Churches for Christian Worship, Part 2
IN THE SECOND CENTURIE.Ab An. 100. ad 200.
NOW for the second, & that too for the beginning thereof, we have a witness not to be rejected, the holy Martyr Ignatius who suffered An. 107. & wrote the most of his Epistles in his bonds. He in his confessed Epistle ad Magnesios speaks thus: Omnes ad orandum in idem loci convenite, una sit communis precatio, una mens, una spes in charitate & fide inculpata in Iesum Christū: quo nihil praestantius est. Omnes velut VNVS, ad TEMPLVM Dei [foreign] concurrite, quemadmodum ad VNVM Altare, ad VNVM Iesum Christum Pontificē ingeniti Dei. Loe here a Temple with an Altar in it, whither the Magnesians are exhorted to gather thēselves together to pray; To come together in one place, that so they might all joyn together in one cōmon prayer, spirited with one intētion, with one & the same hope in the Charity & Faith they have to Christ ward: Secondly, to come thither as one, that is, in unity of affection and brotherly love one towards another, as if all were but one & not many, even as the Altar, before which they presented themselves, was but one, and the high Priest and Mediatour between them and the Father, Iesus Christ, but One.
For it is to be observed that in those primitive times they had but One Altar in a Church, as a Symbole, both that they worshipped but One God through One Mediatour Iesus Christ, & also of the unity the Church ought to have in it self: whence Ignatius, not only here, but also in his Epist to the Philadelphians urges the unity of the Altar for a monitive to the cōgregation to agree together in one. For Vnum Altare (saith he) omni Ecclesiae, & unus Episcopus cum Presbyterio & Diaconis conservis meis. This custom of One Altar is stil retained by the Greek Church. The contrary use is a transgression of the Latins, not only symbolically implying, but really introducing, (as they handle it) a foreign, or multiplying of Gods and Mediatours, instead of that One God, and One Mediatour between God and men, the man Christ Iesus.
Nay more than this: It should seem, that in those first times, before Diocesses were divided into those lesser & subordinate Churches, we now call Parishes, & Presbyters assigned to thē, they had not only One Altar in one Chur or Dominicū, but one Altar to a Church, taking Chu: for the Cōpany or Corporatiō of the Faithfull, united under one Bishop or Pastor; and that was in the City and place where the Bishop had his See and Residence: like as the Iews had but one Altar & Tēple for the whole Nation, united under one high Priest. And yet, as the Iews had their Synagogues, so perhaps might they have more Oratories than one, though their Altar were but one, there namely where the Bishop was. Die Solis, saith Iust. Mart. omniū, qui vel in oppidis vel ruri degunt, in eundē locu conventus fit; Namely, as he there tels us, to celebrate & participate the holy Eucharist. Why was this, but because they had not many places to celebrate in? And unlesse this were so, whence came it else, that a Schismatical Bishop was said cōstituere or collocare aliud Altare: & that a Bishop & an Altar are made correlatives. See S. Cyprian Ep 40, 72, 73. & de unitate Ecclesiae. And thus perhaps is Ignatius also to be understood in that fore-quoted passage of his: foreign, Vnū Altare omni Ecclesiae, & unus Episcopus cum Presbyterio & Diaconis. Howsoever, I here determine nothing, but refer it to the judgement of those who are better skilled in Antiquity: only adding this, that if it were so, yet now that Parishes are divided into severall Presbyteries as their proper Cures, every one of them being as it were, a little Diocess, the reason and signification of unity is the same, to have but One Altar in a Parish Church.
To this testimony of Ignatius of the use in his time, I will adde another of his, in his Epistle ad Antiochenos, where, in his salutes he speaketh thus: foreign, I salute the keepers of the HOLY DOORES the Deaconisses wch are in Christ: that is, the Doores the womē entred in at. For so we may learn frō the Compiler of the Apostolicall Cōstitutiōs, Li. 2. c foreign al. 61. describing a Ch: assembly: Stent ostiarii, saith he, ad introitus virorum, illos custodientes; Diaconissae ad introitus foeminarum. But if they had in Ignatius his time Holy doores, (or as some render it sacra vestibula) who can beleeve also but they had holy Houses?
This Epistle indeed is none of the confessed ones. The title is accepted against; as that Ignatius wrote no Epistle ad Antiochenos, because Eusebius, and after him S. Hierom, when they rehearse his Epistles, make no mention of any such. Yet were the Antiochians his flock, his pastorall charge. Who would not then think it unlikely, that, amongst so many Epistles written to other Churches in his going that long journey from Antioch to Rome, to receive the crown of Martyrdom (yea to Smyrna through which he had passed) he should not remēber with one farewell Epistle that Church whereof he was Bishop & Pastor, as well as the rest? Thus much I dare say; that this is as strong an argument every whit, to perswade that hee wrote such an Epistle (especially there being one extant under that Title) as Eusebius his silence (for S. Hierom did but follow his steps) is that he did not. For why should it be thought more necessary, that Eusebius should have met with all the Epistles of Ignatius in the Library of Aelia or Ierusalem (whence he*Lib. 6. c. 14 al. 21. Vid. Graec. professeth to have collected the whole matter of his History) then he did with all the works and Commentaries of some other Ecclesiasticall men whom he mentioneth; many of whose writings, besides those he rehearseth, he confesseth not to have come to his hands, or knowledge, either what, or how many they were? See him Hist. Li. 5. c. aIn Graeco 27.26. & Li. 6 c. bIn Graeco 12.10. This will be yet more considerable, if we remember, that some Books, even of the Canon of the N. Test. were not known to some Churches at the same time with the rest, and therefore a while doubted of, after they had notice of them. Besides it is to be noted, that Eusebius in expresse tearms undertakes only to recite those Epistles of Ignatius, which he wrote, as he passed thorow Asia: but after his comming into Europe (whence those Epistles are dated, which he mentions not) whether any thing were written by him or not, he informs us nothing. Nay, which is yet more; Vedelius grants the words and sentences of this Epistle to be the most of them, by their style & character the words & sentences of Ignatius; but he would have them therefore to be taken out of some of his other Epistles; to wit, according to a new & strange cōceit of his, that the genuine Epistles of Ignatius have been robbed & guelded of much of their contēts, to make up more Epistles under new Titles. he excepts only in this Epistle against the salutatiōs at the end thereof; because there were not so many, or no suchaforeign Vid. Epiplaen. Exposit. Fidei cathol. c. 21. De duobus ultimis, Const. Apost. l. 8. cap. 24, 26. Church-offices in Ignatius his time, as are there mentioned. But what is this else, but to beg the question? Till therefore some body shall not only affirm, but prove, there were no such, no not in the Church of Antioch (bSee Act. 11. 26. Socr. lib. 6. c. 8. Theod. lib. 2. c. 24. whence divers Ecclesiasticall customes had their first beginning, which were afterwards imitated by the rest of the Churches) I can see no just cause hitherto, why I should not beleeve this passage, as well as the rest, & so the whole Epistle to have had Ignatius for its Author. And so I leave it.
For the middle of this Seculū, or thereabouts, there areaIn Tom. 1. Biblioth. Patris edit. Pariscens. ex Archivo Viennensi. extant two short Epistles of PIUS the 1. Bishop of Rome to one Iustus Viennensis; none of the Decretals (for they are indeed coūterfeit) but others diverse from thē, which no man hath yet, that I know of, proved to be suppositious. In the first whereof there is mē tion made of one Euprepia, a pious and devout Matron, who consigned the title of her house unto the Church for the use of sacred assemblies. Antequam Roma exiisses, saith he, soror nostra Euprepia (sicut benè recordaris) titulum domus suae pauperibus assignavit: ubi nunc cum pauperibus nostris commorantes, bThe word Missa seem…s to have been long used in Italy before it was elsewhere.Missas agimus. He seems by pauperes, to note the Clergy, which in his other Epistle he cals Senatus pauperum, Salutat te Senatus pauperum: Otherwise the whole Christian flock might be so called; according to that in the Gospell, Pauperes Euangelizantur. (Mat. 11. 5. Luc. 7. 22.) and that of Esa. cap. 61. applyed by our Saviour Luc. 4. The Lord hath annointed me to preach the Gospell to the poore: & according to that in the Parable Luc. 14. 21. Introduc pauperes, Bring in hither the poore. Perhaps in those perillous times, they were wont to make their donations of this kinde under such covert names.
In his 2. Epistle to the same Iustus he mentions certain Martyrs, who had then newly (as he there speaks) triūphed over the world: Amōgst which he mentiōs one Pastor, by Office a Presbyter; who before his death, had erected or created a Titulus, that is, a Church, as that name is vulgarly known to signifie: Presbyter Pastor (saith he) Titulum condidit, & digne in Domino obiit. Why the Roman Chu: called such places by the name of Tituli, whether because by their dedication the name of Christ our Lord was, as it were, inscribed upon them, (as the maner then was to set the names or titles of the owners upon their Houses and possessions;) and so it would concurre in notion with those other names of foreign & Basilica, The Lords and the Kings: or whether because they gave a title of Cure or denomination to the Presbyters, to whom they were committed (for the chief or Episcopall Church I doubt whether it were so called or not) let others determine.
I shall not do amisse, I think, if I adde to this testimony a passage of Theophilus Antiochenus (who lived at the same time) which though, I grant to be indifferent to be otherwise understood; yet seems very prone to be construed for our purpose: It is to be found in his second Book ad Autolycum; where having compared the world to the Sea, he follows the Allegory thus; Quemadmodum (saith he) in Mari insulae quaedam prominent habitabiles, frugiferae, & quibus est aqua salubris, necnon navalia, & portus commodi, quò se naufragi reciperent; Sic Deus dedit mundo, qui peccatorum tempestatibus & naufragiis jactatur, Synagogas, quas Ecclesias sanct as nominamus. [gr. foreign] in quibus veritatis doctrina fervet, ad quas confugiunt veritatis studiosi, quot quot salvari, Dei que judicium & iram evitare volunt. It is ambiguous what he means here by Ecclesiae: but if it were probable, that Synagoga were here taken, as it is usually in the N. T. for a place; then might we determine, that Ecclesia were so taken also, and not for a Company or Assembly only.
Well, howsoever Ecclesia be taken in this passage (which I reckon not upon) yet thus much I am sure of, that toward the end of this Century, it was used for a place of sacred assembly: witnesse Clemens Alexandr. (who then lived) Lib. 7. Strom where speaking of the Church or foreign, saith he, foreign, I call not now THE PLACE, but the congregation of the Elect, Ecclesia: whereby it appeares, that in his time Ecclesia was used for the place of the assembly of the Elect, foreign, as he cals them, that is, of the Saints, and not for the congregation only. For otherwise this caution needed not. And so himself uses it in that story of the yong man,Clem, Alex in Opere, Quis sit ille dives, qui salvetur, Apud Euseb. Hist. Ecc. lib. 3. cap. 17. foreign whō S. Iohn committed to a Bishop of Asia to be instructed and trained up in the Christian piety and discipline, and who afterwards was by ill company withdrawn to lewd and debauched courses, and became Captain of a band of robbers in the Mountains.Also in this Century undoubtedly were extant those fabricks in the Coemiteries of S. Peter, in the vaticane, and of S. Paul in via ostiensi (which could be no other then some Christian Oratories) whereof Gaius speakes, in Euseb. & cals Tropaea Apostolorum. lib. 2. cap. 24. For there when S. Iohn, after a time comming again to visit the Churches, demanded of the Bishop an account of the charge he had committed to him; The Bishop answers, He is become a villain and a robber, foreign, and now instead of the Church, he hath laid hold of a Mountain, with a company like himself. To conclude, if the name were in Clemens his time, undoubtedly the thing was. And this is my proofe for the latter end of this Centurie.