History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene Christianity. A. D. 100-325
Yüklə 5,76 Mb. Pdf görüntüsü
|
martyrs, and in the crypts of the catacombs. This arose from their poverty, their oppressed and outlawed condition, their love of silence and solitude, and their aversion to all heathen art. The apologists frequently assert, that their brethren had neither temples nor altars (in the pagan sense of these words), and that their worship was spiritual and independent of place and ritual. Heathens, like Celsus, cast this up to them as a reproach; but Origen admirably replied: The humanity of Christ is the highest temple and the most beautiful image of God, and true Christians are living statues of the Holy Spirit, with which no Jupiter of Phidias can compare. Justin Martyr said to the Roman prefect: The Christians assemble wherever it is convenient, because their God is not, like the gods of the heathen, inclosed in space, but is invisibly present everywhere. Clement of Alexandria refutes the superstition, that religion is bound to any building. In private houses the room best suited for worship and for the love-feast was the oblong dining-hall, the triclinium, which was never wanting in a convenient Greek or Roman dwelling, and which often had a semicircular niche, like the choir 290
90 in the later churches. An elevated seat
291 91 was used for reading the Scriptures and preaching, and a simple tables 292 92 for the holy communion. Similar arrangements were made also in the catacombs, which sometimes have the form of a subterranean church. The first traces of special houses of worship 293
93 occur in Tertullian, who speaks of going to church, 294
94 and in his contemporary, Clement of Alexandria, who mentions the double meaning of the word
. 295
95 About the year 230, Alexander Severus granted the Christians the right to a place in Rome against the protest of the tavern-keepers, because the worship of God in any form was better than tavern-keeping. After the middle of the third century the building of churches began in great earnest, as the Christians enjoyed over forty years of repose (260–303), and multiplied so fast that, according to Eusebius, more spacious places of devotion became everywhere necessary. The Diocletian persecution began (in 303,) with the destruction of the magnificent church at Nicomedia, which, according to Lactantius, even towered above the neighboring imperial palace. 296
96 Rome is supposed to have had, as early as the beginning of the fourth century, more than forty churches. But of the form and arrangement of them we have no account. With Constantine the Great begins the era of church architecture, and its first style is the Basilica. The emperor himself set the example, and built magnificent churches in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Constantinople, 290
Chorus, βῆμα. The two are sometimes identified, sometimes distinguished, the bema being the sanctuary proper for the celebration of the holy mysteries, the choir the remaining part of the chancel for the clergy; while the nave was for the laity. 291
Ἄμβων, suggestus, pulpitum. 292
Τράπεζα, mensa sacra; also ara, altare. 293
Ἐκκλησία, ἐκκλησιαστήριον, κυριακά, οἶκος θεοῦ,, ecclesia, dominica, domus Dei, templum. The names for a church building in the Teutonic and Slavonic languages (Kirche, Church, Kerk, Kyrka, Tserkoff, etc.) are derived from the Greek κυριακή, κυριακόν, (belonging to the Lord, the Lord’s house), through the medium of the Gothic; the names in the Romanic languages (Chiesa, Igreja, Eglise, etc.) from the Latin ecclesia, although this is also from the Greek, and meant originally assembly (either a local congregation, or the whole body of Christians). Churches erected specially in honor of martyrs were called martyria, memoriae, tropaea, tituli. 294 In ecclcsima, in domum Dei venire 295 Τόπος,andἂθροισμα τῶν ἐκλεκτῶν 296 De Mort. Persec. c. 12. The Chronicle of Edessa (in Assem. Bibl Orient. XI. 397) mentions the destruction of Christian temples a.d. 292. 127
Philip Schaff History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene Christianity. A.D. 100-325.
which, however, have undergone many changes. His contemporary, the historian Eusebius, gives us the first account of a church edifice which Paulinus built in Tyre between a.d. 313 and 322. 297 97
) a quadrangular atrium ( ) surrounded by ranges of columns; a fountain in the centre of the atrium for the customary washing of hands and feet before entering the church; interior porticoes; the nave or central space ( ) with galleries above the aisles, and covered by a roof of cedar of Lebanon; and the most holy altar (
). Eusebius mentions also the thrones (
) for the bishops and presbyters, and benches or seats. The church was surrounded by halls and inclosed by a wall, which can still be traced. Fragments of five granite columns of this building are among the ruins of Tyre. The description of a church in the Apostolic Constitutions, 298
98 implies that the clergy occupy the space at the cast end of the church (in the choir), and the people the nave, but mentions no barrier between them. Such a barrier, however, existed as early as the fourth century, when the laity were forbidden to enter the enclosure of the altar.
The celebration of the Lord’s Day in memory of the resurrection of Christ dates undoubtedly from the apostolic age. 299
99 Nothing short of apostolic precedent can account for the universal religious observance in the churches of the second century. There is no dissenting voice. This custom is confirmed by the testimonies of the earliest post-apostolic writers, as Barnabas, 300 00
301 01 and Justin Martyr. 302 02 It is also confirmed by the younger Pliny. 303 03 The Didache calls the first day "the Lord’s Day of the Lord." 304
04 Considering that the church was struggling into existence, and that a large number of Christians were slaves of heathen masters, we cannot expect an unbroken regularity of worship 297
Hist. Ecel. X. 4. Eusebius also describes, in rhetorical exaggeration and looseness, the churches built by Constantine in Jerusalem, Antioch, and Constantinople (Vita Const. 1. III. 50; IV. 58, 59). See De Vogüe, Eglises de la terre-sainte, Hübsch, l.c., , -tnd Smith & Cheetliam, I. 368 sqq. 298
II. 57, ed. Ueltzen, p. 66 sqq. 299
The original designations of the Christian Sabbath or weekly rest-day are: ἡ μία orμία σαββάτων, the first day of the week (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 21:1; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2), and ἡ ἡμέρα κυριακή, the Lord’s Day, which first occurs in Rev. 1:10, then in Ignatius and the fathers. The Latins render it Dominicus or Dominica dies. Barnabas calls it the eighth day, in contrast to the Jewish Sabbath. After Constantine the Jewish term Sabbath and the heathen term Sunday ( ἡμέρα τοῦ ἡλίου, dies Solis)were used also. In the edict of Gratian, a.d. 386, two are combined: "Solis die, quem Dominicum rite` dixere majores." On the Continent of Europe Sunday has ruled out Sabbath completely; while in England, Scotland, and the United States Sabbath is used as often as the other or oftener in religious literature. The difference is characteristic of the difference in the Continental and the Anglo-American observance of the Lord’s Day. 300
Ep., c. 15: "We celebrate the eighth day with joy, on which Jesus rose from the dead, and, after having appeared [to his disciple, ;], ascended to heaven." It does not follow from this that Barnabas put the ascension of Christ likewise on Sunday. 301 Ep. ad Magnes. c. 8, 9. 302 Apol. I. 67. 303 "Stato die, ’ in his letter to Trajan, Ep. X. 97. This " stated day, "on which the Christian, in Bithynia assembled before day-light to sing hymns to Christ as a God, and to bind themselves by a sacramentum, must be the Lord’s Day. 304
Ch. 14: Κυριακὴ κυρίου, pleonastic. The adjective in Rev. 1:10. 128 Philip Schaff History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene Christianity. A.D. 100-325. Yüklə 5,76 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
|