Preface

tihxaxy of Che trheolo^ical ^tminaxy
PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY
Frorri the Library of Prof. 3en.1amin 3. Wf^rfield
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THE SYMBOLISM OF CHURCHES
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Uniform with this volume^ Crown St'o, cloth
SYMBOLISM
OR EXPOSITION OF THE
DOCTRINAL DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN
CATHOLICS AND PROTESTANTS
As evidenced by their Symbolical Writings
By JOHN ADAM MOEHLER, D.D.
ir
Hours with the Mystics
By the late ROBERT ALFRED VAUGHAN, B.A.
' There is not a page nor a paragraph in these " Hours " in which there is not something worth recollecting, and often reflections very wise and very weighty indeed. No one can rise from the perusal of the book with- out finding himself, if not a better, at least a more thoughtful man, and perhaps a humbler one also, as he learns how many more struggles and doubts, discoveries, soitows, and joys the human race has passed through than are contained in his own private experience.' — Ch.vrles Kingsley.
THE SYMBOLIST^
\^^.
*• 0 ) w A
Cburcbes anb Cbuvcb ©rnanients
A TRANSLATION OF THE FIRST BOOK OF THE
IRationale 3)ivinorum ©fficiorum
WRITTEN BY
WILLIAM DURANDUS
SOMETIME BISHOP OF MENDE
WITH AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY AND NOTES
BY THE REV. JOHN MASON NEALE, B.A.
AND
THE REV. BENJAMIN WEBB, B.A.
OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
743 AND 745 BROADWAY 1893
DEDICATED TO
THE CAMBRIDGE CAMDEN SOCIETY
BY
TWO OF ITS FOUNDERS
PREFACE
The interest which has lately been displayed, as on all subjects connected with Ecclesiology, so more especially on the symbolical bearing of Church Archi- tecture, has led us to imagine that a translation of the most valuable work on Symbolism which the middle ages can furnish, might not, at the present time, be unacceptable to churchmen.
Written, however, at a period when Christian Archi- tecture had not attained its full glory, it necessarily leaves untouched many arrangements of similar tendency, subsequently adopted ; addressed to those who had not yet learnt to doubt everything not formally proved, it assumes many points which may now seem to require confirmation : and composed for the use of a clergy habituated to a most figurative ritual, it passes over much as well known, which is now forgotten or neglected. On these accounts we have considered it necessary to prefix an Essay on the subject ; in which we have endeavoured to prove that Catholic Architecture must necessarily be symbolical ; to answer the more common objections to the system ; and to elucidate it by reference to actual examples, and notices of the figurative arrangements of our own churches. We have also added notes, where any obscurity seemed
viii . Preface
to require explanation ; and we have, both in them and in the Appendix, thrown together such passages from Martene, Beleth, S. Isidore of Seville, Hugo de S. Victore, and other writers, as tended to explain and to enforce the remarks of Durandus.
With reference to the author himself, but little is known ; and that little has been told before.
William Durandus was born at Puy-moisson, in Pro- vence, about the year 1220. A legend of his native country is told in the present work.* He became the pupil of Henry de Luza, afterwards Cardinal of Ostia ; and taught canon law at Modena. On this subject he composed a most learned work, the Speculum Juris; from which he obtained the title of Speculator : as also another treatise called Repertorium Juris : and a Bre- viarium Glossarum in Textuni Juris Canonici. His high attainments marked him t out for the office of Chaplain to Pope Clement IV. He was afterwards Auditor of the Sacred Palace ; and Legate to Pope Gregory X at the Council of Lyons. He was then made Captain of the Papal forces ; in which post he assisted at the reduction of several rebellious cities, and behaved with great courage. He finally became Bishop of Mende in 1286. While in this post, and resident at Rome (for he did not personally visit his diocese till 1291, the administration of the diocese being perhaps left to a nephew of the same name, who succeeded him), he finished the work, of the first book of which a translation is presented to the reader. But it probably
* See p. 126 ■j- Mutataforhina^ says Board : to what this refers, we know not.
Preface ix
was commenced before ; for we find from a passage in its latter half, that so far had been written during the course of this same year 1286. And there is no difficulty in the title, Episcopus Miniatensis, which he gives himself in the Proeme, as this could easily have been added afterwards. But it was certainly published, as Martene observes, before 1295 ; because Durandus speaks of the Feasts of the Holy Apostles as semi- doubles, whereas in that year, by a constitution of Pope Urban, they were commanded to be observed as doubles. The time at which the treatise was written more especially demands our attention ; because, did we imagine it only a few years later than it really was, we might well be astonished at finding no reference to the Symbolism of the Decorated Style. The in- terruptions amidst which the Rationale was written are feelingly alluded to by its author, in the Epilogue (p. 161). He also wrote a treatise De Modo Concilii Generalis habendi, probably either suggested by, or preparatory to, that of Lyons. He afterwards went on an embassy from the Pope to the Sultan ; and is by some said to have ended this life at Nicosia in Cyprus. But the fact is not so : for having governed his diocese ten years, and having refused the proffered Archbishopric of Ravenna, he departed at Rome on the Feast of All Saints, 1296, being buried in the Church of Sancta Maria super Minervam, where his monument is yet to be seen, with the following inscription : —
Hie jacet egregius doctor proesul Mimatensis, Nomine Duranti Guillelmus regula morum : Splendor honestatis et casti candor amoris
Preface
Altum consiliis spatiosum mente serenum Hunc insignibat immotum turbine mentis. Mente pius, sermone gravis, gressuque modestus, Extitit infestus super hostes more leonis : Indomitos domuit populos, ferroque rebelles, Impulit, Ecclesiag victor servire coegit. Comprobat officiis, paruit Romania sceptro Belligeri comitis Martini tempore quarti : Edidit in Jure librum, quo jus reperitur : Et Speculum Juris, et patrum Pontificale : Et Rationale Divinorum patefecit: Instruxit clerum scriptis, monuitque statutis : Gregorii deni, Nicolai scita perenni Glossa diffudit populis, sensusque profundos : Jure dedit mentes et corpus luce studentum : Quern memori laude genuit Provincia dignum : Et dedit a Podio Missone disecesis ilium : Inde Biterrensis, prsesignis curia Papae : Dum foret ecclesiae Mimatensis sede quietus, Hunc vocat octavus Bonifacius; altius ilium Promovet; hie renuit Ravennae prsesul haberi. Fit comes invictus simul hinc et marchio tandem, Et Romam rediit : Domini sub mille trecentis (Quatuor amotis) annis : tumulante Minerva. Surripit hunc festiva dies, & prima Novembris. ' Guadia cum Sanctis tenet Omnibus inde sacerdos : Pro quo perpetuo datur haec celebrare capella.
The Rationale was the first work, from the pen of an uninspired writer, ever printed. The editio princeps appeared at the press of Fust in 1459 ; being preceded only by the Psalters of 1457 and 1459. It is, of course, of the most extreme rarity : the beauty of the typo- graphy has seldom been exceeded. Chalmers mentions, besides this, thirteen editions in the fifteenth, and thirteen in the sixteenth century : all of them are very rare.
The editions with which we are acquainted, are those of Rome 1473; Lyons 1503,1512, 1534, 1584; Antwerp
Preface xi
1570; Venice 1599, 1609. The translation has been made from the editions of 1473 and 1599. The former is a magnificent specimen of typography : the words are excessively contracted ; and there are double columns to each page. Our copy is partially illuminated ; and the binding is ornamented with a border of the Evan- gelistic Symbols. The latter contains also the first edition of the work of Beleth, and is a reprint of Board's Lyons edition of 1565. Board dedicated it to his brother, Bishop of Marseilles ; and prefixed a Preface, in which he bestows a well-merited eulogium on Burandus, and mentions the care taken in correcting and revising the work. He also added some notes, of little worth. The Venice reprint is so vicious a specimen of typography, that from it alone the sense could in many places hardly be explained. Our copy belonged to Bishop White Kennett, who appears to have studied it diligently.
We must now say a few words as on our own share in the work. With respect to the Introduction, fully convinced as we are of the truth and importance of the general principle maintained in it, we do not wish to press, as matter of certainty, all or any of the minor details into which that theory is carried. We believe, indeed, that the more the subject has been studied, the more truthful our views will appear to be : but we wish the reader to bear in mind, that the weakness of any portion of them is no argument against their reception, as a whole. At the same time, none can be more aware than ourselves how much more ably such views might have been advocated : we have not, however, spared
xii Preface
time or pains in the study of the subject ; ' and if we have done meanly, it is that we could attain unto.'
In the Translation, we have endeavoured, too often unsuccessfully, to retain the beautiful simplicity of the original. In the obscure passages, of which there are not a few, we have mentioned the difficulty in the notes, lest the reader, by our mistake, should be led into error himself
The quotations from Holy Scripture are given in the authorised version, except where, to bring out the author's full meaning, it was necessary to have recourse to the Vulgate ; and we have then translated literally from that.
We have felt no small pleasure in thus enabling this excellent prelate, though at so far distant a land from his own, and after a silence of nearly six hundred years, being dead, yet to speak : and if the following pages are at all useful in pointing out the sacramental character of Catholic art, we shall be abundantly rewarded, as being fellow-workers with him in the setting forth of one, now too much forgotten. Church principle.
J. M. N. B. W.
Michaelmas^ 1842.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY
SACRAAIENTALITY : A PRINCIPLE OF ECCLESIASTICAL DESIGN
ANALYSIS OF THE INTRODUCTORY ESSAY
INTRODUCTION.
1. Spread of the study of Church Architecture.
2. Obvious, but indefinable, difference between old and new
churches. Wherein this consists. Not in association, Nor in correctness of details, Nor in the Picturesque, Nor in the Mechanical advantages, But in Reality
considered, in an enlarged view, as Sacramentality.
3. This probable,
from examples, and
promises in Holy Scripture. Catholic consent, examples to the contrary, philosophical reasons.
4. Enunciation of the subject.
5. Writers on the subject,
Pugin, Poole, Lewis, Coddington, the writers of the Cambridge Camden Society.
A. ARGUMENTS FOR SYMBOLISM.
1. A PRIORI.
Symbolising spirit of Catholic Antiquity,
in (a) Interpretation of Holy Scriptures.
(b) Analogy of the Jewish Ceremonies.
(c) Private manners.
(d) Emblems in Catacombs, etc.
(e) Symbolical interpretation of Heathen writers.