Volume 1

A dictionary of Christian antiquities : being a continuation of the 'Dictionary of the Bible' / edited by William Smith and Samuel Cheetham ; illustrated by engravings on wood.

Date:
[between 1890 and 1899?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dictionary of Christian antiquities : being a continuation of the 'Dictionary of the Bible' / edited by William Smith and Samuel Cheetham ; illustrated by engravings on wood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1013/1096 (page 993)
    preces, and two prayers, each much longer than the corresponding Roman collects, but to the same effect, and the office ends with an aspersion with holy water at the door of the church. [H. J. H.] LIGHTS, THE CEREMONIAL USE OF. It may be safely affirmed that for more than 300 years there was no ceremonial use of lighted candles, torches, or lamps in the worship of the Christian church. This is evident from the language of early writei's, when they have occasion to refer to the heathen practice of bu)’n- ing lights in honour of the gods. Tertullian, for e.xample, a.d. 205, ridicules the custom of “ex- posing useless candles at noon-day” (^ApoL xlvi.), and “ encroaching on the day with lamps ” (ibid. XXXV.). “Let them,” he says, “who have no light, kindle their lamps daily ” (De Idolol. xv.). Lactantius, A.D. 303: “ They burn lights as to one dwelling in darkness .... Is he to be thought in his right mind who offers for a gift the light of candles and wax tapers to the author and giver of light ? ... . But their gods, because they are of the earth, need light that they may not be in darkness ; whose worshippers, because they have no sense of heaven, bring down to the earth even those superstitions to which they are enslaved” (Instit. vi. 2). Gregory Nazianzen, about 70 years later, says, “Let not our dwell- ings blaze with visible light; for this indeed is the custom of the Greek holy-moon ; but let not us honour God with these things, and exalt the present season with unbecoming rites, but with purity of soul and cheerfulness of mind, and with lamps that enlighten the whole body of the church ; that is to say, with divine contempla- tions and thoughts,” &c. (OraL v. § 35). The reader will observe that the objection is not to the use of lights in idolatrous worship only, but to all ceremonial use of them, even in the worship of the true God. 1. There was, however, already by the end of the 3rd century a partial use of lights in honour of martyrs, which would greatly facilitate their introduction as ritual accessories to woi'ship at a later period. We learn this in the first in- stance from their prohibition by the council of Illiberis in Spain, probably about the year 305 : “It is decreed that wax candles be not kindled in a cemetery during the day ; for the spirits of the saints ought not to be disquieted ” (can. 34). By the saints we must here understand the faith- ful who went to the martyria for prayer. This is the explanation of Binius, Dupin, Mendoza, and others. They would certainly be more or less distracted by the presence of the light.s, and they might fear to excite the attention of the heathen by them. Many, if we may infer from the language of the writers quoted above, would be offended at the rite itself. The practice, nevertheless, maintained its ground in Spain and elsewhere. For at the beginning of the next century, we find it attacked by Vigilantius, him- self a Spaniard, of Barcelona. Jerome, who replied to him, does not deny that such a custom existed. His language even shews that he did not in his heart disapprove of it; but he pleads that it was due to the “ ignorance and simplicity of laymen, or at least of superstitious (religio- sarum) women,” who “ had a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.” Speaking for the church at large he says, “We do not, as you groundlessly slander us, burn wax tapers in clear light, but that we may by this means of relief moderate the darkness of the night, and watch till dawn.” Yet he inconsistently defends the practice which Vigilantius condemned, comparing those who supplied the lights “in honour of the martyrs ” to her who poured ointment on our Lord (Contra Vigilant. § 8). II. In the time of St. Jerome we first hear cf another practice, which would inevitably end hi the ceremonial use of lights; viz. their employ- ment as a decoration in churches on festi- vals. This is first mentioned by Paulinus of Nola, A.D. 407, who thus describes his own custom on the feast of St. Felix, to whom his church there was dedicated: “The bright altars are crowned with lamps thickly set. Lights are burnt odorous with waxed papyri. They shine by night and day : thus night is radiant with the brightness of the day, and the day itself, bright in heavenly beauty, shines yet more with light doubled by countless lamps ” (Poem. xiv. Nat. 3, 1. 99; comp. P. xix. N. 11, 11. 405, &c.). This does not prove his common use of lights by day, but that is made probable by another poem, in which, describing apparently the ordinary appear- ance of his church, he says — “ Tectoque superne Pendentes Lychni spiris retinentur alienis, Et medio in vacuo laxis vaga lumina nutant Funibus: undantos flammas levis aura fatigat.” Poem, xxxvii. Nat. ix. 1. 389. If such a practice prevailed in any degree duing the 4th century, it probably affords the explanation needed in the well-known story of Epiphanius, who once, when passing through a country place called Auablatha, “ saw, as he went by, a lamp burning, and on inquiring what place that was, learnt that it was a church ” (Epist. ad Joan. Hievos.). III. The ritual use of lights for which such a custom prepared the way would probably have been only occasional for many ages, but for the conditions under which the worship of Chris- tians was held during the first 300 years. Se- crecy was necessary when persecution was active, and great privacy at all times. This led to their assembling after the daylight had failed, or before the sun rose. When the disciples at Troas “ came together to break bread,” it was evening, “ and there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered to- gether ” (Acts XX. 7, 8). Pliny the younger, some 50 years later, told the emperor that the Christians were in the habit of meeting for common worship “before it was light” (t-pp. lib. X. n. 97). From Tertullian (De Corona, iii.) we learn that it was the custom of his day to “ take the sacrament of the Eucharist in assem- blies held before dawn.” The fear of discovery which induced this precaution caused them also to avail themselves of the catacombs and other subterranean places in which, while they were more free to choose their time of meeting, the natural darkness of the place itself would make artificial light essential. St. Jerome, speaking of the catacombs at Rome at a time when they were no longer in use for Christian worship, says, “ They are all so dark that to enter into them is, in the language of the psalmist, like going down into hell” (Comment, in Ezek. lib.