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they might not be delivered up to the profanation of the up churches Arians. For when the younger Valentinian had, by the in- to be prostigation of his mother Justina, an Arian Empress, first pub- heretics. lished a law, not extant in the Theodosian Code 99, allowing the Arians liberty to hold assemblies; and afterwards sent his commands to Ambrose to deliver up to them one of the churches of Milan, he returned him this brave and generous answer 99;— If the Emperor asks of me any thing that is my own, my estate, my money, I shall freely recede from my right, though all that I have belongs to the poor. But those things, which are God's, are not subject to the Emperor's power. If my patrimony is demanded, you may invade it; if my body, I will offer it of my own accord. Will you carry me into prison, or unto death? I will voluntarily submit to it. I will not guard myself with an army of my people about me, I will not lay hold of the altar, and supplicate for life, but more joyfully be sacrificed myself for the altar.' He thought it absolutely unlawful for the Emperor to grant to the Arians, the enemies of Christ, those temples which had been dedicated to the service of Christ; and that it did much less become a bishop, the minister of Christ, to be accessary to so foul a dishonour to his Lord: and therefore he rather resolved to die at the altar, if it must be so, than give his consent to so great a profanation. By this one instance we may easily judge, what opinion the Ancients had of the sacredness of churches, as God's propriety; and that they would as soon deliver up their Bibles to be burnt by the Heathen, as their churches to

98 L. 16. tit. 1. de Fid. Cathol. leg. 4. (t. 6. p. 13.) Damus copiam colligendi his, qui secundum ea sentiunt, quæ temporibus divæ memoriæ Constantii, sacerdotibus convocatis ex omni orbe Romano, expositaque fide, ab his ipsis, qui dissentire noscuntur, Ariminensi Concilio Constantinopol. etiam confirmata, in æternum mansura decreta sunt. Conveniendi etiam, quibus jussimus, patescat arbitrium. Scituris his, qui sibi tantum existimant colligendi copiam contributam, quod, si turbulentum quippiam contra nostræ tranquillitatis præceptum faciendum esse temptaverint, ut seditionis auctores, pacisque turbatæ ecclesiæ, BINGHAM, VOL. III.

etiam majestatis, capite ac sanguine
sunt supplicia luituri. Manente ni-
hilo minus eos supplicio, qui contra
hanc dispositionem nostram obrep-
tive aut clanculo supplicare tempta-
verint.

99 Ep. 33. [al. 20.] ad Marcellin.
de Tradendis Basilicis. (t. 2. p. 854
b. n. 8.) Si a me peteret, quod meum
esset, id est, fundum meum, argen-
tum meum, jus quidvis hujusmodi
meum me non refragaturum, quan-
quam omnia, quæ mea [al. mei]
sunt, essent pauperum.
Verum ea,
quæ divina, imperatoriæ potestati
non esse subjecta. Si patrimonium,
&c. See afterwards, p. 204. n. 38.

went into

church.

be profaned by heretical assemblies, where impiety would be
taught for true religion, and blasphemy offered to God instead
of adoration.

The cere- 5. As to the ceremonies of respect used by them when they
mony of
washing
entered into the church, we find one of pretty general obser-
their hands, vation, which was the custom of washing their hands and their
when they
face, in token of innocency and purity, when they went to
worship God at the holy altar. Which seems to be taken
from that of the Psalmist, [26, 6,] "I will wash my hands
in innocency, and so will I compass thine altar." This custom
is frequently mentioned by Chrysostom, Eusebius, Tertullian,
Synesius, Paulinus, and others, whose testimonies have been
already alleged in the former part of this Book', where I had
also occasion to shew, that fountains and cisterns of water were
commonly set in the atrium, or court before the church, for
this very purpose.

The ceremony of

this no general

custom.

6. Another ceremony used by some few, for it was no putting off general custom, was putting off their shoes, when they went their shoes into the house of God. Cassian observes of the Egyptian used by some; but monks, that they always wore sandals instead of shoes, and those they also put off whenever they went to celebrate or receive the holy mysteries 2, thinking themselves obliged to do so, by interpreting literally that intimation of reverence, which was given to Moses and Joshua, " Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." But others did not understand this as an absolute command, obliging all men precisely to use this ceremony of respect, but only where the custom of any nation had made it an indication of reverence, as it was among the eastern nations in the time of Moses and Joshua. Whence we do not find it mentioned as any general custom prevailing among the primitive Christians: unless perhaps it may be thought to have been so in the Ethiopian or Abyssinian Churches; because, as Mr. Mede 3

1 Ch. 3. s. 6. p. 56.

2 Instit. 1. 1. c. 1o. (p. 12.) Nequaquam tamen eas [caligas] pedibus inhærere permittunt, cum accedunt ad celebranda vel percipienda sacrosancta mysteria, illud æstimantes etiam secundum literam custodiri debere, quod dicitur ad Moysen vel

3

ad Jesum, filium Nave: Solve cor-
rigiam calceamenti tui, locus enim, in
quo stas, terra sancta est.

3 Discourse on Eccles. 5, 1. (p.
348.) Prohibitum est apud nos ne
aut gentes aut canes aut alia hujus-
modi animalia in templa nostra in-
trent. Ita non datur potestas nobis

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has observed out of Zaga Zabo's account of them in Damianus à Goes, the same custom continues still among them at this day. Which whether it be derived from ancient tradition of their churches, or be a practice lately taken up among them, is not now very easy to be determined.

the ancients

used the

their en

the church.

7. And I think the same resolution must be given to the Whether question about bowing toward the altar at their first entrance theancer into churches. Mr. Mede thinks there is no plain demonstra- ceremony of bowing tion of it in the ancient writers, but some probability of such a toward the custom derived from the Jews. For he says 4, 6 What reveren- altar at tial guise, ceremony, or worship they used at their ingress into trance into God's house in the ages next to the Apostles, and some I believe they did, is wholly buried in silence and oblivion. The Jews before them, from whom the Christian religion sprang, used to bow themselves down towards the mercy-seat. The Christians after them, in the Greek and Oriental Churches, have, time out of mind, and without any known beginning thereof, used to bow in like manner, with their posture toward the altar, or holy table, saying that of the publican in the Gospel, God be merciful to me a sinner! as appears by the Liturgies of St. Chrysostom and St. Basil, and as they are still known to do at this day. Which custom of theirs, not being found to have been ordained or established by any decree or canon of any Council, and being so agreeable to the use of God's people of the Old Testament, may therefore seem to have been derived to them from very remote and ancient tradition. Nothing, therefore, can be known of the use of those first ages of the Church, further than it shall seem probable

adeundi templum, nisi nudis pedibus: neque licet nobis in ipso templo ridere, ambulare, aut de rebus profanis loqui, &c. [Conf. Gedde's Ch. Hist. (p. 91.) It is likewise forbidden among us to suffer heathens, or dogs, or any other such creatures, to come within our churches; neither is it lawful for us to go into them otherwise than barefoot; or to laugh, walk, or spit, or speak of secular things, in them. For the churches of Ethiopia are not like the land wherein the people of Israel did eat the paschal lamb, as they were going out of Egypt, where

God commanded them to eat with
their shoes on, and with their loins
girt, because of the pollution of the
land. But they are like the Mount
Sinai, where the Lord spoke to Mo-
ses, saying, "Moses, Moses, put off
thy shoes, for the ground whereon
thou treadest is holy." Now this
Mount Sinai was the mother of our
churches, from which they derive
their original, as the Apostles did
from the Prophets, and the New
Testament from the Old. Grischov.]
4 Discourse on Ps. 132, 7. (p.
397.)

Kings laid aside their crowns and

went into

they might imitate the Jews.' This is spoken according to the wonted ingenuity of that learned person, who never advances a probability into a demonstration. I shall only add one thing out of Chrysostom, to make his opinion seem the more probable, which I note from the observation of Mr. Aubertin 5, who, among some other instances of reverence paid to God at the reading of the Gospel and reception of baptism, takes notice of this, that when the candidates of baptism came near the baptistery, which in Chrysostom's language is 'the bridechamber of the Spirit and the port of grace,' they were then as captives to fall down before their king, and all to cast themselves together upon their knees. Now if such an act of reverence was performed to God at their entrance into the baptistery, it is not improbable but that some such reverence might also be used at their entrance into the temple. But in matters which have not a clear light and proof, it is not prudent to be over-bold in our determinations.

8. It is more certain, that when kings and emperors went into the house of God, they paid this respect to the place, that guards, they left not only their arms and their guards, but also their when they crowns behind them; as thinking it indecent to appear in their the house regalia in the presence of the King of kings, or to seem to want arms and guards when they were under the peaceable roof of the Prince of peace. St. Chrysostom 7 often spends his eloquence upon this custom, and uses it as an argument to persuade all inferiors to a profound reverence, humility, and

of the King of kings.

5 De Eucharist. 1. 2. (p. 432. ad calc. et p. 433.) Idem enim Chrysostomus fieri debere observat in auditione Verbi Dei: Rex ipse, inquit, incurvat se propter Deum in Sanctis Evangeliis loquentem. Immo et in susceptione baptismi: Postquam ad thalamum Spiritus perveneritis, postquam ad porticum gratiæ accurreritis, ... et tanquam captivi procideritis coram Rege, omnes similiter in genua vos projicite.

6 In illud, Simile est Regnum Color. &c. (t. 8. int. Spuria, p. 104 e.) Επειδὰν δὲ καταλάβητε τὸν νυμ φῶνα τοῦ Πνεύματος, ἐπειδὰν εἰσδράς μητε τὴν παστάδα τῆς χάριτος, ἐπειδὰν πλησίον γένησθε τῆς φοβερᾶς

óμoû kai modeшns коλvμßηeрas, ws aixμáλwτоι проσtéσnte To Baσidei, ρίψατε πάντες ὁμοίως ἐπὶ γόνατα. [Grischovius gave up this passage as an erroneous citation: but I have found it, as above, in the Benedictine edition, under the title Oratio Catechetica in dicta Evangelii, &c., as also in Hom. 110, according to Savil, t. 5. p. 714. 30. ED.]

7 Orat. post Redit. ab Exil. t. 4. P. 971. (t. 3. p. 428 c.) Bariλevs εἰσέρχεται καὶ ῥίπτει ἀσπίδα καὶ διάδημα· σὺ εἰσῆλθες, καὶ ῥόπαλα ἦρπασας. Ἐκεῖνος καὶ τὰ συνθήματα τῆς βασιλείας ἔξω ἀφίησι· σὺ τὰ συνθή ματα τοῦ πολέμου ἐνταῦθα εἰσήνεγκας.

peace, when they came into the courts of God, because they had such examples of their kings before them. The Emperor Theodosius Junior also makes use of the same topic in one of his laws, which was made to regulate the abuses of some, who fled for sanctuary in the church with their arms about them; which profanation was not to be endured in any, since he himself always left his arms without doors, and first laid aside his diadem, the badge of imperial majesty, before he went into the church. Nay, Julian himself had regard to this custom, as Sozomen truly observes out of his Epistle to Arsacius, highpriest of Galatia, where one of the things he would have them imitate the Christians in, was this, that when they went into the temples of their gods, no man of arms should appear among them. And I have already noted out of Leo Grammaticus 10, how Michael, the Greek emperor, in latter ages was censured for presuming to pass the beautiful or royal gates crowned, at which gates it had ever been customary for his predecessors to lay aside their crowns, when they went into the church.

altar often

embraced in

token of

9. Another very usual piece of respect paid to the altar The doors and pillars and the church, was men's embracing, saluting, and kissing of the them, or any part of them, the doors, threshold, pillars, in church and token of their great love and affection for them. St. Ambrose kissed and takes notice of this in the account he gives of the great consternation they were in at Milan, when the Emperor's orders love and came for delivering up the churches to the Arians. The sol- respect to diers were the men who first brought the welcome news into the church, that the Emperor had revoked his fatal sentence; and they strove who should first get to the altar and kiss it 11, to signify, that all things now were in peace and safety. He alludes, no doubt, to the osculum pacis, the solemn kiss of peace, which the faithful anciently were used to give mutually

8 Edict. Theod. ad calc. C. Ephes. (CC. t. 3. p. 1238 d.) Καὶ γὰρ ἡμεῖς, οὓς ἀεὶ τῷ δικαίῳ τῆς ἡγεμονίας περ ριστοιχίζει τὰ ὅπλα, καὶ οὓς οὐ πρέπει δίχα δορυφόρων εἶναι, τῷ τοῦ Θεοῦ ναῷ προσιόντες, ἔξω τὰ ὅπλα καταλιμπάνομεν, ἀποτιθέμενοι τὸ διάinua.-Conf. ap. Cod. Theod. 1. 9. tit. 45. leg. 4.

9 L. 5. c. 16. (v. 2. p. 204. 37.)

"Οταν εἰς τὰ ἱερὰ φοιτῶσι τῶν θεῶν,
εἴσω τῶν προθύρων· ἡγείσθω δὲ μη-
δεὶς αὐτῶν εἴσω στρατιώτης ἑπέσθω
δὲ ὁ βουλόμενος.

10 See ch. 5. s. 1. p. 64. n. 85.

11 Ep. 33. [al. 20.] ad Marcellin. (t. 2. p. 859 c. n. 26.) Certatim hoc nunciare milites, irruentes in altaria, osculis significare pacis insigne.

them.

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