custom.

69

ter be a cor- speak more properly when he says, their lustral water rather ruption of

succeeded in its room. this ancient

For the washing of the Ancients had nothing of expiation in it, but was only an indifferent ceremony of corporal decency; or, at most, but an admonishing emblem of that purity of soul with which men ought to enter the courts of the most holy God. And therefore any one that compares these matters nicely together, must conclude, that the latter custom is but a fond imitation, or mere corruption, of the former; if it owe not rather its original to a worse fountain, the repuppavtýpua, or sprinkling with holy water, so often spoken of among the Heathen. The things are so like one another, that some modern transcribers of Sozomen have mistaken them for one another. For, whereas, Sozomen 6s, speaking of Julian's going into a temple to sacrifice, in Gaul, with Valentinian to attend him, says, “the priest sprinkled them with water as they went in, according to the heathen custom.' Valesius 69 has observed, that in some copies it is read, according to ecclesiastical custom, instead of heathen custom, which he imputes to some modern transcribers, who were minded to make church-holy-water of it; whom he ingenuously chastises for their ignorance or impudence in cor

rupting good authors, as they justly deserved. The 8. But to return to the business of the ancient churches. atrium,

Whilst we are speaking of the ante-temple it will not be
and porti-
coes in the improper to observe, that for many years after burying-
ante-tem-
ple, only places were allowed in cities, they were still kept out of
made use of that which was strictly and properly called the church, and
for burying
the dead.° only allowed in those parts of the ante-temple, the atrium

and porticoes which we have been describing; as appears
from a canon of the Council of Nantes 70, anno 658, which

successere, præsertim apud Latinos, culosum sit conjecturæ suæ indul-
quæ in templorum valvis exponi gere. Etenim antiquarius, qui codi-
solent lustrales undæ, uti, qui de cem illum descripsit, cum asper-
ritibus ecclesiasticis scripsere, pri- sionis aquæ mentionem fieri videret
dem docuerunt.

hoc loco, id more ecclesiastico fac-
68 L. 6. c. 6. (v. 2. p. 226. 16.)... tum esse credidit. Quasi non et
“ο ιερεύς νόμω Ελληνικό περιέρραινε Pagani hujusmodi aspersionibus a-
τους εισιόντας.

quæ lustralis usi fuerint diu ante
69 [In loc. supr. citat. (ibid. n. 1.) Christianiæ religionis exordium. No-
Quod idcirca hic retuli, non quod ta sunt veterum Græcorum epip-
scripturam eam probem, sed ut stu- pavrhpia. Grischoo.]
diosus lector perspiciat, quam peri- 70 C. 6. (t. 9. p. 470 a.) Ut in ec-

prohibits any to be buried in the church, but allows of it in the atrium, or porticus, or exedræ, of the church. Which I note, only to shew what use these parts of the ante-temple were put to. But of this more when we come to treat of cemetries and the funeral rites of the ancient Church.

CHAP. IV.

Of the interior narthex, and the parts and uses of it.

πυλα, Or

1. Having taken a view of the exterior narthex, or outward of the

lesser προante-temple, we are next led by Eusebius into the interior narthex, or ante-temple within the church. For in such stately porches

before the structures as that of Paulinus was, the narthex, or Tipováos, doors of which I English ante-temple, was a name common to more the church. parts than one. And in some of the most magnificent churches, as that of Sancta Sophia, as Du Fresne has observed, out of Procopius and Paulus Silentiarius, there were no less than four distinct nartheces. The entrance into the interior narthex, in the church of Paulinus, was out of the porticoes, or cloisters, before the church, by three inner porches, (tà èvdotátw Tpótvha, Eusebius calls them,) and as many gates, opening out of them, the middle one being the greatest and highest of the three, as we commonly see in our modern cathedrals, only with this difference, that those fronted to the east, and ours to the west. It had also porticoes adjoining on the north and south71, and as many porches and doors to enter out of them. These porches, in such churches as had no other ante-temple, served to receive the first class of penitents, called the mourners, which otherwise were remitted to the atrium and porticus before the church, as I have shewed already 72, in the temple of Paulinus. And these things are accurately to be observed by those who would not mistake the Ancients, when they seem to speak differently of the place of mourners. Du Fresne has also

clesia nullatenus sepeliantur, sed Jerusalem. (v. I. p. 598. 30.) 'Audi in atrio, aut [in] porticu, aut in ékátepa rà Theupà dirtWV OTOV exedris ecclesiæ. [al. extra eccle- ivayelwv te kai katayeiw didupou trasiam.]

ραστάδες το μήκει του νεώ συνεξετεί71 See also Euseb. de Vit. Constant. l. 3. c. 37. of the Church of 72 See ch. 3. 5.5. n.57, preceding.

1

VOVTO.

observed, out of Paulinus Nolanus 72, that these porches and
gates are sometimes called arcus, from the manner of their
structure, which was arch-work; and apsides for the same rea-
son, for apsis denotes any thing that is framed in the figure of
an arch or a convex, as the heavens; and therefore he thinks
the thirty-second canon of the third Council of Carthage 73 is
to be understood of this place, when it says, ' that such peni-
tents as had committed very notorious and scandalous crimes,
known to the whole Church, should have imposition of hands
before the apsis ;' that is, before the porch or doors of the
church. Here it was also that the poor of the Church placed
themselves, both before and after divine service, to ask alms of
such as came from the altar. Which custom is mentioned by
Gregory Nazianzen 74 and St. Chrysostom 75, who elegantly,
after his manner, upon this account styles the poor and aged,
and the lame and the blind, the guards of the royal palace,'

meaning the church.
Of the 2. Being entered by these gates into the church, the first
narthex,
πρόναος,
wpbvaes, or place that occurs to our view is the mpóvaos, or ante-temple,
ferula. within the walls. This in the modern Greek Rituals is always

called the narthex, and is peculiarly allotted to the monks or
women, and used to perform the offices of rogations, and sup-

72 Ep. 12. ad Sever. (p. 152.) Alma cunque autem pænitentis publicum
domus triplici patet ingredientibus et vulgatissimum crimen est, quod
arcu. [See Du Fresne himself, Com- universa ecclesia noverit, ante apsi-
ment. in Paul. Silent. p. 537. (ap. dem manus ei imponatur.
Byzant. Hist. Scriptor. t.13. p. 204.) 74 Orat. 16. de Amor. Pauper. (t.

Cum in Synodo 111 Carthagi- 1. p. 246 c.) Oi noloi dè aŭtwv oude
nensi, c. 32, cavetur, ut iis, quorum úm' aio xúvns tas navnyúpels Deúyov-
crimina publica sunt, ante absidem σιν αυτό μεν ουν τουναντίον, εις ταύ-
manus imponatur, id videtur intelli- τας ωθούνται διά την χρείαν, ταύτας
gendum de abside narthecis, ubi δή λέγω πανδήμους και ιεράς, ας ήμείς
consistebant pænitentes, non vero επί θεραπεία των ψυχών εξεύρομεν, ή
de absida, seu concha altaris.-It Kará te uvotņplov Ouvlóvres, ħ tois
would seem from this that, accord- páptvoi tñs åandeias Travnyupišovtes.
ing to Du Fresne, absis and absida 75 Hom. 10. [Corrige, Hom. 11.
are not exactly synonymous, as Sui- in 1 Thess. c. 5. (t. 11. p. 507 d.) Aià
cer seems to imply, where he states τούτο γάρ και εν ταις εκκλησίαις, και
that the Latin fathers always used εν τοις μαρτυρίοις προκάθηνται των
one or other of those forms. See προπυλαίων οι πένητες, ώστε ημάς εκ
Thes. Eccles. voce 'Ayis. (t. 1. p. ñs toutwv Béas torv déxeobal TNU
612. n. 2.)-See also the Author's ωφέλειαν. 'Εννόησον γάρ, ότι, εις
remarks on the same subject in an- μεν βασιλεία τα επί γης εισερχομένων
other place, b. 19. ch. 2. 3. 3., toge- ημών, ούδεν τοιουτόν έστιν ιδείν..
ther with the notes thereon. Ed.] Εις δε τα όντως βασιλεία, την εκκλη-

73 C. 32. (t. 2. p. 1171 e.) Cujus- riav léyw, K.7.d. Ev.]

plications, and night-watches in. Here also they placed dead corpses, whilst their funeral rites are performing, as Suicerus 76 shews at large out of their Triodion Pentecostarium and Typicum, and other authors. Morinus 77 thinks the ancient churches for above five hundred years had no narthex, but were divided only into two parts, the sanctuarium and aula laicorum, the place of the clergy and the place of the laymen, and that the narthex was first introduced by the Eastern monks in the sixth century. But in this he is evidently mistaken, for though the name, perhaps, be not very ancient, yet the thing itself is; for this was always a distinct and separate part of the church, as any one will easily imagine that considers the ancient use of it.

3. For the Church, ever since she first divided her catechu- The use of mens and penitents into distinct orders and classes, had also

catechudistinct places in the church for them. And this lower part of mens and

penitents the church was the place of the energumens, and such of the of the secatechumens and penitents as were commonly called åkpocue-cond order. vol, or audientes, that is, hearers ; because they were allowed to stand here to hear the Psalms and Scriptures read, and the sermon made by the preacher, after which they were dismissed without any prayers or solemn benediction; as may be seen in the author of the Constitutions 78, and the Canons of St. Basil 79, Gregory Nyssen So, and several others.

it for the

80

76 Thes. Eccles. voce Nápons. (t.

lam sive atrium laicorum, et sanctu2. p.391.) Nápont est locus in eccle- arium, in quo consistere episcopis, sia, etsi alii extra ecclesiam ponant: presbyteris, et diaconis tantum licecujus frequens mentio in libris ec- bat. Sanctum non modo iepatelov, clesiasticis Græcorum. Triodion in sed sæpissime Bñua vocarunt, ut et Sabbato sancto: “Η δε πρώτη ώρα άγιον των αγίων, quandoque etiam ψάλλεται εν τω νάρθηκι ομοίως, και άδυτα, ανάκτορον, et ιλαστήριον. Uai αι λοιπαι λιται ψάλλονται ομοίως έν surpari cepit νάρθηξ in Typicis et tô vápÔnkı. Pentecostarium in Do- Euchologiis post annos a Christo minica resurrectionis : Kai tepxó- nato quingentos. Tum enim orienμεθα άπαντες εν τω νάρθηκι διά του tales monachi ceperunt ecclesias in βορείου μέρους, κρατούντες και τα κη- tres partes dividere, ιερατείον, ναών,

, , , ρία ημμένα. Typicum, c. 25. Και καί νάρθηκα. ποιούμεν εν τω νάρθηκι παννυχίδα εις 78 L. 8. c.5. (Cotel. v. 1. p. 392.) τους κοιμηθέντας.

Και μετά την ανάγνωσιν του Νόμου και 77 De Penitent. 1. 6. c. Ι. 8. το. των Προφητών των τε'Επιστολών ημών (p. 357 a. 3.) Secundum [est] nus- και των Πράξεων και των Ευαγγελίων quam apud antiquos auctores dar- ασπασάσθω και χειροτονηθείς την έκthecis mentionem fieri. Antiqui enim κλησίαν .... και μετά την πρόσρησιν Græci, ut et Latini, ecclesias in duas προσλαλησάτω τω λαώ λόγους παραtantum partes distinxerunt, in au- κλήσεως και πληρώσαντος αυτού τον

:

6

Also for 4. Hither also both Jews and heathens, and heretics and Jews, hea

schismatics were sometimes allowed to come, to hear the thens, heretics, and Scriptures read, and the sermon preached, because this part schismatics to hear in.

of the service was for their edification and instruction. The Council of Laodicea 81, indeed, prohibits heretics to come within the church. But in Afric and other places it was allowed: for in the fourth Council of Carthage 82 there is a canon express to this purpose, “ that the bishop shall not prohibit any, whether Heathen, Heretic, or Jew, to come into the church, and stay there to hear the word of God, till the time of the dismission of the catechumens.' And it appears further from several, both of St. Chrysostom’s and St. Austin's Homilies, that this was the common practice. Now then it is reasonable to suppose, that all these had their station together in the lower part of the church, called the narther, or what

ever other name it went by. This not 5. Dr. Beveridge and some others seem here also to place the place of the font, or baptistery, as in our modern churches. But there

font, or baptistery, is nothing more certain than that, for many ages, the bap

της διδασκαλίας λόγον αναστάν- καρπούς της μετανοίας αξίους επιδείτων απάντων ο διάκονος εφ' υψηλού ξηται, τώ δεκάτω έτει εις την των πιτινος ανελθών κηρυττέτω Μήτις των στων ευχήν δεχθήτω, χωρίς προσφοακροωμένων" μήτις των απίστων. ρας και δύο έτη συστάς εις την ευχήν