156

Bona 155 says were never known in the Latin church, much less in the ancient church. So I shall not stand to explain them. Nor say any thing here of the Bible, the Diptychs, and their ritual books, which were both utensils and ornaments of the altar, because these will be spoken of in other places. The altare portatile, or movable altars, of the Latins, and the antimensia, or consecrated cloths, of the Greeks, to be used in places which have no altars, I omit likewise, as being a modern invention of later ages. Habertus, indeed, is very solicitous to have their portable altars thought as old as St. Basil, because St. Basil in one of his epistles speaks of idiai rpáñelai, private tables, in some churches. But he wholly mistakes his author's meaning: for he is only speaking of the rudeness of some heretics, who, according to their usual custom, pulled down the catholic altars, and set up their own altars, or tables, in the room. So that it is not those portable altars he is discoursing of, but heretical altars set up in opposition to the catholics, which Habertus would hardly own to be the altars of the Romish church. Durantus 157 and Bona 15 do not pretend to find them in any author before the time of Bede and Charles the Great, and therefore we may conclude they were a modern invention. But the piridia, or flabella, are somewhat more ancient, being mentioned by the author of the Constitutions, who makes it one part of the deacon's office in the time of the oblation, to stand on each side of the altar, and with these instruments in their hands, (brushes or fans, we may English them,) to drive away all such little insects as might drop into the cups or infest the altar. The author of the Fasti Siculi, or Chronicon Alexandrinum,1 calls them ríμia piñídia, and reckons them among the holy utensils of the altar, which were laid up among the rest in the sceuophylacium, or vestry of the church. For which reason I thought it not improper to mention them, whilst we are speaking of the utensils of the altar. In many churches, besides the comof the oblation munion table, in one of the lesser recesses or conchas of the bema, there was a place where the offerings of the people were received, out of which the bread and wine was taken that was consecrated at the altar. In the liturgies under the names of Chrysostom 161 and St. James," and other modern Greek writers, this is called πpóJeric and raparpáπεĽov, the side-table. In the Ordo Romanus it has the name of oblationarium and pro

Sect. 22.

arium, or prothesis.

156 Bona, Rer. Liturg. lib. 1. c. 25. n. 6.

159

162

156 Habert. Archieratic. p. 664. Portatilia illa altaria videntur dici a basilio ίδίαι τράπεζαι, Εp. 72.

1ST Durant, de Ritib. Eccl. lib. 1. c. 25. n. 7.

158 Bona, Rer. Liturg. lib. 1. c. 20. n. 3.

thesis also, for the one is made the explication of the other. And here also it is termed paratorium, because, when the offerings were received, preparation was made out of them for the eucharist. There is little question to be made but that the ancient churches had something answerable to this, but it went under other names; for we never meet with a prothesis, or paratorium, or oblationarium, in express terms in any ancient writer. But the thing itself we often find. Cyprian 16 seems to speak of it under the borrowed name of the corban, rebuking a rich and wealthy matron for coming to celebrate the eucharist without any regard to the corban, and partaking of the Lord's supper without any sacrifice of her own, but rather eating of the oblations which the poor had brought. In the fourth council of Carthage this place goes by the general name of the sacrarium, or sanctuary, as being that part of the sanctuary where the oblations for the altar were received. For they had two repositories for the offerings of the people, the one without the church, called the gazophylacium, or treasury, and the other within the church, which was this sacrarium, or corban. And therefore it is that that council forbids the offerings of such Christians as were at variance one with another, to be received either in the treasury or the sanctuary. Paulinus is more exact in describing this place than any other ancient writer, yet he gives it a different name, calling it one of the secretaria of the church. For he tells us there were two secretaria, one on the right hand, and the other on the left hand of the altar. on the right hand was the same with the prothesis, or paratorium, we are speaking of, and the use of it he describes in these verses, which were set over it:

165

That

Hic locus est veneranda penus qua conditur, et qua
Promitur alma sacri pompa ministerii.

This is the place where the holy food is reposited, and whence we take provision and furniture for the altar. That on the other side was the same with the diaconicum bematis, the use of which he describes in part, in these two other verses, set over it also:

Si quem sancta tenet meditandi in lege voluntas,
Hic poterit residens sanctis intendere libris.

If any one, (that is, any of the priests, whose apartment this was,) is minded to meditate in the law of God, here he has room to sit and read the holy books. A little before 168 he makes the like descrip

163 Cyprian. de Opere et Eleemos. p. 203. Locuples et dives es, et Dominicum celebrare te credis, quæ corbonam omnino non respicis; quæ in Dominicum sine sacrificio venis; quæ partem de sacrificio, quod pauper obtulit, sumis?

164 Conc. Carthag. 4. can. 93. Oblationes dissidentium fratrum, neque in sacrario, neque in gazophylacio recipi

antur.

165 Paulin. Ep. 12. ad Sever. p. 154.

166 Paulin. ibid. p. 152. Una earum immolanti hostias ju

tion of these two secret apartments in prose, telling us, that the one was the place which prepared the host or oblation of joy for the priest: (whence doubtless in after ages, as I noted before, it got the name of paratorium :) and the other was a place, whither the clergy retired, after the sacrifice was ended, and the people were dismissed, to make their concluding prayers in private.

Sect. 23.

cium, or diaconicum bematis.

168

This latter place was a sort of vestry Of the sceuophyla within the church, whither the deacons brought the vestments and vessels and utensils belonging to the altar, out of the greater diaconicum, to be in a readiness for Divine service. And in this respect it had also the name of σKevovlákov, the repository of the sacred utensils, because hither they were carried back immediately by the deacons as soon as the service was ended, or whilst the post-communion psalm was singing by the people, as the author of the Chronicon 167 Alexandrinum represents it. Here the priests also put on their robes they used to officiate in: and hither they came again, when the public service was ended, to make their private addresses to God, as has been noted already out of Paulinus; and in the liturgies ascribed to St. James, St. Mark, St. Chrysostom, there are the forms of prayer appointed to be used in this place, one of which particularly in St. James's liturgy is ushered in with this title or rubric, The prayer to be said in the sceuophylacium, after the dismission of the people. The deacons commonly had the care of this place, and thence it is often called the diaconicum, and bematis diaconicum, to distinguish it from another diaconicum, which we shall find in the next chapter among the exedræ, or outer buildings of the church. Du Fresne 10 thinks also that the name diaconicum was sometimes more peculiarly given to that part of the bema or chancel, which was between the veils of the chancel and the veils of the ciborium or altar; and that the place within the veils of the altar was distinguished particularly by the name of presbyterium, because it was the place of the presbyters, as the other was the place of the deacons, alleging for this a canon of the council of Laodicea," which others understand in a different sense,' 172 for the whole chancel or sanctuary of the church.

160

bilationis patet (leg. parat). Altera post sacerdotem, (leg. post sacrificium,) capaci sinu receptat orantes.

167 Chron. Alexand. p. 892. Vid. Coteler. Not. in Const. Apost. lib. 7. c. 12.

168 Liturg. Marci, Bibl. Patr. Gr. Lat. t. 2. p. 41. Liturg. Chrysost. ibid. p. 88.

169 Liturg. Jacobi, ibid. p. 23. Euxù λeyoμévŋ ¿v TO OKEVοφυλακίῳ μετὰ τὴν ἀπόλυσιν.

170 Du Fresne, Com. in Paul. Silentiar. p. 581.

171 Con. Laod. can. 21. 172 See before, sect. 4. of this chap. 1 Euseb. lib. 10. c. 4. p. 381. Ἐπὶ τὰ ἐκτὸς τοῦ νεὼ

μετ

CHAPTER VII.

OF THE BAPTISTERY, AND OTHER OUter buildings, CALLED THE EXEDRE OF THE CHURCH.

Sect. 1. Baptisteries anciently buildings distinct from the

church.

WE have hitherto taken a view of the several parts of the ancient churches within the walls: it now remains that we consider a little such buildings as were distinct from the main body, and yet within the bounds of the church taken in the largest sense, which buildings are all comprised under one general name of the exedra of the church. For Eusebius, speaking of the church of Paulinus at Tyre, says, When that curious artist had finished his famous structure within, he then set himself about the exedræ, or buildings' that joined one to another by the sides of the church: by which buildings, he tells us, he chiefly meant the place, which was for the use of those who needed the purgation and sprinkling of water and the Holy Ghost, that is, doubtless, the baptistery of the church. He describes the church of Antioch, built by Constantine, after the same manner, telling us, that it was surrounded with exedra, and buildings that had lower and upper stories in them. So that, as Valesius and other critics have rightly observed, exedra is a general name for any buildings that stand round about the church. And hence it is easy to conclude, that the baptistery, which Eusebius reckons the chief of the exedra, was anciently a building without the walls of the church. Which observation, because I find it questioned by some, who place the font, after the modern way, in the narthex of the ancient churches, it will not be improper here to confirm by a few plain instances out of other authors. Paulinus, bishop of Nola, setting forth the great munificence of his friend Severus, says, He built two churches and a baptistery between them both. And so Cyril of Jerusalem describes the baptistery as a building by itself, which had first' its poaúλov olkov, that is, its porch or ante-room, where the catechumens made their renunciation of Satan, and confession of faith; and then its lowrepov olkov, its inner room, where the ceremony of baptism was performed. Sidonius Apollinaris also speaks of it as a distinct building;" and St. Austin seems to intimate that there were

distinct apartments in it for men and women likewise. Which perhaps is the reason why St. Ambrose speaks of it in the plural, styling it the baptisteries of the church. In the time of Justin Martyr and Tertullian we are not certain that the church had any of these baptisteries; but this is past all doubt, however, from their authority, that the place of baptism was not in the church, but some where distinct from it. For Tertullian, speak- | ing of the ceremonies of baptism, says, It was their custom to renounce the devil and his pomp and his angels first in the church, and then again when they came to the water. Which implies, that the place of baptism was without the church. And so Justin Martyr" represents it, when he speaks of carrying the catechumen to the place where there was water; which perhaps was unlimited in those days; it being an indifferent thing, as Tertullian " words it, whether a man was baptized in the sea or in a lake, in a river or in a fountain, in Jordan or in Tiber, as St. Peter and St. John baptized their converts. So that the first ages all agreed in this, that whether they had baptisteries or not, the place of baptism was always without the church. And after this manner baptisteries continued to the sixth age, as appears from what Durantus observes out of Gregory" of Tours, that he speaks of baptisteries still without the walls of the church. Though some now began to be taken into the church porch, as that wherein he says," Remigius baptized King Clodoveus, and thence they were afterward removed into the church itself. Though now the baptistery of St. John Lateran at Rome is still after the ancient model, if Durantus rightly inform us.

places of i

lumination.

We may observe also in the fore- Sect. 3. mentioned authors, how the baptis-Why called potr teries were commonly called φωτιςήρια, places of illumination, that is, baptism. For baptism itself in ancient writers is very usually styled purioua; and hence the place of baptism called prisipov, from the administration of baptism there, which was always attended with a Divine illumination of the soul; whence persons baptized were also called, the illuminate, as has been observed in another place. But the baptisteries might also have this name for another reason, because they were the places of an illumination or instruction preceding baptism. For here the catechumens seem to have been trained up and instructed in the first rudiments of the Christian faith. At least they were here taught the Creed, as is evident from that noted passage of St. Ambrose," where he says, that after the Lessons and Homily he went into the baptistery of the church, to make the candidates of baptism learn the Creed. Therefore from this illumination preceding baptism, as well as that which was consequent to it, the baptisteries might reasonably be called φωτισήρια, and, as some think, φροντι snpia, schools of learning, or the illuminatories of the church.

24

baptized. This in the Greek writers is commonly calleda xoλvμßýýpα, and by the Latins, piscina, and is sometimes expressly distinguished from the baptistery, as a part from the whole. For Socrates 23 expressly styles it κολυμβήθραν τοῦ βαπτισηρίου, the pool of the baptistery. Which name Dr. Beverege thinks was given to the font by way of allusion to the pool of Bethesda. But Optatus" has a more mystical reason for it: he says, it was called piscina, in allusion to our Saviour's technical name, ixus, which was an acrostic composed of the initial letters of our Saviour's several titles, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Saviour, of which I have given an account" in another place. But whether either of these reasons be true, or whether the font was not rather so called, because piscina and кoλvμßý‡pa are common names of fountains, and baths, and pools in Greek and Latin writers, I leave to the determination of the judicious reader. Du Fresne has observed several other names," such as vroνóμoç, lavacrum, natatoria, and cloaca, a term peculiar to Gregory the Great: but these are modern names, and so I pass them over, only remarking one thing out of him, that whereas Procopius, in his Historia Arcana, gives it the name of deaμevn, the receptacle, Suidas mistakes it for the communion table; which I note, only because it is easy for any one to be led into the like mistake by the authority of that celebrated writer.

Sect. 5. How fonts and baptisteries anciently adorned.

What form the ancient baptisteries were built in, I find no where mentioned in any ancient writer; and almost as little of their ornament, that may be depended on as genuine. Durantus indeed has a very formal story out of the Pontifical, under the name of Damasus, how Constantine gave a rich font to the church, wherein he himself was baptized; it was made, the author says, of porphyretic marble, overlaid with silver; in the middle of it was a marble pillar, and on it a vial of pure gold, filled with balsam to burn as in a lamp. On the brim of the font was a lamp of pure gold pouring out water. On the right hand of that a silver image of Christ, and on the left hand a silver image of St. John Baptist, holding a label with this inscription, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world." Besides all these, there were seven silver harts pouring out water into the fountain. But now all this is a mere fabulous legend, and has

just as much truth in it as the story of Constantine's leprosy, and his being cured by Pope Sylvester's baptizing him in this font at Rome. And I only mention it to show what sort of tales are urged by the Romish ritualists many times for ancient history. For every one now knows this mock-Damasus to be a spurious author. Perhaps in the sixth or seventh century, such sort of ornaments might be set up in the baptisteries of the church: for in the acts of the council of Constantinople under Mennas, anno 536, there is mention made of silver and gold doves hanging in the baptistery, as well as at the altar. But as no pictures or images were set up in churches in the time of Constantine, so we cannot suppose any Roman baptisteries to be adorned by him according to the foresaid pretended description: but if the garments of the ministers baptizing, or the white robes of persons newly baptized, which were reserved in these baptisteries as monuments and tokens of their profession, or the vessels of chrism used for unction in baptism, may be reckoned ornaments of these places; the baptisteries had always these things from their first erection, as will be showed more particularly when we come to treat of the rites of baptism in its proper place. All that I have further to add about baptisteries here, is an observation made by some learned men, that an- liar to the mother ciently there was but one baptistery

Sect. 6. Baptisteries anciently more pecuchurch.

in a city, and that at the bishop's church. Vicecomes thinks it was so even at Rome itself for many ages. Dr. Maurice" says no city had more, unless where the magnificence of emperors or bishops made, as it were, many cathedrals. And therefore, when the author of the Pontifical under the name of Damasus says of Pope Marcellus, that he made twenty-five titles in Rome, as so many dioceses, for baptism and penance; that learned person thinks it imports, that those services indeed belonged only to a cathedral; and therefore the granting of those privileges to parishes made them seem like dioceses. Some remains of this ancient custom are yet to be observed in several great cities of Italy. For both Durantus" and Vicecomes" tell us, that at Pisa, Bononia, Orvieto, Parma, and even at Florence itself, they have but one font or baptistery for a whole city at this day. Which is also noted by Onuphrius and Du Fresne," and by Dr. Maurice out of Leander Alberti, Mercator, Lassels,

29 Conc. Constant. Act. 5. t. 5. p. 159. 30 Vicecom. de Ritib. Bapt. lib. 1. c. 8. 31 Maurice, Dioces. Episc. p. 41 et 43.

32 Pontifical. Vit. Marcelli. Viginti quinque titulos in urbe Roma constituit, quasi dioceses, propter baptismum et pœnitentiam multorum, &c.

33 Durant. de Ritib. Eccles. lib. 1. c. 19. n. 3.

34 Vicecomes de Ritib. Bapt. lib. 1. c. 8.

35 Onuphr. de Ecclesiis Urb. Romæ.

36 Du Fresne, Glossar. voce Baptisterium.