CHAPTER IV. HISTORY OF RITES. § 1. Rites multiplied.—§ 2. Explanations of the ceremonies.-§ 3. Public worship. The Eucharist. Baptism.—§ 4. Temples. Festivals. § 1. IN proportion as true religion and piety, from various causes, declined in this century, the external signs of religion and piety, that is, rites and ceremonies, were augmented. In the East, the Nestorian and Eutychian contests occasioned the invention of various rites and forms, which might serve as marks to distinguish the contending sects. In the West, Gregory the Great was wonderfully dexterous and ingenious in devising and recommending new ceremonies. Nor will this appear strange to those who are aware that he was of the opinion that the words of the holy scriptures were images of recondite things. For whoever can believe this, can easily bring himself to inculcate all the doctrines and precepts of conjecture has some probability. [But Dr. Walch, Historie der Ketzereyen, vol. vii. p. 296, 297, says of this conjecture: "it is not only improbable, but is certainly false." And the documents relative to the controversy (of which he had there just closed the recital,) do appear, as Dr. Walch affirms, "adequate to prove, that these men were really from Scythia." Together with the two modes of expression relative to the Trinity, which they advocated, these monks were strenuous opposers of Pelagianism. Having had disagreement with some bishops of their province, particularly with Paternus, bishop of Tomis, a deputation of them went to Constantinople with their complaint. Among these deputies, John Maxentius, Leontius, and Achilles, were the principal. The emperor VOL. II. rather favoured them; but the bishops E religion, by means of rites and signs. Yet in one respect, he is to be commended; namely, that he would not obtrude his ceremonies upon others :-perhaps he would not, because he could not. § 2. This multitude of ceremonies required interpreters. Hence a new kind of science arose, both in the East and in the West, the object of which was to investigate and explain the grounds and reasons of the sacred rites. But most of those who deduce these rites from scripture and reason, betray folly, and exhibit rather the fictions of their own brains than the true causes of things. If they had been acquainted with ancient opinions and customs, and had examined the pontifical laws of the Greeks and Romans, they would have taught much more correctly; for from this source were derived many of the rites which the christians regarded as sacred. § 3. The public worship of God was still celebrated in the vernacular language of each nation; but it was here and there more enlarged by various hymns and other circumstantial things. The new mode of administering the Lord's supper, magnificently, and with a splendid apparatus, or the Canon of the Mass, as it is called, was a prescription of Gregory the Great; or, if it will be more satisfactory, he enlarged and altered the old Canon. But many ages elapsed before the other Latin churches could be prevailed on to adopt this Romish form'. Baptism, except in cases of necessity, was conferred only on the feast-days; and those also the greater festivals, or those of the highest class 2. As to the Litanies to 1 See Theod. Chr. Lilienthal, de Canone Missa Gregoriano, Lugd. Bat. 1740. 8vo, and the writers on Liturgies. [Different countries had different Missals. Not only the East differed from the West, but in both there were diversities. In Gaul, the old Liturgy continued till the time of Charlemagne. In Milan, the Ambrosian Liturgy (so named from St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan,) is not yet wholly abandoned. In Spain, the Mosarabic, or ancient Spanish, is still used occasionally in certain places, though the Roman canon was introduced partially in the eleventh, and more fully in the thirteenth and following centuries. In England, the ancient Britons had one Liturgy; and the Anglo-Saxons received another from Augustine their apostle and his companions; and this not precisely the Roman. See Krazer, de Liturgiis, Sec. ii. chap. 2-6. Gregory the Great introduced the responsive chant; and established a school for church music, which was in existence at Rome as late as the ninth century. Tr.] [Especially Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Whitsuntide, and St. John the Baptist; at least in Gaul. See Gregory of Tours, de Gloria Confessor. c. 69. 76. and Historia Francor. lib. viii. c. 9. Schl.] the saints, as they are called', the various kinds of worshipping assemblies, and the stations of Gregory', the formulas of conse cration, and other rites invented in this century, to captivate the senses with a show of religion; we shall pass over them to avoid prolixity. This subject requires the labours and investigations of a special treatise. § 4. The temples erected in memory and to the honour of the saints, were immensely numerous, both in the East and the West. There had long been houses enough erected, to accommodate the people with places of worship; but this age courted the favour of departed saints, with these edifices, as a kind of presents; nor did they doubt at all that these saints took under their immediate protection and care, the provinces, cities, towns, and villages, in which they saw such residences prepared for them. The number of feast-days almost equalled that of the churches. In particular, the list of festivals for the whole christian church was swelled by the consecration of the day of the purification of the holy virgin Mary, that the people might not miss their Lupercalia, which they were accustomed to celebrate in the month of February', and by the day 3 [The Litanies, of which there were the larger and the smaller, the common and the special, were, in the previous centuries, addressed only to God; but superstition now led men to address them to Mary, and to the other saints. Von Ein.] * [Stations denoted, in early times, fasts; but afterwards, the churches, cha pels, cemeteries, or other places, where the people assembled for worship. (See du Cange, Glossar. Med. et Infim. Latinit. sub hac voce.) Gregory discriminated the different times, occasions, and places of public worship; and framed a service for each. This is the principal cause of the vast multiplication of liturgical formulas in the Romish church. Tr.] [See Procopius, de Bello Gothico, lib. iv. and v.; also de Edificiis Justiniani; where is mention of many churches erected to the virgin Mary. Schl.] [Thus, the Lombard queen, Theodelinda, built a church for John the Baptist, that he might pray for her and her people. (Paul Diacon. Hist. Longobard. 1. iv. c. 7.) And the French king, Clothaire, built a splendid temple to St. Vincent; because he believed that saint had helped him to vanquish the Goths. (Siegbert, Chronic.) For the same reason rich presents were made to the churches. Thus Childebert, after conquering Alaric, gave to the church sixty cups, fifteen dishes, and twenty cases for the holy Gospels; all of the finest gold, and set with costly gems. (Gregory of Tours, Historia Francor. I. iii. c. 10.) Schl.] 7 [This was instituted in the reign of Justinian, and fixed to the second day of February. The Greeks called it vravTÝ, or vπAπAVTǹ, meeting; because then Simeon and Anna met the Saviour in the temple. The Latins call it the feast of St. Simeon, the presentation of the Lord, and Candlemass; because many candles were then lighted up; as had been done on the Lupercalia, the festival of the ravishment of Proserpine, whom her mother Ceres searched for with candles. See Hos christians. Simplicius, in his Expositions of Aristotle, not obscurely carps at the christian faith". The Epicheiremata xviii. contra christianos, written by Proclus, were in every body's hands; and, therefore, received a confutation from John Philoponus. So much license would not have been allowed to these men, had there not been among the magistrates many who were christians in name and outward appearance, rather than in reality. § 3. The christians in some places had occasion, even in this century, to complain of the barbarity and cruelty of their enemies. During the greater part of it, the Anglo-Saxons, who had seized upon Britain, brought every kind of calamity and suffering upon the former inhabitants of the country, who were christians'. The Huns having made an irruption into Thrace, Greece, and other provinces, during the reign of Justi His Photius, Bibliotheca, Cod. ccxlii. p. 1027. [Damascius was a native of Damascus, but studied and taught philosophy both at Athens and Alexandria. From the latter he fled to Persia, during the persecution of the pagan philosophers by the emperor Justinian, about the year 530. subsequent history is unknown. He wrote the lives of Isidorus and others, Commentaries on Plato, and four books on extraordinary events: all of which are lost. Photius calls him sig aкрov dvoσεßns, superlatively irreligi ous, (Codex clxxxi.) and gives an epitome of his life of Isidore, Cod. ccxlii. Tr.] 7 [Simplicius, a native of Cilicia, a disciple of Damascius, and an eclectic philosopher, was one of those who fled into Persia about the year 530. He returned a few years after, and wrote Commentaries on some of the philosophical and physical works of Aristotle: also a Commentary on the Encheiridion of Epictetus; both edited, Greek and Latin, by H. Wolf, Leyden, 1640. 4to. Tr.] 8 [Proclus was born at Constantinople a. D. 410, studied at Alexandria and at Athens, and became head of the philosophical school in the latter place, in the year 450. He died A. D. 485. He was a man of much philosophical reading, a great enthusiast, a bold and whimsical speculator, and a most voluminous writer. His eighteen Arguments against the christians, are so many proofs that the world was eternal. This work, with the confutation of John Philoponus, was published in Greek, Venice, 1535. fol.; and in Latin, Lyons, 1557. fol. Tr.] 9 See J. A. Fabricius, Biblioth. Gr. vol. iii. p. 522, &c. [and Brucker, Historia Crit. Philos. tom. ii. p. 491, with Hamberger's Zuverlässige Nachrichten, tom. iii. p. 391. Schl.] 1 Ja. Usher, Index Chronolog. Antiq. Eccles. Britan. ad ann. 508, p. 1123 [and still more to the purpose, ad ann. 511, p. 1125, and ad ann. 597, p. 1151, &c. At the beginning of this century, the Saxons held only Kent and Sussex, embracing about three counties in the south-east part of England; all the rest of the country was inhabited by christian Britons. But during this century, the Saxons gradually extended their conquests; and before the century closed, the Britons were shut up among the mountains of Wales and Cornwall, except a few in Cumberland on the borders of Scotland, or were driven to take refuge beyond seas. Over all the rest of England paganism reigned: the churches were demolished, or converted into idolatrous temples, and the public worship of the true God had ceased. Tr.] nian, treated the christians with cruelty'; yet they appear to have been influenced, not so much by a hatred of christianity, as by hostility to the Greek empire. A great change in the state of Italy took place, about the middle of this century, under Justinian I. This emperor, by Narses his general, overturned the kingdom of the Ostrogoths in that country, after it had stood ninety years, and annexed Italy to his empire. But under the emperor Justin, the Lombards, a very warlike German tribe, under their king Alboin, and accompanied by some other German people, broke into Italy from Pannonia, in the year 568; and having possessed themselves of the whole country, except Rome and Ravenna, founded a new kingdom at Pavia. Under new lords, who were not only barbarians, but averse from christianity, the Italian christians for a time endured immense evils and calamities. But the first rage of the conquerors gradually subsided, and the Lombards became more civilized. Autharis, their third king, made a profession of christianity, in the year 587; but he embraced the Arian creed. His successor, however, Agilulph, was induced by his queen, Theodelinda, to abandon the Arian sect, and join the catholics of the Nicene creed". Chosroes, the king of Persia, exceeded all others in barbarity; for he publicly declared that he would make war, not upon Justinian, but upon the God of the christians; and he cut off an immense number of christians by various modes of execution 4. 2 Procopius, de Bello Persico, lib. ii. e. 4. 3 Paulus Diaconus, de Gestis Longobardorum, lib. ii. c. 2; and c. 27. p. 219. 231. ed. Lindenbrog. Muratori, Antiq. Italia, tom. i. p. 14; tom. ii. p. 297, &c.; and Annales Italici. Giannone, Histoire de Naples, tom. i. p. 302, &c. 4 Procopius, de Bello Persico, lib. ii. c. 26. |