CHURCH, UNITED PRESBYTERIAN. See Pbesbtterian (United) Chuboh.
CHURCH-WARDENS, officera in the Church of England, whose business is to look to the church, church-yard, and to observe the behavior of the parish- ionen ; to levy a shilling forfeiture on all such as do not go to churoh on Sundays, and to keep persons or- derly in church time, etc. By Canon 89, church-war- dens or questmen in every parish are required to be chosen by the joint consent of the minister and the parishioners, if it may be ; but if they cannot agree upon such a choice, then the minister shall choose one and the parishioners another, and without such a joint or several choice none shall take upon them to be church-wardens. But if the parish is entitied by cus- tom to choose both church- wu^iens, then the parson is restrained of his right under this canon, lie duties of English church-wardens are laid down in Prideaux, PractiocU Guide to ths Dutiet of Church-wardenB (10th ed. Lond. 1885, 12mo). In the Protestant Episcopal Church in America, their duties in general are to pro- tect the church buildfaig, to see that worship is duly
CHURCHYARD
342
CHURCH-TEAR
proyided for and perfonned, and to represent the body of the parish when occasion may require. They are chosen, with the vestrymen, " annually in Easter- week, according to the canons of the various dioceses." Their duties are enjoined by diocesan, not by general canons. — Hook, Church DictUmctrjfy s. t. ; Staunton, Eecleiifutieal Dictipnafyj s. t.
CHURCH-TARD, a piece of ground adjoining a church, set apart for the interment of the dead. Dur- ing the first three centuries of our SBra the Christians followed tlie law of pagan Rome, according to which every one oould select his burying-place outside of the towns. The Christians genendly preferred to be buried near the graves of the martyrs, and thus they early obtained common burying, or, as they called them, sleeping-places (ccemelerkt, dormilorid)^ which were sometimes above the ground (of^sa), and sometimes in subterranean caves. See Catacombs. When the per- secution of Christianity ceased, and the relics of the martyrs were transfeired to the churches within the towns, the places around the churches, or the vestibules of ^e churches, were commonly selected for burying the dead ; for a burial in the church itself was strictly forbidden, and only grants as a special distinction to bishops, princes, and other persons of high ecclesiasti- cal or political position. Thus gradually the church- yards became an established institution in connection with the church. In large cities every particular church had its church-yard, and not until the 14th century are the church-yards to be found without the town. Gradually it became general to close the church-yards in the towns, and to remove them out of the towns, until ultimately the governments of most of the states enforced thb rule from sanitary reasons.
In the Church of Rome, church-yards are consecra- ted with great solemnity. If a church-yard which has been thus consecrated shall afterwards be polluted by any indecent action, or pro&ned by the burial of an infidel, a heretic, an excommunicated or unbaptized person, it must be reconciled^ and the ceremony of the reconciliation u performed with the same solemnity as that of the consecration I (Buck). See Consecba-
TION.
In the Protestant churches of Germany and other countries, church-yards were set apart by praying and reading of the Scriptures ; in England and Sweden a formal consecration is still in use.
In England the church-yard is the freehold of the parson ; but it is the common burial-place of the dead, and for that reason it is to be fenced at the charge of the parishioners, unless there is a custom to the con- trary, or for a particular person to do it, in respect of his lands adjoining to the church-yards ; and that must be tried at common law (Hook). See Bvbial; Cbh-
FTERY.
The control of the church-yards has given rise to many conflicts between Church and State. The Church of Rome forbids the burial of heretics, suicides, ex- communicated persons, and unbaptized children upon the Roman Catholic cemetery ; while the state govern- ments, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, regarding the cemetery as public and not ecclesiastical property, have frequently endeavored to compel the buiying of all dead without distinction in the same cemetery. In the United States the government does not med- dle with the places and modes of burial, and religious bodies, as well as single congregations and individu- als, can make any provisions tiiey please for the burial of their dead.— Wetzer u. Welte, Kirchen-Lex, vi, 201 ; Herzog, Real-Encyklop, vii, 706.
CHURCH-YEAR. Neither the New Testament nor the Church literature of the first three centuries con- tain any intimation that the Christians of that time viewed the year from any other stand-point than that of subjects of the Roman emperor or other princes. See Calendar; Chronology, Christian. The first impulse to the idea of a church year distinct from the