Curiosities of Christian History Part 8

At a very early period the leaders of the Church attributed great importance to the particular dress and appearance of the clergy, and laid down stringent rules on that subject. The Canons said a decent mean must be observed--neither too nice nor too slovenly. In particular the extremes of baldness and long hair were equally objectionable, so that all were obliged to shave the crown of the head and beard. This distinguished them from the priests of pagan deities. So they were to observe a medium in dress, and to wear neither white nor black. But the colours varied in different times and places. It was noticed that these directions as to garb arose after the danger of detection during times of persecution had ceased. One garment, called the caracalla, and since ca.s.sock, was adopted after the time of Constantine. It was a long garment, reaching down to the heels, such as the Roman people put on when they went to salute the Emperor.

THE FOPPISH PRIESTS AND DEACONS OF THE FOURTH CENTURY.

So early as the fourth century there were very worldly and self-seeking officers in the Church. St. Jerome in his "Treatise on Virginity" says: "There are some of them who aspire to the office of priest or deacon that they may visit women with the greater liberty. Their chief care is to be well dressed, neatly shod, and perfumed; they curl their hair with irons, they have bright rings on their fingers, and they walk on tiptoe, looking more like bridegrooms than clerks. Some of them make it their only business to find out the names and residences of ladies of quality, and to discover their dispositions. I will describe one of them who is a master in the art. He rises with the sun, the order of his visits is arranged, he finds out the shortest ways, and the troublesome old man enters almost the very chambers in which they rest. If he sees a cushion, a napkin, or any other little article that he likes, he praises it and admires the neatness of it; he takes it in his hand, then complains that he has not something of that kind; and, in short, he s.n.a.t.c.hes it away before it is given to him." St. Jerome also mentions the avarice of these self-seeking priests, who, under pretence of giving blessings, reach out their hands to receive money. This plain speaking of St. Jerome made him many enemies, who attacked in turn his own reputation and the fascination he exercised over fashionable ladies, so that he had to leave Rome and retreat to Palestine.

THE EARLY BISHOPS.

Great learning has been shown by ecclesiastical historians as to the precise position of early bishops--one side contending that these high officials were appointed by Christ, or at least by His Apostles; and the further inference is then drawn, that therefore this mode of governing the Church is the best possible and the only right and orderly kind of government for a true Church. Both points have been denied, and especially the second, because it is urged that even if there were bishops appointed by the Apostles, it would prove nothing, except that the Apostles thought them the best kind of officers for the time being, and yet that they might not be the best in other and different countries and circ.u.mstances. Most of the Christians of all times till the Reformation too hastily overlooked the fundamental principle, that each country and age is necessarily the best judge of the peculiar mode of governing the Church, and should not surrender its better judgment to the views of earlier and less experienced ages as to matters not expressly enjoined by Scripture. The defenders of bishops delight to dwell on some facts, or a.s.sumed facts, in favour of their theory. They say that St. John was one of the authors of the order of bishops, and that he went about ordaining for various stations, and especially Polycarp, while St. Peter ordained Clement at Rome and St. Paul ordained Timothy at Ephesus. The list of the first bishops is, however, very obscure. It is said that James, the Lord's brother, was the first Bishop of Jerusalem, and was ordained by the Apostles immediately after the Crucifixion. And hence it is argued that our Lord must have sanctioned this act in some way. One consequence of the theory of bishops was, that the bishop alone had an inherent right to administer the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper, and also to preach and ordain others; while a presbyter could only do so with his permission express or implied. And, above all, the bishop could call presbyters to account and excommunicate and censure them, thereby implying that the one order of priests was inferior to the other in jurisdiction.

SOME PRIVILEGES OF EARLY BISHOPS.

In the early centuries it became a custom for people to refer disputes of all kinds to the bishops as arbitrators, and in that respect their so acting superseded the action of courts of law. St. Augustine said that nearly his whole time was taken up with this duty, so that it became a burden to him. It became also an early practice for bishops to intercede with the government for prisoners. There was an ancient custom for the people to bow their head whenever they met a bishop, as if asking for his blessing; and even emperors rendered this mark of respect. It was also usual for people to kiss the bishop's hand, for Ambrose said people thereby thought themselves protected by the bishop's prayers. Sometimes a still higher honour was rendered to the bishop by singing hosannas to him; but Jerome admits this was too great an honour to mere mortal man. Bishops also wore a mitre or crown, and they sat upon what was called a kind of throne. It is said that St. James, Bishop of Jerusalem, first sat on this throne. When a bishop was consecrated, he was conducted by the other bishops to a throne; and the form of prayer at their consecration besought the Almighty to give the bishop power to remit sins, and loose every bond according to the power which was given to the Apostles. One of the curious things connected with the early bishops and presbyters also was, that they were frequently seized by force and compelled to act if elected by a congregation. St. Austin himself was thus compelled, and so was Paulinus.

THE PASTORAL STAFF.

The bishops of all countries seem to have agreed in using the pastoral staff as one of the symbols of their authority. The form used is that of a shepherd's crook, or a straight cane or staff, with a k.n.o.b or volute made of cypress wood or ivory or some metal ornamented. Each bishop used some peculiarity of workmanship, and it went with the office to his successor.

The head of some was formed like a serpent, or a lion, or a bird.

THE SACRED CHARACTER OF ANCIENT CHURCHES.

The ceremony of consecrating churches was adopted in the three first centuries, and indeed some say from the time of the Apostles. Nothing very distinct, however, is found till the fourth century, when Constantine's protection gave an impetus to church-building. St. Ambrose composed a form of prayer for such occasions. In the sixth century a practice began to consecrate also the altar separately. A church was not allowed to be put to any profane use, though religious a.s.semblies and meetings of clergy were not forbidden. But no one was to have meat or lodging there. The sacred vessels of the church were also kept religiously for the single use of the sacraments. And when Julian the Apostate once sent two officers to plunder the Church of Antioch and fetch away the vessels and convert them into money, all believed that Julian was immediately seized with an ulcer and died miserably. One ancient custom was for the congregation to wash their hands before entering. In some places also, particularly in Egypt, the members took off their shoes. It is doubtful whether the custom of bowing toward the altar on entrance was not general, because it was merely following the custom of the Jews. One gate of the church was called the Beautiful or Royal Gate, being that at which kings entered, in which case they had to lay aside their crowns, for it was deemed indecent that they should wear such badges in presence of the King of kings. Even though it was a universal custom to allow debtors and criminals to take refuge for a time in churches, they were not allowed to lodge there, but were maintained in a precinct outside. The women sat in a separate part of the church from the men, and each entered by a separate door. In the fourth century pictures of saints and martyrs began to be set up in churches, and this continued, subject to the iconoclast persecution, to become more and more in keeping with the thoughts and views of the time till the Reformation finally stopped it in all the Reformed Churches.

THE ANCIENT OFFICE OF DEACONESS.

It is said that the office of deaconess existed in the Apostolic age, for St. Paul called Phoebe a servant or deaconess of the Church (Rom. xvi.

1). The deaconess was always a widow, who had had children, who had been only once married, and who was at least forty, fifty, or sixty years old.

Immense importance was attached to her having been only once married.

Learned men differ as to whether she was ordained by the imposition of hands, or, if so, whether this meant anything more than a benediction. But all seemed to admit that she could not administer the sacraments, though some heretics allowed women this power also. The main duties of the deaconess were to a.s.sist at the baptism of women; to be private catechists to the women preparing for baptism; to visit women who were sick and in distress; to minister to the martyrs and confessors in prison; to attend the women's gate and regulate the behaviour of women in the church, for the women went into church at a different gate from the men. The order of deaconess flourished till the twelfth century in the Greek Church, and the tenth or eleventh century in the Latin Church, and then the practice fell into abeyance, probably owing to the new views about the celibacy of the clergy.

THE FORM OF LITURGY IN ANCIENT TIMES.

The clergy have been said to be at first all bishops, until the growth of population and numbers made it expedient to subdivide a city or country into parishes of such size that one priest might conveniently attend to it. Each bishop at first appointed his own form of service. And the learned have disputed whether in the earliest ages the service included or consisted of what corresponds to a modern liturgy or stereotyped form of prayer and praise. There are authorities for both views. The Lord's Prayer was generally one of the forms, and there were always hymns and psalms, and these would naturally be in set forms. Also, there were certain set prayers for special occasions. Peter Diaconus in 520 says that St. Basil, seeing that men's sloth and degeneracy made them weary of a long liturgy, prepared a shorter form for them. And Julian the Apostate was said to admire the Church forms of worship; for when he intended the heathen priests to imitate the Christians, he specified particularly those prayers which were so composed that the people might make their responses. St.

Ephraim of Syria and St. Ambrose were great composers of hymns. The grand hymn of _Te Deum_ was composed by St. Ambrose and St. Austin jointly. St.

Austin says there were five parts in the liturgy or service of the Church--namely, psalmody, reading of the Scriptures, preaching, prayers of the bishop, and the bidding prayers of the deacon. The last were directions to the people what particulars they were to pray for, the deacon going before them and repeating every pet.i.tion, to which the people made answer: "Lord, hear us," "Lord, help us," or "Lord, have mercy," and the like. It seems to have been a practice for the people to turn their faces to the east in the solemn adorations, the east being the symbol of Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, and also of the locality of Paradise.

The Psalms were usually sung by the people standing. The sermons and homilies, which were an hour or even two hours long, were sometimes written and sometimes extempore. The preacher usually sat and the people stood; but there was no fixed rule, for the preacher seems also to have stood and the people to have sat. Many people in those times also thought the sermon too long, and went out before it ended.

THE RISE OF RITUALISM.

In the ninth century some attention began to be paid to the meaning of rites and ceremonies. One Amalarius, a deacon of Metz, in 820 composed a treatise on the Divine office, and on the order of the antiphonary, in which he attempted to make all the stages of the liturgy represent some doctrine. All the incidents of Divine service, every att.i.tude and gesture, the dresses of the clergy, the ornaments of the church, the sacred seasons and festivals, were expounded as full of symbolical meaning. Agobard, Archbishop of Lyons, on the other hand, being something of an iconoclast, and severe against the superst.i.tions of relic hunters, advocated the exclusion of much irrelevant matter, as profane and heretical, from the service-book and hymn-book. He said that far too much attention had been given to music, and far too little to the study of Scripture. Agobard opposed the writings of Amalarius as full of idle comments and errors in doctrine. Not content with this exposure, Florus, master of the cathedral school of Lyons, wrote strongly against Amalarius, and cited him before two councils, the latter of which examined the mystical theories of Amalarius, and condemned them as being founded on nothing but the writer's fancy, and dangerous. The theories of Amalarius, however, kept possession of many writers of the Middle Ages, and even in the nineteenth century had their admirers and advocates.

THE Ma.s.s, OR HOLY COMMUNION.

The great distinguishing ceremony of Christians is the celebration of the Ma.s.s or Communion, or Administration of the sacrament in commemoration of our Lord's Supper. The word Ma.s.s was used as early as about the second century, and is derived from the Hebrew _missach_, signifying a freewill offering, or _mincha_, an oblation of meal. The name of Ma.s.s was used to include all the offices and festivals of which the Holy Communion was a leading feature. After the Reformation the word Ma.s.s was discontinued in England, and superseded by the words Holy Communion. The days and times of celebrating the Communion have differed from age to age. High Ma.s.s was sung with music and solemn ceremony and the a.s.sistance of numerous ministers, but the Communion was seldom given at High Ma.s.s. Low Ma.s.s was said by a priest attended by a single clerk. The Eucharistic bread, or Host (from _hostia_, the sacrifice), was required by a council of Toledo in 925 to be made in form of a wafer, so as to be easily broken, and was expressly baked for the altar. Unleavened bread came to be almost universally used. In England, after the Reformation, ordinary bread is ordered to be used, and not wafers or stamped bread. The Elevation of the Host, or lifting up of the paten (a small flat plate so called) and consecrated bread above the head of the celebrant, was inst.i.tuted by Pope Honorius III. in 1210, and he directed that it was to be adored when elevated. This practice has been prohibited in England since the Reformation. The pyx is the box in which the Host is kept or conveyed, often made of silver or ivory. The wine for the Communion used by the Greeks was mixed with water, and was red wine. The Roman Church now uses white wine. The English Church forbids water to be mixed with the wine.

When the custom of carrying about and exposing the Host began, about the fourteenth century, the name of the vessel in which it was shown was called a monstrance, resembling a chalice. The _Agnus Dei_ is a little round cake of perfumed wax, stamped with the figure of the Holy Lamb bearing the standard of the Cross. The cakes were burned as perfumes, symbolical of good thoughts, or in memory of the deliverance of men from the power of the grave at Easter by the Lamb of G.o.d. The French shepherds, during the time of the Crusades, were observed to use these perfumes. And people burned them in their houses as a safeguard against evil spirits.

The _Agnus Dei_ was also the name given to a hymn sung in the canon of the Ma.s.s.

ANCIENT CHURCH SERVICE IN THE MOTHER TONGUE.

The learned Bingham, in his "Antiquities of the Christian Church," says that there is abundant testimony that in the earliest services of the Church it was a rule that the liturgies and forms of prayers should be in the mother tongue of the people, and not, as had been a modern practice, invariably in the Latin tongue. St. Jerome says that at the funeral of Lady Paula the Psalms were sung in Syriac, Greek, and Latin, because there were men of each language present at the solemnity. He also says it was the practice for the young virgins to sing the Psalter morning and evening, and to learn the Psalms and some portion of the Scripture every day; and St. Basil says that all the people sung the Psalms alternately, and the children joined. And the Church took care to have the Bible translated into all languages--Syrian, Egyptian, Indian, Persian, Ethiopian, Armenian, Roman, Scythian, and Gothic. Another custom pointing to the same conclusion was, that Bibles were laid in the churches for the people to read in private at their leisure. So that none of the ancient Fathers ever dreamt that a time would come when the Scriptures should be only in the hands of the bishops and clergy. St. Chrysostom, in one of his sermons upon Lazarus, says expressly, "The reading of the Scriptures is our great guard against sin. Our ignorance of them is a dangerous precipice and a deep gulf." A Church Council of Chalons in 813 expressly ordered that the bishops should set up schools to teach the knowledge of the Scriptures. There was an order of officers, called Readers, expressly to a.s.sist the people in this matter. And Eusebius relates that a blind man called John, one of the martyrs of Palestine, had so good a memory that he could repeat any part of the Bible as readily as the reader could do.

Therefore it was an entire departure from ancient practice when the Church in mediaeval and later times discountenanced the reading of the Scriptures by the people at large.

USE OF ORGANS AND BELLS IN CHURCHES.

Though music in Divine service had always a place, yet the use of instrumental music seems not to have become general till the time of Thomas Aquinas, about 1250. And it is related that one Marinus Sanutus, who lived about 1290, was the first to introduce wind organs into churches, whence he was called Torcellus, which is the name for an organ in the Italian tongue. This instrument had long been known as a curiosity before that time, and one was sent by the Greek Emperor about 766 to King Pepin. The use of bells as a mode of summoning worshippers to Divine service was soon thought of as a subst.i.tute for employing deacons or deaconesses to give private notice to each attendant. In Egypt the early Christians imitated the Jews by blowing a trumpet. In the early monastery set up by Paula at Jerusalem, one of the virgins was set apart to go round singing hallelujah. In the time of Bede, in the seventh century, bells began to be used as a mode of summoning to worship. And in 968 Pope John XIII. consecrated the great bell of the Lateran Church in Rome, calling it John.

SEPARATION OF s.e.xES IN CHURCHES.

The custom of separating the s.e.xes in church had a very remote origin.

John Gregorie, in his works (published in 1646), says: "There is a tradition that in the ark, so soon as ever the day began to break, Noah stood up towards the body of Adam and before the Lord, he and his sons, Shem, Ham, and j.a.phet. And Noah prayed and his sons; and the women answered from another part of the ark, 'Amen, Lord.' Whence you may note too (if the tradition be sound enough) the antiquity of that fit custom (obtaining still, especially in the Eastern parts) of the separation of the s.e.xes, or the setting of women apart from the men in the houses of G.o.d. Which sure was matter of no slight concernment if it could not be neglected, no, not in the ark, in so great a straightness and distress of congregation."

THE ANCIENT CHURCH PRAYING FOR THE DEAD.

Bingham, in his "Christian Antiquities," says that the Ancient Church used prayers for all the saints, martyrs, confessors, patriarchs, apostles, and even the Virgin Mary herself. But the practice was not founded in a belief in purgatory, but upon a supposition that they were going to a place of rest and happiness, the soul being supposed to be in an imperfect state of happiness till the Resurrection. Moreover, 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. There was also a kindred practice by which the holy books or diptychs used to be rehea.r.s.ed during the service. These recited the names of famous bishops, emperors, and magistrates connected with the district; also the names of those who had lived righteously, and had attained to the perfections of a virtuous life.

And this was done partly to excite and conduct the living to the same happy state by following their 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.

OLD CUSTOM OF SIN-EATERS AT FUNERALS.

In Kennet's "Parochial Antiquities" it is stated by an old person living about 1640 that "in the county of Hereford there was an old custom at funerals to hire poor people, who were to take upon them all the sins of the deceased party, and were called sin-eaters. One of them lived in a cottage near Ross, in Herefordshire. The manner was this: When the corpse was brought out of the house and laid on the bier, a loaf of bread was delivered to the sin-eater over the corpse, as also a mazar bowl (gossips'

bowl) full of beer, which he was to drink up, and sixpence in money. In consideration whereof he took upon him at once all the sins of the defunct, and freed him or her from walking after they were dead. In North Wales the sin-eaters were frequently made use of; but there, instead of a bowl of beer, they have a bowl of milk. This custom was by some people observed even in the strictest time of the Presbyterian government."

PRAISING THE LORD DAY AND NIGHT.

About 400 or soon after, a monk, Alexander, projected a new order of monks, who were to be detailed into companies for the performing of Divine offices day and night without intermission. This order acquired the name of watches, dividing the twenty-four hours into three watches, each relieving the other, and thus keeping a perpetual course of Divine service. This order attained great esteem and veneration, and many monasteries were built for their use at Constantinople. Among others one Studius, a n.o.bleman of Rome of consular dignity, renounced the world and joined the order, erecting a famous monastery for their use, which was called after him Studium. In course of time, however, these monks were believed to be led away by the Nestorian heresy, and lost credit. We are also told that Sigismund, Burgundian king, after renouncing Arianism about 524, restored the ruined monastery of Agaune at the entrance of the princ.i.p.al pa.s.sage of the Alps, the gorge of the Valais on the Rhone. It was built in honour of St. Maurice and the Theban Legion, whose relics were collected and there deposited. A hundred monks were obtained from Condat to give a beginning, and eight hundred more were brought together and bound under conditions, the chief of which was, that a service of praise was to be kept up without a break, day and night. For the purpose the nine hundred monks were divided into nine choirs, who sang alternately and without intermission the praises of G.o.d and the martyrs. The king, to expiate an offence in his own family, himself become a monk for a time.

This notion of keeping up the praise of G.o.d every day and night during the whole year was also carried out in the seventeenth century by an English gentleman, Nicholas Ferrar, who with his family made up a small colony, all having semi-monastic tendencies, and lived at the retired parish of Little Gidding, eighteen miles from Cambridge. He was the son of a wealthy London merchant, was born about 1586, and educated at Cambridge, and for some time was a Member of Parliament, and had also travelled. He, with his mother, sister, nephews, nieces, and servants, numbering thirty, at last took vows of celibacy, settled at this rustic abode, decorated their little chapel with great care, and devoted their time to works of charity; but one peculiarity was always in view--namely, that all day and night they relieved each other in turns, and kept up constant services of prayer and praise. Isaac Walton says that in this continued serving of G.o.d the Psalter or whole Book of Psalms was in every twenty-four hours sung or read over from the first to the last verse, and this was done as constantly as the sun runs his circle every day about the world, and then begins again the same instant that it ended. The ritual was that of the Church of England. And there were candles of white and green wax, and suitable decorations. At every meeting every person present bowed reverently towards the Communion table. The community was called "The Protestant Nunnery" by the peasants living near. In that age the Puritans were developing their power, and there were also reactions, so that both parties had their zealous champions in turns.

CHRISTMAS DAY AND EASTER DAY.

One of the most universally cherished customs of Christians was to keep in remembrance the day of Christ's nativity, and celebrate and hold it in honour by some special service of praise and thanksgiving of a religious character. A kind of feast was celebrated on that day, and in the fourth century it was very generally observed. But the correct date was long matter of doubt in the early centuries. Some reckoned it on January 6th; some in April and May. The Western Christians soon accepted December 25th as the proper anniversary, while the Oriental Churches preferred January 6th. But by the time of the sixth century all Christians concurred in observing December 25th. Almost every country has some peculiar custom of a religious or festive character connected with Christmas Day. Another commemoration day of universal observance was Easter Day, the anniversary of the Resurrection, the preceding Friday being called Good Friday. And in the early centuries there were also controversies as to the correct mode of fixing the date. It was a day on which good Christians observed the solemn Communion, as well as baptisms and acts of hospitality and almsgiving. Choral processions and singing of hymns and anthems were thought fit exercises for this memorable anniversary. The Sunday before Easter Sunday, called Palm Sunday, in commemoration of the strewing of palms on Christ's entry into Jerusalem, is also attended with particular observances. In Italy it is called Olive Sunday; in Spain, Portugal, and France it is called Branch Sunday; in Russia, Sallow Sunday; in Wales, Flower Sunday; in Hertfordshire, Fig Sunday, in allusion to the cursing of the fig tree.

FESTIVAL OF ALL SAINTS.

The festival of All Saints was inst.i.tuted in Rome in the eighth century.