CHRISTMAS OCTAVE
. See LITURGICAL YEAR
CHRODEGANG OF METZ
(d. 766). A member of the Frankish royal court under Charles Martel and Pepin III,
Chrodegang became bishop of Metz in 753 and also served as papal legate to the Franks.
He founded two monasteries, at Gorze and Lorsch, but is perhaps best known for his
efforts to regularize the life of the canons (i.e., priests) of his cathedral in Metz. His Rule
for Canons was declared authoritative by the imperial Synod of Aachen in 816. It
imposed some elements of a shared common life for cathedral canons but allowed them
to possess private property and live in private dwellings.
Grover A.Zinn
[See also: AUGUSTINE, RULE OF ST.; REGULAR CANONS]
Saint Chrodegang, communications présentées au colloque tenu à Metz à l’occasion du douzième
centenaire de sa mort. Metz: Éditions le Lorraine, 1967.
CHURCH, INTERIOR
. The earliest Christian churches were simply assembly rooms in domestic dwellings,
whether Roman tenements or court-centered villas like that excavated at Dura-Europos.
Their liturgical arrangements and furnishings amounted to little more than a wooden
table, serving as an altar at one end of the room. This changed dramatically with the
emancipation of the church begun under Constantine in 313. By the end of the century,
every town and city had at least one impressive stone basilica with an elaborately
appointed interior. The liturgical functions were carried out in the east end of these
buildings (although the congested city of Rome lagged behind other areas in the matter of
orientation, as much for practical as symbolic reasons). The east end culminated in an
apse; at the center of it the bishop sat on the cathedra (‘chair’), while his clerical
colleagues sat to either side of him on the synthronon, semicircular benches lining the
inner walls of the apse. The altar was just to the west of the bishop, who stepped up to it
to celebrate the eucharist facing the congregation. The altar retained its relatively small
size for centuries, more cubular than oblong in shape, although it came to be of stone and
to contain the relics of some martyr. The altar might be covered with rich cloth, but there
were few objects on it beyond the chalice and a book for the biblical readings.
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