§ 10. OF THE DOORS OF THE CHURCH. To insure due secrecy in celebrating the mysteries of their religion, the ancient Christians constructed the doors of their churches with peculiar care. As we have already seen, they set apart, by the solemn rites of ordination, a class of men to guard the doors, and prevent the intrusion, not only of the profane, but of their own catechumens and penitents. Such was the profound secrecy in which they celebrated certain of their religious rites. In all this they imitated the Jews; and the early fathers, like the writers of the Old and New Testaments, from this usage derived abundant metaphors relating to the doors of the church, of heaven, of the kingdom, etc. Compare the following passages of Scripture, among many others:-2 Chron. viii. 14; Ps. lxxxiv. 11; cxviii. 19, 20; John x. 1; xx. 19; Acts xiv. 27; Rev. xxii. 14, etc. It was customary, in the earliest ages of Christianity, to post upon the doors of the church the names of all excommunicated persons. At a period somewhat later, persons intending marriage were also published in the same manner. This was also the place for posting all proclamations and decisions of the church, and public notices of every kind. There were generally three main entrances to the churches, after the pattern of the temple at Jerusalem. These were provided with outer and inner doors, distinguished by the names aupisúpa and τελευταίον θυρῶν. The main entrance over against the high altar was called beautiful, in imitation of the gate of the same name in the temple. Acts iii. 2, 10. The different sexes entered by different doors; these were made of the choicest and most durable wood, wrought with peculiar care, and richly ornamented with arabesque, bronze, gold, or silver plate; not unfrequently they were made of solid brass or bronze. Several of this kind still remain in the different countries of Europe.2 The date of the building or dedication of the church was usually inscribed on the doors. Subjects of sacred history were often represented by curiously carved work on the sacred portals. In addition to this there were inscriptions of various kinds, consisting of a motto, a doctrinal sentiment, a passage of Scripture, a doxology, or a prayer. A single specimen is here given, as taken from an ancient church. On the outer side of the door : Pax tibi sit, quincunque Dei penetralia Christi On the inside: Quisquis ab æde Dei, perfectis ordine votis, Egrederis, remea corpore; corde mane. § 11. OF THE PAVEMENTS AND WALLS OF THE CHURCH. THE floor of the church consisted of pavement carefully laid, or smooth marble. In large churches the narthex had a pavement of plaster; the flooring of the nave was plastering or boards; while the chancel was adorned with mosaic. Not unfrequently there was a tessellated pavement of particoloured and polished marble, constituting a rich mosaic work. A curious specimen of this ancient mosaic was found in 1805, near Salzburg, delineating the story of Theseus and Ariadne. Such decorations, in imitation of the Jewish temple (1 Kings vi. 15-30) were used in the churches as early as the fourth century. From the seventh to the tenth century, it became customary to encumber and disfigure the nave and choir with the graves of the dead, and from that period the floors were occupied with palisades, monuments, and epitaphs; and all unity and symmetry was destroyed. The walls and the canopy were also ornamented with inscriptions, mosaics, paintings, and bas-relief. The paintings were executed on wood, metals, and canvas. The bas-relief was executed in gypsum, mortar, stone, or metal, in imitation of the ornaments of the temple. Votive offerings of shields, arms, standards, and the like, were also hung upon the walls. To these the lights were attached and suspended from the canopy. Vaulted roofs are of later origin. We subjoin from Eusebius an account of the decoration of the church of the Holy Sepulchre, built by Constantine in the fourth. century:" At the side opposite to the sepulchre, which was the eastern side, the church itself was erected; a noble work, rising to a vast height, and of great extent, both in length and breadth. The interior of this structure was floored with marble slabs of various colours; while the external surface of the walls, which shone with polished stones exactly fitted together, exhibited a degree of splendour in no respect inferior to that of marble. With regard to the roof, it was covered on the outside with lead, as a protection against the rains of winter. But the inner part of the roof was finished with sculptured fretwork, extended in a series of connected compartments, like a vast sea, over the whole church; and, being overlaid throughout with the purest gold, caused the entire building to glitter as it were with rays of light.' § 12. OF THE WINDOWS OF THE CHURCH. No aspersion was ever more unjust than that which charged the primitive Christians with seeking concealment and hating the light. In imitation of the temple at Jerusalem (1 Kings vi. 4) they sought, from the beginning, to furnish their churches fully with light. It is customary to refer the first use of glass windows to the third century; but, in the opinion of many, they had an earlier origin, as is shown in the ruins of Herculaneum. In France, windows, both of coloured and of cut glass, were in use in the sixth century. Venantius Fortunatus, a poet of the fifth, has a distich respecting the cathedral church at Paris, from which it would seem that glass windows were then in use: Prima capit, radios vitreis oculata fenestris From the history of the venerable Bede, on the other hand, it would seem that these were not in use in England in the seventh century, but were subsequently introduced from France. Pliny affirms that the art of painting glass was known to the Romans. If so, it must have been lost again; for no traces of the art are discoverable until the beginning of the eleventh century. It was brought to perfection in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and is justly regarded as the most finished specimen of the arts in the Middle Ages. After a slumber of three hundred years, it is beginning to be again revived in the nineteenth century. The windows of churches were not only greater in number, but larger in dimensions, than those of private dwelling-houses. In the Carlovingian dynasty, however, the windows were small and round, and very far from affording sufficient light. § 13. OF THE ORNAMENTS OF THE CHURCH. AFTER the establishment of the hierarchy, churches were adorned with various ornaments more or less costly. Among these may be reckoned the anathemata, or gifts from different individuals, which were suspended upon pillars, or placed in some other conspicuous situation, and intended as memorials of some particular mercy or benefit received from God. Eusebius, in his account of the church of the Holy Sepulchre, says, "He further enriched it with numberless offerings of inexpressible beauty, consisting of gold, silver, and precious stones in various forms, the skill and elaborate arrangement of which, in regard to their magnitude, number, and variety, we have not leisure, at present, to describe particularly." It is but justice to the ancient fathers to remark that they were very far from bestowing unqualified approbation upon that style of gaudy magnificence in which their churches were decorated. St. Ambrose says, "that whatever is done in purity, and with sincerity, is commendable, but that it is neither praiseworthy to rear superfluous structures, nor to neglect such as are needful; that the priest ought, especially, to adorn the temple of God with becoming graces; that it should be rendered resplendent by acts of humility and charity; in giving to the stranger according to his necessities, and as the dictates of humanity require; not by pride, self-indulgence, and personal aggrandizement, at the expense of the poor."" Jerome, in various passages, inveighs against the pomp and pride displayed in the churches and in the attire of the priesthood.3 Chrysostom complains of the vanity, superstition, and oppression of the poor, with which their churches were erected, though he objects not to these expenditures upon the churches in themselves considered. St. Bernard rebukes this extravagant folly with so much simplicity and fervour, that the reader will be interested to hear him in his own tongue. * * Tali quadam arte spargitur æs, ut multiplicetur. Expenditur, ut augeatur, et effusio copiam parit. Ipso quippe visu sumptuosarum, sed mirandarum vanitatum, accenduntur homines magis ad offerendum, quam ad orandum. Sic opes opibus hauriuntur, sic pecunia pecuniam trahit: quia nescio, quo pacto, ubi amplius divitiarum cernitur, ibi offertur libentius. Auro tectis reliquiis saginantur oculi, et loculi aperiuntur. Ostenditur pulcherrima forma Sancti vel Sanctæ alicujus, et eo creditur sanctior, quo coloratior. Currunt homines ad osculandum, invitantur ad donandum; et magis mirantur pulcra, quam venerantur sacra. Ponuntur dehinc in ecclesia gemmatæ, non coronæ, sed rotæ, circumseptæ lampadibus, sed non minus fulgentes insertis lapidibus. Cernimus et pro candelabris arbores quasdam erectas, multo æris pondere, miro artificis opere fabricatas, nec magis coruscantes superpositis lucernis, quam suis gemmis. Quid, putas, in his omnibus quæritur? pœnitentium compunctio, an intuentium admiratio? O vanitas vanitatum, sed non vanior, quam insanior! Fulget ecclesia in parietibus, et in § 14. OF IMAGES. THE primitive Christians regarded with irreconcilable aversion all pictures or images, none of which were allowed in their churches. The Roman emperors required divine honours to be paid to their statues, and the refusal to do this on the part of Christians was frequently the occasion of their vindictive persecution, as is seen in Pliny's letter to Trajan, cited above, pp. 34-6. This circumstance, together with their abhorrence of paganism, effectually excluded images from the churches of the early Christians. The origin of the custom of introducing images into churches is described by Neander as follows:-"It was not in the church, but in the family, that religious images first came into use among the Christians. In their daily intercourse with men, the Christians saw themselves everywhere surrounded by the objects of pagan mythology, or, at least, by objects offensive to their moral and Christian sentiments. Representations of this sort covered the walls in shops, were the ornaments of drinking-vessels and seal-rings, on which the pagans frequently had engraven the images of their gods, so that they might worship them when they pleased. It was natural that, in place of these objects, so offensive to their religious and moral sentiments, the Christians should substitute others more agreeable to them. Thus they preferred to have on their goblets the figure of a shepherd carrying a lamb on his shoulder, which was the symbol of our Saviour rescuing the repentant sinner, according to the gospel parable.' And Clement of Alexandria says, in reference to the seal-rings of the Christians, 'Let our signets be a dove, (the symbol of the Holy Spirit,) or a fish,* or a ship sailing 2 pauperibus eget. Suos lapides induit auro, et suos filios nudos deserit. De sumptibus egenorum servitur oculis divitum. Inveniunt curiosi, quo delectentur, et non inveniunt miseri, quo sustententur. Utquid saltem sanctorum imagines non reveremur, quibus utique ipsum, quod pedibus conculcatur, scalet pavimentum. Sæpe spuitur in ore Angeli, sæpe alicujus sanctorum facies calcibus tunditur transeuntium. Et si non sacris his imaginibus, cur vel non parcitur puleris coloribus? Cur decoras, quod mox foedandum est? Cur depingis, quod mox necesse est conculcari? Quid ibi valent venustæ formæ, ubi pulvere maculantur assiduo? Denique quid hæc ad pauperes, ad Monachos, ad spirituales vivos? Nisi forte et hic memoratum jam pœtæ versiculum propheticus ille respondeatur: Domine, dilexi decorum domus tuæ, et locum habitationis gloriæ tuæ. Assentio: patiamur et hæc fieri in ecclesia: quia etsi noxia sunt vanis et avaris, non tamen simplicibus et devotis. Opp. t. i. p. 545, ed. Bened. *The same allusion as in the case of the fishermen,-also an allusion to the anagram of Christ's name, ΙΧΘΥΣ-Ιησούς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ. |