RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
China
Christ, Order of
Church, which have passed through many editions and been translated into different languages.
Bibliography: His autobiography, Forty Years in the Church of Rome, appeared Chicago, 1900.
CHIUN, cai'un. See Remphan.
CHOIR: 1. In the older churches, especially the Gothic, that part which contains the high altar and in which the services are sung. It is usually separated from the nave by a railing or rood-screen, and in monastic churches only members of the order sit within it. See Architecture, Ecclesiastical, I., §§ 15, 18. 2. A body of singers appointed to lead the music in public worship.
CHOISY, shwQ"zi', JACQUES EUGENE: Swiss Protestant; b. at Geneva, Switzerland, Feb. 26, 1866. He was educated at the college and university of his native city, from which he was graduated in 1885, the theological faculty of Montauban, from which he was graduated in 1888, and the University of Berlin. Since 1898 he has been pastor of the parish of Plainpalais, Geneva, and was also moderator of the Compagnie des Pasteurs from 1904 to 1905. In 1898 he received from the faculty of arts of the University of Geneva the Theodore Claparede prize, and three years later was awarded the Daniel Colladan prize by the consistory of the National Protestant Church of Geneva. He has been a member of the Societe des sciences theologiques of Geneva since 1890 and was its president in 1903-05, and has also been a member of the Geneva Society d'histoire et d'archeologie since 1893 and president of the Societe du mus^e historique de la reformation in the same city since its foundation in 1897. In theology he terms himself a " broad Evangelical, much indebted to higher criticism for a more accurate and trustworthy understanding of God's revelation in the Bible." In addition to a translation of A. Harnack's Grundriss der Dogmengeschichte (Paris, 1893), he has written Paschase Radbert, etude historique sur le neuvieme siecle et sur le dogme de la Cene (Geneva, 1888); La Theocratic a Geneve an temps de Calvin (1897); and L'^tat chretien calviniste a Genhve au temps de Theodore de Bhze (1903).
CHORAL. See Music, Sacred.
CHORENT.^;, co-ren'ti or -te. See Messalians.
CHOREPISCOPUS, co"re-pis'co-pus (Gk. chorepiskopos, " country bishop "): The name given to a class of assistants to the bishops in the administration of their dioceses from the third to the eleventh century. As the name implies, they rendered this service principally in the country districts. In the fourth century they attended councils like the bishops (Ancyra, 314; Neocajsarea, between 313 and 325; Antioch, 341) and had some at least of the episcopal prerogatives, though the question whether they received episcopal consecration is disputed. A tendency showed itself in the same century to restrict their powers and make them altogether dependent on the diocesan bishops. The Councils of Sardica and Laodicea attempted to suppress them entirely, forbidding the installation of bishops in coimtry
places and providing for the needs of such districts by itinerant visitors of a merely priestly character. These efforts were only partially successful, and the institution continued in partial use in the East as late as the sixth century, though now in entire subordination to the diocesan bishops and with no further claim to the strictly episcopal character. In the West chorepiscopi are heard of only from the eighth century, as assistants or deputies of missionary bishops in the new dioceses, or as administrators of vacant sees. There is no demonstrable connection with the Eastern usage. In the ninth century they are also found in the see cities as assistants to bishops who were much occupied with affairs of state. The reforming legislation of this period, appealing to the Eastern canons, emphasized their dependence on the diocesan bishops, and toward the middle of the century undertook to suppress them altogether. They disappeared in the first half of the tenth century in France, but in the extensive German dioceses, supported by Rabanus Maurus, they maintained their existence to the middle of this century, and were found in Ireland as late as the thirteenth. Their place was to a great extent taken by the archdeacons (see Archdeacon and Archpriest).
(P. HiNSCHIUSt.) Bibliography: Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, ii. 290, iii. 478, 603, 665, 745, Eng. transl., ii. 69, 321, iii. 158; J. L. von Mosheim, Institutes of Eccl. Hist., ed. W Stubbs, i. 63, 239 sqq., London, 1863; Bingham, Origines, book ii., chap, xiv., § 12; Schaff, Christian Church, iii. 269-270; KL, iii. 188-191.
CHRISM : The specially prepared mixture used for anointing in the Eastern and Roman Catholic Churches, except in the case of Extreme Unction (q.v.) when olive-oil mixed with water is used. That employed in the administration of baptism, confirmation, and holy orders, and in the consecration of churches and altars, is composed according to Roman usage of oil and balsam, to which other odorous spices are added by the Greeks. It early received a special benediction, as is shown by TertuUian, De baptismo, vii.; Cyprian, Epist., Ixx. 2; Apostolic Constitutions, VII. xxvii. 1. From the end of the fourth century the right to consecrate it was reserved to the bishops — in the East later to the patriarchs. From the fifth century Maundy Thursday was the day appointed for the blessing.
(A. Hauck.)
CHRISMAL : A word used in the same senses as "chrisom" (q.v.); also a cloth for covering reUcs.
CHRISOM: The white cloth with which the Roman priest covers the head of an infant after the administration of baptism or, in the early Church, the white garment put upon the newly baptized as a symbol of purity; also the vessel in which the chrism is preserved.
CHRIST, BRETHREN IN. See River Brethren.