A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

The Thursday in this week, which was the day on which Christ was betrayed, was observed with some peculiar customs. In some churches, the communion was administered in the evening after supper, in imitation of the communion of the apostles at our Lord’s last supper. On this day the Competentes, or candidates of baptism, publicly rehearsed the creed before the bishops or presbyters in the church. And on this day it was customary for servants to receive the communion. The modern ritualists call this day Maundy Thursday. (See Maundy Thursday.)

The Friday was called Good Friday, or Pasch of the Cross, in opposition to Easter, or the Pasch of the Resurrection. On this day, not only penitents were absolved, but a general absolution and indulgence was proclaimed to all the people, observing the day with fasting, prayers, and contrition.

The Saturday of this week was known by the name of the Great Sabbath. It had many peculiarities belonging to it. For this was the only Sabbath throughout the year that the Greek churches, and some of the Western, kept as a fast; all other Saturdays, or Sabbaths, being observed as festivals. On this day they continued to fast, not only till evening, but till cock-crowing in the morning, which was the supposed time of our Saviour’s resurrection. And the preceding time of the night was spent in Divine service, praying, preaching, and baptizing such of the catechumens as presented themselves. A remnant of which custom seems still to be kept up in the Latin offices, which prescribe the reading of numerous chapters from the Holy Scriptures, called prophecies, with prayers, &c. interspersed. Eusebius tells us that, in the time of Constantine, this vigil was kept with great pomp. For that emperor set up lofty pillars of wax, to burn as torches all over the city, so that the night seemed to outshine the sun at noonday. The fifth Sunday in Lent is called in the Roman office, Passion Sunday, that name being applied to it in reference to our Lord’s prediction on that day of his approaching passion. And some persons call the week, of which Passion Sunday is the first day, Passion Week; and the real Passion Week they call Holy Week. This is, however, a piece of pedantry, founded on a mistake.

PASSOVER. (Pesach, Heb., which signifies a leap, a passage.) (Pascha, in the LXX.) The Passover was a solemn festival of the Jews, instituted in commemoration of their coming out of Egypt, because the night before their departure the destroying angel, that slew the first-born of the Egyptians, passed over the houses of the Hebrews without entering them, because they were marked with the blood of the lamb, which for this reason was called the paschal lamb.

PASTOR. Literally, a shepherd; figuratively, the bishop of a diocese, or the priest of a parish, whose people are, likewise, figuratively called their flock. It is employed in this sense in one of the prayers for the Ember Week, and in the Ordination Services.

PASTORAL STAFF. (See Crosier.) It is mentioned in one of the rubrics of King Edward VI.’s First Prayer Book, which is still the law of the Church, according to the present rubric as to the “ornament of the Church,” which prescribes that the bishop shall in his public ministrations, besides his proper vestments, have “his pastoral staff in his hand, or else borne or holden by his chaplain.”

PATEN. The plate on which the sacred bread in the eucharist is laid. The original word signifies a wide open dish. It occurs in our Communion Office, at consecration, “here the priest is to take the paten into his hands.”

PATRIARCHS. (From the Greek πατριὰ, family, and ἄρχων, head or ruler.) Patriarchs among Christians are ecclesiastical dignitaries, or bishops, so called from their paternal authority in the Church.

In the ancient Christian Church, patriarchs were next in order to metropolitans or primates. They were originally styled archbishops, and exarchs of a diocese. For the name archbishop was anciently a more extensive title than now, and scarce given to any but those whose jurisdiction extended over a whole imperial diocese, as the bishops of Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, &c. After the setting up the patriarchal power, the name archbishop was appropriated to the patriarchs.

The first time we meet with the name patriarch given to any bishop by public authority of the Church, is in the Council of Chalcedon, which mentions the most holy patriarchs, particularly Leo, patriarch of great Rome. Among private authors, the first who mentions patriarchs by name is Socrates, who wrote his history about the year 440, eleven years before the Council of Chalcedon. But though we cannot trace the name any higher, yet the power itself was much earlier. The Romanists carry it up to the time of the apostles. Others fix it to a little before the Council of Nice. Others ascribe its rise to that very council. In a matter so obscure, and so variously controverted among learned men, it is no easy matter to determine where the right lies. But, however it be, the fourth century affords pregnant proofs of the establishment and growth of the patriarchal power.