CHURCH DISCffUNE
334
CHURCH EDIFICES
tbe Lnthenui, the Reformed, and the United Evangeli- cal churches took part, and the High Chorch ** Confes- sionalists/' under Stabl and Hengstenberg, worked hand in liand with the Evangelical party, under men like Nitzsclr, Betlunan-Hollweg, and others, at tbe first annual meetings of the Diet of Wittenberg (1848 and 1849), Stuttgardt (1860), Elberfeld (1861), Bramen (1852), Berlin (1863), Frankfort (1864), LObeck (1866), Stuttgardt (1857), Hamburg (1858). But in 1860 the former party did not appear, l^ecaose the executive committee had refused to put the Dissenter and the Civil Marriage questions on the programme of the meeting. Consequently, at the assembly of Barmen (1860), and the following ones at Brandenburg (1862) and Altenburg (1864), the Evangelical party (tbe ** Con- sensus'* party) was slone represented. Simultaneous- ly with every meeting of the Church Diet has been held an assembly of the Congress for Home Missions. See Home Missioks. The full proceedings of each meeting of the diet have been published in a special report. A briefer account is given in the annual Kirch' Uche Chronik by Matthee. See also Domer, Reform d. evangel. Landetkirchen (1848); EntsUhui^ ma Getch, de$ Kirehentages (1853).
CHURCH DISCIPLINE. See Dibcipliiik.
CHURCH, DUTCH REFORMED. See Hol- land ; Reformed Protestant Dutch Church.
CHURCH EDIFICES. V nder ArckUectun (q. v.) a brief history has been given of the development of ecclesiastical architecture. The present article will contain various particulars concerning the history of some of the most prominent churches, their names, form, site, position, the arrangement of the interior, the outer buildings connected with the Church ser- vice, etc.
I. History qf the Erection of C%urcAet. —Until the second century Christians were not permitted to erect churches, but were compelled to worship in private houses, in the open fields, or, to escape persecution, in the Catacombs (q. v.) and other concealed places. On the suspension of persecution, we find, from A.D. 202 and forwards, notices of Church edifices in Nico- media, Edessa (Odessa), and other cities. Diocletian issued an edict (A.D. 805) ordering all Christian churches to be razed to the ground. Under Constan- tine these were rebuilt, and great numbers of new ones erected over the whole Roman empire. Chief among them were the magnificent basilicas [see Basilica] of St. Peter, St. Paul, and Maria Maggiore in Rome. The form of the buildings and the contamination of idolatry prevented the general changing into Christian houses of worship of the old pagan temples, many of which were destroyed. Still some of tiiem were thus con- verted, especially after the time of Theodosius I, and the materials of others were largely usied. Justinian I (A.D. 665) rebuilt twenty-four churches in Constan- tinople alone, and many other churches, dobters, rest- ing-places for pilgrims, and other religious buildings, over the entire empire of the Orient, and especially in Palestine. The church of St. Sophia (q. v.) he rebuilt with great beauty and splendor. This served as a pattern for Church edifices through the whole Chris- tian world. Such was the splendor of tbe new St. Sophia that Justinian exclaimed, Ncriio^rd (fc, ZoXo' fititVf " I have surpassed thee, 0 Solomon !" The em- peror appointed for tbe service of this church sixty presbyters, one^ hundred deacons, forty deaconesses, ninety sub-deacons, one hundred and ten readers, twenty-five singers, one hundred door-keepers, mak- int; five hundred and twenty-five of the clergy and at- tendants. From the death of Justinian (A.D. 676) to the eighth century but few Church buildings of great note were erected. During the reign of Charlemagne many churches were erected in North-western Europe. The belief that the world was to be destroyed in the year A.D. 1000 paralyzed all energy, and it was not till that year had passed that the great revival of all
depaxtmeiita of human activity called fortii the spirit if princes and cities, as well as of the clergy, to the ene- tion of the many grand monuments of eodeetastica] a- chitecture that adorn the history of the Middle Ages. This ceal in church-building became »o modified ints a spirit of pride, ambition, and corruption during tlie fifteenth and sixteenth centuries as to become one <jf the chief causes that produced the Reformation. Tbe system of selling indulgences to raise money for build- ing churches, first introduced in the eleventh oentiirr. was carried to such excess in raising funds for rebuiB- ing the gorgeous St. Peter's (q. v.), that the refonncxi had in this a most powerful argument in their contcet with the Romish Church. In Europe, the building, repairing, and maintaining of edifices for the national churches is provided for entirely, or at least to a greet extent, ftom the general national taxes. Other dmreb- es build their edifices by voluntary oontribntloiis. This is universally the case in the United States of Amer- ica.
In the remainder of this article we chiefly follow Bingham, Orig. Eccks. bk. viii, ch. 1), making vse of Farrar*s abridgment, with modifications and additkuWi
II. The andeni Names of Churches.^Tbe word i»- mmtctim, or domtu Dei, the Lord's house, occurs in the 4th century. Cyprian use» it to denote the Lord's day, and also the Lord's Supper; yet it is used by Jerome for a building set apart for divine worship. It an- swers to the Greek KvpiaK6v, See Church. Domu Dei, domtu eccktia, domus (ftraia— that is, " the Lad's house," '*the house of the church," "the house of Ciod*' — are expressions in frequent use from the third century. In Eusebius we have otcoc iKkXifeiac, <ic house of the church, Domtu (iSrwMi, the hoose of God, was a term employed to designate the palace of tbe Roman emperor; but the Christians transferred the appellation to their churches. Tertullian uses tbe name domus cokmba, the iiouse of the dove, cr, ss Mode explains it, the house of the dove-like religko, or the house of the dove-like disciples of Christ As the Temple of God at Jerusalem is ft-equently in Scrip- ture styled the house of prayer, so Christian cburcbes are called irpoatvKTTipux, or oLcot ctrm^pioc^ oroitones, or houses ofprojfer. In later times these titles were appropriated to smaller or domestic chapels. Some early writers distinguish between IncXi^aim^ovaBd iiacKifiria, the former signifying the buildmg, and the latter the congregation ; but in the writings of Ignatns, Clement of Alexandria,^ Tertullian, Cyprian, and oth- ers, the word iKKKtioia usually means the hsildmg, asd at length became the current expression. BasSm was originally applied to the imperial palace, or pnbhc halls, and was not used to designate (daces of worship until Christian emperors had appropriated such Imild- ings to the use of the Church. See Babiuca. 'Aju- KTopov is synonymous with basiUea, and was occsiioo- ally applied to places of divine worship built by em- perors. Churches were sometimes called tiiuli (nVXoi), either from the inscription of dedication, or from the sign of the cross. The term rpoiroia, troptsa, ocean in Eusebius. The reason of this name is sought in Ifae reported appearance of the cross to Constantine, end the LaJbarum, on which, according to Eusebius, vas inscribed rov oravpov rpStratov. Moprvpiov, or »^ moria, denoted a church dedicated to the memory of* mart3rr. If the person in memory of whom the chordi was built was a prophet or an iqioetle, then the chur^ respectively took the name diroaroXtiov and Tpopf Tiiov, In addition, we find at diffierent times, and for various reasons, the following names given to Cbrir tian churches : otatvit, cond&a, concUiabula, comeaii^ cula, casa, ovvoSoi, fiovaorripiov, Koifisfrrfpiovj corjm Christ*, va^Q, vrjeog, and many others. The titles/a- num and delubrum were at all times rejected as j^ fane.