APOSTOLIC
637
APOSTOLIC
ceremonial codes. It is not improbable that his
Liturgy is even of his own creation and was never
used m just the form in which he gives it. (See
Antiochene Lrrunov.)
A .study of the sources of thi.s work sugRcsts the many needs which the compiler enileavouriMl to meet in gathering together ami amplifyinf^ these many treatises on doctrine, discipline, ami worship extant in his ilay. The extent and variety of his work may be suggested by a sununary of the contents. The first book deals with the duties of the Christian laity, particidarly in view of the dangers resulting from association with those not of the I'aith. Vanity in dre.ss, promi.scuous bathing, curiosity as to the lives and the books of the wicked arc among the tilings condemned. The second book is concerned princi- pally with the clergy. The qualifications, the pre- rogatives ami duties of bishops, priests, and deacons are set fortli in detail, and their dependence and sup- port providetl for. This book treats at length of the regulation of penitential practice, of the caution to be observed in regartl to accused and accusers, of the disputes of the faithful and the means of adjusting differences. This portion of the Apostolic Consti- tutions is of special interest, as portraying the pen- itential discipline and the hierarchical .system of the third and fourth centuries. Here are also a number of ceremonial details regarding the Christian iissembly for worship which, with the liturgj' of the eightli book, are of the greatest importance and interest. The third book treats of widows and of their office in the Church. A consideration of what they shouUl not do leads to a treatise on the duties of deacons and on baptism. The fourth book deals with chari- table works, the providing for the poor and orphans, and the spirit in which to receive and dispen.se the offerings made to the Church. The fifth book treats of those suffering persecution for the sake of Christ and of the duties of Christians towards them. This leads to a consideration of martyrdom and of idol- atry. Liturgical details as to feasts and fasts follow. The sixth book deals with the history and tioetrines of the early schisms ami heresies; and of "The Law", a treatise against Judaistic ami heathen superstition and uiu'lcanne.s.ses. The .seventh book in its first |)art is cliiefly moral, condemning vices and praLsing Ciiristiaii virtues and Christian teacliers. The second
fart is compo.sed of liturgical directions and fonnuho. he eighth book is largely liturgical. Chapters iii- xxvii treat of the conferring of all orders, and in connection with the consecration of a bishop is given in chapters v-xv the .so-called Clementine Liturgy, the most ancient extant complete order of the rites of Holy M.-Lss. Chapters xxviii-xlvi contain a col- lection of miscellaneous canons, moral and liturgical, attributed to the various Apostles, while chapter xlvii consists of the eighty-five Apostolic Canons".
The strikingly characteristic style of the many in- terpolations in the Apostolic Constitutions makes it evident that the compilation, including the "Apos- tolic Canons", is the work of one individual. Who this Pseudo-Clement was cannot be conjectured; but it is now generally admitted that he is one with the interpolator of the Ignatian Epistles. As early as the middle of the .seventeenth century, Archbi.shop r.ssher, recognizing the .similarity of the theological thoiiglit, the peculiar use of Scripture, and the strongly marked hterary characteristics in the .\postolic Constitutions and in both the interpolations of the seven epistles of Ignatius and the six spurioiis epistles attributed to the Bishop of Antioch, suggested the identification of the Pseudo-Clement with the P.seudo- Igiiatius, a view which has won general acceptance, yet not without some hesitancy which may not be dispelled imtil the problem of the sources of the eiglith book is .solved. Efforts tending to a further identification of the author of this extensive and
truly remarkable literature of interpolations have not
been succes.sful. That he was a cleric may be taken
for granteil, and a cleric not favourably disposed to
ascetical practices. That he was not rigidly ortho-
do.x — for he u.ses the language of Subordinationism —
is also evitlent; yet he was not an extreme Arian.
But whether he was an .Vpollinarian , as Dr. Funk
would infer from his insistence in denying the human
soul of Our Lord, or a Semi-.\rian, or even a well-
meaning Nica?an whose language reflects the unsettled
views held by not a few of his misguided contem-
poraries, cannot be determined. For, whatever his
theological views were, he does not seem to be a
partisan or the champion of any sect: nor h.as he
any disciplinary hobby which he would foist on his
brethren in the name of .\postolic authority. Syria
would appear to be the place of origin of this work,
and the mterest of the compiler in men and things
of Antioch would point to that city as the centre of
his activities. His interest in the Ignatian Epistles,
his citation of the Syro-.\Iacedonian calendar, his use
of the so-called Council of .Antioch as one of the
chief sources of the "Apostolic Canons", and his
construction of a liturgy on Antiochene lines confirm
the theory of Syrian origin. Its date is Ukewi.se dif-
ficult to determine with accuracy. The earliest ter-
minus a quo would be the Council of Antioch in 311.
But the reference to (.'hristm.is in the catalogue of
fe.ists (V, V.i; VIII, 33) seems to postulate a date
later than 37G, wlien St. Epiphanius, who knew the
Dida.scalia, in the enumeration of fea-sts found in his
work against heresies makes no mention of the De-
cember feast, which in fact was not celebrated in
Syria until about 378. If the compiler was of Arian
tendencies he could not have written much later than
the death of Valens (378). The absence of refer-
ences to either the Nestorian or the Monophysite
heresies precludes the possibility of a date later than
the early fifth century. The most probable opinion
dates the compilation about the year 380, without
excluding the possibility of a date two decades earlier
or later. (See C.vnon L.vw; Antiochene Liturgy;
Clement of Rome; Cano.ns, Ai>ostolic.)
Von Funk, Die apostotischcn Conalitutionen (RottenburR, 1891): Id., Daa Teatamml des Jltrm und dir venvimtlUn .Schriflen (Mainz, 1901); Id., in Theolog. Quartaltchrill (189:tl, 594-fiCG, in Ilutoritchet Jahrburh (1895). l-3(i. 473-SOU. in Revue d'histoire eccltsumtique (Louvain), Oct., 1901; AcHKLls, Die Canones Ilippolyti, in Teste urtd Unlerauehuni/fn (Leipzig,!891), VI, iv. J40 «iq.: Lagardk, Constitutioiug Apostulicce (Leipzig, 1S62): Pitra, Juria eccleaiaiticiOrtrcorum Hisloria el MonumenUt (Home. 18(')4), i. 46 sqq.: HI son • The Cotelier-Clericus ed. (Amsterdam. 1724) i.s reprinted in P. G.. I, 509-1150. An EnRli.sli translation is given in Anle- Nieene Library (Edinburgli, 1870), XVII, (American ed. New York, 1899), VU, 385-508. OLeary, The Apatlotic Con- atilutiona and ComiUe Documents (Ix)ndon, 1900); Uright- MAN, Liturffies, haetem and WeMem (Oxford, 1896), I, xvii- xlvii: KlF.DF.i., Die Kirchenrcchtsquetlen des Patriarchats Ater- andrirn (Leipzig, 1900); Bardkniiewer, Patrologie, (2d ed. Freiburg, 1901), .307-14.— Koiii.er. in The Jewish Enci/- ctopedifi, s. V. Didaskalia aiui Didache. — See also the bib- liography appended to articles on the cognate documents above referred to, as nearly all the literature concerning them enters into the problems of their relationship with the Apos- tolic CoNsxrrrTioNH.
John B. Peterson.
Apostolic Delegate. See Legate.
Apostolic Fathers, The. — Christian \\Titers of the first ami second centuries who are known, or are con- sidered, to have had personal relations with some of the Apostles, or to have been so influenced by them that their writings may be held as echoes of genuine Apostolic teaching. Though restricted by some to those who were actually disciples of the .-Apostles, the term applies by exten.sion to certain writers who were previously liclieved to have been such, and virtually embraces all the remains of primitive Chris- tian literature antedating the great apologies of the second centurj', and forming the link of tradition that bimis the.se latter writings to tho.se of the Xew Testament. The name was apparently unknown
