CONGREGATIONAL
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CONGREGATIONAL
approval of the clerical "association" to which he
must belong. To be acknowledged as Congregational-
ist, a new community must be received into fellowship
by the churches of its tlistrict. Should a church
fall into serious error, or tolerate and uphold notor-
ious scandals, the other churches may withdraw their
fellowship, and it ceases to be recognized as Con-
grcgationalist. If a minister is found guilty of
t;rn,ss heresy or evil life, a council summoned to
examine his case may, if necessary, withdraw from
him the fellowship of the churches. The statements
iif Henry M. Dexter, D. D., the historian of his
sert ("American Encyclop.Tdia",s. v. "Congregation-
alism "), prove that there is a marked contrast between
( cmgregational theorj' and practice. The Congrega-
tionalists have been verj' active in home and foreign
mission work and possess eight theological seminaries,
in the United States, viz. Andover, Massachusetts;
Atlanta, Georgia; Bangor, Maine; New Haven and
Hartford, Connecticut; Oberlin, Ohio; Chicago, Illi-
nois; and the Pacific, Berkeley, California. Since
IsTl national councils, composed of delegates from
all the States of the Union, are convened every third
year. "The Congregational Handbook for 1907"
uivps the following statistics of the denomination in
America; Churches 5931 ; ministers 5933; members
'iiis,736. Included in this count are Cuba with 6 min-
isters and 636 members and Porto Rico with 3 minis-
ters and 50 members. In England and Wales the
statistics for 1907 were: sittings 1,801,447; communi-
eants 498.953; ministers 3197; local preachers 5603.
The efforts made in recent years to find a basis for
some kind of corporate union between the Congrega-
tionalists, the Methodist Protestants, and the United
Hrethren in Christ have not been successful.
Walker. .4 History of the Contjregationat Churches in the r-nird Stairs (New York, 1894); Idem, The Creeds and Plat- jornui of Connreqntionalism (ibid., 1893); Dexter, The Congre- oalionalism nf the Inst .300 ymrs, as seen in its Literature (ibid., ISSO). Each of these works contains a good bibhography. J. F. LoUGHLIN.
Congregational Singing. — In his Instruction on sacred music, commonly referred to as the Motu Pro- prio (22 Nov., 1903), Pius X says (no. 3): "Special ef- forts are to be made to restore the use of Gregorian chant by the people, so that the faithful may again take a more active part in ecclesiastical offices, as was the case in ancient times". These words suggest a brief treatment of congregational singing with respect to (a) its ancient use, (b) its formal prohibition and gradual decay, (c) its present-day revival, (d) the character which that revival may assume.
(a) The first testimony is foimd in the Epistle of St. Paul to the Ephesians (v, 19): "Speaking to your- selves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord ". Cardinal Bona finds in these words a witness to the fact that "from the very beginnings of the Church, psalms and hymns were sung in the assembly of the faithful", and understands them to refer to an alternated chant {mutuo et altirno cantu). McEvilly in his "Commentary" applies them to public and private meetings. St. Augustine (Ep. cxi.x, ch. xviii) says: "As to the singing of psalms and hymns, we have the proofs, the examples, and the instructions of the Lord Himself, and of the Apostles". (Cf. also Col., iii, 16; I Cor., xiv, 26.) In the ancient congrega- tional singing both sexes took part; the words of St. Paul imposing silence on women in church being in- terpreted to refer only to exhorting or instructing. Duchesne describes how the earliest worship of the Christians was parallel to that, not of the Temple of the Jews at Jerusalem, but of the local synagogues, the Christians borrowing thence their four elements of Divine service — the lections, the chants (of the Psalter), the homilies, and the [)rayers. In treating of the Syrian Liturgy of the fourth century, he makes up a composite picture from the 23rd catechetical dis- IV.— 16
course of St. Cyril of Jerusalem (about the year 347),
the Apostolic Constitutions (II, 57; VIII, 5-15), and
the homilies of St. John Chrysostom, and describes the
Divine service (Christian Worship: Its Origin and
Evolution, London, 1903, pp. 57-64), and inciden-
tally shows the part the congregation took in the
singing.
(b) A council held at Laodicea in the fourth century decreed (can. xv), that "besides the appointed singers who mount the arabo and sing from the book, others shall not sing in the Church". Cardinal Bona (Re- rum Liturg., Bk. I, ch. xxv, sect. 19) explains that this canon was issued because the unskillful singing of the people interfered with the decorous performance of the chant. The decree was not accepted everywhere, as Bona shows. With respect to France, he also re- marks that the custom of popular (congregational) song ceased a few years after Cssarius ; for the Second Synod of Tours decreed "that the laity, whether in vigils or at Masses, should not presume to stand with the clergy near the altar whereon the Sacred Mysteries are celebrated, and that the chancel should be re- served to the choirs of singing clerics". Hereupon Sala notes (no. 4) that "this custom still obtains, nevertheless, in the Eastern Church; and in many places in the Western Church, very remote from cities, and therefore tenacious of older customs and less in- fluenced by newer ones, the people learn the ecclesias- tical chant and sing it together with the clergy". Many causes, doubtless, combined to bring about the present lamentable silence of our congregations, amongst which the most prominent was probably the one mentioned by Bona as having occasioned the de- cree of the Council of Laodicea. That the cause was not, as Dickinson thinks, "the steady progress of ritu- alism and the growth of sacerdotal ideas", which "in- evitably deprived the people of all initiative in the worship, and concentrated the offices of public devo- tion, including that of song, in the hands of the clergy" (Music in the History of the Western Church, New York, 1902, p. 48), may be inferred from the efforts of ecclesiastical authority to revive the older custom of congregational singing, as will be seen tmder (c).
(c) The Second Plenary Council of Baltimore (1866) expressed (no. 380) its earnest wish that the rudi- ments of Gregorian chant should be taught in the par- ish schools, in order that "the number of those who can sing the chant well having increased more and more, gradually the greater part, at least, of the peo- ple should, after the fashion still existing in some places of the Primitive Church, learn to sing Vespers and the like together with the sacred ministers and the choir". The Third Plenary Council of Baltimore (1884) repeats (no. 119) the words of the Second Coimcil, prefacing them with denuo confirmemus.
(d) The words of the quoted councils and of the pope imply a restoration of congregational singing through instruction in Gregorian chant, and therefore clearly refer to the strictly liturgical offices such as solemn or high Mass, Vespers, Benediction (after the Tantum Ergo has begun). Congregational singing at low Mass and at other services in the church, not strictly "liturgical" in ceremonial character, has al- ways obtained, more or less, in our churches. With respect to the strictly liturgical services, it is to bo hoped that the congregation may be instructed suffi- ciently to sing, besides the responses to the celebrant (especially those of the Preface), the ordinary (i. e. the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Bcnedictus, Agnus Dei) of the Mass in plain chant; leaving the Introit, Gradual or Tract, sequence (if there be one). Offer- tory, and Communion to the choir; the Psalms and hymns at Vespers, leaving the antiphons to the choir. The singing might well be made to alternate between congregation and choir. Perosi made a strong plea to the musical congress of Padua (June, 1907) for such congregational singing of the Credo (cf. Civiiti
