longer kept up in practice the very knowlege of them was soon after lost and Penance was now made so gentle a thing that Confession was the most dreadful part of it IN the Thirteenth Century the Ancient LIII The great number of Doctors Discipline received this blow The Authority of Tradition had carryed it down through the Ages foregoing and it may be said the Church never was so great a sufferer by simple Ignorance as by new Speculations They now began in their Scholastick Disputes to depend too little upon pure Authority and were over fond of working out every thing by their own Reasonings Aristotle grew much in fashion And the Subtilties of Logick and Metaphysicks which they borrowed from the Arabians were in mighty request The scarcity of Antient Books and the difficulty of understanding them by reason of the change of Language and Customes Tempted them somuch the more to apply themselves to Speculations and the Reading of the Moderns Thus the Scholastick Divinity was more valued than the Positive Gratian and the Master of the Sentences were read more than the Fathers and in the Scriptures they were more curious in hunting after a Figurative Sense then careful to observe the Literal After the Twelvth Age the greatest part of the Bishops applyed themselves but little to Preaching and the Instruction of their Clergy They suffered themselves to be encumbred with Temporal affairs The Laiety and especially the Princes being Bred up in Ignorance knew not how to Manage without the assistanstance of the Clergy 'T was out of the Bishops and Abbots that they chose their Chancellours and Ministers of State They were made Judges in almost all Causes Without going any farther their Temporal Lordships found them work enough the Wars in which they were often forced to engage the fortifying their Garrisons and assembling their Troops They were obliged to maintain grand Equipages large Families and all sort of Officers In the midst of so much business the Spiritual part which ought to have been the chiesest was too often neglected Thus Studying Preaching and the Administring the Sacraments fell to the Lot of the Doctors of whom the Universities were full but chiefly into the Hands of the Religious Mendicants who came in very seasonably to the Relief of the Church in these unhappy Ages But these Religious how holy and how Zealous soever they might be were not Proper Pastors over any certain people nor had they any regular Jurisdiction They were rather a sort of Missionaries who following the orders of their Superiors travelled throughout all the Dioceses Labouring in the Conversion of Hereticks and Sinners Nor were their Labours without Success But the good services they did the Church took not their full effect for want of power to continue their farther Instructions to those whom they had converted to correct their Miscarriages and compleat their Work by abiding with them and watching over them till they had established them beyond relapse in the Right way All this they could do only to some particular Persons who voluntarily Resigned themselves to their Direction So that the Fruits of their Labours could not be of so general Effect as when every Bishop closely applyed himself to the Edification of his own Flock The Case was much the same with them in respect of Studies The Doctors whether Seculars or Regulars that were in possession of the Chairs had scarce any thing of Authority besides what their personal Merit procured them It was free for the Students to follow what Profession they liked best And from hence arose that Diversity of Sects and Opinions concerning matters that were allowed to be disputed For as there were a great number of Doctors who were not employed in the Cure of Souls but spent their whole time in the Schools they had leasure to treat of many Questions more Thomass discipl iv l. 1. c. 69. n. xi Curious then useful The Laicks also were left at their own Liberty to follow what Preachers they most Affected and to chuse to themselves their own Confessors besides their proper Pastors So that among such a mnltitude of Priests bad Christians could not fail of meeting with some or other who would give them Absolution upon very easy Terms And thus such as were willing to be deceived themselves or had a mind to Deceive others did not forbear without mending their Manners to frequent the Churches and come to the Sacraments The greatest part of the Doctors themselves were born down by the Stream of the Corruption of the People and suffered many considerable Relaxations of Discipline to plead Prescription The little knowledge they had of the ancient Manners of the Church was the principal cause of this Mischief The usages introduced an Age or two before went down with them for immemorial Customs It is strange for instance that in the Days of St. Thomas Aquinas they should not remember how they kept their Fasts in the S. Bern. Serm. in cap. Jejun Age preceeding For St. Bernard assures us that in his time all the World without distinction observed in Lent not to break their Fast till Evening Kings and Princes Clergy People gentle and Simple Rich and Poor all of them did so and yet St. Thomas not only plainly tells us that in his S. Thom. ii ix 147. art 7. ad i. time none Fasted beyond three of the Clock in the Afternoon but also pretends to prove That Christians ought not to Fast after any other manner and that Fasting till the Evening was peculiar to the old Law So easy a thing is it to find arguments to justify all sorts of Practices when one is ignorant of Fact This Ignorance made them look upon Antiquity as Novelty and the Authority of the Moderns as a surer Ground to proceed upon than that of the Antients of whom they had only a confused notion that their Manners were altogether different from ours without sufficiently distinguishing whether this diversity lay in any of the Essentials of Christianity or only in such indifferent matters as Habits and Language And as they gave themselves the liberty of starting every Day new Questions and inventing new Subtilies there arose at last a set of Casuists who founded their Morals rather upon human Reason than upon Scripture and Tradition as if Jesus Christ had not taught us all Truth as well for Manners as for Faith but had left us still to seek with the ancient Philosophers I SHALL not pretend to give a particular LIV. A succession of found Doctrin and good examples in all times of the disorders that followed upon these loose Principles which they brought into their new System of Morality they are but too well known of themselves Nor is it my design to describe the manners of bad Christians which are no better than those of other Men my business is only to represent the manners which distinguish true Christians from the rest of the World Now God hath never so forsaken his
the House of God or the House of the Lord they rarely made use of the name of Temple and never within the Compas of my reading of Delubrum or Fanum The names of Particular Churches were often taken from their Founders as at Rome the Titulus Pastoris the Basilica of Liberius or Sixtus which is now St. Mary the great or from the Ancient Name of the House as Basilica Laterana Afterwards they came also to make use of Churches built by the Heathens when they found them fit for the use of Religion So in Rome they Converted the Pantheon the Temple of Minerva of Fortuna Virilis with some others into Christian Churches The Churches were not only large and Beautiful as to the make of them but also looked after with great care and always kept Neat and Clean. St. Jerome Epist de fun Nepot gives a special Commendation of Nepotian the Priest for the care he took of keeping his Church in good order The Walls dry and free from Smut and Mould the Pavements rubbed the Sacristy clean the Vessels shining the Door-keeper always upon his Office This was the busines of the inferior Officers under what Name soever they went as Door-keepers Mansionaries Camerarii Sacristans and Cubiculari Aeditui there was a great number of these Officers in the larger Churches We may see Pontific Rom. V. Baron an lviii n. 102. yet in the form of Ordination what was the proper charge of the Ostiaries They were at the Regular Hours to give notice for Prayers and consequently it belonged to them to Ring the Bells when once the use of Bells was brought into the Church which was about the seventh Age. It was their business to open the Church Doors at the usual time and to stand at them upon their Duty to keep Infidels or Excommunicated Persons from Entring They kept the Keys and took care that nothing was lost We find in Dial. i. c. v. iii. c. xxiv Paul Nat. iii. vi the Dialogues of St. Gregory that the Mansionaries had the charge of the Lamps 'T was these Inferior Officers that Dres't up the Church against the more solemn Festivals either with Silk Tapesteries or other rich Hangings or only with Boughs and Flowers In a Word they were to do every thing that was necessary to keep the Holy Place fit for making Impressions of Reverence and Piety upon those who approached it All these Functions appeared too Considerable to be permitted to pure Laicks So that 't was thought necessary to Establish these new Orders of Minor Clerks on purpose to ease the Deacons and to take off some part of their Charge THOUGH t' is true the Christian XXIX Devotion assisted by Sense Religion is altogether Inward and Spiritual yet Christians are Men as well as others and therefore not above the power of Sence and Imagination Nay we may say that the greatest part of Man-kind scarce Act or Live upon any other Principle How few apply themselves to Operations purely Intellectual and they that do so find their thoughts easyly Diverted from Spiritual Objects Devotion therefore must be assisted by the Impressions of Sense Were we Angels we might Pray in all places alike in the hurry of the Roads in the Crowd of the Streets in the Noise of the Guard-Chamber in the Roaring and Riots of a Tavern over the Stenches of a Common-Shore Why then do we shun these places of Distraction and when we would be Devout seek after Silence and retiredness but only as a Remedy against the Impotence of Sense and Imagination 'T is not God that hath need of Temples and Oratories but We. He is equally present in all Places and always equally ready to hear us everywhere but we are not always in a frame of Spirit fit to Speak to him So that 't is a needless and useless peice of Work to Consecrate particular places to his Service unless they be also put into a Condition proper to assist our Devotion Let us Suppose for Example that which we see too often in these later Times a Church so ill Scituated that it Ecchoes with the Noises of an Adjacent Street or a Neighbouring Market and so nastily kept that one can scarce sit down or kneel in it for Dirt suppose it thron'd with such a Herd of People promiscuously crowded together that they who attend upon Prayer are every Moment justled and trampled upon by others pushing on their way through them and continually interrupted with Children's Crying or Playing Loud Beggars Bawling about their Ears Add to this that you have nothing before your Eyes but disagreable Objects the Walls covered over with a filthy Smut and Mouldiness the Pictures disfigur'd with Dust and Cobwebbs and placed in an ill Light the statues of a deformed Make or half of them broken off and the other Ornaments in as ill a condition In fine to omit nothing offensive to sense for Incense an horrid fume of stinking Vapours and for Musick a multitude of untuned Voices jumbled together in Croaking Sounds It will be much easyer for a Man to Pray in an open Field or in a lone uninhabited House then in such a Church as this On the contrary let a Man go into a Church well built beautifully adorned and neatly Kept where all things are still and quiet the People well placed and the Clergy performing the Office in a regular manner and with a becoming Reverence and Humility he will find himself insensibly Engaged to attend the Service he is upon with a composedness of Thought and be able to Pray with the Heart at the same 1 Cor. xiv 14. time he speaks with his Lips Of this the Bishops of the First Ages were very sensible Those Holy Persons were either Greeks or Romans many of them great Philosophers all of them trainep up in the nicest observance of all the Rules of Decency They knew that the order Grandeur and agreeableness of exteriour Objects have a natural Efficacy in them of exciting in the mind Noble pure and well regulated Thoughts and that the Affections follow those Thoughts But that 't is next to impossible to keep the Soul Intent upon that which is good while the Body is uneasy or the Imagination disobliged They thought Devotion a matter of that Importance that it required all the assistance which could handsomly be given it and therefore took care to have the publick Services of the Church especially that of the Sacrifice Celebrated with all possible Majesty and the People assisting at it accommodated with all imaginable Conveniencies that so they might be brought on to take delight in the House of Prayer and to approach it with Reverence And they were at the same time sufficiently Cautions also to keep out of the Holy Places all the Extravagances of a Worldly Pomp all the appearances of a wanton Vanity or whatsoever might have a tendency to Effeminate the mind or strike the Senses with dangerous Impressions 'T was not their design to
Office of reconciling Differences and making up the Breaches of Friends Yet did they not suffer their other Engagements to take them off from Preaching and that very often too as thinking that they could not otherwise discharge the Duty of their Place and looking upon the work of Preaching as one of the most Essential parts of their Ministry For in the first Age all Bishops were Preachers and scarce were there any other Preachers besides them 'T was in the East they first began to make here and there a Priest of an extraordinary Talent Euseb vi Hist 20. a Preacher as Origen nay and sometimes the Laicks themselves when they found them very understanding Men. We find also in the West during the Persecutions S. Paulin. not that St. Felix though no more then a Priest was a Preacher at Nola. But these Examples were so unfrequent that many have taken St. John Chrysostome and St. Austin to have been the first Priests to whom the Bishops entrusted this Ministry Hence it is that our Modern Preachers find the Sermons of the Fathers so different from that Idea of Preaching which they have formed to themselves Their Discourses are plain without any appearance of Art without the exactness of Method without the subtilties of Ratiocination without the curiosity of Learning nay some of them without any Pathos and the greatest part of them very short And 't is true these holy Bishops did not set up for Oratory and Harranguing They pretended to no more than to instruct their People in a plain and Familiar way as Parents speak to their Children or Masters to their Scholars And therefore their Pulpit Discourses were called in Latin Sermons and in Greek Homilies which words note such kind of Discourse as is used in common Conversation Their busines in expounding the Scripture was to handle it after such a manner as might prove most to the edification of their Hearers so that they did not pretend to examin every Word and Phrase with the exactness of a Critick or to Lanch out into curious Enquiries as the Grammarians explained Homer and Virgil in their Schools They expounded the Scriptures according to the Tradition of the Fathers so as they might tend most to the Confirmation of Faith and the Reformation of Manners They endeavoured to work upon the Affections not so much by the vehemence of Figures and the force of Declamation as by the weight and Importance of the Truths they delivered by the Authority of their Office by the Sanctity of their Lives and the Exemplariness of their good Works As for their Stile That they suited to the capacity of their hearers The Sermons of St. Austin are the plainest of all his Works the Stile of them is much shorter and much easier than that of his Epistles because he Preached in a little City to Labourers Traders and Seamen but in his Tracts of Controversy especially in his Books against Julian one may see that he had not forgot his Art of Rhetorick which he was Professor of for so long a time On the contrary St. Cyprian St. Ambrose and St. Leo who preached in great Cities delivered themselves with more of pomp and Ornament Yet their stiles vary according to the Particularity of their Genius or the relish of the Ages they lived in But we must observe that the faults with which the modern Humanists reproach the Fathers are not to be attributed to the subject of Religion These Criticks charge the Fathers with Impropriety of Language making use of feeble Arguments poor Ornaments farfetch'd Allegories playing with Words and Chiming of Syllables These were the faults of the Age not of the Men. Had they lived in the Age of Cicero or Terence they had spoken as Cicero and Terence The Greek Fathers come nearer to the Ancient Authors Language had not undergone so great a change in the East nor had the Studies of Polite Learning been there so much neglected The works of these Fathers are for the most part very Solid and very entertaining And among the rest St. John Chrysostom is to my thinking the compleat Pattern of a Preacher His usual method was to begin with explaining the Scripture verse by verse as pronounced by the Reader keeping himself always to the most literel Sense and that which most tended to Practice He concluded with a general Exhortation which hath many times little relation to the foregoing part of his Discourse but was proportioned to the present Exigencies of his Flock and directly applyed to his Auditors themselves as so prudent and vigilant a Pastor saw their Case required We may observe also that it was his way to encounter Vices Singly one by one and when he began with any one he never gave over the Pursuit till it was either entirely Routed or at least very much disabled These Holy Preachers did not propose either Fame or Profit to themselves by Preaching but the Conversion of their Hearers That was the only thing they aimed at and that they pursued with all their Might and never thought they had done enough till they had effectually wrought the Change they desired Thus St. Austin undertook to abolish the Practise Epist xxix his People had taken up of making entertainments on the Feasts of the Martyrs which were degenerated into Debauches but notwithstanding the strength and prevalence of the custome he broke it off He shewed the People the Evil of that Practise from express Texts of Scripture condemning the sinfulness of immoderate Eating and Drinking and with Tears in his Eyes exhorted and intreated for two Days together till he had effectually prevailed There was no danger then of having different Doctrines taught in one and the same Church for there was no other Preacher or Teacher but the Bishop himself or some Priest chosen by him who Preached there only by his apointment and generally in his presence In Sermon time the Church was open to all comers even to the Infidels Which Meth. deâ— Peres c. xii is the reason that the Fathers were so cautions in keeping the Mysteries Secret to themselves never speaking of them from the Pulpit save only in an Aenigmatical way Hence also it is that we often find in their Sermons some part of the Discourse directed to the Heathens to Const Ap. ii c. lvii draw them to the Faith During the time of the Lessons and Sermon the Audience were regularly seated the Men on one side of the Church and the Women on the other and to be separate and at a greater distance from the rest of the Congregation the Women went up into the Galeries where there were any The more elderly Persons sat in the uppermost Seats their Fathers or Mothers held the little Children before them for they carryed them to Church with them provided they were Baptized When all the seats were filled the younger People continued standing on their Feet There were Deacons appointed on purpose to see this order observed and to take
care that every one heard with attention not to suffer any body to Sleep Laugh Whisper or make Signes in a Word to keep every body silent Regular and Well behav'd In Africa St. Austin takes notice that the People Stood all Sermon time but August de Catechiz rud c. xxiii he himself better approved the custom of the Transmarine Churches as he calls them where they Heard Sitting The Sermon being over the Deacons Const Apost viii c. vi Conc. Laod. c. xix obliged all those who were not to receive the Sacrament to depart And in the first place the Audientes and Infidels Afterwards they made their Prayers for the Catechumens and caused them to Dionys. Hier. Eccl. c. iii. Chrysost hom iii. in ep ad Ephes. depart then they Prayed for the Energumeni or those that were Possessed with Evil Spirits and caused them to go out after that they did the like for the Competentes and at last also for those under Penance Thus there remaining in the Church only the Faithful without any mixture they made their Prayers for the whole state of Christ's Church for all Orders and conditions of Men whether Ecclesiastical or Civil for all that were any ways Afflicted or Distressed for their Enemies and for their Persecutors The Deacon put them in mind whom they were then to Pray for and the Bishop pronounced the Words of Prayer after the same form and manner as is still observed in our Churches on Good-friday At other Masses we now supply these Prayers by those of the Prone Then the Bishop Saluted the People again and the Deacon said with a loud Voice Has any one any thing to object against any Man Is there here any one not heartily Reconciled Embrace one another Then as a sign of their being all in perfect Charity they gave each other the Kiss of Peace the Clergy by themselves and amongst the Layety the Men by themselves and the Women by themselves AFTER all these preparatorys began XXXII The Sacrifice and Sacred Habits the Sacrifice The Deacons assisted by the Subdeacons spread the Cloath on the Altar and upon another Table now called the Credence from that Italian Word signifying a Cupboard they set in order the Communion Plate and amongst the rest the Patens and Calices and for Decency and Cleanliness sake covered them with a Cloath over them Then as the Author of the Apostolical Constitutions Const Apost viii c. xii informs us the Bishop came to the Altar in a rich Habit. Which shews that they had even in those Days particular Habits for the Altar Not that those Habits had any thing singular in the make or Figure of them The Chasuble was a common wearing Habit in the time of St. Austin and the August 22. Civit. c. viii de Florentio Sartore Hippon V. ff devestim leg like we find of the Dalmatick in the time of the Emperror Valerian The Stole was a kind of Cloak and worn by Women as well as Men we have now confounded it with the Orarium which was a kind of Linnen Handkerchief worn by V. Thomass Discipl P. i. l. i. c. 31. P. ii l. i. c. xxiii those who affected Neatness to wipe the Sweat off their Necks and Faces And the Maniple was only a Napkin hanging Mappula cross their Arms for their more decent serving at the Holy Table The Albe it Surplice self that is the White Robe of either Linnen or Woollen was not at the beginning an Habit peculiar to Clerks since the Emperor Aurelian gave the People of Vopis Aur. Rome a largess of these kind of Tunicks as well as of those large Handkerchiefs which they called Oraria But as afterwards when the Albe was the common Habit of the Clergy in which they allways appeared the Priests were enjoyned to have by them one particular Hom. Leon. P. iv to viii Conc. P. xxxiv Constit Riculfi Suess c. 7. an 589. to ix Conc. Albe never to be put on but at the Altar that they might then appear unfullied So t is probable that when they commoly wore the Chasuble and the Dalmatick they had particular ones for the use of the Altar not differing in Shape from the common sort but of richer Stuffs and Livelyer Colours Above all the Canons require of the Priests and Deacons never to Conc. Brae iv c. iii. an 675. Conc. Laod. c. xii 13. perform the publick Offices of the Church without having on their Orarium the use of which was at the same time forbidden to the Inferiour Ministers They were willing that the Clergy even by their Figure and Appearance should give the People a great notion of their Character That their Faces their Hands and their Cloaths appearing clean and without spots might be a sign of an inward Purity and Innocence that the Modesty and Gravity of their Looks their Air and Motion might command Respect and excite Religion The Prelates were so Nice herein that St. Ambrose turned out of the number of the Clergy two Persons Amb. ii off c. 19. the one for an Indecent Mien and the other for an unseemly way of Walking And the event justifyed the judgment he made both upon the one and the other But here it must still be remembred that those Fathers were Greeks and Romans who had the highest Ideas of true Decorum and were polished to the greatest exactness The Bishop standing at the Altar took from the Hands of the Deacons the Oblations they had received from the People but in some Churches the Bishop himself Ordo Rom. went to receive the Offerings of the more honourable Persons such as the Senators and their Wives at Rome For all Persons Great and Small the Magistrates and Princes themselves Communicated together On the Altar was placed only Can. Apost iii iv the Bread and Wine which was to be the matter of the Sacrifice As for all other sorts of Oblations the Luminary the Money in Specie and whatsoever else the Faithful offered for the Occasions of the Church the Deacons received those and laid them up in Places appointed for that purpose 'T is true they laid upon the Altar the new Fruits to have a Benediction pronounced over them at the end of the Sacrifice They used for the Eucharist no other Bread but what was offered by the People and blessed by the Bishop and as a sign of Communion with those that were Epist deer Inocenti ad decentium absent they sent to them some of the Bread blessed but not Consecrated All the faithfull were obliged to offer at least all that were to Communicate nor was it thought reasonable that the Rich should Communicate of that which the poor offered The Bishop himself made his offering and to that purpose there was at Ordo Rom. Rome the Bishops Oblationary Subdeacon So that the Loaves of Bread came in there in such vast Numbers that the Altar was as is expressed
Their Church Assembly's Liturgy and outward form of Worship Justin ii Apol. in fi on the Lord's-Day which the Heathens called Sunday and which the Christians honoured above all Days in the Memory of the Creation of Light and of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ The place of their Assembly was generally some private House where they chose for this purpose one of the dining Rooms which the Latins called Caenacula and which were the upper Chambers of the House such was that upper Room Act. xx 7 c. from whence fell the young Man Eutychus whom St. Paul recovered to Life which we find was three Stories high enlightned with many Lamps where the Faithful were met together on the Night of the Lord's-Day for the Breaking of Bread that is for the Celebration of the Mysteries which was followed with a repast viz. the Love-Feast In the Persecutions they were often forced to hide themselves in the Cryptae or Hollow places v. Baron an lvii n. xcix under Ground without the Cities like the Catacombs still to be seen at Rome When they had more Liberty they met in Publick Places known by all to be the Idem an ccxxiv n. iii. an 245 n. 302. Euseb viii Hist. c. iii. Churches of Christians We see Examples thereof in the reigns of the Emperors Alexander and Gordianus The Emperor Gallienus causing a stop to be put to the Persecutions gave order that the Christians should have their Cemiteries restored to them near which commonly stood their Churches and when Paulus Samosatenus was deposed the Emperor Aurelian commanded the Church viz. the Ibid 30. Material Church of the place to be restored to those who continued in Communion with the Bishop of Rome Some of these publick Churches had been before Private Houses as that of the Senator St. Martyr Rom. xx Jun. Pudens the happy Father of so many blessed Children St. Novatus and St. Timotheus the Priest and the Virgins St. Pudentiana and St. Praxeda This illustrious Family had been instructed in the Faith by the Apostles themselves and their House was turned into a Church by the Priest St. Pastor There were often also new Buildings erected on purpose for this use A little before the Dioclesian Persecution they had in all Cities Churches new built from the Ground so mightily was the number of the Faithful encreased and the Persecution began by the pulling Euseb viii Hist. c. iii. down these Churches In these Assemblies they said their Prayers before mentioned at the stated Hours of the Day and Night But the chief work of their meeting together was to offer the Sacrifice which could not be done without a Priest They called it either by the Scripture names of the Supper the breaking of Bread the Oblation or by the names afterward received in the Church as the Synaxis that is to say Assembly Dominioum Collecta Cypr. Ep. lxiii ad Caecil in Latin Collecta the Eucharist that is Thanksgiving the Liturgy that is the Publick Service In the time of the Persecutions for fear of meeting with disturbance from the Infidels they sometimes administred it before Day There was but one Sacrifice in each Church that is in each Diocess 'T was the Bishop that Offered it nor did the Priests do it but in case of the absence or Indisposition of the Bishop But they assisted him in performing the Service and all of them Offered together with him The Order of the Liturgy hath been changed according to the difference of Times and Places Some Indifferent Ceremonies have been added to it and some others retrenched but the Essentials have remained always the same The Account we find of it in the first Times is this After some Prayers followed the reading St. Just. ii Apol. in fi of the Holy Scriptures first out of the Old Testament and then out of the New They always concluded with a Lesson out of the Gospel which when Read the Bishop Expounded adding thereto some proper Exhortation suited to the occasions of his Flock That ended they all rose up and turning their Faces to the East with hands lift up to Heaven they Prayed for all sorts and Conditions of Men for Christians and Infidels great and small particularly for all that were any ways afflicted or distressed in Mind Body or Estate A Deacon called upon them to Pray a Priest pronounced the Words of Prayer and the People gave their Assent by answering Amen Then Cypr. Ep. lxiii the Gifts were offered that is the Bread and Wine mingled with Water which was to be the matter of the Sacrifice The People gave the Kiss of Peace Men to Men and Women to Women in token of their perfect Unity After that every one gave his Offerings to the Priest and he in the name of them all offered them up to God Then he began the solemnity Cypr. de Orat. of the Sacrifice calling upon the People to lift up their Hearts to God and with the Angels and all the Heavenly powers to Laud and Magnifie his glorious Name next he proceeded to repeat the History of the Institution and pronoucing the Words of our Saviour he St. Just made the Consecration after that together with the People he rehearsed the Lords-Prayer and having himself received the Communion he gave it the Deacons for the rest of the Congregation For Regularly all those that entred the Church were to Communicate especially Can. Apost ix 10. all that Ministred at the Altar As for those who had not the opportunity of assisting at the Sacrifice in Person the Eucharist was sent to them by the Hands of Deacons or the Acolythi They reserved part of it also to be always in readiness for the Viaticum for Dying Persons as a provision for their Journy They permitted the Faithful to carry it Home to take it every morning before they touched any other Food Tertull. i. ad uxor c. v. or upon sudden occasions in case of Danger as when they should be called to suffer Martyrdom These things were admitted in those Days For they had not then the liberty of meeting together and celebrating the Mysteries when they pleased That which was thus carryed abroad was onely the Bread Though in their publick Assemblies all in General communicated under both kinds excepting little Children to whom was given only the Wine The Agapa or Love-Feast which in these first times followed the Communion was a Repast of ordinary Food which they took altogether in the same place where they had Communicated In after times it was given only Const Apost ii c. xxviii to the Widows and the Poor There was always set aside a Portion for the Pastor though Absent The Priests and Deacons had a double Portion Every one also of the Readers Singers and Door-Keepers had their share of it 'T WAS in these same Assemblies that XIV The secret of the Mysteries as far as was possible they Administred the other
as you are if you are so fond of dying can you not find Ropes to hang your selves or Praecipices from whence you may break your Necks Thus all the World were set against the Christians the People and the Magistrates the Ignorant and the Wise By the one they were abhorred as Impostors and abominable Impious Wretches by the other they were dispised as a company of Man haters Visionary Foolish and Melancholick People Intoxicated with an unaccountable Frenzy of throwing away their Lives for nothing So Odious and Despicable were they in the sight of the World that scarce any one would vouchsafe somuch as to change a Word with them such was the Prejudice all Men had conceived against the Christians that the very Name of Christians was sufficient for their Condemnation and destroyed BonusVâ— C. Seius tantum qùod Christianus Tertul. Ap. c. iii. whatsoever else of good was found to be in them Such a one was their common saying is an Honest Man were it not for the misfortune of his being a Christian THAT the Christians being so universally XVI The Persecutions the maner of proceeding against them Their Punishments hated should be Persecuted is not strange but this one may justly wonder at That the Romans who in their Laws and Government and in their other Conduct gave such Proofs of their Wisdom and Equity should practice against their fellow Romans or indeed against any human Creatures such cruelties as we read of in the History of the Martyrs That the Judges should cause the Person accused to be put to the Torment in their own Presence in open Court in the view of the whole World that they should employ such different sorts of Tortures upon them and that as for all that appears meerly Arbitrary It may be worth our while therefore to observe in all this what was owing to the standing Customs and Constitutions of their Government and what was supperadded thereto by a false Zeal for Religion and Reasons of State The Romans tried all Causes in open Court all their Processes as well Criminal as Civil the Charge as well as the Sentence was given in some publick place where under a covered Gallery the Magistrate Cic. iv Ver. i. l. c. xl seated himself in his Tribunal raised on high above the rest of the People and surrounded with the Officers of the Court the Lictors with Axes and Bundles of Rods in their Hands attending him and the Soldiers standing by always in a readiness to execute his Orders For the Roman Magistrates had in their own Hands the Power of the Sword as well as the Administration of Justice The Penalties for every Crime where fixed by â— 6. § 2. Fâ—de Paen. l. 9 §. 11. l. x. l. xxviii c. ibid. the Laws but so as to vary according to the Quality of the Offenders and always more rigorous against Slaves than against Freemen against Foreigners than against the Roman Citizens Therefore St Paul was Beheaded as being a Denizen of Rome and St. Peter Crucified as a Jew The Cross was the most infamous of all their Punishments and they that suffered that Death were generally first beaten with Rods and had their sides burned with red hot Irons or flaming Torches before they were nailed to the Cross their putting to the Rack was done in Publick and the manner of it was extreamly Cruel but it was seldom exercised Cic. ver ult n. lxiii upon any save Slaves or Persons of the lowest consideration The Martyrology Martyrol Rom. xii Janu. observes it as a thing Extraordinary that St. Marinus being one of the Senatcâ—ian Order was put upon the Eouleus and Tormented with the Vngulae Ferreae or Iron Pincers with which they pinched or burnt the sides of Malefactors upon the Rack And yet 't was after this way of Proceeding that most of the Martyrs were Tormented The Roman Laws as well as ours of France permitted none to be put to the Rack save only for Examination sake But they used the same means to make Christians deny their pretended Crimes as they did to make others confess their real ones The same manner of trying Criminals by putting them to the Rack of stretching out their Limbs with Pullies whipping them tearing and Searing their Flesh continued in use under Christian Emperors as appears by the Examples of St. Eutropius and St. Tigrius who were thus Tortured under other Sozom. viii Hist c. xxiv pretences but really out of spight to St. Chrysostom It was an ordinary thing to condemn l. viii §. iv v c. §. xi F. de paen the meaner and more infamous sort of People to the Mines as now to the Gallies or to expose them to be torn to peices by wild Beasts in the Amphitheatre for the diversion of the People 'T is not unlikely but that there were several other kinds of Punishments used in the Provinces nor can it be denied but that the Magistrates invented several new ones against the Christians especially in the latter Persecutions when their vexation to see the number of Christians still multiplying upon them doubled their Fury and when the Devil Suggested to them the means of destroying rather their Souls than Martyr Rom. xxviii Jul. their Bodies I believe the being Condemned to Prostitution is a kind of Punishment never thought of in the World but against the Christian Virgins The extraordinary Admiration which they saw the Christians had for Chastity put them upon that lewd of Persecution And of the like nature was that which St. Jerome Hier. init vitae S Paul relates of a young Martyr whom they gently tied to a Bed of Roses and under the most delightsome Circumstances with an Immodest Harlot placed by his side but so far was he from being overcome with the Temptation that he bit of his Tongue and spit in her Face in short there were a multitude of Martyrs Massacred or put to Torments without any form of Justice either by the Fury of the enraged Populace or by the revenge of their particular Enemies The Persecution generally opened with some Edict forbidding the Assemblies of the Christians and condeming to certain Penalties all those who refused to Sacrifice to the Gods The Bishops presently gave Cypr. Ep. xv c. notice thereof Exhorting each other both to redouble their Prayers to God and to Encourage their People Many of the Christians hereupon took the advice given by Jesus Chrst to his Disciples and fled Mat. x. 23. for it The Pastors and Priests divided themselves the one part withdrew the other part remained with the People they kept themselves concealed with great care for they were the Persons the most sought after as being those upon whose loss the Flock would be scattered Some of them Acta S. Pion. Bar. an 254. n. x. Can. xii Petri Alex. to i. Concil the better to keep themselves unknown changed their Names others were content to purchase their quiet and
But that they might not Can. Apost xxiv punish the same fault twice over and out of Reverence to the Sacrament of Orders they imposed on him no other Pennance If any one shall wonder at this Discipline of the Ancients let him consider that the Sins to which Pennance was due were in those Days rarely known among Christians for as with us Persons of Honour who are well Educated and setled in the World seldom fall into those Crimes which bring them so far under the lash of the Law as to make them liable to the infamy of Publick Punishments so of old it did not often happen that Christians so carefully admitted and so well instructed should be guilty of Adultery Homicide or other such like hanious Sins which deserved Death Tertullian declares that the Catholicks were easily distinguished from De praescript c. xli xlii Apol. c. iv v. the Hereticks by the difference of their Behaviour and he boldly upbraids the Heathen that their Goals were filled with none but Heathens like themselves or if any Christians were there it was upon no other account but barely for their being Christians Or if saith he any other Crime can be baid to their charge they are no longer Christians Innocence with us is a necessary Vertue we understand it perfectly as having learned it of God who is the best Master and we practice it with the greatest Care as being obliged to it by that Judge whom we must not dispise THERE were some Christians who XXI Asceticks Virgins Widows Deaconesses Practiced all the Exercises of Pennance without being obliged to them and without being excluded the Sacraments but then it was out of their own voluntary Devotion in imitation of the Lives of the Prophets and St. John the Baptist and following the Councils of St. Paul for Exercising themselves unto Godliness and 1 Tim. iv 7. 1 Cor. ix 27. keeping under the Body to bring it into Subjection These were called Asceticks that is to say Exercisants They generally kept themselves close shut up in their own Houses where they lived in great retirement adding to the usual Frugality of Christians some extraordinary Fasts and Abstinences They kept themselves to what they called Xerophagy that is feeding only upon dry Diets and held out their Fasts to two or three Days together or some times longer They accustomed themselves to wear Sackcloth to walk Bare-Foot to sleep upon the Ground to Watch the greatest part af the Night to be constantly reading the holy Scriptures and as much as was possible to Pray without ceasing Origen Euseb Hist vi c. iii. for some time led this Life and many of these Asceticks became great Bishops Hier. de Script 87. in pierio and Doctors All the Asceticks lived in great Continence and all Christians in general highly admired that Vertue so much recommended by Jesus Christ and his Apostles Just Orat. ad Anton. Pium. A young Man of Alexandria under the reign of the Emperor Antonine presented a Petition to the Governour of that City that he might have a Surgeon allowed him to make him an Eunuch and many there were who did so in good earnest Can. Nic. i. so that the Church was obliged to make a Law on purpose to repress that indiscreet Zeal There were a great number also of young Persons of the Female Sex who Consecrated their Virginity to God either by the Advice of their Parents or of their own proper Motion These Virgins led the Ascetick Life for they did not look upon Virginity as any thing if it v Hier. Ep. de Asellâ were not attended with great Mortification with Silence Retirement Poverty Labour Fastings Watchings and continual Praying They were not esteemed as Virgins who would not deny themselves the common Diversions of the World even the most Innocent as the taking too great a delight in Conversation the affecting a Pleasantness and agreeableness of Humour and Discourse so as to make a shew of their Wit and Ingenuity much less would they endure those that set up for Bells for Dressing Perfuming Long-Trains and moving with an affected Air. St. Cyprian recommends scarce Cypr. de Hab. Virg. any thing else to Christian Virgins but the renouncing all the vain Ornaments of the Body and Ostentation of Beauty He well knew how fond young Women are of such gaudy Trifles and of how pernicious a Consequence they might prove to those of their Profession In the first Ages the Virgins Consecrated to God generally lived at home with their Parents or in private by themselves two and two together never going abroad but when they went to Church where they had a place allotted them to sit by themselves separate from the rest of the Women If Ambros de virg laps c. vi any one violated her Holy Resolution and Married she was enjoined Pennance The Widows who renounced second Marriage passed their time much after the same manner as the Virgins in Fastings v Heir in Ep. Paulae Praying and the other Exercises of the Ascetick Life but they did not keep themselves so close shut up as being more employed in the outward Acts of Charity as in visiting and relieving the Sick and Imprisoned and more especially the Martyrs and Confessors in taking care of the Poor in entertaining and attending upon Strangers in burying the Dead and generally in the Offices of Charity And indeed all Christian Women whether Married or Widows made these kind of Works the greatest of their Employment rarely appearing abroad but upon the doing of some good Office or when they went to Church But the Widows being more at liberty from other Engagements didicated themselves Tertul. ad â—xor c. iv wholly to these Services If they were Rich they liberally Distributed their Alms if they were Poor the Church maintained them They chose for their Deaconesses the most Aged of their Widows 1 Tim. v. 9. of Sixty years or upward the most v Const Apost l. iii. discreet and those who had best approv'd themselves in all the Exercises of Charity This Office was also sometimes assigned to Const Apos vi c. xvi Virgins They were called Deaconesses not as if they were counted of the Clergy for Women cannot partake of any part of the Priest-hood but because they exercised toward the Women some part of the Deacons Office Their business was to visit those of their own Sex whom Poverty Sickness or any other distress rendred proper Objects of the Churches care to instruct the Female Catechumens Con. Apost iii. or rather to repeat to them the Instructions of the Catechist They presented them to Baptism and upon that occasion assisted them in dressing and undressing them and for sometime after overlooked these new Converts to break and Discipline them into a Christian Behaviour In the Church they kept the doors on the Womens side took care to see every one seated in her proper place and that all behaved
these Orders For how could they have found amonst the Jews and Heathens that were Dayly Converted to Christianity any considerable number of Persons that had preserved an absolute Continence to their advanced Years It was much to find those that had confined 1 Tim. iii. 2. themselves only to one Wife in that liberty which the Jews and other Eastern People took of having many Wives at once and the custom of Divorce Universally admitted which put them often upon changing their Wives But when a Marryed Person was made a Bishop he began from that time forward to look upon his Wife only as his Sister And to the same Rule hath the Ep. Dccret Siricij ad Himer c. vii Can. Apos vi Latin Church all ways kept her Priests and Deacons Yet they were still obliged to provide for their Wives and not to cast them off as Strangers And the Women out of Regard to the Dignity of their Husbands were somtimes called Presbyterae by the Name of Priestesses In Greece and the East this strict Rule of Continence Episcopae came in Course of time to be less and less regarded But in no place whatsoever Can. Neocaeâ— i. did the Catholick Church ever allow a Priest to Marry after his Ordination If he did he was for his Incontinence Degraded of his Order and reduced to the State of a simple Laick As for the Inferior Clerks as Readers and Door-keepers they were commonly Marryed Persons and Cohabited with their Wives So that a great part of them passed their whole Lives in these lower Orders at least they continued in them for many Years till they either lost their Wives or else by mutual Consent they agreed to Separate from each other in order to the leading a more perfect Life Yet was Marriage always spoken of by Christians as an Honourable State And that the rather because there were some Hereticks who professed an Abhorrence of it and others who Absolutely condemned all second Marriages as Unlawful All the Clergy even to the Bishops themselves Lived after a Poor at least a Plain and Ordinary manner having no thing as to outward appearance to Distinguish them from the common People In the Persecutions as they were the Persons the most sought after they had no mind to make themselves known by their Habit or any other marke of their Profession If in any thing they Differed from the common People t was in appearing more like the Philosophers Many of them had parted with all their Temporal Possessions to the Poor before their being advanced to Holy Orders and many of them again after their Ordination still continued like St. Paul to Live by the Labour of their Hands Not that they were obliged so to do The Church always took care of her Clergy supplying them with all Necessaries out S. Cypr. Ep. xxxiv of her common Treasure And accordingly every Clerk received either Weekly or Monthly a certain Distribution either in Money or of Provisions in Specie answerable to the Exigencies of their Condition or the Quality of their Office For the Clerks of an higher Station and consequently charged with greater Labours received according to the precept of St. Paul more liberal Allowances 1 Tim. v. 17. Some there were also that kept their own temporal Estate together with their Spiritual Dignity St. Cyprian at the Pont. Diac. Hortos time of his Martyrdom had still left him a little Country-Farm the only Reserve he made to himself out of the vast Possessions he had quitted The Pastors and Clerks rendred themselves no less amiable by their Charity and their Application to the Services of Religion than they were Venerable for other Excellencies The Bishop dispenced not with himself from performing the Dutyes of his Place in Person presiding always at the publick Prayers Expounding the Holy Scriptures and Offering the Sacrifice on all Sundays and Stationary Days He and his Priests found themselves always fully Employed and never wanted Work to Instruct the Catechumens Comfort the Sick Exhort the Penitents and Reconcile such as were at Variance For to them it belonged to make up all Differences They would Const Apost ii c. xlv 46 c. 1 Cor. vi by no means allow what St. Paul had expresly Forbidden that Christians should bring their Causes before the Heathen Courts and they that would not Submit V. Patres apud Baron an lvii n. 37. 38 c. Tertul. Apol c. xxxix to the Arbitration of the Bishops were Excommunicated for Impenitent and Incorrigible But such Disputes could not often happen among Christians so Disinteressed so Humble and Patient as they were Munday was ordinarily the Day which the Bishop took to determine Differences so that if the Parties should not readily Acquiesse in the Sentence they might yet have time before them to Moderate matters and bring them to a Right understanding before the Sunday following when they were all to meet again in the Church and Pray and Communicate together On the Day of Hearing the Bishop seated in his Chair the Priests sitting down by him and the Deacons attending the Parties Presented themselves before him respectfully standing on their Legs in the midst of the place of Audience After having heard the Cause he first did all that was possible to Reconcile them each other and to perswade them to make up the Difference in a Friendly manner between themselves before he pronounced Sentence At the same time also they heard Complaints and received Informations against Persons accused of not leading their Lives like Christians The Bishop was fully entrusted with Const Apost ii c. xxiv 25. the Churches Treasure all which lay absolutely at his Disposal Nor were they under the least Apprehension of its being Misapplyed Had they had the least suspicion of his Integrity and Uprightness they would never have committed to his Care the Government of Souls a concern of Infinitely greater Moment than Const Apost xli all Earthly Treasure T was to him therefore that all who stood in need of Relief were to apply themselves He was the Father of the Poor and the Refuge for all in Misery and Distress After all this what Wonder is it that their Prelates should be so beloved and Respected by the Faithful as they were 'T is observed of St. Polycarp that he had not for many Years together pulled off his own Shoes the Faithful that were Epist. Eccles Smyrn near him always offering themselves and Ambitiously Courting the Honour of that humble Office So that he had not of a long time before done it with his own Hands till at his Martyrdom as he undrest himself and prepared for the Stake Acta S. S. Hippolyti c. Apud Baron an 259. n. viii Acta S. Sus. an 294. n. viii 10. 12. Their usual way of Approaching their Priest was to Prostrate themselves before them Kiss their Feet and in that Supplicating Posture crave their Blessing And the
first Words the Priest gave them were some short Prayers like the Collects of the Mass or Office Happy was the Man that could have but somuch as a Deacon lodging in his House or eating at his Table They never entred upon any Important Affair with out taking Ignat. Passim in Epist the advice of the Pastor who was the sole Director of his whole Flock They loked upon him as a Man of God and as the Vicegerent of Jesus Christ So that they were not without some fears Const Apost viii c. i. upon the account of their Priests and Bishops least they should not be Able to withstand the great Temptation they lay under of the Pride and contempt of others They were apprehensive of the same Miscarriage in those that had the gift of Prophecy or working Miracles for these gifts were as yet common in the Church 'T was the filial Love and Respect which their Flock bare to them that made their Pastors so well obeyed Chrysost Sacerd. lib. ii For they had no other way of Commanding their Obedience but the methods of Perswasion or Spiritual Penalties They could use no other Constraint upon them then to over awe their Consciences and they who were Impious enough to despise their Censures were in no danger of any Temporal Corrections THUS upon the matter the Christians XXVI The Discretion Patience of the Christians Lived during the times of Paganism and Persecution This condition obliged them for the most part to great Circumspection to be always waiting upon God and watching over themselves For when once the Persecution began a Man had nothing else to expect but to be the next hour Impeached even by his own Wife or by his nearest Relation who either out of Covetousness to get his Estate or out of a bigotted Zeal for their Idolatries might be prompted to Betray them This Martyr xxx Jul de S. Julitea was a ready way for Debtors to get rid of their Creditors or Slaves of their Masters If a Pagan fell in Love with the Daughter of a Christian he either put her upon the sad necessity of compliance or of exposing her self to Torment St. Justin gives us an Instance of a Wife that was informed against Just i. Apol init by her own Husband only because she would no longer be a party to his Wickedness and of another who was put to Death Himself for daring to ask the Judge why he Sentenced another Man who was the Person had Converted that Woman Barely upon the name of a Christian without any other Accusation somuch as pretended against him Though the Church had its short Intervals of Peace yet they were always in expectation of the War breaking out again Nor was the Peace ever so entire but that in the most Quiet times many Christians suffered either by Popular Commotions or other means For we find a great number of Martyrs even under the Emperors who would not be ingaged in Persecuting the Church St. Melito complains to the Emperor Antonine Ap. Euseb 4. Hist. xxvi that the Christians were without controul Robb'd and Plunder'd at Noon-day under pretence of an Order from the Emperor when he knew nothing of the matter Or if they did enjoy some little Respite from Persecution and open Violence yet they still were exposed to the utmost contempt and Hatred Every one had the liberty of Speaking against the Christians whatever he pleased True or False of Discoursing and Writing against them of Ridiculing and exposing them and their Religion upon the open Theatre All this was not only Connived at but Authorised and Encouraged And the passages of Celsus quoted by Origen are sufficient proofs with what Scorn they were Treated They could not avoid seeing the profane Ceremonies of the Pagans every Day meeting where ever they went with their Infamous Statues and publick Places of Debauchery having their Ears filled with their Lewd and Impious Discourses The Christians of these times must of necessity have had a more then ordinary Strength and firmness of Mind in the Midst of so many Difficulties and Temptations to keep up their Faith and Practice so lively and Unexceptionable It required also agreat Discretion to Moderate themselves and to keep within due Bounds that liberty of the Children of God and that Boldness of Spirit 1 Pet. ii 16. which arises from the Testimony of a good Conscience They knew how to Contemn Contempt unjustly cast upon them to bear the most Injurious Calumnies without quarreling those that aspersed them without either hatred or Complaint They were very cautious of doing any thing that might draw Persecution upon them They Rom. xii 18. 1 Pet. ii 15. Studyed as far as was possible and as much as in them lay to Live Peaceably with all Men and by well doing to put to Silence the Ignorance of Foolish Men. To this End they found it necessary to refrain from all things the Indispensable Duties of their Religion Excepted which might give occasion of Offence to the Heathens or Provoke their Displeasure and on the contrary to study all Honest means of obliging them The Necessary Practices of a Christian Life did sufficiently Distinguish them from the rest of the World without their Affecting any Superfluous Singularities So that as to their outward Form of Living in all things not contrary to Piety and good manners they conformed themselves to the Customs and Manners of the Romans or Greeks or the People of the other Countrys where they Lived They never forced themselves upon Disputing or Preaching to those whom they found not Disposed to Regard them They contented themselves with Praying for them and strove to Edifye them by the Example of their Patience Epist ad Rom. and good Works never ceasing to return Good for Evil. St. Ignatius Speaking of the Soldiers who were his Keepers I am saith he Tied to ten Leopards who are the Worse for being obliged But their Malice is my Instruction St. Polycarp Epist Eccles Smyrn gave a friendly Welcome to those who came to Apprehend him made them Sup and Lodge with him and entertained them with all manner of Civility and Respect St. Cyprian ordered twenty pieces of Gold to be given to the Executioner Martyr vii Sept. de S. Eupsychio that was to Strike off his Head Another Ancient Martyr having been accused of being a Christian and thereupon cast into Prison upon his Discharge Sold all that he had and gave it part to the Poor and part to his Enemies as if they had been his Benefactors Another being Condemned to lose his Head desired xxv â—ul de S. Paulo some little time to Pray which was granted and he Pray'd to God for his Friends and Neighbours for the Jews for the Gentiles for all the Spectators and in the last place for the Judge who had Condemned him and the Executioner who was to give the Stroak But more remarkable was their Patience towards their
those whose Employment it was to Dance or Sing in Publick in a Word all retainers to the Theatre all who had any part in or were much addicted to the publick Shews all Jugglers Enchanters and Diviners of what sort soever all dealers in Charms or Spells used either by way of Cure or Preservative all that exercised any sort of Heathenish Superstitions none of these sort of People were received into the Church till they had first quitted their evil Practices nor were their bare words taken for it till they had given substantial Proofs of the sincerity of their Conversion and that for some considerable time When a Person was judged duly qualified The Catechumens to become a Christian he was made a Catechumen which was done by the Imposition of Hands either of the Bishop himself or of some other Priest by him appointed to that Office who at the same time signed him with the sign of the Cross and Prayed over him That God would grant him the Grace to benefit by the Instructions should be given him and to behave himself so as to be become fit to receive Holy Baptism He continued two or three years in this State of a Catechumen which is a kind of Probationership He was present at the Publick Sermons of the Church to which even the Infidels were admitted But besides the publick Preaching there was an Order of Catechists whose proper business it was to inspect the Catechumens and instruct them in the first Rudiments of Faith without entering into deeper Mysteries which these Novices were not yet judged able to bear The time allowed for this institution of them was longer or shorter according to the Proficiency of the Catechumen Nor did they regard only his understanding in the Doctrinals of Religion but marked whether he mended his Manners and they let him continue in this State till they saw he was perfectly become a new Man Hence it came to pass that many deferred their Baptism till they were at the point of Death For they never gave it but upon Desire tho' they often exhorted People to ask it They who desired Baptism and were thought qualified at the beginning of Lent gave in their Names to be entred in the Roll of Competents or Illuminated for these Competents were distinguished from the other Tertul. de paenit init Hier. advers Jo. Hier. Photizomeni Catechumens They fasted the forty Days as the rest of the Faithful and then they were more fully instructed and the Creed was explained to them and particularly the Mysteries of the Trinity and the Incarnation They were from time to time brought to the Church to be there publickly examined in the presence of the Faithful to have the Exorcisms made over them and the Prayers of the Church on their behalf This is it they call the Scrutiny which continued to be observ'd v. God Sacram edit Rom. 1680. ord Rom. Missa Fer. iv post Domin iv Quadrag ibi durand for many Ages even toward little Children and some traces of it appear still in the Office of the Church At the end of Lent they were taught the Lord's Prayer and well informed of the Nature of the Sacraments they were then about to receive which were afterward to be explicated to them more at large This order of Instruction plainly appears in the Catechisms of St. Cyril of Jerusalem and in one of Fulgentius's Sermons Fulg. Serm 78. After all these Preparations they were at last solemnly Baptized either on Easter-Eve to put them in mind of rising up with Christ to newness of Life or on the Eve of Pentecost that they might then with the Apostles receive the Gift of the Holy-Ghost For at the same time that they received Baptism they had Confirmation also Baptism was regularly Administred only upon those two Feasts but in case of danger they Baptized at any time The new Baptized of what Age soever they were were called by the name of Children They wore during the whole first Week the white Robe they had received at their Baptism in token of the Innocence wherein they were to walk all the Days of their Life Nor might Tertul. de cor c. iii. they during that time wash themselves in any of the ordinary Baths From that time forward they were freely admitted to all the parts of the Church service Constantine having put an end to the Eus x. Hist c. iii. Persecution one might have seen as Eusebius relates it in all Parts of the World Dedications of Churches and Assemblies of Bishops The dispersed Christians now meet together again The Churches were now in all places frequented more than ever The Psalmody the Celebration of the Mysteries and all the Ceremonies of Religion were performed with greater Solemnity then ever So that this is the proper place to speak of their outward form of Worship Let us begin with the Description of the ancient Churches according to the best Account we can gather both out of the oldest Writings and the oldest Buildings that are left us THE Church was separated as much XXVIII The form of the Churches their ornaments as possibly they could from all profane Buildings and placed at a distance from noise surrouuded on every side with Courts Gardens or Buildings belonging to the Church At the first enterance v. Euseb Hist Eccle. x. c. iv de vita Const lib. iii. cap. 34 35 c. 50 lib. iv c. 58. Propylaeum Paulin. ep xii Natal x. S. Greg. iv Dialog c. xiv you saw the Porch or outer Vestibulam which led you into the Peristilium or square Court surrounded with covered Galleries standing upon Pillars such as the Cloysters of our Monasteries are at this Day Under these Galleries stood the Poor that were permitted to Beg at the Door of the Church and in the middle of the Court were several Fountains for them to wash their Hands and Faces at before Prayers in the room of these Fountains succeeded afterward the Holy-Water Pots At the farther end of this Court was a double Porch and through it there was a passage by three Doors into the Hall or Basilique which was the Body of the Church I call it Double because there was one without and anothere within which the Greeks called the Narthex Near the Basilique on the inside were generally two Buildings the Baptistery at the Entry and at the other end the Sacristry or Treasury called also Cellae the Secretarium or Diaconium Along the sides of the Church were often placed Exhedrae little Chambers or Cells for the convenience of them that had a mind to retire and meditate or Pray by themselves So that they were in effect so many little Chappels The Basilique or Church was Parted into three Divisions proportionable to its Largeness by two rows of Pillars supporting the Galleries on each side and the Middle between these Galleries was the Nave as we see it in all Old Churches Toward the
Flatter Sense but to assist it This will better appear in describing the whole Form and Manner of their Outward Worship THEY offered the Sacrifice every Sunday XXX Their Liturgy and outward Form of Worship V. S. Epiph. haeres in fi Bona i. Liturg c. xviii on all the Feasts of the Martyrs on all Fast Days or oftner as the Custom of every Church in particular required They had also both upon Publick and Private occasions their Votive Masses Sometimes they had many Masses 〈◊〉 the same Day as when the Office of a Saint fell upon some other Festival or when there was a Burial It was always â—â—her the Bishop himself or one and the 〈◊〉 Priest that performed them all as it is still observed by us on Christmas-Day On Sundays and the other Festivals Mass was said about nine or ten of the Clock in the Morning on Fast Days later for V. Cod. Sacram edit Rom. 1680. they were not to eat on those Days till after Evening Service past three of the Clock in the Afternoon The Hour being come the People met together at the principal Church to attend the Bishop with all his Clergy to the place where the Station for that Day was appointed And after this manner the Bishop took his V. Ord. Ro. round and visited all his Churches one by one every one in its Course And that this Progress might be orderly made and in a full Body Processions were Instituted As they were entring the Church and taking their places the Choir sung a Psalm with its Anthem which from thence took its name of the Introit The Const Ap. ii c. lvii Deacons and their assistants the Subdeacons and Door keepers gave every one his place in order as they came so that all was done without any thing of Confusion being all seated there they prayed for some time in Silence every Man to himself then the Bishop Saluted the People and put an end to their private Prayers Pronouncing with a lowd Voice his publick Prayer which from thence took its name of the Collect. Then the Bishop seated himself on his Throne that stood at the very end of the Church and terminated the prospect of the whole Congregation Thus every Bishop was as it were the visible Image of 1 Cor. xi 1. 1 Tim. iv 12. Tit. ii 7. God in his Church placed there eminently as St. Paul expresses it to be the patern to his own Flock as Jesus Christ was to him The Priests were seated on each side about him some on the right hand and others on the left in the Semicircle of the Absis and next to them stood the Deacons Thus the Church seemed to resemble that Image of Paradise given us Apoc. iv by St. John in the Apocalypse The Bishop on his Throne with a Book in his Hand as the Fathers are commonly painted represented that Figure of a Man under which God appeared the Priests were that August Senate designed by the four and twenty Elders the Deacons and other Officers were the Angels standing always in a readiness to receive Ordo Rom. Apoc. viii iii. and execute the Orders of God Before the Bishops Throne stood seven Candlesticks and the Altar on which they offered the Incence that Symbol of Prayer Apoc. v. where they were afterward tho' under a borrowed form to offer the unspotted Lamb of God Under the same Altar were the Bodies of the Martyrs as under that St. John saw were the Souls of those to whom it was said That they should rest Apoc. vi ix Baron ad Martyr vi Jul. yet for a little Season And lastly the number of the Faithful which filled the other part of the Church represented the innumerable Multitude of the Blessed who being Clothed in white Robes and Apoc. vii 9. with Palms in their Hands sung with a loud Voice the Praises of their Marker Such was the Face then of their Church-Assemblies The whole Congregation being seated the Reader went up to the Desk and read a Lesson first out of the Old-Testament and after that another out of the new that is out of the Acts or Epistles of the Apostles for the reading of the Gospel was reserved to some Priest or Deacon To render these Lessons the more agreeable and to give the People leisure to meditate upon them and the Readers some respite there were intermingled with them Psalms Anthems and the singing of Allelujas which were afterwards placed before the Gospel All these Lessons of the Scripture were read in the vulgar Language that is in the Language spoken by the better sort of People in every Country For though in Africa the Punick Language was vulgarly spoken among the inferior sort of People in the time of St. Austin yet we do not find that it was used in the Church But in Thebais the Scriptures must needs have been read in the Aegyptian Language since St. Antony Vi. S. Ant. c. i. who understood no other was converted by his having heard the Gospel read in the Church In the upper Syria the greatest part of the Bishops understood nothing of Greek nor of any other Language but the Syriack as it appears by the Councils where they were forced to make use of Concil eph Concil Cal. ced Act. x. Interpreters AFTER the Lessons the Sermon begun XXXI Their Sermon the Bishop Expounded the Gospel or some other part of Scripture and often continued a course of Expositions upon some entire Book of the Bible from the beginning to the end or else passing over some part of it he made choice of the most important Subjects Of these continued Expositions we have Examples in many of St. Chrysostom's Homilies in St. Austin upon the Psalms upon St. John and upon the Epistles of St. Paul In St. Ambrose we have a selected Argument which begins with the six Days work in imitation of St. Basil then the Exposition proceeds to the History of Noah Abraham and the other more Illustrious Saints of the Old Testament but still observing the Order of the Holy Bible The greatest part of those Tracts and Commentaries of the Fathers upon the Scriptures are nothing else but Sermons preached to their People which they afterward reduced into Form or were taken down in Writing as they spake them by the Art of short Hand before mentioned These holy Preachers were none of your idle Haranguers like the Sophists of the Profane Schools who filled the World with endless disputes only out of a vain Emulation of Contradicting and refining upon each others Notions or like those who laboured in their Closet to shew their Learning and fine Parts These Prelates v. Aug. de oper Monach c. 29. Epis ad Diosc v. Synes Ep. 55. were laborious Pastors who had always their Hands full of business and were too intent upon the works of Charity to spend all their time in their Studies and they were principally employed upon that necessary
Particular Sins for Aug. Epist 118. ad Jan. Prospe contempl ii c. 7 which they did it and many performed their Pennance in private for great Crimes as Married Women for Adulteries committed unknown to their Husbands those S. Leo. Ep. 80. 92. ad Rustic c. ii whose being exposed to publick Pennance would have occasioned too much Scandal as Priests and others that would have lost their Lives if their Crimes had been made Publick But to have seen Christians Fasting Praying Prostrating themselves upon the Earth even out of simple Devotion was then so common a sight that none ever thought of enquiring into the particular occasions of it The times of Pennance were either longer or shorter according to the different usages of Churches and those Penitental Canons which are now remaining differ very much from one another but the more ancient generally the more severe St. Basil allots two years for Theft seven for Ep. iii. Can. ad Amphiloch c. 56. 58 59. 61. 64. 73. Fornication eleven for Perjury fifteen for Adultery Twenty for Murder and the whole Life for Apostacy They who were enjoined to do publick Pont. Rom. v. Hier. epitaph Fabiolae Pennance applied themselves to the Arch-Priest or the Priest Penitentiary who took down their names in writing after that on the first Day of Lent they presented Sozom. vii hist c. 16. themselves at the Door of the Church in a poor and torn Habit for such with the The Manners of the Israelites in English c. 17. 19. ancients were their Mourning Dresses Being entred the Church they received from the hands of the Bishop ashes to strew on their Heads and Sackcloth to cover their Bodies thus they remained lying upon the Ground while the Bishop with the Clergy and all the People kneeled down and prayed for them The Bishop made an Exhortation to let them Understand that he was going to drive them out of the Church for a time as God drove Adam out of Paradise for his Transgression bidding them at the same time be of good courage and labour in hope of the Mercy of God then he actually put them out of the Church and immediately the Door was shut against them The Penitents generally kept themselves close Lib. sacrament Amb. i. paen c. 16. paenit Rom. tit i. c. 11. shut up passing their time in Praying and mourning save on the Festival or Station days on which they presented themselves at the Door of the Church and this they continued to do for some time Afterward they were admitted to enter the Church and hear the reading of the Scriptures and the Sermon but obliged to depart before Prayers began After that they were admitted to join in Prayer with the faithful but in a posture of Prostration At last they were admitted to pray standing S. Elig hom viii as others tho' yet still they were distinguished from the rest of the Congregation Conc. Ancyr by being placed on the left side of the Church from hence it appears there were four Orders of Penitents the Flentes the Audientes the Prostrati and the Consistentes that is those that Prayed Consistentes standing And the whole course of Pennance was divided into these four States As for instance he that had been guilty of willful Murder was four years among the Flentes that is to say he was to come S. Bas can 56. to the Door of the Church at the Hours of Prayer and to stand there not so much as in the Porch but in a place exposed to Ep. S. Greg. Thaum c. i. the Weather He was to be cloathed with Sackcloth to have Ashes on his Head and not to cut his Hair Thus he stood beging of the Faithful as they entred into the Church to take pity on him and to pray to God for him And so indeed Ambros. de paenit i. c. vii 15. 2. c. vii 10. they did the whole Church in her publick Service always remembring to pray for the Penitents in particular as she still doth during the time of Lent The five following years he was in the rank of Auditors He entered the Church to hear the Instructions there delivered but so as to remain in the Vestibulum or Porch only with the Catechumens and to depart before the Prayers began From thence he passed to the third Rank and was admitted to join in Prayers with the Faithful but in the same place as before and Prostrate or lying down upon the Floor and he went out with the Catechumens After having been seven years in this State he passed to the last in which he remained four years joining in Prayer with the Faithful and standing as they did but was not permitted to offer or Communicate with them At last his twenty Years of Pennance being thus accomplished he was again received into full Communion with the Church and admitted to the Participation of Holy things that is the Eucharist The same Proportion was observed in the Fifteen Years Pennace of the Adulterer He was four Years among the Flentes five among the Audientes four with the Prostrati and two with the Consistentes And by this one may judge of the other sort of Offenders Not that time alone did always S. Basil ibid. 84 85 determine the Pennance The Bishops carefully examined the Proficiency of the Penitents and from thence took their Measures either of using them with a greater indulgence or of deferring their Reconciliation Their Fundamental Rule was to labour all they could for the Salvation of their Neighbour but not so as to destroy themselves together with those who were incorrigible The Penitent therefore did not advance from one Ambr. ii paenit c. 9. degree to another but only by the apointment of the Bishop But if he dyed during the course of his Pennance before he Conc. Arel ii c. 23. Con. Carth. iv c. 59. had accomplished it and received Absolution they had yet good hopes of his Salvation They prayed for him and offered for him the Holy Sacrifice When the Bishop judged it proper to put a final Period to his Pennance it was done at the end of Lent that the Pennitent might reenter upon his Participation of the Holy Mysteries at the Feast of Easter On Holy Tursday the Penitents presented Pont. Rom. themselves at the Door of the Church The Bishop having offered up many Prayers to God on their behalf caused them to enter at the instances of the Arch Deacon representing to him that this was a time proper for Clemency and that 't was but reasonable that as the Church encreased the number of her Flock at that time by the new Baptized she should take also then into her fold again the strayed Sheep The Arch-Priest also interceded on behalf of the Penitents and gave them his Testimonial that they were worthy to be reconciled For to him it belonged to examine them during the time of their Penance Then the Bishop
were always doubted and disputed even by the Philosophers themselves 'T is true these principles were but ill practiced and though none called the truth of them into Question yet few pursued them to their necessary Consequences so as to lead their Lives in conformity to them But the Morals of Christianity failed not to produce some good effect even upon those that were no good Christians It prevented a world of mischief it softned the most Barbarious People and V. Euseb i. Prae. Evan. c. iii c. made them more tractable and Humane If they did not avoid all Crimes yet many of them repented at least and did Penance or if they did not do that yet in their own Consciences they condemned and disapproved of them In a Word Christianity in all places where it prevailed gave a general Tincture of Humanity Modesly and Decency of Behaviour not to be met with any where else In these times of which I am now speaking when the Face of the Church appeared so disfigured in general yet there were great Doctors and great Saints of all Conditions in all parts of the West in France the Monastick discipline began to raise up its head by the Foundation of the famous Monastery of Cluny whose first Abbots St. Odon and St. Majolus are renowned both for their Life and Doctrine In Italy St. Romualdus founded the Monastery of Camaldoli with many others and had many eminent Disciples We see in the same times many holy Bishops of an extraordinary Zeal for Religion a St. Dunstan in England a St. Vdalric in Germany a St. Adelbert in Bohemia the Apostle of the Sclavi and a Martyr We see St. Boniface also a Martyr in Russia St. Bruno in Prussia St. Gerard a noble Venetian Bishop and Martyr in Hungary and many others who by their Preachings their Holiness and their Miracles continued down the Tradition of sound Doctrine and Ecclesiastical discipline In the same Age we have amongst the Laity many Saints even of the greatest Lords as St. Gerald Count of Aurillac St. Stephen King of Hungary and St. Emeric his Son the Emperor St. Henry King Robert In these Saints particularly those of the Nations newly Converted as St. Henry and St. Stephen we may see what dispositions towards Vertue were found in those Nations whom the Romans called Barbarians They were naturally great observers of common Equity generously Plain and Open-hearted Chast Despisers of Pleasure and sensual satisfaction lovers of Justice Hospitality and Alms-giving When these Serious Sincere and Couragious People had once made trial of the Christian Religion they Embraced it heartily They never sought after Niceties in the Interpretation of it nor were they staggered at any of the difficulties it contained 'T is true their Conduct was not always so consistent and uniform as that of the ancient Greeks and Romans but then they were greater Strangers to Hypocrisy 'T was by the special Care and Authority of these Holy Persons that the Publick Peace began to be re-established by making all the Lords swear to the Truce Glab li. v. c. i. an 1041. of God so they called the Cessation of all acts of Hostility from Wednesday Night to Munday Morning in every Week and all that time the Clergy Monks Pilgrims and Labourers in Husbandry were to be unmolested This Truce was established Cap. i. extr de trev pa. in many Councils under the pain of Excommunication such force had Religion upon the Minds of Men when the very Foundations of civil Society were almost overthrown In these times also we meet with frequent mention of Excommunication against those who should strike a Clergy-man this was a thing never thought of in the First Ages Their own Dignity was then thought a sufficient Protection to them but they were now every Day exposed to the utmost Violences THE Normans had destroyed a great L. The restablishment of Piety and discipline number of Churches and others were suffered to run to Ruin upon the false Opinion they had That the end of the World would be precisely in the Thousandth Year of our Lord but when they Glab lib. saw that the World still stood after that fatal Year they began every where to build Churches again and that after the most magnificent manner they were capable of in that Age always more stately than any dwelling Houses not only of private Persons but of the chiefest Nobility They annexed to them large Endowments though for the most part they were no more than the Restitution of Tythes and the other Gods usurp'd in the late disorders Great care was every where used for the recovery of Relicks and great cost was spent in adorning them with the most precious Jewels that could be got as we may still see in the Treasuries of the most ancient Churches They applyed themselves also at the same time to the restoring of the use of singing in Churches and the other Solemnities of divine Service 'T was in the Eleventh Century that Guido Monk of Arezzo in Tuscany invented the Notes and introduced that Method which is the Foundation of all modern Musick The Religious Princes I have before mentioned both by their Liberalities and by their Examples favoured all these good designs Part of the Responses which are now sung were composed by King Robert and he Helgand vit Rob. thought it an honour to perform the Office of a Chanter publickly in the Church I find no Age in which the long Psalmody was more in Vogue as one may see by the Rule of the Carthusians and the other Orders Baron ad Martyrol ii Nov. of those times The Monks of Cluny brought into common use the Office for the Dead and soon after commenced the little Office of the Virgin Many had devotion enough to repeat over every Day the Petr. Dam. li. 6. ep 32. whole Book of Psalms As the number of their Offices increased so did also their Masses and Altars Domestick Chappels were exceeding numerous every Lord would have one to himself within the Walls of his own Castle that so he might not in the War-time be without the Mass and other Services of the Church but there was a mixture of Vanity in the Case they loved to have Chaplians in their Family and disdained the publick Churches where they were undistinguished from the common People In the mean time it was impossible that this multitude of Offices Celebrated in so many different places should appear with the same advantage as it would have done had there been but one Form or Office performed and directed by the Bishop assisted by all his Clergy as it was the manner of the Ages foregoing Besides the Reason of a great many of the Ceremonies was now forgotten and yet the Forms were still kept up by Tradition and the notion of the ancient Politeness was quite lost so that from these times we see not the same care taken as was formerly to erect their Churches at a convenient
to imagine that the way to Heaven is become more easy to Us than it was to them of Old that we are more happy than our Fore-fathers or that the Bishops and Popes of these last Ages thought themselves wiser than their Predecessors We need only read the Constitutions and Canons which have Authorised the several Relaxations to see that the Church never did it without Regret Many Deviations came in only by common usage In the mean time the Church hath taken special care in such cases to retain certain Observances in remembrance of the true Practice of Antiquity Thus the Office for the Noon or Evening Service said on Fast-days before Dinner All the Formularies of Ordinations and other publick Acts are as it were so many repeated Protestations to salve the authority of the ancient Rules and bar the pretence of Prescription against them There are other Abuses which the Church hath always condemned as those absurd Shows which they had the boldness to bring even into the Churches themselves and which were forbidden in the Council of Basil And as the profane Conc. Basil Sess xii c. xi V. Syn. Vigorn an 1240. c. iv Jollity on the Feasts of the Saints the remains of which wee see in that of St. Martin's Day of the Kings and on those of their Patron Saints in the Villages or Country Wakes And as the Debauches of the Carnival which had no other beginning than the Reluctance People had about the keeping of Lent resolving to take their Fill of Pleasure before they began their Fast Little did the Apostles and their Disciples imagine that this Holy Preparation for the Passover should one Day have proved an occasion of Dissolution and Licentiousness The Saints and all true Christians have always openly declared against these Abuses We know with what Vigour St. Charles Borromeus suppressed them and how Zealously he Laboured to bring back again into the Church the Spirit of Antiquity even to the lesser matters of Religion The Council of Trent and those who were employed to see it put into Execution in the Provinces aimed at no other end than This. And so many Reformations that have been made in the Religious Orders since the last Age were only in order to reduce them to their Primitive Constitution St. Teresa could Vi. S. Terâ— c. 27. fin not endure that under the pretence of Discretion and for the avoiding of Scandal there should be Restraints lay'd upon the fervour of those who affected to imitate the Saints of the first Age. She complains that these Discretions have spoiled the World and maintains that in her Age which is very near ours the Vertues of the Primitive Church were not Impracticable Lessons 'T was upon this occasion she wrote the Life of St. Peter of Alcantaâ—a she herself being an eye Witness to it Proceeding upon so good Authorities LVI The use of this Work I thought I might do some service to the World in Representing the Manners of the Ancients which ought to be the Patterns now of all good Christians I have said nothing but what is well known to Persons of Learning and taken out of Books with which they are familiarly acquainted And they will see that much more might have been added to the same Purpose There are many things here not commonly known to every good Christian and such things too as are fit for their Edification They will see that the Religion of a Christian consists not altogether as too many imagine in some formal performances To say over every Morning and Night some short Prayers to assist on Sundays at the Publick Service to distinguish the Holy Time of Lent only by abstaining from some certain sort of Dyets and to dispence with it upon trivial Occasions to approach the Sacraments so Seldom and with so small affection that they turn Solemn Festivals into Melancholy Days And as to the common Course of their Lives to be as much addicted to the Interests and Pleasures of this World as Pagans themselves could be These are not the Christians I have been Describing I hope also that the Description I have here given of the Holy Manners of those that were really Christians may make some Impressions upon such Persons who have no more sense of things than to confound the true Religion with those false ones which the Error of Ignorant or Craft of disigning Men have introduced Let a Man but consider that vast change of Manners which the Gospel hath wrought in all Nations and the Distinguishing Characters there have always been between true Christians and Infidels and he will see that the Christian Religion stands upon a surer Bottom then he thought for He will be forced to believe that it was at first established by the Power of Miracles for there can be nothing more Incredible than that such a Change should be wrought without Miracles These Miracles made so strong an Impression that it was not till very late any one did so much as think of calling them into Question To speak no more than what we know 't is scarce above Two hundred Years since this Libertinism was introduced by some Italians who tho' Men of Wit were very Ignorant of Religion and disgusted with these Abuses then they were charmed with the Beauty of the Ancient Greek and Latin Authors with the Government of these People and their way of Living And so much the more because the maxims of those Heathens better agreed with the Corruption of human Nature and the general Practices of Mankind In short these Modern Italians relished nothing else This mischief was farther encreased by the new Heresies that were broached in these last Ages The Disputes upon the very Fundamental Principles of Religion shock't the Faith of many who yet upon divers Temporal Motives continued in the outward profession of the Catholick Religion And amongst the Hereticks themselves were great numbers who being no longer restrained by Authority have driven the Consequences of their ill principles to extremity and are come to that pass as to look upon Religion it self as no more than a piece of State-Policy This unhappy notion got ground and easily spread it self Young Persons hearing their Parents perhaps or those whom they looked upon as Men of Wit making some lewd Jests upon Religion or it may be venturing to say in plain terms that there was nothing in it at the bottom presently took up with that and finding these notions agreeable to their Passions and Desires never troubled their thoughts any farther about inquiring into the Merit of the matter Vanity also came in for its share They thought by this means to distinguish themselves from the ignorant Vulgar and appear more discerning than the honest well meaning People of former Ages besides sloth was another Motive to make them either take matters upon trust or determine at all Adventures rather than to be at the trouble of examining the Truth but let Men say what they will the matters I have
would do Persons infected with the Plague And so St. Paul commands 1 Cor. v. 9. 10. that wicked Christians should be more shun'd than even the Heathens themselves for from the Heathens they could not absolutely Separate without going out of the World Nor were the Apostates to Idolatry the onely Persons thus used The same Discipline passed upon Hereticks Schismaticks and all notorious Offenders For there were some bad Christians even in the best Times of the Church St. Paul writing to the Corinthians complains 2. Cor. xii 21. that there were among them many Persons guilty of Gross Uncleaness who had not done Pennance for their Sins And to the Philippians that there were many among them whom he calls Enemies to the Cross of Christ Such as Phil. iii. 18. these were cut off from the Congregation of the Faithful There were scarce Epist Cleri Rom ad Cypr xxxi any but Bishops or Priests that might Converse with them and they onely in order to bring them to Repentance so long as there was any hopes of it Besides they did not cease to Pray for them And thus they treated those who did not offer themselves to Pennance As for those that did they were received with a great Compassion but tempered with Discretion They were made to understand that this was a favour not over hastily to be granted and therefore they commonly took some time to try whether their Return was hearty and sincere Pennance was Imposed publickly in the Church where the Offender Clothed in Sackcloth and covered with Ashes threw himself down in the midst of the Congregation embraced the Knees Tertull. de Poenitent c. xi de Pudic. c. xiii of the Faithful and kissed their Feet to move their Compassion and obtain their Prayers to which the Bishop also Exhorted them in a discourse particularly made upon that occasion The Penitent was still kept upon Tryal and enjoyned many Laborious Exercises They obliged him to Fast either constantly or at least very often and live only on Bread and Water or some such hard Fare proportioning his Abstinence according to the strength of his Nature the grievousness of his Sin and the fervour of his Repentance They caused him to continue in Prayer for a long time together either kneeling upon his Knees or lying flat upon the Ground To watch to lye upon the bare Ground to give Alms according to his Abillity During the time of his Pennance he was to abstaine not only from all Recreations but also from ordinary Conversation to keep no Company meddle with no Business nor have any communication somuch as with the Faithful themselves except in Cases of great Necessity He went to the Church but t was only to hear the Sermon and Prayers and was not admitted to the Sacrament In the mean time the Bishop either in Const. Apost lib. 2. c. 61. 7 c. his own Person Visited the Penitents or sent some Priest to Examin and deal with them according to the Dispositions he found in them upon which he was very exact in making his Observations Some he awakened with Terrors and to others Ibid. xli he administred Consolations variously Chrysost ii Sacerd. init accommodating his Applications to the quality of the Patient and the symptoms of the Distemper For the Prelats looked upon the discipline of Pennance as a sort of Spiritual Phisick and concluded that Ambros. in Psalm 37. 3. Epist xix the Cure of a Diseased Soul required at least as much Skill and Management and Patience and Attendance as that of the Body For they knew that vicious Habits are not to be removed but by a long Course of time and a most exact Regimen Thus in time Pennance came Epist Can. S. Greg. Thaum Epist Can. Petr. Alex. to be distinguished into its different Degrees and to have the term of its Continuance Stated But all that depended much upon the Descreton of the Bishops As they were careful not to discourage Cypr. Ep. 52. ad Antonian their Penitents by too excessive a Severity which might make them become Desperate and prove a Temptation to them to Relinquish the Faith and to Revolt to Paganism So on the other hand they found it necessary to check their Impatience Cler. Rom. ep 31 as knowing that nothing could be more Hurtful to them than too early an Absolution Aperfect Reconciliation was never granted till they saw it sought Cypr. Ep. Iv. ad Corn. for with Tears and Merited by an Effectual Reformation of their Manners There was nothing to be got by Importunities much less by Menaces Those Bishops who outbraved the Persecutions of the Heathens were not to be frightned with Words from their own Children The time of Pennance was always long at least unless there were some special Reason for the shortning of it as the Extraordinary fervour of the Penitent a mortal Distemper or present Persecution V. S. Cypr. Ep. li. Epist 3. apud Cypr c. For in such a Cases they were careful not to let them Dye without the Sacraments This Dispensation which shorten'd the Regular Pennance was called Indulgence and was often granted upon the request of Confessors in Prison or Exile If the Penitent during the time of his Pennance committed any new Crime he was obliged to begin his Pennance again If they saw his Punishment did no good upon him nor produced any change in his Life they let him continue in that State not admitting him to the Sacraments and if after having received Absolution he relapsed into any hanious Sin there were no more Sacraments for him S. August Epist. liv ad Maced c. vii For publick Pennance was never granted for more than one time All they could now do was to pray for him and to Exhort him to Repentance and newness of Life and to bid him have hope in the Mercies of God which are boundless There were some Sins for which the Pennance how sincerely and fully soever performed was to continue one's whole Life time after the Commission of which the Communion was never to be given but upon the point of Death Apostates Cypr ep liii ad Anton. Conc. Arel i. c. xxii who never prayed Pennance till they saw themselves in danger of Death were not then admitted to it And though it was granted in that Extremity to other sorts of Sinners yet they did but little depend upon that Repentance which look'd as if it had been forced upon Men only by the present dread of Punishment They who had been once placed among the Penitents though Absolved and Reconciled yet could never after that be capable of receiving holy Orders or of being advanced to any Ecclesiastical Ministry And if a Priest or any Clerk had committed a Sin deserving publick Pennance he only lost his station in the Church that is he was for ever after Interdicted the Exercise of his Function and reduced to the state of a simple Laick
themselves there with a Silence and Modesty becoming the Place The Deaconesses gave an account of every thing they did to the Bishop or by his Order to the Priests or Deacons They served Principally to inform the Church of the Necessaries of the other Women and to do for them by their directions those things which they could not with decency perform in their own Persons There was required a more than Ordinary share of Patience and Discretion in the Prelates to Govern all these Women To keep up these Deaconesses to that Sobriety and Industry which was so necessary for their Office but difficult for their Age to keep them from growing either too easie and credulous in their charge or from being troublesome maliciously curious Cholerick and excessively Severe Care also was to be taken lest under the Const Apo. iii. c. v. 67. pretence of Catechising they should set up themselves for Spiritual Directresses and Judges lest they should speak indiscreetly concerning the Mysteries lest they should misreport matters and spread abroad Errors and Falsities lest they should prove great Talkers and giddy Ramblers and busey-bodies There was required also a wonderful gentleness of Spirit to bear with the Infirmities of the Chrys iii. de Sacerd. other Women and Widows besides Deaconesses and to cure them of their weaknesses as Sadness Emulation Envy Evil-speaking Exceptiousness and Murmuring even against their Pastors themselves in a Word all those ill Dispositions usually attending their Sex and Age especially when 't is attended with Poverty Sickness or any other such like uneasy pressure THE Church took care of all her XXII Their care of the Poor Poor of what Age or Sex so ever but they did not count those Poor that were able to work for their living because they were in a Condition of not being burdensom to any and in a Capacity of assisting the other Poor Nor did they think it sufficient for a Christian to labour just enough for his own Subsistence but that he ought also to contribute toward v. Basil Reg. fus inter al. xlii c. the maintaining of those who could do nothing for themselves Besides the Civil Law had made Provision against lusty Beggars and Vagrants For as slavery L. vii Cod. de Mend valid l. xi was as yet in use if they were free they were forced to serve the Publick and labour in tilling the Earth as Slaves to the Colonatu perpetuo fulciatur State or if they were Slaves before any one that would might seize them It was the same case with exposed Children or Foundlings They belonged to any one that would take them and be at the Argument l. iii. Cod. de inf expos Charge of bringing them up so that there were scarce any other Beggars but old Slaves whose Masters were Inhuman enough to cast them off when they were past their Labour or those that were Blind Maimed or otherwise disabled And these the Christians took into their Peristeph 2. Care Prudentius hath given us a draught of them in the Description he makes of those which St. Laurence presented to the Praefect of Rome as the Treasures of the Church They took care of Children also as in the first place the Orphans of Christian Parents and especially the Martyrs Const Apost iv c. i ii next they took into their keeping Children exposed and all others they could get into their Hands to breed them up in the true Religion For in all this care they took of the Poor their principal regard was to their Spiritual Concerns and to their Temporal Welfare only in order to their Spiritual Therefore in their Charity they always preferred Christians before Infidels and among Christians those that were most remarkable for Vertue were taken care of first but as for the incorrigible they left them to shift for themselves They would not so much as receive Alms indifferently from any one that offered it They would not accept of it from Persons Excommunicated or from Publick and Notorious Sinners as Usurers and Adulterers They chose rather Const Apost iv c. v vi vii ix to expose their Poor to the want of Necessaries or more properly speaking to trust divine Providence with them which could otherwise provide for them Every Church raised a good Fund for v. Bar. an 44. n. lxviii c. Tertull. Apol. c. xxxix the subsisting of its Poor entertaining Strangers Burying of the Dead and other such like common Expences as the providing for its Clerks the Luminary the sacred Vessels and all the rest The Church of Rome under the Pope St. Cornelius Euseb lib. vi c. xliii An. 250. maintained one hundred and fifty four Clerks and more then fifteen hundred Poor and besides that from its first Foundation during all the time of the Persecutions it always took care to send large Supplies to the Poor Churches of the Provinces and to the Epist Dion Corinth ap Euseb iv c. xxiii Confessors condemned to the Mines The common Goods of the Church for the three first Ages consisted in few things else but Moveables in Provisions v Acta ColonCirtens an xxx Cloaths and ready Money all which arose out of the Offerings made by the Faithful Weekly or Monthly or as every one was pleased to make of himself For Tertull. Apol. c. 39. in these Offerings there was nothing fix'd or Constrained As for Lands the Persecution made both the purchase and the keeping of them any long time Impracticable And these were the Treasures of the Church the Heathens were so eager to get into their own Hands and which often proved one principal cause of the Persecutions as appears by the example Prudent peri. Steph. Hymn ii of St. Laurence It belonged to the Deacons to take care of all these things It was their business to receive all that was offered for the common uses of the Church v. Bar. an xxxiv n. 227. to see it carefully laid up and safely kept and to distribute it according to the direction of the Bishop who ordered the disposal of it according to the account he received from them of the particular occasions of those that wanted Relief They were to inform themselves of these Particulars and report them to the Bishop and to keep exact Lists both of the Clerks the Virgins the Widows and all the other Poor whose dependance was on the Church to enquire into all Persons when Const Apost iii. c. xix they first presented themselves to the Churches Charity and to inspect the Behaviour of those already received into it to observe whether thy were worthy of that relief to provide Lodgings for Strangers and to consider by whom and how those Expences should be defraied Upon all occasions the Laicks had either to desire any thing of the Bishop or to Communicate any thing to him they first Addressed themselves to the Deacons for Const Apost ii c. 28. they would not
distance from other common Buildings and out of the noise of publick Places That they thought in Cities would be to lose too much Ground We see no more of the Door-keepers or of the other inferiour Orders of Clerks belonging to the Churches whose business it was to keep every thing Decent Orderly and Quiet These Offices were either turned over to Sextons or Virgers and other such-like Servants purely Laicks or else wholly laid aside so that the Publick Congregations in the Churches became confused and Tumultuous The Lords at first began the Custom and from them the Magistrates and other Laicks of better Quality took it to seat themselves in the Choire with the Clergy and the ancient respect being once lost the whole crowd of the People Women and all prest up to the Altar V. Sup. pag. But in the Eleventh Age there were abuses of far greater importance to be Glab lib. v. c. iv V. Petr. Dam. opusc vi 17 18. corrected Simony and Incontinence Bishopricks and Benefices were commonly bought and sold and a great part of the Clergy publickly entertained Concubines nay some had the Impudence to insult the Law of the Church that requir'd the Celibacy of the Clergy and declared against it as an Abuse In opposition to these disorderly Innovators St. Peter Damianus vigorously undertakes the Cause and was supported therein by Patr. Dam opusc 24. 27. the Authority of Leo the Ninth and the other Popes of those times And the better to root out these evils they establish't the Order of Canons Regular who might shew to the Clergy the Example of living in Common and observing the Canonical Discipline and it was out of this Order of Men that the Bishops and Pastors were generally taken WITH respect to the Laicks it was LI. Alterations in Penance attempted to re-establish Penances and agreed upon what Penances should be regularly imposed according to the Canons but many of the greatest Offenders prov'd refractory and having the Sword in their Hands stood it out against the Discipline of the Church And many others who were content to submit to Penance Petr. Dam. opusc vii Gomor cap. 10 11 12 c. would do it yet only after some Inauthentick Canons which very much mitigated the Rigor of it Many that had undergone their Penance were not a jot amended by it Nothing was to be seen but Greg. vii lib. vii ep x. Relapses and counterfeit Penances It is true they reckoned for every Crime a distinct Penance so that a Man who had committed thirty Homicides and as many Perjuries or Adulteries had so many Ages of Penance to run through And from hence came the indulgences of so many Years as we meet with in some Bulls As God demands not impossibilities they who stood charged with Penances for their whole Lives or even beyond their lives could do no more than to employ in them the remainder of their days and to that end for the greater security to shut themselves up in a Monastery But sometimes they were relieved by the Commutation of works of Satisfaction and these were variously changed according to the Abilities or Zeal of the Penitent St Peter Damianus informs us that those P. Dam. vita SS Rod. Domin c. 8 10 c. equivalent Penances were commonly received in his time and gives us also an estimate of them Three thousand Stripes of Discipline could redeem one Year of ordinary Penance and the singing of ten Psalms continuing all the while under the Lash made a Thousand Stripes so that the whole Psaltery made up five years of Penance and as by vertue of the Communion of Saints we know God sometimes pardons Sinners out of regard to the Prayers and other good works of their Brethren there were some holy Persons in those time who devoted themselves to the doing of Penance for the sake of others Of these the most famous was St. Dominicus Loricatus so called because he always Ib. c. 8 wore next to his Skin a coat of Mail which he never put off but when he gave himself the discipline of the Rod and that he did so often and so roughly with so many Fastings Watchings Genuflexions and all other sorts of Austerities upon it that we are almost frightned at the very reading of the account St. Peter Damianus who was his Spiritual director gives us of them But the niceness and Effeminacy of our living way of finds it hard to comply with so rigorous a Devotion of which notwithstanding we see many instances in the Saints of those times But 't is to be supposed that God inspired them with this extraordinary conduct in compassion to the necessities of that Age They had to do with a Generation so perverse and refractory that 't was but necessary to strike their Senses with the most affecting objects Bare reasonings and persw asions would have provedbut weak Arguments to such ignorant and brutish People bred up in Blood and Rapine and moderate severities would have been looked upon as nothing by them who had been from their youth inured to the hardships of War and always walked in Armour But when they saw a St. Boniface the Disciple of St. Romualdus going bare foot in the coldest Countries a St. Dominic Loricatus disciplining himfelf till he was all of a gore Blood they could not imagin but that these holy Saints did indeed love God and hate Sin They knew not what to make of mental Prayer but they very well saw that he prayed who repeated the Psaltery and they could not doubt but that these holy Persons loved their Neighbour when they saw them doing Penance even for the Sins of other Men Convinced by these outward and visible Demonstrations of their Zeal they became more Docile and Tractable They willingly hearkned to the Preachings of these Priests and Monks whose Lives they could not but admire and many of them were effectually converted Though indeed these Flagellations going in Iron-Chains and such like means of mortifying the Flesh were not new Inventions Theodoret gives us a number of like instances in his Religiosa Historia or the lives of the Religious and Asceticks and St. Simeon Stilites is alone sufficient to give Authority to all these almost incredible Austerities The Rule of St. Columbanus who lived about the end of the Sixth Age kept his Monks under the Discipline of the Rod prescribing for almost every fault a certain number of Stripes And we see in the after Ages many Saints giving themselves voluntary Castigations Amongst the Instances of discipline which served instead of Canonical Penances one of the most usual was That of taking a Pilgrimage to some of the more Celebrated places of Devotion as to Jerusalem to Rome to Tours to Compostella In the ninth Age the many abuses which Conc. Cabil ii an 813. had crept into this practice occasioned great Complaints If a Priest or other Clerk had been guilty of any notorious Crime 't