Constantinople,' under Mennas, Anno 536; where he is accused for diverting to his own use, among other treasures of the church, the silver and golden doves that hanged over the baptistery and the altar, as types, or symbols, of the Holy Ghost. And this, I think, is the first time we meet with any thing of this kind: for no credit is to be given to the author of the Life of St. Basil, under the name of Amphilocius, when he says, "St. Basil was used to reserve the eucharist in one of these silver doves," because he is known to be a spurious writer. However, when the thing came to be in use, the place over the altar where it hanged, was called Peristerion, from IIppa, the Greek name for a dove, as Du Fresne and others have observed. If it be inquired where the eucharist was reserved according to ancient custom?-I answer, in times of persecution the priests seem to have had it in their own private custody at home, as may be collected from an Epistle of Dionysius, in Eusebius, where he relates "how Serapion had the eucharist sent him in the night by a boy, the presbyter being sick, and not able to attend upon him." At other times it was kept in one of the Pastophoria, which were certainly places distinct from the altar: for so the author of the Constitutions plainly informs us. In process of time it came to be kept at the altar, either in those silver doves we have been speaking of, or in an ark or pyxe at the foot of the cross, which, by some canons, is ordered to be placed upon the altar. For in the second council of Tours, Anno 567, a decree was made "that the eucharist should not be kept in the Armarium, but under the figure of the cross upon the altar." And so, in process of time, the pyxe took the name of Ciborium, which originally is an Egyptian name for the husk of a bean, as Suicerus notes out of Hesychius, and thence used by the Greeks to signify a large cup or Con. Const. Act. 5. tom. v. p. 159. 2 Euseb. lib. vi. c. 44. * Con. Turon. 2. can. 3. Constit. Apost. lib. ii. c. 57. lib. viii. c. 13. imaginario ordine, and explain it by ciborium. See Du Fresne, p. 575. bowl, broad at the bottom and narrow at the top, and from that resemblance perhaps it came also to be the name of this turret or spiral structure about the altar. SECT. 20.-When first the Figure of the Cross set upon the Altar. From the fore-mentioned canon of the council of Tours it is plain, that in the French churches the figure of the cross was another part of the ornament of the altar, since the eucharist, or sacramental body of Christ, is ordered to be laid under it. But when crosses came first to be set up in churches is not so easy to be determined. That they were not in use for the three first ages, seems evident enough from the silence of all the writers of those times, and from Eusebius, who has frequent occasion to describe minutely the churches of Constantine and others, but never once mentions a cross erected in them, though he speaks frequently of crosses set up in other public places, as a learned writer' has judiciously observed out of him, who thinks they began not to be set up in churches till after the year 340. Chrysostom speaks of the sign of the cross as used at the Lord's table, in the consecration of priests, and celebration of the eucharist; but that seems to be meant of the transient sign made in the forehead, (which St. Austin and the author of the Constitutions speak of likewise,) and not of any material cross set upon the altar. But Sozomen speaks of material crosses lying upon the altar; though not in the time of Constantine, (as Gretser mistakes, whose error is justly corrected by Valesius,) but in his own time. And, after him, Evagrius' speaks of silver crosses given by Chosroes to one of the churches of Constantinople, to be fixed upon the altar. So that the original of this custom is not to be deduced from Constantine, as many suppose, but from the following ages of the Church. 2 8 W Chrysost. Demon Aug. Hom. 118. in Quod signum nisi adhi 1 Dallæus, de Cultu. Relig. lib. v. c. 8. p, 773. strat. quod Christus sit Deus, c. 9. tom. p. 840. Joh. Quid est signum Christi nisi Crux Chisti? beatur sive frontibus credentium, sive ipsi aquæ, ex quâ regenerantur, sive oleo, quo chrismate unguntur, sive sacrificio, quo aluntur; nihil horum ritè perficitur. + Constit. Apost. lib. viii. c. 12. 5 Sozom. lib. ii. c. 3. says of one Probianus, that he saw in a vision, savps σúμßodov Twv ἀνακειμένων τῷ θυσιατηρίῳ. Gretser, de Cruce, lib. ii. c. 13. Evagr. lib. vi, c. 21. 6 1 SECT. 21. Of some other Ornaments and Utensils of the Altar. But it is more certain that the altars were always covered with some decent cloth, used for ornament, not for mystery, as in after ages. Optatus pleading against the Donatists, that the altars could not be polluted by the Catholics touching them, as the Donatists vainly pretended, uses this argument to confute them, "that if any thing was polluted, it must be the coverings, and not the tables; for every one knew, that the tables were covered with a linen cloth in time of divine service: so that while the sacrament was administering, the covering might be touched, but not the table." And for this reason they pretended to wash the palls, as he calls them in another place, in order to give them an expiation. Victor Uticensis makes a like complaint of one Proculus, an agent of King Geisericus, who, having plundered the Catholic churches in Zeugitana, made himself a shirt and breeches of the palls of the altar. Isidore of Pelusium takes notice also of the sindon* or fine linen, upon which the body of Christ was consecrated. But sometimes they were of richer materials and more sumptu Palladius speaks of some of the Roman ladies, who, renouncing the world, bequeathed their silks to make coverings for the altar. And Theodoret says of Constantine, "that among other gifts which he bestowed upon his newbuilt church of Jerusalem, he gave-Baoiλika maρажεтáσμита, a royal pall, or piece of rich tapestry for the altar." But that may signify the curtains or hangings of the Ciborium, as well as the covering of the altar; and so every utensil or ornament about the altar may be supposed to be rich and splendid in such churches as were of a royal foundation. The holy vessels, which they made use of to administer the eucharist in, were another part of the ornament of the 1 1 Optat. lib. vi. p. 95. Quis fidelium nescit in peragendis mysteriis ipsa ligna linteamine cooperiri? Inter ipsa sacramenta velamen potuit tangi, non lignum. * Optat. ibid. p. 98. Lavistis procul dubio Pallas, &c. 1 Victor. de Persec. Vandal. lib. i. p. 593. De pallis altaris, proh nefas ! camisias sibi et femoralia faciebat. Qui tamen Proculus frustatim sibi comedens linguam, in brevi turpissimâ consumptus est morte. lib. i. ep. 123. i. c. 31. VOL. II. Pallad. Hist. Lausiac. c. 119. Isidor. Pelus. M altar. But the richness of these was not always estimated from the materials they were made of, but from the use they were put to; for the materials were sometimes no better than plain glass or wood. Irenæus1 and Epiphanius* after him, speaking of Marcus, the father of the Marcosian heretics, say, he used a glass cup in the celebration of the eucharist; which is not noted as any singular thing in him: for both Baronius and Bona* think it was then the common custom of the Church. And it is evident it continued in some places to the time of St. Jerom; for he, speaking of Exuperius, bishop of Tholouse, and commending his frugality, tells us,5" that he ministered the body of Christ in a basket of osiers, and the blood in a glass cup." Baronius and Bona will furnish the reader with a great many other instances to the same purpose. I shall only add that in one of our own synods here in England, the synod of Calcuth, Anno 787, there is a canon" which forbids the use of horncups in the celebration of the eucharist; which seems to imply that they were in use before. But yet I must note, that it was commonly necessity that drove the Church to use vessels of such ordinary materials; either when she laboured under extreme poverty, or thought fit to dispose of her silver and gold plate, for the redemption of captives, or the relief of the poor, of which I have given a great many instances in another place, which show that the Church had her vessels of silver and gold, else she could not have melted them down for such pious uses. Nay, even in times of persecution, when there was some danger of being plundered and despoiled, the wealthier Churches had their sacred vessels of silver and gold. This is evident from what Prudentius observes in the Roman Church in the time of Laurentius, the martyr, who suffered in the persecution of Valerian. It was part of his crime, that he would not deliver up the golden plate, in which they were used to ce 1 Iren. lib. i. c. 9. an. 216. Epiphan. Hær. 34. num. 1. *Bona, Rer. Liturg. lib. i. c. 25. n. 1. 8 Baron. -5 Hieron. Ep. 4. ad Rustic. Nihil illo ditius, qui corpus Domini canistro vimineo, sanguinem portat in vitro. Synod. Calchuthens. c. 10. apud Spelman. Con. Brit. Book v. chap. vi. sect. 6. Prudent. Hepi tom. i. p. 291. Erepavov, Hymn. 2. Hunc esse vestris orgiis Moremque et artem proditum lebrate their sacred mysteries. And that we may not think he spake only with a poetical flourish, we may see the same thing observed by Optatus of the Church of Carthage, in the Diocletian persecution. For when Mensurius, the.. bishop, was forced to go to Rome, to have his trial there, he was at some loss what to do with the plate and other silver and gold ornaments of the church, which he could. neither hide in the earth nor carry with him. At last he comes to this resolution, to leave them with the elders of the church, first taking an inventory of them, which he gave to a deaconess, with these instructions, that if he never returned, she should, when times of peace returned, give it to the person whom she found seated on the bishop's throne. Which she did as soon as Cæcilian was chosen bishop, who calling upon the elders to deliver up their trust, they, having embezzelled the things, denied that ever they had received them; and to be revenged of Cæcilian, they joined with his antagonists, Botrus and Celeusius, who were competitors with Cæcilian for the bishopric, and the first authors of the schism of the Donatists. What this inventory contained we may judge by another about the same time given up to the persecutors by Paul, bishop of Cirta, who was one of those called traditors upon that account. There we find two gold cups, six silver cups, six silver water-pots, a silver Cucumellum, which I take to be a flagon or bowl, seven silver lamps, &c. all which were vessels' or utensils belonging to the service of the church and the altar. For as they had vessels for the wine so they had vessels also for the water, which in those days was always mingled with the wine, and was used also for washing their hands in the time of the oblation; of which customs it will be more proper to speak in another place. These vessels we here see were of silver in the church of Cirta, as well as others. 1 est, Hanc disciplinam fœderis, Litent ut auro Antistites. Argenteis scyphis ferunt Fumare sacrum sanguinem, &c. Optat. lib. i. p. 41. Erant ecclesiæ ex auro et argento quamplurima Ornamenta, quæ nec defodere terræ, nec secum portare poterat. Gesta Purgat. Cæciliani, ad calcem Optati. p. 266. Calices duo aurei: Item calices sex argentei: Urceola sex argentea: Cucumellum argenteum: Lucernæ argenteæ septem: cereofala duo, &c. |