bunal of the church.' Here it was also that the singers had their station, as is evident from that canon of the Council of Laodicea 93, which forbids all others to sing in the church, beside the canonical singers, who went up into the ambo, and sung by book. Here also the diptychs, or books of commemoration, were read; as appears from a noted passage in the Council of Constantinople under Mennas 94, where the people cry out, Τὰ δίπτυχα τῷ ἄμβωνι, Let the diptychs be laid upon the reading-desk. Bona 95 thinks the bishop and presbyters here also made their sermons to the people: for which he cites Prudentius 96 and Sidonius Apollinaris 97, from whose words he further concludes that the ambo was sometimes called ara, or altar. But this observation seems to be founded on a mistake; for the bishops anciently did not use to preach from the ambo, but more commonly from the rising steps of the altar, as Valesius 98 shews that the custom continued in France to the time of King Childebert. And therefore both Socrates 99 and Sozomen1 seem to speak of Chrysostom's preaching in the ambo as an unusual thing; but he did it for conveniency, Socrates says, 'that he might be the better heard by the people.' We cannot hence therefore conclude, that the ambo was the ordinary place of preaching, but rather the altar; and that when we read of bishops preaching from the ascent of the ara, it is ra 93 C.15. (t.1. p. 1500 a.) Hepì тoù, μὴ δεῖν πλέον τῶν κανονικῶν ψαλτῶν, τῶν ἐπὶ τὸν ἄμβωνα ἀναβαινόντων, καὶ ἀπὸ διφθέρας ψαλλόντων, ἑτέρους τινὰς ψάλλειν ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ. 94 Al. C. Constant. 10. act. 5. (t. 5. p. 184 a.) 95 Rer. Liturg. l. 2 c.6. n. 3. (p. 287.) Solebant antiquitus tam Epistolæ quam Evangelium legi in ambone seu pulpito, ex quo etiam episcopus conciones habebat. 96 Peristeph. Hymn. 11. vv. 225, 226. de Hippol. (v. 1. p. 402.) Fronte sub adversa gradibus sublime tribunal Tollitur, antistes prædicat unde Deum. 97 Carm. 16. ad Faust. (p. 161. 125.) Seu te conspicuis gradibus venerabilis aræ Concionaturum plebs sedula circumsistit. 98 In Socrat. 1. 6. c. 5. (v. 2. p. 314. n. 1.) Ex hoc loco apparet, episcopos olim solitos non esse ex ambone seu pulpito concionem ad populum habere. Id enim tanquam singulare quidpiam in Chrysostomo notat Socrates, quod verba facturus conscendere in ambonem consuevisset, ut a populo facilius exaudiretur. Ut plurimum autem episcopi in gradibus altaris concionabantur; id docet Childeberti regis Constitutio, quam Sirmondus retulit in tomo primo Conciliorum Galliæ, pagina 300, sed mutilam. 99 L. 6. c. 5. (t. 2. p. 314. 24.) 'O οὖν ἐπίσκοπος, τοῦ Εὐτροπίου ὑπὸ τὸ θυσιαστήριον κειμένου, καὶ ἐκπεπληγότος ὑπὸ τοῦ φόβου, καθεσθεὶς ἐπὶ τοῦ ἄμβωνος, ὅθεν εἰώθει καὶ πρότε ρον ὁμιλεῖν χάριν τοῦ ἐξακούεσθαι, K. T. X. 1 L. 8. c. 5. See n. 91, preceding. ther to be understood of the altar than the ambo. Yet, in Afric, St. Austin seems to have made his discourses to the people from the ambo, which he sometimes calls exedra2, and sometimes apsis3; which I the rather note, because these words are of various signification among the Ancients, sometimes denoting the ambo, perhaps from its orbicular form, and at other times the cross-wings and outer buildings of the church. Some take the apsis for the ambo, in that canon of the third Council of Carthage 4, which says, Notorious and scandalous criminals shall do penance before the apsis.' But Du Fresne, as I have noted before, takes it in another sense, for the porch of the church, and it is not always easy to determine exactly the meaning of it. this the fourth called con had their places. 5. But to proceed. In this part of the church, all the And above faithful, or such as were in the communion of the Church, had communitheir place assigned them; and among them the fourth order cants and of penitents, whom they called consistentes, because they were order of allowed to stay, and hear the prayers of the Church, after the penitents, catechumens and other penitents were dismissed; but yet they sistentes, might not make their oblation, or participate of the sacrifice of the altar. In which respect they are said to stand and communicate with the rest of the people, but in prayers only, without the oblation, as the Canons of Nice and St. Basil 7 word it. Whether they were separate from other communicants in a distinct place by themselves, I find not in any other author save only Eligius Noviomensis, who lived about the year 640. He, in one of his Homilies to the Penitents 8, 2 De Civitat. Dei. 1. 22. c. 8. (t. 7. p. 672 c.)... In gradibus exedræ, in qua de superiore loquebar loco, feci stare ambos fratres, cum eorum legeretur libellus. 3 Ep. 225. [al. 126.] (t. 2. p. 367 g.) . . . . . Qui ad nos in absidem honoratiores et graviores ascenderant, &c.—Ep. 203. [al. 23. t. 2. p. 32 a.) In futuro Christi judicio, nec absida [al. apsides] gradatæ, nec cathedræ velatæ, &c.-[The Latin fathers said absis and absida. See Suicer, as cited before, ch. 4. s. I. p. 6o. at the end of n. 72. ED.] 4 C. 32. See before, ch. 4. s. 1. p. 60. n. 73. ... 5 See before, ibid. n. 72. 6 C. Nicæn. c. 11. (t. 2. p. 33 d.) 8 Hom. 8. ap. Bibl. Patr. t. 2. p. The places of men and women tells them they were placed on the left side of the church, because the Lord at the day of judgment would place the sheep, that is, the righteous, on his right hand, and the goats, that is, sinners, on his left.' But because this is a later writer, and learned men 9 are also doubtful about his Homilies, whether they be genuine or not, we can determine nothing from this passage concerning the original custom of the Church. 6. Only this is certain from good authors, that anciently men and women had their different places in this part of the usually se church. The author of the Constitutions 10 speaks of it as the parate from each other. custom of the Church in his time, when he gives directions about it, that women should sit in a separate place by themselves; and accordingly makes it one part of the office of deaconesses to attend the women's gate in the church11; 'Let the doorkeepers stand at the gate of the men, and the deaconesses at the gate of the women.' St. Cyril 12 also takes notice of this distinction as customary in his own church at Jerusalem, saying, Let a separation be made, that men be with men, and women with women, in the church.' The like intimation is given us by St. Austin 13, that each sex had their distinct places in the church; and he particularly mentions the women's part, as distinct also in the baptistery 14 of the church. Pauli 99. (Bibl. Max. t. 12. p. 309 h. 17.) ... 9 Albertin. de Eucharist. 1. 3. p. 10 L. 2. c. 57. (Cotel. v. I. ται καθεζέσθωσαν. 11 Ibid. (p. 263.) Στηκέτωσαν δὲ οἱ μὲν πυλωροὶ εἰς τὰς εἰσόδους τῶν ἀνδρῶν, φυλάσσοντες αὐτὰς, αἱ δὲ διάκονοι εἰς τὰς τῶν γυναικών, κ. τ. λ. L. 8. c. 20. (p. 408.) O kai Ev Tŷ σκηνῇ τοῦ μαρτυρίου καὶ ἐν τῷ ναῷ προχειρισάμενος τὰς φρουροὺς ἁγίων σου πυλῶν, κ. τ. λ.—Conf. c. 28. (p. 411.) Διακόνισσα οὐκ εὐλογεῖ· ἀλλ ̓ οὐδέ τι, ὧν ποιοῦσιν οἱ πρεσβύτεροι ἢ οἱ διάκονοι, ἐπιτελεῖ, ἀλλ ̓ ἢ τοῦ puλáTTEL Tàs Oúpas, K. T. λ. 12 Præf. in Catech. n. 8. [al. 14.] (p. to b.) ... Διεστάλθω τὰ πράγ ματα, ἄνδρες μετὰ ἀνδρῶν, καὶ γυναῖκες μετὰ γυναικῶν. 13 De Civitat. Dei. 1. 2. c. 28. (t. 7. p. 57 f.) Quia populi confluunt ad ecclesias casta celebritate, honesta utriusque sexus discretione, &c. 14 Ibid. 1. 22. c. 8. (t. 7. p. 665 f.) Admonetur in somnis [Innocentia], appropinquante Pascha, ut in parte nus takes notice of the same, in the Life of St. Ambrose 15, telling us, how St. Ambrose was once furiously assaulted in a church by an Arian woman, who, getting up into the tribunal to him, would needs have haled him by his garments to the women's part, that they might have beat him and made him fly the church.' This distinction was so generally observed in the time of Constantine, that Socrates 16 says his mother Helena always submitted to the discipline of the Church in this respect, praying with the women in the women's part. And it was usually made by rails, or wooden walls, as St. Chrysostom terms them, who has these remarkable words concerning the original of this custom 17; Men ought to be separated from women,' says he, by an inward wall, (meaning that of the heart,) but because they would not, our forefathers separated them by these wooden walls. For I have heard from our seniors, that it was not so from the beginning; for in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female. Do we not read, that men and women prayed together in their upper room?' Yet Eusebius 18 makes this distinction as ancient as Philo Judæus and St. Mark; and many learned men think it fœminarum observanti ad baptisterium, quæcunque illi baptizata primitus occurrisset, signaret ei locum signo Christi. [al. eundem locum signo Christi signaret.] 15 P. 3. (praefix. append. t. 2. p. 4 a. n. 11.) Sirmium vero cum ad ordinandum episcopum Anemium perrexisset, ibique Justinæ tunc temporis reginæ potentia et multitudine coadunata de ecclesia pelleretur, ut non ab ipso, sed ab hæreticis Arianis episcopus in eadem ecclesia ordinaretur, essetque constitutus in tribunali, nihil curans eorum, quæ a muliere excitabantur, una de virginibus Arianorum impudentior cæteris, tribunal conscendens, apprehenso vestimento sacerdotis, cum illum attrahere vellet ad partem mulierum, ut ab ipsis casus de ecclesia pelleretur, ait ei: Etsi ego indignus, &c. 16 L. 1. c. 17. (v. 2. p. 47. 21.) Οὕτω δὲ εἶχεν εὐλαβῶς περὶ ταῦτα, ὡς καὶ συνεύχεσθαι ἐν τῷ τῶν γυναι-· κῶν τάγματι. 6 17 Hom. 74. [al. 73.] in Matth. (t. 7. p. 712 b.) Εχρὴν μὲν οὖν ἔνδον ἔχειν τὸ τεῖχος τὸ διεῖργον ὑμᾶς τῶν γυναικῶν. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ οὐ βούλεσθε, ἀναγκαῖον ἐνόμισαν εἶναι οἱ πατέρες, κἂν ταῖς σανίσιν ὑμᾶς ταύταις διατειχίσαι· ὡς ἔγωγε ἀκούω τῶν πρεσβυτέρων, ὅτι τὸ παλαιὸν οὐδὲ ταῦτα ἦν τὰ τείχεια· ἐν γὰρ Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ οὐκ ἔνι ἄρσεν ἢ θῆλυ· καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ̓Αποστόλων δὲ ὁμοῦ καὶ ἄνδρες καὶ γυναῖκες ἦσαν· καὶ γὰρ οἱ ἄνδρες, ἄνδρες ἦσαν· καὶ αἱ γυναῖκες, γυναῖκες. Νῦν δὲ πᾶν τοὐναντίον· αἱ μὲν γυναῖκες εἰς τὰ τῶν ἑταιρίδων ἑαυτὰς ἐξώθησαν ἤθη· οἱ δὲ ἄνδρες ἵππων μαινομένων οὐδὲν ἄμεινον διάκεινται. Οὐκ ἠκούσατε, ὅτι ἦσαν συνηγμένοι ἄνδρες καὶ γυναῖκες ἐν τῷ ὑπερώῳ; καὶ τῶν οὐρανῶν ἐκεῖνος ὁ σύλλογος ἄξιος ἦν. 18 L. 2. c. 17. (v. 1. p. 69. 27.) Tí δεῖ τούτοις ἐπιλέγειν τὰς ἐπὶ ταὐτὸν συνόδους, καὶ τὰς ἰδίᾳ μὲν ἀνδρῶν, ἰδίᾳ δὲ γυναικῶν ἐν ταὐτῷ διατριβὰς, καὶ τὰς ἐξ ἔθους εἰσέτι καὶ νῦν πρὸς ἡμῶν ἐπιτελουμένας ἀσκήσεις. came from the Jewish Church into the Christian, not long after the days of the Apostles. Some are a little too curious in fixing this women's part always precisely to the north or right side of the church. For though this might be the custom of the Western Churches in later ages, when Amalarius Fortunatus, and Radulphus Tungrensis, and the authors of the Micrologus and Ordo Romanus lived, (which writers are cited by Durantus 19 for it,) yet it appears to have been otherwise anciently in many of the Greek churches. Nor does that funeral inscription, which some produce out of the Roma Subterranea 20, prove the contrary, which speaks of persons lying interred sinistra parte virorum, on the south or left side of the church, where the men sat. For not to inquire into the antiquity of that inscription, it proves no more but that the men sat on the left side in the Roman churches; which does not hinder the women from having their apartment on that side too, if the same custom was at Rome which was at Constantinople and other Greek churches, which was for the men to sit below, and the women in porticoes or galleries above them, on the left side of the church, if not on the right also. For thus Gregory Nazianzen 21 describes his temple at Anastasia, making the men to stand by the rails of the chancel and the virgins and matrons to be hearkening from their upper galleries above the other. And so it was in the church of Sancta Sophia, and many other churches. 19 De Ritibus, &c. 1. 1. c. 18. n. 3. (p. 44.) Separantur viri et fœminæ in ecclesia, ait Amalar. Fortunat., non solum ab osculo carnali, sed etiam situ locali: et eod. libr. c. 2., Masculi stant in australi parte, et fœminæ in boreali, ut ostendatur per fortiorem sexum firmiores sanctos constitui, in majoribus tentationibus æstus hujus mundi. Ordo Romanus de Offic. Missæ. Ipse vero diaconus stat versus meridiem, ad quam partem viri solent confuere. Plenius Micrologus de Eccles. Observat. c. 9. et Radulph. Tungrens. de Canon. Observant. proposit. 23. 20 Arringhius, 1. 2. c. 10. n. 23. (t. I. p. 204.) AD SANCTVM PETRVM APOSTOLVM ANTE REGIA IN PORTICV COLVMNA SECVNDA |