I. First of all, let us consider a church ^ and its parts.

The word church hath two meanings : the one, a material building, wherein the divine offices are celebrated : the other, a spiritual fabric, which is the collection of the faithful. The Church, that is the people forming it, is assembled by its ministers, and collected together into
• It has been found advisable to print the word church in the following pages with a great or a small initial letter, according as ' The Blessed Company of all Faithful People,' or the material building, were intended.
Of a Church and its Parts 1 3
one place by ' Him who maketh men to be of one mind in an house.'- For as the material church is constructed from the joining together of various stones, so is the spiritual Church by that of various men.
2. The Greek ecclesia is in Latin translated by con- vocation because it calleth men to itself: the which title doth better befit the spiritual than the material church.
The material typifieth the spiritual Church : as shall be explained when we treat of its consecration.^ Again, the Church is called Catholic, that is universal, because it hath been set up in, or spread over, all the world, be- cause the whole multitude of the faithful ought to be in one congregation, or because in the Church is laid up the doctrine necessary for the instruction of all.
3. It is also called in Greek synagoga, in Latin congre- gatio, which was the name chosen by the Jews for their places of worship : for to them the term synagogue more appropriately belongeth, though it be also applied to a church. But the Apostles never call a church by this title, perhaps for the sake of distinction.
4. The Church Militant is also called Sion : because, amidst its wanderings, it expecteth the promise of a heavenly rest : for Sion signifieth expectation. But the Church Triumphant, our future home, the land of peace, is called Jerusalem : for Jerusalem signifieth the vision of peace.^ Also, the church is called the House of God : also, sometimes, KvptaKri, that is, the Lord's House. At others basilica (in Latin, a royal palace), for the abodes of earthly kings are thus termed : and how much more fittingly our houses of prayer, the dwelling-places of the King of Kings ! Again, it is called temple, from tectum
- Psalm Ixviii (Fxsurgai Dens), 6. ^ See below, chapter vi.
* So the hymn in the Parisian Breviary, for the dedication of a church :
Urbs beata, vera pacis Visio, Jerusalem.
K
14 The Symbolism of Churches
amplum, where sacrifices are offered to God : and some- times the tabernacle of God, because this present Hfe is a journey, and a progress to a lasting country : and a tabernacle is an hostelrie:^ as will be explained when we speak of the dedication^ of a church. And why it is called the Ark of the Testimony, we shall say in the en- suing chapter, under the title Altars. Sometimes it is called Martyrium, when raised in honour of any martyr ; sometimes capella'^ (chapel), (see under the head Priest in the second part) ; sometimes ccenobium, at others sacrificium ; sometimes sacellum ; sometimes the house of prayer : sometimes monastery : sometimes oratory. Generally, however, any place set apart for prayers is called an oratory. Again, the church is called the Body (?/'Christ : sometimes a virgin, as the Apostle saith, ' that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ ' : ^ some- times a bride, because Christ hath betrothed her to Him- self, as saith the Gospel : ' he that hath the bride is the bridegroom ' : ^ sometimes a mother, for daily in baptism she beareth sons to God : sometimes a daughter, accord- ing to that saying of the Prophet, ' Instead of thy fathers thou shalt have children ' : ^^ sometimes a widow, because ' she sitteth solitary through her afflictions, and, like Rachel, will not be comforted.' Sometimes she is set forth under the emblem of an harlot, because she is
^Compare Cicero de Senect. xxiii. Et ex vita ita discedo tanquam ex hospitio, non tanquam ex domo : commorandi enim Natura diversorium nobis, non habitandi dedit.
^ Chapter vi, sect. 5, ad fin.
^ Durandus, II. 10. 8. 'In man}' places, priests be called chaplains. For of old the Kings of France, when they went forth to war, carried with them the Cope of Blessed Martin, which was kept in a certain tent (where Mass was said"), and from the cope (cappa) the tent was called chapel (capella).'
We may observe that chapel was used in former times with much greater latitude than now. An additional aisle or chantry was so called. So in riaddenham, Cambridgeshire, on a brass in the north aisle, Orate pro Aniniabus fundatoruni hujiis Capellce : that is, the aisle itself.
^ 2 Cor. xi, 2. ^ S. John iii, 29. *" Psalm xlv (^Eructavit cor mauni), 16.
Of a Church and its Parts 1 5
called out of many nations, and because she closeth not her bosom against any that return to her. Sometimes she is called a city, because of the communion of her holy citizens, being defended by the munitions of the Scriptures, whereby heretics are kept off: having stones and beams of divers kinds, because the merits of the saints are of divers kinds also, as shall be said below. Whatever the Jewish Church received by the law, that doth the Christian Church receive, and with large increase by grace, from Christ whose bride she is. The setting up of an oratory, or church, is not new. For the Lord commanded Moses in Mount Sinai, that he should make a tabernacle of curiously wrought materials. This was divided by a veil into two parts : the outer, called the holy place, where the people attended the sacrifices : the inner, the holy of holies, where the priests and Levites ministered before the Lord (see the Preface to the Fourth Book and also Appendix A).
5. This tabernacle having decayed through age, the Lord commanded that a temple should be built, which Solomon accomplished with wonderful skill : this also had two parts, like the tabernacle. From both of these, namely, from the tabernacle and the temple, doth our material church take its form. In its outer portion, the laity offer their prayers, and hear the Word. In the sanctuary, the clergy pray, preach, offer praises and prayers.
6. The tabernacle, built as it was amidst the journey- ings of the Israelites, is sometimes taken as a type of the world which ' passeth away, and the lust thereof ^^ Whence it was formed with curtains of four colours, as the world is composed of four elements. ' God,' said the Prophet, ' is in His tabernacle ' : ^^ God is in this world, as in a temple dyed scarlet by the blood of Christ. The
" S. John ii, 17. '- Psalm xi (/;/ Domino confido\ 4.
1 6 The Syvibolisni of Churches
tabernacle is/however, more especially symbolical of the Church Militant, which hath 'here no continuing city, but seeketh one to come.' ^^ Therefore is it called a tabernacle, for tabernacles or tents belong to soldiers: and this saying, God is in his tabernacle, meaneth, God is among the faithful collected together in His name. The outer part of the tabernacle, where the people sacri- ficed, is the active life, wherein men give themselves up to the love of their neighbour : the interior, wherein the Levites ministered, is the contemplative life, where a band of religious men devote themselves to the love and contemplation of God. The tabernacle gave place to the temple : because after the warfare cometh the triumph.
7. Now a church is to be built on this fashion : The foundation being prepared, according to that saying, ' It fell not, for it was founded upon a rock,'^* the bishop, or a priest ^^ as the bishop's deputy, must sprinkle it with holy water, to banish the foul forms of evil spirits, and lay the first stone, whereon a cross must be engraved.^^
8. The foundation must be so contrived, as that the head of the church may point due east (see Appen- dix B) ; that is, to that point of the heavens, wherein the sun ariseth at the equinoxes ; to signify, that the Church Militant must ^^ behave herself with moderation,
'^ Hebrews xiii, 14.
" S. Matthew vii, 25. In general illustration of the foregoing sections the reader is referred to the first chapter of the eighth book of Bingham's ' Antiquities.'
'^ In the account of the dedication of S. Michael the Archangel, in the Isle of Guernsey, preserved in the ' Black Book of the Bishop of Coutances,' it appears that the ceremony was performed by a priest : though it is be- lieved that such has seldom been the case in the Anglican Church. But see chapter vi, section 2.
'*^ A cross was not only inscribed on the foundation stone, but a cross was placed where the church was to be : and this in the Eastern Church ; where the Staiiropegia was a ceremony of much importance.
•' This passage is valuable as proving that in the country of our Bishop nothing was known of a practice undoubtedly prevalent in England ; the direction of a church to that part of the sk)' in which the sun arose on the Feast of the Patron Saint.
Of a Chicrck and its Parts 17
both in prosperity and adversity : and not towards that point where the sun ariseth at the solstices, which is the practice of some. But if the walls of Jerusalem, ' which is built as a city that is at unity with itself,' ^"^ were, by the Prophet's command, raised by the Jews, with how much greater zeal should we raise the walls of our churches ! For the material church, wherein the people assemble to set forth God's holy praise, symboliseth that Holy Church which is built in heaven of living stones^
9. This is that House of the Lord, built with all strength, ' upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner- stone.^^ Her 2^ foundations are in the holy mountains.' The walls built upon these are the Jews and Gentiles ; who come from the four parts of the world unto Christ, and who have believed, believe, or shall believe on Him.
The faithful predestinated to eternal life, are the stones in the structure of this wall which shall continually be built up unto the world's end. And one stone is added to another, when masters in the Church teach and con- firm and strengthen those who are put under them : and whosoever in Holy Church undertaketh painful labours from brotherly love, he as it w^ere beareth up the weight of stones which have been placed above him. Those stones which are of larger size, and polished, or squared, and placed on the outside and at the angles of the building, are men of holier life than others, who by their merits and prayers retain weaker brethren in Holy Church.
10. The cement, without which there can be no stability of the walls, is made of lime, sand, and water. The lime is fervent charity, which joineth to itself the sand, that is, undertakings for the temporal welfare of
''^ Psalm cxxii (^Lcetahis sum), 3. '^ Eph. ii, 20.
-" Psalm Ixxxvii (^Fundamenta ejus), I.
1 8 The Symbolism of Churches
our brethren: because true charity taketh care of the widow and the aged, and the infant, and the infirm : and they who have it study to work with their hands, that they may possess wherewith to benefit them. Now the lime and the sand are bound together in the wall by an admixture of water. But water is an emblem of the Spirit. And as without cement the stones cannot cohere, so neither can men be built up in the heavenly Jerusalem without charity, which the Holy Ghost worketh in them. All the stones are polished and squared — that is, holy and pure, and are built by the hands of the Great Workman into an abiding place in the Church : whereof some are borne, and bear nothing, as the weaker members : some are both borne and bear, as those of moderate strength : and some bear, and are borne of none save Christ, the corner-stone, as they that are perfect. All are bound together by one spirit of charity, as though fastened with cement ; and those living stones are knit together in the bond of peace. Christ was our wall in His conversation : and our outer wall in His Passion.