church. And perhaps St. Jerom intends the same by the sepulchres of the martyrs, when he says $4, 'It was his custom, when he was a boy at school in Rome, on Sundays, to go about and visit the sepulchres of the Apostles and Martyrs;' but I will not be positive of this, because he joins the crypto, or subterraneous vaults, with them, which in his time were not churches: though they were in Tertullian's time, who calls them arece sepulturarum, telling us 95, “that Hilarian, the persecutor, forbade them to hold assemblies there; but this was remarkably punished by the providence of God; for they who denied the Christians the liberty of their areæ, had their own arece (meaning their storehouses or barn-floors, which is another signification of the word area) taken from them; for they had no harvest that year, by the just judgment of God upon them. The reader will meet with the name area for a place of prayer, in the Acts of Purgation of Cæcilian $6, bishop of Carthage, and other records 97 of that age of persecutions, when they were forced to fly from their churches above ground to their vaults underneath, and make a sort of temporary churches of them.

10. Casa is another name in the same Acts of Purgation Why case, of Cæcilian and Felix 88, which I take to be the name of a and tituli. church also: for though it might be something doubtful from that place alone, yet finding it so used in other authors, I conclude it was one of the ancient names of their churches. For Bede 89 tells us, the town of St. Martins in Bernicia, a pro

(v. 2. p. 121. 15.) Tŷ yàp éßdopáði 1. p. 1449 b.) Cives in area marty-
μετά την αγίαν Πεντηκοστής, ο λαός rum fuerunt inclusi.— Item, p. 277.
νηστεύσας εξηλθε περί το κοιμητήριον (ibid.) Tollat aliquis de vestris in
εύξασθαι, διά τό πάντας αποστρέφε- area, ubi orationes facitis.
σθαι την πρός Γεώργιον κοινωνίαν. 87 Vid. Acta Concilii Cirtensis ap.

84 In Ezek. c. 40. (t. 5. p. 468 b.) Baron. an. 303. n. 25. (t. 2. p. 738 e.)
Dum essem Romæ puer, et liberali- Cives in area martyrum fuerunt
bus studiis erudirer, solebam cum inclusi, &c.-Passio Cypriani. (Vit.
cæteris ejusdem ætatis et propositi, præfix. Ed. Amstel. 1700. p. 15.) Ejus
diebus dominicis, sepulchra Aposto- corpus positum est .... in areis Ma-
lorum et Martyrum circuire, crebro- crobii Candidi.
que cryptas ingredi, &c.

88 Ad calc. Optat. p. 272. (CC. t. 85 Ad Scapul. c. 3. (p. 70 a.)..... 1. p. 1449 h.) Numquid populus Dei Sicut et sub Hilariano præsides cum

ibi fuit? Saturninus dixit, In casa de areis sepulturarum nostrarum ac- majore fuit inclusus.- Item, p. 274. clamassent, Areæ non sint! areæ ip- (ibid. p. 1450 c.)..... Præsens cum sorum non fuerunt: messes enim populo inclusus in casa majore. suas non egerunt.

89 Hist. 1. 3. c. 4. (p. 106. 27.) Qui 86 Ad calc. Optat. p. 272. (CC. t. locus ad provinciam Berniciorum BINGHAM, VOL. III.

vince of Britain, came to be vulgarly called Candida Casa, Whitern, or Whitchurch, from the church of stone which bishop Ninyas built in it. And I leave it as a query, whether Casa Nigree in Afric, where Donatus was bishop, be not beholden to some such circumstance for its denomination also ? But why churches should be called case is not very easy to conjecture: till a better reason can be found, let us suppose it to be from the plainness and simplicity of them, of which we shall have something more to say in the next chapter.

Mr. Mede has observed another name for churches, which is not very common, in Caius Romanus, an ancient writer in Eusebius, who uses the term Tropæa Apostolorum, as Mr. Mede 90 conjectures, to denote two churches of St. Peter and St. Paul in Rome. But I confess there is some reason to question, whether in that place it means churches, and not rather the monuments or sepulchres of those Apostles. For Eusebius is only speaking of their bodies being buried at Rome; to confirm which opinion he quotes that ancient writer in these words 91: “We can yet shew the trophies of the Apostles; for whether you go to the Vatican or the Via Ostiensis, you may there see the trophies of those who founded this church ;' meaning the church of Rome, which was founded by St. Peter and St. Paul, whose sepulchres were then to be seen, the former in the Vatican Hill, and the other in the way from Ostia to Rome. However, in after-ages, when churches were built over their sepulchres, then their trophies became a name for those churches, as we may learn from those words of St. Jerom to Marcella 92, who lived at Rome, 'You have there an holy church, you have there the trophies of the Apostles and Martyrs.' For now it is certain their sepulchres were advanced

pertinens, vulgo vocatur, Ad Candi- 92 Ep. 18. [al. 46. Paul. et Eudam Casam, eo quod ibi ecclesiam de stoch. ad Marcell

. c. 11.) (t. 1. p. 206 lapide, insolito Britonibus more, fe- b.) Est quidem tibi sancta ecclesia, cerit.

Bunt tropæa Apostolorum et Mar. 90 Discourse of Churches. (note tyrum.-So Gildas, de Excidio Briat the foot of p. 328.) Also in this tanniæ, (ap. Bibl. Patr. t. 5. p. 676. century, &c.

c. 16.) and Bede, Hist. 1. 1. c. 8, (p. 91 L. 2. c. 25. (v. 1. p. 84. 5.) 'Eyü 47. 18.) call them signa victricia è tà tómaia Twv 'Atrogtól w fx@ martyrum.-See also Eusebius, de Seifai làv yap Delñons anel deiv Laud. Constant. c. 17, (v. I. p. 770. τον Βατικανον, ή επί της οδόν την 30.) who terms them τρόπαια νικη'Ωστίαν, εύρήσεις τα τρόπαια των ταύ- τήρια. την ίδρυσαμένων την εκκλησίαν.

into churches, and both together called trophies, as being manifest tokens and evidences of the victory which they had gained over their enemies, by resisting unto blood, and triumphing after death.

There is yet another name, of which it is not easy to give so exact an account; that is, why some churches had the name of tituli given them peculiarly in Rome. In the Pontifical, in the Life of Marcellus 93, it is said of him, that he appointed twenty-five tituli in Rome, for the convenience of baptizing new converts. And in the same place one Lucina, a widow, is said to have dedicated her house 94 to be made a titulus, or church, where they worshipped Christ day and night with prayers and hymns, till Maxentius, the tyrant, hearing of it, turned the church into a stable, and forced Marcellus to be the keeper of it. These are supposed to be the same as parishchurches, erected for the convenience of administering divine offices, as the multitude of converts increased in Rome. But why they were called tituli is not exactly agreed among learned men.

Baronius 95 will have them to be so called, because they had the sign of the cross upon them, by which sign or title they were known to belong to Christ, as things which belonged to the Emperor's exchequer were known to be his by an appendant veil, which had either his image or his name, by way of title, inscribed upon it. But it does not appear that the sign of the cross was so early fixed

upon

churches; or if it were, that it was the peculiar distinction of a parish-church : for no doubt the cathedral, or bishop's church, had that sign as

93 Pontifical. (CC. t. 1. p. 946 c.) ecclesias dicimus, a majoribus tituli Hic fecit cæmeterium Via Salaria, dicerentur, paucis aperiendum. A et viginti quinque titulos in Urbe rebus fiscalibus videtur accepta esse Roma constituit, quasi diæceses, nomenclatura : tituli namque impopropter baptismum et pænitentiam sitione rem aliquam sibi fiscus somultorum, qui convertebantur ex litus erat vindicare, atque principi paganis, et propter sepulturas mar- consecrare : ut cum ait imperator, tyrum,

Tituli vero, quorum adjectione præ34 Ibid. (ibid. d.) Lucina ....do- dia nostris sunt consecranda submum suam nomine tituli beati Mar- stantiis, non nisi publica testificacelli dedicavit, ubi die noctuque tione proponantur. Fuisse hujushymnis et orationibus Domino Jesu modi titulos vela quædam, quæ reChristo confitebantur, &c.Vid. Pii giam repræsentarent potestatem, vel Ep. 2. [al. 4.] ad Just. See after- imaginibus imperatorum, vel nomiwards, s. 14. p. 29. n. 39.

nis ipsorum inscriptione insignita, 95 An. 112. n. 5. (t. 2. p. 50 e.)... multa sunt, quæ poterunt demonUnde acciderit, ut domus fidelium 'strare, &c. in sacrum usum conversæ, quas nos

:

soon as any others. Mr. Mede 96 offers two other reasons, and leaves the reader to determine whether they were so called, because by their dedication the name of Christ our Lord was as it were inscribed upon them, as the manner then was to set the names or titles of the owners upon their houses and possessions; and so it would concur in notion with those other names of Kvplakòv and Basilica, the Lord's and the King's ; or whether because they gave a title of cure, or denomination, to the presbyters to whom they were committed. This last I take to be the true reason of the name till one more probable can be thought of. As to the fancy of Onuphrius 97, that the number of these tituli was exactly the same with that of cardinal-presbyters now, and never exceeding the number of twenty-eight,' it is an imagination without ground; for Optatus speaks of above forty churches in Rome before the time of the last persecution, as I shall bave occasion to shew more fully in

the next Book. Of taberna- 11. There are several other less usual names of churches in cles and minsters,

ancient writers, which I need not stand upon; such as limina and some martyrum, the houses of the martyrs, used by St. Jerom 98 ; other less usual onkos and téuevos, words of the same import with temple, names of

which we sometimes meet with in Theodoret 99, Synesius), and churches.

Evagrius?. In Eusebius 3, domus synaceos sometimes occurs

96 Discourse of Churches. (p.328.) τελώς διελύθη τεμένη, ως μηδε των Why the Roman Church called such σχημάτων διαμείναι το είδος, μηδε των places by the name of tituli, &c. βωμών τον τύπον τους νυν ανθρώπους

Interpret. Voc. Eccles. p. 13. (ad emiotaobai ai dè toutwv ülal kabwcalc. Platinæ, Colon. Agripp. 1626, ovāngav tois twv yaptúpwv onkois. p. 79.) Quum primo infinita Genti- 1 Ep:58. (p. 203 a. 6.)..... "Atas lium multitudo, mox Urbs et Italia αυτοις ιερός αποκεκλείσθω, και σηκός omnis, fidem Christi suscepisset, kai nepißolos. non sufficientibus 15 titulis, nec his, 2 L. 1. C. 14. (v. 3. p. 268. 9.) 'Equi in eis residebant, presbyteris, Tó@ovv TÒ TÉLEVOS TOÚTOV d» toủ áyiov tum ob necessitatem, tum ad Urbis Deágaodai.-L. 6. c. 8. (ibid. p. 459. et Romane Ecclesiae ornamentum et 16.)... Πέπτωκε δε και τα πολλά της Imajestatem, et titulorum et presby- καλουμένης 'Οστρακίνης, και ο πρόσteroruin in unoquoque numerus θεν έφαμεν Ψηφίον, και σύμπαντα τα auctus est; factique sunt tituli 28; καλούμενα Βρυσία, και τα περί τον quem numerum numquam exces- πάνσεπτον σηκών της Θεοτόκου, μόsisse usque ad nostra tempora, satis νης της μέσης στοάς παραδόξως σω

θείσης. 98 Ep. 15. [al. 24.] ad Marcell. (t. 3 L. 7. c. 8. (Vid. 1. 8. c. 17. (v. I. 1. p. 127 e.) Ad martyrum limina p. 404. 30.)..

Και τους οίκους, εν pene invisa properabat.

οίς συνήγοντο, συνθώσιν ούτως, κ. τ.λ. 99 Serm. de Mart. [al. Græc. Af- -Vid. Gest. Purgat. Cæcil. ad calc. fect. Curat. disput. 8.] (t. 4. part. 2. Optat. (CC. t. 1. pp. 1443, seqq.) 923.) Τα μεν γαρ εκείνων ούτω παν- The citation is indistinct. Ed.]

97

constat.

5

in the Rescripts of heathen Emperors for Christian churches, which signifies no more but houses of assembly. Chrysostom styles them the seat of doctrine, from the exercise of preaching therein. And

many

such names are to be met with, which need no explication. But there are two names more used by Eusebius, which some learned men have greatly mistaken. In one place, speaking of the Therapeutæ in Egypt, whom he reckons the first Christians converted by St. Mark, and described covertly by Philo-Judæus, he gives their churches the name of σεμνεία and μοναστήρια, which some mistake for monasteries in the modern sense; whereas Eusebius 5 says expressly it was the name which Philo gave, not to their habitations but their churches. “For,' says he, · Philo having described their habitations, afterward speaks thus of their churches in that region: “In every one of their dwellings there is a sacred house or chapel, which they call their semneum and monasterium, where they perform the religious mysteries proper to their holy life. For hither they bring nothing ever of meat or drink or other bodily necessaries, but only their laws and inspired oracles of their prophets, their hymns, and whatever else tends to augment and consummate a life of piety and knowledge.” This is not the description of a monastery in the modern sense, but of a church; and so we see the name was first used, as it is at this day, among the Germans, who hence call some of their churches munsters, as we do minsters, which were heretofore collegiate churches and schools of learning, like St. Austin's monastery-church, of which I have given an account in the former Book 6. This is further confirmed, because Eusebius joins the name oeuvelov to monastery to explain it, which by the best critics, ancient and modern, -Hesychius, Budæus, Suicerus, and others,—is reckoned to signify a temple, or place of divine service. Eusebius has yet another name for a church, which I mention only because it is liable to the same mistake.

4 Hom. 2. in Joan. [I cannot find otn dè oikią čotiv oiknua iepov, ô the expression referred to according καλείται σεμνείον και μοναστήριον to the author's citation. But in the év uovoúpevou tà toù oeuvoù Biov opening of Hom. 3. al. 2. in Joan. μυστήρια τελούνται μηδέν είσκομίζον(t. 8. p. 16 b.) the term TÒ TVevpati- τες, μή ποτόν μη σιτίον, μήτε τι των κον τούτο θέατρον occurs. Conf. άλλων, όσα προς τας του σώματος Hom. 1. in init. Ed.]

χρείας αναγκαία, αλλά νόμους και λό5 L. 2. c. 17. (ν. Ι. p. 67. 33.) Είθ' για θεσπιθέντα διά προφητών, και εξης, τας οικήσεις αυτών οποίαί τινες ύμνους, και τ' άλλα, οίς επιστήμη και ήσαν διαγράψας, περί των κατά χώ- ευσέβεια συναύξονται και τελειούνται. ραν εκκλησιών ταύτα φησίν. Έν εκά- 6 B. 7. ch. 2. s. 8. v. 2. p. 341.

a

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