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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	bishop_n	church_n	great_a	8,286	5	3.5391	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65619	An account of the churches, or places of assembly, of the primitive Christians from the churches of Tyre, Jerusalem, and Constantinople described by Eusebius : and ocular observations of several very ancient edifices of churches yet extant in those parts : with a seasonable application / by Sir George Wheler ...	Wheler, George, Sir, 1650-1723.; Eusebius, of Caesarea, Bishop of Caesarea, ca. 260-ca. 340.	1689 (1689)	Wing W1606; ESTC R34742	41,000	136

be acknowledged that this place and the Holy Table are indifferently called by the same Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in such places as the sence distinguisheth them And this Holy Place was called also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either from the Steps ascending to it or the Degrees that were placed in it And was ordinarily the most remote place and part of the Church towards the East as I shall shew afterwards But in this Famous Church of Tyre it seems to be placed in the Middle of the Church under the great Cupolo also by its being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every way separate from the Vulgar by Latice of Wood. From this Passage of Zonaras we are also inform'd that from hence the Bishop and Presbyters use to Preach and instruct the People which may also be proved by several others as great if not greater Authorities And so the placing of it here in the Middle was most convenient for a great Multitude of Auditors to stand round about him the Faithful nearest and the Katechumenoi and Penitents next to them So therefore I will place it in this Scheme of the Church of Tyre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What these Exhedrae and great Edifices were I find the Learned Valetius is at a stand to determine He supposeth they were the Baptistory or place where they used to Baptize or Secretarium the Vestery Salutatorium or the Place to keep the Sick in an Hospital Indeed in several Ancient Western Churches I have seen the Baptistory by it self a distance from the Churches as at Piza and Spalato but I never saw it in the Eastern Besides Eusebius speaks of them as the two Fountains in the Inner-Court or Cloyster which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Symbols of holy Cleansing or Purifying He also assigns the use of them to wit for Mansions for those who have need of Baptism and those that have need of Expiation to wit the Katechumenoi who staid there for to Study and to have Instruction and the Penitents who staid there to intreat the Church for Absolution and to do the Penance appointed by the Canons of the Church But some of these Buildings indeed might be assigned for Hospitals for the Poor and Sick and especially for Ancient Widows for whom the Ancient Church had all the Care and Veneration imaginable I do not doubt but among these also were Apartments for the Ministers attending the Divine Service and Prayers Night and Day if not for the Bishop himself Such as are mentioned by Eusebius to be annexed to the Portico about the Church of the Apostles at Constantinople to wit Palaces Baths Lodgins for Strangers and several other Necessary places for the use of those that kept the Temple that is the Ministers thereof which were built to the Cloysters The Placing of these as near as I can guess was parallel to the Great Vestibulum or Porch on each side and from thence in a single Row or in two Quadrangles to joyn up to the Basilico or inward Temple For so he makes them on the one part to be joyned to the Basilico 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And at the other to the Gates of the Middle Edifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have made them therefore to fill up the vacant Angles between the Courts on each hand so that they might have Doors into the several Cloysters or Portico's to the Temple as Eusebius seems to intimate before when he saith Those Cloysters were a convenient Habitation for those that yet had need of the first Institution or Instruction Whether the other two Spaces at the East End were filled up with Buildings is not certain but to fill up the Beauteous Symetry he every where expresseth I am apt to believe they were either for Houses for the Ministers or Hospitals for the Poor Sick and Widows And now I think every one must needs confess That they never saw any thing more Beautiful Magnificent and Uniform than this Primitive Cathedral of Tyre which was built immediately as soon as they had either Capacity or Liberty to do it And we read of no Murmurers that envyed the costly Devotion of those Pious Bishops and People bestowed on GOD their Saviour and Mighty Redeemer Nor were they by any charged with Superstition either upon that or any other account in that Glorious Age of the Church The Plane of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher CHAP. IV. Of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre THIS by the Piety of the Emperour Constantine was built over the Place where the Body of our Saviour was laid from the time of his Death to his Resurrection This Place as the most Eminent Monument of the Truth of the Christian Religion the Heathens had defiled covered it all over with Rubbish and Earth and then built a Temple to their most unclean Goddess Venus But the Memory of it being preserved by the Christians this Prophane Temple was demolished and the whole unsanctified Materials quite carried away and cleansed to the Rock by the Command of the Emperour where they found that Venerable Monument entire and perfect after so many years Which gave great Joy to the whole Church and especially the Pious Emperour who resolved there to erect a Glorious Church beyond any extant in any City in the World to be a Triumphant Trophy of the Glorious Victory of Christ over Death the World and the Devil And to that end wrote Letters to Macarius the Bishop of Jerusalem to consult about the Matter and Form of it And to all the Presidents and Governours of those Parts to be assistant with things Necessary and with all the most Precious Materials and ablest Architects and Workmen And this Eusebius describes at length by the Epistle it self and then in the 33d Chapter of his Third Book goes on thus Those things the Emperour wrote and the effect followed immediately after his words for in the very place of our Saviour's Sufferings was built the New Jerusalem over against the Old Famous City Which after the Impious Murther of our LORD suffered the utmost Desolation for the sake of its wicked Inhabitants The Emperour right over against it Erected the Trophy of Our SAVIOUR's Victory over Death adorned with Riches and Beauty And perhaps this was that New Jerusalem spoken of by the Prophets which the Blessed Words in many places in the Spirit of God doth celebrate First he Adorned the Holy Cave as the Chief Head and Principal part of the whole Work to wit the Divine Monument beside which the Angel cloathed with Celestial Light declared the Glad Tidings of Regeneration by our SAVIOUR to all the World. This I say as the Chief of the whole Work His Imperial Majesty adorned with wonderful Pillars with admirable Beauty and with all kind of Ornaments Thence you pass into a vast great Court open to the pure Air curiously Paved with Beautiful Stones encompassed at three Sides with long Portico's Because the Royal Temple was joyned to

The Altar From whence the whole place was also Anciently so called and that most frequently It is generally of Stone sustained sometimes by four Small Pillars and sometimes by one in the Middle And it is placed in the middle of this Holy Place as distant or rather more distant from the Eastern-Wall than the Door That at Athens seems to be placed something without this Concave according to the Scheme I then took of it So that there are two Rows of Pillars one on the Western and the other on the Southern side of it This had I know not whether very Anciently or no a Canopy over it sustained by four Pillars At Athens it was sustained by four Beautiful Pillars of Porphyry with Corinthian Capitals of White Marble which were very stately This Canopy was in the shape of a Cupolo or Hemisphere and therefore the Mystiologists compared it to the Heaven and the Table to the Earth in the midst of it figuring our Saviour's Descent and Ascent from Heaven The Vnity of the Altar was Sacred in the Primitive Church and is so to this day in the present Greek Church They never had any more than one Altar in one Church no more than more Bishops than one as S. Ignatius says As there is one Body of the Lord and One Cup for the Vnion of his Blood so there is One Altar and One Bishop They never Crammed their Churches with Altars against every Pillar and Post and in every Corner of the Church dedicated to every Saint and Angel in Heaven and Earth as the Romans do now Beyond this was the Holy Throne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 together with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Consistory as I think I may call it This was placed against the Wall of the Semicircular Concave consisting of several Steps or Degrees Semicircular also I remember they are in number Three and of White Marble in that of Athens and Prussia which are so High and Large that they are fit both to sit on and for those that sit a Degree higher to place their Feet on These Degrees were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the Top of which was placed a single Seat which was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Throne This might well be called also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Degrees or Steps but most properly as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a Tribunal or Judgment Seat It signifies also Surgestum or a Pulpit whence Orators use to plead as Monsieur Goar observes out of Demosthenes who speaks of himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as going up into the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Pulpit to speak an Oration Upon such a high Tribunal or Scaffold we often see the Emperor standing and sometimes sitting in Medals and Ancient Bass-Relieves both in Adlocutions to the Army and in distributing their Bounty to the People But these are of a different Figure from those in the Church for those were Square and these Semicircular This was lookt upon in the Christian Church as the Tribunal or Throne of Christ and his Apostles and as the Mercy Seat of God in the Temple and therefore was also called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Mercy Seat. Codinus informs us That the Emperour Justinian covered this with Gold Thô not as he saith for the Priests to stand upon to Reverence the Table But piously to Adorn the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Throne as the Chair of Christ and his Apostles In opposition to the Chair of Moses and conformable to that Glorious Throne or Mercy-Seat erected in the Temple Adorned with Cherubims on each hand as Seraphick Attendants thereon And not to be Worshipped as the late rather Subtil than Ignorant Bishop of Oxon would Insinuate to the World. On this Throne and so on the High Seat was placed the Written Word of God or Bible as Mr. Goar by the Connexion of his Discourse seems to intimate out of Symeon Thessalonicensis And so indeed it was placed in the Holy Council of Nice on a Throne intimating That that was the Law of God whence all true Judgment concerning either Faith or Manners must be taken And according to that we must both be judged by Christ and as his Ministers Judge in the Church of God for Edification and not Destruction On this Throne and Synthronon both the Bishop and his Presbyters use to sit together and that very Anciently as S. Ignatius intimates in almost all his Epistles Where he compares the Bishop in the Church to Christ and the Presbyters to the Apostles And Eusebius tells us That the Chair of S. James of Jerusalem wherein he Taught the People was kept till his time But whether the Bishop did always sit in the Highest Seat or Throne or in the middle of the Synthronon may be questioned from that of Balsamon in his Commentary upon the 2d Canon of the Council of Constantinople Wherein he saith It was granted to some Bishops even to sit upon the Throne in the Holy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Church committed to his Charge But that They did sit on the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 together is evident from the LVI Canon of the Council of Laodicea But this was not in Ancient times to make a Vain glorious and Pompous show in the Church but besides the Representation of Christ's Judgment Seat to put the People in mind of the Great Judgment to come it was the Chair of Christ and Seat of the Elders from whence the Bishops and Priests use to Preach to the People in the Name and by the Authority that Christ committed to them So Zonaras tells us That the Bishop was placed in a Seat on high in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Holy Place signi●ying That he ought according as the Canon prescribes to take care of the Clergy and teach the People Piety to inspect and diligently to observe the People under him from that Sublime place And that there also the Presbyters are commanded to assist and sit together with the Bishop that they also may be admonished from that High Seat to Teach and Instruct the People in holy Life and Conversation as they are given to be Fellow Labourers to the Bishop Socrates also and Zozomen inform us That this was the Ancient Custom shewing That S. John Chrysostom was the first that Preached in the Ambo or Reading Desk of the Church by Reason of the Multitude of People that Crouded up to Hear him On which Valesius brings us an old Constitution or Law of King Childebert importing the same thing and then sends us to Baronius who shews us That Gregory Nazianzen Preached within the Bema in the same Church that Chrysostom Preached in the Ambo or Pulpit The place he mentions is at the Latter end of his Epistle to the 150 Bishops where he bids all his Church his People and every thing in it Adieu Adieu O my Chair This Envied Height and this

Dangerous Council or Consistory of Chief Priests Priests become Honourable as well by Reverence as by Age. And you whoever you be about the Holy Table in any other Ministry of God and coming nigh to God who in near at hand And a little after Adieu ye Lovers of my Sermons and you who run and concur with me and you both Publick and Private Writers and thou Oppressed Chancel by those that Croud about the Word of God. Those Verses of Prudentius prove also the same thing Fonte sub adversa Gradibus sublime Tribunal Tollitur Antistes praedicat unde Deum This manner of Sitting together and both Preaching to the People and I believe Judging and pronouncing the Church-Censures from thence was also the Reason that the Assembly or consistory of the Bishop and his Presbyters was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned in the Scripure and often in S. Ignatius's Epistles and here by S. Gregory as if they were Successors of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Council of the Chief Priests and Elders among the Children of Israel On each hand of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Tribunal or Chancel viz. to the North and South are two other small Apartments about half the Bigness of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 covered usually at the Top with a small Cupolo as there is in like manner over the four Corners of the Temple which makes the whole Symetry of the Roof of it most Beautiful and Uniform Each of these have Two Doors one to Enter in from the Iles and another into the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That towards the North was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Reverend Dr. Beveridge shews at large but it is now called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the present Greeks and in the present Rubricks both of S. Chrysostoms and S. Basils Liturgies There is usually a little Table in it and a Nich in the Wall where they lay up the Bread that is offered by the People or brought in for the Sacrament There also they prepare the Sacrament with some Ceremonies before they carry it solemnly in to the Altar and thither they carry it again to Eat and Drink up the Remains when the Liturgy is finish'd Which Table they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as the Bread 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and thence it is they carry it solemnly into the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 coming first out by the the Door towards the Ilo and thence enter in by the Great Door in the Middle The other on the South side they at present call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is commonly furnished with Shelves one above another whereon they lay their Books their Vestments and holy Vessels in such places as they dare keep them in the Church I have observed these Places in very Ancient Churches as at St. Luca and Corfu And those vast Ruins of Troy seem much to have been a Christian Church from this conformity of two Lesser Concaves on either hand of the Great one in the Middle The Material Church of the Ancients was thus Prepared and Adorned for the Solemn and Publick Worship of Almighty God. And thus Contrived for the Accommodation of every Class of the Spiritual Building to the Edification of the whole in Faith and Love according to the Measure of Grace that every one had received from the Lord. Here you see Magnificence without Gaudiness Splendor and Gravity mixt together Comliness and Beauty with Order and Reverence And all far from Foppery and Superstition The Edification of the whole in Love was the chief Concern of those truly Great and Zealous Pastors Thô they neglected not the External Reverence Decency and Order in their Assemblies yet it was with Regard to the Purifying the Flock of Christ even as he had given them Precepts and Examples to be Pure knowing this that without Holiness in Christ no man should see the Lord. And this They zealously pursued without looking for the Recompence of Reward that Man should give them but that Crown of Immortal Glory that the Righteous Judge should give them in that Day CHAP. IX The Order the Christian Assemblies were held in AS Their CHURCHES were Grave and yet Magnificent so was the ORDER of their Assemblies managed with great Simplicity and yet with great Authority and Spiritual Vigor with great Order yet with useful Plainness Their Ritual seems to be but short yet much better than the Great Volumes of Ceremonies the World has since seen in both the Eastern and Western Churches The Order of their Assemblies seem to be comprized in that short but excellent Canon of the Council of Laodicea Can. 19. That Men ought first to perform their own Devotions privately alone or by himself After that the Homilies of the Bishops and the Prayers of the Catechists is to be performed And after the going out of the Catechists the Prayer of the Penitents is to be performed and after these are Ministred to and departed thus shall the Three Prayers of the Faithful be made One to wit The first in Silence but the second and third shall be performed with a Loud Voice After which thus shall the Peace be given After the Presbyters have given the Peace to the Bishop the Laicks shall give the Peace and so the Holy Offering or Sacrament to be celebrated And it is fit that only the Clergy should enter in unto the Altar and there to Communicate Justin Martyr describes the Christian Assemblies to be held in much the same manner only he mentions the Reading the Scriptures before the Sermon On the Day which is called Sunday there is a Meeting together in one place of all that remain in the Cities and Countries And there they Read both out of the Apostles and out of the Writings of the Prophets so much as is sufficient for the time Then when the Reader leaves off the Bishop or President Preaches a Sermon Exhorting them to the Imitation of those Good things After which we usually all stand up and pour forth Prayers And as I said before when we desist from Praying Bread and Wine and Water is offered and the Bishop according to his ability offers Prayers and Thanksgiving and the People with a chearful Voice say Amen Then follows the Giving and Receiving of the Eucharist to Every one And to those that are not present it is sent by the Deacons Those that are Rich and willing every one according to his own Pleasure gives what he pleaseth What is Collected is deposited with the Bishop or President and he disspenceth it to the Orphans and Widows Sick or those who upon any Account are in want c. This Order seems very natural proper and most useful especially for those Times when the World was to be taught and not forced as by the Romans to profess what they either cannot understand or the more they do they see it to be Error Nonsense and