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Peter of Alexandria
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Introductory Notice to Peter, Bishop of Alexandria.
[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.]
[2272] [See Kingsley’s Hypatia. In Cyril’s time this might have happened: one trusts that for Peter’s day this, too, is an anachronism.]
[2273] [Another anachronism, and Occidental also.]
[2274] [See vol. v. p. 256, note 6, and p. 259, Elucidation II. Missa, a Latin word, has clearly no place here save by the Roman rule of reading modern rites into antiquity. Thus, in Raphael’s picture illustrating the story of 2 Macc. iii. 15, the Jewish high-priest is made a Roman pontiff. (Compare note 6, p. 261, supra.]
[2275] [See note 2, p. 265, supra.]
[2276] Achillas, the successor of Peter, admitted Arius to the priesthood.
[2277] Cf. Joshua ix.
[2278] Perhaps Absalom, or it may be Ziba, is referred to. (2 Sam. xiv. 33; xvi. 3.)
[2281] [The Canonical Epistles of Basil have been heretofore mentioned. Vol. v. p. 572, elucidation.]
[2282] These Canons of Peter of Alexandria are interesting as bearing upon the controversy between Cyprian and the clergy of Carthage, with regard to the treatment of the lapsed. They also bear upon the subject-matter of the Novatian schism.
[2283] Another reading is ἀνηκέστους, “which cannot be cured.”
[2284] The marks of Jesus, στίγματα. Cf. Gal. vi. 17.
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