Faith and Archaeology in the Seventeenth Century: On the Origins of Episcopacy between Asia and England [Hebrew] (original) (raw)

2018, Historia [היסטוריה]

אמונה וארכאולוגיה במאה השבע-עשרה: על מוסד הבישופות בין אסיה לאנגליה, היסטוריה 42, 2018, תשע"ט, 5 -29. English abstract: As recent studies have amply demonstrated, early modern scholars and churchmen were deeply engaged with the textual and material history of the ancient, or ‘primitive’ Church. During an age of confessional strife, the search for, and the different constructions of, the origins of Christianity had serious religious and political implications. This article looks at one such case: the late seventeenth-century search for the Seven Churches of Asia, which are listed in the opening chapters of John’s Revelation. Sir Paul Rycaut (1629-1700), the Consul to the English Nation in Izmir between 1667 and 1678, and a prolific author, was the prime mover behind these learned and pious excursions. Rycaut and fellow English residents in Izmir, together with passing travelers such as George Wheler, explored and documented the ancient ruins of the Seven Churches, some of which they identified for the first time. The paper closely studies the group of publications produced by this group, mainly Rycaut's The Present State of the Greek and Armenian Churches (1679), in which he surveyed contemporary Christian communities under Ottoman rule, while comparing them to an ideal ancient model. These explorations reveal a unique mix of religious and antiquarian sensibilities which is best interpreted, I argue, in the context of contemporary Anglican concerns and debates. In particular, the focus on the Seven Churches was related to the question of church government and the role of episcopacy in Reformation England. Following a long exegetical tradition, supporters of an institutional episcopal church interpreted John's messages to the Seven Churches as evidence of ancient, even divinely-ordained, bishops. Moreover, I suggest that for moderate English Protestants like Rycaut and his associates, being present on-site, seeing and authenticating the landscapes of the New Testament, afforded an acceptable form of pilgrimage, away from the relics of Jerusalem and Rome.