BOOK VIII.

AN ACCOUNT OF THE ANCIENT CHURCHES, AND THEIR SEVERAL PARTS, UTENSILS, CONSE CRATIONS, IMMUNITIES, &c.

CHAP. I.

Of the several Names and first Original of Churches among Christians,

SECT. 1. Of the Name Ecclesia, and 'ExкλNσiasýρiov,

HAVING hitherto given an account of the persons, as well clergy as laity, that made up the great body of the Christian Church, I now proceed to speak of Churches in another sense; First, as taken for the material buildings, or places of assembly set a-part for divine worship, and Secondly, as taken for certain divisions or districts of dioceses, provinces, parishes, &c. into which the Church Catholic was divided. In speaking of the first it will be proper to begin with their names, and make a little inquiry into the first original of churches among Christians.

One of the most common names of churches, as taken for the structures or buildings, is that of Ecclesia; which yet among the ancient Greek writers often signifies the assembly or convocation of people met together, either upon sacred or civil affairs, and so it is sometimes used in Scripture, Acts xix. 40. Mat. xviii. 17. And so Isidore of Pelusium uses it likewise, distinguishing thus between 'Ekkλŋσιατήριον and Εκκλησία ; “ the Ἐκκλησιατήριον is the temple

1 Isidor. Pelus. lib. ii. Ep. 246. 'Αλλο ἐτὶν ἐκκλησία, κ, ἄλλο ἐκκλησιαςήριον, &c.

or building made of wood and stone, but the 'EKKλnoía is the congregation of souls or people that meet therein.' And in this sense, as St. Cyril observes, there is a sort of pheronymy in the name Εκκλησία which is so called ἀπὸ τῆ ikkaλɛīv, because it is a convocation of men solemnly called together. But though this be a very ancient and common signification, yet it not less usually occurs in the other sense, denoting the place or building itself where the congregation met together; and in this acceptation it is commonly opposed both to the synagogues of the Jews, and the temples of the Gentiles; as appears from that noted passage in the Epistle of Aurelian, the heathen emperor, where he chides the senate for demurring about the opening of the Sibylline Books," as if they had been upon a debate in a Christian church, and not in the temple of all the Gods." And from another passage in St. Ambrose, where, pleading with Theodosius in behalf of a Christian bishop, who had caused a Jewish synagogue to be set on fire, he asks him, "whether it was fitting that Christians should be so severely animadverted on for burning a synagogue, when Jews and Heathens had been spared, who had made havoc of the churches?"

SECT. 2. Of the Names, Dominicum and Kupiaкòv (whence comes Kyrk and Church) and Domus Columbæ.

Another common name among the Latins is Dominicum, or Domus Dei, God's house, which answers to the Greek Kupiakov, whence with a little variation we have the Saxon name Kyrik, or Kyrch, and the Scotch and English Kyrk and Church, which are all words of the same import, denoting a place set apart for the use and service of God. The name Dominicum is at least as old as Cyprian, but he applies it not only to the church, but to the Lord's-supper and perhaps

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1 Cyril. Catech. xviii. n. 11. p. 270. 'Ekkλŋoía dè kadeirai pepwvúμws' Για τὸ πάντας ἐκκαλεῖσθαι, καὶ ὁμᾶ συνάγειν. 2 Vide Suicer. Thesaur Eccles. Voce, 'Exкλŋoía. 9 Apud Vopiscum Vit. Aurelia n. Miror vos Patres Sancti, tamdiu de aperiendis Sibyllinis dubitâsse Libris; perinde quasi in Christianorum ecclesiâ, non in templo Deorum omnium, tractaretis.

* Ambros. Ep. 29. ad Theodos. Synagoga incensa est, perfidiæ locus. Ecclesia non vindicata est, vindicabitur synagoga? Cypr. de Opere et Eleemos. p. 203. Locuples et dives es, et dominicum celebrare te credis, quæ

the Lord's-day. For as the learned editor1 and others? have observed, the word Dominicum signifies three things in ancient writers; 1. The Lord's-day. 2. The Lord'ssupper. 3. The Lord's-house. And Cyprian's words may be construed to either sense; for he thus addresses himself to a rich matron; "Do you think you rightly celebrate the Dominicum, the Lord's-day, or the Lord's-supper, who have no regard to the Corban? who come into the Lord's-house without any sacrifice, and eat part of the sacrifice, which the poor have offered?" the same name occurs frequently in other Latin writers, as in Ruffin, who brings in the bishop, who converted the philosopher in the council of Nice, thus addressing himself to his new convert: "Arise and follow me to the Dominicum, and there receive the seal of your faith," viz. baptism in the church. And St Jerom* tells us that the famous church of Antioch, which was begun by Constanstine, and finished and dedicated by Constantius, had the name of Dominicum Aureum, the golden dome, for its richness and beauty.

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The Greek name Kupiakov is frequently to be met with in the councils of Ancyra and Neocæsarea and Laodicea and Eusebius, who says the persecuting Emperor Maximinus restored the Christians their churches under that appellation in his edicts. And Constantine having built several churches, gave them all the name of Kupiaka as being dedicated, not to the honour of any man, but Him who is Lord of the universe. This is a plain account of the name; but whether we may hence conclude with a learned man 10 that the Greeks, and not the Latins, were the first planters of Christianity in Britain, because of the near affinity between the names, Kupiakov and Kyrk, is what I think not so plain ; but I leave it to every reader's judgment to determine.

corbonam omninò non respicis? quæ in dominicum sine sacrificio venis; quæ partem de sacrificio, quod pauper obtulit, sumis? Bp. Fell in Loc. 2 Bona Rer. Liturg. lib. i. c. 3. n. 2.

3 Ruffin. Hist. lib. i. c. 3.

Si hæc ita esse credis, surge et sequere me ad dominicum, et hujus fidei signaculum suscipe. * Hieron. Chron. Olymp. 276. an. 3. In Antiochiâ Dominicum, quod apellatur Aureum, ædificari cœptum. ¿Con. Ancyr. can. 15. 6 Con. Neocæsar. c. 5.

s Euseb. lib. ix. c. 10.

'Con. Laodic. c. 28. Id de Laud. Const. c. 17.

10 Beverege

Not. in Can. 15. Con. Ancyr.

Tertullian once uses the name of Domus Columbæ, the house of a dove, for a church. For, writing against the Valentinian heretics, who affected secrecy in their doctrines, he compares them to the Eleusinian mysteries, whose temple was so guarded with doors and curtains, that a man must be five years a candidate, before he could be admitted to the adytum of the deity, or secrets of the sanctuary; "whereas," says he," the house of our dove is plain and simple, delights in high and open places, affects the light, loves the figure of the Holy Ghost; (that is, fire and light, as I think Junius rightly interprets it,) and the orient, or morning-sun, which is the figure of Christ." The house of the dove seems here to be the same as the house of Christ, who is pointed out by the dove, as Tertullian words it in same place, "Christum columba demonstrare solita est;" or else, as Mr. Mede explains it, we may take it for the house of the dove-like religion, or the dove-like disciples, of Christ. For every way it will be the name of a church, as Tertullian plainly intended it.

SECT. 3. Of the Distinction between Domus Dei, Domus Divina, and Domus Ecclesiæ.

There are two other names of near affinity with the former, which some readers may be apt to mistake for names of churches, when they are not always so; and therefore I cannot let them pass in this place without taking notice of them. The one is Domus Divina, and the other Domus Ecclesiæ. The first of which is of frequent use in the civil law, where it signifies not a church, but the Emperor's palace, or his house and family, according to the style of those times, when every thing bolonging to them had the name of divine. As Constitutiones Divinæ, Divale Præceptum, Lex Divalis, Literæ Sacræ, Oraculum Cæleste, and such other terms, do not signify, as one would hastily imagine, the sacred inspired writings, or the laws and oracles of God, but the edicts and constitutions of the Emperors, who themselves were called Divi, and thence all things relating to

'Tertul, contra. Valentin. c. 3. Nostræ columbæ domus simplex, etiam in editis et apertis et ad lucem. Amat figuram Spiritûs Sancti, Orientem Christi figuram, &c. 2 Mede Disc. of Chur. p. 329.

them styled divine. Agreeably to this style, when the Emperor Theodosius Junior, decrees,1 "that no one, no not of his own divine house, should receive corn in specie out of the public store-houses, before it was made into bread by the public bakers;" it is plain, by his own divine house he does not mean the house of God, the church, but his own family of Palatins, as Gothofred rightly explains it. The other name, Domus Ecclesiæ, *Oшoç 'Ekkλŋσías, the house of the church, is used by Eusebius in relating the history of the heretic, Paulus Samosatensis, who, notwithstanding that he was deposed by the council of Antioch, would not remove out of the house of the church, and therefore the Fathers appealed to the Emperor Aurelian against him, who determined, that that party to whom the bishops of Italy and Rome should write, should have the house delivered up to them; and so Paul was turned out of the church with great disgrace by the secular power. The question here is.What Eusebius means by the house of the church? Mr. Mede takes it for the church itself, and gives a very probable reason for it, because Eusebius expounds himself, when he says, Paul was turned out of the church: and he uses the same expression in another place, where it can signify nothing but the church, or house of sacred assembly. For, speaking of the persecutor Maximinus, he says, "he neither allowed the Christians to hold assemblies, nor build houses of assembly;" which evidently refers to the building of churches. But yet in other places, Domus Ecclesiæ seems to signify no more than the bishop's house, as in the second council of Toledo," where it is decreed, "that such children as were dedicated by their parents in their infancy to a clerical or monastic life, should be educated and in

1 Cod. Th. lib. xiv. tit. 16. De Frumento Urbis Constantinop. Leg. 2. Nulli, ne divinæ quidem domui nostræ, frumentum de horreis publicis pro annonâ penitùs præbeatur, sed, integer canon mancipibus consignetur, annonam in pane cocto domibus exhibendo. 2 Euseb. lib. vii. c. 30. Euseb. lib. ix. c. 9.

8 Mede's Disc. of Churches, p. 333. 'Ov pèv συνόδες ἐπικελεῦον ποιεῖσθαι, εδ' οἴκες ἐκκλησιῶν οικοδομεῖν, &c. See lib. viii. c. 13. Con. Tolet. 2. can. 1. De his, quos voluntas parentum à primis infantiæ annis in clericatûs officio vel monachali possuit, pariter statuimus observandum, ut in domo ecclesiæ sub episcopali presentiâ à præsposito sibi debeant erudiri,