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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	canon_n	church_n	council_n	2,659	5	6.8416	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32074	A discourse concerning the rise and antiquity of cathedral worship in a letter to a friend.	Calamy, Benjamin, 1642-1686.	1699 (1699)	Wing C269; ESTC R22097	30,908	35

Rise of that way of Worship which our Cathedralists so much extol and in comparison whereof they reckon the Worship of those who statedly wait on God like honest Christians in their Parish Churches to be poor mean and beggarly I 'll omit no material Circumstances I have met with in the narrow compass of my Reading which may either seem to make for their Cause or help to afford any Light and make a few Reflections as I go along that I mayn't seem heavy flat and tedious After all the stir that hath bin made the first certain hint that can be fix'd on in Ecclesiastical Antiquity of Cathedral Chanting is in the Church of Antioch during the Administration of Leontius who was advanc'd to that See A. C. 347. and continued in it till the Year 356. in which interval of time Flavianus who was afterwards himself advanc'd to this See and Diodorus afterwards Bishop of Tarsus divided the Quire into two Parts and made them sing the Psalms of David alternately which Custom saith Theodoret began first at Antioch and thence spread it self to other places and reach'd even to the ends of the World Leontius the Bishop was an Arian and subtilly undermin'd the Nicene Faith of which Flavianus and Diodorus set up for zealous Defenders They were both engag'd in a Monastick Life and in great repute for Piety and therefore altho as the Historian observes they were as yet mere Laymen and not in Orders yet they had a great many Followers and their way of Antiphonal Singing which they set up in separate Assemblies was generally so taking that they drew all the People from Leontius their Bishop who thereupon desir'd them to bring their new fashion Service into the Church So that this so much admir'd Service was first set on foot in order ☞ to the enticing People from the Arians to please the Mob and keep them from running after those by whom they 'd be seduc'd But for my part I must declare I am rather for leaving those Arts and Shifts to persons of Sectarian Principles Let Truth make its own way I can't apprehend it any great Service to it to gain it Proselytes by any such enticing Methods And I very much question whether those who are attracted merely by the pompousness of Worship are like to prove any great Credit to the party they fall in with However thus stands Fact At Antioch where Persons were first call'd Christians were Christians first taught to turn the Church into a Stage There was that way of Singing first introduc'd which hath turn'd the Worship of God into an artificial contrivance and which should it universally prevail would transform Religion into mere Mechanism Of this Flavianus was the great occasion A Man who stands branded in Ecclesiastick History for the breach of a most solemn Oath whereby for the preventing a perpetual Schism in the Church of Antioch he and five more stood bound not to covet the Bishoprick of that See and not to accept it altho elected while Paulinus and Meletius were alive Notwithstanding which Oath he after the Death of Meletius in opposition to Paulinus who yet surviv'd readily accepted the Bishoprick when 't was offer'd him for which notorious Perjury he was deservedly detested by all the Western Bishops I know 't is pleaded on his behalf that he herein acted with the Advice and Approbation of a Synod of the Bishops of the East who unanimously elected him when they were met together in Council at Constantinople But that only proves that those who possest the chief Dignities of the Church began betimes to act more out of Interest than a Principle of Conscience of which there are alas but too many instances but proves not the lawfulness of the Fact Our Cathedralists have no great Cause to be proud of their Founder who in so scandalous a manner mounted the Episcopal Throne However tho he was loose in his Morals yet he was very fond of Ceremonials an unhappy Conjunction too oft to be met with in every Age He seems to have reckon'd his Anthems a sort of Magical Charms proper to appease both God and Man We meet with a remarkable instance of his reliance upon their Virtue when he was sent as a publick Agent to the Emperor Theodosius The Case was this The City of Antioch had by a popular Sedition incurr'd the Emperor's Displeasure and was afraid of the consequences Whereupon Flavianus was by common Consent deputed as their Mediator with him to pacify his Anger and implore their Pardon He undertakes the Business and thinking nothing could be more softning than his belov'd Church-Musick ordered the usual Service to be sung before the Emperor at his Table and for once makes a Quire of the Imperial Dining-room The Design succeeded the Emperor took Pity he wept most tenderly and the City was receiv'd into Favour Behold here an instance of the charming Power of the Cathedral Service How could the Antiochians forbear having a mighty Esteem and Reverence for their late Invention which they found had such a melting Virtue How easily were they perswaded that it was likely to be as moving to God as they found it had bin to Man What wonder then that this City was so fond of Alternate Singing No where do we hear so much of it as there In the days of the Emperor Julian they convey'd the Corps of St. Babylas the Martyr from Daphne where the Daemon could not bear his Neighbourhood and carri'd it through their City in Triumph singing all the way they went with great Joy after the manner of the Quire the whole Company joining in this response at every Period Confounded be all they that worship Graven Images The same sort of Reception they gave also in the Reign of Theodosius to the Corps of their Bishop Meletius which was deposited near that of St. Babylas And many other ways did they show their fondness of it The prevalence of Antiphonal Singing in such a City as Antioch which was the Metropolis of Syria a place of great resort and of a mighty Influence much further'd its spreading in other Parts Between the year of Christ 360 and 370 there was a Council held in the City of Laodicea upon what Occasion is not now certainly known Among other things 't was then determin'd that there should be Canonical Singers and that they should sing out of Written Books and that none else should sing in the Church Who had the framing of these Canons and what Bishops met in this Council I cannot find out but meet with this Reason assign'd by Baronius for this particular Canon about Singers because saith he when the People and Clergy sang promiscuously through the unskilfulness of the Singers it oft fell out that by the disorderly sound of Voices the diversity marr'd that harmonious Singing which was congruous to the Churches Dignity therefore it was prohibited the People in the Church and ordered that none should sing but

those unto whom this Work was assign'd Zonaras also intimates as much telling us that these Canonical Singers were reckon'd a part of the Clergy But Balsamon who in Dr. Cave's Judgment was the best skill'd in the Ecclesiastical Canons of any that ever Greece produc'd tells us in his Scholia that before the Laodicean Council the Laity would many times in contempt of the Clergy begin such Hymns and Songs in the Church as were crude and unusual to obviate which practice it was ordered in that Canon that none should begin to sing but those that were appointed and whose Office it was Not but that the Laity might follow them and sing with them in the whole Service which he declares was not intended to be thereby prohibited So that the true meaning of this celebrated Canon is no more than this that the Clerks in all the Churches should read the Psalms out of a Psalm Book and none else should presume to begin a Hymn or set a Tune but they Whence it appears to me a better Evidence of the Antiquity of Parish Clerks than of the extent of the Cathedral Service on the behalf whereof 't is commonly produc'd But whatever becomes of the Laodicean Canon great boasts are made of the Patronage of three most celebrated Names viz. St. Basil St. Ambrose and St. Chrysostom who were all fond of the Quire recommended spread and diffus'd the new Mode of Service wheresoever they had an influence and handed it down to Posterity with Encomiums Be it so must we therefore presently be frighten'd out of our Wits Are they too eminent to have their Sentiments canvass'd and their Actions scann'd Is a thing therefore true because they said it therefore good and laudable because they did it For my part I think I have them in a just Veneration and yet cannot reach such a pitch of Complaisance I can't be content to part with my own Eyes for the use of other Mens were they ever so eminent great or good I find the best have so many failures that I can't satisfy my self to follow any blindfold for fear they should lead me into a Ditch None that are at all vers'd in Antiquity can be ignorant that towards the latter end of the 4th Century and the beginning of the fifth through the ignorance of some the negligence of others the haughtiness and stiffness of others and a spreading love of Pomp and Magnificence a variety of Corruptions crept into the Church which in process of time rose to a far greater height than could have bin at first imagin'd by those who had the greatest hand in introducing them Witness the undue admiration of Celibacy the fondness of Reliques and Pilgrimages the Invocation of Saints the setting up Images in Churches the overgreat Veneration of the Cross and Prayers for the Dead ☜ which about this time had their rise Why mayn't the Service of the Quire which gain'd so much about this time be of this number when how honest and laudable soever were the intentions of its first Patrons and Abettors it came by degrees to be so manag'd as to render the Divine Worship perfectly ridiculous and would if it universally prevail'd bid fair for the justling real Worship out of the World However I can't pass by the three Persons mention'd without a few Remarks As for St. Basil he had part of his Education at Antioch he was there made Deacon by Meletius was a continual Spectator of the pompous Worship of the Quire which was there so much in vogue he was us'd to it and it suted his Genius and thereupon he resolv'd to spread it At the same time being himself a great Ascetick mighty fond of Retirement and full of Zeal he set up for a Patron of the Monastick Life for which he was the first who fixt Laws and Constitutions to be propagated to Posterity but they must have much worse thoughts of so great a Man than I can give way to who imagine he would have bin fond either of one or t'other could he have foreseen the Damage they 'd have done to real Religion in after-times 'T is however observable that he was reckon'd an Innovator and charg'd as an introducer of Novelties in setting up Monachism and being so fond of the new way of Psalmody and so industrious in spreading it He was even then forc'd to apologize for himself And his Apology in an Epistle to the Neocaesarean Clergy still extant was indeed like the Man very warm and vehement As for his forming Men into a Monastick Life he declares he was so far from reckoning it a fault that he thought it to be his Glory and the great Business of his Life and he fetches Precedents out of Egypt and Palaestine And as for the new way of Psalmody at which they were offended he declares 't was now become a common practice in the Christian Church the People rising before day and going to Church where having made their Confessions and Prayers they proceeded to the Singing of Psalms in which Holy Exercise the Quire being divided into two Parts mutually answer'd one another the Praecentor beginning and the rest following after And tells them that if this were a fault they must blame many pious and good Men in Egypt and Libya and Thebais in Palaestine Arabia Phaenicia and Syria and many other places They objected against him that 't was not thus in the time of their Bishop Gregory Thaumaturgus for whom they had a great Veneration He answers that neither were the Litanies then us'd known in his time But that methinks is no Argument but that both that sort of Psalmody and the Litanies too might be novel Inventions Withal he accuses them of not following their admir'd Gregory in other things and therefore charges them with straining at a Gnat while they swallow'd a Camel in that they in the mean time made such a noise about his Psalmody But how could their being guilty of other faults make them incapable of being in the right in their opposing the Service of the Quire as a Novelty Nay rather his inability to produce Evidence of the Antiquity of that which they oppos'd as an Innovation which appears from his not having done it shows that they were herein in the right and his diverting thence to other things looks very like his seeking for a subterfuge After all St. Basil was a great Man and yet 't is well known that tho he made so strict a profession of Humility and had spent so much time in learning Mortification he was as little able to bear a Contradiction as his Neighbours From him I pass to St. Ambrose who was on a sudden translated from the Civil Tribunal to the Episcopal Throne and who was the first that brought the Antiphonal way of Singing into the Western Parts as is expresly asserted by St. Austin Isidore Hispalensis and sundry others He was a considerable Man in his time but abundantly more so on the account of his