Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/191

 FORTY

153

FORUM

chanted, under conditions minutely specified, at the conclusion of the procession both at the opening and at the close of the Quarant' Ore. Finally it may be said that this " Instructio Clementina" is the founda- tion upon which is based the ritual for all ordinary Benedictions and Expositions. For example, the in- censing of the Blessed Sacrament at the words " Geni- tori (ieuitoque" of the "Tantum Ergo", the use of the huTneral veil, and the giving of the Blessing with the monstrance, etc., are all exactly prescribed in sec- tion thirty-one of the same document.

WiLDT in Kirchenlex., V, 151-155; Thurston, Lent and Holy Week (London, 1904), III, 110-14S; Raible, Der Tabemakel einst und jetzt (Freiburg, 190S), 273-292; Norbert, Zut Ge- schichte des vierzigstttndigen Gebetes in Kalholik, Aug., 1898, 15 sqq.; R.\TTI in La Scuola Callotica of Milan, Aug., 1895; and also Bergamaschi in the same periodical, Aug. and Sept., 190S; Bergamaschi, DeW Origine delle SS. Quarantore (Cremona, 1897): Gardellini, in Muhlbauer, Decreta Au- Ihenlica Cong. SS. Riluum. I. Further authorities are cited in the notes to the chapter of Lent and Holy Week just mentioned.

Herbert Thurston.

Forty Martyrs, a party of soldiers who suffered a cruel death for their faith, near Sebaste, in Lesser .\rmenia, victims of the persecution of Licinius, who, after the year 316, persecuted the Christians of the East. The earliest account of their martyrdom is given by St. Basil, Bishop of Ciesarea (370-379), in a homily delivered on the feast of the Forty Martyrs (Hom. .xi.x in P. G., XXXI, 507 sqq.; Ruinart, Acta .sincera, ed. Ratisbon, 545 sqq.). The feast is conse- quently more ancienfi than the episcopate of Basil, whose eulogy on them was pronounced only fifty or sixty years after their martyrdom, which is thus his- toric beyond a doubt. According to St. Basil, forty soldiers who had openly confessed themselves Chris- tians were condemned by the prefect to be exposed naked upon a frozen pond near Sebaste on a bitterly cold night, that they might freeze to death. Among the confessors, one yielded and, leaving his companions, sought the warm baths near the lake which had been prepared for any who might prove inconstant. One of the guards set to keep watch over the martyrs be- held at this moment a supernatural brilliancy over- shadowing them and at once proclaimed himself a Christian, threw off his garments, and placed liimself beside the thirty-nine soldiers of Christ. Thus the number of forty remained complete. At daybreak, the stiffened bodies of the confessors, which still showed signs of life, were burned and the ashes cast into a river. The Christians, however, collected the precious remains, and the relics were distributed throughout many cities; in this way the veneration paid to the Forty Martyrs became widespread, and numerous churches were erected in their honour.

One of them was built at C»sarea, in Cappadocia, and it was in this church that St. Basil publicly deliv- ered his homily. St. Gregory of Nyssa was a special client of these lioly martyrs. Two discourses in praise of them, preached by him in the church dedi- cated to them, are still preserved (P. G., XLVI, 749 sqq., 773 sqq.), and upon the death of his parents, he laid them to rest beside the relics of the confessors. St. Ephraem, the Syrian, has also eulogized the Forty Martyrs (Opera, ed. Assemani, II, Gr., 341-356; Hymni in SS. 40 martyres, in Opera, ed. Lamy, III, 937-958). Sozomen, who was an eye-witness, has left us (Hist. Eccl., IX, 2) an interesting account of the finding of the relics in Constantinople through the instru- mentality of the Empress Pulcheria. Special devo- tion to the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste was introduced at an early date into the West. St. Gaudentius, Bishop of Brescia in the beginning of the fifth century (d. about 410 or 427), received particles of the ashes of the martyrs during a voyage in the East, and placed them with other relics in the altar of the basilica which he had erected, at the consecration of which he delivered a discourse, still extant (P. L., XX, 959 sqq.). Near the Church of Santa RIaria Antiqua, in

the Roman Forum, built in the fifth centuiy, a chapel was found, built, like the church itself, on an ancient site, and consecrated to the Forty Martyrs. A pict- ure, still preserved there, dating from the si.xth or seventh century, depicts the scene of the martyrdom. The names of the confessors, as we find them also in later sources, were formerly inscribed on this fresco [Papers of the British School at Rome, I (London, 1902), 109 sqq.]. Acts of these martyrs, written sub- sequently, in Greek, Syriac and Latin, are yet extant, also a " Testament " of the Forty Martyrs. Their feast is celebrated in the Greek, as well as in the Latin Church, on 9 March.

Ada SS., March, II, 12 sqq.; Bibliotheca hagiographica lalina, ed. BoLLANDisTS, II, 1092 sqq.; Ruinart. Acta sincera (ed. Ratisbon), 543 sqq.; Acta martyrum el sanctorum syr., ed. Bed- JAN, III (Paris, 1892); Bonwetsch, Testament der U) Martyrer in Xeue kirchl. Zeitschrift, 1892, pp. 713 sqq.; cf. H.aussleiter, ibid., 978 sqq.; Synaxarium Conslantinopolitanitm, ed. Dele- HAYE (Brussels, 1902), 521 sqq.; Gorres, Die Licinianische Christenverfolgung (Jena, 1875); Allard, Histoire des persecu- tions, V (Paris, 1890), 307 sqq.

J. P. KiRSCH.

Forum, Ecclesiastical. — That the Church of Christ has judicial and coercive power is plain from the constitution given to it by its Divine Founder. (See Courts, Ecclesia.stical.) This judicial juris- diction is expressed by the word Forum, the Latin designation for a place containing a tribimal of justice. As the Church is a perfect society, she possesses within herself all the powers necessary to direct her members to the end for which she was instituted and she has a correlative right to be obeyed by those subject to her. This right is called jurisdiction, and it is the source of all the Church's action that is not derived from the power of Sacred orders. It is this jurisdiction which is the foundation of ecclesiastical law, both externally and internally binding, and from Apostolic times it has been put into practice by the Church's rulers. The public judicial power of the Church is explicitly men- tioned in Holy Scripture (Matt., xviii, 17), and the exercise of it is also recorded (Acts, xv, 29). In other words, just as the civil state has the legitimate juris- diction over its subjects to guide them to the end for which it was instituted, because it is a perfect society, so likewise the Church, being constituted by Christ as a perfect society, possesses withm itself all the powers necessary for lawfully and effectively attaming the end for which it was established.

As the power of the Church extends not only to its indiviilual members but also to the whole corporate body, not only to questions concerning the conscience but also to the public actions of its subjects, ecclesias- tical jurisdiction is distinguished into that of the inter- nal and external forum. The jurisdiction of the inter- nal forum deals with questions concerning the welfare of individual Christians and with their relation to God. Hence it is called the forum of conscience {Forum consdentice). It is also denominated the forum of Heaven (forum poli) because it guides the soul on the path to God. The Internal forum is subdivided into the sacramental or penitential, which is exercised in the tribunal of penance or at least is connected with it, and the extra-penitential forum. Causes concerning the private and secret needs of the faithful can often be expedited outside of sacramental confession. Thus, vows may be dispensed, secret censures may be ab- solved, occult impediments of matrimony may be dispensed outside of the tribimal of penance. The internal forian deals therefore directly with the spir- itual welfare of the individual faithful. It has refer- ence to the corporate body only secondarily, inasmuch as the good of the whole organization is promoted by that of the individual members. Owing to the nature of the civil state and the end for which it was insti- tuted, it has no jurisdiction corresponding to the ecclesiastical forum of conscience. Finally, it may so chance that circumstances may bring about a conflict