Cathedrals [antikvár]

THE eRIGIN AND DEVELePmeNT ep CATHEDRALS h i . he word "cathedral" comes from the Latin cathedra, which means "chair." A cathedral was, and is, a bishops church—the place where the bishop has his chair. During the earliest years of Christianity, the Church had neither bishops nor cathedrals. The Church of Jerusalem had a form of organization, but as Christianity spread, new churches in other places were not initially organized on a standard pattern. By the late first century, however, the office of bishop had developed, and by the second century the bishop (the word is derived from episcopus, or overseer) was the head of the local Church everywhere. By this time Christianity had become largely an urban religion, and its organization came to be patterned on that of the Roman Empire. The jurisdiction of a Roman city extended to the countryside around it—what we would call a city-state. Similarly, the bishop of a local church had authority not only over the Church in his city but also over Christians in the surrounding areas. At first, when there were few Christians, each city had only one church. But as the number of Christians grew, new churches began to be established. These new churches were headed not by new bishops, but by assistants to the bishops, and the bishop became not only the priest of his own congregation but overseer of the priests of other congregations as well.