§ 90. PUBLIC WORSHIP OF THE LOKD's DAY. -173
and must keep its connection with the church yeai- ; preaching belongs to the pulpit, and may extend to the whole compass of the divine word.
Pulpit eloquence in the fourth and fifth centuries reached a high point in the Greek church, and is most worthily reprc sented by Gregory Nazianzen and Chrysostom. But it also often degenerated there into artificial rhetoric, declamatory bombast, and theatrical acting. Hence the abuse of frequent clapping and acclamations of applause among the people.' As at this day, so in that, many went to church not to worship God, but to hear a celebrated speaker, and left as soon as the sermon was done. The sermon, they said, we can hear only in the church, but we can pray as well at home. Chrysostom often raised his voice against this in Antioch and in Constantinople. The discourses of the most favorite preachers were often written down by stenographers and multiplied by manuscripts, sometimes with their permission, sometimes without.
In the Western church tlie sermon was much less developed, consisted in most cases of a simple practical exhortation, and took the background of the eucharistic sacrifice. Hence it was a frequent thing there for the people to leave the church at the beginning of the sermon ; so that many bishops, who had no idea of the free nature of religion and of worship, compelled the people to hear by closing the doors.
The sermon was in general freely delivered from the bishop's chair or from the railing of the choir (the cancelli)^ sometimes from the reading-desk. The duty of preaching devolved upon the bishops ; and even popes, like Leo I. and Gregory I., frequently preached before the Koman congregation. Preaching was also performed by the presbyters and deacons. Leo I. restricts the right of preaching and teaching to the ordained clergy;^ yet monks and hermits preached not rarely in the streets, from pillars (like St. Symeon), roofs, or trees; and even
' KpoTos, acclamatio, applausus. Chrysostom and Augustine often deno inced tbif theatrical disorder, but in vain.
^ Ep. 62 ad Maxim.: "Prsetereos qui sunt Domini sacerdotes nullus sibi jua dncendi et praedicandi audeat vindicare, sive sit ille monachu3, sive sit laicus, qu? alicujus scientiaB nomine glorietur."
474 rnraD period, a.d. 311-590.
laymen, like the emperor Constantine and some of bis successors, wrote and dolivcred (thongli not in cliureh) religious die courses to the faithful people.'
§ 91. The Sacraments in General,
G. L. Haiin: Die Lehre von den Sacraraenten in ihrer geschichtlicheD Entwicklung inneriialb tier abondltintlischen Kirche bis ziim Concil von Trient. Breslan, 1S04 (147 pp.). Coinp. sUso iho article Sacrwmente by G. E. Stkitz in Uerzoffs Real-Encyldopiidie, vol. xiii. pp. 226-286; and Const, von Souatzi.kk: Die Lebre von der Wirksam keit der Sacraraente ex opere operato. Munich, 1860.
The use of the word sacramentum in the church still continued for a long time very indefinite. It embraced every mystical and sacred thing (omne mysticuni sacrumquo signum). Tertullian, Ambrose, Hilary, Leo, Chrysostom, and other lathers, apply it even to mysterious doctrines and facts, like tlie Trinity, the divinity of Christ, the incarnation, the crucifixion, and the resurrection. But after the fifth century it donotes chiefly sacred forms of worsliip, which were instituted by Christ and by which divine blessings are mystically represented, sealed, and applied to men. This catholic theological conception has substantially passed into the evangelical churches, though with important changes as to the number and operation of the sacraments.*
Augustine was the first to substitute a clear doctrine of the nature of the sacraments for a vague notion and rhetorical exag-
' Eiiseb. Vita Const, iv. 29, 32, 55, and Constaiitine's Oratio ad Sanctos, in the appendix.
'' The word saa-amcnium bears among the fathers the following senses: (1) The oafh in general, as in the Roman profane writers ; and particularly the xoldier^s oath. (2) The baptismal void, by which the candidate bonnd himself to the perpetual service of Christ, as miles Christi, against sin, the world, and the devil. (3) The baptlsmal confession, which was regarded as a spiritual oath. (4) Baptism itself, which, therefore, was often styled sacramcrdum Jidei, s. salutis, also pipivs salutis. (6) It became almost s)Tiouymou3 with mystery, by reason of an inaccurate translation of tlic Greek fxvaT-hpiov in the Vulgate (comp. Eph. v. 32), and was accordingly applied to facts, tniths, and precepts of the gospel which were concealed from those not Christians, and to the Christian revelation in general. (6) The eucharist, and other holy ordinances and usages of the church. (7) After the twelfth century the seven well-known sacraments of the Catholic church. Comp. the proofs va Ilahn, 1. c. pp 8-10, where yet other less usual senses of the word are adduced.