| Monumental Christianity; or, The art and symbolism of the primitive church. CHAPTER XI. THE HOLY GHOST: THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH - 6 |
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Page 7 of 7 After being commended to the prayers of the congregation, the Bishop again places his right hand upon the head of each Deacon, and extends the left in another supplication for the gift of the Holy Ghost as to Stephen the first Deacon : that the Deacons before him may serve God's pure altar with a pure heart and upright conscience, shine forth in works of righteousness for the ministry of God's life-giving sacraments, and be made meet to receive the heavenly reward in the day of recompense, for their pure and holy ministry. Then the Bishop signs them, takes the stoles from off their necks, and places them over their left shoulder. The Epistles are then put into the hands of each Deacon, and another sign of the cross is made between the eyes by the Bishop's forefinger, drawn upwards from below, and from right to left, saying, in a loud voice : "A. B. has been set apart, consecrated, and perfected to the work of the minis- try of the Church, and to the Levitical and Stephenite office, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen." All this not only has the true ring of Oriental steel, but also the rich flavour of a high, genuine antiquity. It exactly describes the ordination scene, given above ; and its use of the term " Levitical," corresponds with the statement of Clement, that the Church was modelled after the Temple, so far, at least, as her three-fold orders of Clergy are concerned. We shall also find ancient inscriptions bearing this title as applied to Deacons, and the term sacerdotes, as applied to Presbyters. And these three orders of the Clergy were perfectly competent to manage the affairs of the Church, and did so manage them, without the intrusion of the Laity. They had the control of the cemeteries, even, and none could be buried there without their permission. The Holy Ghost: The Holy Catholic Church. 330 As to the many inscriptions found in the Roman Catacombs, it is to be said that they are not often dated, that is, the Consuls' names are infrequently given, or those of the Bishops. When these appear, the date is easily ascertained. Otherwise, we prox- imately judge of the correctness of the date, by the form of the letters, and the brevity and simplicity of the inscription itse)f. Episcopus or its abbreviation Ep. is generally applied to the Bishop. Sometimes Rector or Pastor is used. Papa or Father is not frequent in the early monuments as applied to a Bishop ; and it is used for other Bishops than those of Rome, and even for superiors of monasteries. Cyprian and Augustine were called Popes; and Damasus and John XIIL, Bishops of Rome, had the terms Pastor and Rector applied to them. Prudens Pastor is John's designation as found in a long inscription at old St. Paul's Basilica ; * and Dam- asus Rector is that of a much earlier Roman Bishop.* Not many years ago De Rossi found the broken fragments of a marble slab, in the Cemetery of St. Callixtus, bearing the name of Cornelius Ep,, the 22nd Bishop of Rome, A. D. 255-8.* He also gives a list, preserved in the Martyrologies, of 20 early Bishops designated by the term Episcopus or Ep., some of whom were buried in the Catacombs, with extant inscriptions.* Le Blant gives one of the sixth cen- tury thus : ** Dominus Papa pauper Episcopus " * — a poor Bishop and yet a lord Pope. How would that be esteemed in England or America ? But here is an important citation from Bosio as to the consecration of Bishops in the Roman Cemeteries, by John HI., 63rd Bishop of Rome, A. D. 563: ** Tunc sanctissimus Papa retinuit se in Coemeterio Sanctorum Ttburtii, et Valerianic et kabita- vit ibi multum temporis, ut Episcopos consecraret ibidim ; " /. e„ " Then the most holy Father kept himself in the cemetery of saints Tiburtius and Valerian, and spent so much of his time there, that he even consecrated Bishops in it." Two evils of the time would make this necessary ; first, the covetous, lewd, and rapacious emperor Justin, a contemner of God and man to such a degree that his vices made him a fanatic ; and second, Italy was overrun by the surrounding Barbarians, and in sore calamity. John repaired these cemeteries meanwhile, and his long residence there is accounted for.* Here is an early inscription of Damasus, 39th Bishop of Rome, A. D. 371-89, who did so much for the repairing of the cemeteries, and set up such beautiful inscriptions: HiC CONOKSTA JACET QUERIS SI TURBA PlORUM Corpora Sanctorum Retinent Vbneranda Sbpulchra Sublimes Animas Rapuit Sibi Regia Cabli ' Bosio, Rom, SoU„ p. 163. ' Td., p. 176. » Rom, Soft. Crist., I. p. 293, tav. I, &c. * Rom. Soft. Crist., II. p, 48. * Inset ip.. No. 404. * Ricaut's P.atina ; Lives of the Popes, pp. 95-9^. 340 Monumental Christianity. Hic CoMiTBS Xtsti Poktamt Qui Ex Hosts Tkophaxa Hic NuMXRUS Prockrum Sbrvat Qui Altaria Crrzsti Hic Positus Longa Vixit Qui in Pack Sacxrdos Hic Confxssores Sancti Quos Grbcia Misit Hic Juvxnxs Puxriqur Srnes Castiqux Nrp(>tbs Quis Magb Virgineum Placuit Rbtinbrb Pudorkm Hic Fatbor Damasus Volui Mba Condbrb Mkmbra Sbd CnfXRXs Tim ui Sanctos Vxxarx Piorum.^ " Should you inquire what crowd of the pious dead is here collected together, bodies of the saints retained in these venerable sepulchres, sublime souls caught up to the heavenly mansion itself, I answer, here are the comrades of Xystus who bore their trophies from the enemy ; here is many a leader who served Christ's altar : here is placed the priest who lived during the long peace; here are the holy Confessors whom Greece sent forth ; here are young men and old, and innocent grandchildren ; here is he who more than pleased to keep his virgin modesty; here I, Damasus, acknowledge the desire to lay my body down to rest, but I have feared to disturb the sacred ashes of the pious dead." " Procerum '* obviously means Bishops. The long peace of which Damasus here speaks is evidently that of Trajan, who was succeeded by Hadrian, during whose reign the persecution of Christians was renewed. Xystus or Sixtus I. suffered martyrdom with many others, soon after his December ordinations, when he made eleven Presbyters, as many Deacons, and four Bishops; and he was buried in the Vatican near St. Peter.* It was this Bishop of Rome who first instituted the Tris- agion at the celebration of the Eucharist in the Roman Liturgy, and ordered that the Ccrporal should be of the finest linen. I have cited this inscription because the words altar and sacerdos or priest are used ; and that, too, in the time of Julian, when the term Presbyter was still applied to the second order of the clergy. This word sacerdos had obviously come down from Apostolic times, for St. Paul himself uses the word in speaking of his own ministry, in Rom. xv. i6, when he says, " That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to you Gentiles, ministering the Gospel of God ; ** where the word ** minister" is the Greek Xetrovpyovt or Liturgist, and the word "ministering" is tepovpyovvra, or exercising the priest's office; and both of these words are precisely such as Plutarch applies to the Pagan priests, when he says, tepeis dedov Xeirovpyol, u e.^ Priests are the Liturgists of the gods. This word liturgist is again used by St. Paul in Rom. xiii. 6, where he speaks of kings as God's ministers ; it is applied to Christ Himself as our Great High Priest, seated at y Rom, Sott., p. iga • Platina's Lives of the Popes, p. 17. The Holy Ghost: The Holy Catholic Church. 341 the right hand of the throne of the Majesty on high, when He is called a Liturgist or minister of the sanctuary, or holy things rather; (Heb. viii. 2;) Paul and Barna- bas are so called when it is said of them that they ministered or liturgised to the Lord, and fasted, at Antioch ; (Acts xiii. 2 ;) the ministration of Zacharias, the priest at the Temple, is called by the same Greek name ; (Luke i. 23;) and finally, the word priest is applied to Christ as offering Himself for the sins of men, in con- nection with His more excellent ministry or Liturgicism than that of Moses. (Heb. viii. 6.)' When, therefore, Damasus employs the word sacerdos in the above inscription, it is according to Scriptural and Apostolic usage ; and they who deny such a term as thus applicable to any order of the Christian ministry, have not carefully read their Greek Testament. Damasus also expressly says again of Callixtus, the seven- teenth bishop of Rome, under Severus, according to Platina, but later according to others, " That he made another cemetery on the Appiah Way, where many priests, {sacerdotes^ and martyrs rest in peace, which is called to this day the cemetery of Callixtus." It was, therefore, the province of the Bishops of Rome to construct and adorn, and regulate all these public cemeteries, not only for the burial of the dead, but also for the worship of the living. They were under their entire control. And what these cemeteries reveal of the faith and practice of early Christianity, and of the constitution and polity of the Church, must therefore be a true condi- tion of things as they then existed, and as sanctioned and authorized by the high- est authority in the Church. De Rossi gives an early inscription from the cemetery of Domatilla, bearing on this point of Church control over the Catacombs. It is this : Albxius bt Capriola Fbckrunt SB Vnn ; Jussu Archblaz bt DuLcrri Frssbbr. " Alexis and Capriola made this for themselves while living, by the order of Archc- laus and Dulcitius, the Presbyters." * Domatilla was no doubt their parochial burying-place, and none could construct a tomb there without the express order of these Presbyters. And then, on the same page of De Rossi's work, just under the above inscription, is this: " The Deacon Severus made this double cubiculum with its arcosolia and luminary, as a quiet mansion in peace for himself and his family, by the order of his Father in God, or Pope Marcellinus, where for awhile he keeps his body in sweet sleep for his Maker and Judge. The sweet Virgin Severa re- ' See Hick's Christian Priitikood^ 3rd Ed^ L pp. 84-5. London, 17x1. * Borio, p. 173. » Rom. Soft., I. p. 208. 34^ Monumental Christianity. turned to her parents and handmaids on the 8th of the Kalends of February : whom the Lord commanded to be bom in the flesh with wonderful wisdom and ability, which body here lies buried in peace, until it shall rise again with Him. And He who took her soul, purified by His Holy Spirit, will always keep it pure and invio- late, which the Lord shall again restore in spiritual glory. Who lived 9 years, 1 1 months, and 15 days : so was she translated from time.** ' This was found in the cemetery of St. Callixtus, and the name of Marceilinus enables us to fix the date about the year of our Lord, 295. The cemetery of Dom- atilla, in which the other inscription was found, is the oldest of all, dating back to the time of Nerva, A. D. 96-98. So that, putting the evidence of both together, we have pretty early assurance that the Clergy of Rome were Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons; and that they had jurisdiction over the cemeteries. Here is an inscription from the Cemetery of St. Sebastian, containing the name of Innocent, the forty-second Bishop of Rome, A. D. 408-24. Temporibus Sancti Innocsnti Episcopi Frocunus Et Ursus Prbsbb TiTULI BiZANTIS Sancto Martyri SSBASTIANO EX VOTO FeCSRUNT. * In the times of the Holy Bishop Innocent Proclinus and Ursus, the Presbyters, Of the Byzantine Title, Made this ex-voto tablet For the holy martyr Sebastian." • Down to the fifth century, then, Episcopus was the interchangeable title of the Roman Bishop, and Presbyter was that of Byzantine priests who had come to Rome to honour the memory of Sebastian, the martyr. And here is an inscription in which the word Rector is applied to Damasus, and Levite to a deacon, named Tarsicius. Far Meritum Quicunque Legis Cognosce Duorum Quis Damasus Rector Titulas Post PRiCMiA Reddit JuDAicus PopuLus Stephanum Meliora Monentem PeRCUI^RAT SAXIS TULERAT QtJI EX HoSTB TROPHi%:UM Martyrium Primus Rapuit Levita Fidbus ^This inscription is also more fully given, just as it now exists, on p. cxy. of De Rossi's great work of Dated Christian ImcripHons, only one vol. of which is pttbli&hed. ^ Bosio, p. 177. The. Holy Ghost: The Holy Catholic Church. 343 Tarsicium Sanctum Christi Sacramenta Gerentem Cum Male Sana Manus Pericret (vel Pstsrbt) FULGARE (VULGARE) PrOFANIS Ipse Animam Potius Volvit Dimittere CiBSUS Prodere Quam Canibus Rabidis CiCLESTiA Membra.' ** Whosoever tho\i art, know the equal condition of two men, and that the Rector Damasus restored their inscriptions after their recompense. The Jewish people stoned Stephen to death, admonishing them of better things, who triumphed over the enemy : The first faithful Levite who suffered martyrdom. So when a strong hand wickedly attempted to expose Tarsicius to the profane people while ministering his part of Christ's sacraments; he was slain, choosing rather to give up his life than to make public the Divine Members or Body to mad dogs.*' Here a comparison is drawn between two deacons, one the first of martyrs, and the other serving at the altar in the administration of the Eucharist. The Martyrologies mention the name of Tarsicius as having suffered death under Va- lerian, A. D. 254-57. If the Ccelestia Membra refer to the Bread and Wine, of the Eucharist, as they seem to do, on the Scriptural injunction that holy things must not be given to dogs, then this is quite early testimony as to the elements of the Sacrament having been designated as the Divine Body. The Disciplina Arcani forbade any such exposure of it to the Pagan multitude, as was contemplated in the case of Tarsicius, who chose rather to be cut down on the spot. During the reign of Diocletian, three Presbyters, named Marcus, Marcellianus, and Tranquillinus, suffered martyrdom, and were buried in that part of the great cemetery of Callixtus, bearing their name. Their monumental tablet was found and published "by Bosio.' But we have some inscriptions giving evidence that these Bishops, Priests, and Deacons of the Primitive Church were married men, according to Apostolic pre- cept and God's ordinance. I cite the following from Gruter, p. 1173. Hunc Mihi composuit Tumulum Laurentia Conjux MoRiBus Apta Mris Semper Veneranda Fideus Invidia Infelix Tamdem Compressa Quiescit OcTOGiNTA Leo Transcendit Episcopus Annos. " This tomb my wife Laurentia made for me, Always respectful and faithful she suited my humour. Hapless envy at last lies crushed, Eighty years the Bishop Leo survived." ' Bosio. p. 176. • Rom, SoiL, p. i86 344 Monumental Christianity. No matter what Bishop this was, whether Liberius, an Arian Bishop of Rome, who was also called Leo, or Leo L, who lived about lOO years afterwards, it is clear that he had a good wife. Bosio gives this inscription of the Presbyter Basil and his wife:* Locus Basiu Presb. xt Fbuotati Ejus SiBi Fbcbrunt. * The place of the Presbyter Basil and his Felicitas They made it for themselyes." Aringhi gives this : * Oldc Prbsbytbu Gabini FnjA Pxux Hic Susanna Jacbt in Pace Patri Sooata. " Susanna, once the happy daughter of the Presbyter Gabtnil% Here lies in peace joined with her father." While Dr. Burgon was chaplain of the English Church at Rome, he copied the following inscription : Gaudentius Presb. Sibi Et CoNJUGI SUiB SEVBRiS CASTiB HAC SAMI FsMiNiB QUiB Vixrr Ann. xiii. M. ni. D. x. Dep. mi. NoN April. Timasio et Promo. " Gaudentius, the Presbyter, for himself and his wife Severa, a virtuous woman, who lived 42 years, 3 months, 10 days. Buried on the 4th of the nones of April. Timasius and Promus being consuls." There must be some mistake on the part of the Fossor who cut this inscrip- tion, for a wife only 13 years old is an extreme improbability ; and so Dr. Burgon translates it as above.* The consular date is A. D. 389. Here is a remarkable inscription, published by Bosio, of the wife of a Deacon or Levite : LxvrTiB CoNjux Petronia Forma Pudoris Hic Mia Deponens Sedibus Ossa Loco Parctfe Vos Lacrimis Dulcbs Cum Conjugb Natax, VivsNTEMQ Deo Credi Tb Flere Nefas Dp in Pace hi Non Octob. Festo Vc Conss.^ " Petronia, the wife of a Levite, type of modesty. In this place I lay my bones ; spare your tears, dear husband and daughters, and believe that it is forbid- I Rom. Sott,, p. 153. * Rom, Sttdt., II. p. XOX. ¦ Litters from Rome, p. 241. Lond. 1862. * Rom, Sott,, p. 151. The Holy Ghost: The Holy Catholic Church. 345 den to weep for one who lives in God. Buried in peace, on the third before the nones of October." The names of three children appear on the same tablet, and are no doubt those referred to by Petronia as hers, with the consular dates of their burial. Her own interment was A. D. 472. Gruter and Le Blant both publish a very long and elaborate inscription at Nar- bonne, A. D. 427, too unwieldy to be cited here, to the effect that Rusticus the Bishop, son of Bonosius, a Bishop ; nephew of Aratoris, another Bishop, &c., in connection with the presbyter Ursus and the deacon Hermetus, began to build the church ; and that Montanus the sub-deacon finished the Apse, &c.* Here we have the three distinct orders of the primitive clergy mentioned to- gether, with the addition of the sub-deacon, so seldom noticed because not of the regular order, but only a subordinate at the altar. Le Blant also publishes a slab of some shrine to which pilgrimages were made, scribbled all over with the names of visitors, among which appear those of 21 Pres- byters and 5 Levites, but no Bishops. It would not have been decorous for them to seek such cheap distinction. The monument belongs to the seventh or eighth cen- tury.* A bit of the broken sarcophagus of Concordius, Bishop of Aries, A. D. 374, still preserved in the museum of that city, records the circumstance that in his tender years and first ministry he distinguished himself as a reader, and afterwards as a Priest of the Divine Law, the word sacerdos being used.' With another inscription in Venice, published by Gruter, I close this already protracted list. It is that of a deacon and his wife who beg not to be disturbed : Auk. Saturninus Diac. Sibx. ?t Aura Veneriae. Dulcissimas CoNj. De Proprio Sibi. Fecerunt RoGo. Et Peto, Omnem Clerum Et Cuncta Fraternitatem, Nullus De Generb. vbl. Aliquis. In Hac Sspultura Ponatur.* " The Deacon Aurelius Saturnius for himself and his dearest wife Aurelia Ven- eria. For their own use alone they made it. And I beg and entreat every clergy- man, and the whole fraternity, that none of their number or anybody else be placed in this sepulchre." A very earnest and sensibly." request, surely ! The modern outrage upon the remains of the dead which cuts roads through some of our cemeteries for fast horses ' Gruter, p. 1059. Lc Blant, No. 617. « Inscrip, Chrit^ No. 609. * P. 1050, No. 8. ¦ Id. No, 509. 34^ Monumental Christianity. and men, or turns them into speculative town lots, or makes them rich placers of business, would have caused this good deacon to turn in his grave and howl with despair. Ground was scarce in Venice, and he only feared that necessity might compel the opening of his grave for the burial of some one of his brethren. Hence his request, which, I doubt not, was religiously respected. From these examples of monumental evidence, which cover the whole ground of clerical orders in the Primitive Church, we have every confirmation of both kinds of early literary testimonies adduced above in the writings of Ignatius, Irenaeus, and Clement, and the early Liturgies. Many more of like kind might be added, but wherefore? If these are not believed, neither would the sceptic be persuaded though one rose from the dead. Christianity and the Church rose together, and they must stand or fall together. I can no more conceive of any separation between them, than I can conceive of the Ark without Noah, or Noah without the Ark. There can be no family of the faith- ful children of God without the Bride, the Lamb's Wife, leaning on the arm and folded in the bosom of her Beloved. And to make the Church one with her Lord, and efficient in doing her proper work of making all men the true spiritual children of the one Great Father of all, she must have a ministry. Apostolic both in deriva- tion and power, reflecting the threefold Personality as creative, redemptive, and sanctifying, of one God and Saviour, as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. For it was at Caesarea Philippi, the modem Baneas, one of the great sources of the Jordan, and the ancient seat of a Pagan worship, where the niches of the gods still appear on the face of the high limestone rock, out of which the spring flows, that this union of Christianity and the Church was avowed and made, in one of the most tremendous utterances ever spoken to mortal man. Amid those scenes of nature's loveliness, so bewitching as to captivate a colony of Greek settlers who consecrated the spot over and around the great gush- iug fountain to their god Pan, and called the place Paneas in his honour, still re- tained in the modern name Baneas ; with marble temples about Him, devoted to the worship of natural powers and phenomena ; with great Hermon towering above in his green livery and snow-capped splendours, and the beautiful plain of Huleh spreading out before Him, rich in golden grain and numerous flocks and herds ; with the consciousness that Judaism had done all it could for God and man in upholding a pure Theism for so many generations by means of sacrifice and ceremonial wor- ship, and the voice of prophecy ; conscious, too, that Paganism had exhausted its resources in seeking the " unknown God," and all the spiritual and supernatural elements and powers of the universe through natural and sensible phenomena ; and fully aware of His own great mission to mankind in uniting all things and all Tke Holy Ghost: The Holy Catholic Church. 347 people in Himself, Jew and Gentile, far and near, He, the one God-man, uttered that grand declaration, and put forth that sublime manifesto of unity and peace, the magna charta of universal human brotherhood, based on the abiding faith in His Divine character and mission, expressed by Simon Peter for all the disciples of Christ, " I say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this Rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven." (St. Matt. xvi. 18 and 19.) The monuments reveal what these keys are, viz., not those of arbitrary power and infallible self-will, but of God's revelation of truth, goodness, and love to man- kind in the two Testaments, Old and New, the Law and the Gospel. Always on the Mystic Mount and in the mosaic of the Church of the Circumcision and of the Gentiles; where Christ appears among the Twelve, with Paul on the right and Peter on the left, or vue versa^ He is giving this two-fold Book, which interprets the meaning of the two keys given to Peter for the opening of the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers, and its closing against unbelievers. In this one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, Judaism and Paganism should henceforth be united. The cere- monial should give way to the simple : the natural should become but th6 symbol of the spiritual ; and no power of man, no flight of time, no decay of death and the grave, should ever be able to prevail against a Christianity and a Church so united and so universally prevalent. 34^ Monumental Christianity. |