54G THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
to the divisions of Solomon's temple, on the other, to the three classes of attendants, the catechnn.ens, the faithful, and tho priests, or the three stages of approach to God. The evangelical idea of immediate access of the whole believing congregation to the throne of grace, does not yet appear. The priesthood everywhere comes between.
1. The PORTICO : In this again must be distinguished :
(a) The inner portico, a covered hall which belonged to tho church itself, and was called 7rp6vao<;, or commonly, from its long, narrow shape, mp-^f, ferula^ i. e., literally, staffs rod.' The name paradise also occurs, because on one side of the wall of the portico Adam and Eve in paradise were frequently painted, — probably to signify that the fallen posterity of Adam find again their lost paradise in the church of Christ. Tho inner court was the place for all the unbaptized, for catechumens, pagans, and Jews, and for members of the church condemned to light penance, who might hear the preaching and the reading of the Scriptures, but must withdraw before the administration of the Holy Supper.
(b) The outer portico. avXrj^ atrium, also loctis lugentium or Itiemantiuin, which was open, and not in any way enclosed within the sacred walls, hence not a part of the house of God properly so called. Here those under lieavy penance, the *• weepers" ' as they were called, must tarry, exposed to all weather, and apply with tears to those entering for their Christian intercessions.
In this outer portico, or atrium, stood tlie laver^ in which, after tho primitive Jewish and heathen custom, maintained to this day in the Koman church, the worshipper, in token of inward purification, must wash every time he entered the church.
* Sometimes the narthcx agir.n was divided into two rooms, the wpper place for the kneelers (locus substratorum), i. e., catechumens who might participate, kneeling, in the prayers after the sermon (hence gcnuflcctentes, 70('ukA.iVo^t€s), and thn Uywer jjlace, bordering on the outer portico, for mere hearers, Jews, and pagam (locus audientiuni).
' Flentes, hiem antes.
* Kpr\vi)^ cantliarus, phiala.
* In Num. xix. 2 IT.; ixxi. 19 ff. (comp. ITeb. ix. 13) the sprinkling-water, ot " water of separation " (i. e., water of purification, LXX. : u5wp ^avna^ov), already
§ 105. INTERIOE ARRANGEMENT OE CHURCHES. 547
After about tlie ninth century, when churches were n<i longer built with spacious porticoes, this laver was transferred to the church itself, and fixed at the doors in the form of a holy water basin, supposed to be an imitation of the brazen sea in the priest's court of Solomon's temple." This symbolical usage could easily gather upon itself superstitious notions of the magical virtue of the holy water. Even in the pseudo- Apostolic Constitutions the consecrated water is called " a means oT warding off diseases, frightening away evil spirits, a medicine for body and soul, and for purification irom sins ; " and though these expressions related primarily to the sacramental water of baptism as the bath of regeneration, yet they were easily applied by the people to consecrated water in general. In the Roman Catholic church the consecration of the water* is performed on Easter Sunday evening; in the Greco-Russian church, three times in the year.
2. The TEMPLE proper,' the holt place,* or the nave of the church,^ as it were the ark of the new covenant. This part extended from the doors of entrance to the steps of the altar, had sometimes two or four side-naves, according to the size of the church, and was designed for the body of the laity, the faithful and baptized. The men sat on the right towards the south (in the men's nave), the women on the left towards the
appears, prepared from the ashes of the burned red heifer and water, and used for the cleansing of those made unclean by contact with a corpse. The later Jews were very strict in this ; no one could appear in the temple or synagogue, or perform any act of worship, prayer, or sacrifice, without being washed, 1 Sam. xvi. 5 ; 2 Chron. XXX. \1. Therefore synagogues were built by preference in the neighborhood of streams. The Pharisees were very paltry and pedantic in the matter of these washings ; comp. Matt. xv. 2 ; Mark vii. 3 ; Luke xi. 38. The same custom of symboli- "^1 purification before worship we find among the ancient Egyptians, Persians, Brahmans (who ascribed to the water of the Ganges saving virtue), Greeks, and Romans, and among the Mohammedans. At the entrance of every Turkish mosq^'' Btands a large font for this purpose.
' 1 Kings vii. 23-26 ; 2 Chron. iv. 2-5.
' Benedictio fontis.
* Noo's.
* 'IfpOV.
* NaCs, navis ecclesiae. Many derive this expression from a confusion of tha Greek vaSs with vavs and navis. Not till the ninth and tenth centuries is nmis used in this way. The more exact equivalent in English would be long-room^ or hall.