Laity

In the History of the Church

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Introduction
Church History
 Too often limited to the history of its hierarchy and its clergy.
 However, the role of the simple lay faithful can be discovered
with limited sources…
 True position and importance of laity can be understood only by
studying their historical life and mission through their enormous
activities within the Church and outside the Church in the soci-
ety.
 This study is needed to develop a new theology of the laity in
the Church in order to give equal dignity and responsibility to the
The origin & meaning of ‘Laity’
General understanding:

 Word ‘Lay’ means ‘non-religious’, civil authority or

non-cleric.
 Gk term ‘klerikos’ and ‘laikos’ most often used in-
discriminately in the earliest Christian literature.
 Only when the Church leadership began to pat-
tern its structure along the lines of the Greco-
Roman and Egyptian social, political and religious
orders and it interpreted these terms to assume
ecclesiastical status as cleric and lay.
 The origin & meaning of ‘Laity’
Etymological Meaning and its Application:

 Word ‘laity’ comes from the Gk term ‘laikos’.

 The word ‘lay’ is not found anywhere in the Bible, but the
use of the Gk term ‘laos’, of which ‘laikos’ is the adjective,
is frequent.
 The meaning given to this is ‘people’, especially in the
Bible.
 In the OT, ‘laos’ is often used to express ‘the people of God’
in order to distinguish the Jews from the Gentiles.
 Later, the word ‘lay’ came to signify the Jews and then the
Christians; it properly meant the sacred people in opposi-
 The origin & meaning of ‘Laity’
Etymological Meaning and its Application:
 The first Christian use of the word by Clement of Rome (30-100 A.D.),
‘laikos’ clearly refers to that part of the people ‘plebs’ ꞊ the popular sec-
tion of the people – laity
 From ‘patricii’ ꞊ the privileged class-clergy.
 Jourjon – ‘a layman is one of the people of God who is not a cleric’.
 St. Justin (110-165 A.D.) – People.
 Strathman – ‘It is for the worshiping community which is an adaptation
of popular use to the specific relationship of the congregation, and the
idea of the ‘laity’ developed from it later.
 iow in the later Christian community the distinction between the people
and the leadership began to arise as clergy and laity, then slowly as
today’s structural classification of hierarchy and laity in the Church.
 ‘Laity’: Early History of the Church
a. Laity: The communion of faithful
 In the early Christian community ‘Council of Apostles’ did not consist
exclusively of the apostles.
 A significant role was assigned to the presbyters and to the whole
congregation. Acts 15:22
 After the Apostles, St. Hippolytus of Rome (170-236 A.D.) and Clement
of Alexandria (153-193/217 A.D.) expressed that the Church is not the
place or house but it is the assembly of the elect.
 Later, St. Ambrose of Milan (340-397 A.D.), St. John Chrysostom (347-
407 A.D.) and St. Jerome (342-420 A.D.) have proclaimed that the
Church is not constituted by her encircling walls, rather, she exists in
the number of her members which is the society of the faithful.
 ‘Laity’: Early History of the Church
b. Laity: In the Apostolic Period (up to 100 A.D.)

 A very positive insistence on the negation of class and on

sharing of everything within the community.
 The Christian community was a minority one, subjected to
persecution.
 However, the communion or unity among the different
members of the Christian community is emphasized (Acts
2:42; 4:32).
 The Apostles could have never imagined what a Christian
world would be; what would be the structure of the
Church in the future?
 ‘Laity’: Early History of the Church
b. Laity: In the Early Patristic Period (100-325 A.D.)
i. Appearance of the term ‘laity’
 In the end of the first century there was a discord and conflict be-
tween presbyters and the rest of the people within the communities.
 It gave rise to scandal. Many Christians were discouraged by this
partisan quarrels in the community and the non-believers got oppor-
tunities for blaming the Church.
 Clement of Rome provides an outline of the cosmic order or disci-
pline for Christians. From this time onwards, the word ‘laikos’ or ‘lay’
began to appear.
 Council of Elvira (306 A.D.) The lay people represented all Chris-
tians who were not members of the clergy.
 ‘Laity’: Early History of the Church
b. Laity: In the Early Patristic Period (100-325 A.D.)
ii. The roles of the laity
 From the ‘Didache’ and Council of Elvira we come to un-
derstand that the baptized Christians played significant
liturgical roles in this period.
 They were able to baptize catechumens in the hour of
death when no other Church leaders were present. In the
Ante- Nicene Church, the baptized laity played a role in
the re-accepting of sinners, especially those who had
apostatized.
 The laity had the “power either to choosing worthy priests
or of rejecting unworthy ones”. Cyprian
 ‘Laity’: Early History of the Church
ii. The roles of the laity
 Pre- Nicene Christian literature; people of God, precisely the laity, played
an important role significantly in the selection of the Bishops, laying hands
in the liturgical installation ceremony and conferring the power and status.
 The baptized laity contributed much to the maintenance of the Christian
leadership in the Church. Tertullian and Origen
 The baptized laity laid hands on the sick and healed them, drove out
demons, uttered prophetic statements, cared for the sick, the elderly and
those who were in crisis, supported those in prison, the poor and the or-
phans. Irenaeus
 Preaching and teaching. Bishop Clement of Alexandria
 Lay people attended Synods and tool part in the formulation of doctrinal
texts, especially in the Synod of Carthage in 256 A.D. Origen & Heraclides
‘Laity’: In the later Patristic Period (325-731 A.D.)
a. Rise of Monasticism:
 Christianity was becoming established as the official religion
and the pattern of Christian life was changing.
 Christians with a strong sense of the absolute value of their faith
wanted to give to God totally, preferred to choose the new way
of life and to become ascetic, hermits, anchorites and ceno-
bites. It was a reaction against institutionalization of the Church.
 Most of these lay people were ordinary people, like carpenters,
smiths, tradesmen, slaves, shepherds and peasants, and some
were rich people, like Antony the hermit (250-356) Pachomias (318-
346), Basil (330-379), Gregory the Great (540-604).
 These people developed their spirituality with the help of the
Scriptures and lived a lonely life in cells and monasteries.
‘Laity’: In the later Patristic Period (325-731 A.D.)
b. Depreciation of the Laity:
 Since the conversion of Constantine, the clergy became more
and more an integral part of the socio-political world, but the mi-
nority group, the laity was struggling to maintain itself and to
present itself as trustworthy within a hostile ruler-ship of the
empire.
 There was no conceivable area open to a ‘Lay autonimy’ or ‘lay
independence’.
 Clerical intervention became part and parcel of the life of ordi-
nary lay Christian society which gave basis for the hierarchical
structure and ecclesiology in the Church.
 ‘Ontological’ difference between the clergy and the laity.
 ‘Laity’: In the Medieval Period (700-1563 A.D.)
1. Laity in the Early Medieval Period (700-1000):
 St. Bonaventure distinguished the faithful on the basis of the sacra-
ments of baptism, confirmation and holy order into different states in
respect of faith.
 Baptism: distinguishes faithful from non-faithful
Confirmation: distinguishes among the faithful
Holy Orders: distinguishes the laymen from the clergy
 However, the ordinary person was seen as distinct from the clerics
and from the monks, and was gradually excluded from active partici-
pation in the liturgical rituals of the Church.
 Lay men and women became purely observers and listeners, and
the liturgies became more detached, meaningless and unintelligible
to them. Monks and clergy played major roles.
 ‘Laity’: In the Medieval Period (700-1700 A.D.)
2. Laity in the Later Medieval Period (1000-1500):
 A felt need for reform in the sense of a call for the restoration of
lay status in the Church.
 Various movements which had their aim as the restoration of the
layman woman in his or her proper place and animated them with
new visions, new possibilities and new life goals.
 The two most popular Popes Innocent III and Boniface VIII were
resorting to a principle which was part of the old Catholic tradition
that the whole community participate the three fold domain of the
Church’s priestly, kingly and prophetical life.
 According to historians, these (later) Middle Ages, particularly the
14th and 15th centuries, were considered to be the golden age of
the laity.
‘Laity’: In the Medieval Period (700-1700 A.D.)
3. Laity in the Reformation Period (1500-1700):
 Division in the Catholic Church took place in this period.
 Over a period of 700 years (1000-1700), everywhere the
word ‘reform’ recurred and was reflected in the thinking of
the lay people. Lay people became more prominent in all
the reform movements.
 there was a clear and expanding responsibility of the lay
person in the structures of the Church, as well as in the
cultural, social, economical and political factors during this
period.
 This paved the way for the new ecclesiology in the
Catholic Church.
‘Laity’: In the Medieval Period (700-1700 A.D.)
4. Laity in the Tridentine Period (1545-1563):
 The Council of Trent, prompted by the Protestant Reformation, it
has been described as the embodiment of the Counter-Refor-
mation.
 Major goal: Strengthening of the Roman Catholic people of
God.
 However, the Council did not focus on the laity very much in any
way directly to the Church life; rather it focused its deliberations
directly on the pastoral care of the Church authority, Pope,
Bishops and priests.
 The laity had absolutely no place in the planning and sustaining
of the Council.
 A defensive attitude of the Church authority towards the laity
‘Laity’: In the Modern Period (from 1700 A.D.)
 The American Revolution (1776) and French Revolution
(1789) had their impact on the Roman Catholic Church, espe-
cially on the theological and pastoral role of the lay person in
the Church.
 Many European Revolutions in 1848, in which radical social
ideas became dominant part of the western civilization.
 The response of the Roman Catholic leadership towards the
radical changes brought by these revolutions was either nega-
tive or defensive.
 ‘Anti-laicism’ in the Church minded people.
 It gave new vision to the Christian life, a new meaning of the term
‘laity’ and growing pressure on the Church leadership by laity.
‘Laity’: In the Period of Revolution (1776-1848)
 The American and French Revolution s had strong impacts on
the lay Christians. There was anti-Catholicism at the begin-
ning of the American revolutions and anti-clericalism at the
beginning of the French revolution.
 This made the Roman Catholic leadership defensive, and
consequently these issues provided grounds for the Church
authority to react against laity.
 The voice of the laity claimed a part in the decision making
process of the Church.
 The revolutions crated a new rubric. ‘laciatus et sacerdotium’
instead of the older rubric ‘regnum et sacerdotium’.
 The laity was repositioned in the Church in a revolutionary
way.
‘Laity’: In the 19th and 20th centuries
 The some influential lay people gathered together and
called for a Congress of the laity at Baltimore in 1889.
 “Go back and say to your fellow Catholics that there is a
departure among Catholics… you are going to do great
things. Tell them that there is a mission open to layman…
with God’s help, I shall do all I can to bring the power of
the laity”. Msgr. John Ireland, the Archbishop of St. Paul.
 During the first half of the 19th century the word ‘people’
acquired new meaning based on economic situations and
class-consciousness.
‘Laity’: In the 19th and 20th centuries
 When the Church realized this, it tried to form the new laity
through establishing lay movements and organizations, like
Catholic Action for the participation of the laity in the apostolate
of the hierarchy to meet the challenges of the new society.
 From the part of the Church also there was a great effort of
restoration in the theology of the Catholic Church from Pope
Leo XIII onwards, strengthening of the Church’s dogmatic tradi-
tion by defeating modernism, and encouraging the liturgical and
lay apostolate movements.
 The Popes have expressed themselves for the new theology of
the laity for the mission of the Church in this world through the
lay apostolate. Thus, the way was clear for the birth of the new
theology of the laity in the II Vatican Council.
CONCLUSION
 In the historical development of the Church, there was hostil-
ity between clergy and laity who were the two constituent el-
ements of the Christian community.
 In the beginning – much less distinction
 Gradually clergy considered themselves as elite and power-
ful and laity to be their rivals or adversaries. Protestant
movement.
 However, laity rose up to take part in the Church’s fight, from
reformation till the 19th century, against the secular and un-
sacred world, in various fields like atheism, agnosticism, poli-
tics and science etc.
 This led to the new theology of the laity in II Vatican Council.