The Etymology of " Churchy 185 



2d century, speaks already of "«? iv Fsp/jiaucac^ Idpu/jteuai ixxXrj- 

 aiacy Mark here the term ixxXr^alac, as also the fact that in 

 Gothic we 6nd only aikklesjo and gudhus {lepov). 



Max Miiller's theory that our word "c/mrc^" was brought 

 "by the Christian missionaries and priests, from the time of 

 St. Augustine's landing in 597 to the time of Alfred," remains 

 unproved. The passage in which Kupcaxov is used in the sense 

 of church, according to M. Miiller, is found in the canon of 

 the Sixth Council, which prescribes: "orr ou dec iv rotq 

 Kupcaxott;, tj iu xalc, ixxXfja'taK; rat; Xeyopevaq u:(o.7za.z TzoceTuy 

 Zonaras, of the 12th century, in commenting on the passage, 

 says that the name of Kupcaxov is frequently found in the 

 sense of a church, although only this canon directly distin- 

 guishes ixxlqala and Kupcaxov^ " but I think," he adds, that 

 the Tj is not there used disjunctively, but by way of explana- 

 tion." See Wedgwood's Etymol. Diet. The fact, however, 

 that in the canons of the first four councils Kopcaxov is never 

 used, but ixxXr^ata (the same word occurs in all the other docu- 

 ments, both Greek and Latin, which I had the opportunity^ to 

 consult), and that Modern Greek has no word for church de- 

 rived from Kupiaxbv^ seems to indicate that -q in the passage 

 quoted by M. Miiller is used disjunctively. On considering 

 again this passage of the 6th council, I think that iv ro'l<^ 

 Kupcaxdcc: refers to the Lord's Supper and o-yaTzdc: to the enter- 

 tainment in which the poorer members of the church partook, 

 furnished by the richer members. This canon would pre- 

 scribe, therefore, that such entertainments should ncjt take 

 place either in connection with the Lord's Supper, or in the 

 church. I venture further to conclude, although I had not the 

 opportunity to examine the passages where it is said to occur, 

 that wherever in the Canons Kopcaxou (sc. dtinvov) is found, it 

 refers to the Eucharist. 



Trench ('On the Study of Words' p. 101) says: The pas- 

 sage most illustrative of the parentage of the word is from 

 Walafrid Strabo, abbot uf Eeichenau 8-12-849, who writes 

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