Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/828

 CHURCH

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CHURCH

cese has a Catholic population of about 248,SS7 (non- Catholics, 431,356). There are 358 secular and 226 religious priests in charge of about 201 parishes, besides many chaplaincies and mission-stations. The largest Catholic community is at Zurich (43,655). The 35 Capuchins of the prefectures Apostolic had charge of 79 chapels in 1906. Three Benedictine abbeys — Einsiedeln, Engelberg, and Disentis — are within the diocese and, with the church of St. Nico- laus von der Flue at Sachseln, are places of pilgrim- age. There is an ecclesiastical seminary at Chur, besides colleges at Schwyz, Disentis, Einsiedeln, Engelberg, Sarnen, and Stans. There are in the diocese nine orders of men, ten orders of women (Franciscans, Augustinians, Dominicans, Benedic- tines, and others), and eleven congregations.

Eichhorn, Episcopatus Curiensis (St. Blasien, 1797); Mohr, Codex diplomaticus zur Ge.ich. Cur.-Rhcetiens. (1846-61); Mont and Plattner, Das Hochxtift and der Staal Chur (Chur, 1S60); Fetz, Das Bistum Chur, histor .-statist isch beschrieben (Chur. 1863-69); Werner. Kath. Kirchi-natlas (Freiburg. INSxi; Mri.iNEN. Helvetia Sacra (Bern. 1S8S). I; C. F., Leben und Wirken ties P. Theodos. Florentini (Ingenbohl, 1878); LrTOLF, Glaubensboten der Schweiz vor dem hi. Gallus (Lucerne, 1871); Acta Canonizationis S. Fidelis a Sigmaringen (Rome, 1749); Alexius Spirensis. Historialis relatio eorum qua* in Misstone Rhmtic/i acciderunt, MS. in Capuchin Archives at Rome, printed in Analeeta Capucc. (189S), 265 sqq.; Analeetn Capucc., passim; Mayer, Yaticano-Curiensia (1888); Buchi, Die katholische Kirche in der Schweiz (1902).

Otto Jeron.

Church, The. — The term church (A. S., cirice, dree; Mod. Ger., Kirche; Sw., Kyrka) is the name em- ployed in the Teutonic languages to render the Greek <=KKX7)<r<!a, ecclesia, the term by which the New Testament writers denote the society founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ. The derivation of the word has been much debated. It is now agreed that it is derived from the Greek Kvpianbv, cyriacon, i. e. the Lord's house, a term which from the third century was used, as well as inKX-no-la, to signify a Christian place of worship. This, though the less usual expression, had apparently obtained currency among the Teutonic races. The Northern tribes had been accustomed to pillage the Christian churches of the empire, long before their own conversion. Hence, even prior to the arrival of the Saxons in Britain, their language had acquired words to desig- nate some of the externals of the Christian religion. The present article is arranged as follows: (I) The term Ecclesia; (II) The Church in Prophecy; (III) Its Constitution by Christ; the Church after the Ascension; (IV) Its Organization by the Apostles; (V) The Church a Divine Society; (VI) The Church the Necessary Means of Salvation; (VII) Visibility of the Church; (VIII) The Principle of Authority; Infallibility; Jurisdiction; (IX) Members of the Church; (X) Indefectibility of the Church; Con- tinuity; (XI) Universality of the Church; the "Branch" Theory; (XII) Notes of the Church; (XIII) The Church a Perfect Society.

I. The Teiim Ecclesia. — In order to understand the precise force of this word, something must first be said as to its employment by the Septuagint translators of the Old Testament. Although in one or two places (Ps. xxv, 5; Judith, vi, 21; etc.) the word is used without religious signification, merely in the sense of "an assembly", this is not usually the case. Ordinarily it is employed as the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Sip, qdhal, i. e., the entire community of the children of Israel viewed in their religious aspect. Two Hebrew words are employed in the- Old Testament to signify the congregation of Israel, viz. S,-|p, qiilial, and my, 'tdah. In the Septuagint these are rendered, respectively, IkkKtio-Io. and avvayuyr). Thus in l'ruv., v, 14, where the words occur together, "in the midst of the church and the congregation" (mjTl ?np -pri2). the Greek

rendering is in p.(cry 'e/cxXijcWat Kal ovpayuyijs. The

distinction is indeed not rigidly observed— thus in Ex., Lev., Num., both words are regularly represented by trvmyay/i — but it is adhered to in the great majority of cases, and may be re- garded as an established rule. In the writings of the New Testament the words are sharply distin- guished. With them ecclesia denotes the Church of Christ; synagoga, the Jews still adhering to the worship of the Old Covenant. Occasionally, it is true, ecclesia is employed in its general significance of "assembly" (Acts, xix, 32; I Cor., xiv, 19); and synagoga occurs once in reference to a gathering of Christians, though apparently of a non-religious character (James, ii, 2.) But ecclesia is never used by the Apostles to denote the Jewish Church. The word as a technical expression had been transferred to the community of Christian believers.

It has been frequently disputed whether there is any difference in the signification of the two words. St. Augustine (in Psalm, lxxvii, in P. L., XXXVI. 984) distinguishes them on the ground that ecclesia is indic- ative of the calling together of men, synagoga of the forcible herding together of irrational creatures: "congregatio magis pecorum convocatio magis homi- num intelligi solet". But it may be doubted whether there is any foundation for this view. It would appear, however, that the term ~>?\p, qahal, was used with the special meaning of "those called by God to eternal life", while my, 'edah, denoted merely "the actually existing Jewish community" (Schiirer, Hist. Jewish People, II, 59). Though the evidence for this distinction is drawn from the Mishna, and thus belongs to a somewhat later date, yet the difference in meaning probably existed at the time of Christ's ministry. But however this may have been, His intention in employing the term, hitherto used of the Hebrew people viewed as a church, to denote the society He Himself was es- tablishing cannot be mistaken. It implied the claim that this society now constituted the true people of God, that the Old Covenant was passing away, and that He, the promised Messias, was in- augurating a New Covenant with a New Israel.

As signifying the Church, the word Ecclesia is used by Christian writers, sometimes in a wider, sometimes in a more restricted sense, (a) It is em- ployed to denote all who, from the beginning of the world, have believed in the one true God, and have been made His children by grace. In this sense, it is sometimes distinguished, signifying the Church before the Old Covenant, the Church of the Old Covenant, or the Church of the New Covenant. Thus St. Gregory (Epp. V, ep. xviii ad. Joan. Ep. Const., in P. L., LXXVII, 740) writes: "Sancti ante legem, sancti sub lege, sancti sub gratia, omnes hi . . . in membris Ecclesia? sunt constituti" (The saints before the Law, the saints under the Law, ami (lie saints under grace — all these are constituted mem- bers of the Church), (b) It may signify the whole body of the faithful, including not merely the mem- bers of the Church who are alive on earth but those, too, whether in heaven or in purgatory, who form part of the one communion of saints. Con- sidered thus, the Church is divided into the Church Militant, the Church Suffering, and the Church Triumphant, (c) It is further employed to signify the Church Militant of the New Testament. Even in this restricted acceptation, there is some variety in the use of the term. The disciples of a single locality are often referred to in the New Testament as a Church (Apoc, ii, 18; Rom., xvi. 1; Acts, i\, 31), and St. Paul even applies the term to disciples belonging to a single household (Rom., xvi, 5; I Cor., \\i I'.i, Col., iv. 15; Philem., i, 2). Moreover, it may designate specially those who exercise the office of teaching and ruling the faithful, the Ecclesia Docens (Matt., xviii, 17), or again the governed as