Fig. 221.—The Exorcist, Minor Order.
Miniature from the “Rationale Divinorum Officiorum” of William Durand (Manuscript of the Fourteenth Century), in the Library of M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot.
At first the Christians had not any clergymen, properly so called; priests, however, ministered in each locality, for we read that St. Paul appointed Titus “to ordain elders in every city” (Titus i. 5). But in most cases, during the first centuries, the bishop alone ministered in his episcopal city, particularly in the East (Fig. 222).
Fig. 222.—The Good Shepherd, whose head appears as if crowned with seven stars, carrying the lost sheep upon his shoulders; around him are collected the seven faithful sheep. On one side Jonah is being vomited out by the great fish; on the other he is lying beneath the gourd; above him are the dove and Noah’s Ark. The old man with a crown, with his hand raised above the clouds, and the woman with a crescent on the forehead, personify the sun and the moon.—Funereal lamp in baked clay of the Third Century, found in the Catacombs. In the Christian Museum of the Vatican.
After the fourth century we find that, in the East as at Rome, there were other churches in the large towns besides the cathedral; the functions of the clergymen, or cardinals, who ministered in them were confined to giving the people religious instruction, and to keep the bishop informed of everything relating to the government of the church. Down to the fifth century, the administration of the sacraments and the celebration of the holy communion took place in the cathedral only. Pope St. Marcellus founded, in the fourth century, twenty-five titles or parishes in Rome, in order to afford greater facilities for the preparatory instruction by which the sacraments of baptism and penance were preceded. But in the fifth century, when the cathedrals were found too small to hold all the congregation, it became the custom to distribute, in the titles or parishes of the city, the holy eucharist which the bishop sent by the hands of deacons to the titulary clergy. The bishops also delegated to their clergy the power of receiving the reconciliation of the penitents in cases of necessity, of admitting heretics in danger of death (but only in the bishop’s absence), and of pronouncing excommunications in their parishes, by virtue of a sentence delivered by the bishop. The clergyman also visited the sick, administered the sacrament of extreme unction, blessed the private dwelling-places, and himself selected the staff for his church. At last, in the sixth century, clergymen celebrated, in the quarters or titles wherein they ministered, the entire liturgy of the holy communion, and from the seventh century they were empowered to diminish or to increase, as they thought proper, in accordance with the revenues of the parish, the number of the clerks, choristers, and the various subordinate officers. In compliance with the wishes of the faithful, the bishop would often authorise the clergy to celebrate two masses upon the same day, one to take place of necessity in the parish church, the other perhaps in some oratory attached to the parish (Fig. 223).
Fig. 223.—The celebration of Mass in an Oratory.—Fac-simile of a Miniature in a Manuscript of the Ninth Century, from an Engraving belonging to M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot.
Independently of the offerings made by the faithful, the churches, which already possessed landed property, after the conversion of Constantine found their domains increasing in value. The barbarian chiefs who became converts to Christianity outrivalled each other in their liberality towards the clergy. Tithes, the regular payment of which was only proposed towards the close of the fifth century, were soon made compulsory, more especially in the countries subject to the Franks. It is incorrect that tithes were not made obligatory until the time of Charlemagne; all he did was to ensure their collection, and to impose them upon the newly-converted under threat of excommunication. In conformity with a decree issued by Pope Gelasius, he ordained that the produce of the tithe should be equally divided amongst the bishop, the priests, the fabrics in each diocese, and the poor—that is to say, the hospitals. These establishments were administered and provided with religious services by the charity of the clergy; thus the increase of ecclesiastical wealth turned to the profit of the needy.