4. The Bomanists, as remarked above, have at- tempted to press the disciplina arcani into their ser- vice to account for the silence of the early church
•writers as to penance, image-worship, and other of their corruptions. The Jesuit Schelstrate first at- tempted this in his Antiquitas illustrata (Ant. 1G78), but was fully refuted by Tenzel in Exercitationes Se- lectee (Francof. 1G92, 4to). Other Roman Catholic works on the subject are, Schollner, De Disciplina A r- cani (Venet. 1756); Lienhardt, De. Antiq. Liturg. <t de Disciplina Arcani (Argentor. 1829). When pressed hard by Protestants with the argument that no traces of the corruptions named above, or of the invocation of saints, the seven sacraments, or transubstantion, are to be found in the early ages of the church, they ad- mit the fact of this silence, but account for it on the ground that these doctrines and usages formed part of the disc'qilina arcani. Bingham shrewdly remarks that this "is an artifice that would justify as many errors and vanities as any church could be guilty of; it is but working a little with this admirable instru- ment and tool, called disciplina arcani, and then all the seeming contradictions between the ancient doc- trines and practices of the church universal and the novel corruptions of the modern Church of Rome will presently vanish and disappear; so that we need not wonder win- men, whose interest it serves so much, should magnify this as a noble invention" (bk. x, ch. v, § 1). The account given above of the nature of the arcani disciplina suffices of itself to refute the Romish pretence. The very mysteries themselves (baptism and the Eucharist), which formed the objects of the secret discipline, so far from being avoided by the early Christian writers, are topics of constant re- mark and discussion from the apostles' time down- ward. The bare fact, for instance, that the adminis- tration of the Eucharist was concealed from the cate- chumens, gives no more ground to suppose that tran- sit! istantiation was taught in the bread and wine, than the f„ct that baptism was concealed from them gives ground to suppose that the same doctrine was taught in the water of baptism. See Bingham, Orig. Eccls. bk. x, ch. v, and the other writers above cited. See also Xcander, Church Histt ry, i, 308 ; Coleman, A ncient Christianity, ch. xiv, § 2 ; Herzog, Real-EncyUopddie, i, 467 sq. See Mystery.
Arce. See Arkite ; Petra.
Arch (only in the plur. D^b^X, eylammim', masc, and tYlED^K, eylammotli ', fern.), an architectu- ral term occurring only in Ezek. xl, 16, 22, 26, 29, and difficult of definition, but prob. allied with b^X, a'yil, a ram, hence a column or pilaster (1 Kings vi, 31 ; Ezek. xli, 3, etc.). Most interpreters understand the term (sing. Eb^X, eylam") to be the same as E'^X, ularn , a vestibule or porch, following the Sept., Vulg., and Targums (Ai'Xw/i, vestilulum, X^p^lN) ; but it is manifestly distinguished from this (Ezek. xl, 7, 8, 9, 39, 40), since the latter contained windows (ver. 16, 29), whereas this was carried round the building, even in front of the ascent to the gate (ver. 22, 26), and is usually associated with pillars. Of the other ancient interpreters Symmachus and the Syr. translate some- times surrounding columns, sometimes threshold. The word appears cither to denote a portico with a colon- nade, or (according to Rabbi Menahen) is about equiv- alent to i^N, from which it is derived, i. e. some or- nament, perhaps the rohite or moulding at the top of a column (comp. Bottcher, Prvbcn alltest. SchriflerM. p. 319).— Gesenius, Thes. lleb. p. 47.
Arches with vaulted chambers and domed temples figure so conspicuously in modern Oriental architec- ture, that, if the arch did not exist among the ancient Jews, their towns and houses could not possibly have offered even a faint resemblance to those which now exist; and this being the case, a great part of the analogical illustrations of Scripture which modern travellers and Biblical illustrators have obtained from this source must needs fall to the ground. Nothing
ARCH
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ARCH
against its existence is to be inferred from the fact that no word properly signifying an arch can be found in the Hebrew Scriptures (see above). The archi- tectural notices in the Bible are necessarily few and general ; and we have at this day histories and other books, larger than the sacred volume, in which no such word as " arch" occurs. There is certainly no absolute proof that the Israelites employed arches in their buildings; but if it can be shown that arches existed in neighboring countries at a very early peri- od, we may safely infer that so useful an invention could not have been unknown in Palestine.
able of these is one whose crude brick roof and niche, bearing the name of the same Pharaoh, prove the ex- istence of the arch at the remote period of B.C. 1540 (Wilkinson, Topography of Thebes, p. 81). Another tomb of similar construction bears the ovals of Thoth- mes III, who is supposed by many to have reigned about the time of the Exode {Anc. Egyptians, iii, 319). At Thebes there is also a brick arch bearing the name of this king (Hoskins, Travels in Ethiopia*). To the same period and dynasty (the 18th) belong the vault- ed chambers and arched door-ways (fig. 4, above) which yet remain in the crude brick pyramids at Thebes (Wilkinson, Anc. Egyptians, iii, 317). In an- cient Egyptian houses it appears that the roofs were often vaulted, and built, like the rest of the house, of crude brick ; and there is reason to believe that some of the chambers in the pavilion of Rameses III (about B.C. 1245), at Medinet Habu, were arched with stone, since the devices in the upper part of the walls show that the fallen roofs had this form (iig. 3). The most ancient actually existing arches of stone occur at Memphis, near the modern village of Sakkara. Here there is a tomb with two large vaulted chambers, whose roofs display in every part the name and sculp- tures of Psammeticus II (about B.C. COO). The cham- bers are cut in the limestone rock, and this being of a friable nature, the roof is secured by being, as it were, lined with an arch, like our modern tunnels. To