There were, however, since the second century, outside the cities, mortuary churches attached to the Christian cemeteries. They depended upon the cathedral church, in which was established the see ( sedes), or the chair ( cathedra) of the bishop. All such churches were situated in towns, and the inhabitants of the rural districts came thither on the Lord’s Day, in order to assist at the Eucharistic Sacrifice in large cities, like Rome, Alexandria, and Carthage, there were several churches, but they did not constitute separate parishes (Duchesne, 400 Wieland, 73-76). During the third century the other parts of the building were detached from it and the domus ecclesiae became the Domus Dei (the house of God) known also as the Dominicum or the kuriakon oikon (Duchesne, Origines du culte chretien, 399-400, Paris, 1902 Wieland, Mensa and Confessio: Studien fiber den Altar der altchristlichen Liturgie, Munich, 1906, I, 27-35, 68-73). At an early date this apartment took on a special importance. During this epoch, however, we begin to hear of the domus ecclesiae (the house of the Church), an edifice used for all the services of the Christian community, in which one apartment was specially set apart for Divine worship. At the end of the second century and even later, during the periods of persecution, assemblies for Christian worship were still held in private houses. The assemblies which the first Christians held in the Temple of Jerusalem, in the synagogues or even in hired halls, were assemblies for instruction or for prayer (Acts, v, 12-13 xvii, 1-2 xix, 9). In the earliest days of the Christian religion, there were no buildings specially consecrated to Eucharistic worship the assemblies for liturgical service were held in private houses (Acts, ii, 46 Rom., xvi, 5 I Cor., xvi, 15 Col., iv, 15 Philemon, 2). The subject will be treated under the following heads: I. Buildings, ECCLESIASTICAL.-This term comprehends all constructions erected for the celebration of liturgical acts, whatever be the name given to them:-church, chapel, oratory, basilica, etc.
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