CATHEDRA. - From the Greek καθέδρα: a seat with a backrest or a back of greater or lesser height, often provided with a cushion. The c. could be of stone, masonry, or tufa and therefore fixed, or of wood or wicker and therefore movable; often covered with cloth; in the biography of St. Cyprian written by the deacon Pontius the seat linteo tectum is mentioned (ch. 16), and Pacian of Barcelona recalls the sedes linteata (Ep., 2, ad Symphonianum: PL 13, 1059). The c. is a privilege of the bishop (Ep., 67, 2); it can be an attribute of the dignity of the teacher, the judge, the philosopher; sometimes it is found carved also in certain Christian cemeteries of Rome. As an attribute of dignity it is given in the first place to God the Father, to Jesus Christ, to the Madonna, to the Apostles, to the saints.
On a veiled c. God the Father is seated in the act of receiving the offering of Cain and Abel (Wilpert, Sarcofagi, pl. CXCI, 5 and 9). Sometimes both Jesus Christ and the apostolic college are seated on a c.; in cemetery paintings there are examples in Bassilla, in Domitilla, in Marcellinus and Peter (Wilpert, Pitture, pl. CLII; CXLVIII, 2; CLXXVII, 1-2); likewise in the sarcophagi, as for example in that of Rignieux-le-Franc (v. APOSTOLI); in Domitilla, besides the Lord, the apostles Peter and Paul are also seated (Wilpert, Pitture, pl. CXCIII); other examples, on the other hand, show only the Lord seated on a c. (Wilpert, Pitture, pl. CXXV, 1-2; Sarcofagi, pl. CXXVIII, 3; XXXIV, 2, 3; XLII, 3; XLIII, 3, 5).
Christ teaching on a c. with the evangelists: a typical example is offered by the fragment of a sarcophagus lid found at Spoleto, today in the Lateran Museum (Wilpert, Sarcofagi, p. 107, fig. 52); Christ is seated on a c. in the boat, precisely according to the text of St. Luke sedens docebat de navicula turbas (5, 4-6).
In paintings there is the scene of Christ teaching among the evangelists in the cemetery known as that of Marcellinus and Peter (Wilpert, Pitture, pl. CLXII). Jesus Christ on a c. and martyrs in gilded glass (R. Garrucci, Vetri ornati di figure in oro, Rome 1864, pl. XIV, 4).
Christ on a c. among saints in Callistus (Wilpert, Pitture, pl. CCXLIII, 1) and in Ponziano (ibid., pl. CCLXI); among saints and the deceased (ibid., pls. CXXIV-XXVI).
Christ the judge. — The most expressive scene is that on a marble sepulchral slab in which the deceased Theodulus is depicted before Christ the judge (θεανάτης ἡμῶν) in the cemetery known as that of Sts. Marcellinus and Peter (Wilpert, Pitture, p. 434, fig. 41); other scenes of Christ the judge on a c. in the cemetery paintings, in Wilpert, Pitture, pls. LXXV, CXCVI, CCV, CCXLVII.
Madonna on a c. in the scenes of the Epiphany in paintings such as in Domitilla (Wilpert, Pitture, pl. CXLI), in Callistus (pl. CXLIV, 1), at the Maius (cf. E. Josi, Coemeterium maius, in Riv. di archeol. crist., 10 [1933], pp. 7-16), in Marcellinus and Peter in several examples (the best in Wilpert, Pitture, pl. LX); in the sarcophagi; the veiled c., as at the Lateran (Wilpert, Sarcofagi, pl. CCXXIII, 5), the wicker one (ibid., pls. XXVI, CCXIX, 2 and 3; CCXXII, 2 and 7; CCXXIII, 11; CCXXIV, 5); the simple c. (pls. CCXIX, 1; CCXXII, 6).
The apostles Peter and Paul are on a c. in gilded glass (R. Garrucci, Vetri ornati di figure in oro, Rome 1864, pl. XIV, 4).
St. Peter is represented twice on a wicker c. in the Christian sarcophagi.
Saints seated on a c. are found in cemetery paintings (Wilpert, Pitture, pls. CCV, CCXLIII, 1).
On a c. is the bishop or the presbyter in the marriage scene in Priscilla, in the cubiculum known as that of the veiled woman (Wilpert, Pitture, pl. LXXXVI).
On a c. is also the judge who orders the three Hebrew youths to adore the statue of Nebuchadnezzar in the cubiculum of the martyr Crescention in Priscilla (Wilpert, Pitture, pl. CXXIII); likewise the judge seated at the trial of the two elders of Susanna in the reliquary of St. Nazarius (Venturi, I, pp. 446, 549-50), just as a merchant is represented on a c. in the sarcophagus of Lambrate, today in the Castello Sforzesco of Milan (Wilpert, Sarcofagi, p. 335 and pl. CCXXXVII, 4).
Wilpert recognizes as scenes of teaching on a c. those on marble slabs found in Praetextatus (Wilpert, Sarcofagi, p. 193, figs. 114 and 115). An isolated c. in marble is in the cemetery of Praetextatus (ibid., p. 194, fig. 116). Finally, the mother with the child is on a c. in the aforementioned cubiculum of the veiled woman in Priscilla (Wilpert, Pitture, pl. LXXIX).
Concerning the c. as an attribute of the teacher, let us recall that in the well-known statue of St. Hippolytus, today in the Lateran Museum (a work of the 3rd century found near the Via Tiburtina) the martyr is represented seated on a c. as in other philosophical images. On the sides of the c. (with a low back) were engraved the list of the master's works and his paschal computation. The bronze statue of St. Peter in the Vatican can also be considered a figure of a teacher on a c., a work that some continue to regard as of the late Middle Ages and by Arnolfo di Cambio, whereas it is probably to be ascribed to the late Empire. The apostle makes the gesture commonly interpreted as a blessing, whereas it is in fact an allocutory gesture. It is needless to say that the figure of the Lord in the scene of the Magisterium of Christ is also seated. But in the mosaic of St. Pudentiana (early 5th century) there is truly the Maiestas Domini rather than a scene of teaching, and in this case the c. is truly the throne.
As regards episcopal c., mention is made of the wooden c. venerated as a distinguished relic near the confessio of the Apostle in the Vatican. Its present form is certainly not the original one. Its ivory coverings are relatively late. But it seems that it contains remains of a much older c., as was thought when in 1876 the bronze case by Bernini was opened and the chair was publicly displayed. A definitive judgment is reserved for further examination. The Church of Jerusalem prided itself on possessing the c. of the apostle James: this according to Eusebius (Hist. eccl., VII, 19). Unusable instead, but a pure c.-reliquary, is the one in marble that stands in the treasury of St. Mark in Venice. The cavity visible in it suggests the installation of a relic, now vanished. The strange reliefs visible in it (Agnus Dei on the mountain, symbols of the evangelists with cherubic wings, etc., and then the images of the four evangelists asleep, in a separable roundel) bespeak a work of oriental importation of the 6th-7th century. A curious graffito in perhaps oriental characters on the base has not yet been satisfactorily explained. It would be erroneous to think of a cult of the c. This proves that in Christianity there was the idea of what the c. represents in function of the Church; but there was no adoration of the c., as could have occurred in antiquity, in Asia and in Greece (v. W. Reichel, Über vorhellenische Götterkult, Vienna 1897, pp. 3 ff. and 88 ff. and cf. also certain not always sifted connections of P. Durand, Etude iconographique sur l'Etim Asia, etc., Paris 1867). Even when a relic of a c. was had, the regard professed toward it did not surpass, in the intentions of the Church, normal veneration.
The place of the episcopal c. in the pre-Theodorian domus ecclesiae of Aquileia is marked by a trapezoidal mosaic panel with scant decoration at the back of the presbytery (Anon., La Basilica di Aquileia, Bologna 1933, pls. XVII and CV). Evidently a wooden c. was to be placed there during the synaxes. Later, in the basilicas the place of the episcopal c. was ordinarily at the back of the apse in the middle of the clergy's benches and most often in a prominent position. The cemetery basilica of the cemetery of Domitilla on the Via Ardeatina (390-95) has at the back a niche that marks the place of that c. on which St. Gregory the Great delivered a famous homily (Hom. in Evang., II, hom. 28: PL 76, 1210-16; O. Marucchi, Catac. rom., posthumous ed., Rome 1933, pp. 148-51 and 158). The memory of St. Gregory the Great connected with a classical sella curulis of St. Gregory on the Caelian is merely legendary.
It would be lengthy to list the various episcopal c. of the basilicas and Christian churches often adorned with mosaics and colored and enamel stones; marble c. on which cushions were to be placed; but it seems interesting to recall the Lateran papal one (not the present one, which is modern, but the remainder of the medieval one preserved in the cloister). There, in the first step, is a figuration of the demonic animals, meaning that they are trodden upon by the Pontiff. The c. is of ancient form. There is then the detail of a Gothic tabernacle above it. It is known that there existed an epigraph in leonine verses exalting the sublime presidential function of the Vicar of Christ and the legitimacy of the Roman See. The epigraph ended: « Nec debet vere nisi solus papa sedere. Et quia sublimis alii subduntur in imis » (O. Marucchi, Basiliques et églises de Rome, 2nd ed., Rome 1909, pp. 88-89). The verses must have belonged to an earlier phase of this c. (perhaps of the 11th or 12th century).
A great idea of Byzantine splendor is in the c. of the Euphrasian basilica of Parenzo. It is of Greek marble. Above the dossal, the inlay forms a field decorated with mother-of-pearl crosses; at the sides, two candlesticks (B. Molajoli, La basilica eufrasiana di Parenzo, Parenzo 1940, p. 44). The c. that stands at the back of S. Vitale in Ravenna is modern, and is inspired by the Parenzo type. Of high historical value, on the other hand, is the c. of the 11th century that is in the cathedral of Salerno. Surely Pope Gregory VII must have sat on it (the work has been well analyzed by the architect A. Schiavo). Remains of a c. with "barbarian" carvings of the 8th century served to encase a tomb in the presbytery of the oratory of the Lombard nuns of Cividale del Friuli (the so-called "Tempietto Longobardo"; v. in C. Cecchelli, Monumenti del Friuli, etc., I, Cividale, Milan-Rome 1943, pl. LXII and p. 275, fig. 69). The episcopal c. of the basilica of S. Clemente in Rome (12th century) is distinguished by a large rota on the dossal (C. Cecchelli, S. Clemente, Rome n.d., pp. 96-98 and 166). It is a type that would be repeated several times in the late Middle Ages (for example, in the cathedral of Anagni). It is curious that the dossal is a reused paleochristian marble. It bears the inscription: martyr (it comes from a dedication of the time of Pope Siricius, 384-98). Very rich in "cosmatesque" work are the high-backed c. of S. Lorenzo extra muros and of S. Balbina (A. Muñoz, Roma di Dante, Milan-Rome 1921, pp. 126-27).
Of movable episcopal c. the most famous (after the Vatican one) and, without doubt, the most beautiful, is the c. (covered with ivories) of Bishop Maximian of Ravenna (preserved in the local Archiepiscopal Museum). It has on the front of the base the figure of the Baptist and those of the Evangelists, and then very rich decorative bands, one of which includes the bishop's monogram. The front part of the dossal and the back have scenes of the New Testament cycle; the sides of the base have stories of St. Joseph the Hebrew. It is then still very rich in decorative bands. At the top on the dossal there is a clipeus with the image of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Various opinions have been expressed about the character of these ivories, but the idea that they come from Alexandrian workshops of the first decades of the 6th century seems truly well founded.
Moving on by several centuries, one notes that a rare example of a wooden episcopal chair (still preserving its cushion) of the late 13th century is found in the cathedral of Anagni. It has Gothic small arches (A. Muñoz, op. cit., p. 327). A Romanesque abbatial chair stands in the cenobium of Montevergine (12th-13th century) but is completed with side parts (fig. in P. Toesca, Storia dell'arte italiana, I, Turin 1911, p. 1101). There one sees wood carvings with figures of animals, which, although the work of southern craftsmen, are inspired by northern subjects. In iron is the so-called "c. of St. Barbatus" of the cathedral of Benevento; it is a high seat perhaps of the 11th century (P. Toesca, op. cit., p. 1103). Again passing over several centuries, one should recall a fine piece of furniture of the late 16th or early 17th century, namely the c. of St. Robert Bellarmine preserved in Rome in the sacristy of S. Maria in Via (C. Cecchelli, S. Maria in Via, Rome n.d., pp. 54-55). To another great saint (St. Philip
Neri) belongs (though it is a modest object) the cathedra that in the Chiesa Nuova in Rome still serves today for certain catecheses.
In the Coemeterium maius of Rome (via Nomentana) several cathedrae can be seen, sometimes with a high back, sometimes with a low back rounded at the top, carved into the tufa and near tombs. Others have also been found in the cemetery of Pamphilus (on the Salaria) and elsewhere. Bosio and Marangoni saw some within the hypogea of the Agro Verano on the Tiburtina. It was believed that such cathedrae served as liturgical furniture; but the fact is that various circumstances make them unsuitable for this. Their use by an adult person seems impossible. The idea that they were carved in memory of the cathedra of St. Peter has also disappeared. A certain analogy has therefore been advanced with pagan funerary monuments, in the sense of a reference to the state of the deceased in the afterlife. At bottom, this is also the conception that governs the funerary banquet. The survivors banquet near the tomb, keeping the departed present, who thus enjoys refreshment in the beyond. It is therefore an assimilation and a propitiation.
Representations of the deceased on a cathedra in antiquity are various (e.g.: the relief of Chrysapha near Sparta preserved in the antiquarium of Berlin; the relief of Villa Albani in Rome, etc.). Sometimes the deceased, while seated, raises the vessel of libation, and before him stands the table of offerings (e.g.: Hittite relief from Zengirli, now in the Kais. Friedr. Mus. of Berlin). Benches and cathedrae are found within tombs (funerary chamber near Eretria in Euboea; Etruscan tomb of the "Chairs and Shields" near Cerveteri; Roman burial chamber of Weiden, near Cologne, etc.). Certain Christian scenes with the deceased making a libation while seated, or else standing, do not differ from the pagan ones (e.g.: a figured titulus of the catacombs of Cyriaca and then another from Anagni coming from a Roman catacomb). But here one must distinguish between the simple expressive means and what is instead the spiritual content. Jesus too said that he would drink wine with his Apostles in the kingdom of his Father (Mt. 26, 29), and there is talk of twelve thrones on which the Apostles would judge the 12 tribes of Israel
(Mt. 19, 28). Who would seriously dare to assert that Jesus speaks of a real banquet and of material thrones? The pagan tendencies of the people translated beatitude into material manifestations. Already in Jewish usage the funerary banquet takes on a moral character. Among the salutary warnings given by Tobit to his son is: "place your bread and your wine on the tomb of the just man, but do not eat of them together with sinners" (Tob. 4, 18). Therefore, if the cathedrae served in connection with the funerary table, they meant to indicate that there was a person who was reputed a "just man." The cathedra was the place of the deceased felt to be present and placed in the same dignity in which he was contemplated in heaven. - See Plates LXVI-LXVII.
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Carlo Cecchelli