L 10. OF THE DOORS OF THE CHURCH. To insure due secresy in celebrating the mysteries of their religion, the ancient Christians constructed the doors of their churches with peculiar care. As we have already seen, they set apart, by the solemn rites of ordination, a class of men to guard the doors, and prevent the intrusion, not only of the profane, but of their own catechumens and penitents. Such was the profound secresy in which they celebrated certain of their religious rites. In all this they imitated the Jews; and the early fathers, like the writers of the Old and New Testaments, from this usage derived abundant metaphors relating to the doors of the church, of heaven, of the kingdom, etc. Compare the following passages of Scripture, among many others: 2 Chron. 8: 14. Ps. 84: 11. 118: 19, 20. John 10: 1. 20: 19. Acts 14: 27. Rev. 22: 14, etc. It was customary, in the earliest ages of Christianity, to post upon the doors of the church the names of all excommunicated persons. At a period somewhat later, persons intending marriage were also published in the same manner. This was also the place for posting all proclamations and decisions of the church, and public notices of every kind. There were generally three main entrances to the churches, and these were provided with outer and inner doors, distinguished by the names ἀμφιθύρα and τελευταίον θυρῶν. The different sexes entered by different doors; these were made of the choicest and most durable wood, wrought with peculiar care, and richly ornamented with arabesque, bronze, gold, or silver plate; not unfrequently they were made of solid brass or bronze. Several of this kind still remain in the different countries of Europe.2 The date of the building or dedication of the church, was usually inscribed on the doors. In addition to this there were inscriptions of various kinds, consisting of a motto, a doctrinal sentiment, a passage of Scripture, a doxology, or a prayer. A single specimen is here given, as taken from an ancient church. On the outer side of the door : Pax tibi sit, quincunque Dei penetralia Christi On the inside: Quisquis ab aede Dei, perfectis ordine votis, 11. OF THE PAVEMENTS AND WALLS OF THE CHURCH. The floor of the church consisted of pavement carefully laid, or smooth marble. In large churches the narthex had a pavement of plaster; the flooring of the nave was plastering or boards; whilst the choir was adorned with mosaic. Not unfrequently there was a tessellated pavement of particolored and polished marble, constituting a rich mosaic work. A curious specimen of this ancient mosaic was found in 1805, near Salzburg, delineating the story of Theseus and Ariadne. Such decorations, in imitation of the Jewish temple, 1 Kings 6: 15-30, were used in the churches so early as the fourth century. From the seventh to the tenth century, it became customary to encumber and disfigure the nave and choir with the graves of the dead, and from that period the floors were occupied with palisades, monuments, and epitaphs; and all unity and symmetry was destroyed. The walls and the canopy were also ornamented with inscriptions, mosaics, paintings, and bas-reliefs. The paintings were executed on wood, metals, and canvass. The bas-relief was executed in gypsum, mortar, stone, or metal, in imitation of the ornaments of the temple. Votive offerings of shields, arms, standards, and the like, were also hung upon the walls. To these the lights were attached and suspended from the canopy. Vaulted roofs are of later origin. $12. OF THE WINDOWS OF THE CHURCH. No aspersion was ever more unjust than that which charged the primitive Christians with seeking concealment and hating the light. In imitation of the temple at Jerusalem, 1 Kings 6: 4, they sought, from the beginning, to furnish their churches fully with light. It is customary to refer the first use of glass windows to the third century; but, in the opinion of many, they had an earlier origin, as is shown in the ruins of Herculaneum. In France, windows, both of colored and of cut glass, were in use in the sixth century. Venantius Fortunatus, a poet of the fifth, has a distich respecting the cathedral church at Paris, from which it would seem that glass windows were then in use: Prima capit, radios vitreis occulata fenestris From the history of the venerable Bede, on the other hand, it would seem that these were not in use in England in the seventh century, but were introduced from France. Pliny affirms that the art of painting glass was known to the Romans. If so, it must have been lost again; for no traces of the art are discoverable until the beginning of the eleventh century. It was brought to perfection in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and is justly regarded as the most finished specimen of the arts in the middle ages. After a slumber of three hundred years, it is beginning to be again revived in the nineteenth century. The windows of churches were not only greater in number, but larger in dimensions, than those of private dwelling houses. In the Carlovingian dynasty, however, the windows were small and round, and very far from affording sufficient light. It is but justice to the ancient fathers, to remark, that they were very far from bestowing unqualified approbation upon that style of gaudy magnificence in which their churches were decorated. St. Ambrose says, " that whatever is done in purity, and with sincerity, is commendable, but that it is neither praiseworthy to rear superfluous structures, nor to neglect such as are needful,-that the priest ought especially to adorn the temple of God with becoming graces,—that it should be rendered resplendent by acts of humility and charity; in giving to the stranger according to his necessities, and as the dictates of humanity require; not by pride, self-indulgence, and personal aggrandizement, at the expense of the poor." Jerome, in various passages, inveighs against the pomp and pride displayed in their churches, and in the attire of the priesthood. Chrysostom complains of the vanity, superstition, and oppression of the poor, with which their churches were erected, though he objects not to these expenditures upon the churches in themselves considered.3 St. Bernard rebukes this extravagant folly with so much simplicity and fervor, that the reader will be interested to hear him in his own tongue. Tali quadam arte spargitur aes, ut multiplicetur. Expenditur, ut augeatur, et effusio copiam parit. Ipso quippe visu sumptuosarum, sed mirandarum vanitatum, accenduntur homines magis ad offerendum, quam ad orandum. Sic opes opibus hauriuntur, sic pecunia pecuniam trahit: quia nescio, quo pacto, ubi amplius divitiarum cernitur, ibi offertur libentius. Auro tectis reliquiis saginantur oculi, et loculi aperiuntur. Ostenditur pulcherrima forma Sancti vel Sanc VENERATION AND PRIVILEGES OF SACRED PLACES. 197 tae alicujus, et eo creditur sanctior, quo coloratior. Currunt homines ad osculandum, invitantur ad donandum; et magis mirantur pulcra, quam venerantur sacra. Ponuntur dehinc in ecclesia gemmatae, non coronae, sed rotae, circumseptae lampadibus, sed non minus fulgentes insertis lapidibus. Cernimus et pro candelabris arbores quasdam erectas, multo aeris pondere, miro artificis opere fabricatas, nec magis coruscantes superpositis lucernis, quam suis gemmis. Quid, putas, in his omnibus quaeritur? poenitentium compunctio, an intuentium admiratio? O vanitas vanitatum, sed non vanior, quam insanior! Fulget ecclesia in parietibus, et in pauperibus eget. Suos lapides induit auro, et suos filios nudos deserit. De sumptibus egenorum servitur oculis divitum. Inveniunt curiosi, quo delectentur, et non inveniunt miseri, quo sustententur. Utquid saltem Sanctorum imagines non reveremur, quibus utique ipsum, quod pedibus conculcatur, scalet pavimentum. Saepe spuitur in ore Angeli, saepe alicujus Sanctorum facies calcibus tunditur transeuntium. Et si non sacris his imaginibus, cur vel non parcitur pulcris coloribus? Cur decoras, quod mox foedandum est? Cur depingis, quod mox necesse est conculcari? Quid ibi valent venustae formae, ubi pulvere maculantur assiduo? Denique quid haec ad pauperes, ad Monachos, ad spirituales vivos? Nisi forte et hic memoratum jam poetae versiculum propheticus ille respondeatur: Domine, dilexi decorum domus tuae, et locum habitationis gloriae tuae. Assentio : patiamur et haec fieri in ecclesia: quia etsi noxia sunt vanis et ava. ris, non tamen simplicibus et devotis.-Opp. T. I. p. 545. ed. Bened. The use of pictures of saints, martyrs, and Scripture-histories in churches, was gradually introduced about the latter end of the fourth century. The Eustathians, Messalians, Manichaeans, and other heretics suffered their prejudices to carry them into the opposite extreme; and, by the simplicity and rudeness which they affected, promoted that ostentation in the Catholics which they so much condemned. 13. OF THE VENERATION IN WHICH SACRED PLACES WERE HELD, AND THE PRIVILGES ATTACHED TO THEM.1 The primitive Christians like the Jews, manifested a profound veneration for the house of God, and zealously guarded it not only against the intrusion of the profane, but against secular and sacrile gious uses. Their own attendance upon its ordinances was marked with every demonstration of religious awe. "Let both men and women," says Clemens of Alexandria, “come to church in comely apparel, with a serious gait, with modest silence, and love unfeigned; chaste both in body and mind, so that they may be duly prepared to offer prayer to God."2 "They came into the church as into the palace of the Great King. Before going into the church, they used to wash at least their hands, carrying themselves there with the most profound silence and devotion. Nay, so great was the reverence which they bore to the church, that the emperors themselves, who otherwise never went without their guard about them, when they came to go into the church, used to lay down their arms-to leave their guard behind them, and to put off their crowns.' The churches, however, were occasionally the scenes of disorder and sacrilege; especially in the fourth and fifth centuries, during the Arian controversy. To prevent these, Honorius decreed, A. D. 398, the sentence of scourging and banishment upon any one who should enter the church and disturb the bishop or minister in the discharge of his duties. If he interrupted the religious services, or offered violence to the litany, he was to be sentenced to death by any court civil or military.4 The following were some of the rules by which the church was guarded from secular and sacrilegious uses. a) Neither churches nor any of their utensils or implements could be sold, mortgaged or assessed for taxes; to this rule however there were occasional exceptions. b) Churches could not be used for courts of either civil or criminal cases, nor for popular elections, or legislative assemblies, but they might be opened for the accommodation of ecclesiastical councils, and for the coronations of princes. c) No marketing, or exchanges in buying or selling of any kind was allowed in the church, much less were annual fairs permitted in the neigborhood of a church. d) No convivial assemblies were in any instance to be held in the churches. And even the love-feasts, the abuses of which in the Corinthian church were so severely censured by the apostle Paul, 1 Cor. 11: 18 seq. were not allowed in the churches. e) Neither were they to be opened for the entertainment of strangers and travellers. f) It was also an high offence to speak irreverently of the house of God, or unworthily to engage in any official act of public worship.5 |