  upon  it,  It  seemed 
to  him  as  if  he  then  heard  Christ  crying  from 
heaven,  I  own  not  this  garment ;  this  clothing  is 
none  of  mine ;  this  ornament  is  the  ornament  of 
strangers.  From  whence  we  may  conclude,  that 
this  way  of  adorning  coffins  so  pompously  was  not 
very  common  among  Christians.  Neither  did  they 
imitate  the  heathens  in  their  collocation  in  the 
porches  or  entrance  of  their  houses ;  though  Du- 
rantus  says,"  This  old  Roman  custom  is  still  con- 
tinued at  Paris  ;  but  they  set  their  coffins  either  in 
some  inner  room  of  their  house,  or  an  upper  room, 
as  we  read  of  Tabitha,  Acts  ix.  37,  or  carried  them 
to  the  church,  where  they  watched  with  the  body 
to  the  time  of  its  funeral.  Eusebius  says,-'  Con- 
stantine's  body  was  laid  in  his  golden  coffin  covered 
with  purple  in  one  of  the  chief  rooms  of  the  palace  ; 
where  lights  were  hanged  round  about  it  in  golden 
candlesticks ;  and  the  body  so  adorned  with  the 
purple  robe  and  royal  diadem,  was  attended  by  the 
watchers  for  several  days  and  nights  together ;  such 
a  splendid  sight  as  was  never  seen  from  the  founda- 
tion of  the  world  before.  Others  chose  immedi- 
ately after  death  to  be  laid  in  the  church,  where 
the  watchers  also  attended  them  till  they  were  car- 


"  Hieron.  Ep.  49.  ad  Innocent.  Clerici  quibus  id  officii 
erat,  cruentum  linteo  cadaver  obvolverunt. 

'■'  Prudent.  Cathemer.  in  Hymn,  ad  Exequias  Uefiincto- 
rum.     Candore  nitentia  claro  prsctendere  iiiitea  mos  est. 

'^  Athan.  Vit.  Anton. 

'^  Sidon.  lib.  3.  Ep.  3.  Quibus  nee  elutis  vestimenta,  ncc 
vestitis  sepulchra  tribuebant. 

"  Hieron.  Epitaph.  Paulse.  Quis  inopiiin  moriens  non 
illius  vestimentis  obvohitus  est  ? 


"<  Chrys.  Horn.  116.  t.  6.  Ed.  Savil. 

'"  Ambros.  in  Luc.  ii.  cited  by  Durant.  de  Ritib.  lib.  I. 
cap.  23. 

-"  Euseb.   Vit.  Const,  lib.  4.  c.  66.  Socrat.  lib.  1.  cap.  40. 

2'  Hieron.  Ep.  27.  ad  Paulam.  Aureum  feretro  velamen 
obteuditur.  Videbatur  mihi  tunc  clamare  de  c(jelo  :  Non 
agnosco  vestes  :  amictus  iste  non  mens:  hie  ornatus  alienus 
est.  ^  Duraut.  de  Uitib.  lib.  1.  cap.  23.  n.  13. 

-3  Euseb.  Vit.  Const,  lib.  4.  c.  G6. 


1246 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXIII. 


ried  forth  to  theii*  funeral.  Thus  Pauhnus  -*  tells 
us,  The  body  of  St.  Ambrose,  as  soon  as  it  was  dead, 
was  carried  into  the  church,  and  there  they  watched 
with  him  the  night  before  Easter.  And  here,  in- 
stead of  the  Roman  conclamation,  they  were  wont 
to  make  the  church  echo  with  psalmody,  and  hymns, 
and  praises  to  God,  which  was  a  noble  refinement 
upon  the  old  ceremony  of  conclamation.  Thus  Gre- 
gory Nyssen^  represents  the  watching  that  was 
kept  with  the  body  of  his  sister  Macrina :  They 
watched  and  sung  psalms  all  night,  as  they  were 
used  to  do  on  the  vigils  or  pernoctations  preceding 
the  festivals  of  the  martyrs.  And  something  of  this 
kind  is  that  which  St.  Austin  says  ^^  was  done  in 
his  mother's  house  some  time  after  she  was  dead : 
Euodiiis  took  the  Psalter  and  began  to  sing  a  psalm, 
and  the  whole  family  answered  alternately,  "  I  will 
sing  of  mercy  and  judgment,  unto  thee,  O  Lord, 
will  I  sing." 

The  last  circumstance  mentioned 
The  ""exportation  by  Diouyslus,  is  tlic  exportation  of 

of  the  body  perform-       i.i  i  i*!*! 

ed  by  near  relations,  the  body  to  the  gravB ;  which,  in  the 

or  persons  of  digni-  , 

ty,  or  any  charitable  particular  casc  lic  spcaks   of,  being 

persons,  as  the  case    ^  l  '  cd 

:f"thepar?yTeq'^rred!  ^he  time  of  a  raging  plague  and  pesti- 
lence, was  done  by  such  charitable 
persons  as  were  willing  to  venture  their  own  lives 
to  discharge  these  last  pious  offices  to  their  dying 
brethren.  And  there  were  many  occasions  for  this 
sort  of  charity  in  the  three  first  ages,  not  only 
upon  the  account  of  infectious  diseases,  but  for 
the  multitude  of  martyrs,  and  numbers  of  the 
poor,  who  had  nothing  to  depend  upon  but  the 
kindness  of  such  charitable  persons  in  the  church. 
Sometimes  this  office  was  performed  by  the  next 
relations ;  and  sometimes  by  persons  of  rank  and 
quality,  when  they  designed  to  do  a  particular 
honour  to  the  party  deceased  in  regard  to  his  merit 
and  virtue.  I  have  noted  before  out  of  Eusebius,-' 
how  Asturius,  a  noble  Roman  senator,  carried  Mari- 
nus  the  martyr  on  his  own  shoulders  to  his  grave  ; 
and  how  Eutychian,  bishop  of  Rome,  is  said  to  have 
buried  above  three  hundred  martyrs  with  his  own 
hands.  St.  Jerom  also  tells  us.  That  the  bishops 
of  Palestine^  paid  this  particular  respect  to  the 
famous  Lady  Paula,  that  they  carried  her  forth 
with  their  own  hands,  and  put  their  own  necks 
under  her  coffin.  So  Gregory  Nyssen  says,^  that 
he  and  some  others  of  the  most  eminent  clergy  car- 
ried his  sister  Macrina  to  her  grave.  Nazianzen 
also  tells  us,'"  That   St.  Basil  was  carried  xspo-tv 


ayiiov,  by  the  hands  of  the  clergy,  in  honour  to  his 
person. 

In    the   first  ages   the   poor  were 

1         ■     T  ,  1  1  Sect.  7. 

buried  at  the   common   charge  and     ParticuUir  orders 

^  of  men  appointed  in 

charity  of  the  church,  as  we  learn  some  ^reat church- 

•'  '  es,  under  the  names 

from  Tertullian's  Apology,  cap.  39.  f„S"iX''tXr' 
But  afterward,  in  some  of  the  greater  perform  ati^hes'e''o^ 
churches,  where  there  were  multi-  ^"^  f""'-^ '»''"'• 
tudes  of  poor,  in  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  cen- 
tury we  find  two  orders  of  men  set  up  in  the  church 
with  a  sort  of  clerical  character,  whose  particular 
business  was  to  attend  the  sick,  especially  in  infec- 
tious diseases,  and  to  do  all  offices  that  were  neces- 
sary to  be  done  in  order  to  give  the  poor  a  decent 
funeral.  The  one  were  called  2}arabolatn,  from  ven- 
turing their  lives  among  the  sick  in  contagious  dis- 
tempers ;  and  the  other  copiatce,  laborantes,  lecticarii, 
fossarii,  sandcqnlarii ,  and  decani,  (answerable  to  the 
old  Roman  names  lihitinarii  and  respiUones,)  whose 
office  was  to  labour  in  digging  of  graves  for  the 
poor,  and  carrying  the  coffin  or  bier,  and  depositing 
them  in  the  gi'ound,  as  most  of  the  names  sig- 
nify ;  which  it  is  sufficient  only  to  hint  here  in  this 
place,  because  I  have  given  a  full  account  of  these 
orders  of  men  in  two  distinct  chapters  in  a  former 
Book.'' 

Now  to  proceed :  whereas  the  hea- 
thens had  their  n(m,ia  or  funeral  song,     psaimody  the 

.  ,-,,,,  -,  great  ceremony  used 

together  with  their  pipers,  and  some-  m  aii  processions  of 

°  ,  funerals  among 

times    trumpeters,  to    play  ^   before  christians  in  oppo- 

^  '  A       .^  sition    to  the    hea- 

them;  instead  of  this  the  Christians  '[jnerii  son- °  ""* 
chose  to  carry  forth  their  dead  in  a 
more  solemn  maimer  with  psalmody  to  the  grave. 
We  cannot  expect  to  find  much  of  this  in  the  three 
first  ages,  while  they  were  in  a  state  of  persecution ; 
but  as  soon  as  their  peaceable  times  were  come,  we 
find  it  in  every  writer.  The  author  of  the  Apos- 
tolical Constitutions  gives  this  direction,^  That 
they  should  carry  forth  their  dead  with  singing,  if 
they  were  faithful :  "  For  precious  in  the  sight  of 
the  Lord  is  the  death  of  his  saints."  And  again  it 
is  said,  "  Return  to  thy  rest,  O  my  soul,  for  the 
Lord  hath  rewarded  thee : "  and, "  The  memory  of  the 
just  shall  be  blessed :"  and,  "  The  souls  of  the  just 
are  in  the  hand  of  the  Lord."  These  probably  were 
some  of  those  versicles  which  made  up  their  psalm- 
ody upon  such  occasions.  For  Chrysostom,  speak- 
ing of  this  matter,  not  only  tells  us  the  reason  of 
their  psalmody,  but  also  what  particular  psalms  or 
portions  of  them  they  made  use  of  as  proper  for 


°'  Paulin.  Vit.  Ambros.  Ad  ecclesiam,  antelucana  hora 
qua  defunctus  est,  corpus  ipsius  portatum  est,  ibique  eadem 
fuit  nocte  qnam  vigilavimiis  in  Pascha.  Vid.  Gregor.  Tu- 
ron.  de  Gloria  Confessor,  cap.  104. 

M  Nyssen.  Vit.  Macrinae,  t.  2.  p.  200. 

=«  Aug.  Confess,  lib.  9.  c.  12. 

"  Euseb.  lib.  7.  cap.  16.     See  before,  sect.  1. 

"'  Hieron.  Ep.  27.  Epitaph.  Paulse.     Translata  episco- 


porum  manibus  et  cervicem  feretro  subjicientibus. 
■•^i"  Nyssen.  Vit.  Macrinaj,  t.  2.  p.  201. 
^  Naz.  Orat.  20.  in  Laud.  Basil,  p.  371. 
3'  Book  III.  chap.  Sand  9. 

^-  Vid.  Rosin.  Antiq.  Rom.  lib.  5.  cap.  39.  p.  991. 
^'  Constit.  lib.  G.  cap.  30.     ^aXXovTts  ■n-po-irijx'n-tTz  aih- 

T0V9,   K.T.X. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1247 


tliis  solemnity.  What  mean  our  hymns,'*  says  he, 
Do  we  not  glorify  God,  and  give  him  thanks,  that 
he  hath  crowned  him  that  is  departed,  that  he  hatli 
delivered  him  from  trouble,  that  he  hath  set  him 
free  from  all  fear  ?  Consider  what  thou  singest  at 
that  time :  "  Turn  again  unto  thy  rest,  O  my  soul, 
for  the  Lord  hath  rewarded  thee."  And  again,  "  I 
will  fear  no  evil,  because  thou  art  with  me."  And 
again, "  Thou  art  my  refuge  from  the  affliction  which 
compasseth  me  about."  Consider  what  these  psalms 
mean.  If  tliou  believest  the  things  which  thou 
sayest  to  be  true,  why  dost  thou  weep  and  lament, 
and  make  a  mere  pageantry  and  mock  of  thy  sing- 
ing ?  If  thou  believest  them  not  to  be  true,  why 
dost  thou  play  the  hypocrite  so  much  as  to  sing  ? 
He  speaks  this  against  those  who  used  excessive 
mourning  at  funerals,  showing  them  the  incongruity 
of  that  with  this  psalmody  of  the  church.  And  he 
uses  the  same  argument  frequently  upon  this  occa- 
sion, dissuading  men,  not  from  moderate,  but  ex- 
cessive sorrow,  as  inconsistent  with  the  usual  psalm- 
ody of  the  church,  and  exposing  them  at  the  same 
time  to  the  ridicule  of  the  Gentiles.  For  what  said 
they.  Are  these  the  men  that  talk  so  finely  and 
philosophically  about  the  resurrection  ?  Yes,  in- 
deed !  But  their  actions  do  not  agi'ee  with  their 
doctrine ;  for  whilst  they  profess  in  words  the  be- 
lief of  a  resurrection,  in  their  deeds  they  act  more 
like  men  that  despair  of  it.  If  they  were  really 
persuaded  that  their  dead  were  gone  to  a  better  life, 
they  would  not  so  lament.  Therefore,  says  Chry- 
sostom,^*  let  us  be  ashamed  to  carry  out  our  dead 
after  this  manner.  For  our  psalmody,  and  prayers, 
and  solemn  meeting  of  fathers,  and  such  a  multitude 
of  brethren,  is  not  that  thou  shouldest  weep  and 
lament,  and  be  angry  at  God ;  but  give  him  thanks 
for  taking  a  deceased  brother  to  himself.  St.  Jerom 
also  frequently  speaks  of  this  psalmody  as  one  of 
the  chief  parts  of  their  funeral  pomp.  He  says,^"  At 
the  funeral  of  the  Lady  Paula  at  Bethlehem,  which 
was  attended  with  a  very  great  concourse  of  the 
bishops,  and  clergy,  and  people  of  Palestine,  there  was 
no  howling  or  lamenting,  as  used  to  be  among  the 
men  of  this  world,  but  singing  of  psalms  in  Greek,  and 
Latin,  and  Syriac,  (because  there  were  people  of  dif- 
erent  languages  present,)  at  the  procession  of  her 
body  to  the  grave.  And  speaking  of  St.  Antony's 
burying  Paul  the  hermit,''  he  says,  He  wound  him 
up,  and  carried  him  forth,  singing  hymns  and 
psalms,  according  to  the  manner  of  Christian  burial. 


Gregory  Nyssen  gives  the  same  account  of  the 
funeral'*  of  his  sister  Macrina,  and  Nazianzen"  of 
the  funeral  of  his  brother  Cajsarius.  And  the  prac- 
tice was  so  universal,  that  Socrates^"  takes  notice 
of  it  among  the  Novatians,  telling  us  how  they 
carried  the  body  of  Paulus  their  bishop  at  Con- 
stantinople with  psalmody  to  his  grave.  And  it 
being  so  general  and  decent  a  practice,  it  was  a 
grievance  to  any  one  to  be  denied  the  privilege  of 
it.  Victor  Uticensis"  upon  this  account  complains 
of  the  inhuman  cruelty  of  one  of  the  kings  of  the 
Vandals  :  Who  can  bear,  says  he,  to  think  of  it 
without  tears,  when  he  calls  to  mind,  how  he  com- 
manded the  bodies  of  our  dead  to  be  carried  in 
silence,  without  the  solemnity  of  the  usual  hymns, 
to  the  grave  ?  for  none  were  wont  to  be  denied  this 
privilege,  save  only  such  as  either  laid  violent  hands 
upon  themselves,^-  or  were  publicly  executed  for 
their  crimes,  or  died  in  a  wilful  neglect  of  baptism. 
Such  were  not  allowed  this  solemnity  of  psalmody 
at  their  funeral ;  being  in  the  same  rank  with  ex- 
communicated persons,  who  had  no  title  to  be  par- 
takers in  any  offices  peculiarly  appropriated  to 
communicants  in  the  church.  But  such  as  were 
called  awaj'  out  of  the  world  in  the  vocation  of  God, 
as  one  of  the  councils  of  Toledo"  words  it,  that  is, 
the  bodies  of  all  pious  and  religious  Christians, 
were  allowed  this  honour  of  being  carried  to  their 
graves  with  singing :  but  then  that  singing  must 
not  be  those  funeral  songs  which  were  commonly 
used  among  the  Gentiles,  accompanied  with  antic 
beating  of  their  breasts,  and  the  like ;  for  it  was 
sufficient  for  Christians,  whose  bodies  were  buried 
in  hopes  of  a  resurrection,  to  have  the  service  of 
Divine  songs,  or  psalmody,  bestowed  upon  them. 
This  shows  us  another  difference  between  the  hea- 
then and  the  Christian  way  of  burial.  The  heathens 
were  used  to  have  their  prajic<x,  or  women  hired  on 
purpose  to  make  lamentation  at  their  funerals  ; 
which  even  Lucian  himself  derides,  bringing  in  a 
dead  man,  by  way  oi  prosopopwia,  asking  this  ques- 
tion. What  does  your  lamentation  signify  to  me,  or 
your  beating  of  the  breast  at  the  sound  of  the  pipe  ? 
And  Chrysostom"  in  a  more  serious  manner  re- 
proves some,  who  in  his  time  were  still  fond  of  this 
heathenish  custom,  whom  he  threatens,  imless  they 
amended,  to  prosecute  them  with  the  utmost  severity 
of  excomnuuiication. 

The  heathens  were  used  in  their  sect  a. 

,      ,  Crowning  thecof- 

funeral  pomp  to  crown  their  corpse  fin  with  garlands 


3^  Chrys.  Horn.  4.  in  Hebr.  p.  1784  et  5. 

«  Chrys.  Horn.  29.  de  Dormientib.  t.  5.  p.  423.  Vid. 
Horn.  61.  in  Joan,  et  Horn.  6.  de  Po»nitent.  in  Edit.  Latin. 
Horn.  14.  iu  1  Tim.  Horn.  116.  t.  6.  Edit.  Savil. 

'^  Hieron.  Epitaph.  Paulae,  Ep.  27. 

''  Ibid.  Vit.  Pauli.  Obvoluto  et  prolato  foras  corpore, 
hymnos  quoquc  et  psalmos  do  Christiana  traditione  decan- 
taus.  &c. 

^•^  Nyss.  de  Macrina.  '"  Naz.  Orut.  10.  t.  1.  p.  169. 


<"  Socrat.  lib.  7.  cap.  46. 

"  Victor,  de  Persec.  Vandal,  lib.  1.  Bibl.  Patr.  t.  7.  p.  589. 

*-  Cone.  Bracar.  1.  can.  34  et  35. 

"  Cone.  Tolct.  3.  can.  22.  Qui  divina  vocatione  ab  hac 
vita  recedunt,  cum  psalmis  tantummodo,  et  psallentium  vo- 
cibus  debcro  ad  scpulchra  deferri.  Nam  funebre  carmen, 
quod  vulgo  defunctis  cantari  solct,  vcl  in  pectoribus  se,  aut 
pro.ximos  aut  familias  cajdere  omnino  prohibemus,  &c. 

"  Chns.  Horn.  4.  in  Hebr.  p.  1786. 


1248 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXIII, 


not  allowed  amon?  with  jTavlancls,  ill  tokcTi  of  victory,  as 

Christians,    tlioush  '^  .  .       -,.  45 

they  srnipied  not  to  Clcmens  Alcxanclnnus  interprets  it, 

carrv   liglils    before 

them.  drawing  thence  an  argument  to  prove 

that  their  idol-gods  were  only  dead  men.  Tertul- 
lian"  also  expressly  mentions  their  funeral  crowns, 
but  he  condemns  them  among  all  the  rest  that  he 
writes  against  in  his  book  of  the  Soldier's  Crown, 
where  he  reckons  them  all  idolatrous,  as  used  by 
the  heathens.  We  do  not  find  this  custom  used  by 
Christians  in  their  funeral  rites.  The  heathen  in 
Minucius  makes  it  one  topic  of  accusation"  against 
them,  That  they  did  not  crown  their  sepulchres : 
and  Minucius  in  his  answer''^  owns  the  charge  :  We 
do  not  crown  the  dead :  and  I  wonder  more  at  you, 
that  ye  give  either  torches  or  crowns  to  a  dead  man, 
who  has  no  sense  of  them  ;  when,  if  he  be  happy, 
he  needs  no  flowers;  and  if  he  be  miserable,  he 
takes  no  pleasure  in  them.  We  adorn  our  funeral 
obsequies  with  the  same  tranquillity  that  we  hve  ; 
not  making  fading  crowns  to  ourselves,  but  expect- 
ing a  crown  of  everlasting  flowers  from  God.  It  is 
plain  from  this,  that  the  Christians  did  not  crown 
their  dead.  Neither,  according  to  this  reading  of 
Minucius,  could  they  use  torches  at  their  funerals. 
But  this  seems  strange,  when  it  is  certain,  that  in 
the  time  of  Minucius  they  were  often  forced  to  bury 
in  the  night.  Therefore  it  is  probable  the  word 
face7n  is  crept  into  the  text ;  for  the  sense  and  scope 
of  the  argument  requires  it  not.  However,  in  after 
ages  the  Christians  scrupled  not  to  carry  lights  and 
torches  by  day,  before  their  dead,  as  an  emblem  of 
victory  and  joy,  as  we  heard  St.  Chrysostom  him- 
self before*"  explaining  the  reason  of  it.  So  that 
either  the  Christians  did  never  scruple  this  cere- 
mony, or  else  it  must  be  said,  they  thought  fit  to 
adopt  it  into  their  rites  in  after  ages. 

Sect  10  When  they  had  thus  conducted  the 

mr.lTiJr'the'pm'ise  corpsc  to  the  place  of  burial,  it  was 

of'eminent  persons.    ^^^^^^  ^^  ^^^^^  ^  funCral  Ol'ation  lu  thc 

praise  and  commendation  of  the  party  deceased,  if 
tliere  was  any  thing  singular  and  eminent  in  him, 
fit  to  be  recommended  as  an  example  and  pattern 
of  virtue  to  others,  or  worthy  to  be  related  as  a  just 
memorial  and  monument  of  his  own  merits  and 
glory.  We  have  several  orations  of  this  kind  still 
remaining ;  as  that  of  Eusebius  at  the  funeral  of 
Constantine ;  and  those  of  St.  Ambrose  at  the 
funerals  of  Theodosius  and  Valentinian,  and  his 
own  brother  Satyrus  ;  and  those  of  Gregory  Nazi- 
anzen  upon  his  father,  and  his  brother  CiEsarius, 
and  his  great  friend  St.  Basil,  and  his  sister  Gor- 


1 


gonia ;  and  that  of  Gregory  Nyssen  upon  the  death 
of  Melitus,  bishop  of  Antioch,  which  Socrates  in 
one  place'"  calls  t7riKj]deiovX6yov,  his  funeral  oration, 
and  in  another  place,''  smracpiov,  his  epitaph.  But 
St.  Jerom's  epitaphs  upon  Nepotian,  Fabiola,  and 
Paula,  are  of  another  sort,  being  only  private  charac- 
ters composed  by  him  to  perpetuate  their  memor}-, 
but  not  delivered  in  public  as  funeral  orations. 
But  whether  there  was  a  funeral 

,  ,  •  /•  Sect,  11. 

oration  or  not,  the  other  service  or     Together  with 

psalmody    and    the 

the  church  was  usually  performed  at  "il'^^J,,'* "'"  °^ "'" 
the  interment  of  the  dead ;  the  whole 
service,  if  the  burial  was  in  the  morning,  when  the 
oblation  of  the  eucharist  might  be  celebrated ;  or  m 
else  only  the  psalmody  and  prayers,  if  the  funeral  I 
was  in  the  afternoon.  The  psalmody  and  prayers 
are  largely  described  by  the  author  under  the  name 
of  Dionysius  the  Areopagite,'"  who  speaks  first  of  J 
their  singing  hymns  of  thanksgiving  to  God  for  the  ■ 
party  deceased,  and  his  making  a  victorious  end, 
and  desiring  that  they  may  come  to  the  same  rest 
with  him.  Then  the  bishop  makes  a  prayer  of 
thanksgiving  also  to  God,  for  making  the  party  per- 
severe in  the  knowledge  of  God  and  his  Christian 
warfare  unto  death.  Then  the  deacon  reads  such 
portions  of  Scripture  as  contain  the  promises  of  a 
resurrection,  and  the  hymn  appertaining  to  the 
same  purpose.  Thus  far  was  the  service  of  the 
catechumens  in  this  office  of  burial.  After  their 
dismission,  the  chief  deacon  makes  a  commemora- 
tion of  all  saints  departed,  and  proclaims  them  con- 
querors, giving  the  same  ehgium  to  him  that  was 
now  to  be  interred,  and  exhorting  all  to  follow  his 
example,  and  beg  of  Christ  a  happy  end.  Then  the 
bishop  prays  after  this  for  him  that  was  deceased. 
That  God  would  forgive  him  all  his  sins  contracted 
by  human  infirmity,  and  translate  him  into  the 
place  of  light  and  the  regions  of  the  living,  and 
give  him  a  mansion  in  the  bosom  of  Abraham,  Isaac, 
and  Jacob,  whence  all  grief,  and  sorrow,  and  mourn- 
ing are  fled  away.  Then  he  gives  him  the  kiss  of 
peace,  and  anoints  him  with  the  holy  oil,  and  so 
commits  him  to  the  earth.  Here  is  no  mention  of 
the  eucharist  being  celebrated  in  this  office,  but  we 
find  it  in  others :  and  the  two  last  ceremonies  of 
giving  the  kiss  of  peace,  and  anointing  with  oil,  are 
in  a  manner  peculiar  to  this  author,  and  the  former 
of  them  expressly  forbidden  in  some  other  rules  of 
burial ;  but  the  hymns  and  psalmody,  and  proper 
portion  of  Scripture  and  prayers,  made  a  part  of 
the  burial  office  in  all  churches.     St.  Jerom'^  thus 


<■"'  Clem.  Pasflagog.  lib.  2,  cap.  8. 

'•'  Tertul.  de  Curon.  cap.  10. 

■•'  Mimic,  p.  -35.     Coronas  etiamsepiilchris  denegatis. 

■"^  Ibid.  p.  109.  Nee  mortuos  coronamus.  Ergo  vos  in 
hoc  magis  miror,  quemadmoduni  tribuatis  exanimi  aut  non 
sentienti  i'acem,  aut  non  sentienti  coronam  :  cum  et  beatus 
non  egeat,  et  miser  non  gaudeat  floribus,  &c. 


■*•'  Chrys.  Horn.  4.  in  Hebr.  cited  bel'ore,  chnp.  2.  sect.  6. 

'"  Socral.  lib.  5.  cap.  9. 

s'  Id.  lib.  4.  cap.  2ti. 

^■^  Dionys.  Eccles.  Hiorarch.  cap.  7.  p.  408. 

'^  Hieron.  Epitaph.  Fabiol.  tap.  4.  Sonabant  psalmi, 
et  aurata  temploruiu  tecta  reboans  in  sublime  quatiebat 
AUeluva. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1249 


Seel.  12 
And  someti 
the  oWation  i 
ei.charist. 


describes  tlie  funeral  of  Fabii)ln  :  The  psalms  were 
sung  aloud,  and  the  echo  of  (he  hallelujalis  shook 
the  golden  roof  of  the  church.  So  again,  at  the 
funeral  of  Paula,'*'  he  speaks  not  only  of  their  sing- 
ing in  the  procession,  but  in  the  middle  of  the 
church  also.  The  African  councils  speak  likewise 
of  prayers  used  at  the  funerals  of  the  dead :  which 
prayers  were  particularly  termed  -rrapaQfrniQ  and  com- 
mendationes,^^  commendatory  prayers,  being  such 
as  they  used  when  they  committed  the  bodies  to 
the  ground :  and  these  are  appointed  to  be  such  only 
as  were  approved  in  synod,  that  no  corruption  of 
faith  through  ignorance  might  creep  into  the  offices 
of  the  church.  This  is  abundant  proof  that  psalm- 
ody and  prayers  were  always  a  part  of  the  funeral 
service  in  the  church. 

And  whenever  it  was  a  proper  sea- 
Tthe  son,  the  communion  Avas  added  to 
these  also  ;  that  is,  when  the  funeral 
or  commendation  of  any  pei'son  deceased  was  in 
the  morning,  which  was  the  only  proper  time  for 
the  communion,  because  it  was  to  be  received  by  all 
fasting.  This  distinction  is  made  in  the  third 
council  of  Carthage,  which  orders,'^'^  first.  That  all 
men  shall  receive  the  communion  fasting:  and  then 
adds.  That  if  any  commendation  or  funeral  of  a 
bishop  or  any  other  be  to  be  celebrated  in  the  after- 
noon, it  should  be  done  with  prayers  only,  and  not 
with  the  celebration  of  the  eucharist,  if  they  that 
assisted  at  the  funeral  office  had  dined  before. 
This  is  a  manifest  evidence,  that  the  communion 
was  generally  celebrated  at  funerals  in  this  age,  at 
least  in  the  African  church,  unless  some  interven- 
ing circumstance  of  time  made  it  otherwise.  Ac- 
cordingly, Possidius"  tells  us  St.  Austin  was  buried 
with  the  oblation  of  the  sacrifice  to  God  for  the 
commendation  of  his  body  to  the  ground.  And  so  St. 
Austin^  himself  tells  us,  his  mother  Monicha  was 
buried  with  the  offering  of  the  sacrifice  of  our  re- 
demption, according  to  custom,  before  her  body  was 
laid  in  the  ground.  This  made  Victor  Uticensis  °' 
bring  in  the  people  of  Africa  thus  complaining, 
when  all  their  clergy  were  driven  away  in  the  bar- 
barous desolation  of  the  Vandals,  Who  shall  now 
bury  us,  when  we  are  dead,  with  the  solemn  pray- 


ers ?  And  that  wc  may  not  think  this  was  a  cus- 
tom jieculiar  to  Africa,  Paulinus*"  tells  us  St.  Am- 
brose was  so  buried  on  Easter-day  in  the  morning, 
after  the  Divine  sacrament  had  been  administered. 
In  like  manner  Eusebius"'  describes  the  funeral  of 
Constantine :  he  says,  the  clergy  performed  the 
Divine  service  with  prayers :  and  lest  we  should 
take  this  for  prayers  only,  he  adds,  they  honoured 
him  with  the  mystical  liturgy,  or  service  of  the  eu- 
charist, and  the  communion  of  the  holy  prayers. 
So  St.  Ambrose  gives  us  to  understand  it  was  in 
the  funeral  of  Valentinian,  by  those  words  in  his 
oration  upon  his  death:  Bring  me  the  holy^  mys- 
teries, let  us  pray  for  his  rest  with  a  pious  affection. 
And  so  Euodius'^"  says  he  buried  his  pious  notary, 
singing  hymns  to  God  at  his  grave  three  days  to- 
gether, and  on  the  third  day  ofiering  the  sacraments 
of  redemption. 

Nov*',  this  was  the  rather  done,  be- 

Sect.  13. 

cause  m  the  communion  service,  ac-     wuh   panic.iiar 

prayers  for  the  dead. 

cording  to  the  custom  of  those  times, 
a  solemn  commemoration  was  made  of  the  dead  in 
general,  and  prayers  ofTered  to  God  for  them ;  some 
eucharistical,  by  way  of  thanksgiving  for  their  de- 
liverance out  of  this  world's  afflictions  ;  and  others 
by  way  of  intercession,  that  God  would  receive  their 
souls  to  the  place  of  rest  and  happiness ;  that  he 
would  pardon  their  human  failures,  and  not  impute 
to  them  the  sins  of  daily  incursion,  which  in  the 
best  men  are  temainders  of  natural  frailty  and  cor- 
ruption ;  that  he  would  increase  their  happiness, 
and  finally  bring  them  to  a  perfect  consummation 
with  all  his  saints  by  a  glorious  resurrection.  All 
which  prayers,  as  I  have  fully  demonstrated"  in 
another  place,  could  have  no  relation  to  the  modern 
groundless  fancy  of  purgatory,  but  went  upon  other 
principles,  that  perfectly  overthrow  it :  but  being 
agreeable  to  the  sense  and  opinions  of  those  times, 
they  chose  the  rather  to  use  the  communion  service 
at  burials,  because  of  these  prayers  that  were  con- 
stantly made  therein  to  God  for  all  holy  men  and 
women  departed,  among  whom  they  reckoned  the 
soul  of  him  in  particular,  whom  they  were  then 
about  to  commit  to  his  grave.  But  whether  they 
had  a  communion  or  not  at  the  funeral,  they  had 


^  Id.  Epitaph.  Paulae,  Ep.  27.  Alii  choros  psallentium 
ducerent  in  media  ecclesia,  &c. 

^^  Cone.  Milevitan.  can.  12.  Oraliones  quae  probata; 
fuerint  in  synndo,  sive  proefationes,  sive  commendationes, 
sive  manus  impositiones,  ah  omnibus  celebrentur.  Nee 
alia;  omnino  dicantur,  &e.  Vid.  Cod.  Can.  Eceles.  Afric. 
can.  106. 

'*  Cone.  Carth.  .3.  can.  29.     Sacramcnta  altaris  non  nisi  a 

jejunis  hominibus  celebrentur Nam  si  aliquorum  po- 

meridiano  tempore  defimctorum,  sive  episcoporum  sive  ca;- 
terorum  comraeudatio  facienda  est,  snlis  orationibus- fiat,  si 
illi  qui  faciunt,  jam  pransi  inveniantur. 

"  Possid.  Vit.  Aug.  cap.  13.  Pro  ejtis  commendanda 
corporis  depositione  sacrificium  Deo  oblatum  est,  et  se- 
pultus  est. 

4    L 


*'  Aug.  Confess,  lib.  9.  cap.  12.  Cum  offerretur  pro  ea 
sacrificitim  pretii  nnstri,  jam  ju.xta  sepiilchrum  posito  ca<la- 
vero,  priusqiiam  deponeretiir,  sicut  fieri  solct,  &c. 

=3  Victor,  de  Persec.  Vandal,  lib.  2.  Bibl.  Pair.  t.  7. 
p.  600.  Qui  nos  solennibus  orationibus  sepulturi  sunt  ino- 
rientes  ? 

^  Paulin.  Vit.  Ambros.  Illucescente  die  Dominico,  cum 
corpus  illius,  peractis  sacramentis  divinis,  de  ecclesia  leva- 
retin-  portandum  ad  basilicam  Ambrosianam,  &c. 

*'  Euseb.  Vit.  Const,  lib.  4.  cap.  71.     Ta  x»;s  ivdiou  Xa- 

-rpEias  6l'  fA)-^uiV  avzirXnpovv. /uua-nK-fis  Xt iToupytas 

u^ioufiiuov  Kal  KOivwviai  btr'nov  atroKnvov  tv^iov. 

«  Ambros.  de  Obitii  Valentin,  p.  12.  Date  manibus 
sancta  mysteria  :  pio  requiem  ejus  poscamus  affcctu. 

"'  Ap.  Aug.  Ep.  258.  «'  Book  XV.  chap.  3.  sect.  17, 


1250 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXIII. 


always  prayers,  as  is  evident  from  the  last-mention- 
ed canons  of  the  councils  of  Carthage  and  Milevis, 
which  give  directions  about  the  use  of  them.  And 
in  these  prayers,  when  there  was  no  communion, 
they  particularly  commended  the  soul  of  the  de- 
ceased to  God,  whence,  probably,  these  prayers  more 
especially  had  the  distinguishing  name  of  com- 
mendations. Besides  these,  it  was  usual  to  pray  for 
them  by  private  or  sudden  ejaculations,  as  we  find 
examples  in  St.  Ambrose's  several  orations  upon  the 
emperors  Theodosius,  Valentinian,  and  Gratian,  and 
his  own  brother  Satyrus,  and  Gregory  Nazianzen's 
funeral  speech  upon  his  brother  Csesarius,  and  St. 
Austin's  private  prayers  for  his  mother  Monicha ; 
not  to  mention  the  prayers  made  for  them  annually 
upon  their  anniversary  days  of  commemoration. 
One  of  these  forms  of  prayer  used  at  funerals  is  still 
remaining  in  the  Constitutions,  which  I  the  rather 
choose  to  repeat  here,  because  it  fully  shows,  there 
was  no  relation  to  purgatory  in  those  prayers,  but 
quite  the  contrary,  viz.  a  supposition  that  the  soul 
of  the  deceased  was  going  to  a  place  of  rest  and 
happiness  in  Abraham's  bosom.  The  foi-m  runs 
after  this  manner :  First,  the  deacon  "^  says.  Let  us 
pray  for  our  brethren,  who  are  at  rest  in  Christ ; 
that  the  merciful  God,  who  hath  taken  the  soul  of 
this  our  brother,  would  forgive  him  all  his  sins, 
voluntary  and  involuntary,  and  of  his  great  mercy 
and  good- will  place  him  in  the  region  of  the  just, 
that  are  at  rest  in  the  bosom  of  Abraham,  Isaac, 
and  Jacob,  with  all  those  who  have  pleased  God 
and  done  his  will  from  the  beginning  of  the  world ; 
in  the  place  whence  sorrow,  and  grief,  and  mourn- 
ing are  fled  away.  After  this,  the  bishop  makes 
another  pray^er  in  these  words :  0  thou  immortal 
and  everlasting  God,  from  whom  every  thing,  whe- 
ther mortal  or  immortal,  has  its  being ;  who  hast 
made  man  a  rational  creature,  and  inhabitant  of  the 
world,  mortal  in  his  constitution,  but  promised  him 
a  resurrection  from  the  dead ;  who  didst  preserve 
Enoch  and  Elias  from  tasting  death :  0  God  of 
Abraham,  God  of  Isaac,  and  God  of  Jacob,  who  art 
not  the  God  of  the  dead,  but  of  the  living ;  because 
the  souls  of  all  live  to  thee,  and  the  spirits  of  just 
men  are  in  thy  hand,  whom  torment  cannot  touch : 
look  down  now  upon  this  thy  servant,  whom  thou 
hast  chosen,  and  received  to  another  state ;  pardon 
him  whatsoever  he  has  willingly  or  unwillingly  sin- 
ned against  thee ;  grant  him  favourable  angels,  and 
place  him  in  the  bosom  of  patriarchs,  prophets, 
apostles,  and  all  those  who  have  pleased  thee  from 
the  beginning  of  the  world ;  where  there  is  no  sor- 
row, grief,  or  trouble,  but  a  place  of  rest  for  the 
godly,  a  land  of  quietness  for  the  upright,  and  all 


those  who  therein  see  the  glory  of  thy  Christ :  by 
whom  all  glory,  honour,  adoration,  thanksgiving, 
and  worship  be  to  Thee,  through  the  Holy  Ghost, 
for  ever.     Amen. 

Then  the  bishop  prays  again  for  the  people  there 
present :  Lord,  save  thy  people,  and  bless  thine  in- 
heritance, whom  thou  hast  purchased  with  the  pre- 
cious blood  of  thy  Christ ;  feed  them  under  thy 
right  hand,  protect  them  under  thy  wings,  grant 
that  they  may  fight  the  good  fight,  and  may  finish 
their  course,  and  keep  the  faith,  immutable,  un- 
blamable, unreprovable,  through  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  thy  beloved  Son :  to  whom,  with  thee  and 
the  Holy  Spirit,  be  all  glory,  honour,  and  adoration, 
world  without  end.     Amen. 

These  prayers  for  the  dep.d  are  not  made  upon 
the  Romish  supposition  of  the  souls  being  in  pur- 
gatory, or  any  place  of  torment ;  but  plainly  upon  a 
quite  contrary  supposition,  of  their  being  conducted 
by  the  holy  angels  to  a  place  of  rest,  to  the  bosom 
of  patriarchs,  apostles,  and  prophets  :  which  is  an 
infallible  demonstration,  that  the  church  then  knew 
nothing  of  a  purgatory  fire  to  torment  the  dead  for 
many  ages  after  death;  but  all  her  prayers  went 
upon  another  supposition,  which  overthrows  the 
belief  of  a  purgatory  fire,  by  placing  the  souls  of  the 
dead  in  a  state  of  immediate  rest  and  happiness. 

Whilst  we  are  speaking  of  prayers 
for  the  dead,  and  the  administration     a  corrupt  ciistom 

,  of  giving  the  kiss  of 

of  the  eucharist  at  funerals,  we  must  peaf?  and  the  eu- 

charist  to  the  dead, 

not  forget  to  mention  a  corrupt  cus-  ™nf 'ano'lfs""" """ 
tom  which,  through  ignorance  or  su- 
perstition, crept  into  some  places,  but  was  strictly 
forbidden  by  the  canons.  That  was,  the  custom  of 
giving  the  kiss  of  peace  and  the  communion  to  the 
dead.  This  had  a  semblance  of  piety  in  it,  and, 
doubtless,  arose  from  the  laudable  custom  of  cele- 
brating the  communion  at  funerals,  of  which  it 
serves  for  a  further  testimony :  but  it  was  the  effect 
of  a  blind  superstition  only.  And  therefore,  though 
the  feigned  author  under  the  name  of  Dionysius 
the  Areopagite,^  speaks  with  approbation  of  the 
ceremony  of  giving  the  kiss  of  peace  to  the  dead ; 
yet  when  this  custom,  together  with  that  of  giving 
the  eucharist  to  the  dead,  began  to  creep  into 
France  about  the  year  578,  the  council  of  Auxerre 
made  a  peremptory  canon  against  them  both :  It  is 
not  lawful  to  give  either  the  eucharist  or  the  kiss  of 
peace  to  the  dead.*'  The  corruption  of  giving  the 
eucharist  to  the  dead  had  been  moving  in  Africa 
some  ages  before,  in  the  time  of  St.  Austin  ;  but  he 
and  the  rest  of  the  fathers  who  met  in  the  third 
council  of  Carthage  gave  check  to  it,^  forbidding 
such  ignorant  and  weak  presbyters,  by  whose  folly 


^'  Const.  Apost.  lib.  8.  cap.  41. 

"^  Dionys.  Eccles.  Hierarch.  cap.  7. 

•''  Cone.  Antissiodor.  can.  12.    Non  licet  mortuis  noc  eu- 


charistiam  nee  oseulum  tradi,  nee  velo  vel  pallis  corpora 
eoriim  involvi. 
•^  Cone.  Carth.  3.  can.  6.    Placuit  ut  eorporibus  defuneto- 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1251 


t  lie  practice  had  been  encouraged,  to  give  way  any 
longer  to  it,  or  misguide  the  people  in  such  an  erro- 
neous opinion,  as  to  make  them  think  the  eucharist 
was  to  be  given  to  the  dead :  whereas  our  Lord 
said,  "  Take  and  eat ;"  but  dead  bodies  can  neither 
take  nor  eat  it.  The  same  persons  thought  that 
dead  bodies  might  also  receive  the  other  sacrament 
of  baptism ;  as  if  there  had  been  some  peculiar 
virtue  and  efficacy  in  the  outward  elements  of  the 
sacraments  themselves,  without  any  sense  or  con- 
currence of  faith  in  the  receiver.  Both  which  errors 
are  censured  also  by  St.  Chrysostom ;""  and  that  of 
giving  the  eucharist  to  the  dead  more  particularly 
by  the  council  of  TruUo.'"  All  which  shows,  that 
this  was  an  error  which  many  superstitious  people 
were  very  fond  of;  but  it  was  never  allowed  or  en- 
couraged publicly  by  any  authority  in  the  church. 
The  custom  of  burying  the  eucharist  in  the  coffin 
with  the  dead,  (which  has  so  much  prevailed  in  the 
Romish  church,)  is  a  novelty  of  later  ages  only, 
begun  by  Benedict  the  monk,  but  without  any  pre- 
cedent or  example  in  any  of  the  ancient  monu- 
ments of  the  church,  as  I  have  had  occasion  to 
show  more  fully  in  a  former  Book."  Let  us  there- 
fore now  pass  on  from  these  corruptions  to  the  more 
approved  practices  of  the  church. 

Sect.  15.  Almsdeeds,  as  a  proper  concomitant 

moniytdded  to""'  of  prayers   at    all    times,  was    now 

prajers  for  the  dead.    J-J^gygj^j    3,5    SCaSOnablc    aS    CVCr,  tO    bC 

given  by  the  living  for  the  dead.  Would  you  hon- 
our the  dead?  Give  alms,  says  St.  Chrysostom,"- 
in  one  of  his  homilies.  And  in  another,'^  Why  do 
you  call  the  poor  after  the  death  of  any  relation  ? 
Why  do  you  desire  the  presbyters  to  pray  for  him  ? 
I  know  you  will  answer,  That  he  may  go  into  rest, 
that  he  may  find  a  merciful  judge.  He  commends 
this  practice  a  Uttle  after,  and  thus  presses  rich 
men  to  it,  that  bury  their  heirs  :  If  many  barbarous 
nations  burn  their  goods  together  with  their  dead, 
how  much  more  reasonable  is  it  for  you  to  give 
your  child  his  goods  when  he  is  dead !  Not  to  re- 
duce them  to  ashes,  but  to  make  him  the  more  glo- 
rious :  if  he  be  a  sinner,  to  procure  him  pardon  ;  if 
righteous,  to  add  to  his  reward  and  retribution.  St. 
Jerom  commends  Pammachius  upon"  this  account: 
Whilst  other  husbands  throw  violets,  and  roses,  and 
lilies,  and  purple  flowers  upon  the  graves  of  their 
wives,  our  Pammachius  waters  the  holy  ashes  and 
bones  of  his  wife  with  the  balsam  of  alms. 


Sect.  17. 
this  often  de- 
into  great 


Some  repeated  these  alms  yearly,  g^_,^  ^^ 
upon  the  anniversary  day  of  com-  iy*JJp„''n''the""/n*|'; 
memorating  the  dead.  At  these  times  "ZZT^i^outTZ 
they  were  used  to  make  a  common 
feast  or  entertainment,  inviting  both  the  clergy  and 
the  people,"  but  especially  the  poor  and  needy,  the 
widows  and  orphans,  that  it  might  not  only  be  a 
memorial  of  rest  to  the  dead,  but  an  odour  of  sweet 
smell  to  themselves  in  the  sight  of  God,  as  the  au- 
thor under  the  name  of  Origen  words  it.  St.  Chry- 
sostom says,'"  They  were  more  tenacious  of  this 
custom  than  they  were  of  some  others  of  greater 
importance.  If  they  were  to  commemorate  a  child 
or  a  brother  that  was  dead,  they  were  pricked  in 
conscience,  if  they  did  not  fulfil  the  custom  and 
call  the  poor ;  but  at  other  times,  even  when  they 
were  to  commemorate  the  death  of  Christ,  they 
could  overlook  them. 

But    this   often   degenerated    into 
great  abuses.     For  some,  instead  of  generated 
feeding  the  poor,  only  made  this  an  w,"4Tre'cot^fS 

i*    •     J     1     •  ,1  1  ■         ed   of  as  no  better 

occasion  or  mdulgmg  themselves  in .  than  the  7)nr«««ni.a 

.  1   •    1  1         /.      T      of  ^«  Gentiles. 

great  excesses  ;  which  was  the  fault 
that  TertuUian  so  smartly  reproves  in  the  parenta- 
tions  of  the  Gentiles,  when  he  objects  to  them  their 
holding  feasts  at  the  graves  of  their  parents,  and 
junketing  to  excess,"  so  as  to  return  drunk  from 
thence,  and  beside  their  senses ;  feeding  voraciously 
at  the  graves  of  those,  whom  in  a  mock  piety,  but 
real  cruelty,  they  had  burnt  before.  In  the  three 
first  ages  no  heathen  could  retort  this  back  again 
upon  the  Christians ;  but  in  the  fourth  age  such 
excesses  were  committed  by  some,  that  the  Mani- 
chces  in  St.  Austin's  time  objected  it  to  the  catho- 
lics, and  the  matter  was  so  flagrant,  that  St.  Austin 
w^as  forced  to  own  it,'*  confessing  that  he  knew 
many  who  drank  luxuriously  over  the  dead,  and 
when  they  made  a  feast  for  the  deceased,  buried 
themselves  over  the  dead,  and  placed  their  gluttony 
and  drunkenness  to  the  account  of  religion.  But  he 
says  the  church  condemned  them,  and  daily  labour- 
ed to  correct  them  as  wicked  children.  He  com- 
plains of  the  same  matter  again  in  one  of  his  epistles 
to  Aurelius,''  bishop  of  Carthage,  where  he  desires 
that  these  oblations  for  the  dead  might  be  so  regu- 
lated that  they  might  not  run  into  any  sumptuous- 
ness  or  shameful  excess  :  and  if  any  thing  was  given 
in  money  upon  that  account,  it  should  be  distri- 
buted immediately  among  the  poor,  according  to  the 


rum  eucharistia  non  detur.  Dictum  est  enim  a  Domino, 
Accipite  et  edite  :  cadavera  autem  nee  accipere  possunt, 
nee  edere,  &c. 

^^  Chrys.  Hom.  40.  in  1  Cor.  p.  668. 

">  Cone.  Trull,  can.  83.        "  Book  XV.  chap.  4.  sect.  20. 

"  Chvys.  Hom.  61.  in  Joan. 

■3  Id.  Hom.  32.  in  Mat.  p.  307. 

"  Hieron.  Ep.  26.  ad  Pammach.  dc  Obitu  U.xoris. 

"  Orig.  in  Job,  lib.  3.  p.  437. 

"  Chrys.  Hom.  27.  in  1  Cor.  p.  565. 
4  L  2 


''  Tertul.  de  Testimon.  Anima;,  cap.  4.  Quando  extra 
portam  cum  obsoniis  et  matta;is  tibi  potius  parentans  ad 
busta  recedis,  aut  a  bustis  dihitior  redis.  Id.  dc  Resur. 
Carnis,  cap.  1.  Ipsos  defunctos  atrocissime  exurit,  quos 
postmodum  gulosissime  nutrit. 

"  Aug.  de  Moribus  Eccles.  cap.  34.  Novi  multos  esse, 
qui  lu.Kuriosissime  super  mortuos  bibant,  et  cpidas  cadaveri- 
bus  exhibentes,  super  sepultos  scipsos  sepeliant,  et  voraci- 
tates  ebrietatesque  suas  deputcnt  religioni. 

"  Aug.  Ep.  64.  ad  Aurelium.  It.  Hom.  101.  de  Diversis. 


1252 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXIII. 


primitive  design  and  intent  of  such  oblations.  For 
such  oblations  the  church  always  willingly  receiv- 
ed, but  never  encouraged  any  other.""  The  author 
of  the  book,  de  Duplici  Martyrio,  under  the  name  of 
Cyprian,"'  who  wrote  long  after  the  time  of  St.  Aus- 
tin, has  a  like  severe  reflection  upon  the  intemperance 
of  the  African  people.  Drunkenness,  says  he,  is  so 
common  in  our  Africa,  that  it  is  scarce  reckoned 
any  crime.  Christians  are  compelled  by  Christians 
to  be  drunk  even  at  the  memorials  of  the  martyrs. 
Which  is  no  less  a  crime  than  offering  a  goat  to 
Bacchus.  But  of  this  I  have  spoken  largely  in  a 
former  Book,^^  where  I  had  occasion  to  reflect  on 
the  same  excesses  committed  by  some  at  the  monu- 
ments of  the  martyrs  on  their  anniversary  festivals 
or  commemorations.  I  now  return  to  the  funerals 
of  the  ancient  church. 

Moderate  sorrow,  when  expressed 

Decent  expies-     in  a  deceut  manner,  for  the  loss  of 

sorrow  at  funerals  friends,  Is  a  tliingr  SO  natural  in  itself, 

not  disallowed ;  hut  .  ° 

the  heathenish  cus-  and  SO  consistcut  even  with  the  ioy 

torn  of  hiring  prte-  *'    •' 

^cce,  or  mourning  j^ud  faith  of  a  Christian,  that  the  an- 

women,  sharply  re-  ' 

events.  "'•"  ""*  """  cients  never  said  any  thing  against 
any  one  expressing  such  sorrow  at  a 
funeral.  But  two  things  they  extremely  disliked 
and  sharply  reproved ;  first,  immoderate  grief,  as 
unbecoming  the  character  and  profession  of  a  Chris- 
tian, -whose  conversation  is  in  heaven  already,  and 
his  hope  and  expectation  no  less  than  a  crown  and 
kingdom  after  death ;  who,  therefore,  ought  not  to 
grieve  or  sorrow  above  measure,  but  with  a  mixture 
of  joy,  that  any  friend  is  gone  to  heaven  before  him 
to  take  an  earlier  possession  of  it.  The  other 
thing  they  disliked  was,  the  heathenish  custom  of 
having  women  hired  on  purpose  to  lament  and  make 
a  hideous  crying  and  howling  before  the  dead,  with 
tearing  their  hair  also,  and  many  other  ridiculous 
signs  of  mourning.  The  chief  of  these  the  Romans 
called  prajica,  from  being  set  over  the  rest  to  guide 
and  direct  them  in  their  funeral  songs  and  lament- 
ations, as  Rosinus^  describes  them  out  of  Varro 
and  Lucilius,  and  Sextus  Pompeius,  and  Nonius 
Marcellus,  and  other  Roman  authors.  Now,  this 
the  ancients  extremely  disliked  and  severely  in- 
veighed against,  as  a  mere  heathenish  custom.  Why 
do  you  beat  yourself  and  lament,  says  Chrysostom,*^ 
and  accuse  the  institution  of  Christ,  v/ho  has  over- 
come death,  and  made  it  only  a  sleep  ?  If  a  heathen 
does  this,  he  is  worthy  to  be  laughed  to  scorn  ;  but 
if  a  Christian  does  it  still,  after  he  is  assured  of  a 
resurrection,  what  apology  or  excuse  can  be  made 
for  him  ?     And  yet  you  aggravate  your  crime  by 


""  Vid.  Cone.  Carth.  4.  c.  95.  et  Cone.  Vasens.  1.  ean.  4. 
de  Oblationibiis  Defiinctorum. 

"  Cypr.  de  Duplici  Mart.  p.  42.  Temulentia  adeo  eom- 
mnnis  est  Africac  nostra,  ut  propeniodiim  non  habeant  pro 
crimine.  Annon  videmus  ad  martyriira  nieinorias  Christ ia- 
num  a  Christiano  cogi  ad  ebrietatem  ?  &c. 


calling  in  heathen  women  to  be  your  mourners, 
and  to  inflame  your  sorrow,  not  regarding  what  St. 
Paul  says,  "  What  concord  hath  Christ  with  Belial  ? 
and  what  part  hath  he  that  believeth  with  an  in- 
fidel?" He  then  goes  on  to  show  the  monstrous 
folly  and  vanity  of  this  practice,  by  great  variety  of 
arguments,  and  curiously  answers  all  the  little 
pleas,  which  such  Christians  made  in  behalf  of 
themselves  to  excuse  this  unchristian  deportment. 
In  another  place*^  he  treats  them  more  sharply, 
telling  them  he  was  not  only  grieved,  but  utterly 
ashamed,  to  think  how  Christians  debased  and  dis- 
graced themselves  in  the  eyes  of  the  heathen,  and 
Jews,  and  heretics,  by  their  weeping,  and  wailing, 
and  bowlings,  and  lamentations,  and  other  indecent 
practices  in  the  open  streets,  for  which  the  Gentiles 
derided  them.  For  they  were  ready  to  say.  How 
can  any  of  these  men  despise  death  themselves, 
who  cannot  so  much  as  bear  the  death  of  another  ? 
They  are  fine  things  indeed  that  are  spoken  by 
Paul,  when  he  says,  "  God  delivered  them,  who 
through  fear  of  death  were  all  their  lifetime  held  in 
bondage : "  these  are  heavenly  words,  truly,  and 
very  worthy  and  becoming  the  great  kindness  and 
love  of  God  to  men ;  but  ye  will  not  suffer  us  to  be- 
lieve these  things,  for  ye  contradict  them  by  your 
own  actions.  Show  me  your  philosophy  by  your 
patience  in  bearing  cheerfully  the  death  of  others, 
and  then  I  will  believe  the  resurrection.  Thus  he 
makes  the  heathen  speak  by  a  neat  prosopopmia,  to 
shame  such  Christians,  if  it  might  be,  into  a  more 
manly  deportment.  He  adds  withal,  that  such 
indecent  behaviour  of  men  and  women,  tearing 
their  hair,  and  making  such  hideous  lamentation, 
was  a  crime  for  which,  if  they  had  their  desert, 
they  ought  to  be  cast  out  of  the  church,  as  in  effect 
denying  the  resurrection.  In  short,  he  tells  them, 
with  the  authority  of  a  bishop,  that  if  they  per- 
sisted in  that  vile  abuse  of  hiring  heathen  women 
to  be  their  mourners,  he  would  excommunicate 
them  as  idolaters.  For,  if  St.  Paul  calls  the  covetous 
man  an  idolater,  much  more  may  he  be  called  so 
who  brings  the  practices  of  idolaters  among  Chris- 
tians, From  thenceforth  he  peremptorily  forbids 
them  to  make  use  of  any  such  heathen  mourners, 
under  the  penalty  of  the  highest  ecclesiastical  cen- 
sure. By  which,  (not  to  insist  upon  what  he  urges 
in  other  places,'^  nor  what  is  said  by  other  writers,) 
we  may  easily  judge  how  great  an  abuse  this  way  of 
indecent  mourning  was  reckoned  in  the  church. 

The  heathens  had  another  custom, 
of  repeating  their  mourning  on  the 


«-  Book  XX.  chap.  7.  sect.  10. 
*'  Rosin.  Antiq.  lib.  3.  cap.  31.  et  lib.  5.  cap.  39. 
s<  Chrys.  Horn.  32.  in.  Mat.  p.  BOo. 
8-^  Ibid.  Horn.  4.  in  Hebr.  p.  1784. 

^^  Ibid.   Horn.  6.  in  1   Thes.  Horn.  29.  de  Dm-mientibus, 
t.  5.  p.  423. 


Chap.  III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


12:j3 


the  heathen  rejected    third,    aild     SCVClltll,    RTld     ninth    d:iV, 

as    a     supei-stitious 

practice.  which  was  particidarlv  called  the  no- 

vendiale ;  and  some  added  the  twentieth,  and  thirti- 
eth, and  fortieth,  not  without  a  superstitious  opinion 
of  those  particular  days,  wherein  they  used  to  sacri- 
fice to  their  manes  with  milk,  and  wine,  and  gar- 
lands, and  flowers,  as  the  Roman  antiquaries"  in- 
form us.  Something  of  this  superstition,  abating 
the  sacrifice,  was  still  remaining  among  some  ig- 
norant Christians  in  St.  Austin's  time  ;  for  he 
speaks"*  of  some  who  observed  a  novcndial  in  rela- 
tion to  their  dead,  which  he  thinks  they  ought  to  be 
forbidden,  because  it  was  only  a  heathen  custom. 
He  does  not  seem  to  intimate,  that  they  kept  it 
exactly  as  the  heathens  did ;  but  rather  that  they 
were  superstitious  in  their  observation  of  nine  days 
of  mourning,  which  was  without  example  in  Scrip- 
ture. There  was  another  way  of  continuing  the 
funeral  offices  for  three  days  together,  which  was 
allowed  among  Christians,  because  it  had  nothing 
in  it  but  the  same  worship  of  God  repeated.  Thus 
Euodius,  writing  to  St.  Austin,*''  and  giving  him  an 
account  of  the  funeral  of  a  very  pious  young  man, 
who  had  been  his  notary,  says.  He  had  given  him 
honourable  obsequies,  worthy  so  great  a  soul ;  for 
he  continued  to  sing  hymns  to  God  for  three  days 
together  at  his  grave,  and  on  the  third  day  offered 
the  sacraments  of  redemption.  The  author  of  the 
Constitutions^  takes  notice  of  this  repetition  of  the 
funeral  office  on  the  third  day,  and  the  ninth  day, 
and  the  fortieth  day,  giving  peculiar  reasons  for 
each  of  them :  Let  the  third  day  be  observed  for  the 
dead  with  psalms,  and  lessons,  and  prayers,  because 
Christ  on  the  third  day  rose  again  from  the  dead; 
and  let  the  ninth  day  be  observed  in  remembrance 
of  the  living  and  the  dead ;  and  also  the  fortieth 
day,  according  to  the  ancient  manner  of  the  Is- 
raelites mourning  for  Moses  forty  days  ;  and,  finally, 
let  the  anniversary  day  be  observed  in  commemora- 
tion of  the  deceased.  Cotelerius,  in  his  Notes  upon 
this  place,  has  observed  several  other  ancient  writers, 
who  take  notice  of  some  of  these  days.  Palladius, 
in  his  Historia  Lausiaca,  cap.  26,  mentions  the 
third  and  the  fortieth.  Justinian,  in  one  of  his 
Novels,"'  speaks  of  the  third,  the  ninth,  the  fortieth, 
and  the  anniversary  day  of  commemoration :  for- 


bidding women  who  professed  the  monastic  life,  to 
go  into  the  monasteries  of  the  men,  under  pretence 
of  any  of  these  solemn  commemorations  of  the  dead. 
To  these  he  adds  St.  Ambrose  in  his  funeral  oration 
upon  Theodosius,  and  Isidore  of  Pelusium,  lib.  1. 
Ep.  114,  and  Eustratius  Constantinopolitanus,  men- 
tioned by  Photius,  Cod.  171.  To  omit  Damasccn, 
Nicon,  Philippus  Solitarius,  Hincmarus,  Theodore 
archbishop  of  Canterbury,  or  any  later  writers. 
Suicerus  and  Meursius  take  notice  of  the  same  cus- 
tom in  the  word  Tpntwarat,  which  signifies  the  third 
and  ninth  day  of  commemorating  the  dead,  which, 
they  say,  was  the  custom  of  the  ancients.  So  that 
when  St.  Austin  speaks  against  observing  the  ninth 
day,  it  was  not  what  Cotelerius  supposes,  because 
he  was  ignorant  of  this  practice,  with  St.  Ambrose 
and  many  other  of  the  Latins  ;  (wherein  Cotelerius 
contradicts  himself,  having  alleged  St.  Ambrose  be- 
fore as  one  that  approved  the  practice ;)  but  it  was 
because  St.  Austin  had  observed  something  amiss 
in  the  practice  of  some  superstitious  Christians,  who 
kept  the  ninth  day  with  some  abuse,  most  probably 
rioting  and  excess,  resembling  the  novcndial  of  the 
heathens ;  as  we  have  heard  him  complain  before 
of  the  feasts,  which  such  Christians  made  at  the 
graves  of  the  dead,  too  much  resembling  the  jmren- 
talia  of  the  Gentiles. 

The    custom   of   strewing   flowers         „  .  ,« 

&  Sect.  20. 

upon  the  graves  of  the  dead  was  reck-  strT!v?nrHm^erf 
oned  innocent,  and  thcrefoi'e  was  re-  "ife""!)!!!'!!.  ^^iSml 
tained  by  some  Christians  without  any 
rebuke.  St.  Ambrose  and  St.  Jerom  both  mention 
it  without  any  censure :  only  they  seem  to  speak  of 
it  as  chiefly  the  practice  of  the  vulgar ;  for  the  more 
intelligent  sort  of  Christians  despised  it  as  a  trifle, 
and  showed  their  respect  to  the  dead  in  acts  that 
were  more  substantial.  Thus  St.  Ambrose,  in  praise 
of  Valentinian,  says,"^  I  will  not  scatter  flowers 
upon  his  grave,  but  perfume  his  spirit  with  the 
odour  of  Christ.  Let  others  strew  their  baskets  of 
flowers  upon  him :  my  lily  is  Christ,  and  with  this 
flower  only  will  I  consecrate  his  remains.  In  like 
manner,  St.  Jerom  ^^  commends  his  friend  Pamma- 
chius  for  this,  that  whilst  other  husbands  scattered 
violets,  and  roses,  and  lilies,  and  purple  flowers  upon 
the  graves  of  their  deceased  wives,  and  with  such 


'  Rosin.  Antiq.  lib.  5.  cap.  39.  p.  997. 

*  Aug.  Quaest.  172.  in  Gen.  t.  4.  Nescio  utrnm  invenia- 
tur  alicui  sanctorum  in  Scripturis  celebratum  esse  luctuin 
novem  dies,  quod  apud  Latinos  novendiale  appellant.  Undo 
jnihi  videnlurab  hac  cousuetudine  prohihendi,  si  qui  Chris- 
tianorum  istum  in  movtuis  suis  nnmeruni  servant,  qui  niagis 
est  in  Genfilium  consuetudine. 

'  Euodii  Ep.  '258.  inter  Epist.  Aug.  Excquias  pr.fbui- 
mus  satis  honorabiles,  et  dignas  tantae  animae:  nam  per  tri- 
duum  hyuinis  Dominuni  collaudavinins  super  sepidchrum 
ipsius,  et  redcmptionis  .sacramenta  tertio  die  obtulinuis. 

=0  Constit.  lib.  8.  cap.  42. 

"  .histin.  Novel.  133.  cap.  3.    Scd  neqtic  aliam  ingres- 


suum  occasionem  excogilanto per  causam  eorum  qtise 

peragtmtur  circa  exequias,  quas  scilicet  memorias  appellant, 
in  tertium  nonumque  diem  convenientes,  item  cum  quadra- 
ginta  excesserint,  aut  ctiam  annus. 

"-  Anibnis.  de  Obitu  Valentin,  p.  12.  Nee  ego  floribus 
tumulura  ejus  asporgam,  scd  Spiritum  ejus  Christi  odore 
perfundam.  Spargant  alii  plenis  lilia  calathis  :  nobis  lilium 
est  Christus:  lioc  reliquias  ejus  sacrabo. 

•'•'  Hieron.  Ep.  20.  ad  Tammach.  dc  Obitu  Uxoris.  Cae- 
teri  niariti  ^uper  tumulus  coujuguni  spargunt  violas,  rosas, 
lilia,  floresque  purpureos;  et  doli)rem  pectoris  his  officiis 
consolantur.  Pammachius  noster  sanctam  savillam  ossaque 
venerauda  eleemosyiKC  balsamis  rigat. 


1254 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXIII. 


Sect.  21. 
As  also  wearing  a 
mourning  habit  for 
some  time. 


little  offices  assuaged  the  grief  of  their  breasts ; 
Pammachius  watered  the  holy  ashes  and  bones  of 
his  wife  with  the  balsam  of  alms-deeds  and  charity 
to  the  poor.  With  these  perfumes  and  odours  he 
solaced  the  ashes  of  the  dead  that  lay  at  rest,  know- 
ing that  it  was  written,  "  As  water  will  quench  a 
flaming  fire,  so  alms  makes  an  atonement  for 
sins." 

They  had  the  same  notion  of  going 
into  a  mourning  habit  for  the  dead : 
they  did  not  condemn  it,  nor  yet  much 
approve  of  it,  but  left  it  to  all  men's  liberty  as  an 
indifferent  thing ;  rather  commending  those  that 
either  omitted  it  wholly,  or  in  a  short  time  laid  it 
aside  again,  as  acting  more  according  to  the  bravery 
and  philosophy  of  a  Christian.  Thus  St.  Jerom 
commends  one  Julian,"*  a  rich  man  in  his  time,  be- 
cause, having  lost  his  wife  and  two  daughters,  that 
is,  his  whole  family,  in  a  very  few  days,  one  after 
another,  he  %v'ore  the  mourning  habit  but  forty  days 
after  their  death,  and  then  resumed  his  usual  habit 
again ;  and  because  he  accompanied  his  wife  to  the 
grave,  not  as  one  that  was  dead,  but  as  going  to  her 
rest.  Cyprian  indeed  seems  to  carry  the  matter  a 
little  further :  he  says.  He  was  ordered  by  Divine 
revelation  to  preach  to  the  people  publicly  and  con- 
stantly, that  they  should  not  lament  their  brethren 
that  were  delivered  from  the  world  by  the  Divine 
vocation ;  as  being  assured  that  they  were  not  lost, 
but  only  sent  before  them;  that  their  death  was 
only  a  receding  from  the  world,  and  a  speedier  call 
to  heaven ;  that  we  ought  to  long  after  them,  and 
not  lament  them ;  nor  wear  any  mourning  habit,°* 
seeing  they  were  gone  to  put  on  their  white  gar- 
ments in  heaven :  no  occasion  should  be  given  to 
the  Gentiles  justly  to  accuse  and  reprehend  us,  for 
lamenting  those  as  lost  and  extinct,  whom  we  affirm 
still  to  live  with  God ;  and  that  we  do  not  prove 
that  faith,  which  we  profess  in  words,  by  the  in- 
ward testimony  of  our  hearts  and  souls.  Cyprian 
thought  no  sorrow  at  all  was  to  be  expressed  for 
the  death  of  a  Christian ;  nor  consequently  any 
signs  of  sorrow,  such  as  the  mourning  habit ;  be- 
cause the  death  of  a  Christian  was  only  a  transla- 
tion of  him  to  heaven.  But  others  did  not  carry 
the  thing  so  high,  but  thought  a  moderate  sorrow 
might  be  allowed  to  nature,  and  therefore  did  not 
so  peremptorily  condemn  the  mourning  habit,  as 
being  only  a  decent  expression  of  such  a  moderate 
sorrow,  though  they  liked  it  better  if  men  could 
have  the  bravery  to  refuse  it. 


**  Hieron.  Ep.  34.  ad  Julian.  Laudent  te — quod  in  quad- 
rao-esimo  die  dormitionis  earum  lugubrem  vestein  mutaveris, 
et  dedicatio  ossium  martyris  Candida  tibi  vestimenta  reddi- 
derit. 

"^  Cypr.  de  Mortal,  p.  164.  Nee  accipiendas  esse  hie 
atlas  vestes,  quando  illi  ibi  indumenta  alba  jam  sumpse- 
rint,  &c. 


We  find  some  other  funeral  rites  g^^,,  ,, 
mentioned  by  the  spurious  writers  ^"""^  """^ 
under  the  names  of  Dionysius  the 
Areopagite  and  Athanasius.  As  the  priests  anoint- 
ing the  body  with  oil  before  it  was  put  into  the 
grave,  for  which  the  pretended  Dionysius  °^  gives 
this  reason.  That  as  in  the  ministration  of  baptism, 
after  the  person  had  put  off  his  old  garments,  he 
was  anointed  with  oil ;  so  in  the  end  of  all  things, 
oil  was  poured  upon  the  dead.  The  first  unction 
called  the  baptized  person  to  his  holy  fight  and 
combat ;  the  second  unction  declared  that  he  had 
fought  his  fight  and  finished  all  his  labour,  and  was 
now  consummated  and  made  perfect.  This  was  a 
quite  different  unction  fi'ora  the  anointing  or  em- 
balming of  the  body  to  its  burial,  of  which  we  have 
spoken  before :  and  as  other  writers  say  nothing  of 
it,  I  let  it  pass  as  a  thing  uncertain,  the  bare  tes- 
timony of  this  writer  not  being  sufficient  to  estab- 
lish an  ancient  ecclesiastical  custom.  We  may  say 
the  same  of  another  rite  mentioned  by  the  pretend- 
ed Athanasius,"'  who  speaks  of  lighting  a  mixture 
of  oil  and  wax  at  the  grave  of  the  dead,  as  a  sacri- 
fice of  burnt-oifering  to  God.  But  besides  the 
silence  of  others,  there  are  two  further  prejudices 
against  this ;  first.  That  it  looks  more  like  a  piece 
of  Jewish  superstition  than  a  Christian  rite ;  and 
secondly.  That  the  council  of  EKberis  has  an  ex- 
press canon*  forbidding  a  ceremony  not  very  dif- 
ferent from  this,  viz.  burning  of  wax  tapers  by  day 
in  the  cemeteries  of  the  dead,  lest  the  spirits  of  the 
saints  should  be  molested :  and  if  any  despised  this 
order,  they  were  liable  to  be  cast  out  of  communion 
for  their  contempt  of  it.  I  will  not  pretend  to  ex- 
plain to  the  reader  the  reason  of  this  inhibition,  nor 
say  that  it  forbids  expressly  the  rite  before  mention- 
ed; but  there  is  some  analogy  and  similitude  between 
the  two  ceremonies,  and  therefore  it  is  hence  very 
probable,  that  neither  of  them  were  accepted  or  any 
ways  approved  by  the  church. 

We  have  now  seen  the  whole  man-  ^^^^  23. 
ner  of  Christian  burial  among  the  pel°nf  iteTV?' 
ancients,  with  all  the  rites,  both  sacred  this  ° oil'mnitf  "'Is 
and  civil,  accompanying  and  attend- 
in"-  it.  I  have  only  one  thing  more  to  observe  con- 
cerning the  whole  in  general ;  which  is,  that  Chris- 
tian burial  with  these  solemnities  Avas  ever  esteemed 
a  privilege,  and  such  as  good  men  always  desired 
when  they  could  have  it,  and  bad  men  were  pun- 
ished for  their  crimes  with  the  denial  and  refusal 
of  it  by  the  church,  who  laid  it  as  a  mark  of  cen- 


"''  Dionys.  Eccles.  Hierarch.  cap.  7. 

"'  Athan.  Serm.  de  Dormientibiis,  cited  by  Durant.  de 
Ritibus,  lib.  1.  cap.  23.  n.  14.  p.  235. 

98  Cone.  Eliber.  can.  34.  Cereos  per  diem  placuit  in  coe- 
miterio  non  incendi :  inquietandi  enim  spiritus  sanctorum 
non  sunt.  Qui  hwc  non  observaverint,  arceantur  ab  ecclesiae 
communione. 


Chap.   III. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


I2o5 


sure  and  displeasure  upon  them,  not  to  allow  them 
the  honour  and  privilege  of  that  solemn  interment 
which  was  customary  in  the  practice  of  the  church. 
Good  men,  indeed,  were  not  above  measure  concern- 
ed for  their  bodies,  so  as  to  think  it  any  real  detri- 
ment or  loss  to  them,  if  cither  the  barbarity  of  their 
enemies  or  any  other  accident  denied  them  this 
privilege :  for  in  this  case,  as  St.  Austin  largely  dis- 
courses,'* the  faith  of  a  Christian  set  him  above  any 
fear  that  might  arise  from  the  want  of  a  burial :  the 
consumption  of  wild  beasts  would  be  no  prejudice 
to  those  bodies  which  must  rise  again,  and  a  hair  of 
whose  head  could  not  perish.  The  psalmist  indeed 
says,  and  that  with  some  concern,  "  They  have 
given  the  dead  bodies  of  thy  servants  to  be  meat  to 
the  fowls  of  the  air,  and  the  flesh  of  thy  saints  to 
the  beasts  of  the  land  :  their  blood  have  they  shed 
on  every  side  of  Jerusalem,  and  there  was  no  man 
to  bury  them."  But  this,  says  St.  Austin,  is  said 
more  to  exaggerate  the  cruelty  of  those  who  did  it, 
than  the  infelicity  of  those  who  suffered  it.  For 
though  these  things  may  seem  hard  and  direful  in 
the  eyes  of  men,  yet  "  precious  in  the  eyes  of  the 
Lord  is  the  death  of  his  saints."  Therefore  all  these 
things,  namely,  the  care  of  a  funeral,  the  building 
of  a  sepulchre,  the  pomp  of  funeral  obsequies,  are 
rather  for  the  consolation  of  the  living,  than  for  any 
benefit  of  the  dead.  If  a  sumptuous  funeral  be  any 
advantage  to  the  v/icked,  then  a  poor  one  or  none 
at  all  may  be  some  detriment  to  the  just.  The  rich 
man  that  was  clad  in  purple,  had  a  splendid  funeral, 
by  the  ministry  of  his  servants,  in  the  sight  of  men ; 
but  the  poor  man  full  of  sores  had  a  much  more 
splendid  one  in  the  sight  of  God,  by  the  ministry  of 
the  angels,  who  did  not  carry  him  forth  into  a  mar- 
ble tomb,  but  translated  him  into  Abraham's  bosom. 
Some  philosophers  have  despised  the  care  of  a  fu- 
neral ;  and  whole  armies,  whilst  they  were  fighting 
for  an  earthly  country,  have  been  as  regardless 
where  they  should  lie,  or  to  what  beasts  they  should 
become  a  prey.  And  the  poets  have  said  plausibly 
enough  upon  this  subject, 

Ccelo  tegitur  qui  non  habet  urnani. 

He  that  has  no  urn,  has  yet  the  heaven  for  a  cover- 
ing. Therefore  let  not  the  heathen  insult  over  the 
bodies  of  Christians,  that  lie  unburied,  who  have  a 
promise  that  their  flesh  and  all  their  members  shall 
be  reformed,  not  only  out  of  the  earth,  but  out  of 
the  most  secret  recesses  of  every  other  element,  and 
in  a  moment  of  time  be  perfectly  restored  to  their 
pristine  and  primitive  state  again. 

This  was  the  Christians'  consolation,  whenever 
malice  or  the  necessitv  of  their  fate  and  condition 


denied  them  a  funeral.  In  other  cases  they  were 
very  desirous  to  be  decently  interred  among  their 
brethren ;  and  the  living  thought  it  a  piece  of  justice 
to  the  dead,  to  treat  tliem  handsomely  after  death, 
seeing  their  bodies  had  been  the  organs  and  vessels 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  to  every  good  work ;  and  were 
not  only  like  a  ring  or  a  garment,  mere  external 
ornaments  to  the  nature  of  man,  but  more  intimately 
and  nearly  belonging  to  him,  as  part  of  his  very 
essence  and  constitution.  Upon  this  account  good 
men  were  equally  careful  both  to  pay  this  just  debt 
to  their  holy  brethren,  and  to  make  provision  that 
the  same  good  oflSces  should  be  done  to  themselves. 
And  this  made  it  an  honourable  and  desirable 
privilege  to  be  buried  after  the  manner  of  the  faith- 
ful. But  then  it  was  a  privilege  which  belonged  to 
none  but  such.  All  catechumens  that  died  in  a 
voluntary  neglect  of  baptism,  were  excluded  from 
the  benefit  of  it,  as  we  find  by  an  order  of  the  first 
council  of  Braga,'""  and  many  passages  of  St.  Chrj"- 
sostom  to  this  purpose,  which  direct  men  ""  to  olfer 
private  alms  and  private  prayers  for  them,  but  as- 
sure us  they  had  no  place  in  the  pubhc  offices  of 
the  church.  The  case  was  otherwise,  when  men 
died  without  baptism  not  through  any  neglect  or 
contempt  of  it,  but  by  some  unavoidable  necessity, 
which  happened,  and  could  not  be  foreseen  or  pre- 
vented, whilst  they  were  piously  and  studiously  pre- 
paring for  baptism.  In  this  case,  either  martyrdom 
or  a  man's  own  faith  was  thought  sufficient  to  sup- 
ply the  want  of  baptism,  as  I  have  largely  showed '"- 
in  another  place  :  and  then  they  were  buried  with 
the  same  solemnity  as  other  believers,  being  all  one 
with  them  in  the  estimation  of  the  church. 

Another  sort  of  persons,  to  whom  the  church 
denied  the  usual  solemnity  of  burial,  were  the 
biathanafi,  that  is,  such  as  laid  violent  hands  upon 
themselves,  being  plainly  guilty  of  murder,  and 
that  without  repentance,  by  calhng  death  upon 
themselves.  And  they  put  into  the  same  class  all 
those  that  were  pubhcly  executed  for  their  crimes  ; 
because  these  were  virtually  and  indirectly  guilty 
of  self-murder,  in  doing  those  things  which  in  the 
course  of  justice  brought  them  to  an  untimely  end; 
or  at  least  such  things  as  deserved  a  spiritual  cen- 
sure, as  well  as  a  temporal  punishment.  Upon  this 
account  the  council  of  Braga'"^  orders.  That  both 
these  sorts  of  men  shall  be  denied  the  honour  of 
being  carried  with  the  usual  solemnity  of  psalmody 
to  the  gi-ave.  The  council  of  Auxerre""  orders, 
That  the  oblations  of  such  as  voluntarily  hanged  or 
drowned  themselves,  or  killed  themselves  with  the 
sword,  or  cast  themselves  from  a  precipice,  or  were 
any  other  ways  guilty  of  a  voluntary  death,  should 


99  Aug.  de  Civ.  Dei,  lib.  1.  cap.  12  et  13. 

'""  Cone.  Bi-acaren.  1.  can.  .35. 

'"I  Chrys.  Horn.  3.  in  Philip,  p.  1224.  Horn.  21.  in  Joan. 


p.  U)0.  Horn.  1.  in  Act.  p.  11. 

'«  Book  X.  chap.  2.  sect.  20  and  21. 

""  Cone.  Bracar.  1.  can.  31.     ""  Cone.  Antissi'id.  can.  17 


1256 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXIII. 


not  be  received  in  the  church.  And  this  was  a 
punishment  of  the  same  nature  as  denying  them  a 
solemn  burial.  There  is  a  like  order  in  the  second 
council  of  Orleans,'"^  to  refuse  the  oblations  of  such 
as  lay  violent  hands  upon  themselves ;  but  they  ex- 
cept such  as  were  killed  for  their  crimes  ;  I  sup- 
pose, upon  a  supposition  that  such  persons  repent- 
ed of  their  crimes  before  their  execution.  But  if  any 
one  laid  violent  hands  upon  himself,  or  was  actually 
killed  in  his  crimes,  there  was  no  exception  ever 
made  in  his  favour.  Optatus  says,""^  even  one  of 
the  Donatist  bishops  denied  the  Circumcellions  so- 
lemn burial,  because  they  were  slain  in  rebellion 
against  the  civil  magistrate.  Which  shows  that 
this  was  a  rule  inviolably  observed  in  the  church. 

Another  sort  of  persons,  to  whom  the  church 
denied  the  privilege  of  solemn  burial,  were  all  ex- 
communicated persons,  who  continued  obstinate 
and  impenitent  in  a  manifest  contempt  of  the 
church's  discipline  and  censures.  Under  which 
denomination  all  heretics  and  schismatics,  that  were 
actually  denounced  such  by  the  censures  of  the 
church,  were  included.  For  the  office  of  burial  be- 
longed only  to  \hejideles,  or  communicants,  that  is, 
such  as  died  either  in  the  full  communion  of  the 
church,  or  else,  if  they  were  excommunicate,  were 
yet  in  a  disposition  to  communicate  by  accepting 
and  submitting  to  the  rules  of  penance  and  disci- 
pline in  the  church.  In  which  case  their  desire  of 
communion  was  accepted,  as  the  catechumens'  de- 
sire of  baptism,  and  they  were  treated  as  communi- 
cants, though  they  happened  to  die  without  a  for- 
mal reconciliation  in  the  church :  the  church  in  this 
case  relaxed  their  censures,  and  received  them  into 
communion,  and  treated  them  as  other  communi- 
cants after  death  ;  of  which  I  have  given  ""  a  more 
ample  account  in  speaking  of  the  discipline  of  the 
church  in  a  former  Book. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

AN  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  LAWS  MADE  TO  SECURE  THE 
BODIES  AND  GRAVES  OF  THE  DEAD  FROM  THE 
VIOLENCE  OF  ROBBERS  AND  SACRILEGIOUS  IN- 
VADERS. 

Sect.  I.         Though  it  does  not  strictly  belong 

Thp  old    Roman  i         i         ■  /. 

laws   very   severe  a-    tO     the    buSlUCSS     of    fuUeral     ritCS    tO 


speak  any  thingr  of  robbers  of  graves,  gainst  robbers  or 

i^  ■>  O  &  '     „„veE,    and    all    a- 

and  the  laws  made  against  them;  yet  t uses  and  injunts 

O  '    •^  done  to   the  bodies 

because  these  have  some  relation  to  °^  ""^  '''^*'^- 
the  dead,  and  some  things  also  remarkable  in  them, 
I  will  add  something  upon  this  subject  for  the  close 
of  this  whole  discourse.  I  have  hinted  before,'  that 
the  old  Roman  laws  were  very  severe  against  all 
injuries  and  abuses  offered  either  to  the  bodies  or 
the  monuments  and  sepulchres  of  the  dead.  They 
were  reckoned  sacred  things  ;  and  therefore  if  any 
violated  a  sepulchre,  so  as  to  draw  out  the  body  or 
the  bones,  it  was  a  capital  crime,  to  be  punished  - 
with  death  in  persons  of  a  meaner  rank  ;  and  others 
of  a  higher  fortune  were  either  to  be  transported 
into  some  island,  or  otherwise  banished,  or  con- 
demned to  the  mines,  as  appears  from  the  answer 
of  Paulus  in  the  Pandects,  and  those  laws  of  the 
Christian  emperors,^  which  speak  of  the  old  laws 
punishing  this  crime  with  death.  They  made  a  dis- 
tinction between  the  bodies  and  the  sepulchres  :  he 
that  violated  the  sepulchre  only,  but  offered  no  in- 
jury to  the  body,  was  not  punishable  with  death, 
but  either  confiscation,  or  infamy,  or  banishment, 
or  digging  in  the  mines :  but  if  he  offered  any  in- 
dignity to  the  body  itself,  his  crime  was  capital, 
and  his  blood  was  required  to  expiate  the  offence  ; 
unless  the  dignity  of  his  condition  happened  to  be 
such  as  the  law  allowed  to  secure  his  life,  and 
change  the  punishment  of  death  into  a  penalty  of 
some  other  nature. 

This  law  continued  all  the  time  of 
Constantine  ;  but  Constans  his  son     tws  Severity con- 

1  J,      1         -,  .  .         ^  -I  tinued,  for  the  most 

made  a  little  alteration  in  the  penalty,  part,  under  the 

,  Christian  emperors, 

which  lasted  not  very  long,  for  it  was  7"?  some  addition- 

*'  ^  al  circumstances. 

presently  after  revoked  by  Constan- 
tius,  and  the  old  penalty  revived  again.  Constans, 
in  a  first  law  about  demolishing  sepulchres,  (mak- 
ing no  mention  of  violating  the  bodies  themselves,) 
left  the  matter  pretty  much  as  he  found  it ;  order- 
ing* all  such  as  were  concerned  in  demolishing  of 
sepulchres,  to  be  sent  to  the  mines,  if  they  were  of 
a  servile  condition,  and  did  it  without  the  know- 
ledge of  their  lord :  but  if  they  did  it  barely  at  his 
instance,  by  his  authority  and  command,  they  were 
only  to  be  exiled  by  a  common  banishment :  and  if 
the  lord  was  found  to  have  received  any  thing  into 
his  own  house  or  farm,  that  was  taken  from  a  sepul- 
chre, his  house  or  farm,  or  whatever  edifice  it  was, 
was  to  be  confiscated  to  the  public.  But  in  a  se- 
cond law*  he  took  away  the  punishment  of  death, 


'«5  Cone.  Aurelian.  2.  can.  15.       '"^  Optat.  lib.  3.  p.  G8. 

'"'  Book  XIX.  chap.  2.  sect.  11. 

1  Chap.  2.  sect.  2. 

=  Digest,  lib.  47.  Tit.  12.  tie  Sepulchre  Violato,  Leg.  11. 
Rei  sepiilchrormn  violatoruui,  si  corpora  ipsa  e.xtraxerint, 
vel  ossa  eruerint,  humilioris  quidem  fortunaa  summo  siip- 
plicio  afficiuntur  :  honestiores  in  insulam  deportantur  :  alii 
autem  relegantur,  aut  in  metalluin  damnantur. 


3  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  17.  de  Sepulchr.  Violatis,  Leg.  2 
et  .3.     Et  Valentin.  Novel.  5.  de  Sepulchris. 

*  Cod.  Theod.  ibid.  Leg.  1.  Si  quis  in  demoliendis  se- 
pulchris fuerit  adprehensus,  si  id  sine  Domini  conscientia 
faciat,  metallo  adjudicetur:  si  vero  Domini  auctoritate  vel 
jussione  urgeatur,  relegatione  plectatur,  &c. 

^  Ibid.  Leg.  2.  Factum  solitum  sanguine  vinditari, 
multae  inflictions  corrigimus,  &c. 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1257 


which  the  old  laws  appointed,  and  instead  of  it  laid 
a  mulct  or  fine  of  twenty  pounds  of  gold  upon  all 
that  should  be  found  guilty  in  any  thing  of  this 
nature.  Constantius  did  not  approve  of  this  reduc- 
lion  or  abatement  of  the  ancient  penalty,  and  there- 
fore he  revoked  the  indulgence  of  his  brother  Con- 
si  ans,  and  by  two  new  laws  of  his  own  brought  the 
ancient  punishment  of  death  into  force  again,  with 
same  additional  punishment  by  way  of  fine  also. 
His  first  law*  runs  in  these  terms  :  We  understand 
(here  are  some,  who  out  of  a  greedy  desire  of  gain 
]!nll  down  and  demolish  sepulchres,  transferring  the 
niaterials  of  the  building  to  their  own  houses  :  now, 
siK'li,  when  their  wickedness  is  detected,  shall  be 
subject  to  the  punishment  appointed  by  the  ancient 
laws.  In  his  other  law,  he  first  imposes  a  penalty 
of  ten  pounds  of  gold  upon  any  one  that  steals  from 
a  monument  either  stones,  or  marble,  or  pillars,  or 
any  other  material,  whether  to  use  in  any  building, 
or  to  sell  them :  and  then  he  subjoins,'  That  this 
punishment  is  intended  as  an  addition  over  and 
above  to  the  ancient  severity :  for  he  would  not  de- 
rogate any  thing  from  that  punishment  which  was 
before  imposed  upon  those,  who  oflered  violence  to 
the  graves  of  the  dead ;  because,  as  he  says  in  the 
beginning  of  his  law,  it  was  a  double  crime,  equally 
injurious  both  to  the  dead  and  the  living;  to  the 
dead,  by  destroying  and  spoiling  their  habitations  ; 
and  to  the  living,  by  polluting  them  in  the  use  of 
such  materials  in  building.  And  he  adds  in  the 
close,  that  his  intention  was  to  include  within  these 
penalties,  all  such  as  meddled  with  the  bodies  and 
relics  of  the  dead,  as  well  as  those  who  defaced  their 
sepulchres.  There  is  also  a  law  of  Julian's  in  the 
Theodosian  Code,  wherein  he  first  complains  of  the 
audaciousness  of  men  in  demolishing  sepulchres, 
and  stealing  away  the  ornaments  of  them ;  and  then 
orders '  such  to  be  prosecuted  with  the  severity  of 
the  former  laws  made  against  them.  Finally,  The- 
odosius  junior  and  Valentinian  III.  made  a  most 
severe  law  against  all  such  invaders,  of  what  quality 
soever,  appointing  their  punishment  according  to 
the  dignity  of  the  persons  concerned.  If  a  slave  or 
a  countryman "  was  apprehended  in  this  crime,  he 
was  immediately  to  be  put  to  the  rack ;  and  if  he 
confessed  that  it  was  his  own  act,  and  his  master 
was  not  concerned  in  it,  he  was  to  be  put  to  death. 
If  his  master  was  concerned  in  it,  he  was  punished 
in  like  manner.     If  a  freeman  was  found  guilty, 


«  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  17.  de  Sepulchr.  Violatis,  Leg.  3. 
Quosdam  comperimus,  lucri  nimium  ciipidos.  sepulchra  sub- 
vertere,  et  substantiam  fabricandi  ad  pioprias  aedes  trans- 
ferre  :  hi  detecto  scelere  animadversionem  priscis  legibus 
definitam  subire  debebunt. 

"  Ibid.  Leg.  4.  Quaj  poena  priscoe  scveritati  acccdit : 
nihil  enim  derogatum  est  illi  supplicio,  quod  sepulchra  vio- 
lantibiis  videtur  impositum.  Huic  autem  poence  subjacebunt 
et  qui  corpora  sepulta  aut  reliquias  coutrcctaveriut. 

"  Ibid.  Leg.  5.      Hoc  fieri  prohibemus,   poena  nianium   | 


who  was  but  a  plebeian  and  had  no  estate,  he  was 
also  to  suffer  death.  If  he  had  an  estate,  or  was  in 
any  dignity,  he  was  to  be  amerced  in  half  his  estate, 
and  for  ever  after  to  be  made  infamous  in  law.  If 
a  clergyman  was  found  guilty  of  this  crime,  whether 
bishop  or  inferior,  he  was  immediately  to  be  de- 
graded, and  lose  the  name  of  a  clerk,  and  to  be  sent 
into  banishment  without  redemption.  And  all 
judges  are  strictly  charged  to  see  this  law  duly  put 
in  execution.     Pax  sepuHis,  Peace  be  to  the  dead. 

To  give  these  laws  the  greater  force  ^^^^  ^ 
and  terror,  it  was  usual  with  the  em-  iowed"t'^"mw,of.or 
perors,  when  they  granted  their  indul-  mrTat%'.e'' Sr 
gence  to  several  criminals,  according  '"""^• 
to  custom,  at  the  Easter  festival,  still  to  except 
robbers  of  graves,  with  other  great  criminals  whom 
they  thought  unworthy  of  any  such  pardon  or  in- 
dulgence ;  such  as  men  guilty  of  sacrilege,  incest, 
ravishment,  adultery,  sorcery,  necromancy,  counter- 
feiting or  adulterating  the  public  coin,  together 
with  murder  and  treason  :  as  we  find  the  exceptions 
made  in  several  laws  of  Valentinian,  and  Gratian, 
and  Theodosius  senior,  and  Theodosius  junior,  and 
Valentinian  III.,  put  together  in  one  title  in  the 
Theodosian  Code,'"  beside  this  famous  law  of  Valen- 
tinian now  recited. 

And  it  is  remarkable  also,  that  Con- 

Sfct.  4. 

stantine,  who  allowed  a  woman  liberty  „  ^"^  ""*  "r*  * 

'  J     woman  was  allnweu 

to  put  away  her  husband  for  three  a^h'm  o? 7ivorc!' to 
crimes,  made  this  one  of  the  three;  if  ''" ''"'*'"'■'^• 
he  was  a  murderer,  or  a  sorcerer,  or  a  robber  of 
graves."  And  Theodosius  junior  also  puts  the  same 
crime  among  the  legal  causes  of  divorce  both  in 
men  and  women  in  one  of  his  laws,'-  which  Jus- 
tinian not  only  put  into  his  new  Code,  but  confirmed 
by  several  laws  and  novels  of  his  own  composing, 
as  has  been  already  showed  more  at  large  in  hand- 
ling the  matter  of  divorces  in  the  last  Book.'* 
Neither  were  the  ecclesiastical  laws  wanting  in  the 
punishment  of  this  crime,  which  was  reputed  the 
most  barbarous  and  inhuman  sort  of  robbery  of 
any  other ;  concerning  which  I  have  spoken  fully 
under  the  head  of  ecclesiastical  discipline,"  and 
therefore  need  say  no  more  of  it  in  this  place. 
Now,  if  it  be  inquired,  what  made 

'■  Sect.  5. 

men  professing  Christianity  to  be  so  ■  one  reason  tempt- 

'■  o  J  "      "    ,„^  „,p„  tp  commit 

much  addicted  to  this  vice,  that  there  [-^  aSng''of  Ihe 
should  be  need  of  so  many  laws  '"^^"-" -p"'^"'^^^- 
against  it  ?     I  answer,  there  were  three  motives  or 


vindice  cohibentes. 

»  Valentin.  Novel.  5.  de  Sepulchris,  ad  calcena  Cod. 
Theodos.  Servos  colonosve  in  hoc  facinoie  depiehensos, 
duci  protinus  ad  tornienta  convenit.  Si  de  sua  tantum  fue- 
rint  temeritate  confessi,  luant  commissa  sanguine  suo,  &c. 

'»  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  38.  de  Indulgcntiis  Criminum, 
Leg.  .3,  4,  6,  7,  8. 

"  Ibid.  lib.  3.  Tit.  16.  de  Kepudiis,  Leg.  1. 

'-  Cod.  Just.  lib.  5.  Tit.  17.  de  Repudii.s  Leg.  8. 

"  Book  XXII.  ch.  5.  sect.  8.     i'  Book  XVI.  eh. 6.  sect.  21. 


1258 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXIII. 


temptations  to  this  kind  of  robbery ;  two  of  which 
had  something  plausible  in  them ;  but  the  first  had 
nothing  but  downright  covetousness  in  it,  arising 
from  the  rich  ornaments  and  splendid  furniture  of 
many  of  the  heathen  monuments  built  over  their 
graves ;  which  some  wicked  Christians,  as  well  as 
others,  looking  upon  not  so  much  with  an  envious 
as  a  covetous  and  rapacious  eye,  took  occasion 
either  publicly  or  privately  to  make  a  spoil  and 
plunder  of  them.  This  is  evident  from  the  com- 
plaints made  in  the  several  laws,  of  such  robbers 
carrying  off  marble  stones,  and  pillars,  and  other 
rich  furniture,  either  to  adorn  their  own  houses 
therewith,  or  make  a  gain  of  them  by  selling  to 
others.  Some  were  so  base  and  sordid,  as  to  pull 
down  monuments  to  make  lime  with,  or  sell  them 
to  others  for  that  purpose,  Coquendce  calcis  gratia, 
as  one  of  the  laws  words  it. 

g^^^  g  But    this   rapacious    humour   was 

pKtelT/wa^taken  Something  covered  with  a  plausible 
ihat'^Xre'duinieal  prctcuce  of  piety  and  zeal  for  the 
imies  tTbedemoi-  Christian  religion.  For  Constantine, 
anno  333,  had  ordered  all  altars  and 
images,  as  well  as  temples,  to  be  destroyed;  and 
the  heathen  monuments  and  sepulchres  were  often 
adorned  with  such  images ;  which  gave  occasion, 
beyond  the  meaning  of  the  law,  to  bad  men  to  de- 
molish the  heathen  monuments,  under  the  notion 
of  destroying  images,  and  rooting  out  idolatry,  and 
all  the  remains  and  footsteps  of  it.  Had  they  kept 
within  the  intent  of  the  law,  only  destroying  images 
and  altars,  and  not  the  gi'aves  themselves,  there 
had  been  no  just  reason  of  complaint;  but  when 
under  this  pretence  they  destroyed  not  only  the 
images,  but  the  whole  edifice  of  the  monuments, 
erasing  the  titles,  and  disturbing  the  bodies  or  ashes 
of  the  dead,  and  carrying  off  marble  stones  and 
pillars,  and  whatever  was  ornamental  or  valuable 
about  them ;  this  was  thought  intolerable  by  the 
succeeding  emperors,  and  therefore  so  many  good 
laws  were  made  against  the  hypocritical  rapacious- 
ness  of  such  illegal  pretenders  to  reformation.  The 
law  was  good,  had  they  used  it  lawfully ;  but  they, 
through  covetousness  and  rapine,  went  beyond  their 
bounds ;  and  therefore  Constans,  the  son  of  Con- 
stantine, anno  349,  ordered  all  these  creatures  to  be 
called  to  an  account,  who  had  so  abused  the  law 
of  his  father;  and  under  pretence  of  destroying 
images,  had  the  marble  ornaments'^  and  pillars 
taken  away,  and  (he  stones  thrown  down  to  burn 


into  lime :  whosoever  of  this  sort  could  be  disco- 
vered, from  the  time  that  Dalmatius  and  Zenophilus 
were  consuls,  that  is,  from  the  year  333,  when  Con- 
stantine first  published  his  edict,  which  they  frau- 
dulently took  the  advantage  of;  they  should  forfeit 
to  the  emperor's  coffer  a  pound  of  gold  for  every 
monument  so  defaced.  And  whoever  for  the  future 
was  found  guilty  of  such  rapine,  should  be  amerced 
twenty  pounds  of  gold  to  the  use  of  the  exchequer 
likewise.  So  that  this  pretence  of  demolishing  hea- 
then monuments  under  the  notion  of  destroying 
idolatry,  was  a  mere  hypocritical  act  of  covetous- 
ness varnished  over  with  a  face  of  religion. 

There  was  also  a  third  temptation  ^^^^  ^ 
of  the  same  nature,  which  seems  to  w^to  geuhrrX" 
have  prevailed  even  among  some  of  and'^S"  ga°ia*of 
the  more  senseless  and  covetous  cler-  ""■ 
gy;  which  was,  the  gainful  trade  of  getting  and 
selling  the  relics  of  martyrs.  This  made  them,  for 
the  sake  of  filthy  lucre,  rob  graves,  and  steal  away 
the  bones  of  martyrs,  or  any  others,  that  they 
might  have  a  sufficient  stock  of  relics  (true  or  false, 
it  mattered  not  which)  to  feed  the  foolish  supersti- 
tion of  such  as  were  willing  to  let  them  make  a  gain 
of  them.  This  kind  of  superstition,  calculated  to 
encourage  covetousness  and  religious  cheats,  was 
stirring  among  some  in  the  church  betimes.  For, 
though  the  church  for  above  five  hundred  years 
made  no  other  use  of  the  relics  of  martyrs,  but  only 
decently  to  inter  them ;  yet  some  superstitious  per- 
sons privately  made  another  use  of  them.  Optatus 
says,  Lucilla,  the  rich  foundress,  as  one  may  call 
her,  of  the  Donatist  schism,  was  used,  before  she 
received  the  eucharist,  to  kiss  the'*  mouth  of  a  cer- 
tain martyr,  which,  whether  true  or  false,  she  had 
procured,  and  kept  by  her  for  that  purpose.  For 
this  she  was  gravely  reproved  by  Cecilian,  then 
archdeacon  of  Carthage ;  which  she  so  resented  and 
remembered,  that  when  he  came  to  be  bishop,  she, 
being  a  rich,  potent,  factious  woman,  by  her  in- 
terest procured  some  others  to  be  set  up  against 
him :  which  was  the  first  beginning  of  the  schism 
of  the  Donatists,  founded  upon  the  pride  of  an 
imperious  woman,  who  was  incorrigibly  bent  upon 
the  superstitious  veneration  of  the  relic  of  a  martyr. 
St.  Austin  likewise  tells  us,  there  were  in  his  time  " 
a  great  many  wandering,  idle  monks,  hypocritical 
men,  who,  by  the  instigation  of  Satan,  went  about 
the  world  selling  relics  of  martj'rs,  which  it  was 
very  doubtful  whether  they  were  the  relics  of  true 


•^  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  17.  de  Sepulchris,  Leg.  2. 
Universi  itaque,  qui  de  monumontis  coluinnas  vel  marmora 
abstulerint,  vel  coqucndoe  calcis  gratia  lapides  dojece- 
rint,  ex  cousulatu  scilicet  Dalmatii  et  Zenophili,  singulas 
libras  auri  per  singula  sepulchra  fisci  rationibus  iuferant, 
&c. 

'^  Optat.  lib.  1.  p.  40.  Cum  correptionem  archidiaconi 
Ceeciliani  ferre  non  posset,  quae  ante  spiritalem  cibum  et 


potum,  OS  nescio  cujus  martyris,  si  tamen  martyris,  libare 
dicebatur,  &c. 

'"  Aug.  de  Opere  Monachorum,  cap.  28.  Callidissimus 
hostis  tam  multos  hypocritas  sub  habitu  monachorum  us- 
quequaque  dispersit,  circumeuntes  provincias,  nusquam 
missos,  nusquam  fixos,  nusquam  stantes,  nusquam  sedeutes  : 
alii  membra  martyrum,  si  tamen  martyrum,  venditant. 
alii  fitnbrias  et  phylacteria  sua  uiaguificant,  &c. 


Chap.  IV. 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


1259 


martyrs  or  not.  However,  they  made  a  gainful 
trade  of  it,  and  no  doubt  were  tempted  upon  that 
account  to  rob  the  graves  of  the  martyrs,  or  some 
otlicrs,  which  would  as  well  serve  their  purpose. 
In  opposition  to  this  sort  of  men,  Thcodosius  the 
Great"  made  an  express  law,  that  no  one  should 
remove  any  dead  body  that  was  buried,  from  one 
])]ace  to  another;  that  no  one  should  sell  or  buy 
the  relics  of  martyrs;  but  if  any  one  was  minded 
1  o  build  over  the  grave  where  a  martyr  was  buried 
a  church,  to  be  called  a  marfi/rinm,  in  respect  to 
Jiim,  he  should  have  liberty  to  do  it.  This  was 
then  the  honour  that  was  paid  to  martyrs,  to  let 
them  lie  quietly  in  their  graves,  and  build  churches 
over  them,  which  were  dedicated  to  God  and  his 
service,  not  to  any  religious  worship  of  the  martyr ; 
only  in  honour  to  him  the  church  might  be  called 
;i  marti/riitm,  after  his  name :  but  beyond  this  no 
honour  was  to  be  given  to  him  under  any  pretence 
of  veneration ;  and  to  take  up  his  body  and  make 
merchandise  of  his  bones,  was  so  far  from  venera- 
tion, that  it  was  reckoned  a  disturbing  of  his  ashes 
and  a  robbing  of  graves,  which  was  mere  covetous- 
ness  hypocritically  covered  under  the  name  of  re- 
ligion. I  question  not  but  the  law  of  Valcntinian 
III.,  which  speaks  of  bishops,  and  others  of  the 
clergy,  who  were  concerned  in  robbing  of  graves, 
was  levelled  against  this  sort  of  men,  who  digged 
up  the  bones  of  martyrs,  and  sold  them  as  holy 
relics,  to  gratify  their  own  lucre  at  the  expense  of 
superstitious  people,  who  thought  it  an  honour  to 
a  martyr  to  keep  his  bones  above-ground ;  whereas 
all  the  laws  of  church  and  state  then  reckoned  it  a 
sacrilegious  robbing  of  graves,  and  disturbance  of 
those  holy  relics,  which  ought  to  have  lain  quiet 
and  undisturbed  to  the  resurrection. 

There  was  a  peculiar  custom  in 
A  pectuiar  custom  Egypt,  which  might  have  given  great 

inE^ypt  tokeep  the  ,    .  •    i       -i 

bodies  embalmed     encouragcmcnt  to  this  wicked  prac- 

and  unburied  in  ^ 

their  houses  above-  ticc,  though  we  do  uot  fiud  mcii  made 

ground.  ^ 

that  ill  use  of  it ;  however,  it  was  dis- 
approved upon  another  account.  For  the  custom 
of  Egypt  was  so  to  embalm  the  dead,  as  to  keep 
them  either  in  their  houses,  or  in  monuments  and 
mausoleums  above-ground  :  the  body  so  ordered 
was,  by  the  ancient  Greek  writers,  called  rdpixog ;  the 
Egyptians  called  it  r/ahhara  ;  and  modern  writers, 
miimmia,  as  Gataker'^  observes,  from  the  Arabic 
word,  mum,  which  denotes  wax,  used  chiefly  in 
this  embalming.  Most  ancient  writers  speak  of 
this  Egyptian  way  of  embalming ;  and  Tully  more 


particularly  takes  notice™  of  their  keeping  the 
bodies  so  embalmed  in  their  own  houses  with- 
out any  other  burial.  This  custom,  it  seems,  was 
also  retained  among  the  Christians  of  Egypt,  many 
of  whom  (it  is  certain  not  all)  were  wont  not 
to  bury  their  dead  under-ground,  but  when  they 
had  embalmed  them,  to  keep  them  still  in  their 
houses  laid  in  beds,  out  of  reverence  and  honour 
for  their  persons.  Athanasius  says  St.  Antony,^' 
the  famous  Egyptian  hermit,  was  very  much  offend- 
ed at  this  custom,  and  therefore  he  was  used  with  a 
great  deal  of  freedom  to  tell  the  bishops  of  Egypt, 
that  they  ought  to  teach  the  people  better,  and  en- 
deavour to  break  the  custom.  For  the  bodies  of  the 
patriarchs  and  prophets  were  kept  in  their  sepul- 
chres unto  this  day  ;  and  the  body  of  our  Lord  was 
laid  in  a  grave  to  the  time  of  his  resurrection.  By 
which  arguments  he  showed,  that  it  was  a  sin  for 
any  man  not  to  bury  the  bodies  of  his  dead  under 
the  earth,  although  they  were  holy ;  for  what  can 
be  greater  or  more  holy  than  the  body  of  the  Lord? 
Upon  this  many  people  changed  their  custom,  and 
buried  the  bodies  of  the  dead  under-ground,  giving 
God  thanks  that  they  were  better  instructed.  It  is 
added  a  little  after,  that  St.  Antony  gave  orders  that 
his  own  body  should  so  be  buried,  which  was  ac- 
cordingly done  in  a  place  that  no  one  knew  of  be- 
side the  two  persons  that  took  care  of  his  funeral. 
But  it  was  not  easy  to  break  an  inveterate  custom, 
and  therefore,  though  many  left  off  this  way,  yet 
many  continued  it  still :  for  St.  Austin  speaks  of 
it "  as  a  thing  in  use  among  the  Egyptians  in  his 
time,  at  least  to  dry  the  bodies  of  the  dead  by  their 
curious  way  of  embalming,  which  made  them  almost 
as  hard  as  brass,  and  kept  them  from  corruption. 
These  in  their  language  they  called  by  a  peculiar 
name,  gahharce,  which,  I  think,  we  may  English, 
Egyptian  mummies.  He  does  not  expressly  say 
they  still  kept  them  above-ground,  but  he  seems  to 
intimate  as  much,  in  saying,  they  intended  by  their 
embalming  to  harden  them  like  brass,  and  preserve 
them  from  corruption. 

AVe  may  hence  draw  several  argu- 
ments, as  Mr.  Daille  has  done  in  a     no  re^gWus  wor- 

,     ,  .     ,        la.        ship  allowed  to  he 

very  curious  and  learned  book,""^  to  gnentoreiiesinthe 

•'  .     .  amient    church   till 

prove,  that   there   was   no  religious  after  the  time  of  st. 

^  '  ~  Austin, 

worship  given  to  the  relics  of  saints 
and  martyrs  for  several  of  the  first  ages  in  the  church. 
For  their  great  care  then  was  to  bury  them  under- 
ground (and  not  set  them  upon  the  altar-*  as  in 
after   ages) :    this  was   the  greatest  respect  they 


'8  Cod.  Theod.  lib.  9.  Tit.  7.  de  Sepulchris  Violatis,  Leg. 
7.  Humatum  corpus  nemo  ad  aliiim  locum  transferal ; 
nemo  martyrem  distrahat,  nemo  mercetur :  habeant  vero  in 
potestate,  si  quolibet  in  loco  sanctorum  aliquis  est.conditus, 
pro  ejus  veneratioue,  quod  martyrium  vocandum  sit,  addant 
quod  voluerint  fabricarum. 

'"  Gatakcr,  Not.  in  Marc.  Antonin.  lib.  4.  p.  175. 

-"  Cicero,  Tuscul.  Quocst.  lib.  1.  n.  108.    Condiunt  iEgyptii 


mortuos,  et  eos  domi  servant. 

-'  Athan.  Vit.  Anton,  t.  2.  p.  502. 

--  Aug.  Scrm.  120.  de  Diversis,  cap.  12.  .^Egyptii  dili- 
genter  curant  caoavera  mortuonim ;  morem  enim  habent 
siccare  corpora  et  quasi  Knea  reddere :  gabbaras  ea  vocant. 

"^  Dalhvus  de  Objecto  Cultus  Religiosi,  lib.  4. 

-'  RlabiU.  de  Liturg.  Gallic.  lib.  1.  cap.  9.  n.  4.  owns  there 
were  uo  relics  set  upon  the  altar,  even  to  the  tenth  century. 


1260 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Book  XXIII. 


^ 


thought  they  could  pay  to  them.  St.  Antony 
thought  it  was  a  great  disrespect  to  keep  them 
ahove-ground  unburied.  The  laws  made  it  sacrilege 
to  rob  a  grave  for  the  sake  of  them,  and  absolutely 
forbade  any  one  to  buy  or  sell  the  relics  of  a  martyr. 
Lucilla  was  reproved  for  paying  an  undue  respect 
to  them.  St.  Austin  inveighs  against  the  monks 
that  went  about  the  world  seUing  the  relics  of  mar- 
tyrs ;  and  he  condemns  those  who  worshipped 
graves  and  pictures  under  pretence  of  honouring''^ 
the  dead,  whom  he  puts  into  the  same  class  with 
those  who  made  themselves  drunk  at  the  monu- 
ments of  the  martyrs,  and  placed  their  intemperance 
to  the  account  of  religion :  All  such,  he  says,  were 
a  scandal  to  the  church,  whom  she  condemned  as 
ignorant  and  superstitious  men,  and  daily  laboured 
to  correct  them  as  wicked  children.  There  is  one 
instance  in  the  third  century  of  some  well-meaning 
Christians,  who,  after  the  martyrs  Fructiiosus  and 
Eulogius  were  burnt,  gathered  up  their  remains, 
and  would  have  kept  them  by  them  only  out  of 
respect  and  love,  not  for  any  religious  worship : 
but  Fructuosus  after  his  passion  appeared  to  them,^ 
and  admonished  them  to  restore  immediately  what- 
ever part  of  the  ashes  any  one  out  of  love  had  taken 
to  himself,  and  that,  putting  them  all  together,  they 
should  bury  them  in  one  common  grave.  The  great 
care  of  the  church  and  of  the  martyrs  themselves  in 
those  days,  was  not  to  have  their  relics  kept  above- 
ground  for  worship,  but  to  be  decently  buried  under 
the  earth.  And  therefore,  w-hen  the  heathen  judge 
asked  Eulogius  the  deacon,  who  suffered  with  Fruc- 
tuosus his  bishop,  whether  he  would  not  worship 
Fructuosus  as  a  martyr  after  death  ?  he  plainly  re- 
plied, I  do  not  worship  Fructuosus,"  but  Him  only 
whom  Fructuosus  worships.  The  like  answer  was 
given  by  the  brethren  of  the  church  of  Smyrna  to 
the  suggestion  of  the  Jews,  when,  at  the  martyrdom 
of  Polycarp,  the  Jews  desired  the  heathen  judge. 
That  he  would  not  permit  the  Christians  to  carry 
oir  the  body  of  Polycarp,  lest  they  should  leave  their 
crucified  Master,  and  begin  to  worship  this  man  in 
his  stead :  This  suggestion,  says  the  answer,  pro- 
ceeded purely  from  ignorance,^  and  a  false  pre- 
sumption, that  we  could  either  forsake  Christ,  or 
worship  any  other.  For  we  worship  Christ,  as 
being  the  Son  of  God ;  but  the  martyrs,  as  the  dis- 
ciples and  followers  of  the  Lord,  we  love  with  a  due 
affection,  for  their  great  love  of  their  own  King  and 
Master ;  with  whom  we  desire  to  be  partners  and 


fellow  disciples.  They  add,  That  when  his  body 
was  burnt,  they  gathered  up  the  bones,  more  pre- 
cious and  valuable  than  any  gold  or  precious  stones, 
and  buried  them  in  a  convenient  place,  where 
by  God's  permission  they  intended  to  meet  and 
celebrate  his  birthday  with  joy  and  gladness,  as  well 
for  the  memorial  of  those  who  have  bravely  suffered 
and  fought  as  champions  before,  as  for  the  exercise 
and  preparation  of  those  that  come  after.  I  will 
only  add  one  testimony  more  out  of  St.  Austin, 
where  he  makes  some  pious  reflections  upon  the 
passions  of  the  foresaid  Fructuosus  and  Eulogius. 
He  mentions  the  same  answer  of  Eulogius  to  the 
judge,  that  the  Acts  speak  of:  when  the  judge  asked 
him,  whether  he  would  worship  Fructuosus  ?  he 
replied,  I  do  not  worship  Fructuosus  ;  but  I  worship 
Him  whom  Fructuosus  also  worships.  Upon  which 
St.  Austin  makes  this  remark.  That  hereby  we  are 
taught^  to  honour  the  martyrs,  but  not  to  worship 
them,  but  only  to  worship  the  God  whom  the  mar- 
tyrs worship.  For  we  ought  not  to  be  such  as  the 
pagans  are,  whom  we  lament  upon  that  very  ac- 
count, because  they  worship  dead  men.  For  all 
those  whose  names  you  hear,  to  whom  temples  are 
built,  were  men,  and  all  or  most  of  them  kings 
among  men :  as  you  have  heard  of  Jupiter,  Her- 
cules, Neptune,  Pluto,  Mercury,  Bacchus,  and  the 
rest;  whom  not  only  the  fictions  of  the  poets,  but 
the  histories  of  all  nations,  declare  and  evidence  to 
have  been  men,  m^io,  having  obliged  the  world  with 
some  temporal  kindnesses,  were  after  death  wor- 
shipped by  vain  men,  who  called  and  esteemed  them 
gods,  and  built  temples  to  them  as  gods,  and  prayed 
to  them  as  gods,  and  erected  altars  to  them  as  gods, 
and  ordained  priests  for  them  as  gods,  and  offered 
sacrifices  to  them  as  gods :  whereas  the  true  God 
alone  ought  to  have  temples,  and  sacrifices  ought  to 
be  ofl'ered  to  the  true  God  alone.  As  for  the  mar- 
tyrs, he  says,  they  did  neither  take  them  for  gods, 
nor  worship  them  as  gods.  We  give  them  no  tem- 
ples, nor  altars,  nor  sacrifices  ;  neither  do  the  priests 
ofler  to  them.  God  forbid.  These  things  are  only 
done  to  God,  and  offered  to  him  from  whom  alone 
we  obtain  all  good  things,  at  the  memorials^of  the 
martyrs.  Therefore,  if  any  one  asks  thee,  whether 
thou  worship  Peter  ?  answer,  as  Eulogius  did  con- 
cerning Fructuosus,  I  do  not  worship  Peter,  but  I 
worship  Him  whom  Peter  also  worships.  Then  he 
brings  in  the  example  of  Paul  and  Barnabas  re- 
fusing to  be  worshipped  by  the  Lycaonians,  and  the 


-^  Aug.  de  Moribus  Ecclesise  Cathol.  cap.  .34.  Novi  raul- 
tdsesse  sepiilchrorum  et  picturarumadoratores  :  novi  multos 
esse,  qui  fuxuriosissime  super  mortuos  bibant,  &c. 

26  Acta  Fiuctuosi,  ap.  Baron,  an.  2G2.  n.  68.  Fnictuo- 
sum  post  pas.sionem  apparuisse  fratribus,  et  monuisse,  ut 
quod  unusquisque  per  caritatem  de  cineribus  usurpaverat, 
restituerent  sine  mora,  unoque  in  loco  simul  condendos  cu- 
rurent. 


^  Ibid.  n.  62.  Ego  Fructuosum  non  colo,  sod  ipsum  colo 
quern  et  Fructuosus. 

-'■'*  Acta  Polycarpi,  ap.  Euseb.  lib.  4.  cap.  15. 

-'"  Aug.  Serm.  101.  de  Diversis,  p.  571.  Quo  modo  nos 
admonuit,  ut  martyres  honoremus,  et  cum  martyribus  Deum 
colamus.  Neque  enim  tales  esse  debemus,  quales  paganus 
dolemus.     Et  quidem  illi  mortuos  homines  colunt,  &c. 


LP.      IV 


ANTIQUITIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


12(;i 


example  of  the  angel  refusing  to  be  worshipped  by 
St.  John,  and  bidding  him  to  worship  God  alone. 
After  which  he  adds  these  remarkable  words  in  the 
close,  both  against  those  who  kept  feasts  at  the 
graves  of  the  martyrs,  and  those  who  worshipped 
tliom:  The  martyrs  hate  your  flagons  of  wine,  the 
iuartyrs  hate  your  frying-pans,  the  martyrs  hate 
.  lur  drunken  rcvellings  at  their  graves:  I  speak 
not  these  things  to  injure  or  reproach  any  who  are 
i!ot  such;  let  them  who  do  such  things,  take  it  to 
themselves:  the  martyrs,'"  I  say,  hate  these  things, 
;i!ul  love  not  those  that  do  them ;  but  they  much 
more  hate  and  abhor  any  worship  that  is  olfered  to 
them.  These  are  plain  evidences,  that  no  religious 
worship  was  given  to  the  martyrs,  much  less  to 
their  relics,  by  the  church  in  the  time  of  St.  Austin; 
but  some  ignorant  and  superstitious  persons  were 
carried  away  with  a  blind  zeal,  to  reckon  those 
things  to  be  an  honour  to  the  martyrs,  which  were 
a  real  reproach  both  to  themselves  and  tlie  church, 
and  displeasing  both  to  God  and  the  martyrs ;  to 
■whom  the  greatest  honour  they  could  do,  was  to  lay 
their  relics  quietly  in  the  grave,  and  meet  at  their 
tombs  to  praise  God  for  their  glorious  achievements 
and  \-ictories  over  the  terrors  of  death,  and  to  ex- 
cite themselves  to  piety  and  constancy  in  the  faith 
by  the  provocation  of  their  examples.  Other  hon- 
ours to  the  dead  the  ancient  church  knew  none ;  at 
least  approved  or  encouraged  none ;  but  laboured  to 
correct  and  repress  them  wherever  they  appeared, 
as  resembling  too  near,  and  savouring  too  much  of 
the  follies  and  superstitions  of  the  Gentiles,  whose 
gods  were  only  dead  men,  deified  by  their  own  con- 
secration and  worship,  without  any  real  foundation 
in  nature ;  for  by  nature  they  were  no  gods :  and 
this  is  the  great  irrefragable  argument  the  ancients 


always  made  use  of  against  them;  of  which  I  have 
said  enough  both  here  and  elsewhere,"  and  so  I  put 
an  end  to  this  discourse  concerning  the  manner  of 
treating  the  dead  in  the  ancient  church. 

I  have  now  gone  through  the  whole  state  of  the 
primitive  church,  and  given  an  account  of  the 
several  parts  of  her  public  worship  and  offices  of 
Divine  service ;  which  in  a  great  measure  answers 
the  design  I  at  first  proposed  to  myself,  when  I  be- 
gun this  work.  Another  Book  more  of  miscellane- 
ous rites  might  be  added ;  but  having  laboured  in 
this  work  for  twenty  years,  with  frequent  returns  of 
bodily  infirmities,  which  make  hard  study  now  less 
agreeable  to  a  weakly  constitution ;  and  the  things 
themselves  being  of  no  great  moment;  I  rather 
choose  to  give  the  reader  a  complete  and  finished 
work,  with  an  index  to  the  whole,  than  by  grasping 
at  too  much,  to  be  forced  to  leave  it  imperfect, 
neither  to  my  own  nor  the  world's  satisfaction.  I 
bless  God  for  enabling  me  to  go  through  the  work 
with  comfort  and  pleasure ;  I  thank  the  world  for 
their  patience  and  approbation ;  and  I  thank  my 
particular  benefactors  more,  as  I  think  I  am  obliged 
to  do,  for  their  suitable  encouragement  to  a  work 
of  such  a  nature :  I  blame  none  for  want  of  en- 
couragement, nor  any  that  dislike  the  whole,  or  any 
part  of  it ;  they  may  have  reasons,  perhaps,  which 
I  know  not  of,  and  shall  never  inquire  into.  I 
hope,  however,  that  it  may  prove  a  useful  work  in 
some  measure  both  to  the  present  and  future  gener- 
ations, as  a  learned  prelate  was  once  pleased  to  say 
to  me,  by  way  of  approbation  and  encouragement. 
Sen's  arbores  alteri  scbcuIo  jn-ofuturas :  if  so,  I  shall 
have  my  end :  let  the  church  receive  benefit,  and 
God  the  glory  of  all. 


^  Aug.  Serm.  101.  de  Diversis,  p.  572.  Oderunt  mar- 
tyres  lagenas  vestras,  oderuut  martyres  sartagines  vestras, 
oderunt  martyres  ebrietates  vestras  :  sine  injuria  eorum  dico 
qui  tales  non  sunt:  illi  ad  se  referant  qui  talia  faciimt: 


oderunt  ista  martyres,  non  amant  talia  facientes.  Sed  multo 
plus  oderunt.  si  colantur. 
3'  Book  XIII.  chap.  3. 


LAUS   DEO. 


I. 


INDEX    OF   AUTHORS. 


190 
202 
303 
299 
303 

67 


132 


490 
7«0 


315 

630 
11G6 
1130 


810 

374 
380 

370 

870 
561 
500 


Acta  Andronici,  ap.  Baron,  an.  190. 

Acta  Martyrum  ScjUitanorum,  ap.  Baron.  202. 

Acta  Euplii,  ap.  Baron,  an.  303. 

Acta  Tharaci,  ap.  Baron,  an.  299. 

Acta  Felicis,   Ampelii,   Glycerii,   Dativi,    Saturnini, 

Thelicre,  et  alioruui,  ap.  Baron,  an.  301,  -302,  303. 
Acta  Thecla;,  ap.  Giabe  Spicilegium,  vol.  i.  p.  95. 
Pet.  ASrodius  De  Patrio  Jure,  cum  Pandectis.    Par. 

1615.     Fol. 
Agathias  De  Rebus  Gestis  Justiniani.    G.  L.    Par. 

1660.    Fol. 
Agrippa  Castor.  Fragment,  ap.  Eusebium. 
Cornel.  Agrippa  De  Vanitate  Scientiarum.    Hagce, 

1662.    8vo. 
Gabr.  Albaspineeus,    Episcopus   Aurelianensis,  Ob- 

servationes  de  veteribus  Ecclesiae   Ritibus.     Par. 

1631.     Fol. 

Notee    in    Optatum,   TertuUianum,   Concilium 

Eliberit.  et  Cannnes  alios  antiquos.     Ibid. 

Police  de  I'Ancienne  Eglise  sur  1' Administra- 
tion de  I'Euchariste,  &c. 

Edm.  Albertinus  De  Eucharistia.    Daven.  1655.  Fol. 

Alcimus  Avilus,  in  Bibl.  Patr.  t.  8. 

Albinus  Alcuinus,  in  Bibl.  Patr.  t.  10. 

Nicol.   Aletnanniis    De    Parietinis    Lateranensibus. 

Romcs,  1625.     Fol. 
Alexander  Alexandrinus,  Epist.  ap.  Tbeodoret,  lib. 

1.  cap.  4. 
Alexandrinum  Chronicon.  Gr.  Lat.    Moiiachii,  1615. 

4to. 
Alexins  Aristenus,  Synopsis  Canonum,  ap.  Justellum 

et  Beverege. 
Algerus  De  Eucharistia.     Par.  1610. 
Pet.  Atlix  De  Trisagio.     Ilothornagi,  1674.     4to. 
Leo  Allatius  De  Consensiono  perpetua  Occidentalis 

et  Orientalis  Ecclesiae.     Colon.  1648.     4to. 

De   Doniinicis  et  Hebdoraadibus  Graecorum. 

Ibid. 

De  Missa  Prsesanctificatorura.     Ibid. 

De    Libris    Ecclesiasticis   Grfficorum.      Par. 

1645.     4to. 

De  Narthece  Veteris  Ecclesiae  et  Templis  re- 

centiorum  Graecorum.     Par.  1646.     4to. 

Ahtedius,  Siipplementum  ad  Chamieri  Panstratiam. 
Amalarius  De  Ofliciis  Ecclcs.  Bibl.  Patr.  t.  10. 

De  Baptisterio  Moguutino.  Bibl.  Patr.  t.  8. 

Sixtin.  Aniama,  Oratio  de  Barbarie. 

Ambrosii  Opera,  3  vols.    Basil,  1567.     Fol. 
Ammiani  Marcellini  Historia,  cum  Notis  Liudebrogii. 

Hamburg.  1609.    4to. 
Amphilochius,     Epistola    Canonica     ap.    Bevereg. 

Pandect. 
Anastasius  Bibliothecarius  de  Vitis  Pontificum.  Par. 

1649. 
Anastasius  Sinaita,  Quaestiones  et  Respons.     Ingol- 

stad.  1617.     4to. 
Andreas  Caesariensis.  Comment,  in  Apocalypsin,  ad 

Calcem    Operum  Chrysostomi.     Edit.  Commelin. 

1596.     Fol. 
^nrfreu'^De  Dccimis  inter  Opuscula.  Lond.\&iS.  4to. 

Tortura  Torti.     Land.  1609.    4to. 

Responsio  ad  Apologiam  Bellarmini.     Land. 

1610.     4to. 


Anonymus  De  Francis,  ap.  Combefis  Hist.  Monothe- 

litar.  p.  429. 
250  Anonymus  De  Baptismo  Haereticorum,  ad  Calcem 

Cypriani. 
450  Anonymus  De  Haeresi  Pra3destinatorum.  Edit,  a  Sir- 

mondo  cum  Censura  Avpraei.     Par.  1645.     8vo. 
828  Ansegisus  Abbas,  Capitularia  Caroli  Magni.     Par. 

1640.  8vo. 
160  Antoninus   Imperator,   cum  Commentar.    Gatakeri. 

Gr.  Lat.     Cantab.  1652.    4to. 
Antonini  Itinerarium  Britanniae,  cum  Notis.     The. 

Gale,  Land.   4to. 
Antonini  Placentini  sive  Martyris  Itinerarium,  ap. 
Papebrochium  in  Actis  Sanctorum  Mali,  t.  2. 
1446  Antonini  Florentini  Chronicon.  3  vols.  Lugd.  1586. 

Apuleii  Opera.     Lugd.  Batav.  1623.     12mo. 
1250  Tho.  Aquinatis  summa  Theologioe.   Colon.  1604.  Fol. 

Ejusdem  Opuscula.     Ven.  1596. 

544  Arator,  Historia  Apostolica  Carmine.  Bibl.  Patr.  t.  8. 
276  Archelaus  Chascorum   in    Mesopotamia   Episcopus. 

Disputatio  et  Epistola  contra  Manichicum,  ap.  Va- 

lesium  in  Appendice  ad  Socratem  et  Sozomenum. 
Pet.  Arcudius  De  Concordia  Ecclesiae  Orientalis  et 

Occidentalis.     Par.  1670.    4to. 
Pauli  Aringhi  Roma  subterranea,  2  vols.  Rom.  1651. 

Fol. 
315  Arius  Hairesiarcha,  Epistola  ap.  Theodoret,  lib.  1. 

cap.  5. 
303  ^r«o6ii  Opera  Notis  Elmenhorst.  Hanov.KJQ^.  8vo. 
460  Arnobius  ']\xmo\-,  Disputatio  cum  Serapione  ad  Calcem 

Irenaei. 
401  Asterii   Amaseni    Homiliae,    ap.   Combefis   Aiictario 

Novo.  Bibl.  Patr.  Gr.  Lat.     Par.  1648.     Fol. 
330  ^W«Ma,su  Opera.    Gr.  Lat.    2  vols.    Par.  1627.  Fol. 
177  Athenagoras,  ad  Calcem  Justin  Mart.  Gr.  Lat.    Co- 
lon.    1686. 
196  Athenogenis  Hymnus,  ap.    Basil   de    Spir.   Sancto, 

cap.  29. 
398  Augustini  Opera,  10  vols.     Par.  1637.     Fol. 

Anton.  Augustinus  De  Emendatione   Gratiani,  cum 

additionibus  Baluzii.    Par.  1672.    8vo. 

Ejusdem  Epitome  Juris  Pontificii,  2  vols.  Par. 

1641.  Fol. 
.380  Ausonius  Poeta. 
890  Auxilius  De    Ordinationibus   Formosi,    ad    Calcem 

Morini  de  Ordinationibus. 
Azorius,  Institutiones  Morales,  3  vols.     Lugd.  1612. 
Fol. 

B 

440  Bacchiarius  De  recipiendis  Lapsis.  Bibl.  Patr.  t;  3. 

Joan.  5a/«M*  De  Scriptoribus  Britannicis.  1548.  4to. 

1180  Theodor.  Balsamon,  Patriarcha  Antiochenus,  Com- 

mentarius  in  Canones  Apostolorum  et  Conciliorum. 

Gr.  Lat.  ap.  Bevereg.  Pandect.     Oxon.  1672. 

Commentarius  in   Photii  Nouiocanonem,   ap. 

Justelhnn  in  Bibliotheca  Juris  Canonici,  t.  2. 

Collectio  Ecclesiasticarum  Constitutionum.  Gr. 

Lat.  cum  Notis  Leunclavii  et  Fabrotti,  ap.  Justell. 
Ibid. 

Responsa  ad  varias  Quajstiones  Juris  Canonici, 

ap.  Leunclav.  in  Jure  Graeco-Iiomano.  passim  per 
lib.  2,  5,  7. 


INDEX  OF  AUTHORS. 


12()3 


Flor.  An. 

Steph.  Buluzii  Miscollauca  sive  CoUectio  Veterum 
Monumentoniin,  4  vdIs.     Par.  Ifis3.     8vo. 

NotaB  ad  Gratianum  et  Antonium  Aiigiistinum 

de  Emeiulatione  (iratiani.     Par.  1672.     bsvo. 

Notse  ad  Khe<;:innnein,  cum  Appendice  Aucto- 

rinn  Veterum.     Pur.  1671.     Bvo. 

Concilia  Galliii!  Narboneusis.   Par.  1G68.   8vo. 

Nova  CoUectio  Concilioium.   Par.  168.3.    Fol. 

Nota;  ad  tres  Disseitationes  Petri  de  Marca. 

Par.  1669.    8vo. 

172  Bardesanes  Syrus  de  Fato,  ap.  Eiiseb.  de  Prajparat. 
Evangel,  lib.  6. 
Tho.  Barlow,  Remains.     Land.     8vo. 

Letter  to  Bishop  Usher. 

34  Barnabce  Epistola,  Or.  Lat.  ap.  Coteler.  Patr.  Apos- 
tol.  t.  1. 
Baronii  Annales  Ecclesiastic!,  12  vols.     Antiv.  1610. 

Nota;  ad  Martj  rologium  Romanum.     Colon. 

1603.    4to. 

Barron;  Of  the  Pope's  Supremacy  and  Unity  of  the 

Church,  among  his  Works,  3  vols.    Lnnd.  lijS7.   Fol. 

370  Basilii  Magni  Opera,  Gr.  Lat.,  3  vols.     Par.  1638. 

Fol. 
448  Basilii  Seleuciensis  Opera,  Gr.  Lat.  Par.  1622.  Fol. 
Sam.  Basnagii  E.xercitationes   Historico-Criticaj  ad 

Baronii  Annales.      Ultrujecti,  1692.     4to. 
Anton.  Baiidrand,  Additiones  ad  Ferrarii  Lexicon 
Geographicum.     Par.  1670.     Fol. 
701  Bedce  Opera.  4  vols.     Colo>t.  1612.     Fol. 

Historia    Ecclesiast.   Lat.  et    Saxon.      Notis 

Wheelock.     Cafitab.  1644.     Fol. 

Bellarmini  Controversiee,  3  vols.  Ingolstad.  1590,  et 
Par.  1620.     Fol. 

De  Scriptoribus  Ecclesiasticis.     Colon.  1G31. 

8vo. 

1115  Bernardi  Opera.     Par.  1640.     Fol. 

1066  Bernoldus  Ue  Ordine  Romano.    In  Cassandri  Litur- 

gicis. 
840  Bertramus  sive  Ratramnus  Monachus  Corbeiensis, 
De  Corpore  et  Sanguine  Domini,  ap.  Illyricum  in 
Catalogo  Testium  Veritatis.     Genev.  1608.    Fol. 
Gul.  Bevereye  Pandectoe  Canonum,  cum  Annotationi- 
bus,  2  vols.     Oxon.  1672.     Fol. 

Codex  Canonum  vindicatus,  in  Appendice  ad 

Cotelerii  Patres  .\postol.,  ike,  t.  2.  Antiv.  1698.  Fol. 

Beza  Annotat.  in  Nov.  Testam.    Genev.  1582.     Fol. 

•  Epistolae  Theolog.     Genev.  1573.     8vo. 

Bihliotheca  Patrum  Latin.,  17  vols.     Par.  1654. 
Bibliotheca  Patrum  Gr.  Lat.,  2  vols,  per  Frouto  Du- 

CEeum.    Par.  1624.     Vid.  Combefis  Auctarium,  &c. 
Bibliotheca  Juris  Canonici.     Vid.  JustcUum. 
1480  Gabr.  Biel,  E.xpositio  Canonis  Missa;.     Lugd.  1542. 
Jac.  Billius,  Scholia  in  Nazianzeni  Opera. 
Severin.  Binius,  Concilia  General.,  &c.,  cum  Notis, 

4  vols.     Colon.  1618. 
1330  Mat.  Blastares,   Syntagma  Canonum,  Gr.  Lat.  ap. 

Beverege  in  Pandectis. 
Dav.  Blondel,  Apologia   pro   Sententia  Hieronymi. 

Amst.  1646.     4to. 
Sam.  Bochurt,  Hierozoicon  sive  de  Animalibus,  2  vols. 

Lond.  1663.     Fol. 

Geographia  Sacra.     Par.  1651.     Fol. 

Joan.  Bollandus,  Acta  Sanctorum.    Antv.  1668.    Fol. 
Joan.  Bona,  De  Rebus  Liturgicis.    Colon.  1674.  Bvo. 

De  Psalmodia.     Par.  1663.    4to. 

Edv.  Brerewood,  Patriarchal  Government  of  the  an- 
cient Church.     Land.  1687.     8vo. 

Inquiries  about  the   Diversity  of  Languages, 

&c.     Lond.  16.35.     4to. 

De   Ponderibus   et    Pretiis    Nummorum,    ap. 

Walton  Prolegomena. 

Breviariurn  Romanum.     Par.  1.509.    8vo. 
Barnab.  Brissomus  De  Ritu  Nuptiarum.    Par.  1606. 
4to. 

De   Formnlis   et  solennibus    Populi   Romani 

verbis.     Par.  158-3. 

Comnientarius  in  Legem,  Dominico,  de  Spec- 

taculis  in  Codice  Theodos.     Par.  1606.     4to. 

.iEgid.  Bucherius  De  Doctrina  Temporum,  Commen- 
tarius  in  Victorii  Canonem  Paschalem.  Antverp. 
l(m.     Fol. 

John  Buckeridge,  al.  Joannes  Roffensis,  De  Poles 
tate  Papoe  in  Rebus  Temporalibus.  Lond.  1614.  4to. 

Geovg.  Bull,  DefensioFidei  Nicenic.  Oxon.  1685.  4to. 

Opera  omnia,  per  Grabe.     Lond.  1703.     Fol. 


996  Burchardiis  Wormatiensis,  Decrotum.    Colon.  1518. 
Fol.  et  passim  ap.  correctores  Gratiani. 
1260  Bonaventur.  Burc/iardiis,  al.  Brocardus.     Descriptio 
Terra;  Sanctum.     Colon.  1624.     8vo. 
Gilb.  Burnet,   History  of  the  Reformation,  2  vols. 
Lond.  1681.     Fol. 

Pastoral  Care.     4to. 

Vindication  of  the  Ordinations  of  the  Church  of 

England.     Lond.  1677.     Bvo. 

Travels,  in  several  Letters  to  Mr.  Boyle.    Rot- 

terd.  1686.     Bvo. 

Buxtorf,  Synagoga  Judaica.     Hanov.  1622.    8vo. 
Bgcuntina;  Historia;  Scriptores  varii,  17  vols.     Par. 
1648.     8vo. 


1350  NicoL.  Cahasilas,  Expositio  Liturgia;,  in  Bibl.  Patr. 
Gr.  Lat.  t.  2. 
Jacob.  Cabassutius,  Notitia  Conciliorum  et  Canonum. 

Lugd.  1670.     Bvo. 
Julius  Cccsar,  De  Bello  Gallico,  &c. 
500  Casarius  Arelatensis,  Homilia-,  in  Bibl.  Patr.  t.  2. 
Tho.  Cajetanus,  Commentar.  in  Libros  Histor.  Vet. 

Testameuti. 
Joan.  Calvini  Opera,  9  vols.    Amst.  1667.     Fol. 
Joan.  Calvin,  al.  Kahl.  Lexicon  Juridicum.     Genev. 

1665.    Fol. 
Hen.  Canisii  Lectiones  Antiqua;,  6  vols.     Ingolstad. 

1601.     4to. 
Pet.  Canisii  Catechismus.     Colon.  1586.     Fol. 
250  Canones  Apostolici,   ap.  Bevereg.   Pandect.,  et   in 
Tomis  Conciliorum. 
1310  Petrus  Cantor,  De  Verbo  Mirifico,  ap.  Menardum  in 
Sacramentarium  Gregorii,  p.  280. 

Verbum  Abbreviatum,  ap.  Bonam  de  Reb.  Li- 

turg.  lib.  1.  c.  15. 

Melcnior  Canus,  Loci  Theologici,  et  de  Sacramentis. 
Colon.  1685.     Bvo. 

Ludov.    Capellus,    Notce   in    Nov.    Testam.     Amst. 
1657.     Et  cum  Myrothecio  Cameronis. 

Barthol.    Caranza,    Summa  Conciliorum.      Lovan. 
1681.    4to. 

Bishop    Carleton,    Divine    Right  of  Tithes.     Lond, 
16U6.     4to. 
768  Carolus  Magnus,  Capitularia,  ap.  Lindebroge  in  Co- 
dice  Letium  Antiquarum,  et  ap.  Ansegisum  Abba- 
tem,  et  Baluzium. 

Isaac    Casaubonus,    Exercitationes   in   Baronii   An- 
nales.    Genev.  1655.    4to. 

Notffi  in  Historiaj  Augustae  Scriptores.     Par, 

1620.     Fol. 

Notee  in  Strabonis  Geograph.     Par.  IG20. 

Georg.  Cassandri  Opera.     Par.  1616.     Fol. 

Consultatio  de  Articulis  Religionis,  cum  Grotii 

Annotatis.     1642.     Bvo. 

De  Communione  sub  utraque  Specie.     Hebn- 

stad.  1642.     4to. 

424  Joan.  Cassiani  Opera.     Basil,  1575. 

514  Marc.  Aur.  CawiodoriW  Senator,  Historia  Tripartita 

ex  Socrate,  Sozomeno,  et  Theodorito.   Franc.  J588. 

Fol. 

Commentarius  in  Psalmos.     Par.  1519. 

Variarum  Epistolarum,  lib.  12.  Lugd.  1595.  Bvo. 

Alphonsusde  Castro,  adversus  Hcercses.   Lugd.  1546. 

Bvo. 
Catechismus  aA  Parochos  ex  jussu  Concilii  Tridentini. 
Catena  in  Job,  Gr.  Lat.     Lond.  1637. 
(Jul.  Cave,  Historia  Literaria,  2  vols.     Lond.  1688  et 

1698.     Fol. 

Lives   of  the   Apostles  and   Fathers,   2  vols. 

Lond.  1677.     Fol. 

Primitive  Christianity.     Lond.  1676.    8vo. 

Government  of  the  ancient  Church,  by  Bishops, 

Metropolitans,  and  Patriarchs.     Lond.  16S3.     bvo. 

Caivdrey,  Discourse  of  Patronage.     Lond.     4to. 
1057  Georgii  Cedreni  Annales,  Gr.  Lat,,  cum  Notis  Xylan- 

dri.     Basil,  1566.     Fol. 
42-3  Celestinus  Papa,  Epistola;  Decretales,  ap.  Justellum, 

Crab,  et  Laobe  in  Tomis  Conciliorum. 
Lud.  Cellotius,  Nota;  in  Capitula  Gualteri  Auvelia- 

nensis,  in  Concilior.  t.  8.  p.  649. 
Centuria  Magdebnrgenses,  3  vols.    Basil,  1624.    Fol. 
Chamier,  Panslratia  Catholica,  3  vols.     Genev.  1626. 

Fol. 


1264 


INDEX  OF  AUTHORS. 


Flor.  An. 

Charisius  GmmmaUcus  \n  Corpove  Aurtorum  Linguae 

Latinae.     Genev.  16'2'2.     4to. 
Martin.    Chemnitius,    Examen    Concilii    'J'riilentini. 
Genev.  1614.     Fol. 
430  Pet.  Clirysologi  Opera.     Liigd.  1672.     Fol. 

Dav.   Chytrcetis  De  Statu  Ecclesiarum   in   Graecia, 
Asia,  !kc.     Franc.  1583.     8vo. 
398  Joan.  Chrysostomi  Opera,  Gr.  Lat.,  10  vols.     Par. 
1616,  et  ap.  Commclin.  1617. 

Opera  Graece,  8  vols.     Etonee.     1G13. 

Epistola  ad  Casarium  Monachum,  ap.  le  Moyne 

Varia  .Sacra. 
M.  T.  Ciceronis  Opera.     Genev.  1646.    4to. 
1160  Joan.  Cinnami  Historia,  Gr.  Lat., cum  NotisduFresne. 
Par.  1670.     Fol. 
Claget  of  the  Unity  of  the  Church.    Lond.  1693.  Bvo. 
192  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  Opera,  Gr.  Lat.      Par.  1641. 
It.  2  vols.     Oxon. 

Tract.  Quis  dives  salvefur,  ap.  Combefis  in  Auc- 

tario  Novissimo  Bibl.  Patr.  Gr.  Lat.     Par.  1672. 
65  Clemens  Homanus,  Fpist.  ad  Corinthios,  Gr.  Lat.  ap. 
Coteler.  Patr.  Apostol.  t.  1. 
564  Joan.  Climacus,  Opera,  Gr.  Lat.     Par.  163.3.     Fol. 
Cluverii  Italia  Vetus.     Lugd.  Bat.  1622.     Fol. 
C'oc?e.r  Canonum  Ecclesiae  Universao,  ap.  Justellum. 
Codex  Canonum  Ecclesiae  Africanoe,  ap.  Justellum. 
Codex  Canonum  Ecclesiae  Koraanae,  ap.  Justellum. 
Codex  Justinianus,  in  Corpore  Juris  Civilis. 
Codex  Theodosianus,  cum  Commentariis  Jac.  Gotho- 

fred.,  6  vols.     Lugd.  1665.     Fol. 
Codex  Canonum  Ecclesiae  Graecae.    Vid.  Ehingerum. 
1460  Geurg.  Codinus  DeOfficWs  Ecclesiae  Constantinopoli- 
tanpe,  Gr.  Lat.,  cum   Notis  Jac.   Gretseri.      Par. 
1648.     Fol. 
411  CoUatio   Carthaginiensis  inter  Catholicos  et  Doua- 
tistas  ad  Calcem  Optati.     Par.  1631. 
CoUectio  Constitutionum  Ecclesiasticarum.  Vid.  Bal- 

samon,  ap.  Justellum. 
Franc.  Combefis,  Bibl.  Patrum,  Gr.  Lat.  Auctarium 

Novum.     Par.  1648.     Fol. 
Auctarium  Novissimum.     Par.  1672.     Fol. 

Historia  Monothelitarum,  cumvariis  Monumen- 

tis  Patrum,  Gr.  Lat.     Par.  1648.     Fol. 

Comber  of  Liturgies,  2  vols.     Land.     8vo. 
326  Commodiani  Instructiones  adversus  Paganos,  ad  Cal- 
cem Cypriani.     Edit.  Rigalt.     Par.  1666. 

Concilia.     Vid.  Binium,  Crabbe,  Labbe,  &c. 

Corpus  Juris  Civilis  par  Dionys.  Gothofredum. 
Lugd.  1589.     2  vols.  8vo. 

Corpus  Juris  Canonici,  viz.  Gratiani  Decretum,  De- 
cretales  Gregorii,  Se.xtus  Decretalium,  Clementinae, 
et  Extravagantes.  Cum  Emendationibus  Gregorii 
XI IL     Romcs,\^9,2.     4  vols.  Fol. 

Corpus  Confessionum  Ecclesiarum  Reformat.,  cum 
Consensu  Catholico  ex  sententiis  Patrum.  Genev. 
1612.     4to. 

Corpus  Auctorum  Linguae  Latinae.  Genev.  1622.  4to. 

Corpus  omnium  Poetarum.     Lugd.  1603.     4to. 
325  Constantinus  Magnus,  Epistolae  variae  ap.  Eusebium. 
250  Cornelius  Episc.  Horn.  Epistolae,  ap.  Cyprian,  et  Eu- 
sebium. 

Bishop  Co«n*'.yScholastical  History  of  the  Canon  of 
Scripture.     Lond.  1683.    4to. 

History  of  Transubstantiation.  Lond.  1676.  8vo. 

Joan.  Coteleriiis,  Notae  in  Patres  Apostolicos,  2  vols. 

Antverp.  1698.     Adduntur  in  Appendice,  Beverege 

Codex  (knonum  vindicatus,  Usserii  Dissertationes 

Ignatianae,  et  Pearson  Viudiciae  Ignatii. 
Joh.  Cotivici   Itiiierarium  Hierosolymitanum.     Ant- 
■  verp.  1619.    4to. 
Pet.  Crabbe,  Concilia   Generalia  et  Provincialia,  3 

vols.     Colon.  1551.     Fol. 
Rich.    Crakanthorp,    Defensio    Eccles.    Angl.    &c. 

Lond.  1625.    4to. 
590  Cresco7iius  hk'.r,  Breviarium  Canonum,  ap.  Justellum 

in  Bibl.  Juris  Canonici. 
Critici  Sacri  in  Biblia.  8  vols.     Amst.  1698. 
Critical  History  oi  ihii  Creed.     Lond.    8vo. 
Metrophanes  Critopulus,   Confessio  Ecclesiae  Orien- 

talis,  Gr.  Lat.     Helmstad.  1661.     4to. 
Martin  Crucius,  Turco-Graecia,  Gr.  Lat.  Basil,  1584. 

Fol. 
Curcellipusde  Esu  sanguinis,  inter  Opera.  Amst.  1675. 
250  Cypriani  Opera.     Oxon.  1682.     Fol. 

Opera  Notis  Rigaltii.     Par.  1648.     Fol. 


546  Cyprianus  Gallus,  Vita  Caesarii  Arelatensis.     Luod 

1613.    4to.  ^ 

412  C(/r«7/(Alexandrini  Opera,  Gr.  Lat.  7  vols.  Par.  16-38. 
350  Cyrilli  Hierosol.  Opera,  Gr.  Lat.    Oxon.  1703.    Fol. 

D 

Luc.  Dacherii  Spicilegium.     Par.  1665.    4to. 
Joan.  Dalleeus  De  Objecto  Cultus  Religiosi  adversus 

Latinorum  Traditionem.     Genev.  1664.     4to. 

De  Confessione  Auriculari.     Ge7iev.  1661.   4to. 

De  ConfirmationeetExtremaUnctione.  Genev. 

1659.    4to. 
De  Jejuniis  et  Quadragesima.  Daventrice,  1654. 

4to. 

De  Imaginibus.     Lugd.  Bat.  1642.     8vo. 

De  Poenis  et  Satisfactionibus.   Amst.  1649.  4to. 

• De  Scriptis  Ignatii.     Genev.  1666.     4to. 

730  Joan.  Damascenus,  Opera,  Gr.  Lat.     Basil,  1575. 
Martin.    Delrio,   Disquisitiones   Magici^^.       Lovan. 

1599.    4to. 
Demonstration  that  the  Church  of  Rome  has  erred  in  ' 

her  Decrees  about  Communion  in  one  Kind.     Lond, 

1686.  4to. 
Dempster,  Additionesad  Rosini  Antiquitates  Roman. 

Colon.  1620.    4to. 
Depositio  MartyruiTL,  ap.  Pearson  Annal.  Cyprian. 
370  Didymus  Alexandrinus,  Opera,  Bibl.  Patr.  t.  9. 

Ludov.   de  Dieu,  Animadversiones    in   Epistolas   D. 

Pauli.     Lugd.  Bat.  1646.    4to. 
Dion   Cassii    Historia   Romana,    Gr.    Lat.     Franc. 

1592.     8vo. 
Diogenes  Laertius  De  Vitis  Philosophorum,  Gr.  Lat.,i 

cum  Hesychio  Milesio  et  Eunapio  de  iisdem.  Colo7i.\ 

Allobrog.  1616.     8vo.  Cum  Notis  Is.  Casauboni. 
362  Dionysius  Areopagita,  Opera  sub  ipsius  nomine,  Gr. 

Lat.  2  vols.  Par.  1644.     Cum  Scholiis  Pachymer, 

et  Maximi. 
254  Dionysius  Alex.  Epistolae  variae  ap.  Eusebium. 
533  Dionysius  Exiguus,  Codex  Canonum  Ecclesiae  Ro- 

manae,  ap.  Justellum  id  Bibliotheca  Juris  Canon. 
Collectio  Decretorum  Pontiticum  Romanorum 

a  Siricio  ad  Anastasium  secundum  ap.  Justell.  Ibid, 

et  in  Tomis  Conciliorum. 
Epistolae  Paschales  ap.  Petavium  de   Doctrina 

Temporum  in  Appendice. 
Cycli   Paschalis   Fragmentum,   ap.  Marianum 

Scotum  ad  annum  527. 
Hen.    Dodwel,    Dissertationes    Cyprianicae,     Oxon. 

1682.     Fol. 

Dissertationes  in  Irenaeum.     Oaron.  1689.     8vo. 

De  Jure  Laicorum  Sacerdotali,  contra  Grotium. 

Lond.  1685.     8vo. 
Marc.  Anton.  Dominicy  De  Communione  Peregrina. 

Par.  1645.    4to. 
Jerem.  Drexilii  Trismcgistus  Christianus,  sive  de  tri- 

plici  Cultu  Conscientiae,  Caelitum,  Corporis.   Colon. 

1631. 
Franc.  Duarenus  De  Sacris  Ecclesiae  Ministerii.s  ac 

Beneficiis.     Par.  1551.    4to. 
Sir  Will.  Dugdale,  Monasticon  Anglicanum,  2  vols. 

Lond.  1655,  &c. 
1286  Gw\.  Dur antes  &\vii  Durandus.   Rationale  Divinorum 

Officiorum.     Lugd.  1584.     8vo. 
Steph.   Durantus  De  Ritibus    Ecclesiae  Catholicee. 

Par.  1631.    8vo. 


E 

Aerah.  Ecchelensis,  Concilii  Nicaeni  Canones  Ara- 
bic! cum  Notis.     Cone.  t.  2. 
1121  Eadmerus  Monachus,  Historia  sui  Saeculi  cum  No- 
tis Seldeni.     Lond.  1623.     Fol. 
Joan.  Eckius,  Enchiridion  adver.  Lutherum.     Lugd. 

1549.    8vo. 
Elias  Ekingerius,  Codex  Canonum  Ecclesiae  Orien- 
talis,  Gr.  Lat.  Witeberg.  1615.    4to. 
640  Eligius  Lemovicensis,  Homiliae  ei  ascriptae  in  Bibl. 

Patr.  t.  2. 
430  Paulus  Emesenus,  Homiliae  in  Concilior.  t.  3. 
511   £wworf(Mi' Ticinensis,  Vita  Epiphanii  Ticinen.  Epis- 
copi  in  Bibl.  Patr.  t.  1.5,  et  inter  Opera  cum  Notis 
Sirmondi.     1611.     Par.    8vo. 
526  Ephremius  Antiochenus,  Pro  Ecclesiasticis  Dogma- 


INDEX  OF  AUTHORS. 


12G5 


Flor.  An. 

tibus   et   Synodo    Chakeilonensi,   ap.    Pliolium   in 
Bibliotheca  Cod.  2'28  ct  229. 
370  Ephremius  Syrus,  Opera  per  Vossium  Tuiigrensem. 

Latine.     Antverp.  1619.     Fol. 
368  Epiphanius,   Opera,   Gr.    Lat.   cum  Notis    Petavii, 
2  vols.     Par.  1622.     Fol. 
.E/Jiicoyjj'i  InstitiitionesTlicolog.     Amst.\(yi^.     Fol. 
Erasmi  Opera,  9  vols.    Basil,  1510.     Fol. 
Estius  in  Sententias,  2  vols.     Par.  16.38.     Fol. 

Comnientar.  in  EpistolasPauli.  Par.  1668.  Fol. 

Orationes  ThcologiciB. 

594  Evayrhts,  liistoria  Eccles.  cum  Notis  Valcsii,  Gr. 

Lat.     Par.  1673,  et  Cantab.  1720.     Fol. 
434  Eucherius  Lugdunensis,  Homilia;.     Antverp.  1C02. 

8vo. 
Euchologiitm  Groecorum  cum  Notis  Goar.   Far.  1617. 

Fol. 
581  Eulogius  Patriavcha  Ale.xandrinus,  ap.  Phutium  Cod. 

280. 
380  Eunapius  Sardianus  De  Vitis  Philosophorum,  Gr. 

Lat.     Colon.  Allobrog.  1616.     8vo. 
420  Eiiodhis,  Epistolis,  inter  Epistolas  Aiicustini. 
315  Eusebius    Cajsariensis,    Historia    Ecclesiastica   cum 

Notis  Valesii.     Par.  1672,  et  Cantab.  1720.     Fol. 

Preeparatio  Evantjelica,  Gr.  Lat.     Par.  1628. 

Fol. 

Demonstratio  Evaugelica,  Gr.  Lat.    Par.  1628. 

Fol. 

De  Martyribus  Palaestina;,  ad  Calcem,  lib.  8. 

Historiai. 

Clironicou   cum   Animadversionibus    Scaligeri. 

Amst.  1658.     Fol. 

De   Laudibus  Constantini   Oratio,  et  De  Vita 

Constantini,  lib.  4.  ad  Calcem  Historiee. 

Epistola  ad  Cajsarienses,  de  Fide  Nica?na,  ap. 

Socratem,  lib.  1.  cap.  8,  et  Theodor.  lib.  1.  cap.  12. 

340  Eusebius   Emisenus,    Homiliae,    sed    tamen   dubiic. 

Antverp.  1602.     8vo. 
325  Eustathius  Antioehenus,  De  Engastrymutho  adversus 
Origenem.     Notis  AUatii.     Lugd.  1629.    4to.     Et 
in  Critic.  Londinens.,  t.  8. 
1116  Euthymius   Zij^abenus,    Panoplia   Orthodoxy   Fidei 
adversus  omnes  Hareses.  Lat.     Venet.  1555.    Fol. 


Joan.  Faber,  Declamatio  de  Humanso  Vitse  Miseria. 
Car.  Fabrotus,    Nota;   ad    Balsanionis  Collectionem 

Constitutionum  Eccles.  ap.  Justellum  in  Bibl.  Juris 

Canonici,  t.  2. 
540  Facundiis  Hermianensis,  Opera,  cum  Notis  Sirmon- 

di.     Par.  1675.     Fol. 
Fasciculus  Rerum  E.xpetendarum  et  Fuf^iendarum. 

Lond.  1690.     2  vols.  Fol. 
6-30  Fasti  Siciili,  Vid.  Alexandrinum  Chronicon. 

Faulkner,  Libertas  Ecclesiastica.    Lond.  1674.   8vo. 

Vindication  of  Liturgies.     Lond.  1680.     8vo. 

384  Faustinus  et  Marcellinus,  Libellus  Precum  ad  Theo- 

dosium  Imperatorem.     O.von.  1678.     8vo. 
356  Felia;  II.  Papa,  Epistolae  Decretales,  in  Tomis  Con- 

ciliorum. 
483  Felix  III.  Papa,  Epistolae,  ap.  Justellum,  et  in  Tomis 
Conciliorum. 
Joan.  Fell,  Notre  in  Cyprian.     Oxon.  1682. 
5.33  Ferrandus,  Breviarium  Canonum  in  Justelli  Biblio- 
theca Juris  Canonici,  t.  2. 
Phil.  Ferrarii  Lexicon  Geoo;raphicum,  cum  Additio- 

nibus  Baudrand.     Par.  1670.    Fol. 
Franc.  Ferrarius  de  Ritu  Conciouum.     Mediolani. 

1620.     4to. 
Field,  Of  the  Church.     Oxon.  1635.     Fol. 
Joan.  Filesacus,  Commentarius  in  Vincentium  Liri- 
nensem.     Par.  1619.     4to. 
340  Jul.  Firmicus  Maternus  de  Errore  Profanarum  Reli- 
gionum,cumNotisJoan.a\Vower.  Oxon.  1678.  8vo. 

Astronomica  sive  de  Mathesi,  lib.   8.     Basil, 

1591. 

250  Firmiliani  Epistola,  inter  Epist.  Cyprian i. 
Flagellantium  Historia.     Par.  1700.    8vo. 
Joan.  Forbesius,  Instructiones  Historico-Theokgicw. 
Amst.  1645.     Fol. 

Irenicum.     Aberden.  1636.    4to. 

560  Venant.  Fortunatus,  Poemata  in  Corpora  Poetarum. 
t.  2.     Lugd.  I(i03.    4to. 

Vila  Radegundis,  ap.  Surium,  13.  Aug. 

4    M 


Car.  du  Fresne,  Glossarium  Grxco-barbaruni.    Ltiyd. 
168s.     2  vols.    Fol. 

Not.x'  in  Paulum  Silenliarium.  Par.  1670.  Fol. 

Notic  in  Cinnamum  et  Briennium.     Ibid. 

Flaccius  lUyricus  de  Sectis  Papisticis.    Basil,  1565. 

4to.     Vid.  lUyricum. 
Joan.  Fronto  de  Canonicis   Cardinalibus,  cum  aliis 

Opusculis.     Par.  1661.     4to. 
Fronto-Ducceus,  Notaj  in  Chrysostomi  Opera.    Par. 
1609. 
262  Fructuosi  Acta,  ap.  Baron,  an.  262. 
1(K)7  Fulbertus  Carnotensis,  Opera.     Par.  1608. 
507  Fulgentius  Ruspcnsis,  Opera.     Lugd.  1652. 

De  Fide  ad  Petruni  Diaconuui,  inter  Opera  Au- 
gust in  i,  t.  .3. 
Frid.  Furius  Ceriolanus,  Bononiasive  de  Libris  Sacris 
in  vernaculum  Linguani  coavertendis.  Basil,  1555. 
8vo.     Liber  Prohibitus  in  Indice  Sotomajor. 


Tho.  Gale,  Notae  in  Antonini  Itinerarium  Britannine. 

Lo7id.     4to. 
Mat.  Galeni  Catechismus. 

Tho.  Gatakerus,  Notae  in  Libros  Antonini.    Cantab. 
1652.     4to. 
387  Gaudenlius  Brixiensis,  Opera,  Bibl.  Patr.  t.  2. 
492  Gelasius  Papa,  Epistolae  Decretales  in  Tomis  Con- 
ciliorum.  De  duabus  Naturis  Christi.  Bibl.  Patr.  t.4. 
476  Gelasius  Cyiic&nxxs,  Historia ConciliiNiceui,  Gr.  Lat. 
in  Concil.  t.  2. 
Aul.  Gellii  Opera,  Aurel.    Allobrog.  1609.     8vo. 
Glib.  Genebrard,  De  Liturgia  Apostolica. 
495  Gennadius  Massiliensis,  De  Scriptoribus  Ecclesias- 
ticis,  inter  Opera  Hicronymi. 

De  Dogniatibus  Ecclesiasticis.  inter  Opera  Au- 

gustini,  t.  3. 
fientilletus.    Examen  Concilii    Tridentini.      Gorin- 
chemi,  1678.     8vo. 
620  Georgius  Pisides,  Vulgo  dicitur  Auctor  Fastorum  Si- 

culorum  sive  Chroniei  Alexandrini. 
620  Georgius  Alexandriuus,   Vita  Chrysostomi,  in  t.  8. 

Oper.  Chrys.  Grncce. 
1501  Franc.  Georgius  Venctus,  Problemata  in  S.   Scrip- 
turam.     Venet.  15.36.    4to. 
Georgius  Ambianas,   Commentar.    in   Tertullian,   3 
vols.     Fol. 
1222  Gernuuius   Patriarcha  Constantinop.,   Theoria   sive 
Expositio  in  Liturgiam,  Gr.  Lat.  in  Bibl.  Patr.  Gr. 
Lat.  t.  2. 
1404  Joan.  Gerson  De  Vita  spirituali,  inter  Opera,  4  vols. 
314  Gesta  Purgationis  Cteciliani  Episc.  Carthag.  ad  Cal- 
cem Optati.     Par.  16.31. 
581   Gildas  Sapiens,  De  Excidio  Britanniae,  Bibl.  Patr. 

t.  5. 
1200  Giraldus  Cambrensis,  Itinerarium  Cambrioe,  et  Cam- 
brisB  Descriptio.     Lond.  1585.     8vo. 
Jac.  Goar,  Notte  ad  Euchologium  CJr;ccorum.     Par. 

1647.     Fol. 
Tho.  Godwyn,  Jewish  Antiquities. 
1110  Gqffridus  Vindocinensis  Abbas,   Opera   Notis  .Sir- 
niondi.     Par.  1639. 
Melch.  Goldastus,  Constitutiones  Imperiales,  3  vols. 

Hunov.  1609.     Fol. 
Dionysius  Gothqfredus,  Notae  in  Codicem  Justinian. 

Colon.  1521. 
Jac.  Gothqfredus,  Commentarius  in  Codicem  Theodo- 

sianum,  6  vols.     Lugd.  1665.     Fol. 
.loan.  Ernest.   Grabe,  Spicilegium  Patrum,  3  vols. 
Oxon.  1698,  &c.     8vo. 
11.30  Gratianus  Monachus,   Decretum  sive  Concordantia 
discordantium  Canonimi.  In  Corpore  Juris  Canonici. 
liomce,  1582.     Fol. 
470  Gregentius  Homeritarum  Episcopus,  Disputatio  cum 
Herbano  Judico,  Gr.  Lat.  in  Auctario  Bibl.  Patr. 
Duca-ano,  t.  I.     Par.  1624. 
John  Gregory,  Observations  on  Scripture,  and  Post- 
humous Works.     Lond.  1650.     4to. 
.590  Gre^oriM.?  Magnus,  Opera,  4  tomes.     Antver.  16lb. 
1227  Gregorius  IX.,  Decretalium,  libri  5,  una  cum  Gratia- 

no.    Rotn.  1582.     Fol. 
370  Grec/orius   Nazianzenus,  Opera,   Gr.    Lat.,   2  vols. 

Par.  16.30.     Fol. 
370  Gregorius  Nvssenus,  Opera,  Gr.  Lat.,  3  vols.     Par, 
1638.     Fol.' 


1206 


INDEX  OF  AUTHORS. 


Flor.  An. 

254  Gregorius  NeociEsariensissiveThaumaturgus,  Opera. 
Gr.  Lat.     Par.  1621. 

Epistola  Canonica,  ap.  Justelhim. 

573  Gregorius  Turonensis,    Historia  Francorum.     Par. 
1610.    8vo. 

De  Gloria  Martvnim  et  Confessorum.     Colon. 

1583.     8vo. 

Jac.  Grei^eriw,  Notoe  in  Codinum.     P«r.  1648.     Fol. 
Hugo  Grotius,  Opera,  vol.  4.    Amst.  1685. 

De  Jure  Belli  et  Pacis.     Atnst.  1670.     8vo. 

De  Coenae  Adiuinistratione   ubi  Pastores   non 

sunt.     Lond.  1685.    8vo. 

Notce  in  Cassandri  Consultationem.     1642. 

Gruteri  Inscriptiones  Antiquae.     Heidelb.  1616. 
1533  Guido   de  Monte   Rocherii,   Manipulus  Curatorum. 

Lovan.  1552.     8vo. 
Bishop  Gunning' s  Discourse  of  Lent.    4to. 


H 


Isaac.     Hahertiis,    Archieraticon    sive    Pontificale 

Graecorum.     Par.  1643.     Fol. 
Franc.  Hallier  De  Hierarchia  Ecclesiastica.     Par. 

1646.     Fol. 
Pet.  Halloix,  Vitae  Scriptoruiu  Orientalimn,  2  vols. 

Duaci.     Fol. 
Hen.  Hamond's  Works,  4  vols.     Lond.  1684.     Fol. 
Martin.  Hankius  De  Scriptoribus  Byzantinis.  Lipaia, 

1677.     4to. 
842  Georg.  Hamartolus,  MS.  ap.  Allatium  De   Hebdo- 
mad. Graicorum. 
Harding's  Answer  to  Jewel's  Challenge.     Antwerp, 

1565.    8vo. 
1150  Constantin.  Harmenopulus,  Epitome  Juris  Canonici, 

Gr.  Lat.  ap.  Leunclavium  in  Jure  Graeco-Roinano. 

t.  1. 

De  Sectis  Hacreticis,  et  Confessio  de  Fic^e  Or- 

thodo.xa.  Ibid,  ad  Leunclavium  et  iu  AuctarioBibl. 
Patr.  Ducecano.  t.  1.  Gr.  Lat.     Par.  1624. 

170  Hegesippus,  Commentarius  Actorum  Ecclesiastico- 
lum.     Fragmeuta  passim  ap.  Eusebium. 
Gabr.  Henao  De  Sacrificio  Missoe. 
610  Heraclius  Imper.  Novelise,  ap.  Leunclavium  in  Jure 
Graeco-Romano,  t.  1. 
Herodoti  Historia,  Gr.  Lat.  per  Hen.    Stcphanum. 

1592.     Fol. 
Hesychii  Lexicon,  Graece.     Hagenoce,  1521.     Fol. 
601  Hesychius  Patriarcha  Hierosolymitanus,  Explanatio 
in  Leviticum.     Basil,  1527.     Fol. 
Pet.  Heylin,  Cosmography.     Lond.  1669.     Fol. 
Hick's  Jovian,  or  an  Answer  to  Julian  the  Apostate. 
Lond.  1683.    8vo. 
378  Hieronymi  Opera,  4  vols.     Basil,  1565.     Fol. 
351  Hilarii  Pictaviensis  Opera.     Colon.  1617.     Fol. 
461  Hilarius  Papa,  Epistolae  Decretales,  in  Tomis  Con- 

cilior. 
430  Hilarius  Arelatensis,  Epistolae  inter  Epistolas  Au- 

gustini. 
815  Hincmarus  Revaeasin,  OpeYa.,2 vols.   Par.  1645.  Fol. 
220  Hippolytus  Portuensis,   Canon   Pasehalis,  ap.   Cave 
Histor.  Literar.  t.  1.  p.  68.     Earn  exhibent  etiam 
Scaliger,  .^Egidius  Bucherius,  et  Gruterus. 

De  Consummatione  Mundi  et  Antichristo,  Gr. 

Lat.  in  Auctario  Bibl.  Patr.  Ducseano,  t.  2. 

Demonstratio  de  Antichristo,  Gr.  Lat.  ap.  Com- 

befis  in  Auctario  Novissimo.     Par.  1672.     Fol. 

Luc.  Holstenius,  Annotationes  in  Geographiam  Ca- 
roli  a  Sancto  Paulo,  in  Italiam  antiquam  Cluverii, 
et  Thesaurum  Geographicuni  Ortelii.  Roma, 
1666.    8vo. 

De   Sacramento  Confirmationis  apud  Graecos. 

Ibid,  in  Appendice. 

Glossarium  et  Notac  ad  Benedict!  Codicem  Regu- 

larum.     Par.  1663.    4to. 
1130  Honorius  Augustodunensis,  Gemma  Animae  De  Of- 
ficio Missa-,  Bibl.  Patr.  t.  10. 

George  Hooper's  Historical  Account  of  Lent.  Land. 
1695.    8vo. 
514  Hormisdas  Papa,  Epist.  Decretal,  in  Tomis  Concili- 
orum. 

Hospinianus  De  Templis.     Tigur.  1587.     Fol. 

De  Festis  Christianorum.      Tigur.  1593.     Fol. 

De  Origine  Mouachatiis.     Tigitr.  1588.     Fol. 

Historia  Sacramentaria.     Tigur.  1598.     Fol. 


Henr.    Hottingerus,  Historia   Ecclesiastica,  9  vols. 

Hanov.  1655.    Svo. 

De  Translatione  Bibliorum.     Heidelberg.  1660. 

Franc.  Hotomannus  De  Castis  lucestisque  Nuptiis. 

Franc.  1619.    Svo. 

QuDcstiones  Illustres.     1591.     Svo. 

Pet.  Dan.  Huetius,  Origeniana,  2  vols.      Rothomag. 

1668.     Fol. 

Demonstratio  Evangelica.     Amst.  1680.     Svo. 

1120  Hugo  de  Santto  Victore,  Opera.   Venet.  1588.  3  vols. 
1054  Uumhertus  de  Sylva  Candida  Cardinalis,    Liber  de 

Azymo  et  Jejunio  Sabbatorum  contra  Michaelem 

Cerularium  et  Leonem  Achridamum,  ap.  Baroninm 

in  Appendice,  t.  11. 

I 

Jacobi  Liturgia,  Gr.  Lat.  Bibl.  Patr.  Auctario  Dii- 

cajano,  t.  2.     Par.  1624. 
3S5  Idacius  contra  Varimundum  Arianum.  Bibl.  Patr.  t.  4. 
790  Jesse  Ambianensis  De  Ordiue  Baptismi. 
101  Jgnutii  Epistolae,  Gr.  Lat,  intra  Patres  Apostolicos, 

ap.  Cotelerium,  t.  2. 
110  Acta  Ignatii,  Gr.  Lat.  ap.  Grabe  Spicilegium,  vol.  2. 
Flac.  iUyricus,  Catalogus  Testium  Veritatis.     Genev. 

1628.     Fol. 
Lidex    Librorum    Prohibitorum   et    Expurgandorum 

Hispanicus  et  Romanus  per  Anton,  a  Sotomajor. 

Madrit.  1667.     Fol. 
Index  Librorum  Expurgandorum  per  Quirogam  Sal- 

mur.     1601.     4to. 
hies  Leges,  ap.  Spelman.  Concil. 
Innocentius  I.  Papa,  Epistolae  et  Decreta  in  Tomis 

Couciliorum. 
Innocentius  III.  de  Mysteriis  Missae.    Antverp.  1540. 
Joannes  Abbas  de  Translatione  Reliquiarum  S.  Glo- 

desindis. 
Johius  Monachus,  ap.  Photium  Cod.  222. 
Johnson,  Vade  Mecum  for  Clergymen,  or  the  Canon- 
ical Codes  of  the  Primitive  Church.  Lond.  1709.  Svo, 
Josephi  Opera,  Gr.  Lat.     Oxon.  1720.     Fol. 
Irencei  Opera,  Notis  Grabe.     Lond.  1702.     Fol. 
Isidorus  Hispalensis  De  Divinis  OfRciis,  Bibl.  Patr. 

t.  10. 
Origines  sive  Etymologise,  in  Corpore  Auctorum 

Linguae  Latinae.     Genev.  1622.     4to. 
Isidorus  Mercator,  Concilia  et  Epistolae  Papales  in 

Tomis  Couciliorum. 
Isidorus  Pelusiota,  Epistolarum,  lib.  5.  Gr.  Lat.  Par. 

1638.     4to. 
John  Juel's  Works.     Lond.  1611.     Fol. 
Juliani  Imper.  Opera,  Gr.  Lat,  Notis  Petavii.     Par. 

1631.     4to. 
Julianus  Halicarnassensis,  Fragmenta  Commentarii 

in  Job,  ap.  Catenam  in  .lob.     Lond.  1637.     Fol. 
Julianus    Pomerius   De    Vita   Conteraplativa,    inter 

Opera  Prosperi,  cui  vulgo  tribuitur.       Colon.  1540. 


402 
1198 

530 


67 
167 
595 


830 
412 

361 
510 
498 

.337 
550 

1092 


140 
527 


330 


Julius  Papa,  Epistola  ad  Orientales,  ap.  Athanasium 

in  Apologia  2.  t.  1. 
Junilius  Afer  De  Partibus  Divinae  Legis,  Bibl.  Patr. 

t.  1. 
Fran.  Junius,  Notae  in  Tertullianum.     Franekera, 

1597.     Fol.     Parallela,  inter  Opera.  2  vols.     Ge- 
nev. 1607.     Fol. 
Ivo  Carnotensis,  Decretoriim  "L'xhex. Lovan.  1561.  Svo, 
Henr.  Justellus,  Bibliotheca   Juris  Canonici,  2  vols. 

Par.  1661.     Fol. 
Justinus  Martyr,  Opera,  Gr.  Lat.  Colon.  1G86.  Fol, 
Justinianus    Imper.    Corpus    Juris    Civilis,   2   vols. 

Lugd.  1589.    Svo. 
Edictum  de  Fide  Orthodoxa,  ap.  Leunclavium 

in  Jure  Graeco-Romano,  t.  1,  et  in  t.  5,  Concilioruui. 
Juvenalis   Poeta. 
Juvencis   Hispanus,   Historia    Evangelica  Carmine 

Heroico,  in  Corpore  Poetarum,  t.  2.    Lugd.  1603. 

4to. 

K 

Martin.  .ffe»i/j2MJ  De  Osculo.     Lipsia,  \(!£b.     Svo. 

White  Kennet,  Case  of  Impropriations  and  Augment- 
ation of  Vicarages  stated  by  History  and  Law  from 
the  first  Usurpation  of  Popes  and  Monks.  Lond. 
1701.     Svo. 


INDEX  OF  AUTHORS. 


I2G7 


Christian.  Kortholt  De  Culumniis  Piiganorum  in  Vt- 

tcics  Cliristianos  sparsis.     Kilon.  IfifJH.     4to. 
De  Vita  et   ]\loribus  Veteruiu  Christiaiioruin. 

Kilon.  16K^.    4to. 
De  variis  Scriptuvic  Editionibus.     Kilon.  1G8G. 

4to. 
Albert.  Krantius.  Historia  Ecclesiastica  sivc  INletro- 

jxilis  de  iiuliis  Clirislian:x:  lieligiouis,  &c.     Franc. 

Ju'JU.     Fol. 


Phi  I,.  Labbe  Collectio  Conciliorum,  17  vols.     Par. 
1671.     Fol. 

Historica  Synopsis  Conciliorum.  Par.  16G1.  4to. 

De   Scriptoribus  Ecclesiasticis,  2  vols.     Par. 

IGGO.    Svo. 
303  Laclantii  Opera.     Lugd.  1594.     Svo. 

De  Mortibus  Persecutorum.     Oxon.  IGSO,  et  in 

Baluzii  Miscellaneis. 
Gill.  Lumhardns  De  Antiqiiis   Lcgibiis  Anglorum  ct 

Sa.xoniini.     Cant.  1644.     Fol. 
Latnpridius  inter  Historiae  Augustae  Seriptores.  Lug. 
Bat.  1G3'2. 
900  Landulphus    Sagax,    Continuatio    Pauli    Diaconi. 
Hanov.  IGll. 
Latinus  Latinius,  Epistnla  ad  Antoninni  Aun^iistiniim 
de  Usii  Fernienti  in  Eucharistia.    Ro7n.  ]Go9.    4to. 
Laur.  Laudmeter,   De  vetere  Clerico  et  JMonacho. 

Lovan.  1G26.    4to. 
Joan.  Launoius  De  recta  Interpretatione  Se.xti  Ca- 
nonis  Nicaeni.     Par.  1GG2.     8vo. 
507  Lanrentius  Novariensis,  Homilise  in  Bibl.  Patr.  t.  2. 
Lectionarium  Gallicauum,  ap.  Mabillou.  de  Liturgia 
Gallicana. 
1013  Leo  Granimaticns,ChronographiacumNotisCombefis. 

Par.  1G55.     Fol. 
458  Leo  Imperatnr  et  Antheuiius.     Novella?  ad  Calcem 

Codicis  Theodosiani. 
886  Leo  Sapiens  Imp.  Notitia  Ecclesias,  Gr.    Lat.,   ap. 
Leunclavium  in  .Jure  Gra»co- Romano,  t.  1.  p.  88. 

Novellae,  ap.  Leunclav.,  t.  2.  p.  78,  et  ad  Calcem 

Codicis  Justiniani. 

440  Leo  Magnus  Papa.  Opera.     Lugditn.  1672.     Fol. 

Epistoloe  in  Tomis  Conciliorum. 

Zeo  Africanus,  Descriptio  Africa;.  Antverp.  1556.  Svo. 
590  Leontius  Bvzantinus  De  Secfis,  Gr.  Lat.  in  Auctario 

Bibl.  PatV.  Ducceano,  t.  ].     Par.  1624. 
Contra  Eutychianos  ct  Nestorianos,  Bibl.  Patr. 

t.  4. 
Leonard.   Lessius   De   Jure   et    Justitia.     Antverp. 

1626.     Fol. 
Hamon    L' Estrange,    Alliance    of  Divine    Offices. 

Land.  1690.     Fol. 
Remonstrance  in  the  Cause  of  Liturgy.    Lond. 

1642.     4to. 
Smectymnuo-Mastix,  or  A  Defence  of  the  Re- 
monstrance.    Lond.  1651.     8vo. 
Joan.  Leunclavius,  Jus  Gracco-Romanum,  Gr.  Lat., 

2  torn.     Franc.  1594.     Fol. 
Ze.recow  Juridicum  per  Anonymum.  Genev.  1615.  Svo. 
360  Libaniiis  Sophista,  Opera,  Gr.   Lat.,  2  vols.     Par. 

1606.     Fol. 
553  Liberatus  Carthaginensis,  Breviarium  sive   Historia 

Causae  Nestorianae  ct  Eutychianae,  cum  .'^ppendice, 

ap.   Crab.   Concil.  t.  2,  et  Notis  Garnerii.     Par. 

1675.     Svo. 
Lightfoot,  Temple-Service  and  Temple.   Lond.  1650. 

4to. 
Horae  Hebraicae  in  Matt,  et  Marc,  cum  Disqui- 

sitione  Chorographica,  2  vols.     Cantab.  1658.    Svo. 

Opera,  2  vols. 

Gul.   Lindanus,    Panoplia   Evangelica   contra   Ilae- 

reses.     Colon.  1575.     Fol. 
Frid.    Lindenbrogius,    Codex    Legum    Antiquarnm, 

Burgundionum,  Alamannorum,  &c.     Franc.  1613. 

Fol. 

Observationes    in    Ammianum    Marcellinum. 

Hamburg,  1609.     4to. 

1422  Gul.    Limcood,    Provinciale   edituni    per    Sharrock. 
Oxon.  16G4.     Svo. 
Just.  Lipsius  De  Magnitudine  Romana.    Antverp. 
1598.    4to. 

Notae  in  Senecae  Opera.    Antverp.  1615.     Fol. 

Garsias  Loaisa,  Collectio  Conciliorum  Ilispaniae  cum 
4  M  2 


Notis.    Madrit.  UM'-i.    Fol.    Et  in  Tomis  Concilio- 
rum Labba'anis. 
1141  Pot.  Lonibardus,  Episcopus  Parisiensis,  Liber  Scu- 
tontiarum.     Lugd.  1591.     Svo. 
Joan.  Lumeier  De  Bibliothccis.  Zutphan.  1669.  Svo. 
Bishop  Lloyd's   Historical  Account  of  tlhurch  (Jo- 
vernniout   in   Britain  and    Irclantl  when   they  lirst 
received  the  Christian  Religion.    Land.  16&1-I.     Svo. 
170  Luciunus  Athens,  Opera,  Gr.  Lat.,  2  vols.     Salmur. 

1619.    Svo. 
253  Luciani  Confessoris  Epistolw  inter  Cyprianicas. 
294  Luciani  Martyris  symbolum,  ap.  Athanasium  de  Sy- 
noiiis  Arimin.  et  Seleuciaj.    Et  ap.   Socrat.  lib.  1. 
cap.  10. 
Christian   Lupus   Scholia   in  Cunones  Conciliorum, 
5  vols,     liruxel.  1673.    4to. 
1320  Lyrani  Glossa  in  Biblia.     Lugd.  1589. 

M 

Joan.  Mabillon  De  Liturgia  Gallicana.     Par.  1G85. 
4to. 

Iter  Ilalic\nn,  sive  Collectio  Veterum  Seripto- 

rum  ex  Bibliothccis  Italicis,  inter  quos  Liber  Sacra- 
mentorum  Ecclesia;  Gallicana;.     Par.  lf)87.     4to. 

Analecta  Veterum,  4  vols.     Par.  1675.     Svo. 

373  Macarius  JSgyptius,  Homiliae,  Gr.  Lat.   Par.  1622. 
380  Macrobius,  Saturnalia,  &c.     Par.  1585.    Svo. 

Magdeburge7ises  Ciii\{\\x'vx,'!^\o\s.    Basil,  HJ2l.    Fol. 
Maimonides  More  Nevochim.     Basil,  1629.     4to. 
Joan.  Maldonat,  Comment,  in  4  Evangel.     Mogunt. 
1621.     Fol. 

De  Sacramentis.   Zm^-c?.  1614.   4to.     Liber  pro- 

hibitiis. 
601  Joan.  Malela,  Chronicon,  Gr.  Lat.  Oxon.  1691.  Svo. 
1130  Gul.  Malmsburiensis  De  Rebus  gestis  Reguni  An- 
glorum, &c.     Franc.  1601.     Fol. 
Petrus  de  Marca.  De  Concordia  Sacerdotii  et  Im- 
perii.    Par.  1663.     Fol. 

Commentarius  in    Cap.   Clericus,  ad  Calcem 

Antonii  Augustini  de  Emendatione  Gratiani.     Par. 
1672. 

Dissertationes  de  Priiiratibus,  &c.     Par.  1669. 

Svo. 

Opera  Posthuma  de   Institutione    Patriarchae 

Constantinop.,  &c.     Par.  16G9.     Svo. 

534  Marcellinus  Comes,  Chronicon  cum  Eusebii  Chronico. 
Amst.  1658. 
Marci  Liturgia,  Gr.  Lat.  in  Auctario    Bibl.    Patr. 
Ducaeano,  t.  2.     Par.  1624. 
402  Marcus  Gazensis,  Vita  Porpiiyrii,  ap.  Baron,  an.  401. 
Pet.  Martyr,  Lnci  Communes.     Lond.  1583.     Fol. 
Mar tyr clog ium^onrAVMxa,  Notis  Baronii.  Colon.  4to. 
1277  Martinus  Polonus,  Chronicon.     Colon.  1616.     F<d. 
Andreas  7l/a.j«/*  Commentar.  in  Josua.  Antverp.  1574. 
Franc.  Mason,  Vindiciae  Ecclesiae  Anglicauae.  Lond. 
1625.     Fol. 

Of  the  Consecration  of  Bishops.     Fol. 

Defence  of  the  Ordination  of  Ministers  in  the 

Reformed  Churches.     O.vford,  1611.     4to.  , 
Maximiliani  Martyris  Passio,  ad  Calcem  Lactantii  de 
Mortibus  Persecutorum.     Oxoyi.  KiSl).     Svo. 
560  Martinus  Bracarensis,  Collectio  Canonum  in  Tomis 

Conciliorum. 
615  Maximus    Monachus,    Scholia    in    Opera    Dionysii 

Areopagitae,  Gr.  Lat.     Par.  1644. 
422  Maximus  Taurinensis,  Homiliae,  cum  Operibus  Lco- 
nis  ct  Fulgontii.     Lugd.  \i£>'L     Fol. 
Henry  Maurice's  Defence  of  Diocesan  Episcopacy. 
Lond.  1691.     Svo. 

Vindication   of  the    Primitive    Church   against 

Mr.  Baxter's  Church  History.     Lond.  1682.    Svo. 
Jos.  Mede's  Works.     Lond.  1677.     Fol. 
Hugo  Menardus,  Notae  in  Sacramentarium  Gregorii. 

Par.  1641.    4to. 
Fernandus  de  Mendosa,  Commentarius  in  Canones 
Concilii  Eliberitani,  Cone.  t.  2. 
418  Marius  Mercator,  Opera  cum  Notis  Garnerii.     Par. 
1673.     Fol. 
Hicron.  Mercurialis   De  Arte  Gymnastica.     Amst. 

1672.     4to. 
Joan.  Meursius  Glossarium  Graeco-Barbarum.     Lug. 
Bat.  1614. 
1080  Microloqus    De   Observatiouibus    Ecclesiasticis,    in 
Bibl.  Patr.  t.  10. 


1268 


INDEX  OF  AUTHORS. 


Joan.  Milles  Prolegomena  iu  Novum  Testamentum. 

Oxon. 
'220  Minitcius   Felix,  Dialogus  Notis   Rigaltii.      Oxon. 

1678.    8vo. 
Missale  Romanum.     Aiitve7-p.  1584. 
Missale  Gothicum.     Rom.  lG8l).     Par.  1685.    4to. 
Missa  Mozarabum.     Tolet.  1500. 
Kich.  MontaciUius,  Diatribse  on  the  first  Part  of  Mr. 

Selden's  History  of  Tithes.     Lond.  1621.     4to. 
Joan.  Morinus  De  Ordinationibus.     Par.  1655.     Fol. 

De  Pueniteniia.     Antverp.  1682.     Fol. 

Philip  Moriiaiis,  Mysterium  Iniquitatis,  sive  Historia 

Papains.     Sulmur.  1612.    8vo. 
Tho.  Morton's  Grand  Imposture  of  the  Church  of 

Home.     Lond.     4to. 

Catholic  Appeal  for  Protestants.     Lond.  1610. 

Fol. 

Apologia  Catholica.     Lond.  1606.    4to. 

Joan.  Moschus,  Pratum  Spirituale,  Gr.  Lat.,  in  Auc- 

tario  Bibl.  Patr.  Ducaeano,  t.  2.     Par.  1624. 
Pet.  du  Moulin' s  Novelty  of  Popery,  against  Perron. 

Lo7id.  1644.     Fol. 
Buckler  of  Faith,  or  Defence  of  the  Confession 

of  the    French  Church,   against   Arnou.\.      Lond. 

1631.    4to. 

Vates,  sive  de  malis  bonisque  Prophetis.    Lugd. 

Bat.  1640.    8vo. 

Steph.  le   Moyne,   Varia   Sacra,   2  vols.,   Gr.   Lat. 

Lugd.  Bat.  1685.    4to. 
PetrusMi<Z/er2<*  DeOsculoSancto.  Jence.lGlb.  4to. 

N 

1301  GuLiELM.  De  Nangiaco,  Vita  S.  Ludovici. 

Martin.  Navarrus,  Miscellanea,  inter  Opera,  6  tom. 

Fenet.  1602. 
Nasianzenus.     Vid.  Gregorium. 
1333  Nicephorus  Callistus,  Historia,  Gr.  Lat.,  2  vols.    Par. 

1630.     Fol. 
806  Niceplwrics  Patriarch.  C.  P.  Antirretica,  ap.  Com- 

befis.     Par.  1648. 
1205  Nicetas    Choniates,    Thesaurus    Orthodoxae    Fidei. 

Genev.  1592.     8Vo. 
880  Nicetas  David  Paphlago,   Vita  Ignatii  Patriarehai 

Constantinop.,  Gr.  Lat.,  in  t.  8.  Concilior. 
5.35  Nicetins,  Auctor  Hymni,  dicti,  Te  Dcura. 
1077  Nicetas    Heracliensis,   Responsa,  ap.    Leunclavium, 

t.  1.  p.  310. 
1043  Nilus  Doxopatrius,  Notitia  Patriarchatuum,  Gr.  Lat., 

ap.  le  Moyne  Varia  Sacra,  t.  1. 
858  Nicolaus  1.  Papa,  Responsa  ad  Consulta  Bulgarorum, 
ConcU.  t.  8. 
Notitia  Imperii.     Vid.  Pancirollum. 
Notitia  Ecclesiae.     Vid.  Leo  Sapiens. 
250  Novatiatius  De  Trinitate,  inter  Opera  Tertulliani. 

O 

Odo  Parisiensis,    Statuta  Synodalia,  in  Bibl.   Patr. 
t.  6. 
990  (Ecumenius,  Commentar.  in  Acta  et  Epistolas,  2  vols., 
Gr.  Lat.     Par.  1631.     Fol. 
Onuphrius  De  Ccemeteriis.     Colon.  1574.     Fol. 
Interpretationes  Vocum  Ecclesiasticarum.  Ibid. 

Vita;  Pontificum  Roman.     Ibid. 

De  Ritu  sepeliendi  mortuos.     Ibid. 

368  Optuti  Opera,  Notis  Albaspinaii.     Par.  1631.     Fol. 

730  Ordo  Romanus,  Bibl.  Patr.  t.  9. 

2.30  Ori^enw  Opera  Latine,  2  vols.    Basil,  \bl\.    Fol. 

Contra  Celsum,  Gr.  Lat.     Cajitab.  1677.     4to. 

De  Oratione,  Gr.  Lat.     Oxon.    8vo. 

Commentar.  sive  Opera  Exegetica,  Gr.  Lat., 

2  vols.,  per  Huetium.     Rothomugi,  1668.     Fol. 

Philocalia,  ad  Calcem  Lib.  contra  Celsum. 

416  Orosius,  Historia  Ecclesiastica.     Colon.  1582.     8vo. 
Ostervald' s  CaMS,es  of  Corruption  uf  Christians.  Lond. 

1702.    8vo. 
Hen.  Otho,  Lexicon  Rabbinicum.     Genev.  1675. 
1144  Otho  Frisingensis,  Chronicon.     Basil,  1569.     Fol. 


1280  Gkorg.    Pachymeres,    Paraphrasis    in    Dionysium 

Arcopag. 
340  Pachomii  Regula,  Bibl.  Patr.  1. 15. 


Flor.  A 

370 


401 
ia30 

303 
1428 


1240 


390 
420 


774 


313 


301 

380 

40 

858 


1185 


Paciatii  EpistoUe  ad  Sempronianum  contra  Nova- 

tianos,  Bibl.  Patr.  t.  3. 
Anton.  Pagi,  Critica  in  Baronii  Annales.    Par.  1689. 

Fol. 
Palladius,  Historia  Lausiaca,  Gr.  Lat.,  in  Auctario 

Bibl.  Patr.  Duc;eano,  t.  2. 

Vita  Chrysostomi,  inter  Opera  Chrys.  t.  2. 

Petr,  Pali/datius,  Comment,  in  Lib.  Sententiarum. 
Jac.  Pamela  LJturgica,  2  tom.     Colon.  1571. 
Notai  in  Cyprian um. 

Nutic  in  Tertullianuni. 

Pamphilus  Martyr,  Apologia  pro  Origene,  ap.  Pho- 
tium.  Cod.  118.' 

Guido  Pancirollus,  Commentar.  in  Notitiam  Digni- 
tatum  Imperii  Romani  Onentalis  et  Occideutalis. 
Ven.  1593.     Fol. 

Pandectee  Canomun.     Vide  Beveregium. 

PandectcE  sive  Digesta  in  Corpore  Juris  Civilis,  t.  1. 

Nicol.  Tudeschus,  vulgo  dirtus  Panormitanus,  Com- 
mentar. in  quinque  Libros  Decretalium.  Luud. 
1586.     Fol. 

Dan.  Papehrochius,  Conatus  Chronico-Historicus  ad 
Catalogum     Pontificum     Romauorum.      Antverp. 

1685.  Fol. 

Acta  Sanctorum  Maii,  5  vols.    Antverp.  1680. 

Fol. 
David.  Parous,  Nota;  in  Symbolum  Athanasii,  ad 

Calcem  Catechismi  Ursini      Hanov.  1651.     8vo. 
Mat.  Paris,  Historia  Rerum  Anglicarum.  Par.  1644. 

Fol. 
Mat.  Parker,  Concio  in  Obitum  Buceri. 
Sim.  Patrick,  Discourse  of  Prayer.  Lond.  1686.  8vo. 

Of  Repentance,  Fasting,   and   Lent.     Lond. 

1686.  8vo. 

Devotions  of  the  Romish  Church.  Lond.  1674. 

8vo. 

Paulinus    Nolanus,   Opera    cum    Notis    Rosweydi. 

Antverp.  1622.    8vo. 
Paulinus  Mediolanensis,  Vita  Ambrosii  prajfixa  Ope- 

ribus  Ambrosii. 
Carolus  a  Sancto  Paulo,  Geographia  Sacra  cum  Notis 

et  Animadversionibus  Holsieuii.    Amst.  1703.    Fol. 
Panlus  Diaconus,  Historia  Miscellanea.     Hamburq. 

1611.     4to. 
Joan.  Pga?-*o?2,  Annales  Cyprianici.  Oa?o?z.  1682.  Fol. 
Vindiciae  Epistolarum  Iguatii,  in  Appendicead 

Cotelerii  Patres  Apostol.     Antverp.  1698.     Fol. 

Exposition  of  the  Creed.     Lond.  1669.     Fol. 

Opera  Posthuma,  viz.  Annales  Paulini.     Lec- 

tiones  in  Acta  Apostolorum.     Et  de  Serie  et  Siic- 

cessione   primorum    Roma;    Episcoporum.     Lond 

1688.     4to. 
Pe«i7ew<iaZ  Discipline  of  the  Primitive  Church.  Lond. 

1714.     8vo. 
Gul.  Perkins,  Demonstratio  Problematis  de  Romau.TG 

Fidei  ementito  Catholicismo.     Cantab.  \&.)A.     4t(i. 
Acta  PerpetucB  et  Felicitatis,  in  Appendice  ad  Lac- 

tantium  de  Mortibus  Persecutorum.     Oxon.  ItiSO. 

8vo. 
Dionys.  Petavitts,  Dogmata  Theologica,  3  vols.    Ant- 
verp. 1700.     Fol. 

De  Ecclesiastica  Hierarchia.     Ibid. 

De  Episcopis,  Diaconis,  &c.,  Dissertationes  2. 

Ibid. 

De  Pcenitentia  Publica  et   Pra;paratione  ad 

Communionem.     Ibid. 

De  Potestate  Consecrandi  Sacerdotibus  a  Deo 

concessa.     Lond.  1685.     8vo. 
De  Doctrina  Temporum,  3  vols.     Par.  1627. 

Fol. 

Animadversiones  in  Epiphanium. 

Nota;  in  Synesium. 

Sam.  Petitus,  Variarum  Lectionum,  lib.  4.  Par.  1633. 
Petrus  Alexandrinus,  Canones,  Gr.  Lat.,  ap.  Beve- 
regium in  Pandectis. 
Philastrius  De  Haeresibus,  Bibl.  Patr.  t.  4. 
Philo  Judceus,  Opera,  Gr.  Lat.     Par.  1640.     Fol. 
Photius,  Bibliotheca,  Gr.  Lat.     Par.  1612.     Fol. 
Epistolae,  Gr.  Lat.,  Notis  Montacutii.     Lond. 

1651.     Fol. 
Nomocanon,  Gr.  Lat.,  ap.  Justellum  Bibl.  Juris 

Canonici,  t.  2. 
Joan.  Phocas,  Descriptio  Locorum   Sanctorum  Pa- 

laestiuffi,  ap.  Papebrochium  in  Actis  Sanctonnn  Maii, 

t.  2.  p.  1. 


INDEX  OF  AUTHORS. 


1269 


425  Philoslorgius,   I  listeria  Eccles.,  Gr.   Lat.     Cantuh. 
1720.     Fol. 
Ellies  Uu  Pill,  De  autiqua  Ecclesiae  Disciplina.  Par. 
1G86.     8vo. 

Bibliotliequc,    or,    History    of    Ecclesiastical 

Writers  to  the  Seventeenth  Century.     Load.  1G'J2, 
&c.     Fol. 
250  Pionii  Martyris  Acta,  ap.  Baronium,  an.  2')4. 

Pet.   PlthcBus,  Notae  in  Fraijnienta  Vetenim  Juris- 
consulioniiu  cum  Legibus  jNlosaicis  coUata.     Vur. 
1573.     4to. 
158  Pius  I.  Papa,  Epistoloe  in  Tomis  Conciliorum. 
Plinii  Historia  Natiiralis.     Basil,  1525.     Fol. 
Plinit  Epistola;.     Oxon.     8vo. 
Plutarchi  Opera.     Franc.  1G20.    2  vols.  Fol. 
108  Polycarpi  Epistola,  Gr.  Lat.  ap.  Cotelerium. 

Martyrium  Polycarpi.     Ibid. 
196  Polycrates,  Fratrnienta  ap.  Eusebium. 

Polydorus  Vergilius  De  Inveutoribus  Kerum.     Basil, 
1540.   8vo.    Liber  Expiirijatus  in  Indice  Sotomajor. 
Franc.  Polyyranus,  Assertationes  quonindaui  Eccle- 
siae Dogmatum.     Colon.   1571.      Liber  Prohibitus 
in  Indice  Sotomajor. 
Liber  Pontijicalis,  Sive  Vita;  vetenim  Paparum  sub 

nomine  Damasi,  in  Tomis  Conciliorum. 
Pontijicale  Romanum.     Par.  1648.     Fol. 
250  Pontius,  Vita  Cypriani  praefixa  Operibus  Cypriani. 
Matt.  Pool,  Synopsis  Cnticorum,  5  vols.  Land.  1669, 
&c. 
430  Possidius  Calamensis,  Vita  Augustini  praefixa  Operi- 
bus Aiigustini. 
Christ.  Potter,  Answer  to  Charity  Mistaken.     Loud. 

16.^4.     8vo. 
Franc.  Potter,   Interpretation  of  the  Number  666. 

Oxon.  1642. 
John   Potter,  Bishop  of  Oxford,  Discourse  of  Church 
Government.     Lond.  16U7.     8vo. 
1152  Potho  Prumiensis  De  Statu  Domus  Dei.     Hagenooe, 
1532.     8vo. 
Gabriel  Prateolus,  Elenchus  Haerclicorum.     Colon. 

1605.    4to. 
Humph.  Prideaux,  Connexion  of  Scripture  History, 
2  vols.     Lond.  1718.     8vo. 
550  Primasius,  Comment,  in  Epistolas  Pauli,  Bibl.  Patr. 
t.  1. 
Phil.  Priorius  De  Literis  Canonicis.  Par.  1675.  8vo. 
434  ProcZi/*  Constantinopol.  De  Traditiouibus  Missae  cum 

Notis  Riccardi.     liom.  1630. 
527  /'roco/)«<*,  Opera  Historica,  Gr.  Lat.  Par.  1662.  Fol. 
444  Prosper  Aquitanus,  Opera.     Colon.  1510.     8vo. 

Chronicon,  in   Appendice   Chrouici  Eusebiani 

per  Scaligerum.     Amst.  1(J58.     Fol. 
405  Prudentius,  Poemata  in  Corpora  Poetarum. 


Jos.  Quesnel,  Dissertationes  et  Notae  in  Opera  Leonis 

Ma^ni,  2  vols.     Par.  1676.    4to, 
Quintiliani  Opera. 
Caspar    Quiroga,   Index   Librorum    Expurgatorum, 

Salmur.     1601.    4to. 

R 

S47  Rahanus  Maurus  De  Institutione  Clericorum  et  Cere- 
moniis  Ecclesi;r,  Bibl.  Patr.  t.  10. 

De  Proprietate  Sermonis. 

1101  Radulphus  Aniens,    Sermones  de   Tempore  et   de 

Sanctis.     Antverp.  1576.     8vo. 
1390  Radulphus  de  Rivo,  De  Observantia  Canonum,  Bibl. 
Patr.  t.  10. 
Joan.  Rainoldus,  Apologia  Thesium  de  Scriptura  et 

Ecclesia.     Hanov.  16(J3.     8vo. 
Ranchins's  Review  of  the  Council  of  Trent.     Oxon. 
1638.     Fol. 
170  Recognitiones   sive    Itiuerarium    Petri    sub   nomine 
Clementis  Romani,  ap.  Cotelerium,  t.  1.  Patr.  Apos- 
tol. 
Will.  7?ee«e'i' Notes  on  the  ancient  Apologists,  2  vols. 

Lond.     8vo. 
Renaudotius,  Collectio  Liturgiarum  Orientalium  cum 
Dissertationibus,  2  vols.      Par.  1716.     4to. 
890  Rhegino  Prumiensis,  de  Disciplinis  Ecclesiasticis  et 
Religione   Christiana,    cum    Notis   Baluzii.     Par. 
1671.     bvo. 


Vincent.  Riccardus,  Commentar.  in  Produm  de  Tra- 

fiit.  Missa;.     Rom.  1630. 
Edinuiul.  Ric/ierius,  Historia  Conciliorum  Generali- 

um.cum  Librode  Potestate  Ecdesiasticaet  Politica: 

Item  V'indicia;  Doctrinae  Majorum  Scholoc  Parisi- 

ensis,  2  vols.     Colon.  1683.     4to. 
De  Potestate  Ecclesiae  in  Rebus  Temporalibus. 

Colon.  1691.    4to. 
Nic.  Rigaltius,  Notae  in  Cyprianum. 

Nota;  in  Minuciuin. 

Georg.  Ritters/tusius  Dc  Jure  Asylorum,  inter  Criticos 

Londinenses. 
Andr.  Rivetus,  Opera,  3  vols.     Amst.  1651.     Fol. 

Criticus  Sacer.     Genev.  1626.     8vo. 

Synopsis    Purioris    Theologiae.      Lugd.    Bat. 

1632.    8vo. 
Joannes  Rojfensis,  Fisher,  Liber  contra  Lutherum. 

Par.  \biii.     8vo. 
ioMWies  Rrjff'en sis,  Buckeridge,  De  Potestate  Papa;  in 

Rebus  Temporalibus.     Lond.  1614.    4to. 
Joan.   Rosinvs,   Antiquitates   Romanac  cum   Parali- 

pomenis  Dempstcri.     Colon.  1620.     4to. 
390  Ruffians, IW'iX.oxxdi  Ecclesiastica.     Basil,  1549.     Fol. 

Expositio  Symboli  inter  Opera  Cypriani.  Oxon. 

16S2. 
nil  Rupertus    Tuitiensis,   De    Divinis    Officiis.       Inter 

Scriptores  de  Divin.  Offic.     Par.  1610. 
470  Ruricius  Lemovicensis,  Epistolac  ap.  Canisium,  An- 

tiq.  Lection,  t.  5. 


LiEER  Sacerdotalis. 

Sallustius. 

Salmasius  De  Primatu.     Lugd.  Bat.  1&45.    4to. 

Notae  in  Historioe  Augusta;  Scriptores. 

430  Salviani  Ojiera.     Oxon.  IB^iS.    8vo. 

Pet.  Sarpus  De  Jure  Asylorum.  Lugd.  Bat.  1622.  4to. 
Joan.  Savaro,  Commentar.  in  Sidonium  Apolliuarem. 

Par.  1609.    4to. 
Chronicon  Sa.vonicum.     Oxon.  1692.    4to. 
Jos.  Scaliqer  De  Emendatione  Temporum.      Genev. 

1629.     Fol. 
Castigationes  in  Eusebii  Chronicon,  cum  Canoni- 

bus  Isagogicis,  &c.     Amst.  1658.     Fol. 
Emanuel  a  Schelstrate,  Sacrum  Concilium  Antioche- 

num  restitiitum.     Atitverp.  1681.     4to, 

De  Disciplina  Arcani.     Rom.  16b>5.     4to. 

Dissertation  of  Patriarchal  and  Mefropolitical 

Power,  a:;ainst  Stillingfleet.     Lond.  1688.     4to. 

Ecclesia  Africana.     P«r.  1(j79.     4to. 

Abr.   Scultetus,  MeduUa  Patrum,  2  vols.     Amberg. 
1613.     4to. 
434  Sedulius,  Poemata,  &c.  Bibl.  Patr.  t.  8. 

Joan.  Seldenus,  Uxor  Hebraica.     Lond.  1646.     4to. 

De  Synedriis.     Lond.  1650.     4to. 

De  Diis  Syris  cum  additamentis  Beyeri.  Lips. 

1668.    8vo. 

History  of  Tithes.     Lond.  1618.    4to. 

Seneca,  Opera,  Notis  Lipsii.    Antverp.  1615.     Fol. 
Servius  in  Virgilium. 
401  Severianus  (iabalcusis,  Homiliae  Gr.  Lat.,  inter  Ope- 
ra Chrysostonii,  t.  6.  et  ap.  Combefis,  in  Auctario 
Novissiiiio.     Par.  1672.     Fol. 
401  Sulpicius  Severus.  Opera.     Amst.  1656.    8vo. 

Will.  Sherlock's  Discourse  of  Church  Unity,  or  De- 
fence of  Siillingfleet's  Unreasonableness  of  Separ- 
ation.    Lond.  J  681.     8vo. 
Paul.  Sherlogus,  Coiniuent.  in  Cantica,  3  vols.  Lugd. 
1637. 
472  Sidonius  ApoUinaris.  Opera,  cum  Notis  Savaronis 

Par.  ia)9.     4 to. 

1307  Siffridus  Presbyter,  Chronicon.     Franc.  1583.     Fol. 

1101  Siqibertus  Gemldacensis,  Chronicon.     Franc.  1583. 

Fol.  inter  Scriptores  (Jermanicos  a  Pistorio  editos. 

Car.  Sigonius  De  aiitiquo  Jure  Italiae  et  Provinciarum, 

2  vols.    Venet.  1560.    4to. 

555  Paulus  Silenliarius,  DescriptioTempli  S.  Sophiae,  Gr. 

Lat.,  cum  Notis  du  Fresne.     Par.  1670.     Fol. 
467  S implicius  Papa,  Epistolae  in  Tomis  Conciliorum. 
385  Siricius  Papa,  Epistolae  in  Tomis  Conciliorum. 
1410  Simeon  Thcssalonicensis,  Commentar.  de  Teniplo  et 
Ministris  et  Sacra  Mystagogia,  Gr.  Lat.   ap.  Guar 
in  Rituali  Griccorum.     Par.  1647. 
Dialogus  adversus  omnes  Haercscs. — Responsa 


12/0 


INDEX  OF  AUTHORS. 


ad  85  QuiEStiones  Gabrielis  Pentapolitani,  MS.,  ap. 
Leonem  Allatium  de  Missa  Praesanctificatorura. 
Jacob.  Sirmondus,  Censuia  Anonymi  de  Suburbica- 
riis  Regionibus  et  Ecclesiis.     Par.  1618. 

Historia    Pa'Uiteulia!. — Notae  in  Augustiuum, 

Ennodium,  &c. 

Dissertatio  de  Usu  Fermenti  in   Eucharistia. 

Edita  sunt  omnia  Sirmondi  Opera,  5  vols.     Par. 
1696.     Fol. 

432  Sixius  Papa  III.,  Epistolae,  Concil.  t.  3. 

Sixtus  Senensis,  Bibliutheca  Sancta.     Colon.  15S6. 

Fol. 
Joan.  Sleidayms,  Commentarii  de  Statu  Religionis, 

&c.    Argeiitorat.  15G6.     »vo. 
Smectymnuus.    Jto. 
Tho.  Smith,  Account  of  the  Greek  Church.     Lond. 

IGSO.     8vo. 

439  Socrates  Scholasticus,  Historia  Ecclesiastica  Notis 

V'alesii.     Cantab.  172U.     Fol. 
Solinus  Polyhistor,  cum  Pomponio  Mela  et  iEthico 

Cosmographo,  per  H.  Stephan.     1577.     4to. 
Hen.  Spelrnan,  Concilia  Britannica,  2  vols.     Lond. 

1664.     Fol. 
Anton.  Sparrow,  Rationale  on  the  Common  Prayer. 

Lond.  1684.    8vo. 
Joan.    Spencer   De  Legibus   Hebraeorum.     Hac/cB, 

1686.     4to. 
Anton,  a  Sotomajor,  Index  Librorum  prohibitorum  et 

expurgandorum.     Madrit.  1667.     Fol. 

440  So.zonienus,   Historia  Ecclesiastica,    Gr.   Lat.,  cum 

Notis  Valesii.     Cuntab.  1720.     Fol. 
Spalatensis  De  Republica  Ecclesiastica,  3  vols.  Lond. 

1617.     Ful. 
Frid.  Spanhemius,  Historia  Imaginum.    Lugd.  Bat. 

16!56.     8vo. 

Summa  Hisforiae  Ecclesiasticoe  ad  Saeculum  16, 

2  vols.     Luyd.  Bat.  1689.     8vo. 

Spartianus  inter  Augustae  Historiae  Scriptores. 
Hen.  Spondanus,  Epitome  Aunalium  Barouii,  2  vols. 

Par.  1660.     Fol. 
Continuatio  Annalium  Baronii,  2  vols.     Lugd. 

1678.     Fol. 
Eilw.  Stillingfleet,  Origines  Britannicae.  Lond.  1685. 

Fol. 
Unreasonableness  of  Separation.     Lond.  1681. 

4to. 

Irenicum.     Lond.  1662.    4to. 

_ Idolatry  and  Fanaticism  of  the  Church  of  Rome. 

Lond.  1676.     8vo. 
Defence  of  the  Charge  of  Idolatrv,  &c.     Lond. 

1676.     8vo. 
Answer  to  Cressy's  Apologetical  Epistle.  Lond. 

1675.    8vo. 
Ecclesiastical  Cases  relating  to  the  Duties  and 

Rights  of  the  Parochial  Clergy.    Lond.  1698.    8vo. 
Strahonis  Geographia,  Gr.   Lat.    Notis    Casauboni. 

Par.  1620.     Fol. 
842  Walafridus   Strabo  De  Rebus   Ecclesiasticis,    Bibl. 

Patr.   t.  10. 
Suetonius.     Oxon.  1676.     8vo. 
Joan.  Caspar.  Suicerus,  Thesaurus  Ecclesiasticus  e 

Patribus  Graecis,  2  vols.     Amst.  1682.     Fol. 
980  Suidas,  Lexicon  Notis  .35mylii  Porti,  2  vols.  Ge?iev. 

1619.    Fol. 
Laur.  Surius,  Vitae  Sanctorum,  7  torn.    Colon.  1576. 

De  Rebus  Gestis  in  toto  Orbe  ab  anno  1500  ad 

1574.     Colon.  1574. 

Mat.  Sutlif,  De  Institutione   Monachorum.     Lond. 
1600.    4to. 
498  Symmachus  Papa,  Epistolae  et  Decreta  in   Tomis 

Conciliorum. 
384  Q.  Aurel.  Symmachus,  Epistolae  et  Relatio  ad  Theo- 

dosium  pro  Ara  Victoriae.     Par.  1604.     4to. 
410  Synesii  Epistolae,  Gr.  Lat.     Par.  1605.     8vo. 

Opera  omnia,  Notis  Petavii,   Gr.  Lat.     Par. 

1633.     Fol. 
Synodicon  Pappi,  Gr.  Lat.,  in  Tomis  Conciliorum 

Labbe. 
Synodicon  Gallioe  Reformatae,  2  vols.  Lond.  1692.  Fol. 


Taciti  Historia  et  Annales.     Amst,  1664.     8vo. 

172   Tatiunus,  Oralio  contra  Groacos,  Gi-.  Lat.,  ad  Calcem 

Operum  Justin.  Martyr.     C'o/o?j.  1686.     Fol. 


Jer.  Taylor,  Ductor  Dubitantium.    Lond.  1676.  Fol. 

Worthy  Communicant.     Lond.  1660.     8vo. 

192  Tertullianus ,  Opera,  Notis  Fr.  Junii.     Franekeres, 
1597.    Fol.     Et  Notis  Rigaltii.     Par.  1634. 
Theocritus. 
423  Theodoretus,   Historia  Eccles.,  Gr.    Lat.      Cantab. 
1720.     Fol. 

Opera  omnia,  Gr.  Lat.,  4  vols.    Par.  1642.    Fol. 

518  Theodorus  Lector.  Historia,  Gr.  Lat.  Notis  Valesii. 
Cantab.  1720.     Fol. 
Theodosius  Imperator.     Vid.  Codex  Theodosianus. 
168  Theophilus  Antioch.,  Lib.  ad  Autolycum,  Gr.   Lat. 

Cxon.  1684.    8vo.     Et  ad  Calcem  .j'ustin.  Mart. 
385   Theophilus  Alex.,  Epistolae  Heortasticae,  Bibl.  Patr. 
t.  3. 

Canonica  Edicta,  ap.  Bevereg.  Pandect,  t.  2. 

1077   Theophylactiis,  Comment,  in  4  Evangelia,  Gr.  Lat. 
Par.  1631.     Fol. 

Comment,  in  Epislolas  S.  Pauli.  Lond.  1636.  Fol. 

Thomas  Aquinas.     Vid.  Aquinas. 
Herbert   Thorndike,  Of   Religious  Assemblies,   and 
the  Service  of  God.     Cantab.  1642.     8vo. 

Just  Weights  and  Measures.     4to. 

Joh.  Maria  Thotnasius,  Liber  Sacramentorum.  Rom. 

1680.    4to. 
Tigurine  Liturcy.    Lond.  1693.    8vo.    See  Werndly. 
Tillesly  Of  Titlies,  in  Answer  to  Selden. 
511   Timotheus  Constantinop.,  ap.  Combefis  Auctar.  No- 
vum, t.  2. 
Timothei  Passio,  ap.  Photium,  Cod.  254. 
380   Timotheus  Alex.,  Canoues,  ap.  Bevereg.  Pandect,  t.  2. 
Franc.  Toletus,  Instructio  Sacerdotum. 
Tridentini  Concilii  Decreta   et   Canones,  cum  De- 
clarationibus  Cardinalium  et  Remissionibus   Bar- 
bosae.     Colon.  1621. 

Catechismus    editus    Jussu    Cone.    Tridentini. 

Vide  Catechismus  ad  Parochos. 
1483  Trithemius  De  Scriptoribus  Ecclesiasticis.     Colon. 
1531.    4to. 
Turrianus,  Notae  in  Canones  Arabicos  Concilii  Ni- 

coeni.  Cone.  t.  2. 
Franc.  Turretinus,  Institutio  Theologioe  Elencticae, 
4  vols.     Genev.  1688.    4to. 


439  Valerianus  Cemeliensis,  Homilia3.   Lugd.  1672.   Fol. 
Valerius  Maximus. 

Henric.  Vulesius,  Nota;  in  Euseb.,  Socrat.,  &c.    Can- 
tab. 1720. 

Dissertationesvariae  ad  Calcem  Euseb.,  Socrat., 

&c.     Ibid. 
Varro  De  Lingua  Latina,  cum  Notis  Scaligeri.    Par. 

1585.    8vo. 
Vedelius,  Exercitationes  in  Ignatium.     Genev.  1623. 

4to. 
Fegetius  De  Re  Militari.     Lugd.  Bat.  1592.     8vo. 
Venantius.     Vid.  Fortunatum. 
Vergilius.     Vid.  Polydor.  Vergil. 
Jos.  Ficeco?»e*  De  RitibusBaptismi.  jPar.  1618.  8vo. 

De  Ritibus  Eucharistiac.  Mediolani,  1618.    4to. 

Victor,  Epitome  Historiae  Romanae. 
401   Victor  Antiochenus,    Comment,  in    Marcum,   Bibl. 

Patr.  t.  1. 
555  Victor  Tununensis,  Chronicon  in  Appendice  Chronici 
Eusebiani.     Par.  1658. 
Victor  Uticensis  sive  Vitensis,  De  Persecutione  Van- 
dalica,  Bibl.  Patr.  t.  7. 
290  Victorinus  Martyr.,  Comment,  in  Apocalyps.,  Bibl. 
Patr.,  t.  2. 

De  Fabrica  Mundi,  ap.  Cave  Histor.   Literar., 

t.  1.  p.  103. 
457  Victorius  Aquitanus,  Canon  Paschalis,  Notis  Buche- 

rii.     Antverp.  16.34.     Fol. 
540  Vigilius  I.  Papa,  Epistolae  in  Tomis  Conciliorum. 
4S4  Vigilius  Tapsensis,  Opera,  per  Chifletium.    Bivione, 

1664.    4to. 
1244  Vincentius  Bellovacensis,  Speculum  Historiae.    Mo- 

gunt.  1474. 
434  Fi/icewi2M«  Lirinensis,  Commonitorium  adversus  Hac- 
reses.     Notis  Filesaci.    Par.  1619.     4to. 
Virgilius. 

Vitruvius  De  Architectura.     Lugd.  1586.     4to. 
Ludov.  Vives  De  Causis  corruptarum  Artium  et  de 
tradendis  Disciplinis.     Oxon.  1612.    8vo. 


INDEX  OF  AUTHORS. 


1271 


Ulpianus,  Passiiu  in  Paiuiectis  Juris  Civilis. 
Vopiscus,  inter  Augustx'  llistoriiu  Scriptores. 
Joan.  Gerard.    Voasius,  Theses  Theologicaj  et  His- 

torica;.     Bellositi  Dobunor.  1G28.    4lo. 

De  Baptismo  Dispiitat.  20.     Amst.  164S.     -Ito. 

De  tribiis  Symbolis.     A/nst.  KJl'i.     4to. 

Isaac.  Foisius,  Notai  in  Ifjuatiuin,  ap.  Cotelorium. 
431   Uraniiis,    Vita    Paiilini    Nolani,    pra,>fixa   Openbus 

Paulini. 
Jacobus  Uiseriiis,  Antiquitates  Britanniearuin  Eccle- 

siariiiu.     Land.  1687.     Fol. 

De  Successione  Ecclesiw.     Ibid. 

Answer  to  the  Jesuit's  Challenge.     Lond.  1686. 

4to. 

Religion  of  the  Ancient  Irish.     Ihid. 

Historia    Dogmatica   de    Scripturis   et  Sacris 

Vernaculis.    Lond.  1690.    4to. 

De  Anno  solari  Macedonum.    Lond.  1648.  8vo. 

Chronologia  Sacra,  ciuu  Dissertatione  de  Syui- 

bolo  Apostolicoliomana!  Ecclcsioe.  0.fO«.  1660.  4to. 

Dissertationes  Ignatiana;,  in  Appendice  ad  Co- 

tclerii  Patres  Apostolicos.     Antverp.  1698.     Fol. 

Life  and  Letters.     Lond.  1685.     Fol. 

De  Episcoporum  et  Metropolitanorum  Origine. 

l.ond.  1687.     8vo. 

De  Asia  Lydiana  sive  Proconsulari.     Ibid. 

Judffment  of  several  Subjects,  with  the  Reduc- 
tion of  Episcopacy,  &c.     Lond.  1658.     8vo. 

W 

William  ira/te'A',  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  Defence 
of  the  Exposition  of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Church  of 
England,  against  Mr.  De  Mea\ix.  Lond.  1686.  4to. 

Will.  Wall's  History  of  Infant  Baptism.  Lond.  1705. 

Will.  Walker's  Modest  Plea  for  Infant  Baptism. 
Cantab.  1677.     8vo. 

Walo  Messalinus,  al.  Salmasius,  de  Presbyteris  et  Epis- 
copis,  contra  Petavium.    Lugd.  Bat.  1641.    8vo. 

Walterus  Atirelianensis.  Capitula  Not  is  Cellotii,  Con- 
cil.  t.  8. 


Vlor.  Kn. 

Brian.  Walton,  Prolegomena  sive  Apparatus  ad  Po- 
lyglot.    Tigur.  1673.     Fol. 
Rich.  Watson,  De  anticjua  Libertate  Ecclesia;  Bri- 

tannic;e.     Lond.  1687.     8vo. 
Werndly's  Notes  on  the  Tigurine  Liturgy.     Lond. 

1693.    8vo. 
1 180   Wesselus  Groningensis,  ap.  lUyricum  Catalog.  Test., 

p.  1908. 
Edw.  WettenhaV s  Gift  of  Singing.     Lond.     8vo. 
Hen.  Wharton,  Appendix  ad  Cave  Histor.  Literar. 

Lond.  1689.     Fol. 
Auctariinn  Historiab  Dogmatica;  Usserii.  Lond. 

1690.    4to. 

Discourse  of  Pluralities.     Lond.  1703.     Svo. 

Abr.  Wheelock,  Notae  in  Bedae  Histor.  Vid.  Bedam. 
Gul.  Whitakerus,  De  Conciliis.  Herborn.  1601.  8vo. 
Dan.   Whitby's  Idolatry  of   Host  Worship.     Lond. 

1671.    Svo. 
John  Whitgift's  Works.     Lond.  1674. 


X 


Xylander,  Nota;  in  Cedrenmu. 


Z 


360  Zeno  Veronensis,  Sermones,  Bibl.  Patr.,  t.  2. 

Gul.  Zepperus,  Legum  Mosaicarum  Foreusium  Ex- 

planalio.     Herborn.  1604.     8vo. 
Caspar.  Zieglerus,  Animadversiones  in  Grotium  do 
Jure  Belli  et  Pacis.     Witteberg.  1676.     8vo. 
1118  Joan.  Zonaras,  Comment,  in  Canone.s  Concilioruni, 
Gr.  Lat.,  ap.  Bevercg.  Pandect.   Oxon.  1672.    Fol. 
Zosimus,  Historicus,  Gr.  Lat. 
417  Zosimus  1.  Papa,  Epistola  et  Decreta,  in  Touiis  Con- 
cilioruni. 
Zuinglii  Opera,  4  vols.     Tigur.     Fol. 
1410  Zyyomalas,  ap.  Crucium  in  Tin-co-Gr;ccia. 

Zayn  Zabo's  Account  of  the  Habassin  Religion,  in 
Geddes's  Church  History  of  Ethiopia.  Lond.  1696. 
Svo.     And  in  Damianus  a  Goes. 


II. 


ALPHABETICAL  AND  CHRONOLOGICAL 


INDEX     OF     COUNCILS. 


WITH  THE  NUMBER  OF  THEIR  CANONS. 


506  Agathense,  Agde  in  Gallia,  Canones  48,  al.  71. 

315  Alexandrinum  contra  Arium  sub  Alexandro. 

362  Alexaudrinum  sub  .\thanasio. 

349  Agrippinense  contra  Enphratam  Arianum. 

.314  Ancyranum  in  Galatia,  Can.  26. 

270  Antiochenum  contra  Paulum  Samosatenum. 

341  Antiochenum  in  Encaeniis,  cujus  25  Canones  inserti 

sunt  in  Codicem  Canonum  Ecclesi;r  Universac. 
578  Antissiodorense,  Auxerre,  in  Gallia,  Can.  45. 
.381   Aquiliense  in  Italia. 

78s  Aquisgranense,  Aix  laChapellc  in  Germania,  Capit.82. 
441  Arausicanum  I.,  Orange  in  GaUia,  Can.  .30. 
529  Arausicanum  II.,  Can.  25. 
314  Arelatense  I.,  Aries  in  Gallia,  contra  Donatistas,  Can. 

22. 


A.  D. 

451  Arelatense  II.,  Can.  56. 

813  Arelatense  sub  Carolo  Magno,  Can.  26. 

.359  Arimfnense  in  Italia. 

535  Arvernense  1.,  Clermont  in  Galli.a,  Can.  16. 

670  Augustiidunense,  Autun  in  Gallia,  Can.  15. 

51 1  Aurelianense  I.,  Orleans  in  Gallia,  Can.  31. 

533  Aurelianense  II.,  Can.  21. 

538  Aurelianense  III.,  Can.  33. 

B 

510  Barcinonense,  Barcelona  in  Hi.spania,  Can.  10. 
J  431   Basiliense. 

563  Bracarense  I.,  Braga  in  Hispania,  Can.  40 
572  Bracarense  II.,  Can.  10. 

570  Martin.  Bracarensis  Collectio  Canonuin  ex  Synodi 
Grajcis,  Capit.  85. 


1272 


INDEX  OF  COUNCILS. 


A.  D. 

394  Cabarsusitanum,  in  Africa. 

650  Cabillonense  I.  Chalon  in  Gallia,  Can.  20. 

813  Cabillonense  sub  Carolo  Magno,  Can.  66. 

381  Caesaraiigustanum,  Saragossa  in  Hispauia,  Can.  8. 

451  Chalcedunense   Generale    in  Bithynia   contra   Euty- 

chem,  Can.  28. 
787  Chalcutense  in  Britannia,  Capit.  20. 
256  Carthaginense     sub    Cypriano,    pro     Rebaptizandis 

Hsereticis. 
318  Carthaginense  1.,  sub  Grato,  Can.  14. 
39(J  Carthag.  II.,  sub  Genethlio,  Can.  13. 
.397  Carthag.  III.,  sub  Aurelio,  Can.  50. 
399  Carthag.  IV.,  Cxin.  104. 
401  Carthag.  V.,  sub  Aurelio,  Can.  15. 
419  Carthag.  VI.,  sub  Aurelio,  Capit.  10. 
419  Carthag.  VII.,  sub  Aurelio,  Capit.  5. 
411  Carthaginens  is  Collatio  inter  Cathol.  et  Donatistas. 
747  Clovishoviense  in  Britannia,  Can.  30. 
1415  Constantiense. 
381  C  Politanum  I.,  Generale  II.,  Can.  7,  contra  Mace- 

donium. 
5.36  C  Politanum  sub  Menna,  Can.  14. 
553  C  Politanum  Generale  V.,  de  Tribus  Capitulis. 
680  C  Politanum  Generale  VI.,  contra  Monothelitas. 
692  C  Politanum,    vulgo   TruUanum    sive  Quinisextum, 

Can.  102. 

E 

305  Eliberitanum  in  Hispania,  Can.  81. 

517  Epaunense,  Epone  in  Gallia,  Can.  40. 

431  Ephesinum  Generale  III.,  contra  Nestorium,  Can.  7. 

449  Ephesinum  Latrocinale  dictum. 


1438  Florentinum. 

794  Francnfordiense  in  Germania  contra  Imaginum  Ado- 
ratores.  Can.  56. 

G 

324  Gangrense    in    Paphlagonia    contra    Eustathium, 

Can.  20. 
517  Gerundense,  Girone  in  Hispania,  Can.  10. 

H 

673  Herudfordense  in  Britannia,  Can.  10. 

393  Hipponense  in  Africa.    Ex  cnjus  Canonibus  et  Conci- 

liorum  sequentium  conflatus  est  Code.^c  Canonum 

EcL-lesiae  Africanse,  an.  419. 
590  Hispalense  I.,  Seville  in  Hispania,  Can.  3. 
619  Hispalense  II.,  Can.  13. 

I 

524  Ilerdense,  Lerida  in  Hispania,  Can.  16. 


.361  Laodicenum  in  Phrygia,  Can.  59. 
1215  Lateranense  IV.,  sub  Innocentio  III. 
1078  Londinense. 

569  Lucense  I.,  Lugo  in  Hispania. 

572  Lucense  II. 

M 

581   Matisconense  I.,  Mascon  in  Gallia,  Can.  19. 

585  Matisconense  II.,  Can.  20. 

845  Meldense,  Meaux  in  Gallia,  Capit.  66. 

402  Milevitanum  I. 

416  Milevitanum  II.,  Can.  27. 

813  Moguntiacum,  Mayence  sive  Ments,  Can.  55. 


N 

A.  D. 

658  Namnetense,  Nants  in  Gallia. 

589  Narbonense  in  Gallia,  Can.  15. 

314  Neocaesarieuse  in  Ponto,  Can.  14. 

325  Nicii'num  I.,  Generale  contra  Arium,  Can.  20. 

787  Nicaeuum  11.,  pro  Adoratioue  Imaginum,  Can.  22. 


1222  Oxoniense. 
847  Parisiense. 


O 


Q 


692  Quinisextum,  sive  Trullanum,  Can.  102. 

R 

439  Reiense  sive  Rhegiense,  Riez  in  Gallia,  Can.  8. 
813  Rhemense  sub  Carolo  Magno,  Can.  44. 
465  Romanum  sub  Hilaro  Papa,  Can.  5. 
494  Romanum  sub  Gelasio. 
499  Romanum  sub  Symmacho. 


1022  Salegunstadense,  Can.  20. 
391  Sangariense  in  Bithynia,  a  Novatianis  de  Paschate. 
347  Sardicense  in  Thracia  sive  Moesia,  Can.  21. 
303  Sinuessanum  fictitium. 
351  Sirmiense  contra  Photinum. 


516  Tarraconense,  Can.  13. 

400  Taurinense,  Turin  in  Piedmont,  Can.  8. 

400  Toletanum  I.,  Can.  21. 

531  Tolet.ll.,  Can.  5. 

589  Tolet.  III.,  Can.  23. 

&33  Tolet.  IV.,  Can.  75. 

636  Tolet.  v.,  Can.  9. 

6.38  Tolet.  VI.,  Can.  19. 

646  Tolet.  VII.,  Can.  6. 

653  Tolet.  VIII.,  Can.  12. 

655  Tolet.  IX.,  Can.  17. 

656  Tolet.  X.,  Can.  7. 
675  Tolet.  XI.,  Can.  16. 
681  Tolet.  XII.,  Can.  13. 

386  Trevirense  in  Germania  contra  Ithacium. 
81 1  Triburiense  prope  Moguntiam  ad  Rhenum,  Capit.  58. 
1545  Tridentiuum.  continuatum  1563. 
692  Trullanum.  Vid.  Quinisextum. 
461  Turonense  I.,  Can.  13. 
567  Turonense  II.,  Can.  27. 
813  Turonense  sub  Carolo  Magno,  Can.  51. 
448  Tyrium. 


524  Valentinl'm  Hispaniae,  Can.  6. 

374  Valentinum  Gallise,  Can.  4. 

442  Vasense  sive  Vasionense  I.,Vaison  in  Gallia,  Can.  10. 

529  Vasense  II.,  Can.  5. 

465  Veneticum,  Vannez  in  Britannia  Minore,  Can.  16. 

752  Vermeriense,  Can.  21. 

W 

1175  WE.'iTMONASTERiENSE,  Can.  18. 

S68  Worraatiense,  Can.  80. 


418  Zellense  in  Africa,  ap.  Ferrandum.  Some  read  it 
Tellense,  others  Teleptense :  but  Quesnel  and  Du 
Pin  reckon  it  a  supposititious  Synod. 


Ill, 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


"AjSaxa,  the  chancels  of  churches  so 
called,  298. 

Abbots,  the  presidents  of  monasteries  so 
called,  255,  subject  to  the  bishops  in 
whose  dioceses  their  abbeys  were,  31, 
256,  their  power  over  the  monks  very 
great,  255,  sat  and  voted  in  councils, 
256. 

of  Huy,  their  peculiar  power,  256. 

Ahecedarii,  psalms  whose  verses  began 
with  the  consecutive  letters  of  the  al- 
phabet so  called,  683. 

Abortion,  caused  voluntarily,  punished 
as  murder,  988. 

Abracadabra ,  Abraxas,  a  charm  used 
by  the  Basilidian  heretics,  945. 

Absolution,  baptism  so  called,  473, 
1U86,  granted  by  the  eucharist,  1087, 
declarative,  in  the  administration  of 
the  word,  1088,  precatory,  given  by 
imposition  of  hands  and  prayer,  10S9, 
juaicial,  admitted  to  full  communion, 
1090. 

nature   and   necessity  of,   1102, 

&c.,  merely  ministerial,  1085. 

granted  chiefly  by  bishops,  27, 

1098,  by  presbyters,  occasionally,  27, 
77,  1099,  by  deacons,  in  cases  of 
emergency,  91,  1099,  by  patriarchs, 
to  great  criminals,  73,  by  laymen,  in 
what  sense  given,  1100. 

never   granted    before  penance, 

except  in  cases  of  extremity,  1091, 
totally  denied  to  some  relapsing  sin- 
ners, 1067,  this  proceeding  not  charge- 
able with  Novatianism,  1079,  granted 
to  some  after  death,  1098. 

penitents  prepared  for,  by  Lent, 

1179,  usually  given  at  Easter,  1097, 
1179. 

always  given  in  a  supplicatory 

form,  witn  imposition  of  hands,  1092, 
indicative  form,  Ego  te  absolvo,  not 
used  till  the  r2th  century,  1094. 

Abstinence,  practised  as  a  preparation 
for  baptism,  437,  superstitious,  pun- 
ished in  the  clergy  by  degradation, 
1051. 

Accidental  circitmstances  regarded  as 
indicating  the  choice  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  at  the  election  of  bishops,  131. 

Acclamations  given  to  preachers  in  the 
church,  730. 

Accusers,  false,  with  regard  to  men's 
estates,  how  punished,  1015,  with  re- 
gard to  men's  credit,  how  punished, 
1022.  &c.,  with  regard  to  men's  lives, 
punished  as  murderers,  990. 

'Ax^tipoToi/iiTos  i»7r7|p£(Tia,  the  office  of 
the  inferior  orders  of  the  clergy  so 
called,  107. 

Acoemet<e,  aKoi/xiiTal,  monks  who  per- 
formed Divine  offices  night  and  day 
so  called,  247. 


Acolythists,  an  inferior  order  of  clergy 
in  the  Latin  church  so  called,  109, 
origin  of  the  name,  ibid.,  form  of  their 
ordination,  ibid.,  offices  of,  ibid.,  110. 

Acrostics,  acroteleutics,  the  ends  of 
verses  of  the  Psalms  so  called,  682. 

Acts  of  the  Apostles,  read  during  Pen- 
tecost or  Whitsuntide,  695,  1157. 

Actors,  not  to  be  baptized,  503,  pun- 
ished as  idolaters,  930.  See  Stage- 
players. 

Administrators  of  baptism,  who  were, 
488. 

Admonition,  a  part  of  church  discipline, 
887. 

Adelphians,  heretics  who  kept  the 
Lord's  day  as  a  fast,  1 139. 

Adoration  of  the  host  not  practised  be- 
fore the  12th  century,  819. 

Adulterers,  opinion  of  the  African 
church  respecting  their  admission  to 
the  eucharist,  37,  could  not  be  or- 
dained, 142. 

Adulteress,  the  husband  of  one  could 
not  be  ordained,  198,  clergymen 
obliged  to  put  away  their  wives,  if 
adulterous,  ibid.,  105.3. 

Adultery,  how  punished,  994,  in  the 
clergy,  punished  by  degradation, 
198. 

Adults,  not  baptized  without  previous 
instruction,  499,  baptism  of,  often  de- 
layed, 507. 

Adyta,  the  chancels  of  churches  so 
called,  297. 

African  church,  independency  of  bi- 
shops most  conspicuous  in,  36,  al- 
lowed new  bishoprics  to  be  erected 
whenever  there  was  need,  52,  vacant 
sees  in,  managed  by  intercessores, 
59,  oldest  bishops  made  primates  in, 
61,  how  the  title  to  the  primacy  might 
be  lost  in,  62,  plans  for  preventing  dis- 
putes respecting  the  primacy  in,  ibid. 

account  of  the  dioceses  in,  .354. 

AgapcE,  feasts  of  apostolical  origin  ac- 
companying the  eucharist  so  called, 
83(J,  whether  held  before  or  after  the 
dunmunion.  831,  held,  at  first,  in 
churches,  b.3.3,  how  observed  in  later 
ages,  831,  their  effects  on  the  hea- 
thens, 834,  why  abolished,  330.  See 
Love-feasts. 

Agapetcc,  women  who  lived  as  sisters 
with  unmarried  clerks  so  called,  206, 
1053. 

"Kyict  riyiois,  a  proclamation  before  the 

celebration  of  the  eucharist,  11,  635, 

788. 

Ayiaff/xa,    iiyiov,    ayiov    ayivav,    the 

chancels  of  churches  so  called,  297. 

"XyioL,  Christians  so  called,  1,  baptized 
persons  so  called,  11. 

' AyLMTUToi,  bishops  so  called,  42. 

k'i2r(iLov,  the  courts  before  churches  so 
called,  289. 


'Akowu)vi]to9,    the    suspension     of    a 

clergyman  so  called,  1028. 
'AkoXouHu,  forms  of  prayer  so  called, 

'AKpow/xtvoi,  a  class  of  catechumens 
so  called,  4.3<3,  4.34,  a  class  of  peni- 
tents so  called,  1058. 

' AKpoTtXtvTcciov,  a  peculiar  way  of 
singing  psalms  so  called,  682. 

Alba,  a  deacon's  reading  surplice,  640. 

Albi  citatio,  a  custom  at  Carthage  for 
the  discouragement  of  judicial  rapa- 
city, 101.3. 

Albus,  the  catalogue  of  the  clergy  so 
called,  16. 

Alderma7ini,  Saxon  kings  so  called,  85. 

'A\ttTovpt]cr[a,  exemption  from  per- 
sonal offices  granted  to  the  clergy 
so  called,  179. 

Alexander  Severus,  his  opinion  of  the 
popular  election  of  the  clergy,  1.31. 

Alexandria,  the  bishop  of,  the  primate 
possessed  of  the  greatest  power,  66. 

Alienation  of  church  revenues  allowed 
only  on  extraordinary  occasions,  193, 
and  by  consent  of  the  clergy,  bishops, 
and  metropolitan,  194. 

Allegiance  to  princes,  violation  of,  how 
punished,  985. 

Allegnrists,  orthodox  Christians  so 
called,  8. 

Allocutions,  sermons  anciently  so  call- 
ed, 705. 

Alms  given  to  the  poor  on  entering 
churches,  652,  more  liberally  during 
the  Great  Week,  1187. 

Altar,  and  conuuunion  table,  names 
used  indifferently  in  the  primitive 
church,  3tK),  in  what  sense  the  an- 
cients had  none,  301,  but  one  in  a 
church,  302,  placed  in  the  chancel, 
286,  288,  300,  s<unetimes  but  one  in 
a  city,  according  to  some.  303,  gener- 
ally made  of  wood  till  the  time  of 
Constantine,  301,  had  a  canopy,  .30.3, 
when  the  figure  of  the  cross  was  first 
put  on  it,  .304,  description  of  that  in 
the  church  of  Sancta  Sophia,  pre- 
sented by  Justinian  and  Theodora, 
319,  when  first  consecrated  distinctly 
from  the  church,  329. 

generally  inaccessible  to  the  laity, 

298,  bowing  to  it,  w'hether  practised 
in  the  ancient  church,  .3.3.3,  kissing 
it,  not  a  religious  act,  «6irf.,  bisho|)s 
usually  preached  from  its  steps,  29-3, 
superior  orders  of  clergy  ordained  at 
it.  107. 

Altnre  jiortatile,  a  modern  invention, 
307. 

Alumni,  evil  spirits  so  called.  111. 

Ambasiatores,  the  Apocrisarii  so  called, 
128. 

Ambition,  when  it  subjectei!  men  to 
church  discipline,  1027. 

Ambo,  ambon,  iiix(iwv,  the  singing  or 


1274 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


reading   desk    in    the    body    of    the 

church  so  called,  116,  286,  288,  293. 

Atueji,    the    people's    answer    to    the 

prayer  at  the  eucharist,  786. 
'A/i<pidvpa,  the  veils  hiding  the  altar 

from  the  nave  so  called,  298. 
Amulets,  use  of  them  censured,  943. 
Anacletus,  second  bishop  of  Rome,  ac- 
cording to  some,  19. 
Anathema,  meaning  of  the  word,  318, 
greater  excommunication  so  called, 
888. 

maranatha,  what  was  meant  by 

it,  897. 

Anathemata  in  churches,  what  the  an- 
cients meant  by,  317. 

'AvaKa/x-rrTi'ipia,  houses  of  entertain- 
ment connected  with  churches  so 
called,  314. 

'AvuKTopa,  churches  so  called,  271. 

Anchorets,  avax>«PV'''(^K  monks  who 
passed  solitary  lives  so  called,  242. 

Angaries,  the  clergy  sometimes  e.xempt 
from,  177. 

Anyel  of  peace,  prayers  for,  what  they 
meant,  738. 

Angelical  hymn  used  at  the  eucharist, 
687,  789. 

Angelici,  heretics  who  worshipped  an- 
gels so  called,  593,  937. 

Angels,  worship  of,  condemned  as  idol- 
atry, 590. 

of  the  churches,  bishops  so  call- 
ed, 25. 

Animales,  orthodox  Christians  so  call- 
ed, 9. 

Animarum  descriptio,  a  tax  so  called, 
173. 

Anmtnciation,iea.sioi,  its  original,  1171. 

Antelucan  services,  their  original,  G70, 
particular  account  of,  671. 

Antichrist,  synagogue  of,  orthodox 
Christians  so  called,  9. 

Anfimensia.  a  modern  invention,  .307. 

AnthropolatrcB,  orthodox  Christians  so 
called,  9. 

Antioch,  council  of,  not  Arian,  1049. 

Antiphonal  singing  described,  681. 

Antistites,  presbyters  so  called,  81. 

Apantita  diaconus,  diravTiTi'ig,  an 
imaginary  title  of  archdeacons,  ex- 
plained, 97. 

'AcpopLiTfjiO^,  the  lesser  excommunica- 
tion so  called,  887,  suspension  of  the 
clergy  so  called,  1028. 

7r«yTf/\t/s,  the  greater  excommu- 
nication so  called,  888. 

Apiarius,  the  famous  case  of  his  appeal 
to  Rome  from  the  African  church 
discussed,  349. 

Apocalypse  read  during  Pentecost,  or 
Whitsuntide,  695,  1047. 

Apocrisarii,  inferior  officers  of  the 
church,  the  bishop's  residents  at 
court,  so  called,  128,  261. 

Apocryphal  books,  publishing,  punish- 
ed in  the  clergy  by  degradation,  1051, 
anciently  read  in  some  churches,  702, 
under  the  title  of  Canonical  Scrip- 
tures, ibid, 

'ATToXf  \u/if'i'tt)s,  ordination  without  lo- 
cal title  so  called,  and  condemned, 
153,  1044. 

'ATroXiiTihal,  letters  dimissory  so  call- 
ed, 221. 

Apostates,  their  blasphemy,  968,  de- 
nied refuge  in  Christian  churches, 
3.37,  were  not  rcbaptized,  .561,  to  Ju- 
daism, their  pimishment,  949,  to  hea- 
thenism, their  punishment,  952. 

Apostles,  bishops  so  called,  21,  some- 
times called  presbyters,  76. 

,  successors  of,  bishops  so  called, 

22. 

Creed,  whether  composed  by  the 

apostles,  as  it  is,  450. 


Apostoleia,  churches  so  called,  273. 

Apostolic  order  of  monks  at  Bangor, 
248. 

Apostolica  sedes,  every  bishop's  see  so 
called,  '22,  and  every  primate's,  67. 

Aposlolici,  all  primates  so  called,  67. 

,  apotactici,  heretics  who  con- 
demned marriage  as  unlawful  so 
called,  1199. 

'A7roxa5«,u£i/oi,  monks  so  called,  249. 

'ATTo-ra^a^uEi'os  /3ios,  the  renunciative 
life  so  called,  254. 

Apotelesmatici,  astrologers  so  called, 
939. 

Appeals  from  the  bishops  to  the  metro- 
politan, 30,  65,  from  the  metropolitan 
to  a  provincial  synod,  65,  from  the 
provincial  synod  to  the  patriarch,  72, 
from  a  patriarch  only  to  a  general 
coimcil,  ibid. 

to  foreign  churches  from  a  pro- 
vincial synod  punished  by  degrada- 
tion, .3-18,  1049. 

Appearance  of  evil,  how  to  be  avoided 
by  the  clergy,  205. 

Applause  during  sermons  in  churches, 
730. 

Apsis,  the  wings  of  churches  so  called, 
287,  the  reading  desk  so  called,  ac- 
cording to  some,  293,  1092,  the  high- 
est part  of  the  church,  where  the  altar 
stood,  so  called,  288,  299,  the  church 
porch  so  called,  291,  293. 

Aquarii.  heretics  who  consecrated  the 
eucharist  in  water  only  so  called,  759. 

Arbitrators,  bishops  commonly  chosen 
to  be,  in  the  primitive  church,  37. 

Area  custodes,  archdeacons  so  called, 
96. 

Archbishops,  primates  so  called,  61, 
patriarchs  so  called,  ibid.,  67. 

Archdeacoyis,  anciently  of  the  same 
order  as  deacons,  94,  first  rise  of,  in 
the  church,  98,  why  called  cor-epis- 
copi,  ibid.,  elected  by  the  bishop,  not 
by  seniority,  95. 

their  office,  to  attend  the  bishop 

at  the  altar,  and  direct  the  inferior 
clergy,  95,  to  assist  the  bishop  in 
managing  the  church  reveniies,  96, 
and  in  preaching,  ibid.,  and  in  or- 
daining the  inferior  clergy,  ibid. 

had   power  to  censure  deacons, 

and  all  inferior  clergy,  but  not  pres- 
byters, 97,  their  power  did  not  an- 
ciently extend  over  the  whole  diocese, 
ibid.,  of  such  interest,  as  generally  to 
be  chosen  the  bishops'  successors,  95. 

Archimandritce,  governors  of  monas- 
teries so  called,  249,  255. 

Archipresbyteri,  their  oflice,  84,  not 
subject  to  the  censures  of  archdea- 
cons, 97. 

Archivus,  the  register  of  bishops'  ordi- 
nations kept  in  the  African  church, 
62. 

" ApxovTe^  IkkXhciwv,  bishops  so  call- 
ed, 22. 

Archontici,  heretics  who  rejected  bap- 
tism, 478,  and  the  eucharist,  761,  and 
condemned  marriage  as  unlawful, 
1199. 

Arcus,  the  church  porch  so  called,  291. 

Area,  the  court  leading  to  the  temple 
so  called,  288,  289. 

Area  sepultnruriim,  churches  so  call- 
ed, 274,  1230. 

' ApyitiH  ciiKi],  laws  against  vagrancy  so 
called,  1021. 

Arians,  their  innovations  in  baptism, 
487. 

Ariminum,  council  of,  not  Arian,  217. 

Arms,  not  to  be  worn  in  churches,  333, 
nor  by  those  who  took  refuge  in 
cliurclies,  .3.39,  punishment  of  clergy- 
men for  wearing  them,  1052.  I 


Arrts  sponsalitiee,  the  presents  made 
in  token  of  espousal  so  called.  1214. 
Artotyritee,  heretics  who  ottered  bread 
and  cheese  in  the  eucharist  so  called 
760. 
Ascension  day,  its  antiquity  and  ob- 
servances, 1 159. 
"A(rKt((7ts  ypa(piK7i,  study  in  a  monas- 
tery so  called,  262. 
Ascetics,    have    alwavs    been    in    the 
church,  239,  what  the  primitive  ones 
were,  ibid.,  distinguished  from  monks, 
242,  subject  to  the  bishops  in  whose 
dioceses  they  lived,  31. 
AscetricE,  virgins  so  called,  268. 
Ascodrut(e,  Gnostic   heretics  who  re- 
jected baptism,  478,  and  the  eucha- 
rist, 761. 

Ash  Wednesday,  origin  of  its  name, 
I06I,  when  first  added  to  Lent,  ibid., 
1175. 

Asia  Minor  had  400  dioceses  in  it,  51, 
368. 

'Ao-TTKo-TiKos  ol/cos,  the  diaconicum  so 
called,  311. 

Aspersion,  baptism  by,  in  what  cases 
practised,  538. 

Assemblies  for  worship  held  on  the 
Lord's  day  during  the  two  first  ages, 
654,  absence  from,  punished,  981. 

Astrologers,  could  not  be  baptized, 
504,  subject  to  church  discipline,  938. 

Asylum  in  Christian  churches,  original 
of  the  privilege,  3-'^,  at  first  the  altar 
and  inner  part  alone  so  used,  after- 
wards the  whole  precincts,  336,  to 
whom  allowed,  ibid  ,  to  whom  denied, 
3.37,  conditions  on  which  it  was  grant- 
ed, 339,  the  great  abuse  of  modern 
sanctuaries,  ibid. 
ATtXeia  Xtnovpyi]fxaT(j>v,  exemption 
from  personal  offices,  granted  to  the 
clergy,  so  called,  179. 

'ATiXirrTfpoi,  a  class  of  catechumens 
so  called,  433. 

Athanasius  ordained  out  of  his  own 
diocese,  .35. 

Atheists,  Christians  so  called,  5. 

Atrium,  the  court  leading  to  the  temple 
so  called,  288,  289,  used  for  burying, 
290,12:35. 

Atrocia  delicta,  greater  criminal  causes 
so  called,  168,  excepted  from  the  be- 
nefit of  indulgences,  925. 

Audiani,  the  quartadeciman  heretics 
so  called,  1150. 

Audientes,  an  order  of  catechumens  so 
called,  429,  434,  an  order  of  penitents 
so  called,  1058,  not  allowed  to  be  pre- 
sent at  public  prayers,  737,  their  sta- 
tion in  the  church,  28(i,  288,  291. 

Audientium  doctores,  the  catechists  so 
called,.  120. 

Ave-Marias  before  sermon  anciently 
unknown,  722. 

Augury,  censures  against,  940. 

Aula  luicorum,  that  part  of  the  church 
ancientlv  assigned  to  the  laity  so 
called,  291. 

AvXi),  the  court  before  the  church  so 
called,  289. 

Auricular  confession,  not  to  be  con- 
founded with  the  exomologesis  of  the 
ancient  church,  1064,  never  urged  by 
the  ancient  ch\irch,  1065. 

Aurum  tironicum,  a  tribute  of  new  sol- 
diers so  called,  174. 

pannosum.  the  lustral  tax  so  call- 
ed, 176. 

Austin,  St.,  his  diocese  forty  miles 
long.  354. 

Authentici,  the  sacred  writers  so  called, 
706.  ^ 

AuToKtfjxiXoi,  all  metropolitans  an- 
ciently so  called,  74,  some  metropoli- 
tans  who  remained  independent  of 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


1275 


patriarchs,  so  called,  75,  bishops  sub- 
ject lo  patriarchs,  but  iudepeutlent 
i)t'  uietrupolituns,  so  called,  ibid., 
bishops  wliolly  iudepeudeut  so  called, 
ibid. 

"Agios,  diiu^io^,  words  whereby  the 
people  showed  their  choice  at  an 
election,   J 31. 

Azi/ma,  the  Jewish  passover  so  called, 
1151. 

B 

Backbiting,  how  punished,  1024. 

Ba\-«i/Tt/3ot,  wandering  clergy,  laws 
against,  'I'l'l. 

'BaWiX^SLiv,  Ballimathia,  wanton  dan- 
cing, censured,  1(X)7,  V2'l\. 

Baptism,  names  of,  in  the  primitive 
church,  473,  a  voluntary  act,  purely, 
502,  necessity  of,  according  to  the 
ancients,  441,  regarded  as  the  grand 
absolution,  1U8G,  want  of,  supplied 
by  martyrdom,  442,  or  by  faith  and 
reputation  in  catechumens  piously 
preparing  for  it,  444,  how  far  supplied 
to  heretics  returning  to  the  church, 
by  charity,  ihid.,  and  to  persons  com- 
municating with  the  church,  by  that 
act,  445,  tlie  case  of  infants  dying 
without,  446,  catechumens  dying 
without,  how  treated  by  the  church, 
441,  but  one,  allowed  by  the  church, 
and  why,  563,  allowed  to  be  repeated 
thrice  by  the  JNlarcionites,  ibid.,  in 
doubtful  cases,  not  reckoned  rebap- 
tization,  564,  nor  that  of  those  bap- 
tized in  heresy  or  schism,  ibid.,  ne- 
cessary use  of  one.  regularly  adminis- 
tered, essential  to  Christian  unity,  861, 
wholly  rejected  by  certain  heretics, 
478,  &c. 

performed    by    immersion,   309, 

536,  537,  but  not  always,  477,  by  as- 
persion, or  sprinkling,  allowed,  538, 
without  water,  481,  ceremonies  at, 
438,  439,  their  use,  522,  form  of  words 
in,  481,  deemed  necessary,  4S2,  never 
changed,  488,  in  the  name  of  Christ, 
483,  into  the  death  of  Christ,  con- 
demned, 486,  alterations  in  the  form  of 
words,  by  various  sects,  484,  &c.,  re- 
nunciation of  the  devil  made  by  all 
persons  before,  515,  form  and  manner 
of  making  it,  ibid.,  517,  vow  of  obe- 
dience to  Christ  at,  ibid.,  manner  of 
making  it,  519,  profession  of  faith  at, 
ibid.,  manner  of  making  it,  520,  521, 
public  and  particular  confession  of 
sins  not  required  at,  523,  three  sorts 
of  sponsors  at,  in  the  primitive 
church,  ibid.,  unction  in,  origin  of, 
529,  distinguished  from  chrism  in  con- 
firmation, ibid.,  its  design,  5.30,  fre- 
quent use  of  the  sign  of  the  cross  in, 
ibid.,  water  of,  consecrated  by  prayer 
and  the  sign  of  the  cross,  532,  533, 
effects  of  fhis  consecration,  534,  how 
far  the  prayer  of  consecration  was 
reckoned  necessary,  535,  all  persons 
were  entirely  naked  at,  536,  precau- 
tions against  indecency  in  its  admi- 
nistration, 102,  537,  trine  immersion 
in,  its  original,  540,  its  reasons,  539, 
alteration  made  in  it,  540,  white  gar- 
ments put  on  after,  557,  carrying  of 
lighted  tapers  at,  what  it  meant,  558, 
kiss  of  peace  given  at,  559,  and  honey 
and  milk,  560,  Lord's  prayer  said 
after,  ibid.,  persons  received  after  it 
with  psalmody,  ibid.,  admission  to 
the  communion  of  the  altar  followed, 
561,  washing  of  the  feet  retained  in 
connexion  with,  in  some  churches, 
ibid.,  mode  of  administering,  con- 
cealed from  catechumens,  468,  alter- 
ation in  the  form  of,  punished  by  de- 


gradation, 1017,  heretical  modes   of 

administering,  53^. 

preparation   of    candidates    for, 

among  the  catechumens  during  Lent, 
1179,  oy  examination,  435,  exorcism, 
and  imposition  of  hands,  ibid.,  by 
fasting,  confession,  and  repenlance, 
437,  by  learniug  the  words  of  the 
Creed  and  Lords  prayer,  tbid.,  and 
the  forms  observed  iu  baptism,  438, 
prayers  for  candidates  for,  710,  defer- 
ring of,  to  death,  the  highest  pmnsh- 
ment  of  a  catechumen,  441,  508. 

subjects  of,  489.  proofs  of  infant 

baptism  from  the  ancient  records  of 
the  church,  490,  &c.,  if  given  to  chil- 
dren of  excommunicated  parents, 
497,  or  to  children  who  had  but  one 
Christian  parent,  ibid.,  or  to  ex- 
posed children,  498,  or  to  children  of 
Jews  and  heathens,  ibid.,  499,  not 
given  to  adults  without  previous  in- 
struction, ibid.,  given  lo  dumb  per- 
sons, 500,  and  to  energumens,  in  ex- 
treme cases,  501,  not  given  to  slaves 
without  the  testimony  of  their  mas- 
ters, 502,  not  to  be  given  to  the  dead, 
4^9,  what  persons,  and  what  trades 
and  callings,  disqualified  for,  503, 
married  persons  rejected  from,  by  the 
Marcionites,  507. 

not  to  be  delayed  till  the  eighth 

day,  or  third  year,  496,  of  adults, 
sometimes  delayed  by  order  of  the 
church,  507,  private  reasons  for  de- 
laying, 508,  sometimes  deferred  to  an 
approaching  festival,  497,  performed 
at  Easter  niost  frequently,  4.31,  435, 
solemn  times  for,  appointed  by  the 
church,  510,  512.  how  far  obligatory 
on  succeeding  ages,  513,  neither  time 
nor  place  specified  in  the  apostolic 
age,  ibid.,  performed  in  baptisteries, 
afterwards,  except  in  case  of  sick- 
ness, 310,  514,  superstitious  fancies 
respecting  the  time  and  ministers  of, 
509. 

administrators  of,  488,  not  to  be 

administered  by  presbyters  and  dea- 
cons without  the  consent  of  their  bi- 
shops, 26,  might  be  performed  by 
deacons  in  some  places,  89,  393,  by 
laymen,  allowed  in  extremity,  863. 

its  privileges  withheld  from  those 

under  discipline,  880,  crimes  com- 
mitted after,  disqualified  for  ordina- 
tion, 144,  as  did  heretical  baptism, 
145,  and  clinic  baptism,  144,  opinion 
of  this  last,  in  the  African  church,  37. 

of  belts,  &c.,  317,  489. 

for  the  dead,  what  it  meant,  489. 

indelible  character  of,  what  it 

meant,  476,  8.80. 

Baptisteries,  buildings  distinct  from, 
but  adjacent  to,  the  church,  286,  2!*<, 
289,  291,  308,  names  of,  309,  310,  dis- 
tinguished from  fonts,  309,  their  parts 
according  to  Cyril  of  Jerusalem,  308, 
anciently  very  capacious,  ,'^J9,  how 
adorned,  310,  more  peculiar  to  the 
mother  church,  310,  baptisms  per- 
formed in  tlieiu  alone  after  the  apos- 
tolic ages,  514. 

BaTTTiX^ofxtvoi,  a  class  of  catechumens 
so  called,  435. 

Barbarous  nations,  bishops  of,  to  be 
chosen  at  Constantinople,  137. 

Basil,  St.,  praised  for  nuiltiplving  bi- 
shops,  52. 

BasiliccE,  churches  so  called,  271. 

TiaaiXtLOL  oIkol,  dwelling-houses  of  the 
clergy  so-called,  314. 

Ra(Ti\iKai  TTvXai,  the  gates  from  the 
narthex  to  the  nave  so  called,  292. 

Bathing,  promiscuous,  forbidden,  10U6, 
not  allowed  to  penitents,  1063. 


Ba0/ios,  the  office  of  the  inferior  clergy 
so  called,  1(J/. 

Baths,  reckoned  part  of  the  church, 
314.' 

Beard,  shaving  the,  censured  in  the 
clergy.  2'2)S. 

Br;\(t  xTys  tK\\ii(7ias,  the  veils  hiding 
the  altar  from  the  nave  so  called,  29». 

Believers,  the  baptized  laity  so  called, 
10.     See  rho-Toi. 

Bells,  when  first  used,  316,  baptism  of, 
317,  4!s9. 

Viiiixu.,  that  part  of  the  church  where 
the  altar  stood  and  the  clergy  ottici- 
ated  so  called,  16,  2b6,  288,  289,  296, 
the  bishop's  throne  so  called,  42,  the 
tribunal  of  the  sanctuary  so  called, 
114,29.3. 

yvwaTuiv,  the  reading    desk   so 

called,  293. 

Bii/i«Ti  TTfJocrayj  11/,  to  ordain,  16. 

Benedicite,  The  Song  of  the  Three 
Children,  an  ancient  hymn  so  called, 
690. 

Benedictines,  an  order  of  monks  so 
called,  247. 

Benediction,  form  of,  at  the  ordination 
of  presbyters,  83,  by  imposition  of 
hands,  part  of  the  morning  service, 
668,  sometimes  before  sermon,  722, 
after  the  Lord's  prayer  at  the  eucha- 
rist,  787. 

B»}/oo9,  Birrus.  the  coat  commonly  worn 
in  Africa,  2.30. 

Bessis  centesimcc,  interest  at  8  per  cent., 
forbidden,  201. 

Bestiality,  how  punished,  1002. 

Biathanati,  Biaftai/axoi,  Christians  so 
called,  6,  suicides,  how  punished,  989. 

Bibles  laid  in  churches  for  the  people 
to  read  privately,  598.  See  Scrip- 
tures. 

Bidding  prayer,  the  office  of  deacons, 
89,  not  to  be  done  by  subdcacons, 
109,  forms  of,  746,  748,  followed  the 
prayer  for  the  church  in  the  morning 
service,  667,  after  the  consecration  of 
the  eucharist,  788,  at  the  close  of  the 
cumniunion  service,  826. 

Bi6t)Ti/vfi,  laymen  so  called,  14. 

Birthdays  of  emperors  kept  as  civil 
ferice,  1124. 

Bishoprics,  in  what  sense  but  one,  in 
the  whdle  church,  34,  not  to  be  void 
above  three  mouths,  46,  void  a  longer 
time  under  persecution,  47.  not  to  be 
erected  in  small  cities  or  villages,  51, 
erected  in  them  notwithstanding, 
ibid.,  52. 

Bishops,  an  order  distinct  from,  and 
superior  to,  the  presbyters,  17,  18,  in 
the  offices  they  performed  iu  com- 
mon, 26,  in  the  possession  of  peculiar 
offices,  27,  in  this,  that  presbyters 
were  accountable  to  bishops,  and  not 
I',  v.,  29,  what  the  ancients  meant 
by  this  distinction,  17,  18.  order  of, 
of  apostolical  institution,  18,  list  of 
such  as  were  ordained  by  the  ajiostles, 
19,  &C.,  titles  of  honour  given  to  them 
in  the  primitive  church,  21. 

presbyters,   and   deacons  called 

priests,  81.  82,  called  deacons,  85, 
oHicc  of,  distinguished  from  that  of 
presbyters  and  deacons,  82. 

. elected  by  the  metropolitan,  pro- 
vincial bishops,  clergy,  and  people, 
133,  not  intrudotl  on  orthodo.x  people 
without  their  consent,  1.34,  to  be 
chosen  out  of  the  clergy  of  the  church 
to  which  they  were  ordained,  44,  ex- 
ceptions to  this  rule,  ibid.,  chosen 
against  their  inclination,  134,  made 
by  force,  1.35.  so  made,  might  not  re- 
linquish the  office,  160,  not  chosen  by 
the    people  for  distant  or  barbarous 


1276 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


nations,  137,  appointed  by  the  em- 
peror, in  case  of  popular  tumult,  138, 
nominated  three  for  the  synod  to 
choose  one  from,  ibid.,  appointed  by 
the  Optimates,  139,  and  at  length  by 
princes,  ibid.,  not  to  be  ordained  un- 
der thirty  years  of  age,  luiless  they 
were  men  of  extraordinary  worth,  43, 
to  go  through  the  inferior  orders  of 
the  church,  44,  in  cases  of  necessity 
chosen  out  of  the  inferior  orders,  45, 
in  extraordinary  cases,  from  the  laity, 
ibid.,  not  to  be  ordained  in  small 
cities  or  villages,  61,  bi<,  rule  not  ob- 
served in  some  countries,  51,  reasons 
for  its  neglect,  ibid.,  two  not  to  be 
ordained  in  one  city,  52,  sometimes 
allowed,  53,  opinions  respecting  this, 
54,  to  be  chosen  within  three  months 
after  a  vacancy,  46,  particular  laws 
and  customs  about  their  ordination, 
46,  the  presence  of  three  bishops  re- 
quired at  it,  47,  ordination  by  one 
bishop  valid,  but  not  canonical,  48, 
suftVagans  ordained  by  their  metro- 
politan, 63,  to  be  ordained  in  their 
own  churches,  49,  65,  ancient  form  of 
ordaining,  50,  prayer  used  at  their 
consecration,  ibid.,  enthronement  of, 
ibid.,  anniversaries  of  their  ordination 
kept  as  feasts,  158,  117U,  laws  against 
their  translation,  how  to  be  under- 
stood, 222. 

their  peculiar  oflBces,  27,  preach- 
ing their  particular  duty,  706,  alone 
could  ordain  the  superior  clergy,  27, 
presbyters  might  join  with,  in  the  or- 
dination of  presbyters,  ibid.,  and 
presbyters  alone  permitted  to  con- 
secrate the  eucharist,  804,  divided 
the  use  of  the  chrism  in  confirmation, 
548,  were  the  exorcists  in  the  early 
church,  110,  and  deacons  divided  the 
ministration  of  the  eucharist  be- 
tween them,  anciently,  88,  consecrat- 
ed churches,  326,  consecrated  the 
chrism  in  confirmation,  547,  and  gave 
the  imposition  of  hands,  549,  saluted 
the  people  with  Pax  vobiscum,  on 
entering  the  church,  652,  gave  the 
thanksgiving  and  benediction  in  the 
morning  srevice,  668,  to  bring  up 
youths,  in  their  houses,  for  the  ser- 
vice of  the  church,  107,  to  make  pa- 
rochial visitations,  annually,  392, 398, 
appointed  to  manage  vacant  sees,  in 
Africa,  called  inter cessores,  59,  suf- 
fragan, obliged  to  attend  provincial 
synods,  65,  but  at  general  councils 
sometimes  represented  by  deacons, 
91.  See  Absolution,  Discipline,  Ex- 
communication, Indulgences,  Vir- 
gins. 

primitive,   their    power  wholly 

spiritual,  31,  their  power  over  the 
laity  extended  over  all  ranks  in  their 
dioceses,  30,  monks,  hernnts,  &c. 
subject  tr),  31,  subordinate  magistrates 
subject  to,  in  spiritual  matters,  ibid., 
power  in  disposing  of  the  revenues  of 
the  church,  .33,  191,  their  power  re- 
specting secular  causes,  .37,  chosen  as 
arbitrators  in  the  primitive  church, 
26/cf.,thispowerconfirmed  by  imperial 
laws,  38,  had  no  power  in  criminal 
causes,  ibid.,  except  when  chosen  to 
arbitrate  by  both  parties,  ibid.,  might 
appoint  presbyters,  deacons,  and  lay- 
men, as  their  substitutes  in  secular 
causes,  39,  their  privilege  of  inter- 
ceding for  criminals,  instanced,  ibid., 
did  not  intercede  in  civil  matters,  40, 
prerogative  of  granting  Uteres  fur- 
mata;  to  all  persons,  32. 

independency  of,  in  ritual  matters, 

35,  36,  602,  especially  in  Africa,  36, 


consecrated  churches  in  their  dioceses 
without  licence  from  the  bishop  of 
Rome,  326,  .327.  independency  of 
those  in  Britain,  349,  &c.,  .395,  &c. 

particular  honours  showed  to,  40, 

did  not  anciently  wear  mitres,  41, 
had  their  thrones  in  the  church,  42, 
286,  288,  299,  in  what  sense  every 
bishop,  bisho])  of  the  whole  catholic 
church,  33,  3-1,  instances  of  their 
acting  as  such,  ibid.,  two  or  three 
witnesses  required  for  accusations 
against,  165,  heretics  and  scandalous 
persons  not  admitted  as  witnesses 
against,  ibid.,  penalty  of  their  false 
accusers  very  severe,  166,  not  to  be 
called  into  any  secular  court  to  give 
their  testimony,  ibid.,  nut  to  be  put 
upon  their  oath,  167,  their  leave  to 
build  a  church  requisite,  326. 

of   civil   metropides   constituted 

primates,  60,  61,  the  oldest,  made 
primate  in  Africa,  ibid.,  of  cities 
honoured  with  the  title  of  metropolis, 
called  metropolitans,  63,  of  mother- 
churches  always  took  precedency  of 
other  bishops,  after  the  primates, 
ibid.,  aged,  had  coadjutors,  55,  or- 
dained chorepiscupi  to  assist  them 
when  their  dioceses  were  enlarged, 
56,  suffragan,  an  attempted  restor- 
ation of  chorepiscopi  in  England,  58. 
submission  of  presbyters  and  people 
to,  necessary  to  the  unity  of  the 
church,  866. 

power  of,  limited,  30,  not  to  ordain 

others  clerks,  without  their  consent, 
154,  except  in  the  case  of  the  bishop 
of  Carthage,  ibid.,  not  to  ordain  in 
another's  diocese,  155,  orthodox, 
might,  however,  orthodox  men  for 
the  diocese  of  an  heretical  bishop,  .34, 
controversies  between,  decided  bv  the 
metropolitan,  65,  presbyters  and  dea- 
cons might  appeal  from  them  to  the 
metropolitan,  ibid.,  throughout  each 
province  under  the  care  of  the  pri- 
mate, ibid.,  not  to  travel  without  the 
Uteres  formata  of  their  metropolitan, 
66,  to  be  censured  by  patriarchs, 
when  their  primates  were  remiss  in 
censuring  them,  72,  not  allowed  to 
excommunicate  for  private  reasons, 
923,  punishment  of,  for  various  of- 
fences, 1055,  in  Africa,  punished  by 
losing  their  right  of  succeeding  to  the 
primacy,  62,  1039,  by  confinement  to 
the  communion  of  their  own  churches, 
ibid.,  by  removal  to  a  smaller  dio- 
cese, 1040,  not  to  demand  any  thing 
for  consecrating  churches,  329,  liberty 
allowed  to,  in  imposing  penance, 
1081,  acted  in  few  things  without  the 
advice  of  their  presbyters,  77,  not  to 
alienate  the  goods  of  the  church, 
without  consent  of  the  clergy  and 
primates,  193,  194. 

pseudo,  or  schismatical,  ordina- 
tion by,  invalid,  unless  confirmed 
by  the  lawful  bishops,  29. 

suffragan,  anciently,  all  the  city 

bishops  under  a  metropolitan  so  call- 
ed, 59,  the  bishop  of  Rome  had 
seventy,  ibid. 

Blasphemy  of  apostates,  how  punished, 
968,  and  of  heretics  and  profane 
Christians,  969,  against  the  Holy 
Ghost,  what  it  was,  and  how  punish- 
ed, ibid. 

Blood,  eating  of  it,  punished  in  the 
clergy  by  degradation,  1051,  clergy 
degraded  for  judging  in  cases  of,  .38, 
1055,  discipline  of  the  church  never 
carried  so  far  as  to  shed,  883. 

BcofioXoyia,  penalty  for,  amongst  the 
clergy,  degradation,  205. 


Bfo/jios  avainuKTo^,  the  communion 
table  so  called,  301. 

Books,  lascivious  and  heretical,  not  to 
be  read,  894,  956,  1004. 

Boo-hoj,  an  order  of  monks  who  lived  a 
very  peculiar  life  so  called,  247. 

Bota,  the  4th  of  January  so  called. 
112.3. 

BouXtu-rai,  not  to  be  ordained,  149. 

Bowing  the  head,  to  receive  the 
bishop's  benediction,  40,  to  the  altar, 
custom  of,  on  entering  churches,  333, 
a  devotional  posture,  648. 

Bread,  common,  not  unleavened,  used 
in  the  eucharist,  757,  breaking  of,  in 
the  eucharist.  790. 

day  of,  the  Lord's  day,  so  call- 
ed, 850,  1126. 

Bribery  of  judges,  how  punished,  1012. 

Bridges,  the  clergy  sometimes  exempt 
from  contributing  to  them,  177. 

Britain,  Great,  but  two  dioceses  of  the 
Roman  empire,  51. 

British  Church,  its  ancient  independ- 
ency, 75,  .349,  allegations  of  Schel- 
strate  against  this,  examined,  .349, 
&c.,  not"  founded  by  St.  Peter,  3.50, 
bishops  of,  sat  in  the  council  of  Aries, 
396. 

Bromialia,  Brumce,  Brumalia,  hea- 
then festivals,  whose  observance  was 
condemned,  9.35,  936. 

Burning  the  dead,  not  the  custom  of 
Christians,  12.39. 

Burying  the  dead,  care  of  Christians 
to  perform  it,  1243,  performed  in  the 
day-time,  1241,  after  careful  pre- 
paration of  the  body,  1244,  sometimes 
embalming  it,  1240,  with  psalmody, 
1246,  1248,  prayers,  funeral  orations, 
ibid.,  1249,  and  sometimes  the  eucha- 
rist, ibid. 

particular  orders  of  men  amongst 

the  inferior  clergy  for  the  perform- 
ance of  this  duty,  1 17,  1246.  penitents 
served  the  church  by  its  performance, 
1064,  nothing  to  be  demanded  for  it, 
187.     ... 

privilege  denied  to  certain  per- 
sons, 1254. 

not     practised     in     cities     or 

churches  for  the  first  three  hundred 
years,  1230,  nor  permitted  by  the 
Christian  emperors  for  many  ages 
afterwards,  12.33,  the  atrium  and  por- 
ticoes of  churches  first  used  for  it, 
290,  1234,  12.35,  afterwards  the  whole 
of  churches  so  used,  1236,  hereditary 
sepulchres  for,  not  allowed  till  the 
twelfth  century,  ibid.  See  Ceme- 
teries, Funerals,  Graves. 

Bydels,  God's,  bishops  so  called,  25. 

C 

Caer-Leon,  the  metropolis  of  the  Brit- 
ish Church,  75,  .349. 

Calculation  of  Easter,  made  by  the 
bishiip  of  Alexandria,  66,  1152. 

Co/cw/otorei',  certain  divines  so  called, 
945. 

Calends  of  January  were  civil  ferice, 
1123. 

Calf,  custom  of  offering  one  on  new- 
year's  day,  censured,  9-36,  1124. 

Calumny,  how  punished,  1015. 

Campance,  bells  so  called,  .317. 

Cancelli,  the  rails  separating  the  chan- 
cel from  the  nave  so  called,  286,  288, 
297. 

Candida  Casa,  Whitchurch  so  called 
from  the  stone  church  built  there,  275. 

Candlemas-day,  feast  of,  its  observ- 
ance, 1172. 

Canon,  the  creed  so  called,  449,  the  ca- 
talogue of  the  clergy  so  called,  15. 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


127 


// 


Canon,  or  indictio  canonica,  the  re- 
gular tax  so  called,  173. 

frutnentariiis,  the  tribute  of  corn 

levied  in  Africa  so  called,  ibid. 

Pasc/ialis,  a  calendar  of  proper 

lessons  for  tiie  church  festivals,  made 
by  Hippolytus,  012. 

Canojiicee,  virgins  registered  in  the 
church  books  so  called,  'Jjl. 

Cano7iical  hours,  their  origin  and  first 
use,  661,  service  allotted  to  them  by 
the  church,  258,  663. 

letters,  not  granted  by  ckorepis- 

copi,  57. 

obedience,  due  from  presbyters  to 

their  bishops,  20,  and  from  bishops  to 
their  metropolitans,  65. 

pensions,  in  what  cases  allowed, 

221. 

Scriptures,  the  apocryphal  books 

included  in,  702. 

Canonici,  the  clergy  so  called,  15,  all 
who  received  maintenance  from  the 
church  so  called,  16,  the  sacred  writ- 
ers so  called,  KVi. 

equi,  horses  for  military  service 

supplied  as  tribute  so  called,  171. 

Canons  of  the  church,  part  of  the 
studies  of  the  clergy,  210,  read  to 
them  before  their  ordination,  153, 
power  of  the  bishops  limited  by  them, 
30,  contempt  of,  punished  in  the 
clergy  by  degradation,  1047,  1055,  in 
the  laity,  by  excommunication,  9S6. 

imperial,  published  by  the  pri- 
mates, 05. 

regular,  their  original,  246. 

Canonum,  Ecclesice  Universce  Codex, 
the  compilation  of  church  canons 
universally  received  so  called,  1050. 

Canopy  to  the  altar  was  called  cibo- 
rium,  303. 

Cantabrarii,  idolatrous  officers  so  call- 
ed, 946. 

Cantharus,  the  place  in  the  atrium  of 
churches  for  washing  so  called,  288, 
289. 

Capita  tria,  property  taxes  so  called, 
173. 

Capitatio  animalium,  a  tax  on  cattle 
so  called,  ibid. 

humana,  a  tax  on   servants   so 

called,  ibid. 

terrena,  a  tax  on  land  so  called, 

ibid. 
Capitation  tax  imposed  on  the  clergy 

for    their  ecclesiastical  possessions, 

ibid. 
Capitis  census,  the  clergy  exempt  from, 

171,  professed  virgins  exempt  from, 

267,  other  classes  as  well  as  the  clergy 

exempt  from,  172. 
Capitolins,  a   name  of  reproach   cast 

upon  the  Catholics  by  the  Novatians, 

for  receiving  such  as  went  to  sacrifice 

at  the  Capitol,  1,  2,  13. 
Captatores,  persons  who  sought  to  get 

estates  by  adulation  so  called,  and 

censured,  1016. 
Captives  redeemed  by  the  sale  of  the 

church  plate,  1 93. 
Cardinales  presbyteri,  ecclesice,  and 

tituli,  their  origin  and  office,  84. 
Caracalla,  a  Gallic  dress,  232. 
Carnei,  orthodox  Christians  so  called,  9. 
Cases,  churches  so  called,  275. 
Catacombs,   Crypta,  places  of  burial 

so  called,  1232. 
Catalogus  hieraticus,  the  catalogue  of 

the  clergy  so  called,  15. 
Cataphrygiuns,  heretics  who  allowed 

women  to  preach,  &c.,  712. 
Catecfietic  schools,  succession  in  those 

of  Alexandria,  121,  at  Rome,  &c.,  122. 
Catechisms,  the  substance  of  the   an- 
cient, 432. 


Catechists,  not  a  distinct  order  of 
clergy,  120,  readers  sometimes  were, 
ibid.,  deaconesses  to  be,  to  female 
catechumens,  102,  did  not  all  teach 
publicly,  121. 

Catechumenia,  the  catechetic  schools 
used  as  prisons,  312,  the  women's  gal- 
leries in  the  church  so  called,  288, 
295. 

Catechumens,  an  order  of  the  Christian 
church,  9,  imperfect  members  of  the 
church,  10,  their  several  names,  429, 
their  several  classes,  4.33,  their  sta- 
tions in  the  church,  286,  288,  291,  293. 

the  manner  of  their  admission, 

429,  at  what  age,  4-30,  how  long  they 
continued  in  that  state,  431,  method 
of  their  instruction,  432. 

were  allowed  to  read  the  Holy 

Scriptures,  4.32,  600,  not  allowed  to 
partake  of  the  eucharist,  nor  to  join 
in  all  the  prayers  of  the  church,  II, 
600,  nor  to  use  the  Lord's  prayer,  12, 
nor  to  hear  discourses  on  the  mys- 
teries of  religion,  ibid.,  things  con- 
cealed from  them,  468,  females  to  be 
catechised  by  deaconesses,  102,  ex- 
orcists' duty  in  reference  to  them,  113, 
were  under  readers,  at  Alexandria, 
114. 

how   punished    if    they   sinned 

grossly,  440,  739. 

preparation  for  their  baptism,  4.35, 

by  Lent,  1179,  ceremonies  at  their 
baptism,  438,  how  treated  if  they  died 
without  it,  441,  their  pious  prepara- 
tion for  it,  reckoned  a  compensation 
for  the  lack  of  it,  441. 

forms  of  prayer  for,  737. 

sacrament  of,  what  it  was.  440. 

Catechumenorum  missa,  the  first  part 
of  the  usual  religious  services  so  call- 
ed, 114,567. 

Cathedra,  the  bishop's  throne  so  called, 
299. 

Cathedral  church,  that  where  the  bi- 
shop's throne  was  placed  so  called. 
ibid.,  to  be  the  constant  residence  of 
the  bishop,  223. 

Catholic  church,  did  not  agree  in  the 
use  of  but  one  ritual,  84,  how  its  unity 
is  maintained,  870,  &c.,  its  customs 
to  be  observed,  873. 

every  bishop  bishop  of  it,   in  a 

certain  sense,  33. 

Catholics,  Christians,  when  so  called, 
3,  antiquity  of  this  name,  4. 

offer  copartnership  in  bishoprics 

to  the  Donatists,  51,  mutual  accusa- 
tions of  them  and  the  Donatists,  re- 
specting the  multiplication  of  bi- 
shops, 52. 

Caupones,  adulterators  of  their  goods 
for  sale,  censured,  1019. 

Cava,  a  diocese  of  Italy,  41  J. 

Causa  lucrativa,  and  onerosa,  dis- 
tinguished, 178. 

Causes  criminal,  bishops  had  no  power 
in,  .38,  clergy  subject  to  civil  laws  in 
such,  170. 

ecclesiastical,  to  be  tried  in  ec- 
clesiastical courts,  164,  1049. 

,  pecuniary,  between  clergymen 

and  laymen,  referred  to  the  civil 
courts,  170. 

Ceimeliarches.  certain  inferior  officers 
of  the  church  so  called,  127,  311. 

Ceimeliarchium,  part  of  the  diaconi- 
cimi  so  called,  311. 

Celeusma,  the  Hallelujah  so  called, 
690. 

Celibacy,  not  a  condition  of  orders  in 
the  first  ages,  151,  vanity  of  its  advo- 
cates, ibid. 

Cells,  private,  for  meditation,  &c.,  on 
the  back  of  the  nave  of  churches.  295. 


Cellulani,  monks  so  called,  219. 

Cemeteries,  churches,  and  the  graves 
of  martyrs,  so  called,  in  common,  275, 
12.30. 

consecration  of,  not  very  an- 
cient, 1237. 

Cenones,  an  order  of  clergy  amongst 
the  iMontanists,  superior  to  the  bi- 
sliitps,  68. 

Censures,  ecclesiastical,  what  they 
were,  901,  &c.,  against  the  clergy 
were  most  severe,  198,  1028,  &c.  Sec 
Discipline. 

Census  capitis,  personal  taxes  so  call- 
ed, 172. 

agrorum,  property  taxes  so  call- 
ed, ibid. 

Centenarii,  officers  presiding  over  UX) 
monks  so  called,  255,  diviners  so 
called,  945. 

Centesima,  interest  at  12  per  cent,  per 
annum  so  called,  21X). 

CephaleotiT.  collectors  of  the  taxes  so 
called,  173. 

Ceremonies,  \iniversal  adoption  of  thera 
not  necessary  to  Christian  unity,  876. 

Ceroferarii,  an  inferior  order  of  clergy 
so  called,  110. 

Chaldeci,  astrologers  so  called,  939. 

Chancel,  the  innermost  part  of  churches 
so  called,  288,  296,  the  place  for  tiie 
bishop's  throne,  299. 

Chancellors,  lay,  a  conjecture  re- 
specting, .39,  not  the  same  as  the 
defensores  in  the  primitive  church, 
124. 

Character  of  ordination,  pretended, 
indelible,  162,  1032,  of  baptism,  in- 
delible, 880. 

Dominicus,   or  regius,  baptism 

so  called,  476. 

Chari  Dei,  baptized  persons  so  called, 
11. 

Charioteers,  not  to  be  baptized,  504, 
punished  as  idolaters,  930. 

X«()i(T;i«,  baptism  so  called,  477. 

Charity  schools  set  up  in  all  country 
churches,  .313. 

Charms,  use  of,  censured,  943,  950. 

Chartophylaces,  certain  inferior  of- 
ficers of  the  church  so  called,  127. 

Xft/iy.a^o/in/ot,  persons  possessed  of  evil 
spirits  so  called,  112,  1083. 

Xji(0o'5otos,  the  dalmatica,  or  sleeved 
tunic,  so  called,  2-32. 

H.iipoanfxdVTpa.  the  substitute  for  bells 
in  the  Greek  churches,  316. 

Xf  ipoHf  <ri«,  confirniatimi  so  called,  543, 
ordination  so  called,  101,  158. 

\iipoTovia,  election  of  ministers  so 
called,  ibid. 

Cherem,  a  form  of  excommunication 
amon<rst  the  Jews,  898. 

Cherubical  Hymn,  a  hynm  to  the  Tri- 
nity so  called,  025,  688,  772. 

Children,  dedicated  to  the  service  of 
the  church  in  infancy,  107,  made 
readers,  115,  might  read  the  Scrip- 
tures and  join  in  the  prayers,  6()(), 
not  to  l)e  disinherited  for  the  sake  (if 
the  church,  187,  not  to  desert  their 
parents  on  the  pretence  of  religion, 
983.  not  to  be  made  monks  without 
their  consent,  251,  nor  to  become 
monks  without  their  parents'  con- 
sent, ibid.,  984,  not  to  marry  without 
their  parents'  consent,  ibid.,  pnwer 
of  parents  over,  restrained  by  Chris- 
tian laws,  ibid. 

Chiliarchce,  directors  of  idolatrous 
pomps  s(i  called,  946. 

Chiromancy,  a  kind  of  divination,  cen- 
sured, 940. 

Chorepiscopi.  various  opinions  respect- 
ing the  nature  of  this  order,  56,  reason 
of  the  name,  ibid.,  were  real  bishops. 


1278 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


28,  57,  objections  to  their  being  bi- 
shops, answered,  ibid.,  distinguished 
from  city  bishops,  51,  57,  and  tVuni 
the  suffVaaan  bishops  of  the  primitive 
church.  59,  supplanted  by  the  Trfpio- 
dEVTa'i,  by  the  council  of  Laodicea, 
58,  attempted  restoration  of,  in  Eng- 
land, ibid. 

Chorepiscopi  presided  over  the  country 
clergy,  57,  might  ordain  the  inferior 
clergy,  ibid.,  might  confirm,  ibid., 
granted  letters  dimissory  to  the  coun- 
try clergy,  ibid.,  might  officiate  in 
presence  of  the  city  bishop,  58,  might 
sit  and  vote  in  councils,  ibid.,  their 
power  differed  in  various  times  and 
places,  ibid. 

were  subordinate  to  bishops,  57, 

might  not  ordain  presbyters  and  dea- 
cons without  special  licence,  ibid., 
censured  for  acting  beyond  their  com- 
mission, 1057. 

were  ordained  by  one  bishop,  57, 

there  were  fifty  in  Basil's  diocese,  36S. 

ChoreutcE,  heretics  who  kept  the  sab- 
bath as  a  fast,  1139. 

Chorus,  the  chancel  so  called,  297. 

Chrestians,  Christians  so  called  by  the 
heathen,  4. 

Chrestus,  our  Lord  so  called  by  the 
heathen,  ibid. 

UplcTfia,  baptism  so  called,  474,  unc- 
tion at  confirmation  so  called,  529. 

Chrism,  distinguished  from  unction  in 
baptism,  529,  its  origin  and  adminis- 
tration, 552. 

Christ,  epiphany  of,  fi.xed  on  the  6th 
of  January.  1142,  kept  by  the  Latin 
church  on  the  25th  December,  1143. 

nativity  of,  anciently  said  to  be 

in  May,  1141. 

worship  of,  as  the  Son  of  God, 

in  the  first  century,  576,  in  the 
second,  577,  in  the  third,  580. 

XpiaTE/jLTTopiia,  simony  so  called,  146. 

Christi,  Christians  so  called,  .3. 

Christian  rules,  excellency  of  attested 
by  the  heathen,  131,  195. 

Christians,  titles  and  appellations  of, 
1,  rejected  party  names,  3,  called  o\ 
Tov  Aoy/xaTo^,  4,  names  of  reproach 
given  to  them,  5. 

I —   orthodox,    names    of    reproach 

given  to,  by  heretics,  8. 

Christophori,  Xpicn-oc^OjOoi,  Christians 
so  called,  2. 

Chronitce,  'S.oovirai,  orthodox  Chris- 
tians so  called,  8. 

Chrysargyruni,  the  lustral  tax  so  call- 
ed, 175. 

Church,  several  orders  of  men  in,  9, 
did  not  agree  in  the  imiversal  use  of 
one  ritual,  84,  674,  its  state  conform- 
able to  that  of  the  Roman  empire, 
341,  followed  the  model  of  the  di- 
vision of  the  empire,  312,  but  was 
not  tied  to  this  model,  316. 

power  of,  at  first  spiritual  alone, 

880.  afterwards  the  secular  power  was 
called  in,  ibid.,  how  far  it  extended, 
883. 

unity  of,  what  necessary  to,  and 

what  less  essential,  857,  submission 
to  its  authority  essential  to  its  unity, 
866,  no  visible  head  needful  for  unity, 
875,  desertion  of,  punished  in  the 
clergy  by  degradation,  1048. 

ul'  Britain,  independent  of  patri- 
archal power,  75,  of  England,  its 
power  over  ritual  affairs,  84. 

. assemblies,  how  called  together 

before  the  use  of  bells,  316,  stationary 
days  for,  655,  duties  of  deacons  in,  89, 
91,  how  far  Jews,  heathens,  and  he- 
retics might  be  admitted  to  them, 
288,  291,  '567. 


Church  discipline,  how  exercised,  887, 

&c. 
lands,  not  exempt  from  the  tax 

called  deuarisiHus,  178,  nor  from  the 

burdens  they  were  subject  to  before 

their  donation,  174. 
laws.     See  Canons. 

notitia,    the   geography  of   the 

church,  343. 

revenues,  disposed  of  by  the  bi- 
shops, 3-3,  archdeacons  assisted  in 
managing,  96. 

Hardens  resemble  seniores  ec- 

clesiastici,  85. 

yards,  people  not  allowed  to  bury 

in,  till  the  sixth  century,  1235.  See 
Burials. 

Churches  of  a  province  adopted  the 
liturgy  of  the  metropolitan,  603. 

,  angels  of,  bishops  so  called,  25. 

,    communion    of    different,    how 

maintained,  870,  &c.,  excommunica- 
tion in  one  church  notified  to  others, 
889,  and  extended  to  all,  ibid. 

,  country,  presided  over  by  chor- 
episcopi, 56,  57. 

Churches,  their  several  names,  269, 
proof's  of  their  existence  in  the  first 
century,  277,  in  the  second,  278,  in 
the  third,  279,  objections  from  the 
ancient  apologists  considered,  280, 
various  proofs  of  their  early  existence, 
ibid.,  difference  between  those  of  the 
first   ages  and  those   that  followed, 

282.  munificence  of  the  Christian  em- 
perors in  building,  28.3,  heathen  tem- 
ples and  Jewish  synagogues  convert- 
ed into  them,  283,  285,  basilicce  also, 
271,  285. 

■  anciently  of  different  forms,  285, 

283,  and  built  in  different  situations, 
287,  commonly  divided  into  three 
parts,  ibid.,  but  anciently  had  but 
two,  291,  had  distinct  apartments  for 
men,  women,  &c.,  294,  and  private 
cells  for  meditation  and  prayer,  295, 
mother-churches  alone  had  baptiste- 
ries, 311,  had  libraries  and  schools 
attached  to  them,  313,  314. 

enriched  with  gifts,  317,  adorned 

with  portions  of  Scripture  written  on 
the  walls,  318,  and  other  inscriptions, 
319,  with  gilding  and  Mosaic  work, 
ibid.,  and  branches  and  flowers,  323, 
had  no  pictures  nor  images  for  the 
first  three  centuries,  320,  when  first 
introduced,  321. 

not  to  be  built  without  the  bi- 
shop's leave,  nor  without  his  prayers 
on  their  sites,  326,  dedicated  to  God, 
though  sometimes  distinguished  by 
the  names  of  saints,  -327,  sometimes 
named  from  the  founders,  328. 

consecration  of,  what  it  anciently 

meant,  324,  practised  in  the  fourth 
century,  ibid.,  the  office  of  the  bishop 
of  the  diocese,  27,  326,  327,  might  be 
performed  by  presbyters,  27,  after- 
wards, the  privilege  of  primates.  66, 
might  be  performed  on  any  day,  .329, 
day  kept  subsequently  amongst  the 
anniversary  festivals,  ibid.,  1169. 

not  to  be  built  or  consecrated  be- 
fore being  endowed,  329,  particular, 
had  no  separate  revenues  anciently, 
191,  endowmentof  parochial  churches 
changed  the  system  of  distributing 
church  revenues,  193. 

used  only  for  sacred  and  religious 

services,  .330,332,  difference  between 
them  and  private  houses,  331,  and 
between  catholic  churches  and  private 
oratories,  271,  used  for  private  prayer, 
Sc,  .334,  and  as  repositories  fur  valu- 
ables, and  retreats  in  danger,  ibid. 

ceremonies  observed  on  entering 


th*m,  332,  333,  public  behaviour  in 
them,  .334. 

Ciborium,  the  canopy  of  the  altar  so 
called,  .30.3,  afterward  the  pyx,  304. 

Circumcision,  the  great,  baptism  so 
called,  477. 

Cirque,  frequenters  of  it  punished  as 
idolaters,  930,  its  games  censured, 
504. 

City,  difference  between  one  and  a  vil- 
lage, .353,  but  one  bishop  to  be  or- 
dained in  one,  52. 

Clay  put  on  the  eyes  of  catechumens 
at  their  baptism,  4.39. 

Clemens,  first  bishop  of  Rome,  accord- 
ing to  some,  19. 

Clergy,  Clerici,  distinct  from  laymen, 
13,  antiquity  of  the  distinction,  ibid., 
always  observed,  ibid.,  an  objection 
to  the  distinction  answered,  ibid. 

so  named  from  Kkypo^,  ibid.,  15, 

name  given  at  first  only  to  bishops, 
priests,  and  deacons,  ibid.,  17,  after- 
wards to  all  attending  wholly  to  the 
service  of  the  church,  15,  sometimes 
restricted  to  the  inferior  orders,  ibid., 
the  names  and  titles  given  to  them, 
ibid.,  16. 

bishops  to  be  chosen  from  amongst, 

44,  inferior,  ordained  by  chorepis- 
copi, 57,  superior,  by  bishops  only, 
27,  particulars  of  their  election,  132, 
people  excluded  from  the  choice  of 
them,  139. 

care  taken  in  receiving  accusa- 
tions against,  165,  exempt  from  the 
cognizance  of  the  secular  courts  in 
matters  ecclesiastical,  168,  and  in 
lesser  criminal  causes,  169,  but  not 
in  greater  criminal  causes,  170,  nor, 
in  pecuniary  causes  with  laymen, 
ibid.,  did  not  plead  Divine  right  of 
exemption  from  taxes,  171,  yet  ge- 
nerally excused  from  personal  taxes, 
ibid.,  paid  taxes  on  their  ecclesiasti- 
cal property,  173,  were  exempt  from 
taxes  for  military  service,  174,  but 
bound  by  the  ancient  burdens  of  their 
lands,  ibid.,  exempt  from  the  lustral 
tax,  175,  227,  and  from  the  metatum, 
176,  sometimes  exempt  from  contri- 
buting to  the  repair  of  highways  and 
bridges,  177,  and  from  the  angaria, 
&c.,  ibid.,  exempt  from  denarismus, 
178,  exempt  from  civil  personal  of- 
fices, 179,  and  from  sordid  offices, 
both  personal  and  prandial,  ibid.,  ex- 
empt also  from  curial  and  municipal 
offices,  ibid.,  but  this  was  confined  to 
the  clergy  who  had  none  but  eccle- 
siastical estates,  180,  privileges  some- 
what extended  after  Constantino,  181. 

maintained  by  oblations,  182,  and 

by  revenues  from  lands,  18.3,  and  by 
allowances  from  the  imperial  ex- 
chequer, 185,  by  the  estates  of  cler- 
gymen and  martyrs  dying  without 
heirs,  and  of  intestate  clergy,  186,  by 
heathen  temples  and  revenues,  and 
heretical  conventicles  and  revenues, 
ibid.,  by  estates  of  clerks  who  re- 
turned to  a  secular  life,  187,  not  to 
receive  any  gratuity  for  administer- 
ing the  sacraments,  &c.,  ibid.,  main- 
tained by  tithes  and  first-fruits,  189, 
in  some  churches  lived  all  in  com- 
mon, 192. 

laws  and  customs  of  their  ordina- 
tion in  the  primitive  church,  15.3,  &c. 

heathen  testimony  to  their  rules 

and  conduct,  195,  testimony  by  Chris- 
tian writers,  ibid.,  ancient  writers 
who  treat  of  their  duty,  196,  exem- 
plary purity  required  in,  197,  celi- 
bacy not  required  in  the  first  three 
centuries,  151,  nor  by  the  councils  of 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


1-279 


the  Nicene  ago,  152,  their  hospitality, 
'Ziyi,  must  entertain  each  other  when 
tiavelliiig  with  letters  of  credence, 
lij.'j,  and  give  each  other  the  honorary 
privilege  of  consecrating  the  eu- 
charist,  ibid.,  their  Irugality,  and 
I  nntenipt  of  the  world.  'Alii,  Lint  ncjt 
iibliged  to  part  with  their  temporal 
]iossessious,  '203,  their  care  not  to  of- 
liuid  with  their  tongues,  '201,  care  to 
avoid  the  suspicion  of  evil,  20.'),  ob- 
liged to  study,  208,  209,  their  studies, 
/hid.,  piety  and  devotion  of  their 
public  prayers,  211,  rules  respecting 
preaching,  212,  fidelity,  &c.,  in  pri- 
vate addresses,  213,  tlieir  prudence 
in  composing  unnecessary  controver- 
sies in  the  church,  215,  their  zeal  in 
defending  the  truth,  ibid.,  their  obli- 
gation to  maintain  the  unity  of  the 
church,  218,  to  end  their  own  contro- 
versies, ltJ4,  not  to  desert  their  sta- 
tions without  just  grounds  and  per- 
mission, 219,  permitted  to  retire  in 
some  cases,  220,  not  to  change  their 
diocese  without  letters  dimissory, 
221,  might  not  travel  without  literce 
formates,  164. 
Clergy,  laws  against  wandering,  222, 
concerning  residence,  'l%\  about  plu- 
ralities, 224,  prohibiting  from  secular 
business  ami  office,  22;'i,  and  to  be  tu- 
tors and  guardians,  ibid.,  how  far  ex- 
tended, ibid.,  prohibiting  them  to  be 
sureties,  226,  from  following  trade 
and  merchandise,  ibid.,  limitation  to 
these  last  laws,  jT/irf.,  respecting  their 
outward  conversation,  228,  and  habit, 
ibid.,  forbidden  to  take  usury,  201. 

how  church  discipline  was   e.\- 

ercised  on  them,  102''^,  by  removal 
from  their  office,  ibid.,  not  always  ex- 
posed to  public  penance,  or  greater 
excommunication,  ibid.,  1029,  sus- 
pension from  revenues,  ibid.,  and 
office,  ibid.,  degraded  to  lay  com- 
munion, 1030,1031,  sometimes  ex- 
communicated, 1033,  removed  by  the 
secular  power,  ibid.,  reduced  to  the 
communion  of  strangers,  .1034,  im- 
prisoned. .311,  1042,  various  punish- 
ments of,  1038.  &c.  degraded  for  cer- 
tain crimes,  198,  199,  200,  for  crimes 
which  brought  excommunication  on 
laymen,  1043,  for  some  which  render- 
ed ordination, //)i'o/ac<o,  vuitl,  ibid., 
for  some  in  the  discharge  of  their 
office,  1047,  for  denying  their  office, 
1050,  for  want  of  charity  to  indigent 
clerks,  1055,  censured  for  neglect  of 
the  daily  service,  212,  penance  for 
their  restoration,  1037,  church  cen- 
sures more  severe  against  them  than 
against  others,  198,  bishops  harbour- 
ing such  as  had  fled  from  their  dio- 
cese, suspended,  1057. 

canonical    pensions     sometimes 

granted  to  them,  221. 

inferior  orders  of,  their  first  origin- 
al, 105,  number,  106.  use,  107,  differ- 
ence from  the  superior  orders,  in 
name,  office,  and  ordination,  ibid., 
might  not  return  to  secular  lil'e,  ibid., 
sometimes  called  clerici,  exclusively, 
176.  See  Discipline,  Elections,  Or- 
dinations, Revenues. 

Clidomeni,  demcuiiacs  so  called,  1083. 

Clinic  baptism,  opinion  of  the  African 
church  respecting  its  validity,  37, 
disqualified  for  ordination,  144,  as- 
persion practised  in,  538. 

Cloaca,  the  baptistery  so  called,  310. 

CloC(E,  bells  so  called.  317. 

Cloisters,  the  porticoes  of  churches  so 
called.  288,  289,  used  for  burying, 
290. 


Clothing,  promiscuous,  forbidden,  1008. 
Coadjutors,  bishops  ordained  to  assist 

others  so  called,  55. 
CoElicolee,  certain  apostates  so  called, 

Coemiteria,  churches  so  called,  274, 
12:30. 

Cfcnobitcc,  monks  who  lived  in  com- 
munity so  called,  213. 

(Jcenobium,  a  monastery,  2 12. 

Co/iortales,  might  not  IJe  ordained,  148. 

Coin,  counterleiLing,  how  punished, 
1015. 

Collatio  lustralis,  a  tax  collected  at  the 
end  of  every  four  years  so  called, 
175. 

specierum,  taxes  paid  in  kind  so 

called,  173. 

Colltcta,  collects,  the  invocation  of  the 
bishop  in  the  comnumiou  service  so 
called,  744,  750,  751. 

Colleyiati,  the  copiatee  so  called,  118, 
certain  idolatrous  officers  so  called, 
946. 

Culliyere  orationem,  to  offer  the  col- 
lect at  the  beginning  of  the  com- 
munion service,  751. 

Collobium,  a  short  coat  without  sleeves 
so  called,  231. 

Collrjridians,  heretics  who  worshipped 
the  Virgin  iNlary,  and  allowed  women 
to  preach,  so  called,  712,  937. 

Comes,  a  calendar  of  proper  lessons  of 
Scripture,  ascribed  to  St.  Jerom,  696. 

Commendation,  or  thanksgiving  of  the 
bishop,  part  of  the  morning  service, 
667. 

Commendationes,  collects  so  called, 
751,  certain  prayers  used  at  funerals 
so  called,  1219. 

Commendatory  letters  given  to  stran- 
gers, 32,  1U36. 

Communicative  life  distinguished  from 
the  renunciative,  254. 

Communio  ecclesiastica,  what  it  was, 
1028. 

peregrina,    entertainment 


without  the  eucharist,  given  to  stran 
gers  travelling  without  Uteres  for- 
mates, 164,  809,  1036,  not  lay  com- 
munion, 1035,  nor  communion  in  one 
kind,  ibid.,  nor  in  the  hour  of  death, 
ibid.,  nor  on  pilgrimage,  1036,  nor  of 
private  oblations  for  strangers,  ibid., 
clergymen  sometimes  degraded  to 
this,  1034. 

Communion  of  different  churches  main- 
tained by  faith,  870,  in  mutual  assist- 
ance for  the  defence  of  the  faith,  ibid., 
in  joining  in  ritual  communion,  occa- 
sionally, 871,  in  ratification  of  acts 
of  discipline,  873,  in  the  uuauimous 
adoption  of  apostolic  customs,  and 
submission  to  general  councils,  ibid., 
and  national  councils,  874,  allowance 
made  for  the  violation  of,  in  ignor- 
ance, 877. 

,frequent  observance  of,  anciently, 

849,  various  customs  in  regard  totliis 
frequency,  850,  &c.,  attempts  to  re- 
store it,  855. 

in  both  kinds  always  the  privi- 
lege of  the  people,  808,  elements  re- 
ceived separately  in  it,  81 1. 

administered  on  the  festivals  of 

the  martyrs,  1164,  denied  to  some 
sinners  at  death,  1077,  suspension 
from,  part  of  church  discipline,  837. 

,  lay,  a  punishment  of  the  clergy, 

1030,  ia3i. 

service,  when  the  Nicene  Creed 

was  introduced  into  its  liturgy,  464. 

table,  placed   in  the  chancel  of 

churches,  2S.S,  300. 

Cmnmunity  of  property,  how  regarded, 
1008. 


Community  of  wives,  was  (aught  bv  Si- 
mon  Magus,  1197. 

Commutation  of  penance,  never  allow- 
ed, 902. 

Companies,  civil  and  commercial, 
members  of,  not  to  be  ordained,  147. 

Cotnpetentes,  a  class  of  catochuniens 
so  called,  434,  manner  of  their  pre- 
paration for  baptism,  4^35,  Sic,  re- 
iK^arsed  the  Creed  on  Maundy 
'riiursday,  1188,  ceremonies  connect- 
ed with  their  baptism,  438,  &c.,  if 
they  lield  a  lighted  taper  at  tiieir  ex- 
orcism, 439,  prayers  for  them,  740. 

Completorium,  the  last  of  the  seven 
canonical  hours  of  prayer  so  called, 
661.  *     ' 

Computation  of  Easter,  the  duty  of 
metropolitans,  66.  See  Cycle,  and 
Easter. 

Conchula  bematis,  the  highest  part  of 
the  chancel  so  called,  288,  296. 

Concdia,  Conciliabula,  churches  so 
tailed,  272. 

Concubinaye,  whether  it  disqualified 
for  baptism,  506,  censures  a"ainst, 
997. 

Concubines  distinguished  from  wives, 
506,  tliey  who  had  married,  not  to  be 
ordained,  149. 

Confessio,  a  name  given  to  churches 
built  in  memory  of  a  martyr,  273. 

Confession  of  faith,  required  of  bishops 
before  their  ordination,  140. 

of  sins,  practised  as  a  preparation 

for  baptism,  437,  but  not  in  a  public 
and  particular  manner,  523,  m  the 
primitive  churcli  differed  from  the 
auricular  confession  of  the  Koman 
church,  839,  1065,  private,  allowed 
in  certain  cases,  1070,  at  morniug 
prayer,  677. 

psalm  of,  or  penitential  psalm, 

in  the  nocturnal  or  morning  devo- 
tions, 671. 

Confessors  might  not  grant  literce 
formates,  32. 

Confirmation,  its  origin,  554,  not 
esteemed  a  sacrament  apart  from  bap- 
tism, 5 15,  even  when  separate  from  it, 
516,  opinion  of  the  ancients  respect- 
ing its  necessity,  556,  neglect  ol,  liow 
punished,  557. 

infants  as  well  as  adults  received 

it,  544,  anciently  given  immediatcdy 
after  baptism,  513,  administratmn  of, 
concealed  from  catechumens,  469. 

origin  of  the  unction  or  chrism, 

552,  distinguished  from  the  unction 
at  baptism,  529,  consecration  of  it 
reserved  for  the  bishop,  547,  use  of  it 
divided  between  bishops  and  presby- 
ters, 548,  manner  of  administering, 
and  its  effects,  552,  sign  of  tl\e  cross 
at,  553,  laying  on  of  hands  and  pray- 
er, ibid.,  reserved  more  strictly  to  tiie 
bishop,  549,  ministered  by  cliorepis- 
capi.  57,  occasionally  by  presbyters, 
27,  551. 

Conjurers  censured,  914. 

Consanguinity,  persons  not  to  marry 
witiiin  the  prohibited  degrees  of  it, 
1204. 

Consecration  of  bishops,  form  of  pray- 
er used  at,  50. 

of  chrism  in  confirmation,  reserv- 
ed to  the  bishops  only,  547. 

of  churches,  described,  324,  the 

office  of  bishops,  27,  occasionally 
ministered  by  presbyters,  ibid.,  after- 
v.ards,  the  privilege  of  metropolitans, 
66. 

of  elements  at  the  eucharist,  773, 

to  be  performed  in  an  audible  voice, 
7s9,  forbidden  to  deacons,  88. 

of  water  in  baptism,  by  prayer. 


1280 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


532,  effects  of  it,  534,  how  far  neces- 
sary, 535. 

Consessorics,  letters  dimissory  so  call- 
ed, 221. 

Consessus  cleri,  the  chancel  so  called, 
297. 

presbyterorum,  the    privilege  of 

sitting  in  church  on  thrones  with  the 
hishop,  77,  288. 

Consistentes,  the  foiirth  class  of  peni- 
tents so  called,  293,  1058. 

Consistory,  presbyters  and  deacons  sat 
with  the  bishop  in,  78,  79,  91. 

Constantine,  munificent  in  building 
churches,  283,  and  in  respect  of  the 
revenues  of  the  clergy,  184. 

Continentes,  monks  so  called,  249. 

Contracts,  how  far  binding,  lUll. 

Controversies  of  the  clergy  to  be  end- 
ed by  themselves,  164,  refusal  to  end, 
before  a  bishop,  punished  by  degrad- 
ation, 1U49. 

Cotiventicula,  churches  so  called,  272. 

Copiatce,  KoiriaTaL,  (coTTtoii'TES,  or 
fossarii,  an  inferior  order  of  clergy 
so  called,  117,  their  institution  and 
office,  118. 

Corban,  the  treasuiy  of  the  church  so 
called,  18.3. 

Cor-episcopi,  a  name  given  to  arch- 
deacons, explained,  98. 

Corn  allowed  annually  to  the  clergy 
by  the  emperor,  185. 

Cornelians,  orthodox  Christians  so 
called,  8. 

Corona  clericalis,  or  Circuli,  the  ton- 
sure so  called,  229. 

presbyterii,  the  presbyters  sitting 

in  a  semicircle  in  the  church  so  call- 
ed, 77. 

sacerdotalis,  what  meant  by,  41, 

42. 

Coronce  oblationum,  the  bread  used  in 
the  communion  so  called,  759. 

Coronam,  per,  a  form  of  saluting 
bishops,  41. 

Coronati,  clergy  so  called,  not  from 
their  shaven  crowns,  229. 

censures  against  them,  929. 

Corporal  punishment  forbidden  dur- 
ing Lent,  118.3,  of  the  clergy,  1042. 

Covetoi/sness,  when  subject  to  church 
discipline,  1027. 

Councils,  abbots  sat  and  voted  at,  256, 
chorepiscopi  might  sit  and  vote  at, 
58,  presbyters  sat  and  voted  at,  81, 
deacons  sometimes  represented  the 
bishop  in  them,  91. 

provincial    and    consistorial, 

presbyters  and  deacons  present  with 
the  bishops  in  them,  78,  79,  80. 

submission  to  the  decrees  of  ge- 
neral and  national,  betokened  the 
communion  of  different  churches, 
87.3,  874. 

Court,  bishops  not  to  appear  there 
without  leave  from  the  emperor,  223. 

Cousin-germans  permitted  to  marry, 
99G,  1205. 

Creatures,  worship  of,  condemned, 
589,  swearing  by,  condemned,  205, 
977. 

Creed,  contained  the  fundamental  ar- 
ticles of  faith,  857,  ancient  names 
of,  448,  learned  as  a  preparation  for 
baptism,  437,  and  used  as  the  profes- 
sion of  faith  in  baptism,  519,  conceal- 
ed from  catechumens,  470,  used  as  a 
hymn  in  the  church,  691,  bishops 
might  express  the  same  in  different 
forms,  36. 

. Apostles',  if  composed  in  the  pre- 
sent form,  450,  they  probably  used 
several,  452,  articles  contained  in  it, 
ihd.,  called  the  Roman  Creed,  461. 

Athanasiari,  account  of,  465. 


Creed,  Nicene,  as  first  published  by  the 
council  of  Nice,  462,  as  completed 
by  the  council  of  Constantinople, 
464,  its  use  in  the  ancient  church, 
and  introduction  into  the  liturgy  of 
the  communion  service,  ibid.,  786. 

.  of  Antioch,  461,  of  Apostolical 

Constitutions,  459,  of  Aquileia,  462, 
of  Caesarea  in  Palestine,  460,  of  Cy- 
prian, 457,  of  Epiphanius,  463,  of 
Gregory  Thaumaturgus,  457,  of  Je- 
rusalem, 460,  of  IreniEUs,  454,  of  Lu- 
cian  the  martyr,  458,  of  Origen,  455, 
of  Tertullian,  456. 

Crimen  and  peccatum  distinguished, 
198,  920. 

Crimes  committed  after  baptism  dis- 
qualified for  ordination,  144,  certain, 
in  the  clergy,  punished  by  degrada- 
tion, 198,  great,  enumerated,  924. 

Criminal  causes,  bishops  had  no  power 
in,  38. 

Criminals,  the  privilege  of  bishops  to 
intercede  for,  39,  great,  reserved  for 
absolution  by  patriarchs,  73,  denied 
refuge  in  Christian  churches,  3-38. 

Crinitifratres,  monks  who  wore  long 
hair  so  called,  2.52. 

Cronus,  or  Saturn,  locality  of  a  Jewish 
synagogue  in  Ciiicia  so  called,  952. 

Cross,  to  be  fixed  on  the  intended  site 
of  a  church,  326. 

sign  of,  made  at  the  admission  of 

catechumens,  4.30,  530,  in  the  prepar- 
ation of  catechumens  for  baptism, 
4-35,  ibid.,  in  the  unction  before  bap- 
tism, ibid.,  in  consecrating  the  water 
of  baptism,  5.33,  in  the  unction  after 
confirmation,  531,  553,  at  ordination, 
83,  158,  at  the  Lord's  table,  770. 

lifting  the  hands  in  this  form,  a 

'  devotional  custom,  650. 

Crosses,  ignorantjy  and  superstitiously 
worn  by  certain  monks,  252,  when 
first  set  up  on  altars,  304. 

Crucifixion,  day  of  our  Lord's,  how 
observed,  1189. 

Cubicula,  cells  for  private  prayer  in 
the  nave  of  the  church  so  called, 
295. 

Cuculli,  cowls  worn  by  monks  so  call- 
ed, 252. 

Cucumellum,  a  flagon  used  at  the  altar 
so  called,  .305. 

Culdees,  account  of  them,  257. 

Ctip,  never  denied  to  the  laity,  809. 

Cups,  used  at  the  communion  table,  of 
different  materials,  .305. 

Curia;  tradi,  delivery  of  the  clergy  up 
to  the  secular  power  so  designated, 
1033. 

Curial  offices,  clergy  exempt  from, 
179. 

Curiales,  could  not  be  ordained,  148, 
might  not  be  monks,  250. 

Cur  sores  ecclesice,  the  couriers  of  the 
church  so  called,  .316. 

Ciirsuales  equi,  horses  contributed  to 
the  civil  service  so  called,  178. 

Cursus  ecclesiasticus,  divine  service  so 
called,  571. 

publicus,  the  clergy  sometimes 

exempt  from,  177. 

Custodes  ecclesiarum,  certain  inferior 
officers  of  the  clergy  so  called,  126. 

locorum     sanctorum,    keepers 

of  particular  places  in  Palestine  so 
called,  ibid. 

Customs  of  the  universal  church  to  be 
received  by  all,  866,  of  each  particu- 
lar church  to  be  submitted  to  by  its 
members,  869. 

Custos  archivoruni,  the  keeper  of  the 
records  of  the  church  so  called, 
127. 

Cycle  of  Easier,  composed  by  the  bi- 


shop of  Alexandria,  66,  1152,  the  an- 
cient one,  ibid. 

Cyprus,  its  ancient  ecclesiastical  inde- 
pendency, 75,  .362. 

Cyrillians,  orthodox  Christians  so 
called,  8. 


D 


Daily  service,  clergymen  neglecting 
it  suspended,  212. 

Aaifxovi'^o/ji^voi,  persons  possessed  of 
evil  spirits  so  called,  112. 

Dalmatica,  a  long  coat  with  sleeves, 
231,  worn  by  both  bishops  and  dea- 
cons, 646. 

Dancing,  lascivious,  censured,  1007, 
1224. 

Deacons,  originally  one  of  the  sacred 
orders,  85,  their  office  distinguished 
from  that  of  bishops  and  presbyters, 
82,  bishops  and  presbyters  sometimes 
so  called,  85,  their  tides,  86,  89,  9.3, 
called  priests,  with  bishops  and  pres- 
byters, 81,  82,  but  not  generally,  86. 

multiplied  according  to  the  need 

of  the  church,  93,  but  seven  at  Rome, 
ibid.,  their  ordination  performed  by 
the  bishop  alone,  86,  not  ordained  by 
cliorepiscopi  without  special  licence, 
57,  form  of  ordination  for,  86,  might, 
be  ordained  at  twenty-four  years  ofi 
age,  94,  might  be  ordained  bishops! 
though  never  ordained  presbyters,  45.] 

anciently  performed  all  the  in- 
ferior offices  of  the  church,  92,  as- 
sisted the  bishop  in  dispensing  the! 
charity  of  the  church,  .33,  92,  took  carel 
of  the  utensils  of  the  altar,  87,  re- 
ceived oblations,  ibid.,  and  recited,  at] 
the  altar,  the  names  of  those  who' 
made  them,  87,  756,  read  the  gospel 
in  some  churches,  ibid.,  114,  697, 
ministered  the  elements  to  the  people 
in  the  eucharist,  87,  804,  but  might 
not  consecrate  the  elements,  normin- 
ister  them  to  presbyters  or  bishops, 
88,  804,  anciently  shared  the  minis- 
tration of  the  eucharist  with  the  bi- 
shop, 88,  might  baptize  in  some  i 
places,  89,  but  not  without  the  con- 
sent of  their  bishops,  26,  used  to  bid 
prayer  in  the  congregation,  and  di- 
rect the  devotions.  89,  627,  748,  788, 
826,  might  preach  by  the  bishop's 
authority,  90,  706,  rebuked  and  cor- 
rected misdemeanors  in  church  as- 
semblies, 91,  might  not  perform 
divine  offices  in  presence  of  a  pres- 
byter without  leave,  94,  dismissed 
the  catechumens,  &c.,  after  the  ante- 
communion  service,  568,  769,  and  the 
congregation  after  the  morning  ser- 
vice, 668,  enjoined  silence  before  the 
reading  of  the  lessons,  698,  should 
report  to  the  bishop  the  misdemeanors 
of  the  people,  93,  might  reconcile  pe- 
nitents, in  emergency,  91,  were  usu- 
ally sponsors  for  adults  in  baptism, 
527,  might  in  some  cases  suspend  the 
inferior  clergy,  91,  attended  their 
bishops,  and  sometimes  represented 
them  in  general  councils,  ibid.,  sat ; 
and  voted  in  provincial  and  con- 
sistorial synods,  i<0,ibid.,  subdeaconsl 
might  not  perform  their  office,  109. 

stood  in  churches,  91,  not  allowed  j 

to  sit  on  thrones,  with  the  bishop,  in  ' 
the  church,  77,  might  not  sit  in  the 
presence  of  a  presbyter  without  per-  , 
mission,  94.  received  similar  respect] 
from  the  inferior  orders,  ibid.,  109,  [ 
censured  if  they  assumed  privilegesJ 
above  their  order,  1057. 

Deaconesses,  their  office  in  the  primi-  j 
tive  church,  99.  not  consecrated  to 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


1281 


any  priestly  office.  It)],  712,  their 
names,  iJ9,  how  long  this  or<ler  con- 
tinued in  the  church,  1U3,  their  or- 
iliuiUiou,  100. 
ih  aconesses,  iiiialifications  required  for 
the  office,  99,  to  he  widows,  or  virgins, 
ibid.,  widows  that  had  home  chil- 
dren, ibid.,  of  advanced  age,  100, 
Init  once  married,  ibid. 

to  preside  over  matters  relating 

til  women  in  the  church,  103,  to  help 
in  the  baptism  of  women,  102,  to  be 
sponsors  for  adults  in  baptism,  5"27,  to 
lie  catechists  lo  female  catechumens, 
102,to  visitsick  women,  ifc/rf., attended 
the  women's  gate  in  the  church,  103, 
ministered  to  martyrs  in  prison,  102. 

Dfcid.  were  to  be  buried,  1259,  and  not 
worshipped,  ibid.,  baptism  of,  con- 
'lenmed,  JS9,  baptism  for,  what  it 
means,  ibid.,  kiss  of  peace  not  to  be 
ijiven  to  them,  1250,  nor  the  euchar- 
ist,  S06,  ibid.,  eucharist  not  to  be 
buried  with  them,  807,  excommuni- 
cation of,  916,  absolution  given  to, 
1U98. 

prayer  for,  in  the  eucharist,  777, 

on  what  ground  practised,  779,  1249. 

Deans  of  cathedrals,  the  archipresby- 
terii  resembled,  Hi. 

Debtors,  public,  denied  refuge  in 
churches,  337. 

Debts,  refusing  to  pay,  how  punished, 
1010. 

Decani,  the  copiata  so  called,  118, 
officers  presiding  over  ten  monks  so 
called,  255. 

Decanica,  decanetce,  the  prisons  of  the 
church  so  called,  311. 

Decanorum  corpus,  military  officers 
belonging  to  the  emperor's  palace, 
118. 

Decimce,  the  emperor's  tribute  so  call- 
ed, 190. 

Decumani,  the  collectors  of  it  so  call- 
ed, ibid. 

Decuriones,  could  not  be  ordained,  148. 

Dedication  of  churches,  anniversaries 
of,  kept  as  feasts,  1169,  chosen  as 
times  for  baptism,  512. 

Defensores,  five  sorts  noted,  whereof 
two  belonged  to  the  church,  122,  not 
the  same  as  chancellors  in  the  pri- 
mitive church,  124,  whether  cler- 
gymen or  laymen,  123,  marriages 
made  before,  1218. 

lawyers  and  public  advocates  so 

called,  1013. 

ecclesiee,  their  office,  122. 

paupernm,  their  office,  ibid. 

Degradation,  the  highest  ecclesiastical 
punishment  of  the  clergy,  198,  10.30, 
seldom  recovered  their  station  after 
it,  1031. 

inflicted  for  crimes  which  in  a 

layman  would  have  received  excom- 
munication, 1043,  which  make  ordin- 
ation, ipso  facto,  void,  ibid.,  in  the 
discharge  of  the  office  of  the  minis- 
try, 1047. 

Delivering  to  Satan,  what  it  meant, 
895. 

Demoniacs,  persons  possessed  of  evil 
spirits  so  called,  112. 

DenarisniHS,  church  lands  exempt 
from,  178. 

Denarius,  a  tax  on  every  jugum  of 
curial  land  bequeathed  away  from 
the  curiales,  due  to  the  curia,  annu- 
ally, 178. 

oblation  of,  instead  of  bread,  758. 

Dendrophori,  idolatrous  officers  so 
called,  946. 

Deo  gratias,  an  exclamation  of  the 
people  when  the  place  of  the  lesson 
in  the  Scriptures  was  announced,  698. 


Deputati,  an  inferior  order  of  clergv  so 
called,  110. 

Dtscriptio  uniniarum,  a  tax  on  serv- 
ants aud  cattle  so  called,  173. 

lucrattronnn,  church  lands  ex- 
empt from,  17b>. 

Deserters  of  the  clerical  life,  how  pun- 
ished, 107,  lb7,  219. 

Desperati,  Christians  so  called,  7. 

Detraction,  how  punished,  1024. 

Devotion,  extraordinary,  practised  by 
monks,  258. 

AEga/uEio'/,  the  baptistery  so  called,  310. 

Diaconicon,  the  sanctuary  of  the  church 
so  called,  107,  297. 

Diaconiciim  tnaynum.  one  of  the  exe- 
drce  of  churches,  2t<S,  311. 

minus,   or  bemutis,    the  vestry 

where  the  utensils  of  the  altar  were 
kept,  286,  288,  308,311. 

Diaconissa,  a  deacon's  wife  so  called, 
104. 

Alukovoi,  the  original  name  of  deacon- 
esses, 99. 

Diapsalma,  a  peculiar  way  of  singing 
the  psalms  so  called,  682. 

Aia-ra^Eis,  forms  of  prayer  so  called, 
573. 

Dice,  forbidden  to  the  clergy,  1052. 

Didiimarii,  certain  idolatrous  officers 
so  called,  946. 

Dies  luminum,  Epiphany  so  called, 
1146. 

mandati,  Thursday  before  Eas- 
ter so  called,  1188. 

neophytorum,  Easter    week  so 

called,  1157. 

pants,  the  Lord's  dav  so  called, 

850,  1126. 

Digamists,  persons  twice  married  after 
baptism,  according  to  some,  150,  all 
persons  twice  married,  according  to 
others,  ibtd.,  persons  having  two 
wives  at  once,  or  marrying  after 
causeless  divorce,  according  to  others, 
ibid.,  whether  debarred  from  the  eu- 
charist, 806,  not  to  be  ordained,  149, 
errors  of  heretics  respecting  them, 
1200. 

Dimissory  letters  granted  by  the  bi- 
shop, 32,  granted  by  chorepiscopi, 
57,  clergy  not  to  change  their  dio- 
cese without,  221 . 

Dinothus,  abbot  of  Bangor,  his  famous 
defence  of  the  liberties  of  the  Britan- 
nic church  against  Austin  the  monk, 
75,  349. 

Diocesan  episcopacy  vindicated  by 
some  ancient  canons  of  the  church, 
397. 

synods  ordained  patriarchs,  72, 

called  and  presided  over  by  patri- 
archs, ibid. 

Dioceses,  the  thirteen,  of  the  Roman 
empire,  342,  anciently  called  paroe- 
cicc,  61,  352,  conformed  to  the  limits 
of  a  Roman  city,  353,  yet  sometimes 
several  cities  in  one  diocese,  375, 
generally  not  so  large  in  nations  con- 
verted early,  as  in  those  converted  in 
the  middle  ages  of  the  church,  353, 
large  ones  to  be  divided,  392,  but 
not  without  leave  from  the  primate, 
1056. 

the  districts  under  the  control  of 

patriarchs  so  called,  67,  351,  when 
tirst  applied  to  the  sees  of  bishops, 
352. 

in  what  sense  the  whole  world 

was  but  one,  .'il. 

of  Africa,  354,  St.  Austin's  was 

forty  miles  long,  ibid.,  of  Arabia,  358, 
of  Asia,  36.3,  &c.,  Theodoret's  hail 
eight  hundred  parishes,  364,  of  Asia 
Minor,  four  hundred  in  number,  51, 
367,  of  Europe,  375,  &c.,  of  Great 
4   N 


Britain  aud  Ireland,  393,  &c.,  of 
Italy,  three  hundred  in  number,  379, 
&c.,  of  Palestine,  :i59,  &c. 

Dioceses,  clergymen  not  to  leave  their, 
without  licence  from  the  bishop,  221, 
1048,  nor  to  hold  benefices  in  two, 
224. 

Dioecesana  ecclesia,  the  parish  church 
so  called,  277,  407. 

Dionysius  the  Areopagite  first  bishop 
of  Athens,  21. 

Dipping  used  in  baptism,  477,  thrice, 
539. 

Diptychs,  registers  of  the  candidates  for 
baptism  so  caUed,  435,  registers  of 
the  names  of  bishops,  saints,  and 
martyrs,  to  be  commemorated  in  the 
oblations  for  the  dead,  762,  read  from 
the  ambon  of  the  church,  293,  erasure 
from  them  equivalent  to  excommuni- 
cation after  death,  917,  restoration  to 
them  equivalent  to  absolution  after 
death,  1098. 

Discijilina  arcani,  its  origin,  467,  468, 
proved  from  the  things  concealed 
from  catechumens,  ibid.,  reasons  for 
it,  471,  referred  to  respecting  pic- 
tures, 321. 

Discipline,  fundamental  design  of,  857, 
submission  to,  necessary  to  the  unity 
of  the  church,  b69,  r&'.ified  by  other 
churches,  873. 

was  the  exercise  of  a  spiritual 

power  alone,  880,  though  sometimes 
assisted  by  the  secidar  power,  881, 
1033,  never  to  the  extent  of  shedding 
blood,  32,  883,  deprived  none  of  na- 
tional or  civil  rights,  886,  consisted 
in  the  admonition  of  offenders,  887, 
suspension  from  communion,  ibid., 
expulsion  from  the  church,  888,  did 
not  cancel  baptism,  but  excluded 
from  its  privileges,  880,  corporal  pun- 
ishment was  part  of  it,  for  inferiors 
and  minors,  256,  916, 1042,  relaxation 
of,  respecting  the  eucharist,  791,  the 
severest,  sometimes  forborne,  908. 

power  of  exercising,  880,  in  the 

hands  of  the  bishop,  1098,  bishops 
suspended  for  neglecting,  1056. 

exercised  on  all  guilty  of  scan- 
dalous crimes,  901,  on  women,  ibid., 
on  rich  persons,  902,  on  magistrates 
and  princes,  903,  on  all  guilty  of 
great  crimes,  924,  &c.,  not  for  small 
offences,  917,  not  inflicted  on  the  in- 
nocent with  the  guilty,  912,  danger  of 
this,  913,  how  exercised  on  the  clergy, 
1026,  &c. 

intercession  of  martyrs  for  such  as 

were  subject  to,  902.    See  A)iathema, 

Clergy,  Communion,  Degradation, 

Excommunication,  Suspension,  Sgc. 
Diseases,   cure   of,    by   enchantments 

censured,  943. 
Dismemberment,  voluntary,  how  pun- 
ished, 989,  disqualified  for  ordination, 

143. 
Dismission  of  the  congregation,  by  the 

deacons,  668,  after  the  eucharist,  827. 
Disputations,    sermons    anciently    so 

called,  705. 
Divales  constitutioyies,  and  leges,  the 

emperor's  edicts  so  called,  270. 
Divination,  by  lots,  941,  by  compact 

with  Satan,  942,  censures  against  all 

kinds,  938. 
Divine  right  of  exemption  from  taxes 

not  pleaded  bv  the  ancient  clergy, 

171. 
service,  anciently  always  in  the 

vulgar  tongue,  595. 
Divining  by  dreams  censured,  942. 
Divisio  mensurna,  the  monthly  division 

of  the  income  of  the  church  amongst 

the  clergy,  183. 


1 


1282 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


Division,  one  way  of  voting  at  the  elec- 
tion of  the  clergy,  134. 

of  church  revemies,x\x\ei  for,  192. 

— —  of  dioceses,  punished  in  bishops 
by  suspension,  1056. 

Divorce,  lawful  in  case  of  fornication, 
1'225,  allowed  for  other  crimes  by  the 
civil  law,  1227,  whether  after  lawful, 
one  might  marry,  1209,  marriage  af- 
ter unlawful,  how  regarded,  99a. 

Divorced  men  not  to  be  ordained,  150. 

women,  they  that  marry,  not  to 

be  ordained,  149. 

Doctor  audientium,  the  catechist  of 
the  lowest  rank  of  catechumens  so 
called,  120. 

Dogma,  the  Christian  religion  so  call- 
ed, 4. 

i^oXo/xiTpai,  traders  that  use  fraud  in 
measuring,  censured,  1018. 

Dolus  nialus,  forgery  so  called,  1014. 

Duminica  in  alhis,  or  nova,  the  Sunday 
after  Easter,  why  so  called,  558, 1 156. 

Dominicale,  the  veil  in  which  women 
received  the  eucharist,  823. 

Doniinicum,  its  several  significations, 
269. 

Domus  basilica,  houses  of  the  clergy 
so  called,  314. 

columbcs,  churches  so  called,  270. 

Dei,  Divina,  and  ecclesiee,  dis- 
tinguished, 177,  ibid. 

sacerdotalis,  the  bishop's  house 

so  called,  276. 

synaxeos,  churches  so  called,  ibid. 

Donaria,  gifts  bestowed  on  churches, 
318. 

Donatists  and  Catholics,  mutual  accusa- 
tions of,  respecting  the  multiplication 
of  bishops,  52,  offer  of  co-partnership 
in  bishoprics  made  to,  by  the  Catho- 
lics, 54,  proposal  respecting  re-ordin- 
ation made  to,  by  Ccscilian,  161. 

Door-keepers,  deacons  were,  originally, 
92,  and  during  the  communion  ser- 
vice, 115,  deaconesses  were,  at  the 
women's  gate,  103,  ibid. 

or  ostiarii,  an  inferior  order  of 

the  clergy  so  called,  ibid. 

AHypnv,  baptism  so  called,  477. 

Dotalia  instrumenta,  how  far  neces- 
sary to  a  legal  marriage,  506,  1216, 
1217. 

Dove  alighting  on  the  head  at  an  elec- 
tion, intlicated  the  choice  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  131. 

Doves,  golden,  their  use  in  churches, 
304,  802. 

Doxoluyies,  the  lesser,  or  Gloria  Patri, 
variations  in  its  form,  685,  the  great- 
er, or  angelical  hvmn,  687,  to  the 
Trinity,  576,  728,  786. 

Dreams,  divination  by,  censured,  942. 

Dromical  form  of  churches  described, 
285. 

Drunkenness  punished  in  the  laity  by 
excommunication,  1005,  and  in  the 
clergy  by  degradation,  199. 

Duce7iarii,  certain  civil  officers  amongst 
the  Romans  so  called,  225. 

Dumb  persons,  baptized,  500,  and  ad- 
mitted to  penance  and  absolution, 
ibid. 

Duumvirate,  censures  against  Chris- 
tians who  undertook  this  office,  929. 

Duelling-houses  of  the  clergy  reckoned 
part  of  the  church,  314. 

•     E 

East,  reasons  for  worshipping  towards, 
653,  the  covenant  in  baptism  made 
with  the  face  towards,  517. 

churches  built  with  the  sanctuary 

towards,  287. 

Easter,  time  of.  to  be  calculated  and 


announced  by  metropolitans,  66,  no- 
tice of  the  time,  to  be  given  at  Epi- 
phany, 1147,  differences  in  the  time 
of  its  observance,  1151,  clergy  not 
observing  the  rule  degraded,  1052. 
Easter,  mode  of  its  observance,  1147, 
&c.,  one  of  the  times  of  baptism  ap- 
pointed by  the  church,  510,  the  time 
of  absolution,  1097. 

from,   to    Whitsuntide,    solemn 

assemblies  for  preaching  and  worship 
held,  660. 

Eating  and  lodging  in  the  church  for- 
bidden to  such  as  took  refuge  there, 
340. 

Ebionites,  heretics  who  disused  wine  at 
the  eucharist,  759. 

Ecclesia,  iKKXijaia,  an  assembly  of 
people  so  called,  269. 

tnatrix,  the  cathedral  church  so 

called,  191. 

and  dicecesa7ia,  distinguish- 
ed, 276. 

Ecclesics  cardinales,  their  office,  84. 

defensores,  certain  officers  of  the 

church  so  called,  122. 

ordinationes,  orders  of  the  arch- 
deacon so  called,  96. 

seniores,  elders  so  called,  84,  85. 

tribunal,  the  reading  desk  in  the 

body  of  the  church  so  called,  1 14,  293. 

suburbicarice  in  the  district  of 

the  Roman  church,  347. 

Ecclesiastical  authors,  part  of  the 
studies  of  the  clergy,  210. 

causes  not  to  be  tried  in  secular 

courts,  168. 

censures,  what  they  were,  901,  &c. 

Ecclesiastici  seniores,  elders  so  called, 
84,  85. 

Ecclesiastics,  Christians,  when  so  call- 
ed, 4. 

'EyyaaTpifjLvdoi,  divines  so  called,  942. 

' Hy ov/jLEi'ila,  monasteries  so  called,  249. 

'Hyuu/Jiivoi,  an  order  of  men  in  the 
Christian  church,  9. 

Eip^v^.l;ai  ^TTLaToXai,  letters  dimissory 
granted  to  the  clergy  by  bishops  and 
others  so  called,  57,  221. 

'EKaToin-do-x^ai,  certain  divines  so  call- 
ed, 945. 

'EfcaTocrxai,  interest  at  12  percent,  per 
annum,  200. 

'EKKi]pvTTtcrtiaL,  degradation  of  the 
clergy  so  called,  1028. 

'EKA./\7i(7ta<rT)';pioi/,the  building  in  which 
a  congregation  assembles  so  called, 
269. 

'EkkXi^o-UkSikoi,  iKSiKOL,  oT  defensoTcs, 
certain  officers  of  the  church  so  call- 
ed, 122,  124. 

'EkX^ktoI,  Christians  so  called,  1. 

'EkXbktwv  iKXiKTOT^poi,  ascctlcs  so 
called,  242. 

'EKTvirw/xaTa,  a  particular  kind  of  gifts 
to  the  church  so  called,  318. 

Elceseans,  heretics  who  altered  the 
form  of  baptism,  485. 

Elders,  lay,  not  ecclesiee,  or  ecclesias- 
tici seniores,  84,  85. 

Electi,  Christians  so  called,  1,  a  class 
of  catechumens  so  called,  434,  435. 

Election,  one  way  of  designing  men  to 
the  ministry,  1.31. 

of  bishops,  to  take  place  before 

the  burial  of  the  former  one,  46, 
power  of  the  people  in,  1.32,  by  the 
metropolitan,  provincial  bishops,  cler- 
gy, and  people,  133,  manner  of  the 
people's  voting  at,  131,  by  the  peo- 
ple's choosing  one  out  of  three  nomi- 
nated by  the  bishops,  1-38,  tumults  in, 
the  cause  of  (he  emperor's  appointing 
a  party,  ibid.,  made  by  the  optimates 
alone,  1.39,  how  the  jiower  fell  into 
the  hands  of  princes,  ibid. 


Election  of  bishops  of  Alexandria,  28- 

of  ceconu?nus,  the  manner  of  it, 

126. 

of  presbyters,  people's  power  in, 

1.36. 

of  primates,  manner  of,  64. 

Electors  of  bishops  to  testify,  on  oath, 
to  their  qualification,  140,  and  that 
they  chose  them  without  simoniacal 
contract,  146. 

Elements  of  the  eucharist  taken  an- 
ciently from  the  oblations  at  the  altar, 
752,  757,  received  separately  in  com- 
munion in  both  kinds,  811,  altered  by 
certain  heretics,  760. 

Elevation  of  the  host  not  practised  till 
the  introduction  of  transubstantiation, 
814. 

Embalming  the  dead,  much  used  by 
Christians,  1240,  and  keeping  them 
unburied,  an  Egyptian  custom,  1259. 

'E/i/3aT)|s,  the  place  in  the  atrium  of 
churches  for  washing  so  called,  289 

Ember-weeks ,  origin  of,  155,  1190,  &c. 

'YifjiioXiai,  interest  at  50  per  cent.,  200, 
1014. 

Emperors  appointed  bishops  in  case  of 
tumults,  138,  put  off  their  arms  and 
crowns  at  the  entrance  of  churches, 
292,  652. 

birthdays,  kept  as  civil  festivals, 

1124. 

thrones  in  the  church,  but  with- 
out the  altar  rails,  296. 

Eucoenia,  the  feast  of  the  dedication  of 
a  church  so  called,  326,  1169. 

Encraiites,  heretics  who  consecrated 
the  eucharist  in  water,  and  condemn- 
ed marriage  as  unlawful,  759,  1199. 

Energumens,  EVipyov/xmoi,  persons 
possessed  by  evil  spirits  so  called, 
10,  112,  names  by  which  they  were 
called,  ibid.,  ranked  in  the  same 
class  with  catechumens,  10,  their 
station  in  the  church,  288,  291,  were 
the  care  of  e.Korcists,  112,  were  bap- 
tized in  extreme  cases,  501,  some- 
times had  the  eucharist,  805,  not  to 
be  ordained,  149,  1045,  prayers  for, 
739. 

Enmity  reckoned  a  degree  of  murder, 
993. 

EnthronisticcE  epistolee,  letters  sent  by 
a  newly  ordained  bishop  to  foreign 
bishops  so  called,  50. 

Enthronisticus  sermo,  discourse  of  the 
ordination  of  a  bishop  so  called,  ibid. 

Enthronement  of  bishops  at  their  or- 
dination, ibid. 

Enthusiastics,  diviners  so  called,  943. 

Entrance  into  the  church,  ceremonies 
observed  at,  652. 

Envy,  whether  subject  to  church  dis- 
cipline, 1026. 

'EopTai  irfOCTXETrTai,  certain   festivals  '• 
so  called,  292.  , 

Epaphroditus,  first  bishop  of  Philip-  ' 
pi,  21.  J 

'E(p6oLov,  baptism  so  called,  477,  the  i 
eucharist  so  called,  801. 

'E<popoi,  bishops  so  called,  22. 

'E<pufxi/Lov,  a  peculiar  way  of  singing 
psalms  so  called,  682. 

Ephphatha,  a  ceremony  at  the  baptism 
of  catechumens  so  called,  4.39. 

'ETri\X»)(7is,  the  bishop's  exhortation  to 
pray  so  called,  90,  744,  760. 

Epinicion,  an  ancient  hymn  so  called, 
689. 

Epiphatiii/s,  ordained  out  of  his  own 
diocese,  35. 

Epiphany,  festival  of  Christ's,  fixed  on 
the  sixth  of  .January,  1142,  distinct 
from  ihe  festival  of  his  Nativity;, 
1145,  what  names  called  by,  1146, 
manner  of  its  observance,  1147,  one 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


1283 


of  the  solemn  times  of  baptism  ap- 
pointed by  the  church,  510,  114G. 

Episcopa,  a  bishop's  wife  so  called, 
104. 

Episcopacy,  vindicated  from  the  an- 
cient canons,  397. 

a  model  for  settling  if,  in  all  pro- 

testant  churches,  410. 

Episcopi  episcoporum,  bishops  so  call- 
ed, 24. 

monachi,  a  corruption  of  the  text 

of  Bede,  for  ipsi  monachi,  '207. 

ordinatio,  the  anniversary  of  a 

bishop's  ordination  so  called,  158. 

Epistle  and  Gospel,  alone,  read  by  the 
church  of  Rome,  693. 

whether  read  twice  in  the 

daily  service,  697. 

Epistol<e,  k-n-KTToKal  airo\vTiKal,  fi- 
pi\vLKa\,  or  (TvaTiLTLKcii,  concessorice, 
diinissorice,  or  pacific/^,  letters 
granted  to  dergv  changing  their  dio- 
cese so  called,  32,  221,  1048,  mi^ht 
be  granted  by  bishops  alone,  32,  but 
by  chorepiscopi  to  the  country  cler- 
gy. 5/- 

canonicce,  communicator  ice,  ec- 
clesiastics, orpacificcE,  letters  grant- 
ed to  all  in  communion  with  the 
church  so  called,  32. 

clerica,  bishops'  letters  so  called, 

108. 

commendatoriee,  letters  for  per- 
sons of  quality  travelling  so  called,  32. 

sacree,  the  emperor's  letters  so 

called,  65. 

synodiccB,  or  tractorice,  letters 

conveying  information  of  a  bishop's 
promotion,  or  summoning  bishops  to 
a  provincial  synod,  so  called,  50,  65. 

Equi  canonici,  horses  supplied  by  tri- 
bute for  military  service  so  called,  174. 

cursnales,  those  supplied  for  civil 

service  so  callea,  178. 

Espousals,  the  difference  between  them 
and  marriage,  1213,  the  manner  of 
making  them,  1214,  &c. 

'Ho-ux" "■''■«'>  monks  so  called,  248. 

Ethiopic  church,  the  custom  of  putting 
off  the  shoes  on  entering  churches 
still  observed  by  it,  332. 

EiiYai  -KKXTuiv,  the  missa  fidelium  so 
called,  569. 

otfi  7rpo(T<^a)i/?;cr£a)s,  bidding  pray- 
ers so  called,  746. 

Eucharist,  elements  for,  taken  from 
the  oblations,  752,  757,  neither  wafers 
nor  unleavened  bread  used  in,  ihid., 
origin  of  the  use  of  wafers  in,  758, 
condemned  at  first,  ihid.,  wine  mixed 
with  water  in,  759. 

people  always  received  it  in  both 

kinds,  808,  elements  received  sepa- 
rately, 811. 

not  to  be  celebrated  by  presbyters 

without  the  consent  of  their  bishops, 
26,  not  to  be  consecrated  by  deacons, 
88,  elements  ministered  to  the  peo- 
ple by  the  deacons,  87.  office  of,  rest- 
ed wholly  with  the  bishops  and  dea- 
cons., originally,  88,  not  to  be  minis- 
tered by  subdeacons,  109,  h(morary 
privilege  of  consecrating,  to  be  given 
to  clergy  visiting  the  church,  163. 

ceremonies  and  prayers  at  the 

oblation  and  consecration  of,  771,  &c., 
received  fasting,  833,  people  received 
it  into  their  own  hands,  821,  if  women 
and  children  did  so,  822,  form  of 
words  used  at  its  delivery,  823,  reserv- 
ation of  part  for  particular  purposes, 
829,  remainder  of,  divided  amongst 
the  communicants,  ibid.,  this  distinct 
from  the  division  of  the  oblations, 
ihid.,  remainder  given  sometimes  to 
innocent   children,   ihid.,  sometimes 


burnt,  830,  other  oblations  disposed 
of  as  a  feast  of  charity,  ihid. 

Eucharist  consecrated;  sometimes  in 
private  houses,  802,  kept  in  church  for 
private  use,  ibid.,  or  for  public  uses, 
803,  sometimes  reserved  in  private 
for  private  use,  ibid.,  inconveniences 
attending  the  novel  oistom  of  keep- 
ing it  forty  days,  805,  manner  of  ce- 
lebrating, concealed  from  catechu- 
mens, 469. 

all  persons  obliged  to  receive,  ex- 
cept catechumens  and  penitents,  791, 
849,  relaxation  of  the  discipline  con- 
cerning it,  791,  not  given  to  heretics 
and  schismatics  without  confession 
and  reconciliation,  796,  given  to  in- 
fants and  children,  545,  797,  sent  to 
the  absent  members  of  churches,  800, 
and  to  the  sick,  and  prisoners,  to 
those  in  penance,  and  the  dying,  801, 
given  sometimes  to  energumens  in 
their  lucid  intervals,  805,  men  of  no- 
torious crimes  debarred  from,  806. 
admission  of  adulterers  to,  opinion  of 
the  African  church,  37,  practice  of 

fiving  to  the  dead,  censured,  ihid., 
250,  and  of  buiying  with  the  dead, 
807,  1251,  what  preparation  was  re- 
quired for  the  worthy  reception  of  it, 
835,  order  of  receiving  it,  807,  pos- 
ture-in which  it  was  received,  812. 

received  every  Lord's  day  for  the 

first  three  ages,  849,  850,  and  on  other 
days  beside  in  many  churches,  ihid., 
on  every  day  in  some  places,  851. 
settled  into  three  times  a  year,  854, 
and  then  into  once  a  year,  ihid. 

altogether  rejected  by  certain  he- 
retics, 760,  distinguished  from  the 
eulogies,  792,  absolution  granted  by, 
1087,  not  worshipped  before  the 
twelfth  or  thirteenth  century,  819,  its 
abuse  by  Novatian  and  others,  824. 

EuxapiffTi'rt.  the  greater  thanksgiving 
at  the  eucharist  so  called,  770. 

opdptvli,  the  morning  thanksgiv- 
ing so  called,  667. 

Eux'f  T!'i<TTwv,  the  Lord's  prayer  so 
called,  12,  438. 

oi(i    <7xa)TrJ)s,  or  kutu    Sidpoiav, 

the  silent  prayer  before  the  commu- 
nion service  so  called,  744. 

Euchites,  their  opinion  of  baptism,  480. 
Euxo/JLivoi,  a  class  of  catechumens  so 

called,  433. 
Eu»cTj;piot  oiKoi,  churches  so   called, 

271. 
EuloyicE,  the   sacrament   of  catechu- 
mens so  called,  440,  792. 
of  excommunicated  heretics,  not 

to  be  received,  894. 
Eunomians,  heretics  who  baptized  into 

the  death  of  Christ,  486,  623. 
Eunuchs  not  to  be  ordained,  144. 
Euodius  first  bishop  of  Antioch,  20. 
Eusehius  of  Samosata  ordained  out  of 

his  own  diocese,  35. 
Eustathians,    orthodox   Christians    so 

called,  8. 

certain  heretics  who  condemned 

marriage,  1199. 

Evectio,  the  clergy  sometimes  exempt 
from,  177. 

Evening  Hymn,  not  part  of  public  wor- 
ship. 674,  690. 

Psalm,  the  beginning  of  the  even- 
ing service,  672. 

service,  differences   between    it 

aud  the  morning  service,  ihid. 

and  morning  service,  held  during 

the  third  century,  660. 

Examination  of  canilidates  for  ordina- 
tion, 140. 

Exarchs  of  the  diocese,  patriarchs  so 
called,  67. 

■1  y  2 


Exarchs  of  the  province,  primates  so 

called,  61. 
Exceptores,  certain  inferior  officers  of 

the  church  so  called,  127. 
Exchequer,  emperor's,  allowance  made 

from  it  to  the  clergy,  lb5. 
Excommunicatio  ecclesiastica,  what  it 

meant,  1028. 
ipso  facto,  what  it  was,  915. 

major  et  minor,  described,  887, 

888. 

Excommunication,  lesser,  consisted  in 
suspension  from  communion,  ihid., 
greater,  in  expulsion  from  the  church, 
ibid.,  delivery  to  Satan,  895,  anathe- 
ma maranatha,  897,  whether  ever 
accompanied  by  the  devotion  of  the 
sinner  to  temporal  destruction,  899, 
grounds  of  its  severity,  891,  forms  of, 
amongst  the  Jews,  898. 

managed  sometimes  by  presby- 
ters, 255,  and  sometimes  by  deacons, 
91,  notified  to  other  churches,  889. 

danger  of  inllicting,  on  the  inno- 
cent, 913,  not  inflicted  without  a 
hearing,  914,  nor  without  legal  con- 
viction, 915,  nor  on  minors,  916,  nor 
for  temporal  causes,  922,  nor  to  re- 
venge private  injuries,  923,  nor  for 
purposed  sins,  924,  nor  for  compul- 
sory actions,  ibid.,  the  greater,  some- 
times forborne  for  the  good  of  the 
church,  908. 

heretics  punished  by,  955,  in- 
flicted on  any  who  brought  a  cause 
before  an  heretical  judge,  959,  and  for 
fasting  on  the  Lord's  day,  982,  in- 
flicted after  death,  916.  sometimes 
inflicted  on  the  clergy,  1033. 

Excommunicated  persons  held  to  be 
so  for  all  churches,  889,  avoided,  and 
allowed  no  memorial,  891,  1256,  no 
donations  received  from,  752,  892,  if 
their  children  might  be  baptized,  497. 

Exedra.  the  reading  desk  so  called, 293. 

the  highest  part  of  the  church  so 

called,  299. 

Exedree,  the  outbuildings  of  the  church 
so  called,  288,  308,  described,  ibid., 
311. 

Exomologeses,  the  greater  litanies  so 
called,  575,  distinguished  from  auri- 
cular confession,  1065. 

Exorcism,  formed  part  of  the  prepara- 
tion of  catechumens  for  baptism,  4.35, 
not  to  be  practised  without  permis- 
sion from  a  bishop  or  c^ore;JMCo/)M,y, 
112,  called  fire,  436,  consisted  of 
prayers  alone,  ibid. 

Exorcists,  not  at  first  an  order  of  cler- 
gy, 110,  bishops  and  presbyters  were, 
m  the  first  three  centuries,  ihid.,  and, 
in  a  sense,  every  man  his  own.  111, 
constituted  into  an  order  in  the  third 
century,  ibid. 

form   for    ordaining,    112,   their 

offices,  ibid.,  113. 

'E^wOou/nfyoi,  a  class  of  catechiunens 
privately  instructed  so  called,  434. 

'Y.^ovQtvmxivoL,  meaning  of  the  word, 
37. 

Exposed  children,  if  to  be  baptized, 
498. 

Exposing  infants  reputed  murder,  991. 

Expulsion  from  the  church,  the  greater 
excommunication,  888. 

Exsufflation  practised  at  baptism,  517. 

Extempore  sermons  common  ancient- 
ly, 717. 

F 

Faith,  communion  of  different  churches 

in,  870. 
and  learning  of  candidates   for 

ordination,  how  ascertained,  140. 
,  profession  of.  according  to  the 


12S4 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


artii-les  of  the  Creed,  required  in  bap- 
tism, 519. 

Faith  and  repentance,  the  sacrament 
of,  baptism  so  called,  476. 

,  rule  of,  the  Creed  so  called,  449, 

858. 

,  unity  of,  the  foundation  of  the 

church,   b57,   maintained  without   a 
visible  head,  870,  875. 

Famishers  of  the  poor  reputed  mur- 
derers, 993. 

Fanatici,  diviners  so  called,  943. 

Fans  used  to  drive  away  insects  from 
the  altar  during  the  communion  ser- 
vice, 7()9. 

Fant,  Rogation,  its  original,  J193. 

Fasting,  bishops  miu:ht  appoint  parti- 
cular daj's  for,  in  tneir  own  churches, 
.36,extraordinary,  practised  by  monks, 
'257,  practised  as  a  preparation  for 
baptism,  437. 

on   the   Lord's  day   prohibited, 

982,  even  in  the  time  of  Lent,  11.33. 
m  Whitsuntide  prohibited,  1158. 


Fasts,  public,  to  be  observed  by  the 
penitents,  1063. 

contemning,   punished    in    the 

clergy  by  degradation,  1051. 

of  Ember- weeks,  1192,  of  the 

four  seasons,  1190,  of  Wednesdays 
and  Fridays,  1193,  occasional,  1195. 

Fathers,  abbots  so  called,  255,  bishops 
so  called,  23,  the  people  so  called  by 
bishops,  because  thev  elected  them, 
1.36. 

Feasts  of  charity  at  the  communion, 
8.32,  why  forbidden,  .330,  8.3-3,  at  the 
graves  of  the  dead,  1251,  at  the  graves 
of  martyrs,  how  abused,  1165. 

anniversaries  of  bishops'  ordina- 
tions kept  as,  1170. 

of  tne  Annunciation,  its  observ- 
ance, 1171. 

of  the  dedication  of  churches,  329, 

1169. 

Fencing-masters,  their  calling  con- 
demned, 992. 

Ferice  cestivee,  and  autumnales,  de- 
scribed, 1122. 

Fei'mentum,  the  eucharist  so  called, 
757. 

Ferula,  the  ante-temple  so  called,  288, 
291. 

Festivals  of  all  the  martyrs,  1168,  vigils 
of  martyrs,  how  observed,  6.57,  origin 
of,  659,  1161,  proper  lessons  ap- 
pointed for,  694. 

of  Christ's  Nativity  and  Epiphany, 

ancient  observance  of,  1141,  origin 
of,  in  the  ajiostolical  days,  114.3. 

whether  any  in  memory  of  the 

apostles,  1167. 

of  Easter,  of  its  observance,  &c., 

1147,  of  the  Holy  Innocents,  1167,  of 
the  Maccabees,  1168,  in  memory  of 
deliverances  vouchsafed  to  the  church, 
1171. 

,  despising,  punished  in  the  clergy 

by  degradation,  1051. 

,  what  meant  by  civil,  1122. 

Fideles,  the  baptized  laity  so  called,  10, 
stationed  above  the  ambon,  286,  288, 
293. 

Fidelium  missa,  the  communion  ser- 
vice so  called,  568,  744. 

oratio,  the  Lord's  prayer  so  call- 
ed, 471. 

First-fruits,  the  original  of  them,  and 
manner  of  their  oti'ering,  191,  of  Gen- 
tile converts  designed  to  the  ministrv, 
129. 

Flagellantes,  an  order  of  monks  so 
called,  256. 

Flagellum  Domini,  what  excommuni- 
cation so  called,  896. 

Flumines,  censures  against,  929. 


Flattery,  how  punished,  1015. 

Flentes,  an  order  of  penitents  so  called, 
1058. 

Flesh,  superstitious  abstinence  from, 
censured  in  the  clergy,  1051. 

Flowers  strown  anciently  upon  graves, 
1253. 

Fonts,  anciently  distinct  from  churches, 
291,  placed,  according  to  some,  in  the 
naithe.x  of  churches,  308,  how  adorn- 
ed, 310,  distinguished  from  baptiste- 
ries, 309. 

Forgery,  how  punished,  1014. 

Formatce  literee,  granted  by  bishops 
alone,  32,  but  by  chorepiscopi  to  the 
country  clergy,  57,  and  by  the  pri- 
mates to  their  bishops,  66,  bishops 
must  not  travel  without  them,  ihid., 
nor  clergy,  164. 

Forms  observed  in  baptism  taught  to 
the  candidates  by  way  of  preparation, 
4.38,  of  words  in  baptism,  481,  altered 
by  various  sects,  484,  of  renouncing 
the  devil,  515,  of  covenant  with  Christ, 
518,  and  of  consecration  of  the  water 
in  baptism,  533. 

of  thanksgiving  and  consecration 

prayers  at  the  eucharist,  761,  &c.,  of 
words  at  the  delivery  of  the  elements, 
823. 

of  prayer,  various  names  of,  572, 

of  the  apostles'  days,  605,  evidence 
of,  in  the  second  century,  608,  in  the 
third  century,  612,  in  the  fourth  cen- 
tury, 615,  for  catechumens,  737,  for 
energumens,  739. 

of  bidding  prayer,  746,  748. 

of  excommunication,  888,  and  of 

absolution,  1093. 

Fornication,  how  pimished,  994,  pun- 
ished in  the  clergy  by  degradation, 
198. 

Fossarii,  an  inferior  order  of  clergy, 
117,  their  instit'.ition  and  office,  118. 

Fountains  at  the  entrance  of  churches, 
288.  289. 

France,  churches  of,  anciently  not  sub- 
ject to  the  bishop  of  Rome,  .348. 

Fraud  in  the  clergy  punished  by  de- 
gradation, 198. 

and  forgery,  how  punished,  1014, 

in  trust  censured,  1017,  in  traffic  cen- 
sured, ibid. 

Frediani,  certain  idolatrous  officers  so 
called,  946. 

Freedmen  could  not  be  ordained  with- 
out the  consent  of  their  patrons,  147. 

Fridays  were  stationary  days  for  church 
assemblies,  655. 

Frugality  of  the  clergy,  exemplary, 
2(J2. 

Frumentius  ordained  bishop  of  India 
at  Alexandria,  137. 

Fundamental  articles  of  faith,  what 
they  were,  858. 

Funerals,  an  account  of  them,  12.30, 
&c.,  ordered  and  superintended  by 
special  officers  of  the  church,  118, 
1246.     See  Burying  the  dead. 

G 

Gabbarep,  Egyptian  mummies  so  call- 
ed, 1259. 

Galilearis,  Christians  so  called,  5. 

Games,  public,  frequenters  of,  rejected 
from  baptism,  505,  punished  as  idol- 
aters, 9-30. 

Gamesters,  not  to  be  baptized,  501, 
punished  as  idolaters,  930. 

Gaming,  censured,  1021,  amongst  the 
clergy  punished  by  degradation,  199. 

Gardens  reckoned  part  of  the  church, 
31 1. 

Gates,  holy,  the  entrance  to  the  chan- 
cel so  called,  298. 


Gazophylacium,  a  treasury  for  the  gifts 
of  the  people  outside  the  church,  307, 
312. 

Genethliaci.  calculators  of  nativities  so 
called,  940. 

Genius  of  the  emperor,  not  to  be  sworn 
by,  978. 

Genujlectentes,  yowKXtvovT^i,  a  class 
of  catechumens  so  called,  434,  an 
order  of  penitents  so  called,  1060. 

Gestures,  theatrical,  disallowed  in  de- 
votion, 651. 

Gilding  and  carving  used  in  churches, 
319. 

Gladiators  rejected  from  baptism,  504, 
and  from  communion,  930. 

Gloria  in  excelsis,  a  hymn  used  in  the 
communion  service,  789. 

Patri,  addeil  at  the  end  of  every 

psalm  in  the  Western  church,  but 
not  in  the  Eastern,  680,  685,  varia- 
tions in  its  form,  ibid. 

Glory  be  to  thee,  O  Lord  !  said  by  the 
people  before  the  reading  of  the  Gos- 
pel, 699. 

Gnostici,  rvwcTTiKol,  Christians  so  call- 
ed, 2. 

heretics  who  condemned  mar- 
riage, 1198. 

rojjxai.  Christians  so  called,  6. 
Gospel,  lights  carried   before,   in    the 

Eastern  churches,  700,  swearing  by, 

when  first  used,  979,  laid  upon  the 

bishop's  head  at  his  ordination,  50. 
read  by  deacons  in  some  churches, 

87,  people  stood  up  at  its  reading  in 

some  places,  699. 
and  Epistle,  if  read  twice  in  the 

morning  service,  697. 
rprifx/ia,  ypacp!],  the   Creed  so   called, 

450. 
Graves,  reckoned  sacred  by  all  nations, 

12.37,  how  adorned,  12.38,  robbers  of, 

how  pmiished,  1256,  accounted  guilty 

of  sacrilege,  963. 
Greeks,  Christians  so  called,  5. 
Greeting-house,    the     diaconicuni     so 

called,  311. 
Guardians  in  office  not  to  be  ordained, 

149,  laws  prohibiting  the  clergy  from 

becoming,  225,  not  to  marry  orphans 

in  their  minority,  1208. 
Gyrovagi,  wandering  monks  so  called, 

248. 


H 


Habits  of  the  clergy,  laws  respecting 
them,  228,  to  be  grave  without  sin- 
gularity, ibid.,  in  no  other  way  dis- 
tinguished from  those  of  the  laity,  2.30. 

description  of  various,  ibid. 

&c.,  names  of,  646,  long  hair  and 
shaving  censured,  228,  indecent,  pun- 
ished bv  degradation,  1052,  the  ton- 
sure, 228. 

use  of,  in  Divine  service,  no 

certain  evidence  of,  for  the  first  three 
centuries,  645,  evidence  in  the  fourth 
century,  ibid. 

of  monks,  252,  of  virgins,  266. 

promiscuous,  of  men  and  women 

forbidden,  1008. 

Haredipetcs,  certain  fraudulent  hypo- 
crites so  called,  1016. 

Hair,  cut  off'  or  neglected  during  pe- 
nance, 1062,  women's,  untied  at  mar- 
riage, 122.3,  long,  censured  in  the 
clergy,  228. 

Hallelujah,  an  ancient  hymn  so  called, 
689. 

Hands,  joining,  a  ceremony  used  in 
espousals,  and  marriage,  1216,  1222, 
lifting  up,  in  the  form  of  a  cross,  an 
act  of  devotion,  650,  washing,  cus- 
tomary on  entering  churches,  332. 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


1285 


Jlirioli,  diviners  so  called,  942. 

Iliirluts,  rejected  from  baptism,  503, 
iiiaintaiiiiiig-,  how  punished,  1(J03, 
[lersous  that  had  married,  rejected 
Horn  ordiiuitii)u,  149. 

Hunks  arid  liounds,  keeping,  punish- 
ed in  the  clorgv  by  degradation, 
\o:yl. 

7/t  (/(/,  the  ancients  uncovered  it  in 
I  heir  devotions,  650. 

of  all  churches,  the  church  of  the 

patriarchof  Constantinople  so  called, 
74. 

of  the  church,  no  visible,  neces- 
sary for  its  unity,  t^75. 

Hearers  usually  stood  in  churches,  729, 
a  singular  way  of  quickening  their 
attention  in  the  African  church,  730, 
two  reflections  made  by  the  ancients 
upon  them,  734. 

a  class  of  catechumens  so  called, 

434,  a  class  of  penitents  so  called, 
1059,  their  station  in  churches,  286, 
288.  291. 

Heathen  persecutors  alone  deprived 
the  people  of  the  Scriptures,  598. 

temples  and  revenues  settled  on 

the  church,  186. 

writers,  their  testimony  to  the  ex- 
cellency of  the  rules  and  the  conduct 
of  the  clergy,  195,  how  far  they  might 
be  studied  I'ly  tlie  clergy,  210. 

Heathens,  allowed  to  hear  sermons  in 
the  church,  291,  children  of,  if  they 
might  be  baptized,  498,  499. 

Hebdomadarii,  monks  so  called,  259. 

Hebdomas  magna,  the  week  before 
Easter  so  called,  its  particular  ob- 
servance, 1185. 

Hecatontarchee,  certain  idolatrous  of- 
ficers so  called,  946. 

Hegnmeni,  the  governors  of  monas- 
teries so  called,  249,  255. 

Heiniphorium,  a  short  coat  without 
sleeves,  231. 

Henry  VIII.,  his  design  to  augment 
the  number  of  bishops  in  England, 
411. 

Heresiarchs  more  severely  treated  than 
their  followers,  960. 

Heretical  baptism,  disqualified  for  or- 
dination, 145,  various  forms  of,  538. 

books,  how  far  allowed  as  studies 

for  the  clergy,  210,  to  be  burned, 
894. 

conventicles  atjd  revenues  settled 

on  the  church,  186. 

Heretics,  who  were  formally  to  be  ac- 
counted such,  961,  assumed  party 
names,  3,  certain,  wholly  rejected 
baptism,  478,  others  altered  its  form, 
483,  &c.,  others  rebaptized  Catholics, 
565.  certain,  rejected  the  sacrament 
of  the  eucharist,  760,  others  altered 
or  added  to  the  elements  in  it,  ibid., 
the  worship  of  angels,  &c.,  charged 
against  some,  593,  certain,  rejected 
or  perverted  the  ordinance  of  mar- 
riage, 1197,  &c.,  used  the  Lord's 
prayer  even  as  Catholics  did,  64-3, 
their  blasphemy,  969. 

not  reckoned  amongst  Christians, 

10,  ecclesiastical  and  civil  punish- 
ments of,  953,  955,  denied  the  choice 
of  their  clergy,  137,  denied  astjla  in 
Christian  churches,  3.37,  amongst  the 
clergy  degraded,  and  never  admitted 
again  to  more  than  lay  conununion, 
218,  no  one  might  mariy,  894,  1201, 
nor  reail  their  books,  b9i.  nor  receive 
their  eulogiep,  ibid.,  clergy  who  held 
familiar  converse  with,  degraded, 
1054,  not  to  be  evidence  against  bi- 
shops, 165. 

admitted  to  the  niissa  catechu- 

me?iorum, 291. 567, 956,  the  rrbaptiza- 


tion  of  certain,  their  only  absolution, 
1096,  opinion  of  the  African  church 
respecting  their  rebaptisni,  .36,  how 
far  charity  made  up  to  those  return- 
ing to  the  church  their  lack  of  bap- 
tism, 411,  not  admitted  to  the  eucha- 
rist without  confession  and  reconcili- 
ation, 796,  sometimes  reordained, 
161. 

Htrmeneutce,  certain  inferior  officers 
of  the  church  so  called,  127. 

Hermians.  heretics  who  rejected  bap- 
tism, 479. 

Hesgchastce.  monks  so  called,  248. 

Hexapla  of  Origen  described,  714. 

Hierarchy,  Upwfifvoi,  the  superior  or- 
der of  the  clergy  so  called,  107. 

High  priests,  primates  so  called,  61. 

Highways,  the  clergy  sometimes  ex- 
empt from  contributing  to  them, 
177. 

Hind,  the  offering  of  one  on  new-year's 
day  censured,  1124. 

Histopedes,  the  Eunomian  heretics  so 
called,  from  their  way  of  baptizinii-. 
538. 

Holy  Ghost,  worship  of,  586,  blas- 
piiemy  against,  what  thought  to  be, 
969,  form  for  imparting,  at  the  ordin- 
ation of  presbyters,  not  found  in  the 
ancient  rituals,  83,  men  designed  to 
the  ministry  by  the  particular  direc- 
tion of,  130. 

Holy,  holy,  holy,  the  cherubical  hvmn, 
6^4. 

Holy  table,  the  communion  table  so 
called,  .301. 

things,  abuse  of,  punished  by  Di- 
vine judgments,  331,  964. 

unction,   the  administration  of, 

concealed  from  catechumens,  469. 

water,  its  origin  discussed,  290. 

Homilies,  sermons  anciently  so  called, 
705,  read  in  the  church,  90,  727. 

Homoousians,  orthodox  Christians  so 
called,  8. 

Honey  and  lyiilk  given  at  baptism,  560. 

Honores,  honourable  offices  charged  to 
persons  and  estates,  179. 

Honor  cathedra,  a  pension  paid  to  bi- 
shops at  their  visitations  so  called, 
410. 

Horse-racing  censured,  930. 

Hosanna,  an  ancient  hymn  so  called, 
690,  sung  to  bishops,  41. 

Hospitality  of  the  clergy,  202,  not 
shown  bv  entertaining  the  rich,  203. 

Host-worship,  not  practised  tdl  the 
twelfth  century,  819. 

Hours  of  prayer,  canonical,  their  ori- 
gin, 661. 

Hucksters,  fraudulent,  how  punished. 
1017. 

Husband  of  one  wife,  meaning  of  this, 
119. 

Husbands,  women  not  to  marry  in  the 
absence  of  their,  1208,  nor  widows 
till  twelve  months  after  the  death  of 
their,  1207. 

Huy,  abbots  of,  their  peculiar  author- 
ity. 256. 

Hydroparastatce,  heretics  who  conse- 
crated the  eucharist  in  water,  759. 

Hyemantes,  persons  possessed  of  evil 
spirits  so  called,  112,  1083. 

Hymns,  an  account  of  the  ancient,  623, 
&c.,  685,  &c., 

morning  and  evening,  668,  674. 

Hymnus  cherubicus,  a  hymn  to  the  Tri- 
nity so  called,  625. 

Ht/papante.  the  festival  of  Candlemas 
so  called.  1146,  1172. 

Hypopsalma,  a  peculiar  way  of  sing- 
ing the  psalms  so  called,  682. 

Hypsistarians,  monotheistic  heretics, 
950. 


I 


James.  St.,  first  bishop  of  Jerusalem,  20. 

'Ixt^us,  the  technical  name  of  Christ,  2, 
310,  474,  5.32. 

'loLmTUL,  laymen  so  called,  13,  14,  ar- 
bitrators so  called,  38. 

Idleness,  why  censured,  1020. 

Idolaters,  ditlerent  sorts  of,  and  how 
punished.  925,  &c. 

Idolatry,  worship  of  creatures,  saints, 
angels,  &c.,  condemned  as,  589,  937, 
of  various  kinds,  9.32. 

Idol  festivals  not  to  be  observed,  934, 
when  a  Christian  mif'ht  be  present  at, 
933. 

Idol  makers,  punishment  of,  931. 

Idolothyta.  things  offered  to  idols  so 
called,  9.32. 

Idol  procurators,  how  censured,  ihid 

Idols  and  idol  temples  not  to  be  de- 
stroyed without  authority,  938. 

Jejuniu  quatuor  temporum,  the  Em- 
ber-weeks, the  four  solemn  times  of 
ordination,  so  called,  155,  1 190. 

'lipa,  Ispovpyia,  Divine  service  so  call- 
ed, 571. 

'lepaTelou,  that  part  of  the  church 
where  the  altar  stood  so  called,  16, 
297. 

'IcpaTiKol,  the  clergy  so  called,  16. 

'lepoKi'ipvKi.'s,  deacons  so  called,  89. 

'ItpwfxfvoL,  the  superior  clergy  so  tail- 
ed, 107. 

'\fpotxova)(oi,  ordained  monks  so  called, 
246. 

Jerusalem,  subject  to  the  primate  of 
Ca;sarea,  75. 

Jesseatis,  'Itaaaioi.,  Christians  so  call- 
ed, 1. 

Jewish  apostates,  how  censured,  949. 

liturgy,  an  accoiuit  of  it,  (J05,  &c. 

Jews,  Christians  so  called  by  the  hea- 
then, 4. 

had    distinct   bishops   from    the 

Gentiles  at  first,  according  to  some, 
55,  patriarchs  of,  68. 

admitted  to  the  missa  catechu- 

menorum,  288, 291, 567,  956,  who  pre- 
tended conversion,  denied  sanctuary 
in  Christian  churches,  3-37,  children 
of,  if  they  might  be  baptized,  (J98, 
Christians  not  to  marry,  1201,  nor  to 
receive  their  eulogice,  951,  laws  for- 
bidding familiar  intercourse  with,  to 
the  clergy,  228,  1054. 

Ignatius,  second  bishop  of  .\ntioch,  20, 
his  evidence  of  the  prerogatives  of 
presbyters.  78,  and  of  the  office  of 
deacons,  85. 

Ignorance  in  the  clergy  censured,' 209. 

Illuminati,  baptized  persons  so  called, 
11,474. 

Image  makers  rejected  from  baptism, 
503,  and  from  communion,  931. 

Images,  the  ancients  did  not  approve 
of,  .32-3,  not  placed  in  churches  during 
the  first  tliree  centuries,  .320. 

of  God,  not  allowed  till  after  the 

seond  Nicene  council,  ,322. 

Immersion,  deemed  the  best  mode  of 
baptism,  5.36,  537,  performed  in  en- 
tire nudity,  ibid.,  baptism  not  always 
performed  by,  477. 

trine,  practised,  5.39. 

Immunity  of  the  clergy  from  secular 
courts  in  ecclesiastical  matters,  168, 
from  certain  taxes  and  civil  offices, 
171.  &c. 

Itnpluvium,  the  court  before  the  church 
so  called,  289. 

Imposition  of  hands,  its  origin,  554. 
at  the  admission  of  catechumens,  429, 
given  to  the  genuflectenles  (hiring 
their  worship.  4-35,  in  the  preparation 


1236 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


of  the  competentes  for  baptism,  ibid., 
in  confirmation,  549,  553,  ia  the 
morning  service,  G68,  in  the  admission 
of  penitents  to  penance,  1061,  in  ab- 
sohition,  1U89,  in  ordination,  100, 157. 

Imposition  of  hands,  not  used  at  the 
ordination  of  the  inferior  clergy,  107. 

Impostors,  Christians  so  called,  6. 

Incendiaries,  their  punishment,  1009. 

Incense  not  used  in  the  first  ages,  306. 

Incest,  how  punished,  995,  1205,  the 
marriage  of  cousin-gerraans  not  reck- 
oned to  be,  996. 

Incestuous  marriages  forbidden,  1204. 

Independency  of  bishops  in  the  early 
church,  and  particularly  in  Africa,  in 
the  time  of  Cyprian,  36. 

of  the  churches  of  Britain,  Cy- 
prus, Armenia,  &c.,  75,  348,  &c. 

Indicere  orationem,  and  Indicta  ora- 

tio,  what  these  phrases  mean,  749. 
Indictio  canonica,  m\A  extraor  dinar  ia, 

distinguished,  173,  177. 
Indulgences,   the    ancient   notions  of, 

1082,  granted  at  Easter,  925. 
Indulgentia,  baptism  so   called,   473, 

1086. 
Infant  baptism,  proofs  of  it  from  the 

ancient  records  of  the  church,  490, 

&c.,  not  to  be  delaved  till  the  eighth 

day,  496. 
Infants  dying  unbaptized,  their  case, 

446. 

were    confirmed,    544,   received 

the  eucharist,  545,  797,  829. 

exposure    of,  reckoned  murder, 

991. 

Infidels,  admitted  to  the  missa  cate- 
chumenorum,  567,  to  withdraw  from 
the  public  prayers,  737. 

Informers  in  limes  of  persecution  re- 
puted murderers,  991. 

Initiati,  baptized  persons  so  called,  11. 

Injustice,  various  kinds  of,  and  their 
punishment,  1009. 

Innocents,  festival  of,  its  observance, 
1167. 

Insacrati,  the  inferior  orders  of  the 
clergy  so  called,  107. 

Inscriptionis  vinculum,  the  bond  given 
before  accusing  any  man  publicly  so 
called,  990. 

Insufflation  observed  in  preparing  can- 
didates for  baptism,  435. 

Insulani,  monks  so  called,  249. 

Intercession  for  criminals  allowed  to 
bishops,  39,  883,  by  magistrates  to 
bishops,  1082,  of  martyrs  for  those 
subject  to  church  censures,  902,  1082, 
by  monks,  261. 

Intercessores,  interventores,  some  bi- 
shops in  the  African  church  so  call- 
ed, 59,  their  office  to  last  but  a  year, 
ibid.,  bishops  holding  it,  not  to  succeed 
to  the  vacant  see,  60,  sometimes  de- 
prived the  people  of  their  power,  138, 
their  office  indicates  the  power  of  the 
people  in  choosing  their  bishops,  135. 

Interpreters,  the  use  of  this  order  in  the 
church,  597. 

Invitatory  psalm  at  the  eucharist.  789. 

Job,  and  Jonah,  read  during  Passion 
week,  696. 

Ipso  facto  excommunication,  what  it 
is,  915. 

Ireland,  fabulous  reports  of  its  ecclesi- 
astical prosperity,  393. 

Ischyras,  his  ordination  pronounced 
null,  28. 

Italy  had  three  hundred  dioceses  in  it, 
380. 

Judges,    exactions   of,   how    punished. 

1012. 
Jndices  electi,  bishops  chosen  by  the 
metropolitan  to  try  particular  causes 
so  called,  65. 


Jnga,  and  Jiigatio,  the  property  tax  on 
land  so  called,  173. 

Julian  commended  the  laws  of  Chris- 
tians, 193,  designed  to  reform  the 
heathen  priests  by  the  rules  of  the 
primitive  clergy,  237. 

Jumenta,  orthodox  Christians  so  call- 
ed, 9. 

.Juramenium  de  calnmnia,  the  oath 
taken  before  a  plaintiff  could  prose- 
cute certain  actions,  976. 

Jurisdiction,  difference  between  spi- 
ritual and  temporal,  31. 

Justinian'  shomi  respecting  the  church 
of  Sancta  Sophia.  283,  inscription  on 
the  altar  in  it,  319. 


K,  calumniators  branded  with  this  let- 
ter, 1023. 

Kd/uacos,  a  surplice  so  calleil,  646. 

Kavwv,  the  Creed  so  called,  459,  the 
catalogue  of  a  church  so  called,  15. 

ILavovLKol  \//a\T«t,  the  clergy  who  sang 
in  the  church  so  called,  16,  116. 

'Viavovi'^iLv,  to  make  laws  for  church 
government,  327. 

KaTr?;\oi,  fraudulent  hucksters  cen- 
sured, 1019. 

Kaxayoiyia,  the  dwellings  of  the  keep- 
ers of  the  church  so  called,  314. 

KaTfiXoyos  UpaTtKos,  the  list  of  the 
clergy,  16. 

KaTa/uayxji/OjUEi/oi,  persons  led  away 
by  diviners,  censured,  942. 

K-aTaTTtTaa fj.a  f).varTLK6v,thc  veil  hiding 
the  altar  from  the  nave  so  called, 
298. 

Kadaipiffii,  the  degradation  of  the 
clergy  so  called,  1030. 

'KaTt-x^ofj.ivoL,  persons  possessed  of  evil 
spirits  so  called,  112. 

KaTjjxou/UEva,  the  women's  part  of  the 
nave  so  called,  295. 

KaTrixou/xtvoi,  catechumens,  an  order 
in  the  Christian  church,  9,  429. 

KEfpaXai,  primates  so  called,  61. 

K.jtpuy/j.aTa,  sermons  so  called,  706. 

Ki'ipvKi^,  deacons  so  called,  89,90,  706. 

KjjpuTXEiy,  to  bid  prayer  in  the  congre- 
gation, ibid. 

Kty/cXiOES,  the  rails  separating  the 
chancel  from  the  nave,  297. 

Kings  laid  aside  their  crowns  and  left 
their  guards  on  entering  churches, 
333. 

Kirk,  the  Scotch  designation  of  a 
church,  269. 

Kiss  of  peace  after  baptism,  559,  at 
the  commencement  of  the  communion 
service,  744,  at  the  eucharist,  767,  at 
ordination,  50,  83,  158,  not  to  be  given 
to  the  dead,  1250. 

Kissing  the  altar,  and  doors  and  pillars 
of  the  church,  .333,  .334,  the  bishop's 
hand,  custom  of,  40. 

part  of  the  ceremony  of  espousals, 

1216. 

K\f;pos,  ministers  so  called,  1.3. 

Kneelers,  a  class  of  catechumens  so 
called,  434,  a  class  of  penitents  so 
called,  1060. 

Kneeling,  a  devotional  posture  enjoin- 
ed on  all  ordinary  occasions,  647,  eu- 
charist received  so,  812,  presbyters 
received  ordination  so,  83,  157,  peni- 
tents always  prayed  so,  1064,  prohi- 
bited at  Whitsuntide,  1158. 
'K\v6owl'(,6ij.81'oi,   persons   possessed  of 

evil  spirits  so  called,  112. 
Koii/fui'ifca    cuyypdyup.aTa,   letters    by 

bishops  so  called,  50. 
KoifajwjKos  fioo^,  the  communicative  life 
so  called,  251. 


KoXu/i/StTo!/,  the  place  in  the  atrium  of 
churches  for  washing,  289. 

KoXv/afiriOpa,  the  font  or  pool  of  bap- 
tism, 310. 

KpoTos,  applause  given  to  preachers 
during  their  sermons,  730. 

Ku/cXoEt^j;,  KvXivSptoTu,  one  form  of 
building  churches,  287. 

KvpLaKi),  the  Lord's  day  so  called,  ]  126. 

KvpiuKov,  the  Greek  designation  of  a 
church,  269. 

Kyrie  eleison,  called  the  lesser  litanv, 
575. 


Laborantes,  an  inferior  order  of  clergy 
so  called,  117. 

Lacunury  roofs  of  churches,  319. 

Laid,  Laymen,  believers  so  called  as 
distinct  from  the  clergy,  13,  antiquity 
and  perpetuity  of  the  distinction, 
ibid.,  forbidden  to  interfere  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  eucharist,  804. 

if  ever  allowed  to  preach,  710, 

ordained  bishops  in  extraordinary 
cases,  45. 

Lamb,  Christ  not  to  be  represented  by 
this  symbol,  32-3,  offering  of  one  on 
Easter  day  forbidden,  756. 

Lanipetians,  heretics  who  kept  the 
Lord's  day  as  a  fast,  1139. 

Lamps  used  at  the  altar,  306,  not  to  be 
burnt  ill  cemeteries  by  day,  306,  934, 
nor  on  new-year's  day,  935. 

Land-marks,  removing,  how  punish- 
ed, 1011. 

Lands,  part  of  the  revenues  of  the 
church,  183,  might  always  be  given 
by  law  to  the  church,  184. 

Lanistce  reputed  accessory  to  murder, 
and  their  calling  condemned,  992. 

Lapides  sacri,  land  marks  so  called, 
1011. 

Lapsers  could  not  be  ordained,  142, 
amongst  the  clergy  degraded,  199, 
excessive  rigour  against,  punished  in 
the  clergy  by  degradation,  1054. 

Zayccrwwi,  the  baptistery  so  called,  310. 

Laudes,  the  Hallelujah  so  called,  689. 

Laver  of  regeneration,  baptism  so  call- 
ed, 477. 

Laura,  a  society  of  anchorets  so  called, 
242. 

Laivs  of  Constantine,  not  revoked  by 
his  successors,  184,  of  emperor  pub- 
lished in  churches,  73. 

of  the  church,  carelessness  of,  how 

punished,  986.     See  Canons. 

Lawyers  capable  of  ordination  in  some 
churches,  not  in  others,  149,  clergy- 
men to  turn,  226,  exactions  of,  how 
punished,  1013. 

Lay  chancellors,  a  conjecture  respect- 
ing, 39. 

communion,  not  confimunion  in 

one  kind,  1030,  nor  yet  communi- 
cating amongst  the  laity,  ibid.,  but 
the  reduction  of  a  clergyman  to  the 
condition  of  the  laity,  1031,  distin- 
guished from  peregrina  communio, 
1035. 

elders,  not  the  seniores  ecclesice, 

84. 
Laymen's  oratory,   the  nave   of   the 

church  so  called,  292. 

priesthood,    baptism  so   called, 

474. 

Lecticarii,  the  copiattv  so  called,  117. 

Lectionarium,  the  order  of  lessons  to 
be  read  in  the  church,  696. 

Lectors,  an  inferior  order  of  clergy,  in- 
stituted in  the  third  century,  1 13,  how 
ordained,  and  at  what  age,  114,  601. 

AeiTovpyia,  Divine  service  so  called, 
571. 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


12.S7 


Lent,  whether  an  apostolical  institution, 
1176,  roasons  lor  instituting,  1178,  ge- 
neral observance  of,  and  general  al- 
lowance, 1180. 

manner  of   its  observance,  1182, 

solemn  assemblies  for  preaching  and 
worship  held  thrmighout,  GtJU,  the  fast 
probably    only  forty   hours    at   first, 

1173,  variations  in  the  observance  of, 

1174,  observance  before  Gregory  the 
Great,  1175,  increase  of  the  time  by 
the  addition  of  three  days  at  the  be- 
ginning, ibid.,  marriages  not  lo  bo 
celebrated  in,  1212. 

Leo  Sapiens,  his  Notitia  of  the  church, 
398. 

Lesnons,  referred  to  by  the  fathers,  as 
understood  by  the  people,  697,  whe- 
ther read  in  the  daily  morning  and 
evening  service,  6G9,  674,  in  what 
part  of  the  service  read,  693,  the  num- 
ber of  them,  ibid.,  four,  out  of  the 
Gospels  sometimes  read  in  one  day, 
700,  solemnity  of  reading  them,  698. 

proper,  for  certain  times  and  fes- 
tivals. 694. 

longer  and  shorter,  their  use,  700, 

what  might,  and  what  might  not  be 
read  for,  ibid. 

AivxiiixovoiivTti,  baptized  persons 
clothed  in  white  so  called,  557. 

Leira  delicta,  lesser  criminal  causes  so 
called,  169. 

hevites,  deacons  so  called,  86. 

Lihellatici,  certain  apostates  so  called, 
927,  1025. 

Libelling,  how  punished,  1023. 

Libels  given  to  the  lapsi  by  confessors, 
not  Uteres  farmutec,  32. 

Libra  occidua,  the  seventy  suffragan 
bishops  of  the  Roman  province  so 
called,  59. 

Libraries  of  churches  described,  313. 

Ligatures,  a  kind  of  amulets,  their  use 
censured,  943. 

Lights  carried  after  baptism,  558,  before 
the  Gospel  in  the  Eastern  churches, 
7(X),  in  the  funeral  pomp,  1241. 

Limina  martyrum,  churches  so  called. 
276. 

Linea,  a  common  linen  garment,  232. 

Linus,  iirst  bishop  of  Rome,  according 
to  some,  19. 

Litanies,  Xi-ravflai,  and  Xira/,  all 
prayers  so  called  originally,  573, 
subsequently  appropriated  to  a  par- 
ticular funu  of  prayer,  ibid.,  distinc- 
tion between  the  greaterand  the  less- 
er, 575. 

Literes  clericee,  any  letters  written  by 
bishops,  and  sent  by  their  clergy,  so 
called,  108. 

formatcE  described,  32. 

Liturgies,  forms  of  prayer  so  called, 
572,  ancient,  why  not  perfect  now, 
604,  of  the  apostles'  days,  605,  of  the 
second  century,  608,  of  the  third  cen- 
tury, 612,  of  Ihe  fourth  century,  615, 
extracts  from  an  ancient  one,  from 
the  writings  of  St.  Chrysostom,  628, 
all  bishops  at  liberty  to  form  their 
own,  35,  602,  of  the  metropolitans 
adopted  by  their  provinces,  603,  con- 
cealed from  catechumens,  469,  neg- 
lecting to  use  them,  punished  in  the 
clergy  by  degradation,  1047. 

Liturgy  of  the  communion  service,  the 
Nicene  Creed  first  introduced  into, 
464. 

Jewish,  an  account  of  it,  605,  &c., 

Locales,  clerks  ordained  for  particular 
places  so  called,  154. 

Locus  mulierum,  the  part  of  the  church 
set  apart  for  women.  286,  294. 

virginum.  the  part  set  apart  for 

the  virgins  of  the  church,  267,  295. 


Aoyoi,  sermons  anciently  so  called, 
706. 

Longi,  certain  Egyptian  monks  so  call- 
eel,  249. 

Lord's  day,  observed  from  apostolic 
times  under  various  names,  1 125, 
meetings  for  worship  held  on,  during 
the  two  first  ages,  651. 

customs  connected  with  its 

observance,  983,  all  legal  ami  secular 
business  suspended  on  this  day,  1127, 
1128,  exceptions  to  this  rule,  ibid., 
all  games  and  sports  prohibited,  1131, 
zeal  of  the  ancients  for  its  observance, 
ami  how  demonstrated,  1134,  &c., 
fasting  on  it  prohibited,  982,  eucha- 
rist  received  every  week  on  it,  849, 
prayers,  &c.,  all  offered  standing, 
646,  1134,  absence  from  its  religious 
assemblies,  how  punished,  981,  1136, 
vigil  of,  how  observed,  657. 

jJrayer,  believers  alone  permit- 
ted to  use,  12,  470,  644,  whence  call- 
ed oratio  fidelium,  &c.,  12,  its  use 
esteemed  obligatory  on  Christians, 
639,  was  esteemed  a  divine  and  spi- 
ritual form  of  prayer,  643. 

learned   as  a  preparation 

for  baptism,  437,  used  at  baptism,  641, 
at  the  eucharist,  641,  787,  at  morning 
and  evening  services,  642,  in  some 
churches  at  the  close  of  the  morning 
and  evening  service,  675,  used  in 
private  devotions,  642. 

Lost  goods,  detaining  them,  how  pun- 
ished, 1010. 

Attn-«y£9,  wandering  beggars,  not  to  be 
baptized,  504. 

Lots,  men  designed  to  the  ministry  by 
casting,  129,  divination  by,  censures 
against,  941,  in  what  cases  allowed, 
912. 

Love-feasts,  usually  accompanied  the 
communion,  830,  neld  in  the  church, 
833,  their  scandal  and  praise,  espe- 
cially amongst  the  heathen,  834. 

AouTpa,  baths  connected  with  the 
church  so  called,  314. 

Lucernalis  oratio,  evening  prayer  so 
called,  110,  the  completorium  so  call- 
ed, 662. 

Lucernarium,  or  Avxva\l/ia,  evening 
service  so  called,  661. 

Lucifugax  natio.  Christians  so  call- 
ed, 7. 

Lucrative  tax  described,  178. 

Lucre,  filthy,  censured,  187,  204,  941, 
1010. 

Ludi  sacerdotales,  games  exhibited 
by  the  clergy,  J  74. 

Lnminum  dies,  Candlemas  day  so  call- 
ed, 1146. 

Lustrulis  collatio,  a  tax  so  called,  175, 
the  clergy  exempted  from  it,  176. 

Lutei,  orthodox  Christians  so  called,  9. 

Lying,  how  far  it  subjected  men  to 
church  discipline,  1025. 

Lymphatici,  demoniacs  so  called,  1083. 


M 


Macarians,  Catholic  Christians  so  call- 
ed by  the  Donatists,  885. 

Maccabees,  festival  of,  its  observance, 
1168. 

Mad,  punishment  of  those  who  pre- 
tended to  be,  to  avoid  sacrificing,  928. 

Ma/ortes,  certain  garments  worn  by 
monks  so  called,  252. 

Magicians,  Christians  so  called  by  the 
heathen,  6,  censures  against  them, 9 13. 

Magister  disciplines,  the  presbyter  ap- 
pointed to  superintend  and  teach  the 
inferior  clergy  so  called,  107. 

Magistrates,  amongst  the  seniores  cc- 


clesia,  85,  subject  to  discipline,  903, 
subordinate,  subject  to  bishops  in 
matters  of  spiritual  jurisdiction,  31, 
not  deprived  of  their  civil  power  by 
the  discipline  of  the  church,  886, 
distinction  between  the  supreme  an(l 
subordinate  in  the  exemptions  of  the 
clergy  from  secular  control,  171. 

Magnificat,  the  song  of  the  Virgin 
Mary,  its  use  not  very  ancient,  691. 

Majores,  Jewish  ministers  so  called, 
950. 

Maiuma,  a  heathen  play,  censured, 
1005. 

Malefici,  enchanters  so  called,  943. 

Man,  Isle  of,  had  but  seventeen  pa- 
rishes, 412. 

Man-slaughter,  how  punished,  990. 

Man-stealing,  censured,  1009. 

Mai/cpaj,  monasteries  so  called,  219. 

Maniaci,  demoniacs  so  called,  10K3. 

Manichees,  names  assumed  by  these 
heretics,  8,  they  rejected  baptism, 
479,  and  condemned  marriage,  1199. 

Ma}isio7iarii,  certain  inferior  officers 
of  the  church  so  called,  126. 

MavTai,  diviners  so  called,  942. 

Manumission  of  slaves  permitted  on 
the  Lord's  day,  1127,  at  Easter,  1155. 

Marcianists,  heretics  who  fasted  on  the 
sabbath  day,  1139. 

Marcionites,  heretics  who  baptized  the 
living  for  the  dead,  489,  rejected  mar- 
ried persons  from  baptism,  507,  and 
allowed  baptism  to  be  repeated  thrice, 
563. 

Marcosians,  heretics  who  rejected  bap- 
tism, 478,  or  altered  its  form,  486. 

Marriage,  heretical  opinions  respect- 
ing, 1197,  &c.,  of  monks  not  annulled 
anciently,  262,  of  professed  virgins 
never  declared  null,  2f)5,  of  the  clergy 
not  disallowed  for  the  three  first  ages, 
151,  after  ordination  punished  by  de- 
gradation, 1053. 

not  allowed  with  excommuni- 
cated heretics,  or  persons  of  a  differ- 
ent religion,  894, 1201,  nor  with  those 
too  near  akin,  1204,  of  cousin-ger- 
mans,  how  regarded,  994,  without 
consent  of  parents  forbidden,  9&1, 
1205,  of  slaves  without  the  consent  of 
their  masters  forbidden,  985,  1206,  of 
persons  of  rank  with  slaves  forbid- 
den, ibid.,  judges  not  to  marry  any 
woman  of  their  provinces  during  their 
administration,  1207,  guardians  not 
to  marry  orphans  in  their  minority, 
1208,  of  women  in  the  absence  of 
their  husbands  forbidden,  ibid.,  of  wi- 
dows not  permitted  within  twelve 
mouths  after  their  husband's  death, 
1207,  penitents  not  to  marry  during 
their  penance,  1064,  of  spiritual  rela- 
tions, when  first  forbidden,  528,  1208, 
of  a  second  wife  after  an  unlawful  di- 
vorce, how  regarded,  998,  of  a  second, 
third,  and  fourth  wife,  how  regarded, 
1001,  of  an  atlulterer  with  an  adul- 
teress, how  regarded,  1211. 

contract  ot^  ceremonies  attending 

it,  1213,  &c.,  notice  of,  to  be  given  by 
Christians  to  the  church,  1204,  to  be 
celebrated  by  the  public  ministers  of 
the  church,  1219,  when  allowed  other- 
wise, 1221,  ceremonies  of,  1222,  &c. 

Married  persons  not  to  turn  monks 
without  mutual  consent,  250. 

Marfyrarii,  keepers  of  churches  so 
called,  312. 

Martyrdom,  supplied  the  want  of  bap- 
tism, 442. 

Martyria,  certain  churches  so  called, 
27.3. 

Marlyrologies  and  calendars  distin'- 
guished,  1162. 


1288 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


Martyrs,  in  prison,  visited  by  deacon- 
esses, 102,  not  worshipped,  59'2,  their 
acts  recorded,  and  read  in  churches, 
1'27,  660,  701,  1162,  estates  of  such  as 
had  no  heirs  given  lo  the  church,  186. 

festivals   of,    their   origin,   659, 

1161,  manner  of    service   on,    ibid., 

1162,  1163,  1165,  kept  at  their  graves, 
1161,  observed  in  churches  where  they 
sufTered  and  were  buried,  1162,  called 
their  birthday,  1161,  appointed  in 
some  places  as  the  time  of  baptism, 
512,  vigils  of,  how  observed,  657, 
1165. 

festival    of   all,   its   observance, 

1168. 

intercession  of,   for  the  subjects 

of  church  discipline,  how  regarded, 
902,  1082. 

Mass,  Missa,  the  original  meaning  of 
the  name,  569,  not  a  sacrifice  origin- 
ally, ibid.,  private  and  solitary,  un- 
known to  the  early  ages  of  the  church, 
792. 

for  the  living  and  the  dead,  pres- 
byters not  ordained  to  say,  83. 

Ma6))/ia.  the  Creed  so  called,  450. 

Mathematici,  astrologers  so  called,  939. 

Matricula,  the  catalogue  of  the  clergy 
so  called,  16,  the  register  of  bishops' 
ordinations  kept  in  the  African  church 
so  called,  62. 

Matrix  ecclesia,  the  mother-church  so 
called,  276. 

Matrona,  the  name  of  a  Jewish  tem- 
ple, 951. 

Matutina.  the  first  of  the  seven  canoni- 
cal hours  so  called,  664. 

Maundy  Thursday,  why  so  called,  and 
how  observed,  1188. 

Mediators  between  God  and  man, 
priests  so  called,  82. 

Meletius,  his  proposal  to  share  his  bi- 
shopric with  Paulinas,  54. 

Melotes,  a  part  of  the  habit  of  monks, 
252. 

Memories  martyrum,  churches  so  call- 
ed, 273. 

'Mifxvi]fxivot.,  baptized  persons  so  call- 
ed, 11. 

Men  sat  in  distinct  part  of  the  church 
from  women,  294. 

Metiandrians,  heretics  who  altered  the 
form  of  baptism,  485. 

Mendicants,  none  amongst  the  ancient 
monks,  254. 

"Mensa  Domini,  the  communion  table  so 
called,  301. 

martyris,    any  church    built  in 

honour  of  a  martyr  so  called,  274. 

Mensurna  divisio,  the  monthly  division 

of  the  oblations  for  the  clergy,  183. 
Mi'ivuTpa,  the  reward  for  restoring  lost 

goods  so  called,  1010. 
MEirauXiov,  the  atrium  of  churches  so 

called,  288. 
Messalians,  their  opinion  of  baptism, 

480. 
MetancecE  Insula,  an  island  near  Alex- 
andria so  called,  257. 
MfTayoi'as    X"'P«)   the    portico    of  the 

church  so  called,  281. 
Metator,  an  imperial  courier,  176. 
Metatorium,    one   of   the    exedrcE  of 

churches  so  called,  312. 
Metatum,  the  charge  of  providing  the 

emperor's  suite  when  travelling,  176. 
MetrocomicE,  the  principal  villages,  in 

Arabia,  so  called,  359. 
Metropolitans.     See  Primates. 
Milan   never  subject  to  the  bishop  of 

Rome,  348. 
Military  life,    how  it  disqualified    for 

baptism,  505. 
Militia,  all  secidar  service    so  called. 

225. 


Milk  and  honey,  given  to  the  newly 
baptized,  560,  offered  on  the  altar  be- 
cause of  this,  755. 

Ministry,  deaconesses  so  called,  99. 

Ministri,  deacons  so  called,  86. 

Ministry,  men  designed  to  it  by  lot, 
129,  as  the  first-fruits  of  Gentile  con- 
verts, ibid.,  by  special  direction  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  130,  and  by  sufl'rage, 
131.  ^  ^ 

Minsters,  churches  so  called,  276. 

Miracles,  workers  of  false,  censured, 
946. 

Missa  bifaciata  and  trif aetata,  nautica 
and  sicca,  certain  corruptions  of  the 
eucharist  so  called,  795,  796. 

catechumeyiorum.   the  first   part 

of  the  service  so  called,  10,  114,  567, 
677,  &c. 

fidelium,  the  communion  service 

so  called,  ibid.,  744,  &c. 

'prasanctificatorum.,  the  commu- 
nion service,  the  elements  in  which 
had  been  consecrated  before,  803,  81 1. 

solitaria,  a  novel  corruption,  792, 

&c. 

Mifptof,  the  temple  of  the  sun  at  Alex- 
andria so  called,  186. 

Mitre,  whether  worn  anciently  by  bi- 
shops, 41,  worn  by  virgins,  266. 

Movai,  ixovacTT-npLa,  habitations  of  so- 
cieties of  monks  so  called,  249, 
churches  so  called,  276. 

Monarchs,  primates  so  called,  61. 

Monastery,  intrusion  into  one,  a  pun- 
ishment of  delinquent  clerks,  1041. 

Moniales,  virgins,  or  nuns,  so  called, 
268. 

Monks,  distinguished  from  ascetics,  239, 
242,  when  they  originated,  241,  se- 
veral sorts  of,  and  their  ways  of  liv- 
ing, 242,  &c.,  names  by  which  they 
were  called,  248. 

originally  all  laymen,  244,  origin 

of  clerical  monks,  245,  of  the  renun- 
ciative and  communicative  life,  dis- 
tinguished, 254,  secular  living,  244, 
might  return  to  secular  life  again,  262. 

their  tonsure  and  habits,  252,  no 

vow  nor  profession  required  of  them, 
253,  their  renunciation  of  the  world, 
ibid.,  their  marriages,  anciently,  not 
annulled,  2()2,  maintained  by  their 
own  labour,  254,  their  officers,  255, 
subject  to  the  bishops  in  whose  dio- 
ceses they  lived,  31,  256,  their  spi- 
ritual exercises,  257,  &c.,  anciently, 
the  educators  of  youth,  262,  preached, 
anciently,  in  churches,  710,  but  did 
not  encroach  on  the  duties  of  the 
secular  clergy,  260,  excluded  by  law 
from  both  ecclesiastical  and  civil  of- 
fices, ibid.,  not  allowed  to  dwell  in 
cities,  at  first,  ibid.,  exceptions  to 
this  rule,  261,  punishments  inflicted 
on  deserters,  263. 

curiales  might  not  be,  250,  nor 

servants  without  their  masters'  con- 
sent, ibid.,  nor  married  persons  with- 
out mutual  consent,  ibid.,  nor  chil- 
dren without  their  own  and  their  pa- 
rents' consent.  251. 

Monogainy,  in  what  sense  required  of 
the  clergy.  149,  and  of  deaconesses, 
100,  and  of  the  widows  of  the  church, 
268. 

Montanists,  heretics  who  altered  the 
form  of  baptism,  485,  and  baptized 
the  dead,  489,  allowed  women  to 
preach,  712,  had  orders  amongst  their 
clergy  superior  to  bishops,  68,  differ- 
ed from  the  church  respecting  the 
imposition  of  fasts,  1181,  1195,  and 
the  service  of  the  empire,  929,  and 
were  in  error  respecting  second  mar- 
riages, 1200. 


Moon,  eclipses  of,  superstitiously  ob- 
served, 945. 

new,  superstitiously  observed,  9.35. 

Morning  and  evening  prayer,  held 
daily  in  the  third  century,  660. 

hymn,  whether  part  of  the  morn- 
ing service,  668. 

psalm,  the  first  part  of  it,  665. 

service,  order  of,  ibid. ,  much  fre- 
quented by  the  laity,  672. 

Mortal  and  venial  sins  distincruished, 
918.  ^ 

i¥o««c  work  used  anciently  in  churches, 
319. 

Mother-churches,  what  so  called,  276, 
had  baptisteries,  at  first,  alone,  310. 

Mourners,  an  order  of  penitents  so 
called,  1059. 

Mourning,  penitents  to  wear,  1062. 

habits,  worn  some  time  after  the 

funeral,  1254. 

women,  hired  to  lament  at  fune- 
rals, 1252. 

Mi;/;a-(s,  baptism  so  called,  477. 

Mu7nmies,  how  kept  by  the  Egvptians, 
12.59.  SJH       =, 

Munera  sordida,  mean  offices,  charged 
to  persons  and  estates,  179. 

Munerarii,  censures  upon,  929,  993. 

Municipal  officers  not  to  be  ordained, 
149. 

Murder,  how  punished  by  state  and 
church.  987,  if  joined  with  great 
crimes,  ibid.,  by  chance,  how  punish- 
ed, 990,  persons  authorizing,  reck- 
oned guilty  of,  993,  in  the  clergy 
punished  by  degradation,  198. 

Murderers  could  not  be  ordained,  142, 

Music  in  churches,  315. 

Musimim.  Mosaic  work  so  called,  .319. 

Mv(TTaytuyia,  Divine  service  so  called, 
571,  baptism  so  called,  477. 

WvcTTTipLov,  its  proper  signification,  .571. 

Mysteries,  concealed  from  the  cate- 
chumens, and  why,  467,  &c. 

Mysterinm,  baptism  so  called,  475. 

Mystical  table,  the  communion  table 
so  called,  301. 

veils,  the  veils  hiding  the  altar 

from  the  congregation  so  called,  298. 


N 


Nao?,  the  temple,  where  the  commu- 
nicants were  placed,  286,  289,  292. 

Narthex,  the  ante-temple,  where  the 
penitents  and  catechumens  were 
placed,  286,  288,  289.  290,  why  so 
called,  291,  different  kinds  of,  292, 
the  outer  and  the  inner  distinguished 
and  described,  288,  289,  290. 

Natale  episcopattis,  the  anniversary 
of  a  bishop's  ordination  so  called, 
158.  1170. 

Natales  nrbium,  the  anniversaries  of 
the  founding  of  Rome  and  Constan- 
tinople. 1124. 

Natalis  genuitius,  and  imperii,  the  two 
birthdays  of  the  emperor,  distinguish- 
ed, ibid. 

Natalitia.  festivals  of  martvrs  so  call- 
ed, 1161. 

Natatorium,  the  baptistery  so  called, 
310. 

Nativity,  festival  of  Christ's,  apostoli- 
cal origin  of  its  observance,  114], 
&c.,  manner  of  observance,  1144. 

Natw  of  the  church,  its  parts  and  uses, 
292,  anciently  square,  z6/c?.,  men  and 
women  occupied  different  parts  of, 
294. 

Navicularii,  the  members  of  the  cor- 
poration for  transporting  African 
corn  to  Rome  so  called,  175. 

fiauToXoynt,  catechists  so  called,  120. 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


12S9 


Nazarenes,  Christians  so  called,  5. 

'Sa^woaloi,  a  sect  of  heretics  so  called, 
ibid. 

Necromancy  censured,  942. 

Nemesiaci,  certain  diviners  so  called, 
94G. 

N£</)£Xo5i6u/cTat,  certain  diviners  so 
called,  915. 

'NewTtpiKt)  T«^4s  explained  and  de- 
fended, 43. 

New  moons,  superstitious  observance  of, 
censured,  935. 

-year's  day.  superstitiously  ob- 
served by  the  heathen,  ibid.,  112.3. 

Nicolailans,  heretics  who  taught  a 
community  of  wives,  119(3. 

Niddui,  one  form  of  excommunication 
amongst  the  Jews  so  called,  898. 

Nightly  assemblies  for  worship,  during 
persecution,  and  afterwards,  G70. 

Nile,  cubit  for  measuring  the  increase 
of  its  waters  laid  up  in  the  church, 
•335. 

Ni7ith-hour  service,  the  last  hour  of 
prayer  in  the  day-time,  665. 

Nocturnee,  services  held  before  day- 
break, 661. 

Noles,  bells  so  called,  317. 

Non-authentici,  arbitrators  so  called, 
38. 

residence  punished  by  degrada- 
tion, 1053. 

Nonna,  vovU,  a  name  of  the  virgins  of 
the  church,  267. 

Noon-day  service,  the  third  of  the  ca- 
nonical hours  so  called,  664. 

Notarii,  certain  inferior  officers  of  the 
church  so  called,  127. 

Notitia  ecclesicE,  a  topographical  and 
statistical  account  of  the  church,  343, 
398. 

. imperii,  the  same  of  the  empire, 

312. 

Novation,  his  schism  respecting  second 
bishops  in  one  city,  5.3. 

Novations,  heretics  who  were  in  error 
respecting  second  marriages,  12U0, 
who  dirt'erod  from  the  Catnolics  re- 
specting church  discipline  and  abso- 
lution, 1079,  received  into  the  church 
without  a  new  ordination,  162,  their 
abuse  of  the  communion,  824. 

Novatus,  presbyter  of  Carthage  did  not 
ordain,  28. 

Novendiale,  a  wake  kept  at  funerals 
by  the  heathens,  1253. 

Novitioli,  catechumens  so  called,  429. 

Nullatenenses,  titular  bishops  so  call- 
ed, 153. 

Nun.     See  Nonna. 

Nunc  dimittis,  the  song  of  Simeon,  not 
at  first  a  part  of  the  evening  service, 
690. 

Nympheeum,  the  place  in  the  atrium 
for  washing  so  called,  289. 


0 


Oaths,  all,  not  forbidden,  975,  bishops 
not  obliged  to  take,  in  giving  evi- 
dence, 167. 

Obedience,  a  necessary  part  of  the  bap- 
tismal covenant,  518. 

Oblation  of  a  lamb  on  Easter  day  cen- 
sm-ed,  756. 

^ j)rayer,  commending  the  gifts  to 

God,  ibid. 

Oblalionarium.a.  side-table  at  the  altar, 
307. 

Oblations,  made  at  the  eucharist,  752, 
what  might  be  received,  and  what 
not,  755.  received  by  the  deacons,  87, 
names  of  such  as  offered  any  of  value 
rehearsed  at  the  altar,  756,  whomight 
make  them,  and  who  not,  752,  not 


received  from  excommunicated  per- 
sons, 894. 

Oblations  made  for  martyrs,  1161,  for 
the  dead,  1249. 

for  support  of  the  clergy,  weekly 

and  monthly,  18.3,  originally,  the 
most  valuable  part  of  the  revenues, 
188.^ 

for  administering  the  sacraments, 

&c.,  forbidden,  187. 

Observation  of  days  and  accidents  cen- 
sured, 947. 

Octachora,  octagones,  churches  so  call- 
ed, from  their  form,  287. 

(Economi.  stewards  of  the  church  so 
called,  66,  12.5,  reasons  for  their  in- 
stitution, ibid.,  always  to  be  chosen 
out  of  the  clergy,  ibid.,  manner  of 
their  election,  126,  their  duties,  ibid. 

stewards  of  monasteries  so  call- 
ed, 255. 

Qicumenical,  the  patriarchs  of  Con- 
stantinople so  called,  74. 

Offences,  great  and  small,  distinguish- 
ed in  reference  to  ecclesiastical  cen- 
sures, 918. 

Offerre  nomina,  to  recite  the  names  of 
the  presenters  of  oblations,  87. 

Offering  of  bread  and  wine  in  the  eu- 
charist, in  what  sense  allowed  to 
deacons,  88. 

Offices,  personal,  curial,  servile,  &c., 
not  imposed  on  the  clergy,  179,  &c. 

Officio,  forms  of  prayer  so  called,  573. 

0i/ci)9,  a  church  so  called,  278. 

Omens  from  days,  &c.,  observation  of, 
censured,  947. 

'OnooixTiov,  reasons  for  adhering  to  that 
word  against  the  Arians.  217. 

Oppression,  how  punished,  1011,  bi- 
shops suspended  for  oppression  of  the 
people,  1056. 

Optimates,  the  magistrates  and  nobles, 
nominated  bishops,  85,  139. 

Oraculiitn  caleste,  the  emperor's  edicts 
so  called,  270. 

Orare,  to  bid  prayer  in  the  congrega- 
tion, 9(J. 

inter  hyemantes,  what  it  meant, 

ioa3. 

Orarium,  one  of  the  deacons'  orna- 
ments, 90,  646. 

Oratio  fidelium,  the  Lord's  praver  so 
called,  12. 

Orationeyn  dare,  to  bid  to  silent  praver, 
745. 

Oratories,  churches  so  callcil,  271,  pri- 
vate, distinguished  from  Catholic 
churches,  ibid. 

Oratory,  laymen's,  the  nave  of  the 
church  so  called,  292. 

Orders,  custom  of  going  through  all,  in 
a  lew  days,  novel,  46. 

inferior,   of  the   clergy,   not  of 

apostolical  origin,  105.  dinered  from 
the  superior  orders,  in  names,  offices, 
and  manner  of  ordination,  107,  called 
clerici,  176,  of  no  certain  number, 
UI6,  not  instituted  in  all  churches  at 
tlie  same  time,  ibid.,  were  a  nursery 
for  the  hierarchy,  107,  might  not  re- 
turn to  secular  life,  ibid.,  allowed  to 
work  at  manual  trades,  176,  226. 

Ordinaries,  archdeacons  so  called,  96. 

Ordinatio  localis,  ordination  to  a  spe- 
cial place  so  called,  154. 

Ordinatio?!  of  patriarchs,  received 
from  a  diocesan  synod,  72. 

of  priiyiates.  by  their  provincial 

synod  at  iirst,  64,  afterwards  by  pa- 
triarchs, ibid..  71,  not  obtained  from 
Kome  only,  65. 

of  bishops,  not  to  take  place  be- 
fore they  were  thirty  years  old,  ex- 
cept they  were  men  of  extraordinary 
worth,  4-3,  of  bovs.  unknown  in  the 


primitive  church,  ibid.,  cursory,  cen- 
sured, 44,  sometimes  given  to  dea- 
cons, the  inferior  orders,  and  even 
laymen,  45,  to  take  jjlace  within 
three  months  after  the  former  bi- 
shop's death,  46,  except  in  cases  of 
difficultyand  persecution, 47,  perf<irm- 
ed  by  bishops,  28,  three  required,  47, 
but  valid  by  one,  48,  this  not  the 
special  privilege  of  the  bishop  of 
Home,  49,  performed  by  the  patriarch 
of  Alexandria,  71,  to  take  place  in 
their  own  churches,  ibid.,  65,  ancient 
form  of,  50,  form  of  prayer  used  at, 
ibid.,  anniversary  of,  kept  as  a  festi- 
val, 1.58,  1170,  void,  if  they  were  or- 
dained when  under  sentence  of  depo- 
sition, 1045. 
Ordination  of  suffragan  bishops,  by 
their  metropolitans,  63. 

of  chorepiscopi,   performed  by 

one  bishop,  57. 

of  presbyters,  all  the  presbyters 

of  the  church  required  to  be  present 
at,  79,  form  and  manner  of,  K3. 

of   deocons.    performed    by    the 

bishop  alone,  86,  form  for,  ibid.,  might 
take  place  when  they  were  twentv- 
five,  94, 

of  presbyters  and  deacons,  never 

intrusted  to  presbyters,  27,  yet  they 
might  join  in,  with  bishops,  ibid.,  79, 
not  intrusted  to  chorepiscopi,  57,  not 
to  be  performed  by  primates,  65,  ex- 
cept in  the  case  of  the  primate  of 
Alexandria,  66. 

by  presbyters  disannulled  by  the 

church,  28,  and  by  schismatical  iii- 
shops,  the  difference  made  between, 
29,  three  inquiries  before,  1 10,  irregu- 
lar, of  Synesius  considered,  ibid.,  no 
stranger  could  receive,  141,  nor  one 
who  had  done  public  penance,  ibid., 
nor  murderers,  adulterers,  and  lapsi, 
142,  nor  usurers,  nor  seditious  persons, 
14.3,  voluntary  dismemberment  dis- 
qualified for,  ibid ,  and  crimes  com- 
mitted after  baptism.  111,  and  clinic 
baptism,  ibid.,  and  heretical  baptism, 
145,  not  to  be  given  to  any  who  had 
not  made  all  their  families  Catholic 
Christians,  ibid.,  nor  to  any  in  the 
service  of  the  empire,  146,  nor  to 
slaves  and  freedinen,  without  their 
masters'  consent,  147,  nor  to  members 
of  civil  and  trading  companies,  ibid., 
nor  to  curiales.  or  decuriones.  148, 
norto  proctors,  norgiiardians  in  office, 
149,  nor  to  pleaders  at  law,  in  the 
Koman  church,  ibid.,  nor  to  energii- 
mens,  stage-players,  &c.,  ibid.,  nor 
to  digamists,  ibid.,  nor  to  deserters 
from  the  monastic  life,  26-3. 

celibacy  not  required  as  a  condi- 
tion of.  151,  canons  of  the  church  to 
be  read  to  each  clerk  before,  153.  not 
to  be  given  d-TroXeXv/iii'ws,  except  in 
rare  cases,  ibid.,  154,  not  to  be  given 
by  a  bishop  to  another's  clerk,  witii- 
out  his  consent,  ibid.,  1041,  nor  in  an- 
other's diocese,  34,  155,  the  original 
of  the  four  sidemn  times  for,  ibid., 
given  on  any  day  of  the  week  for  three 
centuries,  1.56,  at  tiie  oblation  of  the 
morning  service,  157,  tlu'  church  the 
regular  place  for,  ibid.,  received 
kneeling  at  flie  altar,  ibid.,  given  by 
imposition  of  hands  and  prayer,  ibid., 
with  the  sign  of  the  cross,  and  kiss 
of  peace,  158,  concealed  from  cate- 
chumens, 469. 

forced  and  reordinotion  frequent 

in  the  primitive  church,  159,  prevent- 
ed <mly  by  protest  and  oath  against 
it,  ibid.,  and,  later,  not  thus,  160. 

-  _    pretended  indelible  character  of, 


1290 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


]G2,  1032,  rendered  void,  ipso  facto, 
by  certain  crimes,  1043,  marriage  af- 
ter, punished  by  degradation,  1053, 
ccmtrary  to  the  canons,  bishops  sus- 
pended forgiving,  1065. 

Grdinut  ion  of  infer  tor  clergy, AlSerencQ 
between  it,  and  that  of  the  superior 
clergy,  107,  archdeacons  assisted  the 
bishop  in,  96,  performed  by  chore- 
piscopi,  57,  form  for  that  of  deacon- 
esses, 100,  cf  virgins,  265,  of  subdea- 
cons,  manner  of,  108,  of  acolythists, 
109,  of  exorcists,  112,  of  readers,  11-1, 
601,  of  door-keepers,  115,  of  singers, 
117,  might  be  performed  by  presby- 
ters, ibtd. 

Ordinattones  ecclesiee,  orders  given  by 
the  archdeacon  so  called,  96. 

Ordo,  forms  of  prayer  so  called,  572. 

secitndus,  presbyters  so  called,  82. 

OrQans,  when  tirst  used  in  churches. 
315. 

Orthodox  bishops  might  ordain  ortho- 
dox men  for  the  diocese  of  an  hereti- 
cal bishop,  .34. 

. — . —  Christians,  names  given  to  by 
heretics,  8,  &c. 

people  had  not  bishops  intmded 

on  them,  131. 

"Oo-j)  oui/u/xi^,  this  phrase  explained, 
211. 

Ostiarii,  an  inferior  order  of  clergy 
instituted  about  the  third  century, 
115,  their  office,  and  manner  of  or- 
dination, ibid. 

'O^vynucjwi,  certain  inferior  officers  of 
the  church  so  called,  127. 


Pacificee  epistolce,  letters  dimissory 
granted  to  the  clergy  on  change  of 
their  diocese,  57. 

Pactum,  the  vow  at  baptism  so  called, 
518. 

Pagans,  the  reason  of  the  name,  190. 

Pall,  the  covering  of  the  altar  so  call- 
ed, 304. 

TiakLyy^vtcria,  baptism  so  called,  474. 

Pallium,  a,  Grecian  habit  worn  by  many 
Christian  philosophers,  6,  23],  the 
dress  of  the  Western  monks,  253. 

Panders  rejected  from  baptism,  503. 

Panis  benedictus,  the  sacrament  of  ca- 
techumens so  called,  440. 

Tlavvv)(j.ot<i,  vigils  kept  all  the  night, 
657. 

Pantheon,  the  temple  at  Rome  so  call- 
ed, turned  into  the  church  of  All 
Saints,  285. 

Papa,  every  bishop  so  called,  23. 

PajicE  pismni,  the  inferior  clergy  so 
called,  ibid. 

J\aTra\r\Tpa,  the  clerical  tonsure  so 
called,  ibid. 

Paphnutius,  an  Egyptian  abbot,  did 
not  ordain,  29. 

Papius,  first  bishop  of  Hierapolis,  21. 

Jlupafta'm'KTiia'ra,  private  baptisms  so 
called,  514. 

Parabolani,  2^'^'''''^^olarii,  paraholi, 
Christians  so  called,  7,  119. 

an  order  of  the  clergy,  according 

to  some,  118,  their  institution  and 
office,  119,  laws  and  rules  concerning, 
120. 

TiafjaiiovapLOL,  certain  inferior  olficers 
of  the  church  so  called,  126. 

Parangarite,  the  clergy  sometimes  ex- 
empt from,  177. 

Parasceue,  the  day  before  our  Lord's 
passion  so  called,  437. 

JlapMLcrti's,  the  invocations  of  the  bi- 
.shop  at  the  eucharist  so  called,  751. 

Paratorium,  and  TVapaTpa-rrfXpu.  a 
side-table  at  the  altar  so  called,  .307. 


Paraveredi,  horses  contributed  to  the 
civil  service  so  called,  178. 

Purentalia,  heathen  wakes  at  graves 
so  called,  1251. 

Parents'  power  over  their  children  bv 
the  old  Roman  law,  983,  not  to  be 
forsaken  by  their  children,  on  pre- 
tence of  religion,  251,  984. 

Parishes  and  dioceses,  originally  the 
same,  406. 

Parochice,  YlapoLKLoi.  dioceses  of  bi- 
shops so  called,  61,  352. 

Parochial  churches,  their  origin,  193, 

407,  some  perhaps  as  ancient  as  the 
times  of  the  apostles,  ibid.,  in  cities 
not  assigned  to  particular  presbyters, 

408,  in  the  country,  otherwise,  ibid. 

settled   revenues  of,   paid 

originally  into  the  common  stock,  409, 
endowment  of,  changed  the  system 
of  distributing  the  church  revenues, 
19.3,  boundaries  of  their  districts  con- 
formed to  the  limits  of  manors,  410. 

clergy,  were  not  encroached  on 

by  the  monks,  anciently,  260. 

visitations,  by  the  bishops,  an- 
nually, 392,  397. 

Parricide,  how  punished,  988. 

Party  names,  discouraged  by  Chris- 
tians, 3. 

nao-ya  dvaa-raa-Lfiov,  the  week  after 
Easter  Sundav,  and  IT.  aTavpwGLfiov, 
the  week  before,  so  called,  1 147, 1189. 

Paschal  festival,  some  (djserved  it  on 
a  fixed  day,  yearly,  1148,  others  with 
the  Jews,  on  the  fourteenth  day  of 
the  moon,  ibid.,  different  calculations 
brought  it  on  difTerent  Lord's  days, 
1151. 

extended  over  fifteen  days 

originally,  1147,  observed  with  great 
honour  as  the  day  of  our  Lord's  re- 
surrection, 1153,  emperors  granted  a 
release  to  prisoners  then,  except  such 
as  were  guilty  of  great  crimes,  ibid., 
1187,  freedom  was  given  to  slaves 
then,  1155,  ibid.,  and  donations  to 
the  poor,  ibid.,  a  week  of  services 
kept  after  Easter  day,  1155. 

Passion  day,  how  observed,  1188. 

xveek,  more  strictly  observed  than 

the  rest  of  Lent,  1185. 

Pastophoria,  outbuildings  of  churches 
so  called,  288,  289,  312. 

Patres,  primates  so  called  in  Africa, 
61 ,  presidents  of  monasteries  so  call- 
ed, 255. 

patriee,   kings  and   emperors  so 

called,  985. 

patrian,  bishops  so  called,  24. 

Patriarchs,  bishops  so  called,  24,  an- 
cient names  of,  67,  mistake  of  Sal- 
masius  respecting  the  first  use  of  the 
title,  ibid.,  of  the  Jews,  68,  and 
Montanists,  ibid.,  first  use  of  the  title, 
ibid.,  different  opinions  respecting 
the  first  rise  of  their  power,  ibid.,  ap- 
pointed at  ditTerent  times  in  different 
places,  69,  probably  existed  before 
the  council  of  Nice,  ibid.,  confirmed 
in  power  by  three  successive  general 
councils,  after  that  council,  70,  were 
ordained  by  a  diocesan  synod,  72, 
the  number  of  their  sees  in  the 
church,  73,  .343. 

power  of,  not   the   same  in  all 

chinches,  70,  ordained  all  metro- 
politans of  the  diocese,  71,  called 
and  presided  over  diocesan  synods, 
72,  received  appeals  from  metro- 
politans, and  provincial  synods,  ibid., 
censured  metropolitans,  and  suffra- 
gans, when  their  primates  were  re- 
miss, ibid.,  might  make  metropoli- 
tans their  commissioners,  73,  to  be 
consulted  by  meiropiditans  in  mat- 


ters of  great  moment,  ibid.,  to  com- 
municate to  their  metropolitans  the 
imperial  laws  concerning  the  church, 
ibid.,  great  criminals  reserved  for 
their  absolution,  ibid. 

Patriarchs,  the  greater,  absolute  and 
independent  of  each  other,  ibid.,  the 
subordinate,  not  merely  titular,  74. 

at  first,  one  in  every  capital  city 

of  each  diocese  of  the  Roman  empire, 
73,  of  Rome,  and  Constantinople, 
made  superior  to  some  of  their 
neighbours,  ibid.,  of  Constantinople 
had  peculiar  privileges,  70,  entitled 
oecumenical,  and  his  church,  the  head 
of  all  churches,  74,  of  Alexandria 
had  peculiar  privileges,  71,  ordained 
all  bishops,  ibid. 

Patrons  arose  with  parochial  division, 
139,  19.3,  not  to  found  churches  for  the 
sake  of  the  oblations,  410. 

Paulianists,  heretics  who  altered  the 
form  of  baptism,  486. 

Pauliciaiis,  heretics  who  rejected  bap- 
tism, 479. 

Paulinians,  orthodox  Christians  so  call- 
ed. 8. 

Paidinus,  his  temple  at  Tyre  described, 
287. 

Pax  vobis,  the  bishop's  salutation  to  the 
people  on  entering  the  church,  6j2, 
698,  before  reading  the  lessons,  ibid. 
before  sermon,  721,  at  the  eucharist, 
765,  at  the  dismission  of  the  assem- 
bly, 668,  827. 

Peccatiim  distinguished  from  crimen, 
198. 

Pecuniary  causes  of  the  clergy  with 
laymen  to  be  heard  before  secular 
judges,  170. 

PelusiotcE,  orthodox  Christians  so  call- 
ed, liv.  note,  9. 

Penance,  public,  manner  of  performing- 
it,  1061,  &c.,  allowed  but  once,  1074, 
some  sinners  admitted  to,  twice,  1081, 
imposed  on  heretics,  959,  imposed  on 
women  as  well  as  men,  901,  for  the 
whole  life,  1075,  was  to  be  performed 
by  those  who  were  absolved  on  a 
death-bed,  if  they  recovered,  1076, 
married  personsnot  admitted  to,  with- 
out mutual  consent,  1063,  persons 
under,  not  to  marry,  J064,  commuta 
tion  of,  not  allowed,  902,  not  alway.s 
imposed  on  the  clergy,  1028,  what 
sort  of,  needful  to  restore  delinquent 
clerks,  1037,  none,  sufficient  to  re- 
store degraded  clerks,  1045,  to  have 
done,  excluded  from  ordination,  141. 

no  sinner  absolved  till  he  had 

performed  it,  1091,  intercession  of 
martyrs,  how  allowed  to  moderate  if, 
902,  l082,  bishops  might  moderate  it, 
1081. 

private,  in  monasteries,  occasion- 
ally allowed,  1041. 

Penitential  psalm,  formed  part  of  the 
regular  service,  671. 

Penitentiary  priests,  appointed  in 
many  churches,  to  receive  and  regu- 
late private  confessions,  1072. 

Penitents,  classes  of,  1058,  their  origin, 
ibid.,  ranked  with  catechumens,  10, 
first  class  of,  stood  in  the  atrium  of 
churches,  286,  288.  289,  1059,  second 
class,  in  the  narthex,  ibid.,  291,  third 
class,  in  the  lower  part  of  the  nave, 
ibid.,  292,  1060,  fourth  class,  above 
the  ambon,  ibid.,  293,  admitted  to 
penance  by  imposition  of  hands,  1061, 
e.xercises  of,  ibid. 

abstained  from  bathing,  feasting, 

and  other  diversions,  106.3,  cut  off 
their  hair,  and  went  veiled,  1062,  ob- 
served all  the  public  fasts  of  the 
church,  1063,  prayed  kneeling  at  all 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


1291 


festivals,  lU&l,  served  the  church  by 
buryinfi  the  ilead,  ibid. 

Penitents,  prayers  for,  751 ,  prepared  for 
absolution  by  Lent,  1 179,  publicly  re- 
conciled at  the  altar  or  readiu";  (lesk, 
1092,  by  presbyters,  occasionally,  27, 
77,  bv  deacons,  in  case  of  emergency, 
91.    ■ 

Pensions,  canonical,  in  what  cases  al- 
lowed, 175. 

Pe7itaeteris,  the  lustrnm.  or  period  of 
five  years,  so  called,  175. 

Pentecost,  taken  in  a  double  sense,  for 
the  whole  lifty  days  after  Easter, 
1157,  and  for  the  Sunday  called 
Whitsunday,  1160. 

fastnig   forbidden    during,    115S, 

and  kneeling  at  prayers,  64G,  ibid., 
only  necessary  engagements  allowed 
during,  1158,  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
read  all  the  time  of,  G95,  ibid.,  one  of 
the  solemn  times  of  baptism  appoint- 
ed by  the  church,  51U. 

People,  their  power  in  elections,  difTer- 
ent  opinions  of,  132,  equal  to  that  of 
the  inferior  clergy,  in  choosing  a  bi- 
shop, 1,33,  not  testimonial,  but  elect- 
ive, ibid.,  evidences  of,  134,  in  de- 
signating presbyters,  136,  confirmed 
in  it  by  the  council  of  Nice,  ibid., 
exceptions  to  their  power  in  election, 
1-37,  tlenied  their  vote  if  in  heresy  or 
schism,  ibid.,  in  case  of  faction,  138, 
in  tumults,  ibid.,  restricted  in  their 
choice,  ibid.,  wholly  excluded  from 
elections,  1.39. 

joined  in  the  psalmod}',  and  made 

responses,  596,  objections  to  their 
joining  in  the  psalmody  answered, 
6bi3,  always  received  the  eucharist  in 
both  kinds,  808,  allowed  to  possess 
and  read  the  Scriptures  in  their 
mother-tongue,  598. 

gave  alms  to  the  poor  on  entering 

the  church,  652,  their  obedience  to 
the  public  orders  of  the  church,  in 
matters  indifferent,  necessary  to  the 
unity  of  the  church,  866. 

Perfecti,  baptized   persons  so  called, 

TitpLafxiiaTa,  phvlacteries,  or  amulets, 
so  called,  505,  914. 

n£()j/3d,\(uoi/,  a  Grecian  habit  worn  by 
many  Christian  philosophers,  6,  231. 

\lipijio\ov,  the  o\iter  enclosure  of  the 
church  so  called.  288,  289. 

IlffjioosuTai,  substituted  for  chorepis- 
copi  by  the  council  of  Laodicea,  58. 

JlfpippavTvpia,  the  lustrations  of  the 
heathen  so  called,  290,  9-33. 

Peristerion.  the  image  of  a  dove  over 
the  altar,  30.3. 

Perjury,  how  punished,  979,  in  the 
clergy,  punished  by  degradation,  198. 

Pernoctations,  vigils  through  the  night 
in  churches,  forbidden.  1(KI8. 

Personal  and  pradial  offices  not  im- 
posed on  the  clergy,  179. 

Petatian,  au  ornament  worn  by  the 
high  priest,  41. 

Peter,  St.  first  bishop  of  Rome,  ac- 
cording to  some,  19,  of  Antioch,  ac- 
cording [0  others,  20. 

Phanum,  a  name  of  contempt  for  idol 
or  sectarian  places  of  worship,  272. 

Pharmaca,  philtra,  magical  potions  so 
called.  943. 

^nnfiuKiia.  sorcery  so  called,  ibid. 

tt)t«,\a,  the  place  in  the  atrium  for  wash- 
ing so  called,  288,  289. 

Philosarcce,  orthodo.x  Christians  so  call- 
ed. 9. 

Philosophers,  familiar  converse  with, 
brought  degradation  on  the  clergy, 
1054. 

^i\(jGdu,  monastic  life  so  called,  219. 


<I>o/\X{is,  certain  coin  so  called,  185. 

Phonascus,  the  leader  of  the  psalmody 
so  called,  6i52. 

<I>coT«,  Epiphany  festival  so  called, 
1146. 

<\?wTi(rna,  and  <t>wTi(Tfxd^,  baptism  so 
called,  309,  474. 

'^a)TlfTTI;;)Irt,  baptisteries  so  called,  ,309, 

<i>ooTi'(,d/j.tvoi,  baptized  persons  so  call- 
ed, 11,  a  class  of  catechumens  so 
called,  435. 

'PpovTiaTtipia,  monasteries  so  called, 
249,  baptisteries  so  called,  309. 

Phylacteries,  use  of  them  censured, 
505,  944. 

Phylacierium,  baptism  so  called,  477. 

Physiognomy  censured.  941. 

Pictures,  not  placed  in  churches  for 
the  first  three  centuries,  320,  of  mar- 
tyrs, kings,  &c.,  first  introduced  in 
the  end  of  the  fourth  century,  321, 
322,  not  intended  for  worship,  ibid., 
svmbolical,  approved  by  the  ancients, 
323. 

Pisciculi,  Christians  so  called,  2. 

Piscina,  the  pool  of  baptism  so  called, 
310. 

IIiCTTis,  TriCTTf  ojs  opos,  and  iKOocri^,  the 
Creed  so  called,  449. 

UitTTol,  Christians  so  called,  1,  the  bap- 
tized laity,  as  a  distinct  order  in  the 
church,  so  called,  9,  10,  their  titles  of 
honour,  11,  called  also  laid  to  dis- 
tinguish them  from  the  clergy,  13. 

privileged  to  partake  of  the  eu- 
charist, 11,  to  join  in  all  the  prayers 
of  the  church,  ibid.,  to  use  the  Lord's 
prayer,  12,  to  hear  discourses  on  the 
most  profound  mysteries  of  religion, 
ibid. 

Pistores,  Christians  so  called,  8. 

Plagiary,  or  man-stealing,  censured, 
1009. 

Planeta,  part  of  the  habit  of  presby- 
ters so  called,  616. 

Plautitiians,  Plautince  prosapice  ho- 
mines, Christians  so  called,  8. 

Pleaders  at  the  bar  denied  ordination 
in  the  Roman  church,  149. 

Pluralities,  laws  concerning,  224,  1051. 

Pneumatomachi,  certain  heretics  so 
called,  970. 

Poenitentia  legitima,  what  it  was,  10S.3. 

tnajor,  public  penance  so  called, 

919. 

Poeniteyitiam  accipere,  and  dare, 
meaning  of  the  phrases,  1059. 

YloXnivoufvoi.  not  to  be  ordained,  149. 

Polycarp,  first  bishop  of  Smyrna,  20. 

Polygamy,  how  punished,  997. 

Pomp  of  Christian  funerals  described, 
1216. 

Pomps,  idolatrous  shows  so  called,  and 
censured,  516,  946. 

Pontifex  ma.vimus,  or  summus,  every 
bishop  so  called,  2-3,  82. 

Porphyrians,  the  Arians  so  called  by 
Constantine's  laws,  954. 

Poor,stood  about  the  gates  of  the  church 
for  alms,  291,  652,  penitents  to  show 
liberality  to,  1064,  famishers  of,  re- 
puted murderers,  993,  to  be  relieved 
out  of  the  revenues  of  the  church, 
192,  bv  the  sale  of  the  comnumion 
plate.  19,3,  331. 

Pope,  every  bishop  so  called.  23,  no  ne- 
cessity of  subjection  to  the  pope  of 
Rome,  318,  &'c. 

Porticos,  or  cloisters  of  churches,  de- 
scribed, 28.8,  289. 

Postures  of  devotion,  four  allowed  by 
the  ancients,  (>46. 

Power  of  the  church,  at  first,  spiritual 
alone,  880. 

Prevcentor,  the  leader  of  the  psalmody 
so  called.  682. 


Prcecones,  deacons  so  called,  89,  90. 
706. 

Preedicare,  to  bid  prayer,    ibid. 

Prce/ntiones,  prefaces,  certain  prayers 
at  the  eucharist  so  called,  7.51. 

Preeficce,  hired  female  mourners  at  fu- 
nerals 80  called,  1252. 

Prapositi,  bishops  so  called.  22,  pres- 
byters so  called,  81,  presbyters  ap- 
pointed to  superintend  and  teach  the 
inferior  clergy  so  called,  107. 

domus,  stewards  of  the  church  so 

called,  12,5. 

Prevsanctificatorum  missa,  a  com- 
munion service  in  which  some  of  the 
elements  had  been  consecrated  be- 
fore, 80.3. 

Pra-stigiatores,  workers  of  false  mira- 
cles so  called,  946. 

YipayixaTfVTiKov  yjtvaiov,  a  ta.\  SO 
called,  17.5. 

Prayer,  forms  of,  various  names  of, 
572,  to  be  addressed  to  God  alone, 
589,  referred  to  by  the  fathers  as 
understood  by  the  people,  597,  chil- 
dren and  catechiuneus  might  join  in, 
6(X),  imily  in,  how  far  essential  to  the 
church,  861. 

canonical  hours  for,  their  origin, 

661,  used  in  private  prayer  during  the 
three  first  ages,  ibid. 

Prayers,  2^>'blic,  held  morning  and 
evening  in  the  third  century,  660,  for 
the  catechumens,  &c.,  the  second  part 
of  the  morning  service,  666.  for  the 
faithful,  the  world,  and  Christian 
church,  the  third  part,  ibid.,  notices 
of  these  prayers,  ihtd.,  at  evening  ser- 
vice described,  67.3. 

between   the    psalms    in    some 

places,  680,  before,  and  in,  and  after 
sermon,  719,  after  the  sermon,  an- 
ciently. 7-36,  who  might  be  present  at, 
7,37,  form  of,  for  catechumens,  ibid., 
fur  the  angel  of  peace,  what  meant 
by,  738,  form  of,  for  energumens, 
7,39,  for  cnmpetentes,  740,  for  peni- 
tents, 741,  if  such  in  the  Latin  church, 
713,  these  concealed  from  the  catechu- 
mens, 469, 

form  of,  at  the  consecration  of  the 

eucharist,  77,3,  for  the  whole  catholic 
chiu-ch,  775,  for  bisimps  and  clergy, 
&c,,  776,  for  the  dead,  777,  1164, 
1249,  on  what  grounds  practised,  779, 
miscellaneous,  at  the  eucharist,  78-3, 
&c,,  at  the  close  of  it,  827,  form  of, 
usetl  at  the  consecration  of  bishops, 
50,  used  at  ordinations,  157. 

at  the  dedication  of  the  church 

at  Jerusalem,  .32,5. 

said  with  the  head  tincovered,  650, 

postures  allowed  at,  645,  &c. 

Prayer,  Lord's,  used  as  a  form  in  all 
ofKces,  641,  in  morning  and  evening 
services,  642,  675,  in  baptism,  5(jO,  in 
the  eucharist,  641,  787,  in  private 
devotions.  642,  called  the  Christian's 
daily  prayer,  ibid.,  918,  used  for  the 
remission  of  lesser  daily  sins,  ibid., 
used  by  heretics,  64.3,  accounted  a 
spiritual  form,  ibid.,  allowed  to  bap- 
tized communicants  alone,  12,  470, 
644, 

Preachers,  whether  they  might  use  ser- 
mons of  others'  composing,  727,  ap- 
plause given  to,  during  their  sermons, 
7.30. 

Preaching,  the  bishops'  office,  at  first, 

26,  706,  not  permitted  to  presbyters 
without  their  bishop's  consent,  ibid., 
nor  before  a  bishop,  in  the  African 
church,  before  St.  Augustine's  time, 

27,  nor  in  Alexandria  before  the  time 
of  Arius,  ibid.,  710,  allowed  to  dea- 
cons,  under  the   bishop's   authority, 


1292 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


90,  707,  archdeacons  assisted  the  bi- 
shop in,  96,  none  by  the  bishops  of 
Kome  for  500  years  together,  27,  710, 
if  ever  allowed  to  laymen,  710,  never 
permitted  to  women,  711. 

Preaching  to  edihcatinn,  rules  about, 
212,  ditiereiit  ways  of,  715,  frequently 
extempore,  717,  manner  of  delivery, 
72.3,  effect  of,  secured  without  <;esticu- 
lations,  &c.,  726,  names  of  sermons, 
705,  performed  sitting,  728,  heard 
standing,  729. 

by  the  Spirit,  what  meant  by,  718, 

carelessness  about,  and  intemperate 
zeal  for,  rebuked,  7-34,  7.35. 

Preferment,  obtaining:,  in  two  dioceses, 
punished  by  degradation,  1054. 

Prelatical  and  sacerdotal  office  in  a 
bishop,  the  same,  82. 

Preparation  for  the  conmiunion,  what 
it  was,  835. 

rrpt(7/3uTfpt'ofs,  and  Ylpta-puTLSf;,  how 
they  differed,  99,  102. 

Preshytera,  a  presbyter's  wife  so  call- 
ed, i04. 

Preslnjteri,  Saxon  kings  so  called,  85. 

Presbyterii  consessus,  and  corona,  the 
presbyters  sitting  in  a  semicircle  in 
the  church  so  called,  77. 

Presbijterit/m,  the  chancel  so  called, 
297. 

Presbyters,  Tlpta-fHrfpoi,  an  order  dis- 
tinct from  bishops,  17,  and  inferior  to 
them,  ibid.,  18,  at  first  included  in 
the  title  bishops,  21,  meaning  of  the 
name,  76,  their  original,  properly  so 
called,  ibid.,  apostles  and  bishops  so 
called,  ibid.,  called  deacons,  with  bi- 
shops, 85,  priests  also,  81,  82,  differ- 
ence in  the  application  of  titles  of 
honour  given  to  them  and  to  bishops, 
81,  originally  not  fixed  to  particular 
churches  in  a  diocese,  191,  with  chor- 
episcoj]i,  ultimately,  one  class,  24, 
but  not  anciently,  28,  56. 

form  and  manner  of  their  ordin- 
ation, 8.3.  not  ordained  by  chorepis- 
copi,  without  special  licence,  57, 
power  of  the  people  in  choosing,  136. 

their  office    distinguished    from 

those  of  bishops,  and  deacons,  82, 
were  the  e.xorcists  of  the  early  church, 
110. 

their  power  and  privileges,    76, 

bishops  did  scarcely  any  thing  without 
their  consent,  77,  78,  sat  on  thrones 
in  the  church  with  the  bishop,  ibid., 
288,  299,  sat  with  bishops  both  in 
consistorial  and  provincial  synods, 
78,  79,  80,  256,  sat  and  voted  "in  ge- 
neral councils,  81,  their  privileges  in 
the  fourth  century  diminished,  79, 
elected  their  bishops,  28,  ordained 
psalmistce,  117,  divided  with  bishops 
the  use  of  the  chrism  in  confirmation, 
548.  at  the  request  of  the  bishop, 
ministered  confirmation,  551,  to  ener- 
gumens,  ibid.,  to  such  as,  baptized 
in  heresy  and  schism,  were  in  danger 
of  death,  ibid.,  not  to  be  questioned 
by  torture,  167. 

. accountable  to  their  bishops,  29, 

their  submission  to  tiiem  necessary  to 
the  iniity  of  the  church,  866,  per- 
formed such  offices  as  were  common 
to  them  and  bishops,  in  subordination 
to  (hem,  26,  76,  might  baptize,  cele- 
brate the  eucharist,  or  preach,  only 
by  the  bishop's  consent,  ibid.,  77,  706, 
804,  not  allowed  to  preach  in  the  pre- 
sence of  the  bishop,  in  the  African 
church,  till  the  time  of  St.  Augustine, 
27,  nor  in  Alexandria,  before  the  time 
of  Arius,  ibid.,  710,  rarely  permitted 
to  reconcile  penitents,  confirm  neo- 
phytes, consecrate  churches,  virgins. 


&c.,  27,  77,  -326,  never  ordained  the 
superior  clergy,  27,  laid  hands  on 
presbyters,  at  their  ordination,  with 
the  bishop,  ibid.,  79,  ordinations  by 
them,  disannulled,  28,  allegations 
against  this  examined,  ibid.,  their 
usurping  episcopal  functions  cen- 
sured, 1057. 

Presbyters,  itinerant,  or  visiting,  ap- 
pointed instead  of  chorepiscopi,  by 
the  council  of  Laodicea,  58. 

Presentation,  how  this  right  first  de- 
volved upon  princes  and  patrons, 
J39. 

Pride,  when  punished  by  the  church, 
1027. 

Priesthood,  the  office  of  bishops,  pres- 
byters, and  deacons,  so  called,  81,  82, 
laymen's,  baptism  so  called,  861. 

Priests,  bishops,  presiiyters,  and  dea- 
cons so  called,  ibid.,  called  mediators 
between  God  and  man,  ibid.,  women 
not  to  execute  their  office,  10]. 

Prima,  the  first  of  the  canonical  hours 
so  called,  664. 

Prima  sedis  episcopi,  primates  so  call- 
ed, 61. 

Primates,  or  metropolitans,  their  ori- 
gin, 60,  and  antiquity,  ibid.,  61,  names 
by  which  they  were  anciently  known, 
ibid.,  bishops  of  civil  metropoles  ap- 
pointed to  be,  ibid.,  in  Africa,  the 
senior  bishops  appointed,  ibid.,  names 
by  which  they  were  known  in  Africa, 
ibid.,  three  sorts  of  honorary,  6.3,  all 
called  apostolici,  67. 

election  and  ordination  of,  form 

and  manner  of  it,  64,  71,  not  obliged 
to  go  to  Rome  for  ordination,  65. 

their  offices,  63,   ordained  their 

suffragan  bishops,  ibid.,  this  power 
not  infringed  by  the  setting  up  of 
patriarchs  over  them,  64,  except  by 
the  patriarch  of  Alexandria,  ibid., 
decided  controversies  and  heard  ap- 
peals from  the  bishops  and  clergy  of 
their  provinces,  65,  called  provincial 
synods,  ibid.,  published  imperial  laws 
and  canons,  ibid.,  visited  dioceses, 
and  had  the  care  of  the  whole  pro- 
vince, ibid.,  granted  litercE formula 
to  their  bishops,  66,  took  care  of  all 
vacant  sees  in  their  provinces,  ibid., 
calculated  and  announced  the  time 
of  Easter,  ibid.,  how  their  power 
grew,  ibid.,  of  Alexandria,  had  the 
greatest  power,  ibid.,  but  originally 
all  equally  absolute  and  independent, 
74. 

their  power  not  arbitrary,   64, 

might  not  officiate  in  any  bishop's 
church,  or  ordain  presbyters  and 
deacons,  65,  except  the  primate  of 
Alexandria,  66,  might  be  appealed 
from  to  patriarchs,  72,  might  be  cen- 
sured by  them,  ibid.,  might  be  made 
commissioners  by  them,  73,  to  con- 
si  dt  them  in  matters  of  great  moment, 
ibid. 

cEVo,  the  oldest  bishops  of  pro- 
vinces, after  the  metropolitans,  so 
called,  6.3. 

Primicerius  diaconorum,  properly 
marlyrinn,  St.  Stephen  so  called, 
98. 

7iofarioriim,  the  chief  of  the  no- 
taries, who  was  a  presbyter,  so  called, 
128. 

Priynitive  church,  how  far  its  example 
is  binding,  547. 

Princes,  allegiance  due  to,  985. 

of  the  people,  bishops  so  called, 

Principalis  cathedra,  a  mother-church 

so  called,  277. 
Principes,  primates  so  called,  61. 


Principes  ecclesiev,  or  sacerdotum,  bi- 
shops so  called,  22,  23,  82. 

Priscillianists,  heretics  who  altered  the 
form  of  baptism,  484. 

Prisons  of  the  church,  what  they  were, 
311,  1042. 

YlpoacTTiui,  the  suburbs  of  a  city  so 
called,  35.3. 

Processions  associated  with  solemn 
supplications,  575. 

Proclamatio7ima.de  by  the  deacons  be- 
fore the  communion  service,  469. 

Proctors  not  to  be  ordained,  149. 

YlpoiSpoi,  TrpoECTToixEs,  bishops  so  call- 
ed, 22,  presbyters  so  called,  81. 

Profanation  of  churches  and  holy 
things,  remarkably  punished,  .331, 
964. 

Profession  of  faith  made  at  baptism  in 
the  words  of  the  Creed,  519. 

T[poKadr]u.ivaL,  deaconesses  so  called, 
103. 

Promiss7im,ihe  vovp  at  baptism  so  call- 
ed, 518. 

Promotion,  refusal  of,  a  punishment  of 
the  clergy,  1040. 

simoniacal,    what    steps    were 

taken  to  prevent,  146. 

tise  of  secular  power  to  gain, 

censured,  1045. 

Upoiiao^,  the  ante-temple  so  called,  290. 

Propheteia,  churches  so  called,  27.3. 

TlpuTrvKov iiiiya,  Propylantm  mag7ium, 
the  great  porch  of  the  church  so  call- 
ed, 288,  289. 

TlpocTtvxh  ttoQun],  the  morning  hymn 
so  called,  668,  688. 

T[po(Ti.vKTi')pia,  churches  so  called,  271. 

UpoaiiKaiovTf.'s,  an  order  of  penitents 
so  called,  1058. 

Yioo(T<pu>viLcni,  the  deacon's  exhortation 
to  pray,  90,  744,  745,  750. 

YlpocrTaTUL,  presbyters  so  called,  81. 

Prostrati,  a  class  of  catechumens,  431. 

Prostration,  a  devotional  posture  of  tlie 
deepest  humiliation,  649. 

Tlpio-riK^iKOL,  defensors  so  called,  124. 

Protestant  churches,  a  model  of  primi- 
tive episcopacy  proposed  to  be  settled 
in  them,  410. 

Prothesis,  a  side-table  at  the  altar  so 
called,  ,307. 

Ilpo6E(T/jLia,  warning  of  the  exercise  of 
discipline,  887. 

JXpwToi,  primates  so  called,  01. 

Protopades,  and  protopapce,  presby- 
ters and  chorepiscopi  so  called,  24. 

Protopaschitce,  a  denomination  of 
qiiartadeciman  heretics,  1150. 

Provinces  in  the  empire,  and  the  church, 
34.3,  wholly  intrusted  to  the  care  of 
the  primates,  65. 

Provincial  councils.     See  Synods. 

Psalmistce,  an  inferior  order  of  the 
clergy  so  called,  116. 

Psalmody,  under  the  care  of  the  psal- 
mistce, ibid.,  objections  to  the  peo- 
pie's  joining  in,  answered,  683,  per- 
formed standing,  ibid.,  use  of  the 
plain  song,  and  more  artificial  melody 
in,  684,  service  of  the  ancient  church 
usually  began  with,  677,  in  proces- 
sions, 575,  at  funerals,  1246,  monks 
conducted  strangers  to  their  cells 
with,  259,  the  newly-baptized  receiv- 
ed with,  .560. 

Psalms,  whether  read  in  the  daily 
morning  and  evening  services,  669, 
674,  intermixed  with  the  lessons  and 
prayers  in  some  churches,  678. 

sung  in  course,  679,  chosen  for 

singing  by  the  bishop  or  precentor, 
ibid.,  sometimes  sung  by  one  person 
alone,  080,  sometimes  by  the  whole 
assembly,  681,  sung  alternately,  ibid., 
sung  by  the  precentor's  singing  the 


first  part,  of  the  verse,  and  the  pcojjlo 

joiniiitj  in  the  close,  G82. 
I's(i/?ns,  invitatory,  at  the  eucharist,  789, 

proper,  sunj;;  whilst  the  people  were 

Lonuiiuuicatini;;,  825. 
of  human  composition  not  object- 
ed to,  GSl. 
H' u\t(u  KitvovLKol,  the  clergy  who  sang 

ill  the  church  so  called,  IG,  1 IG. 
'I'^iji/xiots,  workers  of  false  miracles  so 

(  ailed,  91G. 
rsi'iido-episcopi,  schismatical  bishops 

so  called,  29. 
/'si/chici,  orthodo.K  Christians  so  call- 
ed, 8. 
I'lililicans,  exactions  of,  how  punished, 

1013. 
Publius,  second  bishop  of  Athens,  21. 
YlvXai  wpaioi,  or  jiaciXiKai.   the   en- 
trance from  the  uarthex  to  the  nave, 

292. 
YlvXwpoL,  offices  performed  by  deacons, 

anciently,  92. 
Pulpitum,  the  reading  desk  in  the  body 

of  the  church  so  called,  114,  293. 
Purc/atio   canonica,   an   abuse   of  the 

euciiarist  so  called,  825. 
Purgatory  not  regarded  in  the  ancient 

prayers  for  the  dead,  780. 
ITiipyos,   the   canopy   of  the   altar   so 

called,  .303. 
Purification  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  feast 

of,  1172. 
Purity,    exemplary,    required    in    the 

clergy,  197. 
Pythonici.    and    Pytkonissee,   diviners 

so  called.  942. 
Pyx,  the  ark  in  which  the  eucharist  was 

kept,  304,  distinguished  from  the  pas- 

tophoria,  312. 


Q 


Quadragesima.     See  Lent. 

Quadratus,  third  bishop  of  Athens,  21. 

Quadriporticus,  the  cloisters  so  called, 
289. 

Quartadecimans,  heretics  who  observ- 
ed Easter  on  the  I4th  day  of  the 
moon,  so  called,  1150. 

Quinquagesima.     See  Pentecost. 

Cluintillians,  heretics  who  rejected 
baptisna,  478. 

Quire,  the  chancel  of  churches  so  call- 
ed, 297. 

Quotidiana'  oratio,  the  Lord's  prayer 
so  called,  G42. 


R 


Railing,  how  punished,  1024. 

Rails  of  the  chancel,  288,  297. 

Rape,  h<iw  punished,  1001. 

Rationalis  dioscesens,  a  civil  officer  of 
the  Roman  empire,  351. 

Readers,  an  inferior  order  of  the  clergy, 
instituted  in  the  third  century,  ]  13, 
697,  manner  of  ordaining,  114,  age  at 
which  they  might  be  onlainetl,  ibid., 
sometimes  made  catechists,  120. 

Rebaptization,  punishment  for  in 
church  and  state,  565,  punishment  of 
the  clergy  for,  1050,  apostates  did  not 
receive,  564,  opinion  of  the  African 
church  respectingthat  of  heretics,  3G, 
the  only  absolution  of  certain  here- 
tics, 109G,  of  Catholics  by  certain 
heretics,  565. 

ordered  in  case  of  baptism  with- 
out water,  481,  baptism  in  doubtful 
cases  not  reckoned  such,  nor  that  of 
those  baptized  in  heresy  and  schism, 
564. 

Rebellion,  censured,  985. 

Receptorium,  the  diaconicum  so  call- 
ed, 311. 


GENERAL  INDEX. 

Redimicula,  part  of  the  habit  of  monks 
so  called,  2;)2. 

Register  of  bapli.sm  and  sponsors  kept 
in  the  church,  521,  528. 

of  tiic  ordination  of  bishops  ke|)( 

in  the  ])rimato's  church,  by  the  Afri- 
can church,  62. 

Reyulafidei,  the  Creed  so  called.  419. 

Relics  of  the  dead  not  to  be  kept.  1258, 
1259,  nor  to  be  worshipped,  ibid. 

Remboth,  an  order  of  monks  so  called, 
213. 

Renuncia  le.v,  the  Homan  law  awarding 
punishment  to  false  witnesses,  102-3. 

Renunciantes,  monks  so  called,  249. 

Renunciation  of  the  world,  by  monks, 
w'hat  it  was,  253,  how  rcganlod.  1(K)8. 

of  the  devil,  at  baptism,  form  of, 

515,  517,  its  antiquity.  516. 

Renunciative  and  communicative  life 
distinguished,  254. 

Reordination,  generally  condemned, 
160,  given  sometimes  to  schismatics 
and  heretics,  161,  punished  by  de- 
gradation, 1050,  proposal  of,  by  Cie- 
cilian,  IGl. 

Repentance,  perpetual,  practised  by 
monks,  257,  formed  part  of  the  pre- 
paration of  catechumens  for  baptism, 
437,  sacrament  of  faith  and,  baptism 
so  called,  476. 

Residence  of  the  clergy,  laws  concern- 
ing, 22:3. 

Resignations,  how  far  allowed,  220. 

Responsales,  certain  inferior  officers 
of  the  church  so  called,  128,  261. 

Respo7ises,  the  people  matle,  during 
the  prayers,  596. 

Responsoria,  and  responsorii  psalmi. 
psalms  that  were  read  between  the 
lessons  so  calletl,  678,  681. 

Revealing  secrets,  how  punished.  1021. 

Revelation,  book  of,  read  during  Pen- 
tecost, G95,  1047. 

Revenues  of  the  church,  whence  they 
arose,  182,  S:c.,  disreputable  means  of 
increasing,  discouraged,  187,  not  to 
be  alienated  save  on  extraordinary 
occasions,  193. 

anciently  all  in  the  hands  of  the 

bishops,  and  by  them  distributed,  33, 
191,  192,  assisted  by  the  archileacons, 
96,  the  care  of  tiie  steward  of  the 
church,  G6,  rules  about  dividing,  192, 
tills  system  changed  by  the  endow- 
ment of  parochial  churches,  19.3,  sus- 
pension from,  one  mode  of  discipline 
amongst  the  clergy,  1029. 

Rich,  subject  to  discipline,  902. 

Ring  used  in  espousals,  1215. 

'PiTTioia,  fans  to  drive  away  insects 
from  tiie  altar  during  the  commu- 
nion service,  .307,  769. 

Rites,  bishops  might  use  what  they 
jiloased  in  their  own  churches,  pro- 
videil  tiiey  were  not  heretical.  35. 

Robbery,  aiding  and  abetting,  con- 
demned, 1020. 

Rogation  days,  the  original  of,  574, 
119.3,  &c. 

Rngationts,  litanies  so  called,  573. 

Roman  church,  form  used  at  the  ordin- 
ation of  presbyters  in,  8,3,  refused 
ordination  to  pleaders  at  the  bar,  140, 
seven  deacons  and  seven  subdeacons 
always  kept  in  it,  109,  auricular  con- 
fession an  innovation  of,  1065,  Epis- 
tle and  Gospel  alone  read  by,  693. 

errors  of.  See  under  each 

particular. 

empir.e,  state  of,  in   the  days  of 

the  apostles,  311,  divided  into  dio- 
ceses and  provinces,  342,  state  of  the 
church  conformed  to  it,  341. 

Rome,  its  circumference  in  various  ages, 
380,  the  anniversaries  of  the  founda- 


1293 


tiou  of  it,  and  Constantinople,  kept 
as  festivals,  1125,  forty  chun-hes  in, 
before  the  last  persecution,  2M),  .380. 

Rome,  bishops  of,  most  probably  limits 
of  their  power,  .318,  not  privileged  to 
ordain,  alone,  49,  GG7,  tiieir  licence 
for  bishops  to  consecrate  chMrchcs, 
anciently  not  re(iuired,  327,  ancient- 
ly subject  to  the  emperors,  .32. 

Rotulee  punis,  the  bread  at  the  eucha- 
rist so  called,  759. 

Round,  some  churches  built  in  this 
form,  287. 


S 


Sabbath,  or  Saturday,  a  festival  in  (he 
Eastern  church,  1137,  tliough  ob- 
served as  the  Lord's  dav  was,  yet 
the  preference,  in  some  respects,  was 
given  to  the  Lord's  day,  11.3s,  why 
observed,  1139,  a  fast  in  the  Homan 
and  other  churches,  and  why,  1140. 

Sabbutians,  a  new  denomination  of 
qiiartadecinian  heretics,  1150. 

Sabbatum  ynagnum,  the  Saturday  be- 
fore Easter,  how  observed,  1189. 

Sabellians,  the  way  in  which  they  pro. 
fessed  their  belief  in  the  Trinity,  215, 
altered  the  form  of  baptism,  485. 

Saccophori,  certain  Mauichees  so  call- 
ed, S8.3. 

Sactrdotal  and  prelatical  offices  in 
bishops,  the  same,  82. 

Sacerdotes,  bishops,  presbyters,  and 
deacons  so  called,  81,  ibid.,  presby- 
ters specially  so  called,  86. 

summi,  or  primi,  bishops  so  call- 
ed, 23,  82. 

Sacerdotium  laid,  baptism  so  called, 
474. 

secundum,  presbyters  so  called, 82. 

Sackcloth,  penitents  appeared  in,  1061. 

Sacra  epistoUe,  the  emperor's  letters 
so  called,  65. 

Sacramenta,  Divine  service,  why  so 
called,  571. 

Sacraments,  ambiguous  usage  of  the 
word,  515.  unity  in,  how  far  necessary 
to  the  church,  864,  of  faith  and  re- 
pentance, baptism  so  called,  176,  of 
catechumens,  what,  440,  nothinu:  to  be 
demanded  for  administering.  187,  pro- 
fanation of,  how  punished,  961. 

Sacramentum,  baptism  so  called,  475 

Sacrarium,  the  chancel  so  called,  297, 
the  treasury  for  the  giftsof  the  people, 
outside  the  churcdi.so  called,  ^^07. 

Sacrificati,  idolaters  so  called,  925. 

Sacrifice  of  the  altar,  what  it  was,  and 
by  whom  offered,  82. 

Sacrificium,  Divine  service,  why  so 
called,  570. 

Sacrilege,  robbing  of  graves  esteemed 
so.  963,  and  defrauding  the  poor,  962, 
of  the  traditors,  963,  of  protaniug  the 
sacraments,  &c.,  961,  of  depriving 
men  of  the  use  of  the  Scriptures,  and 
of  the  cup  in  the  eucharist,  965.  many 
things  so  called  by  the  Romanists, 
which  the  ancients  esteemed  virtues, 
9G2. 

— punishment  of,  ibid.,  in  the  clergy, 

punished  by  degradation,  ibid. 

Saints,  worship  of,  condemned  as  idol- 
atry, 59t),  churches  distinguished  by 
the  names  of,  for  a  memorial  of  them, 
327. 

Salus,  baptism  so  called.  475. 

Salutation  of  bishops, /)er  coronam,  4 1 . 

Salutatorium,  the  diaconicum  so  call- 
ed, 311. 

Sancta  Sanctis,  the  proclamation  made 
by  the  deacon  at  the  eucharist,  7^8. 

Sancta  Sophia,  tiie  famous  church  of 
.Justinian  at  Constantinople,  283. 


1294 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


Sanctimoniales,  virgins  so  called,  2G8. 
Sanctissimi,  bishops  so  called,  42. 
Sanctuary,  that  part  of  the  church  as- 

sisned  to  the  clergy  so  called,  '291, 

297.     See  Ai^litni. 
Sarabaita,  monks  who  lived  under  no 

rule,  and  but  few  together.  243. 
Samientitii,  Christians  so  called,  7. 
^atan,   delivering   to,   what   it  meant, 

895,  divination  by  compact  with,  942. 
symigogiie of,  orthodo.\  Christians 

so  called,  9. 
Saturday,  observed  with  ^reat  solemni- 

tv  as  a  day  of  public  devotion,  65tJ, 

mi. 

before  Easter,  the  great  sabbath, 

how  observed,  1189. 

Sauches,  Coenobites  so  called,  243. 

Hceuophylaces,  certain  inferior  officers 
of  the  church  so  called,  127,  311. 

Sceuophyluchim,  a  sort  of  vestry  within 
the  church  so  called,  308. 

magnum,  the  diaconicum  so  call- 
ed, 2by.  3il. 

Schism,  several  kinds  of,  878,  punish- 
ment of,  961. 

Sc/iismatics,  ecclesiastical  and  civil 
punishment  of,  953,  961,  denied  the 
choice  of  their  clergy,  137,  not  ad- 
mitted to  the  eucliarist  without  con- 
fession and  reconciliation,  796,  cen- 
sure of  such  clerks  as  became,  218, 
were  sometimes  reordained,  161,  used 
the  Lord's  prayer  as  Catholics  did, 
643. 

Sckolastici,  lawyers  so  called,  1013. 

^yoXa'^ovm  LiriaKoirot,  bishops  with- 
out sees  so  called,  1.38. 

Schools,  catechetical,  adjoining  the 
church  in  some  places,  121,  314. 

charily,  ibid.,  600. 

Scriptures,  translated  into  all  lan- 
guages, 597,  704.  catechumens  al- 
lowed to  read,  432,  600,  people  al- 
ways permitted  to  read  in  the  vulgar 
tongue,  598,  formed  part  of  the  studies 
of  the  clergy,  209,  laid  m  churches 
for  the  people  to  read,  598,  children 
might  read,  600,  such  as  withheld 
them  reckoned  guilty  of  sacrilege, 
598,  965,  traditors,  or  betravers  of 
them,  also,  963,  and  profanersof  them. 
961,  not  to  be  used  for  divination,  941, 
944,  to  be  read  by  the  clergy  and 
monks  at  their  meals,  209,  259.  some 
men  got  them  by  heart,  ibid.,  601. 

readers  of.  an   inferior  order  of 

clergy,  113,  by  whom  read  before 
their  appointment,  ibid..  697.  read  in 
various  parts  of  the  public  service, 
693,  except  in  the  church  of  Rome, 
where  only  the  Gospel  and  Epistle 
are  read,  ibid.,  proper  lessons  from, 
appointed  to  be  read  at  particular 
seasons,  and  calendars  of  them  made, 
626,  693,  S:c.    See  Inteipreters. 

apocryphal,  read  in  churches.  701. 

Scythia.  had  but  one  bishopric,  375. 

Secretaria,  sessions  of  coimcils  so  call- 
ed. 311. 

Secretarium,  the  diaconicum  so  called, 
307,  ibid. 

Secrets,  revealing,  censured,  1024. 

Secretum,  used  by  Paul  of  Samosata, 
42. 

Secular  causes,  power  of  the  bishops 
in,  .37,  confirmed  by  imperial  laws,  38. 

court,  delivering  up  to,  what  it 

-  meant,  1U33. 

Judges,  in  what  cases  the  clergy 

were  and  were  not  exempt  from  their 
cognizance,  165.  &c.,  168,  1049. 

monks,  described,  244. 

offices,  interference  with,  punish- 
ed in  the  clerey  bv  degradation,  225, 
1048.  ■"       ' 


Secular  power,  called  in  to  help  the 
church,  31,  880,  1033,  how  far  e.xer- 
cised,  ibid. 

Sedes,  the  bishop's  throne  so  called, 299. 

apostolica,  every  primate's  see  so 

calleii,  67,  every  bishop's  see  so  call- 
ed. 2-2. 

Sedition,  how  censured.  985,  disquali- 
fied for  ordination,  143,  in  the  clergy, 
punished  by  degradation,  986. 

Sees  of  bishops  conformed  to  the  juris- 
diction of  cities  in  the  Roman  empire, 
345,  353. 

,  vacant,  the  care  of  the  primates, 

66,  in  Africa,  managed  by  interces- 
sores.  .59,  to  be  tilled  up  within  three 
months,  46. 

^VKO'i,  churches  so  called,  '276. 

Seleucian^',  heretics  who  rejected  bap- 
tism, 479. 

Self-murder,  how  punished.  '255,  989, 
r255. 

'S.nij.avTpa,  the  substitute  for  bells  in  the 
Greek  churches  so  called,  316. 

Semaxii,  Christians  so  called,  7. 

Semi-jejunia,  Wednesdays  and  Fridavs 
so  called.  1194. 

'S.eixvtia,  churches  so  called,  276,  mo- 
nasteries so  called,  249. 

Senatorium.  part  of  the  nave  in  some 
modern  churches  so  called,  '296. 

Senes,  primates  so  called,  in  Africa,  61. 

Seniores,  Saxon  kings  so  called,  8o. 

ecclesitx,  or  ecclesiastici,  elders 

so  called,  84,  85. 

Seniority,  precedency  of  bishops  deter- 
mined by,  in  the  African  church,  &1. 
delinquency  punished  by  its  for- 
feiture, ibid.,  1039. 

clergy  punished  by  loss  of,  amongst 

their  own  order,  1040. 

Septuagint,\ls  use  in  the  ancient  church, 
704. 

Sennons,  names  by  which  they  were 
called,  705,  two  or  three  sometimes 
in  the  same  assembly,  7r2,  every  day 
in  some  times  and  places.  713,  twice 
a  day  in  many  places,  ibid.,  not  so 
frequent  in  villages,  715. 

frequently  extempore  among  the 

aucieuts,717,  sometimes  without  texts, 
sometimes  on  more  than  one,  7'22, 
always  on  important  subjects,  ibid., 
length  of,  727,  objections  to  long  ones, 
how  disposed  of,  735,  sometimes  de- 
livered sitting  and  heard  standing, 
728,  7'29,  applause  during,  7-30,  taken 
down  in  writing  by  the  hearers.  733, 
if  a  preacher  might  use  them  of  others' 
composition.  7'27. 

before  the  public  prayers  ancient- 
ly. 736.  prayers  before,  and  in,  and 
after,  719,  salutation  before,  but  no 
Ai>e  Marias,  721,  7'22.  prefaced  some- 
times by  a  benediction,  ibid.,  con- 
cluded by  a  doxology  to  the  Trinity, 
7'28. 

Seriants.     See  Slaves. 

Sescuplutn,  interest  at  50  per  cent.,  201. 

Shamtnatha,  one  form  of  exccunmuni- 
cation  amongst  the  Jews,  898. 

Shaving,  censured  in  the  clergy,  2'28, 
the  head,  censured  in  virgins,  '267. 

Shoes,  putting  oft',  a  custom  of  some,  on 
entering  churches,  332. 

Sibyllists,  Christians  so  called.  6. 

Sick,  were  attended  by  the  parabolani, 
in  iufettioMs  disorders,  119. 

Signiferi,  certain  idolatrous  officers  so 
called,  946. 

Silent  prayer  at  the  commencement  of 
the  communion  service,  744. 

Silentiarii.  certain  monks  so  called. 
249,  certain  civil  officers  so  called,  ib. 

Silentium  indicere,  to  summon  to  si- 
lent prayer,  698,  745. 


SiliqucE  quatuor  laid  on  every  jugum 
of  lami  as  denaristnus,  178. 

Simeon,  second  bishop  of  .Jerusalem,  '20. 

Sitnon  Maaus,  his  idolatrous  practices, 
593.  V  , 

Simonians,A  name  given  to  the  Nes- 
torians  by  the  emperor  Theodosius 
junior,  9o4. 

Sanony,  various  kinds  of,  965,  brought 
degradation  on  both  parties  concern- 
ed. 146. 

Simplices,  orthodox  Christians  so  call- 
ed, 9. 

Singers,  or  psaltnistes,  an  inferior  or- 
der of  the  clergy  so  called,  116,  when 
instituted,  ibid.,  their  office,  ibid., 
their  names,  ibid.,  117,  how  ordained, 
ibid.,  their  station  in  the  church,  '293. 

Singing,  allowed  to  the  whole  assem- 
bly, 116,  683,  sometimes,  however, 
prohibited,  116. 

Sins,  mortal  and  venial,  distinguished, 
918.^ 

2iT»ipEcrta,  an  allowance  of  corn  to  the 
clergy  out  of  the  emperor's  store- 
houses, 185. 

Sitting,  not  regarded  as  a  devotional 
posture,  649,  sermons  most  freciuent- 
ly  preached  so,  728,  the  eucharist 
never  received  so.  81 '2. 

Slai^es,  not  to  be  ordained,  147,  not  bap- 
tized without  the  testimony  of  their 
masters,  502,  not  to  marry  without 
their  masters'  consent,  9^5,  not  to 
turn  monks  without  their  consent, 
2.50,  fugitive,  denied  refuge  in  Chris- 
tian churches,  .338. 

often  manumitted  at  Easter,  1 155, 

and  on  Sundays,  1127,  of  Jews  or 
heretics  made  free  on  going  over  to 
the  church,  .338,  955. 

noblemen  not  to  marry,  1'206. 

Sodomy,  how  punished,  1002. 

Soldiers,  sometimes  denied  baptism, 
505,  could  not  be  ordained,  146. 

Solea,  HwXtliov,  magistrate's  throne,  in 
the  nave  of  the  church,  286,  296. 

Solitarii,  a  sect  of  the  Manichecs  so 
called,  883. 

Soothsayers,  censures  against,  940. 

Sorcery,  censures  against.  943. 

Sortes  sacra,  a  kind  of  divination  so 
called,  941. 

Sophia,  Sancta,  the  church  so  called, 
built  at  Constantinople  l^y  Justinian, 
'286. 

'S.uKT'rpn,  the  reward  for  saving  lost 
goods  so  called.  1010. 

Spa7iish  churches  not  subject  to  the 
bishop  of  Rome,  .348. 

Specierum  collatio,  a  tax  in  kind  so 
called,  17.3. 

Spectators  of  murders  in  the  amphi- 
theatre reputed  accessaries,  992. 

of  stage-plays,  censured,9-30,1004. 

Spells,  censures  upon  the  use  of,  943. 

'E(f>fya-yi9,  baptism  so  called,  475,  and 
cont:rmation,  545. 

fTTavpotiSi)^,  the  sign  of  the  cross 

at  ordination  so  called,  158,  542. 

Spirit,  praying  by,  636,  preaching  by, 
718. 

Spitting,  practised  at  baptism,  517. 

Sponsalitice  donationes,  espousal  gifts, 
1214. 

Sponsors  for  children  in  baptism,  5'23, 
parents  were,  for  their  own  children, 
commonly,  5'24,  answered  the  ques- 
tions at  baptism,  and  undertook  the 
guardianship  of  their  spiritual  life, 
ibid.,  5'26,  for  adults,  ibid.,  to  instruct 
and  admonish  those  whom  they  were 
s\ireties  for,  .527,  but  one  required, 
528,  their  names  registered,  ibid., 
who  might  not  be,  527,  deacons  and 
deaconesses  usually  were,  ibid.,  laws 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


12<».) 


against  their  inarrj'ing  their  spiritual 
relative,  528,  I'iUJs. 

Sportulantesfr aires,  the  clergy  so  call- 
ed, J83. 

Y.Trov5aiot,  ascetics  so  called,  212. 

Sprinkling,  sometimes  used  in  baptism, 
538. 

Stage-players,  not  to  be  baptized,  503, 
excluded  from  coinuumioa,  'j3U,  not 
to  be  ordained,  149. 

Standing,  a  devotional  posture  enjoined 
on  the  Lord's  day,  ami  between  Eas- 
ter and  Pentecost.  54G,  1131,  psalm- 
ody performed  so,  GS^,  Gospel  heard 
so,  6y'J,  sermons  heard  so,  729,  eu- 
charist  received  so,  812. 

Stationary  days,  stationes.  for  Divine 
service,  their  original.  G55,  weekly 
fasts,  in  the  ancient  church,  \V.).\, 
how  they  diH'ered  from  Lent,  llN2, 
1194,  dit^pute  respecting  them.  1195, 
the  Wednesday  changed  into  Satur- 
day, in  the  Western  churches,  119(3. 

Statues  not  allowed  l)y  the  ancients, 
323.  of  Christ  made  by  the  Syrophcc- 
nician  woman,  321. 

2x«i)po7rjiy(oj',the  meaning  of  the  word, 
327. 

Slellionatiis,  forgery  so  called.  1014. 

i)Ttx«,oi«,  surplices  so  called,  646. 

Srorti,  the  cloisters  so  called,  2^9. 

Stolen  goods,  buying,  condemned,  1020. 

Strangers  coidd  not  be  ordained,  141. 

,  cmnmunion  of,  what  it  was,  1034. 

"SiTptiTtia,  all  secular  service  so  called, 
225. 

Strife,  reckoned  a  degree  of  murder, 
993,  persons  at,  could  not  present  ob- 
lations at  the  eucharist,  752. 

^TpoyyuXof  £0>;s«/OTos,  the  wafers  used 
at  the  eucharist  so  called,  758. 

Studies  of  the  clergy,  209. 

Studitce,a.n  orderof  monks  so  called,247 

Stylita,  monks  who  dwelt  on  pillars,243. 

Suhdeucons,  not  mentioned  before  the 
third  century,  108.  their  offices,  ibid., 
anil  ordination,  ibid.,  seven,  always 
kept  in  the  church  of  Rome,  109. 

Subdiaconissa,  a  subdeacou's  wife  so 
called,  104. 

Subscription  to  the  decree  appointing 
to  the  clergy  one  way  of  voting  at 
elections,  135. 

Substrati,  a  class  of  catechumens  so 
called,  435,  the  third  class  of  peni- 
tents so  called,  292,  1058. 

Suhurbicarice  ecclesice,  an  account  of 
them,  347. 

Suburbs,  its  meaning,  353,  the  bishop's 
diocese  anciently  included  only  the 
city  and  these,  ibid. 

Successors  of  the  apostles,  bishops  so 
called,  22. 

Succinere,  to  sing  after  the  precentor, 
682. 

Stijfragan  bishops  not  the  same  as 
chorepiscopi  in  the  primitive  church, 
58.  bisliop  (jf  Home  had  seventy, ifciV/., 
ordained  bv  their  primates,  6-3,  ob- 
liged to  attend  provincial  synods,  65. 

an  attempted  restoration  of 

chorepiscopi  in  England,  58. 

Suffrage,  common,  one  way  of  design- 
ing men  to  the  ministry,  131. 

'S.vWafiiu  iiSpovLCT'TLKaL,  certain  letters 
so  called,  50. 

Summi  sacerdotes,  bishops  so  called, 23. 

2/i/xTro'<T(a.  entertainments  given  to  the 
poor  at  the  festivals  of  martyrs,  1165. 

Sunday.     See  Lord's  day. 

"SvvticraKToi,  women  living  as  sisters 
with  unmarried  clergymen,  206,  1053. 

YvvLrTTCLfxivoi,  an  Order  of  penitents  so 
called,  1058. 

'S.vv-TCLTToiiui  (roi,  X<u(TTf,  the  form  of 
vow  at  baptism,  518. 


Superindicta,  extraordinary  ta.xes  so 
called,  177. 

Superpositiones.  additional  fasts  in  the 
great  week  so  called,  1186. 

Superstition,  the  new.  Christian  reli- 
gion so  called,  6. 

Superstitious  practices  in  devotion 
noticed  by  TertiiUian,  650. 

Supplicationes,  litanies  so  called,  573. 

Supremacy  of  pope  of  Rome,  not  al- 
lowed in  ancient  practice,  33,  348, 
875. 

o//jr/nce.f  above  all  ecclesiastics, 

171,  886,  985. 

Sureties,  laws  prohibiting  the  clergy 
from  being,  226. 

in  baptism,  or  sponsors,  523. 

Sursnm  corda,  the  preparation  to  the 
great  t  anksgiving  at  the  eucharist, 
770. 

Suspensio  a  divisione  mensurtia,  the 
cutting  oft'  from  a  share  of  the  month- 
ly division  of  the  oblations,  183. 

Suspension  from  commu7iion,\he  lesser 
excommunication  so  called,  887. 

from  office,  a  punishment  of  the 

clergy,  1029,  inflicted  for  crimes  that 
would  bring  suspension  from  the 
eucharist  on  laymen,  1043. 

'^va-raTiKai,  letters  dimissoiT  so  called, 
221. 

Swearing,  all,  not  forbidden,  975,  by 
creatures,  forbidden,  977,  and  bv 
emperor's  genii,  by  saints,  &c.,  97^, 
false,  its  punishment,  979,  profane, 
forbidden  and  censured,  975,  977. 

Symbolical  pictures  allowed  by  the 
ancients,  .320,  -322,  3'2.3. 

Symbolu7n,  the  Creed  anciently  so  call- 
ed, 448. 

Synagogue  of  antichrist,  andof  Satan, 
orthodox  Christians  so  called.  9. 

Synagogues,  turned  into  churches,  283, 
churches  conformed  to  their  model, 
299,  not  to  be  frequented  by  Chris- 
tians, 9-50. 

Syndics,  the  defetisores  of  the  church 
so  called,  122. 

Synedrians,  orthodox  Christians  so 
called  by  Novatiaus,  8. 

Synesius,  his  irregular  ordination,  140. 

Synodi,  churches  so  called,  272. 

Synodicee,  letters  intimating  the  pro- 
motion of  a  bishop  so  called,  50,  sum- 
moning bishops  to  a  provincial  synod 
so  called,  65. 

Synoditee,  monks  who  lived  in  com- 
munity, 243. 

Sy?iods,  consistorial,  presbyters  and 
deacons  took  part  in  with  bishops, 
78,  79,  91. 

provincial,  two  to  be  held  every 

year,  30,  65,  called  by  primates,  ibid., 
sufi'ragan  bishops  obliged  to  attend, 
ibid.,  presbyters  and  deacons  sat  ami 
voted  at,  78,  91,  consent  of,  needful 
to  the  appointment  of  a  bisliop.  TtS, 
elected  bishops,  64,  elected  and  or- 
dained primates,  ibid.,  appealed  from 
to  patriarchs,  72,  appeal  from  their 
censure  to  foreign  churches  punished 
in  the  clergy  by  degradation,  1049, 
f.fliciatiug  after  their  condemnation 
also,  104S,  provincial  bishops  not  at- 
tending suspended,  1056. 

diocesan,    called    and    presided 

over  by  patriarchs,  7'2,  ordained  pa- 
triarchs, ibid. 

national,  their  power.  874. 

ecumenical,  their  power  and  use 

in  the  clnirch,  873. 

held    in     the     baptisteries     of  j 

churches.  .'509,  in  the  catechumenia, 
295,  in  the  secretaria,  311. 

Synthronus,  the  seats  of  the  bishop  and 
presbyters  so  called,  300.  I 


Tabernacles,  churches  so  called,  276. 
Tabula    clericorum,   the  catalogue  of 

the  clergy,  16. 
Trf)(u'y()a(/)oi,   certain   inferior   oilicers 

of  the  church  so  called,  127. 
Talionis  lex,  false  witnesses  punished 

by,  990. 
la^twTui  not  to  be  ordained,  1 18. 
Taxes,  clergy  exempt  from  certain,  171, 

itc,  but  not  by  divine  right,  tbid. 
T(<?iv  Tov  lit'ifxaTOi,  or   itf^aTiKi;,   the 

t-Iergy  so  called,  16,  297. 
Te  Deum.  the  author  and  original  of 

the  hymn,  691. 
TtXf  loi,  rtXiiovfifvoi,  baptized  persons 

so  called,  11. 
TtXfioi/,  the  eucharist  so  called,  ibid., 

1087. 
'TiXnwTipoi,  a  class  of  catechumens  so 

called,  4:i3. 
TfXtTij,  TiXtiwrn^,  baptism  so  called, 

477. 
Tifitvoi,  churches  so  called,  276. 
Tempestarii,  diviners  so  called,  944. 
Temples,  churches,  when  lirst  called, 

272. 
heathen,   turned  into  churches, 

28.3,  with  their  revenues  given  to  the 

church,  18(),  not  to  be  built  or  adorn- 
ed by  Christians,  9.32. 
Tertia,    the   second   of  the   canonical 

hours  so  called,  664. 
Tertiana,    the    bishop's   share  of    the 

church  revenues,  410. 
Tessurescadecutitee.    the  Qiiartadeci- 

man  heretics  so  called,  1150. 
TfTpi'cfTTuXov,  the  cloisters  so  called, 

289. 
Thanes,  the  part  they  took  in  founding 

churches,  410. 
OavfiaToTToiol,  workers  of  false  miracles 

so  called.  946. 
Theatres,  frequenters  of,  rejected  from 

baptism,  505,  why  condemned,  1004. 
Theft,  punishment  of,  1010,  punished  in 

the  clergy  by  degradation,  198. 
Theodoret  had  eii.'ht  hundred   parishes 

in  his  diocese,  .'364. 
6fO(5oo/joi.  couriers  of  the  church  so 

called,  316. 
Qi6Xi]irToi  and  GioipopoufiEvoi,  divin- 
ers so  called,  94.3. 
Bio(piXi(TTaToi,  bishops  so  called,  42. 
Bfc(/)Of)o!,  Christians  so  called,  2. 
Therapeutee.    Christians  so  called,   1, 

monks  so  called,  249. 
QoXuiTu,  the  circular  form  of  churches 

so  called,  287. 
Throne,  dpovov  in//j)\ds,  the, bishop's 

seat  in  tlie  church  so  called,  42,  288, 

of  the  presbyters,  ibid. 

of  the  emperor,  in  the  church,  296. 

Thurarii,  sellers  of  frankincense,  cen- 
sured. 9.32. 
Thurificati,  idolaters  so  called.  925. 
(r)iipwpoL,  door-keepers  so  called,  115. 
Thursday,  superstitionsly  observed  in 

honour  of  Jupiter,  945. 
QvrriiKTTiipiov,    the   altar  part    of   the 

church  so  called,  292,  297,  the  com- 
munion table  so  called,  .301. 
Timothy,  first  bishop  of  Ephesus,  21. 
Tinctiori,  baptism  so  called,  477. 
Tintinnabula,  small  bells  so  called.  317. 
Ttrnnes,  new  soldiers  so  called,  174. 
Tithes,  due  by  divine  right,  189,  why 

not    always    demanded.    UK),    when 

settled  generally  on  the  church,  ibid. 
/■///e,  no  one  to  be  ordained  without,  153. 
Titular  bishops  not  allowed,  ibid. 

ordi7iations,Vih\  condemned,  1 80. 

Tituli,  churches  so  called,  275. 

cardinales,  their  office.  84. 

Titus,  first  bishop  of  Crete,  21. 


1 290 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


Tonsure  of*the  ancients  different  from 
that  of  the  Roman  church,  229,  of 
monks,  252,  of  virgins,  censnrecl,267. 

Torcellus  introduced  organs  -into 
churches,  315. 

Tractatores,  expositors  of  Scripture  so 
culled,  70G. 

Tractatus,  sernions  so  called,  ibid. 

Tractoria,  letters  summoning  bishops 
to  provincial  synods  so  called,  65. 

Trades,  laws  prohibiting  the  clergy 
from  following,  226,  allowed  to  the 
inferior  clergy,  ibid. 

Traditors,  their  crime  and  censure,  963. 

Traffic,  deceit  in,  how  punished,  1017. 

Traiislatio,  the  clergy  sometimes  ex- 
empt from,  177. 

Translation  of  bishops,  canonical,  44, 
laws  against,  how  to  be  understood, 
222: 

Translations  of  the  Scriptures  in  use 
in  the  ancient  church,  704. 

Transubstaiitiation  unknown  in  the 
early  church,  814,  S2U. 

'YpcnrtX,a  /iiktxikj),  (ppiKTt),  the  com- 
munion table  so  called,  301. 

Treason  against  princes,  how  punished, 
915. 

Trepalium,  the  rack  for  examining  wit- 
nesses, 1U55. 

Tribunal,  the  altar  part  of  the  church 
so  called,  296,  the  reading  desk  in 
the  body  of  the  church  so  called,  114. 

Trine  immersion  practised,  its  reasons, 
539,623. 

Trinity,  worship  of  every  person  of,576, 
mystery  of,hidden  from  catechumens, 
470,  sermons  ended  with  doxology 
to,  728,  baptism  in  the  name  of,  481. 

Trisagion,  an  ancient  hymn  to  the  Tri- 
nity,624,688,used  at  the  eucharist,772. 

Trit heists,  heretics  who  altered  the  form 
of  baptism,  484,  576. 

Tropheea,  churches  so  called,  275. 

TjoouXXcoxa,  a  form  of  building  churches 
so  called,  287. 

Trumpets  used  to  call  church-assem- 
blies, 316. 

Trust,  deceit  in,  how  punished,  1017. 

Tunica,  the  coat  commonly  worn  an- 
ciently, 230,  common  clerical  sur- 
plice, 646. 

Tychceum,  the  temple  of  Fortune  turned 
into  a  church,  284. 

Ty rones  Z>ej,catechumens  so  called, 429. 


Vacunt  sees,  the  care  of  the  primates, 
66,  in  Africa  under  interventores,  59, 
to  be  filled  in  three  months,  46. 

Vacantivi,  wandering  clergy  so  called, 
222. 

Vagrants  censured,  248. 

Vain-glory,  its  censure,  1027. 

Valentiiiians,  heretics  who  rejected 
baptism,  478. 

Votes,  diviners  so  called,  942. 

Veil,  used  in  marriage,  1222,  part  of 
the  habit  of  virgins,  266,  worn  by 
penitents,  1062. 

Veils  used  to  hide  the  altar  from  the 
nave,  298. 

Venefici,  enchanters  so  called,  943. 

Venial  and  mortal  sins,  distinguished, 
918. 

Vessels  of  the  church,  used  only  for 
sacred  purposes,  .331,  made  of  differ- 
ent materials,  .304,  not  anciently  de- 
livered into  the  hands  of  presbyters 
at  their  ordination,  83,  158,  kept  by 
deacons,  87. 

Vestibulum,  the  porch  of  the  church, 
288,  289. 


Vestry,  the  diaconicum  so  called,  311. 

Viaticum,  baptism  so  called,  477,  and 
the  eucharist,  801. 

Vicars  of  Christ,  all  bishops  called,  25. 

Viduee,  deaconesses  so  called,  99. 

Vigils,  how  observed,  657,  1165,  in 
churches,  forbidden,  3.30,  1008. 

Villages,  distinguished  from  cities,  35.3, 
had  bishops  placed  in  them  some- 
times, 51,  356,  .359. 

Virgin  Mary,  worship  of,  idolatry,  937. 

annunciation  of,  its  observance, 

1171,  purification  of,  its,  1172. 

Virgins,  ecclesiastical  and  monastical. 
distinguished,  264,  their  habit  and 
ordination,  265,  occupied  a  special 
part  of  churches,  295,  their  privi- 
leges, 267,  excused  the  capitation 
tax,  ibid.,  made  deaconesses,  99. 

w'hen  first  censured  for  breaking 

their  vows,  264,  their  marriage  never 
declared  null,  265,  might  marry  if 
consecrated  under  forty  years  old,  ib. 

Visitations,  diocesan,  primates  might 
make,  65. 

parochial,  to  be  made  by  the  bi- 
shop annually,  or  his  diocese  to  be  di- 
vided, 392,  397,  bishops  received  a 
pension  at,  called  Aonorc«?^erfrtf',  410. 

Visititig  presbyters  put  in  the  room  of 
chorepiscopi,  58. 

Vit'uriarii,  idolatrous  officers  so  called, 
946. 

Umbraculiim,  the  canopy  to  the  altar 
so  called,  30.3. 

UncicB,  a  particular  municipal  tax  so 
called,  178. 

Uncovering  the  head,  practised  in  de- 
votion, 6.50. 

Unction,  in  baptism,  its  origin,  529,  dis- 
tinguished from  chrism  at  confirma- 
tion, ibid.,  its  design,  530. 

or  chrism  at  confirmation,  its  ori- 
gin, 552,  mode  of  administering,  and 
effects,  ibid. 

at  the  absolution  of  certain  here- 
tics, 1095. 

Unity  of  the  church,  to  be  maintained 
by  the  clergy,  218,  faith  and  obedi- 
ence, in  love  and  charity,  essential 
to,  857,  860,  in  the  use  of  baptism, 
861,  in  worship,  &c.,  864,  subjectitm 
to  church  authority  necessary  to,  866, 
submission  to  discipline,  869,  not  in 
universal  adoption  of  ceremonies,  876. 

no  visible  head  necessary 

for,  875,  degrees  of  it,  878. 

Unleavened  bread,  not  used  originally 
at  the  eucharist,  757,  origin  of  use,  758. 

Vota,  the  fourth  of  January,  1 123. 

Voting,  the  people's  method  of,  at  elec- 
tions of  the  clergy,  134. 

Votum,  the  vow  at  "baptism  called,  518. 

FoM'.?,  breach  of,  how  censured,980,none 
required  of  clergy,monks,  and  virgins 
touching  celibacy,  151,  253,  264. 

'Yttukoveiv,  i/Tri/XE'".  to  sing  after  the 
psalmistts,  117,  682. 

'YirriptTui,  deacons  so  called,  86,  and 
subdeacons,  108. 

'Yvipwa,  the  women's  part  of  the 
church  so  called,  288,  295. 

'Y-n-fpStcrtt?,  additional  fasts  on  the 
great  week  so  called,  1186. 

'YiTofioKil';,  leaders  of  psalmody,  and 
canonical  singers,  so  called,  117,682. 

'Yiroypafpti';,  notaries  so  called,  128. 

'TTTofo'/ji-js,  the  baptistery  so  called,  31 0. 

'YiroTriTTTovTi^,  the  third  class  of  pe- 
nitents so  called,  292,  1058. 

Urceola,  watcrpots,  among  the  utensils 
of  the  altar,  .305. 

Usurers  could  not  be  ordained,  143. 


Usury,  censured,  201, 1014,  clergy  were 

deposed  for,' 200. 
Vulgar  tongue  used  in  Divine  service, 

595,  &c..  Scriptures  read  in  it,  598. 

W 

Wafers,  not  used  anciently  at  the  eu- 
charist, 757,  first  use  of,  condemned, 
758. 

Wakes,  their  original,  329. 

W  andering  beggars  c^MuxeA,l>Q-\,W2\. 

clergy  censured,  222,  1020. 

monks  censii-'  J,  248. 

Washing  the  catechumens  before  bap- 
tism, 561. 

the  dead,  1244. 

Me/ee<, retained  by  some  churches 

in  connexion  with  baptism,  561. 

the  hands,    on  entering  church, 

289,  332,  before  the  consecration  of 
the  eucharist,  768. 

Watchers,  an  order  of  monks,  247. 

Watching  in  church  forbidden  to  wo- 
men, 330,  1008,  with  the  dead  before 
burial,  1245. 

Water  consecrated  by  prayer  at  bap- 
tism, 5.32,  mingled  with  the  wine  at 
the  eucharist,  305. 

Water-baptism  rejected  by  certain  he- 
retics, 478. 

Wednesday,  one  of  the  stationary  days, 
655,  1193,  changed  to  Saturday  in 
•some  churches,  1196. 

Whipping,  a  punishment  of  the  infe- 
rior clergy.  916,  as  a  voluntary  exer- 
cise of  monks  condemned,  256. 

Whisperers,  how  punished,  1024. 

White  garments,  worn  by  ministers 
during  Divine  service,  645,  and  by 
nevfly  baptized  persons,  eight  days, 

*    5.57,558,  1160. 

Whitsunday,  why  so  called,  558,  so- 
lemn assemblies  for  worship  held  from 
Easter  till,  660. 

Widows,  chosen  to  be  deaconesses,  99, 
not  to  marry  till  twelve  months  after 
their  husbands'  death,  1207. 

of  the  church,  a  particular  ac- 
count of,  268,  excused  the  capitation 
tax,  267,  had  a  distinct  place  in 
churches,  295. 

Wills,  forgery  of,  censured,  1014. 

Witness,  false,  how  punished,  1(122, 
against  life,  reputed  murder,  990. 

Wives  of  the  clergy  might  not  grant 
Uterus  formatcr,  33.  See  Divorce 
and  Marriage. 

Womeyi  not  to  baptize,  nor  teach,  101, 
710,  not  to  be  made  priests,  100,  bap- 
tism of  deaconesses,  to  assist  at,  102, 
presided  over  by  deaconesses  in  the 
church,  103,  visited  by  them,  in  sick- 
ness, 102,  subject  to  discipline,  901, 
not  to  keep  private  vigils,  .3.30,  1008. 

Women's  gate,  in  the  church,  103. 

galleries,  or  place,  in  the  church, 

288,  295. 

Worship  of  the  Trinity,  576,  of  crea- 
tures, &c.,  unknown  to  the  ancient 
church,  589,  937,  charged  against  he- 
retics, 593,  of  the  host,  unknown,  819. 

daily  at  church  frequented  bv  both 

clergy  and  laity,  212,  672,  1048". 

unity  in,  how  far  essential  to  the 

church,  864. 

Writers,  ancient,  account  of  such  as 
treat  of  the  duties  of  the  clergy,  196. 


ZvyoKpovar-rai,  sly  defrauders  in  weight 

so  called,  1018. 
Zygostates,  the  public  superintendent 

of  weights  so  called,  ibid. 


.inuN  CHILDS  AND  SON,  BUNGAY. 


& 


'^ 


BW150  .B61 1852  y.2 
Ongines  ecclesiasticae ;  the 

PnncetOfl  Theoloqical  Semmary-Speer  Libranr 


1   1012  00056  1250 


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