548 THIRD PERIOD A.D. 311-590.
north (in the women's nave), or, in Eastern countries, whei*e tlie sexes were more strictly separated, in the galleries above.' The monks and nuns, and the higher civil officers, especially the emperors with their families, usually had special seats of honor in semicircular niches on both sides of the altar.
About the middle of the main nave was the pulpit or tha amhOy or subsequently two deslcs^ at the left the Gospel-desk^ at the right the Epistle- desk, where the lector or deacon read the Scripture lessons. The sermon was not always delivered from the pulpit, but more frequently either from the steps of the altar (hence the phrase : " speaking from the rails "), or from the seat of the bishop behind the altar-table.'
Between the reading-desks and the altar was the odeum* the place for the singers, and at the right and left the seats for the lower clergy (anagnosts or readers, exorcists, acolytes). This part of the nave lay somewhat higher than the floor of the church, though not so high as the altar-choir, and hence was also called the lower choir, and the gradual, because steps (gradus) led up to it. In the Eastern church the choir and nave are scarcely separated, and they form together the va6<i^ or temple hall ; in the Western the choir and the sanctuary are put together under the name cancelli or chancel.
3. The MOST HOLY PLACE,* OF the CHOIR proper ; ' called also in distinction from the lower choir, the high choir,'' for the priests, and for the offering of the sacrifice of the Eucharist.
' Called eVfpia, the elevated galleries on the side walls. Besides this the women's places were protected by wooden lattices from all curious or lascivious glancea of the men. Chrysostom says, Ilomil. 74 in Matth. : " Formerly these lattices certainly did not exist; for in Christ there is neither male nor female (Gal. iii. 28), and jn the time of the apostles men and women were together with one accord. But then men were still men, and women were women ; now women have sunk to the level of prostitutes, and men are like horses in rutting." A sad commentary on tha moral and religious condition of that time 1
' "An^wy, fiom ava&aiuu), pulpitum, suggcstus. Hence the English pulpU, while ttie corresponding German Kanzcl is derived from cancelli.
* BTjfia, exedra.
* 'CiZiiov. Subsequently the singers •vere usually placed in the gallcriea M appcr-church.
* T4 S710 ruv ay'iuy, ri iSvra, UpaTftuv, sacrarium, sanctuarium.
* yiop6s, $rifia (ascensua). * Hence the terms hi</h wa»», high altar.
§ 105. INTEKIOK AKRAJJGEMENT OF CHUKOHES. 549
No layman, excepting the emperor (in the east), miglit enter it. It was semi-circular or conchoidal in form,' and was situated at the eastern end of the church, opposite the entrance doors, because the liglit, to which Christians should turn themselves, comes from the east.' It was separated from the other part of the church by rails or a lattice,' and by a curtain, or by sacred doors called in the Greek church the i)ictui-e-wall, ^cr>'•iostas, on account of the sacred paintings on it.^ While in the Eastern churches this screen is still used, it in time gave place in the West to a low balustrade.
In the middle of the sanctuary stood the altar, ^ generally a table, or sometimes a ciiest with a lid ; at first of wood, then, after the beginning of the sixth century, of stone or marble, or even of silver and gold, with a wall behind it, and an overshadowing, dome-shaped canopy," above which a cross was
^ Hence called also Koyx'')^ shell.
" Thus so early as this was the line of east and west established as the sacred (or church-building) line. Yet there were exceptions. Socrates, H. E. v. 22, notea it as pecuhar in the church of Antioch, that the altar here stood not in the eastern end, but in the western {pb yap irphs avaroXas rh bvaiacTrvpiov, aA.Aa irphs Svcriv 6pa)„
^ 'AjjLipidvpa, KiyK\iSes, cancelli, whence the name chancel.
* Eusebius mentions, in his description of the church of the bishop PauUnus in Tyre, H. E. x. 4, an elegantly wrought lattice, and Athanasius mentions the curtains. Indeed, the pictures placed upon these curtains date back even to the fourth century, since Epiphanius, Ep. ad Joann. Hierosolymit., inveighed against a painted curtain in a village of Palestine. The lattice has per|)etuated itself to this day in the picture wall or iconostas {ilKovoaraais) in the Russo-Greek church. It bears, on the right, the picture of Christ, and on the left, that of the Virgin Mary, and is pierced with three doors ; the middle one, called the Emperor's gate (dweri Zarskija), because only the emperor, besides the chief priest, may pass through it to take the holy Supper, is decorated and distinguished with the utmost splendor ; oftentimes a golden sun with a thousand rays appears, which suddenly separates durjng the worship, and discloses the altar ; or a Mount Zion with innumerable temples and battlements ; or a network of golden garlands of flowers and fruits, among which especially clusters of grapes, probably with reference to the sacramental wine, frequently occur.
* Altare, mensa sacra, dvuiaa-rripioi', ayia Tpa7r6(,a. The altar-cloth., palla, pallm^ covers the whole upper face of the altar. This must not be confounded with the eorporalc {ii\riTov, from eiAe'o), involvo), i. e., a white linen cloth, with which the oblations prepared upon the altar are covered.
* Uvpyoi, tower; Kifiwpwv (of doubtful origin), ciborium, umbraculum. Subse. quently the ciborium gave place to the steeple-shaped tabernacuhim for the preserva tion of the body of Christ. With the ciborium the dove-shaped form of the recep tacle for the body of Christ (hence called -rrfpKTTiipiov) also gradually diaappeared.
550 THIRD pp:riod. a.d. 311-590.
usually fixed. The altar was lioUow, and served as the rectpta cle for the relics of the martyrs; it was place j, wliere this wa« possible, exactly over the grave of a luartyr, probably with reference to the passage in the Kevelation : " I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held." ' Often a subterranean chapel or crypt' was built under the church, in order to have the church exactly upon the burial place of the saint, and at the same time to keep alive the memory of the primitive worship in underground vaults in the times of persecution.
The altar held therefore the twofold office of a tomb (though at the same time the monument of a new, higher life), and a place of sacrifice. It was manifestly the most holy place in the entire church, to which everything else had regard ; whereas in Protestantism tlie pulpit and the word of God come into the foreground, and altar and sacrament stand back. Hence the altar was adorned also in the richest manner witli costly cloths, witli the cross, or at a later period the crucifix, with burning tapers, symbolical of Christ the light of the world,* and previously consecrated for ecclesiastical use,* with a si)lendid copy of the Holy Scriptures, or the mass-book, but above all with the tabernacle, or little house for preserving the consecrated host, on which in the middle ages the German stone-cutters and sculptors displayed wonderful art.
SiDK ALTAKs did uot couie into use until Gregory the Great.
' Rev. vi. 9. In the Greek and Roman churches every altar must contfun some relics, be they never so unimportant.
^ KpviTTai, memoriae, confcssiones, testimonia.
' This usage also no doubt came from Judaism into the Christian church ; for in the temple at Jerusalem, and in the tabernacle before it, a lamp was peqjctually burning according to divine command, Exod. xxvii. 30 f. Probably lamps were in earlier use in the church. But tapers also were already in use in the time of Chry- Bostom, especially for lighting the altar, while lamps were rather employed in chapels and before images of saints.
* In the Roman church the second of February, or the fortieth day after Christmas, when Mary presented the Lord in the temple, and when the aged Simeon prophetically called the child Jesus " a light to lighten the Gentiles," is ap])ointed for tliis consecration, and is hence called Candlemas of Jifary, a .(mtraction cf tb« two names, Purification of Mary and Gindlemaa.