councils,'1 66 a bishop was not to consecrate a church, before the donation of its maintenance was delivered to him in writing confirmed by law." Which were necessary rules to preserve churches from falling to ruin, and their ministry and service from contempt and disgrace.

SECT. 12. Yet Bishops not to demand any thing for Consecration. But beyond this suitable provision and settlement for the service of the church, the bishop was not to exact or demand any thing further of the founder; but it being part of his ordinary office to consecrate churches, he was obliged to do it without requiring any reward for his service; unless the founder thought fit to make him any voluntary oblation, in which case he was at liberty to receive it. So it is determined in the foresaid Spanish council of Bracara, and for the French churches in the second council of Chalons, and others in the time of Charles the Great.

SECT. 13.-Consecrations performed indifferently upon any Day.

As to the time of consecration, they did not anciently confine themselves to perform it only upon Sundays, but all days were at first indifferent both for this and the ordinations of the clergy likewise. Which is an observation frequently made by the learned Pagi in his critical remarks upon the chronology of the ancient Church. Particularly he observes, that Constantine's famous dedication of the Church of Jerusalem in a full synod of bishops, Anno 335, must needs have been upon a Saturday; for all writers agree, that it was upon the Ides of September, that is, upon the 13th day of September, which according to the exact rules and method of the Cycle must fall upon a Saturday that year. Whence Pagi rightly concludes, that the cus

Con. Bracarens. 2. c. 5. Unusquisque episcoporum meminerit, ut non prius dedicet ecclesiam, nisi antea dotem basilicæ et obsequium ipsius per donationem chartulæ confirmatum accipiat. Vid. Con. Tolet. iii. c. 15.

* Con. Bracar. 2. c. 5. Quoties ab aliquo fidelium ad consecrandas ecclesias episcopi invitantur, non quasi ex debito munus aliquod à fundatore requirant; sed si ipse quidem aliquid ex suo voto obtulerit, non respuatur.

Con. Cabillon. 2. c. 16.

4 Pagi, Critic, in Baron. an. 335, n. 5.

tom had not yet prevailed, which confined consecration of churches to the Lord's-day.

SECT. 14.—The Day of Consecration usually celebrated among their anniversary Festivals.

I have nothing further to remark upon this head, save only that the day of consecration was in many Churches solemnly kept and observed among their anniversary festivals: for Sozomen' gives us this account of the dedication of the church of Jerusalem, "that in memory of it they held a yearly festival, which lasted for eight days together, during which time both they of the Church, and all strangers, which flocked thither in abundance, held ecclesiastical assemblies, and met together for divine service." To this Gregory the Great seems to have added a new custom here in England, which was, that on the annual feast of the dedication the people might build themselves booths round about the church, and there feast and entertain themselves with eating and drinking, in lieu of their ancient sacrifices while they were Heathens. Which is related by Bede, out of Gregory's Letters to Austin and Mellitus, the first bishop of the Saxons. And from this custom, it is more than probable, came our wakes, which are still observed in some places, as the remains of those feasts of dedication of particular churches.

CHAP. X.

Of the Respect and Reverence which the Primitive Christians paid to their Churches.

SECT. 1.-Churches never put to any profane Use, but only sacred and religious Service.

NEXT to their adorning and consecration of churches, it will be proper to examine what respect and reverence they paid to consecrated places, after they were once set apart

1 Sozom. lib. ii. c. 26. VOL. II.

2 Bede, Hist. lib. i. c. 30.

for divine service. They then used them only as the houses of God, for acts of devotion and religion, and did not allow of any thing to be done there, that had not some tendency towards piety, or immediate relation to it. They might be used for religious assemblies, for the elections of the bishops and clergy, for the sitting of councils, for catechetic schools, for conferences and collations about religion; but not be put to the use of common houses, to eat, or drink, or lodge in and therefore, though the law allowed men to take sanctuary in the church, as we shall see in the next Chapter, yet it did not allow them to have their meat and lodging there. When some abused the Catechumenia, which I have showed before to be places within the church. for men and women to hear divine service in, and turned them into rooms to lodge in, the Emperor Leo made a decree" that all such should be expelled from their habitations in the church." The case was different when men spent whole nights in the church in watching and prayer, as they did frequently both in their public and private vigils; such pernoctations in the church were allowed, because they were but necessary circumstances of divine service. Only women were forbidden by the council of Eliberis' to keep private vigils in the church, because many times, under pretence of prayer, secret wickedness was committed. And for the like reason their Agape, or feasts of charity, which were originally an apostolical practice, and kept in the church, were afterwards prohibited, or at least discouraged, for the excess and consequent profaneness that attended them. The council of Laodicea peremptorily forbids them under that name of charity-feasts, and commands "that no one should eat, or prepare beds or tables for that purpose, in the house of God." And the third council of Carthages forbids all feasting in the church in general to

1 Con. Eliber. c. 35. Placuit prohiberi, ne fœminæ in cœmiterio pervigilent, eò quòd sæpe sub obtentu religionis scelera latenter committant. 2 Con. Laodic. c. 28. "Οτι ἐ δεῖ ἐν τοῖς κυριακοῖς ἢ ἐν ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις, τὰς λεγομένας ἀγάπας ποιεῖν, ἢ ἐν τῳ οἴκῳ τῷ Θεῷ ἐσθίειν καὶ ἀκέβιτα τρωννύειν. Con. Carth. iii. c. 30. Ut nulli episcopi vel clerici in ecclesiâ conviventur, nisi fortè trenseuntes hospitiorum necessitate illic reficiantur. Populi etiam, quantum fieri potest, ab hujusmodi conviviis prohibeantur. Vid. Cod. Afric. Can. 42.

the clergy, except in case of necessity, when they were upon a journey, and could not otherwise be entertained; and orders, that the custom should be discountenanced as much as possible also in the laity. For though they were forced to tolerate it for some time, yet they did not approve of it, as St. Austin tells Faustus,' the Manichee, but endeavoured to correct both the excess that many ran into upon such occasions, and the very custom itself of feasting in the church, or at the graves of the martyrs, because two errors crept into the Church by that means,-intolerable excess, and an heathenish superstition therewith. For men began, as he complains, in these riots to worship pictures and tomb stones, and reckoned their feasts a sort of sacrifice to the dead, placing even their voracities and drunkenness to the account of religion; so that it was high time to lay aside all manner of banquettings in the church, that the house of God might not be profaned with such excesses of riot as were not to be endured in private houses. And this was their general rule in all cases, to lay aside all customs that were not absolutely necessary, though innocent and useful in their original, rather than suffer the abuses and corruptions of them to end in the profanation of churches.

SECT. 2.-The like Caution observed about the sacred Vessels and Utensils of the Church.

The like reverence and respect was also showed to every sacred vessel and utensil belonging to the administration of the sacraments and divine service: they might not be employed to any other use, but only what was sacred, and answerable to the designation and appointment of them. Upon this account they were kept in the Sceuophylacium

1 Aug. cont. Faust. lib. xx. c. 21. Qui se in memoriis martyrum inebriant, quomodo à nobis approbari possunt, cùm eos, etiam si in domibus suis id faciant, sana doctrina condemnet? Sed aliud est quod docemus, aliud quod sustinemus, aliud quod præcipere jubemur, aliud quod emendare præcipimur, et donec emendemus, tolerare compellimur. Aug. de Morib. Eccles.

lib. i. c. 34. Novi multos esse sepulchrorum et picturarum adoratores: novi multos esse, qui luxuriosissimè super mortuos bibant, et epulas cadaveribus exhibentes, super sepultos seipsos sepeliant, et voracitates ebrietatesque suas deput ent religioni.

of the church, and never removed thence but when the service of the altar required them. This custom was so nicely observed, that when Athanasius was accused for breaking the mystical cup, he clears himself of the accusation, by saying," that in the place, where it was pretended that he had broken it, there was neither church, nor minister1 nor was it in the time of celebrating the eucharist: therefore, since the cup was never in the custody of any but the ministers of the church, nor ever used but in the church in time of divine service, he could not be guilty of the crime laid against him, seeing there were none but private men, in whose keeping the cup could not be, in that place." The vessels were usually kept by the deacon; and the sub-deacons and other inferior orders are by the councils of Laodicea and Agde3 forbidden to touch them. There was but one case in which it was lawful to put these things to common use, and that was the case of absolute necessity, when no other method could be found out to redeem captives or relieve the poor, in times of extreme exigence: then it was thought that mercy was to be preferred before sacrifice, and that the living and spiritual temples of God were to be preserved at the expense of the material ones; and they never made any scruple to melt down their communion-plate, or part with their ornaments upon such occasions; of which I have given full proof heretofore from the examples of St. Ambrose, St. Austin, Cyril of Jerusalem, Acacius, bishop of Amida, Exuperius of Tholouse, and the laws of Justinian,* which need not be repeated in this place. But excepting this one extraordinary case, it was esteemed the highest profanation and sacrilege, to divert any thing to any other use, which was given to God's service. And there are some instances of very remarkable judgments that befel such profaners, one or two of which it may not be amiss to mention. Theodoret tells us, Julian, the apostate, sent two of his officers, Felix and his uncle Julian, to plunder

Athan. Apol. 2. tom. i. p. 732. Con. Agathen. c. 66.

lib. iii. c. 12.

Book v. chap. vi. sect. 6.

2 Con. Laodic. c. 21. 5 Theodor.