CHURCHES OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS. See
Adventists, 6.
CHURCHING OF WOMEN: According to the prescriptions of Lev. xii., women were regarded as ceremonially unclean after childbirth (see Defilement AND Purification, Ceremonial, L, 1, § 2; II., 1, § 1), and, especially since Mary submitted herself to the ordinance of purification (Luke
ii. 22), the idea found entrance into the Church. Dionysius of Alexandria, in his epistle to Basilides {MPG, X. 1281), treats it as a matter of course that pious mothers will not approach the Lord's table until ceremonially clean, and Zonaras and Balsamon gave it canonical force. According to the ritual laid down for the first visit to the church (Goar, Euchologion, p. 267), the mpther was to present herself on the fortieth day after delivery with her child and its sponsor; the priest offered a prayer for her complete purification, and another for the child, accompanied with the sign of the cross; then, carrying the child, he led the mother within the church with an appropriate formula. In an Ethiopian ritual mother and child were anointed on the forehead with holy oil. The Western Church took a different view. Gregory the Great wrote in answer to a question of Augustine of Canterbury that recent mothers might indeed abstain for a time from communion out of reverence, but that they were not to be condemned if they received it soon after childbirth; and this decision passed into the canon law {Decreta Gregorii,
iii. 47). The Western custom, however, was to bring the mother formally to church, with the child, usually on the fortieth day, and the conception of purification still maintained itself, symbolized by the aspersion with holy water at the church door. An office for the " benediction of women after childbirth " is contained in the Rituale Romanum as edited by Paul V in 1614. The priest, wearing a white stole, meets the woman at the door, and after the recitation of Ps. xxiv. holds out one end of his stole to her and conducts her into the church; she kneels before the altar while certain prayers are said, ending with a blessing. The Reformation in Germany, for the most part, abolished the ceremony as giving rise to misconceptions and abuses, though some churches retained it,
Chytrosus Circumcision
THE NEW SCHAFF-IIERZOG
lie
giving an ev;uip;elic;il character to I lie rite, and 1-hc duty of thanksgiving after safe dt'livery was frequently insisted on. In the rationalistic period the practise of giving a special blessing to the mother was usually dropped, though to this day it is usual to ask the prayers of the congregation for her and
for the child at hor first appearance in church; and several of the most recent Lutheran servicebi^oks contain an office for her benediction at the altar after the public service. [Such an office is also contained in the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England. Its title in the first book of Edward VI. was "The Order of the Purification of Women," but this was altered in the second to " The Thanksgiving of Women after Child-birth, commonly called the Churching of Women."] (Georg Rietschel.)
Bibliography: A. J. Stephens, Book of Common Prayer witli Xolcs, iii. 1751-63, London, 1853.
CHYTRSUS, kd-tri'us (KOCHHAFE), DAVID:
The last of the " Fathers of the Lutheran Church "; b. at Ingelfingen (43 m. n.n.e. of Stuttgart), Wiirttemberg, Feb. 26, 1531; d. at Rostock June 25, 1600. As a pupil of Tilelanchthon he belonged to the mediating theologians. He was no original genius, but owing to his disposition and power of work he was a scholar of almost encyclopedic knowledge, but without the gift of preaching. His organizing and academical activity was effective. He was the center of the University of Rostock, a pure personality, filled with love of peace, not willingly harsh, but rather timid, and inchned to avoid conflicts. He studied at Tubingen and at Wittenberg, where he lived in Melanchthon's house, and attended Luther's lectures on Genesis, those of Paul Eber, and others. After a brief return to Tubingen (1547), he lectured at Wittenberg on Melanchthon's Loci, on rhetoric, and on astronomy. He accompanied his friend Johannes Aurifaber to Rostock, whither he was called after a visit to Italy, in 1550. His work was to introduce beginners into the doctrine of salvation, expound the classics, and deliver encyclopedic and exegetical lectures on the Old and New Testaments. Rostock was thenceforth his home. He enjoyed in a high degree the favor of the duke, to which he responded by a mixture of frankness and sometimes rather nauseating servility. After the division of the country (1555), Chytra^us entrt'at.nl the dukes to build up the university, which was slowly effected in spite of personal, political, financial, and physical difficulties. The office of university-superintendent he declined, but he was looked upon as the pillar of the institution. He was also busy with ecclesiastical regulations, opposed the llacian adversaries of the Formula of Concord vvho had been driven from the duchy, and looked upon the plan of some princes to call a general synod of all Evangelicals as hopeless. Another field of labor opened for him in Austria. Emperor Maximilian II., who sympathized with Melanchthon, granted to the Lutheran estates of Lower and I'ppcr Atistria in 1568 the free cxeicise of religion on the basis of thc^ Aiij[;sburg Confession, with the condition tliat tliey first a;i;ree upon a church-discipline. The i-states elected a com-
mission for that purpose, and Chytrajus, known for his moderation, was invited to assist. In the beginning of 1569 he arrived in Austria. Of the fourfold work— the preparation of a liturgy, an order for superintendents and consistories, an exposition of the Augsburg Confession, and an examen ordinandorum — the first two were speedily prepared. The third was beset with difficulties on account of the Flacian ministers, not to speak of delays from other causes. Finally the free exercise of religion was obtained, and Chytra3us, praised by the emperor, returned home, underrating the depth of the antagonistic principles. The publication of the liturgy caused a bitter controversy, which the emperor terminated by force. By his work in Austria the estates of Styria had their attention drawn to Chytrseus, and he was invited to rearrange church matters there, after the religious compromise had been confirmed by Archduke Charles. He arrived at Graz Jan. 2, 1574. Despite difficulties, the church-discipline was completed in May, 1574. With a vote of thanks he returned home and took up his relations with the Scandinavian kingdoms. Being attacked by Antonio Possevino for his activity in Austria and his influence in Sweden, he wrote a rejoinder (Wittenberg, 1584), and he replied to a request from Antwerp to give his opinion on a catechism, in 1581.
His works include: (1) Exegetical: glossatory, dogmatizing commentaries of slight importance. (2) Dogmatic: a Catechesis (Wittenberg, 1555, and often) imitating Melanchthon's Loci, a short, comprehensive, and able work, used for almost a century in universities, gymnasia, and public schools, and recommended even in agenda; De studio theologicB recte inchoando (1562; enlarged, Rostock, 1572), belonging also to the Melanchthonian type, and following closely the Augsburg Confession, the Apology, the Wittenberg Concordia, and the Schmalkald Articles; De morte et vita ceterna (Wittenberg, 1581), the first attempt at a complete eschatology in the Melanchthonian spirit; it even gave occasion for a charge of crypto-Calvinism; the colorless Regulce vitw (1555), following the decalogue, were originally composed by Melanchthon. In treating of single doctrinal points a more Lutheran tendency is perceptible, consistent with his participation in the work of the Concordia; but Ctiytraeus found the forms of the true doctrines " mediocritcr constituta " in the Formula of Concord, and deplored the damnation of the excluded (Reformed) churches. (3) Polemical: the rejoinder to Possevino and a controversial letter against the provost Georg Coelestinus concerning the " history of the Augsburg Confession." (4) Of his philosophical, or rather methodological, writings the Regulce studiorum (best ed., Leipsic, 1505) had a far-reaching influence; the rich contents of the Prcccepta rhetoricce invctitionis (Wittenberg, 1558) suffer by its fragmentary character. (5) In his historical works, written with care and freshness, Chytra'us appears to better advantage than in his theological writings; the proper scientific treatment, however, is lacking. The very popular Onomasticon ihrolofiicurn (1557) was an attempt to combine a theological encyclopedia