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tistery was a distinct place from the body of the church, and as in our reckoned among the exedra, or places adjoining to the church. churches. For which reason I omit speaking any further of it here, intending to do it more fully in the latter part of this Book, when I come to the exedræ of the church.

narthex:

sorts of

nartheces

in several

churches.

6. If it be inquired,-Why this part of the church was Why called called narthex? I answer, because the figure of it was sup- and of the posed to resemble a ferula, which was the Latin name for it, different that is, a rod or staff. For any oblong figure, or dromical, nar as the Greeks called it, was by them called a narthex, as Suicerus and Du Fresne have observed out of Theodosius Zygomala 83. And therefore this part of the church being a long but narrow part, across the front of the church, was termed narthex, or ferula, upon that account. And it is further to be observed, that some churches had three or four nartheces, but those without the walls; for the porticoes or cloisters of such churches as Sancta Sophia, which were built to the north, and west, and south of them, were called nartheces, as Du Fresne 84 shews out of Procopius and Paulus

83 Ap. Crucium, Turco-Græc. (p. 201.) Πᾶν δρομικὸν νάρθηξ καλεῖται.

84 In Paul. Silent. p. 534. (ubi supr. t. 13. p. 203. sub calc.col. dextr.) Quatuor porro in Ede Sophiana nartheces statuit Codinus: 'ATÒ TOû Bhμaτos μéxpι Tŵv тeσσáρwv vaρonκων. Ut et Anonymus: Καὶ τῶν τεσσάρων ναρθήκων κατεχρύσωσε τὰ ὄροφα ἐξ ὑελίνου χρυσοῦ λαμπρό

тата.

Sed jure addubitari potest, an hoc loco quatuor aliquas porticus exteriores innuerit, binas scilicet ad occidentem, et duas alias ad septemtrionem et meridiem. Quod quidem indicare videtur idem Anonymus, scribens Justinianum statuisse, (an vere, alii viderint,) ut, quisquis pro delictorum modo arceretur a sacris, in his quatuor narthecibus staret: quo quidem loco pivas nartheces vocat, incomperta mihi ratione, nisi forte quod ad templi fines haberentur porticus istæ exteriores. Certe tertium narthecem ejusdem Edis Sophianæ observare est in Sexta Synodo, Act. 18., ubi dikúμßaλov ev тρíтą váρoŋκɩ μεγάλης ἐκκλησίας statuitur, nullo

alio indicio: qui quidem tertius nar-
thex prima fortassis fuerit e tribus
porticibus, quas ad occidentem Ædis
Sophianæ stetisse scribit Paulus Si-
lentiarius, quæque écorаTOS vápenέ
videtur nuncupari apud eundem
Anonymum, p. 248. Nam auctor est
Goarus, etiamnum Græcis éέwvápon-
kas exteriores porticus, ut interiores
εσωνάρθηκας, dici. Porro δικύμβα
Xov, ni fallor, locus est constans
duabus trullis, kvμßadıkŵs, seu in
modum cymbali, quemadmodum
fuit major ædis trulla, exstructis.
Ita τρικύμβαλον τοῦ τζυκανιστηρίου
memorat alicubi Codinus in Orig.
Jure igitur Allatius hæc verba de
narthece infert: Narthex vero extra
ecclesiam forte an antiquis tempori-
bus fuerit, non disputo. Nam ut
nartheces, quod ex prædictis satis
patet, olim extra ecclesiam, seu po-
tius extra ecclesiæ septa, fuere, etsi
forte, ut pronai, sacri haberentur;
ita vicissim pro certo haberi debet,
posterioribus sæculis narthecem, eam
ædis sacræ partem, quam hodie na-
vim vocamus, appellatum, ut patet
ex Euchologio et cæteris Græcorum

Of the beautiful

so called.

Silentiarius, and the sixth General Council, because these were long narrow buildings, in figure or shape of a narthex. And such churches, he thinks, had no other narthex within the walls; but these porticoes were the proper station of the penitents, and such others as were not allowed to come within the nave of the church. But in such churches as had no porticoes adjoining to them, the narthex was the lower part of the church within the walls, which was made to answer the use of porticoes in other churches. And this seems to be the true state of the matter, and the only way to reconcile the different accounts that are given by authors of the ancient narthex of the church.

CHAP. V.

Of the vaòs, or nave of the church, and its parts and uses.

1. AFTER the narthex, followed that part which was proand royal perly called vaòs, the temple, and navis, the nave or body gates. Why of the church. This was separated from the narthex by certain rails of wood, as all other places in the church were commonly distinguished. The entrance into it from the narther was by the gates, which the modern Rituals and Greek writers call πύλαι ὡραῖαι, and βασιλικαί, the beautiful and royal gates; which seemed to be so named in allusion to the name basilica, as denoting the royal palace of God, his house and temple. Though perhaps another reason might be assigned for it among the modern Greeks, who might call it the royal gate, because here their kings were used to lay down their crowns, before they proceeded further into the church: which is observed by Leo Grammaticus, in the Life of Michael $3, the Emperor, where he notes it as an insolent and indecent thing in him, that when he came to the royal gates he did not lay aside his crown, as kings were used to do.' Some festivals among them were, for a like reason, called crown-days,

ritualibus libris, et aliquot inferioris
ætatis scriptoribus, quos laudat idem
Allatius in Dissertat. de Recentio-
rum Græcoruin Templis, p. 110. et
sequentibus.

35 Chronograph. (p. 466 b. 11.)

.....

Μέχρι δὲ τῶν βασιλικῶν πυλῶν ἐλθὼν ὁ βασιλεὶς οὐκ ἀπέθετο τὸ στέφος, καθὼς ἔθος ἐστὶ τοῖς βασιλεῦσι ἀλλὰ μετ ̓ αὐτοῦ εἰσῆλθεν μέχρι τῶν ἁγίων θυρῶν, κ. τ. λ.

éоρтai 0εоσтETтai, dies coronati, because the Emperors were used to go in their regalia to the great church of Sancta Sophia, on those days, which were twelve particular days in a year. So that, as these days, so those gates of the temple might have their denomination from some particular ceremony used by the imperial powers at their entrance by them. But I take the other reason to be more probable, and had scarce mentioned this, had it not been to explain a custom or two, which fall in our way upon the mention of it.

the church

some the

oratory of

2. This part of the church seems to have been usually The nave of a square building, in the middle, between the sanctuary and usually a the narthex; as we find it described in a letter of Theodosius square building, and Valentinian, at the end of the Council of Ephesus $6, and called by inserted also in the Theodosian Code 87, where, speaking of churches as places of refuge, they divide them into these three laymen. parts-1st, The Ovotaorpiov, the altar-part or sanctuary; 2d, The EvкTýptov тоû λanû TEтpάywvov, the four-squared oratory of the people; and, 3d, The remaining part from that to the outer doors of the church. Now as this last is a plain description of the narthex forementioned, though it be not called by that name, so is the second a description of the nave or middle of the church, called the people's oratory, because the people chiefly filled this place, having their different stations or apartments in it, according to the difference of age, or sex, or quality, or state and condition; which distinctions were anciently observed in some, though, perhaps, not in all churches.

lowest part of which

3. For here, first of all, at the very entrance of the royal In the gates, in the lowest station of this part, behind the ambo, stood the лолíлTоντes, or substrati, the penitents of the third order, so called from the custom of prostrating themselves before the bishop or priest, as soon as the sermon was ended, to receive his benediction, with imposition of hands, and be

86 Ad calc. C. Ephes. (t. 3. p. 1235 c.) Επὶ γὰρ τῶν ἡμετέρων και ρῶν οὐ μόνον τὰ θεῖα θυσιαστήρια, καὶ τὸ εὐκτήριον τοῦ λαοῦ τὸ τετράγωνον τοίχων περιβολῇ τειχιζόμενον, eis do páλecav σuvTеλEL TOV πроσ¶еνγόντων θεσπίζομεν, ἀλλ ̓ εἴ Ti Kai περαίτερον τούτου τυγχάνει, ἄχρι τῶν

BINGHAM, VOL. III.

τελευταίων θυρῶν τῆς ἐκκλησίας, ὧν
τοῖς εὔξασθαι προῃρημένοις πρῶτον
ἐπιβαίνειν συμβαίνει, ἐλέου βωμὸν τοῖς
προσφεύγουσιν εἶναι προστάττομεν.

87 L. 9. tit. 45. De his qui ad
Ecclesiam confugiunt, leg. 4. p. 366.
(t. 3. p. 363.) Pateant summi Dei
templa petentibus, &c.

F

stood the
substrati,
or penitents
of the third

order.

And the ambo, or reading

desk.

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made partakers of those prayers, which the congregation particularly offered to God for them; after which, they were obliged immediately to depart, before the communion-service. This sort of penitents are mentioned in the Council of Nice 88, though no particular place is assigned them; but we may collect from Tertullian and Sozomen, that their station was in this part of the church. For Tertullian 89, speaking of the Roman discipline, says, Pope Zephyrin brought penitents into the church, in sackcloth and ashes, and prostrated them in the midst before the widows and presbyters, to implore their commiseration and excite their tears.' This must be a different station of penitents from those called mourners, for their station, as we have seen before, was without the church-doors, but these before the widows and presbyters, in the middle of the church. And so Sozomen 90 plainly represents it, when he says, the bishop fell prostrate with them, and all the congregation wept with tears, and then the bishop rising up, made the proper prayers for them and dismissed. them. These were exercises to be performed in the church, and not at the church-door; and therefore this order of penitents are not without reason placed by all expositors within the royal gates, behind the ambo of the church.

4. The ambo itself was what we now call the reading-desk, a place made on purpose for the readers and singers, and such of the clergy as ministered in the first service, called missa catechumenorum. It had the name of ambo, not, as Walafridus Strabo imagines, ab ambiendo, because it surrounded them that were in it; but from avaßaivew, because it was a place of eminency, to which they went up by degrees or steps: for the original name is außov; which, as Valesius and Habertus have

88 C. 11. (t. 2. p. 33 d.) "Oσo ovv γνησίως μεταμέλονται, τρία ἔτη ἐν ἀκροωμένοις ποιήσουσιν οἱ πιστοὶ, καὶ ἑπτὰ ἔτη ὑποπεσοῦνται.

89 De Pudicit. c. 13. (p. 564 c.)... Penitentiam machi ad exorandam fraternitatem in ecclesiam inducens, conciliciatum et concineratum cum dedecore et horrore compositum prosternis in medium ante viduas, ante presbyteros, omnium lachrymas suadentem, [al. lacinias invadentem,] &c.

90 L. 7. c. 16. (v. 2. p. 300. 1.) Ενθάδε γὰρ ἔκδηλός ἐστιν ὁ τόπος τῶν ἐν μετανοίᾳ ὄντων· ἑστᾶσι δὲ κατηφεῖς, καὶ οἱονεὶ πενθοῦντες· ἤδη δὲ πληρωθείσης τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ λειτουργίας, μὴ μετασχόντες ὧν μύσταις θέμις, σὺν οἰμωγῇ καὶ ὀδυρμῷ πρηνεῖς ἐπὶ γῆς ῥίπτουσι σφᾶς· ἀντιπρόσωπος δὲ δεδακρυμένος ὁ ἐπίσκοπος προσδραμὼν ὁμοίως ἐπὶ τοῦ ἐδάφους πίπτει· σὺν ὀλολυγῇ καὶ τὸ πᾶν τῆς ἐκκλησίας πλños dakpúwv éμñiñλâtai.

rightly observed in old Greek writers, Eschylus and Eustathius, signifies the ascent or height of a mountain 90, and thence it comes to signify this place of eminency in the church. Sozomen gives it the name of ẞîμa, upon the same account; but to distinguish it from the other bema, which was the sanctuary of the altar, he calls it Bua yvwor@v, the readers' bema, as the other was more properly the bishop's and presbyters'. In St. Cyprian it is called pulpitum and tribunal ecclesiæ, and the use of it is also explained by him to be a reading-desk for here it was the readers stood to read the Gospels and Epistles, as we learn from the account which he gives of Celerinus and Aurelius 92, two famous confessors, whom he ordained readers; 'that they, who had made confession of Christ's Gospel from the rack, might read it also from the pulpit or tri

90 [Suicer, Thes. Eccles. voce "Auβων, (t. I. p. 217.) finds fault with Strabo (de Reb. Eccles. c. 6.) for deriving the term from ambiendo; and adds, Originis Græcæ est, unde etiam Latini sumpserunt. Est autem außov quicquid eminet et protuberat forma rotunda, vel κωνοειδεῖ, ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀμβαίνειν, sive ἀναβαίνειν. Colligitur ex Hesychio, qui habet : "Aμßwves, ai πроσavaẞáσeis Tŵv opŵv; acclivitates et fastigia montium, ex Eschylo. Consentit Etymologus Magnus [vid. Ed. Gaisford. 1848. 81. 8.] .... Kvρίως τὸ χεῖλος τῆς λοπάδος, παρὰ τὸ ἐν ἀναβάσει εἶναι,-Proprie est ora patinæ quod sit in summitate. It is said to occur in that sense, the edge of a dish, in Ælius Dionysius; and in another place, in Critias, to mean the raised bottom of a cup, as in our common wine bottles. See also Hesychii Lexicon, (Lugd. Batav. 1746. t. 1. col. 268.) who refers to the use of the word in the Sisyphus, one of the lost plays of Eschylus. See Dindorf's Tragedies and Fragments of Æschylus and Sophocles, Paris. 1842. p. 238. nn. 240, 241. The following passage also in Stephanus's Thesaurus (Lond. 1822. v. 4. col. 2532.) from Schaefer's MSS. is worthy of notice. Pro pulpito affertur e Concil. Laodic. c. 15. (Labb. t. I. p. 1500 a.) forsan quia pulpitum ali

quid similitudinis habet cum cacumine et vertice montis; nam et ipsum проσavaßaiveɩ et éπaviotarai atque ὑπερέχει, veluti οἱ τῶν ὀρῶν λόφοι. The term pulpitum is the rendering of äμßwv in the Laodicean_canon according to the versions of Dionysius Exiguus and Isidore Mercator, and suggestum in the translation of Labbe and Cossart; which term is also used by Habertus, Archierat. ad Part. 6. Liturg. &c. observ. 1. (57.) De Ambone, &c. referring also to Eschylus as above and to Eustathius ad Odyss. I. [4oo. et Odyss. Κ. 281.] "Ακριες λόφοι ὄρων οἱ καὶ ἄμBoves.-See also Valesius in Socrat. 1.6. c. 5. (v. 2. p. 314. n. a.) Ambon est vox Græcæ originis, significans quicquid eminet, &c. See above, as cited from Suicer. ED.]

91 L. 8. c. 5. (ibid. p. 332. 32.) Méσον ἑαυτὸν πᾶσι παρέχων, ἐπὶ τοῦ βήματος τῶν ἀναγνωστῶν καθεζόμενος edidaσkev.-L. 9. c. 2. (ibid. p. 367. 36.) Kaì avaλoyiČóμevos ék tŷs Téλas παρακειμένης λεωφόρου, εἰκάζω αὐτὴν κεῖσθαι περὶ τὸν ἄμβωνα· βῆμα δὲ TOUTO Tŵv ȧvayvwσтwv.

92 Ep. 33. [al. 38.] (p. 222.) Ad pulpitum post catastam venire, &c.

Ep. 34. [al. 39.] (p. 224.) Quid aliud quam super pulpitum, id est, tribunal ecclesiæ, oportebat imponi, &c.

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