make an attempt to call their own dens houses of the Lord); nor merely where the Church is, but where is the Catholic Church. For this is the peculiar name of this holy Body, the mother of us all which is the Spouse of our Lord Jesus Christ." *

Hear again, S. HILARY, A.D. 356:

"But the Body of the Church is one, not a Body made up by a confused mixture of bodies, nor by each of them being gathered together into an indistinguishable heap and shapeless mass, We are all, through the unity of faith, through the brotherhood of communion, through the concord of deeds and wills, through the gift of the Sacrament which is one in all,-one Body, to which Paul exhorts, saying, 'I beseech you, brethren, that ye be all of one mind, exercising the same charity.' And when it shall be acccording to what is written, 'And the multitude of believers had but one heart and one soul,' then shall we be the city of God, then the holy Jerusalem, because Jerusalem is built as a city, whose participation is of the self-same thing."

S. BASIL A.D. 370:

"Let the question be put to those of Pisidia, Lycaonia, of Isauria, of both Phrygias, of that part of Armenia that borders on your country, of Macedonia, of Achaia, of Illyricum, of Gaul, Spain, the whole of Italy, Sicily, Africa, the sound districts of Egypt, and what is left of Syria;-they all send letters to me, and receive mine: from which letters, whether sent by them, or received from us, you may learn that we are all unanimous and think the same thing; so that it will not escape your accuracy, that whoso flees from communion with us, severs himself from the whole Church." †

* Cat. xviii. 26.

† Ep. cciv. ad Neocæsar, n. 7.

and of course much more private houses, or rooms in hotels, or such places of common resort.

THE COUNCIL OF LAODICEA (A.D. 365) decreed thus:

"The Oblation ought not to be made by Bishops or Presbyters in private houses." Canon lviii.

THE COUNCIL OF EPAONE (A.D. 517) had said:

"Let not oblations be celebrated in unconsecrated houses." +

THE COUNCIL OF TRULLO (A.D. 691) had said:

"We decree that the Clergy who celebrate or baptize in Oratories within a house, must do it subject to the judgment of the Bishop of the place."

Other Councils and many decrees of Bishops depending upon them, have from time to time set forth this rule most stringently. § Indeed nothing appears so certain as that the place where the celebration was to be made, must be a place consecrated by the Bishop of the Diocese.

Following this rule, let us observe our own principal canonists. First concerning Priests travelling into foreign countries.

LYNDWOOD writes thus:

DE CLERICIS PEREGRINIS.

Externi atque ignoti sine ordinarium suorum literis commendatiis vel dimissoriis non admittantur ad ordinis execu

*See Beveridge, Pand, Tom. 1, p. 480.

+ Mansi, Tom. viii., col. 565, and Johnson's English Canons, p. 1, p. 195. Canon XXXI. Pandect, Tom 1, p. 191.

§ See Scudamore's Notitia Eucharistica, p. 1030, from whom quote.

tionem, sine sufficienti dispensatione atque de ordinatione eorum habita approbatione, et per Episcopum admissione. *

In the Constitutions of Otho, A.D. 1237, concerning the celebration of the Blessed Sacrament we read—

"Statuerunt provide Sancti Patres ne in aliis locis quam dedicatis (nisi necessitatis causâ) celebretur officium tam sublime, et ne tam salubre mysterium ac statutum transeat in comtemptum, si loca hujusmodi non fuerint infra biennium a perfectionis tempore dedicata, a missarum solemniis usque ad consecrationem manere statuimus interdicta; nisi aliquâ causâ rationabili cxcusentur." +

And in a note appended to this constitution we find the exception thus: "puta infirmitatis vel hujusmodi,” and then on a question "an liceat habere capellam domi," we find the distinction between an oratory and a place where celebration of Mass may be made in these words:

"Unde tamen scias unicuique fidelium licitum esse in domo suâ Oratorium habere non sacrum propriâ auctoritate; missas autem celebrare itidem non licet absque licentia et consensu Episcopi."+

And again, in the time of Johannes Stratford, Archbishop of Canterbury A.D. 1342 we find under the head of

"CHAPELS IN PRIVATE HOUSES":

"Celebrans in loco non consecrato sine Diocesani permissione, mense uno de facto suspensus sit a celebrandi officio; nec Diocesanus permittat nisi magnatibus a consecrato late distantibus," §

*The reader must see further on this head in Lyndwood, Lib. 1, Tit. 9. p. 47. + Constitutio Domini Othonis, Lyndwood, r. 6.

Constitutio Domini Othonis, Lyndwood, p. 6. § Gibson's Codex Tit, ix., c. 13, p. 237.

And the words are,

"Nos de fratrum nostrorum et totius consilii assensu, et concilio decernimus quemcunque in oratoriis, capellis, aut domibus non consecratis, seu in loco minime dedicato, seu delibato, missarum solemnia, Diocesani non obtentâ licentiâ, contra canonum prohibitionem de cætero celebrantem, suspensionem a Divinorum celebratione per mensem incurrere ipso facto. Licentiam autem ab Episcopis nostræ Provinciæ missas in locis hujusmodi non sacratis concessam celebrandi, et in posterum concedendam personis aliis quam magnatibus, sen nobilibus moram facientibus in locis et ecclesiis Parochialibus notabiliter distantibus, aut notorie debilibus, vel infirmis— irritam decernimus et inanem.” *

Again in the Constitutions of Thomas Arundell, a.d. 1408, we find it laid down as a principle:

"Ne aliqui prætendant de Sacramento Altaris, vel matrimonii, vel quocunque Sacramento Ecelesiæ aliter prædicare quam per Sanctam Matrem Ecclesiam discussum reperiatur-item quia turpis est pars, quæ non convenit suo toti, decernimus et ordinamus, quod nullus hujusmodi prædicator aut alia quævis persona de Sacramento Altaris, matrimonio, peccatorum confessione, aliter doceat, prædicet, aut observet, quam quod per Sanctam Matrem Ecclesiam reperitur discussum." †

And further on in the same Council,

"Nullus Capellanus admittatur ad celebrandum in aliquâ ecclesiâ Cantuarensis Provinciæ absque literis Diocesani commendatiis ubi fuit oriundus." ‡

* Johannis Stratford, Constitutiones. Extravagantes, A.D. 1342. Lyndwood, p. 48, 49, and Gibson's Codex, p. 298, Tit. 9,

+ Constitutiones Provinciales Consilii Oxoniensis Lyndwood p. 65. Idem, p. 67.