Ancient Church Orders
Encyclopedia
Ancient Church Orders is a genre
of early Christian
literature, ranging from 1st to 5th century, which has the aim to offer authoritative "apostolic" prescriptions on matters of moral conduct, liturgy
and Church organization
.. These texts are extremely important in the study of early liturgy and served as the basis for much ancient ecclesiastical legislation
.
A characteristic of this genre is their pseudepigraphic form. Many of them profess to have been handed down by the Twelve Apostles, in some case purported to have been gathered by Clement of Rome or by Hippolytus of Rome. In the earliest of them, the Didache
, extends to the title: The teaching of the Lord to the Gentiles by the Twelve Apostles. The later Testamentum Domini
declares itself to be the legacy left by Jesus Christ himself to his Apostles before the Ascension, and to give his own words and commands as to the government of the Church
. Apart from the Apostolic Constitutions
, which was printed before 1563, all other texts have been discovered and published in the 19th or early 20th century.
There are other minor texts belonging to the genre of the Ancient Church Orders: the Coptic Canons of Basil (an Egyptian 4th century text based mainly on the Canons of Hippolytus) and the Western Statuta Eccesiae Antiqua (about 490 AD, probably composed by Gennadius of Massilia
and based on both Apostolic Tradition and Apostolic Constitutions).
It should be noted that usually the Church Orders were transmitted in collections with the same order of materials, even if sometimes free rendered and mixed with additional material. The more ancient collection is formed by Didascalia - Didache - Apostolic Tradition. Later the Apostolic Church-Ordinance took the place of the Didache in the second position and in even later manuscripts the Testamentum Domini took the place of the Didascalia in the first position and the book 8 of the Apostolic Constitutions took the place of the Apostolic Tradition in the last position, thus we find Testamentum Domini - Apostolic Church-Ordinance - book 8 of the Apostolic Constitutions.
The main collections of Church Orders are the following:
(and others) in order to note that these texts, of which only a part survived, were updated and amended generation after generation, mixing ancient parts with materials from the contemporary uses and tradition of the copyists and removing what no more in line with the current understanding. Moreover it is probable also that in many cases the copyists were not describing their current or more ancient uses, but what they considered to be the best practice, thus for example describing liturgies never performed. This kind of literature allows the scholars, after a process of evaluation, to look at the liturgies of the 3rd and 4th century, but it makes difficult to use these texts to describe more ancient liturgies.
It is possible to outline also some development patterns for the content of this literature: the more ancient texts, such as Didache, are mainly concerned about moral conduct, giving very little room to liturgy and to Church organization. Later on the interest on moral issues waned and liturgy became prominent. In the last documents, the focus moved mainly on the Church organization and to the canon law. Starting since the 5th century, the Ancient Church Orders ceased to be regarded as authoritative, in spite of their higher and higher claimed level of pseudepigraphy, and were substituted by the canons of councils
and synod
s and by sacramentaries
of famous bishops.
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
of early Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
literature, ranging from 1st to 5th century, which has the aim to offer authoritative "apostolic" prescriptions on matters of moral conduct, liturgy
Liturgy
Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...
and Church organization
Canon law
Canon law is the body of laws & regulations made or adopted by ecclesiastical authority, for the government of the Christian organization and its members. It is the internal ecclesiastical law governing the Catholic Church , the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, and the Anglican Communion of...
.. These texts are extremely important in the study of early liturgy and served as the basis for much ancient ecclesiastical legislation
Canon law
Canon law is the body of laws & regulations made or adopted by ecclesiastical authority, for the government of the Christian organization and its members. It is the internal ecclesiastical law governing the Catholic Church , the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, and the Anglican Communion of...
.
A characteristic of this genre is their pseudepigraphic form. Many of them profess to have been handed down by the Twelve Apostles, in some case purported to have been gathered by Clement of Rome or by Hippolytus of Rome. In the earliest of them, the Didache
Didache
The Didache or The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles is a brief early Christian treatise, dated by most scholars to the late first or early 2nd century...
, extends to the title: The teaching of the Lord to the Gentiles by the Twelve Apostles. The later Testamentum Domini
Testamentum Domini
Testamentum Domini is a Christian treatise which belongs to genre of the Church Orders. The work can be dated about the 5th century CE even if a 4th century date is sometime proposed...
declares itself to be the legacy left by Jesus Christ himself to his Apostles before the Ascension, and to give his own words and commands as to the government of the Church
Christian Church
The Christian Church is the assembly or association of followers of Jesus Christ. The Greek term ἐκκλησία that in its appearances in the New Testament is usually translated as "church" basically means "assembly"...
. Apart from the Apostolic Constitutions
Apostolic Constitutions
The Apostolic Constitutions is a Christian collection of eight treatises which belongs to genre of the Church Orders. The work can be dated from 375 to 380 AD. The provenience is usually regarded as Syria, probably Antioch...
, which was printed before 1563, all other texts have been discovered and published in the 19th or early 20th century.
Texts and their relationship
Church Orders were mutually interrelated documents and often circulated in collections. It is easy to point out many direct literal relationships among sections of them. Different scholars since the early 20th century have suggested extremely different historical orders of interrelation. Nowadays the usually accepted family tree contains different roots, and can be so summarized according to Bradshaw:- DidacheDidacheThe Didache or The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles is a brief early Christian treatise, dated by most scholars to the late first or early 2nd century...
, or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, (1st-2nd century, SyriaSyriaSyria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
), from which depend- Didascalia ApostolorumDidascalia ApostolorumDidascalia Apostolorum is a Christian treatise which belongs to genre of the Church Orders. It presents itself as being written by the Twelve Apostles at the time of the Council of Jerusalem, however, scholars agree that it was actually a composition of the 3rd century CE, perhaps around 230...
(about 230 AD, SyriaSyriaSyria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
) - Apostolic Church-Ordinance, or Apostolic Church-Order, (about 300 AD, EgyptEgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
)
- Didascalia Apostolorum
- Apostolic TraditionApostolic TraditionThe Apostolic Tradition is an early Christian treatise which belongs to genre of the Church Orders. It has been described as of "incomparable importance as a source of information about church life and liturgy in the third century".Re-discovered in the 19th century, it was given the name of...
(3rd or 4th century, probably SyriaSyriaSyria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
), published in the 19th century under the title of Egyptian Church Order, from which depend- Canons of HippolytusCanons of HippolytusThe Canons of Hippolytus is a Christian text composed by 38 decrees and belongs to genre of the Church Orders. The work can be dated on about 336 to 340 CE even if a slightly later date is sometime proposed...
(336-340 AD, EgyptEgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
) - Testamentum DominiTestamentum DominiTestamentum Domini is a Christian treatise which belongs to genre of the Church Orders. The work can be dated about the 5th century CE even if a 4th century date is sometime proposed...
(?5th century, SyriaSyriaSyria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
) - Epitome of the eighth Book of the Apostolic Constitutions, or The Constitutions through Hippolytus
- Canons of Hippolytus
- Canons of the ApostlesCanons of the ApostlesThe Apostolic Canons or Ecclesiastical Canons of the Same Holy Apostles is a collection of ancient ecclesiastical decrees concerning the government and discipline of the Early Christian Church, first found as last chapter of the eighth book of the Apostolic Constitutions and belonging to genre of...
, which first appeared as the last chapter of the eighth book of the Apostolic Constitution, shall be considered as a special form of the genre
There are other minor texts belonging to the genre of the Ancient Church Orders: the Coptic Canons of Basil (an Egyptian 4th century text based mainly on the Canons of Hippolytus) and the Western Statuta Eccesiae Antiqua (about 490 AD, probably composed by Gennadius of Massilia
Gennadius of Massilia
Gennadius of Massilia , also known as Gennadius Scholasticus or Gennadius of Marseille, was a 5th century Christian priest and historian....
and based on both Apostolic Tradition and Apostolic Constitutions).
It should be noted that usually the Church Orders were transmitted in collections with the same order of materials, even if sometimes free rendered and mixed with additional material. The more ancient collection is formed by Didascalia - Didache - Apostolic Tradition. Later the Apostolic Church-Ordinance took the place of the Didache in the second position and in even later manuscripts the Testamentum Domini took the place of the Didascalia in the first position and the book 8 of the Apostolic Constitutions took the place of the Apostolic Tradition in the last position, thus we find Testamentum Domini - Apostolic Church-Ordinance - book 8 of the Apostolic Constitutions.
The main collections of Church Orders are the following:
- the Apostolic ConstitutionsApostolic ConstitutionsThe Apostolic Constitutions is a Christian collection of eight treatises which belongs to genre of the Church Orders. The work can be dated from 375 to 380 AD. The provenience is usually regarded as Syria, probably Antioch...
(about 380 AD, SyriaSyriaSyria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
) is a collection of eight books depending mainly from the Didascalia Apostolorum (books 1-6), from the Didache (book 7) and from the Apostolic Tradition (book 8). The seventh and eighth books of the Apostolic Constitutions include so much additional material that they can be considered as separated stand-alone texts. The final chapter of the eighth book is known as the Canons of the Apostles and had a wider circulation than the rest of the Apostolic Constitutions - the Verona PalimpsestVerona PalimpsestThe Verona Palimpsest is manuscript, dated about the 494 CE, which contains a Christian collection of Church Orders in Latin...
, or Fragmentum Veronese, first published in 1900 by Edmund HaulerEdmund HaulerEdmund Hauler was an Austrian classical philologist born in Ofen. His father, Johann Hauler was also a classical philologist.-Life and works:...
, contains LatinLatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
free and incomplete versions of the Didascalia Apostolorum, Apostolic Church-Ordinance and the Egyptian Church Order - the Alexandrine SinodosAlexandrine SinodosThe Alexandrine Sinodos is a Christian collection of Church Orders. This collection can be dated in the 4th or 5th century CE, even if it is composed by more ancient texts...
is extant in Ge'ezGe'ez languageGe'ez is an ancient South Semitic language that developed in the northern region of Ethiopia and southern Eritrea in the Horn of Africa...
, Bohairic Coptic, Sahidic Coptic and ArabicArabic languageArabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
versions and is a collection based on the Apostolic Church-Ordinance, the Apostolic Tradition and the eighth book of the Apostolic Constitutions. It was particularly used in the ancient CopticCoptic ChristianityThe Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria is the official name for the largest Christian church in Egypt and the Middle East. The Church belongs to the Oriental Orthodox family of churches, which has been a distinct church body since the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, when it took a different...
and Ethiopian ChristianityEthiopian Orthodox Tewahedo ChurchThe Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is the predominant Oriental Orthodox Christian church in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Church was administratively part of the Coptic Orthodox Church until 1959, when it was granted its own Patriarch by Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of All...
. The Bohairic version was published in 1848 by Henry TattamHenry TattamHenry Tattam was a Church of England clergyman and Coptic scholar.-Life:Tattam was Rector of St Cuthbert's Bedford, 1822-1849, and from 1831 to 1849 also Rector of Great Woolstone, Buckinghamshire...
and the Sahidic text was published in 1883 by Paul de LagardePaul de LagardePaul Anton de Lagarde was a polymath German biblical scholar and orientalist. He also took some part in politics. He belonged to the Prussian Conservative party, and was a violent antisemite. The bitterness which he felt appeared in his writings... - the Clementine Octateuch is extant in SyriacSyriac languageSyriac is a dialect of Middle Aramaic that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent. Having first appeared as a script in the 1st century AD after being spoken as an unwritten language for five centuries, Classical Syriac became a major literary language throughout the Middle East from...
, Bohairic Coptic and ArabicArabic languageArabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
versions, and it is a collection based on the Testamentum Domini, the Apostolic Church-Ordinance, the Apostolic Tradition (included only in the Arabic version) and the eighth book of the Apostolic Constitutions. It was particularly used in the ancient Oriental OrthodoxyOriental OrthodoxyOriental Orthodoxy is the faith of those Eastern Christian Churches that recognize only three ecumenical councils — the First Council of Nicaea, the First Council of Constantinople and the First Council of Ephesus. They rejected the dogmatic definitions of the Council of Chalcedon...
and Church of the EastChurch of the EastThe Church of the East tāʾ d-Maḏnḥāʾ), also known as the Nestorian Church, is a Christian church, part of the Syriac tradition of Eastern Christianity. Originally the church of the Persian Sassanid Empire, it quickly spread widely through Asia...
.
Living Literature
To indicate the way of development of the Ancient Church Orders the term "living literature" has been proposed by M. Metzger and Paul F. BradshawPaul F. Bradshaw
Paul F. Bradshaw is Professor of Liturgy at the University of Notre Dame.A specialist in the early history of Christian liturgy, he has taught at the University of Notre Dame since 1985...
(and others) in order to note that these texts, of which only a part survived, were updated and amended generation after generation, mixing ancient parts with materials from the contemporary uses and tradition of the copyists and removing what no more in line with the current understanding. Moreover it is probable also that in many cases the copyists were not describing their current or more ancient uses, but what they considered to be the best practice, thus for example describing liturgies never performed. This kind of literature allows the scholars, after a process of evaluation, to look at the liturgies of the 3rd and 4th century, but it makes difficult to use these texts to describe more ancient liturgies.
It is possible to outline also some development patterns for the content of this literature: the more ancient texts, such as Didache, are mainly concerned about moral conduct, giving very little room to liturgy and to Church organization. Later on the interest on moral issues waned and liturgy became prominent. In the last documents, the focus moved mainly on the Church organization and to the canon law. Starting since the 5th century, the Ancient Church Orders ceased to be regarded as authoritative, in spite of their higher and higher claimed level of pseudepigraphy, and were substituted by the canons of councils
Ecumenical council
An ecumenical council is a conference of ecclesiastical dignitaries and theological experts convened to discuss and settle matters of Church doctrine and practice....
and synod
Synod
A synod historically is a council of a church, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. In modern usage, the word often refers to the governing body of a particular church, whether its members are meeting or not...
s and by sacramentaries
Sacramentary
The Sacramentary is a book of the Middle Ages containing the words spoken by the priest celebrating a Mass and other liturgies of the Church. The books were usually in fact written for bishops or other higher clegy such as abbots, and many lavishly decorated illuminated manuscript sacramentaries...
of famous bishops.