RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Church and. State Churchyard
Hausmann, preacher at Zwickau. Both showed the necessity of such oversight. Induced by the fanatics and the Peasants' War, Luther strongly urged the elector to order a thorough visitation. It was immediately begun, and, although at first only sporadic, it soon revealed its necessity. In 1526 Luther proposed a general church- and schoolvisitation, which was carried out by a commission of clergy and laymen in 1527-29. The Saxon book of visitation, composed by Melanchthon, Unterricht der Visitatoren an die Pfarhern ym Kurfiirstenthum zu Sachssen (1528), was generally adopted as the model. There the principle of Revival church government by the state found During its first expression. The visitation the Refer- included in its scope the official conmation. duct of the pastors, the order of church service, confession, and church discipline. The whole constitution of the Lutheran Church has its basis and model in this institution. Because of their historical value the proceedings of the visitations were pubhshed, either as a whole or in part, those of the Wittenberg district by Winter (1862), those of the district of Jiiterbogk by Gotze, those of Magdeburg by Danneil (1864). Burkhardt planned a comprehensive history of the German church- and school-visitations in this period, but only the Saxon visitations appeared (1879). Nebe published in 1880 (in abstract only) the proceedings of the visitations of the bishopric of Halberstadt from 1564 to 1589; the complete visitations in the Guelphic states from 1542 to 1544 were pubHshed in 1897 by Kayser. While the first visitations were extraordinary measures, they were soon made a stated order. The Prussian articles of 1540 order one annually, and most of the later church orders contain ordinances for periodical repetition.
After the Thirty Years' War these functions attained again their former importance and contributed greatly to the restoration of order and church Hfe. In the eighteenth century they degenerated, but were reinstituted in their old form in the German state churches in the nineteenth century, largely through their advocacy at the Eisenach conference of 1852-53. They recur regularly, two to SIX years apart. The superintendent or general superintendent is the visitor, often in
Modem cooperation with an officer of the state ;
Practise, or a commission is instituted with the superintendent as leader. The visitations are usually held on Sunday and consist of a sermon by the pastor, an address by the visitor, an examination of the conditions of religious instruction, discussion with the ministers and teachers, the vestry or the house fathers, revision of administrative affairs, of church registers and buildings, 01 the cemetery, etc. The question has been discussed whether in these visitations the element of devotion and churchly revival should predominate, or whether they should be conducted merely for tne purpose of obtaining information. In this ^espect there is no uniformity in the different ^■erman state churches, nor do they agree on the question whether part should be taken by synodical representatives. (g, UHLHORNf.)
HI.— 8
Bibliography- On the early and the Lutheran visitations: J. Auerbach, De visitationum, ecclesice progresau a primi's temporibus, Frankfort, 1862; A. L. Richter, Geachichte der evangelischen Kirchenverfassung in Deutschland, pp 43 sqq., Leipsic, 1851; C. A. H. Burlchardt, Geschichte der s&chsischen Kirchen- und Schul-Visitationen, 1BS4-4S, ib. 1879; K. Kayser, Die reformatorischen Kirchenvisitationen in den welfiachen Landen, 1542-44, Gottingen, 1897. On Roman Catholic rules concerning visitations consult L. Thoiuassinus, Vetus ac nova ecclesice . instructio exposita, 3 vols., Lucca, 1728; P. Melchers, De canonica diocesium visitatione, Cologne, 1893; Bingham, Originea, books v., IX., XVII.; KL, s.v. " Visitationen."
CHURCHWARDENS: Two lay officers in each parish of the Anglican commimion, whose duty is to have charge, with the vestry, of the temporalities of the church, and to see that provision is made for the maintenance and orderly celebration of public worship. In England one is usually nominated by the incumbent and the other elected by the parishioners ; in the Protestant Episcopal Church both (called " senior " and " junior " wardens) are elected by the congregation annually in Easterweek.
CHURCHYARD: Conformably to the contemporary Greek and Roman custom, the primitive Christian burial-places lay outside the community. There was no difference in this respect between corporate cemeteries and private grounds, between the subterranean and those on the surface. East and West, this actual condition is the same. It appears that this custom was broken for the first time within the pale of Christendom through the circumstance that Constantino the Great was entombed in the Church of the Apostles at Constantinople— a decisive precedent for the future. For that matter, during antiquity in general there was provision for urban burial as a mark of special honor {virtutis causa) — Augustus and Trajan, for instance, at Rome; and, without exception, the Vestals. Under a flexible construction there also soon followed eminent ecclesiastics (e.g., Ambrose) and persons of worldly distinction, but first and foremost the martyrs and saints, whose bodies were exalted and lodged in the neighborhood churches. During the fourth century it was even customary in Egypt to preserve mummified bodies of saints in their homes. In fact, what was originally the exception began to be the general rule toward the end of the fourth century, so that secular and spiritual authorities were obliged to forbid the multiplication of burials in churches. Finally a compromise was arranged whereby burial inside the church was granted in exceptional cases by episcopal authorization; whereas to the congregation as such was made over the ground enclosing the church {atrium ecclesice : " churchyard "). This ground, it is true, did not attain to the high esteem of the church interior; but still it availed, being consecrated, as holy ground; while the vicinity of the sacrificial mass and of the sanctuary prayer contributed also, in a degree, to enhance its favor. See Cemeteries.
The medieval Church exercised unrestricted authority over the churchyard, which it regarded as an adjunct of God's house. The same right of asylum protected them both (cf. German Friedhof,
Churcnjrard Churching: of Women