themselves oratories in all places, whither they might resort for prayer, after the custom of the Romans.' Theodoret 91, and Socrates 92, and Ruffin 93, observe the same in the conversion of the nation of the Iberians by a captive woman, who taught them to build churches after the Roman form; which they did, and then sent ambassadors to Constantine, (in whose time both these conversions happened,) to desire him to send them priests, to carry on the work they had thus begun, and to minister in their churches. Now we may reasonably conclude, that some such thing was observed in all conversions from the very first, allowing for the difference betwixt times of persecution and times of peace. For though they had not such public and stately edifices at some times as they had at others; yet they always had places peculiarly set apart for divine worship before the peaceable reign of Constantine, as the evidences produced above do undeniably prove. CHAP. II. Of the difference between churches in the first ages and those that followed. And of Heathen temples and Jewish synagogues converted into Christian churches. churches 1. THE only remaining objection against what has been ad- The first vanced in the last chapter is taken from a passage or two very simple of the ancients, which seem to imply that there was a great and plain. difference between the apostolic age and those that followed, in reference to this business of churches. Isidore of Pelusium 94 treating of this matter says, In the Apostles' days 91 L. 1. c. 24. (v. 3. p. 56. 12.) Καὶ τὴν ἀξιάγαστον ἐκείνην καταλαβὼν δοριάλωτον, παρεκάλει δεῖξαι τῆς οἰκοδομίας τὸ σχῆμα· ὁ δὲ τὸν Βεσελεὴλ τῆς ἀρχιτεκτονικῆς σοφίας ἐμπλήσας, καὶ ταύτην ἠξίωσε χάριτος, ὡς τὸν θεῖον διαγράψαι νεών· καὶ ἡ μὲν διέγραψεν, οἱ δὲ ὤρυττόν τε καὶ ᾠκοδόμουν, κ. τ. λ. 92 L. I. c. 20. (v. 2. p. 53. 5.) ̔Ο μὲν βασιλεὺς μαθὼν παρὰ τῆς αἶχε μαλώτου τὸ σχῆμα τῶν παρὰ Ρωμαίοις ἐκκλησιῶν, εὐκτήριον οἶκον ἐκέλευσε γενέσθαι· εὐθύς τε πρὸς οἰκοδομὴν προσέταξεν εὐτρεπίζεσθαι· καὶ ὁ οἶκος ἠγείρετο. “ L. I. [al. 10.] c. 10. (p. 127 a. 8.) Adest captiva, edocet Deum H L. 2. Ep. 246. (p. 236 d.) "Οτι there were no churches, (that is, buildings or temples,) when spiritual gifts abounded, and a holy conversation was the bright ornament of the Church. But in our days the buildings are adorned more than is necessary, whilst the Church is fallen into disgrace. And therefore, were I at liberty to choose, I should rather have wished to have lived in those days, when there were no such beautified temples, but yet the Church was crowned with divine and heavenly graces, than in these days, when temples are adorned with all kinds of marble, but the Church is deprived of all those spiritual gifts. These words, if they be taken in the strictest sense, may seem to import, that in the age of the Apostles there were no churches built; for beyond the apostolical age he carries not the comparison. But I rather take him to mean, that the Apostles had not such churches as they had in this time, that is, so stately and magnificent, so rich and beautiful, as many in after-ages. Which is certainly true; for in the first conversion of any nation the churches were always answerable to the state and condition the converts were in, which was commonly a state of persecution, when not many rich, not many noble, were called. Nay, even in those places where kings gave encouragement to the propagation of the faith, churches were another thing from what they are now, as we may learn from the history of our own nation. There was a time, Bede tells us, when there was not a stone church in all the land, but the custom was to build them all of wood; and, therefore, when bishop Ninyas built a church of stone, it was such a rarity 92 and unusual thing among the Britons, that they called the place Candida Casa, Whitern, or Whitchurch, upon it. The same author 93 tells us, that Finan, the second bishop of Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, (since called the Bishopric of Durham,) built a church in the island fit for a cathedral see, κειτο, εἱλόμην ἂν ἐν τοῖς καιροῖς ἐκεί νοις γεγενῆσθαι, ἐν οἷς ἐκκλησιαστήρια μὲν οὕτω κεκοσμημένα μὴ ἦν, ἐκκλησία δὲ θείοις καὶ οὐρανίοις χαρίσμασιν ἐστεμμένη, ἢ ἐν τούτοις, ἐν οἷς τὰ μèv ekkλŋσiaστýρia Tavтolois Kekaλλώπισται μαρμάροις, ἡ δὲ ἐκκλησία τῶν πνευματικῶν χαρισμάτων ἐκείνων ἐρήμη καὶ γυμνὴ καθέστηκε. 92 Hist. 1.3. c. 4. See before, ch. 1. s. 10. n. 89, preceding. 93 Ibid. c. 25. (pp. 131. 4. et 5.) Finan ... in Insula Lindisfarnensi fecit ecclesiam episcopali sedi congruam. Quam tamen more Scotorum, non de lapide, sed de robore secto, totam composuit, atque arundine texit.... Sed episcopus loci ipsius [al. illius] Eadbert, ablata arundine plumbi laminis eam totam, hoc est, et tectum et ipsos quoque parietes ejus cooperire curavit. which yet was not of stone, but only timber sawed, and covered with reed; and so it continued, till Eadbert, the seventh bishop, took away the reed, and covered it all over, both roof and sides, with sheets of lead. No one after this will wonder at the account which Sulpicius Severus 94 gives of the churches of Cyrene, in the deserts of Libya, when he tells us he went with a presbyter into one of them, which was made of small rods interwoven one with another, and not much more stately and ambitious than his own house, in which a man could hardly stand upright. But the men who frequented these churches were men of the golden age and purest morals; they neither bought nor sold any thing; they knew not what fraud or theft was; they neither had, nor desired to have, silver or gold, which other mortals set such a value, upon. For,' says he,' when I offered the presbyter ten pieces of gold, he refused them, telling me, with some greatness of mind, That the church was not built with gold, but rather unbuilt by it,-Ecclesiam auro non strui, sed potius destrui, altiore consilio protestatus.' These instances may serve to explain Isidore's meaning, when he says 95, the apostolical age had no churches, or not such rich and noble structures as the peace, and affluence, and emulation of after-ages commonly produced.' for en state of ec 2. Indeed there were many visible reasons why the state of Reasons the structures must needs alter in proportion to the advancelarging and ment of the state of religion itself. For times of peace and altering the persecution looked with a very different aspect, and had a very clesiastical different influence upon the affairs of the Church. Persecution structures. was always attended with poverty, paucity of believers, and unsettled hopes; so that either they needed not stately and sumptuous buildings, or they were not able to erect them; or, at least, they had no invitation and encouragement to do it, whilst they were under daily apprehensions of seeing them 94 Dialog. I. c. 2. (p. 517.) Erat vilibus texta [al. contexta] virgultis, non multo ambitiosior quàm nostri hospitis tabernaculum, in quo nisi incurvus quis non poterat consistere. Quum hominum mores quæreremus, illud præclarum animadvertimus, nihil eos æque emere, neque vendere. Quid sit fraus aut furtum, nesciunt. Aurum atque ar- 95 See n. 94. p. 39. Particular. ly the munificence of plundered or demolished almost as soon as they had erected them. But in times of peace great multitudes of converts forsook the temples, and came over to the Church, and those, many times, persons of fortune and quality; and in some of the heathen reigns the Church enjoyed a more serene and uninterrupted gale of tranquillity, as in that happy interval of near fifty years between the death of St. Cyprian and the last persecution. And then there was a necessity to build more ample and stately churches, and they had ability to do it, and were not without hopes of continuing to enjoy their works of piety in a settled and lasting peace. So that then, in that promising interval, as Eusebius 95 observes, when Diocletian's court and family were almost all become Christians, and great multitudes of believers in all cities came over daily to the Faith; their ancient fabrics could not contain them, but they built them more ample and spacious churches in every city from the foundation. And when many of these had been destroyed in the long decennial persecution, they were again rebuilt from the ground, more lofty and beautiful than they were before, as the same Eusebius 96 words it, as soon as Constantine had revived the Christians' hopes, by publishing his edicts in favour of their religion. 3. But now there were two other reasons concurred, after the Emperors were become Christians, which contributed much Christian toward the state and magnificence of Christian churches. Emperors contributed Which were, first, the great liberality and munificence of the toward this. Emperors themselves, who were at great expense in erecting many noble fabrics in several cities to the honour of Christ; and, secondly, their orders for converting heathen temples into churches. Constantine spared no charge to erect, beautify, and adorn churches in all parts of the East, as at Jerusalem, Antioch, Nicomedia, Mambre, Heliopolis, in Phoenicia, and many other places, of which the reader that pleases may find a 95 L. 8. c. I. See before, ch. I. s. 15. p. 32. n. 57. 96 L. 10. c. 2. (v. I. p. 463. 15.) Μάλιστα δ ̓ ἡμῖν, τοῖς ἐπὶ τὸν Χριστὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ τὰς ἐλπίδας ἀνηρτημένοις, ἄλεκτος παρῆν εὐφροσύνη καί τις ἔνθεος ἅπασιν ἐπήνθει χαρά πάντα τόπον πρὸ μικροῦ ταῖς τῶν τυράννων δυσσεβείαις ἠρειπωμένον, ὥσπερ ἐκ μακρᾶς καὶ θανατηφόρου λύμης ἀναβιώσκοντα θεωμένοις, νεώς τε αὖθις ἐκ βάθρων εἰς ὕψος ἄπειρον ἐγειρομέν νους, καὶ πολὺ κρείττονα τὴν ἀγλαΐαν τῶν πάλαι πεπολιορκημένων ἀπολαμβάνοντας. particular account in Eusebius 97 and Socrates 98. But especially at Constantinople, where, among others, he built the beautiful church called Ecclesia Constantiniana, to the memory of the Twelve Apostles; which, as Eusebius 99 describes it, was vastly high, and yet had all its walls covered with marble, its roof overlaid with gold, and the outside, instead of tiles, covered with gilded brass. He also laid the foundation of the famous temple called Sancta Sophia, and Magna, which was finished and dedicated, thirty-four years after, by his son Constantinus, anno 360, who joined the Temple of Peace to it, (which was another church built by Constantine,) including them both in one, as Socrates' and the author of the Chronicon Alexandrinum2 inform us. Constantine's example was followed by the succeeding Emperors, but more especially by Justinian, who, among many other works of this nature, rebuilt the church of St. Sophia, which had been burnt down in the time of Anastatius. And now it became the glory of the world for its greatness, curious architecture, richness, and beauty; insomuch that Justinian himself, having finished it, was heard to say, 'Nevíκηκά σε, Σολομών, I have outdone thee, Solomon. They who are desirous to read the particular description of this church may find it briefly delineated in Evagrius3, Procopius, and 7 De Vit. Constant. l. 3. c. go tot. (ibid. p. 605.) et c. 51 tot. (p. 606.) 98 L. I. cc. 16-18. (v. 2. pp. 45, segg.) 99 De Vit. Constant. 1. 4. c. 58. (v. I. p. 659. 8.) Ἐπὶ τούτοις τὸ μαρτύριον ἐν τῇ ἐπωνύμῳ πόλει, ἐπὶ μνήμῃ τῶν ̓Αποστόλων οἰκοδομεῖν παρεσκευάζετο. Αὐτὸς δὲ νεὼν ἅπαντα εἰς ὕψος ἄφατον ἐπάρας, λίθων ποικίλαις παντοίων ἐξαστράπτοντα ἐποίει, εἰς αὐτὸν ὄροφον ἐξ ἐδάφους πλακώσας διαλαβὼν δὲ λεπτοῖς φαντώμασι τὴν στέγην, χρυσῷ τὴν πᾶσαν ἐκάλυπτεν· ἄνω χαλκὸς μὲν ἀντὶ κεράμου, φυλακὴν τῷ ἔργῳ πρὸς ὑετῶν ἀσφάλειαν παρεῖχε καὶ τοῦτον δὲ πολὺς περιέλαμπε χρυσός· ὡς μαρμαρυγὰς τοῖς πόρρωθεν ἀφορῶσι ταῖς ἡλίου αὐγαῖς ἀντανακλωμέναις ἐκπέμπειν· δικτυωτά δὲ πέριξ ἐκύκλου τὸ δωμάτιον ἀνάγ κυφα, χαλκῷ, καὶ χρυσῷ κατειργασμένα. 1 L. 2. c. 16. (v. 2. p. 95. 25.) Karà δὲ τὸν καιρὸν τοῦτον, καὶ ὁ βασιλεὺς τὴν μεγάλην ἐκκλησίαν ἔκτιζεν, ἥτις Σοφία μὲν προσαγορεύεται νῦν συνῆπται δὲ τῇ ἐπωνύμῳ Εἰρήνῃ, ἣν ὁ πατὴρ τοῦ βασιλέως, μικρὰν οὖσαν τὸ πρότερον, εἰς κάλλος καὶ μέγεθος ηΰξησε· καὶ νῦν εἰσὶν εἰς ἕνα περίβολον ἄμφω δρώμεναι, μιᾶς τὴν προσωνυμίαν ἔχουσαι. 2 Al. Paschale, an. 360. p. 685. [Paris. 1686. P. 294.] (ap. Byzant. Hist. Scriptor. t. 4. p. 235 b. 1.) Ἐπὶ τῆς αὐτῆς συνόδου τῶν ἐπισκόπων, οὐ μετὰ πολλὰς ἡμέρας τοῦ ἐνθρονισθῆναι τὸν Εὐδόξιον ἐπίσκοπον Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, τὰ ἐγκαίνια τῆς μεγάλης ἐκκλησίας τῆς αὐτῆς πόλεως ἐτελέσθη, δι' ἐτῶν λδ' μικρῷ πρὸς ἀφ ̓ οὐ θεμελίους κατεβάλλετο Κωνσταν τίνος. 3 L. 4. c. 31 tot. (v. 3. p. 411.) 4 De Edific. Justinian. 1. 1. c. I tot. (ap. Byzant. Hist. Scriptor. t. 2. pp. 5, seqq.) De Sancta Sophia. |