blessing of God, assemble together, and celebrate his martyrdom ;" which was a practice so usual and constant as that the heathens observed it: so that as on the one hand, under the persecution of Valerian, Æmilian, the prefect of Egypt, threatened Dionysius Alexandrinus and his fellow-sufferers, that for their obstinacy and ingratitude, as he termed it, he would send them into Lybia, to a desert place called Cephro, "where they should not meet together, or go to those places called cemeteries." That is, the places where the martyrs and the rest of the faithful were buried; so, on the other hand, when Galienus, Valerian's son, restored peace to the churches, he published an express edict "for returning to the Christians the cemeteries that were taken from them."c § 10. If in the next place it shall be inquired, how they observed these festival days, I answer, that they did not, according to the fashion of the heathens, spend them in riot and debauchery, in bacchanalian revellings and luxury, but in religious exercises and employments, in prayers and devotions. "He," saith Origen, "truly keeps a festival who does what he ought to do, always praying, and by his prayers offering up unbloody sacrifices unto God.”a The solemnities of these feast-days were not drunkenness and gluttony, but acts of piety and charity. Now they publicly assembled, as the church of Smyrna writes 2 Ἔνθα ὡς δυνατὸν ἡμῖν συναγομένοις ἐν ἀγαλλιάσει, καὶ χαρᾷ, παρέξει ὁ Κύριος ἐπιτελεῖν τὴν τοῦ μαρτυρίου αὐτοῦ ἡμέραν γενέθλιον. Apud Euseb. lib. 4, cap. 15, p. 135. • Οὐδαμῶς δὲ ἐξέςαι· -ἢ συνόδους ποιεῖσθαι, -ἢ εἰς τὰ καλούμeva koιμпτýρia eioiéval. Dion. Alex. apud Euseb. lib. 7, cap. 11, p. 258. • Τὰ τῶν καλουμένων κοιμητηρίων ἀπολαμβάνειν ἐπιτρέπων χωρία. Apud Euseb. lib. 7, cap. 13, p. 262. d Ἑορτάζει γε κατὰ ἀλήθειαν, ὁ τὰ δέοντα πράττων, ἀεὶ εὐχόμενος, διὰ παντὸς θύων τὰς ἀναιμάκτους, ἐν ταῖς πρὸς τὸ θεῖον εὐχαῖς, θυ olaç. Contra Celsum. lib. 8, p. 392. in her letter concerning the death of Polycarp, "to commemorate the martyrs' courage and triumphs, and to exhort and prepare others to the same glorious and renowned actions."a Or, as Tertullian expresses it, “Now they offered oblations." 99b As Cyprian, "They offered oblations and sacrifices;" that is, they offered thanks and praise to God, that had given grace to those martyrs to seal his truth with their blood, and, in evidence of their gratitude, distributed of their substance to the poor and indigent. CHAPTER X. § 1. Of the rites and ceremonies: the difference between them. § 2. Of ceremonies: many used by the ancients, which through various ways crept into the church. § 3. Of rites: every church followed its own rites without imposing them on any other. § 4. The members of every church obliged to observe the rites of that church where they lived. 5. The conclusion of this inquiry, with an earnest persuasion to peace, unity, and moderation. § 1. HAVING in the precedent chapters inquired into the several parts of divine worship, and the circumstances thereof, I now come to close up all with a brief appendix concerning rites and ceremonies, by which I mean two different things: by rites I understand such actions as have an inseparable relation to the circumstances or manner of worship; as for instance, the sacrament was to be received in one manner or other, but whether from the bishop or deacon, that was the rite. Lent was to be observed a certain space of time, but whether one day, or a · Εἰς τε τῶν προηθληκότων μνήμην, καὶ τῶν μελλόντων ἄσκησίν τε Kaì έтoμaoíaν. Apud Euseb. lib. 4, cap. 15, p. 135. b Oblationes facimus. De Coron. Milit. p. 339. c Celebrentur hic à nobis oblationes et sacrificia. Epist. 37, § 2, p. 88. two days, or three days, that was the rite thereof. So that rites are the necessary concomitants of the circumstances of divine worship, appendages to them; or, if you rather please, you may call them circumstances themselves. Now both By ceremonies, I mean such actions as have no regard either to the manner or circumstances of divine worship, but the acts thereof may be performed without them; as for instance, in some churches they gave to persons, "when they were baptized, milk and honey." And, "before they prayed, they washed their hands." these actions I call ceremonies, because they were not necessary to the discharge of those acts of divine worship unto which they were affixed; but those acts might be performed without them: as baptism might be entirely administered without the ceremony of giving milk and honey, and prayers might be presented without washing of hands. Now, having explained what I intended by the two terms of rites and ceremonies, let us in the next place consider the practice of the primitive church with reference thereunto. And first, for ceremonies. § 2. It is apparent that there were many of that kind crept into the church, of which we may say, that from the beginning they were not so: for when "the quire of the apostles was dead, till which time," as Hegesippus writes, "the church remained a pure and unspotted virgin," then the church was gradually spotted and corrupted, as in her doctrine, so also in her worship, an infinity of ceremonies a Suscepti lactis et mellis concordiam prægustamus. Tertul. De Coron. Milit. p. 337. b Manibus ablutis -Orationem obire. Idem. De Oratione. p. 659. • Ὡς δ' ἱερὸς τῶν ἀποςόλων χορὸς διάφορον εἰλήφει τοῦ βίου τέλος -τηνικαῦτα τῆς ἀθέου πλάνης τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐλάμβανεν ἡ σύςασις. Apud Euseb. lib. 3, cap. 32, p. 104. by degrees insensibly sliding in, very many of which were introduced within my limited time, as "the eating of milk and honey after baptism, the abstaining from baths the week after," ,"a" the washing of their hands before prayer, their sitting after prayer," and many other such like, which, through various ways and means, winded themselves into the church; as some came in through custom and tradition: one eminent man perhaps invented and practised a certain action, which he used himself, as judging it fit and proper to stir up his devotion and affection : others, being led by his example, performed the same; and others again imitated them, and so one followed another, till at length the action became a tradition and custom, after which manner those ceremonies were introduced "of tasting milk and honey after baptism, of abstaining from the baths the whole ensuing week, of not kneeling on the Lord's day, and the space between Easter and Whitsuntide, of the signing themselves with the sign of the cross in all their actions and conversations, concerning which and the like Tertullian writes, That there was no law in Scripture for them, but that tradition was their author, and custom their confirmer.' "c Of which a 6 Suscepti lactis et mellis concordiam prægustamus, exque ea die lavacro quotidiano per totam hebdomadem abstinemus. Tertul. De Co ron. Milit. p. 337. b Manibus ablutis -orationem obire- -adsignata oratione assiden di mos est quibusdam. Idem. De Orat. pp. 659, 660. C Suscepti lactis et mellis concordiam prægustamus, exque ea die lavacro quotidiano per totam hebdomadem abstinemus- -die Dominico nefas ducimus de geniculis adorare: eadem immunitate à die Pascha in Pentecosten usque gaudemus; ad omnem progressum atque promotum, ad omnem aditum et exitum-quæcunque nos conversatio exercet, frontem crucis signaculo terimus. Harum et aliarum ejusmodi disciplinarum si legem expostules Scripturarum, nullam invenies; traditio tibi prætendetur auctrix, consuetudo confirmatrix. Idem. De Coron. Milit. pp. 337, 340, 341. custom we may say what Tertullian says of custom in general, that "commonly custom takes its rise from ignorance and simplicity, which by succession is corroborated into use, and so vindicated against the truth: but the Lord Christ hath called himself truth, and not custom; wherefore, if Christ was always, and before all, then truth was first and ancientest. It is not so much novelty as verity that confutes heretics: whatsoever is against the truth is heresy, although it be an old custom."a Others again were introduced through a wrong exposition or misunderstanding of the Scripture; so were their exorcisms before baptism, and their unctions after baptism, as in their proper places hath been already shown. Finally, others crept in through their dwelling amongst the pagans, who in their ordinary conversations used an infinity of superstitions; and many of those pagans, when they were converted to the saving faith, Christianized some of their innocent former ceremonies, as they esteemed them to be; either thinking them decent and proper to stir up their devotion, or likely to gain over more heathens, who were offended at the plainness and nakedness of the Christian worship, of which sort were, "their washing of hands before prayer, their sitting after prayer, and such like." Concerning which Tertullian affirms that they were practised by the heathens. So that by these and such like methods it was, that so many ceremonies imperceptibly slid into the ancient a Fere consuetudo initium ab aliqua ignorantia vel simplicitate sortita in usum per successionem corroboratur, et ita adversus veritatem vindicatur: sed Dominus noster Christus veritatem se, non consuetudinem cognominavit. Si semper Christus et prior omnibus, æque veritas sempiterna et antiqua res- -Hæreses non tam novitas quam veritas revincit: quodcunque adversus veritatem sapit, hoc erit hæresis, etiam vetus consuetudo. De Virg. Veland. 385. p. b Manibus ablutis orationem obire-adsignata oratione assidendi mos-gentilibus adæquant. De Orat. pp. 650, 669. |