2. Of ministers of confirmation and the attending rites...................................................... 410 3. Of the administration of the rite of confirmation.......... 410 CHAPTER XXI. OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 1. Of the names or appellations of this sacrament.......... 412 3. Of the subjects of penance, or the offences for which it was imposed... 461 4. Of the different classes of penitents........ 462 5. Of the duties of penitents, and the discipline imposed upon them; or, the different kinds or degrees of penance..... 464 6. Of the readmission of penitents into the church...... 465 7. Of private penance........................ 8. Of absolution..... 9. Of the discipline of the clergy and the punishment of delinquents...... 472 468 471 CHAPTER XXIII. OF COUNCILS. 1. Of the origin of councils....... 2. Of the extent of their jurisdiction..... ............ 475 479 5. Remarks upon the marriage rites and ceremonies of the ancient church......... 493 495 495 496 ....... 500 CHAPTER XXV. OF FUNERAL RITES AND CEREMONIES. 1. Of the treatment of the dead............ 2. Of affection for the dying................................ 3. Of funeral solemnities...... 4. Of mourners.............................................. 5. Of the prayers for the dead........... 6. Of the origin of the doctrine of purgatory......... CHAPTER XXVI. 504 507 508 € 510 ...... 513 520 520 523 4. Of the corrupt origin and influence of the festivals......... 542 5. Of the chronology of the calendar................ 6. Of specific festivals and fasts of the church............................. 543 545 CHAPTER XXVII. OF THE ARMENIAN CHURCH. 1. Of the origin and progress of the Armenian church.. doctrine of the modern Catholic church was the result of traditional errors and corruptions which had crept into that communion by degrees, until it had grossly departed from the primitive standard, in faith and practice. With this intent they treated largely of rites and ceremonies, the constitution and government of the church, devoting two chapters in each century to these topics. In opposition to the Magdeburg Centuriators, thirty years later, Cæsar Baronius, subsequently Cardinal at Rome, published his Ecclesiastical Annals, in twelve folio volumes, exhibiting the Romish doctrine on the same subjects. So largely did Baronius treat of the rites and government of the church, that Schulting, one of his epitomists, describes his work as containing a thesaurus of sacred antiquities. The example of these illustrious predecessors was followed by subsequent historians and polemics, through the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries. Controverted topics controlled both their investigations and their narrations of the results of them. The whole history of the church, and especially that of the usages and rites of the church, was examined and re-examined, collated and discussed, to make it speak in favour of the Protestant or Catholic confession, according to the faith of the writers respectively. For a century and a half the parties continually pitched over against each other, like two hostile encampments, intrenched, on the one hand, behind the bulwark of the Magdeburg Centuries; on the other, behind the Annals of Baronius. Both claimed to be orthodox, both defended themselves on the authority of history, both repaired to it as their common armory from which to draw the weapons of their warfare in defence of their respective confessions. The period now under consideration is the age of those enormous folios which crowd the shelves of our public libraries, and in the production of which, Protestants of Germany, France, and England vied with the Benedictine monks in publishing, illustrating, and commenting upon the works of the fathers, and the synodical decrees and councils of the church. Among the former may be named Blondell, Salmasius, Usher, Cave, Dodwell, Arnold, Basnage, Mosheim, Lardner, Walch, Venema, Schröckh, &c. Of the latter were Tillemont, Mabillon, Du Pin, Natalis Alexander, Montfaucon, &c. But it was reserved for Mosheim, the renowned historian of Göttingen, to free Church History from the partialities and prejudices of partisan zeal, and elevate it to the rank of an independent science. Orthodox himself, and profoundly learned, he had the magnanimity, how rare! to be just to opposite systems of religious faith-to combine, and group, and throw upon the canvas the living forms of every faith, in their just proportion and natural lineaHe gathered his materials from the widest range of research, and yet presided as a master over the vast incongruous mass which he had collected. Like a skilful naturalist, with consummate ability he reduced the crude elements, conformable and nonconformable, into an organic, consistent whole. Thus from authentic records he wrote out the true history of the church, as the modern geologist from the book of Nature gives us the history of the earth, with the order and relative age of the several strata, from the earliest to the latest formation; with the causes that produced them, age after age. These powers of research, of combination, of generalization, coupled with religious earnestness, a keen insight into the characters of men, precision and fluency of style, have won for Mosheim the honoured title of the Father of modern Church History-the founder at once of the science of ecclesiastical history, and the art of composing it. One of Mosheim's most valuable works was his Historical Commentaries on the state of Christianity during the first 320 years from the Christian era; of which a translation has recently been published by Dr. Murdoch, translator of Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History. These Commentaries treat of the organization and government of the primitive church; the change from the popular to the prelatical form, and many of the topics which appropriately belong to the department of Christian Antiquities. In this way they had an important influence in enriching this department of ecclesiastical research. Previous to this period, several imperfect and partial treatises had been published on the continent, by both Protestant and Roman Catholic writers, who wrote, in the spirit of the age, for partisan purposes. These works, however, were limited in their plan, and greatly deficient in their execution, detailing chiefly the rites and usages of the Christian church. The most of these soon passed into deserved neglect, and now are found only in the accumulated rubbish of the public libraries of Europe. It is a curious fact that the English language has produced but two authors of any celebrity on this subject; though the controversy respecting the original organization of the church and the ritual of its worship has been longer continued, and perhaps more firmly contested, in this language than in any other. Dr. William Cave, in 1673, published his Primitive Christianity, or the Religion of the Ancient Church in the first Ages of the Gospel. This was soon followed by his Apostolical Antiquities, and History of the Primitive Fathers. The first mentioned was translated into the French language, and has passed through many editions, of which the latest was published in 1840, at Oxford. In this, as in all his works, it is his endeavour to exhibit the religious character of the primitive churches for the imitation of his readers. In doing this, he indirectly describes many of the rites and customs of the primitive Christians, but omits, as foreign to his purpose, much more which appropriately belongs to the department of antiquities. He writes with an indulgent charity, which forms a flattering estimate of primitive piety, and fails to notice any visible decline until the third or fourth century. The only great work which has been produced in our language on Christian Antiquities, is that of Joseph Bingham, published between 1708 and 1722. Opus viginti annorum, monumentum aere perennius of the vast research and tireless industry of the author. This work has been several times abridged, and the early abridgments have been translated into different languages. The original has gone through many editions; the latest in London, 1850. It is a standard work with the advocates of prelacy; and to all, a vast and valuable repository of argument and authorities on a wide range of topics connected with the usages and ecclesiastical polity of the ancient church. But with all its merits, it has great deficiencies. It lacks clearness, and it omits altogether several important topics of discussion. The author is not master of his materials. He has accumulated them by indefatigable research, until they have become a vast, unwieldy mass, thrown together without due discrimination or order. He seldom chronologizes his authorities; so that what one may have gathered from him as authentic and of high antiquity, for some ancient usage, may on examination prove to be only the spurious production of a later age, and accordingly of no value. Above all, the work lacks candour and impartiality. The author is a zealous advocate of high-church principles, which, to a great extent, he discovers in the primitive church, and which he asserts and defends from its history. Other foundation for the Church of Christ he finds not, either in its ancient history, or in the authority of the apostles. Of a form of government, earlier, more simple, and more popular than prelacy, he knows nothing. In the essential characteristics of the order and worship of the church he discovers no material change in the whole course of its history, save the more modern corruptions of Romanism, which he sometimes. detects and exposes with great earnestness. But the true theory |