into churches, and both together called trophies, as being manifest tokens and evidences of the victory which they had gained over their enemies, by resisting unto blood, and triumphing after death. There is yet another name, of which it is not easy to give so exact an account; that is, why some churches had the name of tituli given them peculiarly in Rome. In the Pontifical, in the Life of Marcellus 93, it is said of him, that he appointed twenty-five tituli in Rome, for the convenience of baptizing new converts. And in the same place one Lucina, a widow, is said to have dedicated her house 94 to be made a titulus, or church, where they worshipped Christ day and night with prayers and hymns, till Maxentius, the tyrant, hearing of it, turned the church into a stable, and forced Marcellus to be the keeper of it. These are supposed to be the same as parishchurches, erected for the convenience of administering divine offices, as the multitude of converts increased in Rome. But why they were called tituli is not exactly agreed among learned men. Baronius 95 will have them to be so called, because they had the sign of the cross upon them, by which sign or title they were known to belong to Christ, as things which belonged to the Emperor's exchequer were known to be his by an appendant veil, which had either his image or his name, by way of title, inscribed upon it. But it does not appear that the sign of the cross was so early fixed upon churches; or if it were, that it was the peculiar distinction of a parish-church : for no doubt the cathedral, or bishop's church, had that sign as 93 Pontifical. (CC. t. 1. p. 946 c.) Hic fecit cœmeterium Via Salaria, et viginti quinque titulos in Urbe Roma constituit, quasi dioceses, propter baptismum et pœnitentiam multorum, qui convertebantur ex paganis, et propter sepulturas martyrum. 94 Ibid. (ibid. d.) Lucina.... domum suam nomine tituli beati Marcelli dedicavit, ubi die noctuque hymnis et orationibus Domino Jesu Christo confitebantur, &c.-Vid. Pii Ep. 2. [al. 4.] ad Just. See afterwards, s. 14. p. 29. n. 39. 95 An. 112. n. 5. (t. 2. p. 50 e.)... Unde acciderit, ut domus fidelium in sacrum usum conversæ, quas nos ecclesias dicimus, a majoribus tituli dicerentur, paucis aperiendum. A rebus fiscalibus videtur accepta esse nomenclatura: tituli namque impositione rem aliquam sibi fiscus solitus erat vindicare, atque principi consecrare: ut cum ait imperator, Tituli vero, quorum adjectione prædia nostris sunt consecranda substantiis, non nisi publica testificatione proponantur. Fuisse hujusmodi titulos vela quædam, quæ regiam repræsentarent potestatem, vel imaginibus imperatorum, vel nominis ipsorum inscriptione insignita, multa sunt, quæ poterunt demonstrare, &c. Of tabernacles and minsters, and some other less usual names of churches. soon as any others. Mr. Mede 96 offers two other reasons, and leaves the reader to determine whether they were so called, because by their dedication the name of Christ our Lord was as it were inscribed upon them, as the manner then was to set the names or titles of the owners upon their houses and possessions; and so it would concur in notion with those other names of Kupiaκòv and Basilica, the Lord's and the King's; or whether because they gave a title of cure, or denomination, to the presbyters to whom they were committed. This last I take to be the true reason of the name till one more probable can be thought of. As to the fancy of Onuphrius 97, that the number of these tituli was exactly the same with that of cardinal-presbyters now, and never exceeding the number of twenty-eight,' it is an imagination without ground; for Optatus speaks of above forty churches in Rome before the time of the last persecution, as I shall have occasion to shew more fully in the next Book. 11. There are several other less usual names of churches in ancient writers, which I need not stand upon; such as limina martyrum, the houses of the martyrs, used by St. Jerom 98; σῆκος and τέμενος, words of the same import with temple, which we sometimes meet with in Theodoret 99, Synesius1, and Evagrius. In Eusebius3, domus synaxeos sometimes occurs 96 Discourse of Churches. (p.328.) Why the Roman Church called such places by the name of tituli, &c. 97 Interpret. Voc. Eccles. p. 13. (ad calc. Platina, Colon. Agripp. 1626, P. 79.) Quum primo infinita Gentilium multitudo, mox Urbs et Italia omnis, fidem Christi suscepisset, non sufficientibus 15 titulis, nec his, qui in eis residebant, presbyteris, tum ob necessitatem, tum ad Urbis et Romana Ecclesiæ ornamentum et majestatem, et titulorum et presbyterorum in unoquoque numerus auctus est; factique sunt tituli 28; quem numerum numquam excessisse usque ad nostra tempora, satis constat. 98 Ep. 15. [al. 24.] ad Marcell. (t. 1. p. 127 e.) Ad martyrum limina pene invisa properabat. 99 Serm. de Mart. [al. Græc. Affect. Curat. disput. 8.] (t. 4. part. 2. 923.) Τὰ μὲν γὰρ ἐκείνων οὕτω παν τελῶς διελύθη τεμένη, ὡς μηδὲ τῶν 2 L. 1. c. 14. (v. 3. p. 268. 9.) 'Eπόθουν τὸ τέμενος τούτου δὴ τοῦ ἁγίου beáσaodai.-L. 6. c. 8. (ibid. p. 459. 16.) ... Πέπτωκε δὲ καὶ τὰ πολλὰ τῆς καλουμένης Οστρακίνης, καὶ ὁ πρόσ θεν ἔφαμεν Ψηφίον, καὶ σύμπαντα τὰ καλούμενα Βρυσία, καὶ τὰ περὶ τὸν πάνσεπτον σηκὸν τῆς Θεοτόκου, μόνης τῆς μέσης στοᾶς παραδόξως σωθείσης. 3 L. 7. c. 8. [Vid. 1. 8. c. 17. (v. 1. p. 404. 30.)..... Kai Tovs olkovs, ev οἷς συνήγοντο, συνθῶσιν οὕτως, κ.τ.λ. -Vid. Gest. Purgat. Cæcil. ad calc. Optat. (CC. t. 1. pp. 1443, seqq.) The citation is indistinct. ED.] 5 in the Rescripts of heathen Emperors for Christian churches, which signifies no more but houses of assembly. Chrysostom+ styles them the seat of doctrine, from the exercise of preaching therein. And many such names are to be met with, which need no explication. But there are two names more used by Eusebius, which some learned men have greatly mistaken. In one place, speaking of the Therapeuta in Egypt, whom he reckons the first Christians converted by St. Mark, and described covertly by Philo-Judæus, he gives their churches the name of σεμνεία and μοναστήρια, which some mistake for monasteries in the modern sense; whereas Eusebius says expressly it was the name which Philo gave, not to their habitations but their churches. For,' says he, Philo having described their habitations, afterward speaks thus of their churches in that region: "In every one of their dwellings there is a sacred house or chapel, which they call their semneum and monasterium, where they perform the religious mysteries proper to their holy life. For hither they bring nothing ever of meat or drink or other bodily necessaries, but only their laws and inspired oracles of their prophets, their hymns, and whatever else tends to augment and consummate a life of piety and knowledge."' This is not the description of a monastery in the modern sense, but of a church; and so we see the name was first used, as it is at this day, among the Germans, who hence call some of their churches munsters, as we do minsters, which were heretofore collegiate churches and schools of learning, like St. Austin's monastery-church, of which I have given an account in the former Book 6. This is further confirmed, because Eusebius joins the name σeμveîov to monastery to explain it, which by the best critics, ancient and modern,-Hesychius, Budæus, Suicerus, and others,—is reckoned to signify a temple, or place of divine service. Eusebius has yet another name for a church, which I mention only because it is liable to the same mistake. 4 Hom. 2. in Joan. [I cannot find the expression referred to according to the author's citation. But in the opening of Hom. 3. al. 2. in Joan. (t. 8. p. 16 b.) the term rò vevμатiκὸν τοῦτο θέατρον occurs. Conf. Hom. I. in init. ED.] 5 L. 2. c. 17. (v. I. p. 67. 33.) Εἶθ' ἑξῆς, τὰς οἰκήσεις αὐτῶν ὁποῖαί τινες ἦσαν διαγράψας, περὶ τῶν κατὰ χώραν ἐκκλησιῶν ταῦτα φησίν. Ἐν ἑκά στῃ δὲ οἰκίᾳ ἔστιν οἴκημα ἱερὸν, ὃ Of the dis tinction between ecclesia matrix and diocesana. He gives it the name of tabernacle; which is only a private appellation, belonging peculiarly to moveable or travelling churches. For Eusebius 6, speaking of Constantine's intended expedition against the Persians, says, 'that among his other preparations for that war, he erected himself a tent, or tabernacle, in the form of a church, in which he might continually make his supplications to God, the giver of victory, with the bishops and clergy that were to attend him in his expedition.' Socrates, speaking of the same thing, compares it to the tabernacle that Moses set up in the wilderness, and says Constantine did it that he might have a decent and convenient oratory, evкTýpιov ηúτρеτισμévov, in the most desert and barbarous places through which he was to travel.' And from this example, as Sozomen observes, it became a custom throughout the Roman army for every legion to have their tabernacle, and priests and deacons appointed to attend the service of it. 12. Whilst I am upon this head, it will not be amiss to give the reader an account of two other words, which have some relation to this subject, and by their ambiguity are often mistaken and confounded, that is, ecclesia matrix, and diœcesana; which seem to be words of the same importance, but are often very different from one another. Ecclesia matrix, a mother-church, is sometimes taken for an original Church planted immediately by the Apostles, whence others were derived and propagated afterward. So Tertullian calls those Churches, to which the Apostles preached, either viva voce or by their epistles, by which all doctrines are to be judged. And in this sense the Church of Jerusalem is called the mother of all Churches in the world' by the second general Council of Constantinople 10; and Arles, the mother-church of France, be 6 De Vit. Constant. l. 4. c. 56. (v. 7. P. 658. 17.) "Επειτα τὴν σκηνὴν τῷ τῆς ἐκκλησίας σχήματι πρὸς τὴν ἐκείνου τοῦ πολέμου παράταξιν σὺν πολλῇ φιλοτιμίᾳ κατειργάζετο· ἐν ᾗ τῷ Θεῷ, τῷ τῆς νίκης δοτῆρι, τὰς ἱκετηρίας ἅμα τοῖς ἐπισκόποις ποιεῖσθαι ἐπενόει. 7 L. I. c. 18. See before, s. 4. p. 7. n. 25. 8 L. Ι. c. 8. (v. 2. p. 19. 38.) Εξ ἐκείνου δὲ καὶ τὰ ̔Ρωμαίων τάγματα, ἃ νῦν ἀριθμοὺς καλοῦσιν, ἕκαστον ἰ δίαν σκηνὴν κατεσκευάσατο, καὶ ἱερέας, καὶ διακόνους ἀπονενεμημένους ἔχειν. 9 De Præscript. c. 21. (p. 209 a.) .... Constat proinde omnem doctrinam, quæ cum illis ecclesiis apostolicis matricibus et originalibus fidei conspiret, veritati deputandam. 10 Ep. Synodic. ad Damasum, ap. Theodoret. 1. 5. c.9. (v. 3. p. 207. 5.) Τῆς δὲ γε μητρὸς ἁπασῶν τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν τῆς ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις τὸν . . . Κύριλλον ἐπίσκοπον εἶναι γνωρίζομεν. 11 cause supposed to be planted by the Apostles' missionary, Trophimus, first bishop of the place. At other times a motherchurch denotes a metropolis, or the principal church of a single province, as in some of the African Canons 12, where matrix is used sometimes for the primate's see, to which other bishops were to have recourse for judgment and decision of controversies. But most commonly it signifies a cathedral, or bishop's church, which was usually termed the great church, and the catholic church, and the principal see, in opposition to the lesser tituli, or parish-churches, committed to single presbyters. Thus in the African Code the matter is plain: in one canon 13 every bishop is prohibited to alienate or sell the goods of the mother-church, and presbyters the goods belonging to their titles. The Greek translation of this canon is here imperfect and corrupt, as Suicerus 14 has rightly observed; and by it Cujacius and others have been led into a mistake to expound matrix by matricula, the catalogue, or books of the church, whereas it means the cathedral, or bishop's church. As also in another canon 15, which says, 'If any bishop is negligent to deal with heretics in the mother-church, he shall be admonished of his fault by the neighbouring bishops, that he may have no excuse.' The mother-church is here the bishop's church, or that which required both his care and residence, as the principal church of the diocese. This by Fulgentius Ferrandus 16 is plainly opposed to other inferior churches in the diocese, upon which only presbyters resided, both when he says that the judgment of the mother-church shall be sufficient in the election of a bishop;' and again, that the bishop Cujacius, ..... matricem pro matricula, sive catalogo, sive descriptione locorum, ... accepit, &c. 11 Libellus Precum Episcopor. Gallor. ad Leon. ap. Baron. an. 450. p. 125. (t. 6. p. 129 a.) Cujus honoris obtentu ecclesiam Arelatensem omnes decessores, prædecessoresque nostri vel ut matrem debito semper honore coluerunt, &c. 12 Cod. Afric. c. 119. al. 120. (t. 2. p. 1217 c.)...M Tрокрipатiσ0 év προκριματισθῇ ἐν Tη μатρIKT, K.T.λ. Non præjudicetur in matrice, &c. 13 C. 33. (ibid. p. 1065 b.) Non habente necessitatem, nec episcopo liceat matricis ccclesiæ, nec presbytero rem tituli sui usurpare. 14 Thes. Eccles. voce, Márpiέ. (t. 2. p. 321.) Quo loco perperam magnus 15 C. 123. (ibid. p. 1129 c.) Si in matricibus cathedris episcopus negligens fuerit adversus hæreticos, conveniatur a vicinis episcopis, &c. 16 Breviar. c. 11. (ap. Justell. t. 1. p. 448.) Ut ad eligendum episcopum sufficiat matricis arbitrium. Ex Concilio Septimunicensi et Concilio Macrianensi.-Ibid. c. 38. (p. 449.) Ut episcopus matricis non usurpet quicquid fuerit donatum ecclesiis, quæ in diœcesi constitutæ sunt. Ex Concilio Hipponiregiensi. |