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APOSTOLICAL CONSTITUTIONS (OLaraya% o...

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 201 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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APOSTOLICAL CONSTITUTIONS (OLaraya% or OLaT6. e s Tiiv a'ylWV ?uroorOXWV &Q, KAijiEVTOS TOU 'PWlbatWV E7rorKU7rov TE Kal 7roXtrov. KaOoXLK17 &L aaKakia) , a collection of ecclesiastical regulations in eight books, the last of which concludes with the eighty-five Canons of the See also:Holy Apostles. By their See also:title the Constitutions profess to have been See also:drawn up by the apostles, and to have been transmitted to the See also:Church by See also:Clement of See also:Rome; sometimes the alleged authors are represented as speaking jointly, sometimes singly. From the first they have been very variously estimated; the Canons, as a See also:rule, more highly than the See also:rest of the See also:work. For example, the Trullan See also:Council of See also:Constantinople (quini-sextum), A.D. 692, accepts the Canons as genuine by its second See also:canon, but rejects the Constitutions on the ground that See also:spurious See also:matter had been introduced into them by heretics; and whilst the former were henceforward used freely in the See also:East, only a few portions of the latter found their way into the See also:Greek and See also:oriental See also:law-books. Again, See also:Dionysius Exiguus (c. A.D. 500) translated fifty of the Canons into Latin,' although under the title Canones qui dicuntur Apostolorum, and thus they passed into other Western collections; whilst the Constitutions as a whole remained unknown in the See also:West until they were published in 1563 by the Jesuit Turrianus. At first received with See also:enthusiasm, their authenticity soon came to be impugned; and their true significance was largely lost sight of as it began to be realized that they were not what they claimed to be. Vain attempts were still made to rehabilitate them, and they were, in See also:general, more highly estimated in See also:England than elsewhere. The most extravagant estimate of all was that of See also:Whiston, who calls them " the most sacred See also:standard of See also:Christianity, equal in authority to the Gospels themselves, and See also:superior in authority to the epistles of single apostles, some parts of them being our Saviour's own See also:original See also:laws delivered to the apostles, and the other parts the public acts of the apostles " (See also:Historical See also:preface to See also:Primitive Christianity Revived, pp.

85-86). Others, however, realized their composite See also:

character from the first, and by degrees some of the component documents became known. See also:Bishop See also:Pearson was able to say that " the eight books of the Apostolic Constitutions have been after See also:Epiphanius's See also:time compiled and patched together out of the didascaliae or doctrines which went under the names of the holy apostles and their disciples or successors " (Vind. Ign. i. cap. 5) ; whilst a greater See also:scholar still, See also:Archbishop See also:Usher, had already gone much further, and concluded, See also:forestalling the results of See also:modern See also:critical methods, that their compiler was none other than the compiler of the spurious Ignatian epistles (Epp. Polyc. et Ign. p. lxiii. f., Oxon. 1644). The Apostolical Constitutions, then, are spurious, and they are one of a See also:long See also:series of documents of like character. But we have not really gauged their significance by saying that they are spurious. They are the last See also:stage and See also:climax of a See also:gradual See also:process of compilation and See also:crystallization, so to speak, of unwritten church See also:custom; and a See also:short See also:account of this process will show their real importance and value. ' Why he did not go on to give the remaining See also:thirty-five is not clear; they belong to the same date as, and are not inferior to, the first fifty. These documents are the outcome of a tendency which is found in every society, religious or See also:secular, at some point in its See also:history.

The society begins by living in accordance with its fundamental principles. By degrees these Origin and real translate themselves into appropriate See also:

action. Diffi- nature. culties are faced and solved as they arise; and when similar circumstances recur they will tend to be met in the same way. Thus there grows up by degrees a See also:body of what may be called customary law. Plainly, there is no particular point of time at which this customary law can be said to have begun. To all See also:appearance it is there from the first in See also:solution and gradually crystallizes out; and yet it is being continually modified as time goes on. Moreover, the time comes when the See also:attempt is made, either by private individuals or by the. society itself, to put this " customary law " into See also:writing. Now when this is done, two tendencies will at mice show themselves. (a) This " customary law " will at once become more definite:, the very fact of putting it into writing will involve an effort after logical completeness. There will be a tendency on the See also:part of the writer to fill up gaps; to See also:state See also:local customs as if they obtained universally; to introduce his See also:personal See also:equation, and to add to that which is the custom that which, in his See also:opinion, ought to be. (b) There will be a strong tendency to fortify that which has been written with See also:great names, especially in days when there is no very clear notion of See also:literary See also:property. This is done, not always with any deliberate consciousness of See also:fraud (although it must be clearly recognized that truth is not one of the " natural virtues," and that the sense of the obligations of truthfulness was far from strong), but rather to emphasize the importance of what was written, and the fact that it was no new invention of the writer's.

In a non-literary See also:

age fame gathers about great names; and that which, ex hypothesi, has gone on since the beginning of things is naturally attributed to the founders of the society. Then come interpolations to make this ascription more probable, and the prefixing of a title, then or subsequently, which states it as a fact. This is precisely the way in which the Apostolical Constitutions and other kindred documents have come into being. They are attempts, made in various places and at different times, to put into writing the See also:order and discipline and character of the Church; in part for private instruction and edification, but in part also with a view to actual use; frequently even with an actual reference to particular circumstances. In this lies their importance, to a degree which is only just being adequately realized. They contain See also:evidence of the utmost value as to the order of the Church in See also:early days; evidence, however, which needs to be sifted with the greatest care, since the personal preferences of the writer and the customs of the local church to which he belongs are continually mixed up with things which have a wider prevalence. It is only by careful investigation, by the method of comparisons, that these elements can be disentangled; but as the number of documents of this class known to us is continually increasing, their value increases even more than proportionately. And whilst their local and fugitive character must be fully recognized and allowed for, is it unjustifiable to set them aside or leave them out of account as heretical, and therefore negligible. It will be sufficient here to mention shortly the See also:chief collections of this See also:kind which came into existence during the first four centuries; generally as the work of private individuals, Other See also:cob and having, at any See also:rate, no more than a local authority /actions. of some kind. (a) The earliest known to us is the See also:Didache or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, itself compiled from earlier materials, and dating from about 120 (see DIDACHE). (b) The Apostolic Church Order (apostolische Kirchenordnung of See also:German writers); Ecclesiastical Canons of the Holy Apostles of one MS.; Sententiae Apostolorum of Pitra: of about 300, and emanating probably from See also:Asia See also:Minor.

Its earlier part, cc. 1-14, depends upon the Didache, and the rest of it is a See also:

book of discipline in which See also:Harnack has attempted to distinguish two older fragments of church law (Texte it. Unters. ii. 5). (c) The so-called Canones Hippolyti, probably Alexandrian or See also:Roman, and of the first See also:half of the 3rd See also:century. It will be observed that these make no claim to apostolic authorship; but otherwise their origin is like that of the rest, unless indeed, as has been suggested, they represent the work of an actual Roman See also:synod. (d) The so-called See also:Egyptian Church Order, in Coptic from a Greek pre-Nicene original (c. 31o). It is part of the Egyptian Heptateuch and contains neither communion nor ordination forms. (e) The Ethiopic Church Order, perhaps twenty years later than (d), and forming part of the Ethiopic Statutes. (f) The See also:Verona Latin Fragments, discovered and published by Hauler, portions of a See also:form akin to (e), which may be dated c. 340, though possibly earlier.

It has a preface which refers to a See also:

treatise Concerning Spiritual Gifts as having immediately preceded it. (g) The recently discovered Testament of the See also:Lord, which is somewhat later in date (c. 350), and likewise depends upon the Canones Hippolyti. (h) The so-called Canons of See also:Basil. This is an Arabic work perhaps based on a Coptic and ultimately on a Greek original, embodying with modifications large portions of the Canons of See also:Hippolytus. (On the relations between the six last- named, see HIPPOLYTUS, CANONS OF.) Here also may be noticed the Didascalia Apostolorum, originally written in Greek, but known through a See also:Syriac version and, a fragmentary Latin one published by Hauler. It is of the See also:middle of the 3rd century—in fact, a passage in the Latin See also:translation seems to give us the date A.D. 254. It emanates from See also:Palestine or See also:Syria, and is See also:independent of the documents already mentioned; and upon it the Constitutions themselves very largely depend. It is a mixture of moral and ecclesiastical instruction. The Sacramentary of See also:Serapion (c. 350), The See also:Pilgrimage of Etheria (Silvia) (c.

385), and The Catechetical Lectures of See also:

Cyril of See also:Jerusalem (348) are also of value in this connexion. In the (so-called) Constitutions through Hippolytus we have possibly a preliminary draft of the famous 8th book of the Apostolical Constitutions.' The Constitutions themselves fall into three See also:main divisions. (i.) The first of these consists of books i.-vi., and throughout runs parallel to the Didascalia. Bickell, indeed, held that this latter was an abbreviated form of books i.-vi.; but it is now agreed on all hands that the Constitutions are based on the Didascalia and not See also:vice versa. (ii.) Then follows book vii., the first thirty-one chapters of which are an See also:adaptation of the Didache, whilst the rest contain various liturgical forms of which the origin is still uncertain, though it has been acutely suggested by Achelis, and with great See also:probability, that they originated in the schismatical See also:congregation of See also:Lucian at See also:Antioch. (iii.) Book viii. is more composite, and falls into three parts. The first two chapters, IEpi xapio-µarwv, may be based upon a lost work of St Hippolytus, otherwise known only by a reference to it in the preface of the Verona Latin Fragments; and an examination shows that this is highly probable. The next See also:section, cc. 3-27, wept Xs porovi&v, and cc. 28-46, See also:rep?. Kavbvwv, is twofold, and is evidently that upon which the writer sets most See also:store. The apostles no longer speak jointly, but one by one in an apostolic council, and the section closes with a See also:joint See also:decree of them all.

They speak of the ordination of bishops (the so-called Clementine See also:

Liturgy is that which is directed to be used at the See also:consecration of a bishop, cc. 5-15), of presbyters, deacons, deaconesses, sub-deacons and lectors, and then pass on to confessors, virgins, widows and exorcists; after which follows a series of canons on various subjects, and liturgical formulae. With regard to this section, all that can be said is that it includes materials which are also to be found elsewhere—in the Egyptian Church Order and other documents already spoken of—and that the precise relation between them is at See also:present not determined. The third section consists of the Apostolic Canons already referred to, the last and most significant of which places the Constitutions and the two epistles of Clement in the canon of Scripture, and omits the See also:Apocalypse. They are derived in part from the preceding Constitutions, in part from the canons of the See also:councils of Antioch, 341, See also:Nicaea, 325, and possibly Laodicaea, 363. At a later date various collections were made of the documents above mentioned, or some of them, to serve as law-books in different churches—e.g. the Syrian Octateuch, the Egyptian Heptateuch, and the Ethiopic Sinodos. These, however, stand on an entirely different footing, since they are simply collections of existing documents, and no attempt is made to claim apostolic authorship for them. A comparison of the Constitutions with the material upon which they are based will illustrate the compiler's method. (a) To begin with the Didascalia already mentioned. It is unmethodical and badly digested, homiletical in See also:style, and abounding in biblical quotations. There is no precise arrangement; but the subjects, following a general introduction, are the bishop and his duties, See also:penance, the See also:administration of the offerings, the See also:settlement of disputes, the divine service, the order of widows, deacons and deaconesses, the poor, behaviour in persecution, and so forth. The compiler of the Constitutions finds here material after his own See also:heart.

He is even more discursive and more homiletical in style; he adds fresh citations of the Scriptures, and additional explanations and moral reflexions; and all this with so little See also:

judgment that he often leaves confusion worse confounded (e.g. in ii. 57, where, upon a symbolical description of the Church as a sheepfold, he has superimposed the further symbolism of a See also:ship). (b) Passing on to books vii. and viii., we observe that the compiler's method of See also:necessity changes with his new material. In the former book he still makes large additions and alterations, but there is less See also:scope for his prolixity than before; and in the latter, where he is no longer dealing with generalities, but making actual See also:definitions, the Constitutions of necessity become more precise and statutory in form. Throughout he adopts and adapts the See also:language of his See also:sources as far as possible, " only pruning in the most pressing cases," but towards the end he cannot avoid making larger alterations from time to time. And his alterations throughout are not made aimlessly. Where he finds things which would obviously clash with the customs of his own See also:day, he unhesitatingly modifies them. An account of the See also:Passion, with a curiously perverted See also:chronology, the See also:object of which was to justify the length of the Passion-See also:tide fast, is entirely revised for this See also:reason (v. 14); the direction to observe See also:Easter according to the Jewish computation is changed into the exact contrary for the same reason (v. 17) ; and where his archetype lapses into speaking of a See also:lull in persecution he naively informs us that the See also:Romans have now given up persecuting and have adopted Christianity (vi. 26), forgetting altogether that he is speaking in the character of the apostles. Above'all, he both magnifies the See also:office of the See also:Christian ininistry as a whole and alters what is said of it in detail (for example, the See also:deaconess loses See also:rank not a little), to make it agree with the circumstances of his day in general, and with his own ideas of fitness in particular.

It is here that his evidence is at once most valuable and needs to be used with the greatest care. To give one striking example of the value of these documents. The Canones Hippolyti (vi. 43) provide that one who has been a See also:

confessor for the faith may be received as a See also:presbyter by virtue of his confessorship and not by the laying on of the bishop's hands; but if he be chosen a bishop, he is to be ordained. This See also:provision passes on into the Egyptian Ecclesiastical Canons and other kindred documents, and even into the Testamentum Domini. But the corresponding passage in the Apostolical Constitutions (viii. 23) entirely reverses it: " A confessor is not ordained, for he is so by choice and See also:patience, and is worthy of great See also:honour. . . . But if there be occasion, he is to be' ordained either a bishop, See also:priest, or See also:deacon. But if any one of the confessors who is not ordained snatches to himself any such dignity upon account of his See also:confession, let the same See also:person be deprived and rejected; for he is not in such an office, since he has denied the constitution of See also:Christ, and is worse than an infidel." Who, then, is the author of the Constitutions, and what See also:cats be inferred with regard to him? (i.) By separating off the sources which he used from his own additions to them, it at Author. once becomes clear that the latter are the work of one ship, See also:man: the style is unmistakable, and the method of See also:place working is the same throughout. The compiler of and date. books i.-vi. is also the compiler of books vii., viii.

(ii.) As to his theological nosition, different views have been held. Funk suggests Apollinarianism, which is the retuge of the destitute; and Achelis inclines in the same direction. But the See also:

affinities of the author are quite otherwise, the most pronounced of them being a strong subordinationist tendency, denial of a human Contents. soul to Christ, and the like, which suggest not indeed Arianism but an inclination towards Arianism. Above all, his polemic is directed against the dying heresies of the 3rd century; and he writes with an See also:absence of constraint which is not the language of one who lives amidst violent controversies or who is conscious of being in a minority. All this points to the position of a " conservative " or semi-Arian of the East, one who belongs, perhaps, to the circle of Lucian of Antioch and writes before the time of See also:Julian. It is hard to think of any other time or circumstances in which a man could write like this. (iii.) The indications of time have been held to point to a different conclusion. On the one See also:hand, the fact that the attempt to rebuild the See also:temple by Julian in 363 is not mentioned in vi. 24 points to an earlier date; and the fact that the Ko7naraa are not mentioned amongst the church See also:officers points in the same direction, for elsewhere they are first mentioned in a rescript of See also:Constantius in A.D. 357. On the other hand, in the See also:cycle of feasts occur the names of several which are probably of later date—e.g.

See also:

Christmas and St See also:Stephen, which were introduced at Antioch c. A.D. 378 and 379 respectively. Again, Epiphanius (c. A.D. 374) appears to be unacquainted with it; he still quotes from the Didascalia, and elaborately explains it away where it is contrary to the usages of his own day. But as regards the former pcint, it is possible that the Apostolical Constitutions constantly gave rise to these festivals; or, on the other hand, that the two passages were subsequently introduced either by the writer himself or by some other hand, when the last book of the Constitutions was being used as a law-book. And as regards the latter, the fact that Epiphanius does not use the Constitutions is no See also:proof that they had not yet been compiled. (iv.) As to the region of See also:composition there is no real doubt. It was clearly the East, Syria or Palestine. Many indications are against the latter, and Syria is strongly suggested by the use of the Syro-Macedonian See also:calendar. Moreover, the writer represents the Roman Clement as the channel of communication between the apostles and the Church.

This fact both supplies him with the name by which he is commonly known, Pseudo-Clement, and also furnishes corroboration of his Syrian See also:

birth; since the other spurious writings bearing the name of Clement, the Homilies and Recognitions, are likewise of Syrian origin. Moreover, the spurious Ignatian epistles, which are also Syrian, depend throughout upon the Constitutions. (v.) But this is not all. It was long ago noticed that Pseudo-Clement bears a very See also:close resemblance to Pseudo-See also:Ignatius, the interpolator of the Ignatian Epistles in the longer Greek recension. Usher, as we have seen, identified them, and modern See also:criticism accepts this See also:identification as a fact (See also:Lagarde, Harnack, Funk, Brightman). See also:Lightfoot, indeed, still hesitated (Ap. Fathers, 11. i. 266 n.) on the ground that Pseudo-Ignatius occasion-ally misunderstands the Constitutions, that the two writings give the Roman See also:succession differently, and that Pseudo-Clement shows no knowledge of the Christological controversies of Nicaea. But as regards the first of these, it is rather a See also:case of condensed See also:citation than of misinterpretation; the second is explained by the writer's carelessness as shown in other passages, and all are solved if a considerable See also:interval of time elapsed between the compilation of the Constitutions and the spurious Ignatian epistles. It seems clear then that the compiler was a Syrian, and that he also wrote the spurious Ignatian epistles; he was likewise probably a semi-Arian of the school of Lucian of Antioch. His date is given by Harnack as A.D. 340—360, with a leaning to 340-343; by Lightfoot as the latter half of the 4th century; by Brightman, 370—380; by Maclean, 375; and by Funk as the beginning of the 5th century.

End of Article: APOSTOLICAL CONSTITUTIONS (OLaraya% or OLaT6. e s Tiiv a'ylWV ?uroorOXWV &Q, KAijiEVTOS TOU 'PWlbatWV E7rorKU7rov TE Kal 7roXtrov. KaOoXLK17 &L aaKakia)

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