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Peter of Alexandria
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Introductory Notice to Peter, Bishop of Alexandria.
[2251] The Acta Combefisiana add, “quemadmodem ille Dei Filium a paterna gloria et substantia sequestravit,” even as he has separated the Son of God from the glory and substance of His Father. But Arius had not as yet laid bare his heresy, but had been excluded from the Church for joining in the Meletian schism, and a suspicious course of action.
[2252] [“The dying are wont to vaticinate;” but the prophetic charismata (1 Cor. xiv. 31) were not yet extinct in the Church, in all probability, hence this conjecture was natural.]
[2253] κολόβιον—this is the tunicle, tunica, tunicella, dalmatica. It originally had no sleeves; it is said that wide sleeves were added in the West about the fourth century; and the garment was then called dalmatic, and was the deacon’s vestment when assisting at the holy communion; while that worn by sub-deacons, called by the Anglo-Saxons “roc,” and “tunicle” generally after the 13th century, was of the same form, but smaller and less ornamented (Palmer, Orig. Liturgicæ, vol. ii. p. 314). The word, in its classical use, meant an under-garment with its sleeves curtailed (κολοβός)—i.e., reaching only half down to the elbow, or entirely without sleeves. [But the reference here is clearly to St. John xix. 23; and the introduction of the mediæval dalmatic, to translate κολόβιον, is out of place.]
[2254] Of Scripture.
[2255] Cf. 1 Tim. iv. 1.
[2256] [Another anachronism, but noteworthy as applied to the See of Alexandria. See p. 261, note 2.]
[2257] Cf. St. Paul’s farewell address to the elders at Miletus,Acts xx. 28. [Acts xx. 32. The whole of this affecting address is borrowed from the touching eloquence of St. Paul.]
[2258] [Acts xx. 38. The spirit of Ignatius and of Polycarp is here clearly to be recognized in the fourth century.]
[2259] [Another anachronism; but, as applied to the Alexandrian primate, it is a concession to truth. The word was already used in the West, but not exclusively with respect to the Apostolic Sees. See vol. v. p. 270, note 1.]
[2262] [Another anachronism. No such invocation of saints at this period. See note 6, p. 261, supra.]
[2263] [Wholly apocryphal in all probability, or based on a mere apostrophe. Such “patronage” was yet unknown.]
[2265] The Latin reads here: “Spread out, ye aged men, the skins which ye are carrying.”
[2266] ἀγωνοθέτης—the president of the Grecian games, the judge.
[2267] [Probably he wore ordinarily what afterwards became an ecclesiastical ornament. So the casula and other vestments were retained by the clergy after they ceased to be commonly worn. Marriott, Vestiar. Christian., p. 198.] The omophorion, which is worn by every Eastern bishop, resembles the Latin pallium, except that it is broader, and tied round the neck in a knot. Cf. following passage from Neale’s Introduction to the Translation of the Eastern Liturgies: “But while the Gospel is being read, the bishop lays aside his omophorion, thereby making profession of his service to the Lord. For since it is the Lord who is represented as speaking by the Gospel, and is, as it were, Himself present, the bishop at that time ventures not to be arrayed with the symbol of His incarnation—I mean, the omophorion; but taking it off from his shoulders, he gives it to the deacon, who holds it folded in his right hand, himself standing near the bishop, and preceding the holy gifts. When he has finished the liturgy, and comes to the communion, he again assumes the omophorion, manifesting that before this he was one of the ministers, and was afraid to put upon himself that holy garment. But when the work is accomplished, and he goes on to elevate the bread, and to divide it into parts, and to receive it himself, and distribute it to others, it is necessary that he should put on all the sacred symbols of his dignity; and since the omophorion is the principal vest of a pontiff, he necessarily assumes that, and in that is partaker of the most divine things.” [All this unknown to antiquity.]
[2268] A solidus or aureus worth 25 denarii, being 8½d.; it was worth 17s. 8½d.; five solidi, £4, 8s. 6½d. [More than $20.]
[2269] Virgil, Æn., book iii. 56:—
“O sacred hunger of pernicious gold,
What bands of faith can impious lucre hold?” —Dryden.
[2270] [Here “standing” = continuing. He knelt, no doubt, to be beheaded; but the corpse remained in this posture. A noble horse, shot on the field of Antietam, remained on the field in an attitude of raising himself from the ground, as I saw it myself.]
[2271] [This may be credited. See Cyprian’s Passion. But the technical names which follow seem an anachronism if technically understood. I say this with no spirit of objection to these vestments, however.]
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