church in medieval Ireland. In 431 the chronicler Prosper of Aquitaine recorded the papally backed mission of Bishop Palladius to the ‘Irish believing in Christ’. This was probably directed to a Christian community which had developed in the east and south‐east of the country through slave and trading links with Roman Britain and contact with Irish colonies in Wales. Toponomy indicates the presence of other early missionaries at Dunshaughlin (Domnach Sechnaill, the church of Secundinus) and Kilashee (Cell Ausaile, the church of Auxilius) in Leinster.

The best known of these missionaries is the Roman‐Briton Patrick who operated among the pagan population around Dún dá Lethglais (Downpatrick) in the north‐east in the mid‐5th century (though earlier and later dates and locations cannot be ruled out). His cult, based on his Confession and Letter to Coroticus, was promoted by the Armagh church from the 7th century to promote its claims to primacy over the other Irish churches.

The spread of Christianity in 5th‐ and 6th‐century Ireland was slow and sporadic but by the 7th century the church was well established and had adapted to its environment. A significant development was the transition from an organization based on territorial dioceses governed by bishops to one in which networks of monasteries (paruchiae) were the norm and in which abbots were the pre‐eminent administrators. This unusual state of affairs was commented on by Bede but there is considerable debate as to its extent. Early Irish monasticism owed much to British influence and the earliest Irish founders received their initial formation in monasteries such as that of St Ninian at Candida Casa at Whitern (modern Scotland) or particularly that of St David at Menevia (Wales).

The high standard of learning, calligraphy, metalwork, and sculpture which characterized the Irish monastic schools was much commented on by contemporaries. Irish monks in Ireland and on the Continent showed a command of Latin composition, biblical exegesis, and computing that had few parallels, even if their views sometimes clashed with contemporary continental scholarship. The practice of peregrinatio or exile for the sake of the gospel was another feature of this period; notable peregrini included Columbanus (d. 615) in Gaul, Switzerland, and Italy, Killian (d. 689) in Germany, and Donatus (d. 876) in Italy, and these (and many others) disseminated Irish ideas and practice throughout Europe (see Monasteries, Irish, in Continental Europe). A particularly important innovation were the penitentials or confessors' manuals which were composed from the 6th century onwards and which greatly influenced the development of confession and spiritual direction in the church.

By the 8th century the Irish church was respected, powerful, and wealthy. As well as controlling church life, monasteries dominated the economy, played a prominent part in secular politics, and were the most important patrons of all branches of the arts. With this increase in prestige came a decline in fervour; contemporary evidence indicates that in many monasteries the abbacy and other major offices had become hereditary. Tension over rights and property sometimes erupted into pitched battles between communities. The Céile Dé reform movement which emerged in the late 8th century was largely a reaction to this decadence. Its main centres were the monasteries of Finglas and Tallaght near Dublin.

In 795 the annals record the first Viking attack on Ireland. Though the Vikings had an initially disruptive effect on church life their impact was not as devastating as monastic chroniclers or later historians have held and has undergone serious revision in recent historiography. From 841 they began to establish permanent bases in Ireland which developed into significant settlements at Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, Cork, and Limerick. Through trade links and intermarriage they gradually became Christian and by c.1028 a bishopric was established at Dublin. These Norse‐Irish bishops had strong links with England and some of the first bishops of Dublin, Limerick, and Waterford were consecrated by the archbishop of Canterbury and acknowledged his primacy. Other contacts with England and the Continent during the 11th and 12th centuries fostered a reform movement (see twelfth‐century reform) which culminated in 1152 at the Synod of Kells when metropolitan sees were erected at Armagh, Dublin, Tuam, and Cashel and suffragan dioceses were established. The movement, whose chief promoter was St Malachy, also introduced the Cistercian monks (1142) and Arroasian Augustinian canons and attempted to reform marital and sexual mores.

The Anglo‐Norman presence after 1169 led to an Anglicization of the episcopate and by the end of the 15th century ten of the wealthier sees were controlled by the Anglo‐Irish, thirteen were normally held by Gaelic bishops, with the remaining nine fluctuating between the two groups or held by absentees. A similar process in the monasteries led to tension between the Gaelic and Anglo‐Irish Cistercians (see mellifont). In the 13th century the four orders of mendicant friars (Franciscan, Dominican, Augustinian, and Carmelite) were introduced and by 1340 had founded 86 friaries. These were also riven by racial tension and all four were controlled by English or Anglo‐Irish superiors until the emergence of the Observant movement among the Gaelic friars in the 15th century.

The Irish church in the century before the Reformation has traditionally been seen as presenting a bleak picture: racial antipathy was rife, conventual life had collapsed in most Cistercian and Augustinian monasteries, and hereditary succession to church office was common in Gaelic areas. Other developments, however, suggest a more positive image. Between 1400 and 1508 90 new friaries were founded, mostly in Gaelic areas, and it was these friars, particularly the Observant Franciscans, who were recognized as the preachers, confessors, and ascetics of the period. In the Pale, where the structure of diocesan synods and episcopal visitation was better organized, growing lay piety found expression in the establishment of chantries and guilds and in devotions like the Jesus mass. In Gaelic Ireland this need was met by the growth of the Franciscan Third Order and the widespread translation of continental devotional texts into Irish.

Bibliography

Corish, P. , The Irish Catholic Experience: A Historical Survey (1985)
Watt, J. , The Church in Medieval Ireland (1972)

Colmán N. Ó Clabaigh

Church The Christian community. In the Graeco-Roman world of the 1st cent., there were many religious guilds and societies, but the Christians took over the word ecclesia from the LXX, where it denotes the assembly of the people of Israel; but unlike the word synagogue, also used in the LXX, ecclesia was not a peculiarly Jewish word: it was the ordinary word in classical Greek for a gathering of the people at the call of a herald, and is indeed used in Acts 19: 32 of a secular assembly. It was thus a fitting noun to apply to a society which included many Gentiles. But ‘Church’ is never used as today for a building, or for a denomination (e.g. the Methodist Church).

In Acts the word is sometimes used in the singular of a local Christian community but in 9: 31, it refers to the whole Church so far as it had then extended. In Acts 20: 28 Paul charges the elders of Ephesus ‘to shepherd the Church of God that he obtained with the blood of his own Son’, which must surely mean a body wider than the community at Ephesus: it points to the universal Church, as in 1 Cor. 16: 19, where the local Church which meets in a house seems to be regarded as one unit in a greater whole. In 1 Cor. 12: 28 Paul refers to those whom God has appointed in the Church—surely the universal Church—‘apostles, prophets, etc.’ So too Eph. 1: 22.

The universal Church is also mentioned under different names: ‘the Israel of God’ (Gal. 6: 16), ‘the true people of the circumcision’ (Phil. 3: 3, NJB), asserting the claim that the Church was both the continuation and consummation of the chosen people of the OT. The fullest description of the ecclesia in the NT is provided in 1 Pet. 2: 9—‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people’.

The English word ‘Church’ is therefore a very satisfactory rendering of ecclesia. The word, like the Scottish kirk and German Kirche (which Martin Luther detested and used mostly to denote the heathen shrines of the OT), is from the Greek kuriakos, ‘belonging to the Lord’. Possibly the word Kirche was brought by traders up the Danube and down the Rhine. Wyclif was responsible for the word ‘Church’, and though Tyndale and Cranmer substituted ‘congregation’, this was changed back to ‘Church’ in AV, possibly because of Tyndale's absurd version of Acts 8: 1: ‘There was a great persecution against the congregation which was at Jerusalem and they were all scattered’, where ecclesia must refer not only to the body of Christians gathered as a congregation, but also to a corporate body, whether assembled or not.

The southern European nations derive their words (église etc.) directly from the Greek (and Latin) ecclesia.

Whether Jesus intended this Church continues to be debated. If he expected the world to end quite soon could he possibly have contemplated anything so long-term as founding a Church? It is true that a small Aramaic-speaking group based in rural Galilee became even within the NT era Greek-speaking and urban and dispersed, slightly embarrassed about its apocalyptic origins and now gazing into an indefinite future, nevertheless there are indications in the synoptic gospels that the transition was not unprepared. Cf. Mark 13: 10. Mark ends his apocalyptic chapter (13: 32) with a warning to any Christians who supposed the end to be near; not even Jesus knows when the end will come. There is indeed to be a future judgement, but Jesus says that God's saving power is to be experienced in the present (Luke 11: 20); the kingdom is within the disciples's grasp (Luke 17: 20–1); it is present when evil is met with love and mercy rather than with hate and violence, and it is to be present above all in Jesus' suffering and death. Jesus has necessarily employed the concepts that were available to him, and then given them new content. The Reign of God, he said, is breaking into human affairs, but there will be an interval before the Reign is wholly and unconditionally present. It is in this interim period that the Church must work, and Jesus made provision for a community of disciples. The term ‘Son of Man’, derived from Daniel 7, where he represents ‘the saints’ (AV), involved the notion of community; but it is not possible to assign the foundation of the Church to a particular day or hour, such as after Peter's confession. Rather, the Church was created by the totality of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. The words of Jesus reported in Matt. 16: 18 and 18: 17 are the only instances in the gospels of the word ecclesia, and are unlikely to be authentic words of Jesus, since the kind of authority there promised to Peter (16: 18) was never in fact enjoyed by him, so far as the NT evidence suggests. In Matt. 18: 17 it is the local Church community that is referred to—so that at the time of the composition of Matthew the Church was seen as a universal body with local manifestations.

Admission to the Church was by baptism, but the ideals of holiness were far from being achieved. Although membership of the Church was open to all, Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free, rich and poor, men and women, in practice social differentiations sometimes persisted (1 Cor. 11: 21), as did typically Greek fondness for lawsuits (1 Cor. 6: 1–11). False teachings and unseemly behaviour crept in (1 John 4: 1–6; 1 Tim. 4: 1–5) but nevertheless the quality of corporate Christian life did attract converts, and it seems that outsiders might be present at worship (1 Cor. 14: 16), which would consist of prophecies and teaching, singing and readings from the OT, and Eucharistic celebrations on the first day of the week (1 Cor. 16: 2). At some meetings, Paul had asked for a collection to be taken to assist Christians in Jerusalem who were destitute in a time of famine as a result of disposing of all their capital (Acts 4: 34), and it proved a godsend to Paul as a means of holding together the Gentiles of his Churches and the Jewish Christians (‘the saints’) in Jerusalem (2 Cor. 9: 1–5), as well as being a way of putting pressure on the latter to overcome their reservations about his Gentile mission.

Church government No fixed order of ministry intended to be permanent is described in the NT any more than an agreed sacramental theology. Developments into Papal, Episcopalian (having bishops presiding over dioceses), and Presbyterian systems came later; they can all claim some continuity with what is in the NT, and so the criterion for assessing them by modern Christians must be theological rather than historical research. What kind of ministry safeguards and expresses the unity of the Christian community? What kind of ministry gives appropriate freedom to individuals to grow into spiritual maturity and to exercise their personal gifts?

Eight different kinds of gifts are bestowed on members of the Church, according to Paul (1 Cor. 12: 28) and none is superior, none inferior. There was a ‘priesthood of all believers’, in that all Christians offered themselves as a sacrifice according to the pattern laid down by Christ; and all such personal offerings (according to the letter to the Hebrews) are taken up into the one perpetual offering made by the one eternal high priest of the new covenant—Jesus. All Christian believers therefore comprise a priestly body, called to proclaim the gospel of reconciliation between God and mankind.

However, Jesus had chosen twelve apostles and on these Twelve (the defection of Judas caused a vacancy, filled by the election of Matthias, Acts 1: 26) rested the leadership of the Church. Paul was added to the group as an extraordinary member (1 Cor. 15: 8–9) with a special responsibility for a mission to the Gentiles (Gal. 2: 9). Local Churches had local leaders who acted under the general supervision of apostles (1 Thess. 5: 12) and some, like Timothy, could be dispatched to Churches by an apostle and armed with his authority. At Jerusalem there was a group, or ‘college’, of elders (presbyters) in charge, with James the Lord's brother as president, and probably other local Churches were similarly organized, following the precedent of the synagogues. One of the leaders would have presided at the Eucharist. In the Pastoral Epistles (to Timothy and Titus) there is development: there Paul's delegates themselves delegate authority to successors (2 Tim. 2: 2) and we meet the word episcopoi being used of the presbyters (Tit. 1: 7; 1 Tim. 3: 1–7).

Male and female (Rom. 16: 1) deacons have a share in Church government (1 Tim. 3: 8–13) but they are probably not the successors of the Seven appointed to help the apostles (Acts 6: 3), who seem rather to have been the first presbyters, with a duty to ‘serve tables’, that is, undertake charitable works, although that phrase might also cover presiding at the table of the Eucharist. The deacons mentioned by Paul have a status as officials, but what they were for is not clear: except that the whole ministry is for the purpose of service.

By the time of Ignatius, who wrote seven letters while journeying to Rome, where he was martyred in 107 CE, each local Church is deemed to have a bishop at its head, and the ministries of charismatic prophets and teachers passed into abeyance. By the 3rd cent. the bishop had taken over many of the administrative functions of the diaconate, and presbyters had assumed powers formerly exercised only by bishops. This was caused by the expansion of the Church beyond the towns into the surrounding countryside—where resistance to Christianity had for long been strongest: our word ‘pagan’ even comes straight from the Latin paganus meaning ‘villager’.

At the beginning of the 3rd cent., the term ‘priest’ is used for the first time of a Christian minister, and language reminiscent of the Temple cult was applied to presbyters, so that the OT orders of high priests, priests, and Levites were being used as the model for bishops, presbyters, and deacons.

In 1552 Martin Bucer proposed the use of the titles ‘superintendent’, ‘presbyters of the first order’, and ‘presbyters of the second order’ for the traditional bishop, priests, and deacons, but the Anglican ordinal (the authorized rite for ordination) did not adopt the proposal. Whatever the doctrine, the Church has professed itself to be a ‘royal priesthood’, declaring to the world the wonderful deeds of God (1 Pet. 2: 9), through many vicissitudes of pastoral ministry.

Church. The word denotes both a church building and the Christian community, local or universal. The origins of the Church as a sect within 1st cent. Judaism lie in the Lord's choice of 12 disciples (called Apostles). Their mission was initially to Israel, but soon after the Resurrection Gentiles began to join the Greek-speaking Jewish Christians. St Paul's Gentile mission laid the foundations for the Gentile Christianity which became dominant after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 and the expulsion of Jewish Christians from synagogues in the 80s. From the outset the Church never considered itself a voluntary organization; it constituted the faithful remnant of God's people who had recognized the coming of the Messiah and it soon understood its mission in universal terms. After the deaths of St James (the Great), St Peter and Paul in the 60s, and the marginalization of Jewish Christianity, new structures were developed. The essence of the Church was later epitomized in the traditional ‘notes of the Church’, namely unity, holiness, catholicity, and apostolicity. As teaching the Apostles' doctrine and historically descended from them, the Church is apostolic. Its membership, its orders of ministers, and its unity are established by participation in visible sacraments, i.e. those of Baptism and Confirmation, of Holy Orders, and the Eucharist, respectively. After the split between the E. and W., the RC and E. Orthodox Church each maintained the other was in schism (q.v.) and that itself was the historical manifestation of the visible Church. In addition to the visible Church on earth, there exists the invisible Church of the faithful departed.

The Reformation led to a reformulation of the idea of the Church. It sought to proclaim its being in terms of the Word of God rather than in sacramental relationships. Among Protestants, two doctrines gained wide acceptance: (1) that the Church is a visible body and in the Divine intention one throughout the world, but that in view of the errors and corruptions which have arisen it is justified within a particular nation in reforming itself, even if this involves a breach of visible unity; (2) that the true Church is an invisible body of the saved whose membership is known only to God. Most holders of this view maintained that it was desirable that the Church should possess an outward organization, membership of which should correspond as far as possible with that of the invisible Church. Some Protestants held that visible unity should be secured in each nation by an ‘established religion’ determined by the ruler; others regarded unity of organization between Christian communities as unnecessary.

In modern times among Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox there has been fresh interest in the theology of the Church. In the early part of the 20th cent. this vision of the Church focused on the Pauline notion of the Body of Christ; in the second half of the century increased stress was laid on the Church as sacramental, an idea emphasized by Orthodox theologians who see the community gathered to celebrate the Eucharist with its bishop as the primary manifestation of the Church. This has affinities with the concept of the Church as centred in each congregation that has characterized Congregational and other Protestant Churches. In the RC Church a less institutional and juridical view than had been normal in that communion found expression in the Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium (1965), in which the Church is seen primarily as the People of God.

church a building used for public Christian worship. Also (with upper case initial) a particular Christian organization, typically one with its own clergy, buildings, and distinctive doctrines; the Church, the hierarchy of clergy of such an organization, especially the Church of England or the Roman Catholic Church.

The word is recorded from Old English (in form cir(i)ce, cyr(i)ce), ultimately based on medieval Greek kurikon, from Greek kuriakon (dōma) ‘Lord's (house)’, from kurios ‘master or lord’.
the Church is an anvil that has worn out many hammers the passive strength of Christianity can outlast agression.The saying is recorded from the mid 19th century, but derives originally from the Calvinist theologian Theodore Beza (1519–1605). Beza was replying to the King of Navarre, who had attempted to excuse the massacre of Huguenots at Vassy by Guisard forces on the grounds that the Protestants had thrown stones at the Duke of Guise and his followers to provoke them.
Church Militant the whole body of living Christian believers, regarded as striving to combat evil here on earth.
church mouse a mouse living in a church, proverbially taken as a type of poverty, as in poor as a church mouse.
Church of England the English branch of the Western Christian Church, which combines Catholic and Protestant traditions, rejects the Pope's authority, and has the monarch as its titular head. The English Church was part of the Catholic Church until the Reformation of the 16th century; after Henry VIII failed to obtain a divorce from Catherine of Aragon he repudiated papal supremacy, bringing the Church under the control of the Crown.
Church of Scotland the national (Presbyterian) Christian Church in Scotland. In 1560 John Knox reformed the established Church along Presbyterian lines, but there were repeated attempts by the Stuart monarchs to impose episcopalianism, and the Church of Scotland was not finally established as Presbyterian until 1690.
Church Slavonic the liturgical language used in the Orthodox Church in Russia, Serbia, and some other countries. It is a modified form of Old Church Slavonic.

81. Church

See also 80. CHRISTIANITY ; 349. RELIGION

collegialism

the belief that the church as an organization is independent of and equal to the state, with its highest authority lying in its collective membership.

diaconate

the rank or office of a deacon.

ecclesiarch

Eastern Church. sacristan.

ecclesiasticism

an excessive adherence to the doctrines and practices of the church. —ecclesiastic , n., adj. —ecclesiastical , adj.

ecclesioclasticism

Rare. an opposition to the church.

ecclesiography

a descriptive study of the church. —ecclesiographer , n. —ecclesiographic, ecclesiographical , adj.

ecclesiolatry

an intense devotion to church forms, authority, and traditions.

ecclesiology

1. the study of church building and decoration.

2. Theology. the doctrine of the church.

3. the policy and operations of the church. —ecclesiologist , n. —ecclesiologic, ecclesiological , adj.

ecclesiophobia

an abnormal fear or dislike of the church.

festilogy

a dissertation on church festivals.

hieromania

a mania for priests.

lectionary

a list of the lections, or texts, to be read in church services through-out the canonical year.

nonage

formerly, a ninth part of a parishioner’s movable property, which was claimed upon his death by the clergy in England. See also 239. LAW .

precentor

a person who leads a church choir or congregation in singing.

sacrist, sacristan

an official or cleric appointed curator of the vestments, sacred vessels, and relies of a religious body, church, or cathedral.

simonism, simony

the sin or offense of selling or granting for personal advantage church appointments, benefices, preferments, etc. —simoniac, simonist , n.

spoliation

Church Law. the taking of property by an incumbent upon resignation or any other departure. See also 366. SHIPS ; 391. THEFT ; 413. WAR .

church [probably Gr.,=divine], aggregation of Christian believers. The traditional belief has the church the community of believers, living and dead, headed by Jesus, who founded it in the apostles. This is the doctrine of the mystical body of Christ (Eph. 1.22-23). Some divisions speak of the church militant (the living), the church suffering (the dead in purgatory), and the church triumphant (the saints of heaven). The church is said to be recognizable by four marks (as in the Nicene Creed): it is one (united), holy (producing holy lives), catholic (universal, supranational), and apostolic (having continuity with the apostles). In the Orthodox Eastern Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Church of England, crucial importance is attached to the unbroken tradition, as handed down through the Holy Ghost (see apostolic succession ); with this doctrine goes the apostolic power to administer grace through the sacraments . Certain men of the Reformation rejected the doctrine of apostolic succession and substituted for the authority of the church the authority of Scripture alone. Protestants generally interpret the oneness of the church in a mystical sense; the true church is held to be invisibly present in all Christian denominations. The ecumenical movement in recent years has stimulated fresh study on the doctrine of the church.

Church (from Gk., kuriakon, ‘belonging to the Lord’). The institution of Christianity. The word may refer to the whole number of organized Christians everywhere, to a particular denomination, to a local congregation, or to a building where Christians assemble. Reflection on the nature of the church, ‘ecclesiology’ (Gk., ekklēsia), is also a traditional part of Christian teaching.

In Orthodox understanding, the Church must be constituted by the apostolic succession, and be episcopal in character. It must accept the first seven Councils, and its doctrine is held within that parameter.

For Catholics, the Church is characterized as ‘one, holy, catholic and apostolic’. Thus conceived, it is a visible body; its membership, its orders of ministers, and its unity are all constituted by participation in visible sacraments.

The Reformation gave rise to two major doctrines of the Church: (i) that it is a visible body, and, in God's intention, one (though divided if corruption and error have demanded a reformation); and (ii) that the true church is an invisible body, since it is by the personal commitment of faith that a person is saved and made a member of it.

church. Edifice for public Christian worship, distinguished from a chapel or oratory, which in some respects are not public in the wider sense. Church-plans are of two basic types: the basilican form with clerestoreyed nave, lean-to aisles, apsidal east end, and some kind of porch or narthex; and the centralized plan derived from Byzantine domed spaces and from circular or polygonal mausolea associated with important tombs and martyria. The simplest type of church-plan (e.g. in Anglo-Saxon times) consisted of a nave (for the worshippers) and the smaller chancel (for the clergy) containing the altar and approached through an arch. Larger, more important churches had several chapels, two or four transepts, towers, and other structures such as cloisters, porches, a baptistery, and a chapter-house.

church / chərch/ • n. a building used for public Christian worship: they came to church with me. ∎  (usu. Church) a particular Christian organization, typically one with its own clergy, buildings, and distinctive doctrines: the Church of England. ∎  (the Church) the hierarchy of clergy of such an organization, esp. the Roman Catholic Church or the Church of England. ∎  institutionalized religion as a political or social force: the separation of church and state. ∎  the body of all Christians. • v. [tr.] archaic take (a woman who has recently given birth) to church for a service of thanksgiving.

church A church is a large, bureaucratic, and hierarchical religious organization, which typically recruits from the upper and middle classes. It has a priesthood, sacraments, and formal liturgy. Lay participation, especially in worship, is not necessarily encouraged. These definitional characteristics confine the use of the concept largely to a Christian context. The church is accommodated to existing social arrangements and regards the state as a necessary aspect of political control over society. Individuals are born into the church and become permanent members through infant baptism. The church as an ideal-type is contrasted with the sect. See also CULT; DENOMINATION.

church OE. ċir(i)ċe, ċyr(i)ċe = OS. kirika (Du. kerk), OHG. kirihha (G. kirche) :- WGmc. *kirika — medGr. kūrikón, for kūriakón, sb. use (sc. dôma house) of n. of kūriakós pert. to the Lord, f. kū́rios master, lord.
Hence church vb. present or receive in church. XIV. churchman ecclesiastic XVI (earlier XIV kirkman); male member of the church (of England) XVII. churchwarden XV. churchyard XII.

church Community of believers. Although adopted by non-Christian movements such as scientology, it is usually used in reference to Christianity. The characteristics of the Christian Church as the whole body of Christ's followers are described in the Nicene Creed. The church is also the name of the building used for worship by Christians. Churches vary from the stark plainness of some Protestant chapels to the grandeur of the world's major cathedrals.

Church as affix, see main name, e.g. for Church Fenton (N. Yorks.) see Fenton.

Church Lancs. Chirche 1202. ‘(Place at) the church’. OE cirice.

church •besmirch, birch, church, lurch, perch, search, smirch •Christchurch • pikeperch •wordsearch