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APOSTOLIC

two sources now unknown; while Harnatk iiniler- takes to identify by name the now lost documents upon which the compiler almost entirely depended. The Sahidic (Coptic) text was published by l.agarde in " .^ii^gyptiaca (Leipzig, 1S83), and the Bohairie (Coptic) by Tattam (The Apostolical Constitutions, or Canons of the Apostles, London, 1848). The complete Syriac text, with English translation, was published by Dr. Arendzen in "Journal of Theol. Studies" (October, 1901).

Harxack, Tej-te und V ntersuchun^en (Leipzig, 1886), II, 5 sq.; PiTRA, Juris ecclesiast. Gracorum Hist, et Monum, (Rome, 1864). I, 75-SS; Funk, Doctrina Duodecim Apostolo- rum (Tubingen, 18871. 44 sq.. 50 sq.; Schaff. Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (New York. 1885). 127-132, 237-257. where the dependence of the Apostolic Church Ordinance (Canons 4-14) on the Didache is graphieallv set forth; Bar- DENHEWER. Gesch. der altkirch. Lit. (Freiburg, 1903), II, 262-269; Patrologie (ib., 1901). 141; Duchesne, Bulletin Critique (October, 1886), 361-370.

John B. Peterson.

Apostolic Constitutions, a fourth-century pseudo- Apostolic collection, in eight books, of independent, though closely related, treatises on Christian dis- cipline, worship, and doctrine, intended to serve as a manual of guidance for the clergy, and to some extent for the laity. Its tone is rather hortatory than precepti\e. for, though it was evidently meant to be a code of catechetical instruction and of moral and liturgical law, its injunctions often take the form of little treatises and exhortations, amply supported by scriptural texts and examples. Its elements are loosely combined without great regard for order or unity. It purports to be the work of the Apostles, ■\\hose instructions, whether given by them as in- dividuals or as a body, are supposed to be gathered and handed down by the pretended compiler, St. Clement of Rome, the authority of whose name gave fictitious weight to more than one such piece of early Christian literature. The Church seems never to have regarded this work as of undoubted Apostolic authority. The TruUan Council in 692 rejected the work on account of the interpolations of heretics. Only that portion of it to which has been given the name "Apostolic Canons" was received; but even the fifty of these canons which had then been ac- cepted by the Western Church were not regarded as of certain Apostolic origin. Where known, however, the Apostolic Constitutions were held generally in high esteem and served as the basis for much eccle- siastical legislation. They are to-day of the highest value as an historical document, revealing the moral and religious conditions and the liturgical observ- ances of the third and fourth centuries. Their text was not known in the Western Church throughout the Middle Ages. In 1546 a Latin version of a text found in Crete was published by Capellus, and in 1563 appeared the complete Greek text of Bovius and that of the Jesuit Father Torres (Turrianus) who, despite the glaring archaisms and incongruities of the collection, contended that it was a genuine work of the Apostles. Four manuscripts of it are now extant, the oldest an early twelfth-century text in St. Petersburg, an allied fourteenth-century text in Vienna, and two kindred sixteenth-century texts, one in Vienna, the other in Paris. In its present form the text rejjresents the gradual growth and evolution of usages of the first three centuries of Christian Church life. The compiler gathered from pre-exi.sting moral, disciplinary, and liturgical codes the elements suited to his purpose, and by adaptation and interpolation framed a system of constitutions which, while suited to contemporary needs, could yet pretend, in an iuicritical age, to Apostolic origin. Thanks to recent textual studies in early Christian literature, most of the sources of which the compiler made use are now clearly recognizable. The first six Imoks are based on the " Didascalia of the Apos- tles", a lost treatise of the third century, of Creek

origin, which is known through Syriac versions. The compiler of the Apostolic Constitutions made use of the greater part of this older treatise, but he adapted it to the needs of his day by some modifi- cations and extensive interpolation. Liturgical evo- lution made necessary a considerable amplification of the formulce of worship; changes in disciplinary practice called for a softening of some of the older laws; scriptural references and examples, intended to enforce the lessons inculcated by the Apostolic Constitutions, are more frequently used than in the parent Didascalia. The seventh book, which con- sists of two distinct parts, the first a moral instruc- tion (i-xxxii) and the second liturgical (xxxiii-xlix). depends for the first portion on the early seconcl- century Didache or "Teaching of the Twelve Apos- tles", which has been amplified by the compiler in much the same manner as the Didascalia was amplified in the framing of the first six books. The rediscovery of the Didache in 1873 revealed with what fidelity the compiler embodied it, almost word for word, in liis expansion of its precepts, save for such omissions and changes as were made nec- essary by the lapse of time. The fact that the Didache was itself a source of the Didascalia will explain the repetition in the seventh book of the Apostolic Constitutions of matters treated in the preceding books. The source of the second portion of the seventh book is still undetermined. In the eighth book are recognized many distinct elements whose very number and diversity render it difficult to determine with certainty the sources upon which the compiler drew. The eiglith book of the Apostolic Constitutions may be divided into three parts thus: the introductory chapters (i-ii) have for their foundation a treatise entitled "Teach- ing of the Holy Apostles concerning Gifts", possibly a lost work of Hippolytus. The transitional third chapter is the work of the compiler. The last chapter (xlvii) contains the "Apostolic Canons". It is the second part (iv-xlvi) which presents diffi- culties the varied solution of which divides scholars as to its sources. Recent studies in early Christian literature have made evident the kinship of several documents, dealing with disciplinary and liturgical matters, closely allied with this eighth book. Their interdependence is not so clearly understood. The more important of these documents are: The "Canons of [pseudo?] Hippolytus"; the "Egj-ptian Church Ordinance"; and the recently discovered Syriac text of "The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ". Accord- ing to Dr. Hans Achelis, the "Canons of Hippolytus", which he considers to he a third-century document of Roman origin, is the parent of the "Egyptian Church Ordinance", whence came, by independent filiation, the Syriac "Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ", and the eighth book of the Apostolic Con- stitutions. In this hypothesis the "Canons of Hippolytus", or more immediately the "Egyptian Church Ordinance", and the contemporarj' iiractice of the Church would be the source from which the compiler of the Apostolic Constitutions drew. Dr. F. X. Funk, on the other hand, argues strongly for the priority of the eighth book of the latter, whence, through a parallel text, arc derived the other three documents which he considers as fifth-century works, a conclusion not without its difficulties of acceptance, particularly with regard to the place of the "Canons of Hippolytus" in the chronology. If the priority of the Apostolic Constitutions be admitted, it is not cn- :iii rxident interpolation, the compiler may have l)Oca jii.spircd by the practice of some particular church. The Antiochene " Di- aconica" was not without some influence on him, and it may be that he htul at hand other, now lost,